HOUSTON – U.S. Marshals and Houston police have been cracking down on gangs throughout town the past three months.
Inside a police substation on South Gessner on Thursday afternoon, law enforcement came together to announce 341 arrests, 220 of whom are confirmed gang members.
The mission, called Operation Triple Beam, is a nationwide effort to bring federal resources to local agencies to dismantle organized gang activity in major cities across the U.S. This is the first time the operation has come to Houston.
Among those arrested were MS-13 members and three men who were wanted for a capital murder out of Lee County, near Austin.
“They were involved in a home invasion and committed a murder, did it there, and ran here thinking that they wouldn’t be caught,” said Miguel Dominguez, a deputy U.S. Marshal who headed up the operation. “So that was a rewarding deal, especially catching them the way we did: back to back to back.”
In all, 62 guns were seized, $60,000 in cash and more than $1 million in drugs were taken off the streets. The result was one of the most successful operations in the program’s history.
KHOU 11 Investigates crunched the numbers and mapped out gang-crime hot spots across the city. See the map below or tap/click here.
Photos: Operation Triple Beam
Photos: Operation Triple Beam