Suffolk County District Lawyer Ray Tierney stated Lengthy Island couldn’t have taken on MS-13 with no little assist from the feds — as he revealed the migrant gang’s three twisted guidelines that made them essentially the most harmful within the Empire State.
Tierney stated throughout an unique sit-down with The Put up that migrant crews just like the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua wreak havoc within the New York metropolitan space, however MS-13 poses a better risk as a result of status among the many ranks is gained solely by means of violence and homicide.
“That’s the purpose of MS-13, to be the biggest, baddest, most violent gang in the world,” he stated. “They thought of homicide half and parcel of what they did. And that’s the way you gained status and respect and moved up within the gang, by committing outrageous acts of violence, together with homicide.
“In the ethos of the gang the best way to accomplish that would be with your hands, a club machete,” Tierney stated. “Violence for the MS-13 is not necessarily in furtherance of economic benefit.”
He stated his workplace’s success in shutting down a lot of the gang on his turf hinges largely on the feds.
“The reason why it’s gotten significantly better is primarily the federal government — the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office. And I was part of that, but it was those agencies. They took a lot of these violent actors off the streets and made it better.”
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha 13, was fashioned by immigrants from El Salvador within the US who fled civil struggle of their nation within the late Eighties and early Nineteen Nineties, in response to federal officers.
Initially meant to guard migrants from violence, the gang grew into one of the infamous felony enterprises within the nation, relying extra on violent assaults than conventional felony actions.
Gang members have three guidelines that dictate demise sentences — no member can cooperate with police, no outsider can disrespect the gang, and rival gangbangers are to be executed on sight, Tierney stated.
In New York, MS-13 established a powerful presence on Lengthy Island, peaking in 2015, abandoning a path of ruthless and cruel violence towards even helpless youngsters.
In October, a gang hanger-on nicknamed “Little Devil” was sentenced to 50 years in jail for luring 4 males to an area park the place a gang of MS-13 thugs hacked them to demise.
Leniz Escobar, 24, was convicted in 2022 of 4 counts of homicide in assist of racketeering and one rely of racketeering in reference to the horrifying crime.
In July, Alexi Saenz, 29 — the reputed former head of the Sailors Locos Salvatruchas Westside clique — admitted he was behind a collection of slayings that included the deaths of Nisa Mickens, 15, and her 16-year-old good friend, Kayla Cuevas, who had been crushed and hacked to demise in 2016.
In March 2024 police in Suffolk County stated two severed heads and different scattered physique components discovered at a Babylon park had been believed to be linked to MS-13.
Tren de Aragua, a more moderen migrant menace within the Large Apple and surrounding suburbs, exploited metropolis funded shelters within the 5 boroughs by recruiting new members and spearheading unlawful operations.
Regardless of their capability for violence, TdA largely depends on drug, gun and human trafficking, and grab-and-go robberies by crews of moped-riding migrants — focusing extra on illicit income than assault and homicide.
Each MS-13 and Tren de Aragua had been designated as overseas terrorist organizations by the Trump administration, which has launched nationwide raids to expel unlawful immigrants.
