'MOST DANGEROUS GANG' IN U.S. TAKES ROOT HERE

MS-13 Notorious For Beheading Its Victims

Their names sound as benign as any high school sports team, but their
presence is increasingly deadly.

Some of Toronto's 70-plus identified street gangs have worked their
way into the public realm through arrests or their own bloody acts of
aggression, such as the Galloway Boys, Malvern Crew, Ardwick Blood
Crew and the Jamestown Crips.

Others are known only on the streets and inside newly created but
confidential police files: Block-13, The Gatorz, Chalkfarm Bloods and
Five Point Generalz among them, several street and police sources
tell the National Post.

Perhaps the most alarming development in the terra incognita that is
Toronto's emerging gangland, however, is the confirmed presence here
of the MS-13, or the Mara Salvatrucha, a gang whose parent group in
the United States has been called "the most dangerous gang in America."

MS-13 was originally formed in Los Angeles by young men who fled the
civil strife in El Salvador. The new immigrants were being terrorized
by established street gangs and banded together, first for
self-protection and later, recognizing their growing strength, as aggressors.

When several of the original members were deported, it gave the gang
instant operatives in numerous Central American countries who helped
build drug- and people-smuggling routes.

In the United States, the gang is notorious for beheading its victims
and for directly confronting police officers with high-powered guns.

There has been nothing of that nature from the group of MS-13 in
Toronto, but officers have confirmed its worrisome presence.

"It is the same gang. They are showing up here. It is difficult to
tell exactly how affiliated they are because they are just starting
to emerge here," said Detective-Sergeant Doug Quan, head of the gang
section in Toronto police's Gun and Gang Task Force.

"Our intelligence shows that they are here and they are affiliated to
the U.S. MS-13," he said.

The Toronto version of MS-13 has a presence in the west side of the
city's downtown.

It has remained true to its roots and is comprised almost exclusively
of young men of Latin American origin.

The emergence of new gangs and new information coming to light on
older, more established street gangs leaves police gang officers
chasing a moving target.

Officers have identified more than 70 street gangs in Toronto, but
only about 25 of them have escalated in police eyes to becoming
serious criminal gangs, the likes of which would be covered by
Canada's anti-gang laws.

These laws were designed to tackle Mafia groups and outlaw motorcycle
gangs like the Hells Angels -- criminal organizations that remain far
above the street gangs in terms of criminal scope and sophistication.

Toronto street gangs have perhaps 1,800 to 2,000 members and
associates, police say. Gang size ranges from groups of 10 members
who seek to control a single housing complex, a street or a park to
some with 40 or more members who seek a wider territory for drug sales.

The members are typically between the ages of 16 and 25.

Some of the more established gangs have members in their 30s or 40s,
who are often seen as "elder statesmen," advising young gangsters
while avoiding street confrontations, police say.

Some gangs have formal induction ceremonies, while others maintain an
informal structure based on personal friendships.

"There are internal hierarchies and designated leaders and informal
leaders," Det.-Sgt. Quan said.

Some gangs force members to pay dues, some have a formal system of
contributing to pay other members' legal bills. Some even have war
chests to support the families of members who are jailed. Some have
defined meetings at specific locations and times, while others just
seem to hang around together.

"It varies from gang to gang. Some have identifiable colours,
tattoos, almost a uniform but others adopt bits and pieces, a hybrid
of American street gang culture," Det.-Sgt. Quan said.

Many gangs evolved from young men going to school together or growing
up in a neighbourhood together. As children they get into a little
trouble, perhaps commit petty crimes together and form a bond.

They then start to hook up with other like-minded young people, and
their network expands. A stint in jail also introduces them to gang leaders.

The gangs have traditionally retained an ethnic component -- groups
of Tamils or Jamaican immigrants, for instance, but that is changing.
The gangs are starting to embrace Canada's multicultural ethos and
police are finding white, black and Asian members in the same gang. A
person's perceived loyalty to the group and criminal contribution are
becoming more important than race.

As in the United States, the city's gangs have broken into two
primary gang alliances, called the Bloods and the Crips, named for
the rival Los Angeles street gangs that first used the names.

The original founders of many of Toronto's gangs picked which of the
gangs they liked and chose to affiliate with that culture, Det.-Sgt.
Quan said. Since then, some have built relationships with their U.S.
counterparts.

"Some have family or cousins or friends involved in gangs in the
States and there are some direct connections between, say, a
Chicago-based Blood gang that directly deals with a Toronto-based
Blood gang," he said.

Many Toronto street gangs affiliate themselves to both one of the
colossal U.S. gangs and to a tiny patch of Toronto turf. A gang like
the Ardwick Blood Crew takes its name from the Ardwick townhouse
complex many members once lived in and also their affiliation with the Bloods.

Generally speaking, Bloods are rivals of Crips or, more accurately, a
Bloods gang will typically support another Bloods gang and the same
for the Crips gangs.

But if their territories come into conflict, money and the need for
"respect" trumps all allegiances and blood will inevitably be shed.

"They are just so bold and so young and they make dreadful mistakes
trying to establish themselves," Det.-Sgt. Quan said.

Those mistakes are increasingly causing alarm in Toronto as innocent
bystanders are being caught in the crossfire.

Police find the gangs all seem to have at least one thing in common:
"Drug trafficking fuels just about everything," he said.