There are more than 33,000 organizations categorized as gangs that are active in the United States today. These include street gangs, prison gangs, motorcycle gangs, and other groups. According to the FBI, most of these groups use violence to control territory and protect their business operations which include robbery, drug production and trafficking, human trafficking, fraud, prostitution, and more.

Gangs drain funds and resources away from legitimate businesses and community development, hindering local economic growth and investment. What’s more, the overall economic impact of gangs is estimated at around $33 billion annually, affecting various sectors of the national economy. Some studies have suggested that gang-related violence contributes approximately $11 billion per year in healthcare costs, covering both direct medical expenses and indirect costs like mental health services.

Despite the broad impact on the economy, only a handful of these gangs are responsible for the vast majority of crime in the United States. Which ones are the biggest and most dangerous? We looked into the data provided by the FBI to find out.

Background on Gangs in America

While the term ‘gang’ has a definite meaning, applying it to groups in America has always had a dubious and questionable history. With its association with crime, violence, and criminality, the term has usually been applied to groups or organizations against whom the United States has ideological differences, and against whom it wishes to sway public opinion. Groups that support, or at least don’t threaten, the status quo, usually avoid being labeled as gangs, instead being labeled as “hate groups” or organizations.

Is there a difference between gangs, crime families, terrorist groups, cults, hate groups, extremist political organizations, or similar groups? While there are some differences, there is no universal categorization, so it usually comes down to subjective opinion.

Gangs are a part of everyday life for most people in the world and they fill an important void often left behind by colonialism, poverty, exploitation, war, and violence.

Around 1.4 million people in the United States are formally members of a gang, with many more probably informal members or gang supporters. The earliest gangs in the United States began popping up soon after the American Revolutionary War.

Usually, gangs only receive notoriety or widespread recognition as they clash with rival gangs for territory, control of drug routes, or other assets. Most gangs avoid conflict with law enforcement if they can, as increased police attention makes their work harder.

Gang membership exploded during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, especially in the Western states as right-wing economic policies, the cutting of welfare, the War on Drugs, and Reaganomics drove unemployment and poverty higher than ever before, and more so in minority populations.

Some African-American neighborhoods had unemployment levels as high as 50% during the 1980s, making them rich areas for gang recruitment as many people joined in order to provide for their families.

Police violence in the United States also ramped up during this time, targeting minority and immigrant populations, which led to social isolation in minority communities and caused a higher rate of social pathologies and violence among minorities.

Gangs are also very prevalent and popular in the United States military, with around 1–2% of all military members admitting they were members of a gang in 2008. The military gives gangs access to urban combat training, weapons and ammunition, and the type of people that are more susceptible to gang persuasion.

For this list, however, we will focus on groups that are listed by the FBI as a gang, or accepted as a gang in wider popular culture and academic circles. All these organizations include some formal membership, hazing rituals, criminal activity, violence, and rules and hierarchy.

Even though this means Tupac was technically correct when he said “police are the biggest gang in America”, we will limit this list to organizations outside the legal system of the United States. This also means that large groups of gangs that share loyalty to influential crime families aren’t included since they are not technically the same gang (like the Nuestros crime family and their network of gangs or drug cartels), but loose confederations of gangs.

#14 Florencia 13

• Estimated membership: 3,000+

Florencia 13 is a Mexican-American gang founded in Los Angeles in the 1960s. This gang is controlled by the Mexican Mafia and is primarily involved in drug smuggling, violent crime, and robbery.

In 2007, Florencia 13 was the subject of the largest gang raid in the United States up to that point, when 96 members were arrested on charges of drug trafficking, murder, extortion, and more.

#13 Vagos Motorcycle Club

• Estimated membership: 4,000+

The Vagos Motorcycle Club is a gang founded in San Bernardina in 1964 with territory from Canada to Mexico and Serbia.

The United States government considers the Vagos Motorcycle Club to be a second-tier motorcycle gang after the “big four” gangs: Hells Angels, Pagans, Outlaws, and Bandidos. However, all these gangs are big enough with a strong central structure and national influence to be prosecuted for racketeering and corruption charges.  

Vagos Motorcycle Club is involved in creating booby traps to kill police detectives, drug production and smuggling, and weapon smuggling.

#12 Proud Boys

• Estimated membership: 6,000+

The Proud Boys is a neo-fascist, far-right, extremist militant organization that primarily engages in political violence, intimidation, and racial oppression. It is designated as a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand. It also has significant ties and connections with white supremacist groups, figures, and ideologies.

The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism says that the group regularly engages in fascist, anti-socialist, and anti-left violence and spreads misinformation to support the white genocide conspiracy theory.

#11 Hell’s Angels

• Estimated membership: 6,000+

Hell’s Angels is an international organize crime syndicate that was founded in Fontana, California in 1948. It is the biggest of the “big four” motorcycle gangs, and the largest outlaw motorcycle club in the world.

Hell’s Angels is primarily active in the production and trafficking of drugs, and violence with other motorcycle gangs and organized crime groups.

#10 Ku Klux Klan

• Estimated membership: 8,000+

The Ku Klux Klan is the largest and most powerful of American white supremacist group in America with influence, control, and command over many other white supremacist gangs and organizations.

The original incarnation of the KKK was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1865, originally as a joke that quickly adopted white supremacist ideologies.  

At its peak, the KKK had over eight million members and has participated in terrorism, murder, torture, voter suppression, political intimidation, corruption, and more including calls for genocide against minorities.

The KKK is classified as a terrorist organization by many institutions around the world and currently espouses neo-Nazism, anti-globalization, islamophobia, segregationism, anti-miscegenation, and more. There are currently 51 known Klan organizations that pledge allegiance to the KKK, though the true extent is unknown.

The KKK claims credit for many of the 4,743 people who were killed by lynching between 1882 and 1968. Most of these people were black but also included Catholics, Jews, and other minorities or left-leaning leaders and politicians.

#9 Tiny Rascal Gang

• Estimated membership: 10,000+

The Tiny Rascal Gang is a Cambodian-American gang founded in Long Beach, California in 1981. It was created to protect Cambodian youth who managed to escape the Cambodian genocide, with many early members being young children. It is also common among Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian, and Taiwanese communities.

#8 Jewish Defense League

• Estimated membership: 15,000+

The Jewish Defense League is listed as a far-right terrorist group by several government organizations, including the FBI. Others list it as a hate group. It has been involved in “protecting Jews” through acts of terrorism. It was founded in 1968 and became famous for bombing Soviet and Arab locations in the United States and assassinating several people, including Arab-American activists. Its beliefs include racism, political extremism, and violence.

#7 Aryan Brotherhood

• Estimated membership: 20,000+

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Aryan Brotherhood is the “oldest major white supremacist prison gang” in the United States. It is a neo-Nazi organized crime syndicate founded in 1964, and while its membership includes a very small percentage of the prison population in the U.S., it is responsible for an unusually high and disproportionately large number of murders in prison. It is a whites-only gang primarily involved in drug trafficking, prostitution, murder-for-hire, and more.

#6 Bloods

• Estimated membership: 30,000

The Bloods is a mostly African-American gang founded in Los Angeles in 1972 and is most famous for its ongoing and violent rivalry with the Crips. It uses hand signs and the color red to identify itself. It was originally created to protect young community members from the Crips but eventually grew to compete with it. Its primary income is from drug smuggling in prisons and cocaine distribution.

#5 Gangster Disciples

• Estimated membership: 30,000+

The Gangster Disciple Nation is an African-American street gang founded in Englewood, Chicago, Illinois in 1964. It is primarily active in money laundering, drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, organized crime, and more, though intra-gang violence and rivalries have hindered its growth and success.

#4 Crips

• Estimated membership: 35,000

The Crips was founded in Los Angeles in 1969 and is mostly an African-American gang. Its members usually wear the color blue. It is considered one of the most violent gangs in the United States, particularly after the growth of the Blood Gang, which caused the Crips to become much more violent.

Much of the Crips’ success came from CIA operations to fund and support anti-communist militias in Nicaragua. After putting Enrique Bermúdez in charge of the contras, the CIA decided to use cocaine to fund their anti-communist military operations, primarily targeting black communities in California.  

#3 Latin Kings

• Estimated membership: 35,000+

The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation is the largest Hispanic and Latino street gang in the United States and one of the largest in the world. It was founded in 1954 in Chicago, and there are 60 chapters that operate in more than 158 cities across the country. It is also very powerful in the U.S. prison system and is active in drug dealing, identity theft, money laundering, murder, and more.

#2 18th Street Gang

• Estimated membership: 50,000

The 18th Street Gang is a multinational and multi-racial street gang founded in Los Angeles in the 1960s, though most of its membership is Central American and Mexican. It is one of the largest and most powerful gangs in the entire region (Between the U.S., Mexico, and Central America). The rivalry between the 18th Street Gang and MS-13 “have turned the Central American northern triangle into the area with the highest homicide rate in the world” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

#1 Mara Salvatrucha

• Estimated membership: 50,000 (worldwide), 10,000 (USA)

Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, is an international organized crime syndicate and terrorist organization. It was founded in Los Angeles in the 1980s to protect Salvadoran immigrants from violence from American citizens. After many of its members were deported to El Salvador in the 1990s, it was able to spread its control and influence much easier. Most of the members of MS-13 are impoverished, estranged, or homeless young men. It is well-known for its violence and brutality in killing, especially for its widespread use of machetes.

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