Giuseppe Baldinucci, 64, was arrested in New York City after Italian authorities informed Homeland Security that he was wanted in Italy

Citizen of Italy was returned to his homeland and turned over to Italian authorities on Wednesday by officers from the Philadelphia office of detention and removal after completing a 46-month federal prison sentence.
The case developed in April of 2005 when Giuseppe Baldinucci, 64, was arrested in New York City after Italian authorities informed Homeland Security that he was wanted in Italy and may have fled to the United States. Fingerprint comparisons confirmed that Baldinucci was the person identified in the Italian warrant and also confirmed he had previously been deported from the U.S.In October of 2005, Baldinucci was convicted in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, for the offense of Re-Entry of a Previously Deported Alien in violation of Title 8, United States Code, Sections 1326(a) and 1326(b)(2). He was sentenced to 46 months in prison. Baldinucci was previously removed in September 1989 after having served a prison sentence for Conspiracy to Distribute Narcotics.Baldinucci has an outstanding arrest warrant issued in July of 1996 by the Italian Judicial Authorities in Palermo, Italy for the offense of criminal conspiracy. His outstanding Italian arrest warrant stems from the assistance he rendered to the then fugitive Giovanni Brusca, a well-known member of the Corleone Mafia Family. Some of the crimes the Italians attributed to BRUSCA include the 1993 bombing of the Uffizi gallery in Florence, the strangling of an 11-year old boy, and the murder of the Italian Anti-Mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone."Apprehending dangerous foreign fugitives hiding in the United States is a top priority of ICE and our international law enforcement partners, including the Italian authorities," said Thomas Decker, field office director for the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations in Florida. "ICE is committed to ensuring the integrity of the nation's immigration system and it is in the interest of national security and justice around the world to capture and return wanted fugitives to their native countries to face justice."
Last year the Philadelphia field office, which includes the states of Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, deported 5,599 illegal aliens, including 2,437 criminal aliens and so far this year, the Philadelphia field office has deported 4,030 illegal aliens including 1,973 criminal aliens.

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Paul Moreno-Gutierres, 18, was booked into Sonoma County Jail. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and committing attempted murder

Paul Moreno-Gutierres, 18, was booked into Sonoma County Jail. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and committing attempted murder in furtherance of a criminal street gang, Sgt. Tim Duke said.The victim, an unidentified young man in his late teens, remained hospitalized Sunday in stable condition.Deputies were sent to Lucas Avenue in Boyes Hot Springs at about 2 a.m.Saturday for a reported fight involving as many as 15 people.They found the victim on the ground with major injuries to the left side of his face. The weapon later was determined to be a garden hoe, Duke said.Witnesses told deputies about a light colored Cadillac sedan leaving the scene and an alert went out to area law enforcement.About 15 minutes later, two CHP officers working on Bennett Valley Road spotted a white Cadillac, stopped it and called deputies.Information from the occupants led deputies to believe they might have been involved and they were taken to the Sheriff’s Department for further questioning, Duke said.With information from witnesses and evidence at the scene, detectives arrested Moreno-Gutierres. Gang detectives were able to gather more evidence that led to the second suspected crime that the suspect was acting as a gang member

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Drug dealing gangsters were dubbed the "Night Express Gang" because of their tactic of using trains to travel between the Black Country and Scotland.

A gang in the United Kingdom (UK) has been ordered by a British court to pay back more than ₤330,000 netted during its days of illegal drug dealing.The 13 gang members, mainly Jamaicans, were arrested in 2006.The judge told the gangsters that failure to repay the sum could result in longer jail terms.The drug dealers were dubbed the "Night Express Gang" because of their tactic of using trains to travel between the Black Country and Scotland.Their illegal trade sometimes netted around ₤40,000 a-week.The members, who were jailed for up to 12 years each, must pay back a total of ₤338,000 within 18 months or face additional imprisonment.A probe by the elite West Midlands Police economic crime team, found the crooks had ploughed their drugs money into properties in the UK and Jamaica, as well as cars, motorbikes and designer clothes.

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Dublin gangland slaying of Christopher Barry

24-year-old man was shot in Byrne's Bookmaker's on Killester Avenue in Donneycarney. Witnesses said a man on a motorbike pulled up and went inside the bookmakers just before 3pm. They described hearing a number of shots, possibly up to five. Gardaí said the gunman fled the scene on the motorbike, which was later found burnt out nearby. The victim's body is still at the scene of the shooting and the area has been sealed off. Gardaí have appealed for any witnesses to the shooting to contact them.Two men have been arrested at Tallaght South Dublin in connection with the shooting and a van has been seized by gardai and will undergo detailed examination. The victim is believed to have been known to Gardaí and had been a subject of the Operation Anvil investigation into serious crime. Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Michael Curtis, has arrived at the scene to carry out a preliminary examination. The scene has been sealed off and Gardaí have appealed for witnesses to contact them. A Garda spokeswoman said the 24-year-old man was killed in Byrne's Bookmakers on Killester Avenue shortly after 3.00pm. The dead man has been named locally as Christopher Barry. He is believed to be from the Killester area.
It is understood a gunman walked into the shop beside the Ramble Inn and singled out his victim before shooting him at least once in the head. The attacker then made off on a motorbike. The area has been sealed off and uniformed gardaí are on the scene interviewing locals. The Garda Technical Bureau has arrived to carry out a technical examination. Mr Barry's body remains at the scene. A number of floral wreaths have been left outside the bookmakers. A burnt-out motorbike, believed to have been used by the gunman in the getaway, was found abandoned just off La Vista Avenue, a few streets from the where the killing took place. It was the second gun murder in the area in six months. Anthony Russell was shot dead in Artane's Ardlea Inn in April. The killing was linked to a feud between drug dealing and crime gangs in the north inner city. Fine Gael’s justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan today called on the Government to ensure Garda resources are not affected by cutbacks in the forthcoming Budget. “Indiscriminate gangland attacks have become a regular feature of Irish weekends at a time when the Government is preparing a series of cost-cutting measures,” he said. “Unless the Garda budget is secured, the cutbacks will have an effect on key measures aimed at tackling gangland.
“The Government’s main objective must be to end the spiral of gangland killings and put those responsible behind bars.”

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Charles L. “Ruthless” Kulow is a reputed member of the Breed motorcycle gang arraigned on charges of persons not to own a firearm

Bensalem woman was seriously injured in a mobile home explosion Friday in Bensalem and her boyfriend was sent to Bucks County Prison in lieu of $500,000 cash bail on charges he was allegedly making methamphetamine in a clandestine drug laboratory.
Alissa Fischer, no age given, was asleep about 9:50 a.m. inside a 14 foot by 60 foot mobile home at 6409 Fulton Ave., said Bensalem Public Safety Director Fred Harran. Volunteer firefighters found her standing outside with cuts to her arms, wrist, forearms and upper thigh. She told them she cut herself after climbing through a window. She had smelled smoke and had to break a window to get out. She was flown to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia suffering mainly from smoke inhalation. Harran described her condition as not critical.Volunteer firefighters from the Newport, William Penn and Penndel companies were called to the property and doused the flames in 13 minutes. Newport Fire Chief Jim McDonough said the Bucks County Radio Room received numerous phone calls for smoke coming from the mobile home.
Fischer's friend, Charles L. “Ruthless” Kulow, 44, who told police he has lived at 6409 Fulton Ave. his entire life with his mother, suffered a minor injury to his right hand.Kulow also was asleep in the mobile home when the fire started. He told police he normally sleeps at 6505 Fulton Ave. Both addresses are owned by his mother, Norma Kulow, according to court documents. Kulow is a reputed member of the Breed motorcycle gang, police said.After dousing the flames, firefighters found beakers, normally used to make illegal drugs. Police were called and obtained a search warrant from District Judge Daniel Baranoski at 6 p.m. Friday. Sgt. Robert Bugsch and Officer Adam Schwartz searched the mobile home and house. They recovered a .45 caliber Colt handgun; one gram of methamphetamine; numerous empty methamphetamine bags; a .32 caliber handgun; iodine; hydrogen peroxide; one gallon of Coleman fuel; muriatic acid; three quarts of liquid Drano; one pint of paint thinner, empty Sudafed packages and other items that are consistent with making methamphetamine, according to the search warrant. State police dressed in encapsulated suits entered the buildings and based on their investigation, they were convinced Kulow was allegedly operating a clandestine drug lab.
By 8 p.m. Friday, Baranoski arraigned Kulow on charges of persons not to own a firearm, intent to manufacture a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and possession with the intent to use drug paraphernalia. Baranoski sent the self-employed artist to Bucks County Prison in lieu of bail.
Kulow is currently serving four years probation after pleading guilty in October 2007, on charges of altering a prohibited offensive weapon and possession of a firearm not to be owned by a felon, according to Bucks County court records. Kulow's preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday before District Judge Joseph Falcone

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"Kings" of Castle Hill are now in prison, indicted and arrested earlier this week on charges ranging from narcotics trafficking to murder

"Kings" of Castle Hill are now in prison, indicted and arrested earlier this week on charges ranging from narcotics trafficking to murder.Their operation allegedly used children to sell and deliver drugs, authorities said.Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson announced the bust of 19 reputed members of the self-proclaimed King of Castle Organization after a 16-month investigation into the gang, which operated out of Castle Hill Houses.
Some defendants also belong to Sex, Money, Murder, a gang affiliated with the Bloods.
The arrests follow a number of similar busts, both local and federal, of drug gangs operating out of city housing projects around the borough.
In the latest drug gang bust, a grand jury returned a 100-count indictment charging all but two of the defendants with multiple counts of conspiracy to sell narcotics and commit murder, attempted murder, robberies and other acts of violence in connection with a million-dollar-a-year heroin and crack-cocaine ring operating out of Castle Hill Houses.The 17 defendants charged with conspiracy face a maximum of life in prison for conspiring to use the children - all under age 16 - to sell and deliver narcotics. Because of their age, they were safe - if arrested - from prosecution as adults.Two defendants were not implicated in the conspiracy but charged with possession and sale of narcotics.Most suspects were taken into custody without incident and more arrests are expected, said Johnson's office.
"During the course of the investigation we seized 11 semi-automatic handguns and revolvers, over a kilo of cocaine in both crack and powder form, 130 bags of heroin, marijuana and more than $63,000 in cash," said Johnson.
Khalil [Dolla] Harris, 26, is alleged to be the head of the King of Castle Organization, said Johnson's office.His younger brother, Hassan [Hocus] Harris, 25, was charged in connection with a shooting incident on Aug. 29, 2007, that left four people wounded, including three bystanders, at Park Ave. and 182nd St.
Khalieh [2-5] McMorris, 20, was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Russell Allen on Feb. 23, and second-degree attempted murder in shootings that wounded Erin Hall and Scott Torres on Feb. 1, 2006.
The alleged ringleader's two younger brothers, Hassan Harris and Shariff Harris - both indicted - are rap singers who were recently featured in the Aug. 26 issue of Billboard magazine.

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Services are to be held Sunday and Monday for Mark "Papa" Guardado, Christopher Ablett is a suspect in the shooting

Services are to be held Sunday and Monday for Mark "Papa" Guardado, 46, the head of the Angels' San Francisco chapter who was shot outside a bar in the city Sept. 2, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.Police estimate as many as 1,000 Hells Angels may roll into California's Bay area to remember a slain leader of the motorcycle riders brotherhood.Christopher Ablett, 37, of Modesto, a member of a rival motorcycle club, is a suspect in the shooting, police said.After a vigil and a memorial service, Guardado is to be interred Monday at Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma in what may be the Bay Area's largest two-wheeled funeral procession, the Chronicle reported."However many there are, we're going to be ready," said Officer Shawn Chase of the California Highway Patrol.

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Mexican police said on Friday they have found the bodies of 24 men who were bound and shot to death execution-style outside the capital.

Mexican police said on Friday they have found the bodies of 24 men who were bound and shot to death execution-style outside the capital.The bodies found Friday represent one of the largest single mass executions in Mexico in recent memory.
Police and soldiers were at the scene of the crime in a rural area just west of Mexico City, which has been marked by gangland slayings and land disputes between farming communities.The killings are "without doubt" linked to organized crime, said Alberto Bazbaz, the attorney general of Mexico State, which borders Mexico City.
"The only thing we have to identify them is that they all appear to be between 20 and 35, all of them have military-style haircuts, and they were wearing clothing appropriate for a warm climate," Bazbaz told the television network Televisa.
The mountains around Mexico City are colder, and Bazbaz said it was likely they were from the warmer, drug-plagued neighboring states of Michoacan or Guerrero.
In a statement, the federal Attorney General's Office said it was considering taking over investigations into the case, an additional indication that organized crime — a federal offense — was involved.

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Every day, some fourty SA homes are invaded by large, armed gangs - who rape, loot and murder without any hesitation and use advance intelligence

A reign of terror has been unleashed on all South Africans inside their own homes and driveways by gangs of feral, ruthless armed killers is worsening dramatically. Residential robberies are up by 14,5 percent nationally, according to the police's 2007-2008 crime statistics. Every day, some fourty SA homes are invaded by large, armed gangs - who rape, loot and murder without any hesitation and use advance intelligence and days of observation of such a family before striking. Often, the females of the households are gang-raped, the men often gunned down without hesitation. The US embassy recently described these gangs as 'feral youth gangs with a powerful compunction to kill'.

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Ronald "Bang Boy" Kinston, 30, was arrested in front of his Burlington City home when officers seized four guns hidden in a car

Ronald "Bang Boy" Kinston, 30, was arrested Aug. 16 in front of his Burlington City home when officers seized four guns hidden in a car that had just arrived from North Carolina, officials said. The weapons were part of a guns-for-heroin trade, the officials alleged. alleged leader of the Bounty Hunter Bloods gang in central New Jersey called the shots and dealt in guns and drugs while under electronic monitoring by the state's Parole Board, authorities announced Wednesday. State Attorney General Anne Milgram joined State Police brass and members of 16 other law enforcement agencies at a State Police station in Hamilton Wednesday to announced they'd broken up the gang's leadership by filing racketeering and drug and weapon charges against 13, eight of whom are in custody. Milgram said Kinston was the alleged original gangster or leader of a gang that put guns and drugs on the streets of the state's communities from Essex to Monmouth and Burlington counties. "Gangs dealing drugs and guns are dealing death in our state," she said.
Kinston, authorities alleged, commanded hundreds of soldiers in the gang since at least January, when he was paroled from state prison. "This was an intelligence-driven law enforcement operation," Milgram said. Authorities would provide few details of the beginning of the probe, but State Police Maj. William Toms, the agency's intelligence commander, said: "It started with surveillance -- good, old-fashioned police work." Toms contrasted the investigation's effort with a fisherman casting many lines in a large area of water. "Now, we're putting out a few lines in very rich pools," he said of the collaboration with other agencies. In addition to the seizure of the car and weapons and the arrest of Kinston, authorities Wednesday conducted raids on alleged Bloods hangouts in Edison, South Brunswick and New Brunswick. The New Brunswick raid was at a building listed as a recording studio close to the Middlesex County Courthouse. The raid yielded two handguns that were hidden in the bathroom, along with heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy, police said. Toms said the State Police are working to identify the origin of the out-of-state guns, and whether they were trafficked through the same channels as the four that came from North Carolina to Kinston's home last month. That transaction, Toms said, has been traced to a batch of weapons stolen from a licensed dealer in North Carolina in May. Jaronn McAllister, 28, of Wilmington, N.C., allegedly arranged the transaction, authorities said. Police picked him up in Delaware , also on Aug. 16. Hours later, officers were waiting when the car driven by 25-year-old Torrey Grady of Leeland, N.C., headed up the street toward Kinston's house in Burlington City. State Police said that the guns were eventually found by troopers in a well-concealed compartment under the rear passenger seat, which would have evaded notice on first glance. But troopers dug hard into the car and found wires protruding from the space and used jumper cables to open it. Kinston, originally from the New Brunswick area, spent nearly three years in state prison for eluding police and drug dealing in Middlesex, Somerset and Mercer counties, records show. He was paroled in January and moved to Burlington City. Neal Buccino, spokesman for the state Parole Board, said he could not specifically comment on Kinston, but said before an inmate is paroled from prison, he or she must submit a residence plan with an address and a commitment they will be allowed to live there. The plan is then investigated by a parole officer.
Milgram said Kinston wore an ankle bracelet that monitored his movements, and was only allowed to leave his house a few hours per week. "There's no question we're all troubled that someone who was released and paroled was dealing narcotics and weapons," she said. But she said the Parole Board is a vital agency in the fight against gangs in the state and assisted in the probe. In all locations, officers seized six handguns, 10 ounces of pure heroin worth $30,000, more than 3,000 units of heroin, called "decks," that were packaged for sale, and quantities of cocaine, Ecstasy and $23,000 in cash.

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19 reputed members of the King of Castle Organization, arrested on charges ranging from conspiracy to sell narcotics to murder and other offenses.

Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson Wednesday announced the arrests and indictment of 19 reputed members of the King of Castle Organization on charges ranging from conspiracy to sell narcotics to murder and other offenses. Some of the defendants also belong to “Sex, Money, Murder”, a group affiliated with the “Bloods.” Two of the accused are rap singers who were recently featured in the August 26th issue of Billboard Magazine.The grand jury returned a 100 count indictment charging all but two of the defendants with multiple counts of conspiracy to sell narcotics, commit murder, attempted murder, robberies and other acts of violence in connection with a $1 one million a year heroin and crack cocaine ring which operated primarily in and around the Castle Hill Housing Development. The two defendants who were not implicated in the ongoing conspiracy were charged with the possession and sale of narcotics on one occasion on August 28, 2008. Late Tuesday afternoon, authorities began executing arrest warrants for defendants named in the indictment. Most were taken into custody without incident and additional arrests are expected. Eighteen of the 19 defendants were arraigned on Wednesday before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett in Part M-60 and ordered held without bail.

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Jesse Salinas, Norteno gangs was sentenced to 24 years to life for his role in the murder of Christian Jimenez

Jesse Salinas, 24, was sentenced to 24 years to life for his role in the murder of Christian Jimenez, a 15-year-old with no gang ties who was shot and killed at point-blank range in Olinder Park in April, 2003. Salinas, who has served nearly five years, agreed to waive credit for time served, meaning the sentence is essentially at least 30 years in prison, according to prosecutors.In all, 10 members of two affiliated Norteno gangs were convicted and sentenced for crimes related to Christian's death, including witness intimidation, aiding and abetting and accessory after the fact, according to prosecutors. The gang members went to Olinder Park looking to kill a Sureno gang member in retaliation for the stabbing of a fellow Norteno gang member weeks earlier."When those gang members went to Olinder Park they intended to kill someone. They just didn't know who it would be," prosecutor David Ezgar said. "Christian Jimenez had the tragic misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time."Three other gang members who were also convicted on murder charges in Christian's death received sentences of 70 and 80 years in prison. Jonathan Pipkin, who pleaded guility to accessory after the fact and received a three-year sentence, testified at the trial of two gang members."We're going to prosecute gang cases vigorously," Ezgar said. "We're going to prosecute every gang member that participates in the crime. Not just the one individual who ends up pulling the trigger."Christian's mother, Angelica Jimenez, regularly attended court hearings during the past four years and was in court Thursday for the final sentencing. "It's over. It feels good, but every day is hard for me," Jimenez said.
Jimenez has talked a few times at schools about gang violence and the death of her son. Her remaining child, Angelo, 19, is now attending college.Christian, an eighth-grader at Willow Glen Middle School, was hanging out with two friends in a park sometimes frequented by Surenos, the Nortenos' rival gang. Salinas and two fellow Nortenos, Javier Ayala and Alexander Diaz, went to the park that day looking to kill someone in retaliation for the stabbing of a fellow gang member.
When they found Christian and his friends, Salinas and Ayala asked the kids what gang they belonged to. When the teens said they did not belong to a gang, Salinas and Ayala claimed to be Surenos in an attempt to coax Christian and his friends to admit to being Surenos. Diaz, meanwhile, was waiting in the bushes with a sawed off shotgun as his partners confronted Christian and his friends. After the initial confrontation, the three gang members conferred in the bushes and decided to attack the teens. Ayala and Salinas emerged first and began beating up both boys. Diaz then emerged and from a distance of not more than three feet and shot and killed Christian.One of the three tried to kill one of Christian's friends, but the gun jammed, Ezgar said. "But for that, we most likely would have had two dead boys in that park."
As Christian and his friends were being attacked, two other Nortenos were circling the park in a getaway car. One of the gang members in the car was in constant phone contact with Diaz, the shooter. After the murder, the five men returned to a house described as the "gang hangout" and began partying and littering the walls with gang tags.Diaz pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder on July 15, 2003 and was sentenced to 80 years to life. He was arrested by police after committing a home invasion robbery while under police surveillance. Police followed Diaz back to the gang's house — and after a standoff that lasted several hours — drew Diaz out with tear gas. Inside, they found the shot gun and same ammunition used to kill Christian and an array of other gang evidence that led to multiple arrests.Salinas was arrested in May 2003 at a relative's house.

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Melvin Omar Velez-Santos was found guilty as the leader in a gun smuggling ring from Florida directly to the gangs in Puerto Rico

Melvin Omar Velez-Santos was found guilty as the leader in a gun smuggling ring from Florida directly to the gangs in Puerto Rico in exchange for cocaine.

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Victor Anthony Ortega is being held at the Sacramento County Jail on suspicion of fatally shooting Marcus Mayes

Victor Anthony Ortega is being held at the Sacramento County Jail on suspicion of fatally shooting Marcus Mayes on May 28, according to Sacramento County Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran. Ortega already was in sheriff's custody on an unrelated matter.
Detectives are still searching for a second suspect, identified as a Hispanic male adult, 18 to 25 years old with black hair and brown eyes, Curran said. He is believed to be between 5-foot-9-inches and 5-foot-10 inches tall and weighing between 200 and 210 pounds.Mayes was killed about 8:30 p.m. May 28 after a brief verbal fight with the two suspects. One of the suspects pulled out a handgun and shot Mayes.Authorities believe the shooting was gang-related.Detectives believe they know who the suspect is and are actively pursuing him, Curran said. Authorities implore him to turn himself in.

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Bodies of Struan Thomas Bolas a former Black Uhlans motorcycle gang member, and the woman were found

The accused - also charged with arson - is alleged to have killed Struan Thomas Bolas, 48, and an unidentified woman before torching Mr Bolas's home in Raine Place.
The bodies of Bolas, a former motorcycle gang member, and the woman were found at the Downer residence at about 10.30pm by firefighters, who arrived to extinguish the inferno.Police called for calm yesterday as an alleged double murder in Downer added to the national capital's recent spate of suspicious deaths.
A 35-year-old man is due to appear in the ACT Magistrates Court this morning, charged with the murder of a man and woman after their bodies were discovered in a burning Downer house late on Wednesday evening.It is the fourth alleged murder in the national capital in two months.Early yesterday morning, police arrested a man, who was found in stationary car on Sutton Road between Canberra and Queanbeyan.
Police will allege that the man killed the pair before deliberately setting fire to the house.The head of the Territory Investigations Group, Detective Superintendent Michael Kilfoyle, said police were investigating whether there had been a ''wider reason'' for the killings.''There could be other motives which we are still to investigate, particularly in this instance,'' he said.But he called for calm in the community and assured residents that the city was a safe place to live despite the recent spate of killings.Sutton Road was closed to traffic until yesterday afternoon as police scoured the roadside for a weapon. A Queanbeyan house where the alleged offender was said to have been lodging was also sealed off and examined by Australian Federal Police forensics teams.''We are unsure of the relationship between the male and the female at this stage, that's obviously still part of our enquiries and for us to establish why this incident has happened,'' Superintendent Kilfoyle said.''There are a large number of inquiries that are under way. This investigation is only in its infancy and there are a lot of things that still need to be done.''Bolas was a long-time member of bikie gang the Black Uhlans. He is understood to have shed his affiliations with the club more than five years ago.
Bolas is believed to have retained links to Canberra's criminal underworld despite no longer being a pledged member of the notorious gang. Police arrested him in April 1996 and charged him with being involved in an amphetamine ring.
A long-time friend described Bolas as a ''wild boy''. He said, ''I grew up with Struan and this is a real shame.''He was a wild boy but he was also a good, stand-up bloke. He was a mate.''Most recently, Bolas had been working as a groundsman at Hotel Kurrajong, Barton.
Both his colleagues at the hotel and neighbours in Downer were unaware of the victim's bikie connections and criminal links. Neighbour Briony McGregor said Bolas had kept a low profile in the leafy neighbourhood.''He seemed like a really pleasant guy, a lovely guy,'' Ms McGregor said. She said she had never seen the female victim in the area before. A colleague at the Kurrajong said Bolas was a well-respected, clean-living employee, especially admired by younger members of staff.''We called him the professor because we'd have academics and people like that here for conferences and Straun would sit down with them and run rings around them,'' the hotel worker said.

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Carl T. Bursey once a high-ranking member of the Bandidos biker gang, was sentenced to 10 years

Carl T. Bursey, 33, once a high-ranking member of the Bandidos biker gang, was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for being involved in three different conspiracies at the same time, all focused on obtaining cocaine and marijuana to feed the illegal drug trade in Kingston.One of his associates, Nickolaos Psihogios, 36, was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, with credit for 255 days of pretrial custody, after pleading guilty to a single count of drug conspiracy during the same time frame, December 2006, through May 2007.Federal drug prosecutor Rod Sonley told Justice Rommel Masse that Psihogios was involved in supplying drugs in Brockville, but he's actually from Montreal. Masse acceded to Psihogios' lawyer's request for a recommendation that Psihogios be allowed to serve his sentence in Quebec.Sonley asked for a significantly longer sentence for Bursey, however, telling the judge there are indicationshe was setting up distribution lines in the fall of 2006,while still in prison."In all my years of doing this," Sonley told the judge, "I have never seen someone so actively involved."Masse was told that Bursey was impatient with his suppliers and was constantly trying to obtain more cocaine and new supply sources."That's purely what this was about ... money," Sonley told the judge, "trying to move as much product as you can, as fast as you can."Bursey and Psihogios were among 14 people arrested in February, following a two-year investigation by Kingston Police and the local RCMP detachment into networks supplying Kingston with cocaine.Tagged 'Operation Touch Up' Sonley said the initial interest was in Bursey and a local businessman with no prior record, 44-year-old Rogar McIlroy, who ran Lend A Hand Auto.Unlike Project Dante, a preceding investigation into Hell's Angels links with Kingston's street drug trade, police believed the people Operation Touch Up had under scrutiny were independents who, not being tied to any particular organized crime group, were shopping around for the best prices on drugs.As the investigation unfolded, Masse learned, local police logged more than 45,000 wire-tapped phone conversations between key players in the conspiracy, which pointed them to other participants and eventually arrests in Gananoque, Brockville, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal, as well as Kingston. The phone conversations also resulted in charges being laid against a civilian dispatcher with Kingston Police.Shirley A. McMahon is accused of using using her position to access sensitive information about the investigation and pass it on to suspects. She was suspended in 2007 before any arrests were made and is currently before the court, charged with obstructing justice and unauthorized use of a computer.McIlroy was caught on tape bragging that he'd been in the drug business for 23 years without getting caught and giving advice on dealing without detection.
In July, he pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including drug trafficking, and was sentenced to six years in jail.When police swept up the drug ring in February they seized 2.7 kilograms of cocaine, almost a pound of marijuana, 645 grams of hashish, 31 grams of magic mushroom and 55 grams of steroids, together with various items of stolen property.In sentencing Psihogios, Masse said, "Cocaine is a devastating drug," he told the Montrealer. "It's absolutely devastating to society and you've got children yourself."

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Melbourne's Carlton Crew Mick Gatto newspaper the business and finance sectors were rapidly becoming the new "power base" of organised crime

criminal networks and outlawed motorcycle gangs are exploiting weaknesses in corporate laws and poor regulation of financial markets, reaping multi-million-dollar profits from suspected share market manipulation, asset stripping and the snatching of control of companies they force into administration.
federal agencies are investigating the head of Melbourne's Carlton Crew, Mick Gatto, his business associate John Khoury and financial adviser and loan provider Tom Karas, as well as high-profile share trader Leo Khouri. All have denied any wrongdoing.Also under investigation are members of the Mokbel crime family and outlaw motorcycle gangs in a number of states, including NSW and Victoria. Detective Inspector Bernie Edwards, head of the Victoria Police Purana gangland taskforce, told the newspaper the business and finance sectors were rapidly becoming the new "power base" of organised crime.

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Hitmen from Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman the Gulf cartel drug gang left a pile of 11 headless corpses piled up near the city of Merida

Hitmen from the Gulf cartel drug gang left a pile of 11 headless corpses piled up near the city of Merida and police say the victims were likely still alive when decapitated.Drug gunmen killed 13 people including a baby and a university professor at a party in the picturesque tourist town of Creel, breaking a taboo against killing children."You are seeing a deterioration, and a very drastic and violent terrorizing factor," said Fred Burton, an analyst for the U.S.-based Stratfor security consultancy.President Felipe Calderon, a strong-willed conservative, made the fight against crime his top priority when he came to office in 2006 but drug murders have soared to a record 2,700 so far this year in a war between gangs.
August was the bloodiest month in three years of clashes that began when Mexico's most-wanted man Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman took on rival traffickers for control of smuggling routes. About 450 people were killed last month, most of them in the border states of Chihuahua and Baja California.

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Members of Sureño street gangs are coming to the Salinas area

Members of Sureño street gangs are coming to the Salinas area in increasing numbers and are becoming better organized, the commander of the Monterey County Joint Gang Task Force said Wednesday.Cmdr. Dino Bardoni made the comment following a statewide summit of anti-gang law enforcement agents at Sherwood Hall in Salinas. The two-day gathering was the third such meeting sponsored by the county gang task force.
Bardoni said the Mexican Mafia, a well-established prison gang also known as "la Eme," is teaching more sophisticated criminal tactics to local Sureño street gangs.
Sureño gang members are regarded as mostly Mexican immigrants with ties to their native homeland. Their rivals are Norteño gangs comprised primarily of U.S.-born residents of Mexican descent.Salinas, long a stronghold for Norteño gangs, is seeing more Sureños coming into the area who are organizing in ways they haven't before, and that iscreating more violence in Monterey County, Bardoni said.Wednesday's summit drew about 360 law enforcement agents from 71 different state agencies. The workshops offer training in curbing gang violence. Some of the topics covered during the 16-hour conference included motorcycle gangs, building a good gang prosecution case, finding hidden car compartments where gang members hide guns and the role gang members play in the military."We need to share patterns of gang violence to help each other," Bardoni said. "We need to network and learn what is working in other jurisdictions."In Salinas, this year's gang violence has seen a sharp increase.The number of homicides has risen from 14 in 2007 to 19 so far in 2008. Shootings have gone up from 39 last year to 60 so far this year."We have seen the problem move for years," Bardoni said about the influx of Sureños. "We just need to network with other agencies, share the information, see what works and share resources."

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Grenade attack was gang related tossed from among a small group of gang-bangers who had congregated around the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital

Failed grenade attack on Carnival Day, September 6th and the senseless shooting which disrupted the Carnival parade and sent hundreds fleeing for their lives can only be described as acts of terrorism.They were random attacks, directed at no one in particular, but at anyone in general. The purpose: to cause pandemonium, with no regard for the damage these acts may cause, or for public safety.There is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism. Most common definitions include only those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are performed for an ideological goal and deliberately disregard the safety of non-combatants.Since the attacks did not target anyone in particular, and since they were meant to cause pandemonium by endangering people’s lives, many Belizeans have concluded that the Carnival attacks were terrorist in nature, intended to undermine public confidence in law enforcement. Not all are agreed that the attacks were intended to disrupt public order, however. Police insiders say the grenade attack was gang related. Certainly it was tossed from among a small group of gang-bangers who had congregated around the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital’s entry way. The shooting, which injured an innocent boy who happened to be standing near, was caused by a trigger-happy man who reacted violently to a beer bottle being tossed at his car.But the two incidents, coming together on the same day, within minutes of each other, provide reason to suspect that they were related, and the fact that gang people were involved in both incidents should not influence us too much. After all, if someone were trying to destablelize the government through acts of terrorism, who would he choose to carry out those acts? By their deeds you shall know them! By looking at the end result, sometimes you can find the motive for certain actions.The end result of the carnival attack was a substantial deflation of the Tenth spirit. Instead of a Memorial Park full of joyous people getting ready to celebrate, there were fewer than a few hundred. The fallout will also affect the Independence Day celebrations because many parents are preparing to withdraw their children from the traditional parades.If the Government of Belize is satisfied that the Carnival attack was indeed an act of sabotage, it has a duty and an obligation to do something to protect people from similar attacks, and to assert its authority as the Government of Belize.

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Obviously, any witness you can eliminate is a good thing. says a veteran defense attorney who once represented mobsters

Robert Simels, 61, was arrested Tuesday on charges of witness tampering and obstruction of justice. He was released on $3.5 million bond.Robert Simels has represented the mobster immortalized in “Goodfellas,” a drug kingpin with ties to hip hop and other notorious clients in his long career.Investigators say a veteran defense attorney who once represented the mobster immortalized in "Goodfellas" has plotted to murder witnesses in another case.Now a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn puts Simels in their company: It accuses him of plotting to silence prosecution witnesses against an alleged drug trafficker by, in his words, “eliminating” them.Simels, 61, was arrested Tuesday on charges of witness tampering and obstruction of justice and was released on $3.5 million bond. There was no immediate response to phone messages left for him on Thursday.
His attorney, Gerald Shargel, has called the allegations false.“Bob Simels is well-known as a tenacious, effective and highly capable defense lawyer and he was doing his work,” Shargel said.Simels represented Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, once the head of a murderous Queens drug gang, against allegations in 2005 that he funneled $1 million in drug proceeds into Murder Inc., then a chart-topping rap music label. McGriff eventually switched lawyers and was jailed for life last year after being convicted of paying $50,000 for the 2001 killings of an aspiring rapper and another man.According to his Web site, Simels has also represented former football star Marc Gastineau and Henry Hill, whose exploits were the basis of the 1990 Martin Scorsese mob film “Goodfellas.” The site also names Shaheed “Roger” Khan, the Guyanese businessman whose case has landed the lawyer in trouble.Khan was arrested and brought to the United States in 2006 on charges he ran a cocaine smuggling operation that was protected by a paramilitary organization in Guyana known as the Phantom Squad.Drug Enforcement Administration investigators allege that this May, with Khan awaiting trial in Brooklyn, a Phantom Squad member who was cooperating with them learned that Simels wanted to talk to him.The DEA says that during conversations over the summer, some secretly recorded, Simels asked the cooperator to help him locate potential government witnesses and pondered what to do when they were found. The attorney “discussed a range of options, from offering them money to murdering their family members,” the criminal complaint says.In one conversation recorded in May about bribing an unnamed witness, the cooperator suggested the witness “might suddenly get amnesia” if paid enough money.“That’s a terrible thing, but if it happens, it happens,” Simels responded, according to the complaint. Later in the same meeting, the lawyer remarked, “Obviously, any witness you can eliminate is a good thing.”In June, the complaint says, Simels gave the cooperator $1,000 for expenses in pursuing the same witness, but cautioned that Khan didn’t want the witness’s mother harmed.“He’d like as much pressure being put on as possible,” Simels allegedly said. “But he thinks if (the witness’s) mother gets killed … the government will go crazy.”



A criminal complaint accuses Simels of plotting to "eliminate" prosecution witnesses against an alleged drug trafficker.

His attorney, Gerald Shargel, called the allegations false.

"Bob Simels is well-known as a tenacious, effective and highly capable defense lawyer and he was doing his work," Shargel said Wednesday.

Drug Enforcement Administration investigators allege that in May, a cooperating member of a paramilitary organization in Guyana known as the Phantom Squad learned that Simels wanted to talk to him. Simels was representing a Guyanese businessman, Shaheed "Roger" Khan, who was charged with running a cocaine smuggling operation that was protected by the Phantom Squad.

The DEA says that during conversations over the summer, some secretly recorded, Simels asked the cooperator to help him locate potential government witnesses and pondered what to do when they were found. The attorney "discussed a range of options, from offering them money to murdering their family members," the criminal complaint says.

In one conversation recorded in May about bribing an unnamed witness, the cooperator suggested the witness "might suddenly get amnesia" if paid enough money.

"That's a terrible thing, but if it happens, it happens," Simels responded, according to the complaint. Later in the same meeting, the lawyer remarked, "Obviously, any witness you can eliminate is a good thing."

Simels is known for representing Henry Hill, whose exploits were the basis of the 1990 Martin Scorsese mob film "Goodfellas," and Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, a gang leader accused of funneling drug money into Murder Inc., then a chart-topping rap music label.

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Robert Simels defense attorney was arrested Tuesday on charges of witness tampering and obstruction of justice and was released on $3.5 million bond.

Robert Simels defense attorney has represented the mobster immortalized in “Goodfellas,” a drug kingpin with ties to hip hop and other notorious clients in his long career.Now a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn puts Simels in their company: It accuses him of plotting to silence prosecution witnesses against an alleged drug trafficker by, in his words, “eliminating” them.Simels, 61, was arrested Tuesday on charges of witness tampering and obstruction of justice and was released on $3.5 million bond. There was no immediate response to phone messages left for him on Thursday.His attorney, Gerald Shargel, has called the allegations false.“Bob Simels is well-known as a tenacious, effective and highly capable defense lawyer and he was doing his work,” Shargel said.Simels represented Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff, once the head of a murderous Queens drug gang, against allegations in 2005 that he funneled $1 million in drug proceeds into Murder Inc., then a chart-topping rap music label. McGriff eventually switched lawyers and was jailed for life last year after being convicted of paying $50,000 for the 2001 killings of an aspiring rapper and another man.According to his Web site, Simels has also represented former football star Marc Gastineau and Henry Hill, whose exploits were the basis of the 1990 Martin Scorsese mob film “Goodfellas.” The site also names Shaheed “Roger” Khan, the Guyanese businessman whose case has landed the lawyer in trouble.
Khan was arrested and brought to the United States in 2006 on charges he ran a cocaine smuggling operation that was protected by a paramilitary organization in Guyana known as the Phantom Squad.Drug Enforcement Administration investigators allege that this May, with Khan awaiting trial in Brooklyn, a Phantom Squad member who was cooperating with them learned that Simels wanted to talk to him.The DEA says that during conversations over the summer, some secretly recorded, Simels asked the cooperator to help him locate potential government witnesses and pondered what to do when they were found. The attorney “discussed a range of options, from offering them money to murdering their family members,” the criminal complaint says.In one conversation recorded in May about bribing an unnamed witness, the cooperator suggested the witness “might suddenly get amnesia” if paid enough money.
“That’s a terrible thing, but if it happens, it happens,” Simels responded, according to the complaint. Later in the same meeting, the lawyer remarked, “Obviously, any witness you can eliminate is a good thing.”In June, the complaint says, Simels gave the cooperator $1,000 for expenses in pursuing the same witness, but cautioned that Khan didn’t want the witness’s mother harmed.
“He’d like as much pressure being put on as possible,” Simels allegedly said. “But he thinks if (the witness’s) mother gets killed … the government will go crazy.”

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Peter 'Fatso' Mitchell is trying to flog off his €1.2 million Spanish home after a bitter split with other Irish gangsters.

Peter 'Fatso' Mitchell is trying to flog off his €1.2 million Spanish home after a bitter split with other Irish gangsters.He has fallen out with close buddy Daniel Kinahan, the son of multi-lingual Irish crime boss Christy Kinahan.
Under pressure from the cops and paranoid about informants Fatso has been keeping his head down since last April."He's furious. It has had a huge knockon effect and at least six major investigations have been launched by different European police forces. The whole syndicate were left completely rattled and Mitchell's getting the blame," said a source.The bald-headed thug, originally from Summerhill in Dublin's north inner city, spent last week at a relative's wedding in the sun-kissed Caribbean.In the meantime, the 'Se Vende' signs have gone up on his plush house at Puerto Banus which he shared with his roughtrade wife Sonia Walsh and their two kids.
The only visible sign that it had been a family home is a large child's doll stuffed into a bin.Located in an upmarket residential street about one kilometre from the beach, it comes with an asking price of €1.2 million.But with the Spanish property hit harder than anywhere else by the credit crunch Fatso will be lucky to get that kind of money.Panicky Mitchell has also been forced to close down his nearby Paparazzi bar Within days of our story Spanish cops raided the premises and shut it down over 'licensing irregularities'.A note in the window explains the bar is shut until further notice and apologises for the inconvenience.It had mostly been frequented by criminal associates of Mitchell although groups of golfers unaware of the owner's background, would also stop at the chic boozer.Fatso is being kept at arms length by other shakers and movers among the underworld on the Costa del Sol.
"He is now considered to be too hot because, if you lot were able to dig up so much what do the cops know?" "A few of the English villains you photographed visiting Mitchell were freaked out when they saw their pictures in the paper and are blaming Mitchell," the source added.Among those was a former Premiership soccer player who is suspected of having gone into the money-laundering business after hanging up his boots.Fatso is a central player in a multinational syndicate that buys massive quantities of cocaine, heroin and hash, dealing direct with the producers.
The English and Irish gangsters have been pooling their resources to smuggle hundreds of millions euro worth of drugs into the UK and Ireland. Mitchell thought he was invulnerable, surrounded by a network of criminals and bent cops.
Also photographed at the Fatso's bar was Dublin hitman Paddy Doyle who was later gunned down in Spain.His cousins Paddy and Christy Mitchell are among his inner circle, with Paddy controlling the gangs' interests in Amsterdam. Fatso and Paddy Mitchell were arrested together by Dutch police in November 2004 as they were in the process of organising a shipment of guns and drugs to Ireland.But the pair got away lightly when they each received 20-month jail sentences. Dutch authorities didn't establish Fatso's true identity for almost a year until Irish CAB officers paid a visit to 'Anthony Swanson'.After his release he vowed he wouldn't get caught again and set up his organisation so that he is never in direct contact with drugs, guns or large sums of cash.Two English criminals were always seen close to Mitchell at his Spanish base, carrying a shoulder bag full of mobile phones each being a direct line to different members of the syndicate.
Fatso first came to prominence as part of John Gilligan's gang who were responsible for murdering Veronica Guerin.He is credited with persuading his best pal Brian 'The Tosser' Meehan and Gilligan to get involved in the drugs trade when they got out of prison in 1994.
Fatso fled in 1996. He has maintained contact with Meehan who is regularly visited at Portlaoise Prison by Sonia Walsh.

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Sean Timmins Hells Angels bike gang member has said he would rather go to jail than give evidence in a court case

Sean Timmins, 37, has denied attacking a man at a petrol station in Cardiff, telling a jury at Cardiff Crown court that he was 132 miles away at the time.A Hells Angels bike gang member has said he would rather go to jail than give evidence in a court case because it is against "brotherhood" rules.He told a judge he knows the identity of the actual attacker, but would not reveal it because he is also an Angel.Neil Lake needed three metal plates inserted in his face after the attack.Prosecutor Tony Trigg told the court Mr Lake had stopped at the Asda petrol station in Cardiff Bay, south Wales, in April last year when he saw a group of Hells AngelsHe said: "Mr Lake saw a group of Hells Angels motorcyclists at the pumps."One of the Hells Angels approached him and asked: "Have you got a problem?" "If a man approaches you wearing Hells Angel motorcycle leathers, then asks you if you have a problem - you know you have got a problem."Timmins then punched Mr Lake with a single, heavy blow with his gloved hand causing severe facial fractures."The motorcycles rode off and Mr Lake wrote down the registration number in the dust on the back of his car."Timmins was the registered keeper of that Harley Davidson Road King."Mr Trigg told the court Mr Lake later indentified Mr Timmins as the man who had attacked him.But the court heard claims that Mr Timmins had been laying a driveway near his home in Wolverhampton and he said another Hells Angel had carried out the attack.Mr Timmins , who has been a Hells Angels member for 15 years, refused to say who the member of the "brotherhood" was as he would be kicked out of the club.
'Serious position'"We don't blab on each other and that's a fact," he told the court.
"If that means being held in contempt of this court so be it."I know I'm in a serious position but I can't tell you who it is - I would rather go to jail.
"I've been arrested for something I haven't done."I made a no comment interview to the police because in the Hells Angels we don't make statements - the rules of the club prevent it."Even if you are in jeopardy, these are the rules of the club."Mr Timmins, of Caven, Wolverhampton, denies causing grievous bodily harm and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Lake.The trial continues.

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Dayne Rose bullet-riddled body found on a busy Toronto highway

Homicide detectives investigating the slaying of a man who was shot and ejected from a luxury car along a busy stretch of Highway 401 have plenty of eyewitness reports of the incident but few strong leads, a police source said Wednesday.Dayne Rose, born in Canada but with ties to Jamaica, was known to Toronto police but had only minor brushes with the law and had no criminal record, a police source told The Globe and Mail.bullet-riddled body found on a busy Toronto highway is that of a 29-year-old man with no criminal record, a police source says.He would have turned 30 next month."He's not a drug dealer, he's not a gang-banger, he's not on the radar," the source told the newspaper.Police were investigating whether Rose was shot before being pushed out of a moving car on Highway 401 in Toronto about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday or whether he jumped out and then was shot, The Toronto Star reported.
Police were unsure if striking the road contributed to Rose's death.
An autopsy was conducted Wednesday night.Police Tuesday seized a luxury Lexus believed connected to the incident and took several people into custody for questioning, but they were later released, The police working theory is that there were three people in the car – Mr. Rose, another man and a woman. But while one witness has described seeing Mr. Rose being shot by a woman who was seated in the back seat on the passenger side, others have disputed that account.
The Lexus is registered to a Mississauga woman whom Mr. Rose knew, and who has been interviewed by police. But she was not in the car at the time and the identity of his two companions remains moot.
“Wouldn't we love to know,” the source said, adding that police are still anxious to speak to anyone else who saw the incident.Tuesday's killing, shortly before rush hour on one of the country's busiest highways, backed up traffic for many kilometres, frustrating tens of thousands of commuters before the road was fully reopened early Wednesday.
The death, Toronto's 49th homicide this year, drew a spirited response from Mayor David Miller, who has long urged the federal government to impose an outright ban on handguns.“People who commit violence in Toronto are going to go to jail and they need to know that. But the sad fact is it is much too easy for them to get guns,” he said.
“That's why this city council is so determined to fight to get handguns off the street.”Premier Dalton McGuinty concurred, saying he too is weary of the violence and that no one should have access to handguns except police.“Handguns are the weapon of choice for the criminal element,” he said. Traffic on Highway 401 returned to near-normal Wednesday as police continued searching for forensic evidence. Cars were at a standstill during the afternoon rush hour and into the evening Tuesday.

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Los Zetas, the ex-military narco hit men in southeast Mexico, was behind the horrendous decapitation murders of 12 men in the state of Yucatán

Los Zetas, the ex-military narco hit men in southeast Mexico, was behind the horrendous decapitation murders of 12 men in the state of Yucatán, reported yesterday. Quick action by federal authorities in setting up "Operation Mérida" resulted in the capture of three of the presumed killers at a highway checkpoint following a brief gunfight.Inside their vehicle, Federal Police found weapons and, most incriminating, a bloody ax. The three arrested included the leader of the cell, a know "Zeta."The group known as Los Zetas was the armed branch of the Gulf Cartel and is made up of ex-military special forces deserters. This year they split from the Gulf Cartel to became an independent crime organization and now work in alliance with the Beltrán Leyva brothers' cartel, distinguishing themselves by their high level of violence. Most of the victims of the Yucatán massacre have been identified as drug traffickers from the states of Yucatán, Campeche and Quintana Roo with criminal records from Yucatán and Veracruz. [Note: This would suggest a turf war, probably with the Gulf Cartel, the former associates of Los Zetas.]
Before, the settling of accounts between gangs of narcotraffickers used to be by bullets; now, after groups of hired killers mixed in with ex-military, the criminals use psychology against their rivals. In the strategy of generating terror in the opponent, there is a genuine method with which the narco organizations in Mexico have created their own semiotics, that kind of system of signs and codes to send messages that seek not only to intimidate, but to leave the imprint of the fury and violence of which they are capable. They have also copied methods of groups of other latitudes, explains Doctor of Sociology Luis Astorga, because there have also been decapitations in Colombia, but the quantity of deaths has been of such magnitude that that type of homicide no longer brings attention.

The Colombian narcos were precursors in methods copied to the counterinsurgency, in part due to the existence of guerrillas for more than four decades and to the continuing training in which the instructors have been members of the Armed Forces.

The fury that has been present in the violent deaths between nacotraffic bands in Mexico in recent years coincides with the presence of groups of military special forces recruited by the narcos, explains the author of Security, Traffickers and Military (Seguridad, traficantes y militares), a book published last year that covers the complex map of what has been the anti-drug policy of the government in recent years.

"Here in Mexico this was not the norm," Astorga explains. "In fact, there had been no record of this type of thing. This coincides - so far as we know of the type of assassination designated as ‘executions' by the press, but in reality are homicides and the rage with which they are done - coincides with the presence of ex-military, but not in an isolated way; for example there have been military men for a long time, like chiefs of security or hit-men, but not as a compact group."

There had not been any compact group close to the main decision circle of an organization; Osiel Cárdinas introduced this characteristic with the Gafes (Airborne Special Forces) by creating the so called Zetas. For the first time, an organization of narcotraffickers included an elite group of the Armed Forces trained in counterinsurgence and anti-drug warfare.

The type of training that is given these forces is in two fields.

For example, in Vietnam or Central America the strategy was to create terror, that is, a part was the struggle, the conventional war, and the other, the psychological. "Part of the psychological war is that of messages, usually intimidating and associated with techniques of mutilation of the enemy, that is part of the message. It's not the same to kill someone with one shot, as to kill them with one shot, quarter them in pieces and leave a message," Astorga pointed out.
In a review of news reports of violent killings between narco bands, the rage with which the Arellano Félix organization carried out some of their actions placed terror as the main player in the decade of the 90s, as they were the first to dissolve their victims in acid or torture rivals and toss them into ravines. The clan of Sinaloans located on the border of Baja California copied some of the methods of their countrymen in Ciudad Juárez, who introduced this method of dissolving bodies in drums like stew, a method used in other times by the Italian Mafia. Amputating members, writing on the body or leaving written messages was a practice that began to be used by Los Zetas, the paramilitary band at the service of the organization that Osiel Cárdenas Guillén headed in Tamaulipas some years ago. With that tactic what they seek is to use the minimum direct confrontation, says Astorga. They are counting on the psychological war to paralyze the enemy with fear, and for the terror to expand to their immediate circle. Today, a video on You Tube follows the decapitations with a message and, as happened a year ago in the dispute between the organizations of El Chapo and Cárdenas Guillén, a justification was left in a folk song where those who compose and interpret the songs pay with their lives on occasion.

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Gotti Jr. misappropriated millions of dollars of the late John Gotti’s illicit stash

Mafia boss John Gotti went to his grave hating his oldest son, Junior, a mob snitch claims in secretly recorded conversations with close confidants of the Dapper Don.Lewis Kasman- known as Gotti’s “adopted son” - trashes John A. (Junior) Gotti on the tapes and says the mob prince was despised by his infamous dad.
“He died hating that kid, you know that,” Kasman told reputed Gambino consigliere Joseph (JoJo) Corozzo in an October 2005 conversation.Kasman, 51, is expected to be a key turncoat witness against Junior at his upcoming racketeering and murder trial in Tampa.He taped several conversations with high-ranking Gambino gangsters, transcripts of which were reviewed by the Daily News.The intimate glimpse into Gambino gossip and schemes is made all the more shocking by Kasman’s unique access to the crime family’s inner circle.Although not a made man, Kasman was so protected that “captains were barred from interfering with his activities without the permisson of the…boss, underboss or consigliere,” Assistant Florida U.S. Attorney Brian McCormick stated in court papers.Sources said Kasman was never close to Junior - and his venom flows throughout the transcripts.“Ya know he’s nothing like his father,” Kasman rants to reputed Gambino capo Daniel Marino in April 2006.“And ya know what I say it all the time, he hadda hate his father.“Because for him to act and behave the way he act … You robbed all the money … You disrespected your father. Spinning, he’s doing spins [in his grave].”Even Corozzo’s son, Joseph Jr., was more of a son to Gotti than his own, Kasman complains.He praises the younger Corozzo for feeding and massaging the cancer-stricken Mafia boss on his prison deathbed, while berating Gotti Jr. for stealing “every nickel that the father had” after his death in 2002.He says that John sr. “created a lot of this jealousy between me and John [Jr.].”The real reason for the anger, sources said, is that Kasman thought he was cheated out of money from his close “adopted” dad.Kasman believes Gotti Jr. misappropriated millions of dollars of the late John Gotti’s illicit stash that should have gone to the entire Gotti family and Kasman himself, sources said.The vitriol may shed more light on the complicated Gotti father-son relationship, but it’s not the most damaging part of the tapes for Junior.
A talk that occurred a month after the second of Gotti’s three mistrials in Manhattan Federal Court suggests Junior is lying when he claims he left the mob behind, the government believes.In one part, Marino says that Junior’s lawyer, Charles Carnesi, sent word “to us … that the kid was annoyed that nobody helped him.”
Three juries have believed Junior’s claim that he broke from the Gambinos many years ago to become a regular family man. But federal prosecutors are trying again, indicting him Aug. 5 on murder and drug charges traced to mob-related crimes in the 1980s and 1990s.The government is likely to use Marino and Kasman’s words to counter Junior’s story. “The conversation could be interpreted as showing his continued association with the Gambino Crime Family,” said a knowledgeable source.

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Rogue FBI agent was responsible for the 1982 slaying of a Boston businessman, the victim's wife testified at the ex-agent's trial

rogue FBI agent was responsible for the 1982 slaying of a Boston businessman, the victim's wife testified at the ex-agent's trial Monday in Miami.Former agent John Connolly, already jailed in Florida on racketeering charges, faced the first day of a murder trial in which he is accused of tipping off gangsters that businessman John Callahan was going to expose a slaying they had committed, The Boston Globe reported. Callahan's widow, Mary Callahan, called Connolly a "Judas" because he allegedly warned the mobsters Callahan was about to go to the FBI to finger them in the slaying of a Tulsa man. John Callahan's bullet-riddled body was found in a parking lot at Miami International Airport, stuffed in the trunk of a Cadillac, the newspaper said. Also to testify against Connolly, 68, is Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, 74, a former Boston Mafia member and FBI informant serving a life sentence for 10 murders. Flemmi says he and James "Whitey" Bulger killed Callahan after receiving a tip from Connolly. Bulger, 79, is at large and the FBI is offering a $2 million reward for his capture, the Globe

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Dr Attilio Manca was found dead in his flat in the central Italian town of Viterbo, it seemed an open and shut case.

Dr Attilio Manca was found dead in his flat in the central Italian town of Viterbo, it seemed an open and shut case. He appeared to have injected himself with a lethal cocktail of heroin and tranquillisers.But some claimed he was killed to cover the tracks of the then-fugitive mafia boss, and four years on, 10 people have been officially registered as suspects in a murder inquiry, and a police scientific expert has been asked to put names to the fingerprints discovered in Manca's home.
The reopening of the inquiry, reported yesterday by the newspaper La Stampa, represents a victory for Manca's parents and their campaign for further investigation of their son's death. "They were - and are - absolutely sure that their son was not a drug addict, and had no reason to commit suicide," their lawyer, Fabio Repici, said yesterday.Some of the circumstances surrounding Manca's death were puzzling at the outset. The caps on the syringes with which he had apparently injected himself had been replaced. "The doctor, moreover, was entirely left-handed," said Repici. "Yet, of the two injections marks found, one was on his left wrist and the other on his left forearm."It was not until long after his body was found, on the morning of February 13 2004, that his parents recalled another detail, innocuous in itself. The previous autumn, their son had rung them from the south of France to say he had flown there to take part in an operation.
Repici said a friend had pointed out that the timing of Manca's visit coincided exactly with that of Bernardo Provenzano who, in October 2003, was checked into a clinic near Marseille where he underwent an operation for the removal of a prostate tumour. Manca was a urologist. "Provenzano's tumour was removed by means of a keyhole surgery technique. Of that, there is documentary evidence," said Repici. "It was a technique which, at that time, in Italy, was used by very few urologists. One of them was Attilio Manca." He had assisted at the first such operation in Italy, in 2001.His parents and their lawyer believe the dead man's specialist abilities may well have been known to Cosa Nostra. Though he was practising in Viterbo, Manca came from Sicily, where his parents still live in a town whose local mafia has strong links to Provenzano's dominant faction.Provenzano, known as "the Tractor", was seized in a semi-derelict farm building in April 2006. He had been on the run from the authorities for 43 years.Police finally closed in on him after finding out about his operation on the Côte d'Azur. One of the people who supplied Provenzano with forged travel documents gave evidence against him.Repici said 19 sets of fingerprints were found in Manca's flat. Several belonged to the dead man or the guests at a dinner party he gave shortly before his death. His five guests were put on the list of suspects purely so their fingerprints could be taken and eliminated from the inquiry.But that left five more sets of prints that had not been identified, and five more suspects from the doctor's home town on Sicily where, Repici said, his parents had been threatened in an effort to get them to abandon their campaign

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Massimo Pisnoli, 48, was found with a gunshot wound to his face and back last month in undergrowth near a railway station after going missing for ten

Massimo Pisnoli, 48, was found with a gunshot wound to his face and back last month in undergrowth near a railway station after going missing for ten days. The two men, aged 40 and 48, were held in dawn raids at addresses in Rome. Police also seized an arsenal of weapons as well as 230grammes of cocaine.They were held after an investigation led by anti-Mafia prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo, who had also used undercover officers at Pisnoli's funeral to obtain information.A Rome police spokesman said: "Two men aged 40 and 48 have been arrested and are those responsible for the murder. It was a through investigation and concluded quickly."Both men are Italian and during the arrests weapons as well as 230 grammes of cocaine were also seized. Further details will be given at a news conference later."
Pisnoli was well known to police. Earlier this week they released footage of him carrying out an armed robbery on a bank in Rome just two weeks before he was found dead at Campoleone station on the outskirts of the city.The CCTV footage shows himgrabbing a customer and putting a knife to her throat as he demands money from cashiers before using her as a shield to get past armed guards at the door.Police believe two other men were involved in the raid as well as others across the city and the suburbs. Pisnoli was killed after failing to equally share the money, they believe.Besides being a World Cup winner, De Rossi is well known to Manchester United fans for scoring Roma's only goal when they lost 7-1 at Old Trafford in a Champions League quarter final in April 2007. He was praised by Sir Alex Ferguson, who was interested in buying him. At the time of Pisnoli's murder last month a police source said: "It was a classic execution: a bullet in the back and one to the mouth."He was virtually unrecognisable and his body was found with its arms up in the air. "From what we can gather it had been there at least a week and what with the hot weather it was in a pretty bad state. "He had convictions for robbery and theft and we know he moved in underworld circles.
"The area where he was found, south Lazio, is home to clans from the Neapolitan Camorra and the Calabrian N'drangheta."

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