Nazi Low Riders: A Prison Gang Emerges in California

December 31, 1999

In the late 1990's, the ADL wrote a report on The Nazi Low Riders who at that time were the fastest-growing white prison gang in California.  Read the full report, The Nazi Low Riders: A Prison Gang Emerges in California (PDF).

INTRODUCTION

Since their beginnings as a skinhead gang in the California Youth Authority, the Nazi Low Riders have developed into a racist, violently criminal organization active both on the streets and in prison. Much of the group's rise to power can be attributed to its alliance with another, older prison gang, the Aryan Brotherhood. This alliance -- in which NLR members acted as middlemen for AB's various criminal enterprises -- helped build NLR's brutal and ambitious reputation and created new criminal opportunities unrelated to AB. NLR champions its whiteness especially when recruiting members from skinhead gangs and among new inmates, but it is primarily driven by criminal profit, whether from narcotics trafficking, extortion or armed robbery. At the same time, NLR members have been responsible for a number of fierce racist attacks during the past decade.