Investigations and prosecutions
On November 10, 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Los Angeles Office and Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) served 16 federal drug indictments and arrested at least 18 members of the Black P. Stones accused of conspiracy and drug trafficking in a joint effort called "Operation Stone Cold". [7] Almost 1,000 law enforcement personnel took part in the operation, carrying out police raids in Baldwin Village, Hawthorne and Inglewood, and seizing stashes of crack cocaine and weapons, including an AR-15 assault rifle and an AK-47. [8] The indictments followed an investigation which lasted over a year, and involved informants infiltrating the gang and making videotaped drug buys from members. [4] 17 people were convicted on federal charges, and another 12 were convicted on state charges following the investigation. [1]
In 2006, a gang injunction was filed against the Black P. Stones by the Los Angeles City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, prohibiting members from congregating in public. [2] Police alleged the gang was responsible for 1,500 aggravated assaults and 28 murders between 2000 and 2005. [6]
75 members and associates of the gang were indicted on a variety of state and federal drug charges as a result of "Operation Red Dawn", a year-long investigation by the FBI and LAPD, which culminated in a series of raids involving over 900 federal agents and police officers in Southwest Los Angeles, on May 19, 2011. [9] [10] 135.5 grams of PCP; 41.2 grams of methamphetamine; 25 kilograms of marijuana; 1.7 kilograms of cocaine; and a variety of firearms were seized as a result of the operation. [1]
Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and prosecutors heavily targeted property owners and managers of the Chesapeake Apartments, a 425-unit apartment complex spread over more than 17 acres which was a longtime stronghold for the Black P. Stones, to crackdown on gang crime. Between July 2013 and November 2017, Feuer filed 98 nuisance abatement lawsuits and secured 96 injunctions related to specific properties with documented gang and/or narcotics activity. [11] The LAPD also conducted raids and arrests among the apartment buildings which decreased crime within that area dramatically. [12]
The Mexican Mafia, also known as La eMe, is a predominantly Mexican American prison gang and criminal organization in the United States. Despite its name, the Mexican Mafia has no origins in Mexico and is entirely a U.S. organization. Law enforcement officials report that the Mexican Mafia is the deadliest and most powerful gang within the California prison system.
Daryl Francis Gates was an American police officer who served as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure in this position was second only to that of William H. Parker. Gates is credited with the creation of SWAT teams alongside fellow Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer John Nelson, who others claim was the originator of SWAT in 1965. Gates also co-founded the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.
The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation is a gang active primarily in the United States as well as internationally. The gang was founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954. The Latin Kings are one of the largest Hispanic and Latino street and prison gangs worldwide.
Eddie Nash was an American nightclub owner and restaurateur in Los Angeles, as well as a convicted money launderer and drug dealer. Nash was allegedly the mastermind behind the Wonderland murders, but was never convicted, despite multiple arrests and trials.
The Almighty Black P. Stone Nation is an American street gang founded in Chicago. The gang was originally formed in the late 1950s as the Blackstone Rangers. The organization was co-founded by Eugene Hairston and Jeff Fort. In later years, under Fort's leadership, an Islamic faction of the gang emerged, naming themselves the "El Rukn tribe of the Moorish Science Temple of America" . They eventually started describing themselves as Orthodox Sunni Muslims. Jeff Fort changed their fort name from El Rukn Moorish Science Mosque, to El Rukn Sunni Masjid al-Malik.
OVS is a Mexican American (Chicano) gang from Ontario, California.
The Rollin 60s Neighborhood Crips is a "set" of the Crips street gang alliance based in Los Angeles, California, originally formed around Hyde Park, Los Angeles in 1976 from the Westside Crips and having since spread to other cities in the United States. Membership is estimated to be around 1,600 people, making it one of the largest gangs in the Los Angeles area.
The Crips are a primarily African-American alliance of street gangs that are based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips began as an alliance between two autonomous gangs, and developed into a loosely connected network of individual "sets", often engaged in open warfare with one another. Its members have traditionally worn blue clothing since around 1973.
The Watts truce was a 1992 peace agreement among rival street gangs in Los Angeles, California, declared in the neighborhood of Watts. The truce was reached just days before the 1992 Los Angeles riots and, although not universally adhered to, was a major factor in the decline of street violence in the city between the 1990s and 2010s.
The 38th Street Gang is an American criminal street gang in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Mexican-Americans. The 38th Street Gang is one of the oldest street gangs in Los Angeles and has been occupying its territory since the 1920s. They engage in many criminal activities. The Mexican Mafia controls and routinely uses 38th Street gang members to carry out their orders.
Public Enemy No. 1, also known as PENI Death Squad, is a prison and street gang formed in Long Beach, California and now based in Orange County, California. In 2004, the California Department of Justice described PEN1 as "one of the most powerful and fastest-growing gangs inside and outside prison", and reported it had about 200 members statewide. The gang's main activities include identity theft, credit card fraud, and methamphetamine sales.
The Nazi Lowriders, also known as NLR or the Ride, are a neo-Nazi, white supremacist organized crime syndicate, and prison and street gang in the United States. Primarily based in Southern California, the gang is allied with the larger Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia gangs, and fellow peckerwood gang Public Enemy No. 1. The Nazi Lowriders operate both in and outside of prison.
Crime in Los Angeles has varied throughout time, reaching peaks between the 1970s and 1990s. Since the early 2020s, crime has increased in Los Angeles.
Peter John Milano was a Los Angeles-based, American mobster, and former boss of the Los Angeles crime family. Milano was active in organized crime from the 1950s until his death. His legitimate businesses were in real estate properties and a vending company called "Rome Vending Company".
The United Blood Nation, also known as the East Coast Bloods, is a street and prison gang active primarily in the New York metropolitan area. It is the east coast faction of the California-based Bloods street gang. Their main source of income is the trafficking and sale of illegal drugs.
The Highwaymen Motorcycle Club is a one-percenter outlaw motorcycle club. The club was formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1954. The club has undergone a number of large-scale police and FBI investigations, most notably in 1973, 1987 and 2007. In the early 1970s several members were convicted of bombings and raids of the homes and the clubhouses of rival motorcycle clubs.
The Rollin' 30s Harlem Crips are a "set" of the Crips alliance of street gangs. The gang was formed by Belizean American Crips who had moved from South Los Angeles to Belize and then to Harlem, New York.
The Florencia 13, also known as South Side Florencia 13,Florence Gang, F13 is an American criminal street gang based in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Mexican Americans. The gang is named after the Florence area of Los Angeles County, controlled by the Mexican Mafia. They are involved in drug smuggling, murder, assault and robbery.
Numerous police and international intelligence agencies classify the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club as a motorcycle gang and contend that members carry out widespread violent crimes, including drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, gunrunning, extortion, and prostitution rings. Members of the organization have continuously asserted that they are only a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined to ride motorcycles together, to organize social events such as group road trips, fundraisers, parties, and motorcycle rallies, and that any crimes are the responsibility of the individuals who carried them out and not the club as a whole.
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is designated an outlaw motorcycle gang by the Department of Justice. Based primarily in the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Lakes region, the Mid-Atlantic and New England, there are an estimated 92 Hells Angels chapters in 27 U.S. states, with a membership of over 800. Due to the club's designation as a "known criminal organization" by the State Department and Department of Homeland Security, the United States has a federal policy prohibiting its foreign members from entering the country. The Hells Angels partake in drug trafficking, gunrunning, extortion, money laundering, insurance fraud, kidnapping, robbery, theft, counterfeiting, contraband smuggling, loan sharking, prostitution, trafficking in stolen goods, motorcycle and motorcycle parts theft, assault, murder, bombings, arson, intimidation and contract killing. The club's role in the narcotics trade involves the production, transportation and distribution of marijuana and methamphetamine, in addition to the transportation and distribution of cocaine, hashish, heroin, LSD, MDMA, PCP and diverted pharmaceuticals. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the HAMC may earn up to $1 billion in drug sales annually.
