MS-13 Assassins walks among us.

Assassin walks free in SurreyKiller for notorious MS-13 should be jailed pending deportation, court toldKim Bolan, Vancouver SunPublished: Tuesday, April 08, 2008

METRO VANCOUVER - An admitted killer from El Salvador linked to the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang is living with his sister in Surrey, despite being ordered deported because of involvement in a criminal organization.

After arriving at the Douglas border crossing last September, Jose Franciso Cardoza Quinteros told Canadian officials that he had killed at least four people, thrown grenades into crowds of rivals and been present at the beheading of a woman by a member of his gang, also known as MS-13.

Quinteros is awaiting a pre-removal risk assessment, which could take months, before it is determined if and when he will be sent back to his Central American home.

The federal government wants him locked up as a danger to the public and argued before the Federal Court of Canada on Tuesday that Immigration and Refugee Board member Otto Nupponen erred when he released Quinteros on a $1,000 bond last September.

Judge Dolores Hansen reserved her decision after a special sitting in downtown Vancouver.Quinteros has already had three secret IRB hearings since arriving in B.C. in a rental vehicle driven by his sister, Mery Manzano, with her two daughters inside.

The Surrey woman first claimed Quinteros was a stranger who she met at a gas station where he asked her to drive him to the border.But Manzano later came clean with Canadian border agents and confirmed Quinteros was in fact her brother who wanted to make a refugee claim.Quinteros made startling admissions to officials with the Canada Border Services Agency during lengthy interviews on Sept. 4 and 5 during which he said he was with MS-13 from 1999 to 2004. He agreed to have his gang tattoos photographed and to show off the hand signals of the brutal crime group.He was then held in custody until a detention hearing on Sept. 13, when Nupponen said he was satisfied that Quinteros could be released into the community safely pending the outcome of his refugee claim."I can't draw the conclusion from the evidence which has been presented that even any alleged membership by you with the Mara Salvatrucha in the past translates into a current or a future danger in Canada which terms and conditions cannot address," Nupponen said in reasons that were entered Tuesday in Federal Court.But Quinteros was ruled inadmissible to Canada in a ruling Feb. 22, meaning that he is now waiting for government assessment of risks he would face if sent back to El Salvador.

His lawyer Shepherd Moss argued that Quinteros poses no risk, has met all conditions since last fall and presents only a "minimal" risk to the public.He said his client later recanted the sensational statement he gave border officials, even though the IRB ruling said the Salvadoran was in fact linked to the violent gang.Immigration department lawyer Caroline Christiaens said Tuesday the judge should overturn Nupponen's order releasing Quinteros and send the case back to another IRB member for a new detention review.She went through the litany of offences admitted by Quinteros to Canadian officials, including throwing 20 grenades at rival gangs."We would get together to make plans of what we were going to do ... like for example, go at night to the neighbourhood of the enemies to throw grenades," Quinteros said. "We would say: 'We are the Mara Salvatrucha' and we just throw grenades in between them."Quinteros has been in jail in the U.S., Mexico and El Salvador. He admitted being arrested 50 or 60 times.

He told Canadian officials that he had risen to the rank of "treasurer." But he said he was forced to quit MS-13 after some members believed he had betrayed them.He pointed to scars all over his body: "This one they broke a bottle of beer, this was with a knife." Another wound came from a machete wielded by a member of his own gang.When the border agent asked if he had arranged any murder, Quintero replied:"I never made any plans, but I was present once when they cut off the head of a woman and they showed the head in the parking lot of the National Police."He was then asked if he had "ever disfigured someone? Have you ever cut someone's limb off?""I think yes, when I throw the grenade," Quinteros said.

He said he had probably killed two people in shootings and another "two or three people" in grenade attacks.His last murder came during "a meeting that we planned in a neighbourhood named Milagro. Our rivals were there - the 18s - and we attacked them."I remember hitting someone with bullets in his chest and I got two wounds, gun wounds, in my leg."

Central American prosecutors are in B.C. this week to meet with police and government officials, including the CBSA and the IRB, to exchange intelligence about the gang problem and connections between the two regions and organized crime groups.More and more cases with connections to Mara Salvatrucha and MS-18 are showing up at the IRB and before Canadian courts.

Just last month, the Federal Court granted the right to an appeal to Salvadoran refugee claimant Wilber Orlando Cartagena, who said he could be killed by MS-18 if he was forced to return to El Salvador.

Another Salvadoran who admits to being a member of Mara Salvatrucha - Roberto Ernesto Contreras Mendoza - remains in Vancouver while a judicial review of his status continues.Like Mendoza, Quinteros' gang tattoos were well-documented before the court Tuesday, including an "M" and an "S" and a symbol that means "sex, drugs and violence.""And it also means my crazy life, mi vida loco," Quinteros said.

He described how the gangs control the drug trade throughout Central America, Mexico and into the U.S., as well as committing violent robberies and extortions within their own communities for money and to instill fear.They would organize large street fights with enemies, Quinteros said."Every time we got involved in these fights, it was about 500 members of us. ... I mean the people that have been killed by gang member of my group, I cannot say that I killed them," he said."In the battles, many die. In each battle, there were 15 or 20 dead, I was present in the battle - in a fight - when I was in jail where 300 were dead."

kbolan@png.canwest.com