Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said Wednesday the IRS should help crack down on gang networks, which law enforcement officials call “the new organized crime.”
“It’s all about money,” Daley told local and federal law enforcement officials at a national summit on gangs. “Why can’t we basically seize all this money?”
Gang structures and communications - within and between cities and states - revolve around money, Daley explained. “That’s why the IRS is so needed to address this problem.”
The IRS’ criminal investigations division has about 2,800 special agents that look into tax and money laundering, among other crimes. The division helped nab Chicago gangster Al Capone, who went to jail in the 1930s on tax evasion charges.
Chicago police superintendent, Philip J. Cline, said the police department provides names to the IRS on a regular basis. But the IRS is not currently involved directly in police investigations into gang networks.
The IRS was unable to respond immediately to claims it should take a more active role in gang investigations.
“We need all the federal agencies to step up to go after the gangs,” Cline said. “It’s no longer a local problem - it’s a national problem.”
Cline has helped coordinate local and federal officials investigating gang activity in Chicago. The Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering section has been involved, officials said, stressing that gangs are being treated as organized crime groups.