Fugitive of the Week Jermaine McBee

U.S. marshals arrested fugitive Jermaine McBee about 12:30 p.m. today at a house in the 10500 block of Garfield Avenue.McBee, 36, was hiding in a closet and refused to come out, Marshal Pete Elliott said. "So he had to be Tasered," he said.McBee was a Fugitive of the Week last month. A tipster helped marshals locate him, Elliott said.McBee is accused of selling guns in Cleveland, including a Mac 10 submachine gun marshals confiscated during a previous arrest. He has convictions for felonious assault, burglary and drug trafficking, which makes it illegal for him to have a gun.

Read More

Joseph "Fat Joe" Agate,; Joseph "Joe Rackets" Casiere, 72, of Toms River; Cody Farrell,; Ronald Flam,Gotti associates

Joseph "Fat Joe" Agate, 60, of Manchester; Joseph "Joe Rackets" Casiere, 72, of Toms River; Cody Farrell, 29, of Manalapan; Ronald Flam, 35, of Jackson; and Michael King, 41, of Freehold.indicted are Gotti associates who prosecutors said were part of a committee that helped the crime family's heir, John A. "Junior" Gotti, run the operation during the initial years of his father's imprisonment.
John "Jackie the Nose" D'Amico of Hillsdale, the 71-year-old reputed to be the acting boss, was charged with being at the top of the broad racketeering conspiracy. Nicholas Corozzo, 67, was accused of extorting construction companies, running a major illegal gambling operation in Queens, and ordering a gangland hit that also took a bystander's life in 1996.
The allegations against the gang were the usual litany for a big Mafia case: skimming from unions, extorting tribute payments from construction companies, loan sharking, gambling. The allegations spanned decades, although prosecutors said many of the illegal acts took place just in the last few years.
The mob "still exists in the city and the state of New York," said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. "We like to think that it's a vestige of the past. It's not."
The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, Benton Campbell, whose office spearheaded the case, told reporters the investigation had ensnared the remnants of the Gambino leadership and would bring "closure to crimes from the past."Most of the suspects were in custody late Thursday. Some have already been arraigned. Reputed Gambino consigliere Joseph Corozzo, 66, pleaded not guilty to charges that he distributed cocaine for 12 years in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
"He's never been involved in drugs," said his son, defense lawyer Joseph Corozzo Jr.
To little surprise, the case will feature a few Gottis too.The late don's younger brother, Vincent Gotti, and his nephew, Richard G. Gotti, were charged with distributing marijuana in the late 1990s and with planning a murder in the spring of 2003. Prosecutors said the intended victim was shot several times, but survived.Notably, there is no mention in the case of the "Teflon Don's" son, who recently beat a racketeering case by claiming to have left the Mafia for good while serving time for racketeering. His sentence expired in 2004.

As the mob's reach has deteriorated in recent years, many of the prosecutions targeting its remaining members have centered on its persistent influence in unions and various labor trades, and much of the new case is no different. It centers partly on an unnamed Staten Island construction executive who prosecutors said had been repeatedly extorted by the Gambinos.

There is blood in the indictment too.
Perhaps the most disturbing charges were lodged against Charles Carneglia, a 61-year-old reputed Mafia soldier who was recently released from prison. He was accused in five slayings dating back to the days when the crime family was still run by its namesake, Carlo Gambino.
Carneglia's victims included Albert Gelb, a New York state court officer gunned down in 1976, and Jose Delgado Rivera, a security guard killed during an armored car heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1990, prosecutors said.
He was also fingered in the death of reputed Gambino associate Louis DiBono, who was shot to death in the World Trade Center's parking garage in 1990. John Gotti and several underlings were later convicted of orchestrating the killing, which was related to DiBono's contract to install fireproofing at the Trade Center.
Carneglia, who was also charged with extortion, securities fraud, robbery and marijuana distribution, is the brother of John Carneglia, who was accused of being one of the triggermen who rubbed out Gambino boss Paul Castellano in the 1985 hit that propelled Gotti to power.
John Carneglia is now serving a 50-year sentence for racketeering and drug traffickin

Read More

shooting in northwest Jacksonville

man is at Shands Jacksonville with non life-threatening injuries following a shooting in northwest Jacksonville.Police say someone in a car drove up to man walking down Daniel Street near Kings Road and shot him in the face.Police have no witnesses or suspects.

Read More

Joshua K. Martin shooting into an occupied dwelling

Joshua K. Martin, 19, has been booked into the Shawnee County Jail on charges of aggravated assault and shooting into an occupied dwelling. Pankratz said police were called to the 300 block of S.E. 34th at about 2:20 a.m. on a report of shots fired at a residence. Their investigation led them to Martin. No one was injured in the shooting. Pankratz said police were called to the same residence at about 9:15 p.m. Monday on a report of shots fired. No one was injured and that case remains under investigation. Police also are investigating a report of a shooting into a residence at about 2:30 a.m. today in the 3400 block of S.W. Atwood. No one was injured.

Read More

Marcian Missick,Jeffier Nelson shot

Two men were shot in a drive-by shooting in the parking lot of the Tradewinds Apartments early Tuesday morning, police said.
According to Police Press Officer Superintendent Basil Rahming, around 12:20am, three males traveling inside a champagne coloured van pulled up in the parking lot of Tradewinds Apartments on Adventurers Way.
Before they were able to exit the vehicle, someone opened fire on the van from behind, shattering the windows and hitting two of the men, police said.
The trio pulled off and drove to the Central Police Station on the Mall, where they reported the incident, according to Mr. Rahming.
He said an ambulance transported the two injured males to hospital.
They were identified as Marcian Missick, 36, of Hawksbill and Jeffier Nelson, 33, of Bass Lane.Their injuries were reportedly non-life threatening and they were treated and discharged later during the afternoon.
Central Detective Unit officers were conducting an intensive investigation into the shooting, the motive for which had not yet been determined, Mr. Rahming said.

Read More

Tyriek M. Tyner stopped by police, and a .22-caliber handgun was recovered.

Tyriek M. Tyner, 18, was charged Monday.According to the charges:
Three people, described by police as victims, went to the Brookdale Library on the afternoon of Feb. 5 on Shingle Creek Parkway and were approached by three other people, one of them Tyner. The two groups began arguing inside the library.
The victims left the library and walked toward the Best Buy store across the street. Tyner and the other two in his group left the library in a white car.
As the first three walked past the Best Buy, the driver of the car shot at the victims. No one was hurt.
Tyner was stopped in the car several days later by police, and a .22-caliber handgun was recovered.

Read More

well-known hitman murders Dale George Henry has rocked the tight-knit expat community in Thailand

Dale George Henry, 48, was shot point blank in the head Feb. 3 in his home in Ranong, Thailand. His 27-year-old wife, a Thai woman who married him five years ago, is accused of hiring a hitman so she could collect on his $1-million life insurance policy.

Now, Mary-Jane Matheson is left worrying about making arrangements, not for funeral flowers, but her own safety.Hire security -- that's the first thing we'll want to do. I'm frightened of hitmen," Matheson said before boarding a flight Monday night to Vancouver"I've been told to go straight to the embassy. I'm going to ask them to have somebody pick me up."Family learned of Henry's death only last Tuesday, when his brother Richard was contacted by police at his home in Victoria.Richard has flown to the southeast Asian country and will sit inside a temple with his brother's body. A Thai funeral begins Wednesday.Henry had been living in Thailand for the past decade, frequently flying between there and Nigeria, where he worked for a U.S.-based oil drilling company.
His marriage to Manreet Nee, who is 20 years his junior, was his first.
Henry, a Canadian who spent much of his life in the Calgary area, worked about a decade ago as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in Cochrane before contracting as a safety consultant for oil companies.
"Our 10-hour days went by quick," said former Cochrane paramedic/firefighter Mike Lamacchia. He and Henry were partners in 1991 and 1992."He was a great health care provider, a lot of fun to be around. He wasn't a shy guy. He was definitely heard wherever he went."He could tell a ton of jokes. It was never boring being around Dale."Lamacchia said he was stunned when he learned of Henry's dramatic death.

In 1994, Henry started a Calgary-based consulting business, Panther Safety Services, specializing in safety audits, inspections, training and safety program development.

Henry was due to return to work in Nigeria Feb. 22 after recovering from a broken leg that became infected. The injury occurred during a fall while hiking in the jungle.
Looking back, Matheson said she believes that was the first attempt on her brother's life.
The crime has resulted in the arrest of Dale's wife, Manreet Nee, an alleged hitman and a third man, said to be Nee's lover.

It's believed the motive for the killing was a million-dollar-plus insurance policy Henry had through his company.
The murder has rocked the tight-knit expat community in Thailand, many of whom are speaking out online about what they say is a corrupt justice system.
Australian Mac McLeod said in a telephone interview Monday night that the alleged hitman has killed before.
"It is well-known that he is a hitman. That is his job," said McLeod, who left Thailand several years ago in fear for his own life after a run-in with the man accused of pulling the trigger on Henry.
He said the area where Henry lived, a town called Panong in the south, is not heavily populated by ex-pats.

"There are all sorts of nefarious characters. There are more hitmen around Thailand than anywhere. That's the way they do business there -- it's a buck a gun."
He joked that "Dracula once went and barely escaped with his fangs."
Henry is the second Canadian slain in Thailand in as many months. Calgary native Leo Del Pinto, 25, was shot to death Jan. 6 while he and a friend were walking home in Pai. A Thai police officer has been charged in that case.

Read More

Paddy Doyle gangland "soldier" from Dublin

Russian mafia hitmen shot dead Paddy Doyle on the Costa del Sol, senior gardai claimed this weekend.'Doyle was typical of the third generation of gangland "soldier" from Dublin. He was aggressive, showy and started fights at a whim. He and his ilk are unlike the older Irish criminal types on the Costa who live a very quiet life and just get on with their business. Our intelligence suggests Doyle simply crossed the people you don't cross on the Costa, the Russians.'
Doyle, the survivor of a vicious criminal turf war in south Dublin which has claimed at least 10 lives, was gunned down in Estepona last Monday. Veteran detectives with the Garda Siochana's 'Operation Anvil', the drive against Dublin's crime gangs, said the 27-year-old had beaten up a close relative of a Russian mafia leader based on the southern Spanish coastline.
'From what our Spanish colleagues have told us, this was a professional Russian hit. There were 13 shots and we don't think they wasted a bullet. It has a military-trained assassin written all over it, possibly ex-special forces,' a senior detective told The Observer. 'The intelligence coming back from the Costa del Sol is that Paddy Doyle crossed the Russian mafia, which is something you do there at your peril.'
The officer said shortly after Christmas Doyle got involved in a brawl with a young Russian man whom he severely beat up. Unknown to Doyle, the man was related to a senior Russian mafia figure. True to form, on a warm afternoon in one of Spain's most popular destinations for tourists and holiday-home owners, vengeance was exacted in a ruthless fashion.

Read More

Edwin G. Edgley, 54, was arrested on suspicion of two counts of second-degree assault-domestic violence.

Edwin G. Edgley, 54, was arrested on suspicion of two counts of second-degree assault-domestic violence.
Edgley's family members told deputies that he pointed a semiautomatic pistol at his wife and adult son and threatened to shoot everyone who got in the way of his shooting another adult son who was not at the house.
At around 8:30 p.m., deputies, along with members of the Tactical Detective Unit, the regional SWAT team and a tracking dog team, surrounded the house.
Edgley's wife and son had left the house, at 6511 N.E. 73rd Court, but Edgley remained inside. According to a sheriff's office bulletin, Edgley reportedly had access to a high-powered rifle and was making suicidal threats.
The sheriff's office hostage negotiator convinced Edgley to leave the house at 9:34.
Edgley then tried to run back inside the house, according to the bulletin. He was then arrested and taken to Southwest Washington Medical Center for injuries described as

Read More

firefighter drive-by shooting outside a Comfort Suites hotel.

Charles "Chucky" Whitaker is not coming back. And now, his wife, his teenage daughter, a stepson who recently joined the Navy, and an extended family of Dallas firefighters are left to wonder why.
The 38-year-old firefighter was put on life support after a drive-by shooting early Monday that seriously injured him and a colleague. Police in Peoria, Ariz., say that doctors pronounced Mr. Whitaker dead early Wednesday.
His family stood by his bedside as the life-support devices were removed, Dallas Fire Chief Eddie Burns said.
"We do not claim to understand the issues surrounding this tragic incident that led to the untimely demise of our brother," the chief said Wednesday. "What I can tell you is that Charles 'Chucky' Whitaker led a life rich in meaning. His contribution to the department and to the city has touched many lives."
A longtime friend, Eric McNairy, said Mr. Whitaker wasn't the type to be involved in a fight. He had spoken to Mr. Whitaker over the phone not long before the shooting, he said, and his friend was in high spirits.
"They were having a good time," Mr. McNairy said. "We were actually talking about how we could get back out there and play golf."
But then it happened at 1:50 a.m. Monday, after Mr. Whitaker and fellow firefighter Reginald Cuington watched the Super Bowl in a sports bar. They were walking back through the Phoenix suburb's entertainment district toward their room in a Comfort Suites hotel. Police say a car pulled up, and someone inside opened fire.
Mr. Whitaker was shot in the leg, chest and head. Lt. Cuington, who was shot in the leg, made his way back to their hotel to get help. Both were taken to area hospitals.
The bar's staff told investigators that the pair were good customers, and they did not appear to trade harsh words with anyone.
"We've gone back, re-interviewed people, everything, and we are not coming up with anything," said Mike Tellef of the Peoria police. "There doesn't seem to have been any arguments, disputes, no fights – nothing."
Lt. Cuington, a 17-year veteran of Dallas Fire-Rescue, remained in stable condition Wednesday.
Mr. Whitaker, a 14-year department veteran, had wanted to be a firefighter since growing up in southern Dallas, according to Mr. McNairy. Fun-loving and outgoing, he was a kid from a sometimes-rough neighborhood who grew up to be a positive force for his community.
"His sense of duty and mission to protect the citizens, and his fellow firefighters, and more importantly his family, will never be forgotten," Chief Burns said. "The city of Dallas and the Dallas Fire-Rescue department have lost a hero."
Mr. Whitaker still stayed connected in spirit to his old neighborhood. He would greet his friends loudly, "What the business is?" Then he'd

Read More

Sgt. Michael Ciresi is charged with 10 counts

Albert E. DeRobbio Jr., a former state trooper who is a son of the chief judge of Rhode Island District Court, testified in Superior Court that he struck up an acquaintance with informant Mark Pine while he was serving a 30-day sentence for violating a no-contact order. He said Pine told him he had been arrested after a home invasion in Pawtucket, where he tried to steal drugs and money.
“He told me he got the gun from a policeman’s glove compartment. He was laughing that the policeman didn’t know he had taken the gun from his car,” said DeRobbio, recalling a conversation he said took place in April 2005.
According to that conversation, Pine thought the break-in at the home of drug dealers on East Avenue, Pawtucket, would be an “easy score” because he believed no drug dealer would call the police, and decided to carry out the break-in by himself. “He was totally surprised that the female in the house called police,” DeRobbio said. “By calling police, they were turning themselves in and all three got arrested.”
DeRobbio’s testimony challenged one of the key allegations against Ciresi in his three-week trial: that Ciresi participated in the home invasion with Pine, gave him the gun and a mask, then fled before Pawtucket police arrived.
Judge Robert Krause is expected to give the case to the jury today.
Ciresi is charged with 10 counts, among them two counts of burglary, two counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, two counts of receiving stolen goods, attempted larceny of currency from a stolen ATM machine, harboring and obstruction of justice.
Defense lawyers yesterday called North Providence Patrolman David A. Tessaris, who testified that in the fall of 2004, Ciresi told him at roll call that he had a generator that Tessaris might want to buy and he went to Ciresi’s house a few hours later to take a look at it.
Tessaris said he could not recall the make or model, but he was certain he saw it a “good two weeks” before another incident, on Dec. 17, 2004, involving a stolen ATM.
The timing is considered crucial because Ciresi is charged with accepting a generator that was stolen from a Cranston roofing company on Dec. 16.
Yesterday, revisiting a decision from Tuesday, Krause said he would reduce the stolen generator charge from a felony to a misdemeanor, saying it is unlikely the generator was worth more than $500 when Ciresi allegedly bought it from one of his informants, Darryl Streeper.
Yesterday, prosecuting attorneys Alan Goulart and Matthew Dawson asked DeRobbio why he hadn’t told law enforcement officials immediately when Pine told him about stealing Ciresi’s gun. DeRobbio said he never thought about it until he read a front page story in The Sunday Journal in October 2005 about allegations that Ciresi supplied a burglar with a gun.
“When I read it, I told my father, ‘This story isn’t right.’ ” DeRobbio said he passed the information to his attorney, John Cicilline, who assured him he would pass the information to authorities.
Also testifying yesterday was Pawtucket Detective Michael Demoranville, who acknowledged that he never took fingerprints of the glove compartment of Ciresi’s Ford Taurus because he was told by Detective Lt. Lance Trafford, an investigator in the Pawtucket case, that it wasn’t necessary.

Martin Briden, a retired Pawtucket police detective now working for the state sheriff’s office, said that even before the East Avenue house invasion, he had received information from Pine that his brother, Troy, was planning to burglarize the house.

The final witness, Col. Ernest Spaziano, police chief in North Providence, said he’s known Ciresi for 20 years and that he was an outstanding police officer who had numerous informants and had made a “prolific” number of arrests.
Spaziano said there were “no hard and fast rules” when it came to members of the patrol division conducting drug investigations, but generally patrol officers would advise a superior if they planned to pursue an investigation that went beyond their primary responsibility.
Because Ciresi had worked with the narcotics unit with the Drug Enforcement Administration and because he was a sergeant and a supervisor, Ciresi was generally given “more leeway” than other officers when pursuing tips from informants.
Under cross-examination, Spaziano conceded that much of his regard for Ciresi, a son of former North Providence town solicitor Robert Ciresi, derives from the number of arrests he has made and that he would have to alter his view if it were shown he did things that were wrong.

Read More

Collin Hawkins used a gun to carjack a man in Baltimore

Collin Hawkins used a gun to carjack a man in Baltimore on Nov. 22, 2006, and was arrested less than a month later after shooting a city police officer in Northeast Baltimore, according to city police.
In connection with the shooting of the officer, Hawkins was convicted of possession of a firearm by a felon and using a firearm in a violent crime, according to prosecutors. He also was convicted of carjacking for the Nov. 22 incident.
Federal authorities said Hawkins had been previously convicted in state courts on five drug-related arrests in five years. That made him eligible for the "three strikes" law that enables prosecutors to see a long prison sentence for his recent conviction.

"We pursued this case in federal court because, as a result of Collin Hawkins' criminal record, this conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in federal prison with no probation and no parole," Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said in a statement. "Collin Hawkins will never again carry a gun, carjack or shoot anyone in Baltimore."
Hawkins was convicted by a jury after a three-day trial.
He was arrested in the shooting of Baltimore Police Officer Momodu Gondo, who was shot just after midnight Dec. 5, 2006, as the officer was getting out of his car at his home in the 5700 block of The Alameda. Police said two men, one armed with a gun, approached him.
The officer turned to flee, and Hawkins opened fire, striking him three times in the back, according to authorities. A police spokesman said Gondo returned fire before he fell to the ground. The officer was treated at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
Gondo, who had graduated from the police academy in October, was wearing his police uniform and protective vest under an overcoat when he was shot.

Read More

Robert Allen Young, 24, guilty Wednesday of armed robbery and assault and battery with intent to kill

Jurors found Robert Allen Young, 24, guilty Wednesday of armed robbery and assault and battery with intent to kill after a three-day trial in Spartanburg. Prosecutors said Young shot Dixon "Dick" Ijioma, 48, twice in the head during a holdup at about midnight on Nov. 1, 2006.sentenced to 50 years in prison in the 2006 non-fatal shooting and robbery of a local cab driver
Circuit Judge Derham Cole levied the sentence, and Young must serve 85 percent of the prison term before he is eligible for release, according to the 7th Circuit Solicitor's Office.
Police said Young was riding in Ijioma's taxi when he attacked him near the corner of Longview Drive and Belmont Street, then stole his cab. Ijioma was able to run to Mamasun Cocktails and Dreams on Whitney Road, where employees called 911.
Ijioma told investigators he recognized the robber as a regular customer and later identified Young in a photo lineup, according to the solicitor's office. The clothing Young was wearing at the time was stained with Ijioma's blood.
In a prepared statement, Assistant Solicitor Derrick Bulsa said Young tried to kill Ijioma because he was a "regular" and believed the cab driver could identify him as the robber. Solicitor's office spokesman Murray Glenn said Ijioma later returned to driving a taxi in Spartanburg - although he is too afraid to drive at night - to help support family living in Nigeria.
"He's a good man," Glenn said. "We're glad he's still here."
Young's prior criminal record includes convictions for threatening the life of a public official and drug convictions, according to the State Law Enforcement Division.

Read More

Operation Trilogy

Armed police raided a "charity hostel" after it became linked with gang crime.
The intelligence-led operation targeting members of the notorious Ghetto Boys gang was launched last Wednesday morning.
Police from Lewisham police's proactive gang disruption team Operation Trilogy were backed up by officers from the Met's specialist firearms unit CO19.
They burst into St Christopher's Fellowship home in Boyne Road, Lewisham, at around 2am and recovered two handguns capable of firing 13 rounds of ammunition, and a silencer.
Seven people were arrested.
Detective Inspector Sarah Davies, from Operation Trilogy, said: "Since the turn of the year Operation Trilogy has taken five guns off the streets, which can only make our communities safer."
The suspects, all aged under 26, are being quizzed at a South London police station and remain in custody.
In the weeks leading up to the raid, Boyne Road residents had complained of a "crime wave" in their formerly peaceful street.
They said it had changed drastically in the space of a month since some new youngsters had moved into the home, which is for young people who have been in care.
Speaking before the police operation, Boyne Road resident John Cameron said: "We are not out to oust St Christopher's. The deterioration started just before Christmas. Cars are being broken into, houses burgled and there are fights between the teenagers. We have a suspicion that there may be drug dealing going on."
Mr Cameron said he and a number of other residents had complained to St Christopher's because they were concerned about the safety of their children, as well as youngsters at St Christopher's who are not involved.
He added: "We are now building up the pressure on them to have a resident warden, but they say they do not have enough money. We all get the sense that St Christopher's is not listening to us."


A St Christopher's spokesman said: "We are liaising with the police and other statutory agencies regarding the antisocial behaviour in the area, and the police safer neighbourhood team is currently setting up a meeting with residents to ensure all concerns are addressed."

Read More

Drive-by shooting in Desert Hot Springs.

Police arrested two men and two juveniles Sunday in connection to a drive-by shooting in Desert Hot Springs.
The suspects were spotted in a vehicle on Palm Drive at Third Street about 12 p.m., according to the Desert Hot Springs Police Department.
Officers tried to pull them over, but the suspect vehicle sped off.
One of the passengers, Anthony Paez, ran from the vehicle but was later captured.
Police arrested the driver, Miguel Ruiz, on charges of felony evasion.
The juveniles were arrested on several felony charges, according to the police department. One of them had two loaded handguns.
They were taken to Riverside County Juvenile Hall in Indio.
The other suspects were booked into the Riverside County Jail in Indio.

Read More

Brandon Coffman, 17, was taken into custody by Columbus SWAT officers on Vendome Drive this afternoon.

Brandon Coffman, 17, was taken into custody by Columbus SWAT officers on Vendome Drive this afternoon.
The teen is charged with a delinquency count of murder in the shooting death of Kenyanna Bradley, 21.
Bradley was on her front porch on Kelton Avenue on Oct. 28, 2006, when four males in a car pulled up and one began shooting. She was shot in the back while trying to run into the front door, authorities said.
On Wednesday, Paul K. Hayes, 20, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in Bradley's death. Christian Domis, assistant prosecutor, said that Hayes and Coffman fired several shots into the apartment building, the site of a previous confrontation, and that Bradley was not the intended target.
Coffman, whose address police didn't provide, became a suspect "during the investigation," according to a news release from homicide detectives after his capture. Homicide detectives didn't return phone calls seeking further explanation.

Read More

Rey Alberto Davis-Bell, 23, is accused of shooting to death Degene Berecha Deshasa

Rey Alberto Davis-Bell, 23, is accused of shooting to death Degene Berecha Deshasa, 31, an Ethiopian immigrant who owned the restaurant Philadelphia Cheese Steak at 23rd Avenue and East Union Street.
King County prosecutors say Davis-Bell also fired at a customer, seriously injuring him, and a restaurant employee.
Last Wednesday's shooting left Dashasa's friends and relatives mourning and questioning why anyone would want to hurt the man.
An owner of the same restaurant was shot to death a few blocks away in 2003; the case remains unsolved.
Police said Davis-Bell, who was also charged with illegally possessing a gun, is a gang member with a prison record. His alleged rampage began earlier that day, when police say he fired at least nine times through the window of his ex-girlfriend's West Seattle home.

Read More

You can do dial-a-gun in Glasgow. You can have a gun in a couple of hours to order.

"Gun crime is up and, if it is not parallel with London, it is not far behind. You can do dial-a-gun in Glasgow. You can have a gun in a couple of hours to order."
Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, of Strathclyde's Violence Reduction Unit, said: "Although knives are the weapon of choice, firearms are used in homicides and we are vigilant about emerging trends.
"The issue is not what weapon is used to kill but rather the loss of a life."

Read More

James Jackson of Crotona Park is facing charges for the Saturday attack on Tim Kim

A 44-year-old man was arrested in the shooting of an Athlete's Foot worker in the Bronx and was awaiting arraignment Tuesday night, officials said. James Jackson of Crotona Park is facing a slew of charges for the Saturday attack on Tim Kim, 17, in a Fordham store, police said.
The victim, who is brain-dead, remained on life support at St.Barnabas Hospital while doctors prepared to harvest his organs, said his girlfriend, Kerrylee Ways, 18

Read More

Patrick Doyle was hit by Costa del Sol gang in Estepona

Spanish police are investigating possible links between a massive cocaine seizure on the Costa del Sol yesterday and the murder of Irish drug dealer Patrick Doyle.
Eight men, including one Irishman, were arrested following the seizure of 115kg of the drug close to where Doyle was shot dead on Monday in Estepona.
Spanish officials say the men in custody may have links to the murder.
They also believe the 27-year-old Dubliner was shot dead by rival drugs traffickers in Spain rather than as a result of an Irish gangland feud.
Meanwhile, an Irishman who was with Doyle at the time of his murder is understood to have come forward to the police
Police hunting Doyle's killers yesterday arrested seven men after seizing an €8m cocaine shipment in Estepona.

A spokesman said they were investigating if there was a link between the shooting and the seizure.
But senior Police officers believe the two are not connected.
Four of those arrested are British, two are Moroccans and the seventh suspect gave the name of an Irishman from Dublin's north inner city.
However, Police are awaiting further confirmation that the man is Irish.
Doyle had been active in drug trafficking in Spain for the past two years.
He disappeared in late 2005 after he became the prime suspect for the murder of Noel Roche, who was shot dead in a car in Clontarf as part of the Crumlin-Drimnagh feud.
The 27-year-old, from Portland Row, in the north city, is believed by gardai to have fled initially to Liverpool and then moved to Spain, where he set up a new base.
He was regularly visited there by other Irish criminals, including Gary Hutch, who was driving the BMW off-road vehicle when it came under fire from the occupants of a similar vehicle on the outskirts of Estepona, 10 miles from Marbella.
Hutch and Doyle were on their way to collect an English companion when they found their way blocked by the other BMW in a narrow street in the Cancelada district.
Both men tried to run after their windscreen was shattered by four shots and their vehicle crashed into a lamp post.
The gunmen singled out Doyle, who was their target, and he was shot twice in the head at close range.
Hutch escaped with minor injuries and he was interviewed by Spanish police yesterday.
Earlier reports that Freddie Thompson, who is under regular garda surveillance here, had been in the back seat of the vehicle have now been discounted.
Gardai and Spanish police are both satisfied that Doyle was the intended victim of the gun gang.
Senior officers in Dublin said last night there was no intelligence to indicate that the Doyle murder was linked to the gang feud here and they believed that Doyle, who was known as a "heavy" in the criminal underworld, had probably clashed with another trafficking group operating on the Costa del Sol.
The Roche shooting was thought to have been a retaliatory hit by one of the feuding gangs for the double murder of Darren Geoghegan and Gavin Byrne in Firhouse.
However, the consensus view now is that one gang was responsible for the two attacks and that Doyle was involved in both of them.
Gardai believe that Doyle's murder will be a major blow to his gang leader as he was regarded as the most ruthless member of the group.
His mistake, detectives think, is that he believed he could earn a "hard man" reputation in Spain but was regarded as a minor criminal figure by the international traffickers using the Costa del Sol as their base.
A similar mistake was made by two other Dublin criminals, Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg, who also clashed with drug lords in Spain and paid the ultimate price.
Their bodies were found in a concrete grave on the Costa Blanca, following a tip-off from the Gardai, in 2006.

Read More

Dexter Cox

Dexter Cox has been charged with first degree murder. According to a Police Affidavit, Cox confessed to shooting Vidulich, taking his gun and his Ford Explorer - then setting the S-U-V on fire.
Another affidavit says Cox was arrested Wednesday in connection to a shooting outside Frayser High School. Police found him, searched a nearby home and found a gun they say was stolen from the Officer's home. Investigators then realized they had their guy.
Mack McKinna has some harsh words for Cox, calling him "a little 18 year-old punk, who killed a good policeman." McKinna, and other neighbors are happy to hear an arrest has been made. The crime scene tape is still outside Vidulich's home. Since Monday, there has been a constant police presence - squad cars, and the CSI Command Post is still across the street. Neighbors say they are relieved because an arrest has been made. But they also say this isn't over. Neighbor Archie Collins says a conviction or more arrests would add closure. Collins also says he'll be content when he hears "in detail, what happened in the death of Ed Vidulich." Collins has many questions for officers including, "why his (Vidulich) particular house?
A News Conference will take place Sunday February 3rd at 3p.m.
Police records show this isn't Cox's first run in with the law. In July of 2007, he was arrested for Aggravated Robbery and Evading Arrest.

Read More

Why was Martin Foley shot.

The grim reality of the attempt on Martin Foley's life began to sink in after the middle of last week when his body, weakened from three previous gun attacks, began to react severely to infection caused by the latest bullet wounds. Foley's spleen had been destroyed in one of the previous attacks. A normal healthy person can survive well enough without one, but the spleen is a necessary organ for helping the body repair itself from blood infection and Foley's is no longer there to do the job. He was "touch and go" on Thursday morning.
Senior garda sources said yesterday that while they can't be sure what will happen in terms of serious gangland crime in Ireland this year, they are certain that there are enough live disputes between gangs to ensure that there will be more killing in the coming months.
While Foley was in St James's Hospital's intensive care unit, gardai in Dublin were still trying to work out exactly what Foley had done or who exactly he had crossed to merit this latest attempt on his life. It is the absence of precise intelligence on matters such as the attempted assassination of a man who has probably the highest public profile of any criminal in Ireland that has prompted a major review of the anti-organised crime policing.
Within three days of the attempt on Foley's life, the new Garda Commissioner, Fachtna Murphy, announced that he was going to regularise and put on a permanent footing the 70-strong Organised Crime Unit (OCU), which is attached to the National Bureau of Crime Investigation at his Harcourt Square headquarters in Dublin.
The unit was set up just over two years ago as a temporary expedient after a rash of gangland murders in the city. It has had some significant successes in terms of seizures of guns and drugs, and in arrests. However, over the past six months, the dedicated and hard-working young gardai seconded to the unit found that their temporary status meant that their service was not being counted for promotion purposes. They were, effectively, doing down their promotion prospects by volunteering for dangerous policing.
After senior gardai in Dublin made a strong case for the regularising of the OCU, the new Commissioner agreed and last week officially dedicated the OCU as the permanent and, it is expected, leading unit in the fight against organised drugs crime, initially, in Dublin. It will be headed by a Detective Superintendent with considerable experience of the gang scene in Dublin.
A senior Dublin detective said the statistics, claims and counterclaims surrounding them were "irrelevant". "They don't paint a picture of the reality out there," he said.
Asked about the immediate priority of the OCU, a senior source involved in the development of the unit said: "Intelligence -- there is no point in having surveillance alone. You could spend all your life watching people. You need intelligence. We still don't know for sure why Martin Foley was shot, for instance."
He added: "There are feuds all over this city flaring up and we don't know why." He pointed out that last year, while gardai in the north inner city -- helped by dozens of armed gardai from the OCU -- had been concentrating on the blood feud surrounding ex-members of the IRA and criminal associates who had split and began killing each other after one had raped his partner's daughter, another feud erupted for unknown reasons.

Paul Kelly (26), from Gardiner Street, was shot dead outside a block of flats on the Malahide Road. It had been assumed, at first, that it was because he was from the inner city and known to people involved in the feud. However, it subsequently emerged that he was murdered over an entirely different argument and since then this has developed into a quite separate dispute.

The south inner Dublin gang leader who Martin Foley had been associating with in recent years is emerging as one of the most significant criminals in the State. Freddy Thompson is still only 27, yet has been associated with some of the biggest drugs seizures in recent times. He was arrested in Rotterdam with seven kilos of cocaine and six handguns and ammunition in October 2006 but evaded prosecution on a technicality.

Foley had once regarded "Fat" Freddie Thompson as a protégé but gardai say that Foley has, in recent years, been regarded as little more than a throwback to the old days of organised crime. It is regarded as highly possible that associates of Thompson shot Foley.

Gardai also believe that associates of Thompson were involved in the double murder of Brian Downes (40) and the innocent young mechanic, Eddie Ward (24), who were shot dead at the lock-up garage behind Downes' home in Walkinstown last October. An associate of Downes', Sean McMahon (35), was shot dead as he slept in his bed at his home in Tallaght two weeks later. It is now believed McMahon was murdered because it was merely believed he was intent on revenge for the murder of his friend. The major feud between the two south inner city Dublin drugs gangs that has resulted in over 10 deaths since 2000 has not been resolved and is showing little sign of stabilising.

Read More

Jorge “Rivi” Ayala

contract killer Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, Cocaine Cowboys director Billy Corben says: “He told me where there is a body buried in Miami, by the Florida turnpike. It’s all developed now, malls and condominiums. He knows where all the bodies are buried. We told the police. I think he told the police too. I just don’t think they care.”
Now serving three life sentences for 12 counts of murder, Rivi is a chillingly cool customer. He affably reels off the names of the victims he dispatched as if he were running through a shopping list. “The guy is one of the most pleasant interview subjects, the most laid-back, easy-going, polite, friendly and simple to deal with. But we’d be sitting there in an interview and you would have to kick yourself in the head to remind yourself what it is that this guy is talking about. He might as well be talking about the weather outside. But he’s talking about murdering women and children.”
Rivi was, for a time, the hit-man of choice for Griselda Blanco, aka the Black Widow. Griselda was the grande dame of the Miami cocaine business, a Colombian mother of three, of impoverished origins, who slaughtered and intimidated her way to the top of a billion-dollar industry. She is a central character in this movie, the most deadly figure in a story in which the bodies are stacked like dominos. Conspicuous by her absence as an interviewee, she is one of the few key survivors of the era whom the film-makers were unable to coax before the lens. “Her release was imminent at that point, as was her deportation. I think she has changed her mind since, because we have been reapproached,” Corben says.
Rapid-fire editing unleashes an onslaught of information. This is documentary-making for ADD sufferers and has now inspired a feature film to star Mark Wahlberg, based on the the drug dealer Jon Roberts, featured in Cocaine Cowboys.
Corben, a Miami native with a conversational style like a runaway train, acknowledges the drug’s influence on Cocaine Cowboys’ aesthetic. “My intended effect was that after this movie, you felt like you had been on a bender.” Besides Griselda and Rivi, the key characters in the film are Roberts and Mickey Munday. They are the “cowboys” of the title, two outlaws who imported but didn’t sell the drugs. The way they tell it, their clever smuggling methods transformed the fortunes of the once sleepy backwater of Miami.
Corben’s memories of growing up in Miami during the cocaine-fuelled 1980s are of nightly news stories with a body count to rival a small war, and an awful lot of money. “I remember being in this working-class neighbourhood and everybody was doing very well. Whatever business you were in, the city was flush with so much cash that it trickled down, sort of a Reagan theory of economics. The trickle-down theory worked as long as you had successful drug king-pins in the community.”

Read More

Wilber Varela, alias "Soap",New Bosses known as 'Red Shirt' '06'

Officials confirmed the body is that of Wilber Varela, alias "Soap", a man with a long and bloody history as leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel.
While Varela had a $5m (£2.5m) bounty from the US on his head, the evidence suggests he was killed by his own men.
His cocaine smuggling cartel was the successor to the infamous Medellin cartel of Pablo Escobar.
It is believed that Varela's cartel moved thousands of tonnes of cocaine into the US and Europe.
US and Colombian intelligence agencies said that Varela had been hiding in Venezuela for at least a year, running his operations out of their reach.
Venezuela is now the principle transit nation for Colombian cocaine and does not co-operate with international anti-drugs efforts.
Colombian intelligence sources said that communications intercepts suggested that Varela was killed by some of his own men, a not unexpected end for a man who started in the drug business as an a assassin.
Last year, the other three leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel were captured, in effect bringing an end to the organisation.
However, a new generation of traffickers is already stepping up to take their place.
The security forces have the aliases of two men believed to be picking up the pieces within the cartel and keeping the business moving.
They are known only as '06' and 'Red Shirt' and the hunt is on for them and their real identities as a new chapter in the war on drugs begins.

Read More

Patrick Booker, Kenneth Lamar Tucker,Reginald Edward Crutchfield

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of stealing about 50 guns in a brazen armed attack at a Riverside gun store earlier this week.
Police are still searching for a fourth robber and some of the guns taken in Monday evening's armed robbery of Centerfire Firearms. Riverside police detectives worked around the clock to find the robbers and guns, police spokesman Steven Frasher said.
He does not know if this crime was gang related, or if there was a fifth person driving the getaway car, but police are investigating these possibilities. One of the robbers was seen on a video of the robbery talking on a cell phone, Riverside police Sgt. Mark Rossi said.
Four men armed with handguns rushed into the store in the 3500 block of Central Avenue about 6 p.m. Monday, ordered three customers and three employees to the floor, stuffed about 50 guns from display cases into backpacks and sped away in a black sedan, Riverside police Sgt. Leon Phillips said.
Police on Wednesday followed one suspect from Mead Valley to Mission Grove Center, where he was arrested on suspicion of robbing the gun store and conspiring to commit the robbery, according to a news release from the Riverside Police Department. The man was identified in the police press release as Kenneth Lamar Tucker, 20, of Riverside.
Police found at least one of the guns stolen in the robbery at Tucker's home, Frasher said.
On Thursday, police served search warrants in La Sierra and Moreno Valley, according to the release.
At the same time, the police gang unit and other officers arrested two men at a motel on Sunnymead Boulevard in Moreno Valley, the release stated. They were identified by police as Reginald Edward Crutchfield, 20, of Moreno Valley, and Patrick Booker, 19, of Riverside, the release stated.

Read More

Sujan Paudyal ,Kamal Thapa,Buddha Gurung ,Anil Thapa ,Debendra Kumar Garthi

gang of six criminals involved in different incidents of crime in the valley since a long time was arrested Friday and made public at the Kathmandu Metropolitan Crime Division of Hanumandhoka.
Of the six, five were the people responsible in the recent shooting that took place at Om Shanti Chowk in Baneshwor where two persons Barun Singh Lama and Ashish Gurung were injured.
?We have taken it as a major achievement of the police administration as these people were actively indulged in committing various crimes such as shooting, making telephone threats and abduction," Sarbendra Khanal, superintendent of police said at a press conference.
The arrested include ? Sujan Paudyal living at Duragaun-7 of Ramechap district, Kamal Thapa, alias Tere Nam living at Semlar VDC-7 of Rupandehi district, Buddha Gurung living at Gorisingh VDC-5 and currently living at Balaju of Tilingetar. Debendra Kumar Garthi living at Chaur VDC-2 of Balgung district and Anil Thapa living at Kalyanpur VDC-7 of Nuwakot district.

Read More

Aaren Dexter, V-Not gang

Aaren Dexter, 21, of Akron, was sentenced to four years in prison for the drive-by shooting of a crime witness.
He was found guilty of felonious assault, intimidation of a crime victim and being a felon with a gun.
On Aug. 22, Dexter shot a man in retaliation for the conviction of Brandon Whiteside, 18. Whiteside was convicted on July 19 of attempted murder and criminal gang activity. He is serving 15 years in prison.
Dexter and Whiteside were in the V-Not gang, prosecutors said.
The man Dexter shot is the father of the victim of another shooting carried out by the V-Not gang, prosecutors said.
"This case is a prime example of the threats posed by gangs and gang violence in our community," Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said.
"This sentence hopefully sends two messages; first, we will not tolerate the intimidation tactics of street thugs who think they are above the law. Second, we will do everything we can to protect citizens who do the right thing by reporting crimes and participating in the
judicial process."

Read More

Brandon T. Morris

Brandon T. Morris, 22. the judge said factors, including Morris' emotional immaturity and his history of "staggering" childhood abuse, outweighed the state's arguments for execution
Manck also sentenced Morris to 301 years to run consecutive to his life term, ensuring, the judge said, that he will die in prison.
Morris, of Baltimore, was convicted by a Howard County jury Jan. 18 of first-degree murder for killing Jeffery A. Wroten, 44, of Martinsburg, W.Va., at Washington ounty Hospital in Hagerstown.
After shooting Wroten with the guard's gun early in the morning of Jan. 26, 2006, Morris briefly took a hospital visitor hostage, carjacked a taxi, and forced the cabbie at gunpoint to drive him into nearby Pennsylvania, where the car crashed. Morris fled back into Maryland, where he was captured in an industrial park.
Morris had been brought to the hospital from nearby Roxbury Correctional Institution after jabbing a sewing needle so deeply into his abdomen that it pierced his liver. Prosecutors maintained that the injury and the murder were parts of a carefully planned escape.
After the sentencing, Morris flashed a derisive grin at Wroten's family members as they filed past him on their way out of the packed courtroom.
Manck, whose mother was murdered during a 1995 home invasion, spoke directly to Wroten's family before passing sentence. He assured them that his "gut-wrenching" decision would free them to enjoy memories of their slain loved one without the distraction of legal proceedings.
But Wroten's ex-wife Tracey, with whom he had four daughters, ages 7-13, told reporters afterward that she was "disappointed and probably a little angry" that Manck hadn't sentenced Morris to death.
She said no one should pity Morris, whose courtroom behavior included extending a middle finger toward the family whenever he held an earphone to his head during bench conferences.
"There is nothing I could say that would express the anger I have toward him. I have no mercy for him. He didn't show my children's father mercy. I don't believe he deserves mercy," Tracey Wroten told reporters.
One of the slain officer's co-workers, Capt. Mark A. Martin, said Morris "presents an enormous risk" to those guarding him and an "enormous cost" to taxpayers due to the extra security needed to transport him to any hospital visits or court hearings. An attempted courtroom escape in May led to intense security for Morris during the trial, where at least a half-dozen uniformed officers were never less than a few feet from him.
Manck, a retired Anne Arundel County jurist, said a defense expert witness had convinced him that any threat of escape "can be minimized greatly" by the Division of Correction.
Outweighing the cost of securing Morris, Manck said, was the damage Morris had suffered as a child at the hands of an abusive mother, stepfather and neighborhood thugs, one of whom raped him at 12 or 13, according to a social worker's testimony. The abuse and neglect stunted Morris' emotional development, making him no more mature than a high-school student, Manck said.
"He had no family management. He had nothing," Manck said. Growing up right on the streets of Baltimore is "impossible when you have a family that doesn't give a damn about you," the judge said.
Defense attorney Arcangelo Tuminelli said the sentence was appropriate. He said a death sentence would have resulted in years, if not decades, of appeal procedures that would have been hard on Wroten's family. "I think Judge Manck did those people a favor," Tuminelli said.

Read More

Wilber Varela aka Jabon

The body of Wilber Varela, known as "Jabon" or "Soap," was found on Wednesday in a hotel room in Merida state in neighboring Venezuela, said a Colombian police source who asked not to be identified.
The boss of Colombia's biggest remaining cocaine cartel was killed by gunfire in Venezuela in an apparent settling of accounts between drug gangs, Colombian security forces said on Friday.
"We have intelligence information that the person found dead in Venezuela is Jabon," the source said.
Varela, a former police sergeant wanted for extradition by the U.S. government for helping to smuggle tonnes of cocaine to the United States, was one of the last Colombian drug kingpins at large after last year's arrest of Diego "Don Diego" Montoya.
The two had battled for control of the Norte del Valle cartel, a violent rivalry that left hundreds of people dead.
The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward leading to the arrest of Varela, who got his nickname from a brand of soap with the same name.
The Norte del Valle gang, based near the western city of Cali, is the only Colombian cartel that still controls all areas of the business from cultivation of coca plants to production of cocaine and its exportation. (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Read More

Reginald Edward Crutchfield,Patrick Booker

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of stealing about 50 guns in a brazen armed attack at a Riverside gun store earlier this week.
Police are still searching for a fourth robber and some of the guns taken in Monday evening's armed robbery of Centerfire Firearms. Riverside police detectives worked around the clock to find the robbers and guns, police spokesman Steven Frasher said.
He does not know if this crime was gang related, or if there was a fifth person driving the getaway car, but police are investigating these possibilities. One of the robbers was seen on a video of the robbery talking on a cell phone, Riverside police Sgt. Mark Rossi said.
Four men armed with handguns rushed into the store in the 3500 block of Central Avenue about 6 p.m. Monday, ordered three customers and three employees to the floor, stuffed about 50 guns from display cases into backpacks and sped away in a black sedan, Riverside police Sgt. Leon Phillips said.
Police on Wednesday followed one suspect from Mead Valley to Mission Grove Center, where he was arrested on suspicion of robbing the gun store and conspiring to commit the robbery, according to a news release from the Riverside Police Department. The man was identified in the police press release as Kenneth Lamar Tucker, 20, of Riverside.
Police found at least one of the guns stolen in the robbery at Tucker's home, Frasher said.
On Thursday, police served search warrants in La Sierra and Moreno Valley, according to the release.
At the same time, the police gang unit and other officers arrested two men at a motel on Sunnymead Boulevard in Moreno Valley, the release stated. They were identified by police as Reginald Edward Crutchfield, 20, of Moreno Valley, and Patrick Booker, 19, of Riverside, the release stated.

Read More