The 18th Street gang, also known as M18, Calle 18, Barrio 18, La18 or Mara-18 in Central America is a multi-ethnic transnational criminal organization that started as a street gang in the Rampart area of Los Angeles, California.They are considered to be the largest transnational criminal gang in Los Angeles and it is estimated that there are tens of thousands of members in Los Angeles County alone. Their wide-ranging activities and elevated status has even caught the eye of the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who recently initiated wide-scale raids against known and suspected gang members netting hundreds of arrests across the country. The FBI has documented close to 65,000 active gang members and they are active in 120 cities in 37 U.S. states.
Crimes edit
The 18th street gang has been found guilty of several crimes including the following:
- Drug trafficking
- Assault
- Arson
- Robbery
- Kidnapping
- Pandering
- Money laundering
- Extortion
- Arms trafficking
- Human trafficking
- Theft
- Murder
- Racketeering
- Illegal immigration
- Illegal gambling
- Identity document forgery
- And fraud