Original subtitles

[♪]

Gangs rule their territories through ruthless enterprises,

fear,

and a strict code.

Deviate from this code

or challenge their power...

and retribution soon follows...

especially for the notorious street gang MS-13.

From its humble roots in the barrios of L.A.

to its transformation

into the most dangerous street gang

in the Western Hemisphere,

here are three stories from inside MS-13's brutal world.

First, MS-13 attempts a violent takeover

of the United States,

but there's a mole in their ranks.

He is probably the best source I've ever operated

in 21 and a half years as a special agent in the FBI.

[Narrator] Then, MS-13 kills a former member

hiding in the witness protection program.

If you rat, you die.

[Narrator] And finally, the gang goes head to head

with a federal task force

determined to end their reign of terror.

We declared war on MS-13.

[Narrator] These are the stories from inside MS-13.

This is Gangland Chronicles.

1970s.

Los Angeles.

This is the birthplace of what will become

one of the world's most dangerous gangs, MS-13.

Starting as a social group

for Salvadorian teenagers who recently immigrated

from war-torn El Salvador...

they initially call themselves "Mara Salvatrucha Stoners,"

which means "tough street gang," or "MSS" for short.

They were kids that liked to listen to heavy metal music

and smoke weed,

who were kind of protecting themselves

against other people in the neighborhood.

[Narrator] But once gang members spend time

in L.A. County jails and California state prisons,

MSS turns from a small neighborhood gang

into something more menacing.

MS-13 is the most violent street gang

I've ever investigated,

and they make their money by extorting businesses.

It can be bodegas, cab drivers, bus drivers.

They sell drugs.

[Narrator] In prison, the gang also finds an ally

in one fearsome group,

and they change their name to MS-13.

13 is the 13th letter in the alphabet,

which is the letter M for the Mexican Mafia.

[Narrator] The newly formed MS-13

quickly becomes known for their brutality...

and their weapon of choice, the machete.

[Hunter] The damage that the machete does

is just, it's horrific.

We deal with gang members

who engaged in so many homicides,

they would lose count.

[Narrator] In 1992,

the civil war in El Salvador ends,

and MS-13 leaders are deported

back to the country,

where they set up the gang

and take it to new levels of brutality.

El Salvador didn't have an MS-13 problem

until we deported these members back there.

[Narrator] MS-13 spreads like wildfire

across El Salvador and Central America.

By the early 2000s,

there's an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 new members.

And the leadership now is taking place in El Salvador.

They're becoming extremely organized

and becoming even more violent than before.

[Narrator] Having conquered Central America,

the leadership is now intent on dominating the U.S...

but they don't see what's coming next.

2005.

MS-13 has spread all over the U.S.,

but lacks real organization.

Neighborhood groups known as cliques

operate independently,

and often against one another.

MS-13 got this bad reputation of infighting.

[Narrator] Leadership in El Salvador

knows there's more money to be made

if they can reorganize MS-13 in the U.S.,

especially on the East Coast.

[Esteban] MS-13 wants to have more control,

almost like the mafia.

[Narrator] They force cliques

in Texas, North Carolina, Virginia,

Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts

to come together into an organized unit

known as the "East Coast Program."

Its chosen stateside leader is Jose Adan Martinez Castro,

aka "Chucky."

[Narrator] But not all the cliques

are falling in line with the program.

They weren't following instructions,

they didn't want to join the program,

and the leaders in El Salvador want people killed

if they're not following the rules

and not joining the East Coast Program.

[Narrator] The Salvadorian bosses

direct Chucky to call a meeting to fix the problem...

but nobody is prepared for who is listening in.

December 13, 2015.

Richmond, Virginia.

Head of MS-13's East Coast operations,

Jose Adan Martinez Castro,

aka "Chucky,"

calls an emergency meeting with senior members

after several cliques

refuse to join MS-13's reorganization efforts

in the region.

During the meeting, Chucky told these members,

"We have to remove those leaders

to get everyone in line with our idea of MS-13

and how they should operate."

[Narrator] Chucky asks a member from Boston

to take out his boss.

[Wood] Chucky asks him,

"Why haven't you killed your leader yet?

He's not getting with the program.

He's not following our instructions.

He should be removed, he should be killed."

"You and another member

should become the leaders of the clique."

[Narrator] But Chucky is unaware

of one important detail...

the member from Boston is an informant,

and he's wearing a wire.

He is probably the best source I've ever operated

in 21 and a half years as a special agent in the FBI.

[Narrator] The informant, a former drug dealer,

has infiltrated a Boston MS-13 clique

for over two years

in exchange for getting him and his family

out of El Salvador...

but this is his most dangerous meeting yet.

[Wood] He's going in where I can't watch or see him,

where I could hear a code word

saying, "I'm in trouble. I need help."

When you go to these meetings, they check for phones,

and if you have a phone, they make you turn it off,

they take the battery out, they put it off to the side,

because they don't want anyone

to be able to record these meetings,

and if they found out that he was an informant,

they would've killed him, and I would've never known.

[Narrator] But the informant

is able to record the entire meeting

without being caught.

He provides the FBI with evidence

they've been struggling to get on MS-13 for years.

[Wood] It showed not only the organization

but the level of violence that they're willing to commit

in order to run this criminal enterprise.

[Narrator] Chucky and the senior leaders are arrested.

Chucky pleads guilty

and goes to prison for 20 years for conspiracy.

[Wood] It was a huge success.

It disrupted MS-13 in the East Coast,

and it affected El Salvador.

[Narrator] MS-13 has suffered a serious setback,

but leadership is not backing down

on carrying out their brutal expansion plans.

No threat will go unpunished.

2002.

Arlington, Virginia.

Police arrest MS-13 member Brenda "Smiley" Paz

and her boyfriend, Denis Rivera,

while trying to steal a car.

Police figure out that Rivera is a suspected MS-13 hitman,

and send him to jail on murder charges.

16-year-old Brenda lands in juvenile detention,

and authorities discover

her ties to a notorious MS-13 clique run deep.

[Hunter] Her status within the gang

was based on her romantic relationship

with two different,

very, very senior,

very, very violent members of MS-13 at different times.

[Narrator] And Brenda could be charged

as an accessory to their many crimes.

[Hunter] And even as a juvenile,

she could get significant time

and really serve the best years of her life in prison.

[Narrator] But if Brenda

tells authorities what she knows,

her life is on the line.

The gang kill their own faster than any gang I've ever seen.

If you're caught or suspected of talking to the police

or cooperating with the police,

they'll kill you.

[Narrator] Brenda Paz has an impossible choice to make...

risk betraying the gang,

or spend the rest of her days behind bars.

2002.

Arlington, Virginia.

MS-13 member Brenda Paz has a choice...

work with police or land a long prison sentence

as an accessory to several crimes.

She's got the offer of help

from police officers and prosecutors...

and smartly, she took it.

[Narrator] Brenda agrees to become an informant,

and gives law enforcement

important details of brutal unsolved murders.

[Hunter] Brenda helped to solve a lot of murders

here in the DC area and elsewhere in the country

where she'd been with these other various MS-13 members.

[Narrator] Now that she's spilled

the gang's secrets to authorities,

Brenda is no longer safe in Virginia.

In 2003, the now-pregnant teen enters Witness Protection,

and relocates to Minnesota.

She wasn't happy. She wanted to get out of it.

She missed the culture, the lifestyle, her friends.

[Narrator] Brenda takes a huge risk,

and breaks Witness Protection rules.

She called her fellow gang members in Virginia,

and said, "Hey, I'm up here.

Why don't you come up and we can party?"

And so they did.

[Narrator] Brenda lies and tells them

a relative is paying for her new apartment,

but some grow suspicious.

One of the gang members found her journal

in which she had described her meetings with FBI officials,

and reportedly,

there was a business card

for one of these FBI special agents.

And so of course, this was a smoking gun.

[Narrator] It doesn't take much

for the gang members to convince Brenda

that she's better off back in Virginia with them.

Once there, her clique holds a secret meeting.

And at that meeting, it was unanimously decided

that she had to be taken out.

[Narrator] And MS-13 gang members

hatch the perfect plan.

They will take Brenda fishing.

July 13, 2003.

Shenandoah County.

They parked the car

on the parking area on the one side,

and they got the fishing rods out,

and she was several months pregnant at this point,

and they walked across the bridge...

and they helped her down the hillside

to the river's edge, where there's a trail.

They stabbed her to death right there.

It was to set the example

that anybody that rats out on this gang,

this is what's going to happen to you.

[Narrator] Two of Brenda Paz's attackers

are later caught and sentenced to life in prison.

A third suspect is acquitted.

Consistently thwarted by informants,

MS-13 isn't scrapping their plans for expansion.

Their biggest invasion is yet to come...

And law enforcement is up to the challenge.

2016.

Suffolk County, Long Island.

It's considered one of the safest places in the country...

until MS-13 invades.

MS-13 in Suffolk County

was solely responsible for 28 homicides.

[Narrator] With the murder rate tripled,

the normally tranquil county is gripped with fear,

and MS-13 is on the offensive,

recruiting innocent immigrant children

to fill their ranks,

and attempting to move massive amounts of drugs

into the community.

There was a clique

that was moving kilos of heroin and cocaine.

When you have a clique

that has the capacity and the network

capable of distributing kilos,

that's a red flag for us.

[Narrator] Suffolk County draws a line in the sand.

We declared war on MS-13.

[Narrator] But will it be enough to take out

one of the most violent street gangs in history?

2016.

Suffolk County, Long Island.

The authorities have declared war

against MS-13,

which has taken a stranglehold on this once sleepy community.

Law enforcement floods known MS-13 hangouts and turf

with police officers on foot,

in patrol vehicles, and in the air.

If we determined that someone was going to do a violent crime,

we had to stop that.

[Narrator] The police tactic also prevents murders

before they can be carried out.

We had a patrol in the area,

and they actually saw an attempted abduction

involving MS-13 gang members in a van

in the area of the school,

and in that van,

they discovered duct tape and other weapons

that were clearly going to be used in this crime.

[Narrator] Just as quickly

as authorities can arrest MS-13 members,

the gang puts fresh recruits onto the streets.

But the authorities have something MS-13 does not...

a wiretap.

We conducted

one of the largest wiretap investigations of a gang

that I'm aware of.

It involved over 200 communication devices.

[Narrator] By intercepting MS-13 communications,

authorities are able to stay one step ahead of the gang.

When law enforcement gets involved in major operations

to disrupt a gang like MS-13,

it really makes them almost impossible

for them to do business in the area.

If they're being watched, they're being surveillanced,

they can't function.

[Narrator] After two years of recording

over 200 different MS-13 phones on wiretap,

Long Island authorities are able to deal their final blow.

December 19, 2019.

The largest MS-13 bust in history goes down.

[Wood] Hundreds of agents, police officers,

go out at 5:00 in the morning, get ready,

and at 6:00 a.m...

execute, execute, execute,

and these law enforcement teams start banging down doors.

[Narrator] Law enforcement hits hard and fast,

resulting in nearly 96 arrests in Long Island,

and hundreds worldwide.

We decimated those cliques in Long Island.

There were nine cliques up and down the eastern seaboard.

We took them out as well.

We identified many, many leaders in El Salvador

that we pursued.

They were arrested as well.

[Narrator] The 150-page indictment

against the 96 Long Island MS-13 members

includes seven murder plots,

as well as gun-running and drug trafficking charges.

[Donovan] After we took down MS-13,

we saw a sharp decrease

in the number of homicides throughout Long Island

related to MS-13.

[Narrator] But despite many MS-13 members

on Long Island sent to prison,

authorities fear they will return to the area.

[Donovan] Being the most violent gang

that we've seen in recent times

really calls for us as a nation and for us in law enforcement

to pursue them no matter where they are.

[Narrator] MS-13 will remain a potential threat

as long as the gang is intent

on upholding its vicious reputation.

Today, membership of the gang

is approximately 10,000 in the U.S.

[Ward] They're constantly recruiting

because they want to replace the numbers

who are winding up in prison

or who have left the country

or who are killed in the line of fire,

and so there's this constant need

to replenish the membership.

[Wood] MS-13 will continue to morph,

so we have to stay on our toes to keep them from reconstituting

and re-establishing their presence.