WASHINGTON (AP) - A veteran judge says domestic street gangs are more deadly than some detainees at Guantanamo Bay facing trial in U.S. courts.

Hon. Royce Lamberth, the chief judge at the federal court in Washington, was speaking at an American Bar Association breakfast about Attorney General Eric Holder's recent decision to put the reputed Sept. 11 mastermind and four accused suspects on trial in New York federal court.

Lamberth did not refer specifically to those five in his comments, but said some gangs "are more murderous" than some of those held at the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Lamberth says he does not want to get into a political debate about whether such suspects should be tried in military commissions or civilian courts. He insists that the court system is secure enough to handle whatever cases it gets.