MOB or Money over Bitches / Members of Bloods Gang in Netherlands is explored by PrimTime - A documentary series in the Netherlands. Los Angeles

MOB or Money over Bitches / Members of Bloods Gang in Netherlands is explored by PrimTime - A documentary series in the Netherlands. Los Angeles

How to do the bloods gang sign.

Watts Mafia Crip memebr Curtis Kelly from East Side 99 Mafia Crips talks about the projects in Watts, the growing …

Bloods ( Pueblo Bishops Gang ) HQ

notorious Malvern Crew street gang.Alton Reid, vicious war between the Malvern Crew and the Galloway Boys.

Toronto's 54th homicide victim has been identified as someone who had belonged to the notorious Malvern Crew street gang.Alton Reid, 35, had been attending a birthday party at the Atlanta banquet hall on 1240 Ellesmere Rd. in Scarborough on the weekend when someone walked in and started shooting sometime after 3 a.m. on Sunday.
Four people were found wounded at the scene, and Reid showed up later at hospital. He died of his injuries on Monday.Reid's autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday.
He had been arrested in 2004 as part of Project Impact, a police crackdown on the gang following a vicious war between the Malvern Crew and the Galloway Boys.
Police charged Reid with a number of offences:
•aggravated assault
•discharging a firearm
•participating in a criminal organization
•related conspiracy charges
Project Pathfinder targeted the Galloway Boys.
Three Galloway Boys were found guilty in the March 3, 2004 murder of one men in Malvern. The court heard the trio were allegedly looking for Reid.
Instead, they shot and killed Brenton Charlton and gravely wounded Leonard Bell as the two men sat stopped in their car at a light.Tyshan Riley, Philip Atkins and Jason Wisdom got life sentences for the attempted murder of Bell and a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years after being convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Charlton.

Philippine National Police detained a provincial chief and three officers on suspicion they may have been involved in abduction and killings

Philippine National Police detained a provincial chief and three officers on suspicion they may have been involved in the abduction and killing of dozens of supporters of a politician and the reporters covering him. The Maguindanao province police chief, Abusana Maguid, and the officers were relieved of their duties pending an investigation, National Police spokesman Leonardo Espina said in a mobile phone text message late yesterday. Maguid may bear “command responsibility” for his officers’ actions, Espina said. The officers were seen by witnesses at the location of the Nov. 23 violence on Mindanao island, he said.“This is just the beginning,” Espina said. “We will not stop. All who are responsible will be made accountable. There will be no sacred cows.” President Gloria Arroyo yesterday put Maguindanao and neighboring Sultan Kudarat province under a state of emergency as the excavation of newly dug mass graves revealed more bodies. The killings represent the worst single incident of election- related violence in the nation’s history, according to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.

The military said about 100 gunmen stopped a convoy of people on their way to file Buluan City Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu’s application to run for provincial governor. Mangudadatu, who wasn’t in the convoy, told local media his wife was among those whose bodies were identified and that some of the women in the group were raped before they were killed.

Rival Families

Jesus Dureza, Arroyo’s adviser on Mindanao affairs, said he has met with the Mangudadatu family and relatives of Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan. The two families, who were once allies, are now political rivals, the Philippine Daily Inquirer said. The Mangudadatus pleaded for justice, Dureza said in a phone interview late yesterday before he was cut off. The adviser, whom Arroyo tasked to form a crisis committee, didn’t reply to calls or text messages seeking more information. The Ampatuans pledged to cooperate with any investigation, he said in a GMA News TV interview. “No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable,” Arroyo said yesterday. She deployed extra troops and ordered Director General Jesus Versoza, the national police chief, to lead the investigation into the killings. He’s already on Mindanao, Espina said.
Twenty-four bodies were exhumed yesterday, bringing the death toll to 46, Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna, central Mindanao police director, said in a phone interview. Police will continue to dig at the site where the bodies were found, he said. Some 1,000 soldiers have been deployed to search for the suspects and secure Maguindanao’s “exit points,” Romeo Brawner, the armed forces spokesman, told reporters in Manila. Arroyo declared a state of emergency to prevent further violence in the region, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said at a briefing in Manila. The last time an area in Mindanao was placed under a state of emergency was March 31, when militants from the Islamist Abu Sayyaf group threatened to behead one of three Red Cross workers who were taken hostage. Declaring a state of emergency gives the president the authority to use the military to quell violence, Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in the same briefing. It may also give the president the legal basis to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, he said. The writ allows courts to require the military or police to present persons they are holding and justify their detention. At least 12 journalists were among those killed, Reporters Without Borders said.
“Never in the history of journalism have the news media suffered such a heavy loss of life in one day,” the Paris-based organization said in a statement, alleging there is a “culture of impunity and violence in the Philippines, especially in Mindanao.” Elections in the Philippines are often marred by bloodshed, with provincial politicians maintaining private militias. About 126 candidates and supporters were killed in the months leading to the 2007 elections and 186 in 2004, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The Southeast Asian nation will choose a new president and thousands of national and local officials in May. The nation’s Commission on Elections will accept filings for candidacies until Dec. 1.
Maguindanao is a “hotspot” for political unrest, Brawner, the armed forces spokesman, told ANC television after the first bodies were discovered on Nov. 23.
Mindanao is home to most of the nation’s Muslim minority some of whom have been fighting a separatist war for decades. It’s also home to the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Abu Sayyaf and other groups engaged in kidnapping and other forms of terrorism.

Bergrin, a former AUSA with the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey, is charged with leading a criminal enterprise that used violence, intimidation,

Bergrin, a former AUSA with the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey, is charged with leading a criminal enterprise that used violence, intimidation, and deceit to generate millions of dollars, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Among the most eye-catching allegations against him:

- That he used a Newark restaurant as a front for a cocaine-distribution network.
- That he oversaw a $1,000-an-hour call-girl ring in New York City.
- That he had a witness killed in one drug case, and hired a hitman to kill another.

You can read a key portion of the indictment here.
Bergrin was first arrested in May. His lawyers have argued in court papers that prosecutors have tied together baseless cases. And they have argued successfully to have Bergrin removed from solitary confinement, where he had been held after his arrest in May. But since a more detailed indictment was filed earlier this month, they have said little publicly.According to an affidavit from an FBI agent, Bergrin came to serve as "house counsel for a number of criminal organizations, including . . . the Latin Kings, the Bloods, and a number of high-level drug-trafficking organizations." And Bergrin had "essentially become one of the criminals he represents," according to Ralph Marra, the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey.His client list has also included Queen Latifah, Lil' Kim, and mobster Angelo Prisco, as well as a U.S. soldier accused of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib, who Bergrin represented pro bono. Bergrin also repped the "King of All Pimps," Jason Itzler, who ran the high-end New York escort service, New York Confidential, that proved to be Eliot Spitzer's undoing. (Itzler called Ashley Dupre, "one of the best hookers ever.") Indeed, prosecutors allege that Bergrin took over the management of the company after Itzler was jailed in 2005.A retired Army Reserve major and the son of a New York City police officer, Bergrin, 53, was an Essex County prosecutor who later worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark, before starting a criminal defense practice in 1991.But he may have offered his clients more than just legal representation. The Inquirer reports:
Though the indictment includes one murder and one murder conspiracy, investigators contend that witnesses have linked Bergrin to at least three other homicides.
They also say Bergrin routinely bribed witnesses to win cases. And, they contend, when bribery wasn't an option, he resorted to violence."No witness, no case" was the phrase he used repeatedly in his criminal-defense work, authorities say.In addition to the charges related to bribery, witness intimidation, and running the escort service, Bergrin also allegedly used a Newark restaurant, Isabella's, as a front for drug dealing; and formed a real estate company that conducted phony mortgage deals. Bergrin's undoing may have come when he allegedly smuggled a cellphone into a jail so a client could call a Chicago hitman to set up the murder of a witness. Bergrin himself then traveled to Chicago to meet with the hitman, say the Feds.
But the hitman was a cooperating witness. According to prosecutors, he recorded Bergrin saying things like: "Put on a ski mask and make it look like a robbery. . . . It cannot under any circumstances look like a hit . . . make it look like a home-invasion robbery."The hitman also recorded a conversation in which he told another lawyer, working with Bergrin, that Bergrin wanted to personally take part in the hit.
"He said he wants to do it with me," the hitman said "I said, 'No, Paul. For what you went to law school to become . . . stick with that s-.' Let me do what I have to do.' "Replied the other lawyer: "Paul's a stone killer, bro. . . . That's what he is. . . . He's done work [meaning, committed murder], bro." One underworld source, a former Bergrin client, told the Inquirer that Bergrin "enjoyed life on the edge." Sounds like he may have enjoyed it just a little too much.

Quebec bars and restaurants are being continuously attacked as a biker gang turf war escalated

Two more cafes were firebombed Monday in the French-speaking Canadian city of Montreal, bringing the total of similar incidents to eight in the last month but the motives remain unclear, the Canadian Television reported. Cafe Nouba, the first non-Italian restaurant to be bombed, was hit for the second time Monday morning around 6:30 a.m. local time(1130 GMT). It was first attacked on Nov. 15.
A second one, Cafe Vegas, was targeted about half an hour later. The two received very little damage and no one was injured. The string of Molotov cocktail attacks began in October. All the restaurants are located within a 15 minute drive of each other. Police say mob turf wars, street gangs or copycat arsonists could be involved, but they are not sure because the business owners are keeping quiet.
In the 1990s, Quebec bars and restaurants were being continuously attacked as a biker gang turf war escalated.

Extradition request for Christopher "Dudus" Coke is stockpiling weapons in his Kingston stronghold to prevent arrest.

Extradition request for Christopher "Dudus" Coke in August, has so far only responded with requests for more information about the gun and drug trafficking charges against the reputed gang leader.Coke, identified by the U.S. Justice Department as one of the world's most dangerous drug kingpins, allegedly controls a band of gunmen inside Tivoli Gardens, a barricaded neighborhood of Kingston, the capital of Jamaica and a city with one of the highest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere.U.S. authorities are voicing frustration that Jamaica is not moving more quickly to honor a mutual extradition treaty."The U.S. government is looking forward to the Jamaican government respecting their obligations under the treaty," Patricia Attkisson, spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, said Thursday.The political opposition has also criticized the government for putting Jamaica into what it calls a standoff over Coke, who is known for his loyalty to the Jamaica Labor Party. Island gangs have loose affiliations with both major parties — a legacy of the 1970s, when political factions provided the guns to intimidate rivals.
"The cascading effect of international reaction to the administration's inaction could lead ultimately to Jamaica being labeled and declared a 'rogue state,' with lasting adverse implications for our people," said Peter Bunting, a lawmaker with the opposition People's National Party.

Mongrel Mob is one of the older gangs in New Zealand

Mongrel Mob is one of the older gangs in New Zealand and actually predates the first formation of Bloods and Crips in the country. Since the have worn red, that have become associated as Bloods. The original Mongrel Mob look more like American motorcycle gangs and that’s where their early influence came from. The younger generation of Mongel Mob have picked up the black gang culture emulating Blood and Crip appearances. This newer trend has been influenced by popular culture, the Los Angeles influence on local Samoans, as well as the success of the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., a hip-hop group affiliated with gang during the 1980s based in Carson, California, adjacent to South Los Angeles.

John "Boxer" Muscedere told his killers: "Do me. Do me first. I want to go out like a man."

Realising he and his friends had been betrayed and faced death, John "Boxer" Muscedere told his killers: "Do me. Do me first. I want to go out like a man."
Muscedere, who was betrayed by his best friend Wayne Kellestine, was one of eight men shot dead in a barn in Ontario. Their bodies were found on 8 April 2006 in three cars and a tow truck which had been dumped in a field near the town of Shedden, 14km (10 miles) from where they had been killed. Ironically several of the men – suspects in another murder case – had been under surveillance by the Ontario Provincial Police only hours earlier. All eight were associated with the Bandidos, one of North America’s most notorious biker gangs and second only in power to the Hells Angels worldwide. The motive for the bloodshed lay in a deep schism that had developed within the Bandidos’ Canadian chapters.
John ‘Boxer’ Muscedere, 48
Luis ‘Porkchop’ Raposo, 41
George ‘Pony’ Jessome, 52
George ‘Crash’ Kriarakis, 28
Frank ‘Bam Bam’ Salerno, 43
Paul ‘Big Paulie’ Sinopoli, 30
Jamie ‘Goldberg’ Flanz, 37
Michael ‘Little Mikey’ Trotta, 31
Bikers guilty of massacre
The victims were members of the Toronto chapter, who were sponsored by the gang’s Scandinavian wing but were not recognised by the Bandidos’ head office in Texas.
Peter Edwards, a journalist with the Toronto Star and the author of a book on the case that is due out later this year, explained: "There was a chapter based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who came under the auspices of Toronto.
"But Winnipeg were not granted full patches by Toronto. They effectively had no job security and they grew really frustrated." The killers were led by Michael Sandham, a former soldier and police officer who became president of the Winnipeg chapter.
He tried to claim that he had actually been working undercover for the police, but was unable to explain why he had initially denied being at the scene. Sandham was helped by Kellestine, an Ontario native who was allied with the Winnipeg chapter.
The victims were lured to their deaths in his barn, after being told they would meet to settle their grievances. When police arrived, they found blood smears and pieces of flesh amid the detritus of a biker party – beer bottles on a table and Confederate and Nazi flags hanging on a wall. Kellestine and five of his buddies were arrested. Three years later they finally went on trial. The star prosecution witness was another Bandido, known only as MH, who testified about the events leading up to the killings. MH, who hailed from Winnipeg, told the court the original plan was to "pull the patches" of the Toronto members, effectively throwing them out of the Bandidos. But Kellestine then decided they would have to kill all eight. MH described a messy and farcical situation in which Kellestine frequently changed his mind about whether or not to let his rivals live and at one point allowed Muscedere to call his wife as long as he "didn’t say anything stupid".
He broke down as he described the stoic reaction of one of the men, Frank "Bammer" Salerno.
"Bammer went to shake my hand. I didn’t do it," said MH.
MH said Kellestine had been promised that in return for carrying out the killings he would be named Canadian president of the Bandidos and could start up his own chapter based in nearby London, Ontario. But Mr Edwards, who has covered the trial, said the killers were disorganised and bungling. "They were at the very bottom rung of biker gangs. Some were in their 40s but still lived with their parents. They were not making any money, many of them had been rejected by the Hells Angels and half of them didn’t even own a motorbike," he said. Mr Edwards says they were forced to dump the cars with the bodies in because they were "too cheap to buy enough gasoline".
"They didn’t even set fire to the bodies or the cars," he says. The massacre, and Thursday’s convictions, have left the Bandidos effectively defunct in Canada.
According to Mr Edwards, there is very little public sympathy for the victims because they were bikers, and Canada has seen a lot of biker wars in the past.

La Familia Michoacána,$207 million were found piled in mountains of notes

La Familia Michoacána, named for its base in the western Mexican state of Michoacán, not only revived the meth market, "they elevated it," says Rodney Benson, special agent in charge in Atlanta for the Drug Enforcement Administration. This week the DEA led a campaign that saw the arrests of more than 300 alleged meth traffickers in the U.S., all allegedly tied to La Familia. It is considered the largest roundup ever of Mexican cartel operatives. One of the busts, at a suburban house in Lawrencevllle, Ga., yielded almost 180 lbs of "the clearest [meth] crystals I have ever seen," says Benson. La Familia is estimated to export as much as half of the 200 tons of crystal meth into the U.S. each year. It was thus a clear target for Project Coronado, the four-year operation by U.S. and Mexico anti-drug officials, which has collared 900 others, mostly La Familia associates, in both countries. Aside from meth trafficking, La Familia has also brought Mexico's gangland violence across the border, into communities as far flung as Atlanta and Seattle. The group, like Mexico's two largest drug gangs, the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels, is also famous for beheading rival traffickers. U.S. Attorney General Holder suggested Thursday that La Familia's "depravity" exceeds that of the Gulf and Sinaloa groups. Whether or not La Familia is Mexico's most violent drug cartel, it is certainly the weirdest. Arguably, it is the world's first "narco-evangelical" gang. During this week's raids, U.S. officials found numerous religious images, "on fireplaces, in closets, everywhere," says one. La Familia members purport to be devout Christians who abstain from drugs themselves. In fact, they insist that while they sell meth and cocaine to the U.S., they keep it away from Mexicans. They also study a special Bible authored by their leader, Nazario Moreno, a.k.a. El Más Loco, or "The Craziest One." The cartel's profits have helped it build a large network of support among the poor in Michoacán, which is also the home state of Mexican President Felipe Calderón.
When the U.S. Congress enacted the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act four years ago, it created a lucrative trafficking niche for La Familia. Michoacán has long been a meth-producing region, much like the northern state of Durango is known for making most of Mexico's heroin (called "brown mud"). La Familia and other Mexican gangs manufacture meth at industrial superlabs that dwarf small-town U.S. shops like those depicted on the AMC cable drama Breaking Bad, churning out tons of the white, flaky crystal each day. And while U.S. law blocks the export of pseudoephedrine to Mexico, La Familia can easily access that key chemical by way of sources in Asia, shipping it in via Michoacán's major Pacific port, Lázaro Cárdenas. In 2006, Mexican police seized 19 tons of it there and linked it to the owner of a Mexico City mansion where $207 million were found piled in mountains of notes — believed to be the biggest drug-cash bust ever.

Homicide rate is now statistically worse in Lambeth, where there have been 12 homicides so far this year, than it is in the Bronx

Homicide rate is now statistically worse in Lambeth, where there have been 12 homicides so far this year, than it is in the Bronx's notorious 52nd precinct, where there have been 6. And gun crime continues to rise sharply in the capital. Although last year saw a drop (see graph below), figures published on Thursday prove that gun enabled crime in London rose by 17% between April and September this year.

Police have seized more than 1,000 guns in London so far this year.

Young criminals are increasingly ready to use firearms after a perceived slight to their reputation. One aspect of the "chaotic" new trend is that they shoot to injure rather than kill, aiming at the victim's legs and leaving their rivals with "war wounds".The number of these shootings now stands at 72, more than double the total for last year. Commander Martin Hewitt said the propensity to use "extreme levels of violence for seemingly very little reason" was a new phenomenon. He said that when Operation Trident began investigating gun crime in the black community most shootings were an "offshoot" of criminal activity.Police have seized more than 1,000 guns in London so far this year. While overall youth violence is falling, police say there is a rise in gun crime and, in particular, the number of non-fatal shootings involving turf wars.Many criminals are inflicting "war wounds" on rivals by shooting them in the legs. The number of these shootings now stands at 72, more than double the total for last year.

Gunmen opened fire into a bar in northern Puerto Rico and killed at least seven people

Gunmen opened fire into a bar in northern Puerto Rico and killed at least seven people, injuring 20 others, police said Sunday. A prosecutor said a battle over drug traffic might have prompted the attack. A 9-year-old girl and a pregnant woman who lost her eight-month-old fetus after being shot were among those seriously wounded, said police Col. Jose Morales. The justice department plans to file a murder charge for the death of the fetus, said prosecutor Wanda Vazquez, who is investigating the case.

Bloody drug gang shootouts left 14 people dead.

2,000 Brazilian police officers patrolled this coastal city as officials pledged to hold a violence-free 2016 Olympics despite bloody drug gang shootouts that left 14 people dead.An hours-long gun battle Saturday between rival gangs in one of the city's slums killed at least 12 people and injured six. A police helicopter was shot down and eight buses set on fire during the incident.Police said Sunday that they had killed two suspected drug traffickers in overnight clashes near the Morro dos Macacos ("Monkey Hill") slum where the gangs fought for territory. But the area was largely peaceful.Two officers died and four were injured Saturday when bullets from the gang battle ripped into their helicopter hovering overhead, forcing it into a fiery crash landing on a soccer field. Officials said they did not know whether the gangs targeted the helicopter or it was hit by stray bullets.Gunfire on the ground killed 10 suspected gunmen and wounded two bystanders.Authorities said the violence had only toughened their resolve to improve security ahead of the Olympics and before 2014, when Brazil will host the World Cup soccer tournament with key games in Rio, the second-biggest city.Rio state Public Safety Director Jose Beltrame told reporters that the violence was limited to a specific area of the city of 6 million and "is not a problem throughout all of Rio de Janeiro."He said authorities would follow through with promised efforts to reduce crime."We proved to the Olympic Committee that we have plans and proposals for Rio de Janeiro," he said. "We proved that our current policy not only consists of going into battle, it also consists of keeping the peace."

Gang Warfare between the Hells Angels motorcycle club and ethnic minority gangs in Denmark and Sweden

Gang Warfare between the Hells Angels motorcycle club and ethnic minority gangs in Denmark and Sweden is prompting renewed concern that long-simmering gang tensions are intensifying amid economic woes and resentment over immigration.The Danish capital of Copenhagen saw almost 60 gang-related shooting incidents in the past year, many of them in Nørrebro, just north of the city center. In March, a series of drive-by shootings and assassinations resulted in the deaths of three bystanders and sent shock waves through the city.

Camden man who was shot and witnessed his brother being killed outside the Marriott hotel in Mount Laurel

Camden man who was shot and witnessed his brother being killed outside the Marriott hotel in Mount Laurel last year will serve five years of probation and must cooperate with authorities in the case against those charged in the murder.
Superior Court Judge John Almeida sentenced Luis Pedroza, 27, to the probationary term Friday for violating his previous probation. Pedroza originally was sentenced to three years of probation for unlawful possession of a weapon stemming from a car stop in Delran in 2006, in which he was with one of the men who is now charged with attempting to kill him and with murdering his brother. Antonio K. Streater, 26, and Daniel Cruz, 24, both of Camden, and Richard Martinez, 34, of Atco, are charged with the murder of Gabriel Figueroa, 20, and the attempted murder of Pedroza. They are in custody and have pleaded not guilty. Since their arrest Cruz and Martinez have been identified as associates of the Latin Kings street gang and Streater is a member of the Bloods street gang. On Friday, Pedroza admitted that he violated his earlier probation by fleeing to Puerto Rico within weeks of entering the program. He has served about 300 days in custody, including jail time in Puerto Rico and New Jersey, waiting for the probation violation to be resolved. Assistant Prosecutor Michael Mormando said that time was equivalent to the time he would likely serve as part of a five-year prison sentence with no mandatory minimum. Mormando said Pedroza has indicated he will cooperate with police in the prosecution of the men charged in the shooting. Pedroza was shot along with his brother in an ambush outside the hotel at Route 73 and Fellowship Road on Aug. 16, 2008. On Friday, Almeida told Pedroza he must testify truthfully about the shooting if the case goes to trial as a condition of his probation. He said prosecutors could seek a material witness warrant that would keep him in custody if he did not cooperate.

Camden man who was shot and witnessed his brother being killed outside the Marriott hotel in Mount Laurel

Camden man who was shot and witnessed his brother being killed outside the Marriott hotel in Mount Laurel last year will serve five years of probation and must cooperate with authorities in the case against those charged in the murder.
Superior Court Judge John Almeida sentenced Luis Pedroza, 27, to the probationary term Friday for violating his previous probation. Pedroza originally was sentenced to three years of probation for unlawful possession of a weapon stemming from a car stop in Delran in 2006, in which he was with one of the men who is now charged with attempting to kill him and with murdering his brother. Antonio K. Streater, 26, and Daniel Cruz, 24, both of Camden, and Richard Martinez, 34, of Atco, are charged with the murder of Gabriel Figueroa, 20, and the attempted murder of Pedroza. They are in custody and have pleaded not guilty. Since their arrest Cruz and Martinez have been identified as associates of the Latin Kings street gang and Streater is a member of the Bloods street gang. On Friday, Pedroza admitted that he violated his earlier probation by fleeing to Puerto Rico within weeks of entering the program. He has served about 300 days in custody, including jail time in Puerto Rico and New Jersey, waiting for the probation violation to be resolved. Assistant Prosecutor Michael Mormando said that time was equivalent to the time he would likely serve as part of a five-year prison sentence with no mandatory minimum. Mormando said Pedroza has indicated he will cooperate with police in the prosecution of the men charged in the shooting. Pedroza was shot along with his brother in an ambush outside the hotel at Route 73 and Fellowship Road on Aug. 16, 2008. On Friday, Almeida told Pedroza he must testify truthfully about the shooting if the case goes to trial as a condition of his probation. He said prosecutors could seek a material witness warrant that would keep him in custody if he did not cooperate.

Turkish gangwars assassinated Oktay Erbasli

motorbike assassin shot dead Oktay Erbasli, 23, as he sat at the wheel of his Range Rover in rush-hour traffic. His girlfriend and five-year-old stepson were miraculously unharmed in Tottenham, North London. Cops believe Erbasli was the victim of a vicious drug war between rival Turkish gangs. One onlooker said: "The boy was crying hysterically and screaming, 'My Daddy! My Daddy!' It was heartbreaking." Erbasli is thought to have been shot in the legs earlier this year. A family pal said: "He feared for his life."

Copenhagen gang wars Hells Angels AK81

Hells Angels AK81.
"He was brought to the National Hospital trauma center and is conscious and talking, so his condition is not life threatening," detective Jens Christiansen tells to jp.dk.
Ordered into the backyard The incident began when two men drove their car to Korsgade. The two stopped the car and stepped out to call a friend."
They were approached by mob of asylum seekers, asking if the two belonged to the Hells Angels AK81 gang. , they were were threatened with a gun and ordered into a backyard.
The were then searched, and then the began beating the 21-year old with a bottle, and the 19-year old was stabbed. Then Danes tried to escape and took off to opposite directions. He tried to ran towards Korsgade, and was shot. He fell downThe Copenhagen police has interviewed several eyewittnesses.Gang links suspected
"We always suspect gangs, when there are shootings in Nørrebro. We do not know right now whether this is the case this time," says Jens Christiansen. [duh!]
Fled in chaos
Police do not yet know the motive behind the shooting, but after the attack 5 to 8 immigrants fled the scene on foot, bicycles and by car.

Jamal Shakir,gang leader had developed an elaborate plot to escape from prison in a homemade helicopter

Federal authorities say a gang leader had developed an elaborate plot to escape from prison in a homemade helicopter flown by his underlings.The Tennessean of Nashville reported Friday that the case against one of the gang leader's associates, 35-year-old Faith Readus, will be heard by a grand jury. She is accused of researching different types of helicopters and flight training.Authorities say the plot was orchestrated by Jamal Shakir, who hoped to renew his Rollin' 90 Crips criminal enterprise. He was convicted in May 2008 of orchestrating a nationwide drug ring, laundering money and killing nine people between 1994 and 1997.Readus' attorney, Jennifer Thompson, could not be reached Friday. But she said at a Thursday hearing that such a plot was ridiculous.

Four members of Zombie Boys South Florida gang have been indicted by a grand jury three years after a bold daylight ambush left three men dead.

Four reputed members of a South Florida gang have been indicted by a grand jury three years after a bold daylight ambush left three men dead."That shooting was meant to be dramatic," said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle as she announced the arrests. "They all wore black."Rundle showed photos of the incident and said it captured "nationwide attention." She said, "If you look at it, more than 60 shots were fired. They didn't stand a chance. Look at the pictures of this van. When gang members fight and go to war, people die."Then Miami-Dade's top prosecutor, in a dramatic display, showed the type of AK-47 assault rifle that was used. "This is able to shoot off 600 rounds a minute," she said. "This sort of weapon is killing our police and gang members are buying this for just dollars on the street."Miami-Dade's top prosecutor continued her calls for a ban on assault rifles and asked the public to support her and said the media should continue top expose the harm that such assault weapons do. "Those weapons were banned for more than 10 years," she said.CBS4's Peter D'Oench asked Timoney what the message for gang members was. He responded, "Like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," said Timoney, "the gang members should keep looking over their shoulder. Law enforcement is coming after you. We are right behind you."Miami Police say the mastermind of the attack was Emmanuel "Mano" Cadillon, whose toddler son was shot and killed a few weeks earlier. It's believed the triple murder was in retaliation for his death.
Cadillon, 28, faces three counts of first-degree murder. He has been behind bars since July 2006, when he was arrested after an all-night SWAT standoff with police in Miramar unrelated to the slayings. Cadillon is serving five years in prison for possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.Cadillon made an appearance in bond court where he had no money in the bank and no job. He's being held without bond.
The Miami-Dade grand jury, which issued the indictments Wednesday, also charged Robert "Chico" Shaw; Junior "RaRa" Sylvin, 27, and Samuel Cadillon, 25, Emmanuel Cadillon's brother.Investigators believe Shaw, Sylvin and the Cadillon brothers were part of a gang called "69th Street" that retaliated against a gang known as the "Zombie Boys."Investigators say, according to our news partner The Miami Herald, that key evidence was found on a phone left at the scene and weapons discovered in a Miami Beach motel room. Also key were Shaw's statements made in prison to other inmates, police said.All four men are currently in jail or prison on unrelated charges. The triple murder took place on June 5, 2006, when at least two cars boxed in a rented Honda van in 1100 block of Northwest 39th Street. The masked gunmen jumped out of the cars, sprayed the van with more than 50 rounds and killed Edwin Terma, 21; Luckson Branel, 19, and Lamar Atron Kelly, 20. Another man was wounded but survived. One month prior to the triple slaying, Emmanuel Cadillon's 18-month-old son, Zykarious, was fatally shot execution-style in the front yard of their Little River home by gunmen apparently targeting Cadillon, police have said.
D'Oench canvassed that neighborhood and found that neighbors were grateful that arrests had been made. "I have a 2-year-old son just like the 18-month-old boy who was killed across the street from me," said Justin DeLancy as he kept an eye on his child, J.J. "I want him to grow up safe here in Little River. It's really a good thing to keep down crime in this neighborhood and keep the criminals off the streets."Next door, neighbor Racius Stvil said, "These gang members are not good for the community. I hope they stay in jail for a long time. This violence is no good."
Police are still investigating the gang's possible connection to a similar triple murder. In January 2007, three people were shot to death inside their SUV in another daylight ambush, this time on Northwest 79th Street in Little Haiti. Killed were Enel Jean, 22, who was on his way back from court; his girlfriend, Sheena Pierre, 21, and Jean's mother, Jean, 47.No arrests have been made in that case.

Gangs in the Ballyfermot area are believed to have been involved in the pub brawl which led to the death of a British man in Dublin

Gangs in the Ballyfermot area are believed to have been involved in the pub brawl which led to the death of a British man in Dublin in the early hours of yesterday morning.Jason Martin, in his early 40s, was from Manchester and was thought to have had links with drug dealers from one of the gangs. The incident happened between 1.30am and 2am at Hannigen’s pub, on Park West Road in Ballyfermot. The row started in the pub, where people had been watching the Bernard Dunne title fight. It is understood some people involved in the row attended the fight at the 02 and went to the pub afterwards. As more people got involved, the row spilled onto the plaza and into the car park.When gardaí arrived at the scene, they found up to 20 people involved in the disturbance. They were carrying a variety of weapons such as knives, broken glasses and broken bottles. It is understood a hatchet-type weapon was also wielded. Broken glasses were still visible at the scene yesterday, some distance from the area where the fracas took place.Mr Martin was found by gardaí near steps which led down to the car park. He was taken to Tallaght hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10am yesterday.Gardaí found a second injured man in the back of a white Toyota van in the car park.The man, in his 20s, from the local area, sustained a stomach wound. He was undergoing surgery at Tallaght hospital yesterday, but Supt John Quirke from Ballyfermot Garda station said his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.Gardaí were confronted and obstructed by a number of people when they arrived at the scene. Four men were arrested under the Public Order Act and taken to Ballyfermot Garda station. They were released yesterday morning and files will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.Supt Quirke said it was too early to say if people came to the pub armed with weapons or if the row was sparked by something that happened in the pub. “I understand there may have been a number of implements, but as of yet we haven’t identified any of them,” he said.He appealed for the public’s help in solving the crime. “We are making an appeal to anybody who was in the area here last night between 1am and 2.30am,” he said. “It’s a popular enough pub in the local area here. There would have been a considerable number of people here.”He encouraged anyone with information to contact Ballyfermot Garda station in confidence at 01-6667200. He said CCTV television footage from the pub and the plaza was available and could help to progress the investigation.
The pub was known as Bennigan’s, but it was closed for some time. It reopened as Hannigen’s under a new licence this year.A woman who answered the phone in the pub yesterday said staff had been advised by gardaí not to comment on the incident.A team of gardaí worked at the cordoned-off scene yesterday.

Amran Khan, 29, was gunned down outside his home in Oldham father-of-two's murder is linked to a gang war.

Amran Khan, 29, was gunned down outside his home in Oldham shortly after he put his child to bed.He went outside after hearing a disturbance and was shot at three times. One bullet hit him in the chest.Mr Khan is the third person to be murdered in three months, prompting fears of a turf war between drug dealing Asian gangs from Oldham and Bolton.In July, shop worker Nasar Hussain, 30, from Bolton, was shot six times by a machine-gun assassin in a `hit' at a store in Salford. He was not the intended target and was shot by mistake. The shop where Mr Hussain worked, Brookhouse supermarket in Winton, Eccles, was firebombed last week. The M.E.N. can reveal Mr Khan's brother, Gulfan, 35, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in connection to Mr Hussain's killing. He is currently on bail until November and was one of 13 men arrested at the time.Days after the Salford shooting, Junaid Khan, 21, from Oldham, was gunned down in the car park of a doctor's surgery in Chadderton. Nobody has been charged with his murder but two men have been chargedwith possessing ammunition.One line of inquiry centres around each shooting being a tit-for-tat retaliation, as the feud shows no signs of ceasing.In the latest incident, Mr Khan was shot at about 10.30pm on Friday evening at his Glodwick home.
As news of his shooting spread, friends and relatives raced to the semi-detached home on Nugget Street. They followed his ambulance to the Royal Oldham Hospital where he died in the early hours. Amid emotional scenes, a nearby mosque opened its doors to mourners.A family member said relatives were all `absolutely devastated'.
"It's an absolute tragedy," he said. "He was such a hard worker. He had two daughters, one and four-years-old, and doted on those girls. They were his life.
"He loved playing football and he was a big Manchester United fan. We were going to watch the derby this weekend. He was looking forward to it."
The relative added that he was struggling to understand why Mr Khan was killed.
He said: "I've not got a clue why someone would do this. Gun him down in cold blood just before Eid."Police arrested two men yesterday on suspicion of murder in connection with Mr Khan's death. They remained in custody last night.
Detectives have previously said they will target anyone who tries to step into the shoes of the 11 senior members of Manchester's Gooch gang who were jailed in April.

Dark Side Rascals who have been battling with the Hanover Boyz and Providence Street Boys in the West End

War among several street gangs erupted in violence this weekend and left five people, including a pregnant teenage girl, with gunshot wounds although none of them are considered life-threatening.Sgt. Michael P. Wheeler, head of the Providence Police Gang Unit, said that investigators suspect that the gunfire involved members of the Dark Side Rascals who have been battling with the Hanover Boyz and Providence Street Boys in the West End.The Hanover Boyz and Providence Street Boys are allies.
“It’s an ongoing feud that has been quiet for a while,” Wheeler said. “We’re trying to find out what prompted this to take off. We don’t know why.”The shootings took place over a span of two hours on Friday night.At 6:45 p.m., police said that Nick Neang, 19, was sitting on the porch of a house at 23 Union Ave. with two members of the Dark Side Rascals when a black Honda sedan crawled by and a shooter fired several times from the passenger’s side window.The police said that one of the shots ripped through Neang’s back and collapsed one of his lungs. The other two gang members were not hit.Neang was taken to Rhode Island Hospital where he is expected to recover from the wound, the police said.About two hours later, at 8:50 p.m., two or three young men, whom the police believe are members of the Dark Side Rascals, slipped into a yard on Superior Street, not far from the site of a birthday party at 126 Ford St.Wheeler said that several members of the Hanover Boyz and Providence Street Boys attended the celebration, but he said that it was not a “gang party.” He said most those in attendance have no gang affiliation and there were many young women and children.The police said that the young men believed to be members of the Dark Side Rascals opened fire with two guns and pumped at least 10 shots into the group of 15 to 20 people in the driveway outside the Ford Street address.Wheeler said that four girls were struck: a bullet grazed one girl, another suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and a third was shot in the toe. He said that a fourth girl, who is well-advanced in her pregnancy, suffered a superficial wound.
Their ages ranged from 13 to 19 years old.The girls were all treated and released from Hasbro Children’s Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital.Police Maj. Thomas F. Oates III said he’s relieved that no one was killed or seriously hurt in the barrage of gunfire, especially the random firing into the crowd at the birthday party. He said that patrol officers as well as those from the gang unit, detectives and the Neighborhood Response Team flooded the West End over the weekend to stem the violence.Oates also said that the police relied on street workers from the Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence to calm things down.Teny O. Gross, the institute’s executive director, said that the bad blood between the Dark Side Rascals and the Providence Street Boys Juniors, its younger members, have been brewing

Mexican MDC’s have crossed over again into U.S. the violence and insecurity generated by the drug war in Mexico, has crossed into the US

Mexican MDC’s have crossed over again into U.S. the violence and insecurity generated by the drug war in Mexico, has crossed into the US, according to Jesse Tovar, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriffs Department. He cites the abduction of a man at gunpoint by three men from his home in Horizon City, Texas, on September 3, who was found five days later executed by strangulation in Cd. Juarez.
American gangs are operating throughout the country representing the MDC’s they get their drugs from the cartels smuggled into this country by the MDC’s foot solders in turn the U.S. gangs sale the fronted drugs to street dealers consisting mainly of smaller American gangs, dealers and drug attic’s supporting their habits. The U.S. gangs are fronted the drugs and they set up drug trafficking operations and distribution systems throughout the country. They represent the MDC’s by collecting millions owed by U.S. street dealers. They also act as enforcers for the cartels when ever the cartels feel they have been ripped off or someone owes the cartels money from fronted drugs. Many of the so called common drive by shootings are no longer just over turf or gang ego. Many of these deaths are ordered executions by the MDC’s. Today the gang business is much more dangerous and sophisticated with much more cash involved. These same gangs carrying out cartel orders with gangland style killings across the country acting as paid hit men killing, wounding and maiming Americans in the thousands, according to law enforcement.

Mexican civil war that is raging between the Mexican Government, the Mexican Drug Cartels (MDC’s) and the cartels

Mexican civil war that is raging between the Mexican Government, the Mexican Drug Cartels (MDC’s) and the cartels fighting among themselves over lucrative drug and human smuggling routes in both Mexico and the U.S. Many believe they are safer here than in Mexico. Many of these refugees are Mexican business people, ranchers, police, politicians and even cartel members who fear for their lives. Still others were victims being shaken down for protection money by the cartels similar to the American mafia tactics of the twenty’s and thirty’s. Many of them fear retaliation for not paying the cash or are just not welling to pay anymore.
Shopkeepers along the U.S. Mexican border recite the list of "protection" fees they pay to the MDC’s to just stay in business: 100 pesos a month for a stall in a street market, 30,000 pesos for an auto dealership or construction-supply firm.
First offense for nonpayment: a severe beating. Those who keep ignoring the fees - or try to charge their own - may pay with their lives.
"Every day you can see the people they have beaten up being taken to the IMSS," said auto mechanic Jesus Hernandez, motioning to the government-run hospital a few doors from his repair shop.
Mexican drug cartels have morphed into full-scale mafias, running extortion and protection rackets and are trafficking in everything from people to pirated DVDs and even entered the black market oil and gas business. As once-lucrative cocaine profits have fallen and U.S. and Mexican authorities crack down on all drug trafficking to the U.S., gangs are branching into new ventures - some easier and more profitable than drugsNo one knows the real number of these refugees but some experts believe they number in the thousands
“There’s an increasing number of (cartel) leaders living in the U.S., probably either to escape law enforcement or their enemies in Mexico, so that’s one of the risks that has increased in the last few years,” said Stephen Meiners, a senior tactical analyst for Latin America at Stratfor, a global intelligence company based in Austin, Texas.
“There’s a possibility that this thing could get out of hand,” he said.
Shannon O’Neil, an expert on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations, said she knows of no other high-level killings in the U.S., but fears it won’t be the last.
“We have started to see more brazenness close to the border on the Mexican side and on the U.S. side,” O’Neil said. “Once you get these organizations firmly established in Mexico and the United States, you will have killings at all different levels.”
But no one is safe against the Mexican mobsters not even in the states where not only Mexican nationals but American men, women and children have been kidnapped taken to Mexico and killed and other Americans murdered right here on American soil by orders of the MDC’s. Recently a deputy U.S. marshal and Ice informant have been tracked down and assassinated by the cartel henchmen.MDC’s are ordering decapitations hooding victims before they shoot them. The Cartels are sending a chilling message to the Mexican President Felipe Calderon Administration by adopting methods of intimidation made notorious by Middle Eastern terrorist groups.

Guerrero Olivas, aka "Screech," 26, was sentenced to 210 months in prison

Guerrero Olivas, aka "Screech," 26, was sentenced to 210 months in prison by Judge Sam R. Cummings of the Northern District of Texas, Lubbock Division, part of an immense crackdown on the street gang that began last year.Also sentenced were 33-year-old Hiluterio Chavez, aka "Zeus," of Chicago, who received 87 months in prison on charges of being a convicted felon in possession of firearms, possession of stolen firearms and conspiring to engage in the business of dealing in firearms.
Eliseo Perez, aka "Wicked," 28, of Mission was sentenced to 188 months in prison by Cummings. Perez pleaded guilty May 14 to indictments charging him with conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 100 kilograms or more of marijuana.Other Big Spring residents having pleaded guilty in the case include John Guzman, 30; Reynaldo Nava, aka "Rat," 27; and Carol Ann Rivas Nava, 20. One defendant, Luis Nava, aka "Flaco," of Midland, withdrew his guilty plea and will proceed to trial by court order.The indictment in the investigation, which charged a total of 17 defendants and was unsealed Feb. 26, alleged that from 2001 until Dec. 13, 2008 — when six of the defendants were arrested — the alleged members of the Latin Kings conspired to distribute multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine and marijuana throughout Texas and elsewhere.
“The 11-count indictment... charges each of the defendants with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana,” said acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas James T. Jacks shortly after the indictments were unsealed. “Three defendants are also charged with conspiring to deal in firearms. The indictment also includes drug distribution charges and various firearms charges, including using and carrying a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.”Officials with the BSPD say the Latin Kings are believed to be responsible for the May 4, 2008, drive-by shooting that claimed the lives of Valerie Garcia, 20, and Michael Cardona, 21, both of Big Spring, and injured several others.Jose Robledo Nava — allegedly the Texas leader of the Latin Kings — along with Gabriel Lee Gonzales, Eduardo Daniel Mares, James Johnathan Cole and Robert Allen Ramirez are currently under federal indictment for the slaying of Garcia and Cardona, according to court documents.According to the indictment — which was engineered by Jacks and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division — the defendants acquired the cocaine and marijuana from Mexico and brought it to the South Texas region, where it was packaged, stored and transported to Big Spring, Lubbock and Midland for further distribution.

Guns were pulled. Shots were fired. And an old-fashioned beef, the likes of which this part of South L.A. hadn't seen in several years, was underway.

Main Street threw a party. The Hoovers were invited. The details are murky -- something about a girlfriend and a racy remark -- but it doesn't matter now. Guns were pulled. Shots were fired. And an old-fashioned beef, the likes of which this part of South L.A. hadn't seen in several years, was underway.There have been at least six shootings in the wake of that night. Three people are dead, including a seventh-grader, gunned down on Broadway after buying balloons at a swap meet.
"It's frightening how something so trivial can set this off," said Sgt. Dan Horan, who supervises gang operations in the LAPD's 77th Street Division, one of two police districts that encompass the gangs' traditional territories.No one is sure how it's going to end, and the dispute threatens to undermine the marked progress that has been made here. The LAPD's intelligence from the streets, said Lt. Michael Carodine, who helps direct anti-gang operations, boils down to this: "It's on. And it's not going to be over until it's over."Many residents, civic leaders and city officials believe South L.A. is at a crossroads in part because violent crime has fallen so sharply.A reduction in gang violence has led the way. The LAPD's Southeast Division, for instance -- 10 square miles containing 66 gangs, and another district affected by the dispute -- averaged about 140 homicides per year in the late 1980s and early '90s, when violence peaked. Officials said they expect to finish 2009 somewhere in the 50s.That's why this dispute is so unsettling to police and local officials. It was once routine for gangs to duel openly, but that's less common these days; relatively few shots are fired solely to retaliate for previous shootings. Worse, the Hoover-Main Street dispute is considered perhaps the most ominous aspect of a broader spike in killings across South L.A. this summer, police said.In July and August, the police divisions that patrol most of South L.A. recorded 40 homicides, double the rate from the beginning of the year. On Aug. 25, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton announced that they had created a multi-agency task force to deal with the rise in violence.Hours later, at 8 o'clock that night, a gunman walked into the heart of Main Street Crip territory, on Main Street itself, and shot Drayvon James, 29, and Robert Nelson, 16. The double homicide, which has not been solved, is considered one of the incidents that might be linked to the Hoover-Main Street dispute, police said."For this guy to do this on foot, up close and personal . . . " Carodine said, shaking his head. "This is something we haven't seen in a long time."But it was the shooting death of 13-year-old Daquawn Allen that seems to have shaken the neighborhood to its core.Daquawn's shooting illustrates the complexities of policing the gangs of South Los Angeles.He was not a gangbanger, according to police and his relatives. But he was born in Hoover Criminals territory, just west of Broadway. He never knew his father. When he was 9, his mother was sent to prison, and he moved in with his grandmother. Her house was just a few blocks away -- but they were an important few blocks, on the other side of Broadway.Daquawn had an easy, impish smile and was well-liked. In private, he was terribly upset that he had never met his father, said his grandmother, 54-year-old Linda Allen. He was desperate for male attention and affection, she said, and he found it to some degree with a "set" of Hoovers -- part of the larger umbrella gang -- called the 94 Hoovers, sometimes spelled "9-Foe" and named after West 94th Street.They even gave Daquawn a street name: Four Star.
Allen refused to use it. "I told him: 'You use the name your momma gave you,' " she said recently on the porch of her home.

Lower Mainland gang warfare has seemingly reverberated onto Calgary streets, with a known B.C. underworld figure shot dead in a luxury vehicle

Lower Mainland gang warfare has seemingly reverberated onto Calgary streets, with a known B.C. underworld figure shot dead in a luxury vehicle. Gunfire erupted at 2:30 a.m., with cops finding the victim in the driver's seat of a black BMW M6 with B.C. licence plates. Sources identified the dead man as David Tajali, a former player in a war between feuding Mideast gangs in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, and believed to have been in Calgary for some time. It wasn't the first time he was targeted, having been wounded in a shooting in Richmond, B.C., in late 2006. A female passenger in the BMW escaped the gunplay without injury while a second man arrived at hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound. The latter was the brother of the victim and has non-life-threatening injuries, said Calgary police Staff Sgt. Doug Andrus.
"We have been in touch with B.C. police and we have also been in touch with our own gang unit," said Andrus. Sources said the BMW was driven about a block and a half after the shooting erupted, and it appeared two or three bullets struck the car on the driver's side, shattering the window. Shortly after the shooting, it was determined the victim's brother was in a different vehicle which police were trying to locate. Police hope to speak to two women seen behind a nearby building just prior to the shooting. "The (women) were speaking with a lone male and we believe that lone male will have information," said Andrus. Tajali's brother, Niki, was one of three men reportedly injured in a gang-related shootout in Richmond in early 2007. Yesterday's killing left nearby residents unsettled, with sidewalks dotted with evidence markers leading away from the victim's car toward an alleyway. Curt Heitmann lives in a nearby apartment building and was jarred awake by the sounds of about 10 gunshots. "I was sleeping ... and I woke up because I heard what sounded like fireworks," he said. "I think I heard some yelling from the street, 'I'm just trying to help you, I'm just trying to help you'. " Another area resident, Farhad Shirazi, saw an SUV roar away from the scene shortly after gunshots. "And another guy was yelling 'Don't shoot at me, I'm here to help,' " he said.
The slaying is Calgary's 20th homicide of the year. An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.

Nortenos and the Surenos at war over crossing out the Surenos gang signs

Three men and a 16-year-old boy have been charged in a Sunday morning drive-by shooting that left a Seattle teen injured.
The move marks the 31st time that a juvenile has been automatically charged as an adult this year by King County prosecutors; in 2008, only 19 such cases were filed. Under state law, 16 or 17-year-olds accused of most violent felonies are automatically charged as adults.According to police statements, Seattle officers were called to the 1000 block of South Sullivan Street just after midnight on reports of a shooting. They found an 18-year-old man shot in the back. Witnesses told officers the shooters had fled in a white sport utility vehicle, according to court documents. Police stopped a similar vehicle in the area minutes later and arrested five occupants. One was later released and has not been charged. During interviews, police allege one of those arrested said the shooting stemmed from a dispute between two street gangs, Deputy Prosecutor Karissa Taylor said in court documents. "The defendants admit that the shooting was gang related between the Nortenos and the Surenos," said Taylor, referring to two California-based gangs. "The victim was shot because he was crossing out the Surenos gang signs."
Having argued with other youths about 20 minutes before, the young men in GMC Tahoe spotted the victim and his friends in the South Park alley. Police allege that Rudy M. Rapisura, 24, Jairo Gomez-Cervantes, 19, and David Bryan Santos, 18, rushed out of the car and opened fire on the other youths. Prosecutors assert that 16-year-old Armando Gomez-Pablo was the getaway driver. Announcing the filing of charges, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg noted the apparent increase in the number of juveniles being prosecuted for violent crimes. "I share the great concern of police and community leaders over this disturbing trend of teenagers turning to gun violence to settle petty grievances," Satterberg said in a statement. "We need to send a strong and consistent message to youth that gun violence is not an acceptable option."Satterberg has previously argued that weak penalties for youths before they turn 16 in gun cases fail to impress upon them the serious consequences of gun violence. He has said he plans to ask that the state-mandated sentencing standards be reviewed. If convicted as charged, the accused face one to two years in prison. They are each scheduled to be arraigned on drive-by shooting charges Aug. 25 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent

Jason Alejandro Aguirre sentenced to death for the murder of a 13-year-old

Orange County gang member sentenced to death for the murder of a 13-year-old who was mistaken for a gang rival.Jason Alejandro Aguirre was sentenced Friday in Superior Court for the 2003 shooting death of Minh Tran.Prosecutors say members of a Vietnamese street gang followed Tran when they mistook him for a member of a rival street gang. They say Aguirre blocked Tran's car, walked up to the passenger's side and fired shots. Tran was killed and two of his relatives were wounded.A jury in May convicted the 34-year-old Aguirre of murder, attempted murder and street terrorism.
Prosecutors say six other gang members pleaded guilty to charges in the case.

Michael B., was a leading member of the 'Bandidos' rocker gang, switched from the rival 'Hells Angels' gang executed for defection

Berlin has been gripped by a bloody gang war after a renegade rocker was shot
dead in the street
Michael B., was a leading member of the 'Bandidos' motorbike gang, switched from the rival 'Hells Angels' gang executed for defection?The shots were fired from a black delivery van as Michael was walking along the street at midnight. A bullet hit him directly in the heart and an artery in his thigh was also badlydamaged.Residents in Hohenschönhausen in the east of the city heard shots around midnight, according to a police spokesman. The gang member was found lying in the street outside an apartment block.The victim was 33 and lived in the area, and was familiar to police from the rocker scene. He managed to drag himself about 200 metres before he collapsed and died.A doctor tried to resuscitate him but it was too late. An autopsy should be carried out later today to find out the exact cause of death.The investigation has been taken over by the State Office of Criminal Investigation and a murder commission. No suspects have been identified yet but they are the hunt for the black delivery van.An eyewitness reported that the area was flooded with police. The entire block was closed off.Initial reports that the victim was the leader of a rock group called ‘Bandidos’ have not been confirmed. Some rocker gangs, such as the ‘Bandidos’ and ‘Hells Angels’, are bitter rivals and have been waging a bloody war with each other in Germany for years with contract killings and assaults.

Triple shooting in Palmerston North was a clash between gangs.

Police are playing down suggestions that a triple shooting in Palmerston North was a clash between gangs.One man and two woman received gunshot pellet wounds following a confrontation that escalated in Highbury early this morning.Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan says while one of the men involved is affiliated with a gang, he does not believe the shooting was gang related.Rheon Albert, 27, has appeared in the Palmerston North District Court charged with three counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He has been remanded in custody to reappear on August 12.The victims have been released from hospital.

Calculated gang drug war rages as body after body fell in East and Southeast Baltimore.

Calculated gang drug war rages as body after body fell in East and Southeast Baltimore. Baltimore's police commissioner and mayor questioning the pace of the federal probe. But there are even more questions to answer. One of the victims of the cookout shooting was a member of Operation Safe Streets, an innovative program that uses ex-offenders to mediate gang disputes to prevent violence. It was hailed a success for its first year when no murders took place in a violent city neighborhood, and the counselor being at the party is indeed part of his job. But why didn't police know about the party? And now that the counselor is a witness, and a victim, he has an obligation to step forward and tell police what he knows. The program works under a city agency, the health department, and we can't have cops pleading with people to help them while allowing someone under another city agency to keep quiet.Operation Safe Streets works because the gang leaders who don't trust the cops do trust the workers. If a counselor goes to the cops, the gangs won't cooperate. So we sacrifice information for quiet. But it's not quiet anymore, and serious questions needs to be answered from the program's administrators as to what they knew about the party, the dispute and the gunmen.Questions also have to be asked about how and why Baltimore County Police allowed kidnappers to go free without pursuing criminal charges? Even if at the time the deal was sound because no one was giving up any information at all, cops can't simply sit back and allow two drug groups to exchange money for prisoners and then say case closed and walk away. The case was indeed closed in the county, where the kidnappings occurred, but far from closed as members retaliated in deadly precision on city streets.

Shots fired into the Marriott Resident Inn in Carlsbad

Shots fired into the Marriott Resident Inn in Carlsbad when a fight broke out at a party there early Saturday morning, police said. No one was hit by the gunfire.
Carlsbad police said several gang members from Oceanside and Long Beach were partying at the hotel on Faraday Avenue when they began brawling in front about 12:45 a.m. One of the fighters then pulled out a handgun and fired into the front of the hotel, police said. Police dispatchers received several 911 calls reporting the shooting, and arriving officers found a large crowd running and driving away.
Police interviewed several witnesses, but no arrests have been made.

Set Free Soldiers and Hells Angels inside Blackie’s By the Sea bar near the Newport Pier in July

Six men, including a father and son from Anaheim and two men from Costa Mesa, all have scheduled court appearances in the coming months related to the infamous fracas between the Set Free Soldiers and Hells Angels inside Blackie’s By the Sea bar near the Newport Pier in July.Six men charged in relation to last summer’s biker brawl by the sea in Newport Beach that left one man stabbed.The latest man to face justice from the incident was Jose Enrique Quinones, 43, of Anaheim, who was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday for trying to slit a rival’s throat before ultimately stabbing him in the abdomen.Quinones pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder for the stabbing and one count of street terrorism related to his membership with the Set Free Soldiers, a Southern California biker gang that claims to be a Christian ministry.Police said Quinones was one of a large group of Set Free Soldiers who ambushed the three or four Hells Angels inside. Authorities said the Hells Angels were confronting the other group’s leader, Phillip Aguilar, 61, over rumors that Set Free Soldiers were claiming association with the Hells Angels. Court documents show that the confrontation quickly escalated from verbal to physical when one person threw a punch.Chaos ensued, Quinones stabbed one man, police claim another man smashed a billiard ball into another man’s skull, then everyone fled. Police arrested the defendants days later after a huge, multi-agency raid on homes throughout Orange County. additional defendants from the July biker brawl:
Rodrigo Requejo, 35, Westminster. Pleaded guilty in December to aggravated assault and was sentenced to three years formal probation and 30 days in jail.
Phillip Aguilar, 61, Anaheim. Charged with several felonies including possessing a firearm as a felon, possession of a deadly weapon and street terrorism. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.
Matthew Aguilar, 30, Anaheim. Charged with felony possession of a deadly weapon and street terrorism. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.
Michael Timanus, 30, Anaheim. Charged with felony street terrorism and two counts of a felon possessing a firearm. Preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.
Brian Heslington, 36, Costa Mesa. Charged with two felonies of possession of a controlled substance and felony of possession of a controlled substance with a firearm. Trial is scheduled for July 13.
John Lloyd, 41, Costa Mesa. Charged with felony of having a concealed firearm and a felony of being a gang member carrying a loaded firearm in public. Trial is scheduled for July 6.
Glenn Schoeman, 57, Riverside. Felony of accessory after the fact and street terrorism. Preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 30.

Jose Filiberto Parra Ramos is allied with Teodoro Garcia Simental, who is believed to be waging a bloody battle against reputed Arellano Felix cartel

Jose Filiberto Parra Ramos appears in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration poster of 10 men it believes have been locked in a violent power struggle since a split in the Arellano Felix cartel last year.Soldiers captured Parra and three other drug suspects Wednesday in Tijuana using unspecified intelligence, the Defense Department and the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.The department said Parra is allied with Teodoro Garcia Simental, who is believed to be waging a bloody battle against reputed Arellano Felix cartel leader Fernando Sanchez Arellano, reputed heir to the Arellano Felix cartel.Masked soldiers led a handcuffed and scowling Parra off an airplane that landed in Mexico City from Tijuana, and paraded him in front of reporters at the airport.Parra led a group of armed men an April 2008 battle between the sides that left 13 people dead, the statement said. He also allegedly killed two federal police agents whose bodies were found at a ranch in the Baja California state town of Tecate that same month.According to Mexican authorities, Garcia left after the April 2008 battle to join forces with the powerful Sinaloa cartel and returned to Tijuana with a vengeance in September, sparking more than three months of intense bloodshed.The Defense Department says battles between the two gangs last year left 749 people dead.The army almost caught Parra twice at parties early this year, Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica, the top army commander in Tijuana, told The Associated Press in February.At a three-day bash in January, Parra and Garcia, known as "El Teo," barely escaped onto a beach. Instead, soldiers found Santiago Meza Lopez, nicknamed the "Pozole Maker," after a Mexican stew, because he is accused of disposing hundreds of bodies by disolving them in a corrosive material.Parra and another suspected trafficker, Reydel Lopez Uriarte, were close with Garcia but stayed on good terms with Sanchez Arellano after Garcia fled Tijuana last year, Duarte Mugica said. When Garcia returned to Tijuana in September, they joined him.Mexico has captured several high-profile cartel suspects since President Felipe Calderon launched a national crackdown on cartels in 2006 by sending troops to Michoacan, his home state. But drug violence has surged, claiming more than 10,800 lives since.On Thursday, gunmen opened fire and tossed a grenade at a crowded taco stand in the central Mexican city of Uruapan, killing a police officer and a 15-year-old boy, a spokesman for the state prosecutor's office said n condition of anonymity because his office does not allow him to give his name.The policeman was shot while eating with a fellow officer, the spokesman said. Before fleeing, the assailants shot two tanks of cooking gas that exploded, burning the teenage taco stand worker to death. Four other people were injured.Investigators said the attack apparently targeted the two officers.

Crackdown on the Monk Mobb follows a Halloween party spray of gunfire that killed a 24-year-old man and injured four of his friends.

Crackdown on the Monk Mobb follows a Halloween party spray of gunfire that killed a 24-year-old man and injured four of his friends.Early on, detectives suspected Monk Mobb members in the killing. But as they built their case, detectives gathered information that led to nearly a dozen arrests for other violent crimes – including shootings and robberies – and that could lead to more. What detectives hope will be the final blow came this week, when officials arrested eight suspects – six of them allegedly from the Monk Mobb, and one from TNA, an associated subset in the larger North Highlands Gangster Crips organization – in the Nov. 1 homicide."Monk Mobb and TNA have been problem gangs for us for a long time," said homicide Detective Angie Kirby. "Our goal not only was to solve this murder but take down the entire gang and eliminate this constant problem and threat to public safety."Detectives say they have arrested about a third of the still relatively small Monk Mobb crew. But they're confident, they say, that their efforts will be effective in "dismantling" the gang. And the pressure remains: Sheriff's gang detectives and FBI agents are continuing their push. More arrests are expected.The magnitude of the case and level of cooperation within the Sheriff's Department and with outside agencies is "virtually unheard of," said Detective Scott Swisher.The effort grew out of a Nov. 1 homicide on Rogue River Drive. Patrick Razaghzadeh, 24, was hosting a costume party at his home when the suspects crashed the gathering, detectives said. When an argument erupted about their behavior, one of the suspects unloaded a 9 mm handgun into the crowd.Razaghzadeh, dressed as an Oakland A's baseball player, took a bullet to his head and died in his rain-soaked backyard. Four of his friends suffered gunshot wounds.At the party, the gangsters had been throwing gang signs, causing trouble and trying to push drugs – working, Kirby said, as a "gang pack."That pack mentality continued as the assailants tried to cover up the identity of the trigger man, detectives said.Their loyalty, however, apparently went only so far. Some of the gang members eventually cooperated with authorities and fingered one another as being involved, detectives said.According to a criminal complaint filed by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, the accused are Corey Andre Carmicle, 22; Charles Steven Ferrell III, 21; Willie Cavil Harris IV, 19; Willie Earl Toliver, Jr., 22; two 18-year-old men who were 17 when the shooting occurred; and a 16-year-old boy who was 15. The Bee is not naming those suspects because they were juveniles at the time of the crimes.The suspects being held at the Sacramento County Main Jail were unavailable for interviews Thursday. Two remained in juvenile hall.Each of the suspects faces one count of murder and four counts of attempted murder, according to the complaint. They also face enhancements for allegedly committing the shooting with a handgun and on behalf of a street gang.The eighth suspect, Leighni Nikkol Hadl, 23, faces one felony count of conspiracy, according to the complaint.Razaghzadeh was the fourth Sacramento County resident to fall fatal victim to the Monk Mobb and TNA – which detectives describe as a "younger set" that includes siblings of Monk Mobb members – according to detectives from the Sheriff's Department and the city Police Department.Sheriff's detectives also allege that the two gangs are responsible for a dozen or more shootings and 70-plus robberies in 2008 alone. The spree has continued: When arrested this week, one of the unnamed 18-year-old suspects in the Rogue River case already was in custody, accused in a February shooting in North Highlands, Kirby said.Razaghzadeh's killing particularly concerned detectives because they saw it as an escalation in the gangs' violence: None of the victims was a gang member, and the alleged assailants were far out of their usual territory.During the investigation into Monk Mobb and TNA, detectives "had an opportunity to gain a whole lot of intelligence about how they operate, who they talk to, what they do and what kinds of crimes they're committing," Kirby said.That allowed them to arrest almost a dozen other gang members on suspicion of unrelated felonies and to seize drugs and weapons possessed by them, detectives said. They also collected information on a number of unsolved crimes, including homicides, though detectives declined to elaborate.In addition to any other arrests that might stem from that intelligence, detectives said it's possible they will make more arrests in the Rogue River case.For now, though, the arrests have Razaghzadeh's family on "cloud nine," said his mother, Trish O'Connor. "I think Pat can finally rest now," she said.Although the seven months since her son's death have been trying, O'Connor said she never gave up hope that detectives would make an arrest. Their regular updates kept her going, she said."They were just so persistent," O'Connor said. "I'm just so elated and thankful to them."Recently, Razaghzadeh's sister gave birth to a son and brought some joy into the family. His name: Ethan Patrick, after the uncle he'll never meet.

Charged four people including a former member of the Dead Man Inc. gang and two teens alleged to have other gang ties

Charged four people including a former member of the Dead Man Inc. gang and two teens alleged to have other gang ties – with firebombing a townhouse in Piney Orchard last week in what may be retaliation for the homicide of a 14-year-old boy.Officials, speaking at a news conference, said the arrests had roots in the May 30 death of Christopher Jones.Police Chief James Teare Sr. said the four suspects believed rumors - which turned out to be incorrect - that the people at the townhouse in the Piney Orchard community had something to do with Christopher's death. "The suspects acted on those rumors falsely," Teare said. They are charged with first-degree arson, first-degree malicious burning, conspiracy to commit arson and three counts of reckless endangerment. The suspected gang ties are a serious twist to violence that left Christopher dead – students said he was threatened by teens with local gang affiliations - said was a Molotov cocktail thrown at the townhouse June 3. No one was injured. Officials said no one in the house had gang ties.The crime and possible gang involvement trouble not only officials but also residents of the community. "It's scary," said Jennifer Wiech, president of the 8,500-household Piney Orchard Community Association, who attended the news briefing. The association pays $60,000 a year for off-duty officers to patrol five hours a day. The adult suspect in the case, Jonathan Richard Myers, 22, who lists addresses in Crofton and Gambrills, was ordered jailed without bond.Teare said Myers told police he had been a member of Dead Man Inc., a mostly white gang that got its start in Maryland's prisons. "That is disturbing," Teare said. Teare said the involvement of a person with ties to DMI was "very concerning to law enforcement." At the time of the firebombing, Myers was out on bond on charges of attempted murder. Prosecutors asked a judge to revoke his bail; a hearing will be Friday. His lawyer, Peter S. O'Neill, had no comment.Teare is to brief members of the county's legislative delegation on gang issues Thursday. Police said the three boys arrested were a 15-year-old and 16-year-old, both from Crofton, and a 16-year-old from Gambrills. They are in the Cheltenham Youth Facility, a juvenile detention center.Teare said two of the teens are affiliated with TNT, a youth gang in western Anne Arundel County that calls itself The New Threat, and the third is friends with them.Youths in TNT and the East Side Diamonds, a West County youth gang feuding with TNT, used to be friendly and play sports together, Teare said. But as they grew apart, fights erupted, he said. Though family and friends said Christopher was not involved in a gang, his family transferred him from Arundel High School to South River High School this spring because of threats at school. But weeks later, on his bicycle near home, he was approached by five to seven people. Police said Javel M. George, 16, and a 14-year-old boy, both of whom live near Christopher's family, admitted to beating him.As he pedaled away, Christopher fell and hit his head. George is charged as an adult with manslaughter, and the younger suspect is charged as a juvenile.Police said race does not appear to have been a factor, though Christopher was white and the youths charged are black.

Found 11 bodies inside an abandoned car in the border state of Sonora

Mexican police found 11 bodies inside an abandoned car in the border state of Sonora Thursday in violence attributed to drug traffickers battling for control of the region.Sonora's state prosecutors said in a statement that the bodies were discovered inside a sport utility vehicle on a road between the towns of Caborca and Sonoyta along with a threatening message. The SUV had been stolen in Arizona.
Prosecutors did not reveal what the message said or the identities of the bodies. They said the killings are linked to a fight between local drug traffickers and another group trying to move in.Police are investigating whether the killings are tied to an attack on the village of Plutarco Elias Calles where four people were abducted and assailants opened fire on the police station Wednesday night.Meanwhile, federal police said Thursday they have captured two of 53 inmates who escaped from a prison in northern Mexico last month as its guards apparently stood by.
Marcos Espinoza and Osvaldo Garcia were detained Wednesday in Mexico's central state of Hidalgo along with six alleged members of the Zetas, a gang of hit men tied to the Gulf cartel, federal police intelligence coordinator Luis Cardenas told reporters.Security camera footage shows that guards at the Cieneguillas prison in Zacatecas state stood by as an armed gang walked out with the 53 inmates on May 16. About a dozen of the fugitives are drug cartel suspects.The prison director and all 44 guards on duty have been jailed pending an investigation into their possible complicity.

Comanchero bikie Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi walked free from jail yesterday after raising $200,000 bail .

Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi walked free from jail yesterday after raising $200,000 bail - and celebrated with a kiss for his expectant wife.The Comanchero bikie gang president emerged from Silverwater Correctional Facility just before 3pm after spending five days in solitary confinement waiting for friends to raise the surety.
A female friend managed to raise the bail after mortgaging her home as security.
Hawi is charged with affray over his alleged involvement in the Sydney airport brawl with Hells Angels, in which Anthony Zervas, 27, died.As he waited more than three hours for his release, Hawi was met by up to a dozen family, friends and Comanchero members who later gathered to celebrate at his Bexley home.Seated in the back of a Silver Audi, with his heavily pregnant wife Carolina Gonzales in front, Hawi covered his face with a black and white hooded top as he was driven from the centre.Hawi was granted strict conditional bail in the Supreme Court last week after Ms Gonzales said she needed him at home for the birth of their child.The strict conditions forbid Hawi from attending the gang's Milperra clubhouse or associating with others involved in the airport brawl. He also must not leave his Bexley home between 8pm and 8am.While no further arrests have been made in relation to the brawl, police yesterday said they would monitor Hawi's movements ahead of his upcoming court appearance on May 28.

Dennis Karbovanec Red Scorpion gang member convicted last month of executing three people in the Surrey Six slayings

Red Scorpion gang member convicted last month of executing three people in the Surrey Six slayings has had two other sets of criminal charges he was facing stayed, a Crown spokesman confirmed Thursday.Neil MacKenzie said the prosecution team decided it would not be in the public interest to continue with other cases against Dennis Karbovanec, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the October 2007 killings in a Surrey highrise.Karbovanec’s surprise plea April 3 led to a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 15 years. Details of the sentencing were covered by an extraordinary ban on publication.At the time of the plea, Karbovanec was already facing several charges related to a handgun and silencer found in a secret compartment in his leased vehicle when he was stopped by Abbotsford police last October. He was wearing a body-proof vest at the time.Karbovanec was also arrested and charged in Port Coquitlam in March, along with Jonathan Bacon, with several fraud counts related to the leasing of a vehicle from Four Star Auto lease allegedly using fake documents.“Crown, in the circumstances, decided that it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed at this point with those outstanding matters,” MacKenzie said.He refused to say whether dropping the other charges was part of a plea agreement reached with Karbovanec. “I can’t really go into more detail than that,” he said. But MacKenzie said that generally-speaking Crown will consider staying charges when someone is already convicted of a more serious offence than the counts in the other cases.“It is factor Crown looks at generally as to whether the public interest requires proceeding. Any sentence imposed would end up being concurrent to the life sentence where a person has been convicted of murder,” MacKenzie said. “It is not unusual, but it doesn’t invariably happen.” Meanwhile, Bacon’s fraud charges have now been set for trial beginning Jan. 27, 2009, MacKenzie said. The day Kabovanec pleaded guilty in the Surrey Six case, Bacon’s younger brother Jamie and two other Red Scorpions – Matt Johnston and Cody Haevischer – were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the unprecedented gangland slaughter on Oct. 17, 2007.Jamie Bacon’s charges relate to the death of a young drug dealer Cory Lal in suite 1505 of the Balmoral Tower that day. Johnston and Haevischer are charged with killing Lal, his brother Michael, Eddie Narong, Ryan Bartolomeo and two innocent bystanders – Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan.A fifth unindicted co-conspirator has been identified in court papers only as Mr. X.
Jamie Bacon, Haevischer and Johnston remain in custody pending their next appearance in Surrey provincial court June 15.

Rastrojos the armed wing of the Norte del Valle cartel surrendered in Choco province

Rastrojos the armed wing of the Norte del Valle cartel surrendered in Choco province, near the border with Panama. They had been surrounded during a Colombian military operation that involved army and naval units. The Rastrojos had become such a big threat that President Alvaro Uribe declared them his main target.
The men had formed a private army controlling a crucial part of the Pacific Coast in Choco province, a launch pad for cocaine leaving Colombia, the BBC's Jeremy McDemrott reports from Bogota. It is considered a major player in Colombia's illegal drugs trade, which accounts for exports of more than 600 tonnes of cocaine and heroin every year, our correspondent adds. The cartel is headed by Luis Enrique Calle, better know by his alias "Combatant". It is reported to have spread across the country, with groups of heavily-armed drugs traffickers now present all along the coast and the frontier with Ecuador.

Race War gang members take pride in their racism and often refer to the VHG Gang as the 'Hate Gang,'"

Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang members take pride in their racism and often refer to the VHG Gang as the 'Hate Gang,'" the main indictment states. "VHG gang members have expressed a desire to rid the city of Hawaiian Gardens of all African-Americans and have engaged in a systematic effort to achieve that result by perpetrating crimes against African-Americans."Latino street gang has waged a racist campaign to eliminate black people from a Southern California city through attempted murders and other crimes.
Five indictments charged a total of 147 members and associates of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang, and federal and local agencies arrested 63 of them by early Thursday, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien told a press conference.O'Brien asserted it was "the largest gang takedown in United States history," but he did not immediately elaborate. The indictments detail attempted murder, kidnapping, firearms, narcotics and other charges related to attacks by the gang, which primarily operates in Hawaiian Gardens, a city of about 15,000 people in southeastern Los Angeles County. The indictment alleges a string of attacks on black residents, including a shooting into a home with eight people inside. The indictment does not say if anyone was hit. In another instance, two gang members allegedly chased a black man, yelled a racist epithet at him and then beat him with a garden rake. The same man was later repeatedly stabbed by two gang members, according to the indictment, which charges them with his attempted murder. In the 2000 Census, the latest data available, Hawaiian Gardens was roughly 73 percent Hispanic and 4 percent black. The city was incorporated in 1964 and, according to local lore, was named after a bamboo snack shack built in 1927. The indictments mark at least the second time in less than two years that federal authorities have alleged that Latino gang members in Southern California attacked black residents because of their race. In 2007, agents arrested dozens of members of the Florencia 13 gang in South Los Angeles and said the gang had, in some instances, killed black people purely because of the color of their skin. The extent to which race is driving the area's gang conflicts last year sparked an argument between the region's two top cops, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton. Baca said racial bias was a significant factor in gang crime while Bratton, pointing to statistics showing cross-racial crime to be rare, downplayed any tension.
The investigation of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang has been under way for almost four years since the June 2005 murder of Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Luis Gerardo "Jerry" Ortiz. Jose Luis Orozco, a member of the gang, was sentenced to death in 2007 for the killing. Ortiz, 35, died as he searched for Orozco, who had shot and wounded a man while he did yard work. Orozco was later found guilty of attempted murder in that case. "Following the murder of Deputy Ortiz, the Sheriff's Department sought federal and local assistance to help destroy the Hawaiian Gardens gang," the U.S. attorney said. Florencia 13 and Varrio Hawaiian Gardens aren't the only Latino gangs linked to racial attacks. In 2007, four members of The Avenues, a gang from the Highland Park area northeast of downtown Los Angeles, were convicted of hate crimes for killing a black man in what prosecutors called a campaign to drive blacks from that neighborhood. Authorities have also announced a crackdown on the 204th Street gang following the killing of a 14-year-old black girl. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, an author and racial commentator, said racial bias among gang members is high in transitioning neighborhoods where black residents are moving out and Latinos are moving in. "There is a deep-seated animosity between some Latino gangs and African-Americans," he said. "There is no way around it, it is driven by racial animus."

Giovanni Strangio, the Calabrian mafia boss suspected of organising a massacre in Germany in 2007, has been extradited to Italy

Giovanni Strangio, the Calabrian mafia boss suspected of organising a massacre in Germany in 2007, has been extradited to Italy from The Netherlands. Escorted by Interpol agents, he arrived at Rome's Ciampino military airport and was transferred to the Italian capital's high-security Rebibbia prison.Strangio is believed to have masterminded and led the massacre of six members of a rival crime family in Duisburg in western Germany on 15 August 2007. A Dutch court last week approved Strangio's extradition to Italy. Strangio, 30, was arrested in the Netherlands in March, with another of Italy's 30 most wanted criminals, his brother-in-law Francesco Romeo.Investigators believe Strangio played a key role in the Duisburg massacre in revenge for the killing of his cousin, Maria Strangio, on Christmas Day 2006.A four-man hit squad from the southern Italian town of San Luca, home of the feuding clans linked to the Calabrian mafia or 'Ndrangheta, allegedly gunned down the six men outside a pizzeria.Another brother-in-law of Strangio's, Giuseppe Nirta, was arrested in Amsterdam last November and extradited to Italy earlier this year.Italian and German police both issued warrants for Strangio's arrest over the Duisburg killings. Prosecutors in the western German town of Bochum had also issued an international warrant for Strangio's arrest in relation to a robbery in Germany in July 1998.
The feud between the Nirta-Strangio clan and the rival Pelle-Vottari clan was reportedly provoked by an egg-throwing incident in 1991 in the Calabrian town of San Luca, home of the two families.The 2007 massacre generated worldwide concern about the Calabrian-based 'Ndrangheta's international reach.The 'Ndrangheta has become one of the most powerful criminal organisations in Italy and is reported to have extended its power base through the European drug trafficking market.It has links to South American drug cartels and criminal organisations in Canada, Australia and other parts of the world.

Charged 17-year old Eduardo Escobar with seven counts, including felony assault and armed criminal action.

Charged 17-year old Eduardo Escobar with seven counts, including felony assault and armed criminal action.The shooting happened Monday afternoon in the 1000 block of Cleveland Avenue.According to court documents, the victim was shot inside a car as Escobar walked across the street. Police say Escobar unzipped his jacket, and opened fire.The bullet pierced the front passenger side door before hitting the victim in the abdomen.He was taken to the hospital, where his condition was not being released.
Escobar was in the Jackson County jail late Wednesday afternoon.

Hells Angels linked to Aussie ex-pat murder

Sandie Dave, 61, was found battered and stabbed to death at a recycling plant on the Gold Coast, while his wife Susan, 50, was found stabbed and butchered six miles from her husband's body. The owner of a security firm, Sandie was investigated in 2006 after four guns, including two Smith and Wessons, were stolen from his business. At the time the police investigated the victim because the weapons were reported stolen from the wrong address to which they were licensed. Detective Superintendent Dave Hutchinson said he believed they were hunting for more than one person. Playing down the link with biker gang warfare that has recently blighted Australia and other countries, Hutchinson said: "No connection has been established between these offences and any outlaw motorcycle gang. But we're keeping an open mind."

Annual murder rate of around 1,500, Jamaica is one of the world's most violent countries, on a par with South Africa and Colombia

The postmortem room at the Spanish Town Hospital, outside Kingston, typically has no refrigeration. So what might serve as evidence disintegrates fast. Bodies are brought in by the commercial funeral homes in the early morning, and piled up in corners. The pathologists rarely get to them before midday, if at all.

Annual murder rate of around 1,500, Jamaica is one of the world's most violent countries, on a par with South Africa and Colombia. A recent report by Amnesty International, "Let Them Kill Each Other" (April 2008), depicted a nation in tragic disorder. Stories of child labour, domestic violence and murder clog the national press. Kingston, the capital, remains locked in cycles of political and gangland violence; to live there today calls for special qualities of endurance.

In downtown Kingston, amid the shacks of Trench Town, the inhabitants are sullen and numbed. The neighbourhood was developed in the 1940s by the colonial administration to accommodate West Indian troops returning home. It has decayed into a violent, disaffected ghetto, whose tenement yards gave rise to the term "Yardie", shorthand for Jamaican gangland criminal. In Trench Town, gang members carry ever more lethal weapons to "rank" themselves higher in the narcotics trade. It might have been dangerous for me to visit on my own, so I was accompanied by a local pastor, Bobby Wilmot, whose job is to broker truces between gang factions. We drove across scrubland, the morning hot and shadowless, while dogs slunk amid a roadside litter of plastic bottles and old KFC boxes. At an abandoned remand centre with collapsed razor-wire fencing, the pastor said: "I've seen quite a few shoot-outs here in my time, and it looks like the cowboy shows are still running." A crowd of women had emerged by a roadblock of burning tyres. One of them, flushed with rage, shouted out: "Pastor B!" I quickly put away my notebook (it gave me a provocatively official air), while Pastor Bobby slowed down and addressed the woman through the car window. "Wha gwaan?" We soon found out. A youth from an adjacent turf had been executed – summarily – that morning by police; now another had been killed. By the police? No, a rival gang. The roadblock was to prevent retaliatory drive-by shootings. "Lord 'ave mercy," said Pastor Bobby. Violence is now so deeply ingrained in the local culture of "respect" that to be in charge, you have to "batter" people. As in parts of London, youths are caught in "district-code" warfare, where turfs are respected on pain of death. In some respects, 21st-century Jamaica, with its mass poverty, social resentments and skewed distribution of wealth, is like pre-Revolution France, reckoned Pastor Bobby. Only, in Jamaica, there is no sign of a revolutionary movement, no glimmer even of organised social protest. "So the wealthy will have nothing to fear," he said. "The poor are too disorganised, too ill-educated, for social revolution." There is, however, something far worse: thousands of empty, wasted lives, and endemic violence, in which God is a US-import Glock. ' In the half-century since independence in 1962, hopes for a fairer, better Jamaica have not been met. Instead, a system of "clientism" has evolved, in which patron politicians provide their client supporters with jobs, protection and a flow of money, as well as narcotics and firearms in return for their loyalty. Incredibly, an estimated 55 per cent of Jamaica's goods are imported from the US; these include not only sugar, cars and electrical goods, but guns. America's liberal gun laws have fatally eased the transfer of firearms into Jamaica. (Conversely, many Caribbean drug kingpins in Brooklyn – "Little Jamaica" – were apprenticed in the Kingston ghetto.) Carolyn Gomes, director of the human-rights group Jamaicans for Justice, believes the violent American culture of "respect" has flourished in Jamaica in the absence of civic values, encouraging teenagers to pursue power and money for their own sake. "When your life's so degraded," she said, "you need people to respect you." She added: "A youth with a gun is a youth to be feared and looked up to – murder is his badge of honour." Increasingly, Jamaica's justice system is undermined by violence and threats of violence. Pathologists are often too frightened to serve as observers at postmortems. They may be seen as witnesses or, worse, informers and suffer violence themselves.
Jamaica is now a quasi-American outpost in the Caribbean, yet its legal system is clogged with British Empire-era red tape. The island's anti-sodomy laws, which carry a jail sentence of up to 10 years, derive from the English Act of 1861, and show to what a dismal extent Jamaica has absorbed values from its imperial masters. Similarly, the death penalty is still on the Jamaican statute books, though most capital punishments are overturned in London by the Privy Council, Jamaica's Court of Final Appeal. Thus an ancient British institution comprised of mostly white Law Lords has become the unlikely defender of human rights in Jamaica. A majority of Jamaicans – not just conservative, pro-monarchy ones – see hanging as the only effective deterrent against criminality: murderers must face death. Yet the British Law Lords, through the grace of Queen Elizabeth II, use their power to prevent executions. Such paradoxes are part of the Jamaican confusion: Victorian standards that have long disappeared in Britain linger on in Jamaica – to Jamaica's detriment.
As elsewhere in the West Indies, Jamaica is a land with a continuous memory of slavery and slavish abasement. The deeper I ventured into the island, the more it seemed an insidious "shadism" has ensured that a minority of white (or near-white: what Jamaicans call "local white") inhabitants still control the plantations and other industries. Jamaica's oldest sugar estate, Worthy Park, was founded in 1670, and is still in operation. One day I went there for lunch. A sound of cocktail-making – a clinking of crushed ice against glass – greeted my arrival as bow-tied waiters hurried to whisk away flies from our plates. The elite of Jamaica's sugar industry was enjoying fine French wine and chilled soursop juice. They ate well – steak, lobster mayonnaise – and the food was served with a plantation-bred obsequiousness. Many of the guests turned out to be related; all were white.
For more than three centuries, Jamaica had been Britain's most profitable sugar bowl, a prize and inhumane possession. Worthy Park's slave-grown sugar, destined for the docks and refineries of Liverpool and Bristol, used to be king. No longer: sugar is a dying industry throughout the Caribbean, and Worthy Park is waiting on a government promise of money, otherwise it will not survive. The only time Jamaica prospered economically was during the sugar boom of slavery in the 18th century.
Nevertheless, Jamaicans had found a sense of hope in the 1970s when a leftist (and outwardly anti-American) government sought to instil self-respect in the black majority and rid them of the servility ingrained by slavery. Social reforms were implemented but, 30 years on, the island's class and racial divides are still in place. "Motty" Perkins, a controversial Kingston radio journalist, reckons the attitude to power in Jamaica remains that of the plantation system, where every little Trench Town Napoleon wants to be an overseer with a team of servants. "Man, I tell you, the Jamaicans who live in the big houses today – black, brown, yellow, white – they despise those niggers down there, the Trench Town poor." Imperial Britain did some terrible things in Jamaica, Perkins agreed, "but whoever said we have a fair society now?" Politicians exploit the poor for their own purposes, in a pattern stretching back through the 300 years of British slavery. Jamaica's very social order betrays its slaving past. Near Montego Bay, I met an elderly sugar planter and land-owner known to the locals as "Squire Taylor". His Georgian residence was shuttered and silent in the afternoon heat; the door was opened by a black man in dungarees. "Master Taylor's asleep," he announced, "but he soon come." Taylor emerged from his slumbers, a thin man bent almost double with age, yet still every inch the "buckra", or white sugar boss. He gestured for me to sit down in a room whose scant furniture was eaten, visibly, by termites. Taylor's daughter had come out the other day from England with a removal van, he explained, and, staking a claim to the family heirlooms, "cleared out everything". Taylor added (apparently by way of apology) that she lived in Tunbridge Wells.
The Taylors had occupied this merchant's house since 1773 and, no doubt, like many of Jamaica's long-settled English, they were impervious to, and contemptuous of, African slave culture. Taylor began to rail against the native propensity (as he construed it) for idleness and skylarking. His family slaves had been "awfully lazy"; they rarely did an honest day's work. Honest? Jamaican slavery, with its arsenal of whips and chains, was, by contrast, brute mercantile greed. Upstairs, the rooms had collapsed; a mattress lay along one wall, next to a bucket for collecting rain. The house, like Jamaica's sugar industry, was on shaky foundations.
More so even than tourism, narcotics have transformed Jamaica. Kingston remains vital to the trans-shipment of cocaine from Latin America to the markets in North America and – the most profitable of all markets – Britain. Cocaine fetches three times as much in Britain as in other European countries. More than 300 Jamaican women are currently serving sentences in British prisons for drug smuggling, many of them single mothers. The drugs come in by air as well as by ship. "Mules" board planes at Kingston and Montego Bay, having ingested up to 100 condoms or (more dependably sturdy) surgical glove fingers filled with cocaine.
I spent an afternoon at Kingston's container terminal, Port Bustamante, watching vessels unload. Stockpiles of containers – P&O, Hamburg Süd – were stacked like giant Lego blocks along the wharves, among them "reefers" (refrigerated containers) crammed with frozen fish fingers and TV dinners. Omar Williams, chief of the port's anti-narcotic security, was carrying a pair of binoculars and a licensed firearm. He was on the look-out, he explained, for "high-risk" containers from Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. X-ray equipment installed in 2006 by US security experts works only intermittently because "certain employees keep pulling the plug" on the cargo-scanning equipment; Jamaica's "guns for drugs" trade with Haiti is thought to be facilitated in this way. "Shouldn't Jamaica tighten its border controls?" I asked Williams. "You could say that. But it's not just Jamaica. American guns are dropping into Kingston like mangoes off a tree." He answered my next question – about where exactly the guns come from – with a slight weariness. "We really don't know. Some say Haiti – as payment for drugs. Others say the Balkans. Maybe Manchester. Maybe Liverpool. Maybe Northern Ireland." Like any other globalised economy, in other words, the guns come from all over the world. They are cheap, and getting cheaper; and to the new breed of Jamaican criminal who uses them, so is human life.


On my last day, I went to Watercourse, a village so insignificant it fails to appear on any map. Even the name is misleading, as there are no watercourses in the area and, as far as anyone knows, there never have been. Thelma Smith, a Jamaican living in Brixton, south London, had urged me to visit. Thelma was born in Watercourse in 1923 and had relatives there; her childhood friend Benita Hailey was among them.

"Thelma sent you?" asked Miss B (Hailey's local name). I said yes, and she pointed me to a chair on the porch. "Sit down and relax yourself." A neighbour pegging out the washing looked at me curiously, while children's voices were raised in playful chatter somewhere. Watercourse was a hillside community of perhaps 800 inhabitants, situated near Kingston in the heart of orange-grove country.

"Yes, up here is country," Miss B said, pouring me a glass of coconut water, "and we country people is a good people who care for each other." The air, cool with a smell of juniper and orange, was a tonic to the fug of traffic-polluted Kingston. The world that Miss B had known as a girl, however, was falling around her; Kingston represented a confusion beyond the reach of reason, a creation of the devil. What used to be considered a crime there was now judged a non-crime – even murder. "But we're living in Jamaica, my dear, and we have to stay here now. Yes, we have to live," and I admired her for the attitude. How could you live in a country in a state of constant preparedness for the worst? With a sigh, Miss B got up and led me by the arm to a shaded plot of earth where, under an orange tree, the gravestones of Thelma Smith's parents stood alone in the fading light. She reached up to the tree and pulled down one, two, then six oranges for me. "When you get home to Brixton," she said, dropping the fruit into my bag, "tell Thelma that Miss B give you some oranges – and kiss up your children for me." That moment in Watercourse, with the sun descending over a secluded cemetery, and the green-lighted fireflies which had begun to dance over the graves of Mr and Mrs Smith, defined for me the survival of an older Jamaica. The island is beautiful; yet the Jamaican people, with their gift for humour and generosity, their creativity (and fabled aggression) are stuck in a post-colonial malaise. Independence arrived late – 14 years after India's – and by the time it came in 1962, the enthusiasm for change had been tempered by years of colonial prevarication. "Now of course Jamaica's gone to the American camp," Michael Foot, the Labour politician, told me in 2007. "And it's partly our fault – we've abandoned Jamaica." Having shaped Jamaica's past for ill, Britain had not helped to shape its future for good.
Yet, in the present uncertainty and emptiness, surely there is some possibility of hope, maybe even of a new beginning? Jamaica, a nation built on violence, remains a corrupted Eden haunted by the legacy of imperialism. The many wonderful things about the island – its extraordinary music-making, the physical beauty, its athletic prowess (six gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, including, famously, Usain Bolt's) – are shadowed now by crime and political corruption. Hope has not died, yet I was in no hurry to go back.