Trillizos
 "Trill-nity" symbol | |
| Founded | 1957 |
|---|---|
| Founded by |
Arturo "El Toro" Rosales Aponte Javier "El Tigre" Rosales Aponte |
| Founding location |
Surrey Creek, Inland Empire, Sierra |
| Years active | 1967–present |
| Territory | Western Inland Empire, Northern Orange, Eastern Gold Coast |
| Ethnicity | Mostly Chicanos and Mexican-Sierrans |
| Membership | 1,700–2,200 |
| Activities | Drug trafficking, robbery, burglary, extortion, racketeering, witness intimidation, murder, prostitution, theft, human trafficking, vandalism, hate crimes |
| Allies | SB13, Westside Mafia, 14th Street Boys, El Gente Army, Occidentales |
| Rivals | Swedish Boys, Made Hustlers, Solomon's Templars, Black Ink Nation, Perros Locos, Lower End Street Club |
The Trillizos (Spanish: Triplets), also known as the Trills or TR3Z, is a Mexican-Sierran criminal street gang located primarily in Western Inland Empire. The gang traces its origins from Mexican youth living in Surrey Creek, an unincorporated town in Riverside County, Inland Empire. It gained notoriety during the 1960s and 1970s for its involvement in the widespread proliferation and drug trade of meth in the Southwest Corridor. Controlling most of the popular drug's trade at the time, the Trillizos became one of the region's most powerful and respected gangs. Despite numerous crackdowns and arrests made against the gangs' leaders during the 1990s and 2000s, the Trillizos remain a prominent face in communities throughout the Inland Empire, Orange, and the Gold Coast.
It is one of the largest affiliated "tributary" gangs of the Westside Mafia, and is composed of roughly 1,700–2,200 members known as "made men", and thousands of more associates. There is a well-defined hierarchy, and violators alongside dropouts or defectors are often dealt with death or extortion. The Trillizos have been involved in numerous high-profile incidences, including the infiltration of local government bodies and police forces, and targeted assassinations against court witnesses, police officers, judges, and lawyers.
Members are noted for their distinctive black and red markings on their clothing, and feature their own system of communication through gestures, symbols, and terms. Due to the expansive geographic spread of the gang, the Trillizos is divided into "blocks". Each block is headed by a trusted enforcer, and oversees a particular city or neighborhood within the gang's domain. Each block includes associates and patrollers, or members who actively seek and cull at-risk youth into the gang. Marksmen are highly respected members who enforce the gang's code of conduct, and punish anyone, including members, who have undermined the gang's integrity. The gang also employs street drug vendors, who serve as middle men between clients and the gang, and prostitutes, who are often shared among the Trillizos and allied gangs.
History
Background
The Trillizos gang traces its origins back to the Inland Empire working-class community of Surrey Creek. It was founded by Mexican immigrants from the Sierran territories of El Norte (now Bajaría), who stayed in Sierra and were known as non-mainlanders (to distinguish them from Mexican Sierrans who were born in federal Sierra). Non-mainlanders were heavily dependent on farmhand labor in the Central Valley and the Styxie, but were ostracized for being "unassimilated" and their low socioeconomic status. Although Surrey Creek was originally a mining town, it developed into a small equestrian community during the early 1920s. After Great War II, real estate developers began constructing cheap housing, targeting the local Hispanic market. Surrey Creek was intended to become an exurb of the nearby communities of Riverside and Perris, and the low housing projects garnered substantial interest and purchases from lower-income Mexican and Central American families.
Housing discrimination and mismanagement of resources led to a racially divided community however. While the fewer but larger equestrian ranches were mostly owned by whites and Californios, the Hispanic migrant families lived in poorer conditions. Public education and small businesses were not adequately developed in time, and as a result, residents were forced to travel several miles away from home for basic services and facilities. Since vehicles were too expensive for most families, many had to either walk or use public transportation to travel. Youth were forcibly bused to white and Asian-majority schools away from Surrey Creek, and were alienated by these practices.
Founding
The Trillizos were founded by the Aponte brothers (Arturo "El Toro" Rosales Aponte and Javier "El Tigre" Rosales Aponte), two teenage boys who attended Matthew D. Sherman High School in Woodcrest. Initially, they formed a social club built around their own clique, which was homogeneously non-mainlander Mexican. Illegal activity was largely limited to petty crimes such as larceny or loitering. The name "Trillizos" (Triplets), was chosen due to the boys' fascination with numerology, and the number '3'. Raised Roman Catholic, they incorporated religious symbolism and terminology into their clubs, though the Aponte brothers seldom attended Mass services. Their nominal religious convictions has influenced the gang's mythos and code of conduct, including the requirement for all members to be beholden to a vague concept of the Judeo-Christian God. The Trillizos' gang sign and symbol are reminiscent of the traditional symbol of the Trinity.
Expanding criminal empire
Crackdowns
Contemporary history
Organization
Membership
Despite having a territorial area encompassing practically all of the Southwest Corridor, the actual membership size of Trillizos is publicly perceived as higher than it truly is. While many gang members may claim affiliation with Trillizos, most of these are regarded as "associates", and are merely members of smaller, satellite gangs who are allowed to call themselves "Trillizos". The actual membership count is estimated to be between 1,700 and 2,200, and such members are known as "made men", or trusted, typically older veterans from one of the Trillizos' satellite gangs. The Trillizos divide their territory into blocks, each headed by an enforcer, who is responsible for overseeing all activity and business within this area, and maintaining an eye on the gang's local affiliates, as well as its enemies. A block may have as much as 50 made-men, who hold senior positions within the local hierarchy, and may undertake more serious crimes or deals. The Trillizos have no true centralized leadership, and each block runs autonomously from one another, and only bound by similar gang culture and principle. Often, enforcers from different blocks collude together in controlling a region, and may render support when one block faces a threat from another gang. However, throughout the gang's history, there has been inter-block conflicts, with most of the infighting occurring between the made men.
Identification
The Trillizos are predominantly of Mexican descent, although some Trillizos gangs allow members from other ethnicities, especially those from other Latin American backgrounds such as those of Andean or Central American descent. The most commonly worn colors and hats by the Trillizos are black and red, especially sports clothing belonging to the Riverside Rebels or the Sacramento Foxes. both teams which feature black-and-red color schemes in their apparel and logos.