What is MS-13, the ‘killer gang’ Trump talked about in Liberation Day speech?

US President Donald Trump spoke about ‘killer gang’ MS-13 in his Liberation Day speech he delivered late Wednesday. He said, “…we have problems with judges that don’t want them to go out, they want Tren de Aragua and they want MS-13, the most vicious gangs ever, nobody’s ever seen anything like an absolute killer gangs and kill people they don’t even think about it…”

What is MS-13?

MS-13 is said to be a national and trans-national gang with over 10,000 members in the United States and thousands more in central America and Mexico.

The gang is known for its use of intimidation and violence, including murder, and engages in criminal activities such as burglary and drug trafficking, a report claimed.

MS-13, originally founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadoran immigrants, has long been considered one of the most violent gangs operating in the United States, news agency ANI reported.

President Trump officially designated it as a terrorist organisation during his administration.

The gang has been linked to numerous high-profile killings, kidnappings, and drug-related crimes across the country, particularly in areas such as Washington, DC, California, and Long Island, New York.

Trump’s crackdown

The Trump administration recently launched a crackdown on MS-13 gang. FBI Director Kash Patel said in a early Thursday post that the FBI and

the US Department of Justice arrested and charged another high-ranking member of MS-13 in New York.

“The individual is Joel Vargas-Escobar — someone we believe to be responsible for a racketeering conspiracy that involved 11 murders,” Kash Patel said.

Joel Vargas-Escobar was arrested in Westbury, New York late on Tuesday and is being transferred to Nevada, where he was initially charged in a 2021 federal indictment. 

Vargas-Escobar, identified as a leader of the “Parkview” clique of MS-13 that operated out of Nevada and California, is facing racketeering, murder and gun charges, according to the indictment.

This comes after the Trump administration said Monday (March 31) that it has deported 17 more “violent criminals” from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs to El Salvador as it doubles down on a policy of removing people from the US to countries other than their own despite criticism over lack of transparency and human rights issues.

The State Department said the immigrants were removed Sunday night. The statement said murderers and rapists were among them but didn’t give details of the nationalities or alleged crimes of those removed.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the 17 inmates as “violent criminals” that belonged to two gangs — El Salvador’s MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua — which Washington has declared foreign terrorist organizations.

Earlier in late March (27), Pam Bondi, Attorney General, had said one of the top leaders of MS-13 was apprehended. “He was the leader for the East Coast, one of the top three in the entire country, right here in Virginia…He is an illegal alien from El Salvador—and he will NOT be living in our country much longer,” she added.

The suspect, identified by US Justice Department officials as 24-year-old Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, was charged with being an undocumented alien in possession of a firearm, according to court records. Trump described Santos as a “major leader of MS13” — the Latin America-based gang designated a foreign terrorist organization by the US president.

President Donald Trump had on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a rarely used wartime law, to target alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

(With inputs from agencies)