United States Cracks Down on Latin America's MS-13 Criminal Gang Tom Ackerman - Al Jazeera
go to original October 12, 2012

For the first time, the US government has listed a street gang as an international criminal organisation.

Mara Salvatrucha - better known as MS-13 - is considered one of the fastest growing criminal networks in the world with thousands of members across the US and Latin America.

At least 30 thousand of its members trade in drugs, kidnapping, human smuggling, blackmail and assassinations throughout Central America and Mexico.

But another 8,000 MS-13 followers are believed to operate in the US, that's where the group originated among young refugees in the streets of Los Angeles.

Al Jazeera's Tom Ackerman reports from Washington.

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