Member of notorious MS-13 clique slated to return to El Salvador
Kim Bolan, Vancouver SunPublished: Monday, February 02, 2009
A member of the brutal Mara Salvatrucha gang convicted in a Seattle shooting was ordered out of Canada for the third time Friday at a Vancouver immigration hearing.
- Jose (Shadow) Granados admitted he had committed crimes while active in an MS-13 clique in Seattle, but said he had little choice when he arrived in the U.S. as a 16-year-old from El Salvador.
Testifying via a video link from jail, Granados, 23, said he came to Canada because he feels safe here and wanted to start fresh.
But immigration minister representative Janis Lof argued that Granados was inadmissible as an admitted member of a criminal organization who had committed violent crimes for the notorious gang.
She said in addition to admitting to firing at a rival, Granados twice hid guns used in other shootings, including one in which his brother Elmer (Popeye) Granados is accused.
Elmer remains in a B.C. jail pending a U.S. extradition hearing later this month.
Lof described how former MS gang members, who had cooperated with Seattle police, said Jose Granados attempted to carry out a "green light" on them.
She said a "green light is a go-ahead to kill a person who has been marked to be taken out."
"Green lights are sometimes put on rats or traitors to the gang," Lof told Immigration and Refugee Board member Otto Nupponen.
One of the former gangsters told police that Granados had put a knife to his stomach and that he only managed to escape by racing away from the scene as Granados tried to grab him through the car window.
Another time, the two ex-MS members saw Granados following their car when they were with their small children.
"Eventually the victims were able to evade Mr. Granados when he got stuck behind a bus at an intersection," Lof said.
She said that when Granados entered Canada illegally the first time, he came to the attention of the Vancouver police department in 2005 after a girl at Britannia secondary reported a sex assault.
"The suspect was reported to be an MS-13 member who the victim only knew by his street name Shadow," Lof said.
The girl said the man was featured on a website and the police found the link.
They also contacted the Seattle police who knew "Shadow" as Granados.
Granados was arrested, though never charged in the sex attack. He admitted to the Canada Border Services Agency that he had been "MS in Seattle for about a year and a half," Lof said.
"He said he had left Seattle because people wanted to kill him," she said, quoting from the CBSA report.
Granados was extradited to the U.S. to plead guilty to the shooting and released back into Canadian custody.
- He was deported to El Salvador in 2007, but showed up here again a few months later.
- Last May, he was sent packing a second time after being ruled inadmissible for criminality.
- But he returned to Vancouver last fall, calling the CBSA to say he was back without disclosing his location.
- He was arrested in December and has been in custody ever since.
- Granados was convicted criminally of returning to Canada illegally and will complete a sentence on that charge today.
- He will then be returned to immigration custody to await deportation.
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