John Gizzi's parents were yesterday ordered to hand over a four-house development and a large sum of money to receivers.

John Gizzi's parents were yesterday ordered to hand over a four-house development and a large sum of money to receivers.At a hearing at Mold yesterday, Judge John Rogers QC ruled Gizzi had made two “tainted gifts” to his parents in a bid to reduce the amount of money he would have to hand over from his criminal lifestyle.The building firm J and T Gizzi Builders Ltd, run by his parents John and Ruth Gizzi, must immediately hand over a building site at Gors Road in Towyn near Rhyl. On it are four new houses, valued at £333,000.The company was also ordered to pay the receiver £154,260, the defendant’s half share in a building on the West Parade at Rhyl where he planned to run a nightclub, but which was later sold on.Gizzi, who is due to be released from prison on December 19, owned half that...

Read more »

William D'Elia, 62, became the latest alleged American Mafia leader to turn government informant

William D'Elia, 62, became the latest alleged American Mafia leader to turn government informant as he was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison for witness tampering and conspiracy to launder drug money. With time already served, he could be freed in seven years — or less.Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a reduction in D'Elia's sentence if he continues to provide substantial assistance to the Dauphin County district attorney's office, which has charged Mount Airy Resort Casino owner Louis DeNaples with perjury.DeNaples allegedly lied to state gambling regulators about his friendship with D'Elia, whom authorities once called a "major player" in organized crime. DeNaples says he is innocent and accuses D'Elia of lying to authorities in a bid to shave time off his prison sentence.In...

Read more »

Ihab Shoukri collapsed while watching the Ricky Hatton boxing match at a house in the Grainon Way area of Newtownabbey on Saturday night

post mortem examination is due to be carried out today on the body of loyalist boss Ihab Shoukri. Police are understood to be investigating a drugs link after the ousted UDA brigadier collapsed while watching the Ricky Hatton boxing match at a house in the Grainon Way area of Newtownabbey on Saturday night. Last night a spokeswoman for the PSNI confirmed they were investigating the sudden death of a 34-year-old man but stressed there were no suspicious circumstances. Rumours circulating in the Rathcoole estate, where Shoukri had been living since his release from jail, suggest he may have suffered some sort of seizure – possibly an epileptic...

Read more »

Dave Courtney claims to have been shot, stabbed, had his nose bitten off, and even had to kill to save his own life.

Dave Courtney will always go one better. Born in Bermondsey, London, Dave claims to have been shot, stabbed, had his nose bitten off, and even had to kill to save his own life. Not to mention pointing the finger at unarmed police officers for engineering a car crash on a Kent Motorway in an attempt to kill him. All of this is of little surprise when you consider the company that he has kept in the past, with hard men such as Lenny McLean, Joey Pyle, Roy Shaw, Bruce Reynolds, Charlie Richardson and Charlie Breaker amongst his list of friends. Dave was keen to stress that every word which he uttered there could be taken as gospel, as a syllable...

Read more »

UN gang leader Clay Roueche has been held in segregation near Seattle since his arrest last May on international drug-trafficking charges

UN gang leader Clay Roueche has been held in segregation near Seattle since his arrest last May on international drug-trafficking charges. His lawyer wants a judge to allow the Fraser Valley native into the general prison population pending his trial in January.Roueche starting buying his cocaine directly from South America after more than 200 kilos and $750,000 cash were seized in the U.S., according to court documents filed Wednesday.In one bugged telephone call, Roueche agreed to "test the water" of a new cocaine route by smuggling more than 50 kilos and said he had a "bunch in Venezuela I've already paid for," the documents say.But the U.S....

Read more »

Mafia leader Mahmut Yıldırım was killed years ago, though there are many people who think he is still alive

Sacit Kayasu, a former prosecutor who was permanently disbarred, has claimed that a mafia leader known as Yeşil (Green) was killed years ago, contrary to popular belief that he is still alive.Kayasu, who was fired and disbarred after seeking the indictment of former Gen. Kenan Evren -- the leader of the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup -- asserted that Yeşil, which is the nom de guerre of famous mafia leader Mahmut Yıldırım, was killed years ago, though there are many people who think he is still alive. "I received a notice in September of 1998 that a corpse was found in western İzmir's Ödemiş district," Kayasu said. "There were nine bullet holes in the body. The eyes were gouged out. When we carried out an analysis on the dental prosthesis of the victim, we saw that it was Mahmut Yıldırım."Kayasu...

Read more »

Yaakov Alperon, known as “Don Alperon”, said to run Tel Aviv’s third largest crime family.One of the leading figures in Israel’s mafia

Israeli ‘Mafia’ Boss Assassinated.Don Alperon was said to run Tel Aviv’s third largest crime family.One of the leading figures in Israel’s mafia-style organised crime gangs has been assassinated in a car bomb attack.Yaakov Alperon, known as “Don Alperon”, was driving his saloon car through a northern suburb of Tel Aviv when the vehicle was torn apart by a huge blast.Two bystanders were also slightly injured in the explosion, one a 13-year-old boy waiting at a bus stop.The attack has raised concerns that an Israeli mob war could be about to spin out of control.Little was left of the car after the explosion, which was apparently set off by remote...

Read more »

Lillo Brancato Jr. 32, Brancato faces charges of second-degree murder and other crimes in the 2005 killing of police Officer Daniel Enchautegui.

Lillo Brancato Jr. 32, Brancato faces charges of second-degree murder and other crimes in the 2005 killing of police Officer Daniel Enchautegui. Jury selection for his trial begins Monday.Brancato's real-life troubles began not long after he befriended Steven Armento, a reputed low-level Genovese crime family associate banished for drug addiction, prosecutors say. Then his life went into a tailspin with a pair of drug-related arrests and the death of Enchautegui.Brancato drove himself and Armento to the home of Enchautegui's next-door neighbor and the pair broke in to steal prescription drugs, prosecutors said. When they were confronted by Enchautegui,...

Read more »

Carmine Carini is back in jail, awaiting trial in a string of robberies

Carmine Carini is back in jail, awaiting trial in a string of robberies.Federal prosecutors say the 49-year-old Brooklyn man was free for less than a year before running into trouble.A judge ordered him held without bail Friday. He faces charges that he posed as a police officer and then barged into two homes on Staten Island demanding money and drugs, pistol whipping one startled homeowner. He is also charged with robbing an illegal gambling parlor in Brooklyn.Carini was initially arrested in connection with one of the robberies last month. An accomplice is still at large.Carini served 23 years in prison for a mob-related killing in the 1980s. His conviction was overturned after two Mafia turncoats told investigators they had the wrong man.He was freed in May of 2007 after taking a plea bargain...

Read more »

Nghia Trong Nguyen-Tran, known as Jackie Tran, did not violate the terms and conditions of his release from immigration detention.

Nghia Trong Nguyen-Tran, known as Jackie Tran, did not violate the terms and conditions of his release from immigration detention. Tran has been fighting a deportation order but was released Oct. 21 on several conditions, including a curfew between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. and a $20,000 bond. Police re-arrested Tran Oct. 28., following a probe of an early morning altercation at a party in Kensington more than two weeks ago. Cops alleged Tran violated his curfew when he was seen at the scene of the fight. Tran's friend Shaun Roberts testified police mistook him for his pal. "There's a direct conflict in the evidence between the testimony of Const. Bertrand identifying (Jackie Tran) as the third occupant of the SUV that morning and the evidence of Shaun Roberts, who testified that he was the third...

Read more »

Kanye West was reportedly arrested, released early Friday morning (November 14) after an alleged incident involving a photographer outside a nightclub

Kanye West was reportedly arrested and released early Friday morning (November 14) after an alleged incident involving a photographer outside a nightclub in England. According to TMZ.com, West was arrested shortly after getting into a scuffle with a paparazzo outside the Tup Tup club in Newcastle.West, 31, was reportedly arrested at a hotel in nearby Gateshead and then released. While a police spokesperson declined to name the person involved (as is the custom in England) when reached for comment by MTV News on Friday morning, he did confirm that a 31-year-old man was “release with no further action after an alleged incident at the Tup Tup nightclub.”A...

Read more »

Gangland kingpin Ashton is currently serving a 22-year sentence.

Gangland kingpin Ashton was one of three men jailed for a total of more than 100 years for their part in gangland terror on Tyneside in 1998.They were caught after a two-year investigation by police who examined incidents going back to 1971.A grim picture emerged of gangland violence on Tyneside, including firearms offences, brutal assaults, drug-dealing, witness intimidation, large-scale benefit fraud and robbery.Ashton was jailed along with Robert Webber, of Stonecrop, Beacon Lough Estate, Gateshead, and Paul Steven Lyons, of Teesside.A gun battle and a bayonet attack were among Ashton and Webber’s attempts to kill former friend, Terence William...

Read more »

Rickey Thompson convicted of crimes related to smuggling immigrants and drugs from the Bahamas to Jupiter Island was sentenced to six life terms.

Boat captain Rickey Thompson, 42, was also ordered to serve another 32 years in prison for his role in the 2006 alien smuggling and narcotics trafficking conspiracies that resulted in the deaths of three immigrants, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.The drug smuggling involved 14 kilograms of cocaine, 2 kilograms of heroin and 83 pounds of marijuana.Thompson in July was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder; three counts of alien smuggling resulting in death; 15 counts of alien smuggling placing the lives of aliens in jeopardy; six counts of narcotics trafficking; two counts of possession of firearms and one count of illegal re-entry after deportation.Federal authorities say Thompson and his co-defendant Leon Brice Johnson, who in August was sentenced to 22-years...

Read more »

Gustavo Lopez organized one of the most lucrative drug smuggling rings in the Rio Grande Valley

Gustavo Lopez organized one of the most lucrative drug smuggling rings in the Rio Grande Valley.Working under the nickname "El Licendiado," he allegedly moved hundreds of pounds of cocaine and marijuana from Mexico to Atlanta.He reportedly laundered millions of dollars in proceeds through a chain of Valley auto parts businesses.And he managed a staff of more than 40 drug mules and cash runners whose ranks reportedly included moles in at least two law enforcement agencies, according to a 10-count federal indictment issued last month in Atlanta.But even if all of that turns out to be true, his attorney maintains, Lopez was nothing more than middle management."One man's manager is another man's flunky," lawyer Ralph Martinez said. "He may have done nothing more than echo what (his Mexican backers)...

Read more »

Perry Wharrie (48), from Loughton, Essex, is wanted by the British authorities for disappearing after being released on licence from a life sentence

Perry Wharrie (48), from Loughton, Essex, is wanted by the British authorities for disappearing after being released on licence from a life sentence for murder in 2005. The case was listed for hearing today, but lawyers for Wharrie applied for an adjournment to reply to affidavits about the British prison system. Two members of Hertfordshire Constabulary flew to the Dublin to observe Wharrie oppose the warrant. Security was tight at the Four Courts today as Wharrie arrived under armed escort. Mr Justice Michael Peart said it was unsatisfactory and inconvenient to the court that a party could seek an adjournment on the day of a hearing. “Two officers from the UK who have travelled over for the case have not been told this application was going to be made,” he said. Wharrie was jailed for life...

Read more »

Gerard Dundon, a senior member of the McCarthy-Dundon gang behind bars.

Gardai have arrested one of the main figures in one of Limerick's feuding criminal gangs on foot or a committal warrant.Gerard Dundon, a senior member of the McCarthy-Dundon gang, was being sought to serve a 10-month prison sentence for more than 30 road traffic offences.Reports this morning say he turned himself in to Gardai last night and is expected to be questioned about the murder of Shane Geoghegan last weekend.Detectives believe the McCarthy-Dundon gang was responsible for the fatal shooting of the Garryowen rugby player, who was apparently mistaken for a top drug dealer aligned to the rival Keane ga...

Read more »

Dave Sterling, alias 'Machine Man', was shot dead when he allegedly pointed a firearm at the police

Gang leader, identified as Dave Sterling, alias 'Machine Man', was shot dead when he allegedly pointed a firearm at the police along Collie Smith Drive in Trench Town.Among the 53 detained in the early morning raids by the police on Thursday was a man who the police said was earlier this week 'installed' as head of the Rat Bat gang, less than a week after the death of Machine Man.Police did not release the name of the reputed gang leader but said he was behind a series of criminal activities in Kingston, including murder, rape and extortion.The detainees, which include two women, were still being processed late yesterday afternoon.Yesterday, the placard-bearing demonstrators accused the police of targeting their communities, even as a group of officers kept watch from the opposite side of...

Read more »

Minoru Nozaki, who is currently being held on suspicion of robbery

Minoru Nozaki, who is currently being held on suspicion of robbery, has reportedly submitted a written confession to the Metropolitan Police Department admitting to the murder of Masaharu Tochino. The MPD suspects Nozaki, 50, a former high-ranking member of a group associated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate, and two of his associates committed the murder. Tochino went missing after visiting a Tokyo legal office for work reasons on Sept. 7, 2006. His body was found near a mountain path in a Japanese cypress forest in Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Oct. 1 that year. The MPD had been investigating the matter as a case of abandonment of a bo...

Read more »

Police officer, Jorge H. Arbaje-Diaz, 30, and two other men, Felix Rodriguez and Alfredo Antonio Acosta, were added as defendants

Jorge H. Arbaje-Diaz, 30, and two other men, Felix Rodriguez and Alfredo Antonio Acosta, were added as defendants to an indictment that charged that a “violent robbery crew” carried out more than 100 armed robberies of drug traffickers over a five-year period and took more than 750 kilograms of cocaine and $4 million. The indictment adds the names of Officer Arbaje-Diaz and the two others to an indictment originally unsealed on May 6. With the indictment unsealed on Friday, 13 people have now been charged in the case. Eleven of those, including Officer Arbaje-Diaz, have been arraigned and have pleaded not guilty. Two will be arraigned next week.The group operated between May 2003 and August 2008 in at least six states, including New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, prosecutors charged....

Read more »