Public Enemy No. 1 (abbreviated as PEN1; pronounced ), also known as PENI Death Squad (or PDS), is a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

and

street gang A gang is a group or society of associates, friends or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over territory in a community and engages, either individually or collective ...

formed in

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporat ...

, California and now based in Orange County, California. In 2004, the

California Department of Justice The California Department of Justice is a statewide investigative law enforcement agency and legal department of the California executive branch under the elected leadership of the California Attorney General (AG) which carries out complex cr ...

described PEN1 as "one of the most powerful and fastest-growing gangs inside and outside prison", and reported it had about 200 members statewide. The gang's main activities include

identity theft Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. The term ''identity theft'' was c ...

credit card fraud Credit card fraud is an inclusive term for fraud committed using a payment card, such as a credit card or debit card. The purpose may be to obtain goods or services or to make payment to another account, which is controlled by a criminal. The ...

, and

methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamp ...

sales.

History

The Public Enemy No. 1 gang emerged from the

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier p ...

scene in

, California during the 1980s. By the 1990s, however, PEN1's base of operations was in Orange County where the gang began recruiting white suburban adolescents and became involved in methamphetamine trafficking, prostitution and identity theft. The gang also formed ties with the

Aryan Brotherhood The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as the Brand or the AB, is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate which is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern P ...

and the Nazi Lowriders in the prison system. One of the gang's founders; Donald "Popeye" Mazza, became a made member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Another founding member, Devlin "Gazoo" Stringfellow, was stabbed to death by two other inmates at

California State Prison, Sacramento California State Prison, Sacramento (SAC) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Folsom, in Sacramento County, California. The facility is also referenced as Sacramento State Prison, CSP-Sacramento, CSP-SAC, and occasionally, New Fol ...

on January 10, 2018.

Symbology and identification

The gang uses the numeric symbol "737" to indicate association with the gang. The numbers correspond to the letters P, D, and S on a

telephone keypad A telephone keypad is a keypad installed on a push-button telephone or similar telecommunication device for dialing a telephone number. It was standardized when the dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) system was developed in the Bell S ...

. The initials stand for PENI Death Squad, another name for the group. Members often mark themselves with tattoos of different acronyms for the gang. Designs commonly include the words "PENI", "PDS" or the numbers "737", and sometimes in the form of runes, such as "ᛈᛖᚾᛁ" (PENI) or "ᛈᛞᛋ" (PDS), from Germanic

runic alphabets Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

Criminal activity

Public Enemy No. 1 is heavily involved in identity theft, which is not a crime often associated with street gangs; most of the income from this is allegedly used to finance methamphetamine sale and other operations. Originally, the gang did this by raiding mailboxes and trash cans for personal information, but later used contacts inside of banks, mortgage companies and state motor vehicle departments in order to gain access to credit profiles. This has led to law enforcement officials requesting that their personal information be removed so that it can't be used by gang members to identify home addresses of police officers. Additionally, PEN1 is involved in drug trafficking, murder, assault, auto theft, burglary and property crime.

Investigations and prosecutions

On December 14, 2006, 57 members of Public Enemy No. 1 were arrested after approximately 300 law enforcement officers from about 25 agencies, including the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice ...

(FBI) and

U.S. Marshals Service The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a bureau within the U.S. Department of Justice, operating under the direction of the Attorney General, but serves as the enforceme ...

, carried out raids at 75 locations in

southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

. Two handguns, a shotgun, a rifle and small amounts of drugs were also seized. The arrests were made after authorities discovered the names of an Orange County prosecutor and five police officers on a PEN1 hitlist the month before. On December 16, 2010, fifty members of PEN1, the

, the Nazi Lowriders and three other white supremacist gangs were arrested in Orange County on various federal charges, including criminal fraud and illegal firearms and narcotics sales, as a result of Operation Stormfront, a joint investigation by the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), commonly referred to as the ATF, is a domestic law enforcement agency within the United States Department of Justice. Its responsibilities include the investigation and preve ...

(ATF).

In popular culture and media

* The gang is featured in the TV documentary series '' Gangland'', season 6, Episode 14: "Public Enemy #1". * In the crime-thriller feature film '' Shot Caller'' (2017), stockbroker and family man Jacob Harlon (played by

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Nikolaj William Coster-Waldau (; born 27 July 1970) is a Danish actor and producer. He graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts in Copenhagen in 1993, and had his breakthrough role in Denmark with the film '' Nightwatch'' ( ...

) causes a fatal DUI accident and is sentenced to prison, where survival requires him to get mixed in gang life and associate with PENI gang members, then joining the

through his connection to them. * On the San Andreas Multi-Player modification for '' GTA: San Andreas'', and the RAGE:MP modification for

Grand Theft Auto V ''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and the fifteenth in ...

, multiple virtual recreations of the gang exist in various

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

communities.

References

External links

{{Organized crime groups in America Organizations established in 1986 1986 establishments in California Organizations based in Orange County, California White-supremacist organized crime groups in the United States Prison gangs in the United States Street gangs Gangs in California Gangs in Los Angeles Peckerwood White nationalism in California category:punk gangs