A state initiative designed to fight gang activity as well as drug and firearms trafficking is expanding on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore. Law enforcement from Worcester and Somerset counties are joining Dorchester County, which is already part of the five-year-old Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network, Gov. Larry Hogan announced.

The goal is to create a Lower Shore coalition to “target criminal operations throughout the Delmarva Peninsula,” Hogan said at a press conference outside the Maryland State Police barrack in Berlin, Maryland.

Beyond the Eastern Shore communities, Howard County is also joining the criminal intelligence network to monitor and disrupt gang activity along corridors which include Interstate-95 and U.S. Route 1, the governor said.

Through the Maryland Criminal Intelligence Network, the Maryland State Police and local police work with federal law enforcement and prosecutors to take down criminal organizations. Before Thursday’s announcement, the network comprised 14 local coalitions.

Hogan said the program has seen significant success in just the first half of this year, disrupting more than 400 criminal organizations through July, nearly twice as many as the initiative tackled in the same time last year.