Columbia, SC (WLTX) - A nationwide crackdown on international gang activity operating in the U.S. has lead to the arrest of 17 suspects in South Carolina, federal agents said Monday.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)'s Homeland Security Investigation announced they'd arrested 1,133 suspects as part of a five-week long operation called Project Shadowfire. Federal authorities say the suspects were involved in drug trafficking, human smuggling, sex trafficking, murder, and racketeering.
Two suspects were from Lexington County. The rest were in Darlington County (1 arrest), Charleston County (3 arrests), Dorchester County (1 arrest), and Colleton County (10 arrests) .
The operation began on February 15 and ended on March 21.
Most of those arrested were U.S. citizens, agents say, but 239 foreign nationals from 123 countries in Central America, Asia, Europe were also taken into custody. Of the arrests, 915 were gang members and associates, 1,001 were charged with criminal offenses, and 132 were arrested administratively for immigration violations.
ICE says 150 firearms and $70,000 in drugs were also seized.
“This operation is the latest example of ICE’s ongoing efforts, begun more than a decade ago under Operation Community Shield, to target violent gang members and their associates, to eradicate the violence they inflict upon our communities and to stop the cash flow to transnational organized crime groups operating overseas,” said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña said in a statement.
