Immigration Arrests 39 Members of MS-13 Gang

Thirty-nine members of MS-13, a brutal gang with roots in Central America, were arrested by the immigration authorities in New York in the past month, officials said on Wednesday.

Many of those arrested were on Long Island in Suffolk County, where the authorities have attributed 17 murders to MS-13 since Jan. 1, 2016. In the most recent, four young men were found dead in Central Islip in April.

The arrests came as part of an effort to eradicate gangs that operate across international borders. Called Operation Matador, it includes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and affiliated Homeland Security investigators, as well as local law enforcement. In addition to the 39 members of MS-13, six members of other violent gangs, such as the Latin Kings and the Sureños, were arrested, officials said. According to the immigration agency, people are considered confirmed gang members if they admit membership or have tattoos of gang symbols, among other factors.

“These individuals are members of a violent street gang actively wreaking havoc in the community,” Thomas R. Decker, ICE’s New York field office director for enforcement and removal operations, said in a news release about the arrests. “This unified effort is about keeping New York citizens safe.”

Most of those arrested come from El Salvador and Honduras. Five others are from Mexico, and two are from Guatemala, according to the immigration authorities. Twenty had criminal histories, ranging from misdemeanors like disorderly conduct to felony assault and weapons charges.

Twelve had originally crossed into America as unaccompanied minors, according to the release. Three others entered the country via a federal initiative called the Special Immigrant Juvenile program, which is designed to help abused or neglected children find safe haven in the United States.

MS-13, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, was started in the 1980s in Los Angeles by refugees from El Salvador but has grown into a transnational organization.

After the four bodies were found in Central Islip, the problem emerged as a federal priority, attracting the attention of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He visited Long Island in April and spoke with local law enforcement officials, vowing to eradicate the gang by cracking down on illegal immigration.

“There are times when we know someone is an MS-13 gang member, and we know someone is an active MS-13 gang member, but we’re not in a position to make a criminal arrest,” Timothy Sini, the Suffolk County police commissioner, said in an interview. “So another tool in our toolbox is to work with the Department of Homeland Security to target active known MS-13 gang members for violation of civil immigration laws, which is another way to remove dangerous individuals from our streets.”

The arrested men face a variety of consequences. Some had re-entered the country after having been deported once, which is a federal crime, and will face prosecution. Deportation proceedings will begin for some of those not facing criminal charges.

Jorge Tigre, 18, was one of the young men found dead in April, murdered in a manner “consistent with the modus operandi of MS-13,” Mr. Sini said at the time.

Mr. Tigre’s brother William Tigre, originally from Ecuador, said on Wednesday that the arrests would not make a difference. “My brother’s not here anymore,” he said. “If they catch them, you know, that’s not going to solve the problem.”

There are just too many MS-13 members, Mr. Tigre said.

“Nothing’s going to change,” he said.

Thanks to Sarah Maslin Nir and Arielle Dollinger.

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Untouchables Tours to Celebrate Milestone of their Live Action @GangsterTour

Beverly-based Untouchable Tours is preparing to celebrate a significant milestone as one of the top-rated downtown bus tours. With its distinct black bus and cast of theater-trained guides, the company credits its nearly 30-year success to a unique entertainment philosophy.

“The production level of our tour is second-to-none,” said co-owner Craig Alton of his gangster theater-on-wheels. “Our guides are talented actors who have studied Chicago crime chronicles and Prohibition society and conventions. They have truly perfected their personas and offer plenty of laughs while providing a knowledgeable voice on the rise of the Chicago mob.”

This formula has proven a hit since Alton, along with his sister and brother-in-law, Cindy and Don Fielding, first launched the concept.

“The three of us worked individually for not-for-profits,” said Cindy Fielding. “But with a shared interest in theater and design, we quickly slipped into a life of crime.”

The one hour, 45 minute live action tour continues to sell out regularly and reflects an unwavering interest in Chicago mob history. From Dion O’Banion’s flower shop to Holy Name Cathedral, the 18-mile journey takes passengers on a comprehensive and compelling trip back in time to Al Capone’s Chicago. With guides including “Johnny Three Knives” and “Matches Malone,” the tour company enjoys multi-generational appeal and repeat customers.

In addition to their regular public tours, the company also offers private tours to groups.

“The tone of the tour is light and fun. We book many private tours including school-aged children as well as seniors,” said Don Fielding. “We felt it was important to reiterate how the ultimate result of crime is prison or worse. This is the reason we embraced the word ‘Untouchable.’ Eliot Ness and his colleagues did incredible work in ridding Chicago of organized crime. We wanted to tip our hats to them.”

To commemorate its 30th year anniversary, Untouchable Tours is offering a special discount code to Beverly residents who book any tour online before Thursday, June 15. Simply enter the code: beverly and receive $2 off a seat.

Bookings can be made online at gangstertour.com or by calling (773) 881-1195.

Thanks to The Beverly Review.

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Project Hero Honor Ride Chicago Benefiting Veterans and First Responders #NoVetAlone

WHAT: The 2017 Project Hero Chicago Honor Ride invites hundreds of cyclists of all ages and ability levels to ride alongside America’s healing heroes while raising funds for Project Hero on Sunday, June 11.

Project Hero is a national nonprofit organization that helps veterans and first responders affected by injury, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury achieve rehabilitation, recovery and resilience in their daily lives.
                         
Wounded veterans can ride for free at the event.  Starting and finishing at the at Evanston Subaru in Skokie, IL the Project Hero Honor Ride is a self-paced, non-competitive bike ride highlighted by hand cycles, recumbent cycles, custom tandems and traditional road bikes riding on scenic, bike-friendly routes ranging from 20 to 60 miles. All courses provide rest stops and SAG (Support and Gear) teams. Local sponsors include Evanston Subaru in Skokie, IL and United Airlines.

WHEN: Sunday, June 11, 2017.  Opening pre-ride ceremony begins at 7:30 a.m.; ride begins at 8:00 a.m.

WHERE: Start/Finish at Evanston Subaru in Skokie, IL 3340 Oakton Street, Skokie, IL

WHO: Local military veterans and families including recumbent and adaptive Veteran bike riders, Rob Paddor, Chicago Honor Ride Committee Chairman

ROUTES: Bike-friendly routes of 18, 36 or 50 miles.  Visit www.projecthero.org for route maps.

REGISTRATION: For more information or to register online, visit www,projecthero.org. Wounded veterans can ride for free by contacting honorrideinfo@projecthero.org. Registration includes a pair of Project Hero cycling socks, refreshments before the ride, and a festival-like atmosphere that includes lunch and music after the ride.

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Albert Taderera, the #IncognitoBandit, Indicted for Armed Bank Robbery

A man dubbed the “Incognito Bandit” has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston for armed bank robbery.

Albert Taderera, 36, of Brighton, was indicted for the Oct. 7, 2016 robbery of a branch of the TD Bank in Wayland, Mass.  In March 2017, Taderera was arrested at Dulles International Airport in Virginia as he attempted to board an international flight, and charged in U.S. District Court in Boston by criminal complaint.

The charging statute provides for a sentence of no greater than 25 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.  Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the US sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

Acting United States Attorney William Weinreb; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; William Ferrara, Director of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Wayland Police Chief Robert Irving; and Concord Police Chief Joseph F. O’Connor, made the announcement today. The Wayland Police Department assisted with the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth G. Shine of Weinreb’s Major Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.

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Warring Hispanic Gangs Leads to Increase in Shootings and Unified Law Enforcement Response

Arturo Marcial-Alvarez’s face was covered with a blue bandanna and he had a stolen revolver in his waistband when he was intercepted by two King County sheriff’s detectives in February as he got off a Metro bus.

The detectives, who were also on the bus, noticed him reaching for his waist while glaring at another man who was stepping off the coach, court records say. “Looks like we just missed some gang stuff,” one detective texted the other before they arrested the 19-year-old for carrying a concealed pistol, according to court records.

Whether the detectives thwarted a shooting by arresting Marcial-Alvarez will likely never be known. Two months after his release from jail, Marcial-Alvarez, who police called an “avowed” gang member, was fatally shot at a bus stop in Federal Way on April 11.

Police say he was a targeted victim of a war between rival Hispanic gangs that detectives trace to the January shooting death of Manuel Ortiz, 18, over the defacing of gang graffiti near his Burien apartment.

Although it’s impossible to pin down a single reason for the recent violence, the conflict goes much deeper than spray paint on concrete, according to Sgt. Cindi West, a spokeswoman for the King County Sheriff’s Office. “Sometimes it’s something as simple as somebody’s girlfriend went out with somebody from a different gang. Generally it’s not one specific thing that starts it off. It’s usually a combination of things over time and then it escalates,” West said.

There have been at least 14 homicides, dozens of injury shootings and scores of shots-fired calls believed to be connected to gang disputes from Seattle to South King County since the beginning of the year, said Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell. “I’m very concerned about this heating up in the summer months. I’m very concerned about the high-caliber weaponry that’s being recovered (by police),” Ferrell said. “It’s why we’re linking up arms regionally and addressing this in a comprehensive way.”

The spate of gang violence has prompted a unified response from the Sheriff’s Office, Seattle police, federal law-enforcement agencies and police across South King County, which have teamed up to share information and resources. Two gang-emphasis operations — one in late April and the other in mid-May — focused on gang hot spots and led to the arrests of alleged gang members on warrants for crimes like unlawful possession of a firearm and armed robbery, according to West and other law-enforcement sources.

In May, Ferrell and Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus convened a meeting with police and city leaders from Algona, Burien, Des Moines, Kent, Pacific, Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila to create a strategy to address rising gun and gang violence, with Seattle police and the Sheriff’s Office also sending representatives. The group is scheduled to meet again in mid-June. “This is tragically about these people in these gang rivalries clinging to these concepts of respect and disrespect as justifications for homicide,” said Ferrell, a former King County deputy prosecutor. “People are just baffled. It seems so nonsensical that lives would be taken over these seemingly meaningless disputes.”

The present conflict appears to be somewhat different in that a handful of Hispanic gangs have aligned to do battle with two or three others, sources say.

“We have a lot of information about different groups that would not traditionally be at war with each other who are crossing traditional alliances,” said Rafael Padilla, Kent’s assistant police chief. “People who normally get along aren’t.”

The violence, which has stretched from South Seattle through South King County, hit a peak in April with numerous shootings before quieting down in recent weeks after the police intervention. “When the heat is on, they know to lie low for a little while,” Padilla said of the recent lull. “We’re bracing right now.”

Meanwhile, police are also dealing with longstanding disputes among members of Seattle’s rival black street gangs in the Central District and Rainier Valley that continue to spill over into communities south of the city.

One victim of the violence is Clemden Jimerson, who survived a gang shooting near Garfield High School on Halloween 2008 that killed 15-year-old Quincy Coleman. Jimerson, 24, a member of a Central District gang, was fatally shot in the head in Renton last month, Padilla said.

No arrests have been made.

“The willingness of people to pull out guns and start shooting seems far more common than it used to be,” Padilla said.

Something else that’s becoming frighteningly common is the use of assault-style rifles with large-caliber rounds and high-capacity magazines, which are inflicting far more damage, according to Padilla and others. Seattle police are seeing the same kind of firepower in a spate of gang-related shootings since the first of the year.

In the days before he was shot and killed Jan. 3, Manuel Ortiz engaged in angry back-and-forth phone calls and social-media messages about disrespect being shown his gang through crossed-out graffiti, according to the charges filed against his alleged killer.

Ernesto Josue Rios-Andrade, 17, a rival gang member from Tukwila, was hanging out with two other juveniles at a Burien food mart when they crossed paths with Ortiz, who lived at the apartment building next door, say the charges. The two got into an argument over “graffiti disrespect,” and Rios-Andrade shot Ortiz with a .380-caliber handgun, according to charging papers.

King County prosecutors charged Rios-Andrade — also known as Joshua Rios — as an adult with second-degree murder.

Detectives say the killing of Ortiz touched off the recent uptick in violence between Hispanic gangs, often resulting in deadly retribution.

In Federal Way, Marcial-Alvarez was gunned down at a bus stop at South Dash Point Road and Pacific Highway South just before 4:30 p.m. April 11.

Around 1 a.m. April 12, 21-year-old Erasmo Plata was killed in Burien, a shooting that law-enforcement sources say was in retaliation for Marcial-Alvarez’s death. Later that night, someone opened fire on a house in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood associated with a gang that is aligned with Plata’s gang, court records show.

The house is “a known gang and narcotics location,” a sheriff’s detective wrote in a search warrant early last month. Seattle police responded to another shooting there in March, where they collected 22 shell casings, according to a police report.

A week after Marcial-Alvarez was killed, police arrested two suspects in connection with his death — Miguel Bejar, 21, and a 15-year-old boy prosecutors are seeking to have charged as an adult, court records show. Both are charged with first-degree murder.

Additionally, prosecutors have charged Alondra “Mama Pepa” Garcia-Garcia, 20, with rendering criminal assistance as the driver of the minivan that carried Bejar and the juvenile to and from the intersection where Marcial-Alvarez died, according to charging papers.

While the juvenile defendant denied being in a gang, Bejar told a police detective he is a gang member and described the ongoing dispute between his gang and Marcial-Alvarez’s gang, say the charges.

“Before the end of 2017, there’s going to be a lot of dead gangsters,” Bejar told police, according to charging papers.

Noting the youth of many of the shooters and victims embroiled in the recent gang war, Padilla, the Kent assistant police chief, said a coalition of social-service providers recently met to discuss gang-prevention strategies and ways to help parents whose kids have experienced extreme trauma — like witnessing a loved one overdose or get shot.

“When it (trauma) goes untreated, it often manifests in extreme violence,” Padilla said. “In a way, it’s amazing how advanced these gang members are, out on the streets, doing the hustle. They’ve had to grow up so much faster than my kid.”

Thanks to Sara Jean Green.

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