I'll just copy and paste it, so sorry it's pretty long. This was written for an organized crime course, so their are references to organized crime structures that may seem somewhat out of place.


A Comprehensive Study on the Growing
Presence of the Bloods Street Gang
In Maryland




When someone hears the word “gang” what do they think of? For most it’s an image of a group of intimidating young men wearing red or blue, Bloods and Crips. While the term may conjure different images for different people, with the mental image changing to accommodate whichever “new hybrid gang” was featured on the evening news, from the 18th street gang in the 90’s, to the MS-13 in the mid 2000’s, to the Juggalos of 2011, (FBI, 2011, pg. ?) more often the not, the word gang is in a way synonymous with the Bloods and the Crips. The Bloods and the Crips changed the face of gangs. Gone are the days of a Westside Story-esque group of rough and tumble yet lovable street youth busting noses with brass knuckles when they weren’t singing. While it can never really be pinpointed when the Bloods and the Crips came into national spotlight, it can be agreed that no gang has ever made as much of a pop-cultural impact on America quite like the Bloods or the Crips. But this is a paper regarding the impact of the Bloods on Maryland, not the impact of the Bloods and the Crips on America.

The history of the Bloods is quite a bit more muddled as compared to the history of the Crips. Unlike Raymond Washington and Tookie Williams, no figure-head developed to represent the Bloods, at least not until the 90’s with OG Mack. A general consensus though, is that the Bloods began in the mid 70’s as a counter group to the Crips. The Bloods began like most all gangs do, as a loose-knit group of wayward youths, drawn together by one singular cause, this time being the harassment and violence dealt upon by the Crips. (Walker, 2011, pg.1-1) Eventually, both the Bloods and the Crips grew quickly, having sets throughout America and even into Europe. (Walker, 2011, pg.1-1)

It should be made clear now, that despite the name, and most often despite what little ties these sets have to any governing body, most Bloods gangs, are technically, not the real Bloods. Most often these groups, with both the Bloods and the Crips, take the well known gang name and apply it to themselves. Very often a set of Bloods is just as likely to be at war with another set of Bloods as it is to be at war with a set of Crips. But these are all generalizations, some sets do receive blessings from a governing body in California, some do make payments to said governing bodies. But for the most part any group claiming to be the Bloods has no real backing behind their name beyond what muscle and allies the group has made on its own. In a sense that’s what the Bloods have always been though. They have always been a loose-knit association of criminals working together for a mutual benefit, be it money, protection, family, or most likely money. The Bloods, of any kind, fit the bill quite perfectly for the Social Disorganization Theory of organized crime. (Lyman, 2011, pg.58) Most often these groups are found in areas of vast urban decay and tend to have a core membership of young African-American men with little in terms of money, family, or community.

O.G. Mack, born Omar Portee, is the man given the most credit for introducing the Bloods street gang into the East Coast. (NYUSDOJ, 2003, pg. 1-6) In 1993, OG Mack created the Bloods gang inside Rikers Island alongside another inmate, Deadeye, born Leonard McKenzie. OG Mack formed the United Bloods Nation as a way to protect himself and gain power while incarcerated. (NYUSDOJ, 2003, pg. 1-6) Eventually the gang spread throughout penal institutions on the East Coast. Some members of this prison gang, including OG Mack, were eventually paroled, thus giving the Bloods a very strong street presence throughout the East Coast. (NYUSDOJ, 2003, pg. 1-6)

While there were never any signs of the Bloods in Maryland prior to 1993, it can’t be said definitively that the influx of Bloods gang members in Maryland is due solely to OG Mack. While many of the various Blood sets have ties to New York based gangsters, as is often the case due to New York being a hub for illegal narcotics, it is clear that in naming their gangs the Bloods of Maryland take inspiration from sets in California as opposed to New Jersey and New York. Names like Pasadena Denver Lane, Tree Top Piru, and the various Brim sets (MDUSDOJ, 2008-2010 pg. 1-1) harken to the long standing California street gang, as opposed to the more non-traditional East Coast names such like M.O.B (Money Over Bit**es), Sex.Money.Murder, and Gangsta Killer Bloods, that are normally found in East Coast cities.(NYUSDOJ, 2003, pg. 1-6)

There is no official time when the Bloods were first introduced in Maryland. The Baltimore Sun first introduced the idea of a Bloods gang in Maryland in late 2004, with a story related to the murder of a cab driver in Harford County. (Mitchell, 2005 pg. 1-1) This does not by any means imply that there were no Bloods in Maryland until after the 2004 presidential election. A more realistic time table is the one given by the Maryland United States Department of Justice (USDOJ, 2008, pg. 1-1) during the sentencing of Tree Top Piru (TTP) Bloods leader Steve Willock. In his guilty plea, Willock acknowledged that the TTP Bloods first came to fruition at the Maryland Correctional Institution – Hagerstown (MCIH) in 1999. This general basis for the introduction is much more reasonable of a time table due to the likelihood of the Bloods being introduced in the prison system, much like how the United Blood Nation in New Jersey was, as well as the Maryland grown Dead Man Incorporated (DMI) group in recent years. This time-table is also appropriate due to the fact that it, along with the first semblance of Bloods gangs being mentioned by major print publications, indicate that the Bloods in Maryland first came to prominence in surrounding parts of Maryland instead of Baltimore, which coincides with Baltimore’s long-standing reputation of being a more independent city in terms of its criminal groups, who tend to dismiss more organized structures in favor of smaller block-by-block crews.

Throughout the last five years, the Bloods have become a very visible presence in Maryland, Baltimore to be specific. The first major Bloods set to come into the spotlight were the Tree Top Piru (TTP) Bloods set led by Steve Willock. On September 19, 2008, 28 members of the TTP Bloods were indicted in Maryland federal court. Among the large variety of crimes the TTP Bloods were believed to have committed were five murders, as well as the planning of several other murders and the execution of other attempted murders. (MDUSDOJ, 2008, pg. 1-1) Of all the Bloods groups mentioned in this paper, the TTP Bloods are the ones who most closely take after the “authentic” Bloods of California. Steve Willock even went so far as to ask, and receive, permission to create this set from Bloods members back in California. (MDUSDOJ, 2008, pg. 1-1)

The next Bloods set to receive attention from first law enforcement, and later the public, were the Pasadena Denver Lane (PDL) Bloods. Although not involved in as many violent crimes as the TTP Bloods, the PDL Bloods still had a strong presence in Maryland, with 42 members being indicted federally in Maryland on May 28, 2009. The PDL group also had strong ties to the California Bloods, going so far as to make payments to the California Bloods as well as ask advice on various gang related problems. (MDUSDOJ, 2009, 1-1).

Finally, the most recently infamous Bloods set in Maryland are the South Side Brims (SSB) Bloods. This group is believed to have started in 2005 by Andre Roach. The SSB Bloods are named after the Fruit Town Brims of California, an offshoot of the original Piru Bloods. Since the SSB Bloods were indicted fairly recently, on October 13, 2011, not much information is known about them. What is known is that along with all the other groups mentioned, they have a history of violence and play a major role in the drug trade in Maryland. (MDUSDOJ, 2011, pg. 1-1)

According to “Organized Crime Fifth Edition” by Michael D. Lyman and Gary W. Potter (2011), the working definition of organized crime is according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime; “[a] structured group of three or more persons existing for a period of time and acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes or offences in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit.” This is a very loose definition of organized crime, but it certainly fits the Bloods in Maryland. All of the aforementioned groups consist of more than three members, they exist for a certain period of time, they commit one or more serious crimes on a daily basis, and they certainly earn financial benefits from their criminal acts.

But that definition is vague, and doesn’t emphasize the Bloods in Maryland as an organized crime group. In general there are two accepted organized crime structures when referring to street gangs. The Tier based structure, which is very similar to the classic Bureaucratic Structure long used to describe the Mafia, and the Loose Structure, which is most similar to the Network Structure used by many organized crime experts nowadays. The Tier Structure implies a very stringent and vertical gang hierarchy. It consists of a Leader, with a council of high ranking members underneath him, followed by several lieutenants, who then control the street members, who control the recruits, prospects, and other associates. This is nearly identical to the Bureaucratic Structure, and is widely accepted by many. The Loose Structure on the other hand, may be a more reasonable description of the Bloods in Maryland. Each set has its own Loose-Knit structure; there is a set leader, who due to the relative infancy stage of the various Bloods Gangs in Maryland, is normally the person who created the set originally. After that the structure gets muddled. There are higher ranking shot-callers, normally career gangsters or co-founders of the gang who make various difficult decisions and give orders when necessary. And then there are the various regular members. Some may be considered enforcers, and others simple street dealers. But the thing to note with this structure is that all of these roles can interchangeable. A leader can take part in a shooting, or a lowly street dealer can recruit others to commit murders and sell drugs for him. Take for example Terrence Richardson, the leader of the PDL Bloods. Despite being a founding member of this set and a man who could order killings on a whim, he also took part in very street level crimes, and at the time of his arrest for various racketeering charges, he was in a car, armed, and ready to go over to a cooperating witnesses house to commit a murder. (MDUSDOJ, 2009, pg. 1-1) On the flip side is Marcus Pearson. In 2007 PDL gang leader Patrick Byers while incarcerated for murder in Baltimore City used a contraband cell phone to order the murder of Carl Lackl, a man who was scheduled to testify against Byers in his upcoming murder case. The hit was delegated to Marcus Pearson, a regular gang member. Pearson, contacted Steven Thompson, another PDL gang member to commit/recruit someone to commit the murder. Thompson recruited a 17-year-old junior gang member, who did indeed murder Mr. Lackl. In this one gang; the PDL Bloods, there was an instance of the leader doing the work of a Junior member himself, while at nearly the same time there was a regular member who ordered others to commit a murder he was delegated. (MDUSDOJ, 2009, pg.1-1) And that’s how a Loose Structure works, it’s a structure that’s only limitation is how industrious a gang member decides to be.

The Bloods are currently the largest gang in Maryland. According to the Department of Legislative Services Office of Policy Analysis 2009 Gang Report, there are thousands of known gang members in Maryland. Of those a very large portion are Bloods. To be more specific, in Baltimore City, there are over 900 members of the Bloods, which is three times that of the Crips. In Harford County, of the 247 known gang members, 121 were members of the Bloods. So how does one gang gain so much leverage in the state of Maryland? Through violence, smart leadership and intimidation.

Since 2005 the Bloods have been the perpetrators of some of the most serious and tragic crimes in Maryland during that time. Besides the five murders committed by the TTP Bloods mentioned earlier, and the murder of witness Carl Lackl, the Bloods have taken part in a exorbitant number of murders. The first violent incident involving Blood members was the killing of a taxi driver in Harford County. Two members of the 9 Tre Gangsta Bloods Subset were charged and convicted of killing the father of nine during a robbery. (Mitchell, 2005, pg. 1-1) This was just a taste of things to come. In 2005 19-year-old Reshawn Myers was kidnapped and murdered on orders of Bloods leader Terrance Smith. (Bykowicz, 2006, pg. 1-1) Also in 2005, 16-year-old Bloods member Donta Bain stabbed a man to death during a gang fight in Harford County. (Fenton, 2006, pg. 1-1) In 2006 high ranking California Bloods member Shaidon”Don Papa” Blake came over to Baltimore to help smooth out the problems facing the local Bloods when he kidnapped, stabbed, and burned the body of a man in West Baltimore. (Sentementes, 2006, pg. 1-1) In 2007, 37-year-old Kenneth Lawrence Higgins, a very high ranking member of the Bloods, was sentenced to Life for murdering and disemboweling a fellow inmate in 2005 while he was serving time at Maryland House of Correction Annex in Jessup. (Siegel) There is also the 2007 Northwest Baltimore murder of 16-year-old Brent D. Flanagan who was stabbed to death, dismembered, and set on fire in a row-home. (Sentementes, 2007, pg. 1-1) In 2009, Robert Murphy a member of the “L Gang” a Bloods subset, shot and killed a cab driver who had just taken him from Frederick to Baltimore. (Fenton & Sentementes, 2009, pg. 1-1) In December of 2008 in Baltimore, six members of the Bounty Hunters Bloods set beat, stabbed, and set on fire a man who owed the gang money. (Fenton, 2009, pg. 1-1) Also in 2008, four members of the 92 Family Swans Bloods Subset, stabbed and beat to death a fellow gang member in Randallstown due to fears that he may be a homosexual. (Madigan, 2010, pg. 1-1) But the Bloods don’t always kill to prove a point. In 2005 several members of an undisclosed Bloods gang threw Molotov cocktails at a community activists house, sending a very clear message throughout the streets of Baltimore. (Dolan, 2005, pg. 1-1)

Despite what any politician or wishful thinking police commander may say, gangs, and the Bloods in Maryland, have a very clear presence and are not going to be going away anytime soon. The sheer level of violence and numbers exhibited by the Bloods makes them a very serious threat to the safety of anyone and everyone. Many people will automatically think of the Bloods when you say the word “gang”, but if this paper has proved anything, it’s that it may be about time you start thinking of the Bloods when someone says the words “Organized Crime.”


Bibliography available upon request