Mara 18
| File:18th street tagging.jpg Taggings of 18th street gang. | |
| Founded | 1959 |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1960 - present |
| Territory | mostly in Los Angeles,the Western and Southern areas of the United States and some in the eastern (barrio 18),and Central America |
| Ethnicity | manly Hispanic |
| Membership (est.) | 100,000+ |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, gun traficking, murder, contract killing, etc. |
| Allies | none |
| Rivals | Every gang |
Mara 18, M-18,Barrio 18,pandia 18 or Diesiocho(in the U.S.A. they are known as the 18th Street gang) is a grouping of young gang members, the majority of whom are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Background
M-18, like their rivals Mara Salvatrucha, they also started in Los Angeles, California. Fleeing from the conditions created by the bloody civil war in El Salvador during the 1980s, people migrated north. The new Salvadorian immigrants who arrived in California felt isolated and were targeted by gangs. Some Salvadorian immigrants joined the Mexican 18th street gang, as it was already established. Salvadorians who committed crimes were deported to their home country, which then gave birth to M-18 a subset of the 18th Street gang from Los Angeles.
Geography
Over the years, M-18 has extended to many cities within El Salvador and has been incorporated in other countries within Central America, primarily Honduras and Guatemala.
M-18 developed the same criminal actions as MS-13. This violence incited the responsiveness of the authorities and immigration in the U.S.A., which chose to jail their members and deport them to their countries of origin.
A CNN internet news article stated the gang was moving away from tattoos because it would allow them to commit crimes without being noticed. [1]
The word mara in Central America is equivalent to the Spanish term colla or gang/group.
External links
- Gang's New Tactics [1]
- Ms-13 and M-18 Prison Gang War