"We have been investigating the possibility of a new motorcycle club establishing itself in (Halifax Regional Municipality)," Ms. Rath said. "But to what extent that club may be affiliated with outlaw motorcycle gangs has yet to be determined."A traffic stop involving a taxi passenger in Halifax on Thursday night led to a middle-aged man being charged with drug and weapons offences, police said Friday.The cab was pulled over near the corner of Chebucto Road and Windsor Street at 11:35 p.m., said Theresa Rath, a spokeswoman for Halifax Regional Police.She said the taxi was pulled over because officers had earlier seen the suspect getting into it. She couldn’t say if other passengers were in the cab.Police later executed a search warrant at a Young Street address and seized drugs, including cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, and weapons and ammunition.According to a court document, police found a loaded gun, a sawed-off shotgun, a switchblade and brass knuckles.Howard Anthony Fowler, 43, of 6536 Young St. appeared in Halifax provincial court Friday afternoon and was remanded until a bail hearing can be held Tuesday.Sources say Mr. Fowler has Ontario connections and alleged ties to biker gangs.

A wave of gang violence linked to 16 deaths this year across the Vancouver region, in dozens of shooting incidents, demonstrates that limits on violence have "eroded" to the point that shootings can happen anywhere, Mr. Barry said. That makes the program more valuable, he added.

One of British Columbia's most venerable restaurant chains is standing firmly by a program that targets gang members among its customers, despite one of its establishments in the Fraser Valley being shot up yesterday.The attack, which occurred before the Earls restaurant opened yesterday morning, was clearly a response to Bar Watch operations that have seen bar and restaurant owners share information with police to identify known gang members, who can then be monitored or urged to leave.Someone fired a reported eight shots into the restaurant - in Chilliwack, 100 kilometres east of Vancouver - and spray-painted "Bar Watch Member(s) will die. 1 down and 12 to go" on the building."You've got a building that has been shot up ... with a fairly direct message painted onto that building. I think that's something to take fairly seriously," said RCMP Corporal Peter Thiessen. Earls vice-president Mark Barry said the fact that someone felt strongly enough to take this action speaks to the "effectiveness" of the program, of which the Chilliwack eatery was a member.Roughly half of Earls's 50 restaurants are located across British Columbia, making the chain launched in 1982 a popular dining institution in the province.Ryan MacDonald, chair of the Upper Fraser Valley Bar Watch, declined to comment yesterday on the incident or talk about his group's work, but issued a statement saying the role is to create "safe environments" for the staff and community to eliminate the "threat of violence, abusive language and intimidating behaviours of others."Mr. Barry said that "we think the best way of protecting the safety of our customers and our people is to participate in this program and prevent criminals and gang members from accessing our restaurants and being in our restaurants." He said the restaurant would take a few hours to clean up, then reopen for business.Cpl. Thiessen said an investigation is well under way. "We've got some suspects in mind we're certainly going to try and make contact with," he said.
RCMP, who are effectively the municipal police force in Chilliwack, will step up patrols around the restaurant this weekend.The incident was an unexpected twist yesterday in a continuing gang conflict - what Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu has described as a "brutal" gang war - that has been linked to at least 30 shooting incidents this year. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has used Metro Vancouver as a backdrop to announce new anti-gang legislation.Cpl. Thiessen said the RCMP have a sense of what prompted the incident."We have good reason to believe this is linked to some previous interaction that may have occurred in this particular community, whether it be at this Earls or anyplace else, involving the removal of individuals we feel are associated to gang activity," he said.He said police appear to be making a mark on gang members. "It appears we're having an impact and they are feeling the pressure and [are] uncomfortable and we are disrupting their routines and it would appear, maybe, they are not liking it too much."

killing of underworld figure Abdul Darwiche and a string of bikie-related drive-by shootings has put the police on high alert. An internal memo, penned by south-west region commander Assistant Commissioner Frank Menelli, has been distributed to officers in trouble-prone areas, urging them to take extra care. The shooting of Mr Darwiche, 37, at a Bass Hill service station has rocked Sydney's Islamic community and sparked fears of imminent reprisal attacks. As detectives work overtime to calm tensions, a parallel feud among outlaw motorcycle gangs has broken out, with fresh attacks around Blacktown. "I thought it was appropriate,'' he said. "I worry about my officers and I tell them to be careful, but I haven't told anyone to back down.''
Mr Menelli said the fresh violence, coupled with events that have seen officers injured in the last week, prompted him to issue the memo. "Bearing in mind the current issues relating to OCMGs (Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs) and other tensions, I told them to make sure they're aware of officer safety when dealing with people,'' he said. Police have praised the Islamic community for being forthcoming with information and working with detectives to further their investigations. Immediately after Mr Darwiche's death, officers met with a wall of silence from family members, who refused to reveal who they thought was responsible. It has emerged that, to ease tensions, a senior officer ushered key family members away from the crime scene to a motel instead of a police station. There, after booking a room, calming tensions and ordering coffee, he gained their trust and asked them to privately explain what was unfolding. Within two hours, the entire story and the gravity of the situation was laid on the table. Detectives believe Mr Darwiche's shooting can be linked to the murder of 25-year-old Ahmad Fadha in 2003. Mr Fadha was an associate of the Razzak family, which at the time was involved in a bitter turf war with the Darwiches over drugs. Late last week, police formally issued a plea for Ahmad Fahda's younger brother, Mohammed "Blackie'' Fahda, 24, to come forward about the shooting. Mohammed Fahda remains in hiding, but is not thought to have fled the country.
A detective close to the investigation said an alert had been circulated through agencies, to ensure police are contacted if Mr Fadha makes an attempt to board a flight out of Australia. Police strike force teams were quickly assembled once investigators established the high likelihood of retaliatory attacks. Detectives are fearful that imminent reprisals are on the cards. Last week Mr Darwiche's elder brother, Michael, 40, and another man, Michael Darwick, 36, were arrested at Punchbowl. When police searched their BMW, they allegedly found a map, a gun and names and addresses of Fahda family members. Later that night, two drive-by shootings, which may be linked to the Notorious bikie gang, occurred near Blacktown.
The gang is believed to be linked to the bombing of a Hells Angels clubhouse at Petersham, as well as a shooting at a new Nomads clubhouse in Chalder Ave, Marrickville last month. Marrickville police have made little progress into the Nomads shooting because of the "code of silence'' strictly adhered to by the bikies.
They have approached Marrickville Council about shutting down the venue, which police allege was set up as a car-repair shop but is being used for late-night parties.

Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg were two of the most ruthless and violent criminals ever involved in the Irish gangland scene.
Their Westies gang, based in the Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown, controlled a massive drugs empire in west Dublin in the late 1990s and early years of this decade. "These guys could go from being calm to high-order violence like the flick of a switch. They were real psychopaths," said a retired garda who investigated their activities.Drug users who bought from anybody else in their area were often being beaten or tortured. Street dealers who agreed to sell for other gangs were also dealt with in a similar fashion.
In 1999, heroin addict Derek 'Smiley' McGuinness was severely beaten and had his face sliced open with a Stanley knife because he couldn't pay a small debt. A middle-aged addict had her breasts cut with a knife and cigarettes stubbed out on her body. Another addict was thrown off a balcony in the Ballymun flats. Miraculously, he survived.The gang's outrageous violence and drug dealing quickly saw their members becoming priority targets for the gardai.
Coates was ambushed by armed officers at a safe house in Co Cavan in 2003.He received a gunshot injury in the ensuing shootout, but was able to escape across the fields and eventually made it to Spain, where he was later joined by Sugg.
They later disappeared in January 2004 after leaving their homes in Torrevieja, Alicante.Their bodies were found in July 2006 when their skeletal remains were discovered buried in concrete under a warehouse in Catral, near Alicante.

Eight known gang members, aged 16 to 33, have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder following a massive bust on Jan. 10, which netted more than $500,000 in cocaine and guns.
In that bust, dubbed “Project IGAT,” one member of the White Boy Posse — an offshoot of the Hells Angels — and 17 other known gangsters were arrested. The most recent wave of charges, officials say, puts a significant dent into the armour of a sophisticated trafficking network which stretches from Red Deer to Grande Prairie, with Edmonton as its headquarters. “This will create a vacuum, and someone else will replace them,” Galvin said.
Police, Integrated Response to Organized Crime officers, and solicitor general Fred Lindsay stood above a portion of the seized narcotics yesterday, including bricks of cocaine with the characters “H1” stamped on the side. Galvin said the financial downturn has inspired gangsters to diverge from bigger, established groups, forcing senior gangsters to step in to fill the void.“The consumer base is shrinking, and there’s not a need for workers to provide that product,” he said. “People, in the last few years, who would not normally sell drugs, did. It’s quick money, high frequency, and low-risk, in general terms — and it’s not there now.”

Miguel Alvarez, now 23, didn't know that the teenager was tied to a city street gang calling itself Dominicans Don't Play, said a defense attorney in an opening statement to jurors Thursday in Alvarez's murder trial."It was the slap heard around Perth Amboy," the attorney, John Perrone of Woodbridge, said.
Alvarez was hounded by the machete-wielding gang members after that, Perrone said.The dispute ended with Alvarez stabbing a man who went by the gang name "Machete" during a brawl in August 2007, Perrone said.Alvarez, afraid for his life, was due to leave for Florida the next day, but the fight changed that, Perrone said.
"It was fear of a gang, a gang that runs rampant in Perth Amboy," Perrone said. "We have every right to use self-defense. On Aug. 26, 2007, Miguel Alvarez used that right. He used that knife because he was being attacked, because his friends were being attacked. That was an attack, that was a wilding, that was a riot."
"Machete," Tony Martinez, 19, was stabbed around 2:30 a.m. that Sunday just outside Kennedy Fried Chicken on Smith Street across from the Perth Amboy train station.Martinez was pronounced dead at Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy a short time later.Charged with his murder, Alvarez faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted. He has remained at Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick in lieu of $1 million bail since his arrest hours after the slaying.Perrone spent nearly an hour painting a picture of escalating gang harassment fueled in part by Alvarez's on-again, off-again girlfriend joining the gang.But Kevin Flood, assistant Middlesex County prosecutor, drew a simpler sketch of Alvarez as a killer. Alvarez walked up behind Martinez and stabbed him in the side while Martinez was fighting someone else, a wound that pierced his heart, Flood said.
"He made a conscious decision to arm himself with a deadly weapon — a knife," Flood said. "He made a conscious decision not to go home, not to walk away, but to stay there armed with a deadly weapon....He shoved that piece of steel in the side of Tony Martinez's body."At the center of the case is whether Alvarez was actually being confronted by Martinez and another man who were holding bottles as weapons when he stabbed Martinez, as Perrone contended, or whether he attacked Martinez from behind, as Flood argued.Medical evidence will come into play.There is also choppy surveillance video footage showing parts of the brawl. And witnesses will buttress the state's case, Flood said.Alvarez, a powerfully-built man, will take the stand in his own defense, Perrone said.Flood told the jurors that testimony in the case will last two to three weeks.

Woman allegedly associated with the Notorious crime gang has been charged by police investigating two drive-by shootings in western Sydney yesterday that police suspect were linked to the group.There are fears a gang war was started when several shots were fired into houses in Doonside and Prospect within five minutes shortly after midnight yesterday.No-one was injured in either shooting but it was a close call for the two adults sleeping inside the Doonside house and the three adults and two children in Prospect.In both cases, the bullets missed their mark and police believe the same stolen gold-coloured Range Rover ferried the shooter or shooters to the two locations. The car was later found alight in Blacktown.

Police yesterday said they suspected the shootings were linked to the Notorious gang, which bears the hallmarks of a bikie group and has been linked to series of violent acts around Sydney.

About 7:00pm (AEDT) yesterday, officers from the State Crime Command's Gangs Squad and North-West Region Enforcement Squad pulled over a 24-year-old woman while she was driving in Guildford West.Police say the found a .38 revolver in a handbag while they searched the car.The Prospect woman is due to face Fairfield Local Court today charged with possessing a firearm.
Monash University's Professor Arthur Veno, who has been researching and surveying gangs and their members for more than 20 years, last night told ABC Radio's PM program a serious line was crossed yesterday when women and children were put in the firing line.
"It's a cardinal rule of the rules of engagement of war for bikies that no retributions or injuries to a former member or current member would be done in the presence or vision of his family," he said."They have clearly broken the rules and they'd better be ready for the consequences."There has been a string of drive-by shootings in Sydney in recent months. Last month, a bomb exploded outside a Hells Angels clubhouse and shots were fired into a nearby tattoo parlour.

Arrested Wednesday were Jesse Orizaba, 22, charged with use of a weapon by a felon and aggravated use of a weapon; Luis Orizaba, 19, charged with aggravated use of a weapon; and Modesto Rosales, 20, charged with unlawful possession of a firearm.

22-year-old member of the Denmark-based immigrant motorcycle gang the Black Cobras was remanded into custody by Malmö district court on Tuesday on suspicion of trying to extort 200,000 kronor ($22,000) from a local car retailer.Two other men are also in custody for the same offence.Police in Malmö fear that a gang war in the Danish capital of Copenhagen has spilled over into the streets of the city and that the Black Cobras are busy establishing themselves on the Swedish side of the Öresund straight.According to the car retailer, the three men approached him demanding the money or he would run into trouble. The men are reported to have displayed their Black Cobras logo in order to "shake up" the businessman.The man refused to pay and instead contacted the police. A trap was set for the trio who, according to the prosecutor, were captured on police video threatening the retailer.

The Black Cobras are sworn enemies of the Hells Angels and are, according to a report in local newspaper Sydsvenskan, one of the largest criminal gangs in Denmark, after the Hells Angels and Bandidos.

A gang war has broken out between rival gangs in Copenhagen recently with arson attacks, shootings and several murders linked to the conflict.The scale of the Black Cobras' presence in Sweden is as yet unknown and police confirm that open conflict with the Hells Angels in Sweden has not yet occurred."This is in a early phase. We are collecting information on them," a police source told the newspaper.

Charles Carneglia, 62, sat stone-faced as the jurors delivered a split decision after nearly four days of deliberations. They found him guilty of more than a dozen racketeering crimes, but failed to come to a decision on whether he murdered a court officer in 1976.The twin daughters of one victim, an armored-car driver killed at Kennedy Airport on Dec. 14, 1990, wept tears of relief as Carneglia was convicted of gunning down their father."They have put an animal away. This is one of the happiest days of our lives," said Mildred Delgado-Jimenez, a daughter of murdered guard José Delgado Rivera.Known as "Crazy Charles," Carneglia was also convicted of carrying out a hit on wiseguy Louis DiBono, who refused to attend a meeting called by Gotti in October 1990.Carneglia was also convicted of stabbing to death mob underlings Michael Cotillo, 25, and Salvatore Puma, 18.But the jurors were "undecided" in the murder of Brooklyn Court Officer Albert Gelb in 1976, and cleared Carneglia on a related conspiracy charge.

11th alleged member of the Dump Squad street gang was arrested in Newport News, Wednesday. Rickey Rice, AKA "Munchie," was considered armed and dangerous by investigators. Officials say he is now with 10 other alleged Dump Squad gangsters already in U.S Marshal custody.Six alleged Dump Squad street gang members were in federal court Wednesday, in Norfolk, where they requested to be held without bond until their trial date. The judge granted that request. Rice was also in court, Wedesday, for his initial hearing, just four hours after his arrest.The capture of Rickey Rice was big news, Wednesday, showing Newport News Police Chief Jim Fox is true to his word."If you are a gang member...I'd look over your shoulder because we're following you. We're looking at you. We're going to target you and we're going to take you off the street," says Fox.After the Chief's warning Friday, Rice now joins 10 alleged Dump Squad members who face more than 100 years in prison if convicted. Between the men and woman listed in a federal indictment, they're accused of "at least three murders, several attempted murders, robberies, assaults, arson, witness intimidation, drug trafficking and weapons violations."
Dana Boente, acting U.S. Attorney for Eastern Virinia, says the Dump Squad is accused of terrorizing the Ridley Circle, Harbor Homes, and Dickerson Court areas of Newport.A recent WAVY.com interview with FBI Special Agent in Charge Alex Turner revealed the Dump Squad is one of 116 gangs in Hampton Roads. The alleged members arrested are 11 of 6,000 total gang members throughout the area.On Wednesday, the judge ruled Rice will be detained by U.S. Marshals at least until his detention hearing scheduled for the end of this week. Rice is charged with racketeering, selling drugs, robbery, maiming, and more.Rice told the judge he is a father. He said he has an 8 year-old and a 3 year-old. Rice was considered a federal fugitive until investigators say a Crime Line tip lead to his arrest in the 7300 block of River Road in Newport News.No trial date has been set for the alleged Dump Squad members. Rice's detention hearing is scheduled for Friday.The quick arrest of Rice today proves the Crime Line works according to Newport News Police. The caller did not have to give any personal information and now could be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000

Clifford Cummiskey had been accused of pummeling an off-duty State Department agent in a drunken brawl outside a Ninth Ave. bar. He said it was self-defense, and that his dad's notoriety still follows him. The son of infamous Hell's Kitchen gangster Eddie (The Butcher) Cummiskey was acquitted Tuesday of beating up a federal agent.

"My last name is Cummiskey, my father was a known gangster," Cummiskey, 36, said after a Manhattan judge cleared him of a single misdemeanor assault charge. "He died 33 years ago and to this day, anytime anything happens it's the first thing [the cops] bring up."

Cummiskey, whose father was shot dead on the streets near their home, did acknowledge many past run-ins with the law, including a 1992 felony assault conviction for breaking a man's jaw and a more recent drunken driving conviction. Eddie Cummiskey was a leader of the murderous Westies gang which ruled the upper West Side in the 1960s and '70s, and which at one time was headed by Mickey Spillane - the mobster, not the novelist. Cummiskey's son was busted by cops Sept. 21 after a violent 3:30 a.m. brawl involving as many as six off-duty federal agents erupted outside Coppersmith's pub on W. 53rd St. While prosecutors charged it was Cummiskey who threw the first punch and then pounded Agent Patrick Scoggins while he bled on the sidewalk, Cummiskey's defense attorney argued his client was jumped. It may have been testimony

Roman Vidal, age 57, allegedly smuggled millions of dollars' worth of black-market cigarettes through the Port of Miami on behalf of European gangs — including the Real IRA, which claimed responsibility for the March 7 attack on four soldiers waiting for a pizza delivery.

The brutal killings — which included execution shots to wounded victims lying on the ground — threaten to derail the peace process in Northern Ireland, with one Protestant leader warning it might signal a return to the "bad old days where people are being killed in open-air gun attacks."

Vidal fronted a freight company that imported millions of cigarettes from Panama, hid them under wood flooring and insulation in freighters at the Port of Miami, and then sent them to gangs in Dublin, according to the complaint. He has been charged with four counts of federal wire and mail fraud.In February 2006, an informant tipped off Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Miami to Vidal's scheme, and agents began watching Vidal's business and checking his shipments.They found that the previous December, Vidal had shipped 7.3 million cigarettes from Panama to Miami, purchased wood flooring at a local hardware store, and then covered the shipment with floorboards. When the cargo arrived in Dublin, Vidal's Irish contacts paid only $2,900 in tariffs and pocketed the $2.1 million they avoided in taxes.Vidal pulled an identical scheme last February, ICE agents say, shipping to the UK about 6 million Panamanian cigarettes hidden under building insulation.As agents dug into Vidal's illegal enterprise, they learned he worked for "a criminal organization that has associates operating in Spain, Ireland, and other European countries as well as in the Southern District of Florida," according to the criminal complaint.
Evidence indicates some of these associates were connected to the Real IRA.Vidal, who has pleaded not guilty and has been released on house arrest, could not be reached for comment.

The 34-year-old victim from Enfield, who is allegedly a past member of the Hells Angels bikie club, was among a group outside the other man's home, a police spokesman said. "There was a heated argument amongst the group and at least two gunshots were heard,'' he said.
About 10.30pm, STAR group officers entered a house and arrested Uzzell, 49. The victim was admitted to hospital with a gunshot wound to his arm and police later charged Uzzell with attempted murder and possessing a firearm without a licence. Uzzell appeared briefly in Holden Hill Magistrates Court this afternoon.He entered no plea to the charges and did not apply for bail and was remanded in custody to face court again next month.

Lewis "Scooby" Rodden is involved in a bitter feud with gangster John "Joker" McCartney. P&B Contracts boss Rodden blames McCartney for fire attacks on his firm's sites. And he even offered McCartney, 43, a job as a "security consultant" in a bid to stop the blazes but McCartney rejected it. Now Rodden, 48, has turned to other criminals for help. A source said: "Rodden was told McCartney was behind the fires and thought the easiest way to stop would be to offer McCartney a job. "But McCartney just wasn't interested in getting involved with Rodden." McCartney is a friend of Ruchill Security boss Bobby "The Devil" Dempster, who was blamed for having Rodden shot in Amsterdam in 2001. The source added: "McCartney's been a friend of Dempster for years and would never work with Rodden no matter how much money he offered." We revealed last year Rodden had been hit by a series of fires in Glasgow's Maryhill and Pollokshaws. Sites in Airdrie and Clydebank were also targeted.

"El Chapo," Joaquin Guzman, 54, heads the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel. He escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001 and the United States has offered a $US5 million ($A7.69 million) reward for his capture.On Wednesday, Guzman's name was listed in Forbes magazine as the world's 701st richest person, with a reputed $US1 billion ($A1.54 billion) fortune made from trafficking in cocaine.Calderon, whose two year old war on drug traffickers has ignited a wave of violence, expressed outrage over the Forbes list."Public opinion and now even magazines not only attack and lie about the situation in Mexico, but they also extol criminals. In Mexico we consider this a crime, that is, a justification of crime," Calderon said.In a speech before the America Society and Council of the Americas, Calderon lamented "what appears to be an anti-Mexico campaign ... but that neither intimidates us nor changes one bit our firm resolve to strengthen the rule of law in Mexico."In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood denied Mexico was the target of a campaign to make it look bad."The United States government is not, you know, trying to hatch any plan against Mexico. That's just not the case," Wood said."We do have concerns about the violence on the border. There's no secret. The Mexican government's very concerned about it. It's taking steps to try to do what it can to, you know, stop this violence," he said.The Sinaloa cartel is currently engaged in a bloody turf war with the Juarez drug cartel for the control of lucrative smuggling routes along the US border, especially in Ciudad Juarez where some 1,600 people were killed in 2008.
The illegal drug trade in the United States, the world's top cocaine consumer, has netted Mexican and Colombian drug cartels between $US18 billion ($A27.68 billion) and $US39 billion ($A59.96 billion) last year, 20 per cent of which, according to Forbes, was handled by Guzman's gang.Guzman was arrested in Guatemala in June 1993 and transferred to a Mexican prison, but in 2001 staged a dramatic escape hiding inside a laundry truck and has been at large ever since.He has been on a US wanted list since 1993 on charges he smuggled six tonnes of cocaine inside a shipment of canned goods through the border city of Tecate, in Baja California.He is also been accused of building a network of drug smuggling tunnels between Mexico and the Arizona border city of Douglas.The US Drug Enforcement Administration in 2004 raised a reward for Guzman's capture from $US3 million to $US5 million ($A4 million to $A7 million).His cartel has been under pressure from both sides of the border. Mexico in 2007 seized a 23.5 tonne cocaine shipment allegedly belonging to the Sinaloa cartel, in the country's biggest drug bust.And 52 Sinaloa members were arrested in the United States in February as part of the joint US-Mexico "Operation Xcellerator," which has taken into custody 750 people in the past 21 months.Guzman was arrested in Guatemala in June 1993 and transferred to a Mexican prison, but in 2001 staged a dramatic escape hiding inside a laundry truck and has been at large ever since.
He has been on a US wanted list since 1993 on charges he smuggled six tonnes of cocaine inside a shipment of canned goods through the border city of Tecate, in Baja California.He is also been accused of building a network of drug smuggling tunnels between Mexico and the Arizona border city of Douglas.The US Drug Enforcement Administration in 2004 raised a reward for Guzman's capture from $US3 million to $US5 million ($A4 million to $A7 million).His cartel has been under pressure from both sides of the border. Mexico in 2007 seized a 23.5 tonne cocaine shipment allegedly belonging to the Sinaloa cartel, in the country's biggest drug bust.And 52 Sinaloa members were arrested in the United States in February as part of the joint US-Mexico "Operation Xcellerator," which has taken into custody 750 people in the past 21 months.

St James, has had 40 murders, as rampaging gunmen linked to criminal activities such as the illicit guns-for-drugs trade between Haiti and Jamaica, the infamous Montego Bay 'Lotto' scam, and turf war between rival gangs, continue to wreak havoc.
There have been 14 murders across the parish in the last 10 days. Last Saturday morning, three men were shot dead at a dance on Perry Street. In the aftermath of that shooting, two men were killed in what was believed to be acts of reprisals. Last Sunday morning, four men were shot and killed at another dance in Hendon, Norwood. "People in these areas know what is happening but they just can't just panic and keep it to themselves," noted ACP Frater. "We have made some gains against the criminals over the last few months and we can't allow things to get back to where they were, so we need the support of the public."In the latest addition to the rampant mayhem, two car washers were killed, execution-style, on Harbour Street in downtown Montego Bay on Monday night. The dead men have been identified as 34-year-old Miguel Thompson, and 40-year-old Marvin Williams.Despite several new policing initiatives and changes in personnel, St James still figured prominently in the number of murders across the island last year, accounting for a record 216 killings.

Giovanni Strangio is wanted by investigators in Italy over a multiple killing at Duisburg in Germany two years ago that earned comparisons with the infamous St Valentine's Day Massacre in ­prohibition-era Chicago. Six people, including a 17-year-old boy, were shot dead outside a restaurant where they were suspected of celebrating an initiation into the 'Ndrangheta, the mafia of the poor, southern Italian region of Calabria. Police in Italy said 29-year-old Strangio was found living in the centre of Amsterdam with his wife and son. His brother-in-law, Francesco Romeo, was also arrested. Though Strangio was placed on Italy's most-wanted list over the murders in Germany, the story behind the killings led back to the small but notorious hillside town of San Luca, in Calabria, often described as the spiritual home of the 'Ndrangheta. Its clans have for years been bloodily divided by a feud in which Strangio's family was a prime actor. Investigators believe he assembled the four-man hit squad that struck in Duisburg to avenge the Christmas Day killing in 2006 of his cousin Maria Strangio. She is thought to have been killed unintentionally in an ambush primarily directed at her husband, the leader of one of the two factions in the gang war that has rent San Luca and upset the internal workings of the 'Ndrangheta. The Calabrian mafia, which many police and prosecutors believe has overtaken the Cosa Nostra to become Italy's top crime syndicate, controls much of the cocaine trafficking into Europe from Latin America.
Police said wiretaps on telephones used by Strangio's relatives had provided vital clues to his whereabouts. He was an early suspect having been arrested and later released after being found in possession of a weapon at his cousin's funeral. His photograph was later recognised by an eyewitness to the killings and a gun shop worker who said he had sold him four flak jackets

American teenagers working as cartel hit men in the United States, according to prosecutors. The third was arrested by Mexican authorities and stabbed to death in prison there three days later.The detective sitting across the table from Reta and Cardona in those sessions is Robert Garcia. He’s a veteran of the Laredo Police Department and one of the few officers who has questioned the young men.“One thing you wonder all the time: What made them this way?” Garcia told CNN. “They were just kids themselves, waiting around playing PlayStation or Xbox, waiting around for the order to be given…”Both teenagers received six-month military-style training on a Mexican ranch. Investigators say Cardona and Reta were paid $500 a week each as a retainer, to sit and wait for the call to kill. Then they were paid up to $50,000 and 2 kilos of cocaine for carrying out a hit.The teenagers lived in several safe houses around Laredo and drove around town in a $70,000 Mercedes-Benz…
“These organizations, these cartels, they function like a Fortune 500 company,” Webb County, Texas, prosecutor Uriel Druker said. “We have to remember that the United States is the market they are trying to get to…”And that’s why the cartel recruited these young Americans. Cardona and Reta could move freely and easily back and forth across the border with Mexico.Detective Garcia describes sleeper cells organized by Los Zetas - former special forces renegades from the Mexican Army now working for drug gangs like the Gulf Cartel.In all honesty, I believe the Homeland Security agencies - under new leadership - realize the danger we face from this vector, unlike the recently departed ideologues.

Conflict between rival gangs in the Danish capital of Copenhagen has slowly boiled over into a street war. In three different incidents within as many days, two men were shot and killed and a third shot and critically injured in the Amager and Norrebro districts.

These latest shootings are just part of a spate of ongoing gunfights on the streets of Copenhagen between bikers and immigrant gangs. The Hell’s Angels biker gang has been fighting over turf for months with newly formed immigrant gangs. They are primarily reported to be fighting over drugs, prostitution and weapons sales.

Politiken reports that the Copenhagen police department has set up a 35-man task force specially designed to prevent these public street shootings. But the added patrols are not solving the problem, and the capital’s police department is considering bringing in help from other districts.“One of the first things we will be doing on Monday is to find out whether we should be doing things differently,” commented Copenhagen Police Chief Superintendant Per Larsen at the weekend. “If you really want to do something as crazy as what’s going on at the moment, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack. However many officers we put on the job, we cannot guarantee it won’t happen again,” Larsen admits.Another pressing issue is that emergency personnel are afraid to enter the danger zones even when a call for medical help has been issued. Residents of both Norrebro and Mjolnerparken Estate report that ambulances won’t arrive until police secure the area first.