18th Street Gang and FARC Formed in L.A. California, approximately 80 percent of the membership of the 18th Street gang is composed of illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America. 18th Street is active in 44 cities across 20 states and their main source of income is derived from the distribution of cocaine and marijuana, as well as some heroin and methamphetamine. The exact location is up for debate, but it is generally accepted that 18th Street Gang started near 18th Street and Union Avenue in the Rampart District of Los Angeles. 18th Street was not always its own gang. It was originally part of Clanton 14. They wanted to make a separate clique called Clanton 18th Street and allow immigrants the opportunity to join. The rejection …show more content…
Failure to obey the word of a gang leader, or to show proper respect to a fellow gang member, may result in an 18-second beating. In cases of more serious rule breaking they could be executed on the spot. 18th Street gang members often identify themselves with the number 18 on their clothing and sporting clothing from sports teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers and Oakland Raiders. 18th Street colors are blue and black with blue representing Sureños, the gangs from the oldest barrios in Southern California, and black representing the original color for the …show more content…
They are heavily involved in the drug trade with about sixty-five of the FARC's 110 operational units being involved in some aspect of the drug trade. According to a US justice department indictment in 2006, the FARC supplies more than 50% of the world's cocaine and more than 60% of the cocaine entering the US. FARC was not initially involved in direct drug cultivation, trafficking, or trans-shipment prior to or during the 1980s. Instead, it maintained a system of taxation on the production that took place in the territories that they controlled, in exchange for protecting the growers and establishing law and order in these regions by implementing its own rules and regulations. During the 1990s, FARC expanded its operations, in some areas, to include trafficking and production, which had provided a significant portion of its funding. Right-wing paramilitary groups also receive a large portion of their income from drug trafficking and production