Mara Salvatrucha, also commonly known as MS 13, is considered the most violent gang in the world. Mara Salvatrucha slang for "Salvadoran wandering ants".
This is a well organized multinational international criminal group; one of the most brutal Central American gangs, which is now actively operating in 6 countries (50 thousand bandits in America - Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador).
MS 13 is the most violent gang, and in the United States the number of its members ranges from 10 to 30 thousand people. When killing members gangs sometimes they cut off the heads or genitals of their victims and feed them to dogs.
A distinctive feature of the members is tattoos all over the body.
MS 13 always controls a certain urban area. She is involved in almost all types of criminal business, from theft to arms trafficking. Street stalls usually pay half of the income to the gang. MS 13 receives the greatest income by working as an intermediary in the sale of drugs and receiving tribute for the right to sell drugs on its territory from other gangster groups.
Initiation into a gang is called a “jump inside” - these are random mass blows that gang members inflict on those wishing to join their ranks for at least 13 seconds, hence the number 13 in the name of the gang. There is a silent language of communication using gestures called “Layout”. It has its own justice system: the “control court.”
MS 13 originated in Los Angeles among immigrants from Latin America. The gang facilitates illegal border crossings as it controls many of the secret US-Mexico border routes.
They immigrate and transport weapons and drugs. One of the most famous shares - massacre on the bus (28 people killed).
According to the FBI, MS 13 collaborated with "" and for several years supplied terrorists various types small arms.
Arrests of members of the most violent gang in the world MS 13
In September 2005, more than 650 gang members were arrested during a large-scale special operation that was carried out simultaneously in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. More than 6,400 law enforcement officers from five countries took part in the raid, which lasted two days.
The largest arrests were made in El Salvador (237 people), Honduras (162), Guatemala (98) and Mexico (90). In 13 US states, 73 people were arrested, with half of them behind bars on suspicion of violating immigration laws. At the same time, 31 people were detained in California alone.
Mara Salvatrucha which is slang for "Salvadoran wandering ants", also MS 13- a well-organized multinational international criminal group; one of the most brutal South American gangs, which is now actively operating in 6 countries (50 thousand bandits in America - Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as even in Spain). The most dangerous criminal group in the United States. MS-13 originated in Los Angeles among Latin American immigrants.
The origin of the name MS-13 itself is not known for certain. According to some sources, it stands for a street gang of Salvadorans. The number 13 denotes the corresponding letter of the alphabet, indicating that the group considers itself a follower of the Mexican Mafia clan ( Mexican mafia), operating in Southern California.
The history of the creation of MS-13 is closely connected with the flow of migrants from Latin America, who in the last two decades of the 20th century moved en masse to the United States, escaping the poverty and civil wars that plagued their home countries. During this period, approximately 2 million Latinos moved to the United States.
The largest number of migrants arrived in Los Angeles, where the community of immigrants from El Salvador increased 10 times in the 1980s and reached a population of 300 thousand people.
As the gang's influence expanded, new formations emerged within it on a territorial basis. This is how the Sailors Locos Salvatruchos, Langley Park Salvatruchos and Teclas Locos Salvatruchos brigades were born.
In the late 1990s, police began a large-scale crackdown on illegal gangsters, resulting in the expulsion of many MS-13 members to their home countries. In total, about 20 thousand bandits were deported, experts believe.
MS-13 gangsters are thugs in the literal sense of the word and have become famous for their brutal murders not only in the United States, but throughout Latin America. The bandits used bombs for their purposes, and also hacked their victims with machetes. When killing, gang members sometimes cut off heads or genitals and feed them to dogs.
A distinctive feature of the members is tattoos all over the body. 
MS 13 always controls a certain urban area. She is involved in almost all types of criminal business, from theft to arms trafficking. Street stalls usually pay half of the income to the gang. MS receives the greatest income by working as an intermediary in the sale of drugs and receiving tribute for the right to sell drugs on its territory.
Initiation into a gang is called "jumping in" - random mass strikes for at least 13 seconds. There is a silent language of communication using gestures called “Layout”. The gang has its own justice system: the “control court.” 
The gang facilitates illegal border crossings as it controls many of the secret US-Mexico border routes.
They immigrate and transport weapons and drugs.
The motto of the gangsters from "Mara Salvatrucha" is: Mata, Viola, Controla, or "Kill, rape, subjugate!"
According to the FBI, MS13 collaborated with al-Qaeda and for several years supplied terrorists with various types of small arms and helped secretly cross the border with Mexico.
MS-13 consists mainly of teenagers, immigrants who have not received official documents. To them, MS-13 is like family. Difficult teenagers also go there. These people are ready to do anything for the opportunity to get false documents and get at least some job. Latin drug lords are recruiting them in droves; they have to feed their families somehow - in exchange for services, of course. It's no secret that ALL floor polishers and other support workers in the largest national supermarket chains are entirely Latinos. How do they get to work? That's how they get there.
The Latino community itself suffers the most from the actions of such gangs. Gangsters seek to recruit new members from Latin American immigrants who speak Spanish.
The video details the actions of MS 13
Despite the development and change of the world, in many countries gangs still rule the streets. One of the most terrible and dangerous groups in America is MS-13. Information about her life, rules and rituals gives me goosebumps.
In America, there is an organized crime group that terrifies all residents - Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13. It is believed that it originated in the 80s of the last century, when during the civil war in Ecuador, people emigrated to the United States huge amount Latin Americans. According to various estimates, the gang includes from 50 to 300 thousand people around the world. Moreover, their numbers are regularly increasing.
MS-13 is involved in drug trafficking, robbery and murder. American President Donald Trump said in one of his interviews that he is ready to quickly deal with this gang, since their actions are already going beyond all possible limits. We invite you to learn the main rituals and traditions of Mara Salvatrucha.
1. Stand up for each other
In America's Scariest Gang main principle- mutual assistance. Members of this group are ready to come to the aid of their comrade-in-arms at any time of the day or night. If someone from MS-13 framed or abandoned a “friend” in difficult situation, then death awaits him.
2. Attracting youth
Members of Mara Salvatrucha use different recruitment methods to attract promising young people to join them. For example, during the day they organize parties for truants, where students and schoolchildren who like to skip classes come. During such fun, gang members lure young people.
3. Street tags
Not only in America, but also in other countries you can see graffiti and gang tags on the walls of houses, fences and other buildings. These are a kind of markers indicating who rules in this territory; they make it clear that there is no place for competitors here. Eat separate group graffiti that is dedicated to recently killed gang members.
4. Admission of newcomers to the gang
To become a full member of MS-13, a person must go through two steps. It is worth noting that even children as young as eight years old are accepted into the group. The first stage involves a beating by several active gang members, and this action lasts 13 seconds. This may seem like very little, but in fact, when you don't defend yourself and multiple people attack, you can get seriously injured. The second stage is the murder of someone from a rival group, for which the candidate is given a weapon and dropped off in hostile territory.
5. To maintain authority
There is constant competition between participants, and in order not to lose your authority, you need to maintain it. Thus, each gang member must regularly participate in various crimes. Newcomers do the dirty work - murders, rapes, thefts, but the old guys solve more serious issues, for example, related to the sale of weapons and drugs.
6. Belief in Satan
Mara Salvatrucha openly worships Satan. Gang members perform various rituals to show their gratitude dark forces for your support. There is evidence that the criminals committed ritual murders several times.
7. Sign language
America's scariest gang has own language gestures they called "composition," such as patting the belly to indicate a gun, and flicking the shoulder to indicate knives. Special attention deserves main sign Mara Salvatrucha is a finger “goat” that looks like the letter “M”. The sign was chosen in the 80s by the band's founders, who were fans of heavy metal.
8. Trials for women
In disadvantaged areas, the guys from the most famous gang are cool, and many girls want to join their company. Representatives of the fair sex can become members of the group, but to do this they must sleep with at least 15 members of MS-13. According to available data, approximately 20% of the gang are girls.
9. Betrayal is unacceptable
The worst thing that can happen in MS-13 is betrayal, which is punishable by death. To prevent frame-ups during inter-group fights, there is a rule - if you accuse someone, then there must be strong evidence for this, since death will also await you for deception. The gang does not spare anyone, for example, in 2003, not far from Washington, a pregnant girl was found murdered, who, being a member of the group, informed the FBI.
10. Gratuitous cruelty
For members of this group to commit a crime, they do not need a reason. The gang has long been a leader in committing murders without cause. This is necessary in order to maintain the status of the “most brutal” organization.
11. Love relationships
If a gang member has a girlfriend, then other men can no longer rape or beat her, only he has the right to do this. In such relationships, the woman has no say and is property. At the same time, the bandits treat their own children with reverence, considering them their followers.
12. Strict discipline
According to existing information, MS-13 has the most high level discipline among other American gangs, which accounts for an important part of their success. Members of this organization have no right to appear drunk in public places and cause rows. Losing gang property and missing gang meetings is prohibited.
Besides this, there are many more different rules in the internal code. The offender may first be demoted or beaten, and next time he can expect death. There is information that more people in the gang are executed than die during showdowns with competitors. There is evidence that when certain Mara Salvatrucha groups relax too much, a “punisher” is sent from El Salvador, who executes several people for the purpose of education.
13. Information tattoos
Initially, members of this criminal organization completely covered their bodies with tattoos, and from them one could “read” all the information about a person: biography, character traits, place in the hierarchy. Every old gang member certainly has a tattoo on his face. The most popular tattoo- a tear under the eye that means murder. It is worth noting that in lately newcomers have begun to refuse tattoos, and this is quite possible objective reason– by drawings on the body it is very easy to identify, remember and find a person.
14. Huge scale
It is a mistake to believe that a gang has influence only on the streets. According to the FBI, more than a thousand of its members serve in the American armed forces, receiving military education and at the same time recruiting new people. For this group, prisons are a second home or university where they learn concepts. In El Salvador, there are prisons where only MS-13 members are imprisoned, and those in charge even manage the activities of the gang on the outside. It turns out to be some kind of headquarters.
15. So that no one understands
Members of the group have their own slang that is passed down from generation to generation, for example, the word “bless” means to kill, and the expression “direct to the green light” means to order a person. Among other people, bandits prefer to communicate in dead language Aztecs, which no one understands at all.
16. Carefully thought out hierarchy
Mara Salvatrucha have a branched structure, which makes it very strong and invulnerable to justice. There are many separate groups that work separately from each other. Each group has its own leaders who know by sight and are in contact with the main leaders. By the way, supreme body MS-13 is called the "council of nine" and is located in El Salvador.
17. Letters of complaints
Although substitution is not accepted in this organization, any member can complain that a neighboring group is not working well or is committing some actions against the rules. To do this, he must write a letter to the “council of nine.” If the evidence is significant, then the informer receives an order to kill the head of this group and take his place.
18. Lifetime participation
If a person once joined a gang, then this is forever, since it is impossible to retire, much less quit. In MS-13, all roads lead to only three places: prison, hospital and cemetery, so if a person says he wants to quit crime, then a bullet awaits him.
American President Donald Trump, who seriously intended to protect the borders of the state from the south with a high wall and thereby stop the access of criminal “Latinos,” named the Latin American gang “Mara Salvatruccia” as one of the main threats to the safety of the citizens who elected him. The Anglo-Saxons, who often prefer to use abbreviations, also call it. Literally as the new president took office, the horrific murder of two girls occurred in New York. They were hacked to death with a machete. The police attributed the authorship to MS-13.
Translated into Russian, the name of the gang means “stray Salvadoran ants” or “deadly ants from El Salvador,” which should, in its meaning, indicate the place of birth. But that's not true. MS-13 was born in Los Angeles in the early 80s of the last century. The place of birth is considered to be children's playgrounds in the corners of Irolo and San Marino of Seoul international park. In those years, a civil war raged in El Salvador between the dictator Somoza and the “leftist” guerrilleros “Sandinistas”. Refugees from a Central American country in search of a peaceful and well-fed land reached warm California.
Members MS 13
Immigrants faced the alienation of an unfamiliar society and came under the pressure of the numerous African Americans that existed in the metropolis, who had settled in the new place several decades earlier. Even among them, immigrants from El Salvador were considered second-class people - less educated, physically undeveloped. They had no choice but to unite to fight back and respond to aggression with violence.
They were just okay with violence. Having seen enough of the horrors of the civil war in their homeland, they transferred the Salvadoran experience to American soil. In addition to corpses cut with knives, headless bodies began to appear in morgues, as well as torsos without arms or with cut off genitals. Bringing mortal terror to weak-hearted opponents, the “Salvadoran ants” fed their dogs with the genitals of their enemies. Over time, MS-13 developed strict rituals and rules of life.
MS-13 group
Members of MS-13 have only 3 options - hospital, prison or cemetery, and above all they honor God, mother and the gang. Each “ant” must devote himself to 3 main activities ─ recruit new members, bring dollars to the gang and kill. Ideology shapes a different consciousness among those converted to new faith. It’s as if curtains are being drawn down before their eyes. They completely lose respect for others and own life. A sacred concept for MS-13 is the territory in which the gang operates. No stranger should set foot on it. Using these simple rules, Salvadorans began to organize illegal emigration to the United States, trade in weapons, drugs, and collect tribute from traders for providing their protection.
Members MS 13
The latter is very clearly called “roof” in Russian. The tentacles of MS-13 are rapidly spreading not only in Los Angeles, but throughout the United States, even reaching Alaska. Total quantity The FBI currently estimates the number of gang members permanently living in the United States at 10,000. About 40 thousand more are in reserve in countries Central America. You can join MS-13 at the age of 7-8 years. The path to joining a gang is not closed to girls either, but this still doesn’t happen often. The most famous “ant woman” in the United States, Brenda Paz, at the age of 17, was killed for treason by her comrades in Virginia. The corpse, stabbed with knives, was found on the river bank. The killers were quickly identified and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Initiation into bandits
Initiation into bandits is called “jumping in” and consists of a thirteen-second beating of the “stirrup” by senior comrades. The life history is written on the body of the “ant” with tattoos. The most common inscriptions in tattoos were the name of the gang, telephone codes American cities, indicating belonging to a certain “clique” and the image of the Virgin Mary, meaning time in prison.
The MS 13 gang also includes women
When communicating with each other, MS-13 members use a “lineup” - peculiar language gestures similar to the manner of communication of the deaf and dumb. At the dawn of their existence, the first Salvadoran bandits borrowed from heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne his finger sign - inverted horns, similar to Latin letter"M", which became the symbol of MS-13. In the language of criminal Salvadorans, the analysis of the personal files of offenders is called a “control court.” He can endure punishments ─ severe beating or death. Join MS-13 for life. There are no other options.
MS-13 street gangs active in 33 American states. This is very easy to determine. The "cliques" constantly mark their territory with graffiti. In America, damaging walls with paint is illegal. Utility workers regularly clean the walls of inscriptions, but empty space According to the concepts, there should not be “Salvadoran ants” on them. Graffiti with the name of the gang appears again and again in the same places.
Wandering crime artists have already been spotted in Canada and Spain. In addition to markers of territory belonging to “cliques,” inscriptions with the RIP sign and someone’s name often appear on the walls. This is MS-13's way of honoring the memory of their fallen comrades. In the birthplace of the movement in Los Angeles, MS-13 controls 31 blocks total area 6.5 square kilometers.
Crimes MC 13
Every year, immigrants from El Salvador commit about 5 thousand crimes. In California they have to compete with 27 criminal street gangs. The most brutal battles for territory take place with another Latin American group, the 18th Street Gang. The American police quickly got tired of having to endure an army of complete “scumbags” growing by leaps and bounds at their side. They applied the practice of massive deportations to criminal Salvadorans. It happened exactly like in Russia - they wanted the best, but it turned out as always. Having gone through the university of American prisons, the repatriates created in San Salvador and its environs a semblance of Los Angeles “cliques”, only surpassing them in numbers, power and organization.
On native land the violence became even more brutal. MS-13, like mold, has spread across the neighboring 5 countries. In 2004, the “Salvadoran ants” committed their largest single murder ever. They shot passengers on a regular bus in Honduras. 28 people died that day. With this “black” mark, MS-13 expressed its demand to the state to leave them alone.
In El Salvador itself, the gang created an alternative power structure to the state and something like an army. Civil war has practically flared up again, only now the legitimate authorities are fighting not rebels, but criminal groups. Both sides do not spare each other. In El Salvador, you can go to jail only for a specific tattoo.
The bandits took control of all the country's prisons. The army guards correctional facilities only from the outside. In this regard, prisoners observe a kind of segregation. Members of other gang groups are not housed with convicted MS-13 members. Life under one roof is impossible for them. The war has moved from the streets beyond the prison fence. Inside the prisons, laws reign, determined by the heads of the MS-13 “cliques”. Despite their long prison sentences, they feel great in prison and continue to engage in criminal business directly from their cells.
American authorities assessed the threat posed by the Mara Salvatruccia as equal to the one that blew up New York skyscrapers. Unable to operate openly in the sovereign countries of Central America, the FBI contacted national services security. The cooperation between the intelligence services brought the first results. In October of this year, Angel Gabriel Reyes Marraquin was arrested in Guatemala, identified in police files as White, considered one of the leaders of “Mara”. He was already arrested in 2014, but managed to escape while being transported to a hospital for a medical examination. The guards of the special prison missed Bely, who hid from them on a bike.
Now, to the previous charges of complicity in the murder of 287 victims, a raid on a hospital in the town of Chimaltenango, which occurred in August of this year, has been added. Then, during the massacre carried out by MS-13 militants, 17 fresh corpses appeared. The pressure on MS-13 carried out by the American police has nevertheless begun to bring positive results. In the listened telephone conversation chapters of the "clique" East Coast United States Edwin Manica Flores and one of his subordinates contained instructions to no longer “tease” police officers and abandon the characteristic colors of clothing and shoes of American MS-13 members. Out of the entire range of colors, they preferred to choose white and blue combinations.
