Notorious prison Numbers gang increasingly working with street gangs for drugs trade

The notorious Numbers Gang in prisons now has a growing, fluid relationship with outside street gangs.

This was found in a master’s thesis at the University of Cape Town by Heinrich Veloen, a unit manager at the department of correctional services who has been working at Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town for 29 years.

Veloen presented his findings during a webinar hosted by the Africa Criminal Justice Reform on Tuesday.

The three gangs — 26, 27 and 28 — have been around for 100 years and operate in all prisons in the country with their own secret codes and language, a hierarchal structure and ongoing tiffs with prison officials and inmates.

Veloen found the gang now has a large influence on street gangs, a concept which was previously not endorsed by the Numbers gang.  This is because street gangs were regarded as “the fourth” camp and not allowed to be active in prisons, he said.

“Some factors forced the acknowledgment of street gangs ... due to the drug trade. Street gang members started to enter prisons as Numbers gang members, while the Numbers gang members joined street gangs after release from prison. These two gang groups work closely together, for example, in smuggling contraband into prisons,” he said.

Major street gangs aligned with the 28s prison gang include the Terrible Josters, Mongrels, G-Units, the Firm, Mobsters and Junior Mafias.

Those mostly affiliated with the 26s and 27s are the Junky Funky Kids, Americans, Sexy Boys, Fast Guns, Clever Kids, Junior Cisko Yankees.

“One street gang which operates in Mitchells Plain and the Strand area is known as the 27s or Skombizo Boys and consists of predominantly 27 gang members who operate under the Numbers gang hierarchy. On admission to prison, they will undoubtedly be accepted as members of the 27 Numbers gang.

Out of 20 Numbers gang respondents, an overwhelming majority were involved in street gangs before entering prison.

Once released, the respondents said the knowledge acquired within the Numbers gang is transmitted into street gang processes, Veloen said.

“Doing time in prison and carrying the mark of the ‘Number’ constitutes political capital in the gang underworld.”

But his findings have exposed a slow response by the department of the correctional services to the shift in the dynamics between street and Numbers gangs, he said, urging the department to implement a gang combat strategy.

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