The TCG was born in the City of Inglewood, California during the 1970s and 1980s, many Pacific Islanders moved into the high crime-rate areas in Los Angeles County, California. There, Samoan and Tongan Americans formed their own gangs during the 1970s. Many of the TCG members moved from California to the Salt Lake City, Utah area in the 1980s, and distributed the gang set there. The Salt Lake City branch of the Tongan Crip Gang was founded in 1989 after intimidation by Latino gang members in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Glendale. In the early 2000's the TCG joined forces with the 18 Street Gang, a Latin gang from the Pico Union District of Los Angeles to fight a rival gang, MS-13, a Central American gang formed in the United States after the Central American Revolution for territory held in the MacArthur's Park area of Los Angeles. With the increasing number of deportees in Tonga over the years there are several sets appearing all over the Island Kingdom eg. TCG, Park village crips,14 South Auckland crips and many other crip sets as well as Blood gangs such as Inglewood Family Bloods, Westside piru and Biker gangs such as Mongrel mob and Black power. The gangs presence seen everywhere in markings as they claim their territory so one must beware of certain neighborhoods. The TCG also recruited their first Fijian member in the Kingdom of Tonga in the year 2018.
Activities of Crime
The TCG's crimes include burglaries, auto theft, selling drugs, home invasions, credit card fraud, bank fraud, federal fraud, witness intimidation, Insurance Fraud, Arson, sex trafficking of minors, impersonation of both state police and federal agents, prostitution, hacking, child pornography, kidnapping, extortion by means of threat to reveal information about the private life of an individual, crimes against the elderly, crimes against Central American Communities and individuals associated with the MS-13, crimes against the disabled, mail fraud and murder. In 2007, members of the TCG and the 18 Street Gang were indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for criminal conspiracy in a plot to murder 33 members of a Los Angeles subset of MS-13.
