AG Jeff Sessions Warns Deadly MS-13: 'We Are Targeting You'

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to Central Islip Friday with a message for the deadly MS-13 gang members he believes are a threat to the American public: "We are targeting you."

The AG then spent more than 30 minutes outlining his plans to "demolish" MS-13, the gang believed to be behind horrific murders in the Brentwood/Central Islip area.

Sessions spoke at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, his first visit to Long Island since he was appointed attorney general.

Earlier this month, the bodies of four men who were suspected of being brutally murdered by the MS-13 gang were discovered in a Central Islip park. The bodies were found just a few miles from where police say MS-13 gang members killed numerous people, including Brentwood High School students Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas last year. Thirteen MS-13 members have been charged in connection to seven murders in Brentwood over the past several years.

Rep. Peter King, R-Seaford, who spoke to Patch about the critical issue of unaccompanied minors in a look inside the brutal gang this week, introduced Sessions.

Sessions, King said, has "dedicated his life to law enforcement." He applauded his commitment regarding MS-13 on Long Island. "He is a great patriot," King said.

Sessions said the U.S. Department of Justice is committed to public safety, utilizing classic law enforcement techniques to reverse the rise in crime across the country.

Sessions pointed out that there had been 30 years of decline in crime in America. "It's coming back up," he said, with a 10 to 11 percent increase in murders in 2015, "the highest increase in murders in over 40 years," he said. "We're seeing more drugs, more deaths."

Sessions vows "to demolish" MS-13

On the 99th day of President Donald Trump's administration, Sessions said, "The president did promise to make America safe again."

There have been three executive orders focused on the escalating concerns, including reducing crime, a vow to "demolish" transnational criminal organizations, including MS-13, and ensuring the safety of "men and women in blue," he said.

Trump, Sessions said, has spoken directly to him about the recent murders of the four young men found in Central Islip.

MS-13, he said, are a "group of murderers, traffickers and thugs, carrying out a frontal assault" on law-abiding men and women; they must not be allowed to take over a single block or street corner. "This is an assault on law and safety, and we're not going to let it happen," he said.

He added, "Gang violence is in the headlines, right here on Long Island, and we're going to see what we can learn today ... to see if we can do a better job in confronting it."

For those who believe gangs and cartel members are "powerful figures that can't be touched," Sessions reminded that in the past, the federal government has made "substantial progress against MS-13. We hammered these organizations. But they've come back," Sessions said, adding, "We can hammer them again — and we will do so."

State police, Sessions said, are on the forefront, but federal officials also play a critical role. "If we work together I believe we can dismantle these organizations, and it's going to be one of our top priorities," he said.

A message for MS-13

According to Sessions, "MS-13's motto is kill, rape and control. Our motto is going to be justice for victims and consequences for criminals. I have a message to the gangs that are targeting our young people: We are targeting you. We are coming after you."

The attorney general promised to prosecute gang members to the fullest extent of the law and deport those that are in the United States illegally.

Transnational criminal organizations, he added, "represent one of the greatest threats to America's public safety today. They also threaten the very existence of stable governments in their own home countries with the wealth they have obtained and the violence they use. They enrich themselves by peddling poison in our communities, trafficking children for prostitution, and inflicting horrific violence in our neighborhoods, where they operate."

MS-13, he said, ships "ill-gotten wealth back to home criminal enterprises."

Sessions said there are more than 30,000 MS-13 abroad, with their headquarters in the El Salvadorian prison system. "That's where the bosses operate from," he said.

In the United States, he said MS-13 can be found in at least 40 states, with numbers increasing.

"The justice department has zero tolerance for gang violence," Sessions said. "If you are a gang member, know this: We will find you and we will devastate your network, starve your revenue sources, deplete your ranks and seize your profits."

Long-term success in taking down gangs

The long-term success to taking down "aggressive transnational crime organizations" lies in securing borders and installing a lawful system of immigration, Sessions said.

"We cannot continue with this transporting across our borders illegal immigrants who haven't been properly vetted and are actually part of criminal organizations," he said.

Transnational crime organizations are bringing members almost exclusively across the Mexican border, stationing gang members at safe houses in Texas, Sessions said.

Speaking to the issue of undocumented minors, Sessions said the federal government transports them where they would like to go; one witness, he said, "shocked" him by saying he took the minors to their destination cities.

"This is how we are. And I think the bad guys know how this system works, and have exploited it," Sessions said.

Moving forward, the AG promised to identify networks, investigate and build cases against gang members, and dismantle gangs through targeted prosecution, as well as to deport convicted criminals in the country illegally.

Each year, he reminded, the United States admits 1.1 million new permanent, legal residents, with millions more coming lawfully on visas and returning to their own countries.

"This is not ending immigration to America," Sessions said. "This is ensuring the legal system is properly enforced and maybe winning the confidence of American people who were pretty disgusted with us for the last few decades."

Prevention, Sessions said, is also key, with education of young people critical. "We know that gangs aren't content to ruin the lives of just adults," he said, adding that they are recruiting in high schools as well as middle and elementary schools. "Every time they convert a young person to their dangerous, depraved life of violence and crime they steal those young people's future and our nation's future."

Sessions also addressed the heroin and opioid epidemic sweeping the nation.

And, in support of law enforcement, he said, "This is the Trump era. . . We have your back."

Looking ahead, Sessions said prosecuting violent crime is a priority of the DOJ, working with state and local governments to target the most violent offenders; Homeland Security is carrying out Trump's promise to secure the border and implement a lawful system of immigration, he said.

Illegal border crossings, he said, reached record low numbers in March, he added.

And, he said, steps would be taken to end the "lawless practice of so called sanctuary jurisdictions. I believe they've made the country less safe."

Sessions said 42 percent of defendants in U.S. district courts were not citizens.

"This is beginning. In all that we do, the DOJ will be guided by a sense of purpose. We will work to maintain public safety, uphold the Constitution, and enforce our nation's laws to ensure equal justice for all Americans," Sessions said. "We're going to win this fight."

More than 100 protesters gathered in front of the Central Islip courthouse prior to Sessions' visit.

Earlier this week, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa shared his own plan to tackle MS-13, with a second part on Thursday.

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