Overview

The Bloods are a decentralized street- and prison-gang alliance whose shared identity originated among predominantly Black neighborhood gangs in Los Angeles County during the early 1970s.

The original coalition developed largely in response to the expansion and violence of Crip gangs. Separate neighborhood groups adopted a common Blood identity while retaining their own names, territory, leadership, relationships, and local interests.

“Bloods” therefore does not identify one corporation, one national president, one constitution, one treasury, or one universal command. It identifies a broad gang culture containing autonomous and semi-autonomous sets, alliances, prison organizations, street organizations, neighborhood factions, and splinters.

The East Coast United Blood Nation, commonly abbreviated UBN, is a separately organized Blood alliance created at Rikers Island in New York City in 1993. It should not be treated as the national headquarters of every West Coast Blood set or every group using Blood identity.

Federal cases document Blood-affiliated enterprises involved in murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, firearms offenses, fraud, sex trafficking, witness intimidation, obstruction, and internal violence.

Core Conclusion

The Bloods are best classified as: a decentralized gang alliance whose common identity can facilitate protection, belonging, reputation, criminal commerce, territorial control, interstate networking, and violent enforcement without creating one universal chain of command.

Blood identity arose partly from real neighborhood vulnerability and the need for protection from rival gangs. That history does not excuse later coercion, shootings, murder, drug distribution, exploitation, or harm imposed upon Black communities.

For Malone purposes, the Bloods are external and untrusted. Their structures are operationally adverse wherever gang loyalty, criminal obligations, recruitment, intimidation, weapons, drug commerce, or institutional capture threaten Malone personnel or programs.

Identity Summary

Primary identity Bloods
Institutional type Decentralized alliance and shared culture of street and prison gangs
Origin Los Angeles County during the early 1970s
Original social environment Predominantly Black neighborhoods facing expanding Crip power and local gang conflict
Basic local unit Set, neighborhood gang, chapter, line, or locally named faction
Major East Coast alliance United Blood Nation, founded at Rikers Island in 1993
Universal national leader None established
Documented criminal activity Murder, assault, robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, firearms offenses, fraud, sex trafficking, and witness intimidation

Not One Gang Government

The Bloods are often described as though one leader controls every red-clad gang member in the United States.

That description is inaccurate.

A Blood-affiliated set may possess:

Shared colors, words, symbols, and enemies do not prove shared command.

Origins in Los Angeles County

California law-enforcement and federal sources generally trace the Bloods to the early 1970s in South Los Angeles, Compton, and surrounding communities.

Smaller neighborhood gangs formed or strengthened alliances to resist the expanding Crip alliance.

The Blood identity created mutual recognition among groups that could remain locally independent.

Protection From Crip Expansion

The protection narrative explains why smaller gangs might adopt a larger identity.

The structure offered:

Protection can become coercive when the alliance creates the danger from which it claims to protect members.

Early Coalition Character

The early Bloods were a coalition rather than a single newly incorporated organization.

Neighborhood gangs retained local names while identifying collectively against Crips.

This coalition structure remains essential for understanding modern Blood identity.

Sets

A set is a locally named Blood-affiliated group.

A set may be defined by:

Responsibility should be assigned to the exact set and actor involved.

Set Autonomy

Blood sets may cooperate, remain neutral, compete, or fight one another.

Shared Blood identity does not guarantee peace.

Local disputes may involve territory, retaliation, leadership, relationships, drug markets, personal conflicts, or inherited rivalries.

Piru Identity

Piru identifies an important family of gangs associated with the broader Blood alliance and with Compton history.

Piru groups helped form the coalition opposing Crip expansion.

Piru and Blood are closely connected but are not always interchangeable in local identity. A named Piru set may emphasize its own lineage above a generic Blood label.

Tree Top Piru

Tree Top Piru, commonly abbreviated TTP, emerged from the Piru tradition and developed factions outside California.

Federal Maryland prosecutions documented a TTP Bloods racketeering enterprise involved in violence and criminal activity.

TTP should not be treated as the governing body of every Piru set.

Murdaland Mafia Piru

Murdaland Mafia Piru, commonly abbreviated MMP, was prosecuted as a violent Baltimore Bloods enterprise.

Federal convictions involved murder, shootings, drug trafficking, and racketeering.

Its conduct should be attributed to the named enterprise and defendants rather than to every Piru or Blood-affiliated person.

Bounty Hunter Bloods

Bounty Hunter Bloods is a major Los Angeles Blood set associated historically with the Nickerson Gardens area.

It is one of several significant West Coast Blood identities and is not a national headquarters.

Brims

Brim identities developed within the broader Blood culture and later spread beyond California.

Different Brim organizations may possess separate histories, leadership, and local structures.

59 Brims

Federal prosecutors have described the 59 Brims as a Bloods set operating in New York.

A federal prosecution resulted in convictions of twenty-two defendants for offenses including shootings, robberies, assaults, drug trafficking, and racketeering.

In April 2024, the former godfather of the prosecuted enterprise received a twenty-year sentence.

Gorilla Stone Bloods

Gorilla Stone Bloods, also called Gorilla Stone Nation in some records, operated as a Bloods enterprise in New York and elsewhere.

Federal prosecutors documented a structured organization with prison and street leadership, godfathers, godmothers, narcotics trafficking, fraud, violence, and racketeering.

Its two highest-ranking convicted leaders received thirty-five-year sentences in November 2024.

West Coast Versus East Coast Blood Identity

West Coast Blood identity originated through Los Angeles neighborhood alliances.

East Coast Blood organizations developed later through prisons, migration, imitation, local adaptation, and organized expansion.

Similar names do not prove that a New York or North Carolina set reports to a Los Angeles leader.

United Blood Nation

The United Blood Nation, commonly abbreviated UBN, was created in 1993 at the George Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island.

Separate Blood-affiliated groups or hoods united under a common East Coast organization while retaining set names.

UBN developed more formal national rules and rank structures than the loose original Los Angeles coalition.

UBN Is Not Every Blood Set

United Blood Nation should not be described as the government of every Blood gang in the United States.

UBN has been particularly influential on the East Coast and in prison-based structures.

A person or set may identify as Blood without belonging to UBN.

The UBN “31”

Federal prosecutions describe UBN as governed by a body of rules commonly called the 31.

Court records describe dues, obligations, leadership authority, and disciplinary expectations.

This page does not reproduce internal gang rules. Their relevance is that they demonstrate an organized racketeering structure in particular UBN cases.

UBN Dues and Criminal Revenue

Federal plea agreements describe monthly dues transferred through UBN structures and funded partly through drug trafficking, robbery, wire fraud, bank fraud, and other illegal activity.

Dues create financial connection between local members and incarcerated or higher-ranking leaders.

Nine Trey Gangsters

Nine Trey Gangsters, commonly abbreviated NTG, is a major Bloods organization affiliated with United Blood Nation.

Federal prosecutions describe national and regional rank structures, internal discipline, dues, violent crime, drug trafficking, robbery, fraud, and sex-trafficking offenses.

Nine Trey Is Not Every “Nine” Set

Similar numbers and names can identify separate gangs, local factions, imitations, or unrelated references.

Nine Trey affiliation requires evidence beyond colors, music, online language, or association.

Sex Money Murder

Sex Money Murder, commonly abbreviated SMM, is a Blood-affiliated gang with roots in New York and later prison and street structures in other states.

Federal cases have documented SMM enterprises involved in drug trafficking, murder, attempted murder, internal punishment, fraud, firearms, and racketeering.

Sex Money Murder 24K

Federal prosecutors describe SMM 24K as a subset of Sex Money Murder.

A 2026 federal indictment alleged that members operated a racketeering and drug-trafficking enterprise in Florida prisons and used violence against members and rivals.

An indictment is an allegation and not a conviction.

2025 Sex Money Murder Indictment

In May 2025, federal prosecutors charged thirty alleged Sex Money Murder members and associates in a Georgia-based racketeering case.

Allegations included murder, conspiracy to murder, drug trafficking, firearm offenses, fraud involving federal programs, and internal enforcement.

Procedural status should be updated as defendants plead, proceed to trial, or receive dismissals or judgments.

Regional Adaptation

Blood identity has spread through:

A distant set may use Blood identity without a verified line of authority to California or UBN.

Prison Expansion

Jails and prisons can spread gang identity by concentrating people from different neighborhoods and states.

Prison environments create incentives involving:

Street and Prison Authority

Some Blood organizations have separate street and prison leaders.

Incarcerated leaders may retain authority through illicit phones, letters, visitors, attorneys or professionals acting unlawfully, coded communication, and trusted outside associates.

Specific command must be established through evidence.

Members and Associates

Criminal cases distinguish full members, leaders, associates, suppliers, girlfriends, relatives, facilitators, and unaffiliated participants.

Association does not automatically establish membership or knowledge of every gang purpose.

Women in Blood-Affiliated Organizations

Women may serve as members, leaders, associates, financial facilitators, recruiters, relatives, partners, or victims.

Federal Gorilla Stone prosecutions documented women holding rank, including godmother titles.

Gender does not establish minor responsibility or lack of authority.

Youth Recruitment

Young people may be recruited through:

Coercive Recruitment

Recruitment is not always voluntary.

A person may face:

Belonging and Identity

Blood identity can offer a substitute family, status system, protection network, historical narrative, and sense of purpose.

These functions help explain persistence but do not make violent or criminal authority legitimate.

Internal Rank and Titles

Particular Blood organizations use titles such as godfather, godmother, general, high, low, floor, or other locally defined ranks.

Rank systems vary by organization.

A title in Nine Trey does not automatically carry authority in SMM, a Piru set, or a West Coast neighborhood gang.

Internal Discipline

Federal cases document punishment for:

Internal punishment may include assault, stabbing, shooting, or murder.

Violence

Blood-affiliated enterprises have been convicted or charged in cases involving murder, attempted murder, drive-by shootings, retaliatory attacks, robbery, assault, and violence in aid of racketeering.

Violence may serve:

Drug Trafficking

Drug trafficking is a repeatedly documented source of revenue for Blood enterprises.

Federal cases involve heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and other substances.

Drug revenue may finance weapons, leadership, members in prison, legal costs, and local operations.

Fentanyl Risk

Current Blood-related prosecutions include fentanyl distribution and overdose allegations.

Fentanyl increases the lethality of street drug markets and can kill people who do not know the substance is present.

Robbery and Extortion

Federal Blood prosecutions include armed robbery, home invasion, extortion, and coercive collection of debts or dues.

Such conduct extracts resources from the same communities in which gangs claim to offer protection.

Fraud

Blood-affiliated enterprises have used bank fraud, wire fraud, identity fraud, unemployment or benefits fraud, and other schemes.

Fraud expands gang revenue beyond visible street crime and can involve people with no traditional gang appearance.

Sex Trafficking

Federal cases have convicted Blood gang members of sex trafficking, including trafficking of minors.

Exploitation of women and children is incompatible with any claim of community protection.

Firearms

Firearms are documented in Blood-related murder, assault, robbery, trafficking, and retaliation cases.

Current federal cases include illegal machinegun possession and firearms trafficking allegations.

Witness Intimidation

Blood enterprises may threaten, assault, or kill witnesses and suspected informants.

Witness intimidation creates private control by making truthful reporting dangerous.

Community Harm

Blood-affiliated violence is often concentrated in Black and low-income neighborhoods.

Harm includes:

Threat to Black Residents

Most people living in Blood-identified neighborhoods are not gang members.

Residents may face pressure from both gangs and aggressive law-enforcement response.

Public policy should protect residents without treating the entire community as criminal.

Threat to Black Youth

Youth may be harmed as recruits, victims, witnesses, relatives, students, or bystanders.

Gang identity can redirect intelligence, courage, and organizational ability into retaliation and criminal commerce instead of durable Black institutions.

Threat to Families

Family members may experience:

Family relationship alone does not prove participation.

Threat to Rival Gangs

Rivalries may target Crip sets, other Blood sets, neighborhood groups, and personal enemies.

Gang labels can transform individual disputes into collective retaliation.

Relationship to the Crips

The Blood alliance formed partly in opposition to the Crips.

Blood–Crip rivalry became one of the most recognized gang conflicts in the United States.

Rivalry is not universal. Local truces, personal relationships, criminal partnerships, peace initiatives, and changing neighborhood conditions have also occurred.

Blood-on-Blood Conflict

Blood sets may fight other Blood sets.

Shared identity can be outweighed by neighborhood loyalty, money, personal disputes, leadership conflict, and revenge.

Cross-Gang Cooperation

Blood members may cooperate with Crips or other gangs for drug trafficking, fraud, robbery, prison commerce, or shared criminal objectives.

Cooperation does not prove organizational merger or the end of local rivalry.

Race and Membership

Blood identity originated primarily in Black communities and remains strongly associated with Black membership.

Government sources have also identified Hispanic, White, Asian, and other members in some Blood and UBN structures.

Race alone is never proof of membership.

Colors and Symbols

Red is widely associated with Blood identity.

Federal cases also identify symbols or language such as:

These are indicators, not conclusive proof.

Color Is Not Membership

Red clothing is common in ordinary life, sports, schools, religions, and fashion.

A person should not be classified from color alone.

Hand Signs and Language

Blood-affiliated groups may use hand signs, altered spelling, greetings, numbers, and local vocabulary.

Social-media imitation and popular culture make such indicators unreliable when isolated.

This dossier does not reproduce initiation methods, coded communications, or operational gang instructions.

Music and Popular Culture

Blood identity appears in music, fashion, film, social media, sports culture, and celebrity disputes.

Public performance may reflect:

Fame and imagery do not establish command authority.

Celebrity Affiliation Claims

Claims that artists, athletes, or public figures belong to Blood sets should be verified through reliable admissions, court records, authenticated affiliations, or other strong evidence.

Lyrics, colors, friendships, and rumors are insufficient by themselves.

Social Media

Social media can support recruitment, reputation, threats, disputes, memorialization, intelligence collection, and monetization.

Online posts may also be false, hacked, performative, copied, or taken out of context.

Territory

Some sets claim neighborhoods, blocks, apartment complexes, housing developments, schools, or prison units.

Residents and public institutions do not become gang property merely because a set claims territory.

Private Governance

A gang can function as an unauthorized local government by controlling:

Private coercive order is not legitimate governance.

Protection Versus Predation

A gang may provide protection to selected members while preying upon the wider community.

The proper test is not whether members feel protected, but whether the institution reduces total harm, respects consent, protects nonmembers, and remains accountable.

Gang Identity and Black Organization

Blood sets demonstrate real organizational capacities:

Malone's objective is not to imitate criminal coercion. It is to redirect organizational talent into lawful, ethical, durable institutions that protect rather than exploit Black communities.

Gang Databases and False Identification

Government gang databases can assist investigations and also create serious false-positive and privacy risks.

The California State Auditor found major weaknesses in the CalGang system, including questionable information, inadequate oversight, and records that could not be substantiated adequately.

A database entry is not a criminal conviction.

Gang Validation

Law-enforcement or correctional validation may rely upon associations, admissions, tattoos, communications, photographs, informants, and conduct.

Validation should be treated as an investigative classification subject to review, not unquestionable proof of every alleged crime.

False Positives

Incorrect Blood identification may result from:

Recent Long Island Prosecutions

Federal indictments unsealed in 2024 and expanded in 2025 charged Long Island Bloods members with racketeering, attempted murders, robberies, firearms offenses, and narcotics crimes.

Charges are allegations until proven.

2024 Long Island Life Sentence

In July 2024, a Bloods gang leader received a life sentence in a federal racketeering case involving armed robberies, shootings, and murder conspiracies.

The sentence concerns the convicted enterprise and defendant rather than every Blood set.

2025 Sex-Trafficking Sentence

In January 2025, a Bloods gang member received a twenty-three-year federal sentence for sex trafficking minors.

The case illustrates that gang harm can include exploitation beyond neighborhood shootings and drug markets.

2025 Machinegun Cases

Federal Massachusetts proceedings involved a Bloods member who possessed a loaded machinegun after allegedly traveling into rival territory.

The person later received a federal prison sentence in 2026.

2026 United Blood Nation Sentence

In June 2026, a federal court sentenced a validated United Blood Nation member to fifteen years for fentanyl distribution.

The case is current evidence that UBN-affiliated criminal activity remains a public-safety concern.

Allegations Versus Findings

The dossier must distinguish:

Institutional Responsibility Test

  1. Identify the exact set. Determine the neighborhood, prison, Blood lineage, and local name.
  2. Identify the organization. Separate West Coast Bloods, UBN, Nine Trey, SMM, Brims, Piru, and other structures.
  3. Identify the person. Record legal name, aliases, dates, location, and alleged role.
  4. Distinguish member from associate. Separate leadership, membership, facilitation, coercion, family ties, and imitation.
  5. Identify the conduct. State the crime, order, threat, payment, communication, or institutional act.
  6. Locate authorization. Determine whether conduct was individual, set-based, UBN-directed, or independently committed.
  7. Trace resources. Identify money, drugs, weapons, vehicles, phones, accounts, property, or outside facilitators.
  8. Test coercion and current status. Determine whether participation was voluntary and active.
  9. Separate allegation from adjudication. Preserve procedural status.
  10. Assign responsibility proportionately. Do not attribute one set's conduct to all Bloods or to an entire neighborhood.

Evidence Classification

Proximity to the Malone Network

No direct institutional relationship between the Bloods alliance and the Malone Network is established in this dossier.

Proximity may arise through:

Conceptual Proximity to Malone

Bloods originated partly from demands for safety, belonging, identity, and organized protection in Black neighborhoods.

These needs are relevant to Malone's work.

The similarity ends where gang authority depends upon criminal commerce, coercion, retaliation, private violence, and territorial control.

Alignment Assessment

The Bloods are not aligned with or subordinate to Malone.

Active gang command, criminal obligation, or concealed set loyalty creates a severe conflict with sensitive Malone roles.

Former members and people under coercion should be assessed individually, with attention to current conduct, safety, rehabilitation, and the sensitivity of the proposed role.

Hostility Assessment

No Blood-wide operation directed specifically against Malone is established.

The alliance should nevertheless be classified as operationally adverse where gang objectives conflict with Malone safety, authority, programs, or participants.

Direct hostility would require evidence of:

Controlled Opposition Assessment

The Bloods do not generally present as a national Black liberation movement opposing the system on behalf of the entire race.

Their existence can objectively benefit oppressive systems by:

Those consequences do not establish centralized outside control.

The appropriate finding is: self-directed and fragmented criminal organizations whose conduct may reinforce oppression without proof that an external institution controls the alliance as a whole.

Confusion Assessment

Major confusion includes:

Preliminary Threat Matrix

Dimension Baseline Rating Assessment
Specific intent toward Malone Unknown / None established No verified alliance-wide Malone-directed operation appears in reviewed sources.
Organizational capability Significant but fragmented Numerous sets, prison structures, interstate networks, and criminal enterprises.
Violence capability Severe where active Murder, shootings, internal punishment, robbery, and witness violence are documented.
Neighborhood proximity risk Moderate to severe in affected areas Territorial claims and retaliation can endanger residents and programs.
Correctional proximity risk Severe where present UBN and other Blood structures can recruit, coerce, and direct outside activity from custody.
Youth recruitment risk Significant Identity, protection, family ties, status, and retaliation can attract or pressure youth.
Access risk Low when remote; severe if embedded Gang access to Malone people, data, facilities, funds, or security requires immediate review.
Deception risk Significant Decentralization, copied symbols, aliases, and informal affiliation complicate attribution.
Financial-crime risk Significant Drug trafficking, fraud, robbery, extortion, and sex trafficking are documented.
Institutional-subversion risk Low absent access; severe if access is gained Programs may be used for recruitment, meetings, money movement, or protection of criminal activity.
Witness-retaliation risk Severe within reach Federal cases document intimidation and violence against witnesses and suspected informants.
Controlled-opposition likelihood Unproven Conduct may reinforce oppressive systems, but alliance-wide external control is not established.
Persistence High Blood identity has persisted for more than five decades.
Coordination Variable Strong within some sets and UBN structures; no universal command across all Bloods.

Branch-Specific Baseline

Entity Relationship Malone Baseline
Los Angeles Blood coalition Original decentralized alliance External and untrusted; set-specific threat analysis required
Piru sets Major Blood-affiliated lineage External; assess exact Piru set and local conduct
United Blood Nation East Coast alliance founded at Rikers Island External, structured, and significant prison and racketeering concern
Nine Trey Gangsters Major UBN-affiliated organization Severe risk where verified because of documented violence and racketeering
Sex Money Murder Blood-affiliated gang and expanding prison/street network Severe faction-specific risk; current prosecutions require monitoring
59 Brims Named Blood set with New York enterprise Severe where verified; do not generalize to all Brims
Gorilla Stone Bloods Structured Blood enterprise Severe racketeering, fraud, drug, and violence concern
Former or disengaged member Individual current status requires proof Case-by-case rehabilitation, safety, and access assessment
Unaffiliated neighborhood resident No gang status established No adverse classification based on residence, race, or clothing

Risk Escalation Indicators

Protective Posture for Malone

Disengagement and Rehabilitation

A person can leave gang activity and build a constructive life.

Assessment should consider:

Violence Prevention

Effective prevention may include:

Programs must not allow one gang to become the unofficial government of a neighborhood.

Community Protection Without Gang Rule

Residents need protection from both criminal violence and abusive government action.

The solution is not forced dependence upon a gang or unaccountable policing.

Durable safety requires ethical institutions with consent, oversight, measurable outcomes, trained personnel, and equal protection.

Security Does Not Justify Criminalizing Black Communities

Bloods history does not justify treating Black youth, poor neighborhoods, formerly incarcerated people, musicians, or people wearing red as gang members.

Overbroad classification:

Common Brand and Identity Confusion

Term What It Identifies What It Does Not Automatically Identify
Bloods Broad decentralized gang alliance and culture. One national corporation or command.
Set Locally named gang unit. Automatic authority over other Blood sets.
Piru Major Blood-affiliated lineage and local identity. Every Blood set or one unified Piru government.
UBN United Blood Nation, East Coast alliance founded in 1993. Universal headquarters of all Bloods.
Nine Trey Major UBN-affiliated organization. Every Blood gang using numbers.
SMM Sex Money Murder. All East Coast Bloods.
Brims Family of Blood-affiliated identities. One national Brim chain of command without proof.
Red clothing Possible cultural indicator in context. Gang membership.
Blood associate Person connected to members or activity. Full membership or knowledge of every purpose.
Validated member Law-enforcement or correctional classification. Criminal conviction.
Neighborhood resident Person living in a claimed area. Gang affiliation or consent to gang rule.

Documented Organizational Capabilities

These are threat capabilities, not virtues or models for Malone.

Organizational Vulnerabilities

Preliminary Malone Classification

The Bloods are not aligned with the Malone Network.

Their proper preliminary classification is: decentralized Blood-affiliated gang alliance rather than one organization; historically rooted in Black neighborhood protection against rival violence; structurally fragmented across autonomous sets and separate East Coast UBN systems; external and untrusted; operationally adverse because of documented murder, drug trafficking, robbery, fraud, sex trafficking, witness intimidation, coercive recruitment, and territorial control; not proven controlled opposition; no direct Malone operation presently established; severe threat wherever verified access, recruitment, criminal obligation, or targeting exists.

Monitoring Priorities

Responsible Analysis

The Bloods should not be romanticized as a unified army defending Black neighborhoods.

They should also not be used as a pretext to criminalize entire Black communities.

The governing rule is: identify the exact set, distinguish West Coast Bloods from UBN and named East Coast enterprises, verify membership and current status, separate protection narratives from documented harm, and never attribute one faction's crimes to every person wearing a color or living in a neighborhood.

Distinguishing the Terms

Selected References