Alabama Has Third Highest Number of Arrests in Nationwide Sweep of Hispanic Gangs

Forty-two people were taken into custody in the B'ham metro area and Decatur. Over half of the Alabama arrests were in Hoover. (How'd we guess?) Hmmm...did anyone take pictures?

From the B'ham News:

In Alabama, the majority of the arrests were in Hoover. Twenty-two people were arrested in the sprawling city south of Birmingham, eight of them suspected gang members and 14 of them associates, said Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis...

Derzis said he did not know the charges because the people - most of them from Mexico - were transferred into the custody of federal immigration officials. Associates are those who were with an alleged gang member at the time of his arrest, and it was not known how many of them were also charged.

Derzis said Hoover police had noticed some gang-related graffiti and tattoos and were developing a list of people to watch. After consulting with immigration officials and law enforcement in the Atlanta area, they were able to confirm some of them were in national databases of suspected criminal gang members.

"What is Atlanta doing to push them out? And if they push them out, are we going to start seeing them two hours down the interstate?" Derzis said. "The emerging problem is that maybe the large cities are doing such a great job that a lot of individuals are leaving larger cities and making their way to smaller cities, and they think they can get away with it."