The designation is not only a label, however. It’s also a tool; it allows U.S. law enforcement agencies to target and freeze the financial assets of the group’s members within U.S. jurisdictions.
"This designation allows us to strike at the financial heart of MS-13 and is a powerful weapon in our fight to dismantle one of the most violent, transnational criminal organizations operating today," said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) director John Morton, in a statement. "History has proven that we can successfully take down organized crime groups when we combine sophisticated investigative techniques with tough street level enforcement, cutting off cash flows, contraband and collaborators to ensure they no longer find safe haven in our communities."
Since 2006, authorities have arrested 4,078 MS-13 gang members. Over the same span, the U.S. Department of Justice has successfully brought to indictment MS-13 racketeering investigations in Washington, D.C., Virginia, New York, San Francisco, Houston and Atlanta.
The MS-13 criminal operations are extensive. According to the department of Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), members have been involved in drug trafficking, human smuggling and sex trafficking, murder and violence, racketeering, and immigration offenses. Members number at least 30,000 and are present in at least five countries, including the U.S.
The MS-13 creed is exemplified by one of its mottos, "mata, roba, viola, controla," which translates to "kill, steal, rape, control.”
The HSI National Gang Unit will take the law enforcement lead, GSN reports, under an anti-MS-13 enforcement effort called, "Operation Barbed Wire." The primary task will be removing violent gang members from neighborhoods and, when appropriate, from the country.
