Jamaica to Extradite Drug Suspect Wanted by U.S.
Prime Minister’s Reversal Ends Strained Relations with Washington over Christopher “Dudus” Coke
Interior Ministry refused to let linguist Noam Chomsky into Israel and the West Bank on Sunday. Chomsky, who aligns himself with the radical left, had been scheduled to lecture at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, and visit Bil'in and Hebron, as well as meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and various Palestinian activists.
American linguist Noam Chomsky.
In a telephone conversation last night from Amman, Chomsky told Haaretz that he concluded from the questions of the Israeli official that the fact that he came to lecture at a Palestinian and not an Israeli university led to the decision to deny him entry.
"I find it hard to think of a similar case, in which entry to a person is denied because he is not lecturing in Tel Aviv. Perhaps only in Stalinist regimes," Chomsky told Haaretz.
Eastside Crip Gang Member Indicted On Firearms Charges - Bakersfield News Story - KERO Bakersfield: "complaint also alleges the defendant is a member of the Bakersfield Eastside Crips criminal street gang as well.
“This case should leave no doubt about our collective resolve to attack and dismantle the street gangs that are terrorizing our neighborhoods,” said Michael Toms, resident agent in charge of ICE's Office of Investigations in Bakersfield. “ICE is committed to using every tool at its disposal to combat gang-related crime and violence here and in communities across the country.”
The maximum statutory penalty for the charge is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables"
Sacto 9-1-1: Sacramento gang member convicted in fatal shooting at party: "verdict against Billy Chan Saechao, 18. He was accused in the 1 a.m., March 21, 2008, shooting death of Koua Lee, 20.
According to a prosecution trial brief, Saechao, a member of the Mien Pride Gangsters, went to a party in the 7600 block of Millroy Way in south Sacramento to pick up his girlfriend.
When he and three friends got there, they saw another group of young men that included Lee, whom the prosecution brief identified as a member of the True Blue Crips.
After the two groups exchanged words, gunfire rang out, and investigators later recovered the 40 casings from several different handguns, the brief said."
Top cop’s PC son Craig Flowers is cocaine dealer | The Sun |Home Scotland|Scottish News: "Off-duty PC Craig Flowers was finally caught with £120 of the deadly drug after being put under surveillance by his own force.
son of former Scottish Police Federation boss Norrie FloweFlowers - the rs - told officers: 'I've got a habit but it's under control, there's no problem.'
But yesterday he appeared in the dock to admit supplying coke to high-flying pals at his home in Motherwell and across Glasgow between January 2007 and September 2008.
The Scottish Sun told how Strathclyde Police anti-corruption cops pounced in an 'intelligence-led' bust. Yesterday defence lawyer Mark Moir told Glasgow Sheriff Court his client was only concerned in the 'social supply' of coke.
But suspended Flowers' career lay in tatters last night as Strathclyde Deputy Chief Constable Neil Richardson said: 'He abused his position.'"
A former U.S. Army interrogator known to captives at a lockup in Afghanistan as ``The Monster'' testified Wednesday that he felt sorry for a gravely wounded, recently captured Omar Khadr because ``he was probably in one of the worst places on Earth.''
``He was in the wrong place for a 15-year-old child to be,'' former Army Spc. Damien Corsetti testified as Khadr's first defense witness in the seventh day of a hearing seeking to persuade a military judge to exclude all of the Toronto-born teenager's confessions from his summertime trial on grounds of abuse.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/05/1614742/ex-army-interrogator-testifies.html#ixzz0n9toU8X5
Suspected white supremacist charged after Hemet police booby trap raids - San Jose Mercury News: "suspected white supremacist has pleaded not guilty to possessing the same kind of homemade gun used in a booby trap intended to kill a police officer in Riverside County.
Patrick Nugent Jr. entered pleas on April 23 to having a zip gun and being in a criminal gang.
He remained jailed today. A call to his attorney, Justin Greenlee, wasn't immediateley returned.
Hemet police say a zip gun was attached to the gate of a gang task force building and fired a bullet that missed an officer in February.
Police say they found the gun on April 20 while arresting 23 people during a probe into a string of failed booby trap attacks.
Seven people have been charged with crimes — although none have been directly linked to the booby traps."
San Luis Police officers guilty of drug smuggling | Cal Coast News: "two San Luis Obispo police officers have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of bringing misbranded Mexican prescription drugs into the United States at the San Ysidro port of entry south of San Diego.
The officers, Dan McDow and Armando Limon, pleaded guilty to the misdemeanors in exchange for no jail time and a year of unsupervised probation, according to court documents obtained by CalCoastNews."
The Associated Press: 5 killed while playing soccer in southern Mexico: "Gunmen drove up to a soccer field and shot five men to death as they played early Monday near the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco, police in southern Mexico said.
It was unclear why the five men were playing so late, but the region of Guerrero state is often so hot and humid by day by day that athletes wait until night to compete. Many people also work unusual hours in the local tourist industry.
The men were playing in the hamlet of Xaltianguis, on the northern outskirts of Acapulco, when gunmen in three vehicles pulled up beside the field and opened fire.
Two of the dead were identified as local men aged 25 and 34; the other three victims had not been identified because relatives quickly took the bodies away."
FBI: Former Lee County sheriff dealt drugs from police SUV | GoUpstate.com: "Federal authorities say a South Carolina sheriff dealt drugs from his police SUV and extorted money from drug dealers to try to keep them out of trouble.In a sworn statement released on Monday, an FBI agent said investigators have a witness who saw former Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin dealing drugs in November 2006.
Authorities tapped Melvin's phone and say he offered money to drug dealers to try to get state and federal agents to stop investigating them."
11 suspected gang members arrested in, around Loveland following 5-day operation | LovelandConnection.com | Loveland Connection: "Turned over to the Loveland Police Department was:
• Eduardo Cortez-Hernandez, 34, of Mexico on 2 outstanding arrest warrants for domestic violence. He will face local charges before being returned to ICE custody for removal proceedings. Cortez-Hernandez has previous arrests for disorderly conduct, driving on a suspended/revoked license, assault, domestic violence, harassment, failure to appear, and contempt of court for failing to comply.
Loveland Police Chief Luke Hecker said “We are very thankful for the joint effort between our agency and ICE. This was a successful operation clearly demonstrating our resolve in reducing the number of gang members in our community.”
The arrests were made as part of Operation Community Shield, a national initiative where ICE partners with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to target the significant public safety threat posed by transnational criminal street gangs.
Operation Community Shield has produced 16,700 arrests of suspected gang members nationwide since 2005, with 200 of those classified as gang leaders. ICE uses its broad immigration authorities (both criminal and administrative) against gang members, as well as its customs authorities in targeting gang-related narcotics smuggling, gun smuggling, money laundering, and in seeking the forfeiture of illegally derived assets."
Prosecutor says judge erred in lenient sentencing of Hells Angels Punko: "prosecutor argued Monday that a judge made a number of “serious” errors in the sentencing of a Hells Angel for conspiracy to traffic in methamphetamines and trafficking in cocaine.
In March B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask sentenced John Virgil Punko, 43, to four years in jail each for the meth and cocaine offences, to be served concurrently. He reduced the sentence to 14 months after credit for pre-sentence custody.
Federal prosecutor Martha Devlin had sought a sentence of 16 years in jail for Punko, a full-patch member of the notorious motorcycle club’s East End chapter."
Video may help NYPD in hunt for thug who killed homeless Good Samaritan who came to aid of woman: "homeless Good Samaritan trying to break up a fight was knifed to death and detectives are trying to identify his assailant, police said Friday.
Hugo Yax, 31, was stabbed several times in the chest when he came to the aid of a woman being menaced by a knife-wielding man on a Queens streetcorner on Sunday, police said."
The Crime Report » Archive » Blood Brothers: "Even though the average Canadian is probably considered pretty boring by the rest of the world, the average Canadian biker is more dangerous. In the biker war in Quebec in the late 1990s and early 2000s there were more than 160 people murdered. The Hells Angels are absolutely entrenched here. There’s a scramble to feed the American drug market and right down the St. Lawrence Seaway is New York City. But I do think there is a difference in generations. Bikers over 35, many of them have long-standing marriages and kids in college. They know that if you get charged with something it’s like being fined hundreds of thousands of dollars even if you beat the charge. For those guys, moving a little bit of drugs just isn’t worth it. The younger guys are more ambitious—and more dangerous."
Read more...The Crime Report » Archive » Blood Brothers: "Early in the morning of April 8, 2006, eight Canadian members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang were murdered in a barn in the rural town of Shedden, Ontario. Twelve hours later, Toronto Star reporter Peter Edwards was on the phone with the ringleader, Wayne “Weiner” Kellestine, the Nazi-loving Bandido who’d lured his friends to his home, and to their deaths."
Read more...Our Towns - Just Beyond Yale, a Million Miles Away - NYTimes.com: "neighborhoods are strongholds for the Crips, some for the Bloods, some for subsets like the Tre Bloods or the local R2 gang.
The car stops in front of a chicken shack. Bloods territory. Two young men are on the corner. One in a gray hoodie says he is 31, served 13 years in prison and has a job that pays $9 an hour but can barely pay his bills. The other, thin and sweet-faced under his Celtics cap, says he is 20. He could pass for 16.
Asked about gangs, the younger one scoffs. “It’s more like personal stuff, person to person,” he says. “Say someone kills somebody. Well, of course, someone wants to go back and do it to them, like in retaliation. But it’s for your homeboy, it’s not for the gang. It’s like, people who love each other, you look out for the next person.”
The older one says he is trying to look out for younger guys. “What jobs are there? McDonald’s? Burger King? Dunkin’ Donuts? If your father is a bricklayer, he teaches you how to lay bricks, you might be a bricklayer. My father died from heroin and AIDS, sharing needles. My mom was a crackhead. She had me in jail. How did you think I was supposed to turn out?”
His tone is even, conversational, not self-pitying. Just a guy on the corner.
“You wake up,” he says. “You’ve got your job. You wake up thinking, ‘I really ain’t got no problems.’ I wake up wondering if I’m going to die today. And that’s the way things are right now.”"
Bexley Times - Teens deny part in mafia gang's throat slashing: "TEENAGE gang known as the 'Black Mafia' slit a man's throat after smashing their way into a 16th birthday party, a court heard.Up to 17 youths battered down the front door of the house in Bellingham, Lewisham, in the early hours of the morning.
Most of the partygoers managed to flee upstairs to the bedrooms or into the garden, but 26 year-old Dameon Phillips was caught on the stairs. He was left bleeding heavily from his neck and had to have extensive treatment in hospital, jurors at the Old Bailey were told on Tuesday. Nine alleged gang members, aged between 15 and 18, are standing trial, including seven youths, from Blackheath, Catford and Lewisham, who can not be identified. They deny wounding with intent and violent disorder."
SA wins backers in High Court bikies fight | Local World News, India News, Bollywood Gallery, Education, Answer Papers, Results, Exam Results: "South Australian police have dealt with confrontation this week between the Hell’s Angels and the New Boys street gang.
Members of both are facing charges over a brawl in Adelaide’s Hindley Street in the early hours of Monday.
Police made a further arrest in Adelaide on Wednesday night, a man, 35, from Enfield they say is a New Boys member.
He has been charged with affray.
Police Commissioner Mal Hyde wants a faster legal process to outlaw bikie gangs.
“We’ll continue to press for some further changes in the law to help to make it more effective,” he said."
Somali gangs building crime empires in the UK: "Violent Somali gangs are building crime empires in Britain through a brutal campaign of terror, the Daily Star reports.
The self-styled soldiers are raking in thousands of pounds a day through house raids and armed robberies. They are also committing savage acts of violence to protect their money-spinning businesses."
Russell Brand Jokes More Pop Stars Should Take Heroin - Musicrooms.net: "Russell Brand thinks more pop stars should take heroin to “weed out” those who aren’t rock and roll enough.
The British comedian has battled an addiction to the illegal substance and is now clean. Although he has previously said his life is much better now he doesn’t take drugs, Russell has encouraged musicians to dabble with them. The outrageous star insists the music industry is currently stagnant, explaining it would be shaken up if more artists were willing to take risks."
Who are the Hells Angels? | gardenoftruth.org: "There are reports of the Hells Angels being one of the biker gangs involved in drug dealing and other illegal practices. Several of it’s members are rumored to be under the investigation of the FBI. There have even been post war articles portraying it’s members as being comprised of post war veterans who returned from war unable to fit back into American culture. Hells Angels was founded in San Bernadino, CA and opened it’s first chapter in 1948. Since then the Hells Angel Club, as they are known today have chapters all over the world. on two three"
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Kerry McCann, 34, from Wrexham, told police: "I was going to stop next week once I had finished college." He pleaded guilty at Mold Crown Court to possession cocaine with intent to supply after more than £11,000 of the drug and cash were found at his flat. Recorder Simon Medland gave him "full credit" for his plea and "previous excellent character". He added: "But now you must go to prison. It is yet another example of a person who thinks that he can take class A drugs and manage the habit.
"The fact is, that is impossible." He said that, but for his guilty plea, McCann could have received a five-year sentence. The court, on Friday, heard McCann, who had never been in trouble before, was in the final year of a three-year course at Yale College, Wrexham.Class A drugs kill people and they ruin the lives of others, whether they take them themselves or supply to others Recorder Simon Medland
Elizabeth Bell, prosecuting, told the court police found cocaine with an estimated street value of £6,900 and £4,900 in cash at McCann's flat. They had found 90g (3.17oz) of cocaine in packages ready to be supplied. McCann later told them that he would have kept some of the drugs and sold the rest, she said. Tony Rose, defending, said his client had been working as a surveyor but the ending of a long-term relationship meant that an occasional drugs habit became something more entrenched. That, combined with alcohol abuse, meant that his life spiralled out of control.
He said the defendant had sought help from the NHS drugs advisory service and, with the support of family and friends, had been providing negative test results.
McCann was now drugs free, his life was getting back on track, and he had been planning to work abroad, said Mr Rose. He said his explanation was that he was "using any money he made to fund his own habit and also, ironically, to fund his education". Mr Medland said that it was a "sad case", and "one which, regrettably, the court has to face from time to time." He described McCann as an intelligent and much liked person, with strong support from family and friends, was hard working with potentially a bright future ahead of him, "a future full of golden opportunities".
He said: "Class A drugs kill people and they ruin the lives of others whether they take them themselves or supply to others. "You must now serve a prison sentence but I give you full credit for your plea of guilty and your previous excellent character."
Chrisdian Johnson, 22, knifed Oluwaseyi "Seyi" Ogunyemi, 16, seven times for straying on to his "turf".Sentencing Johnson to a minimum 24 years for murder yesterday, Judge Christopher Moss QC said: "Gang violence will not be tolerated."Johnson, of Vauxhall, South London, was caught after police traced the Staffordshire pitbull cross Tyson from its DNA. Johnson was also jailed for 20 years, to be served at the same time, for trying to murder Hurui Hiyabu, 17, who was stabbed nine times but survived.As Johnson was led down at the Old Bailey, he blustered to family: "Cool man".
Judge Moss also ordered the dog be forfeited and it now faces being put down.
Ducarme Joseph, with reputed ties to the Bloods, is a 41-year-old "businessman" – owner of a clothing store on St. Jacques St. now riddled with bullet holes.The street gangs are growing up, says Montreal police Inspector Charles Mailloux.
"The phenomenon has been evolving since the 1980s. Young people of 14 and 15 years old are now 40. So they're more structured and associated with organized crime. They still hire people to sell drugs on the street, but they're evolving."
Some fear the level of violence is evolving with them. Investigative journalist Julien Sher says when gangs like the Bloods in Montreal – also known as the Reds – take over from more established biker gangs and Mafia organizations, it can mean more unpredictable violence."We're looking at the next generation of gangsters," Sher said. "It's always dangerous to cry fire, but we have seen in Vancouver and Winnipeg that when less structured gangs get involved, there can be more violence because they can sometimes be more hot-headed and less disciplined. It may be harder for them to control their members."Maria Mourani, a Bloc MP who has written a book on Montreal's street gangs, says right now, all the groups are divided, including the Italian Mafia, and the street gangs that work with them."It's a very volatile environment," she said. But she believes someone will try to unite the "Italian clan" to take back control over territory, the street gangs and the "gangster-businessmen."
Jorge Enrique Rodriguez Mendieta pleaded guilty in December to an indictment accusing him of importing tons of cocaine into the U.S.A federal judge in Washington sentenced him on Friday.Rodriguez Mendieta was a commander in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which prosecutors said controls half the world's cocaine supply.The U.S. has designated it as a narco-terrorist organization.
Rodriguez Mendieta was arrested in 2004 and extradited to the U.S. in 2007.
He was prosecuted in Washington by federal prosecutors from New York City, who have expertise in cases involving FARC.
Andrew Forajter, 26, threw £876 cash out of a window, but it was recovered by officers sent to search his house in Repton Road, Middlesbrough, on February 20 last year. Officers found a number of rocks of cocaine in the house, including on the top of a television and in a drawer, all ready wrapped, with a total street value of £650. A quantity of cannabis, worth £35 on the street, was also found. Prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, Richard Wilson said police also found a list of names, seven mobile phones, a roll of clingfilm and a knife. Forajter, who admitted possession of cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply, said he had been dealing for three months and made £40 a day profit. He said he was in debt to an individual who set him up to deal drugs as a way of repaying the money. The court heard how Forajter, who made full and frank admissions to the police, was in breach of a previous suspended sentence for a different crime. He was now drug free after previously using cannabis. The judge, Recorder Ian Thorp said Forajter was a straight forward street-level dealer, but a "vital cog in a wheel" in the drugs venture. He jailed him for three and-a-half years.
Read more...Joseph Ducarme, 41, survived a brazen midday shooting inside his Old Montreal shop that left two people dead. Ducarme managed to flee the building and, as of Thursday night, was still missing - as were the two gunmen. It is not known whether he was injured in the attack. Ducarme's bodyguard, Peter Christopoulos, and an unidentified man were killed. Two other men were injured. One of them managed to flee the scene and drive himself to the hospital. Ducarme is out on $50,000 bail for a charge of assault and was under orders not to communicate with street gang members. He is reputed to have ties to the Reds, a street gang reportedly trying to mark its territory in the city's lucrative drug trade in bars and restaurants on St. Laurent Blvd.Authorities suspect the Mafia may be behind the attack, and had stated in an earlier search warrant in connection with an investigation that Ducarme "feared retaliation from Italians, Arabs, and motorcycle and street gangs because of his involvement in the drug trade, armed robbery and extortion."Last December Nick Rizzuto Jr., the son of reputed Montreal mob boss Vito Rizzuto, was gunned down in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district, and some believe yesterday's attack is in response to the assasination of the mob scion as reported by CBC News:Organized crime experts said the retaliation is likely part of a drawn-out struggle between Montreal's reputed Rizzuto Mafia family and street gangs, and likely linked to the shooting death of Nick Rizzuto Jr. Former crime reporter Michel Auger said Ducarme is a well-known player in Montreal's street gang scene and was once a powerful ally of Vito Rizzuto, but may have had a falling out with the clan. The attack can be seen as an escalation of the underworld conflict between the Mafia and warring factions, Auger said.Since Vito Rizzuto was convicted on a racketeering charge involving the 1981 murder of three Bonanno crime family capos in New York City -- he currently is serving a ten year sentence in a federal prison in Colorado -- and the takedown of several dozen others allegedly tied to the Montreal Mafia pursuant to Operation Coliseum in November 2006, there has been a power vacuum in the city's underworld, and "police have said they are exploring a variety of possible theories about a Mafia turf war" as reported by CBC News: "A power struggle pitting Montreal's mobsters against their counterparts in Toronto is one possible scenario; a battle between Calabrian families and the Rizzutos' Sicilian clan is another."
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Cam Mu appeared at Bristol Crown Court today (Fri), also accused of assault by beating.The businessman, who owns Dragon Kiss in Regent Street, Weston, as well as other pubs, restaurants and companies across the South West, denied both charges.
It was the first time that Mu, who previously appeared in front of North Somerset Courthouse, had entered a plea following the alleged incident on November 5. He was released on bail and a trial date was set for June.
Federal prosecutors in Maryland announced the indictments Friday of nine people on charges of smuggling 120,000 pairs of counterfeit Nike shoes and half a million counterfeit Coach handbags through the Port of Baltimore.According to the 72-count federal indictment, undercover officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement infiltrated the massive operation in 2008, delivering a shipment of 10,000 Nike shoes to Brooklyn, N.Y. The arrests came this week.The products were mostly made in Malaysia and China. Three U.S. citizens are charged with smuggling, trafficking counterfeit goods and money laundering. Four Chinese citizens and two Malaysians also are charged.The crimes occurred in Maryland, New York, North Carolina and elsewhere, authorities said.The merchandise also included thousands of counterfeit Coach and Gucci shoes, 500 counterfeit Cartier wrist watches and counterfeit Viagra pills.Merchandise was delivered to sites in New York and New Jersey with payments and smuggling fees paid in cash. Money was wired to accounts in Asia, and the ring was designed to avoid payment of import duties, authorities said.
The investigation also led to the arrests Thursday of six men in London, in what authorities called one of the biggest counterfeit goods seizures in the United Kingdom's history.Authorities confiscated counterfeit Nike, Ugg, Adidas, Versace, Ralph Lauren and other brand-name merchandise.
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