Latin Kings
The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation is a gang active primarily in the United States. The gang was founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954. The Latin Kings are one of the largest Hispanic and Latino street and prison gangs worldwide.
In the United States, the Latin Kings operate under two umbrella factions—the King Motherland Chicago faction headquartered in Chicago, and the Bloodline faction based in New York. The KMC faction consists of 60 structured chapters operating in 158 cities in 31 U.S. states, with a membership of between 20,000 and 35,000. The Bloodline Latin Kings have a membership of 2,200 to 7,500, and operate several dozen chapters in 15 cities in 5 states. The gang also has a significant presence in the prison system. The Latin Kings are involved in a wide variety of criminal activities, including drug dealing, assault, burglary, homicide, identity theft, and money laundering, with the gang's primary source of income deriving from the street-level distribution of narcotics.
History
King Motherland Chicago faction
The Latin Kings were founded in the Humboldt Park area of Chicago in 1954 by Ramon Santos as the Imperials, a Puerto Rican progress movement with the goal of overcoming racial discrimination. With the Latino community facing constant violence from Greek and Italian greaser gangs, the Imperials merged with various other Puerto Rican and Mexican street gangs to form the Latin Kings, key developments in the history of gangs in Humboldt Park. With its original focus being on fighting back against discrimination, the gang would later, however, devolve into a criminal enterprise operating throughout the United States. There are two umbrella factions: the King Motherland Chicago – also known as King Manifesto and Constitution – and Bloodline, formed in New York City in 1986. All members of the gang identify themselves as Latin Kings.Latin Kings associating with the Motherland faction also identify themselves as "Almighty Latin King Nation" ; they make up more than 160 structured chapters operating in 158 cities in 31 states. The membership in Chicago is estimated to be 20,000 to 35,000.
The Chicago faction of the Latin Kings is recognized as one of the largest Hispanic street gangs in the United States after the Sureños and Norteños, as well as MS-13 and the 18th Street gang, and one of the largest street gangs based in Chicago. Their greatest membership is within the United States; in the city of Chicago alone, the gang has more than 25,000 members. The Latin Kings have also organized chapters in numerous states and several Latin American and European countries.
Bloodline faction
The Bloodline Manifesto was founded by Luis "King Blood" Felipe in 1986 in the New York State Collins Correctional Facility. Latin Kings associating with New York State Bloodline chapter also identify themselves as the "Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation". Membership is estimated to be as large as 7,500, divided among several dozen tribes operating in 15 cities across five states. New York State Bloodline Latin Kings share a common culture and structure with KMC and respect them as the Motherland, but not all chapters report to the Chicago leadership hierarchy.In the early 1980s, to avoid imprisonment for his criminal activities in Chicago, Luis Felipe fled to New York. Soon after arriving in New York, he was arrested and convicted of murdering his girlfriend. In 1986, while in prison, Felipe started his own chapter of the Latin Kings known as the Bloodline. He designated himself as Inca and Supreme Crown of the state of New York. From 1986 to 1994, the ALKQN solidified its status as a gang through crimes such as murder, racketeering, and other offenses covered under the RICO Act. In 1991, Felipe was returned to prison after a short release for parole violations stemming from the receipt of stolen goods. However, he continued to guide the ALKQN members, who now numbered about 2,000, both incarcerated and free.
In 1994, with the rapid growth of the Latin Kings, an internal power struggle erupted, and violence within the Kings ensued. Between June 1993 and February 1994, seven Latin Kings were murdered. Following the outbreak of internal gang violence, Felipe and 19 others were charged with murder and racketeering; the indictment process ended in 1995 with 39 Latin Kings and 1 Latin Queen indicted under the RICO Act. Felipe was charged with ordering the killing of William Cartagena, who had been taken to an abandoned Bronx apartment and strangled, decapitated, mutilated and set on fire. Although Felipe was in prison, the government later alleged he had ordered a T.O.S. to all Latin Kings for the murder of Cartagena. This letter and many others were how Felipe was initially linked to three murders on the streets of New York; testimony from former Kings was used as further evidence of the orders. The letters had been copied and stored by the NY Department of Corrections, who were not aware of the significance of the letters until a federal task force was formed that included NYPD homicide investigators, FBI agents, and DOC investigators.
Following the 1996 trial and conviction of Felipe, Antonio Fernandez, who was blessed as the Inca and Supreme Crown of New York State, knelt with other Latin Kings in front of the Federal District Court in Manhattan and was quoted as stating, "It's time for a fresh start... Now they can't hold our past against us." From then on, the ALKQN once again began a transformation. Latin Kings and Queens began appearing en masse at political demonstrations in support of the Latino community. To further its efforts to legitimize, the organization began to hold monthly meetings at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in West Harlem. At this time, the membership of the Latin Kings is believed to have swelled to 3,000 incarcerated and 4,000 free. The monthly universals drew attendance of 500–600 regularly. Internal changes to the organization began to take place as Fernandez amended the ALKQN manifesto to include parliamentary elections and new procedures for handling inter-organizational grievances and remove death as a possible punishment, replacing it with "vanishing", the act of being banished from the movement.
For the ALKQN, 1997 began with Felipe being sentenced to 250 years in prison, with the first 45 to be spent in solitary confinement. The other 39 members were sentenced to an average of 20 years in prison for their roles in the crimes. The year would bring further legal troubles as Fernandez and 31 others were arrested in a raid on the Lower East Side and charged with disorderly conduct. The Special Commissioner of Investigation for Schools soon charged the ALKQN with infiltrating the school system; a school security guard with five years of service was dismissed on charges of unprofessional conduct for his association with the Latin Kings. The year came to a close with Fernandez being arrested in December by the FBI for domestic abuse. The pending charges against Fernandez were dropped in early 1998. Following the release of Fernandez, a joint operation of the FBI, New York City Police Department, Immigration and Naturalization Service, New York State Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration came to a close with the arrests of 92 suspected ALKQN members, half of whom the Latin Kings leadership insisted were not members. The operation, dubbed Operation Crown, cost the city over one million dollars and took 19 months to complete. Fernandez was released after four days on $350,000 bail, which was paid for by the mandatory dues that the Bloodline treasurer had collected from the community every week. Over half of the arrested were charged with misdemeanors; other were charged with weapons possession and drug trafficking. Fernandez was eventually permitted, though under house arrest, to attend monthly universal meetings. It was during his time under house arrest that the Latin Queens underwent a shake up in leadership, dismissing many of the leaders in order to bring in more politically focused members.
During this period, the Latin Kings began to gain some legitimacy within the Puerto Rican Nationalist movement, starting from when Lolita Lebrón, a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, who served 25 years in federal prison for her participation in an attack on the U.S. Capitol alongside other Puerto Rican militants in 1954, enlisted the New York State ALKQN to protect her during a demonstration in front of the United Nations headquarters. Following the U.N. demonstration, Rafael Cancel-Miranda, another Puerto Rican nacionalista who spent 25 years in federal prison for the same crimes as Lebrón, attended a monthly universal. Before the year's end, Adelfa Vera, also a Puerto Rican activist, attended a monthly universal and was given ALKQN beads by the present leadership. Vera was praised during the meeting and stated "These kids are hope for our liberation struggle. I can die in peace, because we found the continuation." In 1998, Fernandez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sell and distribute heroin. In 1999, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison, which he began serving at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas, and was placed in solitary confinement. He was eventually transferred again and placed in general population, and has since been released.
Organizational structure
The Latin Kings have a hierarchical organizational structure. They have numerous "chapters" or "tribes" around the country which adhere to a regional, state, and national system. Officers are supported by a "Crown Council" of the 5 Crowns Council members. The Council sets rules and regulations and holds disciplinary hearings.The hierarchy rises to regional officers and ultimately to two supreme regional "Incas" based in Chicago. The heads of the entire criminal organization are known as "coronas". One retired detective said in 2004: "When you compare them to other street gangs like the Bloods and the Crips, none compare to the organization of the Latin Kings."