Tongan Crip Gang
| Founding location | Inglewood, California, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Years active | 1970s-present |
| Territory | New Zealand,Australia U.S. (mainly in Utah, Texas, California, and Alaska) |
| Ethnicity | Tongan, Samoan, African American |
| Criminal activities | Drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, murder, burglary, identification theft, car theft |
| Allies | Raymond Ave Crips, All Neighborhood Crips 20-111, Tongan 4 Life Gangsta Crip |
| Rivals | Baby Regulators,[1] Bloods, Nortenos, Surenos, Kearns Town Bloods, Baby Regulators, Park Village Compton Crips [1] |
Tongan Crip Gang is a street gang that is a subset of the Crips gang. The gang is active in the U.S. states of Alaska, California, Utah,Texas, and also has a presence in New Zealand.[2] Tongan Crip Gang members are primarily of Pacific Islander descent, mainly Tongans and Samoans.[3]
History
During the 1970s and 1980s, many Pacific Islander Americans moved into the high crime-rate cities of Compton, Lennox, and Inglewood in Los Angeles County, California. There, Samoan and Tongan Americans formed their own gangs during the 1980s. Many of the TCG members moved from California to the Salt Lake City, Utah area in the 1980s, and distributed the gang set there.[3][4][5]
The founder of the Salt Lake City branch of the Tongan Crip Gang Miles Kinikini [6] founded the set after he was intimidated by Latino gang members in his predominately Latino neighborhood of Glendale. He founded the set in 1989, when he was a freshman in high school.[1]
In the Glendale neighborhood, the TCG had a consistent rivalry with the Regulators, Baby Regulators and RPF (Rose Park Family). TCG became allied with the OLG (Original Laotian Gang), an Asian-American gang.[1]
Activities
TCG members were responsible for numerous robberies and assaults in the Salt Lake City area since the 1980s.[4] The TCG's crimes range from house burglaries, car thefts, to selling drugs, Murder, TCG has been involved with methamphetamine trafficking.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Sullivan, Tim. The Gangs of Zion, High Country News, August 8, 2005.
- ↑ Steward, Ian. Life in jail for 'callous' gang execution, Stuff.co.nz, December 16, 2011.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Gangland - Tongan Crip Gang, Gangland
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Court shooting sheds light on 'Tongan Crips', a gang with Alaska ties, Associated Press, April 23, 2014.
- ↑ Court shooting sheds light on 'Tongan Crips', Associated Press, April 23, 2014.
- ↑ http://www.hcn.org/issues/303/15680/print_view