Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller (2020) s03e08 Episode Script
Gangs
1
(laughter)
CHIP: My whole life was like
My whole life was like
(sighs)
Like a jungle.
MARIANA: You're 15 years old
and you've just arrived in
a new country where economic
survival is an ongoing struggle.
CHIP: I got five siblings,
two twin brothers
and three sisters.
Rent was always late.
Lights cut out sometimes,
you got to use the candles.
MARIANA: On these streets,
when opportunity does knock,
it often comes in the
form of gang membership.
CHIP: When it
comes to recruitments,
immigrants are
the most vulnerable,
easiest targets.
Hey ♪
Yeah ♪♪
CHIP: They already
come from having nothing.
Yeah ♪♪
CHIP: The younger they are,
the easier to manipulate.
Go ♪♪
CHIP: Because
they have a mindset,
"I have a point to prove.
I have a point to prove."
Yeah, yeah ♪
Give me some (inaudible)
keeping the lights off ♪♪
REPORTER (over TV):
L.A. area gangs are targeting
the city's rich in
a new aggressive way.
MARIANA: Those who heed the call
will walk through a doorway into
a black market teeming
with guns, drugs, and cash.
You see they're not moving ♪♪
MARIANA: But
there's a price to pay,
because this door revolves.
(theme music playing).
Wear your armor ♪
I'm, like, I use
no weapon, it's an honor ♪
I'm like let's
get to flexing ♪
Quite the turn, you
better get to stepping ♪
If they wanna ♪♪
Hey, I started making noise ♪
Now they say I'm certified ♪♪
MARIANA: This is
Chip and Playboi.
They are gang
members in Los Angeles.
For them, these
streets are paved with gold.
It's just a
matter of extracting it.
So, if you were
sitting on this corner and
you're waiting for somebody,
is there a specific kind of
person that you're targeting?
By the way they're dressed or
MARIANA: And do
you go to places like
Beverly Hills or Bel-Air or
MARIANA: Is there
more security there?
MARIANA: There are
public and private
sides to the gangs of LA.
Outwardly, there's the Swagger;
the Outlaw culture recognized
and even celebrated
around the world.
But there's also the
business end of gang life.
The black markets and violence
that fuel the lifestyle.
CHIP: Where I'm
going to take y'all right
now is by the strip club.
MARIANA: So she
would call and say,
"Okay, there's a guy
that has a lot of money,
a lot of cash, and he's
walking out right now."
MARIANA: Guns or
what are you doing?
MARIANA: These armed robberies
and home invasions are a means
to an end, staking them
with enough money to pursue
their own version
of the American dream.
MARIANA: Oh, my God.
And is it
This all illegal weed?
MARIANA: Oh.
And oh, so you're
selling wholesale?
MARIANA: $1,500 for that?
MARIANA: What's a Kel-Tec?
MARIANA: So wait, so if these
guns all have serial numbers,
which I'm
assuming they do, right?
'Cause they're not ghost guns,
how do you go about selling
them on the black market?
MARIANA: Playboi is
associated with the Bloods
and Chip with the Crips.
But they share a background that
has cemented their relationship.
So you guys were
born in the US, right?
MARIANA: Belize, where Playboi
and Chip's family come from,
is a small country
in Central America and
a poor one relative
to the United States.
MARIANA: So did your parents,
knowing that you guys were
surrounded by gangs and
gang activity when you were
growing up, did they want
to move elsewhere, or did they?
MARIANA: Were your
families involved in gangs?
ALEX: The tradition of
gangs in Los Angeles and
in the United States
goes back over 200 years.
We often talk about
Blacks, Latinos, Mexicans,
people from Central America,
but the early history of
gangs in the United States
were mostly White immigrants.
Italians, Irish, Jews.
MARIANA: Professor
Alex Alonzo has spent more
than 20 years
researching gangs in America.
ALEX: By the time you get to the
early part of the 20th Century,
you start seeing
African Americans,
you start seeing Latinos,
mostly Mexicans
and Puerto Ricans,
they start participating.
And then when you
get into the '80s,
the '90s and 2000s, you got a
whole group of Central Americans
that are immigrating
into the United States,
and now they are becoming
the gang members of America.
MARIANA: I want to know how
a tiny country like Belize,
with a population
of just 400,000,
has produced, anecdotally,
so many heavy hitters in
Los Angeles street gangs.
But first, I need to
understand the landscape.
How many gang members in
total do you think exist in LA?
SANCHEZ: It's gotta be 50,000.
MARIANA: Detective
Sanchez and his partners in
the Los Angeles
Sheriff's Gang Suppression Unit,
report that 17 of
the last 19 murders
in the district they
cover have been gang related.
REPORTER (over TV):
That safety threat seems to be
growing even more alarming; gan
members roving in several cars.
REPORTER 2 (over TV):
Thieves targeting victims
with expensive watches and
designer handbags.
MARIANA: A recent
police task force
identified 17 different gangs
participating in the latest
wave of follow-home robberies.
SANCHEZ: We've seen an
increase in crime, tremendously.
Yeah.
Our homicides are up,
in the late 40's to 50's.
Our shootings are
up about the same.
MARIANA: Percent,
you mean percentage?
SANCHEZ: Percentage. Yes.
MARIANA: Wow.
SANCHEZ: The last
couple years, it's just spiked.
MARIANA: As have
armed robberies.
In 2021, they increased
57% over the year before.
SANCHEZ: Let me
see your hands
(speaking in native language).
SANCHEZ: Anything
on you right now?
Let me know. Nothing?
MAN: No.
SANCHEZ: You sure?
MAN: I'm sure.
SANCHEZ: Every gang member
has a role within the gang.
Some people are shooters.
Some people commit thefts.
Other people
commit embezzlement.
Your most respected
are the guys that commit
the shootings and the assaults.
MARIANA: But it's the young
ones who often carry weapons.
Keep an eye on the young man
in the red shirt as we pull up.
MAN: Hey, come on, bro.
Get your hands, bro.
SANCHEZ: One of my
partners recovered this
from one of the gang members.
It's basically a
semi-auto nine millimeter.
There was one in
the chamber and several
live rounds in the magazine.
I believe that the
gang member that had
this firearm was a juvenile.
I believe he's 15,
so that's very common.
The older gang members know that
they have less time in jail,
less sentences for juveniles,
as opposed to an
adult who's on probation,
who has a criminal
record to have this firearm.
So it's very common for the
youngsters to have the firearm
and nothing happens to the kid.
His grandmother comes right now,
we give them both citations.
That's it, he's done.
He can get another gun right
now and be out here again.
MARIANA: LA has
more than 450 gangs,
each with its own
customs and history.
And according to
Chip and Playboi,
many Belizean gang
members are concentrated here
in the Jungles.
20 years ago, this neighborhood
was a location of the film,
Training Day.
(overlapping chatter)
HOYT: What are we
doing going in here, man?
We'll get killed coming in here.
HARRIS: Ah, you know
about this place, huh?
HOYT: Yeah, it's
the Jungle, right?
HARRIS: That's right.
HOYT: They say
don't come in here with
anything less than a platoon.
MARIANA: Today, the
Jungles is still known as
an active gang
neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Think we're meeting here
in the corner of this park.
To film here, we've been
told that we need permission
from an elder in the gang.
And to get that elder,
we'll first need to be vetted
by a man named Squab.
♪
MARIANA: So it wouldn't
have been wise for us to
just come here by ourselves,
with cameras,
without having you?
SQUAB: Nah.
Because (bleep) might
pull up on you and rob you,
and shoot you, anything.
You feel me?
You're not safe without
a tour guide, basically.
MARIANA: It looks much nicer
than what I was expecting.
SQUAB: Yeah. We keep it nice.
MARIANA: It's like all
the beautiful palm trees and
SQUAB: Yeah. We keep it up nice.
But it's very dangerous.
You know, coming
around here playing,
you might get what
you're looking for.
MARIANA: I want to
understand how members of
a small immigrant community,
in this case Belize,
are swallowed by the tide of
gang violence in Los Angeles.
But gaining access
to this area where
they're concentrated
requires permission.
Squab, how old were you
when you joined the gang?
SQUAB: I was, like, 12.
I went to the meeting
and lied, and said I was 14.
MARIANA: Why? Did you just
really wanted to be a part?
SQUAB: Yeah.
I need, I needed in.
MARIANA: Why?
SQUAB: Because, I just, I
just loved everything about it.
It was, like, it, it was
just a family set, you feel me?
It was an upbringing,
you feel me?
It was love.
It was, it was just different.
MARIANA: And so you're,
you're a Blood?
SQUAB: I'm a P. Stone.
MARIANA: A P. Stone.
SQUAB: Yeah. It, it, it falls
under the category of Bloods.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
And you, you still
consider yourself a P. Stone?
SQUAB: Yeah, I'm
gonna always be that.
My whole life.
MARIANA: How many times have
you been shot in your lifetime?
SQUAB: Two
separate times, 13 shots.
So, I got shot five times here.
MARIANA: Oh my God.
This is all a scar?
SQUAB: Yup.
Four inches away from the heart.
MARIANA: Wow.
SQUAB: In the stomach, like
an inch away from the spine.
MARIANA: I can see all
the bullet holes here.
What happened?
SQUAB: I'm a active gang member
at the time, fully fledged
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
SQUAB: With it.
So that comes
with the territory.
MARIANA: How did you survive?
SQUAB: I was in
the hospital, like, 30 days.
I was back out here doing
the same (bleep) I was doing.
MARIANA: Really?
SQUAB: Before I got shot.
But more now.
Now I was trying
to kill some (bleep).
CHIP: It's a thrill.
The fightings, the robberies,
the shootings,
seeing people get jumped.
It's exciting to ask a new
face where they're from and
pull out a knife, give them
a couple shanks or something,
you know, like, "Stay
the (bleep) away from here.
You don't belong here and
I've never seen you here before,
and this is why what's
happening to you is happening."
MARIANA: Is it this way?
SQUAB: Yeah, it's this way.
Yeah, we going right upstairs,
up here and, uh, I'm
gonna introduce yous.
MARIANA: So, yeah.
Can hear some music.
SQUAB: Yeah, that's some of my,
that's my Belizean people
playing a Caribbean
music a little bit,
everybody live in the building.
MARIANA: So you have immigrant,
a lot of Belizeans and
other immigrant groups?
SQUAB: Definitely.
All type of immigrant.
MARIANA: Squab says there's
only one person who can grant us
permission to film
among the Black P. Stones
in the Jungles, and that's
who we're headed to meet now.
TONE: In 1983, my
mother was killed.
My mother was beat to death.
So I became seriously
active in the gang at that time.
I picked up a gun, was
trying to kill the man that
was actually, like,
beat my mother to death.
MARIANA: Hmm. How old were you?
TONE: I was 16.
MARIANA: Tone is an elder
among the Black P. Stones.
He first moved to the Jungles
when he was seven years old.
At the time, the Bloods
and Crips were new gangs.
The Crips had formed in 1969,
as an alliance between
two small street gangs and
took on the color blue
as a tribute to a member
who was wearing
blue when he was killed.
Three years later, an
offshoot set of Crips
would form their own gang,
taking on the color red and
referring to members as Bloods.
Unlike other
organized crime groups,
the Bloods and Crips
are largely decentralized,
meaning members
rarely pay money upwards.
TONE: When I joined
a gang, I joined a gang.
It was a decision I made.
I wasn't birthed into it.
You have a lot of gang members
now that are birthed into it.
MARIANA: So, by birthed
into it, you mean these kids
that are born and they
really don't have an option?
They
TONE: Exactly.
MARIAN: They're
forced to joining.
TONE: And, or, and,
or their parents are
already from the gang.
MARIANA: Right.
TONE: Right now,
if you're young,
you don't really have a choice.
MARIANA: What about
immigrant communities that's,
like Belizeans, who
started coming here?
How did it affect, when you're
coming here with your family,
when you're super young,
or you're first generation?
TONE: Whatever gang
element they moved into,
the gangs are mainly like the
families in that neighborhood,
they're going to pull to
that like a small village.
So it doesn't matter.
If they landed in the Crips,
they're gonna be
part of the Crips.
If they landed in
the Bloods, they're
gonna be part of the Bloods.
It's the village of whatever
part of town they move to.
MARIANA: Do you know
people who are currently,
young people who are active in?
TONE: I know, I
know all the ones that's
active in my neighborhood.
MARIANA: Could you
put in a word for us?
We're, we'd love to meet.
TONE: That's not a problem.
I can get you a
couple of ones that's
really active in the gangs.
We can definitely do that.
(phone buzzing)
GHOST: Hello? Yeah, you.
Hey, you, uh, you
can come now, fool,
I'm on the block.
All right. Damn.
MARIANA: He's here?
GHOST: Come in, bro.
MAN: Sup?
GHOST: What's happening, dude?
GHOST: Four?
MAN: Yeah.
GHOST: This is how we,
this is how we serve it up,
so he say he want four lines,
so that's four ounces
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
GHOST: So I just gotta
pour it until it hit four.
MARIANA: Oh, it's really purple.
Tone has cleared the
way for me to meet, "Ghost,"
a member of the Black P. Stones
who was born in Belize.
Ghost makes his living
selling ounces of lean,
a potent mixture of
cough syrup and promethazine.
How much do you pay for it?
GHOST: This right
here is four lines,
so that's, like,
that's 250 a line
MARIANA: It's $1,000?
GHOST: Yeah,
that's how much we get.
(inaudible), all set my boy.
(overlapping chatter)
MARIANA: Bye.
So this is all
the money you made today?
GHOST: Yeah.
MARIANA: So, it's about
$2,000 just from selling drugs?
GHOST: Yeah.
MARIANA: So wait, so
you were born where?
GHOST: I was born in Belize.
MARIANA: And when
did you come to the US?
GHOST: I came out
here when I was like,
when I was 17-years-old.
So I, I came out
here nine years ago.
MARIANA: When you were
living in Belize though, do,
did you know what
gang life was already?
GHOST: Yeah, I was, because
I had been exposed over there.
Deports, like, deportees
from over here go over there
and they start gangs.
So, I grew up around that.
MARIANA: What kind
of gangs were there?
GHOST: Um, Bloods, Crips.
MARIANA: So the same gangs?
GHOST: Yeah, the
same gang over here.
Me growing up, I had to have
pistol with me going to school.
I grew up people not liking
me because of my dad back home.
MARIANA: Can you tell me
what your dad does in Belize?
GHOST: He the police in
Belize right now, ma'am.
He ain't in charge, but he's
MARIANA: One of them. Right now?
GHOST: Right now.
MARIANA: Does he know
you're involved in a gang here?
GHOST: He do.
Yeah, he know I been in
the prison and all that like.
MARIANA: And what, what,
what were you charged with?
MARIANA: And now you're
totally free now, are you?
GHOST: Yeah, almost two years,
I've got this
ankle monitor on my leg.
And I keep violating it.
Like, I keep getting violations
and all type of crazy stuff.
So I don't know.
You know, I was born in Belize,
so you know how
the immigration goes.
They was trying to deport me.
MARIANA: The fact that
Ghost was not born here,
and is not a US citizen,
means his situation
is particularly fraught.
GHOST: Mom.
WOMAN (over phone): Mm-hmm.
GHOST: I'm on my way to court.
WOMAN (over phone): What are
you gonna tell them at court?
GHOST: I'm going to go
see if the attorney tell me,
if he could get me on probation.
MARIANA: Although Ghost has
already served 16 months in
prison for prior charges,
he's headed back to court today
to face new charges for
gun possession and robbery,
or he could simply be deported.
And so what's the worst
case scenario for you?
MARIANA: What, what, what do
you think that time would be,
if you do have to serve time?
GHOST: Probably like
a year and a half, two years.
It ain't nothing.
MARIANA: For you, would it
be worse to have to serve time
in prison or be
deported back to Belize?
MARIANA: You prefer
to do time in prison
than to go back to Belize?
MARIANA: This is shocking to me.
What is happening in
Belize that is both feeding
new recruits to LA gangs,
and is horrific enough
that somebody like Ghost would
rather spend years in an
American jail than be sent back?
Chip knows someone who
can answer that question.
CHIP: Tanga, he's a
good friend of mine.
But he went and robbed somebody
and ended up getting caught.
Instead of
sentencing him to prison,
they deported
him back to Belize,
let them deal with it.
MARIANA: Today, Tanga
has reestablished himself as
a top drug dealer
in Belize City.
And since he's not
allowed in the US,
I'm going to him.
♪
MARIANA: I first came to Belize
as a tourist 20 years ago.
Flying in and passing over its
long reef and emerald waters,
you can't miss the appeal.
(singing native language).
MARIANA: It's a new country,
barely 40 years old,
with a young population and
an economy that runs on
sugarcane, bananas, and tourism.
I've come to meet
Chip's friend, Tanga,
who's also
affiliated with the Crips.
He's promised to show me how
gang life has become woven into
the fabric of Belize.
But in a crazy twist of fate,
I now know that's
never going to happen.
(sobbing)
MARIANA: So you can
see all the cars lined up.
This is the end
of the procession,
and this was there, where
they were bringing the casket.
Right now, there's all
the family members and
friends all surrounded.
Instead of interviewing Tanga,
I've arrived in
time for his funeral.
(sirens wailing)
Local news reports are
providing the disturbing details
of what appears to be
a hit by a rival gang.
REPORTER (over TV):
Known to many as Tanga,
was executed as he drove
a sport utility vehicle in
the company of Marybeth Wade.
REPORTER 2 (overTV):
Eyewitnesses on the scene say
that the vehicle was shot at
King Street, but sped away
quickly in an attempt to escape
REPORTER 3 (over TV): The
father of four, it is believed,
was on the wrong side of
town when he was ambushed.
MARIANA: When we
arrive for the service,
we see almost the entire
community has turned out
to say goodbye and
pay their respects.
(horns honking)
MARIANA: One of the many
people Tanga left behind was
his girlfriend, Marybeth, who
was also shot in the attack.
MARYBETH: He had one of
the sweetest soul I ever met.
The feeling he give me,
nobody never give me that yet.
MARIANA: This is not the first
brush that Marybeth's family has
had with gun violence.
Five years
before Tanga's killing,
the body of Marybeth's
own brother, Albert Jr.,
was discovered on a
dirt road, brutally murdered.
You were with Tanga, right,
when he was shot and killed?
MARYBETH: Yeah.
The first shot came, boom.
And he told me to get down.
And the next shot came.
He drove off and
in speed, like, really hard,
and the car just crashed
into a wall, a cement wall.
And I lift up my head and
I said, "Babe, I got hit."
And blood was everywhere.
When I lift his head up
MARIANA: Oh, my God.
MARYBETH: I saw the
bullet hole at his neck and
all the blood was,
you know, gushing out.
And I told him to breathe.
Hold on. I said,
"We'll get help."
I just feel his
breath left his body and
(sighs)
Then I'm screaming and
asking God to help me.
And I ask him, "Babe, please
pray on us, God, to save you."
Second hardest day of my life,
losing my brother and losing
the man I was going to spend
the rest of my life with.
MARIANA: I mean, in a way,
he kept you safe, right,
by holding you down?
MARYBETH: Yeah.
So he saved me
with his last breath.
PRODUCER: Hold on.
Let's cut, guys.
Someone's here.
MARYBETH: (bleep).
Who, who that?
ALBERT SR.: Shut
this (bleep) down.
(speaking native language).
Do you want it easy
or do you want it rough?
Get the (bleep)
out of my property!
Get the (bleep).
This is my (bleep) property.
MARIANA: Her dad who's
very upset about what happened
to his daughter and
he doesn't want cameras
here and he's yelling.
Let's get out for now and
then we can come back in.
Okay, sir, we will.
We'll get out.
ALBERT SR.: (bleep).
MARIANA: Sir. Sir.
PRODUCER: We said yes!
MARIANA: We said yes.
ALBERT SR.: Leave!
MARIANA: Okay.
We're getting out.
ALBERT SR.: (bleep).
MARIANA: We're getting out.
We're getting out! Hey, sir.
Don't touch, don't touch them.
Don't, hey, hey.
Sir, don't touch, please.
No touching! No touching!
Everybody's leaving.
MARYBETH: What is your problem?
ALBERT SR.: Stop the video.
MARYBETH: (bleep).
PRODUCER: Everyone is leaving.
MARYBETH: What is your problem?
(dogs barking)
MARIANA: Eventually,
things calm down,
and we are able to speak with
Marybeth's father, Albert, Sr.
Can you tell me why
you were very angry?
ALBERT SR.: Because
I remember my son.
I didn't have no, I don't
have nothing against you guys.
MARIANA: I know.
ALBERT SR.: I'm sorry.
MARIANA: No, it's okay.
You don't need to apologize.
It's easy to understand why
the presence of a crew from
the United States
has triggered him.
The gang activity that
has devastated his family is
a direct export from America.
ALBERT SR.: Until you
go through this situation,
you will never understand.
Everybody and I wish
people would think before
they do stupid things and
ALEX: The deportation policy,
it may or may not be working,
depending on how you look at it.
They're getting rid of gang
members out of Los Angeles and
out of California, yeah,
that's probably the goal.
But at the same time,
you're just sending the culture
to another land,
creating the problem there.
MARIANA: When gang members
like Tanga were deported
from the US back to Belize,
they brought their
affiliations with them,
spawning Belizean
crews of American gangs.
ALEX: You have the
Rollin' 30s, the Rollin' 20s,
the Black P. Stones, the Brims,
you have all these gangs now in
Belize to spread that culture.
MARIANA: Back in LA, Chip,
who connected us with Tanga,
is mourning his friend's death.
(phone line ringing)
MARIANA: Hey, Chip.
So sorry for your loss.
We were at the funeral.
MARIANA: So you don't, you don't
know exactly who killed him yet.
You don't know which group,
or if it was a group, or a gang?
MARIANA: So, what do you,
what's your advice because
obviously we're gonna try
and talk to people here, um,
and it's an incredibly
volatile time to be,
you know,
investigating all of this?
MARIANA: Chip comes
through with an address,
leading us here,
to an abandoned
building in Belize City.
Though he has
guaranteed access,
we're told that he cannot
guarantee our security.
I think, it's definitely here.
Watch out here.
Can I come in?
♪
(rapping in native language).
(rapping in native language).
MARIANA: Belize is home to
over two dozen feuding groups of
Bloods and Crips, most of them
concentrated in the south part
of the capital, Belize City.
In the space of 20 years,
the number of murders in this
country has more
than tripled, giving it,
per capita, the seventh highest
homicide rate in the world.
(dogs barking)
Hi.
MAD MAX: Hi.
MARIANA: I'm Mariana.
MARIANA: Scarface and
Mad Max lead a faction of Crips,
one of the most dangerous
factions in Belize City.
So, can you tell me about
what's life like here in Belize?
MARIANA: Still, you're
loyal to the Crips, right,
or you're part of the Crips?
SCARFACE: Yeah.
MARIANA: So it depends
on where you're born, really?
MARIANA: To hear
it from these two,
the gang acts as a kind of
community welfare organization,
providing cash and
jobs to residents of a
disadvantaged neighborhood.
But of course,
there's more to it.
I mean, you guys
sell drugs, right?
MAD MAX: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: What
drugs do you guys sell?
MAD MAX: They sell
cocaine and speed.
MARIANA: And why do you guys
think there's so much violence
associated with,
with the drug business?
MARIANA: So the system
is failing you guys and
you guys have to
figure out your own system?
MAD MAX: Yeah.
MARIANA: Have you
guys killed people?
MARIANA: But then doesn't
that make them come back
and kill some, one of yours?
MARIANA: Do most
people carry guns?
Do most of you guys carry guns?
MARIANA: A Beretta? And it's
got an extended magazine, yeah?
MAD MAX: Yeah.
MARIANA: 2,000 miles
separate the Jungles in
South Central Los Angeles
from this spot in Belize City,
but the parallels
I'm seeing are uncanny.
In the face of hardship,
violence has become normalized
and the lives of fellow
gang members reduced to points
on a scorecard in a
game that doesn't end.
Mad Max and Scarface belonged
to the same gang as Tanga.
So the next move may
well be from their side.
So, which group, which gang,
who do you think killed Tanga?
MARIANA: It's the Bloods?
MAD MAX: Yeah.
MARIANA: How many
funerals have you guys been to?
MARIANA: If the Bloods in
Belize are indeed responsible
for Tanga's murder, I have
to wonder how they benefit from
a killing that is sure
to produce retaliation.
The close ties between
gangs in the US and Belize
means that, once again,
I'm reaching out to gang
contacts in Los Angeles for
an introduction to
gang members here.
(phone line ringing)
Z (over phone): Hello?
MARIANA: Hey Z.
How are you doing?
MARIANA: Really? You got,
you are hearing some stuff?
MARIANA: Is there any word on
who might have killed Tanga or
been involved in his death?
MARIANA: Are you
still in touch with them?
MARIANA: Do you think
that they would talk to us?
MARIANA: It's hard to reconcile
the natural beauty of Belize
with the desperation and blood
feuds of those who live there.
I don't have an
expectation to solve a murder,
but I do want to
understand why these sides are
warring against one another.
(rooster crows)
Hmm.
CREW: I mean, you, yeah
MARIANA: Here, can I
show you what you look like?
You tell me if you
think you're recognizable.
My contact has come
through with a meeting place
and gang leader who
might have answers.
KING DON: I might
try the glasses.
MARIANA: Glasses?
Does anyone have a
pair of sunglasses?
♪
♪
MARIANA: The gangs in
Belize run blue and red.
Tanga, who was
deported from America,
was affiliated with
the Crips, and rumor has it,
that he was killed by a
faction led by this man.
CREW: Sound rolling.
And we're good.
MARIANA: Great. Okay. King Don.
So, you're part of the
George Street Town gang?
KING DON: Yeah.
MARIANA: Which is
part of the, the Bloods?
KING DON: Bloods, yeah.
MARIANA: This is King Don,
one of the most feared leaders
of the Bloods in Belize.
He's been active since 1996,
one of the few surviving elders
of this
satellite Bloods faction.
So, I wanted to ask you
a difficult question, um.
We've heard that it was the
George Street Bloods who killed
or were responsible
for the killing of Tanga.
KING DON: No.
MARIANA: Is that true?
KING DON: You know?
MARIANA: But it
seems that that's what,
that's what people
are saying, right?
KING DON: Well
MARIANA: Because it
happened in your territory.
KING DON: Yeah.
MARIANA: What does
that mean for your
territory and for your gang?
For your group?
KING DON: Well
MARIANA: How much do you
think deportation of Crips and
Bloods to Belize, how much
did that affect the violence?
MARIANA: Have you ever shot
at anyone or killed anyone?
MARIANA: Are you also
the person who decides
who's going to be
doing the killing?
MARIANA: Is it difficult to
find people willing to do it?
KING DON: Not in
the streets of Belize.
You know, it's, they want ranks,
they want to be like
they are the big homies,
they want to be generals.
MARIANA: Oh, so
it's a ranking thing.
So, if you kill somebody, you,
you go up in the rank?
KING DON: Yeah.
You get rank by your work.
And it's never stop,
because if you kill one of mine,
we kill two of yours,
three of yours.
If you kill three of mines,
I try to get four of yours.
And it's never stop.
MARIANA: It's, the
more time we spend here,
the more I realize how
much of an influence America
has on all of it.
Is there any message you'd like
to give the American people?
KING DON: Yeah.
MARIANA: This is a
moment I will never forget.
Here is a general, a leader
of one of the most brutal
street gangs in the Belize,
who, by his own admission,
orders young men to
kill rival gang members.
And he's admitting that
he feels just as trapped as
everybody else in the game.
So trapped that
he hopes America,
which sent gang
violence to Belize,
will somehow provide an example
that will make it all go away.
But America keeps
providing deportees,
not answers.
Back in the States, the
gang member I know as Ghost
is standing with a
foot in each world.
What is it?
MARIANA: No.
MARIANA: Awaiting a decision on
deportation while deepening his
connection to drug traffickers.
Candy Cane?
JASPER: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And
there's cocaine in here?
They're criminals ♪
In uniform ♪♪
♪
MARIANA: Though Ghost may be
on the verge of deportation,
he's not giving up
on the gang today.
His mentor, a man we'll call
Jasper has brought him to meet
a wholesale supplier
of weed and cocaine.
GHOST: Plugz,
what's up my (bleep)?
PLUGZ: What's up
with them (bleep)?
JASPER: The regular, degular.
You know what I need.
PLUGZ: Mariana.
MARIANA: Mariana.
PLUGZ: Nice to meet
Plugz. Nice to meet you.
MARIANA: Plugz?
PLUGZ: Plugz.
MARIANA: It's okay if we film?
He told you we
were coming, right?
PLUGZ: Yeah. Yeah, it's good.
She with you though?
JASPER: Yeah, it's good.
MARIANA: Plugz is recovering
from gunshot wounds to his legs.
The result of a bad business
deal three weeks earlier.
JASPER: Is that the candy?
PLUGZ: Yeah, this is the candy.
You heard about this?
JASPER: Uh-oh.
PLUGZ: Come on, now.
MARIANA: What is that?
PLUGZ: New and improved?
JASPER: Yeah, that's the
new and improved, "Zazaland."
(bleep). Come on,
that (bleep) fire.
MARIANA: What is it?
Can I see it?
JASPER: That's the coke.
MARIANA: Oh. It's cocaine?
JASPER: Yeah.
MARIANA: And it's
packaged like this?
JASPER: Yeah,
that's our secret package.
PLUGZ: Yup, that's
the secret package.
MARIANA: No.
PLUGZ: Yeah.
(laughs)
MARIANA: Zazaland?
PLUGZ: Yeah.
MARIANA: Candy Cane?
JASPER: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And
there's cocaine in here?
JASPER: You don't feel it?
It's a little
small brick of cocaine.
MARIANA: So, how
much do you have there?
JASPER: I got 2,000. Okay.
Here you go.
MARIANA: So,
I'm interested, you,
we are very far away
from your neighborhood.
GHOST: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And you have
an ankle bracelet on you.
Is that something, are
you afraid at all that
they might
monitor where you are?
GHOST: Yeah, but, you know,
I'm not doing (bleep).
So I'm not worried
about that (bleep).
JASPER: One, two,
three, four, five
PLUGZ: Hey, nice to meet you.
GHOST: Nice to meeting you.
JASPER: All right, then.
PLUGZ: (inaudible).
MARIANA: Court delays mean it
will be one more month before
Ghost learns his
deportation status.
But by doubling down on
the streets and racking up
new charges, it seems
inevitable that, like Tanga,
he too will eventually
be sent back to Belize.
GHOST: This shit, this
is just, like, a cycle, man.
MARIANA: What do you mean?
GHOST: It's like, it's,
it's not gonna stop.
There's gonna be
different guys get deported,
and go, you get me?
Gonna go over there.
MARIANA: Continue
the violence there.
GHOST: Continue
the violence there.
'Cause they ain't got
nothing to lose, you feel me?
MARIANA: And predictably,
in Belize and throughout
Central America, that
uptick in violence will fuel
more immigration to the US.
Which is what's brought me
to this motel in a location
that's best not revealed.
MARYBETH: Yeah.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
It's healing really nicely.
MARYBETH: Yeah, this one here,
and the other one here.
That's the bullet they took out.
MARIANA: Ooh, no!
Okay, so last time I saw you was
about five months ago in Belize.
MARYBETH: I was still
getting attacked by people.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MARYBETH: Saying mean
stuff about me and Tanga,
and stuff, you know?
And I got a lot of
threat on my life, like,
they're gonna
burn my house down.
They're gonna come to
my house and shoot me.
They lit my car on fire.
MARIANA: Oof. This is the seat?
MARYBETH: Yeah.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
MARYBETH: Some guys that
used to hang with Tanga,
they say I killed Tanga.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
I mean, so much of this
happened after Tanga died.
Do you regret having had a
relationship with him at all?
MARYBETH: I don't
regret meeting him.
The way he died
really hit me hard.
Like, I still cry up to now.
And I don't
(sighs)
The love I share with him,
I don't think I'll ever
share with someone else.
So, you know, um, no, I'm
I'll never love again.
He's my one true love.
MARIANA: And then,
so when did you decide
that it was time to leave?
MARYBETH: I just woke up a
Thursday morning and I told
my mom, "I'm going to the US."
MARIANA: How did you
come across the border?
MARYBETH: Um,
when I reached Mexico,
I gave myself into
the US authorities.
MARIANA: And what
did you tell them?
MARYBETH: That I'm fearing
for my life in my home country
and I need help.
MARIANA: And your
kids are still in Belize?
MARYBETH: Yeah.
I'm trying to figure out a
way how to get them here, so.
MARIANA: Do you talk to them?
MARYBETH: Every day.
"Mommy, when you coming home?"
You know, and it
breaks my heart.
I cry a lot, but, um,
we'll be okay and
I'll see how I can get
them over here, eventually.
MARIANA: It's an open
question whether Marybeth and
her children
will break the cycle.
One which pushes
gang members and
chaos back to
their home countries.
MARYBETH: Belize is crazy,
the violence there is crazy.
MARIANA: Which in turn drives
new immigrants here into the
waiting arms of street gangs.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.
(laughter)
CHIP: My whole life was like
My whole life was like
(sighs)
Like a jungle.
MARIANA: You're 15 years old
and you've just arrived in
a new country where economic
survival is an ongoing struggle.
CHIP: I got five siblings,
two twin brothers
and three sisters.
Rent was always late.
Lights cut out sometimes,
you got to use the candles.
MARIANA: On these streets,
when opportunity does knock,
it often comes in the
form of gang membership.
CHIP: When it
comes to recruitments,
immigrants are
the most vulnerable,
easiest targets.
Hey ♪
Yeah ♪♪
CHIP: They already
come from having nothing.
Yeah ♪♪
CHIP: The younger they are,
the easier to manipulate.
Go ♪♪
CHIP: Because
they have a mindset,
"I have a point to prove.
I have a point to prove."
Yeah, yeah ♪
Give me some (inaudible)
keeping the lights off ♪♪
REPORTER (over TV):
L.A. area gangs are targeting
the city's rich in
a new aggressive way.
MARIANA: Those who heed the call
will walk through a doorway into
a black market teeming
with guns, drugs, and cash.
You see they're not moving ♪♪
MARIANA: But
there's a price to pay,
because this door revolves.
(theme music playing).
Wear your armor ♪
I'm, like, I use
no weapon, it's an honor ♪
I'm like let's
get to flexing ♪
Quite the turn, you
better get to stepping ♪
If they wanna ♪♪
Hey, I started making noise ♪
Now they say I'm certified ♪♪
MARIANA: This is
Chip and Playboi.
They are gang
members in Los Angeles.
For them, these
streets are paved with gold.
It's just a
matter of extracting it.
So, if you were
sitting on this corner and
you're waiting for somebody,
is there a specific kind of
person that you're targeting?
By the way they're dressed or
MARIANA: And do
you go to places like
Beverly Hills or Bel-Air or
MARIANA: Is there
more security there?
MARIANA: There are
public and private
sides to the gangs of LA.
Outwardly, there's the Swagger;
the Outlaw culture recognized
and even celebrated
around the world.
But there's also the
business end of gang life.
The black markets and violence
that fuel the lifestyle.
CHIP: Where I'm
going to take y'all right
now is by the strip club.
MARIANA: So she
would call and say,
"Okay, there's a guy
that has a lot of money,
a lot of cash, and he's
walking out right now."
MARIANA: Guns or
what are you doing?
MARIANA: These armed robberies
and home invasions are a means
to an end, staking them
with enough money to pursue
their own version
of the American dream.
MARIANA: Oh, my God.
And is it
This all illegal weed?
MARIANA: Oh.
And oh, so you're
selling wholesale?
MARIANA: $1,500 for that?
MARIANA: What's a Kel-Tec?
MARIANA: So wait, so if these
guns all have serial numbers,
which I'm
assuming they do, right?
'Cause they're not ghost guns,
how do you go about selling
them on the black market?
MARIANA: Playboi is
associated with the Bloods
and Chip with the Crips.
But they share a background that
has cemented their relationship.
So you guys were
born in the US, right?
MARIANA: Belize, where Playboi
and Chip's family come from,
is a small country
in Central America and
a poor one relative
to the United States.
MARIANA: So did your parents,
knowing that you guys were
surrounded by gangs and
gang activity when you were
growing up, did they want
to move elsewhere, or did they?
MARIANA: Were your
families involved in gangs?
ALEX: The tradition of
gangs in Los Angeles and
in the United States
goes back over 200 years.
We often talk about
Blacks, Latinos, Mexicans,
people from Central America,
but the early history of
gangs in the United States
were mostly White immigrants.
Italians, Irish, Jews.
MARIANA: Professor
Alex Alonzo has spent more
than 20 years
researching gangs in America.
ALEX: By the time you get to the
early part of the 20th Century,
you start seeing
African Americans,
you start seeing Latinos,
mostly Mexicans
and Puerto Ricans,
they start participating.
And then when you
get into the '80s,
the '90s and 2000s, you got a
whole group of Central Americans
that are immigrating
into the United States,
and now they are becoming
the gang members of America.
MARIANA: I want to know how
a tiny country like Belize,
with a population
of just 400,000,
has produced, anecdotally,
so many heavy hitters in
Los Angeles street gangs.
But first, I need to
understand the landscape.
How many gang members in
total do you think exist in LA?
SANCHEZ: It's gotta be 50,000.
MARIANA: Detective
Sanchez and his partners in
the Los Angeles
Sheriff's Gang Suppression Unit,
report that 17 of
the last 19 murders
in the district they
cover have been gang related.
REPORTER (over TV):
That safety threat seems to be
growing even more alarming; gan
members roving in several cars.
REPORTER 2 (over TV):
Thieves targeting victims
with expensive watches and
designer handbags.
MARIANA: A recent
police task force
identified 17 different gangs
participating in the latest
wave of follow-home robberies.
SANCHEZ: We've seen an
increase in crime, tremendously.
Yeah.
Our homicides are up,
in the late 40's to 50's.
Our shootings are
up about the same.
MARIANA: Percent,
you mean percentage?
SANCHEZ: Percentage. Yes.
MARIANA: Wow.
SANCHEZ: The last
couple years, it's just spiked.
MARIANA: As have
armed robberies.
In 2021, they increased
57% over the year before.
SANCHEZ: Let me
see your hands
(speaking in native language).
SANCHEZ: Anything
on you right now?
Let me know. Nothing?
MAN: No.
SANCHEZ: You sure?
MAN: I'm sure.
SANCHEZ: Every gang member
has a role within the gang.
Some people are shooters.
Some people commit thefts.
Other people
commit embezzlement.
Your most respected
are the guys that commit
the shootings and the assaults.
MARIANA: But it's the young
ones who often carry weapons.
Keep an eye on the young man
in the red shirt as we pull up.
MAN: Hey, come on, bro.
Get your hands, bro.
SANCHEZ: One of my
partners recovered this
from one of the gang members.
It's basically a
semi-auto nine millimeter.
There was one in
the chamber and several
live rounds in the magazine.
I believe that the
gang member that had
this firearm was a juvenile.
I believe he's 15,
so that's very common.
The older gang members know that
they have less time in jail,
less sentences for juveniles,
as opposed to an
adult who's on probation,
who has a criminal
record to have this firearm.
So it's very common for the
youngsters to have the firearm
and nothing happens to the kid.
His grandmother comes right now,
we give them both citations.
That's it, he's done.
He can get another gun right
now and be out here again.
MARIANA: LA has
more than 450 gangs,
each with its own
customs and history.
And according to
Chip and Playboi,
many Belizean gang
members are concentrated here
in the Jungles.
20 years ago, this neighborhood
was a location of the film,
Training Day.
(overlapping chatter)
HOYT: What are we
doing going in here, man?
We'll get killed coming in here.
HARRIS: Ah, you know
about this place, huh?
HOYT: Yeah, it's
the Jungle, right?
HARRIS: That's right.
HOYT: They say
don't come in here with
anything less than a platoon.
MARIANA: Today, the
Jungles is still known as
an active gang
neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Think we're meeting here
in the corner of this park.
To film here, we've been
told that we need permission
from an elder in the gang.
And to get that elder,
we'll first need to be vetted
by a man named Squab.
♪
MARIANA: So it wouldn't
have been wise for us to
just come here by ourselves,
with cameras,
without having you?
SQUAB: Nah.
Because (bleep) might
pull up on you and rob you,
and shoot you, anything.
You feel me?
You're not safe without
a tour guide, basically.
MARIANA: It looks much nicer
than what I was expecting.
SQUAB: Yeah. We keep it nice.
MARIANA: It's like all
the beautiful palm trees and
SQUAB: Yeah. We keep it up nice.
But it's very dangerous.
You know, coming
around here playing,
you might get what
you're looking for.
MARIANA: I want to
understand how members of
a small immigrant community,
in this case Belize,
are swallowed by the tide of
gang violence in Los Angeles.
But gaining access
to this area where
they're concentrated
requires permission.
Squab, how old were you
when you joined the gang?
SQUAB: I was, like, 12.
I went to the meeting
and lied, and said I was 14.
MARIANA: Why? Did you just
really wanted to be a part?
SQUAB: Yeah.
I need, I needed in.
MARIANA: Why?
SQUAB: Because, I just, I
just loved everything about it.
It was, like, it, it was
just a family set, you feel me?
It was an upbringing,
you feel me?
It was love.
It was, it was just different.
MARIANA: And so you're,
you're a Blood?
SQUAB: I'm a P. Stone.
MARIANA: A P. Stone.
SQUAB: Yeah. It, it, it falls
under the category of Bloods.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
And you, you still
consider yourself a P. Stone?
SQUAB: Yeah, I'm
gonna always be that.
My whole life.
MARIANA: How many times have
you been shot in your lifetime?
SQUAB: Two
separate times, 13 shots.
So, I got shot five times here.
MARIANA: Oh my God.
This is all a scar?
SQUAB: Yup.
Four inches away from the heart.
MARIANA: Wow.
SQUAB: In the stomach, like
an inch away from the spine.
MARIANA: I can see all
the bullet holes here.
What happened?
SQUAB: I'm a active gang member
at the time, fully fledged
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
SQUAB: With it.
So that comes
with the territory.
MARIANA: How did you survive?
SQUAB: I was in
the hospital, like, 30 days.
I was back out here doing
the same (bleep) I was doing.
MARIANA: Really?
SQUAB: Before I got shot.
But more now.
Now I was trying
to kill some (bleep).
CHIP: It's a thrill.
The fightings, the robberies,
the shootings,
seeing people get jumped.
It's exciting to ask a new
face where they're from and
pull out a knife, give them
a couple shanks or something,
you know, like, "Stay
the (bleep) away from here.
You don't belong here and
I've never seen you here before,
and this is why what's
happening to you is happening."
MARIANA: Is it this way?
SQUAB: Yeah, it's this way.
Yeah, we going right upstairs,
up here and, uh, I'm
gonna introduce yous.
MARIANA: So, yeah.
Can hear some music.
SQUAB: Yeah, that's some of my,
that's my Belizean people
playing a Caribbean
music a little bit,
everybody live in the building.
MARIANA: So you have immigrant,
a lot of Belizeans and
other immigrant groups?
SQUAB: Definitely.
All type of immigrant.
MARIANA: Squab says there's
only one person who can grant us
permission to film
among the Black P. Stones
in the Jungles, and that's
who we're headed to meet now.
TONE: In 1983, my
mother was killed.
My mother was beat to death.
So I became seriously
active in the gang at that time.
I picked up a gun, was
trying to kill the man that
was actually, like,
beat my mother to death.
MARIANA: Hmm. How old were you?
TONE: I was 16.
MARIANA: Tone is an elder
among the Black P. Stones.
He first moved to the Jungles
when he was seven years old.
At the time, the Bloods
and Crips were new gangs.
The Crips had formed in 1969,
as an alliance between
two small street gangs and
took on the color blue
as a tribute to a member
who was wearing
blue when he was killed.
Three years later, an
offshoot set of Crips
would form their own gang,
taking on the color red and
referring to members as Bloods.
Unlike other
organized crime groups,
the Bloods and Crips
are largely decentralized,
meaning members
rarely pay money upwards.
TONE: When I joined
a gang, I joined a gang.
It was a decision I made.
I wasn't birthed into it.
You have a lot of gang members
now that are birthed into it.
MARIANA: So, by birthed
into it, you mean these kids
that are born and they
really don't have an option?
They
TONE: Exactly.
MARIAN: They're
forced to joining.
TONE: And, or, and,
or their parents are
already from the gang.
MARIANA: Right.
TONE: Right now,
if you're young,
you don't really have a choice.
MARIANA: What about
immigrant communities that's,
like Belizeans, who
started coming here?
How did it affect, when you're
coming here with your family,
when you're super young,
or you're first generation?
TONE: Whatever gang
element they moved into,
the gangs are mainly like the
families in that neighborhood,
they're going to pull to
that like a small village.
So it doesn't matter.
If they landed in the Crips,
they're gonna be
part of the Crips.
If they landed in
the Bloods, they're
gonna be part of the Bloods.
It's the village of whatever
part of town they move to.
MARIANA: Do you know
people who are currently,
young people who are active in?
TONE: I know, I
know all the ones that's
active in my neighborhood.
MARIANA: Could you
put in a word for us?
We're, we'd love to meet.
TONE: That's not a problem.
I can get you a
couple of ones that's
really active in the gangs.
We can definitely do that.
(phone buzzing)
GHOST: Hello? Yeah, you.
Hey, you, uh, you
can come now, fool,
I'm on the block.
All right. Damn.
MARIANA: He's here?
GHOST: Come in, bro.
MAN: Sup?
GHOST: What's happening, dude?
GHOST: Four?
MAN: Yeah.
GHOST: This is how we,
this is how we serve it up,
so he say he want four lines,
so that's four ounces
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
GHOST: So I just gotta
pour it until it hit four.
MARIANA: Oh, it's really purple.
Tone has cleared the
way for me to meet, "Ghost,"
a member of the Black P. Stones
who was born in Belize.
Ghost makes his living
selling ounces of lean,
a potent mixture of
cough syrup and promethazine.
How much do you pay for it?
GHOST: This right
here is four lines,
so that's, like,
that's 250 a line
MARIANA: It's $1,000?
GHOST: Yeah,
that's how much we get.
(inaudible), all set my boy.
(overlapping chatter)
MARIANA: Bye.
So this is all
the money you made today?
GHOST: Yeah.
MARIANA: So, it's about
$2,000 just from selling drugs?
GHOST: Yeah.
MARIANA: So wait, so
you were born where?
GHOST: I was born in Belize.
MARIANA: And when
did you come to the US?
GHOST: I came out
here when I was like,
when I was 17-years-old.
So I, I came out
here nine years ago.
MARIANA: When you were
living in Belize though, do,
did you know what
gang life was already?
GHOST: Yeah, I was, because
I had been exposed over there.
Deports, like, deportees
from over here go over there
and they start gangs.
So, I grew up around that.
MARIANA: What kind
of gangs were there?
GHOST: Um, Bloods, Crips.
MARIANA: So the same gangs?
GHOST: Yeah, the
same gang over here.
Me growing up, I had to have
pistol with me going to school.
I grew up people not liking
me because of my dad back home.
MARIANA: Can you tell me
what your dad does in Belize?
GHOST: He the police in
Belize right now, ma'am.
He ain't in charge, but he's
MARIANA: One of them. Right now?
GHOST: Right now.
MARIANA: Does he know
you're involved in a gang here?
GHOST: He do.
Yeah, he know I been in
the prison and all that like.
MARIANA: And what, what,
what were you charged with?
MARIANA: And now you're
totally free now, are you?
GHOST: Yeah, almost two years,
I've got this
ankle monitor on my leg.
And I keep violating it.
Like, I keep getting violations
and all type of crazy stuff.
So I don't know.
You know, I was born in Belize,
so you know how
the immigration goes.
They was trying to deport me.
MARIANA: The fact that
Ghost was not born here,
and is not a US citizen,
means his situation
is particularly fraught.
GHOST: Mom.
WOMAN (over phone): Mm-hmm.
GHOST: I'm on my way to court.
WOMAN (over phone): What are
you gonna tell them at court?
GHOST: I'm going to go
see if the attorney tell me,
if he could get me on probation.
MARIANA: Although Ghost has
already served 16 months in
prison for prior charges,
he's headed back to court today
to face new charges for
gun possession and robbery,
or he could simply be deported.
And so what's the worst
case scenario for you?
MARIANA: What, what, what do
you think that time would be,
if you do have to serve time?
GHOST: Probably like
a year and a half, two years.
It ain't nothing.
MARIANA: For you, would it
be worse to have to serve time
in prison or be
deported back to Belize?
MARIANA: You prefer
to do time in prison
than to go back to Belize?
MARIANA: This is shocking to me.
What is happening in
Belize that is both feeding
new recruits to LA gangs,
and is horrific enough
that somebody like Ghost would
rather spend years in an
American jail than be sent back?
Chip knows someone who
can answer that question.
CHIP: Tanga, he's a
good friend of mine.
But he went and robbed somebody
and ended up getting caught.
Instead of
sentencing him to prison,
they deported
him back to Belize,
let them deal with it.
MARIANA: Today, Tanga
has reestablished himself as
a top drug dealer
in Belize City.
And since he's not
allowed in the US,
I'm going to him.
♪
MARIANA: I first came to Belize
as a tourist 20 years ago.
Flying in and passing over its
long reef and emerald waters,
you can't miss the appeal.
(singing native language).
MARIANA: It's a new country,
barely 40 years old,
with a young population and
an economy that runs on
sugarcane, bananas, and tourism.
I've come to meet
Chip's friend, Tanga,
who's also
affiliated with the Crips.
He's promised to show me how
gang life has become woven into
the fabric of Belize.
But in a crazy twist of fate,
I now know that's
never going to happen.
(sobbing)
MARIANA: So you can
see all the cars lined up.
This is the end
of the procession,
and this was there, where
they were bringing the casket.
Right now, there's all
the family members and
friends all surrounded.
Instead of interviewing Tanga,
I've arrived in
time for his funeral.
(sirens wailing)
Local news reports are
providing the disturbing details
of what appears to be
a hit by a rival gang.
REPORTER (over TV):
Known to many as Tanga,
was executed as he drove
a sport utility vehicle in
the company of Marybeth Wade.
REPORTER 2 (overTV):
Eyewitnesses on the scene say
that the vehicle was shot at
King Street, but sped away
quickly in an attempt to escape
REPORTER 3 (over TV): The
father of four, it is believed,
was on the wrong side of
town when he was ambushed.
MARIANA: When we
arrive for the service,
we see almost the entire
community has turned out
to say goodbye and
pay their respects.
(horns honking)
MARIANA: One of the many
people Tanga left behind was
his girlfriend, Marybeth, who
was also shot in the attack.
MARYBETH: He had one of
the sweetest soul I ever met.
The feeling he give me,
nobody never give me that yet.
MARIANA: This is not the first
brush that Marybeth's family has
had with gun violence.
Five years
before Tanga's killing,
the body of Marybeth's
own brother, Albert Jr.,
was discovered on a
dirt road, brutally murdered.
You were with Tanga, right,
when he was shot and killed?
MARYBETH: Yeah.
The first shot came, boom.
And he told me to get down.
And the next shot came.
He drove off and
in speed, like, really hard,
and the car just crashed
into a wall, a cement wall.
And I lift up my head and
I said, "Babe, I got hit."
And blood was everywhere.
When I lift his head up
MARIANA: Oh, my God.
MARYBETH: I saw the
bullet hole at his neck and
all the blood was,
you know, gushing out.
And I told him to breathe.
Hold on. I said,
"We'll get help."
I just feel his
breath left his body and
(sighs)
Then I'm screaming and
asking God to help me.
And I ask him, "Babe, please
pray on us, God, to save you."
Second hardest day of my life,
losing my brother and losing
the man I was going to spend
the rest of my life with.
MARIANA: I mean, in a way,
he kept you safe, right,
by holding you down?
MARYBETH: Yeah.
So he saved me
with his last breath.
PRODUCER: Hold on.
Let's cut, guys.
Someone's here.
MARYBETH: (bleep).
Who, who that?
ALBERT SR.: Shut
this (bleep) down.
(speaking native language).
Do you want it easy
or do you want it rough?
Get the (bleep)
out of my property!
Get the (bleep).
This is my (bleep) property.
MARIANA: Her dad who's
very upset about what happened
to his daughter and
he doesn't want cameras
here and he's yelling.
Let's get out for now and
then we can come back in.
Okay, sir, we will.
We'll get out.
ALBERT SR.: (bleep).
MARIANA: Sir. Sir.
PRODUCER: We said yes!
MARIANA: We said yes.
ALBERT SR.: Leave!
MARIANA: Okay.
We're getting out.
ALBERT SR.: (bleep).
MARIANA: We're getting out.
We're getting out! Hey, sir.
Don't touch, don't touch them.
Don't, hey, hey.
Sir, don't touch, please.
No touching! No touching!
Everybody's leaving.
MARYBETH: What is your problem?
ALBERT SR.: Stop the video.
MARYBETH: (bleep).
PRODUCER: Everyone is leaving.
MARYBETH: What is your problem?
(dogs barking)
MARIANA: Eventually,
things calm down,
and we are able to speak with
Marybeth's father, Albert, Sr.
Can you tell me why
you were very angry?
ALBERT SR.: Because
I remember my son.
I didn't have no, I don't
have nothing against you guys.
MARIANA: I know.
ALBERT SR.: I'm sorry.
MARIANA: No, it's okay.
You don't need to apologize.
It's easy to understand why
the presence of a crew from
the United States
has triggered him.
The gang activity that
has devastated his family is
a direct export from America.
ALBERT SR.: Until you
go through this situation,
you will never understand.
Everybody and I wish
people would think before
they do stupid things and
ALEX: The deportation policy,
it may or may not be working,
depending on how you look at it.
They're getting rid of gang
members out of Los Angeles and
out of California, yeah,
that's probably the goal.
But at the same time,
you're just sending the culture
to another land,
creating the problem there.
MARIANA: When gang members
like Tanga were deported
from the US back to Belize,
they brought their
affiliations with them,
spawning Belizean
crews of American gangs.
ALEX: You have the
Rollin' 30s, the Rollin' 20s,
the Black P. Stones, the Brims,
you have all these gangs now in
Belize to spread that culture.
MARIANA: Back in LA, Chip,
who connected us with Tanga,
is mourning his friend's death.
(phone line ringing)
MARIANA: Hey, Chip.
So sorry for your loss.
We were at the funeral.
MARIANA: So you don't, you don't
know exactly who killed him yet.
You don't know which group,
or if it was a group, or a gang?
MARIANA: So, what do you,
what's your advice because
obviously we're gonna try
and talk to people here, um,
and it's an incredibly
volatile time to be,
you know,
investigating all of this?
MARIANA: Chip comes
through with an address,
leading us here,
to an abandoned
building in Belize City.
Though he has
guaranteed access,
we're told that he cannot
guarantee our security.
I think, it's definitely here.
Watch out here.
Can I come in?
♪
(rapping in native language).
(rapping in native language).
MARIANA: Belize is home to
over two dozen feuding groups of
Bloods and Crips, most of them
concentrated in the south part
of the capital, Belize City.
In the space of 20 years,
the number of murders in this
country has more
than tripled, giving it,
per capita, the seventh highest
homicide rate in the world.
(dogs barking)
Hi.
MAD MAX: Hi.
MARIANA: I'm Mariana.
MARIANA: Scarface and
Mad Max lead a faction of Crips,
one of the most dangerous
factions in Belize City.
So, can you tell me about
what's life like here in Belize?
MARIANA: Still, you're
loyal to the Crips, right,
or you're part of the Crips?
SCARFACE: Yeah.
MARIANA: So it depends
on where you're born, really?
MARIANA: To hear
it from these two,
the gang acts as a kind of
community welfare organization,
providing cash and
jobs to residents of a
disadvantaged neighborhood.
But of course,
there's more to it.
I mean, you guys
sell drugs, right?
MAD MAX: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: What
drugs do you guys sell?
MAD MAX: They sell
cocaine and speed.
MARIANA: And why do you guys
think there's so much violence
associated with,
with the drug business?
MARIANA: So the system
is failing you guys and
you guys have to
figure out your own system?
MAD MAX: Yeah.
MARIANA: Have you
guys killed people?
MARIANA: But then doesn't
that make them come back
and kill some, one of yours?
MARIANA: Do most
people carry guns?
Do most of you guys carry guns?
MARIANA: A Beretta? And it's
got an extended magazine, yeah?
MAD MAX: Yeah.
MARIANA: 2,000 miles
separate the Jungles in
South Central Los Angeles
from this spot in Belize City,
but the parallels
I'm seeing are uncanny.
In the face of hardship,
violence has become normalized
and the lives of fellow
gang members reduced to points
on a scorecard in a
game that doesn't end.
Mad Max and Scarface belonged
to the same gang as Tanga.
So the next move may
well be from their side.
So, which group, which gang,
who do you think killed Tanga?
MARIANA: It's the Bloods?
MAD MAX: Yeah.
MARIANA: How many
funerals have you guys been to?
MARIANA: If the Bloods in
Belize are indeed responsible
for Tanga's murder, I have
to wonder how they benefit from
a killing that is sure
to produce retaliation.
The close ties between
gangs in the US and Belize
means that, once again,
I'm reaching out to gang
contacts in Los Angeles for
an introduction to
gang members here.
(phone line ringing)
Z (over phone): Hello?
MARIANA: Hey Z.
How are you doing?
MARIANA: Really? You got,
you are hearing some stuff?
MARIANA: Is there any word on
who might have killed Tanga or
been involved in his death?
MARIANA: Are you
still in touch with them?
MARIANA: Do you think
that they would talk to us?
MARIANA: It's hard to reconcile
the natural beauty of Belize
with the desperation and blood
feuds of those who live there.
I don't have an
expectation to solve a murder,
but I do want to
understand why these sides are
warring against one another.
(rooster crows)
Hmm.
CREW: I mean, you, yeah
MARIANA: Here, can I
show you what you look like?
You tell me if you
think you're recognizable.
My contact has come
through with a meeting place
and gang leader who
might have answers.
KING DON: I might
try the glasses.
MARIANA: Glasses?
Does anyone have a
pair of sunglasses?
♪
♪
MARIANA: The gangs in
Belize run blue and red.
Tanga, who was
deported from America,
was affiliated with
the Crips, and rumor has it,
that he was killed by a
faction led by this man.
CREW: Sound rolling.
And we're good.
MARIANA: Great. Okay. King Don.
So, you're part of the
George Street Town gang?
KING DON: Yeah.
MARIANA: Which is
part of the, the Bloods?
KING DON: Bloods, yeah.
MARIANA: This is King Don,
one of the most feared leaders
of the Bloods in Belize.
He's been active since 1996,
one of the few surviving elders
of this
satellite Bloods faction.
So, I wanted to ask you
a difficult question, um.
We've heard that it was the
George Street Bloods who killed
or were responsible
for the killing of Tanga.
KING DON: No.
MARIANA: Is that true?
KING DON: You know?
MARIANA: But it
seems that that's what,
that's what people
are saying, right?
KING DON: Well
MARIANA: Because it
happened in your territory.
KING DON: Yeah.
MARIANA: What does
that mean for your
territory and for your gang?
For your group?
KING DON: Well
MARIANA: How much do you
think deportation of Crips and
Bloods to Belize, how much
did that affect the violence?
MARIANA: Have you ever shot
at anyone or killed anyone?
MARIANA: Are you also
the person who decides
who's going to be
doing the killing?
MARIANA: Is it difficult to
find people willing to do it?
KING DON: Not in
the streets of Belize.
You know, it's, they want ranks,
they want to be like
they are the big homies,
they want to be generals.
MARIANA: Oh, so
it's a ranking thing.
So, if you kill somebody, you,
you go up in the rank?
KING DON: Yeah.
You get rank by your work.
And it's never stop,
because if you kill one of mine,
we kill two of yours,
three of yours.
If you kill three of mines,
I try to get four of yours.
And it's never stop.
MARIANA: It's, the
more time we spend here,
the more I realize how
much of an influence America
has on all of it.
Is there any message you'd like
to give the American people?
KING DON: Yeah.
MARIANA: This is a
moment I will never forget.
Here is a general, a leader
of one of the most brutal
street gangs in the Belize,
who, by his own admission,
orders young men to
kill rival gang members.
And he's admitting that
he feels just as trapped as
everybody else in the game.
So trapped that
he hopes America,
which sent gang
violence to Belize,
will somehow provide an example
that will make it all go away.
But America keeps
providing deportees,
not answers.
Back in the States, the
gang member I know as Ghost
is standing with a
foot in each world.
What is it?
MARIANA: No.
MARIANA: Awaiting a decision on
deportation while deepening his
connection to drug traffickers.
Candy Cane?
JASPER: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And
there's cocaine in here?
They're criminals ♪
In uniform ♪♪
♪
MARIANA: Though Ghost may be
on the verge of deportation,
he's not giving up
on the gang today.
His mentor, a man we'll call
Jasper has brought him to meet
a wholesale supplier
of weed and cocaine.
GHOST: Plugz,
what's up my (bleep)?
PLUGZ: What's up
with them (bleep)?
JASPER: The regular, degular.
You know what I need.
PLUGZ: Mariana.
MARIANA: Mariana.
PLUGZ: Nice to meet
Plugz. Nice to meet you.
MARIANA: Plugz?
PLUGZ: Plugz.
MARIANA: It's okay if we film?
He told you we
were coming, right?
PLUGZ: Yeah. Yeah, it's good.
She with you though?
JASPER: Yeah, it's good.
MARIANA: Plugz is recovering
from gunshot wounds to his legs.
The result of a bad business
deal three weeks earlier.
JASPER: Is that the candy?
PLUGZ: Yeah, this is the candy.
You heard about this?
JASPER: Uh-oh.
PLUGZ: Come on, now.
MARIANA: What is that?
PLUGZ: New and improved?
JASPER: Yeah, that's the
new and improved, "Zazaland."
(bleep). Come on,
that (bleep) fire.
MARIANA: What is it?
Can I see it?
JASPER: That's the coke.
MARIANA: Oh. It's cocaine?
JASPER: Yeah.
MARIANA: And it's
packaged like this?
JASPER: Yeah,
that's our secret package.
PLUGZ: Yup, that's
the secret package.
MARIANA: No.
PLUGZ: Yeah.
(laughs)
MARIANA: Zazaland?
PLUGZ: Yeah.
MARIANA: Candy Cane?
JASPER: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And
there's cocaine in here?
JASPER: You don't feel it?
It's a little
small brick of cocaine.
MARIANA: So, how
much do you have there?
JASPER: I got 2,000. Okay.
Here you go.
MARIANA: So,
I'm interested, you,
we are very far away
from your neighborhood.
GHOST: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: And you have
an ankle bracelet on you.
Is that something, are
you afraid at all that
they might
monitor where you are?
GHOST: Yeah, but, you know,
I'm not doing (bleep).
So I'm not worried
about that (bleep).
JASPER: One, two,
three, four, five
PLUGZ: Hey, nice to meet you.
GHOST: Nice to meeting you.
JASPER: All right, then.
PLUGZ: (inaudible).
MARIANA: Court delays mean it
will be one more month before
Ghost learns his
deportation status.
But by doubling down on
the streets and racking up
new charges, it seems
inevitable that, like Tanga,
he too will eventually
be sent back to Belize.
GHOST: This shit, this
is just, like, a cycle, man.
MARIANA: What do you mean?
GHOST: It's like, it's,
it's not gonna stop.
There's gonna be
different guys get deported,
and go, you get me?
Gonna go over there.
MARIANA: Continue
the violence there.
GHOST: Continue
the violence there.
'Cause they ain't got
nothing to lose, you feel me?
MARIANA: And predictably,
in Belize and throughout
Central America, that
uptick in violence will fuel
more immigration to the US.
Which is what's brought me
to this motel in a location
that's best not revealed.
MARYBETH: Yeah.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
It's healing really nicely.
MARYBETH: Yeah, this one here,
and the other one here.
That's the bullet they took out.
MARIANA: Ooh, no!
Okay, so last time I saw you was
about five months ago in Belize.
MARYBETH: I was still
getting attacked by people.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MARYBETH: Saying mean
stuff about me and Tanga,
and stuff, you know?
And I got a lot of
threat on my life, like,
they're gonna
burn my house down.
They're gonna come to
my house and shoot me.
They lit my car on fire.
MARIANA: Oof. This is the seat?
MARYBETH: Yeah.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
MARYBETH: Some guys that
used to hang with Tanga,
they say I killed Tanga.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
I mean, so much of this
happened after Tanga died.
Do you regret having had a
relationship with him at all?
MARYBETH: I don't
regret meeting him.
The way he died
really hit me hard.
Like, I still cry up to now.
And I don't
(sighs)
The love I share with him,
I don't think I'll ever
share with someone else.
So, you know, um, no, I'm
I'll never love again.
He's my one true love.
MARIANA: And then,
so when did you decide
that it was time to leave?
MARYBETH: I just woke up a
Thursday morning and I told
my mom, "I'm going to the US."
MARIANA: How did you
come across the border?
MARYBETH: Um,
when I reached Mexico,
I gave myself into
the US authorities.
MARIANA: And what
did you tell them?
MARYBETH: That I'm fearing
for my life in my home country
and I need help.
MARIANA: And your
kids are still in Belize?
MARYBETH: Yeah.
I'm trying to figure out a
way how to get them here, so.
MARIANA: Do you talk to them?
MARYBETH: Every day.
"Mommy, when you coming home?"
You know, and it
breaks my heart.
I cry a lot, but, um,
we'll be okay and
I'll see how I can get
them over here, eventually.
MARIANA: It's an open
question whether Marybeth and
her children
will break the cycle.
One which pushes
gang members and
chaos back to
their home countries.
MARYBETH: Belize is crazy,
the violence there is crazy.
MARIANA: Which in turn drives
new immigrants here into the
waiting arms of street gangs.
Captioned by
Cotter Media Group.