Thread: Violent gangs increase presence in Shore area (New Jersey)

Violent gangs increase presence in Shore area

Bloods connected to 3 recent killings
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 01/7/07
BY JAMES A. QUIRK
AND KAREN SUDOL
STAFF WRITERS
(FIRST OF TWO PARTS)

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Riding around Asbury Park, it's easy to mistake the red and blue scrawlings on street signs, pizza shops, convenience stores and apartment row houses as everyday graffiti.

But to the roughly 500 members of gangs such as the Bloods and Crips active in Monmouth County, the graffiti is a coded system of communication.

At the corner of Fisher and Bangs avenues in Neptune, the words "B's Up" have been painted in red on the asphalt. The message, short for "Bloods up," is a warning to other gang members that the entire area is owned by the Bloods, and any non-Blood dealing drugs there does so at his own peril, according to the State Police.

The signs spring up faster than people can paint them over. A close inspection of the concrete walls of Mr. Pizza in Asbury Park, on the corner of Ridge and Springfield, reveals at least four different layers of paint. Despite the cleaning attempts, a fresh tag of "Blood rule" has been added to the wall.

The message is clear: Gangs are here, just below the surface, and superficial attempts to remove them will not solve the problem.

The Bloods, in particular, are sophisticated, organized and violent. In the past five years they have taken over most of the illegal drug market in New Jersey, according to law enforcement authorities. And gang members are now extending their influence from urban centers to the suburbs — including Monmouth and Ocean counties.

"You can call them "street gangs' all you want," said Detective Mike Smith of the New Jersey State Police Street Gang Unit. "They are all organized criminal enterprises."

Wake-up call


A wave of recent homicides that rocked neighborhoods in Asbury Park, Long Branch and Neptune served as a startling wake-up call to many residents in Monmouth and Ocean counties as to just how widespread gangs have become here, especially the Bloods.

From Nov. 22 to Dec. 14, three people were shot dead in Monmouth County. By the end of December, nine suspects were arrested and charged with the murders. And last year in Ocean County there were two gang-related slayings, including one in a Lakewood barbershop in broad daylight in front of witnesses. Nine people arrested in the recent slayings in Monmouth County all have been identified as Blood gang members by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and the State Police.

Law enforcement officials on all levels agree that the most active gang right now in New Jersey, as well as Monmouth and Ocean counties, is the Bloods. Detectives Smith and Jeff Burke, both with the State Police Street Gang Unit (Central Region), say there are at least 200 Bloods in Monmouth County.

A report issued in 2005 by the National Alliance of Gang Investigator Associations stated there are least 7,000 Blood members throughout the northeastern United States — but local law enforcement officials say that number is much higher.

"There's so many sets (sub-groups) of the Bloods," said Lt. Col. Frank Rodgers, State Police deputy superintendent of investigations. "They are the gang right now. We have other issues with the Latin Kings and other Latin gangs, but right now, the different Blood sets are our principal problem."

According to Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin, Hispanic gangs composed of Mexicans and Central and South Americans also are present, including the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) and Sureno 13. There also are transient Mexican gangs. Counting all those gangs, Valentin estimates there are at least 500 gang members in Monmouth County.

The age range of gang members, he said, is as young as 14 and as old as 40, but most members are between 17 and 25 years old.

Statewide organizations


In a series of interviews with State Police investigators and Valentin, both made it clear that the state's three largest gangs — the Bloods, Crips and Latin Kings — are not local or even countywide problems. Blood members travel freely throughout Monmouth and Ocean counties, moving between places like Asbury Park, Long Branch, Neptune, Keansburg and Jackson. The gangs are statewide organizations, investigators said.

"Gang activity should be a concern to every resident of the county because we know none of us are immune from the impact of gang activity and gang violence," Valentin said.

Thinking of the gangs as unsophisticated street thugs would be a critical mistake, Smith and Burke said. Since the gang's 1993 inception in Riker's Island, the East Coast incarnation of the Bloods has steadily infiltrated every major urban and low-income center in New Jersey. Their goal was simple: Overthrow the loosely organized system of open-air drug markets that thrived in the mid-1980s, and replace it with a ruthlessly efficient gang-run criminal business enterprise.

Smith said the State Police first realized that the Bloods had consolidated most of the drug trafficking in Newark about five years ago. By 2003, it was clear that the gang had done the same in Trenton. And the tide turned in Monmouth and Ocean counties by 2004.

According to Smith and Rogers, the Bloods simply became so sophisticated that they replaced most of the street-level drug dealers throughout the state, either by drafting the dealers into the gang or forcing them out by violence or intimidation. Now, in most areas where drugs are sold, you have to be a member of a gang to actually sell drugs, or you risk being assaulted.

Drug trafficking is one of the primary ways the gangs make money, along with armed robberies and sale of firearms, Valentin said. But the prosecutor said the gangs also are branching into other crimes such as fraud and counterfeit credit card and check schemes.

Fighting back


Valentin said he knew gang activity was a problem in the county before he became prosecutor. As chief of the Violent Crimes Unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office, he said he recognized then that gangs are a statewide problem and national epidemic.

"There is a gang problem in Monmouth County, and we cannot ignore that," he said. "That is a real threat to the security of our community, a real threat to our children and our families, and we must respond to that threat."

Declaring it a high priority for the office, he formed a Gang Investigations unit in early 2006. It has two full-time detectives who are assisted by other investigators. Two assistant prosecutors, who specialize in gang-related crimes, also were hired by the office over the summer, he said.

The federal government also recognized the growing gang problem in Monmouth and Ocean counties, said Dave McKenna, supervisory special agent with the FBI's Red Bank field office. In the spring of 2006, the FBI formed the Jersey Shore Gang and Criminal Organization Task Force, which works with the prosecutors and sheriffs in Monmouth and Ocean counties, as well as the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Both special units work in tandem with local police and the State Police's Street Gang Unit. Smith and Burke said they also are in frequent daily contact with the street gang units in cities such as Trenton, Asbury Park and Long Branch.

Valentin said he hoped the quick arrests of nine Bloods gang members charged in three murders recently will send a strong deterrent message to other members.

But law enforcement alone is not the answer to suppressing gangs, Valentin said.

"We have to encourage our young people to believe, to be supportive of the simple edict that hard work despite the many obstacles in your life will give you the best opportunity for realizing true success," he said.

Members of the office, including the prosecutor, periodically speak to students in schools and have run a youth program for five years. The office also held a two-day symposium on gang education.

Community members need to be supportive of law enforcement and come forward with any information regarding gang-related crimes. Valentin pledged that the office would do everything within the law to ensure the safety of those who come forward.

Parents and grandparents also need to stay involved in their children's lives, he added.

"Gang members are looking to lure young people who are seeking to have a role model in their life, who are looking to give them an alternative lifestyle in terms of authority and power, to provide some quick financial opportunity," he said.

COMING MONDAY: With two recent gang-related murders in Long Branch, authorities, community leaders and residents react to a worsening problem.
James A. Quirk: (732) 643-4215

or jquirk@app.com

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl ... 001/DWEK01

They need to do what they have done in Seaside Heights. They have security camera's all over and police patrol on bikes. Seaside has really cleaned up its act. I was amazed. It can be done in Asbury.

The town of Seaside was getting a bit scarry 4 or 5 years ago. Alot of illegals hanging down there also. I'm glad to here their chasing the criminals out! I know someone called ICE on Jenkinson's boardwalk and aquarium in Point Pleasant, for all of you who know the Jersey shore.

I'd like to see them do alittle of that on the white house!!!