HOUSTON -- Inside any Texas prison, behind the locked doors, you’ll find a gang called Tango Blast – a prison gang bigger than all the others.

“Anytime you have a group that is growing as quickly as they are, you definitely want to at least keep your eye on them,” Deputy Michael Squyres said. He documents gang members in the Harris County Jail, entering pictures and information into a database.

Squyres said the now popular Tango Blast actually formed inside Texas prisons nearly nine years ago when Hispanic inmates from various outside gangs came together to protect themselves against members of the Texas Syndicate and Mexican Mafia.

The new group came up with the name Tango, because they say it translates into “hometown clique.”

Its members from Houston often tattoo themselves with the Astros logo and an area code. They call themselves Houstone.

On Web sites like MySpace and YouTube, you can learn a lot about Houstone, whose members strongly believe they’re unfairly targeted the second they get out of prison.

“Cops against us; people talking about us, but there is nothing we can do,” one member says online.

One member who showed 11 News his tattoos said the gang doesn’t cause trouble unless trouble comes to it first.

“Being a Houstone is all about respect,” he said “But if others disrespect the Houstone, then it’s going to be dealt with that one.”

Unlike other prison gangs, Houstone is not organized. It has no bylaws and no rank-and-file, which is very unique. And its members are not required to stay in the gang when they get out of prison. But many of them do.

HPD said a fight between Houstone and another gang led to the death of a teenager.

Last summer, a narcotics bust in the Heights sent several Houstone members back to jail.

HPD said Houstone is so popular that some young people are committing crimes just to get into prison so THEY can join.

Deputy Squyres said boys as young as 13 are getting these specific tattoos because they think they’re cool.

“We are seeing younger guys, guys that have never been into the system that are claiming to be Houstone,” he said.

But remember, you can only join while you’re in prison, and HPD fears that conflict could lead to even more violence.

Just listen.

“We don’t like it at all. Those that say they are Houstone, but they don’t know what it is,. those are the ones that get problems against them,” one member said. “Those are the ones that are going to get in trouble with them.”

Seeing our youth join gangs saddens Squyres, because he knows walking away from that lifestyle is not easy.

“It is depressing, because I have been doing this a long time and I know a lot of guys in their 40s and 50s that have been in prison gangs,” he said. “And I haven’t met one yet that told me, ‘wow, I am really glad i did this.’”

But more young people are joining gangs and behind bars in Texas, there are none bigger than Tango Blast AKA — Houstone.