Inside the Rise of Los Angeles’s Super Gang and Its Shadowy Underworld Influence

4 February 2026

MS-13 and 18th Street have apparently set aside years of warring to form a “super gang,” according to police. LAPD

Los Angeles, a city long associated with glitz, glamour and beach culture, also harbours a darker reality that law enforcement officials say is undergoing a dramatic transformation in 2026. Officials and detectives describe the emergence of what they are calling a super gang an unprecedented alliance of once-rival criminal groups that have set aside decades of bitter feuding in favour of cooperation allegedly backed by a secret pact with the notorious Mexican Mafia and enabled by so-called soft laws that critics say have unintentionally smoothed the path for organized crime. This development, described by police sources as an “unholy alliance” has, according to those sources, reshaped the criminal underworld of Southern California in ways few anticipated and raised fresh questions for policymakers and residents about security, policing and the future of gang violence in the nation’s second-largest city.

For years, street gang violence in Los Angeles was defined by turf wars, shifting rivalries and cycles of retaliation between groups like MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang two of the most notorious and long-standing factions rooted in the region’s immigrant communities. These gangs, historically locked in violent competition, carried out murders, extortion, trafficking and other crimes that left a deep imprint on neighbourhoods throughout Los Angeles County. But in recent years, say LAPD detectives, those lines have blurred dramatically. Officials told The California Post that rumors first surfaced shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic ended in 2022 of a ceasefire ordered by La Eme, the prison-based Mexican Mafia, a powerful syndicate with deep historical roots that has long exerted influence behind bars and on the streets.

The Mexican Mafia emerged in the California prison system in the 1950s and has since become one of the most influential prison-based criminal organizations in the United States. Its role has traditionally been to mediate disputes, collect “taxes” from street gangs and maintain a level of brutal order within and outside prison walls. But law enforcement sources now say its influence may have extended far beyond those traditional functions, purportedly orchestrating an alliance between factions like MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang that once fought bitterly for control of Southern California territory. This alleged peace pact was not borne of goodwill, according to police, but cold calculation: a recognition that sustained violence interfered with the profitability of drug trafficking, extortion and other lucrative criminal enterprises.

Detectives familiar with the situation say the alliance, if genuine, represents a seismic shift in California’s gang dynamics. Instead of open warfare between rival crews, they claim there is now coordination, or at least enforced truces, that allow members to focus on shared economic interests. That has raised serious concerns among law enforcement officials who fear a new kind of organized crime federation one that combines strengths, resources and networks across once-hostile factions, effectively creating a more powerful and unified criminal network. The term super gang has been used informally among some police circles in part because of the scale and complexity of this purported alliance.

Some experts point to decades of gang evolution in Los Angeles as context. Historically, groups like MS-13 and 18th Street arose during the late 20th century amid waves of immigration, socioeconomic marginalization and struggles for identity and survival among young people. Originally born in the streets of Los Angeles among Central American and Mexican communities, these gangs grew into transnational organizations with ties spanning the United States, Mexico and Central America. Over time, gang members cycled through the state’s prisons, where affiliations and allegiances were reshaped, and the influence of prison-based syndicates like the Mexican Mafia grew stronger.

At the same time, critics of criminal justice policy argue that a series of so-called soft laws reforms intended to reduce incarceration rates for nonviolent offenders and change sentencing practices have unintentionally weakened traditional deterrents. Reforms that limited pretrial detention, reduced mandatory sentences, or offered early release for certain categories of offenders, they say, may have contributed to an environment where gang members spend less time behind bars or face fewer immediate consequences for serious offences. Whether these reforms directly correlate with the alleged alliance is far from settled among scholars and policymakers, but the discussion has intensified in police briefing rooms and city council debates across Los Angeles County.

Officials have not publicly disclosed details of their investigative findings, and there is no official acknowledgment from leaders of MS-13, the 18th Street Gang or the Mexican Mafia about any formal pact. Still, detectives describe patterns that they say reflect an uneasy but effective peace: fewer high-profile shootouts between rival gangs, a shift toward coordinated activities, and an apparent focus on organized, profitable crimes rather than territorial disputes. Community leaders, however, worry that a super gang of this nature could make enforcement more difficult and endanger neighbourhoods in subtler but deeper ways, as organized networks become financially sophisticated and less prone to the very violence that once defined them.

The local response has been mixed. Some residents in gang-affected areas say they welcome any reduction in street violence, even if it comes from a criminal alliance, because it can mean fewer gang-related killings and fear in their communities. Others, including advocacy groups, caution against celebrating what could essentially be an unreported deal that empowers criminal entities. They argue that peace borne of criminal collusion is not genuine peace at all, and that it may simply mean the gangs are operating more efficiently and discreetly, with less immediate danger but more entrenched influence.

Law enforcement leaders in Los Angeles have called for greater data-driven analysis and federal support, citing the challenges of addressing not only local gang activity but potential overlaps with international smuggling, drug trafficking and transnational networks. They stress that proving an actual pact or alliance is difficult in a world of coded communications, loyalties embedded in prison hierarchies and underground negotiations that rarely leave public traces. At the same time, they maintain that the patterns are too observable to ignore and that new strategies are needed to counter sophisticated criminal collaborations that transcend old rivalries.

Whether this so-called super gang is a temporary phenomenon or a long-term evolution of Southern California’s criminal landscape remains to be seen. What is clear is that the conversation has brought renewed scrutiny to how gangs operate, how criminal justice reforms intersect with enforcement outcomes, and how powerful syndicates rooted in historic prison culture like the Mexican Mafia continue to shape street-level crime. Los Angeles, for all its glamour and global visibility, now finds itself grappling with a potential underworld realignment that could reverberate far beyond its city limits.