The Fight Against MS-13

Dan Rather On Difficult Fight Against Dangerous Gang

(CBS) 
Initial attempts to fight the gang with deportation contributed to its spread throughout Mexico and Central America, where there are now an estimated 50,000 members. In Honduras, in retaliation for the government’s crackdown on the gang, MS-13 allegedly opened fire on a bus and killed 28 people last December.

And deportations are still a large part of U.S. strategy. Under a nine-month-old program called “Operation Community Shield,” more than 1,600 gang members, including almost 800 members of MS-13, have been arrested and hundreds have been deported.

Ismael Cisneros doesn’t think deportation is an effective tool. “They deported me and I came back and everyone they deport is going to come back.”

Cisneros, who now says he has left the gang, was deported to Mexico after he had stabbed someone in Virginia in 1999. That was four years before he killed Brenda.

Swecker admits the return of the deportees to the United States is frustrating. “It’s very frustrating. Deportation is a very good strategy. It’s a low intensity effort that churns up activity churns up activity but we think the best way to go at them is to jail ‘em and get them off the streets.”

The Department of Homeland Security says deportation is also a useful tool when there isn’t enough evidence to prosecute a criminal case. Meanwhile, in September, the FBI led simultaneous raids of MS-13 in five countries that netted 650 suspects in 24 hours. At that time, Swecker was optimistic about how long it would take to bring down the gang, setting a goal of about a year and a half.

But he admits that may not be a realistic timeframe.

What does Swecker think is a reasonable time frame for breaking MS-13?

“I think a more reasonable time frame is probably three to five years. We’ll never wipe them out completely, I don’t think. But I think we – our goal is to get them to a stage where they’re not a criminal force,” he says.

Meanwhile, the man who was acquitted for Brenda’s murder after testifying in his own defense is facing deportation himself. His lawyers, Frank Salvato and Alex Levay, are fighting to keep him in the country.

“He testified and identified two fellow gang members as participants in the murder that took place. He endangered himself and his family by doing so,” says Levay.

“We have a real fear that if he is deported, that he will have escaped one death sentence in the United States but face another death sentence in El Salvador,” adds Salvato.

“I’m nervous. I’m still nervous about that,” he told 60 Minutes. “They’ll kill me. My family is in danger right now because I take the stand.”

Because, as Brenda told police, MS-13 never forgets.

“Sooner or later, everything gets handled. If it takes you 20 years, oh it’ll take you 20 years, but in that 20 years hell’s going to break loose. Sooner or later, everything always gets handled. That’s our motto,” she told investigators.

What about Brenda’s close friend who agreed to testify? What does she think her chances are to stay alive?

“None. I mean, I can keep myself safe and away from them. But I mean, if they were to find me, it's not like they would, you know, give me any mercy,” she said.

Does she expect to be alive in two years?

“Well, I hope so,” she said.

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During the course of reporting this story, another federal witness in this case was drawn back into the gang and murdered at an MS-13 meeting in El Salvador. Police say she was killed by a rival gang.