The Aryan Brotherhood, also known as The Brand, the AB, Alice Baker, or the One-Two, is a white supremacist prison gang and organized crime syndicate in the United States with about 20,000 members in and out of prison. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), although the gang makes up less than 1% of the prison population, it is responsible for up to 20% of murders in the federal prison system. The AB has focused on the economic activities typical of organized crime entities, particularly drug trafficking, extortion, inmate prostitution, and murder-for-hire.
Organization at lower levels varies from prison to prison. For example, in the Arizona prison system, members are known as "kindred" and organize into "families". A "council" controls the families. Kindred may recruit other members, known as "progeny", and serve as a mentor for the new recruits. The group has an alliance with La Eme (The Mexican Mafia) as the two are mutual enemies of Black Guerilla Family. According to a federal indictment, the AB has partnered with Asian gangs to import heroin from Thailand.
Like most prison gangs, Aryan Brotherhood members mark themselves with distinctive tattoos. Designs commonly include the words "Aryan Brotherhood", "AB", SS, 666, sig runes, shamrocks, and other Nazi symbolism and Celtic iconography.
Read more about Aryan Brotherhood: History, Notable Members
Famous quotes containing the word brotherhood:
“It has been the struggle between privileged men who have managed to get hold of the levers of power and the people in general with their vague and changing aspirations for equality, for justice, for some kind of gentler brotherhood and peace, which has kept that balance of forces we call our system of government in equilibrium.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)