During a task force deployment last summer, gang members attacked an undercover LAPD detective. Sitting in his car, he had seen several 18th Streeters spray-painting a wall.
Wanting to keep his cover intact, the officer quickly drove off -- followed by the gun-wielding gangsters, who fired wildly from their car. After shooting holes in his window, they were arrested by police reinforcements.
"The sad thing," the officer later recalled, "this could have happened to anybody."
Much of the gang's violence revolves around clashes with its two fiercest rivals -- Mara Salvatrucha and Florencia 13 -- and its burgeoning drug trade.
In central and south Los Angeles, the gang is suspected of selling hundreds of doses of heroin daily at busy drive-up locations, where customers include middle-class professionals, college students and suburbanites.
Called Dieciocho by its Spanish-speaking members, the gang is a quintessential Los Angeles phenomenon: sprawling, multiethnic, a product of the region's changing economics and demographics.
Eighteenth Street was born more than 30 years ago in the impoverished but fertile neighborhood where the Santa Monica and Harbor freeways intersect, near 18th Street and Union Avenue. The area -- Pico-Union -- has long been a landing spot for newly arrived immigrants...
Strutting into a Huntington Park recreation center after an assault on a rival gang member, a knot of 18th Street teens proudly shows off its "little homey" -- a 4-year-old known as "Baby Midget."
At an age when most children are learning ABCs in preschool, this toddler with the shaved head, and others like him, are learning to flash the gang's "E" sign. When asked where he is from, his small voice proclaims: "Southside 18th Street."
It is the biggest and deadliest street gang to rise from the nation's gang capital.. With as many as 20,000 members in Southern California alone, the gang called 18th Street is 20 times the size of the region's typical gang, dwarfing even the notorious Bloods and Crips.
"We recognize them as one of the most violent street gangs and one of the most prolific in the United States," says George Rodriguez, who until his retirement this month oversaw investigations for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
A band of unruly outcasts when it formed in the 1960s, 18th Street has become an ominous prototype. Although primarily Latino, 18th Street has broken with gang tradition, opening its ranks to comers of all races from many working-class neighborhoods in a calculated move to boost its numbers. Its primary recruitment targets: immigrant youngsters.
DECADES OF GROWTH
"We're down for our neighborhood," says 14-year-old "Casper," as he and several young homeboys patrol Morningside High School after classes let out.
The boys boast about their exploits: stealing cars, beating a rival gang member unconscious, ripping off car stereos for party money.
The Baby Gangsters say they protect 18th Street from young challengers in the neighborhood. "We kick their ass," Casper says. If they need help, they summon the older homeboys.
In Casper's arms is a tiny pit bull puppy. They call him Capone.
Like the boys, the puppy is in training for trouble. They want a fighting dog, with a big 18th Street tattoo on his soft underbelly.
Side by side, the Baby Gangsters walk the school's empty halls, sharing a joint.
The boys take turns exhaling streams of marijuana smoke into the puppy's mouth. When they put him down, he staggers along behind. They laugh.
"Silent," 13, who says he gets a kick out of setting fires, is trying to ignite a patch of dry grass.
He joined 18th Street after his mother died. His father started drinking, Silent says, and was "not taking good care of us."
Although his father stopped drinking and is doing better, Silent says "it's too late" because he has found another family -- 18th Street.
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Times librarian Janet Lundblad contributed research to this story by Richard Connell and Robert J. Lopez.
Sources: Law enforcement reports; interviews with investigators and gang members.
Sunday, November 17, 1996
Copyright Los Angeles Times
-Oregon, Multnomah County report
partial list:
FSLC (42ND LIL CRIMINALS). COMPTON VARRIO TORTILLA FLATS (CVTF). santana blocc compton crips. CV TKS (Tokers). elm st piru bloods. CV 70s (Setentas). inglewood family gang (bloods). CV3 (La Tres/133St). ECC (EAST COAST CRIPS). South Side Compton Crips. COMPTON VARRIO LOCOS (CV LS). CV LARGO 36. boulevard mafia crips. CV 155ST. hat gang watts crips. B.A.Y TRECE (BAD ASS YOUNGSTERS 13). crenshaw mafia gang (bloods). FLORENCIA TRECE (FX3). BMS (Barrio Mojados). LV KZK (LWD-VARRIO-KRAZY-KATS). LV TVS TLS (Lynwood Traviesos tiny locos). watts baby loc' crips. LOCO PARK (LXP). blood stone piru bloods. LV KCC X3 (KING CITY CRIMINALS). gardena payback crips. LDKS (LWD DUKES). LXM (LWD MOB). LRB (LV RUDEBOYS). WCW (WATTS COLONIA WATTS). six duce brims (bloods set). 55 BUNCH X3 (5B5). WVG (watts varrio grape st). east side pueblos (bloods set). PRIMERA FLATS (PXF).WHITE FENCE (WF). HOBART GRANDES. GVLS (GardenViewLocos). GBZX3 (GHETTO GANG- souch central l.a.). beach town mafia crips. LIVE OAK st. BY youself HUSLAcrips (byhc). LV OBLS (OSGOOD BLOCK LOCOS). DESCANSO TINY WINOS. VNE (Varrio Nuevo Estrada). HANG OUT BOYS (HOB13). CV CHICANO GANG (CVCG). SANTEROS/STREET SAINTS (STS). PLAYBOYS (PBS). CALLE OCHO (8st). LENNOX 13 (LNX). lime hood pirus (bloods). Barrio POBRES. Barrio Los Padrinos. Menlo Gangster Crips. Diez Linias Watts -DLW. Varrio Locotes, Watts (VXL). CITY TERRACE (CXT). KRAZY ASS MEXICANS (KAM13). BARRIO VAN NUYS. Rollin 60s Crips. FROGTOWN. mona park compton crips. CLANTONX4. diamond ST. WES (wicked evil surenos). WS60s (Rollin 60s CRIPS). Maravilla Projects. cross atlantic piru bloods (CAP). Michigan Chicano Foce (MCF 13 - named after street, not state). EAST LOS ANGELES 13 (ELA13). INDIANA DUKES (IDKS- named after street in L.A.). Arizona MaraVilla (named after street in east LosAngeles). Nine Duce Bishops (bloods). HIGH TIMES MARAVILLA. Varrio Sentinal Boys (SBS). Barrio South Side Rascals. KANSAS st (KST). geer gang crips. BIG HAZARD (BXH). SOUTH X LOS (SXL). east side pain (bloods). CARNALES (CXL). doty block gang (bloods). Sarzana (SZA). Moonlight Cats (MLC). OUT F*#NG AROUND (OFA). LOTE MARAVILLA (LMV). Blythe ST. WANDERERS. east side torrance. WASHINGTON BOYS (WNBS). Compton Varrio Willos ST. CVS (El Segundo). CV TG (Tiny Gangsterz). Varrio 29 ST. Marijuanos/as Locos/as (MLS). PLAYBOY GANGSTER CRIPS. MARIANNA MARAVILLA -MMV. ES 38ST. SOUTH CENTRAL 35 ST. broadway gangster crips. ESC- EASTSIDE CLOVER st. Hoyo Maravilla. METRO (MX3). KING KOBRAZ. TOONERVILLE (TVR). TEPA X3 (T13). born to jacc crips. EAST SIDE WILMAS (ESW). MID CITY STONERS (MCS). MORTON TOWN WATTS (MTS). Echo Park (EXP). Opal St LS. DOG TOWN. Elm St Watts. BARRIO LOS PADRINOS -BLP. VALINDA X FLATS. North Hollywood Locos. WS LONGOS. INGLEWOOD X3. Harpys. CV Alondra. TEMPLE ST (TST). east lake. LIL EAST SIDE (VLXES). Gage Maravilla (VGMV). EL SERENO (ESR). Jardin (J13). TMC13 (THE MOB CREW). COMPTON VARRIO ALONDRA (CVA). Avalon Gangster Crips. Breed St. AZTLANX3 -AZT. South Side Playerz (SSP). ORIENTAL BOYZ. BIG TOP LOCOS. CrazyRiders. Rockwood ST. MARA SALVATRUCHA (MS). QUINTA HILL (5XH). ORPHANS. Easy Riders. HELM ST. Barrio San Fer. SOTEL. ALLEY TINY CRIMINALS (atc). 40TH ST. BIGG WATTS. Muertos. Maywood LS. HICKORY st WATTS. E S 6ST LONG BEACH. South Central 36 ST. Rancho San Pedro. THE BRATZ (TBZ). DOMINGUEZ VALLEY (DV13). HAWAIIAN GARDENS. ROOKS TOWN (RTX3). cherryville. Whittier Dead End Locos. BASSET NIGHT OWLS. suicidals watts (SCLSWTS). RUTHLESS 12 ST (RTS). Tiny Rascal Gang (TRG- cambodian gang). ASIAN BOYZ (AB). Nazi LowRiders. NHW13 (NUT HOOD WATTS- mexican). NHWC (NUT HOOD WATTS CRIPS).