Trinitarios

The Trinitarios were established in the early 1990s on Rikers Island, the New York City jail,[2][3] by two Dominicans facing separate murder charges—Leonides "Junito" Sierra and Julio "Caballo" Marine. The group was named for three revolutionaries of the Dominican War of Independence its motto is Dios, patria, y libertad ("God, homeland and liberty").[1][2] The group later became a latino street gang.[3] Their colors are lime green, as well as red, blue, and white (the colors of the Dominican Republic flag).[1]

The group suffered a major blow in 2009, as the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York dismantled the group through a series of prosecutions.[1] In 2011, 50 members and associates of the Bronx Trinitarios Gang (BTG) were charged with federal racketeering, narcotics and firearms offenses. Forty-one defendants were charged with a racketeering conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in connection to alleged participation in a criminal enterprise that included narcotics trafficking, murder and attempted murder.[4]

In 2014, the Trinitarios' co-founder and former leader, Sierra, was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the racketeering conspiracy, to run consecutively with a 22½ year to life sentence in New York that Sierra was already serving as a result of his 1989 murder conviction.[5] Some 140 other members, including Sierra's chief lieutenants, were also convicted and received lengthy prison sentences.[1]

Later, however, the group had a resurgence. Internal factions of the Trinitarios have battled with one another, beginning in 2011, when a leader of a Sunset Park, Brooklyn chapter of the Trinitarios attempted to expand to the Bronx without authorization.[1] The gang war that ensued intensified in 2018, with several shootings.[2][1]

In 2011, a New York City Police Department estimated that there were 3,181 Trinitarios in the city, about 5% of the total number of members of New York gangs.[1] Their numbers grew rapidly around 2007-2008,[6] but later remained stabilized.[1] The gang operates mainly in New York and New Jersey,[7] with activities in Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Albany and Long Island.[2] It also has a presence elsewhere in the Eastern Seaboard of the United States,[1] including Rhode Island,[1][7] Georgia,[7] Massachusetts,[7] Pennsylvania,[7] and Florida,[1] as well as Tennessee.[1] In Spain, membership of the Trinitarios is predominantly Dominican, but also Bolivian, Colombian and Spanish.[8] Such Latin American gangs spread to Spain as a result of mass deportations from the United States of Latin American immigrants with criminal records.[9]

The Trinitarios use the numbers “41-6-12” as a Trinitarios code, gang members use to identify themselves, and the letters “D, P, L” for their motto, are used similarly in tattoos. The “3ni” is shorthand for the gang’s name.[10]

The Trinitarios are known for their high degree of organization, including a hierarchical structure,[11][12] as well as for their use of brutal violence.[11][12] Testimony given against Trinitarios in court indicated that "one needs a sponsor to join, and once in, new members receive a rule book, take an oath and swear to abide by the gang's constitution."[1] The gang's "weapon of choice" is the machete,[2] but members also carry baseball bats, guns, and knives.[11] Criminal activities perpetrated by Trinitarios include drug dealing,[2][11] in heroin and cocaine, as well as assaults and home invasions.[11] The Trinitarios have infiltrated schools as a recruiting ground.[11][6]

Seven Barcelona-based members were convicted of using a kitchen knife to carve a fifty centimeter "X" into the back of a gang member deemed a traitor for associating with MS-13 on 21 March 2012.[13] During the trial, the Trinitarios were designated a criminal organization which allowed heavier sentences to be imposed upon the perpetrators and the gang's leaders.[14] On the same day as the ruling – 11 May 2014 – a brawl occurred in Madrid involving Trinitarios and Ñetas, leading to the arrests of twenty-six gang members.[15]

In August 2018 several Trinitarios gang members were arrested for shooting at a house in Lawrence, Massachusetts.[16] A Trinitarios gang member in Lawrence was arrested in January 2019 for the shooting of a 16-year-old girl in Lawrence. [17]

In June 2018, a Trinitario gang member from Haverhill, Massachusetts was arrested for the murder of a rival Gangsters Disciples gang member.[18] A Haverhill detective wrote that the arrests were in connection with an ongoing feud (a gang war) between the Trinitarios and their rivals, the Gangster Disciples, that had resulted in multiple shootings."[18]

In November 2019, in Massachusetts, 18 Trinitarios were among 32 arrested in "Operation Emerald Crush." The operation involved more than 70 federal, state and local officers who carried out the arrests of suspects alleged to have sold massive amounts of firearms and drugs including cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and crack cocaine with an estimated street value of $120,000. Authorities confiscated 79 firearms in the operation. Out of the 79 guns, which came in from out of state, 17 were stolen and at least two were used in shootings. In one case, undercover officers were able to buy 27 guns in one transaction.[19]