AZMEX EXTRA2 21-5-13

AZMEX EXTRA2 21 MAY 2013

Note: Forensic results, gang is also very active in CA and SW of USA.

MS-13 Use of Guns in Guatemala Shows Modus Operandi
Written by James Bargent Wednesday, 08 May 2013

http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/ms-13-used-just-32-guns-to-
kill-over-200-people-in-guatemala

Weapons seized from a street gang in Guatemala

Forensic analysis has revealed that the MS-13 gang in Guatemala used
32 guns to allegedly commit 238 murders, offering insight into the
gang's modus operandi and highlighting some of the difficulties of
tackling organized crime with gun control.

Members of Guatemala's National Institute of Forensic Sciences
(Inacif) used the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (Ibis)
to identify 1,133 guns that had been used in multiple crimes,
reported Prensa Libre.

Of those weapons, prosecutors linked 32 to murders they believe were
committed by the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) due to the style of
execution and the relationship of the MS-13 to the victims -- who
prosecutors say were all members of rival gangs, prison guards, or
victims of robbery or extortion.

Prosecutors will use the weapons as evidence in the case they are
preparing against eight MS-13 leaders, who they accuse of ordering
the hits.
According to Inacif, pistols were by far the most common weapon used
to commit crime and 85 percent of those pistols were stolen from the
National Police and law enforcement agents.

InSight Crime Analysis

In Guatemala, the street gangs known as Maras -- principally the
MS-13 and their Barrio 18 rivals -- operate in small cells known as
"clicas" (cliques), which have between 10 - 50 gang members. As the
forensic analysis suggests, instead of all members of a clique being
armed, the group will have a small number of weapons, which are
stored in a secret place where only members can access them and use
as needed. In some cases there could be as few as one "murder" weapon
used by an entire clique.
There are over one million unregistered guns in Guatemala. The fact
that so few of them are used in organized crime shows how difficult
it will be to limit the activities of street gangs through gun
regulation. What's more, many of these weapons were stolen -- or
possibly bought, as happens elsewhere in the region -- from the
security forces, illustrating the challenge of controlling the gangs'
access to weapons.

END