Federal Sweep Results in 375 Gang Arrests

March 10, 2006 — -- A coordinated gang-enforcement operation has resulted in the arrest of 375 gang members in 23 states.

The arrested gang members include many from the notoriously violent MS-13 gang, which has become a top concern of the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The two-week operation, overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was part of a Department of Homeland Security effort called Operation Community Shield, which was launched in February 2005, initially to take down members of MS-13. The effort was expanded in May 2005 to go after all criminal gangs, such as the Latin Kings, 18th Street Gang, Big Time Killers, Asian Dragon Family and the Surenos.

The results of the latest Community Shield effort were announced by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at a press conference in Washington. According to agency officials, more than 260 of the 375 gang members arrested in the past two weeks have criminal records stemming from charges of firearms and drug violations. Chertoff said this was an effort "targeting the worst of the worst."

Immigration and Customs is holding many of the gang members on immigration violations. Those who can be prosecuted are suspected of involvement in such crimes as murder, rape, assaults and weapons trafficking. Many of the gang members are foreign born, are in the United States illegally and are considered extemely violent.

One Feb. 28, Jose Carlos Peralta-Morales, a Surenos gang member, beat an individual's head with an aluminum baseball bat inside a Wal-Mart store. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local police arrested him later the same day. Peralta-Morales had a previous criminal record and faces federal criminal charges.

MS-13 has employed machetes in numerous attacks, using them to chop off rival gang members' fingers and hands.

Since Community Shield was set up last year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with state and local law enforcement agencies, has arrested more than 2,300 suspected gang members, including 51 gang leaders and 922 members of MS-13. MS-13 is believed to have as many as 10,000 members in the United States, who are mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.