Latin American machete gang Los Trinitarios is recruiting British teenagers in south London and has been linked to three murders

From the Newshound archive · first published 25 September 2026 · last updated 26 September 2026.

Los Trinitarios — a Dominican gang founded at New York's Rikers Island prison in 1993 — is believed to be operating around Elephant and Castle, recruiting Spanish-speaking children from local schools into neighbourhood units called "choirs". The gang has been linked to the murders of Gregory Castillo Volquez, Giovanny Rendon Bedoya and 17-year-old Yeray Sanchez Morales, who was stabbed with a glass bottle outside a McDonald's on the Old Kent Road. Spain's interior ministry has described the Trinitarios as "one of the most active and violent groups" in Europe, and a Barcelona arrest has helped confirm the gang's international reach.

Members favour machetes and bats over guns because they consider them more 'personal' weapons.

The gang's activities include drug trafficking, sex trafficking, kidnapping, extortion and illegal arms dealing.

In the US alone, Boston prosecutors in June brought racketeering charges against 26 members, alleging a criminal record spanning five murders and 19 attempted murders.