Public Enemy No. 1 (PENI) is a white supremacist gang that first emerged in the 1980s as a group of white upper-middle class teenagers who supported the punk-rock subculture in southern California. The group has transformed into a violent gang involved in the illegal drug trade, and increasingly, white-collar crime, to include computer and credit card fraud, counterfeiting, and identity theft. Members regularly engage in violent crimes, such as assault and murder, often attacking minorities and PENI members who have allegedly betrayed the gang.
PENI operates both in prison and on the streets, allowing for the gang to rise in influence and thus draw a larger number of recruits. Despite the gang’s racist skinhead ideology, it frequently works with other non-white street and prison gangs in order to increase its activities, primarily the trafficking of methamphetamine. While the majority of PENI members operate in northern and southern California, primarily in Orange County, the gang is beginning to expand into other states, such as Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho. According to local authorities, significant recruitment is currently underway, particularly in California and Arizona.
Recent Expansion
Law enforcement officials have attributed PENI’s growth to changes in the power structure of several other prominent prison gangs.
The Aryan Brotherhood, the largest US white supremacist prison gang, was a significant problem for California prisons in the late 1970s. Authorities began attempts to crack down on the gang’s operations, largely by placing members in solitary confinement units. In response, the gang began to forge relationships with members of the Nazi Low Riders, who were able to act as middlemen and contact outside members, thus ensuring the Aryan Brotherhood’s continued criminal activity outside of prison. The relationship also significantly bolstered the Nazi Low Riders’ reputation, and thus increased its membership. However, law enforcement officials noted the growth of the Nazi Low Riders and officially reclassified the group as a prison-based gang in 2000. This decision allowed authorities to automatically place members in solitary confinement units once they arrived in prison, and consequently limited the gang’s contact with members of the Aryan Brotherhood.
As a result, the Aryan Brotherhood began to pursue an alliance with PENI, as its members operate both in and outside of prison, and it has not officially been classified as a prison-based gang. The relationship was solidified when the alleged leader of PENI, Donald Reed “Popeye” Mazza, was inducted into the Aryan Brotherhood in 2005. PENI membership has grown steadily since the beginning of this relationship, and has reportedly doubled in the past three years.
The Challenges Ahead
In addition to the increasing size and influence of PENI, members are becoming increasingly bold, to include compiling “hit lists” of law enforcement officers. In December 2006, police arrested 67 members in southern California after discovering a hit list comprised of an Orange County prosecutor and five police officers from Anaheim, Buena Park, and Costa Mesa. In a separate case, a gang member was taken to an emergency room after he was detained, where he attempted to assault a police officer with a scalpel.
Additionally, the gang has many active female members, who assist in carrying out criminal activities. As these women are often able to conceal their gang affiliation, they assist in drug trafficking and often work in jobs that may be beneficial to PENI members in their white-collar crime endeavors.
The continued expansion of PENI will pose increasing problems for law enforcement officials, as members will likely continue to target police in attacks. As the gang continues to develop its capabilities, the challenges in combating the group will increase accordingly.
