kidnapping extortion murder the calling
cards of ms-13 a brutal and highly
organized gang tonight Channel 2 travels
to El Salvador remembers a groom for a
life of crime right here in the United
States 1,800 miles to the south of
Houston El Salvador is terrorized by
Mara Salvatrucha known as ms-13 what's
happening there can be felt here every
day the seven men you see on this screen
behind Dominique are all charged with
murder in cases spanning Harris Fort
Bend and Montgomery counties including
this scene from 2017 involving the
ambush of two students outside the can
Academy on Bissonnette and this scene
from 2016 a 16 year old boy shot 27
times his body left on a jogging trail
in Missouri City tonight we take you
inside ms-13
where it thrives on the streets of El
Salvador a warning the images in this
story are intense channel twos Jacob
Rascon was there for a major raid and
he's going inside prison walls revealing
the depths of ms-13 s reach ms-13 is not
a gang in El Salvador
it is a terrorist organization
and this both sides will tell you is a
war it's after midnight in pancha malko
400 elite officers gather in secret a
massive raid organized with us support
targeting 31 ms-13 members from top
leadership or run-flat owes to gain
associates like Fatima in this case she
is the ms-13 member they say she works
for the state but on the side they say
she's extorting money from others
they're going through her documents
extortion is the lifeblood of the vast
criminal network inside ms territory
most of El Salvador you pay up or you
die every day in El Salvador there's
about a dozen murders on everything
there was just another one a man in his
20s tortured and executed his body
dumped on the side of the road don't
consult those from poquito and you're
tired of this tired officer hey soos
Martinez says because hundreds of el
Salvadorans are murdered here every
month and the killer is almost never
I didn't find anybody they usually get
away and they are usually kids they join
as teenagers or younger and quickly
become serial killers let me see the old
murder next door shown this 17 year old
confesses he's killed 20 people
Francisco viata lived and killed in
southwest Houston when you're in a gang
you're not gonna let yourself get killed
exactly you're gonna defend yourself
right we had to do others here operated
in Maryland Virginia and Los Angeles one
at Abby's like many others crossed into
the United States as a miner hundreds of
el Salvadorans are deported from the
states every week ms-13 wall skirts
Oliva is an accused ms-13 from San
Francisco
Julio Correa lived in Galveston you
don't meet the SEC at the big changes
last year
El Salvador's immigration director says
last year the u.s. supported nearly
three times as many El Salvadoran
gangsters as the year before
Mauricio Cardozo a convicted felon says
there's nothing for him here every day
in El Salvador hundreds of people line
up for hours like this looking for work
but there are only over a few positions
available and they only pay five dollars
per day you want to work get into the
hot admit they want to work but there's
no work to need Alice for the young
people but I love holiness
I don't want my kids with the games I
don't want my kids in the street
in the capital San Salvador a small
victory the largest ever ms-13 trial 87
members hundreds of felony charges top
ms-13 leadership that not long ago
enjoyed cellphones cable and prostitutes
in prison
now kept in isolation in panchamanca
20 additional ms-13 caught the front
lines of a decades-long war the united
states playing an increasingly active
role
so far this year more ms-13 gang members
have been caught trying to cross the
border into Texas than all of last year
there are between 10 and 15,000 ms-13 in
this country it's estimated and about
10% of them are in the Greater Houston
area and they don't look like that with
the facial tattoos here no visible
tattoos they work in on the side their
gang members there's such a problem that
now police have decided to fight this
war on two fronts correct I mean they're
in Houston agents are in El Salvador
helping to Train helping prosecute and
then those officers there come here to
train all of that unprecedented
coordination will be in our next report
well Jacob you really brought this story
home and it is a part of what we have to
deal with here next report being next
report on the FBI the way that they
fight them here in the United States
okay great thank you Thank You Jacobs
you know there are hundreds of street
gangs here in Houston not just ms-13 but
tonight as part of a major crackdown
hundreds of violent gang members as well
as more than a million dollars worth of
drugs are off the streets multiple local
authorities along with the US Marshal
Service began operation triple beam in
February with an ambitious goal target
gangs in southwest Houston arrested
their members and disrupt their business
by seizing drugs and cash and we will
hunt you down dismantle your gang and
put you in prison