5-day DFW gang raid leads to numerous apprehensions (Dallas Crime Examiner)

5-day DFW gang raid leads to numerous apprehensions
July 20, 11:38 AM
Dallas Crime ExaminerBashir Bakhtiari

According to federal immigration personnel, nearly 105 people have been apprehended throughout a raid that came to a close last Saturday and aimed at alleged gang members.

The operation lasted for five days, and those who have taken part in it were local and state law enforcement officials, and those included police officials from Carrollton, Arlington, Irving, and Fort Worth.

John Chakwin, special agent in charge of the Dallas office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declared that among those arrested was an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, who was accused of a home invasion.

According to ICE personnel, the accusations against those apprehended consisted of drive-by shootings, aggravated assault involving a deadly weapon, burglary, and drug possession.

Four of the people apprehended in Dallas and Fort Worth were learned to be members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, one of the vicious groups that operates in both the United States and Central America. However, as authorities declared, numerous have been part of smaller criminal groups in the Dallas area, and those include How High Krew and Deuce Deuce Beckley.

According to Chakwin, "nearly 66 percent of those captured were gang members," and that "he has never observed a lot of local gangs over the past four years that he has been here."

The apprehensions became the work of a national gang unit organized by the ICE. The ICE is known as the largest agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

Even if the raid was announced as aiming at trans-national gangs under "Operation Community Shield," it was learned that 42 of those apprehended turned out to be citizens of the U.S., declared by ICE personnel. Nearly 33 percent of those captured were in the U.S. undocumented and accused of administrative infringements of immigration law. ICE personnel say that the immigration status of other arrestees remains under scrutiny.

According to ICE officials, from the time when ICE initiated its national gang unit, over 17,500 gang members and affiliates have been captured.