A quick look at the taggings revealed them to be the work of MS-13, a gang linked to dozens of violent attacks in the Washington region in recent years.

"These guys hold meetings out in the middle of the woods, in state parks, away from law enforcement," Detective John Burroughs said during a gang-awareness forum for county residents this year.

The graffiti at the western Charles park -- along with similar markings and evidence of gatherings near the mouth of Popes Creek -- served as the backdrop to the county's largest operation to date against MS-13 suspects. On June 22, Charles authorities, joined by St. Mary's, state and federal officers, converged by land and water on a gathering at Rock Point beach near the southern tip of the county, where they arrested eight men on trespassing charges. Four of the men, the officers suspect, were members of MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a gang composed primarily of immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala.

But for officers and residents, the operation raised this question: When members of MS-13, or any other gang, get together, are they planning crimes or merely socializing?

The Rock Point gathering seemed to be in the latter category, Burroughs said.
Those in the group arrested told officers they had come from Prince George's County and Northern Virginia because they heard the fishing was good. They had rods, tackle, live bait, beer and changes of clothes, indicating they were prepared to spend the night on the beach. None of the eight ran, and officers described them as ultimately cooperative. Officers said the men lived in Prince George's County or Alexandria.

The Charles Sheriff's Office said the operation served two purposes: to identify whether possible MS-13 members were gathering in the county, and to warn them that as a gang they were not welcome. Some 20 officers took part, arriving by car and aboard boats from the Sheriff's Office, the state Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Coast Guard.

At the community forum on gangs several months ago, Burroughs assessed the presence of MS-13 in Charles County. He said they were in no way organized as they are in other jurisdictions around the region. But MS-13 members live in the community, he said, and play a part in its economy.

They build houses, wash cars, work in restaurants, Burroughs said. At the forum he told of being served at a Mexican restaurant in the county by a waiter who had an M and an S on his gold front teeth. Encountering gang members working at legitimate jobs is consistent with the findings of a study of area MS-13 members conducted by the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization.

Unlike MS-13 gang members in California, the group says, those in the Washington area are more likely to hold jobs, and less likely to be involved in organized narcotics sales.

"I'm not saying any of this to say police shouldn't be concerned, or residents shouldn't be concerned," said Geoff Thale, one of the researchers. "But just because they're hanging out, I wouldn't automatically assume they're engaging in criminal activity or planning some heinous act."

Of the eight arrested last week, six work in the construction industry, according to court records, earning as much as $600 a week. All eight said they were originally from El Salvador

One thing they brought with them on the fishing trip certainly raised officers' eyebrows: a machete. In early 2005, a 25-year-old man lost three fingers when he was assaulted by a machete-wielding MS-13 member outside a Fairfax County movie theater. Authorities have said the gang members use machetes for intimidation.

But even the presence of a machete can swing different ways. "They're sort of a cultural symbol" in El Salvador, particularly in rural, farming areas, Thale said. They can be used to clear out sleeping space in the brush. Authorities couldn't link the machete to a crime and didn't confiscate it.

Burroughs, the Charles gang expert, says MS-13 is a deadly problem in areas where it operates criminal enterprises. At the gang forum in the spring, though, he struck a note of caution similar to that sounded by Thale's human rights group.

"It's a bad gang, [but] they're not going to come hopping out of the bushes with machetes and attack your children," he said.