Super Max Prison, El Salvador – An MSU graduate was arrested and deported for having gang-affiliated tattoos. Now she is sitting in a maximum security prison in EL Salvador. How did she get into this situation?
Shelly O’Reilly, originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, graduated from MSU with an accounting degree. The week before, she celebrated with friends at Fieldhouse. She ended up having too much to drink and had the brilliant idea that everyone should get tattoos. Although her friends laughed at her, O’Reilly was determined to make this life-altering decision with or without them.
She called an Uber and made her way to Ink Therapy where she asked them to give her a tattoo saying “MSU co 2013”. After being told that it would be $20 per letter for the font she chose she had another brilliant idea to shorten it to “MS-13”, thinking everyone would understand what it meant.
Although the tattoo artist suggested somewhere she could cover it up, O’Reilly insisted on having the tattoo on her neck where everyone could see it. Even after waking up hungover the next morning, O’Reilly didn’t regret that tattoo thinking it was really cool.
O’Reilly tried explaining this to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement who raided her accounting firm as well as her townhome. However, ICE believes that O’Reilly has been a member for decades and used her time at MSU to falsify all of the legal documents saying that she and her family are US citizens.
