NCJ Number
147697
Date Published
1988
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This briefing book on the Los Angeles Bloods and Crips street gangs discusses their historical background and growth, demography, organizational structure, their trafficking in rock cocaine, their expansion outside Los Angeles, gang violence, and the FBI response to the Bloods/Crips gang-crime problem.
Abstract
Various Crip and Blood factions have shown an inclination to cooperate with one another based on drug trafficking. They have established funds from drug money to provide for bail and lawyers. The traditional "dope lawyers" are showing up on non-drug gang cases. These lawyers are not local attorneys but are from Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. This illustrates the growing wealth and sophistication of these gangs. Some of the older and more successful street gang members in Los Angeles County have purchased legitimate businesses to launder drug money. Some of these businesses are car washes, auto painting/body and fender shops, motels, auto dealerships, and liquor stores. The next step could be respectability in the community for these drug-trafficking gang members, as well as involvement in politics. The wealth and sophistication of the gangs, coupled with their penchant for violence gives them the potential for becoming one of the largest and most dangerous crime problems in the region if not the Nation. A listing of Crip and Blood sets in Los Angeles County