What You Need To Know About 11 Of Illinois’ Most Dangerous Gangs

Some gangs are pretty notorious in the Midwest.

There are literally hundreds of gangs in America and one hotspot for a lot of them, besides Los Angeles or New York, is Chicago. The city is big enough to have many different parts to it and therefore, many different areas where different (sometimes rival) gangs rule. Chicago Gang History put together a list of the 11 most wanted gangs so let's get into more details.

It's important to note that for every policeman in Chicago, there are 8 gang members. There are about 12,000 cops in Chicago.

The Gangs

There are dozens of street gangs in Chicago but these are among the most notorious for crimes and for withstanding the test of time. Many of these were founded in the 1950's or 1960's and are still active today:

• Black Disciples
• Gangster Disciples
• Two Six
• Latin Kings
• Vice Lords
• Black P Stones
• Satan Disciples
• Imperial Gangsters
• Maniac Latin Disciples
• New Breeds
• Gaylords

The Map

Obviously, there are many more gangs that those 11 have either alliances with or grudges against and there are subdivisions within those 11. And many of the gangs and their subsidiaries expand into Chicago's suburbs.

Take a look at this map from the Chicago Police Department.

It's last year's map but it looks like there are more Vice Lords & Satan Disciples on one half of the city and more Gangster Disciples and Black P Stones on the other. Gangster Disciples (founded in 1958) is the largest mob in Chicago's history, according to CGH.

Drugs, murders, and arrests run rampant across these gangs and have for years. The races of the 11 gangs are either African American, Latino, or White.

The Danger

A nonsuspecting, non-gang member can be targeted by a gang. Gangs often do violent crime initiation ceremonies that civilians have been victims of, whether it's gang rape, murder, or theft.

Chicago gangs can be ruthless. In 2019, 2 gang members went on trial for the execution-style death of a 9-year-old boy, which was done in revenge against the boy's father.

According to Do Something, neighborhood gangs have the highest threat for violent crimes. These days, many gangs sustain themselves with different crimes that have lesser visibility but higher profit, like prostitution, human trafficking, alien smuggling, mortgage fraud, or identity theft.