Career criminal David Cullen is serving a ten-year sentence for armed robbery and a court heard his relatives enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle

Career criminal David Cullen is serving a ten-year sentence for armed robbery and a court heard his relatives enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle thanks to his life of crime.Cullen, who had a £30,000 Franck Muller watch, treated his family to cars and foreign holidays despite having no obvious source of income.Now his mother Bernadette Cullen, 55, of Heaton Street, Salford, is also behind bars. She wept as a judge described her as a 'prime mover' in crime and jailed her for 15 months.
Bernadette Cullen admitted conspiracy to defraud, two charges of dishonestly making false statements and converting or concealing criminal property by buying and selling a £76,000 holiday home in Florida with David's money.Cullen's two brothers have also been jailed. Anthony Cullen, a former professional footballer, known as Tony, 36, of Myrtle Grove, Whitefield, was jailed for two years.He admitted housing benefit fraud, conspiracy to defraud and also operating as an unlicensed moneylender. Anthony worked as a loan shark as well as helping his brother hide and spend the dirty cash.
David Cullen's younger brother, joiner Arron Cullen, 27, of Rydal Grove, Prestwich, was also jailed for two years after he admitted money laundering by acting as a front through which David bought and sold two houses.And David Cullen himself, who turned 30 last week, was given an extra three years on top of the ten year term he is already serving for armed robbery.Passing sentence at Manchester Crown Court last night, judge Martin Rudland told the family: "None of the offences in any cases was committed casually, on the spur of the moment or in a moment of opportunism.“Indeed, much of the offending was of an entrenched and longstanding nature. These offences were planned, calculated, sophisticated and executed in such a way that your tracks would be covered."He described Cullen as a "career criminal closely connected to serious organised crime".Cullen, formerly of Heaton Street, Salford, had pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to defraud.He admitted he funded a string of extravagant purchases from his life of crime.In January, the MEN reported how he lived a life to rival a Premier League footballer.Among the luxury items he bought during the three-year spending spree were a £30,000 Franck Muller watch and a Harley Davidson 4x4 truck imported from the U.S.But the high life came to an end when Cullen was caught carrying out a terrifying bank robbery in Preston in April 2006.Judge Rudland described the Cullen family as "determinedly wedded to criminal enterprise and that cannot go unpunished".Cullen's mother created a false identity to buy two homes she owned in Salford and Prestwich and then used her real name to sponge off the state by claiming she was a tenant.Judge Rudland told her the crimes she committed were "calculated and persistent", adding: "Your life has been deeply entrenched in dishonesty for many years. Even though they are very old, your previous convictions show the way you were starting to behave when you were very young, not just stealing but also deception. The crimes you committed were a veritable merry-go-round of financial chicanery which can only be characterised as a family business."He described her as a "prime mover" in the crimes, saying "In every stage of your life, nothing, in truth, is what it seems."Christina Williamson, 36, of Myrtle Grove, Whitefield, Anthony Cullen's partner, was handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 250 hours unpaid work.The judge said she was a "disgrace", adding that he believed her falling pregnant with her second child had not been a cynical attempt to avoid prison.David Cullen's girlfriend, Natasha Smyth, 27, of Harbourne Avenue, Worsley, was also handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work. She admitted benefit fraud and money laundering.
The judge told her: "These are bad people you are mixing with but you are not a bad per

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Mohammed Syed Sheikh, 51, was caught buying 17 passports from courier Sharaz Shah, 27, in Gorton last year in a deal brokered by his 26-year-old son,

Mohammed Syed Sheikh, 51, was caught buying 17 passports from courier Sharaz Shah, 27, in Gorton last year in a deal brokered by his 26-year-old son, Sheikh Sohail.
The identity documents were among 3650 stolen from a van in Chadderton on the way to RAF Northolt in July 2008 after driver's mate Alan Burke colluded with robbers in staging a sham heist.Mohammed Sheikh, labelled 'totally dishonest' by Judge Michael Henshell, had heard about the passports through underworld contacts and planned to sell them on the black market at profit.But he was kept under surveillance by police officers who saw him take £8,000 from a bank in Chorlton before driving to Gorton Chippie, his son's takeaway, to pick up the stolen documents from Shah last May.
Mohammed Syed Sheikh, a father-of-four, of Cheetham Hill Road, Cheetham Hill, was jailed for four years and six months.He admitted handling stolen goods and two counts of posessing identity documents with intent.At the time of his arrest he was using a fake licence to drive and get insurance after being banned from the road for drink driving.He also used a fake passport to run a bank account, and entered the country in 2001 on false papers.Father-of-four Sheihk Sohail was found guilty of handling stolen goods at a trial which ended on Friday and jailed for three years and nine months.He admitted perverting the course of justice and attempting to obtain property by deception.At the time of his arrest he had been on the run for nearly eight years after trying to buy nearly £600 of clothes from Gap with a cloned credit card, and the details he gave police of his identity were false.Bolton University dropout Sharaz Shah, of Brinnington Road, Stockport, admitted handling stolen goods and was jailed for two years for his part in the deal.Sentencing, Judge Michael Henshell said: "All three of you were involved in an offence involving stolen passports.
Contraband"Passports are of course a highly prized form of contraband which will inevitably lead to further offences by getting into general circulation."Driver's mate Alan Burke, 49, was jailed for four and half years in October after admitting conspiracy to steal for his part in the sham raid which put the passports on the streets.Four other men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle the passports and visas.Father-of-10 Mohammed Bilal Khan, 53, of Werneth, who was described as a 'prime mover' in the crime, was jailed for five and a half years, while another key figure, Pakistani national Mohammed Fiaz, 34, of Stretford, was imprisoned for three and a half years.Mohammed Shanawaz, 24, of Chadderton, received a three-year jail sentence and Jawad Karim, 18, of Oldham, was ordered to serve 21 months in a young offenders' institution for his part in the racket.

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Shaun McKinnon was part of the eight-strong gang supplying heroin and cocaine who were targeted

Shaun McKinnon was part of the eight-strong gang supplying heroin and cocaine who were targeted by months of surveillance as part of Operation Venom.The 23-year-old was tracked by officers driving from the Capital to Manchester to pick up a supply of heroin with a street value of nearly £50,000.The operation by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency caught gang members red-handed with a further £130,000 of heroin and cocaine over three months last year.At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, McKinnon and five other men pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of drugs and now face sentencing next month. Two other gang members have already been jailed.Prosecutors have also applied to seize assets belonging to McKinnon, of Castlebrae Glebe, Craigmillar, under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
McKinnon was in The Marmion bar when his brother, Alex, 32, was blasted to death with a shotgun in April 2006, while their brother-in-law, James Hendry, then 27, was wounded.In a later court case, McKinnon was cleared of the attempted murder of Jamie Bain, the hitman chased from the pub after carrying out the shooting, who was savagely beaten by a mob outside.Also pleading guilty to trafficking in heroin or cocaine yesterday were Paul Ward, 29, of Lochend Road, Kevin Jones, 43, of Upper Craigour, Moredun, Duncan McDonald, 29, of Ferniehill Drive, Jamie Sweeney, 24, of Greenend Gardens, Gilmerton, and Nicholas Brown, 37, of Mansfield, East Calder.The court heard that the gang was responsible for supplying heroin and cocaine across the central belt of Scotland.Undercover officers tailed McKinnon and Ward to the Manchester area on 18 February last year, where they picked up a carrier bag filled with £47,000 worth of heroin. The pair passed it to McDonald to be driven back to Scotland and he was pulled over and arrested in Lockerbie.A later raid on a house in Rosewell, Midlothian, seized cocaine with a street value of £100,000. Police also found a metal press there and other equipment for turning cocaine into blocks.In another surveillance operation, McKinnon was seen meeting with Sweeney and Brown last 26 May. Officers later stopped Sweeney and Brown in a car and found heroin worth more than £10,000.McKinnon and Ward were also trailed from Dalkeith to the petrol station in Old Dalkeith Road in Edinburgh last 29 May where heroin worth £22,000 was handed to Jones.Officers swooped on the petrol station and arrested McKinnon, Ward and Jones, bringing Operation Venom to a close.Fellow gang member Malcolm Aitchison, 42, of Victoria Street, Rosewell, was jailed for four years and eight months last October after being caught with £100,000 of cocaine at the car park of a McDonald's restaurant on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
Judge Lord Kinclaven remanded the men in custody until next month for background reports.Another of McKinnon's brothers, Colin, was jailed for three years in January 2008 after being caught selling drugs to an undercover police officer.

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Steven Leroy Stone ordered federal witness David Wayne Lee Jr. to be killed, and for that crime he should spend at least 25 years behind bars

Steven Leroy Stone ordered federal witness David Wayne Lee Jr. to be killed, and for that crime he should spend at least 25 years behind bars, federal prosecutors will argue at Stone's sentencing hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
Friday afternoon, federal prosecutors laid out their arguments for a minimum of 25 years in their 14-page sentencing memorandum.Stone, 25, of Frederick is the fourth of five defendants to be convicted in Lee's July 2005 death along Reichs Ford Road about two weeks before Lee was court-ordered to testify against Stone and others in a federal drug and weapons investigation.On June 2, Stone pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit witness tampering and possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and a crime of violence resulting in death, prosecutors reveal for the first time in their memorandum.The maximum penalty for both charges is life imprisonment.The memorandum identifies Steven Stone as the mastermind of Lee's killing.The memorandum also discloses some facts undisputed in the June plea agreement accepted by Stone. That:In spring 2005, Stone and others began to suspect Lee was cooperating with authorities, providing them with information about drug trafficking and criminal activity.In June or July 2005, Stone offered several people money to kill Lee and developed a plan to burn down Lee's home. Although Stone bought gasoline for the fire, the plan fell through while Stone and others headed to Lee's residence.On July 7, 2005, while Stone was in New York to buy drugs, conspirators agreed that Jesse Dorsz would murder Lee. Plans were made to pick up Lee.Late July 7, 2005, Lee asked to get out of a car to urinate on the side of the road."Dorsz exited the car and shot Lee twice in the back of the head, killing Lee."
Early July 8, 2005, Steven Stone's father, Chester Stone, disposed of the gun.

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Michael Rigby, 21, removed his toilet and sink from the wall in his cell and bore his way to the outside.

Michael Rigby, 21, removed his toilet and sink from the wall in his cell and bore his way to the outside.Rigby escaped February 18, and is accused - along with other members of his gang - of opening fire at a birthday party last year, reports stated. Rigby is the leader of the gang.Investigators reported Rigby removed the toilet/sink apparatus from his cell wall, which then led to a plumbing and piping system through which he scurried. The system led to an open yard area where he exited the gates of the facility.Officials have long been concerned about security at the jail, reporting inmates have been able to break open their cells by forcefully shaking and kicking them open, according to reports.Rigby is still on the loose, but his father Brian Rigby, 51, and grandmother, Regenia Ralph, 79 have been arrested for allegedly helping Rigby flee Florida, reports stated. The two are held without bail at the same facility from which he escaped.His grandmother however is pleading for her grandson to turn himself in.

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Two members of the Mongols Motorcycle club were arrested early Sunday morning after a brawl in Dirk’s Nightclub

Two members of the Mongols Motorcycle club were arrested early Sunday morning after a brawl in a bar that sheriff’s deputies had to break up with pepper spray.Deputies were called to Dirk’s Nightclub on Broadway near Olive Street about 1:30 a.m., sheriff’s Lt. William Donahue said.One of the Mongols hit another man over the head with a crutch, Donahue said. The 42-year-old was taken into custody and is being held on an assault charge on $30,000 bail. The other was arrested for being drunk in public, Donahue said.
The men came into the bar wearing their jackets and advertising their gang affiliation, the lieutenant said.The fight started after a friend of the victim gave a rose to one of the Mongols’ girlfriends, Donahue said.Officials with the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control were notified about the incident.

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Homemade handgun revolvers that use standard 12 gauge shotgun shells are becoming very popular

Dirty Harry’s day Harry Calahan’s .44 Magnum seemed like the canon of handguns. Times have changed a lot since then. These days if you run into a Chinese gangster, they are likely packing a shotgun revolver like the one above.Homemade handgun revolvers that use standard 12 gauge shotgun shells are becoming very popular with Taiwanese gang members. This one was confiscated from a 19 year old gang gun runner. That handle on the front isn’t just for looks, it’s necessary for the kind of kick this thing delivers.Maybe the Taiwanese police should start using them as well.

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Five men have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 8 kidnapping of Jeffrey Muller, 59, outside the pet food store he owns

Five men have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 8 kidnapping of Jeffrey Muller, 59, outside the pet food store he owns in Newton. Three of the men — Lonnie Swarnes, 44, Doug Stangeland, 46, and Andrew Wadel, 21 — were charged last month by Sussex County authorities with kidnapping Muller while the others face related charges in Missouri.Muller's family has said that he told the kidnappers they had the wrong man during a harrowing ride of more than 1,000 miles, as the kidnappers allegedly beat him and threatened his life. The kidnappers apparently believed him at some point, a Missouri law enforcement official said this past week."On the way back, that conversation took place, and they realized they got the wrong guy," said Steve Schlup, an investigator with the Vernon County, Mo. Sheriff's Department.
Schlup, who has conducted interviews with the alleged kidnappers, said it's not clear what they were going to do once they realized their mistake.
"He had seen their faces, and every one of these guys has unique features," Schlup said.Roy Allen Slates, 55, of Nevada. Mo., was charged last week by Missouri authorities with concealing a felony and released on $5,000 bail after cooperating with authorities during interviews, according to Missouri court papers. He allegedly hired a man named William Barger, 48, who claimed to be starting a Hells Angels chapter, to recover money lost in a Utah land deal years before when a man named Jeffrey Muller defaulted on a loan.Slates allegedly gave Barger $10,000 to finance sending three other men to New Jersey to look for Muller. But Slates has told authorities he didn't know the men planned to kidnap anyone, Schlup said.

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Anthony D. Singh ties to the Rollin’ 60 Crips street gang

Anthony D. Singh, 21, fired a bullet through a man’s right shoe after a confrontation in a downtown parking lot that police said stemmed from a dangerous culture of retaliation and intimidation common in gang life.
A jury convicted Singh of several felonies after a trial in December that included unusual testimony about Singh’s ties to the Rollin’ 60 Crips street gang.
Gang affiliations generally are considered inadmissible in trials, but prosecutors argued that Singh’s membership in the violent gang provided motive for the seemingly random shooting, which occurred near a downtown night club in July 2008.
“He has chosen this way of life, and it finally caught up with him,” said Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor on Wednesday.Singh’s father, Elvis Anthony Singh, urged O’Connor to show his son leniency in a letter mailed from a federal prison, where he’s been since 2002. He was sentenced to 10 years after federal drug agents busted a crack cocaine ring the quadriplegic was operating out of his Spokane home with his caregiver.“We missed those important teenage years,” Elvis Singh’s letter reads. “I regret that I was not there to be a positive influence on him.”O’Connor approved an exceptionally high sentence for Singh, ordering him to serve sentences for second-degree assault, drive-by shooting and unlawful possession of a firearm before serving sentences for witness tampering and conspiracy to commit assault, instead of serving the sentences at the same time.Singh’s court-appointed lawyer, Thomas Cooney, has said he’ll appeal the verdict, partly based on a Spokane police detective’s admission to jurors that Singh had previous convictions.Jurors were ordered to disregard Detective Michael Roberge’s statement, but Cooney said that made little difference.Singh, Cooney argued in court documents, “was convicted on his propensity to commit crime and for being a bad person who is a gang member, rather than on admissible character evidence.”Singh denies firing the bullet that hit Alex Tauala in his right shoe in a parking lot near Sprague Avenue and Stevens Street on July 26, 2008. Tauala didn’t identify Singh as the gunman during trial.
But police witnesses and Deputy Prosecutor Larry Haskell argued Singh shot at Tauala after Tauala confronted Singh and his brother, 25-year-old Jamal R. Singh, by saying “anyone else got any problems?”The brothers, prosecutors said, were driven to retaliate because of their ties to a gang where “respect is the center of the universe,” according to court documents.
Jamal Singh pleaded guilty to riot in August 2008 and was given a year probation and credit for 24 days served in jail.But police argued Anthony Singh was the shooter, and his extensive criminal history contributed to his lengthy prison sentence.That prison sentence was exactly what Singh’s imprisoned father hoped his son, a father of two, could avoid.“As he is now able to see, the greatest price for his mistakes will be paid by his children,” the letter says.

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Alberto Hurtado Osorio, 60, was behind bars in Colombia last night

Alberto Hurtado Osorio, 60, was behind bars in Colombia last night. His arrest came two years after the Australian Federal Police and counterparts in South America and Latin America launched a sting to smash his cartel, which is suspected of smuggling drugs across the world through the post.Osorio, who served two years in Sydney on drug charges in the early 1990s, had been on the AFP's secret "top 10" target list for years.But the Colombian, a senior member of a well-known Bogata-based cartel, had eluded police by constantly moving throughout the South American country and keeping the operation at arm's length.It is alleged the drug cartel was smuggling cocaine to contacts in Australia in comparatively small amounts -- about 300g -- via air mail, certified mail and private parcel companies.Police have no idea how much cocaine the cartel had managed to smuggle into Australia. It was sent from Peru and Argentina in a bid to disguise its Colombian origins.Police began to close in on Osorio late last year after the AFP intercepted three consignments of 300g of cocaine in Sydney. At the same time, Peruvian authorities seized two consignments bound for Australia.
The gang is also suspected of smuggling drugs into other major Western markets worldwide.Peruvian police arrested two men at the same time Osorio was picked up. All three have been charged with trafficking and will face trial in their respective countries.
The investigation into the cartel's Australian connections is continuing.
AFP investigators said yesterday drug-smugglers had returned to using the post after the post-September 11, 2001, security crackdown on ports and airports made it increasingly difficult to smuggler large amounts of drugs.AFP national manager for serious and organised crime Kevin Zuccato said Osorio's arrest was a significant development in Australia's fight against drugs."This guy has been on our radar since 1992," Mr Zuccato said. "Increasingly, smugglers are sending comparatively smaller amounts of drugs through the post and with `swallowers' on planes."It is difficult to know how much drugs this gang got in to Australia. It is not about the quantity of the drugs seized but the quality of the crook we arrest and stop from bringing drugs into this country. He was a very senior member of a significant drug syndicate in Colombia, with suspected links to other syndicates."
Police arrested 25 people in Australia this week for allegedly mailing drugs around the country hidden in different items, including a teddy bear.The AFP said it had seized 145 parcels and 73kg of drugs.The teddy bear was used to hide a new drug called "miaow", which has been likened to ecstasy.

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Scott William Schneider, 30, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to driving while impaired and possession of a prohibited firearm.

Scott William Schneider, 30, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to driving while impaired and possession of a prohibited firearm.He was handed a two-year and nine-month sentence, a 10-year firearm ban and a two-year driving ban.
Schneider was carrying a loaded handgun when he was arrested early Christmas Day after a hit-and-run in the 800-block Parker Street in White Rock.His passenger, a 27-year-old White Rock man, is scheduled to appear in Feb. 18 in Surrey Provincial Court, where he will face charges of uttering threats and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.In 2008, Schneider was acquitted, alongside White Rock Angel Villy Roy Lynnerrup and chapter president Douglas Falconer Riddoch, for assault charges stemming from a home invasion and assault in 2007.

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Bomb blast killed two men in Adelaide.

The man, of suburban Munno Para West, has not been charged in relation to the fatal explosion that claimed the lives of a Hells Angels bikie gang associate and a convicted drug dealer.The pair died when a homemade bomb went off in a car at suburban Enfield before dawn.Police believe the bomb was triggered by accident and a rival gang member was the intended target.The man charged was detained after police went to the home of one of the dead men and found a second bomb.He was also charged with drug and firearms offences and was remanded in custody to appear again in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court in March.

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Joseph Ferraiolo was targeted.

"To me it seems like there was some inside or some targeting here because we never ever had problems here," says Steve Frydman who has owned a real estate business on the second floor of this building for 20 years.
In that time he says he's never experienced the violence police say took place right below his office, "the space that they rented here was always quiet and discrete I never saw any unusual amount of people at once that would come here."
Things changed Tuesday just after 8pm. Hamden Police were called to a Touch of Color tattoo parlor where they found 64-year-old Ferraiolo shot to death.
There were signs of a struggle inside the shop but few clues pointed to the shooter. Now investigators are looking at all leads, including Ferraiolo’s possible affiliation to motorcycle gangs.
"Summer time they have a lot of bike guys coming over there," Jimmy Patel owns a package store close to Touch of Color, he remembers seeing the bikes parked outside.
But Kaleb Edgar, a tattoo artist at the parlor tells NBC Connecticut News that nothing illegal happened in the shop.
Bob Piccirillo, the owner of Hamden Barber Shop, also calls the connection police are trying to make between Ferraiolo and a gang a stretch, "have I seen bikes? I’ve seen some but it’s not like they all congregate. Like I said, I’ve seen a couple of them but that is kind of surprising to me."
Edgar says Ferraiolo is survived by four adult children. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call the Hamden Police Department.

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“RIP King Of The Hill.”

Another said: “True Bad Man. RIP bro. Never forgotten.”
And another said: “Words cannot explain how we all feel as you were a true friend to us all and you did many good things for us all and helped us out in ways others would not.
“You were at the top but still had time for us at the bottom. Just to know you and call you a friend was an honour. The respect you had for others around will be very missed. We all turned to you in our times of need. And now we all seem so lost now you have gone.”‘King of the Hill’ who was found shot dead in the Cheshire mansion of a controversial businessman Arran Coghlan.

Stephen ‘Aki’ Akinyemi, 44, was said to be a prominent member of the notorious Cheetham Hill gang, which is believed to be behind major crime and the supply of drugs in Manchester.He was known for enjoying champagne and cruising Manchester’s clubland in his silver Porsche, with the private registration AKI.He had a string of previous convictions and most recently had been jailed for 13 months in 2006 for violent disorder.At the time of his death, he was on bail for allegedly attacking someone with a baseball bat outside the Lounge 31 nightclub in the city centre in November.He was found with serious stab injuries at Mr Coghlan’s Alderley Edge home on Tuesday afternoon. He was wearing a stab vest.But a post-mortem examination revealed he had died of a gunshot wound, not knife injuries.Mr Coghlan was also discovered with stab injuries at the scene and he was taken to hospital under police guard. He was later discharged although he remains in police custody after being arrested on suspicion of murder.Last night a tribute page to Mr Akinyemi on social networking website Facebook, titled ‘RIP AKI’, had more than 600 members.
Another said: “True Bad Man. RIP bro. Never forgotten.”
And another said: “Words cannot explain how we all feel as you were a true friend to us all and you did many good things for us all and helped us out in ways others would not.“You were at the top but still had time for us at the bottom. Just to know you and call you a friend was an honour. The respect you had for others around will be very missed. We all turned to you in our times of need. And now we all seem so lost now you have gone.”Mr Coghlan was cleared in 1996 of murdering Stockport ‘Mr Big’ Chris Little, who was shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes.In 2003, Mr Coghlan stood trial for the murder of drug dealer David Barnshaw, who was kidnapped and forced to drink petrol before being burned alive in the back of a car in Stockport in 2001.But the case collapsed when it was revealed police had failed to pass on important information about another possible suspect.

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Stephen ‘Aki’ Akinyemi, 44,‘King of the Hill’ found shot dead

‘King of the Hill’ found shot dead in the Cheshire mansion of a controversial businessman Arran Coghlan.Stephen ‘Aki’ Akinyemi, 44, was said to be a prominent member of the notorious Cheetham Hill gang, which is believed to be behind major crime and the supply of drugs in Manchester.He was known for enjoying champagne and cruising Manchester’s clubland in his silver Porsche, with the private registration AKI.He had a string of previous convictions and most recently had been jailed for 13 months in 2006 for violent disorder.At the time of his death, he was on bail for allegedly attacking someone with a baseball bat outside the Lounge 31 nightclub in the city centre in November.He was found with serious stab injuries at Mr Coghlan’s Alderley Edge home on Tuesday afternoon. He was wearing a stab vest.But a post-mortem examination revealed he had died of a gunshot wound, not knife injuries.Mr Coghlan was also discovered with stab injuries at the scene and he was taken to hospital under police guard. He was later discharged although he remains in police custody after being arrested on suspicion of murder.Last night a tribute page to Mr Akinyemi on social networking website Facebook, titled ‘RIP AKI’, had more than 600 members.
Mr Coghlan was cleared in 1996 of murdering Stockport ‘Mr Big’ Chris Little, who was shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes.In 2003, Mr Coghlan stood trial for the murder of drug dealer David Barnshaw, who was kidnapped and forced to drink petrol before being burned alive in the back of a car in Stockport in 2001.But the case collapsed when it was revealed police had failed to pass on important information about another possible suspect.

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Julian Jose Garza, 28 reportedly a member of Caldwell’s East Side Locos gang

Julian Jose Garza, 28, of Notus was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge, the United States Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.Garza pleaded guilty to the charge in September, admitting that he had a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun during a confrontation with two men in Caldwell on May 14, 2008. Because Garza had been previously convicted of firing a gun into an occupied dwelling, he was prohibited from possessing firearms under federal law.Garza is reportedly a member of Caldwell’s East Side Locos gang and was prosecuted by the special assistant U.S. attorney hired by the Treasure Valley Partnership and Idaho State Police to address gang crimes. His sentencing on Tuesday concluded a string of successful prosecutions of Garza’s family and girlfriend, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reports.His father, Gabriel Garza, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm and was sentenced to 12 months of prison last March. His mother, Maria Garza, . was convicted as an accessory to a felony in April, charged with assisting Gabriel, in possession with intent to distribute marijuana. And his brother, Alex Garza, was sentenced to five years in state prison last month for aiding and abetting witness intimidation in Canyon County District Court on January 7, 2010.

Julian Garza’s girlfriend, Chelsea Robbins-Gonzalez was convicted of perjury and sentenced in June to two years of probation for lying to the federal grand jury about Julian’s possession of a firearm.

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Tacoma Hilltop Crips gang

gang sweep by local and federal agents in Tacoma.
Twenty-nine men, suspected members of the Tacoma Hilltop Crips gang, have been arrested in a series of raid since Tuesday morning.
One of the men arrested, Manuel Jose Hernandez, pleaded guilty to the Toews murder in 2000. Hernandez was 12 at the time. He was sentenced to state custody until he turned 21 in October of 2008.
Since then, prosecutors say, Hernandez has been an active gang member. He was arraigned Wednesday on charges including: conspiracy, robbery, auto theft and trafficking stolen property.
Cornell hopes Hernandez gets a longer sentence this time, but she said it won't do any good for her or Hernandez.
"I don't have any great hopes that prison's going to improve somebody's outlook on life," said Cornell.
Thirty-two men have been charged in connection with the investigation.
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Sweep against the Hilltop Crips

Sweep against the Hilltop Crips included serving a series of early-morning search warrants Tuesday. Officers arrested 11 suspected gang members without incident and confiscated guns, drugs and stolen property.
Investigators were still searching for five others. The remaining 16 were already in the Pierce County Jail on other criminal charges or serving time in state prison.
Prosecutors have filed 51 felony counts in the case. Charges include attempted murder, first-degree robbery and drive-by shooting. The 32 suspected gang members, ages 17 to 38, face various counts, but all are charged with one count of criminal conspiracy, according to court documents.
Among those charged are two third-strike candidates and Manuel Jose Hernandez, one of eight youths convicted of fatally beating Erik Toews, 30, as he walked down the street in 2000.
“We’ve got a big chunk of the group, and we’re not stopping,” said Steven Dean, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle office. “We are looking at this group of gang members directly correlating to an increase in violent crime in the area.”
Filing conspiracy charges is a new approach in tackling gang violence, which has plagued the city since the late 1980s and left many dead and or wounded in drive-by shootings.
County prosecutor Mark Lindquist said this case marks the first time in Washington that the conspiracy statute is being used to prosecute gang violence. It’s being modeled after successful gang prosecution elsewhere in the country.
The charge usually is used in drug and identify theft cases. It’s being used against the gang members because prosecutors allege they joined the gang for the sole purpose of committing crimes – including robberies, drug dealing, shootings and car thefts.
In general, prosecutors say, a conspiracy occurs when two or more people get together and agree to commit a crime, and then at least one of them takes a substantial step toward carrying out the crime.
The others “can be legally accountable for the one person’s follow-through,” Pierce County deputy prosecutor Greg Greer said.
Those arrested Tuesday and previously booked into jail will be arraigned on the conspiracy and other charges today. Those in prison will return to Pierce County to face the conspiracy charges.
INCREASED VIOLENCE
Investigators say that the Hilltop Crips have increasingly flexed their muscle throughout the city during the last 18 months, targeting people who showed outward signs of wealth – including gold jewelry and fancy wheel rims on their cars – and working together to threaten or harm the victims to get what they wanted.
“They were active on a daily basis,” Tacoma police homicide detective John Ringer said. “Nothing slowed them down.”
Investigators contacted the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutors researched different state statutes and found that the conspiracy charge worked with the facts and cases Tacoma police detectives presented, Greer said.
“The law is appropriate for the facts that we have in this case,” he said. “We want to be a little more proactive in addressing the gang problem.”
Most members of this targeted group have previously been convicted of felonies.
Hernandez was 12 in 2000 when he and seven other youths attacked and killed Toews on North Fourth Street.
Hernandez, the second-youngest person charged, was convicted as a juvenile of first-degree murder and three robberies in the days before the Toews beating. He was sentenced to juvenile detention until his 21st birthday.
Now 22, Hernandez was charged in connection with the gang conspiracy case and was among those arrested Tuesday.
FORMED IN LATE 1980S
About 15 teenagers formed the Hilltop Crips in the late 1980s after gangsters from Los Angeles moved into Tacoma and started selling crack cocaine. The gang was the first local black street gang, claiming South 23rd Street as its turf and recruiting other local teens to join their ranks.
Membership swelled to nearly 300 in the mid-1990s. Some of the original gang members were convicted of killing rival gangsters, while others were killed in gang-motivated violence. Some of the surviving original gang members remain in prison.
“Over the course of the past 20 years, the HTCs have been a powerful criminal force on the streets of Tacoma,” Ringer wrote in a search warrant affidavit as part of the recent crackdown. “They have been the strongest black street gang in the area and have dominated the local cocaine sales.”
Throughout the years, local and federal task forces have targeted the city’s gangs, which now total nearly 50. They’ve charged members with federal drug and gun charges and with shootings, homicides and an array of other crimes.
Among the crimes allegedly committed by the Hilltop Crips recently were burglaries at two secure facilities, including a Lakewood police parking lot where a member’s impounded car was rifled through for evidence.
NEW OUTBREAK OF CRIME
In mid-2008, Tacoma police and members of the South Sound Gang Task Force began to notice a new wave of crimes involving the Hilltop Crips, Ringer said.
Police reports detailed incidents in which victims were targeted for their financial assets, especially gold necklaces. Gang members stalked and jumped their victims around popular Hilltop Crips hangouts, police said.
Among the spots were a South Tacoma gas station, a South Tacoma convenience store, a South End restaurant and nightclubs that featured hip-hop music, police said.
Victims had necklaces ripped off in the clubs, faced armed robbers or were beaten on the sidewalk while others stole their car keys and wallets, court documents state.
The documents detail three incidents in which victims were critically injured. All survived, but one was paralyzed and another suffered permanent injury.
The gang task force focused on gang members who were still committing crimes. Many of the crimes had not been investigated, or charges had not been filed.
“These guys were off the hook,” Ringer said.
During the investigation, homicides involving Hilltop Crips were investigated separately, Ringer said. Other gang members were arrested in other cases.
In addition to interviewed witnesses and victims, investigators used informants, watched surveillance video of attacks and set up a surveillance camera in a Hilltop alley that was a favorite gathering spot.
They also sent shell casings and guns to the Washington State Patrol crime lab for analysis.
The lab matched casings from shootings in December 2008 at Oakland Playfield and in February 2009 at South 56th and Tyler streets to one Jan. 26 at a nightclub in Bellevue. A matching shell casing had been discovered in the car of one of the accused gang members.
Of the 28 shell casings collected after a shootout Dec. 2, 2008, outside a South End restaurant, one was matched with a casing taken from another member’s car during a search warrant.
“We were able to establish the conspiracy,” Ringer said. “When they join the group, they join the conspiracy.”

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Valentino Sanchez, 33,allegedly high ranking member of the Latin King street gang

Valentino Sanchez, 33, whose last known address was 8105 White Ave. in west suburban Lyons, was placed into custody at 12:15 p.m. by Chicago Police in a secure area in a lower level terminal area at O’Hare, according to police.
Sanchez, an allegedly high ranking member of the Latin King street gang who also goes by the streets names of “Shorty” and “Devious” was found in Guadalajara, Mexico by an FBI gang task force and was transported by DEA and FBI officials to Chicago, police said.
A Feb. 2, 2009 U.S. Department of Justice and FBI release offered a $10,000 reward for the arrest of Sanchez, who has been the subject of nationwide manhunt since July 2005 when he was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago with violation of drug laws.
The release said Sanchez is allegedly a high ranking member of the Latin Kings and he is accused of overseeing the distribution of wholesale quantities of cocaine in the city and suburbs.
Sanchez remains in Chicago police custody early Wednesday but is scheduled to be turned over to federal authorities who will likely hold him in the Metropolitan Correctional Center pending an appearance in Federal Court, according to police.

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They didn’t get the moniker ‘Body Snatchers’ for no reason

Dominique Finley, 34, was the highest-ranking member among the defendants with the lofty title “5-Star Universal Elite.” Eric Ollison, 26, who goes by the nickname “Murder,” was his second-in-command, officials say.

“They didn’t get the moniker ‘Body Snatchers’ for no reason,” said Chicago Police Deputy Chief Nick Roti of the Organized Crime Section, adding that the faction is suspected of dozens of killings over the years.The charges unveiled Wednesday don’t accuse any of the defendants of murder, but said they were involved in a vast drug business.Since September, though, Ollison has been locked up after he was caught on the West Side with a loaded gun in a car, police said. He pleaded guilty to being a habitual offender and was sentenced to six years in prison, court records show.
According to FBI affidavits, the Body Snatchers were peddling large quantities of cocaine north of the Eisenhower Expy., south of North Avenue, west of Laramie and east of Austin. Two informants were paid a total of $20,000 to help investigators, the FBI said. Electronic surveillance also was used.
Most of the defendants lived in Chicago, but Finley has a Bellwood address and Andre Beard, 29, lives in Glendale Heights. Betts had lived in St. Charles.
“A lot of these guys, when they get higher up, move out to the suburbs and come to the city to work,” Roti said.Ironically, “they feel a little safer there,” he said.

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Chris Little was known to police in Stockport as an empire-builder

Chris Little was a product of Greater Manchester, a city now coping with some of the most viciously criminal neighbourhoods in urban Europe. As a local villain, he was known to police in Stockport as an empire-builder rather than 'self-employed builder' as he had lately styled himself. In reality, he was a feared racketeer. One man who betrayed him was bundled into a small dark room with only the Rottweiler for company.
Little's gangs of doormen provided 'security' at nightclubs in Stockport. One club run by rivals was targeted in a gun attack recently.Earlier this year, Little recruited young men to launch a spate of arson attacks in Stockport in which schools, shops and vehicles were damaged by firebombs. No one was hurt, but about pounds 1m worth of damage was done.Although the police suspected Little of organising the attacks (thought to have been carried out as a show of strength), he was never charged.Lately, Little had tried to expand his empire into the Stretford area, stepping on the toes of drug barons there.He owned a nice house in a good area of Stockport, but probably his greatest pride and joy was the Merc - a black 500 SLE. With the Rottweiler, nobody would surprise him; with the car, nobody would catch him. It turned out to be a fatal double delusion.As he stopped at traffic lights in Stockport Road, Marple, on Friday night, a white Ford Granada travelling in the same direction pulled up alongside. The shots came from its open window.Under the dying man's foot, the automatic Merc sped off, colliding with two vehicles and injuring four people.At the dead man's home yesterday, the Rottweiler could be heard barking.

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Arran Coghlan, 39,guarded by armed police in hospital while being treated for knife wounds.

Arran Coghlan, 39,guarded by armed police in hospital while being treated for knife wounds.His business associate Stephen ‘Aki’ Akinyemi, 36, was found stabbed to death in his bathroom following an alleged row.Yesterday, officers were searching Coghlan's £2million converted chapel in Alderley Edge, Cheshire – known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’ where Premiership footballers rub shoulders with soap stars.
Members of his family have been taken into protective custody.Police said yesterday: ‘A 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is receiving hospital treatment.’Akinyemi, from Cheetham Hill, Manchester, suffered fatal knife wounds despite wearing a stab proof vest.Coghlan, dialled 999 as Akinyemi lay dying, suffered serious knife injuries to his upper body.The call, made at 2pm on Tuesday, occurred after father of one Coghlan - who survived an attempt on his life in a bar on New Years Day 2009 - was suspected by police of building a multi-million pound crime empire.In 1996 he was acquitted of the gangland murder of drug baron Chris Little dubbed the Devil Dog Mobster because he set rottweilers on rivals.
Little, 32, was shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes.Coghland was cleared .In 2002 Coghlan stood trial accused of murder again after claims he kidnapped and burnt to death petty drug dealer David Barnshaw, 32, in the boot of a car in September 1999.
Jurors were told that Coghlan – who has a bed shaped like a pirate ship – had ‘built an empire through ruthless violence, demanding respect and loyalty from all those who worked for him.’ The case against him and others collapsed when it was revealed police had failed to pass on important information about another possible suspect.
Coghlan, nicknamed ‘Az’ on the registration plate of his Bentley Turbo, has always denied any involvement in wrongdoing and claimed detectives were involved in a ‘campaign to get him at all costs’.
He is now suing the Greater Manchester force after it emerged a disgraced senior detective had withheld vital evidence from a file which linked the second of the murders to another suspect.
Despite his alleged underhand connections, many neighbours thought he was an accountant. Residents of Alderley Edge include Manchester City star Carlos Tevez, cricketer Freddie Flintoff and Coronation Street actress Samia Ghadie.
On New Year’s Day 2009, Coghlan was stabbed in the head face and back as he partied with friends at Cobdens bar in his native Stockport, Greater Manchester.
The knifeman was never traced but police suspect the attack was linked to mobsters from the Cheetham Hill gang.

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Suspected of being members or associates of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang

Suspected of being members or associates of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang. The men were arrested as part of Operation Snatched, a coordinated effort by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to target street gangs running drug distribution networks in the Chicago area, Grant said.The men were charged with attempted possession or possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, the FBI said. The charges are felonies and carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the FBI.Investigators electronically intercepted telephone conversations, used surveillance techniques and conducted undercover missions to investigate the network whose turf went from the Eisenhower Expressway to North Avenue, between Laramie Avenue and Austin Boulevard, officials said.The Chicago residents who were charged were Milton Bills, 32, of the 5800 block of West Ohio Street; Clarence Johnson, 45, of the 700 block of East 50th Street; Terrance C. Jones, 32, of the 1400 block of South Christiana Avenue; Damon Westbrook, 32, of the 100 block of East 49th Street; Frederick Taylor, 23, of the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue; and Eric Ollison, 26, whose address was not available but who is in state prison on an unrelated conviction.Also charged were Andre T. Beard, 29, of Glendale Heights, and Dominique Finley, 34, of Bellwood.The men appeared Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Cole in Chicago and were ordered held without bail in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, according to the FBI.

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John Paul 'JP' Joyce, a vicious criminal and member of a heroin distribution gang, had been kidnapped in Coolock on Thursday, January 7, murdered

first gangland slaying of the year had originated in their district. John Paul 'JP' Joyce, a vicious criminal and member of a heroin distribution gang, had been kidnapped in Coolock on Thursday, January 7, murdered and his body dumped near the airport where it was found two days later.

Joyce, aged 30, was involved in a feud with a gang which has been establishing complete control over the drugs trade in an area stretching from the north inner city to north county Dublin and westwards to Ballymun, Finglas and Blanchardstown. It was responsible for murdering Joyce's brother, Thomas, in June last year and John Paul had vowed revenge. John Paul himself had already survived at least two attempts on his life.

The two murdered Joyce brothers, members of a settled Traveller family from Grove Lane, were notorious in north Dublin. John Paul was imprisoned for a terrible assault on an innocent man at a public house in Rush, Co Dublin on St Patrick's Day, 2006. The man's son had accidentally spilled a drink on someone in Joyce's company. He and another man dragged the man from the pub, beat him to the ground, jumped on him and slammed a door repeatedly on the man's head, causing severe injury. Joyce had only been released from prison last November.

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three people yelling "T Block" and "BTG," cliques in the Crips gang. Someone in Maynard's group mentioned the Tre-Tre gang.

Ryan Daniel Jones-Adams, 16, was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree murder committed in association with a gang.He is accused of fatally shooting Marvin Ray Maynard III, who was found Jan. 17 in the street on the 2600 block of James Avenue N. Maynard had his hands in the air when he was shot, according to the criminal complaint.A family member who declined to be named said Maynard was not a gang member and referred questions to his mother, who could not be immediately reached Monday.Police are not looking for anyone else in the case, said Sgt. Jesse Garcia, a spokesman.Garcia and the complaint gave this account:A witness who had been with Maynard and another male told police that they had been confronted by three people yelling "T Block" and "BTG," cliques in the Crips gang. Someone in Maynard's group mentioned the Tre-Tre gang.One male in the Crips group took off a skull cap and yelled a threat, the complaint said. The witness saw that the male, who ran past him, had a gun and that he fired twice at Maynard. The shooter and another male ran east between houses.A police dog tracking them went to a porch on the other side of the block, where police found a black hat with a loaded 9-mm handgun in it. On the gun were two latent fingerprints, one of which was identified as the right thumb of Jones-Adams, the complaint said.Police also found surveillance video of Jones-Adams and three others at a gas station six blocks from the shooting and taken about 90 minutes beforehand, the complaint said. Jones-Adams was wearing the same clothes in the video as the shooter was said to be wearing, Garcia said.

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arrested Dandre Davaune Parker, 20, on charges of possession, manufacture and delivery of heroin

Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement Team officers arrested Dandre Davaune Parker, 20, on charges of possession, manufacture and delivery of heroin, possession of ecstasy, and manufacture of heroin and delivery of ecstasy within 1,000 feet of a school. He was lodged in the Jackson County Jail, where he remained Thursday evening on $100,000 bail.

Acting on a tip that members of the Crips street gang were dealing drugs near Jackson Elementary School, Medford police arrested a man on numerous drug charges Thursday morning.The arrest comes on the heelsof an unrelated investigation that led to three arrests and theseizure of an estimated $40,000worth of heroin and methamphetamine, team supervisor Medfordpolice Lt. Tim Doney said."We suspect Parker is associated with a Crips gang out of Stockton (Calif.)," Doney said.Investigators searched Parker's apartment in the 800 block of Summit Avenue at about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, armed with a warrant based on allegations of gang and drug activity, Doney said. They found about half an ounce of heroin, 28 ecstasy pills and seized $3,000 in cash.
Police initially detained three men and a woman, who were in an apartment across from the school and the Jackson community pool. Only Parker was arrested and lodged in jail.California street gangs have made their way into Medford over the years, Doney said."We have had dealings with the Crips and Bloods before, but they are not prevalent in this area," Doney said. "But when you find out about them, you certainly want to act on that information."

The Crips gang is one of the largest and most violent street gangs in the United States, with an estimated 30,000 members in more than 200 cities. It was founded in the early 1970s in Southern California and is well known for committing violent crimes, drug dealing and for its bloody battles with a rival gang, the Bloods.

Medford police arrested Parker's younger brother, Dante Deon Parker, on Monday after he reportedly robbed a man of his wallet in the Minute Market parking lot on Crater Lake Avenue. The younger Parker was lodged in jail on a theft charge and has since been released and cited to appear in Jackson County Circuit Court.The arrest of Dandre Parker was the second incident involving heroin in two days. On Wednesday, drug and gang investigators searched an apartment in the 3100 block of Juniper Ridge Drive in northeast Medford at about 5:45 p.m., Doney said.
They found about three-quarters of a pound of heroin and an ounce of meth. Investigators estimated the street value of the seized drugs at about $40,000. They also seized $10,000 in cash.Four men at the apartment were detained and three of them were arrested.Ricardo Alonzo-Martinez, 24, and Armando Javier Avila, 30, who both live at the apartment, each were arrested on charges of possession, manufacture, delivery of heroin and meth. Both were lodged at the Jackson County Jail without bail on those charges and immigration holds.Mario Castellanos-Arango, 24, of the 3600 block of Antelope Road, White City, was charged with possession of meth. He also is held in jail without bail because of an immigration hold.

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Crips street gang shots were fired in a fight between a group of black and Hispanic males.

Officers did find three shots were fired in front of 1161 Mazatlan Cir., but were unable to locate a victim.Just after 11 p.m., officers were called to St. Francis Medical Center to investigate a shooting victim. A 20-year-old victim admitted being involved in the earlier disturbance and having an affiliation with the Crip street gang.The victim's injuries are not life threatening.

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Bulldogs are described by authorities as the nation's largest independent street gang.

Bulldogs are described by authorities as the nation's largest independent street gang. Police estimate there are about 12,000 members in this city of 500,000.
For most of their 20-year existence, the Bulldogs escaped serious law enforcement scrutiny, even as they taunted cops with barks and howls. Police looked upon them mainly as wayward youth. But the gang that grew out of fights at San Quentin prison over respect eventually showed itself to be a deadly criminal enterprise. The 2006 shooting of a cop became a tipping point.
Now police are trying to bulldoze the Bulldogs, before the next generation takes over.The Fresno police are engaged in year four of tactical warfare against the gang, sweeping through neighborhoods and making more than 12,000 arrests, including many juveniles, and even going after petty offenses such as loitering by seeking injunctions.It's called "Operation Bulldog."
In other cities, such police pressure might have killed the beast. But with the loosely organized Bulldogs, many are independent operators who will turn on one another over territory.
"When you have structure," Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says, "you can cut the head off the snake and it dies. You can't do that with the Bulldogs."
Although gang activity declined across America between 2001 and 2006, gang membership in Fresno County grew by 33 percent, studies show.
"We found that 10 percent of the people in our city were committing 50 percent of the crime," Dyer said. "If you're talking about robbery, that increases to 80 percent."
In July 2006, a motorcycle officer was critically wounded during a traffic stop by a gun-toting Bulldog, Joaquin Maltos Figueroa, 25, who was shot to death days later by police.
In Maltos Figueroa's car, officers found a magazine of bullets and a scanner tuned to police frequencies. They realized gang members were more sophisticated than they previously had believed.
That same summer, 16-year-old Courtney Rice, a prostitute whom gang members feared was snitching, was raped, tortured and murdered by seven Bulldogs and associates.
In November 2006, Chief Dyer went on TV announcing a 10-person "Operation Bulldog" tactical unit to make gang members' lives miserable. This January, he added 100 more officers to focus on intelligence gathering on the 10 percent who are most active and promised to seek longer, federal sentences when possible.
"We know the war on gangs can never be won," the chief said, "but we also know it can be lost."
Today, easily half of those incarcerated in the county jail on any given day are Bulldogs.
"The chief's directive is to arrest as many Bulldogs as we can," said Sgt. Alex Robles. "He doesn't want us to let up the pressure."
Four days a week for 10-hour shifts, Robles and his team swarm Bulldog territory, the scruffy neighborhoods on the city's east side. Armed with lists of names supplied by parole agents, they make unannounced visits.
Parolees have no right to privacy, and the officers take advantage, searching homes for drugs and alcohol — even inspecting cell phones for gang photos or insignias.
If life is made unpleasant, police figure they will either leave gang life or move away.
"I don't know if we'll ever get rid of them" says Robles. "I know the goal is to get rid of them."
In the first three years of Operation Bulldog records show that violent crime has decreased in Fresno by 14.3 percent, ahead of the 9 percent state average, and police attribute the statistic to pressure on gangs. Rape is down 43.5 percent, and there were 26.3 percent fewer vehicles stolen.
After recording 314 shootings in 2006; in 2008 there were 226 and 231 in 2009.
"Still, it is too many, but it's a far cry from 314," Dyer says. "At least we don't have them standing on the corners barking anymore. Our goal is to take away their neighborhoods."
The figures do not capture the uptick in shootings since July 2009, when the History Channel's Gangland series featured the Bulldogs and egos swelled, prompting a summer police sweep that netted 200 arrests and dozens of confiscated weapons.
On one sweep officers arrested Naomi Copple, 27, on parole from Chowchilla State Prison for Women, because her parole agent said she tested dirty for drugs. As they searched her house, she sat on the curb, hands cuffed behind her back. With a shaved head, she could not hide the two dog paw tattoos over her right eyebrow, or the 5150 — police code for crazy person — inked on the back of her neck.
About the tats on her forehead: "It's just some stupid s--- I did a long time ago. I was a kid."
Police see it differently. "It's like a billboard on their face saying 'Hey, stop me,'" Robles said.
On Thanksgiving Eve, a year-long police investigation netted Christopher Chavez, 26, the suspect in the 1999 murder of a transvestite, his two brothers and a 16-year-old. Awaiting trial, Chavez is accused of being the shot-caller of a small Bulldog "cell." He wore a bulletproof vest and carried automatic weapons, police said.
At the arrest scene, police reported finding 50 marijuana plants in a toddler's bedroom.
"You always feel bad for the kids," said Detective Tony Gates. "We always say they have no chance."
Investigators eavesdropping on conversations learned that Chavez, who joined the Bulldogs as a young teen, sold methamphetamine to his own mother, a street dealer, and used juveniles to move drugs and guns. The electronic surveillance reaffirmed the importance of tattoos.
"One of the juveniles had a gang tattoo on his body, and it subjected him to being involved in more crime," said Gates. "Chris Chavez told him, 'You have to back that up.' As investigators, we knew it, but it was surprising to hear it."
Children in Bulldog neighborhoods live amid prostitutes and parolees, surrounded by crime and violence, unemployment and poverty. The gang offers security, a sense of identity and, for many, a livelihood. In the worst Bulldog neighborhoods, drug dealers wear the nicest clothes and drive the newest cars.
"The middle class and upper class think about and do things to plan for the future," says C. Ronald Huff, a University of California-Irvine criminologist who studies gangs. "People who don't have those things are more fatalistic because they don't believe they have a future. Parents don't imagine anything will be different for their children."
The police gang unit has confiscated photographs of infants posed in Fresno State Bulldog onesies, cuddling semiautomatic handguns instead of bottles.
A survey of Fresno County school officials in 2007 found gang affiliations begin as early as kindergarten. And a school survey this fall showed the Bulldog gang with a steady source of new recruits: Fresno County 8th graders were almost twice as likely to join gangs if their fathers were involved.
"We're seeing third generation Bulldogs now, and it's not stopping," said Robles. "It's sad that these parents don't want something better for their children."
Whether Enrique Gonzalez is the kind of parent Robles describes will be decided in court; a hearing is set for Feb. 11. The Fresno County district attorney has charged Gonzalez and his friend, Travis Gorman, with mayhem — plus gang enhancements — for tattooing Gonzalez' 7-year-old son's hip with a dog's paw. If convicted, they could serve two decades or more behind bars.
Police say the boy was an unwilling participant, held down and marked against his will. Gonzalez' estranged wife discovered the tattoo and took her son to police.
Defense attorney Douglas Foster said the tattooing was only a case of poor judgment, not a crime. He denied it was forced, saying the boy made that claim only because he was intimidated by police and upset by his angry mother.
According to the lawyer, friends who were there said the child begged for a tattoo. They quoted him as saying, "Daddy, I want to be like you."

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Six Florencia 13 gang members life in prison sentence

six Florencia 13 gang members life in prison sentence appears to bring to a close a prolonged and terrifying spate of violence in the Florence-Firestone district allegedly brought on by orders from a prison gang member in solitary confinement 700 miles away.Beginning in 2004, the unincorporated Los Angeles County area north of Watts was the site of one of the region's worst gang sieges since the early 1990s, evolving into what some residents felt was a race war.The violence left dozens of people dead, including many with no gang affiliation, and required enormous county resources to combat."Things have gotten a lot better," said Chris Le Grande, pastor of Great Hope Missionary Baptist Church on Compton Avenue in Florence-Firestone.
U.S. District Judge David Carter sentenced Florencia member Francisco Flores, 24, to life in prison on Wednesday, saying that he "preyed on victims because they were black and for no other reason," according to a U.S. attorney's office news release.
Earlier this year, Carter had handed out life sentences to Florencia members Jesse Vasquez, 36; Alberto Hernandez, 28; Gilberto Oliva, 41; Manuel Hernandez, 27; and Noe Gonzalez, 28. Arturo Cruz, 34, was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Jose Gonzalez, 36, received a 20-year sentence. Two more gang members are scheduled to be sentenced later this month. An 11th defendant, Alejandro Rincon, will be retried in April.
Their trial, which took place in federal court in Santa Ana in 2008, grew from an indictment of 104 Florencia gang members on charges that included racketeering, conspiracy to sell drugs and murder.Of those indicted, 94 have pleaded guilty or have been convicted. Four more await trial; two have died and four are fugitives.The case showed the remarkable power the Mexican Mafia prison gang holds over Southern California Latino street gangs. Prosecutors alleged that Mexican Mafia member Arturo "Tablas" Castellanos essentially created a crime wave in the Florence-Firestone district.Castellanos was not indicted because he is already serving a life prison term in a maximum security cell in Pelican Bay State Prison. He hasn't been on the streets since 1979.Yet he wrote letters, introduced as evidence at the trial, that presumed to control a street gang, most of whose members had never seen him.Castellanos ordered gang members to stop rampant infighting; to tax drug dealers in their neighborhoods, as well as prostitutes, fruit vendors and vendors of phony ID cards in nearby Huntington Park; and to funnel the proceeds to him and other mafia members. He also ordered the gang to attack the local Crips gang, whose members are black."The Mexican Mafia has a powerful grasp on these [Latino] gangs," said Peter Hernandez, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case.
"The prison system is a segregated place. Those rules and letters from Castellanos attempted to adhere those prison rules to the street," he said.
As Castellanos' letters appeared on the street in the fall and winter of 2004, Florencia 13 erupted in a spate of violence against African Americans.
"They just went out and started shooting" at black people, Hernandez said.
East Coast Crips responded with shootings of their own, often targeting Latinos who were not gang members.Few actual gang members died. Instead, residents said, they lived amid a race war.

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four accused - Nicola Ciconte, 54, of Rowville, Michael Calleja, 51, of Kew, Vincenzo Medici, 45, of Mildura, and Carmelo Loprete, 41, of Adelaide

four accused - Nicola Ciconte, 54, of Rowville, Michael Calleja, 51, of Kew, Vincenzo Medici, 45, of Mildura, and Carmelo Loprete, 41, of Adelaide - will be tried in absentia in the town of Vibo Valentia in Calabria after a failed attempt by the Italian government to extradite them from Australia.Anti-mafia prosecutor Salvatore Curcio has told The Age the prosecution will use testimony from a Mafia turncoat, whose name has been suppressed, to corroborate phone taps, photographic and video evidence allegedly linking the four to a multimillion-dollar drug smuggling network that stretched from Colombia through Spain and Italy to Australia.According to court documents, the turncoat has confirmed the alleged link between the Calabrian Mafia and what prosecutors have termed ''leading crime figures operating in Australia''.
He has told prosecutors the four Australians made several trips to Italy to arrange the shipment of large quantities of cocaine while members of the elite Carabinieri special operations group filmed their alleged meetings in Calabria.
''The essential nucleus of the investigation with which we are dealing can, without any doubt, be confirmed in the statements and accusations made by [unnamed turncoat]; through the taps of telephones and public places; in international documents; and as a result of searches and seizures carried out in identifying assets,'' prosecutors said in one document.Security is expected to be tight at the trial after a bomb attack outside a court building in nearby Reggio Calabria and the discovery of explosives during a visit by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano in January.
Court documents allege the four Australians conspired with the Calabrian Mafia in the ''transportation and importation'' of 500 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $35-$50 million from South America via Italy to Melbourne between 2002 and 2004.
The trial is the latest in a series of cases that arose from an investigation into a vast Mafia drug-smuggling network that sought to ship enormous quantities of cocaine inside slabs of marble, plastic tubes and canned tuna across four continents.
Italian court documents obtained by The Age allege that Nicola Ciconte played the lead role in negotiating with the Italians in setting up the operation.
Prosecutors are expected to present detailed transcripts of long-distance telephone conversations allegedly between Ciconte and Vincenzo Barbieri, a senior Mafia figure who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2005.The four Australians are charged with criminal association aimed at international cocaine trafficking and attempted importation of cocaine. If convicted, they would face lengthy prison terms if they set foot on Italian soil.Arrest warrants for them were issued by anti-Mafia prosecutors and Italian police in January 2004.While the Australians are not expected to appear at the trial, a court lawyer will be appointed to represent them.When approached by The Age, the Italian Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the status of the extradition request or whether it had ever been formally put to the Australian Attorney-General's department or the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

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James Bucheger told deputies -- he's a Juggalo. The Juggalos claim they're just extreme fans of the band "Insane Clown Posse".

James Bucheger of Oakhurst, is in jail -- accused of breaking into two cabins near Bass Lake. Bucheger told deputies -- he's a Juggalo. The Juggalos claim they're just extreme fans of the band "Insane Clown Posse". But many law enforcement agencies consider them -- a violent street gang. Deputies found the suspect covered in blood at a third home where a party was taking place. The two burglarized homes had smashed windows and blood splattered throughout them.

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seven Latin King members were arrested

seven Latin King members were arrested, the FBI said: Rene Ramirez, 27, of Orlando; Ricky Montesino, 26, of Orlando; Frederic Salizan, 28, of Orlando; Kevin Sullivan, 29, of Orlando; Derrick Hester, 21, of Davenport; Rafael Rodriguez, 35, of Davenport; Emilio Rosa, 37, of Davenport.Four others were already in state custody: Jose Santana, 28; Jason Rohena, 22; Jose Garcia, 23; and Vic Melendez, 22.Authorities are still looking for Luis Gelpi, 20, of Park Manor Drive, Orlando. Gelpi is considered armed and dangerous.The Latin Kings are one of the largest gangs nationwide, said Orlando police Sgt. Jose Velez. They’re very well organized, and each city or geographic area has a leader who reports to a nationwide leader.

“They are dangerous. They are criminals. They sell drugs. They fight for territories. They threaten people. They shoot people if necessary,” Velez said. “Anytime you can put people like this away, it makes the community a lot safer

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Ricardo McKendrick Sr., once a member of the notorious Black Mafia, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge

Ricardo McKendrick Jr., a Salem County, N.J., resident who has been in jail since his arrest in April 2008, was described as a "dealer's dealer" by U.S. District Judge Gene E. K. Pratter before she imposed a 108-month prison sentence.The term was substantially below recommended sentencing guidelines, and came in response to a government motion that detailed the extent of McKendrick's cooperation.Pratter also had a private, 15-minute sidebar session in the midst of the hearing in which she heard more details about why the prosecution felt a lesser sentence was appropriate.
The motion seeking a sentence reduction was filed under seal and is not available to the public.Neither the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Leo Tsao, nor McKendrick's lawyer, Brian McMonagle, would comment about the motion or the sidebar session after the hearing.Pratter called the motion "very compelling," but provided no details.Under guideline recommendations, McKendrick, 38, faced a sentence of 188 to 235 months.The soft-spoken, admitted kingpin apologized to family members and friends who had packed the eighth-floor courtroom for the hearing.He said he was motivated by a desire to "get ahead" and had seen the money he made from drug dealing as a measure of success."It was the greatest mistake I ever made," he said. "I hurt so many people."
Police and the FBI seized nearly 600 pounds of cocaine, valued at about $28 million, and more than $1 million in cash when McKendrick was arrested in April 2008.
The stash included $982,000 hidden in the trunk of a Mercedes parked in the garage of a home in Woodstown, N.J., where McKendrick lived with his wife, who is a lawyer, and their 4-year-old daughter.Authorities said McKendrick used his father's Grays Ferry rowhouse in South Philadelphia to store his drugs.Ricardo McKendrick Sr., once a member of the notorious Black Mafia, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in December 2008 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Authorities raided his house in the 2600 block of Federal Street after receiving a tip that the younger McKendrick had received a shipment of cocaine.
During that raid authorities found 274 kilograms of cocaine (about 600 pounds).
"In terms of the sheer amount of cocaine seized in the offense, the scope of the defendant's crime is unmatched in recent Philadelphia history," Tsao wrote in a sentencing memo filed prior to Tuesday's hearing.McKendrick's decision to cooperate is not a secret.He testified for the government in the trial of rogue Philadelphia cop Malik Snell last year.Snell was charged with using his badge and his gun to rob drug dealers. McKendrick testified about a bogus police stop in which Snell stole $40,000 from the backseat of his car.But McKendrick's decision to cooperate could extend well beyond the case of a corrupt police officer.Described by Tsao as a "major player in the Philadelphia cocaine market," McKendrick could offer authorities inside details about the Philadelphia drug underworld.
McKendrick, according to law enforcement sources, bought and sold in bulk, and his information could help make cases against both the drug suppliers from whom he was buying and the dealers to whom he was selling.

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Police found 26-year-old Lester Thompson and 17-year-old Mileak Richardson sprawled face down on the sidewalk

fatal shooting of a man and his teenage cousin on a Jersey City street corner may have been a gang-related execution.Police found 26-year-old Lester Thompson and 17-year-old Mileak Richardson sprawled face down on the sidewalk at around 4 a.m. Tuesday. Both had been shot in the head.A neighbor reported hearing five shots and a car racing away.Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said the attack was "clearly premeditated'' and money may have been taken from at least one of the victims.
Authorities are still searching for the shooter

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Adrian Ramírez, known as "El Rama" or "12" was killed in a shootout with Mexican soldiers

Adrian Ramírez, known as "El Rama" or "12" was killed in a shootout with Mexican soldiers the day after two squads of gunmen massacred 15 students who were celebrating a birthday party. The killings has shocked Mexico, and called into question President Felipe Calderón's war on the violent drug cartels who are fighting for control of profitable routes to the U.S.Police interrogated José Dolores Arroyo, who is accused of being a lookout for the gunmen. Mr. Arroyo told police the gunmen, who worked for the Juárez Cartel, also known as La Linea, believed the students belonged to a rival gang known as the Artistic Assassins who work for Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, Mexico's most powerful drug lord. Mr. Guzmán has been battling to take over Ciudad Juárez from the hometown Juárez Cartel for the past two years. During that period, violence has spiraled out of control. Last year, more than 2,600 people were killed in drug related violence in Ciudad Juárez, up from 1,600 in 2008.

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Daniel “Rush” Potepa fugitive Bloods gangster with roots in Liberia was captured and charged yesterday with shooting a local man

fugitive Bloods gangster with roots in Liberia was captured and charged yesterday with shooting a local man at a homecoming party for a U.S. Marine on upscale Palton Road.Police said Daniel “Rush” Potepa, 20, shot 23-year-old Anshul Rastogi in the arm, hip and pelvis, wounding him gravely. Rastogi was reported in critical condition on a respirator at Aria Health’s Torresdale hospital.According to a probable cause affadavit, the party was held on Jan. 23 for Iraq War returnee Michael Shannon, a Marine who saw Potepa’s gun jam when the suspect pointed it at him and tried to fire.The legal papers also said the shots were fired at the party at the same time Potepa’s ally in the Sex Money Murder wing of the Bloods was smashing liquor bottles and threatening to cut people with the jagged edges.Four Bensalem detectives cracked the case by checking the social networking Internet site Facebook to compile a list of party attendees and see some of their pictures. (Also on Facebook, Shannon recounted the incident and ID'd Rastogi as his best friend.)
Promoted on the Internet as the “The Party at the Mansion,” the celebration at the $600,000 home stopped minutes before 3:30 a.m. when, police said, the host said someone had stolen a cell phone from the kitchen.When the party “bouncers” tried to stop anyone from leaving before they were frisked, “Rush” Potepa allegedly balked and in crude language said what he thought of the phone and its owner.That’s when, police said, the Liberian national pulled out a gun and started shooting. With Rastogi down on the floor bleeding heavily, Potepa allegedly stood over him and fired another shot at the victim just seconds after the misfire at lucky Marine Shannon.
Shannon was cited in the probable cause papers as saying he thought Potepa had shot Rastogi in the head.The papers also said Potepa’s fellow gangster, 24-year-old Augustine “Lyrico” Kiawu, allegedly smashed the liquor bottles, cut Shannon’s brother and threatened others.
With help from the Web site and videos taken at the party, cops were able to arrest Kiawu last week. He was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses, as was Bristol Township resident Potepa when cops caught up to him.
A judge ordered Potepa held on $3 million bail as Rastogi was fighting for his life in the intensive care unit. Police said Rostogi needs a ventilator to keep breathing and that he was twice taken off the device and quickly put back on both times.
The hospital would not release information on the condition of the victim, a Bensalem High graduate and college student whose family was said to be with him in the intensive care unit.But Rastogi’s sister, Monica, told friends on Facebook that he was able to talk when a tube was taken out of his mouth and that the family is hopeful.

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Danielle Bardsley, 30, wept as she was imprisoned after ignoring a court order

Danielle Bardsley, 30, wept as she was imprisoned after ignoring a court order demanding she pay back some of the money stolen by her boyfriend Peter Anderson.
Last year the M.E.N. revealed how Bardsley, of Barrow Street, Salford, enjoyed a footballer's ‘WAG’ lifestyle thanks to Anderson’s life of crime.
A court ruled she had benefited to the tune of £112,000 but a VW Golf car and a few pounds in a bank account were the only assets of hers police could find.
She was handed a suspended prison sentence and given four months to hand over £5,036 of ‘realisable assets’, mainly the VW Golf.In December, she flouted her suspended prison sentence by failing to keep appointments with her probation worker as required.But judge Anthony Gee gave her another chance after hearing she had become ‘depressed’ because her boyfriend was locked away.She was allowed to walk free although she was handed a curfew to prevent her partying over the Christmas period.But she still couldn’t stay out of trouble.Bardsley was arrested on Monday after snubbing six police letters and a court summons.Yesterday Bardsley sobbed as magistrates in Bolton invoked the jail term handed down last year in the event she failed to pay up.The court heard she had paid £2,000 on November 27 after selling the Golf but she later ignored two letters and a court summons about the outstanding amount.
She claimed she had again been ‘depressed’ and that the value of the Golf had been slashed due to damage.Giving her 72 days behind bars, chairman of the bench Dr Derek Tate told her: “We believe there’s no evidence that you have made a concerted effort to discharge this order.”He added there was ‘no merit’ in her bid to adjourn the hearing to, as her solicitor Vic Wozny said, ‘beg or borrow’ the money from her family.Bardsley’s boyfriend Anderson was jailed for six years in 2006 for a terrifying armed bank raid in Preston.At the previous hearing, a court was told how she had enjoyed a luxury lifestyle while claiming benefits.She wore Prada designer clothes and jewellery, went to a private gym and lived behind wrought iron gates in a comfortable semi-detached house equipped with the latest mod cons, including a Bang & Olufsen flat-screen TV.Bardsley boasted a permanent tan thanks to holidays in Mexico, Florida and Tenerife and had access to a fleet of cars including a Porsche Cayenne, Range Rover Sport and Audi A4.Despite all that, for nearly 10 years the mum-of-two claimed she was unemployed and sponged £30,000 from the state in income support as a ‘single mother’.
She also claimed free school meals for her two children.She admitted money laundering but escaped jail at the first hearing because of concerns over the care of the two children she has with Anderson.

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Stephen Marshall, 38, admitted having butchered the bodies of four other men while working as a doorman for a London nightclub

Stephen Marshall, 38, also admitted having butchered the bodies of four other men while working as a doorman for a London nightclub run by gangsters in the 1990s. Police will reopen a number of cold cases involving missing people and body parts found in the past 15 years.Described as both "charming" and "highly volatile", Marshall will serve a minimum of 36 years for murdering Jeffrey Howe and then scattering his body parts across two counties before emptying his bank account and selling his possessions. His 21-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Bush, was sentenced to three years and nine months for helping Marshall cover up the murder.
Howe's body had been so expertly dismembered that pathologists who examined the macabre finds correctly concluded that the person responsible must have "previous experience of such activity". St Albans crown court heard that Marshall had previously boasted that he used to cut up and bury bodies on behalf of the notorious Adams family, who ran a crime empire in north London. One witness told the jury that Marshall worked as a bouncer for the family and would carry out "additional jobs after hours" – decapitating and dismembering murder victims and burying them without a trace.
Today Marshall's barrister Peter Doyle, QC, told the jury his client had described between 1995 and 1998 working as a doorman at clubs where on four occasions he had been asked to assist in the dismemberment of four unidentified men who had been killed earlier and brought to the clubs during the night. Doyle said Marshall had thought it "sensible" not to ask questions, and following the chopping up of the bodies the parts would be collected by others and taken to Epping Forest in north-east London and buried.After sentencing it emerged that Marshall had a string of previous convictions, including one for battering his first wife in 2003. He was also arrested on suspicion of murdering Minesh Nagrecha, whose corpse was disfigured and burnt when found by police in 1996. Marshall was never charged with the crime, instead appearing as a witness.

When the trial opened three weeks ago Marshall denied being the murderer, instead blaming Bush, a "vulnerable" young sex worker who had given birth to the first of her three children just a few days after her 15th birthday. But in a dramatic about-turn last week Marshall changed his plea and admitted being responsible for the whole crime.Sentencing him, the judge, Mr Justice Cooke, said that Marshall, a heavy cocaine user, now admitted stabbing Howe twice on March 8 last year. The judge said Marshall carried out the murder in a "muddled and no doubt drug-befuddled state" as Howe lay sleeping in bed in his house in Southgate, north London, which he shared with the couple.Today Bush finally admitted perverting the course of justice by helping Marshall cover up Howe's murder. She said she was with Marshall when he dumped Howe's head, unwrapped, in a field near Ashfordby in Leicestershire.
She admitted misleading police and friends of Howe by claiming he had simply "upped and left" while secretly using his money to buy shoes, a laptop, takeaways and other goodsHer barrister told the judge she was "terrified" of Marshall and helped him because she was scared of becoming his next victim. To Bush, the judge said: "You were well aware of what Stephen Marshall had done. You took advantage of Mr Howe in life and then after his death you used his money."Bush was acquitted of murdering Howe but pleaded guilty to helping to dispose of his body parts and giving false information about his whereabouts when police were investigating his disappearance.She was sentenced to three years and nine months for the first offence and to two years and three months for the second one, with the two terms to run concurrently.
She received a relatively lenient sentence because of her upbringing. The court heard she had spent most of her life in care before falling into prostitution and that her first baby died when he was 10 days old. After the verdict, police admitted being "quite surprised" when Marshall's previous involvement in dismembering bodies was aired in court.Detective Superintendent Michael Hanlon, who was in charge of the investigation, said Marshall would be visited in prison and asked to expand on the 11th-hour admissions made moments before his life sentence was handed to him.
Parts of Howe's body began turning up last March, a few days after Marshall had stabbed him to death. Police quickly realised they were dealing with a murder victim whose identity at the time was not known. As more pieces were discovered the victim became known as the "jigsaw man".
Howe's hands have not been found and police say they hope Marshall will show "decency" to the victim's family by giving their location. After the verdict Howe's family issued a statement that described him as a "a jovial, charming character who had a heart of gold". They said they would never be able to comprehend "Jeffrey's death and the macabre actions of those who killed him".

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Juan Palo Lopez Ruiz, 35, of Watsonville was pronounced dead at the scene of the 9:11 p.m. shooting

Juan Palo Lopez Ruiz, 35, of Watsonville was pronounced dead at the scene of the 9:11 p.m. shooting at a residence in the 8800 block of Vista de Tierra Circle, deputies said. A second victim, Fernando Ramirez Ruiz, 35, of Castroville was taken by air to a San Jose hospital, deputies said. Sheriff's units swarmed to the scene to find one of the wounded men lying in the roadway and the second near the entrance of a housing unit, deputies said. Witnesses told deputies that the two men were at a birthday party when "unknown individuals" came up and asked if they belonged to any gangs. The interlopers were told to leave, and they started shooting, deputies said.
The shooters were seen leaving the area on foot, deputies said. They shot at a third man but missed, deputies said. Several of the rounds entered residences in the housing complex but no one else was injured, deputies said. The fatal shooting is being investigated as gang-related, deputies said.

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Robert Schultz shot Carlton Ewing with a .40 caliber semi-automatic gun on the evening of Aug. 17, which was a Latin King organized "Hood Day,"

Robert Schultz shot Carlton Ewing with a .40 caliber semi-automatic gun on the evening of Aug. 17, which was a Latin King organized "Hood Day," Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Antara Nath said. "Hood Days" are designated days when gang members look for for rival members so "shorties" — or those hoping to join the gang — can target enemies. Ewing did not belong to a gang, Nath said. Ewing, who was wearing a red baseball cap, was traveling in a car with three others in the 9800 block of South Ewing when Schultz's co-defendant Juan Macias yelled out, "GD killers" and motioned for Schultz to fire, Nath said. Schultz, then 17, sprung from the gangway he was hiding in and allegedly shot eight times at the car. One of the bullets went through the truck and hit Ewing in the back, Nath said.
The now 18-year-old Schultz, of the 9500 bock of South Avenue L, was arrested on Sunday in Crown Point, Ind. The 5-foot-5 alleged shooter, who goes by the nick name "Lucky Charms," looked nervous and gripped on to the table as Judge Donald Panarese told him he was charged with first-degree murder.
"Do you speak?" Panarese asked the part-time carpenter and roofer.
"Yes," Schultz replied. Schultz has no prior convictions.

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Julian Escobar, 24, was arrested Saturday to face murder, attempted murder, gang and gun charges

Julian Escobar, 24, was arrested Saturday as he drove away from his Pajaro Circle house and will be in court Tuesday to face murder, attempted murder, gang and gun charges, authorities reported.Escobar and another, still unidentified man went to the Apple Hill neighborhood in Watsonville the afternoon of March 21, confronted a group of young men playing basketball on public court and asked what gang they claimed, according to police.Angel Escobedo, 19, and his friends said they weren't involved in gangs. He and the other basketball players fled when gang members pulled a handgun, but Escobedo was shot several times and died.Although police suspect Escobar came to Watsonville to retaliate for a prior incident - which officers are tight-lipped about - Watsonville Police Chief Manny Solano said the gang member was not seeking out Escobedo in particular."This young man was an innocent victim of the terrible, terrible gang crimes we see," District Attorney Bob Lee said.
Escobedo had grown up in Watsonville but lived in Hollister. He was planning to go into law enforcement or join the military before he was killed, according to Solano.
His death was one of four homicides in the city in 2009. Of those, three were gang-related murders. Police have made arrests in two of the gang killings as well as the fourth homicide.Investigators identified Escobar, an ex-con, as the suspect based on "a new little bit of information" they received last week, according to Watsonville police detective Jarrod Pisturino."It was something that we followed up on and it just snowballed," Pisturino said. "It was very exciting and almost unbelievable."Before Escobar surfaced as a suspect, detectives had chased hundreds of leads in the 10 months since the killing and shown photo lineups to dozens of people, including many Apple Hill residents who cooperated with the investigation.
"We went into the neighborhood immediately afterward," said Solano, highlighting the department's community outreach efforts, including the Post-Incident Team and chaplain program. "I do believe that's why it fostered trust."
In addition to witness accounts, detectives relied on video surveillance from a nearby apartment complex. A police sketch artist made two renderings of the suspect, one of which included a teardrop tattoo below the assailant's left eye.
Escobar has the same tattoo and Pisturino said seeing that marking when detectives pulled up Escobar's mug shot last week helped things click.A judge signed a $1 million arrest warrant Thursday for charges that include the personal use of a firearm, likely meaning he is suspected of firing the deadly shots.Police declined to discuss the evidence in the case or where the tip leading them to Escobar came from. They also did not say if the gun was recovered or confirm that Escobedo was the shooter.Escobar was arrested Saturday morning after Watsonville gang investigators, agents from the county's Anti-Crime Team and Salinas police officers staked out his house and other hangouts for two days.Monday, he was transferred from the Monterey County Jail to the Santa Cruz County Jail.Solano said Escobar doesn't have a history with Watsonville police, but he was arrested by Salinas police in 2005 after he brandished a gun at officers and ran when he was pulled over. Escobar served three years in prison for the incident.

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Stephen Marshall, 38, sensationally confessed to the other atrocities

Stephen Marshall, 38, sensationally confessed to the other atrocities He admitted through his barrister that he sliced up and dismembered the victims a decade before he slaughtered his landlord Jeffrey Howe - whose flat he wanted for himself and his hooker girlfriend. At the time the four died he said he was working for North London's most vicious crime family - the notorious Adamses.
The cleaver-loving ex-gangster, whose confession stunned detectives, was taken away to begin a life sentence after REFUSING to identify the other corpses. Murder cop Michael Hanlon, who nailed Marshall after kitchen salesman Mr Howe's body parts were found, planned to visit the beast in jail. The Detective Chief Supt, who admitted the confession was a "surprise", confirmed: "Clearly we will seek to interview him further." Police suspect they know who two of the victims were.
The FIRST is gangster Gilbert Wynter - an enforcer for the Adams gang. He vanished in 1998 after the family accused him of double crossing them by skimming off drug profits. His remains are believed to be under the Millennium Dome - now known as the 02 arena. The SECOND is a hoodlum known only as Manchester John.
His body parts are thought to be somewhere in the North of England after he stole £100,000 from the mob family. Marshall's QC Peter Doyle told how for four years in the late 1990s his client was a bouncer at nightclubs in London and the Home Counties run by the mobsters. The QC said murder victims would be brought to the clubs late at night for the hulking bodybuilder to cut to pieces.
His client thought it "sensible" to get on with the grisly job no questions asked. Remains were disposed of by other gangsters.The gruesome routine was long suspected by Scotland Yard. Det Chief Supt Hanlon said: "We've now got for the first time from Marshall that he has been involved in those types of crime. That gives us areas to investigate." Man mountain Marshall, who boasts a 52in chest, became adept at using a meat cleaver, knives and sometimes a chainsaw. But his inexperience at HIDING remains came back to haunt him when he stabbed Mr Howe, 49, to death last March.
He simply dumped the cut-up body around the countryside in Hertfordshire and Leicestershire - the limbs wrapped in plastic and the torso in an old suitcase.
Within days passers-by began stumbling across body parts, including a head with eyes, ears and tongue cut away.The victim became known as Jigsaw Man as horrific discoveries continued for three weeks. When cops identified him they found Marshall and his lover still living in Mr Howe's flat in Southgate, North London - and spending his money. The lodger admitted cutting up the body in an ensuite bathroom and disposing of it. But bizarrely he denied murder - and a jury was sworn in at St Albans Crown Court, Herts. They heard three weeks of evidence before Marshall suddenly changed his plea to guilty last Friday. He had to wait until yesterday - when the trial of his prostitute girlfriend ended - before being sentenced to life with a minimum of 36 years. Lover Sarah Bush, 21, was also charged with murder, which she denied. Yesterday the prosecution accepted guilty pleas on two charges of perverting justice - involving covering up the killing and helping to dispose of the body. She got three years and nine months. CCTV caught the pair driving near where some of the body parts were dumped. The mum of two was working for an escort agency when Marshall started paying her for sex. He had a job with Kitchens Direct - a long way from the days when he used to call gang bosses Terry and Tommy Adams "uncle".
Police spent 25 years trying to nail Terry Adams - whose mob is suspected of 25 gangland murders. Vice girl Bush quit charging Marshall for sex when she fell for the twice-wed charmer who is dad to four kids. When her mum kicked the pair out, salesman colleague Mr Howe let them stay at his flat. The heavy smoker, who had lung disease, was yesterday described by his family as "a charming character who had a heart of gold." Bush told a pal Marshall would let him join them for three-in-a-bed sex.

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