Gangster holds victim for hours for allegedly cheating with girlfriend

Victorville gang member and participant in California's prison Realignment Plan is scheduled to be in court Tuedsay to answer to charges he held an 18-year-old man against his will, beat him, made him strip and allegedly injected the victim with drugs because the attacker believed the victim was having a relationship with the gangster's girlfriend, officials said. Christian Rodriguez, 27, who was previously arrested for false imprisonment, was arrested on Friday for false imprisonment, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, making terrorist threats and participation in a criminal street gang, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s booking records. Rodriguez allegedly held the victim for three hours as the self-admitted Chino Sinners member punched the victim and reportedly injected meth into the 18-year-old’s arm against the victim’s will, Sue Rose, spokeswoman for the Hesperia station, said. At one point during the ordeal, Rodriguez threatened the victim with a shank and told the victim to strip down to his underwear, officials said. Rodriguez searched the victim’s clothing for evidence of an alleged affair the victim had been having with Rodriguez’s girlfriend, officials stated. After three hours, Rodriguez let the victim go but threatened to kill the 18-year-old’s family if he reported the incident. Authorities were tipped off to the attack and were able to locate Rodriguez in the 17400 block of Sequoia Street. Rodriguez fled on foot for a short distance but eventually stopped and was taken into custody. Deputies learned Rodriguez was on probation supervision through Assembly Bill 109 for a previous false imprisonment conviction last year. As part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Realignment Plan, or Assembly Bill 109, offenders with non-violent, non-sexual and non-serious convictions will serve out shortened sentences in county jails and placed some parolees on local supervision through county Probation as California complies with a U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring the state to lower its prison population by 30,000.

You can buy a Kalashnikov for a hundred euros on the back streets of Athens

"You can buy a Kalashnikov for a hundred euros on the back streets of Athens and people are doing so to guard their property," Mr Chrysanthopoulos told me from his home outside the capital yesterday. Thanks to the disastrous euro, his country is sliding remorselessly towards bankruptcy and disintegration. Modern Greece is an economic corpse, kept on life support by Germany and France, who fear the euro will be destroyed if they admit the truth. Last week's £110BILLION bailout was not aimed at rescuing the Greek people. It was to save the euro from total collapse. Yet the country seems doomed to another historic crisis as disastrous as the German occupation, a bloody civil war and years of military rule. "What we risk today is anarchy, the collapse of society and a breakdown in law and order," says Mr Chrysanthopoulos, 66. "We have more than 20,000 homeless families in Athens alone. "There are food lines for the hungry, which have not been seen since the Second World War. "Penniless pensioners are begging in the streets. People are bartering for essentials, living hand to mouth." Sooner or later they will be thrown out of the euro — the greatest peacetime catastrophe in the history of Europe. Hatred seethes against Germany, which in 1942 reduced Greece to starvation and slavery during its brutal Nazi occupation. A Greek radio station has just been fined for describing German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "dirty Berlin slut". Nazi resistance fighter Manolis Glezos, now 89, says Germany plundered Greece for the equivalent of £138billion in the 1940s. "They grab us by the throat for the debt — let's do the same to them for the reparations," he says. Germans hit back, branding the Greeks "idle swindlers". They claim nobody pays tax because bandit politicians steal their money. The insults are fuelling precisely the nationalistic antagonism that sowed the seeds for two world wars — and which the EU was created to eliminate forever. Germany and France, who must accept the blame for allowing Greece into the euro at all, are terrified of contagion. So they are forcing this humiliated nation to slash pay and pensions to starvation levels. Last week's costly bailout has bought time — and the fantasy of an orderly default. Mr Chrysanthopoulos feels betrayed by the euro currency con. But he is not alone. Charles Kennedy, the Lib Dems' fervently pro-euro ex-leader, last week admitted: "I was wrong." His successor, the made-in-Brussels Nick Clegg, admits he would no longer join the euro. Two former editors of the fanatically pro-Brussels Financial Times confess they backed the wrong horse. Ex-EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein admits: "The euro has failed." We will never hear honesty like that from Ken Clarke and Michael Heseltine, who lost the Tories three elections by stoking the row over Europe. But unlike Mr Chrysanthopoulos, they will probably die comfortably in their beds without witnessing the hideous consequences. Greek instability risks spilling over to fragile ex-fascist regimes Spain and Portugal. If it does, we can only hope it doesn't bring chaos to Italy — then to France. People will take only so much belt-tightening austerity. More revolutions have been triggered by oppressive taxes than anything else. The drive for ever closer political and economic union and the end of national rivalry was aimed at ending war in Europe. We must pray the arrogant fools who launched this undemocratic juggernaut do not achieve precisely the opposite.

TONY Adams has been compared to TV gangster Tony Soprano, and his gang are rumoured to be responsible for 25 murders.

 

 When he appeared in court last November, he gave his address as the cottage in Barnet. Land Registry documents confirm the property is owned by Cole, 31. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the player, who has a multi-million-pound property investment portfolio. Adams, once said to be worth £150 million, headed a notorious North London crime gang nicknamed the A-team or Adams Family. He bought a yacht and sent his daughter to a private school. But in 2007 he was jailed for seven years — for money laundering his own wages — after an undercover operation by MI5 and the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Just like Chicago mobster Al Capone, he had escaped justice for years before finally being nailed for tax evasion. Officers spent 21 months and £10 million eavesdropping on Adams. During the probe his accountant was killed in a drive-by shooting, and a hitman was reputedly buried in the foundations of London's O2 Arena. A search of Adams' £1million former home uncovered £700,000 worth of stolen goods. Adams was released in 2010 after serving half his sentence. But last year he was sent back to do the rest of his time after he defied a financial reporting order and failed to declare luxury purchases including a £7,500 facelift. His earliest release date is now December 2013.

Gangster’s moll rents a house from Ashley Cole

 

Gangster's moll Ruth Adams, 51, pays about £1,500 a month to rent the Chelsea defender's three-bedroom cottage. Her husband Terry, 57 — a fan of Chelsea's London rivals Arsenal — also lived at the property for 17 months between prison sentences. He moved in to the £600,000 home in Barnet, North London, after his release from a seven-year stretch for money laundering, before being banged up again last year. Neighbours often see loyal Ruth — who married Adams 29 years ago — driving a top-of-the-range Lexus. One local said: "It's funny that it's Cole's house because Terry is an avid Arsenal fan and was once linked to buying the Gunners. "Ruth is very polite but won't engage you in conversation for long. She's still close to her husband."

One of Italy’s most notorious gangsters, Enrico De Pedis, is buried in a Roman Catholic basilica near Piazza Navona.

 

 Why the Vatican allowed a top mobster to be buried in Sant’Apollinare has been a source of furious speculation since 1997, when the resting place of De Pedis — gunned down seven years earlier — was first revealed. The answer taking shape looks like something bestselling author Dan (The Da Vinci Code) Brown would have had trouble dreaming up. The story goes back to the 1980s and includes money-laundering allegations against the Vatican’s bank, the attempted assassination of the late Pope John Paul II, the murder-suicide of two Vatican Swiss guards, and the widely publicized kidnapping of a teenage girl. The shocking tale’s many threads began meshing in the mid 2000s. They were revived this week by the latest in a series of leaks that have rocked the Vatican — leaks observers believe are the result of an internal power struggle, one that has fuelled speculation about jostling to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. This time, a January letter from Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s spokesperson, has made its way to the media. The three-page letter, revealed by a program on the state-owned Rai Tre channel, focuses on the kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Vatican City resident who disappeared in 1983. She was last seen leaving her regular piano lesson outside the Vatican City walls. Her father was a clerk in the office organizing papal events. Last summer, a former member of De Pedis’ infamous Magliana gang, Antonio Mancini, was interviewed by La Stampa newspaper after spending years in jail. He said De Pedis had loaned the Vatican a huge sum of money. There is speculation it was to help fund Solidarity, the 1980 democracy movement in Poland, John Paul’s homeland. Mancini said Orlandi was kidnapped to pressure the Vatican when some of the money wasn’t returned. De Pedis’ girlfriend had said similar things a few years earlier. At the time, the Vatican was the main shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano, which had gone bankrupt. Roberto Calvi, Ambrosiano’s head, was found hanging from a London bridge in 1982. Mancini said part of De Pedis’ peace deal with the Vatican included burial in Sant’Apollinare, a church built in the 18th century and now run by the ultra-conservative Opus Dei movement. Church officials say De Pedis was buried there because he helped the poor. They’ve had less to say about the ruthless, Rome-based gang he headed. In January, Orlandi’s brother led a demonstration in front of the church, demanding the tomb be opened. Since an anonymous call to Rai Tre in 2005, there has been talk of it perhaps containing evidence of Orlandi’s disappearance. The Orlandi family wants to know if the body in the tomb is indeed De Pedis’. In his letter, Lombardi alludes to the rumours, according to excerpts released by Rai Tre. He also notes the cardinal in charge of the basilica has said he’s willing to have the tomb opened. “I don’t understand why this hasn’t happened yet,” Lombardi writes. Lombardi then discusses the Vatican’s refusal to help Italian police on some aspects of the Orlandi kidnap investigation. He wonders “if the non-collaboration with the Italian authorities . . . was a normal and justifiable affirmation of Vatican sovereignty, or if in fact circumstances were withheld that might have helped clear something up.” Reached by the Star, Lombardi laughed when asked about the letter. “You don’t have anything more important to write about?” he said. “I’ve had enough of this story. It seems like such a secondary thing to me that I have no comment to make.” Earlier leaks of Vatican documents included recent private letters to the Pope complaining of corruption and cronyism in the awarding of contracts. Other documents emerged reigniting allegations of money-laundering at the Vatican’s bank. Finally, a bizarre confidential letter from a Vatican official described a presumed plot to kill Benedict and discussed his potential successor. The day before Lombardi’s letter became public, another TV channel broadcast an interview with a man claiming to be a Vatican employee who leaked one of the documents. He looked like the Mafia turncoats Italians are used to seeing on TV — much of his face was covered by sunglasses, hat and scarf, and his voice was disguised. He complained about the failure to investigate the Orlandi kidnapping and alluded to the death of two Vatican Swiss guards in 1998. In that incident, Alois Estermann, commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard at the Vatican, was killed, along with his wife, by Cedric Tornay, a young Swiss guard who then shot himself. That murder-suicide has spawned books filled with theories as to what really happened. One widely quoted scenario comes from Ferdinando Imposimato, a former magistrate who officially investigated some of the biggest criminal cases in Italy, including the shooting of Pope John Paul in 1981, and cases involving De Pedis’ gang. Imposimato is convinced secret police services in the former Soviet Union were involved in the plot to kill John Paul. He says Estermann was a spy for East Germany’s Stasi secret police, and was involved in Orlandi’s kidnapping. She was targeted because her father was the first to suspect Estermann as a spy, and told Imposimato so in 1981. Estermann was eventually killed, Imposimato says, because he knew too much. Imposimato is now working with the Orlandi family. Both are pushing for a full investigation — and the opening of De Pedis’ tomb.

The last Jewish gangster: Julius Bernstein's once-secret FBI file revealed

 

The extraordinary mob life of Julius Bernstein, the last of New York's great Jewish gangsters, has been revealed for the first time in the release of a once-secret FBI file. The gangster known as Spike managed to stay out of jail for more than 40 years as he devoted his life to organised crime with one of the Mafia's 'Five Families'; the Genovese family. Pages of the once confidential file have been obtained by the New York Daily News through the Freedom of Information Law. The mob life of Julius Bernstein, the last of New York's great Jewish gangsters, has been revealed for the first time in the release of a once-secret FBI file The papers detail Bernstein's life shaking down the Sbarro restaurant chain for cash payoffs, seizing control of a bus drivers’ union and working alongside the legendary Gambino family capo Matthew Ianniello, reports the Daily News.  'I’ve been a thief all my life,' Bernstein once bragged.    But before his death at the age of 85 in 2007, Bernstein became an FBI informant. 'Wiseguys trust me.That’s why sitting here is killing me.' he said on his first day as an informant, reports the Daily News. In 1944 Bernstein began his mob career after forming a friendship with Matthew Ianniello, pictured here leaving court in 2006, who was known as a up and coming mobster Born in 1922 in Brooklyn, Bernstein grew up in an Italian/Jewish neighbourhood. Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel paired up  with Italian mobsters like Charles (Lucky) Luciano while Louis (Lepke) Buchalter ran Murder Inc., a franchise of  Jewish and Italian assassins. Returning as a hero after fighting with U.S. forces on D-Day, Bernstein  formed a friendship with Matthew Ianniello, who was known as a up and coming mobster, according to the Daily News. Despite their close alliance Matty, who was best man at Bernstein's wedding, could not bring his friend into the Mafia because of his Jewish heritage. Bernstein grew up in the shadows of other Jewish gangsters including Benny (Bugsy) Siegel, pictured here in 1940, who reputedly worked as a hitman for the Mafia Jewish gangsters like Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel, pictured in a mughsot, also paired up with Italian mobsters like Bernstein Bernstein instead served as a trusted 'associate' of the Genovese family. His big moment came in 1971 when the Genovese were seizing control of labor unions and he was planted at Local 1181 -  a school bus drivers’ union that became a steady illegal income, reports the Daily News. Over the next 35 years, Bernstein's salary soared to $216,000 a year, and he drove a union-owned Lincoln Continental as he squeezed every illegal penny he could out of the union by shaking down bus company owners, uniform makers and a medical clinic. Bernstein earned enough trust to manage the bookmaking operation of the then-Genovese boss Frank (Funzi) Tieri. Bernstein says it was Tieri who told him about the family’s decades-long shakedown of the now-global Sbarro restaurant chain, reports the Daily News. Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky, pictured here in 1951, was known for running one of the most violent Prohibition gangs in New York Unlike Bernstein, who managed to stay under the radar for over 40 years, Lansky pictured here in a mugshot, had many run ins with the police The empire began in 1959 as a single Italian grocery in Bensonhurst run by Sbarro brothers, Mario, Joseph and Anthony. Bernstein told the FBI that the 'protection' payments began in the 1960s. By 2004, they were paying $20,000 a year - Bernstein said he was ordered to take over collecting the two annual payments of $10,000. The gangster’s luck finally ran out at the age of 82 in July 2005 after his arrest for union corruption which saw him facing up to 20 years in prison. He admitted several extortion charges in 2006 - including the Sbarro shakedown - and made an extraordinary decision to become an FBI informant. Even then, the gangster had not quite reformed and eight months later he collected a $20,000 payment from a bus company owner inside a hotel bathroom, reports the Daily News. On October 21, 2007, Bernstein died aged 85 at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

New Lockerbie bomber evidence' may clear Abdelbaset al Megrahi

'Lockerbie: Case Closed accessed the ‘secret contents’ of the legal review into the case of Abdelbaset al Megrahi. Programme makers pored over the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission’s investigation to find fresh evidence – including the ‘dramatic results’ of new scientific tests that go against the original evidence. The documentary says the previously unseen information was not known to the commission and ‘comprehensively undermines’ the case against Megrahi. A total of 270 people were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, south-west Scotland, on December 21, 1988. Megrahi is the only man to have been convicted of the atrocity – Europe’s worst terrorist attack. The Libyan was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 but returned home in August 2009  after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. At the time, doctors estimated Megrahi had three months to live but he is still alive. Earlier this month, members of the Justice For Megrahi group accused the government of an ‘orchestrated desire’ to keep details of the case under wraps. They also said politicians ‘either have to be dishonest or ignorant’ to allow the secrecy to continue. The programme will be shown at 8pm on Al Jazeera English. It includes an interview with Megrahi filmed in December. John Ashton, who was part of Megrahi’s defence team, said: ‘The wrong man was convicted.’

Man claims he was under duress from gangland figure to steal

 

A jury has been told that a man accused of attempting to steal €1m from a cash-in-transit van over four years ago was acting under duress from gangland figure Eamonn Dunne. Joseph Warren (aged 30) of Belclare Crescent, Ballymun, has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conspiring to steal cash from Chubb Ireland at Tesco supermarket on the Shackleton Road in Celbridge on November 2, 2007. Detective Inspector Eugene Lynch headed a surveillance operation that observed five other men, Eamonn Dunne, brothers Alan and Wayne Bradley, Jeffrey Morrow and Michael Ryan travelling in four different vehicles behind the cash-in-transit van as it drove from the Chubb Security base in Birch Avenue, Stillorgan to the Tesco Shopping Centre. All six men were arrested that morning after Mr Warren and Mr Ryan were seen approaching the Chubb van as it was parked in Tesco Shopping Centre. Mr Warren was carrying a consaw while Mr Ryan tried unsuccessfully to open the doors of the van with a set of keys he brought with him. Det. Insp. Lynch told Alan Toal BL, defending, that he “could not say” when it was suggested to him that Mr Dunne was “public enemy number one” who was “supposed to have killed 17 people”. He accepted a further suggestion from counsel that according to media sources, Mr Dunne was “a gangland figure of calibre” but said he had no evidence of that. “He was an integral part of an organised criminal gang responsible for firearms, cash-in-transit robberies and drugs,” Det Insp Lynch said but again replied there was no evidence that he “would kill for the hell of it” as suggested by counsel. “He was massively involved in the assassination of Baiba Saulite and no one could touch him for the amount of murders he carried out as leader of this gang,” Mr Toal said referring to what he termed “general held views in the media”. Det. Insp. Lynch again repeated that he could not answer that. He told Mr Toal that he had never been made aware that Mr Warren claimed he was acting under duress from Mr Dunne that day. The detective said his only role in the investigation was to lead the surveillance operation. He said he was also unaware that Mr Warren had been the subject of a threat to his life in January or February 2008 and he had been formally warned by the gardai of this threat. Darryl Caffrey (aged 37), the Chubb Security worker who was a passenger in the cash-in-transit van that day, told Deirdre Murphy SC, prosecuting, that he provided inside information to two men, knowing that it would be used to organise a robbery. He said he gave the two men, previously unknown to him but whom he referred to as “Dog” and “Liverpool man”, information about the company, including the registration details of the unmarked delivery vehicles and how the safes were accessed. He said he handed this information over during a number of meetings in 2006 and 2007. Mr Caffrey told the jury he had provided “Dog” with the registration details of four jeeps used by Chubb at the time after the man told him if he had that information he could get keys cut for the vehicles. He informed “Dog” that Chubb headquarters had to be contacted by phone to open the safe and access cash before it was dropped off at an ATM. He also told him that Chubb workers wore casual clothes, drove unmarked jeeps and carried the money to the ATMs in sports bags. Mr Caffrey said he had also been instructed to propose a suitable route which he felt would be an easy target for a gang to rob. He said he provided “Dog” with a map on October 30, 2007, with a route marked in black pen, of a specific run he regularly did in Ballymore Eustace, Wicklow. Mr Caffrey said he was “given the impression” that it would be the Ballymore Eustace run that the gang would target. He said “Dog” told him the gang would put up “road closed” and “diversion” signs along the route that would eventually lead to a building site. His jeep would then be surrounded by armed men, he and his colleague would be tied up, dumped off and their phones taken off them before the robbers would drive away in the van. He said “Dog” told him he would get a phone call the day before “the job was going down” to give him time to get rid of his mobile phone and any links between them. He never got the call. Mr Caffrey agreed with Mr Toal that he did not know any of the men that were arrested at the Tesco Supermarket that day. He confirmed that he did not know Mr Warren. The trial continues before Judge Tony Hunt and a jury of seven women and four men.

Metro Gang Unit names new Public Enemy No. 1

 

A man wanted in connection with a violent beating has been named the Salt Lake Metro Gang Unit's new Public Enemy No. 1. Dominique Charles Rocha, 33, a.k.a. "Niko," was arrested in February of 2011 and charged in 3rd District Court with felony aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury. After two men got into a fight in front of an apartment complex near 445 East and 300 South, Rocha "came out from the side of the building and also punched (the victim) in the head, knocking him to the ground," according to court documents. The two continued to punch and kick the victim while he was on the ground. The man suffered a broken hip, a concussion and other facial injuries, according to charging documents. He was in the hospital for at least three weeks. Police arrested Rocha after spotting him nearby and an officer noticed blood on a shoe, hand and a sleeve. But after he failed to show up for court hearing, a $50,000 warrant was issued for his arrest. Police say Rocha is a member of a violent street gang. He has previously been convicted of carrying a concealed weapon, drug possession and an amended felony charge of attempted theft. Investigators say Rocha is 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds with brown eyes and brown hair.

HORRIFIED ONLOOKERS watched as a gang member was ruthlessly murdered by a masked gunman in broad daylight

HORRIFIED ONLOOKERS watched as a gang member was ruthlessly murdered by a masked gunman in broad daylight, Dublin Coroner’s Court heard. Anthony Cannon (26), from Robert Street in Rialto, Dublin, died when he was shot in the face at St Mary’s Avenue West in Ballyfermot on July 17th, 2009. Mr Cannon was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time but was chased down by his attacker, who then delivered the fatal shot at point-blank range. The incident happened at 3.30pm and was witnessed by a number of local residents who heard multiple shots being fired. In a deposition to the court, Amanda Power said that she saw the gunman chase Mr Cannon down before raising the gun to face level and shooting him above the eyes. A number of people went to help and when Mr Cannon was turned on his side, the back of his head fell away. The gunman, who was wearing a ski-mask, was seen making his escape on a motorbike driven by an accomplice. Mr Cannon was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds to the head. His father Patrick Cannon told the court that he was not surprised to hear that his son had been shot. “There have been too many threats. From what I know, there had to have been four or five. They are the ones that I knew of from gardaí . . . I didn’t know where the threats were coming from. He wouldn’t tell me,” he said. The deceased was well known to Garda as a member of one of the gangs involved in the ongoing Crumlin-Drimnagh feud. However, he was not believed to be a significant figure. He had several criminal convictions for motoring offences and was due to stand trial for drink-driving and being in possession of a knife. Det Insp Colm O’Malley told the court that the deceased had been advised of threats to his life by the gardái and was wearing a bulletproof vest. However, on the day of his death he was on his way to meet some associates. “It would appear that he was lured to the scene by someone he knew and may have dropped his guard,” said Insp O’Malley. The jury returned a verdict of death by unlawful killing by person or persons unknown.

Walked ATF guns found at Zapata crime scene

 

Prosecutors recently sentenced a Texas man, Manuel Barba, for trafficking a weapon connected to the murder of Immigration and Customs (ICE) Agent Jaime Zapata. Nobody was more astonished to learn of the case than Zapata's parents, who didn't know that Barba had been arrested or linked to their son's murder. "The family was obviously surprised to learn that there was a case involving a weapon linked to the Zapata incident," attorney Trey Martinez told CBS News. Martinez represents Zapata's parents and the surviving ICE agent in the assault, Victor Avila. "They were surprised they had never been contacted in the capacity as victims so they could give a response or some kind of reaction at the time of sentencing." Possibly influencing their reaction would be a set of documents obtained by CBS News, which somehow penetrated the Obama Administration stone wall to obtain confirmation that one of the weapons discovered at the Zapata crime scene was indeed a “walked” gun from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.  That must not have been easy, since the Administration has been denying Freedom of Information Act requests from the murdered man’s family. The reaction of leading Senate investigator Charles Grassley was certainly influenced by the news from CBS, as Grassley related in an email to Dave Workman of the Washington Examiner: I've been asking for information from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security on the circumstances surrounding the murder of ICE Agent Zapata for almost a year, only to be met with resistance and more of the same stonewalling. If these revelations prove to be true, it's a sad commentary that this known trafficker was allowed to continue his illegal purchases, including trafficking the apparent weapon used in the murder of our own agent. Also surprised, according to Workman: Zapata’s partner, ICE agent Victor Avila, who was able to survive the hail of bullets from those walked guns.  The Houston prosecutors said they didn’t contact Zapata’s family because they weren’t handling the murder case, just the weapons charges.  The Zapata murder is under the purview of another U.S. Attorney’s office.  And if there’s one thing we’ve learned from Eric Holder’s congressional testimony, nobody in the Holder Justice Department talks to anybody else. It turns out “Barba was under ATF surveillance for at least six months before a rifle he trafficked was used in Zapata's murder.”  From the CBS report: Documents indicate ATF opened its case against Barba, entitled "Baytown Crew," in June of 2010. During the investigation, court records state Barba recruited straw purchasers and "facilitated the purchase and exportation of at least 44 firearms" including assault rifles. On August 20, 2010 Barba took delivery of the WASR-10 semi-automatic rifle later used in Zapata's murder, obliterated its serial number, and sent it to Mexico with nine others just like it. Nearly two months later, on Oct. 8, 2010, ATF agents recorded a phone call in which Barba "spoke about the final disposition of ... firearms to Mexico and also about the obliterating of the serial numbers before they were trafficked." Barba told straw purchasers the guns were destined for the Zeta drug cartel. A warrant wasn't issued for Barba's arrest until four months later; coincidentally, the day before a rifle he trafficked was used against Zapata. (Emphasis mine.)  This wasn’t part of Operation Fast and Furious, which was run out of Arizona.  It was another gun-walking operation, running out of Texas.  A second “walked” ATF gun was also recovered from the scene of Zapata’s murder, sold by a different group of people… who were also on the ATF radar screen.  How many more of these gun walking fiascoes are there?  Who knows?  That question should be taken seriously: who knows? This is, by the way, how the Obama gun-walking operations were designed to work.  No credible attempts were made to follow or interdict the weapons, unlike the much smaller Bush-era gun-walking failure called Operation Wide Receiver, which put radio tracking devices on its guns.  The entire point of Operation Fast and Furious, as well as offshoots like the Texas operation, was to recover the walked guns from murder scenes.  One of those scenes involved a United States Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry.  Another involved ICE Agent Jaime Zapata.  A couple hundred more of them featured dead Mexican citizens. Considerable effort has been invested in building a shield of plausible deniability around Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama.  Holder’s shield became implausible deniability, once he committed perjury before Congress, and tried to defend himself by claiming he has no idea what most of the Justice Department is doing at any given time, does not communicate with anyone, and believes “lies” are entirely a matter of feelings.  It is, however, undeniable that either of these men could dispel the shroud of obfuscation surrounding the gun-walking murders by ordering full cooperation with congressional investigators, and the immediate provision of all documents lawfully requested by subpoena.  They are both accountable for their refusal to do so. What say you, Republican leadership?  Is there enough blood on Eric Holder’s hands to get those impeachment hearings going yet, or do you need to hear him laugh at contempt of Congress citations a few more times?

Violent gangs are deeply entrenched in Spanish Town, just west of Kingston, and in some residential sections of the northwestern parish of St. James, which includes the resort city of Montego Bay.

 

 Fighting between the gangs for control of drug trafficking and extortion rackets has long been blamed for the majority of Jamaica’s homicides. Police Commissioner Owen Ellington said at a news conference with Bunting that much of the security forces’ resources are now focused on trying to contain 42 active gang conflicts. Ellington told reporters that the Shower Posse gang, which was controlled by convicted drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke from his slum stronghold of Tivoli Gardens, has been significantly hobbled since his capture in June 2010 but remains an active gang in West Kingston. Bunting said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s nearly two-month-old government intends to fast-track anti-gang legislation and is crafting a new security policy meant to reduce crime to “First World levels” by 2017, when he hopes to have a maximum of just 321 killings. A U.N. study on the Caribbean released earlier this month said Jamaica has had the world’s third-highest murder rate over the past decade, with about 60 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Jamaica loses some $529 million a year due to crime, according to the report. Last year, Jamaica had 1,125 slayings, a roughly 22 percent drop from the 1,442 killings in 2010. A record 1,683 people were killed in 2009. Bunting said a major goal is to target gang kingpins and facilitators for organized criminal networks, not the people lower down the chain. Many of those arrested in previous years have been underlings who had little connection to gang leadership. Such workers are easily replaced. “We don’t always want to be chasing out the symptoms, we want to get to the infection,” he told reporters at the prime minister’s offices. Bunting intends to create a task force to identify and arrest crime facilitators, such as accountants, real estate brokers, lawyers and corrupt public officials. He also hopes to give courts greater power to seize their assets. He also said Jamaican society must undergo “mental reconditioning” to encourage more people to report crimes. Those who live in Jamaica’s slums are deeply distrustful of the police and authorities, and an anti-informant culture is widespread.

Bolivian minibus gang murdered up to 69 people on their way to work

 

Police in Bolivia are blaming a gang for a spate of early morning murders in Bolivia where people have been strangled on minibuses while heading into work. Up to 69 people have been killed and dozens more were left for dead in El Alto, a working class city of one million people on an arid plateau above Bolivia's capital, La Paz. "This kind of assault came about because people, by necessity, take whatever transport they can get," said Felix Rocha, chief of Bolivia's police. Gang members would ride the buses posing as passengers, police said. After their victims had boarded, they were strangled with a rope or scarf and stripped of valuables that often amounted to little more than a mobile phone and the clothes on their backs. A 64-year-old man who said he survived an attack by the gang, recounted leaving his house at 4am on 5 February on his way to the bank where he collects his monthly pension. He said he boarded what he thought was a public transit minibus and as usual, his 25-cent fare was collected by "a cholita," or indigenous woman. "They had me sit in the front and suddenly I felt a scarf tightening around my neck. I fought back but they hit me in the ribs and face and I fell unconscious," said the man, who asked to be identified only by first name, Macario, because he fears for his safety. "I woke up later in a dumpster," Macario added. Gone was his mobile phone and the equivalent of £35 in the local currency. Police last week announced the arrest of eight alleged members of the gang, ranging in age from 30 to 45 and including a woman, Yuli Gutierrez Jimenez. Rocha said police seized four 14-seat minibuses used by the gang. Most of the killings occurred between 4am and 6am, when public transport is relatively scarce and only 400 police are on duty in the entire city, which is mostly unpaved and where many neighbourhoods lack running water and electricity. The gang is believed to have killed 69 people whose bodies have been found over the past 13 months, said Rocha, though prosecutor Santos Valencia said investigators are still trying to determine if the group was responsible for all those deaths. More than 70 people told police they had survived attacks after recognising gang members in local media reports, Rocha said. Other such gangs are known to exist, but the minibus gang seems to have been the best organised and most methodical, he added. Its alleged leader, Julio Edwin Valdez, 33, was arrested last week. Also captured was Galo Mamani, the bus's driver. Prosecutors said the two face murder charges but offered few other details. Valencia told reporters that police found wallets and the clothes of victims in the homes of those detained. Authorities did not say how they tracked down the alleged criminals. Rocha said police were investigating whether the group was also involved in the recent murders of several taxi drivers whose vehicles were stolen after the drivers were strangled.

Canadian targeted in Montreal Mafia sweep now faces prison for coke smuggling

 

A man who was once the target of a four-year manhunt now faces the prospect of a lengthy prison term for drug smuggling as his wife prepares to go on trial in the deaths of their two daughters while he was in hiding. Giuseppe De Vito, 45, was targeted in Project Colisee, the police investigation into the Mafia in Montreal and its associates. Wiretap evidence suggests that while De Vito worked with Mafia leaders like Francesco Arcadi and Francesco (Chit) Del Balso, he was somewhat of an outsider. But in 2004, he and others tied to the Mafia — including Del Balso — agreed to be partners in smuggling in 120 kilograms of cocaine on an Air Canada flight from Haiti on Jan. 22, 2005. The shipment was to be packed into the false bottom of a baggage container destined for Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. By then, a wide net had been cast in Colisee and the RCMP knew about the flight. What they didn't know was how much cocaine was being smuggled. As it turned out, neither did De Vito. After the Mounties seized the shipment — 218 kg packed into two containers — De Vito was revealed to have had a significant financial stake in it. In November 2006, the RCMP arrested more than 80 people as part of Colisee. But by then, De Vito had disappeared. Four years later, in October 2010, police tracked him down. He had been living under an alias in St. Leonard, just west of Montreal, and had altered his appearance by shedding weight. While he was on the lam, his wife, Adele Sorella, 46, was charged with killing their two young daughters. Her trial in Laval, Que., is to begin April 5. Two smugglers operating under Del Balso initially claimed they had no idea how the shipment had increased to 218 kg, although wiretaps would reveal at least one was aware and tried to hide it from De Vito and Arcadi. Investigators learned of the shipment because they had been closely monitoring Del Balso, Arcadi and their associates — but De Vito assumed the shipment was uncovered because the smugglers used two containers instead of one, increasing the risk of getting caught. "The risk is high you know," De Vito was recorded saying in a telephone conversation. "You're taking out two boxes; one is already dangerous." Late last year, during his trial, De Vito was faced with wiretap evidence that he attended a Jan. 31, 2005 meeting at the Consenza Social Club — the Mafia's former headquarters in St. Leonard — with Arcadi and Del Balso. De Vito claimed he had been called to the club only because he knew someone at the airport who could find out what had gone wrong with the shipment, but Quebec Court Judge Isabelle Rheault didn't buy his story. "De Vito knew what was happening," Rheault wrote in a recent decision in which she found De Vito guilty of conspiracy to import cocaine and committing a crime for the benefit of a criminal organization. "He actively participated in the activities of a criminal organization involved in international drug trafficking . . . All the elements of proof, including the statements of De Vito himself, as revealed by the wiretaps, do not support his testimony in any way." Sentencing is to begin March 2. De Vito also faces four counts related to a firearm seized from a duplex in St. Leonard when police found him in 2010. Gina Conforti, 34, whom De Vito was seeing, also is charged in the firearms case.

Murdered man found in Abbotsford farm field

 

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

Bloodstained Saturday in Mexico leaves 14 dead

 

Fourteen people were killed in gun violence in northern and central Mexico on Saturday, authorities said. In the metropolitan area of prosperous and industrial Monterrey, two police were among those slain in the early morning hours in a clash with unidentified assailants. “There was a chase situation. A car with four men in it went up alongside the police patrol car and opened fire,” a source with the state investigating unit told AFP. After a car chase the two police and another victim were slain in Apodaca, officials said. In troubled Ciudad Juarez, in the northern state of Chihuahua on the US border, prosecutors said two men were shot in the head and had signs of torture. In the south of the state, in the town of Parral, three bodies were found along a highway with a sign authorities said appeared to refer to ongoing clashes among rival drug gangs. In the state capital Chihuahua, two people were shot dead by gunmen in a vehicle as the victims stood watch near a hospital. And in the town of Ecapatec, in Mexico state, four men were gunned down in the early morning hours by a group of unidentified gunmen. Some 50,000 people have died in suspected drug violence since President Felipe Calderon began a military crackdown on organized crime in December 2006, according to media counts and official figures.

Turf War in Central Mexico Leaves 8 Dead

Eight homicides earlier this week in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato stem from a turf battle between rival drug cartels, officials said, noting that one of the gangs claimed responsibility for the slayings by leaving threatening messages next to five of the bodies. All of the victims were killed with firearms under very similar circumstances, state Attorney General Carlos Zamarripa Aguirre said. The most recent slaying occurred Thursday in the city of Acambaro, where a message was discovered that is “practically identical to the others that were found,” Zamarripa said. According to the state Attorney General’s Office, three people were killed in the municipality of Apaseo el Alto and one each in the cities of Celaya, Cortazar, Villagran, Acambaro and Salvatierra. Investigators found signs apparently signed by the Los Caballeros Templarios drug cartel at the crime scenes in Apaseo el Alto, Celaya and Villagran, officials said. The murders come approximately a month before Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to visit Guanajuato and a week after the discovery of 18 “drug messages” signed by Los Caballeros Templarios that ordered a rival gang to leave the state and avoid “generating violence” during the pontiff’s stay. Los Caballeros Templarios warned the Nueva Generacion cartel that “confrontations will be inevitable” and told its rivals to leave Guanajuato in peace. Neither gang, however, is based in that state, which has largely been spared the drug-related violence that has ravaged other parts of Mexico. The pope is scheduled to stay at the Colegio Miraflores in the Guanajuato city of Leon during his visit to Mexico. Benedict XVI will celebrate an open-air Mass in the morning on March 25 at the city of Silao’s Guanajuato Bicentenario Park, an outdoor venue that it is expected will accommodate about 750,000 people, who will need a ticket to enter, officials said. The pontiff is scheduled to visit three cities in Guanajuato state during his time in Mexico and will continue on to Santiago, Cuba.

Detectives investigating McNally's cold-blooded shooting in the first gang murder of the year now believe the chief suspect also killed his brother in February, 2009

. And, that the gun-for-hire carried out the pub murder of Paul ‘Farmer' Martin over three years ago. Our CCTV footage shows him entering the Jolly Toper bar in Finglas to carry out the hit on 39-year-old Martin in August, 2008. Five months later, Graham McNally's body was found in a ditch on the former Dublin to Derry road -- he had been shot at least five times in the head. "There are links to suggest that all three murders were carried out by the same man," said a source. "Alan McNally's fatal mistake was when he swore to avenge his brother's death." SHOT He was shot six times in the Cappagh Nua pub in Finglas on February 2 in a killing that was dubbed the Love/Hate murder because of its similarly to a scene from the RTE drama. As the garda probe intensified they questioned a sister and niece of the chief suspect but they were later released without charge. Detectives made a major breakthrough in the case when they obtained CCTV linking relatives of the chief suspect to the crime scene. However, they have still not recovered the handgun used to shoot Alan McNally six times. The Herald previously revealed that McNally was murdered on the order of a violent thug who himself survived an assassination attempt in December 2010. McNally (36), from Cappagh Avenue, Finglas, had been warned by gardai that his life was under threat after rowing with criminal elements in Finglas and Coolock. He had been warned by gardai to be inconspicuous as they feared there was an imminent danger to his life. However, sources say that he ignored gardai and publicly boasted about getting revenge for his brother's death. This is thought to have led his killers to adopt a "let's get him first" approach. Graham was 34 when he was shot dead by slain crimelord Eamon 'The Don' Dunne's gang in January 2009. Alan was in jail at the time after he had a falling out with his former close associate Dunne who had suspected that he was trying to murder him. He was only released last October having served five and a half years for having €200,000 worth of heroin. Sources say that despite the warnings he made himself an easy target for a gunman by drinking in the same pub for 14 hours. Gardai are anxious to apprehend the hitman who could also be responsible for other gangland assaults in the city. 'Farmer' Martin was a known criminal believed to have been involved in over a dozen bank robberies in the late 1980s and 1990s. Speaking at his funeral, Paul Martin's local priest branded his killers as "sick people not fit to be called men".

FOUR men have pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to charges linked to the Gambino crime family.

 

The charges result from a variety of activities including assault, loansharking, drug trafficking and trying to recruit illegal aliens to work in adult entertainment clubs. The US Justice Department described the four, Alphonse Trucchio, Michael Roccaforte, Anthony Moscatiello and Christopher Colon, as being "a captain, two soldiers and an associate of the Gambino organised crime family of La Cosa Nostra." Attorney Preet Bharara said, "For those who believe La Cosa Nostra's criminal activities and influence are on the decline, the sweeping charges in this case and today's guilty pleas should disabuse them of that notion". According to the Justice Department, Trucchio and Gambino family captain Louis Mastrangelo - who had previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges - supervised crews of street level criminals, known as soldiers and associates. From the late 1980s through 2010, Trucchio and his associates oversaw the Gambino family's narcotics distribution network, which was based in Queens, New York, the Justice Department reported. "Numerous drug suppliers, wholesalers and street dealers operated under the authority and protection of the Gambino family, in exchange for paying the family a portion of their profits," it said in a statement. Drugs they distributed included cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy and the narcotic pain killer, Vicodin. The accused men's other illegal activities included extorting payments from business owners and strip clubs, stabbing one person and hitting another with a car while trying to collect a debt and operating illegal gambling enterprises. Charges are pending against 11 more defendants.

Bikie's girlfriend still missing

 

POLICE remain in the dark as to what has happened to missing woman Tina Greer. The girlfriend of a Fink motorcycle gang member disappeared almost a month ago from near Aratula. Police have expanded their search area to Lake Moogerah, south of Kalbar, using sonar and divers to search for her body. Mounted police are also being used to search the creeks surrounding the lake. Ipswich Detective Inspector Lew Strohfeldt said while the case officially remained a missing person investigation, police were searching the lake for a body. "We're looking to see if we can find any human remains in this lake," he said. "We can't say whether Tina will be found alive and well, whether she may have had some sort of an accident or if she has been the victim of some sort of foul play, we just don't know." Divers have been scanning the lake with sonar for the past two days and will continue today. They are yet to find any objects of interest. Insp Strohfeldt confirmed Ms Greer's boyfriend was a member of the Finks motorcycle gang. While police had talked to him, they were not in regular contact and were uncertain of his present location. "We have spoken to him, but as I said we have got no information that would assist us in locating Tina," Insp Strohfeldt said. Police divers have been scanning the lake using the same sonar technology used to find shipwrecks. Information received from the device will be used to identify non-natural objects hidden underwater. Divers will then investigate any objects of interests they identify. Ms Greer was last seen on Wednesday, January 18 leaving her home in Beechmont on the Gold Coast hinterland. Her car, a maroon Holden Commodore was found on Governor's Lookout containing her belongings including phone and handbag

New laws to break bikies' silience

 

Bikies who refuse to answer questions at Australian Crime Commission coercive hearings face immediate imprisonment. Legislative amendments introduced in Parliament on Wednesday will see those who refuse to cooperate detained and dealt with in the Supreme Court for contempt - rather than facing a charge that can take up to two years to be dealt with in the lower courts . SA police use the ACC's coercive hearings as part of investigations into high risk crime groups - including bikie gangs - with the most recent gang member summonsed to appear one of the suspects involved in the internal war between Comancheros members. One senior gang figure is currently before Adelaide Magistrates Court on a charge of failing to answer questions at an ACC hearing. The amendment to the Australian Crime Commission (SA) Act 2004 is one of a raft of new legislative initiatives unveiled by Attorney-General John Rau as part of the fight against bikie gangs. Others include new laws preventing gang members from associating, protection for witnesses, harsher bail provisions and amendments to repair anti-bikie legislation that was inoperable following two recent High Court decisions.  Mr Rau yesterday said the ACC amendment was one of several new measures aimed at cracking the bikie code of silence that often hampered police investigations. "It is one of a dozen or more recalibrations that tighten the noose around them a little bit more," he said. Mr Rau said he was hoping the legislative package would proceed through parliament rapidly because his briefings with police indicated there was a danger the current volatile situation with gang violence in Adelaide could escalate. "There is a credible risk that if this legislation is not passed things might deteriorate. I am not prepared to be any more explicit than that," he said. After a meeting with Mr Rau on Friday, Shadow Attorney-General Stephen Wade said the legislation would be discussed at a Liberal party room meeting on February 27. "This Bill is without doubt an improvement on the 2008 Act," he said. "Just as we gave the 2008 Bill thorough scrutiny.......we will also be giving this thorough scrutiny." Opposition leader Isobel Redmond, police spokesman Duncan McFetridge and Mr Wade will meet with senior police tommorrow to be briefed on the extent of the gang and organised crime problems confronting the community. Several senior defence lawyers told the Sunday Mail they thought it unlikely new contempt sanctions would see gang members comply with a coercive hearing. "History has shown us that many take no notice of the threat of jail if they do not comply," one said. "Look at just who has gone to prison for failing to answer questions and who is before court now on the same charges. If they do not want to talk, they won't." In Western Australia last year a Finks bikie was given a two-year jail sentence for failing to answer questions before Western Australia's corruption commission, which has the contempt provision planned for SA. The man was one of five bikies charged with contempt after refusing to give evidence into a wild brawl involving the Finks and the Coffin Cheaters.

Hells Angel turns informer for SharQc cases

 

A longtime member of the Hells Angels has decided to turn his back on the biker gang and is expected to testify against the men he used to call brothers in upcoming trials. Dayle Fredette was rushed into a courtroom on the fourth floor of a Montreal courthouse Thursday morning where he confirmed, before Superior Court Justice André Vincent, that he signed a contract to testify against Hells Angels in trials that emerged out of Operation SharQc, a police investigation that ended in April 2009 with the arrests of almost all of the gang's Quebec-based members. The prosecution believes almost all Hells Angels in the province agreed to take part in a conflict over drug trafficking turf, between 1994 and 2002, which resulted in the deaths of more than 160 people. The first of many trials expected to come out of Operation SharQc is to begin hearing evidence in September. Fredette was accompanied by at least four police bodyguards as he was rushed into room 4.01 of the courthouse for an unscheduled hearing where he entered a guilty plea to two charges. News that Fredette had decided to turn witness surfaced in September. Documents filed in court Thursday reveal he began speaking to police on July 2, 2011, and continued giving statements until Oct. 11. He underwent a lie-detector test on Oct. 12 and signed to be a witness for the prosecution on Feb. 8. As part of the contract, Fredette, a member of the gang's Quebec City chapter, will be paid $50 a month while he serves a life sentence, plus another $300 annually during his time in prison and $500 a week for the first two years after he is granted parole. His two young children will each receive monthly payments of $150 till they are adults, plus a maximum of $3,500 toward their post-secondary education. The contract also calls on the Sûreté du Québec to protect Fredette, his loved ones and dependents. There is no mention in the contract of how much that security is expected to cost taxpayers. On Thursday, Fredette pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge as well as one count of conspiracy to commit murder. This apparently gives Fredette the chance at the so-called faint-hope clause, where a person convicted of first-degree murder can appear before a jury after having served 15 years of his sentence and argue he is ready to be released into society. People convicted of more than one murder charge are not eligible and must serve at least 25 years. In exchange for his guilty plea and his future testimony, Fredette is immune from prosecution in five other murders in which he played a role. That includes the killing of Robert (Tout Tout) Léger in Ste. Catherine de Hatley on Aug. 12, 2001. Léger was a leading members of the Bandidos in Quebec when he was killed, and his death would have been regarded as a major score for the rival Hells Angels. Fredette also cannot be pursued in civil court for the deaths. The murder to which Fredette pleaded guilty involved a case of mistaken identity where Dany Beaudin was shot on April 17, 2000, outside a drug rehab centre in St. Frédéric, in the Beauce region. Prosecutor Sabin Ouellet told Vincent that Fredette controlled a drug trafficking network in the region and paid 10 per cent of the profits to the Hell's Angels. Fredette was part of a puppet gang called the Mercenaries before becoming a fullpatch member of the Hell's Angels on May 5, 1998. To get that status, Ouellet said, Fredette worked almost exclusively on gathering intelligence and plotting the murders of rival gang members. After he decided to become a witness, he told police the gang's "10 per cent fund" was used to cover his expenses while plotting the killings. Ouellet said Beaudin was killed by Fredette and two accomplices based on an error made by Fredette. The Hells Angels wanted to kill another man attending the drug rehab centre that day, the prosecutor said. Fredette was supposed to spot the intended target through binoculars while an accomplice waited with a long-range rifle. The man with the rifle shot Beaudin, based on Fredette's mistaken identification. Then both men moved in closer and shot Beaudin several times with hand guns. As part of his witness contract, Fredette cannot profit from his criminal past - for example, with a book or movie.

Men who smuggled drugs from Dover to Skelmersdale jailed

 

A gang who smuggled heroin and cocaine into the UK hidden in a lorry have been jailed for a total of 31 years. Carl Robinson, 30, and Graham Miller, 38, both of Skelmersdale, were tracked bringing the drugs from Dover to Lancashire in August last year. They were arrested after meeting Ian Adderley, 46, of Kirkby, in Skelmersdale. All three pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import and supply Class A drugs at an earlier hearing. They were arrested in dawn raids on 12 August after a major surveillance operation carried out by officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, Titan. Officers also seized the class A drugs which had an estimated street value of more than £1m. 'Ill-gotten gains' Robinson, who also pleaded guilty to affray in connection with an incident at a pub in Skelmersdale on 6 August, was sentenced to nine years and nine months in prison. Adderley, who also admitted cannabis production was sentenced to 12 years, and Miller to nine years and six months in jail. Speaking after the trial, Det Supt Jason Hudson, head of operations for Titan, said it would do all it could to end the mens' criminal enterprise. "Titan is here to dismantle and disrupt the organised crime groups causing the greatest levels of harm to the North West," he said. "This group clearly fit that category and we are committed to not only arresting and bringing those people to justice but also financially ruining them, to ensure that all the financial gain that they have managed to achieve through their ill-gotten gains can be taken off them."

Turkish criminal gangs are ruling over the streets in the UK

 

Turkish criminal gangs are ruling over the streets in the UK, controlling much of the drug market in Germany, as well as providing political influence in the Netherlands. Turkish mafia has launched a wide range of activities in various European countries, has its own network subject to certain Turkish political circles. This is stated in the reports of the European countries and the UN. Turkish mafia is influential especially in Germany and the Netherlands. According to annual report of the German police, Turks as well as migrants from Nigeria and Sierra Leone are playing major role in coordination of crime among the immigrants. The number of residents of not German nationality suspected of organizing criminal gangs reached 471,067, while 106,396 out of them were Turks. As to drug trafficking, 26.6% of Germany’s drug dealers are Turks, 21.9% of those engaged in cocaine trafficking are Turks as well. The representatives of this ethnic group stood out as part of those involved in sex crimes in Germany - 34.9% of rapes and other similar crimes accounted for Turks only. German press reports that dangerous Turkish youth criminal gangs are operating in the cities of Germany. They also deal with the main business of Turkish mafia – drug trafficking and prostitution.   Back in 2010 Militant Islam Monitor website wrote that Turkish criminal gangs are controlling the streets of Berlin.  Turkish groups also form a part of a large Turkish community in the Netherlands. It is dominated by Turkish gangs, engaged in buying and selling drugs. According to local police, these groups often appear with their families and clans. The dealers are often controlled directly from Istanbul. The Turks in the Netherlands and Belgium are also selling weapons, are dealing with trafficking of immigrants, prostitution, forgery and money laundering. In the UK drug market is also under control of the Turkish clans. The British press reported that the Turkish criminals are fueling fear. According to law enforcers, about 90% of imported heroin is of Turkish origin. The Turks engaged in heroin business are mainly concentrated in the eastern part of London. They have links with Afghanistan and Pakistan. Back in 2006 thirteen members of a Turkish gang were arrested for hiding 13 kilos of heroine in a butcher shop. Later police found famous Hamit Gokenc aka “Mafia babası” (God father). The criminal gang he was heading had close ties with Turkey’s Grey Wolves gang. As a result of police operation, 22 kilos of heroine was found. In order to understand the reasons for Turkish mafia’s influence in Europe, we must look back at the history. Drug trafficking, distribution and use of drugs were considered a normal thing under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Prior to the ban on cocaine, opium and other drugs in Europe, they were imported directly from the Ottoman Empire. Exports of opium was one of the main sources for income. Naturally, the Turkish suppliers entered the European market being particularly active in France. After the First World War, the Turks formed alliances with the Yugoslav, Bulgarian and Greek criminal circles by organizing cooperation in drug smuggling. Nowadays, the Turkish-Bulgarian, Turkish-Serbian and Turkish-Albanian groups are active in this business. Large Turkish communities formed in Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary are contributing to this. After the Second World War, when Marseilles was major opium trafficking center, the Turkish mafia established ties with the leaders of the drug market – Marseille residents and Corsicans. Then, they expanded their activities reaching the United States. Nowadays, the Turks are controlling major part of the black drug market in Europe - about 93%. The reports of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says 110 tons of heroine entered  Europe in 2009, while 80% came by a route lying through Turkey. Thus, the Turkish criminal groups are expanding their activities in Germany and the Netherlands due to a large and influential community. In the UK, the lever is a huge community of Sunni Muslims. The Muslims from African countries are also joining the Turkish clans selling drugs in the European streets.

Five soldiers have been murdered so far this year in El Salvador

Five soldiers have been murdered so far this year in El Salvador, lending credence to the claims of federal police that local “maras,” or street gangs, are plotting against the security forces.

On Monday, unknown assailants gunned down military reservist Juan Antonio Lainez Rodriguez in the small town of San Francisco El Dorado, located in the north central Cabañas province. While members of El Salvador’s National Civil Police (PNC) believe Lainez may simply have fallen victim to a robbery, they have not ruled out that his death may be part of a larger assault on the Salvadoran military and police by the country’s street gangs.

According to PNC investigators working the case, the number of bullet wounds he suffered (six, two in the face and four in the abdomen and legs) lends weight to this theory, suggesting that Lainez’s attackers may have singled him out for more than his valuables. “We know that the gangs have plans to kill soldiers, police and security guards, and plan on investigating this lead further,” one of the investigators told La Prensa Grafica.

Lainez Rodriguez’s death is the fifth such murder of a soldier in 2012, and the second this month. On February 6, army corporal Jose Lorenzo Ramos was murdered in the western province of La Libertad, believed to have been shot dead by two gunmen riding a motorcycle. Two corporals and a sergeant were killed in two separate incidents in January.

InSight Crime Analysis

As InSight Crime reported, PNC deputy director Howard Cotto told local media in January that jailed leaders of the country’s maras are planning an all-out attack on “the system.” According to Cotto, police have intercepted messages from these gang bosses in which they instruct their lieutenants to target members of the security forces, including police, soldiers, judges and prosecutors.

Given President Mauricio Funes push for a "more forceful" approach to the gang problem, with his recent shift towards a more militarized security strategy, such a plan could be seen as a kind of counteroffensive by the country’s main gangs.

It is unclear, however, whether Salvadoran gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 have the nationwide organization to carry out such coordinated actions. Because of this, InSight Crime expressed skepticism over Cotto’s warning, arguing that it had more to do with the politics of police reform, and was part of an attempt to portray the notoriously corrupt Salvadoran police as the “good guys.”

Ultimately, only time will tell if El Salvador’s maras are in fact waging war on the country’s security forces. While the five killings are alarming, they do not yet constitute a pattern. If more killings take place in the coming months, however, it could indicate that the country’s gangs have reached a new level of organization.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder

The McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office has filed a civil lawsuit against the Latin Kings in an effort to target the gang’s presence in Harvard.

The suit falls under the Illinois Street Gang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act and aims for the infrastructure of the gang rather than just individual gang members.

The suit’s goal is essentially to give police and prosecutors another tool to fight gangs by preventing known members from associating with each other.

Donna Kelly, chief of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Civil Division, said the office worked with Harvard officials for months. Similar lawsuits filed by other counties, including DuPage and Boone, were reviewed.

“The whole purpose of the lawsuit is to curtail gang recruitment and to keep the community safe,” she said. “We’re hoping that this does have a deterrent effect on individuals who are either seeking out a gang or trying to recruit other members.”

Five men are named in the suit as members of the Latin Kings: Antonio M. Figueroa, Alfredo Garcia-Castilla, Justin Pena, Genaro Pena, and Spencer M. L. Ortiz.

Prosecutors said the men – as well as other unnamed defendants – committed “numerous” gang-related crimes from 2000 through 2010. For example, Garcia-Castilla was convicted of aggravated battery for hitting another man in the chest with a metal pipe in July 2007.

The lawsuit, filed last week, also cites several other incidents in which victims were hit and kicked or had windows of their home broken.

Kelly prosecuted Figueroa in 2006 when he was convicted of mob action and sentenced to four years in prison for a fight outside a Harvard bar.

“Evidence at the trial overwhelmingly showed that the offense was gang-related,” she said.

The suit is seeking a permanent injunction preventing identified gang members from “standing, sitting, walking, driving, gathering, or appearing anywhere in public view” with any known Latin King gang member.

Outside of home or work, they would not be allowed to have anything that could be used as a weapon, including guns, knives, any kind of bludgeon, bricks or switch blades.

They also would be prohibited from having anything that can be used to create graffiti, throwing gang signs, or displaying tattoos with gang-related markings.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder

Darren Geoghegan (26) and Gavin Byrne (30) – were shot dead in a car in Firhouse, south Dublin, as part of the feud. Doyle is believed to have been paid by one of the Crumlin-Drimnagh gangs to carry out those murders.

PEOPLE WHO knew Barry Doyle say he had it all. He was a good- looking young man who excelled at sport, a good student who was skilled with his hands when he chose to put them to good use.

He was from Portland Row on the deprived mean streets of Dublin’s north inner city, and was educated just a few hundred yards from his home, at O’Connell’s CBS on North Richmond Street.

As a student he played Gaelic football and was regarded as a hugely talented player. He went on to serve time as a bricklayer, but never qualified, having lost his way as his teenage years gave way to his 20s.

“In many ways he was a golden child,” said someone who knew him.

“He genuinely did have it all. When people who he knew then heard his name on the television the first time he was in court for the killing in Limerick, they were stunned.

“It stopped you in your tracks; to think that all he had going for him and yet that’s what he ended up doing. But it was the brother that dragged him down into the gutter, everyone knows that.”

The brother of whom the source speaks was Paddy Doyle; a gun for hire whose notorious career was brought to an end in a hail of bullets in Spain four years ago.

In November 2005, when a rapid round of blood-letting in Dublin brought a gang feud in Crumlin-Drimnagh to public prominence, Paddy Doyle was front and centre of that violence.

On November 13th, two men – Darren Geoghegan (26) and Gavin Byrne (30) – were shot dead in a car in Firhouse, south Dublin, as part of the feud. Doyle is believed to have been paid by one of the Crumlin-Drimnagh gangs to carry out those murders.

Less than 48 hours later, when Noel Roche (27) was shot dead as he sat in traffic on the seafront in Clontarf, north Dublin, Doyle was again the chief suspect. That killing was also part of the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud.

Three years earlier, when Joseph Rattigan (18) was shot dead in Drimnagh in the second murder in the feud, the Garda’s intelligence coming from criminal contacts fingered Paddy Doyle.

By the time he was himself shot dead in February 2008, while driving from a gym near Marbella in a 4x4 BMW, he had already introduced his kid brother Barry into his world.

Paddy Doyle had significant contacts, not only among gangs in Dublin, but also in Limerick, having met some of the McCarthy- Dundon gang in prison.

The Doyle brothers spent time together in Spain, where Barry was inducted into the company of the Dublin and Limerick thugs living it large on the Costa.

There was evidence at his trial that he first met members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang at his brother’s home near Malaga. When Paddy was shot dead, Barry Doyle continued the relationship with his brothers’ Limerick associates.

Despite having only minor convictions, for driving offences and drink-related public-order issues, by the second half of 2008 and into 2009, he had moved to Limerick and was dealing drugs.

He was effectively living in the bosom of the McCarthy-Dundons.

So integrated was he into the gangland family that gardaí believe he went out to kill for them on the night Shane Geoghegan was shot; not for money like his brother had done, but because he was a fully fledged member of the gang.

He was expected to play his part when it moved against its enemies.

But instead of killing the gang’s target – a Limerick man called John McNamara – Doyle mistook Geoghegan for McNamara and shot the rugby player.

The murder led to an outpouring of public revulsion, with then minister for justice Dermot Ahern describing it as “an absolutely awful killing committed by scum”.

Following the murder in Limerick of Roy Collins just months earlier, new anti-gangland laws had been drawn up, but they had stalled by the time Geoghegan was shot. Just two days after Geoghegan’s murder, Ahern and then taoiseach Brian Cowen met the then Garda commissioner Fachtna Murphy for a crisis summit. It was decided the laws would be fast-tracked and they were enacted seven months later.

They allowed for more gangland trials to be held in the non-jury Special Criminal Court, they created a specific offence of participating in a gang and enabled gardaí to use phone taps as evidence in court.

While regarded as a radical departure at the time, the laws have proved ineffective, with the DPP proving unwilling to take such cases to the courts.

The murder led to a show of resilience among the people of Limerick. Thousands turned out for Geoghegan’s funeral and they clapped the hearse carrying his body through the streets. Hundreds of thousands signed petitions for an end to violence in the city.

A sporting foundation for at-risk children was established in his honour and his number 3 jersey from the Garryowen Thirds was retired for good.

Last November, three years after his death, “A pitch for Shane”, comprising more than 1,000 ceramic pieces made in his memory, and sent to Limerick from all over the world, was put on display in Limerick.

Yesterday, Garryowen FC president Eoghan Prendergast said clubs as far away as New Zealand had sent messages of support and that the people of Limerick had been galvanised by Geoghegan’s murder.

“Limerick is represented by Shane Geoghegan, not the people who killed him,” he said. “The killing galvanised the community into saying ‘this cannot go on any longer’.”DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder

'FAT' FREDDIE'S GIRL IN SUICIDE VIGIL

Hood's lover desperate to raise awareness over spate of young victims

 

 

FUNDRAISER: Vicky Dempsey poses with picture of her brother 

THIS is gangster 'Fat' Freddie Thompson's girlfriend posing for photographs at a fundraiser for suicide awareness last week. Vicky Dempsey (31) has been dating 'Fat' Freddie since they were teenagers and has stayed loyal to the notorious criminal through thick and thin. 

 

The pretty blonde - who has an 11-year-old son with Thompson - recently turned up in court for her partner's extradition hearing. But last weekend, the mum-of-one was part of a group who camped out near the Guinness Hopstore in Dublin to raise cash for suicide charity. The fundraiser was arranged after a "spate" of suicides among young people in the south-inner city.

Violent

In August 2008,Vicky's brother, Les, tragically took his own life just days before his 26th birthday at a house in Clondalkin, west Dublin. Les was an associate of 'Fat' Freddie's but was not regarded as a serious or violent criminal by cops. A source told the Sunday World that her brother's death has had a "terrible impact" on Vicky.

"They were very close and she took it very hard. Les was a very well liked guy, he wasn't a hard man or anything like that.

"She does a lot for suicide awareness charities since and arranges a fundraising ball in his honour every year."

Vicky's other brother, Karl, is one of Thompson's key associates. In 2000, Karl was jailed for five years after he was caught with
€63,000 of heroin. The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) also ordered him to cough up €424,987 following an investigation in 2002. Writing on the tribute website, Vicky recently posted a heartbreaking tribute to Les.

She wrote: "I've one son Brad and a partner Frederick.

"Les is Brad's godfather and is sorely missed by every single one of us. life is just never gonna be the same without my lovely brother."

Gardai believe 'Fat' Freddie is the leader of one of the two gangs locked in the bloody Crumlin/Drimnagh feud. Last year, he was extradited following a request by Spanish police investigating godfather Christy Kinahan's drugs ring. Thompson is suspected of sourcing shipments of drugs and weapons from Kinahan and arranging for them to be smuggled into Ireland.

Last weekend, Vicky was also joined by the family and friends of another well-known southinner city criminal at the 24-hour camp out.
Last March, Bernard 'Gack' Lee took his own life just days before he was due to be sentenced for heroin dealing. In March 2008, Lee (28) had sold a large quantity of heroin to undercover gardai who were monitoring his activities. Gardai believe Lee was a member of a crime gang headed up by crime figure Greg Lynch.

Last Saturday his close friend, Ciara Comerford, held a photograph of 'Gack' as she posed for pictures. Fat Freddie is currently relaxing in Marbella after being released from custody, having only been quizzed for a matter of hours following his extradition.

Bail

Despite the seriousness of the charges, the maximum sentence that the mobster is facing is just nine years in prison. The Spanish authorities have not provided any direct evidence to back-up assertions that Thompson is a key member of the Kinahan gang.
They claim that he is a "trusted right-hand man" of Kinihan.

Rapper and Bloods Gang leader indicted for murders and racketeering

Up-and-coming Rap music performer Ronald Herron, also known as “Ra Diggs,” “Ra Digga” and “Raheem,” was charged in federal court on Monday in Brooklyn, New York, with multiple crimes, including three murders related to his leadership of a "set" of the Bloods Street Gang.    A federal indictment charges the 30-year old suspect with a whopping 23 counts, including murder, racketeering, murder in-aid-of racketeering, murder conspiracy, attempted murder, robbery, illegal use and possession of firearms, and narcotics trafficking

. Ronald Herron, who calls himself "The Big Homie," dabbled as a self-styled rapper under the name "Ra Diggs" until he was busted in 2010

 

The leader of all Bloods street gangs in New York City was hit with a sweeping new indictment today charging him with murder and several murder conspiracy charges. Ronald Herron, who calls himself "The Big Homie," dabbled as a self-styled rapper under the name "Ra Diggs" until he was busted in 2010 after a four-year FBI-NYPD probe involving more than 65 undercover drug purchases. Brooklyn federal prosecutors say he unleashed a reign of terror over several city housing projects, threatened the police, vowed online to "turn the pigs kids into" orphans, and issued warnings against snitching. Today prosecutors hit him with an expanded indictment that includes several murder, murder conspiracy, and attempted murder charges related to his alleged drug business, and Herron possibly could face the death penalty, if convicted. He was already facing cocaine and heroin-trafficking charges - as well as weapons offenses - that stemmed from his 2010 arrest. The feds say he’s carried sub-machine guns, strapped on bulletproof vests, and authorities believe he's responsible for ordering murders and intimidating witnesses that doomed one homicide prosecution in New York state court. Last summer - while fighting the earlier federal drug charges - Herron claimed that he was not bound by American law. "I am not a party to ... the Constitution of the United States of America," Herron wrote Brooklyn federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis. Arguing that he was a “sovereign inhabitant” not subject to federal jurisdiction, he also made a contradictory argument that he’s governed only by the US Constitution and no other laws passed since the Founding Fathers penned that original document. Herron’s philosophy includes concepts espoused by certain grass-roots political movements in the western US, which Constitutional law experts say was a “fascinating” development. “Surprisingly, some of the things he says here are popular with white supremacist groups,” Larry Solum, a professor at Georgetown University’s law school, told The Post last summer. Herron’s challenge also uses “similar ideas to those associated with extremist and fringe movements,” such as the Patriot movement and militia groups," said Solum, a constitutional scholar. But the judge was not persuaded and rejected Herron's motion suggesting that his earlier drug trafficking indictment be dismissed.

Deceased reggae star Smiley Culture was instrumental in recruiting women from Croydon to traffic drugs for distribution in the UK

Deceased reggae star Smiley Culture was instrumental in recruiting women from Croydon to traffic drugs for distribution in the UK, a court heard on Monday.

The 80s singer, whose real name was David Emmanuel, organised and planned five trips to Barbados for the drugs mules between summer 2009 and February 2010.

Croydon Crown Court heard he paid all of the women's expenses including their airfares, hotel costs and living expenses.

The evidence was heard in the opening of the trial of Orville Thomas, Courtney Swaby and Mr Emmanuel's daughter, Natara Russell.

All three are accused of smuggling cocaine into the country.

Prosecutor Tom Little told the jury: "Orville Thomas was David Emmanuel's right hand man. He went on four out of the five trips.

"The Crown's case is he was involved in the conspiracy in Barbados and would be present when the drugs were unpacked at David Emmanuel's home in Warlingham.

"Natara Russell is David Emmanuel's daughter. She went on the same four trips as Orville Thomas.

"The Crown's case is she was fully aware of what was taking place and that she had telephone contact with some of the couriers.

"Courtney Swaby went on one trip to Barbados, but acted on the other trips as the trusted driver to collect David Emmanuel from Gatwick airport."

Mr Little told the court Mr Swaby played an important role and asked the jury to consider whether he was ever present at Emmanuel's house when there was discussions on drugs and/or when the drugs were delivered back to the singers mansion.

The jury were told the drug smuggling came to a halt on February 27, 2010, when the five women who were travelling together were arrested at Grantley Adams airport in Barbados.

About 30kg of cocaine, the equivalent of 30 bags of sugar, were found in three of the women's suitcases.

Mr Little said: "Also at the airport on February 27, 2010, were David Emmanuel, Orville Thomas and Natara Russell who watched this all take place but had kept a safe distance away.

"They were not stopped and were able to fly back to England undetected."

Mr Thomas, 37, and Miss Russell, 19, were arrested on March 15, last year. Mr Emmanuel, 48, was due to be arrested the same day, but stabbed himself through the heart at his Surrey mansion in Hillbury Road, Warlingham.

Mr Swaby, 52, was arrested on May 20, 2011, when a search warrant was executed at his home address.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder