Trinitarios: Profile

The Trinitarios, a family also known as 3NI, started in the late 1980s in the New York state prison system. It is most frequently associated with the Marcy Houses in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. El Caballon is known to be the creator of today's Trinitarios, and is currently serving 25 years to life in Sing Sing prison. He started out serving time at Rikers Island.

In early February of 1884, Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco Del Rosario Sanchez and Ramon Matias Mella agreed to form the secret society, Trinitaria Identity, to help make the Dominican Republic independent. During this time, the country was under a degree of foreign control by countries like Haiti, Spain, France, and England. Haiti owned Santo Domingo until it gained independence in February of 1844. Ramon M. Mella launched the trabuscazo in the Puerta Del Conde, mobilizing the struggle for independence. The United States ruled the Dominican territory with a military government from 1916 to 1924, during which time the country experienced measurable economic improvements (wikipedia).

In homage to that same spirit of independence, a group of Dominicans that now call themselves the Trinitario formed in New York City to defend the rights of Dominican prisoners in the United States, following the slogan "Dios, Patria y Libertad" or "God, Fatherland and Liberty," the words printed at the centre of the country's flag.

The organization includes members from all ethnic backgrounds, not only Dominicans. They have been known to recruit many Puerto Ricans and South Americans.

They are sometimes known as "Patria," the term used when greeting each other. They are not affiliated with any other gang, nation, or organization.

While many members describe the Trinitarios as a family, established as a means for self-defence, the Passiac Herald News calls the Trinitarios " a criminal street gang [who] are organized...[with] a hierarchy and a chain of command. Members have been involved in crimes of all sorts -- drug distribution, assaults and home invasions." (link)


Latest News...

5/12/2006
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Hudson County prosecutors feel justice has finally been served in the case of a man stabbed to death with a screwdriver after the 2003 North Hudson Dominican Parade.

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In prison, Trinitarios have been reported by users in several different countries, with factions across South America, the Caribbean, Europe and North America, with particular influence in the east coast of the United States. In prison, they have so far they been reported in:

* Attica Correctional Facility, NY- where they operate with frequency with over 100 members
* Clinton Correctional Facility, NY- where they operate with frequency
with over 100 members
* Coxsackie Correctional Facility, NY
* Collins Correctional Facility, NY- where they operate with frequency with over 100 members
* Franklin Correctional Facility, NY- where they operate with frequency with over 100 members
* Greene Correctional Facility, NY- where they operate with frequency with over 100 members
* Hudson County Jail, NJ - where they operate with frequency with over 100 members
* Jamesburg Youth Correctional Center, NJ
* Lehigh County Prison, Pennsylvania
* Mercer County Jail, New Jersey
* New Jersey State Prison (Trenton)
* Passiac County Jail, NJ - where they operate with frequency with over 100 members
* Rikers Island, NY - where they operate with frequency with over 100 members
* Sing Sing - frequently active, over 100 members
* South Woods State Prison, NJ - where they operate with frequency with over 100 members

On the street, they have been reported in:

* Alaska
o Anchorage
* Connecticut - Winsted
* Dominican Republic - where 1000s of members exist throughout the country
* Europe
o Madrid, Spain
* Florida
o Orlando
o Fort Lauderdale
o Palm Bay
o West Palm beach
* Illinois
o Springfield
o Chicago
* Massachusetts
o Boston
o Lawrence
* New Jersey - Hundreds of members are now in New Jersey, especially in:
o Bayonne
o East Orange
o Elizabeth
o Hudson County
o Irvington
o Jersey City
o New Brunswick
o North Bergen
o Passaic County
o Patterson
o Perth Amboy
o Trenton
o Union City
o West New York, according to news reports and user sources.
* New York, NY - has chapters in all five New York City boroughs, including Staten Island in Richmond County, Baldwin Town in Nassau County, and Yonkers in Westchester County, and Southside Williamsbug in Brooklyn
* North Carolina
o North Raleigh
* Ohio - Colombus and Hilliard
* Pennsylvania
o Hazleton
o Bethlehem
o Allentown
* Rhode Island, Providence
* South America (specific locations needed)

**UPDATE**

Police round up 17 more members of Trinitario gang



by Daniel P. Bader



In the early hours of Tue., July 7 more than 100 police officers swarmed the area between W. 171st and W. 174th Streets and Audubon and Amsterdam Avenues, arresting 13 local residents identified with the Trinitario gang who they believe to be selling cocaine.

The arrests were coordinated with a similar effort in Hudson County, NJ by the New Jersey State Police. In total 17 defendants were arrested and police are looking for six others.

In March over 200 police officers stormed the same stretch of blocks, arresting 40 Trinitarios members in relation to a marijuana operation. During that raid a police bus was brought to the neighborhood to transport the alleged drug dealers.

“Members and associates of the Trinitarios gang controlled the distribution of retail and wholesale quantities of cocaine to street customers, and to other narcotics dealers from around the city,” Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said in a statement announcing the indictments and arrests.

“In addition to incorporating related drug activity, the conspiracy charges also accuse various defendants of possessing weapons in and around their West 171st Street turf,” the statement continued.

According to Morgenthau, police used court-approved eavesdropping, undercover purchases and surveillance to penetrate the gang.

Dealers sold cocaine inside and in front of residential buildings, wearing green, the gang’s color, and congregated “en masse” on the street, flashing gang hand signs. Prices were negotiated on the street, bringing the customers inside the buildings to complete the cash sales.

“The gang took over many public spaces, in and around these residential buildings, including stoops, stairwells, lobbies, doorways, hallways and basements,” Morgenthau said.

“This investigation was also a focused effort to reduce gang-related violence in Washington Heights,” Morgenthau said. For example, one man, Alfredo Mercedes, a.k.a. “Manol” and “Red Cap,” is awaiting trial for a Jan. 31 assault. Mercedes allegedly slashed his victim in the face with a box cutter on Audubon Avenue and W. 171st Street. The victim needed 80 stitches to seal the wound.

During the investigation one suspect, Henry Santos, a.k.a. “Airborn” or “Avion,” was shot during an apparent drug transaction in Philadelphia.

Morgenthau said the Trinitario gang, also know as “Trinis,” began in New York City prisons, consolidating other, smaller gangs. Once released, the members continued their gang activity, recruiting people from the street and expanding.

Police also arrested one of the gang’s suspected suppliers, Felix Lopez, his son, Vladimir, and a third man, David Guzman, charging them with multiple counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds.

The 17 arrested on July 7 were all charged with conspiracy in the second degree, a felony charge that carries a nine-year prison sentence. Ten of the arrested gang members were charged with conspiracy in the first degree, for involving minors in the drug operation.

Calls to 33rd Police Precinct Commander Joseph Dowling for comment were not returned by press time.


At the beginning of February of 1884, Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco Del Rosario Sanchez and Ramon Matias Mella agreed in that year to form the secret society, the trinitaria identity that served to free and independize the country (Dominican Republic) in that time the country was breathing air of invasions from foreign controls such as Haiti, Spain, France, and England and other countries that wanted control of the Republic, It was then when the illustrious idea came to the fathers of the country on February 25, 1844. Ramon M. Mella launched the trabuscazo in the Puerta Del Conde, immediately the struggle formed for the fight of the independence which was obtained on February 27, 1844. Thanks to the fathers of the country, the Dominican Republic breathes air of democracy.

A group of Dominicans, in the prisons and now streets of New York maintain living that remembrance to continue with the idea to form a group that is called "Trinitario" to protect and to defend the rights of the imprisoned Dominican in different prisons of the United States and to create a single group inside prison and on the street that signifies Dios, Patria y Libertad.

One of the BIGGEST and most RUTHLESS gangs that I have recently seen in and around New York City. With there numbers steadily growing all over the world and especially on the east coast of the United States. The organization has members from all ethnic backgrounds they do not discriminate.