Minors used as soldiers by Latin gangs in Madrid to sell drugs and kill
Latin gangs in Madrid are increasingly recruiting minors, some below the age of criminal responsibility, for drug trafficking and armed attacks. ABC has gained access to police reports documenting the practice.
Minors on the front line of organised juvenile crime in Madrid
According to ABC, reports from Madrid's Provincial Information Brigade detail how Latin gangs—Dominican Don't Play (DDP), Trinitarios, Latin Kings, Ñetas—increasingly use minors to commit the most serious crimes: drug trafficking and homicides. Some of these minors have not reached the age of 14 and are therefore criminally irresponsible. The hierarchies of the organisations employ them precisely for that legal protection.
In an explanatory report from December 2024, which ABC has accessed, specialists in Latin gangs at the Provincial Information Brigade explain that "lately it is becoming apparent that members of the Dominican Don't Play gang, due to the control they exercise in the neighbourhoods where they are based, are beginning to control drug dealing, with leaders using the youngest members and those with the lowest rank to distribute it".
The document forms part of the investigation into the shooting of a 16-year-old DDP member in a pizzeria on Paseo de las Delicias, in the Arganzuela district, which occurred on 2 July 2024.
A hierarchical structure with the youngest at the bottom rung
The police report dates the founding of the DDP in Madrid to 23 December 2004, following the pattern of the gang already existing in the United States. It was formed exclusively by young people from the Dominican Republic, originating from the Latin Kings and the Ñetas, organisations from which they separated due to differences related to the nationality of their members. In 2006, a breakaway faction emerged from the DDP itself: the Trinitarios, who carried out their first murder in the lower levels of the Azca complex.
Currently, the "Dominicans Don't Play" are divided into seven territorial groups in the capital, termed "choirs": Embajadores, Usera-Villaverde, Campamento, Ciudad Lineal, Carabanchel, Chamberí and Prosperidad. In the metropolitan area, especially in Alcobendas and San Sebastián de los Reyes, another relevant faction operates. The number of members is around one hundred. They maintain a non-aggression pact with the Latin Kings, although this line is, according to the report, "very fragile at times". The Ñetas and the Trinitarios constitute their main rivals in the struggle for territories.
The internal structure places the "suprema" or "soberano" at the apex, who represents the three colours of the Dominican flag; below are the "primera" (president of a choir), the "segunda" or "minister of peace", the "tercera" or "minister of war", the "cuarta" or treasurer, and the "quinta" or secretary. This bloc is termed the rank of "patriarchs". After them come the "diácono" or "pearl" and, at the base, the "soldiers": the mass that carries out the orders of those above them.
The organisation's financing rests on robberies and drug dealing. Membership fees of 5 and 10 euros fall to the most recently recruited members. Some DDP factions have come to operate with cryptocurrencies, according to previous judicial investigations.
The attack on the Delicias pizzeria: the case that illustrates the machinery
The shooting on 2 July 2024 at the Domino's Pizza at Delicias Street, 65, serves as an example of how the organisation functions. According to the police report, the leader of the Embajadores "choir", Kevin R. L., alias Drill, aged 20, was the one who ordered that four Trinitarios who were having dinner in the premises that night should be "eliminated"—in gang argot, killed. Drill had been active in the Latin Kings until early 2022, when he joined the DDP. He had twelve previous arrests for brawls, weapons possession, offences against public health and an attempted homicide.
The order reached Diego Alfonso P. C., a Spanish national aged 21, identified as "tercera" or "minister of war", with multiple gang-related records. Among his "soldiers" was Andrés Jhobinson P. C., alias Jon Bloque, a 21-year-old from Madrid, with previous episodes of robberies, assaults and a collective attack on neighbours over sports courts. The list of adult detainees in the case is completed by Mónica N. S., a young Bulgarian woman and Drill's romantic partner.
The alleged perpetrator of the shooting is Jairo Paul V. C., who was a minor at the time of the events. Three other gang members involved were also minors at that time.
Dozens of deaths in two decades
The Latin gangs—Trinitarios, Latin Kings, Ñetas and DDP—are considered criminal organisations by Spanish courts. The Supreme Court has ordered their dissolution. Over two decades of criminal activity in Spain they have accumulated dozens of deaths, many of them with adolescents as perpetrators.
The practice of employing the youngest members for the most exposed tasks—drug distribution and armed attacks—responds to a dual logic: on the one hand, minors under 14 years of age are not criminally responsible; on the other, those above that age face significantly lighter sentences than adults. For the organisation's leaders, it provides protection against criminal punishment. For the minors themselves, according to the police report, carrying out such tasks is the way to "toughen up" and advance in the gang's hierarchy.
Source: ABC