Home > Hispanic Gangs > 18th Street
By Alex Alonso Staff Writer Streetgangs
updated December 22, 2002
updated June 25, 2008
 “The spread of 18th Street’s violence is shown by 154 murders linked to the gang from 1985 to 1995. This only plots homicides within Los Angeles where the killings have been tied to the gang.” The killings on the map show 18th Street as both victims and assailants of murder and one can see a concentration west of the 110 Freeway near downtown Los Angeles, November 17-19, 1996. |
In Los Angeles the 18th Street gang is considered the largest gang in Los Angeles County but that label is very misleading. Even though 18th Street are estimated to have approximately 15,000 members in Los Angeles County, they are actually a collection of approximately 20 separate individual autonomous gangs operating under the same label with separate barrios in the San Fernando Valley, the San Gabriel Valley, the South Bay, South Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, Pico Union, Inglewood, and Cudahy. Some estimates of the 18th Street are as low as 8,000 members. The notoriety of the gang is based on four distinct barrios, three near downtown Los Angeles west of the Staple’s Center and the 110 Freeway, and one in the West Adams area.
The individual factions can number from 50 to several hundred members and they are dispersed throughout the County, but their strong hold and their oldest barrio is located in the Pico Union (Grand View, Hoover clicks) area east of the Staples Center between the Harbor 110 Freeway (east) and Hoover Ave (west). Slightly to the north, are two other barrios in the Shatto Park and MacArthur Park (Colombia Lil Cycos click) areas. There are also two significant size 18th Street Barrios in South LA, one between Vernon (north) and Slauson (south) along Vermont Avenue and the second one being between Florence (north) and 91st Street (south). One of the most infamous 18th Street neighborhoods would be in the West Adams (Smiley, Alsace, Lil Lowks) because member Catorina Gonzales was convicted for killing LAPD officer Filbert Cuesta in 1998, and more recently, member Pedro Espinoza was charged in the murder of High School star athlete Jamiel Shaw stemming from the conflict with the Bloods.
The media often states that 18th Street is the largest gang in Los Angeles, but the largest single Hispanic gang in terms of turf size and membership would be one of 18th Street’s main rivals, the Florencia 13 gang that has a turf that stretches from Western (west) to Compton Avenues (east). Members of this gang were indicted by the Federal Government in a RICO case in 2007 on drug trafficking and murder charges.
Historical Background
The 18th Street gang formed around 1965 in the Pico Union area when members of larger Westside Clanton 14th Street neighborhood decided to start a new click. Originally, 18th Street was a click of the bigger Clanton 14th Street neighborhood (Frist Hood) who had another neighborhood, Eastside Clanton that was split by the freeway construction of the early 1950s.
As membership of Clanton grew, newer members who lived off of 18th Street decided to start Clanton 18th Street. Forming a new click of a gang can sometimes be a challenge, because some members may look at it as an action that does not unify but separates the neighborhood, and possibly creates division between members that will be forced to choose sides during a conflict. On the other hand, adding a click can expand the turf, bring in more members, and make the neighborhood appear to be stronger.
There is usually a protocol to creating a new click and each neighborhood is different when it comes to that, but ultimately Clanton 14 core members did not approve of having Clanton 18. One of the reasons why original Clanton members began to reject the 18th click, was because it was being led by a non Mexican-American, named Rocky Lee Glover (b. 1950 – ).
The new click members had to make a decision between falling in line with Clanton 14 and the strict rule of Mexican-Americans only, or take a defiant position to start their own gang and create Varrio 18th Street.
Some decided to stay with the more established Clanton identity, but Rocky Glover and a dozen other teens decided to just simply dropped the Clanton off their name and then became rivals against them. As the years progressed, Clanton lost most of their first westside hood in the Pico-Union area, and today that area is completely dominated by 18th Street and a few other gangs. Other early 18th Street members during the 1960s included Beto, Eddie Boy, Goofy, Indio, Penguin, Tank, Toro and Smiley who were initially Clanton members of the 1st hood that all decided to take their click into another direction.
Clanton did not disappear though as their neighborhood in Hollywood off Beverly has survived and their other Eastside neighborhood still exists in two areas. Most gangs today have clicks and there is usually little resistance from the rest of the gang when members want to start a new click, because there is a perceived benefit to the entire gang as outsiders will assume the gang is growing, and it provides a psychological edge against their rivals.
Through a small act of defiance, one of the most well known gangs was born in Los Angeles. Because of its aggressive recruiting techniques of accepting members even if they were not Mexican-American, the name of this gang has caught on and has been copied and mimicked in several other cities and countries around the world. Contrary to popular belief, not all of the 18th Street neighborhoods operate in unison, know each other, or even get along.
Global Reach: Real or Perceived?
Since its inception, youth from every large city in the US, Canada, Mexico and countries in Central & South America America, Europe and most likely several other cities and countries have adapted the use of the name 18th Street. Because of the wide spread popularity, the FBI has labeled this gang a transnational gang with global reach, but there is no evidence to support the existence of any such global network in which the 18th Street gang operates between cities or across national borders. Because of deportation, the gang culture of LA was introduced into Mexico and Central America, but transnational linkages in which the 18th Street gang operate have not been uncovered thus far. A study from 2007 found that international connections among Hispanic gangs like 18th Street and Mara Salvatrucha were over stated and that there were no signs of transnational coordination among gang members. Academic studies have also fell short from identifying these types of networks among Los Angeles based Hispanic gangs.
Any suggestion that these gangs operate in this sophisticated manner has been considered propaganda from law enforcement and designed to stigmatize the gang and its members by exaggerating the extent to which the gang operates. Phrases like “violent foreign-born gang members” and “their behavior is often deadly” uses the fear card to gain public support for what ever law enforcement action is desired against the group. For years the FBI has been telling us that there exists parallels between 18th Street and international crime but many of those linkages have been overstated and just because the federal government says that 18th Street possesses weapons of mass destruction does not necessarily mean that it is true. United States Senator Dianne Feinstein published a report in 2003 which erroneously stated that 80 percent of the 18th Street gang membership in California consists of illegal immigrants but according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department only about 10 percent of the gang membership in Los Angeles County are illegal citizens.
Gang Injunctions
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has three gang injunctions against the 18th Street; two in the Rampart Division and one in the Southwest Division of the LAPD against the same faction that Catorino Gonzales and Pedro Espinoza were from. This specific 18th Street gang has several clicks including Alcase, Lil Lowks, and Smiley Drive.
The Rampart injunctions were under review and temporarily halted in September of 1999 because of the Rampart corruption scandal that implicated several LAPD officers in criminal activity. In 2002 these injunctions were refiled by the City Attorney’s Office and placed back into effect.
Warring with Bloods
Graffiti of the 18th Street gang from off the area of Hoover and 74th Street of South Los Angeles.
List of all 18th Street Neighborhoods in Los Angeles County
18th Street in the News
Great post, you have pointed out some great points , I too conceive this s a very good website.
18St being nation wide is an over statement But MS is Worldwide and if it wasnt for Salvadorans in18st the woldnt even be as spread as they are now. Point is i think 18st is overrated in general, i eam the other day some gay looking lil kid with skinny jeans and a beenie with a fluffy ball on top thre the 18st E at me…lol. i seriously wish he would have ran up on me i wouldve claimed an enemy hood and everything..lol!!
hey bic boiii
fock u truefact 18st is gona hunt u down nigguh
chode
hey fock u
This is bullshit, im Menace Westside 18st Shatto Park Locos west los angeles, 18st we got homies in 13 countries and 39 states, yes we got claimers but every hood does, we handle our claimers, real 18s represent their clicks not just 18st, like me from shatto park
13 countries and 39 states hahahaa! MARA SALVATRUCHA is in about ovr 50 countires and over 40 states 18 is weak they recruit anybody MS doesnt and theyre still more wide spread like no other gang.
MS KILLA
JK
F*CK MARA SALVATRUCHA…. 18 TILL I DIE..THEY RECRUIT ON MEXICANS!!!!! AND MEXICANS COME IN AND OUT EVERYDAY FROM MEXICO..
5 HILL GANG
18th st PUSSIES!!!!!!
thats rightt.
i think jamiel shaw was a blood in my opinion you claim a hood that is not yours you can get shoot killed just like that i think espinozas case with the murder of shaw was not only a racial thing it was a gang sheet as well like i said you claim some sheet that is not yours you get your ass shot if you talk to talk then learn how to walk to walk
west side eighteen clcs b.lucky
inside every 8teen streeter is a real man from CLANTON screaming to get out and get real!!!!!!!! except for all the culos they just want to be from that shit
i heard 8teen streeters have lots of men inside them thats why they love prison so much butt love all day haha!
its all bout da north highlands, D.E.O
OK! so I would like to see the actual pictures and footage of the documentary on 18 street done in Smiley Dr. back in the 1990′s also if anyone has any pictures of RIP Bandit and or Sparky let me know I’d like to see them. I dont agree in any way shape or form the gang activity and the terrorism on the streets caused by them but unfortunately life is like this we need parent involvement to avoid our kids from falling in the footsteps of their fathers, brothers, uncles and friends
alll i gatta say is fukk bloods they aint bout nada…..
According to recent scientific studies and surveys conducted throughout a period of 10 years, professors from both the UCLA and USC sociology departments have found that the 18th Street Gang of Southern California contain the highest per capita population of homosexual members of any street gang in the United States. Further analysis reveals that the reason for any street violence coming from a member of the 18th Street Gang is due to an extreme sexual tension felt by the members because their sexual advances are consistently turned down by their peers and gang members from other sets. In addition, 18th Street Gang members also have extreme built up rage from years of keeping hidden their true sexual orientation from others for fear of disciplinary actions.
I can attest to that. So can my culo, hay papi!
This just in: codebreakers from the CIA have successfully deciphered the meaning of the name 18th Street
1=A
8=H
So 1+8= A HOMOSEXUAL
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filthy scum-sucking lawyer.
All i gotta say is this,if you join a gang,,,its because your a scared little girl…poor little girl,go be a gangster now,,aww,
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Thanks for this insight. I would have been surprised if this weren’t your position. But the manner in which you described it was to the say the least, ambiguous.
+1
Why don’t we just get computers for all these gang-bangers and teach them to play mafia wars! Then they could beat each other up virtually without leaving our neighborhoods and cities in such a state of chaos.
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