The effort to cripple one of the most notorious gangs in Idaho history is heading where law enforcement had hoped: a federal courtroom. And the man in charge at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Idaho know the case all-to-well.

“I was the lead prosecutor on the case before I became U.S. Attorney, and it has been making its way through the system since then,” said Josh Hurwit, U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho. “It’s been a complex investigation.”

Hurwit visited with Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk about the case against the Aryan Knights, the infamous white supremacist gang operating inside the walls of Idaho prisons. Hurwit also updates listeners on one of his office’s other high priorities: finding and convicting those targeting Idaho’s elderly. The most recent case uncovered a plot by an Idaho couple that kicked an elderly woman out of her own house.

Read the transcript below:

PRENTICE: It's Morning Edition. Good morning. I'm George Prentice. Law and order will frame our conversation for the next several minutes, because we are honored to spend some time again with Josh Hurwitt, the United States Attorney for the District of Idaho. U.S. attorney Hurwitt, welcome back to the broadcast.

HURWIT: Hey, George. Thank you. It's my honor to be with you.

PRENTICE: Absolutely. Up top. I'd like to spend some time talking about a rather grim topic, but we probably need to talk about elder abuse in Idaho and the many forms of abuse that some of our most vulnerable neighbors may be victim to. And this is something that you, your office, and your colleagues have been trying to elevate in our consciousness. So talk to me about elder abuse and the many forms it takes.

HURWIT: Yes. Thank you George. And you're absolutely right. As generally in this country, the population ages Criminals are targeting our older Americans more commonly, more often and more viciously as well. And I would tell you that in terms of the forms of elder abuse that we're seeing, it largely falls into two buckets. The first bucket would be known actor abuse or known actor exploitation, which by by the description you know, signifies that a victim is victimized by someone they know could even be relatives. Which is very sad to say. Wow. Um, who takes advantage of their financial resources and sometimes leaves them, you know, destitute or suffering physically, emotionally or in terms of their health? So that's a very sad form, obviously, of elder abuse. And we call that known actor abuse. The second form is very prevalent. I'm sure that everyone has received attempts to scam them from from criminals online. This is happening far too frequently. Sadly, with our older population, um, there's a whole litany and variety of different schemes that criminals use to again take advantage of our elder population, some of whom are lonely, isolated, looking for support through online means and criminals take advantage of that. And in this situation generally, the the crime is to financially exploit them.

PRENTICE: And I have heard of some criminals even pretending to be, well, officials Social Security Administration officials, which can certainly get their attention pretty darn quick. But that is a scam. Yes. I mean, when they try to get their Social Security numbers or personal identification from them because of their benefits.

HURWIT: That's that's exactly right. We see all types of what we call imposter scams. So criminals posing as, as you mentioned, Social Security Administration employees, law enforcement officers telling people, you know, you have a a fine to pay or a warrant that's outstanding, that you need to pay a fine to avoid. These are all, you know, criminal schemes, law enforcement and federal officials will not just call someone and ask them to to pay a fine without going through a pretty lengthy process if there is an issue. Another sort of red flag to look out for is that a lot of times these criminals are asking people to pay a fine or resolve some issue through payment in cryptocurrency or gift cards. The government, state, local, federal never try to resolve an issue through those types of means.

PRENTICE: Um, in regards to your efforts to catch these bad actors. Talk to me about that. And you have had some success. Yes. You've got a sentencing I know coming up later this summer. Yes.

HURWIT: So we have a really important case to us, um, that exemplifies the first type of abuse that I mentioned, that known actor abuse. What happened in this case is a retired this is local to Ada County, a retired school teacher. Um, was enjoying her retirement. Uh, had a very nice property, sort of a ranch in Ada County and, you know, needed some help with the upkeep and sort of friends of her family. Uh, a married couple moved in, and the husband is now convicted of, uh, engaging in a scheme to essentially obtain that ranch, her property through what appeared to her to be legitimate sort of power of attorney type estate planning documents. But in essence, he was stealing the property from her. They kicked her out of the property, and now they're facing sentencing in August. The husband for the fraud and the wife for obstruction of justice during the course of the investigation.

PRENTICE: Wow. Before I let you go, I have to ask about Aryan Knights. Only because we have been reading more and more about this gang operating inside the walls of Idaho prisons. And most recently, you have secured another conviction, or at least another one of the suspects pleading guilty. Uh, what? What do you tell a stranger about the Aryan Knights? It's a white supremacist gang within the prison, right? Yep.

HURWIT: That's the the very quick summary. Um, it's been operating in Idaho prison facilities for decades now. Our case that we're wrapping up, um, was indicted in 2019 against ten defendants. I know it well, actually, I was the lead prosecutor on the case before I became US attorney, and it's been making its way through the system since that time took a long time, as you can tell. Um, for a variety of reasons, a complex investigation, a complex case. At this time. We're pleased to report, though, that all of the ten defendants that were indicted have now pleaded guilty. Two are yet to be sentenced in the upcoming months.

PRENTICE: And their M.O. is intimidation and violence. Yes.

HURWIT: Essentially, yes. And also drug smuggling. That's that's something that maybe people don't understand occurs within the prison system. It's a huge problem that the FBI and IDoc, the Idaho Department of Correction, are working together on as we speak, and something we'll continue to to prosecute as federal crimes occur. But essentially, the Aryan Knights would obtain power over other inmates through extortion, through threats of violence, through actual violence. One of the defendants in our case was charged and pleaded guilty to an attempted murder. And now he has a life sentence in federal prison. Um, so one of the goals of the case was to break up the gang within the walls of the state prison and disperse them throughout the country to federal prisons. There's still more work to be done when it comes to this gang, but we're very proud of the work that's occurred in my office in this ten defendant case.

PRENTICE: And there are still some sentencings coming up. Yes.

HURWIT: That's correct. I believe we have one in in August and then one in October. And that will, uh, mark the conclusion of this case, which was brought under the Rico act. But as I said, we continue to work very closely and collaboratively with IDoc and the FBI to address any federal crimes that occur in our prison system in Idaho.

PRENTICE: How do you best characterize this? Have you wounded this gang? Have you crushed this gang?

HURWIT: You know, I think time will tell to be perfectly blunt with you, but I certainly think we broke up the leadership at the time. I don't think that it's as powerful and organized and strong as it was, but it certainly still exists and is a threat within the system. And there's also individuals that work with the gang outside of the prison, which is a very concerning and something that we're focused on prosecuting.

PRENTICE: And to be clear, one of your most recent guilty pleas was with one of the leaders of the gang. So you are going right to the head of of the monster, if you will.

HURWIT: You know, the ten individuals that we indicted were essentially the leadership structure. Mhm. Um, and the individual that just pleaded guilty on James Ramsey was the overall leader, um, in the time leading up to our indictment. And, uh, you know, we're pleased to see justice served for him. And in this case, in general.

PRENTICE: Congratulations on that. And thank you for what you do every day. And he is Josh Hurwitz, the United States Attorney for the District of Idaho. And Mr. Hurwit, thanks so very much for giving me some time.

HURWIT: My pleasure. Always great to be with you and take care.

Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren

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