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National Gang Intelligence Center |
Most regions in the United States will experience increased gang membership, continued migration of gangs to suburban and rural areas, and increased gang-related criminal activity. These increases are largely the result of the continued expansion of gang-operated criminal networks. Better-organized urban gangs will continue to expand their criminal networks into new market areas in suburban and rural locations, where they can absorb unaffiliated local gangs or use violence to intimidate them.
Gang-related violence is very likely to remain at high levels or increase as gangs expand their criminal operations into suburban and rural communities. As these gangs encounter resistance from local gangs or other drug distributors in these communities, an increase in violent incidents such as assaults, drive-by shootings, and homicides can be expected.
Neighborhood-based gangs account for the majority of gangs active in the United States; however, national gangs commit more organized criminal activity and continue to expand their networks. Neighborhood-based gangs will continue to consume the resources of local law enforcement in communities that report high levels of gang-related criminal activity, but migration of national gangs into new areas will pose an increasing threat to such communities.
As gangs continue to expand and evolve from local- or regional-level gangs to sophisticated national-level gangs, most will continue to foster relationships with wholesale-level drug traffickers in Mexico and/or Canada. Such relationships are more likely for Hispanic gangs operating along the U.S.-Mexico border; these gang members often have personal and family ties to DTO members in Mexico.
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