Highlights
– Public Enemy Number 1 has emerged as a leading white supremacist gang operating in both prison and on the streets primarily in California
– PENI has doubled the size of its ranks in the past three years and this growth is expected to continue in the near-term
In the past several years, Public Enemy Number 1 (PENI) has emerged as a leading white supremacist gang operating in both prison and on the streets primarily in California. Recently, the gang has also begun to spread to other western states, and has become increasingly bold in its operations, ranging from drug trafficking to targeting members of local law enforcement.
According to authorities in California, PENI has doubled the size of its ranks to at least 400 in the past three years alone, and officials believe that there could be hundreds of additional members who are unknown to police. Authorities have noted that the gang is heavily recruiting throughout California and Arizona, and potentially in Nevada and Idaho. As PENI continues to expand across the western US, it is likely that the threat from the group will expand accordingly.
Origins and Recent Growth
PENI first emerged in the mid-1980s as a group of white, middle-class youths supportive of the punk rock subculture in southern California, and later transformed into a violent gang following changes in the power structure of prominent white supremacist prison gangs.
The Aryan Brotherhood (AB) has long been the most prominent white power prison gang in the US. However, in the 1970s authorities attempted to crack down on the group, by placing its members in Secure Housing Units- or areas where members of prison gangs can automatically be placed in order to segregate them from the general prison population. These efforts forced the AB to contract out to “middlemen” in order to continue their illegal operations outside of prison. The AB initially turned to the Nazi Low Riders (NLR), yet as the NLR began to grow as a result of this cooperation, US officials designated the group as a prison gang, and its members then faced the same limitations as the AB.
The AB subsequently turned to PENI, as the group is not officially classified as a prison gang, and therefore its members are frequently placed in the general population of a prison, where they can meet with other inmates and more easily conduct illegal activities. Since the formation of this relationship, PENI has increased its wealth and its recruiting power, allowing for its steady growth in recent years.
Criminal Activity
PENI members are engaged in a variety of illegal activities:
Drug Trafficking: PENI is primarily involved in the trafficking of methamphetamine, yet is not involved in the production of any drug.
White Collar Crime: In recent years, members have become increasingly involved in credit card fraud, identity theft, and counterfeiting. PENI has also encouraged friends or associates who work at certain institutions, such as banks and hospitals, to steal private data to benefit the gang. PENI uses money from these operations to fund their methamphetamine business.
Violent Crimes: PENI members are involved in various types of violent crime, to include murder and assault. The majority of such attacks target minorities or PENI members/associates believed to have betrayed the gang.
Female members and associates also play a key role in PENI. Women frequently obtain menial jobs to obtain additional funding for the group, and often provide apartments or “safe houses” where members can hide if being tracked by police. Women have also served as drug couriers and as intermediaries between members in prison and members on the streets.
While PENI claims that it strictly abides by a white supremacist ideology, in many instances, the gang’s strong desire to increase its profits often results in temporary associations with Asian and/or Hispanic gangs.
Growth Likely to Continue
US officials have had some success against PENI in recent years as they have carried out several operations resulting in large-scale arrests of the gang’s members.
– In late 2006, California police arrested 67 members of PENI following a 10-month investigation due to the discovery of a “hit list” that included the names of a local prosecutor and several police officers in southern part of the state.
– In 2005, California authorities arrested 19 members following an investigation into a high school football coach who was recruiting for the gang. Police located 75 illegal weapons, 15,000 rounds of ammunition, stolen vehicles, drugs, and Nazi propaganda.
However, despite these arrests, PENI operates efficiently both in and outside of prison, and has continued its activities unabated. The discovery of the “hit list” against local officials was considered an escalation in the gang’s violent activities and highlights the threat members pose to communities, specifically to law enforcement. Authorities remain concerned that PENI is using stolen credit card information to obtain the home addresses of police and their families, indicating the significant threat posed by the gang.
PENI has grown steadily over the past years, and will likely continue to expand (potentially into other areas of the country), due to its connection to other white supremacist gangs and its funding from illegal operations, unless significant steps are taken to combat and halt this growth.
