Task force's joint efforts taking down crime

kcrawford@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6242

The recent federal indictments of 10 Flint-area people and a Mexican national on drug conspiracy charges and the seizure of more than $800,000 was not just the work of the FBI alone. Or the Genesee County Sheriff's Department Posse alone. Or the Flint Police Department alone.

It was all of the departments working together, authorities say.

"Our goal is the dismantling of gang and criminal enterprises in Flint and Genesee County," said Robert E. Hughes, the supervisory senior agent of the FBI in Flint.

Hughes, Flint Police Chief Gary Hagler and Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell scheduled a press conference this afternoon to reveal that the arrests and indictments of Deshawn Howard of Flint Township and Jorge Viramontes, a Mexican national, in late January and of nine other suspects in a related drug conspiracy in February was the work of the Genesee County Safe Streets Task Force.

Hughes said the task force has been quietly at work for the past several months, with these cases netting the first big arrests. He stressed that the task force is "not another drug team," but a joint effort to break up violent crime rings.

"The group we've taken down is linked to arson, homicides - they run the gamut of violent acts," Hughes said.

Before the last nine Flint-area suspects were indicted by a federal grand jury, a series of raids by the task force, backed by hundreds of other agents and officers, took place on Feb. 23, he said; 12 locations around the area were searched, with drugs, numerous firearms including an AK-47 assault rifle, and large sums of cash seized.

The raids brought the total of confiscated drug funds to more than $800,000, money that will go back into law enforcement efforts, Pickell said.

Hughes said that in the nine years he's been an FBI agent in Flint, he's never seen the level of cooperation between agencies and departments as is now going on, with local officers who have knowledge of the area's gangs, drugs and violent criminals being deputized as federal officers in the task force.

He said that more cases will be coming out of the task force's investigations.

A new dedicated phone line has been set up for the task force to take information about Flint area crime. That number is (810) 239-2371.

"None of us can do this alone," Hagler said about the tip line. "We want people to help, but we want them to be safe. They know who the thugs are."

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