No Boundaries is a former journalist's disturbing account of what many consider the "next Mafia"---Latino crime gangs. Like the Mafia, these gangs operate an international network; consider violence a routine matter of business; and defy U.S. law enforcement at every level, from city police departments to federal agencies. As they evolve more organized structure, they even spawn kingpins such as the notorious Nelson Martinez Varela Comandari, the man who nearly became the first "Latin godfather" in the United States.


Focusing on the Los Angeles–based Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street Gang, and the Chicago-based Latin Kings, Tom Diaz describes how neighborhood gangs evolved into extremely brutal, sophisticated, international criminal enterprises. In tandem with this story, he tells how local and federal authorities have struggled and adapted efficient strategies to suppress the gangs. As Diaz makes clear, however, the problem of transnational Latino gangs is not merely a law-and-order problem. It involves complex U.S. national issues such as racial tensions and immigration policy, as well as conflict in Latin America, world economic pressures, and other global forces.


Tom Diaz is a lawyer, author, and public speaker who conducts research on gun policy and violence for the Violence Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank. During his former career in journalism, he covered national security affairs for the Washington Times. He also served as counsel to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice from 1993 to 1997. His previous books include Lightning out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil (with co author Barbara Newman) and Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America. Visit the author's website: tomdiaz.wordpress.com.


"Tom Diaz has worn out some shoe leather---much like a good detective---in gathering facts, not myths or urban legend. As a result he has produced an accurate and comprehensive look at a grave and present danger to our society."
---From the foreword by Chris Swecker, Former Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division.


"Criminal street gangs are no longer a regional or local problem; they have developed into a complex, nationwide threat to public safety. Few people know more about the subject than Tom Diaz and no single book tells the whole story better than No Boundaries. If you really want to know what organized crime in America looks like today, then read this alarming book. You won't be disappointed."
---Rocky Delgadillo, City Attorney of Los Angeles


"This is an important book, at a time when an AK-47 is cheaper to buy than a Playstation, and children are using weapons of war to kill other children."
---Mayor Manuel A. Diaz, City of Miami, Florida


"This highly readable account accurately assesses the threat posed by violent Hispanic youth gangs and the responses to date by U.S. law enforcement. Above all, Tom Diaz captures the dynamic of change of gang behavior from the 1940s to the present and the continually evolving efforts by the U.S. police-justice system to cope with it."
---John Bailey, Georgetown University