This is a list of notable criminally-active

street gangs 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 collecti ...

operating or formerly operating in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. To be included in this list, the gang must have a Wikipedia article with references showing it is a California street gang.

Prison gangs

Aryan Brotherhood The Aryan Brotherhood (AB or The Brand) is a neo-Nazi prison gang and an organized crime syndicate that is based in the United States and has an estimated 15,000–20,000 members both inside and outside prisons. The Southern Poverty Law Center ...

Black Guerrilla Family The Black Guerrilla Family (BGF, also known as the Black Gorilla Family, the Black Family, the Black Vanguard, and Jamaa) is an African American black power prison gang, street gang, and political organization founded in 1966 by George Jackson, ...

Mexican Mafia The Mexican Mafia (Spanish: ''Mafia Mexicana''), also known as ''La eMe'' (Spanish for "the M"), is a predominantly Mexican American prison gang and criminal organization in the United States. Despite its name, the Mexican Mafia has no origins i ...

Nuestra Familia Nuestra Familia ( Spanish for ''"our family"'') is a criminal organization of Mexican American (Chicano) prison gangs with origins in Northern California. While members of the Norteños gang are considered to be foot soldiers of Nuestra Familia, ...

* Fresno Bulldogs

Street gangs

* 22nd Street Gang *

18th Street gang The 18th Street Gang, also known as , , , or simply in North America, is a multi-ethnic (largely Central American and Culture of Mexico, Mexican) street gang in Los Angeles. It is one of the largest street gangs in Los Angeles, with around 30 ...

* Abergil crime family * Armenian Power * Bahala Na Gang *

Bloods The Bloods are a primarily African Americans, African American street gang which was founded in Los Angeles, California. The gang is widely known for Crips–Bloods gang war, its rivalry with the Crips. It is identified by the red color worn ...

** Black P. Stones **

Bounty Hunter Bloods The Bounty Hunter Watts Bloods, also known as the Bounty Hunter Bloods, is a "set" of the Bloods gang alliance situated in the Nickerson Gardens public housing projects in Watts, Los Angeles. History The gang was originally established in 1969 b ...

** Pirus * Chosen Few MC *

Crips The Crips are a primarily African-American alliance of street gangs that are based in the coastal regions of Southern California. Founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969, mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams, the Crips ...

** Asian Boyz ** Grape Street Watts Crips ** Rollin' 30s Harlem Crips ** Rollin 60's Neighborhood Crips ** Vigilante Crips ** Sons of Samoa ** Tongan Crip Gang ** Venice Shoreline Crips * Devils Diciples * Diablos Motorcycle Club * Fresno Bulldogs *

Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club Galloping Goose Motorcycle Club (GGMC) is a motorcycle club that began around a motorcycle racing team and friends based out of Los Angeles, California in the United States in 1942. The group was informal and not chartered until 1946. Soon after ...

*The Kern Grasshoppers * Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club *

Hells Angels The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club founded in California whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells ...

Latin Kings (gang) The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN, ALKN, or LKN, also known as simply Latin Kings) 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 t ...

* Lopers * Los Angeles crime family * Menace of Destruction *

Mongols Motorcycle Club The Mongols Motorcycle Club, also known as the Mongol Brotherhood or Mongol Nation, is an international outlaw motorcycle club. Originally formed in Montebello, California, in 1969, the club is headquartered in Southern California.Moonshiners Motorcycle Club *

MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha, commonly known as MS-13, is an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. Originally, the gang was set up to protect Salvadoran immigrants from other gangs in the Los Angeles area ...

Norteños Norteños (, ; ''Norteñas'' for females) are the various affiliated gangs that pay tribute to Nuestra Familia while in California Incarceration in the United States, state and federal correctional facilities. Norteños may refer to Northern ...

Peckerwood ''Peckerwood'' is a US racial epithet used against white people, especially poor white, poor rural whites. Originally an ethnic slur, the term has been reclaimed by a subculture related to prison gangs and outlaw motorcycle clubs. The term was in ...

** Nazi Lowriders ** Public Enemy No. 1 * Satanas *

Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel (, , after the native Sinaloa region), also known as the ''CDS'', the ''Guzmán-Loera Organization'', the ''Federation'', the ''Sinaloa Cartel'', or the Pacific Cartel, is a large, drug trafficking transnational organized cri ...

** Beltrán-Leyva Cartel *

Sureños ''Sureños'' (; Spanish language, Spanish for ''Southerners'')‍, also known as ''Southern United Raza'', ''Sur 13'' or ''Sureños X3'', are groups of loosely affiliated gangs that pay tribute to the Mexican Mafia while in Incarceration in the U ...

** 38th Street gang ** The Avenues ** Azusa 13 ** Culver City Boys 13 ** El Monte Flores **

Florencia 13 The Florencia 13, also known as South Side Florencia 13, Florence Gang, F13 is an American criminal street gang based in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Mexican Americans. The gang is named after the Florence area of Los Angeles County ...

Logan Heights Gang The Logan Heights Gang, also known as Varrio Logan Heights or LH, is a Sureño street gang based in Southeast San Diego. History The Logan Heights Gang was established in Southeast San Diego, when several individual Mexican-American street g ...

** OVS ** Playboys ** Puente 13 **

Santa Monica 13 Santa Monica 13 or SMG is a Mexican-American street gang located in Santa Monica, California, United States. They reside mainly in the Pico neighborhood. Even though Santa Monica 13 is a Sureño gang, they wear their traditional black banda ...

** Río 13 ** Shelltown 38th St ** Temple Street **

Toonerville Rifa 13 Toonerville Rifa 13, also known as The Ville, is a Mexican-American street gang located in Los Angeles county. History The name Toonerville was created in 1902 by a cartooner in Louisville Kentucky, he merge his profession and the city he lived t ...

** Varrio Nuevo Estrada **

Venice 13 Venice 13 or West Side Venice 13, abbreviated as V13 or VX3, is a Mexican American street gang based in the Oakwood (aka "Ghost Town") neighborhood of Venice, Los Angeles, California, Venice, a section of Los Angeles, California. It has a substant ...

** Westside Locos 13 **

White Fence White Fence (also known by the acronym WF) is a predominantly Mexican American street gang in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Eastside Los Angeles, East Los Angeles. History White Fence is one of the oldest gangs in Los Angeles. The gang its ...

** Vineland Boys *

Tiny Rascal Gang The Tiny Rascal Gang, (abbreviated TRG) is a primarily Cambodian-American gang based in Long Beach, California. During the 1990s, the Mexican Mafia "green light" hit lists began including the TRG, and Sureños were soon at war with them. The M ...

* Triad **

14K Triad The 14K (, ) is a Triad (organized crime), triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. It is the second largest triad group in the world with around 20,000 members split into thirty subgroups. They are the main rival of the Sun Y ...

** Bamboo Union ** Big Circle Gang ** Black Dragons ** Four Seas Gang ** Jackson Street Boys ** Wah Ching ** Wo Hop To ** Wo Shing Wo * Wilmas 13 * Vagos Motorcycle Club * Varrio 204th Street *

Yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media (by request of the police) call them , while the yakuza call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ''yak ...

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:California Street Gangs * Street gangs Organizations based in California Lists of gangs Lists of organizations based in the United States

Street Gangs 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 collecti ...

Gangs, California

Prison gangs

Street gangs

See also

External links