FBI Says Gangs Infiltrating the US Military

[High_Gravity]

FBI Says Gangs Infiltrating the US Military

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 servicemember.

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.

FBI Says Gangs Infiltrating the US Military

 

[R.C. Christian]

Well, you can't say they aren't being logical.

 

[waltky]

Investigation into China's ties to gang activity...

China’s ties to gangs to be investigated
Sat, Sep 30, 2017 - ‘EXTERNAL LIAISON OFFICE’: The ‘Liberty Times’ reported that a supposed unit of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has been recruiting organized crime groups for Beijing

China’s apparent manipulation of organized crime groups in Taiwan will not be tolerated, Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong said yesterday. “The government will not tolerate such manipulation and the infiltration of Taiwan’s democratic society from abroad. We are resolved to take action and face the problem, and will conduct a full and in-depth investigation,” Yeh said during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. “We are a nation based on the legal framework of our Constitution, and the people have strong faith in our democratic institutions. Therefore, we must deal with this matter in a serious manner, fully investigate it and take up measures to counter it,” he added. Yeh’s remarks followed a report yesterday by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times), which suggested that the Chinese Ministry of State Security has been operating an “external liaison office” in Xiamen, China, that communicates with and provides financial assistance to organized crime groups in Taiwan.

Citing sources in the nation’s intelligence agencies, the Liberty Times said that the external liaison office is nominally an organization at the provincial level under China’s Taiwan Affairs Office that handles cross-strait exchange programs, but is in reality an intelligence operations center for political warfare, covert espionage activities and related “united front” work against Taiwan. As the local unit of the Chinese ministry, it is mainly tasked with monitoring Taiwanese organized crime groups that have business and other activities in China, with the aim of recruiting and manipulating the groups into working for Beijing, the report said. The external liaison office has successfully built up a good working relationship with Taiwan’s Bamboo Union and the Four Seas Gang, whose members receive funding to do Beijing’s bidding, the report added. Senior members of the two groups who ran afoul of the law and fled to China to establish businesses or operate in the underground economy became easy targets for recruitment by Chinese intelligence agencies, as they had to collude with local officials to be able to operate and receive forms of political and police protection, the report said.

New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming yesterday urged the government to get a handle on the situation and determine if the Chinese government had a direct hand in attacks on university students by members of the Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP) at a music festival in Taipei on Sunday. “Shanghai Municipal Taiwan Affairs Office Director Li Wenhui was at the ‘Sing! China: Shanghai-Taipei Music Festival.’ We must find out if he played a role in the violence by CUPP members against students,” Hsu said. “We know CUPP Chairman Chang An-le is a gang boss and that he has close links to Chinese authorities,” Hsu said. “It looks like red [China] and black [organized crime organizations] are joining forces against Taiwan.” “It is also important to find out if these criminal gangs and the CUPP are receiving large sums of money from China to finance their activities in Taiwan,” he added.

China’s ties to gangs to be investigated - Taipei Times