Who would think that the killing fields of Pol Pot in Cambodia would breed an extremely violent nationwide gang in the United States? Yet this is what happened. People fleeing the genocide in Cambodia were settling in California, but found themselves under attack from other Asian and black gangs, so they formed a gang in Long Beach, for protection. Initially, members had to be Cambodian, but over time, other Asians, and even Afro-American & Caucasians were accepted. The gang has two sections; the Grey Rags & the Blue Rags. The gang slowly spread across the US and now reputedly has 10,000 plus members.
Their sphere of criminality covers all the usual bases; drugs, murder, burglary, extortion, home invasions, violence. They do have female members, but members who quit, often are murdered or nearly beaten to death. To counter their activities, the authorities have taken to deporting them back to their countries of origin, but this creates problems in their own countries. They carry on recruiting and it has been said that a great many of prison inmates in Cambodia, have been deported from the US. Yet more areas under the control of street gangs, not traditional criminals. This shows the huge changes in crime and culture over the last four decades that now shape crime in the US. Is the Mafia as all-powerful as it once was? We all know the answer to that.
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