The word gang refers to a cluster of associates, family members, or friends with a distinct leadership and internal organization that identifies with control over particular jurisdiction. A gang engages either collectively or individually in illegal and conceivably violent money-making activities, including drug trafficking, robbery, gun trafficking, prostitution, extortion, human smuggling and fraud (Goldschein & Luke, 2013). There are numerous types of gangs in the United States, encompassing prison, ethnic, motorcycle clubs, organized crime, national and local street gangs. About thirty-three thousand active gangs are present in the United States, consisting of nearly two million people (McLean, 2019). The United States' government appraised that approximately half of all gang members in the jurisdiction were Hispanic at the beginning of the twenty-first century, about one-third were black Americans, about an eighth were white, and one-twentieth were Asians (Goldschein & Luke, 2013). Gang features include illegal behavior, strong leadership, organization, extensive use of identity symbols, graffiti for nonverbal communication, and association with specific geographical areas. Gang membership has a hierarchy that includes (from the highest to lowest rank) the core, leaders, associates, regulars, frontiers, and recruits. The core is acknowledged as the inner clique that controls the level and nature of gang activities. This research paper discusses different notorious gangs and crimes associated with these gangs.
18th Street Gang
18th Street Gang also known as Mara 18, Calle 18, or simply La 18 is one of the most eminent bands in Southern California. The gang is a multi-ethnic international crime organization predominantly comprising Americans and Mexicans. 18 th street started in Los Angeles and has accumulated about forty thousand members from the United States, Mexico, and Central America, with roughly fifteen thousand being from United States (Fraser, 2017). 18th street is closely allied to the Mexican Mafia. Though slackly connected, the gang is among the rapidly escalating criminal organizations In the United States, with a reaching extending across thirty-two states from Hawaii to Maryland.
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18 th street gang is recognized as one of the most prolific and violent cliques in the United States. While its core revenue stream is the street supply of drugs, it is also associated with extortion, homicide, kidnapping, robbery, smuggling of immigrants, prostitution, assaults, auto theft, arson, weapon trafficking, and copyright infringement. According to Fraser (2017), the gang was implicated in the high-profile abduction and slaying of sixteen-year-old Wilson Palacio, brother to internationally celebrated Honduran football player- Wilson Palacios . Besides, gang members are involved in routine car thefts and home burglaries. On average, one person is robbed or assailed by a member of 18 th street every day ( Fraser, 2017) . The government reported that the gang had left a bloody train at speed three times that of any other active gang in the country. Relative to other gangs, 18 th Streeters have achieved a high rank of sophistication and organization in their criminal engagements (McLean, 2019 .
In 1998, an ill-famed member of the 18 th street gang named Gonzalez was condemned to life imprisons after a jury found him guilty of first-degree homicide for ruthlessly gun firing Officer Filbert Cuesta in the posterior part of the head while the brigadier was resting in a patrol wagon. Several other young members of the gang have been arrested and charged with abduction and murder in the woods Fraser, 2017) . Despite the arrests and convictions, most gang members continue with their criminal activities while in jail through organized connections to the outside world.
The Almighty Latin King Nation
The Almighty Latin King Nation was f ormed in Chicago in the 1950s. The firm systematized leadership of the Latin Kings Nation has facilitated the gang's rise to the biggest Hispanic gang in the United States. Initially, the group was formed with the philosophy of overcoming prejudice based on race but evolved into a criminal organization throughout the country. The gang has two factions namely Almighty Latin King Nation (ALKN) and Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN). ALKN has one hundred and sixty structures active in one hundred and fifty-eight cities in thirty-one states comprising about twenty-five thousand members. On the other hand, ALKQN, has a membership of approximately seven thousand members operating in fifteen cities in three states ( Hourigan, Morrison, Windle & Silke, 2018) . The two cliques share a constitution and observe common culture. All members subscribe to a similar religious aesthetic that requires rebirth of members into kings and queens enlightened and equipped to serve the subjugated populations of the world. Gang members display the gang colors and symbols on their flag, tattoos, and clothing. The colors are black and gold, while the emblem is crown with five points, sometimes put on a lion (Hourigan et al., 2018). Members of the gang spiral their fingers into a crown's shape when posing for photos or encountering other Latin kings or queens.
The clique's leading source of revenue is the street-level circulation of powder and crack cocaine, marijuana, and heroin (Hourigan et al., 2018) . ALKN and ALKQN continue to pose as a cooperative association while engaging in an extensive assortment of other illicit activities, including mugging, identity theft, robbery, homicide, and money laundering. Several federal operations have targeted the kings and queens to limit the gang's rapidly expanding influence. The recent operation produced a powerful sting on the group as it resulted in the conviction of the highest-ranked member of the nation outside the prison-Augustin Zambrano, otherwise known as Tino.
MS-13 Gang
Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, is a multi-national criminal gang that originated from Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. Arguably, it is the most dangerous gang and attracts most attention from the FBI. Initially, MS-13 intended to protect immigrants from Salvador from attacks and intimidation by other gangsters. The gang's territories include central America, the United States, Mexico, and Canada. According to the FBI, the mara Salvatrucha has approximately seventy thousand members, out of which about ten thousand are from the United States ( Knox et al., 2018) . Gang members can be effortlessly identified by the common conspicuous tattoos, usually on the face. To strengthen its position, MS-13 joined forces with Mexican Mafia in the 1990s. Mara Salvatrucha became known as MS-13 purportedly during this alliance because the letter M is 13 th in the alphabet. With no structured leadership, clique members operate independently, making it hard for law enforcers to limit their spreading influence.
The financial advantage was the primary purpose behind the alliance. The alliance brought in sophistication of the gangs as an added gain that gave access to weapons and technology, thus enhancing the gang's capacity to execute lethal activities on a broader jurisdiction. MS-13 is mainly known for brutality, violence, relentless cruelty, and mercilessness, with numerous documented public delinquencies. The gang is responsible for many deaths and violent activities that have threatened communities and left neighborhoods terrified. An example of cold murders executed by the gang is the San Francisco gang member who slayed an entire family for momentarily obstructing his car (Knox et al., 2018). In effect, the gang's motto is to rape, kill and control. Mara Salvatrucha is different from other gangs because financial interests do not stir its barbarism. Instead, it is about the honor of gaining recognition as the most bloodthirsty and savage one can be and creating a reputation as a cold murderer (Knox et al., 2018) .
Other criminal activities of the gang include drug trafficking, illegal immigration, trafficking of firearms and humans, murder, extortion, kidnapping, robbery, battery, money laundering, and prostitution (Knox et al., 2018). The incident at Chamelecón , Honduras comprises one of the widely published crimes executed by MS-13. The gang members intercepted an express bus and sprayed it with bullets killing eighteen and injuring fourteen more. The massacre was a retaliation against the Honduran government's attempt to restore the death penalty. Another incidence is the murder of four men behind a football ground using knives, machetes, and wooden clubs by fifteen-year-old Portillo, who was later prosecuted as an adult and faced a life sentence. Several MS-13 gang members, including Amaya, Pineda, and Bruno, have been charged with child prostitution. The gang members lured underage girls from schools, shelters, and the streets and forced them to have sex with at least ten men every day. Recently, fourteen members of the gang were charged with terrorism, and conviction is underway. Mara Salvatrucha is captured in the gang assessment of 2011 (Knox et al., 2018 . However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a special section and separate task force devoted to stop the gang and alert the public of the peril the group poses.
The Mexican Mafia Prison Gang
Also called 'gang of gangs,' it was started in the 1950s by a group of boys at a Juvenile jail in Tracy, California, and it has since grown to be an international criminal organization. The organization is the oldest, deadliest, most powerful prison gang, and it is headed by Latinos who control operations within and beyond California prisons. Other Latino gangsters confined within Southern California disregard their rivalries and align under the umbrella of the Mexican mafia. In spite of its name, the gang is not Mexico-based, and it is entirely based in the United States. The Club has a membership of about five hundred members and nearly two thousand associates who executive crimes in the hope of joining the gang ( McLean, 2019) . Official members and associates collaborate to control criminal operations and have managed to create an entity and successfully function as an illegal government. Despite being a prison gang, the Mexican mafia also operates in the streets through their partners and lawyers, whom they use to relay orders to be implemented by members who are not in prison. The gang's main symbol is the eagle and snake, representing Mexico's national symbol and is often tattooed on members' hands or necks. The Black Hand is also used to identify gang members.
The gang makes money predominantly through drug trafficking and collecting tax on drug sales (McLean, 2019). Members even collect a share of sales on candy bars, lotion, and other items at the jail commissary through exerting authority and engaging in violence if people fail to pay taxes or adhere to their rules. The gang is also involved in extortion, murder, illegal gambling, prostitution, and assault. Besides, gang members have been accused of brutal beatings, stabbing murders ordered from inside the prison, kidnappings, and racketing conspiracies.
The Vagos Motorcycle Club
Initially called "The Psychos," the Club is a brutal crime one percent motorcycle gang created in 1965. The unit was formed in San Bernardino, California, and operates throughout Southern California. The gang's emblem is Loki-Norse mythology, god of harm riding on a motorbike. Members of Vagos classically wear green, thus the alternative name "green nation." The gang comprises numerous military-trained members who are notoriously ruthless with enemies and have professed warfare on law enforcement officers. These members are about four thousand among nearly two hundred chapters ( Lauchs, 2019) .
Vagos has a reputation in the production and distribution of narcotics. Other operations backing the gang's existence are money laundering, extortion, theft, and assaults. For instance, three vagos members were charged with sexual assault. The three met a woman in a nightclub and offered to take her home, but instead, they forced her into the clubhouse, bit and sexually assaulted her. Another example is when six-member gangsters were convicted of burglary, second-degree theft, second-degree abduction, and coercion. Members of Vagos have also been accused and sentenced with insurance fraud, murder, and weapon crimes. Four Vagos gangsters were found guilty of slaying William Velten- a student at the University of New Mexico. The four confessed and were sentenced to death. A more recent crime is the row with Hells Angels- a street gang, over a lawn surrounding Starbucks holdings in California which led to the death of two people and injured eight others.
The Trinitarios Gang
The Trinitarios is the fastest-growing street gang in New York. The Club was formed by Dominicans in New York's prisons in the 1980s and rapidly expanded into the streets with the release of the inmates in 1993 (Lambine & Gaviria, 2018). Its influence is mainly felt in five districts of New York, where it has a membership of about one thousand people, although it also operates in about ten other states (Lambine & Gaviria, 2018). The gang is known for its exclusive organizational hierarchy and brittleness. Testimonies against the gang reported that membership requires sponsorship and an oath to abide by the constitution. Trinitarios use the code "41-6-12" and identify with letters "D, P, L," which they commonly use in their tattoos, or the "3ni," which is slang for the word trinitarian. The gang is notorious for recruiting high school students in Jersey and New York.
The weapon of choice for trinitarian is a machete though gangsters also use guns, baseball bats, and knives. The gang's main income stream is drug trafficking, although it is also associated with murder, burglaries, and assaults (Lambine & Gaviria, 2018). For instance, trinitarios were charged with the selling of a massive number of firearms and drugs, including heroin, fentanyl, and crack cocaine. Last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation incarcerated the leader of Long Island trinitarion’s chapter on drug tracking charges, and fifty other members were raided and locked up on numerous murder charges and possession of illegal arms.
Evidently, various categories of criminal gangs exist in the United States, posing a threat to communities and neighborhoods. The units are diverse in terms of type, leadership, jurisdiction, and the nature of criminal activities they engage in. Gang problem is a local and urban problem and initiatives to combat gang activities need to be extended to local regions. General approaches towards preventing gangs entail preventing young people from linking to gangs, transforming the existing gangs and intervening in wars between gangs. Of the three approaches, the preventive strategy is the most effective. It involves teaching of afterschool recreation activities as part of curricula for school-exiting students. For regions where gang issues are endemic a combination of the strategies aided by investigations and convictions would help ease the problem. The FBI is devoted to disrupt and dismantle the most notorious gangs through intelligence-driven inquiries and collaborations like Safe Streets Task Forces, the National Gang Intelligence Center, and Transnational Anti-Gang Task Forces. An example of such efforts is the MS-13 task force which was formed to bring down the cruel gang.
References
Fraser, A. (2017). Gangs & Crime: Critical Alternatives . Sage.
Goldschein, E., & Luke, M. (2013). American gangs that are keeping the FBI up at night. Business Insider .
Hourigan, N., Morrison, J. F., Windle, J., & Silke, A. (2018). Crime in Ireland north and south: Feuding gangs and profiteering paramilitaries. Trends in Organized Crime , 21 (2), 126-146.
Knox, G. W., Etter, G., & Smith, C. F. (2018). Gangs and organized crime . Taylor & Francis.
Lambine, M., & Gaviria, G. (2018). Organized Crime, Gangs, and Trafficking. In Handbook of Sex Trafficking (pp. 111-116). Springer, Cham.
Lauchs, M. (2019). Are outlaw motorcycle gangs organized crime groups? An analysis of the Finks MC. Deviant Behavior , 40 (3), 287-300.
McLean, R. (2019). Gangs, drugs, and (dis) organized crime . Bristol University Press.
