Here in Los Angeles, street gangs became known for the illegal narcotics they distrib-uted and the violence they unleashed to protect their product. In the commission of these acts, they incurred the risk of arrest and lengthy incarceration as a by-product of doing business. The city’s major Black gangs, the Crips and their arch-rivals the Bloods, have expanded their horizons to include other, less punitive ways of making a living.
“It is remarkable that a prison inmate coordinated with others on the outside to distribute over 100 pounds of methamphetamine into the community. But that apparently was not enough: he also con-spired to pursue over half a billion dollars in federal tax credits that were meant to help struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert on the arrest of Kristopher Thomas for drug trafficking and tax fraud in February 2024.
One of the ways they made a living is the practice of supervising sexual activity for the immediate payment in money or other valuables, i.e. prostitution which in modern times is known as sex work. In short, they were pimps. No less legal in the view of the law, it nonetheless proved to be attractive for the comparatively lenient prison sentences incurred in the commission of these crimes.
Pimping, legally known as pandering, carries lighter sentences punishable three, four, or six years in state prison in comparison to other offenses, according to California’s Penal Code 266h.
Specifically a felony, pandering is much less harsh than the possibility of decades of hard time incurred in drug distribution. California has the distinction of being the centerpiece of the I-5 freeway, a transnational hub stretching 1,400 miles across Canada, the United States, and Mexico. It is also the pipeline of the “West Coast Track,” a criminal pathway for narcotics and prostitution trafficking, two intertwined illicit enterprises.
It’s local outposts include Lankershim Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley, and South Los Angeles’ Figueroa Street and it’s infamous Figueroa Corridor, a 4-mile stretch known as a major hub for sex trafficking throughout the late twentieth century. With the coming of a new millennium, this area became attractive to local gangs drawn to the abundance of motels along the thoroughfare, conducive for the sex trade.
The World’s Oldest Profession gets Twisted
“Now you got girl pimps, too,” said ‘Tonio,’ a lifelong native remembers the old days and shifting times when things went from bad to worse.
“Youngsters” hit upon the oldest profession prostitution, inserting themselves in the age old position of money managers–essentially pimps–since the area was within their turf. As time progressed they targeted minors, especially refugees from the probation and social services who were emotionally fragile.
Tonio speaks of an acquaintance in the neighborhood, a young girl who fell victim to the streets as a teen who was about 14 years-old, according to ‘Tonio’
“She was a pretty girl. That ‘crystal’ did her in like that. Quick. Took her body over. Destroyed her,” said Tonio.
This unfortunate first hit the track on Figueroa before her “handler” moved her to relatively less competitive pastures in 2024.
“Some dude had her up on Crenshaw after they found out she was turned out.”
The appearance of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affected the legal and illegal economy. Individuals employed in legitimate work often were displaced, and resorted to drug trafficking. Others whose income dwindled were made vulnerable for exploitation as well, this may explain the increase in underage recruitment in sex trafficking.
At the same time, Black people drifted away from traditional abusive substances like crack cocaine to methamphetamine and other narcotics associated with other ethnicities for reasons that are unclear.
A Pandemic, a Response, and the Aftermath
The advent of the COVID-19 virus sent the world into an economic recession, resulting in a stock market crash from February to April of 2020. This in turn caused rapid increases in unemployment in many countries, including the United States where in excess of 10 million unemployment cases were reported.
To counter this, by the end of March, President Donald Trump signed a stimulus package in excess of 1$ trillion in one-time cash payments to individual taxpayers. He in turn increased unemployment benefits, loans to small businesses, and billions in loans to corporations and state and local governments.
This largess opened the floodgates to a multitude of claims, both legitimate and fraudulent. To be fair, these scams, swindles, and shakedowns were executed across a wide spectrum of demographics. For the traditional bottom feeders at street level, they provided an alternative means of fund-ing aside from the usual sources of slinging narcotics and strong armed robbery, with much less severe legal consequences.
This area of malfeasance has found its way into the ghetto as well, albeit on a drastically smaller level. Early on, “the homies” copied contemporaries in the general population and figured out strategies to milk the gov-ernment out of these deep pocket bailouts.
Dirty White Collar Transnationalism
Los Angeles gangs have exported their lifestyle, which is societally viewed as un-lawful, throughout the rest of the country. Federal authorities have estimated perhaps 15,000 members of the “United Blood Nation” (UBN) alone live on the east coast. Aside from traditional crimes like homicide, robbery, trafficking, they have moved to this additional, possibly more lucrative area of white collar offenses.
In early 2025, gang members were indict-ed in a Long Island federal court involving the usual violent crimes of armed robbery, attempted murder, a triple homicide, home invasion and narcotics trafficking. They’ve also been accused of identity theft, credit card and bank fraud and defrauding state unemployment systems.
In addition to firearms and narcotics, law enforcement agencies have confiscated counterfeit checks, credit and gift cards, along with devices to emboss, encode, and print secure financial cards.
Also in Long Island in the year of 2023, their rival Insane Crip Gang based in Nassau County were indicted for false unemploy-ment benefit applications and the federal Covid-19 Paycheck Protection Program, along with a typical resume of extreme violence including murder, armed robbery and so on.
Closer to home, in 2024 Blood arch rivals, the Main Street Mafia Crips (MSMC), busied themselves behind bars to milk the government of over $550 million in Covid-related federal tax credits. Kern Valley State Prison inmate and gang leader Kristopher Thomas engaged in this crime along with the traditional criminality of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and miscel-laneous narcotic trafficking. Thomas, also known as “Broski,” was already serving time for a gang-related murder. He reportedly utilized family members on the East Coast and in the Hawaiian Islands to carry out malfeasance targeting businesses impacted by COVID-19 epidemic.
These recent, less volatile proceedings are not new. Street level scams may be traced back to the 1990s. The bottom line is it comes down to a means to making ends. Gang members have earned money protecting construction equipment along Caltrans sites and other places, and ensuring employees are safe on their way to work, while working, and going home.
Editor’s note: ‘Tonio’ is a South L.A. native who wanted to go under an alias for the protection of his identity.