War Against MS-13 Rages On, Police Chief Discusses Concerns

NORTH FORK, NY — As the deadly MS-13 street gang continues to grow in strength on Long Island and across the country, residents brought their concerns to Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley recently.

Flatley, along with Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell, attended a meeting of the East Marion Community Association Saturday.

At the meeting, residents brought their concerns on a number of issues to the chief, including one about how Southold's local police department is grappling with the growing MS-13 threat.

"We're lucky in that there's a lot of difference between western Suffolk and Nassau County," he said.

That said, Flatley said the police department shares an "active database" of gang-related crimes with other local law enforcement officials.

He referenced a gang-related shooting that took place in 2014 on South Harbor Road in Southold; that shooting was tied to the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs, he said.

Police made five arrests in a short time related to that case; the department had "good success" because of an alert police force, Flatley said.

But Southold Police need to remain vigilant, he said: "Our biggest concern is when Suffolk County Police put the push on areas such as Brentwood and Wyandanch, afterward, the gangs scatter. And this is one place they scatter to."

Gang members, he said, are a "transient population" and those with girlfriends or friends on the North Fork could easily, and have, moved into the area after the escalating war on gang activity further west compels them to move east.

"It is a concern in our school districts, too, because so much of the recruitment goes on there," Flatley said.

Southold Town has "tried to keep a handle" on the burgeoning MS-13 concern with a number of educational townwide meetings and seminars, Flatley reminded.

At one meeting, the police department brought together employees of all three school districts, approximately 250 people, at Southold High School for a presentation on gangs and what to look for to identify gang members, including tattoos and colors, he said.

In addition, Southold Town Police officers have attended meetings at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility to discuss gang concerns, Flatley said.

A multi-pronged approach to battling the MS-13 gang

Patch has taken an in-depth look at the deadly gang in recent months.

Vicious murders in Suffolk have shocked a nation, with President Donald Trump vowing to crack down on the violence and blaming former President Barack Obama in a tweet for failed policies that have allowed gang members to cross the border at alarming rates.

In recent weeks, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke on Long Island about federal efforts to take down and "demolish" MS-13. "We are targeting you."

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone also laid out a plan in April to tackle and weaken the emerging MS-13 threat and eradicate the criminal organization from the county, following the brutal murders of the four teenagers in Central Islip on Long Island.

The proposals outlined would include working together with the federal government to establish a notification process to inform a local government and school district when an unaccompanied minor is placed in a community, a release said.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo also vowed to help tackle the gang issue with a new task force.

MS-13, which was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by immigrants fleeing El Salvador's civil war, is known for its brutal violence, including machete attacks and home invasions.

The four young men found dead on the night of April 12 at Central Islip Recreation Village Park suffered trauma from a sharp-edged instrument. They were only 16, 18, 18 and 20 years-old; their lives just beginning.

One of the victims, Jorge Tigre, a Bellport High School honor student, was not a gang member and allegedly became a target after he refused to associate with gang members following the murder of two girls in Brentwood, Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, who were murdered in September by MS-13 gang members with machetes.

Thirteen MS-13 members have been charged with seven murders, including those of Mickens and Cuevas, that occurred in Brentwood and Central Islip over the past several years.

Tigre's sister Monica Tigre, in an interview with Patch, declined to discuss what may have led to her brother's murder, but said she and her family are left with only memories.

"The only thing I can said he was a wonderful person. He was always smiling and helping my family and me. I will remember him — his smile and his kindness," Tigre said.

One former MS-13-member shared his gripping story with Patch in a recent interview.

In that same report, Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, a non-profit volunteer safety patrol organization whose members are known for their trademark red berets, spoke to Patch about the path MS-13 has taken across the United States to Long Island.

From the federal government to local law enforcement, officials appalled by the staggering violence have vowed a crackdown.

“The Suffolk County Police Department is doing everything in our power to solve these murders. It’s all hands on deck,” Suffolk Police Commissioner Tim Sini said. “We are working closely with the FBI to solve these homicides.”

Unaccompanied minors and gang activity on Long Island

According to Suffolk County Sheriff's Office Chief of Staff Michael Sharkey, with amped up enforcement efforts, gang members are now trying to become less identifiable.

"A lot of gangs are trying to blend in," Sharkey said. "They used to have noticeable tattoos, but that's now seen as counterproductive to their carrying on their gang business."

In an interview with Patch, Sgt. Steve Lundquist, an investigator for the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office gang intelligence unit, said specifics of the Central Islip murder investigation could not be discussed due to the ongoing case.

But he said the murders "have put a spotlight" on gang activity on Long Island. "And rightfully so. Once it's young kids, getting killed, young girls getting killed, it really gets people’s attention."

Discussing MS-13's presence in Brentwood and Central Islip, Lundquist said the demographics of the area have changed, with communities "inundated" with individuals of Central American descent. "Not to say they're bad people, but when a new group does come in, sometimes they are the minority in that area, and gangs form for protection. After awhile, when the area changes, their population increases and they become the dominant group in that area."

MS-13, he agreed, became a presence on Long Island in the late 90s, "but not with the numbers we have now."

Today, Lundquist said, families have grown and brought new family members to the area. "A lot of people from El Salvador have heard about Brentwood, so they flock there," he said.
Unaccompanied minors in the area have been linked to gang activity, Lundquist said.

"Because they are unaccompanied, they are looking for a place to live, looking for food, looking for people that will take care of them," he said. "The gang is very attractive, to help them out, give them a place to live, feed them. That's one of the ways to recruit them, to become members of a gang — they have no place else to turn sometimes."

Many unaccompanied minors, he said, come from areas of El Salvador where MS-13 "runs a lot of the country." Some are already MS-13 members when they arrive in the United States, or have grown up with MS-13 family members. "They don't know anything different," he said.

Recruitment, Lundquist said, is happening in schools, streets, anyplace where people openly congregate, with most kids initiated between 12 and 15-years-old. "If they're going to recruit them, they get them when they're young and impressionable and don't know better," he said.

Some kids who resist recruitment could be killed, Lundquist said, because MS-13 gangs are afraid those potential recruits will be scooped up by the rival 18th Street gang.

MS-13 violence, he agreed, is marked by deadly machete use and for violent robberies and home invasions, with less of an emphasis on drug dealing, which is seen more with Latin Kings, Bloods and Crips.

Rep. Peter King, R-Seaford, agreed that a federal program that allows unaccompanied minors to cross the border is a critical issue; he said he's had extensive conversations with Sini — and of the MS-13 arrests made, more than 50 to 70 percent were unaccompanied minors, King said. There are more than 4,000 unaccompanied minors in Suffolk County, King told Patch.

Unaccompanied minors who come to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, are placed with families "that have been threatened by MS-13 or paid by MS-13," King said. It's believed, King said, "that MS-13 is gaming or using the system" to get young people placed with Suffolk County families and subsequently, bolster MS-13 ranks.

King said there is definite pressure for kids to join gangs, with the threat of violence for those who won't join.
"Police have told me that kids who don't join get beat up pretty badly, there's definite pressure — a definite risk of being killed," he said.

King said he's worked with Sessions, HHS, Sini, and Homeland Security, and said a multi-pronged approach is essential to tackle a lethal problem that's "decimating communities."

Patch photo by Lisa Finn.