Written by Dennis Behreandt
Despite efforts to stop them, criminal street gangs have been active
inside the U.S. military. And, according to one recent report, the
situation has gotten much worse.
In 2006, Jeffrey Stoleson, a sergeant in the Army Reserve then in
Iraq, described an unbelievable scene to reporter Frank Main of the
Chicago Sun-Times. Based on Stoleson's account, and the many pictures
he had taken, Main wrote: "In a storage yard in Taji, about 18 miles
north of Baghdad, dozens of tanks were vandalized with painted gang
signs.... Much of the graffiti was by Chicago based gangs," according
to Stoleson.
Since then, Congress has banned members of the military from being in
street gangs, and the Defense Department put the ban in its rulebooks
last November. But that hasn't slowed down the apparent growth of gang
activity inside the military. According to Stoleson and others, it has
only gotten worse.
Stoleson, described by Main as a "Wisconsin corrections officer" when
not serving as a sergeant with the National Guard, returned home from
his latest tour in Iraq in January, where he worked with the Army to
set up a prison facility near Baghdad. As before, he said the signs of
gang activity were all around.
"I saw Maniac Latin Disciples graffiti out of Chicago," he told Main.
According to Main's report, Stoleson also saw "a lot of graffiti for
Texas and California gangs, as well as Mexican drug cartels."
An unnamed Chicago Police officer, who Main says "retired from the
regular Army and was recently on a tour of Afghanistan in the Army
Reserve" echoed Stoleson's comments. Noting that Bagram Air Base was
covered in Chicago gang graffiti, the officer said the problem "seems
bigger now."
The Police officer, who described gang activity in the military as
"scary," told the Sun-Times that "he has arrested high-level gang
members who have served in the military and kept the ‘infantryman's
bible' — called the FM 7-8 — in their homes." That book, Main notes,
"describes how to run for cover [and] fire a weapon tactically."
But gang members with military experience often have more to rely on
than a printed "how-to" manual for warfare. "Gang members are coming
home now with one or two tours," Stoleson said. "Some were on the
field of battle."
Once back on the streets domestically, militarized gangsters can
present an even greater threat to civilians and law-enforcement
personnel.
A tragic and deadly example of the potential danger posed by
militarized gang members is the ambush of police officers in Ceres,
California, in 2005. Hoping to lure officers into his trap, at
approximately 8 p.m. on January 9 of that year, Lance Corporal Andres
Raya fired his assault rifle in front of a liquor store. Going inside
the store, he told the clerk that he had just been shot at, and asked
that the police be called. Raya then waited for the police to arrive.
He then shot and killed police Sergeant Howard Stevenson, and
seriously wounded officer Sam Ryno. Stevenson's death, in particular,
was essentially an execution. Having wounded the officer, Raya ran to
him and ended his life with two shots in the back of the head.
It was later determined that Raya was a gang member. A January 14,
2005 press release from the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department
noted: "Authorities have discovered information during the
investigation into the Ceres Police Shooting that shows Andres Raya
was a Norteño gang member." They also discovered a video tape
belonging to Raya that had been seized on December 28 following a
burglary at the Ceres High School. According to the Sheriff's
Department: "The videotape shows Raya smoking what appears to be
marijuana in several different clips, ‘throwing' gang signs, and
showing gang graffiti while bragging that he wrote it. It also showed
a United States flag that had been cut up and arranged on the high
school gymnasium floor to spell out ‘F... Bush'."
Raya's attack on police in Ceres was exceptional for its violence, but
militarized gang members have been involved in several crimes.
Sun-Times reporter Frank Main said that another unnamed Chicago police
officer "who searches homes for drugs and guns, said gang members
targeted by his team are sometimes current or former members of the
armed forces." That officer told Main: "We recently arrested a guy in
the reserves for crack [cocaine]. He was a gang-banger."
In fact, as recently as 2007, a multi-agency federal law enforcement
task force reported that some gang members known to have committed
crimes were being recruited. The report titled "Gang-Related Activity
in the US Armed Forces Increasing," dated January 12, 2007 and
prepared by the National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) found that
"US criminal courts have allowed gang members to enter the service as
an alternative to incarceration. Several incidences wherein gang
members have been recruited into the armed services while facing
criminal charges or on probation or parole have been documented."
In one such case, the report found that in 2005 "a Latin King member
was allegedly recruited into the Army at a Brooklyn, New York
courthouse while awaiting trial for assaulting a New York police
officer with a razor."
While gang members make up only a fraction of military personnel, the
2007 NGIC report found that their presence causes an increase in
crime, and that "Gang incidents involving active duty personnel on US
military bases nationwide include drive-by shootings, drug
distribution, weapons violations, domestic disturbances, vandalism,
assaults, extortion, and money laundering."
Among the most disconcerting "operations" carried out by gang members
in the military involve the theft and trafficking of weapons. In 2006,
for instance, "an incarcerated US Army soldier and active gang member
identified 60 to 70 gang-affiliated military personnel in his unit
allegedly involved in the theft and sale of military equipment and
weapons. The solider reported that many of the military personnel in
charge of ammunition and grenade distribution are sergeants who are
active gang members. The soldier also reported that military
commanders were aware of the actions of these gang-affiliated
personnel."
That information resembled an interview conducted by authorities one
month earlier in which "a former Marine and Gangster Disciple member
incarcerated in Colorado detailed how easily soldiers — many of whom
were gang members — stole military weapons and equipment and used them
on the streets of US cities or sold them to civilian gang members."
Similarly, the NGIC report noted that in August of 2005 "a US soldier
in San Antonio was suspected of supplying arms — including hand
grenades and bullet-proof vests — to the Texas Mexican Mafia
(Mexikanemi), according to uncorroborated but reliable FBI source
information."
While uncorroborated, that alleged trafficking is similar to other
cases in which trafficking in arms and equipment stolen from the
military did occur. In one outrageous case in 2005, an "associate
Blood member" was working as a military police officer at F.E. Warren
Air Force Base in Wyoming when he "was charged with theft of body
armor stolen from the base." Air Force investigators were able to
purchase "vests from gang members following the subject's arrest for
the armed robbery of several gas stations located off base."
Since then, while gang members are officially banned from duty, the
2009 National Gang Threat Assessment [PDF] produced by the NGIC along
with the National Drug Intelligence Center supports the contention
that the gang threat in the military has not subsided, or has gotten
worse. According to that report:
Members of nearly every major street gang as well as some prison gangs
and OMGs [Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs] have been identified on both
domestic and international military installations. Deployments have
resulted in gang members among service members and/or dependents on or
near overseas bases. Additionally, military transfers have resulted in
gang members, both service members and dependents/relatives, moving to
new areas and establishing a gang presence.
In closing its look at gang members in the military, the NGIC warns,
ominously: "While the number of gang members trained by the military
is unknown, the threat that they pose ... is potentially
significant...."
