Although Puerto Rico has many small street gangs claiming its poorer neighborhoods, NETAS is by far the largest and most dominant, controlling the illegal drug trade in the island's prison system.
On March 30, 1981, Ñetas leader Carlos Torres Irriarte was shot and stabbed to death by the G27s—along with the help of paid-off authorities—as he returned to his cell from the prison chapel.
They denounce and punish sexual offenders, pedophiles and abusers, and exile them to solitary confinement where they are not allowed to interact with the rest of the prison population.
It became such a force that the Puerto Rico Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation physically segregated Ñetas and their rivals in separate buildings or facilities within the prisons.
Prospective Ñetas members are required to serve a probationary period before being formally "blessed in" to membership at a meeting of the chapters held on March 30 of each year.
[11] Robert Walker of the website GangsOrUs.com has said of the Ñetas, "they use the facade of a cultural organization and see themselves as oppressed people who are unwilling to be governed by the United States."
[12] The Ñetas' main source of income is derived from the retail distribution of powdered and crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana and, to a lesser extent, LSD, MDMA, methamphetamine, and PCP.
Ñeta members commit assault, auto theft, burglary, drive-by shooting, extortion, home invasion, money laundering, robbery, weapons and explosives trafficking, and witness intimidation.
[10] Twelve members of the Ñetas and the Bloods operating in Chelsea, Massachusetts, were indicted on federal and state drug and firearm charges on January 8, 2010.
[16] In May 2012, forty-one people were indicted following a nine-month undercover investigation of a heroin ring in Camden, New Jersey, led by Noel Gonzalez and Michael Rivera, members of the Ñetas.
[23] Jason "J-Live" Cabral, leader of the gang's Long Island faction, was sentenced on November 18, 2014, to a term of 37 years' imprisonment as a result of his guilty plea to the 2004 murders of Anthony Marcano and Fabian Mestres.