When Santos Guzman sought help from a state program for onetime gang members, there was no mistaking his gang affiliation.
His forehead bore the large tattooed inscription "MS-13 Sur," a unit of the feared Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang that has tentacles across Central America and the U.S. Two tattooed teardrops trickled down his cheek below his left eye. Huge tattoos on his chest and back gave him an inky sort of body armor. His fingers and legs also sported gang tattoos.
On his sixth visit to a state Tattoo Removal Clinic, Guzman lay face down on a padded exam table. A physician aimed a jet of chilled air at a giant tattoo on Guzman's back, drawing a slight wince on his face. Then with a laser, she traced the outline of the tattoo, gently coaxing the ink out from below the skin.
Guzman wants the 20 or so tattoos on his body to vanish. He gave up the life of a gangbanger long ago but only recently learned that the evidence of his past — such as the ink billboard on his forehead — could be erased. Guzman said he grew tired of trying to hide his tattoos with long-sleeved shirts, and with pancake makeup on his face.
"The culture here is that whoever has tattoos is a criminal," he explained.
Potential employers shut the door on anyone who is tatted up, fearing street gangs that relentlessly extort businesses. When tattooed riders get on buses, fellow passengers often change seats or get off altogether. Gangs have firebombed buses as part of widespread campaigns for extortion and turf.
"People panic when they see these guys," said Gladis Pacheco, a psychologist at the Tattoo Removal Clinic run by the National Council of Public Security. "In this country, it is just a primordial requirement to get rid of one's tattoos."
Tattoos have a mystique in North America and Europe. Those sporting them — from office clerks to actors and on to athletes — feel sexy or empowered. A survey early last decade found that 1 out of 7 U.S. adults have tattoos. Skin art has moved from skank to hip, from taboo to mainstream.
Not so in El Salvador. Tattoos are the province of the two big street gangs, the MS-13 and the 18th Street, and for much of the past two decades, young gangsters allowed the tattoos on their faces to serve as an angry warning to anyone who dared cross them.
That started to change eight years ago, with the first of a series of mano dura, or "hard hand," law enforcement crackdowns to break criminal gangs, whose ranks were swelling from a stream of thousands of Salvadoran gang members deported from the U.S. From July 2003 to June 2004, police arrested some 18,000 gang members, although only 5 percent were given prison terms, said Jeannette Aguilar, a gang expert at the Central American University here.
Following a subsequent crackdown, called super mano dura, gang leaders told members to restrict tattoos to less visible parts of their bodies.
"They aren't getting so many tattoos now," said Gersan Perez Mendez, a veteran commissioner of the National Civil Police. "They definitely don't put them on their hands and faces."
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Authorities have captured a 19-year-old California man they say is responsible, along with six others, for the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl inside a park bathroom.
Michael Sykes, a suspected gang member, was arrested Monday morning at a Moreno Valley home, police sources confirm to FoxNews.com.
Police allege that Sykes, along with six juvenile gang members, raped the child in the bathroom at Moreno Valley's Victoriano Park between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. March 10, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
The attack, which was on the south side of the city near Moreno Valley College, wasn't made public until Sunday, and police have not released further details about the incident.
"As a father — even as a police officer — there are crimes that shock us. This is one of them," Capt. John Anderson, chief of the Moreno Valley station, said.
Detectives told the newspaper that the girl was at a shopping center near the park when she was approached by an older girl, who lured her to the bathroom where the six boys and the 19-year-old were waiting.
The attack was in an area where gangs and crime aren't a problem, Anderson said.
The six juveniles were arrested shortly after the rape and booked at Riverside County juvenile hall for investigation of sexual assault on a child. Sykes eluded authorities until his arrest Monday. Each of the suspects will face sexual assault and gang enhancement charges, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's office.
Authorities have so far not released the named of the teens because they are minors. Police sources, however, say the boys are all over 14 and could be charged as adults.
The girl was hit in the chest, and a 35-year-old man also found at the Stockwell Food & Wine shop in Lambeth, was shot in the face.
The two victims are in a critical but stable condition in hospital.The five-year-old was visiting relatives who owned the shop and the man lived above the premises.
Police said two black youths were believed to have run into the shop shortly before the shots were fired.
These criminals have seriously injured two innocent bystanders and must face the consequences of their actions
Detective Chief Inspector Tony Boughton
"The youths had been chased from Broom Grove Road, across Stockwell Road, and into the shop by three other black youths on bicycles," a statement said.
"Once the youths on bikes were outside the shop, one of them fired shots into the shop front."
Officers believe the two intended targets then ran from the shop to chase the three on bicycles, heading back towards the Stockwell Park Estate.
Detective Chief Inspector Tony Boughton: "This is a terrible incident where an innocent child has been seriously injured. We want to hear from the local community, who might have seen these youths cycling around the estate between 9pm and 10pm.
A councillor said there was a "well-known problem with guns and gangs" in the area
"I appeal to those who have information or were involved in this shooting to come forward and assist us with this investigation.
"These criminals have seriously injured two innocent bystanders and must face the consequences of their actions."
Sky reporter Jane Dougall, in Stockwell, said a local man was saying "he came out of his house and saw what he described as five youths - aged between 13 and 15 - on bikes.
"As soon as the gunshots had happened he saw them fleeing into the estate across the road.
"It has been reported that other local people have said that five youths had an argument with the shopkeeper and the shopkeeper had banned them from his shop."
A councillor said the area had a "well-known problem with guns and gangs"
Peter Robbins, one of three Lambeth councillors who represent the area, said: "There is a fairly well-known problem with gangs and guns in Lambeth, it is something that the council and the police are working together incredibly hard to solve.
"Obviously, there is always more you can do and incidents like this really bring that home."
Mr Robbins said the local community was "numb and horrified, and rightly so".
No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing.
Dawn raids targeting gang members and violent offenders took place in the early hours of this morning, with a number of properties in Wandsworth being searched by police.
As part of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Connect, 27 Wandsworth homes were searched along with 14 other addresses across six other boroughs during a pan-London “hit day”, in a bid to tackle gang-related activity.
Seventeen Wandsworth men between the ages of 15-35 were arrested for offences including conspiracy to supply class A drugs and possession with intent to supply, and are currently being interviewed at a number of south London police stations.
About £10,000 in cash was seized as well as drugs, various drug dealing paraphernalia such as scales, mobile phones and jewellery which was believed to be stolen.
MPS Territorial Policing Commander Steve Rodhouse, said: "Today’s raids demonstrate our determination to continue to dismantle gang networks that are responsible for a disproportionate amount of criminality in London.
"They also send out a clear message that drug dealing, which can fuel many other gang-related activities, will not be tolerated.”
An assault rifle, a sawn-off shotgun and 1000 rounds of ammunition linked to the Notorious bikie gang have been seized in a raid, say police.
At least one of the guns has been used in a shooting, police believe, and all the guns will be forensically tested.
The SKS assault rifle, the loaded shotgun, a loaded .22 calibre rifle and the ammunition were found during a raid on a storage unit in Packard Avenue, Castle Hill about 3.45pm yesterday, police said.
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The raid was part of Strike Force Raptor's investigations into the gang.
Strike Force Raptor was formed two years ago to target bikie gangs and their alleged criminal dealings.
A home-made firebomb allegedly was placed on the bus that day in early January by members of the Mara 18 street gang to pressure bus drivers to pay gang extortion fees. Nine people eventually died and many more were wounded by the impact of the blast.
Public transportation and bus drivers have become frequent targets in the rampant violence of Guatemala City, where organized crime rings, street gangs and drug cartels operate on a large scale but prosecution rates remain low.
In 2010, 130 bus drivers and 53 bus helpers who collect tolls were murdered, according to statistics released by the Guatemalan daily paper El Periódico. Drivers paid more than $1.5 million dollars in extortion money to organized crime in the same time period, according to police figures released earlier this year.
"There is a general impunity problem in Guatemala," Claudia Paz, Guatemala's attorney general, said through an interpreter. "We have a system of justice that has historically been weakened, that can't cope with violence and has permitted the number of deaths and homicides to rise."
On a national scale, the country has a homicide rate of more than 48 per 100,000 inhabitants. It's one of the highest homicide rates in the hemisphere— in the United States in 2009, the rate was 5 in 100,000, and in Mexico it was 14 per 100,000 people.
Many of those crimes occurs in Guatemala City, and the case of bus drivers reveals much about how gangs use public, violent crimes as a means to intimidate others --and cash in.
There is no single authorized public transportation system for buses in the city, so bus drivers often rent from a bus owner or buy their own vehicle and receive subsidies from the government to help provide transportation. This cash, and the money received from passengers, makes them targets.
Rubén Aquino is a former driver in Guatemala City who used to work for a company that began receiving threats from a gang through one of the company's bus helpers. The company began paying the gang $150 a month, but the harassment didn't stop for the drivers.
"I was attacked. They shot against the bus I used to drive. One day, they threatened me. If I didn’t pay them [$13] a day, they would kill me," Aquino said. "I was afraid and stopped circulating. There was too much to pay and it made no sense to work that way."
The Urban Bus Service Companies Association, which deals with industry concerns, has tried hiring private security for buses but found they could not afford to guard all the routes. There has also been a push to switch to new buses that have a prepaid system that allows payment without the exchange of cash. But for now, many of the old buses still roam the roads.
Vacaville police have linked the shooting that claimed the life of 18-year-old Gumercindo "Joel" Pena on Sunday to a suspected retaliation shooting Tuesday night and authorities say that both are likely gang related.
Police identified the victim of the second shooting as 20-year-old Jose Rosales of Vacaville. Rosales suffered a single gunshot wound to the head and was taken to Kaiser Hospital in Vacaville at about 8 p.m. Hospital staff notified authorities about Rosales' injury, who was then transported to a Sacramento-area hospital for further treatment.
According to Vacaville police Sgt. Jeff King, "Tuesday's shooting was a retaliation to Sunday's homicide," and one of a number of identified acts of violence between the Norteño and Sureño street gangs through the years. The rivalry between the two gangs has been ongoing for more than 20 years, King said, but sometimes the violence between the groups is more visible than others.
In a press release issued Thursday by the Vacaville Police Department, police identified Rosales as a known Sureño gang associate who has had "numerous contacts" with authorities. In addition to a past arrest on minor charges, police said that Rosales has also been in contact with known Sureño gang members.
Police have not confirmed the exact location of Tuesday's shooting and said that Rosales has changed his story about the events surrounding and leading up to it several times. Rosales has been unable or
unwilling to identify the person who shot him to detectives investigating the case, police said.
According to authorities, Rosales' injury is not life-threatening and he is expected to be released from the hospital soon.
While police do not consider an "associate" in the same realm as a full-fledged gang member, King said that it's only "one step away."
