Gérald Gallant was a contract killer at the centre of a shifting roster of gangsters accused of carrying out 28 homicides and 13 attempted murders

Gérald Gallant was a contract killer at the centre of a shifting roster of gangsters accused of carrying out 28 homicides and 13 attempted murders over three decades, peaking with Quebec's biker war from 1994 to 2002. Ten suspects were rounded up yesterday, based on evidence Mr. Gallant provided after turning informant. An 11th person facing a murder charge remained at large. In Donnacona, the news was met with stunned mutters that there was always something strange about the man. "I would see him regularly touring around the streets by bike," said Mayor André Marcoux, who lived three streets down from Mr. Gallant. "He really kept a low profile." From his unassuming redoubt near Quebec City, Mr. Gallant was in the middle of a gang war that eventually killed 160 people, police said. He and the 11 suspects targeted bikers, street gangsters and Italian mobsters with little regard for allegiance.
They also had little regard for the innocent. At least one of the dead and several of the wounded were described by police as bystanders or victims of mistaken identity. "I think this may allow me to close the circle," said Hélène Brunet, a former waitress who was shot in 2000 when a Hells Angels associate used her as a human shield. She became an outspoken critic of gangs. "It's a great relief and it restores some of your faith in justice."Hells loan shark Robert "Bob" Savard died in the attack on Ms. Brunet.
Mr. Gallant's stunning conversion from prolific hit man to police witness began in 2001, when he left his DNA at the scene of one of his final murders. But it wasn't until an RCMP tip, followed by a DNA match in 2006, that police started following him. He got wind police were onto him and fled to Europe in 2006. Months later, Swiss police snagged Mr. Gallant for credit card fraud and sent him back to Canada. In 2008, he suddenly and quietly pleaded guilty to the 2001 murder of Yvon Daigneault, a bar owner in the Laurentian town of Ste-Adèle. The plea was unusual for a man facing a tough automatic sentence of life in prison, with no chance at parole for 25 years. Police made it known Mr. Gallant claimed he had killed 26 people, but they added few details. The whiff of possible exaggeration dissipated rapidly yesterday, as police unveiled the list of 11 people charged with murder, including one-time leaders and members of competing Quebec gangs. Lieutenant François Doré, a senior provincial police spokesman, refused to say if a deal was struck with Mr. Gallant, who is not currently charged with any other crimes. Gang expert and author Julian Sher said some deal may be in the works, but hired killers occasionally seek to settle accounts. "I wouldn't call it conscience, but there is an element of wanting to clear the air, or wanting to get back at past masters," he said.Some arrested suspects, such as Frédéric Faucher, a former leader of the Rock Machine, and Raymond Desfossés, an alleged high-ranking member of the West End Gang, are alleged to have ordered hits. One of the more prominent dead was Paul Cotroni, the son of Montreal mob boss Frank Cotroni, who died in 1998.

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Alexis Aguilar fatally shot a man in the back on March 4, 2007, after confronting him in Acosta Plaza.

Alexis Aguilar fatally shot a man in the back on March 4, 2007, after confronting him in Acosta Plaza. Authorities said the man was walking with his 10-year-old son and was shot in the back as he tried to run away.Judge Timothy Roberts, who presided over both of the defendant’s jury trials, sentenced Aguilar to six years for the gang charge with use of a firearm, one life term for first-degree murder and one life term for the use of a firearm causing death.
Aguilar will not be eligible for parole until he has served 56 years.The victim's family was present and the father of the victim addressed the court. On behalf of his family, the father expressed his great sorrow and sadness over the brutal slaying of his son.

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Kevin Gary was arrested and charged with gang conspiracy,he was a member of a local Bloods gang called Tree Top Piru

Kevin Gary was arrested and charged with gang conspiracy,he was a member of a local Bloods gang called Tree Top Piru, known for his signature red contact lenses and for dealing drugs, according to a statement of facts he signed as part of his January guilty plea agreement.On Friday, during an emotionally charged hearing, he was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.Gary's family and friends asked to be heard, passing a microphone through the courtroom, outlining his acts of kindness. They knew Gary as the young man who took neighborhood children to the swimming pool and volunteered at the Rose Street Community Center. They didn't know the "monster" portrayed in court."They see past the bandanna, past the red contacts … past all of that. They just see me," Gary, 27, said to the judge. "[The prosecutor] spilled everything I did wrong, so my family spilled everything I did right."Gary was once held up as the face of gang life in Maryland, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason M. Weinstein said, referring to a 2007 Baltimore Sun story in which Gary said gangs are unfairly portrayed and that they give youth structure and uplift the community."Nothing could be further from the truth," Weinstein said. "If [kids] follow in those footsteps, those footsteps will lead right here."In his January plea agreement, Gary admitted witness intimidation, ordering gang members to rob drug dealers and unsuccessfully arranging a murder. But that's not the Gary his supporters described.Clayton Guyton, director of the Rose Street Community Center, said Gary was someone who cared deeply about his neighborhood and worked to make it a safer place. He bought school supplies for children and spoke to church youth groups, his mother said. He was "just a kid who made a mistake," his father said.They saw him as a victim of the system, someone who never had a chance."The anger is understandable because this is someone they love, and he's getting ready to go to jail for a long time," said U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles.But Gary has a duty to strike down their belief that "their government is railroading them," the judge added. "Mr. Gary has some responsibility to them to [help] them understand the truth."

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Philip Collopy footage of the shooting he had taken on his mobile phone

Philip Collopy, 29, a top member of a feared feuding gang in Limerick, apparently didn’t realise his Glock 9mm pistol was loaded when he pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger. Investigating gardai were able to rule out any foul play in the death almost immediately after one of his associates handed over footage of the shooting he had taken on his mobile phone. Five or six people at the party were all being “unusually fully co-operative” because they didn’t want to be done for the killing, said one Garda source. Detectives believe Collopy, whose gang has been targeted by Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), was messing about with associates at his friend’s house in the early hours of Saturday morning when he unwittingly killed himself. It is believed there were drink and drugs taken at the party. One of the men in the house, in troubled Limerick housing estate St Mary’s Park, ran outside for help and alerted two officers on patrol from the Garda’s armed Regional Support Unit, set up last year to tackle gangland violence in the city.
But despite their efforts in taking him to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, he died when his life-support machine was switched off at the weekend. Collopy, who had a partner and several children, was a senior figure in the notorious Keane-Collopy crime gang, which has been locked in a murderous feud with arch-rivals, the Dundon-McCarthy faction. Both sides were in talks last year to secure a ceasefire after an escalation in the eight-year bloody turf war. Collopy was a suspect in the murder in 2000 of criminal Eddie Ryan, whose family then forged strong links with the Dundon-McCarthy faction. Ireland's CAB, which was set up after the gangland killing of journalist Veronica Guerin, last year seized a house, two cars and a substantial amount of cash from Collopy’s gang

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Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi president of one of the nation's strongest outlaw motorcycle gangs the Comanchero

Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi president of one of the nation's strongest outlaw motorcycle gangs the Comanchero.He is married with two children, reportedly owns a number of properties and is, in the words of one friend, "f. . .ing loaded". And, as president of one of the nation's strongest outlaw motorcycle gangs the Comanchero, Hawi is very, very powerful. It is a power he wielded yesterday when he publicly appealed for bikies to stop the violence. His position put him in physical danger at Sydney airport on Sunday when, according to bikie sources, he was caught up in a brawl and stabbed in the arm. Hawi is said to be extremely careful about his personal security, travelling in bulletproof cars. In November 2007, Hawi was inches from death when a car he was travelling in was hit by bullets outside Grappa Ristorante in Norton St, Leichardt. It was about 2pm on the busy Italian restaurant strip when two men pumped up to 10 shots into an Audi and a Mazda as they sped away. The story goes that a bullet lodged itself in Hawi's headrest. Hawi was allegedly the main target, the other being his right-hand man Daux Ngakuru. A court was told neither man gave a statement to police. Silence is the bikie code. Hawi's profile is lower than his contemporaries, including Rebels president Alex Vella and Nomads president Scott Orrock. Both are frequently in the news - almost always in their colours or on a motorcycle. Hawi is slightly glamorous. He takes great care with his grooming and his clothes and jewellery are expensive. "He is very, very smart and people are jealous. He's f. . .ing loaded, he's got properties all over the place," one associate said. Beirut-born Hawi is rumoured to live in Brighton-Le-Sands but keeps his actual address secret. His crew is largely based in the Brighton-Le-Sands area.
He has been a driving force behind the trend of bringing young men of Middle Eastern backgrounds into the bikie fold. Following the Cronulla riots in 2005, he appealed for calm and met with the Bra Boys. Whether this public appeal works will have very real consequences for Hawi himself, his Comanchero crew and for the Sydney public at large.

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30 chapels devoted to “Saint Death” - a figure that is worshipped by drug traffickers - in the northern city of Nuevo Laredo

Mexican federal authorities used bulldozers to bring down more than 30 chapels devoted to “Saint Death” - a figure that is worshipped by drug traffickers - in the northern city of Nuevo Laredo, the daily Reforma reported Wednesday.The image of the saint is a skeleton dressed and adorned as a woman, and is not based on any particular Roman Catholic saint. Many criminals, but also people without a criminal record and even police officers, have taken it as their patron saint.

Although the figure is venerated by people from many walks of life, the saint has been adopted by drug gangs. In recent years, there has been a proliferation around Mexico in the construction of such chapels - varying in size from small shrines to larger buildings - from materials including brick, marble, iron and tiles.

They use Roman Catholic symbolism and ceremonies, although the formal church rejects worship of “Saint Death” as a pagan tradition and the authorities have long removed the tradition from the list of the country’s religious associations. In Mexico City, there is even a sanctuary and a so-called bishop - a man with no known ties to drug trafficking - for worship of “Saint Death.”According to the report in Reforma, the chapels that were destroyed in Nuevo Laredo were on an access road to the city. One was a two-floor building and featured a 2-metre-tall image of Saint Death.The owner of one of the altars told reporters that he had spent some 13,700 dollars to build it and decorate it.“When you go in or out of Nuevo Laredo you see these chapels, which are most impressive, spectacular, but people constantly complain that they give the impression that this is a place for criminals,” an unidentified official source told the daily, to explain the decision.
More than 6,300 people were killed last year in Mexico in incidents linked to organized crime and drug trafficking. The authorities have massively deployed soldiers and federal police officers to combat crime.

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Manuel Marquez, also known as Morro, was sentenced after pleading guilty in December to a pattern of racketeering activity that included murder

Manuel Marquez, also known as Morro, was sentenced after pleading guilty in December to a pattern of racketeering activity that included murder, attempted murder and witness tampering.Marquez is the last of the defendants to be sentenced on the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO.Fourteen gang members were indicted and charged in January 2007 with racketeering conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, assault, weapons charges and obstruction of justice.
Marquez admitted to planning and participating in several 2006 shootings. He also stated that he and other gang members shot and killed two rival gang members sitting inside a car at a traffic light, and that he and another gang member shot a rival gang member several times in the back at Percy Priest Lake outside Nashville.
Ronald Fuentes, the leader of Nashville's MS-13 gang, which is also known as La Mara Salvatrucha, will serve life in prison.The MS-13 is one of the nation's most notorious gangs. They are primarily from El Salvador or of Salvadoran descent.

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Mahmoud Dib , 27, had been charged with six firearm offences after a semi-automatic pistol was found in a car connected to him, police said.

Mahmoud Dib , 27, had been charged with six firearm offences after a semi-automatic pistol was found in a car connected to him, police said. He was also being investigated in relation to a string of drive-by shootings.Superintendent Angelo Memmolo said tests were under way to determine if the gun had been used in a spate of shootings at houses and cars in Sydney's western suburbs last week. Police said another incident occurred on Monday night, when four shots were fired at a house. No one was injured and there have been no arrests.The shootings are believed to be part of a dispute between the Bandidos and a gang called Notorious. Police said shots were fired into Dib's house on 16 March and they suspect some of the attacks have been reprisals.A standing state commission into organised crime opened a new investigation into biker violence today following the airport brawl.The men the airport shortly after Anthony Zervas, 29, the brother of a well-known Sydney biker, was struck with metal poles. He died in hospital.Biker gangs have existed in Australia since the late 1960s and turf battles have ebbed and flowed. Gang members are often accused of being involved in drugs, although gang leaders deny involvement in organised crime and say they cannot control individual actions.With the exception of a full-blown gun battle in a Sydney car park in 1984 between Bandidos and Comancheros, most violence had been largely out of the public eye.According to Arthur Veno, the author of the 2004 book The Brotherhoods: Inside the Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, the emergence in the past few years of Notorious has contributed to an escalation of violence and a worrying trend of indifference to the safety of bystanders. Notorious was a shadowy group that modelled itself structurally on a biker gang but was more involved in crime that motorcycles, Veno said.Rudd and the New South Wales premier, Nathan Rees, said tougher laws against gang violence would be considered in the coming months and the federal home affairs minister, Bob Debus, said airport security would be reviewed.

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Gangster Philip Collopy (29) from St Mary's Park, Limerick is in the city's Mid-Western Regional Hospital where he has been since he shot himself

Gangster Philip Collopy (29) from St Mary's Park, Limerick is in the city's Mid-Western Regional Hospital where he has been since he shot himself in the head on Saturday morning.The career criminal shot himself with a glock handgun at close range in a house at St Munchin's Street, St Mary's Park. He had been inspecting the gun and removed the loaded magazine from it while handling it. However, he failed to realise a bullet was still in the chamber before he discharged the weapon while it was pointed at his head.A youth alerted members of the armed Regional Support Unit who were on patrol in the estate and told them that an ambulance was needed for the wounded man.A glock handgun and three magazines were recovered from the scene. Eight bullets were recovered from the magazine which Collopy removed from the gun before he shot himself.Gardai have put the shooting down to misadventure. Officers are investigating the source of the firearm. It will be forensically examined to see if it was used in any of the feud-related shootings in the city.Collopy's younger brother, Damien was in the house at the time and was treated for shock.Brothers, Ray and Kieran travelled back from Spain to be at their brother's bedside.

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Henry Hill,mobster-turned-FBI informant, former North Platte resident, whose life inspired the movie "Goodfellas" is wanted

mobster-turned-FBI informant, former North Platte resident, whose life inspired the movie "Goodfellas" is wanted for failing to appear in court on tickets alleging he was drunk in public in San Bernardino.Henry Hill, 65, made quite a splash in North Platte after he moved here and presented a menu for a local Italian restaurant, Firefly.Hill faces two $25,000 arrest warrants. He says he wasn't aware he needed to be present in court Wednesday and had asked for a new hearing date because he was having hernia surgery."I was hoping the court would understand," Hill told The Press-Enterprise of Riverside from his San Fernando Valley home.The cases stem from two public intoxication arrests in May 2008. Hill said he was in alcohol rehabilitation at the time.Hill was again arrested in Los Angeles earlier this year and released before his arraignment because of jail crowding."I don't remember much of all that, but I've been sober a month now," he told the newspaper. "I don't want to drink anymore."The "Goodfellas" movie ends with Hill, played by Ray Liotta, entering federal witness protection after implicating fellow mobsters in murders and the 1978 heist of $5.8 million in cash from a Lufthansa Airlines vault in New York.Drug arrests led to Hill being removed from the federal program in the early 1990s.
The infamous mobster whose life story resulted in the movie “Goodfellas,” was charged in Lincoln County Court with multiple crimes during the time he lived here.
He was found guilty of possession of methamphetamine and numerous of counts of assault. After an argument with his estranged wife, Kelly, Hill then got into an argument with the former manager of the bar, Dale Norblad, who ordered Hill to leave. Hill repeatedly threatened bar patrons, brandished knives at his wife and others and allegedly cut the tires of his enemies. Drunk most of the time, Hill wore out his welcome in North Platte and spent more than six months in the Lincoln County jail. He fled after he was released for treatment in 2007. Hill has disappointed prosecutors before.By the time his story came out in the movie “GoodFellas” in 1990, Hill had been kicked out of the witness protection program. Since then, he has been convicted of drunken driving in Washington, where he and his second wife, Kelly, formerly lived. But Hill has been able to maintain a life of celebrity based on Scorese’s movie. Hill lived in North Platte several years, published a popular cookbook and helped design an Italian food menu for The Firefly restaurant. He also marketed his Sunday Gravy marinara sauce.'Goodfellas' ranks best in Brit mag's movie list Martin Scorsese's classic mobster movie "Goodfellas" is the greatest film of all time, according to experts at a British film magazine. The 1990 film, which is based on the exploits of real-life gangster Henry Hill and stars Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci - who won an Academy Award for his performance - was No. 1 in a Total Film magazine list published Monday. "'Goodfellas' has it all," the magazine said, "story, dialogue, performances, technique. It is slick, arguably the slickest film ever made. But it is also considered, layered and freighted with meaning."

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Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg disappeared in January 2004 after leaving their homes in Torrevieja, Alicante.

Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg were two of the most ruthless and violent criminals ever involved in the Irish gangland scene.
Their Westies gang, based in the Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown, controlled a massive drugs empire in west Dublin in the late 1990s and early years of this decade. "These guys could go from being calm to high-order violence like the flick of a switch. They were real psychopaths," said a retired garda who investigated their activities.Drug users who bought from anybody else in their area were often being beaten or tortured. Street dealers who agreed to sell for other gangs were also dealt with in a similar fashion.
In 1999, heroin addict Derek 'Smiley' McGuinness was severely beaten and had his face sliced open with a Stanley knife because he couldn't pay a small debt. A middle-aged addict had her breasts cut with a knife and cigarettes stubbed out on her body. Another addict was thrown off a balcony in the Ballymun flats. Miraculously, he survived.The gang's outrageous violence and drug dealing quickly saw their members becoming priority targets for the gardai.
Coates was ambushed by armed officers at a safe house in Co Cavan in 2003.He received a gunshot injury in the ensuing shootout, but was able to escape across the fields and eventually made it to Spain, where he was later joined by Sugg.
They later disappeared in January 2004 after leaving their homes in Torrevieja, Alicante.Their bodies were found in July 2006 when their skeletal remains were discovered buried in concrete under a warehouse in Catral, near Alicante.

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"Crazy Charles," Charles Carneglia, 62, sat stone-faced as the jurors delivered a split decision after nearly four days of deliberations

Charles Carneglia, 62, sat stone-faced as the jurors delivered a split decision after nearly four days of deliberations. They found him guilty of more than a dozen racketeering crimes, but failed to come to a decision on whether he murdered a court officer in 1976.The twin daughters of one victim, an armored-car driver killed at Kennedy Airport on Dec. 14, 1990, wept tears of relief as Carneglia was convicted of gunning down their father."They have put an animal away. This is one of the happiest days of our lives," said Mildred Delgado-Jimenez, a daughter of murdered guard José Delgado Rivera.Known as "Crazy Charles," Carneglia was also convicted of carrying out a hit on wiseguy Louis DiBono, who refused to attend a meeting called by Gotti in October 1990.Carneglia was also convicted of stabbing to death mob underlings Michael Cotillo, 25, and Salvatore Puma, 18.But the jurors were "undecided" in the murder of Brooklyn Court Officer Albert Gelb in 1976, and cleared Carneglia on a related conspiracy charge.

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Eddie Cummiskey was a leader of the murderous Westies gang which ruled the upper West Side in the 1960s and '70s,

Clifford Cummiskey had been accused of pummeling an off-duty State Department agent in a drunken brawl outside a Ninth Ave. bar. He said it was self-defense, and that his dad's notoriety still follows him. The son of infamous Hell's Kitchen gangster Eddie (The Butcher) Cummiskey was acquitted Tuesday of beating up a federal agent.

"My last name is Cummiskey, my father was a known gangster," Cummiskey, 36, said after a Manhattan judge cleared him of a single misdemeanor assault charge. "He died 33 years ago and to this day, anytime anything happens it's the first thing [the cops] bring up."

Cummiskey, whose father was shot dead on the streets near their home, did acknowledge many past run-ins with the law, including a 1992 felony assault conviction for breaking a man's jaw and a more recent drunken driving conviction. Eddie Cummiskey was a leader of the murderous Westies gang which ruled the upper West Side in the 1960s and '70s, and which at one time was headed by Mickey Spillane - the mobster, not the novelist. Cummiskey's son was busted by cops Sept. 21 after a violent 3:30 a.m. brawl involving as many as six off-duty federal agents erupted outside Coppersmith's pub on W. 53rd St. While prosecutors charged it was Cummiskey who threw the first punch and then pounded Agent Patrick Scoggins while he bled on the sidewalk, Cummiskey's defense attorney argued his client was jumped. It may have been testimony

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Roman Vidal, age 57, allegedly smuggled millions of dollars' worth of black-market cigarettes through the Port of Miami on behalf of European gangs

Roman Vidal, age 57, allegedly smuggled millions of dollars' worth of black-market cigarettes through the Port of Miami on behalf of European gangs — including the Real IRA, which claimed responsibility for the March 7 attack on four soldiers waiting for a pizza delivery.

The brutal killings — which included execution shots to wounded victims lying on the ground — threaten to derail the peace process in Northern Ireland, with one Protestant leader warning it might signal a return to the "bad old days where people are being killed in open-air gun attacks."

Vidal fronted a freight company that imported millions of cigarettes from Panama, hid them under wood flooring and insulation in freighters at the Port of Miami, and then sent them to gangs in Dublin, according to the complaint. He has been charged with four counts of federal wire and mail fraud.In February 2006, an informant tipped off Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Miami to Vidal's scheme, and agents began watching Vidal's business and checking his shipments.They found that the previous December, Vidal had shipped 7.3 million cigarettes from Panama to Miami, purchased wood flooring at a local hardware store, and then covered the shipment with floorboards. When the cargo arrived in Dublin, Vidal's Irish contacts paid only $2,900 in tariffs and pocketed the $2.1 million they avoided in taxes.Vidal pulled an identical scheme last February, ICE agents say, shipping to the UK about 6 million Panamanian cigarettes hidden under building insulation.As agents dug into Vidal's illegal enterprise, they learned he worked for "a criminal organization that has associates operating in Spain, Ireland, and other European countries as well as in the Southern District of Florida," according to the criminal complaint.
Evidence indicates some of these associates were connected to the Real IRA.Vidal, who has pleaded not guilty and has been released on house arrest, could not be reached for comment.

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"El Chapo," Joaquin Guzman heads the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel

"El Chapo," Joaquin Guzman, 54, heads the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel. He escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001 and the United States has offered a $US5 million ($A7.69 million) reward for his capture.On Wednesday, Guzman's name was listed in Forbes magazine as the world's 701st richest person, with a reputed $US1 billion ($A1.54 billion) fortune made from trafficking in cocaine.Calderon, whose two year old war on drug traffickers has ignited a wave of violence, expressed outrage over the Forbes list."Public opinion and now even magazines not only attack and lie about the situation in Mexico, but they also extol criminals. In Mexico we consider this a crime, that is, a justification of crime," Calderon said.In a speech before the America Society and Council of the Americas, Calderon lamented "what appears to be an anti-Mexico campaign ... but that neither intimidates us nor changes one bit our firm resolve to strengthen the rule of law in Mexico."In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood denied Mexico was the target of a campaign to make it look bad."The United States government is not, you know, trying to hatch any plan against Mexico. That's just not the case," Wood said."We do have concerns about the violence on the border. There's no secret. The Mexican government's very concerned about it. It's taking steps to try to do what it can to, you know, stop this violence," he said.The Sinaloa cartel is currently engaged in a bloody turf war with the Juarez drug cartel for the control of lucrative smuggling routes along the US border, especially in Ciudad Juarez where some 1,600 people were killed in 2008.
The illegal drug trade in the United States, the world's top cocaine consumer, has netted Mexican and Colombian drug cartels between $US18 billion ($A27.68 billion) and $US39 billion ($A59.96 billion) last year, 20 per cent of which, according to Forbes, was handled by Guzman's gang.Guzman was arrested in Guatemala in June 1993 and transferred to a Mexican prison, but in 2001 staged a dramatic escape hiding inside a laundry truck and has been at large ever since.He has been on a US wanted list since 1993 on charges he smuggled six tonnes of cocaine inside a shipment of canned goods through the border city of Tecate, in Baja California.He is also been accused of building a network of drug smuggling tunnels between Mexico and the Arizona border city of Douglas.The US Drug Enforcement Administration in 2004 raised a reward for Guzman's capture from $US3 million to $US5 million ($A4 million to $A7 million).His cartel has been under pressure from both sides of the border. Mexico in 2007 seized a 23.5 tonne cocaine shipment allegedly belonging to the Sinaloa cartel, in the country's biggest drug bust.And 52 Sinaloa members were arrested in the United States in February as part of the joint US-Mexico "Operation Xcellerator," which has taken into custody 750 people in the past 21 months.Guzman was arrested in Guatemala in June 1993 and transferred to a Mexican prison, but in 2001 staged a dramatic escape hiding inside a laundry truck and has been at large ever since.
He has been on a US wanted list since 1993 on charges he smuggled six tonnes of cocaine inside a shipment of canned goods through the border city of Tecate, in Baja California.He is also been accused of building a network of drug smuggling tunnels between Mexico and the Arizona border city of Douglas.The US Drug Enforcement Administration in 2004 raised a reward for Guzman's capture from $US3 million to $US5 million ($A4 million to $A7 million).His cartel has been under pressure from both sides of the border. Mexico in 2007 seized a 23.5 tonne cocaine shipment allegedly belonging to the Sinaloa cartel, in the country's biggest drug bust.And 52 Sinaloa members were arrested in the United States in February as part of the joint US-Mexico "Operation Xcellerator," which has taken into custody 750 people in the past 21 months.

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Giovanni Strangio is wanted by investigators in Italy over a multiple killing at Duisburg in Germany two years ago

Giovanni Strangio is wanted by investigators in Italy over a multiple killing at Duisburg in Germany two years ago that earned comparisons with the infamous St Valentine's Day Massacre in ­prohibition-era Chicago. Six people, including a 17-year-old boy, were shot dead outside a restaurant where they were suspected of celebrating an initiation into the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia of the poor, southern Italian region of Calabria. Police in Italy said 29-year-old Strangio was found living in the centre of Amsterdam with his wife and son. His brother-in-law, Francesco Romeo, was also arrested. Though Strangio was placed on Italy's most-wanted list over the murders in Germany, the story behind the killings led back to the small but notorious hillside town of San Luca, in Calabria, often described as the spiritual home of the 'Ndrangheta. Its clans have for years been bloodily divided by a feud in which Strangio's family was a prime actor. Investigators believe he assembled the four-man hit squad that struck in Duisburg to avenge the Christmas Day killing in 2006 of his cousin Maria Strangio. She is thought to have been killed unintentionally in an ambush primarily directed at her husband, the leader of one of the two factions in the gang war that has rent San Luca and upset the internal workings of the 'Ndrangheta. The Calabrian mafia, which many police and prosecutors believe has overtaken the Cosa Nostra to become Italy's top crime syndicate, controls much of the cocaine trafficking into Europe from Latin America.
Police said wiretaps on telephones used by Strangio's relatives had provided vital clues to his whereabouts. He was an early suspect having been arrested and later released after being found in possession of a weapon at his cousin's funeral. His photograph was later recognised by an eyewitness to the killings and a gun shop worker who said he had sold him four flak jackets

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www.colingunn.net – gives his address as HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire.

Bestwood gang leader, who is serving 35 years, will use the site to "restore positive thoughts" about him.Gunn has already used it to attack "rumours and hearsay" in the media, saying he will "tackle head-on" any allegations against him.
But Notts Police Authority chairman Coun John Clarke said: "It's highly unusual that any prisoner can set up anything like this."I will certainly be asking questions about this with our Police Minister Vernon Coaker MP and the Home Secretary."
North MP Graham Allen said he would check whether the site broke prison service rules."I will be raising it with the relevant authorities to see whether this is a legitimate thing to do," he said.A handwritten letter from Gunn, dated February 25, appears to have been scanned and posted online by someone outside the prison.
In it, Gunn said: "I might not have the writing skills of those reporters or access to their resources and readerships, but I hope, after all the negativity, to restore some positive thoughts of me in the minds of people that call me a friend.
"We will see exactly who has been 'hoodwinked' because it's time for the authorities and the gutter press to put up or shut up."Watch this space everyone, I will never give in and will fight anything in front of me 100%."Gunn was jailed in 2006 for masterminding the revenge murders of John and Joan Stirland, who were executed in their seaside home in 2004.He was also given a nine-year sentence for using police insiders to feed him information.Gunn, 41, failed in a bid to get that conviction overturned.The website – www.colingunn.net – gives his address as HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire."As this website grows and develops over time, I hope to tackle the various stories and allegations you've no doubt read and talked about," he wrote.
"Please be patient though, as unfortunately it will be down to the establishment on how quickly I can respond to the stories or your questions."The website address is registered to Gary Sansom at a business address in Hucknall.Today Mr Sansom said he was not responsible for setting up the site and had allowed a friend to use his web space.A spokeswoman for the Prison Service said: "We are unable to prevent third parties from publishing information on other people's behalf."
All prisoners in maximum security jails may have their mail checked, but it was not possible to read every letter.Prison service rules state that prisoners are not allowed to send material in the post for publication about their own crimes "except where it consists of serious representations about conviction or sentence".
Gunn and his associates featured in Hoods, a book by freelance journalist Carl Fellstrom. The book has now sold 12,000 copies and will be released in paperback later this year.Mr Fellstrom said: "He is someone who had an ability to organise people in a very vicious way and if it's being used to gather together that support again, that's a bad thing for Bestwood."Notts Police said the website was a matter for the Prison Service.

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John Gizzi walked away from court a free man last week after a dramatic release.

John Gizzi walked away from court a free man last week after a dramatic release.
Rhyl’s “Mr Big” walked out of Mold Crown Court on Thursday under tight police security.The 36-year-old spent three years behind bars for conspiracy to supply counterfeit cigarettes and serious assaults.The man who was once described as ruling the town on threats and intimidation was due for release last December but was put behind bars for another seven years after failing to pay back £2.6m under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).An original order found Gizzi had benefited to the tune of £6.89m from his crimes.But a judge at Mold decided the £1m he had paid back was enough to secure his release, as the £2.6m figure had been calculated before the current downturn in the economy.Gizzi raised the cash by selling off his assets – including a luxury home in St Asaph, originally valued at £1.7m but eventually sold for £850,000.As well as the mansion, 20 other mortgage properties were sold, and a Rolex watch.Four number plates – JDG 1 to 4 – had also been sold along with a fleet of luxury cars including a Bentley Continental, RangeRover and a Mercedes.Judge John Rogers QC discharged the POCA confiscation order and Gizzi was formally released at about 2pm.After completing paperwork, he was covered with an umbrella, and bundled into the back of his parents' RangeRover Vogue, just after 4pm.He was then driven across the road to The Glasfryn public house where he was joined by family members.
Gizzi’s trial in 2006 heard he was a "thug" and "bully" who assaulted homeless people and preyed on the weak and vulnerable.A prosecution application that Gizzi should be responsible for the costs of the Crown Prosecution Service and the receiver appointed to sell the property was rejected.The judge said those costs should come out of the reduced order. But the court heard the regional asset recovery team could pursue Gizzi for more money if they thought he could afford it in the future.In 2006 Gizzi admitted two charges of causing grievous bodily harm, one of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of conspiracy to supply counterfeit cigarettes.He also asked for 22 offences of mortgage fraud – involving almost £1.5m – to be taken into consideration.

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Louis Pasquin is believed to be the first lawyer in Canada to be convicted of gangsterism.

Louis Pasquin is believed to be the first lawyer in Canada to be convicted of gangsterism.Pasquin looked shocked as he heard the verdict, which was delivered by Quebec court Judge Carol St-Cyr after nine months of deliberation.Pasquin, 49, has been a lawyer for more than 20 years and has also represented members of the Montreal Mafia.St-Cyr said Pasquin's explanations during testimony didn't hold water.
"Your testimony did not withstand analysis, is unlikely and not credible," the judge said.St-Cyr said he didn't believe Pasquin when he said he was unaware of the activities of two other men arrested in the case."The caution he used in his conversations and the cryptic language show that contrary to his assertions he knew perfectly well about their activities," St-Cyr said.Evidence at Pasquin's trial suggested he acted as a liaison between a drug ring leader and a pilot who allegedly made cocaine runs.

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Vivian Blake, ex-leader of one of the most dangerous gangs ever to hit the United States, the Shower Posse

Vivian Blake, ex-leader of one of the most dangerous gangs ever to hit the United States, the Shower Posse, (recently featured prominently in the American Gangster series on American television) said something startling.Asked if he had his life to live over again whether he would do anything different, he said, without hesitation, "No". Get a copy of that American cable show or the book written by Blake's own son to see the atrocities of which the Shower Posse was accused. Blake was insistent and stressed: "After I lost my job, I had to live. I had to live. I had my children to look after and my grandmother. I used to see her fridge empty. I had to live", by any means necessary. That is why he could say openly that he had no regrets - for anything is justifiable to live. The hosts must have been too stunned, too polite (or too afraid?) to challenge him on that reprehensible statement.
But Vivian Blake's views represent those of many Jamaicans who were never gangsters. There are many "decent", everyday Jamaicans who believe that humans should do anything to survive (except to engage in homosexuality, of course). That's the only exception they seem to have; the only thing worth dying over! In these harsh economic times, to say that you are "standing up for principle" or "morality" (who can eat that?) and that you are not engaging in "the runnings" to "eat a food" is to laughed at or seen as a fool. How you fight corruption in a culture like this?
You don't have a society with a set of values which says these values are worth suffering deprivation for and even dying over. Our forefathers believed that the lives of their children and their children's freedom meant more than their own lives. They sacrificed their lives for us. We lionise people who threatened their lives to win our freedom and who stood up against oppression, but that's only in another narrative. In the real world we believe that is rubbish, that "man haffi survive", by any means necessary.There have been all sorts of people - communists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, black power nationalists, anti-colonialists - who have put liberation, the ending of oppression, the fighting for an ideal, for justice, for human rights, above their own personal welfare and personal advancement. If you have a society where the greatest value is money, we cannot fight corruption.
People in positions of power and responsibility in the public service will bow to the politicians who ask them to bend the rules and to facilitate their whims and fancies because they would rather keep their cushy jobs rather than fight any corrupt encroachments.This is why this country does not begin to realise the value it has in Greg Christie. We will never begin to understand what a treasure Greg Christie is and we can never pay him enough for his uncommon courage, fearlessness, inflexible commitment to integrity and even his feisty temperament. Sure, he is sometimes unnecessarily contentious, obtrusive and sometimes will overstep his bounds. But I much prefer him to err on that side than to quiver before government ministers or even to the prime minister. We need independent people in the public sector who can stand up to prime ministers, ministers of government and any Mr Big Man from any big-name family. People who would rather lose their well-paying jobs than compromise an ounce of integrity.Unless you have people with this kind of character - this kind of commitment to a set of moral and philosophical principles - all your institutional reforms and enforcement procedures will be woefully inadequate. Necessary, but not sufficient. You need moral capital.We desperately need more anti-corruption champions like Greg Christie. And more people to follow his example.

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Mafia Cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa

Former NYPD detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were sentenced Friday in Brooklyn federal court after telling the judge they are innocent.But the son of one of their victims told the former cops:

"May you have a long life in prison."

Prosecutors said Eppolito and Caracappa moonlighted as hitmen for the Luchese crime family while on the force during the 1980s."Mafia Cops" Louis Eppolito and Steven Caracappa, convicted in April 2006 of committing eight murders while on the payroll of a mob underboss, received life sentences Friday in Brooklyn federal court.Eppolito, the son of a mobster, was sentenced to life plus 100 years. Partner Caracappa received life plus 80 years. Each was fined more than $4 million.
Although the pair remained jailed in the years since they were convicted of betraying their badges, their case was tied up in appeals that delayed their sentencing.Caracappa, 67, and Eppolito, 60, committed the killings between 1986-90. The elder detective stood to declare he had nothing to do with the slayings.
"I am innocent of these charges," Caracappa insisted. Eppolito, speaking before his sentencing, made the same claim."I'm a big boy, I'm not a child," he said. "The federal government can my life. But they can't take my soul, they can't take my
dignity. I never hurt anybody. ... I never did any of this."Federal Judge Jack Weinstein - who overturned their convictions on a technicality, but was reversed by an appeals court - handed down the lengthy terms.Weinstein, after their convictions, said the pair had committed "the most heinous series of crimes ever tried in this courthouse."He threw out their convictions in June 2006, citing the statute of limitations in the racketeering case. Prosecutors appealed, and the convictions were restored last September.The crooked pair earned as much as $65,000 for one of their hits on behalf of brutal mob boss Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso. The jailed Mafiosi, suspected of 36 murders, paid the rogue cops a $4,000-a-month retainer while they worked for him. The defendants committed the killings while simultaneously on the payrolls of the NYPD and the Luchese crime family.Caracappa, who retired in 1992 after 23 years with the NYPD, helped establish the department's clearing house for Mafia murder
probes.Eppolito grew up in a mob family: His father, grandfather and an uncle were members of the Gambino family. The dichotomy between his career and his upbringing was covered in his autobiography, "Mafia Cop: The Story of An Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob."Eppolito, who retired in 1990, had a bit part in the classic mob movie "Goodfellas" - and later fancied himself a Hollywood script writer.

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Mary Ann Gianelli pleaded guilty on Wednesday in federal court, and in exchange, prosecutors dropped 141 money laundering counts

Mary Ann Gianelli, the wife of Arthur Gianelli, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in federal court, and in exchange, prosecutors dropped 141 money laundering counts. pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering, and other charges just before her trial was scheduled to start.Prosecutors say the 52-year-old woman helped her husband run an illegal gambling business after he was indicted on federal racketeering charges in 2005 by picking up shoeboxes full of cash in Boston's North End.Mary Ann Gianelli, 52, a nurse and mother of two, posted the family's sprawling Lynnfield home as collateral to get Arthur Gianelli released on bail. And when he was stuck at home under house arrest while awaiting trial, she admittedly drove to Boston's North End in her silver Mercedes to pick up a shoe box stuffed with his $10,000 a month cut from the gambling operation.Yesterday, the cost of Mary Ann Gianelli's devotion to her husband of 28 years was apparent, as she pleaded guilty to 19 counts of racketeering, money laundering, filing false tax returns, and illegally structuring cash transactions, just as she was about to stand trial alongside him.Prosecutors said they will recommend she serve 18 months in prison, and a defense lawyer said he will ask for a term of probation.US District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton told Gianelli, a slender woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, that she will be allowed to remain in her $1 million home until she is sentenced June 5.Afterward, he said the Main Street property will be forfeited to the government because the court found Arthur Gianelli violated his bail conditions by continuing to run his gambling business while briefly free on bail in 2005. His bail was revoked, and he is currently jailed pending the outcome of the case."Mary Ann Gianelli played a minuscule role in the grand scheme of this case," said her lawyer, E. Peter Parker of Boston. "Her crimes consist solely of handling money in the wrong way. Her criminal conduct is out of character with the way she has lived her life."
Gianelli's plea came as jury selection was underway in federal court in the case against her and four others. Opening statements are slated to begin this morning as the case moves forward against Arthur Gianelli, 51; Dennis Albertelli, 56, and his wife, Gisele, 54, of Stow; and Frank Iacoboni, 65, of Leominster. A dozen other codefendants previously pleaded guilty.Gianelli is accused of running a bookmaking operation and illegal video poker machine business that allegedly paid $2,000 a week to reputed Mafia underboss Carmen "The Cheeseman" DiNunzio.

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Six men face federal charges, accused of belonging to the Crips street gang

Six men face federal charges, accused of belonging to the Crips street gang in Wichita between 1991 and 2007.U.S. District Court, Wichita, with Judge J. Thomas Marten presiding.Deb Barnett, assistant U.S. attorney | Chris Oakley, assistant U.S. attorney
Defendants

Jermal Campbell (also known as "L"): Age: 27 | Attorney: Paul McCausland | Charges: Two counts racketeering; engaging in racketeering activity: murder; felon in possession of ammunition

Jonearl Smith (also known as "Smeral"): Age: 30 | Attorney: Mark Bennett Jr. | Charges: Two counts racketeering; two counts conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance

Lonnie Wade (also known as "LaLo"): Age: 29 | Attorney: Craig Shultz | Charges: Two counts racketeering; two counts maintaining a place for the purpose of manufacturing and distributing a controlled substance; three counts conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance

Corey Cornelius (also known as "CC"): Age: 30 | Attorney: Carl Fredrick Maughan | Charges: racketeering conspiracy; two counts conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance

Darryn Frierson (also known as "DeDa"): Age: 38 | Attorney: Michael Jackson | Charges: two counts racketeering; three counts possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance; maintaining a place for the purpose of manufacturing controlled substances; conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance; three counts possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance

Calvin Williams (also known as "Nut Case"): Age: 29 | Attorney: Eric Hartenstein | Charges: racketeering conspiracy; threats against a witness; two counts conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance

defense attorney representing one of six men charged with running organized crime through a street gang asked a federal judge this morning to tell the jury that none of the evidence supports the charges."All they're trying to show is that he's a bad guy," said Craig Shultz, who represents Lonnie Wade.Shultz said the testimony so far has failed to support charges of rackeetering via the Crips street gang.U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten said such an instruction was improper at this point. He said prosecutors were trying to establish certain criminal acts before they got to the heart of their case.Federal prosecutors have spent the week building a time line of crime from 1991 to 2007, when the charges were filed. Testimony continues today before Marten.Prosecutors have had to work around reluctant witnesses, who fear retribution by the Crips -- the gang the men are accused of belonging to -- even in retelling crimes they witnessed more than a decade ago.The Eagle is filing live updates from the courtroom, a first for Wichita federal court. Follow the updates in the box at right by refreshing the page.

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James “Pancake” Taylor was picked up by police trying to stop a violent drugs war that has broken out on the Costa del Sol.

James “Pancake” Taylor was picked up by police trying to stop a violent drugs war that has broken out on the Costa del Sol. Liverpool gangster was today behind bars in Spain after being arrested for attempted murder.James “Pancake” Taylor was picked up by police trying to stop a violent drugs war that has broken out on the Costa del Sol.The 29-year-old is also being investigated over claims he is the ringleader of a gang which has brought terror to the sunshine streets.A leaked report to a Spanish judge over a spate of shootings says the gang is a “worldwide organisation that is dedicated mainly to drug trafficking, targeted assassinations and has a hierarchical structure among the members, almost all of whom originate in Liverpool and Manchester”.Taylor was arrested over the shooting of a Brit after a nightclub brawl last August.

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John Gizzi, walks free

John Gizzi, 36, from St Asaph, Denbighshire was jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2006. His trial heard he was a "thug" and "bully" who assaulted homeless people and preyed on the weak and vulnerable in the Rhyl area. He was freed after a judge at Mold Crown Court heard he had repaid £1m under the Proceeds of Crime Act. An original order made under the Act found Gizzi had benefited to the tune of £6.89m from his crimes. He was ordered to repay £2.6m, but that figure was based on a valuation of his assets before the recession. They included a mansion which had been originally valued at £1.7m but eventually sold for £850,000. Gizzi had been due for release in December 2008, but he was ordered to serve another seven years because he had failed to repay the original £2.6m. However, on Thursday Judge John Rogers QC reduced the order after the court - which was surrounded by tight police security - was told all his assets had been sold off. As well as the mansion, 20 other mortgage properties were sold, and a Rolex watch. Four number plates - JDG 1 to 4 - had also been sold along with a fleet of luxury cars including a Bentley Continental, Range Rover and a Mercedes. Judge Rogers discharged the confiscation order and Gizzi was formally released. Gizzi's mansion sold for half its original value of £1.7m
An application by prosecutor Simon Mills that Gizzi should be responsible for the costs of the CPS and the receiver appointed to sell the property was rejected. The judge said those costs should come out of the reduced order. However, the court heard that the regional asset recovery team could pursue Gizzi for more money if they thought he could afford it in the future. Judge Rogers told Gizzi: "As the crown point out, the actual benefit figure is a very much higher figure. "It may well be that the crown will seek, if circumstances permit, to obtain further monies. That is a matter which must await events." The judge said the fall in the property market was to blame for the lower-than-expected sum repaid, and not Gizzi. It was previously found that Gizzi had made "tainted gifts" to his parents' building firm in the form of a building plot in Towyn, and a property in Rhyl. The plot, which now has four houses on it, is due to be sold this week to his parents for £430,000. Gizzi had previously admitted two charges of causing grievous bodily harm, one of assault causing actual bodily harm and one of conspiracy to supply counterfeit cigarettes. He also asked for 22 offences of mortgage fraud - involving almost £1.5m - to be taken into consideration.

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Ronnie and Reggie Kray paintings under the hammer at Hampshire Auctions

Seven landscapes and one seascape painted by the twins during art classes at HMP Parkhurst and Broadmoor went under the hammer at Hampshire Auctions in Andover as part of a private sale by an anonymous vendor.Eight paintings produced by the east London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray while in prison for murder sold for a combined total of £12,200 at auction today.An image of the two convicted murderers crossing a field in top hats and tail coats sold for £1,850, the highest price of any of the Kray paintings on the day. One 1971 painting of a stormy sea by Reggie Kray, which has echoes of the Japanese Edo period painter Hokusai, sold for £1,800. A portrait of the brothers signed by them and painted by Graham Young, a fellow inmate at Parkhurst who was serving time for murder, fetched £2,700. Other paintings by the Krays showed two men fishing by a lake, a country cottage, a country lane and a church on a hill. In two canvases the brothers painted the initials R R onto gateposts and signposts.The paintings outstripped the estimated sale value of £500 to £800 each. A spokesman for the auction house said nine phone bidders had driven up the prices, with one buyer taking four paintings.A copy of a book about the gangster brothers, signed by their colleague "Mad" Frankie Fraser and dedicated to a woman called Angela as thanks for looking after one of the twins, was also sold.
One hundred items from the twins' belongings were auctioned last month, including jewellery, letters, photos and clothing. They included Ronnie's trademark sunglasses, pictures from Reggie's 1965 wedding, suits, and a diamond-encrusted ring emblazoned with the name Ron.The auction house said it was planning a second sale of paintings by the Kray twins.

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Officers shot and killed Oswain Walcott who was wanted for questioning in a South Beach man's death

Police had been searching for 22-year-old Oswain Walcott, whom they wanted to question in connection with the death of 18-year-old Bradley Paul. After searching for days, authorities found Walcott in an apartment complex at 119th Street and Northeast 16th Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. Miami-Dade police said there was a confrontation at the complex. Police said Walcott reached for his waistband while yelling to officers, and police opened fire, shooting Walcott.
He was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died Wednesday night.
Officers from both the Miami Beach and Miami-Dade police departments fired shots during the confrontation, Local 10's Elena Echarri reported. Investigators are trying to determine who actually shot Walcott. Before authorities found him, Miami Beach police called Walcott "extremely dangerous" in a news release Wednesday as the manhunt continued. On Tuesday, officers knocked on Walcott's door to talk to him about Paul, who was found dead in an alleyway in the 1000 block of Lenox Avenue on Saturday. When Walcott saw officers at the door of his apartment, he took off, police said. Miami Beach police said Walcott broke into a South Beach home and held a family hostage from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, fondling a teenager during that time. Walcott then ran to another apartment, where a woman was hurt, police said. She was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition. Police have not released details on how the woman was injured.
Police have not yet ruled Paul's death a homicide. Police would not comment on the cause of Paul's death, how they believed Walcott might have been involved or what he might have been able to bring to the case. An arrest warrant also was issued for Walcott in Georgia on a theft by burglary charge, Miami Beach police said.
Police are also looking for 28-year-old Romado Stephens for questioning.

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Gang leader confessed to having incited the shooting of several individuals, including his wife and businessmen

Gang leader confessed to having incited the shooting of several individuals, including his wife and businessmen, according to a document found on a floppy disk discovered in the home of a former national police chief as part of an investigation into a criminal organization. Police seized a computer, floppy disks and documents found in the home of former National Police Chief Adil Serdar Saçan during a raid as part of the investigation into organized criminal activities in 2003. One of the disks included the transcript of an interview with Alaattin Çakıcı, arguably the most famous mafia boss in Turkey. According to the transcript, Çakıcı listed shootings he ordered in the past. Among the victims was his wife, Uğur Kılıç, broker Adil Öngen, columnist Hıncal Uluç and former Fenerbahçe soccer team Chairman Emin Cankurtaran. Çakıcı says about the shootings that he did "what was necessary," according to the document. Çakıcı was convicted of "leading an organized criminal gang" by an İstanbul court in 2007. He was interrogated by Prosecutor Zekeriya Öz at the Beşiktaş courthouse last year as part of the Ergenekon probe, a clandestine terrorist organization charged with attempting to overthrow the government.
According to the transcript, Çakıcı also confessed to preventing around 40 businessmen from entering bids in the sale of Türk Ticaret Bankası.

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Sean Sullivan working for feared Auckland gang the Headhunters.?

Sean Sullivan used to fight for big paydays in the ring now he's battling to recover other people's debts.And the 40-year-old, who pushed two-time world super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine to the wire in their 2003 fight this week revealed to Sunday News he's finally throwing in the towel on his 18-year career.
The never-say-die fighter's decision comes almost nine years after doctors and the boxing fraternity first suggested it."I don't want to make some big announcement but realistically I've got to the stage where the money really isn't there any more," Sullivan said."You don't want to price yourself out of the market ... but I don't really go looking for fights any more and I guess I'm happy to say I'm calling it a day. I have retired."Sullivan was initially reluctant to confirm his new occupation to Sunday News."Don't mention the debt collection to be honest," he said.
The father-of-two feared the admission would only fuel speculation he's working for feared Auckland gang the Headhunters."The boys in blue think I'm prospecting for the Headhunters," he said."I've never, ever, ever, been interested in joining any gang. And I've never prospected for any gang, or been interested in it. I wish they (police) would just get their facts right.

"As soon as you go to that gym (the Headhunters boxing gym in Ellerslie, Auckland) they say you're associated with the Headhunters and ... you're involved with organised crime. That's not me."

Sullivan admitted he had previously, inadvertently, worked with some Headhunters doing debt collection for former employer Kimball Johnson an underworld heavy turned country and western singer known as the "enforcer" who died of cancer in 2007.
"A couple of the lads that worked for Kimball probably associated with the gang.
"So that's where it's fallen into place for the police. But as I said, I'm virtually a gang of one and that's me."Johnson was a highly respected underworld figure.
His coffin was carried to his funeral in March by Headhunters and a death notice was placed by "all the brothers from Paremoremo Maxi and west" and signed by a Hell's Angels member.Sullivan, like Johnson, has found himself on both sides of the law.For just over two years Sullivan was a police youth worker in Mangere but his provisional contract was not extended in 2003 after police took issue with who he was associating with. Some of his boxing supporters were gang members.He then started working for Johnson.Last year Sullivan was acquitted along with another debt collector of kidnapping a car dealer and trying to extort $21,700 from him.He is currently before the courts on fraud charges. In July 2007, another newspaper reported Sullivan was a Housing New Zealand Corporation (HNZC) tenant who was sub-letting his taxpayer subsidised Mangere home for a $77 a week profit.It was claimed Sullivan who owned a holiday home in Russell at the time paid $133 a week for the state house, despite not being eligible to have one in the first place, and charged his tenants $210 a week.When the tenants allegedly applied for a state house and were told they were already living in one. Sullivan said he could not comment on the HNZC case, as it was before the courts.HNZC told Sunday News Sullivan faces two charges of using a document with intent to defraud between 2000 and 2005. HNZC is seeking $34,422 from him and the case is back in court next month.Sullivan said the kidnapping and extortion case should have never made it to court."I was found not guilty like I should have been from day one. (It) ruined my life for that period. I was on bail for two and a half years. They took my passport away so I couldn't travel. And I was tarnished with that brush."Sullivan told Sunday News he was a "very successful" debt-collector and operated by "word of mouth".He said he got "a lot of (debt collecting) skills from Kimball and some of his colleagues".But he said he did the job by the book not by bashing people into submission."It's knowing how to put payments in place and organising time arrangements and stuff like that," he said."Sometimes you've just got to pursue it and just not give up."In a death-bed interview in March 2007, Johnson talked openly about his method of collecting debts.
In one incident he bought a $17,000 debt off an elderly couple who appeared on TV show Fair Go, then hunted down the conman. When he refused to pay, Johnson beat him to a pulp hitting the man with a chair until it broke, then used two others.Johnson who also told the interviewer he once bit someone's ear off in a fight was charged with causing grievous bodily harm but the charge was dropped when his victim failed to appear in court.Sullivan said he had got into doorstep fights with debt-collection clients. But that only happened when he was repossessing chattels such as fridges, washing machines and beds something he no longer does."I don't mind repossessing someone's car because they can just catch public transport to work. They can walk to work, they can cycle to work, or whatever," he said."But when you're taking someone's fridge or freezer, that's what they use to feed their families and it's harder ... the old heart rules the head."Sullivan has a five centimetre scar on his left cheek from "some no-neck" who attacked him during a job."I went around there with my boss from the finance company and this gentlemen tried to attack the boss so I stepped in to help him and (the debtor) put my head through a window it came out the other side," he said."I recovered from that and I think he wished he never attacked the boss after that. It was more than just a knockout. But the writing was on the wall after that ... no more chattels."Sullivan, who when Sunday News met him looked more like a suburban dad on holiday in velcro rubber sandals, three-quarter shorts and T-shirt than the brawling boxer he's known as, said he has been "more blessed than most" in his fight career.He has previously held the light-heavyweight, super-middleweight, welterweight and middleweight national titles and been ranked as high as No7 in the world's welterweight division by the World Boxing Association and the International Boxing Federation.
He pushed world-ranked Danny Green so hard in 2004 that the Australian had to be hospitalised after the fight.Green had to have three litres of intravenous fluid to counteract the dangerous dehydration and exhaustion he got trying to knock out Sullivan, who is known for his extreme fitness and always finishing bouts on his feet."There's a lot of `what ifs' and `what could of beens'. A world title bout would have been great, but I fought Mundine and Green," he said."I fought for the Commonwealth title, and I had a month to lose two stone and I did it. I went over there and I won the fight. So I've done alright."But Sullivan has not won a fight since 2003 and could not remember his boxing record or who his opponents were in his last two fights at the Headhunters Fight Nights in May and December 2007."I just lined up, got in there and did the business. They gave me a week's notice, but I'm not exactly going to say no to WD (Headhunters boss Wayne Doyle)," he said. "I wasn't in the best shape. I was drinking beer and enjoying life."Sullivan was warned to quit boxing as early as 2000 after collapsing in a post-bout sauna.Former trainer Karl Turner had to resuscitate the fighter, who had stopped breathing and had no pulse.Later that year, a neuropsychologist recommended Sullivan never enter the ring again. Tests concluded that his brain function was abnormal.Sullivan who still coaches continued to fight. But Father Time looks like it has at last beaten arguably the toughest fighter to ever come out of New Zealand. Or maybe not!"I'm not fussed about fighting but if I get a good offer and they give me time to prepare ... it'll be on."

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Panchalingam Nagalingam, who was deported in 2005 because of his involvement in a violent Toronto street gang, arrived back on Tuesday morning

Panchalingam Nagalingam, was a member of AK Kannan, one of two warring Tamil gangs that engaged in extortion, drug trafficking, weapons dealing, attempted murder and murder in Toronto. who was deported in 2005 because of his involvement in a violent Toronto street gang, arrived back on Tuesday morning, and Canadian officials say they facilitated and paid for his return. The circumstances have one official lamenting that the government is "in the business of putting gangs and gangsters out of business, not in bringing them back to Canada."Police were furious on Friday and immigration officials were at pains to explain why the government had paid to fly a gang member, once charged with hacking two people in the head with a meat cleaver, back to Canada more than three years after he was deported to his native Sri Lanka.A spokesman for Jason Kenney, the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, said the government was outraged that it was forced to return Mr. Nagalingam to Canada because of a legal agreement entered into by the previous Liberal government.The Ministry of Justice agreed in December, 2005, that it would allow Mr. Nagalingam to return to Toronto if the courts ever overturned a decision that found he was a danger to the public, officials said. The Federal Court of Appeal did just that in April, 2008, ruling that the judge who decided Mr. Nagalingam's case had made a procedural mistake. Canadian officials started discussions about Mr. Nagalingan's return to Toronto last June, after he went to the Canadian High Commission in Colombo and said he feared for his safety. He was given a temporary residency permit in January that allowed him to enter Canada, but it was cancelled upon his arrival at Pearson Airport. "We are very disappointed by the outcome of the court's decision. And we are outraged that we are forced, because of a legal agreement negotiated by the previous Liberal government, to return this dangerous individual to Canada," said Alykhan Velshi, Mr. Kenney's spokesman.
"The agreement made under the previous Liberal government was not required by law and is very unusual; however they made it anyway and, sadly, we are bound by it." He added that "because of the Liberals' agreement which we were legally bound to implement, we unfortunately had to pay for his return flight.""Since being returned to Canada, Nagalingam has been held in detention, where we will strenuously argue that he should remain," he added.

A 36-year-old Sri Lankan citizen, Mr. Nagalingam was a member of AK Kannan, one of two warring Tamil gangs that engaged in extortion, drug trafficking, weapons dealing, attempted murder and murder in Toronto. The gangs were responsible for dozens of shootings, one of which killed an innocent bystander at a doughnut shop.

At an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing on Thursday, an immigration official read a police statement that said Mr. Nagalingam had been identified as a gunman in an unsolved shooting in Scarborough in 2000 that left two teenagers dead. He had also smashed a chair over the head of a man at a community function and assaulted a security guard at a theatre, the official said. On two occasions, Mr. Nagalingam was shot at by rival gang members. "Nagalingam has demonstrated that he will not hesitate to use violence, and he has challenged rival gang members in public settings," the official said, reading a statement by the Toronto Police Service."This individual in my opinion is a recipe for yet another disaster on the streets of Toronto. He is a danger to the citizens of Canada and should not be allowed to stay in Canada."Mr. Nagalingam thanked God and the immigration department "for helping me to get back here" and said he had turned over a new leaf. "I have a child outside, I have my mother and father. I decided to start my life again."Immigration states here I am a danger to the Tamil community," he added. "Won't I get a chance for me to reform, to start my life again? That's all I ask for."
The Refugee Board ordered him detained on the grounds he is a danger to the public and a flight risk. In the meantime, the government has already commenced proceedings to have him deported once again. He was to appear before the Board again next Thursday.Mr. Nagalingam first arrived in Canada in 1994 and was accepted as a refugee the following year. But Toronto police quickly identified him as an AK Kannan gang member. He has three criminal convictions but he has faced other charges that were dropped. For example, in 1998, he was charged with assault with a weapon after he allegedly struck two rival gang members in the head with a meat cleaver. Police arrived at the scene and "did see the accused attempting to strike several other persons with the meat cleaver, before he like the others began to flee," but the victims could not be found and the charges were stayed.

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Shane Geoghegan (28) was shot dead by members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang

Irish police believe they now know who killed rugby player Shane Geoghegan and expect to charge the suspect this weekend.Last night, officers were concentrating their inquiries on a young man who is in custody in Limerick. He was arrested earlier this week in connection with the murder. The brutal killing shocked the country and led to a major crackdown on Limerick's criminal gangs.The development follows an intensive week of investigations where 120 detectives, working in 36 teams, repeatedly interviewed 16 people (eight women and eight men). Eight individuals remained in custody in stations in Limerick and Clare last night.
Mr Geoghegan (28) was shot dead by members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang, in the early hours of November 9. The gunman mistook him for a rival member of the Collopy gang.
The prime suspect is a 23 year old from Dublin and is well known in criminal circles. He moved to Limerick and is well connected to senior members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang. He was recently arrested by gardai for transporting drugs into the city from Dublin and has appeared before the courts in connection with it.
At a recent court appearance, members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang, wearing bullet proof vests, waited outside the court buildings to transport him away.It is expected that the young man will appear in court within 24 hours in connection with the murder.Mr Geoghegan, captain of Garryowen thirds team, was walking home from a friend's house in the Kilteragh housing estate, Dooradoyle, when he encountered the gunman. He ran for his life, but was cornered in the back garden of a neighbour's home and gunned down, with one bullet striking him in the head.Limerick's most senior garda officer, Chief Supt Gerry Mahon, described the case as one of the most significant investigations to take place in the division.Investigating detectives are also attempting to bring a number of other people who, they believe, were also involved in the murder, to the courts.Fifteen of the 18 individuals arrested and questioned so far are from Limerick and some are members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang.
Another member of the notorious gang, who is also suspected to have had a major role in the murder, remains on the run in London. He fled Limerick after the shooting and a bench warrant is out for his arrest in relation to another matter.

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John Gotti's Bergin Hunt and Fish Club crew are in jail or dead.

John Gotti's Bergin Hunt and Fish Club crew are in jail or dead.With the arrest this month of reputed Gambino crime family hit man Joseph Watts, only three members of Gotti's crew remain alive and on the street.Reputed soldiers Ignazio (Iggy) Alogna, Michael (Mikey Gal) Guerrieri and John (Jack) Cavallo are survivors - and schemers.
They've struggled with serious illnesses and staying on the right side of the law.
"They don't have pensions to live on," pointed out Bruce Mouw, the former supervisor of the FBI's Gambino squad."These old guys will scheme until they die."Alogna, 75, a widower raising a grandson in Pennsylvania, once held the rank of capo but was busted down to soldier for trying to extort a businessman without permission."There's not going to be anything from this end, you know better than that," a man who identified himself as Alogna's son told the Daily News.
Long Island resident Cavallo, 60, beat a rap in 2007 after his lawyer persuaded a jury the feds nailed the wrong "Jack" for running a gambling parlor.Last year, 82-year-old Guerrieri got permission - because of his deteriorating health - to stop reporting to a probation officer after a gambling conviction.The crew's glory days were the 1970s and 1980s, when Gotti was a charismatic thug worshiped by his underlings.Gotti inherited the club on 101st Ave. in Ozone Park from Gambino capo Carmine Fatico. It was named for Bergen St. in Brooklyn, but misspelled. "The crew was remarkably loyal and disciplined," said a knowledgeable law enforcement source.
Of the core group, only Gotti's so-called "adopted son," Lewis Kasman, turned rat.
The inner circle included Gene Gotti (jail); John Carneglia (jail); Edward Lino (slain); Sal Scala (died recently in prison), and Anthony (Tony Lee) Guerrieri (dead).Other confidants included Angelo Ruggiero (dead); Anthony (Tony Roach) Rampino (jail); Vincent Artuso (jail); Ronald Trucchio (jail); Thomas (Tommy Sneakers) Cacciopoli (jail), and Charles Carneglia (currently on trial).The club's brick facade is intact, and the building houses a medical supply business and dog groomer."After Gotti died [in 2002], people started coming by and taking pictures," said Pedro Severino, owner of PSC Medical Supply. "Last year, three old guys came in a black Lincoln Town Car with a driver. They came in and looked around talking to each other, and then they left."Guerrieri summed up how much that old gang meant to him at a bail hearing where he refused a judge's order to stay away from wiseguys.
"I don't know no doctors or lawyers," he said, according to the Web site ganglandnews.com. "Who am I supposed to hang out with? Send me to jail. I can talk to all my friends in jail."His wish was granted, but three days later Guerrieri changed his mind and agreed to abide by the bail conditions.

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John Gilligan built Jessbrook Equestrian Centre and his mansion on drug smuggling and robbery, but now the €5m complex is the State's storeroom

John Gilligan built Jessbrook Equestrian Centre and his mansion on drug smuggling and robbery, but now the €5m complex is the State's storeroom -- with cheap furniture, including exam desks and chairs, all piled up in the centre of the vast indoor arena.Jessbrook was Gilligan's vanity project and a way to launder the pots of dirty money he made from the drugs trade.But it was also built as a route into civilised society, so the gang leader and his wife Geraldine could rub shoulders with decent people who were unaware that the Squire of Jessbrook was a hoodlum importing vast quantities of cannabis into Ireland.It was at Jessbrook that Gilligan viciously beat Sunday Independent journalist Veronica Guerin when she bravely asked him about his criminal activities. She was murdered before the assault charge could be dealt with by the courts.Now Jessbrook is in tatters, the once elegant driveway is pockmarked with potholes and the pristine paddocks are overgrown with weeds including what looks like ragwort.Since the Criminal Assets Bureau successfully took control of the 100-acre estate, the equestrian centre at Jessbrook has become a warehouse for the Office of Public Works.There's a small staff on duty and the twisty back roads around Mucklon in Co Kildare are a regular destination for trucks carrying inventory from the OPW.It's all non-valuable bric-a-brac; old and broken computer monitors, out-of-date publications, non-confidential paperwork and scaffolding planks. The synthetic surface where show jumping horses were once put through their paces has been removed and a five-inch layer of hardcore and gravel laid along the exterior walls of Jessbrook, that front on to the main road, as a courtesy to their neighbours.But it cannot hide the feeling of decay. When he fought tooth and nail in the courts to keep Jessbrook, Gilligan claimed the Criminal Assets Bureau's valuation of his country bolthole at €5m was too low. Now it looks like a a very generous estimate.Up at the main house Gilligan and his gang felt they were untouchable. Gilligan amassed millions but he had no class and his pride and joy was a tacky but hideously expensive private bar made of solid oak with Budweiser, Heineken and Guinness on tap and an array of crystal champagne flutes.Now there is a rank smell and bad atmosphere about the place -- bad enough to put off any prospective private purchaser -- even at a knockdown price,The OPW is paying a rent of €65,000 a year to use Jessbrook as a warehouse

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Jamie "The Iceman" Stevenson claims his 12-year sentence for money laundering is excessive as police cannot prove he committed any other crimes.

Jamie "The Iceman" Stevenson claims his 12-year sentence for money laundering is excessive as police cannot prove he committed any other crimes. The multi-millionaire crook, not due for release until 2013, has asked the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) to examine his case. If his brass-necked legal bid is successful, he could be out by the end of the year. One source said: "Stevenson has no previous but he built up a drugs network with a multi-billion pound turnover.
"It's ludicrous to claim he should be freed early simply because he's never been caught before." Stevenson, 43, of Burnside, Glasgow, was jailed in April 2007 despite his "untouchable" reputation. He and nine others - including his wife Caroline, stepson Gerry Carbin and Carbin's partner Karen Maxwell - were charged with drug and money laundering offences. But only Stevenson and Carbin, 29, were convicted of money laundering after striking a deal with prosecutors. The Iceman remains the prime suspect for the murder of fellow gangster Tony McGovern in Springburn, Glasgow, in 2000. Stevenson's 12-year, nine-month sentence was the longest ever for money laundering in Britain. He was also ordered to hand over s750,000 of his dirty money but is thought to have millions more stashed away.
He claims police exceeded their powers when bugging his home as part of anti-drugs campaign Operation Folklore. Despite his fortune, Stevenson plans to use taxpayers' cash to fight the appeal. He will get 90% from the Scottish Legal Aid Board to make his application to the SCCRC. His lawyers will only receive more money if the appeal goes to court. The SCCRC said: "We don't comment on individual cases."

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Ricardo Fanchini is one of the world's most well-connected gangsters

Ricardo Fanchini is one of the world's most well-connected gangsters, with mobster friends as far afield as Moscow, New York, London, Antwerp, Naples, Poland and Israel.

"He was like the CEO of crime and used to organise crime summits in Austria, where people from the Camorra [Neapolitan mafia], the Colombian cartels, the Russian mafia, met up and divided up the world," said a Belgian reporter who has investigated Fanchini for years but does not wish to be identified.

Born in 1956 in the industrial city of Katowice in southern Poland to a Polish mother and an Italian father who had himself grown up in the mafia-infested city of Naples, Fanchini fled to the West in 1977, settling first in Germany and eventually moving to the Belgian port of Antwerp. But he was one of several gangsters who returned to the East in the early 1990s to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of communism and became known as the Polish Al Capone. Polish journalist Jaroslaw Jakimczyk told the BBC: "He was one of the most dynamic of that group in the 1990s, and was linked with the Pruszkow Gang."

The Pruszkow Gang dominated Polish organised crime, being responsible for the trade in drugs, stolen luxury cars from Germany and black-market vodka.

Although their power was broken and most are now in jail or dead, Fanchini continued to prosper, partly because of his connections to Russian mafia bosses including Semion Mogilevich, who was a guest at his wedding, and arms smuggler Viktor Bout. He and his Russian partner, Boris "Biba" Nayfeld, set up an import-export business that traded in everything from cigarettes and chocolates to electronic goods. He also benefited from a tax exemption, for the importation of vodka into Russia, granted by corrupt officials close to the then President Boris Yeltsin. At the time he also bought a luxury yacht, the Kremlin Princess, and often turned up in Monte Carlo. Mobster Semion Mogilevich was a guest at Fanchini's first wedding But Fanchini lost powerful friends when Yeltsin left office, his company went bankrupt and he was prosecuted by the Belgian authorities for embezzlement and money laundering. While in prison serving a four-year sentence, Fanchini was dealt a further blow when a huge consignment of drugs was seized by the Dutch police. The 1.8 million ecstasy pills, weighing 424kg, were destined for sale to the US market, where Fanchini and Nayfeld had links with the Russian community in the Brighton Beach district of Brooklyn, New York. When Fanchini left prison he moved to London. In 2006 he hired out the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin for a sumptuous party and followed it up with another bash in Moscow, which was attended by hundreds of gangsters as well as celebrities and legitimate businessmen. But Fanchini was living on borrowed time. In England he reportedly split his time between a Mayfair townhouse and a plush mansion in a gated community in Surrey, not far from the home of Formula One driver Jensen Button. But the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) caught up with him and on the morning of 3 October 2007 officers from the Metropolitan Police's Extradition and International Assistance Unit knocked on the door of his townhouse in Mount Street. He was using the name Ricardo Rotmann, which was the surname of his third wife, Katja, a German, with whom he has a child.
Fanchini had been identified by various European law enforcement agencies as an international criminal for years His second wife, Jolanta, is still in prison in Belgium after being convicted of money laundering. Fanchini made no attempt to fight extradition and in January last year he was handed over to US marshals at London's Gatwick Airport. He was due to go on trial later this year. According to the indictment, Fanchini's gang smuggled heroin and cocaine from Thailand to the US, via Poland and Belgium, for 17 years. The drugs were hidden in the back of televisions and eventually found their way to Brighton Beach and Staten Island in New York. But his attorney, Gerald Shargel, obtained a plea bargain and in November he pleaded guilty to a single charge - conspiring to distribute 424kg of MDMA (ecstasy) - and he now faces 10 years in jail.

Journalist Vladimir Kozlovsky, who has covered the activities of the Russian mafia in New York for years, said: "The indictment was massive. He was accused of a million crimes going back 20 years. There were so many boxes of evidence that he had to have a separate cell to house it all.

"The trial was due to last at least four months so, like 90% of cases over here, it was plea bargained and he could be out in seven years."
Another former Fanchini associate, Viktor Bout, was arrested last year But the DEA has also hit him hard financially. Fanchini has agreed to forfeit $30m - $2m of which will have to be paid on the day of sentencing - and DEA officers have also seized more than 40 properties across the world with an estimated value of more than $67m. Nayfeld and two other co-defendants, Arthur and Nikolai Dozortsev, all pleaded guilty to laundering Fanchini's money. Speaking at the London School of Economics last year, the US Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, highlighted Fanchini as an example of close global co-operation in the fight against crime. He said: "Fanchini had been identified by various European law enforcement agencies as an international criminal for years. "It took a lot of co-operation and co-ordination between the US, UK and other countries to bring about his arrest."Detective Inspector Paul Fuller, head of the Metropolitan Police's Extradition Unit said: "We work tirelessly to ensure that those wanted for crimes are brought to the justice system. It is important that Londoners know that we are arresting and extraditing foreign criminals on a daily basis." Dominique Reyniers, of the Belgian Justice Department, confirmed Fanchini was also the subject of a separate investigation into alleged money laundering in Antwerp. It is thought that inquiry looked at property investments he made in the Ukrainian resort of Odessa. Fanchini's friends Mogilevich and Bout have both been arrested in the past year and he himself will be in his 60s by the time he comes out of jail in the US.

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Clinton Shawn Martin Jr., is a local leader of the Gangster Disciples, specifically the six deuce trey set

Clinton Shawn Martin Jr., 24, of 31 E. Market St., Harrisonburg, was arrested in early January. Police say Martin is a local leader of the Gangster Disciples, specifically the six deuce trey set, according to multiple search warrants filed in the case by a CHARGE Gang Task Force investigator.Martin was one of four people arrested in January in connection to a two-year gang investigation. He was arrested on Jan. 15 as he attempted to trade drugs for guns in the Roses parking lot on Mason Street.Martin faces 46 charges, including drug distribution, firearms violations and gang participation.

"[The Gangster Disciples] are probably one of the more prevalent gangs in this area," said Lt. Kurt Boshart of the Harrisonburg Police Department. "They're probably one of the most organized."

Randy Crank, president of the Virginia Gang Investigators Association, a group that provides resources and training to local law enforcement agencies, said Harrisonburg's gangs are most likely independent groups and have no official affiliation with the major gangs or their nationwide network of chapters."What you have is homegrown," said Crank. "They will use the national gang signs, symbols, colors and hand signs even though they don't have any ties nationally."Boshart said Martin grew up in Harrisonburg, but might have had some ties nationally.Crank said Gangster Disciple members, or those claiming to be members, can usually be identified by the use of a three-pointed pitchfork and six-pointed star in "taggings," or graffiti, and other materials. They also go by the numbers "74" - a reference to the seventh and fourth letters of the alphabet, "G" and "D", he said. Boshart said this case, and several recent cases, show that gangs exist in the Shenandoah Valley and are growing."We're seeing a steady progression unfortunately," he said, adding that it's getting more violent.
A few years ago, he said, he would tell people that there was some gang activity, but it was rarely an issue and even when it was, it rarely turned violent.
But that's changed, he said."Last year, we could say at least we didn't have a murder," said Boshart. "Unfortunately, we can't say that now."Boshart was referring to the shooting of Reginald "Shay" Nicholson, 19, of Staunton. Nicholson was mortally wounded on Nov. 9 after he left a party at an apartment in the Hunters Ridge complex off Port Republic Road. Nicholson died 12 days later at the University of Virginia Medical Center.Police say the killing was gang-related, pointing to witness statements that say a group of people entered the apartment prior to the shooting yelling "Bloods in the house." As gang activity becomes more violent in the Valley, police say local residents need to step up."Gang activity is a community issue that the community needs to get behind," said Boshart.He said it needs to be a collaborative effort between the educational, business and faith-based communities, as well as public safety agencies and parents."Everybody plays a part," said Boshart, adding that residents need to report what they see. "If you're driving down the road and see some suspicious gang activity and say ‘We'll just let the CHARGE Gang Task Force handle that,' we've lost. The community has lost."Boshart said continuous education is the key to ending gang activity."Everybody has to stay educated, especially if you're dealing with children," said Boshart. "What we learned last year might not apply this year."

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Michael "Roly" Cronin €300,000 confiscated

Confiscated almost €300,000 from the assets of major gangland figure Michael "Roly" Cronin, who was murdered in the centre of Dublin last month.The money was handed over after a High Court decision yesterday afternoon.The Cab was granted a freezing order against Cronin in March 2001 after it seized three properties at Buckingham Street in the north inner city; Ballyboden, Rathfarnham; and Finebar-Fort, Wellmount Road in Finglas.The houses were subsequently sold by the receiver on behalf of Cab and following the statutory seven-year wait, an agreement was reached in court yesterday in which two sums of cash, €103,000 in one bank account, and €180,000 in another, were officially handed over to the Finance Minister.Also in the High Court yesterday, the Criminal Assets Bureau secured an order handing over €38,662.75 to the State.The money was the proceeds of drug trafficking by Cab target Michael Shannon, who gave an address at Minart House at Sligo Road in Longford.The cash was seized as part of a search of a house at Bishopscourt in Ennis, Co Clare and was subjected to a freezing order for the past seven years.Shannon, who then had an address at Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, was sentenced to eight years in prison after he pleaded guilty at Limerick circuit court in October 2002 to possession of 100,000 ecstasy tablets with a street value of more than €1m.A third convicted drug trafficker also fell victim to the Cab in the High Court yesterday afternoon.The court heard that Stg£22,000 was seized from Kevin McEvoy, of Ajax Court, Townspark, Antrim, as he attempted to board a flight to Amsterdam in February 2007.The court was told that McEvoy had 48 criminal convictions, including some for drug trafficking.The Cab secured a consent order to confiscate a total of €31,995.28.

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Tyrese Sharod Smith founder of the King Mafia Disciples ,still calling the shots on the street.

Tyrese Sharod Smith still calling the shots on the street. The founder of the King Mafia Disciples had established a violent reputation in Salt Lake City in the early 1990s as he sought to make the gang he founded while serving time in juvenile detention the most powerful in the region. As KMD tried to build notoriety through robberies, drug deals and attacks on rival gangs, Smith's rap sheet grew. He landed in prison in 1994 for a drive-by shooting -- and then arguably committed his most violent acts from behind bars. Gang members operating on Smith's orders in February 1996 shot 19-year-old Joey Miera through an open window as the teenager slept on the floor of his cousin's Salt Lake City home. Miera, who had no gang ties, was killed in a case of mistaken identity. The brutal case spotlighted an aspect of security in Utah's corrections system that has found renewed importance with a recent spike in gang membership and violence: how to keep gangsters in lockup from contributing to crime on the streets. Vigilant watchfulness » It's a job far more complicated than just keeping a gang member behind bars until his or her sentence is completed, and one both the prison system and Salt Lake County Jail have devoted more resources and officers to in recent years. "Most of the public, they look at it like the guy has been picked up, he's gone through the court process and now, everything is good," said Pete Walters, who oversees the gang unit at the Utah State Prison and is president of the Utah Gang Investigators Association. "They get to make phone calls. They are all allowed to get and send letters. The majority of them have visits. … They, a lot of times, still have an influence over some of the groups in the neighborhood." Walters' job, and that of other gang investigators in the corrections system, is to figure just how much influence certain gang members have and how the information officers gather on the inmates could thwart plans gang members may be making from inside their cells. In an activity known as "fishing," inmates can pass messages between their cells by way of make-shift delivery devices called kites, made with a piece of string, a note and a weight. Letters can contain hidden code words, symbols, or drawings to signal an attack on a rival. Phone calls could also contain hidden messages. Corrections gang officers are trained to intercept and decode the hidden messages. The officers chat up inmates to find out which gangs are feuding, and, most importantly, talk with local law enforcement agencies.

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