U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested more than 900 criminal gang members in a recent sting operation that targeted those associated with drug trafficking, human smuggling, sex trafficking, murder and racketeering.
The federal agency announced Monday evening it apprehended 1,133 people in the five-week operation from Feb. 15 to March 21, nicknamed “Project Shadowfire” by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit.
Twenty percent of those arrested were foreigners from countries in Central America, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean. Of those 239 individuals, 132 were charged with immigration violations as a result of the raids. The majority of those arrested were affiliated with gangs including MS-13, Sureños, Norteños, Bloods and several prison-based gangs. About 200 were not gang members.
“This operation is the latest example of ICE’s ongoing efforts, begun more than a decade ago under Operation Community Shield, to target violent gang members and their associates, to eradicate the violence they inflict upon our communities and to stop the cash flow to transnational organized crime groups operating overseas,” ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña said in a statement.
Operation Community Shield has brought in more than 40,000 offenders on gang-related charges since it started the program in 2005.
