AD3 is not just any graffiti on a wall in any neighborhood. It means “Love of Three”, but it is not a romantic or sexual graffiti. Its translation is: the band of the Dominican Don’t Play He is already in this area and considers it his territory.
The DDP footprint on the streets Spanish is behind other apparently innocent graffiti like 4.4.16 (his favorite numerical combination, which refers to the letters D, the fourth of the alphabet, D and P, the sixteenth), plus the number 3, and EOEEE (his battle cry before attacking members of rival gangs).
Latino gang members form a subculture, have their own language, their language. Tattoos, clothes, colors, symbols, gestures with fingers or hands, handkerchiefs… Researchers of the Information Brigades of the National Police they immerse themselves in these subcultures in order to fight violence and avoid crime.
In the last three years they have detected the presence of Latino gangs in Madrid, Toledo, Guadalajara, Burgos, Valladolid, Asturias, Navarra, Zaragoza, Alicante, Valencia, Murcia, Albacete, Tarragona, Barcelona and Mallorca.
With the graffiti, which the Latino gangs call “placazos”, they announce that that park or that field is theirs. And they warn the members of other gangs not to come near that way. If they do, there is carte blanche for violence.
“Straw”, the Trinitarians
A “plazazo” or graffiti where the initials PPT is read means Straw. That’s the signature of that out there reign, or so they presume, members of a choir (group) the Trinitarians, the rival gang of the DDP and whose war in the streets of Madrid caused five murders and dozens of violent incidents in 2022. Other signs that the Trinitarians want to make an area of the city their own are seeing on walls and premises written the number 157 (which means Original Trinitarian), or the inscriptions AD7 (Love of Seven, the fetish number of the Trinitarians), 1844, 3NI and the words Homeland or House Trap.
The most worrying graffiti reading for the policemen who fight against the Latino gangs does not say anything to profane eyes. If on a wall it appears written “3030” that means that a “gang war” has been decreed nearby. “Go to 3030” is a formal call to go to war, to take out the machetes. It usually happens when a territory is in disputewith no clear owner, and anyone who appears where they shouldn’t can be hurt.
In the latest gang crime In Madrid, the murder of a 15-year-old boy named William who had contacts with the Trinitarians, his murderer shouted: “Fuck 7”, another of the slogans and of the favorite graffiti of the DDP, its rivals. It happened in Villaverde, a neighborhood where there are several areas in dispute between DDP and Trinitarios.
Police sources explain that, in addition to Villaverde, there are several districts of Madrid that are currently fighting for members of the two main gangs. They are areas of Usera and Carabanchel, above all, also some places in the districts of Latina and Ciudad Lineal. In the Cuatro Caminos area, on the other hand, the battle for territory has been won, for the moment, by the Trinitarians. And this is how they sign it on the walls and the premises of the neighborhood: write 4R or T4Ralluding to chorus Trinidadian (group) that has taken over the area. Rival gangs no longer enter there and there are very few falls or fights.
The dog paw mark
the bloods They are another gang, currently allied with the Trinitarians in their deadly fight against the DDP. Relatively new to Spain, they usually sign their drawings and graffiti with a five-pointed star and the name of the band: Blood or “My blood”. They also use the initials ADS (Love of Blood) and UBN (United Blood Nation).
They have presence and range in some areas of the center of Madrid. Some of his gang members have what they call the “dog’s paw mark” tattooed on their right shoulder, three dots that look like the animal’s footprint, almost always made by burning the skin with a cigarette.
A graffiti or plaque where it is read suu whoop it means that the Bloods launch their war cry. is taken from a song by rapper YD. More worrisome is reading on any mural in the neighborhood the initials CK (Crips Kill) either the number 187. In blood language, this means that a young man lives nearby, possibly a rival gang member, who is free to attack and, if necessary, kill.
Lions, crowns and rosaries
The Latin Kings and the Ñetas They are the bands, both of Ecuadorian origin, that first established themselves in Spain. Eric Velastegui, alias El Padrino, founded the Inca section of the gang in the Community of Madrid in 2000. “El Padrino” has been in prison for almost twenty years for directing the Latin Kings and raping a young woman, among other crimes. This week he was detained in his cell by Civil Guard investigators. They accuse him of continuing to lead the gang from prison, among other crimes.
The favorite graffiti of the Latins to mark territory are the number 5, the combination 1.4.18, figures of lions, crowns and religious reasons like rosaries and thorns.
The Ñetas sign with the N, with the combination of numbers 1.50 and also with the two crossed fingers drawing, the favorite greeting of its founder Carlos “la Sombra”. The two groups are present, above all, in different areas of Vallecas. In the Puente de Vallecas area there are skimming and already having incidents with the Trinitarians.
number 42
Related news
another violent gang the forty two, of Dominican origin and created in the Chicago jail, is present above all in some places on the periphery of the Community of Madrid. They use combinations of number 42 or 3.65, they also like to sign with initials like PAP and PAPHU. The Police detained in December its leader o supreme in an apartment in Alcorcón with nine minors. A young man had been seriously injured at the Las Águilas commuter station in Latina.
In that neighborhood of Madrid, members of the latest Latin and Spanish band, the Mara Salvatrucha, of Salvadoran origin. Its members and followers wear the number 13 as a symbol in graffiti and tattoos. Sign painted with initials MS and sometimes the number 503, alluding to a splinter group of the original band.