Tag: Gang Intelligence: Page 7

Prison and Gang Ink Symbols

In addition to advertising gang membership, tattoos provide other details about the bearer. For the incarcerated, images of chains and locks represent the loss of freedom; an hourglass or clock face without hands indicate doing time; a string of numbers may be an inmate's prison ID; one laughing face, one crying face means play now, pay later or my happy life, my sad life; a tombstone with numbers may indicate years of incarceration; the face of a female crying usually means someone on the outside is waiting for them. Caption information provided by POLICE gang expert Richard Valdemar.

August 7, 2009

This tattoo of a prison tower, hour glass, and prisoner breaking out of the prison wall signifies this person has done prison time.

Countering Academic Gang Experts

When interviewed by sociologists, gang members commonly lie. They do this for several reasons including: to appear less criminally culpable, because the academic interviewer has little ability to verify and check the facts so it’s fun to BS them, and because discussing gang business with people outside the gang is prohibited. Consequently, a lot of academic gang member interviews are full of inaccurate information.

August 6, 2009

Gang Members Practice Their Skills

One at a time each of the three targets got out of the vehicle, walked in a big circle around the McDonald’s, went inside, only to return to the vehicle with a small drink. Then the next target did the exact same thing. Finally the third did the same. In tactical police terminology this is a clue that they were casing the McDonalds before robbing it.

July 29, 2009

Ronald 'Slow' Slocum is taken into custody by a federal anti-gang task force. He was indicted under the RICO statute.

Indictment Offers Details of 18th Street Gang's Workings

A court document charges about 40 members and associates of the Columbia Lil Cycos -- a clique of the 18th Street gang -- with being involved in a racketeering conspiracy that allegedly involved murder, drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, and other crimes.

June 17, 2009

Feds Arrest More Members of LA Latino Gang

FBI agents and Los Angeles police officers arrested at least eight of those named in a racketeering indictment, officials said. Several more of the 39 members and associates of the 18th Street Columbia Lil Cycos clique were already in state and federal custody.

June 16, 2009

Counterfeit Check Scheme Reportedly Run by San Diego Street Gang

Having a street gang behind a conspiracy that caused a credit union to lose $500,000 could be a first in California history. State and federal law enforcement officials made that announcement yesterday morning with the arrests of 40 people in the check-cashing scheme, including some active members of the military. Twenty more people are being sought.

May 14, 2009

Mexican Cartels Run U.S. Drug Trade, Report Says

Mexican cartels have taken over most of the drug trade in the United States, and are working with 20 gangs, including the Barrio Aztecas, according to a just-released report by the National Drug Intelligence Center titled, "National Drug Threat Assessment 2009."

January 19, 2009

Sexual Secrets of Gang Culture

For females recruited into a gang the male ritual of the “jump in” may be replaced by the ritual “sexed in,” requiring the female to have sex with several or all of the gang members.

November 30, 2008

Chuckie, Midget, and the Compton Tortilla Flats Gang

I was there when this monster was spawned. The Tortilla Flats Gang was born in Compton, California, about 1962.

January 24, 2008

The Tortilla Flats Gang was born in Compton, California, about 1962.

A Nightmare Scenario

The attack team crossed the “frontera” via a well-used tunnel near Nogales. It split up on the U.S. side, one group traveling by night toward Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, and the other made its way toward nearby Fort Huachuca.

December 13, 2007

The Freight Train Riders of America

Like the muffled whispers about the "Black Hand" of the Mafia in the Italian community, the "train freaks" whispered of a gang of outlaws that lived to ride the freight trains in the West. They were robbers, burglars, and hijackers with colorful names. Cross one of their members, and they would get you.

November 29, 2007

Criminal Gangs in the Military

I wondered to myself how these obvious tattoos could be missed by his Marine Corps superiors, especially the Sureño tattoo in large letters across his chest. The suspect was arrested shortly after the shooting and said, "I did it for the brotherhood and the brown side." He then exposed the Sureño tattoo.

October 24, 2007

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