History
The origin of the Spanish Cobras is a mystery. Legend has them starting as a Puerto Rican youth club on the West Side of Chicago around 1948. Other sources say they were founded in 1958, in the Bridgeport neighborhood. Regardless, it is a known fact The Cobras arrived in Humboldt Park during the 1960’s.
In the early 1970’s, Richard Medina, a young Puerto Rican teenager, became Chief of the Maplewood/Campbell & Potomac sections. His power grew, and he soon became the gang's leader, earning the nickname "King Cobra", or "K.C” for-short. KC had the Spanish Cobra Nation invade the Evergreen Hustlers' turf and battled them to take over the intersection of Evergreen & Washtenaw. He then started a Young Cobras faction, who attacked rival gangs' turf, eventually claiming Artesian & Potomac ("A-Town") and Mozart & Cortland ("Sin City").
The Spanish Cobras were introduced to the world in June of 1977 after stabbing a member of the Latin Kings during the annual Chicago Puerto Rican Parade. The Kings retaliated later that day, culminating in the two gangs publicly fighting. Chicago Police then shot indiscriminately into the crowd, killing two innocent bystanders, thus igniting the Humboldt Park riot. This incident received national media attention.
After the riots, KC sent his two brothers north to Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a mission to establish new Cobra sets (factions).
From prison, the Spanish Cobras joined the Folks alliance in 1978 which then made its way to the street.
In the spring of 1979, the Insane Spanish Cobras made headlines yet again during their bloody war with the Insane Unknowns. There were over 10 homicides by summer and a public response from Mayor Jane Byrne, who ordered massive police sweeps of the neighborhood.
Before his murder at the age of 20 in a drive-by shooting, KC grew the Spanish Cobras into a powerhouse around the Division & Maplewood area ("The Motherland"), Division & Artesian, and Artesian & LeMoyne. They expanded into West Humboldt Park at Ridgeway & Thomas, and took over the 'hoods of North Ave & Harding, LeMoyne & Springfield, and Springfield & Hirsch, which branched into Avers & Hirsch ("Westown Cobras").
In the 1980s, according to criminologist John Haggerdon's book Insane the Chicago Way,
”What began to take shape was the daring plan of gang leaders incarcerated in Statesville—Fernando "Prince Fernie" Zayas from the Maniac Latin Disciples, Anibal "Tuffy C" Santiago from the Insane Spanish Cobras, and David Ayala from the Two Sixers—to create a local Latino Mafia.”
Cobra sets opened like wildfire along Central Park Ave in Logan Square at Shakespeare & Central Park ("Young & Crazy"), Central Park & Dickens (the "Wild Side"), and Tripp & Dickens ("The Terror Dome"); Monticello & Cortland ("Murder City") branched into Lawndale & Cortland ("Cobrasland").
They also took over Fullerton Ave in the Hermosa neighborhood around Kilbourn & Fullerton ("The Killing Fields"), at the notorious Fullerton & Tripp ("No Love City"), Tripp & Wabansia ("The Snake Pit") and at Drake & Wolfram ("Diamond City"). Cicero & Armitage opened, taking the Spanish Cobra Nation further west.
In the summer of 1989, the Francis & Stave YLO-Cobras attacked the Simon City Royals at Kosciusko Park in a series of fist fights and shootouts, taking control of "Koz Park" by early 1990, and opening Schubert & Avers.
In April 1992, the Kedzie & Barry Maniac Latin Disciples accused a Spanish Cobra of selling them bad drugs. The angry MLD’s returned and shot the dealer to death. The Cobras retaliated with a deadly riot against the Disciples that led into a ferocious two-day war of guns blazing up and down Logan Square streets.
The Spanish Cobras and Latin Disciples were strong allies from the 1960’s to the mid 1990s. However, they began fighting over drug territory around 1994. As head of the Insane Familia, the Insane Spanish Cobras took their alliance of YLO-C’s, Insane Deuces, Insane Dragons, OA’s, Insane Campbell Boys and others to war against the Maniacs and Almighty Folks.
In 1996 the escalation of the Insane—Maniac war made the Chicago Tribune . [1] That same year; in retaliation for the murder of a high-ranking member, the West-Town Cobras shot up a Latin Kings wedding, resulting in casualties. The deadly shooting was caught on videotape and local news stations broadcast it across Chicagoland. This increased the pressure on law enforcement to go after the gang.
After a nine-month undercover narcotics investigation, in January 1998 the Chicago Police Department arrested 31 Spanish Cobras in "Operation: Mongoose", including some gang leaders. This resulted in the closure of a couple of Cobra sections.
In the early 2000s, the Lawndale & Cortland Cobras went on a rampage, and removed the MLD’s from North Avenue & Lawndale after violent gunfights and murders.
When a Spanish Cobra Nation boss was released from prison in 2019 after serving 20 years, he intensified the war on the street to reclaim old turf.
