Gang member among illegals nabbed in EC
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

FBI photo Gang Identifier This FBI file photo shows a man's tattoo that identifies him as a member of MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a fast-growing, violent street gang started in Los Angeles in the late 1980s. El Campo police arrested a MS-13 gang member Friday after stopping a minivan filled with illegal aliens.

El Campo police took nine illegal aliens - including a member of a notorious crime gang - into custody after a police chase Friday that started here and ended up in Pierce.

According to El Campo Police Department reports, ECPD Officer Mark Biskup was patrolling eastbound U.S. 59 around 5 p.m. Jan. 25 when he saw a white Chrysler Town & Country minivan following too closely behind a truck.

Biskup hit his emergency lights, and the minivan moved to the shoulder, but would not stop. He chased the Chrysler up the highway to just west of the Department of Public Safety's Pierce office. The minivan finally stopped and about 10 men ran off.

An ECPD sergeant, three ECPD officers, a Wharton County Sheriff's deputy and Precinct 4 Constable Sean Ferguson joined Biskup and they began rounding up the minivan's occupants. By around 6 p.m., they'd gathered up nine men ranging in age from 18 to 43 in a field south of where the van stopped. There were five men from Mexico, two from Guatemala, and one each from Honduras and El Salvador.

Among them was Nelson Manzanarez, 23, of El Salvador, who reportedly is a confirmed member of MS-13, one of the most violently dangerous gangs in the United States, and one of the most organized, with factions located throughout the U.S., Central America, Canada and even Europe. MS-13's international criminal activities include drug smuggling, gun running, human smuggling, hired assassinations, theft, drug sales and arson.

MS-13 members sport numerous tattoos on their bodies and faces denoting their membership in the gang.

"Manzanarez was being transported with the other illegal aliens," ECPD Chief Jim Elliott said. "He was fully clothed, concealing his tattoos. He did not want the others to know he was a gang member.

"He said he goes back and forth across the border. He had previous arrests in Dallas, but his current destination is unknown. His arrest reinforces the belief that our southern border is open and we are vulnerable."

Biskup called the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, which sent two officers to pick up all of the men shortly after 9 p.m. the same day.

Law enforcers along U.S. 59 constantly deal with large groups of illegal immigrants caught in vehicles on that roadway, who often flee into woods and fields when stopped.