Manitoba-based ephedrine smuggling ring

Manitoba-based ephedrine smuggling ring were ordered yesterday to stand trial May 28 in Buffalo, N.Y. Hugh Stevens and Sandra Jacobi were caught up with dozens of others by RCMP and the Drug Enforcement Agency in the alleged smuggling scheme which was based in Winnipeg and Lac Du Bonnet.Stevens, 61, and Jacobi, 50, had originally agreed to plea bargains, but those deals fell apart over the last six months. Both will stand trial by jury. Stevens has been in custody since his arrest in September 2004.In Winnipeg, a preliminary hearing for two suspects continues at the Law Courts Building.The case centres on how bulk amounts of ephedrine ended up in a California meth lab controlled by the Mexican Mafia. The ephedrine was legally imported into Canada through a Thunder Bay, Ont., company, but allegedly diverted onto the black market. Ephedrine is banned in the U.S. Its sale is regulated in Canada by Health Canada. Two of the eight Canadian defendants are no longer alive to be prosecuted. Lac du Bonnet resident Rodger Bruneau Sr. was charged as being the ring's kingpin, but he died in his sleep of an accidental drug overdose about three years ago. A tenth defendant, Emmanuel (Manny) Barbagianis, was shot to death in Winnipeg two years ago. His slaying remains unsolved. DEA agents, RCMP and Winnipeg police arrested about 90 people in the smuggling scheme, called Operation Brain Drain in the U.S. All suspects arrested in the U.S. except Stevens and Jacobi have agreed to plea deals -- reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony against Stevens and Jacobi.It's alleged Bruneau and Stevens recruited other people to use cars, trucks and horse trailers to move hundreds of pounds of ephedrine from Canada into the U.S. through the Niagara-Buffalo region. In July 2004, police found 195 kilograms of ephedrine hidden with a horse in a trailer that they had followed from a racetrack outside Hamilton, Ont., across the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge.

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Sabian Reynoso President of the Hells Angels Ventura chapter

President of the Hells Angels Ventura chapter and convicted felon Sabian Reynoso was arrested Wednesday for allegedly entering Ventura County Jail grounds without permission from jail officials, authorities said.Reynoso went into the jail on Feb. 6 to deposit money in the account of fellow gang member Jared Plomell, according to a statement from the Sheriff's Department.Under California law, a convicted felon may not enter any jail or prison without permission from jail officials or the warden.Plomell, 30, is being held on charges including transportation of methamphetamine and being a convicted felon in possession of a gun and ammunition, authorities said.Reynoso was convicted of an assault with a deadly weapon in 2000 after stabbing a person in Oak View, authorities said. He also has been convicted of other charges, including possession of narcotics for sale and possession of a gun while in possession of narcotics.Sheriff's Department gang investigators served a search warrant at Reynoso's house in Oak View on Saturday and found a shotgun and ammunition, authorities said.Investigators arrested Reynoso at his home on Wednesday on suspicion of being a convicted felon in possession of a gun and ammunition and being in custodial grounds.He was held at the Ventura County Jail on Wednesday in lieu of $150,000 bail.

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'Pope' Michele Greco

Convicted Mafia boss and so-called 'Pope' Michele Greco, 83, died on Wednesday of unknown causes in a Rome clinic, where he was admitted several weeks ago.Until he fell ill, Greco was serving several life sentences in Rome's high-security Rebibbia prison. He was dubbed the Mafia 'Pope' for his legendary ability to mediate between feuding Mafia families in the Sicilian city of Palermo. Greco, an ally of jailed Mafia "boss of bosses" Toto Riina, was arrested on February 20, 1986, after four years on the run. He had a copy of the bible by his bedside. Greco was tried on charges of having ordered 78 murders. These included those of the anti-Mafia magistrate Rocco Chinnici and three others a 1983 a car bomb, and the murder of the prefect of Palermo, Gen. Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, on 3 September, 1982.At the end of the trial, on December 16, 1987, Greco, then aged 63, was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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Hector Barajas Jr., of Covina, was killed in a walk-up shooting

Hector Barajas Jr., of Covina, was killed in a walk-up shooting just before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 16000 block of East Ballentine Place in an unincorporated county area near Covina, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.
Barajas was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau is assisting detectives at the San Dimas sheriff’s station in the case.
Authorities believe the shooting may have been gang-related.

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John Joseph Mongan was attacked with a machete and hatchet

John Joseph Mongan (30) was attacked with a machete and hatchet after a gang broke into the couple's house in Fallswater Street in west Belfast on Thursday. Three people have appeared in court. Police believe that a Isuzu Trooper sports utility vehicle, registration VRM CNZ 5680, was in the area of Fallswater Street at around 2.30am on the night of the murder. The vehicle was later seen travelling west on the M1 Motorway and is believed to have passed through Clogher village shortly before 3.30am. The burnt out vehicle was discovered at Derrybrick Road, Kesh, Co Fermanagh, at around 9am. Mr Mongan's two young sons are understood to have witnessed the attack. His wife, who was injured in the attack, later gave birth to another son.

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review of surveillance video at the eatery does not show Vollaro there Saturday

Joseph Vollaro has been "relocated" to a secret hideaway, under the protective eye of law-enforcement officers, sources said yesterday. While Vollaro is not officially in the federal witness-protection program, which sets up informants with false identities away from their homes to keep them safe, he's being hidden so he won't get whacked by the furious Gambino mobsters he fingered, one law-enforcement source said. But another source told The Post the tough-as-nails turncoat brazenly emerged over the weekend at one of his favorite haunts. Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa said his radio show's executive producer, Frank Morano, spotted Vollaro in a Staten Island sushi restaurant Saturday night. The eatery, Mizu, is two doors down from a restaurant co-owned by Vollaro's pregnant wife, Trisha, who refused to go into hiding with her hubby. Morano yesterday told The Post he and another patron immediately recognized the volatile Vollaro, whom Morano knows from the local bars. "And then the bartender, who has seen him a lot more than I have, said, 'That's Joe, that's Trisha's husband,' " Morano said.
But the bartender Morano talked to, Bianca Dimitri, told The Post yesterday that she had not seen Vollaro in Mizu for two or three weeks and that Morano may have misinterpreted what she said. Morano declined to comment on Dimitri's claim.
A spokesman for the Brooklyn US Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting the Gambinos based on the rat's evidence, refused to comment on the possible sighting.
A law-enforcement source familiar with the case said Morano must have been mistaken.
Another Mizu employee who refused to give his name said a review of surveillance video at the eatery does not show Vollaro there Saturday. But the employee refused to let a Post reporter see the video.

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Vollaro agreed to provide evidence against the Corozzos and others by wearing a wire

Joseph Vollaro, CEO of a Staten Island-based Andrew's Trucking Corp., came under scrutiny, said a law-enforcement source. Vollaro, described as a close associate of the Corozzo brothers and their Howard Beach, Queens, crew, was a "big earner" and may have been on track for induction into the crime family, the source said.
After being caught with 1 kilo of cocaine, Vollaro agreed to provide evidence against the Corozzos and others by wearing a wire. "He made devastating recordings against the Corozzo crew . . . discussions about how they conducted their entire business, and how the money came in and how it was kicked up to their bosses," the source said. "They captured . . . payoffs from construction people, payoffs from jobs, kickbacks." In addition, wiretaps, surveillance video and photos also provided evidence the Gambinos demanded a tribute of $1 per cubic yard of landfill used at the site of the later-aborted NASCAR race track on Staten Island, and were skimming money from pension contributions at a Teamsters local. Other projects allegedly infiltrated by the Gambinos were a West Side water tunnel, a Bronx water-filtration system, and the Liberty View Harbor site in Jersey City. Added to the new indictment is evidence of violent crimes - including Carneglia's purported hits - from turncoats who had been flipped after recent convictions related to a Gambino crew operated by Ronald "Ronnie One Arm" Trucchio, who reports to the Corozzo brothers.
Several members of that crew close to Trucchio and John "Junior" Gotti Jr. provided firsthand knowledge of murders and other violence, a source said.

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Giuseppe and Gianpaolo Riina shot with automatic weapons

Two brothers were killed this morning just after seven in Partinico, 35km from Palermo in what appears a mafia attack. Another person was injured but not seriously. The victims, Giuseppe and Gianpaolo Riina, 32 and 38, were sons of a constructor, Salvatore Riina, killed by the mafia ten years ago in Partinico in the same street (Via Merlo) where the sons were killed this morning. The Riina brothers had left their house to go to work in the construction company of some relatives when they were shot with automatic weapons. They tried to get away, but didn't get further than Piazza Santa Caterina. Fulvio Giordano, 24, was injured, he was taken to the Partinico Hospital. The assistant prosecutor of the Local Anti-Mafia Investigation Department of Palermo, Michele Prestipino, is coordinating the investigation.

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Victor Brincat, Thomas Hentschel charged with murdering former kickboxer Michael Ronald Marshall

Victor Brincat, 43, who had previously been interviewed about the fatal shooting of criminals Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro, faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court with Thomas Hentschel, 41.They are charged with murdering former kickboxer Michael Ronald Marshall, 38, near his South Yarra home on Saturday night. Marshall's partner and five-year-old son witnessed the shooting.He was shot up to five times in the head about 6.30pm on Saturday and died three hours later at The Alfred hospital.
With blood still drying on the bitumen, neighbours yesterday spoke of how Marshall valued his privacy. About six months ago, he had placed a sign near his double garage on Joy Street - metres from where he was gunned down - saying: "Admittance by invitation only to all persons and entities or trespass applies." A surveillance camera was connected to the intercom system at the front gate, and security grilles covered reflective glass, ensuring that no one could see inside the two-storey terrace home.One witness, who did not wish to be named, said he heard at least six shots as Marshall was gunned down. Marshall's five-year-old son had said: "Someone shot my daddy, someone shot my daddy." It is believed one of the shots pierced Marshall's eye.The witness said he assumed from the series of shots that Marshall "was being executed" and he was scared to assist.Marshall, a hot-dog stand owner, had a minor criminal record and was connected with figures linked to the amphetamine industry. Other neighbours spoke of a pleasant man who parked his old hot-dog van near his home, saying it was "ugly . . . the most terrible looking thing". Marshall was believed to have been an associate of Willie Thompson, who was shot at the wheel of his sports car on June 21. He had just left a martial arts class at a Chadstone gym.A spokesman for the World Kickboxing Association in Melbourne said he knew both men. Marshall would not have competed for at least 10 years, he said, but had recently bought a pair of boxing gloves for sparring.
The spokesman said Marshall's instructor, Bob Jones, would be saddened to hear of his protege's murder. Mr Jones is on business in North America and was unavailable for comment.Detectives from the underworld murder taskforce Purana, arrested Brincat and Hentschel about two hours after the shooting.Yesterday the detectives again scoured the scene where Marshall was gunned down.

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Paddy Doyle victim of a professional Russian hit. There were 13 shots and we don't think they wasted a bullet.

This was a professional Russian hit. There were 13 shots and we don't think they wasted a bullet. It has a military-trained assassin written all over it, possibly ex-special forces,' a senior detective told The Observer. 'The intelligence coming back from the Costa del Sol is that Paddy Doyle crossed the Russian mafia, which is something you do there at your peril.'
The officer said shortly after Christmas Doyle got involved in a brawl with a young Russian man whom he severely beat up. Unknown to Doyle, the man was related to a senior Russian mafia figure. True to form, on a warm afternoon in one of Spain's most popular destinations for tourists and holiday-home owners, vengeance was exacted in a ruthless fashion.
Less than 24 hours after Doyle's murder, cocaine valued at about €9.2million was seized by Spanish police in Estepona close to the shooting. Doyle was on his way to meet a British criminal when his car was ambushed and this triggered speculation that his death was linked to the drugs haul, in which an Irishman was one of eight arrested.
'Doyle was typical of the third generation of gangland "soldier" from Dublin. He was aggressive, showy and started fights at a whim. He and his ilk are unlike the older Irish criminal types on the Costa who live a very quiet life and just get on with their business. Our intelligence suggests Doyle simply crossed the people you don't cross on the Costa, the Russians.'

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Southeast Asian gangs targeted

Twenty-eight felony arrests were made during a one-day operation Wednesday that targeted Southeast Asian gangs in Fresno, police said Thursday.
Of the 28 arrests, 16 were Southeast Asian gang members, Sgt. Alex Robles reported.
The operation was ordered by Fresno police Chief Jerry Dyer after a rash of gang-on-gang shootings in Fresno during the past month.

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Mexican Mafia, Ralph "Perico" Rocha and Rafael "Cisco" Gonzalez-Mu oz

Ralph "Perico" Rocha and Rafael "Cisco" Gonzalez-Mu oz committed what is considered a mortal sin among the ranks of the dreaded Mexican Mafia prison gang: they encroached into the drug territory of a senior gang member.
Their transgression marked them for death according to county prosecutors, who in early December charged six individuals with trying to murder Rocha and Gonzalez-Mu oz on behalf of another "made" Mexican Mafia member, Jaques "Jocko" Padilla. The six, including Padilla's wife, La Puente resident Maria "Lola" Llantada, are in L.A. County Jail awaiting a March 7 court date.
Despite the arrests, Rocha and Gonzalez-Mu oz are likely still in mortal danger; sheriff's officials have confirmed that Rocha was shot last week in the Norwalk area. His injuries were minor, however, and he was treated from a local hospital and released.
Law enforcement investigators and gang associates say the Llantada case, along with a spate of other Mexican Mafia-related cases over the past year, illustrate the influence exerted across vast swaths of the San Gabriel Valley by the prison gang, also known as La Eme. The cases also show that the pilfering of "taxes" on drugs by rival gangs is behind many cases of Eme-related violence, which has plagued the area for decades.

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Arrested men were expected to be charged with seven murders, including three which date back 25 years, as well as racketeering, extortion and gambling

Police in Italy and the FBI in New York have arrested dozens of alleged gangsters belonging to the most notorious Sicilian crime families in a closely co-ordinated international operation
More than 80 alleged gang members were rounded up in New York and Palermo in what the head of Italy's parliamentary anti-Mafia commission described as "one of the most important operations of the past 10 years". Those arrested in New York included the entire Gambino family hierarchy, and important figures in the Genovese and Bonanno families, and union and construction industry officials
The New York Times reported that the arrested men were expected to be charged with seven murders, including three which date back 25 years, as well as racketeering, extortion and gambling offences.
These were the first successes in a joint two-year operation. Italian sources say it is only the first battle in a new war against the old-time crime families, an operation they codenamed "Old Bridge".

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the Young Bloods, Hanover Boyz, MS-13, the Almighty Latin King Nation, Laos Pride, Tiny Raskal Gang, Original Crip Gang, Oriental Rascals, Providence

Youths as young as 12 have been identified as members of the Young Bloods, Hanover Boyz, MS-13, the Almighty Latin King Nation, Laos Pride, Tiny Raskal Gang, Original Crip Gang, Oriental Rascals, Providence Street Boys, Dark Side Rascals, 18th Street Gang and the Asian Outlaw Boyz.
The Latin Kings are involved in drug trafficking, but most of the gang members are not in it for the money. They join for a sense of belonging and to protect themselves from other youths. They have little sense of history and often no idea why they fight, except to avenge slights, with rival gangs.
Police Maj. Stephen M. Campbell, who oversees the detective division, says that monitoring gang activity is a department priority.
“It’s a constant back and forth between warring gangs,” he says. “The potential for a violent outburst that could take multiple lives is always there.”
The police, with the help of two FBI agents and a state trooper assigned to the gang unit, have created a database identifying 1,400 gang members and their associates. Some of them live in Massachusetts or other Rhode Island cities such as Cranston, Woonsocket, Pawtucket, Central Falls and West Warwick. Nonetheless, they frequent Providence and have come across the radar of the police gang unit.
Last year, one in five shootings in the city was gang-related. The police recorded 14 murders and 59 instances in which people were shot, up from 47 in 2006. Gangs were responsible for 2 of last year’s murders, 12 shootings and dozens of drive-by shootings where shots were fired, but nobody was hit.
Last month, the new year began with a flurry of shootings between the Hanover Boyz and the Oriental Rascals. A 20-year-old woman was wounded, but nobody was killed. The vast majority of nonfatal shootings go unsolved because gang members refuse to file police complaints or cooperate with investigators. They prefer to take justice into their own hands.
Overall, the police identify a dozen gangs of significance in the city, about twice as many as when the gangs first arrived in the early ’90s. Wheeler says it was easier to track six large gangs with hundreds of members. Today, there is a proliferation of smaller gangs who are constantly feuding with each other.
The police say that in the past the older gang members, called OGs, kept the “juniors” or young gang members in check. That’s no longer the case. The OGs are less involved in the day-to-day workings of the gang, and the juniors have little respect or interest in the old days.
Gang initiation almost always requires a “jump in,” a beating administered by members of the gang who often line up in a gauntlet, striking and kicking the rookie gang member for anywhere from 10 to 90 seconds.
When someone leaves a gang, usually there’s a “jump out.” A gang member is beaten and must suffer bleeding or a broken bone to be set free.
Female gang members also are jumped in and, in some cases, they are “sexed in.” One female gang member had to roll dice and have sex with the same number of male gang members — 2 to 12 — that appeared on the dice. In another jump in, a former MS-13 gang member said that a group of gang members stood before her and she had to select 13 of them and have sex with them in succession.
Many of the gang members are brazen about their gang affiliation. They adorn their bodies with elaborate tattoos that announce their gang allegiance, and they boast about their toughness on Web sites such as MySpace.com.
Most of the violence is gang-on-gang disputes, but gang members also have been arrested for dealing cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana. They are regularly picked up on firearms charges and for armed home invasions.
The gang activity is not limited to the streets. Officials at the Adult Correctional Institutions keep close tabs on gang members who enter the prison system. Tracking them is good for the safety of the prisoners, as well as the safety of the guards. Right now, 250 of the state’s 3,500 male prisoners, 8 percent of the population, have been identified as gang members.

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"maras" killed seven city bus drivers while trying to extort payments from them.

youth gangs known here as "maras" killed seven city bus drivers while trying to extort payments from them. Five were murdered on Tuesday and three on Thursday in the latest wave of violence that President Álvaro Colom blamed on organised crime.
The president said the groups were seeking to destabilise his government.
"We are asking for security and guarantees, to be able to work safely," Victoriano Zacarías, the head of the bus drivers union, told IPS.
He added that he was surprised at the way the attacks were staged, "simultaneously, on busy routes, as if it were a plan designed to hurt the entire sector."
Zacarías said that so far this year at least 12 bus drivers have been killed when they refused to fork over "protection payments". Other frequent victims of extortion by the gangs are taxi drivers, the owners of small businesses, and ordinary labourers and employees, who are often forced to flee their homes because of death threats received after they are unable or unwilling to pay up.
Colom, a social democrat who took office on Jan. 14, told reporters Thursday that the attacks were "planned by organised crime to conspire against the government because of the measures it has taken to bolster security."
Helen Mack, president of the Myrna Mack Foundation, a local human rights group, concurred with the government Friday, telling a radio station that the murders "were part of a plan."
On Thursday, the drivers and conductors of 300 buses in the capital went on strike demanding better security in their jobs and that the perpetrators of the killings be brought to justice.
Because of the strike, it took González nearly three hours, instead of one, to get home after work.
Zacarías said his union is important because when drivers go on strike, the entire population and economy are affected.
He called for the creation of a prepaid payment mechanism so that bus drivers do not carry around a lot of cash, "which attracts criminals." He also demanded that police officers accompany bus drivers, and complained that "the government has only met and negotiated with the bus company owners."
Since 1992, the union has given the owners suggestions as to how to prevent the problem of extortion of "protection money," but "they prefer the chaos because all they care about is raking in profits," said Zacarías.
Mack said one of the factors fomenting the lack of safety for drivers and for the public at large is the lack of coordination between the public prosecutors’ office and the National Civil Police, and argued that the solution is not increasing the size of the police force but improving law enforcement efforts.
Bus drivers have repeatedly charged that corrupt police officers work in complicity with the gangs.
A driver who preferred not to be named told a local radio station Friday that "you leave for work and you don't know if you’ll return home alive." He added that he was sorry he had to open the door to criminals, knowing that they were going to rob him and his passengers, because he feared for his own life.
In Guatemala, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, there is little confidence in the justice system and the security forces, which have been penetrated by organised crime. Ninety-eight percent of murders go unsolved.
Interior Minister Vinicio Gómez announced that since the new administration was sworn in, 269 police officers have been sacked. The purge, the fourth carried out in six months, brought the total number of officers dismissed to more than 2,500.
A source with an international agency that works in one of the city’s most violent areas, who is in daily contact with the police, told IPS that the solution is a total overhaul of the police force that would not only affect the rank and file, but middle and high-level police officials as well.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Statistical Report on Violence in Guatemala, which was based on official data from the National Civil Police and was released in December, 5,885 murders were committed in this country of 13 million in 2006.
That gives Guatemala one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the western hemisphere.
Colom said in a radio interview Friday that his government has confiscated more AK-47 assault rifles than were seized in all of 2007 -- an average of 1.5 a day.
And while he acknowledged that "the situation is very complex," he promised that within four months, Guatemalans would begin to feel safer.
Observers say the high levels of violence and the continued existence of paramilitary groups or vigilantes are linked to Guatemala’s bloody past. In the 1960-1996 civil war, the security forces and allied paramilitary groups were responsible for the majority of the killings of some 200,000 mainly rural indigenous people.
"President Colom should live up to his promise and carry out in-depth reforms of the security system," the non-governmental organisation Security in Democracy said in a statement Friday.
An International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) began to work in January to fight the violence and the mafias that have infiltrated the justice system.
CICIG, which is financed almost entirely by international donations, is the result of an agreement signed in 2006 by then President Óscar Berger and the United Nations.
The Commission is currently made up of around 40 prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officials from Guatemala, the United States and Europe who are familiar with human rights, criminal and international law, and organised crime. But that number is set to grow to 160 by the middle of the year

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Hells Angels, have made the Dominican Atlantic resort town Cabarete their home in the Caribbean

motorcycle gang Hells Angels, have made the Dominican Atlantic resort town Cabarete their home in the Caribbean. “They're impossible to miss, right from the moment you set foot in the small village of Cabarete.”

The Canadian newspaper says the members of the gang -turned underworld crime organization- are seen on the streets, in restaurants and stores. “Even half-hidden by bathing suits, on the beach. You see the same words over and over again: Hells Angels Quebec.”
It said the members of the notorious network's Quebec chapter's “have literally taken over this small town of 15,000” and have even managed to get a street named after them.


Their presence in the country dates back to the mid 1990s in Puerto Plata and Sosua, when the Canadian Mounted Police, in collaboration with Dominican authorities reportedly conducted raids to arrest members of the gang who were fugitives wanted that country.
“A Sun Media team spent a few days incognito by their side, bearing witness to their influence on the area,” Winnipegsun.com says, adding that the Hells Angels were in particularly large numbers last week, as they celebrated the accession of the local Los Barracos gang to the rank of Hells Angels prospect,” the news site said.
It said gang members “partied in a large red-and-white fortified bunker, which it describes as being similar to their former headquarters in Quebec,” with “Canadian Hells and Dominican Republic flags are floating side by side.”

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Gypsy Jokers Motorcycle Club club

Perth police ordered the Gypsy Jokers Motorcycle Club club to dismantle its clubhouse fortifications, which include a concrete front wall, surveillance cameras and modified doors. The club said the security was needed in the area where the burglary rate is high.
The Gypsy Jokers argued that the WA Corruption and Crime Commission Act breached the Constitution by preventing the club from gaining access to the evidence police relied on to make the order.

However, the Australian court upheld the state law.
The State's Attorney-General, Jim McGinty, says he pleased with the High Court's rejection of the Gypsy Jokers' legal challenge.
Mr. McGinty expects police will make full use of the legal resources available to them.
Australian courts have rejected a bid by the Gypsy Joker motorcycle club to overturn a law which would force the fortifications around its
Perth compound to be dismantled
"The decision to legislate to give the power to dismantle fortification around motorcycle club's headquarters which they hid behind in order to escape the full effect of the law, has now been upheld as being valid" he said.
"There's now no reason why that law cannot be invoked against outlaw motorcycle gangs."
Police say despite the High Court decision they can not tear down the fortifications just yet.
Deputy Commissioner Murray Lampard says the club's application for a review of the fortification removal notice will go back before the Supreme Court and police must wait for the outcome of that hearing before they can take any action.

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Finks bikie gang :shootout near the Grappa restaurant

Police have arrested another two motorcycle gang members in connection with a shootout on a popular Sydney restaurant strip
Police say eight men were involved in the shootout near the Grappa restaurant on Norton Street, Leichhardt, in Sydney's inner-west, in November last year.
Yassar Bakir, 33, allegedly a senior member of the Finks bikie gang and younger brother of Gold Coast mobile phone entrepreneur Ron Bakir, appeared in a Sydney court this week on shooting charges arising from the incident.
Police said they have since arrested two high-ranking members of the Commancheros bikie gang, bringing the total number of arrests in connection with the shootout to three.
Two men from Bexley in Sydney's south-west, aged 29 and 27, were arrested at Surry Hills Police Station and charged with affray, police said in a statement.
The 27-year-old man was arrested on Thursday and has been granted conditional bail to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on February 28.
The 29-year-old man was refused bail to appear in Central Local Court later Friday.
Bakir is charged with two counts of shooting with intent to murder.
He also faces one count each of shooting at a person with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, firing a firearm in a public place, and affray.
Police said the arrests were the result of extensive inquiries by the State Crime Command Gangs Squad and Leichhardt Local Area Command, attached to Strike Force Durra.
They said the shootout arose from a brawl at the restaurant on November 15, when members of each group used chairs as weapons.
"The altercation stopped after one of the men produced a firearm and all men then left the restaurant," the statement said.
"As five of the men drove along Norton Street in two vehicles, a black Mercedes and black Mazda 6 sedan, numerous shots were fired from the group of three men on foot, striking the cars.
"Two vehicles parked nearby and an occupied house also sustained damage from bullets fired during the incident.
"The three men then got into a white four-door dual-cab utility with aluminium tray-back, which had been parked in Henderson Street, before driving from the scene."
Police said the black Mercedes was located three hours later in Chester Street, Annandale.

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Black Power and Mongrel Mob gangs established a larger presence in Timaru

Black Power and Mongrel Mob gangs (Christchurch-based) have over the past year established a larger presence in Timaru, traditionally the haunt of white motorcycle gangs the Devil's Henchmen and the Road Knights.
Most of the recently patched members in Timaru are locals who have previous affiliations to each of the gangs.
Constant skirmishes between groups of youths in the town, who ally themselves with Black Power or the Mongrel Mob, led police to call a meeting this month to get gang leaders from Christchurch to rein in the unruly elements.
However, after a quiet Christmas, the killing of Wayne Bray, a 26-year-old freezing worker who died in hospital on Wednesday after being beaten up by a group on Saturday, could raise tensions again.
Some of the people charged yesterday with his murder are believed to have loose connections to the Mongrol Mob.
Maria Edwards, of Washdyke, who called a public meeting on escalating gang issues in Timaru in December, warned two years ago that somebody would be killed in the altercations.
She said the latest incident was said not to be directly related to the gangs, but events could go either way.

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Aryan Brotherhood:The greatest organization in the world has ever known.

Aryan Brotherhood in other names AB,Brand,Tip,Alice,Alice Barker were formed in California's San Quentin State Prison.The Aryan Brotherhood has been reported in Texas since 1970s.Basically Aryan Brotherhood was formed to provide protection to individuals group and for the whites from the black and hispanic groups, specifically the Mexican Mafia.Some members from Aryan Brotherhood is originally from a group name "Blue Bird" previously knowns as "Diamond Tooth Gang" and "Nazi Gang".This Gang operated on a "blood in,blood up" system.Means that a individual must kill a prisoner in order to join the gang and those who attempt to leave or betray the gang,they will be Kill by other member.

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New Investigation into Five murders

New Investigation into Five murders that are linked to Charles Carneglia, a reputed mafia soldier since the 1970s.
_ March 11, 1976: New York state court officer Albert Gelb is gunned down in Queens, days before he was to testify against Carneglia in a gun possession case. Previous attempts to prosecute Gambino associates for the killing, including Carneglia's brother, failed.
_ Nov. 6, 1977: Michael Cotillo, a Gambino associate, is fatally stabbed at the Blue Fountain Diner in Queens following a fight with Carneglia.
_ July 29, 1983: Salvatore Puma, a Gambino associate, is stabbed to death on a Queens streetcorner after arguing with Carneglia about money.
_ Oct. 4, 1990: Reputed Gambino member Louis DiBono is shot to death in a parking garage at the World Trade Center. Gambino boss John Gotti and several underlings are later convicted of orchestrating the killing, which was related to DiBono's contract to install fireproofing at the Trade Center. Carneglia is charged with involvement in the hit.
_ Dec. 14, 1990: Jose Delgado Rivera, a 57-year-old security guard, is shot in the back during an armored car heist at Kennedy International Airport. Two gunmen dressed as airline employees reportedly escape with $65,000. Police said Carneglia fired the fatal blast.

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The Gambino, Genovese, and Bonanno families arrested

The Mafia sweep netted 54 alleged members from three of the five families that run the Mafia in New York - the Gambino, Genovese, and Bonanno families - while a further eight of those indicted remained at large.
Prosecutors in New York unveiled a 170-page indictment against 62 individuals detailing murder, racketeering, loan sharking, conspiracy, drugs and extortion charges for crimes going back as far as the 1970s.
Among those facing charges were top Gambino leaders including acting boss John D'Amico, also known as 'Jackie the Nose', acting underboss Domenico 'The Greaseball' Cefalu and consigliere Joseph 'Miserable' Corozzo
US Attorney Benton Campbell says the charges struck at the core of the Gambino family.
"Today we serve notice that anyone who aspires to a position in organised crime will meet the same fate," he said.
Prosecutors say every member of the Gambino crime family administration not already behind bars was charged in the indictment.
The Gambino family was at the centre of the so-called Pizza Connection trial in the 1980s, one of the largest criminal cases in US history.
New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says he expects the indictment to have significant ramifications.
"You never can say that organised crime's wiped out - they're very resilient, they come back, they're very tenacious - but this is a major blow," he said.
Those charged faced jail terms of up to 20 years on each count of their indictments if convicted.
'Still a threat'
The deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), John Pistole, says the Mafia remain a major threat despite the sweep
"Today's arrests will be a major setback for the Gambino crime family, but it is a fallacy to suggest that La Cosa Nostra is no longer a threat to public safety," he said.
"Organised crime in New York is not dead."
Meanwhile, Italian deputy police commissioner Francesco Gratteri confirmed that 20 people were arrested in the Sicilian capital Palermo.
He says another three people were served arrest warrants in jail where they were already serving time for unrelated crimes.

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Arrested Vincenzo Licciard feared leader of the Naples Mafia

Arrested Vincenzo Licciard feared leader of the Naples Mafia, the Camorra, who had been on the run for years.Police in Naples have arrested a man they claim is a leading member of the Italian city's criminal underworld.
42-year-old Vincenzo Licciardi is alleged to be one of the heads of the Camorra, the local branch of the Mafia.
"He is a very important man," said the Naples police chief. "Not only because he is the head of his criminal organisation but because he is also one of the bosses of the Naples Camorra itself."
Licciardi has been on the run since 2004 and was one of Italy's 30 most wanted criminals. He is linked to the clan whose criminal activities include illegal rubbish disposal.

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Details of 10 men believed to be members of the Longsight Crew gang were found in bushes outside Collyhurst police station

Murder case notes, a gangster dossier and papers detailing threats to the UK were all found in Greater Manchester after being lost by the authorities.
Documents relating to the recent murder of Mohammed Arif Iqbal were found in a city centre pub, while photographs of gang members were found under a bush.
... In a separate incident, details of 10 men believed to be members of the Longsight Crew gang were found in bushes outside Collyhurst police station.
They showed police photographs of the men, names and dates of births.
Assistant Chief Constable Ian Seabridge, of GMP, said a separate internal inquiry was under way.

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Carl Bursey, 33, a former high-ranking member of the Bandidos

Rogar McIlroy, 44, who owns Lend A Hand Auto at 130 Railway St., a small auto shop where police allege the drug operation was centred. He faces 21 charges, including trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Also charged was Shirley McMahon, who worked in the Kingston Police's communications department.
The civilian employee of eight years was charged with attempting to obstruct justice and unauthorized use of a computer, after police say she used her position at the department to access sensitive information about investigations and pass it along to those involved with the ring.
She was not charged with any drug offences and will appear in court next month.
At a news conference at police headquarters yesterday afternoon, Insp. Antje McNeeley said McMahon was suspended from her job last year after police uncovered her alleged involvement during their lengthy investigation, which involved wiretaps and other forms of surveillance.
Det.-Const. Craig Sharp of the Kingston Police said investigators from that force and the RCMP intercepted more than 45,000 phone calls by and to the main suspects in the investigation, and that wealth of information led to arrests in other cities as well as uncovering McMahon's alleged involvement with the group.
Police also laid a charge of uttering death threats against one of the men arrested yesterday based on what they heard in those conversations.
The charge of threatening was laid against Carl Bursey, 33, a former high-ranking member of the Bandidos who is now believed to be an independent and not a patch-wearing bike-gang member. Bursey has a long criminal record and faces 29 charges as a result of the investigation.
The gang dealt primarily in marijuana and cocaine and Sharp said they were not affiliated with any particular organized crime group, such as the Hell's Angels, but would buy drugs based on price and resell in Kingston and to dealers in other cities.

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Member of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels was heard on a wiretap

David Francis Giles.is charged along with two associates of the club, David Roger Revell and Richard Andrew Rempel, with associating with a criminal organization and trafficking in cocaine

The June 2005 wiretap, captured from a bug placed in the Hells Angels Kelowna clubhouse, was played in court by prosecutors during final arguments in the trial.
Prosecutor Martha Devlin told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Anne Mackenzie the East End chapter is a "highly structured, highly sophisticated" criminal gang that exercises a monopoly over certain kinds of criminal activity, primarily the drug trade.
She argued that Giles, a full-patch member who had been with the club for 20 years, did nothing without thinking about how it could benefit both himself and the club.
Giles helped direct and supervise the expansion of the East End chapter to Kelowna from Vancouver, she said.
Wiretaps have Giles laying out his vision of the expansion of the club and how it "must invoke the power of the patch" in Kelowna, said Devlin.
At one point during the wiretaps Giles can be heard warning others to beware of people who try to benefit from their association with the club.
"In no way, shape or form should anybody be riding on our coattails and it's happening all the time and I'm not going to tolerate it, period."
Devlin said the evidence shows that over 15 months, between March 2004 and July 2005, at least five members of the East End chapter were implicated in criminal activity, including the production and distribution of methamphetamines, and the distribution of multi-kilos of cocaine. The club members were also involved in extortions, assaults and possessing weapons, including firearms and grenades.

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Boss of the Hidden Valley Kings arrested

The reputed head of a North Charlotte drug distribution organization was apprehended early this morning in New York.
Twenty-nine year old Roscoe Abell was indicted in early 2007 in connection with an organized gang distributing drugs in the Hidden Valley area of Charlotte. He was also wanted on outstanding federal warrants for violating supervised release stemming from a previous conviction. Abell eluded arrest during the original roundup of the others named in the indictment, and remained at large until investigators with the Hornet's Nest Task Force in Charlotte developed information the led the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Fugitive Task Force to an apartment in Manhattan. Marshals found Abell in a rear bedroom of that apartment this morning and arrested him on both of the outstanding charges.
Abell will appear today in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York for initial proceedings before his removal to Charlotte.

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Hells Angels accused of cocaine trafficking

- Testimony has concluded in a trial for a leading member of the Hells Angels accused of cocaine trafficking.
The trial was conducted without publicity because Justice Anne MacKenzie of the British Columbia Supreme Court barred news media from reporting on it, the Vancouver Sun reported. The ban was partly lifted after a challenge by the Sun and other media companies.
David Francis Giles, 58, a member of the motorcycle gang, is charged with trafficking "for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization, to wit: the East End chapter of the Hells Angels."
The testimony still cannot be published. MacKenzie imposed the ban to protect the rights of other Hells Angels members scheduled for later trials
A two-year police investigation included infiltrating a nightclub bouncer, Michael Plante, into the organization. Plante was promised $1 million Canadian ($994,000) for his efforts

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Police on the Costas arrest Drug Gang and seized cocaine worth €7.7 million

Police arrested seven people and seized cocaine worth €7.7 million. Meanwhile, there was growing doubt yesterday as to whether Freddie Thompson, an associate of murdered gangland figure Paddy Doyle, was in a car with Doyle when he was shot dead in Spain on Monday. Detectives yesterday arrested an Irishman and six Britons, including a minor, and seized 110 kilos of cocaine hidden inside a lorry transporting furniture near to the murder spot.
Government spokesman Juan Jose Lopez Garzon said: “All the indications are that there is a link between the drugs and the dead man.” Gary Hutch, who was travelling in the car with Doyle, presented himself at a police station in Spain yesterday. Hutch was driving the BMW 4x4 in the town of Cancelada, in the resort of Estepona, on the Costa del Sol, with Doyle in the front passenger seat, when they came under attack from another car at lunchtime on Monday. The attackers sprayed the windscreen and front passenger door with five shots, forcing Hutch to career off the road, smashing into a lamp post. Both himself and Doyle tried to flee, but the gunmen ran after Doyle, aged 27, and fired two shots into his head. Hutch managed to escape. The initial reports suggested that Freddie Thompson was also in the car. But a number of Garda sources yesterday said they were not sure that Thompson was in the 4x4 and that there may have only been Doyle and Hutch.Sources said the initial information they received on Monday was that there were three people in the car — Doyle, Hutch and another man, who was said to have an English name. Local sources in Spain were saying this was Thompson. Doyle was a hit-man and trafficker for one of Ireland’s largest drug supply operations. He was a feared “enforcer” for the gang, which has been involved in a violent feud with another gang in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area of south Dublin. This feud has claimed at least nine lives since 2001. Doyle is suspected of involvement in the death of at least two of those men, Joseph Rattigan in July 2002 and Noel Roche in November 2005. He fled to Spain shortly after Roche’s death, where he became a key gang member in organising massive shipments of cocaine and cannabis back to Ireland. Garda sources suspect Doyle’s murder was organised, and carried out, by the rival gang. But they have not ruled out the possibility that he may have been murdered following a row with local drug suppliers.

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David Francis Giles, 58, a full-patch member of the Hells Angels East End chapter, who is accused of possessing cocaine for the purpose of traffickin

On trial is David Francis Giles, 58, a full-patch member of the Hells Angels East End chapter, who is accused of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking "for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization, to wit: the East End chapter of the Hells Angels."
The case stems from a two-year, $10-million police investigation that resulted in charges against 18 men, including six Hells Angels, in July 2005.
It was the largest police probe in B.C. to target the East End chapter of the Hells Angels, long considered to be the wealthiest and most sophisticated biker gang in the province.
The central issue at trial is whether the chapter is a criminal organization, which was alleged in an indictment filed July 11, 2005, by Canada's deputy attorney general.
If the Crown succeeds in its criminal-organization prosecution, it could put the assets of all the chapter's members - real estate holdings, cars and motorcycles -- at risk of seizure under B.C.'s Civil Forfeiture Act.
It could also make it easier to seize property in future trials involving Hells Angels and other gangs, although the criminal-organization case would have to be made each time.
In their investigation, code-named Project Epandora, police used a nightclub bouncer to infiltrate the motorcycle club.
The man, Michael Plante, applied to become a Hells Angels member and was accepted "in the program" as an official friend of the club.
Mr. Plante, who was promised $1 million by police, testified at an earlier trial that he was given keys to the East End chapter's clubhouse and carried out illegal activity on behalf of Hells Angels members.
Mr. Plante now lives under a new name but is not in witness protection. When he surfaced in 2006, he was 30. He has been paid half his fee -- $500,000 -- and will get the other half after he finishes testifying in various trials.
The charges alleged in the indictments include methamphetamine production and distribution, cocaine trafficking, weapons offences, explosives offences, assaults, extortions and possession of proceeds of crime.
In total, police seized more than 20 kilograms each of methamphetamine and cocaine; more than 70 kilograms of marijuana; restricted and prohibited weapons, including five handguns and fully automatic weapons with silencers; 11 sticks of dynamite with detonation cord and blasting caps; four grenades and an assortment of ammunition.
Police also seized more than $200,000, 250 kilograms of methylamine, a precursor chemical for the production of ecstasy, and two methamphetamine laboratories.

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Outlaw motorcycle gang.:Missing body a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

Queensland man associated with an outlaw motorcycle gang may have been murdered.
But no body has been found and there is no known victim.
Detective Senior Constable Graeme Simpfendorfer, from Victoria's Armed Crime Taskforce, said police believed the murder occurred in the northern suburbs of Melbourne in 2005 and involved several people.
Although they had assessed the information as credible, they have yet to identify the alleged victim who was believed to be aged in his 40s, fit-looking with a thin build and wide shoulders.
He was also said to have short hair and skin described as olive or tanned. He is thought to be from Queensland or South Australia and been associated with outlaw motorcycle gangs.
A computer-generated face image of the man has been released and detectives have urged people with information about his identity to come forward.
"There may be relatives, associates, friends who recognise this man and we implore them to contact Crime Stoppers,'' said Det Snr Const Simpfendorfer.
"This is really a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma and definitely one of the more bizarre investigations in which I have been involved.
"However, we are confident a murder has occurred and identifying the victim would be a leap forward in what is currently an investigation without a great number of leads.''

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Long history of bloodshed leads to Costa ambush and Gangland murder

Patrick Doyle (27) was shot as he tried to escape in a luxury BMW 4X4 which had come under fire on the outskirts of Estepona, about 10 miles from Marbella.
Injured in the incident was another convicted Dublin criminal, Gary Hutch, while Freddie Thompson, who was recently acquitted of drugs and firearms charges in the Netherlands, escaped unhurt.
The three men were travelling in a BMW 4x4 in the Cancelada district when another BMW 4x4 fired on them.
Four shots were pumped into the front windscreen and another into the front passenger door, before the driver, Gary Hutch, lost control of the vehicle.
The BMW hit a lamp post and Doyle, who was a front-seat passenger, attempted to run away.
The occupants of the 4x4, however, began firing again and the Irishman was struck twice in the head.
The attack took place at the Bel-Air apartment complex, and eyewitnesses said the gunmen made their escape in another BMW 4x4.
Freddie Thompson (27), who was in the back seat of the car yesterday and escaped injury, was arrested in the Netherlands in 2006, when police swooped and found seven kilos of cocaine and six handguns in his rented apartment. The motives appear to be a retaliation shooting which appears to be linked to the gang wars in Ireland.
Martin "Viper" Foley who remains in hospital in a critical condition after being shot in Kimmage Dublin. Has survived 6 previous assassation attempts. Linked with both gangs but mentioned as a sympathiser towards the Gavin/Thompson gang(Sunday World, Ireland on Sunday, Sunday Independent). However, Star Sunday claims he has influence over both gangs yet does not claim allegiance to either side due to fear ofgetting caught in the crossfire. "Fat" Freddie Thompson (24): According to the Sunday World, "Fat" Freddie is the leader of the gang who shot deadNoel Roche in Clontarf on Tuesday, 15 November. Thompson was once part of the same gang as Brian Rattigan (leaderof the rivals in the ongoing feud). Garda sources say he is their prime suspect in at least a dozen shooting incidentsacross the city. Declan Gavin (20): First victim of the feud and one-time leader of the gang. Escaped raid in Holiday Inn drugs seizurethat initiated allegations that he was an informant (Sunday Independent). Stabbed to death in Crumlin, 2001. Darren Geoghegan (26): Suspected murderer of Rattigan gang-member John Roche in March of this year. Shot dead on13 November by IRA hit men supposedly hired by Rattigan's gang (Sunday World) Gavin Byrne( 30): Shot dead with Geoghegan in the same car that was parked in Firhouse. Rattigan Gang: Brian Rattigan (25): Leader of Rattigan gang although currently serving six (ten, according to Sunday World) year prisonsentence for various crimes including drugs and gun charges. Was also charged with the murder of Declan Gavin.Controls his gang via mobile phones and messengers. Narrowly escaped a murder attempt (suspected to have beencarried out by the Thompson/Gavin gang) although had spleen removed and lost a kidney three years ago (SundayWorld). Joseph Rattigan (18) : Brother of Brian. Shot dead in July, 2002 (Ireland on Sunday, Sunday World). John Roche (24) : Major drug dealer wanted by gardaí for attempted murder (Ireland on Sunday). Shot dead inKilmainham, the murderer is suspected to have been Darren Geoghegan (Ireland on Sunday, Sunday World). Noel Roche (27): Chief enforcer of Rattigan's gang who was shot dead in Clontarf on 15 November as part of revenge forthe double murder of Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne (Ireland on Sunday). Eddie Rice (32): Escaped a murder attempt when in the same car as Noel Roche the night he was killed. Turned himselfin but was released without giving any evidence to gardaí.1998: Feud begins. Declan Gavin, then an 18 year old who was already involved with petty crime and was making hismark on drug-trafficking, had his bike burned and his family car covered in paint by Derek Lodge. Suddenly two seperateVillage - Politics, Media and Current Affairs in Irelandhttp://www.village.iePowered by Joomla!Generated: 7 December, 2007, 02:47
gang factions emerged, one led by Declan Gavin, another led by Joseph Rattigan, who was 16 years old at the time(Sunday Independent). Both gangs began to deal cocaine and their main associate was Martin "Viper" Foley and therewas relatively no animosity between them (Sunday World). 3 March, 2000: The event that led to the complete breakdown between the two factions: the Sunday Independentreported that Gavin and one gang member locked themselves into a room at the Holiday Inn hotel on Pearse street inorder to "cut" cocaine (breaking down cocaine into powder and then mixed with glucose in order to distribute more todealers). Gardaí heard of this deal and completed a successful raid on the premises, finding only a 17 year old in theroom. Gavin soon emerged on the corridor and was promptly arrested. This led to allegations that Gavin was aninformant for the gardaí (he had escaped conviction on a previously successful raid). 25 August, 2001: Declan Gavin is murdered (stabbed) outside a restaurant on Crumlin Road. 17 March, 2002: Brian Rattigan is critically injured when shot a number of times in his home. He loses a kidney and hisspleen as a result of the attack. A woman in the house allegedly saw "Fat" Freddie Thompson commit the attack but laterdenies this to gardaí (Sunday World). 16 July, 2002: 18 year old Joseph Rattigan shot dead by the Gavin/Thompson faction (Sunday World) around the sametime his brother Brian was being released from hospital. May, 2002: An associate of Brian Rattigan, Colm Smith is shot through the cheek and tongue after he answers the doorat 3.30 am. Smith survived the attack but refused to talk to gardaí (Sunday World). 2002: "Fat" Freddie Thompson is jailed and serves a sentence for road traffic offences (after being charged with thoseoffences and giving gardaí a false name, aiding the escape of another man from lawful custody), according to the SundayWorld. 25 January, 2004: Paul Warren shot dead in Grey's Pub by two men of the Rattigan faction. Subsequently, BrianRattigan is jailed for a total of ten years for drugs, firearms and violence offences. He is currently serving a four-yearstretch for being in possession of €40,000 worth of heroin. Last year, he received another six years for aiming aloaded shotgun at a Garda during a chase. He continues to control his gang from inside Portlaoise prison with the aid ofmobile phones and messengers (Sunday World). 9 March, 2005: John Roche, one of Rattigan's men and a major drug dealer, is shot dead outside his apartment inKilmainham, reportedly by Darren Geoghegan (Ireland on Sunday). 13 November, 2005: Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne, leading members of the Thompson/Gavin faction aremurdered by suspected hit-men reportedly hired by Rattigan's gang (Ireland on Sunday). 15 November, 2005: Seen by many as a revenge attack (Sunday World, Sunday Independent), Noel Roche (olderbrother of John Roche), Brian Rattigan's "chief enforcer" (Ireland on Sunday) is shot dead in Clontarf. His fellow gangmember, Eddie Rice, escapes but refuses to tell the Gardaí anything about the killers.
There are two gangs: the Crumlin lot (the Gavin/Thompson gang, who may or may not be under the wing of old-hand Martin "Viper" Foley) versus the Rattigans of Drimnagh. These are the young, thrusting newcomers, making their mark where once self-effacing Martin "The General" Cahill (cleaned up by the IRA, 1994, but pictured, left) ruled the roost. The cause of this feud seems to go back to 1998, when Declan Gavin was serving an apprenticeship in small-time crime and drug-trafficking. He had his bike and the family car vandalized, thus causing a rupture with the Rattigans.

Trouble flared in 2001 with the first murder. Declan Gavin had been head of the Crumlin boys. Gavin and a mate were "cutting" a consignment of cocaine in the Holiday Inn, Pearse Street, when the Gardaí raided. Gavin had been caught in a previous raid; and was now suspect of grassing. He was taken out in a stabbing (August 2001). That one is still going through the courts.
Brian Rattigan (St Patrick's Day, 2002) was badly shot up at his home. A witness (who later recanted) identified "Fat Freddie" Thompson as the gun-man. There was a further gun attack on a Rattigan affiliate, Colm Smith, in May 2002: Smith then refused to talk to the Gardaí. "Fat Freddie" was now in jug (driving offences!, but also for giving a false name and aiding the escape of an arrestee).
To celebrate Brian Rattigan's release from hospital (July 2002), Doyle of the Gavin/Thompson gang shot Joe Rattigan of the Drimnagh mob.
On 25 January 2004, in the toilet of Gray's pub, Paul Warren of the Crumlin team was shot by two of the Rattigans, a further revenge murder. Brian Rattigan went inside at Portlaoise for drugs and firearms (10 years) and heroin possession (4 years). Apparently, through mobile phones and runners, he still controls his gang.
The next to go (March 2005) was John Roche, a Rattigan dealer. He was shot, allegedly by Darren Geoghegan, one of four of the same team that shot Joe Rattigan.
14 April 2005, Terence Dunleavy, a dealer, shot in the head. The motorbike used by the killer belonged to a relative of "Fat Freddie", so this was another Thompson execution.
Then, two for one, Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne were executed, perhaps by their own Crumlin side, but more likely as a reprisal, even on a contract basis.
Doyle struck again, 13 November 2005, shooting John Roche's elder brother, Noël, who has been identified as the Rattigan enforcer.
Late summer, 2006, and two more in quick succession: Wayne Zambra (assumed to be part of the team that killed Paul Warren) buys it: again, this is likely to be an internal job; and Gary Bryan, who was the gunman in the Paul Warren murder, was released from gaol and promptly dealt with in a drive-by killing.
Then Eddie McCabe, last December, who had been in on the Zambra murder, was (for a change) beaten to death. He may have been stabbed through the eye.
Now Doyle himself.

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Blue Bomber Robert "Eddie" Blake and his co-accused Nick Chyzy ,Dwight Mushey in jail for murder

Former Winnipeg Blue Bomber Robert "Eddie" Blake and his co-accused Nick Chyzy were in court this morning for the beginning of the scaled-down hearing to determine what evidence will be admissible in their case, and if there is enough evidence to go to trial, among other things.
The hearing had originally been expected to take more than two weeks, but has now been reduced to only a handful of witnesses.
A court-ordered publication ban prevents any of the evidence presented at the hearing from being published.
Blake and Chyzy were among 17 people, including 10 Manitobans, arrested in September 2004 in a project called Operation Diversion.
Police allege the accused were running a criminal network that smuggled ephedrine from a Thunder Bay, Ont., bodybuilding supply company called Pumpuii Energy Products through Winnipeg, Lac du Bonnet, and Hanna, Alta. From there, the ephedrine was allegedly repackaged for sale to underground drug labs in Vancouver, Buffalo and Sacramento, Calif., where it was being used to make crystal meth, one of the most lucrative and destructive illegal drugs on the market.
During those September 2004 raids, cops seized 20,000 pounds of ephedrine, $3.5 million in cash and several other things, including a few Dodge Vipers and some other vehicles.
Also arrested were Dwight Mushey, who is now in jail in Ontario charged with first-degree murder in the 2006 massacre of eight Bandidos bikers, and Manny Barbagianis, whose fatal shooting in Winnipeg's West End in 2006 remains one of the city's few unsolved murders.

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Black Cobra, Bandidos largest biker gangs in Denmark

Black Cobra, with its 50 members, had allegiances with the Bandidos gang, one of the two largest biker gangs in Denmark
Black Cobra had members in the towns of Roskilde, Hundige, Kalundborg, Næstved and Vordingborg. The majority of their members were from ethnic minorities.
The report found that the group's activities were increasing and that it had plans to expand to Jutland and Sweden.
Another gang, the International Club, based in Esbjerg in western Jutland, was striving toward more co-operation with the Black Cobra group. The two groups resembled each other in structure and members of both groups wore their affiliations openly.
Police expected that there would be increased pressure on the Hell's Angels group especially on the drug scene. The Hell's Angels have already been pushed out of three towns in Jutland, and their drug dealing activities taken over by the International Group.

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Riverside County Gang Task Force

200 officers from the Riverside County Gang Task Force Regions served 12 search warrants in the city of Moreno Valley. The search warrants concluded a three-month investigation involving local and L.A. based gang members involved in distributing and sales of rock cocaine in Moreno Valley. The following is a synopsis of the investigation
Total Stats:
Felony arrests: 51
Misdemeanor arrests: 6
Felony warrants served: 10
Misdemeanor warrants served: 6
Firearms seized-6
Cocaine base seized: approx. 133 grams
Marijuana seized: 69 grams
Money seized: $3,300
Three strike suspects: 2
Parole violations-7
Probation violations-10
CPS cases initiated-16 (26 children)
Vehicles towed-14
Phase I: Investigation
Between November and January 2007, Officers from the MVGTF (Region 5) and MVPD SET and POP teams conducted numerous buy and surveillance programs in the 15000 block of Elm Ct. in Moreno Valley. During these initial operations officers were able to identify approximately 18 gang members and their associates that were responsible for drug dealing and assaults in that area. Officer identified approximately 12 primary residences that were directly linked to these suspects. As a result of this investigation, Officers were able to secure 12 search warrants for the locations and numerous arrests warrants for the primary suspects.
Phase II: Search Warrant services
On February 1, 2008 about 0700 hours, approximately 200 officers from the various agencies served 12 simultaneous search warrants in Moreno Valley. During the initial execution of the search warrant phase of the operation, officers arrested 31 suspects (28 felonies and 3 misdemeanors. Additionally, 6 firearms, cocaine and other drugs were seized. During the operation, 26 children were placed with Child Protective Services (CPS). Officers are seeking child endangerment charges against 16 of the parents or guardians.

Phase III: undercover operation/45 probation searches
Between 1200 and 2200 hours, Officers conducted an undercover program in the 15000 block of Elm Ct. During this phase of the operation, officers made 20 felony arrests and 3 misdemeanor arrests. Between 1100 hours and 1600 hours, officers conducted 45 probation searches of residences targeting known gang members in Moreno Valley. Three (3) additional felony arrests were made during this portion of the operation. A total of 26 suspects were arrest during this phase of the operation.

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Michael Bryan Dunn ,Kevin Earl Corly ,Clarence Hoffman ,Christopher Peterson

The Sheriff's Department along with the Gang Enforcement targeted members the Vagos outlaw motorcycle gang at the Happy Haven Trailer Park on Lake Isabella Blvd. The Sheriff's Office was investigating the possibility that the Vagos were looking at the Kern River Valley to start a club.
Deputies ended up arrested Michael Bryan Dunn 36, Kevin Earl Corly 44, Christopher Peterson, 19 of the Lake Isabella area and Clarence Hoffman 52, Shane Nursery 34, and Roy Virgin 51 of Goshen Ca on charges of having weapons, drugs and gang member charges.
During this investigation Dunn and Corley were also charged with assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, kidnapping, dissuading a witness, conspiracy and gang charges. Those charges come from an early investigation in which deputies say there could still be more arrests.

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Aryan Brotherhood, a particularly violent prison gang, are known to practice "takedown" methods learned in the military

American gang graffiti can be found on Baghdad walls, said Byrne.
When discharged, soldiers armed with knowledge of military weapons and tactics become increasingly effective gang members and more threatening to police. Members of the Aryan Brotherhood, a particularly violent prison gang, are known to practice "takedown" methods learned in the military, said Byrne.
But two "weapons" found in civilian life, cell phones and the Internet, also are proving useful to gangs and their "counterintelligence" tactics directed at police.
"The more information they've got, the stronger they are," said Byrne.
A gang member was caught taking a cell phone picture of a Marysville police officer in Yuba County Superior Court. Threats have been made against officers and their families by gangsters who have home addresses, said Byrne.
The officers "aren't afraid for themselves, but they have wives and kids," he said.
Cell phones also limit the effectiveness of police sweeps aimed at wanted gang members. Once officers enter a neighborhood, word quickly spreads, said Sgt. Allan Garza, head of the Gang Intelligence Unit at the Yuba County Sheriff's Department.

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Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, Griselda Blanco, aka the Black Widow

Rivi was, for a time, the hit-man of choice for Griselda Blanco, aka the Black Widow. Griselda was the grande dame of the Miami cocaine business, a Colombian mother of three, of impoverished origins, who slaughtered and intimidated her way to the top of a billion-dollar industry. She is a central character in this movie, the most deadly figure in a story in which the bodies are stacked like dominos. Conspicuous by her absence as an interviewee, she is one of the few key survivors of the era whom the film-makers were unable to coax before the lens. “Her release was imminent at that point, as was her deportation. I think she has changed her mind since, because we have been reapproached,” Corben says.

contract killer Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, the director of Cocaine Cowboys Billy Corben says: “He told me where there is a body buried in Miami, by the Florida turnpike. It’s all developed now, malls and condominiums. He knows where all the bodies are buried. We told the police. I think he told the police too. I just don’t think they care.”
Now serving three life sentences for 12 counts of murder, Rivi is a chillingly cool customer. He affably reels off the names of the victims he dispatched as if he were running through a shopping list. “The guy is one of the most pleasant interview subjects, the most laid-back, easy-going, polite, friendly and simple to deal with. But we’d be sitting there in an interview and you would have to kick yourself in the head to remind yourself what it is that this guy is talking about. He might as well be talking about the weather outside. But he’s talking about murdering women and children.”
The film’s approach is an unabashed tabloid assault of sensational images. Police and press photographs of nameless bodies, the collateral damage in the cocaine wars, dominate the screen, their twisted bodies leaking blood on to the Dade County sidewalks.
Rapid-fire editing unleashes an onslaught of information. This is documentary-making for ADD sufferers and has now inspired a feature film to star Mark Wahlberg, based on the the drug dealer Jon Roberts, featured in Cocaine Cowboys.
Corben, a Miami native with a conversational style like a runaway train, acknowledges the drug’s influence on Cocaine Cowboys’ aesthetic. “My intended effect was that after this movie, you felt like you had been on a bender.” Besides Griselda and Rivi, the key characters in the film are Roberts and Mickey Munday. They are the “cowboys” of the title, two outlaws who imported but didn’t sell the drugs. The way they tell it, their clever smuggling methods transformed the fortunes of the once sleepy backwater of Miami.
Corben’s memories of growing up in Miami during the cocaine-fuelled 1980s are of nightly news stories with a body count to rival a small war, and an awful lot of money. “I remember being in this working-class neighbourhood and everybody was doing very well. Whatever business you were in, the city was flush with so much cash that it trickled down, sort of a Reagan theory of economics. The trickle-down theory worked as long as you had successful drug king-pins in the community.”

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Rondell Rawlins Gang

In Guyana, security troops have killed two members of a gang suspected of participating in the murder of 11 people last Saturday. The Guyanese authorities said that the two men were killed in a gun battle in the village where they were hiding.
Thousands of people attended the cremations of 10 of the murder victims on Thursday, which President Bharrat Jagdeo had declared a day of national mourning.
The 11 victims, who belonged to a native Indian community, were shot dead in their homes by armed men. Police say the gunmen belong to a criminal gang headed by Rondell Rawlins who is on the run from police.

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David Sauceda, the Mexican Mafia gang member

David Sauceda, the Mexican Mafia gang member and murder suspect who escaped from the Bexar County Jail on Oct. 28, was apprehended Saturday by Mexican law enforcement officials at the Mexico home where he was living, authorities announced this morning.
Sauceda, 28, was captured outside a house in Tangancicuaro, a remote city of about 30,000 people in central Mexico, where he was living with his girlfriend and two children, according to the U.S. Marshal's Service.
Sauceda tried to run but was quickly taken in to custody by Mexican immigration officials and state police, who have been working with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Eschewing extradition procedures, Mexican authorities instead immediately deported Sauceda on immigration violations. He was flown to San Antonio to once again face murder, armed robbery and home invasion charges. An additional charge of escape stems from his getaway to Mexico.
"There wasn't an extradition issue at all," said U.S. Marshal LaFayette Collins. "The Mexicans wanted to get rid of him."
Sauceda walked out the front door of the Bexar County Jail in part by duping detention officers into handing him the card of his cellmate, whose personal information he'd memorized.
Sauceda and his brother, Jesse Sauceda, are accused in the November 2006 murder of Juan Guevara, whom they allegedly shot in the head and then ran over in a car. A second man was shot twice and stabbed multiple times, but survived.
Six days later, Sauceda allegedly broke into an elderly woman's home and duct-taped her, stealing cash, jewelry and an ATM card. After fleeing from a police standoff in Corpus Christi the next day, Sauceda was arrested walking down a roadside with a handgun.
In December, Sauceda was named one of the U.S. Marshals Service's 15 most-wanted fugitives.

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Criag Petties half brother toThree 6 Mafia's DJ Paul

Alleged Memphis drug lord and half-brother to Three 6 Mafia's DJ Paul is facing 56 charges in federal court after being arrested early this month in Mexico, while appearing in the top 15 of America's Most Wanted fugitives.
A nearly 70-page indictment was handed down to 31-year-old Craig Petties this week, detailing his alleged drug operation which is estimated to have run from 1995 up until this year. The superseding indictment follows a 40-page one laid against him originally in 2002 before he went on the run.
Petties -- in addition to conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine from the original indictment -- now faces several other charges including conspiracy to commit murder for hire, money laundering and racketeering.
Authorities have learned, since 2002, that Petties' organization allegedly attempted to kill people who interfered with their drug trafficking business.
As far as money laundering charges, the indictment says that Petties used drug money to pay for several expensive cars, a home in Las Vegas as well as one in Memphis.
During raids and arrest, authorities have confiscated several firearms, lots of money and vehicles.


"So far we've had seizures of almost $3 million, little over 2.9 million and something like 40 vehicles and over $600,000 in cash," said U.S. Attorney David Kustoff.
He wanted arrested on January 11 in Mexico, along with a female companion -- believed to have been his girlfriend -- and three other individuals. Petties was apparently running multi-million dollar drug ring while evading arrest in Mexico.
Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin told local FoxNews affiliate that they've begun combing through homicide cases to find connections to Petties or members of his gang. Six others who listed as associates all face the same or similar charges.
Petties and his co-defendants are all in federal custody. If convicted of all charges, he and his associates could face life in prison or the death penalty.
Prosecutors haven't yet to determine what punishments they will seek.

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Wilber Varela

The boss of Colombia's biggest remaining cocaine cartel was killed by gunfire in Venezuela in an apparent settling of accounts between drug gangs, Colombian security forces said on Friday.
The body of Wilber Varela, known as "Jabon" or "Soap," was found on Wednesday in a hotel room in Merida state in neighboring Venezuela, said a Colombian police source who asked not to be identified.
"We have intelligence information that the person found dead in Venezuela is Jabon," the source said.
Varela, a former police sergeant wanted for extradition by the U.S. government for helping to smuggle tonnes of cocaine to the United States, was one of the last Colombian drug kingpins at large after last year's arrest of Diego "Don Diego" Montoya.
The two had battled for control of the Norte del Valle cartel, a violent rivalry that left hundreds of people dead.
The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward leading to the arrest of Varela, who got his nickname from a brand of soap with the same name.

The Norte del Valle gang, based near the western city of Cali, is the only Colombian cartel that still controls all areas of the business from cultivation of coca plants to production of cocaine and its exportation. (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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V-Not gang: Aaren Dexter, Brandon Whiteside

Aaren Dexter, 21, of Akron, was sentenced to four years in prison for the drive-by shooting of a crime witness.
He was found guilty of felonious assault, intimidation of a crime victim and being a felon with a gun.
On Aug. 22, Dexter shot a man in retaliation for the conviction of Brandon Whiteside, 18. Whiteside was convicted on July 19 of attempted murder and criminal gang activity. He is serving 15 years in prison.
Dexter and Whiteside were in the V-Not gang, prosecutors said.
The man Dexter shot is the father of the victim of another shooting carried out by the V-Not gang, prosecutors said.
"This case is a prime example of the threats posed by gangs and gang violence in our community," Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said.
"This sentence hopefully sends two messages; first, we will not tolerate the intimidation tactics of street thugs who think they are above the law. Second, we will do everything we can to protect citizens who do the right thing by reporting crimes and participating in the
judicial process."

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Carlos Enrique Lehder,George Jung

The partnership of Lehder and Jung handled transport and distribution, while Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar handled production and supply (By the age of 32 Pablo Escobar was netting $500,000 a day). Other elements of the cartel, such as the Ochoa family, helped deal with political matters in Colombia.
Using an efficient, high-tech approach to cocaine smuggling that facilitated shipment of the drug in mass quantities, Lehder and Jung were soon rising stars.
In the late 70s, the Lehder-Jung partnership began to diverge, due to some combination of Lehder's megalomania, and Lehder's secret scheming to secure a personal Bahamanian island as a complete all-purpose headquarters for his operations.
Carlos Enrique Lehder started out as a stolen car dealer, a marijuana dealer, and a smuggler of stolen cars between the US and Canada. While serving a sentence for car theft in federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, Lehder decided that, upon his release, he would take advantage of the burgeoning market for cocaine in the United States, and enlisted his bunkmate, former marijuana dealer George Jung (Portrayed by Johnny Depp in the movie Blow), as a future partner. Jung had experience with flying marijuana to the US from Mexico in small aircraft, staying below radar level and landing on dry lake beds. Inspired by the idea, Lehder decided to apply the principle to cocaine transport and formed a partnership with Jung. While in prison he set out to learn as much information, that would be useful to him in the cocaine business, as he possibly could. Lehder would sometimes spend hours questioning fellow inmates on money laundering and smuggling. George Jung said that Lehder kept countless files and constantly took notes. Norman’s Cay was a popular anchorage for visiting yachts. It was developed in the early 1970s as a small residential community with a clubhouse and marina. But in 1978 a Bahamian company called International Dutch Resources began buying up land there. IDR was set up for Lehder by a regular trust company in Nassau, which conveniently managed his working capital.
Lehder bought as much property on the island as he could and then chased off the remaining residents. Armed guards patrolled day and night and former Member of Parliament Norman Solomon was once threatened at gunpoint on the beach. As Lehder chased away the local population and began to assume total control of the island, Bahamian Prime Minister Lynden Pindling, believed to have taken massive amounts of money in bribes from Lehder and associates, did nothing. Norman's Cay became Lehder's lawless private fiefdom. By this time, George Jung had been forced out of the operation, and international criminal financier Robert Vesco had allegedly become a partner. Jung used his prior connections to take up a more modest line of independent smuggling for Escobar, and stayed out of Lehder's way.
Lehder's smuggling operation on Norman's Cay was an overnight success. Court papers show that the first (and modest) load Lehder handled reaped a $1 million profit for two days of work. From 1978 through 1982, the Cay became the Caribbean's main drug smuggling hub and a tropical hideaway and playground for Lehder and associates. Cocaine was flown in from Colombia by jet and then reloaded into the small aircraft that then distributed it to locations in Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas. These unexpected destinations made evasion easier because U.S. authorities were watching only the country's southern borders.



After their releases (both were paroled), Lehder and Jung built up a small stream of money through simple, traditional drug smuggling - they enlisted two American girls to take a paid vacation to Antigua, receive cocaine, and carry it back with them to the US in their suitcases. Repeating this process several times, they soon had enough money for an airplane.
Using a small plane and a professional pilot, they began to fly cocaine into the United States via the Bahamas, increasing their financial resources and building connections and trust with Colombian suppliers while spreading money around among Bahamian government officials for political and judicial protection. Their untraditional method of drug-smuggling began to gain credibility.

Shortly thereafter, Lehder talked other drug lords, already active in the marijuana trade into forming a cooperative that became a cartel based in the northwestern industrial city of Medellin (Colombia's second largest city).

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Constantin (Big Gus) Alevizos

Constantin (Big Gus) Alevizos, 45 stumbled into the halfway house late last night with gunshot wounds to either the back or stomach, said Const. Wayne Patterson.
Peel Regional Police received a call around 10 p.m. with a report that someone had been shot at St. Leonard’s Place, a transition house for both homeless men with serious mental illnesses and ex-offenders.
“We do know what he had been in prison for but at this time we need to revisit his past as we investigate,” said Patterson.
Alevizos was sentenced in a Newmarket court to three years in prison last February for his role in a drug conspiracy, the last of 32 co- accused to be sentenced — without a single trial held.
Alevizos was part of a large police investigation that hampered the expansion of the Montreal Mafia into Ontario, shut down one of the largest Ecstasy vendors in Canada and sparked the recent arrests of some of the biggest names in crime.
In an interview last year with the National Post, Alevizos dismissed suggestions he stole any cash and said that he was only afraid of only two things in life: God and his mother.
He was once described by a witness as the "biggest man I've ever seen" and by police as a 6-foot-6 male weighing 460 pounds earning him the nickname “Big Gus.”
One of Alevizos' closest friends, Gaetano Panepinto, was tight with outlaw motorcycle gang members, mafiosi, and high volume drug dealers.
He signed on early with the Rizzuto organization, the powerful Montreal-based Mafia family, when it started moving into Ontario, which gave him tremendous influence in the underworld.
Police do not have any suspects and are asking anyone who may have witnessed the shooting to come forward.
Alevizos had a pulse when police arrived but his vital signs soon disappeared, police said. He was then transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Alivezos was an all-star for the Guelph Gryphons university football team in the late 1980s. He also tried out for the Toronto Argonauts, in a brief career in the Canadian Football League.

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