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Friday 30 September 2011

Authorities say they have arrested a former Hells Angels leader at a park in Honolulu.

 FBI agents and Honolulu police took Stephen Sanders, former head of the San Diego Hells Angels, into custody without incident in Ala Moana Park on Thursday, Agent Tom Simon said. The 42-year-old Sanders was wanted in California in connection with a 2007 robbery and kidnapping. The Hawaii arrest comes the same day that more than two dozen members of the Hells Angels and their associates were apprehended in a series of San Diego County raids. FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth told the San Diego Union-Tribune (http://bit.ly/rmikpu ) that the 26 arrests came at the end of a violent crimes task force investigation. Simon said Sanders' arrest on the same day of the raids was a coincidence.

Hells Angel slaying suspect arrested in San Fran

 

University of California, San Francisco police have arrested the suspect in the slaying of the president of a Hells Angels chapter at a Nevada casino. UCSF Assistant Police Chief Paul Berlin says 53-year-old Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez was taken into custody after he was spotted by an officer just a block from campus police headquarters around 8:20 p.m. Thursday. Gonzalez was apparently in a parked 2011 Chevrolet Malibu. He is being held pending the arrival of police from Sparks, Nev., where he is accused of killing Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew inside a casino on Sept. 23. Authorities say Gonzalez is an alleged member of the Vagos gang and shot the 51-year-old Pettigrew four times in the back. Pettigrew was the president of the San Jose chapter of the Hells Angels.

Jury retires to consider bikie brawl verdict

 

The jury in the trial of seven men charged over a fatal bikie brawl at Sydney Airport has retired to consider its verdict. Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas died after being bashed and stabbed during a fight between rival bikie clubs at the airport domestic terminal in March 2009. Six Comancheros stood trial for his murder, while a Hells Angels member stood trial for riot and affray. After a four-month trial that heard evidence from airport staff and passengers, Justice Robert Hulme summed up the Crown and defence cases. He directed the jurors to reach a unanimous verdict. The judge told them to be fearless and impartial in reaching it and to make their own assessment of CCTV footage and witnesses. The jurors retired this afternoon and will continue their deliberations in the morning.

Prosecutors demand tough sentences in Hell's Angels drug case

 

Prosecutors are demanding long prison sentences for those suspected of involvement in an international drug smuggling case. The proceedings got underway on Thursday at the Helsinki District Court. Nine defendants, all of whom belong to the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang face a variety of charges. Eight are accused of aggravated narcotic offences. Other offences include drug offences, money laundering, and the importation of illegal goods and firearms offences. One of the accused is a member of the Rogues Gallery group while two others belong to the 1-800 gang. The proceedings are taking place in a secured court room. Prosecutors are demanding jail terms for the accused and financial compensation to the state for losses incurred. In one case, a 12 year prison term is being demanded. It is thought one of the accused is the president of the Hell’s Angels Finnish organization. The gang is suspected to have made millions of euros on drug trafficking over a period of several years. Earlier this month, police confiscated several kilos of amphetamines and cocaine with a potential street value of 800,000 euros. Officials also seized illegal weapons and 200,000 euros in cash.

Police say they have dismantled one branch of the Hells Angels bike gang in eastern Ontario after a series of raids.

 

In a news conference Thursday morning, Ottawa police, Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP announced they had worked together in a yearlong investigation called "Project Finale."

Police towed away this Hells Angels motorcycle from a clubhouse Wednesday after a raid also found drugs, weapons and Hells Angels paraphernalia.Police towed away this Hells Angels motorcycle from a clubhouse Wednesday after a raid also found drugs, weapons and Hells Angels paraphernalia. Ottawa police

The culmination of that work ended up in all three tactical units executing 16 search warrants, including one at the Hells Angels clubhouse at 5416 8 Line Rd. in south Ottawa.

Police were seen taking away a Harley Davidson motorcycle and revealed they also confiscated illegal drugs, cash and weapons.

There were 107 charges laid against 12 people including a 37-year-old Ottawa man police say is a full patch member of the Hells Angels. He faces five charges.

"It's going to have a major dent in the Ottawa region and eastern Ontario region. The numbers seized yesterday, we're very pleased with the numbers," said Insp. Samir Bhatnagar from Ottawa police.

"This group is known to potentially move $300,000 to $400,000 a month of illegal substances."

Family and friends mourn local Hells Angel president

 

Police are preparing for hundreds, perhaps thousands of bikers expected to ride into Oak Hill Memorial Park in San Jose sometime next month to honor the memory of Jeff "Jethro" Pettigrew, the president of the city's Hells Angels chapter who was shot to death in a gun battle at a Sparks casino. There will be Henchmen, East Side Riders Car Club, Devil Dolls, Top Hatters and more. Alongside them, also paying their respects, will be members of the South Yard Heavy Equipment Crew. That is not a motorcycle club. It is the San Jose Department of Transportation's pavement repair team. They knew Pettigrew from his day job. To them, he was not the local president of a biker club that law enforcement sees as a violent criminal motorcycle gang. He was as a veteran backhoe operator who paved potholes. Hans Larsen, director of the city's Department of Transportation, said he was not even aware that Pettigrew was a Hells Angel. Nor did he care. "We have many employees who are motorcycle enthusiasts. What they do in their private lives doesn't concern us as long as it doesn't affect their work,'' Hansen said. "From what I am hearing he was a nice person with a good attitude, very professional in his work and he did it well.'' Funeral arrangements are still being made. And Pettigrew's shooting death Friday night at John Ascuaga's Nugget Casino, which has law enforcement on high alert for a brewing bloodshed between outlaw Advertisement motorcycle clubs, is still under investigation.

Sunday 25 September 2011

1 killed, 2 wounded in shooting at Sparks, Nev. casino; witnesses saw rival motorcycle gangs

 

One person has been killed and two others wounded in a shooting at a hotel-casino in Sparks that witnesses say involved members of rival motorcycle gangs, the Vagos and Hells Angels. Sparks police confirmed the fatal shooting at John Ascuaga’s Nugget about 11:30 p.m. Friday but they have not identified any of the people involved. 0 Comments Weigh InCorrections? inShare Daniel Sharp of Stockton, Calif., told the Reno Gazette-Journal he was in the dance area at the Nugget for the Street Vibrations biker festival when a group of Vagos club members came in. He says a single Hells Angel then entered, soon followed by several more. Within five minutes he says a fight erupted and shots rang out. Police Lt. Pete Krall says they are investigating different motorcycle clubs but declined to name them.

Biker gangs eyed in fatal Sparks casino shooting

 

Police stepped up patrols at a motorcycle festival in Reno and Sparks on Saturday after a gun battle between two rival gangs at a hotel-casino left one Hells Angel dead and two members of the Vagos club injured. The fatal shooting at John Ascuaga's Nugget on Interstate 80 in Sparks happened at about 11:30 p.m. Friday as thousands of motorcyclists descended on the area for the annual Street Vibrations celebration, police confirmed. Sparks police Lt. Brian Allen said officers were investigating whether there was any connection between that fatal incident and a drive-by shooting at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday about a half mile from the Nugget. Allen said police arrested one Hells Angel in connection with Friday night's fatal shooting. He said officers made a number of other arrests but provided no details. "We're trying to minimize any other potential violence," Allen said. Officials in neighboring Reno said they too were increasing patrols and would request assistance from federal law enforcement if necessary. "Local law enforcement is working with federal agencies in a coordinated effort, including increased patrol, tactical teams and undercover officers," Reno city officials said in a statement Saturday afternoon. Authorities in Arizona arrested more than two dozen members of the two gangs in August 2010 after a shootout between them wounded five people but none seriously in the small community of Chino Valley, north of Prescott. On Friday night at the Nugget, Daniel Sharp of Stockton, Calif., told the Reno Gazette-Journal he was in the dance area near Trader Dick's restaurant just off the casino floor when a group of Vagos club members came in. Sharp said a single Hells Angels member then entered the area, soon followed by several more. He says that within about five minutes a fight had erupted and shots rang out. "It was mayhem," he said. Other witnesses told the newspaper they heard between a dozen and two dozen gunshots. The casino was evacuated and put on lockdown at about midnight. The Nugget said in a statement that the casino and all its restaurants had reopened by midday Saturday. It said that in addition to its own "extensive security force," uniformed officers would patrol inside the casino the rest of the weekend. Joe Franco, of Reno, said he saw one man in Hells Angel garb pull out a gun after he was knocked to the ground in a fistfight with a rival. "He was down with the bloody nose, gets up and pulls out the gun and that's the first shot," apparently at the man who punched him, Franco said. "Then he turned the gun toward the south of the building and that's when he started firing into the crowd," Franco told the Gazette-Journal. "The guy who was doing the shooting was an older man. He must have been 50, 55." Everyone started ducking as soon as the first shot was fired, Franco said. "By the third shot we were already running," he said.

Saturday 24 September 2011

"Billy's Crew."Gangster who saw shooting held for breach of conditions

 

Gangster whose associate was critically wounded in Surrey last week has been remanded in custody until Wednesday on an alleged breach of his court conditions. Sukhveer Dhak, 27, appeared via video link in Surrey Provincial Court Friday. Dhak was with his pal Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun in the 10100-block of 144th at around 9: 30 p.m. on Sept. 16 when gunmen opened fire, hitting Khun-Khun several times before fleeing. Khun-Khun remains in hospital in critical condition. Dhak was picked up Sept. 18 for allegedly violating court conditions on a drug conspiracy charge laid in 2008. He is due to go to trial on that case in November. Earlier this week, the head of the Gang Task Force warned that anyone associated with the Dhak and Duhre crime groups could get caught in an escalating gang war. Supt. Tom McCluskie said gang investigators "have reason to believe these people are being targeted by other criminal groups." And he said his team is probing possible links between the Khun-Khun shooting and the fatal shooting in Kelowna on Aug. 14 of Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon. Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach were also wounded in that incident. Since the high-profile public shooting outside a busy lakeside tourist hotel and casino, tensions have been escalating between associates of the victims and those they believe are responsible. On one side is an alliance consisting of the Duhres, Dhak and some United Nations members. On the other are some Hells Angels, the Scorpions and the Independent Soldiers. McCluskie said the investigation into Bacon's death is going well, though no one has yet been charged. The Duhre group is headed by three brothers - Balraj, Sandip and Paul - who grew up in North Vancouver and were once associates of the late Bindy Johal. Eldest brother Balraj was shot in a Vancouver restaurant in August 2005, but survived. Sandip escaped injury when his car was sprayed with gunfire at a Surrey convenience store in May 2005, but his friend Dean Mohamed Elshamy was killed. And both Balraj and Sandip were shot at in July 2005 as they drove through east Vancouver. Their bulletproof sedan saved their lives. Sukh Dhak is the younger brother of Gurmit Dhak, who was gunned down outside Metrotown Mall in October 2010. Gurmit Dhak, then 32, was also shot in 2007 in a crowded Kitsilano restaurant. Both Dhaks have been associated with a criminal organization dubbed "Billy's Crew."

An alliance of Dhak, the Duhres, and some United Nations gang members may be facing off against the Red Scorpions, the Hells Angels, and the Independent Soldiers.

 

An alliance of Dhak, the Duhres, and some United Nations gang members may be facing off against the Red Scorpions, the Hells Angels, and the Independent Soldiers.

shooting in Surrey last week that left a gang member critically injured may be linked to the slaying of Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna

shooting in Surrey last week that left a gang member critically injured may be linked to the slaying of Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna last month, police say.

Sgt. Bill Whalen with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit — Gang Task Force said police are looking for a connection between Bacon’s assassination and the Friday 16 shooting of Jujhar Singh Khun-Khun, 24.

“We are investigating links between the two incidents,” he said.

Khun-Khun remains in hospital in critical condition and is a known as a member of the Dhak gang group, which Whalen said are in locked in a battle with the Hells Angels.

Police received a call of a shooting at 9:30 p.m. Friday in the 10100-block of 144 Street. They arrived to find Khun-Khun shot. He was taken to hospital where he remains in critical condition.

On Aug. 14, four people were shot outside the Delta Grand Hotel in Kelowna. Red Scorpion Jonathan Bacon was killed and others were injured, including Larry Amero of the White Rock Hells Angels.

A Gang Task Force media release on Sept. 7 indicated police had information that something retaliatory was going to happen.

“To date, intelligence and information indicates that tensions amongst rival gangs have increased exponentially since the Kelowna shooting and it’s no longer a question of if retaliation will occur, but when,” the task force said. “The potential for a violent reprisal is not restricted to any one community, and can occur anywhere at anytime.”

The release revealed the Gang Task Force had assigned 65 officers to the tensions arising from the Kelowna shooting.
Khun-Khun is no stranger to the media. In 2007 his 19-year-old fiancée was killed when she fell from the moving SUV he was driving. No charges were laid in that case. Later that year Khun-Khun was sentenced to three years in prison for kidnapping and robbing a truck driver. males from the Lower Mainland,

On August 20 2011, Nanaimo RCMP stopped a gray 2008 Acura near the intersection of Victoria Rd and Highway 19A. Khun-Khun and two other men were remanded into custody and charges of Trafficking in a Controlled Substance under the CDSA were laid after officers detected marijuana odors in the car. A search revealed 27.5 grams of crack cocaine, 7.5 grams of marihuana, 108 pills of suspected ecstasy, a radio jamming system, scales and $1,700 in Canadian currency in the car.

Another known gangster, Sukh Dhak was also at the scene when Khun-Khun was shot
Dhak, 27, is the brother of gangster Gurmit Singh Dhak, who was gunned down in October 2010 outside Metrotown Mall in Coquitlam. In the ensuing round of retaliation 10 people were wounded in a shooting spree at the Neighbors Restaurant on Oak Street in December 2010. A party attended by gang affiliates was taking place inside the restaurant at the time. Sukh Dhak had been warned several times by police that he was a target.

Friday 23 September 2011

Ex-gangster's girlfriend renews bail request

 

The longtime girlfriend of former Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger has renewed her request to be released on bail while she awaits trial for allegedly helping Bulger elude authorities. A lawyer for Catherine Greig filed a notice in court Thursday asking a judge to consider releasing her. Greig's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said he plans to file "voluminous documents" to support his request, including real estate appraisals. Reddington has said Greig and her sister would put up their homes as collateral. Prosecutors say Greig helped Bulger escape capture for 16 years. Her lawyer says she was in love with Bulger and didn't know the extent of his alleged crimes when she fled with him. Bulger is accused of participating in 19 murders. The couple was apprehended in Santa Monica, Calif., in June.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Gangster's vest stopped rounds

 

The body armour worn by gangster Sanjeev Mann stopped some of the bullets fired at him by masked gunmen, a Calgary court heard Wednesday. Det. James Hands, of the Crime Scenes Unit, detailed the exhibits he seized in connection with the 2009 New Year's Day massacre of Mann and two others. Among the items collected by the officer was the Kevlar body armour Mann regularly wore after he had been shot at months earlier outside his parent's home. Hands showed jurors the back panel of the three piece vest Mann was wearing when two assailants opened fire at the Bolsa restaurant, on Macleod Tr. S. He said the vest, seized during Mann's autopsy, showed he had been hit in the back three times. "We found (the bullets) and cut them out," Hands said, as he showed jurors three holes in the outer lining of Mann's vest. Turning the panel around, Hands showed how the inside of the body armour remained unaffected. "The vest stopped the three bullets from penetrating," he said. Both the inside and outside of the panel, which Hands handled wearing gloves, appeared stained with blood. Charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the Jan. 1, 2009 deaths of Mann, his associate Aaron Bendle, and bystander Keni Su'a are Michael Roberto and Nathan Zuccherato. Crown prosecutor Shane Parker had earlier told jurors in his opening address that Mann was struck by four bullets. Meanwhile, despite arriving moments after emergency calls from Bolsa restaurant, Calgary cops could do nothing to save the gunned down victims, court was told. Const. Kory Gash was one of the first officers on the scene of the New Year's Day massacre and the first to enter the south Calgary eatery. Gash said he checked Su'a for signs of life and tried to help put pressure on his bullet wounds, but to no avail. Once he and other officers charged into the restaurant he found both Mann and Bendle on the floor. "I could observe two individuals down and an Asian female crouched down over the individual who was at the back of the restaurant," he said, referring to Mann's girlfriend, Annie Tran. "I checked for a pulse on the individual and based on no pulse and the magnitude of the blood that was there, he had passed," Gash said, adding he did the same with Bendle.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

AK47 used on Panda, say gardai

 

GUNMEN used an AK47 assault rifle to shoot notorious gangster 'The Panda' in Dublin, gardai believe. Michael 'Micka' Kelly was gunned down in a hail of bullets in Marrsfield, Clongriffin, last Thursday afternoon. He was hit up to six times by bullets from a rifle and handgun -- and reports today said one of the gunman used a Kalashnikov, the rifle favoured by IRA dissidents, to kill him. The Russian-designed assault rifle is the most widely used in the world, carried by everyone from Osama bin Laden to Mexican drug gangs. The gun can be bought for as little as €300 in eastern Europe, according to Europol, the European police organisation. Gardai have seized a number of the weapons over the past few months and last year recovered two of the deadly 7.62mm automatic weapons, which fire at a rate of 600 rounds per minutes, in counties Wicklow and Kildare. The rifle's 30 shot magazine can be emptied in just a couple of seconds when fired on full automatic. Two gunmen lay in wait for the gangster nicknamed 'The Panda' at his girlfriend's home. He was first hit by shots from a car then his killers jumped out and fired more bullets into him before driving over his body. His heartbroken family are still waiting for his body to be released. Last Thursday's execution is considered the most significant gangland murder in Ireland since Eamon 'The Don' Dunne was shot dead last year.

Violence expected as gang tensions flare in B.C.

 

Two brazen, targeted shootings of known British Columbia gangsters in less than a month may be the kindling that sparks renewed gang warfare in the Lower Mainland, say police. The officer who heads the province's gangs task force issued an "unusual" alert Tuesday to anyone with links to two notorious crime families after a known gangster was shot and wounded last week in Surrey, B.C. Supt. Tom McCluskie told reporters both that incident and the high-profile slaying of Red Scorpions' gang boss Jonathan Bacon in August amount to a high expectation by his 80 investigators that more attacks are on the way. "We're anticipating retaliatory violence, yes," he said at a news conference held at an office of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit in Delta, B.C. "I'm not trying to instill fear in the citizens, but certainly there's enough tension in there that we're concerned there will be a retaliation, that there will be further violence." The 24-year-old man shot in his car on Friday was a known member of the Dhak crime group, which police say runs an illegal drug ring throughout the Lower Mainland. One member of that family, Gurmit Dhak, was shot dead in his BMW at a suburban Burnaby mall last October, in another scenario police said was planned. Anyone with ties to either the Dhak or Duhre crime families are currently believed to be in heightened danger, and hanging around with such people could result in peril, McCluskie said. He said he's especially concerned for the members' girl friends and those who are simply connected on the social scene. Members of both groups have been linked to criminal activity on numerous occasions by police in B.C. in the past. While the public is not the intended target, McCluskie said, there's no telling where or when the tension will flare up again as gang rivalries rear their ugly head. It means bystanders could even get caught in the crossfire, he said. Thirty-year-old Bacon was shot to death outside a posh hotel in Kelowna. The gunfire that put the latest gangster in hospital broke out on a city street. "It's the fact these guys don't care where it is, they have no regard whatsoever for the general public," McCluskie said. Officers are examining the possibility the two incidents are directly linked, although at this point it's too early to draw conclusions, he said. "As of right now we haven't made any confirmed connection." The news conference is the most vocal and direct police have been in declaring expectations around the possibility of more bloodshed since Bacon died. Tit-for-tat clashes became a weekly occurrence for several months back in 2009, as turf battles played out in the Lower Mainland. There were at least four dozen shootings that year in the Vancouver area alone. Tensions were reduced to simmering, however, as police changed their strategy, made arrests of prominent players and conducted more behind-the-scenes enforcement. Police say alarm bells went off for many dealing with the organized crime world when Bacon was unexpectedly taken out. A full-patch member of the Hells Angels and another alleged gang member were hit by the mid-day volley of gunfire on Aug. 14, while two others accompanying them in a luxury SUV were also wounded. McCluskie said he's "pleased" with how his team is progressing in that investigation, but couldn't say when any arrests may be made. McCluskie wouldn't give any details about the new "intelligence" his team has gathered suggesting people tied to the two families are in danger, in order to protect the investigation. He said officers have already conducted several "duty-to-warns," telling known gang members they have reason to believe they might be next. "I'm not confident it reaches all those individuals, I'm hopeful," he said, noting he's less concerned about giving the groups credence by putting out the warning than letting the public know the risks. "Quite often the gangs don't listen to us very well."

Killings described as assassinations

 

Gang violence moved from West Bay to George Town on Monday night when teenager Jason Christian became the fourth fatal shooting victim of the week.  A second victim, 22-year-old Keith Montique, was also shot but survived.  Police Chief Superintendent John Jones described how a police patrol officer had been answering an unrelated incident around 9.30pm Monday in Birchwood Drive, off Crewe Road, when an obviously injured Mr. Montique staggered up to the police car and opened the door, saying he had just been shot.  As the officer was transporting the gunshot victim, who had been shot four times, to the Cayman Islands Hospital, the wounded man told him his friend had also been shot and was still in nearby Cranbrook Drive.  When police went to Cranbrook Drive, they found 18-year-old Jason Christian in the driver’s seat of a white Toyota LiteAce van. He had suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Mr. Jones said he was “barely alive” when police arrived, but died very shortly afterwards and was pronounced dead at the scene.  Mr. Jones described Monday night’s killing, and three earlier fatal shootings in West Bay, as “assassinations”. All four victims who have been killed this week were shot in the head.  Mr. Montique underwent emergency surgery at the Cayman Islands Hospital on Monday night and was airlifted off island for further medical treatment Tuesday. He had also been shot in the head, receiving an injury to his ear.   Medical staff at the hospital 
described his condition as “serious, but stable”.  Police said no suspects were found at the scene in Cranbrook Drive, but officers recovered a loaded revolver inside the van. It had not been fired.  At least 10 spent shells have been found at the scene of the killing. Police said Monday night’s shooting may be related to the three killings in West Bay, but said it was too early to say definitively if that was the case. “There are connections between the individuals who were victims of this shooting and with certain people affiliated to gangs or groups in the West Bay area,” Mr. Jones said. “Given the timing, so close to the other three shootings that we’ve had, we think there is a strong possibility that it may be connected.” Preston Rivers, 18, was shot dead near Thatch Palm Villas on Andersen Road in West Bay about 10.30pm Saturday. On Thursday, Andrew Anthony Baptist, 24, was gunned down shortly before 9pm Thursday in a yard of a house on Sand Hole Road in West Bay. Two days earlier, Robert Macford Bush, 28, was shot in the head as he sat in his car on Captains Joe and Osbert Road on Tuesday night.  “To have four murders in such a short period of time is unprecedented for the Cayman Islands,” Mr. Jones said.  Crimestoppers has offered a $50,000 reward for information on these killings and other robberies and gun-related crimes seen in Cayman recently.  He said Mr. Montique had told police that he and Mr. Christian had gone into Cranbook Drive to visit a premises there, but when they got there, the person they were looking for was not there. “After that, it would appear that a gunman approached from bush and fired several shots at Mr. Montique and his friend, who attempted to drive away,” Mr. Jones said.  Police said the white van at the scene had featured in their investigations into an armed robbery at Tortuga Liquor Store in Pasadora Place on Thursday, 15 September. “Whilst that vehicle was not seen to be used by the suspects in that robbery, it did feature in a line of inquiry,” Mr. Jones said.  The shootings in George Town Monday occurred just hours after Commissioner of Police David Baines said gang members who they were seeking in West Bay had moved out of areas they usually frequented.  Police continue to appeal to the public to give them information relating to the shootings, but also to let them know who has weapons in their possession and if further attacks are planned. Mr. Jones said police were rounding up known members of gangs. They mounted an operation on Monday afternoon to target those who they suspect are involved in gangs and have arrested four people in connection with gang affiliation.   A further two people also remain in custody who were arrested in connection with the West Bay murders. A third person who had been arrested in connection with the killings has been released.   Detective Superintendent Marlon Bodden said he was angered that people were now sending police photographs that had appeared on social media like Facebook, of victims of the killings holding firearms.  “We are inundated now with various photographs, various emails, various bits of information extracted from social media, pictures of individuals holding guns. Now, if we had this information before that, I’m very certain we could make some interventions and saved some lives,” Mr. Bodden said.  He said police were pushing for legislation under which they could prosecute people for brandishing firearms in photographs. “We want legislation to be enacted that those individuals prove, the burden of proof is shifted for them to say I was not holding a real firearm... We want to be able to charge them and deal with them because they are the individuals causing the havoc here in the Cayman Islands,” he said.

Authorities confirmed Monday were captured Saul Solis Solis, aka El Lince, one of the main leaders of the group of Knights Templar.

 

The action was carried out by the Mexican Army. The Lynx, is a cousin of Henry Plancarte Solis, also leader of the Knights Templar. The Attorney General's Office offered a reward of up to 15 millions of dollars for information leading to his capture. The action was achieved in the town of Mujica, in the municipality of Nueva Italia, Michoacán. In the raid also arrested Mario Alberto Gallardo Rodríguez, alias El Mayo, and a young child.

Gunmen halt traffic, dump 35 bodies on busy downtown avenue in Gulf coast city in Mexico

 

Suspected drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at rush hour beneath a busy overpass in the heart of a major Gulf coast city as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened drivers. Mexican authorities said Wednesday they are examining surveillance video for clues to who committed the crime. Horrified motorists grabbed cell phones and sent Twitter messages warning others to avoid the area near the biggest shopping mall in Boca del Rio, part of the metropolitan area of Veracruz city. 11 Comments Weigh InCorrections? inShare ( no / Associated Press ) - Soldiers and police block off an area where 35 bodies lay under an overpass in Veracruz, Mexico, Tuesday Sept. 20, 2011. Masked gunmen blocked traffic on the busy avenue in a Gulf of Mexico coastal city and left the bodies piled in two trucks and on the ground, according to authorities. The scene was a sharp escalation in drug violence in Veracruz state, which sits on an important route for drugs and Central American migrants heading north. The gruesome gesture marked a sharp escalation in cartel violence in Veracruz state, which sits on an important route for drugs and Central American migrants heading north. The Zetas drug cartel has been battling other gangs for control of the state. Prosecutors said it’s too soon to draw conclusions from the surveillance video. “We’re not going to confirm or deny anything,” Veracruz state Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez told the Televisa network Wednesday. “We’re looking at it in different ways, we’re seeing different numbers, that’s why we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.” Escobar said the bodies were left piled in two trucks and on the ground under the overpass near the statue of the Voladores de Papantla, ritual dancers from Veracruz state. He said some of the victims had their heads covered with black plastic bags and showed signs of torture. Police had identified seven of the victims so far and all had criminal records for murder, drug dealing, kidnapping and extortion and were linked to organized crime, Escobar said. Motorists posted Twitter warnings said the masked gunmen were in military uniforms and were blocking Manuel Avila Camacho Boulevard. “They don’t seem to be soldiers or police,” one tweet read. Another said, “Don’t go through that area, there is danger.” Veracruz is currently hosting a conference of Mexico’s top state and federal prosecutors and judiciary officials. Local media said that 12 of the victims were women and that some of the dead men had been among prisoners who escaped from three Veracruz prisons on Monday, but Escobar denied the escaped convicts were among the dead. At least 32 inmates got away from the three Veracruz prisons. Police recaptured 14 of them. Drug violence has claimed more than 35,000 lives across Mexico since 2006, according to government figures. Others put the number at more than 40,000.

Tuesday 20 September 2011

Honeymoon husband 'wanted hitman'

 

Businessman Shrien Dewani sought a hitman to murder his new wife on their honeymoon, a court in South Africa has heard. Dewani, 31, denies any involvement in the death of Anni Dewani, who was shot dead in a taxi in Cape Town last November in an apparent car-jacking. Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town was told that Dewani, from Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, approached an airport shuttle service operator to "procure a hit man to have a woman killed". He is said to have made the request almost immediately after arriving at the Cape Grace Hotel last November with his 28-year-old wife. The allegation formed part of an indictment handed to two other men accused of killing Mrs Dewani during the court hearing. Xolile Wellington Mngeni and Mziwamadoda Lennox Qwabe have appeared at Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town to face charges of murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery. The two men, who are also accused of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition, will face trial at Western Cape High Court next year. Mngeni, who has a malignant brain tumour, was helped into the dock by his co-accused before they were committed for trial. During their last hearing, from which Mngeni was absent, the court undertook to decide by Tuesday whether to abandon the charges against him because of his condition but there was no mention of his tumour in court. Mrs Dewani was shot dead in an apparent car-jacking in the impoverished Gugulethu township on the outskirts of Cape Town last November. Her husband and cab driver Zola Tongo were ejected from the vehicle. Dewani was later accused of ordering the attack. He was implicated by Tongo, 31, who claimed in a plea bargain that Dewani had offered him 15,000 rand (£1,400) for the killing. Last month a judge ruled Dewani could be extradited to South Africa to stand trial. The cab driver, from Bothasig, has been sentenced to 18 years in jail for murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances and perverting the course of justice.

Missing Pittsfiled men were found buried in Beckett

 

New details are emerging in the case of three Western Massachusetts men whose deaths are allegedly linked to a Hells Angels member. Police say the bodies of the three Pittsfield men had been buried by boulders in Beckett. David Glasser, Edward Frampton and Robert Chadwell were found last week, nearly two weeks after they disappeared. Ranking local Hells Angels member Adam Lee Hall and two friends, David Chalue and Caius Veiovis, have pleaded not guilty to charges. Authorities say they killed the men because Glasser was set to testify against Hall.

Dhak Gang Member Targeted in Surrey Shooting

 

ujhar Singh Khun-Khun is fighting for his life after being shot several times Friday night. And his shooting could be linked to the dispute between his gang and a group of Hells Angels who have been doing a lot of finger-pointing since the Aug. 14 Kelowna attack that killed Jonathan Bacon and wounded Hells Angel Larry Amero and Independent Soldier James Riach. Khun-Khun, at 24, has a long history with police already. And he is a close associate of Sukh Dhak, brother of the late Gurmit Dhak. When Gurmit was gunned down outside Metrotown Mall last October, it was the beginning of a series of tit-for-tat shootings. Sukh Dhak was close by Khun-Khun when he was shot. Dhak has now been picked up on a breach and is in custody. Police are concerned about the escalating tension. On one side is Dhak, the Duhre brothers and their associates and some United Nations gang members. On the other are some Hells Angels, the remaining Red Scorpions, the IS and other associated individuals. It is a constantly-shifting mess that is disturbing to police. And they are working hard to prevent more violence and to make arrests in the Bacon death and now the Khun-Khun shooting.

Monday 19 September 2011

Williams 'asked own killer to murder cop'

 

The man who bludgeoned Carl Williams to death has claimed the gangland boss offered him $200,000 to kill former Victorian detective Paul Dale. Barwon Prison inmate Matthew Johnson has taken the witness stand for the first time and has told the court Williams talked about murdering people like others talked about football. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Williams on the grounds of self defence. Johnson bludgeoned Williams to death with the stem of an exercise bike in their maximum-security prison last year. He said his relationship with Williams soured in the months before his death, but has denied having any problem with Williams helping police. The 38-year-old told the court Williams treated him badly and had to be the boss, even asking him on one occasion to murder Dale. He said Williams boasted of having 15 murders to his name. Johnson told the court Williams knew how to "push his buttons". He said there were "many times" when he would have loved to have punched Williams. But he told the court "if we ever got into a fist fight, I knew in my heart I'd have to kill him". Johnson said he lived in fear of Williams and kept a sandwich-maker as a weapon. He said he feared Williams would harm his family if he asked to be transferred to a different unit. Graphic footage Earlier on Monday, the jury was played graphic footage of the crime scene. The prison footage shows Williams lying on his back outside his cell wearing only red tracksuit pants and sneakers after emergency staff failed to revive him. Williams's head is battered, his eyes black and the footage shows a large amount of blood around his body and in his cell. The court was also shown a video of Johnson's first police interview after the incident. In it, Johnson responds to the questions with "no comment" and repeatedly tells detectives he acted alone. Head of security for Corrections Victoria, Bruce Polkinghorn, has told the court Johnson was the general of a group of inmates known as the Prisoners of War. Mr Polkinghorn said the group was known for its old-guard values, particularly when it came to inmates seen to be helping authorities.

Victims' burial site is in Becket

 

The bodies of David Glasser, Edward Frampton and Robert Chadwell were found buried on private property in Becket, according to the District Attorney’s office. Authorities declined to be more specific and released no other new information about the case. Until this week, law enforcement officials had refused to even release the location of what they described as a "burial site," where the bodies of the three men were dumped and covered with boulders and dirt. Meanwhile, state and local police conducted what they described as a "high visibility patrol operation" Saturday in Lee, coinciding with the Berkshire Chapter of the Hells Angels’ annual party, Lobster Fest. Adam Lee Hall, who court records list as the third in command of the Berkshire Hells Angels, has been charged with three counts of murder in connection to the men’s disappearance. Otherwise, police haven’t linked the murders to the local motorcycle club, which has put up its clubhouse to cover Hall’s bail in an earlier case, according to court records. Police from Lee, Great Barrington, Pittsfield, Lenox and Dalton assisted State Police, who watched as motorcyclists from across the region descended on the Berkshire biker’s headquarters on Woodland Road in Lee, just past the entrance to October Mountain State Forest. Also on the scene were the state’s Environmental Police and the county’s Special Response Team. Police Advertisement took pictures of everyone entering and exiting Woodland Road leading to the Angels’ clubhouse. Many of the bikers seen in the area wore patches identifying themselves as members of the Hells Angels and other regional motorcycle clubs. State Police Lt. David Buell, the station commander at the troop’s Lee Barracks, said the club’s Lobster Fest is an annual event. He said police have conducted high-visibility patrols coinciding with the party for the past five years. He said police increased the number of patrols this year in light of the recent murders, but he declined to say how many officers were in the area. Buell said there were no arrests or incidents on Saturday, although he said several neighbors walked up to police in the area and thanked them for being there. Members of the Hells Angels were not immediately reachable for comment on Saturday. The group’s Facebook page indicated that tickets to the event were $30. It warned visitors to expect heavy police presence. Glasser, Frampton and Chadwell went missing sometime between Aug. 27 and 28 from Glasser’s apartment on Linden Street in Pittsfield. Hall, 34, of Peru, David Chalue, 44, of North Adams and Springfield, and Caius Veiovis, 31, of Pittsfield, have been charged with three counts each of murder, kidnapping and witness intimidation. Police said neither Chalue nor Veiovis are members of the Hells Angels. Police say the men killed Glasser to keep him from testifying against Hall during an upcoming trial in Berkshire Superior Court. Court records filed last week said men’s bodies had been dumped together in a deep trench that had been covered with large boulders and dirt, with digging equipment found nearby. According to the report, Hall had inquired about the availability and location of excavation equipment in the weeks prior to the murder.

Gangland boss Carl Williams fingers cop Paul Dale from beyond grave

 

ON April 24, 2007, deep inside the razor wire of Victoria's Barwon Prison, gangland killer Carl Williams finally decided to tell his story about crooked cops and Melbourne's underworld war. Williams is now dead, but his lurid tale echoed from the grave yesterday as his version of history, made in three statements over two years, was read out to a spellbound audience in the Victorian Supreme Court trial of Williams's alleged murderer, Matthew Charles Johnson. Johnson has pleaded not guilty on the basis of self-defence. According to Williams's statements, his relationship with former policeman Paul Dale began nervously. The gangland killer and the policeman were so "paranoid" about each other that they once met in a swimming pool wearing only bathers so that neither could be "wired" with listening devices. But the court heard the dealings between this odd couple would blossom into something far more deadly. Before long, what began as merely secret payments for information escalated to a murder, sanctioned and paid for by Dale, Williams alleged. The tone of the gangland killer's statements are as casual as they are cold. When Williams heard that the hitman he hired at Dale's request to kill police informer Terrence Hodson had also killed his wife, Christine, he asked the gunman: "What happened with the sheila?" "That's not for you to worry about," the gunman replied, about which Williams said, "That was the end of the conversation". According to Williams, he met Dale following his release from prison in 2002 when Dale requested a meeting with him via another criminal. "I first met him at the Brunswick Club, where Lewis Moran was killed," Williams said. "He (Dale) was telling me he could keep an eye out for me. "In return, Dale expected to be paid for any information that he gave to me . . . I think we were both suspicious of each other at that time and remained so." Williams said, early on, Dale showed him a police report that revealed that an Asian man called Jimmy had been giving information to the police about Williams, who was called "Fat Boy" in the police report. "As a result of reading the report, I dropped off Jimmy and did no more (drug-dealing) business with him." The court heard that Williams's relationship with Dale grew as they met more often. "On most occasions when I met with Dale, I would give him an envelope with money in it. The money I paid Dale usually ranged from $2000 to $5000 each time." On one occasion, he said, Dale asked him if he wanted the detective to do anything to Williams's gangland rival Jason Moran. "It was pretty widely known that Jason and I had problems at the time," Williams said in his statement. "I didn't know whether they (Dale and a fellow detective) were fair dinkum or trying to set me up. Dale said he could kill Jason for $400,000. I told them they were dreaming." Williams claimed that Dale told him he had arranged internal police systems so Victoria Police would be unable to check on Williams without Dale knowing about it. "He told me he did this so that he could keep up to date with any investigations against me." At one stage, Williams said, Dale asked him to meet in a swimming pool near Seaford where Dale told Williams to tip off fellow gangland figure Tony Mokbel about a police investigation into a drug laboratory. "We met at the swimming pool because he was paranoid of me and I was paranoid of him," said Williams. "Dale had two pairs of shorts or swimming togs. We put these on and got into the pool and walked up and down in the water." The court heard that in his April 2007 statement, Williams said he had no knowledge of who killed the Hodsons at their Kew home in May 2004, but in his second statement, in January 2009, he was ready to reveal the hitman. "I didn't want to be a dog and be a protection prisoner, but my attitude has changed," he said. Williams alleged that Dale told him he had to "get" Hodson before he could give evidence at a committal hearing about his alleged involvement in a burglary involving drugs, in which Dale was implicated. He said: "We went for a walk. Dale told me that he had to get Hodson and he had to get Hodson before Dale's committal. "Dale said he didn't want to go back to jail. He said he had been in isolation and it was tough. "He said he had someone on the job but it was taking too long to get Hodson. Dale asked me if I could help him out." Williams claimed Dale told him the job would pay $150,000. Williams said he approached a hitman who he knew had "a reputation as a fairly ruthless bloke". He met with the hitman, who can't be named for legal reasons, on the ground floor of the Marriott hotel. "I told him there was a contract there for Terry Hodson and I told him the amount of $150,000. There was never any contract on his wife and I never mentioned Terry's wife to (the hitman)." Williams said he didn't know exactly when Hodson would be murdered and the first he heard about it was on the news. The court heard that a few days after the Hodsons' deaths, Williams's statement said, he got a call from Dale telling him "it's been dropped off". "I knew he was talking about the money for the Hodson murders," Williams said. "I was at my mum's when Dale made that call to me. I went and checked the bin. It was a large green wheelie bin that Mum kept inside the gate. Inside the bin, I saw a plastic bag and I took it out of the bin and went back inside." He said he counted the money, which was bundled in $10,000 amounts with rubber bands around it. "It might have been $100 or so short but effectively the money was all there." A few days later, Williams met the hitman at the Marriott again. "I left the bag containing the $150,000 on the ground next to our seats and he collected it." "(The hitman said) 'Quick, hey?' and smiled and chuckled. "I said to him: 'What happened with the sheila?' He said: 'That's not for you to worry about.' That was the end of the conversation. "I asked him about the sheila because I didn't think she needed to die and she wasn't a part of the contract. Having said that, I didn't push it any further." Williams said he never spoke again to the hitman about the Hodson murders. "It is an unspoken rule that once a job is done, you don't mention it again so you don't get caught out on a listening device or something." He also revealed that hitmen preferred to kill on cold days because "the cold weather means it's less likely that people will be out walking around and possibly witness something". In his January 2009 statement, Williams said "since I have been locked up, (lawyer Nicola) Gobbo has told me that Dale has asked after me and has asked if there is anything he can do for me. I just dismissed it because there was nothing he can do for me and I don't want to deal with him." Williams was bashed to death in Barwon jail in April last year.

Saturday 17 September 2011

Former MI6 chief says ministers approved Gaddafi links

 

Sir Richard Dearlove, who was head of MI6 when British agents helped to send Muammar Gaddafi's opponents back to Libya, where they were tortured, said on Thursday that intelligence co-operation with countries with poor human rights records had always been cleared by ministers. "It has always been pretty clear that our governments in the UK have accepted that danger and difficulty and have given political clearance for that sort of co-operation," he told a meeting of the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy international thinktank. Whitehall officials have already insisted that intelligence cooperation with Gaddafi's Libya was authorised by ministers. However, Labour ministers at the time, including Tony Blair and Jack Straw, have distanced themselves from MI6's co-operation with Gaddafi's security services, as has Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, then head of MI5. Dearlove said that MI6's co-operation with Gaddafi's regime against extremism was "uncomfortable" and "pragmatic". But he denied MI6 enjoyed a "cosy" relationship with the regime. He said that MI6 had had "phenomenal" success in disarming Libya, which had succeeded in acquiring the infrastructure needed to begin a nuclear weapons programme from the rogue Pakistani scientist, AQ Khan. "I resent the suggestion the relationship with Gaddafi was cosy," he said. "It was not a cosy relationship, it was a pragmatic one." Dearlove added: "It was a political decision, having very significantly disarmed Libya, for the government to co-operate with Libya on Islamist terrorism. The whole relationship was one of serious calculation about where the overall balance of our national interests stood." Papers found abandoned in the Tripoli offices of Moussa Koussa, Gaddafi's former foreign minister and intelligence chief, showed how MI6 was involved in sending suspected extremists back to Libya. They included Abdul Hakim Belhaj, a former prominent member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which had links with al-Qaida, and who is now military commander in the Libyan capital. Referring to the forthcoming Gibson inquiry into allegations that British security and intelligence agencies colluded in the torture and abuse of terror suspects, Dearlove said that he should not say more about co-operation with countries which did not share the UK's views about human rights. Dearlove said he was surprised by the relative failure of violent Islamism to make a more lasting political impact. North Africa and the Middle East showed al-Qaida had failed to achieve the long-term political impact many people had predicted at the time of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He said the terrorist network appeared to be "on the back foot" and was struggling to mount operations in the developed world. "I think it faces an issue of credibility. It badly needs to demonstrate to its sympathisers and its core membership that it can pull off something really big," he said. He said he believed al-Qaida had made a "serious tactical error" in taking on the Americans in Iraq when they would have been better off trying to mount more 9/11-style attacks. "I think it was a vision of taking on the US military. Once the US military got its act together, it came out of that confrontation very badly," he said. He insisted the west had been right to respond in the way it did to the events of 9/11, even though it resulted in the radicalisation of many Muslims. "Confronting al-Qaida was a confrontation of beliefs and values. I think it was the right thing to do, despite the risks, to come out on the front foot to meet that threat militantly," he said.

Defendant’s brother testifies he didn’t want to ‘snitch’

 

Paroled killer Edward “Butchie” Corliss drunkenly confessed to gunning down a Jamaica Plain convenience store clerk in 2009, his younger brother testified yesterday, but William “Billy” Corliss claimed he was so terrified of a reputed crime family’s disdain for “snitching” that he kept quiet for months. “For years, I was associated with the Winter Hill Gang,” East Somerville native William Corliss, 64, said in Suffolk Superior Court, where his brother Edward is facing murder charges. “I know they don’t take lightly to somebody trying to testify.” William Corliss’ alleged underworld ties surfaced in the sixth day of Edward Corliss’ murder trial for the cold-blooded killing of Surendra Dangol, a 39-year-old Nepalese immigrant, in a Jamaica Plain Tedeschi’s on Dec. 26, 2009. Edward Corliss, 65, was on parole from a life sentence for killing a Salisbury store clerk in 1971. Hours after Dangol was killed and $746 was stolen from the register, Edward Corliss showed up at his brother’s house with a six-pack of beer and a wad of cash, William Corliss said. “He was pulling it out of his pockets, laughing, throwing it in the air, like he hit the jackpot,” he said. “I asked him where he got it. He said, ‘I pulled a score. . . . The guy said there was no money, but I found it. He lied to me, and I shot him.’ ” When Boston police questioned William Corliss about the crime, he denied knowing anything, he testified, staying silent as police drove him through the city. “It’s all organized crime,” William Corliss said. “Charlestown, Somerville, East Boston, South Boston, and I was getting driven around in an unmarked cruiser. I was terrified someone would see me.” But when he was called before a grand jury, William Corliss said he told what he knew. “I didn’t want to perjure myself,” he said.

Friday 16 September 2011

The violent life and death of crime gang member suspected of several murders

 

MICHAEL KELLY (30) first came to the attention of gardaí for serious crime when he was still a teenager 11 years ago. On that occasion, he was caught in a north Dublin pub with a consignment of ecstasy tablets, convicted of drug dealing and given a suspended three-year jail term. Far from representing a short sharp shock, though, that might deter a young man from a life of crime, the incident was merely one of his early steps into the gangland underbelly of working class Dublin that now appears to have claimed his life. Kelly was a member of an organised crime gang based in the north Dublin suburbs of Donaghmede, Baldoyle, Coolock and his native Kilbarrack. The gang imported consignments of cocaine, heroin and other drugs from more significant international criminals in the Netherlands and Spain and sold them on to smaller gangs in Ireland. However, when the leader of the gang, David Lyndsay (38), and his friend Alan Napper (39) went missing in 2008, they were presumed murdered and Kelly was suspected of involvement. The men have not been seen since, although blood from one of them was found in a house in the North. Both are believed to have been killed. Their bodies have never been found. Kelly owed Lyndsay a large amount of money at the time of the pair’s disappearance. One gang member who effectively split from Kelly in early 2008 was shot dead in the weeks leading up to the Lyndsay and Napper disappearances. Anthony Foster (34) was gunned down at his home in Cromcastle, north Dublin, in July 2008. Kelly was suspected of involvement in the murders of at least two other men whom he knew through the drugs trade. Seán Winters (41) was shot dead outside an apartment block in Portmarnock last September, although the Real IRA in Dublin was also suspected of involvement in that killing. In the years since then, he had continued to deal drugs and to build his wealth. In December 2008, he was the target of a major raid by specialist Garda units including the Criminal Assets Bureau, when 12 properties were searched as part of a major investigation into the proceeds of drug-dealing in north Dublin. Last December that investigation concluded in the courts when a house in Navan, Co Meath, and two cars were confiscated from Kelly after the High Court ruled the assets represented the proceeds of crime. Since then he has spent his time in Dublin and Europe, apparently fearful that if he stayed here for too long, he would be killed by some of the many criminals he had crossed in the past decade. Apart from his drug-dealing conviction from 2000, he had about a dozen other convictions, most of which were for motoring offences and resisting arrest.

More Gang Violence in North Fraser Pre-trial

 

number of gang members in pre-trial custody continues to grow, B.C. pre-trial jails are struggling to deal with tensions between rival groups. The latest attack at North Fraser last week was particularly serious: gangster Hanif Emambakhsh ended up with a broken neck in the assault. He has had links to the Red Scorpions and more recently the break-away Red Lions. Apparently he has a massive Lion tattoed on his back. He is expected to survive. Coquitlam RCMP says they are getting little help with the investigation. Things are particularly tense in North Fraser and in Kamloops, according to union representative Dean Purdy. Interestingly, while the B.C. government keeps track of how many inmate on inmate assaults take place, they don’t maintain a record of how many are gang-linked. I think it is disturbing that a known gang member has been putting money in the accounts of pre-trial inmates. This particular person is linked to the Independent Soldiers. I don’t know if he is the one who paid for Emambakhsh to get beaten. The government official confirmed to me that ANYONE, including a known gangster or convicted drug trafficker, can go up to the counter at a pre-trial jail and put money in the account of an inmate. There is no limit on the amount that can be put in. The funder has to show ID, but that’s it. So it is easy for gangs to pay people to beat up other inmates.

Gangster in hiding after gun attack on father's home

 

Irish Gangster -- who was lucky to escape with his life after being shot last month -- has been forced to go into hiding after his father's home was riddled with bullets. Gardai say that tensions in a bitter drugs feud in Bray, Co Wicklow, are threatening to spiral out of control after the latest gun attack which happened at the home of Philip 'Philly' O' Toole's father Brendan at the weekend. At least 14 shots were fired at the house in Ard Chualann in Fassaroe as the dangerous turf war intensifies. 'Philly' O' Toole was lucky to escape with his life when he was targeted in a feud-related shooting in leafy Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, last month. The gangster was shot in the stomach but escaped with his life when he wrestled the gunman to the ground. He spent a number of days being treated in hospital after the incident. Gardai have arrested the 29-year-old drug addict who they believe was "paid a pittance" by O' Toole's rivals to shoot the criminal, but he was later released without charge. Sources have revealed that the bitter feud kicked off when O'Toole's former criminal associates turned on him when he started "sourcing his own drugs from a major Dublin gang". A source explained: "O' Toole is a marked man and that is why he has fled his home turf. "All this started when he decided to go out on his own in the drug dealing world -- his former gang members took grave exception to this. These are high stakes -- the drugs market in north Wicklow/south Dublin is very lucrative. "The shooting incident at a house in the Fassaroe estate last weekend was intended to be yet another warning to Philip O' Toole." O' Toole was arrested by gardai investigating the shooting of Finglas criminal Glen McGrath (41) outside the Cappagh House pub in Finglas last December. McGrath -- a former associate of slain gangland boss Paul 'Farmer' Martin -- survived but was left in a critical condition. The pub shooting is linked to a bitter prison row between gangsters from Finglas and Bray. O'Toole was one of eight people arrested. All were later released without charge. Sources have revealed that the gang that are targeting O' Toole have close links to convicted killer Richard O' Carroll (40) who has served a 10-year sentence for stabbing a man to death outside a Bray pub.

Killers shoot and drive over Irish gangster in lunchtime hit

 

One of Ireland's most-notorious gangsters was shot dead yesterday after abandoning his overseas bolthole for the birth of his baby son. Michael "Mica" Kelly (30), who knew there was a contract on his head, had been moving between Spain and the Netherlands. But during the summer he returned home for the child's birth -- and to meet his criminal associates. However, he was gunned down yesterday shortly after visiting his son and the baby's mother. Kelly was shot several times as he left an apartment block at Marrsfield Avenue, Clongriffin, on the northside of Dublin, around 1pm. Two gunmen struck as he walked towards a friend, who had been waiting for him in a parked car. The assassins, who pulled up alongside their victim in a silver Saab, fired at least three shots from the car. Then as Kelly slumped to the ground, the killers -- armed with a handgun and a rifle -- jumped out of the vehicle and pumped several more rounds into the gangster as he lay dying. The Saab was then driven over his bullet-ridden body. An eye witness told how she ran out on to her balcony after hearing shots, and saw the car driving over the victim's body. "I rang the garda immediately," she said. "I was in my apartment and I heard three really loud shots and a split-second later three more. I looked out and there was a body on the floor. The car ran over him." Kelly's friend sped from the scene and the killers made their getaway in the Saab, possibly along the N32, into Clonshaugh. A similar car was found abandoned there shortly afterwards. The car was not burnt out and gardai were hoping that forensic tests would confirm that it was the getaway vehicle and provide them with some clues to the identity of the killers. Following a warning from gardai about a possible contract on his head, Kelly -- a father of three, of Swans Nest Road, Kilbarrack -- spent a lot of his time on mainland Europe where he forged links with global drug traffickers. He was regarded as a "facilitator" for local drug gangs and was said to have been responsible for a series of large shipments of contraband into the country, which were allegedly controlled by Christy Kinahan and other suppliers. Kelly was also a prime suspect for organising a number of murders, including the killings of David Lindsay and Alan Napper, both from Baldoyle, Co Dublin. Lindsay had been involved heavily in drug trafficking since the 1990s and Kelly had been part of his gang. But rows over drug debts led to in-fighting, resulting in several gang members being shot dead. According to garda intelligence, Lindsay hired a hitman -- alleged to have been convicted killer Eric Wilson -- to kill Kelly over a ?1m debt. Lindsay and Napper were last seen alive in July 2008 in Clane, Co Kildare, where they had borrowed a car to travel to Northern Ireland. But they walked into a double-cross, organised by Kelly, and were murdered in a house in Rathfriland, Co Down. Their bodies have never been found. Kelly was regularly put under surveillance by the Garda National Drugs Unit and the Organised Crime Unit. Last December, the Criminal Assets Bureau was given an order by the High Court to sell Kelly's house at Boyne View, in Navan, Co Meath, and two cars -- a Volkswagen Golf and a BMW 320. The case was not contested by Kelly who had at least 15 criminal convictions, including a suspended three-year sentence for the possession of ecstasy tablets in 1998

Thursday 15 September 2011

Three bailed over murder of ex-gangster Dave Courtney's stepson Genson Courtney

 

THREE men have been released on bail over the murder of Genson Courtney in Greenwich. Police found Mr Courtney suffering from gunshot wounds in a black Volkswagen Golf at around 10.50pm on July 3 in Banning Street. The 23-year-old, stepson of ex-gangster Dave Courtney, was taken by ambulance to hospital but was pronounced dead at 3.43am. A post-mortem gave the cause of death as gunshot wounds to the head. Three men, aged 28, 34 and 27, who were arrested at addresses in east and south London on suspicion of murder, have been released on bail to return on November 8. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Gower from the Met’s Trident unit is still appealing for witnesses. He said: “I am appealing to anyone who may have seen or heard anything suspicious to contact the police. "I would like to reassure anyone concerned about contacting the police that Trident has great expertise in protecting witnesses and there are a huge variety of measures that can be put in place to protect you."

Monday 12 September 2011

Zemun gangsters enter pleas in PM murder case

 

Addressing the Special Court in Belgrade, Kalinić confirmed that the shooter was Zvezdan Jovanović. Jovanović has already been found guilty and convicted on the charge, along with Milorad Ulemek Legija, who was tried as the main conspirator. "After the murder I was sitting with Jovanović and (one of Zemun Clan leaders) Mile Luković Kum, and we were watching TV when Jovanović said, 'I guarantee that he is not alive'," Kalinić told the judges as his retrial in the Đinđić murder case started on Monday. He also claimed that Luković told him that "Zveki (Zvezdan Jovanović) bumped off the prime minister", and that Jovanović himself confirmed this. But Kalinić denied that he had any role in the assassination, and told the judges he was "asleep" when the murder took place on March 12, 2003, and that Luković "called him around 13:00". He confirmed that he was acquainted with Jovanović since 1993, that he "saw Milorad Ulemek (Legija) once in Bosnia", and that he met the Zemun Clan leader Dušan Spasojević, "a couple of years before the murder of Đinđić". Kalinić also denied that he was a member of the Zemun Clan. Another gangster that spent years on the run after the assassination, Miloš Simović, was in the courtroom for the start of his retrial in the case. Both were originally found guilty and each sentenced in absentia to 30 years in prison, but the retrial was granted on grounds that they were "tried in absentia". Unlike Kalinić, Simović admitted to taking part in the murder, and said he "also knew about the political background", but refused to elaborate on this point. Last June, Simović shot and wounded Kalinić in Zagreb, Croatia, and was arrested several days later while attempting to cross the border between into Serbia. Kalinić was arrested in Croatia and later extradited to Serbia.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Parents appear in court on murder charge

 

The parents of Bradford-born suspected honour killing victim Shafilea Ahmed appeared in Court today, accused of her murder – eight years after she disappeared from her home. Iftikhar Ahmed, 51, and Farzana Ahmed, 48, appeared before magistrates to face the charge of killing their teenage daughter. Shafilea, 17, vanished from her home in Warrington, Cheshire, in September 2003 amid fears she was being forced into marriage. Her decomposed remains were discovered on the banks of the River Kent, near Kendal in Cumbria, in February 2004. Her parents were today remanded in custody when they appeared before Halton Magistrates' Court in Runcorn, Cheshire.

'Terrorist' Attack Hits New Delhi

 

Indian authorities say a terrorist attack outside the Indian high court in New Delhi killed at least 11 people and injured 66 others. Police believe the explosive was placed inside a briefcase near a main gate to the high court in New Delhi.  The blast is being described as a "medium-intensity bomb." Injured were rapidly transported to area hospitals and police cordoned off the area to begin an investigation. Speaking from Bangladesh, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was quick to label the explosion an act of terror. "This is a cowardly act of a terrorist nature... All the people of India have to stand united so that the scourge of terrorism is crushed," he said. Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram visited the bomb site and says top national investigation teams are examining evidence. "At this stage, it is not possible to identify the group that caused the bomb blast," he said. There have been no claims of responsibility. Chidambaram reminded lawmakers that New Delhi is a target of terrorist groups, especially when parliament is in session. "We shall never be intimidated by terrorist groups," he said. "We are determined to track down the perpetrators of this horrific crime and bring them to justice." In New Delhi, there have been 15 bombings since 1997. For many, Wednesday's explosion also called up fresh memories of July's serial bombing in the southern Indian commerce capital, Mumbai, which killed 20 people.

A Mexican death cult is fuelling America's anti-immigration backlash.

 

In September 2008, 11 decapitated bodies were discovered in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. When police arrested the killers, they found an altar in their home dedicated to Santa Muerte – the patron saint of death for Mexican drug cartels. One year later, an illegal immigrant called Jorge Flores Rojas was arrested in North Carolina for running a sex ring. He, too, had built a shrine in his east Charlotte apartment to Santa Muerte. Flores forced his girls to have sex with as many as 20 men a day while he knelt in his living room praying to the skeletal figure of death. In August 2011, the Mexican army stumbled upon a tunnel that ran right under the US border for 300 metres. It was six feet high and equipped with lights and ventilation. It also housed – you guessed it – an altar to Santa Muerte. Europeans complain mightily that Muslim immigration has introduced fundamentalism to their secular continent. Yet they tend to look upon Middle America’s fear of illegal Hispanic immigration with contempt, as if its paranoia was motivated entirely by racism. Reporting on new legislation designed to drive illegal immigrants out of the Deep South, The Guardian’s Paul Harris writes that it heralds, “The prospect of a new Jim Crow era – the time when segregation was law – across a vast swath of the old Confederacy. [The legislation] will ostracise and terrorise a vulnerable Hispanic minority with few legal rights.” Indeed it will, and that is a tragedy. But the debate about illegal immigration isn’t just about competition over jobs or lingering white racism. Many Americans share the European fear that mass migration is subverting their democratic culture from within. In the same way that exotic cells of Jihadists have established themselves in London and Paris, criminal gangs motivated by bloodlust and kinky spiritualism have been found living in the suburbs of Boston and Atlanta. One of its many manifestations is the cult of Santa Meurte. Santa Muerte is part Virgin Mary, part folk demon. The image of a cloaked saint wielding a scythe is supposed to offer those who venerate it spiritual protection. Offerings come in the form of flowers, alcohol, sweets and tobacco. Contraband can be used to invoke protection from the police. For the poor of Mexico – a nation torn between extremes of wealth and injustice – Santa Muerte is a very pragmatic saint. Like the gang leaders who offer hard cash in return for allegiance, she provides material blessings that the Catholic Church can no longer afford to bestow. Tens of thousands of Mexicans living in America venerate Santa Muerte and have no association with crime. Nor is the cult purely ethnic: in North California, the Santisima Muerte Chapel of Perpetual Pilgrimage is tended by a woman of Dutch-American descent. But the prevalence of Santa Muerte imagery among drug traffickers injects an interesting cultural dimension to the debate over illegal immigration. It accentuates American fears that the drug war in Mexico is turning into an invasion of the USA by antidemocratic fanatics. The Mexican conflict has claimed 35,000 lives since it began in 2006. Recently, the violence has spilled over the border and spread throughout the US along narcotics routes that stretch from Arizona to New York. The warring cartels are bound by a perverse ideology, with Santa Muerte as a unifying icon that terrifies opponents into submission. The gang known as Los Zetas marks its territory by mounting severed heads on poles or hanging dead bodies from bridges. Its members are family men who regularly go to church. A splinter group, called La Familia, is fronted by a fellow called El Mas Loco (The Craziest One). Loco has published his own bible, a confused mix of peasant Marxism and passages culled from American self-help books. The goal of these groups is to undermine democracy and govern autonomous secret societies through family, blood and religion. It’s a global trend. The Lord’s Resistance Army that slaughtered and raped its way across Uganda from 1987 to 2007 was led by a man who claimed to channel the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the culprit behind this apocalyptic criminality was the death of Communism, which deprived thugs and thieves of a secular ideology to justify their actions. Organisations like FARC and Real IRA converted overnight to pushing drugs. But in Mexico, family and religion filled the vacuum left by the failure of socialism. Whatever its origins, the spread of the cult of Santa Muerde reflects the fact that the debate over immigration in the US is about more than economics. Sadly, Mexicans seeking work get caught in this existential drama and are either swallowed up into the gangs or demonised in the US for crimes they have not committed. Nevertheless, Americans of every ethnicity are legitimately concerned about their country being poisoned by a criminal subculture that blends political corruption with ritualised murder. Europeans should not be so quick to judge their transatlantic friends. Americans face a vicious threat of their own.

The Westies and psychopathic criminal PJ Judge, the neighbouring suburbs of Finglas/ Blanchardstown and Ballymun have had to deal with more than their fair share of gangland violence

 Eamon Dunne was murdered in a northside pub in April of 2010, the fear was that his cold-blooded execution would create a deadly power vacuum, one which would lead to bloody gang warfare on the streets.

After all, The Don's gang were responsible for 15 murders since he took over the Finglas gang that had been led by crimelord Martin 'Marlo' Hyland .

Marlo himself was murdered in December 2006.

Ever since the days of The Westies and psychopathic criminal PJ Judge, the neighbouring suburbs of Finglas/ Blanchardstown and Ballymun have had to deal with more than their fair share of gangland violence.

But the reign of terror imposed by crazed Eamon Dunne was unprecedented in the capital's gang scene.

Softly spoken and relatively well educated, Dunne was a massive hit with the ladies and sources say that his almost crazed sex drive was driven by the use of Viagra.

Until the gun murder of Traveller Tom McDonagh in Ballymun last weekend, the area had seen a dramatic decline in gang related violence since Dunne's murder.

It is understood that McDonagh was murdered over a drugs debt to Finglas gang.

"The lull in murders and complete drop in shooting incidents in the past 16 months has to be linked to the fact that Eamon Dunne is no longer with us," explained a senior source.

The situation had been so bad previously that a small area in Finglas west was dubbed the 'murder mile' or 'murder triangle' after up to 20 people were murdered in the space of a decade.

Most of these killings are unsolved gangland shootings in a small area which encompasses Cappagh Cross, Ratoath Road and Cardiffsbridge.

With the murders of Eamon Dunne and other gang bosses who came before him, the situation has eased in Finglas, Blanchardstown and Ballymun over the past year.

But the sprawling estates of north Dublin are still home to some of the most dangerous gangs in the country.

The Don's gang are still active and dealing in millions of euro worth of drugs.

But gardai have had some major successes against them.

Many of the core members of Dunne's crew cannot be named here because they are before the courts on charges including armed robbery, murder and dug dealing.

One of The Don's former associates who we can name is feared hardman Brian O'Reilly -- a Ballymun native who now lives in Co Meath.

"O'Reilly is a big tough man but he is very paranoid. He deeply dislikes the media and the gardai who he accuses of colluding against him.

"He is a man of few words but when he talks everyone listens. He has great respect," a source explained.

O'Reilly, who remains a major target for specialised garda units, was lucky to escape with his life when targeted by a gunman in a pub in Bettystown, Co Meath.

He was shot in the chin and back as he drank in his local pub in August, 2010.

But he survived the murder bid organised by the Real IRA.

A month later O'Reilly's close pal Eamon Kelly (62) cheated death when the Real IRA tried to murder him at his home in Killester.

A source said of Kelly: "On the outside, he seems like the quintessential retired Dubliner -- he enjoys his pints and going to the bookies but in reality he is a criminal campaigner with links to most of the crime gangs in the State."

This year has seen the strength of the gang who murdered Dunne grow considerably and sources say that they operate drugs rackets in the Finglas/Cabra area.

Dunne's murder in the Fassaugh House pub was "sanctioned" by some of his own gang members and the gang's drug supplier, international crimelord Christy Kinahan.

The Herald has previously revealed that the chief suspect for the murder is a young man in his early 20s from the Cabra area who was very close to slain crime boss Hyland.

A former detective described Marlo's way of doing business as "unprecedented".

"He formed alliances with everyone he could -- he knew that murder was bad for business so he tried to keep away from it.

 

fearsome

"But in the last few months of his life the paranoia got to him. He couldn't eat or sleep properly -- he knew his days were numbered."

The young thug is considered "the leader" of a dangerous crew of young criminals from the Finglas, Cabra and north inner city areas who have built up a fearsome reputation for gangland violence since they were aged in their mid teens.

Gardai have placed the dangerous gangster "on top of the list" for pumping eight bullets into 'The Don' -- one of the most notorious criminals in the history of Irish gangs.

He was also involved in the murder of innocent Latvian woman Baiba Saulite in November 2006.

While these young thugs increase their powerbase, the area's veteran criminals continue to operate.

Some of these older criminals had strong links to Paul 'Farmer' Martin -- the Finglas crimelord who was murdered in August 2008.

Others are connected to a 44-year-old local man -- who was a childhood friend of Marlo Hyland.

As Marlo rose to become one of Ireland's biggest drug dealers, this man was constantly at his side.

The 44-year-old -- who now lives in the Finglas area -- was arrested in April by the Garda National Drugs Unit.

Undercover detectives seized more than €400,000 worth of cannabis resin.

Before the massive drugs seizure, detectives watched the gang transfer 70 kilos of the drug near the border before making arrests. However, the Finglas resident was later released without charge.

The Real IRA also have an active presence in this area.

In late March, mobsters from the Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for shooting three men in broad daylight in Corduff Park, Blanchardstown.

The victims were targeted because the dissidents claimed they were guilty of anti-social behaviour.

David Morgan (20) and cousins Gary (25) and Christopher Gleeson (26) all survived the shooting.

The duplicity of the CIRA is breathtaking.

Led by the former head of the Real IRA in Dublin -- now on remand in prison on other charges -- the Continuity mob were responsible for a pipe bomb attack in May at the home of an innocent family in Whitestown.

Also this year, armed gardai swooped on three Blanchardstown men who formerly had links with the infamous Westies gang, whose leaders Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg were murdered in Spain in 2004.

The gangsters were believed to be on their way to carry out a Tiger kidnapping when arrested by armed detectives.

Sources said that the three men had all been key members of the infamous Westies organisation which caused so much trouble a decade ago.

It was also this summer that the Herald profiled a gang from this area who were involved in a new criminal craze called 'fishing'.

A gang of thugs from Finglas and Blanchardstown used fishing rods and magnets to steal more than 100 high powered cars.

Gardai branded the new criminal craze 'fishing' because it involves the gang attaching a magnet to the end of a fishing rod or long wooden pole, pushing it through letterboxes and using it to remove car keys left behind locked doors.

The gang have been selling the high-quality cars for just €1,200 to UK criminals.

The gang has close links to Finglas criminal David Fahy (29) from Cappagh Avenue who was recently released from jail after serving two years for possession of a sawn-off shotgun and cocaine.

However, sources say that Fahy -- who has 152 previous convictions -- is not involved in the scam himself.

The mob also has links to a Traveller gang who operate in the Dunsink area of Finglas.

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