GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — The U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland is forming a regional task force to prosecute carjackings that span the District of Columbia and the two Maryland counties that border it.
The Washington Post reports that acting U.S. Attorney Jon Lenzner said that coordinating prosecutors’ efforts will help law enforcement deal with carjackers across the region. Carjackers have been driving stolen cars to neighboring jurisdictions, where they take different cars and then ditch those cars in another jurisdiction, Lenzner said.
Carjackings doubled from 2019 to 2020 in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. That trend has continued in 2021. At this time last year, officers in D.C. had investigated 52 carjackings. So far in 2021, they’ve investigated 129.
“We are tearing down the borders that carjackers use to conceal their trails of violence,” Lenzner said Wednesday at a news conference announcing the task force. D.C.’s acting U.S. attorney, Channing D. Phillips, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy and Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy joined Lenzner to announce the task force.
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