MS-13 gang uses rural Calif. town as base of operations

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The MS-13 gang took advantage of a rural California farming town's limited number of law-enforcement officers, using it as a base of operations to "conduct their crimes, to hide out from crimes that they committed in other jurisdictions and to prepare to commit crimes in states as far away as New York," according to Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp. A recent McClatchy Newspapers investigation found that rural areas all over California face a growing shortage of law-enforcement officers. That includes Mendota, the town of 11,000 just west of Fresno where MS-13 set up shop.

More than two dozen gang members were arrested and charged Friday after an investigation dubbed Blue Inferno "uncovered evidence tying the gang to at least 30 murders and assaults in Mendota, Los Angles, Las Vegas, New York City and Houston. The evidence has prompted additional prosecutions in other cities," according to McGregor Scott, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento.

"President Donald Trump has singled out the MS-13 gang as a threat to the U.S. and blames weak border enforcement for the group’s crimes. But many gang members were born in the U.S.," Sudhin Thanawala reports for The Associated Press. The gang was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by El Salvadorean refugees. Most of Mendota's population is Hispanic and includes many El Salvadorean immigrants.