Gang Crackdown Nets 650 Suspects

More than 650 suspected gang members were arrested in a five-nation crackdown, including scores in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, officials said Thursday.

An FBI statement said more than 6,400 law enforcement officers in the U.S., Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras participated in the coordinated crackdown against gangs, particularly MS-13.

In Mexico, Chiapas suffers most from MS-13 because the state’s southern border with Guatemala is a crucial transit point for Central American immigrants.

Gang members prey on largely defenseless migrants, robbing, raping and killing them, especially along a railroad line that runs from Chiapas to the U.S.-Mexico border.

About 1,500 state and local police officers participated in the Chiapas raids, said the state public security secretary, Horacio Schroeder Bejarano. No violence was reported.

Fifty-four of the 94 people arrested there were thought to be Central Americans. The others were Mexicans believed to have been recruited by the gang, also known as Mara Salvatrucha.

Bejarano said there was a warrant for each arrest. The detainees were wanted in various crimes, including homicide.

“These arrests are a consequence of meetings between the security agencies of all the countries in the region and were designed to hit the trans-border criminal gangs,” Bejarano said. “They are a problem from Honduras all the way up to the United States.”

FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker said at a news conference that the operation was run from Washington.

U.S. police and federal agents made 73 arrests, more than half on immigration charges, in 13 states, Swecker said. Thirty-two of the arrests were in California.

Authorities also arrested 237 people in El Salvador, 162 in Honduras and 98 in Guatemala.

MS-13 originated in Los Angeles among Central American immigrants.

According to the FBI, an estimated 10,000 members of the gang are in the United States, with the highest concentrations in Los Angeles, New York, northern Virginia and Maryland.

MS-13 may have as many as 50,000 members in the other four countries, officials said.

Associated Press was used in compiling this report.