East Harlem Purple Gang

Purple Gang
Founded	c. Early 1970s
Founding location	New York City, New York, United States
Years active	c. 1970s–1980s
Territory	Harlem (especially East Harlem, Italian Harlem, and Pleasant Avenue) and the South Bronx
Ethnicity	Italian American
Membership (est.)	30 members and 80 associates
Activities	Drug trafficking, murder, contract killing, gun-running, extortion, robbery, bookmaking, kidnapping, racketeering, loansharking
Allies	Five Families (especially the 116th Street Crew of the Genovese crime family); The Council; The Corporation; and various Latin American drug trafficking organizations and African American organized crime groups;
Rivals	Various gangs in New York City, including their allies, especially the Bonanno crime family

The East Harlem Purple Gang was a gang and organized crime group in New York City consisting of Italian-American hit-men and heroin dealers who were semi-independent from the Italian-American Mafia and, according to federal prosecutors, dominated heroin distribution in East Harlem, Italian Harlem, and the Bronx during the 1970s and early 1980s. Though mostly independent of the Mafia and not an official Mafia crew, the gang was originally affiliated with and worked with the Lucchese crime family and later with the Bonanno crime family and Genovese crime family.^[2] It developed its "closest ties" with the Genovese family,^[2] and its remnants or former members became part of the Genovese family's 116th Street Crew.^[3]