Inside The New DHS-FBI Task Forces Taking On Transnational Crime

This is long overdue. President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that it launched its first-ever Homeland Security Task Forces (HSTFs) to bring state, local, and federal authorities together to combat transnational crime, foreign terrorist groups, and criminal gangs.

Co-led by the FBI, these task forces will also give the Trump administration a much greater ability to help tackle crime across the country, including high-crime, Democrat-led jurisdictions.

Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) New York Special Agent in charge Ricky Patel announced the formation of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) New York on Wednesday, noting that the crimes they will target include homicide, human trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, and weapons trafficking.

Patel said. “This task force is the first of its kind, using a whole government approach through a unified framework. The HSTF serves as a model for protecting the homeland from evolving threats presented by transnational organized crime.”

He added: “The mission of the HSTF is to identify and target for prosecution transnational criminal organizations engaged in diverse criminal schemes involving a myriad of federal violations, both within the United States and throughout the world.”

While HSTF New York was officially rolled out this week, Patel noted, “This historic, unified collaboration of sharing of resources has already been in motion behind the scenes.”

Meanwhile, HSTFs elsewhere in the country have already produced results.  

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, so far, HSTFs nationwide have resulted in the arrests of more than 3,200 foreign terrorists, narco-traffickers, and gang members.

Officials also seized more than 91 metric tons of narcotics, over $3 million in currency during those operations, as well as over 1,000 Mexican Sinaloa cartel members, 641 Central American MS-13 gang members, and 456 Venezuelan Tren de Aragua criminals, now designated as narco terrorists, the agency said.

The attorney’s office added that the new unit’s primary focus would be investigating transnational criminal organizations designated as foreign terrorist organizations and underscored the task force’s unique approach in allowing “state, local, and federal law enforcement to extend our reach, share intelligence in real time, and target these threats at every level.”

The agencies involved and providing intelligence range from the New York Police Department (NYPD) to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), led by Tulsi Gabbard.

Meanwhile, FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia noted that: “With the new authorities and investigative tools granted to us after the designation of the most violent drug cartels and transnational gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, we will systematically and methodically dismantle these enterprises.”

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said that while down in some areas, crime in New York remains “way above where it should be,” especially in vulnerable communities.

He also noted law enforcement achievements over the last year. This included investigations and charges related to “murders, shootings, stabbings, sex trafficking and narcotics distribution by Tren de Aragua and many other brutally violent gangs.”

Clayton also said that over a dozen narco-terrorists and members of state-sponsored drug cartels had been charged.

And though the federal officials insisted that immigration enforcement is not the primary purpose of the new unit, they added that the New York HSTF will enforce immigration laws if they come across an individual who allegedly broke them.

“HSTFs are set up to, like we all spoke about, to target the transnational criminal organizations. And we’re looking at the criminal violations that they exist with now,” said Patel.

“If there is immigration related violations that we come across while we’re doing these investigations, of course, it is a federal violation. It is a federal crime. We will take action when needed.”

• This report was compiled from multiple sources, including The Washington Examiner, New York Post, Fox News, and DHS, DOJ, and FBI statements.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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