BEAUFORT COUNTY, SC () – A push for tougher penalties to fight gang violence is gaining momentum in South Carolina.

Local prosecutors said what they have now isn’t enough to stop organized crime which is why they said a new law could help keep communities safer.

“Take out the organization that that allows the fentanyl to get on the streets to begin with,” 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said. “That’s an essential tool that prosecutors in South Carolina need.”

And a tool that 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said he and other prosecutors have been asking for, for three years.

“We have a statute basically now that no one uses,” Stone said. “Which is a five-year felony, for either enticing somebody to join a gang or trying to keep them from leaving a gang. And I don’t know that anyone’s ever prosecuted anybody for that. The penalty is not stiff enough for it to make any difference. And the second thing is that no one’s going to testify that they were forced into a gang.”

What Stone wants is a RICO or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law. Something 33 other states, including Georgia, already have in place.

“It began as a federal law to go after organized crime and arrest people for big conspiracies, but it was written much broader than that,” Eric Segall, Georgia State Professor, chair of College of Law said.

Officially, it provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

In broad terms, the statute would allow prosecutors to connect suspects to each other and to their crimes.

A group of three or more can be a “gang” and face an additional charge and up to 20 more years behind bars.

It’s a statute that Stone’s office is already preparing for.

“We now have an investigator, a prosecutor and an intelligence analyst focused on nothing but gang members in our in our office,” Stone said. “We did that several months ago. And we are collecting data now to determine how many individual gang members we have. I see gangs operate from Jasper County into Buford County and vice versa Collison County into Hampton County. It already has exceeded over 100 gang members in the 14th circuit.”

“Every time you hear about a drive by shooting, generally speaking, that is a that’s gang activity, whether it’s drive by into a car, into a house, into a crowd of people, it almost always is three or more people getting together to maybe retaliate against people who had shot at them or something like that.”

“By definition, if you choose to be a gang member, you’re probably a career criminal. So, part of our intelligence is determining who those people are and making sure that that we treat them accordingly.”

Stone said the SC General Assembly currently has three versions of potential gang or RICO statutes waiting for debate. He said they hoped they will bring them to the floor and pass them next session.

“They’re very good bills. I’ve seen all three of them, and they’re very they’re very good,” Stone said. “But they’re going to have to pass it for us to be able to use it. Prosecutors throughout South Carolina have been pushing for this for a number of years, and the people in this District or in the Circuit would see the difference almost immediately. I think a lot of I know cases that I would be able to use that statute on now.”