REUTERS/Jose Cabezas
A policeman detains a suspected member of the MS-13 gang at a checkpoint in Apopa, El Salvador, July 28, 2015.
- Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new transnational organized-crime task force on Monday. It's part of the Trump administration's crackdown on crime that has been one of its priorities since President Donald Trump took office.
- The Justice Department, following Trump's lead, has intensified its efforts against the transnational gang MS-13, which started in the US and is now based in Central America.
- Sessions designated the group a priority for the department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
- Subcommittees within the new task force will focus on the five groups named by those officials.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new transnational organized-crime task force on Monday, furthering a crackdown on crime that he said has been a Trump administration priority since Day 1.
"The same day I was sworn in as attorney general, President Trump ordered me to disrupt and dismantle these groups," Sessions said in remarks delivered in Washington, DC.
The Justice Department, following Trump's lead, has intensified its efforts against the transnational gang MS-13, which started in the US and is now based in Central America. Sessions designated the group a priority for the department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which he said had been able to hit it "from all angles."
Sessions directed that task force, as well as Justice Department officials, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration to name the top transnational criminal groups threatening the US. Subcommittees within the new task force will focus on the five groups named by those officials.
"I have ordered each of these subcommittees to provide me with specific recommendations within 90 days on the best ways to prosecute these groups and ultimately take them off of our streets," Sessions said.
Below, you can see the five groups on which the Justice Department's new task force will focus.