MS-13 in South Carolina

(Orangeburg, S.C.) Law enforcers announced that seven members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang have been taken into custody and transported to Charleston for deportation. All are Honduran citizens, blanketed with tattoos, and illegally in the U.S.

According to Capt. Rene Williams of the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Department, two of the men were arrested on assault charges on January 28th. Their arrests led to the apprehension of the other five gang members. All of the gangsters will be deported back to Honduras.

(As an aside, does anyone want to wager how long it will take them to return to the U.S.? I'd guess that within 90 days after deportation, they will be back in South Carolina, probably in the same neighborhood doing the same damn things.)

Notably, the MS-13 group have a reputation in Orangeburg of being armed drug dealers. Jeff Quinton relates the words of a local resident who stated that, "they shoot guns, they get drunk and fight outside their houses."

From WLTX.com:

"People said they were selling drugs. We weren't sure about that, but we know about the gang they were in and we know about the guns they carry," says one woman, who has family ties to the men and wished to remain anonymous.

"I know they're relation to us, but we don't need that in our neighborhood. We've got small children, we have pregnant women and I'm glad they're gone," she says.

MS-13's violent reach is wide with an estimated 30,000 members in 33 states. Strangely, I read recently that al Qaeda membership numbers only about 15,000 die-hard followers in about 50 countries. If the estimates are credible, MS-13 outnumbers al Qaeda two-to-one.

All in all, the violent criminal nature of MS-13 is undisputed. Recent reports blame the tattooed thugs for: the brutal murder of an 82-year-old man in Texas; the aggravated armed assault of a rival gang member in D.C.; armed robbery and rape in a brothel in Wheaton, MD; and the kidnapping and rape of a woman in Virginia Beach, VA.

To conclude, these dangerous guys are infecting communities throughout the nation and if anyone sees a tattooed MS-13 gang member, notify the authorities.