The new Like many gangs, the Kings were EDENWALD born in state in the eighties of and, along with the , are KINGS- considered the most powerful BRIDGEBEDFORD on . Despite PARK maintaining a violent reputation, They’re they assume a lower public profile younger, Bloods in the streets. recent Incidents: Though considered the city’s largest PELHAM harder to BELMONT In late June, eighteen alleged gang, the Bloods actually comprise WASHINGTON PARKWAY HEIGHTS Kings were arrested for using catch, and dozens of unrelated cliques Molotov cocktails to firebomb two adopting various identifiers. Bloods MS-13 houses belonging to the mother quicker no longer “flag” their presence and girlfriend of a member with red bandannas, opting for Started by Salvadoran laborers wanting to protect themselves who wanted out of the gang. In to violence. less visible “crates”—bracelets with July, investigators in red and black beads. Many crew from other gangs, MS-13 is now so SCHUYLER- dangerous that the FBI developed busted an alleged Kings clique for who holds leaders run street operations from MORNINGSIDE VILLE running a $40,000-a-day Rikers Island and upstate. HEIGHTS SOUNDVIEW its own national task force to track it. Most of its estimated 10,000 operation in Bedford Park. sway where. recent Incident: members live along the Mexican A war raged throughout the border, where they run illegal- summer in Spanish HARLEM alien- rings. In the city, between two Bloods-aligned MS-13 members are found in sects: the Flow Boyz and the Cash Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, Money Brothers. “They were just EAST as well as throughout . HARLEM the current criminal underworld is characterized not by the shooting up everything,” says a Harlem cop. “One person gets recent Incident: dons and heroin kings of yesteryear but by a chaotic uni- shot, then it’s retaliation for the Twenty alleged MS-13 members verse of warring, decentralized ganglets. And the members are shooting, then retaliation for gathered on a Uniondale man’s the retaliation—a nasty cycle.” lawn earlier this month, threatening less likely to be battle-hardened parolees than “puppies,” adoles- to “kill your family and your babies.” cent gangbangers who are too young to have a driver’s license The owner fired off four warning but who are committing violent at alarming levels. “A few shots and was later arrested. Considered one of the fastest- EAST growing gangs in New York, the years ago, you would see kids 19, 20 years old,” says one NYPD ELMHURST Trinitarios (a.k.a. 3NI) were formed by Dominicans in Sing Sing in veteran who works the gang beat in Harlem. “Now these kids NEWTOWNNORTH JACKSONCORONA the late eighties and have since are babies—15, 14—and they are vicious. They will shoot you in HEIGHTS (BTK) spread throughout the East Coast. Their gang color is green, and their a heartbeat and not think twice about it.” SOUTH The blue- or gray-wearing Crips CORONA Once considered the most weapon of choice is the machete, So who are they? And where are they? “Everywhere,” says Mi- are one of the country’s largest dangerous street gang in sometimes laced with poison. chael Hines, a gang mediator at the city-funded Council for Unity. gangs, but in New York Crips are Chinatown, Born to Kill is now “It’s not like the old days, where you had Bloods and Crips and reportedly outnumbered three to a loose consortium of Vietnamese, one by Bloods. To compete with who no longer use the moniker there was a political ideology. These kids just get together, call larger crews, they have had to BTK for fear of being collared themselves whatever.” But with so many crews and cliques—Mon- form unusual alliances: In April, under RICO gang statutes. “They four sects of Crips—the Hassock LOWER don’t say, ‘I’m BTK.’ They say, EAST SIDE ey Over Bitches, , 40 Wolves, Gun Clappin Goonies, Boys, Gang of Apes, Wildmeda, BUSHWICK ‘I follow so-and-so,’ ” says a former Get Money Boys, From Da , the New Dons, 28 Gunnaz, Stack and Get It in Bricks—were busted CHINATOWN Chinatown cop. They’re still quite Dominicans for teaming up with a number active within the scrum of illegal- Money Family, and so on—it’s hard for even the most connected WILLIAMSBURG Don’t Play (DDP) of Bloods-affiliated members to knockoff vendors on Canal Street. gangbanger to keep everybody straight. geoffrey gray expand drug operations in South BROWNSVILLE Other Chinatown gangs, like Often rivals to the Trinitarios and CAMBRIA the Latin Kings, Dominicans Don’t Jamaica and Far Rockaway. HEIGHTS Ghost Shadow on and the on Pell Street, Play are found in Washington recent Incident: FORT BEDFORD Heights and throughout the STUYVESANT mostly concentrate their efforts In April, four people were shot GREENE SOUTH city. As with other Latino gangs, JAMAICA on low-level rackets. and 56 minors were arrested members of DDP prefer to use Inc. or issued summonses in a wild OZONE machetes to settle disputes. mêlée in Times Square that may PARK In recent years, Albanian gangs have been a Crips initiation rite. CROWN HEIGHTS recent Incident: have become so powerful (In another sign of the changing In April, an alleged DDP that the Feds now treat them as EAST times, the gathering was NEW YORK member was walking with his an organized- syndicate, the organized via Twitter.) SPRINGFIELD girlfriend around 5:30 p.m. on “” of La Cosa Nostra. GARDENS the Parade Ground in Prospect In the Bronx, the coffee shops on Park when he was jumped Arthur Avenue—long the stomping by more than a dozen rivals and grounds of Italian wiseguys—seem fatally hacked with a machete. to have changed allegiances. “The SUNSET PARK Albanians are like the Italians used NEW BRIGHTON to be,” says one low-level Gambino MARINERS HARBOR PORT RICHMOND FLATBUSH soldier. “They show up with like CANARSIE 100 guys. You’re not just fighting one guy. They stick together.” TOMPKINSVILLE

recent Incident: STAPLETON In June, the Krasniqi brothers, leaders of an alleged international marijuana-smuggling ring, . . . . albanian boys inc...... born to kill were arrested in Dongan Hills, Staten Island. According to FAR ROCKAWAY ...... bloods ...... latin kings the indictment, the Krasniqis were selling pot to dealers, then ...... crips ...... ms-13

robbing them of the drugs. gangs key . .dominicans don’t play ...... trinitarios

SHEEPSHEAD BAY map/icons by robert a. di leso jr.

80 CONEY ISLAND october 4, 2010 | new york 81