Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Its Violent World

By Albert De Amicis

This paper follows the beginnings of one of the most notorious transnational street gangs in existence today. We will trace the growth of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) from their emigration from El Salvador to Los Angeles, California. El Salvador had just suffered a civil war that had claimed an estimated 100,000 people. This gang’s transformation from a local sureno street gang (southern street gang) to a transnational gang happened when the United States got tough on immigration laws and deported many of these MS-13’s back to El Salvador. At this juncture, they used their knowledge from what they had learned back in the U.S. and created the MS-13 in Central America and Mexico. This paper will prove from the research just how the MS-13 and Los Zetas, a Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO), have collaborated in a criminal enterprise in those countries and now domestically back in the United States.

Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 2018. 38p.