The Daily Item reports:
Gang roundup part of nationwide sting
By Jill Casey
Tuesday, August 2, 2005Immigrations
and Customs Enforcement officials announced yesterday that a recent
sweep of gang members in Lynn was part of a nationwide operation aimed
at prosecuting foreign-born gang members charged with crimes and
immigration violations.
Under
the auspices of "Operation Community Shield," ICE netted six gang
members in Lynn and one in Peabody in the last two weeks, according to
Paula Grenier, an ICE spokesperson. A total of 63 gang members were
picked up in Massachusetts and 582 gang members total in six-different
cities across the United States as part of the same operation.
The
suspects arrested in Lynn on July 19 and 21 were members of Mara
Salvatrucha, of MS-13, according to Lynn Police records. The phrase
Mara Salvatrucha is Spanish for "Salvador, forever."
MS-13
originated in El Salvador in the 1980s and has since splintered into
major urban areas around the country. Locally, the gang has been linked
to machete and knife attacks and a gang rape on two deaf girls in
Somerville in 2002. Law Enforcement officials in several North Shore
communities formed a gang intelligence consortium in response to their
growing presence in several communities from East Boston to Lynn.
ICE
agents originally set out to net MS-13 members, but have since
broadened the operation's scope to include all street gangs with
foreign-born members, Grenier said.
Arrests were also made in neighboring cities such as Everett, Malden, Boston and Somerville.
The
vast majority of those taken into custody were arrested for entering
the country illegally, being a felon in their native countries or
violations under their visa status.[link]
posted by: jrtelegraph
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