Above all else, the ABT is a criminal organization. Whether behind bars or on the streets, its members commit crimes with regularity: crimes for money, crimes for power or control, and crimes based on hate. In an assessment released by the Texas Fusion Center in March 2013, analysts ranked the ABT as having the fifth highest threat assessment out of the thousands of gangs (including street gangs, biker gangs, prison gangs, and others) present in Texas.
Because women are not considered formal members of the group, though the group relies heavily on female associates, the de facto size of the group may be considerably larger. The size of its main rival, the Aryan Circle, is around 1,400-1,500. In comparison, the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States, the National Socialist Movement, has fewer than 500 members total and only around 330 active members. In other words, the ABT is very large by extremist group standards.
ABT membership is heavily concentrated in Texas. The ABT is the dominant white supremacist prison gang in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, but its presence increasingly extends far beyond prison walls. The average felon in Texas serves a sentence of only around three years in prison, so many people who become ABT members in prison are quickly back out on the streets. Moreover, the ABT will also recruit members from the streets. As a result, the ABT has a street presence across Texas, though it is strongest in southeast Texas and along the I-35 corridor running from San Antonio north to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Sadly, the ABT has existed long enough that “second generation” ABT members are starting to appear—young adults raised from childhood by ABT members to become members themselves.
Although ABT members commit all sorts of crimes, most of their criminal acts fall into one of three categories:
1.Organized Crime
2.Gang-related Crime (Internal and External)
3.Hate-related Crime
Of these, organized crime is the most important category and constitutes the majority of the gang’s activities both behind bars and on the streets. Smuggling contraband is the most common prison-based crime. This includes especially illegal drugs such as methamphetamine but also a variety of other prohibited substances or materials. ABT members also run protection and extortion rackets and sometimes even engage in scams and frauds from behind prison walls.
On the streets, ABT members also engage heavily in methamphetamine trafficking. Sometimes, ABT members will make their own meth, sometimes turning cheap motel rooms into ad hoc meth labs. However, the ABT may also purchase meth from Mexican drug cartels (notably the Gulf Cartel) when it is cheaper to do so—one instance where the ABT clearly subordinates its ideology to its criminal endeavors. ABT members also routinely engage in burglary and theft rings, home invasions, and identity theft schemes.
Accompanying these crimes are related crimes of violence, whether killing the victims of a home invasion or killing police officers or others who may encounter ABT members in the act of committing some crime.
Kaufman County Texas D. A. Mike McLelland's office was one of numerous agencies involved in a multi-year investigation that led to the indictment of 34 alleged members of the ABT -- including four of its senior leaders -- on racketeering charges in November 2012 in Houston, Texas.
The indictment was a "devastating blow" to their organization.
Weeks later, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a statewide warning saying it had "credible information" that members of the group were planning to retaliate.
"We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year," McLelland had advised a news agency.
Source: LinkIn discussion pages ~
Because women are not considered formal members of the group, though the group relies heavily on female associates, the de facto size of the group may be considerably larger. The size of its main rival, the Aryan Circle, is around 1,400-1,500. In comparison, the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States, the National Socialist Movement, has fewer than 500 members total and only around 330 active members. In other words, the ABT is very large by extremist group standards.
ABT membership is heavily concentrated in Texas. The ABT is the dominant white supremacist prison gang in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, but its presence increasingly extends far beyond prison walls. The average felon in Texas serves a sentence of only around three years in prison, so many people who become ABT members in prison are quickly back out on the streets. Moreover, the ABT will also recruit members from the streets. As a result, the ABT has a street presence across Texas, though it is strongest in southeast Texas and along the I-35 corridor running from San Antonio north to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Sadly, the ABT has existed long enough that “second generation” ABT members are starting to appear—young adults raised from childhood by ABT members to become members themselves.
Although ABT members commit all sorts of crimes, most of their criminal acts fall into one of three categories:
1.Organized Crime
2.Gang-related Crime (Internal and External)
3.Hate-related Crime
Of these, organized crime is the most important category and constitutes the majority of the gang’s activities both behind bars and on the streets. Smuggling contraband is the most common prison-based crime. This includes especially illegal drugs such as methamphetamine but also a variety of other prohibited substances or materials. ABT members also run protection and extortion rackets and sometimes even engage in scams and frauds from behind prison walls.
On the streets, ABT members also engage heavily in methamphetamine trafficking. Sometimes, ABT members will make their own meth, sometimes turning cheap motel rooms into ad hoc meth labs. However, the ABT may also purchase meth from Mexican drug cartels (notably the Gulf Cartel) when it is cheaper to do so—one instance where the ABT clearly subordinates its ideology to its criminal endeavors. ABT members also routinely engage in burglary and theft rings, home invasions, and identity theft schemes.
Accompanying these crimes are related crimes of violence, whether killing the victims of a home invasion or killing police officers or others who may encounter ABT members in the act of committing some crime.
Kaufman County Texas D. A. Mike McLelland's office was one of numerous agencies involved in a multi-year investigation that led to the indictment of 34 alleged members of the ABT -- including four of its senior leaders -- on racketeering charges in November 2012 in Houston, Texas.
The indictment was a "devastating blow" to their organization.
Weeks later, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a statewide warning saying it had "credible information" that members of the group were planning to retaliate.
"We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year," McLelland had advised a news agency.
Source: LinkIn discussion pages ~
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