Black Dragons

The Black Dragon's is a Chinese/ American gang that was formed in 1980 by Chinese immigrants in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles, California. It was founded by a group of young men who bounded together to protect themselves from other Asian, and Hispanics gangs. The Black Dragons operated in Los Angeles for over two decades. At the gang's peak, it had over 100 core members.

The gang preyed on the Asian American communities as a source of income and is highly unique compared to other Asian crime groups as they were involved in both organized and street-level crime. The revenue from Organized Crime came mainly from extorting, brothels, prostitution, money Laundring, drug dealing and counterfieting merchandise. At street level the gang was involved in a wide range of crimes that included, murder, robbery, violent criminal acts, illegal weapons use, drug dealing, car theft, and home invasion robberies.

The Black Dragons' influence was strong in the San Gabriel Valley, during the mid 1990's until its downfall in 2002. The gang gained the attention of federal authorities because of its involvement in highly violent acts. The FBI opened a case against the Black Dragons in 1999. The FBI soon created the Black Dragon Task force and the three year investigation lead to the convictions of multiple gang members, stemming from murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, extortion, illegal possession of firearms and RICO charges. The gang was taken down in one of the largest gang sweeps of 2002, as Federal Agents stimutaneously raided and arrested 30 of its core members.