How The MS-13 Gang Actually Works | How Crime Works | Insider

Alex Sanchez is a former high-ranking member of MS-13. He became involved in the gang in the 1980s in Los Angeles and participated in its expansion. Sanchez was deported to El Salvador in 1994 along with 4,000 other Salvadorans. There, he began to recruit young members into the gang. He was involved in robberies, street fights, and carjackings, and he survived being shot four times. Sanchez decided to leave MS-13 in the mid-1990s. He is now the executive director of Homies Unidos and is a violence-prevention worker and expert on gang culture. He speaks with Business Insider about the Los Angeles Police Department, tattooing, rules and codes, media perception, and the political language used to depict the gang, such as Donald Trump's comments in 2018. Sanchez's story is profiled in the books "MS-13: The Making of America's Most Notorious Gang" and "Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas." Find out more: www.homiesunidos.org https://www.facebook.com/homiesunidosla MORE HOW CRIME WORKS VIDEOS: How The Crips Gang Actually Works | How Crime Works | Insider https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VylZeRkWzbY How Cocaine Trafficking Actually Works | Posh Pete’s Full Story | How Crime Works Uncut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwRl-2_pHSA How The Latin Kings Gang Actually Works | How Crime Works | Insider https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBVoamH5qVM ------------------------------------------------------ 00:00 - Intro 00:23 - The Initiation 01:48 - The Weapons 03:19 - The Tattoos 04:19 - The Rivals 05:58 - The Rules 07:25 - The Culture 08:46 - Return to El Salvador 10:20 - Death Threats 12:55 - The Hierarchy 13:54 - Megajails 16:17 - The Expansion 17:33 - LAPD 20:18 - The Future of MS-13 21:54 - The Aftermath 24:19 - Credits Insider's mission is to inform and inspire. Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day: https://www.businessinsider.com/ Insider on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insider Insider on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insider Insider on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thisisinsider Insider on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/Insider/2708030621 Insider on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insider How The MS-13 Gang Actually Works | How Crime Works | Insider