Mexican drug trafficking organizations -- with their large stashes of narcotics and cash -- are becoming an enticing robbery target for criminal street gangs, according to gang investigators from throughout Georgia.
A string of recent drug rip-offs are causing cartels to arm themselves more heavily, which could prove dangerous for law enforcement officers, said John Houston, supervisory special agent for the FBI Atlanta Division.
A small number of reporters were allowed to attend this month's Georgia Gang Investigators Association meeting – which is usually private – on the condition that they not identify the gang behind a string of recent drug rip-offs or disclose its country of origin. Doing so would compromise an active investigation, said Gwinnett police spokesman Cpl. David Schiralli.
About 100 gang investigators from local, state and federal law enforcement agencies attended the meeting Wednesday at a training center for the Gwinnett County Police Department in Lawrenceville.
Investigators said the Latino street gang that has been targeting Mexican cartels in the metro Atlanta area is violent, brash and increasing in numbers.
Three homicides in Gwinnett this year have been traced to the gang, said Sgt. Larry Bright of the Gwinnett County Police Department. This includes a shootout on May 11 that left one man dead and three wounded on Buckingham Place in Duluth.
"They are hitting stash houses," Bright said.
The members of this gang are extremely violent and have been known to cut the ears off children or burn them with hot irons to get what they want, Bright said. The gang is operating in at least five states, but most of its members are foreign nationals.
Gangs and drugs often go hand-in-hand, and nowhere is that more evident than in Atlanta. Authorities say gangs are attracted to Atlanta because of its size, location, large immigrant population and the city's reputation for being a drug trafficking hub.
Information sharing within the Georgia Gang Investigators Association has helped solve 12 homicides and numerous robberies and burglaries during the 11 years it has been in existence, according to the association president, Gwinnett police Detective Marco Silva.
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