The notorious and bloodthirsty MS-13 gang may be looking to establish roots in other parts of the United States, seeking alliances with Venezuelan immigrant gangs blamed for New York City’s crime spree, according to the FBI. It is said that there is a sex.
According to the FBI’s threat assessment, MS-13 is known to form and break practical alliances with other criminal groups, ranging from “tenuous alliances” to “vicious conflicts” when necessary.
Last week, the New York City Police Department announced a crackdown on Venezuelan gangs, linking them to more than 62 robberies in four of the city’s five wards. That gang is now believed to be Torren de Aragua, a violent Venezuelan organization with international ambitions.
In one attack, caught on video, a pair of robbers can be seen dragging a woman’s handbag from the back of a scooter, before tearing the scooter apart and causing her to slide into a metal pole. The group used social media to recruit thieves to steal specific cell phone models, then used hackers to break in and compromise bank accounts and payment apps, New York City police said.
Illegal mastermind of New York robbery hacks bank apps and resells stolen mobile phones overseas
Carlos Tiberio Ramirez, one of the leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, attends the celebration of Our Lady of Mercy Day at the San Salvador women’s prison on September 24, 2012. Ramirez is wanted on federal charges. New York starting September 2022 in connection with MS-13 violence and drug trafficking. (Reuters/Ulices Rodriguez)
Once the funds run out, the phones will be sent to Colombia, where they will be reprogrammed and resold, police said.
The New York Post on Monday identified Torren de Aragua as the gang behind a rash of robberies in New York City, saying the gang is using the Big Apple’s sanctuary policy to entrench its members in the U.S. and make profits. He added that he had raised it.A vast criminal empire.”
“These gangs don’t usually intersect, but as a gang it’s always a concern. [Tren de Aragua] El Paso FBI Special Agent in Charge John Morales told the Post, “We are currently working with our local law enforcement partners and sharing information to stop the growth of Torren de Aragua.” Ta.
Paul Mauro, a former New York City police officer, said the gang started in Venezuelan prisons and has expanded its recruiting efforts to other countries, including the United States.
He told Fox News Digital that this is the first time the gang’s presence has been discovered in the United States, as it has been on the radar of law enforcement agencies in New York, Texas and Miami.
”[I] I don’t remember treating them as an organized entity,” Mauro said when he worked there just a few years ago.
On October 5, 2023, Peruvian police deported several members of the criminal organization Torren de Aragua in Lima. (Chris Bouloncle/AFP via Getty Images)
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Torren de Aragua began its international expansion in 2018 in a turf war across the Colombian border, according to Insight Crime, a nonprofit organization that studies organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. Facing stiff competition in the drug trafficking business, the gang turned to human trafficking and smuggling instead.
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As the organization expanded, it violently seized territory from smaller local groups, the nonprofit said. In addition to our new efforts in the United States, we currently have operations in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil.
The Post said 24 prostitutes were killed in a turf war in Lima, Peru, and the group allegedly posted videos of some of the killings online to scare away competition.
When Donald Trump took office in 2016, MS-13 had become established in some parts of the United States, and a series of brutal murders involving machetes, knives, and other primitive weapons forced members to leave the country. They began to be targeted for expulsion.
Members of the MS-13 gang gesture inside one of three “gang cages” at the Quesartepeque Police Station in San Salvador, El Salvador, May 20, 2013. (Giles Clarke/Getty Images)
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In 2022, five years after a group of MS-13 members brutally executed four young men on Long Island, local ringleader “Diabrita,” or “The Little Devil,” is found guilty of federal racketeering and murder charges. received the verdict.
The victims, who were not gang members, were killed after photos of them flashing MS-13 hand signals circulated online. The gang also killed two teenage girls in the area in September 2016. A month later, they took bats and machetes and bludgeoned a 34-year-old man to death, believing him to be a rival gang member.
In January of the following year, a 29-year-old man was shot and killed in a deli because he was wearing a soccer jersey with the number 18 on it, according to federal prosecutors.
