A specially-formed joint team of state and federal prosecutors announced another wave of charges in the St. Louis area.
In the project called the Safer Streets Initiative, Missouri Assistant Attorneys General are deputized as by the U.S. Attorney’s Office so that the prosecutors can take advantage of harsher federal sentencing guidelines.
Tuesday, Missouri Attorney General Schmidt listed more than 100 charges made since late June:
“Fifty-nine criminal possession of firearms and ammunition, 30 drug trafficking or distribution-related charges, 12 possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking, four carjacking or carjacking resulting in death charges, four supervised release revocations, and three Hobbs Act robberies,” Schmidt listed at a press conference in St. Louis.
Carjackings are at a steady increase in St. Louis –averaging one a day—and pacing higher than last year at this time. In the past few days, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports there were two Sunday morning, one Monday morning and three Monday night. Then a woman and a nine-year-old were victims of a carjacking Tuesday morning.
Two other joint state and federal prosecutors have been tapped in Kansas City and one in Springfield.
Governor Mike Parson has also provided state troopers to team up with local officers to fight violent crime in St. Louis. That began a week ago.