(Boston) Eastie (street) gang linked to al-Qaeda

[RamboLiberal]

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=61903&format=text

A burgeoning East Boston-based street gang made up of alleged rapists and machete-wielding robbers has been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, prompting Boston police to ``turn up the heat'' on its members, the Herald has learned.

MS-13, which stands for La Mara Salvatrucha, is an extremely violent organization with roots in El Salvador, and boasts more than 100 ``hardcore members'' in East Boston who are suspected of brutal machete attacks, rapes and home invasions. There are hundreds more MS-13 gangsters in towns along the North Shore, said Boston police Sgt. Detective Joseph Fiandaca, who has investigated the gang since it began tagging buildings in Maverick Square in 1995.

In recent months, intelligence officials in Washington have warned national law enforcement agencies that al-Qaeda terrorists have been spotted with members of MS-13 in El Salvador, prompting concerns the gang may be smuggling Islamic fundamentalist terrorists into the country. Law enforcement officials have long believed that MS-13 controls alien smuggling routes along Mexico.

The warning is being taken seriously in East Boston, where Raed Hijazi, an al-Qaeda operative charged with training the suicide bombers in the attack on the USS Cole, lived and worked, prosecutors have charged.


MS-13 tattoo on an alleged member. (Herald Photo)

[chelsea0011]

1. Huh? I haven't been reading about the gang Eastie Wars lately.

I guess the Globe isn't covering the mayhem in Eastie. Only the Herald is getting the story.

[RamboLiberal]

2. H'mm - my first thought - is this *'s and Gonzalez idea

to send gang members off to Gitmo or military brigs? And as phusion suggests use the Patriot Act on street gangs?

[phusion]

3. Al Qaeda as an excuse...

Is this just an excuse, linking this gang to al Qaeda, to "turn up the heat?" That is, apply the Patriot Act, begin unwarranted searches, unfounded arrests, etc.

[bahrbearian]

4. Maybe we should have attacked El Salvador 1st.

There's the link to al-Qaeda.

[ixion]

5. okay, that's twice now that the unPATRIOTic Act has been

used to prosecute people not directly committing terrorist acts.

All they have to do to 'turn up the heat' on ANY group is mention some abstract connection to a 'terrorist' group, and presto! That group is instantly shipped off to gitmo after being rounded up by the brown shirts.

Some free country we live in these days.

[edbermac]

6. WTF?? The Feds couldn't even handle Bulger and the Winter Hill mob!!

What makes them think they can handle these guys??

[MnFats]

7. A few Salvatrucha turned up in Minnesota recently...

...
and the cops would like to be rid of them.
they are fucking crazy in love with violence.
Mostly from El Salavador and a few also from Honduras and Guatemala. Their stock in trades are auto theft and, well, violence....extortion, murder for hire and their own kind of "drug enforcement."

[stepnw1f]

8. And a Liberal Bastion Too... hmmmmm (Sarcasm on)

They will black mail thugs to do their own bullying in Boston. Just watch... the Reich is here!

[AlCzervik]

9. Please the Hearld? When they were a broadsheet instead of the

"Easy to read" format i might have actually given it a second look.

[cprise]

10. Repubs. are pushing for Death Penalty in Mass.

Coming up with stories like this are how they are trying to get it passed.

[regnaD kciN]

11. When I first read the headline...

...I thought this must have come from The Onion.

Then I realized it appeared in the Boston Herald, which has even less credibility.