He’s not a tough guy. He would barely consider himself a criminal, but for one act
of recklessness, he’s landed himself in prison. If intake and processing weren’t scary enough,
not to mention humiliating, his walk to the general population feels like a nightmare,
as if he’s living the life of somebody else. The foreboding clanking of doors locking,
the cacophony of other inmates. It suddenly hits him. He’s one of them. That first night he
doesn’t sleep a wink, thinking all the time about what’s in store for him. He’s well aware there are
gangs in this prison. He’s watched documentaries about prison bullying, about ruthless men that
will rearrange your face for merely accidentally bumping into them in the chow line. Will he have
to join one of the gangs, so he’s protected? God forbid, he’ll be asked to put in work for them.
Just the thought of that is unbearable. Many ex-cons will inform you that anyone
who tells you they weren’t the least bit afraid or intimidated when entering prison for the first
time in their life is lying. Sure, for many people it might not be as bad as men shouting at you from
their cells as you walk down the landing, all saying they’ll do unspeakable things to you,
but it’s also no walk in the park. What we described to you in the intro is kind
of a generic experience for inmates incarcerated in U.S. prisons, so what you might experience
in a prison in Papua New Guinea, or Sweden, or Paraguay, might be very different from what you
would experience in a lock-up in, say, Arizona. In Norway, you might see convicted killers making a
communal meal and chopping onions with a six-inch knife, or in Brazil, you could see prisoners
walking around with weapons and not even hiding them. Over in the UK, you might get prison gangs,
but you might also see prisoners sticking together based more on where they come from,
unlike the U.S., where race is a big factor. No one prison is the same, but in many places,
you’re likely going to come across a prison gang, the topic of today’s show. Ok, now let’s have a
look at some of those gangs. 4. The Aryan Brotherhood
When we’re talking about the most feared prison gangs, of course we’re going to
discuss the country that has by a long way the biggest prison population in the world. In fact,
thanks to the popularity of US movies and TV shows, we are quite sure all you non-Americans are
quite familiar with violence inside US prisons. In the US, where you’re incarcerated will
determine who the most powerful gang is. There will likely be a mix of powerful gangs but
that doesn’t mean they’re always fighting. In fact, to keep the peace and keep the flow of
contraband flowing through prisons it’s best not to cause a huge stir. That only leads to
cell searches and sometimes quite lengthy lockdowns. This is not good for business.
One of those gangs that does a huge amount of business behind prison walls is the Aryan
Brotherhood. It’s reported that in California this gang attempted to create an army,
always looking for new recruits like the guy described at the start of the show. In terms
of crime, they have their fingers in a lot of pies. Over decades they’ve evolved from a bunch
of angry Irish bikers who called themselves the “Diamond Tooth Gang” to an organized crime outfit.
They go back a long way, starting in 1964. The reason for the beginning of
the pack was to fight back against other gangs, such as the Black Guerrilla Family,
another very feared prison and street gang. As smaller gangs amalgamated, they grew larger and
later started getting involved in drugs, drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, extortion,
robberies, and violence…a lot of violence. Much of their infamy stemmed from instances
of extreme violence inside prisons. If you are part of this gang, you might at times have had to
cause another person a serious injury, if not kill them. Even though the prison population doesn’t
have more of them than many other gangs, the FBI has said a disproportionate number of murders are
committed by them. The last available statistics we can find say they constitute only one percent
of the US Federal prison population but are behind 18–25% of murders. That’s why they make this list.
There are plenty of white supremacist gangs in the US, but we’d say this one is the most feared.
They have a kind of motto which is “blood in, blood out”, which should mean that once you’ve
joined and spilled blood - “made your bones” as the expression goes - the only way to leave is to
die. That’s not always the case, but just turning around to them while you’re still locked up and
saying, “Hey boys, I think I’ve had enough. Godspeed fellas, toodle-oo”, will very likely
lead to a stiff reprimand. By that, we mean your blood will be spilled or your life will be taken.
What was different about them in the prison system is they started getting organized.
They created a hierarchical power structure similar to that of the American mafia – people who
they did business with after offering protection to mafia boss John Gotti when he was locked up.
Of the fifteen to twenty thousand members, both inside prison and outside of prison,
they are all Caucasian. You need to be to join, and you also have to have served
time or are currently serving time. In the 1980s, they introduced a 12-man
council for votes on various things and that was overseen by a three-man council.
It was this kind of organization that bolstered their power. Members were also asked to read books
such as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and Machiavelli’s The Prince, books that talk about warfare tactics,
power, and keeping control. As for maintaining control, former members said that they learned
from these books that if you are going to commit an act of violence, make it vicious,
make it a spectacle of fear. This is a snippet from that book
The Prince that gang members should have read: “People should either be caressed or crushed.
If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge;
but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a
way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.” Once you have sworn in, you are very likely going
to have to hurt another inmate or even an officer – although violence against officers
will always cause them a lot of trouble. Attacking someone else is sometimes called putting in work,
and the person that gives the green light for that is called a shot caller. This is not, however,
only something that happens in the Aryan Brotherhood. They just wrote the rule book.
They’ve become so powerful and so scrutinized in their activities in prison
that it might be difficult for officers to know who calls the shots, and if they do find out,
that person might be looking at a lengthy time separated from the general population.
Sure, there is racism in the gang, after all, they are white supremacists,
but these people are more concerned about their profitable crime ventures than concentrating on
spewing racial hatred. According to experts and former members, cash is king, and they’ll
do anything to ensure their operations remain intact, including making a murder so brutal it
sends a strong message to others. This makes them one of the most feared prison gangs in the world.
3. The Mexican Mafia This gang is also known as a prison gang,
as opposed to a regular street gang, although like the Aryan Brotherhood they don’t just operate
inside prison walls. As far as we can tell, these two extremely powerful gangs have a truce going,
so they are not currently at war. While you’ve all heard of the various
Mexican drug cartels, this gang is an American gang, one that some people say is even more
powerful than the Aryan Brotherhood at least in the California prison system.
It doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as big, though, with roughly 500 full-time members and
another 1,000 associates. As for its affiliations with other dangerous gangs, well, it has many.
Like other prison gangs, it started because groups of people, namely Hispanic people,
wanted strength in numbers inside prisons. That was back in the 1950s,
but when the gang grew in size it got involved with illicit drug trafficking, arms trafficking,
human trafficking, extortion, murder, and more. Inside prison, they were renowned for
violence, and as their power grew, they became more of a danger to other inmates. Many of those
inmates were Hispanics themselves and they also wanted strength in numbers. Some of them got
together and named themselves the Nuestra Familia. This gang became the mortal enemy of the Mexican
Mafia. The conflict between the two has led to the loss of many lives and will continue to do so.
They don’t have a strict hierarchical structure, but a newbie might be told by older members to put
some work in and hurt or kill another inmate. If that request is turned down, it might just
happen that the budding member is killed himself or at least hurt badly. If there is going to
be a hit on an established member, the green light has to be given by three other members,
men who’ve been in the gang for a while. Again, there’s a blood oath you have to swear,
so you spill blood to get in and you aint getting out easily. People do get out of course, but not
without some risk to themselves. There are rules to follow, with the obvious that you never admit
there’s a Mexican Mafia when talking to the cops. You should also value the gang over family,
or God for that matter, and when you’re in prison you should forget your beef with any other members
that you both had in the streets. If you want in, you must be sponsored by another member, but the
rub is, if you violate the rules he’s the guy that will kill you. Still, the rules also state you
should respect all members as friends and protect them as if they were your own flesh and blood.
They’ve had plenty of conflicts, including a very bloody one with the Mexican drug cartel,
the Los Zetas. But in Southern California at least, they command
the respect of all the smaller Hispanic gangs. Then there’s the gang’s relationship they have
with the very large and very violent street gang called Mara Salvatrucha, aka MS13. This
gang is transnational and its power structure is complicated or non-existent, but according to the
Justice Department, its members in California prisons are allied with the Mexican Mafia.
Other allies include the very dangerous Sinaloa Cartel, the Italian-American Mafia, and the Texas
Mexican Mafia, among others. On top of that, the FBI has said that the Mexican Mafia has even paid
the Aryan Brotherhood for contract murders. Now let’s look outside of the USA and to
gang members that have mostly experienced a kind of poverty not often seen in America.
2. The Numbers Gang Ok, so if you’re in this
gang you might belong to the 26s or the 27s or the 28s. They are a South African gang and can
be found in most prisons throughout the country. They’re not hard to make out because most of the
time they don’t exactly hide their number since it will be tattooed where someone can see it.
The numbers gang is more a prison gang than it is a street gang. Unlike the USA where you’ll
find quite a large number of different prison gangs, in South Africa, one of the most violent
places on Earth in terms of murder, the numbers gang pretty much runs every prison - the inmates
at least. This is what makes them powerful. Like many gangs, they are organized and follow
a top-down structure. If you’re a newbie to prison, you might find yourself having to join
one of these gangs. Sure, that might not happen, but it’s very likely if you don’t join you’ll be
supporting the gangs in some way. If you refuse to join and refuse to pay your support money, well,
life might be tough inside prison. When we say structured, we mean it.
Right at the top you have the “government” of the gang that runs things. These belong to “The Number
Ones” and they are higher than the “Number Twos.” Inside both of these structures you’ll find judges
and doctors and soldiers and lawyers and clerks and captains and more. The rule is, you don’t
step out of line, but you also do what’s expected of you even if you hold a high position. Heavy
is the head that wears the crown in this gang. In short, the 26s control wealth and that’s why
you’ll often see a money sign tattooed on them. The 27s protect and enforce the many rules of the
gangs and the 28s mostly concentrate on spilling blood. It’s all very complicated. According to
Human Rights Watch these gangs go back to the mid-1800s, so it’s not surprising they’ve built
a complex structure. There’s been a lot of time for expansion, so make no mistake, this gang is
all over the prison system in South Africa. Inside prison, they actually do provide some
support given you join the gang at the bottom and follow the many rules. The problem is,
you might sometimes have to do things you don’t want to do, such as stab a prison guard. The
numbers gang have attacked so many guards it’s a wonder anyone wants that job in South Africa.
Some prisoners have also said that within the gangs the higher ups have done things
like demanded cash from them to be allowed a visit from a relative, so it’s certainly not
all support. There’s also the matter of physical abuse, which happens often within the gangs.
The scariest thing about the numbers gang is the initiation, something we imagine most of you
viewers couldn’t imagine being put through. This is how the initiation is for the 28s.
When a new inmate arrives, he gets asked a question by a gang member.
This member is called a “die glas”, meaning binoculars, because he will have watched how
the prisoner acted during his first few days. The new inmate is asked what he would do if
the die glas asked him to help him during a rainstorm - a storm making him wet and cold.
Would he A, offer to share his umbrella, or B, join him in the pouring rain? If he answers A,
he will become a slave, sometimes a sex slave. If he answers B, ok, he can join the gang.
It’s not that easy, though, because to join you’ll have to stab another inmate, a prison guard,
or even a warden. In this respect, once you are in you will have more time added to your sentence.
The “doctor” of the gang will measure the length of the knife, so that pretty much determines
how hurt, or dead, the victim will be. After this deed is complete the inmate
then has to undergo a kind of initiation and get hit twice with a pipe. It’s then
determined if he should become a warrior 28 or a lower ranking 28, basically a slave.
To give you an idea of how violent a gang member can be, one man named John Mongrel
joined at age 14 and immediately stabbed another prisoner through the heart. He killed a lot more
people in prisons and it’s reported he was involved with the murders of around
1,000 people. He also once cut the eye out of a guard and committed many, many brutal assaults.
Of course, if you break the rules you will get punished. One punishment is having your throat
slit. Another is to ensure you’ll be infected with HIV, and that’s done so brutally we won’t
go into details here about how it’s performed. They call the punishment the “slow puncture.”
Lesser transgressions of the rules will result in getting beaten with things such as padlocks
or sticks. Another punishment might not involve getting hurt, but you may have to murder someone
who’s not affiliated with any gang - perhaps some fairly innocent dude like the one in the
intro. All this sounds incredibly awful, and that’s why the Numbers Gang makes this list.
The next gang is arguably even worse. Primer Comando da Capital [PCC]
This is said to be the most powerful and ruthless gang in Brazil,
inside and outside of prison. Lately, 75 members of this gang escaped from a prison
in nearby Paraguay. The drug business is good in Paraguay, so PCC members have operations there.
The problem is, some prisons in this fairly poor country are what you might call out of control.
Prisoners with influence and money may have a suite replete with a large TV in their cell,
while those on the bottom of the pile literally have to scavenge for food in the trash.
They sleep on the walkways where men sit taking drugs or sharpen their knives,
and no prison officer can do anything about it. After those 75 members fled the prison,
critics said there was nothing the authorities could do to stop them. They just have too much
power and there are too many police and prison guards that are poor enough or scared enough
to be susceptible to bribery. After more PCC members started
filling up prisons in Paraguay, violence broke out. The local gangs soon became outnumbered
because of the PCC’s aggressive recruiting policy. They call being recruited receiving
a “baptism.” If you become a member, you’ll have learned the PCC statute. If you in any
way break the rules it’s punishable only by death. In 2019, at San Pedro de Ycuamandyyú Regional Jail
in Paraguay, a riot broke out that was started by the PCC. During the mayhem some gang members
videoed themselves with their cellphones, armed with giant machetes and swords. You might ask
how someone manages to sneak such a large weapon into a prison, but the fact is, the gang is so
powerful they can get weapons brought in for them. It’s basically lawless in those prisons.
Most of the violence in that riot wasn’t focused on your average inmate, but on rival gang members.
In all, 10 were killed that day and 15 more were injured. Six of the dead were beheaded,
three were burned, and the other prisoner was shot to death. So, when we’re talking
about violence this gang goes to extremes, more so than any other gang on this list.
It’s their sheer strength outside prison and their willingness to go
to extremes inside prison that makes them a force to be reckoned with.
Their power on the outside can’t be underestimated. This is how one top
cop described how they work. “There’s no way that anyone can stand up to this. They
“identify your family, they coerce your relatives, judges, prosecutors, police.”
Of the 20,000 people belonging to this gang, around 6,000 of them are in prison,
not only in Brazil and Paraguay, but also in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. In 2006,
PCC gang members went on the rampage in the city of São Paulo. They attacked any public
authority they deemed their enemy. Around 40 members of law enforcement were murdered.
Inside prisons, they killed eight prison guards and 17 prisoners died. In 71 prisons there were
rebellions. All of this was orchestrated by gang members using cellphones in their prison cells.
In 2012, after gang members were killed by cops, the order was given to kill one
police for every dead gang member. For about 30 days one or two cops were brutally slain daily.
We could go on and on, because this gang has been behind many bloody rebellions inside and
outside prison. We would argue that this is the most feared prison gang in the world.
Now you need to watch, “Most Horrific Crimes - The Italian Mafia.” Or, have a look at,
“The White American Who Climbed the Ranks of the Chinese Mafia - The White Devil.”