I-Team: Street Gangs Growing, Evolving in Las Vegas
Posted: May 10, 2013 3:22 AM BST
Updated: May 10, 2013 10:53 PM BST
By George Knapp, Chief Investigative Reporter - bio | email
By Matt Adams, Chief Photojournalist - email

LAS VEGAS -- An estimated 20,000 street gang members and their associates prowl neighborhoods all over southern Nevada, the highest number for the valley yet. Metro Police said the number of known gangsters in Las Vegas has increased 10 percent in each of the past two years, and there are now almost 600 individual gangs.

But numbers aren't the only challenge for police. The gangs have grown more sophisticated.

Bloody turf wars are largely a thing of the past now that new hybrid gangs have emerged. In order to adapt, Metro created the GAP team, and allowed the I-Team to ride along with the tough-as-nails officers.

"Wait right there. Right there," an officer commands a suspect.

Working the gang-infested corridor near Tropicana Avenue and Boulder Highway, Sgt. Will Huddler is cautious every time he and his team pull someone over.

His instincts were right. The driver had an outstanding warrant, but the GAP team had more pressing priorities on this night, such as stopping to chat with someone who matched the description of a gangster who's pulled three armed stickups in the area.

Huddler makes a point of engaging the residents of the weekly rental places known as havens for gang bangers, to let regular citizens know that the police are around.

"Our entire shift we're being proactive, creeping through neighborhoods," Huddler said. "We turn in on an unmarked car, the element of surprise and caught in the act ... The likelihood of us contacting someone who has a reason to run is higher."

Because of who they target, the gang unit is more likely than most cops to get into some rough stuff.

"Our background is training in defensive tactics," Huddler said. "We have a likelihood of high-risk contacts, foot pursuits, fights, things like that."

A duo with telltale tattoos and a blue bandana in the back pocket caught an earful from one GAP officer.

"I asked you once to fix your feet and you immediately went back and did it again," the officer said.

What the wiseguy had done was a gesture with his feet called teeing off, the equivalent of flipping the bird at the police.

"They tee their feet toward the officer," he said. "It's like looking at you and spitting, disrespecting law enforcement. And he did it again."

It ends amicably. Even with known gang members, it makes sense for police to keep the channels open. One never knows where valuable tips might originate.

As the I-Team cruises along with Huddler, a mystery tipster -- possibly a rival gang member --calls to report a 300-pound Pacific Islander felon in a wheelchair, and a longtime gangster from California, is carrying a gun in the area. Huddler advises to not be misled by the wheelchair.

"He has a serious criminal history, did time for attempted murder and is in the chair because someone shot him," Huddler said.

Within minutes, they've got him. Officers get permission to search his chair for weapons. It takes several men to lift him onto another perch. Instead of a gun, they found a bullet, which is illegal for him in light of his prison record. A subsequent search of his rental unit uncovers two firearms.

"It's a rather frequent occurrence," Lt. Chris Petko said. "We confiscate guns. We are taking them out of the hands of the criminal element."

Petko's team is one part of Metro's anti-gang efforts.

Intelligence detectives get involved in enforcement as well, such as chasing a suspect through a gang stronghold near Sunrise Mountain. But their primary job is to investigate the big picture stuff, such as identifying the shot-callers in local gangs. Inside the jail, another team identifies and studies gang members, their affiliations and tattoos. About half of the inmates in Las Vegas area jails are affiliated with a gang.

But the days of Crips versus Bloods vendettas and street-corner turf wars are mostly over. Huddler said the new hybrid gangs might be Crips and Bloods and include members who are black, white and Hispanic, making it less obvious to police and less hostile to each other. Illicit profits are their goal, and social media are their most valuable tools. Metro police have had to likewise adapt.

"They have now come to the conclusion that it is better to pursue their business interests rather than shooting at each other and everybody makes money," Petko said. "We are under funding constraints and are having to evolve at a very rapid pace in order to counter the criminal element."

One trend that's been documented by GAP officers is a new type of initiation rite for some gangs: they require new members to prove their loyalty by kicking in the door of a house as part of a home invasion robbery.

video
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/22212685/street-gangs-growing-evolving-in-las-vegas

In Chicago 70% of all murders are Blacks killing Blacks. it must be some primitive tribal thing. I'm just sayin'''

What a uniquely ridiculous statement. I'm just saying.
http://abagond.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/reading-while-white-crime-statistics/

I know. I guess the Chicago Police statistics are uniquely ridiculous. I agree with you.

This story is about vegas.

that ole 1747 rhetoric you're speaking is primitive

cook, Theres no point in responding to that, it seems that theres a number of people on here lately that needlessly inject their racial greivances into the organised crime section of this forum.

The gangs in certain southern cities are more clique oriented and been that way for many years. A clique could have members of the VLs , GDs , or Crips and Bloods mix in with neutrals (us). Of course the main reason is money.

The mob kept gangs off the streets. Las Vegas was safer, thats a fact.

Atleast with the mafia running things, you didn't have to worry about getting shot, or somebody shooting your kid walking home from school. These street gangs are fucking pathetic.

Really? is this a fact? can you give me an actual documented example of how they kept gangs off the street in vegas?

I think some certain areas still are higher organized crime controlled. Such as the Italian Mafia, Russian organized crime and other criminal organizations. And gangs don't step inside there, because they know they'd be destroyed if they would do that.

Such as nowdays Brighton Beach, I think there was some shooting by blacks a year or two ago, but that's the only thing. But everyone else knows it's a Russian mafia infested place and any beef made by gangs there would cause them all to be eliminated.

Organized crime (lcn in particular) and racism pretty much go hand in hand

For fucks sake, we're talking in a thread titled "Street gangs growing, evolving in las vegas." Ask anybody who visited las vegas, or even lived there during the mafia reign. It was safer. Now I'm not going to pull some stupid numbers out of my ass, you could research yourself if you want.

Vegas never had a huge crime problem, except for the hole in the wall gang, but we're talking about gangs like the MS-13.

I thought it was common sense that since the mafia has been declining, more ruthless street gangs have emerged in their place. Which is not a good thing.

They kept petty criminals and gangs off the street the same way the outfit did. They made it clear that no petty criminals or gangs would be tolerated in the cash cow city of vegas, it would scare tourists away, and that would mean loss of money.

The mafia wasn't going to let some punk ass street gangs ruin their jewel of las vegas. No sir.

I think its safe to say youve never been to brighton beach no?

Your quite off. Timeline. La Cosa Nostra members started investing in the Las Vegas casinos back in the 50s, some of those la gangs didn't exist then. The gangs migrated into las vegas in the late 80s to early 90s, by then LCN casino activities was removed by the Feds decades earlier. Can you provide a source that shows the difference in crime rate of las vegas backed then and present? By the way, the outfit had only a few encounters with local gangs and they didn't have that much influence on the street gangs at all.

Nope. The gangs probably have little interest except a minor few in those organized crime areas and I doubt any crime group will take the time to "destroy" a gang.

I've never been yeah. But I didn't pull this info out of my ass. I know a lot of Russians/Latvians who live in United States.

Hey Scorsese, I only quoted the Official Chicago Murder statistics. I know you're story is about Las Vegas. THE POINT is that most murders in most large cities are BLACK GANG MEMBERS killing other BLACK GANG MEMBERS over their stupid fucking territory where some asshole stands on a corner selling crack. If you don't like the crime statistics and the reality of it, then I suggest you call the Police Department in some of these large cities in America (Las Vegas being one of them) and have the Police change their murder statistics so God forbid we don't offend anyone with the truth.

I dont think you offended anyone, and i dont dispute your homicide statistics. But you look at chicago, philadelphia, detroit, who actually runs the drug trade throughout those cities, its always either black or hispanic groups, of course when your dealing drugs its a violent trade and people get killed its just what happens(not saying thats a good thing). If you look at the recent case of the aryan brotherhood of texas and even white motorcyle gangs the majority of their killings are other white guys either fellow gangmembers or rivals, and they kill eachother over stupid shit too. Hell, look at the mafia most of their victims when tallied up are gonna be other italian american males.

Also your the one who replied first to the article i posted, and i aint got a problem with people responding however they want but at least try to keep it relevant to the article posted. The only mention of race in this article was when it said:


also the video with the article even features the officers dealing with what appears to be a white crip. So you going off on a tangent about black gang members killing eachother in chicago straight away really makes no sense considering what the article was about and whats actually said in it.

The bloods and crips street gangs started arriving as early as the late 70s and onwards and their still was somewhat of a mob prescence during that time.

how many black or Hispanics were living in vegas 1950-80s?

street gangs didn't come to vegas until the 90s

Scorsese, Since you mentioned the Crips and Bloods in your posting above, let me tell you how I really feel about them with no holds barred. I hate the Crips and Bloods and I ENJOY seeing them kill each other. In fact, a Crip is more likely to be killed by another so called Crip than by a Blood. It gives me great joy every time I hear of them killing each other which happens quite often. I think they should continue the good work.

ok....good for you.

how do you hate people that you don't even see

there ain't any crips or bloods anywhere near Elmwood park

there ain't any crips or bloods anywhere near Elmwood park

[/quote]

Austin

loll!!!

loll!!

all I was hoping for was a cheap safe trip to vegas to sit by the pool and relax, except from this video it looks like people will be trying to nab my purse and sell my shit online left and right... guess I need a new dry heat "hot spot" no wonder The Orleans is offering free rooms AND food and drink comps...

There isn't any crips/bloods in Austin but there belizean bloods in Evanston.