Spanish Gangster Disciples
Spanish Gangster Disciples

Spanish Gangster Disciples

Founded Founded in 1981 in or near South Chicago
Founding story

Founded in South Chicago, 87th and Houston

Affiliations Folk Nation — 1980 – 2000 or later;
Colors Black and Light blue
Primary ethnicities Latino (Mexican) and Latino (Puerto Rican)
Symbols Winged Heart, Devil Tail, Devil Horns, and Gangster Crown
Status Active

In the year 1979, gang violence began to intensify in the South Chicago neighborhood as white flight changed the neighborhood from majority white to majority black and Hispanic.  In the midst of this outside gangs began to slowly migrate into the community or form in the neighborhood like the Very Mellow People and the Latin Dragons.  Members of the Maniac Latin Disciples gang from on the north side of the city had adopted the Spanish Gangster Disciple concepts in the prison system after incarceration while some guys from the Royal Knights from South Chicago flipped to MLD and/or SGD concept in prison around this time.  These Key guys were former midget Royal Knights: Pablo Rios and his brother Rudy Rios, Rico “Mickey” Villea, Jesse Montanez and his brother.  This where the story really starts to begin.

In the year 1980, Ronald “Mad Dog” Carrasquillo of the Imperial Gangsters and Victor “King Vic” Gomez of the Maniac Latin Disciples drew up the Spanish Gangster Disciple concepts for the Latin Folks to officially be governed with a council of Folks from different organizations.  Victor Gomez was the original head of the council, this is how Spanish Gangster Disciple or “La Tabla” were created in 1980, but this was not on the streets.

In the year 1981, several key members of the Black Gangster Disciples and Latin Folks were released from prison and began spreading the word about the Folk alliance and began teaching gangs which side they were supposed to identify with.  One key Maniac Latin Disciple that was released from Statesville was “Duck.”  Duck came to unite with the the Royal Knights at 87th and Houston and newly released former RKs that had flipped MLD/SGD in the joint and came out preaching about Spanish Gangster Disciple concepts and perhaps saw an opportunity to unite with the Black Gangster Disciples that were getting big in the neighborhood.

For the events in 1981 that led to the exact formation of SGD I am in the grey about because I get conflicting stories.  Some have said they were born out of the Saints of the Back of the Yards, some say MLDs and even Latin Scorpions, so for now I will just say they started in 1981.

In the year 1982, SGDs began to recruit in South Chicago and became known at that point, then by 1983 they were becoming quite large as they continued to clash with Latin Dragons.  By then the SGDs were fighting with Latin Counts and Latin Kings moving into the neighborhood as well.

In the summer of 1983, the Spanish Gangsters Disciples formed on the north side on the corner of Rosemont and Broadway “Original North Side” in the Edgewater neighborhood.  Milwaukee King founder “Shakey” recieved a blessing from Larry Hoover of the Gangster Disciples to put a SGD group in Edgewater and Shakey passed that blessing down for SGDs to open this north side chapter in 1983.  The SGDs of Broadway often hung out with the SGDs of 87th, they were friends.  From Rosemont and Broadway, “Top Cat” moved to the Albany Park neighborhood and opened a new section at St. Louis and Ainslie.  A short time later the SGDs would open the Broadway and Cuyler “Uptown Green” section in the Uptown neighborhood, then Sunnyside and Kimball opened in the Albany Park neighborhood.  The SGDs also made their way to the Rogers Park neighborhood at Columbia and Glenwood in 1983.  In all these neighborhoods the SGDs found intense rivalry with the Latin Kings making them one of their first enemies up north.

In the Albany Park neighborhood the SGDs would grow very powerful very quickly in the 1980s, they would eventually evolve into a long lasting organization in this neighborhood and dominant in this area even in recent years.

In the year 1986, Rico Villea and his wife opened a bakery in the suburb of Elgin.  This is how the SGDs got started in Elgin as some time later the SGDs began to grow into the suburb and it started with this bakery.

Eventually in the 1980s the SGDs opened Olive and Clark in the Edgewater neighborhood which was dominated by the P.R. Stones street gang and once they found out about SGDs a nasty war broke out which inevitably ended up being too costly of a gang war especially since the Stones were there first.  The SGDs were more about making money and money being made and Clark and Olive was not suitable so they moved operations to Early and Wayne which was close to Senn High School.  At this new street corner they were selling major amounts or drugs, especially Marijuana, out of two apartment buildings that faced each other.  Some of the customers were other Folk Nation gangs either from the area or outside the area, and funny enough there were even customers that happened to be Latin Kings who would buy large supplies from the SGDs to distribute on their own.

The SGDs opened up at Lakewood and Granville in the Edgewater neighborhood and congregated near Hayt Elementary School.

In the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, the SGDs opened territory in the neighboring at Lawrence and Winthrop.

The SGDs also traveled further north and opened territory in the Rogers Park neighborhood at Glenwood and Columbia and Lawrence and Harding “Lawrence City.” The SGDs also made new territory over in Albany Park at the corners of Drake and Ainslie and Sunnyside and Kimball.  On the south side the SGDs opened turf at 89th and Baltimore in South Chicago along with 26th and Tripp in Little Village and 47th and Wolcott in the Back of The Yards neighborhood.

The early 1990s was a crazy time for the SGDs that involved both growth and declination.  First, there was the murder one of the organizations’ founder Rudy Rios which left Rudy Guzman in charge then right after that he was killed.  The power then went to “Lil Dee” to run street operations while Antonio “Dee” Quintero ran things in the joint (Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1993 George Papajohn).  This was for the south side chapter.

As for the north side, the “Original 7” had all ended up serving prison terms and power was assumed by a member of the Latin Eagles that flipped to become a SGD named “Demon.”  Demon saw that the SGDs were weakened by these incarcerations and took this opportunity to come to this temporarily weakened gang and become the leader.  In one of his first orders of business, Demon declared war on the Latin Eagles, his former gang, probably because of old animosity.  Demon was a greedy leader that taxed his fellow gang members heavily on drug sales and many SGDs resented this, especially the older members.  Demon knew about this animosity so he decided to increase his power in order to show up those that disagreed with his power; therefore, Demon colonized the suburbs of Elgin, Prospect Heights “Piper Lane,” Highwood, Wheeling, South Holland, Whiting Indiana and East Chicago Indiana.  In the suburbs he found young and impressionable kids that were eager to gangbang and would have no issue paying the high taxes because they did not know any better.  He could also get them to kill for him if the older members objected too much. Demon was said to be greedy and kept a lot of money for himself even money that was supposed to be used for gang operations.

In September of 1991, the Chicago Police started watching the SGDs at 88th and Houston because they had become so violent that residents were in fear.  The SGDs were in nasty gang wars with Latin Kings, Latin Counts and Latin Dragons in the vicinity and this caused the neighborhood to be all shot up with even non gang banging residents having bullet holes in their walls and windows (Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1993 George Papajohn).

After the summer of 1992 things really heated up badly as bullets were flying and bodies were dropping.  “Operation Houston” was now in full effect and on March 30, 1993 7 members of SGD were arrested including Antonio Dee Quintero who was just released not too long before while “Lil Dee” got locked up (Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1993 George Papajohn). These key arrests severely crippled all south side operations especially since Dee appointed Demon to run everything now.  In the joint before this big arrest, Quintero was trying really hard to unify the Latin Folks and expand Spanish Growth And Development concepts; however, Demon ended up working counter-productively and waged war on fellow Folk allies such as Imperial Gangsters and Maniac Latin Disciples.  Both Dee and Lil Dee were released from jail or prison not too long after and were discussing what to do about Demon as he was trouble and seemingly ruining the organization.  Demon got wind of this and recruited his suburban soldiers to kill Lil Dee but the assassination failed, but a short time later another assassination attempt was successful; however, the murder was blamed on rival gangs.

As time went on, SGD lost a lot of territory due to police presence, gentrification (mainly in Edgewater) and lack of effective leadership, not only that, in 1999 the Spanish Growth And Development experiment failed and the Italian Mob withdrew support.  88th and Houston fell apart and Ambrose grew a set on that corner.  The original north side set of Early and Wayne fell mainly to yuppies moving in.  Broadway and Cuyler ended up becoming the SGD major set.

Please send in 1980s and 1990s pics!

Questions:

  1.  What year was Rudy Rios killed?
  2. What year was Rudy Guzman killed?
  3. What years were Dee and Lil Dee killed?
  4. What year was Demon removed?

Known sections of the Spanish Gangster Disciples past and present

Albany Park neighborhood Established 1983-present years

Sections of Albany Park

Argyle to Ainslie, Drake to Bernard

Leland to Sunnyside, Drake to Kimball

Harding & Lawrence (Lawrence City)

Montrose & Bernard

Back of the Yards neighborhood

Sections of the Back of the Yards

47th & Wolcott

Belmont – Cragin neighborhood 2000s-present

Sections of Belmont-Cragin

George to Diversey, Austin to Marmora 2000s-present

Dunning neighborhood

Sections of Dunning

Roscoe to School, Melvina to Meade

Edgewater neighborhood Established 1983-2000s

Sections of Edgewater

Clark & Olive

Early & Wayne

Lakewood & Granville

Rosemont & Lakewood 80s, 90s

Rosemont & Broadway Established 1983 (Original North Side)

Clark & Bryn Mawr 90s

Broadway & Victoria 80s, 90s, 2000s

Little Village neighborhood 80s, 90s

Sections of Little Village

26th & Tripp 80s, 90s

Portage Park neighborhood

Sections of Portage Park

Addison to Cornelia, Lockwood to Leclaire

Rogers Park neighborhood Established 1983-present years

Sections of Rogers Park

Pratt to North Shore Ave, Bosworth to Glenwood (Glenwood City) Established 1983-present years

South Chicago neighborhood Established 1981-present years

Sections of South Chicago

Exchange from 89th to 90th

87th to 89th, Houston to Baltimore (Danger Zone)

Uptown neighborhood Established 1983-present years

Sections of Uptown

Broadway & Cuyler (Uptown Green) Established 1983-present years

Ainslie to Lawrence, Kenmore to Broadway Established 1983-present years

 

Suburbs

Calumet City 154th & Wentworth

Elgin Center & Summit

Highland

Highwood

Lockport

Prospect Heights Piper Lane from Plaza Drive to Wolf Road (Piper Lane)

Romeoville

South Holland

Wheeling (Lollipop)