Bikie gang member shot dead in Adelaide

 The shooting of a bikie gang member and his club president father has been declared a major crime as the South Australian police minister says some outlaw gangs have no regard for the law or the community. Giovanni Focarelli, 22, is dead and his father, Comanchero club president Vince Focarelli, is in Royal Adelaide Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds after the shooting on Sunday night. Police Minister Jennifer Rankine said the state has...

Gangster gets four years for drug stash

 A CAREER criminal branded as “extraordinarily dangerous” has been jailed for four years after being caught with heroin worth £50,000 during a police raid. Detectives believe that Ronald Aldred was peddling the Class A drug in Edinburgh and West Lothian after recovering the stash kept at his Kirkliston home. The 44-year-old was jailed for 12 years in 2002 as the ringleader of a gang that took part in a campaign of kidnapping, assault and extortion,...

Fury erupts over bikie 'war' claims

 A GOLD Coast nightclub owner says it's time to clear the air on "sensationalised" reports of bikie gang violence in Surfers Paradise. But the club owner blasted police for allowing bikies to parade through the Glitter Strip wearing gang patches. "The police at Surfers Paradise should hang their heads in shame as they are the ones unable to control these sorts of incidents," the club owner said. "They don't see trouble walk past the station...

Gang killings review welcomed by barrister

 A top Bradford barrister has welcomed proposals to simplify the law on gang-related killings. Stephen Wood, who is based at the Broadway barristers’ chambers, said there were miscarriages of justice due to the complexities of the ‘joint enterprise’ rule, which allows groups or gangs to be charged with murder, even if only one person delivers the fatal blow. MPs on the Commons Justice Select Committee last week said a new, less complex law...

Gang killings review welcomed by barrister

 A top Bradford barrister has welcomed proposals to simplify the law on gang-related killings. Stephen Wood, who is based at the Broadway barristers’ chambers, said there were miscarriages of justice due to the complexities of the ‘joint enterprise’ rule, which allows groups or gangs to be charged with murder, even if only one person delivers the fatal blow. MPs on the Commons Justice Select Committee last week said a new, less complex law...

Former Hells Angels leader sues wrong government for seizing home

 The former leader of the Manitoba Hells Angels says he's been the victim of a crime — the government allegedly stole his house. Ernie Dew has filed a unique civil lawsuit, claiming his property in St. Andrews, Man., was illegally seized and sold following his arrest on drug charges. Dew, 53, seeks unspecified financial damages. "The government has misused and/or exceeded the power of its public office," says a statement of claim filed in...

A young member of the Native Syndicate street gang will spend the next eight months behind bars after beating a stranger unconscious with a fence post

 A young member of the Native Syndicate street gang will spend the next eight months behind bars after beating a stranger unconscious with a fence post in an apparently unmotivated attack. The youth, 14, was handed a sentence of 18 months of secure custody and supervision under the Youth Criminal Justice Act last week after admitting responsibility for an unprovoked summertime attack at a children’s park near Spence Street and Cumberland Avenue....

A young member of the Native Syndicate street gang will spend the next eight months behind bars after beating a stranger unconscious with a fence post

 A young member of the Native Syndicate street gang will spend the next eight months behind bars after beating a stranger unconscious with a fence post in an apparently unmotivated attack. The youth, 14, was handed a sentence of 18 months of secure custody and supervision under the Youth Criminal Justice Act last week after admitting responsibility for an unprovoked summertime attack at a children’s park near Spence Street and Cumberland Avenue....

Police investigating three murders arrested 43 feuding New York gang members

 Police investigating three murders arrested 43 feuding New York gang members on Thursday based on evidence collected from monitoring what the gang members were saying about the cases on Twitter and Facebook, authorities said. The 25 accused members of the Wave Gang and 18 accused members of rival Hoodstarz have been terrorizing streets in Brooklyn with shootouts that led to the killing of three people and wounding of several others, New York...

Mention of Mafia at hearing for Hells Angel murder

 References to the Mafia surfaced Tuesday as prosecutors and public defenders argued whether names of some witnesses should be kept secret at the upcoming murder trial for a Vagos motorcycle gang member accused of killing a high-ranking Hells Angel during a shootout at a Nevada casino. Ernesto Gonzalez, a Vagos member from San Francisco, is accused of fatally shooting the president of the rival Hells Angels' San Jose chapter, Jeffrey "Jethro"...

Whistle-blower links Serbian drug lords, SA gangs

 The head of a Balkan cocaine and crime syndicate is hiding out in South Africa under the protection of local gang bosses, underworld sources reveal. Fugitive Darko Savic – one of the world’s most wanted drug smugglers – is living under a different alias here, right under the noses of the authorities. And local crime bosses are helping him avoid detection by using their network of corrupt cop contacts. The revelation comes after the Daily...

Warning issued for 'violent and dangerous' offender

 RCMP believe a Saskatchewan man "considered violent and dangerous" and wanted on a Canada-wide warrant is in Manitoba. Thomas Gordon Bear "should not be approached," RCMP stated in a news release sent out on Tuesday. He is a known member of the Native Syndicate street gang and has numerous tattoos, including the 'Native Syndicate' on his forearms, RCMP said. Bear was released on parole from Saskatchewan Penitentiary, where he had been serving...

Pasquale Mazzarella and Clemente Amodio arrested in Marbella

 TWO Italians belonging to the Mazzarella mafia family were arrested in Malaga for their alleged involvement in drug trafficking activities, according to Press reports. Pasquale Mazzarella, who had been on the run from the authorities for the past three years, and Clemente Amodio, wanted since last Spring, had European arrest warrants against them and were handed over to the National Court to be extradited to Italy. They were living in a villa...

Latin King Given 26 Years for Drug Charge

 high-ranking member of the Latin Kings gang was sentenced to 26 years in prison on drug charges. Ruben Gutierrez, 48, a former Inca of the South and Southwest Sides for the Latin Kings, was sentenced Monday afternoon, according to a Will County State Attorney's Office news release. Gutierrez pleaded guilty in June 2011 to possession of a controlled substance (cocaine) with intent to deliver. He was arrested in March of 2010 when New Lenox...

celebrity gangster-turned-author has been banned from the road after being caught more than one-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit

David CourtneyA celebrity gangster-turned-author has been banned from the road after being caught more than one-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit.David Courtney, 52, was pulled over on the M6 in the early hours.He was driving a borrowed Vauxhall Vectra after his wife, the rapper...

2nd Try to Extradite Mexican Accused Narco Denied

 A Mexican federal judge on Thursday rejected a second attempt to extradite an alleged drug trafficker to the U.S., nearly exhausting yearslong efforts by both nations to convict a woman known as the "Queen of the Pacific." Judge Jesus Chavez ruled that Sandra Avila Beltran...

DRUGS lord who enjoyed a jet-set lifestyle was last night starting an 11-and-a-half-year jail sentence.

  Darlington man Paul Brett was at the head of a well organised empire that tried to flood the area with more than £1m of cocaine. The gang was disrupted after an 18-month undercover operation – the biggest in Durham Police history – culminated in raids last year. Brett, 25, was jailed along with five others from Darlington, Teesside and Merseyside. Detective Chief Superintendent Jane Spraggon said afterwards: “This operation proves...

Cornwall shooting death men 'worked for IRA drug gang'

 Two men killed and buried on a remote farm in Cornwall were working for an IRA gang involved in Liverpool's drugs trade, a court has heard. Boxer Brett Flournoy, from Merseyside, and David Griffiths, of Berkshire, were found dead buried in a van at Ross Stone's farm near St Austell in 2011. Murder accused Thomas Haigh, 26, told Truro Crown Court the pair worked for Irish republicans who "ran Liverpool". Mr Haigh and Mr Stone deny murder....

Street gangs with outside muscle, targeting the Hells Angels

- Street gangs with outside muscle, targeting the Hells Angels, have sparked the outburst of violence that's left five adult businesses in flames and two people shot, London police said Wednesday.Police vowed to end the violence, even as organized-crime analysts and criminal sources disputed if the Hells had the clout in London to battle back.Late Wednesday, three of the men police arrested -- two from London, one from Brampton -- appeared in court...

Sydney's western suburbs came under siege again on Thursday about 12.30am (AEDT) when shots rang out in Bankstown

 Police have declared war on the gangs responsible for four Sydney shootings in as many days. And any would-be vigilantes and copycats have also been warned to butt out. Sydney's western suburbs came under siege again on Thursday about 12.30am (AEDT) when shots rang out in Bankstown Witnesses told police they saw a man wielding a rifle in a neighbourhood where a bullet hit a bedroom window in a home. A woman and her four children, aged between...

Alleged gangster Jarrod Bacon takes witness stand in cocaine trial

 Accused drug trafficker Jarrod Bacon told B.C. Supreme Court Monday that he planned to beat and rob a police agent of 10 kilograms of cocaine, but was never prepared to pay for the illicit product. Bacon, 28, took the stand in his own defence and told Justice Austin Cullen that he was lying back in 2009 when he bragged in a recorded conversation that he had backers willing to pay millions for the coke. And Bacon said his only goal was to...

The Goodfellas gangsters may live again at AMC

 "Goodfellas" might be becoming a made man again. AMC is developing a series adapted from the acclaimed 1990's film's source material, Nicholas Pileggi's nonfiction book "Wiseguy," about the rise and fall of a mid-20th century gangster.  Pileggi wrote the 1990 film adaptation, which was directed by Martin Scorsese ("Taxi Driver," "Hugo"), and has signed on to co-write the TV series adaptation along with "Homicide: Life On The...

Members of the Mad Cowz and Manitoba Warriors have been at odds for several weeks as they battle for turf and the lucrative profits

 Members of the Mad Cowz and Manitoba Warriors have been at odds for several weeks as they battle for turf and the lucrative profits that come from selling drugs, sources told the Free Press. Enlarge Image Police investigate after a Victor Street house was shot up and set afire Wednesday.  Mohamed Ali Omar The two groups are believed responsible for several shootings this week that have residents of the West End and North End on edge....

Among the funeral attendees were members of several Northwest Washington gangs

 Marcellus E. Jackson, 23, and Kier M. Johnson, 21, were arrested Monday in connection with the 2010 slaying of Jamal Coates, D.C. police announced. Investigators count Coates’s killing as among crimes by rival gang members in the U Street NW neighborhood. Coates was shot to death on Sept. 28, 2010, after he attended a funeral for a young woman who was killed earlier that month and whose boyfriend was charged in her death, police said. Among...

Man sentenced to 12 years for gang-related shootings

 21-year-old Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for two gang-related shootings in the city's West End, including one that unintentionally injured a 10-year-old girl. Paramedics take the girl, who was 10 years old at the time, to hospital following the May 26, 2010, shooting on Victor Street. (CBC) The man pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of discharging a firearm in connection with the May 2010 incidents, including the...

Arrested Omar Ortiz "El Gato" Striped former goalkeeper for kidnapping

Omar Ortiz, former goalkeeper Rayados of Monterrey was presented by the PGJNL to the media along with three others accused of the crime of kidnapping was linked to the kidnapping of the husband of Gloria Trevi.Former Mexican goalkeeper Moterrey club, Omar 'El Gato' Ortiz, suspended...