Gang Activity

Typical gang-related crimes include alien smuggling, armed robbery, assault, auto theft, drug trafficking, extortion, fraud, home invasions, identity theft, murder, and weapons trafficking.

Criminal Activities

Gangs are responsible for a significant portion of the crime in many urban communities and in an increasing number of suburban communities across the country; much of this crime is associated with their drug trafficking activities. According to local law enforcement information, gang members are responsible for as much as 80 percent of the crime in some locations. Violent disputes over control of drug territory and enforcement of drug debts frequently occur among street gangs in urban areas and, increasingly, in suburban communities where gangs have expanded their drug distribution operations. Gang members also engage in a host of other criminal activities such as auto theft, assault, alien smuggling, burglary, drive-by shootings, extortion, firearms offenses, home invasion robberies, homicide, identity theft, insurance fraud, mortgage fraud, operating prostitution rings, and weapons trafficking.

Drug distribution by gang members poses a growing concern in suburban and rural communities; gang members are the primary retail-level drug distributors and are increasing their wholesale-level drug distribution in most urban and suburban communities. According to the NDTS 2008, 58 percent of law enforcement agencies in the United States report that gangs are involved in drug distribution, compared with 45 percent in 2004; much of this increase occurred in suburban and rural areas. NDTS data further indicate that the primary drug distributed by gangs is marijuana, followed by powder cocaine, crack cocaine, MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as ecstasy), methamphetamine, diverted pharmaceuticals, and heroin. Open source reporting indicates that gang-related violent crime is increasing in some urban areas. For example, in San Diego, California, fatal gang-related homicides increased 56 percent from 18 in 2006 to 28 in 2007. In addition, Salinas, California, gang-related homicides increased 125 percent from 4 in 2006 to 9 in 2007.

Law enforcement agencies report that gang members are increasingly using firearms in conjunction with their criminal activities. Moreover, during the latest 5-year reporting period ending in 2007, 94.3 percent of gang-related homicides reportedly involved the use of a firearm. Gang members typically buy, sell, and trade firearms among their associates. Gang members often obtain these firearms through thefts and straw purchases. These firearms are for personal use or for use by fellow gang members in committing homicides and armed robberies. For example, members and associates of Los Angeles-based Black P Stone Bloods and Rolling 20s Crips were arrested in July 2008 for illegally selling more than 119 firearms, according to law enforcement reporting. In addition, members of California-based Mara Salvatrucha obtain weapons for their personal use and sell weapons and ammunition to members of other gangs in California for profit, according to FBI information.

Illicit Finance

Gangs earn the profits essential to maintaining their criminal operations and the lifestyles of their members primarily through drug distribution. Most gang members are retail-level dealers who use drug proceeds to make typical consumer purchases, pay their living costs, or purchase luxury goods such as vehicles and jewelry.

According to openly published law enforcement reporting, gang members typically launder profits from criminal activities through front companies and real estate investments. Gang members use front companies such as clothing stores, hair salons, and music recording and production companies to commingle illicit proceeds earned from drug sales with licit income from these businesses. Some gang members also use mortgage fraud schemes or purchase real estate as investments or as a means to commingle illicit funds with rental payments. For example, members of Chicago-based Latin Kings, Black Disciples, Vice Lords, and Gangster Disciples use mortgage fraud schemes that employ straw purchasers and unscrupulous mortgage brokers and appraisers to purchase properties at a minimal cost and sell them at a higher value to a third party. The gang members receive the profits from the sales, seemingly legitimizing the income, while their associates typically default on the loans, often defrauding banks or mortgage companies.

Gang Communications

Gang members often use cell phones and the Internet to communicate and promote their illicit activities. Street gangs typically use the voice and text messaging capabilities of cell phones to conduct drug transactions and prearrange meetings with customers. Members of street gangs use multiple cell phones that they frequently discard while conducting their drug trafficking operations. For example, the leader of an African American street gang operating on the north side of Milwaukee used more than 20 cell phones to coordinate drug-related activities of the gang; most were prepaid phones that the leader routinely discarded and replaced. Internet-based methods such as social networking sites, encrypted e-mail, Internet telephony, and instant messaging are commonly used by gang members to communicate with one another and with drug customers. Gang members use social networking Internet sites such as MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook as well as personal web pages to communicate and boast about their gang membership and related activities.

• According to open source and local law enforcement reporting, members of Crips gangs in Hampton, Virginia, use the Internet to intimidate rival gang members and maintain web sites to recruit new members. On October 23, 2007, a 15-year-old Crips gang member was arrested for shooting a rival gang member in the leg. Additionally, he was charged with the recruitment of persons for a criminal street gang through the use of the gang’s social networking site.
  
  
• Gangs in Oceanside, California, are recruiting new members and claiming new turf on the Internet. Gang members flash gang signs and wear gang colors in videos and photos displayed on Internet sites. Sometimes, rivals “spar” on Internet message boards. Oceanside Police Department officers who investigate the city’s resident Crips and Bloods easily find well-produced, self-promoting songs and videos featuring local gang members on Internet web sites.

Gang Members in the Military

Members of nearly every major street gang as well as some prison gangs and OMGs have been identified on both domestic and international military installations. Deployments have resulted in gang members among service members and/or dependents on or near overseas bases. Additionally, military transfers have resulted in gang members, both service members and dependents/relatives, moving to new areas and establishing a gang presence.

Gang members with military training pose a unique threat to law enforcement personnel because of the distinctive military skills that they possess and their willingness to teach these skills to fellow gang members. While the number of gang members trained by the military is unknown, the threat that they pose to law enforcement is potentially significant, particularly if gang members trained in weapons, tactics, and planning pass this instruction on to other gang members. In addition, gang members currently serving in the military sometimes take advantage of their positions to engage in criminal activities such as trafficking weapons and drugs.

Gang Relationships with DTOs and Other Criminal Organizations

Some larger gangs have developed regular working relationships with DTOs and other criminal organizations in Mexico, Central America, and Canada to develop sources of supply for wholesale quantities of illicit drugs and to facilitate other criminal activities. According to law enforcement information, gang members provide Mexican DTOs with support, such as smuggling, transportation, and security. Specific examples include:

• Some prison gangs are capable of directly controlling or influencing the smuggling of multihundred kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine weekly into the United States.
  
  
• Texas-based, regional-level prison gangs cooperate with Mexico-based DTOs to smuggle wholesale quantities of cocaine and marijuana and illegal aliens into the United States from Mexico. Additionally, these gangs extort money from drug and alien traffickers transiting the Southwest Border.
  
  
• Some national-level Hispanic street gangs have close associations with Mexico-based DTOs. Hispanic gang members reportedly obtain cocaine and marijuana from the DTOs and transport the drugs to primary U.S. drug market areas for further distribution.
  
  
• Canada-based Chinese and Vietnamese DTOs and criminal groups maintain close working relationships with Asian gangs operating in Canada and the United States. Canada-based DTOs are the primary suppliers of multithousand-tablet quantities of MDMA and multihundred-pound quantities of high-potency marijuana to Asian gangs operating in the United States. The DTOs also use Asian gang members for other aspects of drug distribution operations in the United States.

Cross-Border Gang Activity

U.S.-based gang members are increasingly involved in cross-border criminal activities, particularly in areas of Texas and California along the U.S.–Mexico border. Much of this activity involves the trafficking of drugs and illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States and considerably adds to gang revenues. Further, gangs are increasingly smuggling weapons from the United States into Mexico as payment for drugs or to sell for a significant profit. Examples of such cross border activities include:

• Street and prison gang members have established networks that work closely with Mexican DTOs in trafficking cocaine and marijuana from Mexico into the United States for distribution.
  
  
• Some Mexican DTOs contract with gangs in the Southwest Region to smuggle weapons from the United States to Mexico, according to open source information.
  
  
• Street gang and OMG members are trafficking cocaine and firearms from the United States to Canada and marijuana and MDMA from Canada to the United States; this is a growing concern to U.S. and Canadian law enforcement officials, particularly as Canadian law enforcement officials report that street gangrelated gun crimes in Canada are often committed using firearms that are illegally smuggled into the country from the United States.

Gang Activity in Indian Country

Most street gangs active on reservations are local gangs, typically composed of Native American youth. Many of these local gangs have little or no direct ties to national-level street gangs; however, several Native American gangs, specifically Native Mob, have expanded beyond Indian Country on and off the reservations. Native Mob is one of the largest and most violent Native American street gangs operating in the United States. Native Mob is most active in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The main source of income for the gang is the retail-level distribution of illicit drugs, primarily marijuana and methamphetamine. Gang members also commit other crimes such as auto theft, assault, carjacking, drive-by shootings, extortion, homicide, and robbery.

Some urban and suburban gangs are expanding their drug operations onto Native American reservations. These gangs pose a significant threat to Indian Country because of their drug distribution activities and violent tendencies as well as the disruptive effect that they have on Native American communities. Gang members occasionally are employed by or work in conjunction with Mexican DTOs and criminal groups to distribute illicit drugs within Native American communities.

Female Involvement in Gangs

Female involvement in gangs continues to increase and evolve as females assume greater responsibility in gang activities and grow more independent from their male counterparts. Though gangs are still primarily male-dominated, research indicates that female gang membership is on the rise. In 2006 the National Youth Gang Center stated that “youth gang membership among girls has been more widely reported by law enforcement than in the past.” In May 2008 the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) found that in high-risk, high-crime neighborhoods, 29.4 percent of girls and 32.4 percent of boys claimed gang membership when self-definition was used as a measure. The majority of respondents to a 2007 Florida-based study reported that female gang members accounted for less than 15 percent of gang members. However, a small portion of respondents placed female gang membership as high as 26 to 50 percent. In concurrence with each of the above studies, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency ranked “young females as the fastest growing offenders in the national juvenile justice population.”

Although female gang membership in male-dominated gangs is increasing, the prevalence of predominantly female gangs continues to be a rare phenomenon. In addition, although all-female gangs do exist, they are infrequently the focus of law enforcement. Traditionally, female gangs have received less attention from researchers and law enforcement, and most efforts have focused on intervention programs designed to provide an alternative refuge for girls attempting to escape abusive environments. Furthermore, law enforcement officials are less likely to recognize or stop female gang members, and they have experienced difficulty in identifying female involvement in gang-related activity.

Outlook

Most regions in the United States will experience increased gang membership, continued migration of gangs to suburban and rural areas, and increased gang-related criminal activity. These increases are largely the result of the continued expansion of gang-operated criminal networks. Better-organized urban gangs will continue to expand their criminal networks into new market areas in suburban and rural locations, where they can absorb unaffiliated local gangs or use violence to intimidate them.

Gang-related violence is very likely to remain at high levels or increase as gangs expand their criminal operations into suburban and rural communities. As these gangs encounter resistance from local gangs or other drug distributors in these communities, an increase in violent incidents such as assaults, drive-by shootings, and homicides can be expected.

Neighborhood-based gangs account for the majority of gangs active in the United States; however, national gangs commit more organized criminal activity and continue to expand their networks. Neighborhood-based gangs will continue to consume the resources of local law enforcement in communities that report high levels of gang-related criminal activity, but migration of national gangs into new areas will pose an increasing threat to such communities.

As gangs continue to expand and evolve from local- or regional-level gangs to sophisticated national-level gangs, most will continue to foster relationships with wholesale-level drug traffickers in Mexico and/or Canada. Such relationships are more likely for Hispanic gangs operating along the U.S.–Mexico border; these gang members often have personal and family ties to DTO members in Mexico.

Source: National Gang Intelligence Center, staffed and supported by a number of partnering agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), Bureau of Prisons (BOP), Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), NDIC, and United States Marshals Service (USMS).