Graffiti tell a tale of gang activity

A blue C with an arrow pointing up. A red X over the letters LOC. The number 1500 not far from Rest painted in fat, white cloud letters, a memorial to the dead.

To the untrained eye, the letters and symbols spray-painted under a bridge in the Whitman Park section of Camden are meaningless. But to trained police officers, they signal gang presence and, in some cases, can tip off law enforcement to a brewing feud.

"Graffiti is the newspaper of the street," said Cpl. Edwin Santana, training coordinator for the New Jersey Gang Investigators Association. "It is basically going to tell you what's going on in that specific area, when there's going to be some kind of violent repercussion."

Gangs are no longer just a big-city problem. They're increasingly infiltrating smaller, down-on-their-luck cities, such as Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. They're also edging into rural territory and suburbs, where they can operate with less police supervision and command higher prices for drugs, police said.

All 21 counties in New Jersey reported gang activity in 2010, and 30 municipalities reported gang activity for the first time last year, according to a state police survey. Police in Newark, Trenton, and Camden still handle most gang violence, but gangs are pushing out into neighboring communities, police said.

In Pennsylvania, Mexican drug gangs are well-established in Philadelphia and Reading. Dominican gangs are using Hazleton as a base to expand their reach in eastern Pennsylvania, where they are the most prolific drug distributors, according to a March report from the Department of Justice.

Some South Jersey police officers say they are seeing more gang crimes. In the winter, police in Riverside arrested a man with gang ties after he allegedly put a gun to his girlfriend's head. When they searched his apartment, they said, they found two 9mm pistols and a bulletproof vest.

"We're starting to see this stuff we haven't seen before," Riverside Detective Ron Brock said.

The Bloods, a Los Angeles gang that branched off to New York City, has historically dominated New Jersey and the East Coast, Santana said. The Bloods are heavily involved in selling cocaine and heroin in New Jersey, state police said. The region also includes the Bloods' rivals, the Crips; the Pagans Motorcycle Club; the Latin Kings; MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha), a violent gang whose original members were Salvadoran immigrants; and others.