7-year-old selling candy is the latest victim of Chicago's homicide surge

Heaven Sutton's 7-year-old body crumpled to the ground on the eve of the summer's hottest day. She was selling candy and snow cones on a West Side sidewalk when gunfire broke out and a stray bullet struck her in the back. Just like that, her name joined the growing list of this year's homicide victims in Chicago, and her image — wide-eyed and smiling — became the face of a street violence outbreak that city officials are struggling to contain.

North Side gunfire worries many

The spate of what police are calling gang-related violence on the North Side has neighbors concerned that someone they know could be the next victim and has advocates pressing for more social services in poor city neighborhoods. “It’s scary because you don’t know if you’re going to have a bullet come through the kitchen window or whether you can walk safely down the street,” said Racquel Long, 54, of the Mexican War Streets. There were 22 reports of shots fired in the North Side over the past eight days, police said on Friday. Matthew Burton, 21, of the Hill District and Deondre Kenny, 15, of the North Side were fatally shot on Thursday in the latest outbreak of violence. Police said Burton had a criminal record and an association with the Brighton Place Crips, a North Side gang, but did not elaborate. Police either don’t know or won’t reveal a motive for the shootings. On Monday, someone fired shots outside a North Side funeral home where gang members were among those attending the wake for a young man who had committed suicide. No one was injured. Police Cmdr. RaShall Brackney of the city’s North Side station said increased violence over a short period of time is often the result of drug-related incidents tied to gangs. Brackney would not say whether the shootings are connected. “I’m not going to say there was a common thread with any of these shootings. We don’t have any retaliation-connected ones yet,” she said. Anti-violence advocates said at least some of the shootings could be prevented. “The government is cutting back on a lot of the programs that have been created to deal with gang violence,” said Rashad Byrdsong, founder of Community Empowerment Association, which provides family, community and school programs in the North Side. “A lot of schools have been closing down, cutting back on after-school activities and programs. ... All of these things are related.” Byrdsong believes the solution to the problem is more than taking guns off the streets. “It’s about looking at the increase in frustration and stress, looking at the trauma,” he said. “Some of these young guys have lost four or five, up to 10 friends. How’s that impacting their psyche?” Chris D’Addario, president of the Central Northside Neighborhood Council, said the violence can be demoralizing. “It’s tragic, but we’re not going to stop caring about each other, stop walking our streets, stop the development,” he said. “This isn’t the first time the North Side has seen violence. But we don’t hear those gun blasts like we did 10 years ago or five years ago.” Perry South resident Barbara Scott, 62, said she does not understand the reason for the violence. “These kids don’t know the consequences of their actions. That ain’t no way to go through life,” she said.

Fudgetown Mafia Crip gang 15-year-old gang member has been charged with killing a one-year-old boy who was shot in the arms of his father on a South Los Angeles street.

Donald Ray Dokins appeared in court Friday and a judge set his bail at $3 million. He did not enter a plea and his arraignment was postponed until July 16.

Prosecutors contend Dokins rode up on a bicycle on June 4 and opened fire on a crowd standing outside a South Los Angeles home according to the LA Times

 

One-year-old Angel Cortez Nava was fatally shot in the stomach while his father was holding him as he stood on the street in Los Angeles

Angel Cortez Nava was fatally shot in the stomach as his father cradled him. The father, 24-year-old Mauro Cortez, was hit in the shoulder.

The reputed gang member appeared in court and was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder as an adult, despite his age.

 

 Thought to be a member of the Fudgetown Mafia Crip gang, Dokins was identified as a suspect within days of Angel's death and is believed by police to be a 'suspect in previous murders'.

Detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department have accused Dokins of being a member of a clique within the Fudgetown gang called T.Funk Ridaz.

A picture of Donald Ray Dokins, 15, wearing a cap of the T.Funk Ridaz, a clique in the Fudgetown Mafia Crip gang which he is supposed to be a member of

Mauro Cortez speaks to the media following the death of his one-year-old son Angel

On June 4 on the 10500 block of Hickory Street, Angel was being held by his father Mauro Cortez at the side of a car when the shooter, riding on a bike fired several shots into the crowd around the vehicle.

One bullet hit the child in the stomach and as he died was cradled in his father's arms, despite the fact that he had been shot in the left shoulder.

The police believe that because Cortez had been wearing a purple shirt, which is the colour of the Fudgetown gangs rivals the Barrio Grape Street gang, he was shot.

Authorities say the shooting was gang-related but Cortez wasn't in a gang.

Donald Ray Dokins appeared in court Friday and a judge set his bail at $3 million, a day after he was charged with murder and attempted murder

Dokin¿s aunt, Tahiti Perkins denied that her nephew had anything to do with the killing

In the direct aftermath of baby Angel's death, the public were outraged and a $100,000 reward was offered for any information leading to the identity of the shooter.

Arrested on Wednesday June 27, Dokins' family insist that he was not the gunman and was with them when the incident occured.

'He’s not no gang member. He is a Christian. If you want to call Christianity a gang, then he is. He a Christian. He from a Christian gang. He is a family oriented little boy, educated, liked to go to school, loved children, would never do anything like this,' said Dokin’s aunt, Tahiti Perkins to CBS Los Angeles

K-Crew gang leader arrested after weekend stabbings

A man police consider to be a dangerous and violent street gang leader has been charged with attempted murder in the stabbing of two men outside a Plateau Mont Royal bar over the long weekend. Jean-Philippe Célestin, 31, who has been described as the leader of a Montreal street gang called the K-Crew, appeared at the Montreal courthouse on Monday. He faces five charges in the assault early Saturday that left one man in critical condition outside the outside Commission des Liqueurs nightclub on St. Laurent Blvd. near Mont Royal Ave. Célestin is charged with aggravated assault and with attempting to kill two men. He is also charged with assaulting a third man. Police have said they believe the stabbings were the result of a dispute that started in a bar and spilled outside. In 2009, Célestin was described by police as the leader of a drug trafficking network that was active on St. Laurent. A police investigation, dubbed Project Norte, targeted several members of the K-Crew, including Célestin. On March 24, 2010, Célestin pleaded guilty to conspiracy and possession of drugs with the intent to traffic in the Project Norte case and was sentenced to an 18-month prison term. Célestin was on probation for this term when he was arrested as a suspect in the weekend stabbings. In 2007, during a hearing before the provincial liquor board, the K-Crew was described as “a major and emerging street gang” in Montreal. During the same hearing, which involved the St. James Pub in Old Montreal, Célestin was described, by a police expert, as the most violent and dangerous member of the gang. The bar was targeted by an arson fire in 2007 after its owners told Célestin to keep away. Montreal police had warned the owners they could lose their licence because many members of Célestin’s gang were hanging out there. Célestin was a suspect in the arson, an investigator said, because he was disappointed over having to cancel a private party he had planned in the bar for his 27th birthday. He was never charged in connection with the fire, which caused little damage to the bar. The liquor board hearings resulted in the three-month suspension of Pub St. James’s licence, in large part, because of Célestin and his gang’s presence there. Malcolm Ahmadou Diop, 19, was also arrested in the weekend stabbings. Diop appeared before Quebec Court Judge Pierre Labrie at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday, on the same five charges as Célestin, and the Crown objected to his release. Both men are scheduled to have a bail hearing on Friday.

Police have identified the man gunned down in a brazen daylight shooting outside a coffee shop near Vancouver as the co-founder of one of the gangs linked to the region’s violent drug trade

Thirty-four-year-old Randynesh (Randy) Raman Naicker was shot late Monday afternoon by masked gunman outside a Starbucks in suburban Port Moody, east of Vancouver. Vancouver police spokesman Const. Lindsey Houghton notes Naicker is widely known as one of the co-founders of the Independent Soldiers crime gang. The Independent Soldiers are among the gangs in B.C., along with the Red Scorpions, the UN gang, the Hells Angels and the Dhak-Duhre group, that have been linked to years of shootings throughout the Vancouver area.

Longtime gangster and founder of the Independent Soldiers Randy Naicker was shot to death in Port Moody Monday.

 

VANCOUVER, B.C.: JUNE 25, 2012 - The shoes of a man shot dead stick out from under the tarp beside an Infinity Crossover vehicle as police begin their investigation of the suspected gang-related murder in Port Moody, B.C.

Photograph by: Ian Lindsay , PNG

 

Naicker, a convicted kidnapper once targeted by killers at his Vancouver halfway house, was gunned down at about 4:45 p.m. near St. Johns and Queens streets.

Vancouver police have been called in to investigate the death, Port Moody’s second gangland shooting in a month. Port Moody Police have an agreement with the larger VPD to conduct murder probes.

Witnesses described seeing a masked gunman shoot Naicker several times, then get into a vehicle and leave the scene – a parking area off a laneway and outside a Starbucks restaurant.

VPD Const. Lindsey Houghton said the incident appeared to be “a targeted gang-related shooting.”

“Members of the Port Moody Police and Coquitlam RCMP rushed to the chaotic scene where there had been dozens of people put in harm’s way while in nearby businesses and commuting home in rush hour,” Houghton said, asking anyone with information about the slaying to call 604-717-2500.

Naicker, 35, had received death threats over the years. Within the last few months, he had been warned by the Gang Task Force that there were people who wanted him dead, according to sources.

While out on day parole in September 2009, Naicker was targeted by killers at his halfway house near Cambie Street and West 21st Avenue.

A worker at the residence had mistakenly written in a logbook that Naicker had gone out to the corner store. In fact, another house resident, Raj Soomel, had strolled down Cambie Street and was gunned down on his way back.

Police later revealed that Soomel had been killed in error by someone looking for Naicker, who had only been out of jail for five days.

Naicker’s parole was revoked after Soomel’s slaying, but he repeatedly told the Parole Board of Canada he did not believe he was in danger, or that he was the target of the 2009 plot.

“I just haven’t had those kinds of headaches where someone wants to assassinate you,” Naicker told board members in a December 2009 hearing attended by The Sun. “The way that it happened, it seemed like it was a targeted incident.”

The Sun has learned that the 2009 attack is believed to have been plotted by the United Nations gang against Naicker because two of Naicker’s underlings assaulted a UN member in prison.

Naicker also told the parole board that he was not a gangster, though some of his old friends were. He admitted he founded the Independent Soldiers, but claimed it was only a clothing line and that he was a businessman.

And Naicker told the parole board that The Sun had caused all his problems by running a photograph of himself and full-patch Hells Angel Larry Amero at a Kelowna party. Both sported their respective gang tattoos on their chest.

Amero was seriously wounded in the Kelowna shooting last August in which Jonathan Bacon was killed. Since then, police have warned of increasing tensions between two rival groups — one dubbed the Dhak-Duhre-UN group and the other some Hells Angels, the Independent Soldiers and Bacon’s Red Scorpions.

Less than a month ago, Gurbinder (Bin) Toor, a Duhre associate, was shot to death outside the Port Moody Rec reation Centre.

Naicker had known the Bacons for years. While out on bail for his 2005 gang kidnapping charges, Naicker was caught by police with Jamie Bacon and others associated with both gangs at Abbotsford’s Castle Fun Park.

Naicker was believed to be living in Burnaby, although he owned a Surrey condo purchased for almost $500,000 while he was still in prison.

The Burnaby South secondary graduate was convicted of the 2005 kidnapping and unlawful confinement in Surrey of a gangster after $400,000 worth of pot went missing and two gangland associates were murdered. He was sentenced to five years.

At the time of his statutory release a year ago, the parole board imposed special conditions because of the belief Naicker was a marked man.

“As there is file information which suggests you may be the target of future violence, you must inform your parole supervisor of the identity of persons residing in the same residence as you,” the parole decision stated. “Such knowledge will ensure that those living with you are fully informed of the harmful potential associated with being in close proximity to you.”

Naicker was also prohibited from associating with “any person involved in any criminal gangs or criminal organization, including the Independent Soldiers.”

undercover narcotics officers busted up a market on 47th Street between Michigan and Calumet Avenues, which was home to the Gangster Disciples street gang

Following a six-month investigation, undercover narcotics officers busted up a market on 47th Street between Michigan and Calumet Avenues, which was home to the Gangster Disciples street gang, Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Saturday, backed by community members and clergy at the Ward Prairie Baptist Church. Those dealers sold an estimated $1.1 million a year of heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis, he said. Another operation targeted an area between 56th and 58th streets, and between Morgan and Wood streets, where neighbors had been complaining about drug deals at all hours. And on the West Side, narcotics officers investigated drug sales of at least six different gangs between Keeler and Kildare streets, and Monroe and Adams streets. During a raid Friday morning in the 200 block of South Kildare, police arrested Pierre Blakney, 21, of the 3700 block of West Flournoy, saying he aimed a gun at officers while running away from them. Blakney now is charged with aggravated assault to a police officer, armed violence, unlawful use of a weapon and manufacturing and delivering heroin within 1,000 feet of a church or school. The investigations aimed “to cut off supply money for gangs to buy guns,” McCarthy said in front of the South Side church. Saturday evening, the superintendent said he didn’t yet know whether any of the 49 people arrested were gang leaders, or just street dealers. “Law enforcement will never fix the narcotics program in this country,” McCarthy said. “We are focused on eliminating market by market by market.”

Bloods gang member from Paterson gets 89 months in prison

federal judge Wednesday sentenced Michael McCloud, of Paterson, to 89 months in prison for his role with the Fruit Town Brims, a set of the Bloods that authorities said terrorized a section of Paterson for years through violent activities connected to dealing drugs. McCloud, 26, also known as “Ike Brim,” was the second Bloods member to be sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler for their part in a broad racketeering conspiracy to sell narcotics in Paterson and Newark. Chesler Tuesday sentenced Ricky Coleman, also known as “Pool Stick” and “Sticks,” 39, of Newark, to 151 months for a range of violent crimes and racketeering. McCloud was among 15 alleged members and associates of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims charged in a 20-count federal indictment with racketeering, murder and other crimes. He was arrested by federal agents in Passaic in January 2011 and pleaded guilty to the RICO conspiracy charge in August. In his guilty plea, McCloud admitted to selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer on August 30, 2006, together with two other members of the gang. McCloud also admitted to participating in two robberies in Paterson in 2006. In the first robbery, McCloud and another gang member who was armed with an AK-47 broke up a dice game and took drugs, cell phones and money. In the second, McCloud worked with other gang members to commit a robbery in retaliation for the shooting of an associate by a member of a rival gang. In the sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa L. Jampol said the Fruit Town Brims had asserted a powerful control of a section of Paterson, centered at the intersection of 12th and 22nd streets. The gang members transformed this section into an area “that was completely uninhabitable,” to the point that residents were too afraid to leave their homes and attend church services, Jampol said. McCloud’s attorney, James Patton, said his client had worked hard to turn his life around, and was working full-time at Domino’s Pizza when he was arrested last January in the RICO sweep. McCloud told Chesler that he couldn’t change the past, but was trying to become a better person for the future. “I’m tired of going in and out of jail,” McCloud said. “I’m tired of letting my family down. And I’m tired of being a failure.” But Chesler was unmoved by this testimony. McCloud’s criminal history is a long one that begins at age 15, and there is nothing to indicate that his repeated contact with law enforcement had done anything to deter the young man from a life of drugs and violence, Chesler said. The sentence – the maximum under federal guidelines, with 36 months subtracted due to time already spent in a state prison – was meant to serve as a deterrent to other gang members engaged in the same activities, Chesler said. “His offenses are horrendous,” the judge said. “He was part of a gang that terrorized citizens of this state.”

Gang member sentenced to prison on gun charge

gang member once suspected of setting a fire that killed two Wenatchee boys has been sentenced to prison for a firearms offense. The Wenatchee World reported Wednesday that 20-year-old Juan Manuel Oropeza Lima of Peshastin has been sentenced to 21 months and deportation on a federal firearms possession charge. Police found Oropeza Lima with a handgun while investigating the August 2011 fire that killed 6-year-old Ricardo Alejandre-Garcia and 4-year-old Mariano Alejandre-Garcia. The fire was believed to be a gang-related arson until police concluded last April that it had been caused by a cigarette. Oropeza Lima was previously convicted of felony harassment in 2009 and entered an Alford plea to methamphetamine possession in 2010.

A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with separate gang-related killings dating back to 2007,

A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with separate gang-related killings dating back to 2007, Montebello police announced Wednesday.

Montebello Police Chief Kevin McClure is focusing department efforts on unsolved gang homicides and the public can expect more arrests in coming months growing out of ongoing investigations, said Lt. Luis Lopez.

"We're putting resources into these unsolved homicides, specifically gang-related homicides in order to bring justice to the community and improve the quality of life for the residents of Montebello," Lopez said.

Police arrested Jimmy Valenzuela, 29, of Montebello on Thursday on suspicion of committing two gang-related slayings.

In one of the crimes, Joe Alvarado, 22, was shot multiple times while sitting in his car on the afternoon of Dec. 22, 2007, in the 800 block of Mines Avenue in Montebello. His friends took Alvarado to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Neighbors who knew Alvarado said he was happy, and funny. "He had a heart that was just too big to crush," Vanessa Dominguez, a neighbor, told The Times in 2007. She called him by the nickname "JoJo." Neighbors said Alvarado worked as a repossession tow truck driver for his uncle. His plans were to save money, move in with his girlfriend and start a family, Dominguez said.

Detectives said they also have evidence linking Valenzuela to the killing of Jimmy Jimenez, 29, who was fatally shot Saturday, July 24, 2010, in the 300 block of West Lohart Avenue in Montebello.

 

Valenzuela got out of a white SUV and walked up to Jimenez, asked the victim where he was from and his gang affiliation, police said. When the victim said he wasn't part of a gang, Valenzuela allegedly ordered him to lift his shirt and then opened fire, hitting him multiple times in the upper body. Authorities declared Jimenez dead at the scene.

Montebello detectives said a second murder arrest made Thursday will bolster their case in a separate killing in which one of the suspected shooters is currently awaiting trial.

Edward Dewey is suspected of walking up to Jose Casillas, 35, of Paramount, who was visiting friends and attending a celebration the night of July 4th, 2008, in the 1300 block of South Greenwood Avenue in Montebello.

Police said Dewey, 25, asked Casillas about his gang affilation and then fatally shot him in the head and back. Dewey, who was arrested days after the murder, is awaiting trial in the case.

The defendant's girlfriend, identified as Corina Castellanos, 29, has now been arrested on suspicion of murder for escalating what, until then, was a low-key encounter in what investigators are calling an important development in the case.

Bulger’s lawyer seeks to delay trial 1 year

The lawyer for gangster James “Whitey” Bulger has asked that his high-profile trial be put off for a year beyond its scheduled Nov. 5 date, saying they “cannot possibly be prepared” on time. “Indeed,” lawyer J.W. Carney Jr. said in a 17-page filing Wednesday night, “to maintain that date will eviscerate the ­defendant’s rights to due process of law and to effective ­assistance of counsel under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Federal Constitution.” The court-appointed Carney and his team of lawyers have maintained since Bulger’s ­arrest in June 2011 that they have been inundated with voluminous evidence in the decades-­old case, and that the notorious gangster will certainly go to trial to face racketeering charges, including accusations of murder.

Two wounded in gang-related shooting in Livermore

20-year-old man was critically wounded and a teenage boy suffered minor injuries in a gang-related shooting early Saturday morning, police said. Officers responded to a 1:17 a.m. call reporting a man stumbling in the intersection of Olivina Avenue and North P Street, officer Steve Goard said. Officers arrived and discovered a Livermore man -- who had been beaten in his face and shot in his torso -- in front of a business in the 1500 block of Olivina Avenue, Goard said. Officers also found a 17-year-old male who had been shot in the leg, police said. Witnesses told police that three men beat and shot the adult victim, then shot the Livermore teen in the leg. Both victims were transported to a hospital. The adult victim underwent emergency surgery and is in critical condition, police said. The teenage boy was treated for injuries not considered life-threatening and was released. Investigators believe the shooting was gang-related, Goard said. Police did not provide a detailed description of the suspects, describing them as three Latino men, about 20 years old and wearing dark clothing. No arrests have been made.

Two Gang Members Sentenced To Life For Rancho Cordova Triple Murder

Sacramento County Superior Court judge sentenced two gang members to life in prison on Friday for murdering three young men in Rancho Cordova last year. Saul Isidoro-Ausencio and Francisco Delgado were both sentenced to three terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murders of 15-year-old Jamir Miller, 16-year-old Richard Ward and 20-year-old Robert Corpos. Isidoro-Ausencio was sentenced to an additional term of 75 years to life and 16 years, 8 months in prison for the personal and intentional discharge of a firearm for each murder and for committing the crimes for the benefit of the Sureno street gang. The victims were shot in February 2011 as they were riding their bikes on Malaga Way in Rancho Cordova because Isidoro-Ausencio was seeking revenge for a beating he suffered at the hands of rival gang members, according to the District Attorney’s Office. When he was unable to find the gang members who beat him up, he and Delgado drove up behind the victims and shot them instead. They believed that the victims were gang members even though they had nothing to do with the assault on Isidoro-Ausencio, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Oakland man guilty of killing 2 to impress gang

Oakland man has been convicted of murdering two people outside a public housing complex in what prosecutors called an attempt to impress fellow gang members. Nicholas Harris, 19, was found guilty by an Alameda County jury Tuesday of murdering Nario Jackson, 18, of Oakland and Edward Hampton, 17, of Hayward on Nov. 6, 2010. He faces 100 years to life in prison when he is sentenced in September by Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson. Jackson and Hampton were shot numerous times in a car on the 1000 block of Eighth Street in West Oakland outside the Acorn public housing complex. Harris shot them to prove himself to fellow gang members, authorities said. His ex-girlfriend provided text messages implicating him in the slayings, said Deputy District Attorney Charles Wilson. Harris was a juvenile at the time of the slayings but was prosecuted as an adult. Jackson's slaying was the first of two tragedies to affect his family. In August, his brother, Najon Jackson, 16, was shot and killed in East Oakland. No arrests have been made in that case.

Fatal shooting possibly to bolster San Bernardino gang

Anthony Phillips, 26, of San Bernardino, is accused of fatally shooting Maurice Major, 29, of Riverside, at an apartment complex in the 1200 block of North Sierra Way. Phillips was arrested the next day. He is charged with one count of murder, and prosecutors have added a gang enhancement for Phillips' alleged involvement in a San Bernardino gang. Phillips, who was in San Bernardino Superior Court on Thursday, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. During the hearing in front of Judge James Dorr, a detective and an officer from the San Bernardino Police Department were called as witnesses. They testified about the shooting and gangs in the area. Phillips, also known as Ant, is affiliated with the Delmann Heights Bloods, said Officer Jonathan Plummer, a gang investigator with the San Bernardino Police Department. "(The shooting) enhances the gang by sending a message to rival gang members and to the community - that Delmann Heights is very violent," Plummer said. The officer testified about Phillips' reported noteworthy tattoos, including "DH" under his eyes, "Bloods" on his body, "San Murderdino" on his abs and "Delmann Heights" on both arms. Witnesses told police that Major was also a gang member, Detective Albert Tello testified. Advertisement His street name was West and he was affiliated with the West Covina Neighbor Hood Crips out of Los Angeles County. Recently, Los Angeles County gangs have come into the Inland Empire to sell drugs, Plummer said. Delmann Heights, which has more than 150 documented members, claims the boundaries of California Street to the west, Medical Center Drive to the east, Cajon Boulevard to the north and Highland Avenue to the south, according to police. Following a recent gang injunction in Delmann Heights, several DH members have migrated over to the 1200 block of Sierra to sell narcotics, Plummer said. Major's girlfriend told police that on the night of the shooting they were at a party outside a San Bernardino apartment complex, Tello testified. She told police that 20 to 30 people were there, including Phillips. The two men were familiar with each other, she told police, and at one point Phillips approached Major and asked to speak with him, Tello testified. The two walked away, Tello said, and while they were talking they got into an argument. Phillips then allegedly shot the victim several times in the chest, the girlfriend told police. "After he shot the victim, the suspect ran from the complex, put the gun away and ran toward Fame Liquor," on Base Line, Tello relayed on the witness stand. Major was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Deputy District Attorney David Tulcan said prosecutors are still investigating whether Major had a gun on him that night. Authorities did find a clear, plastic bag with several pieces of suspected rock cocaine on the victim, police said. Testimony in the preliminary hearing will continue on Monday, where a judge is expected to set trial dates. May was a deadly month for the city. There were 12 reported homicides - five in one week. The spate of May violence prompted memories of the 1990s, when gang violence peaked in the area. The number of people killed in the city this year is up to 23

ranking member of the Fruit Town Brims set of the Bloods street gang was sentenced to 63 months in prison Wednesday

A Jersey City man who is a ranking member of the Fruit Town Brims set of the Bloods street gang was sentenced to 63 months in prison Wednesday for his role in the gang’s criminal enterprises, officials said. Tequan Ryals, 34, had pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy before U.S. District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler, who imposed the sentence in Newark federal court Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. Ryals, with fellow gang members, conspired to distribute quantities of heroin in Jersey City between December 2008 and February 2009, according to court documents and statements. Ryals also made two drug sales monitored by law enforcement in December 2008, officials said. Ryals, who was involved in the daily activities of the Fruit Town Brims from 2004 until his arrest, acted as a middleman drug distributor, officials said. Ryals was supplied “bricks” of heroin by an associate of the set and he resold them to gang members, officials said. The indictment unsealed in January 2011 charged Ryals and 14 other defendants with racketeering conspiracy and other offenses including acts pertaining to murder, murder conspiracy, aggravated assaults, a kidnapping, firearms offenses and various drug distribution conspiracies, officials said. The gang members charged in the indictment ran the gang’s activities in Jersey City, Newark, Paterson and other locations, officials said. In November, Ryals completed a state prison term for drug crimes, corrections records say. Last week, 30-year federal prison terms were meted out to Emmanuel Jones, 28, of Jersey City, and Torien Brooks, 31, of Paterson, both members of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims set of the Bloods, officials said. Jones and Brooks were charged in the July 2004 murder of 17-year-old Michael Taylor of Jersey City, who was gunned down in a case of mistaken identity during gang retaliation, officials said. Fishman credited a number of law enforcement agencies for the investigation leading to Ryals’ conviction, including the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, and Jersey City Police Department.

Mob snitch who botched three hits ratted out Colombo gangster in murder trial

A mob snitch who couldn’t shoot straight easily pointed the finger at a reputed Colombo gangster on trial for murder. Dino Basciano took the witness stand in Brooklyn Federal Court to testify that he heard Frank (BF) Guerra was part of a hit team that successfully whacked Joseph Scopo in 1993. Basciano, 56, wasn’t much of a hit man himself, botching at least three rubout attempts. In one case, he shot Patricia Capozzalo, the sister of Peter (Fat Pete) Chiodo, telling defense lawyer Gerald McMahon, “I knew I didn’t kill her. She was still screaming when we left.”

Slain teen Ramarly Graham's twin brothers convicted of heading gang

The twin half brothers of Ramarley Graham, the Bronx teen fatally shot by a police officer in February, were convicted Tuesday for gun possenion and being part of a Harlem street gang. Hodean and Kadean Graham were sentenced to eight years in jail for heading a crew known as "One-Twenty-Nine" and "Goodfellas/The New Dons" between 2007 and 2011 in the area around W. 129th Street, between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. The 20-year-old brothers were cleared of attempted murder. "This violent street gang was as young as it was dangerous, its members having been involved in multiple shootings over a four-year period," Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement. Fifteen members of the gang were convicted on charges of drug dealing and weapons possession. Last week, police officer Richard Haste, 31, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter for shooting Ramarley Graham in the Bronx while officers were investigating a drug deal. As officers made the bust, they were radioed that Graham was armed, when he in fact was not. Graham was shot was trying to flush a bag of marijuana down a toilet. Haste's attorney said in court that the officer was conviced the teen was carrying a weapon.

Trial to begin in 1996 Devious Hoodlums street gang slaying

16 years after the fatal gang-related stabbing of a teenager outside his girlfriend’s Fullerton home, prosecutors say they will try one of the rival gang members long suspected of taking part in the attack. Joe Luis Garay Jr., 36, of La Habra, who allegedly belonged to the Devious Hoodlums street gang at the time of the crime, faces 25 years to life in prison if he is convicted of felony murder at his trial in Santa Ana, where opening statements are scheduled to begin Tuesday. Prosecutors say Garay and fellow gang member Kevin Jerome Carlson were cruising the streets looking for rival gangsters to attack in March 1996 when they found Troy Gorena, 16, outside his girlfriend’s Fullerton home. Prosecutors say the two punched and stabbed Gorena, then fled the scene. They were arrested five months later, but charges were dismissed when a witness –- a female gang member -- recanted under pressure from the gang, prosecutors said. Investigators reopened the case in 2008, persuaded the witness to give her account and dug up other evidence, said prosecutor Larry Yellin. “Because of the new evidence, her testimony doesn’t stand on an island by itself,” Yellin said. One of the expected witnesses is Carlson, now 38, who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the case and could face four years in prison when he is sentenced in September.

Police Lock Down Harlem Street for Weeks After Shooting

Police have locked town a two-block stretch of West 129th Street for weeks, in part because they fear violent retaliation in response to the shooting death of a young father on a basketball court, according to a report. The New York Post says barricades have gone up on the street between Fifth Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard between dusk and dawn. Residents must show ID to get in, and have to meet their visitors at the barricades, the Post says. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told the paper it was about residents' safety. “We understand it doesn’t make everybody happy,’’ he said. “We understand people are inconvenienced by showing identification. But what we’re trying to do is save young lives.” The Post said police fear a retaliation for the shooting of Ackeem Green on June 3. Those who knew him say he was a bystander caught in a gang feud. Police have not said how long the barricades will be up. "Why do I need an ID to go home?" resident John Barnes told the Post. "When did this become a gated community?" Another resident said the checkpoints make her feel safer. "If you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, it shouldn't be a problem," said the woman.

The Breaking up of the violent 10th Street Gang and the 7th Street Gang.

Nine young men were killed, including a 14-year-old boy shot while riding his bicycle. Many more were wounded but lived.

Many of the killings could be linked to a feud between two neighborhood gangs — the 10th Street Gang and the 7th Street Gang.

"There was a feeling of terrorism," recalled Lourdes Iglesias, executive director of Hispanics United, a community services organization on the West Side.

"It was just crazy that year," said Stephanie J. Simeon, executive director of Heart of the City Neighborhoods, a housing development agency on the West Side. "One thing after another kept happening."

The Buffalo police were doing what they could, patrolling the neighborhood and arresting people for selling drugs. But that clearly wasn't enough.

So the police got together with federal and state law enforcement. They had worked many times before to go after gangs through an FBI program called the Safe Streets Task Force, which brings together resources of federal and local law enforcement to target violent street gangs using federal laws.

This time they tried something a little different. Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda assigned two homicide detectives to work full time on the task force. They were joined by investigators from the State Police and FBI agents. They had one mission: Dismantle the 10th and 7th street gangs.

"We formulated a plan to go after them and get rid of them once and for all," Derenda said.

Two and a half years later and after five rounds of coordinated raids, 44 members and associates for the 10th Street Gang and 18 associates of the 7th Street Gang have been indicted in federal court. Already, 14 people have been convicted. And they are doing hard time — decades in some cases — in federal prison.

In the meantime, the homicide rate has dropped dramatically as well. In 2009, there were 60 homicides in Buffalo. Last year, there were 36. So far this year, there have been 16 homicides — on par with last year.

"It's made Buffalo a safer community," Derenda told The Buffalo News in a recent interview. "The homicide rate being down, I believe, has a lot to do with this particular investigation."

Derenda acknowledged that there has been a rash of shootings lately, including on the West Side where two people were fatally shot in separate incidents in May. Those shootings are gang-related, according to investigators, but did not involve the 10th or 7th Street gangs.

The West Side gangs

Police believe there are roughly 100 gangs operating in the city. Some have national affiliation. Most are neighborhood based. The 10th Street Gang and the 7th Street gang were believed to be the neighborhood type.

The 10th Street Gang, in particular, was "one of the most violent gangs we've ever seen here in Buffalo," FBI Special Agent James Jancewicz said.

The 10th Street Gang, also known as 1015 and MOB, was formed in the late 1980s and claimed control over the area between Niagara Street and Richmond Avenue and Auburn Avenue and North and Carolina streets.

The 7th Street gang, also known as Cheko's Crew, is a newer gang claiming turf on the west side of Niagara Street in the lower West Side, according to an indictment written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi, the lead prosecutor.

Both gangs are made up of "kids that grew up in the neighborhood," Jancewicz said. "They grew up with that gang, always knowing that gang was in their neighborhood."

Both gangs were multicultural, despite their reputations as Hispanic gangs, Jancewicz said. Both gangs were engaged in selling drugs — cocaine, crack, marijuana and heroin, according to court records.

The violence

What most worried police was the gangs' penchant for violence and thirst for vengeance. Worse, it seemed they didn't care if innocent bystanders got in the crossfire. They were firing at people in the middle of the street, sometimes in broad daylight.

The indictments against the gangs offer chilling details:

In 2006, the same Easter weekend that Sister Karen Klimczak was murdered by an ex-convict she took into her halfway house, a 10th Street member was shot.

His brother, Jonathan "Jmag" Delgado — who authorities have identified as a senior member of the 10th Street gang — and other members of the gang got together that night to plan a retaliatory attack against the 7th Street Gang.

They obtained weapons, and one gang member allegedly scoped out a known 7th Street Gang hangout on the 100 block of Pennsylvania Street.

"They are out there, do what you gotta do," he called the others to report, according to court records.

The gang members allegedly met in an nearby alleyway, then ran out, shooting wildly. Five people were wounded, two fatally.

Six men — Delgado, 23; Sam Thurmond, 23; Domenico Anastasio, 24; Ismael Lopez, 24; Darnell McIntosh, 28; and Christopher Pabon, 23, have now been charged in federal court in the mass shooting.

One of those killed that night was Brandon McDonald, a 16-year-old boy who authorities say wasn't a gang member but happened to be visiting with some members when the shooting occurred. Darinell Young, 45, who lived next door, also was killed. He was coming home from the corner store after buying snacks for his pregnant girlfriend when he was hit by stray gunfire.

Then there was the bloody summer of 2009.

That May, 10th Street Gang member Saul Santana allegedly shot at purported 7th Street Gang member Anthony "Ace" Colon, according to court documents. He missed, but wounded two others.

A month later at 5:30 p.m. June 26, Santana fatally shot Colon on Ullman Street in Riverside. Santana has since pleaded guilty to the slaying.

In between the attempts on Colon, Christian Portes, a 14-year-old boy who was in and out of the 7th Street Gang, was shot June 13 as he was riding on his bike at Whitney Place. Miguel Moscoso, also known as Cheko, has been charged in Portes' slaying.

And on Aug. 11, a 10th Street Gang member fired shots at a house on Pennsylvania Street. The same day, Eric Morrow, a fellow 10th Street Gang member, was gunned down on West and Auburn avenues.

Alleged 10th Street Gang leader Efrain "Cheko" Hidalgo, Kasiem Williams, Esteben Ramos-Cruz, Juan Torres, Jordan Hidalgo, Uda Hidalgo and Ritchie Juarbe were charged last month in Morrow's death.

A few hours after Morrow was killed, two 10th Street Gang members are accused of going after a 7th Street Gang member. They chased him down Bird Avenue, shooting him in the back over and over. He survived and the shootings raged on.

Targeting violent gangs

The task force that took on the 10th and 7th street gangs was made up of two FBI agents, two Buffalo homicide detectives and two State Police investigators. They did not want their identities to be published because of the nature of their work.

The task force members worked almost exclusively on the West Side gangs case for the last two years, said Jancewicz, who oversaw the task force.

The plan of attack: Revisit all the crimes the two gangs had committed, going back a decade in some cases, to establish that they were part of an "enterprise" and committing crimes to help or further this "enterprise" — racketeering.

The Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was originally used to go after the Mafia in the 1970s, explained U.S. Attorney William Hochul Jr.

"What RICO allows us to do is charge multiple participants that are part of an enterprise with multiple crimes, all at the same time," Hochul said.

The first order of business for the Buffalo task force was identifying who was in the gangs. "You have to prove they are a member of the gang," said one task force member who agreed to be interviewed on the condition his name not be used.

The team of investigators consulted with patrol officers familiar with the turf and pored over police and court documents for anyone identified as a possible member of the West Side gangs.

In 10th Street's case, investigators discovered some gang members had posted photos on their MySpace accounts, identifying themselves as gang members and showing pictures of them together throwing gang signs.

"You just type in the name online and the investigators start seeing all the same guys that they think are in a gang and now they see pictures of them together making signs," said prosecutor Tripi, who also worked closely with the task force.

Once the young men were identified as members of the gangs, the task force pulled each member's arrest record, culling each report for information — where they were arrested, who they were with, and what drugs or weapons they had on them.

Their convictions, in city or state court, were then used to bolster the RICO case against the gang. While a conviction for selling a small amount of drugs may amount to a nominal amount of jail, that same conviction could also be used to show the gang member was committing the crime as part of the enterprise, Hochul said.

The task force also took a look at unsolved slayings that Buffalo detectives had suspected were the work of the West Side gangs — many retaliatory acts for previous murders and attempted murders.

The task force members re-interviewed everyone they could find connected to the cases, from witnesses to alibis, and put together those cases as part of the RICO case.

The first federal charges came in the fall of 2009 against a single 10th Street Gang member who already had been picked up by Buffalo police for shooting up a car. Then in December, five more members of 10th Street Gang were charged with racketeering, along with attempted murder.

The following May, 28 members were picked up in simultaneous raids, and this time murder charges, built on information gathered following the previous arrests, were included.

In the meantime, 18 members of the 7th Street Gang were arrested, including the reputed leader, "Cheko" Hidalgo, who was captured in Puerto Rico.

The task force remains active today. The homicides haven't been as rampant, but there have been shootings, including two recent homicides, neither of which were related to the 10th and 7th street gangs, according to investigators.

The community

As for the joint local and federal investigation, Derenda said he couldn't be more pleased with the results. "We have decimated the group," Derenda said.

Community leaders are pleased with the more-comprehensive approach law enforcement has taken.

"There's nothing more beautiful than picking up the paper and seeing 30 people have been arrested in a sting operation and that some are high-level people," said Common Council Member David Rivera, who represents the Niagara District. "That is music to our ears."

He hasn't heard many complaints about 10th and 7th street gangs lately, he said. But that doesn't mean the gang problem has been eradicated.

All too often, Rivera said, he sees groups of young men hanging out on street corners and up to no good. "They're not done," Rivera said. "Nowhere near being done."

Council Member Darius Pridgen, whose district includes a small portion of the Lower West Side that has been heavily affected by the gangs, said he is also a fan of the more-comprehensive approach.

"It's more than a Band-Aid," he said. "We are finally doing the operation to remove the illness of crime."

Simeon, whose organization's office is on Virginia Street, said she's found that the community feels that the arrests have left the situation somewhat safer.

"People say it's not as bad as it was before," she said. "Peope are not duck-and-diving any more."

While the shootings are down, other crimes persist, and the perception continues that the neighborhood is unsafe.

The city needs to work closely in the neighborhood, Simeon said, providing jobs and activities for young people and making sure the streets are safer through everything from increased police presence to improved street lighting.

Lourdes Iglesias said the community has had mixed emotions about the mass arrests.

"Certainly, we all want to feel safe," she said. "But then, on the other side of that token, they have picked up so many young people and that is distressing. So, we wonder, what could we have done to prevent this?"

That's the question Bob Kuebler, who heads Youth With a Purpose, asks, too.

Kuebler has known many of the young men killed or now in jail as part of the gang feud.

He was especially hit hard by the death of Christian Portes, whom he was trying to keep out of trouble. The boy had been part of a performance group that went into schools to show alternatives to gang life. The teenager eventually drifted back in with the gang crowd.

25 to life for gang member who killed 15-year-old

A gang member convicted of killing a 15-year-old girl in a hail of bullets he fired into a house in the Kensington-Bailey neighborhood was sentenced today to 25 years to life in prison. A jury in April convicted Kevin J. Davis II, 26, a member of the Gangster Disciples, of second-degree murder for the Sept. 30, 2010 slaying of Dominique Maye. Dominique, a Riverside Institute of Technology ninth-grader, was an unintended target. The teen was staying at her aunt's house, prosecutors said, and died when Davis fired 19 shots with an AK-47 into the Hewitt Avenue home in a failed attempt to shoot Dominique's brother, Cardricus Maye. Cardricus Maye's fellow gang members believed he was an informant. Davis declined to speak before Erie County Judge Michael F. Pietruszka sentenced him to the maximum prison term. Defense attorney Emily Trott told the court that Davis did not shoot the girl. "This crime as perpetrated by another," she told Pietruszka, without naming anybody. The prosecution, she said, allowed several fellow gang members to testify against Davis in exchange for no charges being brought against them in the fatal shooting. "They picked an easy target," Trott said of her client. The prosecution witnesses "were accomplices to the crime," she said. None of Dominique's family members spoke at Davis' sentencing, although Pietruszka received victim-impact letters. The letters were touching and showed how the "heinous crime" has affected Dominique's family members, said prosecutor Gary W. Hackbush, who with Assistant District Attorney Patrick Shanahan prosecuted Davis. "She was never able to realize her potential," Hackbush said of Dominique. Dominique's family, Hackbush added, pressed for the maximum sentence. Sherry Campbell, the mother of Davis, called her son "a great guy, a good kid" who chose to socialize with "the worst people in Buffalo." Campbell said the real culprits "aren't behind bars." "God will serve them justice," Campbell said.

Italy convicts local Mafia

THREE Mafia figures living freely in Australia and labelled "extremely dangerous" by Italian authorities have been sentenced in absentia to long jail terms for international drug trafficking.Australian men Nicola Ciconte, Vincenzo Medici and Michael Calleja have been convicted and sentenced in Italy for their role in a plot to smuggle up to 500 kilograms of cocaine into Australia.

Australian and Italian police have received intelligence that the cocaine - which has never been recovered - was meant to be smuggled from the port of Melbourne by corrupt workers and taken by truck to a Sydney container yard, where some of it was to be hidden in a second truck and driven to Adelaide.

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Calabrian Mafia boss Vincenzo Barbieri was gunned down in 2011. Photo: Supplied

Ciconte (pictured), 56, formerly of Victoria but now living on the Gold Coast, was sentenced to 25 years' jail last month by a Calabrian court for his role in the conspiracy.

The court heard that Ciconte, along with a small group of Calabrian Mafia bosses, had worked as "promoters, directors, organisers and financiers'' of a plan to import cocaine provided by the Colombian cartels to Australia between 2002 and 2004.

Medici, 47, of Mildura, and Calleja, 53, of Melbourne, were found to have helped Ciconte in the plot and were sentenced to 15 years' jail. Assistant prosecutor Maria Vittoria De Simone toldThe Saturday Age Italy would be pushing the Australian government to extradite the convicted men.

''We will be strongly pursuing the extradition,'' she said. ''These individuals have been convicted of heavy sentences in a huge trial and they are extremely dangerous."

The revelations of the trio's convictions and sentences highlights a common but mostly untold story of global organised crime investigations, in which suspects often escape justice due to jurisdictional hurdles.

During the Italian police inquiry into Ciconte, Medici and Calleja, the Australian Federal Police launched its own drug trafficking inquiry into the trio.

But key evidence from Italian police, including the testimony of an informer, could not be used in Australian courts and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions advised the AFP against charging the men.

Before the Australian trio were convicted and sentenced in absentia last month, Italian prosecutors had alleged in court that the men had conducted a trial drug run using an empty shipping container before the actual operation.

The prosecutors alleged that Ciconte ''maintained contact with associates in Vibo Valentia, supplying the materials for the trial containers in collaboration with Medici; Calleja … made several trips from Australia to Calabria to determine the details of the shipments and the payments".

"The ultimate goal for Ciconte, Medici, Calleja [was] to supply the imported cocaine in the Australian market''.

Ciconte's key contact in Italy was Calabrian Mafia boss Vincenzo Barbieri, who was jailed for his role in the plot. He was gunned down in March 2011 after his release.

Between 2002 and 2004, Italian authorities tapped phone calls between Barbieri in Calabria and Ciconte in Victoria and filmed meetings in Italy between Ciconte and his Australian associates and Barbieri and other mafia figures.

The trio's sentencing in Italy also highlights the ongoing presence in Australia of the Calabrian Mafia, known as the 'Ndrangheta, or Honoured Society, which established deep roots in NSW, Victoria and South Australia through migration during the last century.

Ms De Simone told The Saturday Age: ''We urge the Australian authorities to remember that 'Ndrangheta … represents an enormous risk for countries far from Italy. The 'Ndrangheta … runs the international cocaine market. It doesn't do its business in Calabria but around the world. It has infiltrated all economic sectors and it controls voting and political candidates at a national and international level. I urge the Australians not to underestimate this organisation. Otherwise it will be too late.''

Ciconte, the son of Calabrian migrants who settled in country Victoria in 1955, forged his Mafia ties via family connections back in Italy. Vincenzo Medici's father was a well-known Mafia figure who was murdered in the early 1980s.

Ms De Simone said a request to extradite the trio would be made to Australian Attorney-General Nicola Roxon. Ms Roxon's department told The Saturday Age it did not comment on extradition matters.

In a separate case also targeting Australian crime figures with links to the Mafia, NSW drug trafficker Pasquale Barbaro was last month sentenced to life in prison for his role in organising an importation from Italy.

Gunz-Up member sentenced to 40 years to life for attempted murder

Emery Allen, a member of the Gunz-Up gang, has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison in connection to a shootout with a rival gang in 2009, district attorney Jan Scully announced today. A jury convicted Allen in April of the attempted murder of Junius Winters, a member of the rival gang, G-Mobb/Guttah Boyz. Allen instigated a gunfight between Gunz-Up and G-Mobb/Guttah Boyz in September 2009 involving as many as 13 people, according to a press release from the district attorney's office. The shootout was part of a spate of violence between the two gangs, as well as the Oak Park / 4th Ave Bloods, that included 26 shootings between 2008 and 2010, according to the press release.

GANGSTER whose shooting sparked a gang fight months later which left one man fighting for his life has had an anti-social behaviour injunction taken out against him.

Masked members of rival gangs took part in the mass brawl in a Howdon street armed with samurai swords, machetes and knives in April last year. The two feuding gangs arranged a fight near the Rosehill pub, in Churchill Street, to resolve a dispute over the shooting of Paul Borg the year before. Borg was shot in August 2010 outside his Quay View home in Willington Quay, and the rival factions taunted each other afterwards via text messages and the social networking site Facebook. In February, all but one of the 17 involved were jailed at Newcastle Crown Court for their parts in the brawl, with Borg being put behind bars for 28 months. The 26-year-old is due to be released this week, but North Tyneside Council’s safer estates team last week applied for an anti-social behaviour injunction to ban him from areas of Howdon, Willington, Holy Cross, Battle Hill and Hadrian Park. Prosecutor Peter Rowbottom said: “Borg was one of the main protagonists involved in this matter. “The council is seeking an injunction that effectively has one major condition, that he is excluded from an area covering the whole of Wallsend. “The council has to protect its residents from such violence.” The case follows on from seven others involving thugs involved in the brawl, but Borg is also banned from Hadrian Park and Battle Hill in Wallsend as a result of previous convictions. In mitigation for Borg, Sarah Barratt told the court that he would contest the exclusion zone on his release as he has a 90-year-old grandmother living in the no-go area. Borg is the eighth gang member to have had an anti-social behaviour injunction taken out against him. The others are Mark Amis, 24, of Kendal Gardens, Wallsend; David Amis, 29, of Harle Street, Wallsend; Geno Davidson, 21, of Lannerwood, North Shields; Terry Pomfrey, 20, of Barton Close in Wallsend; Jordan Hammond, 19, of Radnor Gardens in Howdon; Christopher Terrance, 23, of Bowness Avenue in Howdon; and Jonathan Smart, 29, of Weetslade Crescent, Dudley. Smart was given his injunction at North Shields County Court on Monday. Deputy district judge Peter Bullock agreed to the two-year order but allowed a review hearing for Borg to contest the conditions next month. After the hearing, Colin Boxshall, the council’s safer estates manager, said: “These injunctions reaffirm our resolve to put victims first and to put a stop to crime and anti-social behaviour. “We take prompt appropriate and decisive action to deal with issues before they escalate and apply robust processes for managing anti-social behaviours cases. “Everyone has the right to enjoy peace and quiet in their own homes and neighbourhood, and we will take whatever action that is necessary to make that happen.”

suspected gang fight in south London.

A teenager is fighting for life and another seriously injured after a suspected gang fight in south London. Police said they were called to reports of a fight involving five or six teenagers in Garratt Lane, Wandsworth at 10.05 pm last night. When officers arrived the group had scattered but two 19-year-olds were found collapsed near-by suffering from stab wounds. The young men – who were found in Malva Close -  suffered serious knife wounds to the torso. The teenagers are thought to have been trying to flee the scene when they collapsed. Officers were waiting to question them in hospital where they were under police guard today. One teenager is said to be in a critical condition and his injuries are said to be life threatening, the other is serious but stable. Four young men aged in their late teens and early 20s were arrested by police last night. Police flooded the area after the stabbing last night in a search for suspects. Roads around Mulva Close and the South Thames College were sealed off this morning as police continued a search of the streets. St Ann's Hill was closed between East Hill and St Ann's Crescent causing considerable disruption to traffic. The scene is close to the million pound homes of Wandsworth’s so-called “nappy valley.” The Met is battling rising levels of reported knife crime and youth violence in London though incidents where knives were used to injure people is falling. Senior officers were holding a crisis meeting this morning to discuss the stabbing amid fears of possible reprisals by rival gangs. Extra patrols were being deployed to reassure people and deter more attacks. A spokesperson for London Ambulance Service said: "Staff treated two patients, both with stab wounds and taken as priorities to hospital. One man was 19-years-old, but the age of the other is unknown." Twitter users in the area posted their shocked responses on the social networking site. Chloe Carter wrote: "Happened about 10.30pm last night while I was in the Brewers Inn. Police advised someone had been stabbed."

Long Beach police arrest 16 gang members

Long Beach police have arrested more than a dozen gang members in connection with a series of shootings over a three-year period. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Wednesday investigators arrested 16 members of the city's largest gang. Most of those arrested were booked for investigation of such crimes as murder and burglary after they were linked to 13 shootings. Among the cases involve the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old man who was standing outside a liquor store. Prosecutors have charged 22-year-old Johnney Smith in connection with the slaying. Smith is already behind bars.

A ground-level look inside the deeds of the Newburgh Latin Kings, including the bloody 24 hours that left two young men dead

Federal prosecutors promised on Tuesday to provide a ground-level look inside the deeds of the Newburgh Latin Kings, including the bloody 24 hours that left two young men dead in 2010. In an opening argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Park Chung said prosecutors would offer recordings of drug deals and the secret weekly meetings conducted by the gang as its power grew in the last years of the decade. He promised the gang's own members would testify against two purported leaders who are now on trial with two alleged associates. "This trial is about a violent and vicious gang that terrorized the City of Newburgh," Chung said. The four defendants — Nelson Calderon, Angelo Deleon, Wilfredo Sanchez and Eva Cardoza — are the first of 31 defendants named in two federal indictments to challenge racketeering charges at trial. The defendants were separated into three groups based on charges. Calderon's group faces the second most-serious charges. A trial of defendants who would be death-penalty-eligible if convicted is expected to begin in early 2013. Chung said Calderon, known as King Murder, was once the leader or First Crown in the Kings' hierarchy. Deleon, or King Truth, was the gang's chief marijuana dealer, Chung said. Prosecutors will try to paint Sanchez and Cardoza as crucial allies, if not full-fledged Kings. Along with storing guns at her Broadway apartment, Cardoza served as the getaway driver after the murder of 21-year-old John "Tarzan" Maldonado in 2010, Chung said. The prosecutor described a version of the killing that has long circulated in Newburgh's neighborhoods. According to Chung, Maldonado and Jerome "Rude Boy" Scarlett were hoping to become full members when they were tapped to shoot rival Blood members in March 2010. Scarlett died instead. "The Latin Kings concluded after some confusion that it was actually Tarzan who shot Rude Boy," Chung said. As punishment, according to Chung, the Kings lured Maldonado into a trap the next day, executing him in the street. Lawyers for each of the defendants will have an opportunity to make opening statements. Attorney Steven Brill spoke on behalf of his client, Sanchez, who he said lived in the heart of Latin King territory, had two brothers who are suspected members and even facilitated the occasional drug deal. However, Brill said, Sanchez purposely chose not to join the gang or conspiracy, even though he could have easily. "There's no such thing as guilt by association," Brill told jurors. The trial will continue on Wednesday morning with more opening statements.

Message left at site of grisly find in eastern Veracruz state suggests link to strife within the Zetas drug gang

More than 50,000 people have been killed in Mexico since a war on drug gangs was ordered in 2006 [Reuters]

The dismembered bodies of at least 14 people have been found in an abandoned pickup vehicle in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, authorities say. Veracruz is the scene of a violent drug turf war. Alerted by an anonymous call late on Monday, authorities found the vehicle parked on a road in the town of Tuxpan near the border with the state of Tamaulipas, the state prosecutor's office said on Tuesday. Local media quoted witnesses as saying the victims were mostly men in their  20s whose dismembered body parts had been stuffed into bags. A message found at the site suggested the killings were linked to strife within the Zetas drug gang, created by elite anti-drug commandos who deserted and went to work for the Gulf cartel in the mid-1990s as hired guns. They later split to form their own cartel. The northern border state of Tamaulipas is a stronghold of the Zetas, who been locked in conflict with both the Sinaloa cartel and the Gulf cartel. Growing trend The discovery of the bodies reflects a growing trend - the numbers of homicides of this nature have risen sharply since early 2011, with bodies often dumped  in public places. On June 7, 14 dismembered bodies were found in an abandoned vehicle, which  was illegally parked near city hall in Ciudad Mante in northeastern Mexico. On May 4, 14 mutilated bodies were discovered in the Tamaulipas city of Nuevo Laredo, on the border with Laredo, Texas. Earlier that day, nine bodies had been found hanging from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo. Nuevo Laredo and the roads leading to the border town are key smuggling routes, as 40 per cent of all cargo crossing northbound into the US from Mexico goes through the city. Last September, 35 bodies were left dumped in lorries in broad daylight in a heavily used road in the port of Veracruz, just before the start of a conference of prosecutors from around the country.

Vice Lords gang member: Chicago has gone 'haywire'

As more gang leaders are arrested, convicted and sent to prison, the gangs they left behind have become "very splintered," he said. Young men on the city's streets agree. "There is no one to control this, so it has become haywire," said Devon Tims, who identified himself as one of the Chicago Vice Lords, making him one of the city's estimated 70,000 gang members. In interviews, McCarthy said the "fracturing" of larger gangs into smaller ones has doubled the number of factions and conflicts. "These kids have guns and they end up using them," he said. Robert Ray  /  AP A heroin pouch lies next to a sidewalk on Chicago's Homan Avenue. In a section of Chicago's South and West sides, narcotic sales is big business and is attributed to some of the recent surge in violence and murders. McCarthy said the gangs are far more territorial and rigid than those that operated when he was a ranking commander in the New York City Police Department and the chief in Newark, N.J. And that means trouble when a gang member simply crosses the street into rival territory. "If we see a car with three of (one gang's) guys three blocks over there (on another gang's turf), they are probably going to shoot someone," said Leo Schmitz, a gang enforcement commander who was redeployed in January to command Englewood's police district. The demolition of the city's infamous public housing complexes in recent years also played a role. While the high rises long were considered a massive failure that warehoused the city's poorest families and became magnets for gangs, tearing them down caused a new set of problems by scattering gang members to other parts of the city. Some of them eventually settled in the thousands of houses that were abandoned during the nation's recent financial crisis. There the battle for supremacy started anew. Residents and activists from the most violent neighborhoods have seen similar campaigns to combat gang violence over the years and were both hopeful and skeptical about the latest one. Jean Carter-Hill, an activist from Englewood, said she thinks the increase in officers patrolling the streets is helping clean up the area but that the city needs to do more, such as helping youths with conflict resolution. "Every time there is a conflict, these young people get a gun," she said. "And everyone seems to know where a gun is."

Girls pimping Girls

Even seasoned cops are shocked by the crime. Two 15-year-old girls are facing a slew of charges for allegedly forcing other girls, ages 13-17, into prostitution — a human-trafficking ring cops are calling the first of its kind in Canada. “It’s shocking. It’s absolutely shocking,” said police Staff Sgt. John McGetrick. “As a matter of fact, the RCMP couldn’t provide a similar case that they were aware of.” Police are looking for a third suspect, a 17-year-old girl, whose identity they’ve confirmed. The teens apparently threw parties, luring girls to a house in the 2400 block of Walkley Rd. three times between mid-May and early June. They then forced the girls into prostitution by threatening them with assault, said McGetrick. The victims were driven to other locations for the purpose of prostitution. Residents at the Russell housing complex on Walkley Rd. were neither shocked nor surprised to hear of a teen prostitution ring in their own backyard. “I’m not surprised,” said a neighbour who didn’t want to be named, “(but) it’s surreal.” One of the teens arrested is a dropout and lives in a rowhouse with her family, according to neighbours. Neighbours alleged one of the girls owned a website where she was “selling these girls off,” but police couldn’t be reached to confirm a website existed. The other 15-year-old girl attends a local high school. The student took to Facebook following her friend’s arrest. “f--- tha police yall bring us no peace!,” she wrote. Another neighbour claimed to see older men driving the girls around. The second girl was arrested Saturday. Residents have an idea where the 17-year-old girl — who also lives in the complex — is hiding. They believe she’s in Montreal. The teens’ identities are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The girls face charges of human trafficking, sexual assault, forcible confinement, abduction, robbery, procuring, assault, and uttering threats. Police are looking for help. “If there’s more (victims) out there, then we’d really like to hear from them and work with them,” McGetrick said.

Mexican Gang known as the "Sweeper" gang or the "Devil's Commando." bosses arrested

Federal police in Mexico say they have captured four top operators of a drug gang that operates in the Pacific coast resort city of Acapulco. One of the suspects is a woman. The gang has been fighting the local Independent Cartel of Acapulco for control of the port city since the 2010 arrest of suspected drug capo Edgar Valdez Villareal, a Texas-born man known as "La Barbie." The new group is known as the "Sweeper" gang or the "Devil's Commando." Federal police said Monday the suspects included one man nicknamed "Santa" who was allegedly the gang's financial administrator. Other suspects allegedly carried out killings, kidnappings, drug sales and extortion. The female suspect allegedly led a group of lookouts and spies that worked for the gang.

Gang member accused in Calif. attack that killed 4

The suspect in a California home-invasion robbery that left four people dead, including the gunman, was a paroled gang member suspected in a separate shooting earlier that day, police said Monday. Police identified 26-year-old Xue Lor as the suspect who fatally shot three people and critically wounded another before he was fatally shot during the attack in Sacramento around 10:30 p.m. Saturday. Robbery appears to be the motive behind the killings, officials said. Investigators believe Lor demanded money from the victims before he opened fire, killing a husband and wife who lived there, as well as a male guest identified as 33-year-old Lee Doua Cha. Lor was shot by the dead couple's son, said Officer Michele Gigante, a Sacramento police spokeswoman. The son was not injured and is not under arrest, she said. Investigators say Lor has been identified as the suspect in a separate shooting 18 hours earlier. A 22-year-old man sustained a non-life threatening gunshot wound after Lor opened fire on the victim's vehicle. The victim's 2-year-old daughter was inside at the time but was not injured. Police described Lor as a parolee subject to high supervision who was released after serving time on gun possession charges. Lor was sent to state prison in 2009 to serve a nearly five-year Sacramento County sentence for possessing a firearm as an ex-felon, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was sentenced to eight months in 2010 in neighboring Yolo County for possessing a stolen vehicle. Records show he was returned to prison for six months on a parole violation in 2011 before he was paroled for the final time in October 2011. Sacramento County records show he was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading no contest to felony vehicle theft and fleeing and eluding a police officer in 2006. A year earlier, he was jailed for receiving a stolen vehicle and obstructing a peace officer. Gigante said police were investigating whether gang connections by other members of the victim family played a role in what police initially described as a home invasion. The husband was known in the Hmong community as a shaman, or faith healer, said Su Vang, who often acts as a spokesman for the Hmong community in Sacramento. Many Hmong migrated to the United States following the Vietnam War, after members of the Asian ethnic minority group fought alongside Americans in the secret war in Laos. Sacramento is home to 27,000 people of Hmong descent, behind Fresno with 32,000 and the Minneapolis-St. Paul area with 64,000, according to the 2010 census. The Sacramento County coroner's office would not immediately name the husband and wife who were killed in the home because relatives had not been officially notified of their deaths. There were no signs of forced entry, but the gunman entered the home and opened fire before he was confronted by the couple's son, Gigante said. Crime scene investigators were observed carrying a half-dozen rifles from the home and putting them in a police van. The surviving victim remained in critical but stable condition Monday with a gunshot wound to the upper body, Gigante said. Police were asking members of the public who may have information about the shooting to contact them.

Jamaican drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke ordered his men to kill a deadbeat drug dealer nicknamed “Tall Man” by tying him up and dismembering him with a chain saw.

The criminal career of Jamaican drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke, one of the Caribbean’s most famous gangsters, ended Friday when he was sentenced to 23 years behind bars. The U.S. drug trafficking case brought into sharp focus his reputation for using ruthless acts of violence to strike fear into both foes and allies. Prosecutors in federal court in Manhattan had used the often gruesome testimony of an admitted member of Coke’s drug gang to push for a stiff sentence. Most startling was his account of how Coke ordered his men to kill a deadbeat drug dealer nicknamed “Tall Man” by tying him up and dismembering him with a chain saw.

MOB gang member, Echols, gets nabbed

Lorain police tracked down one of the last known at-large MOB gang members yesterday, according to Lt. Mark Carpentiere. Eric Echols, 21, was arrested about noon after he was found hiding inside 818 W. 18th St. He is charged with participating in a criminal gang, Carpentiere said. Echols was indicted in May, along with several other men accused of being members of the Lorain street gang, a target of Lorain police since early May. Also in the home was Chandra Mastin, 18, the mother of Echols’ 2-month-old child, who claimed Echols never lived there after police searched the home in May.

Thursday night brawl involving as many as 14 young men with suspected ties to the Sureños and Norteños

Law enforcement officials are saying a Thursday night brawl involving as many as 14 young men with suspected ties to the Sureños and Norteños does not necessarily mean an escalation of gang activity in the county. Tony Gudino Jr., 21, of Colusa, was arrested by Colusa police at Colusa Regional Medical Center after being treated for wounds he reportedly sustained during the brawl, which occurred shortly before 10 p.m. on Lafayette Street, between Bridge and First streets, Sgt. Josh Fitch said. William A. Uribe, 20, of Colusa, also was treated at the hospital, Fitch said. “It sounds like they were in some kind of group fight out in front of (Uribe’s) home,” Fitch said. “Depending on who you talk to, there were six or seven on either side, and looks like it was gang-related,” Fitch said. It also is a matter of which side is being interviewed whether the group with Gudino was just walking by the home and were provoked by Uribe and his friends, or whether Gudino and his friends had come looking for a fight, Fitch said. Police said Gudino reportedly used a bat during the confrontation. He was booked into Colusa County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm. Bail was set at $25,000. He was treated for cuts to his arm and ear, injuries possible caused by a bottle and rock, Fitch said. Broken glass was found in the area. Knives also were reportedly involved in the fight, but no knife wounds were reported, Fitch said. Police said Uribe and some of his friends may have recently located to Colusa from the Grimes area, and are reportedly connected to the Norteño street gang. Gudino is reportedly connected to the Soreño street gang. Colusa County sheriff’s Lt. Shane Maxey said his office is aware of Uribe, and confirmed he was a Grimes area resident. But Maxey said he is not aware of any escalation of gang activity in the county. There was a fire bombing attempt on College Street in College City early Friday, but that incident has no connection to the brawl in Colusa, Maxey said. An 18-square-inch patch of grass was burned, and the side of the house sustained some smoke damage. The house may have been targeted because of one of the residents, who has a criminal history, but what if any gang motivation may have been involved is unknown, Maxey said. No arrests have been made. “My personal opinion is we have very few hard core gang members (in the county), but they do on occasion step up and become a little more violent,” Maxey said. That violence also tends to happen more frequently at this time of year, he said. Pierce High School had additional law enforcement presence at its Friday night graduation ceremony, but officials said it was purely precautionary and no threats had been received. Fitch said there was no indication that gang activity in Colusa area is on the rise, either. “It has been pretty quiet up to this point,” Fitch said. “These guys are from the Grimes area and just moved to town and this is the first dealing with them to my knowledge.”

Street gang at heart of Eaton Centre bloodshed

Three men at the heart of the weekend bloodshed at the Eaton Centre, one of whom now faces a murder rap, allegedly have ties to one of the city's street gangs. However, Toronto Police maintain the shooting that claimed one life and sent seven others to hospital, including a pregnant woman and a 13-year-old Port Hope, Ont., boy, was not "gang motivated. "Even though there are several persons who have now been identified in this case as being known gang members, or who have gang associations, I do not believe this to be a gang-motivated shooting," homicide Det.-Sgt. Brian Borg said Monday at a packed press conference at police headquarters. The lead investigator in the shooting making headlines across the country claims Ahmed Hassan, 24, who was killed in the melee, the 23-year-old who was critically injured and the accused gunman -- Christopher Husbands, 23 -- were all connected to the same gang. But he refused to name the gang. "I believe there was personal aspects involved," Borg said. It turns out Hassan was wanted on charges in Alberta and Husbands was on house arrest. Little is known about the third man. Borg wouldn't say why the three met up Saturday afternoon in the crowded food court of one of the busiest malls in Canada. Nor would he say what prompted the violent outburst. The gunfire erupted around 6:30 p.m., prompting shoppers to dive under tables and run for their lives. When the bullets stopped flying, Hassan was dead, the 23-year-old man with him was shot numerous times, the 13-year-old was struck in the head and four other innocent victims -- three women and one man -- suffered minor gunshot wounds. A pregnant woman was also trampled as the frightened crowd scattered, but she and her unborn child are OK. Borg still believes the incident was "a targeted shooting -- not a random act of violence." "There was one shooter, one gun," he said. "Unfortunately, that gun inflicted a substantial amount of human damage." The violence sparked a massive hunt for the gunman, allegedly identified by investigators through surveillance video. Husbands surrendered with his lawyer at a downtown police station around 2:20 a.m. Monday. He is charged with one count of murder and six counts of attempted murder. Borg wouldn't say if the shooting was connected to a gun call police responded to a few hours earlier at nearby Alexander Park, a housing complex at Dundas St. W. and Bathurst St. Nobody was hurt in that incident. At a press conference, acting deputy chief Jeff McGuire thanked the "heroes" in the food court that day who stayed behind to help the injured, He also said Toronto remains a safe city despite the fact shootings are up nearly 45% from this time last year. "It's important we not allow ourselves to become alarmist," McGuire said, adding the number of shootings have actually declined overall in recent years.

3 Gang Members Charged With Attempted Murder After Shooting At Police Officers

Three 19-year-old suspected gang members were charged Monday with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at two Anaheim police officers in an unmarked car. Juan Carlos Covarrubias, Jordy Roman Martinez and Andrew Gomez Sanchez face two counts of attempted murder on a police officer and one count each of shooting at an occupied motor vehicle and street terrorism, along with sentence-enhancing allegations of vicarious shooting of a gun by a gang member and gang activity. The three, all Anaheim residents, were each being held in lieu of $1 million bail. If convicted, they could face up to 45 years to life in prison, Deputy District Attorney Gary LoGalbo said. The trio allegedly pulled up in their car in front of the officers’ unmarked squad car about 3:30 a.m. Friday and blocked the victims on Palm Street at Boysen Avenue, LoGalbo said. It’s not clear whether the defendants knew there were police officers in the car or what motivated the attack, LoGalbo said. One of the defendants got out of the passenger side of the car and opened fire on the officers, who were not hurt, LoGalbo alleged. The officers put on their car’s lights and sirens and quickly retreated, but the defendants allegedly pursued the patrol car and one of the suspects allegedly again shot at the officers, LoGalbo said. The defendants attempted to drive away when other officers arrived, LoGalbo said. The defendants’ car crashed while making a U-turn at Midway Drive and Anaheim Boulevard, LoGalbo said. The three got out of the car and tried to flee, but Martinez and Covarrubias were arrested quickly. Sanchez was apprehended about an hour later, LoGalbo said.

Killings quadruple since arrival of brutal gang

The cartel henchman nicknamed "El Loco" was reported behind the latest atrocity in Mexico's ever-more-depraved drug war: mutilating 49 people and piling their bodies - heads, hands and feet missing - by the side of a road leading to the U.S. border. Authorities say he acted this month on orders from the top commanders of the brutal Zeta paramilitary force, who wanted to send a message to the long-dominant Sinaloa cartel and its allies, in a new phase of a conflict that has claimed more than 50,000 lives in less than six years. In Mexico's eight most violent states, the battle has essentially boiled down to a no-holds-barred fight between two cartels: the Sinaloa network, Mexico's oldest and traditionally most powerful gang, and the newer and exceedingly vicious Zetas. In the most brazen offensive of that war, the Zetas, smelling an opportunity, are moving steadily deeper into their enemy's ancestral homeland here in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, long regarded as the cradle of Mexican drug-trafficking and the virtually impenetrable bastion of one of the world's biggest drug lords, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. The battle to be the last gang standing has all the terrible hallmarks of the fluid, internecine evolution of drug cartels, as alliances form, then shatter, usually with extraordinary violence, betrayal and intrigue. Though clearly always under the sway of the Sinaloa cartel, with inexplicably ostentatious wealth, brisk Hummer sales and opulent mansions, most of Sinaloa state had remained relatively peaceful during the first years of the drug war - precisely because one group was in control and unchallenged. That all changed when the Zetas came to town. Residents say the feud between the two cartels is starting to look like a civil war. "It's getting worse all the time," said Leonel Aguirre, head of the independent Sinaloa Human Rights Defense Commission, which tallies drug-war killings and the latest scourge of forced disappearances. "Executions, decapitations, the melting of bodies. ... Annihilate and terrorize. And the really bad thing is you get used to it." The Sinaloa cartel, for all its murderous ways, maintained something of a social base among many locals. The cartel was seen as a gang of ruthless businessmen, reluctant to "heat the plaza," or stir things up and attract scrutiny. The newly arrived Zetas, on the other hand, act more as an occupying force, quicker to attack, or kill, uninvolved civilians. With no connections to the local population, they're free to act like crude hatchet men who ignore any rules. That has deepened the fear and uncertainty here, forced hundreds of farmers to flee the suddenly violent Sierra Madre countryside in eastern Sinaloa, where most of the drugs are produced, and exposed locals to a new wave of threats of kidnapping and demands for payoffs (some delivered via email) that apparently come from the Zetas. Zeta cells and safe houses have been detected by intelligence agencies in major cities in the state: Los Mochis in the north, Mazatlan in the south and here in the capital, Culiacan. Last month, "narco-banners," traffickers' homemade billboards, popped up in Sinaloa cities apparently from the Zetas and accusing government forces of siding with the Sinaloa cartel. "We have seen inhuman acts in various parts of the country that are part of an irrational fight between two criminal organizations and their allies," said Mexico's top domestic security official, Interior Minister Alejandro Poire. "This is a direct struggle between (the Sinaloa cartel) and the Zetas to control routes and (territory) for their criminal enterprise." The arrival of the Zetas triggered a quadrupling of drug-war killings in the last four years and a jump in tactics such as extortion, kidnapping and arson. Sinaloa, with 2.7 million residents, has half the population of El Salvador but a similar number of murders as that nation, which is also riven by violent crime. Four people a day were killed on average in the state in the first 4 1/2 months of this year, according to statistics from the state prosecutor's office. An untold number of dead and missing are never found or recorded. In January, Sinaloa state authorities busted a cell of kidnappers in Mazatlan and took the unusual step of announcing that the group worked on behalf of the Zetas; typically, local authorities shy away from singling out a cartel by name. Two days later, gunmen strafed the Mazatlan hardware-store chain belonging to the governor of the state (and bearing his name), killing an employee and wounding people inside. That the Zetas would dare to invade Guzman's home turf reflects their own sense of ascending strength and a perceived vulnerability on the part of the kingpin, whose capture is considered the top prize in the drug war, especially in an election year. As the on-again, off-again hunt for Guzman heats up, there have been reports of grumbling among Sinaloa lieutenants; U.S. law enforcement agents believe some Sinaloa cartel leaders increasingly see Guzman as a liability. At the same time, however, Guzman's forces have roared into areas once dominated by the Zetas, such as eastern state of Veracruz, where four journalists were killed (two of them dismembered) in a recent week. Sinaloa operatives may be behind a group called the Mata-Zetas ("Zeta-killers") who signaled their debut by dumping 35 mangled bodies into the center of Veracruz city last summer. Guzman traces his rise to the 1990s; he had split with some of the original older-generation traffickers and taken up with the Beltran Leyva brothers. All hailed from the same sparse rural section of Sinaloa around Badiraguato, in the Sierra Madre foothills. The Beltran Leyvas tended to the northern part of Sinaloa state, including the transport routes that led northward through neighboring Sonora state and into the United States. Things began to unravel in 2008. Alfredo Beltran Leyva, the group's top commander, was captured by the army that year, and his successor, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a shootout with Mexican marines in 2009. Some in the Beltran Leyva faction suspected that Guzman had ratted them out; the faction split off from the Sinaloa cartel and fragmented amid a bruising power struggle. The Zetas, meanwhile, were turning against their creator and patron, the Gulf cartel, for which the Zetas had served as muscle. They wanted a bigger piece of the drug-trafficking pie and formed an especially cruel cartel that eventually extended along Mexico's Gulf Coast into Central America. The Zetas were built with deserters from the Mexican army's elite airborne special forces and then augmented by hardened commandos from Guatemala's Kaibiles, a notorious military unit trained by U.S. advisers. Under leader Heriberto Lazcano, a former military trooper not yet 40 and sometimes called "The Executioner," they were more eager than other gangs to directly challenge the Mexican army, going as far as to attack military garrisons along Mexico's border with the United States in 2010. Lazcano, like Guzman, remains at large, a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head. To finally enter Sinaloa, the Zetas essentially piggybacked on the remnants of the Beltran Leyva group, penetrating northern Sinaloa and gradually pushing farther south. Today, the battle between the two gangs seems concentrated around the corridor running from Monterrey, Mexico's wealthiest city, to the border around Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas state, where Sinaloa operatives have allied with remnants of the Gulf cartel to battle back the Zetas. Police identified the cartel henchman "El Loco" as Daniel Ramirez and have him in custody. The 49 bodies found outside Monterrey, including women, have not yet been identified. The Sinaloa-Zeta rivalry has also spread to the Jalisco state region around Guadalajara, Mexico's second-most populous city, which one law enforcement official described as a free-for-all. The government of President Felipe Calderon contends that today's drug-trafficking constellation is proof that its military-led offensive against cartels is working, because numerous gangs have been broken and diminished through capture and killing. But that does not address the fact that the two cartels left standing are among the most powerful and best organized, with a virtually limitless supply of weaponry and money flowing in from the drug-consuming nation to the north, the United States. And many here in Sinaloa suspect authorities are content to turn a blind eye to the violence, eager for the bad guys to do their dirty work, and dismissing the killing as a settling of scores, the victims as criminals. "The state is a mute witness, waiting for them to tear each other into pieces," said Aguirre, the human rights activist. "The problem is, many innocents get caught up in it."