Playboy Surenos (PBS), Varrios Locos (VL) and Little Valley Lokates (LVL) shootout at a Kent low-rider car show; a blast-o-rama that left a dozen people injured

 

Four men are now in jail and two more are being sought for their involvement in the July 23 shootout at a Kent low-rider car show; a blast-o-rama that left a dozen people injured and gun prohibitionists blaming gun owners and firearms rights for an incident that was totally gang-related.      A detailed narrative of the investigation is attached to court papers linked by the Seattle Times. It’s quite interesting reading. Done by a Kent police detective, the report reveals that rival members of three gangs were apparently involved: the Playboy Surenos (PBS), Varrios Locos (VL) and Little Valley Lokates (LVL). At some point, a member of a band playing at the event encouraged people in the crowd to “hold their flags in the air,” which the crowd apparently presumed to mean showing their gang signs. From there, things went downhill fast. Advertisement    It is an unusual mix of suspects, considering that two of the men jailed have no criminal backgrounds, and two others – both brothers – weren’t even at the event, but they’re in trouble, anyway. Here’s a roundup, courtesy of reports in the Kent Reporter (linked by the on-line SeattleP-I.com) and Seattle Times: • Patrick A. Auble, 30, of Tacoma. He is charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance for hiding a gun used in the shooting. He reportedly has a criminal history that includes obstructing justice, reckless driving and ten counts of driving with a suspended license. Currently held on $100,000 bail, he allegedly tried to negotiate with police for the release of his brother from jail and return of four guns belonging to him in exchange for the gun used in the shooting, according to the detective’s narrative. • Shea C. Auble, 21, of Auburn. He’s the brother whose arrest was the subject of Patrick’s attempted negotiation with the cops. Shea is charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance. He also has a “lengthy criminal history” that includes charges of residential burglary, assault, taking a motor vehicle without permission (that’s auto theft in plain language) and malicious mischief. His bail is also set at $100,000.  • Martin McSmith, 21, of SeaTac. Up to now, he had no criminal history. But he is allegedly one of the shooters, and he now faces charges of first-degree assault. Bail is set at $750,000. • James Lopez Jr., 17, of Seattle. He also had no criminal history until now, and he’s charged as an accomplice for allegedly being the driver of one of the getaway cars. He is charged as an adult and is being held on $250,000 bail.    Currently being sought in this caper are Ignacio Vasquez-Trevino, 19, of Federal Way and Nicholas Moreno, 21, of Auburn. Vasquez-Trevino is allegedly one of the shooters, wanted on three charges of first-degree assault. Moreno is allegedly another shooter, also charged with three counts of first-degree assault.    According to the detective’s narrative, Patrick Auble called police on the night of the shooting, looking to make a deal. An hour earlier, Shea had been arrested on an outstanding warrant, after police were called to a residence where two people were firing guns in the street. Shea was one of the two people arrested, and police also confiscated two 9mm pistols, a .40-caliber pistol and a .223-caliber rifle.    Patrick said he had information about the shooting, a vehicle involved, and a gun. In exchange, he wanted his little brother sprung and his guns returned. He called back later, telling police that “if he didn’t hear back from the police or his brother by 0100 hours, ‘Things will disappear’.” Two days later, on July 25, he called again, with the same demand, the report states.    On July 26, two detectives talked to Shea Auble in jail. Shea turned out to be a negotiator, too, according to the detective’s narrative. He allegedly told the detectives that he had information about the shooting, in exchange for getting five pending felony charges dropped.    The narrative reads like the script to a Quentin Tarantino movie. Not only was Patrick Auble allegedly hiding one of the guns involved, he was also hiding a car belonging to suspect Moreno in the garage of his parents’ home.    There may be other suspects in the case, and when this finally settles out, the problem will not be solved by restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners, but hammering down on gangs .

Assault weapon used in Palmetto nightclub shooting

 

Investigators are scouring arrest reports and other records regarding victims in a shooting spree this past weekend at a Palmetto nightclub to determine any possible suspects and motives in the unsolved case. Facts AK-47 BASICS Palmetto police say an AK-47 assault rifle was used in the mass shooting that killed two and injured 22 others at a nightclub early Saturday. Here is a primer on the weapon and why it is so infamous: • When fully automatic, it can fire 600 rounds per minute. Semi-automatic models can fire 45 to 60 rounds per minute. • Accuracy is low, but firepower is strong; bullets tend to flip in flight, increasing damage to human tissue and organs. • Possession is legal in Florida and in many states, though state laws can vary widely. • The name AK-47 is from a combination of the name of designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, a Soviet tank crew member. It went into production in 1947. • It is among the earliest designs of assault rifles, and one of the most widely used in the world. • More AK-type rifles have been produced than any other assault rifle. SOURCES: answers.com, thefirearmsforum.com, webanswers.com “We're looking through everything we have,” Manatee County Sheriff's Office spokesman Dave Bristow said this morning. “Palmetto Police are looking back at everything they have.” Witnesses believe gunmen may have targeted Trayon Goff, 25, who was outside Club Elite, 704 10th St. W., when the shooting began at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. Two were killed and 22 injured in the shooting. Investigators are unsure whether Goff's criminal past factors into the case. The felony cases filed against Trayon Goff occurred in 2005 and 2006. Undercover sheriff's detectives claimed that Goff repeatedly sold them rock cocaine outside the R&R Market at 7205 Bayshore Road in Rubonia. The transactions were reportedly recorded on video. One detective reported that Goff sold him cocaine there on Sept. 6, 2005, and again on Sept. 13, 2005. For his conviction on those two counts, Goff served two months in the county jail. Goff was later identified as participating in a previous rock cocaine transaction at the store on Aug. 25, 2005. In that case, he served 60 days in the county jail. He was accused of selling rock cocaine to a different undercover detective outside the same store on May 23, 2006. In that case, he was sentenced to a year in the county jail. No further felony arrests for Goff have been recorded in Manatee County since, though there is an ongoing domestic relations case in which the records are confidential and a recent case of driving with a suspended license in which Goff was fined.

Christy Kinahan offered €60,000 to have him whacked

 

GANGLAND hardman Martin Foley has taken to his bike in a bid to dodge another assassination attempt. ''The Viper' is paranoid about car bombs and hitmen outside his Dublin home after 'Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan offered €60,000 to have him whacked. Each morning Foley, who has survived four murder bids already, checks for hidden devices under his car and is now cycling instead of driving himself. And the Viper is not the only gangland tough guy under siege this weekend. Violent mob boss 'Fat' Freddie Thompson is holed up at his mother's house after it was firebombed by rivals who want him dead. Thompson has even gone to the gardai looking for protection as the feud threatens to explode. Viper's Vicious Cycle MARTIN 'The Viper' Foley has been warned that his life is in serious danger after 'The Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan put a €60,000 bounty on his head.

Jarrod Bacon wants to be tried by judge alone in cocaine conspiracy trial

 

Jarrod Bacon

Photograph by: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun

A former Abbotsford man whose brother was gunned down last month has re-elected to have a judge alone preside over his trial on a cocaine conspiracy charge.

Jarrod Wayne Bacon told the court of the change as jury selection for his October trial was set to begin this week.

His co-accused, Arnold Wayne Scott, also re-elected to be tried by judge alone, federal Crown Martha Devlin confirmed Tuesday,

The case is scheduled to start in October.

Bacon is the younger brother of Jonathan Bacon, a Red Scorpion gangster shot to death outside a Kelowna casino Aug. 14. Two others linked to the Hells Angels and Independent Soldiers were injured, as were two women passengers in their vehicle. No one has yet been charged in the high-profile targeted slaying.

Jarrod Bacon and Scott were arrested in November 2009 after a undercover police investigation dubbed E-Pintle.

Bacon remains in pre-trial custody, while Scott was released on bail.

 

 

When all hell broke lose in Karma pub

 

Very few incidents have ignited gangland tensions in the capital like the row that broke out in the Karma Stone pub in Wexford Street in March. It resulted in a simmering feud between the 'Fat' Freddie Thompson faction and well-known criminal Gerard Eglington (24). The result was Eglington being badly assaulted in open court and then surviving a gangland hit attempt. Eglington and other 'King Ratt' gang members were present when 'Fat' Freddie Thompson's brother suffered a broken leg and his wife was stabbed in the face in the south city pub at 10.30pm on Sunday, March 13. Eglington was later arrested by gardai but later released without charge. The savage attack on Freddie's brother Ritchie (40) and his wife Catherine at the Karma Stone has still not been avenged but sources are in no doubt that the criminal responsible is a dead man walking. Two months after the assault, a viable pipe-bomb was thrown at the south inner city home of 'Fat' Freddie's mother. As tensions continued to simmer, the house was petrol-bombed last week leading Thompson to return home to defend the property from exile in the UK.

 

Gardai search for links in Traveller murders

 

Gardai are trying to establish if there is a link between the murder of a man at a halting site in Dublin at the weekend and the shooting of another Traveller in the area last July. Detectives are trying to find a motive for the killing of Tom McDonagh (49), who was shot repeatedly at his home at St Margaret's site in Ballymun on the northside of the city. They suspect that a Finglas-based gang is responsible for the murder. Last night, officers were examining possible links between the incident on Saturday night and an ambush at the River Road in Finglas on July 15 last year when Anthony "Mole" McDonagh narrowly escaped death after he stopped his white Ford van at what he thought were county council roadworks. He was hit in the chest, stomach and side but survived the attack. The latest victim was alone when two men burst into his home and fired a barrage of shots from an automatic pistol. Mr McDonagh was dead on admission to hospital. Gardai are now following a number of lines of inquiry as they examine CCTV footage and trawl through statements from other residents of the halting site. The dead man was not a big criminal player. However, detectives are trying to establish whether his death was a result of his links to a group involved in feuding 

Russian Crime Gang Leader Gets Life In Jail

 

A court in Moscow has sentenced the leader of a notorious Russian organized crime gang to life in prison for involvement in at least 20 killings. The Moscow City Court judge said Tuesday that Sergei Butorin posed a grave danger to society and should be incarcerated for the rest of his life. ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the judge as ruling Butorin had been behind 20 murders and nine attempted killings. Butorin headed the Orekhovskaya gang, an organized criminal group that reached the height of its powers in Moscow in the 1990s. He was arrested by Spanish authorities in 2001 on charges of trading in illegal weapons and extradited to Russia last year. Russian criminal groups flourished in the chaotic years that followed the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Gang violence A rivalry between two gangs — Fresh Off the Boat (FOB) and the FOB Killers (FK)

 

Two suspected gang members went on trial Tuesday accused of shooting three people to death, including an innocent bystander, on New Year's Day in 2009. Three masked gunmen entered the Bolsa Vietnamese Restaurant in a southeast Calgary strip mall and opened fire, killing Sanjeev Mann, 22, described by police as a known gang member, and Aaron Bendle, 21, who also had gang ties. The third victim, construction worker Keni Su'a, 43, was eating in the restaurant and tried to escape, but was gunned down in the parking lot. Nathan Zuccherato, 24, Michael Roberto, 27, and Real Honorio, 27, are each charged with three counts of first-degree murder. Honorio's trial did not begin on Tuesday because his lawyer was unavailable. A publication ban was put in effect for the pre-trial arguments, which are expected to last two weeks. Gang violence A rivalry between two gangs — Fresh Off the Boat (FOB) and the FOB Killers (FK) — is believed to be connected to more than 20 homicides in Calgary dating back to 2002. In the days following the 2009 murders, police vowed to step up their work against gangs in Calgary. Officials have since credited that renewed focus with reducing the murder rate by almost 50 per cent the following year. The trial in Court of Queen’s Bench is scheduled to last for more than a month.

Gang member sentenced to death in murder-for-hire scheme

 

gang member recruited in a murder-for-hire conspiracy was sentenced to death Thursday for killing a man who was set to inherit a family-run business in Rancho Dominguez, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. Armando Macias, 35, of Lancaster was found guilty by a jury in April of one felony count of special circumstances murder with an allegation of murder for financial gain in the slaying of 44-year-old David Montemayor, the prosecutor's office said. Macias, who is the fifth defendant to be sentenced in connection with Montemayor’s murder since 2006, was also found guilty of kidnapping to commit robbery, possession of a firearm by a felon, street terrorism, attempted murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, officials said. Macias, who has a prior strike conviction for voluntary manslaughter in 1993, also was slapped with several sentencing enhancements in connection with Montemayor’s murder. Prosecutors allege that in 2002, Montemayor’s sister Deborah Perna, 54, of Anaheim and her co-worker Edelmira Corona, 34, of Pico Rivera solicited the help of 44-year-old gang member Anthony Navarro of Canyon Country to kill Montemayor. Perna was jealous that her father intended to pass control of the family company to her brother, who she believed was stealing from the business, prosecutors said. Navarro recruited gang members Gerardo Lopez, 26, of Pacoima, Alberto Martinez, 33, of Castaic, and Macias in a kidnap-and-murder-for-hire scheme, prosecutors said. On Oct. 2, 2002, the men kidnapped Montemayor, a father of three, at the family business in Rancho Dominguez and headed to the victim’s home in Buena Park, where they were told he kept thousands of dollars in cash, prosecutors said. On the way, Montemayor, who only had one arm, managed to escape the car. But Macias shot him in the head as he fled, prosecutors said. Lopez also fired at Montemayor before the gang members raced off in their car, triggering a police car chase, authorities said. Police eventually stopped the vehicle and arrested Macias, Lopez and Martinez. Both Navarro and Martinez have been earlier sentenced to death for their role in Montemayor’s murder. Lopez, the other gang member, and Perna, the victim’s sister, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to information from the district attorney's office. Corona, the co-worker, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 18. She faces a maximum of 22 years in prison, officials said.

Texas Syndicate's Valley head gets 20 years; 5 fellow gang members also sentenced

 

Six members of the Texas Syndicate prison gang — including its Rio Grande Valley leader — were sentenced to serve time in federal prison for several charges including racketeering, kidnapping and drug charges. Chief U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa on Monday sentenced 40-year-old Jose Ismael Salas, the gang’s regional head, to 20 years in prison for drug and racketeering offenses, court records show. Salas originally pleaded guilty April 2, 2009, to two separate charges of possession with intent to distribute 6 kilograms of cocaine on Aug. 12, 2004, and a similar charge for 39 kilograms of marijuana on March 28, 2003. The charge alleged that the intent of the possession of the drugs was to further the goals of the criminal organization. Among the five other Texas Syndicate members who were sentenced was Fidel Valle, 45, who received a sentence of 10 years and six months in prison. Valle was described as the drug supplier for the organization. He entered a guilty plea July 28, 2009, to the charge of possession with intent to distribute 6 kilograms of cocaine. Court records show that Aug. 12, 2004, after speaking with Salas, Valle tried to sell the cocaine to other Texas Syndicate members but was stopped by authorities during a traffic stop. Also sentenced was Romeo Rosales, 41, who received 12 years and seven months in prison for the kidnapping of Amancio Pinales, who was abducted and eventually gunned down in Mexico on Aug. 12, 2004. Noel De Los Santos, 33, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the March 20, 2003, murder of fellow gang member Crisantos Moran. According to information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Moran had been ordered to kill a rival gang member from Peñitas, but after arriving there with De Los Santos and another member named Jose Armando Garcia, he failed to carry out the killing and was slain instead. Earlier this year, Garcia was given a life sentence. Two other Syndicate members were sentenced for a separate murder connected to the organization. Cristobal Hernandez, 31, and Arturo Rodriguez were sentenced to 10 and 20 years, respectively, for the murder of Marcelino Rodriguez in June 2007. The two men had aided a third man known as Raul Galindo, who shot Rodriguez in the back of the head. The two men then set the vehicle containing his body on fire. Rodriguez had been named in a sealed court document that had been provided to them by an employee at a law firm that was defending Rodriguez. The Texas Syndicate had sanctioned the death of Rodriguez.

Nine people stabbed to death, five killed in a deliberately set fire and an innocent grandmother’s body shoved in the trunk of her own car.

 

These troubling deaths are just a portion of Winnipeg’s climbing homicide cases this year. As of Thursday, Winnipeg has 29 homicides recorded, well above last year’s total of 22. Winnipeg’s deadliest year on record was 2004 when there was 34. “The numbers are a lot higher than we would like to see,” said Const. Jason Michalyshen, Winnipeg police spokesman. “It’s concerning to us, and it should be concerning to everyone.” The latest victim is Joseph Lalonde, 48, who was brutally beaten with a baseball bat. Two 15-year-old boys were charged with second-degree murder. A total of 10 youths have been charged in connection to the 2011 deaths. Michalyshen said it’s been a challenging year. “Our resources have been very busy making sure no stone is unturned, making sure that these investigations are investigated thoroughly, and arrests are made,” he said. Three cases are unsolved — Cara Lynn Hiebert, 31, was found dead in her home on Redwood Avenue on July 19; Baljinder Singh Sidhu, 27, was stabbed to death during a brawl on Osborne Street on Aug. 5; and 24-year-old April Hornbrook was found dead outside a building on Main Street on Aug. 27. Many violent crimes continue to occur in Winnipeg’s North End, a concerning stat for Coun. Harvey Smith (Daniel McIntyre). “The communities have to be working together and you don’t really have enough of that in the North End,” Smith said. “You have to have recreational activities, and ... I tend to think we should get more support for Citizens on Patrol.” Edmonton has the most homicides in Canada, with 34. Calgary has just three. “We’re very fortunate right now, but that could change before the end of the year,” said Calgary police Insp. Cliff O’Brien, who works in that city’s major crimes unit. O’Brien said there’s “no magical answer” for why the numbers are so low, but gave credit to the good work of officers and medical staff. Calgary police has a gang suppression team, who monitor entertainment districts, targeting known gang or organized crime members. “We have legislation here where we can kick people out if we can prove they’re associated with a gang,” he said. “That has helped us a lot.” O’Brien admits there’s a certain “element of luck.” “We’ve had those high rates before and I know that we will have those high rates again.”

Contract Killing On The Increase In Costa Rica

 

According to the Sección de Estadísticas del Departamento de Planificación del Poder Judicial (Statistics Section of the Planning Department of the Judiciary) the number of murders presumed by hired killers in 2010, went from 13 victims in 2009 to 40 in 2010, placing the La Carpio, Leon XIII, Los Cuadros y Guararí de Heredia as the places of highest incidence. Judicial authorities presume that organized crime groups, use this method to assert their interests in various criminal activities, as they are listed in order of importance: drug trafficking, gang revenge, robbery of drug traffickers (known as tumbonazos) and executions tied to the sale of illegal drugs. However, statistics show a slight increase in intentional homicides during the past year, compared to 2009, from 525 to 527 victims. The study found that the rate of homicide victims per 100.000 inhabitants remained virtually unchanged from 2009, settling at 11.5%. The existence of homicides associated with what is known as "error or omission," or those who were not the target and suffered mistaken identity or omission by the murderer, almost doubled in 2010 over 2009, for a total of 16 deaths. Also, the number of foreigners killed in the country increased by 7.6%, bringing the figure to 112 individuals, Nicaraguan and followed by Colombian nationals being the target. The use of firearms to commit homicide, again saw increases during 2010, bringing the total number to 319, which is equal numbers in 2008 and the highest throughout history. Good news for women as statistics indicate that the number of femicides dropped in 2010, from 15 victims in 2009 to 10 last year. However, the major cause of femicides continues to be attacks by cohabitants (60%) and spouses (40%). Contract or hired killing (sicario in Spanish) is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may be a single person, a group of people, a company, or any other kind of organization. The hired party may also be one person, such as a hitman, or a group of people, or an organization. In most countries, including Costa Rica, a contract to kill a person is void, meaning that it is not legally enforceable. Any contract to commit an indictable offense is not enforceable. Furthermore, both the actual killer and the person who paid the killer can be found guilty of murder. Contract killing provides the hiring party with the advantage of not having to be directly involved in the killing. This makes it more difficult to connect that party with the murder. Throughout history and in many different parts of the world, contract killing has been associated with organized crime and also vendettas. For example, in recent United States history, the gang Murder, Inc., which committed hundreds of murders in the 1920s to the 1940s on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate, is a well-known example of a contract killer.

Vallucos gang members get life in prison for 'ice pick' murder

 

Cameron Park man accused of stabbing and killing a woman with an ice pick will spend the rest of his life in jail. After two and a half hours of deliberation, a Cameron County jury sentenced Ernesto Berlanga to life in prison for the August 2005 murder of Patricia Salas. The two had been fighting when he stabbed her in the neck and then fled the scene. Prosecutors previously identified Berlanga as a member of the Vallucos prison gang. Berlaga was already serving a 25-year sentence for gouging the eye of a fellow inmate at the Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center back in 2006.

Gaylords charged with gun, drug and gang crimes

 

Police and federal agents swept through several suburban homes Tuesday, arresting members of the "Almighty Gaylords" street gang following an 18-month undercover investigation into allegations of drug dealing, gun trafficking and violent intimidation. Nine alleged members of the gang were charged with federal gun crimes, including selling an AK-47 assault rifle, and six others were charged with state drug and gang crimes, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Topics Juvenile Delinquency Crimes Gang Activity See more topics » Beginning in 2009, an informant inside the gang recorded conversations with gang members and bought guns and set up drug deals under the surveillance of investigators, led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, authorities said. Once violent players in Chicago's decades-long neighborhood battles over integration, not much has been heard from the Gaylords since the 1970s. But the investigation, which involved ATF, Cook County sheriff's police and the Addison Police Department, lifts the curtain on the remnants of a gang that followed the white-flight path to the suburbs over the years. A secretive, somewhat ragtag network, the Gaylords in the western suburbs are often described as the "Gray Lords," a handful of middle-age men nostalgic over their youth spent brawling with Hispanics in the city's ethnic neighborhoods. "The Gaylords never were an especially organized gang, and gang life meant mainly drugs, alcohol, racism and fighting," said gang expert John Hagedorn, who teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Having interviewed gang members over the years, he said they were "more of a model for racist, white youth than for an organized criminal entity." Investigators say the case shows a more serious threat. Other members were charged in a 2010 shooting, which the investigation revealed may have been related to internal gang strife. And the informant told investigators that gang members claimed the Gaylords carried out the 2009 murder of a North Side bar owner. Charged Tuesday were the alleged leader of the Addison faction of the gang, James Grace, 40, as well as Edward Rand, 46, and Daniel Springhorn, who allegedly supplied the gang with guns he purchased at Wisconsin gun shows. Springhorn, 56, known as "Stone Greaser," lives in Sharon, Wis., and Rand lives in far north-suburban Antioch. Other members arrested Tuesday live in Lombard, Villa Park and Elmhurst. The federal defendants are charged only with gun trafficking crimes, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Three alleged members, including Grace's brother, Wayne Grace, were charged with felony drug crimes in DuPage County, according to the DuPage County state's attorney's office. Another three individuals were charged with associating with gang members, a misdemeanor. The case took shape when a longtime member who wanted out of the gang became a police informant. While many of the gang members, like James Grace, are unemployed ex-cons, some have strong ties to law enforcement. Alleged gang members identified by the investigation include a Cook County sheriff's deputy, an Elmwood Park auxiliary police officer, a Michigan corrections officer and the son of a former suburban police chief, according to law enforcement sources. None of the law enforcement officers associated with the gang have been charged in the case. Much of the gang's gun supply came from Wisconsin. At Springhorn's rural home, agents discovered a cache of guns that included assault rifles. Investigators found that Springhorn and Rand, who is prohibited from possessing firearms because he is a convicted felon, regularly bought weapons at gun shows in Wisconsin

 

 

coastal war between Norteños and Sureños

 

on Aug. 14, when a group of teenage Norteño gang members pulled out a gun and shot two rival Sureños on a quiet residential street in broad daylight. Fear prompted Luis' mother, Teresa Mendez, to bring him and his sister Noela to a community meeting Tuesday night, which was organized by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office in the wake of the shooting. "I want to know how to prevent situations like this," said Mendez, who believes there are gang members on her son's youth soccer team. Luis has told her he knows kids in his class who have already become Norteños and Sureños like their older brothers or cousins. But she didn't know her son had been offered drugs until a reporter asked him about it. It was at the Pillar Ridge mobile home community, a known gang hotspot, Luis said. "They were, like, 15 or 16," he said. "They told me they had some extra if I wanted it." More than 300 Coastsiders packed into a meeting room Tuesday for a series of Advertisement presentations that amounted to a master class on gang warfare. Locals were shocked to learn that Half Moon Bay is immersed in an all-out coastal battle between Norteños and Sureños, who have been threatening each other for months with coded graffiti in plain sight. One recent tagger painted the number "187," a reference to the California Penal Code section on murder. Retaliation is now a major concern and the Sheriff's Office has beefed up patrols. "It's a war that's going to be going on for some time, but it's a war that's worth fighting," Sheriff Greg Munks said. Officers have arrested four suspects: 21-year-old Christian Serrano DeLeon, who police believe is the gunman; Mason Paul Wessel, 19; Marco Antonio Barajas, 18; and a 17-year-old resident of Moss Beach. But even arresting every gang member in town won't make the problem disappear, officials acknowledge. They need the community's help to address the deeper crisis that's taken root when young people grow up together, go to the same schools, and end up joining rival gangs. Older gang members reach out to younger kids in middle school and offer them acceptance and a seductive feeling of power and belonging in the most vulnerable period in their young lives, according to sheriff's Deputy Mike Smyser. "They don't have much money. You can take a kid into town and buy him a cheeseburger, and you've got a friend," Smyser said. Meanwhile, their parents (mostly first-generation farmworkers) are often too distracted catch the warning signs before it's too late. They work long hours and don't notice changes in their children, Mendez said. "Latinos, we have to work a lot, but we don't really pay attention to the kids. We leave them around too much," she said. Smyser has spent 10 years tracking gang activity and juvenile crime as a school resource officer on the San Mateo County coast. He said the shooting was a major wake-up call. "I've seen fights with fists and fights with sticks. But I've never seen fights with guns," he said. Smyser has counted about 50 Norteños and 40 Sureños on the coast, two rival Mexican-American gangs that originated in the California prison system. They go by local names like Media Luna Norteños, Coastside Locos, and neighborhood-specific gangs like Moonridge Outlaws. Those numbers are modest as compared with gang sets in East Palo Alto or Redwood City, according to the Sheriff's Office, which estimates 2,000 confirmed gang members in San Mateo County affiliated with more than 50 gangs. In a small town like Half Moon Bay, it's not a mystery who's in a gang or where they congregate, said Smyser. A quick search on YouTube for one local gang turns up a video filled with youthful Norteños flashing gang signs, drinking beer and showing off their Half Moon Bay gang tattoos. By the time they reach high school, kids are already sporting gang colors: red for Norteños, blue for Sureños. Drug dealers wear purple. Half Moon Bay High School counselor Kira Gangsei said she's worked with many gang members to turn their lives around -- but it's not easy. "They don't care about school as much. Getting involved with drugs, selling drugs -- once that happens, it's harder to get them back on track," she said. The high school uses a number of classes, workshops and nonprofit programs to teach students about the dangers of gang life, drinking and unhealthy relationships. Many are led by former gang members. Now it's the community's turn. The shooting has already prompted neighborhoods to come together and form Community Watch groups, and locals have volunteered to paint over graffiti and mentor youth with the Sheriff's Activities League. "I'm not going anywhere. If it has to be me standing my ground, then yes, I'll embrace it," said Brett Bowers, a father of two who lives in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred.

Fear and loathing in the UK

Several images will haunt the mind following the devastating and disgusting riots that swept the UK in August. One is that of a dignified, quietly spoken Asian man in Birmingham, mourning the murder of his son. Tariq Jahan, living every parent's nightmare, spoke with a conviction and authority that our seasoned politicians lack. When he said "step forward if you want to lose your son", it brought tears to my eyes. With his calm bearing and his appeal for reconciliation, he also offered a vestige of hope for the future and some restoration of faith in humanity.

Then there was the black woman in Hackney berating fellow residents for their folly. The footage quickly became a You Tube sensation. "This is about a f****** man who got shot in Tottenham"  (a reference to the shooting of Mark Duggan whose death at police hands served as the excuse for the initial protests) this ain't about having fun and busting up the place. Get real, black people!"

Unfortunately, her words went unheeded as looters continued their "shopping expedition" and even barged past her with their booty.

Another is the Malaysian student, Ashraf Rossli, the victim of a mugging, who was helped to his feet by a gang of supposed good Samaritan "hoodies" only to be subsequently robbed. This young man, later interviewed on television, came across as forgiving and sweet-natured. He said he felt sorry for his attackers and even described the UK as "great". Cynics would say he was aware of a fund set up in his name. Truth is, he was probably determined to finish his studies in the UK despite his mother's pleadings to come home.

The most iconic image of all, however, was that of the young Polish woman, Monika Konczyk, who had only been in London for a few months, jumping from a burning building in Ealing. It's worth mulling over her reflections on her adopted country. Perhaps politicians, who will inevitably recover their complacency in a few weeks' time, should re-read her words every night before turning off the light.

"I thought London was a civilised society full of gentlemen and ladies – but it is not like that," said Konczyk. "England has become a sick society. I found myself jumping for my life after being attacked by thugs and thieves. They set fire to my building without any thought for anyone's safety. They were happy for me to die. They were like animals – greedy, selfish animals who thought only of themselves. I am shocked to find people behaving like this in England. It is not what I expected of the English. I have never seen anything like this in Poland. Polish people are hard-working and respectable. They believe in working for a living, not stealing from others. If you want nice clothes or a new TV, you don't smash shop windows and loot them – you work and pay for them."

The sound of the city
The riots have unmasked the real UK. Never again will British expats fleeing their country's inner cities for the serenity of Sofia or Veliko Turnovo be pressed by naive Bulgarians on their motives. Too many Eastern Europeans go to the UK, brainwashed by old movies, expecting to find genteel civility. Instead they emerge traumatised by the thuggery and brutality of British life.

Perhaps any film pre-1980 should carry an on-screen advisory. "Warning: this is a nostalgic depiction of a long-gone Britain. The characterisations and events depicted bear no relation to what you can expect to find today."  

Sorry to disillusion naive Bulgarians out there, but the UK is no longer the land of the English gentleman. You are more likely to find Vinny Jones as a neighbour than Roger Moore. Neither is the UK the country of warm beer and cricket, the deluded fantasy of former prime minister John Major. The sound you are more likely to hear, even in the countryside, in NOT that of willow making contact with cork and leather but a boot stamping on a human head or kicking in a window.

Fact is, the riots were shocking in their scale and intensity but not really all that surprising to those in the know. Anyone who has the misfortune to venture out around any major British city or town on a Friday or Saturday night knows the grim reality. Only those in the most gentrified areas, sheltering in detached houses behind leafy hedgerows, would say otherwise. I know from experience that even Richmond, an affluent suburb of London, can be dangerous after dark.

When I was there, in 2006, hordes of "hoodies" descended en masse with bottles and burgers, abusing passers-by and leaving a trail of mess on the Green that is home to some of London's most famous residents. On another occasion, walking down Richmond High Street, some kids were urinating in shop doorways. One young girl was seen wiping her putrid backside on some copies of the Evening Standard in front of a newsagent. And I suppose Ken Livingstone would say they deserve each other!

Feral and ferocious
Conservative commentators – such as Peter Hitchens and Max Hastings – have quite rightly cited some of the causes of "broken Britain" –  the breakdown of the family unit, absent fathers, blatant disrespect for authority, a bloated welfare system, softly softly policing and lenient courts. To which I would add that recent events in the UK have revealed a vicious sadism, pure and simple. The same people who gleefully drove Fiona Pilkington and her disabled daughter to their deaths are those (also British people) who beat my mother to a pulp on her front door in the Algarve simply because she was not carrying any money on her.

These young thugs, unconstrained by morality and conscience, act on impulse. They rape, plunder, maim and attack at whim. One of the most disturbing aspects of modern Britain is the way that society's most vulnerable people –  the infirm, the poor, the frail, the confined and the old –  have become fair game for these sadists.

Yet many liberal politicians and commentators, in spite of the horrors inflicted on their own constituencies by these feral beasts, still look for excuses: government cuts, inequality (although the poorest British people are likely to be far richer than the poorest Bulgarians) the closure of youth centres, or unemployment. But bear in mind that the old clarion cry that the offenders are "Thatcher's children" will no longer do. Many of those looters were teenagers. In some cases they were even younger. They are John Major's or Tony Blair's "children". They have lived most of their lives under a centre-left government. What has influenced them the most, 13 years of Labour rule or 15 months of David Cameron?

A racial component?
One myth peddled by the British press is that the riots did not have a racial component. Most foreign journalists viewing the images from Tottenham, Hackney, Toxteth and Croydon would say otherwise. Take the Bulgarian journalist, speaking on his country's evening news, who said that the riots represented a "failure to integrate the country's black and Asian minorities".

The culprits may not always be home grown (they might have come in from other areas to loot and destroy) but the cities where the violence occurred –  London, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool and Birmingham –  are those with sizeable ethnic communities. Some of the more revolting images would appear to have been censored by the British press. I'm referring to a white woman forced to strip naked and a young white man forced to strip to his underpants, on both occasions by black people.

Yet, amazingly, this behaviour still has its apologists. Brixton-based former Black Panther Darcus Howe even equated the UK riots with uprisings in Syria and Libya! By contrast, former London mayor Ken Livingstone was (by his standards) remarkably restrained, merely calling for more police and curfews – (hey, that's a bit reactionary for you, isn't it, Ken?)

The Guardian's Seamus Milne said that deprivation lay behind the riots. "If it has no connection with Britain's savage social divide and ghettos of deprivation, why did it kick off in Haringey and not Henley?" he wrote.

Milne's comparison is absurd. It's more appropriate to compare like with like. The more pertinent question is this: Why were there riots in Liverpool and Manchester but calm in Newcastle and Edinburgh? Sure, Haringey and Hackney are deprived areas but so are parts of Newcastle. Yet the northeast did not burn. And one explanation is simply that the latter is a more homogenous area.

Patois
Anthony Daniels, a former prison doctor and psychiatrist who penned many pieces under the pseudonym of Theodore Dalrymple (presumably to avoid the scrutiny of the PC mob while he was practising) has written that British (white) youths are the most violent and unpleasant in the world. Even if one had never visited the UK, a trip to the Spanish Costas or Sunny Beach would confirm his view.

When you ally that to the worst aspects of black gangland culture – anti-authority and materialist – then you have a lethal combination. Many British journalists, of course, would not dare to broach this subject in the aftermath of the riots. Historian Dr David Starkey was one of the few establishment figures to raise his head above the parapet.

"What’s happened is that a substantial section of the Chavs...have become black," said Starkey on the BBC's Newsnight programme. "A particular sort of violent, destructive, nihilistic, gangster culture has become the fashion. And black and white, boy and girl, operate in this language together, this language which is wholly false, which is this Jamaican patois that’s been intruded in England, and this is why so many of us have this sense of literally a foreign country."

Starkey has a good point, although his choice of words was perhaps infelicitous. Starkey meant that that many white kids embrace what they PERCEIVE to be Afro-Caribbean street culture –  rap music, rebellion and rage. Starkey was alluding to a specific cultural phenomenon, not to the behaviour of all black people. The fact that many black people, particularly older ones, are likely to be more regular churchgoers – the legacy of the God-fearing Windrush generation – is beyond idiotic white kids who emulate only the "street cred" aspects of black culture. Unfortunately, however, one of the most unpalatable manifestations of this particular brand of street culture is rap music which glorifies violence and crass materialism.  

'In da dock'
The Ali G stereotype (the character invented by Sacha Baron Cohen) was a satire. Behind the outrageous persona, however, lay an important point. As teachers in any school will tell you, youth behaviour emulates all that is trendy and anti-establishment. Adolescents instinctively dumb down, hence the voices of the most disaffected youth –  in this case the urban black male – have merged with working class white males to form a new language. Sadly, intellectual aspiration, social etiquette and gentleness of manner are deemed hopelessly old fashioned by today's youth, both black and white. All too many aspire only to the latest fashion accessories.

Watching the interviews with white "yoof" in London, it is indeed striking that their speech patterns are similar to those of urban black youth. Even when I once attended a Jewish employment centre I was struck by the fact that some Jewish teenagers were also speaking in this patois. Unfortunately, this behaviour stretches beyond speech patterns. Take the case of  Ruby Thomas – the white privately educated schoolgirl convicted of kicking a gay man to death in London. She cheerfully regaled her Facebook friends with her pending appearance in "da dock". The Daily Mail covered her case extensively and noted how "she began emulating the language and mannerisms – or, at least, what she and others mistakenly perceived as the  language and mannerisms – of black urban youth culture."

The same newspaper quoted an interview with a former contemporary of hers at school.

"She talked as if she was black and never realised how completely ridiculous she sounded," said the former Sydenham pupil. ‘She would call herself a 'gangsta'. She was almost obsessive about it."

Indeed, when a friend told Thomas that she looked mixed race’ in one of her Facebook photographs (in fact, the result of copious amounts of fake tan), she replied: ‘WhoooooHooo.’

Most people would probably agree with Starkey. Predictably, however, his comments unleashed condemnation and allegations of racism from people like the BBC's correspondent Robert Peston and former newspaper editor Piers Morgan. Yet Tony Sewell, a black columnist, formerly on the Voice newspaper and now CEO of the charity Generating Genius that helps black boys, said Starkey had a point.  

"Despite the attempts of some apologists to dress up the looting as a political act against an oppressive Tory establishment, the fact is that the ethos of materialism – or ‘bling’ to use the street term – that pervades urban black youth played a major part in the widespread criminality perpetrated by rioters of all races," Sewell wrote in the Daily Mail.

PC
I have fulminated so many times on the evils of political correctness but never is its pernicious nature more visible than in the furore surrounding Starkey's comments.  In the aftermath of these appalling events, we need to open up discussion, not foreclose it. If the riots were an outrage, the stifling of debate would be even more horrendous.

Several other issues have to be addressed in the wake of the rioting. We need to probe police methods more scrupulously. In two years of living in Tottenham I never saw one police officer except when they had a football match at White Hart Lane. This cannot be acceptable. Neither can the oft-repeated belief that a heavy police presence is in some way "provocative".

The old argument that deprivation causes the rioting and looting is belied by those of us who live in cities such as Sofia. In the Bulgarian capital the vast majority of people live in socialist style housing. Yet trouble is negligible. Neither do the police in Sofia feel constrained by the extremely laissez-faire tactics of their British counterparts. As far as I could see, too often, particularly on the first night of the London riots, the police were simply driving the rioters away from one part of town towards another.  

Britain's political class has ignored social decay for far too long. Prime minister David Cameron was absolutely right to say that "pockets of Britain are clearly very sick" but that is an understatement. The reality is that the UK as a whole is increasingly warped. Anyone re-visiting after a long absence abroad immediately notices the slide in standards: the graphic warts-and-all reality shows, the sickening descent into ritual humiliation of guests on such shows as The Weakest Link, the open celebration of greed in advertisements, the sloppy speech patterns of newscasters, the cynical machinations of corrupt politicians, the casual denigration of Britain's history and the cynicism displayed towards higher values of any kind. 

I end with a warning to the political establishment. London cannot hope to host a major event like the Olympic Games without guaranteeing public safety. There is an unspoken covenant between the government and the people. If we work hard and respect the law, then we expect the police and the courts to come to our assistance promptly when we are threatened with criminality. That covenant has now been broken. The big question is – will it ever return? Or will more people resort to taking the law into their own hands? As I look ahead, to quote a famous deceased politician, I am filled with foreboding. I pray to God I am wrong

 

Student robbed while bleeding only arrived in England a month ago

The student who was beaten up in the riots and then mugged as he struggled to his feet told yesterday how his attackers – some as young as 11 – threatened to stab him.

Sickening video footage of a mob surrounding Mohammed Ashraf Haziq has been shown around the world after being posted on YouTube.

Mr Haziq, who won a scholarship to study here, relived his ordeal from his hospital bed when he was visited by a friend who filmed the chat and posted it online.

Recovering: Mr Haziq is seen in his hospital bed at Royal London Hospital, where he is awaiting surgery on a broken jaw after the sickening attack

Riot victim: Accountancy student Mohammed Ashraf Haziq, 20, had only arrived in Britain a month ago. Here he is pictured at home in Malaysia. Right he is sitting with his eight-year-old brother Mohammed Fatiri

Injuries: Mr Haziq still has facial swelling after the attack and can be seen missing several front teeth after having his jaw broken

‘They threatened to stab me, they told me they had knives,’ he says in the footage.

‘Some of them were quite young, maybe still in primary school. They had their hoods on and demanded my bicycle.’

In the YouTube video, the student, bloody and dazed after being punched to ground, is apparently helped to his feet by a Good Samaritan.

But the thugs then plunder his rucksack, taking his wallet, phone and Sony PSP games console.

The video was even mentioned by David Cameron yesterday.

‘When we see children as young as 13, looting and laughing, when we see the disgusting sight of an injured young man with people pretending to help him while they are robbing him, it is clear that there are things that are badly wrong in our society,’ said the Prime Minister. 

The 20-year-old finance student’s jaw was broken in the attack and he is due to have surgery at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, East London. He also lost some of his teeth. His injuries mean he is unable to eat properly and he is being fed via a hospital drip.

 

 

At the family’s home in the affluent suburb of Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, his mother Maznah Abu Mansor, 47, said she was horrified by the attack. The mother-of-three, a school official, said she was ‘very sad and upset’ and appealed to the Malaysian government to help her to travel to London to see her son.

She said: ‘I was initially very  worried but I’m glad that he is  all right.’

Dazed and confused, blood dripping from his mouth, Ashraf Haziq is encircled by thugs after being savagely beaten to the ground during the violence in London

 

From nowhere, an apparent Good Samaritan walks up and lends a hand to help heave the struggling and injured victim up from the pavement

 

Lowest of the low: The teenager continues to tend to the wounds on his face as thieves make off with the contents of his rucksack

Lawless: A robber shamelessly rifles through the teenager's bag as the young man stands bleeding from the face

 

Discarded: The robber, having taken the items from the teenager's bag, then casually throws them to the floor before strolling away

Mr Haziq arrived in London last month to study at Kaplan College in Tower Hill, East London. He was cycling from his student accommodation in Barking with a friend when they saw a mob coming towards them. 

His friend managed to escape but said the 20-strong gang blocked Mr Haziq’s path and knocked him to the ground before taking his bicycle. 

He has told friends he passed out from the force of the blow. It was when he tried to move away that he was mugged. Bystander Abdul Hamid, 23, who filmed the YouTube footage, said: ‘I wanted to go down and help but I was terrified that I would get beaten up as well. There was about 50 or more of them.’

A FATAL shooting at a gang-linked tattoo parlour may spark a full-scale war between feuding Hells Angels and Bandidos bikies, police believe.

A 40-year-old tattooist died in hospital yesterday after being shot in the shoulder by two masked men who stormed the Pretty In Ink Tattoo Studio in West Ryde, northwest of Sydney on Saturday night, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Tensions between the gangs exploded last month when 55 Bandidos, including the whole Parramatta chapter, defected to the Hells Angels, making them the state's third largest club.

The studio where the latest shooting took place is believed to be linked to the Hells Angels.

It is understood a staff member was in the rear of the business when two men armed with a gun forced their way in at 9.30pm.

Witnesses said there was an altercation between the gunmen and several staff members before one of the masked bandits fired a shot at the victim from close range, hitting him in the shoulder. Other staff members and customers escaped uninjured.

Paramedics treated the victim at the scene before rushing him to Royal North Shore Hospital.

Police believe the shooting was linked to an attack on another Hells Angels-linked parlour, Tattoo World at Baulkham Hills, early on Friday.

"It is difficult to say ... if it is the same two people involved in each incident, but it's something significant we will look at," police said.

The news comes as West Australian police voice their own fears of the Bandidos launching a foray into the state.

Police sources this week told The Sunday Times there was a real possibility the Bandidos could infiltrate the state, given their close ties to fledgling gang the Rock Machine.

Detectives are intently monitoring interaction between the two gangs.

Anti-narcotics activists supplementing security agencies’ efforts to combat illicit drug trafficking are anxious over their safety.

Those from Mombasa and Kilifi counties have expressed fears for their lives and appealed to Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere and Internal Security minister George Saitoti to urgently address their concerns.

The group’s concerns come in the wake of an aborted gun attack last Sunday involving a Mombasa Island based anti-narcotics activist and family.

Sheikh Mohammed Khalifa of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya (CIPK) said the family was returning from a wedding party when they noticed a saloon car trailing them on Mbaraki Road.

“His wife and their elder daughter saw a man pointing a gun through the car’s window,” he said.

Coast Provincial Police Officer Aggrey Adoli said investigations were going on.

“We are taking the issue seriously and investigations are ongoing. My team is piecing together critical information,” he said.

The incident took place just days before heroin worth Sh392 million was found at an apartment in Shanzu, Mombasa, on Thursday night.

Six suspects have since been arrested in connection with the haul.

Mr Adoli said the frightened activist only managed to take note of part of the car’s registration number.

He told the activists that their security concerns were being taken seriously.

He also denied reports that drug barons and traffickers were arming themselves in a bid to protect their trade.

Mr Adoli said the government had the resources to ensure the anti-narcotics police squad succeeds in its mission.

Islamic militants have seized control of a weapons factory,

Islamic militants have seized control of a weapons factory, a strategic mountain and a nearby town in the southern Yemen province of Abyan as a political stalemate in the capital causes security to unravel around the country.
The fragile nation has been rocked by weeks of mass protests against the long-serving president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who refuses to step down.
Saleh's fate is of deep concern to the US as he is a key ally in the fight against al Qaida, but with his attention on massive anti-government protests in the capital, security has declined in the provinces.
Residents of the southern Abyan province said police reduced their presence in towns weeks ago. Elsewhere, residents have pushed out police and soldiers and set up their own local militias for self defence.
In the areas they took over, the militants set up checkpoints around the small factory and in the town of al-Husn, patrolling the streets and searching cars.
They also seized control of a nearby Khanfar mountain that holds a radio station and a presidential guest house, said Ali Dahmash, an expert on Islamic militant groups who lives nearby.
Residents in the nearby town of Jaar, which was seized by the militants yesterday, said they heard gunfire, but the scope of the battle wasn't immediately clear.
The area lies close to the southern port town of Aden.
In another province of Yemen, security officials say suspected al Qaida gunmen killed seven soldiers and wounded seven others in an attack on a military post. The attack took place at Ubaida area in the central Marib province, another province where the militant group is active and only under nominal government control.
Al Qaida has seized control of towns in southern Yemen b

Acapulco Rival criminal gangs have hijacked this glitzy-but-faded Pacific resort

Rival criminal gangs have hijacked this glitzy-but-faded Pacific resort, where the Hollywood Rat Pack once sipped martinis, Elvis filmed a musical comedy, Elizabeth Taylor wed (again) and starlets danced the night away.
Acapulco's newest arrivals are drug lords, and residents now cower from shootouts and keep a watch out for severed heads. Some visitors to the city simply vanish. Gunmen seized 20 Mexican men in broad daylight on Sept. 30. They haven't been seen since.
Occupancy rates have plummeted along the ghostly boulevard of beachfront hotels. Restaurants sit empty -- or shuttered up.
The mayhem hasn't dulled the beauty of Acapulco, set on a semicircular bay flanked by mountains alive with bougainvillea, a stunning backdrop that made it the nation's oldest and best-known resort, ``the pearl of the Pacific.''
Violence has cast a dark cloud on many of the city's 800,000 residents, however.
``Everybody seems to be armed,'' said Areli Garcia Santana, a 22-year-old orthodontics student. ``There are gunfights all over.''
BANDS' DISPUTE
At least three narcotics bands dispute power over Acapulco's strategic port: remnants of the Beltran Leyva cartel, Los Zetas and the Familia Michoacana.
In a brazen broad-daylight shootout on April 14, gunmen killed six people and wounded five others along the landscaped main boulevard in the tourist district, shattering hotel windows and triggering a chain of auto accidents with the blaze of automatic weapons fire. Among the victims were a woman and her 8-year-old daughter, the apparent targets.
Drug gang henchmen frequently use police or military uniforms, heightening a sense of insecurity. On Sept. 25, drug enforcers dressed in camouflage uniforms typical of marines threw grenades at a safe house that belonged to a rival group, then entered and executed seven men.
The same week, henchmen killed two nephews of the deputy city transit director, severing their heads and displaying them on a street. A sign accused the city official of being in the pocket of the Beltran Leyva cartel.
It was the daylight abduction, though, of a group of 20 men near a church on Sept. 30 that truly laid bare some of the crosscurrents of violence that rack the city.
INFLUENCE
The men, ranging in age from 17 to 47, were from the state of Michoacan, where drug lords' influence is vast. Many locals dismissed the vehement claims of family members that the victims were tourists, suggesting instead that they were hit men deployed for the battles raging in the city. The underlying message: Good riddance.
``Acapulco society does not believe that they were tourists,'' said Javier Saldivar, the head of the National Chamber of Commerce in Acapulco.
While it may offer consolation that tourists aren't vanishing, the arrival of vehicles filled with cartel hit men can't help Acapulco burnish a faded image as the former glamour resort of Mexico.
It takes only a stroll around the walkways and lobbies of hotels such as Los Flamingos and Villa Vera to discern how far Acapulco has fallen.
If the sweet bungalows of the Villa Vera could whisper their secrets, Frank Sinatra probably would be singing in the background. After all, it was here that The Voice romanced Ava Gardner. Regular visitors included Gina Lollobrigida, Rita Hayworth and, of course, Elizabeth Taylor, who gazed into the eyes of producer Mike Todd, making him the third of her eight marital conquests.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/20/1881767/once-posh-acapulco-overrun-by.html#ixzz12tnXnaVA

Youth shot at Adelaide tattoo parlour

Youth shot at Adelaide tattoo parlour: "17-year-old boy who was shot in the neck at a trouble-plagued Adelaide tattoo parlour has undergone surgery and may never walk again.
The teenaged New Boys gang associate was shot on Thursday at the Ink Central tattoo parlour in the CBD's nightclub strip of Hindley Street but police don't believe it is linked to the gang's recent war with the Hells Angels.
Detective-Chief Inspector John Gerlach, of Eastern Adelaide Local Service Area, told reporters on Friday that investigating officers believed it was a private conflict."

fight between rival motorcycle clubs the Coffin Cheaters and the Finks is not the start of a gang war.

Police say bikie brawl is not war - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "fight between rival motorcycle clubs the Coffin Cheaters and the Finks is not the start of a gang war.
The violence broke out about yesterday afternoon inside the Kwinana Motoplex.
Three members of the Finks motorcycle club were taken to hospital. One of them had been shot in the leg and another had three fingers severed.
Detective Senior Sergeant Jeff Christmass has defended the lack of police presence at the event.
'We had no indication that any outlaw motorcycle gang members were going to attend this event,' he said.
While he acknowledges there are tensions between the two clubs, he does not believe it is the start of any war.
All three of the injured men underwent surgery for their injuries."

Sikder gang, Munsia gang and Gias gang war

Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper - SriLanka/Bangladesh: "Bangladesh authorities have dispatched a team of policemen with sophisticated arms to the Hatia island in Noakhali district after over 35 people were suspected to have been killed in a gang war there, police in Dhaka said yesterday.
Noakhali police superintendent Harunur Rashid Hazari said: “We have launched a drive to arrest those attempting to create panic among the people.”
Hazari said, at least 100 policemen in four groups, led by Noakhali additional police superintendent Mahbubur Rashid, have been sent to the area.
He also said elite security force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) will join the drive soon.
But the police and the Noakhali district administration could not confirm the identities of the dead and wounded.
Noakhali deputy commissioner Sirajul Islam said: “We are not sure about the dead and wounded because the area is hard to reach.”
Hatia island sub-district executive officer Harunur Rashid said information about the killings, abductions, attack, loots and arsons were being collected.
“We are maintaining communication with relevant departments to take the next step,” he added.
Sources said members of a gang, headed by one Nasir, were engaged in a series of gunfights in the area on October 13 with members of Sikder gang, Munsia gang and Gias gang over the control of the area.
The Nasir gang succeeded in beating others and carried out the massacre"

the New Boys are declaring a war on one club, they can expect to cop it from all clubs

The New Boys has been undercutting other dealers, and targeted outlaw bikies, the Hell's Angels, in a series of drive-by shootings in August.The New Boys emerged in the northern suburbs about four years ago and once congregated at pubs around Elizabeth and Smithfield. They use Hindley St as their base, as well as the Norwood entertainment strips, including The Parade, where they sell drugs. The gang has two "chapters" and is extensively involved in selling drugs, including ecstasy tablets and methamphetamine, and street fights, usually using knives.The group said to be headed by a city tattooist, the target of the bungled bomb attack who lashed out at cameramen yesterday when he returned to his home, metres from the crime scene.It was two hours before sunrise on Thursday when Enfield shook with the force of the home-made bomb, ripping apart a hire car and killing two men on Truscott Rd.Convicted drug runner Vahe Hacopian, 31, of Munno Para West, and a 23-year-old Walkley Heights Hell's Angels associate, made it within metres of their suspected target when the explosives accidentally detonated.Their target, a tattooist and New Boys drug dealer, lived just metres from where shrapnel showered the road.They were killed instantly, with one man's body blown across the road while the other remained in the vehicle, secured by his seatbelt.The tattooist was a suspect in the 2008 Gouger St shootings, his Enfield home raided by STAR Group officers hours after the gun battle.Yesterday, he returned home to his wife and children, but stayed only five minutes.A uniformed police officer stood about 40m away, guarding the crime scene around Thursday's bomb blast."Get that camera off the house," he shouted while rushing at a television cameraman. "Haven't you got any respect for my kids and wife? Is this how you protect the community, you maggots? Insects. Dogs."The tattooist has a criminal history dating back to when he was 17, including numerous convictions for serious assault and drug dealing.Yesterday, bikie expert and author of The Brotherhoods, Inside the Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, Professor Arthur Veno said Adelaide was most likely in the middle of a turf war between drug dealers. "It's extremely unlikely that the (motorcycle) clubs are doing this," he said."The clubs are desperately trying to get rid of these guys."They have to distance themselves from the criminal element because the understanding is if they want to keep their club, they need to get rid of that kind of thing. It's much more likely to be an underworld drug situation or turf war."Prof Veno said if the New Boys wanted a war with one club, they would be shut down by all of them. He said the once-warring bikie gangs had been brought together by the United Motorcycle Council to fight the state government's anti-bikie laws."If the New Boys are declaring a war on one club, they can expect to cop it from all clubs, who will join together and stop it real quick," he said. "The bikie clubs are under so much pressure and they've reached a consensus through the United Motorcycle Council that they will push out the criminal element."They are desperately trying to keep a lid on things.

targeted killings in Monterey County during the past year are the result of gang orders to cleanse the area of those considered traitors by Norteños

targeted killings in Monterey County during the past year are the result of gang orders to cleanse the area of those considered traitors by Norteños and their parent gang, the Nuestra Familia.Recent slayings of at least seven people not in good standing with the gang in Greenfield and Salinas led investigators to conclude that a "cleanup" of the streets in the wake of two large federal racketeering cases is continuing."We're dealing with violence that is spread across the Salinas Valley and beyond," Greenfield Police Chief Joe Grebmeier said. "The issues are not in any one city and the solutions will have to involve the region."Gang members, agents and federal prosecutors -- all of whom asked not to be named -- say the FBI is working a new gang conspiracy case in the Salinas Valley. Only San Francisco U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello said on the record that the FBI and his office are investigating more gang crimes in Monterey County.The brazenness of some slayings remind longtime gang cops of a bloody era more than a decade ago, when gang leaders in Salinas and points south ordered dozens of killings in a civil war and power struggle within the gang.

In late 1998, several regiment leaders and so-called traitors were slain, with attempts made on many more as Nuestra Familia crew bosses fought over control of the valley.The slayings of three people in and near the Pueblo Inn.motel in Greenfield in December and January point to the possible involvement of a higher "shot caller" presumably still at large, investigators said.
Israel Cota of Soledad, who police say is a Nuestra Familia boss for Salinas Valley, is wanted on warrant by state parole officers. Police declined to say if he is a person of interest in the Greenfield slayings.Police continue to try to apprehend 18-year-old Francisco Tamayo, believed to be the shooter of two women at the motel, but investigators do not consider him to be the gang authority who ordered the crime.
Yliza Martinez and Veronica Gallegos, both 30, were shot in their motel room Dec. 5. Gallegos died that night, Martinez died a week later.Shortly after the slayings, fire crews were summoned to put out a mysterious fire in the motel's hallway.Although police have not speculated on a suspect or motive behind the apparent arson, gangs for years have used arson and fire bombings as warnings to tell would-be crime witnesses not to cooperate with police.On Jan. 14, Gallegos' half-brother Angel Gutierrez, 40, was shot and killed not far from the motel.About that time, officers learned Cota failed to show up for a parole appointment. Cota was released from Monterey County jail in late December.Citing an ongoing investigation, police declined to say whether they are aware of a specific motive for the three slayings, although Gutierrez was known to have had a falling out with Nuestra Familia years ago. Before that, he was "very active" with the gang in Soledad, an investigator familiar with his history said.Some killings likely ordered Salinas police detective Lalo Villegas said that just because a gang member is on a hit list doesn't necessarily mean his killing was ordered by the gang."Norteños can be on a hit list forever and nothing ever happens to them," he said.
Nonetheless, in the past year, he said, "we've also seen some of the true hits."
Gang officers from Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties say current levels of violence are in part the unforeseen consequences of large federal prosecutions.
A leadership struggle at the gang's highest level emerged after the FBI's Operation Black Widow took out the Nuestra Familia's top captains and generals and sent them to a federal supermax prison in Colorado in 2005. Since then, it has been well-documented that two factions in the Central Coast have struggled over control of the gang: Those still loyal to the leaders in federal prisons, and those loyal to the new general, D.C. Cervantes of Chino, in Pelican Bay State Prison, the gang's traditional headquarters.During the past year, investigators say, the Pelican Bay faction has asserted its authority after the government's Operation Valley Star in 2007 swept up key figures in the Salinas and Central valleys still reporting to the old leaders.
A second likely factor in the violence is competition from rival Sureño gangs.
The bloodshed has stepped up in part, police say, because the Nuestra Familia is trying to re-establish territory lost to its archenemy during the Nuestra Familia's recent years of organizational chaos.

"Sureños are definitely getting more organized," said Villegas. "We do know that we've been having some high-ranking people trying to unite them. They're starting to be a little more structured than we've seen before.

"Villegas said the Salinas Valley is seeing Sureños targeting suspected traitors within their ranks, although he said he hasn't seen evidence the killings were ordered by higher-ups.Links to '98 homicide?One curious aspect of the investigations is that police are looking into whether at least two of the past year's victims may have known something about the slaying 12 years ago of Nuestra Familia's Salinas crew leader Miguel "Mikeo" Castillo by Rico "Smiley" Garcia, a case that made dramatic headlines at the time.In 1998, Alberto Arizpe contacted police in an apparent attempt to mislead officers shortly after Castillo's killing, according to a police report.He told skeptical detectives that Castillo's attackers were three Sureños -- members of the Norteños' rival gang. But Garcia later admitted to conspiring to kill Castillo and is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Florida.Arizpe eventually left the gang after he was assaulted and beaten by Norteño gang members in Monterey County Jail.Last summer, he was 28 years old when he was killed along with a female friend in a brazen home-invasion attack on a Salinas residence.Authorities are looking into whether last week's slaying victim, Gutierrez, was connected to Castillo's murder.Suspect not believed to be gunmanThe only person charged in the Pueblo Inn killings is a 15-year-old boy held in Juvenile Hall. Prosecutors say he was not the triggerman in the slayings of the two women, but was present when they were killed.On Wednesday, a county court is expected to decide if the boy will be tried as an adult on two counts of murder.

Hells Angels violent biker war with the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club

Rising tensions between two biker gangs have Winnipeg police closely monitoring their actions.Police paid close attention to a bar at a St. Boniface hotel Saturday night following a tip that a fight could be imminent.The news follows a serious attack against a Winnipeg member of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club inside a business on St. Mary's Road about three weeks ago.Sources tell CTV News the victim was lured to the business where he was then beaten.The victim had such serious injuries that he was unrecognizable.Officers say they had received information that the people responsible for the attack were Hells Angels members and a few of their associates.
The group was allegedly unhappy with the victim because he is a former member of the Zig Zag crew, which is a puppet club to the Hells Angels.He had apparently been seen around the city wearing his new gang's vest, which drew negative attention from the Hells Angels.Since the attack, police have been preparing to deal with some sort of retaliation.There were suspicions that members of the Rock Machine were going to attend a bar on Saturday night at the hotel because they knew associates of the Hells Angels frequented the place.Nothing appeared to happen at that bar Saturday night.Still, a number of Rock Machine members from outside the province have been seen in Winnipeg over the past week.Saturday night's events follow the execution of several search warrants, including one last week on Mighton Avenue in Elmwood.A 30-year-old man was arrested and a loaded nine millimetre handgun was seized at the home.CTV News has learned the man who was arrested is a member of the Redlined Club, a group which is considered a friend club to the Hells Angels.This arrest is also believed to be connected to the rising tensions between the gangs, say sources.Police have confirmed they were at the bar on Saturday night, but will not provide any further information.The public's safety was one of the main reasons police say they were there in such large numbers.
There has been trouble between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine in the past. Both groups were involved in a violent biker war in Quebec in the mid-nineties.
A truce was made but police say they are worried violence could erupt again.

24-year-old Howard Astorga, found guilty of first-degree murder

Four-year-old Roberto Lopez loved creating artwork out of glitter and sequins at a neighborhood arts and community center in the southern edge of Echo Park. It was while Roberto was near that neighborhood center that he was fatally shot a year ago last month by a gang member on parole. Today, a jury found that gang member, 24-year-old Howard Astorga, found guilty of first-degree murder, according to Associated Press. Astorga was firing his gun at a speeding car but one of those bullets struck Roberto instead. Astorga faces a prison sentence of 82 years to life.Since the murder, several groups have tried to organize residents of the neighborhood, wedged between Temple Street and Vista Hermosa Park, against crime.

Morgan Hill police are offering $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the gang-related death

Morgan Hill police are offering $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the gang-related death of a 24-year-old Hollister man, the city's first homicide in four years.
Sgt. Jerry Neumayer said today that detectives are still trying to figure out who killed Juan Jose Arrellano Jr. on Oct. 2.
Shortly before midnight that day, police responded to 911 calls from residents who heard multiple shots fired near the Crest Avenue apartments. The arriving officer found Arrellano on the sidewalk, bleeding from a gunshot wound in his upper body. He was pronounced dead at 11:35 p.m.
Witnesses told police they saw at least two young men, between 16 and 20 years old and wearing dark blue clothing, shoot Arrellano with a 9 mm handgun while shouting gang-related slurs.
Arrellano was the first homicide in Morgan Hill since 2005.
Officers flooded the area with the help of dogs from the Santa Clara County sheriff's K-9 unit and air support from San Jose police, but to no avail.

Capture of Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental apparently wipes out the existing leadership of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simenta

Capture of Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental apparently wipes out the existing leadership of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was captured last month. Teodoro and Manuel Garcia are brothers.Lopez, known as "El Muletas," and Garcia, known as "El Chiquilin," were arrested Monday in La Paz, a city in the southern end of the Baja California peninsula, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.Mexico's Public Security Department confirmed the arrests in a brief statement, describing Manual Garcia as the gang's leader after his brother's arrest and Lopez as the current second-in-command. It said the arrests were the result of leads starting with the capture of Teodoro Garcia in La Paz on Jan. 12, but offered no further details on the operations.Roderick said there were no U.S. indictments pending against the suspects.The gang was known for its brutality, having executed, beheaded and mutilated hundreds of rivals in Tijuana, which is across the U.S. border from San Diego. Gang members pinned notes to corpses and dissolved bodies in caustic soda.Tedoro Garcia's arrest netted 19 mobile phones and two laptop computers. Twelve more cartel suspects were arrested in two raids in late January, including two men and a women who were allegedly about to dissolve a body in a bathtub with chemicals.Manuel Garcia is the youngest of three brothers. The oldest brother, Marco Antonio, was arrested in a shootout with Mexican authorities in Tijuana in 2004.
Teodoro Garcia was once considered a top hit man for Tijuana's dominant drug gang, the family-run Arellano-Felix cartel. He launched a new group affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel after law enforcement arrested or killed most of the Tijuana cartel leaders in 2008.

The splintered organizations have been involved in a violent turf battle in Tijuana, a valuable trafficking corridor to the U.S.

More than 1,500 people have been murdered in Tijuana since the beginning of 2008.

Across the country, more than 15,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on cartels when he took office three years ago. More than 2,500 of the killings occurred last year in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The military announced Monday that soldiers had seized more than 12 tons of marijuana found beneath a false floor of a tractor trailer. The drugs were found during a routine search at a checkpoint near San Felipe, a town in the central part of the Baja California peninsula.

Today another Mexican cartel leader was taken off the street and is no longer able to carry out his bloody turf war

Teodoro Garcia Simental, blamed for a years-long campaign of massacres, beheadings and kidnappings that chased away tourists and caused social upheaval in northern Baja California, was arrested by Mexican federal police without the suspect firing a shot, and immediately flown to Mexico City.The heavyset Garcia, believed to be in his mid-30s, with close-trimmed hair and a goatee, scowled and dabbed at his mouth as he was paraded before television cameras at a police base wearing a zippered warm-up jacket.Better known for savage killing rampages than narco-business acumen, the man nicknamed "El Teo" bedeviled Mexican authorities for years and narrowly escaped capture several times. Last January, authorities arrested the man they said admitted being Garcia's body disposal expert. Known as El Pozolero, or "the stew maker," he claimed, authorities said, to have dissolved 300 bodies in barrels of caustic chemicals.Mexican federal authorities, acting on intelligence provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said they tracked Garcia down after a five-month surveillance operation. He was captured in an upscale area in the southern part of the city."Today another Mexican cartel leader was taken off the street and is no longer able to carry out his bloody turf war," said Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the DEA. "This was not an isolated event: It exemplifies the growing effectiveness of our information sharing with [Mexican President Felipe Calderon's] administration, and our continued commitment to defeat the drug traffickers who have plagued both our nations."Though Garcia was not considered to be in the top echelon of Mexican drug lords, few reputed crime bosses have had such a ruinous effect on a region. Mexican authorities say he was responsible for hundreds of killings during a nearly two-year power struggle with rivals in the Arellano Felix drug cartel, in which he had once been a top-ranking lieutenant.Garcia is said to have branched out from traditional drug trafficking and focused his criminal empire on extortion and kidnapping, targeting all levels of society. During his reign, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Tijuana residents moved out of the border city to avoid being kidnapped, and more than 42 police officers were killed.

masked gunman walked into a southern Sacramento County Vietnamese restaurant Wednesday afternoon and executed a 22-year-old man at close range.

authorities are calling a likely gang hit, a masked gunman walked into a southern Sacramento County Vietnamese restaurant Wednesday afternoon and executed a 22-year-old man at close range.No words were exchanged before the unknown assailant fired a black semiautomatic handgun multiple times at the victim, hitting him in the head and chest, said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Curran.The gunman fled on foot down 53rd Avenue, and had not been identified by evening, Curran said.Few homicides investigated by authorities, he said, are “as cold and as calculated as this one.”
“It’s very scary,” he said.Curran said detectives suspect the killing to be gang-related because the victim had been validated as a gang member by law enforcement and because the area – near Stockton Boulevard and the 65th Street Expressway – is known for gang activity.Deputies were called to the Pho Ga Hung Vietnamese Cuisine restaurant on Savings Place for a shooting just after 2:15 p.m., Curran said. They found a 22-year-old man, whose name was not released, on the restaurant’s floor. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

He is the fifth homicide victim within the Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdiction in 2010.The victim was eating with three friends – a man and two women – when the suspect walked into the restaurant, up to their table and unloaded his gun, Curran said.

Three employees also were inside at the time, but nobody else was shot at or injured, Curran said. For that reason, he said, detectives suspect the victim was targeted.Witnesses described the suspect to deputies as a man between age 28 and 35, 5 feet, 7 inches tall with a medium build. He wore a dark ski mask and a dark jacket.
Curran said the victim’s friends, who later wept in the parking lot, and the employees were cooperative with detectives. At this point, he said detectives do not believe they were involved in the killing.The call drew roughly two dozen deputies and detectives, including a number of investigators from the gang unit. It also drew spectators, who stopped along the sidewalk of the busy 65th Street Expressway.Richard Sims said he walks by the shopping center often while on his way to the grocery store. He described it as fairly quiet and humble.But he agreed with the Sheriff’s Department’s assessment about gang activity in the area, and noted that people he believes are gang members often congregate at one of the businesses in the center and at another across the street.“There’s something going on,” said Sims, 52. Gesturing toward the deputies, he added, “These cats know – the police know – but they don’t come by here.”
Curran said that’s because budget cuts and resulting layoffs mean deputies have little time for anything but emergencies.“Unless there’s a call for service there, our deputies don’t have time to be proactive,” he said. “They’re going from call to call to call.”