El Rukns

aka Blackstone Rangers

In 1985, El Rukns, one of Chicago's most notorious street gangs, contacted the Libyan government, offering to commit terrorist acts within the United States in exchange for $2.5 million. The ensuing federal trial marked the first in which U.S. citizens were found guilty of planning terrorist acts on behalf of a foreign government in exchange for money.

El Rukns began as the Blackstone Rangers, a teenage street gang that ruled the Woodlawn district of southside Chicago in the 1960s. Led by Jeff Fort, the gang, which later joined with other gangs to form the Black P Stone Nation, established its reputation for extreme violence in battles against a rival gang, the Gangster Disciples.

In 1977, Fort announced his conversion to Islam and asserted that his gang was now a black Islamic religious sect, called the Moorish Science Temple of America, El ...