Heroin overdoses spike in
Louisville, Kentucky
By
Naomi Spencer
17 February 2017
Across the United States, the heroin epidemic continues to worsen
in 2017. Cities across the country have reported rising numbers of overdoses in
January and the first weeks of February. Last week, Louisville, Kentucky,
reported 151 overdoses over four days, 52 of them within a 32-hour period.
City officials attributed the record spike to the introduction of
the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the local illicit drug supply. Russ Read,
co-founder of Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition, told local CBS News affiliate
WLKY, “What we’re seeing in the streets right now is fentanyl mixed with
heroin, as opposed to heroin mixed with fentanyl.”
Heroin overdoses have been rising in Louisville, as across the
country, over the past few years. Metro officials report that in January,
emergency crews responded to 695 overdose cases—an average of 22 overdose calls
a day—33 percent more than the same period last year. Between February 9 and
12, first responders dealt with an average of 38 overdoses per day.
Louisville is a city with a population of around 760,000, a large
segment of which lives in or near poverty. Per capita income in 2016 stood at
$26,893, according to federal Census data, and 18 percent of residents live in
poverty—up from 12.4 percent in 2010. At $41,000, Kentucky is ranked 47
nationwide in terms of median household income.
Fentanyl is a prescription painkiller 50 to 100 times stronger
than morphine, and between 30 and 50 times stronger than heroin. Even when
taken in tiny amounts, fentanyl can cause respiratory depression or arrest,
unconsciousness or coma. Overdoses can be counteracted with opioid blockers
like naloxone or its brand-name medication Narcan, but fentanyl overdose
victims usually require quick emergency response and multiple doses.
Many addicts are not aware of the composition of the drugs they
buy. “I got what I thought was heroin,” Nathan Johnson, a Louisville resident
who overdosed on fentanyl, told WLKY. “I went in the bathroom, and dude told me
it was strong, so I did just a tiny bit of it and they found me in the bathroom
against the door with the needle in my arm. … They threw me in the shower, they
did 18 minutes of CPR before the cops got there. Nothing was working, so the
cop came in and he had to use two Narcans. It brought me back to life,” Johnson
said.
First responders are stretched to the breaking point when multiple
overdoses occur in a short period of time. “You hear some of the stories of,
‘Man, we used all our naloxone,’” Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services
supervisor Ben Neal told CNN. “ ’We ran out of our bag valve masks. We’ve had
so many overdoses, we had to go back to the station and pick up more.’ It does
take a toll.”
The overdoses were reported at homes, parking lots, restaurants,
and even in traffic. None were fatal, but one person reportedly died while
riding in a car driven by someone under the influence of heroin. Many of the
overdose victims required multiple naloxone doses; one patient was administered
seven doses before reviving. “That could mean people’s tolerance levels are
going up,” Neal told CNN, “or, you know, the heroin itself is becoming more and
more potent.”
In Lexington, Kentucky’s second largest city, heroin overdoses are
also surging. Last month, emergency personnel responded to nine overdoses in a
24-hour period in Jessamine County. The drugs were laced with carfentanyl, an
elephant tranquilizer 10,000 times stronger than morphine.
On January 27, Lexington resident Hillary Moore fatally overdosed
shortly after a stint in jail and rehab. “She was 30, she has two little
girls,” her cousin told NBC News affiliate LEX 18. “They are young and left
without their mother now.” Lexington firefighters told LEX 18 that in January
alone, they had administered 150 doses of Narcan.
As the need for Narcan has spiked, so has the price. “It’s gone
from $3 to $38 a dose,” Lexington Fire Department Battalion Chief Bryan Wood
said. “In 2010 we gave 492 doses at a cost of about $2,000. Last year we gave
1,550 doses at a cost of $59,000.”
Across Kentucky, West Virginia, and the so-called Rustbelt of the
US Midwest, heroin is ravaging working class towns and rural areas, exhausting
emergency responders, and straining municipal budgets.
In Muncie, Indiana, the Indianapolis Star newspaper reported a “bad batch” of
heroin led to at least 13 overdoses and three deaths over the weekend of
February 4-5. Last year, Muncie’s Delaware County saw dozens of drug deaths,
many of them linked to heroin or fentanyl. Delaware County emergency dispatcher
April Buckles described “an overload of people” who were “coming in doubles.”
Buckles said the calls came in from panicked family members. “You know, we’ve
even had an 8-year-old child who called and tried to do CPR on her mother who
had a heroin overdose.”
Lake County, Illinois, in the Chicago area, saw 21 fatal overdoses
in the first six weeks of 2017. “Know that we have many people, hundreds and
hundreds in our communities who have an addiction,” Lake County Coroner
Merrilee Frey told the Post-Tribune. On Monday,
February 13, Lake County Jail was treating 42 inmates for “serious addictions,”
and the cost of naloxone treatments is creating a serious budget problem for
the county.
Cities across Ohio are confronting epidemic levels of overdoses.
Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County reported at least 46 deaths in January due to
heroin and fentanyl, with 11 other cases pending autopsy reports. In the first
week of February, at least 24 other people died of overdoses. In Toledo, 19
heroin overdoses were reported the weekend of February 4-5.
Nationally, heroin overdose deaths have quadrupled in the past
decade. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 61
percent of the 41,055 drug overdoses in 2014 were caused by opioids, up 14
percent from the year before. In 2015, some 52,000 people died of drug
overdoses, nearly two-thirds of them caused by prescription or illegal opioids.
YOU REALLY WANT THESE PEOPLE CROSSING OUR OPEN AND UNDEFENDED BORDERS AT WILL?
THE LA RAZA MEX DRUG CARTELS NOW OPERATED IN ALL MAJOR CITIES!
Members of the hyper-violent MS-13 transnational criminal gang are bringing severe tactics like machete-hacking murders, rape, and scalping to Texas according to the Texas Sheriff’s Association.
GRAPHIC IMAGES of America coming under Mex Occupation
The NARCOMEX drug cartels now operate in all major American cities and haul back to NARCOMEX between $40 top $60 BILLION from sales of HEROIN!
"More than 728,000 illegal immigrants have been shielded from being deported and
granted work permits through President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty
program, according to the Migration Policy Institute."
THE LA RAZA MEX DRUG CARTELS NOW OPERATED IN ALL MAJOR CITIES!
Mexican Cartel Throwing
People Off Planes to
Punish Rivals
LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
·
An old method of execution commonly used by the Sinaloa Cartel appears to be making a comeback after three men were thrown off an airplane.
Earlier this week, employees at the local hospital in the town of Eldorado, Sinaloa discovered the body of a man who had been thrown off a passing airplane, Mexico’s El Financiero reported. The bodies of two other victims are believed to have been taken by gunmen in SUVs who fled the scene; the victims are believed to have also been thrown off the passing plane.
Mexican authorities confirmed that the victim who fell on the hospital’s rooftop was in fact thrown and did not show signs of previous execution.
Breitbart Texas’ access to various U.S. intelligence files revealed that the Sinaloa Cartel has a history of using airplanes for executions. The practice is used primarily in the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahua. This is the first reported execution of its kind in a populated area.
Sinaloa is currently under the control of the cartel faction of the same name, led by Damaso “Mini Lic” Lopez, the son of the now jailed capo Damaso “El Lic” Lopez, who at one time was one of the closest allies of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Currently, the Lopez faction has been waging a war for control of the criminal organization and its key lucrative drug smuggling areas with the faction led by Guzman’s sons. Since El Chapo’s highly publicized arrest and subsequent extradition to the U.S., his empire has been rocked by infighting and the encroachment of other cartels such as the Beltran Leyva, Jalisco Nueva GeneraciĆ³n, and others.
As Breitbart Texas reported in August 2016, a team of gunmen stormed an upscale restaurant called La Leche in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. The gunmen kidnapped various individuals including at least one of Guzman’s sons. It remains unclear how many victims were actually taken and how the Sinaloa Cartel was able to get their freedom since Mexican authorities did not take part in a rescue operation.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
Mexican Cartel Throwing
HALF THE MURDERS IN LA RAZA-OCCUPIED CALIFORNIA ARE NOW BY MEX GANGS
Sheriff: MS-13 Gang Brings Machetes,Rape, Scalping to Texas
BY BOB PRICE
Members of the hyper-violent MS-13 transnational criminal gang are bringing severe tactics like machete-hacking murders, rape, and scalping to Texas according to the Texas Sheriff’s Association.
Tucker Carlson: MS-13 Street Gang ‘Is a Far Greater Threat to Your Life Than ISIS’
Carlson offered examples of MS-13 violence and pointed out that while there are likely a “few hundred” active ISIS members in the United States, there were 6,000 members of MS-13 domestically and 30,000 abroad.
Transcript as follows:
It’s fair to say, ISIS is the new global gold standard for offal. Combined the Orlando, San Bernardino and Chattanooga terror attacks, and the groups is responsible for at least 68 deaths here in the U.S. over just the past three years and that is bad. On the other hand, it’s nothing compared to MS-13. That organization, a mostly immigrant street gang is a far greater threat to your life than ISIS is. It’s the numbers.
It’s not just the body’s pile up in smaller numbers and the coverage isn’t a splashy when they’re covered at all because often they are not. Besides the four killings you just heard about in New York today, there’s Raymond Wood. He’s the Lynchburg teenager apparently murdered and left by the side of the road two weeks ago by a group of MS-13 members. All of them were here illegally by the way.
There Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, a pair of teenage girls butchered with machetes by MS-13. They’re walking off from school in Brentwood, New York. We could go on and on and on. And in the future editions of the show, we will. But killing is not the end of the problem with MS-13, its members have been caught running child prostitution rings, they’ve been contacted by Mexican drug cartels, and paid their operations. And of course, they engage in the usual extortion, drug trafficking and human smuggling.
But unlike ISIS, MS-13 makes it hard to live in certain neighborhoods here in this country. Also unlike ISIS, there are a lot of them. ISIS may have a significant pass of supporters in the U.S. and a lot of a suspected does but true active ISIS members — pretty small, maybe a few hundred and most. MS-13, by contrast, has approximately 6,000 members according to the government in this country. And they’re supported by more than 30,000 abroad. Yes, abroad.
Because MS-13 is fundamentally a foreign threat. Now, the administration is using a lot of firepower to defeat insurgents in the Middle East right now and good for them. But what about the insurgency right down the road from you here in America? Because that’s exactly what it is.Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
SANCTUARY CITIES = NO LAWS APPLY TO INVADING
ILLEGALS…. But Legals still get the tax bills for their welfare
and crime tidal wave even if they voted Democrat!
SANCTUARY CITY NEW YORK LETS
LOSE A MS-13 GANG THUG!
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
OBAMA’S INVASION OF ILLEGALS IS WORKING!
They’re already signed up to vote LA RAZA SUPREMACY DEM!
“According to Immigration and Customers
Enforcement data first obtained by the
Associated Press this week, about 70
percent of the 40,000 migrant family
members arrested at the border since May
did not follow up their arrest with a
necessary visit to an immigration office.”
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
SABOTAGE of HOMELAND SECURITY:
BARACK OBAMA PARTNERS WITH MEXICO’S DRUG CARTELS TO BRING DOWN THE U.S. MIDDLE-CLASS
As soon as the UACs started arriving, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch that many had ties to gang members in the U.S. In fact, JW reported last July that street gangs—including Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13—went on a recruiting frenzy at U.S. shelters housing the illegal immigrant minors and they were using Red Cross phones to communicate.
The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
OBAMA and the MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS SERVE UP HEROIN TO THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS.
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
SANCTUARY CITIES = NO LAWS APPLY TO INVADING
ILLEGALS…. But Legals still get the tax bills for their welfare
and crime tidal wave even if they voted Democrat!
SANCTUARY CITY NEW YORK LETS
LOSE A MS-13 GANG THUG!
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
OBAMA’S INVASION OF ILLEGALS IS WORKING!
They’re already signed up to vote LA RAZA SUPREMACY DEM!
“According to Immigration and Customers
Enforcement data first obtained by the
Associated Press this week, about 70
percent of the 40,000 migrant family
members arrested at the border since May
did not follow up their arrest with a
necessary visit to an immigration office.”
Enforcement data first obtained by the
Associated Press this week, about 70
percent of the 40,000 migrant family
members arrested at the border since May
did not follow up their arrest with a
necessary visit to an immigration office.”
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
SABOTAGE of HOMELAND SECURITY:
BARACK OBAMA PARTNERS WITH MEXICO’S DRUG CARTELS TO BRING DOWN THE U.S. MIDDLE-CLASS
As soon as the UACs started arriving, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch that many had ties to gang members in the U.S. In fact, JW reported last July that street gangs—including Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13—went on a recruiting frenzy at U.S. shelters housing the illegal immigrant minors and they were using Red Cross phones to communicate.
The MS-13 is a feared street gang of mostly Central American illegal immigrants that’s spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and other violent crimes. The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
OBAMA and the MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS SERVE UP HEROIN TO THE AMERICAN MIDDLE-CLASS.
The Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) claims that Latino street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for the majority of violent crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.
GRAPHIC IMAGES of America coming under Mex Occupation
The NARCOMEX drug cartels now operate in all major American cities and haul back to NARCOMEX between $40 top $60 BILLION from sales of HEROIN!
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/10/america-la-raza-mexicos-wide-open.html
BELOW LINK IS TO THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” MEXICAN FASCIST SEPARATIST MOVEMENT (WARNING! GRAPHIC!)
They claim all of North America for Mexico!
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2013/10/america-la-raza-mexicos-wide-open.html
BELOW LINK IS TO THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” MEXICAN FASCIST SEPARATIST MOVEMENT (WARNING! GRAPHIC!)
BELOW LINK IS TO THE LA RAZA “THE RACE” MEXICAN FASCIST SEPARATIST MOVEMENT (WARNING! GRAPHIC!)
They claim all of North America for Mexico!
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
"More than 728,000 illegal immigrants have been shielded from being deported and
granted work permits through President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty
program, according to the Migration Policy Institute."
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
"More than 728,000 illegal immigrants have been shielded from being deported and granted work permits through President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive amnesty program, according to the Migration Policy Institute."
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
How many illegals looting or committing crimes in your county U.S.A.?
IMMIGRANT SHARE OF ADULTS QUADRUPLED IN 232 COUNTIES
US Features
Fear Grips Communities as MS-13 Gang Proliferates
The murder of Evelyn Rodriguez's daughter by MS-13 gang members spotlights the growing threat schools and communities face nationwide
Transnational street gang MS-13 encourages members to illegally enter the United States from Central America, and recruits new members from schools and communities around the country.
NEW YORK—At first, Evelyn Rodriguez thought her teenage daughter had forgotten to charge her phone—it kept going straight to voicemail. Or maybe she had just lost track of time. But Kayla Cuevas and her best friend Nisa Mickens never blew through their 9 p.m. curfew, especially without checking in.
“She would call me if she was going to be two minutes late,” said Rodriguez. Sept. 13 was a typical Tuesday in Brentwood, New York, and the girls had gone for a walk while it was still daylight.
Earlier in the evening, Cuevas, who had turned 16 two months prior, and Mickens had been planning Mickens’s birthday party. Mickens was turning 16 the next day.
Rodriguez got home from work after 11 p.m. She drove past an accident site about a block away from her home. Yellow police tape cordoned the area off, and she remembers thinking, “Wow, I hope the person is OK.”
At home, Mickens’s parents were there waiting, but there was still no sign of the girls.
“My heart starts pumping,” Rodriguez said. “I start calling her friends.” No one had heard from either girl for hours, and both of their phones were going straight to voicemail.
Mickens’s parents went up the road to the accident site to tell the police that the two girls were missing. Soon, Rodriguez and her husband got a call telling them to get up there, too.
“So I’m there with Nisa’s mom, and we’re both keeping each other sane,” said Rodriguez. “And that’s when the Mickens family found out their news.”
Mickens’s body had been discovered with such significant trauma to the face and head that she was almost unrecognizable, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. She had been attacked with baseball bats and a machete.
“At the time, they couldn’t locate Kayla,” Rodriguez said. “And my response to that is, Kayla would never leave Nisa, as well as Nisa would never leave Kayla. So she has to be somewhere here.”
, mother of Kayla Cuevas
That’s when my world crumbled. She was going to become someone, for sure. And it was stolen from her.
Rodriguez got the dreaded phone call at 6:02 p.m. the next day. Her daughter had also been brutally murdered and the police had found her body nearby.
“And that’s when my world crumbled,” Rodriguez said on March 28. “She was going to become someone, for sure. And it was stolen from her.”
The attorney’s office said Cuevas had some run-ins with members and associates of the MS-13 gang in the months leading up to the murders. The dispute escalated about a week before the murders, when Cuevas and several friends were involved in an altercation with MS-13 members at Brentwood High School, the attorney’s office said.
After that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas, the statement reads. One of the gang’s mottos is “Mata, viola, controla” (“Kill, rape, control”).
On Sept. 13, several members of MS-13’s Sailors clique had agreed to drive around Brentwood in different vehicles and hunt for rival gang members to kill, prosecutors said.
One car, with four gang members inside, saw Cuevas and Mickens out walking. They called the leaders of the Sailors clique, who authorized them to kill the two girls. So they did. And then they drove away.
Fear Grips Communities as MS-13 Gang Proliferates
The murder of Evelyn Rodriguez's daughter by MS-13 gang members spotlights the growing threat schools and communities face nationwide
Transnational street gang MS-13 encourages members to illegally enter the United States from Central America, and recruits new members from schools and communities around the country.
NEW YORK—At first, Evelyn Rodriguez thought her teenage daughter had forgotten to charge her phone—it kept going straight to voicemail. Or maybe she had just lost track of time. But Kayla Cuevas and her best friend Nisa Mickens never blew through their 9 p.m. curfew, especially without checking in.
“She would call me if she was going to be two minutes late,” said Rodriguez. Sept. 13 was a typical Tuesday in Brentwood, New York, and the girls had gone for a walk while it was still daylight.
Earlier in the evening, Cuevas, who had turned 16 two months prior, and Mickens had been planning Mickens’s birthday party. Mickens was turning 16 the next day.
Rodriguez got home from work after 11 p.m. She drove past an accident site about a block away from her home. Yellow police tape cordoned the area off, and she remembers thinking, “Wow, I hope the person is OK.”
At home, Mickens’s parents were there waiting, but there was still no sign of the girls.
“My heart starts pumping,” Rodriguez said. “I start calling her friends.” No one had heard from either girl for hours, and both of their phones were going straight to voicemail.
Mickens’s parents went up the road to the accident site to tell the police that the two girls were missing. Soon, Rodriguez and her husband got a call telling them to get up there, too.
“So I’m there with Nisa’s mom, and we’re both keeping each other sane,” said Rodriguez. “And that’s when the Mickens family found out their news.”
Mickens’s body had been discovered with such significant trauma to the face and head that she was almost unrecognizable, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. She had been attacked with baseball bats and a machete.
“At the time, they couldn’t locate Kayla,” Rodriguez said. “And my response to that is, Kayla would never leave Nisa, as well as Nisa would never leave Kayla. So she has to be somewhere here.”
, mother of Kayla Cuevas
Rodriguez got the dreaded phone call at 6:02 p.m. the next day. Her daughter had also been brutally murdered and the police had found her body nearby.
“And that’s when my world crumbled,” Rodriguez said on March 28. “She was going to become someone, for sure. And it was stolen from her.”
The attorney’s office said Cuevas had some run-ins with members and associates of the MS-13 gang in the months leading up to the murders. The dispute escalated about a week before the murders, when Cuevas and several friends were involved in an altercation with MS-13 members at Brentwood High School, the attorney’s office said.
After that incident, the MS-13 members vowed to seek revenge against Cuevas, the statement reads. One of the gang’s mottos is “Mata, viola, controla” (“Kill, rape, control”).
On Sept. 13, several members of MS-13’s Sailors clique had agreed to drive around Brentwood in different vehicles and hunt for rival gang members to kill, prosecutors said.
One car, with four gang members inside, saw Cuevas and Mickens out walking. They called the leaders of the Sailors clique, who authorized them to kill the two girls. So they did. And then they drove away.
35 Murders
Thirteen MS-13 gang members were arrested on March 2 and charged in connection with the murders of Cuevas and Mickens, as well as five other murders, an attempted murder, and two assaults. Drugs, racketeering, arson, and firearms charges make up the remainder of the 41 charges the defendants face.
The defendants are aged between 19 and 29, with the exception of two minors who were not named.
Ten of the 13 suspects are illegal immigrants, two are U.S. citizens, and one is a green card holder, according to Robert Capers, then-U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“For far too long, on Long Island, MS-13 has been meting out its own version of the death penalty,” Capers said at a March 2 press conference. “The brutal murders … exemplify the depravity of a gang whose primary mission is murder.”
Since 2010, MS-13 members have been charged with more than 35 murders in the Eastern District of New York.
Thirteen MS-13 gang members were arrested on March 2 and charged in connection with the murders of Cuevas and Mickens, as well as five other murders, an attempted murder, and two assaults. Drugs, racketeering, arson, and firearms charges make up the remainder of the 41 charges the defendants face.
The defendants are aged between 19 and 29, with the exception of two minors who were not named.
Ten of the 13 suspects are illegal immigrants, two are U.S. citizens, and one is a green card holder, according to Robert Capers, then-U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
“For far too long, on Long Island, MS-13 has been meting out its own version of the death penalty,” Capers said at a March 2 press conference. “The brutal murders … exemplify the depravity of a gang whose primary mission is murder.”
Since 2010, MS-13 members have been charged with more than 35 murders in the Eastern District of New York.
National Problem
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is one of the largest criminal organizations in the country, with 6,000 to 10,000 members in at least 42 states, the FBI estimates. In addition, more than 60,000 members operate internationally, mostly in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
MS-13 continues to grow its membership and now targets younger recruits more than ever before, the FBI said. In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force.
MS-13 was initially formed by Salvadoran immigrants that came to the United States in order to escape the civil war in their home country, according to a study published in the Journal of Gang Research in 2009.
“The gang is well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives,” authors Jennifer Adams and Jesenia Pizarro wrote.
El Salvador’s supreme court designated MS-13 as a terrorist group in August 2015. The U.S. Treasury deemed MS-13 to be a transnational criminal organization in 2012, prohibiting U.S. citizens and businesses from engaging in any transactions with the gang.
MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is one of the largest criminal organizations in the country, with 6,000 to 10,000 members in at least 42 states, the FBI estimates. In addition, more than 60,000 members operate internationally, mostly in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
MS-13 continues to grow its membership and now targets younger recruits more than ever before, the FBI said. In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force.
MS-13 was initially formed by Salvadoran immigrants that came to the United States in order to escape the civil war in their home country, according to a study published in the Journal of Gang Research in 2009.
“The gang is well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives,” authors Jennifer Adams and Jesenia Pizarro wrote.
El Salvador’s supreme court designated MS-13 as a terrorist group in August 2015. The U.S. Treasury deemed MS-13 to be a transnational criminal organization in 2012, prohibiting U.S. citizens and businesses from engaging in any transactions with the gang.
Surge From Central America
Capers said MS-13 gets gang members to illegally enter the United States from Central America and recruits new members from schools and communities around the country.
During the 10-year period between 2005 and 2014, Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested 4,000 members of MS-13, according to numbers obtained by Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) through freedom of information requests. CIS is a pro-immigration enforcement think tank based in Washington.
Of the 4,000 arrested, 92 percent were in the United States illegally, according to data obtained by CIS. And while they comprised 13 percent of ICE gang arrests during that period, they accounted for 35 percent of the murders.
Joe Kolb, a research fellow at CIS, has been studying the connection between MS-13 growth and the surge of unaccompanied minors coming across the southwest border from Central American countries, predominantly El Salvador.
, research fellow, Center for Immigration Studies
The reality is … wherever the unaccompanied minors appear, MS-13 crime isn’t far behind.
“It was a perfect storm,” Kolb said. “We had a very lenient administration [under Obama]. We are a compassionate country—which I’m always proud to say—but we’re reaping the consequences of these policies now. I don’t want to sound like a total alarmist or a xenophobe, but the reality is … wherever the unaccompanied minors appear, MS-13 crime isn’t far behind.”
The number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the southwest border has jumped dramatically since 2012, when 24,120 minors were caught crossing the border. In fiscal year 2014, more than 68,000 minors were apprehended; the numbers dropped to almost 40,000 in 2015 and spiked again to almost 60,000 in 2016. The increases came from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The surge in unaccompanied children coincided with President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy introduced in 2012, Kolb said.
“The misinterpreted perception that permeated around the region was that this was the golden ticket to get into the United States—but nobody read the fine print,” he said. The fine print Kolb is referring to is that, among other criteria, DACA was only available to minors who had been in the country since 2007.
Capers said MS-13 gets gang members to illegally enter the United States from Central America and recruits new members from schools and communities around the country.
During the 10-year period between 2005 and 2014, Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officials arrested 4,000 members of MS-13, according to numbers obtained by Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) through freedom of information requests. CIS is a pro-immigration enforcement think tank based in Washington.
Of the 4,000 arrested, 92 percent were in the United States illegally, according to data obtained by CIS. And while they comprised 13 percent of ICE gang arrests during that period, they accounted for 35 percent of the murders.
Joe Kolb, a research fellow at CIS, has been studying the connection between MS-13 growth and the surge of unaccompanied minors coming across the southwest border from Central American countries, predominantly El Salvador.
, research fellow, Center for Immigration Studies
“It was a perfect storm,” Kolb said. “We had a very lenient administration [under Obama]. We are a compassionate country—which I’m always proud to say—but we’re reaping the consequences of these policies now. I don’t want to sound like a total alarmist or a xenophobe, but the reality is … wherever the unaccompanied minors appear, MS-13 crime isn’t far behind.”
The number of unaccompanied children apprehended at the southwest border has jumped dramatically since 2012, when 24,120 minors were caught crossing the border. In fiscal year 2014, more than 68,000 minors were apprehended; the numbers dropped to almost 40,000 in 2015 and spiked again to almost 60,000 in 2016. The increases came from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The surge in unaccompanied children coincided with President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy introduced in 2012, Kolb said.
“The misinterpreted perception that permeated around the region was that this was the golden ticket to get into the United States—but nobody read the fine print,” he said. The fine print Kolb is referring to is that, among other criteria, DACA was only available to minors who had been in the country since 2007.
Unaccompanied Minors
When an unaccompanied minor crosses the southwest border and is apprehended, he or she is placed in a facility under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
ORR is responsible for the placement of the child, home assessments, and follow-up. Kolb said the follow-up is a phone call around 30 days after placement. ORR did not return a request for comment.
By definition, an unaccompanied alien child is under 18 and has no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or no parent or legal guardian in the United States who is available to provide care and physical custody, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Related Coverage
Regardless, Homeland Security determined that about 60 percent of the children initially determined to be “unaccompanied alien children” are released by ORR to a parent already living illegally in the United States.
The counties absorbing the greatest number of these children are Harris County in Texas, Los Angeles County, Suffolk County in New York, and Miami-Dade County in Florida.
These four counties have absorbed around 30,000 unaccompanied minors into their communities and schools in the last several years.
All four counties are also struggling with the proliferation of MS-13 gang violence.
When an unaccompanied minor crosses the southwest border and is apprehended, he or she is placed in a facility under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
ORR is responsible for the placement of the child, home assessments, and follow-up. Kolb said the follow-up is a phone call around 30 days after placement. ORR did not return a request for comment.
By definition, an unaccompanied alien child is under 18 and has no parent or legal guardian in the United States, or no parent or legal guardian in the United States who is available to provide care and physical custody, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Related Coverage
Regardless, Homeland Security determined that about 60 percent of the children initially determined to be “unaccompanied alien children” are released by ORR to a parent already living illegally in the United States.
The counties absorbing the greatest number of these children are Harris County in Texas, Los Angeles County, Suffolk County in New York, and Miami-Dade County in Florida.
These four counties have absorbed around 30,000 unaccompanied minors into their communities and schools in the last several years.
All four counties are also struggling with the proliferation of MS-13 gang violence.
Schools Swamped
Schools are hotbeds for gang recruitment, and with so many young men entering from Central America, there is no shortage of potential recruits.
The Brentwood school district takes the lion’s share of the minors coming up from Central America to Suffolk County, New York. In the last 3 1/2 years, the county has taken in more than 4,500 children from the ORR—the third highest number in the country. Since October last year, the county has already received 841 more minors from the ORR.
, safety director, Brentwood school district
We have an average of between 10 to as many as 25 new students being registered a day.
The Brentwood school district serves 20,000 students and is reaching capacity, according to district safety director Carlos Sanchez.
“We have an average of between 10 to as many as 25 new students being registered a day,” he said. Class sizes are bursting at 30 to 35 pupils per class, he said. The schools are not given any information on the children as far as immigration status, criminal record, or special needs.
“They are vulnerable, because they’re the new kids on the block,” Sanchez said. Sanchez said MS-13 members will try to recruit the new students by acting like they’re family to them. The gang members also threaten to harm the new students’ families and loved ones back home, which forces them to comply with demands or make recurring extortion payments.
“As long as we’re placing these kids in these communities—whether they’re gang members or not—we have to also remember the culture that these kids are coming from,” Kolb said.
Kolb traveled to El Salvador in December to research the violent communities.
“These are the most violent non-war countries in the world. If you have a conflict with somebody, you kill each other,” he said. “We’re not prepared as a society to address this.”
Schools are hotbeds for gang recruitment, and with so many young men entering from Central America, there is no shortage of potential recruits.
The Brentwood school district takes the lion’s share of the minors coming up from Central America to Suffolk County, New York. In the last 3 1/2 years, the county has taken in more than 4,500 children from the ORR—the third highest number in the country. Since October last year, the county has already received 841 more minors from the ORR.
, safety director, Brentwood school district
The Brentwood school district serves 20,000 students and is reaching capacity, according to district safety director Carlos Sanchez.
“We have an average of between 10 to as many as 25 new students being registered a day,” he said. Class sizes are bursting at 30 to 35 pupils per class, he said. The schools are not given any information on the children as far as immigration status, criminal record, or special needs.
“They are vulnerable, because they’re the new kids on the block,” Sanchez said. Sanchez said MS-13 members will try to recruit the new students by acting like they’re family to them. The gang members also threaten to harm the new students’ families and loved ones back home, which forces them to comply with demands or make recurring extortion payments.
“As long as we’re placing these kids in these communities—whether they’re gang members or not—we have to also remember the culture that these kids are coming from,” Kolb said.
Kolb traveled to El Salvador in December to research the violent communities.
“These are the most violent non-war countries in the world. If you have a conflict with somebody, you kill each other,” he said. “We’re not prepared as a society to address this.”
Crime in School
In one recent case that received nationwide attention, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped during school hours by two other students in Rockville, Maryland, on March 16.
Jose Montano, 17, and Henry Sanchez, 18, allegedly forced her into the boy’s bathroom, where they took turns raping her, according to official documents. Both teens have been charged as adults with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense.
Sanchez, from Guatemala, is in the country illegally, according to authorities. The immigration status of Montano is unknown because he is a minor, but he is originally from El Salvador.
Prosecutors found photos on the suspects’ phones of them flashing MS-13 gang signs, but attorneys for both teens deny they are members of the gang, according to a WTOP report on March 30.
ICE arrested Sanchez’s father on March 24 after discovering he was in the country illegally. Adolfo Sanchez-Reyes, 43, a citizen of Guatemala, is currently detained and has been issued a notice to appear in an immigration court.
Rockville is in Montgomery County, Maryland, and, along with neighboring Prince George’s County, has a high number of unaccompanied minors being sent up from the border by ORR—a combined total of more than 7,500 in the last 3.5 years.
Both counties also have a growing issue with gang violence.
Related Coverage
Montgomery County police said last June that the county had seen an “unprecedented level” of gang-related violence over the previous eight months.
Most notable were nine gang-related homicides that occurred during that timeframe—including five murders involving MS-13. The other four homicides are attributed to smaller, but just as violent, local cliques, the police department said.
The police department attributed the uptick to “a substantial increase in violence in EI Salvador that is contributing to the mass migration from the country and other parts of the region to include the influx of unaccompanied minors to the United States.”
The department said over 67 percent of known gang-related violent crimes were committed by youths aged 21 and under in 2015. Youths were responsible for all but one of the gang-related homicides with closed cases and over 85 percent of street robberies.
In one recent case that received nationwide attention, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped during school hours by two other students in Rockville, Maryland, on March 16.
Jose Montano, 17, and Henry Sanchez, 18, allegedly forced her into the boy’s bathroom, where they took turns raping her, according to official documents. Both teens have been charged as adults with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense.
Sanchez, from Guatemala, is in the country illegally, according to authorities. The immigration status of Montano is unknown because he is a minor, but he is originally from El Salvador.
Prosecutors found photos on the suspects’ phones of them flashing MS-13 gang signs, but attorneys for both teens deny they are members of the gang, according to a WTOP report on March 30.
ICE arrested Sanchez’s father on March 24 after discovering he was in the country illegally. Adolfo Sanchez-Reyes, 43, a citizen of Guatemala, is currently detained and has been issued a notice to appear in an immigration court.
Rockville is in Montgomery County, Maryland, and, along with neighboring Prince George’s County, has a high number of unaccompanied minors being sent up from the border by ORR—a combined total of more than 7,500 in the last 3.5 years.
Both counties also have a growing issue with gang violence.
Related Coverage
Montgomery County police said last June that the county had seen an “unprecedented level” of gang-related violence over the previous eight months.
Most notable were nine gang-related homicides that occurred during that timeframe—including five murders involving MS-13. The other four homicides are attributed to smaller, but just as violent, local cliques, the police department said.
The police department attributed the uptick to “a substantial increase in violence in EI Salvador that is contributing to the mass migration from the country and other parts of the region to include the influx of unaccompanied minors to the United States.”
The department said over 67 percent of known gang-related violent crimes were committed by youths aged 21 and under in 2015. Youths were responsible for all but one of the gang-related homicides with closed cases and over 85 percent of street robberies.
Being Part of the Solution
For Evelyn Rodriguez, part of the grieving process is pushing to make sure Brentwood is safer. She still travels to a nearby town to take her 7-year-old daughter to the park. And she’s afraid to have a barbecue over the summer.
But she does see some progress.
“It’s not there yet,” she said. “But I do see some type of change.”
Police are more visible on the streets, and she is working to bring programs into the school. “To help the ones being targeted, bullied, or those at risk of being recruited,” Rodriguez said.
, mother of Kayla Cuevas
I’m working to help the ones being targeted, bullied, or those at risk of being recruited.
She is advocating to introduce the STRONG program in Brentwood. STRONG, or Struggling to Reunite Our New Generation, is a youth, family, and community organization on Long Island that focuses on preventing gang and gun violence.
“I want families, parents, to know that there’s resources out there.” Rodriguez said the school let her down by not intervening when problems boiled up between her daughter and the gang members.
Have you notice Democrat Party politicians always keep
their fat mouths closed tight on the topic of the Mexican drug cartels
operating across America???
THE DEATH OF AMERICA: MEXICO SERVES
UP THE HEROIN.
The death toll translates into an
average of one fatal overdose every 12 hours in the state of West Virginia.
For Evelyn Rodriguez, part of the grieving process is pushing to make sure Brentwood is safer. She still travels to a nearby town to take her 7-year-old daughter to the park. And she’s afraid to have a barbecue over the summer.
But she does see some progress.
“It’s not there yet,” she said. “But I do see some type of change.”
Police are more visible on the streets, and she is working to bring programs into the school. “To help the ones being targeted, bullied, or those at risk of being recruited,” Rodriguez said.
, mother of Kayla Cuevas
She is advocating to introduce the STRONG program in Brentwood. STRONG, or Struggling to Reunite Our New Generation, is a youth, family, and community organization on Long Island that focuses on preventing gang and gun violence.
“I want families, parents, to know that there’s resources out there.” Rodriguez said the school let her down by not intervening when problems boiled up between her daughter and the gang members.
Have you notice Democrat Party politicians always keep
their fat mouths closed tight on the topic of the Mexican drug cartels
operating across America???
THE DEATH OF AMERICA: MEXICO SERVES
UP THE HEROIN.
The death toll translates into an
average of one fatal overdose every 12 hours in the state of West Virginia.