MS-13, the target of a major federal indictment in Maryland last summer, isn't the state's biggest gang problem. The Bloods are.
That is the conclusion reached by the state's leading gang investigators, who presented their latest findings yesterday at a summit in Columbia of 300 law enforcement officers, political leaders and educators.
MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, originated in Los Angeles among refugees from El Salvador and received national attention in recent years for its rapid spread and violence.
Federal prosecutors charged 19 alleged MS-13 members from Southern Maryland in August.
Experts said yesterday that it is still the Bloods, who crop up on street corners in Baltimore, in schools in Harford County and in prisons throughout the state, who have the greatest reach.
"They're the outside influence here," said Maj. David Engel, the chief of the Baltimore Police Department's criminal intelligence unit.
The daylong conference, funded by a $2 million federal grant to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office, sought to promote local and federal efforts to prevent young people from joining gangs, to encourage current members to quit, and to lock up their leaders.
Gang violence in the region has grown, but officials acknowledge that some police chiefs and political figures were, until recently, loath to say there was a crisis ahead.
"We know that we have a gang problem in every county of Maryland," Democratic Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said.
Her comments were echoed by Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Baltimore Democrat, U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who called for greater cooperation.
"The first goal is no turf battles," the governor told participants, adding that the effort to combat gangs should transcend partisan differences and bureaucratic wrangling.
Ehrlich announced $300,000 in state funding for new anti-gang efforts in Maryland. The federal government, through Project Safe Neighborhoods, will kick in $500,000 for Baltimore and for Montgomery, Prince George's, Wicomico and Baltimore counties, Rosenstein said.
Detective Patrick Word, a Gaithersburg police officer and vice chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Gang Investigators Network, said authorities have identified at least 100 gangs in the state.
The size of gangs ranges from three members to those that claim more than 100 members, Word said.
