Federal, state and local agencies united with the U.S. Marshals Service District of New Jersey and the NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force to help reduce gang violence across the state of New Jersey in an operation dubbed “Summer in the City” that ran from July 16-20.
Operation “Summer in the City” resulted in the arrest of 166 fugitives, 61 of whom were documented gang members, including 42 Bloods, 13 Crips, three Latin Kings, one Surenos, and one Trinitarios member.
The U.S. Marshals Service in the District of New Jersey and the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force, serving alongside various law enforcement agencies, teamed up for the week-long initiative, targeting New Jersey’s gang members and most violent offenders.
The result of a meeting between the U.S. Marshals Service and the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, Operation “Summer in the City” targeted the most violent fugitives and gang members in the cities of Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, and Camden.
Marshals and task force officers focused on arresting these fugitives in order to make these communities safer.
In addition to apprehending some of New Jersey’s most violent offenders, law enforcement officers also seized 11 firearms, 7.15 kg in narcotics, one vehicle and $100,000 in cash.
“The U.S. Marshals Service is thankful for the relationships that we have with our city, county, state and federal law enforcement partners who worked tirelessly in sweltering and scorching conditions to make ‘Operation Summer in the City’ a huge success,” said U.S. Marshal for the District of New Jersey, Juan Mattos.
“We heard the public’s pleas for help and their expressions of gratitude for making their neighborhoods safer as a result of these arrests.”
“We listened to you loud and clearly, and we will continue pursuing these violent fugitives who are hiding in every corner of your city.”
“Upon becoming Attorney General, I promised to make fighting violent crime a top priority, and this operation is part of delivering on that promise in a collaborative way,” said New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal.
“Law enforcement throughout New Jersey has a tremendous partner in the U.S. Marshals Service, and our strategy in ‘Operation Summer in the City’ was to conduct the type of operations that the U.S. Marshals conduct every day, but multiply our forces so we could blanket these four cities with deputy marshals and other law enforcement officers and target New Jersey’s most dangerous fugitives.”
“This collaboration, including the tremendous work of our county prosecutors’ offices, who are prosecuting the overwhelming majority of these fugitives, is a great example of how we are working together to reduce and prevent violent crime in New Jersey.”
“In fact, six-month data for 2018 shows a decline of 24 percent in shooting ‘hit’ victims in New Jersey compared to the same period in 2017, and a 23 percent decline in shooting murder victims, and I think that law enforcement is having a real impact in these declines by leveraging the great cooperative relationships we have fostered and sharing intelligence to address major causes of violence.”
“Law enforcement agencies work best when they work together, and this sweep of gang members and violent offenders is an outstanding example.”
The U.S. Marshals Gang Enforcement Program is part of the agency’s Organized Crime and Gangs Branch.
Through strategic fugitive investigations, the OCAG seeks to disrupt and destabilize criminal networks completely, from the street-level gangster to high-ranking leaders of the most notorious Transnational Criminal Organizations.
In the state of New Jersey alone, the U.S. Marshals Service Gang Task Force and Regional Fugitive Task Force have arrested 242 documented gang members from January through July of this year.
In that same time frame, a total of 1,489 fugitives have been arrested by U.S. Marshals task forces in New Jersey, and that number continues to grow, as each and every single day, some of the most violent offenders in the state are apprehended.
The full list of participating law enforcement agencies include:
- U.S. Marshals
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service
- Homeland Security Investigations
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- New Jersey State Police Gangs and Organized Crime Unit, Fugitive Unit, and K-9
- New Jersey Parole
- New Jersey State Police
- New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice
- New Jersey Department of Corrections
- Port Authority Police Department
- Essex County Sheriff’s Office
- Essex County Prosecutor’s Office
- Hudson County Sheriff’s Office
- Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office
- Union County Sheriff’s Office
- Mercer County Sheriff’s Office
- Trenton Police Department
- Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office
- Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office
- Burlington County Sheriff’s Office
- Ocean County Sheriff’s Office
- Camden County Sheriff’s Office
- Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office
- Camden County Prosecutor’s Office
- Deptford Police Department
- Camden County Metro Police Department
(See a brief introduction to the United States Marshals Service narrated by John Walsh from America’s Most Wanted. Courtesy of Shane T. McCoy and YouTube.)
Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.
