Zoe Pound is a criminal

street gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...

based in

Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

founded by Haitian immigrants in 1990.

Etymology

"Zoe" is an anglicized variant of the word '' zo'',

Haitian Creole Haitian Creole (; , ; , ), or simply Creole (), is a French-based creole languages, French-based creole language spoken by 10 to 12million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Haiti (the other being French), where it ...

for "bone", as members were considered "hard to the bone." "Pound" acts as an acronym of "Power Of Unified Negroes (in) Divinity".

History

Zoe Pound was founded in 1990 in response to growing attacks on

Haitian Americans Haitian Americans (; ; ) are a group of Americans of full or partial Haitian origin or descent. The largest population of Haitian citizens in the United States live in Little Haiti to the South Florida area. In addition, they have sizeable pop ...

, initially acting as a

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

self-defense group. In 1995, several prominent members denounced gang violence and split off, forming a rap group of the same name. Throughout the late 1990s, members engaged in

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

, targeting Haitian trawlers throughout the Miami River. Crewmembers who resisted were reportedly often tortured and/or killed. In 1999, the

Miami-Dade Police Department The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (MDSO), formerly known as the Dade County Sheriff's Office (1836–1957), Dade County Public Safety Department (1957–1981), Metro-Dade Police Department (1981–1997), and Miami-Dade Police Department (1997� ...

cracked down on the Boogie Boys and John Does, both at-the-time prominent Miami gangs. Zoe Pound took advantage of the

power vacuum In political science and political history, the term power vacuum, also known as a power void, is an analogy between a physical vacuum to the political condition "when someone in a place of power, has lost control of something and no one has replac ...

caused by their sudden decline, expanding across Florida and eventually other states. By 2006, their territory had reached

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the northwesternmost Administrative divisions of Virginia#Independent cities, independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of Frederick County, Virginia, Frederi ...

. In 2009, six Zoe Pound leaders were arrested on

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...

and conspiracy charges in

Fort Pierce, Florida Fort Pierce is a city in and the county seat of St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Treasure Coast region of Florida’s Atlantic Coast. It is also known as the Sunrise City. Per the 2020 census, the population w ...

after Florida Department of Law Enforcement offices convinced several gang members to give testimony for the prosecution. Three of the perpetrators of the 2018 murder of XXXTentacion were members of ZMF, a faction of Zoe Pound.

References

{{Organized crime groups in America, state=collapsed Gangs in Florida Haitian-American culture in Miami Gangs in Louisiana Organized crime in Louisiana