When the did the gang start? How did it grow and develop? The Barrio Azteca was formed in El Paso, Texas in the prison system. The gang was formed in 1986 and the gang increased after 1996 because of the rise in the deportation of Mexican criminals from the USA. Therefore, when illegal Mexicans were caught by the police and sent to jail they would join the gang inside the prison. After, they are sent across the border to Mexico they would move up the ranks of the gang and carry out crimes. In the early 2000s, the gang was in control of the prisons in Chihuahua. By 2013, the gang was estimated to have 5,000 members in Juárez and around 3,000 members in the USA. The FBI has concluded that there are Barrio Azteca members in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and reportedly in New Mexico. What is the significance of the gang name? The significance of the gang name is that in Spanish the word Barrio means neighborhood, but to the members of the gang it is to honour their hometown of El Paso. Azteca means “Aztecs”, and Barrio Azteca is referred to as Los Aztecas in Mexico. The gang is called Barrio Azteca as a tribute to the …show more content…
They began to turn on each other and thinking that different leaders were snitches. With social issues in the gangs gang members targeted certain members for being greedy with money or being snitches. There was a lot of political issues for the gang as well because as more Barrio Azteca gang members were being caught more information about the gang was revealed to the authorities. In January 2008 the FBI arrested dozens of members of the Barrio Azteca gang. The illegal drug business is a business that is worth more than 25 billion dollars a year. An economic issue that the Barrio Azteca gang has to deal with is other gangs trying to fight for the control of the illegal drug business because the industry of illegal drugs looks very desirable to other gangs