MS-13 Gangbusters

MS-13 bedeviled U.S. law enforcement for decades. Then, as the bodies piled up, an inside man helped the feds infi ltrate the world’s most brutal gang

- Michele R. Mcphee

THE FIRST BLOW CAME WITHOUT warning. Pelon felt a metal ring crush his right cheekbone. He crumbled to the concrete floor of the garage as a man began a slow count. Uno! A kick to the head. Dos! A punch to the nose. Tres! A knee to the groin. Pelon lost track as a half-dozen men pounded away. It was a cool night in November 2013, and Pelon thought it might be his last.

When the count reached 13, it was over. The group pulled back and cheered, “Welcome to the Mara!”

The assault was an initiation. After months of running with his assailants in and around Boston, Pelon was now an official member of what many consider to be the most dangerous gang in America: La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13. Like many new recruits, he was a Salvadoran immigrant who had fled his violent homeland for a better life in the United States.

But he was hardly a natural fit for the gang. At 36, he was more than twice the age of the average MS-13 homeboys, teenagers typically groomed—or intimidated—to join at local high schools. He also lacked the signature tattoos and unofficial MS-13 uniform: blue T-shirt, L.A. Dodgers baseball cap and Nike Cortez sneakers. He preferred collared golf shirts and linen shorts. Getting “jumped in” was never part of his plan. He was a drug dealer who had been paying the gang for protection as he moved cocaine and guns up and down the East Coast. For cover, Pelon drove a gypsy cab around Chelsea, Massachusetts, a city of 35,000 across the Mystic River from Boston. He quickly became the preferred driver of gang leaders. As MS-13 systematically killed its rivals in the 18th Street gang, he had driven members to bury bloody machetes—their weapon of choice—and reveled in their war stories. Now that he was a full-fledged homeboy, they expected more of the man they called “the doggie with the car.”