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"GeekBoy" <nerds@nerd.com> wrote in message
news:449f007c$0$9927$88260bb3@free.teranews.com...
> Grappling with Gangs
> June 25, 2006
> Andres R. Martinez
> Monitor Staff Writer
>
> MISSION - Family and gang were one and the same for Leobardo Villarreal.
So
> in March it was no coincidence that federal authorities finally arrested
> Villarreal, a 22-year-old second-generation member of the gang Hermano
> Pistoleros, through a tip they got after arresting his father and fellow
> gang member Juan Eladio Villarreal-Saenza, officials said. The Pistoleros,
> whom the FBI says Mexican drug cartels are hiring to run drugs and do
> contract killings, operate in Mexico and the United States.
> They are highly mobile, organized criminals who also happen to be illegal
> aliens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.
>
> While the federal government is dedicating many of its resources to
battling
> international gangs, some local law enforcers believe there are local
gangs
> that pose a greater problem in the Rio Grande Valley.
>
> The father-and-son arrests were part of a year-old Department of Homeland
> Security initiative called "Operation Community Shield," which has led to
> the arrest of 2,388 gang members nationwide.
>
> The gang members arrested in this federal sweep represent the most
dangerous
> criminal threat in the United States today, officials say.
>
> Those arrested through that operation include members of the 18th Street
> Gang, Latin Kings, Big Time Killers and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13.
>
> MS-13, the most violent in the eyes of the federal government, has been
held
> responsible for brutal retaliatory deaths in Los Angeles and the
Washington,
> D.C., area.
>
> New Approach
>
> The Villarreals are the best example of the trend of "transnational,
>  violent" street gangs that are becoming increasingly hard to combat
because
> they operate on both sides of the border.
>
> Most of the gang members are deported, but ones like the elder Villarreal,
> who are felons, are jailed in U.S. prisons. They face additional jail time
> if they illegally re-enter the country.
>
> These gangs have spread to the Valley and the Texas border, said Alonzo
> Pe�a, ICE's special agent-in-charge for the San Antonio Office of
> Investigations.
>
> The gangs in the Valley have begun to form alliances, Pe�a said, or at
least
> work in connection with the drug cartels in Mexico.
>
> Currently, the U.S. Attorney's Office and ICE are investigating reports of
> gang members in Laredo who are working as hit men in Nuevo Laredo, Pe�a
> said. That's separate from the actual drug smuggling for the cartels in
> which many Valley gangs are already involved.
>
> Federal investigators believe the contract murders involving border gang
> members have contributed to the escalation of violence in Nuevo Laredo, he
> said.
>
> Pe�a, through ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda, would not give details about
the
> case or with what gangs the suspects are affiliated.
>
> Although those cases involve violence in Nuevo Laredo, where more than 100
> people have been murdered in connection to the drug trade this year, there
> is already proof the same type of contract killing is happening here in
the
> Valley.
>
> Gonzalo Artemio Lopez, a Valley gang member, told authorities before his
> capital murder trial in Edinburg last year that he carried out a murder
for
> the La Mana drug cartel from Tamaulipas. Lopez was convicted.
>
> Valley Gangs
> While "Community Shield" has gained a lot of attention nationwide, local
> officers question whether international gangs are the most pressing
> organized crime issue in the Valley.
>
> In fact, there seems to be next to no overlap in how federal and local
> authorities combat gangs.
>
> Many officers in local departments point to gangs like the Mexican Mafia,
> Texas Syndicate and Tri-City Bombers as the most dangerous.
>
> And they point to how the Texas Syndicate and Mexican Mafia prison gangs
> spawned from Valley gangs into larger organizations to illustrate how
ICE's
> jailing of violent gang members does not deter criminal activity in the
long
> term.
>
> For example, local gangs that were mostly involved in petty crimes 20
years
> ago have now grown into full-time criminal outfits smuggling drugs,
carrying
> out hits and laundering money, according to Edinburg Detective Robert
> Alvarez, a veteran gang investigator.
>
> "A lot of the guys we arrested when they were 17 went to jail," Alvarez
> said. "And I then had to arrest them for gang activity at 28."
>
> When they do go to jail, they get deeper into gang life, he said.
>
> He's not sure spending time going after international gangs will clean up
> the Valley. It's not a top priority for local officers, as it is for
federal
> agencies, he says.
>
> Some critics cite the detention and removal policy, which DHS now
advocates,
> as the very reason why these illegal alien gangs are growing into
> international threats.
>
> The most well-known example, they say, is Mara Salvatrucha - also known as
> MS-13. The gang started in the 1980s with the influx of Salvadoran
> immigrants to Los Angeles.
>
> Many of the MS-13 members were in fact here illegally and eventually
> deported back to El Salvador or other Central American countries, where
over
> time the organization recruited more members and cemented their roots.
Many
> of the current members in the United States have snuck back in since being
> deported.
>
> Reform Needed
>
> Pe�a admits that a greater strategy aimed at eliminating the gangs must be
> developed; but, he said, ICE is only empowered to do so much. Because
> foreign countries are starting to crack down on these gangs, deporting
them
> is a much more feasible option, he said.
>
> "It is much more effective to get them off the streets," Pe�a said. "We
are
> starting to see in their countries that their countries are aggressively
> pursuing them."
>
> Local officers are just as critical about the other option ICE is using:
> incarceration.
>
> Incarcerating these gang members in the United States will only help them
> spread, just like gangs native to the Valley spread in the late '80s and
> early '90s, Alvarez said.
>
> Gangs in the Valley have evolved from ones with members who committed
petty
> crimes in order to claim their "turf," to well-structured and disciplined
> gangs involved in violent crime and drugs, Alvarez said.
>
> Many of the gangs have tiered structures, similar to the military. It's
not
> unlikely to see a group assign military ranks.
>
> Alvarez, a former Hidalgo County detention officer, saw first-hand how
gang
> bosses manipulated the jail system and were able to still communicate with
> their underlings as effectively as if they were on the outside.
>
> "They don't disband, especially if they get rooted in the prison system,"
he
> said.
>
>
>
>
http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=13883&Section=Local
>
>
>
>
> -- 
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>
And the elitists in Washington DC want more of this scum in America.

Hank

http://www.numbersusa.com/  Numbers USA