Entire communities know what their most notorious gangs are doing, cos people (some quite desperate) who seek favors from them die brutally or lose limbs when they can't or won't return the favor. Any gang wants to make sure that locals know about their methods, so people and competing gangs don't get brave.
One favor is ofc drugs, but can also be simply a job. Otherwise law abiding firms have job deals with Cartels. What Cartels do in return everywhere in the world, is to hold people in life long debt to them - to do small crimes, store illegal stuff and whatnot.
You normally wouldn't think that a gang of only a few hundred members would be notorious. The most notorious in my country is a Polish one. I have an attorney friend who through his tax fraud job knows that a tiny street gang is scaring the crap out of other gangs bc of their utter brutality. They def want locals to know
