SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — After helping to update state laws to create harsher penalties for recruiting young people to gangs, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office announced that it has filed multiple counts of youth gang recruitment for the first time.
The law was passed during Utah’s 2025 general legislative session through House Bill 38, after the Salt Lake County Metro Gang Unit presented the legislature with evidence that gang members were getting younger. The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office (SLCoDAO) was then asked to help update state laws to address the changing methods gangs use to recruit younger members.
Now, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced that his office filed more than 60 charges against three alleged gang members, including multiple counts of soliciting/recruiting/intimidating a minor to join a gang, a third-degree felony.
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According to court documents filed in the case, the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office was conducting a long-term investigation into a street gang’s recruitment of juveniles and eventually identified several individuals who they say played an active role in the leadership of the gang…