America's Gangs Consolidate As Modern Mafia

Photo via Getty ImagesThe good news is that the gangs of LA have decided to stop killing each other. The bad news is that the bad guys are banding together to facilitate a widening range of business details — all of them illegal.

In a survey article LA Gangs Seek Profit in Peace, there’s hopeful news as well — but not much. Homeboy Industries, a privately funded gang-rehabilitation program in Los Angeles, serves around 12,000 people a year who have left gangs, providing job training, counseling and tattoo removal. And the mayor’s office has sponsored activities like basketball games and picnics among neighborhoods that are home to feuding gangs.

Bottom line, illegals profits are the goal in gangs where jobs aren’t. New alliances are negotiated against America’s enemy #1: law enforcement and they’re running coast-to-coast. It appears that gangs are finally becoming the world’s modern mafia. Anne