March 28, 2024

VIOLENT MS-13 GANG ATTACKS ACROSS DC STIRS COMMUNITY PANIC

Violent MS-13 Attacks Across DC Stirs Community Panic

A string of violent stabbings connected to the MS-13 gang across Washington, D.C., is causing panic among residents as attacks persist throughout the region.

Members of the Latino community in neighborhoods affected by the recent violence are speaking out on the dangers the vicious MS-13 gang, based in El Salvador, pose to the region. Residents are generally fearful to speak out about the gang, fearing retribution, which makes policing the gang difficult. Several recent stabbings connected to MS-13 are causing renewed concern among residents, reports WUSA9.

While two of the stabbings cannot be directly linked to the gang, residents are unnerved by the recent rash of violence in the city.

“I don’t know about the gang violence,” Ernesteine McNeill, a resident near Columbia Heights, told WUSA9. “It’s just that there’s a lot of violence.”

During a stabbing in Columbia Heights on Aug. 30 at 12:30 p.m., the attacker said to his victim, “What are you doing in our block, we are marasalvatruca [MS-13].” A group of men attacked a man on a bicycle and stabbed him in the arm before he could escape at 1:05 p.m. The men asked the victim if he was an MS-13 gang member, according to the police report.

“It has a lot of affect, like it’s not safe to be out late,” Abiha Bilgrami, a resident in Northwest, D.C., told WUSA9. “It’s scary to know that they’re here.”

Police arrested two members of the MS-13 gang in July for the grizzly murder of Cristian Antonio Villagran-Morales, 18, in Malcolm King Park in Gaithersburg, Maryland on June 16. The assailants allegedly lured the victim into the woods with text messages promising sex. Once they had the victim alone, the other suspects held him down and stabbed him more than 40 times.

Counties across the Washington, D.C., region are suffering from a large spike in criminal activity from the MS-13 gang, which is increasing violent attacks and recruitment. Fairfax County, Virginia experienced a 163 percent increase in MS-13 crimes from 2015 figures in the first four months of the year.

Leaders of the gang from El Salvador want to shift their focus in the U.S. back to drug trafficking to increase their profits.

“They are very fluid,” David LeValley, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Washington Field Office, told WJLA in July. “We have seen increased activity and that activity is mirrored by what they’re seeing in Central America.”

Washington, D.C., has the second largest Salvadorian community in the country behind Los Angeles at roughly 228,000 people.

Counties across the Washington, D.C., region are suffering from a large spike in criminal activity from the MS-13 gang, which is increasing violent attacks and recruitment.

Officials in the FBI’s Washington Field Office note a troubling trend in MS-13’s activities since 2013 within America following a brief decline in their activity. The crime trends tied to the gang are rising annually and 2016 appears to be no different. Fairfax County, Virginia experienced a 163 percent increase in MS-13 crimes from 2015 figures in the first four months of the year, reports WJLA.

Leaders of the gang from El Salvador want to shift their focus in the U.S. back to drug trafficking to increase their profits.

“They are very fluid,” David LeValley, special agent in charge at the Field Office, told WJLA. “We have seen increased activity and that activity is mirrored by what they’re seeing in Central America.”

VIOLENT MS-13 GANG ATTACKS INCREASE ACROSS DC METRO AREA

A surge of minors crossing the U.S. southern border is helping the notorious gang boost their ranks and instigate a new string of violent attacks around the region. Over the past few years a wave of illegal migrant children crossed the U.S. border, and MS-13 continues to target them for recruitment.

In past years violence from MS-13 members appeared to be on the decline, as the gang shifted focus to human trafficking and running local brothels. A multiple gang truce reached in El Salvador in 2012 also contributed to a lull in violent activity from MS-13. The truce failed, however, sparking a huge uptick in the homicide rates of Central American countries, which is now spilling into America.

“We warned two to three years ago that this influx over the border of illegal aliens was going to cause an increase in MS-13 and other gang-related crime,” Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisor, told Fox 5 in June. “It’s happening. We are seeing it happen. It is not just in the border towns. It is happening all across America and we are seeing it especially here in Northern Virginia and the D.C. region.”

Washington, D.C., has the second largest Salvadorian community in the country behind Los Angeles at roughly 228,000 people.

Source: The Daily Caller

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