A Quick Recap of MS-13 Activity in Maryland
How many ‘Maryland men’ are actually gang members?
By Andrew R. Arthur on May 5, 2025
Given the attention paid to Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, the “Maryland man” alleged to be a member of MS-13 removed to his country of nationality, El Salvador, due to what the government admits (perhaps inaccurately) was “administrative error”, it’s likely time for a quick recap of the gang’s activities in the Free State. How many “Maryland men” are really gang members? More than most elected officials who claim to care about immigrant communities would likely admit.
MS-13
A few basic facts about MS-13 — formally “Mara Salvatrucha 13” — are commonly agreed upon. Much else is based on scattered reports and conjecture.
InSight Crime describes it as “perhaps the most notorious street gang in the Western Hemisphere”, originating in “the poor, refugee-laden neighborhoods of 1980s Los Angeles” before extending its reach “from Central America to Europe”.
When I was an INS trial attorney in the 1990s, and an immigration judge in the early 2000s, MS-13 was akin to Keyser Söze from the 1995 thriller The Usual Suspects: a shadowy, violent, and malevolent entity blamed for nearly all criminality and destabilization in the “Northern Triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
That was likely because MS-13 was a shadowy, violent, and malevolent entity, with enough power and money to corrupt local officials and an indifference to the human impacts of the savagery it deemed essential — or efficacious — to its twisted business model.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Quick-Recap-MS13-Activity-Maryland
