The Avenues, also known as Avenidas or AVE's, is a Mexican/Mexican American criminal street gang mostly in Los Angeles County, California.

As time progressed and their numbers increased, they became more violent and started to act more like a criminal street gang and less like a social club.

By the time the 1970s rolled around the Avenues had grown from a neighborhood social club into a highly organized gang whose territory stretched 6 miles.

During this period of time drug-addiction and violent crime became an everyday fact of life in northeast Los Angeles as rival gangs began fighting over drug turf.

[10] Members of the 43rd Aves were prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in 2006 for hate-crime charges for harassing, attacking and murdering African Americans in Highland Park.

Even through all of this, the Avenues gang that rule Drew Street have survived countless convictions, injunctions, evictions and deportations.

The Avenues gained national attention in 1995, when several members opened fire on a car that made a wrong turn into a Cypress Park alley, killing 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen.

Methamphetamine, cocaine, black-tar heroin, and marijuana is sold by street dealers who operate out of numerous hidden "trap-houses" where the product is stored and processed into smaller quantities.