[2] All UBN subgroups are governed by a common set of rules originally written by founders Omar Portee and Leonard McKenzie.
Examples of the rules are: Individual gang members are to operate and conduct themselves as defined by "The 31"; Procedures for infractions or disciplinary actions; "Snitching," or cooperating with law enforcement, is strictly prohibited.
A potential new member is "beat in" (physically beaten for 31 seconds by gang members, a very minute amount of time compared to most violent gangs)[citation needed] and provided with a copy of the UBN history, oaths, and the 31 rules which must be memorized (these traditions reflect social fraternal clubs and are not typical of most Bloods).
[12] Portee was convicted of ten counts of criminal activity, including racketeering, murder, conspiracy, credit card fraud, and drug trafficking on August 27, 2002.
[14] More than sixty people were arrested on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, money laundering, or drug crimes on July 25, 2006, during a crackdown on the Nine Trey Gangsters (NTG) faction of the UBN in New Jersey.
The indictments were the culmination of an eleven-month investigation, called Operation Nine Connect, involving around five hundred law enforcement officers from federal, state, and local agencies.
[15] Fifteen people linked to the UBN in Charlotte, North Carolina were indicted on February 25, 2009, on federal drug conspiracy and other charges arising from their participation in a cocaine, heroin, and marijuana distribution ring.
[16] Operation Heat, an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, uncovered a conspiracy in which the UBN's Nine Trey Gangsters faction entered into an alliance with the Lucchese crime family to smuggle drugs and pre-paid cell phones into East Jersey State Prison, and led to the arrests of thirty-four members and associates of the Lucchese family's Jersey Crew in May 2010.
[21] Eighty-two people were convicted as a result of the investigation,[22] including Pedro Gutierrez, the "Chairman" of the UBN, who was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment on September 4, 2018.
Tarvell Vandiver, the leader of the UBN subdivision Imperial Gangsta Bloods (IGB) in Northern Virginia, was sentenced to twenty years in prison in October 2018.
[25] In 2018, Brooklyn, New York rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, his manager Kifano "Shotti" Jordan, and 10 other members of the Nine Trey Gangsters faction of the UBN were arrested and charged with racketeering and various felony crimes.
[31] In April 2022, Pierre De Romeo Smith, a member of the Imperial Gangster Bloods, took sexually explicit photos to assist with trafficking a 16-year old victim.