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

Read More...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read More...

Paul P. Rasmussen, 25, pleaded guilty Monday to instructing commission of an offence for a criminal organization, trafficking, criminal conspiracy and possessing proceeds of crime.Saskatoon police laid charges in August 2006 after a nine-month investigation that began after they learned the gang was establishing itself as a major seller of crack cocaine in Saskatchewan, Crown prosecutor Byron Wright said in Saskatoon provincial court.Rasmussen directed local activities of the sophisticated organization, which sold crack 24 hours per day, seven days a week using street-level sellers who worked in shifts, used cellphones and cars to take orders and make deliveries and stashed the drugs in public places, Wright said."They were trying to break their way into the Saskatoon market. They were a very busy group and they were certainly well-organized, with established practices and an established hierarchy," Wright said in an interview."In Edmonton they're causing a lot of trouble," Wright said, noting gang members there have been involved in drug trafficking and violent offences.Another person facing charges is Justin Howard, 25, of Edmonton, Rasmussen's alleged superior in the organization. Howard awaits trial in Edmonton on charges of instructing commission of an offence for a criminal organization, participating in activities of a criminal organization and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.Clinton Main, 25, who is alleged to have directed others, along with Rasmussen, will return to court Sept. 17. Main is also charged with criminal conspiracy, trafficking and possessing proceeds of crime.Daniel Aube, 20, pleaded guilty Monday to committing an offence for a criminal organization, conspiracy and trafficking. He will be sentenced on Nov. 17.Judge Marilyn Gray issued a warrant for the arrest of Curtis McCalla, 20, who failed to show up for court Monday. He is charged with committing an offence for a criminal organization, conspiracy, trafficking, possessing proceeds of crime and breaching court orders.Two other men, Jason Peterson, 21, and Dale Kaye, 23, previously pleaded guilty to trafficking, conspiracy and acting for a criminal organization. They will also be sentenced on Nov. 17.Rocky Domingo, 22, who previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and trafficking, will also be sentenced on Nov. 17.Charges against a woman who was arrested after the 2006 bust were stayed after she co-operated with police, Wright said.Police initially contacted the group by calling a cellphone with the number 880-DEAL, Wright told the court.RCMP and city police investigators eventually obtained a warrant to tap telephone lines, which resulted in their intercepting more than 20,000 conversations over 60 days. About 2,100 of those calls pertained to 600 drug transactions.Crack was being sold in half-gram, one-gram and "eight ball" or 3.5-gram quantities. One gram sold for about $100, Wright said. He estimated the group had revenues of at least $60,000 in that two-month period.

Read More...

``Murdering someone is not a concern to them, it's a cost of doing business almost," Scioli said. ``Just their initiation to get into the gang is pretty aggressive." One of the fastest-growing and most violent gangs in the world is showing up in Arizona. Mike Scioli with the Border Patrol said members of MS-13, well-known for being ruthless, are coming to Arizona because its position on the border makes it a hot spot for drugs and human smuggling. MS-13 comes from El Salvador and has an estimated 100,000 members throughout Latin America and the United States. Many of the gang's founding members had experience or training in guerilla warefare in El Salvador. It's one of the fast-growing gangs in the world. Scioli said the presence of MS-13 gang members is making federal agents along the U.S.-Mexico border nervous. ``It's not uncommon for a single agent to run into a group of 10 to 13 people and make the arrest alone, on his own, with backup maybe a half-hour away," he said. Many of the gang's founders are highly-trained rebel fighters from El Salvador, he added.

Read More...

Los Angeles County Superior Judge Kathleen Kennedy upheld a jury's recommendation and imposed the death penalty on Ralph "Swifty" Flores, now 26, for three of the murders.

Azusa gang member guilty of slaying four people in separate incidents between 1999 and 2004 was sentenced today to death.Three of his victims were Claudia Chenet, Fenise Luna and Miguel Reyes.Flores was also convicted in the shooting death of 16-year-old Christopher Lynch. But Flores was 17 at the time, making him ineligible for the death penalty in that crime.Flores was part of a group of Azusa 13 gang members responsible for spasms of crime, some of it racially motivated against blacks, during those years in the normally quiet San Gabriel Valley town.
Azusa police and L.A. County Sheriff's Department detectives launched investigations into the gang and eventually arrested eight members who have been tried and convicted in the last four years. Flores, convicted last year, was the last of the group to be tried.

Read More...

Hells Angels trial still is searching for one more juror.Jury selection will continue Tuesday after lawyers for the Crown and four alleged Hells Angels members exhausted a jury pool Monday.Today will be the fourth day of jury selection for the trial, which could last nine months.Jury selection, which began last week, resumed Monday with one more juror to be selected and two alternates, which are chosen in case a juror falls ill or decides to withdraw before the trial starts.The final juror and one alternate were picked Monday, and the second alternate juror is expected to be chosen today. The trial is expected to start Wednesday.
The judge told potential jurors that the four accused -- Jean Joseph Violette, Ronaldo Lising, Randall Richard Potts and John Virgil Punko -- are all alleged members of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels in Vancouver.
The 28-count indictment alleges the Hells Angels chapter is a criminal organization and that its members committed crimes such as extortion and uttering death threats "for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a criminal organization, to wit the East End charter of the Hells Angels."Other charges contained in the indictment include possession of grenades, illegal semi-automatic handguns and silencers.

Read More...

Gang member convicted of four murders, including a racially motivated killing of a black 16-year-old, was sentenced to death Monday.
Ralph Steven Flores, 26, was convicted in March for killing the teen and three other people between 1999 and 2004. One victim was shot outside a Christmas party. Another was beaten and strangled. "This defendant will kill for just about any reason," said Kathleen Kennedy, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. Kennedy imposed three death sentences, and a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Christopher Lynch, a black teenager Flores killed when he was 17. Because Flores was a minor, he was not eligible for the death penalty for that murder. "Our family has been destroyed," the boy's mother, Kim Lynch, told the judge before the sentence was handed down. "He did not deserve to leave this earth in the way that he did." Flores was convicted of shooting Claudia Chenet to death in 2003 because he believed she helped police arrest another gang member. He was also found guilty of shooting Miguel Reyes outside a Christmas party in 2004, and beating and strangling to death Fenise Luna in 2004. Two other men, Steven Henry Zamora, 40, and Frankie Paul Martinez, 22, are also serving time for Luna's death. Flores' defense attorney, Pierpont Laidley, previously suggested the jury swayed in favor of execution by other recent gang-related killings and "hysteria against gangs."

Read More...

The violence had been blamed on two rival groups - the 'S5' and 'S6' gangs who take their names from postcodes in the city.Members were said to have been armed with bats and knives when they took to the streets on Saturday night, sparking fighting on Rokeby Drive in the Parson Cross area of the city.Dale Robertson was stabbed during running battles involving up to 40 youths.One youth told journalists the violence broke out after a 16-year-old girl's birthday party and emergency services were called shortly after 11pm to reports that a man had been assaulted "by a number of people".Dale Robertson, 18, had been stabbed in the chest. He was seen staggering away from the scene before collapsing in a pool of blood.
But Superintendent Peter Norman, of South Yorkshire Police, insisted Mr Robertson's death "has nothing to do with postcode gangs whatsoever".The youth had said: "About 40 people were involved in the fight, some were carrying baseball bats and knives. It lasted for about 10 minutes before the cops were called."At one point two cars came screeching up the street and you could hear them being trashed. You could hear them being kicked and I think one of the windscreens was smashed in."However, the officer said he believed it had more to do with teenagers drinking large
amounts of alcohol than with any kind of gang affiliation.
"It appears to have got out of hand and there's been some kind of altercation," he said.The senior officer said he wanted to reassure people living in the area that his team believed the incident was isolated and not related to any gang issues.
Mr Robertson was taken to hospital but died from his injuries.:: Two youths aged 17 and a 16-year-old boy are being questioned about the death and police are appealing for information.

Read More...

Cleveland killer sentenced to life in prison 20 years ago will get a new trial in an aggravated-murder case because prosecutors did not reveal that a key witness was offered immunity in exchange for his testimony.
The outcome of the new trial, however, will be of little consequence to Robert Brown, 47. He was sentenced to life in prison twice in the 1980s. The first time was in late 1987 for murdering a man who backed into his parked Mercedes-Benz. The second was six months later, for ordering a hit on Tanya Greene, an operative in his drug ring who was expected to testify against him. Two decades later, a Cuyahoga County judge decided that prosecutorial misconduct in the Greene case will give Brown another day in court. During the Greene trial, former Assistant County Prosecutor Carmen Marino asked Alvin "Big Man" Elder, a key witness in the case, if he made any deals with the state in exchange for his testimony. Elder answered no when he testified. But a recent public-records request to the Cleveland Heights Police Department yielded evidence that Marino offered Elder immunity and then allowed him to lie about it under oath. Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason withdrew an appeal against Brown's motion for a new trial after the evidence came to light in June. The case is another example of a recurring issue emerging from cases prosecuted in Cuyahoga County during the 1980s. And Marino has been at the heart of the controversy. Several defendants who have already served decades in prison, including one man on death row, have been granted new trials in the past year because Marino withheld critical evidence. Marino did not return a call seeking comment. Brown's attorney Philip Korey said his client's case underscores the need for open discovery in Ohio. The state's criminal rules of procedure allow prosecutors to decide what information to share with defense lawyers. This protects witnesses from retaliation, prosecutors say. The law requires them to share with defense lawyers any evidence that could help a defendant. But defense lawyers argue that they often are left unaware if critical evidence is withheld. Such was the case during Brown's trial, Korey said. "With open file discovery, this mischief could have been avoided entirely," he said. "It's one thing not to disclose exculpatory information. But it's another to lie about it and ask a witness questions that yield answers you know to be false." Still, prosecutors maintain that Brown is a ruthless and violent criminal who deserves both of the life sentences he received.
Police in the 1980s believed Brown was connected to Jamaican gangs involved in a fierce turf war with Colombians over control of the illegal drug trade in Cleveland and Miami. Brown was linked to about 20 slayings in South Florida, according to newspaper accounts. He was a suspect in a drug theft, in which a Miami cocaine dealer, his wife and two children were killed. In October 1987, Brown was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for killing a man who accidentally backed into Brown's parked Mercedes-Benz. Witnesses said Brown was ordering a sandwich at an East Side deli when the accident occurred. He tried to persuade the driver to ride with him to the Police Department to file a report. But when the driver declined and said he would follow Brown in his own car, Brown shot him four times in the chest and drove away. The entire 23rd floor of the Justice Center was under heavy security during that trial because of Brown's suspected gang affiliations. Law enforcement officers, including members of Cleveland's SWAT team, surrounded Judge James J. McMonagle's courtroom and frisked all who entered the floor. Two police officers, part of a Caribbean drug task force, and their families were placed under 24-hour surveillance after the arrests of two Jamaican hit men who said Brown had hired them to assassinate the officers. Meanwhile, police investigating the October 1986 murder of Tanya Greene followed a trail of clues and witnesses that led to Brown as well.
The case had gone unsolved for almost a year after Greene's body was found lying in the middle of Reyburn Road in Cleveland Heights, shot nine times in the face at close range. Police caught a lead when witnesses came forward and identified Brown, Elder and Paul Lumley as the killers. Elder, who was the victim's boyfriend, testified that Brown ordered the slaying and Lumley carried it out. But Lumley was killed in a shootout before the case went to trial. Brown was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to life in prison again. He filed an appeal and a motion for a new trial that same year, but the motion was denied and an appeals court upheld his conviction.
Korey took on the case in 2004, when three new witnesses came forward to testify on Brown's behalf. Two of them could not be located during the 1988 trial; the other was a juvenile at the time and chose not to testify. All three witnesses said it wasn't Brown but Elder who killed his girlfriend because she was cheating on him. He and Lumley conspired, shot her to death in Elder's car and dumped her body on the roadside. Elder, 41, is serving 1 1/2 years in prison for attempted felonious assault and domestic violence. His criminal history dates to 1986 and includes charges for robbery, auto theft, aggravated assault and drug trafficking. One of the witnesses said that she met with Marino in the courtroom during the 1988 trial and told him what she knew about the case. Marino was confrontational, she said, and told her to testify that she heard Brown order the two men to kill the victim. When she refused, Marino became irate and told her to leave the court, she said. Judge John Russo granted the new trial in October. Mason's office filed an appeal, arguing that Russo's decision was based on information from witnesses who were known at the time of the original trial. Also, Brown asked for a new trial nearly two decades into his prison sentence, prosecutors argued. The law requires such motions to be filed within 120 days of conviction, unless the defendant had no knowledge of evidence that could have changed the result of the trial. After reviewing the information about Marino's misconduct, Mason's office conceded that Brown deserves a new trial, and it withdrew the appeal. But prosecutors are confident the outcome will be the same for Brown.
"This was a bad guy," said First Assistant County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley. "The fact that we agreed to a new trial based on an inconsistency doesn't diminish the fact that this guy was convicted of the execution of another innocent individual who made the mistake of bumping into his brand-new Mercedes."

Read More...

Wolves bikie became squeamish as he watched a fellow gang member cut off a man's ears with a knife during an attack at Currumbin, a court was told.David Holmes, who is missing his left ear and most of his right ear after the alleged attack in November last year, told police he heard the Lone Wolf, whom he referred to in the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday at 'Dutchy', tell the alleged attacker that watching it was 'turning my guts' and then he 'was just gone'.In a video re-enactment played to the court yesterday, Mr Holmes, 38, recounted the events which he said started with at least two men kidnapping him from his Currumbin Waters home about 5am on November 3.He said a knife was held to his throat and he was forced into a waiting car and driven to bushland where he was led up a dirt track while his hands were bound behind his back.He told police he was bashed with a baseball bat and forced to get on his knees by 'Scheersy' -- alleged to be Lone Wolves bikie Aaron Drew Scheers, 24."And then he just started cutting me lobes off," he told police."He just went bang, bang with the ears and then he had another hack at this ear."He said Mr Scheers was yelling 'You robbed, you robbed' as he continued the alleged knife attack.Mr Holmes told police he repeatedly denied robbing anyone.
When asked what he was thinking during the alleged attack, he said: "I thought they were going to knock me ... kill me."Then he put a knife to me throat (and said) 'I'll slit your throat'. I said: 'Well you'll be knocking an innocent (expletive)'. Then he (Mr Scheers) said: 'I believe ya. Anyone who'll go through that much pain and agony -- I believe ya'."During the video, police asked Mr Holmes how many men were present during the alleged attack, but he said he couldn't be sure.
Four men -- Mr Scheers, Benjamin James Dehnen, 31, Ray Kenneth Brooks, 30, and James Desmond Murphy, 25 -- were charged with torture, kidnapping and grievous bodily harm with intent to disfigure over the alleged attack and faced a committal hearing yesterday.After the attack, Mr Holmes told police during the re-enactment that he was taken further into the bush and dumped away from the track where his legs were bound and tape put over his mouth.With blood gushing from his ears, Mr Holmes said he knew he had to find help or he would die. After struggling out of the restraints, Mr Holmes ripped off part of the leg of his pyjamas to try to stop the bleeding, the court was told.He fainted several times, he said, and became disoriented in the bush.
The court was told that between five and seven hours after he was forced from his home he stumbled out of the bush and found a family having a picnic."But they shunned me and I couldn't really blame them, I looked (expletive) terrible," Mr Holmes told police.He said four men driving past stopped to help him and called an ambulance.A National Parks and Wildlife officer found part of one of Mr Holmes' ears in bushes near the entrance to the National Park five days after the alleged attack.
The hearing before magistrate Catherine Pirie continues today.

Read More...

When police arrived, they found one man dead and another injured. A third man was found hurt in a nearby field, but declined medical treatment, while yet another person called police around 4 a.m. to say he'd been shot.
reggae party in a community hall rented for a wedding erupted in violence early Sunday as gunfire killed one man and injured another three.Homicide, organized crime and gang unit investigators are trying to piece together what happened in the boisterous celebration that ended with Calgary's 27th homicide of the year.
Police were called to the Albert Park Radisson Heights Community Centre, at 1310 28th St. S.E., at 3:20 a.m. when revellers reported gunfire.
Fortunately for us, this time, there were a number of people that remained at the scene -- a fairly large number so we're going through, talking with all those people to determine what we can," said duty inspector Keith Pollock.That man was taken to hospital. No identities have been released.The hall was booked for a small wedding, but was really the stage for a reggae party by the name of Boustier & Stilletos (sic) organized by Sophie Production, according to flyers and posters printed for the event.Police said it was too early to tell if the dead man was targeted, but said they are investigating to see if there is a gang connection.They have not confirmed that the social gathering was an underground party.Residents who live near the scene said they didn't hear the gunshots, which came from inside the building, but many complained about loud music coming from the community centre.
Leo Cripps, organizer of the Calgary International Reggae Festival, said he saw the flyer promoting the event and had no idea who the promoter was or if the company exists.He said underground parties are often put on by fly-by-night promoters. Flyers are printed and news of the party spreads by word of mouth."I personally would never be caught at any of these events," said Cripps. "The people who are putting them on are just trying to make a quick buck."
Sophie Production was not listed in the phone book and does not have a website.
The flyers promoted performances by Jamaica's Mr. Lexx and Toronto's Exco Levi, with ticket prices up to $30.Cripps said promoters of underground dances, which often lack adequate security measures, are often denied access to other community halls because of past problems with property destruction or noise complaints.
It frustrates him that his festival and reggae music get a bad rap from the parties.
"Every time you find something like this happens, it sets us back. People start thinking 'reggae, drugs, guns and all of that crap,' " said Cripps.The community hall, surrounded by Bishop Kidd Catholic Junior High, houses, a day care and a small church, was behind police tape Sunday and so was the large field nearby. At capacity, the hall fits 160 people and police believe it was full early Sunday morning.Police search-and-rescue crews combed the crime scene and the surrounding neighbourhood looking for any clues that could be connected to the shooting.
Albert Park Radisson Heights Community Association acting president Peter Nugent said the booking called for a small wedding, but he now believes they were duped.
A staff member thought it was bizarre that, by 10:30 p.m., only a handful of people were around. Nugent also thought it was odd they asked him to remove most of the tables and chairs they had set up for the wedding."It's really disappointing and we feel terrible that the incident happened," said Nugent.
Pollock said police are trying to determine how many suspects may be involved and whether they crashed the party."There was possibly some kind of verbal confrontation that obviously turned violent," said Pollock

Read More...

Bob Holloway, 60, and his son Brent Holloway, 35, were arrested July 15. Six others also are charged. They are accused of running a racketeering and extortion ring that trafficked in stolen motor vehicle parts and collecting debts by force or with the threat of force.According to authorities, four of the suspects are associated with motorcycle gangs, another is a former chief executive officer of Indian Motorcycles and the last is a former Merced County sheriff's deputy who allegedly tapped into law enforcement databases on Holloway's behalf.The two-year investigation also snared three others with law enforcement connections: Stanislaus County Sheriff's Capt. Raul DeLeon, retired sheriff's deputy David Swanson and former corrections officer Steven J. Johnson. They are charged with lying to federal authorities. DeLeon was placed on administrative leave in December.An indictment handed down by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Fresno said Holloway was tipped off to the investigation by someone with law enforcement connections.
It also named five people who got motorcycles on credit from Holloway and were threatened with force if they failed to repay, though prosecutors do not allege that any were assaulted.And it said Holloway and his associates exported a motorcycle with a fictitious vehicle identification number to a gang leader in Sweden.
In Denair, nearby business owners said the case has prompted lots of talk, mostly from people who wonder what was really going on behind closed doors or suspect that Holloway may be getting railroaded.Tanya St. John, who lives a few blocks from the motorcycle shop, said she has friends and relatives who got good deals on motorcycles from Holloway. She thinks she would have heard something or seen something unusual if Road Dog Cycle was a dirty operation for 10 years, as prosecutors allege."You would know immediately," she said after she signed the petition. "This is a very small town. Everybody knows everything."
Robert Angel of Turlock said he signed the petition because his friend deserves a chance to prove his innocence. Robert Holloway faces decades in prison and fines of up to $2.5 million if convicted of nine felonies that range from racketeering to extortion to running a chop shop."How can he defend his case when he's in prison?" he said.Holloway's son Brent has been released from custody as he awaits trial.
Petrie, who posted fliers about the petition drive on the windows of the motorcycle shop, said she could not talk about the case or a wiretapped phone call that was intercepted nearly a year ago in which she told a friend about a fellow employee beating his son in the bay of the shop.According to prosecutors, Petrie wasn't too concerned about the incident because such things happened when the bosses needed to teach a customer a lesson -- until she learned that it was her co-worker's teenager in the cross hairs."I thought it was, you know, somebody that they were thumping," Petrie said during the Sept. 21, 2007, phone call. "I really didn't think that much of it."

Read More...

Police also say the brawl involved a motorcycle gang and that one of the men involved was trying to get into the banditos gang. And police say that might have been the motive behind the fight."This wasn't your average bar fight," Sgt. Eric Bravo. Police say 34 year old Vincent Latona was kicked out of the Branch Inn for getting too loud. "It involved a motorcycle gang that has a reputation of violence," Bravo said.Police say a group of bikers from the Banditos gang were drinking at the same bar."One of the group of bikers was a prospect member, meaning he was trying to get into the gang. That may be a possible motive, at this point we don't know for sure," Bravo said.
Police say the prospect is 28-year-old Jesse Boling. He and another gang member confronted Latona, outside the bar. A witness said Latona was carrying a 4 inch knife and after two scuffles, two bikers ended up with minor stab wounds, but Latona was in worse condition."He received some pretty serious stab wounds to his stomach," Bravo said.Latona was taken into surgery at Parkview and is expected to live. Meanwhile, police chased four men on motorcycles, and cornering them about a half mile away at 1st and Santa Fe. They've been arrested for eluding police and two got DUI's. Two others, including one with stab wounds, were not arrested. But so far, the gang's being tightlipped about the fight. "Nobody really wanted to talk to the police. The prospect did talk but he didn't give any valuable information," Bravo said.But crime scene evidence may help. Police say 2 bloody knives were found on Jesse Boling, the prospective gang member."Since he had the knife on him and if we determine one of those knives was used to stab a victim, he's looking at some charges for that," Bravo said.Latona has not been arrested, since he was in the hospital. But police have a probable cause affidavit for 1st degree assault. No word yet on charges for the biker gang, or the prospect.

Read More...

Latin Kings and Queens Nation are unlike any gang ever seen The gang's Buffalo chapter holds regular meetingsand requires members to pay dues, according to police. The dues are $5 a week for members who don't sell drugs and $10 to $20 for those who do. The Latin Kings have their own prayers, religion, constitution and bylaws. The book outlining their code of conduct is hundreds of pages long. Members who don't follow the rules receive a brutal beating that can last up to five minutes.
"You are not to put God, religion, family or friends before the [Latin King] nation," reads one of the gang's rules.
Homosexuals, gamblers and users of hard drugs are not welcome, the rules also state. The sale of hard drugs, however, is allowed. "It's the most organized gang we've ever seen here," said James Jancewicz, an FBI agent with the Buffalo Safe Streets Task Force. "The Mafia has all kinds of traditions, but they aren't this structured." The Latin Kings are the targets of a crackdown by the task force and the U.S. attorney's office. In April, six alleged leaders of the gang's Buffalo chapter were indicted on drug-trafficking charges, and they face the possibility of long prison terms. More local members of the gang are subjects of a continuing investigation.Among the jailed men is Joseph J. "King G" Santiago, 43, of Newton Street, who was sent here from Rhode Island to take control of the Buffalo chapter, authorities say. He has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges that allege he ran drug deals from a house on Normal Avenue.
Despite the crackdown, the Kings and other street gangs continue to be influential on the West Side, where police and community leaders say young people are routinely recruited to join and become drug dealers. "We've heard about kids as young as six to eight years old who are hired to stand on a corner all day," said Robert Kuebler, who runs the Youth With A Purpose mentoring program at Holy Cross Catholic Church on Seventh Street. "If they see the police coming, their only job is to run and tell the drug dealers that '5-0' is on the way."
"The kids join gangs because the gang gives them something to belong to," said Juan "Nino" Acosta, an ex-convict who now runs a job-training program for young people on Seventh Street. "We have to give them jobs and skills, alternatives to the gangs." "There's more gang opportunity for these kids right now than there is job opportunity," said Jacob Corchado, a West Side electrician. "So you do the math."
The Latin Kings started as a social organization for Latinos in Chicago in the 1940s, according to the FBI. Over the decades, the organization morphed into a criminal gang that now has hundreds of chapters in cities and prisons throughout the nation.
One of the most powerful Latin Kings leaders was Luis "King Blood" Felipe, a convicted killer who formed the Almighty Latin King Nation of New York State in the 1980s while he was serving time in Collins Correction Facility in southern Erie County. "Many of the guys who were indoctrinated into the Latin Kings in prisons later came out and started their own chapters in the cities," Jancewicz said.
Felipe is now serving a life sentence in the nation's most high-security federal prison in Florence, Colo. He was convicted in 1997 of homicide and racketeering, including sending letters from prison that ordered Latin Kings on the outside to torture and murder people. He is still revered as a heroic, almost godlike figure by some members of the Latin Kings, authorities say. Recruiting young people in neighborhoods racked by poverty and unemployment, the Latin Kings have flourished since they made their big move into Buffalo in 2006. The gang has more than 50 members in Buffalo, according to the FBI and the State Police. "After the takedown in April, some of their members went around putting Latin Kings graffiti in different locations, just to let us know they are still around," Jancewicz said.
In court papers, the U.S. attorney's office alleges that the Buffalo Latin Kings have been heavily involved in drug trafficking, extreme violence and gun crimes.
Those allegations conflict with the views presented on the Latin Kings' official Web site. "While history has put Kings and Queens above the people, we The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation -- proudly wear our crowns as servants of the people," the organization states. "Though we strive for peace, may we always find strength to keep our swords sharp and our shields shiny." The group says it is dedicated to the causes of "evolution, righteousness and community upliftment."
"They use all kinds of flowery language to describe their good causes," Jancewicz said, "but the evidence shows they have been involved in drug-dealing and violence in city after city." The FBI Safe Streets Task Force also includes members of the State Police, Buffalo Police Department, Amherst Police Department, New York State Parole Division, Erie County Probation Office and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorneys George C. Burgasser and Kurt P. Martin are prosecuting the case. Acosta, 37, the founder of the Urban Community Corp. on Seventh Street, and Lourdes Iglesias, executive director of Hispanics United of Buffalo, are trying to provide opportunities for young West Side residents to better themselves without joining gangs.

Read More...

Bounty Hunter Bloods lieutenant Andre "Baby Gangster" Thomas received 20 years in prison today for cooperating with law enforcement to bring down Dewan "Gully Boy" Dennis.A Mercer County judge shortened Thomas' sentence by five years after approving a plea agreement.The 22-year-old had pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated manslaughter for the May 5, 2005 firebombing deaths of Rasheem Glover, 24, and his two daughters, Janaya Glover, 6, and Jyasia Watson, 7, at their Trenton home, and for the April 21, 2005 fatal shooting of Denneshia Ledbetter, 22, of New Brunswick.He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and aggravated arson.

Read More...

Brawl involving two rival bikie gangs at a luxury Gold Coast resort two years ago was the result of the attempted theft of a precious jewel, a Brisbane court has heard.Three people were shot, two stabbed and more than $40,000 damaged caused to the Royal Pines Resort's Grand Ballroom at Carrara on March 18, 2006, when members of the Finks and Hells Angels clashed at a kickboxing tournament.Dubbed the "Ballroom Blitz", the bloody incident was said to have been sparked by the defection of one-time Fink and soon-to-be convicted murderer Christopher Wayne Hudson to the Hells Angels in a move that angered his former gangmates.
But lawyers for two men involved in the melee told Brisbane's District Court yesterday bad blood and Hudson's growing drug addiction were behind the bust up, which also saw an innocent kickboxing promoter knocked unconscious after trying to intervene.
Nicholas John Forbes, 39, and Shane Scott Bowden, 36, have each pleaded guilty to bashing and shooting Hudson at the televised event, claiming the burly 30-year-old had tried to steal a sapphire from Forbes' elderly parents so he could sell it for drugs.Barrister Craig Eberhardt, for Forbes, said his client and Hudson were old friends, but things had soured in the lead-up to the incident.
"They had grown up together," Mr Eberhardt said.
"Mr Hudson had developed a significant amphetamine addiction and had been treating people very badly, including Mr Forbes' parents.
"He had tried to steal a sapphire from them to pawn to feed his amphetamine addiction."
Graphic footage shot by Fox Sports television cameras and tendered to the court showed Hudson sitting ringside with "dozens" of Hells Angels bikies when Forbes, a Fink, arrived at the table and called for him to step outside.
"Come on c---," Forbes shouted.
"Let's f---ing go."
Seconds later, Forbes is seen throwing a punch at Hudson and immediately the room errupts.Footage shows bikies - some in in full gang insignia - using chairs and drinking glasses as weapons before several gunshots ring out.Hudson is shot twice in the face and back by Bowden before being pinned against the boxing ring by Forbes and set upon by several men.As he tries to crawl away on all fours, pictures show him being dragged back and struck again.Barrister Anthony Glynn SC, for Bowden, said while it appeared Hudson was a defenceless victim, the opposite was true.
"Hudson could be a man who was extremely violent," Mr Glynn said.
Hudson is in custody in Victoria awaiting sentencing on murder and attempted murder charges after he opened fire on three people outside a Melbourne strip club in June last year.Solicitor Brendan Keilar was shot to death and Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard badly wounded after they went to the aid of exotic dancer Kaera Douglas as Hudson, her part-time boyfriend, dragged her by the hair in the middle of a city street.Ms Douglas was also fired on, losing a kidney.Bowden, who was on parole and a suspended sentence for drugs and violence offences at the time of the 2006 Royal Pines brawl, is facing up to seven years jail after pleading guilty to unlawful wounding with intent to maim and discharging a firearm in a public place.Forbes is facing six years for bashing Hudson as well as attacks on seven others during an unrelated "rampage" through a Gold Coast nightclub and shopping mall.
Mr Eberhardt said in addition to the falling-out with his long-time friend, Forbes - a hospital orderly - had also been upset at the time by an investment gone bad.
Mr Glynn, meanwhile, argued Bowden - in the grip of a drug-induced psychosis - had shot Hudson out of loyalty to Forbes, and only after Hells Angels members had produced guns and fired first.Judge Milton Griffin SC accepted neither man was responsible for starting the "Ballroom Blitz" and that other gang members had acted independently.He has reserved his sentencing decision until this morning.

Read More...

Mark "Papa" Guardado, 45, was found about 10:30 p.m. with gunshot wounds at 24th Street and Treat Avenue, about a mile from the group's clubhouse. He died a short time later at San Francisco General Hospital. Police think Guardado may have been in fight with a rival in another motorcycle group before he was killed. Witnesses told investigators that he and the gunman struggled before the shooting and that the suspect fled on a motorcycle. At the time of his death, Guardado was the subject of an ongoing investigation into an assault with a deadly weapon incident, said Sgt. Jim Stephenson of the Petaluma Police Department. "He beat up a random guy at a bar," said Stephenson. "He beat him with his hands and feet."When police responded to the Petaluma bar, officers said Guardado volunteered the fact that he was president of the San Francisco branch of the notorious motorcycle gang.
"He told us he was president, plus it was on his jacket," said Stephenson, who also told CBS 5 that Petaluma police kept the jacket as evidence in the case.
Guardado filed suit in May against Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies who refused to let him and a co-defendant wear their Hell's Angels insignia in court. A judge later backed up the Sheriff's Department and disallowed the two defendants from wearing the insignia.The San Francisco chapter is one of the oldest Hells Angels branches in the country. The half-centry-old club is known for an outlaw image, and its members have been a target of police anti-gang and anti-drug efforts.

Read More...

Youth accused of murdering Scots backpacker Karen Aim blamed a man trying to impress a gang called the Mongrel Mob, it was claimed yesterday.A school security guard said the 14-year-old accused brandished the bloodstained murder weapon in front of him.
Leigh Herewini, a friend of the accused, told a court in New Zealand the schoolboy had fetched the wooden baseball bat from behind a trapdoor at the back of his grandparents' house.He told the committal hearing at Taupo Youth Court: "It had a lot of dents and bits missing off it. It looked like it had blood on it."I felt uncomfortable. It could have been the bat that hurt that girl. He said he had washed it, tried to wash the blood off it."But Mr Herewini said the accused, now aged 15, identified another man as the killer.Calling him Brian, the accused said the man had been trying to prove himself to a notorious criminal gang, the Mongrel Mob.The accusation had first come in a phone call from the youngster hours after 27-year-old Karen, from Holm in Orkney, had been found dying in the street in Taupo, a lakeside resort.Mr Herewini,34, had been called to the scene in the early hours of January 17 when an alarm was triggered by someone smashing windows.He saw a policeman kneeling beside Karen, who suffered horrific head injuries, in a pool of blood and was sent to fetch tape to fence off the area.Later that day, the accused teenager called. Mr Herewini added: "He said he knew the person that supposedly done it. He said it was a guy, Brian, a Mongrel Mob prospect from Rotorua."He said he was prospecting for his father, who was in the Mongrel Mob."

Read More...

Rio de Janeiro police found two caimans in a raid on one of the city's slums on Wednesday, saying the crocodile-like reptiles were used by drug traffickers to intimidate their enemies and dispose of bodies.Police were conducting a raid in the west of the Brazilian city looking for a drug gang boss when they came across the animals in the backyard of a house in the Coreia slum."The caimans are a symbol of power of the traffickers. When they catch a rival, they kill him and give him to the caimans," Ronaldo Oliveira, head of the robbery and car theft unit, was quoted as saying on O Globo newspaper's website.Television footage showed police officers carefully placing the small reptiles in the back of a truck.
Rio's heavily armed drug gangs, with names like "Red Command" and "Friends of Friends," control many of the city's hundreds of slums and regularly battle over territory.Some slums are next to the city's tropical forest areas, where gangs have been known to train and launch invasions of rivals' territories.

Read More...

Ryan John Agecoutay, 25; and Daniel Richard Wolfe, 32, are said to belong to the Indian Posse, one of many gangs in Saskatchewan. Authorities said Wolfe is considered an "influential" gang leader. Both were being held on violent crime charges, including murder and aggravated assault. The men are among the six Native inmates who broke out of the Regina Correctional Centre on August 24. Two have been captured in an incident that has raised concerns about the way the public was notified. The prison waited 14 hours before sending out an alert.

Read More...