http://www.wwaytv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4147190

New Hanover Co. reinstitutes gang task force
Nov 21, 2005, 05:48 AM PST
With a large-scale drug problem in Maple Hill, Pender County Sheriff Carson Smith, Duplin County authorities and federal agents conducted an undercover investigation. More than 50 people, mostly Mexican and Honduran, were put behind bars. Guns, pot and cocaine were smuggled from Mexico to Houston on through Duplin County and into Pender County.

"A great deal, if not the majority, of drugs wee see coming in here are coming in by Hispanics across the Mexican-Texas border," Mr. Smith said.

April 9, 2005, Gilberto Aguayo is found in the Green Swamp area. Tony Sanchez, a member of the Latino gang MS-13, is found slain in the Wacamaw River. Named suspects in the Aguayo murder were two Hispanic men in a Nebraska prison.

A Latino influence on drugs and violence is evident in Brunswick County.

Brunswick County Sheriff Ron Hewett said, "We're finding that the drugs are coming from Mexico right into south eastern North Carolina and that's why we're making bigger seizures."

More and more large drug dealing operations in our area are from south of the border -- illegal immigrants committing serious crimes.

Gang signs can be found throughout New Hanover County, and the sheriff’s office has reinstituted a gang task force.

Detective Brian Bellamy is a New Hanover County gang intelligence officer. "We've had murders, drive-bys, shootings, assaults, assaults with deadly weapons -- I've had everything involving my Hispanic gang members," Bellamy said.

They're even carving their gang symbols in courthouse benches.

Judge Becky Blackmore has seen first-hand the culture of gangs change in her fifth judicial district courtroom in New Hanover County.

"Definitely in the last three to five years, our gang population has switched form the traditional gangs to the Hispanic gangs," Judge Blackmore said.

With the Mexican-American border easy to cross, along with thousands of illegal immigrants who come here to work, some come who live lives of crime.

Sheriff Smith says he has four men in his jail who may be illegal aliens, but with one federal immigration agent for the entire state, deportation almost never happens.

"We notify INS and have to rely on whatever they can do for us. A lot of times, it's really not a whole lot," Smith said.

And deportation may not be the answer as many criminals come back to the US. The problem: little is done to keep them out in the first place. The sheriff says there needs to be solutions to illegal immigration control.

"With a country as great as we are, with the resources we have, I’m sure there's a way to make that border a little less porous," Smith said.

One of the main goals of the New Hanover County gang task force is to get into the schools, identify kids in trouble and work to keep them out of gang life.

One drug intelligence officer said it's an uphill battle. He's found evidence of Hispanic gangs in every New Hanover County school.