On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we look at the history, evolution, crimes, and culture of what some experts consider the most dangerous gang in the world, MS13. Mara Salvatrucha, known simply as MS13 is a transnational street gang that started in Los Angeles in the 1970s. It was the result of thousands of refugees fleeing the civil war in El Salvador. They moved into Latino neighborhoods in LA, and eventually, street gangs started to form out of this population.

At first, they were called Stoners, and they listened to the punk rock and heavy metal of the 1970s, something that lead to a healthy respect of both rebellion and the devil as the gang evolved. Now that it is called MS13, they still have an affinity for the devil, using devil horns as their main hand symbol, and often ritualistically killing victims and leaving organs and body parts in pentagrams or removing the heart.

As with all gangs, they of course have involvement in weapons trade and drug smuggling, but their main money maker tends to be human trafficking and ’prostitution. Rings of under-aged, trafficked girls are found from Maine to California, and they all point back to MS13. Their initiation is brutal, and it typically is said to involve a murder and a beating.

Once they mastered the streets of LA, El Salvador opened back up, and America started to deport the gang members in droves. This lead to a massive surge of international members of the gangs starting their own cliques in Honduras, El Salvador, and all around the world. Their motto is now: Kill, Rape, Control.

Now, they are numbered in the hundreds of thousands, and their devil horn ways are spread. They have so much influence in some parts of the world that they even own their own prison, which no guards dare enter (they have to be policed from the outside by the actual army!). So, do members actually believe in the devil? What is it like being a female member of this gang? Why did Trump target them? What do the tattoos mean? What change has happened recently in their tattoo culture? Who is their most bitter rival and why? Listen, laugh, learn.

Some awesome Face Ink: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2387648/tattooed-members-el-salvador-ms-13-gang-prison-adam-hinton/