This is not surprising to me - the Navy, in particular, has been known
to actively recruit gang leaders to join the Seals. Kinda like
recruiting the Taliban to fight Russian invaders in Afghanistan, back
in the 80s.
Barry
On Oct 25, 2011, at 9:30 PM, Ray Harrell wrote:
These people need housebreaking.
REH
From Military.com
The U.S. military is facing a "significant criminal threat" from
gangs, including prison and biker gangs, whose members have found
their way into the ranks, according to an FBI-led investigation.
Some gang members get into the military to escape the streets, but
then end up reconnecting once in, while others target the services
specifically for the combat and weapons training, the National Gang
Intelligence Center says in a just-released 2011 National Gang
Threat Assessment/Emerging Trends.
Whatever the reasons, it's a bad mix.
""Gang members with military training pose a unique threat to law
enforcement personnel because of their distinctive weapons and
combat training skills and their ability to transfer these skills to
fellow gang members," the report states. Gang members have been
reported in every branch of the armed forces, though a large
proportion of them have been affiliated with the Army, the Army
Reserves or Army National Guard, it says.
The gang report is the third by the NGIC since 2005 and includes the
most information yet on gangs in the military. The 2005 report made
no mention of gang members in the armed forces, while the 2009
report devoted two paragraphs to the problem and listed 19 gangs
said to include military-trained members.
The NGIC is a multi-agency operation -- federal, state and local –
headed up by the FBI to bring together intelligence on gangs and
gang activity.
The latest report devotes four pages to the problem and lists about
50 gangs with members with military backgrounds.
In the past three years, it states, law enforcement officials in
more than 100 jurisdictions have encountered, detained or arrested a
gang member who was on active-duty or a former service member.
Younger gang members, who do not have arrest records, are reportedly
making attempts to join the military, and also attempting to conceal
any gang affiliation, including tattoos, during the recruitment
process.
And given the large U.S. military footprint overseas, gangs and gang
dependents have found their way onto bases from Japan to Germany and
Afghanistan and Iraq, where the center recorded instances of gang
graffiti on military vehicles.
The report also specifically relates the 2010 cases of three former
Marines arrested in Los Angeles for selling illegal assault weapons
the Florencia 13 gang, and a U.S. Navy SEAL charged in Colorado with
smuggling military-issued machine guns and other weapons from Iraq
and Afghanistan into the U.S.
"Gang members armed with high-powered weapons and knowledge and
expertise acquired from employment in law enforcement, corrections
or the military may pose an increasing nationwide threat, as they
employ these tactics and weapons against law enforcem4nt officials,
rival gang members and civilians," the NGIC report says.
The NGIC assessment is not the first to look at the rising problems
of gang members in the military. The Army's Criminal Investigation
Division has done a number of them over the years. It found the
number of investigations of gang-related violent crimes rising to 9
in 2005, after several years of decline, with just 3 the year before.
Most Soldiers found linked to gangs are junior enlisted members, CID
found.
"Overall, military communities continue to be a more stable, secure
and lawful environment than their civilian counterparts, especially
given recent access control and other security enhancements," Army
CID concluded.
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