Parinder Singh Adiwal was sprayed with gunfire in the underground parking lot of his Burnaby high-rise

Parinder Singh Adiwal was sprayed with gunfire in the underground parking lot of his Burnaby high-rise about 10 p.m. Tuesday.RCMP Cpl. Alexandra Mulvihill said the shooting “appears to be a targeted hit and has all the earmarks of being gang-related.”“Investigators will spend today continuing to speak with witnesses and to start to piece together the information they have,” she said. “It is the Burnaby RCMP's intention to be as factual and accurate as possible with the information we release. For this reason, aside from what has already been released, there will no further updates on this file until late this afternoon.”Several Vancouver police and Burnaby RCMP cars were outside the hospital throughout Wednesday morning. Officers could be seen coming and going to the hospital, as well as friends and relatives of Adiwal.Adiwal and his twin brother Mike have held leadership roles in the Independent Soldiers gang. And they have also been associated over the last year to Barzan Tilli-Choli, the de facto leader of the United Nations gang now in jail charged with conspiracy to kill Abbotsford’s Bacon brothers.Another close associate of the Adiwal twins has been Sandip Singh Duhre, who was identified last Friday as the target of a foiled murder-for-hire plot.Just in March Peter Adiwal told a Port Coquitlam judge that he was forced to hold drugs while inside the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre while serving a kidnapping sentence.He pleaded guilty to a single count of cocaine trafficking and got a nine-month conditional sentence.
Correctional officers found seven grams of heroin, 0.5 grams of cocaine, 129 grams of marijuana, two tablets of ecstacy and various steroids hidden throughout Parminder Adiwal's cell, including in Kraft Dinner boxes and other food packages, on July 11, 2006.Adiwal told the guards he was only holding the drugs for another inmate and wasn't selling them himself.Adiwal's lawyer Peter Wilson told the court that his client had no choice because “it's a different world in jail. I was asked in circumstances where I couldn't really say no and he just happened to be kind of holding the ball at the time when the items were discovered,” Wilson said. "He just happened to have it in his possession at the time when it was discovered by authorities."Both Adiwal twins pleaded guilty in October 2005 to a brutal drug-related kidnapping in which the victim was rescued by police who had been clandestinely following the twins in another multiple-murder investigation.

Peter Adiwal told the kidnapping victim that he would kill him and dump his body in Richmond near the spot where two of the man's friends had been found bound and shot in 2001

Sukhjit Singh Basi, who was grabbed late on the evening of Feb. 12, 2003, begged his captors for a glass of water after he had already been bound and beaten over several hours.The twins were among the subjects of a multi-million dollar investigation by the former Indo-Canadian Gang Task Force that involved months of wiretap and surveillance designed to collect evidence in a series of unsolved slayings.But the investigation ended prematurely and dramatically when police overheard Basi's moans and cries and broke down the Burnaby apartment door to rescue him.
Court was told that Peter Adiwal was particularly brutal with Basi, hitting him several times, binding his arms and repeatedly threatening to kill him.
In a Feb. 11, 2003 conversation captured on a listening device police had planted in the apartment, Peter Adiwal blamed Basi for stealing 68 kilograms of marijuana from a friend and then pointing the finger at Adiwal.Adiwal is heard on the wiretap saying 'kick him in the throat' and when Basi starts weeping, Adiwal said 'he's breaking. I told you guys. I told you he'd start crying, didn't I?"

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Chief suspect for Ireland's biggest ever tiger raid has left the country

Chief suspect for Ireland's biggest ever tiger raid has left the country but his €5.8m haul remains untouched.Gardai now believe that the man, in his late 30s and from Dublin's north inner city, is hiding out in Britain, and have liaised with UK police in efforts to trace his whereabouts.He emerged at the chief suspect for the College Green robbery in the 48 hours after the crime, when suspects for the raid were observed entering the home of the man's sister on Dublin's northside.Detectives believe that the man planned the robbery with the assistance of a family-based north inner city crime gang, who are themselves related to a well-known armed robber.
The mastermind has been involved in armed robbery for the past 20 years, and first came to garda attention following a number of raids in Munster in the 1990s. He is regarded by officers as volatile when confronted but otherwise calm in the planning of his crimes.He has a number of previous convictions and his immediate family have also been involved in crime in the past. A close relative shot and injured a man during a raid.According to garda intelligence sources, neither the man, nor the other members of the College Green gang, have attempted to move the haul of cash which they are suspected of stashing in the hours after the raid on February 27 last. The robbery, which was Ireland's biggest ever haul from a tiger raid, was pulled off when bank worker Shane Travers was forced to take cash from a vault at the Bank of Ireland, College Green, hours after his girlfriend and two members of her family were held up at their Co Kildare home.No one was injured in the raid, which ended when Mr Travers dropped off the cash at a designated point in Clontarf. The raiders are believed to have moved the cash to an as-yet-unknown location on the city's northside immediately afterwards.Some of the money was then moved, and €1.8m of the cash was later recovered.Gardai suspect that the money was taken to a location in north Dublin, and is likely to have remained there ever since. A number of individuals suspected of involvement in the robbery have been placed under heavy surveillance since the incident and have "laid low" as a result, sources say.

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Niranjan Das and Sant Rama Nand — underwent operations for gunshot wounds, but Nand died early Monday

Sikh preacher died Monday after being wounded in an attack on his temple by a group of fundamentalist Sikhs armed with knives and a handgun, police said. India's prime minister appealed for calm as riots protesting the deadly shooting spread to several northern Indian cities.Witnesses said the Vienna temple attended by lower-caste Sikhs had been attacked by fundamentalist Sikhs from a higher caste, who accused one or both of the preachers of being disrespectful of the religion's Holy Book.
The attack set off a brawl that wounded 16. It was not clear whether some of the weapons used were kirpans — ceremonial daggers that may legally be worn by Sikhs in Austria.Two preachers — identified by Indian diplomats as Niranjan Das and Sant Rama Nand — underwent operations for gunshot wounds, but Nand died early Monday, according to a police official who declined to identify himself on the telephone, in line with Austrian custom.

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Australia woman's account of a late night shooting in Sydney has turned her into an Internet sensation with T-shirts, mugs and a dance remix made

Australia woman's account of a late night shooting in Sydney has turned her into an Internet sensation with T-shirts, mugs and a dance remix made in her honor but there's just one problem -- she made it up.Sydney woman Clare Werbeloff's dramatic account of a shooting, with her "chk chk boom" firing of a gun and imitation of the men involved, made her an overnight hit on video sharing website YouTube, prompting about 500,000 viewings.The 19-year-old has since received invitations to appear on various TV shows and even the offer of a bikini photo shoot.But the Australian media were left red-faced when the first task of Werbeloff's newly hired agent Adam Abrams was to admit his client did not actually witness the shooting, and told police that she made the story up for a TV camera on site.Abrams told Australian media that Werbeloff would not detail her reasons for fabricating the story but denied the video was an advertising setup. Werbeloff had gone into hiding after media camped outside her home.The 27-year-old victim of the shooting, Sydneysider Justin Kallu, was not amused as he nursed a wounded knee."I'm just a bit upset about the fact that I've been shot and that I almost lost my life and there's this girl all over the news getting popular, all because she has no brains," Kallu said in emailed comments to newspapers.

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Man shot multiple times Saturday night in North Philadelphia.

Homicide detectives said yesterday they were investigating the death of a man who was shot multiple times Saturday night in North Philadelphia.The man, whom authorities did not identify, was shot about 8:30 p.m. at 20th and Susquehanna Streets. He was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he died at 6:02 a.m. yesterday.The death marked the 111th homicide in Philadelphia this year, police said.

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67-year-old Rosario Gambino arrived at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport on a flight from Miami.

67-year-old Rosario Gambino arrived at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport on a flight from Miami. Wearing a gray jumpsuit and looking frail he sat in a wheelchair as he was escorted out by police officers.Gambino, an Italian-born New Jersey resident, was considered a top mobster in the New York-based crime family led by his late cousin Carlo Gambino.In 1984 he was convicted in a multi-million-dollar conspiracy to sell heroin in southern New Jersey and sentenced to 45 years in jail.Gambino was linked to the "Pizza Connection" probe, which broke a $1.6 billion heroin and cocaine smuggling operation that used pizzerias as fronts from 1975 to 1984.He was released in 2007 and transferred to an immigrant detention center in California to await expulsion, Italian police said in a statement. It was not immediately clear why the sentence had been reduced.Gambino has been wanted in Italy since 1980 on separate drug and Mafia-connected charges, and he is expected to face trial. Calls to a lawyer representing him in Italy were not answered Saturday afternoon.
Before being transferred to a Rome jail, Gambino was served the original 1980 arrest warrant signed by Giovanni Falcone, one of Italy's top anti-Mafia prosecutors.
Falcone was killed by the Sicilian mob in a 1992 bomb attack, and Gambino's return coincided with the anniversary of the murder, which was being commemorated across Italy. Salvatore "Toto" Riina, then the Mafia's boss of bosses, was arrested in 1993 and later convicted with others of plotting the hit.

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Andre D. Trott a high-ranking member of the Bloods street gang, but have declined to say whether the killing was gang-related

Cadre Williams, 31, of Georgia, hung himself with a sheet in a high-security cell in the jail.Cicchi said Williams was found by jail staff in his one-man, locked cell, but declined to release further details, saying the investigation is continuing.Earlier authorities called his death an apparent suicide and gave no details.Cicchi said Williams showed no signs of being troubled when a psychologist did a face-to-face interview with him a day earlier."He presented no suicidal ideations during the interview," Cicchi said.Cicchi said the investigation has shown there were no violations of the jail's procedures when Williams was dealt with.
Security in William's unit, known as C-Pod, is the highest at the jail.Williams, who had an extensive criminal record in Georgia, was charged May 8 with killing Shakir McCray, 31, of Roselle. McCray was shot several times the morning before outside the Hearthwood development on Boice Drive in North Brunswick.Authorities said Williams confessed to the murder after being captured in Edison not long after the slaying occurred. He faced life behind bars without the possibility of parole if convicted.
Another man charged in the murder, Andre D. Trott, 29, of Bermuda, remains in the correction center in lieu of $1.5 million bail.Prosecutors called Trott a high-ranking member of the Bloods street gang, but have declined to say whether the killing was gang-related. They have not released a motive.

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Three men were shot in Tacoma late Friday after being confronted by another man

Three men were shot in Tacoma late Friday after being confronted by another man while walking along a street and are in stable condition in local hospitals, Tacoma police reported.Three men were arrested and jailed in connection with the shooting, police spokesman Mark Fulghum said Saturday.The shooting occurred around 11:20 p.m. Friday in South Tacoma along South 51st Street, between Pine and Junett streets.
Fulghum said the shooting appears to be gang-related but he would not say why police believe that’s so.The three men, all 21, were walking along South 51st Street when they were confronted by another man, Fulghum said. After a brief exchange, the man shot all three men – one to two times each in the torso – with a handgun, Fulghum said. About a half-dozen shots were fired.A vehicle then fled the scene. About 25 minutes later, Lakewood police stopped that vehicle at 92nd Street and South Tacoma Way. Tacoma police arrested three men who were in the vehicle, two 18-year-olds and a 19-year-old, on suspicion of first-degree assault. They were booked into Pierce County Jail. Police believe one of the three was the shooter, Fulghum said. Two of the shooting victims were taken to St. Joseph Medical Center and one was transported to Madigan Army Medical Center. Fulghum said the three are expected to survive.

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Comanchero bikie Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi walked free from jail yesterday after raising $200,000 bail .

Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi walked free from jail yesterday after raising $200,000 bail - and celebrated with a kiss for his expectant wife.The Comanchero bikie gang president emerged from Silverwater Correctional Facility just before 3pm after spending five days in solitary confinement waiting for friends to raise the surety.
A female friend managed to raise the bail after mortgaging her home as security.
Hawi is charged with affray over his alleged involvement in the Sydney airport brawl with Hells Angels, in which Anthony Zervas, 27, died.As he waited more than three hours for his release, Hawi was met by up to a dozen family, friends and Comanchero members who later gathered to celebrate at his Bexley home.Seated in the back of a Silver Audi, with his heavily pregnant wife Carolina Gonzales in front, Hawi covered his face with a black and white hooded top as he was driven from the centre.Hawi was granted strict conditional bail in the Supreme Court last week after Ms Gonzales said she needed him at home for the birth of their child.The strict conditions forbid Hawi from attending the gang's Milperra clubhouse or associating with others involved in the airport brawl. He also must not leave his Bexley home between 8pm and 8am.While no further arrests have been made in relation to the brawl, police yesterday said they would monitor Hawi's movements ahead of his upcoming court appearance on May 28.

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Dennis Karbovanec Red Scorpion gang member convicted last month of executing three people in the Surrey Six slayings

Red Scorpion gang member convicted last month of executing three people in the Surrey Six slayings has had two other sets of criminal charges he was facing stayed, a Crown spokesman confirmed Thursday.Neil MacKenzie said the prosecution team decided it would not be in the public interest to continue with other cases against Dennis Karbovanec, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the October 2007 killings in a Surrey highrise.Karbovanec’s surprise plea April 3 led to a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 15 years. Details of the sentencing were covered by an extraordinary ban on publication.At the time of the plea, Karbovanec was already facing several charges related to a handgun and silencer found in a secret compartment in his leased vehicle when he was stopped by Abbotsford police last October. He was wearing a body-proof vest at the time.Karbovanec was also arrested and charged in Port Coquitlam in March, along with Jonathan Bacon, with several fraud counts related to the leasing of a vehicle from Four Star Auto lease allegedly using fake documents.“Crown, in the circumstances, decided that it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed at this point with those outstanding matters,” MacKenzie said.He refused to say whether dropping the other charges was part of a plea agreement reached with Karbovanec. “I can’t really go into more detail than that,” he said. But MacKenzie said that generally-speaking Crown will consider staying charges when someone is already convicted of a more serious offence than the counts in the other cases.“It is factor Crown looks at generally as to whether the public interest requires proceeding. Any sentence imposed would end up being concurrent to the life sentence where a person has been convicted of murder,” MacKenzie said. “It is not unusual, but it doesn’t invariably happen.” Meanwhile, Bacon’s fraud charges have now been set for trial beginning Jan. 27, 2009, MacKenzie said. The day Kabovanec pleaded guilty in the Surrey Six case, Bacon’s younger brother Jamie and two other Red Scorpions – Matt Johnston and Cody Haevischer – were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the unprecedented gangland slaughter on Oct. 17, 2007.Jamie Bacon’s charges relate to the death of a young drug dealer Cory Lal in suite 1505 of the Balmoral Tower that day. Johnston and Haevischer are charged with killing Lal, his brother Michael, Eddie Narong, Ryan Bartolomeo and two innocent bystanders – Ed Schellenberg and Chris Mohan.A fifth unindicted co-conspirator has been identified in court papers only as Mr. X.
Jamie Bacon, Haevischer and Johnston remain in custody pending their next appearance in Surrey provincial court June 15.

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Rastrojos the armed wing of the Norte del Valle cartel surrendered in Choco province

Rastrojos the armed wing of the Norte del Valle cartel surrendered in Choco province, near the border with Panama. They had been surrounded during a Colombian military operation that involved army and naval units. The Rastrojos had become such a big threat that President Alvaro Uribe declared them his main target.
The men had formed a private army controlling a crucial part of the Pacific Coast in Choco province, a launch pad for cocaine leaving Colombia, the BBC's Jeremy McDemrott reports from Bogota. It is considered a major player in Colombia's illegal drugs trade, which accounts for exports of more than 600 tonnes of cocaine and heroin every year, our correspondent adds. The cartel is headed by Luis Enrique Calle, better know by his alias "Combatant". It is reported to have spread across the country, with groups of heavily-armed drugs traffickers now present all along the coast and the frontier with Ecuador.

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Race War gang members take pride in their racism and often refer to the VHG Gang as the 'Hate Gang,'"

Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang members take pride in their racism and often refer to the VHG Gang as the 'Hate Gang,'" the main indictment states. "VHG gang members have expressed a desire to rid the city of Hawaiian Gardens of all African-Americans and have engaged in a systematic effort to achieve that result by perpetrating crimes against African-Americans."Latino street gang has waged a racist campaign to eliminate black people from a Southern California city through attempted murders and other crimes.
Five indictments charged a total of 147 members and associates of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang, and federal and local agencies arrested 63 of them by early Thursday, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien told a press conference.O'Brien asserted it was "the largest gang takedown in United States history," but he did not immediately elaborate. The indictments detail attempted murder, kidnapping, firearms, narcotics and other charges related to attacks by the gang, which primarily operates in Hawaiian Gardens, a city of about 15,000 people in southeastern Los Angeles County. The indictment alleges a string of attacks on black residents, including a shooting into a home with eight people inside. The indictment does not say if anyone was hit. In another instance, two gang members allegedly chased a black man, yelled a racist epithet at him and then beat him with a garden rake. The same man was later repeatedly stabbed by two gang members, according to the indictment, which charges them with his attempted murder. In the 2000 Census, the latest data available, Hawaiian Gardens was roughly 73 percent Hispanic and 4 percent black. The city was incorporated in 1964 and, according to local lore, was named after a bamboo snack shack built in 1927. The indictments mark at least the second time in less than two years that federal authorities have alleged that Latino gang members in Southern California attacked black residents because of their race. In 2007, agents arrested dozens of members of the Florencia 13 gang in South Los Angeles and said the gang had, in some instances, killed black people purely because of the color of their skin. The extent to which race is driving the area's gang conflicts last year sparked an argument between the region's two top cops, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton. Baca said racial bias was a significant factor in gang crime while Bratton, pointing to statistics showing cross-racial crime to be rare, downplayed any tension.
The investigation of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang has been under way for almost four years since the June 2005 murder of Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Luis Gerardo "Jerry" Ortiz. Jose Luis Orozco, a member of the gang, was sentenced to death in 2007 for the killing. Ortiz, 35, died as he searched for Orozco, who had shot and wounded a man while he did yard work. Orozco was later found guilty of attempted murder in that case. "Following the murder of Deputy Ortiz, the Sheriff's Department sought federal and local assistance to help destroy the Hawaiian Gardens gang," the U.S. attorney said. Florencia 13 and Varrio Hawaiian Gardens aren't the only Latino gangs linked to racial attacks. In 2007, four members of The Avenues, a gang from the Highland Park area northeast of downtown Los Angeles, were convicted of hate crimes for killing a black man in what prosecutors called a campaign to drive blacks from that neighborhood. Authorities have also announced a crackdown on the 204th Street gang following the killing of a 14-year-old black girl. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, an author and racial commentator, said racial bias among gang members is high in transitioning neighborhoods where black residents are moving out and Latinos are moving in. "There is a deep-seated animosity between some Latino gangs and African-Americans," he said. "There is no way around it, it is driven by racial animus."

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19-year-old man was shot in the neck during what appears to be a gang-related attack

19-year-old man was shot in the neck during what appears to be a gang-related attack, police said.The shooting occurred at 8:30 p.m. in the 1800 block of West Neighbors Avenue, near Euclid Street and La Palma Avenue, said Anaheim police Sgt. Juan Reveles.Officers responding to the area regarding an assault with a deadly weapon didn't find the victim. He had been taken to a hospital by a female resident. The hospital called police regarding a shooting victim and he was taken to a trauma center, Reveles said.The victim's injuries were non-critical and his condition has stabilized, Reveles said.Police said the victim was walking on Neighbors Avenue when a vehicle pulled up and two men jumped out. The men approached him and one of them shot the victim in the neck as he was running away, Reveles said. The suspects are described as having shaved heads and wearing baggy clothing. A description of the vehicle was not immediately available, Reveles said.

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Hisham Talaat Mustafa former member of the Egyptian Parliament was sentenced to death Thursday for ordering the murder of his former girlfriend

Billionaire developer and former member of the Egyptian Parliament was sentenced to death Thursday for ordering the murder of his former girlfriend, a troubled Lebanese pop singer whose body was found in her high-rise apartment in the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai.The verdict against Hisham Talaat Mustafa, once a member of the ruling National Democratic Party, was the latest twist in a drama that has offered a rare peek into the closely guarded realm of Egypt's politicians and businessmen. Mustafa was found guilty of paying $2 million to a former policeman in 2008 to kill Suzanne Tamim, a diva whose professional slide led her into an affair with one of the country's richest men.Appearing in court wearing prison-issued white shirt and pants, Mustafa was granted an immediate review of the sentence by Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa. A religious investigation is common in Egypt for death penalty cases, but few expected that a tycoon who built luxury hotels and had ties to President Hosni Mubarak's family would be facing the gallows."I am definitely sad because today's decision shows that the court is moving in a particular direction," said Mustafa's lawyer, Farid El-Deeb. He added that his client, who sat in a defendant's cage during Thursday brief hearing, was also entitled to an appeal before Egypt's highest court.The verdict may be a sign to businessmen "that nobody is above the law," said Hassan Nafae, a writer and political commentator. "It may deter some arrogant businessmen who thought there were no political or legal constraints on their ambitions as well as their sexual desires."The case has fascinated the media across the Middle East. Egypt's prosecutor general, Abdel-Maguid Mahmoud, had newspapers confiscated from kiosks and ordered a ban on publishing stories as the police investigation pointed toward Mustafa, who was a member of the NDP Policy Secretariat headed by Mubarak's son, Gamal. But the ruling party's ability to protect one of its own collided with the insistence of Dubai authorities that Mustafa be charged with murder.Mustafa hired hotel security guard and former policemen Mohsen Sukkari to kill Tamim, 31, after the singer broke off their relationship when she became involved with an Iraqi kick-boxing champion. Mustafa, a married man with graying hair and a dark mustache, had dated Tamim for three years; the couple met in hotels and apartments in London, Dubai and Cairo.Police say Sukkari, who was also sentenced to death, entered Tamim's flat in Dubai on July 28, 2008, by posing as a representative of the building's owners. He slit her throat and fled, leaving his bloody clothes behind and his picture on a surveillance camera. He was quickly arrested and implicated Mustafa, whose conversations with Sukkari about the murder were also caught on state security eavesdropping tapes.Mustafa was head of the Talaat Mustafa Group, which built hotels and businesses throughout the Middle East, including at the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Tamim rose to prominence after winning a TV talent show in Lebanon in 1996, but legal battles with her estranged second husband, a music producer, hurt her career.

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Giovanni Strangio, the Calabrian mafia boss suspected of organising a massacre in Germany in 2007, has been extradited to Italy

Giovanni Strangio, the Calabrian mafia boss suspected of organising a massacre in Germany in 2007, has been extradited to Italy from The Netherlands. Escorted by Interpol agents, he arrived at Rome's Ciampino military airport and was transferred to the Italian capital's high-security Rebibbia prison.Strangio is believed to have masterminded and led the massacre of six members of a rival crime family in Duisburg in western Germany on 15 August 2007. A Dutch court last week approved Strangio's extradition to Italy. Strangio, 30, was arrested in the Netherlands in March, with another of Italy's 30 most wanted criminals, his brother-in-law Francesco Romeo.Investigators believe Strangio played a key role in the Duisburg massacre in revenge for the killing of his cousin, Maria Strangio, on Christmas Day 2006.A four-man hit squad from the southern Italian town of San Luca, home of the feuding clans linked to the Calabrian mafia or 'Ndrangheta, allegedly gunned down the six men outside a pizzeria.Another brother-in-law of Strangio's, Giuseppe Nirta, was arrested in Amsterdam last November and extradited to Italy earlier this year.Italian and German police both issued warrants for Strangio's arrest over the Duisburg killings. Prosecutors in the western German town of Bochum had also issued an international warrant for Strangio's arrest in relation to a robbery in Germany in July 1998.
The feud between the Nirta-Strangio clan and the rival Pelle-Vottari clan was reportedly provoked by an egg-throwing incident in 1991 in the Calabrian town of San Luca, home of the two families.The 2007 massacre generated worldwide concern about the Calabrian-based 'Ndrangheta's international reach.The 'Ndrangheta has become one of the most powerful criminal organisations in Italy and is reported to have extended its power base through the European drug trafficking market.It has links to South American drug cartels and criminal organisations in Canada, Australia and other parts of the world.

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Four men have been arrested after a home robbery in south Wichita left two victims with gunshot wounds

Four men have been arrested after a home robbery in south Wichita left two victims with gunshot wounds sometime after 1:30 a.m. today, police said.Police patrolling the area after receiving a report of shots overheard near Harry and Washington at about 1:42 a.m. heard more shots and then spotted a vehicle speeding from the area, Lt. Todd Ojile said.A brief chase ensued before four suspects bailed from the vehicle and were taken into custody near Ida and Zimmerly with the help of a Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office K-9 dog, Ojile said.At about the same time, a caller reported a shooting victim at 1450 S. Mosley. A 56-year-old man was hit by a bullet after he saw people taking property and yelled at them to get out of the neighborhood, Ojile said.As police were investigating the robbery, they learned that the resident of the house, a 20-year-old man, ran from the house after the robbers burst in. He was shot in the leg as he fled.Both men are expected to recover from their wounds, Ojile said.

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Bloods street gang runs rampant inside New Jersey prisons

Bloods street gang runs rampant inside New Jersey prisons, with members smuggling in drugs and cell phones, demanding money to protect other prisoners and recruiting new members, a new report shows.The report from New Jersey's State Commission of Investigation, released Tuesday, shows the Bloods and other street gangs have a firm grip on the state's prisons, running their crime operations from inside with ease, despite stepped-up efforts to stop them."Our prison system has become a major part of the recruiting and running of violent street gangs in the streets of towns and cities all over New Jersey," said SCI chairman W. Cary Edwards. "Our population is significantly at risk because of what's going on in those prisons."Gang membership now tops one million nationwide, according to the Justice Department. And SCI spokesman Lee Seglem said that since the Bloods street gang was identified in California prisons 30 years ago, gang violence behind bars has spread like a wave across the country."There are so many in so many prisons at this point. It's getting to a situation where it is overwhelming the existing structures that are in place to control it," Seglem said. "There is no question other states are facing the same problem."Cell phones have been particularly helpful to gang leaders, allowing them to continue their operations from inside prison walls. Most cell phones can take photographs and videos that can give away prison security secrets or transmit guards' pictures to accomplices on the street.In California, a bill is pending that would increase the penalties for smuggling a cell phone into prison. And in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia, prison guards use dogs to sniff out the contraband.In Ohio, prison assaults are on the rise partly because gang members are disregarding an unofficial code among inmates by robbing others and attacking in groups.While the problem of gangs in prisons is neither new nor unique to New Jersey, it is worsening in the state, investigators said. The reasons include an explosion in the number of Bloods and other gang members in the state in the past 10 years, a severe budget crunch that is draining resources, and antiquated computer and surveillance tracking systems.New Jersey houses nearly 22,000 inmates in 14 prisons. Some 4,400 of them have been pegged as gang members.According to commission findings, gang recruitment is as active in prison as on the streets; inmates have unfettered access to money through accounts opened in the prisons; drugs and smuggled cell phones are plentiful in New Jersey prisons, and gang members extort money from families of non-members in exchange for protection.The commission credits the Corrections Department for initiating limited reforms in response to preliminary findings, but says sweeping changes are necessary to keep gang inmates from exploiting institutional weaknesses at will."Can things be improved? Of course they can be improved," said Corrections Department spokesman Matt Schuman. "But we have been pretty proactive in taking steps to try to deal with what has become a huge problem nationwide."Schuman said the state's anti-gang initiatives include a unit at Northern State Prison devoted to modifying the behavior of gang members, six cell phone-sniffing dogs that randomly patrol the prisons, and stepped up efforts to prosecute smuggling.

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Kenneth Lavon Jones, 34, is charged with possession of a firearm

Kenneth Lavon Jones, 34, is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and a parole violation.
A gang intelligence unit with the Barrow County Sheriff's Office received a tip about Jones' alleged affiliation with the gangster disciples. Deputies set up surveillance and interview witnesses before a SWAT team moved in early Monday morning. Police found Jones in possession of a loaded .40 caliber pistol and marijuana, Sheriff's Office spokesman Investigator Matt Guthas said.
"Given the threat that criminal street gangs pose to the community, (the Sheriff's Office) has committed to rigorously pursuing gang members and gang-related activity," he said.Gwinnett police assisted by providing a narcotics-sniffing K-9 unit, Guthas said.

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Bobby Speirs sentenced at Manchester Crown Court .

Mr Justice Griffith Williams sentenced Bobby Speirs, 41,to serve a minimum term of 23 years in jail at Manchester Crown Court today.Bobby Speirs, 41, showed no reaction as he was convicted of his part in organising the bloody Brass Handles pub shootout in Salford three years ago. Speirs believed he had the 'perfect alibi' when he went to the game between Manchester United and Newcastle United at the time of the horrific shooting. He was watching the game from an executive box as he organised the 'hit' during half-time.He was using mobile phones to oversee a plot to send two gunmen to the pub and carry out a 'planned execution', according to the prosecution. The gunmen went into the pub and opened fire, wounding two victims in a volley of shots one Sunday afternoon in March 2006. But the 'hit' backfired as the would-be assassins were overpowered by other people in the pub. It is thought they were disarmed and shot dead with their own guns.
Speirs was instrumental in planning the operation and kept in touch with two others involved by mobile phone leading up to the shootings. Within days, Speirs fled to Spain but he was extradited several months later. Speirs, who at the time lived in Butterstile Avenue, Prestwich, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder but was unanimously found guilty after four hours of deliberations by the jury.
Two others, Ian McLeod, an infamous Manchester gang leader, and Constance Howarth, had already been convicted at an earlier hearing of roles in the murder plot.
The two would-be assassins, Richard Austin, 19, and Carlton Alveranga, 20, died after being shot in the chest. They had gone to the pub on the Langworthy Estate to kill but ended up losing their own lives. Among the customers in the Brass Handles at the time were David Totton and Aaron Travers, who were said to be the 'possible' targets. The gunmen went to the pub with McLeod while Howarth was inside acting as a 'spotter' to point out the victim or victims. Mr Totton and Mr Travers were seriously injured as shots were fired but survived. Some customers fought back and Austin and Alveranga were disarmed and shot during the botched assassination.
No-one has ever been brought to justice for the murders of Austin and Alveranga. Speirs was trapped by police thanks to so-called 'cell site analysis' which plotted the movements of mobile phones associated with the defendant and others involved in the plot. He was tracked down in Benidorm. Speirs will be sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Thursday.

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Dilun Heng, 26, wanted on a Canada-wide warrant

Dilun Heng, 26, wanted on a Canada-wide warrant since being charged last Friday with plotting to kill the Bacon brothers of Abbotsford.Seven others also charged in the massive conspiracy case have already made their first court appearances and will be returning to Vancouver Provincial Court on June 9.On Tuesday, four other accused -- Ion (Johnny K-9) Kroitoru, Daniel Ronald Russell, Soroush Ansari and Yong Sung (John) Lee -- squished into the prisoners' box at Vancouver Provincial Court for their first appearance after the charge against them was laid Friday.Last month, two other UN members and one associate - Barzan Tilli-Choli, Karwan Ahmet Saed and Aram Ali - were also charged with plotting to kill Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon and their Red Scorpion associates.Prosecutor Ralph Keefer said he intended to proceed by direct indictment, meaning the case will move straight to B.C. Supreme Court, bypassing the preliminary inquiry process.Several plainclothes police officers sat in courtroom 101 Tuesday for the brief appearance. Four sheriffs crowded into the small prisoners’ box along with the four accused.Outside court, Ansari’s mother turned her back without saying a word when a Vancouver Sun reporter asked about the charges against her son.Another son, Sasan Ansari, was convicted of manslaughter last fall for stabbing his friend to death in the parking lot of a West Vancouver country club.Kroitoru’s spouse also refused to comment.“I’m not married,” she said in response to a Sun reporter’s question about her husband, a former professional wrestler and biker boss well-known to police in Ontario.But on a twitter page registered to a Tracy Kroitoru, a woman has posted several comments about being almost due with a baby daughter and references to her husband “ex-wrestler Johnny K-9.”“Pregnant, but wishing I could ride on the back on my man’s pro-one chopper,” Tracy Kroitoru wrote April 28.The murder conspiracy case is believed to be one of the largest in B.C. history with eight defendants charged on a single indictment.And the arrests of senior members of the notorious UN gang have been hailed by police as a major victory in their fight against gang violence.
And UN founder Clay Roueche may still be charged, both police and the Crown have said. He is so far listed in the case as an unindicted co-conspirator along with someone identified only as “Frankie.”The conspiracy is alleged to have unfolded between Jan. 1, 2008 and Feb. 17, 2009 in Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, as well as in Montreal.

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Dave Courtney Gangster, actor and author has been made bankrupt owing the HM Revenue & Customs, an estimated £250,000.

Dave Courtney Gangster, actor and author has been made bankrupt owing the HM Revenue & Customs, an estimated £250,000.The published author, whose books include Dodgy Dave’s Little Black Book and The Ride’s Back On is understood to owe an estimated £400,000 to creditors.It is believed the taxman called time on Courtney’s debts and applied for the insolvency order against him. It is believed the case could focus on the book rights that Courtney retains his main asset as a way of settling creditor’s debts.Courtney had a small part in the 1990 film The Krays, and supplied the security at Ronnie Kray’s funeral. He is also reported as being the inspiration behind the character played by Vinnie Jones in the Guy Richie movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.Papers lodged on the Individual Insolvency Register show that Louise Brittain, head of personal insolvency at Baker Tilley, has been appointed the bankruptcy trustee in Courtney’s case. The papers reveal he will not be discharged from bankruptcy automatically until 18 February 2010.Courtney’s registered address is a house in south east London, known as Camelot, decked out with union jacks and a large knuckle duster on the gate.

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Sivajodi Anantharaja, 41, organised the brutal retaliation after his cousin was injured by the 'East Side Boys' based in East Ham.

Sri Lankan gang master in Britain who led revenge attacks against two rivals that left one man dead and another disabled has been jailed for at least 24 years.
Sivajodi Anantharaja, 41, organised the brutal retaliation after his cousin was injured by the 'East Side Boys' based in East Ham.The first victim Mathiraj Mathiyaparanam, 24, was repeatedly slashed on the head and arm with a samurai sword in a shop in broad daylight.When he survived, the gang ambushed and killed Maheswaran Kaneshan, 26, in the street using an axe, swords and a cricket bat.
Anantharaja fled to Sri Lanka after the murder in January 2004 and returned to the UK last year. He was convicted of murder and attempted murder by an Old Bailey jury and jailed for life with a minimum of 24 years behind bars.His follower Sivaprakasam Rajeskanna, 34, was convicted of the murder and jailed for life with a minimum of 14 years behind bars.Fellow gang leader Sivaungham Sivakumar, a 35-year-old businessman known as 'The Master', is already serving a life sentence for his role in the same attacks

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Michael Wilson was on his way home from a night out in Redcar when he was set upon by a gang of youths next to the Royal Standard pub

Michael Wilson was on his way home from a night out in Redcar when he was set upon by a gang of youths next to the Royal Standard pub in West Dyke Road.The 18-year-old was punched and kicked unconscious by the group, which included six girls, and was taken to hospital suffering from facial injuries.Speaking from his Redcar home today, Michael said: “I remember something coming across the back of my head and then constantly getting kicked in the head.“It was like my head was going to explode. I would say there were about 12 or 15 of them.“I must have curled up in a ball because I’ve got bruises all over my hands.”Michael, who is currently unemployed, is today nursing a swollen eye, a broken nose and bruised ribs.

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Brooklyn man was in critical condition after he was shot several times in the chest during a morning fight inside a bodega

Brooklyn man was in critical condition after he was shot several times in the chest during a morning fight inside a bodega, police said.The victim got into an argument with another man inside the Church Avenue Grill in East Flatbush just before 9 a.m., police said. The disagreement soon became physical, and the two men began shoving each other inside the store, a bodega employee said. "Are you pressing me?" one man said to the other, the bodega worker recalled. That man then pulled out a handgun and fired several shots, hitting the victim in the chest. The bodega worker called 911, and paramedics rushed the bleeding man, who was not identified, to Kings County Hospital. The gunman ran from the store and remains at large. Investigators were not immediately certain if the men knew each other before their violent encounter, police said.

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Steve Weber is suspected of fatally shooting his ex-wife, 47-year-old Francesca Weber, at her Fitchburg apartment last Saturday.

Dozens of federal and local agents, some wearing camouflage, set up a perimeter around a Madison park Tuesday after a murder suspect's vehicle was discovered nearby. Police say a pickup truck believed to be owned by Steve Weber was found Tuesday morning near the wooded Hoyt Park. Staff, children and others at the Madison School & Community Recreation building in Hoyt School near the park were ordered to stay inside with doors locked. Weber is suspected of fatally shooting his ex-wife, 47-year-old Francesca Weber, at her Fitchburg apartment last Saturday.

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Former Gypsy Jokers bikie president Lennard Kirby and associate Alexandro Scilio shooting

Five people are being questioned by police over the shooting of former Gypsy Jokers bikie president Lennard Kirby and associate Alexandro Scilio.Assistant Commissioner (Specialist Crime) Wayne Gregson said the five were "helping police with their inquiries'' over the bikie shooting in Jandakot.Two of the five are injured and have been taken to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. It is not known how badly hurt they are, or how they sustained their injuries.A man and a woman went with police to Curtin House, the City detectives headquarters in Stirling Street.A fifth person remained with police at the hotel in Joondalup. Police detained the five people at the Joondalup City Hotel earlier today. Mr Gregson said police had been speaking with the five people since 1.30pm today, but no charges had been laid. Kirby, who has served time in prison for drug offences, was shot three times in the chest and is in a stable condition in Royal Perth Hospital. The other man, Alexandro Scilio, was shot in the arm. The injury is not life-threatening.Scilio is an associate of Kirby and has also been convicted of drug offences.The men were shot at a house in Jandakot at about 4.20pm yesterday and were taken to hospital in the back of a ute by club associates.Mr Gregson said police do not believe the incident was as a result of gang conflict.He would not say if police had recovered a firearm. ``At this stage of our investigation it would appear the parties are known to each other and the matter is a dispute over drugs,'' he said. ``Both victims are convicted criminals relating to illegal drugs. ``There is no suggestion that this incident is a result of bikie gang conflict. ``It is not a bikie war. "It would appear that this incident, although involving a member of a bikie gang, is unlikely to escalate.
"However, it must be remembered that outlaw motorcycle gangs are organised criminal groups that are unpredictable.'' Police were called to the house in Peppworth Place, a semi-rural street in the southern suburb, after reports of gunfire.Tactical Response Group officers completed a search of the property about 9pm.``Investigations of this type are often very difficult because of the level of co-operation, or should I say the lack of co-operation, that you often get from both parties involved,'' Mr Gregson said.

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Two men fired shots at a group of people last week, including deputies interviewing witnesses after a fight near Elkton.

No one was injured when authorities said the men opened fire from a car in the 1300 block of E. Old Philadelphia Road around 10:30 p.m. Thursday.The sheriff's office said 18-year-old Jeremiah Bedwell of Elkton and 24-year-old Raymond Chadwick had been involved in the fight earlier and returned to the scene. The fight was the latest incident in an ongoing feud between two non-gang-related groups, according to authorities.Bedwell and Chadwick were arrested a short time after the shooting and charged with two counts of first-degree assault, six counts of second-degree assault and weapons charges.

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Warrant issued charges 30-year-old Donald Donnell Brown Jr. with second-degree murder, reckless endangerment, assault and a weapons charge

Harford County Sheriff's Office has issued a warrant charging a Baltimore man in the shooting death of an Edgewood man. The warrant issued Sunday charges 30-year-old Donald Donnell Brown Jr. with second-degree murder, reckless endangerment, assault and a weapons charge in the death of Yamar Martin. Authorities say Brown shot Martin in the area of Mayberry Drive in Aberdeen on May 5. The sheriff's office says friends were driving Martin to Harford Memorial Hospital when they crashed near Havre de Grace on Route 40. Martin was taken to Shock Trauma, where he died.
The sheriff's office says detectives have obtained information linking Brown to the fatal shooting, but they are still investigating a motive.

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15-year-old boy died Sunday evening in a street shooting

15-year-old boy died Sunday evening in a street shooting possibly prompted by an earlier fist fight, Richmond police say.The victim, Oscar Hernandez, visited friends in the city's Fairmede/Hilltop neighborhood during the afternoon, Detective Sgt. Lori Curran said."We know he went swimming at a community pool," Curran said. "We also know there was a fight earlier in the day. He might have been involved."
Hernandez, a De Anza High School student who lived in the unincorporated Tara Hills neighborhood near San Pablo and Pinole, hung around with at least six other young people that afternoon.The group headed to the 2300 block of Aberdeen Way, where one lived, police said, and were hanging around in front of an apartment building about 6 p.m."We know there was a loud conversation. It might have been an argument, or they might have just been peacocking around about the fight," Curran said.A group of boys walked around the block for a while, talking loudly, before the shooting, police said.Detectives received conflicting information from witnesses, including about who was there. But they suspect a man, possibly wearing a blue hat and sports jersey, walked up while Hernandez stood with others on a sidewalk near an apartment building and shot him several times.He was taken to a hospital where he died, becoming Richmond's 18th homicide victim of 2009, and the eighth West Contra Costa Unified student to die violently this year."Unfortunately, we're getting used to this, how to intervene," said Marin Trujillo, school district spokesman.The district dispatched crisis teams Monday to De Anza and Pinole Middle School, where Hernandez started the year before being promoted to the ninth grade in November.Trujillo said Hernandez's family came to the De Anza office Monday to tell the school what had happened."We've seen that in the past, where the family comes (to the school) sometimes," Trujillo said. They want to have an essence of their child. They want to talk to people who knew their kid."

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Rafael Alvarez, Wander Espinal, Danny Joel Rodriguez and Carlos Hilario, all born in the Dominican Republic, have been charged with murder

Manhattan District Federal prosecutor Robert Morgenthau yesterday announced the indictment of four Dominicans on five charges of murder carried out by hit men in the Dominican Republic, and whom for years trafficked drugs across borders using New York as their base. The official said Rafael Alvarez, Wander Espinal, Danny Joel Rodriguez and Carlos Hilario, all, said Morgenthau, born in the Dominican Republic, have been charged on 25 counts of murder, conspiracy, money laundering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine in New York. He said the accused hired several hit men to murder five Dominicans in Santiago (north) and San Francisco (northeast), to consolidate their criminal ties with drug traffickers and eliminate their rivals.
They were all living in the United States without legal documents, an Immigration official said in the press conference, adding that they are being held in local jails, but once they serve out their time, "papers will be given them but to be deported to their country and that is obviously going to take a few years."
If found guilty, Alvarez and Espinal face up to 20 years in prison and possible life imprisonment, whereas Rodriguez and Hilario could face 1 and 20 years in jail, respectively.

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