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San Diego

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A special investigative and prosecutorial unit that will target gangs and drug-related violent crime will be created with a $250,000 federal grant awarded to the San Diego County district attorney’s office.

Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller said creation of the new unit, which will be called the Urban Street Gang Drug Trafficking Enforcement Program, comes at a time when gang- and drug-related violence is rising sharply in many parts of the county, particularly in Southeast San Diego.

The new unit should be in place by mid-August, and Miller said its members will include two prosecutors, two law enforcement officers and support personnel.

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The team will construct detailed profiles of young gang leaders suspected of drug trafficking, and rank them in order of law enforcement concern and danger to society.

“We want to know the relative therapeutic impact on the community as each of those criminals is taken off the street,” Miller said.

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