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» ce el Peat, tem emer A bt ehnweld 42 WF Petes Ne IER AOR JI oe Ms DQ mene cm MRE STROLL ATY ISR ee 2. A WME a éial agent James Watterson of the US. Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco and Firearms. “And what's scary is that the crack prob- lem just keeps getting worse.” The ghetto gangs entry into drug traf ficking on a arajor scale may be creating the nation’s biggest crime problem in dec- ades. Drug profits are soaring—and so is the drug-related homicide rate in cities where the gangs are most entrenched. It is arguable, in fact, that the emergence of drug gangs from coast to coast is very simi- lar to what occurred during the early years of Prohibition. when La Cosa Nostra—the Mafia—consdlidated irs status as. an under- worid cartel ov building on the profits of illicit alcohol. “Look at the development of organized crime in the United States.” says Thomas Reppetto, president of the Citt- zen’s Crime Commission of New York. a _ privately funded group. “If we've learned * anything, it’s that once we let these guys get too big, we've got a situation that will take decades to [control]. The {ghetto] gangs now have an opportunity provided by the crack explosion and the breakup of {traditional] organized-crime groups. These gangs are where the {Italian} gangs were when they moved into bootlegging. We can't lec that happen again.” ‘Kill him’: The analogy to Prohibition. as Reppetto notes. has one significant flaw: today's ghetto gangs, especially the Jamai- can posses. are far more violent than the Mafia. In part. the extraordinary level of . violence is the result of the ready availabil- ity of military and paramilitary weapons. TONY O'BRIAN —VICTE RE GROUT? The ghetto tradition of mock-feudal gangs has taken its most violent turn yet: Hispanics in fro Guns like Uzis, AK-47 assault rifles and AR-15 semiautomatics are widely bought tsome even legally in gun shops} by gang members, who finance their high-tech ar- senals with profits from the drug trade. Another factor, experts agree, is the socio- pathic recklessness of these youth: big- citv ghettos and barrios are full of teen- agers whose poverty and deprivation have immunized them to both hope and fear. The result is a casual acceptance of—and sometimes enthusiasm for—torture and murder. “drive by” shootings and public mayhem. “Ifshey don't kill you. theyll Ki your mother.” BATF’s Watterson says or the Jamaican gangs. “The Cubans and Co- lombians dont want to deal with them be- cause thev're so dangerous.” But the point applies to New York’s black and Domint- can drug gangs as well. [nvestigators say 22 NEWSWEEK: MARCH 23,1983 ee eel _ Los Ang Jamaican: Montego : ‘City, Shower*, Spangler, Spanish Town, ‘Tivoli Gardens, Water ouse | wie ee : Miami: "34th Street P (aka. Miami Boys). Chicage: Cobras, Disciples. Kings, Vice Lords ALSO PRESENT LN AN CHORAGE, ALASKA The Spread of Drugs and Vislence Loosely organized gangs are spreading drugs and violence from large urban areas to smaller cities and even to remoie areas of the country. las: Bloods, Crips “°° Bay, Reema, Riverton layers, Untouchables A yi eet: - BEST COPY AVAILABLE