The gang is charged under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, which allows prosecutors to charge individual members as part of a larger criminal organization. In recent years, the act has been used to prosecute human trafficking and gang cases, including charges in 2007 against 28 members of the Crips gang in Wichita — which was the first time RICO was used against gangs in Kansas.
A federal grand jury indicted almost two dozen members of a Latino gang that victimized undocumented immigrants who do their business in cash and are reluctant to go to law enforcement because of their immigration status.
Federal officials have long been keeping an eye on the Dodge City area, which has become a hub for drug trafficking in the Midwest because of its remote location and easy access to places like Denver, Kansas City and Oklahoma City. They say gangs have thrived in the area because police lacked resources, including Spanish-speaking officers, and gang members are able to easily blend into the growing Hispanic population.
U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said all but one of the 23 members of the Nortenos gang arrested are first- or second-generation U.S. citizens. He said they preyed on illegal immigrants who were vulnerable and unlikely to seek police protection, using violence and threats to create a climate of fear, defend the gang’s reputation and territory and promote its drug trafficking activities.
“The indictment alleges members of the Nortenos preyed on Guatemalan immigrants who work in the beef packing plants in Dodge City,” Grissom said. “It is well known among the Nortenos that many of the Guatemalan workers do not use banks and try to avoid contact with law enforcement officers. They are smaller in stature and they are unlikely to be armed.”
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