Gangs in the Ballyfermot area are believed to have been involved in the pub brawl which led to the death of a British man in Dublin in the early hours of yesterday morning.Jason Martin, in his early 40s, was from Manchester and was thought to have had links with drug dealers from one of the gangs. The incident happened between 1.30am and 2am at Hannigen’s pub, on Park West Road in Ballyfermot. The row started in the pub, where people had been watching the Bernard Dunne title fight. It is understood some people involved in the row attended the fight at the 02 and went to the pub afterwards. As more people got involved, the row spilled onto the plaza and into the car park.When gardaí arrived at the scene, they found up to 20 people involved in the disturbance. They were carrying a variety of weapons such as knives, broken glasses and broken bottles. It is understood a hatchet-type weapon was also wielded. Broken glasses were still visible at the scene yesterday, some distance from the area where the fracas took place.Mr Martin was found by gardaí near steps which led down to the car park. He was taken to Tallaght hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10am yesterday.Gardaí found a second injured man in the back of a white Toyota van in the car park.The man, in his 20s, from the local area, sustained a stomach wound. He was undergoing surgery at Tallaght hospital yesterday, but Supt John Quirke from Ballyfermot Garda station said his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.Gardaí were confronted and obstructed by a number of people when they arrived at the scene. Four men were arrested under the Public Order Act and taken to Ballyfermot Garda station. They were released yesterday morning and files will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.Supt Quirke said it was too early to say if people came to the pub armed with weapons or if the row was sparked by something that happened in the pub. “I understand there may have been a number of implements, but as of yet we haven’t identified any of them,” he said.He appealed for the public’s help in solving the crime. “We are making an appeal to anybody who was in the area here last night between 1am and 2.30am,” he said. “It’s a popular enough pub in the local area here. There would have been a considerable number of people here.”He encouraged anyone with information to contact Ballyfermot Garda station in confidence at 01-6667200. He said CCTV television footage from the pub and the plaza was available and could help to progress the investigation.
The pub was known as Bennigan’s, but it was closed for some time. It reopened as Hannigen’s under a new licence this year.A woman who answered the phone in the pub yesterday said staff had been advised by gardaí not to comment on the incident.A team of gardaí worked at the cordoned-off scene yesterday.

 Edit Post

Amran Khan, 29, was gunned down outside his home in Oldham shortly after he put his child to bed.He went outside after hearing a disturbance and was shot at three times. One bullet hit him in the chest.Mr Khan is the third person to be murdered in three months, prompting fears of a turf war between drug dealing Asian gangs from Oldham and Bolton.In July, shop worker Nasar Hussain, 30, from Bolton, was shot six times by a machine-gun assassin in a `hit' at a store in Salford. He was not the intended target and was shot by mistake. The shop where Mr Hussain worked, Brookhouse supermarket in Winton, Eccles, was firebombed last week. The M.E.N. can reveal Mr Khan's brother, Gulfan, 35, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in connection to Mr Hussain's killing. He is currently on bail until November and was one of 13 men arrested at the time.Days after the Salford shooting, Junaid Khan, 21, from Oldham, was gunned down in the car park of a doctor's surgery in Chadderton. Nobody has been charged with his murder but two men have been chargedwith possessing ammunition.One line of inquiry centres around each shooting being a tit-for-tat retaliation, as the feud shows no signs of ceasing.In the latest incident, Mr Khan was shot at about 10.30pm on Friday evening at his Glodwick home.
As news of his shooting spread, friends and relatives raced to the semi-detached home on Nugget Street. They followed his ambulance to the Royal Oldham Hospital where he died in the early hours. Amid emotional scenes, a nearby mosque opened its doors to mourners.A family member said relatives were all `absolutely devastated'.
"It's an absolute tragedy," he said. "He was such a hard worker. He had two daughters, one and four-years-old, and doted on those girls. They were his life.
"He loved playing football and he was a big Manchester United fan. We were going to watch the derby this weekend. He was looking forward to it."
The relative added that he was struggling to understand why Mr Khan was killed.
He said: "I've not got a clue why someone would do this. Gun him down in cold blood just before Eid."Police arrested two men yesterday on suspicion of murder in connection with Mr Khan's death. They remained in custody last night.
Detectives have previously said they will target anyone who tries to step into the shoes of the 11 senior members of Manchester's Gooch gang who were jailed in April.

 Edit Post

War among several street gangs erupted in violence this weekend and left five people, including a pregnant teenage girl, with gunshot wounds although none of them are considered life-threatening.Sgt. Michael P. Wheeler, head of the Providence Police Gang Unit, said that investigators suspect that the gunfire involved members of the Dark Side Rascals who have been battling with the Hanover Boyz and Providence Street Boys in the West End.The Hanover Boyz and Providence Street Boys are allies.
“It’s an ongoing feud that has been quiet for a while,” Wheeler said. “We’re trying to find out what prompted this to take off. We don’t know why.”The shootings took place over a span of two hours on Friday night.At 6:45 p.m., police said that Nick Neang, 19, was sitting on the porch of a house at 23 Union Ave. with two members of the Dark Side Rascals when a black Honda sedan crawled by and a shooter fired several times from the passenger’s side window.The police said that one of the shots ripped through Neang’s back and collapsed one of his lungs. The other two gang members were not hit.Neang was taken to Rhode Island Hospital where he is expected to recover from the wound, the police said.About two hours later, at 8:50 p.m., two or three young men, whom the police believe are members of the Dark Side Rascals, slipped into a yard on Superior Street, not far from the site of a birthday party at 126 Ford St.Wheeler said that several members of the Hanover Boyz and Providence Street Boys attended the celebration, but he said that it was not a “gang party.” He said most those in attendance have no gang affiliation and there were many young women and children.The police said that the young men believed to be members of the Dark Side Rascals opened fire with two guns and pumped at least 10 shots into the group of 15 to 20 people in the driveway outside the Ford Street address.Wheeler said that four girls were struck: a bullet grazed one girl, another suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and a third was shot in the toe. He said that a fourth girl, who is well-advanced in her pregnancy, suffered a superficial wound.
Their ages ranged from 13 to 19 years old.The girls were all treated and released from Hasbro Children’s Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital.Police Maj. Thomas F. Oates III said he’s relieved that no one was killed or seriously hurt in the barrage of gunfire, especially the random firing into the crowd at the birthday party. He said that patrol officers as well as those from the gang unit, detectives and the Neighborhood Response Team flooded the West End over the weekend to stem the violence.Oates also said that the police relied on street workers from the Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence to calm things down.Teny O. Gross, the institute’s executive director, said that the bad blood between the Dark Side Rascals and the Providence Street Boys Juniors, its younger members, have been brewing

 Edit Post

Mexican MDC’s have crossed over again into U.S. the violence and insecurity generated by the drug war in Mexico, has crossed into the US, according to Jesse Tovar, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriffs Department. He cites the abduction of a man at gunpoint by three men from his home in Horizon City, Texas, on September 3, who was found five days later executed by strangulation in Cd. Juarez.
American gangs are operating throughout the country representing the MDC’s they get their drugs from the cartels smuggled into this country by the MDC’s foot solders in turn the U.S. gangs sale the fronted drugs to street dealers consisting mainly of smaller American gangs, dealers and drug attic’s supporting their habits. The U.S. gangs are fronted the drugs and they set up drug trafficking operations and distribution systems throughout the country. They represent the MDC’s by collecting millions owed by U.S. street dealers. They also act as enforcers for the cartels when ever the cartels feel they have been ripped off or someone owes the cartels money from fronted drugs. Many of the so called common drive by shootings are no longer just over turf or gang ego. Many of these deaths are ordered executions by the MDC’s. Today the gang business is much more dangerous and sophisticated with much more cash involved. These same gangs carrying out cartel orders with gangland style killings across the country acting as paid hit men killing, wounding and maiming Americans in the thousands, according to law enforcement.

 Edit Post

Mexican civil war that is raging between the Mexican Government, the Mexican Drug Cartels (MDC’s) and the cartels fighting among themselves over lucrative drug and human smuggling routes in both Mexico and the U.S. Many believe they are safer here than in Mexico. Many of these refugees are Mexican business people, ranchers, police, politicians and even cartel members who fear for their lives. Still others were victims being shaken down for protection money by the cartels similar to the American mafia tactics of the twenty’s and thirty’s. Many of them fear retaliation for not paying the cash or are just not welling to pay anymore.
Shopkeepers along the U.S. Mexican border recite the list of "protection" fees they pay to the MDC’s to just stay in business: 100 pesos a month for a stall in a street market, 30,000 pesos for an auto dealership or construction-supply firm.
First offense for nonpayment: a severe beating. Those who keep ignoring the fees - or try to charge their own - may pay with their lives.
"Every day you can see the people they have beaten up being taken to the IMSS," said auto mechanic Jesus Hernandez, motioning to the government-run hospital a few doors from his repair shop.
Mexican drug cartels have morphed into full-scale mafias, running extortion and protection rackets and are trafficking in everything from people to pirated DVDs and even entered the black market oil and gas business. As once-lucrative cocaine profits have fallen and U.S. and Mexican authorities crack down on all drug trafficking to the U.S., gangs are branching into new ventures - some easier and more profitable than drugsNo one knows the real number of these refugees but some experts believe they number in the thousands
“There’s an increasing number of (cartel) leaders living in the U.S., probably either to escape law enforcement or their enemies in Mexico, so that’s one of the risks that has increased in the last few years,” said Stephen Meiners, a senior tactical analyst for Latin America at Stratfor, a global intelligence company based in Austin, Texas.
“There’s a possibility that this thing could get out of hand,” he said.
Shannon O’Neil, an expert on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations, said she knows of no other high-level killings in the U.S., but fears it won’t be the last.
“We have started to see more brazenness close to the border on the Mexican side and on the U.S. side,” O’Neil said. “Once you get these organizations firmly established in Mexico and the United States, you will have killings at all different levels.”
But no one is safe against the Mexican mobsters not even in the states where not only Mexican nationals but American men, women and children have been kidnapped taken to Mexico and killed and other Americans murdered right here on American soil by orders of the MDC’s. Recently a deputy U.S. marshal and Ice informant have been tracked down and assassinated by the cartel henchmen.MDC’s are ordering decapitations hooding victims before they shoot them. The Cartels are sending a chilling message to the Mexican President Felipe Calderon Administration by adopting methods of intimidation made notorious by Middle Eastern terrorist groups.

 Edit Post

Guerrero Olivas, aka "Screech," 26, was sentenced to 210 months in prison by Judge Sam R. Cummings of the Northern District of Texas, Lubbock Division, part of an immense crackdown on the street gang that began last year.Also sentenced were 33-year-old Hiluterio Chavez, aka "Zeus," of Chicago, who received 87 months in prison on charges of being a convicted felon in possession of firearms, possession of stolen firearms and conspiring to engage in the business of dealing in firearms.
Eliseo Perez, aka "Wicked," 28, of Mission was sentenced to 188 months in prison by Cummings. Perez pleaded guilty May 14 to indictments charging him with conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 100 kilograms or more of marijuana.Other Big Spring residents having pleaded guilty in the case include John Guzman, 30; Reynaldo Nava, aka "Rat," 27; and Carol Ann Rivas Nava, 20. One defendant, Luis Nava, aka "Flaco," of Midland, withdrew his guilty plea and will proceed to trial by court order.The indictment in the investigation, which charged a total of 17 defendants and was unsealed Feb. 26, alleged that from 2001 until Dec. 13, 2008 — when six of the defendants were arrested — the alleged members of the Latin Kings conspired to distribute multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine and marijuana throughout Texas and elsewhere.
“The 11-count indictment... charges each of the defendants with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana,” said acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas James T. Jacks shortly after the indictments were unsealed. “Three defendants are also charged with conspiring to deal in firearms. The indictment also includes drug distribution charges and various firearms charges, including using and carrying a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.”Officials with the BSPD say the Latin Kings are believed to be responsible for the May 4, 2008, drive-by shooting that claimed the lives of Valerie Garcia, 20, and Michael Cardona, 21, both of Big Spring, and injured several others.Jose Robledo Nava — allegedly the Texas leader of the Latin Kings — along with Gabriel Lee Gonzales, Eduardo Daniel Mares, James Johnathan Cole and Robert Allen Ramirez are currently under federal indictment for the slaying of Garcia and Cardona, according to court documents.According to the indictment — which was engineered by Jacks and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division — the defendants acquired the cocaine and marijuana from Mexico and brought it to the South Texas region, where it was packaged, stored and transported to Big Spring, Lubbock and Midland for further distribution.

 Edit Post

Main Street threw a party. The Hoovers were invited. The details are murky -- something about a girlfriend and a racy remark -- but it doesn't matter now. Guns were pulled. Shots were fired. And an old-fashioned beef, the likes of which this part of South L.A. hadn't seen in several years, was underway.There have been at least six shootings in the wake of that night. Three people are dead, including a seventh-grader, gunned down on Broadway after buying balloons at a swap meet.
"It's frightening how something so trivial can set this off," said Sgt. Dan Horan, who supervises gang operations in the LAPD's 77th Street Division, one of two police districts that encompass the gangs' traditional territories.No one is sure how it's going to end, and the dispute threatens to undermine the marked progress that has been made here. The LAPD's intelligence from the streets, said Lt. Michael Carodine, who helps direct anti-gang operations, boils down to this: "It's on. And it's not going to be over until it's over."Many residents, civic leaders and city officials believe South L.A. is at a crossroads in part because violent crime has fallen so sharply.A reduction in gang violence has led the way. The LAPD's Southeast Division, for instance -- 10 square miles containing 66 gangs, and another district affected by the dispute -- averaged about 140 homicides per year in the late 1980s and early '90s, when violence peaked. Officials said they expect to finish 2009 somewhere in the 50s.That's why this dispute is so unsettling to police and local officials. It was once routine for gangs to duel openly, but that's less common these days; relatively few shots are fired solely to retaliate for previous shootings. Worse, the Hoover-Main Street dispute is considered perhaps the most ominous aspect of a broader spike in killings across South L.A. this summer, police said.In July and August, the police divisions that patrol most of South L.A. recorded 40 homicides, double the rate from the beginning of the year. On Aug. 25, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton announced that they had created a multi-agency task force to deal with the rise in violence.Hours later, at 8 o'clock that night, a gunman walked into the heart of Main Street Crip territory, on Main Street itself, and shot Drayvon James, 29, and Robert Nelson, 16. The double homicide, which has not been solved, is considered one of the incidents that might be linked to the Hoover-Main Street dispute, police said."For this guy to do this on foot, up close and personal . . . " Carodine said, shaking his head. "This is something we haven't seen in a long time."But it was the shooting death of 13-year-old Daquawn Allen that seems to have shaken the neighborhood to its core.Daquawn's shooting illustrates the complexities of policing the gangs of South Los Angeles.He was not a gangbanger, according to police and his relatives. But he was born in Hoover Criminals territory, just west of Broadway. He never knew his father. When he was 9, his mother was sent to prison, and he moved in with his grandmother. Her house was just a few blocks away -- but they were an important few blocks, on the other side of Broadway.Daquawn had an easy, impish smile and was well-liked. In private, he was terribly upset that he had never met his father, said his grandmother, 54-year-old Linda Allen. He was desperate for male attention and affection, she said, and he found it to some degree with a "set" of Hoovers -- part of the larger umbrella gang -- called the 94 Hoovers, sometimes spelled "9-Foe" and named after West 94th Street.They even gave Daquawn a street name: Four Star.
Allen refused to use it. "I told him: 'You use the name your momma gave you,' " she said recently on the porch of her home.

 Edit Post

Manny Buttar told a restaurant patron that he killed for a living and had gotten “rid” of gangster Bindy Johal, B.C. Supreme Court heard Tuesday.Pardeep Dhillon recounted the night that he was left bleeding and dazed after Buttar allegedly began pummeling him in a Surrey restaurant.Dhillon said Buttar and two friends offered to buy a round at the India Kitchen Restaurant on Nov. 6, 2006 after learning Dhillon and the restaurant owner had the same last names as Buttar’s two pals.He said he was making small talk with the trio, who were strangers, when he asked Buttar what he did for a living.“He said ‘I kill people for a living,’” Dhillon told Justice Kathleen Ker, saying he began to laugh because he assumed Buttar was joking.He said Buttar repeated that his profession was hit man.“I said I had a cousin and he used to do the same thing, but he is dead now,” Dhillon replied, saying he told Buttar his cousin was Johal.“Mr. Buttar was very upset.”Dhillon said Buttar began punching and slapping him as he urged the man to “remember” his name.“He mentioned that ‘I got rid of him and I can get rid of you,’” Dhillon testified.No one has ever been charged in the December 1998 execution of Johal, an admitted cocaine trafficker gunned down at a Vancouver nightclub.But Buttar’s younger brother Bal confessed to The Vancouver Sun in 2004 that he had arranged the hit on Johal even though he was working under the gangster in the “Indo-Canadian Mafia” at the time.Vancouver police have described Manny Buttar as the leader of a mid-level drug trafficking gang that has been involved in a violent conflict with two rival groups on the city’s south slope in recent years.The undercover probe dubbed Project Rebellion has led to dozens of arrests of members of all three gangs this year alone.Buttar is facing three charges related to the 2006 assault — including assault with a weapon, uttering threats and using an imitation firearm.
His co-accused, Tirathpal Dhillon, pleaded guilty to assault as the trial opened in New Westminster on Monday.Pardeep Dhillon said he saw his namesake pull a gun out while Buttar continued to beat on him. “The magazine fell out and I was able to kick it,” the victim testified. “Mr. Dhillon looked like he was scared … . It was almost like he wanted to scare me and he did.”Under cross-examination, Dhillon admitted he was an alcoholic with convictions for assault, impaired driving and breaches of probation.Buttar’s defence lawyer Karen Bastow suggested that Dhillon’s account “seems incredibly unlikely.She said no one would admit to a stranger that he had committed murder.“So Manny Buttar says ‘I am a killer and I capped Bindy Johal.’ Is that what happened?” she asked“Yes,” replied Dhillon.She also said it was unlikely he had the fortitude to kick a clip away while he was being slapped and punched.“That’s pretty fancy footwork Mr. Dhillon for a guy that is not part of the life,” Bastow said.She suggested someone else punched Dhillon and Buttar was not even near the booth where the attack occurred.But Dhillon strongly disagreed, pointing to Buttar as his attacker several times.
Also Tuesday, a waitress at the restaurant who called 911 claimed she saw Buttar — not his associate — with the gun.Rosie Nand’s emergency call was played in court in which she could be heard saying “there is a big guy beating another guy … he is bleeding but I think he is okay.”

 Edit Post

General Sessions Court Judge Clarence Shattuck bound aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping charges to the Grand Jury against Ternae Ramone "Bud" Hatten, 23, of 1724 E. 17th St.Judge Shattuck also doubled Hatten's bond, that he said was set too low by a magistrate. Prosecutor Rex Sparks had asked that the bond be tripled, saying Hatten had repeatedly threatened the alleged victims in the case against testifying against him.Dionee Parker said she and her husband were driving in their Cadillac Escalade around on July 25 when they came to a four-way stop at Bennett Avenue and South Kelly.She said they were approached by several men with guns, who ordered them out of the vehicle and into an apartment at 2200 Bennett Ave.
She said she saw a large amount of marijuana in the residence and said it was "foggy" and had a strong smell. She said Hatten was one of the men who held a gun on her and took $200 from her husband, Joe, as well as $1,300 they had in the vehicle. She said the men also took their house key, two cell phones and her husband's wedding ring. She said they asked that the ring not be taken, saying they had just gotten married.Ms. Parker said Hatten kept asking if they had any items at their house and wanted to be taken there. She said she was taken back out to the vehicle and Hatten tried to get in one side, but the door would not open. She said another man had one leg in one of the doors when he dropped something. She said she took the occasion to speed off.She said she drove nearby and spotted her husband walking down the street.Joe Parker gave a similar account. He said he was made to lie down on the floor in the kitchen.He said after his wife was able to drive off, he was told to "walk out like nothing happened."He said he has not gotten any of the money back.Hatten admitted having marijuana, crack cocaine, digital scales, baggies and other drug items in the residence, that he was renting at the time.But he said he knew Joe Parker and that Parker had come over to get some marijuana. He said it was another man in the residence - A.J. - who had pulled a gun on the couple.
Hatten had a separate drug case bound to the Grand Jury.Prosecutor Sparks said his record includes aggravated robbery, aggravated assault and a first-degree murder charge. Rodriquez McGlocton was also charged in the case.Hatten said he was playing dice at the residence with McGlocton and A.J. at the time of the incident.

 Edit Post

Joe Richard Poston, 24, and Robert Benjamin Seats, 28, died of gunshot wounds after a shoot-out in the parking lot of J-Mumbly's, at 903 Hollywood Drive in the Hollywood Shopping Center. Police believe the men shot each other during an argument that began inside the club.
Police have confirmed that two Jackson men killed in a Sunday morning shooting in a nightclub parking lot were affiliated with rival gangs, the Vice Lords and Gangster Disciples.But police have said they are still investigating whether the shooting was gang-related and whether it was connected to another shooting near another nightclub the same night.
Seven others - three women and four men - were injured in the incident. Another man was wounded earlier Sunday night in the area of the Sesame Street Lounge, at 411 Railroad St.In another possible gang-related incident Wednesday, about 150 students at North Side High School gathered in a hallway.According to a Madison County Sheriff's Office report, students told Principal Jan Watson that a Vice Lords leader and a Gangster Disciples leader were making peace between the rival gangs when a crowd gathered.Willis said police have seen an uptick in the last year in assaults and robberies of individual gang members involved in selling drugs.Many of those crimes are not reported, but police hear about the crimes through intelligence from reliable informants, Willis said. Police also corroborate the information when they interview people who are in custody on other criminal charges.
Jackson has members of four major gangs that are known worldwide - the Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords, Willis said. Police are also aware of some local gangs, which are frequently established by teenagers in middle school and older. Those gangs may eventually die out, and others are started.




During the 1990s, Jackson saw a major spike in gang violence, with 19 homicides in 1993. But in recent years, police have said gangs are keeping a lower profile.



Willis declined to estimate how many people are part of gangs in Jackson, saying he could not give an accurate number.

"We do not come into contact with every gang member," he said. "All gang members do not get arrested. All gang members do not admit their affiliation, nor do they reveal any indication that they are in a gang."

'A lot of work to do'
Mayor Jerry Gist called the recent shootings "distressing" and "disappointing."

"It indicated we still have a lot of work to do," Gist said. "We knew we had a gang presence, but gang activity had been more passive in the last years, so this is very disappointing."

Gist said he still believes the changes suggested by the crime task force in recent years have the city headed in the right direction. He cited new officers added to the police department and progress made by the Gang Unit.

There has been a lot of effort to educate younger people about the dangers of gangs, Gist said.

"The problem is those already in gangs; it is almost impossible to escape once you are in," Gist said. "People also need to understand that gang activity is part of every community in this nation."

When asked about reducing the number of the guns on the street, Gist said he did not think much could be done.

"There are not a lot of ways to crack down; you can always get weapons," he said.

No guns were recovered at the crime scene Sunday morning, and police are still investigating how many guns were fired.

 Edit Post

Member of MS-13, a feared criminal gang, was captured in Hitchcock early this afternoon. The Police News learned that undercover police who had intelligence the man was heavy armed, possibly with an AK-47, was hiding in Hitchcock. Lawmen from the Gulf Coast Violent Offender's Task Force accompanied by Hitchcock Police made the arrest at an apartment on Jackson Street.The man is said to be wanted on a multitude of criminal warrants from various parts of the country. He was being taken to Galveston to be arraigned by a federal magistrate. He was to then be taken to jail in Houston.Officials did not identify the man for intelligence reasons.
MS-13 is a criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles and has spread to Central America, other parts of the United States, and Canada. The majority of the gang is ethnically composed of Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans.
Their activities have caught the eye of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who in September 2005 initiated wide-scale raids against suspected gang members, netting 660 arrests across United States. ICE efforts were at first directed towards MS-13, in its Operation Community Shield. In May 2005, ICE expanded Operation Community Shield to include all transnational organized crime and prison gangs. ICE's Operation Community Shield has since arrested 7,655 street gang members. In the United States, the gang's strongholds have historically been in the American Southwest and West Coast states.
Membership in the U.S was believed to be as many as about 50,000 as of 2005.
MS-13 criminal activities include drug smuggling and sales, arms trafficking, auto theft, carjacking, home invasion, assault, aggravated assault, assault on law enforcement officials, drive-by shootings, contract killing and murder.
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) oversees the nation's regional fugitive task forces, including the Gulf Coast Violent Offender's Task Force. The purpose of regional fugitive task forces is to combine the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to locate and apprehend the most dangerous fugitives and assist in high profile investigations.Task Force members involved in today MS-13 arrest were from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, FBI, U.S. Marshal's Service, and Galveston County Precinct 8 Constable's Office.

 Edit Post

Monroe Ezell is one of the ranking members of the Hoover Criminals 74 a South Seattle gang Ezell is a marked man. At 21, Ezell is one of the ranking members of the Hoover Criminals 74, a South Seattle gang affiliated with the Los Angeles–based Crips. Members of the Valley Hood Piru (a Blood-­affiliated gang), and other Seattle gangs, want him dead.Ezell has a rap sheet with charges for robbery and drug possession, and law-­enforcement sources say he is a suspect in a handful of drive-by shootings around Seattle. According to Seattle Police Department search-warrant records, Ezell was also a suspect in the murder of 15-year-old Quincy Coleman—a known Deuce-8 gang member with apparent ties to the Valley Hood Piru—who was gunned down outside of Garfield High School on Halloween 2008.Last month, Ezell was nearly killed outside of the King County Youth Service Center, presumably by a rival gang member, possibly in retaliation for Coleman’s murder. No arrests have been made

 Edit Post

Mr MacAskill said: "Where organised crime infiltrates legitimate business, like the taxi and private hire trade, we will take action. We won't allow hard-working cabbies to be driven off the road by crooks and gangsters." Legislation was brought in this year to force taxi booking offices to obtain licences. Police checks of premises and records are being introduced. Mr MacAskill's pledge came only days after NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was warned off giving a £2million taxi contract to Network Private Hire - which has been linked to the city's McGovern crime clan.
The firm was raided in 2004 as part of a money-laundering probe that could see McGovern in-law Russell Stirton lose £5million under proceeds of crime laws.
Last year Glasgow City Council suspended the licence of CS Cars, run by jailed crime boss Jamie "The Iceman" Stevenson's wife Caroline.Legislation introduced earlier this year will see taxi booking offices having to obtain licences for the first time. The police have also been given full powers to carry out checks of company premises and booking records.Although all cab drivers must secure a licence to take to the road, there has never been proper regulation of taxi operators and firms, which have been unveiled as fronts for money-laundering, drug-dealing and prostitution.Taxi industry leaders say the new measures will allow tough action to be taken against rogue private-hire drivers and companies that flout laws banning drivers picking up fares on the street or touting for business at ranks.Mr MacAskill said: "There has traditionally been much less control over private-hire firms than black-cab operators, which have generally served our cities well. Basically, anyone could set up a cab company from their front bedroom or garage and there was little that could be done to monitor them."He added that he wanted to send a "clear message" to organised criminals that there was no room in the industry for those who want to use taxi and private-hire car firms as a "front for illegal activities".
"We won't allow hard-working cabbies, who borrow from the bank to mortgage their home to buy a cab and make a living, to be driven off the road by crooks and gangsters," he said.It emerged earlier this year that police believe at least 15 taxi firms in Scotland are controlled by organised crime gangs.Private-hire businesses in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and beyond are said to have been infiltrated by underworld figures using cars to ferry drugs, prostitutes and enforcers. Frank Smith, Edinburgh's new taxi licensing inspector, said: "It is up to the police to work with the council to ensure the new regulations are enforced. I aim to ensure the existing high standards in the industry are maintained and, where opportunities arise, are improved upon."

 Edit Post

Lower Mainland gang warfare has seemingly reverberated onto Calgary streets, with a known B.C. underworld figure shot dead in a luxury vehicle. Gunfire erupted at 2:30 a.m., with cops finding the victim in the driver's seat of a black BMW M6 with B.C. licence plates. Sources identified the dead man as David Tajali, a former player in a war between feuding Mideast gangs in B.C.'s Lower Mainland, and believed to have been in Calgary for some time. It wasn't the first time he was targeted, having been wounded in a shooting in Richmond, B.C., in late 2006. A female passenger in the BMW escaped the gunplay without injury while a second man arrived at hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound. The latter was the brother of the victim and has non-life-threatening injuries, said Calgary police Staff Sgt. Doug Andrus.
"We have been in touch with B.C. police and we have also been in touch with our own gang unit," said Andrus. Sources said the BMW was driven about a block and a half after the shooting erupted, and it appeared two or three bullets struck the car on the driver's side, shattering the window. Shortly after the shooting, it was determined the victim's brother was in a different vehicle which police were trying to locate. Police hope to speak to two women seen behind a nearby building just prior to the shooting. "The (women) were speaking with a lone male and we believe that lone male will have information," said Andrus. Tajali's brother, Niki, was one of three men reportedly injured in a gang-related shootout in Richmond in early 2007. Yesterday's killing left nearby residents unsettled, with sidewalks dotted with evidence markers leading away from the victim's car toward an alleyway. Curt Heitmann lives in a nearby apartment building and was jarred awake by the sounds of about 10 gunshots. "I was sleeping ... and I woke up because I heard what sounded like fireworks," he said. "I think I heard some yelling from the street, 'I'm just trying to help you, I'm just trying to help you'. " Another area resident, Farhad Shirazi, saw an SUV roar away from the scene shortly after gunshots. "And another guy was yelling 'Don't shoot at me, I'm here to help,' " he said.
The slaying is Calgary's 20th homicide of the year. An autopsy is scheduled for tomorrow.

 Edit Post