The Trinitarios are a Dominican gang in New York City, New York which was founded in 1989. It was named for the three Dominican War of Independence leaders, Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sanchez, and Matias Ramon Mella, and they grew out of the prison system, later spilling onto the streets in all of the city's Five Boroughs. The gang also spread to the US states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Washington DC, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Georgia, as well as the Dominican Republic, Sint Maarten, and Spain. The gang was one of the fastest-growing gangs in New York, recruiting high schoolers from Chelsea, Gramercy Park, Harlem, Inwood, Morris Heights, and Washington Heights. The gang came to have between 7,000 and 12,000 members nationwide.