Earlier this week, Gov. Josh Stein signed an executive order to create a Gang Prevention and Intervention Task Force, continue the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP), and reestablish the Community Violence Advisory Board within the OVP.
“To keep people safe, we need to do everything we can to prevent violence from occurring in the first place,” he said in a press release. “I am proud to advance these initiatives to seek out the root causes of violence, including gang violence. We must bring law enforcement, health professionals, and community organizations to the table to create safer communities.”
In March 2023, former Gov. Roy Cooper established the OVP through an executive order in the Department of Public Safety, the first of its kind in the South.
Stein, a Democrat, reestablished the office’s Advisory Board, comprised of health professionals, government leaders, law enforcement officers, and community-based organizations, after it expired on March 31.
The office will highlight initiatives to strengthen firearm safety, expand cross-sector partnerships across the state, and provide training and education to empower local communities to implement holistic, evidence-informed strategies to address and prevent violence.
Gang activity on the rise across North Carolina
Gang activity is also becoming a major issue across the state. In his executive order, the governor said there are approximately 4,000 validated gang members across the state and an alarming rise in youth gang activity, with suspected juvenile gang crime increasing nearly 50% in the past five years.
The 2025 Gang Prevention Legislative Report from the Governor’s Crime Commission (GCC), State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), and the State Highway Patrol (SHP) noted that gang-involved at-risk youth have more mental health problems than other at-risk youth, are twice as likely to have negative peer relationships as other at-risk youth, and are nearly twice as likely to have a family with a criminal behavior history.
The report recommended the creation of a task force focused on gang prevention.
As a result, Stein also established the Gang Prevention and Intervention Task Force within the GCC, co-chaired by Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Dismukes and director of the North Carolina Office of Violence Prevention Siarra Scott. The task force membership will consist of law enforcement, education leaders, legal representatives, mental health and substance use organizations, and people who have successfully left gangs.
The task force will focus on reducing the presence and impact of gang activity in North Carolina, including keeping young people out of gangs.
A suspected member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang was arrested in Raleigh on Feb. 8 by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other officials.
ICE issued a press release on the arrest of 24-year-old Venezuelan national Ricardo Padillia-Granadillo. He was arrested at a home in Raleigh, where a handgun, ammunition, and 10 other illegally present Venezuelan nationals were discovered.
Padillia-Granadillo is also a suspect in a mass shooting in Chicago, is wanted on federal charges for illegal entry into the United States, and had a warrant for his arrest.
According to the report, Granadillo illegally entered the US near El Paso, Texas, on Oct. 1, 2022. Officials said the US Border Patrol encountered him, after which he was paroled into the country and given a notice to appear in court. But he never showed up for his immigration appointment on Sept. 12. The US Attorney for the Western District of Texas later issued an arrest warrant.
It’s not the first time that a Tren de Aragua gang member was arrested in the Tar Heel State.
According to WBTV, Eleazer Kasshoggi Mujica-Rojas, also known as La Fresa, was arrested in Charlotte on Sept. 1. He is an alleged member of the gang and was wanted in Texas.
Mujica-Rojas is accused of illegally entering the US in 2022 and allegedly lying to acquire an Employment Authorization Card, according to a July criminal complaint filed in a US District Court in Texas. The man reportedly swam across the Rio Grande River and entered the US near Eagle Pass, Texas.
He was first arrested in July 2022 in Orlando, Florida, for domestic violence charges. The charges were later dropped.
Mujica-Rojas reportedly filed an asylum claim with US Citizenship and Immigration Services in Texas on Aug. 28, 2023, and his Employment Authorization Card was approved on Feb. 27.
Authorities alleged that he is associated with crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, terrorism, human trafficking, and drug trafficking carried out by the gang in the US.
In addition, Stein notes in his press release that he has called for the General Assembly to pass a budget that includes raises for law enforcement, bonuses for new hires, and out-of-state transfers to address staffing shortages in state and local law enforcement agencies.
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