NCJ Number
181556
Journal
Police: The Law Enforcement Magazine Volume: 24 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2000 Pages: 56-59
Date Published
February 2000
Length
3 pages
Annotation
Many of the Hispanic gangs now forming across the country claim Sureno or Sureno-13 allegiance, have their roots in the beginnings of Mexican street gangs in Los Angeles in the early part of the 1900's, and acquired their name following a prison murder involving gang rivalries and the stealing of an inmate's pair of shoes.
Abstract
After that incident, street and prison gang members from Northern California started to identify with the number 14, which represented the letter N, the 14th letter of the alphabet and the first letter of the Spanish word for northerner. Southern California gang members started to identify with the number 13 and began using words like Sureno, the Spanish word for southerner. By the late 1980's to early 1990's most southwestern States noted the presence of street gangs calling themselves Sureno or Sureno-13, although the members often were not from California and had no formal connections to traditional Mexican street gangs from southern California. Rival gang members outside California also began to work together to take over drug markets from less experienced and less violent groups. Police have encountered three types of Sureno gangs outside California: (1) gangs with family ties or started by migrating California gang members, (2) gangs that have no formal ties to California, and (3) gangs formed by members of different California Hispanic gangs. Females are part of some Sureno gangs. Sureno gang members who go to State prison can start Sureno gangs there. Photographs