Tampa ICE special agent (featured on left) named state's gang investigator of the year
Tampa ICE special agent named state's gang investigator of the year
TAMPA, Fla. — A special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office in Tampa was named the Gang Investigator of the Year today by the Florida Gang Investigators Association.
ICE HSI Special Agent Michael Fabyanic has been conducting gang investigations in Tampa for the past four years and is a member of the Tampa Bay Multi Agency Gang Task Force (MAGTF).
This year, Special Agent Fabyanic participated in numerous MAGTF operations that sought out gang members throughout the Tampa Bay area. He was nominated for the Gang Investigator of the Year by States Attorney Investigator Douglas Bieniek. According to the nomination, Special Agent Fabyanic's training and motivation have assisted in the removal of more than 175 dangerous gang members from the Tampa Bay MAGTF area.
"I commend Special Agent Fabyanic for his tireless efforts to combat gangs in our community and for receiving this prestigious award," said Susan McCormick, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Tampa. "These gangs not only deal in drugs, but their members commit violent crimes and terrorize our neighborhoods. Disrupting and dismantling their activities is a top priority for ICE and we're committed to working with our local law enforcement partners on this important task."
As the principal investigative arm for the Department of Homeland Security, ICE through its national initiative, Operation Community Shield, partners with existing federal, state, local, and foreign anti-gang efforts to target the significant public safety threat posed by transnational criminal street gangs by sharing intelligence on criminal gang organizations and their leadership, share resources and combine legal authorities to identify, locate, arrest, prosecute, imprison and/or deport transnational gang members.
Since Operation Community Shield began in February 2005, ICE agents nationwide have arrested more than 22,000 gang members and associates linked to more than 1,200 different street gangs. More than 250 of those arrested were gang leaders.
ICE HSI agents and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers have special authorities that allow them to criminally and administratively arrest gang members and their affiliates who are in the United States illegally. Transnational criminal street gangs typically have significant numbers of foreign-national members and are frequently involved in human smuggling and trafficking, narcotics smuggling and distribution, identity theft, benefit fraud and more. The National Gang Unit at ICE identifies violent street gangs and develops intelligence on their membership, associates, criminal activities and international movements to deter, disrupt and dismantle gang operations by tracing and seizing cash, weapons and other assets derived from criminal seized activities. More information about ICE's efforts to combat transnational gangs is at http://www.ice.gov/national-gang-unit#tab1.
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