According to law enforcement officials, the Shenandoah Valley is currently home to more than 300 documented gang members or affiliates. State officials say enough is enough.

U.S. Attorney John Brownlee, Senator Mark Obenshain, and local law enforcement officials from around the Valley came together to strengthen gang prevention efforts.

"If they're a gang member of a drug dealer, they're either in jail or they're out on the street. There's only one of two places they can be," says Brownlee.

State officials say alleged Blood and Crip gang members are in the Valley. Attorney General Bob McDonnell says gang prevention is of critical importance.

He says, "We know from looking at what's happening in other states, that you absolutely cannot have gangs take a hold in the community by terrorizing people, hurting people, covering neighborhoods in graffiti."

That's why his office chose to keep special prosecutor Phillip Figura on staff, even when federal funding for the position was cut short. He says the multi-jurisdictional gang prosecution and grand juries are vital to public safety.

"It's been enormously successful, over 90 indictments, hundreds of years of penitentiary time. Dismantling the 'Nine Tre' Bloods in Staunton, 24 people were indicted," says McDonnell.

Figura says, "We need to be vigilant, ever vigilant, about keeping them out of our community, preventing them from recruiting our children. That's the key."

Local law enforcement officials applaud this cutting edge, multi-jurisdictional approach to handling gang violence in the Valley. Single gang prevention task forces can only do so much with limited resources.

Brownlee says, "It's immigration cases, gang cases, narcotics trafficking, all those things that members of law enforcement are nodding their heads. That's where the root of this violent crime is."

Along with the special prosecutor, McDonnell announced that his new budget provides funding for a crime analyst position. He says he'll also provide better equipment for investigations at the local level in an effort to prevent gang violence.

McDonnell says since 2001, there have been three gang-related homicides in the Shenandoah Valley, the last of which occurred in 2005.