Woman, 21, Shot In Stockton Drive-By

 

A 21-year-old woman was shot twice in a drive-by Monday in Stockton, police said. Police learned of the shooting and went to the 400 block of South San Joaquin, in the Seaport District, where officers found the victim suffering from her wounds, according to a news release. She was inside the home when she was hit by gunfire, police said. The woman was taken to a hospital. Her injuries are not considered life-threatening. Police are looking for two men in a gray Honda or four-door Toyota, in connection with the investigation.

Man sentenced in gang deaths

 

Richmond man who participated in gang-related killings 12 days apart in Henrico and Powhatan counties last year is to serve 47 years in prison. In a hearing that lasted minutes, Henrico Circuit Judge Catherine C. Hammond ordered Joe Lewis Harris III to serve 25 years in prison for his role in the Henrico killing and ordered that 10 of those years could be served concurrently with Harris' 32-year sentence in Powhatan. The remaining 15 years will be tacked on to the 32, the judge ruled. Harris is looking at a release from custody when he is 67, minus whatever time for good behavior he accumulates. Before sentencing, the tall, slim Richmonder who went by the nickname Savage in a subset of the Bloods street gang said he had no comment; he pleaded guilty to murder, robbery and gang charges. Ten-year sentences for the latter two convictions were suspended, and three other charges were dropped. Harris was sentenced earlier this month in Powhatan for his triggerman role in the execution-style slaying of Dant'e J. Holloway, 23, whose body was found a few miles north of U.S. 60 near a Confederate cemetery. Another man was severely wounded. Testimony in Henrico and Powhatan has generally attributed the shootings to an effort by the G-Shyne Bloods operating in the Richmond area to weed out pretenders or those who had turned against the gang. No charges have been brought to date against any figure higher up in the Bloods organization than those men arrested locally. Investigators have declined to say if ongoing investigations are targeting other Bloods gang members in or out of Virginia. Merwin Raheem Herbert "Poncho" White, 21, is scheduled to be formally sentenced in Henrico next month for his supervisory role in the murder of Quondell Pringle, 22, who was killed during a robbery April 21. In January, a Henrico jury recommended he serve life plus 23 years. Harris was the shooter in the Powhatan incident, and he was the getaway driver in the Henrico case, which was spawned by Pringle's holding himself out as a Bloods member, according to testimony in White's trial. The gunman who killed Pringle, James B. Pryor, was ordered to prison by Hammond for 31 years. Another man, William D. Hargrove, 19, who testified against White and who served a minor role in Pringle's death, was released from jail in January after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors. Two other men remain to be tried in the Powhatan case; both accompanied Harris to the remote site.

Drug gangs report blasting UK cities as dangerous

 

 Comment By Professor Alan Stevens Drug gangs report blasting UK cities as dangerous is too confusing The problems are nowhere near as deep in Manchester or Liverpool as they are in Rio de Janeiro – or even San Francisco A masked municipal policeman stands outside a shopping mall in MexicoAP On one hand it is right to state that there are communities in British cities suffering from social exclusion and marginalisation and that this contributes to their drug and crime problems. But on the other, these ­problems are nowhere near as deep in Manchester or Liverpool as they are in Rio de Janeiro or Ciudad Juarez – or even San Francisco or Los Angeles. The problem with the INCB report is that the wording is unclear. It gives the impression that its comments on no-go areas could apply equally to all of these cities. But it should have been more careful in specifying which ones it was referring to. The cities in Central and South America have more extreme ­problems which come from bigger social inequalities. They are dramatically more affected by crime and health problems. For example, in the past few years in Rio there have been repeated attempts to crack down on the areas controlled by violent drug markets. For a while these places were no-go zones. But authorities have acted in a militaristic fashion in the past year as they prepare for the World Cup.

British cities are becoming no-go areas where drugs gangs are effectively in control

British cities are becoming no-go areas where drugs gangs are effectively in control, a United Nations drugs chief said yesterday. Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), said there was “a vicious cycle of social exclusion and drugs problems and fractured communities” in cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. The development of “no-go areas” was being fuelled by threats such as social inequality, migration and celebrities normalising drug abuse, he warned. Helping marginalised communities with drugs problems “must be a priority”, he said. “We are looking at social cohesion, the social disintegration and illegal drugs. “In many societies around the world, whether developed or developing, there are communities within the societies which develop which become no-go areas. “Drug traffickers, organised crime, drug users, they take over. They will get the sort of governance of those areas.” Prof Ghodse called for such communities to be offered drug abuse prevention programmes, treatment and rehabilitation services, and the same levels of educational, employment and recreational opportunities as in the wider society. The INCB’s annual report for 2011 found persistent social inequality, migration, emerging cultures of excess and a shift in traditional values were some of the key threats to social cohesion. As the gap between rich and poor widens, and “faced with a future with limited opportunities, individuals within these communities may increasingly become disengaged from the wider society and become involved in a range of personally and socially harmful behaviours, including drug abuse and drug dealing,” it said.

Bolsa restaurant gang slaying an elaborate murder plan

 

The New Year’s Day 2009 massacre in which three people were gunned down at a southeast Calgary restaurant was the culmination of an elaborate plan to target one of the victims, Sanjeev Mann, a jury was told on Monday. In her opening address, co-Crown prosecutor Susan Karpa said the accused, Real Christian Honorio, 28, was part of the plan and one of the shooters inside the Bolsa Vietnamese eatery that afternoon. “Sanjeev Mann was the target. Mann was in the restaurant and was killed,” Karpa told the eight men and four women on the jury. “Aaron Bendle was an associate of Mann who was also in the Bolsa and was also shot and killed.” Karpa said the third victim, Keni S’ua, 43, was a regular customer who had sat down at a table to enjoy a meal that day and was likely mistaken for Mann, who looked similar, and was shot three times as he fled across the parking lot. “Mr. S’ua did not get to have his meal that day,” said Karpa. “Instead, he was shot and killed as he ran for his life. “Mr. S’ua, when he went there that day, did not know he would get caught in the midst of a planned execution.” The prosecutor said the theory of the Crown is that Honorio, on trial for three counts of first-degree murder, played an important role in the planning and execution of the triple homicide. She said Mann, 22, was associated with a street gang, FK, and was hated by rival groups FOB and 403 Soldiers. She said Bendle, 21, was kidnapped with the intention of getting at Mann through him, then to kill him. She said the three men went to the restaurant, with two of them going inside and one remaining outside. All of them, she said, had semi-automatic handguns. Later, city police Det. Jim Hands showed to the jury video and still pictures he took of the grisly scene, which was akin to a war zone. Mann and Bendle are seen laying dead in pools of blood on the restaurant floor, surrounded by numerous empty shell casings, metal fragments and bullet holes in the furniture and walls. He also said S’ua’s bullet-riddled body was found outside in the snow near a sign post, where he fell after being gunned down. Karpa said she and co-Crown counsel Rajbir Dhillon will call some 30 witnesses regarding their theory why the murders took place, as well aswhat happened before and after the shootings. She said witnesses will not be able to recognize the alleged killers as they were masked when they fired some 20 rounds at the scene. Three different guns were used, one by each of the killers. Mann, she said, was sitting with his girlfriend and another male friend at a table at the back of the restaurant when the gunmen burst inside. Before they could be served, Karpa added, Bendle walked into the restaurant and immediately a hail of gunshots rang out. “Mr. Mann was left bleeding on the floor,” she said. “His girlfriend called 911, but he died as she cradled him in her arms. “Mann was wearing a bulletproof vest and three bullets were stopped by the vest. One bullet bypassed the vest and killed Mann. Another person, Bendle, also lay bleeding on the floor. He was shot twice in the head.” She said S’ua was shot three times, once in the face and twice in the back. “The three killers got into their rented getaway car and drove away, leaving three bleeding bodies behind. Police arrived shortly afterward.” A key witness will be a man who is expected to testify how he helped plan the kidnapping and murders. M.M., who cannot be identified in order to protect him, has been given immunity from charges for his testimony. “He will tell you about the kidnapping of Mr. Bendle to get to Mr. Mann and the role he played,” said Karpa, “that there were three gunmen, the accused, Nathan Zuccherato and Michael Roberto.” Zuccherato, 25, and Roberto, 28, were convicted last October by a different jury of three counts of first-degree murder and were handed life sentences with no chance of parole for 25 years. The prosecutor said M.M. did not initially tell police everything that occurred that day, but eventually told all in a plea deal. He admitted he was a former friend of the accused, a member of the 403 Soldiers at the time, and was a former gang member and drug dealer. Karpa told the jury, as part of the Crown’s case, they will also hear what the accused said. She said two months after the shootings, Honorio met a man named Ray, who claimed he was part of a criminal organization and asked him to join the group. It was a targeted undercover police operation. Over the next three months, she said, they took part in criminal activity and their friendship grew. “The accused dropped hints about the New Year’s Day shootings and before the end of their association he told them about his role,” she alleged. “The accused admitted to be one of the shooters in the restaurant and needed help.” The scheduled five-week trial before Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Glen Poelman continues.

CONFESSED GANGSTER Christopher 'Dudus' Coke has requested that US federal judge Robert Patterson suspend his sentencing date until March 16.

 

 Coke, yesterday, in a motion to the judge, pointed to a 30-page sentencing memorandum filed by the prosecutors on Wednesday as the basis on which he has requested the postponement. "The defendant Christopher Coke respectfully request that this court allows him to respond," the motion filed by Coke said. It added that the government has no objection to a continuance in the matter until March 16. Judge Patterson has not yet responded to the motion. On Wednesday, the government, in its sentencing memorandum, urged Patterson to imprison Coke for the maximum 23 years. US prosecutors say such a sentence would protect the public from more of his crimes. Coke is scheduled to be sentenced at 2 p.m. on Tuesday in the Manhattan Federal Court in New York. He has pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering. "The government respectfully submit that a sentence of 276 months' imprisonment - the statutory maximum sentence and only 14 months above the bottom of the applicable guidelines range is the appropriate sentence," prosecutors stated in a sentencing memo filed on Wednesday. "Such a sentence will make clear that those leaders of international organisations who commit crimes in the United States and who use violence and intimidation to achieve their aims, harming citizens of two countries in the process, will be punished to the fullest extent of the law," the prosecutors say. They also pointed to the demonstration in Kingston in which Coke loyalists said they were willing to die for him, as an indication of his power. The prosecutors say "a substantial sentence - the statutory maximum - is necessary to reduce the risk that Coke resumes his leadership position in the organisation and his criminal activities upon his release from prison and his return to Jamaica". The prosecutors argue that Coke's history and characteristics warrant the statutory maximum sentence.

Gang stabbing in Watsonville

 

A man is in life-threatening condition after being stabbed multiple times in Watsonville. Watsonville Police responded to a report of a stabbing Friday night near Freedom and Airport Boulevard. Police found a 21-year-old Hispanic man with numerous stab wounds to his upper torso. He was flown to a Bay Area Trauma Center with life-threatening injuries. Officials say the stabbed victim and two men were driving in the area when they spotted two other men walking on the street. They got out of their vehicle and began to fight with the two men on foot. One of the two men walking then stabbed the victim. All of the men ran off in different directions. Police are investigating the incident as gang-related.

Admitted hit man testifies in federal drug trial that he killed on orders from Craig Petties

 

A confessed hit man testified Thursday that he was paid in cash and cocaine for gunning down two drug thieves and a suspected police informant on orders from drug kingpin Craig Petties. Clarence Broady also testified that Petties told him Clinton Lewis and Martin Lewis committed murders for Petties' Memphis-based drug organization, which is accused of smuggling millions of dollars-worth of cocaine from Mexico into the United States for sale in Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina. The Lewises, who are cousins, are on trial on charges including racketeering-murder, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and money laundering. They have pleaded not guilty, but face life in prison if convicted. Petties has already pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering and hiring hit men to kill four people who were threats to the organization. He is awaiting sentencing. Broady and about 30 other members of Petties' organization also have pleaded guilty to various drug and murder-related charges. Petties fled to Mexico after his indictment in 2002 but continued to run his drug ring, which gang members testified had ties to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel in Mexico. Petties was placed on the U.S. Marshals' 15 most wanted list. He was captured in January 2008 and returned to Memphis. Prosecutors have questioned gang members about whether Clinton Lewis, 36, and Martin Lewis, 34, were also members of the Petties ring in order to prove the racketeering charges against the cousins. Prosecutors have described it as the largest federal drug trial in West Tennessee. In a monotone voice, Broady showed little emotion as he testified about three killings and a kidnapping. Broady told jurors how an intermediary informed him that Petties wanted Latrell Small and Kalonji Griffin dead after finding out that they stole drugs from one of the ring's stash houses. Broady — whose nickname is "Killer" — said he asked Small and Griffin to join him on a robbery. After they met up, Broady jumped into the backseat of a car driven by Griffin. Small was in the passenger seat. Broady said he then pulled out two guns and aimed. "I shot both of them in the back of the head," he said. Broady said he received more than two pounds of cocaine for killing Small and Griffin in August 2004. Broady, who made of living of selling drugs and robbing other drug dealers, said he also was ordered by Petties to kill Mario Stewart in March 2005. Stewart had been suspected of wearing a wire during a conversation with a gang member. Broady said he hid in Stewart's garage for about an hour before Stewart entered. Broady then shot him four times. For the Stewart killing, Broady was paid $40,000, he testified. Broady also testified that he assisted Clinton Lewis, also known as "Goldie," in the kidnapping of Marcus Turner in September 2006. Broady said he left Turner in a house with Clinton Lewis and another gang member. The next day, Broady spoke with Petties, who was on a cell phone in Mexico. "Craig told me that Goldie had took care of it," Broady said. Prosecutor Greg Gilluly then asked what Broady thought that meant. "That Goldie killed him," Broady said. The other defendant, Martin Lewis, also known as "M," is charged with killing Mario McNeal while McNeal was eating at a Memphis restaurant in March 2007. Broady testified that Petties told him Martin Lewis had done the shooting. Defense attorneys have questioned the credibility other gang members who have testified, and are expected to do so when they cross-examine Broady on Monday. They say that the government's case is based on testimony from men who have admitted being gang members and could receive reduced charges and sentences in return for their cooperation. Earlier Thursday, a former gang member testified that he defied Petties by stealing about 370 pounds of cocaine from the organization and avoided Petties' attempt to kill him. Bobby Craft said he made about $4 million by selling the cocaine in Arkansas. Craft said he had returned to Memphis to pick up his 6-year-old son when he was approached by several vehicles outside of a home. Craft said he saw Clinton Lewis and Martin Lewis in the vehicles and suspected they were there to kill him. Craft began shooting and was able to escape, with his son in the backseat. He then led the Lewises and other members of the Petties gang to the interstate, using a semi-automatic handgun and a pistol in a shootout that lasted for 50 miles. "I knew what I was up against, so I was prepared," Craft said.

One of three Atlanta gang members who allegedly committed a hate crime against a 20-year-old gay man has been identified

 

One of three Atlanta gang members who allegedly committed a hate crime against a 20-year-old gay man has been identified, the Atlanta Crime Examiner reported. Federal investigators say Dareal Damare Williams, 17, has fled Georgia, however. A week after the crime took place, two other men who are believed involved in the attack were caught. Christopher Cain, 19, was arrested and on Feb. 17 Dorian Morange turned himself into the authorities. FBI agents in Pittsburg, Pa., say that Williams is hiding out in the state and the agency issued an alert earlier this week. "Williams, a known member of the ’Pittsburgh Jack City Gang’, is believed to be staying with friends and relatives in the Erie Area," officials said. "The "Pittsburgh Jack City Gang" also known as "Jack City 1029" is a violent street gang based out of Atlanta, Georgia." Brandon White was brutally attacked outside a grocery store in Atlanta’s Pittsburg community. The incident was caught on camera and was uploaded to the Internet, which caused the video to go viral across the web. The gang members beat White while someone yelled, "No faggots in Jack City." The victim was kicked and punched until he fell to the ground. Another person then dropped a tire on him. .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Several local LGBT activists were appalled by the hate crime, including Devin Barrington-Ward. "There were gay slurs thrown toward him," Barrington-Ward told the local media. "There were punches. There were kicks. These young men committed a hate crime. There shouldn’t be a debate about that." White spoke about the incident in a news conference earlier this month. He said that he left home soon after the attack and has not returned due to his fear. "If a straight person can walk to the store and not have a problem then I should be able to feel the same," White said. "I could have died that day. Anyone could have died that day. They don’t know what they do to people. They’re monsters," he said about his attackers. "He is doing what a lot of us would never do. He is standing up with courage," Greg Smith, the executive director of the HIV Intervention Project told members of the Atlanta Black LGBT said. "Understand this, he is saying, ’I want to do something. Don’t treat me like a victim.’ His issue is everybody keeps looking at him like he was weak. He is not weak. Don’t treat him like he is weak. Don’t treat him like he is broken. Ain’t nothing wrong with him besides his courage being broken. He wants to stand up and do something," Smith told the crowd.

25-year-old man fatally shot on Burrell Street in Roxbury; fourth slaying in a week

 

25-year-old man was shot to death in Roxbury on Thursday night as a spate of deadly violence continues to rock several of Boston’s communities. The man was shot in the head at 91 Burrell St. shortly after 11 p.m. and was later pronounced dead, police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said. No arrests have been made in the attack. Detectives were looking for evidence early this morning in front of Chin’s Bar and Grill at the corner of Burrell Street and Norfolk Avenue. A section of Burrell Street was blocked off with crime scene tape. It was the fourth homicide in the past week, extending a spate of violence that has alarmed community activists. The police commissioner has suggested that the warmer weather may be a factor. Antiviolence activist Emmett Folgert, executive director of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, said Thursday before the most recent slaying that the amount of violence was anomalous. “We are looking at several different kinds of homicides all occurring within a short time span,’’ Folgert said. “There is what appears to be gang-related, but then you have several odd ones that really are extremely difficult to prevent because they are unconnected occurrences, not predictable and the motives vary. One thing we can do is work with the families of the victims, deal with the aftermath, so that violence doesn’t arise from what has happened in the past week.’’ Last year there were two homicides through today but this year there have been six, according to Boston police. The homicide victims range in age from 18 to 72. The first homicide of the year occurred on Jan. 14. Christopher Pichard, 18, of Lynn was fatally shot on Trull Street in Dorchester. The second homicide was on Feb. 9 in an apartment on Tremont Street in the South End, where a 50-year-old man was apparently bludgeoned to death. The other three homicides were in the past week. Mary Miller, the oldest victim, was stabbed to death inside her Codman Hill Avenue residence in Dorchester on Tuesday. Her upstairs neighbor, Tu Nguyen, 28, was arraigned on a murder charge in her killing and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation. On Sunday, Keisha Gilmore, 25, was fatally shot at 26 Alabama St. in Mattapan as she sat in a car. Moments later, in an unrelated case in Blackstone Square Park in the South End, Mohammed Hassan, 21, of Boston was fatally shot. Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said Thursday before the latest homicide: “This week was a bad week, no question. . . . We had a couple of gang-related incidents and a couple of shootings outside of that, and we’ve been able to make some arrests. We’re satisfied that we are taking the right tack with these incidents.’’ Davis said police had cracked down on gang activity in the Blackstone area last year and are prepared to make more arrests in that area if warranted. Davis hinted that weather may be a factor. “We were under a heavy blanket of snow last year, and we don’t have that this year,’’ he said.

10th Street Gang member gets 6 1/2-year prison term

 Renel Velazquez, a member of the notorious 10th Street Gang, was ordered by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara to serve 6z years in prison on his RICO conspiracy conviction in connection with the gang’s activities. Velazquez, 27, was involved in a violent assault and robbery Feb. 1, 2008, and sold marijuana in territory controlled by the gang on Buffalo’s West Side, U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. and trial prosecutor Joseph M. Tripi said Thursday. Hochul said Velazquez also permitted other 10th Street Gang members to store cocaine, firearms and ammunition in his apartment. Prosecutors said Velazquez and other gang members and associates carried out a robbery plan in 2008, breaking into their victim’s Buffalo apartment and waiting for him. While they waited, prosecutors said, Velazquez kept in cellphone contact with a woman who was with the victim. When the man arrived, Velazquez and the others beat, punched, choked and kicked him repeatedly. Prosecutors said Velazquez also beat the victim over the head with a hammer. The victim, who required hospitalization, was stripped of his clothing and his leather jacket, cellphone and more than $600 in cash.

Machete-Wielding MS-13 Leader Convicted on Sex Trafficking Charges

 

A member of the gang MS-13 from Springfield was found guilty of sex trafficking underage girls Thursday. A federal jury found Rances Ulices Amaya, 23, guilty of three counts of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a child. Because of minimum sentencing guidelines, Amaya should receive at least 10 years in prison for each count. He could receive as much as life in prison when he is sentenced on June 1. Amaya went by the nicknames "Murder" and "Blue," according to court documents reported earlier by Patch, and he eventually rose to lead the Guanacos Lokotes Salvatrucha clique in the gang. He used his MS-13 contacts to find customers and underage girls to prostitute, while also using the gang's reputation for violence to deter customers from making off with the girls.  Amaya prosituted five girls between 14 and 17 years old, forcing them to have sex with as many as 10 customers a day. Many of the customers were solicited from construction sites and convenience stores popular with day laborers. Amaya charged between $30 and $120 for sex with his victims, according to prosecutors. "Customers were required to pay more for 'unusual' sex acts," according to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office. If a girl refused Amaya's demands, gang members would 'run a train' on the victim — having sex with her in rapid succession, according to the USAO. Amaya also reportedly hit one victim in the face.

Police Catch Gang Member Wanted in Colorado

Local authorities had a brief standoff on Whittier Street with a man wanted in Colorado earlier this week, according to myfoxboston.com. The US Marshalls and Colorado authorities had been investigating John Paolo Pedroia, a man believed to be a member of the Surenos 13 street gang. Police found a handgun during the arrest on Tuesday and said he had been in Andover for roughly two weeks. Pedroia was wanted on numerous charges. In Jefferson County, Colorado, where Pedroia was being charged, he had allegeldly called the prosecuting district attorney multiple times, threatening to kill her.

Gang Member Pleads Not Guilty In Stabbing Death

 

documented gang member accused of stabbing a transient 19 times after the defendant issued a gang challenge to the victim pleaded not guilty Thursday to a murder charge. Josue Hernandez Gutierrez, 20, was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail in connection with the slaying of 48-year-old Emiliano Cortez of San Diego. Gutierrez was arrested Monday outside a friend's College area home. Deputy District Attorney Kristian Trocha told Judge David Szumowski that Gutierrez and a 14-year-old boy attacked Cortez about 4:45 a.m. Saturday as he was walking in the 3700 block of T Street, about a half-mile from the home where the victim lived with relatives. Gutierrez issued a gang challenge, and for some reason, the victim responded that he was from a rival gang, the prosecutor said. The defendant then stabbed the victim 19 times, including 10 to the back, Trocha said. Cortez died Saturday night, according to the prosecutor. The 14-year-old was arrested Tuesday at a Chula Vista residence. His case is being handled in Juvenile Court. Police disclosed no suspected motive for the slaying, except that it was believed to be gang-related. There was no evidence that a robbery or other crime was involved, San Diego police Lt. Kevin Rooney said. Residents of the area where the killing happened told investigators a loud argument and a man's screams prompted them to look outside, at which point they saw someone lying on a sidewalk and two people running off to the east. It was unclear why Cortez was walking through the inner-city neighborhood just east of downtown San Diego, though he apparently was not on his way home. Gutierrez was charged with murder, a gang allegation and the use of a knife. He faces 26 years to life in prison if convicted. A status conference was set for March 1 and a preliminary hearing for March 7.

Hip-hop mugol faces murder charges for the killing of 50 Cent's buddy

hip-hop mogul is facing federal murder-for-hire charges - which could lead to the death penalty - for ordering the murder of an associate of rapper 50 Cent, a prosecutor disclosed Friday. James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, already indicted in Brooklyn federal court on drug trafficking charges, faces the death-penalty rap in Manhattan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Kaminsky said Friday in Brooklyn Federal Court. The prosecutor did not reveal details of the murder case, but sources said it was the 2009 rubout of Lowell “Lodi Mack” Fletcher. Rosemond has long been suspected of putting a contract on Fletcher in retaliation for slapping Rosemond’s then 14-year-old son. Two years before he was gunned down on a Bronx street, Fletcher pleaded guilty to assaulting the teen, but investigators believed he took the fall for Tony Yayo, a member of Fiddy’s G-Unit, who had slapped the kid. Fletcher was a member of Yayo's posse. Fletcher was murdered shortly after he was released from prison for a drug conviction and for assaulting Rosemond's son. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Rodney Johnson and Brian McCleod for the murder. The indictment claims they did the killing in exchange for drugs. Rosemond, who repped rapper The Game, has been charged with running a coast-to-coast, multi-million dollar cocaine ring. He has been engaged in plea negotiations with the feds in Brooklyn which could be complicated by the upcoming murder charge.

Inmates riot in same Mexican prison where 44 were massacred

 

Inmates set fire to mattresses and trash Tuesday after officials announced that three prisoners would be moved from the prison where 44 gangs members were massacred this week to a maximum security jail in western Mexico. Thick gray smoke rose from inside the Apodaca prison shortly after several federal police officers went in. Outside, about 50 women related to inmates clashed with police and set fire to a pile of cardboard and wood at a gate. Crying women threw stones at officers when they poured water on the fire from behind the mesh gate, while others tried to climb the fence. The women told a local television station they were desperate for information about their imprisoned loved ones. Nuevo Leon state public security spokesman Jorge Domene Zambrano said a federal judge ordered that three inmates be transferred to the Puente Grande federal prison in Guadalajara. He said he couldn't identify the men until they arrived in Puente Grande. Earlier Tuesday, three inmates were killed in a prison a few miles (kilometers) from the Apodaca prison, where authorities say 44 prisoners who belonged to the Gulf drug cartel were bludgeoned and stabbed to death by inmates from the rival Zetas cartel. The latest victims, two men and a woman, had been booked into the Topo Chico Advertisement prison Monday on suspicion of kidnapping, Domene said. He said the men were stabbed to death in the prison's observation area and the woman in the infirmary. At the time the three suspects were presented to the media in early February, Domene described them as members of the Gulf cartel. Sunday's massacre at Apodoca may have been the deadliest prison killing in at least a quarter century in Mexico. The prison's director and 40 guards are being held on suspicion of allowing imprisoned Zetas members to escape before the massacre. Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina said 16 guards have confessed to aiding the escape. Of the 47,000 federal inmates in Mexico, about 29,000 are held in state prisons. That has drawn complaints from Medina and other state governors, who say their jails aren't equipped to hold members of powerful and highly organized drug cartels. Interior Department Alejandro Poire said the federal government plans to build six new federal prisons to add to the six the country already has. He said the federal government plans to house all federal inmates in its facilities by the end of the year. Fighting between the Zetas and Gulf drug cartels has brought a surge of violence and other crimes to the Monterrey region, which is Mexico's third largest. On Tuesday, gunmen opened fire on a group of taxi drivers waiting at a taxi stand outside a shopping center in Monterrey, killing five. Witnesses told police the gunmen fired from a passing car, Domene said. He said authorities were trying to determine if the attack was related to the prison violence. Taxi drivers are often hired by drug cartels to distribute drugs or work as lookouts.

Mainland Gang Member Indicted in Isle Drug Case

 

San Francisco woman facing federal drug trafficking charges is affiliated with a Bay Area street gang that sold drugs and committed murder here in 2009-10, according to court records. Sulu “Pinkie” Lefiti, 38, was ordered held without bail by U.S. District Court Judge J. Michael Seabright today. Lefiti is affiliated with the “Down Below” gang of the Visitacion Valley area of San Francisco, according to portions of a 2009 federal Drug Enforcement Administration report read in court by Seabright. Another member of the gang, Calvin Burton, was identified in the report as Lefiti’s boyfriend and pimp. Lefiti refused to answer questions about her boyfriend when questioned by federal authorities earlier this month after she was indicted by a Honolulu federal grand jury and arrested in the Bay Area. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady, who is prosecuting the case here, said in court papers that Lefiti “was a member of a San Francisco gang that fought with local gangs” in Honolulu over Chinatown drug sales. The San Francisco gang “was responsible” for the March 2009 street corner murder of Joseph Peneueta, 35, Brady said in court papers. Peneueta “was associated with a rival Samoan gang here in Hawaii,” Brady said. Lefiti will be arraigned on the drug charges here in mid-March. U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ordered Lefiti held without bail after Brady argued that she poses a flight risk and danger to the community. Lefiti’s lawyers, Joseph O’Sullivan of San Francisco and Lynn Panagakos of Honolulu, argued that Lefiti is neither dangerous nor a flight risk. O’Sullivan said Lefiti, a mother of three children, is studying cosmetology and has an “insignificant” criminal record. Panagakos said the DEA report about Lefiti was dated and contained vague, unsubstantiated allegations about her. Seabright noted that Lefiti has a criminal record dating back to her juvenile years that includes a number of relatively minor offenses. “I don’t consider it inconsequential or insignificant,” Seabright said. “It spans a long period of time.” Two San Francisco men, Iosefa Pasene, 24, and Zorro Rye, 27, are charged with murdering Peneueta. Iosefa Pasene Trial in that case is scheduled to begin in state court in May. Witnesses said Pasene, armed with an automatic rifle, and Rye, firing a shotgun, murdered Peneueta while he stood on a Chinatown street corner shortly after 4 a.m. March 28, 2009. Pasene had argued with Peneueta earlier and returned with Rye in a blue Buick Regal sedan, according to court records. Two other men affiliated with the San Francisco group, Cedro Muna and Antonius Toloai, were arrested with Pasene the day before the murder in a drug case. Toloai and Muna disappeared in 2010 and warrants for their arrests have been outstanding since then. According to court records, Muna was the registered owner of the Buick Regal until just days before the Zorro Rye Peneueta murder, when ownership was transferred to a mentally handicapped woman. The woman, who was incapable of driving a car, later told police that men she didn’t know took her to the downtown Satellite City Hall office where they made her sign papers she couldn’t understand. The burned-out shell of the car was later found near Haleiwa on Oahu’s North Shore.

Yakuza Godfather Targeted in Obama Crackdown on Crime Gangs

 

Japan’s yakuza organized-crime groups, having operated openly in their home country for more than a century, are facing tougher treatment by an overseas foe: the U.S. Obama administration. The largest of Japan’s yakuza organizations, the Yamaguchi- gumi, and two of its leaders will have their U.S. assets frozen and transactions barred under sanctions announced yesterday by the Treasury Department. The group earns “billions of dollars” a year from crimes in Japan and abroad, including drug and human trafficking, prostitution, money laundering and fraud, the department said in a statement. The U.S. move represents “a slap in the face of the Japanese government” for failing to rein in organized crime, said Jake Adelstein, a Tokyo-based writer who covers the yakuza. “The U.S. government feels that the Japanese government is very tolerant toward organized crime,” Adelstein said today by telephone. It’s telling Japanese authorities, “Start doing something about your problem,” he said. The Yamaguchi-gumi’s leaders targeted by the sanctions are its “godfather,” Kenichi Shinoda, 70, and his deputy Kiyoshi Takayama, 64, the Treasury Department said in its statement. The U.S. also imposed sanctions against seven “key members and associates” of a syndicate called the Brothers’ Circle, based in Central Asia, Russia and the Middle East. First Targets They are the first targets under an executive order issued by Obama last year “to target transnational criminal organizations and isolate them from the global financial system,” David S. Cohen, U.S. undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement. A man who answered a phone call today from Bloomberg News to the Yamaguchi-gumi’s headquarters in the western city of Kobe hung up when asked to make a spokesperson available. Calls to the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., and to the department’s attache at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo weren’t immediately returned. “The Japanese government has been watching the situation closely with interest and has been exchanging information with the U.S.,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters today. “We should promote stronger measures against organized crime gangs.” Overseas Assets The Yamaguchi-gumi, which operates out of a two-building complex in a residential neighborhood, was estimated to represent 44 percent of Japan’s yakuza with 34,900 members as of December 2010, according to the National Police Agency. The group has “significant” overseas assets, Adelstein said. In 2005, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement seized almost $600,000 from accounts belonging to Susumu Kajiyama, a yakuza member who was sentenced in Japan for loan-sharking, the Associated Press reported in 2009. In 2003, Swiss authorities said they seized 61 million Swiss francs ($68 million) from accounts in Kajiyama’s name. “While this is more of a sting than a blow, it certainly won’t make them happy,” Adelstein said of the U.S. action. Shinoda was released in April from a Japanese prison, where he had served a six-year term related to firearms possession, according to the National Police Agency. Shinoda and Takayama are “the top two representatives of the Yamaguchi-gumi,” Adelstein said. “Everyone knows who they are.” Police ‘Doubling’ Efforts The yakuza have been a force in Japanese society since at least the pre-1868 Edo period. While the group is linked to criminal activities including gambling and prostitution, yakuza also have been hailed for community service. In 1995, its members aided earthquake-hit neighborhoods of Kobe. Japanese police are “doubling” efforts to crack down on the yakuza, the National Police Agency said in its 2010 White Paper, published last July. In 2010, 68 top members of the Yamaguchi-gumi and its affiliates, including Takayama, were arrested, compared with 23 arrests a year earlier. The yakuza is increasingly turning to businesses such as construction, finance, waste disposal and securities markets to supplement their more traditional income sources, the agency said in the 2010 statement. Olympus Japanese officials investigated whether Olympus Corp., which admitted to a 13-year cover-up to conceal losses, worked with organized-crime members, the New York Times reported in November. The fraud has also been investigated by U.S. and U.K. authorities. A panel of external examiners hired by Olympus to investigate said it found no evidence that money was funneled to criminal gangs. “Today’s action casts a spotlight on key members of criminal organizations that have engaged in a wide range of serious crimes across the globe,” Cohen said in the Treasury Department’s statement. “We will continue to work with our international partners to target those who deal in violence, narcotics, money laundering, and the exploitation of women and children.”

Sweden's Chicago grapples with deadly wave of shootings

A wave of execution-style shootings and a police station bombing in Sweden's third largest city have sparked fears that gangster violence is taking hold in a Nordic country widely seen as one of the world's safest places. Only minutes into the new year, a 15-year-old was found with gunshots to his chest and one to his head outside an apartment block in one of Malmo's poorest and most troubled districts, where firefighters have occasionally sought police protection. Eight killings have occurred across the city since a 36-year-old with links to organised crime was gunned down in a parking lot in May last year. The latest victim, a 48-year-old man, was found shot in a car at the end of January. None of the murders have been solved, and now some newspapers are calling Malmo "Sweden's Chicago". "Why don't police have better control?" national daily Svenska Dagbladet asked in an opinion piece, suggesting Malmo look to New York which slashed its crime rates in recent decades. For their part, police refuse to reach the conclusion that the bomb at the police station and the killings were definitely linked, which would gangland violence is out of control. "We believe it's linked to the prevalence of weapons. It is big. But I can't say why we have a larger share here than in Stockholm," Hans Nordin, Deputy Chief Commissioner of Police in the Skane region of southern Sweden, told Reuters. With a population of just 300,000, Malmo is one of Sweden's roughest cities, long a base for smugglers because of its proximity to Denmark, with which it has been connected by a bridge since July 2000. Roughly 40 percent of Malmo's population are first- or second-generation immigrants and one in three is unemployed, compared with a national rate under nine percent. Among young immigrants, the rate is nearly 40 percent. Formerly a prosperous industrial town, much of the old industry has declined and jobs have vanished. Gangs took root here decades ago, starting with motorcycle groups and increasingly dominated by immigrants, at first thanks to an influx in the 1990s of refugees of Balkan wars and then, over the past 20 years, immigrants from the Middle East, Africa and eastern Europe. SHAKING SWEDEN Along with the July 2011 killings of 77 people in Norway by right-wing fanatic Anders Breivik, the city's problems have helped to shatter the cherished image of Sweden as a refuge of safety and peace, sparking a national media debate, soul-searching throughout Sweden and street protests. Dozens of police reinforcements sent in this year are still in the city. "I'm thinking of leaving Malmo because it is getting more and more dangerous," said Henrik Hammar, 28, who stocks shelves at a grocery store and was awakened when a small bomb exploded at the police station in his neighbourhood at the end of January, close to where the latest victim was found. "When it comes to shooting, we are used to that in Malmo. But not bombs," Hammar said outside the police station with a shattered window and a hole torn in its brick wall. The bombing happened in Fosie district, a centre of the violence. The wave of killings since May is not the first to shake Malmo. Peter Mangs was arrested in 2010 on suspicion of three murders and 13 attempted murders over a seven-year period, a string of shootings on Malmo's streets targeting immigrants. Luciano Astudillo, a Chilean-born former MP who was moved by the New Year's Day shooting to launch a campaign to say "Enough is enough," compared the crime wave to the violence that plagues Mexican border towns. "We have the same problem here as in the north of Mexico though on a smaller scale," he said, pointing to the drug and weapons smuggling that pass through Malmo from Denmark on their way to the rest of Scandinavia. "So it is logical for the gangs to gather here and fight each other," he said. Astudillo said he hopes the protests he has helped lead, including a street demonstration by more than 6,000 people on January 6, will make politicians notice what is happening. "I don't think murders will become more and more frequent in the near future, but there is nothing that indicates things will improve a bit longer-term," said Tobias Barkman, a crime reporter at regional daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet. "Society has fallen behind - with regards to the police and to the social situation. It's hard to see any rays of hope."

South Side gang ‘wannabe’ gets 75 years for murder of 10-year-old girl caught in crossfire

 

A South Side man was sentenced to 75 years in prison Tuesday for the murder of a 10-year-old girl caught in gang crossfire. Raymond Jones, 22, was described by Cook County prosecutors as the gang banger “wannabe” who stored the .380 semiautomatic used in the 2008 Labor Day crime. Killed in the fatal shooting was Nequiel “Nee-Nee” Fowler. Nequiel was walking with her younger blind sister when she was hit once in the chest from a gunshot coming from an alley in the 8700 blocks of South Exchange and South Escanaba avenues. Jones’ co-defendant Antoine Lacy, the Latin Dragon who ordered the shooting, was sentenced to 60 years in prison last week for Nequiel’s death. Joseph Chico, the getaway driver, also faced murder charges in the little girl’s slaying but he cut a deal with prosecutors and agreed to testify against the others in exchange for a 14-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit murder. Luis Pena, the Latin Dragon who prosecutors said pulled the trigger, hoping to fire at rival Latin Kings, is awaiting sentencing.

Mexican drug gang goes on trial in San Diego court

 

A trial in San Diego will determine whether two alleged members of a violent Mexican drug gang are guilty of murder. A prosecutor says two victims had their bodies dissolved in acid. Opening statements are scheduled Wednesday for Jose Leonel Olivera Beritan and David Valencia. They are charged in five of nine murders tied to "Los Palillos" - or "The Toothpicks" in English. Prosecutors say the gang moved to the San Diego area around 2002 from Tijuana, Mexico. Victims were allegedly abducted by men dressed in police uniforms and wearing badges while walking down the streets or in their driveways, then held in rented homes and sometimes killed. The two defendants are the first to go on trial among 17 people charged in state court in 2009.

Members of Los Zeta cartel are among the 30 convicts who escaped from a prison in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon

Members of Los Zeta cartel are among the 30 convicts who escaped from a prison in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, it was reported on Tuesday.   Among the fugitives are former officials, ex corrupt police officers and drug distributors from that dangerous criminal gang, whose captures were considered important achievements by federal forces at the time. Bosses Oscar Manuel Bernal Soriano, known as La Araña, and Rogelio Chacha Quintanilla, aka El Yeyo, are included in that group, the newspaper Milenio reported. Also on the list are Hector Rousvel Huerta, known as El Chester, accused of collecting prohibited weapons and drug trafficking, and Francisco Javier Puente, known as El Choco, former chief of Los Zetas hired assassin group. The mass escape from the prison of Apodaca, near the city of Monterrey, took place after a fight in which 44 inmates were killed. The fight was caused to cover the prison break. Prison security agents are involved in those events, which occurred at daybreak on Sunday, according to the investigations.

Gunmen Kill 5 Taxi Drivers in Northern Mexico

 

Gunmen killed five taxi drivers Tuesday in the streets of the northern Mexican industrial city of Monterrey, the Nuevo Leon state Security Council said. “The attack happened at around 10:00 a.m. in the Solidaridad neighborhood” in the northern part of Monterrey, a council spokesman told Efe. Several men aboard an SUV opened fire on a taxi stand at a busy shopping center located at the intersection of Cabezada and Luis Donaldo Colosio avenues. The gunmen managed to get away, leaving the streets covered with bodies. The security forces cordoned off the area, with soldiers guarding the crime scene investigators sent to gather evidence. The shootings occurred just hours after three suspected Gulf cartel members – two men and a woman – were murdered at Monterrey’s Topo Chico prison by two killers from the rival Zetas drug cartel. On Sunday, Zetas gunmen massacred 44 Gulf cartel members imprisoned at the penitentiary in Apodaca, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, while 30 Zetas members escaped with the assistance of several guards. Monterrey and its suburbs have been battered by a wave of drug-related violence that has left about 2,500 people dead since March 2010. Los Zetas has been battling an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels, known as the Nueva Federacion, for control of the Monterrey metropolitan area and smuggling routes into the United States. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with three other soldiers, all members of an elite special operations unit, becoming the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel. After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas, considered Mexico’s most violent criminal organization, went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories. Mexico’s drug war death toll stood at 47,515 from December 2006 to Sept. 30. The murder total has grown every year of President Felipe Calderon’s military offensive against the well-funded, heavily armed drug cartels. Unofficial tallies published in December by independent daily La Jornada put the death toll from Mexico’s drug war at more than 50,000

13 Zetas Members Arrested in Western Mexico

 

A total of 13 suspected members of the Los Zetas drug cartel were arrested in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, officials said. The suspects, two of whom are women, were detained Monday morning in Tlajomulco, a city located about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco, after several business owners complained about an extortion racket, the Public Safety Secretariat said. The group was recruited by a “Zetas boss,” known only as “Don Jose,” who took them to the city a few months ago to “execute some criminal activities,” Alfredo Vazquez, identified as the cell’s leader, told investigators. The cartel provided between 100,000 pesos and 150,000 pesos ($7,000 and $11,000) every two weeks to cover the payroll, Vazquez said. Seven of the suspects are from the central state of Guanajuato, four are from the northern state of Durango and two are from Jalisco, the secretariat said, adding that some of them have prior criminal records. State police seized an AR-15 assault rifle, five handguns and two SUVs with Durango tags in the raid, the secretariat said. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with three other soldiers, all members of an elite special operations unit, becoming the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel. After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas, considered Mexico’s most violent criminal organization, went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories. Los Zetas has been blamed for several massacres in recent years. The cartel was accused of being behind the Aug. 23, 2010, massacre of 72 migrants, the majority of them from Latin America, at a ranch outside San Fernando, a city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Los Zetas has also been blamed for the massacre of 27 peasants in May at a ranch in Guatemala’s Peten province, which borders Mexico and Belize. Zetas gunmen set fire to the Casino Royale in Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo Leon, on Aug. 25, killing 52 gamblers and employees trapped inside, most of whom died of smoke inhalation.

A Hells Angels member and a man said to be a gang associate were arrested and charged with knowingly taking part in the manufacture of a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug.

CAMDEN police and special units have seized 7.5 kilograms of the drug ice estimated to be worth $1 million from a Narellan property. Officers executed search warrants on Tuesday, February 14. A Hells Angels member and a man said to be a gang associate were arrested and charged with knowingly taking part in the manufacture of a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug. The two, a Narellan man, 36, and a Catherine Field man, 41, faced Campbelltown Court last week. A Narellan woman, 30, was charged with two counts of possessing a prohibited drug in relation to cannabis and amphetamines found at the Narellan property. She will appear in Camden Court on March 12. Detective Chief Inspector Andy Richmond said two sophisticated laboratories had been found. "The two clandestine laboratories shut down by police this week were sophisticated and capable of making large quantities of prohibited drugs [methylamphetamine]," Chief Inspector Richmond said. "Those drugs will no longer be making their way to local streets and causing harm to members of the community." Large quantities of chemicals were also found and members of the Drug Squad's chemical operation team dismantled the laboratories.

Hells Angels member has sentencing moved

 

Mark Duclos, 48, of Fairbanks, Ala., had his sentencing moved to coincide with fellow Hells Angels club member George Caruso, 58, of Shirley, Mass. Duclos and Caruso were involved in a stabbing that took place during last year's Sturgis motorcycle rally. Duclos, who was found guilty of aggravated assault, was scheduled to be sentenced today, Feb. 21, though his sentencing was moved to March 5 at 10:45 a.m. along with Caruso. The pair were involved in a fight between the Hells Angels and the Mongols motorcycle club on Aug. 10, which resulted in a stabbing, sending a Mongols member and a Hells Angels member to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Aggravated assault is a class three felony and carries a maximum punishment of up to 15 years in prison and up to a $30,000 fine. Simple assault is a class one misdemeanor and carries a maximum punishment of up to one year in jail and up to a $2,000 fine.

Dartmouth shooting victim connected to Hells Angels

 

A man found dead on a Halifax-area road Sunday night had a Hells Angels connection and was shot in the back of the head, thechronicleherald.ca has learned. Halifax RCMP identified James Alexander (Sandy) Lyle, 55, as the victim and have declared his death a homicide. It’s Halifax's second homicide this year. “He died of a gunshot wound and a weapon has been recovered,” Halifax RCMP spokeswoman Const. Tammy Lobb said Tuesday afternoon. “I’m not revealing where it was recovered because that’s part of the investigation." Lobb said police will analyze and trace the gun. Two separate sources told thechronicleherald.ca that Lyle was shot in the back of the head. Lobb would not talk about any possible motive or suspects in the killing. She said no arrests had been made by late Tuesday afternoon. Lyle had a long history of drug dealing and was arrested in a major operation against the now-defunct Halifax chapter of the Hells Angels. That Dec. 4, 2001 sweep, called Operation Hammer, took in half of the membership of the Halifax chapter, which ended up closing as a result. About 200 police officers took part in the raid, in which police stormed the gang’s Dutch Village Road clubhouse, plus other sites in Halifax, Kings County, Bible Hill and Sherbrooke, Que. They arrested a trio of Hells Angels – Clay Gordon MacRae, Jeffrey Albert Lynds and Arthur Daine Harrie – along with Lyle, well-known criminal James Melvin Sr., and 15 others. Lyle was charged with trafficking marijuana. Harrie was arrested in Quebec on the day of that raid. Lynds was found dead of an apparent suicide in his Montreal jail cell last month. He was awaiting trial for two murders in that province in 2010. In March 1991, Lyle received a five-year sentence – his only federal stint - for running a cocaine operation from his Maple Street home with his younger brother Martin Ellsworth Lyle. Lyle was also found guilty of possessing a loaded .45 calibre handgun. Martin Lyle was given three years. Around 10:45 p.m. on Sunday, a passing motorist saw a body on the side of Montague Road in Montague Gold Mines and called police. Emergency Health Services were called to the scene and tried unsuccessfully to revive the victim, Lobb said. On Monday morning, a number of police investigators went to a home on Dartmouth’s Cannon Terrace and confirmed it was connected to the suspicious death. Police were still at the home Tuesday. Provincial records name James Lyle and Carla Balsor as the home’s owners. Officers were seen working inside a garage at 14 Cannon Terrace and later removed a Honda SUV from the scene. Lobb said there were no drugs in the home, which has been searched since the killing. Neighbours said the home has a surprising amount of security, which includes surveillance cameras, frosted windows and an intercom at the front door. Lyle and Balsor used to live on nearby Sea King Drive, but sold that house in 2007. Balsor is the owner of the Rodeo Lounge and Restaurant in Burnside. The Mounties are asking anyone who may have seen suspicious activity in Montague Gold Mines or around the house on Cannon Terrace on Sunday to contact them. Lobb would not say if Lyle was at his home before he was found on Montague Road.

COMANCHERO bikie who kept his membership a secret from his father has become the eleventh man to be sentenced over Sydney's fatal airport brawl.

 Zoran Kisacanin, 25, was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter last November, but guilty of riot and affray in relation to the March 2009 brawl. Anthony Zervas, the brother of Hells Angel member Peter Zervas, was killed during the violence involving the rival motorcycle gangs. Justice Robert Allan Hulme jailed Kisacanin in the NSW Supreme Court for at least three years two months and a maximum of five years and three months. "The Comancheros and Hells Angels motorcycle gangs were, in effect, at war with each other," the judge said. "The offender was a nominee member of the Comancheros. "He was subject to its strict rules requiring loyalty and prohibiting cowardice." The judge said Kisacanin played a role in the fighting - which generally involved wrestling, punching and kicking - and also picked up a bollard. But there was no evidence as to what he did with it. The judge said the participants in the riot were prepared to "engage in wanton and significant violence regardless of the presence of many airline and airport staff and members of the public". In an affidavit, Kisacanin said he became involved with the Comancheros after meeting members at a local gym. He said that the gang "sounded like good fun hanging out with the guys and being part of a brotherhood". As his mother and brother were in Serbia, his only family in Australia was his father and he kept his involvement secret from him. The judge noted Kisacanin has been housed with his Comanchero colleagues in jail, saying he "had no idea what to do if (he) was alone in prison". After promising to cease association with the club on his release, his father has agreed to let him live and work with him in a painting business. Comanchero national president Mick Hawi is yet to be sentenced after being found guilty of murder, while another club member is to be sentenced for manslaughter in March. Eight other Comancheros and two Hells Angels members have already been sentenced for their roles in the brawl.

DNA link alleged to child shooting scene

Police allege they have DNA evidence linking a prospective member of the Hells Angels to a home invasion during which an 11-year-old boy was shot at Semaphore in Adelaide. The man has been refused bail in the Magistrates Court. Former Fink Mark Sandery was enraged when his son was shot in their Military Road home last September. The boy was sleeping with his brother in a bedroom when the shots were fired, wounding him twice in the left leg. Five months later, Arron Cluse, 21, has been charged and faced court over the home invasion. Police have told the court they found Cluse's DNA on a hammer used to smash windows at the scene. Arron Cluse has been refused bail They also claim to have found two balaclavas at Cluse's house and glass fragments from the windows. The prosecutor has also revealed Cluse's now-former home was riddled by 14 gunshots last December, then set alight a month later. Fearing for his safety, Cluse fled interstate to stay with family. Defence lawyer Aaron Almeida has told the court Cluse will plead not guilty and there is no motive or evidence to link him to the shooting. Magistrate Robert Harrup refused bail, ruling the charges were too serious and the accused was a flight risk, a judgment that distressed his family and friends.

Rebels gang member on run

 

A gang member released on electronic bail has ripped the monitoring device from his leg and gone on the run. Bernard Simon Monk, 32, is wanted for breaching electronic bail while facing a charge of possession of methamphetamine for supply. Northland police spokeswoman Sarah Kennett said officers had been searching for Monk since he fled from a Whangarei house on February 12, after an electronic device was removed. Monk, a Rebels motorcycle gang member, is described as Caucasian, 1.8m tall and of medium to solid build. When the gang moved into a building in Porowini Ave in April last year, Monk acted as the gang spokesman. Preferring to be called "Guru", he told the Northern Advocate the club "wanted to cement itself in the community and have a positive impact". He said police claims the gang had Australian links and were known for manufacturing and dealing methamphetamine was propaganda and their club had a "no-drugs policy". At the time, Monk said: "Police have gone overboard, talking about drugs and crime when they have nothing to substantiate it. "We are here to make friends with the community and that won't happen by dealing drugs. It's not a gang. "We are motorcycle enthusiasts and we don't have any involvement in meth." The gang have since moved out of the Porowini Ave building. Police believe Monk has contacts in Whangarei and Auckland. Mrs Kennett said members of the public should not approach Monk. If anyone spotted him they should call police immediately.

Murdered man found in Abbotsford farm field

 

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) has confirmed it's investigating a murder after a man was found dead in a muddy Abbotsford field on Sunday morning. "It is too early to say whether this is gang-related or a targeted killing," said IHIT spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Pound in a press statement on Monday morning. Investigators' first priority is to identify the victim and confirm the cause of death, said Pound. The man, believed to be between 20 and 30 years old, was found in a field in the 33600 block of Farmer Road. Investigators are hopeful an autopsy Monday will shed some light on the victim's identity and the cause of death, said Pound. A man out on a Sunday morning drive discovered the dead man lying 10 metres off Farmer Road. He called police around 9:20 a.m. and then waited until officers arrived, said Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald on Sunday. IHIT was called out to the scene later in the day to investigate the strange circumstances. "Certainly it's suspicious for a person to be 10 metres off a roadway in the middle of a farm field and be dead," MacDonald said. However, at the time, police officers didn't see obvious signs as to whether they were dealing with a heart attack or a homicide, he said. Residents of the rural area said officers and a police dog spent Sunday scouring a raspberry field on the north side of Farmer Road close to the intersection with McCallum Road. Mark Vaandrager, the owner of a nearby nursery, said he and his family noticed the police combing the field for evidence when they went to church at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. Although officers provided residents with few details, Vaandrager doesn't feel people living in the area are in danger. "It doesn't seem like it's somebody local, so I'm not scared it's some random thing," Vaandrager said, adding the victim is likely someone with ties to gangs or the drug trade. "It's an unfortunate thing that happens in the Fraser Valley," he said. "It seems to be tied to the drug mess." IHIT members will continue to canvass the area and conduct neighborhood inquiries, said Pound. The dead man is Abbotsford's second murder victim of 2012. Ryan Saint-Ange, 21, was found dead in a home on 56th Avenue near the Aldergrove border on Jan. 14. No arrests have been made in the case but investigators do not believe it was gang-related.

Dead gangster's assets seized

 

Anti-mafia authorities impounded real estate, automobiles and financial assets from Domenico Campisi, who was shot dead last June in an ambush in the southern Calabria region. He was 44 years old. Campisi was a member of the 'Ndrangheta crime network based in Calabria, considered Italy's most violent and wealthy mafia groups. It was reportedly one of the first time police went after assets of a deceased mafioso.

U.S. Ordered to Pay $1 Million to Family of Man Murdered by Gangster Whitey Bulger

 

The federal government went too far in shielding an FBI informant from the 1970s through the 1990s, not only tipping him off about state and local police investigations, but even covering up his involvement in several murders. Last week a three-judge panel of the First Circuit Appeals Court in Boston ruled that the family of one of those murder victims, Louis Litif, who was murdered by Boston organized crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger in 1980, was entitled to government compensation of $1.15 million.   Litif, a bookmaker facing murder charges, offered to help the Boston police with a drug conspiracy case against Bulger, who was already secretly informing on the rival Patriarca crime family to the FBI. About three weeks after his offer, Litif was found dead in the trunk of his car. The First Circuit concluded that “there was a pattern of FBI leaks of informants to Bulger,” mainly by Bulger’s FBI handler, John Connolly, who “was present when Litif’s plans to cooperate and incriminate Bulger were made known to the Boston Police, …[and who] leaked the names of between six and twelve informants to” Bulger, at least three of whom, including Litif, were later found dead.   In a similar case last year, the First Circuit ruled that the families of Bulger murder victims Michael Donahue and Brian Halloran could not sue the government for their deaths, because even though FBI leaks led to their murders, the two-year statute of limitations on lawsuits against the government had run out. The difference was the large amount of publicly available information linking the FBI to the Donahue and Halloran murders, compared to the lack of such information in the Litif case.   Former FBI agent Connolly is currently in prison, convicted of racketeering and obstruction of justice in 2002, and of second degree murder in 2008, although his wife runs a website maintaining his innocence. Bulger, who went on the lam in December 1994 and spent 12 years on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list, was captured on June 22, 2011, and is facing charges for 19 murders.

Danilo Velasquez, aka “Triste,” a local leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13

 

Danilo Velasquez, aka “Triste,” a local leader of La Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, was sentenced yesterday in federal court in San Francisco by U.S. District Judge William H. Alsup to life in prison, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag for the Northern District of California and Director John Morton of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Velasquez was convicted in November 2011 by a federal jury of racketeering-related charges. At sentencing, Judge Alsup described the defendant as a “vicious murderer.” Velasquez was part of the violent, transnational gang known as MS-13, which claimed part of the Mission District of San Francisco as its territory and operated in the Bay Area since the 1990s. Velasquez joined the “20th Street” clique, or local MS-13 chapter, in 2004. Since its inception, MS-13 members have warred with rival gang members and sought to extort payments from other criminals in its territory. When the federal government indicted the majority of the 20th Street clique members on Oct. 22, 2008, Velasquez assumed leadership on the streets. T he evidence presented at trial showed how Velasquez, with others, conspired to commit a variety of crimes to further the goals of the gang, including attacking and killing rival gang members and others who defied or challenged MS-13. During Velasquez’s trial, the government presented evidence of multiple murders committed by MS-13 members in 2008. Several of the victims were not involved in gangs or any illegal activity, including a 14-year-old, but were mistaken to be rival gang members by MS-13 members. The evidence at trial showed that on Feb. 19, 2009, Velasquez and fellow gang members Luis Herrera, aka “Killer” and Jaime Balam, aka “Tweety,” went looking to kill rival gang members in the San Francisco Bay area. In the Excelsior District of San Francisco, they spotted a car of young Latino professionals – two were college graduates of UC Berkeley, one a law student at UC Hastings, one a bank employee and another a student at City College in San Francisco who was working his way through school at the time. According to evidence presented at trial, these victims were targeted because some of the men wore baseball caps in colors associated with rival gang members. None of the victims were gang members themselves. Herrera, Velasquez and Balam followed the victims’ car into Daly City, Calif., boxed the car in at a red light, whereupon Velasquez and Balam flanked the victims’ car carrying semi-automatic handguns and began shooting. By the time they finished firing, they had severely wounded two of the passengers and murdered a third passenger, Moises Frias Jr. Frias, who was 21-years-old, suffered nine gunshot wounds, including several to the head. He died en route to the hospital. Herrera pleaded guilty mid-trial to seven racketeering-related counts, including use of a firearm causing the death of Frias. As part of his plea, Herrera admitted that he was part of the MS-13 hunting party that followed the victims’ car and murdered Frias. Herrera was sentenced on Jan. 24, 2012, to 35 years in prison. Balam remains a fugitive. Velasquez’s trial was the second of three consecutive federal trials of members of the 20th Street clique of MS-13. Six of Velasquez’s fellow MS-13 gang members were convicted in August 2011 after a five-month trial that involved more than 150 witnesses. The six gang members – Marvin Carcamo, aka “Psycho”; Angel Noel Guevara, aka “Peloncito”; Erick Lopez, aka “Spooky”; Moris Flores, aka “Slow Pain”; Jonathan Cruz-Ramirez, aka “Soldado”; and Luis Herrera’s brother Guillermo Herrera, aka “Sparky” – were each sentenced to life in prison in December 2011. Today, a federal jury convicted the sole defendant in the third trial, Manuel Franco, aka “Dreamer,” on one count of violent crime in aid of racketeering (VICAR) conspiracy. These cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Wilson Leung, Wil Frentzen, Derek Owens, Andrew Scoble and David Hall of the Organized Crime Strike Force of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, and Trial Attorney Theryn G. Gibbons of the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section. These cases were investigated by Daly City Police Department, San Francisco Police Department and ICE Homeland Security Investigations.

US gangs are a force in Central American prisons

 

The deadliest prison blaze in a century has drawn attention to an unfortunate U.S. export to Central America: street gangs. Prisons in Honduras and elsewhere in Central America are teeming with inmates who belong to gangs that have their roots in Southern California. Refugees of the region's civil wars sowed a new breed of violence on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s. When the U.S. stepped up deportations of criminals in the 1990s, they brought their brutal habits with them to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, countries with weak law enforcement and an inadequate prison system. The result was growing violence among gang members, and widespread police abuse as authorities rounded up suspects for having gang-affiliated tattoos. Some, like many of the 355 killed in Tuesday's fire in Comayagua, were never even charged with a crime. "It was just a perfect storm, where they arrived in a country that was unprepared and had no infrastructure," said Los Angeles police Detective Frank Flores, who has been battling U.S. gangs with Central American ties since 1999. The victims of Tuesday's blaze were still being identified, and it was unclear exactly how many inmates had ties to U.S.-based gangs — the most widely known being Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, and 18th Street. But a Honduran government report, which was sent to the United Nations this month, said 57 percent of some 800 inmates of the Comayagua farm prison north of the Central American country's capital were either awaiting trial or being held as suspected gang members. Alberto Mendoza, an inmate who survived the blaze, said Thursday that members of the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs got along well at the prison. He described himself as a former 18th Street member. "We are part of the same community here, not enemies," the 32-year-old Mendoza said. "(Gangs) are part of the past. If someone brings it up, we send a message and they don't bring it up again." The gangs haven't just spread from Los Angeles to Central America. They have spread throughout the United States. The MS-13 has an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 members and associate members worldwide, including 8,000 to 10,000 in the United States, according to the FBI's most recent National Gang Threat Assessment in 2009. Its "cliques" operate in the Atlanta, Dallas and Washington, D.C., areas. The 18th Street gang is believed to have about the same numbers, with a presence in 44 U.S. cities spanning 20 states, according the FBI. When the Central Americans arrived in Los Angeles, the newcomers joined to protect their own from already established gangs. "When someone's new to the area, they get picked on," said Flores, who — according to a 2009 federal indictment — was targeted for assassination by the MS-13. "They formed out of self-protection." Flores believes their exposure to the atrocities of war back home may have made them more prone to violence. Jorja Leap, a professor of social welfare at University of California, Los Angeles, said the Central American gangs are unusually violent, slitting tongues of snitches and placing them on their corpses. "These are gangs that are even feared among gangs," said Leap, who has studied them extensively. "The feds work very hard to deal with them, but they're pernicious. They're like Medusa. You lop off a head, and another grows back." Jorge Ramon Hernandez, Honduran ambassador to the United States, didn't respond to a message seeking comment Friday. Vivian Panting, the country's consul general in Los Angeles from 1998 to 2009 and now a presidential aide for immigration affairs, acknowledged Honduras had been overwhelmed by the deportations, lacking prison space and trained police. "It has been an enormous social problem in recent decades," said Panting, who has spoken with five families in the United States who lost loved ones in the prison fire. MS-13 members initiate newcomers by pummeling them for 13 seconds, a ritual known as being "jumped in." Gang members adorn themselves with elaborate tattoos from head to toe — which make them into targets for government officials and others if they are deported to Central America. Nongovernmental organizations in Los Angeles do brisk business removing tattoos, an exercise that can take years and cost thousands of dollars. Walter Magana, 39, has been getting monthly treatments in Los Angeles for about a year to remove tattoos from his neck and hands. He is a program administrator of Homies Unidos, a group that fields calls from families who say their loved ones are imprisoned in Central America without being charged. Magana, a U.S. citizen born to Salvadoran immigrants, said one friend was deported to El Salvador and never accounted for. Another who was deported there was found dead with bullet wounds. No one was ever arrested.

Man gets 30 years in prison for 2 murders

 

At a time when most boys are thinking about school, girls and sports, Michael Corchado-Jamieson was taking part in a brutal murder. He was only 15 when he joined other West Side gang members in the shooting deaths of a boy just a year older than him and a man coming home from buying snacks for his pregnant girlfriend. Now 20, Corchado-Jamieson is going to prison for 30 years, maybe longer. “What I’ve done can’t be forgotten,” he said Thursday in federal court, “and it’s in my mind every day.” With friends and family of the victims looking on, Corchado-Ja- mieson became the first member of the 10th Street Gang to go to prison for the murder of Brandon McDonald and Darinell Young. They were killed April 17, 2006, caught in the middle of an escalating drug war between the 10th Street and Seventh Street gangs. Police said Young and Mc-Donald were innocent victims who, through no fault of their own, found themselves in the midst of a gunfight rooted in retaliation for the shooting of a 10th Street Gang member hours earlier. Family members looked on Thursday as prosecutor Joseph M. Tripi described the “horrific” events of that deadly day in 2006 and why Corchado-Jamieson needs to be held accountable. “The victims do need justice,” he told U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara. Arcara also heard from family members who acknowledged that, even now, nearly six years after the murders, they live with the knowledge that Young and McDonald were casualties in a gang war they had nothing to do with. “Brandon's two young sisters shouldn’t have to grow up without their older brother and protector,” said Bonnie Coon, Mc-Donald’s great aunt. Young’s mother, Christine, accompanied by her son’s children, read a passage from Ecclesiastes and, then looking at Arcara, spoke about the wisdom of Solomon. “I would like to believe justice will be done in this case,” she said. Before sentencing Corchado-Jamieson, Arcara spoke at length about the violent war between the two gangs and how the young people at the center of it seem to lack respect for anyone or anything. “I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of bad things,” he said, “but this kind of activity is a complete mystery to me.” “You can feel the pain in this courtroom,” he added. “Some how, some way, this has got to stop.” Corchado-Jamieson’s lawyer echoed the judge’s comments and suggested his client was particularly vulnerable because of the absence of strong parental role models and a caring home. He then noted the absence of friends and family in the courtroom. “This young man is facing a life sentence, and not a single family member is sitting here,” said defense attorney Andrew C. LoTempio. Arcara spared him life in prison but sentenced him to 30 years. Corchado-Jamieson’s time in jail could increase, however, depending on what happens to a separate manslaughter case in state court. He pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Meanwhile, police arrested six associates of the 10th Street Gang earlier this month in connection with the 2006 murders. Investigators say all six men took part in the shooting incident. The arrests were the result of an ongoing investigation by the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, a multiagency effort that includes state police and Buffalo police.

Meet Surenos Unidos Trece.

 

 It's a small gang subset mostly operating out of North Highlands with only nine validated members, but two of them are charged with murder in the shooting deaths of three bicyclists last year in Rancho Cordova. On Friday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael A. Savage ordered the two, Saul "Sniper" Isidro-Aucencio, 25, and Francisco Ignacio "Spider" Delgado, 21, to stand trial for murder in the Feb. 13, 2011, midday triple killings on Malaga Way. In his testimony Friday, Sacramento sheriff's gang Detective Kevin Steed said "S.U.T." members had come under investigation in Roseville and Lincoln in Placer County before the arrests of Isidro-Aucencio and Delgado in the Rancho Cordova shootings. The day of the killings, authorities say, the two defendants were hunting for a carload of East Side Piru gang members whom they suspected of having assaulted Isidro-Aucencio in Delgado's Rancho Cordova apartment complex earlier in the day. While they were out on the hunt, they came across Robert Corpos, 20, Richard Ward, 16, and Jamir Miller, 15, riding bikes on Malaga Way. The threesome was not close to matching descriptions of the four men sought by the two, investigators said. But Steed testified that Delgado identified one of the cyclists as having cut him in the back of his head with a knife in an earlier incident. Sheriff's officials say Delgado, who was driving, slowed the vehicle to walking speed while "Sniper" let loose on the three with a rifle. Steed testified that Corpos belonged to a gang and that Ward and Miller were associated with one. Investigators say Corpos was carrying a .44 revolver that he had pulled out as he tried to hide behind a tree to shoot back. The fatal shooting bore all the fingerprints of a typical gang retaliation, according to Steed's testimony. "Mr. Aucencio was disrespected by people he considered to be East Side Piru gang members," the detective testified under questioning from Deputy District Attorney Donell Slivka. "He was assaulted at an apartment complex and told Mr. Delgado about that. When gang members are disrespected or assaulted, they are compelled to respond with violence, and in this case, I believe Mr. Delgado and Mr. Aucencio were seeking retribution against rival gang members for the assault on Mr. Aucencio." Failure to respond to signs of disrespect, Steed said, "is a sign of weakness." If the perceived disrespect is not addressed, "you are prone to being disciplined by your own people," Steed testified. Defense attorneys Kyle Knapp for Isidro-Aucencio and Olaf Hedberg for Delgado asked only a few questions each of Steed and did not argue against the judge's holding order. They declined after the hearing to discuss their possible defense strategies. Savage set an April 10 trial date for the two alleged members of the "S.U.T."

Nguyen, 44, also known as "The Godfather" "The Boss" and "The Old Man" was the leader of the violent street gang, “The Young Seattle Boyz”

 

Nguyen, 44, also known as "The Godfather" "The Boss" and "The Old Man" was the leader of the violent street gang, “The Young Seattle Boyz” according to a release from the office of U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. Nguyen pleaded guilty in November to drug conspiracy charges, in conjunction with murder charges and organized crime charges in King County Superior Court. In January, King County Superior Court Judge Julie Specter sentenced Nguyen last month for second-degree murder in connection with a Tukwila killing. U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez sentenced Nguyen to more than 25 years in prison to run concurrently. Working together, federal and local law enforcement have taken a very dangerous criminal off the street,” Durkan said.  “This case shows how the strong  cooperation between our office and the King County Prosecutor’s Office improves public safety,” For more than a decade Nguyen had been operating as leader of the crime organization and was involved in laundering millions of dollars from numerous marijuana grow operations, drug trafficking and gambling operations. Nguyen and his associates were linked to murder, assaults and shootings. Among his many criminal activities, Nguyen laundered illegal money by buying home in Tukwila and Seattle and turning the homes into marijuana grow operations. “Criminals and criminal organizations use money laundering as a means to infuse their illicit proceeds into our local economy,” said Kenneth J. Hines, IRS Special Agent in charge of the Seattle field office.  “Dirty money was used to purchase homes in Seattle and Tukwila and those homes were turned into illegal factories manufacturing a controlled substance. Law  enforcement will not stand by while our neighborhoods are put at risk.” In 2009, Nguyen was finally arrested as the leader of a criminal enterprise, and specifically in connection with the 2007 murder of his “right hand man” in the gang, Hoang Van Nguyen. Quy Dinh Nguyen, the hit man he hired, Jerry Thomas, and the go-between, Le Nhu Le, all pleaded guilty in King County Superior Court just  as the trial was getting underway. The murder was prompted by a feud within the gang.  The violence was a way of life for Quy Dinh Nguyen.  As prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo, “Quy Nguyen himself has admitted to engaging in a long-term pattern of violence that was designed to maintain the profitability of his marijuana and gambling enterprises.” Le Nhu Le was also sentenced today for his role in the murder and drug enterprise.  He  was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release.  The sentence will  run concurrent with LE’s five year sentence in King County Superior Court.  A third defendant  Kristine Nguyen was previously convicted and sentenced for conspiracy to engage in money laundering. The case was investigated by a state and federal task force of law enforcement officers including agents and officers of the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), Seattle Police Department, and Tukwila  Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Todd Greenberg, and  Senior Deputy King County Prosecutor Roger Davidheiser.

Trial date set for accused gangster James "Whitey" Bulger

Nov. 5 trial date for James “Whitey” Bulger, rejecting a plea from the reputed gangster’s lawyers for more time to prepare. Bulger, the former leader of the Winter Hill Gang, is charged with participating in 19 murders. He was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in June, after 16 years on the run. His girlfriend, former Quincy  resident Catherine Greig, was arrested with  him. During a hearing in federal court Monday, Bulger’s attorney, J.W. Carney Jr., said it would take his law firm at least a year to go through more than 500,000 documents and nearly 1,000 tapes prosecutors have turned over to the defense. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Kelly said it appears that the 82-year-old Bulger is trying to “run out the clock” to avoid trial altogether. “To suggest that he needs a full year ... I don’t think is appropriate,” Kelly said. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler said she understands what a “monumental task” reviewing the materials will be and said she would consider Carney’s request to hire additional lawyers. Bowler scheduled a status hearing for March 19. Bulger, who was also a top-echelon FBI informant, fled Boston in 1995 after being tipped by John Connolly Jr., his longtime FBI handler. Connolly recently completed a 10-year prison sentence on racketeering charges and is now serving a 40-year sentence for helping to set in motion a mob hit in 1982 against a business executive. Tom Donahue, the son of a man allegedly killed by Bulger, said he and the families of other victims want to see Bulger go to trial. “My biggest fear is delays,” he said. Donahue’s father, Michael, a truck driver, was killed during a hit on a man who was cooperating with investigators against Bulger. Michael Donahue gave the man a ride home. Bulger and another man are accused of riddling their car with bullets.

Man charged in plot to kill rival gangster

 

A Rockville Centre man twice acquitted on charges of shooting others is in jail again, accused of shooting another man. Carl Perryman, 25, was charged Friday in federal court with conspiracy to commit murder for a shooting last March at the Old Mill Court housing project, where he lived, prosecutors said. In the past three years, Perryman has gone to trial twice in Nassau County Court

Gunmen opened fire in two Wolverhampton streets today as police revealed tensions were mounting between rival gangs in the city.

One man was shot in the leg in Whitmore Reans and bullets were fired at a house in Park Village shortly after midnight. Armed police were this afternoon at New Cross Hospital guarding the 23-year-old, who was “comfortable”.He was shot in Glaisdale Gardens. At around the same time, shocked neighbours heard two shots being fired at a house two miles away in Monsal Avenue.

Both streets remained cordoned off this afternoon as detectives searched for evidence. Police are trying to establish what has triggered the apparent escalation of hostility between gangs.

Ch Insp Richard Fisher, from Wolverhampton Police, said patrols had been stepped up across the city.

“We are under no illusion there are tensions between gangs in the city at this time,” he said.

“However, I would like to be very clear that we are making every effort to reduce these tensions.

“Although rare, we do not underestimate the impact any incident involving guns has on communities.

“We will continue to take action against those who think they can intimidate others with guns.”

Neighbours today spoke of their shock. One woman living in Glaisdale Garden said she heard two bangs, while a woman from Monsal Avenue added: “I was in bed when I heard two bangs from outside. It’s not a nice thing to happen.”

The incidents are the latest in a string of shootings in the city. A gun is thought to have been fired outside the Bagot Arms in Newhampton Road West, Whitmore Reans, last Friday, while  a Fiat Punto was found with a bullet hole in the windscreen in nearby Staveley Road on February 4.:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder

armed Turkish gangs clashed in an East Riding town.

 25 Turkish men wielding weapons clashed in Old Goole in the early hours of Tuesday.

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   INVESTIGATION: Police in Swinefleet Road, Goole. Picture: Sean Stewart

People watched in horror as gangs of men armed with sticks and batons staged running battles outside the Plaza Pizzeria in Swinefleet Road.

It followed similar battles between rival gangs in Scunthorpe.

Several men have been arrested and two are in hospital, including one who was deliberately run over.

Goole councillor Pat O'Neill said: "From what I hear, the trouble was more of a personal matter rather than a cultural thing. I hope there won't be any more trouble and I'd like people to remain calm."

Mrs O'Neill, who represents the area at East Riding Council, was speaking from the nearby Moorlands Centre, which has become the focus of a community that includes an increasing number of immigrants.

Incoming eastern Europeans have been able to find common bonds with indigenous people and there have been few problem, despite cultures being so different.

Mrs O'Neill said: "They are very well integrated. We have Russians, Latvians, Polish and Bulgarians. There aren't very many Turkish people, but we do have some.

"The problems we saw on Tuesday morning are how they deal with things in their own country. They've brought that culture across here. Eventually, they'll realise that's not how we do things."

Police on the ground believe the violence was a one-off incident involving people who know each other.

They are still trying to piece together what happened.:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder