Guy Lepage, a former police officer now serving a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking

Guy Lepage, a former police officer now serving a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking, he was drawn into the biker's life of crime 20 years ago.
Mr. Lepage, 61, discussed his past relationship with the biker leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher yesterday during a parole board hearing.He was granted day parole, his first release since being arrested in 2001 and extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded guilty to helping the Angels buy large quantities of cocaine from a Colombian drug cartel and ship it to Florida in 1997 and 1998. He was transferred to a Canadian prison in 2005.Lepage was granted day parole for the next six months, during which he is expected to take part in community projects. He was accepted into a program working with the elderly, and said he plans to lecture at schools that teach criminology.
Mr. Lepage said that despite his important involvement in their conspiracies, he never considered himself part of the Hells Angels, but he did acknowledge being Mr. Boucher's friend."I don't know if it was his charm or something else. He had this charisma," he said of Mr. Boucher, who is serving three life sentences for ordering the deaths of prison guards in an attempt to influence Quebec's justice.Lepage, 61, discussed his past relationship with the Hells Angels leader at length yesterday during a National Parole Board hearing at a minimum-security penitentiary in Laval. He was granted day parole, his first release since being arrested in December 2001 and extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to helping the Hells Angels buy cocaine from a Colombian drug cartel and ship more than 1,600 kilograms of the drug to Florida in 1997 and 1998. He was transferred back to the Canadian prison system in 2005.The drugs were destined for Montreal while the city witnessed a bloody biker gang war. Lepage was sent to Colombia by Boucher and other members of the Hells Angels to oversee five large shipments of the drug.
Lepage told parole board members Denis Couillard and Michel Pallascio that despite his involvement with the bikers, he never considered himself part of the Hells Angels. But he did acknowledge being Boucher's friend.Even though they grew up in the same neighbourhood in eastern Montreal, the two only met in 1987, Lepage said. At the time, Lepage was running a disco in Sorel and Boucher was beginning his ascent toward becoming the most powerful Hells Angel in Quebec.Couillard asked Lepage to explain how one can go from protecting society as a police officer to being someone who thinks nothing of breaking its laws."How did you go from one extreme to the other?" he asked.Lepage explained that the Hells Angels put him "on a pedestal" and made him feel important. It was clear his experience as a police officer and good name were valuable assets to Boucher."I don't know if it was his charm or something else. He had this charisma," Lepage said of Boucher, who is serving three life sentences for ordering the deaths of prison guards in an attempt to intimidate Quebec's justice system."It's hard to explain. (The Hells Angels) sought me out by giving me gifts, taking me out to dinner. It gave me value. It impressed me. To be frank, I never questioned it."After the two became friends, Boucher began asking Lepage for favours. One involved securing a mortgage for a building the Rockers, a Hells Angels puppet gang, used as a fortified bunker during the biker war. Lepage, who resigned from Montreal's police force in 1974 while a friend was being investigated for fraud, obtained the mortgage through a federal government program.Lepage also helped the Hells Angels set up a money-laundering network in northern British Colombia, to which he pleaded guilty in 1994. He was sentenced two years in prison and fined $200,000. He was given three years to pay, but so far has only paid $30,000. Because of this, in 2006, a seizure order was placed on real estate Lepage owns in St. Philippe, a South Shore town.
Lepage said yesterday that months after his arrest in 2001, he promised his family he would sever ties with Boucher. The only time he showed emotion during the parole hearing was when Couillard brought up an allegation concerning Boucher contained in Lepage's file. Couillard said a letter sent to Boucher after 2001 by another criminal included a mention that Lepage wished to send along his greetings.Lepage called the allegation nonsense. His lawyer, Jacques Normandeau, pointed out that Boucher is still kept in isolation at the so-called super-maximum-security penitentiary in Ste. Anne des Plaines and is only allowed visits by two individuals, who were not named.

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Bobby Spiers identified as a notorious member of Manchester gangland, was arrested in Benidorm

Bobby Spiers identified as a notorious member of the Manchester gangland, was arrested in Benidorm on Tuesday. Spiers, 40, was arrested by National Police on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder under a European arrest warrant and is being held in custody until a formal extradition can be carried out.The arrest follows extensive enquiries by Greater Manchester Police who were investigating a shooting in a pub in Salford in March 2006.Spiers is alleged to have been behind an attempted execution which led to the murder of two hit men.The gunmen were arrested but Spiers, from Prestwick, Greater Manchester, had been on the run since.Police began looking in Spain after several sightings were reported following a BBC1 Crimewatch programme that made an appeal in July last year for information on the whereabouts of Spiers.UK and Spanish police have been working in collaboration since these reports were received and have been searching for Spiers mainly on the Costa Blanca.

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"Beefy" Bartruff faces charges of conspiring to manufacture and possess meth as part of a network in three Indiana counties.

Fifty-year-old Timothy "Beefy" Bartruff faces charges of conspiring to manufacture and possess meth as part of a network in three Indiana counties. former leader of a white supremacist motorcycle club has been brought back to Indiana and arraigned in federal court on methamphetamine charges, after a St. Louis arrest.
Federal records say Bartruff was the national president of the Invaders before he was sentenced to a 10-year prison term in 1987 for dealing meth.
Bartruff was arrested in Missouri in June on the latest meth charges, which involved many arrests across northern Indiana and in Chicago, St. Louis and Denver.

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Gangsters have been asked to help restore peace between two feuding gun gangs in Derby.

big-city gangsters have been asked to help restore peace between two feuding gun gangs in Derby.
Police have enlisted the help of a team from Birmingham, which includes reformed criminals, who will use their own experiences of gang and gun crime to try to help stem the trouble.
They will be given the names and addresses of Derby gang members so they can visit them to try to resolve the dispute, which has resulted in a number of shooting incidents in the city in recent months.
The team is from West Midlands Mediation and Transformation Services, which is led by former West Midlands police officer Kirk Dawes.
He said: “We seek to manage the conflict to slow it down by creating dialogue and better understanding.

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Dave Courtney celebrity former gangster found with guns and knuckledusters in his car told police they were props for a gig he had just done

celebrity former gangster found with guns and knuckledusters in his car told police they were props for a gig he had just done and not for crime, a jury heard.
Bristol Crown Court was told that police stopped Dave Courtney, now an author and actor, being driven in his BMW because they suspected the car's registration number – BADBOY1 – was illegal.
When they found two knuckledusters, two bullets, as well as a 12 gauge shot gun and an eight millimetre handgun on Courtney and in the car, the 49-year-old said: “It's for a show.”
Courtney, pictured, of Camelot Castle, Chestnut Rise in Plumstead, East London, denies two charges of possessing ammunition without a certificate and two charges of possessing an offensive weapon.
Simon Morgan, prosecuting, said that it was in the early hours of October 29 last year when police spotted Courtney's BMW near Park Street, were suspicious about its number plate and pulled it over in Lewins Mead.
man called Brendon McGirr corr was driving, Courtney was in the front passenger seat and his son Beau was sat in the back, the court heard yesterday.
PC Tim Morgan said he searched Courtney and found a silver- coloured knuckleduster and bullet in his trouser pocket.
He said: “I seized both items and I arrested Mr Courtney on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon. When I cautioned him he said 'it's for a show'. I saw a gold-coloured knuckle duster in the central driver's pocket of the vehicle.”
PC Morgan said police also found two guns and a giant water pistol in the boot of the car.
He said though Courtney was not initially recognised by police it “came out” that he had earlier been involved in an event called “an audience with celebrity gangster Dave Courtney” at the Fuchsia night spot in Nelson Street.
Sergeant Martin Fox confirmed the boot of the BMW was full of “paraphernalia” including videos and DVDs.
Donalcorr McGuire, defending, asked him if he recalled finding DVDs with titles including Dodgy Dave, Hell To Pay and Triads, Yardies and Onion Bhajis, and if he'd made enquiries about them.
Sergeant Fox replied: “We didn't ask them any questions about these at all.
“Mr Courtney was cooperative in our presence and he made no attempt to struggle or resist arrest.”
In interview Courtney told police he thought the bullets found were blank cartridges.
“He said he was a showman,” Mr Morgan said.
“He said he uses these as his props much as an actor on stage.
“He said he was involved in a show from which he was leaving.
“The Crown says it was unreasonable for him to possess them in those circumstances.”
“He made no effort to secure them so they would not be available for use if necessary.The Crown says these are offensive weapons specifically designed for causing injury to persons.”
The case continues.

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Amir Hosseini,Hossein Obaei,Two former Chicago auto dealers were convicted

Two former Chicago auto dealers were convicted of turning their businesses into money-laundering havens for drug-dealing street gangs. Amir Hosseini, 50, of Winnetka and Hossein Obaei, 54, of Northbrook, were immediately taken into custody by marshals after being convicted of dozens of counts of racketeering, money laundering, bank fraud, bribery and structuring deposits to evade federal scrutiny. The two men convicted of 98 criminal charges, may end up getting life terms
At the trial, which began Jan. 22, members of the Gangster Disciples, Black Disciples, Latin Kings and Four Corner Hustlers testified that they used proceeds from sales of heroin and cocaine to buy Jaguars, BMWs, Cadillacs and other luxury vehicles from the two defendants. Prosecutors said Hosseini and Obaei were aware that drug money was paying for the luxury autos. Evidence showed that Hosseini transferred $100,000 of the cash to Iran but prosecutors declined to comment on the reason.When arrested, both men carried American and Iranian passports.Prosecutors said the two owners and two managers of the three dealerships on the city's West Side had allegedly laundered more than $9 million since 2001. "We're not talking about car dealers who sold cars to people who happened to be drug dealers or sold cars to people despite the fact that they were drug dealers. We're talking about a car dealership that was in the business to cater to people who were drug dealers and gang bangers," Fitzgerald said. The defendants Amir Hosseini, 48, of Winnetka, described as the owner and operator of Standard Leasing Sales, currently known as Amer Leasing Sales, and a partial owner in SHO Auto Credit; Ruhollah Bambouyani, 54, of California and formerly of Glenview, described as Hosseini's business partner at Standard; and Ramona Rodriguez, 38, of Chicago, described as the finance manager and office manager of both Standard and American Car Exchange. Prosecutors also charged Hossein Obaei, 52, of Northbrook, who owned and operated American Car Exchange and was a partial owner in SHO Auto Credit. Obaei also was charged with aiding and abetting a cocaine- and heroin-trafficking ring allegedly operated by some of his customers. Federal agents and Chicago police also seized more than 100 cars from the dealerships and searched the defendants' offices and homes. According to a criminal complaint, the defendants allegedly sold cars to people they knew were drug dealers or gang members in exchange for cash, "knowing that the transactions were designed to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership and control of the proceeds of their customers' drug-trafficking activities." The drug dealers used cash to buy more than 800 luxury cars, including Mercedes Benz, Jaguar and BMW models, according to prosecutors. Fitzgerald said fake transactions would be created on paper to look as if the cars were bought for less than $10,000 so that required paperwork did not have to be completed. As part of the alleged fraud, prosecutors accuse the defendants of placing liens on cars they sold to drug dealers and gang members, falsely indicating the dealership held security interests in the cars so the defendants could get the cars back if they were seized by law enforcement, prosecutors said.

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Freddie Thompson reports suggested that the hood may have been “taken out” in a hit carried out at his hiding place in Alicante.

Dublin's underworld was holding its breath today as it awaits further news of one of its most infamous ex-pats. The gangland thug’s disappearance from Spain’s Costa Blanca had resulted in speculation that Thompson had been assassinated.
“As far as we can establish, Freddie is laughing the whole thing off. It was a ruse he came up with to try and smoke out an informer in his camp,” said one senior garda today. While mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of the 27-year-old, weekend reports of his death were rubbished today by garda sources who say they have no evidence that that mobster has been killed in Spain. Gardai and the Department of Foreign Affairs have both rubbished rumours that Dublin crime boss "Fat" Freddie Thompson is dead.“He hasn’t been answering his mobile but that’s a big jump to say he has been killed,” said a source. The reports suggested that the hood may have been “taken out” in a hit carried out at his hiding place in Alicante. Following persistent rumours in the underworld, gardai looked at the suggestion that the reason Thompson had gone “off the radar” and had not been in contact with friends or family for some time – was because he was already dead.A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that they had also investigated claims after the weekend rumour mill went into over drive. A department source said that contact had been made with their counterparts in Spain, but that no reports of a death of an Irish citizen were recorded. And, although underworld associates insisted that ‘Fat' Freddie was in trouble, without more information gardai cannot act on the claims. His crime associates have indicated that it was ‘out of character' for the south Dublin criminal to completely lose contact with his hoods in Ireland. Leader of one of the feuding Drimnagh/Crumlin gangs, Freddie fled to Spain earlier this month when fears for his safety here intensified. He has been warned several times by gardai about threats to his life. It is believed the mobster is top of a number of ‘hit lists' in the capital, but like his friend Martin ‘the Viper’ Foley, he has managed to survive.
Continued treats to his life, last week's failed assassination attempt on his partner-in-crime and previous Spanish hits on Irish hoods have lead to concern among the Thompson gang. Thompson was in southern Spain in February when one of his close associates, Paddy Doyle, also 27, was shot dead. The investigation into that murder is ongoing but Spanish police have suggested that they strongly suspect that Doyle and Thompson had fallen foul of rival drug traffickers. Thompson travels between Dublin, Spain and Holland. Since the much publicised Dublin gang feud was sparked in 2000 as many as 10 people have lost their lives. Countless others have been targeted. The spread of Irish gangland violence to Spain is not a new development. In 2004 the leaders of the ‘Westies’ gang Stephen Sugg and Shane Coates, were murdered and buried in a secret grave in Alicante.

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Trigga Mob last year engaged in "kind of a turf war" with Keep It Lit, which had migrated from Oakland.

The Hurst investigation lay dormant until Oct. 2, 2007, when a reputed Trigga Mob member, Robert Earl "L'il Rob" Grimes III, 25, was shot dead at 733 Dixieanne Ave., a long-standing drug-and-prostitution outpost, according to police. The two-story, three-building stucco complex with a weed patch for a courtyard has been dubbed by police and some residents as "the Compound."Investigators cracked down on the neighborhood after the Grimes homicide. Their probation and parole searches took them back to Hurst.With a promise of police protection, Hurst decided to cooperate. In November, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office filed the conspiracy and attempted murder charges against Martin and Franklin.Deputy District Attorney Sean Laird, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment because the trial is pending.Defense attorneys Keith Staten, who is representing Martin, and Frances Huey, who is representing Franklin, also declined to discuss the case. Relatives of Martin and Franklin who have attended the trial also turned down interview requests.
It was the testimony of Detective Robert Quinn of the Sacramento Police Department's gang suppression unit that described the spread and structure of subsets such as the Trigga Mob, whose operations allegedly range from murder to dope to robbery, and the relationships between them and some of the other groups.Quinn described the Trigga Mob as one of several subsets of the Del Paso Heights Bloods, one that sought to spread fear and respect through drug sales, robbery, assault and murder.
Quinn said the Trigga Mob last year engaged in "kind of a turf war" with Keep It Lit, which had migrated from Oakland. At issue: control of a couple of northside crack cocaine markets, most prominently, the five-block stretch of Dixieanne Avenue around the Compound, Quinn said."It's where Keep It Lit and Trigga Mob are fighting for control of narcotics sales," Quinn testified.A judge signed a preliminary injunction earlier this year to stop blatant drug, gang and prostitution activity at the Compound. Police reported 633 calls for service to the apartment complex from December 2005 to November, according to court papers.
Up the block, Erik and Gale Snyder, who have lived on Dixieanne Avenue for 11 years, say they're moving."Lot of prostitutes walking up and down the street," Gale Snyder said. "Lot of drug activity. Sometimes we hear gunshots. Sometimes they sound pretty close to the house."In his testimony, Quinn said that as the investigation into Grimes' death unfolded, "slowly, people were saying that Keep It Lit was responsible for that homicide."No arrests have been made. The case remains under investigation.
It is one of two killings on Dixieanne last year that remain unsolved. In the other, someone shot and killed Charles Thomas Robinson, 19, on April 2, 2007, as he was sitting in a car about three blocks up.Police say they need the public's help with both cases and are asking people interested in a $1,000 reward to call 443-HELP if they have any information.Robinson's relatives described him as an independent dope dealer and craps shooter who squabbled on occasion with the Trigga Mob over those issues and others, including love interests.His cousin, Albert Moore, 31, said he sees Trigga Mob and Keep It Lit, as well as the other subsets, as trying to make quick reputations, often at the point of a gun.Moore said he suffered a gunshot wound to his leg last year when somebody from a subset on his block took aim at "somebody who was Crip walking too hard in the middle of the street," and missed.
"He was doing the little dance of the Crips, doing a little dance, and some Bloods happened to pass by and they seen that and they didn't like what they saw," Moore said.Moore said the subsets have fractured so much that on his street near Grant High School, "You see people wearing every (gang) color you could imagine."
Professor Hernandez said the cell division lends credence to his theory that things are becoming so fractured that even the concept of turf is becoming "antiquated."
Rivalry and violence are not.
"Another thing about gangs is, you've got to have an enemy," Hernandez said. "You have guys who don't have anything going for them, and all of a sudden, they've got another gang to fight. Then they have a new purpose in life and they're on their way."

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Freddie Thompson, leader of one of the feuding Drimnagh/Crumlin gangs,assassinated in Spain

Dublin gangland figure 'Fat' Freddie Thompson, leader of one of the feuding Drimnagh/Crumlin gangs, was alive or dead after rumours spread throughout Thompson's associates that he had been assassinated in Spain.Senior garda sources said last night there had been no reports from Spanish police of a murder. Thompson left Dublin last weekend for Spain amid reports of a growing threat to his life. He has been warned several times by gardai about threats to his life.The sources said that there was no evidence of a murder, or disappearance, but did confirm that Thompson's associates believe he is dead. Intelligence reached gardai early yesterday that Thompson's gang were unable to contact him and that it was completely out of character for him to lose contact with his gang.Thompson, 27, was in Estepona in southern Spain in February when one of his close associates, Paddy Doyle, also 27, was shot dead. The murder has not been solved but Spanish police indicated to gardai that they suspected Doyle -- and Thompson -- had run foul of Turkish drug traffickers.Thompson was on the scene shortly after the murder, though it was not absolutely established if he was travelling in the car in which Doyle was shot, though Spanish police believe he was. A short time later Spanish police seized a car in a nearby car park and found 110kg of cocaine.Thompson travels between Dublin, Amsterdam and the Costa del Sol. He was arrested in Rotterdam in October 2006 when police seized seven kilos of cocaine, six handguns and ammunition at an apartment he had been used. He evaded prosecution on a technicality when the case came to trial in February 2007.Thompson is also an associate of Martin Foley, who has been the target of several murder attempts -- the latest in January when he survived being hit by five bullets.The feud in which Thompson and Foley are caught up began in 2000 when a gang of young drug dealers from the Drimnagh-Crumlin area fell out after gardai seized cocaine in the Holiday Inn in Pearse Street. The gang split and the violence started with the murder of one of the gang in 2001.
Since then there have been nine more murders, dozens of attempted murders and hundreds of violent incidents. The intelligence reaching gardai about Thompson's disappearance come after an upsurge in activity from his enemies, who carried out at least one known assassination attempt early this month and were planning another murder last week.The spread of Irish gangland violence to Spain is not new and six known Irish criminals have been murdered there in the past four years. In 2004, the leaders of the Westies gang, Stephen Sugg and Shane Coates, were murdered and buried in a secret grave in Alicante. John McKeown, 48, said to be a major figure in international drug trafficking, was shot dead in January last year in Torrevieja. Sean Dunne, 32, from Coolock, was shot dead in September 2005, also near Alicante. And, the body of Cork man Michael 'Danser' Ahern was found stuffed into a freezer in Albuifera, Portugal, in September 2005.
Gardai who know Thompson said last week that the murder in Spain of his friend Paddy Doyle had badly affected him and he had been acting in an erratic manner since.
Doyle was Thompson's main "enforcer" and had personally carried out the assassinations of two of Thompson's rivals. Doyle had been living in Spain since 2005.
Twenty-five drug dealers in south inner Dublin have been cautioned by gardai that their lives are under threat arising from the bloody feud between the two Drimnagh and Crumlin-based gangs.
It is the largest number of such warnings ever issued in a single division.
Intelligence has led local detectives to intercept and prevent several murders, but sources say the threat to life is ever present, with gang members "floating around" looking for rivals and setting up people for assassination.
One attempt at murder narrowly failed earlier this month when a leading member of one gang, whose brother was killed in the seven-year feud, was shot at near the North Strand.
That plot was carried out by members of the gang led by the opponents of Freddie Thompson, who narrowly escaped assassination in February this year when gunmen opened fire on a car he was a passenger in at Estepona on the Costa del Sol.
Paddy Doyle, from Portland Row in north inner Dublin, who was a front seat passenger in the car, was shot dead. Gardai said that following yet another upsurge in activity around the south inner city, Thompson left for Spain last week. Gardai arrested a man in the south inner city last week who is suspected of carrying out gun and machete attacks on the homes of Thompson's mother and grandmother earlier this year. Gardai say that Thompson's opponents, the gang formerly led by Joseph Rattigan who was murdered in 2002, are currently pushing to try and take over control of the drugs trade in the south inner city. The Garda "G" District -- which covers the Crumlin and Drimnagh areas -- currently, has the highest homicide rate in the country, with eight killings since last October, though not all of these were gang related.
Local gardai say that this might be a record for a single Garda District, and that they are desperately short of resources to handle so many murder investigations.
Gardai in some of the worst affected areas in Dublin are critical of the fact that even though they are making regular arrests of gang members on drugs and firearms offences, they nearly all get bail.
"We're doing out job, the DPP is doing their job and the prisons are keeping them in. The courts aren't doing their job," one source said.The Government changed the Bail Act in 1997 following a referendum the previous year sparked by public outrage over the number of accused, including people charged with murder, who were routinely being released on bail. Garda sources say that some of the most dangerous criminals in Dublin are currently on bail. In many cases, they say, the criminals are at their most active when on bail because they are usually trying to amass money to look after family while they are in prison.
Meanwhile, gardai in Finglas and Coolock are continuing their search for the killers of the two men gunned down within 12 hours last weekend. Both Trevor Walsh from Finglas and Anthony Foster from Coolock are believed to have been killed by rival drug dealers. Gardai said the murders do not appear to have been linked. Asked about feuding that had been going on the Finglas-Blanchardstown area last week, one local garda said: "It's too complicated to explain." There are a number of rivalries and vendettas between drug dealers in the Finglas-Blanchardstown area that have arisen since the break up of the "Westies" gang and the murders of its leaders Stephen Sugg and Shane Coates in Spain two years ago; and the break up of the gang led by Martin Hyland, who was shot dead in December 2006. One source said that there are currently a number of criminals vying to take over the drugs trade in the north-western suburbs of the city, and this is expected to lead to more killings.The north inner city feud, which has claimed four lives over the past year, is still "live" according to gardai.
And despite claims earlier this year that a truce had been engineered in the Limerick feud between the Keane-Collopys and the McCarthy-Dundons, this too is "active".
A plot to murder a senior McCarthy-Dundon gang member was uncovered last month when gardai stopped a car containing two rival gang members and a former IRA assassin.
A map detailing the location of the gang member's home was found in the car, leading gardai to issue a caution to the man believed to have been targeted.

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Brothers Dennis and Enrique Medrano both pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering, felonies punishable by up to 30 years i

Brothers Dennis and Enrique Medrano both pleaded guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering, felonies punishable by up to 30 years in prison.Dennis Medrano, 20, accepted a plea deal in which he'll serve 12 years in prison, followed by 10 years probation. He was also sentenced to five years in prison on a cocaine charge, and will serve the time concurrently.
Enrique Medrano, 21, accepted a deal in which he'll serve 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years probation. Of the 13 reputed gang members indicted by a statewide grand jury, six now have pleaded guilty and two more who have cooperated with statewide prosecutors are expected to plead guilty soon.The Medrano brothers join another brother, Alexis Medrano and a cousin, Kevin Medrano, who also have pleaded guilty. Dennis Medrano's defense attorney, Marianne Rantala, said outside court that defendants' flipping on each other has prompted the succession of plea deals. "When there are family members ready to testify against you, it's not good," she said.Dennis Medrano appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit signaling that he has had some discipline problems at the jail."Yes, ma'am," he politely answered Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown's questions.Dennis Medrano, who has an eighth-grade education, acknowledged participating in a variety of crimes prosecutors used to mount the racketeering case against him. They included physical attacks on people, stealing a car, cocaine posession and run-ins with law enforcement. Medrano also acknowledged being one of the shooters in an attempted first-degree murder, Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Todd Weicholz told the judge.The gang life is "the only life he's ever known," Rantala said. "I'm trying to get him to focus on the future."
These Sur 13 gang members, based in the Westgate neighborhood, became the first targets of a statewide grand jury convened to tackle a rise in gang violence.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has said that Sur 13 is a violent criminal enterprise that is active across the nation, a gang responsible for robberies, drive-by shootings, beatings and drug dealing. "Street thugs. Street terrorists," another agent, Mike Driscoll of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, has described them.A coalition of investigators built the case under Florida's racketeering statute, historically applied to take down mobsters, but now used as a weapon against street gangs. Investigators link together the activity and planning by the gang to commit crimes.Enrique Medrano's defense attorney, Morgan McDonald, did not want to speak specifically about his client. But characterized the life of the gang members as an idle search for excitement, many fully expecting not to live long.
"Young men that lead this lifestyle don't care or don't have the foresight to understand they will end up dead at the hands of another gangbanger or in prison," McDonald said. "No one is concerned about long-term consequences."

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Frank "the German" Schweihs who died late Wednesday in federal custody after battling cancer, spent decades as a reputed enforcer for the mob

Frank "the German" Schweihs, and even fewer carried out their threats with his cruel enthusiasm.
Schweihs, who died late Wednesday in federal custody after battling cancer, spent decades as a reputed enforcer for the mob's Grand Avenue street crew, gaining a reputation as a profane killer who was feared even by his cohorts in the underworld.
A chance encounter with him could leave many wondering whether they had finally stepped on the wrong toes. According to testimony last summer at the landmark Family Secrets trial, at least one mobster warned his family to call 911 immediately if Schweihs was ever seen lurking around their home.
"He was the one guy that nobody wanted to see coming," said John Mallul, supervisor of the FBI's organized crime unit in Chicago. "It was bad enough to have a meeting with him, let alone see him by surprise."The Outfit had its bosses and moneymakers, but investigators said Schweihs was known for one thing: muscle. He was among those indicted in 2005 in the sweeping Family Secrets mob case, charged with storied Outfit capo Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, who allegedly used Schweihs to collect "street tax" and eliminate enemies of the Grand Avenue crew.
He was too sick to stand trial with the others last year. The once-imposing Schweihs, 78, had appeared in court in recent months a pale, withered old man slumped in a wheelchair. His trial, set for October, had been put off for a time this year when he signed—but later rescinded—a do-not-resuscitate order.
Schweihs was transferred Monday from Chicago's downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center dehydrated and needing emergency treatment. He died of complications of cancer Wednesday evening at Thorek Medical Center in Chicago, said Vincent Shaw, a jail spokesman.Authorities said Schweihs started his life in crime as head of an armed-robbery ring in Chicago in the 1950s and rose to become a reliable Outfit assassin of German descent known by mob code names that included " Hitler."
He relied on a reputation as a maniac to keep those under him in line, losing his temper and dishing out beatings for seemingly no reason, sources said.
As part of the Family Secrets prosecution, Schweihs was accused of taking part in the ambush hits on federal witnesses Daniel Seifert in Bensenville in 1974 and Emil Vaci in Phoenix in 1986. Shortly before he was to testify against Lombardo, Seifert was gunned down by three masked men outside his business as his wife watched.
The key government trial witness, Nicholas Calabrese, a mob turncoat, testified that Schweihs also played a role in early attempts to take out Las Vegas chieftain Anthony Spilotro and his brother, Michael, stalking them in 1986. In one of the most notorious gangland slayings in Chicago history, the Spilotros were later slain after returning here for a mob meeting and buried in Indiana.
Though not charged, Schweihs also had long been a suspect in other unsolved Outfit hits, as well as in the murder of a former girlfriend, sources said. Calabrese linked Schweihs to the 1983 murder of corrupt insurance executive Allen Dorfman, who had been involved with Lombardo in schemes to loot Teamster funds.
Dorfman was shot seven times outside a Lincolnwood hotel as he met a friend for lunch.
"In life, Schweihs was a vicious, ruthless, cowardly murderer and Outfit thug," said Assistant U.S. Atty. Markus Funk. "Now his case is closed."
Schweihs' attorney, Ellen Domph, said he was determined to fight the government's case to the end. He had a "loving relationship" with his three children, Domph said, and though he could be rude and threatening even in court, he had always been courteous and polite to her.
Like Lombardo, Schweihs fled after the Family Secrets indictment came down in 2005. He spent months on the lam before the FBI caught up with him and a girlfriend in Berea, Ky.Even though he was missing from the courtroom during the Family Secrets trial, Schweihs still played a role in the historic trial that resulted in convictions of five Outfit figures, including Lombardo. To show the jury how the Outfit prospered through extortion, prosecutors played undercover tapes of William "Red" Wemette, a porn shop owner being pressed to pay mob street taxes in the late 1980s.On the grainy video, a gruff Schweihs, wearing a baseball cap, announced that another mobster whom Wemette had once paid taxes to had gone to "open up a hot dog stand in Alaska." The shop was now under his control, said Schweihs, who didn't like hearing that someone from the Rush Street crew had come around bothering his new property."I don't care who it is," Schweihs barked on the undercover tape. "If it's Al Capone's brother and he comes back reincarnated. This is a declared [expletive] joint."Schweihs would tolerate no one moving in on his turf, he said."I'll be looking at the obituaries," an obviously nervous Wemette replied.In an interview Thursday, Lombardo's lawyer, Rick Halprin, called the playing of the tape a pivotal moment in the trial. Jurors had suddenly been confronted with the reality of the case, he said.The same tapes had been used to help convict Schweihs of extortion in 1989."It was a very scary performance," Halprin said. "I would not dispute that."
Schweihs displayed flashes of his fiery temper even in public. At a court hearing last month, he spoke loudly to Domph and spat insults when Funk looked over in his direction."You makin' eyes at me?" Schweihs snarled. "Do I look like a [expletive] to you or something?"

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Three shootings in less than two hours in St. Léonard and Rivière des Prairies are being investigated as conflict between a street gang and the Mafia

Three shootings in less than two hours in St. Léonard and Rivière des Prairies are being investigated as a possible conflict between a street gang and the Montreal Mafia.Police sources said yesterday the first man shot has ties to a street gang. They suspect the two shootings that followed were done in retaliation.All three victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries.The first shooting occurred around 9 p.m. at Le Ritz, a bar with a checkered past on Lacordaire Blvd. in St. Léonard.
"The victim went inside the café and after a short discussion with people ... inside, he was shot," Montreal police Constable Raphaël Bergeron said.The man crashed through the bar's front window to escape and jumped into a waiting car. He was driven to a hospital, where staff alerted police they had a patient who had been shot.No one inside the bar called 911 and when officers eventually arrived at Le Ritz, they found it deserted, its front door unlocked.The 30-year-old man who was wounded in the shooting is a known drug trafficker with a lengthy criminal record. Last year, he was sentenced to 14 days in prison and three years' probation after pleading guilty to being part of a drug trafficking ring tied to the Bo Gars gang. The ring controlled drug trafficking in a neighbourhood close to Le Ritz.Le Ritz has been identified in the past as more of a drug den than a bar, where the door was controlled by an electronic lock and customers were buzzed in.
In 2006, the Régie des alcools suspended the bar's licence for four months after Montreal police said undercover agents purchased cocaine there. One police source said yesterday that investigators were having a hard time finding out who owns the bar.after the shooting at Le Ritz, a young man dressed in dark clothing stormed into Café-bar Mare e Mondo on Maurice Duplessis Blvd. in Rivière des Prairies.
"He fired several shots (into) various parts of (the café) and left the scene," Bergeron said.A 36-year-old man was struck in the stomach and taken to hospital. Bergeron said the victim is not known to police.
Mare e Mondo has reputed ties to the Mafia. It was opened in 1997 by Giuseppe Torre, 37, an alleged drug trafficker arrested in Projet Colisée, the 2006 roundup of suspected Mafia leaders and associates. Court documents show that although the bar changed ownership in 2000, Torre referred to it on wiretaps in 2005.The third shooting was less than an hour after Mare e Mondo came under fire. A 19-year-old man was struck in the leg as he sat in a vehicle parked behind another café on Maurice Duplessis."The victims in the second and third shooting are not known to the police at all," Bergeron said. "They were probably in the wrong place at the wrong time."

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Tywin Marcell Bender, 18, of Minneapolis, was one of two teens charged in September's gang-related shooting that left a 12-year-old girl, Vernice Hall

Tywin Marcell Bender, 18, of Minneapolis, was one of two teens charged in September's gang-related shooting that left a 12-year-old girl, Vernice Hall, wounded by a bullet to the head. Vernice, now 13, survived but suffered permanent brain damage. The other teen charged, Semaj Marquise Magee, 17, was tried in May; a jury acquitted him. Prosecutors claimed afterward that key witnesses changed their testimony from their original statements. At the time, Hennepin County Attorney Michael Freeman said gang intimidation might have caused witnesses not to implicate Magee in the crime. Freeman said Friday that when prosecutors took measure of their evidence — and the witnesses' changed stories — they determined they didn't have enough to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt at Bender's trial, scheduled to start Aug. 5. "We're disappointed," he said. "It's a reluctant conclusion that came from reluctant witnesses changing stories. "These gang cases are really hard," Freeman said. "It's not like we've got witnesses from Central Casting that are Sunday-morning church choir members. The folks who witnessed this shooting have proven to be very unreliable witnesses."
Bender walked out of the Hennepin County Adult Detention Center at 4:15 p.m. Freeman said if evidence turns up that witnesses were intimidated, new charges could be filed. Asked if he still believes Bender and Magee were involved in the shooting, the prosecutor answered an unequivocal "yes."
"That really hasn't changed," he said.
'I Am Gonna ... Shoot This Party Up' / Vernice, known by friends and family by her nickname, "Star," was shot in the 1800 block of Oliver Avenue North as her brother's birthday party was breaking up Sept. 22. Bender — identified in court documents as a member of a gang that calls itself the Stick Up Boys, or SUBs — had gotten into an argument with other people at the party who were members of a rival gang known as the Murder Squad or the 19s.
"You all better clear out because I am gonna come back and shoot this party up," Bender told the crowd, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
He left the party. Witnesses said that about an hour later, a black sport utility vehicle pulled up to some partygoers still milling about in the street. Bender and Magee were in the vehicle, witnesses said.
Police said witnesses told them Bender climbed out of the vehicle with a handgun, while Magee was holding a shotgun when he got out. Magee allegedly fired first, then again, and Bender fired about 20 rounds before they got into the SUV and fled.
After police said witnesses gave them the teens' names, the two were arrested. Questioned by police, Bender claimed he didn't hang out with the SUBs anymore, and he denied being involved in the shooting.
Among witnesses police interviewed was one who said he was riding a city bus the day after the shooting and heard people talking about it.
The purported witness "heard one of the young men brag that he got into it with gang members and he got out of the car and started 'busting' into the crowd," the criminal complaint against Bender claimed. "The young man said that 'they' said he shot a little girl." Bender faced four counts of attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault, 12 counts related to being involved in a drive-by shooting and a single count of being a prohibited person in possession of a gun.
The last charge was filed because Bender was ruled delinquent in December 2006 after being convicted of a robbery. 'We Can't Prove It' / In a two-page petition filed in state court, prosecutors noted Magee's acquittal and said that in his trial, "witnesses crucial to this case testified in a manner inconsistent with previous statements and/or testimony."
"Despite due diligence by investigators in the case, further investigation has failed to reveal relevant and admissible evidence that would support a conviction after a jury trial of this defendant," Assistant County Attorney Susan Crumb wrote of Bender. She did write, though, that a dismissal "will permit the State to continue to investigate and discover additional evidence and locate additional witnesses." Freeman said he believed the witnesses had been intimidated.
"We can't prove it," he said. "If we had really strong leads about who did it and how it happened, well, we've brought cases more than once before on witness intimidation. But we've got to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

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Suspect Edwin Ramos awaits trial in San Francisco County Jail, a system that released him nearly three months before the slayings. Convicted twice

On June 22, Anthony Bologna, 48, and his sons Matthew, 16, and Michael, 20, were driving back to their home in this city's Excelsior neighborhood from a family get-together at Kennedy's home.Driving south on a narrow street, Bologna stopped the car, inadvertently blocking the path of a Chrysler 300M, authorities said. The Chrysler's driver pulled up alongside and began shooting. The father and his oldest son died at the scene. The younger boy died later at San Francisco General Hospital."That Sunday, we had breakfast, hugged each other, kissed each other and the kids," Kennedy said.Later that day, the phone rang, and "the homicide inspectors told my wife her brother was shot and killed along with his son . . ."Bologna "was a wonderful individual and a great father," Kennedy said. "To have him assassinated in broad daylight with my two nephews is incomprehensible."
Three days later, police arrested Ramos of nearby El Sobrante. San Francisco Police Sgt. Neville Gittens said Ramos is allegedly a member of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang.
He was charged with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Because of the serious nature of the crime -- including the fact that there were multiple victims -- he would be subject under state law to the death penalty.
Kennedy, his sister-in-law Danielle Bologna and various activist groups are calling on Dist. Atty. District Attorney Kamala Harris to seek the death penalty in the case.
Harris is opposed to capital punishment and came under fire earlier in her career when she did not seek the death penalty in the murder of a San Francisco police officer. She has yet to decide whether to do so in the Bolognas' case.
The widespread uproar over the Bolognas' deaths began this week, after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Ramos had been found guilty of two felonies as a juvenile.
Because of the city's sanctuary policy -- enacted in 1989 -- local agencies do not consider immigration status when dealing with young offenders and therefore did not check whether Ramos was in the country legally.Frank Kennedy is a third-generation San Franciscan, the son and grandson of local police officers and the proud owner of a Bay Area business. And this week he became Exhibit A for all he believes ails his hometown.On Wednesday, a 21-year-old undocumented Salvadoran immigrant pleaded not guilty to murdering Kennedy's brother-in-law and two nephews in a case that has galvanized sentiment nationwide against this "sanctuary city" and its ambitious mayor.
Matthew BolognaKennedy has spent much of the time since telling anyone who will listen that San Francisco and cities like it should stop shielding illegal immigrants from federal authorities and that officials here are responsible for his loved ones' deaths.
Suspect Edwin Ramos awaits trial in San Francisco County Jail, a system that released him nearly three months before the slayings. Convicted twice on felony charges as a juvenile, he was protected then from immigration officials because of the city's sanctuary policy."Any mayor, any board of supervisors that passes these laws should be prosecuted to the fullest," Kennedy said in a recent interview.
"This is not the United States of San Francisco . . . My family was the sacrificial lamb in this."
Immigration activists have embraced the grieving family, using the June 22 deaths of Anthony, Matthew and Michael Bologna to call for change. Conservative broadcasters have vilified the city and its officials all week.Outraged e-mailers have lit up message boards for days. And federal immigration officials have demanded greater access to the city's jails, telling Mayor Gavin Newsom in a letter Wednesday that the sanctuary policy means they can't "prevent the release of these criminal aliens . . . "CNN's Lou Dobbs asked Kennedy: "What is your reaction when you think about the fact that Mayor Newsom has with great, complete, sanctimonious arrogance defended the sanctuary policy of this city?"

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Holiday fraudsters netted £6million from bogus budget sites.

Holiday fraudsters netted £6million from bogus budget sites.A gang of fraudulent travel agents who scammed more than 20,000 sun seekers out of their holidays have been jailed for up to seven years each. fraudsters advertising budget breaks on teletext and the internet. Sixty-four-year-old Christakis Philippou was the ring leader. His mistress Evangelia Liogka oversaw the agencies and call centres, bankrupt accountant Timothy Entwistle masterminded the gang’s finances, while Peter Kemp managed the day to day running of their 26 front firms. Together, prosecutors say they made the perfect team. The scam was simple - set up bogus budget holiday sites advertising bargain breaks in Greece, Spain and Cyprus, take holidaymakers’ money then close the firm down. Between 2003 and 2006 such sites made £6million for the gang funding a luxury lifestyle of plush homes, fast cars and of course exotic holidays. Today the gang were brought to justice for defrauding an estimated 20,000 people. At Southwark Crown Court the gang were jailed for up to seven years each.
It was credit card companies and travel industry body ABTA that were left to pick up the tab for the gang’s crime. The victims of this scam say long term lessons must be learned. Mr Reynolds thought because he booked with an ABTA approved company he would be safe, now he wants them to be more careful about whom they approve.

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six Somalis charged with taking a French luxury yacht’s crew hostage

Paris court has charged six Somalis with taking a French luxury yacht’s crew hostage off Africa this month, officials say.The six were flown to Paris after being detained on Friday by French commandos in a helicopter raid, soon after the 30 hostages were released.The hostages - 22 French citizens, six Filipinos, a Cameroonian and a Ukrainian - were seized a week earlier.No passengers were aboard the Ponant at the time of the abduction. A senior legal source said Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had given his consent for the suspects to be taken out of the country.

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Douglas Fleming was the subject of a two-year undercover police operation, during which he was trailed to the West Indies.

Douglas Fleming was the subject of a two-year undercover police operation, during which he was trailed to the West Indies.Yesterday, a jury at the High Court in Glasgow found the case against him not proven. It is the second time the Crown has failed to secure a conviction against Mr Fleming, 43, for alleged involvement with a global cocaine-smuggling operation. On the first occasion, in September 2004, the case against him collapsed after it emerged that police officers involved in the trial were watching the proceedings from a remote viewing room, which the defence counsel argued could be prejudicial to the case.It had been alleged he was involved in the attempted transfer of as much as 200 kilos of cocaine from Colombia through the Belgian port of Antwerp.The court heard Mr Fleming, from Langbank, Renfrewshire, who is believed to have served as a police officer in Scotland in the late 1980s, had been followed to Antigua, where he met up with Martin Toner.
An alleged drug smuggler, Mr Toner was murdered and his body dumped in a field in Langbank in July 2004. He had been due to appear at the High Court accused of being involved in the importation of cocaine. Throughout his trial, Mr Fleming, who owned a construction firm and a property development company, said he knew Mr Toner, and that their common interest was property. He denied having anything to do with drugs.
At Mr Fleming's trial, an undercover Belgian policeman, known only as "Mike", told the jury he had infiltrated a multimillion-pound drugs operation. The court heard he had been recommended to Colombian drug barons as a fixer in Antwerp by a source they trusted. "Mike" claimed Mr Fleming, whom he said he knew as "Ben", contacted him by telephone to talk about importing a container of drugs from Colombia.
The court heard evidence from a Colombian drug dealer who said he witnessed 200 kilos of cocaine being loaded into a container allegedly intended for transport to "Ben" and others. "Mike" alleged Mr Fleming arrived in Antwerp on 29 October, 2001, to meet him to discuss how the drug could be removed from the container, and how to bring in further loads. "Mike" was part of Operation Backslider, which targeted Mr Fleming and others, including Mr Toner. "Mike" said he knew the latter as "Tom".
Mr Fleming, thought to be originally from Inverness, was cleared yesterday of smuggling cocaine, along with Mr Toner, on various occasions in 2001 and 2002. A second charge, of being concerned in the supply of cocaine between 23 February and 11 May, 2002, was also found not proven. His co-accused, James Cameron, 49, from Springburn, Glasgow, was found not guilty of being concerned in the supply of cocaine in Glasgow in 2002.

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Katelyn Triolo,Sue E. Farrell,Adam Lang are scheduled to be arraigned Friday in First District Court, Hempstead.

Canonico, 23, of 2051 Paddock Road, Seaford, told them he arranged to meet two women - identified by police as Katelyn Triolo, 20, of 1081 Carukin Street, Franklin Square, and Sue E. Farrell, 25, of 243 Roslyn Road, Mineola - at the Gulf gas station at 2201 New Hyde Park Road.The meeting, police said Canonico later told them, was to sell the women heroin.
Police said Canonico met the women—and they got into his car. It was then, police said, that a man, identified as Adam Lang, 27, of 22 Eldridge Place, Glen Cove, approached the vehicle, produced a handgun, pointed it at Canonico and the trio stole his cell phone and wallet, as well as $340 from him.But as the trio fled from the scene, Canonico decided to call 911—to report the robbery.The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of all four: Canonico, Triolo, Farrell and Lang, police said.Canonico was charged with third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance; Triolo and Farrell were each charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree robbery. Lang was charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree robbery, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and four counts of fourth-degree possession of a dangerous weapon.All four are scheduled to be arraigned Friday in First District Court, Hempstead.

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Scott Rush was arrested at the island’s international airport with heroin strapped to his body face the death penalty.

Scott Rush was arrested at the island’s international airport with heroin strapped to his body faces the death penalty. The death sentence for Rush is seen here as particularly harsh, given that three other couriers -- known as drug mules -- arrested with him on Apr. 17, 2005, were sentenced to 20 years and to life in prison. Originally awarded a life sentence, Rush’s appeal only resulted in his sentence being increased to death.
"It’s anyone’s guess (as to) why Scott’s penalty was upgraded to death when anyone looking at the case could see that it’s pretty obvious that he was just a mule," says Martin Hodgson from the prisoner advocacy group, Foreign Prisoner Support Service (FPSS). But this latest development has provided the impetus for further scrutiny of the role played by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in the arrests of the Bali Nine by the Indonesian authorities.



The Indonesian Supreme Court’s decision in early March to commute the death sentences of Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen to life imprisonment was described by Stephen Smith, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, as "very welcome news", a sentiment also expressed by human and civil rights organisations around the country.
The three’s initial life sentences were reduced to 20 years on appeal but then upgraded to death following prosecutors’ counter-appeals. The three men were arrested -- along with the condemned ringleader Myuruan Sukumaran -- with 350 grams of heroin in a suitcase at a Bali hotel in 2005.
They can hope that with good behaviour their life sentences will be further reduced and they will be allowed to serve out part of their prison terms in Australia. But Sukumaran, his co-ringleader Andrew Chan, and Scott Rush, one of the drug couriers -- "I think it’s unfortunate whenever the AFP assists in arrests of Australians overseas knowing that the penalty is the death penalty," Hodgson told IPS.
After initiating the investigation into the group in Feb 2005, the AFP tipped-off Indonesian police regarding the expected activities of the Bali Nine. In letters dated Apr 8 and 12 of that same year -- written in Indonesian and titled ‘Heroin Couriers From Bali To Australia’ and ‘Currently in Bali’ -- AFP officers provided their Indonesian counterparts with detailed information about members of the group and how they expected the heroin to be transported.
In a 2006 interview with the Australian Broadcast Commission (ABC) television programme ‘Australian Story’, Mike Phelan -- the AFP officer ultimately responsible for the decision to provide the Indonesians with the intelligence about the group -- explained that the letters alerted Indonesian authorities about the group for the first time. The letters advised Indonesian police to take "whatever action you deem necessary". The AFP defends its action as a success. AFP commissioner Mick Keelty has refused to apologise, saying that police acted lawfully and in accordance with government policy. The AFP says that the arrests stopped more than eight kilograms of heroin -- at an estimated value of 4 million Australian dollars -- from hitting Australian streets. Additionally, the AFP is confident that the syndicate behind the Bali Nine’s actions -- which they say was responsible for previous drug smuggling -- was closed down with the help of Indonesian surveillance and subsequent arrests.
But Hodgson from FPSS says that while the AFP is obliged to work with law enforcement agencies in other countries, the arrests could have been made in Australia, where the death penalty has been abolished. Hodgson argues that prior to the group’s departure from Australia, the AFP "could have, at the very least, arrested those they knew to be leaving". Phelan, however, said that this was not an option at the time. "There was just simply not enough evidence" to charge members of the group with conspiracy to commit a crime, he told the ABC. The AFP officer also rejected the option of arresting the Bali Nine when they arrived back in Australia -- another course of action open to the AFP, according to Hodgson -- as the decision to arrest the group was made under Indonesia’s "own laws and own jurisdiction".
The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) has also spoken out against the AFP’s actions. AFP documents obtained by the NSWCCL under freedom of information laws show that Australia’s federal police are still lawfully allowed to cooperate with foreign law enforcement agencies on a police-to-police basis prior to a person being charged with an offence that may lead to the death penalty. The AFP is only barred for cooperating once a death penalty charge has been filed. However, the ‘Practical Guide on International Police-to-Police Assistance in Death Penalty Charge Situations’ indicates that the AFP can still continue providing assistance following such a charge if the attorney-general or minister for home affairs give their approval. The AFP "needs to re-address their protocols when it comes to assisting in cases that will ultimately lead to the death penalty," Hodgson says. Australia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- which aims to abolish the death penalty -- in 1990, but it has not been adopted into domestic law and is therefore not legally binding. Hodgson says that Australia has an obligation to "not only oppose the death penalty but to ensure that we don’t facilitate it in any way".
"If the AFP is conducting practices that result in the death penalty, even if indirectly, then they need to review those procedures," he argues.

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Police have seized a fleet of luxury limos

Sydney police have seized a fleet of luxury limos including a stretch Hummer, a house, and a Harley Davidson as part of an ongoing investigation into a major cocaine smuggling syndicate.As well as the stretch Hummer the hire cars include two stretch Chrysler limos, another two Chryslers, a Range Rover and a Corvette.
They've also seized a house at Ryde.Police say in the last 12 months they've arrested 14 people and seized about 20 million in cash, five million in assets, large quantities of high-grade cocaine and guns including gold plated 357 magnum.
Two men were arrested yesterday over the drug ring police say imported hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Los Angeles, and they say there's more to come.

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Mark Cadogan . bought a high-performance BMW M3 for £50,000, a luxury Aston Martin for £130,000 and two Audi convertibles for more than £100,000

Mark Cadogan, described as the ringleader of a major Newcastle cannabis distribution network, was jailed for 10 years at Newcastle Crown Court.
admitted charges of conspiracy to supply the Class C drug and money laundering.
Jailing him Judge Beatrice Bolton said: "You have been described as a Mr Big - a big time dealer of cannabis."You made a considerable amount of money out of it and employed others to do your dirty work, while living a lavish lifestyle as a result."
The court was told Cadogan and his partner Melanie McElderry, 29, spent around £350,000 in cash during the three years of their conspiracy.
Between 2003 and 2007 they bought a high-performance BMW M3 for £50,000, a luxury Aston Martin for £130,000 and two Audi convertibles for more than £100,000.
They also enjoyed 24 trips to Spain in just 19 months, a trip to the FIFA World Cup in 2006 and a holiday to the luxury Gleneagles hotel in Scotland.
They invested the drugs money into a string of properties in the north east, including homes in Newcastle and North Shields, as well as investing in business and property ventures in the East European country of Armenia, in an attempt to launder the cash.Christopher Knox, prosecuting, said: "Had it not been for this defendant's arrest, and the seizure of his assets, he would have been a very rich man.
"He was not a man with his hands actually on the drugs which he conspired to supply.
"He got others to do that."On one occasion police officers seized a lorry with over a tonne of cannabis hidden in a batch of tiles, destined to be distributed into Cadogan's underground network.Cadogan boasted he could afford to lose more than a million pounds in bad debts and police seizures, as he "hadplenty", said Mr Knox.
"Clearly, this loss did not have such a devastating effect on his business, as he could still afford to buy an Aston Martin for £130,000 a few days later," said Mr Knox.Jonathan Goldberg QC, defending Cadogan, said his lavish lifestyle led to his downfall."He was perhaps a prisoner of his own success," he said."Short of placing a neon sign above his head in the city of Newcastle and saying 'I'm a flash drug dealer', one wonders how much else he could have done to alert the police to what he was up to."This may be the top of division two, but the first division players would not be very impressed with him."Cadogan made a total of £1.351,008 from his drug dealing. He must forfeit his realisable assets of £923,757 to the police's asset recovery team.He will also be banned from travelling abroad for eight years from his release from custody.

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Guy Philippe again denied any involvement in drug trafficking, adding, "I will not allow those who are plotting to eliminate me to humiliate me."

Guy Philippe, who led an armed revolt in 2004 against then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, told a radio talk show he was peacefully going about his business in the small seaside town of Pestel."They came here to terrorize the population. They said they were looking for me, but I am right here in Pestel now," Philippe, a former district police chief, ex-army officer and failed presidential candidate, told Signal FM radio by cellphone.
"I am here at home and I am staying here," he said, also announcing he planned to run for a seat in the Haitian Senate.
Dozens of U.S. anti-narcotics agents and federal police, backed by Haitian counter-narcotics police, descended on Pestel in darkness early on Tuesday, hunting Philippe, according to local officials and witnesses. The force searched for Philippe house to house but failed to find him.Philippe, who stayed on the line for over an hour with the radio show fielding questions from the host and callers, said he would not allow U.S. agents to arrest him.
"I can give you the guarantee that this is not going to happen," he said.
Philippe said about 100 foreign anti-drug and FBI agents participated in the raid. U.S. officials in Port-au-Prince declined to provide any figures, and U.S. federal prosecutors in Miami, where drug charges have been brought against Philippe -- according to media reports -- said they had no comment.
Philippe again denied any involvement in drug trafficking, adding, "I will not allow those who are plotting to eliminate me to humiliate me."
He said he planned to compete in elections expected to take place over the coming months to fill some Senate seats.
"I am going to run for senator, because I am a citizen of this country," he said.

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John Faba Jr a serial killer who was just getting started in his career

John Faba Jr., 30, is currently serving a 40-year sentence for the 2000 murder of high school student Angela Durling. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the teen's death.Last week, Faba Jr. was charged in the slaying of his former girlfriend, 25-year-old Alicia Eakins. Eakins had been missing for eight years before her body was found in the Ocala National Forest in Southern Putnam County, where Faba Jr. led detectives. According to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, interviews with a critical witness implicated the convicted killer in his father’s death.Ralph Faba Sr. died in October 1999. Deputies found him hanging in the woods. At the time, the death was ruled a suicide. The younger Faba told deputies at that time that he arrived at his home, in the 700 block of Stokes Landing Road at 2:20 p.m. Deputies said Faba Jr. told them that he noticed a gate leading to the back of the property was open and he proceeded to the rear of the property and observed his father hanging from a tree. He stated that he cut the rope, began CPR and called 911.
Based on the evidence and information gathered at the time of Faba Sr.'s death, the Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide.However, the father’s case was reopened in conjunction with the Eakins' disappearance. With new information, investigators recently classified Faba Sr.'s death as a homicide.
Faba Jr. was interviewed in reference to his father’s death and as a result of the information gained during the interview, he was charged with murder in his father's slaying."This man was, in our opinion, a serial killer who was just getting started in his career," said prosecutor John Tanner. "He will never see the light of day outside of prison again."Faba Jr. is expected to have a first appearance hearing Wednesday morning.

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hijacker D.B. Cooper, who leapt from a commercial jet in 1971 after collecting a $US200,000 ransom.

Tattered, half-buried parachute found in a rugged region in the north-west of the United States state may yield clues to the fate of the robber behind a daring high-altitude hijacking 36 years ago.
The FBI is examing the find to see if it belonged to hijacker D.B. Cooper, who leapt from a commercial jet in 1971 after collecting a $US200,000 ransom.
FBI investigators have for years said Cooper most likely did not survive the jump from 3000 metres, but the hijacker's body has never been found.
FBI agent Larry Carr said that earlier this month, children playing outside their home near the town of Amboy in Oregon state recently found fabric sticking up from the ground where their father had been grading a road.The children, responding to a publicity campaign, urged their father to call the FBI, Carr said, and when their find became public this week, it reignited talk of the region's favourite folk hero.
The FBI doesn't want to excavate the property until it confirms, either through an expert's examination or scientific analysis of the fabric, whether the chute is the right kind.In November 1971, a man identifying himself as Dan Cooper, later mistakenly identified as D.B. Cooper, hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, claiming he had a bomb.When the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he released the passengers in exchange for $US200,000 and asked to be flown to Mexico.On the flight to Mexico City, he apparently took the cash and parachuted from the plane's back stairs somewhere near the Oregon border.Cooper asked for four chutes in all. He jumped with two and used the cord from one of the remaining parachutes to tie the stolen money bag shut.Carr spoke with the children's father, whom he declined to identify, and learned the chute was white, the same colour as Cooper's.And when Carr overlaid the family's address onto a map investigators made in the early days of the investigation, he learned another encouraging fact: They lived right in Cooper's most probable landing zone.
If it is Cooper's parachute, that will solve one mystery - where he apparently landed - but it will raise another, Carr said.In 1980, a family on a picnic found $US5880 of Cooper's money in a bag on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver.
Some investigators believed it might have been washed down to the beach by the Washougal River. But if Cooper landed near Amboy and stashed the money bag there, there's no way it could have naturally reached the Washougal.
"If this is D.B. Cooper's parachute, the money could not have arrived at its discovery location by natural means," Carr said. "That whole theory is out the window."Retired FBI agent Ralph Himmelsbach who worked the Cooper case, said on Wednesday he doubts the remnant found near Amboy could be the nylon parachute Cooper carried when he jumped into poor conditions over rough terrain.
"Lying in the mud, mostly wet, would not be the kind of environment that would be good for a parachute," he said, though he conceded he could offer few alternate explanations for how the chute got there.Himmelsbach said his theory of the case hasn't changed."The night it happened, I thought he had a 50 percent chance," he said. "... It has gone down since then."
Locals prefer to think he made it.
"I think he's out there enjoying his money," said Dona Gilbert, owner of store near the town of Amboy. "Most people here say they think he made it. We may never know."

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Canadian Mohamed Kohail a Saudi court sentenced Kohail and his friend, Muhanna Masoud, to execution.

Case of Mohamed Kohail was an important item on the minister’s agenda. “Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has already written to his Saudi counterpart to review the sentence,” Day said.
Kohail was convicted of killing a teenager, Munzer Hiraki, in a schoolyard brawl in Jeddah. On March 3, a Saudi court sentenced Kohail and his friend, Muhanna Masoud, to execution.There have been media reports, however, that Hiraki’s death was due to a heart condition. Kohail has 80 days to appeal from the date of the ruling. He was arrested, along with his brother Sultan last spring, and imprisoned in Jeddah. Sultan’s fate remains unclear. There has been a demand that Ottawa investigate allegations that confessions were obtained under duress. Kohail’s family spent several years in Montreal before returning to Saudi Arabia for a cousin’s wedding. The two boys were involved in a fight that broke out after a young man accused Sultan of insulting his female cousin.The brother demanded an apology, but Sultan refused and called for help from Kohail. He was then confronted by several boys over the insult. According to the account of the Kohail brothers, Kohail arrived at the school with a friend to face about a dozen of the girl’s male relatives and friends. Some were allegedly armed with clubs and knives. A large number of Kohail’s supporters staged a rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa last Sunday, demanding the Canadian government exert pressure on the Kingdom to spare the man’s life.

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Riyadh Thirty criminal suspects of various nationalities have been arrested

Authorities raided 19 homes in a predawn operation in the capital’s Al-Faisaliyah district, netting over 30 suspected drug traffickers.
“The element of surprise was a crucial factor in the raid,” a spokesperson for Riyadh police said.
The police said the order to conduct the raids was given by Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman after authorities received information that dozens of homes there were used as shelters for covered up drug smuggling operations. “Thirty criminal suspects of various nationalities have been arrested,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, the raid netted a number of (other) suspects wanted for various crimes and drug offenses.”
Police seized a large number of narcotic pills (probably Captagon) and hashish in the raid.

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Leonard Trujillo extradited to face charges of conspiring to kill convicted Greenwich real estate developer Kissel

Leonard Trujillo, 21, of 63-13 Outlook Drive, Worcester, did not enter a plea at his brief arraignment yesterday in state Superior Court in Stamford, where he was represented by Public Defender Benjamin Aponte. In requesting a $1 million bond, Assistant State Attorney Paul Ferencek told Judge Robin Pavia that Trujillo was a U.S. Army veteran who had served 10 months in a military prison on a unrelated crime and is unemployed. "He has no connection to the state of Connecticut, and we feel the level of bond is appropriate," Ferencek said. Aponte did not object to the bond but reserved the right to seek a reduction at a later date. Trujillo and his cousin, Carlos Trujillo, 47, Kissel's longtime personal assistant, were arrested last weekend and charged with conspiring to kill Kissel, whose body was discovered in his Greenwich mansion April 3, 2006. Pavia has sealed warrants for both men, and police have not revealed a motive for the killing. Yesterday, Leonard Trujillo's relatives walked briskly out of the courthouse, shielding their faces as they were trailed by a crowd of reporters and cameramen.
"We just want to deal with this right now," one of them said. "Please respect
us enough to stay away from us right now."
Trujillo was arrested at about 8 a.m. Saturday in his Worcester home.
Police charged Leonard Trujillo with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Carlos Trujillo, of Bridgeport, was arrested Friday night in Stratford and has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. He is being held on $1 million bond and is scheduled to appear again today in state Superior Court, according to the criminal clerk. Lindy Urso, the Stamford-based attorney for Carlos Trujillo, yesterday said he had reviewed the warrant for his client, but declined to comment.
"I'll just say Carlos remains adamant that he is innocent and had nothing to do with this," Urso said. During the hearing yesterday, Pavia said she will unseal Carlos Trujillo's arrest warrant at his appearance April 3, and Leonard Trujillo's at his court appearance scheduled for the next day.
Kissel was facing up to eight years in federal prison for mortgage fraud, and his sentencing was set three days after his body was discovered.
Kissel admitted using false documents to get millions in loan from banks and other institutions, presenting himself as the owner of the properties used to secure the loans. Yesterday, Chief David Ridberg said that police continue to investigate the murder, with more arrests possible.Andrew Kissel's brother died in the infamous “Milkshake Murder”, when his wife served him a strawberry drink laced with sedatives before bludgeoning him with a statuette in their flat in Hong Kong.
A year later Andrew Kissel himself was found, bound to a chair and gagged, in a pool of blood in his Connecticut mansion. Now police have arrested his chauffeur and the chauffeur's cousin for a killing that could prove even more bizarre than the Milkshake Murder: detectives are considering the possibility that this was a case of “suicide-for-hire”, in which Mr Kissel, 46, arranged his own death so that relatives could benefit from an insurance payout. Mr Kissel, whose body was found in April 2006, was once a property tycoon who owned a $3 million (£1.5 million) yacht, a jet, a ski chalet in Vermont and a fleet of classic sports cars. But his life had been ruined by charges that he embezzled $3.9 million from the Park Avenue building where he lived and served as treasurer. His wife, Hayley, a stock analyst and former mogul skiing world champion, had left him and he was about to plead guilty to multimillion-dollar fraud charges that could have sent him to jail for a decade. With creditors circling, his main asset was a $15 million life insurance policy benefiting his children, Ruth, then 8, and Dara, 6. In making the arrests, police offered no motive for Mr Kissel's murder. But investigators refused to rule out an extraordinary “suicide-for-hire”. “If it ends up being the case, that's fine,” David Ridberg, the Greenwich police chief, told a press conference. “If it doesn't end up being the case, that's fine, too.” He said that the suspects would face murder charges and could not use “suicide-for-hire” as a defence. Carlos Trujillo, 47, who served as Mr Kissel's personal assistant and chauffeur for six years until the day of his death, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder in nearby Stratford, Connecticut. His cousin, Leonard Trujillo, 21, was arrested at his home in Massachusetts. Police said that Carlos Trujillo, a Colombian immigrant, had been top of their list of suspects from the start. “The information we had in the beginning was that he was the last one to see him alive so that seemed a natural place to start,” Mr Ridberg said.
The Hartford Courant reported that Mr Kissel had used the Trujillo family in financial transactions to hide his dwindling assets from creditors and his estranged wife. As he was led out of police headquarters in handcuffs, Carlos Trujillo was asked if he had killed his former boss. “No, I didn't,” he replied.
“I think Carlos is here because he is the easiest suspect,” Lindy Urso, his lawyer, told reporters. The 2003 killing of Mr Kissel's younger brother, Robert, a Hong Kong-based investment banker, mesmerised the former British colony with revelations of his cocaine use and online searches for gay sex and bondage. His wife, Nancy, was jailed for life. Andrew Kissel and his wife took in the couple's three children until their marriage also collapsed.

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Finnish man stabbed to death in Pattaya, Thailand

A 64-year-old Finnish man was stabbed to death in Pattaya, Thailand, late on Monday night. As reported in the local daily Pattaya Daily News, the man was found assaulted in his room in the Grand Condotel Hotel near Jomtien Beach. The man had been stabbed over fifty times. He died of his injuries in hospital. According to the Finnish late-edition tabloid Ilta-Sanomat, the Thai police suspect two local Thai men of the attack. The men had forced their way into the Finnish man’s room. According to the Pattaya Daily News, the man had managed to drag himself onto his balcony to call for help. As a leg amputee, the man suffered from restricted mobility.A woman living in the next-door room heard the man’s cries and called for assistance.There were plenty of signs of struggle in the man's room, and a 30-centimetre-long knife was found. According to an eyewitness, a young woman had stayed over in the room and then left.The Finnish man lived in Pattaya with his Thai wife. At the time of the stabbing the wife was in Bangkok.The Finnish Ambassador to Bangkok Lars Backström verifies the information of the Finnish man’s death. The Thai police are looking into the case as manslaughter.
"As far as I know, the police have not arrested anyone yet", Backström reported on Tuesday. The Embassy has informed the man’s next of kin of the tragedy.
According to Backström, around half a dozen foreigners have been killed in Thailand since the beginning of the year. The latest incident took place just over a week ago in Phuket, where a 27-year-old Swedish female tourist was stabbed to death on the beach.Prior to Monday's case, the most recent violent death of a Finnish tourist in Thailand happened in 2003, when a 31-year-old man was knifed at the conclusion of an attempted mugging.

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Danny Ware just broke your car window

Danny Ware, 39, of Winkelman, Ariz., was being held without bond Sunday in Lake County Jail. He was arrested Friday on preliminary charges of auto theft, fleeing, resisting law enforcement, driving with a suspended license and criminal mischief.
Ware walked into a Gary police station Friday and said he was afraid gang-bangers had followed him from a bus station in Chicago to the Gary bus terminal, said Gary police Cmdr. Samuel Roberts. Ware asked for a police escort back to the bus station, and Cpl. Jeffery Patrick prepared to give him a ride.
Roberts said there was no evidence Ware was being pursued by anyone, and officers were concerned about his mental stability.
While Patrick left his car running and locked outside the police station and went inside to talk to desk workers, Ware broke out a car window with a fire extinguisher and drove away, Roberts said.''One of the desk workers yelled, 'He just broke your car window,' '' Roberts said.Ware surrendered and was arrested in LaPorte County about 40 minutes after he took the car, when he saw police had put stop sticks out that would have burst the squad car's tires, police said.
Roberts said department officials will investigate why the squad car was left locked and running, which he said is against procedure even though some officers have two sets of keys.''Vehicles are not allowed to be left running and unattended,'' he said. ''The patrol commander will be looking into the matter as to why this occurred.''

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Yair Klein Israeli merc wanted by Colombian government

The lawyer of an Israeli mercenary wanted by Colombian authorities for allegedly training guerrillas has appealed against a Moscow court decision to extradite him to Colombia.The appeal against the court's decision has been sent to the Russian Supreme Court. "In the appeal, the defense is asking to overrule the Moscow City Court's decision," the court's spokesperson said on Friday.
Earlier this month the Moscow City Court approved a decision by the Russian prosecutor general's office to extradite Yair Klein to Colombia.
Klein, a former Israeli army officer, was convicted in 2001 in absentia and sentenced to 10 years in prison for training far-right paramilitary groups in the South American country. He was also accused of working as a mercenary for Pablo Escobar's Medellin drug cartel in the 1980s.
The Israeli mercenary was detained after a tip-off from Interpol at a Moscow airport as he was about to fly to Israel last August. Russia's Interior Ministry said Klein changed his passport data to get through passport control in many countries without difficulty.

The Colombian government, which had made unsuccessful attempts to obtain his extradition from Israel, asked Russian authorities to detain and extradite Klein.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had met her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov two months prior to his arrest and asked him to hand Klein over to Israel.

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Sebastian Horsley denied entry to the U.S.My one concession to American sensibilities was to remove my nail polish

British writer and self-styled dandy Sebastian Horsley has been denied entry to the U.S. after arriving to promote his memoir of sex, drugs and flamboyant fashion.Horsley said Thursday that he was questioned for eight hours Tuesday by border officials at Newark airport in New Jersey before being denied entry on grounds of "moral turpitude."Horsley, 45, was travelling to New York for the U.S. launch of "Dandy in the Underworld," his account of a life dedicated to sex, drugs and finely tailored clothes."They knew more about me than I did," Horsley said Thursday from his London home. "They said, 'We know you're a heroin addict, we know you're a crack addict, we know you're involved in prostitution.' "Lucille Cirillo, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed Horsley had been refused entry."We interviewed the individual extensively and the CBP officers decided he was not admissible under the visa waiver program" which entitles citizens of some countries - mostly in the European Union - to enter the country for business or leisure without applying for a visa.Travellers can be refused entry if they admit on a customs form to being convicted of a crime or to being addicted to narcotics, Cirillo said. She declined to specify what responses Horsley listed on the form.
Horsley's book - billed as an "unauthorized autobiography" - vividly recounts years of heavy drug use and frequent visits to prostitutes. He says he has been drug-free for three years.He said his only conviction stemmed from an arrest 25 years ago for possession of amphetamine sulfate, for which he was given a conditional discharge. He said he has visited the U.S. seven or eight times without incident.
"Dandy in the Underworld" was released in Britain last year to good reviews. The Independent newspaper said the book "entertains as much as it revolts, is as tender as it is shocking."Carrie Kania, of the book's U.S. publisher Harper Perennial, said the book was "a cautionary tale of a life lived vividly."
"It is unfortunate that his voice, in person, is being stifled. But the book will live on," Kania said.Horsley achieved his greatest notoriety in 2000 when he had himself crucified in the Philippines as part of an art project.
His agent's website calls Horsley an "English eccentric" in the tradition of Lord Byron and Oscar Wilde. He thinks U.S. attitudes to eccentricity may have hardened since Wilde went there on a triumphant lecture tour in 1882, famously telling customs officials he had "nothing to declare but my genius."
"I was dressed flamboyantly - top hat, long velvet coat, gloves," Horsley said. "My one concession to American sensibilities was to remove my nail polish. I thought that would get me through."

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William MacAllistYou can't be a little pregnant and you also can't be a little involved in criminality. You're either in it all the way or you're not.

William MacAllister said as much this morning during a National Parole Board hearing at a federal corrections institution in Laval where he was questioned about why he has spent much of his 65 years behind bars. The panel of two parole board members, Odette Gravel-Dunberry and Gilles Roussel, granted MacAllister full parole, a freedom he hasn't experienced in 15 years. Gravel-Dunberry, the NPB's regional vice-chairman in Quebec, described it as "a major decision." This is in part because MacAllister, who received a life sentence for his role in the September 1973 holdup of a Brink's armoured truck, violated his parole twice before.
Claude Vienneau, 35, a Brink's guard, was shot and killed during the $270,000 robbery. Another Brink's guard was wounded. MacAllister was convicted by a jury who found him guilty of attempted murder. During the late 1970s, MacAllister was at the forefront of several protests for inmates' rights. He also let the parole board down twice. He was paroled in 1981 but was convicted of drug smuggling in 1987. In 1994, he was deported to the U.S. for conspiring to smuggle 5,000 kilograms of cocaine into Canada through Florida, all while he was out on parole for a second time.
"We believe there are some changes," Gravel-Dunberry said today. "We believe you are motivated to change your life and stay out of prison."
While MacAllister went over the long history of his criminal ways he said he no longer recognized Montreal's organized crime scene. Before the fatal bank robbery MacAllister's criminal associates were a tight-knit group of like-minded people. He had grown up hoping to be a professional hockey player but admired the gangsters from his neighbourhood.
"Back then, they were your friends, people you could trust," MacAllister said of the robbers he committed crimes with.
Tougher sentencing made the prospect of robbing banks very unattractive by the time MacAllister was first released in 1981. By then organized crime in the city changed its focus towards drug trafficking.
"Now it's all about backstabbing. It's cut-throat and full of liars. It's garbage," said MacAllister who still insists he was roped into his last conviction by a Quebec lawyer he claims was working as a police informant.
In that case he was extradited to the U.S. for conspiring to smuggle 5,000 kilograms of cocaine into Canada through Florida and served eight years behind bars in U.S. penitentiaries, which he describes as much tougher than those in Canada.
He returned to Canada in 2002 but was immediately arrested when he arrived because of his life sentence.Since then he has been granted leave privileges and was released on day parole last year. According to Correctional Service Canada, MacAllister no longer associates with known criminals and he recently married. But before granting MacAllister full parole Roussel asked him how he will do things differently this time around.
"I will be straight up with you. If I wanted to return to criminality I would have been long gone four or five years ago," MacAllister said in an apparent reference to how he could have easily escaped while at a minimum-security institution.
"You can't be a little pregnant and you also can't be a little involved in criminality. You're either in it all the way or you're not. I am no longer involved in criminality."

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custom built terminator model vehicle complete with gadgets designed to deter arrest.

Police in Mexico have come across a new weapon being used by the country's drug cartels - a custom built terminator model vehicle complete with gadgets designed to deter arrest.
The car was abandoned by the gang members after a shoot-out. The police and army sent to fight Mexico's drug cartels have seen most things - sophisticated rocket launchers, powerful assault rifles and gold-plated pistols. But in the northern state of Tamaulipas even they were shocked to come across a Jeep Grande Cherokee kitted out with its own anti-police gadgets. Inside was a smoke machine and a device to spray spikes onto the road behind - the purpose to make a getaway easier and stop the car from being followed. Mexico is plagued by drug-related gang violence
It is not known if the gadgets were ever used. The vehicle was abandoned after being rammed into a military truck. Those in the Jeep threw a hand grenade before making their escape.

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Nai Yin Xue arrived in New Zealand under US guard

Nai Yin Xue, 53, appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday almost six months after sparking an international manhunt.He fled to the United States after abandoning his three-year-old daughter, Qian Xun Xue — nicknamed Pumpkin — at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station in September. A few days later the body of his wife, Anan Liu, 27, was found in the boot of his car outside their Auckland home.Xue was captured in the US late last month. He arrived in New Zealand under US guard early yesterday and was charged with his wife's murder.
Looking tired, he stood impassively in the dock. He was not required to enter a plea but occasionally nodded during the short hearing.
Prosecutors dropped a charge of unlawful removal of Qian Xun from her mother.
Judge Eddie Paul remanded Xue and adjourned proceedings to Wednesday next week to give defence lawyer Chris Comesky time to consult with his client. Mr Comesky said the impact of the wide media interest on Xue's right to a fair trial might need to be taken into account."There are obviously going to be difficulties," he said.
Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott, who led the investigation of Ms Liu's death, said further charges against Xue would be considered.

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Organised criminal gangs are policing parts of the internet

Organised criminal gangs are policing parts of the internet to stop hackers interrupting lucrative global scams, it has been claimed.Hi-tech fraudsters are shutting down electronic troublemakers before they can hamper their illegal trade, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said.Sharon Lemon, who is deputy director responsible for e-crime, said the vast majority of criminals operating on the internet are motivated by money.A previous generation of "show-offs" who created programmes aimed at simply causing widespread damage to networks are dying out.
One of the best known examples was the "I Love You" worm, a type of self-replicating computer programme, which caused huge damage worldwide in 2000.Mrs Lemon said some cheats act as online enforcers in ways that mirror territorial criminal gangs.In an interview ahead of a London cyber-crime conference next week, she said: "Almost everything to do with online crime now is to do with money. Criminals, in a way, are policing the environment from the people who used to spread worms because they need the internet to be working."Mrs Lemon said there is anecdotal evidence that some criminals are paying for computer boffins to go through university to keep a step ahead of their competitors.She said her staff and colleagues in police forces worldwide are monitoring secretive online chatrooms where criminals meet to exchange information.Police specialists, government officials and businesses from 35 countries will meet in London next week to discuss the latest efforts to combat online crime.

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Attack on the toddler in Valhalla Park has shocked Capetonians

Police have arrested a neighbour of two-year-old Randolene Fortune who died last week after being raped, allegedly by a 30-year-old family friend.Police spokesperson Superintendent Billy Jones said the man was arrested by Bishop Lavis police on Saturday at 11.30am in the Airport Industria area.He said the suspect would appear in the Bishop Lavis Magistrate's Court on Monday where he would face charges of murder and rape.The attack on the toddler in Valhalla Park on Thursday has shocked Capetonians.Jones said police had managed to speak to the suspect who told them he was too frightened to hand himself over. But he agreed to meet them in Airport Industria, where he was arrested.

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13 to 17-year-olds sold sexual services for money

Police are investigating cases where 13 to 17-year-olds sold sexual services for money - although they say that alcohol, drugs, CD's, jeans and clothes are an even more common form of payment. Around one in three underage prostitutes are boys, but as far as police know, all of the customers have been men.More and more men are buying sex from minors, reports the Helsingin Sanomat's web edition. The paper says that 178 such cases have come to the police's attention just in the past year - but that this is believed to be just the tip of the iceberg. The crime is difficult to track, as both buyer and seller are keen to keep the transaction secret. While prostitution is legal in Finland, buying sex from minors is not. Prevention or investigation of child prostitution is extremely difficult, as the deals are usually struck over the Internet, or in places where teens hang out.

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