Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll murder trial

PHOTOGRAPHS of the spot where gangland figure Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll was shot dead were shown to a murder trial jury yesterday. The pictures – shown on day one of the trial – included an image of an Audi with smashed windows. The court was told the car was “subject to a significant degree of examination”. Carroll, 29, was shot in the car park of Asda in Robroyston, Glasgow, in January 2010. Ross Monaghan, 30, has been accused of Carroll’s murder. It is alleged that, while masked and acting with others, Monaghan repeatedly discharged loaded handguns at him, shooting him on the head and body. Monaghan is accused of – while acting with others – attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of a revolver, pistol and ammunition in undergrowth in Coatbridge and Airdrie. It is also claimed a car bearing false number plates was set on fire. Monaghan also faces a number of firearms charges. He denies all the charges against him at the High Court in Glasgow and has incriminated Mr X, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and seven others. The trial, before Lord Brailsford, continues.

Does a Septuagenarian Gangster Hold the Key to Solving America's Most Infamous Art Heist

The FBI believes that Robert Gentile, a 75-year-old Hartford-based mobster whose criminal record stretches back to the 1950s and who’s currently being held in a Rhode Island prison for selling prescription drugs, may have information that could help solve the 20th century’s most famous art heist. Gentile says he wasn’t involved in the 1990 theft of 13 masterpieces from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, but federal authorities have denied him bail in hopes that the ailing mobster will spill the beans. They claim he was active with a group of Boston thieves in the years following the heist, and could offer a clue in the famously lead-less investigation to track down works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, and Degas stolen 22 years ago. “The government has reason to believe that Mr. Gentile had some involvement with stolen property out of the District of Massachusetts," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham said, the Hartford Courant reports. Gentile’s lawyer, A. Ryan McGuigan, says his client is being held in hopes that he’ll divulge information he doesn’t have. "What is happening, Your Honor, is that the government is asking you to set a punitive bond, to keep him uncomfortable, to torture him," McGuigan told U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny in court on Tuesday. “He unfortunately doesn't have the information that the government is looking for. But the government believes he does.” For the last six decades Gentile, who lives in Manchester, Connecticut, has been involved in the local criminal underworld, having been inducted into Philadelphia’s mafia family by Capo Robert Luisi, Durham said. When Lusi was arrested a decade ago and faced with a major prison sentence, he told investigators that Gentile and members of his crew were responsible for a great number of crimes — including a plot reminiscent of “Ocean’s 11” to rob armored trucks transporting cash from Connecticut’s Foxwoods Resort Casino. Gentile also acted as Lusi’s bodyguard for a time, and was allegedly involved in a number of truck hijackings, though none of his alleged criminal activities seemed to implicate the old, ill mobster in the famous art theft. But his associates speculated that had he known anything about the missing paintings he would have tried to claim the $5-million reward for information leading to their recovery years ago. After pressing Durham on the charges that Gentile was being kept in jail order to pry information about the heist from him, Chatigny denied the mobster bail, saying he was too dangerous. Gentile isn't the first local mobster to be implicated in the Gardner robbery. In 2010 the legendary gangster James "Whitey" Bulger — the real-life inspiration for Jack Nicholson's character in the Martin Scorsese movie "The Departed" — was suspected of knowing something about the heist. Investigators eventually concluded that he was not involved in any way, leaving another cold lead in the hunt for the $50 million treasure trove.

Murdered gangster's son given community service after being caught with £4k drug haul

THE son of a murdered gangster was given acommunity service order yesterday after police caught him with cannabis worth more than £4000. Joseph Hanlon Jnr, 23, was arrested after officers raided his home in Hamilton following an anonymous tip-off. Police found nearly 700grams of powerful skunk cannabis in a Transit van parked in his driveway during the raid in October 2010. Hanlon, who was arrested four months later, admitted dealing cannabis. At Hamilton Sheriff Court yesterday, he was ordered to carry out 300 hours of community service. His father, Joe “Bananas” Hanlon, 23, was gunned down in 1991, along with friend Bobby Glover, 31, in one of Scotland’s most notorious unsolved murder cases. They were both shot in a revenge attack in 1991 after crime godfather Arthur Thompson’s son, Arthur Jnr, was gunned down.

popular Caribbean dancing style used by adults, known as 'daggering', is sexualising the dance floors of a much younger generation.

 

 Teenagers as young as 11 are modelling sex acts and rape, in the form of daggering, on the dance floor with their peers. Deputy Children's Commissioner Sue Berelowitz said: "there's not a lot separating that kind of behaviour from actual violent, coercive sex." Footage seen by Channel 4 News [see above] shows an under-18s club night in East London. As with all 'under-18s' club nights, everyone is between 11 and 16. Some of the children look much younger. The club is packed. The music: Caribbean dancehall. The dancing style: daggering. It is a style of dancing that any carnival regular will be used to. Aficionados will no doubt, have a more technical description of the style but it mainly involves women bending over and rubbing their backsides up against the men's crotches. During that August weekend in Notting Hill every adult gives it a go. But what's different about this night club is that every child is giving it a go. Spurred on by the DJ, the 'daggering' becomes more enthusiastic, some of it verging on violent. Boys and girls end up on top of each other on the floor simulating sex. Throughout the night someone employed by the club promoter (presumably an adult) is filming it all and uploading it on the club's website via YouTube.

Fatal stabbing nets gangster 64 years in prison

 

Lake Superior Court Judge Thomas Stefaniak Jr., imposed a 64-year prison sentence for a Merrillville man convicted of murder and criminal gang activity in a 2011 stabbing at a Hammond bar. Ernesto Roberto Ramirez, 31, cried as he expressed his sympathy to the family of Victor Adams and asked for forgiveness. Ramirez told the judge he was a devoted father of five — with children ranging from 17 to a few months old — and that he was put in a situation where he felt his life was in danger and made a split-second decision. Adams, 34, of West Lafayette, was in town for a funeral when he was stabbed Jan. 13, 2011, inside the Copper Penny Bar in Hammond. The homicide was caught on video surveillance and played for the jury numerous times. Jurors convicted Ramirez on Jan. 31 after less than two hours of deliberations. Evidence presented by deputy prosecutor Michelle Jatkiewicz showed that Ramirez and his associates instigated a fight near the pool table with some friends of Adams. One of Adams’ friends had called him to come to the bar. Shortly before the murder, Ramirez left the bar, got a dark object from his vehicle and went back inside the bar, where a fight broke out shortly thereafter. With Adams’ back turned, Ramirez steadied himself with his left hand on Adams’ shoulder and plunged a knife into his neck. Adams’ friends loaded him into their car and drove to the Hammond Clinic, which was closed. Jatkiewicz presented evidence of Ramirez’s alleged gang affiliation for the judge to consider during sentencing, including photographs depicting graffiti in his Lake County Jail cells. Hammond police Detective Sgt. David Carter, who has listened to more than 1,500 phone calls by Ramirez, said Ramirez instructed one of his girlfriends recently on how to package drugs to be delivered to him at the jail. Ramirez also was lining up witnesses for his sentencing hearing, Carter said. Stefaniak said he had read and considered a large stack of letters written on Ramirez’s behalf. Defense attorney John Cantrell, who argued during trial that his client acted in self-defense, called as a witness Ramirez’s neighbor, Jason Pool, who said he had met Ramirez three years ago and would often have coffee with him over the fence. Pool said Ramirez seemed like a good father whose children were extremely respectful. Jatkiewicz argued for 62½ years, noting that Ramirez had options other than returning to the bar, presumably with the knife used to kill Adams. “He stabbed Victor Adams from behind and ran like a coward,” said Jatkiewicz, who noted Ramirez was on the run for six weeks before he was captured by members of the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force in Joliet, Ill. Jatkiewicz said that Ramirez’s character was demonstrated in a photo in his phone of one of his young children holding a full Corona beer, and in a second video in which one of Ramirez’s associates hacks a squirrel to death with a machete while Ramirez is heard laughing. During his trial, the jury acquitted Ramirez of a separate criminal gang enhancement, which would have doubled his sentence on the murder charge. Stefaniak imposed a 62-year sentence for the murder and said he felt Ramirez’s remorse was not genuine but instead had more to do with the long prison sentence he was facing. The judge sentenced Ramirez to two years for criminal gang activity.

MS-13 gangsters Silencio," a.k.a. Carlos Ortega, 22, his badass gang name probably isn't going to get him off the hook for the federal murder charges

MS-13 Gangster "Silencio""Silencio," a.k.a. Carlos Ortega, 22, his badass gang name probably isn't going to get him off the hook for the federal murder charges he'll soon face for the 2010 murder of David Sandler, and the attempted murder of another man in Brentwood that same day. Additionally, the United States Attorney's Office says "Silencio" also was involved in the murder of another man, Mario Alberto Canton Quijada, on March 17, 2010 (spoiler alert: he admitted to hacking him up with a machete). According to an 11-page federal complaint, provided to the Voice by the U.S. Attorney's Office, "Silencio" and other MS-13 gangsters, including Jimmy Sosa, who has the less-impressive gang name of "Junior," agreed to "put in work" for the gang on February 17, 2010, by murdering a member of a rival gang. The gangsters cruised around Brentwood in a Ford Explorer that night looking for rival gangsters to kill, which is when they found Sandler -- who they believed to be a member of the Latin Kings, a rival street gang -- at a deli near Timberline Drive and Second Avenue. According to the complaint, the MS-13 members also knew that Sandler sold weed, so they devised a plan to arrange a drug deal and then kill him when he showed up with the marijuana. Sosa approached Sandler and asked if he could buy some weed. The two men exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet later to make the deal. Shortly after, Sandler told the gangsters that he had the weed, and they could meet him back at the deli to pick it up. "Silencio" and Sosa told him they'd rather meet somewhere more isolated, but Sandler insisted they meet at the deli. When the gangsters showed up, Sandler was there with another man, whose identity is known by the feds, but is referred to only as "John Doe" in the complaint. "Silencio," who previously had agreed to kill Sandler, approached the two men with Sosa. When Sosa handed Sandler the money, "Silencio" started shooting, hitting Sandler in the head and hand. "John Doe" also suffered gunshot wounds, but survived. Sosa and another alleged MS-13 gangster were arrested shortly after the shooting. "Silencio" got away. The complaint also alleges that "Silencio" was involved in the murder of Quijada, an MS-13 member who refused to carry out the murder of a rival gangster. According to the complaint, on March 16, 2010, Quijada was given a final chance by MS-13 leadership to kill the rival gang member. He refused, which, it turns out, is a mistake in the world of violent street gangs. MS-13 leadership held a meeting that night to determine how they should deal with Quijada's refusal to follow orders. Their conclusion: he obviously had to die. Early the next morning, a group of MS-13 gangsters -- including our boy "Silencio" -- lured Quijada to a beach in Far Rockaway, where one of the gangsters attempted to shoot him in the head. However, the gun jammed, so "Silencio" hacked him up with a machete and then took turns stabbing him with the other gangsters. One of the blows from the machete, the complaint notes, "penetrated deep into Quijada's skull, through his eye-socket, which resulted in the machete becoming lodged in the skull." Yesterday, members of a federal task force located "Silencio" and took him into custody. Following his arrest, "Silencio" admitted to being associated with MS-13 and to murdering Sandler and Quijada. "Silencio," who is an illegal immigrant originally from El Salvador, is expected to be arraigned in federal court later today. Tags: gangs, latin kings, Mario Alberto Canton Quijada, ms-13, murder, silencio,

furnishings inside Quebec street gang leader Ducarme Joseph’s luxury mansion in suburban Montreal have been seized and sold by bailiffs working for Revenue Quebec

The furnishings inside Quebec street gang leader Ducarme Joseph’s luxury mansion in suburban Montreal have been seized and sold by bailiffs working for Revenue Quebec, QMI Agency has learned. The tax agency launched the seizure and auction sale to recover part of the $300,000 in unpaid income taxes owing by Joseph, who was accused in court documents of not filing income tax returns for a decade while pocketing $730,000 in income. The auction took place after Joseph and his common-law spouse Cheryl Bailey made an unsuccessful last-ditch attempt to derail it.   The couple claimed the notorious street gang leader gave Bailey everything he owned in 2008 in case, he wrote in a letter, he should ever have “an unforeseen accident.” The gangster wrote Bailey a somewhat uncharacteristically tender letter dated Dec. 25, 2008, saying he was giving her his house, the furnishings and his cars “after the years we have been together and during which you gave me four beautiful children." He signed it: “Your baby Love" A Quebec Superior Court Judge didn’t believe the story, nor did the Quebec Court of Appeal, which said recently the gift was null and void because it was not properly registered with the province. Bailiffs quietly seized all the furnishings and appliances inside the mansion last summer, court documents show. The bailiffs held an auction at Joseph’s home Tuesday morning, a manager at the firm confirmed. Joseph’s lawyer declined to comment. Joseph has a long criminal record for violence and drug trafficking and he survived an assassination attempt in 2010 in Montreal that left his bodyguard dead. Revenu Quebec slapped a mortgage lien on Joseph's house and its contents in late 2010. The move came after the QMI Agency revealed Joseph was selling the two-storey, 10-room stone cottage with an asking price of $1.6 million. Quebec tax auditors discovered Joseph was hiding income while working with Montreal police investigators on a special proceeds of crime investigation that targeted the street gang leader’s finances.

New Black Panther leader arrested as group sets bounty in Florida shooting

 

high-ranking member of the New Black Panther Party was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. DeKalb County Sheriff's Office Hashim Nzinga, 49, was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. More Atlanta area news » Immigration-related complaint may become ‘moot' 'Chicken Man' house explodes Trayvon Martin rally at Capitol draws many Gang member guilty of 2011 killing Hashim Nzinga, 49, recently announced on CNN that his group was offering a $10,000 reward for the capture of George Zimmerman, the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. CNN identified Nzinga as the chief of staff of the New Black Panther Party. According to a DeKalb arrest warrant, Nzinga was in possession of an FN Herstal 5.7 x 28 handgun, which investigators said he pawned at a shop on Rockbridge Road. That alleged transaction would be illegal due to Nzinga’s convictions last month for felony deposit account fraud in Gwinnett County, the DeKalb Sheriff's Office said. Nzinga was arrested by members of the fugitive squad at a probation office in Lawrenceville and transported to DeKalb County Jail. The New Black Panther Party is offering a $10,000 bounty for the capture of Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch captain who shot and killed Martin, an unarmed teenager, last month. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Black Panther leader Mikhail Muhammad said Saturday at a rally in Sanford, where Martin was killed Feb. 26, according to Fox News. Zimmerman has claimed he shot Martin in self-defense, but the New Black Panthers are calling for mobilization of 10,000 black men to capture Zimmerman, who has gone into hiding, the Orlando Sentinel reported. "He should be fearful for his life," Muhammad said. "You can't keep killing black children." According to the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the New Black Panthers "is a virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers." The group was founded in Dallas in 1989 and believes black Americans should have their own nation, according to the SPLC. Zimmerman shot Martin as he returned to his father's house from a store where he had bought candy. Zimmerman told a 911 dispatcher that Martin was acting suspicious and told police that he was attacked by Martin. Sanford police say they were advised by prosecutors that they did not have enough evidence to charge Zimmerman.

RICO charges in probation scandal spur debate

 

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s brandishing of RICO — a powerful federal weapon used to crush mobsters and violent motorcycle gangs — to prosecute former state officials in the Probation Department for kowtowing to legislators’ patronage demands has triggered a debate that some predict could be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, over whether traditional politics in Massachusetts rises to the level of racketeering and a potential 20 years behind bars. Ex-Commissioner of Probation John “Jack” O’Brien, Elizabeth V. Tavares and William H. Burke III were charged with racketeering and mail fraud in federal indictments unsealed Friday that accuse them of operating a “rigged,” decade-long patronage hiring and promotion scheme to keep happy the politicians on Beacon Hill in charge of the money. “The indictment speaks for itself,” Ortiz’s office said in a statement yesterday, declining to comment further. But O’Brien’s attorney Paul K. Flavin said, “To suggest that these three individuals were operating a criminal enterprise because recommendations were made for employment ... This is a culture. When there’s money in an envelope in a handshake, that’s when patronage is illegal.” Tavares’ attorney, R. Bradford Bailey, vowed they will go to trial. “We’re going to challenge the government every step of the way on their theory of prosecution,” he said. Decrying the charges against O’Brien and his two top deputies “a fraud on the public,” Cambridge constitutional lawyer Harvey Silverglate, who is not involved in the case, predicted yesterday the explosive case eventually will land before Supreme Court justices, “who will have to draw a line in the sand between politics and crime.” Silverglate told the Herald that “the idea of pressuring politicians for favors, I’m sure, goes back to George Washington. Guess what the solution is? The voters.” The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 was first used to attack organized crime syndicates such as the Mafia by taking out their leaders. With its significantly enhanced sentences and forfeiture penalties, Silverglate said RICO has the chilling effect of pushing “innocent people” to cop plea deals. University of Notre Dame professor G. Robert Blakey, a former federal prosecutor and a leading authority on RICO, said he has a bumper sticker, “Fight Organized Crime: Don’t Re-Elect Anyone.” But he said political corruption is what RICO is used to prosecute most, followed by drugs and fraud in the private sector. “The statute applies to any person,” Blakey said. “As a general matter, (jurors) aren’t going to think it’s overreaching. Each and every one of them knows how corrupt your politicians are, and now they’re going to have a chance to stand up and be counted on it.”

Gangster Convicted of Making Threats, Kidnapping & Mortgage Fraud

 

Joseph Duane Gustafson Jr., 37, was convicted by a jury of racketeering in the Beat Down Posse case.  The charges included terroristic threats, kidnapping and multiple counts of mortgage fraud, drug trafficking and unlawful possession of a firearm. The jury found Gustafson, also known as Little Joe to distinguish him from his father Big Joe Gustafson, guilty on eleven other offenses that made up the overall racketeering case. Those other charges included terroristic threats, kidnapping and multiple counts of mortgage fraud, drug trafficking and unlawful possession of a firearm. The jury acquitted him of second-degree assault. With the convictions, which the jury brought back after about eight hours of deliberation, the two leaders of the Gustafson crime organization, sometimes called the Beat Down Posse, are now facing long prison terms. Joseph Gustafson Sr. was convicted in January 2012. Senior Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Bill Richardson and Assistant Hennepin County Attorneys Amber Hawkins and Hans Larson spent more than two weeks presenting the case to the jury. With the help of former Beat Down Posse gang members, the prosecutors laid out for the jury how the Gustafsons used their bail bond business as a front to terrorize people in the neighborhood, to deal drugs and kidnap and beat people who did not do what they told them. In addition, Little Joe used straw buyers and phony employment information on mortgage forms to illegally obtain mortgages to purchase four properties. Sentencing is set for April 24, 2012, and prosecutors will be seeking a sentence of 20 years. Big Joe Gustafson was sentenced earlier this month to 15 years in prison following his conviction for racketeering, arson, assault, kidnapping and accessory after the fact. "The Beat Down Posse is no more," Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said. "Thanks to the fine efforts of our prosecutors, Minneapolis police, Minnesota Department of Commerce, FBI and IRS investigators, the Gustafsons and their followers can no longer terrorize Minneapolis' North Side. I couldn't be happier." Minnesota Department of Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman's investigators received some of the first tips that led to the charges.

Notorious gang boss linked to dead drug mule

Martin ‘Butch’ Beirne died when the drugs he had swallowed in condoms ruptured while he was in a South American hotel room. Gardai believe he was in Venezuela to collect cocaine on behalf of a major Sligo based drugs gang, led by 30-year-old Patrick Irwin, who control drug dealing in the north west. Irwin, of St Joseph's Terrace, Sligo, was jailed for seven years last year after being caught with €67,000 worth of cocaine. Irwin's mob, which includes his brothers Hughie and Thomas, are closely linked to major criminal gangs in Dublin and Limerick. Two other Irish nationals travelling with Beirne were arrested and are being held in jail in the Venezuelan capital Caracas where they are due to face drugs trafficking charges. The Irwins were business associates of murdered crime boss Eamon Dunne and the feared Limerick crime faction, the Keane/Collopys. Associates of Hughie and Patrick Irwin are believed to have carried out the murders of Traveller criminal Hughie McGinley in 2005 and armed robber David Lynch in 2008.

Gang that assassinated Serbian prime minister admits making 'face mask' out of member's skin

Serbian mafia 'put gangster in mincer and ate him for lunch'

A GANGSTER who helped orchestrate the Serbian prime minister's assassination in 2003 was allegedly made into a stew and eaten by his associates after falling out with his gang leader.
 
Police believe Milan Jurisic (above) was beaten to death with a hammer, skinned and boned with a sharp knife and then put through a meat grinder at a flat in Madrid in 2009.
 
The Zemun clan, a notorious faction of the Serbian mafia that once had connections with the Serbian government, police and media, allegedly made a face mask from Jurisic's skin before turning him into stew and eating him for lunch.
 
It apparently took the gang five days to clean up what is being described as "the house of horrors".
 
Sretko Kalinic, nicknamed 'The Butcher' and known as the gang's hitman, confessed to the crimes when he was arrested in Croatia last year, according to the Daily Mail. Kalinic admitted that he "literally dismembered" Jurisic and then threw his remains into Madrid's Manzanares river.
 
This week, Spanish officers discovered documents at the scene of the crime supporting The Butcher's account. They also found 50 bones in the river and are currently awaiting identification from forensics.
 
Jurisic was one of 12 men found guilty of arranging the 2003 murder of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, who was killed by a sniper as he approached a government building in Belgrade.
 
Jurisic was on the run when he was murdered, having been convicted in his absence to 30 years' jail by the Belgrade Special Court for Organised Crime.

It is believed Jurisic had fallen out with the leader of the Zemun cklan, Luka Bojovic, either over money or a woman.
 
As the BBC reports, Bojovic himself was arrested in a restaurant in Valencia, Spain last month, wanted for more than 20 murders in Serbia, the Netherlands and Spain. He is also suspected of involvement in the 2003 assassination. · 

Russia's gangster violence exploded on to the streets of London when a banker was gunned down entering his luxury Docklands home.

 

German Gorbuntsov was in the foyer of his apartment block near Canary Wharf when a would-be assassin sprayed shots at him with a  submachine gun.

The 45-year-old collapsed at the scene and was fighting for his life last night. Armed police are on guard at the hospital where he is in a coma.

Coma: German Gorbuntsov was repeatedly shot outside a block of flats near Canary Wharf in an attempted assassination attempt

Gun blast: German Gorbuntsov is pictured here being carried into ambulance after being shot in Canary Wharf

Friends of Mr Gorbuntsov fear that a mafia contract has been taken out on his life because he was a witness in the case of an attempted murder of another banker in 2009.

His neighbours in Byng Street on the Isle of Dogs, where serviced apartments cost  up to £200 a day, said a tearful blonde tried to reach the banker’s prone body.

 

More...

• Murderer makes Hollywood escape from Russian prison by clinging on to rope ladder from helicopter (but is caught hours later driving a cab)

 

Emma Key, 30, said the woman – in her 20s and thought to be his wife – was being held back by police officers.

‘She was obviously upset, she was crying. She was trying to get into the ambulance. A policeman was trying to hold her back.

‘The concierge told us he had been shot three times and that that was his wife.’

Tony Smith, a 26-year-old estate agent, drove down Byng Street only moments after the murder attempt.

Murdered: Alexander Litvinenko, 43, died after being poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in November 2006

He said: ‘I pulled my car up and looked down and saw his body, saw him. 

‘Police were surrounding him but there were only two police cars, and the rest came later.

‘The window was shot out on the door. I thought he had been stabbed at first. I didn’t expect this to happen in this block.’

Mr Gorbuntsov has been linked to an investigation into a gun attack on Alexander Antonov, whose son Vladimir once owned Portsmouth Football Club.

New evidence from Mr Gorbuntsov led to the case being reopened by the judicial authorities in Moscow.

The case had been put on ice because the mastermind behind the attack remained unidentified even after  three Chechens had been convicted of trying to kill Mr Antonov.

The same gang was also found guilty of assassinating Ruslan Yamadayev, one of five brothers from a clan that had challenged the power of Chechnya’s  Kremlin-backed president, Ramzan Kadyrov.

Vadim Vedenin, Mr Gorbuntsov’s lawyer, told Kommersant newspaper in Moscow that his client’s new testimony in the Antonov case had implicated two of his former business partners. 

The Russian banker had himself been suspected of involvement at one point.

The inquiry into Tuesday evening’s shooting is being led by the Metropolitan Police Trident gang crime command, which is said to be liaising with counter-terrorism officers.

Yesterday a spokesman for Scotland Yard said it was too early to speculate on whether the attack was linked to the Antonov investigation of 2009.

He also refused to reveal what weapon was used.

The attempted assassination will prompt comparisons with the murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006.

British prosecutors have named his fellow ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy as the main suspect in his poisoning with radioactive polonium-210.

Shooting: German Gorbuntsov, 45, was attacked on the Isle of Dogs close to Canary Wharf

However, the Russian authorities have repeatedly refused to send him to face trial in the UK.
Last night Mr Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, sent her thoughts to Mr Gorbuntsov’s family.

She said: ‘This must obviously be a very difficult time. I don’t think it is very easy to say what has happened at this stage – they will be hoping for some clarity very soon.’

Mr Gorbuntsov, who used to own a number of banks in Russia and Moldova, has been living in exile in Britain.

He is on Moldova’s wanted list over allegations of involvement in an illegal bank takeover and embezzlement. Another of his lawyers, Valery Andronik, told Kommersant that the attack was unlikely to have been planned from within the former Soviet republic.

‘He told me several times, “If I go back to Russia, they will kill me”,’ said Mr Andronik.

It is understood that Mr Gorbuntsov spent time in jail before becoming a businessman in the early 1990s.

He set up nearly 40 companies involved in security, construction, real estate and finance.
Although counter-terror officers are involved, Mr Gorbuntsov’s  shooting is being put down to organised crime.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘A man was shot a number of times as he entered a block of flats by a suspect who is described as white, six feet tall and of slim build. 

‘He was wearing dark clothing and seen running away.’

All About Money GANGSTER nabbed in ’Peg despite deportation order

 

reputed head of a violent African street gang faction has been nabbed on new drug-trafficking charges in Winnipeg, despite being ordered kicked out of Canada years ago. Bosco Justin Laki, 25, was arrested early Thursday after a police foot chase in the West End. Cops had pulled over a car for a traffic stop and one of the men inside fled on foot, cops said. A small amount of cocaine, pot, cash and three cellphones were seized, police said. Laki, who left Sudan as a teen and arrived in Canada in 2000, has been fingered by police as a former member of the African Mafia street gang who broke from the notorious group due to internal issues to head up his own faction dubbed All About Money or ABM. ABM has been linked to overtly violent acts in the past, such as the shooting of now-rival African Mafia members in a car on busy Pembina Highway in 2008. Laki is no stranger to the Canadian justice system. In 2007, he was handed a 20-month jail sentence for trafficking in cocaine. He was ordered deported as a result of that conviction. He was also arrested in April 2010 and accused of further drug crimes. A father of a young child and the son of a Winnipeg minister, Laki fought being kicked out of Canada but lost that battle in July 2010 when the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) ordered his deportation order upheld. The decision to endorse his removal came after Laki repeatedly denied street-gang involvement in testimony in front of IRB member Douglas Cochran. Two Winnipeg cops were also called to testify at his immigration hearing to attest to Laki’s gang-involvement. Cochran ultimately found Laki’s denials to completely lack credibility. “(Laki) has a strong propensity, almost an obsession, to blame others for his troubles in life. This includes his parents for kicking him out of their home at a time when he was working and going to school. It includes numerous police officers for planting evidence and lying about his criminal involvement,” Cochran wrote in his decision. It was not immediately clear why immigration officials haven’t yet removed Laki from Canada. However, deportation orders are only enforced by the Canada Border Services Agency after all outstanding criminal matters are dealt with. As well, the recent case of Clato Mabior —  convicted of sexual assault for not disclosing his HIV status — showed obtaining travel documents for Sudanese deportees has been an arduous process in recent years due to civil unrest in that country. Mabior was deported a few weeks ago after being held for many months on a deportation warrant.

Federal judge freezes assets of Catherine Greig, girlfriend of gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger

US District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock on Thursday approved a request by federal prosecutors to freeze the assets of Catherine Greig, the girlfriend of James “Whitey” Bulger, until she is sentenced on June 12 for helping the notorious gangster stay on the run for 16 years. Prosecutors argued in court documents that Greig has about $115,000 in a bank account as well as interests in a Quincy home and in her family’s South Boston home that could be tapped for fines. Greig faces a total of as much as $750,000 in fines and 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts related to her time with Bulger on the run.

Geriatric gangster gets 6-plus years

geriatric gangster with a rap sheet dating back to the 1950s was sentenced to 6-plus years in the slammer yesterday by a fed-up judge who said his “advanced age” only underscored his danger to society. Frank Boehme, 73, scowled from behind a long, bushy gray beard as Manhattan federal Judge William Pauley III ticked off his convictions, which include a manslaughter rap for which Boehme previously served 20 years behind bars. Pauley noted that the killing took place while “Mr. Boehme attempted to steal other people’s property, and that’s what Mr. Boehme has been doing his entire life.” “Mr. Boehme, it’s really pathetic. It’s like a scene from ‘Groundhog Day’ -- you just keep doing the same thing over and over again,” Pauley added. In addition to the prison time, Pauley ordered Boehme to pay $1.1 million in restitution to cover the cost of electronic gear he and several cronies stole to finance a massive marijuana-selling operation. Co-defendants John Cipolla, 38, and Jonathan Mascuzzio, 29, were also sentenced yesterday to five years and three-plus years, respectively, for their roles in the drug ring, which bought huge amounts of weed grown in Arizona and trucked it back to New York for sale here. All three men were identified as associates of the Gambino organized-crime family when they were indicted last year as part of a major Mafia crackdown by the feds. Both Cipolla and Mascuzzio were already doing time for transporting the stolen electronics. Prosecutor Peter Skinner said Boehme’s involvement in the scheme -- and the existence of the drug-trafficking racket -- were revealed by an accomplice who turned rat.

Tycoon's daughter accused of two-hour looting spree during London riots 'swapped sex texts' with gangster

A millionaire's daughter sent a gangster flirtatious messages hours before they embarked on a looting spree during last summer’s riots, a court heard yesterday. Laura Johnson, 20, claims she was forced to drive a getaway car for three men who threatened her with talk of guns and knives. But a jury heard she had been sending one of these men, Emmanuel Okubote, texts about sex and how she missed the convicted robber and crack dealer. The messages between Johnson and Okubote were exchanged on August 8 – a day before the alleged two-hour rampage across South London. In one, she said: ‘I miss you, just a little bit,’ to which Okubote replied: ‘You too.’ Later, the University of Exeter student described her troubles writing an essay. She wrote: ‘It really hard though... Unless it’s sex, ha ha ha, I hate working hard.’ He replied: ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get it.’ The jury at Inner London Crown Court has heard Johnson, who denies burglary and handling stolen goods, had met Okubote, also known as Sylar, for trysts in her car - where they would 'kiss and stuff'.

Mafia Bosses 'Turn Cannibal': Serbian Gangsters 'Ate Milan Jurisic In A Flat In Madrid' Say Police

A mafia traitor was beaten to death and then eaten by Serbian gangsters, police believe. Milan Jurisic, 37, was killed with a hammer by a gang of criminals from the Zemun Clan, a mafia group from Belgrade, in Madrid. His remains were then ground up with a meat grinder, cooked, and eaten, according to a confession by another Zemun Clan member, Sretko Kalinic, nicknamed "The Butcher". Later the gang reportedly threw the bones into the River Manzanares in the Spanish capital. This week, police found bones in the river and the apartment where the killing apparently took place in 2009. Jurisic is thought to have betrayed his fellow gang members by stealing money from them. He was on the run after being convicted in his absence of assassinating Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003. Kalinic confessed to the murder after he was arrested in the Croatian capital of Zagreb in 2010. Police believe the murder and subsequent cannibalism was led by Luka Bojovic, a Serbian gangster arrested in Valencia last month. Bojovic was also on the run after being accused of assassinating Djindjic. Inside Bojovic's apartment in Valencia police found documents backing up Kalinic's account of the killing. The murder is being investigated by magistrate Fernando Andreu at the National Court in Madrid.

It seems that a Chinese GANGSTER may have lost his phone.

Photos recovered from his phone have made their way onto the internet causing a viral sensation ( Over 500,000 in half a day).

Ever wonder what’s it’s like to live the life of Chinese thug?

You get to pose with stack of 1.1 million yuan (just over $174,000) in 100 yuan bills.

$174,000 in yuan

Type in “Chinese Gangster” into twitter today and up pops a thousand retweets of a link to an online album simply called “Pics from a Chinese gangsters phone.”

This rather vain individual couldn’t resist documenting himself reveling in the Chinese gangster lifestyle, which apparently requires spending a lot – and we do mean a LOT – of time with his shirt off. How else would he display his tasteful collection of body ink?

In addition to the cash, this unidentified individual proudly lets his tattooed gut hang out as he poses with a fleet of Porsches and BMW SUVs, a cute puppy and his Louis Vuitton man-purse and an array a gaudy gold accessories.

Just to be sure no one questions how ruthless he actually is, he photographs his fellow thugs doling out punishing beating to another individual on what looks like a secluded dirt road or driveway.

It is not immediately known who this individual is, but there are some clues. He poses with two Porsches registered in two different cities: a Porsche Carrera with port city Tianjin plates and a Porsche Cayenne SUV with Beijing plates.

Of the two cars it seems like he has more clout in Tianjin, evident by the quadruple 8888 on his plates.  Numerology figures in very prominently in Chinese culture and 8, being a homonym for “good fortune” in most Chinese dialects, is an especially auspicious number.

All 8 license plates are usually reserved for the especially privileged whether by power, fortune or connections.  So whoever this puppy-loving, murse carrying thug is, he or someone he knows or works for was able to put down a lot of money for those plates.

imgur

According to a 2008 report by Austin, Texas- based intelligence firm Stratfor, China’s organized crime syndicates are heavily localized, exerting considerable influence over corrupted local politicians, but rarely outside their immediate sphere of influence.  As the country’s economy rapidly developed so did their fortunes.  The Chinese government estimates that there are over 30 million involved in organized crime across the country, but Stratfor says the government has managed to keep these groups disjointed and unable to spread their influence across the country.

There are no indications that this particular individual, who has had the misfortune to lose his phone, is connected to organized crime but the lingering question is with all the money, cars, tats and thug lifestyle, why does he looks so lonely?

One observant twitterer wrote, “Maybe these pictures are for his dating profile.”

That could explain his  ”come hither” look while stroking a stack of cold cash.

Gangster threatens to blow up village if police try to arrest him

 

Egyptian gangster linked to Egypt’s most dangerous criminal threatened late Tuesday to blow up the area surrounding his house if police forces invade it to arrest him. Ahmed Hamza, a relative and top aide to Yasser al-Hambouly, who was arrested late January, hung butane gas canisters on lamp posts and put others on the roofs of neighboring houses at his residence in Naga al-Gisr, Luxor, threatening to blow them up if police forces try to arrest him. Several senior citizens from the village tried to ask Hamza to remove the canisters, which he connected with an electricity cable. Panicked villagers urged Luxor officials to negotiate with him, saying he is trying to use them as human shields. A number of Naga al-Gisr residents told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Hamza had managed to team up again with the gang previously organized by his brother-in-law, Yasser al-Hambouly. They quoted him as saying he was ready to confront the police with all means possible. Hamza deployed armed men at the village’s entrances and exits to check for intruders, and is contacting informants in other areas of Luxor to learn about police movements in advance, the residents said. Sources said police authorities have approached the detained Hambouly to ask him to convince Hamza to halt his criminal behavior. Hamza, 27, is wanted on several charges of murder and robbery. He has survived many police ambushes since early March.

Jury convicts Seattle’s wannabe ‘biggest gangster’

 

A Seattle man was found guilty this afternoon of eight charges in connection with the pimping of three young women, including one who was a juvenile when she began prostituting for him. D’Marco Mobley was convicted of eight criminal charges, including rape, kidnapping, robbery, promoting prostitution, promoting the commercial sex abuse of a minor and unlawful possession of a firearm.  The jury had been deliberating since Friday morning after seven weeks of testimony before King County Superior Court Judge Monica Benton. Sentencing is scheduled for April 20. One of Mobley’s victims, now 22, testified for nearly five days and described being forced into the trunk of a car for 28 hours after she refused to continue working for him. Another woman testified about a severe beating she endured and showed the spot on her scalp where her hair hasn’t grown back after it was ripped out. Mobley, who originally had planned to represent himself, regularly argued with his defense attorney, Phil Mahoney, during breaks and verbally sparred with Deputy Prosecutor Val Richey during his nearly three days on the stand. Mobley had initially planned to represent himself, but later withdrew his request. Two of the victims reported Mobley to police, saying he confronted them in June at a SeaTac motel. He threatened their lives, choked and slapped them and stole $1,000 from them, charging papers say. They escaped when one woman’s boyfriend showed up, the papers say. One victim told police that Mobley wanted to be known as the “biggest gangster in Seattle,” the charges allege. Mobley was arrested June 23, but not before he intentionally rammed a sergeant’s patrol car in an attempt to get away, charging papers say.

We'll use 'Al Capone' approach to nail sex traffic gangsters

We'll use 'Al Capone' approach to nail sex traffic gangsters LAW chiefs are using an “Al Capone approach” to trap human traffickers. A Crown Office official yesterday said legislation isn’t strong enough to reel in the gangsters. And the crooks were told that if prosecutors can’t get them on a human trafficking rap then they will “get them for something”. It was a reference to the infamous US prohibition-era gangster who was linked to numerous murders but was eventually brought down for tax evasion. The warning came from senior advocate depute Alison Di Rollo, deputy head of the Crown Office’s national sexual crimes unit. It came as campaigners and prosecutors gathered at Holyrood’s equal opportunities committee to discuss the problem. Police estimate Scotland had 13.5per cent of the UK’s trade in humans despite having less than 10per cent of the UK population. However, Scotland has only secured two successful prosecutions compared with more than 150 in England and Wales. Di Rollo said she backed plans for a new “aggravated offence” of trafficking. She said that would not be “a dilution or lowering of the burden of proof” but would act as “a backcloth to another offence to say to the court that there is a background of trafficking”. She added: “In cases where we lacked that sufficiency of evidence, but we had something we could take to the court that would colour the offence in such a way that it would magnify and increase the sentence, I think it would be a very useful tool.” Di Rollo said prosecutors have had to be “flexible and imaginative” with the current legislation to secure convictions. She said: “It’s the Al Capone approach – we’ll get them for something if we can’t get them on the human trafficking charge.” The Record has led the way highlighting the misery caused by trafficking. In 2007, we told how a 15-year-old Lithuanian was forced to work as a sex slave after coming to the UK with the promise of a job. In December 2007, we told how 17 sex slaves had been rescued by cops after being forced to work as prostitutes in Scotland. And in July 2008, we told how police rescued 59 women, including a Chinese sex slave in Falkirk.

Police hunt alleged Albanian gangster in murder of Staten Island groom-to-be Anthony Lacertosa

 

They picked the wrong guy to push around. Law-enforcement sources say surveillance video shows that groom-to-be Anthony Lacertosa and his boozing buddies threw a Staten Island restaurant employee to the ground — but the angered worker was alleged Albanian gangster Redinel Dervishaj, who then allegedly killed Lacertosa with a butcher knife. Investigators believe Dervishaj, 35 — who was shot in the arm during a 2007 gangland extortion attempt — has since borrowed money from a friend and fled the city, a law-enforcement source said. Surveillance footage taken outside the Annadale eatery during Lacertosa’s engagement party Saturday shows the 27-year-old bricklayer and his pals trashing the joint’s patio furniture and knocking Dervishaj to the ground, a law-enforcement source said. LACERTOSA Slain at engagement party. The video shows the restaurant’s manager brandishing a gun as Dervishaj — who is missing a finger — fetched a knife from inside to confront Lacertosa and his crew, said another law-enforcement source. The manager allegedly tried to fire his weapon, but the gun jammed. Dervishaj then stabbed Lacertosa in the torso, killing him in front of his horrified fiancée, the sources said. Police found the bloody knife in a trash bin outside a nearby deli, a source said, and yesterday, two restaurant employees cleaned the blood off the ground with a mop. In 2007, Dervishaj went with a fellow Albanian gangster to a man’s house in Queens, threatening to kill the man’s family if he didn’t cough up $20,000. The man refused, instead shooting Dervishaj in the arm and killing his partner with a .357 Magnum. Dervishaj pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny and was sentenced to time served, a law-enforcement source said. The violence runs in the family. Dervishaj’s brother, Plaurent Dervishaj, 39, is wanted in Albania for allegedly murdering at least four rival gang leaders, including one with an anti-tank weapon. Albanian law-enforcement officials declared Plaurent Dervishaj their most wanted fugitive. Lacertosa – who went by the nickname “The Hulk” – was arrested for marijuana in 2011. Fiancee Bridgette Schneider, 24, was too distraught to speak yesterday. “My sister isn’t up to talking,” said one of her sister’s outside Schneider’s home.

A GANG of “guns for hire” who spread lawless violence in a spate of gun and grenade attacks across Merseyside were today starting life behind bars.

 

The five were the “go to” men for gangsters across the area as they carried out attacks on underworld rivals.

But their spree saw innocent people caught in the middle as indiscriminate shootings and grenade attacks escalated.

At the top of the tree sat Tony Downes and Kirk Bradley, a “thick as thieves” pair of career criminals from Huyton, and Gary Wilson, who used his ill-gotten gains to buy himself a plush seafront Southport home.

Bradley and Downes, both 26, never got their hands dirty – Downes was directing operations from his cell in HMP Liverpool and was said to be the group’s “chief executive” by a judge yesterday.

Instead their underlings, “trusted and active lieutenants” Craig Riley and Joseph Farrell, were given “jobs” to carry out and would farm some tasks out to younger crooks wanting to make a name for themselves.

On their instructions, the young thugs would be given guns or explosives and an address or a specific individual to target.

They threw grenades into a room where a woman babysitting her seven-year-old grandson was sleeping and shot people in the legs and stomach, leaving them with life-changing injuries.

Their “modus operandi” saw them use the same guns over and over again – two guns linked to the group were used in 16 different shootings – and carry out their attacks on scrambler bikes, ideal for a quick getaway.

Police slammed the gang as “parasites, the worst kind of mercenary” after bringing them to justice.

A covert police operation was launched to snare those linked to more than 20 incidents over two years.

As the net closed on them, officers took an arsenal of weapons off the streets.

At Woolwich Crown Court yesterday the “chapter” in the ongoing fight against gun crime was brought to a close by high court judge Mr Justice Henriques when he sentenced each of the gang to life imprisonment.

Only Farrell, Wilson and Riley were actually in the dock at Woolwich yesterday.

Downes and Bradley escaped from a prison van in Manchester last summer as they were being brought to court in Liverpool.

Their escape caused their trial, which was in its 11th week at the time, to collapse and a retrial at maximum-security Woolwich was ordered.

But the day after they were convicted in their absence, Downes was picked up after eight months of freedom.

Oakland man ordered to stand trial for restaurant shooting

 

reputed Oakland gang member was ordered today to stand trial on two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder for a shooting at a restaurant near Jack London Square last April that left two people dead and five people wounded. At the end of a hearing that spanned three days, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jon Rolefson said prosecutors also produced sufficient evidence to have 23-year-old Clem Thompkins stand trial for acting to benefit a criminal street gang, using a firearm to cause deaths and great bodily injuries and five street terrorism clauses. Thompkins could face life in prison if he's convicted of the charges against him. William Jenkins, 27, of Oakland and 22-year-old Adam Williams of San Leandro were killed in the shooting at Sweet Jimmie's at 311 Broadway at 12:42 a.m. on April 25. Both were fathers of young children and Williams was an after-school teacher's aide at Peralta Elementary in Oakland. Five other people were wounded in the shooting but survived. Oakland police said they believe the shooting was gang-related and they don't think any of the seven victims were the intended targets of the shooting. Oakland police gang expert Steve Valle testified last week that Thompkins belongs to the Lower Bottom Gang in West Oakland and an investigation indicates that Thompkins carried out the shooting because members of the rival Acorn Gang flashed gang signs at Thompkins and his gang associates shortly before the shooting at Sweet Jimmie's. Lt. Tony Jones testified today that an associate of Thompkins told police that the initial confrontation between the two gangs occurred at Nation's Giant Hamburgers, which is near Sweet Jimmie's and is located at 317 Broadway, when an Acorn Gang member flashed a gun. Thompkins and his Lower Bottoms associates then drove to East Oakland to get a gun, Jones said. According to Jones, the associate of Thompkins who spoke to police said several of his associates got into an argument with people inside the entrance of Sweet Jimmie's a short time later and then Thompkins came into the restaurant and "started firing." Jones said Thompkins' associate was reluctant to talk to police and "was concerned about his safety" because he feared retribution from his fellow gang members. Prosecutor Ben Beltramo called the associate to the witness stand three times during Thompkins' hearing but the associate refused to talk about the shooting all three times. Valle testified that in his extensive experience of investigating Oakland gangs, he's learned that when gang members carry out shootings "they are not always concerned if they get their target" and the result is that there are many innocent victims of gang feuds. Gang members carry out shootings "to increase shock value and to make it known that they are in a gang that's not to be messed with," Jones said. He said that in the case of the shooting at Sweet Jimmie's, it appears that Thompkins and his Lower Bottoms associates felt "disrespected" by the Acorn members they clashed with and wanted "an immediate response by retaliation." Valle said Thompkins "self-admitted more than once" to jail officials that he's a Lower Bottoms member when he was arrested for previous crimes. But Thompkins' lawyer, Dionne Choyce, disputed Valle's assertion that Thompkins is a gang member. Choyce said not all young black men in West Oakland are gang members and the fact that Thompkins lived in the area where the Lower Bottoms Gang operates doesn't prove that he belongs to the group. Choyce said Thompkins went to McClymonds High School in West Oakland for four years, was a safety on its football team and was one of best players. Choyce said Thompkins was a professional skateboarder at one point, was accepted into a leadership excellence academy in West Oakland and had a job at the time of the shooting. Such a background would be unusual for a gang member, Choyce suggested. Valle said that although Thompkins played on the football team at McClymonds, he was once arrested at the school for carrying a firearm. Thompkins is scheduled to return to court at the end of the month to have a trial date set.

Charles Carneglia — once the most feared hitman in the late John Gotti’s mob crew

 

Charles Carneglia — once the most feared hitman in the late John Gotti’s mob crew — is now just a sorry gangster. Notorious for melting corpses in barrels of acid, the convicted killer recently felt a pang of remorse for the way he treated his lawyer. So he put his mea culpa in a letter. “I apologize for being, how can I say this, pushy, in the past,” Carneglia wrote in a letter to lawyer Beverly Van Ness. “I’m trying my best to cope with the situation. Again I apologize and I hope you forgive me.” The convicted killer had no apologies for his victims. Prosecutors said Carneglia, also known as “Charlie Carnig,” dissolved the body of Gotti’s doomed neighbor in acid then tossed the man’s finger bones into another gangster’s soup. The neighbor, John Favara, was killed after he accidentally killed Gotti’s 12-year-old son Frankie in a traffic accident. Carneglia, serving a life sentence for four gangland murders, is acting as his own lawyer in a new appeal. He was on a conference call to Brooklyn Federal Judge Jack Weinstein’s courtroom on Thursday. “How do you feel?” Weinstein asked. “Terrible. I can’t breathe,” Carneglia croaked, groaning that he suffers from pulmonary disease, emphysema and asthma. “I smoked for 50 years.” Carneglia’s latest argument is that his trial attorneys did a bad job because they didn’t take his advice to put him on the witness stand. He also said they failed to object to the questioning of jurors in a small room behind the courtroom. The questioning “reminded (Carneglia) of the ‘Star Chamber proceedings’ that he read about in school,” he wrote in court papers. Then-lawyer Kelly Sharkey told Carneglia to “hush” because she was trying to concentrate, he wrote. The judge told Carneglia he would rule on his motion shortly and asked him how he was being treated at the maximum security prison in Pennsylvania. “Comfortable as can be,” he said. “There’s a lot of security.” Evelyn Colon, the daughter of armored car guard Jose Delgado Rivera who was gunned down by Carneglia in a 1990 Kennedy Airport stickup, said she was glad to hear Carneglia is suffering. “Poor bastard,” Colon said. “I hope they will be taking him out soon in a body bag.”

Former Boston gangster's moll guilty

 

Catherine Greig, the long-time girlfriend of former Boston mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger pleaded guilty yesterday to charges she helped Bulger evade capture during 16 years on the run. Bulger, who was captured with Greig last year in California, has pleaded not guilty to charges of participating in 19 murders. Bulger, now 82, headed the Winter Hill Gang and was a long-time FBI informant on the rival New England Mafia. Bulger's former FBI handler, John Connolly Jr., was convicted of warning him that he was about to be indicted, prompting him to flee.

Gangsters 'threaten to shoot Groves in ring'

 

Gangsters reportedly plotted to shoot British boxing champion George Groves in the ring during a live televised bout.  Police received a tip-off about the terrifying plot and passed it on to Groves and his fiancée Sophie, according to The Sun. The 23-year-old, who became a household name when he defeated James DeGale in a sell-out fight at the O2 arena last year to win the British super-middleweight title, was due to face Kenny Anderson on Friday but had to pull out with a back injury. A police spokesperson said: "We can confirm a threat to the welfare of a man was made to police in Hounslow." However, Groves management team said his decision to pull out of the fight had nothing to do with the "alleged threats". A source told The Sun that: "George and Sophie were told by CID officers a threat had been made on his life and they should consider their safety. The intelligence said if he wasn't shot before the fight, it would happen in the ring." Groves's fight with Anderson would have been a rematch of their contest in November 2010 which Groves won in the sixth round. The Sun said that there was "no sign" of Groves or his fiancée in their flat but added that police said they were not in protective custody. In a statement Groves apologised for having to pull out of the Anderson fight but made no reference to the alleged threats. "I am sorry to confirm I have had to pull out of my scheduled fight this Friday due to injury. I hope for a quick recovery but it just won't be in time for this week," he said. "I truly apologise to everyone who has spent money and made plans around getting to the fight. I really don't want to compromise myself and under-perform because I am not 100 per cent fit."

18th Street Gang Member Convicted for 3 1/2 Year Killing Spree in Los Angeles

An alleged 18th Street gang member,who was convicted of murdering five people in Los Angeles and Santa Monica during a crime spree that lasted about 3 1/2 years, was sentenced today to five life prison terms without the possibility of parole. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler also ordered William Vasquez to serve an additional 156 years to life behind bars, saying that his intention was to give the 31-year-old defendant "as much time as the law allows.'' Vasquez was convicted of first-degree murder for the Jan. 27, 2002, killing of Alex Haro; the Dec. 3, 2003, slaying of Kevin Walton; the March 5, 2005, killings of Jonathan Hernandez and Hector Bonilla; and the Sept. 24, 2005, shooting death of Jesse Becerra.

Gangster's Paradise Rapper Coolio Arrested In Las Vegas, Nevada

Another rapper gets added to the long list of emcees being arrested in Las Vegas, as Coolio was arrested this past weekend in Sin City. The ‘Gangster’s Paradise‘ emcee was stopped on the Las Vegas strip by local police for a routine check, when officers discovered that Coolio had two bench warrants out for his arrest that were the results of multiple traffic violations. The 48 year old, real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr., was only a passenger in the vehicle offers pulled over just a few blocks east of the Las Vegas Strip at around 2:20 AM according to Officer Laura Meltzer. The two warrants out for Coolio were tied to failure to appear on an illegal stop and driving without a license summons issued back in June of 2010. Even more bizarre to the whole story was the fact that Coolio’s 22 year old son was locked up in the same jail for “allegedly busting into a Vegas apartment with a gun and forcing the tenant into the bathroom, while he and a female prostitute named Shantrice Wilkerson ransacked the place.” according to TMZ. Coolio was later released on a $5,850 court bail, and no official court date has been set. 

Girlfriend of notorious Boston gangster James (Whitey) Bulger agrees to plead guilty

Catherine Greig, the girlfriend of notorious Boston gangster James (Whitey) Bulger, has agreed to plead guilty to charges she helped him escape — but she won’t have to rat out her man. The feds nabbed Greig, 60, along with her mobster lover after they had evaded the law together for almost 17 years. A plea agreement filed Monday, first reported by the Boston Globe, stipulates that she won’t have to testify against him. “In early 1995, I agreed to join Bulger and travel with [him] during his flight from law enforcement,” she wrote in the agreement. She could face five years in federal prison on charges of harboring a fugitive, identity theft and conspiracy. Bulger, who went on the lam in 1995 after his FBI handler tipped him off to a pending racketeering indictment, accused of 19 counts of murder and a host of other crimes.

Gangster Who ‘Crossed Putin’s Allies’ Jailedi

 

A businessman and alleged high-profile gangster who crossed the Russian government, according to Wikileaks, was jailed for 15 years in an extortion case in Moscow on Tuesday. Vladimir Barsukov, 56, also known as Kumarin, was convicted of running a protection racket that saw a St. Petersburg-based company pay him 21 million rubles ($700,000) in monthly installments in mid-2000s. Barsukov, whom witnesses at the trial called the head of the so-called Tambov criminal gang, threatened to seize real estate owned by the company through corporate raiding if it does not pay, the judge said. The businessman, who was already given in 2009 an 11 1/2-year sentence for unrelated corporate raiding, pleaded not guilty, the same as in the previous case, and promised to appeal. His alleged lawyer accomplice was jailed for 10 years at the same trial on Tuesday. Barsukov figured in a recent Wikileaks expose, where the whistleblowing site released numerous documents from Stratfor private investigation firm, including alleged mail exchanges between Stratfor operatives and Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika. Barsukov’s downfall was due to his attempt to take control of oil industry in St. Petersburg, which is tightly controlled by the government, said one email ascribed to Chaika. This was something no mafia group attempted before, and prompted the ire of senior officials in the inner circle of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, including Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, added the letter, whose authenticity was never verified. Criminal groups wielded huge influence over Russia’s economy in the first decade after the Soviet Union’s demise, but lost much of it after the “turbulent 1990s,” when Putin’s rise to power reinforced the law enforcement agencies, many of which are themselves accused by anti-corruption activists of running extortion rackets or illegally controlling businesses

Gangsters from British Columbia are increasingly doing business with drug cartels in Mexico

 

Gangsters from British Columbia are increasingly doing business with drug cartels in Mexico — a recklessly naive trend that has resulted in five deaths in the past four years, police say. As part of a weeklong series on the effects of the Mexican drug war, CBC News spoke with law enforcement officials in B.C.'s Lower Mainland who say the killings are a clear sign greed is driving local gangs to do business in Mexico. "It's just naiveté — they have no idea who they're messing with," said Doug Spencer, a former gang investigator with the Vancouver Police Department. Duncan McCue looks at ties between the Mexican and B.C. drug trades tonight on CBC's . "They're messing with people that kill 50 people and decapitate their heads and throw them in a grave — an unnamed grave — and these gangsters up here think they can go down there and play ball with those guys? They're finding out pretty quick what it's like, right?" In January, Salih Abdulaziz Sahbaz — who police say was the cartel contact for B.C.'s United Nations gang — was shot to death in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. According to news reports from the area, he was shot as many as nine times with a high-powered weapon. According to police, Sahbaz had replaced Ahmet Kaawach and Elliot Castenada, two members of the United Nations gang who were killed in a hail of bullets while they were dining at a restaurant in 2008. Gordon Kendall and Jeffrey Ivans, from Kamloops, were gunned down in Puerta Vallarta in 2009. Police said the Kamloops men were involved in the drug trade and had been on the radar of investigators before they were killed. 'A cutthroat business relationship' However, Spencer said, even those deaths aren't enough to deter B.C. gangsters. RCMP Sgt. Bill Whalen says dealing with Mexican cartels is a very risky business. (CBC) "The bigger the risk, the bigger the profit — that's the way they look at it," he said. "They're just not smart enough to figure out what kind of danger they're putting themselves into." RCMP Sgt. Bill Whalen, part a team of Lower Mainland investigators tracking the activity of B.C.'s notorious gangs, says local gangsters are increasingly cutting out the middleman and going straight to the source. "I think the motive would strictly come back to greed, money," Whalen said. "I think after a while perhaps they become comfortable with dangerous situations, maybe forgetting the fact that they are dealing with very, very dangerous people in Mexico … I think often they just forget what's going on down there." He said a kilogram of cocaine that costs about $20,000 from an American supplier costs only $8,000 to $10,000 in Mexico — but B.C. gangsters looking to cash in pay the high price of dealing with ruthless drug cartels. Broadcast schedule for the week-long CBC News series Mexico: Drugs, Death & Danger "I would describe it as a cutthroat business relationship," Whalen said. "I think, particularly on the Mexican cartel side, you will find they deal with who they need to deal with and they will dispose of who they need to dispose of when it comes time." 'Say your goodbyes' Rick Kendall has a hard time believing his son Gordon was involved in the drug trade. B.C.'s Gordon Douglas Kendall, left, and Jeffrey Ronald Ivans, in an undated photograph from a Facebook memorial page. (CBC) Kendall, who thought his son was developing a cattle ranch in Mexico, learned of his death when Mexican media posted graphic images of the crime scene online. He said his son had never been in trouble with police. Ivans had a previous drug conviction in Kamloops. Rick Kendall questions why the RCMP branded his son a gangster, but he has advice for anyone chasing drug profits in Mexico. "After what we've gone through and not having the chance to say our goodbyes to Gordon and Jeff, I would say get your ducks in a row before you go down there," he said. "Say your goodbyes because there's a very good chance your family is going to hear on TV of your demise." Nearly 50,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since the Mexican government launched its crackdown in 2006. Many believe Mexico's war on drugs is failing because police officers are being paid off or threatened by the drug cartels. Mexico is the primary source of marijuana and methamphetamines to the United States, and the main route for getting cocaine and heroin into the country.

Slain gangster's associates ambushed

 

Three men who were associates of slain gangster Sandip (Dip) Duhre were ambushed by several gunmen as they arrived at a Surrey, B.C., house Tuesday night. Just one of the three - 28-year-old Harm Gill - was hit by the gunfire. Gill remains in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The other two, who police say are "associated" to the house, were not wounded. RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen said any one of the three in the Duhre-linked trio may have been the intended target. "We know that the victim and two associates have numerous criminal associations in the Surrey area and that this incident could be related to any one of those associations," said Thiessen, who added the shooters left on foot. The Vancouver Sun has learned Duhre associate Asif (Ace) Aslam lives in the house where the shooting occurred and Aslam's brother Tariq lives nearby.

OF THE six in my crew, I’m the only one left alive – some were murdered and two ended up taking cocaine overdoses

 

‘OF THE six in my crew, I’m the only one left alive – some were murdered and two ended up taking cocaine overdoses.” Johnny Mack’s matter-of-fact admission is testimony to the distance he has journeyed from life as a South London villain, coming of age on Peckham’s Pelican Estate in the 1970s. Now a churchgoing pillar of the community in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, it is hard to picture him rubbing shoulders with notorious “faces” in London. But there is no swagger or bravado as he recounts the highs and lows of a life that took him to the depths of despair: a spell in prison, and heroin and alcohol addiction which wrecked his marriage and put distance between him and his four children. But with the fighting spirit that gave him a mean reputation on the underground boxing circuit, Johnny pulled himself together and – from the bottom of a bottle – a crime-writing career began. Johnny’s first offerings, Dunpeckham and Landed On The Moon, attracted the attention of film-makers, with ongoing talks for a feature film and a TV series. The books give graphic accounts of his life growing up, disinterest in school and being expelled twice. Lured by the heady excitement of colourful gangsters such as Charlie Richardson, Frankie Fraser and Buster Edwards, his descent into drug-dealing with run-ins with London’s elite criminal fraternity was rapid and inevitable. Memoirs Of A Hitman is his first foray into fiction. Johnny told the South London Press: “The other two books are realistic because they cover things that actually happened – my involvement in illegal boxing, the drug dealing and work as an tunneller in a crime outfit. “I started out selling stolen goods from a suitcase in Rye Lane Market and was a father by my 16th birthday. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, but I wouldn’t be able to do the work I do now with young offenders if I hadn’t lived it.” The 54-year-old’s tale of a “face” – someone respected or feared – whose marriage breaks down and who wants to leave his criminal antics to start afresh with his new girlfriend draws heavily on his own experience. He said: “There are characters who will be recognisable to some. They don’t know they’re in the book. One is doing a 30-year stretch in Belmarsh. But it’s fiction. “I’m coming to the end of a four-book deal and the books have done well. I worked for [notorious criminal] Mr Richardson Senior on Westminster Bridge, then as a bookie’s runner. “I got mixed up with Charlie Richardson, who was sent down at the same time as the Krays. Eventually I was banged up in Brixton on remand for an armed robbery which I hadn’t done and I was sharing a cell with a heroin dealer. “I was anti-drugs because I knew if you were on them no one would trust you. “But one day, after hours of questioning, I was depressed because I didn’t know how to get myself out. I asked the dealer for something to mellow me out. “When I got out I was hooked on heroin and just couldn’t get off it.” Soon the life of an addict took its toll. Johnny’s wife left London and told him to get his act together before he was allowed to rejoin the family in 1983. Johnny said: “I was running spielers – illegal drinking dens. But I booked myself into a hotel and went proper cold turkey. “I was talking to dead people for days. "I haven’t touched it [heroin] since. “I moved to the Isle of Wight, did a few straight jobs working in boatyards and started up a building company but got stitched up and it went under. I was drinking for about 20 years, reached rock bottom and lost everything. “But I was always telling stories and someone told me I should write them down. So I gave up drinking and wrote Dunpeckham.” Four years later, Johnny’s stock is rising. He sees his time as a face as part of a golden era in criminality and makes no apologies for his pre-epiphany past. “It’s all about the the ego with a lot of these nippers now – very amateurish,” he said. “They don’t last long. There is no honour among criminals any more. No one would have dreamed of mugging an old lady or robbing a working-class man. I never worked the pavement. “I was never a grass so there aren’t many who have anything against me. “When they found out about the drugs, most turned their backs.” Memoirs Of A Hitman is available on Amazon, priced £6.