Latin American gangs invade Italy

Michael Day has an interesting post on the influence of Latin American gangs in Italy with Milan struggles to cope as Latin American gang violence starts afflicting general public for The Independent. Apparently beginning in 2006 and 2007, Italians authorities began noticing the presence of MS-13 gang members as well as those from approximately 15 other groups.

For the most part, gang violence did not affect Italians so much given that the violence was believed to be primarily internecine. However, that now seems to be changing.

That problem is Latin-American gangs. In the past 10 years, there have been attacks, robberies and rapes linked to  MS-13 and rival gangs. But until now, the serious violence has been internecine. However, police and community leaders could see that it was only a matter of time before members of the public became the victims.

Evidence of MS-13, the gang formed in 1980s Los Angeles by El Salvadorans fleeing their war-torn country, appeared in Milan in 2006. Around that time, police and community workers became aware that young men declaring themselves to be part of the Latin Kings, the group formed in New York in the 1980s, were active in the city. Reports suggest that their arrival seems to have attracted more friends and family members from Hispanic communities – gangs included.

Milan’s flying squad, the squadra mobile, led by Alessandro Giuliano, has now mapped the complicated patchwork of  gangs spread across the city from Bovisa-Villapizzone in the north, where the ticket inspector was attacked, to Corso Lodi in the south-east. There are now around 15 or so groups.

The growth of and threat from Latin American gangs in Italy are now caught up in debates between liberals and conservatives over immigration and assimilation in Italy. It's interesting. A few years ago, we used to hear a lot more about the spread of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs throughout the United States. We had workshops here in Scranton about their limited, but expanding, gang presence.

There was some concern last year that gang members were trying to take advantage of last year's immigration crisis to secure legal status in the US. However, even there, the concern seemed to have been driven by the possibility that minors traveling to the US were being trafficked by gangs to work in prostitution and other criminal enterprises - less so gang members pursuing asylum.