This is a list of notable criminal gangs in Los Angeles, California. The County and the City of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

has been nicknamed the "Gang Capital of America," with an estimated 450 active

gangs A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collectivel ...

with a combined membership of more than 45,000.

Gangs

* Abergil Crime Family * Avenue Kings Familia *

Bahala Na Gang The Bahala Na Gang (BNG) is a street gang founded in the Philippines which subsequently spread to the United States. Early history The Bahala Na Gang was established in the early 1940s in Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines, by Divino Talastas, a n ...

Black Guerrilla Family The Black Guerrilla Family (BGF, also known as the Black Family, the Black Vanguard, and Jamaa) is an African-American black power prison and street gang founded in 1966 by George Jackson, George "Big Jake" Lewis, and W. L. Nolen while they wer ...

Bloods The Bloods are a primarily African-American street gang founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for its rivalry with the Crips. It is identified by the red color worn by its members and by particular gang symbols, includin ...

Black P. Stones The Almighty Black P. Stone Nation often abbreviated as (BPS, BPSN, Black Peace Stones, Black P. Stones, Stones, or Moes) is an American street gang founded in Chicago. The gang was originally formed in the late 1950s as the Blackstone Rangers. ...

Bounty Hunter Bloods The Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods, also known as the Bounty Hunter Bloods, is a predominantly African American street gang situated in the Nickerson Gardens public housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles. History The gang was originally established ...

Pirus The Pirus are an African-American street gang alliance founded in 1969 and based in Southern California. The Pirus comprise various sub-groups, known as "sets". These distinguish themselves by colors, clothing, operations, and political ideas. ...

** Inglewood Family Bloods *

Crips The Crips is an alliance of street gangs that is based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips were initially a single alliance ...

** 8Trey Gangster Crips **

Asian Boyz Amongst the Asian Boyz, also known as ABZ, AB-26, or ABZ Crips, are a street gang based in Southern California. They were founded in the late 1980s as part of efforts of protection for Cambodian refugees from the more numerous American gangs in ...

Grape Street Watts Crips The Grape Street Watts Crips is a Crip subset based in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The gang's rivalry with the Bounty Hunter Bloods has been described as being "the most violent and long lasting feud between two gangs that are in the W ...

** 30 Strong Santa Monica **

Rollin 60's Neighborhood Crips The Rollin 60s Neighborhood Crips is a street gang based in Los Angeles, California, originally formed in Los Angeles in 1976 from the Westside Crips and having since spread to other cities in the United States. Membership is estimated to be aro ...

Sons of Samoa Sons of Samoa is a Crips-affiliated street gang based in Long Beach, California, United States. Its membership mainly consists of Samoan Americans with other Pacific island members. History The Sons of Samoa gang is a faction of the Crips gang ...

Tongan Crip Gang The Tongan Crip Gang, or West Side 102st Tonga Crip Gang, is a street gang that is a subset of the Crips gang. The gang is active in the U.S. states of California, Utah and others, as well as a presence in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Tong ...

Venice Shoreline Crips Venice Shoreline Crips, or known as VSLC, is a Crips-based gang based out of Venice, Los Angeles, California. History The Venice Shoreline Crips formed in Venice's Oakwood neighborhood, which was originally labeled as a "servant's zone" by Veni ...

Compton Executioners The Compton Executioners is a deputy gang within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD). In July 2021, U.S. Congressional Representative Maxine Waters called for a Department of Justice inquiry into the existence of the gang. Member ...

Lynwood Vikings The Lynwood Vikings is one of the many deputy gangs of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, appearing to meet the legal definition of a gang when taking into account the department's repeated illegal conduct. The Lynwood Vikings faction ...

Los Angeles crime family The Los Angeles crime family, also known as the L.A. Mafia or the Southern California crime family, is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate based in Los Angeles as part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. Since its inception in the earl ...

Peckerwood ''Peckerwood'' is a term used in the Southern United States for a woodpecker which is also used as an offensive epithet toward white people, especially poor rural whites. Originally an ethnic slur, the term has been embraced by a subculture rela ...

Aryan Brotherhood The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as the Brand or the AB, is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate which is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern ...

Nazi Lowriders The Nazi Lowriders (or NLR, or The Ride) are a Neo-Nazi, White supremacist organized crime syndicate, and prison and street gang based primarily in metro Los Angeles and several areas around Texas. They also are believed to have spread to oth ...

** Public Enemy No. 1 * Satanas *

Sarzana Sarzana (, ; lij, Sarzann-a) is a town, ''comune'' (municipality) and former short-lived Catholic bishopric in the Province of La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. It is east of Spezia, on the railway to Pisa, at the point where the railway to Parma diver ...

Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel ( es, link=no, Cártel de Sinaloa), also known as the CDS, the Guzmán-Loera Organization, the Pacific Cartel, the Federation and the Blood Alliance, is a large, international organized crime syndicate that specializes in il ...

Mexican Mafia The Mexican Mafia (Spanish: ''Mafia Mexicana''), also known as ''La eMe'' (Spanish for "the M"), is a Mexican American criminal organization in the United States. Despite its name, the Mexican Mafia did not originate in Mexico, and is entirely ...

Sureños Sureños (; Spanish: ''Southerners'')‍, Southern United Raza, Sur 13 or Sureños X3 are groups of loosely affiliated gangs that pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia while in U.S. state and federal correctional facilities. Many Sureño gangs have r ...

18th Street gang 18th Street, also known as , , , or simply in Central America, is a multi-ethnic (largely Central American and Mexican) transnational criminal organization that started as a street gang in Los Angeles. It is one of the largest transnational ...

** 38th Street gang ** The Avenues **

Armenian Power Armenian Power 13, also known as AP, the Armenian Mob, or Armenian Mafia is an Armenian criminal organization and street gang founded and currently based in Los Angeles County, California.Krikorian, Michael (August 17, 1997)Violent Gang Is a Stai ...

** South Los 13 ** Azusa 13 ** Barriox13 ** Barrio Mojados ** Culver City Boys 13 **

El Monte Flores 13 El Monte Flores, also known as EMF, is a Mexican-American criminal street gang based in California. It is the largest and Hispanic gang in the San Gabriel Valley, and one of the oldest in Los Angeles County. History Also known as EMF, the gang ...

Florencia 13 The Florencia 13, South Side Florencia 13 or Florence Gang is an American criminal street gang based in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Mexican-Americans. The gang is named after the Florence area of Los Angeles County, controlled by t ...

** East Side Ghetto Family 13 **

Logan Heights Gang The Logan Heights Gang, also known as Varrio Logan Heights or LH, is a Sureño street gang based in Southeast San Diego. History The Logan Heights Gang was established in Southeast San Diego, when several individual Mexican-American street gang ...

MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1970s and 1980s. Originally, the gang was set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Ange ...

** OVS ** Playboys **

Puente 13 Puente 13 (P13) is a street gang in La Puente, California. They are Sureños. They are described as Mafia related or Mexican mafia related. They were formed ''c.'' 1953 as the Bridgetown Gentlemen (''puente'' is Spanish "bridge"), or "Old Town Pu ...

Santa Monica 13 Santa Monica 13 or SMG is a Mexican-American street gang located in Santa Monica, California, United States. They reside mainly in the Pico neighborhood. Even though Santa Monica 13 is a Sureño gang, they wear their traditional black banda ...

Temple Street A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called church (building), churches), Hindui ...

Toonerville Rifa 13 Toonerville Rifa 13, also known as The Ville, is a Mexican-American street gang located in Los Angeles county. History Toonerville Rifa 13 was formed in the 1930s in North East Los Angeles and South Glendale. Prior to taking the name of Toonervi ...

Varrio Nuevo Estrada Varrio Nuevo Estrada, also known as VNEx3,Moore, J. W. (1991). Going down to the barrio: homeboys and homegirls in change. (pp. 35). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. is a Chicano criminal street gang founded in Boyle Heights, California, ...

Venice 13 Venice 13 or West Side Venice 13, abbreviated as V13 or VX3, is a Mexican American street gang based in the Oakwood (aka "Ghost Town") neighborhood of Venice, a section of Los Angeles, California. It has a substantial presence in East Venice as we ...

Vineland Boys Gang Vineland Boys is a street gang composed mainly of Hispanic Americans operating in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. History The Vineland Boys gang was founded in North Hollywood, Los Angeles in January 1988 by former members and ass ...

** Westside Locos 13 **

White Fence White Fence (also known by the acronym WF) is a predominantly Mexican American street gang in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles. History White Fence is one of the oldest gangs in Los Angeles. The gang itself claims its hist ...

Tiny Rascal Gang TRG, also known as Tiny Raskal Gang or Raskals, is a mainly ethnically Cambodian gang based in Eastside Long Beach, California. In the 1990s we began to see Mexican Mafia "green light" or hit lists with the TRG gang featured at the top. Soon all ...

* Triad ** 14K Triad **

Bamboo Union The United Bamboo Gang (UBG; ; Bamboo Union triad) is the largest of Taiwan's three main criminal Triads. They are reported to have roughly 10,000 members. The membership consists largely of '' waishengren'' (Mainland Chinese) and has had his ...

Big Circle Gang The Big Circle Gang is a Chinese triad which was established in Hong Kong in the 1970's. They were given the moniker "Big Circle Gang" and were formed by former members of the Red Guards, a paramilitary organization established by Mao Zedong du ...

Black Dragons ''Black Dragons'' is a 1942 American film directed by William Nigh and starring Bela Lugosi, Joan Barclay, and George Pembroke. The cast includes Clayton Moore, who plays a handsome detective. The Black Dragon Society also appears in '' Let's G ...

Four Seas Gang The Four Seas Gang, or FSG (四海幫, or ''Si Hai Bang'') is a triad society based in Taiwan. It includes mainland Chinese and their descendants who fled to Taiwan with the KMT. The Four Seas Gang has an estimated membership 10,000 in Taiwan. Its ...

Wah Ching Wah Ching ( zh, s=华青, t=華青, first=t, j=Waa4 Cing1), meaning Chinese Youth, is a Chinese American criminal organization and street gang that was founded in San Francisco, California in 1964. The Wah Ching has been involved in crimes inclu ...

Wo Hop To Wo Hop To, or WHT (和合圖), is a triad group based in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. The name translates to "Harmoniously United Association", or "Harmonious Union Plan", and is thought to have been founded in 1908 in Sai Ying Pun as a secret politica ...

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ...

* South Gate Brotherss SGB13

Gangs

See also

References

Further reading