Salford Murder: Family Of Anuj Bidve Learn Of His Murder On Facebook

 

Police have admitted that the family of an Indian student murdered in Salford on Boxing Day found out about his death on Facebook. Anuj Bidve, 23, was shot in the head at point-blank range as he walked with friends near their hotel in the Ordsall district of Salford early on December 26. His murder is being treated by detectives as a hate crime which may have been racially motivated. Anuj's father Subhash has complained that he heard about his son's death via Facebook rather than an official channel. He told Sky News: "It has been very, very difficult to understand why no authorities - from the British government, police or anyone - could give this news to me." Greater Manchester Police confirmed that "sadly that was the case" and apologised for not breaking the news in person. The family found out about the student's death on Facebook Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley, who has overall command for the operation, said: "That is not the way anyone should have to find out something so devastating and we completely understand how upset the family are." She explained that a family liaison officer had been trying to contact the family to inform them when a post was put up on the website. "Social networking is instantaneous and we have no control over when and what people post on such sites, but no-one should hear such tragic news in this way," she said. ACC Copley stressed that two officers have since been in regular contact with the family and are working on bringing them to Manchester as soon as possible. On the release of the student's body, she said: "We understand how important this is for the family and we are working closely with the coroner to ensure the family can bring Anuj's body home as soon as possible. "The body cannot be released at this stage of the investigation but we are doing everything we can to respect the family's wish." She continued: "I want to reassure the family that staff across the whole of Greater Manchester Police are working on this investigation night and day to bring those responsible for Anuj's murder to justice." That is not the way anyone should have to find out something so devastating and we completely understand how upset the family are. Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley A 19-year-old man and a 20-year-old man are still in custody as investigations continue but police have released three other teenagers, two aged 17 and one 16, pending further inquiries. Detectives are now offering a £50,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of the person responsible for the killing. The murder weapon, believed to be a small handgun, has yet to be found. Forensic and ballistics investigations are being carried out and police are trawling through CCTV along with house-to-house inquiries. According to a Facebook page set up in Mr Bidve's memory, he "was killed for not answering a simple question: 'What's the time?"'. REWARD OFFERED ON SALFORD MURDER Police have said they are treating the murder as a hate crime, although at this stage they are unsure whether it was racially motivated. The student, who arrived in the UK in September and had been studying at Lancaster University, had been with a large group of friends on a Christmas visit to Manchester. They were walking from their hotel early on Boxing Day when they became aware of two men on the other side of the street. The gunman then walked across the road, spoke briefly to Mr Bidve and then shot him at close range in the side of the head. He then ran back across the street before the pair fled. Armed response units were sent to the scene but Mr Bidve died in hospital a short time later.

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Murder squad detectives today offered a £50,000 reward for information as they investigated the "horrific" murder of an Indian student blasted to death on Boxing Day.

 

Anuj Bidve, 23, was shot in the head at point-blank range as he walked with friends near their hotel in the inner-city Ordsall district of the city, in the early hours of December 26.

The murder of the Indian student is being treated by detectives at Greater Manchester Police (GMP) as a "hate crime" which may have been racially motivated.

Today senior officers from the force announced the cash reward and said they hoped it would help get the killer gunman caught as soon as possible.

Det Chief Supt Mary Doyle, leading the murder inquiry, said: "It is an extremely unusual, savage and motiveless attack, an absolutely horrific crime, which is why we are taking the step of issuing it (the reward) a bit earlier than we normally would.

"We absolutely understand the need to take whoever is responsible for this off the streets.

"That's the reason we are issuing it now at such an early stage."

Often rewards are offered by the police weeks or months after the crime.

Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley, from GMP, speaking at a news conference at the force HQ in Manchester, said: "We are going to issue a reward here and now, for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Anuj's murder.

"That reward is £50,000.

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$5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco. He is suspected of ordering as many as 10,000 murders to protect his drug smuggling empire.

Colombia’s reputed top drug lord is spending his first day as a prisoner in the United States Friday after being handed over to U.S. authorities by the Venezuelan government.

The extradition was heavy with political overtones that appeared to respond to U.S. allegations that Venezuela sometimes harbored drug dealers.

The U.S. government was offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco. He is suspected of ordering as many as 10,000 murders to protect his drug smuggling empire.

Orozco, also known as “Valenciano,” was arrested last month in northern Venezuela along with an accused Colombian guerilla leader.

Police believe Orozco shipped tons of cocaine into the United States with assistance from a Mexican drug cartel. He allegedly concealed the smuggling by using legitimate companies to ship the cocaine.

He was turned over to U.S. law enforcement agents during a prisoner transfer in the Caracas airport that was broadcast live on Venezuelan television.

Orozco, 39, was arrested Nov. 27 on the eve of an official visit to Venezuela by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela’s interior minister, told the news media Orozco was one “of the drug smugglers most wanted by the United States and Colombia.”

He is the second top Colombian drug lord to be extradited to the United States since 2008, when the former “capo” of cocaine smuggling, Diego Murillo, was arrested. Orozco assumed the top position in Murillo’s absence.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez authorized Orozco’s extradition after consulting with Colombian President Santos, according to a statement from the Venezuelan government.

It also said the Venezuelans rejected the $5 million U.S. reward money.

With the extradition of Orozco, “Venezuela places itself at the front to be a leading country in the fight against trafficking of illegal drugs,” El Aissami said.

He also criticized the United States for its prior accusations that Venezuela was uncooperative in preventing illegal drug production and smuggling.

Orozco was captured at his home in the Venezuelan town of Valencia, where police also found $180,000 in cash.

Orozco faced enemies in and out of his drug cartel during his nearly three-year reign as its boss. Some of his allies broke from his gang to follow other smuggling opportunities. Others turned against him to cooperate with police in following him to his arrest last month.

He was known for clinging relentlessly to control of his drug routes and accused of being paranoid about potential enemies.

His extradition to the United States is his second encounter with American courts.

In 2008, a New York judge summoned him to a hearing to answer allegations of his involvement with drug smuggling. Orozco failed to appear for the hearing, which prompted the judge to issue a warrant for his arrest.

He is charged with distributing more than 5,000 kilograms of cocaine in the United States between January 1990 and February 2008.

Court papers filed by prosecutors say he operated a network of warehouses and companies that stored a variety of legitimate products, but also cocaine. The drugs were shipped along with the legitimate products to hide their presence, prosecutors said.

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The alleged members of the Dominican-based Trinitarios gang all face charges of racketeering, narcotics conspiracy and gun trafficking

Suspects accused of selling guns and drugs.

Authorities collared 38 Bronx and upper Manhattan gangbangers Wednesday after a two-year probe into a notorious crew, officials said.

The alleged members of the Dominican-based Trinitarios gang all face charges of racketeering, narcotics conspiracy and gun trafficking, authorities said.

The undercover investigation — which involved officers from the NYPD, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Homeland Security — netted about $25,000 worth of drugs and 12 firearms in Wednesday’s raid, police said.

One weapon recovered, a Mac-11 machine gun, was painted the same shade of green the gang uses in its colors.

Federal prosecutors said the crew committed and planned violent acts, including murder, to protect its turf from rival gangs that include the Bloods, Crips, the Latin Kings and Dominicans Don’t Play.

“We believe we put a big dent in the Trinitarios gang,” said Capt. Lorenzo Johnson, the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Bronx gang squad.

Six people who were connected to the gang members were also arrested, police said. Authorities were still looking for about 12 other members of the gang.

Prosecutors said the Trinitarios sold firearms, including semiautomatic rifles, a shotgun and handguns, and transported them across state lines.

Numerous members of the Trinitarios who were arrested are also members of a smaller splinter gang, the Bad Boys, prosecutors said.

Johnson said most of suspects were already “known to the department in some manner,” and had long terrorized several blocks in Washington Heights and parts of the Bronx, including Marble Hill.

“Anytime we can help the community feel safer is a good day,” he said.

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co-defendant in the Hells Angels trial last week was found not guilty on several charges.

 

co-defendant in the Hells Angels trial last week was found not guilty on several charges. Timothy David Hill, 45, of Rock Hill was acquitted on charges of attempted murder, attempted armed robbery, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy by a York County jury Friday. Hill was represented by public defenders Harry Dest and B.J. Barrowclough. The main defendant, 58-year-old William "Spook" Sosebee of Rock Hill, was convicted of attempted armed robbery, kidnapping, possession of a knife during a violent crime and first-degree assault and battery, according to a news release from the 16th Circuit Solicitor's Office. Judge John C. Hayes sentenced Sosebee to 10 years in prison with no parole. Sosebee was accused of stabbing Jim Moye of North Carolina at Wall Bangers Social Club on East Main Street. Moye, 58, is a member of Iron Order, another motorcycle club, and had stopped at Wall Bangers, according to the solicitor's office news release. Evidence at the trial showed that Moye, who had never been to the bar before, did not know that the Hells Angels considered Wall Bangers "their bar," according to the release. After Moye arrived, Sosebee approached him and beat him in the head with the handle of a Bowie knife, according to the solicitor's office. Sosebee put the knife to Moye's throat and demanded he hand over his Iron Order motorcycle vest. Moye refused and repeatedly asked to be allowed to leave. Sosebee then stabbed him in the abdomen. Moye survived after undergoing surgery at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. Officers were called to the hospital after the stabbing, but Moye would only say "it was a motorcycle thing," according to reports. A witness identified Sosebee to officers. At the time of the stabbing, Hill also had been arrested and charged and was called a member of the Red Devil, a support group of the Hells Angels, in a Rock Hill Police report. However, Hill was found not guilty last week by a York County jury and was released.

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The Rise of the Dark Souls, the Black Mask, the Thunder Bikers and the Iron Beast are a sure sign the feared gang is trying to reclaim lucrative territory

The Hells Angels, decimated by a series of raids, are reorganizing under the guise of four so-called puppet clubs, QMI Agency has learned. The emergence of the Dark Souls, the Black Mask, the Thunder Bikers and the Iron Beast are a sure sign the feared gang is trying to reclaim lucrative territory, say experts. Three of the four new Hells puppet clubs in Quebec have quietly announced their presence on the Internet. The Black Mask Facebook page says it has a base in Scott, east of Quebec City. Newly established in four regions of the province, the puppet clubs sport colours inspired by the Hells as well as jackets adorned with distinctive logos and marked "MC" for Motorcycle Club. Undercover Montreal police officers gathered information on the clubs by infiltrating a biker meeting at a Montreal bar in November, sources tell QMI Agency. Sixty aspiring bikers were met by three members of the Nomads, the select Hells chapter once run by Maurice (Mom) Boucher and now based in Ontario. Police gathered evidence, but didn't make any arrests. Montreal police and Quebec provincial police declined to comment for this story. But a provincial police investigator last month confirmed the Hells' push-back into Quebec. "The Ontario Nomads have some influence in Quebec that they had not had before 2009," said Insp. Michel Pelletier. He added that Quebec's Hells leadership needed reinforcements to run their rackets because nearly all of its members were nabbed in Project SharQc, a sweeping 2009 biker roundup. Hells clubs virtually disappeared following Operation Springtime 2001, the first of a set of massive raids that crippled Quebec biker gangs and ended a bloody 10-year war that claimed 150 lives, including those of bystanders. A 2003 report by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada said biker proxy clubs allow higher-ups to stay out of the spotlight. "The outlaw motorcycle gangs will use clubs ... for criminal acts in order to avoid prosecution," said the CISC report. "However, it seems that the clubs are becoming increasingly rare because it is difficult to control and because of the success of (raids)."

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US agents laundered drug money

 

Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders. Some 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, when its government launched a major military crackdown against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorized border communities as they battled over lucrative smuggling routes. According to these officials, the operations were aimed at identifying how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are, the report said. The agents had deposited the proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents, the paper noted. While the DEA conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years, The Times said. As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests, the report said. According to The Times, agency officials declined to publicly discuss details of their work, citing concerns about compromising their investigations. But Michael Vigil, a former senior official who is currently working for a private contracting company called Mission Essential Personnel, is quoted by the paper as saying: "We tried to make sure there was always close supervision of these operations so that we were accomplishing our objectives, and agents weren?t laundering money for the sake of laundering money."

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DRUGS baron Curtis “Cocky” Warren is serving 13 years behind bars – but his tentacles still stretch around the globe.

Curtis Warren

 

He is suspected of operating a £300million empire built on smuggling cocaine, heroin and cannabis in deals with criminal cartels in Latin America, the Middle East and Spain. And all from his jail cell.

But 48-year-old Warren faces the biggest challenge yet to his evil enterprise as police launch a double assault in the courts on his fortune.

Authorities in Jersey are set to haul him before a judge next month to face a £200million Confiscation Order after he was convicted of drug smuggling on the Channel Island in 2009.

And in a second attack the Serious Organised Crime Agency, in a rare move, is asking judges to impose a Serious Crime Prevention Order in the High Court in London to stop him in his tracks when he is released in 2015. Yesterday Warren’s legal team won an adjournment in the High Court to delay a hearing scheduled for this week so they can prepare the crime lord’s defence.

With typical arrogance he told his lawyers to fight the bid on the grounds it breaches his “human rights”.

The SCP order, signed by Alun Milford, the Chief Crown Prosecutor and director of the Serious Organised Crime Division, seeks to restrict Warren’s use of communication devices and public phones.

It demands that he never has more than £1,000 in cash, to “make it harder for him to buy drugs or reward criminal associates”. And a financial reporting requirement will “deter him from acquisitive crime and give law enforcement authorities the opportunity to investigate any wealth he comes into”.

A source said: “Curtis is almost untouchable. A mobile is vital to him. It’s all he needs to operate. There are thousands of mobiles smuggled into the prison system and he has the means to get one.”

Curtis Warren, from Liverpool, leaves The Royal Court in St Hellier

Warren is the only convicted criminal ever to appear on The Sunday Times rich list, which in 2005 described him as a “property developer” with an estimated fortune of £76million. But according to underworld sources his real wealth is four times that.

He appointed himself chairman and chief operating officer of a global operation to flood Britain with cocaine and heroin.

His criminal associates say Warren’s business philosophy was simple and effective – drugs are a product to buy and sell like oil and gold. He is a meticulous planner whose organisation resembles the layers of executives and managers you find in a City institution, said a police source who has followed Warren’s career.

Before the euro was introduced, he was said to be putting £1million a week in money-laundering scams after trusted couriers changed cash into German marks and Dutch guilders and moved it abroad.

Paul Grimes, a gangster turned supergrass after his son died from a heroin overdose, said: “Warren wanted to be the cock everyone looks up to. He loves the status.”

Even behind bars it is feared Warren still handles deals and keeps phone numbers in his head as he links supplies to smugglers.

Detectives believe he has villas in Spain, Turkey and Gambia, owned through an intricate web of associates who also operate a Spanish casino, Turkish petrol stations and 250 rental properties in the North West of England.

Warren says the claims are “ridiculous”, alleging that he only has a flat in Liverpool’s Albert Dock and a house on the Wirral.

Softly-spoken Warren started his criminal career at the bottom when he was just nine and living at home with his dad, sailor Curtis Aloysius, and mum Sylvia, a shipyard boiler attendant. He was recruited by a gang to climb through small windows and burgle homes. By 11 he was carrying out muggings and armed robberies in the tough estates of Toxteth, Liverpool.

At 18, he was sent to borstal for assaulting police. In an adult jail eh honed his talent for crime.

Warren started selling drugs on the street and rubbing shoulders with Liverpool’s biggest villains, who underwrote huge cocaine consignments with Columbia’s Cali mobsters worth millions.

GRAFTING

He does not drink or take drugs, allowing his photographic memory to be razor-sharp at all times – especially in jail. On the outside, he has always shunned flash cars and big houses and wears tracksuits instead of Armani suits so as not to attract attention.

“Cocky takes no unnecessary risks,” said an ex-associate.

Paul Grimes added: “Unlike me and my crew, he wasn’t out till all hours in the pubs and clubs. He wasn’t flash. If he was grafting it was all VW Golfs and Passats or a low-key Rover.” Streetwise Warren gave contacts nicknames, including The Vampire, The Egg On Legs and Cracker to throw eavesdropping police off the scent.

His methods developed a business worth hundreds of millions as the drug trade exploded in the 1980s. He became a trusted client of Colombian cocaine cartels, Turkish heroin producers and Spanish cannabis suppliers.

It enabled him to get huge ­quantities of drugs on credit.

As he left court on a technicality during a 1993 trial for smuggling cocaine worth £250million, he is said to have told Customs officers he was “off to spend my £87million from the first shipment and you can’t f****** touch me”. Grimes, who will be under witness protection for the rest of his life, said: “Warren is a parasite.”

As Merseyside turf wars worsened in the mid-1990s, Warren moved to Sassenheim in Holland.

When Dutch police intercepted 400kg of cocaine, the game was up – for the time being.

At other addresses controlled by Warren, officers discovered a £150million haul containing 1,500kg of cannabis, 60kg of heroin, 50kg of ecstasy, 960 CS gas canisters, three guns, ammunition and £400,000 in Dutch guilders. The bust put Warren behind bars for 12 years in 1997.

In 2005, Dutch police charged him with running a drug smuggling cartel from his cell but the case was dropped because of insufficient evidence.

On his release, Warren returned to his manor in Merseyside to take up his mantle as the King of Coke.

But within weeks he was busted plotting what he described as “just a little starter” to get himself re-established as the No1 drugs baron in Europe.

PROPERTIES

He was jailed again in 2009 for 13 years for trying to smuggle £1million of cannabis into Jersey – for which he is still behind bars at Full Sutton Prison near York.

Following his sentence at Jersey’s Royal Court, SOCA said Warren was on its Lifetime Offender Management List.

However, Warren could now have his vast fortune seized. After he was jailed, Jersey authorities said they were determined to force Warren to hand over his assets and are seeking a Confiscation Order for more than £200million.

Warren is determined to take his fight against the Confiscation Order – which could see police seize his properties purchased with proceeds of crime – all the way to the European courts.

His solicitor said his client will “fight it all the way”.

Last week, in a similar case that will strike fear into the London underworld, kingpin Terry Adams, 57, was jailed for eight weeks, for breaching a Financial Reporting Order, after authorities demanded details on his spending.

Officers are determined that this week’s application in the High Court will finally nail Warren’s sinister organisation.

It is understood that this is the first SCPO to be applied for through the High Court.

Breaching any SCPO can lead to five years in jail and an unlimited fine. But in true Cocky fashion, Warren laughs off the order as “a mere irritant” in his bid to remain the drug trade’s Numero Uno.

WARREN once killed a fellow prisoner in a fight.

Cemal Guclu, a Turk serving 20 years for murder, attacked him at Hoorn Prison, Holland, in 1999.

Warren punched Guclu to the ground and kicked him in the head four times. Incredibly, Guclu got up but Warren struck him again. He hit his head on the ground and later died.

Warren was convicted of manslaughter and had four years added to his sentence.

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Hector Morales, 38, is president of the motorcycle gang "No Remorse,"

Hector Morales, 38, is president of the motorcycle gang "No Remorse," according to a police report. (Orange County Jail / December 2, 2011)

Hector Morales, 38, is president of the motorcycle gang "No Remorse,"His stepson, a juvenile, was charged with burglary to an occupied dwelling.

A third suspected gang member, Jose Juan Velez, 22, was also arrested on a charge of resisting arrest. Police say he failed to comply with their commands during the investigation.

Records show Morales has now been jailed more than a dozen times in Orange County since 2005, on charges including burglary and assault on a law officer

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Alex "Reds" Rivera, a suspected drug kingpin who once kept a petting zoo of farm animals in his Kensington neighborhood, has been convicted of heading a narcotics network

 

Alex "Reds" Rivera, a suspected drug kingpin who once kept a petting zoo of farm animals in his Kensington neighborhood, has been convicted of heading a narcotics network that for years distributed heroin and cocaine along North Lawrence Street and West Indiana Avenue. A federal jury handed up its verdict Monday night, capping a two-week trial that included testimony from several of Rivera's top associates, dozens of secretly recorded conversations, and surveillance and law enforcement reports of controlled drug buys from Rivera and others. In his closing argument to the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Axelrod, one of the prosecutors in the case, described the businesslike nature of the Rivera operation, which he said was selling about $18,000 worth of crack cocaine a week for a four-year period beginning in 2006. Rivera, 29, whom Axelrod described as the "boss" of the operation, faces a mandatory life sentence. He was convicted on charges of drug dealing and conspiracy tied to a narcotics network that prosecutors alleged "owned" several blocks of an open-air drug market in North Philadelphia. His wife, Ileana Vidal, 25, was convicted of related drug offenses and faces 10 years in prison. U.S. District Court Judge Juan R. Sanchez has scheduled Rivera's sentencing for Feb. 29. Vidal is scheduled to be sentenced March 2. The jury deliberated for about five hours before announcing its verdict, which came less than two weeks after the trial began Nov. 18. Testimony included accounts of how Rivera would order associates to beat and assault anyone who tried to sell drugs within his Kensington territory. Daniel Cortez, a top Rivera lieutenant who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with authorities, testified about how, on Rivera's orders, he had kidnapped and tortured a man who owed money to the drug organization. Cortez was one of 15 codefendants in the case who pleaded guilty before trial. The case was developed through a joint investigation by the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department through the Violent Gangs Safe Street Task Force. Rivera, short and stocky with tattooed arms and bushy red hair and a beard, was well-known in the neighborhood and in law enforcement circles as a major player in the drug underworld. He was featured in a 2008 BBC documentary called Law and Disorder in Philadelphia. In the documentary, he denied he was involved in drugs, but told a BBC reporter, "Sometimes you do what you got to do to survive." 

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Danilo "Triste" Velasquez and two fellow MS-13 gang members blocked the way of a car carrying four people near the Daly City BART station before opening fire with semi-automatic handguns

 

The leader of a street gang was convicted by a federal jury Tuesday in connection with the shooting death of a college student, who the killers mistakenly believed was a rival, officials said. Danilo "Triste" Velasquez and two fellow MS-13 gang members blocked the way of a car carrying four people near the Daly City BART station before opening fire with semi-automatic handguns, officials said. When the shooting ended on Feb. 19, 2009, Moises Frias, 21, was dead and two others were wounded. Velasquez was convicted of three counts of conspiracy and a gun charge in San Francisco federal court, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag. When he is sentenced Feb. 14, Velasquez faces a mandatory term of 10 years behind bars. Velasquez and his associates targeted the car because one of Frias' companions wore a red sweater and another a red-and-white San Francisco 49ers hat. Red is the color claimed by the shooters' rivals, officials said. None of the victims had any ties to street gangs. "In a hail of gunfire, Mr. Velasquez and his co-conspirators killed and wounded four unarmed individuals -- all in the name of MS-13," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. Co-defendant and fellow MS-13 member, Luis "Killer" Herrera already has pleaded guilty to related charges. He faces a 35-year mandatory term Advertisement when sentenced Jan. 24. Jaime Balam, the other shooting suspect, remains at-large. Federal prosecutors say the killing was part of a string of shootings carried out by or at the order of Velasquez. He assumed leadership after a number of gang leaders were indicted in 2008. The victims in the other shootings survived their wounds. Prosecutors say the only reason more people didn't die in the attack that left Frias dead was because Velasquez's gun repeatedly jammed. Witnesses testified at the four-week trial that Frias begged for his life before he was shot nine times by Balam, including a wound to the head.

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The top five members of a violent criminal street gang centered around West 137th Street in Central Harlem, are heading to prison.

 

 Leader Jaquan Layne, 21, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison; his brother, Jahlyl Layne, 18, who oversaw sales of crack cocaine, was sentenced to 7½ to 23½ years in prison; Jonathan Hernandez, 19, convicted of a gang-related shooting, was sentenced to 15 years and 2 months to 17 years and 4 months in prison; Habiyb Mohammed, 31, who packaged the crack cocaine, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison; and Jeffrey Brown, 20, who sold the crack cocaine, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. “The defendants derailed their lives and the lives of the teens they recruited to join their criminal operation, but the damage they inflicted upon these young people and their surrounding community does not have to be permanent,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.. “The sentences imposed were fair and thoughtful. For some of the 14 defendants in this case, the sentences are not merely punitive – they also make use of alternatives to incarceration and set achievable benchmarks for particular defendants, such as graduating from high school and staying off drugs and out of trouble. On October 20, 2011, a jury in State Supreme Court convicted the defendants – members of crews known as “2 Mafia Family” (2MF or 2DEEP) and “Goons on Deck” (G.O.D) – on charges related to the running of a profitable crack cocaine operation between June 2008 and February 2011. In addition to the possession and sale of crack cocaine, the defendants conspired to possess semiautomatic handguns, revolvers and ammunition in order to maintain their dominance of the geographic area centered on West 137th Street between Lenox and Seventh Avenues, and to discourage incursions by rival street gangs. With this verdict, all 14 defendants who were indicted on related charges have been convicted.

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Wife found Gary Speed's body, inquest hears

 

Wales football manager Gary Speed was found hanged at his home by his wife, an inquest was told today. The 42-year-old father-of-two was found dead at his Cheshire home on Sunday morning. Detective Inspector Peter Lawless, of Cheshire Police, told Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg that Speed's body was found by his wife Louise just before 7am. He said there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances and a post mortem examination found Speed's death was caused by hanging. Mr Rheinberg said: "I adjourn this inquest until January 30, 2012. The inquest will be heard in Warrington and will commence at 2pm." There was a huge media presence at the inquest in Warrington but members of Speed's family did not attend. The coroner asked the media to "respect the privacy" of Speed's family. Earlier today Welsh Assembly Members observed a minute's silence in the Senedd, Cardiff Bay, while flags continue to fly at half mast outside the Welsh Assembly buildings Ty Hywel and the Senedd. Speaking on behalf of the footballer's widow, Louise, and the family, Speed's agent and best man at his wedding Hayden Evans said last night they had been "overwhelmed" with messages of support and condolence. Tributes to the former Leeds United, Everton and Newcastle United midfielder, also poured in from a host of public and sporting figures, led by Prime Minister David Cameron. Mr Cameron said: "I know he meant an enormous amount to people and people feel very, very sad on his behalf and on his family's behalf." The Football Association of Wales chief executive Jonathan Ford said the organisation had received messages from UEFA and FIFA, with the Welsh flag at FIFA House in Zurich flying at half-mast. Mr Ford said: "He was such a great person and he is such a loss." Tottenham winger Gareth Bale, one of the brightest talents in Speed's Wales side, said it was a "massive shock". "It is a tragedy, everyone still can't get their head around it and all our condolences go out to his family and his kids. It is a hard time," Bale told tottenhamhotspur.com. Supporters have left scarves, football shirts and flowers across several football stadiums - including Everton's Goodison Park, Leeds United's Elland Road, Newcastle United's St James' Park and The Millennium Stadium and Cardiff City Stadium, where Wales played their home games. The FAW has opened a book of condolences at its offices in Cardiff allowing fans to express their feelings about Speed's death.

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TWO families are rejoicing after two men held in a Spanish prison were set free after four-and-a-half months

 

Kyle Thain, 24, and James Harris, 29, have been released on bail from Font Calent jail in Alicante.

This has left family members and friends overwhelmed – and they haven’t given up hope of getting them back to Britain for Christmas.

Kyle’s brother Jay, 29, said: “This is the best I have felt in a long while. It’'s amazing news.”

Sharon Harris, 56, Kyle’s mother, and husband Dave, 58, sold their Southend home to help fund the legal fight.

Yesterday, £8,000 was transferred to Spain for each of the lads’ bail.

Kyle of Sandringham Road, Southend, and James, of Pelham Road, Southend, have been held without charge since July 8. They are accused of attempted murder after two men were stabbed during a bar brawl near Alicante, close to where they were staying on a lads’ weekend away. They were arrested as they went to board the flight home.

The two pals have always maintained their innocence and insist they did not even set foot in the bar where the violence took place. Their families are convinced there has been a terrible case of mistaken identity.

Kyle and James are now due to leave prison today once funds have cleared. Jay and Sharon will fly out tomorrow where they will be reunited with Kyle and James who will stay with James’s mother Kate Burgess who has been in Spain since their arrest.

The decision on bail was finally made after a judge was presented with evidence that has been available all along.

Jay said a previous solicitor had told a judge that Kyle and James had pictures of them at their apartment around the time of the bar fight.

The new solicitor apparently put the time and date stamped pictures in front of the judge and said they convinced him it was sufficient evidence to at least release Kyle and James from jail.

A previous bail application in September was denied earlier this month and Kyle’s mum Sharon said she was beginning to prepare for Christmas being a “non-event”.

But now the two families are looking forward to trying to clear the names of Kyle and James once and for all.

Jay, also of Sandringham Road, added: “This is a really positive step in the right direction.

“The aim is to try and get them bail to the UK and to continue fighting for the case to be dropped completely.”

Since Kyle and James were arrested family and friends in south Essex have rallied in support with fundraising events netting thousands of pounds for the legal fight.

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Spanish savings bank directors suspected of fraud

 

Spanish savings bank has fired two directors and is investigating two former executives for allegedly syphoning off €20 million ($26.5 million) into secret pension funds, the bank said Saturday. The board of directors of Caixa Penedes bank had "required the departure" of its president, Ricard Pages, and director general Manuel Troyano. It said both men had agreed to leave, the bank said in a statement. The decision comes after state prosecutor for the northeastern region of Catalonia, Teresa Compte, said her office was investigating all four on suspicion of involvement in illegal activity. Regional newspaper La Vanguardia said the case was the first time prosecutors had investigated senior executives for "criminal responsibility" in their handling of a savings bank. The prosecutor named the other two former executives as Joan Caellas and Jaume Jorba. Caixa Penedes along with partners Cajamurcia, CajaGRANADA and SA NOSTRA owns Banco Mare Nostrum, S.A. (BMN). The group received €916 million ($1.21 billion) in restructuring aid from the Bank of Spain's Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB). The fund was set up to aid institutions meet higher reserve requirements and is aimed at strengthening their finances and quelling fears that Spain might be Europe's next country to need a bailout. Caixa Penedes said its board "disapproved of the content, method, lack of transparency, unusual nature and disproportionate size" of the remuneration package the four directors had helped themselves to. The pension funds were set up in another institution without the knowledge of Caixa Penedes's board. Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, spokesman for trade union Comisiones Obreras said that if the money could be recovered it could help offset the €45 million ($59.53 million) in wage bill savings BMN had recently said it would seek from its work force. He said many BMN employees are members of Comisiones Obreras. The investigation comes as Spain is burdened with an unemployment rate of 21.5 percent — nearly 5 million people out of work — the eurozone's highest. The country's borrowing costs have also risen to an almost unsustainable level of 7 percent interest rate on 10-year bonds. An auction of 12- and 18-month bonds last week also went badly, with Spain forced to offer very high interest rates to investors.

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A woman claiming to be the ex-wife of Colonel Gaddafi's captured son Saif al-Islam has emerged in Ukraine with extraordinary stories alleging domestic violence and womanising.

Nadia, a blue-eyed brunette claims to have met him when she worked as a stripper in a top Moscow nightclub, and says she is currently in hiding, fearing for her life.

She claimed that as she prepared for marriage to Saif, she had to fly to Paris to have an operation to 'restore' her virginity. '

'The doctor proved my innocence in the presence of Saif's aunt. Then I embraced Islam,' she added.

'I tried to have a normal family, but Saif wanted to live as a single man with lovers and orgies,' she said in a Ukrainian newspaper interview.

While there is no proof of her claim of have married and divorced Saif after two years, her claim appears to be taken seriously in Russia and Ukraine.

If she is who she says, she could be a key witness at his trial whether it is in Libya or under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

One aspect of his trial is likely to be his alleged friendship with a number of prominent British figures, including Prince Andrew, Tony Blair and Lord Mandelson.

High life: Nadia claims playboy Saif loved luxury and money and was a womaniser. He is pictured here at the Viennese Opera Ball in 2006

'Our house looked like more as bordello: a lot of his friends and a lot of women,' she said.

'We got married under religious traditions, I embraced Islam for that, but nobody treated me as the mistress of the house.

'There was no respect at all. My husband tried to make me a submissive Eastern woman, and I couldn't stand that attitude.

 

 

'That broke me, ate me from inside. And what's more important, Saif took drugs and he couldn't control himself when he was under narcotics.

 

 

 

'He had certain sexual perversions in sex, for example, he liked to do it in public. I understood that we couldn't live together.'

Nadia, who is believed to be 29, claimed that their relationship ended after a furious row in a restaurant which culminated with him beating her and throwing her out of a window but she miraculously survived.

She claimed she was in a coma for 47 days, and that Gaddafi - who acknowledged her but never started a conversation with her - was outraged by his son's behaviour.

Gaddafi was known to have employed Ukrainian nurses in his medical team, but until now it was not known his second son has a wife from the former Soviet country.

Arrested: Sair al-Islam Gaddafi sitting with his captors in Obari airport on Saturday

Of Gaddafi himself she said: 'About me being in hospital, he was in a fury. He kicked Saif away to the desert. It could spoil the reputation of the family that was already not so clean.'

She left Libya and returned to Moscow. 'The last time he came was in 2008, and he suggested that we lived together again ~ but I was cold to him by that time.'

Nadia said she was working in Moscow until 2010 but a mutual friend then told her to disappear or she could face danger.

She claimed that Saif could not have replaced his father. 'He was afraid of his father, as of fire. And Gaddafi, I think, despised him for internal weaknesses.'

The fall: Saif al-Islam sits after his capture, with his fingers wrapped in bandages and his legs covered with a blanket, at an undisclosed location

Playboy Saif loved luxury and money. She said: 'He was cheating on me all the time.'

Nadia - it is not known if this is her real name - is apparently in hiding in the Crimea where she says she is fearful of his enemies. 'I don't know any secrets, but still I'm scared,' she said.

She claims not to be rich but for Saif 'it was all in a day's work to spend $20,000 (USD) at a restaurant.

'When we separated I had only luxurious earrings which I managed to sell for $1million. I lived in Moscow on this money. Now almost nothing is left.'

Her most recent interview was with Ukrainian paper Respubika. It was made shortly before his capture.

'I thought Saif would turn my life into an Eastern fairytale,' she said. 'It didn't work.'

 

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Biker Killing Was a Mistake

 

Chatting peacefully on the floor of a Nevada casino, a senior Hells Angels leader and a 27-year veteran of the rival Vagos motorcycle gang thought they had negotiated a truce between competing members who'd been itching for a fight at a weekend long biker festival. "Everything is going to be all right," the Vagos member recalls his rival telling him. "He said, 'I'm getting too old for this.' And I said, 'I'm getting too old for this too.'" An hour later, a brawl erupted and a shootout ensued, killing one of the highest-ranking Hells Angels in the country and wounding two Vagos members. More violence has followed the melee at the hotel-casino in Sparks on Sept. 23, but the longtime Vagos member told a grand jury in Reno earlier this month that the deadly gun battle was not part of some assassination plot or formal declaration of war. Rather, he testified under the condition of confidentiality that it was the result of the unauthorized behavior of a drunken, fellow Vagos — a loud-mouthed, loose cannon nicknamed "Jabbers" who provoked the fight that led to the fatal shooting. "Jabbers has a big mouth. He's always had a big mouth," said the witness, who described himself as being in the "higher echelon'" of Vagos leadership "before this event." Jabbers, whose real name is Gary Stuart Rudnick, was the vice president of the Vagos Los Angeles chapter but since has been kicked out of the club, according to the confidential witness. He's one of three men indicted on murder charges in the killing of Jeffrey "Jethro'" Pettigrew, the late president of the Hells Angels San Jose chapter. Rudnick had refused to back down even after national Vagos officers were summoned and talks with Hells Angels' leaders had calmed the volatile situation shortly after 10 p.m., the grand jury witness said. "This was diffused by national," he said. "The national (leaders) went down there and talked to them. Everything was worked out, there was no problems." But about an hour later, Rudnick again was taunting Pettigrew, who the witness said "in the Hells Angels world is one of the most important guys in the United States." Finally, he said Pettigrew had enough and punched Rudnick in the face, touching off a series of fights that led to the gunfire. "All hell broke loose," the witness testified. "Just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam." Another Vagos, Ernesto Gonzalez, is accused of shooting Pettigrew four times in the back and is being held without bail on an open murder charge. Rudnick and Cesar Villagrana, a Hells Angel member accused of shooting two Vagos that night, face second-degree murder charges for their role in the fracas. "There were so many shots, shots going off through this whole melee," the witness said. "I'm surprised a citizen didn't get shot because anyone could have walked around the corner or walked out of the bathroom and got shot." The 278-page transcript entered into the court record earlier this week offers a look at the mayhem in the jam-packed Nugget hotel-casino shortly before midnight on Sept. 23 — much of it captured on the casino's 448 security cameras. Investigators later retrieved dozens of shell casings and bullets — one lodged in a slot machine, others in bar stools, a card table and a metal poker chip holder.

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Mexico army seizes Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman drug lord's $15 million

 

Mexico's army seized nearly $15.4 million from the organization of the country's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, officials said Tuesday, marking a rare financial blow to cartels. The seizure was revealed the same day U.S. border police revealed the third discovery in a week of drug-smuggling tunnel under the border with Mexico. In Mexico, the military said it found the cash was found in a vehicle on Nov. 18 in the northern border city of Tijuana and that it was linked to Guzman's operations. The haul marked the second-largest cash seizure by the military since President Felipe Calderon sent the country's armed forces out to battle drug cartels in 2006, the statement said. Some $26 million was captured in September 2008 in Culiacan, the capital of Guzman's home state of Sinaloa. Only on msnbc.com 'Grateful to be alive': Teen rescues woman from fire Mexicans cross US border to sell their plasma Chinese consumers say: Fix this fridge or sledgehammers coming Black Friday 'flash mobs,' sit-ins urged Look out kids, here comes the 'Wolf Daddy' Move to ban alleged insider trading faces pitfalls Will Gingrich's comments haunt him? About 45,000 people have died in the conflict in the last five years and the government has captured or killed dozens of top level drug smugglers.

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Inquest told how householder stabbed intruder as he waved knife

 

householder, who stabbed to death a burglar trying to break into his cannabis factory, told an inquest he did not mean to harm anybody. Barry Day said he remembered grabbing a kitchen knife as the door to his house, in Beckside Road, Lidget Green, Bradford, was being kicked in, sticking the knife through a hole in the door and waving it. Shazad Habib-Ur Rehman, 32, suffered a stab wound to the chest and died in Bradford Royal Infirmary five days after the incident, in October last year. Mr Day, giving evidence yesterday at the inquest into Mr Rehman’s death, said he was not aware he had stabbed someone and did not intend to harm anyone. He said he was in fear. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Atkinson, of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, told the Bradford hearing consideration was given to prosecuting Mr Day, 62, for murder and a file was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, but the CPS decided there was insufficient evidence. He was prosecuted for cultivating cannabis, after 75 plants and a hydroponic cannabis factory were found upstairs at his house, and given a suspended prison sentence. The dead man’s three accomplices, who have all served prison sentences for attempted burglary in connection with the incident, told the inquest they had decided to burgle the house after hearing about the cannabis factory. Gareth Dobson, 23, of Windhill, said he kicked in the bottom panel of the door. He said Mr Rehman said to Mr Day: “We don’t want no trouble, we just want the weed. That’s when Mr Day lashed out and stabbed him with a knife.” The friends drove Mr Rehman to hospital. Mohammed Waqas Khan told the inquest: “We just wanted to take what there was and go. There was no intention to go in there to endanger anyone’s life.”

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Gaddafi spymaster ‘must face trial over IRA crimes

 

VICTIMS of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism in the UK have called for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s former spy chief to be tried in the International Criminal Court for his part in republican atrocities. Libya’s interim government reported on Sunday that Abdullah al-Senoussi had been captured. The interim government is keen to try him in Libya but international concerns have been raised about the possibility that he may not receive a fair trial. Representatives from the International Criminal Court are visiting Libya in order to make representations. Former intelligence minister Senoussi was seen as the right-hand man of dictator Gaddafi, who was killed shortly after his capture by rebel forces last month. IRA victims campaigners Willie Frazer and London-based Jonathan Ganesh believe Senoussi was the key link between the Libyan regime and the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland. Libya sent numerous shipments of arms and Semtex to the IRA throughout the Troubles, several of which were intercepted. In a joint statement, they said: “Colonel Abdullah al-Senoussi has been involved in the murder of countless people within Libya and has also been involved in the murder of Irish and UK citizens due to his unprecedented work with the IRA and other international terrorist organisations. “We are now drafting a detailed petition to the International Criminal Court to ensure that Colonel Senoussi will be held accountable for all his crimes against humanity. “Senoussi must be held accountable due to his involvement in the murder of all the innocent people who lost their lives due to the Semtex he supplied to the IRA.” Senoussi was one of the last senior figures from the Gaddafi regime still on the run. Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, was seized on Saturday and both he and Senoussi are wanted for alleged war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Senoussi, a brother-in-law of Col Gaddafi, is said to have been arrested at his sister’s home in the southern town of Sabha on Sunday. He has been accused of human rights abuses, including his implication in the 1996 massacre of more than 1,000 inmates at the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. Mr Frazer and Mr Ganesh added: “We are now calling on the international community to ensure that he must stand trial for his international crimes against humanity within the ICC. “Due to his involvement with IRA terrorism he became a defendant within our civil legal action within the USA judiciary during April 2006 as we desperately tried to bring him to justice. “This is an evil man who we will not allow to escape international justice. He must be immediately handed to the ICC for all his international crimes against humanity.”

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Hells Angels members Robert Thomas and Norm Cocks, appeared in courtroom 67 at the Vancouver Law Courts Monday for a first appearance on a second-degree murder charge.

The seven Kelowna men accused of beating Dain Phillips to death last June have had their trial moved to Vancouver.

All seven, including Hells Angels members Robert Thomas and Norm Cocks, appeared in courtroom 67 at the Vancouver Law Courts Monday for a first appearance  on a second-degree murder charge.

Thomas and Cocks remain in custody, while the others – Cocks dad Robert, brothers Daniel and Matthew McRae, Thomas Vaughan and Anson Schell – are out on bail.

Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie said the decision to move the case to the Lower Mainland was made “given the number of the accused, the number of counsel involved and the demands the case would place on court resources in Kelowna.”

“The Crown perspective is that the matter should proceed in Vancouver.  As a result, the Crown filed the Direct Indictment with the Supreme Court in Vancouver,” he said.

There is a ban on publication on evidence and submissions in the case.

The trial won’t get underway until at least January 2013.

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