Considered the largest gang in Los Angeles, California, 18th Street is a heavily armed transnational Latino criminal gang.
It is estimated that there are thousands of members in Los Angeles County alone. In San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley, South Bay, South Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, Pico Union, Inglewood, Cudahy, and in various neighborhoods in Orange County, there are approximately 200 separate individual self-governing gangs operating under the same label. According to the latest figures from the NDIC.
Her wide-ranging activities and lofty status have even attracted the attention of the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which recently launched a massive crackdown on known and suspected gang members that resulted in hundreds of arrests across the country.
While the majority of members are Mexican, membership is open to other backgrounds, including Central American, Middle Eastern, Asian, African American, and Caucasian. 18th Street has an organized hierarchy. Who is on top is unknown.
In the streets were the commanders, their lieutenants, and their infantry. Although the gang is well networked throughout Los Angeles, there is no central leadership known nationally or internationally. Small groups often operate independently but band together when fighting rival gangs or law enforcement agencies.
