Convicted Ricky Sam Sisneros of being an ex-felon in possession of seven firearms as well as ammunition and drug counts. The jury also found true allegations the crimes were gang-related.
The 45-year-old Sisneros was described during trial as the shot-caller for a Torrance street gang, but defense lawyer Caree Harper told jurors he was only a "junkie, bike-riding older man."
Open-air drug market in the Englewood area that authorities believe had ties to the Gangster Disciples was shut down, Chicago police said Wednesday.Police conducted 19 undercover crack cocaine buys during a six-month sting that monitored drug sales in a block of West 56th Street between South Elizabeth Street and South Racine Avenue, police said in a news release.Six people were arrested on drug charges during Operation Lackawanna, and police are looking for two people who allegedly sold drugs on the block.Police said it was the 47th open-air drug market that has been shut down this year.
Read more...Hundreds of mourners have gathered at Lakemba Mosque for the funeral of Kalid Dib, shot dead during a failed armoured van robbery on Tuesday.About 200 friends and relatives marched in a procession from a funeral parlour next door and into the mosque just before midday.A group of young men carried Dib's white casket, draped in a green religious sheet, up the steps and inside.The mourners included the clearly distraught immediately family of Dib, as well as controversial Sydney cleric Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly.After a half-hour service the crowd re-emerged and watched as the coffin was placed in a hearse and driven to Rookwood Cemetery, where he is to be buried.A small contingent of police and Sydney media stood by as the crowd walked up Wangee Road and then dispersed to drive to Rookwood.Dib and another man were fired at when they tried to rob three Armaguard guards of cash at the National Australia Bank on George Street, Parramatta, on Tuesday.The hunt for the two other men involved in the shooting continues today with police saying the security guards who fired are expected not to be charged.A prominent youth worker in the south-west, Fadi Rahman, also attended the funeral.Afterwards he told the Herald that Dib, whom he had known through the local Lebanese muslim community, had become sucked in a life of crime."These young kids have nothing. They emulate their older brothers, relatives, start acting up, and eventually they get recruited by real crims."
He said a lack of resources for local youth - Mr Rahman's Lidcombe youth centre and gym was forced to move last year after a stoush with Auburn Council - means there is limited help for troubled youth."There's no PCYC [police citizens youth club], no youth centre. What do you expect the result to be? Of course somebody is going to die. This time it was the young bloke, next time it could be the security guard.
"We've been speaking to the Premier, we've been speaking to MPs, but it comes to nothing. What will it take? Look at our streets, they're like ghettos."
Mr Rahman, who was involved in crime before he turned to youth work, said he understood how kids were sucked into criminal activity."They come from poor families, they have nothing and they get depressed. I know what it's like. You come to a state where your life is a dead end and you're willing to do anything to get out, even commit armed robberies."
John Gizzi yesterday blamed the credit crunch for stopping him paying back his ill gotten gains to the state.Lawyers for Gizzi, 36, also blamed bad headlines in the media on him being unable to sell his house in St Asaph to raise the full amount of cash he owes.The 36-year-old faces a default sentence of eight years unless he finds £2.6m under a proceeds of crime order made against him in March last year for every asset he owned.At a Proceeds of Crime Hearing to discuss why the money had not yet been paid back yesterday, Prestatyn court heard that so far £300,000 had been realised.But several offers had been made and withdrawn for his principal asset, Bronwylfa Hall at St Asaph. Originally it was offered at £1.75m, but was now “a bargain,” the court heard.District Judge Andrew Shaw agreed to adjourn the case until the end of September.He said the reason why he was allowing the adjournment of the default hearing was that Gizzi had not been shown to have wilfully obstructed the sale of any of his assets.Gizzi was locked up for five and a half years in January 2006 for wounding, assault and conspiracy to supply counterfeit cigarettes.
At the time police described him as a bully who preyed on the vulnerable and who was regarded locally as an untouchable millionaire crook. They had vowed publicly to relieve him of his ill-gotten gains.Kathleen Greenwood, seeking recovery of the assets, told the judge it was correct no criticism of Gizzi could be made for the withdrawal of offers for the mansion.Ian Till, for Gizzi, said lurid headlines had appeared about the property and it had been close to sale as recently as last week, but fell through. Market forces and headlines had worked against him. But it was now the subject of a new offer.“Mr Gizzi shares the frustration of the assets recovery team,” declared Mr Till.Six houses had been sold, offers had been made for some other properties, and a watch was being sold at a specialist auction. “Mr Gizzi is wanting desperately to realise these assets,” said Mr Till.
There was a large police presence at the court. Several members of the Gizzi family were in the public seats and John Gizzi smiled frequently to them through the glass screen of the dock.At the end of the hearing he was handcuffed and led away to return to prison.The hearing was adjourned until the end of September, but the case will also come before a judge at Mold Crown Court earlier in the month.
The two young men charged in last month's shooting death of Victoria student Philbert Truong were among the 11 suspected associates of the violent Red Scorpion gang identified by Victoria police during a recent drug sting, sources close to the investigation said yesterday.Dubbed Operation Mongoose, the initiative kicked into gear on July 22, three days after Mr. Truong was gunned down outside a View Street nightclub.On Tuesday, police said they had seven of the 11 alleged Red Scorpion affiliates in custody. They later acknowledged that only five of the people arrested in the sting have been linked to the gang.On condition of anonymity, sources close to the investigation acknowledged that the other two who are "believed to have some affiliation with the Red Scorpion gang" are the suspects in Mr. Truong's death. They were taken into custody minutes after the shooting. Victoria police Constable Colin Brown refused comment Tuesday when asked about possible links between Mr. Truong's murder and the wave of drug arrests.Yesterday, Victoria police Sergeant Grant Hamilton called the murder investigation "completely separate" from Operation Mongoose."It's before the courts, and it would be inappropriate to speculate on any association between these arrests and the incident on View Street," Sgt. Hamilton said.He declined to specify which suspects are believed to be Red Scorpion affiliates, noting that police departments can be sued for incorrectly identifying someone as a gang member.Mr. Truong was gunned down in the early morning hours of July 19 as he and a group of friends were leaving the Red Jacket nightclub.
Two other young men believed to be friends of Mr. Truong were wounded in the attack.
Somphavanh Chanthabouala, 22, of Surrey and a 16-year-old who can't be named are facing charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder in connection with the shooting.The seven people facing drug possession or trafficking charges, or both, as a result of Operation Mongoose are: Mark Hubahib, Kurtis Schmidt, John Supena, Ashley Appolinario, Raphael Jose Blanco, Hisham Bennink and Justin Houchen. The suspects range in age from 18 to 23. Mr. Houchen was convicted of selling crack cocaine outside Victoria City Hall in July and sent back to the Lower Mainland. He is a under court order to stay away from Victoria.Victoria police said on Tuesday that Red Scorpion affiliates began aggressively targeting the local drug trade this spring.
Red Scorpion district "managers" had equipped junior drug runners with vehicles and cell phones as part of a dial-a-dope drug-dealing business, similar to Red Scorpion operations on the Lower Mainland, police said.
The Red Scorpion gang formed in 2000 inside a youth detention centre. Upon their release, the group of Asian males began a "dial-a-dope" operation in the Coquitlam area. In 2006, RCMP officers arrested several Red Scorpions and charged them with drug trafficking.
The investigation, titled Project E-Poison, produced 10 guilty pleas.
"That was the project that was thought to have really brought about the demise of the early manifestation of the Red Scorpions," said Sergeant Shinder Kirk of the Lower Mainland's Integrated Gang Task Force. "But again, given the drug situation not only within the Lower Mainland but the province and certainly nationally, we had a coalescing of people under that name and off they went again. That speaks to the draw of the drug trade."
Police don't know how many members the Red Scorpion gang has, or how far the gang's reach is.Sgt. Kirk said the "franchising" model used by the Red Scorpions to bully their way onto the Victoria drug scene is nothing new to the B.C. drug trade.
"We've seen it in organized crime," Sgt. Kirk said. "They may have an individual who has ties there that's already part of the group, or there's somebody already in the community who's engaged in the drug trade who sees an opportunity to now connect with someone who has the capacity to import or move larger shipments. We have a two-way street."
The Red Scorpions are a multi-ethnic gang known for its lack of mercy. The gang has been mentioned in connection with the death of six men in a Surrey apartment last October. Two of the people killed were uninvolved with crime (Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan).
Seven members of the Vancouver-based Red Scorpions gang are facing multiple drug trafficking charges in Victoria. Victoria Police say the bust of a dial-a-dope scheme was designed to keep the notorious Vancouver gang from moving into the provincial capital. Victoria Police Sergeant Grant Hamilton says they started an undercover operation focused on the Red Scorpions when they heard local drug dealers were being threatened by a gang from Vancouver. "We felt we had to do that, because we believe there was a significant risk to public safety due to their willingness to use violence and intimidation to further their criminal behaviour."Sergeant Hamilton says several of those arrested had loaded weapons nearby. Police say five of the suspects are under arrest and warrants have been issued for the other two, who have yet to be found. Some of the suspects were arrested after a raid carried out on a home in Saanich. The names of the suspects have not been released.
Five-time Mexican supercross champion was brutally murdered in his home by a biker gang on Monday.Rene Tercero Reyes Aguirre was shot by an armed gang who broke into his home in Juarez, Mexico.Two friends of the 24 year old rider were also murdered in the attack, which followed a series of violent gang-related attacks in the town on Monday that left a total of 11 people dead.The violence raged on into Tuesday, when a further three people were killed.
Glock handgun seized by gardai during a raid on a house in Dublin's north inner city is being linked to a series of underworld hits.
And one of the men arrested during the raids has been described as a 'serious player' in Dublin's inner city underworld by informed gardai.
The gun which was fitted with a silencer was uncovered by gardai from Pearse Street Drugs Unit when they raided a house on Sean McDermott Street. Drugs with a potential street value of nearly €500,000 were also seized in separate searches in Dublin. In addition to the weapon, detectives also seized 10 rounds of ammunition at the house, €100,000 worth of heroin, €40,000 worth of valium and up to €45,000 in cash. The majority of the cash was found in a fridge. Two men, one in his late 20's and one in his mid teens were arrested at the house and are currently being detained in Pearse Street garda station under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act. The haul is seen as significant by top investigators. They have netted not only a large amount of heroin, but also a gun they believe has been used in a number of underworld assassinations and most importantly the arrest of one of their most wanted men.
After their success, a follow-up search was carried out at a house in Balbriggan shortly after 3pm. In the course of the search heroin valued at €300,000 and approximately €20,000 worth of valium tablets, some drug paraphernalia and €3,000 in cash were also seized. A third man in his late 20's was arrested and is in custody in Pearse Street garda station, detained under Section 2 of the Drug Trafficking Act. The recovered gun will now be put through a series of ballistic tests to see if it can be positively linked to any murders or criminal activity.
The find is seen as significant by gardai. The three people arrested during the raids are still being quizzed by gardai today at Pearse Street garda station. They can be held for up to seven days.
violent brawl may have started because the Hells Angels thought a Christian motorcycle ministry was claiming an affiliation with them, according to court documents made public Thursday.
The 52-page search warrant affidavit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, also cites an anonymous tipster who called police shortly after the July 27 brawl and said the Set Free Soldiers were planning a "war party" at an abandoned chicken farm in Riverside County.
One member had readied a "truckload of guns" there, the caller told authorities.
Set Free's leader, Phillip Aguilar, and four other biker ministers were charged with weapons and gang felonies after the fight at a Newport Beach bar that ended in two stabbings. The dust-up prompted police to raid the Set Free Christian Ministries compound in Anaheim, where they allegedly recovered thousands of rounds of ammunition and dozens of guns and knives. They also raided Hells Angels homes in Costa Mesa and Rancho Santa Margarita. Attorneys for Aguilar and the Set Free Soldiers didn't immediately return calls seeking comment on Thursday.
Aguilar, 60, started his counterculture church in 1982 after saying he found Jesus while doing time in the state penitentiary for child abuse. His church, which prides itself on its outreach to criminals, drug addicts and biker gangs, has attracted thousands of members nationwide and operates several drug rehab homes around Southern The brawl began at Blackie's By the Sea, when five Hells Angels met with Aguilar and two other Set Free Soldiers, according to police reports and the affidavit. During am argument, eight other Set Free Soldiers entered the bar and surrounded the Hells Angels, who then began throwing punches. Police have said they believe the Set Free Soldiers initiated the meeting and wanted to ambush the Hells Angels. One Set Free pastor caught fleeing with a bloody knife in his car told police the brawl began when the Hells Angels' leader confronted Aguilar and told him Set Free had been claiming affiliation with the Hells Angels, the documents state.
The Hells Angel leader allegedly told Aguilar they were not authorized to take business from the Hells Angels. Set Free member Glenn Schoeman told police he was afraid the Hells Angels would now be "greenlighted" to kill him and other Set Free members since they had drawn blood in the fight, the documents state. Schoeman has since been charged with a felony count of concealing evidence in the stabbing for allegedly hiding the knife, as street terrorism and gang enhancements.
Reputed member of West Oakland's Acorn drug gang died early Wednesday from gunshot wounds sustained Tuesday night in East Oakland, police said.
He was identified as Jonathan Gonzalez, 21, whose street name was "Redbone," police said.A 34-year-old man who said he was Gonzalez's cousin was also wounded. His name was not released, and police were not sure if he lived in Oakland or Emeryville.
The shooting happened about 9:53 p.m. Tuesday at a housing project in the 1200 block of 65th Avenue.The older man told police he and Gonzalez were walking back from a store when they were confronted by a man with a gun who began shooting at them. Both men were hit several times by gunfire.Gonzalez died from his wounds at 2:29 a.m. Wednesday at Highland Hospital. The other man was in critical condition at a local hospital.The survivor told police he did not know why the man shot them, nor what he and Gonzalez were doing in East Oakland.One investigator said Gonzalez "may have got caught slippin," a street term for someone who gets overconfident about their safety and is not as careful as they should be.Police said Gonzalez has been seen lately in East Oakland and was arrested Aug. 1 in the 5900 block of Bromley Avenue — a few blocks from where he was fatally shot — on suspicion of selling drugs, but was not charged.Police said numerous people witnessed the shooting, and at least 30 people were present when officers first arrived on the scene. However, so far no one has been willing to talk to police.Sgt. Jim Rullamas said there could be several motives for the killing.Police said there was not enough evidence to arrest Gonzalez in a police roundup of the Acorn gang June 17 that followed a two-month investigation focusing on drug dealing, shootings and other acts of violence linked to the group. More than 50 suspected members were jailed and are being prosecuted.
Police said Gonzalez had been shot at least once in the past and was suspected of but never charged in several gang-related shootings.Police said Gonzalez was ambushed Jan. 31, 2006, by four suspected members of the Lower Bottoms gang, another violent West Oakland group, outside a store at 8th and Adeline streets.Gonzalez was wounded in the arm, but one of the bullets killed Gamel Attayeb, 25, a San Leandro father of two who was about to go into the store. Police described Attayeb as "a totally innocent victim."The four arrested and charged in the shooting were all convicted earlier this year of counts ranging from first degree murder to second degree murder to voluntary manslaughter; all counts included gang enhancement clauses. The gunman got life in prison without parole, another man got 15 years to life, another 24 years and the fourth a 14-year sentence.Gonzalez's killing was Oakland's 87th homicide of the year. Last year at this time, there were 85 homicides.
Glitter had flown to the Chinese territory after refusing to board a flight to London following his deportation from Vietnam.The 64-year-old former glam rocker, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was deported after serving almost three years in jail for sexually abusing two girls.Chinese authorities informed their UK counterparts that they had barred Gadd from the country after his arrival at 11pm local time (1600 BST).He had refused to board a UK-bound flight at Bangkok airport, saying he was having a heart attack. Thai officials threatened to transfer him to a detention centre if he continued to thwart efforts to remove him from the airport but police and airline officials said Gadd had boarded a flight to Hong Kong this afternoon.
Gadd's demands to be let into Thailand were refused by the Thai authorities, who were prepared to exercise powers to deny entry to convicted sex offenders and would not allow him to pass immigration.Travellers are allowed to spend only 12 hours in transit at the airport before they are deemed to have violated Thai immigration law. Gadd was told he would not be allowed to leave the airport unless it was on a flight out of the country.He missed his connection last night. A second flight left for London at 12.25pm local time (6.25am GMT), but Thai Airways said Gadd was not on board. Major General Phongdej Chaiprawat, of the Thai police, said: "He is banned from entering (Thailand) because he was jailed and he could pose a threat to domestic morality. He is a transit passenger and it is the responsibility of the airline to take him to his final destination."A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We were last aware that he remained in transit. He decides where he applies to go and the country or authorities there will decide whether they permit him to enter their territory."It is unlikely that any south Asian country will accept Gadd. Cambodia has already blacklisted him.Gadd's deportation degenerated into confusion yesterday when he landed in Bangkok after a 90-minute Thai Airways flight from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, but refused to transfer to his connecting flight.Gadd demanded to fly to Singapore after Thai officials refused to let him into the country.
He argued with immigration officers, insisting he had "done his time" and was a "free man", while Thai officials and British embassy staff tried to persuade him to board the London-bound plane. Then he complained of a heart ailment and booked himself into a VIP hotel within the airport. The hotel is technically international territory. This morning Gadd refused to check out, claiming to be unwell.
He was released yesterday from Thu Duc prison, north of Ho Chi Minh City, after serving two years and nine months of a three-year sentence for the repeated sexual abuse of two girls aged 10 and 11.He had been due to arrive at Heathrow this morning, where he would have been met by police and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register.
The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said today that Britain could not enforce Gadd's return. A British police officer sent to escort him back to the UK admitted he had no legal jurisdiction and could only look on during yesterday's developments.
Gadd was jailed in the UK in 1999 for downloading child pornography. On release he moved to Spain and Cuba before going to south-east Asia.
Cambodia expelled him over alleged sex crimes and he went to the Vietnamese coastal resort of Vung Tau, where he lay low until his presence was uncovered in 2005 by British tabloid newspapers.The two girls he was eventually convicted of abusing initially said he had raped them — a crime which carries the death penalty — but were reportedly paid off. Gadd was arrested trying to leave Vietnam and stood trial. He pleaded not guilty, claiming he had been teaching the girls English. He was sentenced in March 2006
Christopher Dwayne Hall is charged with first-degree murder, indecent liberties with a child and desecration of a corpse in the December 2006 slaying of 15-year-old Nacole Winter.According to testimony at Hall's preliminary hearing Tuesday, Winter was beaten, stomped and strangled in a Topeka apartment. Then her body was transported in the trunk of a car to Lake Shawnee where it was burned from the waist down.Hall's brother, Michael Hall, testified that another young woman who unexpectedly showed up at the apartment could have suffered the same fate had she seen the body.Winter's body was found Dec. 14, 2006, two weeks after she left Hope Street Academy without permission.
Read more...Police have made no arrests in the slaying of Efrem Mehari Kuflom, 30, but investigators said Tuesday his criminal history makes drugs the most likely motive.
"The investigation has shown so far that (Kuflom) was involved in trafficking drugs," said Staff Sgt. Kevin Forsen of the homicide unit.
Court records obtained by the Herald show Kuflom pleaded guilty earlier this year to trafficking cocaine, possessing cash as proceeds of crime and breach of probation stemming from an arrest on June 28, 2007.Queen's Bench Justice Bryan Mahoney gave Kuflom a conditional sentence of two years less a day in May, and ordered him to spend the first year under 24-hour house arrest.
Kuflom was authorized to leave his home only for work, education or medical emergencies.Part of the homicide investigation is focused on why Kuflom was behind the wheel of his Pontiac sedan in a Beltline alleyway when he was shot around 11:30 a.m. on Monday."We're still trying to drill down into that," Forsen said.
Relatives at Kuflom's northwest home declined comment.Investigators, meanwhile, have gathered surveillance footage from buildings around the shooting scene, and officers are doing a door-to-door canvas of nearby residents along 11th Street S.W., between 12th and 13th avenues."The beat officers in that area are very, very diligent and recognized (Kuflom's) vehicle, but didn't have any specific recall of it," Forsen said.
About a dozen witnesses have spoken to police so far.Forsen said people who knew Kuflom or anyone who can shed light on his whereabouts in the time leading up to the shooting could hold the key for investigators."No matter what the forensic advances in science, we need help from the public," he said.Investigators were also in the process of getting a search warrant for Kuflom's car on Tuesday; a search of his person didn't turn up any drugs or weapons, Forsen added.As part of his sentence, Kuflom was ordered to submit to random searches of his person, vehicle or home, take counselling, abstain from alcohol or non-prescription drugs and submit to random alcohol or drug testing as requested.
After the 12 months of house arrest expired, Kuflom was ordered to serve the second half of his sentence under a nightly curfew.The judge also imposed a 10-year firearms and weapons prohibition and ordered Kuflom to provide a DNA sample.
Although Kuflom's record points to his involvement in the illegal drug trade, Forsen said investigators must remain open to other reasons behind his killing.
"We're not closing the door on other possible motives," he said.Witnesses saw a man running from the scene and police are trying to find him.
He is described as dark-skinned, in his early- to mid-20s, wearing a hooded jacket.
Police also received vague information about a second person of interest, but said Tuesday they are still investigating that angle.
Denisa Manga, 21, and her younger brother Julio, 18, were arrested in Windsor in June as part of the wrap-up of a nine-month police investigation into cross-border gun smuggling that also resulted in the arrests in Michigan of five Detroit men. Investigators seized ammunition magazines, 235 rounds of ammo and 27 guns - 11 loaded - in downtown Windsor. Police intercepted another 10 guns in Detroit that they say were headed here. It was the largest illegal gun seizure in Windsor history.All charges against Julio Manga were dropped. He sat in the courtroom with the siblings' parents during the sentencing by Ontario Court Justice Guy DeMarco.
Windsor Police Service Supt. Dave Pickford displays illegal handguns at a press conference Tuesday, June 10, 2008. Windsor Police and other law enforcement agencies have cut the supply line of an organized gun smuggling ring and have arrested two Windsor residents.The court heard that Denisa Manga served as courier on two occasions, delivering handguns, some of them loaded, to undercover officers in Windsor on Feb. 5 and 13. The first time, the cops paid $2,200 for two 9mm guns, paying Manga an additional $500 for delivery, while on the second time, they paid $5,000 for four guns, which included $600 to Manga."That was a very serious crowd you were running with," said DeMarco. "Those weapons are used principally to kill people or attempt to kill people," he said.Before sentencing, Manga told the court: "I would like to apologize to everyone, especially my family."
The judge handed her a 67-month sentence after giving her the standard two-for-one credit for the 2.5 months already spent in custody. Assistant Crown attorney Roger Dietrich said the prosecution was seeking a sentence in the range of six to eight years.DeMarco also handed Manga concurrent five-year sentences for Canada Customs charges related to the offence, he prohibited Manga from possessing weapons for the rest of her life and ordered her to submit a blood sample to police.
"She has learned a very, very significant lesson," said defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme.
The Red Scorpions are considered to be one of the most violent gangs in B.C. and members have been identified as suspects in the slaughter of six people in a Surrey highrise in October 2007.Victoria police say they've dismantled a chapter of the Vancouver-based Red Scorpions gang that aggressively expanded in the capital city's drug trade by threatening other dealers and sometimes giving crack cocaine away for free.Police arrested six people, in their late teens and early 20s, last week and raided a Saanich house -- on Borden Street, near McKenzie Avenue -- they called the base of operations for a burgeoning Greater Victoria "dial-a-dope" operation.In addition to the arrests, police seized $3,000 in cash, $1,000 in cocaine and a loaded sawed-off shotgun, said Const. Colin Brown, a lead investigator.The raid was the culmination of a month-long undercover operation by the Greater Victoria Regional Crime Unit, and Victoria and Saanich police. Plainclothes officers bought crack cocaine from dealers downtown, said Brown."We certainly believe that we've made a dent in this group," said Brown.During the undercover work, police identified 11 people they thought were either members or associates of the Red Scorpions. Six were arrested and face court dates this week. Two are in custody for unrelated charges, and three remain on the loose and are wanted, say police.Those arrested face a variety of drug trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking charges. They are to appear in court this week. Victoria police will ask the court to ban some of them from returning to Vancouver Island, said Brown.
The Red Scorpion gang was recruiting members in Victoria by distributing free crack cocaine with a phone number for orders it filled 24 hours a day, said Brown. The Scorpions were also "very aggressive" to other dealers and police were concerned about the potential for future violence, said Brown.
It was established in the Lower Mainland eight years ago by a group of young men who met each other in a youth detention facility and has grown over the years. Many members have a "RS" tattoo on their wrists, neck or shoulders.
Two years ago, several Red Scorpions were arrested in connection with a large crack cocaine "dial-a-dope" operation in Coquitlam, Burnaby, New Westminster and Port Moody. After 10 accused in the ring pleaded guilty, it was believed the Scorpions had been disbanded but police said earlier this year the gang was still active.
Sgt. Shinder Kirk, of the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force, said he's aware people in Victoria are affiliated with the Red Scorpions, but he didn't know whether they are associates or members.He said many individuals will operate under the moniker of certain groups, such as the Scorpions, in a franchise-type situation in order to intimidate and sell their drugs. "No community is immune; if there's a market for their product, they'll operate there," said Kirk.Police pressure on the Lower Mainland may have played a part in the gang's decision to expand to Vancouver Island, said Sgt. Dave Bown, head of the Greater Victoria Regional Crime Unit
The investigation into the Columbus Hotel fire is still in its earliest stage, but you can be sure police are well into considering the first thing that was on the mind of a lot of people Tuesday.
The Columbus's reputation as a biker bar led many to assume the fire was gang related -- with one gang striking at the other by torching one of the places some of its rivals were known to frequent.
It had been only two weeks since the last public violent encounter involving the local underworld took place, that being the downtown shootout allegedly between rival factions of the Independent Soldiers.
If people's assumptions are correct and the Columbus fire is the work of gang members, it escalates an already tense situation that has become increasingly and frighteningly public.
Two men, residents of the hotel said to be unconnected to any gang, are feared dead in the charred rubble where only three brick walls still stand.
If the Prince George Fire Department determines arson is the cause, the police investigation takes on a double-homicide element. Those intent on misspending their youth by succumbing to the allure of being a drugged-out minion, a gang footsoldier, might want to consider the grave consequences. They're damned if they do carry out their masters' wishes and damned if they don't.
Among those watching the scene in disbelief Tuesday were several youths with at least a passing familiarity with street life in Prince George. One rode his bicycle downtown to place a resume at the Centre for Learning Alternatives, directly across Second Avenue from the still-smouldering remains of the Columbus. He hadn't heard about the fire by Tuesday afternoon and couldn't believe what he saw.
"It's probably gangs," he said without prompting, getting back on his bike after finding the centre closed for the day because of the fire.
"I was going to meet a guy down here. We were both going to try for (job) placements. He used to be in a gang and I read that he got out.
"They should all do that," he said as he rode off, still clutching his resume.
The young man was close enough to street life to know how things work, but smart enough to know it's a dead end, sometimes literally.
Oh, for more like him.
John McGranaghan said that a city businessman, who now lives in Spain, went to Glasgow crime baron, Arthur Thompson, to organise the hit. Thompson, was a notorious Glasgow-born gangster who took charge of organised crime in the city for more than 30 years.Thompson began his career as a money lender and became infamous for nailing those who failed to pay debts to him to the floor by their hands and feet.Linked to the notorious Kray twins, protection rackets soon followed and Thompson invested his money into legitimate businesses, making him very wealthy.
One of the most feared criminals in Scotland, it was rumoured that, by the 1990s, he was earning £100,000 a week as a loan shark.His former protege, Paul Ferris, was acquitted of shooting his son, Arthur junior, and Thompson later denied he was behind the murders of two other men, Bobby Glover and Joe "Bananas" Hanlon, who were to have appeared alongside Ferris in connection with the murder.A gunshot victim himself in 1988, he died in Glasgow on March 13, 1993 from a heart attack aged 61.
The hired killers, who were also from Glasgow and paid £12,000, went after the wrong man and stabbed and beat Mr McCann to death on February 20, 1974.The four men alleged to be responsible are now dead.Mr McGranaghan said today: "I looked quite like Neil, dark hair, same build, and they must've thought I was him. The next day I got a call from a pal in the know who said, 'You were lucky', and told me the hit had been for me. He said guys from a Glasgow crew were through and whacked the wrong person."He added: "I felt bad for Neil and his family. I didn't know him, but I'm told he was a decent guy. But I'm still glad it was him rather than me, I won't apologise for that."Mr McGranaghan told police, who recently flew to his London home to interview him after he wrote a letter detailing the circumstances to Chief Constable David Strang, that the businessman behind the hit suspected him of setting a fire at one of his premises in the city's West End.The 66-year-old said that the man, whom the Evening News has not named for legal reasons, asked to meet him for a drink at the International Bar in Tollcross on the night of the murder. But he had "smelled a rat" and decided to return to London, where he had stayed on and off for two years.Instead, his brother, Charlie McGranaghan, went to the bar to "feel him out", but the businessmen failed to turn up. But Charlie did meet his old school friend, Neil McCann, in the pub and the pair stayed out to drink together.The two men later caught a bus back to the Craigmillar area and Neil, 37, was attacked in Craigmillar Castle Loan just minutes after getting off at his stop.Detectives had always suspected that the murder was a professional hit which went wrong, and one police theory was that Charlie McGranaghan was the intended victim.But John McGranaghan, who was cleared of rape on appeal in 1991 after serving 11 years in jail, revealed that some of the killers knew his brother as they had served time together in Peterhead jail and would not have mistaken him.The pensioner said that he was told by friends at the time that four men had been hired for the hit, which police always believed involved just two. The businessman behind it was well-known figure on the criminal scene in the Capital in the 1960s and 1970s. Mr McGranaghan said: "I used to have the odd drink with (the businessman] if I saw him in Edinburgh when I was back in town. I was up on the Friday before the murder and bumped into him in the Warrender baths."He had gotten it into his head that I set fire to (his premises), which is totally wrong, although he didn't mention it. I had been told he suspected me by a detective I knew a few months before. "He asked me out for a drink at the International the next week, which I thought was strange because he hadn't asked me out for one before."I later learned that (the businessman) had put out a contract on me with Arthur Thompson. That night I phoned the International and asked Charlie if he had turned up and he said no. "The Glasgow team who were in on the hit were in Peterhead with Charlie and knew him well. But they didn't know me."Mr McGranaghan, who moved to London in 1972, said another underworld friend contacted him later. "He told me that (the businessman) complained to Arthur Thompson about the mix-up with Neil, and didn't want to pay the £12,000. But he paid up after Thompson said he would send the team round to get it themselves."I didn't hold anything against Arthur Thompson, or the guys who did it. It wasn't a personal thing as they didn't even know me. It was just business."
Mr McGranaghan was jailed for life in 1981 after being found guilty at the Old Bailey of a rape and indecent assaults against three women between 1978 and 1980. But following a campaign by Rough Justice, he was freed after forensic evidence showed there had been a "miscarriage of justice", according to appeal judges.
He said: "I was in Frankland Prison in Durham just before I was released. I met a guy there and we got pally – we were both Scottish. We were talking about the Edinburgh (criminal) scene and he asked if I knew (the businessman]. I laughed and said 'yes'."He couldn't believe it when I told him about Neil. He knew the Glasgow team that was sent through for a 'bit of work' and screwed it up."
McGranaghan said he wrote to the Chief Constable after suggestions that his brother Charlie was a drug dealer and perhaps the true target for Neil McCann's killers.
He said: "I was angry that Charlie had been accused of being a dealer and I didn't want them putting this on him too."Charlie hated drugs and had nothing to do with them. He considered someone who smoked cannabis a no-good junkie. He only came to London to help me fight to be released from prison."Charlie McGranaghan was murdered in 1981 by Ronnie Turnbull, who was having an affair with his brother John's now ex-wife, Janet, while her husband was in prison on the rape charges. He confronted Turnbull, who stabbed him to death and was later jailed for murder.Retired detective Bert Swanson, head of the "cold case" unit at Lothian and Borders Police, interviewed Mr McGranaghan at his home two months ago. He also led the re-investigation into missing schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton.The McGranaghans' sister also told her story to CID detectives on Wednesday night at her home after being unable to keep the family secret any longer. She was unaware that her brother had already been interviewed by police as they have not spoken for more than a decade after a falling out.Margaret Hamilton, 64, who lives in Bingham Drive, near The Jewel, went to police following the death of her grandson, James Fraser, 24, last month. She decided to come forward so the McCann family would not "suffer anymore". Mrs Hamilton told police that her brother revealed that Neil McCann was killed by mistake.She said: "John told me that (the businessman) thought he started the fire and put the contract out on him. Neil did look quite like him and he was killed instead. Charlie was a decent man but John only cared about himself and was always getting in fights and bother."A police spokeswoman said today: "We can confirm that we are looking again into the death of Neil McCann after new information came to light."
A man who was shot by an off-duty police officer during the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is still recovering from his injuries at Rapid City Regional Hospital, officials reported Sunday.
Joseph McGuire, 33, of Imperial Beach, Calif. who is a member of the notorious Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, was shot at about 1 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 9 at the Loud American Roadhouse, a bar in Sturgis. According to previous reports in the Seattle Times, he had suffered wounds to his stomach and his leg. His condition is improving, as McGuire has been moved from the intensive care unit to a different floor of the hospital.Ron Smith, 43, an off-duty Seattle police officer who is a member of the Iron Pigs Motorcycle Club, an organization of law enforcement officers and firefighters who are also motorcycle enthusiasts, allegedly shot McGuire. According to previous reports, the shots were fired after an altercation started between Smith and several Hells Angels. McGuire has reported to the Seattle Times that he felt as though his life was in danger during the attack.While there has been some speculation that the reason for the fight between the Hells Angels and the Iron Pigs was because the officers refused to remove their motorcycle club “colors” or patches, authorities now think there could be more to the case. Less than a year ago Smith testified against members of the Hells Angels group, a testimony that sent at least four members of the gang to prison on racketeering and attempted murder charges. Authorities have not uncovered any evidence that suggests the Hells Angels altercation was related to Smith's testimony, but officials are not ruling it out as a possibility.Smith has not yet been charged in the shooting. After being detained for questioning Saturday night, he was allowed to return home to Seattle, where he and other officers who were present during the shooting have reportedly been relieved of duty while an investigation continues. A grand jury, which was originally assembled Sunday, Aug. 10, is scheduled to reconvene Aug. 27 at the Meade County Courthouse to hear testimony from witnesses in the bar, law enforcement investigating the case, and others.One of the issues to be discussed is whether Smith legally had a firearm with him while in the Loud American Roadhouse, a popular hangout during the Rally. While state law prohibits off-duty police officers from carrying firearms into an establishment that sells alcohol, a federal law entitled the “Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004” allows officers to carry firearms at all times, with few exceptions. The law does not allow officers to carry the weapons when they are intoxicated.
Shots were fired, windows were broken and one person was injured in a gang fight at two Missouri City fast-food restaurants early Saturday.
Police believe the fight started at around 12:10 a.m. Saturday, when members of the "Fab" gang fired shots at "Mash Mode" members at a McDonald's at 1605 Cartwright Road.According to Missouri City Police Department reports, while officers were responding to a "shots fired" call, a dispatcher received a second call saying a window at the restaurant had been shot out. Also, a window was shot out in a car that had passengers inside.When officers arrived, several cars were leaving the area. Police found broken glass in the parking lot, and several .45-caliber and 9mm bullet casings on the ground, reports said.Witnesses at the scene said the shots were fired from a White Ford Explorer. Within minutes, another police officer spotted that vehicle at Murphy and Cartwright roads, and made a traffic stop.
Police Capt. John Bailey said the officer recognized the passenger as a known Fab gang member, and ordered the passenger and driver out of the vehicle. The officer then searched the vehicle and found two handguns under the passenger seat.
He then arrested the passenger, Patrick Morrison, 20, of Missouri City, and charged him with assault with a deadly weapon, unlawfully carrying a firearm and deadly conduct.Meanwhile, police had received a call that shots had been fired at a Denny's restaurant on State Highway 6.Minutes after the call, two other police officers who had responded to a call on an unrelated matter near the 6100 block of State Highway 6 were standing near the street, and turned upon hearing a noise.
Bailey said the two then saw a car driving at a high rate of speed, in reverse. The car slammed into a gas pump at a station at Murphy Road and Highway 6, knocking the pump over. Two men in the car jumped out, and ran into the waiting arms of the two patrolmen.Police determined that the two had been involved in the Denny's shooting, and they were arrested for deadly conduct.The two, Jefon Bogan, 18, and Taurean Riles, 19, both of Missouri City, were transported to Fort Bend County Jail in Richmond, as was Morrison.Bailey said someone was shot in the leg at McDonalds, but it was a graze wound and not serious.The gas pump had an automatic cut-off valve, and gasoline did not spill in that accident.
Shawn Walker, also called Coach, was taken into custody after he was injured during a shootout with the police on Wednesday. He is still in hospital under police guard.
Walker has since been charged for shooting with intent and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. The police say Walker is the leader of a gang, which operates out of a section of the Phase Two Housing Scheme in Seaview Gardens known as Marley. According to the police he was also a suspect in the murder of bus driver, Roy McFarlene about three weeks ago. The police say he will be facing an identification parade in connection with that case as soon as he is released from hospital. Further charges are also expected to be laid against Walker in the case of a murder, which is reportedly being probed by the Major Investigative Task Force.
20-year-old Alberta woman was shot and killed over the weekend, the unintended victim of a vicious gang war that has claimed a number of lives at a collection of reserves south of Edmonton. Delema Dixon, who also goes by the last name Lefthand, was shot in the head Saturday night when her home was riddled by gunfire on the Samson reserve -- one of four First Nations in Hobbema, Alta. Dixon's mother, Vernadee Applegarth, told CTV News that she believed it was her son -- who is in a gang -- who was the target. It wasn't the first time that their home was shot up in the last few years. Applegarth is now left to take care of her daughter's 18-month-old child. "I'm angry so much that I want to get revenge," she said. Dixon's father, Darren Applejohn, likened living on the reserve to living in a warzone. "It's just like living in Iraq -- terrorist town -- that's how I see it. Bunch of terrorists here," he said. Gun complaints are nearly an everyday occurrence in the region -- one of the mostly heavily policed per capita in Canada. "These types of cowardly acts are hideous, and there are a lot of community members that are fed up with it," RCMP Cpl. Darrel Bruno said. Dixon's death -- the third murder on the reserves since a gun and weapons amnesty was announced only weeks ago -- sparked leaders to meet for emergency meetings on Monday. "People are saying, `What can we do to make it right?'" Roy Louis, an adviser with the Samson First Nation told The Canadian Press.
"It is up to us, the Four Nations people. We need to work together to come up with long-term solutions against the gangs, the drugs and the violence. But our community has to take charge." Leaders announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone responsible for the murders on the reserves. There have been five murders already this year, in a community of 12,000. But Applejohn said that people are afraid to come forward to police, saying they are labelled as snitches or shot at themselves. One of the four First Nations has imposed a youth curfew. The Samson First Nation also approved the destruction of 26 known drug houses.
There are believed to be at least 13 gangs operating in the reserves, fighting for control over the drug trade, which mostly deals in crack cocaine.
Nate Craft the former hit man testified against a Detroit drug gang in return for prosecutors reducing a first-degree murder charge for the killing of a drug dealer.
Released from prison in April, Craft thought he would enter the Witness Protection Program. Not only was he rejected, but his probation requires him to live in Michigan for the next two years. By forcing him to live in the same place as the people he testified against, many of whom were paid killers and already have been released from prison, Craft said his probation amounts to a virtual death sentence.
"You might as well pull the trigger and shoot me now," said Craft, who doesn't want to say where he lives in Michigan because he doesn't want to be found.
The handling of his case raises questions about just how far prosecutors should go to protect criminals, even murderers, who help convict other crooks, legal experts said. Craft, 51, admits he was no angel.
He was one of the most ruthless members of the vicious Best Friends, a hired hit man who killed 30 people in the mid 1980s. He was never charged with the other deaths. Now the tables have been turned. The hunter thinks he is hunted. Craft's federal and state probation officers also believe he's in danger.
"He's in a situation where he's vulnerable," said George Murphy, a Michigan probation officer. "It's not surprising reprisals would be sought by others."
For Craft's safety, both probation officers visit him at home rather than make him travel to their offices. Still, it didn't take long for Craft's old running mates to learn he was out of prison. On his second day of freedom, he was walking out of a grocery store when a man called out his name. He turned around to spy a former accomplice. The man said he would tell Craft's old cohorts that he was back on the street. During his 17 years in federal prison, Craft was in the Witness Protection Program, kept separate from the general population. Upon his release, he applied for the next phase of the program, which would give him a new name and new life somewhere in the United States. But his request was rejected by the Justice Department, which didn't give a reason. A department spokeswoman declined comment. Bill Soisson, an assistant U.S. attorney who supported Craft's request, said a Justice Department official told him the reason Craft was rejected was that he had told a prison psychologist he was going to blow up a federal building. Soisson didn't know which building or why Craft made the threat.
Craft said he never made such a remark. "Why would I say something that ignorant?" he asked. "Do I look like a fool? I ain't no fool." If anyone thought Craft was a fool in the mid-1980s, they kept it to themselves. He was an imposing figure: 6-foot-1, 300 pounds, bald and bearded, with a permanent scowl. By age 10, he committed his first robbery, records show. By 21, he was a twice-convicted felon. By 35, he had spent nearly half his life in prison. In 1984, Craft caught the eye of brothers Reggie and Terry Brown after winning a Toughman boxing contest at Cobo Center.
The Browns were the leaders of a burgeoning drug gang, Best Friends, which was about to ignite a ferocious drug war in Detroit, prosecutors said.
They wanted to know whether Craft could help prepare them for the battle that would follow. Best Friends began as enforcers for drug gangs, later ripped them off and finally killed some of them, Soisson said. Its 25 members didn't know each others' names, only their nicknames: Boogaloo, Ghost, KO, Lunchmeat. Craft was known as Boone because, like Daniel Boone, he was good with a knife. Flush with cash from the sale of crack cocaine, they drove around in Volvos, BMWs and Corvettes. They drank $100 bottles of Dom Perignon. Craft said he tried to instill some discipline in the gang, who often got high before attempted murders, and then go on wild shooting sprees that left holes in each other's clothes.
"They would fire 15 shots and only hit the person with one," he said. "They would be throwing their gun around and shooting innocent bystanders."
Craft taught the gang how to set up a hit by learning the target's daily travel patterns. That way, they could ambush the victim as he left or arrived at home or at work. Dressed in bulletproof vests and body armor suits, they packed M-16 and AK47 rifles and Uzi submachine guns. The gang killed 80 people, which included snitches, competitors, customers who owed money and sometimes family members, prosecutors said.
Members received $10,000 to $30,000 per murder, depending on how much the Brown brothers wanted a target dead. If the price was right, Craft said, he would kill anyone.
But then he turned on the gang after it killed his brother over a drug debt.
During his 1994 testimony against Best Friends, Craft said the gang kept a running list of the people it wanted to kill.
"There was a whole big list of them," he said. "Half the time I wasn't paying too much attention to it. We would just go out and start popping people."
Craft's testimony helped end the decade-long dominance of the gang, Soisson said. Dozens of gang members and associates were convicted of offenses ranging from peddling drugs to murder. When he was trying to get parole in 2002, an assistant Wayne County prosecutor wrote a note on his behalf to the state Department of Corrections.
"He provided invaluable assistance, at great risk to himself, in achieving convictions of a number of individuals in a notorious murder for hire case in federal and state courts," wrote Bob Donaldson. After his rejection for Witness Protection, however, law enforcement officials said there's little they could do for him. Contacted by a reporter, Donaldson said he wasn't involved in Craft's negotiations for the Witness Protection Program and that there was little he could do for him.
Soisson, who supported Craft's bid, inquired about a possible appeal but was told by the Justice Department that the chances were remote.
As for Craft, he now knows what it's like to live scared, to live like a snitch, the type of person he would have killed in the 1980s.
Stuck indoors, he said he feels like he's still in prison. For money, he relies on help from struggling relatives. With the curtains drawn, he sits inside his darkened living room, watching a lot of TV. He occasionally peeks out the window, watching people as they walk by.
heroin kingpin, Roshan Fernando (35) of Magazine Road, Borella was shot dead on Friday by two unidentified gunmen. Fernando sustained fatal injuries following gunshot injuries, the Police Media Spokesman SSP Ranjit Gunesekera told the Sunday Observer. No arrests have been made so far. The motive for the shooting is not known but according to the police it was due to business rivalry. Director, Police Narcotics Bureau, SSP Eric Perera has seized small quantities of heroin in the Talawatugoda and Kolonnawa areas. In a separate raid they also took in for questioning a man around 7 p.m. on Saturday at Keppettipola Mawatha, Kolonnawa for possessing 50 grammes and 100 milligrams of heroin. Meanwhile, there is a drastic drop in the volume of heroin in the country owing to the naval patrolling of the Palk Straits by the Indian and Sri Lankan Naval patrols.
Read more...special Italian police unit raiding the house in a mountain hamlet in Calabria had come for a fugitive mafia boss. But what they found was more James Bond than The Godfather.
Hidden in a niche in the wall of an innocuous ground-floor room was an aperture for a compressed air pistol which, when fired, caused the floor to lower slowly, revealing a lift giving access to a secret bunker 3m below ground level.
Welcome to San Luca, stronghold of the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia that has quietly outpaced Sicily's Cosa Nostra and the Naples Camorra to build an estimated turnover of €36 billion ($94.93 billion), winning a stranglehold over Europe's cocaine trade, all managed by invisible bosses hiding from police manhunts and clan feuds in subterranean bunkers.
"We are turning up bunkers with beds, bathrooms with running water, jacuzzis, CCTV to view the surface, internet and satellite links," said Colonel Valerio Giardina of the Carabinieri, which has this year raided 15 bunkers.
search for underground hideaways has focused on San Luca after a long-standing blood feud between two clans, the Nirta-Strangio and Pelle-Vottari, boiled over into the gunning down last August of six men linked to the Pelle-Vottari outside a pizzeria in Duisburg, Germany.Recent arrests of 'Ndrangheta drug runners in Toronto and Australia are also a reminder of the mob's reach, built on its role as trusted broker to Colombia's cocaine producers and run as an al Qaeda-type collection of loosely linked cells overseas, which in turn answer to a federation-like structure in Calabria with no single ruling godfather.
"The 'Ndrangheta cells abroad are clones of those in Calabria," said magistrate Nicola Gratteri. "The organisation cannot be monolithic, since it has joint ventures with the Mafia and with Colombian cartels abroad, but the cells abroad ultimately answer to the bosses in Calabria."
The bunkers built for those bosses come in two categories, said Giardina, starting with shipping containers buried in open country. "These often have two or three escape tunnels," he said. Police shinning down ropes from a helicopter last year found boss Giuseppe Bellocco in one such rural bunker, watching TV from a bed next to a fridge loaded with wine, beer and lobster.
San Luca boasts the second type: townhouse bunkers, accessed by trapdoors hidden in family homes behind fake kitchen appliances or under floors on sliding rails.
Giardina said in Plati police discovered "a city underneath a city" in 2001. "It was a complex of 12 bunkers, connected to each other and to escape hatches by a kilometre of Vietcong-style tunnels," he said. Five fugitives were found, including one who had been on the run for 14 years.
The underground network in Plati, built with the agreement of friendly councillors, was used in the 1980s to hold kidnap victims that gave the 'Ndrangheta the ransom money to get started in the drug trade.
Documents found at the Vancouver house of alleged Chinese gangster Yi Feng Wu connect him to major drug shipments, a police detective testified yesterday at Wu's immigration hearing.Wu, 49, is seeking official admissibility to Canada. The federal Ministry of Public Safety is trying to have him ruled inadmissible and deported, alleging he's a cell leader of the Big Circle Boys, a Chinese gang. It would be Canada's first deportation, based on organized-crime activity, of a person never convicted of a crime.Friday, Vancouver police Det. James Fisher testified that a 2006 search of Wu's $1.1-million home turned up papers suggesting Wu was an international drug-trafficking boss.Faxed 2006 arrest records from Los Angeles documented the booking of two men caught with 167 kilograms of cocaine. Those men told investigators they were to give the drugs to someone who would bring them to B.C., Fisher said. The front page of a four-person indictment from Washington state, related to seizure of 41 kg of cocaine and eight kilograms of powdered ecstasy, was also found in Wu's house
Those documents were likely sent to Wu as proof that people contracted to move drugs from the U.S. to Canada had been arrested, and that police seized the drugs, Fisher said. When drug couriers are arrested with the product, they need to show that they didn't steal the drugs, Fisher said.A third document discovered at Wu's home reflects a drug boss's responsibility to look after couriers arrested while in his service, Fisher said. Police found a page of notes concerning a $70,000 lawyer's fee for two men identified as drivers. The men were charged with smuggling 16 kg of cocaine, in a shipment of vegetables, across the border into Windsor, Ont., Fisher said."The smugglers would have their legal fees covered by the person who engaged them in the smuggling," Fisher said.Wu was charged with heroin trafficking after police seized 340 grams of heroin in 1996, but was acquitted when a police officer failed to show up in court to give evidence.Police allege that in 2001, Wu received a large shipment of cocaine from the U.S. in a Vancouver intersection, and slipped away with the drugs from a police take-down.
Wu, who came to Canada 18 years ago from China as a refugee claimant, has risen in underworld stature from a mid-level heroin dealer to a position of power in the world of organized crime, Fisher testified yesterday.
"He is a drug trafficker, and participates in that with his own organization and with other organizations," Fisher said.
Under cross-examination by Wu's lawyer, Chris Ho, Fisher admitted that conclusions about Wu's alleged criminality based on the documents found in his house were just inferences. Ho also attacked police statements that Wu received a cocaine shipment in a Vancouver intersection. "There was an allegation there was importation of cocaine, but none was found," Ho said.
Wu's lack of criminal convictions doesn't mean he's not a criminal, Fisher said.
"Our success in convicting organized crime members in British Columbia is not what I would've hoped it would be," Fisher said, adding that criminals can put more resources into avoiding convictions than police can in trying to convict them.
"Law enforcement is at a distinct disadvantage," Fisher said.
A gang which had dominated the drug scene in the northern and north western suburbs of the city has been pushed out and replaced by a younger gang following the brief spate of killings in five days last month. The ousted gang had previously taken over control of the area in the late 1990s and were associates of John Gilligan's gang.Police believe that the murders of four men in the past month from the Finglas and Coolock areas of Dublin -- including two cases in which bodies have yet to be found -- are connected to the emergence of a new gang of drug dealers on the north side of the city.It marks a significant shift in power in the city's drugs trade with gardai trying to establish if this might lead to further bloodletting.
Sources said that the killings last month marked the swift rise to power of a ruthless gang of young drug dealers, who have now achieved a dominant position in the drugs trade in a large area stretching from Baldoyle to Finglas. This area has been beset by feuding in recent years, but gardai say that last month's violence in which there was at least one attempted murder and four murders appears to have marked the successful takeover by a low-profile but ruthless gang.
On July 18, Anthony Foster, 34, was shot dead as he emerged from his girlfriend's flat at Cromcastel Court, and within 12 hours Trevor Walsh, 33, was shot dead at Valley Park Road in Finglas. Four days later, two men, Alan Napper, 37, and David Lindsay, 36, disappeared and gardai believe they were murdered.
Napper and Lindsay, both with a number of addresses in Moyne Road and Seacliff Road, Baldoyle and Grattan Lodge, Donaghmede, were last reported alive visiting a public house in Clane, Co Kildare. Gardai have yet to establish the exact details of their movements, but admit they have no idea what happened to the two after they were seen in the Clane area on July 23.
Lindsay was arrested and questioned in connection with the kidnapping of Helen Judge in September 2002, but was never charged. At the time, Ms Judge's ex-husband, Liam, was living with John Gilligan's daughter, Tracey, in Spain where he owned the public house known as Judge's Chambers. Gardai said that Liam Judge was running Gilligan's drugs distribution operations in Ireland at the time.
Gardai never fully established why Ms Judge was kidnapped, but suspected that close associates of Gilligan's were behind it. According to garda sources, it appears that the long-time associates of John Gilligan have now been pushed out of the drugs trade in Dublin.Gilligan was attacked in Portlaoise Prison last month by a young prisoner and had to be taken into protective custody. One source said that Gilligan has lost his power in the criminal world in Ireland and the new gangs that have emerged have no fear of his remaining network of ageing gangsters.
Massimo Pisnoli, 48, was found with gunshot wounds to his face and back making his body virtually unrecognisable in what investigators said was a classic Mafia murder.
His daughter Tamara married De Rossi, a Roma and Italy midfielder, in a spectacular ceremony complete with horse and carriage in May 2006, just a month before he won the World Cup. De Rossi is also 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. Investigators from Rome's anti Mafia department were probing Pisnoli's background and revealed he had previous convictions for robbery and theft and was said to have moved in "criminal underworld circles." Pisnoli had been missing for ten days and his daughter, 24, had told officials after failing to contact him at his home at Trullo on the outskirts of Rome. His decomposing body was found in undergrowth at Campoleone railway station, 35 miles south of Rome near Latina, an area thought to be home to at least eight Mafia clans. One 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."
After the discovery, De Rossi, 25, was excused from training and at home with his wife and young daughter.
Crime Branch team gunned down notorious criminal Robert alias Rahul Raju Salve, 32, at Indrayani Nagar in the Bhosari area early this morning. The police said they shot him in an encounter. This was the first encounter killing by the city police in one-and-a-half years — in what appeared to be a response to Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh’s “bullets for gangsters” call.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Anil Kumbhare said Salve, a resident of the Nigdi Ota Scheme with 42 offences registered against him, was killed in a joint operation by the Anti-Extortion Cell and Anti-Dacoity Squad of the Crime Branch. The police had received a tip-off that some criminals would be meeting at Indrayani Nagar and then execute a robbery at Moshi toll naka. Two Crime Branch teams were
then formed to lay traps at toll naka and at a water tank in Indrayani Nagar. The sleuths found Salve and his accomplice at Indrayani Nagar, after which police inspector Ram Jadhav asked them to surrender. Salve, however, opened fire on the police team from his pistol, using four bullets one of which hit constable Susheel Kakade on the hand. In retaliation, police inspectors Ram Jadhav of the Anti-Dacoity Squad and Kishore Jadhav of the Anti-Extortion Cell fired three bullets from their service revolvers, two of which went through Salve’s chest. As he collapsed, the police seized his pistol but his accomplice managed to escape from the spot. The cops then rushed constable Kakade and Salve to Yeshwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital, where the latter was declared dead on arrival. The police seized a revolver and four empty cartridge cases from the encounter spot. They informed that Salve had earlier fired two times at police teams. In 2002, he had fired on two constables who were chasing him in Pimpri while in 2003, he had fired at a police team in Chatuhshrungi.
Salve had also been arrested in an attempted dacoity case in Aurangabad but escaped from the custody of Chhavani police station, Aurangabad. The police said that Salve first entered the crime files in 1996 when he was still a juvenile.
His first crime was a vehicle theft. After that, his names appeared in crimes like dacoity, robbery, house break-ins, and attempting to murder policemen and in Arms Act cases. He was booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in 2003 and acquitted in 2006. Kumbhare said Salve had been arrested at Nigdi five days ago for illegal possession of firearms and released on bail. Salve, who was strong built and exercised regularly — even in jail— had assaulted dreaded gangster Ravi Pardeshi while in Yerwada jail.
Police pored over the clan's Canada Revenue Agency tax returns. They checked land title records and B.C. Assessments. They monitored large lump sums of cash plunked down on mortgages and tracked from whose bank accounts the withdrawals were made.
They clandestinely listened to phone calls as Ye and others not only allegedly discussed their cross-border cocaine transactions, but how they were going to transport huge sums of money - some of which, police allege, were used to purchase millions of dollars of real estate in several names and two provinces.
Investigators contacted the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, the government agency charged with tracking money-laundering and terrorism-related transactions through Canada's banking system.Last November, confident they had untangled the complicated financial web of an international crime syndicate, they secretly went to B.C. Supreme Court and requested an ex parte order to freeze nine properties in B.C. and Ontario believed to have been bought with Ye's drug money.Details of the extraordinary investigation are contained in a 110-page affidavit by Insp. Mike Ryan, in charge of CFSEU's proceeds-of-crime team.
While the affidavit was sealed in Supreme Court, it was later filed as an exhibit in the Federal Court of Canada as part of the government's defence against allegations by the Hells Angels that police were colluding with the revenue agency to investigate the biker gang.Ryan said in his Federal Court covering affidavit that the Ye case shows what police can accomplish when they have the ability to review tax records under special circumstances."If the tax information is supportive of an accumulation of wealth that is not accounted for through legitimate income sources, it is vital evidence in all proceeds of crime and offence related property investigations," Ryan said."The information obtained through those orders was vital to the restraint of assets believed to be the proceeds of crime of Yong Long Ye and his family resulting from Mr. Ye's involvement in the matters for which he was arrested: namely conspiracy to import cocaine, conspiracy to produce and export methamphetamine and participation in a criminal organization."
Ye and several associates were arrested and charged nine days after Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm granted the order freezing the Ye-linked houses and condos in Metro Vancouver and Toronto.Several law enforcement agencies attended a news conference Dec. 12 to announce they had cracked the biggest drug syndicate in B.C. history after a massive 14-month investigation dubbed Operation E-Paragon.
Ye's arrest as the leader of the gang was like "cutting the head off the snake," Vancouver police Insp. Dean Robinson said at the time.
Drugs worth $168 million on the street had been seized, including more than 640 kilograms of cocaine, 111 kilograms of methamphetamines, 83 kilograms of ecstasy, 26 units of heroin and 7,832 pounds of marijuana. Several guns had also been found.
Investigators allege Ye, who is due in court Sept. 11 to fix a trial date, arranged cocaine to be transported from Los Angeles to Ontario, with the huge profits sent back to Vancouver from Toronto with couriers traveling on Westjet flights.
"Between July 10, 2007 and November 16, 2007, over $4.6 million in Canadian dollars was transported in this way," Ryan said in his affidavit.
He also explained how police investigated the cash shipments without alerting the criminals involved by secretly examining the couriers' bags before they were picked up in Vancouver."On all occasions, when the luggage was opened, large amounts of Canadian cash in vacuum sealed packages were found. These packages were frequently labeled specifying the amount of cash each package contained. Each occasion the general warrant was executed, the cash bundles were photographed, re-packed in the luggage and claimed at the carousel by the courier identified on the luggage tag," Ryan's affidavit said. He said the shipments were not seized "as to do so would have compromised the integrity of the drug investigation."
Police watched as the couriers were picked up by Ye himself, his wife Zhang or, at least once, Zhang's mother Cui Lian Lu."Police surveillance confirmed that on all but one occasion they were driven to 3418 Deering Island Place in Vancouver," the court documents say. "These currency couriers remained at the Deering Island address for a few hours, or just overnight, and were driven back to Vancouver International Airport where they took return flights to Toronto."
Coded phone conversations allegedly referring to the couriered cash are highlighted in the documents. On July 10, 2007, Ye's Toronto contact told him "dinner would be arriving at 11 o'clock." Ye then asked "how much rent money did the master return?" and the contact replied "28, two and that it would be tomorrow breakfast."
Ryan said Ye's contact was telling him "that $280,000 would be arriving twice with one courier at dinner time and one courier at breakfast time."
He said the time references match up with two couriered deliveries watched on July 10 and 11 by investigators.
Some of the couriers' luggage tags for the suspect bags were found in the trash outside of Ye's house during several unscheduled police garbage pick-ups, the court documents say.
It was this cash, police allege, that Ye used to purchase seven Lower Mainland homes as well as two Metro Toronto penthouses in the last few years.
Several of the properties were bought in the names of family members of Ye and his wife, forcing a careful analysis by investigators to track the transactions back to Ye.
Humble orgins
Ye's origins in Canada were humble.
According to the court documents, the 41-year-old Chinese national arrived at Vancouver Airport for the first time on October 7, 1989, with his mom, Li Juan Ye, to immigrate.
"Neither reported possessing any money upon entry, nor money to be transferred from China to Canada," Ryan notes. "They were both sponsored by Mon Yee Kuang, Yong Ye's sister who resided in Vancouver."
Two years later, Ye's spouse to be, Jean Zhang, landed at the same airport to immigrate, along with her dad Yim-Fen Cheung.
"Neither reported possessing any money upon entry, nor money to be transferred from China to Canada," Ryan said again. "However, in a prior immigration application, Yim-Fen Cheung stated that he would have $10,000 Hong Kong dollars and jewelry when he arrived in Canada."
By November 1993, Ye's would-be mother-in-law, Cui Lian Lu, arrived for immigration.
"A condition of her landing was that she marry her sponsor, Yim-Fen Cheung, within 90 days," Ryan said.
It was this little group, eventually united by family relationships, that would soon amass a suspicious fortune in real estate and luxury cars, including a Porsche Cayenne often seen picking up the cash couriers at Vancouver airport.
Their extravagant lifestyle, police allege, did not match the modest incomes reported to the CRA.
From 2000 to 2006, Ye, Zhang, their parents, as well as Ye's sister Mon Ye Kuang and her husband She Ho Kuang, reported a total income of $872,947, with a larger disposable income of $960,447, the court documents say.
"Yong Ye has since 2000, and with his common-law wife Jean Shu Zhen Zhang since 2003, acquired substantial assets, the value of which exceeds their combined legitimate ability to purchase those assets," Ryan said.
"The investigation has demonstrated Yong Ye's use of family members and associates ... into whose names, real property and debt have been registered, thereby ensuring that his wealth, derived from the drug business, is not immediately attributable to him personally, reducing the likelihood of detection by authorities."
But the documents show the authorities made extraordinary efforts to track Ye's fortune and show his tentacles extend to these properties:
- 4747 Killarney Street in Vancouver, owned by Ye's mother-in-law, Cui Lian Lu.
- 1505-8831 Lansdowne Road in Richmond, owned by Ye.
- 3306 Parker Street in Vancouver, owned by Ye associate Hui Rong (Cappuccino) Yao.
- 3116 East 18th Avenue in Vancouver, owned by Ye's mother, Li Juan Ye.
- 7162 Stirling Street in Vancouver, owned by Ye's brother-in-law She Ho Kuang.
- 5088 Calder Court in Richmond, owned by Ye's father-in-law Yim-Fen Cheung.
- 3418 Deering Island Place in Vancouver, owned by Ye's wife Jean Shu Zhen Zhang.
- Penthouse 103, 8 Lee Centre Drive in Scarborough, Ont., owned by Ye and Zhang.
- Upper Penthouse 10, 62 Suncrest Boulevard in Markham, Ont., owned by Ye's sister Mon Yee Kuang.
Police were able to determine that mortgages on these properties were often paid off without explanation, that payments sometimes came from accounts linked to Ye even when the houses were in other names and that Ye would refer to "his" properties in phone conversations, even when the houses officially belonged to relatives.
"Yong Ye's reported income and the reported income of members of his family in whose names the properties are registered, as provided to the Canada Revenue Agency, are insufficient to support the purchase and maintenance of the debt associated to these properties," Ryan says.
At one point last year, Ye's mom became concerned when he said he wanted to sell the east Vancouver house listed under her name, according to the documents.
In a bugged call on May 9, 2007, Ye and a woman police believe is his mom discussed her concerns about giving him power of attorney so he could borrow against her house or sell it.
"Another unknown female came to the phone and said that Ye's mother was asking what protection she would have after signing the power of attorney and Ye said: 'What is the meaning of this? This house is mine. I don't understand.'"
Ye's aunt later said in another intercepted conversation that "his mother is worried that she won't have a house to live in. Ye said everything belongs to him and that he didn't mean to not take care of her," the court documents said.
One of the suspicious house purchases took place on June 26, 2007, when Ye's father-in-law bought the property at 5088 Calder Court in Richmond for $960,000 even though his reported income as a "construction worker" would not have supported a million-dollar home, police say.
Ryan pointed to a series of intercepted Ye calls, in which he appeared to be making all the arrangements for the transaction with the real estate agent.
At one point, Ye complained about the price "said he was buying a house at 960,000 when he only offered 950,000," Ryan's affidavit said.
In another call, Ye's wife appeared to be planning to put $198,000 in her dad's account for the house purchase. A month after the Calder Court house was purchased, Ye's father-in-law plunked down another $200,000 cash on the mortgage.
At one point last September on the police wiretap, Ye's wife allegedly asked an unknown man for false payroll cheques for her husband - each for $4,000.
"We won't cash them," Zhang said. "We just need them to fax over to the bank. When the bank has a copy of them, then we return the cheques to you. .... The cheques have to have the company's name on them. So it is the cheques you use for the payroll."Those named in the affidavit clearly seemed concerned about raising suspicions if too much money was deposited in certain accounts in a short period of time.
One caller told Ye's wife that she would split the funds into separate cheques "so the amount is not too large."And she said: "If you write these three ones under your mother's name, then the money can be taken right away. I don't want to focus just on your name, since if I need to explain it, I won't be able."
The documents cited intercepted phone conversations last summer showing that Ye was willing to take property in exchange for drug debts.
In one call, Ye gave instructions to a Toronto contact to "determine if a male person they referred to as 'Tall Guy' would relinquish a 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot residence to settle a $60,000 debt owed to Ye," Ryan said, adding that the contact said "Tall Guy" had agreed to list the property for $470,000.
"Ye said he would pretend to give "Tall Guy" "$410,000 even," the documents said, noting Ye later learned "Tall Guy" didn't have enough equity to make the bogus sale worthwhile.Ryan said in his affidavit that he expected proceeds-of-crime charges would eventually be laid, in addition to the criminal charges Yong and associates already face in the drug-trafficking conspiracy.
"I believe that upon completion of the financial investigation conducted by the CFSEU-B.C. Proceeds of Crime Team, reports will be prepared and will be forwarded to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada recommending charges against Yong Long Ye, his family members and a number of other persons."
Hundreds of federal agents fanned out across the city and elsewhere in a roundup of 62 suspects from all walks of Mafia life, from reputed acting boss John "Jackie Nose" D'Amico — a crony of former boss John Gotti — to common street thugs.
At the time, authorities made headlines by hailing the takedown as one of the largest in recent memory and predicting it would further cripple a storied crime family formerly led by the legendary "Dapper Don."
Six months later and with far less fanfare, 60 of the defendants have pleaded guilty, with many taking deals that will put them behind bars for three years or less. Two of the pleas were entered Thursday and one case was dismissed last week, leaving a lone defendant charged with murder facing trial.
D'Amico, originally charged with racketeering, pleaded guilty in May to extorting a cement company out of $100,000 and could serve less than two years in prison.
The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, which has a long history of prosecuting high-profile Mafia cases with lengthy trials and sentences, has called the case a success. But some defense attorneys suggest the many plea deals show the office overreached and became overwhelmed as the judge pushed for a speedy outcome.
"There's no such thing as a 62-defendant trial," said one of the lawyers, Avraham Moskowitz. "So what's the point? The point is to make a splash."
Extortion charges against his client, a New Jersey construction official, were quietly dropped earlier this month after prosecutors conceded they didn't have enough evidence against him. But by then, the lawyer said, an innocent man had seen his reputation ruined by stories linking him to co-defendants with nicknames like "Tommy Sneakers" and "Joe Rackets."
"My client's experience suggests they brought an indictment without careful evaluation of the evidence," he said.Former mob prosecutors say there was nothing haphazard about the Gambino case. Instead, they say, it reflected a calculated shift in strategy favoring carpet bombing of the entire enterprise over strategic strikes against leadership."In my view, this is groundbreaking," said James Walden, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who won major convictions against the Bonanno crime family. "They essentially took out the entire organization in one fell swoop" — an approach designed to reap a new crop of cooperators and rattle those mobsters still on the street but under surveillance.The 80-count Gambino indictment charged the defendants with seven murders, three dating back more than a quarter-century, as well as "mob-tax" extortion of the construction industry and racketeering. Among the crimes were the slaying of a court officer and extortion at a failed NASCAR track.
On Thursday, reputed capo "Little Nick" Corozzo and co-defendant Vincent DeCongilio avoided a trial scheduled for next week by pleading guilty. The indictment alleged Corozzo ordered the Jan. 26, 1996, murder of a rival mobster.Corozzo now faces 12 to 15 years in prison for murder conspiracy — by far the harshest term for any of the defendants — and DeCongilio 12 to 18 months for lesser crimes.
According to prosecutors, Corozzo, 68, was part of a three-man committee of capos formed in 1994 to help John A. "Junior" Gotti run New York's Gambino family while his father was in prison, serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering.
The elder Gotti died behind bars in 2002. The younger Gotti was charged with conspiracy last week; three previous prosecution attempts have ended in mistrials.
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