Drug Gang: Oklahoma Irish Mob

Tulsa, Oklahoma is a beautiful city on the Arkansas River. It’s known for its art deco architecture, mostly in the central Deco District. Landmarks like the Philcade and Philtower buildings reflect a 20th-century construction boom fueled by the still yet, prosperous local oil and natural gas industry. The Philbrook Museum of Art is housed in an Italianate villa that was once the home of a local oil magnate. These days, you’ll drive around Tulsa and see giant penguin statues everywhere reminding people that the city has a world-class exhibit zoo.

Tulsa

But in Tulsa, Oklahoma it isn’t just zoo animals that get locked away—Oklahoma has one of the largest prison populations per capita in the world. May of these individuals are locked up for substance abuse related crimes, which clearly shows the need for effective drug rehabilitation programs. That alone is upsetting, but what’s even more upsetting is that we know prisons are notorious for creating organized crime gangs and that has major impacts on crimes committed in our streets.

For example, the Oklahoma Irish Mob started because some white inmates didn’t want to follow the white supremacist views of the United Aryan Brotherhood. The two groups oppose each other behind bars, and the Irish Mob works with minority gangs outside the prison walls.

According to a KTUL article published last year, Sgt. Sean Larkin, who is a part of the Gang Unit with the Tulsa Police Department, said the Irish Mob will often cooperate with black and Hispanic gangs because it is good for their drug business.

“Whoever’s got the product, that’s who you’ve kinda got to go through and work with,” Larkin said. “We see these groups that are enemies, even out on the street, they kinda drop their beef temporarily to work together.”

Larkins said the Irish Mob has been around since the 1990s, but the group only has a few dozen members in the Tulsa area. They can be hard to track because they are transient and move from motel to motel. They frequent motels in areas such as 11th Street and Garnett Road, or 31st Street and Memorial Drive, but they can also be found in the suburbs or rural Oklahoma.

Now, the Irish Mob in Oklahoma is a minority and Oklahoma isn’t any more dangerous than the rest of the nation, however, the Irish mob has reportedly been connected with the murder of five people and the kidnapping of three other people, which included two little girls. My hope is that the police will find these murderers and lock them away, however, in saying that I’m sure that history has taught us that prisons only swell gang ranks and improve their operational know-how; they become better networked with other gangs.

The only thing that we can do to protect ourselves is taking a proactive approach and don’t get addicted to drugs; don’t let our kids or friends get addicted to drugs. The last thing that anyone would want is to end up connected to someone in a drug gang. Don’t try drugs and don’t get addicted to drugs—including both street drugs and medical drugs.

Drugs—What you need to know

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AUTHOR

Joanne

Joanne is a veteran Narconon staff member who earlier worked at the New York Rescue Workers Detox Program.

NARCONON ARROWHEAD

DRUG EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION