Border Patrol agents cracking down on MS-13 gang members

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents are cracking down on MS-13 gangs that cross through unauthorized areas along the Yuma sector.

In the fiscal year 2019, Agent Jose Garibay with Border Patrol confirms that agents apprehended five members of the MS-13 gangs compared to the fiscal year 2018, where agents apprehended two members.

Agent Garibay said that 99 percent of the time those who have been involved in criminal street activity-travel alone.

“Trying to evade our patrols, we will see them cross new San Luis Arizona trying to disappear into housing, we will catch them trying to hide in the brush along the Colorado River and evade the detections of our cameras,” said Agent Garibay.

Agents said that often times members who are a part of gang organizations or single adults look at San Luis, Ariz., as a transfer point.

That Yuma is not a final destination for several looking to cross through San Luis.

“They often use us as a crossing point in order to escape into the interior, we see them going to bigger cities like Oakland, Los Angeles, or places in the east coast,” said Agent Garibay.