Al Qaeda seeks tie to local gangs - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - September 28, 2004
"Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans — mostly gang members — into the United States. Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults — including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands.
... El Shukrijumah ... was named in a March 2003 material-witness arrest warrant by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia, where U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said he is sought in connection with potential terrorist threats against the United States. A former southern Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks, El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected al Qaeda operatives identified in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft as being involved in plans to strike new targets in the United States."
... More than 3,000 Mara Salvatrucha gang members are thought to be in the Washington area, with a major operation in Northern Virginia. Other gang centers, authorities said, include Montgomery and Prince George's counties and the Hispanic neighborhoods of Washington."
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"Menesses said his country also is working closely with the FBI (news - web sites) and Interpol to investigate rumors that al-Qaida has sent agents to Central America and is seeking help from the gangs to enter the United States."
See El Salvador Enlists U.S. to Fight Gangs, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=18&u=/ap/20041013/ap_on_re_us/international_gangs
Wed Oct 13, 4:44 AM ET
By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer
SANTA ANA, Calif. - Police in El Salvador (news - web sites) are establishing better contacts with their counterparts in California to gain leverage against gangs involved in smuggling, extortion and other crimes in both nations, officials said.
The national police chief of El Salvador, Ricardo Menesses Orellana, is meeting this week with law enforcement officials in Southern California to arrange a new system to share information about notorious multinational street gangs such as the Mara Salvatrucha and the Mara 18.
Menesses said Tuesday he has directed his intelligence officers to provide U.S. law enforcement with quick access to his agency's detailed database on 10,500 gang members, including many who have been deported from the United States, while his officers will be able to get information from American police that will help his nation fight gangs.
He also said that he would expand the program to include any other U.S. cities that also have problems with Central American gangs.
"They may have information I don't have or I may have information they don't have," he said in an interview after a meeting with Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona. "The important thing is that we exchange information so we can put the criminals and the leaders in jail."
Menesses said his country also is working closely with the FBI (news - web sites) and Interpol to investigate rumors that al-Qaida has sent agents to Central America and is seeking help from the gangs to enter the United States. So far, they have found no evidence that terrorists are in the region or that they have established any links with groups active in smuggling.
The Salvadoran police official met Monday with Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters and has meetings scheduled this week with the California Highway Patrol and the sheriff's departments of Riverside and Los Angeles counties.
California police agencies regularly confer with their counterparts from other countries, particularly in cases of organized crime, and it can sometimes help investigations to have access to foreign databases, Carona said.
"We may not need it for two or three years, but then it might provide the Rosetta Stone that helps you solve a case," he said.
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