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"They all have one mission: to go after criminal gangs and drug traffickers at the highest levels," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Sessions puts new target on MS-13

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is further escalating the Trump administration's drive to eradicate the violent gang MS-13 by designating the group as a legitimate target for federal interagency task forces typically focused on drug trafficking and money laundering.

Speaking to police chiefs in Philadelphia Monday, Sessions announced that he's putting the El Salvador-based gang in the cross-hairs of the federal government's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces—alliances that coordinate law enforcement agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, the International Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

"They all have one mission: to go after criminal gangs and drug traffickers at the highest levels," Sessions told the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference. “Now, they will go after MS-13 with a renewed vigor and a sharpened focus. I am announcing that I have authorized them to use every lawful tool to investigate MS-13—and not just our drug laws, but everything from RICO racketeering to our tax laws to our firearms laws. Just like we took Al Capone off the streets with our tax laws, we will use whatever laws we have to get MS-13 off the streets."

Sessions warned that the reach of the deadly gang, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, extends "through 40 U.S. states and to within yards of the U.S. Capitol" and he reminded the chiefs of the criminal group's deadly motto: "Kill. Rape. Control."

"They leave misery, devastation and death in their wake. They threaten entire governments. They must be and will be stopped," the attorney general vowed.

During an oversight hearing last week, Sessions faces complaints from some Democrats about putting the independence of the Justice Department at risk by linking its work too directly with President Donald Trump. The attorney general showed no sign of relenting on that front Monday, mentioning Trump as least six times during the speech to leaders of police forces from around the globe.

The new designation Sessions unveiled Monday appears to broaden the focus of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement task forces, which were set up in 1982 as the war on drugs ramped up. While MS-13 sometimes engages in small-time drug dealing, it is not viewed as a major player in the international drug trade. Instead, it operates protection and extortion rackets, along with prostitution rings.

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A justice Department official said budget legislation Congress passed last May authorizes expansion of the task forces' priority targets beyond drug trafficking and money laundering to other organized crime groups. Sessions' naming of MS-13 as a national priority for the task forces is the first such designation under that authority, the official said.

The task-force approach has waxed and waned over the years.

In the 1960s, the Justice Department rolled out Organized Crime Strike Forces focused on dismantling mafia organizations. The bands of prosecutors and investigators were widely regarded as successful, although they sometimes rankled local U.S. attorneys by operating independently. In 1989, as the mafia problem seemed to subside, the Justice Department folded that work back into U.S. attorneys' offices.

Josh Gerstein is a senior reporter for POLITICO.