Founded | 1971 |
---|---|
Founding location | Manenberg, Cape Town |
Territory | Cape Town |
Ethnicity | Predominantly Cape Coloured and Xhosa |
Membership | 6 000 |
Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, weapon trafficking, prostitution, contract killing, extortion, illegal diamond smuggling, robbery, fraud, money laundering, human trafficking, kidnapping |
Allies | Nigerian mafia, Triads, Sicilian Mafia [1] |
Rivals | The Americans and other Cape Town gangs |
The Hard Livings gang is a large street gang and organized crime group based in Manenberg, Cape Town. [2] 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. [3]
The gang was formed in 1971 by Rashied Staggie and his twin brother Rashaad. [4] [5] The gang started out as a criminal street gang mostly involved in drug distribution for which they competed with the Americans gang. After their distribution network grew, the Hard Livings gang as well as their rivals evolved into a structured criminal organization involved in a wide range of criminal activities. [1] [4] In 1996 Rashaad was publicly set alight and killed by the vigilante group PAGAD. [6] In December 2019, Rashied was shot and killed in the same street where Rashaad was killed. [7]
In the 1990s and early 2000s the gang was known to have had a strong presence in the wealthy Green Point and Sea Point areas of Cape Town.
The gang is known to have been involved in both international and local organized crime. Their local activities range from drug running & trading, poaching, protection rackets, prostitution and shebeening (provision of unlicensed drinking places) They have associations with Westbury gang , Varador Cortet. [8] Internationally they have been known to have cooperated with the Sicilian mafia in the trafficking of illegal diamonds as well as trafficking cannabis to Europe. [1]
People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD) is a group formed in 1996 in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa. The organisation came to prominence for acts against gangsters, including arson and murder.
The Aryan Brotherhood is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate that is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has characterized it as "the nation's oldest major white supremacist prison gang and a national crime syndicate" while the Anti-Defamation League calls it the "oldest and most notorious racist prison gang in the United States". According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Aryan Brotherhood makes up an extremely low percentage of the entire US prison population, but it is responsible for a disproportionately large number of prison murders.
The Melbourne gangland killings were the murders of 36 underworld figures in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, between January 1998 and August 2010. The murders were retributive killings involving underworld groups. The deaths caused a power vacuum within Melbourne's criminal community, and rival factions fought for control and influence. Many of the murders remain unsolved, although detectives from the Purana Taskforce believe that Carl Williams was responsible for at least ten of them. The period culminated in the arrest of Williams, who pleaded guilty on 28 February 2007 to three of the murders.
Crime in South Africa includes all violent and non-violent crimes that take place in the country of South Africa, or otherwise within its jurisdiction. When compared to other countries South Africa has notably high rates of violent crime and has a reputation for consistently having one of the highest murder rates in the world. The country also experiences high rates of organised crime relative to other countries.
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 and Nyanga Junction 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,(closest to Phillipi and Edith Stevens wetland nature reserve)is known as Sherwood Park and has lots of wealthy people of both Christian and Muslims decent.The middle and lower class live in the rest of Manenberg.Poverty,unemployment,lack of education and motivation,coupled with drug abuse/addiction and gang activities are some of the major issues people in Manenberg suffer under.
The East Harlem Purple Gang was a gang and organized crime group in New York City consisting of Italian-American hit-men and heroin dealers who were semi-independent from the Italian-American Mafia and, according to federal prosecutors, dominated heroin distribution in East Harlem, Italian Harlem, and the Bronx during the 1970s and early 1980s. Though mostly independent of the Mafia and not an official Mafia crew, the gang was originally affiliated with and worked with the Lucchese crime family and later with the Bonanno crime family and Genovese crime family. It developed its "closest ties" with the Genovese family, and its remnants or former members became part of the Genovese family's 116th Street Crew.
Rashied Staggie was a South African gangster and leader of the Hard Livings gang. He was shot and killed in Salt River on 13 December 2019, in Cape Town, South Africa. His twin brother, Rashaad Staggie, the initial leader of the Hard Livings gang, was killed after being shot and burned alive in Salt River in 1996 by members of the vigilante group PAGAD. The Staggie brothers were killed in the same street, London Road.
The 14K (十四K) is a triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. It is the second largest triad group in the world with around 20,000 members split into thirty subgroups. They are the main rival of the Sun Yee On, which is the largest triad.
The Abergil Organization is an Israeli organized crime syndicate that has been active since the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The organization was founded by brothers Yaakov and Avi Abergil in the city of Ramat Gan, Israel, in the 1990s. The Abergil Organization is involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including drug trafficking, money laundering, and extortion.
Zoe Pound is a criminal street gang based in Miami, Florida founded by Haitian immigrants in 1990.
Armenian Power 13, also known as AP, the Armenian Mob, or Armenian Mafia is an Armenian criminal organization and street gang founded and currently based in Los Angeles County, California. They are involved in drug trafficking, murder, assault, fraud, identity theft, illegal gambling, kidnapping, racketeering, robbery and extortion. They are believed to have around 200 members and hundreds of associates, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. They are also well known for their connections with the Mexican Mafia.
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Jason Staggie is a South African filmmaker and writer of transgressive fiction and literary fiction. His style has been compared with Anthony Burgess, Chuck Palahniuk and Irvine Welsh.
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