Latin Kings (gang)

The Latin Kings (also Almighty Latin King Nation or ALKN ) is is a street and prison gang that primarily recruited from Puerto- Rican -born Americans and other Hispanics and spread next to her country of origin United States and in Central and South America and Spain, where they also mainly consists of Latin Americans. It is associated with crimes such as arms and drug trafficking in particular, but also homicide in connection. The number of members is estimated at up to 80,000 worldwide, alone 20-35000 in the United States.

An organization called Latin Kings originated as early as in the 1940s as a social merger Puerto Rican immigrants in Chicago. The program in its present form, however, was only in the 1980s by Felix Millet and Nelson Millan, then prisoners in Connecticut, established who wrote a manifesto that became widespread in the prison system and gave rise to the ALKN as a prison gang. The Latin Kings first spread to Chicago and Connecticut, from 1986 by Luis Felipe and particularly in New York City and on the east coast. There came the mid- 1990s to spectacular police actions against the activities of the transition, as the result of several leaders of the gang, including Felipe, were sentenced to long prison terms.

Since the Latin Kings as many other gangs in the U.S. prisons have structures, it can be assumed that detained bosses continue to be able to influence the actions of the group outside the prison. Luis Felipe himself serving his life sentence but in a Supermax prison in Colorado.

In the late 1990s, the Latin Kings tried, especially the new New York chief Antonio Fernandez to represent as a social organization with a positive message. These efforts also included cooperation with political groups and the media. These efforts suffered by the arrest of over a hundred Kings and sentencing Fernandez ' to twelve years in prison kickback. To this day, put the Kings is a community that promotes values ​​such as education and unity and also by means of workshops passes on to its members.

In addition to the letters ALKN or ALKQN ( " Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation" - the Latin Queens, the female equivalent is ) are a five-pointed crown - the teeth symbolize " love, respect, sacrifice, honor, and obey " - and the colors gold and Black as a badge of the Latin Kings.

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