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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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