Fighting Transnational Gangs

By Kamala D. Harris

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has made fighting transnational gangs a top priority to securing safe communities across California.

Last year alone, the Department of Justice-led drug task forces disrupted or dismantled 140 drug, money-laundering and gang organizations, arrested nearly 3,000 individuals, confiscated 1,000 weapons, and seized nearly $28.5 million in U.S. currency in anti-narcotic law enforcement actions statewide. Within her first 100 days in office, the Attorney General brought law enforcement leaders from across the state to California's border with Mexico to see firsthand the everyday problems that transnational gangs cause - the smuggling of guns, drugs and human beings across the border.

In late 2012, Attorney General Harris also issued "The State of Human Trafficking in California," a comprehensive report that analyzed the troubling expansion of transnational gangs from gun and drug trafficking to the sex trafficking of women and girls. The report issued enforcement recommendations for all levels of law enforcement that emphasized increased cooperation and using technology to combat transnational gangs and the devastating impacts of human trafficking.

Attorney General Harris is committed to supporting the cooperative efforts of state, federal and local law enforcement agencies to disrupt and dismantle transnational gangs and the devastating impact of their dangerous crimes in California.