Prince George’s County shares borders with the District of Columbia and Anne Arundel, Charles, Calvert, Howard, and Montgomery counties in Maryland and is directly across the Potomac from Northern Virginia. According to the 2000 census, the population is approximately 801,000. It is the second most densely populated jurisdiction in the State of Maryland after Baltimore City. An increasing number of families are moving to the county from the District of Columbia and there is constant movement between the two areas for work and recreation. Given the gang problems in the District and Northern Virginia, it is expected that gangs will continue to be a growing issue in Prince George’s County.

In February 2004, Prince George’s County Executive Jack B. Johnson and Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan established the Joint Gang Prevention Task Force. The Task Force issued its report and recommendations in September 2004. A copy of the report is available at copy of report. Both counties are working to develop programs to prevent at-risk youth from joining gangs and intervention strategies for youth already in gangs. Police departments in both jurisdictions are actively developing strategies to combat gangs.

According to Prince George’s County Police, 50 “crews” or gangs are in the county with a total of more than 400 members. Major gangs are present in most areas of the County but are concentrated in police districts I, III, and IV, which border the District of Columbia and Montgomery County. Gangs are overwhelmingly either African American or Latino.

District I, bordering Montgomery County and the District in the area of Langley Park, is heavily Latino in population. The majority of Latino gangs in Prince George’s County are in this area. However, as the Latino population has increased in other areas of the county, including Lanham, Oxon Hill, and Suitland, the Latino gang presence in those areas has increased as well. As in Montgomery County, the three largest Latino gangs are Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Street Thug Criminals (STC) and Vatos Locos (VL). A number of smaller Latino gangs and some African American gangs have formed in District I. This area has witnessed a rapid increase in gang activity and the estimates of gangs and gang membership may not adequately reflect the growing gang problem in District I. There may be more than 400 gang members in District I alone.

These gangs are involved in robberies, auto theft, theft from autos, and other property crimes. They are becoming more involved with extortion, including protection of prostitution houses. While Latino gang members may use drugs for recreational purposes, there is limited evidence of their involvement in drug sales. Rapes are also a problem, some of which evolve out of situations where a girl may at first agree to sex with one person, not realizing multiple gang members will then participate. Violence occurs due to punishment within the gang or as a result of rivalries and revenge toward opposing gangs. This violence can erupt to include shootings and murders. In October 2004, a fight between two MS-13 gang members resulted in the death of one teenage girl and the critical wounding of another. MS-13 aggressively recruits new members using tactics such as school skip parties. Once someone joins MS-13, it is difficult to leave the gang. Typically, one can leave MS-13 only after having a baby and starting a family. While there is evidence of MS-13 members from Los Angeles and northern Virginia encouraging recruitment, MS-13 activity and crime is dominantly local. MS-13 has various localized cliques and, while there are meetings between the cliques, there is little evidence of organized criminal activity coordinated between the cliques. MS-13 has a clear leadership, but loose organizational control in regard to crime. Members must pay dues which are used to fund weapons, skip parties, and recreational drugs—especially powdered cocaine.

Rival Latino gangs to MS-13 include Street Thug Criminals (STC), which use red and black as their colors and use STC on tattoos and graffiti. The other rival Vatos Locos (VL) uses the colors black and grey and use VL on tattoos and graffiti.

African American gangs are present throughout Prince George’s County. Police estimate that there are 50 “crews” or African American gangs that are dominantly neighborhood based gangs. These gangs are likely to have clear geographic boundaries, such as an apartment complex or housing area. Some of these neighborhood gangs have links to the Bloods and Crips. As in other jurisdictions, the links appear to be one of lineage—someone knows someone or is a relative of someone from LA, NY, NJ, or NC. Others may link up with Bloods or Crips while in jail and then keep that identification. At this point, there is little evidence that these Blood and Crips are part of a larger criminal enterprise. Most local gangs have no links with other gangs; therefore, there is little information about unique identifiers. Membership and leadership in these gangs tends to be fluid. Gangs range in size from 7 to 20 members.

These “crews” or gangs are more likely to be involved in localized street level drug trafficking and opportunistic street robberies. A major question is whether these gangs are responsible for the concentration of homicides in Districts III and IV in Prince George’s County. These police districts border the District of Columbia and are predominantly African American. There is a large movement of people between these areas and while these two districts make up only 21 percent of the land area of the county, they contain 35 percent of the population and receive nearly half of all calls for police service. Current information does not make it possible to determine how much of the crime and homicides in this area are gang related.

All neighborhood gangs are not alike. But there are some similarities. Many neighborhood gangs are loosely organized. Youth may join to be part of a local gang that provides friendship, protection, excitement, and criminal opportunities to make money. These gangs are more likely to be involved in street level drug sales and opportunistic robberies and theft. However, a smaller percentage of gangs are more highly organized, may have older members, and are primarily criminal organizations to distribute and sell drugs. These more highly organized gangs might be responsible for more serious crimes, including homicides. Prince George’s County needs your assistance in obtaining information to identify the seriousness of the gang problem and to respond to this threat.