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.

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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

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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."

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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.

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Three men and a 16-year-old boy have been charged in a Sunday morning drive-by shooting that left a Seattle teen injured.
The move marks the 31st time that a juvenile has been automatically charged as an adult this year by King County prosecutors; in 2008, only 19 such cases were filed. Under state law, 16 or 17-year-olds accused of most violent felonies are automatically charged as adults.According to police statements, Seattle officers were called to the 1000 block of South Sullivan Street just after midnight on reports of a shooting. They found an 18-year-old man shot in the back. Witnesses told officers the shooters had fled in a white sport utility vehicle, according to court documents. Police stopped a similar vehicle in the area minutes later and arrested five occupants. One was later released and has not been charged. During interviews, police allege one of those arrested said the shooting stemmed from a dispute between two street gangs, Deputy Prosecutor Karissa Taylor said in court documents. "The defendants admit that the shooting was gang related between the Nortenos and the Surenos," said Taylor, referring to two California-based gangs. "The victim was shot because he was crossing out the Surenos gang signs."
Having argued with other youths about 20 minutes before, the young men in GMC Tahoe spotted the victim and his friends in the South Park alley. Police allege that Rudy M. Rapisura, 24, Jairo Gomez-Cervantes, 19, and David Bryan Santos, 18, rushed out of the car and opened fire on the other youths. Prosecutors assert that 16-year-old Armando Gomez-Pablo was the getaway driver. Announcing the filing of charges, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg noted the apparent increase in the number of juveniles being prosecuted for violent crimes. "I share the great concern of police and community leaders over this disturbing trend of teenagers turning to gun violence to settle petty grievances," Satterberg said in a statement. "We need to send a strong and consistent message to youth that gun violence is not an acceptable option."Satterberg has previously argued that weak penalties for youths before they turn 16 in gun cases fail to impress upon them the serious consequences of gun violence. He has said he plans to ask that the state-mandated sentencing standards be reviewed. If convicted as charged, the accused face one to two years in prison. They are each scheduled to be arraigned on drive-by shooting charges Aug. 25 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent

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Orange County gang member sentenced to death for the murder of a 13-year-old who was mistaken for a gang rival.Jason Alejandro Aguirre was sentenced Friday in Superior Court for the 2003 shooting death of Minh Tran.Prosecutors say members of a Vietnamese street gang followed Tran when they mistook him for a member of a rival street gang. They say Aguirre blocked Tran's car, walked up to the passenger's side and fired shots. Tran was killed and two of his relatives were wounded.A jury in May convicted the 34-year-old Aguirre of murder, attempted murder and street terrorism.
Prosecutors say six other gang members pleaded guilty to charges in the case.

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Berlin has been gripped by a bloody gang war after a renegade rocker was shot
dead in the street
Michael B., was a leading member of the 'Bandidos' motorbike gang, switched from the rival 'Hells Angels' gang executed for defection?The shots were fired from a black delivery van as Michael was walking along the street at midnight. A bullet hit him directly in the heart and an artery in his thigh was also badlydamaged.Residents in Hohenschönhausen in the east of the city heard shots around midnight, according to a police spokesman. The gang member was found lying in the street outside an apartment block.The victim was 33 and lived in the area, and was familiar to police from the rocker scene. He managed to drag himself about 200 metres before he collapsed and died.A doctor tried to resuscitate him but it was too late. An autopsy should be carried out later today to find out the exact cause of death.The investigation has been taken over by the State Office of Criminal Investigation and a murder commission. No suspects have been identified yet but they are the hunt for the black delivery van.An eyewitness reported that the area was flooded with police. The entire block was closed off.Initial reports that the victim was the leader of a rock group called ‘Bandidos’ have not been confirmed. Some rocker gangs, such as the ‘Bandidos’ and ‘Hells Angels’, are bitter rivals and have been waging a bloody war with each other in Germany for years with contract killings and assaults.

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Police are playing down suggestions that a triple shooting in Palmerston North was a clash between gangs.One man and two woman received gunshot pellet wounds following a confrontation that escalated in Highbury early this morning.Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Sheridan says while one of the men involved is affiliated with a gang, he does not believe the shooting was gang related.Rheon Albert, 27, has appeared in the Palmerston North District Court charged with three counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He has been remanded in custody to reappear on August 12.The victims have been released from hospital.

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Calculated gang drug war rages as body after body fell in East and Southeast Baltimore. Baltimore's police commissioner and mayor questioning the pace of the federal probe. But there are even more questions to answer. One of the victims of the cookout shooting was a member of Operation Safe Streets, an innovative program that uses ex-offenders to mediate gang disputes to prevent violence. It was hailed a success for its first year when no murders took place in a violent city neighborhood, and the counselor being at the party is indeed part of his job. But why didn't police know about the party? And now that the counselor is a witness, and a victim, he has an obligation to step forward and tell police what he knows. The program works under a city agency, the health department, and we can't have cops pleading with people to help them while allowing someone under another city agency to keep quiet.Operation Safe Streets works because the gang leaders who don't trust the cops do trust the workers. If a counselor goes to the cops, the gangs won't cooperate. So we sacrifice information for quiet. But it's not quiet anymore, and serious questions needs to be answered from the program's administrators as to what they knew about the party, the dispute and the gunmen.Questions also have to be asked about how and why Baltimore County Police allowed kidnappers to go free without pursuing criminal charges? Even if at the time the deal was sound because no one was giving up any information at all, cops can't simply sit back and allow two drug groups to exchange money for prisoners and then say case closed and walk away. The case was indeed closed in the county, where the kidnappings occurred, but far from closed as members retaliated in deadly precision on city streets.

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Raul Madrigal stares and extends a defiant middle finger, apparently at feds hunting him.“He is kind of taunting us,” said Brian Ritchie, who leads the violent crimes and gangs task force for the FBI's Houston division, which has been trying to capture him for months. Authorities contend Madrigal, 29, is a key member of the fast-growing Tango Blast — the largest gang in the city — and that from 2007 to 2009, he helped the Gulf Cartel pump millions of dollars worth of marijuana and cocaine into Houston and the surrounding area.Fleeing to Mexico follows a Texas border crime tradition, but also speaks to what Washington sees as a growing threat posed by partnerships between Mexican drug cartels and U.S. gangs.Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer testified before Congress last week that the Department of Justice plans to step up investigations of the ties as part of a strategy similar to what was previously used to take on the mafia and other international syndicates.
Madrigal apparently made so much money that authorities intend to seize $18 million in assets in the case against him and 13 other defendants charged with trafficking under Operation Broken Star.They've already seized nine of Madrigal's bling cars, including a Bentley sedan, two BMWs and two Maseratis. All look showroom clean and remain parked in a heavily secured storage facility until they are sold at auction.
A 6.5 carat diamond ring also was taken as drug proceeds, as was a customized three-wheel T-Rex motorcycle, complete with ostrich-skin seats and an LCD monitor.
Authorities won't say whether they expect to see Madrigal in handcuffs anytime soon but note he's likely in a dangerous country where he can't stand alone. “He has probably aligned himself with some people who offer the protection he deserves and has earned,” Ritchie said.In Houston, the conspiracy is alleged to have started months after U.S.-born Madrigal was released from his second stint in a Texas prison, where agents speculate he reinforced dubious connections. Authorities said Tango Blast is an appealing partner for traffickers because it has many members and is spread out across the state. Other more traditional Latino gangs, such as the Mexican Mafia and the Texas Syndicate, also work with the cartels, according to a recent law enforcement report. “People are so worried the cartels are going to come over here, but they have these people at their beck and call,” said Pat Villafranca, an FBI spokeswoman in Houston.The cartel has the drug supply while the U.S. gangs know the streets, have the contacts and can blend in.“They get these guys to do their dirty work,” said Rick Moreno, a Houston police homicide investigator who has mapped out local gang connections to cartel murders, kidnappings and other crimes.
Among others charged in the conspiracy is Saul Salinas, the brother of a trafficker gunned down here in 2006. The case was recently solved and the suspects await trial.
“Madrigal hooked up with all these people he met in prison and out of prison,” the FBI's Ritchie said. His biggest connection was Mario Gonzalez, an accused cartel member and fugitive. Madrigal is charged in a conspiracy to move at least a ton of weed, but he is believed to have used a network of stash houses to sell about 5,000 pounds a month, enough to roll more than 3 million joints every 30 days.Even if Madrigal, who has a list of prior criminal offenses, again sees a courtroom, there is no guarantee of conviction. Four times he's had charges against him dismissed, and he wasn't charged in the death of a rival killed in a shootout. He was convicted twice and went to prison, once for theft and again for drug dealing.In the meantime, Madrigal's taunts give authorities motivation, said a veteran state law enforcement officer. “Old-school gangsters ... would never draw attention like that,” he said.

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Thomas Crawford is scheduled to be sentenced after pleading guilty in April to charges stemming from his dealings with a pair of undercover cops in January 2007.
At that time, the now-27-year-old was believed to be second-in-command in the local chapter of the Independent Soldiers street gang.He has since claimed to have left the gang, but Mounties say he sold four ounces of cocaine, a .357-calibre handgun and a box of bullets to a pair of undercover cops posing as mid-level drug dealers.
Alleged Independent Soldiers boss Jayme Russell was also charged following the investigation, but pleaded not guilty to a lone drug-trafficking charge.
Earlier this year, a judge found Russell guilty following a trial in B.C. Supreme Court and he was handed a two-year sentence in a federal penitentiary.It's not yet known which charges Crawford pleaded guilty to, but the firearms charge carries with it a mandatory one-year jail sentence.Crawford was released on bail shortly after the January 2007 transaction, but has been picked up by police a number of times for allegedly breaching his conditions.Last summer, he was arrested and later pleaded guilty to threats charges after leaving a number of intimidating messages on the cellphone of an acquaintance.Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to breach charges after he was caught out past his curfew with a pair of men — one of whom is alleged to have gang ties — who were allegedly brandishing handguns in a pair of local restaurants.During a bail hearing last year, Crawford claimed to have left the Independent Soldiers and said he is in the process of having his gang tattoos covered up.

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Wanted Guadalupe Ceja on a warrant charging him with Murder. Detective Mark Pollio reports that on February 11th 1996 in the late evening a gang related murder occurred in the 600 block of Stambaugh Street. Numerous members of a criminal street gang chased down and caught a rival gang member. Those persons beat the victim until Lupe Ceja then allegedly approached and shot the victim numerous times while he lay on the ground. The persons who had beaten the victim were subsequently identified, arrested and convicted for their part in the murder. The shooter, Ceja, was identified but never arrested.

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Geoffrey Leslie Armour, 43, pointed to his injuries as he entered court but then crouched behind a wall, apparently trying to protect his identity.As sketch artists worked furiously to catch an image of Armour, his defence counsel objected to any publication of sketches or photographs of him, arguing identity could be a key issue in the case.Police, who will set up an information caravan near the site of the slaying to canvass for additional witnesses, supported the objection. It was felt that if images of Armour were made public they could influence witness decisions.
Police are still searching for another alleged hitman and the getaway driver from the Ascot Vale slaying.Magistrate Dan Muling agreed to a suppression order on Armour's image, ruling that the publication of his image would risk contaminating witnesses' evidence.Mr Muling set Armour's next court date for September 9, the day co-defendants Judy Moran and Suzanne Kane are also due back in court. There was no application for bail.Judy Moran, 64, and Suzanne Kane, 45, who is Armour's defacto wife, appeared in court on Wednesday on charges of being accessories after the fact of the murder. Both women were also refused bail.

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Police said a man in his 60s was shot and killed in a suburb of Australia's second city shortly after noon, but refused to confirm media reports the victim was Des "Tuppence" Moran, the member of an infamous Melbourne crime family.
Gangster has been shot dead in a busy Melbourne street, sparking fears of a resurgence in an underworld war that has so far claimed around 30 lives, reports have said.Australian 'gangster' shot dead in Melbourne notorious gangster has been shot dead in a busy Melbourne street, sparking fears of a resurgence in an underworld war that has so far claimed around 30 lives, reports have said.
Police said a man in his 60s was shot and killed in a suburb of Australia's second city shortly after noon, but refused to confirm media reports the victim was Des "Tuppence" Moran, the member of an infamous Melbourne crime family.
Moran's brother Lewis and his nephews Jason and Mark were all killed in Melbourne's drug gangs war that raged from 1995 to 2004 and was dramatised in Australia's hit "Underbelly" TV series.The Age newspaper reported that Moran was killed in an execution-style hit, quoting ambulance officers saying he had suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and witnesses saying three men had fired at him.
A witness named Joan said the shooting occurred on a busy street with children nearby."I was across the road from where it happened, at the post office and I just heard all these gunshots," she told commercial radio."I'm really angry because there were lots of kids and what-not, going about their business. It's a really busy shopping strip... there were people everywhere."Another witness, Han Tarkeek, told national news agency AAP that Lewis Moran's wife, Judy, arrived at the scene within 15 minutes of the shooting screaming "Dessy, Dessy."Moran survived an attempted assassination in March, when a balaclava-clad gunman fired at him while he was sitting in a car. The bullet lodged in the steering wheel.The incident follows this month's shooting of a Sydney businessman with close links to the city's notorious Kings Cross area. Fadi Ibrahim was shot five times and remains in hospital fighting for his life.

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Shots fired into the Marriott Resident Inn in Carlsbad when a fight broke out at a party there early Saturday morning, police said. No one was hit by the gunfire.
Carlsbad police said several gang members from Oceanside and Long Beach were partying at the hotel on Faraday Avenue when they began brawling in front about 12:45 a.m. One of the fighters then pulled out a handgun and fired into the front of the hotel, police said. Police dispatchers received several 911 calls reporting the shooting, and arriving officers found a large crowd running and driving away.
Police interviewed several witnesses, but no arrests have been made.

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Six men, including a father and son from Anaheim and two men from Costa Mesa, all have scheduled court appearances in the coming months related to the infamous fracas between the Set Free Soldiers and Hells Angels inside Blackie’s By the Sea bar near the Newport Pier in July.Six men charged in relation to last summer’s biker brawl by the sea in Newport Beach that left one man stabbed.The latest man to face justice from the incident was Jose Enrique Quinones, 43, of Anaheim, who was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday for trying to slit a rival’s throat before ultimately stabbing him in the abdomen.Quinones pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder for the stabbing and one count of street terrorism related to his membership with the Set Free Soldiers, a Southern California biker gang that claims to be a Christian ministry.Police said Quinones was one of a large group of Set Free Soldiers who ambushed the three or four Hells Angels inside. Authorities said the Hells Angels were confronting the other group’s leader, Phillip Aguilar, 61, over rumors that Set Free Soldiers were claiming association with the Hells Angels. Court documents show that the confrontation quickly escalated from verbal to physical when one person threw a punch.Chaos ensued, Quinones stabbed one man, police claim another man smashed a billiard ball into another man’s skull, then everyone fled. Police arrested the defendants days later after a huge, multi-agency raid on homes throughout Orange County. additional defendants from the July biker brawl:
Rodrigo Requejo, 35, Westminster. Pleaded guilty in December to aggravated assault and was sentenced to three years formal probation and 30 days in jail.
Phillip Aguilar, 61, Anaheim. Charged with several felonies including possessing a firearm as a felon, possession of a deadly weapon and street terrorism. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.
Matthew Aguilar, 30, Anaheim. Charged with felony possession of a deadly weapon and street terrorism. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.
Michael Timanus, 30, Anaheim. Charged with felony street terrorism and two counts of a felon possessing a firearm. Preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10.
Brian Heslington, 36, Costa Mesa. Charged with two felonies of possession of a controlled substance and felony of possession of a controlled substance with a firearm. Trial is scheduled for July 13.
John Lloyd, 41, Costa Mesa. Charged with felony of having a concealed firearm and a felony of being a gang member carrying a loaded firearm in public. Trial is scheduled for July 6.
Glenn Schoeman, 57, Riverside. Felony of accessory after the fact and street terrorism. Preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 30.

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Jose Filiberto Parra Ramos appears in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration poster of 10 men it believes have been locked in a violent power struggle since a split in the Arellano Felix cartel last year.Soldiers captured Parra and three other drug suspects Wednesday in Tijuana using unspecified intelligence, the Defense Department and the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.The department said Parra is allied with Teodoro Garcia Simental, who is believed to be waging a bloody battle against reputed Arellano Felix cartel leader Fernando Sanchez Arellano, reputed heir to the Arellano Felix cartel.Masked soldiers led a handcuffed and scowling Parra off an airplane that landed in Mexico City from Tijuana, and paraded him in front of reporters at the airport.Parra led a group of armed men an April 2008 battle between the sides that left 13 people dead, the statement said. He also allegedly killed two federal police agents whose bodies were found at a ranch in the Baja California state town of Tecate that same month.According to Mexican authorities, Garcia left after the April 2008 battle to join forces with the powerful Sinaloa cartel and returned to Tijuana with a vengeance in September, sparking more than three months of intense bloodshed.The Defense Department says battles between the two gangs last year left 749 people dead.The army almost caught Parra twice at parties early this year, Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica, the top army commander in Tijuana, told The Associated Press in February.At a three-day bash in January, Parra and Garcia, known as "El Teo," barely escaped onto a beach. Instead, soldiers found Santiago Meza Lopez, nicknamed the "Pozole Maker," after a Mexican stew, because he is accused of disposing hundreds of bodies by disolving them in a corrosive material.Parra and another suspected trafficker, Reydel Lopez Uriarte, were close with Garcia but stayed on good terms with Sanchez Arellano after Garcia fled Tijuana last year, Duarte Mugica said. When Garcia returned to Tijuana in September, they joined him.Mexico has captured several high-profile cartel suspects since President Felipe Calderon launched a national crackdown on cartels in 2006 by sending troops to Michoacan, his home state. But drug violence has surged, claiming more than 10,800 lives since.On Thursday, gunmen opened fire and tossed a grenade at a crowded taco stand in the central Mexican city of Uruapan, killing a police officer and a 15-year-old boy, a spokesman for the state prosecutor's office said n condition of anonymity because his office does not allow him to give his name.The policeman was shot while eating with a fellow officer, the spokesman said. Before fleeing, the assailants shot two tanks of cooking gas that exploded, burning the teenage taco stand worker to death. Four other people were injured.Investigators said the attack apparently targeted the two officers.

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Crackdown on the Monk Mobb follows a Halloween party spray of gunfire that killed a 24-year-old man and injured four of his friends.Early on, detectives suspected Monk Mobb members in the killing. But as they built their case, detectives gathered information that led to nearly a dozen arrests for other violent crimes – including shootings and robberies – and that could lead to more. What detectives hope will be the final blow came this week, when officials arrested eight suspects – six of them allegedly from the Monk Mobb, and one from TNA, an associated subset in the larger North Highlands Gangster Crips organization – in the Nov. 1 homicide."Monk Mobb and TNA have been problem gangs for us for a long time," said homicide Detective Angie Kirby. "Our goal not only was to solve this murder but take down the entire gang and eliminate this constant problem and threat to public safety."Detectives say they have arrested about a third of the still relatively small Monk Mobb crew. But they're confident, they say, that their efforts will be effective in "dismantling" the gang. And the pressure remains: Sheriff's gang detectives and FBI agents are continuing their push. More arrests are expected.The magnitude of the case and level of cooperation within the Sheriff's Department and with outside agencies is "virtually unheard of," said Detective Scott Swisher.The effort grew out of a Nov. 1 homicide on Rogue River Drive. Patrick Razaghzadeh, 24, was hosting a costume party at his home when the suspects crashed the gathering, detectives said. When an argument erupted about their behavior, one of the suspects unloaded a 9 mm handgun into the crowd.Razaghzadeh, dressed as an Oakland A's baseball player, took a bullet to his head and died in his rain-soaked backyard. Four of his friends suffered gunshot wounds.At the party, the gangsters had been throwing gang signs, causing trouble and trying to push drugs – working, Kirby said, as a "gang pack."That pack mentality continued as the assailants tried to cover up the identity of the trigger man, detectives said.Their loyalty, however, apparently went only so far. Some of the gang members eventually cooperated with authorities and fingered one another as being involved, detectives said.According to a criminal complaint filed by the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, the accused are Corey Andre Carmicle, 22; Charles Steven Ferrell III, 21; Willie Cavil Harris IV, 19; Willie Earl Toliver, Jr., 22; two 18-year-old men who were 17 when the shooting occurred; and a 16-year-old boy who was 15. The Bee is not naming those suspects because they were juveniles at the time of the crimes.The suspects being held at the Sacramento County Main Jail were unavailable for interviews Thursday. Two remained in juvenile hall.Each of the suspects faces one count of murder and four counts of attempted murder, according to the complaint. They also face enhancements for allegedly committing the shooting with a handgun and on behalf of a street gang.The eighth suspect, Leighni Nikkol Hadl, 23, faces one felony count of conspiracy, according to the complaint.Razaghzadeh was the fourth Sacramento County resident to fall fatal victim to the Monk Mobb and TNA – which detectives describe as a "younger set" that includes siblings of Monk Mobb members – according to detectives from the Sheriff's Department and the city Police Department.Sheriff's detectives also allege that the two gangs are responsible for a dozen or more shootings and 70-plus robberies in 2008 alone. The spree has continued: When arrested this week, one of the unnamed 18-year-old suspects in the Rogue River case already was in custody, accused in a February shooting in North Highlands, Kirby said.Razaghzadeh's killing particularly concerned detectives because they saw it as an escalation in the gangs' violence: None of the victims was a gang member, and the alleged assailants were far out of their usual territory.During the investigation into Monk Mobb and TNA, detectives "had an opportunity to gain a whole lot of intelligence about how they operate, who they talk to, what they do and what kinds of crimes they're committing," Kirby said.That allowed them to arrest almost a dozen other gang members on suspicion of unrelated felonies and to seize drugs and weapons possessed by them, detectives said. They also collected information on a number of unsolved crimes, including homicides, though detectives declined to elaborate.In addition to any other arrests that might stem from that intelligence, detectives said it's possible they will make more arrests in the Rogue River case.For now, though, the arrests have Razaghzadeh's family on "cloud nine," said his mother, Trish O'Connor. "I think Pat can finally rest now," she said.Although the seven months since her son's death have been trying, O'Connor said she never gave up hope that detectives would make an arrest. Their regular updates kept her going, she said."They were just so persistent," O'Connor said. "I'm just so elated and thankful to them."Recently, Razaghzadeh's sister gave birth to a son and brought some joy into the family. His name: Ethan Patrick, after the uncle he'll never meet.

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Charged four people including a former member of the Dead Man Inc. gang and two teens alleged to have other gang ties – with firebombing a townhouse in Piney Orchard last week in what may be retaliation for the homicide of a 14-year-old boy.Officials, speaking at a news conference, said the arrests had roots in the May 30 death of Christopher Jones.Police Chief James Teare Sr. said the four suspects believed rumors - which turned out to be incorrect - that the people at the townhouse in the Piney Orchard community had something to do with Christopher's death. "The suspects acted on those rumors falsely," Teare said. They are charged with first-degree arson, first-degree malicious burning, conspiracy to commit arson and three counts of reckless endangerment. The suspected gang ties are a serious twist to violence that left Christopher dead – students said he was threatened by teens with local gang affiliations - said was a Molotov cocktail thrown at the townhouse June 3. No one was injured. Officials said no one in the house had gang ties.The crime and possible gang involvement trouble not only officials but also residents of the community. "It's scary," said Jennifer Wiech, president of the 8,500-household Piney Orchard Community Association, who attended the news briefing. The association pays $60,000 a year for off-duty officers to patrol five hours a day. The adult suspect in the case, Jonathan Richard Myers, 22, who lists addresses in Crofton and Gambrills, was ordered jailed without bond.Teare said Myers told police he had been a member of Dead Man Inc., a mostly white gang that got its start in Maryland's prisons. "That is disturbing," Teare said. Teare said the involvement of a person with ties to DMI was "very concerning to law enforcement." At the time of the firebombing, Myers was out on bond on charges of attempted murder. Prosecutors asked a judge to revoke his bail; a hearing will be Friday. His lawyer, Peter S. O'Neill, had no comment.Teare is to brief members of the county's legislative delegation on gang issues Thursday. Police said the three boys arrested were a 15-year-old and 16-year-old, both from Crofton, and a 16-year-old from Gambrills. They are in the Cheltenham Youth Facility, a juvenile detention center.Teare said two of the teens are affiliated with TNT, a youth gang in western Anne Arundel County that calls itself The New Threat, and the third is friends with them.Youths in TNT and the East Side Diamonds, a West County youth gang feuding with TNT, used to be friendly and play sports together, Teare said. But as they grew apart, fights erupted, he said. Though family and friends said Christopher was not involved in a gang, his family transferred him from Arundel High School to South River High School this spring because of threats at school. But weeks later, on his bicycle near home, he was approached by five to seven people. Police said Javel M. George, 16, and a 14-year-old boy, both of whom live near Christopher's family, admitted to beating him.As he pedaled away, Christopher fell and hit his head. George is charged as an adult with manslaughter, and the younger suspect is charged as a juvenile.Police said race does not appear to have been a factor, though Christopher was white and the youths charged are black.

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Mexican police found 11 bodies inside an abandoned car in the border state of Sonora Thursday in violence attributed to drug traffickers battling for control of the region.Sonora's state prosecutors said in a statement that the bodies were discovered inside a sport utility vehicle on a road between the towns of Caborca and Sonoyta along with a threatening message. The SUV had been stolen in Arizona.
Prosecutors did not reveal what the message said or the identities of the bodies. They said the killings are linked to a fight between local drug traffickers and another group trying to move in.Police are investigating whether the killings are tied to an attack on the village of Plutarco Elias Calles where four people were abducted and assailants opened fire on the police station Wednesday night.Meanwhile, federal police said Thursday they have captured two of 53 inmates who escaped from a prison in northern Mexico last month as its guards apparently stood by.
Marcos Espinoza and Osvaldo Garcia were detained Wednesday in Mexico's central state of Hidalgo along with six alleged members of the Zetas, a gang of hit men tied to the Gulf cartel, federal police intelligence coordinator Luis Cardenas told reporters.Security camera footage shows that guards at the Cieneguillas prison in Zacatecas state stood by as an armed gang walked out with the 53 inmates on May 16. About a dozen of the fugitives are drug cartel suspects.The prison director and all 44 guards on duty have been jailed pending an investigation into their possible complicity.

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