[15] The Latin Kings are involved in a wide variety of criminal activities, including drug dealing, assault, burglary, homicide, identity theft, and money laundering, with the gang's primary source of income deriving from the street-level distribution of narcotics.

[3] New York State Bloodline Latin Kings share a common culture and structure with KMC and respect them as the Motherland, but not all chapters report to the Chicago leadership hierarchy.

[33][34] Felipe was charged with ordering the killing of William (Lil Man) Cartagena, who had been taken to an abandoned Bronx apartment and strangled, decapitated, mutilated and set on fire.

To further its efforts to legitimize, the organization began to hold monthly meetings (universals) at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in West Harlem.

Internal changes to the organization began to take place as Fernandez amended the ALKQN manifesto to include parliamentary elections and new procedures for handling inter-organizational grievances and remove death as a possible punishment, replacing it with "vanishing", the act of being banished from the movement.

Following the release of Fernandez, a joint operation of the FBI, New York City Police Department (NYPD), Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), New York State Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) came to a close with the arrests of 92 suspected ALKQN members, half of whom the Latin Kings leadership insisted were not members.

Following the U.N. demonstration, Rafael Cancel-Miranda, another Puerto Rican nacionalista who spent 25 years in federal prison for the same crimes as Lebrón, attended a monthly universal.

Before the year's end, Adelfa Vera, also a Puerto Rican activist, attended a monthly universal and was given ALKQN beads by the present leadership.

Gang markings consist of a five- or three-point "sacred crown", writings of LK, ALK, ALKN, ALKQN abbreviations (or the whole words), and drawings of the Lion or the King Master.

If the member is found to be guilty of the violation at their Crown hearing, they may be subject to a range of penalties depending on the severity of the offense: Non-corporal punishments Corporal punishments L. A. Kaufman wrote in the February 2015 issue of New York magazine that the Kings had a "unique mixture of intense discipline, revolutionary politics and a homemade religion called 'Kingism'".

[3] The Latin Kings maintain links with Mexican drug cartels,[15] and have served as the suppliers of narcotics to motorcycle gangs such as the Pagan's and the Diablos.

The Latin Kings' primary rivals include the Gangster Disciples and various Hispanic and Latino gangs in the Folk Nation alliance.

[55] Eric Javier Vara Velastegui received a forty-year prison sentence for rape, violent assault and kidnapping in June 2006.

[59][60] Twenty-three members were arrested in the Barcelona metropolitan area by Mossos d'Esquadra on 10 June 2015, suspected of organized crime membership, drug trafficking, assault and extortion.

[64] An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Gang Task Force and Hartford Police Department Vice and Narcotics Division into narcotics trafficking and associated violence in Hartford's South End by the Latin Kings resulted in two gang members being convicted for drug trafficking.

[70] By January 2016, all twenty-three members of the gang – which operated in Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties – had pleaded guilty to a variety of federal charges.

[71] On September 18, 1997, fourteen Latin Kings members and associates were charged with running a drug operation that distributed $6 million worth of crack and powder cocaine, marijuana and heroin throughout Chicago.

[72] Latin Kings North Side faction leader Gustavo "Gino" Colon was sentenced to life in prison as a result of the case.

[75] The gang's second-in-command, Vicente "Disciple Killer" (DK) Garcia, was sentenced to forty years in prison on related charges on February 11, 2013.

The gang's illegal activities were uncovered during a multi-year investigation conducted under the umbrella of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).

[79] The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) began investigating the Latin Kings' Maryland-based Royal Lion Tribe following the firebombing of a house in Rockville on January 8, 2008.

After building a RICO case against the gang, the ATF and local police arrested eighteen members during a series of coordinated raids on November 19, 2009.

[81] On December 6, 2019, more than 45 alleged Latin King members, including its leader Michael Cecchetelli, were arrested by the FBI and other state and local agencies, in Massachusetts.

[82][83] Among those arrested was Shaun "Rev" Harrison, an academic dean in the Boston Public Schools district who lived a double life as a Latin Kings gangster.

[85] A multi-year joint federal and state investigation of the Holland Latin Kings (HLK) resulted in the prosecution of thirty-one of the gang's members.

[86] A year-long investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Saint Paul Police Department (SPPD) known as Operation Wild Kingdom culminated in the arrests of twenty-six Latin Kings members and associates on federal narcotics and firearms trafficking charges during a series of arrests carried out across the Twin Cities area on March 7, 2006.

[87] Forty-seven Latin Kings members, including eleven holding senior leadership positions, were charged between October 2002 and May 2003 in connection with a New Jersey State Police (NJSP) investigation dubbed Operation Catapult.

The investigation successfully tracked and documented Latin King activity in five counties, and resulted in charges related to the planned attempted murder of a rival gang member, the sale of heroin, crack cocaine and marijuana, the theft and resale of stolen automobiles and other stolen property, and the possession, use and sale of prohibited assault weapons.

[98] A dozen Latin Kings members were among thirty-four people indicted on drug charges following a year-long investigation – called Operation Royal Flush – by the FBI, Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) and Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office.

[107] Gang-related violence escalated on Milwaukee's South Side after the indictments as a perceived lack of leadership in the Latin Kings prompted rival gangs to attempt takeovers.