Latin Kings
The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN, ALKN, or LKN, also known as simply Latin Kings) is one of the largest Caribbean and Latino street and prison gangs worldwide.[22][23][24] The gang was founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954.[25][26]
Latin Queens
While originally the Latin Kings are thought to be a male organization, it eventually began to absorb women and give them an equal share. The Latin Queens constituted the female Queen Anubis and Queen Maat of the ALKQN.[46]
The Latin Queen agenda is composed of self-respect, independence, family support, ethnic identity and self-empowerment. Seeking such goals has attracted a wide variety of females who had been drug addicted, victimized and/or neglected by families, spouses and partners. Sociologists studying the Latin Kings and Queens have observed the different methods in which both groups attempt to "reclaim and regulate" their environments. The Latin Queens are believed to focus more on their private space issues such as home life and protection and nurturing of their bodies, as opposed to the Latin Kings, who are more concerned with loss of public spaces in their own communities.[46]
The evolution of the ALKQN has been viewed by outside sources as being assisted by the addition and greater role in which Queen Loki and Queen Vailor have played, exposing the ALKQN to a greater range of cross-class supporters than would have been possible prior to their integration.[46] In countries such as Spain, Latin Queens are helping to legitimize the ALKQN through integration with government sponsored programs. In Catalonia, the 200 persons including Queen Tragedy and King Zeus and the rest of the Latin Kings and Queens tribe was designated as the Cultural Association of Latin Kings and Queens of Catalonia. The "cultural program" designation was bestowed through government sponsored programs to assist gangs with integration into society and is led by Latin Queen Melody, Erika Jaramillo.[47]
Investigations and prosecutions
Canada
Four people were injured after Latin Kings members attacked a former member at a subway station in Toronto on 22 June 2007.[48] A thirteen-year-old who was left partially paralyzed as a result of being stabbed.[49]
Nine members of the Latin Kings in Toronto were arrested in October 2009 under the Immigration Act and Immigration and Refugee Protection Act after a two-year police sting known as Project Royal Flush.[50] Four Latin Kings members, including Ecuadoran citizen Flavio Mauricio Reyes-Criollo who founded the Canadian branch of the gang in 2003, were ordered deported from Canada in July 2010.[51]
Spain
The Latin Kings in Spain were founded in Madrid in February 2002 by Ecuadorian national Eric Javier Vara Velastegui. Branches then followed in Barcelona, Valencia and Murcia. Membership is predominantly Ecuadorian, although other Latin American and Spanish youths have also been recruited. According to a report by the Madrid government commission, there are approximately one-hundred active members and six-hundred associates in the city. In Spain, the Ñetas are the main rivals of the Latin Kings.[52] Such Latin American gangs spread to Spain as a result of mass deportations from the United States of Latin American immigrants with criminal records.[53] The Latin Kings were registered as a cultural association in Catalonia in September 2006.[53]
Eric Javier Vara Velastegui received a forty-year prison sentence for rape, violent assault and kidnapping in June 2006.[54] In February 2011, Velastegui had an additional four years added to his sentence after being convicted of directing the gang from prison, while lieutenants Jose Fabricio Icaza and Maria Torres were sentenced to three-and-a-half years' and two years' imprisonment, respectively.[55]
The inner circle of the Latin Kings in Madrid was dismantled when fifty-four members were arrested during a police operation carried out in February 2010. A substantial amount of documentation relating to the gang and its organization, as well as gang paraphernalia such as necklaces to denote rank within the gang, black and gold flags, neckscarves and rings, was also confiscated.[56]
Five key members were ordered deported from Madrid in February 2015.[57][58]
Twenty-three members were arrested in the Barcelona metropolitan area by Mossos d'Esquadra on 10 June 2015, suspected of organized crime membership, drug trafficking, assault and extortion.[59]