18th Street gang

18th Street

Founded	1959
Years active	1959 – present
Territory	Mostly in Los Angeles California, the western and southern areas of the United States, Mexico, and Central America
Ethnicity	Mexican and Central Americans
Membership (est.)	30,000-50,000 nationwide
Criminal activities	Drug trafficking, assault, robbery, kidnapping, pandering, contract killing, extortion, arms trafficking, human trafficking, auto theft, murder, illegal immigration, illegal gambling, identity document forgery, vandalism, and food stamp fraud
Allies	Mexican Mafia, Armenian Power
Rivals	Bloods, Mara Salvatrucha, Latin kings, Sureno sets, Los Zetas, some Crips sets

18th Street gang is considered to be the largest transnational criminal gang in Los Angeles, California. It is estimated that there are thousands of members in Los Angeles County alone. There are approximately 200 separate individual autonomous gangs operating under the same label within separate barrios in the San Fernando Valley, the San Gabriel Valley, the South Bay, South Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, Pico Union, Inglewood, Cudahy, and Orange County, according to the latest figures from the NDIC. Their wide-ranging activities and elevated status has even caught the eye of the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who recently initiated wide-scale raids against known and suspected gang members netting hundreds of arrests across the country. A US Justice Department report from 2009 estimates that the 18th Street gang has a membership of some 30,000 to 50,000 with 80% of them being illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America and is active in 44 cities in 20 states. Its main source of income is street-level distribution of cocaine and marijuana and, to a lesser extent, heroin and methamphetamine. Gang members also commit assault, auto theft, carjacking, drive-by shootings, extortion, homicide, identification fraud, and robbery.

History

The 18th Street gang formed around 1959 by an American Samoan who grew up in the Pico Union area of Los Angeles named "Rocky Glover" known for actively recruiting children, foreigners and others not allowed in Clanton 14. Originally, 18th Street was a click of the bigger Clanton 14th Street neighborhood. As membership of Clanton grew, newer members who lived off of 18th Street decided to start Clanton 18th Street. Forming a new click of a gang can sometimes be a challenge, because some members may look at it as an action that does not unify but separates the neighborhood, and possibly creates division between members that will be forced to choose sides during a conflict.

Clanton 14 core members did not approve of having Clanton 18, so the new click members had to make a decision between falling in line with Clanton 14, or taking a defiant position to start their own gang, hence the birth of 18th Street. They just simply dropped the Clanton off their name and then became rivals against them. As the years progressed, Clanton lost their main strong hold off 14th Street, and today that area is completely dominated by 18th Street.

Clanton did not disappear though as their neighborhood in Hollywood off Beverly has survived and their other neighborhood on the South Side near San Pedro is still thriving. Through a small act of defiance, one of the most well known gangs was born in Los Angeles. Because of its aggressive recruiting techniques of accepting any all new comers the name of this gang has caught on and has been copied and mimicked in several other cities and countries around the world. Contrary to popular belief, not all of the 18th Street neighborhoods operate in unison, know each other, or even get along.

Culture

18th Street gang members are required to abide by a strict set of rules. Failure to obey the word of a gang leader, or to show proper respect to a fellow gang member, may result in an 18-second beating, or even execution for more serious offenses.

According to the FBI, some factions of the 18th Street gang have developed a high level of sophistication and organization. The 18th Street gang is of Hispanic origin and was formed by Mexican-American youth who were not accepted in the existing American gangs.

18th Street gang members often identify themselves with the number 18 on their jerseys and clothing. 18th Street will use the symbols XV3, XVIII, 666,99,(9+9=18), and 3-dots in their graffiti and tattoos. 18th Street colors are black and blue. Blue is to represent Surenos/Southern California and black is to represent the original color for the gang.

The 18th Street gang is occasionally referred to as the "Children's Army" because of its recruitment of elementary and middle-school aged youth.

Criminal activity

18th Street is a well established gang that is involved in all areas of street-crime. Some members have even become involved in producing fraudulent Immigration and Customs Enforcement identification cards and food stamps. Several 18th Street gang members have evolved into a higher level of sophistication and organization than other gangs. They also have been linked to occurrences of murder, murder-for-hire, assaults, drug trafficking, extortion, vandalism, drug smuggling, prostitution, robbery, and weapons trafficking, as well as other crimes.

18th Street Gang has been implicated in the high-profile kidnapping and murder of the 16 year old brother of internationally renowned Honduran soccer player Wilson Palacios.

Location

The majority of 18th Street cliques operating throughout Southern California and are the result of Los Angeles members migrating to other areas and establishing cliques under their leadership. Members originally from Los Angeles tend to be more respected than those in other areas. 18th Street cliques have been identified in 32 states and the District of Columbia in the United States, as well as foreign countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Canada. Some cliques are 54th Tiny Locos, Hollywood Gangsters, Tiny Diablos, Pico Gangsters, BellFlower, 106th Block, Grand View, Hoover, Mac Arthur Park, Smile Drive, Shatto Park, South Central, Rancho Park, Cudahi, Baby Locas (A Females Clique) and the Malditos in Orange County.

See also

• Surenos

External links

• Extensive 18th Street Gang information
• 18th Street Gang in Los Angeles County
• BBC News: Gang life tempts Salvador teens
• BBC News: El Salvador swoops on street gang
• MS-13 Member’s Trail Shows Gang’s Movement 18th Street Gang/MS-13 Rivalry
• PBS Wide Angle: 18 With a Bullet 18th Street Gang in El Salvador
• Strohm, Chris (August 1, 2005). "DHS touts success of anti-gang operation". GovExec.com. Retrieved 2006-03-14.
• La Cloaca Internacional: Entrevista de dos horas a integrantes del Barrio 18 (in Spanish)
• FBI.gov
• ICE.gov