ICE HSI Leads Collaborative Effort to Take Down MS-13 Gang Members
From the Oval Office last week, President Donald J. Trump announced the conclusion of a multi-year investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that led to the takedown of 17 members of the MS-13 gang. These arrests took place in Las Vegas and Los Angeles with the assistance of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). During this bust, HSI seized five pounds of methamphetamine, $28,000 in cash, and 14 firearms. Gang members were charged on 21 counts, including a violation of the Kingpin statute and transporting large quantities of methamphetamine from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
This operation required cooperation and collaboration between federal and local law enforcement. Francisco Burrola, special agent in charge for the HSI Las Vegas office explained in an ICE release, "Gang-related violence and criminal activity present an ongoing challenge for law enforcement everywhere. Our efforts to dismantle gangs are much more effective in areas where partnership with local law enforcement is strongest."
A large-scale arrest such as this will have a strong negative effect on the MS-13 criminal enterprise as a whole, according to officials involved in the operation. U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada Nicholas Trutanich said, "Our office is proud to contribute to making our streets safer and stopping MS-13 from using a well-worn path between Los Angeles and Las Vegas to develop a greater presence in Las Vegas.”
Special Agent in Charge Patrick Gorman, San Francisco Field Division, ATF emphasized, "Gangs are one of the nation's key distributors of narcotics and are flagrant in their use of firearms to carry out violence and intimidation…through ATF's collaborative Crime Gun Intelligence Model, local, state, and federal partners diligently pursue violent criminals and the sources of their crime guns to remove them from our communities.”
As explained in the indictment, the MS-13 gang began in Los Angeles and now has “cliques” all over the United States. The gang-members who lead these cliques are known as “Homeboys” and must go through a “jumping in” ceremony before they can make final decisions effecting the clique. This indictment charged three defendants who were "Homeboys" in the MS-13 Hollywood Locos and Fulton cliques. It also charged ten defendants with illegally possessing and selling weapons and silencers. Two other defendants, Juan Angel Reyes “Angel” and Eder Cruz-Salguero “Mysterio,” currently have warrants out for their arrests but have not been detained.
As Clark Country Sherriff Joseph Lombardo claimed in the ICE release, "the magnitude of this operation will have a huge ripple effect on this criminal enterprise. Dangerous gangs like these contribute to the decay of our communities by bringing drugs and other violent crime to our streets.”
In total, ICE has arrested 12,000 gang members the past 3 years, of which 1,600 were MS-13 gang members. U.S. Attorney Trutanich said, “As a result of the hard work and substantial resources dedicated by our local and federal law enforcement partners, this collaborative effort has disrupted MS-13's leadership and significantly undermines the gang's ability to engage in violence and other criminal conduct in Nevada, California, and elsewhere throughout the country."