Heroin kingpin, Roshan Fernando was shot dead on Friday by two unidentified gunmen.

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.

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Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafiabunkers with beds, bathrooms with running water, jacuzzis, CCTV to view the surface, internet and satellite links

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.

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John Gilligan's gang which had dominated the drug scene in the northern and north western suburbs of the city has been pushed out

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.

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Massimo Pisnoli, 48, was found with gunshot wounds to his face and back making his body virtually unrecognisable

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.

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“bullets for gangsters”Crime Branch team gunned down notorious criminal Robert alias Rahul Raju Salve, 32, at Indrayani Nagar in the Bhosari area

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.

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Michael Rodriguez followed through with his wish to be executed as atonement for his crimes.

Michael Rodriguez followed through with his wish to be executed as atonement for his crimes.The twice-convicted killer, notorious as one of the infamous "Texas 7" fugitives, profusely apologized Thursday evening in the seconds before he was put to death for his participation in the fatal shooting of a Dallas-area police officer.
Rodriguez, 45, had ordered his appeals dropped and volunteered for lethal injection.
He also had been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for arranging the murder of his wife at their home in San Antonio."I have done some horrible things," he said from the death chamber gurney. "I ask the Lord to please forgive me.
"I have gained nothing, but just brought sorrow and pain to these wonderful people," he said speaking directly to the widow of the slain officer, four of the officer's friends and his former sister-in-law.Dozens of police officers stood at attention outside the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice until the relatives of the victims who witnessed the execution emerged from the prison and left. They declined to speak to reporters.The slain officer, Aubrey Hawkins, was killed on Christmas Eve 2000, about two weeks after Rodriguez and six other convicts broke out of a South Texas prison. Hawkins had interrupted the escapees' robbery of an Irving sporting goods store and was gunned down.The fugitives were apprehended about a month later in Colorado, where one of them committed suicide."Let's do the right thing — for once," he explained in a recent interview with The Associated Press.He became the eighth convicted killer executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state and the fourth this month. Another is set for next week. He also was the first of the six surviving "Texas 7" gang to be put to death.
Rodriguez for more than two years pushed to have his punishment carried out. A federal judge held competency hearings to ensure Rodriguez could make such a decision. After the judge approved, the execution was stalled while the U.S. Supreme Court considered challenges that lethal injection was unconstitutionally cruel. But after the justices earlier this year ruled the method was not improper, Rodriguez's execution date was set.The seven broke out of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Connally Unit by overpowering some workers there, stealing their clothes and breaking into the prison armory to get guns. Their escape was aided by Rodriguez's father, who parked a getaway vehicle nearby, enabling them to ditch a stolen prison truck. Rodriguez's father later was convicted of helping them.
"Rodriguez was one of the more violent ones during the escape," recalled Toby Shook, the former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted him for capital murder. "He would put these shanks in people's ears while they were being tied up, making threats."During the officer's slaying, where the gang robbed an Irving sporting goods store of $70,000, more guns and the IDs of employees, Rodriguez acknowledged taking the fatally wounded officer's gun and pulling him from his patrol car.Shook said evidence showed he also was among the gang shooting at Hawkins and a gun that was left behind at the scene belonged to Rodriguez. Evidence showed a bullet from that gun was lodged in the dashboard of the officer's car.
"It was headed straight for him," Shook said. "So he was right in front of him and firing directly at him."Hawkins was shot 11 times was run over with his own car.
A month later, Rodriguez and three of the prisoners were captured at a trailer park outside Colorado Springs, Colo. A fifth escapee, Larry Harper, killed himself as police closed in. Two others surrendered two days later, ending a nationwide manhunt.His five remaining accomplices — George Rivas, Randy Halprin, Donald Newbury, Joseph Garcia and Patrick Murphy — joined him on death row. Appeals for each remain in the courts and none has an execution date.
"The memory of Officer Aubrey Hawkins, his dedication to duty and family are cherished by the Irving Police Department and others that knew Aubrey," the Irving department said in a statement released Thursday. "His legacy and his service are not forgotten."Our police family suffered a devastating loss through Aubrey's ultimate sacrifice.""The hardest thing is the constant presence of it," Hawkins' wife, Lori, said before the execution. "It's not like there's one person involved. There are six."She attended the first couple of trials but then stopped.
"It was like reliving it every two years," she said.
She had been married to the officer for four years, then at age 27 became a widow. She has since remarried.
"I had to move on," she said.
Rodriguez said his earlier murder conviction, for paying a hit man to kill his wife, Theresa, was the result of an infatuation with a younger woman who was a student at a university in San Marcos where Rodriguez also was taking classes.
"It was stupid," Rodriguez said.

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John D'Amico, charged with racketeering, pleaded guilty in May to extorting a cement company out of $100,000 and could serve less than two years

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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Harry 'Bungles' Daley, the police have seized two of the top cop's vehicles.

As part of their investigations into corruption charges against Superintendent Harry 'Bungles' Daley, the police have seized two of the top cop's vehicles.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin Felice, head of the anti-corruption branch, yesterday confirmed with The Gleaner that the vehicles had been seized but declined to give further comments.
Felice led the team which arrested Superintendent Daley and charged him with six counts of extortion and six counts of breaching the Corruption Prevention Act.
At the same time, the Police High Command has launched a top-level probe into reports that a house belonging to an attorney representing Supt Daley was searched by a police/military patrol Saturday morning.
In an official statement Wednesday, the police said the probe was being led by the office of the deputy commissioner in charge of crime, Mark Shields.While the High Command was unwilling to say more, checks by The Gleaner have revealed a puzzling situation.Reports had surfaced that the home of attorney-at-law Carolyn Reid, in east Kingston, was searched about 5:30 Saturday morning, while her mother was home alone.This sparked speculation that the house was searched because of her involvement in the 'Bungles' case.But the police said yesterday that an operation had been conducted in east Kingston in which a tenement yard adjacent to the Elleston Road Police Station was searched. It is believed that this yard was the property in question, but the police had no information to indicate that the lawyer lived there.

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Shane Moloney is charged with the possession of heroin and possession of the drug for sale or supply.

Twenty-seven-year-old Shane Moloney, from Drimnagh Road in Dublin, is charged with the possession of heroin and possession of the drug for sale or supply.
Detective Diarmuid Maguire from the Organised Crime Unit told Judge John Lindsey that Mr Moloney was arrested and charged yesterday at Ballyfermot Garda Station.
He made no reply when the two charges were put to him and has been remanded in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court on August 21st.Two other men, also in their 20s, are due before the court shortly on the same charges in connection with the haul.Six kilos of heroin were seized on Wednesday night after four cars were stopped on the Kennelsfort Road in south Dublin.

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German police believe Tuesday's deadly shooting in the western town of Rüsselsheim in which three people died resulted from a feud between Turkish men

German police believe Tuesday's deadly shooting in the western town of Rüsselsheim in which three people died resulted from a feud between Turkish men. Two men were arrested on Wednesday. One of the dead was an innocent bystander -- a 55-year-old Greek mother of two.Tuesday's deadly shooting in the western German town of Rüsselsheim may have resulted from an altercation between two Turkish men in the nearby city of Mainz a few days earlier, police said on Wednesday. The shooting happened in an Italian ice cream cafe in a pedestrian zone in central Rüsselsheim near Frankfurt. Four men walked into the cafe and confronted a group of men who were sitting there. A scuffle ensued and shots were fired. Two men and an innocent bystander, a 55-year-old Greek woman, were killed.A total of eight or nine men were involved. Two of the assailants were brothers, and one of them was among the dead. Police said they arrested two Turkish men on Wednesday, aged 49 and 28. "Two men had a row in Mainz at the weekend and we believe the shooting may have been linked to that," a police spokesman told a news conference. "It may have something to do with wounded honor."More than one gun was fired and knives were also used, police said.
The woman, a mother of two, died in her husband's arms after being hit in the stomach by a stray bullet. "My wife died here," her husband Kostadinos K., 54, told SPIEGEL ONLINE, pointing at the area around the cafe now cordoned off with police tape.Anna K. had been drinking a cappuccino with the mother-in-law of one of her two sons in the the Italian cafe, said Kostadinos. Her husband said he had been sitting next door in the Greek restaurant that belongs to his brother. "Suddenly I heard four or five shots. I ran out and saw my wife lying on the ground," said Kostadinos.She was bleeding heavily from a stomach wound and Kostadinos and several relatives dragged her into the restaurant. "Please help me Kosta!", she whispered into her husband's ear. Those were her last words, said Kostadinos. "I can't think any more," he said, fighting back the tears behind sunglasses. His sons aged 27 and 28 are on vacation in Greece. "I rang them up, told them their mother is dead. They asked, 'Why?' I couldn't answer the question." Eyewitnesses said Anna and her companion had left the cafe when they saw the men arguing. The women were hurrying over to the Greek restaurant when the shooting started. One of the men being fired at ran from the café and ran into her, dragging her to the ground. One of the attackers following him opened fire on the two of them as they lay there, eyewitnesses said. "We think the attackers didn't intend to shoot the woman," a police spokesman said. Few people got a good look at the attackers even though they escaped on foot. "It all happened so fast. People thought maybe one of them would start shooting again," said one eyewitness. "Anna was a good woman, such a good mother, she was hard-working and had a big heart," said Kostadinos. "Why did my wife have to die? Why?" Anna had just retired from a job at carmaker Opel, which has its main factory in Rüsselsheim. Members of Rüsselsheim's Greek community gathered at the scene on Wednesday to stage an impromptu vigil. Forensic investigators in white overalls examined the blood-stained area around the ice cream café on Tuesday night as the victims lay under blue plastic sheets. Police were quick to stress that the attack was unlikely to be Mafia related.
The shooting revived memories of a Mafia hit in August 2007 when six men were killed outside a pizza restaurant in the city of Duisburg in a blood feud traced back to the Calabria region of Italy.

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Rüsselsheim killing fields for duelling mafia clans.

brutal murder of four people at a provincial German ice cream parlour last night raised fears that the country is fast becoming a killing field for duelling mafia clans. The attack occurred in Rüsselsheim – home to the Opel car factory – where many Italian workers have settled, establishing pizzerias and cafes with their savings. Three men, described as being of “Mediterranean appearance” approached the ice cream salon just before dusk and fired rapidly at a group of three male customers. A woman standing nearby was also killed, but it was still unclear last night whether she was a target or was gunned down by accident.
The shadow of the Calabrian mafia may thus again be stretching over the industrial heartland of Germany. A few days ago, Italian police arrested Paolo Nirta, the acting head of the San Luca clan, a stronghold of the Calabrian gangs known as the ‘Ndrangheta. Nirta is suspected of involvement in the killing of six Italians in a pizzeria in Duisburg, in western Germany, almost exactly a year ago. That was regarded as a vengeance killing: Nirta’s sister-in-law, Maria Strangio was shot down on her doorstep just before Christmas 2006. A major man hunt was underway with helicopters and tracker dogs deployed around much of the surrounding area. The assassins were said by witnesses to have both pistols and knives.
Plainly though, the ice-cream murders may be part of an elaborate tit-for-tat. Somebody betrayed Nirta to the police last week. That usually triggers a revenge attack. Germany was shocked by the Duisburg murders last year and it will be equally concerned by the ice cream parlour killings. There are some 540,000 Italians living in Germany, most of them well integrated. They are the descendents of “Guest workers” who were brought to Germany from poorer corners of southern Italy after World War Two to help fuel the country’s economic recovery. Until last year, there was no substantial evidence of Italian mafia involvement in the German criminal economy. The ‘Ndrangheta makes its money largely through drug trafficking, manipulating contracts in the building industry, protection rackets and prostitution. Italian involvement, even in the German drug trade, has however, been marginal. Instead, the Calabrian gangs have used German-based Italian restaurants and suppliers as a way of laundering money. But, crime experts have been warning that this supposedly “white collar” crime would ultimately bring violence to the streets of Germany. “If we allow crime proceeds to seep into another economy, if drug or extortion money from Italy enters Germany, then that is no longer the end of the story,” says Federico Varese, a professor of criminology and expert on organised crime. “It is possible, that the ‘Ndrangheta will move up from simple money laundering to become more entrenched in the German economy – and that is the most dangerous situation you can imagine.”

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Death penalty for two gang members guilty of one of the largest gang killings in San Bernardino County's history

eath penalty for two gang members guilty of one of the largest gang killings in San Bernardino County's history.In July, the jury had found Luis "Maldito" Mendoza and Lorenzo Arias guilty in what has become known as the Dead Presidents case. They are set to be sentenced Sept. 10.The case involved a July 9, 2000, shooting at a West Side duplex in which four gang members died. Among them were Johnny and Gilbert Agudo, brothers and presidents of different West Side street gangs. Also killed were half brothers Marselino and Anthony Luna.Prosecutors alleged that Mendoza and Arias, both members of the 7th Street Locos who had grown up with the Agudos, were carrying out an order by members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang.The case was widely seen as an example of how Mexican Mafia influence has forced some Latino street gangs to turn on their own members.

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Jose Antonio Ortiz, 46, who was known on the street as "El Flaco" (the skinny one), was a 20-year veteran of the Boston Police Department

A Boston police officer from Salem was sent to prison for more than 11 years yesterday, three months after pleading guilty to federal cocaine conspiracy and extortion charges stemming from his efforts to extort money for a ring of Colombian drug dealers, prosecutors said. Jose Antonio Ortiz, 46, who was known on the street as "El Flaco" (the skinny one), was a 20-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, with a somewhat checkered career, when he first approached a businessman, demanding payment of $265,000 to settle a drug debt that other individuals had incurred back in 2006. What Ortiz, who lived at 41 Endicott St. in Salem, didn't know is that the businessman had gone to authorities and was secretly taping his interactions with the corrupt cop. The businessman, identified in court papers as "Victim A," told authorities in 2003 and 2004 that he had been approached repeatedly by a man he knew as Elvis. Elvis asked the businessman if he knew anyone who might be interested in doing business with him. The businessman went to the authorities and then began a long involvement in a sting that would lead investigators to Ortiz. The businessman, acting at the direction of investigators, introduced Elvis to a man named Ramon. But the deal between Elvis and Ramon soured, and the drug dealers held the businessman responsible for more than $200,000 they claimed Ramon had stolen. In August 2006, Ortiz approached the man at his business, in full police uniform, according to an affidavit by FBI agent Scott Robbins. It would be the first of a series of visits, all with the same purpose: collecting the $265,000 the Colombians claimed they were owed. "Ortiz told Victim A that he was working for 'Colombian people' ... and that he was there to collect the money he owed to them," according to the affidavit. Ortiz went on to threaten that if the businessman did not pay up, either he or the Colombians would kill him.Ortiz told the businessman that he knew "everything" about him: where he lived, who his family and friends were. He even held up a photo of the businessman and said he would be watching him as well as his partner. He left a Boston police business card behind with the name "El Flaco" on the back. Investigators confirmed that Ortiz had used a Police Department computer to run a criminal history check and obtain personal information about the businessman, including his address, Social Security number and the type of car he drove. A few months later, the businessman met with Ortiz while the officer worked a police detail. This time, he was wearing a wire, which captured their discussion about settling the debt "little by little." Over the coming weeks, there would be more calls and meetings, during which the two men discussed the balance owed, as Ortiz put more pressure on the businessman. "Those people, like I told you ... don't joke about their money," Ortiz warned in Spanish. If they didn't get their money, "they are going to have to resolve the problem themselves. You understand me?"On March 22, the businessman made his first cash payment to Ortiz, which was secretly audio- and videotaped by law enforcement. Ortiz, in full uniform and working a police detail, accepted $2,000 in cash, tucking it into his uniform pocket. A week later, there was another meeting, during another detail, in which the victim said he was still in fear of the Colombians. He offered to settle the debt with a $5,000 cash payment and "three gadgets" — a cryptic reference to three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of cocaine. At another meeting, however, Ortiz said the Colombians didn't like the terms and wanted 4 kilos and $10,000 to settle the debt. The businessman handed Ortiz another $2,000. Two weeks later, on April 19, another meeting took place during a police detail. Ortiz accepted another $2,000 cash and gave the businessman instructions on how to deliver the drugs by leaving them in his car. The two men spoke again on April 30 and May 1 to set up a meeting for the transaction. On May 2, the two men met in a parking lot in Revere, where Ortiz showed up in full uniform. The businessman opened the trunk of his car and showed Ortiz a bag of cocaine and the $4,000 in cash he still "owed" the Colombians. He then handed the keys to Ortiz, who was immediately arrested by an FBI SWAT team.
A search of Ortiz's police locker after his arrest turned up more than $7,000 in cash, including some of the money the businessman had paid him. 11-year sentence Ortiz was sentenced to 135 months, or 11 years and three months, to be followed by five years of supervised release, by U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel.
Among the conditions of his probation are that he can never be in possession of a gun and must submit a DNA sample. Ortiz came to the United States from the Dominican Republic and became a citizen in 1982. He had worked for the Boston Police Department since 1986, but his tenure was marked by numerous suspensions, according to the FBI affidavit. U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan called the case "among the most egregious" of a series of recent prosecutions of corrupt Boston police officers.
"To have a uniformed officer, carrying his badge and weapon, extort money on behalf of a Colombian drug ring cuts at the heart of our system of justice," Sullivan said in a press release announcing the sentence. The case was prosecuted by John McNeil, the same federal prosecutor who has been involved in the case of former Swampscott police officer Thomas

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Richard Galietti the son, brother and cousin of retired police officers, was sent to prison for 46 months after pleading guilty

Richard Galietti, 35, of Fort Myers, Fla., the son, brother and cousin of retired police officers, was sent to prison for 46 months after pleading guilty to conspiring to violate federal racketeering law and making a false statement to federal investigators. Galietti worked for a network of trash-related companies owned by James Galante, who pleaded guilty to related charges last month and faces more than seven years in prison when he is sentenced in September.
U.S. District Judge Ellen B. Burns called Galietti an "important cog in the Galante machine" and sentenced him at the top of the federal guideline range, from 37 to 46 months. She also ordered Galietti to forfeit more than $130,000 to the federal government.Galietti was lead salesman for Galante's Automated Waste Disposal and nine affiliated companies. He is accused, with Galante and 31 others, of setting up what is known as a property rights system, a scheme under which trash haulers secretly agree not to service or compete for one another's customers.
Federal prosecutors say the scheme was directed at commercial and government customers and had the effect of artificially inflating carting costs. They said customers had no option but to pay whatever rate was charged by the hauler servicing their area. Galietti enforced the property rights system through "extortion and threats," prosecutors said.Galietti convened meetings with competitors to eliminate potential price wars, blocked carters who wouldn't participate in the price-fixing scheme from using Galante controlled waste transfer stations, bullied customers seeking more favorable rates and damaged equipment owned by a competitor, prosecutors said.Prior to his indictment, Galietti was accused of trying to use confidential law enforcement computer databases to learn if he, Galante or Galante's companies were the subjects of a criminal investigation. Specifically, he is accused of seeking such information from a cousin, Paul Galietti, who was a Connecticut State Police trooper, and a friend, who was an agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.The false statement charge arose from a 2006 Internal Revenue Service probe of a Fort Myers company. Galietti went to work for the Florida company after being released on bond in the trash case.IRS agents encountered Galietti on Dec. 14, 2006, while serving a search warrant on the Florida company. When an IRS agent asked Galietti whether he worked for the company, Galietti replied that he was just "dropping by to say hello." A federal grand jury in Florida indicted Galietti for the false statement, federal prosecutors said.In addition to the 33 individuals, 10 businesses were indicted in the trash case in June 2006.

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former Boston Police Officer JOSE ANTONIO ORTIZ, 46, formerly of Salem, Massachusetts, was sentenced by Judge Rya Zobel to 135 months imprisonment

former Boston Police Officer was sentenced today to over eleven years in federal prison in connection with his attempt to extort $265,000 from a man on behalf of Colombian drug dealers. United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division and Police Commissioner Edward Davis of the Boston Police Department, announced today that JOSE ANTONIO ORTIZ, 46, formerly of Salem, Massachusetts, was sentenced by Judge Rya Zobel to 135 months imprisonment to be followed by 5 years of supervised release, on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, conspiracy to commit extortion and attempted extortion. U.S. Attorney Sullivan said, Of all our recent cases combating police corruption, this was among the most egregious. To have a uniformed officer, carrying his badge and weapon, extort money on behalf of a Colombian drug ring cuts at the heart of our system of justice. It is only through vigorous investigations and prosecutions like this that we assure the public that rogue officers like Ortiz will not only lose their badge and uniform, but end up in federal prison.
Documents filed in early May 2007, and testimony at a hearing on May 9, 2007, revealed that in late August 2006, ORTIZ threatened the life of a man whom ORTIZ believed to be responsible for a drug deal which had gone bad. ORTIZ told the man that he worked with two drug dealers and a number of Colombians who had lost money on a narcotics transaction and he was there to collect the debt. ORTIZ told the man that he knew everything about him and his family, and showed the man a photograph he had of him. ORTIZ also threatened to harm an associate of the man if he failed to pay the drug debt owed. In a subsequent recorded conversation, ORTIZ told the man that he owed $265,000. Over a period of several months, as a result of the threats the man paid ORTIZ $6,000 in cash. Video recordings of the meetings made by the FBI � reveal ORTIZ stuffing wads of cash in the pockets of his police uniform. Ultimately, at the direction of law enforcement, the man offered to pay-off his alleged debt with 3 kilograms of cocaine and $5,000. In a subsequent recorded meeting, ORTIZ demanded more; ORTIZ insisted on 4 kilograms of cocaine and a total of $10,000. On May 2, 2007, an team of federal agents arrested ORTIZ at a parking lot in Revere, where ORTIZ was scheduled to rendezvous with the man and two of the drug dealers. ORTIZ appeared at the meeting armed and in his Boston Police Department uniform. Before his arrest, ORTIZ was shown the four kilograms of cocaine, and took possession of the keys to the car in which the cocaine and $4,000 in cash were concealed. In an interview shortly after his arrest, ORTIZ admitted that he had been sent by a drug dealer to collect a drug debt, and that he had obtained $6,000 in payments. Testimony at the May 9th hearing also revealed that a search of ORTIZ Boston Police Department lockers after his arrest resulted in the seizure of more than $7,000 in cash. Of the cash recovered from ORTIZ locker, $700 were bills that had been provided by the victim to ORTIZ in payment of the drug debt. ORITIZ sentencing comes after a series of successful public corruption investigations and prosecutions of officers in the Boston Police Department. Former Officer Roberto Pulido was convicted in connection with protecting 140 kilograms of cocaine in a sting operation and sentenced to 26 years in prison on May 16, 2008. Former Officer Nelson Carrasquillo was sentenced to 18 years incarceration on March 10, 2008 in connection with the same cocaine protection operation. Former Officer Carlos Pizarro was sentenced to 13 years incarceration on December 12, 2007 for his role in protecting 40 kilograms of cocaine in that case. Former Officer Edgardo Rodriguez was convicted of steroid distribution in connection with Pulido and obstruction of justice charges; he was sentenced to just over one year in prison on February 12, 2008. Two non-law enforcement associates of Pulido have also been convicted in connection with the corruption investigation: Matthew West was convicted on cocaine distribution charges and sentenced to 15 years incarceration on October 10, 2007; Jose Tito Alvarez a close associate of Pulido was sentenced to two years incarceration on a related civil rights violation on July 23, 2008. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation - Boston Field Division in conjunction with the Boston Police Department Anti-Corruption Unit. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. McNeil in Sullivanï Public Corruption and Special Prosecutions Unit.

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The body of Fernando Marti, son of one of the owners of the country's largest sports store chains - abducted at the end of June - was discovered

The body of Fernando Marti, son of one of the owners of the country's largest sports store chains - abducted at the end of June - was discovered last Friday in the trunk of a car. His driver and bodyguard had also been killed. The abduction and assassination of a 14-year-old Mexican boy and the arrest of police officers suspected of the crime have caused a public outcry in corruption-plagued Mexico.
A police commander from Mexico City and two other officers have been arrested in the case, which has sparked a wave of emotion similar to that which four years ago drove hundreds of thousands of Mexicans to the streets in protest at growing insecurity.
The police officers allegedly involved were reportedly part of a group of dishonest cops known as The Flower.
As Mexicans despaired over endemic police corruption, the camps of conservative President Felipe Calderon and leftist Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard threw accusations of responsibility for the crime at each other. Activists, including Jose Antonio Ortega, president of the Ya Basta, or That's Enough, organisation, have called for a return to the right to carry a personal weapon, and the use of private armed security companies. "Yet again (we see) the implication of police officers in abductions and other atrocious crimes, repugnant excuses and lies from ministry officials and prosecutors, and the fake consternation and empty promises of governors and politicians," Ortega wrote in a statement on Wednesday. Others are seeking the re-establishment of the death penalty in Mexico, although the public prosecutor, Eduardo Medina Mora, refused that idea on Wednesday. Some 438 abductions were reported in Mexico in 2007, 35% more than in the previous year. Since Calderon came to power in December 2006, 59 cases of abductions followed by assassinations have been identified, according to Ortega. But most abductions fail to be reported to the police in order to allow discreet negotiations with kidnappers. Mexico's kidnapping record has now overtaken that of Colombia. Citizen groups are now responding to this poor record, although the public has not reacted to the more than 2,000 assassinations and settling of scores linked to a crackdown on drug gangs since the start of the year. The former head of Mexico's biggest bank, Banamex, Alfredo Harp Helu - who was himself kidnapped for six months - published a page in newspapers on Wednesday calling for more action. "A change is needed urgently. Impotence is invading civil society. Let's unite to ask our authorities to fight delinquency, and for personal security," he wrote. Meanwhile, President Calderon and Mexico City's mayor Ebrard denied any responsibility for police incompetence in the Marti case.

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George Mancini, who heads the South Australian Law Society's Criminal Law Committee

George Mancini, who heads the South Australian Law Society's Criminal Law Committee and sits on the Attorney-General's Criminal Justice Ministerial Taskforce, said the state needed independent law-reform and police integrity bodies, an independent commission against corruption and an independent judicial appointments board to ensure that itkept pace with other jurisdictions. "We're lagging well behind the expectations of a sophisticated, democratic community," Mr Mancini told The Australian. "The other states are well advanced in having professional, well-resourced bodies." Throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Mr Mancini said, South Australia was a national leader in promoting justice and fairness and regularly presented precedent-setting cases before the High Court. But now, the state lagged behind the rest of the nation, Mr Mancini said. The Rann Government created the Criminal Justice Ministerial Taskforce in 2006 to examine mounting delays in bringing cases to trial and to recommend legislative changes. The taskforce presented a series of recommendations to the Government late last year, and a response has yet to be finalised. Mr Mancini also raised concerns about the decaying state of many of South Australia's court buildings, which has been a matter of concern within the judiciary for several years. "All communities have a high civic pride in their administration of justice, and that's reflected in the architecture of their court buildings," he said. "If you depreciate these institutions in terms of the resources, that reflects a misplaced sense of confidence in the institutions." Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said there was no need for an independent commission against corruption, as the state already supported a Police Complaints Authority, a police anti-corruption branch, a Government Investigations Unit and an ombudsman with the powers of a royal commissioner. And Mr Atkinson maintained there was no need for a law reform commission.

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45-year-old detective, who was based at Warwick, is accused of using a police computer to access car registration details of several women.

police officer who was stood down after being charged by the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) earlier this year is facing 22 more charges.The 45-year-old detective, who was based at Warwick, is accused of using a police computer to access car registration details of several women.It is alleged he used the details to contact two of the women.He is due to appear in court later this month.
The officer is already facing charges laid by CCC of secretly taking photos of a woman engaging in sexual activity with him, and emailing them to others.

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Gary Hardy ran gang alongside convicted dealer John Dawes until he was jailed in 2005, earned millions of pounds

Gary Hardy has been convicted of pumping millions of pounds worth of class A drugs into Ashfield after masterminding one of the county's biggest ever narcotics empires. He controlled the Ashfield drugs scene through fear and violence and swamped the district with huge quantities of heroin and amphetamines between 2000 and 2007. The Mansfield businessman, who ran the criminal gang alongside convicted dealer John Dawes until he was jailed in 2005, earned millions of pounds from his underworld activities to finance a lavish lifestyle. Hardy consistently denied the charges during a two-month trial at Nottingham Crown Court and claimed his millionaire lifestyle had been funded through the profits of his extensive property and luxury car rental business. But a 12-man jury, which took more than three days to deliver its verdicts, declined to believe Hardy's lies and found him guilty of supplying heroin and amphetamines, of money laundering, of having £14,000-worth of cash gained through criminal activities and possessing criminal cash. But Hardy, who is expected to receive a lengthy prison sentence, was cleared of conspiracy to supply cocaine and four counts of conspiracy to supply cannabis. Fellow gang member and brother Paul Hardy is also facing jail after he was convicted for his part in flooding Ashfield and north Nottinghamshire with heroin and amphetamines. Paul Hardy, a crack cocaine addict, was also convicted of two charges of supplying cannabis resin and possessing criminal cash – but was cleared of a further count of supplying amphetamines and two charges of supplying cannabis. His former girlfriend Zoe Chapman, who has had five of his children, was found guilty of supplying amphetamines to a drug dealer lower down the chain between after Paul Hardy decided to lay low following interest from police. The brothers' mother June Muers, who had no previous convictions, was convicted of supplying amphetamines and cannabis resin, which she kept in a garden shed at her former Pearl Avenue home, and possessing thousands of pounds in drugs money. But Clipstone man Carl Busby, who had been accused of laundering hundreds of thousands of pounds of drugs money on behalf of Gary Hardy between May 2003 and December 2006, was cleared of all charges. The gang members are expected to be sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court some time in September.

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Taher Majid, Abdul Koser and Quentin Reynolds were found guilty of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue as well as money laundering charges.

Taher Majid, Abdul Koser and Quentin Reynolds were found guilty of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue as well as money laundering charges. They will be sentenced in September. Marcus Hughes pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing and was sentenced to six years in prison. He is already serving a 12-year sentence for drug smuggling.
In 2003, 350 HMRC officers took part in raids in the UK and Spain, which were described by customs officers as some of the largest to take place in the UK.
Large amounts of cash were seized during the raids, and a ton of cannabis was taken from one of the business addresses, resulting in 33 men and six women being arrested.
The raids even took place at Carphone Warehouse’s headquarters in west
London. Two members of Carphone Warehouse’s staff were cautioned and questioned during the visit from HMRC officers, but they were not arrested or charged.
A further series of raids were carried out in 2007, resulting in half-a-million documents being examined, along with the hard drives of 391 computers.
HMRC alleged that those charged had engaged in missing trader fraud, purchasing handsets from outside the UK then failing to pay the millions owed in VAT when the handsets were re-sold abroad.Sixteen people were originally charged with cheating the revenue, and concealing and transferring the proceeds of criminal intent.
A European Court of Justice ruling is pressurising HMRC’s policy of withholding VAT refunds for up to two years while carrying out anti-fraud enquiries.A new European Court judgment states that tax offices should not withhold refunds for more than two months for an established trader.The European Court of Justice was upholding a case brought by a Polish trader who had his VAT claim withheld pending extended verification without a decision being made.The judgment of the court sets a precedent for UK traders to challenge extended verification periods of up to two years imposed in the UK by HMRC.The court agreed member states had a legitimate interest in preventing tax evasion and abuse.

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Gangland has seen Billy Martindale shot at, stabbed, spend 15 years on the run from the police and mix with some of Britain's most notorious gangsters

Gangland has seen Billy Martindale shot at, stabbed, spend 15 years on the run from the police and mix with some of Britain's most notorious gangsters. Martindale spent seven years of his life growing up in Manea and when his best friend Tommy Shepherd was murdered, it sent shockwaves through the Fenland travelling community. Despite being linked with numerous crimes, including murder, kidnapping, armed robberies, fraud and causing grievous and actual bodily harm Martindale has spent just six months in prison. During his stint in Pentonville, he turned to Islam, and on release met with notorious hate-preacher Abu Hamza.
He said: "It's my life from day one until now. It's been an emotional experience putting it together."Martindale is son the son of renowned ex professional boxer and prize-fighter Lew 'Wild Thing' Yates.He grew up in Crawshawbooth, Lancashire, and moved down to Forest Gate, London when he was three when his mother ran off with another man. Martindale didn't see his mother for 24 years and made contact with her six years ago.He said: "I didn't even know what she looked like. She was just a friendly elderly lady - a complete stranger - there will never be a bond or a proper relationship between us."
Martindale's father went from professional boxing to unlicensed, bare-knuckle fighting to earn more money.Martindale got into fights and scrapes as a young child and his father took out of the hustle and bustle of London and they moved to Manea when he was 10.His father left him to fend for himself with a shotgun as he travelled back to London for work.
He said: "Dad just told me if anyone came to the house and gave me trouble I should shoot into the air and crack them over the head with it. I just had fun shooting at cans and anything I could in the back garden."Martindale lived in Manea for seven years and went to Cromwell Community College, Chatteris.
He said: "It was difficult for me. I found the area to be quite a clique place and I was an outsider."Martindale found acceptance with the Shepherds - a well-known Fenland travelling family.He became best friends with their son Tommy, who was the same age. He said: "We used to wreak havoc in Manea and Chatteris. We were just kids trying to get our hands on some money so we'd steal cars and scrap metal and do whatever we could to get a note." In 1997 the dead, naked body of Tommy Shepherd was discovered rolled up in a carpet, down a dirt track in Chatteris.
With accusations of a fellow traveller being responsible Tommy's death tore the area's travelling community apart. Nobody has been charged with Tommy's murder.
Martindale said: "People wanted revenge and a lot of people went missing at that time."I know that Tommy was murdered by junkies. They just wanted to steal £5,000 from him to get drugs and they poisoned him."These scum bags will be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives, People are out their looking for them and I'd love to run into them myself."
Martindale was devastated and he soon became involved in more than 20 armed robberies, money making scams.He targeted drug dealers and became a hired enforcer and doorman. He said: "In the early days I would rob businesses and post offices, I'd never target individual people or mug old ladies. But after Tommy's death I'd do over drug dealers."I hate drugs - I've seen them destroy so many people's lives."
One run in with a drug dealer led to Martindale being shot at in Chigwell in 2002.
He said: "I'd received a phone call and been told to meet somebody at a garage to collect a debt, but I'd been set up. A drug dealer I'd done over wanted me dead and three people turned up in a car with a shotgun. I saw the barrel of the gun out of the car window and the bullet scraped my arm. I grabbed the gun and they sped off so I hurled it at the car."Martindale worked as a bouncer at clubs in London, Essex and Kent.
He said: "I worked in some really dodgy bars in east London and there was always trouble. I was stabbed on three separate occasions."
From the ages of 17 to 33 numerous warrants were issued for Martindale's arrest.
He escaped the police using false passports.He travelled to Miami and Spain and charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.He has mixed with notorious gangsters like Frankie Frazer, Danny Woolard, Freddie Foreman and his good friend and fighting legend Roy Shaw.He was arrested for imprisonment but the charges were dropped after the witness backed out. He said: "A friend's girlfriend got raped. She went to police and somebody was arrested but the case was dropped because she couldn't face going to court."I found him and made sure he would never do anything like that again." He was questioned over a murder but never charged and says he had nothing to do with it. Martindale spent six months in Pentonville Prison, in London for stealing a car and criminal damage. He said: "I was stuck in a cell for 23 hours a day. I said I was interested in learning about Islam because it meant I could spend more time pout of the cell but I actually got quite into it."After my release I would go to Finsbury Park mosque and I once had dinner with Abu Hamza. I had no trouble with him and he didn't fill me with hate. "I have massive respect for people who follow that faith but I found it too restrictive and just couldn't do it."

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Sean Lynch faces a confiscation hearing in December after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to supply cocaine

Sean Lynch, 48, has had his palatial home and luxury motors seized by police.
He now faces a confiscation hearing in December after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to supply cocaine Assets seized include his house on a gated estate in Warlingham, Surrey, a £170,000 Aston Martin, a Rolls Royce, Mercedes and BMW convertibles, a Land Rover, a VW Golf,a motorbike and an American police car. Lynch, who also owned a villa in Spain, lived with second wife Michelle and sent their three children to an exclusive private school — paying their fees of thousands of pounds in thick wads of cash.
Lynch and his gang had been arrested when police raided addresses in Warlingham and Tooting, South London.Cops found cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis worth £600,000 at the gang’s “warehouse” in Tooting. Detectives had kept the property under surveillance for six months, watching deliveries going in and out. Kingston Crown Court heard the cocaine was still packaged in pellets which had been swallowed by human drug mules — indicating the gang were “very close to the importers”. The raids also netted weapons including flick knives and knuckledusters.
Lynch, who admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis and amphetamines, was jailed for 18 years. His right-hand man Ian Nesbitt, 46, from Tooting, pleaded guilty and was jailed for 12 years. Stephen Voller, 56, and David Warwick, 34, both from Tooting, were found guilty by a jury. Voller was given 14 years and Warwick 12.

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Giuseppe Coluccio, a suspected drug trafficker, who has been on the run since 2005.

Giuseppe Coluccio, a suspected drug trafficker, who has been on the run since 2005. The country's defense minister, Ignazio La Russa, said the arrest showed authorities were making advances in the fight against organised crime."Coluccio had lived happily in Canada thanks to the (support) provided by the Calabrian clans – a situation that shows the extraordinary reach of the 'Ndrangheta," public prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone was quoted by Italian media as saying. Italy's ANSA news agency reported that police found $1 million in checks at Coluccio's home.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in a statement late on Thursday that Coluccio was arrested near Toronto on a Canada-wide immigration warrant and is wanted by Italy for drug-related offenses.'Ndrangheta, based in the southern Calabria region, has reportedly overtaken Sicily's Cosa Nostra to become the most powerful Italian crime group.

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Patrizio Bosti, accused of heading a clan of the Neapolitan crime syndicate the Camorra, was arrested Saturday evening

Patrizio Bosti, accused of heading a clan of the Neapolitan crime syndicate the Camorra, was arrested Saturday evening in the north- eastern Spanish city of Girona, state radio RNE reported. Police in Spain have arrested a fugitive organized crime boss who is among the 30 'most-wanted' criminals in Italy, reports said Sunday.
The 49-year-old had been sentenced in absentia to 23 years' imprisonment on charges connected with a double murder and membership of a criminal organisation. He was on the run since 2005, when he was released from custody following the expiration of the maximum amount of time he could be held on remand. He is believed to have taken over the leadership of a Camorra clan in 2007 after the previous head was jailed.

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Heliberto Chi, 29, from Honduras, is set for execution Thursday evening. He'd be the second foreign-born convicted murderer in Texas this week to die

Chi, 29, from Honduras, is set for execution Thursday evening. He'd be the second foreign-born convicted murderer in Texas this week to die and the second to seek a reprieve because of what lawyers argued were international treaty violations when he was arrested.Prosecutors said there was no doubt of his guilt.
"Not only was there eyewitness testimony, but that assistant manager got out a 911 call, and you could hear Chi in the background on the phone," said Mick Meyer, a former Tarrant County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Chi. "It was pretty solid evidence right there."Witnesses said that when Paliotta, 56, shoved the gun-wielding Chi and started running, he was fatally shot.In September, Chi was spared from execution when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stopped his scheduled punishment after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether lethal injection procedures were unconstitutionally cruel. When the Supreme Court earlier this year upheld the method as proper, his date was re-set for Thursday.Chi was in the United States illegally at the time of Paliotta's 2001 slaying. Lawyers for the Central American country said Chi was unable to contact anyone from his government, a violation of an international treaty, after he was arrested in California and extradited to Texas.It's an argument similar to the one raised earlier this week by Mexican-born Jose Medellin, who was executed late Tuesday for his part in a gruesome gang rape-slaying of two teenage Houston girls 15 years ago.
Unlike Medellin, Chi was not among some 50 death row inmates around the country, all Mexican born, who the International Court of Justice said should have new hearings in U.S. courts to determine whether the 1963 Vienna Convention treaty was violated during their arrests.President Bush asked states to review the cases, and legislation to implement the process was introduced recently in Congress, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year neither the president nor the international court could force Texas to wait. State attorneys had argued against a punishment delay, saying there was no certainty the legislation ever would pass.A divided high court agreed, and Medellin's punishment was carried out, making him the fifth inmate executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
On Tuesday, a state judge in Tarrant County refused a request from Chi's lawyer, Wes Ball, to withdraw Chi's execution date until legislation was enacted to formalize procedures for reviews of capital cases involving foreign nationals.
"It's a significant violation of international law," said Houston attorney Terry O'Rourke, who has been involved in the case. "It's just not good."
Chi's attorney also appealed Wednesday to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, citing the consular violations as reason to stop the punishment. In addition, Ramon Valladares, the Honduran consular assistance director, said from Tegucigalpa that his government was lobbying U.S. authorities to block the execution.Chi would say little about the crime in an interview with the Associated Press shortly before his execution date last year.
"My situation is not about being innocent or guilty," he said, saying only that his trial was unfair. "My rights were violated. I'm a Christian. I know about the Lord. If it's the Lord's will, things happen. I have great peace in my mind and soul."
He said he slipped into the United States through Canada.Chi was arrested in Reseda, Calif., northwest of Los Angeles, about six weeks after the robbery and shootings when his 18-year-old pregnant girlfriend turned him in, accusing him of assault. The couple had been on the run for 43 days, crisscrossing the country from Iowa to Minnesota to West Virginia and eventually to California. At the time of the arrest, authorities said the couple had been planning to flee to Honduras.
His girlfriend's brother, Hugo Sierra, is serving a life prison term for being Chi's getaway driver at the clothing store.Four other prisoners are set to die this month, including two more next week. They're among at least 15 Texas inmates with execution dates in the coming months.

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Robert Perez Jr. was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday of threatening his former live-in girlfriend with a gun

Former Oxnard police officer Robert Perez Jr. was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday of threatening his former live-in girlfriend with a gun and causing her bodily injury during a domestic disturbance last year that resulted in an armed standoff with Ventura police. Perez, who had been free on bail, was taken into custody after the verdicts were announced in Ventura County Superior Court. He will remain in jail until sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 3. He faces a maximum of 12 years in state prison, prosecutors said. The jury found Perez guilty of five felony counts, including one count of assault with a firearm, three counts of dissuading a witness from reporting a crime, and one count of causing bodily harm to a spouse or co-habitant. He was also convicted of a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. The jury found him not guilty on one misdemeanor count of battery. A charge of false imprisonment by violence was dismissed. "It's never a good situation when a police officer is charged with a crime, but it does show that the law applies equally to everyone," prosecutor Andrea Tischler said in an interview after the verdicts were announced. Perez, 35, had denied that he assaulted his former girlfriend, Oxnard police officer Denise Shadinger, or refused to let her leave the couple's Ventura house after an argument last year... They had planned to ride motorcycles with a group of other riders, but Shadinger said she refused to go riding. The arguing escalated and Shadinger told Perez she was moving out. She testified that at one point Perez refused to let her leave and he became so upset with her for calling 911 that he stood over her and pointed a gun at her head...

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Damien Lake arrested pointed a gun at a deputy as he exited his cruiser

arrested Damien Lake, 27, at 410 Lawnsdale Ave. at 6:21 a.m. In addition to seizing 8.7 ounces of suspected cocaine, authorities recovered 10 bindles of suspected heroin and drug paraphernalia.Lake, who reportedly was hiding in an attic at his girlfriend’s residence, was arrested for felonious assault on a peace officer. Barbara A. Neace, 21, of the same address was arrested for felony obstruction of justice.
Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Frazier was on patrol near the Forest Hill Mobile Home Park on Ashland Road around 8 p.m. July 27 when he saw a disturbance.
Frazier said Lake pointed a gun at him as he exited his cruiser, then turned and ran up a hill. Frazier said Lake pointed his gun at him a second time before escaping to a nearby apartment complex.

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Teon Thomas of Seneca was sentenced today to 110 months in prison on one count of transporting stolen firearms

Teon Thomas of Seneca was sentenced today to 110 months in prison on one count of transporting stolen firearms, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy and federal court records.The 23-year-old was arrested in May 2006 and last February pleaded guilty along with other conspirators involved in the commission of gun trafficking, records show.On March 15, 2006, "experienced" burglars used a sledgehammer to smash a hole in the wall of Trader's Guns Store in Taylors and, to avoid surveillance detection, cast a fishing net to retrieve the 31 guns that were stolen, according to the sentencing memorandum. Three guns were either dropped or discarded and found near the gun store. Two weeks later, two of the ultimately nine recovered guns in the case were found in Connecticut, according to records. Two of the guns were found in a New York City bus terminal restroom, discarded by one man making a return trip to Seneca from Middletown, Conn. From April to September 2006, the remainder of the guns were found after drug and shooting arrests and execution of a search warrant, records show. The guns had been sold in the Middletown area.
Thomas has been convicted on several previous theft and burglary charges in the Upstate, including the theft of condoms from a Wal-Mart and a car wash coin machine in Anderson, as well the burglaries of a bowling lane, food store and another business, according to court records.

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Victor Needleman, Pembroke Park gun shop was sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison

Victor Needleman, 56, whose popular Pembroke Park gun shop counted local police officers as clients, was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in federal prison for selling dozens of weapons destined for drug dealers and other criminals. He also must forfeit $44,600 in cash and all rights to the American Range & Gun shop.
The 70-month sentence follows Needleman's guilty plea to selling high-powered rifles and automatic weapons to felons. To avoid detection, Needleman used phony "straw" buyers and falsified records to make it appear the guns were headed to lawful owners.
In truth, they were headed to Guatemala and members of powerful drug cartels involved in street battles, according to prosecutors.
"This crime was primarily based on the defendant's greed in operating what was otherwise a very profitable business," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Walleisa said in court, arguing for the maximum seven-year prison term. "He caused dozens of weapons to be put on the streets to criminals with no concerns for how they would be used."Earlier this year, federal agents arrested a convicted felon in Miami on charges of trying to smuggle weapons to Guatemala. All of the guns came from Needleman's shop and were bought by a straw buyer with a clean record, who in turn passed them to the unidentified felon, records state.Needleman directed the purchase and taught the man and others how to subvert federal background checks and laws prohibiting felons from owning guns, according to court records. One of Needleman's students was an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent posing as a straw buyer, who bought dozens of weapons in transactions recorded on tape.Besides the Central America-bound weapons, Needleman and American Range & Gun sold more than 50 guns used in the United States and elsewhere for violent crimes such as bank robbery and assault, Walleisa said.U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas followed defense attorney Fred Haddad's recommendation for the minimum sentence under federal guidelines, making Needleman eligible for parole in about five years. Haddad emphasized his client had no criminal record and cooperated with authorities almost immediately after his April arrest.Needleman, of North Miami Beach, has a history of depression and has battled substance abuse over the years, Haddad said, adding his client has shown "great remorse."
Walleisa questioned how genuine the remorse was. Under terms of his plea agreement, Needleman must sell American Range & Gun, but prosecutors said he organized a scheme from his jail cell that would allow him to secretly keep control. He has been detained without bail since his arrest.
American Range & Gun is under new ownership and now is called Pembroke Park Range & Gun. Needleman is not affiliated with the new entity, a woman who answered the phone at the shop said Thursday. She would not give her name but derided what she called the prosecutor's "unsubstantiated allegations about Victor" trying to retain control.
American Range & Gun was one of the busiest ranges in South Broward, frequented by police officers from surrounding communities and various federal agencies.

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NYPD lieutenant accidentally shot and killed the driver of a stolen car

NYPD lieutenant accidentally shot and killed the driver of a stolen car Thursday night when the car clipped him after the driver crashed into a parked SUV and drove up on a sidewalk while trying to escape, police and witnesses said.Two members of the Brooklyn auto larceny unit in an unmarked car followed the 2004 Ford Mustang GT after learning that it had been stolen several days earlier from an East Brunswick, N.J., auto dealership, police said. They called for backup, and two officers from the unit, who were watching a stolen car parked nearby, showed up to box in the sports car on Lenox Road at about 8 p.m., police said.
Four uniformed cops approached with their guns drawn, ordering the driver to stop.
During his attempt to flee, the 25-year-old driver of the Mustang, whose name wasnot immediately released, repeatedly slammed into a parked SUV, tearing off the vehicle's rear wheel and forcing its rear half onto the sidewalk.
One of the two passengers in the Mustang got out and tried to run, but officers nabbed an 18-year-old, who has prior arrests, within a block, police sources said. He had been shot in April and refused to cooperate with a police investigation, a source said. The Mustang then jumped the curb and drove into the gate of an auto mechanic's shop, police said. "I heard a boom, screeching wheels and he went up on the sidewalk," said Steven Olivo, 14, who lives nearby. "Then there was another boom." Throwing the car into reverse, the driver, who also had been arrested several times, sped back into traffic and spun the car about 270 degrees, striking the lieutenant, police said. As the car hit the cop, he accidentally fired his gun, sending a bullet through a rear window and striking the driver, a police source said. "When he got hit by the car, his gun went off," the source said. The car traveled a few hundred feet before crashing into a beauty salon, where the second passenger, 14, was arrested. The driver was taken to Kings County Hospital, where attempts to save him failed, police sources said. The lieutenant was also taken to Kings County with minor injuries.

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