The origin of the NLR can be traced to inmates held by the California Youth Authority (State prison for juveniles in California). As the white-supremacist Aryan Brotherhood was targeted for suppression in correctional facilities by the Department of Corrections, the NLR emerged as allies or soldiers to continue the in-prison illegal activities of the Aryan Brotherhood. Considered both a prison and a street gang, the NLR has developed a reputation for being cold-blooded and ruthless. NLR members have been linked to murders, home-invasion robberies, witness intimidation, drug sales, and assaults on police officers. NLR female associates and gang members can be just as ruthless and violent as their male counterparts. They run interference for the male members in their operations. Around 1995, law enforcement officers recognized the NLR as a gang growing in numbers and gaining strength through the lucrative methamphetamine trade. In California alone there are more than 1,000 NLR members. The NLR, with its white-supremacist philosophy, has recruited from the ranks of the skinheads. Some skinhead gangs have also aligned themselves with the NLR. This type of alignment might facilitate the building of a national reputation for NLR.