The cold-blooded assassinations of two Texas prosecutors— and a suspected link to the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas— have placed American prison gangs in the spotlight.
The drug war has caused the U.S. prison population to explode. Ironically, these groups fuel the drug trade from the inside.
We gathered information from the Department of Justice and gang expert and teacher Robert Walker to get an idea of who the baddest of the bad are.
Barrio Azteca (2,000 members)
One of America's most violent prison gangs, Barrio Azteca is most active in Texas prisons as well as communities in southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
Members are often linked to Mexican drug cartels, and the gang's main source of income is the smuggling of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana from Mexico into the U.S. for distribution both inside and outside the prison systems.
The gang has been tied to immigration smuggling, arson, assault, auto theft, burglary, extortion, intimidation, kidnapping, robbery, and weapons violations.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Black Guerrilla Family (100-300 members and thousands of associates)
The Black Guerrilla Family was founded in 1966 in the California prison system by Black Panther George Jackson.
Highly organized with a supreme leader and a central committee, the group operates primarily in the states of California and Maryland promoting an anti-government philosophy.
The gang gets income from distributing cocaine and marijuana obtained from local Mexican drug traffickers, and it's also involved in auto theft, burglary, drive-by shootings, and homicide.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice and Robert Walker
Dead Man Incorporated (370+ members and thousands of associates)
Three prison inmates created the Dead Man Incorporated in the 1980s in the Maryland Division of Corrections.
One of the three founders, Perry Roark, tried to join the Black Guerrilla Family but was rejected and started his own gang.
In 2006 leadership told a member to begin recruiting in Virginia, so he assaulted a cop to get into the system. Dead Man has started swallowing up smaller gangs and is now one of the largest prison gangs in Maryland.
The gang is involved in murder-for-hire, acts of intimidation, violence, and drug distribution.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Baltimore Sun, and Robert Walker
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