A total of 46 suspected gang members from a multi-state gang called the Rollin' 20s were arrested in Jacksonville Friday which leave many of us wondering, 'who are the Rollin' 20s?'
Gang members affiliated with crime organizations such as the Rollin' 20s commit a wide variety of crimes ranging from murder, attempted murder, drug and gun trafficking, robbery, arson, witness intimidation, etc.
First Coast News started digging into past crimes of the Rollin' 20s in and around the First Coast within the last few years and found these:
- In August in Cobb County, Georgia, a member of the "Rollin' 20s" Bloods was sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing a top gang member to increase his status.
- A suspected member of the 'Bloods' gang, Hassan Smiley, 33, was charged with the murder of a Westside Jacksonville man in December 2016.
- A multi-month drug investigation known as "Operation Rolling Twenties" led to 11 arrests in Palatka in November 2016.
- Several Rollin' 20s members were connected to a hit on a witness in a case involving Quintae Hudson, according to Florida Times-Union.
In the press conference Friday, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said the Rollin' 20s are a subset of the infamous national street gang, the 'Bloods'.
PHOTOS | Suspected Rollin' 20s gang members arrested
To understand the Bloods, it's necessary to learn about the Crips and the violent decades-long rivalry between the two gangs.
The Crips gang originated on high school campuses throughout the Los Angeles area. In their early years of existence, the gang's main activities included "extortion of funds from non-gang members, theft, and assault," according to Stanford University.
The Crips now consist of an estimated 30,000 to 55,000 members, according to National Crime Syndicate (NCS).
Bloods are a street gang founded in Los Angeles in 1972 in an effort to protect themselves from the many Crip gangs in the area. The brutal rivalry between the two has lasted since.
According to Stanford University, the Crips and Bloods began to divide into smaller sets in the latter half of the 1970s, claiming certain neighborhoods as their territory. Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said the Rollin' 20s were a subset of the Bloods.
Williams also said the Rollin' 20s has ties up and down the East Coast and branches to cities in California, which makes sense since the Bloods originated in California.
Almost every article found online recognizes this group by the full name, 'Rollin' 20s Neighborhood Bloods' (R20NHB). It is not confirmed whether the suspected gang members arrested in Jacksonville are of the same group.