The Bloods are a primarily African-American street gang founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. It is identified by the red color worn by its members and by particular gang symbols, including distinctive hand signs.
The Cape Flats is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lies within the larger geographical area.
A prison gang is an inmate organization that operates within a prison system. It has a corporate entity and exists into perpetuity. Its membership is restrictive, mutually exclusive, and often requires a lifetime commitment. Prison officials and others in law enforcement use the euphemism "security threat group". The purpose of this name is to remove any recognition or publicity that the term "gang" would connote when referring to people who have an interest in undermining the system.
Jack "Spot" Comer was a Polish-born English gangster who rose to rule London's underworld.
Wah Ching, meaning Chinese Youth, is a Chinese American criminal organization and street gang that was founded in San Francisco, California in 1964. The Wah Ching has been involved in crimes including narcotic sales, racketeering and gambling.
The Crips are an alliance of street gangs that is based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips were initially a single alliance between two autonomous gangs; it is now a loosely connected network of individual "sets", often engaged in open warfare with one another. Traditionally, since around 1973, its members have worn blue clothing.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African-American organized crime emerged following the first and second large-scale migration of African Americans from the South to major cities of the Northeast, Midwest, and later the West Coast. In many of these newly established communities and neighborhoods, criminal activities such as illegal gambling, speakeasies and bootlegging were seen in the post-World War I and Prohibition eras. Although the majority of these businesses in African-American neighborhoods were operated by African Americans, it is often unclear the extent to which these operations were run independently of the larger criminal organizations of the time.
Charles "Darby" Sabini was a British-Italian mob boss and considered protector of Little Italy during the interwar years.
Desmond Patrick "Dessy" Noonan was an English organised crime figure from Manchester, who acted as a political fixer for the Noonan crime family. He and his younger brother, Dominic Noonan, were suspected by police of being responsible for at least 25 murders during their 20-year reign over Manchester's underworld.
The Arifs are a south-east London-based Turkish criminal organization heavily involved in armed robbery, drug trafficking and other racketeering-related activities within London's underworld since the late 1960s. Following the downfall of the Kray brothers, the Arifs were one of several criminal organisations who took control of the London underworld including the Clerkenwell crime syndicate and the Brindle family with whom they were engaged in a highly publicised gangland war during the 1990s.
Manenberg is a township of Cape Town, South Africa, that was created by the apartheid government for low-income Coloured families in the Cape Flats in 1966 as a result of the forced removal campaign by the National Party. It has an estimated population of 52,000 residents. The area consists of rows of semi-detached houses and project-like flats, known as "korre". The township is located about 20 km away from the city centre of Cape Town. It is separated from neighbouring Nyanga and Gugulethu townships by a railway line to the east and from Hanover Park by the Sand Industria industrial park to the west and Heideveld to the north. The northern part of Manenberg has wealthy people that are mostly Muslims. The rest of Manenberg has poor people that are mostly associated with Christianity.
The Pirus are a subset of the larger Bloods gang alliance, an organized crime group in the United States.
The Peckham Boys, also referred to as Black Gang, is a multi-generational gang based in Peckham, South London. The gang is particularly prominent for its members prolific activity in music. Giggs, once a member of the SN1 set, is generally credited with popularising the British gangsta rap style known as road rap. Giggs would proceed to have a successful musical career, and re-form SN1 as a record label. In 2011, Peckham Boys rapper Stigs was given the first ever gang injunction, banning him from making any music that may encourage violence. Stigs was at the time allegedly a member of Anti GMG. In 2011, Southwark Council identified three sets of the Peckham Boys, PYG, Anti GMG and SN1, as the most active gangs in the Peckham area.
The Maniac Latin Disciples Nation is a Hispanic street gang in Chicago and one of the largest in the Folks Nation alliance. Originally known as the Latin Scorpions, the gang was founded by Albert "Hitler" Hernandez and other Puerto Rican teenagers in the Humboldt Park community in approximately 1966. They were influential in the culture and history of gangs in Humboldt Park, and continue to be active there today.
Sureños , also known as Southern United Raza, Sur 13 or Sureños X3, are groups of loosely affiliated gangs that pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia while in U.S. state and federal correctional facilities. Many Sureño gangs have rivalries with one another, and the only time this rivalry is set aside is when they enter the prison system. Thus, fighting is common among different Sureño gangs even though they share the same common identity. Sureños have emerged as a national gang in the United States.
The Asian Boyz, also known as ABZ, AB-26, or ABZ Crips, are a street gang based in Southern California. They were founded in the late 1980s to protect Cambodian refugees from other American gangs. According to the FBI, the gang has about 12,000 members, who are predominantly Southeast Asian and especially Cambodian. Many Asian Boyz are also members of the U.S. military, some of whom use their position to traffic drugs. According to the FBI's 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment, the Asian Boyz are active in 28 different cities in 14 different states across the U.S.
Menace of Destruction (MOD), formerly known as Masters of Destruction, is a Hmong street gang created in 1988. Today, it is active in California, Midwestern United States, and many places with large Hmong communities. It is known for murders, fights, shootings, and weapon and drug trafficking.
The Hard Livings gang is a large street gang and organized crime group based in Manenberg, Cape Town. A number of other smaller gangs form part of the Hard Livings gang and owe allegiance to it. The Hard Livings used to be one of two 'super gangs' in Cape Town with the other one being The Americans.
The history of gangs in South Africa goes back to the Apartheid era.
