Venice 13 - Notoriety

Notoriety

Although the gang has been known to be relatively laid back and often members prefer not to exert themselves, they have gained notoriety for violent and often very reckless retaliation attacks. The gang is also involved in large scale narcotics trafficking business along the Oakwood and boardwalk areas, a prime market for selling to high income residents who come from surrounding affluent areas. Venice 13 has also been known to viciously defend their turf from outside drug trafficking and trespassing, with violators being killed or at least shot at.

Aside from the war with the Shorelines, V13 has also gained infamy as being the most violent rival of the Culver City gang. The gang has been known to publicly take credit for the murders of rivals by marking the neighborhood with "VX3," "V13" and "Venice 13" taggings. In one incident "V13s invaded the hospital in search of a Culver City enemy they hadn't quite managed to kill. It was necessary to give the patient a fictitious name and change all the labels on the census boards, chart backs, etc," as described by a nurse.

On November 7, 2007 members of the Venice 13 gang fired shots, from a vehicle leaving Venice High School, at alleged rival Culver City members who were standing outside the SHOP-4 building at approximately 2:58 pm. The incident began with an argument until it turned to gunfire. The argument is said to have start with gang identification. After the first victim, Carlos, was aware of the situation he was shot at leaving 3 holes on his sleeve with one bullet. He then tried running into other classes were teachers refused to keep him there. The two other victims are unknown. The school was put on lockdown and police were dispatched for extra security for a couple days until threat was minimized. Carlos and the other victims have disappeared only with rumors from friends of moving to Mexico.