CHICAGO GANGS RAGE AGAINST NEWLY ARRIVED VENEZUELAN GANG MEMBERS

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Understanding Gangs. This podcast examined street and prison
gang structure and activity in the United States from the
perspective of law enforcement academics and former gang members. Let's
get started.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Expensive pretense of defense.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
If you want a past test, if you could keep
it too, says, I don't want to be another tongue on.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
A really going at Chicago gang bangers are upset about
the new lyear ride Venezuelan migrants, but especially the gangs
to the end that Ahua they moved in after serving
twenty years in state prison. A former gang banger by
the name of Tyrone Mohammad never expected to return to
the city's tough South Side and find Venezuelan migrants and

(00:48):
the criminal gang todd Agua moving in by Mohammad, fifty
three years of age, has gone straight and runs a
street patrol and violence prevention program called ex Cons for
Community and Social Check. Says Venezuela and criminal gangs are
flooding shelters and taking over apartment buildings are the last
straw for the struggling African American community. He says they

(01:10):
are furious at seeing government money going to what they
call non citizens. It is impossible to release gang members
and criminals into our country, he said, through the borders
and broken walls and infiltrate them. That's already through our community,
that's already impoverished and broken, says Mohammed. When the black
gangs here get fed up with the illegalities and criminal

(01:32):
activities of these new arrivals, the city of Chicago is
going to go up in flames and there will be
nothing the National Guard or the government can do about it.
When the bloodshed hits the streets, it'll be blacks against migrants,
he says, end quote. The latest figures show Chicago has
spent almost a half a billion dollars in two years

(01:52):
on just forty two thousand migrants who've arrived since twenty
twenty two. Forty two thousand migrants is a lot of arriving,
but it's amazing how much money has been sipent on
just forty two thousand. Many have been given rent, food,
money for cars, food stamp cards, and some landlords have
even pushed out local African Americans because they can give

(02:15):
more government money for housing migrants. This is all coming
from the New York Post. Some belonged to the one
time Venezuelan prison gang again to Tende Dagua, whose sources
in Chicago told the Posts are heavily armed, brazen, and
spilling into the areas of the South Side. We've also
seen them over in Colorado and New York and Texas. Now,
those areas in South Side are traditionally controlled by hundreds

(02:37):
of entrenched gangs like Gangster Disciples and Black Pea Stones
to the Vice Lords, Latin Kings and Satan Disciples. TDA
members flashing gang signs and wearing their uniforms of choice,
Chicago Bowl T shirts and caps could be seeing outside
the Standard Club migrant sheltered downtown, where two local Chicago
police officers told the Post they were trying to encroach

(02:59):
on a look gang's drug dealing corner. TDA again, it
is trend to Agua, so they're worrying Chicago Bulls. T
shirts and caps was one of the ways to identify them,
and they're seeming trying to take over the territory. Standard
Club employees told the Post there hadn't been any crime
in the shelter and denied the presence of gang members,
But Terry knew some of the Chicago Dad Turn activists

(03:22):
found there were seven hundred and twenty police incident reports
log to the Standard Club alone over the past twelve months.
He's teamed up with Muhammad and others concerned with migrant
crime to make dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests
to find out what's really going on the individual the
dad showed the Post police reports indicating sex trafficking, child porn, drugs, carjackings, weapons,

(03:45):
and excessive spousal violence. A TDA gang member was released
by a Chicago judge despite a request from ICE to
detain them, just a month before he was charged in
a violent jewelry store heist in Denver, Colorado, where members
of the gang have reportedly taken out apartment buildings. Chicago
cops were called to a building on the South Side
where thirty two Venezuelan migrants were said to be showing

(04:07):
their weapons. Numerous residents on the gritty, run down South
Side interviewed by the Post during the course of a week,
including young hardcore gang members. The elder gangsters called the millennials,
so they're angry and frustrated about being overlooked by city
officials and ignored the real issues that America has allowed
gangs to enter our country and take over our territory.

(04:29):
Gangs they would consider ex terrorist groups. They led terrorist
groups into our country, he says. Black Pea Stone member
Corey Rodgers took the post on a drive through the
area and pointed out several locations where he's seeing these
Venezuelan gangs been showing their flags, meaning brandishing their guns.
He also showed a reporter a gang WhatsApp thread with
text messages from gang members threatening turf wars with the Venezuelans. So, really,

(04:56):
you see a lot of issues happening down here. The
Reverend Corey Brooks, also established New Beginnings Church and his
outreach group Project Hood about twenty years ago, said that
he's seeing everything here too. He says, Chicago's a blue
city in Illinois a blue state, but people are starting
to wake up. It's not about the person, It's all
about the policies. Brooks got a first hand glimpse when

(05:20):
he found out about a young Venezuela migrant who had
to flee the apartment he shared with other migrants when
they turned out to be a criminal gang just a
few months ago. The reverend says the people are accusing
him of fear mongering. The Venezuela gangs took over the apartment,
and we're doing illegal activities. I know the crimes are

(05:40):
being committed, and how in danger this person's life was.
He's referring back to that migrant that moved out. The
young man, aged twenty seven, spoke to the Post, but
did not want to give his name or go on
camera if they found out I was talking to anyone
that in my family's life with one bullet, he says.
It's not just a gang members upset about the migrants
moving in and using up money, but the locals as well.

(06:02):
So again, you can read this article over at the
New York Post, but a lot of activity. I'm really
curious to see what's gonna happen over there in Chicago.
When is this gonna boil over