[1][8] By the 1990s, however, PEN1's base of operations was in Orange County where the gang began recruiting white suburban adolescents and became involved in methamphetamine trafficking, prostitution and identity theft.
1 is heavily involved in identity theft, which is not a crime often associated with street gangs; most of the income from this is allegedly used to finance methamphetamine sale and other operations.
Originally, the gang did this by raiding mailboxes and trash cans for personal information, but later used contacts inside of banks, mortgage companies and state motor vehicle departments in order to gain access to credit profiles.
This has led to law enforcement officials requesting that their personal information be removed so that it can't be used by gang members to identify home addresses of police officers.
[3] On December 16, 2010, fifty members of PEN1, the Aryan Brotherhood, the Nazi Lowriders and three other white supremacist gangs were arrested in Orange County on various federal charges, including criminal fraud and illegal firearms and narcotics sales, as a result of Operation Stormfront, a joint investigation by the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).