On Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced it had completed the largest prosecution of white supremacists in the nation's history.
Eighty-nine members of “violent white supremacist gangs” were convicted, with convicts receiving a total of more than 1,070 years in prison. The gangs — the Aryan Circle, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), the “Irish Mob,” the “White Knights,” “Peckerwood,” and the “Dirty White Boys” — lost several high-ranking members as a result of the prosecution, ICE reported in a press release.
“The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and the Aryan Circle have essentially been decimated in North Texas,” U.S. Attorney John Parker said. Parker, who litigates for the Northern District of Texas, praised Texas authorities for their role in the investigation.
“The outstanding collaborative work of the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Dallas Police Department helped ensure that each of the 89 defendants who were arrested have now been convicted and sentenced,” Parker added.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) joined with Texas law enforcement to crack down on the gangs, which, according to ICE, shifted their focuses from promoting white supremacy to drug-trafficking.
The vast majority of the 89 defendants had prior convictions, including violent offenses, drug-related offenses, and burglaries. ICE detailed the financial aspect of the gangs' trafficking:
Particularly noteworthy is that collectively, the defendants were held accountable for 956 kilograms (about 2,108 pounds) of methamphetamine, with a conservative street value of just under $10 million, as well as possessing and using 88 firearms and dangerous weapons.
Texas charged a total of 91 defendants, but one died before trial, and another remains a fugitive.
The announcement came just days before violent protests, involving white supremacists, shook Charlottesville, Virginia. On Monday, President Donald Trump responded to the events in Charlottesville, calling white supremacists “repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”