Task Forces Launched to Eliminate Violent Crime by Foreign Gangs, Cartels

Targeted groups will include those recently designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the federal government.

FBI agents patrol Beale Street in Memphis, Tenn., on Oct. 5, 2025. Travis Gillmore/The Epoch Times

The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) have introduced new task forces cracking down on foreign gangs operating in the United States, the FBI said in a statement released on Oct. 24.

“These new teams, known as Homeland Security Task Forces, bring together FBI and HSI personnel—as well as task force officers from local, state, and federal partner agencies—to investigate transnational organized crime activity such as drug trafficking and human trafficking that occurs across all 50 states, the nation’s capital, and Puerto Rico,” the agency said.

According to the FBI, the task force is focused on “rooting out violent crime committed by foreign gangs, cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations impacting the United States.”

In an Aug. 8 statement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it had arrested 356 gang members in the first six months of the Trump administration, who combined had been convicted of nearly 1,700 criminal offenses and had entered the United States illegally more than 1,400 times.

Arrested individuals included convicted murderers, thieves, child predators, and arsonists, the agency said. One individual was found to have illegally entered the country 40 times.

In total, members from 40 different gangs were arrested, including 39 individuals from the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and 25 from Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.

On Oct. 16, ICE announced it had arrested more than 1,400 illegal immigrants in Massachusetts, including those related to transnational criminal gangs. Six of the arrested individuals were documented members of these gangs, and several more were associates.

In its recent statement, the FBI said the Homeland Security Task Forces will target criminal acts such as drug trafficking, homicide, extortion, money laundering, weapons trafficking, alien smuggling, kidnapping, and human trafficking.

Targeted groups will include those recently designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the federal government.

In February, the State Department designated multiple Mexican drug cartels and transnational criminal gangs as global terrorist organizations, including Tren de Aragua, MS-13, and the Sinaloa cartel.

The FBI said that although immigration investigations are not the focus of the task forces, investigators may examine immigration-related aspects as part of their probes.

In addition to the FBI and the HSI—an arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—task forces will include personnel from more than 15 federal agencies, such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Department of War (officially the Department of Defense), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The task forces have been formed in response to a Jan. 20 presidential action signed by President Donald Trump, “Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” The order highlighted the dangers posed by the influx of millions of illegal immigrants into the country who present “significant threats to national security and public safety, committing vile and heinous acts against innocent Americans.”

It directed the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to jointly set up Homeland Security Task Forces in all 50 states.

Threat of Transnational Gangs

According to ICE, transnational gangs take advantage of differences in law enforcement capabilities and legal jurisdictions to avoid detection and prosecution.

These groups focus on taking over the power and reach of other gangs, and competition between them leads to violence that affects the communities they operate in.

The violence and intimidation unleashed by the gangs create an environment of insecurity and fear in communities, and people refuse to cooperate with law enforcement because of concerns about their personal safety, ICE said.

On Sept. 2, Trump announced that U.S. forces in the Caribbean fired on what officials said was a drug boat from Venezuela, which ended up killing 11 Tren de Aragua members.

Talking about the incident during a Sept. 3 press conference, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said losing a small amount of drugs via seizures by U.S. forces was already factored into the economics of Mexican cartels and that stronger action is necessary to thwart such threats.

“Interdiction doesn’t work,” he said. “What will stop them is when you blow them up, when you get rid of them. So they were designated as what they are—they are narco-terrorist organizations.

“[Trump is] going to wage war on narco-terrorist organizations.

“This one was operating in international waters, headed towards the United States to flood our country with poison, and under President Trump, those days are over.”

ICE deported several Tren de Aragua gang members, sexual predators, and other violent illegal immigrants from the United States back to Venezuela on Oct. 15, the DHS said in a statement.

“These public safety threats are out of the country and no longer pose a threat to Americans,” DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.

Under the Trump administration, “more than 2 million illegal aliens have left the U.S.,” she said.

Meanwhile, CBP reported that illegal border crossings are now at historically low levels and that those who do cross are prosecuted swiftly.

According to the agency, there have been zero parole releases in September, “compared to 9,144 released by the Border Patrol under the Biden administration along the southwest border in September 2024.”