Four-month nationwide gang sweep nets 1,700 arrests
California had 430 arrests, the most of any state, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announces. Operation Community Shield mostly targeted Latin and Central American street gangs.
Washington, D.C.-- More than 1,700 alleged gang members and their associates, many of them illegal immigrants, were arrested during a four-month nationwide crackdown that spanned 53 cities, including Los Angeles and San Diego, federal officials said today.
"We've inflicted significant damage on various violent street gangs in every part of the country, from Wichita to Sheboygan," said Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "And that has made our communities immeasurably safer."
California led the arrest totals with 430 during the course of the law enforcement initiative, which ran from June 1 to Sept. 30 and included 28 states. Of those arrests, 168 were made in Los Angeles, 96 in San Bernardino, and 81 in San Diego. Texas came in second with 271 arrests.
Operation Community Shield mostly targeted Latin and Central American street gangs, including Surenos-13, MS-13, 18th Street Gang, and the Latin Kings, Myers said. The alleged gang members were mostly foreign-born, with many involved in serious crimes including robbery, extortion, rape and murder, according to ICE officials.
"These gangs, and others like them, prey on our neighborhoods, prey on our communities, [and] take advantage of the individuals who live there," Myers said.
Reputed members and associates of the Surenos-13 street gang, a loose organization that originated in the California prison system, made up the largest number of arrestees representing any one group. Traditionally, most of the arrests have been reputed members and associates of the Mara Salvatrucha organization, a gang of mostly Latin and Central American immigrants known as MS-13.
Myers said that she did not know if the higher number of arrests of reputed Surenos-13 gang members were related to an actual increase in membership or just a result of the populations in the cities involved. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, however, has reported seeing more individuals who self-declare or appear to be members of Surenos-13 at the country's points of entry, she said.
"That is something which we're obviously tracking and going to look at with gang intelligence," Myers said.
Of the 1,759 people arrested, 1,029 were charged with immigration violations and face deportation proceedings. The remaining 730 face criminal charges including assault, drug possession, and reentering the country after deportation.
