A two-week federal investigation in Gallatin County ended Friday with the arrest of 10 Mexican-born men, seven of whom are associated with a dangerous street gang known as the Sureņos, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
Nine of the men are awaiting deportation, ICE spokesperson Carl Rusnok said Friday.
The tenth man will face federal charges in Montana of reentering the United States after having been previously deported "multiple times," Rusnok said.
Federal officials did not release the men's names.
The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office, Missouri River Drug Task Force and West Yellowstone Police Department all helped arrest the gang members -- two in West Yellowstone and eight in Bozeman, according to an ICE statement.
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The Hispanic gang is most active criminally in Southern California ... Its members hold significant sway in and out of most California Department of Corrections facilities, and are rapidly gaining footholds in the federal prisons.
The Sureņos are subservient to the Mexican Mafia and if any member "becomes involved in a fight with law enforcement, all Sureņos are required to assist the gang member against the police" or prison staff member, Valdemar wrote.
In the Gallatin County arrests, illegal reentry is the only criminal charge pending, "at least so far," Rusnok said.
However, information collected by law-enforcement agencies "indicates that criminal gangs, such as the Sureņos and others, are becoming increasingly involved in Montana with smuggling and distributing narcotics, laundering illicit drug proceeds, and other illegal activities," the ICE release stated.
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As for whether the arrests mark the end of the Sureņos gang in this area, Rusnok said, "That would be a little naīve. This is an ongoing process."