Project Southern Tempest netted 678 gang members connected to international drug syndicates. It's a sign that the US is trying to help in the war against Mexican cartels. 
 
 As the wars against drug cartels rage in Mexico, US immigration and customs officials on Tuesday sought to show that they are doing their part to choke the drug trade north of the border, too. 
 
 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents announced the results of Project Southern Tempest, their latest gang sweep in 168 American cities from Atlanta to South Salt Lake, Utah. The tally: 678 gang members with affiliations to 133 different gangs arrested during the past two weeks. 
 
 Project Southern Tempest is part of ICE's Operation Community Shield, a five-year fight that unites federal, state, and local law enforcement against gangs with ties to international drug syndicates – primarily those in Mexico. Southern Tempest notched the 20,000th arrest of the program. 
 
 It is a message to Mexican officials that the US trying to hold up its end of the bargain. "A Mexican criticism that we hear is, 'Why isn't the US doing more to fight the cartels north of the border?' " says David Shirk, director of the Transborder Institute at the University of California-San Diego. 
 
 Project Southern Tempest shows that "is exactly what ICE and other US government agencies are trying to do," he adds. 
 
 ICE director John Morton sought to emphasize this point. The "intensity couldn't be higher," Mr. Morton said. Among the American gangs linked to the international drug trade and targeted by ICE: MS-13, Latin Kings, The Bloods, and Jamaican Posse. 
 
 The problem for ICE, however, is that it can't control the fundamental driver of the entire equation: American demand for illegal drugs. These gang members "are breaking the law and are a threat to US communities, but ... in the end, you can arrest people all day long, and as long as the market demand remains strong there will be new entrepreneurs who rise to satisfy that demand," says Mr. Shirk of the Transborder Institute. 
 
 For their part, law-enforcement officials said during a Project Southern Tempest teleconference Tuesday that they were grateful for ICE efforts. For instance, US Attorney Sally Yates of Georgia described ICE's assistance in bringing to justice 26 MS-13 gang members in the Atlanta area, including a group of carjackers who hit a young girl with a baseball bat while trying to steal a PT Cruiser. 
 
 "These people are up to the worst sort of violent crimes in the communities they live in," said Morton. "These guys aren't in book clubs, they're in violent street gangs." 
 
 The ambush killing of an ICE agent, Jaime Zapata, in Mexico on Feb. 15 raised the concern that Mexican drug gangs have radicalized to the point that they no longer fear what Morton called America's "long hard arm of the law." 
 
 Though Morton said Mr. Zapata's shooting did not appear have a direct connection to Project Southern Tempest, ICE has agents in 47 countries supporting Operation Community Shield. ICE arrested three men in Dallas on Monday in connection with Zapata's murder. 
 
 Morton said ICE remains undeterred. The agency, he said, expects to make more arrest announcements soon, all in the attempt to help the Mexican government shorten the reach of the cartels. 
 
 "We'll do everything we can to bring the cartels down," Morton said. "It's not going to be easy, it's not going to solve everything overnight ... but just stay tuned." ||||| A sweeping federal takedown today confirms that Mexican drug cartels have penetrated the United States and have affiliated drug gangs on the streets of hundreds of American cities, federal officials said. 
 
 A total of 678 alleged gang members from 168 cities were arrested by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) task force targeting gangs with ties to drug trafficking organizations. 
 
 More than 46 percent of those arrested were affiliated with 13 different Mexican drug trafficking organizations, ICE officials said. Of the 678 arrested, 447 were charged with criminal offenses and 421 were foreign nationals. 
 
 The operation, Project Southern Tempest, was conducted from December 2010 through the end of February. In addition to the arrests, the operation also seized 86 firearms, large quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, and more than $70,000 in cash, according to ICE officials. 
 
 "These transnational gangs are a direct threat to our safety," ICE Director John Morton said at an afternoon news conference. "We have to go after them hammer and tong." 
 
 Morton said transnational gangs are not only working the drug trade, but are frequently working in human smuggling, weapons smuggling and other crimes with a nexus to the border. 
 
 Morton pointed to the example of Rodimiro Burquez-Cortez, a Mexican national and Surenos gang member who was deported once, but re-entered the country and now faces narcotics and weapons charges. His criminal convictions included illegal re-entry, assault, DWI, carrying a concealed weapon and drug possession. 
 
 Another suspect arrested in the sweep, Shawn Allison, a Jamaican, is a member of the Jamaican Posse whose rap sheet includes convictions for possession with intent to distribute and criminal contempt, according to ICE. Now Allison faces an even more serious charge: attempted murder. 
 
 "These are not people we want walking our streets," Morton said. "They have turned to a life of violence." 
 
 Project Southern Tempest is the latest in a series of federal task force operations targeting drug gangs. The operations include local police in dozens of U.S. cities, including Atlanta. 
 
 Sally Yates, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said today that since task force operations began in 2005, they have resulted in charges in seven murder cases, at least five carjackings and several armed robberies in the Atlanta area alone. 
 
 In one of the carjacking incidents in Atlanta, gang members hit a young girl across the face with a baseball bat, Yates said. 
 
 Federal officials point out these gang bangers are not just operating in big urban centers. Project Southern Tempest arrests include alleged drug gangsters picked up in places like Reading, Pa., Provo, Utah, and Oceanside, Calif. 
 
 South Salt Lake, Utah, is not usually thought of as a hotbed of drug gang activity, but Chris Snyder, the police chief there, said today his jurisdiction has seen a surprising amount of gang crime. 
 
 "The drug dealers targeted in this operation have no regard for the law ... and degrade the quality of life in our communities," Snyder said. "Our goal in partnering with ICE and other law enforcement agencies is to make our cities safer."
– A vast multi-city gang sweep shows the extent to which Mexican drug cartels have penetrated American cities—and, say federal officials, the extent to which the government is willing to go to take them down. Some 678 gang members, including 421 nationals, were busted in 168 cities during Project Southern Tempest, ABC reports. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities say nearly half of those arrested were linked to Mexican drug gangs. "These transnational gangs are a direct threat to our safety," ICE Director John Morton said. "We have to go after them hammer and tong." Analysts, however, say ICE's problem is that it can't do anything about America's demand for illegal drugs. "In the end, you can arrest people all day long, and as long as the market demand remains strong there will be new entrepreneurs who rise to satisfy that demand," the director of the Transborder Institute tells the Christian Science Monitor.