Governor Youngkin signs executive order to combat gang recruitment among Virginia youth

WASHINGTON (7News) — Gangs continue to grow and spread violence by recruiting new members, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a new Executive Order.

The governor said gang recruitment is increasingly occurring at a young age, sometimes as young as 10 years old, and Virginia law enforcement is combating more than 650 identified criminal street gangs and criminal organizations.

“I am deeply concerned about the complexity of gang activity in Virginia,” Youngkin said in an interview with 7News.

That’s why Youngkin signed an Executive Order to implement new strategies aimed at protecting youth from joining gangs.

“Through dedicated efforts in collaboration with federal, state and local resources over the past year, we have had great success in addressing the majority of drug trafficking,” Youngkin said. “But we’re going to take this to a whole new level. Violence has increased as a result of gang activity, especially with the unprecedented level of gang activity due to Mexican cartels using gangs as fronts for drug distribution, and that’s why we do so much business there.

Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman announced Friday that his office arrested an 18-year-old suspect from Alexandria who killed two people in Sterling, Virginia.

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“We know he was an MS-13 gang member, and he admitted to being an MS-13 gang member,” Chapman said. “He is in the country illegally.”

On Monday, 7News asked Chapman questions about what he’s doing to combat gang activity.

Chapman said his office is one of the only local law enforcement agencies in the Washington, D.C. area to work in collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Does the national issue when it comes to illegal immigration impact local communities like Loudoun County?” Minock asked Chapman.

“It is,” said Chapman. “We’ve certainly returned over 200 people (illegally in the US) to ICE, and about 100 of them have been deported. That’s why we work so closely with ICE. I don’t know if anyone else in the Washington DC Metropolitan area does, but we do because we work with all of our federal counterparts. Whether you’re from DEA, ATF, ICE, or local law enforcement, I realize everyone has different duties to do, but the only way to make a real impact is for everyone to work together. And the key here is to cooperate with each other.”

“7According to reports from Loudoun County, there is a student in Loudoun County Public Schools with ties to the MS-13 gang. Do you see the MS-13 gang targeting young men like this to join their gang?” 7 News Reporter Nick Minock asked Chapman.

“Yes, they seem to be targeting 14-, 13-, 14-15-year-old youth to recruit people into gangs,” Chapman said.

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Chapman said his office tracks and identifies people suspected of involvement in gangs, including MS-13. This includes tracking and identifying youth associated with gangs with the assistance of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office’s School Resource Officers located in Loudoun County Public Schools.

“When it comes to drug distribution, we look at anything that could involve human trafficking, sex trafficking, if it’s gang-related, absolutely anything,” Chapman said.

“What is the MS-13 gang doing in Loudoun County? Drugs? Is it human trafficking or something else?” Minock asked Chapman.

“Well, it’s both, sort of. It’s like anything they can do to make money. And I would say it’s mostly fentanyl trafficking,” Chapman said. “We did some activity with some gang members there in 2012, 2013, 2014, mostly in our Sterling area, who had a connection to a 16-year-old student who was murdered at a bus stop while he was waiting for his bus. One of the gangs was actually trying to get out of the gang and the gangs didn’t want to do it. He was killed. Another murder was committed there shortly after that, but that seemed like 10 years ago. And now we’re seeing another increase in that, and that concerns me, especially when you look at what’s going on in the country, across the country, when you see all this activity, the increased crime, all this violent crime that’s happening, open borders, fentanyl overdoses increasing over the years and all of that. part of it. They’re not the only ones running this, but they’re definitely a big part of it. “So what we’re trying to do is make sure we keep Loudoun safe and work incredibly hard.”