Thread: Sweep Nets 238 Fla Gang Suspects

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.

Thank-you ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Immigration sweep targets gang members
60 illegal immigrants arrested in SW Fla.

By Erin Gillespie
egillespie@news-press.com

http://www.news-press.com



More than two dozen gang members have been arrested in Lee County as part of an immigration crackdown to combat gangs across the nation.

Operation Community Shield detained more than 1,300 illegal immigrants, many of whom were gang members, across the country.

Sixty people were arrested in Lee, Collier and Hendry counties.

"It removed 60 potentially violent criminals from the streets and hopefully removed them permanently," said Adam Levine, resident agent in charge of the Fort Myers office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In Lee County, 26 illegal immigrants were arrested. In Collier, 25 were detained, and in Hendry, nine. Names of the suspects aren't being released, Levine said.

The local ICE office — which covers Lee, Hendry, Glades, Charlotte and Collier counties — worked with the gang task forces of Lee, Collier and Hendry county sheriff's offices and the Fort Myers Police Department. The agencies identified gang members and their associates who were believed to be in the country illegally, Levine said.

Sgt. Mike Stanforth of the Lee sheriff's office said his gang unit worked with ICE from Sept. 19 to Sept. 23 to remove undocumented gang members.

In the three-month push that began June 1, federal agents worked with local police agencies in 23 cities in 19 states to arrest 1,313 gang members, their associates and other illegal immigrants.

The most arrests were in New York, with 205, Miami, 160, San Diego, 128, and Dallas, 121.

The Lee sheriff's gang unit makes daily contacts with suspected members, including taking their photos and keeping a database of identifying information, Stanforth said.

"It's not against the law to be a gang member. They're proud of what they stand for," Stanforth said.

At times, gang members tell officers they were born in another country and don't have legal documents to be in the United States, Stanforth said.

Of the 60 detained in Southwest Florida, 31 were gang members and 23 were gang associates, Levine said. Six of those detained were considered "collateral" arrests, usually illegal immigrants who are arrested while officials look for suspects on unrelated charges.

None of the Southwest Florida suspects was charged with major crimes; most were sent to deportation proceedings, he said.

"We made some state and local arrests, but nothing of any significance," he said.

Stanforth said names of those arrested would be available this week.

Gang member arrests at ICE have increased 73 percent since 2006, from 2,294 people to 3,974 so far this year, statistics show.

"The reality is the gang population and the gang community is clearly a violent community," Levine said. "Instead of waiting for them to commit a burglary or an assault, why not remove them before a victim is created?"

The Lee sheriff's office works closely with ICE, Stanforth said. The office will contact ICE if a violent gang member needs to be detained immediately and works with the federal agency on raids.

Since Operation Community Shield began in 2005, ICE has arrested 7,655 from more than 700 gangs on immigration and criminal violations, spokesman Michael Keegan said.

Since June, about 28 percent of those arrested across the nation were charged with crimes other than immigration violations, including drugs, assaults and firearm violations.

Those convicted of crimes will serve a sentence in U.S. jails or prisons and then be deported, Levine said.

Agents also arrested other illegal immigrants if they happened across them, Keegan said.

"At the end of the day, they are in violation of immigration law," he said. "If you look at the operation across the nation, I have not heard local agencies complaining about the assistance we're providing in removing illegal immigrants from their neighborhoods."

— Wire reports contributed to this article.