Huge roundup of drug insurgents in LA

Washington Times:

Drug-enforcement agents swept through Los Angeles this week in the second major wave of arrests of members and associates of a violent Hispanic street gang known as Florencia 13, who have targeted rival blacks and others "who got in the way" of their efforts to control parts of the city.

Four separate federal grand jury indictments identified 102 suspected gang members and associates, who face federal charges ranging from racketeering and narcotics trafficking to illegal weapon possession and murder.

A federal task force rounded up 80 of those named so far as part of "Operation Joker's Wild," a three-year investigation into Florencia 13, or F-13.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokesman Rusty Payne said the operation targeted the F-13 organization "top to bottom, as well as its criminal associates," who are controlled by jailed members of the Mexican mafia prison gang and Mexican mafia members on the street.

Mr. Payne said the F-13 gang controlled drug distribution in the unincorporated areas around Los Angeles, collecting taxes or "rent" from gang members and others who engaged in criminal conduct.

In return, he said, the Mexican mafia protected them when they went to prison or jail.

Law enforcement officers consider F-13 a dangerous gang that controls the largest area in all the Los Angeles district. Its membership is said to be in the thousands. Members are divided into dozens of cliques, or subgroups.

The gang also operates in Mexico, Utah, Virginia, Washington state and Missouri.

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This is a growing problem that needs attention like this. These gangs have pretty much destroyed the rule of law in parts of Mexico where they operate like war lords and they were trying to institute similar controls in LA and other cities. In New York prosecutors recently used state terrorism laws to convict a man in a gang related killing. These gangs dfinitely hope to terrorize people into compliance with their will.