Almost 300 members of the infamously violent and bloody MS-13 gang have been rounded up on charges of narcotics distribution. The federal effort is the first of a series of high profile operations, designed to purge dangerous illegal aliens from the nation.
Dubbed “Operation Raging Bull” by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency, the operation involved coordination between the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, Justice Department and others. So far, the new campaign has led to the arrest of 267 violent gang members and narcotics pushers.
In September, ICE had announced the arrests of 53 MS-13 gang members from El Salvador, after an 18-month long investigation. And, last Thursday, the information gained from those initial arrests bore fruit, in the second phase of the crackdown in which 214 members of the dangerous gang were arrested. 93 of these were arrested on the federal or state criminal charges, while the other of the 121 face steep immigration violation charges.
Among those who are arrested, 16 are citizens, while the other 198 were foreign nationals living in U.S. Only five of these foreign nationals had a legal status. Sixty-four of these had crossed the border illegally as so-called “unaccompanied minors,” a process accelerated under the Obama Administration’s DACA program.
Among those arrested were several very notable and famous cases: in Baltimore, four men were arrested on the charges of violent crime, racketeering, and conspiracy to commit murder; in Denver, a man had been arrested with three machetes in his car; and in Los Angeles, the arrest of a Salvadoran national who was wanted for involvement with the murder of a Salvadoran police officer.
“With more than 10,000 members across 40 states, MS-13 is one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the United States today,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared. “These 267 arrests are the next step toward making this country safer by taking MS-13 off of our streets for good.”
There are around 30,000 MS-13 members worldwide, including the 10,000 present in the United States, according to information that was provided by the Justice Department. The gang has also a “large presence” in New York, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and has a presence in 46 states.
What has attracted the law enforcement’s attention to MS-13 is not just its huge size, but also its infamous brutality. Known for its motto that says “kill, rape, control,” the members are known for their violent, and retributive murders, which have included beheadings and the stabbing death of a 15-year-old girl.
“In their relentless effort to expand gang membership and gang traction without our communities, they aggressively target our children in our schools. The violence they perpetrate is shocking, and shows no remorse, or even a basic respect for human life,” said the acting ICE Director, Tom Homan.
The FBI also lists drug distribution, murder, rape, prostitution, robbery, home invasions, immigration offenses, kidnapping, car-jacking /auto thefts, and vandalism among MS-13’s most frequent illegal activities.
Raging Bull is only one of the latest busts of MS-13 members. In October, the Justice Department had announced the arrest of 3,800 more members in a gang bust that was coordinated between the United States and law enforcement in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
And Yes – in case you were wondering – the Democratic party, and liberals are already complaining about this, demanding that you have sympathy for these hardened killers and child rapists. And claiming you are a racist, for merely wanting to keep your homeland safe for yourself and your children.