Latin Kings

Latin Kings

Founding location	Chicago
Years active	1940 – present
Territory	United States, Canada, Latin America and Spain
Membership	100,000 Worldwide (25,000 in Chicago alone with another 10,000 in the surrounding suburbs)
Allies	People Nation, Nortenos, Bloods
Rivals	Folk Nation,Surenos, Crips

The Latin Kings are said to be the largest and most organized Hispanic street gang in the United States of America [1], which has its roots dating back to the 1940s in Chicago, Illinois [2]. Latin King documents reveal that Gino Gustavo Colon (a.k.a. "Lord Gino") is considered the "SUN" of the Almighty Latin King Nation in Chicago—and has been for a long time. Currently he is serving a life sentence in federal prison due to a 25-count indictment, which includes charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other drugs. Latin King headquarters is located on Beach and Spaulding in Northwest Chicago.

Luis Felipe (a.k.a. King Blood) started his own chapter of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation with the permission of his superiors in Chicago, the "motherland". He designated himself as Inca and Supreme Crown of New York State. In 1995 Antonio Fernandez (a.k.a. King Tone) was designated Inca and Supreme Crown of New York State and New Jersey, and the ALKQN once again began a transformation.

Chicago Latin Kings

The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN, ALKN, LKN) is the largest Hispanic street gang in the United States. Unlike MS-13 and 18th Street gang—whose great portion of gang membership exists in Mexico, Central and South America—the majority of Latin Kings reside within the United States. The ALKN has nearly thirty thousand members in the city of Chicago, with another ten to fifteen thousand members in the surrounding suburbs of Illinois. They also have organized chapters of Latin Kings in over 41 states and several Latin American and European countries: Mexico, Spain, Dominican Republic, Canada, Italy, Ecuador, Peru, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom and others. Latin Kings are mostly of Latino descent, with some Black, White, Asian and Middle Eastern members as well.

Organizational structure

The Latin Kings have a hierarchical organizational structure, and they have sets in numerous states across the country. These sets are referred to as "chapters" or "tribes", with each reporting to an Inca, Caciqa, Enforcer and Regional Officer. The head (or heads) of the entire criminal organization are known as "Coronas" (crowns in Spanish).

History

The Almighty Latin Kings first emerged in Chicago in the 1940s after several young Puerto Rican males organized into a self-defense group to protect their community and to unite all Latinos into a collective struggle against "oppression"[3]. Their goal was to help each other overcome the problems of racism and prejudice that newly arriving Puerto Rican and Mexican immigrants were experiencing and to serve as a vanguard for their communities.

Like the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, and so many other groups that struggle for political empowerment, the Latin Kings were broken as a movement [4]. They lost touch with their roots and grew into one of the largest and most infamous criminal gangs in America. The group's members became involved in crimes including murder, drug trafficking, robberies and other organized criminal activities.

In their beginnings, when they were not great in size, their brutal history and propensity for violence distinguished them from other gangs in Chicago, making them equal players with the larger Black "Super Gangs", such as the Gangster Disciples, the Almighty Vice Lord Nation and the Black P. Stones. They also played an equal role in the formation of the People Nation. In recent times, the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation has grown to be the second largest in size—the Gangster Disciples being the largest—and has hitherto been recognized as the most violent street gang in the Chicagoland area.

Markings

The Latin King colors are black and gold; gang markings consist of a 5 or 3-point crown, writings of LK, ALK, ALKN, ALKQN abbreviations (or the whole words), and drawings of the Lion and/or the King Master. Latin King symbolism is usually accompanied with the name and number of the chapter, region or city of the gang. The Latin Kings are of the People Nation, and therefore, represent everything to the "left"—in opposition to the "right", which is representative of the "Folk Nation".

Culture

One of the characteristics that sets the Latin Kings apart from other gangs is they often represent themselves as a community-based organization. Because of their apparent contradictions, it is often debated about whether they are a criminal organization or a positive force in the community (as they have obviously taken on both roles at different points in time, as well as simultaneously). For example, in 2000 there were approximately 1600 self-admitted Latin Kings in the Illinois Department of Corrections, and these accounted for over half of all the recorded violent acts on prison personnel and other inmates, making the ALKN the most violent prison gang in Illinois (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fiscal Report, 2000).

But their "apparent contradictions", the Latin Kings may argue, can be better understood when viewed through the lens of their teachings. Once a member of the Almighty Latin King Nation, according to the "Latin King Manifesto", a member naturally passes through three stages of consciousness:

(1) the Primitive Stage, wherein the neophyte member is expected to be immature and to be involved in such activities as gang-banging and being a street warrior without the full consciousness of Kingism ;

(2) the Conservative or Mummy Stage, which is where a member tires of the street gang life but is still accepting of life as it has been taught to him by the existing system that exploits all people of color, dehumanizes them, and maintains them under the conditions and social yoke of slavery;

and (3) the New King Stage, where the member recognizes the need for a revolution of the "mind". According to the Manifesto, "The New King is the end product of complete awareness, perceiving three-hundred and sixty degrees of enlightenment; his observations are free and independent; his thoughts are not clouded by any form of prejudice...For him there are no horizons between races, sexes and senseless labels", including gang labels for recognition. The New King no longer views the rival warriors as the cause of his ills and seeks world unity for the sake of humanization and freedom for all the "Oppressed Third World Peoples".

Therefore, as appropriately expressed by their own teachings, a great majority of Latin Kings live a criminalistic lifestyle while a select few seek to better their communities and fight against social oppression and injustices.

Kingism

The Latin Kings teach Latino pride and all members are encouraged to live in accordance with the principles of KINGISM (a moral driven awareness of social oppression and the desire to uplift their people to their rightful place: "amongst the thrones of Kings and Queens"). The Latin Kings operate under strict rules and guidelines that are conveyed in a lengthy constitution [5] and follow the teachings of the ALKQN Manifesto [6], which was written by highly intellectual Latin Kings (these documents are referred to as the "King Manifesto/Constitution" or "KM/C" for short). In this manifesto you can find traces of Marxism, Christianity, Confucianism and other revolutionary and historical world-views which when combined make up the ideology and morality of "KINGISM". These teachings are centered around the upliftment of the poor (the "Oppressed Third World People") and the struggle against the oppressive social, political and economic existing order of things.

To begin their meetings, members may face the East, which is where the sun rises, and recite one of the various Latin King prayers to Yahve (The Almighty Father and King of Kings) and pledge to be ever faithful to the Nation. These meetings are also used by members to discuss recent events, dues, retaliation, position responsibilities and elections, etc. When compared to most street gangs, the Latin Kings are generally more structured and organized. The gang's rules are strictly enforced and some members celebrate January 6 as "King's Holy Day" and the first week in March as "King's Week" [7]

Publicized crimes

The story of Carlos Robles

In 1983, an inmate by the name of Carlos Robles was considered an escapee two days before he was scheduled to be released from the Illinois Department of Corrections. Years later, a high-ranking Latin King, who turned informant, gave the FBI critical information about the location of Carlos' skull and the bloody tale of how the Latin Kings butchered him and fed him to the Stateville Prison inmate population for dinner.

According to the informant's account, Carlos Robles was a northside Latin King who had disrespected the leader of the Southside Latin Kings, one Raul Gonzalez (AKA "Baby King"). After receiving approval from Gustavo Colon, the hit was ordered against Carlos Robles.

The two Latin Kings that were chosen for the hit were heavy PCP users, and they basically told him they were throwing him a "going away party". The two hitmen got permission from the cellhouse guard to use the basement for the going away party—the basement of the cellhouse unit also contained the shower area. When Carlos entered the basement of the cellhouse with the Latin Kings they decapitated him and then chopped his body up into smaller pieces with heavy gauge steel machetes. To eliminate evidence, they turned on the showers to drain the blood and wash off the body parts. Members of their own gang, according to the informants testimony, cooperated upstairs in the cell house by staging a diversion fight. Meanwhile the two Latin Kings placed the body parts into plastic bags and went through a tunnel which led to what was then the butcher shop area of the prisons kitchen.

The two Latin Kings paid a rival gang member, who was in charge of the butcher shop, to grind up the body parts in the older meat grinder that was there, a very large commercial grade meat grinder. On the menu for the evening meal that night at Stateville Penitentiary was meat loaf. The rival gang member agreed, and grinded up the body parts with the pork and beef that was also going into the meat loaf for the evening meal. The skull was incapable of being ground; therefore, the killers buried the skull in the basement of the cellhouse.

No traces of the skin, bones, teeth, or blood of Carlos Robles were found for years. That is until the skull was dug up in 1995 in Stateville when an informant offered information of its whereabouts to federal authorities in 1995. No one was ever charged for his murder.

1989 assassination of Officer Lawrence Kush

On July 1, 1989 a correctional officer at the Stateville Correctional Center, Lawrence Kush, Jr., was assassinated by the Latin Kings while on the job. Attacked from behind with pipes and other weapons, Kush would die a day later, but was one of 30 officers on a "hit list" prepared by the Latin Kings .

Operation Broken Crown

A three-year investigation of the Latin Kings by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, entitled Operation Broken Crown, ended with the arrest of Fernando "Ace" King, who was suspected to be one of the highest-ranking members of the gang and at least 20 others. The operation was conducted in various areas in Chicago and the suburbs.

Prosecutors said the crack in the case came from an informant named Jesse Guajardo, the alleged "Inca" or leader of a southwest suburban crew of the Latin Kings, from whom the witness purchased cocaine on about 10 occasions between 2000 and 2003. In just 18 months alone in 2003 and 2004, Guajardo, arrested in February, allegedly purchased 150 kilograms of cocaine -– including as much as 50 kilograms at one time for about $1.8 million -– from his alleged supplier, Jose Estrada, according to federal charges.

The investigation by ATF and various local, state and federal law enforcement partners when authorities began executing 10 federal search warrants and arresting alleged leaders, members and associates of the Almighty Latin King Nation (ALKN) street gang and individuals who supplied them with and purchased narcotics.

About 10 kilograms of cocaine and 87 firearms were either seized or purchased previously during the investigation, authorities said.

Fernando "Ace" King, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Northern Judicial District of Illinois before Judge David Coar to 240 months in federal prison for Unlawful Possession of Controlled Substance, and 120 months for Conspiracy to Possess a Controlled Substance. Judge Coar allowed the sentences to be served concurrently.

New York Latin Kings

To avoid imprisonment for his criminal activities in Chicago, Luis Felipe moved to New York, where he was later convicted of killing his girlfriend, which he claimed was a drunken accident. While in jail, he got permission from his superiors in Chicago to start the New York chapter of the Latin Kings which grew very rapidly. Using hand-written letters, he gave members orders to kill enemies, as well as disobedient Latin Kings, in order to preserve discipline. Felipe's gang was highly organized.

Street gang: 1984–1995

From 1986 to the internal power struggle that erupted in 1994, the ALKQN would solidify its role as a gang through crimes such as murder, racketeering, and RICO Act charges.

In 1991 Felipe was returned to prison after a short release for parole violations stemming from the receipt of stolen goods. Felipe would continue however to guide the ALKQN members who now totaled about 2000 members both incarcerated and free. In 1994 with the rapid growth of the Latin Kings, an internal power struggle erupted and violence within the Kings ensued. Between June 1993 and February 1994, seven Latin Kings were murdered. Following the outbreaks of internal gang violence Luis Felipe and 19 others were charged with murder and racketeering, the indictments would end in 1995 with 39 Latin Kings and 1 Latin Queen indicted under the RICO Act.

The details of the charges against Felipe would later become known. Felipe was charged with ordering the killing of William (Lil Man) Cartegena. Cartegena was taken to an abandoned Bronx apartment where he was strangled, decapitated, mutilated and his corpse set on fire. Felipe allegedly murdered Cartagena for theft from the organization.

Reformation: 1995-

In 1996, following the trial of Luis Felipe, Antonio Fernandez [8] who was recently blessed as the Inca and Supreme Crown of New York State and New Jersey [9], kneeled with other Latin Kings in front of the Federal District Court in Manhattan and is quoted as stating: It's time for a fresh start ... Now they can't hold our past against us. 1996 is believed to be the beginning of the ALKQN's transformation from a street gang to a "street organization."

Latin Kings and Queens begin appearing en mass at political demonstrations in support of the Latino community. To further its transformation and efforts to legitimize, the organization begins to hold its monthly meetings (universals) at St. Marys Episcopal Church in West Harlem. At this time the membership of the Latin Kings is believed to have swelled to 3,000 incarcerated and 4,000 free. The monthly universals are drawing in an attendance of 500-600 regularly. Internal changes to the organization begin to take place as Fernandez amended the ALKQN manifesto to include parliamentary elections and new procedures for handling inter-organizational grievances and removing death as a possible punishment, replacing it with "vanishing," the act of being banished from the movement.

For the ALKQN, 1997 begins with Felipe being sentenced to the harshest penalty passed down since World War II, Felipe is sentenced to 250 years in prison, the first 45 to be spent in solitary confinement. The other 39 members were sentenced to an average of 20 years in prison for their roles in the crimes. The year would bring further legal troubles as Fernandez and 31 others are arrested in a raid in the Lower East Side and charged with disorderly conduct. The Special Commissioner of Investigation for Schools soon after charges the ALKQN with infiltrating the school system, a school security guard with five years of service is dismissed on charges of unprofessional conduct for his association. The year comes to a close with Fernandez being arrested in December by the FBI for domestic abuse.

The pending charges against Fernandez were dropped in early 1998. Following the release of Fernandez, a joint operation of the FBI, New York City Police Department (NYPD), Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), New York State Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) comes to a close with the arrests of 92 suspected ALKQN members. The Latin King leadership insists over half of those arrested are not members. The operation, dubbed Operation Crown, cost the city over one million dollars and took 19 months to complete.

Fernandez was released after four days on $350,000 bail, which was paid for by contributions from community members. Over half of the arrested were charged with misdemeanors, other were charged with weapons possession and drug dealing. Fernandez was eventually permitted, though on house arrest, to attend monthly universal meetings. It was during his time on house arrest that the Latin Queens underwent a shake up in leadership, dismissing many of the leaders in order to bring in more politically focused members.

The Latin Kings during this period begin to gain legitimacy. First, Lolita Lebron, who was a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, appointed the New York State ALKQN to protect her during a demonstration in front of the United Nations. Following the UN demonstration, Rafael Cancel-Miranda, a Puerto Rican nacionalista who spent 25 years in federal prison, attended a monthly universal. Before years' end, Adelfa Vera, Puerto Rican activist, attended a monthly universal and was given sacred ALKQN beads by the present leadership. Adelfa was praised during the meeting and stated "These kids are hope for our liberation struggle. I can die in peace, because we found the continuation"

In 1998 Fernandez [10] pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell and distribute heroin. In 1999 he was sentenced to 13 years in prison, which he is serving at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas and was placed in solitary confinement. He was eventually transferred again and placed in general population.

Latin Queens

While originally the Latin Kings were only a male organization, it eventually began to absorb women and give them an equal share. The Latin Queens constituted the female half of the ALKQN.

The Latin Queen agenda is composed of self-respect, independence, family support, ethnic identity and self-empowerment. Seeking such goals has attracted a wide variety of females who had been drug addicted, victimized and/or neglected by families, spouses and partners. Sociologists studying the Latin Kings and Queens have observed the different methods in which both groups attempt to "reclaim and regulate" their environments. The Latin Queens are believed to focus more on their private space issues such as home life and protection and nurturing of their bodies, as opposed to the Latin Kings, who are more concerned with loss of public spaces in their own communities.

The evolution of the ALKQN has been viewed by outside sources as being assisted by the addition and greater role in which Latin Queens have played, exposing the ALKQN to a greater range of cross-class supporters than would have been possible prior to their integration. In regions such as Spain, Latin Queens are helping to legitimize the ALKQN through integration with government sponsored programs. In Catalonia, the 200 person Latin Kings and Queens tribe was designated as the Cultural Association of Latin Kings and Queens of Catalonia. The "cultural program" designation was bestowed through government sponsored programs to assist gangs with integration into society and is led by Latin Queen Melody, Erika Jaramillo.

External links

• The Latin King Manifesto / Constitution
• National Gang Crime Center: Latin King Gang Profile
• Latino Gangs: The Latin Kings
• Operation Crown - The Political Persecution of the Latin Kings
• HBO Documentary -Latin Kings: A Street Gang Story
• Book The Almighty Latin King and Queen NationStreet Politics and the Transformation of a New York City Gang
• ChicagoGangs.com