GANGLAND GODFATHER

Rebels motorcycle gang leader Alex Vella has won a multimillion dollar lawsuit to recover the Rebels headquarters and two other properties after they were allegedly mortgaged by a former business partner using false title deeds.Mr Vella's former close friend and business partner Tony Caradonna - who was also a former business partner of disgraced music promoter Glenn Wheatley - allegedly used forged documents to re-mortgage for $2.4million three properties that were owned by Mr Vella. NSW Supreme Court Justice Peter Young yesterday ruled that the mortgages, written by Perpetual Mortgages and Mitchell Morgan Nominees, were invalid, and said Mr Vella was entitled to the three properties "unencumbered by mortgages". Mr Vella was also successful yesterday in a claim against ANZ, with the bank forced to pay the Rebels boss $150,000 plus interest for an unauthorised $300,000 transaction. The Rebels chief alleged ANZ had allowed $300,000 to be withdrawn from an account controlle...

Police investigating recent assaults in Bunbury have raided the city's headquarters of the Coffin Cheaters motorcycle gang.Local police and officers from Operation Jupiter have been at the fortified premises for several hours. Operation Jupiter is targeting organised crime and outlaw motorcycle gangs. At least one member of the club is inside and police expect to take him away for questioning later today. Officers are collecting evidence from the premises.

Chanh Duc (Hector) Ho, 21, of Toronto, was arrested early yesterday near Yonge St. and Finch Ave. He faces eight charges, including attempted murder and kidnapping. A police source alleged Ho has ties to the Chin Pak street gang. Also arrested in yesterday's raids on drug and weapons offences were Eric Ho, 19, of Toronto, Chi Duc David Ho, 18, of Markham, Thang Ho, 49, of Markham, and a 17-year-old Toronto girl, who can't be identified.

Richard C. Morris Jr., 54, was arrested in Honolulu last week and extradited to Orange County in connection with the Jan. 2, 1987 of Casino, the behind-the-scenes owner-operator of the Mustang Topless Theater.A Hawaii man was charged Tuesday with special circumstances murder for his alleged role in one of Orange County’s most notorious unsolved slayings: the mob-style execution of topless bar owner Jimmy Casino.He appeared in Orange County Superior Court Tuesday afternoon in a long-sleeved yellow T-shirt, brown knee-length shorts and flip-flops with his hands cuffed behind his back. Superior Court Commissioner Vickie L. Hix continued his arraignment to June 13 and ordered him held without bail.Casino’s death was the first in a series of mob-style shootings linked to financial control of the highly lucrative Mustang to rock Orange County in the 1980s. A financial backer in the club was blinded after he was shot in the head three months later and a bouncer was killed execution-style in a...

Officers began rounding up members of "two violent street gangs" Wednesday morning who are suspected of distributing large amounts of drugs in Gregg County, the United States Attorney's Office reported.If convicted, the defendants face up to life in prison and fines of more than $4 million.Information about which people had already been arrested was not immediately available. The 29 people who were being arrested were indicted in federal court on May 13. They are almost all from Longview.The people named in the indictment were: Quincy L. Head, aka Q45, 27, of Longview; William Earl Johnson Jr., aka Truck, 31, of Longview; Marchello Dornell Miller, aka Chello, 27, of Longview; Dajamuel Dione Floyd, aka Jamie and/or Red, 30, of Longview; Rodrick Dewayne Taylor, aka Playboy, 35, of Dallas; James Darrell Lister, Jr., aka Wee Wee, 26, of Longview; Larry Donell George, aka LG and/or G, 25, of Longview Bronson Benard Bell, aka Lil B, 24, of Longview; Chester Wayne Davis, 33, of...

A Hells Angels associate shot to death in Marin last weekend was identified Monday as William Crompton Maclean, 25, of San Leandro. The investigation into Maclean's death continued Monday as police looked for the red sport-utility vehicle that raced away after the homicide. The sheriff's department was still trying to determine whether the shooting was related to the motorcycle association's activities, or whether some other motive was at play, said sheriff's Sgt. Keith Boyd. "At this point, we don't have any indication as to a motive and we're investigating any possibilities as to why this occurred," Boyd said. Maclean was shot about 8:15 p.m. Saturday while riding in a white Chevy pickup truck that was leading a procession of Hells Angels motorcyclists through Marin to Sonoma County. Sheriff's investigators said someone in a red SUV, possibly a Dodge Durango, opened fire on the Chevy pickup on northbound Highway 101 between Tiburon Boulevard in M...

Evaristo Alvear, 22, and Jose De Jesus Camacho, 21, were charged with drive-by shooting during their arraignment in Yakima County Superior Court.The two alleged Wapato gang members were charged today with shooting up a Wapato home last week. A Wapato police officer heard the shots being fired near the 200 block of West Elizabeth Street on Friday, and with assistance from Yakima County Sheriff's deputies arrested three men seen fleeing the crime scene. Police found five bullet casings on the street. Two bullets passed through the home and struck a parked vehicle in the back. Police said Alvear was the shooter and Camacho was the driver. Both are being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.

Member of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club was selling T-shirts on Panama City Beach when he was confronted by members of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club, deputies with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office wrote in an incident report. The Outlaws consisted of three men on motorcycles and a fourth man in a gold Lincoln. A woman wearing a property of Outlaw vest also was with them, deputies wrote. Each of the Outlaws pulled guns out of their pants while the Hell’s Angel held a knife, the Hell’s Angel said. The Outlaws told the man to leave their territory or they would kill him, the Hell’s Angel said. The Outlaws then took the man’s shirts and left, deputies wrote.

Gang violence between the infamous Hells Angels and the Outlaws have led to the cancellation of the Welsh Motor Cycle Show.The Royal Welsh Showground Committee pulled the plug on the event – scheduled to have been held over the Bank Holiday weekend – following advice from Dyfed Powys Police.But show organisers are livid, and are looking at legal action to recover losses of over £80,000. Steve Bennett, director of the Welsh Motor Cycle Show, told the County Times: "I believe they (the police) have frightened the committee with horrific tales of violence in the past. There was more violence in Manchester last night than there has been between the supposed gangs last year

Gaétan Comeau, 60, part of the gang's Montreal chapter, was once described by police as having possible links to the 1995 car bombing that killed 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers, an innocent victim of the biker gang war. In 2003, he was arrested along with 10 others in Project Apache, a police investigation into a drug trafficking network that operated out of the city's Rosemont and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve districts. On Dec. 17, 2003, Comeau pleaded guilty to charges related to his leading role in the network and was sentenced to a prison term of five years and two months. Last summer, after reaching the two-thirds mark of his sentence, he qualified for statutory release.In January, he was arrested for violating his release and was returned to prison after Montreal police alleged he was linked to a series of violent incidents in which independent tow-truck drivers in Montreal received threats, vandalism and assaults.The investigation reportedly centred on a tow-truck company based ...

A member of the Hells Angels motorcycle club is dead after he was found in a California Highway Patrol parking lot in Corte Madera suffering from a gunshot wound.The man riding at the head of a procession of Hells Angels motorcycle riders Saturday night on Highway 101 in Marin County died after being shot and detectives Sunday were asking witnesses to help. At about 8:15 p.m. Saturday, the victim was riding in a white Chevy truck, leading the procession, when he was shot. The truck was in the northbound lanes between Tiburon Boulevard and Paradise Drive, sheriff’s officials reported. Sgt. Keith Boyd of the Marin County sheriff's office says the victim was riding in a Chevrolet truck at the head of a motorcycle procession along Highway 101 Saturday night when he was shot. Boyd said sheriff's deputies found the man after getting a 911 call placed at a pay phone outside the CHP office. The victim was pronounced dead at Marin General Hospital. His name has not been released. Author...

Cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines were found in raids in both districts a search in Palmwoods saw more than 1.5kg of amphetamines and more than 1kg of cannabis seized.Three motorcycle gangs have been hit in raids that have seen cash, cannabis, ecstasy and more than 1.5kg of amphetamines bagged by police. Thirty-six detectives were part of the joint Fraser and Sunshine Coast operation, Golf Cyclone. Eight people have been charged with 14 offences on the Fraser Coast following 20 raids, which included a bikie club house at Urangan. On the Sunshine Coast, six people were charged with 17 offences. Police said it was an ongoing operation to target places related to the Black Uhlans, Gypsy Jokers and Bandidos outlaw motorcycle gangs. "This is a proactive action to ensure our intelligence holdings are maintained to the highest level," police detective Senior Sergeant Leith Lindsay said yesterday. "We make no apologies for it. Paramount is the safety of all people in our design...

Timothy Evans and Mike Daniels both guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the shooting of Adrian Patton.Evans testified he unloaded his clip into Patton, because he had to at the order of his Skyline Bloods boss, Daniels...known as Mike Mike.Daniels was angry at Patton for shooting up his sister's house.During the trial, testimony showed beat ins or worse happened for initiation into the Skyline Bloods. Evans says they had 35 members and met weekly where Mike Mike decided if punishment for any member was in order.Time after time psychologists say young men join gangs for love and acceptance.Evans told the jury he was upset Daniels told police he didn't know why Evans shot Patton. " I loved Michael, I was loyal to him. I would have did anything for him. Anybody can speak on that. He can speak on that. But when he sat there and told them folks he didn't know why I kilt him, it hurted me."We learned this afternoon the Hamilton County Jail has each man o...

Organised motorcycle gang crime is a growing problem in Sweden with at least fifty gangs operating across the country with the number of reported cases of extortion doubling in the last ten years. Rejecting widespread calls for a Swedish FBI to tackle the problem, the government’s Justice Ministry has instead backed plans to set up 9 police action groups around the country, to fight organised crime

Armed York Regional Police tactical officers stood watch as special constables asked each person to identify themselves and empty their pockets before they were granted access to the courtroom.Francesco (Cisco) Lenti, 60, of Vaughan, media and police officers filed into courtroom 403 in Newmarket just after 9:30 a.m. Monday. After Mr. Lenti, who appeared wearing a black shirt and black pants, was led to the prisoner’s dock, Crown attorney Peter Westgate informed Justice Michael Brown that Mr. Lenti’s lawyer, Louie Genova, had fallen ill.His next sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 26.On April 14, Mr. Lenti pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of David John (Dread) Buchanan, 32, the sergeant at arms for the Hells Angels West Toronto chapter. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the December 2006 incident, during which Hells Angels member Dana Carnegie and then-Hells Angels prospect Carlo Verrelli were wounded at Club Pro, in the Jane Street and Hwy. 7 area...

Operation "Third Watch" targeted the criminal street gang Third Shift.Close to 30 sheriffs deputies surrounded a house in Bradenton Thursday night, the latest crackdown on gang activity in Manatee County. 3 members of the 3rd Shift gang were arrested as part of Operation 3rd Watch that began in July of last year. Stuebe says they've confiscated guns, drugs and $52,000 since that time, and now all but 2 members are behind bars. "This is the culmination, really, what we did last night with the search warrant execution. But there are still a few out there that we're probably going to get a little later as the investigation continues."Those 2, Theophille Telfort and Anthony Brown. Brown has been charged with murder in the past, but the charges were dropped. "This is not a typical gang, like the mafia, with a hierarchy and a tier. This group is a little more self serving, less formal, and who is not in jail at the time and is usually the most violent,...

Christopher Wayne Hudson has pleaded guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder over the peak-hour shootings in Melbourne's CBD last June. Solicitor Brendan Keilar was shot dead and a backpacker was seriously injured when they intervened in an argument between Hudson and a woman in the city during the morning peak hour.Mr Keilar, a father of three, was shot as he rushed to help Kara Douglas, who Hudson was dragging from a taxi in William Street. Hudson also shot Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard, who also went to help the woman. Hudson, from Melbourne, has been remanded in custody to appear in the Supreme Court in June. The former Hells Angels bikie also pleaded guilty to assaulting another woman, Autumn Daly-Holt, outside a King Street nightclub before the shootings. Last week he pleaded guilty to using an unregistered firearm after firing a gun from his car while giving a late-night lift to AFL star Alan Didak.

Police allege that the Hells Angels have been involved with agencies that supply exotic dancers to strip clubs. A former Cecil bouncer, Michael Plante, had been a Hells Angels enforcer and later infiltrated the East End chapter as a paid police agent. Plante is now in witness protection."It was a crazy scene . . . fists, chairs, bottles were flying inside the bar," said Const. Tim Fanning of the Vancouver police department.A 30-year-old Richmond man was shot dead and a second man injured after a "wild west" fight broke out at Cecil strip club in downtown Vancouver Wednesday.According to police, the fight broke out around 10:30 p.m., and involved between 20 and 30 men. The Cecil is slated for redevelopment with a 22-storey residential tower proposed for the site.Minutes later, a single shot fired inside the bar sent panicked patrons and staff running out into the parking lot at the rear of the building at 1336 Granville.Outside, gunfire again erupted with bullets str...

The UN gang is a multi-ethnic crime group that has its roots in the Fraser Valley, but has grown throughout Metro Vancouver over the last few years. Members have also been showing up more frequently in the Okanagan and Interior. 40-year-old gunned down in a targeted hit late Thursday on a quiet Abbotsford street was a member of the United Nations or UN gang, The Vancouver Sun has learned. The man, whose identity is being withheld by investigators, was gunned down on the front steps of the house he had shared with his wife and daughters for several months.But police have confirmed that he was heavily involved in organized crime. The man is known to police and he is suspected of having links to organized crime," said Abbotsford Police Const. Casey Vinet. "All indications are that the victim was targeted."Several Lower Mainland murders and shootings have been linked to rivalries between the UN and other crime groups such as the Independent Soldiers. Neighbours of the home a...

Russell Sinkis, 37, of 45 Oxford St., Auburn, was also ordered to be on supervision for three years after release from prison for his conviction for being a felon in possession of ammunition. The charge stems from Mr. Sinkis shooting a gun — with which he was not charged because, unlike the ammunition, it could not be proven to have crossed state lines — at the Boston Gun Range in Worcester on Oct. 26, 2006. Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV said there were conflicting pressures on his decision to sentence Mr. Sinkis to 4 years and 9 months. The judge credited the argument of defense lawyer James J. Gribouski that illegal possession of ammunition by a felon is less serious when it is at a gun range rather than on the street or in his home, and less serious than possession of a gun. While the crime is not relatively serious, the judge said the nature of the defendant is another matter. Judge Saylor noted that restraining orders have been taken out against Mr. Sinkis by three different women. J...

Grandview police are investigating a report of shots fired during a fight between opposing gang members Thursday night.Police received a report that a fight was about to happen at 7:50 p.m. Thursday in an alley in the 300 block of Avenue D.An estimated six to eight members of the Bell Garden Locos and North Side Villans scattered when police arrived, said Assistant Chief Mark Ware. Police later found some of the people involved. No one was hurt in the fight, Ware said.

23 suspected mobsters were expected to be arraigned in Federal Court in Newark Thursday. Ten were arrested and another 13 were told to surrender, and FBI spokesman said.Among those charged are Andrew Merola of Toms River who prosecutors said allegedly ran the New Jersey crew of the Gambino crime family. Also arrested was Ralph Cicalese of Roseland who helped run gambling operations. Investigators said the gambling enterprise included a multi-million dollar Internet gambling site. They crew is also accused of ripping off major retailers like Home Depot, Best Buy and Circuit City by using bogus bar code labels to get high priced electronics and other merchandise at greatly reduced prices. The FBI said two of the reputed mobsters got jobs inside Lowes to help pull off the scam. This is the second major FBI raid targeting the Gambino crime family this year. In February, WNBC.com first reported more than 60 reputed mobsters were arrested in Brooklyn and charged on counts ranging from racket...

Black Power and Mongrel Mob gang members clash at funeral Mid-South Canterbury area controller Inspector Dave Gaskin said both groups took the opportunity "to puff out their chests and feel important".Christchurch Mongrel Mob members boosted the contingent connected to a MacDonald Street house, while further east Black Power and associates were also on the street.Mr Gaskin said the Mongrel Mob included some patched members from Christchurch, who were in Timaru for a funeral.He said that with rival gang members and supporters living in the same area, they were bound to come into contact. He said the confrontation did not lead to any arrests.On Sunday five Black Power members were arrested for unlawful assembly, and one of them was arrested for being in possession of a bat following an incident on Brunswick Street on Saturday night.yesterday they were bailed at large on conditions that included non-association with gang members.

Police detectives for the past month have been rounding up suspected gang members in targeted neighborhoods in an effort to curb organized criminal activity.The effort has netted at least a dozen arrests, several weapons, thousands of dollars in cash and drugs, Dayton Detective Chad Knight said. The police department in 2006 received a $98,533 Anti-Gang Initiative grant from the U.S. Justice Department, part of a $30 million nationwide pool of money to support new or expanded anti-gang efforts. The grant is helping to cover overtime pay for officers conducting the sweeps, and to train officers to identify gang and organized criminal activity. Funding is expected to last until August, police said. A Dayton Daily News series published Feb. 17 and 18 found that law enforcement agencies in the Miami Valley have connected assaults, drug trafficking, shootings and homicides to more than a dozen local street gangs.The sweeps of one police district at a time (there are five) involve Knight and...

15 shots were fired as rival gangs clashed and bystanders ducked for cover. The shootout involved about a dozen men in three cars, with security footage showing some of the men firing shots as they chased each other down the street. Police are investigating if those involved were linked to the Hells Angels bikie gang and the Middle East Boys street gang. No one was injured in the incident, with police taking three people into custody for questioning. The shootout sparked a debate over the passage of legislation to crack down on outlaw motorcycle gangs, including laws to prevent people associating with gang members. The legislation is before parliament's upper house. Attorney-General Michael Atkinson said yesterday's shootout vindicated the Government's stand and he urged the parliament to pass the new laws as soon as possible. But Australian Democrats MP Sandra Kanck said Mr Atkinson was trying to scare parliament into passing the draconian laws. "The Attorney-General...

Southside Criminals and the King Hill Posse. City misdemeanor charges were filed Tuesday against the alleged rock fighters.“This is not the first time we have had trouble with the people using those names as the guise with which they were doing things,” said Cmdr. Jim Connors of the St. Joseph Police Department. “Some of them are largely responsible for some of the graffiti that we are seeing around.”Mr. Connors said the two gangs were not fighting each other but were throwing rocks at a third party. There were no injuries in the incident, which occurred Monday on Carnegie Street at about 7 p.m.Witnesses reported 12 to 15 individuals at the rock fight. Police arrested six, including one who was taken into juvenile custody. Chad Reigenborn, 17, Jeffery Johnson, 24, Darin Dudley, 17, and Jeremy Johnson, 19, each were charged with a misdemeanor of disorderly conduct by fighting. City misdemeanor charges of assault and resisting arrest were filed against Tyler J. Ortega, 18.Police had to u...

The Maverick Steak House Sunday night shooting in which two customers were wounded. It is the second incident involving gunshots at the restaurant. The first was in December 2005, when three people, including a Norco firefighter, were hurt in a confrontation between two rival biker gangs during a toy drive in front of the restaurant and bar. Sunday's shooting had no connection to any biker gang, said Lt. Ross Cooper of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's deputies arrested two Corona men Sunday night on suspicion of firing several shots at Maverick's, striking two customers inside. Deputies booked Isaac Flores, 26, and Robert Taylor Jr., 25, into Robert Presley Detention Center on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The shooting comes just months after the city and restaurant owner Rob Koziel reached an agreement on operating conditions for the restaurant. The latest incident has city officials questioning the restaurant's fate. "We thoug...

Investigation head detective inspector John Tims says the arrests are the culmination of a six-month investigation targeting the Killer Beez and Tribesmen gangs. More than 100 police took part in the Operation Leo raids around Otara and Papatoetoe with the armed offenders squad also involved in Tuesday’s searches.More than 20 people are facing drugs charges after a police crackdown on the Killer Beez and Tribesmen gangs.The arrests came after police raids on Monday and Tuesday on 19 south Auckland properties, including Colourways Records run by the Killer Beez. Seventeen people charged with supplying methamphetamine or P, a class A drug, were remanded in custody until June 11 when they appeared in the Manukau District Court on Tuesday.One of those was Joshua James Masters, 30, the head of the Killer Beez gang. Another was a minor who appeared in the youth court.Two women on non-drugs charges were remanded on bail until June 11.Another 10 people, including two women, were to appear in c...

"You've got three vehicles in a popular nightspot with each of those vehicles carrying people armed with semi-automatic weapons. One shot is frightening, let alone 15."Middle East Boys street gang shootout with semi-automatic weapons on Adelaide's most popular restaurant strip forced dozens of bystanders to dive for cover early yesterday.At least 15 shots were fired in the gun battle among about a dozen men in three cars.Security vision shows some of the men chasing each other on foot while firing and bystanders diving clear of a speeding car on a footpath. Police were investigating if the suspects were linked to the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang and the Middle East Boys street gang.The shooting has sparked a political debate over anti-bikie laws that the Government says are being delayed by "Mickey Mouse" amendments.Four other shootings in the city in the past year have involved 10 victims but no one was injured in yesterday's shooting, on the bus...

Hussein El-Hajj Hassan told people he was going to meet an influential Hells Angel member the night he died, to work out a problem over drug-dealing territory, the biker testified yesterday that he was never aware of any such meeting.Paul "Sasquatch" Porter testified briefly yesterday at the trial of Shant Esrabian, who is charged with first-degree murder in Mr. El-Hajj Hassan's 2004 death. Mr. Esrabian has pleaded not guilty.Earlier this week, Mr. El-Hajj Hassan's widow, Soumia Labrouki, testified that her husband told her on Aug. 20, 2004 that he was going to meet Mr. Porter in Cornwall to discuss a territory problem that one of Mr. El-Hajj Hassan's dealers had been havingAccording to Marwan Sablani, another associate of Mr. El-Hajj Hassan's who testified this week, Mark Yegin, was going to pick Mr. El-Hajj Hassan up and drive him there.Though Mr. Sablani said Mr. El-Hajj Hassan went to meet Mr. Yegin just before 8 p.m. that August night, he never made it to...

"There is this mystique that the Hells Angels are bad people and we need to get these bad people," he said, "when in reality, it's mostly a bunch of old guys riding their motorcycles around." County officials said they spent about $2 million on the 2001-02 case against the Hells Angels, but some think the figure is closer to $6 million. "I think (former District Attorney Mike) Bradbury spent $6 million to get George on probation," said Sheahen. "Maybe (current District Attorney Greg) Totten can spend $6 million to get him on derision." George Christie Jr., and his attorney said the delay was evidence of a weak case stemming from years of vindictive, costly intimidation against his client."This continues a pattern of harassment," said Los Angeles defense attorney Robert Sheahen.Delays in filing charges, however, are not uncommon, and people shouldn't read too much into it, Senior Deputy District Attorney Derek Malan said. The off...

John Napoli took a "scruffy, disorganized" outlaw biker gang and turned it into a well-organized $6 million crystal-meth-trafficking organization. And, like the head of a crime family, Napoli, 35, president of the Breed Outlaw Motorcycle gang, used violence to keep bikers in line in the Bristol-Levittown area, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Foulkes said yesterday, urging that the defendant be sentenced to life in prison. Napoli, among his violent attacks, used an electric drill to bore into Thomas Burke's arm, and nearly crushed his face and dislocated an eye. He put a severely beaten rival in the hospital for four days. And he warned bikers who cooperate with law enforcement: "You'll be killed.""What you did was uncivilized," said U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III yesterday before sentencing Napoli to 36 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.His treatment of Burke, who refused to sell drugs, was "horrendous...

Violence in Salinas returned to the area of Hartnell College late Friday night with the slaying of one man and serious injury of another. Witnesses say a fight broke out about 11:15 p.m. at a party on the 700 block of Archer Street, leaving one man fatally shot and another stabbed. The injured man ran into a nearby apartment complex to hide until police arrived, then was taken by helicopter from the soccer fields at Hartnell College to a Bay Area hospital. Police are not releasing the names or ages of the two men or saying whether the homicide and assault were gang-related. The shot man became the city’s ninth homicide of the year and second homicide of the week.The day before, Martin Santoya, 21, was fatally shot near North Salinas High School minutes before school let out while arguing with someone in another car. Salinas police arrested Robert Sanchez, 18, Friday on suspicion of Santoya’s death — the year’s first arrest in a gang-related homicide in Salinas.This year the area around...

Inmates of Asia’s largest prison, the high-security Tihar in the capital, are on a knife-edge, or shall we say blade-edge. The prison with over 10,000 inmates, including several high-profile ones, has been held hostage by a handful of criminals who harass fellow prisoners with blades.Though the presence of the “bladebaaz gangs”, as they are known, in the jail has been long speculated, a petition filed in a local court seeks to confirm it. Such is the fear of these gangs that even high-profile prisoners hope they don’t have to face them. Not so long ago, former Congress member and Dawood henchman Romesh Sharma and former cop SS Rathi (serving a life sentence in the Connaught Place shootout case) had claimed threat from the gangs.Nearly 26 Tihar inmates recently wrote to the chief justice of the Delhi high court and Patiala House, alleging frequent attacks by the gangs. They gave various reasons for the attacks, from extortion to refusing menial jobs. The petitioners include Tariq Ahmed ...

The Jungle, roughly between La Brea Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard, south of Rodeo Road and north of Santo Tomas Drive in Southwest Los Angeles, was named a gang reduction zone in November.The area's name came from the lush plantings of the pool apartments but has come to signify the gang warfare that emerged from the tropical facades. Although city officials re-christened it Baldwin Village years ago, many residents still call it the Jungle -- P. Stone Jungle, as it has been ruled by the Black P. Stones, a sect of the Bloods, for more than three decades.The gated courtyards and carports of some 560 apartment buildings present a maze into which gangbangers can slip, and the area has some of the highest crime in the city. For years, the P. Stones have been at war with the Latino 18th Street gang to the north. As casualties mounted, LAPD assigned Whiteman and two other gang-detail officers to the area in 2004. The next year, the FBI and LAPD swept through the area with federal drug in...

Raids carried out on a drug trafficking network operating in the west end of the city produced evidence it was controlled by one of the most powerful Hells Angels' chapters in Canada. While executing search warrants at 13 addresses in points west of the downtown core like Verdun, Point St. Charles and Little Burgundy, Montreal police officers found clothing with the biker gang's tell-tale paraphernalia. "We have seized clothing with the emblems of the Sherbrooke Hells Angels," said Commander Françe Théoret, head of the Montreal police youth and street gang prevention squad for southern Montreal. The raids were carried out Thursday as part of Operation Scirocco, an investigation of drug trafficking in southwestern Montreal. Théoret said the investigation began a couple of months ago and Thursday it produced the arrests of 17 people, including five women. She said some of the people arrested were more known to police than others. "But they are people who are tied t...

Notorious Iron Horsemen motorcycle gang has been linked to a ruthless unsolved bikie execution in Melbourne. The Herald Sun can reveal police have credible information connecting the club with both the victim and the suspects in the March 2005 killing. Armed Crime Taskforce detectives yesterday searched a factory in a remote industrial estate in Epping where they believe the man was executed. The factory has previous links to the club. Forensic police last night used chemical tests to check for traces of blood. Despite the release of a detailed face image of the victim, police have yet to establish his name or find his body. The man, described as thin with broad shoulders and in his late 40s, is believed to be from South Australia. Those involved in the killing are not thought to be formal "patched" members of the club but informal associates. Police say they may have been cut loose from the club after the killing. Victoria has two Iron Horsemen chapters. Formed in Melbourne ...

The FBI and numerous other local police agencies arrested several suspected members from "The Almighty King and Queen Nation Gang" during a city wide raid Tuesday. Investigators say this is a very violent Latino street gang based in Chicago. Buffalo FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Laurie Bennett said, "This is the first time that we've seen a national gang actually with a hierarchy here established in western New York." Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson said, "They're a very, very violent street gang. They had their tentacles stretched throughout the City of Buffalo and indeed throughout the nation." The suspects face charges including drug trafficking, weapons possession and money laundering. Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies raided several locations early Tuesday morning. Their target - members and associates of the Latin and Queen Nation gang which is based out of Chicago. James Jancewicz (FBI Buffalo) said, "...pro...

Portland police responded to a shooting after a man walked out of a house bleeding from a gunshot wound Wednesday night. Police said another man shot the victim inside a house on the corner of 91st Avenue and Duke Street. It's unclear if the shooting was accidental or intentional. The shooting happened at around 8 p.m. When officers arrived to investigate, they found walls inside the home covered in gang graffiti. They said both men may be members of a Hispanic gang.

30-year old Norteno gang member named Jesse Chinchuretta was shot once in the back and died a short time later at a Yakima hospital. Yakima Police say a argument broke out between rival gang members in a apartment parking lot at 204 South Fair Avenue. The suspects in a vehicle opened fire hitting the victim and one of his friends. The friend is expected to survive his injuries. At this time YPD has not made an arrest yet. Mr. Chinchuretta's death was the city of Yakima's 3rd homicide of 2008. The city had 6 homicides in 2007.