Agent: 41 illegal aliens rounded up, suspected of gang ties
Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Federal immigration agents working with local police said Tuesday that they arrested 41 illegal aliens with gang ties in Northwest Arkansas last week.
U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a gang “surge” in Rogers, Springdale, Bentonville and Fayetteville, said Rod Reyes, resident agent of the immigration agency based in Fort Smith. The operation ran seven days and ended Sunday.
Most arrests were in Rogers and Springdale, Reyes said. Suspects have ties to three Mexican gangs — the Mexican Mafia, Sureno 13 and Latin Kings — and with an El Savadoran gang, Mara Salvatrucha, he said.
Some face only deportation, while others will be charged federally for re-entering the country after already being deported, and for weapons and drug possession.
“These people were living and probably working in the community,” Reyes said.
Those charged federally are scheduled to appear Thursday in U. S. District Court in Fayetteville. Their names weren’t released Tuesday. They were being held in area jails, Reyes said.
Reyes said the roundup was in response to requests for help by local police.
“This was based on demand,” he said. “The local agencies said more needed to be done about gang problems involving illegal aliens.” Officers from the Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville and Fayetteville police departments and the Washington County sheriff ’s office joined with area agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the operation. Ten federal agents from other areas also took part “saturating” Benton and Washington counties, Reyes said.
The surge, part of the federal program Operation Community Shield, was the first of its kind in Northwest Arkansas, he said.
Immigration agents have been working for months with area police developing intelligence information for the roundup.
In Rogers, an immigration agent began working with the police crime suppression team in May.
Rogers police Sgt. Kelley Cradduck, head of the crime suppression team, said many of those arrested were charged with violating parole or probation.
Illegal aliens who weren’t wanted for serious crimes weren’t arrested during the surge, Cradduck said.
“This targeted the criminalalien element, not aliens who are [only ] living here illegally,” he said.
Some gang members targeted in the roundup had already moved from the area, Cradduck said.
The gang element tends to be a population that moves often, he said.
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