INS Sees Organized Crime Rise
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WASHINGTON — The Immigration and Naturalization Service said today organized criminal gangs that spill across the nation’s borders are on the rise, trafficking in drugs and engaging in loan-sharking, gambling, extortion and murder-for-hire.
Levels of criminal activity by groups ranging from the Japanese Yakuza to Jamaican crime networks “appear to be escalating dramatically,” the INS concluded in a report. It said up to 58 murders in the West Indian communities in Washington and Baltimore in the last five years are attributable to Jamaican crime groups. Nigerian criminal elements in Baltimore are “driving American Express up the wall” with massive credit card fraud, said Jack Shaw, assistant INS commissioner for investigations.
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