Luis Alberto Martinez Ventura was escorted home on May 24 following an immigration hearing, nearly nine years after first stepping foot on North American soil posing as a Mexican national.
 
His removal was hailed by Canada Border Services Agency officials who announced his deportation in a statement released on Friday.
 
“The CBSA places the highest priority on removal cases involving national security, organized crime, crimes against humanity and criminals,” wrote spokeswoman Lisa White.
 
Immigration officials said Ventura entered Canada in August 2008 using a Mexican passport and electoral card and was granted approval to visit until January, 2009.
 
Those officials didn’t catch up with Ventura until January when Calgary police arrested him on unrelated matters.
 
According to a transcript of the hearing, Ventura confessed at that time that he’d been living under a bogus name since 2002 when he first entered the U.S.
 
Intelligence gleaned by immigration officials indicated Ventura sported a history with the notorious Mara Salvatrucha — also known as MS-13 — a violent gang founded by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles during the 1980s.
 
The gang, the influence of which has spread across the Americas and counts between 30,000 and 50,000 members and associates among its ranks, has found itself behind several high-profile U.S. murders and drug cases in recent years.
 
While immigration officials couldn’t prove he was a member, an investigation found the man “had engaged in activity with that group that was part of a pattern of criminal activity,” board member Lynda Mackie said in the ruling, which
 
ordered he remain locked up until deportation.
 
“You have demonstrated in the past that your are adept at obtaining and using fraudulent identity documents and that you can live successfully underground undetected for a considerable period of time,” she said.
 
Ventura is permanently barred from returning to Canada.

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Mercer County Sheriff’s officers tracking a fugitive gang member wanted in the city on weapons offenses followed his trail to Willingboro, Burlington County, where they arrested their man and three other people, while also happening upon a loaded weapon, drugs and funny money.

The hunt began April 6, when sheriff’s officers spotted a suspect on Kirkbride Avenue in Trenton with what appeared to be a gun.

When officers went to investigate, the suspect, later identified as James Hughes, ran in through the front of a home on Kirkbride, then ran out the back door, officials said.

The suspect managed to get away, officials said, but during the chase the officers reported seeing him discard a gun. The loaded .40-caliber Taurus handgun was recovered with a defaced serial number.

Officials said detectives managed to identify the 26-year-old Hughes, and warrants for weapons offenses and other charges were issued. Officials called him a “documented member of the Bloods Street gang.”

As they searched for Hughes, officials said, detectives received information that the fugitive may be hiding out at a girlfriend’s house on Granby Lane in Willingboro. Officials identified the girlfriend as 29-year-old Monet Muse.

Officers went to the Granby Lane home Thursday, but Hughes wasn’t there. They did find Muse, another woman named Kyla Muse, 28, who also lived at the home, and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Sultan Freeman, of Camden.

During their investigation, officials said, detectives recovered 57 grams of marijuana, $980 worth of counterfeit $20 bills, and what turned out to be a stolen .357 Magnum revolver, fully loaded with hollow-point bullets. A check of the gun showed it was reported stolen from Burlington in 2009.

Officials said Monet Muse was charged only with possession of marijuana, and she was released on her own recognizance.

Freeman and Kyla Muse are facing multiple charges in connection with gun possession and the counterfeit cash. Freeman was additionally charged as a previously convicted felon in possession of a weapon.

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Four teenagers are in custody in connection with the slaying of a 21-year-old man in San Rafael that investigators believe was the result of a dispute between rival gangs, a police spokeswoman said Thursday.

Carlos Guiterrez, 18, of San Rafael, a student at Madrone High School, and three boys - a 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds - were arrested on suspicion of murder with gang enhancements in the stabbing death Wednesday of 21-year-old Jeffrie Lee Olmstead, police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher said.

One of the 17-year-olds attends Novato High School, and the other two juveniles are students at County Community School in San Rafael, Rohrbacher said. All four suspects are gang members, she said.

The names of the juveniles have not been released.

The incident began when police received reports of "young men armed with sticks and bats" running on the 600 block of B Street near the San Rafael Community Center at 4:53 p.m., Rohrbacher said.

More callers reported that they saw a Pontiac Grand Am chasing a Ford Explorer in the Gerstle Park neighborhood, Rohrbacher said. The two vehicles ended up on Woods Street, where the occupants of both cars jumped out and began fighting, she said.

Three occupants of the Ford, including Olmstead, were stabbed, police said.

A resident called 911 and said a bleeding man, later identified as Olmstead, had come to her door and asked for help before collapsing, police said.

Olmstead was taken to Marin General Hospital, where he died. Police later learned that he had told his friends to leave him, Rohrbacher said.

The two other stabbing victims from the Ford were dropped off at the emergency room. The men, ages 20 and 21, were treated for minor injuries and released.

California Highway Patrol officers found the Ford Explorer with a smashed windshield in Corte Madera at 5:17 p.m. and stopped it on Tamal Vista Boulevard. The driver was detained and the vehicle impounded.

The Pontiac was found unoccupied on Front Street in San Rafael shortly after midnight, Rohrbacher said.

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Newport News gang member was convicted by a federal jury of murdering two people as part of his activities with the violent street gangs operating in the city.

Perry Cousins was a leader of a violent gang who spread "fear and havoc" throughout Newport News, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said.

According to evidence introduced at trial, Cousins was a member of an enterprise that consisted of three gangs, the "Slump Mobb," the "Dump Squad," and "Bang Gang," all criminal organizations that operated in the Ridley Circle, Harbor Homes and Dickerson Court areas of Newport News.

"The gang was so brazen they firebombed a police station in an attempt to intimidate both law enforcement and the surrounding community," MacBride said.

Cousins was charged and convicted of the murders of Rashed Caudle on Aug. 9, 2003, Lorenzo Thomas on Sept. 12, 2005, and the pistol-whipping of a third person.

Several co-defendants previously pled guilty to violent criminal acts associated with their participation in gang activity.

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the Tenth Street Gang and the Seventh Street Gang — have waged a bloody war on Buffalo’s West Side for years, police say.

Over the past three years, one violent retribution attack has followed another, causing grief for many families and making people afraid to walk the streets in some neighborhoods.

Thursday, cops and federal prosecutors attempted to put a stop to the violence by filing criminal charges against 35 alleged members and associates of the two gangs.

The charges were announced by U. S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. and leaders of the FBI, State Police, Buffalo Police and other law enforcement agencies.

“These are exactly the type of people we need to take off the streets to make neighborhoods safe again,” said Richard

W. Kollmar, special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI office.

“Countless homicides, countless shootings — they have terrorized entire neighborhoods on the West Side,” said Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda, who said he believes the arrests will make some neighborhoods safer.

Hochul said the individuals charged include six alleged members of the Seventh Street Gang and 29 associated with Tenth Street, which has been the dominant gang on the West Side for more than 20 years.

Crimes alleged include four murders, 10 attempted murders, numerous assaults and scores of drug deals, prosecutors said in court papers. Most of the alleged Tenth Street associates who were charged on Thursday had been previously charged with related crimes in an indictment last September.

Identified as members of the Seventh Street Gang — also known as Checko’s Crew — are: Efrain “Checko” Hidalgo, Thomas Rodriguez, Kasiem Williams, Esteban “Rudolfo” Ramos-Cruz, Jordan Hidalgo and Juan “Puchongo” Torres.

Efrain Hidalgo, Williams, Ramos-Cruz and Torres are accused of taking part in the August 11, 2009, murder of Eric Morrow, a member of the rival Tenth Street Gang.

Buffalo police said Morrow, 21, of Kamper Street, was shot in the chest and leg while standing next to the porch of a home on Auburn Avenue near West Avenue. Thirteen days after that shooting, the indictment charges that Williams tried to murder Saul Santana, a member of the Tenth Street Gang.

Police charged that Santana had shot and killed Anthony “Act” Colon, a 20-yearold Seventh Street gangster, while Colon was walking on Ullman Avenue on July 26, 2009.

The 29 defendants accused of racketeering crimes in the Tenth Street case are: Santana, Kyle “Bow-Wow” Eagan, Tony Peebles, Cody Busch, Matthew Deynes, David Deynes, Nourooz Ali, Efrain Barreto, Charles “Pingy” Watkins, Desmond Ford, Jimmarlan Sessions, Omar Hernandez, Justin Augus, Melvin Medina, Miguel Moscoso, Hector Rodriguez, Jimmy Sessions, Derrick Yancey, Johnathan Serrano, Michael Bobbitt, Brandon Bobbitt, Renal Velasquez, Daniel Colon, Douglas Harville, Jairo Hernandez, Matthew “Matt Nasty” Smith, Chazity Fluellen, Michael Hernandez and Benjamin Medina.

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According to an official notice of rejection from the ABC Commission, members of the Bloods and the Crips street gangs were inside Club 609 on the night Tremayne Blanks was shot to death. It goes on to say that when a song by Taaron Jones was played, gang members began flashing gang-related hand symbols. Jones was stabbed to death in January outside of the Rhino Club, another Wilmington night club. Police say he was the highest-ranking member of the ii street gang. After the song was played fights broke out between rival gang members inside the club. Blanks was killed outside the club.

The ABC Commission says the owners of Club 609, at 4418 Market Street, may appeal the action to the Office of Administrative Hearings within 60 days.

"A history of fighting, disorderly conduct, or other dangerous activity is part of what the Commission considers in deciding if an ABC permit is detrimental to the community. Law enforcement has documented that history at Club 609, and the Commission is taking back the temporary permits and denying the application for permanent permits. The fatal shooting this weekend is a terrible reminder that serving alcohol is too often a magnet for people inclined to dangerous and even violent acts," said NC ABC Commission Chairman Jon Williams in a statement.

In affidavits from investigators that are part of the Commission's rejection notice, one officer said the club has "maintained a general reputation as a place" for underage drinking, fights and assaults. Another said he had seen a gang member at Club 609 wearing a shirt "showing allegiance" to the slain Jones.

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Innocent people could have been killed when two gunmen sprayed two Adelaide homes with bullets as they targeted a rival gang member, police say.

At least 20 shots were fired at the homes by the gunmen who walked down the suburban Craigmore Street on Wednesday night and opened fire.

Crime gangs task force boss Detective Superintendent Des Bray said the gunmen were thought to have targeted a man who was well known to police and was associated with the New Boys street gang and the Comancheros bikie gang.

The man was currently before the court facing serious charges.

But Supt Bray said it appeared the gunmen weren't sure which home the man was in so fired at both homes, including one owned by people who had nothing to do with the gang warfare.

He said it was fortunate no one was hurt in the attack.

"It appears they've targeted one house, fired a large volley of shots into that house and then they've turned their attention to the other home," Supt Bray told reporters on Thursday.

"Basically the behaviour of these people, it's just very, very cowardly.

"We've got two people in the still of night, slink down the street and basically open up firing on a house in the middle of the night and then run away like cowards.

"They have no regard for whether the people are their target or somebody else," he said.

"Innocent people could have lost their lives."

Supt Bray said police were still investigating the motives for the attack with a number of people associated with different gangs having issues with the man thought to have been the target.

"There's probably several motives and several reasons as to why someone would target that person," he said.

"As to which person is targeting him and for which reason, that will take a little bit longer for us to find out."

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