High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Mara Salvatrucha (commonly abbreviated as MS, Mara, and MS-13) is a transnational criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles and has spread to other parts of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. The majority of the gang is ethnically composed of Central Americans and active in urban and suburban areas. In the U.S., the MS-13 specially has a heavy presence in the Los Angeles and San Francisco metropolitan areas of California, Charlotte, North Carolina, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas of Fairfax County, Virginia and Prince George`s County, Maryland, and Long Island, New York.