GANGLAND GODFATHER

25 members and associates of the South End-based Original Gangsta Killas were charged Thursday with a vicious crime spree of drug dealing, robbery and gang violence dating back to 2000. Federal prosecutors in Albany say the gang -- known commonly as OGK -- not only protected its "downtown" turf from rivals with bullets, but brazenly posted not-so-subtle messages on the Internet through compact discs, videotapes and DVDs. Gang members even allegedly produced a rap video like their fierce "uptown" rivals, the Jungle Junkies street gang, whose leadership was toppled in a similar racketeering case in 2006. Having successfully prosecuted that case, federal authorities are hoping for similar success against OGK. They allege at least 14 shooting incidents, four robberies and a stabbing across Albany in a period spanning from May 2001 to March 2009. The alleged drug dealing, which included marijuana, crack cocaine and heroin, dated back a year earlier. "I think the cit...

Michael W. Fraser,biker killed in a crash Wednesday had been a member of the Ghost Riders motorcycle gang and served time in prison for killing two people.Michael W. Fraser, 51, died when his bike slid more than 200 feet into an oncoming car on North Market Street, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.Fraser was southbound on Market when he tried to pass another vehicle in a no-pass zone just south of Hawthorne Road about 5:15 p.m., according to a news release.He lost control of his 1985 rebuilt motorcycle and tipped over, hitting a 1994 Mercury Sable driven by a Mead man who had braked “to almost a complete stop,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “The motorcycle went under the front of the Sable, trapping its rider beneath the car and killing him almost instantly,” according to the news release. The Sable’s driver was not injured.Deputies said Fraser was traveling about 70 mph in the 45 mph zone.Fraser, whose nickname among fellow bikers was Herpes, spent several years on the la...

Marco Antonio Perez, 16, was prosecuted as an adult and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Two other gang members have already been sentenced to multiple life sentences for their roles in the shootings; three others are awaiting trial.The shootings happened in 2006, when Perez was 14 years old. According to prosecutors, he took his father’s car and drove with the others into a rival gang neighborhood in Santa Ana, looking for rivals to kill.They found three, ages 14, 15 and 16.They shot the 14-year-old and the 15-year-old in the head, execution style, according to the District Attorney’s statement. They shot the 16-year-old in the stomach, leaving him in a coma. He survived after undergoing seven surgeries.A jury in June found Perez guilty of two felony counts of special-circumstances murder for the benefit of a criminal street gang, one felony count of attempted murder and one felony count of street terrorism. The jury a...

Billy Joe Johnson, 46,was convicted of murder for luring his childhood friend, Scott Miller, to his death on March 8, 2002, months after Miller gave what he thought was an anonymous interview on Fox11 News about the gang. Miller was gunned down outside an Anaheim apartment complex after he left a party. killed a fellow white supremacist gang member for revealing secrets about the gang should be sentenced to death, a jury recommended Thursday. A judge will decide whether to accept the jury's recommendation. Johnson is already serving a life term for the 2004 slaying of Cory Lamons in Huntington Beach with a claw hammer. Johnson, with his Mohawk-style hair combed down, smiled, chuckled and whispered to his attorney, Michael Molfetta, when the verdict was read. Johnson testified Tuesday that he wanted to be sent to Death Row because he believed it would be a less-restrictive confinement. The four women and eight men on the jury took about two-and-a-half hours to decide Johnson deserv...

bone-chilling execution was caught on a graphic 26-second surveillance feed and is believed to be the first time a hit by the Camorra -- the Neapolitan mob -- was captured on tape.When Tarracino falls on the ground, the killer finishes him off with a bullet to the head.None of the bystanders moves a finger, although it is hard to say if that is from genuine indifference or fear of retaliation.A woman is seen rubbing off her scratch-and-win lottery card as Tarracino is killed in front of her. A cigarette-seller moves his stall a few meters down the road, while a man holding a toddler in his arms looks at the victim and walks away.After five months of investigations, prosecutors have yet to identify the killer, despite the fact that his face is clearly visible in the footage."We have decided to circulate the video as widely as possible, urging the cooperation of whoever can provide information to identify the killer and his lookout," the Naples' office for anti-mafia invest...

Seventy-four members of the gang known as the “Rollin’ 40s Neighborhood Crips” were charged in 23 federal indictments and 45 state warrants for their alleged roles in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy that operated within a three-square-mile area of Los Angeles. The federal indictments that were unsealed this morning charge 29 gang members with crimes that include conspiracy, possession with the intent to distribute cocaine base ( “crack” ) and methamphetamine, and firearms violations. Forty-five additional members of the gang are named in state charges filed in Los Angeles Superior Court for their roles in the illegal drug distribution operation. Many of the defendants at the federal and state level were arrested this morning; however several defendants were already in custody on both related and unrelated charges. Several subjects of this operation are still being sought by law enforcement, including six federal defendants and 20 state defendants. FBI/LAPD task force initiated an in...

Fairfield police arrested a 19-year-old man and are looking for an 18-year-old man believed to be involved in a shooting in the city earlier this week. Miguel Angel Lozoya Luis-Juan was arrested Friday in connection with the shooting, which was reported at about 8:15 p.m. Wednesday in the 1300 block of Adams Street, according to police. Officers responding to the shooting found a 28-year-old suffering from a single gunshot wound to the torso. He had just come home and was shot as he walked up to his house, police said. The victim was taken to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, but he is expected to survive, according to police. Friday Fairfield police gang detectives obtained warrants for two suspects in the case. Luis-Juan, a Fairfield resident, was arrested in the 1600 block of Kidder Avenue at about 4 p.m. and was booked into Solano County jail for attempted murder and criminal conspiracy, police said. Detectives have been unable to locate the second suspect, Jesus ...

Gangster Paul Bennett was freed from a Portuguese prison after fighting extradition back to the UK. Fugitive Paul Bennett was arrested in June on the Algarve after eight years on the run. But today the 42-year-old from Anfield was a free man after time ran out and Portuguese officials had to let him go.Bennett was wanted by detectives who suspected him of being involved in a con which led to him and associate John Haase being given a royal pardon in 1996.He fled the UK in 1999 after police uncovered a cannabis farm in Manchester.After his arrest at Faro airport he fought the Metropolitan police’s attempts to bring him home. His extradition case and subsequent appeal was heard by both the Supreme and Constitutional courts in Portugal.But before a decision was reached on the second appeal the time limit for keeping Bennett in custody expired and under Portuguese law he was set free. The ruling is seen as a massive blow for the Met who have already charged 58-year-old Haase, originally fr...

"Ballroom Blitz", which occurred in the packed grand ballroom of the Royal Pines resort at Carrara on March 18, 2006? Police have now released the dramatic television camera footage showing a melee quickly erupting, with chairs and glasses thrown and tables overturned. Gunshots could then be heard.Hells angel that gets shot, is the same guy who killed that person in the melbourne cbd a year or two ago. The apparent reason for the fight was because he left the finks to goto the Hells Angels, he actually got shot in the face and survived.

La Familia is said to specialize in smuggling methamphetamine, controlling the port of Lázaro Cárdenas, where precursors for the synthetic drug arrive. It manufactures thousands of pounds of the drug strictly for export to the United States.The cartel started 20 years ago as an anti-drug vigilante group, and its leader, Nazario Moreno González AKA "El Más Loco", still spouts paradoxical anti-drug rhetoric. He carries a Bible and a cartel-produced book of his own quotes, and requires the core members of the group to attend church. The organization apparently recruits heavily among drug addicts in Michoacán's rehabilitation clinics."What is distinctive about them is they are messianic," George W. Grayson, a professor of government at the College of William & Mary, told the New York Times' James McKinley. "They justify their actions because they are carrying out divine justice."For years, La Familia was allied with the Gulf Cartel, based in Tamaul...

John Ramirez, 25, of Vineland, allegedly wielded a .357 revolver as he approached the porch and demanded money from Contreras and two friends. As they rifled through their pockets to comply, the gun went off. The bullet lodged in Contreras' head, killing him instantly, police say.Ramirez and his accomplice fled. Shortly thereafter, police found the gun in the street and Ramirez in a house around the corner on the 600 block of Montrose Street. They searched the house and found evidence they will not detail but that they said links Ramirez to the crime.The gun was not registered as stolen, but police have not determined who it belongs to.Investigators do not believe Ramirez had any connection to Contreras. The men lived more than two miles apart in the city, according to their last-known addresses, provided by police.As Ramirez sat Sunday night in the Cumberland County Jail on $750,000 bail, Contreras' friends continued the vigil they started shortly after the 43-year-old's v...

Police say that a St Clair man arrested while trying to obtain a false passport at Hurstville post office was in a drug-manufacturing ring. Matthew Espagne, 33, was in Sutherland Local Court last week charged with commercial manufacture of drugs, possessing fraudulent identification and obtaining a fraudulent passport. He is allegedly a member of the Rebels Outlaw Motorcycle Gang and allegedly had connections to a clandestine drug laboratory discovered south of Moruya this year. He will appear in court on November 5.

Courtney High, Dejon Cagle, Ciara White and Dutchess Lykes were all arrested and charged with two counts each of aggravated arson. The arrests were related to two firebombing incidents that occurred simultaneously at 4813 and 4814 Tomahawk Trail last Wednesday. Victims and witnesses to both incidents were able to provide investigators with suspect descriptions, police said.Based on information received during the investigation, it is believed that the bombings were the result of an on-going feud between two rival gangs - the Gangster Disciples and the Bloods, police said. High and Cagle are both known members of the Bloods gang, it was stated. Police said a third firebombing was attempted Sunday at 736 Georgia Ave. However, details are not yet available on that incident. Members of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire Bureau, the Chattanooga Fire Department, the Chattanooga Police Department and the Tennessee Bomb and Arson Division are all working on the incidents.

Reputed gangster and accused murderer Jamie Bacon attended a special B.C. Supreme Court hearing in Vancouver Monday, where his lawyer argued that Bacon’s rights are being violated by his living conditions at a Surrey, B.C., jail while he awaits trial.Reputed gangster and accused murderer Jamie Bacon attended a special B.C. Supreme Court hearing in Vancouver Monday, where his lawyer argued that Bacon's rights are being violated by his living conditions at a Surrey, B.C., jail while he awaits trial.Bacon is charged along with three others with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the slayings of six people in a Surrey highrise in October 2007. Two of the victims were innocent bystanders, police said.Bacon claims his constitutional rights are being violated because he's being held in solitary confinement, his mail is not being handled properly and visits and telephone access are too restrictive.His lawyer, Kim Eldred, also said Bacon's cell is...

Ayala, better known as "Angelo Millones," was captured last month following a seven-year investigation."It was his domain," Pedro Janer, assistant special agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Puerto Rico, said of the Jose Celso Barbosa project, a collection of concrete, three-story yellow buildings in the San Juan suburb of Bayamon. "He lived there his entire life. People liked him. They protected him."Arrest teams from the DEA, FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Puerto Rico police assembled at a nearby Army base, Fort Buchanan, before speeding into the complex before dawn."We use overwhelming force to guarantee the safety of our agents," DEA spokesman Waldo Santiago said.Suspects were rounded up without incident and loaded onto a bus for processing at a sports stadium in San Juan. By midafternoon Friday, 38 of 65 defendants indicted by a U.S. grand jury on drug tr...

Federal authorities say a gang leader had developed an elaborate plot to escape from prison in a homemade helicopter flown by his underlings.The Tennessean of Nashville reported Friday that the case against one of the gang leader's associates, 35-year-old Faith Readus, will be heard by a grand jury. She is accused of researching different types of helicopters and flight training.Authorities say the plot was orchestrated by Jamal Shakir, who hoped to renew his Rollin' 90 Crips criminal enterprise. He was convicted in May 2008 of orchestrating a nationwide drug ring, laundering money and killing nine people between 1994 and 1997.Readus' attorney, Jennifer Thompson, could not be reached Friday. But she said at a Thursday hearing that such a plot was ridiculous.

Cameron Taylor, a documented member of one of the city's most notorious street gangs, disappeared after the March 24 shooting in which rival gang members fired across afternoon traffic on South 16th Street. south Phoenix gang member remains at large six months after a roadway shooting that left a passing motorist dead from a single rifle shot.Earlier this week, Phoenix police's Silent Witness program listed Taylor, 22, among its most-wanted suspects. The 5-foot-11, 150-pound suspect, who goes by the nickname Woo, is accused of attempted murder and other crimes in the shooting north of Broadway Road. The stray bullet killed Gilbert Leon, 54, who was driving home after taking his nephew to lunch just blocks from the neighborhood where he grew up. Leon's parents said they continue to work with Silent Witness to share their son's story in hopes that others will learn from his memory. "That's all we have - memories," said Leon's mother, Clemencia Leon, 77. ...

19-year-old from District Heights was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for trying to kill a member of a rival gang outside a nightclub last year, Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said. Circuit Court Judge Larnzell Martin Jr. sentenced Eric S. Chambers in connection with the Dec. 26 shooting, prosecutors said. Chambers shot Ronald L. Kenney, 19, in the stomach outside the CFE club in Forestville, said prosecutors. Chambers is a member of the Hilltop Crew, which prosecutors said is a rival of the Walker Mill Crew. Members of the groups got into a fight at the club, according to prosecutors, and a member of the Hilltop Crew called Chambers at home. Chambers went to the club, authorities said, shooting and wounding Kenney after another fight outside the nightspot.

Two gang members who are thought to have fled to Spain after raiding HSBC .As reported yesterday Patrick McDonagh and Carl Hargin were jailed for stealing more than £300,000 from the Westbourne Road branch in an armed, daylight robbery in June. Hargin, 24, got eight years and eight months and McDonagh, 28, got seven years and four months after admitting the offence.Det Chf Insp McDermott, of West Yorkshire Police’s crime division, said: “They were obviously dangerous and very professional in the way they planned and prepared the offence, using stolen vehicles, one of which was later burned out and abandoned.“The level of violence used at the scene was horrific and it was lucky the bank staff were not seriously injured.“It’s a good result to have got the sentences they received.”Hargin, of Salford, and McDonagh, of Cheetham Hill in Manchester, were part of a four-strong gang who armed themselves with a sledgehammer, a machete and a crowbar when they targeted the bank on the afternoon of...