Gang Violence Sweeps New York As Crips, Bloods Move Eastward

NEW YORK - The notorious Los Angeles gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, have begun carving up the Big Apple, federal sources said yesterday.

Their violent rivalry has already left three men dead in Brooklyn. Federal sources said the victims were Bloods gunned down by a Crips hitman.

And agents fear the killings may signal another wave of gang-related drug violence for New York. The alleged killer, 19-year-old Sandro Santos, who lived in Los Angeles after fleeing charges in his native Belize, is being extradited from Chicago on federal weapons charges in connection with the Brooklyn killings.

Santos, who has been identified by federal agents on both coasts as a Crips hitman, is wanted in Belize on charges of attempting to kill a police officer. He has been arrested in Chicago three times since Dec. 4: as a suspect in a drive-by shooting and for possession of an Uzi, for possession of a Beretta and as a suspect in a homicide.

He was twice charged with gun possession, a misdemeanor in Illinois, but was not charged in connection with the two shootings. Gang experts said the Crips and Bloods have been expanding eastward for five years, after saturating Los Angeles and nearby cities with crack cocaine.

New York Police Department officials refused to comment.

But federal agents said they believe the Crips and Bloods have established a toehold in the Bronx, upper Manhattan and Brooklyn, where they are trying to take over crack-cocaine distribution.

Until recently, Los Angeles police officials said, the Crips and Bloods had been shut out of the New York drug trade by well-organized cocaine networks. But infighting and prosecutions have created a void that the Los Angeles gangs plan to fill.

Last year, in Los Angeles County, there were 800 gang-related murders. Police attribute half to warfare between the two gangs.

On June 14 in the East New York section of Brooklyn, Kevin Augustus, 22, of Manhattan, Linden Arnold, 24, of the Bronx, and Francis Zayala, whose age and address are unknown, were shot as they waited to enter a social club, police said. One of the men, federal sources said, was wearing a red hat - the "colors" of a Bloods gang member.

Investigators said they had not yet pinpointed the motive for the shooting but said it was part of an "ongoing turf dispute."