War on drug traffickers escalates in Rio: 10 dead | www.bullfax.com: "Heavily-armed Brazilian security forces killed 10 more suspects Wednesday as authorities took the fight to drug gangs and traffickers holding sway in the city's violent, teeming slums.The escalating violence casts more doubt on the ability of Rio authorities to get a grip on security ahead of its hosting of two of the planet's largest sporting events, the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics two years later."

JAMAICAN BROTHERS EXTRADITED TO U.S. ON NARCOTICS TRAFFICKING CHARGES - TheCypressTimes: "Roger and Romeo Folkes, 39 and 27, of Jamaica, West Indies, were extradited to the United States on charges of conspiracy to import and export cocaine into the United States following an international investigation by agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Newark.
According to court documents filed in the extradition proceedings, the conspiracy involved drug couriers from the United States, including Tajara Barnes and Genard Howard who would travel to Jamaica and St. Lucia, where Roger and Romeo Folkes, and co-conspirator Mervin Francis would hide cocaine in the handrails of the couriers' luggage. The couriers would then return to the United States carrying the cocaine-filled luggage, where another co-conspirator, Cortnie Spencer would at times take possession of the luggage and deliver it to couriers who were scheduled to travel to Great Britain. Once in Great Britain, the couriers would deliver the cocaine to Nigel Roberts, Prine George Alfonso Jones, and others in exchange for payment.
Peter T. Edge, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Newark started: 'HSI and our law enforcement partners are determined to bring drug smugglers to justice, wherever they go. They can not hide from our global reach.'"

Fugitives captured after decade of public life in the Dominican Republic - Miami-Dade - MiamiHerald.com: "Pedro Ramón Sánchez was a police lieutenant and elected city councilman in the Dominican Republic. Julio Cesar Valerio became a naval officer for the Caribbean country. Both used their real names.
Now the accused Miami cocaine traffickers are finally in jail, after fleeing the United States more than a decade ago.
Both men had used fake identities -- Juan Ramón Ignacio Sánchez-Almonte and Concepción Geovanny De Jesus Acosta -- to obtain travel documents from the Dominican Republic consulate in Miami to return to their native country in 1999, U.S. officials said. Once there, they reinvented themselves in politics and the military.
Dominican authorities and U.S. marshals caught up with the pair this fall. Valerio, 42, arrested after a traffic stop in Santo Domingo last month, was extradited to the United States on Friday and ordered held without bond.
Sánchez, 49, after learning of Valerio's arrest, went into hiding in the central Dominican city of La Vega, officials said. Thanks to a tip, he was arrested Friday at a health clinic and will be extradited in coming weeks."

The Associated Press: Colombia spurns US extradition for reputed narco: "Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spurned a U.S. request to extradite an alleged cocaine kingpin from Venezuela, saying Tuesday that the suspect will be sent back to face charges in his home country.
Walid Makled, 41, has claimed close ties with Venezuela's socialist government and the U.S. State Department last year called him that country's 'largest drug trafficker.'
The announcement drew fierce criticism from U.S. Rep. Connie Mack. The Florida Republican accused the Obama administration of 'a complete dropping of the ball' in a case that would have 'shined the light on a lot of bad behavior by Hugo Chavez and his government.'
Once Makled is sent to Venezuela, 'I think that we will lose vital information,' Mack said by phone from Washington.
Arrested Aug. 19 in the border city of Cucuta, Makled later alleged that he had made an indirect payoff to Venezuela's justice minister in exchange for favors.
At the time of Makled's arrest, Colombia's police director called him a 'pseudo businessman' who got rich through a drug-trafficking alliance with the leftist rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The Makled family at one time owned Venezuela's Aeropostal airlines and a warehousing business at Puerto Cabello, the country's main cargo port."

Lawyer: Bruno Mars court date postponed in Vegas - San Jose Mercury News: "Singer-songwriter Bruno Mars has had his Las Vegas court appearance for a cocaine charge postponed.
Attorney David Chesnoff told The Associated Press the 25-year-old 'Just the Way You Are' singer did not have to appear in person Thursday in a Las Vegas courtroom.
Mars is due back in court Dec. 14.
Mars' real name is Peter Hernandez. He's accused of having 2.6 grams of cocaine when he was arrested after a Sept. 19 performance at a Las Vegas nightclub.
He could face up to four years in prison if convicted on the possession of a controlled substance charge."

Ton of cocaine seized from Brazil ship - Hindustan Times: "Italian police seized a ton of pure cocaine worth up to USD 340 million today in a container unloaded off a merchant ship coming from Brazil, in a joint inquiry with British police. 'This is the biggest cocaine seizure in Italy in the last 15 years,' Salvatore Cagnazzo, the commander in charge of the investigation"

Coke & heroin gang busted | Tri State Community: "This drug ring was toppled like a bunch of dominoes. A Manhattan cocaine and heroin trafficking gang run by men who played dominoes on the sidewalk as they kept a watchful eye on their turf has been busted, authorities announced today. The group – known as the “Old Timers”"

5 million pounds of heroin shipped as chilli powder: "Heroin worth more than 5 million pounds has been seized by the UK Border Agency at the Port of Felixstowe, the biggest detection of the drug in the UK this year.

The estimated 80 kg of heroin had been shipped to the UK from Asia in a single container listed as chilli powder, official sources said.

Attention was drawn to the shipment by a discrepancy in the paperwork and the container was selected for further examination.

When officers opened the doors they found 600 sacks, each containing 20kg of red chilli powder. Initial examination identified an inconsistency in the weight of one of the sacks"

Mexico Drug War On A Rise With More Teens Lured To Join The Ranks: "Drug rivalry is reaching new heights with more and more teen crowds being included. As of date, police has detained a minor allegedly working for a drug cartel.
In Mexico there are age long stories of wars between rival cartels. Crimes have no end and suffering the most are innocent civilians. On Friday, a video released in YouTube showed a young boy confessing to be a part of the Beltran Leyva cartel. Another video leakage filmed some youngsters mugging for the camera. They were all armed. In the first video, the youth reveals that for every killing his group was paid $3,000. He even says when they cannot find their rivals to kill, they kill innocent people like a taxi driver or a construction worker as an alternative. Benitez, the attorney general of central Morelos state said it is very easy to hand them a gun and make them appear to be playing stuffs but taking other’s life is not a game."

Seven in every 1,000 use heroin in Republic - The Irish Times - Thu, Nov 11, 2010: "REPUBLIC’S heroin problem is worse than in any EU country for which figures are available – and it also has the longest waiting lists for treatment for those addicted to the drug, a Europe-wide report has revealed.
The research shows an average of seven people in every 1,000 in the Republic are defined as problem opiate, or heroin, users.
This is the worst record of the 15 European states for which heroin-user data was available. The number of heroin users is more than twice as high as the majority of the other countries.
The 2010 annual report for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction also indicates the extent of the recession-related collapse of the Republic’s illicit cocaine trade.
The number of seizures of the drug has fallen by two-thirds since its peak. In 2007 there were 1,749 seizures, but last year that fell to 635 seizures.
Despite this, the Republic is listed among a small group of EU states – along with the UK, Italy, Denmark and Spain – seen as having a serious cocaine problem.
There is praise in the report for the Government’s handling of the head shops issue."

Daily Dispatch Online: "BRAZILIAN police officer yesterday told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that Tessa Beetge was not surprised when he ordered her to accompany him to an interrogation room after finding cocaine in her suitcase at a Sao Paolo airport in 2008.Jean Carlos de Bortole was one of three Brazilian Federal Police officials who are in South Africa to testify against alleged drug traffickers Cheryl Cwele – wife of Minister of State Security Siyabonga Cwele – and Nigerian Frank Nabolisa.Bortole was the officer who had arrested Beetge after finding a cocaine stash in a smaller bag, two sweet packets and four coffee bags."

N.J. woman charged in 2 heroin overdose deaths... - NorthJersey.com: "20-year-old New Jersey woman has been charged with selling heroin to two people who died after overdosing on the drug.
The Union County Prosecutor's Office said Monday that Megan Plank of Bridgewater was arrested last week. She's charged with two counts of first-degree drug-induced death and one count of distribution of heroin.
Twenty-year-old Christopher Coppola of Bridgewater and 18-year-old Sara Malaker of Springfield were found dead in Malaker's Springfield home on Nov. 13, 2009. Autopsies showed both died of acute heroin intoxication.
Plank is being held at the Union County Jail on $200,000 bail. The prosecutor's office did not know if Plank was retained an attorney."

Caught with 1.5kg of heroin at Sydney Airport: police: "46-year-old Canley Vale man was stopped by Customs for baggage examination after he landed at Sydney Airport yesterday.
During the search, officers allegedly found a white powder substance concealed in the sides of the suitcase.
Advertisement: Story continues below Initial testing indicated the presence of heroin, the Australian Federal Police and Customs said in a joint statement today.
The man was charged with importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug, namely heroin.
Further forensic testing will be undertaken to confirm the exact weight and purity of the substance.
The man will appear in Sydney Central Local Court today, the statement said.
The maximum penalty for his charge is 25 years' imprisonment and/or a $550,000 fine."

Darwen woman arrested in Jamaica after airport cannabis find (From This Is Lancashire): "Debbie Kehoe, 45, is set to appear in court this week in the Caribbean country after she was arrested at the island’s main airport in Montego Bay.
Local police said that Kehoe, who is from the Sudell Road area of Darwen, was trying to check two holdalls in for a flight back to the UK when they she was stopped.
Officers said they found 30 kilogrammes (five stones and six pounds) in the bags.
The Foreign Office said that Kehoe, who was recently working behind the bar at the New Inn in Market Street, was with her partner, whose details have not been released, at the time.
Both have been arrested and charged and face years behind bars if convicted."

Brothers arrested in Perry County for Black Tar heroin | zanesvilletimesrecorder.com | Zanesville Times Recorder: "Joshua Wayne Losey, 22, of Glouster, came out of the apartment and got into a black Kia, English said.
Deputy Nick Sabo was able to stop the car as Losey stuck 35 balloons full of black tar heroin in his mouth, English said.
The driver of the car was a girl who had no driver's license, English said. Her name is not being released pending further investigation.
Losey was charged with one count of aggravated trafficking, one count of possession of drug abuse instruments, one count of domestic violence and one count of contributing to a delinquent.
His brother, John Michael Losey Jr., 26, also of Glouster, has been charged with one count of domestic violence.
English said she has seen an increase of black tar heroin showing up in the Junction City area.
'It's being filtered into Perry County from Athens and Columbus,' English said."

Heroin dealers head to prison | MailTribune.com: "Two cousins with ties to a violent Southern California gang were sentenced Monday to lengthy federal prison terms for running a ring that sold more than $2 million worth of heroin locally before it was broken up last fall.
Ismael 'Chivo' Anaya, 28, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Medford to 21 years and eight months in prison, while cousin Eliot 'Alex' Delavirgen, 33, was sentenced to 13 years and four months in federal prison.
Senior U.S. District Judge Owen Panner also ordered the forfeiture of two vehicles, jewelry and more than $840,000 seized as illegal profits for selling a smokable version of the narcotic to mid-level dealers for distribution.
The pair were the top targets in police's 'Operation Goat Rope' last fall that used informants and federal wiretaps to break up the large heroin-trafficking organization centered in Medford for two years beginning in mid-2007.
A mid-level drug trafficker in the ring, 22-year-old Jerrett Michael Hooey of Talent, was also sentenced Monday to more than eight years in federal prison for his role in pushing the dangerous narcotic known as 'goat,' responsible for more Oregon deaths than methamphetamine and cocaine combined."

Heroin found stuffed in man's suitcase: "man has been charged with importing heroin after being stopped at Sydney Airport with about a kilogram of the drug allegedly stuffed in a suitcase.
The 46-year-old Australian was arrested on Monday morning after arriving on a flight from Vietnam, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said in a statement.
It's alleged that Customs and Border Protection officers found several packages of an off-white powder concealed in the base and sides of his suitcase.
Initial testing indicated the presence of heroin but the precise weight and purity of the substance is yet to be confirmed, the AFP said.
The man was charged with importing a marketable quantity of a border controlled drug, namely heroin, an offence which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years jail and/or a $550,000 fine."

Police say driver tossed cocaine out of car window | tennessean.com | The Tennessean: "Police arrested a man, on probation for a drug charge, after they say he threw a half pound brick of cocaine from his speeding car in South Nashville.A Metro Police officer spotted a Chevrolet Impala traveling 46 mph in a 35 mph zone on Una Antioch Pike at 10:50 p.m. Monday and turned on his blue lights to signal the driver to stop.According to police, Darryl Alderson sped up toward Murfreesboro PIke and tossed a white bag from the window.
The car hit another vehicle at the intersection of Una Antioch Pike and Murfreesboro Pike. Alderson stopped at Nashboro Boulevard and Flintlock Court and was taken into custody.
Other officers recovered the white bag, which was found to contain the cocaine brick.
Alderson, 20, of Vailview Drive, is charged with felony drug possession in a drug free zone because the cocaine was tossed within 1,000 feet of Mt. Zion Baptist Church, tampering with evidence, evading arrest, leaving the scene of an accident , and driving on a revoked license.
His bond on those charges is set at $80,000."

BBC News - Major Derry heroin haul charge dropped: "Dublin woman charged in connection with one of the biggest discoveries of heroin in NI has walked free from court after the prosecution dropped its case.
Sarah Greene, 25, from Eaton Green in Rathcoole was arrested when the drugs, worth up to £2m, were found in a lorry stopped in Londonderry in July 2009.
A judge at Londonderry Crown Court directed the jury to find Ms Greene, who had denied involvement, not guilty.
Two other men who have admitted their roles are to be sentenced in October."

Mick Jagger's former partner Jerry Hall has claimed that he regularly used heroin in the 1970s.

Hall, who has four children with The Rolling Stones frontman and split with him in 1990, says she managed to wean him off the drug.

Telegraph.co.uk reports that Hall wrote in her new autobiography: "Mick had told me he took LSD every day for a year in the '60s. He also admitted he was smoking heroin. I was disgusted. I told him I couldn't see him if he took drugs, saying, 'Go away and don't come back until you're straight'. He succeeded – he had amazing will power."

In trial, reggae star says he lied about drug deals - St. Petersburg Times: "TAMPA — He was a reggae icon who toured extensively throughout Europe and was considered the 'voice of Jamaica.'
The other man was noticeably overweight and ran a frozen seafood business.
Yet reggae star Buju Banton felt the need to impress Alexander Johnson with talk of elaborate, million-dollar drug deals stretching the continents.
In the end it was all a lie, Banton said, a rivalry for superiority.
'I was trying to impress this guy. I wasn't going to let him outtalk me,' the musician told jurors during testimony in the third day of his federal drug trafficking trial Wednesday. 'That's what got me into this hot seat.'
Johnson was a government informer who taped conversations with Banton discussing a variety of drug deals over five months, including shipping cocaine from Panama to Europe in crates with seafood. The informer was paid $50,000 in this case, according to testimony."

13 face federal charges in heroin bust at South Dallas homes | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Breaking News for Dallas-Fort Worth | Dallas Morning News: "Several Dallas residents face federal charges after arrests last week in a drug trafficking operation based at two South Dallas homes.
Two men charged in the indictment, 38-year-old Torrence Key and 36-year-old Phil Kise, are accused of using a Hatcher Street home to manufacture and distribute heroin and cocaine. A man and woman arrested — Johnnie Myers, 55, and Sylvia Anderson, 56 — are accused of using a home on Jamaica Street to make and sell heroin.
During the arrests, officers found several firearms, including a machine gun, large quantities of cash, heroin and methamphetamine, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas.
Officials say the group began operating in May 2008.
The others charged in the indictment are Jose Aveja, 22; Sonda Eaton, 36; Tracy Johnson, 48; Valentin Morillos, 31, Randy Shelton, 41; James Strange, 52; Gregory Washington, 54, Hugh Washington, 36 and Marcus Washington, 38."

Teacher's Aide Accused Of Dealing To Students - Regional News - Lehigh Valley Story - WFMZ Allentown: "Bangor Area High School teacher's aide and coach pleaded guilty last week to possession of heroin after the police say a coworker overdosed in his apartment.
Wednesday the same man was charged with corrupting minors after police say he bought, sold, and did drugs with students.
Last December police say 24-year-old Bangor High School teacher Gina Rizzo overdosed on heroin in her co-worker's Bethlehem apartment.
That triggered an investigation into wrestling coach and teacher's aide, Brad Washburn."

Lower costs have turned Dayton into a distribution hub for heroin: "When the RANGE task force kicked down the door at 35 Oxford Ave. earlier this month, they found a house-full of sophisticated, high-powered firearms, drugs and $40,000 in cash.
And they upset a mid-level cocaine and heroin distribution ring operated in Dayton that reached into Springfield.
“These men were highly involved in the (drug) trade. ... This is a business, and these guns are the tools of the trade,” said James Dier, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent. “They arm themselves and take over neighborhoods. It’s all about firepower.”
Carlton Morice Adams, 30, and Tyrrelle Robinson, 22, remain in the Montgomery County Regional Jail on federal detainers. Both have drug and weapons convictions.
“Heroin sellers have a tendency to be violent,” said Dayton police Lt. Mike Wilhelm, commander of the Fifth District, which includes the Oxford Avenue house."

The Associated Press: FIFA has no intention to investigate Moreno: "Franco Carraro, an International Olympic Committee member and the president of Italian soccer's governing body in 2002, said the arrest proved Moreno had problems.
'I fear that drugs didn't have much to do with what Moreno did in the 2002 Italy-South Korea game,' Carraro said. 'His refereeing was atrocious, perhaps for inability, but more probably for other reasons.'
Moreno ejected Francesco Totti for an alleged dive 13 minutes into overtime, and South Korea used the man advantage to score in the 117th minute and win 2-1. South Korea received a penalty kick in the game's opening minutes for a foul by Christian Panucci against Seol Ki-Hyeon, but it was saved. A 111th-minute goal by Italy's Damiano Tommasi that would have advanced Italy was disallowed, apparently for an offside.
FIFA opened an investigation into Moreno in September 2002 after a controverial domestic match in Ecuador in which he added 13 minutes of stoppage time without registering it. Moreno was suspended for 20 matches by Ecuadorean authorities, but FIFA closed its probe the following January saying there was no proof of any violation of FIFA regulations 'from a disciplinary perspective.'"

CBP seizes canned heroin | heroin, friday, court - Valley and State - Brownsville Herald: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection have seized more than $1.5 million worth of heroin hidden inside aluminum food cans in two separate incidents, according to court documents.
The first seizure took place Friday when Lidia Nuñez, 20, was arrested at the B&M International Bridge with four fruit cans containing a total of 5.2 pounds of heroin, court documents show. The cans were found in Nuñez’s bag during a secondary inspection, stated a CBP press release.
The second seizure took place Monday afternoon when Margarita Gomez, 28, was arrested at Gateway International Bridge with six aluminum food cans containing 9.7 pounds of heroin, documents show. According to a CBP press release, the cans were hidden inside a 1996 Ford Windstar. Court documents state that the cans were in a compartment hidden behind a panel in the vehicle."

Jose Figueroa Agosto jailed: 'Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean' caught for drugs | Mail Online: "Authorities have painted Jose Figueroa Agosto as the Caribbean's version of Pablo Escobar, the notorious Colombian drug kingpin of the 1980s.He is said to be one of the 'major drug traffickers in history'. Eight hours after he was arrested, his girlfriend Soleida Félix Morel turned herself in through a lawyer.
For 10 years, the 45-year-old Puerto Rican fed his underworld mystique by pulling off narrow escapes and taunting police in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory that is attractive to traffickers as America's southernmost border."

Nine arrested during gun and drug inquiry in west - The Irish Times - Wed, Jun 02, 2010: "arrested men are members of the Traveller community and are part of a wider Galway-based crime syndicate that gardaí believe is led by two brothers.
The investigation into the gang’s activities has been going on for six months, but the men’s arrests were hastened by the arrest of a man in Belfast at the weekend for drug smuggling offences. That man is a suspected member of the Galway-based gang. He was detained by the PSNI at the weekend in Belfast after he was found to be in possession of cocaine with a value of €60,000 having disembarked a flight from Spain.
The arrests of the nine other gang members in Galway yesterday occurred during a series of co-ordinated searches of 21 addresses that began at 7am. The operation, led by Asst Commissioner John O’Mahony, involved gardaí from across Galway and members of the Organised Crime Unit, Criminal Assets Bureau and the Armed Regional Support Unit.
Garda sources said the Galwaybased gang of settled Travellers has links to other drug gangs in Sligo and Limerick. They are believed to deal not only in drugs and guns but are also suspects for burglaries across the west and for armed robberies, including attacks on cash in transit vans. The gang is also believed to be behind an extortion and intimidation racket where those being targeted were threatened with extreme violence"

Man arrested in seizure of 343 kilos of cocaine in Halifax - thestar.com: "Montreal man was arrested Tuesday after Canada Border Services agents found 343 kilograms of cocaine in a shipping container in Halifax last November.
“The drugs were found in a container originating from Venezuela that was on its way to Montreal,” said Andrew LeFrank, the agency’s Nova Scotia director.
“Officers using X-ray technology were able to detect the drugs concealed in ceramic tiles.”
RCMP Staff Sgt. Alan Harding said Michel Safar, 47, will face charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
“Our investigation led us to believe that the drugs were destined for the Montreal area. Further arrests may be made,” said Harding.
Each tile, which was covered with a fibreglass backing, contained two packages of cocaine weighing about 520 grams."

SDPD: 7 Arrested After Caught Unloading 2 Tons Of Pot - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego: "LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Drug smugglers were caught early Tuesday, unloading about 2 tons of marijuana from a boat in La Jolla, and 13 illegal aliens were arrested on Dog Beach in Ocean Beach about an hour later as a crowd scattered from another boat that came ashore there, police said.
The drug-smuggling boat at Wind and Sea Beach, near Neptune Place and Palomar Avenue, was reported at 1:23 a.m., San Diego police Sgt. David Jennings said.
Police said Border Patrol agents were watching the boat and saw the smugglers unload it, then run off into a residential neighborhood. Border Patrol agents, along with SDPD"

Canadians in drug-smuggling case due in court | lansingstatejournal.com | Lansing State Journal: "Two Canadians accused of helping a pilot smuggle drugs into the U.S. at a small Michigan airport are scheduled to return to court for a guilty plea.


Authorities say Matthew Moody and Jesse Rusenstrom met the Cessna at the Sandusky, Mich., airport in November. A border agent flying a Black Hawk helicopter was suspicious and used a spotlight to keep track of their SUV.
Agents recovered at least 100 pounds of marijuana and possibly 500,000 ecstasy tablets worth $1 million to $2 million.
Records show Moody and Rusenstrom are expected to appear Tuesday in federal court in Ann Arbor. The Ontario men have been in custody since their capture 90 miles northeast of Detroit. The Cessna plane got away."

Internet spreads Mexico drug gang fears - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos: "Internet is playing a growing role in Mexico's drug war, spreading both information and fear, at a time when many journalists have been scared into silence.
Drug gangs have long used warnings scrawled on sheets pinned up on bridges, or even gruesome beheadings to sow fear, but the Internet, and mobile phones, have taken their messages to a wider audience."

Somali gangs building crime empires in the UK: "Drugs, guns and knives plague two Somali communities, in London and Liverpool.
On the tough backstreets of Toxteth, Liverpool, kids were walking home from school as Somali dealers as young as 14 sold crack cocaine outside a grotty corner shop.
Some of the gangsters were born in Liverpool. Others had fled their war-ravaged nation at an early age.
The paper quoted a 24-year-old ex-gang member, who had served four years in jail for attempted murder, as saying: “When you grow up surrounded by rape and murder and violence and war, anything’s going to be a better life. (ANI)"

Kings Cross is now called Little Lebanon. It wasn't too long ago that it was under Jewish control by Abe Saffron, using independent local private security firms led by Lenny McPherson – the Australian equivalent of the US's Blackwater.

They ruled by means cruel but fair. Like all empires, it fell when those working under its umbrella worked out that they could do a better job, make more money and take the land back to its more traditional owners, in this case the Lebanese.

Louis Bayeh started as a bouncer for Saffron along Darlinghurst Road, the strip of strip clubs from Porkies to The Pink Pussycat.

Saffron was a dictator. Bayeh and his brother Bill and his crew of misfits filled the gaps created by poor policing, ageing crime lords and corruption.

The Bayehs were not a classy act like Saffron and running drugs, prostitution, protection and gambling was far beyond their meagre talents. Like many corporations in the 1980s they diversified by gobbling up random companies and enterprises to increase turnover. But lacking management, the Bayehs fell apart during the gentle probing of the Wood Royal Commission. The Bayeh group of rackets lacked the vital synergy that real diversity requires to succeed.

This is part of the terrifying landscape painted in Blood Money: Bikies, Terrorists and Middle Eastern Gangs, a dirty thumbnail sketch of the past decade of Sydney blue collar crime and its criminals written by 38-year NSW Police veteran Clive Small and journalist-author Tom Gilling. It brings Underbelly up to date in gripping detail and in unbelievable scenes and encounters that you wouldn't believe could happen unless you saw the CCTV footage.

Out of the south-west rode gangs in colourful souped-up WRXs who where born and bred on the sand dunes of Lebanon, who knew that pyramids were permanent because they had a point at the top, which dispersed power downwards in larger and larger amounts, all of which depended on the layers above them for purchase and the layers below them for subsistence and domination. At the lowest level of the pyramid were the drug runners, carrying small amounts at a time, lest they be busted for supply quantities, but enough for users, two or three deals at a time.

In a relatively small time, Kings Cross was patrolled by the Lebanese who collected rents, protection fees, management fees and the like from real merchants, scam merchants and skin merchants.

If one group of Lebanese were jailed, killed or retired, younger and more energetic gangs took their place. In the south-west of Sydney, the now traditional owners entrenched their domination.

Ahmed Fahda declared himself King of Punchbowl. Gang members controlled vehicle and pedestrian traffic along Telopea Street. They waited impatiently to purchase drugs at the drive-through set up by the Telopea Street boys.

The Lebanese are an enterprising, enthusiastic and passionate race. They have lived and thrived – and recently survived being bombed – for hundreds of years, on nothing but their wits and the smell of an oily rag worn by Saudi royalty. They have as much testosterone in their veins as blood. Young Australian-born women get swept up in their pearly smiles, lavish bling, fast cars and live-now-for-tomorrow-we-die-philosophy.

Kings Cross was now Little Lebanon and south-west Sydney was Lebland. The other way emperors fall is if they fall out with each other. The Darwiches and the Razzaks were thousand-year rivals back in the day, in the old country.

Rocket launchers were purchased from the army, through middle men, to aim at feuding family homes or pursuing police, whichever, whatever, came first. On one night, the rocket launchers were dispensed with because the house to be bombed was made of fibro and the rockets would go straight through and, heaven help us, hit an innocent home.

Instead reliable AK47s were used to spray-paint the house with bullet holes, killing two occupants, one a young woman asleep with her lover. The Dawiches were the gang that could not shoot straight although they had enough ammunition to shoot all day and all night. As in all Shakespearean tragedies, the families united briefly when the House of Darwiche, offered Adnan "Eddie" Darwiche's sister Khadige in holy matrimony to Ali Abdul Razzak, and blood ally Ahmed Fahda's sister Donna to Ramzi "Fidel" Aouad.

Inevitably the love turned sour. Eddie swore at Gehad Razzak (born on April Fools' Day, 1979) "to put holes in your head motherf---er, you and your whole family." The bully boys were called in, Crazy Khalid, Biggy Osman, Fidel Aouad and Eddie's best weapons were handed out. They stole a car for the drive-by-shoot-bye-bye-to-the-Razzaks.

Disaster struck. When you steal a car it has no warranty. The steering wheel locked and there were no keys to release it. The car stalled in the middle of the road. Two carloads of Razzaks bore down on the frozen mob. Just in time the lock broke and Eddie's embarrassed team fled with their heads down and their tails between their legs.

Another drive-bye-bye to the Razzaks was planned. This time the stolen car was driven by a complete idiot who hit three parked cars on the way down Razzak's street. This time the shootings went into walls of three of the four units in the block but miraculously no one got hurt. The Razzaks owned the fourth untouched unit in the block.

Not to be made fools of, yet another time the Darwiches stole two cars, loaded for bear and ready to roar and prepared for another attack. Upon approach they spotted an unfamiliar car near Eddie's house. It was full of Razzaks. They pulled up alongside and pointed a rifle at the driver, the Razzak car sped off with the Darwiches in hot pursuit but where Punchbowl Road meets Bouvardia Street, the pursuers suddenly became the pursued when the car did a handbrake turn and its occupants opened fire. Other members of the Razzak crew appeared from behind cars, from front yards and opened fire. The Darwiches were bushwhacked in an ambush of their own making. They were sitting ducks but the Razzaks were also a gang that couldn't shoot straight. Eddie and his crew fled. Police found 11 high-powered rifles and handguns in the vicinity.

Wahib Hannouf was a gun-slinging gangster who managed to shoot himself four times in the stomach, hand and legs, claiming the gun went off by itself once and ricocheted back and forth on the concrete walls and through him. He got $5000 compo from the owner of the gun, informally, without court proceedings, with an apology, according to the law of the jungle/desert.

Darwiche paid $15,000 compo to Bilal Razzak for shooting one of his kidneys out. Meanwhile, no one saw nothing. Eddie ordered Crazy who ordered an underling to shoot Haissam Yassine in the kneecaps, for intruding on a drug run and ripping off one of Eddie's primo drug runners.

Yassine was held down in Punchbowl Park, moving his legs about, refusing to assist in his own kneecapping. The shooter was in a lose-lose situation. Eddie would kill him if he accidentally killed Yassine. Eddie would kill him if he missed. His heart wasn't in it and he finally got a shot off straight into the leg as he dialled triple-0 for an ambulance.

Although I have had the honour of acting for many of Lebanese ethnicity, the portrait paraded of these few in Blood Money is as wrong as suggesting mafia movies like The Godfather are an accurate portrayal of Italian culture.

In Albury where I grew up, much of the main street was owned and operated by Lebanese immigrants who could turn their hand to anything – the haberdashery store of the Abakhairs, the clothes stores of the Nesires, the Fine Female Fashions of Farrah's, the auction house bargains of Batrouny's and so on. This home truth is still true today.

Despite all the tales of Blood Money, the cold Irish stew and English roast that were Australia are now infinitely more interesting and richer with the chilli, garlic and spices of Lebanon

Jamaica's reluctance to hand over an alleged crime boss is straining relations with the United States, which is questioning the Caribbean nation's reliability as an ally against drug trafficking.The two governments have been negotiating over Christopher "Dudus" Coke since the U.S. requested his extradition in August to face arms and drug trafficking charges in New YorkCoke, 40, the alleged leader of the Shower Posse gang, faces federal charges in New York City of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana and conspiracy to illegally traffic in firearms. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
U.S. authorities allege that under Coke's leadership, Shower Posse members have sold marijuana and crack cocaine in the New York area and elsewhere and funneled profits back to him.

The jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court found him guilty after just over four hours of deliberation and a six day trial. Disconsolate members of Byrne’s family were directed by Judge Frank O’Donnell to leave the court after the jury returned their verdict.Judge O'Donnell remanded Byrne in custody until sentencing next month. In denying the bail application made on behalf of Byrne, Judge O’Donnell said that he was a man who had entered the witness box and gave evidence “that flies in the face of all logic”.He thanked the jury of seven men and five women for their service and said that they had taken “great care” in doing their duty. He said that the experience of the jury may remind them that, despite public criticism of the judicial system, they would now no doubt wish for a trial by jury should any member of their family find themselves before a court. Byrne, a self-employed tiler, had pleaded not guilty to possession of 32 kilogrammes of heroin for sale or supply in the Culmore Road area of Palmerstown on January 15, 2008.His trial heard from several detectives involved in the operation who said they saw Byrne collect the van containing the heroin before he parked it and began to move the drugs into a nearby park. Detective Garda Kieran Sheehan told prosecuting counsel, Mr Sean Gillane SC, that he was part of the operation observing Byrne in the Clondalkin area when at around 5.25pm he saw a silver Volkswagen van drive past him and down a laneway off the Culmore Road.Another detective followed the van and Det Gda Sheehan got out and walked in their direction. He said when he got closer he saw the accused standing at the rear of the van.He went into a garden and approached Byrne for a closer look and said he saw him taking packages from the van and putting them in a plastic bag. He said a Fiat Punto then arrived and parked beside the van. A woman got out and took something from the car's boot and then her and Byrne crossed paths. Byrne continued walking down a laneway carrying two plastic bags. A detective drove his car at speed up the laneway past Byrne and Det Gda Sheehan identified himself as an armed garda and told him to stop.Byrne dropped the bags, causing some of the packages to fall out, before running. The detective drew his firearm and gave chase down the laneway and into a park.
He said he saw Byrne throw his phone towards a stream as he ran before he lost track of him at a gate. Two other gardaí joined Det Gda Sheehan and they began a search of the area. Byrne was found hiding in a wooded area nearby and arrested.Giving evidence in his own defence, Byrne said he would not identify the man who he claims he lent the van to or say where he lives or give a description of him because he fears for his family's safety.Mr Byrne told Mr Gillane that he had lent the van to a friend of his brother and when he went to pick it up he saw the drugs in the back and panicked. He said he was trying to get rid of them when gardaí moved in on him and chased him through the park.When asked by Mr Gillane why he would not identify the man he lent the van to he responded, "you don't have to walk outside this court and fear for your life."
He denied a suggestion by counsel that this "six million dollar man" was a "ghost" or a "figment of his imagination."

Scott Rush will face his final appeal against the death sentence. His Indonesian lawyer, Robert Khuana, is optimistic the judicial review, called a PK, or Reconsideration, which failed in the Supreme Court in 2007, will this time save Rush from the firing squad. Leading a six-member team, Khuana will appear before a different panel of judges. He believes a sentence reduction, with Rush serving 10 to 15 years, is achievable.Khuana will call on three witnesses, two of whom have not so far been named. But in an about-face, courier Renae Lawrence, who is serving 20 years, has agreed to be a witness. Her lawyer, Anggia Lubis Browne, yesterday confirmed Lawrence would testify in court that Rush was just a courier in a bid to prevent his execution. It is not known whether the other witnesses are fellow Bali Nine inmates."I believe Rush was just a courier," says Browne. "Renae feels very strongly about it." Lawrence had said in January she would provide a statement but would not go to court.If the review fails, Rush's last avenue is to seek clemency from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is not known to be merciful to drug traffickers. Kevin Rudd could also make a clemency plea to the President, who is visiting Australia today. It is likely the death sentences of Rush and Bali Nine ringleaders Chan and Sukumaran, who will lodge appeals soon after Rush, will be discussed.Khuana believes it's an auspicious time for discussing the Australians' fate."I think there will be a discussion between the two leaders about the death penalty policy," he says. "Maybe this will impact on the Australians in Indonesia. This is a good time for SBY to change the death penalty."Rush's sentence remains an anomaly. Of the six couriers arrested at Denpasar airport in April 2005 by Indonesian authorities, Rush, who had 1.3kg of heroin strapped to his body, is the only one now sentenced to execution. Four others, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens, are serving life sentences and Lawrence 20 years.
Khuana will argue that Rush was merely a courier while three others of the nine were "organisers" -- Chan, Sukumaran and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, "the recruiter", whose death sentence was commuted to life in 2008."We are sure the judge made a big mistake," says Khuana. "We will argue this is . . . a mistake. Our question is why was the decision different for Scott compared with the other five couriers? Why did they apply the same facts but impose a different punishment?"On the day I first visit Rush in Kerobokan, he looks pallid, his skin almost translucent. From a distance he appears ill, but his wan appearance is a result of spending his time indoors.He is worried about the romantic bond he forged with Melburnian Laura Pemberton, who started visiting him in 2008. They pledged their "eternal love" for each other. Now he's angry and upset that the love affair seems to be over."I had a lot of girls back home . . . I've put my heart on the line. I wanted someone to see me for who I am."He wants her to return mementos he gave her that are precious to him. He mentions some rosary beads, a football jersey. He has tried desperately to contact her.
"I want her to come back," he says, but he feels powerless. "I pushed her away (from media attention) for her own safety. I thought we had a good thing going. I've let all my dignity go. I'm going to end up being a hollow person, I'm going to be an arsehole."Pemberton, speaking by phone from Melbourne, will not comment on the relationship. Asked if she would go to Bali to see Rush, she says: "I will be there for him."
Asked again in November about her feelings for Rush, she says: "I still care about him a great deal. He's free to contact me at any time -- tell him that. Whenever he needs me, I'll be there.""When is his appeal coming up?" she asks. "I'll be there for him then."
Was there a cooling in their relationship?"A lot of stuff has happened. But I never wouldn't be there for him. But he's on death row -- and they're all going to die," she shouts.
It was Rush's father who first alerted Australian Federal Police to the smuggling operation, in an attempt to stop his son going. There have been recriminations from other Bali Nine members. . . . "Everyone did bear a grudge but either way we would have been caught. But if we had been caught in Australia we'd be out of jail by now," Stephens said last week.Asked if Bali Nine members had grown close after sharing five years in Kerobokan, Stephens says: "We're not friends, we weren't in the beginning and we're not now. I don't trust anyone in here. I only talk to my girlfriend . . . When we get out . . . I'm sure we'll never see each other again."

Julian Jose Garza, 28, of Notus , a member of the East Side Locos gang in Caldwell, was sentenced Tuesday to 70 months in federal prison for unlawful possession of a firearm, the United States Attorney's Office announced.

Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll. an enforcer for the notorious Daniel clan - was gunned down in cold blood last month.But last night a source revealed: "There is no way these debts will be allowed to die along with him." underworld figure - who owed Carroll £50,000 has been given just weeks to pay his debt to Gerbil - or face dire consequences.
Carroll's close pal Francis 'Fraggle' Green - the son of crimelord Jamie Daniel - is believed to have issued a personal warning to the dealer. And the source told how NONE of the debts will be forgotten.He said: "A lot of people thought they'd won the lottery when Gerbil was killed."Many of them - and there are many - mistakenly thought the money would have been written off."This is not the case and Carroll's sidekicks are going to make sure all the debts are squared up."Carroll had a few trusted friends - including Fraggle - and they are going about collecting the money.
"The latest threat of violence will worry cops who have been bracing themselves for revenge attacks over Carroll's assassination."Gerbil - the partner of Jamie Daniel's daughter Kelly, and father of her two kids - was killed in his black Audi car on January 13.He was blasted by two gunmen who fired more than ten shots as the motor sat in a car park at Asda in Robroyston, Glasgow.The Daniel clan believe the rival Lyon's family were behind the murder - and are preparing a bloody backlash.But the two families - who fell out over a drug deal - have been locked in a bitter turf war for more than a decade. The feud has already sparked a string of shootings and other brutal attacks.
Last night the source added: "This just adds to the tension.
"Many people thought a revenge attack would have come already. However it might just be the calm before the storm." Earlier this month, Strathclyde Police renewed their appeal for information on the Gerbil hit, as their major murder hunt continues.
The dark blue Volkswagen Golf used by the suspects was found just a couple of hours after the daylight attack at Asda.Then on January 26, a stunned council worker discovered guns dumped in bushes behind a library in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.Forensic tests later showed the firearms were those used in the shooting, with cops describing it as a "positive step" in the probe.Last night a Strathclyde Police spokesman said: "Our inquiries are ongoing and we are still appealing for witnesses to come forward."

Alberto Hurtado Osorio, 60, was behind bars in Colombia last night. His arrest came two years after the Australian Federal Police and counterparts in South America and Latin America launched a sting to smash his cartel, which is suspected of smuggling drugs across the world through the post.Osorio, who served two years in Sydney on drug charges in the early 1990s, had been on the AFP's secret "top 10" target list for years.But the Colombian, a senior member of a well-known Bogata-based cartel, had eluded police by constantly moving throughout the South American country and keeping the operation at arm's length.It is alleged the drug cartel was smuggling cocaine to contacts in Australia in comparatively small amounts -- about 300g -- via air mail, certified mail and private parcel companies.Police have no idea how much cocaine the cartel had managed to smuggle into Australia. It was sent from Peru and Argentina in a bid to disguise its Colombian origins.Police began to close in on Osorio late last year after the AFP intercepted three consignments of 300g of cocaine in Sydney. At the same time, Peruvian authorities seized two consignments bound for Australia.
The gang is also suspected of smuggling drugs into other major Western markets worldwide.Peruvian police arrested two men at the same time Osorio was picked up. All three have been charged with trafficking and will face trial in their respective countries.
The investigation into the cartel's Australian connections is continuing.
AFP investigators said yesterday drug-smugglers had returned to using the post after the post-September 11, 2001, security crackdown on ports and airports made it increasingly difficult to smuggler large amounts of drugs.AFP national manager for serious and organised crime Kevin Zuccato said Osorio's arrest was a significant development in Australia's fight against drugs."This guy has been on our radar since 1992," Mr Zuccato said. "Increasingly, smugglers are sending comparatively smaller amounts of drugs through the post and with `swallowers' on planes."It is difficult to know how much drugs this gang got in to Australia. It is not about the quantity of the drugs seized but the quality of the crook we arrest and stop from bringing drugs into this country. He was a very senior member of a significant drug syndicate in Colombia, with suspected links to other syndicates."
Police arrested 25 people in Australia this week for allegedly mailing drugs around the country hidden in different items, including a teddy bear.The AFP said it had seized 145 parcels and 73kg of drugs.The teddy bear was used to hide a new drug called "miaow", which has been likened to ecstasy.

Scott William Schneider, 30, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to driving while impaired and possession of a prohibited firearm.He was handed a two-year and nine-month sentence, a 10-year firearm ban and a two-year driving ban.
Schneider was carrying a loaded handgun when he was arrested early Christmas Day after a hit-and-run in the 800-block Parker Street in White Rock.His passenger, a 27-year-old White Rock man, is scheduled to appear in Feb. 18 in Surrey Provincial Court, where he will face charges of uttering threats and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.In 2008, Schneider was acquitted, alongside White Rock Angel Villy Roy Lynnerrup and chapter president Douglas Falconer Riddoch, for assault charges stemming from a home invasion and assault in 2007.

The New Boys has been undercutting other dealers, and targeted outlaw bikies, the Hell's Angels, in a series of drive-by shootings in August.The New Boys emerged in the northern suburbs about four years ago and once congregated at pubs around Elizabeth and Smithfield. They use Hindley St as their base, as well as the Norwood entertainment strips, including The Parade, where they sell drugs. The gang has two "chapters" and is extensively involved in selling drugs, including ecstasy tablets and methamphetamine, and street fights, usually using knives.The group said to be headed by a city tattooist, the target of the bungled bomb attack who lashed out at cameramen yesterday when he returned to his home, metres from the crime scene.It was two hours before sunrise on Thursday when Enfield shook with the force of the home-made bomb, ripping apart a hire car and killing two men on Truscott Rd.Convicted drug runner Vahe Hacopian, 31, of Munno Para West, and a 23-year-old Walkley Heights Hell's Angels associate, made it within metres of their suspected target when the explosives accidentally detonated.Their target, a tattooist and New Boys drug dealer, lived just metres from where shrapnel showered the road.They were killed instantly, with one man's body blown across the road while the other remained in the vehicle, secured by his seatbelt.The tattooist was a suspect in the 2008 Gouger St shootings, his Enfield home raided by STAR Group officers hours after the gun battle.Yesterday, he returned home to his wife and children, but stayed only five minutes.A uniformed police officer stood about 40m away, guarding the crime scene around Thursday's bomb blast."Get that camera off the house," he shouted while rushing at a television cameraman. "Haven't you got any respect for my kids and wife? Is this how you protect the community, you maggots? Insects. Dogs."The tattooist has a criminal history dating back to when he was 17, including numerous convictions for serious assault and drug dealing.Yesterday, bikie expert and author of The Brotherhoods, Inside the Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, Professor Arthur Veno said Adelaide was most likely in the middle of a turf war between drug dealers. "It's extremely unlikely that the (motorcycle) clubs are doing this," he said."The clubs are desperately trying to get rid of these guys."They have to distance themselves from the criminal element because the understanding is if they want to keep their club, they need to get rid of that kind of thing. It's much more likely to be an underworld drug situation or turf war."Prof Veno said if the New Boys wanted a war with one club, they would be shut down by all of them. He said the once-warring bikie gangs had been brought together by the United Motorcycle Council to fight the state government's anti-bikie laws."If the New Boys are declaring a war on one club, they can expect to cop it from all clubs, who will join together and stop it real quick," he said. "The bikie clubs are under so much pressure and they've reached a consensus through the United Motorcycle Council that they will push out the criminal element."They are desperately trying to keep a lid on things.

The man, of suburban Munno Para West, has not been charged in relation to the fatal explosion that claimed the lives of a Hells Angels bikie gang associate and a convicted drug dealer.The pair died when a homemade bomb went off in a car at suburban Enfield before dawn.Police believe the bomb was triggered by accident and a rival gang member was the intended target.The man charged was detained after police went to the home of one of the dead men and found a second bomb.He was also charged with drug and firearms offences and was remanded in custody to appear again in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court in March.

"To me it seems like there was some inside or some targeting here because we never ever had problems here," says Steve Frydman who has owned a real estate business on the second floor of this building for 20 years.
In that time he says he's never experienced the violence police say took place right below his office, "the space that they rented here was always quiet and discrete I never saw any unusual amount of people at once that would come here."
Things changed Tuesday just after 8pm. Hamden Police were called to a Touch of Color tattoo parlor where they found 64-year-old Ferraiolo shot to death.
There were signs of a struggle inside the shop but few clues pointed to the shooter. Now investigators are looking at all leads, including Ferraiolo’s possible affiliation to motorcycle gangs.
"Summer time they have a lot of bike guys coming over there," Jimmy Patel owns a package store close to Touch of Color, he remembers seeing the bikes parked outside.
But Kaleb Edgar, a tattoo artist at the parlor tells NBC Connecticut News that nothing illegal happened in the shop.
Bob Piccirillo, the owner of Hamden Barber Shop, also calls the connection police are trying to make between Ferraiolo and a gang a stretch, "have I seen bikes? I’ve seen some but it’s not like they all congregate. Like I said, I’ve seen a couple of them but that is kind of surprising to me."
Edgar says Ferraiolo is survived by four adult children. Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call the Hamden Police Department.

Another said: “True Bad Man. RIP bro. Never forgotten.”
And another said: “Words cannot explain how we all feel as you were a true friend to us all and you did many good things for us all and helped us out in ways others would not.
“You were at the top but still had time for us at the bottom. Just to know you and call you a friend was an honour. The respect you had for others around will be very missed. We all turned to you in our times of need. And now we all seem so lost now you have gone.”‘King of the Hill’ who was found shot dead in the Cheshire mansion of a controversial businessman Arran Coghlan.

Stephen ‘Aki’ Akinyemi, 44, was said to be a prominent member of the notorious Cheetham Hill gang, which is believed to be behind major crime and the supply of drugs in Manchester.He was known for enjoying champagne and cruising Manchester’s clubland in his silver Porsche, with the private registration AKI.He had a string of previous convictions and most recently had been jailed for 13 months in 2006 for violent disorder.At the time of his death, he was on bail for allegedly attacking someone with a baseball bat outside the Lounge 31 nightclub in the city centre in November.He was found with serious stab injuries at Mr Coghlan’s Alderley Edge home on Tuesday afternoon. He was wearing a stab vest.But a post-mortem examination revealed he had died of a gunshot wound, not knife injuries.Mr Coghlan was also discovered with stab injuries at the scene and he was taken to hospital under police guard. He was later discharged although he remains in police custody after being arrested on suspicion of murder.Last night a tribute page to Mr Akinyemi on social networking website Facebook, titled ‘RIP AKI’, had more than 600 members.
Another said: “True Bad Man. RIP bro. Never forgotten.”
And another said: “Words cannot explain how we all feel as you were a true friend to us all and you did many good things for us all and helped us out in ways others would not.“You were at the top but still had time for us at the bottom. Just to know you and call you a friend was an honour. The respect you had for others around will be very missed. We all turned to you in our times of need. And now we all seem so lost now you have gone.”Mr Coghlan was cleared in 1996 of murdering Stockport ‘Mr Big’ Chris Little, who was shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes.In 2003, Mr Coghlan stood trial for the murder of drug dealer David Barnshaw, who was kidnapped and forced to drink petrol before being burned alive in the back of a car in Stockport in 2001.But the case collapsed when it was revealed police had failed to pass on important information about another possible suspect.

Chris Little was a product of Greater Manchester, a city now coping with some of the most viciously criminal neighbourhoods in urban Europe. As a local villain, he was known to police in Stockport as an empire-builder rather than 'self-employed builder' as he had lately styled himself. In reality, he was a feared racketeer. One man who betrayed him was bundled into a small dark room with only the Rottweiler for company.
Little's gangs of doormen provided 'security' at nightclubs in Stockport. One club run by rivals was targeted in a gun attack recently.Earlier this year, Little recruited young men to launch a spate of arson attacks in Stockport in which schools, shops and vehicles were damaged by firebombs. No one was hurt, but about pounds 1m worth of damage was done.Although the police suspected Little of organising the attacks (thought to have been carried out as a show of strength), he was never charged.Lately, Little had tried to expand his empire into the Stretford area, stepping on the toes of drug barons there.He owned a nice house in a good area of Stockport, but probably his greatest pride and joy was the Merc - a black 500 SLE. With the Rottweiler, nobody would surprise him; with the car, nobody would catch him. It turned out to be a fatal double delusion.As he stopped at traffic lights in Stockport Road, Marple, on Friday night, a white Ford Granada travelling in the same direction pulled up alongside. The shots came from its open window.Under the dying man's foot, the automatic Merc sped off, colliding with two vehicles and injuring four people.At the dead man's home yesterday, the Rottweiler could be heard barking.

Arran Coghlan, 39,guarded by armed police in hospital while being treated for knife wounds.His business associate Stephen ‘Aki’ Akinyemi, 36, was found stabbed to death in his bathroom following an alleged row.Yesterday, officers were searching Coghlan's £2million converted chapel in Alderley Edge, Cheshire – known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’ where Premiership footballers rub shoulders with soap stars.
Members of his family have been taken into protective custody.Police said yesterday: ‘A 39-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is receiving hospital treatment.’Akinyemi, from Cheetham Hill, Manchester, suffered fatal knife wounds despite wearing a stab proof vest.Coghlan, dialled 999 as Akinyemi lay dying, suffered serious knife injuries to his upper body.The call, made at 2pm on Tuesday, occurred after father of one Coghlan - who survived an attempt on his life in a bar on New Years Day 2009 - was suspected by police of building a multi-million pound crime empire.In 1996 he was acquitted of the gangland murder of drug baron Chris Little dubbed the Devil Dog Mobster because he set rottweilers on rivals.
Little, 32, was shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes.Coghland was cleared .In 2002 Coghlan stood trial accused of murder again after claims he kidnapped and burnt to death petty drug dealer David Barnshaw, 32, in the boot of a car in September 1999.
Jurors were told that Coghlan – who has a bed shaped like a pirate ship – had ‘built an empire through ruthless violence, demanding respect and loyalty from all those who worked for him.’ The case against him and others collapsed when it was revealed police had failed to pass on important information about another possible suspect.
Coghlan, nicknamed ‘Az’ on the registration plate of his Bentley Turbo, has always denied any involvement in wrongdoing and claimed detectives were involved in a ‘campaign to get him at all costs’.
He is now suing the Greater Manchester force after it emerged a disgraced senior detective had withheld vital evidence from a file which linked the second of the murders to another suspect.
Despite his alleged underhand connections, many neighbours thought he was an accountant. Residents of Alderley Edge include Manchester City star Carlos Tevez, cricketer Freddie Flintoff and Coronation Street actress Samia Ghadie.
On New Year’s Day 2009, Coghlan was stabbed in the head face and back as he partied with friends at Cobdens bar in his native Stockport, Greater Manchester.
The knifeman was never traced but police suspect the attack was linked to mobsters from the Cheetham Hill gang.

targeted killings in Monterey County during the past year are the result of gang orders to cleanse the area of those considered traitors by Norteños and their parent gang, the Nuestra Familia.Recent slayings of at least seven people not in good standing with the gang in Greenfield and Salinas led investigators to conclude that a "cleanup" of the streets in the wake of two large federal racketeering cases is continuing."We're dealing with violence that is spread across the Salinas Valley and beyond," Greenfield Police Chief Joe Grebmeier said. "The issues are not in any one city and the solutions will have to involve the region."Gang members, agents and federal prosecutors -- all of whom asked not to be named -- say the FBI is working a new gang conspiracy case in the Salinas Valley. Only San Francisco U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello said on the record that the FBI and his office are investigating more gang crimes in Monterey County.The brazenness of some slayings remind longtime gang cops of a bloody era more than a decade ago, when gang leaders in Salinas and points south ordered dozens of killings in a civil war and power struggle within the gang.

In late 1998, several regiment leaders and so-called traitors were slain, with attempts made on many more as Nuestra Familia crew bosses fought over control of the valley.The slayings of three people in and near the Pueblo Inn.motel in Greenfield in December and January point to the possible involvement of a higher "shot caller" presumably still at large, investigators said.
Israel Cota of Soledad, who police say is a Nuestra Familia boss for Salinas Valley, is wanted on warrant by state parole officers. Police declined to say if he is a person of interest in the Greenfield slayings.Police continue to try to apprehend 18-year-old Francisco Tamayo, believed to be the shooter of two women at the motel, but investigators do not consider him to be the gang authority who ordered the crime.
Yliza Martinez and Veronica Gallegos, both 30, were shot in their motel room Dec. 5. Gallegos died that night, Martinez died a week later.Shortly after the slayings, fire crews were summoned to put out a mysterious fire in the motel's hallway.Although police have not speculated on a suspect or motive behind the apparent arson, gangs for years have used arson and fire bombings as warnings to tell would-be crime witnesses not to cooperate with police.On Jan. 14, Gallegos' half-brother Angel Gutierrez, 40, was shot and killed not far from the motel.About that time, officers learned Cota failed to show up for a parole appointment. Cota was released from Monterey County jail in late December.Citing an ongoing investigation, police declined to say whether they are aware of a specific motive for the three slayings, although Gutierrez was known to have had a falling out with Nuestra Familia years ago. Before that, he was "very active" with the gang in Soledad, an investigator familiar with his history said.Some killings likely ordered Salinas police detective Lalo Villegas said that just because a gang member is on a hit list doesn't necessarily mean his killing was ordered by the gang."Norteños can be on a hit list forever and nothing ever happens to them," he said.
Nonetheless, in the past year, he said, "we've also seen some of the true hits."
Gang officers from Monterey, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties say current levels of violence are in part the unforeseen consequences of large federal prosecutions.
A leadership struggle at the gang's highest level emerged after the FBI's Operation Black Widow took out the Nuestra Familia's top captains and generals and sent them to a federal supermax prison in Colorado in 2005. Since then, it has been well-documented that two factions in the Central Coast have struggled over control of the gang: Those still loyal to the leaders in federal prisons, and those loyal to the new general, D.C. Cervantes of Chino, in Pelican Bay State Prison, the gang's traditional headquarters.During the past year, investigators say, the Pelican Bay faction has asserted its authority after the government's Operation Valley Star in 2007 swept up key figures in the Salinas and Central valleys still reporting to the old leaders.
A second likely factor in the violence is competition from rival Sureño gangs.
The bloodshed has stepped up in part, police say, because the Nuestra Familia is trying to re-establish territory lost to its archenemy during the Nuestra Familia's recent years of organizational chaos.

"Sureños are definitely getting more organized," said Villegas. "We do know that we've been having some high-ranking people trying to unite them. They're starting to be a little more structured than we've seen before.

"Villegas said the Salinas Valley is seeing Sureños targeting suspected traitors within their ranks, although he said he hasn't seen evidence the killings were ordered by higher-ups.Links to '98 homicide?One curious aspect of the investigations is that police are looking into whether at least two of the past year's victims may have known something about the slaying 12 years ago of Nuestra Familia's Salinas crew leader Miguel "Mikeo" Castillo by Rico "Smiley" Garcia, a case that made dramatic headlines at the time.In 1998, Alberto Arizpe contacted police in an apparent attempt to mislead officers shortly after Castillo's killing, according to a police report.He told skeptical detectives that Castillo's attackers were three Sureños -- members of the Norteños' rival gang. But Garcia later admitted to conspiring to kill Castillo and is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Florida.Arizpe eventually left the gang after he was assaulted and beaten by Norteño gang members in Monterey County Jail.Last summer, he was 28 years old when he was killed along with a female friend in a brazen home-invasion attack on a Salinas residence.Authorities are looking into whether last week's slaying victim, Gutierrez, was connected to Castillo's murder.Suspect not believed to be gunmanThe only person charged in the Pueblo Inn killings is a 15-year-old boy held in Juvenile Hall. Prosecutors say he was not the triggerman in the slayings of the two women, but was present when they were killed.On Wednesday, a county court is expected to decide if the boy will be tried as an adult on two counts of murder.

Rising tensions between two biker gangs have Winnipeg police closely monitoring their actions.Police paid close attention to a bar at a St. Boniface hotel Saturday night following a tip that a fight could be imminent.The news follows a serious attack against a Winnipeg member of the Rock Machine Motorcycle Club inside a business on St. Mary's Road about three weeks ago.Sources tell CTV News the victim was lured to the business where he was then beaten.The victim had such serious injuries that he was unrecognizable.Officers say they had received information that the people responsible for the attack were Hells Angels members and a few of their associates.
The group was allegedly unhappy with the victim because he is a former member of the Zig Zag crew, which is a puppet club to the Hells Angels.He had apparently been seen around the city wearing his new gang's vest, which drew negative attention from the Hells Angels.Since the attack, police have been preparing to deal with some sort of retaliation.There were suspicions that members of the Rock Machine were going to attend a bar on Saturday night at the hotel because they knew associates of the Hells Angels frequented the place.Nothing appeared to happen at that bar Saturday night.Still, a number of Rock Machine members from outside the province have been seen in Winnipeg over the past week.Saturday night's events follow the execution of several search warrants, including one last week on Mighton Avenue in Elmwood.A 30-year-old man was arrested and a loaded nine millimetre handgun was seized at the home.CTV News has learned the man who was arrested is a member of the Redlined Club, a group which is considered a friend club to the Hells Angels.This arrest is also believed to be connected to the rising tensions between the gangs, say sources.Police have confirmed they were at the bar on Saturday night, but will not provide any further information.The public's safety was one of the main reasons police say they were there in such large numbers.
There has been trouble between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine in the past. Both groups were involved in a violent biker war in Quebec in the mid-nineties.
A truce was made but police say they are worried violence could erupt again.

Four-year-old Roberto Lopez loved creating artwork out of glitter and sequins at a neighborhood arts and community center in the southern edge of Echo Park. It was while Roberto was near that neighborhood center that he was fatally shot a year ago last month by a gang member on parole. Today, a jury found that gang member, 24-year-old Howard Astorga, found guilty of first-degree murder, according to Associated Press. Astorga was firing his gun at a speeding car but one of those bullets struck Roberto instead. Astorga faces a prison sentence of 82 years to life.Since the murder, several groups have tried to organize residents of the neighborhood, wedged between Temple Street and Vista Hermosa Park, against crime.

Morgan Hill police are offering $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the gang-related death of a 24-year-old Hollister man, the city's first homicide in four years.
Sgt. Jerry Neumayer said today that detectives are still trying to figure out who killed Juan Jose Arrellano Jr. on Oct. 2.
Shortly before midnight that day, police responded to 911 calls from residents who heard multiple shots fired near the Crest Avenue apartments. The arriving officer found Arrellano on the sidewalk, bleeding from a gunshot wound in his upper body. He was pronounced dead at 11:35 p.m.
Witnesses told police they saw at least two young men, between 16 and 20 years old and wearing dark blue clothing, shoot Arrellano with a 9 mm handgun while shouting gang-related slurs.
Arrellano was the first homicide in Morgan Hill since 2005.
Officers flooded the area with the help of dogs from the Santa Clara County sheriff's K-9 unit and air support from San Jose police, but to no avail.

Capture of Raydel Lopez Uriarte and Manuel Garcia Simental apparently wipes out the existing leadership of the cartel headed by Teodoro Garcia Simental, who was captured last month. Teodoro and Manuel Garcia are brothers.Lopez, known as "El Muletas," and Garcia, known as "El Chiquilin," were arrested Monday in La Paz, a city in the southern end of the Baja California peninsula, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.Mexico's Public Security Department confirmed the arrests in a brief statement, describing Manual Garcia as the gang's leader after his brother's arrest and Lopez as the current second-in-command. It said the arrests were the result of leads starting with the capture of Teodoro Garcia in La Paz on Jan. 12, but offered no further details on the operations.Roderick said there were no U.S. indictments pending against the suspects.The gang was known for its brutality, having executed, beheaded and mutilated hundreds of rivals in Tijuana, which is across the U.S. border from San Diego. Gang members pinned notes to corpses and dissolved bodies in caustic soda.Tedoro Garcia's arrest netted 19 mobile phones and two laptop computers. Twelve more cartel suspects were arrested in two raids in late January, including two men and a women who were allegedly about to dissolve a body in a bathtub with chemicals.Manuel Garcia is the youngest of three brothers. The oldest brother, Marco Antonio, was arrested in a shootout with Mexican authorities in Tijuana in 2004.
Teodoro Garcia was once considered a top hit man for Tijuana's dominant drug gang, the family-run Arellano-Felix cartel. He launched a new group affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel after law enforcement arrested or killed most of the Tijuana cartel leaders in 2008.

The splintered organizations have been involved in a violent turf battle in Tijuana, a valuable trafficking corridor to the U.S.

More than 1,500 people have been murdered in Tijuana since the beginning of 2008.

Across the country, more than 15,000 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on cartels when he took office three years ago. More than 2,500 of the killings occurred last year in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The military announced Monday that soldiers had seized more than 12 tons of marijuana found beneath a false floor of a tractor trailer. The drugs were found during a routine search at a checkpoint near San Felipe, a town in the central part of the Baja California peninsula.

Teodoro Garcia Simental, blamed for a years-long campaign of massacres, beheadings and kidnappings that chased away tourists and caused social upheaval in northern Baja California, was arrested by Mexican federal police without the suspect firing a shot, and immediately flown to Mexico City.The heavyset Garcia, believed to be in his mid-30s, with close-trimmed hair and a goatee, scowled and dabbed at his mouth as he was paraded before television cameras at a police base wearing a zippered warm-up jacket.Better known for savage killing rampages than narco-business acumen, the man nicknamed "El Teo" bedeviled Mexican authorities for years and narrowly escaped capture several times. Last January, authorities arrested the man they said admitted being Garcia's body disposal expert. Known as El Pozolero, or "the stew maker," he claimed, authorities said, to have dissolved 300 bodies in barrels of caustic chemicals.Mexican federal authorities, acting on intelligence provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said they tracked Garcia down after a five-month surveillance operation. He was captured in an upscale area in the southern part of the city."Today another Mexican cartel leader was taken off the street and is no longer able to carry out his bloody turf war," said Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the DEA. "This was not an isolated event: It exemplifies the growing effectiveness of our information sharing with [Mexican President Felipe Calderon's] administration, and our continued commitment to defeat the drug traffickers who have plagued both our nations."Though Garcia was not considered to be in the top echelon of Mexican drug lords, few reputed crime bosses have had such a ruinous effect on a region. Mexican authorities say he was responsible for hundreds of killings during a nearly two-year power struggle with rivals in the Arellano Felix drug cartel, in which he had once been a top-ranking lieutenant.Garcia is said to have branched out from traditional drug trafficking and focused his criminal empire on extortion and kidnapping, targeting all levels of society. During his reign, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Tijuana residents moved out of the border city to avoid being kidnapped, and more than 42 police officers were killed.

authorities are calling a likely gang hit, a masked gunman walked into a southern Sacramento County Vietnamese restaurant Wednesday afternoon and executed a 22-year-old man at close range.No words were exchanged before the unknown assailant fired a black semiautomatic handgun multiple times at the victim, hitting him in the head and chest, said Sacramento County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Curran.The gunman fled on foot down 53rd Avenue, and had not been identified by evening, Curran said.Few homicides investigated by authorities, he said, are “as cold and as calculated as this one.”
“It’s very scary,” he said.Curran said detectives suspect the killing to be gang-related because the victim had been validated as a gang member by law enforcement and because the area – near Stockton Boulevard and the 65th Street Expressway – is known for gang activity.Deputies were called to the Pho Ga Hung Vietnamese Cuisine restaurant on Savings Place for a shooting just after 2:15 p.m., Curran said. They found a 22-year-old man, whose name was not released, on the restaurant’s floor. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.

He is the fifth homicide victim within the Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdiction in 2010.The victim was eating with three friends – a man and two women – when the suspect walked into the restaurant, up to their table and unloaded his gun, Curran said.

Three employees also were inside at the time, but nobody else was shot at or injured, Curran said. For that reason, he said, detectives suspect the victim was targeted.Witnesses described the suspect to deputies as a man between age 28 and 35, 5 feet, 7 inches tall with a medium build. He wore a dark ski mask and a dark jacket.
Curran said the victim’s friends, who later wept in the parking lot, and the employees were cooperative with detectives. At this point, he said detectives do not believe they were involved in the killing.The call drew roughly two dozen deputies and detectives, including a number of investigators from the gang unit. It also drew spectators, who stopped along the sidewalk of the busy 65th Street Expressway.Richard Sims said he walks by the shopping center often while on his way to the grocery store. He described it as fairly quiet and humble.But he agreed with the Sheriff’s Department’s assessment about gang activity in the area, and noted that people he believes are gang members often congregate at one of the businesses in the center and at another across the street.“There’s something going on,” said Sims, 52. Gesturing toward the deputies, he added, “These cats know – the police know – but they don’t come by here.”
Curran said that’s because budget cuts and resulting layoffs mean deputies have little time for anything but emergencies.“Unless there’s a call for service there, our deputies don’t have time to be proactive,” he said. “They’re going from call to call to call.”

Danielle Bardsley, 30, wept as she was imprisoned after ignoring a court order demanding she pay back some of the money stolen by her boyfriend Peter Anderson.
Last year the M.E.N. revealed how Bardsley, of Barrow Street, Salford, enjoyed a footballer's ‘WAG’ lifestyle thanks to Anderson’s life of crime.
A court ruled she had benefited to the tune of £112,000 but a VW Golf car and a few pounds in a bank account were the only assets of hers police could find.
She was handed a suspended prison sentence and given four months to hand over £5,036 of ‘realisable assets’, mainly the VW Golf.In December, she flouted her suspended prison sentence by failing to keep appointments with her probation worker as required.But judge Anthony Gee gave her another chance after hearing she had become ‘depressed’ because her boyfriend was locked away.She was allowed to walk free although she was handed a curfew to prevent her partying over the Christmas period.But she still couldn’t stay out of trouble.Bardsley was arrested on Monday after snubbing six police letters and a court summons.Yesterday Bardsley sobbed as magistrates in Bolton invoked the jail term handed down last year in the event she failed to pay up.The court heard she had paid £2,000 on November 27 after selling the Golf but she later ignored two letters and a court summons about the outstanding amount.
She claimed she had again been ‘depressed’ and that the value of the Golf had been slashed due to damage.Giving her 72 days behind bars, chairman of the bench Dr Derek Tate told her: “We believe there’s no evidence that you have made a concerted effort to discharge this order.”He added there was ‘no merit’ in her bid to adjourn the hearing to, as her solicitor Vic Wozny said, ‘beg or borrow’ the money from her family.Bardsley’s boyfriend Anderson was jailed for six years in 2006 for a terrifying armed bank raid in Preston.At the previous hearing, a court was told how she had enjoyed a luxury lifestyle while claiming benefits.She wore Prada designer clothes and jewellery, went to a private gym and lived behind wrought iron gates in a comfortable semi-detached house equipped with the latest mod cons, including a Bang & Olufsen flat-screen TV.Bardsley boasted a permanent tan thanks to holidays in Mexico, Florida and Tenerife and had access to a fleet of cars including a Porsche Cayenne, Range Rover Sport and Audi A4.Despite all that, for nearly 10 years the mum-of-two claimed she was unemployed and sponged £30,000 from the state in income support as a ‘single mother’.
She also claimed free school meals for her two children.She admitted money laundering but escaped jail at the first hearing because of concerns over the care of the two children she has with Anderson.

Stephen Marshall, 38, also admitted having butchered the bodies of four other men while working as a doorman for a London nightclub run by gangsters in the 1990s. Police will reopen a number of cold cases involving missing people and body parts found in the past 15 years.Described as both "charming" and "highly volatile", Marshall will serve a minimum of 36 years for murdering Jeffrey Howe and then scattering his body parts across two counties before emptying his bank account and selling his possessions. His 21-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Bush, was sentenced to three years and nine months for helping Marshall cover up the murder.
Howe's body had been so expertly dismembered that pathologists who examined the macabre finds correctly concluded that the person responsible must have "previous experience of such activity". St Albans crown court heard that Marshall had previously boasted that he used to cut up and bury bodies on behalf of the notorious Adams family, who ran a crime empire in north London. One witness told the jury that Marshall worked as a bouncer for the family and would carry out "additional jobs after hours" – decapitating and dismembering murder victims and burying them without a trace.
Today Marshall's barrister Peter Doyle, QC, told the jury his client had described between 1995 and 1998 working as a doorman at clubs where on four occasions he had been asked to assist in the dismemberment of four unidentified men who had been killed earlier and brought to the clubs during the night. Doyle said Marshall had thought it "sensible" not to ask questions, and following the chopping up of the bodies the parts would be collected by others and taken to Epping Forest in north-east London and buried.After sentencing it emerged that Marshall had a string of previous convictions, including one for battering his first wife in 2003. He was also arrested on suspicion of murdering Minesh Nagrecha, whose corpse was disfigured and burnt when found by police in 1996. Marshall was never charged with the crime, instead appearing as a witness.

When the trial opened three weeks ago Marshall denied being the murderer, instead blaming Bush, a "vulnerable" young sex worker who had given birth to the first of her three children just a few days after her 15th birthday. But in a dramatic about-turn last week Marshall changed his plea and admitted being responsible for the whole crime.Sentencing him, the judge, Mr Justice Cooke, said that Marshall, a heavy cocaine user, now admitted stabbing Howe twice on March 8 last year. The judge said Marshall carried out the murder in a "muddled and no doubt drug-befuddled state" as Howe lay sleeping in bed in his house in Southgate, north London, which he shared with the couple.Today Bush finally admitted perverting the course of justice by helping Marshall cover up Howe's murder. She said she was with Marshall when he dumped Howe's head, unwrapped, in a field near Ashfordby in Leicestershire.
She admitted misleading police and friends of Howe by claiming he had simply "upped and left" while secretly using his money to buy shoes, a laptop, takeaways and other goodsHer barrister told the judge she was "terrified" of Marshall and helped him because she was scared of becoming his next victim. To Bush, the judge said: "You were well aware of what Stephen Marshall had done. You took advantage of Mr Howe in life and then after his death you used his money."Bush was acquitted of murdering Howe but pleaded guilty to helping to dispose of his body parts and giving false information about his whereabouts when police were investigating his disappearance.She was sentenced to three years and nine months for the first offence and to two years and three months for the second one, with the two terms to run concurrently.
She received a relatively lenient sentence because of her upbringing. The court heard she had spent most of her life in care before falling into prostitution and that her first baby died when he was 10 days old. After the verdict, police admitted being "quite surprised" when Marshall's previous involvement in dismembering bodies was aired in court.Detective Superintendent Michael Hanlon, who was in charge of the investigation, said Marshall would be visited in prison and asked to expand on the 11th-hour admissions made moments before his life sentence was handed to him.
Parts of Howe's body began turning up last March, a few days after Marshall had stabbed him to death. Police quickly realised they were dealing with a murder victim whose identity at the time was not known. As more pieces were discovered the victim became known as the "jigsaw man".
Howe's hands have not been found and police say they hope Marshall will show "decency" to the victim's family by giving their location. After the verdict Howe's family issued a statement that described him as a "a jovial, charming character who had a heart of gold". They said they would never be able to comprehend "Jeffrey's death and the macabre actions of those who killed him".

Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair has said that he always feels "relaxed and safe" whenever he stays in Dublin. Adair (46) is currently living in Troon in Scotland but plans to end his self-imposed exile and return to Ireland. In an interview with Dublin's Herald newspaper, the gangster ruled out living permanently in Dublin but said he never felt threatened in the Irish capital. "The thing that struck me about Dublin is how relaxing it was and how safe I felt there," he said. "I wouldn't be as easily recognised in Dublin as I would be in the North or in Britain, so I feel more at ease. "I've been recognised on a few occasions while I was in Dublin but I was never threatened and had no negative experiences, no one seemed to have a problem.
The notorious gangster led one of the most brutal loyalist companies in the history of the Troubles. A spokesperson for the newly decommissioned UDA said: "It will be up to the police to deal with him if he comes back and there's no doubt he'll be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life," he said. However, Adair is determined to come home and start a security firm. He said: "I'll be going back to the North, absolutely. It's not an option at the moment because there are still threats against my life from the UDA."

In one posting,Colin Gunn, 42, said: “I will be home one day and I can’t wait to look into certain people’s eyes and see the fear of me being there.” In another message he wrote: “It’s good to have an outlet to let you know how I am, some of you will be in for a good slagging, some have let me down badly, and will be named and shamed, f****** rats.”

Colin Gunn, an underworld godfather who ordered the execution of two grandparents, has now had his social networking site closed down by prison bosses.It follows last week's revelation that one of the killers of teenager Ben Kinsella used Facebook to taunt his victim's family.The Sunday Times reported that the 42-year-old said in one posting: "I will be home one day and I can't wait to look into certain people's eyes and see the fear of me being there."Gunn, from Nottingham, was jailed over the revenge murders of John and Joan Stirland in 2004.According to the Ministry of Justice, prisoners are prohibited from accessing social networking sites.A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We are extremely concerned that prisoners are able to update Facebook and other social networking sites either through illicit technology or via outside contacts."We recognise that it is deeply distressing for victims and their families and friends and we have made it clear to Facebook that we do not think it acceptable or appropriate for these sites to remain active, something Facebook agrees with."Jade Braithwaite, jailed for knifing to death Ben Kinsella, 16, used Facebook to taunt his victim's family.Earlier this month, relatives of victims of violent crime called for the introduction of electronic anti-social behaviour orders, or "E-Asbos".Justice Secretary Jack Straw said he was seeking a meeting with Facebook bosses."I have sought the assistance of Facebook to have these profiles removed and we will continue to press for removal of these," he said.
"I am also hoping to meet with Ofcom, Facebook, victims' representatives."