http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/265966.html

Sweep nets 238 Fla. gang suspects
Posted on Tue, Oct. 09, 2007l
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

More gang suspects from Central America and the Caribbean are moving to South Florida, lured by the opportunity of a new territory to battle over drugs, guns, money and prostitution, a federal official said Tuesday after a nationwide sweep netted 1,313.

The three-month-long effort concentrated on 23 major metropolitan areas including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties where 162 suspects were arrested, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

Raids also resulted in the arrests of 76 suspected gang members in Orlando and Fort Myers, according to Anthony Mangione, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami.

The summer sweep yielded one of the largest number of gang-member arrests since Operation Community Shield, which targets foreign-born gang suspects, began in 2005. So far it has resulted in the arrests of 7,655 gang members and associates across the nation. The South Florida arrests were the second most numerous in the six metropolitan areas where the majority of the 1,313 were detained.

Mangione, in a telephone interview with The Miami Herald and radio news partner WLRN, said gang activity had become ''a real problem,'' particularly in southern Palm Beach County areas like Lantana and Lake Worth.

Mangione said the majority of gang suspects arrested in South Florida came from Jamaica, Haiti and Central American countries. He said gangs the 162 allegedly belonged to included MS-13, Sur 13 and Crips.

''I really want to just send a message out there that it's a transnational gang problem,'' Mangione said. ``It's not just local groups of kids hanging out together in their own neighborhoods. That day is past. It is now international in scope.''

He called it a ''neighborhood security'' problem. ''They come in, infiltrate neighborhoods and then honest people, regular citizens, get caught in the crossfire, get caught-up in extortion schemes,'' he said.

He said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement rounded up the 162 gang members in South Florida with the help of the Miami-Dade Police Department, the Broward Sheriff's Office and the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office.

New York had the largest number of arrests, 205, followed by the 162 in South Florida, 128 in San Diego, 121 in Dallas, 93 in Raleigh, N.C., and 65 in Oklahoma City.

Gang members were also arrested in Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and Wisconsin.

About one-third of those arrested nationwide -- 343 -- have violent criminal histories, the agency said. It added that agents arrested 374 of the suspects on criminal charges ranging from drug, assault, and firearms violations, to reentering the country after deportation. The rest were accused of various immigration law violations and placed in deportation proceedings.

Mangione said that of the 162 picked up in South Florida, some were in deportation proceedings at the Krome detention center in west Miami-Dade while others were in federal and state custody awaiting criminal prosecution.