Latin Kings and Queens Information
Scope: Primarily metropolitan areas throughout Connecticut, Chicago and New York. Though, over the past 5-6 years we have seen a migration into the rural and bed-room communities of the region. The Latin Kings have or are planning to establish chapters in Florida, Mexico, New Mexico and California. The Latin Kings have been found to have factions in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island.
Gender Make Up: Male and Female. The Female members are referred to as Latin Queens.
Ethnic Make Up: Primarily Hispanic of Latin decent. Italians and Portuguese have been found to be members of the gang.
Organization: Established hierarchy and chain of command. Strict rules of adherence to well documented rules or charter. The Latin King hierarchy in Connecticut was devastated a few years back do to arrests and convictions under RICO and the assassination of some of it's leaders. They are slowly regaining power.
Note: In early to mid 2000's many of of the hierarchy were being released from prison and trying to regain their place in the local community.
Gang Colors: Black and gold. Black represents death, gold represents life.
Sequence of Beads: Five black followed by five gold for members, five black followed by two gold for executive members. All Black for the enforcers or Assassins. Of late due to high law enforcement crackdowns most members no longer openly show the beads as a sign of membership.
Emblem: Five pointed crown, five pointed star, lions head with crown, code of armor. The most recent emblem is the bulldog with a crown.
Alliances: Ñeta, Most people Nation gangs and Brotherhood.
Rival Gangs: A rival status exist between the All Mighty Latin Kings & Queens Charter Nation, most Folk Nation gangs , Latin Locos, Solidos, 20 Luv and Elm City Boys (ECB), The Nation.
Loose alliances: resent information shows that a loose alliance has developed with the 20 Love and some sets of the Los Solidos (who were rivals in Hartford)
Criminal Activity: Narcotics, weapons, extortion, assaults, intimidation, beatings, stabbing, shootings, murder and graffiti.
History: The Latin Kings are the oldest and largest Hispanic street gang which has its roots dating back to 1930's in Chicago, Illinois. Originally, this gang formed small coalitions to protect and preserve the identity of their culture and aspired to the personal, social, and economic needs of its people fearing verbal, mental, and physical attacks by their American counterparts, various coalitions, strike back groups, and traditional street gangs developed. Their main desire originally was to protect their neighborhoods or turf. Occasionally, they would do battle with rival gangs. During these battles, the Latin Kings developed a reputation as a very violent street gang.
In the late 80's and early 90's members of the Connecticut chapter broke away from the mother organization and developed a Charter which incorporated new philosophies as will as the rules and philosophies of the mother chapter. This faction is known as the All Mighty Latin King & Queen Charter Nation and became rivals of the parent organization.
Propensity for Violence: The Latin Kings' reputation continues today as evidenced by the violence in our correctional facilities and communities within Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts. The Latin Kings are known to beat, stab, or shoot members who have not conformed to the gang's rules of obedience, resulting in serious physical injury up to and including death.
The violence exhibited by the Latin Kings is not restricted solely to members who do not conform to the gang's rules and orders. Individuals and rival gangs who possess a threat to the Latin Kings have also been targeted for violence.
Finances: The main source of income for the Latin Kings is funds derived from the lucrative drug trade. Though members are not to use drugs, they may sell and distribute drugs to derive funds for themselves and the organization.
Other means of deriving funds are membership dues for the Latin King members and extortion from weaker, vulnerable individuals both in the community and inside our correctional facilities.
Recently we have seen this group developing legitiment business enterprises as fronts to their criminal activities; this will include, Medical Offices, Law Offices, mom and pop type stores, Social services, and political organizations, Etc..
Leadership: The Latin Kings have a highly organized and formalized rank structure which includes Supreme Crown Authorities, Executive Crown Authorities and Local Presidents in their respective prisons and communities. The Latin Kings are directed by an Inmate who is currently incarcerated in the Federal System. He is the "Supreme Crown Authority" or "Inca" for the Latin Kings.
Local Leadership: The Latin Kings have established local leadership in the major metropolitan communities and in all correctional facilities. Each local crown reports directly to a regional commander who is responsible for a particular geographical area.
Identifiers: The Latin Kings are known to exhibit in drawings, paintings, and graffiti their reflection and interpretation of the Latin Kings. The Latin Kings' colors are used in much of the material along with symbols such as A.L.K.Q.N.( Almighty Latin King & Queen Nation), A.L.K.Q.C.N ( Almighty Latin King Charter Nation), A.D.R. (Amor Deu Rei; Love the King), crowns, lion heads, "LK," bulldogs, Coat of Arms, guns, cars, and money. The Latin Kings will eulogize with graffiti the locations where a gang member has fallen or died. (Members are no longer using street names and under recent charter revisions the members are being issued I.D. cards and numbers. This number is now being used in used in the graffiti). In the graffiti will usually be the name of the fallen comrade, date, and initials of the artist. If another gang is responsible for the death of the Latin King member, an upside down symbol of that gang may appear in the graffiti with the words "Lollypop" as a putdown to that gang. Pay back and anniversary dates of slain fellow gang members add to the violence of this group.
The colors of black and gold have long been associated with this gang. The members will wear beads and clothing which will display the gold and black colors. The colors are well represented at the gangs' funerals.
Weapons: The Latin Kings are known to traffic weapons and utilize automatic weaponry (Mac-10's, 9mm). High ranking members of the Latin Kings are known to have body guards who are armed and who wear bullet proof vests.
Within the correctional setting, the Latin Kings will set up security posts manned by the rank and file members in any main assembly areas (recreation yards, chapels, chow halls). Members on post are known to carry weapons.
Of all the gangs, members of the Latin Kings are the hardest to gain information from, They won't even admit their membership in many cases.
