10 MOST DANGEROUS GANGS IN THE
WORLD
1. Mara Salvatrucha(MS-13)
The MS13 gang is known as Mara Salvatrucha. A recent federal indictment describing the gang notes that the name is a
combination of Spanish slang terms: “Mara” is a word used in El Salvador for gang. “Salvatrucha” is combination of words,
“Salva” an abbreviation for El Salvador and “trucha” which means, heads up. The MS13 gang began in Los Angeles in the
1980s as a way for immigrants from El Salvador to protect themselves from predators in the immigrant community
there. The MS13 gang consists primarily of people who are from Central America or are descendants of people from
Central America. Most members have lineage from El Salvador, but it includes members with family ties to several
countries, including Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and others. Members of the MS13 are known to display the gang’s colors
– blue and white. Those are the same colors as the El Salvador flag. MS13 gang members are known to mark their territory
with graffiti of the letters MS as well as slogans unique to the gang. MS13 members are known to have three dots in their
tattoos for the three destinations they expect to face in life – the hospital, death and jail.
LEADER: Rances Ulices Amaya
Location: El Salvador
Scariest fact: They basically control the government in El Salvador.
Murder weapons: Machetes and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
Territory: Central America, the United States.
Criminal activities: Drugs, guns and human trafficking, murder, contract killing, extortion, kidnapping
Number of members: 70,000
2. Mungiki
Kenya’s most violent and notorious mafia/cult/political movement, which also might be the largest gang in the world.
Founded in the 1980s, the Mungiki (which means “multitude” or “masses”) began as a rural religious movement within the
Kikuyu tribe in Kenya’s Rift Valley, with an emphasis on anticolonialism and a return to traditional Kikuyu values. But as it
spread to Nairobi, it attracted landless, poverty-stricken young men looking for a little extra cash and respect. Mungiki is
often referred to as Kenya’s Cosa Nostra, Yakuza, or Kenyan Mafia due to its organization. They have been newsworthy for
associations with ethnic violence and anti-government resistance.
LEADER: Mohammed Njenga (founder), Ibrahim Ndura Waruinge (co-founder)
Location: Kenya.
Scariest fact: They guzzle jerrycans of human blood.
Murder weapons: Machetes, spears, poison, and clubs.
Territory: Nairobi, Kenya
Criminal activities: Murder, racketeering, extortion, mutilation, intimidation
Number of members: 100,000 to 500,000
3. Los Zetas
The foundation of what the United States has called “the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel
operating in Mexico,” goes back to the Matamoros and Tamulipas-based Gulf Cartel. The group is comprised largely of
former elite Mexican military and initially began as hit men for the Gulf Cartel. the cartel occupies the gulf side of Mexico
such as Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Campeche and the Yucatan. Los Zetas takepart in the sale
and distribution of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.
LEADER: Omar Treviño Morales (formerly) Miguel Treviño Morales (formerly) Heriberto
Lazcano Lazcano (formerly)
Location: Mexico
Scariest fact: They're like Navy SEALS, but completely illegal.
Murder weapons: Rocket launchers and semiautomatic handguns.
Territory: mexico
Criminal activities: assassination, extortion, kidnapping, oil, and drug trade.
Number of members: unknown.
4. Aryan Brotherhood
The Aryan Brotherhood, a violent white supremacist gang, formed within the California state prison system in the late
1960s. the Aryan Brotherhood motto means aspiring members must assault someone to get into the gang and can only
leave when they die.
“An Aryan brother is without a care/He walks where the weak and heartless won’t dare/And if by
chance he should stumble, and lose control/His brothers will be there, to help reach is goal/For a
worthy brother, no need is too great/He need not but ask, fulfillment’s his fate/For an Aryan brother,
death holds no fear/Vengeance will be his, through his brothers still here.”
—AB membership pledge.
LEADER: Barry Mills, Thomas Silverstein and Tyler Bingham are among the leaders of
the gang.
Location: United States
Scariest fact: They're racist psycho killers.
Murder weapons: Bare hands, shanks, acid baths, and hatred.
Territory: U.S. federal and state prison systems
Criminal activities: Drug trafficking, conspiracy, murder, racketeering, contract killing
Number of members: 15,000-plus.
5. 18th Street Gang
18th Street gang, also known as Calle 18, Barrio 18, La18 or Mara-18 in Central America, With thousands of members
across hundreds of kilometers, and interests in a number of different illicit activities, Barrio 18 is one of the more
significant emerging criminal threats in the region. The 18th Street gang was the first Hispanic gang to break the racial
membership barrier. This willingness to step across racial lines allowed rapid and unchecked growth in the gang's
membership, which was largely composed of immigrants and multi-racial youths. 18th Street also recruited heavily from
the populations of illegal immigrants entering the United States from Mexico and South/Central America.
LEADER: There is no known central leadership nationally or internationally.
Location: united states
Scariest fact:
Murder weapons:
Territory: Central America, South America, the western and southern areas of the United States, Mexico,
Spain, Australia
Criminal activities: Drug and gun trafficking, robbery, extortion, murder, contract killing, prostitution
Number of members: 65,000.
6. Crips
CRIP means "Community Restoration in Progress (gang)" or "Gang member". The Crips are one of the largest and most
violent associations of street gangs in the United States, Crips are a primarily African-American gang. They were founded
in Los Angeles, California in 1969 mainly by Raymond Washington andStanley Williams. The primary rival of the Crips is the
Bloods street-gang. Stanley Tookie Williams, generally acknowledged as co-founder of the Crips (Community Revolution in
Progress), started his own gang called the Westside Crips. The Crips became popular throughout southern Los Angeles as
more youth gangs joined.
LEADER: Stanley Tookie Williams III (December 29, 1953 – December 13, 2005) was
one of the early leaders in the West Side Crips
Location: United States
Scariest fact: They’re absolutely everywhere.
Murder weapons: Guns, knives, and fists of fury.
Territory: Los Angeles
Criminal activities: Drug trafficking, robbery, murder, extortion, ID theft.
Number of members: 50,000.
7. Wah ching
Wah chung is mainly composed of the young mens in the gang. and the group was comprised primarily of immigrant
Cantonese boys from Hong Kong who banded together to combat the American-born Chinese who would often pick on them.
Wah-ching also known by slang as "Dub C" received widespread media attention because of the 1977 Golden Dragon
massacre involving another Chinese gang, the Chung Ching Yee (Joe Boys). The cause of the attack was vandalism by Wah
Ching to the graves of several Joe Boy members and a shootout that took place a few months earlier that left one Joe Boy
dead and two others wounded. In 1991, Danny “Ah Pai” Wong, the creator and leader of the Wah Ching, was shot and
murdered by a Wo Hop To assassin. The Wo Hop To being a larger gang caused the Wah Ching Gang to flee from San
Fransisco Chinatown to the LA area. This relocation caused a turf conflict between the Wah Ching and the Asian Boyz
Gang (ABZ), which led to the “Summer Madness” on september 20, 1998.
SUMMER MADNESS
The Wah Ching has been in a long conflict with the Asian Boyz gang. One of the first shoot outs between the two the gangs
occurred in the 1990s. The shooting occurred in El Monte at a Pool Hall. An Asian Boyz gang member named Lea Mek was
viciously killed by a Wah Ching gang member named Chung Lewong Yang. Another shoot out between the two gangs
occurred in San Marino that led to the deaths of two youths at a San Marino high school graduation party in June. After
investigations from the authorities; police claimed that when the Asian Boyz gang members arrived to the party, they saw
that some Wah Ching gang member where there, so they left, and came back with weapons to open fire on the Wah Ching
gang members. Over nine gang members were arrested. Police searched the homes of the gang members and seized five
weapons. The shoot outs between the two gangs was called "Summer Madness" by the Asian Boyz gang.
LEADER: Danny “Ah Pai” Wong, the creator and leader of the Wah Ching.
Location:USA
Scariest fact: They can do anything for money making.
Murder weapons: Guns, TNT, C-4.
Territory: Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles
Criminal activities: Drug and gun trafficking, extortion, murder, software piracy, burglary, gambling,
prostitution, loan sharking
Number of members: 7,000-plus.
8. Yakuza
Principle clans :1) Yamaguchi-gumi
2) Sumiyoshi-kai
3) Inagawa-kai
One of the most iconic images of the yakuza is their intricate, full-body tattoo art. These use a traditional method of
manually inserting ink under the skin, known as irezumi. They are seen as a mark of a person’s bravery due to the pain the
method inflicts. There are 21 major groups with more than 53,000 members, according to the National Police Agency. The
three largest groups are the Yamaguchi-gumi (23,400), The Inagawa-kai, (6,600), and the Sumiyoshi-kai (8,500). The
yakuza are not outlawed; they are regulated and monitored. Yakuza members who do something they shouldn’t are forced
to atone in a brutal way—by chopping off part of their own finger. They start with the tip of their pinkie, but further
transgressions require further mutilation. This is known as yubitsume. As a result, many gang members are missing most
or all of their left little finger, as well as some others. The yakuza is a blanket term for Japan's organized crime groups:
The country's mafia. They were traditionally federations of gamblers and street merchants, but while the yakuza like to tout
their history as going back hundreds of years, the oldest continuous group is, author Kazuhiko Murakami estimates,
probably the Aizukotetsu-kai in Kyoto, founded in the 1870s.
LEADER: Shinobu Tsukasa, known as the current head of the Yamaguchi.
Location: Japan
Scariest fact: They may recruit people via their own website and magazine.
Murder weapons: Bombs and guns.
Territory: Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles
Criminal activities: extortion, intimidation, fraud, political corruption, and assassinations. Old habits
die hard.
Number of members: more than102,000 .
9. Bloods
LEADER: There is no known national leader of the Bloods.
Location: United States
Scariest fact: They’re absolutely everywhere.
Murder weapons: Guns, knives, and fists of fury.
Territory: Los Angeles
Criminal activities: Murder, drug trafficking, robbery, extortion
Number of members: 15,000 to 30,000
10. Primeiro Comando da Capital
(PCC)
This criminal organizations were formed by prisoners as self-protection groups in Brazil’s brutal prison system. The PCC
arose in São Paulo in the 1990s, and has fought a bloody ongoing feud with police in the city. The group, now the largest and
best-organized criminal organization in Brazil, is believed to have members in two-thirds of the country's states, and
controls drug trafficking routes between Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The Primeiro Comando da Capital has a statute with
various rules for the criminal organization. Disobeying the rules, says the statute, carries a penalty of death.
LEADER: According to the Brazilian police, there are now four principal leaders of the PCC,
with Marcos Willians Camacho, alias "Marcola," acting as the maximum leader.
Location: Brazil
Scariest fact: its ability to instill fear.
Murder weapons: Guns, knives, and fists of fury.
Territory: Brazilian prison system
Criminal activities: Drug and gun trafficking, murder, extortion, prison riots, prison breaks, kidnapping
Number of members: 6,000-plus