Member of MS-13, a feared criminal gang, was captured in Hitchcock early this afternoon.

Member of MS-13, a feared criminal gang, was captured in Hitchcock early this afternoon. The Police News learned that undercover police who had intelligence the man was heavy armed, possibly with an AK-47, was hiding in Hitchcock. Lawmen from the Gulf Coast Violent Offender's Task Force accompanied by Hitchcock Police made the arrest at an apartment on Jackson Street.The man is said to be wanted on a multitude of criminal warrants from various parts of the country. He was being taken to Galveston to be arraigned by a federal magistrate. He was to then be taken to jail in Houston.Officials did not identify the man for intelligence reasons.
MS-13 is a criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles and has spread to Central America, other parts of the United States, and Canada. The majority of the gang is ethnically composed of Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans.
Their activities have caught the eye of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who in September 2005 initiated wide-scale raids against suspected gang members, netting 660 arrests across United States. ICE efforts were at first directed towards MS-13, in its Operation Community Shield. In May 2005, ICE expanded Operation Community Shield to include all transnational organized crime and prison gangs. ICE's Operation Community Shield has since arrested 7,655 street gang members. In the United States, the gang's strongholds have historically been in the American Southwest and West Coast states.
Membership in the U.S was believed to be as many as about 50,000 as of 2005.
MS-13 criminal activities include drug smuggling and sales, arms trafficking, auto theft, carjacking, home invasion, assault, aggravated assault, assault on law enforcement officials, drive-by shootings, contract killing and murder.
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) oversees the nation's regional fugitive task forces, including the Gulf Coast Violent Offender's Task Force. The purpose of regional fugitive task forces is to combine the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to locate and apprehend the most dangerous fugitives and assist in high profile investigations.Task Force members involved in today MS-13 arrest were from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, FBI, U.S. Marshal's Service, and Galveston County Precinct 8 Constable's Office.

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