$1.2M grant aims to suppress gangs in Southern Nevada

The Department of Justice awarded $1.2 million in grants in an effort to prevent youths in Clark County from joining gangs.

The department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention awarded the money to develop programs to combat transnational gang MS-13, a Wednesday release said.

The funding will go toward the U.S. attorney’s office’s Project Safe Neighborhoods program, with the hopes of dismantling MS-13 and putting away its members. Grant money will help develop “culturally-specific and culturally-sensitive programs,” outreach efforts, create a custom gang suppression strategy and “build information exchange protocols” among law enforcement agencies and jurisdictions, the release said.

“The (neighborhoods) program is a cornerstone of our violent crime prevention strategy and is a proven crime-reduction strategy to take violent offenders off of Nevada’s streets,” U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich said in a statement.

Among the many agencies involved in the grant’s “application and administration” include the Nevada attorney general, the Metropolitan Police Department, Clark County School District police, UNLV, the Southwest Gang information Center and the Latin Chamber of Commerce, the release said.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.