2. Mexican Mafia
Also known as La Eme, Spanish for the letter “M,” the Mexican Mafia is the most powerful gang in the California prison system. They’ve earned this title by being organized, commanding, and having deep roots in the prison system and Hispanic community of Southern California.
Originating in the 1960s, the Mexican Mafia’s extreme violence birthed many other gangs on our list, forming to protect themselves from La Eme’s wrath. With deep ties to the Mexican cartel, and “virtually all the southwestern gangs of Mexican heritage (Surenos or Southsiders) under their control,” La Eme is as dangerous within prison walls as they are in the free world.
The chain of command however begins in chains. The heads of La Eme are behind bars in supermax prisons such as Pelican Bay, but their intelligence network is topnotch. “Something can happen in Whittier this morning and by the afternoon the brothers in Pelican Bay know all about it. And by the next morning they’ve already issued instructions to address the problem. The Crips, Bloods, AB, NLR- none of them have that level of command and control.”
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