UNCLASSIFIED

Title:

National Gang Threat Assessment 2009

Publication Date: January 2009

Document ID: 2009-M0335-001

This intelligence assessment discusses the proliferation of gangs from urban areas to suburban and rural locations, estimates of the number of gangs and gang members in the United States, gang types, gang-related criminal activities, locations where specific gangs operate, and the relationships between gangs and other criminal organizations.

It is a collaborative effort between the National Gang Intelligence center (NGIC) and the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) to examine the threat posed to the United States by criminal gangs. The assessment is based on federal, state, and local law enforcement information and is supplemented by information retrieved from open sources. Information and data used for this report were collected through September 2008.

The National Gang Intelligence Center thanks the National Drug Intelligence Center for collecting and analyzing strategic gang-related intelligence and producing this document.

Your questions, comments, and suggestions for future subjects are welcome at any time. Addresses are provided at the end of the page.

Cover photo: North Carolina Asheville Police Department.

Contents

List of Figures

Figure 1. National Gang Intelligence Center/National Gang Targeting, Enforcement, and Coordination Center Regions.
Figure 2. Percentage of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies Reporting Gang Activity, by Region.
Figure 3. Percentage of Students Reporting Gang Activity at Schools
Figure 4. Percentage of Law Enforcement Agencies Reporting Gang Involvement in Drug Distribution, by Drug Type, 2004-2008
Figure 5. Central Region gang membership by county.
Figure 6. East Region gang membership by county.
Figure 7. New England Region gang membership by county.
Figure 8. Northwest Region gang membership by county.
Figure 9. Pacific Region gang membership by county.
Figure 10. Southeast Region gang membership by county.
Figure 11. Southwest Region gang membership by county.

List of Tables

Table 1. Gangs Reported to Have Military-Trained Members

List of Maps in Appendix A

Map 1. Gang membership per capita, by state.
Map 2. Gang members per law enforcement officer, by state.

National Gang Threat Summary

Gangs pose a serious threat to public safety in many communities throughout the United States. Gang members are increasingly migrating from urban to suburban areas and are responsible for a growing percentage of crime and violence in many communities. Much gang-related criminal activity involves drug trafficking; however, gang members are increasingly engaging in alien and weapons trafficking. Additionally, a rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships with U.S.- and foreign-based drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and other criminal organizations to gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs.

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Key Findings

The following key findings were developed by analysis of available federal, state, and local law enforcement information; 2008 National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) National Drug Threat Survey (NDTS) data; and verified open source information:

• Approximately 1 million gang members belonging to more than 20,000 gangs were criminally active within all 50 states and the District of Columbia as of September 2008.
   
• Local street gangs, or neighborhood-based street gangs, remain a significant threat because they continue to account for the largest number of gangs nationwide. Most engage in violence in conjunction with a variety of crimes, including retail-level drug distribution.
   
• According to NDTS data, 58 percent of state and local law enforcement agencies reported that criminal gangs were active in their jurisdictions in 2008 compared with 45 percent of state and local agencies in 2004.
   
• Gang members are migrating from urban areas to suburban and rural communities, expanding the gangs' influence in most regions; they are doing so for a variety of reasons, including expanding drug distribution territories, increasing illicit revenue, recruiting new members, hiding from law enforcement, and escaping other gangs. Many suburban and rural communities are experiencing increasing gang-related crime and violence because of expanding gang influence.
   
• Criminal gangs commit as much as 80 percent of the crime in many communities, according to law enforcement officials throughout the nation. Typical gang-related crimes include alien smuggling, armed robbery, assault, auto theft, drug trafficking, extortion, fraud, home invasions, identity theft, murder, and weapons trafficking.
   
• Gang members are the primary retail-level distributors of most illicit drugs. They also are increasingly distributing wholesale-level quantities of marijuana and cocaine in most urban and suburban communities.
   
• Some gangs traffic illicit drugs at the regional and national levels; several are capable of competing with U.S.-based Mexican DTOs.
   
• U.S.-based gang members illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border for the express purpose of smuggling illicit drugs and illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States.
   
• Many gangs actively use the Internet to recruit new members and to communicate with members in other areas of the United States and in foreign countries.
   
• Street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs pose a growing threat to law enforcement along the U.S.-Canada border. They frequently associate with Canada-based gangs and criminal organizations to facilitate various criminal activities, including drug smuggling into the United States.

The National Gang Intelligence Center recognizes the contributions of the National Drug Intelligence Center for their substantial efforts collecting and analyzing strategic gang-related intelligence for this assessment and producing this document.

Addresses

National Gang Intelligence Center
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
NGIC-VA #405
Washington D.C. 20535

Tel. 1-800-366-9501
Web: ngic@leo.gov

National Drug Intelligence Center
319 Washington Street, 5th Floor
Johnstown, PA 15901-1622

Tel. (814) 532-4601
FAX (814) 532-4690
E-mail NDIC.Contacts@usdoj.gov

National Drug Intelligence Center
U.S. Department of Justice
Robert F. Kennedy Building, Room 3341
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-2000

Tel. (202) 432-4040
FAX (202) 514-4252

Web Addresses

ADNET:  http://ndicosa.adnet.sgov.gov
DOJ:  http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/
LEO:  https://www.leo.gov/http/leowcs.leopriv.gov/lesig/ndic/index.htm
RISS:  ndic.riss.net

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