The definitive, award-winning account of MS-13, the most notorious street gang in America The MS-13 was born from war. In the 1980s, Alex and his brother fled El Salvador for the U.S. and formed the Mara Salvatrucha Stoners. Initially bound by a love of heavy metal music, the group soon took on a harder edge, selling drugs, stealing cars and killing rivals. Gang members like Alex were incarcerated and deported. But in the prison system, the group only grew stronger. Today, MS-13 is one of the most infamous street gangs on earth--and also largely misunderstood. Longtime organized crime investigator Steven Dudley brings readers inside the nefarious group to tell a broader story of flawed US and Central American policies and the exploitative, unequal systems that shape them. *WINNER OF THE LUKAS PRIZE* *An NPR Best Book of the Year* "A remarkable feat of reporting."--Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruise