The violent street gangs that largely profit from retail drug trafficking increasingly are taking aim at law enforcement authorities from the East to the West coasts.
The NYPD has announced two separate plots against its officers. Yesterday, New York's finest announced "a massive gang takedown" which "uncovered a rare alliance between Bloods and Crips and a ruthless plot to assassinate cops" as reported by Rocco Parascandola for the Daily News:
The revelations came as law enforcement unveiled the chilling results of long-running "Operation Under Siege" - 104 suspects, dozens of guns, two slayings and piles of drugs and cash. The sprawling case was built on wiretaps - including recordings of gang associate Jeith Livingston, who blabbed about plans to protect his drug turf by killing cops on patrol. "He intended to position himself on rooftops and shoot police officers who were compromising his business in Far Rockaway and South Jamaica," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
And last week the NYPD announced an investigation into an alleged plot by the transnational MS-13 to assassinate "an officer in every command" as reported by Rocco Parascandola for the Daily News.
On the West coast, the street gangs have moved from plotting to staging attacks against police officers. In Hemet, CA four booby trap and arson attacks have been targeted against members of the Hemet Gang Task Force in Riverside County since January as reported by David Kelly for the Los Angeles Times:
The first attempted attack came on New Year's Day when someone scaled the offices of the Hemet-San Jacinto Valley Gang Task Force and redirected natural gas lines inside the building in hopes of causing an explosion. It didn't work. Next, a homemade firearm was rigged to go off when gang officers opened the gate to their parking lot. The bullet narrowly missed an officer. The third incident involved what police said was a deadly device affixed to the bottom of an unmarked police car. The device fell off before it could activate. On March 22 someone threatened to burn a police car, and the next day four code-enforcement trucks were torched behind City Hall.
