Monday, March 2, 2026

LA the city Karen Bass and the leftist progressives created

Gangs turn LA’s homeless camps into squalid ATMs – collecting rent and running open air drug markets


On Los Angeles streets, tents aren’t just signs of homelessness — they’re where gangs openly deal drugs and collecting rent.

Whether its RV rows choking Compton Boulevard, Skid Row’s packed tent maze or the once-quiet pockets of the Westside, encampments have morphed into open-air drug markets.  

This isn’t chaos — it’s control. Gangs blend into the population, hiding in plain sight, running street commerce behind tarps and inside RVs while City Hall looks the other way.

In pockets of Los Angeles, homeless encampments have morphed into open-air drug markets. Ringo Chiu
Nowhere is it clearer than Compton Boulevard, where more than 100 RVs sit bumper-to-bumper, windows blacked out. Outreach workers and residents say many are controlled by street crews tied to long-established Compton gangs — used to stash drugs, cook meth and sell straight onto the street.

People living inside those RVs don’t just park there, they pay rent.

What Brown sees, he says, is a business run by gangs. 

“This is business now,” Brown said. “Business is business.”

Brown said certain RVs in Venice are well known on the street — vehicles that sit for months at a time.

“You know which ones they are,” he said. “Those aren’t just places to sleep.”

He described makeshift drug operations inside RVs, mobile setups using propane tanks, generators, and improvised wiring to cook, cut, or store drugs. 

Some vehicles in Venice are well known on the street, as they sit for months at a time. Ringo Chiu

Venice has seen repeated RV and encampment fires over the years, some exploding into major emergency responses. Authorities caution not every blaze is drug-related, but law-enforcement officials acknowledge RV corridors have become flashpoints, where drug debt, intimidation and retaliation collide.

Brown said gangs embedded in encampments don’t just sell drugs, they enforce order. Chaos brings cops, and cops are bad for business.


“They serve a purpose,” Brown said. “They don’t want attention.”

Meth labs, he said, is why fires rip through encampments so fast once they ignite. “Once it starts, you’re done,” Brown said.

But not every burned RV is an accident: ”Sometimes it’s a warning.”

Villanueva, who is running again for sheriff, said enforcing drug laws and dismantling gang activity in places like Compton was a priority during his tenure, and would be again. Ringo Chiu





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