LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck says two men claiming to be fighting in Syria are gang members who were deported.
Beck said Tuesday he believes they’ve joined foreign fighters in Syria, based on a YouTube video.
In it the men, wearing camouflage, call themselves “Creeper” and “Wino,” fire assault rifles at what they term “enimigas,” shout out greetings to two Los Angeles street gangs and say they’re “in Syria, gangbangin’.”
LAPD counter-terrorism chief Mike Downing told ABC News Sunday that the tape’s been investigated for a month. He says the men are not U.S. citizens and are fighting for the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Downing says he worries about their appeal to recruit other gang members and what might happen if the battle-hardened men return to the U.S.
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