More than 300 of “the-worst-of-the-worst” gangbangers are being targeted for deportation as illegal immigrants - including the brazen thug who dashed past Mayor Thomas M. Menino carrying a loaded gun.
Of 322 gang members now facing being tossed out of the country, as many as 204 are members of the notoriously violent MS-13 gang from Central America - an international crime organization the Herald spotlighted as a homeland security threat in 2005 in a series of reports.
“We are throwing everything we can at the criminal offenders. Our focus is on the worst of the worst,” Bruce Fourcart, special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said yesterday.
ICE is working with Boston cops to show gang members the door to “leverage the law” to take gangbangers off the street, said Boston PoliceCommissioner Edward Davis.
Among the reputed gang associates currently being detained by ICE is Adelino Monteiro, 20, who police say dashed within feet of Menino in August 2006 as the mayor was on a walking tour of Dorchester. Monteiro allegedly had his hand on a gun on his hip.
A Suffolk County jury acquitted Monteiro of the gun charge in June, despite the testimony of BPD Deputy Superintendent Dan Linskey, who tore a rotator cuff tackling the alleged gunman.
But ICE officials say Monteiro had a previous criminal record and is associated with Cape Verdean gang members and will be deported back to that island. He has been imprisoned since his 2006 arrest.
One of the MS-13 gang members arrested in recent ICE raids, Mauricio Ventura of Chelsea, is a suspect in an unsolved shooting. Another, Chacha Abou of East Boston, also is a suspect in a shooting and other violent crimes, officials said. Both had been arrested numerous times but now are being held by ICE.
Members of H-Block, another dangerous gang operating in Boston, also are being targeted for deportation.
“The average person that simply has status issues has nothing to fear from local authorities. We want to protect them as well any other citizen is protected. When someone crosses that line and is involved in serious criminal activity, that’s when we go after them,” Davis said. “Clearly deporting a gang member who is here illegally is a tactic that we are using and it’s very effective.”
Some 40 people have been shot dead and another 230 victims have been hit by gunfire on city streets this year, according to BPD statistics released yesterday. Of those shootings, a staggering 75 percent have been traced back to gang involvement, Davis said.
And there are tragic innocent victims caught in the cross fire. Just last week, 13-year-old Steven Odom was cut down outside his home by a misfired bullet squeezed off by purported Franklin Hill gang members who were aiming at someone else.
“Violent foreign-born gang members and their associates have more than worn out their welcome,” Julie Meyers, assistant secretary for Homeland Security for ICE in Washington, said in a statement yesterday. “To them I have one message: ‘Good riddance.’ ”
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