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OUR OPINIONS: Put out unwelcome mat for gangs
Staff
Friday, September 2, 2005

Vexed by a growing problem with gangs and the mayhem they cause, local law enforcement officials in Georgia are getting some much-needed assistance from federal authorities. Several federal agencies are now using racketeering laws and immigration laws to track down violent criminals.

Over the last several months, police agencies in Gwinnett, DeKalb, Fulton and Cobb counties --- and most recently in Polk and Floyd counties in North Georgia --- have teamed up with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to track down and arrest nearly 100 alleged members of ultraviolent Latino gangs. The federal authorities have turned to an old legal weapon to fight the gangs --- the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.

The RICO law, which has effectively been employed over the years against Mafia kingpins and their henchmen, enables law enforcement agencies to seize property and other assets connected to the commission of a crime. These seizures can put a dent in the cash flow of such groups even while the case is being prosecuted. Besides the RICO law, federal authorities are forcing the deportation of many of the alleged gang members who are in the country illegally.

A sharp increase in violent crime over the last several years has become a major concern in suburban communities, especially in Gwinnett, where the incidences of homicide, home invasions, carjackings and assaults are thought to be connected to gangs.

Two of the most violent groups, Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and Surenos-13, also known as Sur-13, are active in North Georgia, local police say. (The reference to the number 13 in the names is for the letter "M," the 13th letter of the alphabet and short for Mexican Mafia.) Their crimes include murder, drug manufacturing and sales, arson, kidnapping and extortion, according to U.S. Attorney David Nahmias. The federal prosecutor has characterized the law enforcement effort, which is taking place in other jurisdictions around the country, as a "decapitation" of gang leadership.

Stopping the spread of gang violence is vitally important. Whole sections of California communities have fallen into the hands of warring ethnic gangs over the last decade because of the failure of law enforcement agencies to mount a credible threat to their existence. Georgia cannot let that happen here.