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Long Island Prosecutor To Head MS-13 Task Force

Frank Eltman
/
AP
The casket of Justin Llivicura is carried from St. Joseph the Worker Church after Llivicura's funeral in East Patchogue, N.Y. Llivicura, 16, was one of four young men found slain in a suspected MS-13 gang killing in a park in Central Islip, N.Y., in 2017.

The U.S. Justice Department has promoted a Long Island prosecutor to lead a national task force to combat MS-13. John Durham was praised for arresting “hundreds of MS-13 members” on Long Island and will take over the federal effort.

President Donald Trump has already made MS-13 a major culprit in his crackdown on immigration. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the violent street gang would be one of five targets in a new task force against transnational organized crime comprised of “experienced prosecutors who will coordinate our efforts, develop a plan to take each of these groups off of our streets to defeat them, to dismantle them, to weaken them in every possible way…I think that these organizations will find they are facing far more intense pressure than in the past.”

Sessions has come under Trump’s criticism in recent weeks. Trump has spoken frequently to and about the victims of MS-13 on Long Island.

Sessions says the new task force will report back in 90 days on the most effective way to prosecute more MS-13 crimes.

Charles is senior reporter focusing on special projects. He has won numerous awards including an IRE award, three SPJ Public Service Awards, and a National Murrow. He was also a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and Third Coast Director’s Choice Award.