The Kings, who originated in Ecuador but went on to firmly establish themselves in Spain, used murder and violence at will to eliminate their sworn enemies, Los Netas.

The court in Madrid will also hear los padrinos or godfathers of the Latin Kings kept ambitious pretenders to their crowns in their place by cold-bloodedly killing them.

The trial is set to stir controversy coming only one year after the same organisation was declared a cultural association last year in Barcelona, sparking national debate.

But according to the state prosecutors in Madrid, the Latin Kings have done nothing to distance themselves from a life of murder, rape and gang fights.

With their secret rites of passage, strange codes, titles like king and queen and their insistence that their members around the world form a "nation", the Latin American gangs are an alien phenomenon for Spain.

Their violent ways have unnerved Spaniards who are unsure of the baggytrousered, baseball cap-wearing boys and the heavily made-up girls who hang out together in parks and squares.

Sitting in the dock will be the alleged leader of the Latin Kings in Spain, Eric Javier Velastegui, 30, also known as King Wolverine, and la madrina (godmother) Maria Torres Olivier and Jose Fabricio Izcara, known as The Prince or King Baby Black.

Velastegui is currently serving a long prison term for the vicious rape of a couple of subordinates who dared to disobey him.

But the prosecutor claims while in jail he has continued to run the Latin Kings crime gang with a rule of iron, using Olivier and Izcara as his lieutenants. They are known to visit him in jail and then to communicate his orders to lower members of the gang as if they come from the leader of a cult.

They are told to kill or attack whoever Velastegui chooses. He runs the gang using its Manifesto . . . or supreme rules. The gang is known to members as the All-Powerful Nation of the Latin Kings.

The jury will hear how terrified members who wanted out could only leave the Kings by buying their way out . . . paying between 600 and 900 for their freedom.

Olivier, who leads all the female members of the gang, is alleged to have forced two ex'queens' . . . as female members are known . . .

to pay up to 600 to leave the gang.

She is said to have threatened them, saying: "You are going to cry at the loss of members of your families." The 14 heads of the gang, which numbers 1,000 members, are known to be behind at least five murders in Madrid alone of members of Los Netas and a series of violent attacks.

But they are to go on trial accused of being members of an illicit organisation, coercion and threats.

The accused have a colourful array of nicknames, including King Natim, King Chino Mav, Golden Lion, King Rocco, King Pinky and King Shade.