FBI Director Kash Patel hopes to develop the bureau’s new activity power to all 50 states after rounding up dozens of migrant gang members since its debut, and prosecutors on Lengthy Island — which has seen its communities terrorized by MS-13 — are urging Gov. Hochul to roll out the pink carpet.
“Gov. Hochul should be open to a conversation about having a gang task force here. I support it. We should do everything in our power to take down these gangs,” Nassau County District Legal professional Anne Donnelly instructed The Submit.
“In Nassau, we always work closely with our federal partners, state partners. I work with whoever will help us improve public safety.”
The primary-in-the-nation interagency activity power, led by the FBI, was established to focus on “violent criminals and illegals harming our citizenry and our way of life,” Patel instructed The Submit.
The regulation enforcement businesses concerned embody totally different FBI area workplaces, the Border Patrol, ICE’s Enforcement and Elimination Operations, the Virginia State Police, the Virginia Division of Corrections, the Drug Enforcement Administration and extra.
Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi introduced on Wednesday {that a} main activity power operation in Virginia had netted 340 criminals since its March 3 launch, together with gang members from infamous and violent gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.
On Thursday, the duty power nabbed Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, a 24-year-old unlawful immigrant from El Salvador, the East Coast’s prime chief of MS-13, whom Bondi branded “the worst of the worst.”
Lengthy Island communities like Brentwood in Suffolk County have seen a number of the worst of MS-13’s savagery in recent times, together with the cruel slaying of harmless youngsters.
In January, Jairo Saenz, 28, a high-ranking MS-13 chief nicknamed “Funny,” grinned in federal court docket as he was hit with a 60-year sentence for a sequence of seven horrific murders relationship again to 2016.
On his orders, MS-13 members brutally murdered Kayla Cuevas, 16, and her 15-year-old good friend, Nisa Mickens, with baseball bats and machetes, prosecutors mentioned. The teenagers had been killed as a result of the gang believed they’d disrespected them on social media.
These and different migrant gang-related killings on Lengthy Island led a few of its prime regulation enforcement authorities to say they’d eagerly welcome the enlargement of the Virginia activity power to incorporate New York.
“Because of the violent history of MS-13 on Long Island, law enforcement in Nassau and Suffolk counties have been working with our state and federal partners all along,” Suffolk County District Legal professional Ray Tierney instructed The Submit.
“If our federal partners want to expand, it’s a great idea and we hope that it would bring funding, which would allow us to do more to combat these dangerous gangs.”
An FBI spokesperson instructed The Submit that the Virginia activity power will now be used as a mannequin nationwide.
“This task force proves what’s possible when strong leadership meets real collaboration. In just four weeks, we took down 342 criminals in Virginia by uniting state, local, and federal resources — backed by DOJ and driven by AG Pam Bondi’s vision,” the spokesperson mentioned.
“With Governor Youngkin setting the standard, we’re now taking this model nationwide to restore law and order in communities across America.”
The Trump administration has made battling MS-13 one in all its prime priorities.
“MS-13 is one of the most dangerous gangs in our country, and we are going to fight until they are completely dismantled,” Bondi mentioned.
Hochul’s workplace didn’t reply to The Submit’s request for a touch upon whether or not she’d be open to the duty power working in New York.
Further reporting by Carl Campanile, Josh Christenson and Brandon Cruz
