Mexican street gang members arrested in Bozeman, West Yellowstone

[Lucinda F. Boyd]

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 Sureños, 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.

The operation and arrests went smoothly, Gallatin County Sheriff Jim Cashell said Friday. Federal authorities "called and asked for help so we assigned some people to it," he said, but could not say how many deputies were involved.

Cashell declined to comment further. "We're not going to say anything that would compromise the federal investigation."

The Hispanic gang is most active criminally in Southern California, Richard Valdemar wrote in a story about the gang in the April edition of Police magazine. 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 Sureños are subservient to the Mexican Mafia and if any member "becomes involved in a fight with law enforcement, all Sureños 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 Sureños 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.

A 46-year-old Livingston man indicted last month on federal racketeering charges was identified as the president of a fledgling chapter of the Outlaw motorcycle gang. John "Bull" Banthem "was actively recruiting members and trying to establish" the group in the area, Park County Attorney Brett Linneweber told the Chronicle at the time.

Friday's arrests were made as part of a national initiative -- Operation Community Shield -- that partners ICE agents with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies "to target the significant public safety threat posed by transnational criminal street gangs," ICE agents said in the written statement.

As for whether the arrests mark the end of the Sureños gang in this area, Rusnok said, "That would be a little naïve. This is an ongoing process."..