The gang is not invading the country. They’re not posing as fake families. They’re not growing. To stop them, the government needs to understand them. Congressional Research Service said that it could be misleading to call MS-13 a transnational criminal organization at all, because it has no central leader or global ambitions. The gang is made up of sometimes competing cliques, often led by teenagers most interested in wielding power over other young people in their immediate circles.