HOUSTON – As FBI Houston works to fight violent crime in the city and target neighborhood gangs, the federal law enforcement agency has identified the top 10 most dangerous zip codes.
“You won’t see an FBI marked vehicle in the neighborhood, but I assure you we’re there every single day,” Acting Special Agent in Charge David Martinez said.
In late August, the FBI sent 18 SWAT teams from across the country out into Houston neighborhoods, aimed at taking down connected gang members at once.
One of the locations of the FBI takedowns was a home in the fourth most dangerous zip code, where an armored vehicle breached the home and ripped a roof off while serving an arrest warrant.
“We will do whatever we have to to try to completely dismantle and disrupt these organizations and give these communities back their neighborhoods,” Martinez, who has led FBI Houston’s violent crime unit for the last year, said.
The sought subject wasn’t home at the time, but the other 17 raids that day resulted in 17 arrests and federal charges for each individual.
Many of the offenders being targeted by the FBI are individuals who have been arrested several times by local law enforcement and are back on the street, he said.
If arrested and charged federally, offenders are usually off the streets for much longer.
“Is Houston unique in the fact that the crime is so severe and so frequent?” KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry asked Martinez.
“I think it is unique in many ways,” he said. “I think the crews here are very smart. They’re very savvy. And again, they are not satisfied with simply fighting over a simple turf war.”
Here are the top 10 most dangerous zip codes, based on an FBI analysis of HPD data including 911 calls, crime severity, and felonies associated with those crimes:
- 77036
- 77021
- 77081
- 77033
- 77074
- 77054
- 77004
- 77051
- 77035
- 77048
The most serious types of crimes being committed in these neighborhoods, according to the FBI, include murder, home invasion, carjacking, jugging, and trafficking.
“You go into these communities and you see the bars on the windows. You know, they’re prisoners in their own homes,” Martinez said.
KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry asked if people living in other zip codes should be concerned.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said. “The gangs are going to find where the money and opportunity is and they’re going to try to exploit it.”
Based on an FBI analysis of HPD crime data, the 10 most dangerous zip codes that they’ve been targeting have seen a decrease in violent gang-related crimes compared to last year.
But, with intelligence-based goals, the crime crackdown isn’t over.
“We’re not stopping. We’re not taking our foot off the gas,” Martinez said.
Monday on KPRC 2 News at 10, why the FBI says gangs are trying to recruit younger people to commit violent crimes.