translated from Spanish: They charged members of MS-13 in California

-FRESNO, California, USA (AP) — more than one dozen members and members of the MS-13 gang were charged after a long investigation of drug trafficking and murders centered in an agricultural village of California, said Prosecutor federal at Sacramento.McGregor Scott said Thursday in a telephone interview that the investigation helped solve murders and attacks in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Houston. He is expected that the authorities announced the formal charges later Friday. The notorious gang took advantage of the shortage of personnel in the Police Department of Mendota to terrorize the city, said Scott.

Mendota, with a population of just 11,000 people, is 60 kilometers (35 miles) West of Fresno. Almost the entire population is Hispanic, with many Salvadoran immigrants. The gang MS-13 _que means La Mara Salvatrucha_ was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980’s by refugees from El Salvador and is linked to many murders in various parts of the United States. In California, the gang has clashed with gang members of northern rivals. In addition, it punishes its own members for violating its internal rules. The U.S. President Donald Trump described the gang to be a threat to the country and attributed the crimes of the group a bad implementation of immigration at the border. In research in Mendota, two MS-13 gang members were charged with murder in federal court and four other of aggression, said Scott.Otras 16 people affiliated with the MS-13 face charges of drug trafficking in the Court. Additional charges were filed in a State Court.
An authorized recording as part of the research linked to MS-13 members with murders and assaults in the other four cities mentioned, where additional individuals were charged, said.

McGregor said that the research was not ordered by Washington, but it was derived from reports about the brutality of the gang in the area. In this note: United States California MS-13 El Salvador

Original source in Spanish