The United Blood Nation, also known as the East Coast Bloods, is a

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with Building, buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like Street light, streetligh ...

and prison gang active primarily in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

. It is the east coast faction of the California-based

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 ...

street gang. Their main source of income is the

trafficking Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

and sale of illegal drugs.

History

The United Blood Nation was formed on July 16, 1993, when incarcerated gang leader Leonard "OG Dead Eye" McKenzie allied several gangs to protect members from the dominant Crip gangs. The UBN was established as the New York branch of the California-based

, to which its members are loosely affiliated with, and the gang spread along the East Coast as members were released from prison. The UBN became the dominant gang on the East Coast during the 1990s, outnumbering the rival

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 ...

. The gang's meteoric rise to the top of the gang hierarchy was halted in 2001, however, when founder Omar Portee was arrested and later convicted of federal

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was e ...

(RICO) charges. Portee was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment and is currently incarcerated in the federal supermax ADX Florence prison in Colorado. In the years following Portee's incarceration, the UBN has splintered somewhat, with infighting among the gang's subgroups being reported. The UBN's co-founder and once-prominent member, Leonard McKenzie, has allegedly retired from the gangster lifestyle.Bloods Street Gang Intelligence Report

Virginia State Police The Virginia State Police, officially the Virginia Department of State Police, conceived in 1919 and established in 1932, is the state police force for the U.S. state of Virginia. The agency originated out of the Virginia Department of Motor Ve ...

(November 2008)

Organization

The structure of the United Blood Nation is hierarchical, with each member being designated a specific rank within the gang, which comes with specific duties and responsibilities. The UBN uses a ranking system often disguised with code names to label the leadership structure. The gang's leadership is based in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and the New York prison system. The UBN hierarchy, or chain of command, includes a national council ("the Council") consisting of members selected from the leaders of the gang's subgroups ("sets"). All UBN subgroups are governed by a common set of rules originally written by founders Omar Portee and Leonard McKenzie. There are 31 UBN rules known as "The 31." Examples of the rules are: Individual gang members are to operate and conduct themselves as defined by "The 31"; Procedures for infractions or disciplinary actions; "Snitching," or cooperating with law enforcement, is strictly prohibited. Dues are collected from each member for the benefit of the organization. A portion of the dues is saved and utilized locally, while another portion is sent up the chain to gang leadership.

Membership

Members of the gang are mostly

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

males. Some sets have Asian-, Hispanic- and White-American members. While some sets allow female members, their status varies between sets. To become a member of the United Blood Nation, one must be introduced by an existing gang member or prove to be the most dominant. A potential new member is "beat in" (physically beaten for 31 seconds by gang members, a very minute amount of time compared to most violent gangs) and provided with a copy of the UBN history, oaths, and the 31 rules which must be memorized (these traditions reflect social fraternal clubs and are not typical of most Bloods). This process is referred to as being "brought home", alternatively referred to as "Bumming Home". All gang members are required to "put in work," meaning that they must carry out the orders and activities as directed by gang leadership. Old School gangs didn't provide domestic services or follow regimes mandating blue-collar labor. In 2017, the head of the United Blood Nation was alleged by federal prosecutors to be Pedro Gutierrez, who allegedly directed the UBN despite being imprisoned in

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

while serving a murder sentence. This fact reflects the prison system's lack of ability to 'control' gang activity even while gang members are in full confinement.

Symbols

United Blood Nation factions are identified by the local

telephone area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reach ...

. Gang

graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...

often includes the letter "C" crossed out, the abbreviation "CK" (for " Crip Killer"), the number "031", the letter "S" crossed out (as "Slobs" is an offensive nickname for Bloods). Gang tattoos often use three dots representing a dog paw,

bulldog The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is a stocky, muscular dog of medium size, with a large head, thick folds of skin around the face and shoulders and a rel ...

s, and "M.O.B." (for "Member of Bloods" or "Money Over Bitches").

Investigations and prosecutions

United Blood Nation founder Omar Portee was among fifteen members and associates of the gang indicted on racketeering charges in

on May 8, 2001, following a joint investigation by the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI) and

New York Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

(NYPD). Portee was convicted of ten counts of criminal activity, including racketeering, murder, conspiracy, credit card fraud, and drug trafficking on August 27, 2002. On April 14, 2003, he was sentenced to fifty years' imprisonment. More than sixty people were arrested on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, or drug crimes on July 25, 2006, during a crackdown on the Nine Trey Gangsters (NTG) faction of the UBN in New Jersey. The indictments were the culmination of an eleven-month investigation, called Operation Nine Connect, involving around five hundred law enforcement officers from federal, state, and local agencies. Fifteen people linked to the UBN in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

were indicted on February 25, 2009, on federal drug conspiracy and other charges arising from their participation in a cocaine, heroin, and marijuana distribution ring. The prosecutions followed a six-month-long investigation by the FBI and

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) is the police department of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States, which includes the Charlotte, North Carolina, City of Charlotte. With 1,817 offic ...

(CMPD). Operation Heat, an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, uncovered a conspiracy in which the UBN's Nine Trey Gangsters faction entered into an alliance with the

Lucchese crime family The Lucchese crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey, within the nationwide c ...

to smuggle drugs and pre-paid cell phones into East Jersey State Prison, and led to the arrests of thirty-four members and associates of the Lucchese family's Jersey Crew in May 2010. Dwayne Spears, a "five star general" in the NTG, was among those indicted. Twenty-eight members of the UBN in North Carolina were arrested on May 18, 2012, and charged with racketeering and related charges, including drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, armed robbery, and murder conspiracy. All twenty-eight were convicted on various charges, the last of whom was sentenced in October 2014. The case was investigated by the FBI in cooperation with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and local police departments. On May 18, 2017, eighty-three members of the Nine Trey Gangsters faction of the UBN were arrested and indicted on federal racketeering conspiracy charges and charges related to murder, attempted murder, violent assault, narcotics distribution, firearms possession, and

Hobbs Act The Hobbs Act, codified at , is a United States federal law enacted in 1946 that prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion that affects interstate or foreign commerce, as well as conspiracies to do so. The Act is named for United Stat ...

robbery. A number were also charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft related to financial crimes. The arrests were made during a series of coordinated raids involving over six-hundred federal, state and local law enforcement officers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, New York and Florida. Eighty-two people were convicted as a result of the investigation, including Pedro Gutierrez, the "Chairman" of the UBN, who was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment on September 4, 2018. Over forty people were arrested in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, Maryland, and Virginia on December 6, 2017, as a result of Operation Tin Panda, an investigation by the ATF, FBI, and local agencies into UBN-related crimes in the

Washington metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also referred to as the National Capital Region, Greater Washington, or locally as the DMV (short for Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia), is the metropolitan area comprising Washing ...

. Firearms and thousands of grams of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and THC were seized during the operation. Thirty-nine of the defendants were convicted on federal firearms and drug charges. Tarvell Vandiver, the leader of the UBN subdivision Imperial Gangsta Bloods (IGB) in

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several County (United States), counties and independent city (United States), independent cities in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. ...

, was sentenced to twenty years in prison in October 2018. In 2018,

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, his manager Kifano "Shotti" Jordan, and 10 other members of the Nine Trey Gangsters faction of the UBN were arrested and charged with racketeering and various felony crimes. 6ix9ine turned state's evidence against the gang and its members, whom he had formed an association with to gain street credibility. 6ix9ine was released in April 2020. In 2020, 9 members of the Hunt’s Point Family Bloods were arrested for engaging in sex trafficking of a child. In April 2022, Pierre De Romeo Smith, a member of the Imperial Gangster Bloods, took sexually explicit photos to assist with trafficking a 16-year old victim. He was subsequently found guilty for sex trafficking, production of child pornography, possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, and unlawful possession of a firearm, and was sentenced to 32 years.

References

{{Organized crime groups in New York City Organizations established in 1993 1993 establishments in New York City Bloods sets Prison gangs in the United States Gangs in Baltimore Gangs in New Jersey Gangs in New York City Gangs in North Carolina Gangs in South Carolina Gangs in Virginia African-American history in New York City