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  1. #1
    Senior Member FedUpinFarmersBranch's Avatar
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    Report: Gang membership on the rise across U.S.

    Report: Gang membership on the rise across U.S.
    by Kevin Johnson - Jan. 30, 2009 12:00 AM

    Criminal gangs in the United States have swelled to an estimated 1 million members responsible for up to 80 percent of crimes in communities across the nation, according to a gang threat assessment compiled by federal officials.

    The major findings in a report by the Justice Department's National Gang Intelligence Center, which has not been publicly released, conclude gangs are the "primary retail-level distributors of most illicit drugs" and several are capable of competing with major U.S.-based Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.

    "A rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships" with U.S. and foreign drug-trafficking organizations and other criminal groups to "gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs," the report concludes.


    The gang population estimate is up 200,000 since 2005.

    Bruce Ferrell, chairman of the Midwest Gang Investigators Association, whose group monitors gang activity in 10 states, says the number of gang members may be even higher than the report's estimate.

    "We've seen an expansion for the last 10 years," says Ferrell, who has reviewed the report. "Each year, the numbers are moving forward."

    The report says about 900,000 gang members live "within local communities across the country," and about 147,000 are in U.S. prisons or jails.

    "Most regions in the United States will experience increased gang membership ... and increased gang-related criminal activity," the report concludes, citing a recent rise in gangs on the campuses of suburban and rural schools.

    Among the report's other findings:


    • Last year, 58 percent of state and local law-enforcement agencies reported that criminal gangs were active in their jurisdictions, up from 45 percent in 2004.


    • More gangs use the Internet, including encrypted e-mail, to recruit and to communicate with associates throughout the U.S. and other countries.


    • Gangs, including outlaw motorcycle groups, "pose a growing threat" to law-enforcement authorities along the U.S.-Canadian border. The U.S. groups are cooperating with Canadian gangs in various criminal enterprises, including drug smuggling.

    Assistant FBI Director Kenneth Kaiser, the bureau's criminal division chief, says gangs have largely followed the migration paths of immigrant laborers.

    He says the groups are moving to avoid the scrutiny of larger metropolitan police agencies in places such as Los Angeles. "These groups were hit hard in L.A." by law-enforcement crackdowns, "but they are learning from it," Kaiser says.

    One group that continues to spread despite law-enforcement efforts is the violent Salvadoran gang known as MS-13.

    Michael Sullivan, the departing director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, says the gang's dependence on shocking violence to advance extortion, prostitution and other criminal enterprises has frustrated attempts to infiltrate and disrupt the insular group's activities.

    "MS-13's foothold in the U.S. is expanding," Sullivan says.

    Kaiser says the street gang is in 42 states, up from 33 in 2005. "Enforcement efforts have been effective to a certain extent, but they (gang members) keep moving," he says.

    MS-13 is the abbreviation for the gang also known as Mara Salvatrucha. The group gained national prominence in the 1980s in Los Angeles, where members were linked to incidents involving unusual brutality.

    Since then, it has formed cells or "cliques" across the U.S., says Aaron Escorza, chief of the FBI's MS-13 National Gang Task Force.

    The task force was launched in 2004 amid concerns about the gang's rapid spread. Gang members were targeted in broad investigations similar to those used to bust organized crime groups from Russia and Italy.

    Escorza says a "revolving door" on the border has kept the gang's numbers steady, about 10,000 in the U.S., even as many illegal immigrant members are deported.

    The FBI, which has two agents in El Salvador to help identify and track members in Central America and the United States, plans to dispatch four more agents to Guatemala and Honduras, Escorza says.

    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... s0130.html
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  2. #2
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    1 million members .... thats more than we have police in this country .. tell me how this is not an invasion

    Open up the FEMA camps ... Hey Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid ... is this what you have in mind for the American Public .. 1 million gang members to finish off the middle class
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Senior Member uniteasone's Avatar
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    Yes and all coming to a neighborhood near you..............
    "When you have knowledge,you have a responsibility to do better"_ Paula Johnson

    "I did then what I knew to do. When I knew better,I did better"_ Maya Angelou

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