The U.S. Justice Department released
the below information:
U.S. Department of Justice
and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials today announced the
results of stepped up efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
and the department to target and dismantle MS-13 – culminating in the arrest of
267 in the United States and overseas.
“Operation Raging Bull” was
led by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with support from federal,
state, local and international law enforcement partners, and was conducted in
support of the Department of Justice’s renewed prioritization of the violent
transnational gang.
“With more than 10,000
members across 40 states, MS-13 is one of the most dangerous criminal
organizations in the United States today,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“President Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to reduce crime and take
down transnational criminal organizations, and we will be relentless in our
pursuit of these objectives. That’s why I have ordered our drug trafficking
task forces to use every law available to arrest, prosecute, convict, and defund
MS-13. And we are getting results. So far this year, we have secured
convictions against more than 1,200 gang members and worked with our partners
in Central America to arrest and charge some 4,000 MS-13 members. I want to thank the Department of Homeland
Security, our federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors from the U.S.
Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section
as well as Treasury, BOP, DOJ’s OCDETF task force members, and all of our state
and local law enforcement partners for their hard work. These 267 arrests are
the next step toward making this country safer by taking MS-13 off of our
streets for good.”
“MS-13 has long been a
priority for ICE. However we are now combating the gang with renewed focus and
an unprecedented level of cooperation among DHS’s components and our domestic
and international partners,” said Thomas Homan, ICE Deputy Director and Senior
Official Performing the Duties of the Director. “ICE has the ability to pursue
complex criminal cases using our statutory authorities and to prevent crime by
using our administrative arrest authorities to remove gang members from the
country. We will not rest until every member, associate, and leader of MS-13
has been held accountable for their crimes, and those in this country illegally
have been removed.”
The operation was conducted
in two phases, targeting dangerous gang members and their global financial
networks. The first phase of the operation which was announced previously,
netted 53 arrests in El Salvador at the conclusion of an 18-month investigation
in September. The second phase was conducted across the United States from Oct.
8 to Nov. 11, and concluded with 214 MS-13 arrests nationwide.
HSI received significant
operational support, including intelligence sharing and collaboration, from
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP), U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS), the U.S. Department of Treasury, U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau
of Prisons (BOP), as well as state, local, federal, and international law
enforcement partners. The Organized
Crime and Gang Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, with
funding from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, along with the
U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in the Districts of Arizona, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Northern District of California, Southern District of Iowa and Southern
District of Texas, and are prosecuting the cases.
"Securing the homeland
is a critical piece of the USCIS mission,” said USCIS Director L. Francis
Cissna. “We are committed to supporting and providing intelligence to our law
enforcement colleagues on public safety initiatives like Operation Raging Bull.
We will bring all of our agency’s resources to bear in helping protect the
American public from violent crime, and in the pursuit of those who seek to
endanger the security of our nation.”
"This joint effort is
not new. It is something we all do as law enforcement,” said Border Patrol
Deputy Chief Scott Luck. “I look forward to continue working with my partners
here at Headquarters as well as the field to address not just this threat but
all threats.”
“The Bureau of Prisons is
proud to have supported our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners
in this successful effort to enhance public safety,” said Assistant Director
Frank Lara for the Federal Bureau of Prisons Correctional Programs. “The Bureau
of Prisons will continue to work collaboratively to combat the threat violent
gangs pose inside prisons and in the community.”
Of the total 214 arrests made
in the United States, 93 were arrested on federal and/or state criminal charges
including murder, aggravated robbery, Racketeering Influenced Corrupt
Organization (RICO) offenses, Violent Crime in Aid of Racketeering (VICAR)
offenses, narcotics trafficking, narcotics possession, firearms offenses,
domestic violence, assault, forgery, DUI and illegal entry/reentry. The
remaining 121 were arrested on administrative immigration violations.
Sixteen of the 214 arrested
were U.S. citizens and 198 were foreign nationals, of which only five had legal
status to be in the United States. Foreign nationals arrested were from El
Salvador (135), Honduras (29), Mexico (17), Guatemala (12), Ecuador (4) and
Costa Rica (1).
Sixty-four individuals had
illegally crossed the border as unaccompanied alien children; most are now
adults.
Examples of the federal
prosecutions during this operation include:
In Baltimore, Maryland, the
arrest and indictment of four MS-13 members on charges that include violent
crimes in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder in aid of
racketeering;
In Greenbelt, Maryland, the
arrest and indictment of eight MS-13 members on charges that include conspiracy
to participate in a racketeering enterprise, conspiracy to distribute and
possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to
interfere with interstate commerce by extortion; and MS-13 members and associates
were arrested in East Boston and Chelsea, Massachusetts; Falfurrias, Hidalgo
and Laredo, Texas; Nogales, Tucson and Yuma, Arizona; Council Bluffs, Iowa;
Annapolis, Baltimore, Clinton, Beltsville, Upper Marlboro, Centreville and
Jessup, Maryland; and San Jose, California and charged with various federal
offenses including illegal alien in possession of a firearm and illegal
re-entry after deportation.
Following this operation, ICE
has added six MS-13 fugitives to its list of “most wanted” individuals,
including one fugitive wanted for homicide in Montgomery County, Texas, and
five others wanted for their involvement in the homicide and attempted homicides
of El Salvadoran police officers. All are suspected of being somewhere in the
U.S.
Individuals are confirmed as
gang members if they admit membership in a gang; have been convicted of
violating Title 18 USC 521 or any other federal or state law criminalizing or
imposing civil consequences for gang-related activity; or if they meet certain
other criteria such as having tattoos identifying a specific gang or being
identified as a gang member by a reliable source.
Gang associates are
individuals who exhibit gang member criteria but who are not formally initiated
into the gang. Law enforcement officers encountering these individuals will
determine whether indications of gang association are present by referring to
the gang membership criteria.
Note: I wrote a piece on
MS-13 for Counterterrorism magazine, which will appear in the upcoming issue. I’ll
post the piece here when it comes out.
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