MS-13 gang leaders in Central America warned their foot soldiers in the United States to avoid detection by authorities by ditching blue Nike Cortez sneakers, it was reported on Friday.
The gang members are known to wear the blue and white shoes which reportedly help law enforcement officials spot them, according to Newsweek.
‘Dressed like that, the enemy can see you, the police can arrest you, and boom, to El Salvador,’ Edwin Manica Flores, the 35-year-old El Salvador-based leader of MS-13 is alleged to have told his regional gang leaders in the US.
‘To live a great life there, one must be humble, you know, to avoid being detected.’
MS-13 gang leaders in Central America are warning their foot soldiers in the United States to avoid detection by authorities by ditching blue Nike Cortez sneakers (like those seen in the above stock photo)
Federal authorities in Massachusetts say that they have secretly recorded audio of Flores giving instructions to heads of MS-13 outfits in Boston, Houston, Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina.
Flores was speaking to these men who had gathered at a home in Richmond, Virginia.
He has been arrested and placed into custody in El Salvador.
The federal government indicted Flores on racketeering charges.
‘Many of the cliques up there [in the US] are very independent and stupidly insist that this is their side, others are somewhere else with their side, and in the meanwhile, the enemy are filling up the turfs around us,’ Flores, who also goes by ‘Sugar,’ told the assembled gang leaders.
‘So what we are asking is total cooperation… Let’s carry out the work of Mara Salvatrucha.’
‘Mara Salvatrucha’ is believed to be the Salvadoran term from which MS-13 is derived.
The Justice Department and officials from three Latin American countries announced criminal charges against more than 3,800 members of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs on Friday. An alleged MS-13 gang member is seen above being arrested in San Salvador in 2015
News of Flores’ indictment came on the same day that the Justice Department and officials from three Latin American countries announced criminal charges against more than 3,800 members of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs on Friday, including 70 people in six US states.
‘MS-13 coordinates across our borders to kill, rape and traffic drugs and underage girls; we’ve got to coordinate across our borders to stop them,’ Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, joined by his counterparts from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
THE NIKE CORTEZ
The Nike Cortez is the first track shoe ever created by the Oregon-based sneaker giant.
It was introduced in 1972, when its release was timed specifically to coincide with the Summer Olympics in Munich.
The marketing strategy worked, as the sneaker amassed interest thanks to its use by the US Olympic team.
The Nike Cortez was first designed by Nike co-founder and former Olympic track coach Bill Bowerman.
Bowerman felt that athletes needed a comfortable and durable running shoe designed for distance training and road running.
Source: Wikipedia