The Mounting Threat of Domestic Terrorism: Al Qaeda and the Salvadoran Gang MS-13 (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

Starita considers the terrorist threat of the transnational criminal syndicate Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, its affiliation with Frente Farabundo Mart para la Liberaci n Nacional (FMLN) in El Salvador, and its possible link to al Qaeda. Starita's findings suggest that the goals, tactical capabilities, and organizational fecklessness of MS-13 make the Salvadoran gang capable of providing the assistance necessary for the realization of al Qaeda's goals and that this assistance could be provided by the cliques of MS-13 operating in the southwestern United States. Further, she finds indirect evidence of collaboration between MS-13 and al Qaeda andthat other transnational criminal syndicates could also offer al Qaeda the same tactical assistance MS-13 might provide.