Fifty-five West Coast Crip gang members were tracked down and arrested in a coordinated 500-officer, cross-country raid late last week, and face charges for crimes ranging from murder and narcotics trafficking to prostitution and child sex trafficking, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Roughly “80 percent of U.S. crime is committed by gangs” according to a Newsmax article that references the estimate from The U.S. Department of Justice, National Gang Intelligence Center, and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment (NGTA) reports a drastic increase in U.S. gang activity. Gang membership increased an estimated 40% from 2009 to 2011, reaching 1.4 million active members, the study records.
At the forefront of concern in gang trends is the soaring number of gangs involved in alien smuggling, prostitution and human trafficking.
In October 2009 eight members of the Avenue street gang were arrested in connection with charges of smuggling and harboring illegal aliens according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) news release.
Coordination between U.S. gangs and Central American and Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (MDTOs) has also soared. The NGTA reports,:”US-based gangs and MDTOs are establishing wide-reaching drug networks; assisting in the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and illegal immigrants along the Southwest Border; and serving as enforcers for MDTO interests on the US side of the border.”
Widespread lack of security along the U.S. border has already brought great danger to Americans and illegal immigrants. As Breitbart’s Kristin Tate reports, illegal immigrant “children may be abandoned during the smuggling process for various reasons.” Those being smuggled also reportedly then face risks including human trafficking.
Likewise, a report by Breitbart’s Brandon Darby refers to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report that “identifies both Mexican cartels and street gangs as conduits for individuals from Africa and Asia entering the U.S illegally.” The report goes on to identify “the Islamic terrorist haven of Somalia as being one of the nations from which the illegal U.S. bound border-crossers are originating.”
Darby also wrote about the case of an MS-13 gang member who illegally crossed into the U.S. and “embarked on what authorities are calling a ‘swath of murder’ by using guns, knives, clubs, and even machetes to kill his victims.” The gang member was caught and sentenced to life in prison for his crimes.
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