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Showing posts from November, 2011

Biker Killing Was a Mistake

  Chatting peacefully on the floor of a Nevada casino, a senior Hells Angels leader and a 27-year veteran of the rival Vagos motorcycle gang thought they had negotiated a truce between competing members who'd been itching for a fight at a weekend long biker festival. "Everything is going to be all right," the Vagos member recalls his rival telling him. "He said, 'I'm getting too old for this.' And I said, 'I'm getting too old for this too.'" An hour later, a brawl erupted and a shootout ensued, killing one of the highest-ranking Hells Angels in the country and wounding two Vagos members. More violence has followed the melee at the hotel-casino in Sparks on Sept. 23, but the longtime Vagos member told a grand jury in Reno earlier this month that the deadly gun battle was not part of some assassination plot or formal declaration of war. Rather, he testified under the condition of confidentiality that it was the result of the unauthorize...

Mexico army seizes Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman drug lord's $15 million

  Mexico's army seized nearly $15.4 million from the organization of the country's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, officials said Tuesday, marking a rare financial blow to cartels. The seizure was revealed the same day U.S. border police revealed the third discovery in a week of drug-smuggling tunnel under the border with Mexico. In Mexico, the military said it found the cash was found in a vehicle on Nov. 18 in the northern border city of Tijuana and that it was linked to Guzman's operations. The haul marked the second-largest cash seizure by the military since President Felipe Calderon sent the country's armed forces out to battle drug cartels in 2006, the statement said. Some $26 million was captured in September 2008 in Culiacan, the capital of Guzman's home state of Sinaloa. Only on msnbc.com 'Grateful to be alive': Teen rescues woman from fire Mexicans cross US border to sell their plasma Chinese consumers say: Fix this frid...

Inquest told how householder stabbed intruder as he waved knife

  householder, who stabbed to death a burglar trying to break into his cannabis factory, told an inquest he did not mean to harm anybody. Barry Day said he remembered grabbing a kitchen knife as the door to his house, in Beckside Road, Lidget Green, Bradford, was being kicked in, sticking the knife through a hole in the door and waving it. Shazad Habib-Ur Rehman, 32, suffered a stab wound to the chest and died in Bradford Royal Infirmary five days after the incident, in October last year. Mr Day, giving evidence yesterday at the inquest into Mr Rehman’s death, said he was not aware he had stabbed someone and did not intend to harm anyone. He said he was in fear. Detective Chief Inspector Simon Atkinson, of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, told the Bradford hearing consideration was given to prosecuting Mr Day, 62, for murder and a file was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, but the CPS decided there was insufficient evidence. He was...

Gaddafi spymaster ‘must face trial over IRA crimes

  VICTIMS of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism in the UK have called for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s former spy chief to be tried in the International Criminal Court for his part in republican atrocities. Libya’s interim government reported on Sunday that Abdullah al-Senoussi had been captured. The interim government is keen to try him in Libya but international concerns have been raised about the possibility that he may not receive a fair trial. Representatives from the International Criminal Court are visiting Libya in order to make representations. Former intelligence minister Senoussi was seen as the right-hand man of dictator Gaddafi, who was killed shortly after his capture by rebel forces last month. IRA victims campaigners Willie Frazer and London-based Jonathan Ganesh believe Senoussi was the key link between the Libyan regime and the Provisional IRA in Northern Ireland. Libya sent numerous shipments of arms and Semtex to the IRA throughout the Troubles, several...

Murder trial begins for two Hells Angels, five others

  two full-patch Hells Angels, made their first appearance in a Vancouver courtroom Monday for the June beating death of Kelowna resident Dain Phillips. The men - Hells Angels members Robert Thomas and Norm Cocks - as well as Cocks' father Robert, Anson Schell, Thomas Vaughan and brothers Daniel and Matthew McRae were charged with second-degree murder two weeks after the fatal assault on Phillips on June 12. They made their initial appearances in Kelowna Provincial Court, where five of the accused were released on bail. But Crown prosecutors have decided to proceed by way of direct indictment, meaning the case goes straight to B.C. Supreme Court without a preliminary hearing at the Provincial Court level. And prosecutors have moved the case to Vancouver, where the accused appeared Monday in a new high-security courtroom built for an unrelated gang murder case. Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie said the decision to move the case to the Lower Mainland was made "given the number ...

Latin Kings charged in Texas slaying

  Fifteen members of the Almighty Latin Kings have been indicted for alleged roles in 19 murders, including slayings of juveniles and a pregnant woman. One of the murders was in Big Spring, Texas, according to the indictment, made public Friday. The murders were done to control gang territory and further their illegal activities, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The indictment also alleges that two Chicago police officers robbed people for the gang, sometimes while in uniform, the Sun-Times reported. Several Latin King members already had been convicted in connection with a 2008 drive-by shooting in Big Spring where six people were shot with an AK-47.  The victims included a woman who was 26 weeks pregnant at the time. She and another victim died of their wounds, the department reported.

Devastating report into the failures of police and care agencies to protect teenage girls who have been groomed, raped and sold by male gangs, most of whom are Asian.

The mother of one teenager from Leeds, who attempted suicide after a gang rape, said her daughter was the victim of a 'broken system.' 'Everyone failed her,' she told The Times. 'There was no sharing of information.  'They (police) had the names and knew where they (abusers) worked yet the men who did this have never once been arrested or spoken to by the police.' West Yorkshire Police vowed to look again at the case to see if 'there is evidence that can help bring evil men to book'. Growing worry: CCTV footage shows now jailed gang members Mohammed Romaan Liaqat and Abid Mohammed Saddique meeting girls as they cruise the streets of Derby in a BMW Jailed: Saddique, left, and Liaqat, right, were leaders of the paedophile ring in Derby and committed a catalogue of offences against vulnerable young girls Children's charity Barnardos has been calling on the Government to take action on child exploitation since January with its Cut Them Free campaign....

Former Royal Marine Carl Davies was raped before being stabbed and his body hurled into a roadside ravine

Brutal: Ex-Marine Carl Davies was raped before being killed and dumped in a ravine, a new post mortem has revealed Former Royal Marine Carl Davies was raped before being stabbed and his body hurled into a roadside ravine close to a military barracks on the paradise island of Reunion, a new post-mortem has confirmed. A second examination of the body of the Kent man revealed he had been sexually assaulted prior to being beaten about the head and knifed in the stomach.  The first bungled autopsy put his death down to an accident.  As revealed by MailOnline yesterday, his family believe his murder was covered up to protect tourism there, which accounts for 70per cent of GDP. A team of British detectives is due to arrive on the island to assist investigations, sources indicated at the weekend.  On the night of his death on November 9, Mr Davies had been out drinking in St Denis, the capital of Reunion, with two sailors who were serving on board the Cyprus-registered MV Atlanti...

Four police officers stabbed in north London

  Four police officers were stabbed as they tried to detain a man after a disturbance in north London, Scotland Yard said on Saturday. Police said officers were called to an incident shortly before 9 a.m. on the main road in Kingsbury where they had tried to speak to a man before he ran into a butcher's shop and grabbed a knife. "Officers followed the man in an attempt to detain him and were subsequently assaulted," Chief Superintendent Dal Babu told reporters. "Four male police constables suffered stab injuries during the incident and have been taken by the London Ambulance Service to hospital." One was stabbed in the stomach, a second suffered head injuries and stab wound to his arm, the third was stabbed in the leg, and the last sustained stab wounds to a hand and also suffered a broken hand. Witnesses told media the suspect had been shouting at police beforehand and up to 10 officers had tried to calm him down. A 32-year-old man has been arrested on sus...

Police seize stolen BT cables from a warehouse in Bolton. Officers believe the surge in thefts is being driven by Romanian gangsters

Swoop: Police seize stolen BT cables from a warehouse in Bolton. Officers believe the surge in thefts is being driven by Romanian gangsters Network Rail claims that 1,602 thefts between April and October alone have led to 1,969 cancelled trains and £8.5million in  lost revenue.     And police say it is only a matter of time before lives are lost as metal thieves target the infrastructure of the emergency services.  Abhorrent: Two bronze plaques were stolen from a war memorial in Bleakley, Manchester Cables have been stolen from the air traffic control system at Stansted Airport, the Airwave radio communications system used by the police has been hit and Solent coastguards lost communications for 36 hours. The warning comes as a suspected metal thief believed to be of Eastern European origin fights for his life.  The 21-year-old man suffered 60 per cent burns while allegedly trying to steal metal from an electricity sub-station in Oldbury, West Midlands, ea...

THE mother of missing Madeleine McCann said yesterday she still wished she could “stop time”.

03:44  |  THE mother of missing Madeleine McCann said yesterday she still wished she could “stop time”.   Poignant: Kate McCann   Kate McCann, who marked the fourth anniversary of Maddy’s disappearance in May, said she and husband Gerry would not give up on finding their little girl. In a poignant message on the Maddy search website, she wrote: “My grandparents always said the years pass more quickly the older you get. It certainly feels that way. I still dream of being able to stop time. “Our only alternative however is to continue doing as much as we can to the best of our ability to enhance the search for Madeleine. So that is what we’ll do.” She added: “It is a big relief that our Government finally agreed to a review. It will be lengthy and difficult but definitely a major step.” Maddy was nearly four when she vanished from her family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.

Rio de Janeiro’s most wanted drugs baron who controlled the drug trade in South America’s biggest favela with fear and intimidation for 30 years has been arrested

Rio de Janeiro’s most wanted drugs baron who controlled the drug trade in South America’s biggest favela with fear and intimidation for 30 years has been arrested after a high risk undercover police operation.    Photo: AP Antonio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, known as Nem, was captured after being discovered hiding in the boot of a car stopped at a roadblock, as police surrounded the sprawling Rocinha shanty-town in an attempt finally to wrest back control of the area. Pictures showed Lopes, 35, looking anguished in handcuffs as he was led to an armoured vehicle by heavily-armed police following his arrest at around midnight on Wednesday. Brazilian police said the man driving the car had claimed to be a Congolese diplomat in an attempt to avoid the vehicle being searched before the occupants offered a bribe of one million Brazilian reais (£357,000) for police to let them go. Residents of Rocinha and wealthy neighbouring districts alike were gripped by fear amid co...

Wife of murdered Liverpool gangster Colin Smith appeals for information four years on

  THE wife of a Liverpool gangster who was shot dead outside a gym four years ago today called for his killers to be brought to justice. Caroline Smith made a public appeal for information on the anniversary of the death of husband and dad-of-six Colin Smith. He was gunned down as he left Nel’s Gym, in Alderwood Road, Speke, on Tuesday November 13, 2007. Caroline, who was with her husband for 13 years and had four sons aged between seven and 12 with him, said: “It has been four years since Colin was murdered and I cannot rest until the people who carried out this cowardly attack on my husband are caught and put before the courts. “I am convinced there are people out there who know who killed Colin and I cannot understand how they can stand by and say nothing. They are as cowardly as the person who pulled the trigger. “Our worlds were turned upside down the night Colin was killed and I ask anyone who has any information which could lead to the arrest of...

Ex-policeman jailed over VAT fraud

  former police officer who admitted his part in a £365 million VAT fraud has been jailed for 10 years and three months. The conspiracy that Nigel Cranswick directed has taken the equivalent of 25 years of work to investigate, Judge Brian Forster said. The 47-year-old ex-South Yorkshire Police officer was a director of Ideas 2 Go, and, despite its modest base in a Sheffield business park, he claimed it bought and sold £2 billion worth of goods in just eight months. He has since admitted that the firm's trading, largely in mobile phones and computer software, was fictitious, and the aim was to generate paperwork from fake sales in order to claim back a fortune in VAT from HM Revenue and Customs. Judge Forster, sitting at Newcastle Crown Court, said: "This case concerned planned dishonesty resulting in the loss to the Revenue in the region of £365 million. "There were purported sales of billions of pounds. "The prosecution rightly described...

Robert Dawes was finally arrested in Dubai on an international warrant but is now living free on the Costa del Sol.

  For five years a man named in a British court as "the general" has been pursued by detectives in a multimillion-pound operation. Over the past decade Robert Dawes has moved from a two-up, two-down terraced house on an estate outside Nottingham to a base in Dubai and finally to a villa on the Costa del Sol. Police  believe he has left a trail of destruction as one of the heads of a crime  syndicate that flooded the UK with millions of pounds of cocaine, heroin and cannabis. He has been identified in nine UK investigations involving large scale shipments. Dawes is wanted in the Netherlands in connection with the murder of a teacher, Gerard Meesters; in  Spain , where police have identified him as "the boss of an important English drug trafficking organisation"; and in the UK, where Nottinghamshire detectives are seeking him over the alleged commissioning of the murder of David Draycott in October 2002. So when investigators from the Serious Organised Crime Agency, w...

Man arrested over alleged police payments named as Sun journalist

  A Sun journalist has been arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into alleged payments to police officers by newspapers. The reporter is believed to be Jamie Pyatt, district editor of the paper. The arrested journalist was taken to a South West London police station at 10.30am on Friday. Pyatt, 48, has been working at the Sun since 1987. He is the sixth person arrested by detectives working in Operation Elveden, which was set up in July following allegations that police officers had received up to £130,000 over several years from the News of the World for information, including contact details of the royal family. News International refused to comment on the arrest and saying it had "a very clear duty of care to employees and would not be making any comment on individuals". Scotland Yard also refused to confirm the identity of the person it arrested, but said in a statement earlier that it had arrested a 48-year-old man in connection with Operation Elvede...

Belizean Bloods have been charged with drug trafficking and passport fraud

  Two dozen members of a Chicago street gang have been charged with drug trafficking and passport fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. The charges against the members of the Belizean Bloods street gang, said to operate in Chicago and Evanston, Ill., were contained in an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, a release said. The charges arise from two coordinated investigations that included agents from multiple federal law enforcement agencies as well as the Chicago and Evanston Police Departments, the department said. In 2009, the Chicago Field Office of the U.S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service began investigating alleged passport fraud by Belizean nationals, while at the same time the FBI and Evanston and Chicago police were investigating alleged narcotics trafficking by suspected members of the Belizean Bloods

Arrests of Mexican drug cartel leaders in Texas raise concerns

  The recent arrests of three alleged drug gang leaders from Mexico and the shooting of a sheriff's deputy in South Texas are raising fears among some Lone Star State officials that the brutal drug wars plaguing Mexico are taking hold north of the Rio Grande. On Sunday, Deputy Hugo Rodriguez of Hidalgo County in the southern tip of Texas was shot several times when he pulled over a vehicle containing a person kidnapped by members of Mexico's Gulf Cartel, County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said. Rodriguez's bulletproof vest saved his life, Trevino said. "I have always said we have never reported spillover violence, but I have to say that this particular incident is our first example," Trevino said. Trevino said cartel leaders told members to enter the United States to search for marijuana stolen from the cartel. The Mexican gang used members of a Texas-based street gang, mostly illegal immigrants, to seek out the drugs, Trevino said. And three alleged high-ranking lea...

An alleged high-ranking member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) has been charged with a revocation of parole warrant

  An alleged high-ranking member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) has been charged with a revocation of parole warrant by officers from the Gangs Squad’s Strike Force Raptor. Part of Strike Force Raptor’s charter is to monitor members of OMCGs who have been released from Corrective Services custody with parole conditions. Their inquiries led them to a man who had allegedly fled to Queensland. About 6.30pm on Wednesday 2 November 2011, a 41-year-old man was arrested in Tugun, Queensland, by officers from the Queensland Police Service’s Task Force Hydra. He faced Southport Magistrate’s Court yesterday where he was remanded into the custody of Strike Force Raptor officers. He was subsequently taken to Tweed Heads Police Station, in northern NSW, and charged with the revocation of parole warrant. He has been transferred into Corrective Services custody. Strike Force Raptor was established by the State Crime Command’s Gangs Squad in 200...

Hells Angels held a party in Tallinn last Saturday that climaxed with a fight that broke out between a night club security guard and two Finnish citizens

  motorcycle gang Hells Angels held a party in Tallinn last Saturday that climaxed with a fight that broke out between a night club security guard and two Finnish citizens who were later brought to trial and “essentially thrown out of the country,” as one law enforcement officer put it. Having caused a raucus at the night club, three Hells Angels members had called their friends for help, but police - who had been keeping an eye on their festivities - were standing by and preempted a further conflict, reported ETV. Police say the otherwise peaceful party, attended by Hells Angels members from six countries, is just one sign that motorcycle gangs are expanding to Estonia. A local biker club has been courting the Hells Angels to get full membership. Another local club has already gained membership and established a new headquarters for a second international organization, Bandidos, which Finnish law enforcement has dubbed the biggest organized crime ring in their country....

Maurice Boland launches iTalk FM radio

  THIS month radio presenter, Maurice Boland, will launch iTalk FM, a new radio station on the Costa del Sol. The radio station will be based at the Five Star Kempinski Hotel in Estepona, according to Boland. Presenters include: Mat Court, Jack Jackson, Stephen Ritson, Sheila Sanderson , David Jelley, Richie Allan, and Maurice Boland, according to a statement from the presenter.

A man who fled to Spain after being charged in connection with a terrifying robbery has been jailed for 10 years

  A man who fled to Spain after being charged in connection with a terrifying robbery has been jailed for 10 years. Stephen Devalda provided a motorbike used by two robbers to get to and from the scene of a cash-in-transit raid. The robbers, who were carrying an imitation firearm and a machete, attacked a security guard collecting money from an Asda supermarket. Devalda, of Stanton Avenue, Salford, was arrested and charged in 2007 but he went on to skip bail and fled to Spain. A joint operation between the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and Spanish police was launched – and they tracked him down in Malaga in March. CCTV of the robbery Devalda, 28, who pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to rob and a bail offence, has now been handed a sentence of 10 years and three months behind bars. Detective Inspector Simon Cheyte said: “This was a pre-planned and violent attack which has left the security guard so traumatised and distressed that he has not been ab...

COLOMBIAN lingerie model dubbed "Narco Queen" was handed six years in jail

  COLOMBIAN lingerie model dubbed "Narco Queen" was handed six years in jail yesterday after trying to ship cocaine to Europe in her suitcases. Stunning Angie Sanclemente Valencia, 31, had denied helping her boyfriend recruit other beautiful young women to work for her international drug smuggling ring. The former beauty queen tried to take drugs from Argentina to Europe in late 2009 via Mexico. She was arrested in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in May 2010 after months on the run from police. Her attorney German Delgado said he would appeal the conviction. He insisted there was no proof, declaring that Sanclemente should be acquitted as she had no criminal record. Nicolas Gualco, her boyfriend, was also sentenced to six years and eight months for his role in the same plot. Sanclemente claimed during the trial in Argentina that she travelled to the country to marry Gualco and was not involved in the drug trade. She told the court: "I did not come here to commit crimes, ...

Addicts may have glitch in frontal brain

  “The better we understand our decision-making brain circuitry, the better we can target treatment, whether it’s pharmaceutical, behavioral, or deep brain stimulation,” says Jonathan Wallis, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley. Wallis says he was inspired to study the brain mechanism behind substance abuse after observing the lengths to which an addict will go to fulfill a craving, despite knowing the downside of a habit. He wanted to know what the drug did to the brain that made it so difficult to not make the right choice and what prevented the addict from making a healthier one. Straight from the Source Read the original study DOI: 10.1038/nn.2961 In the new study, published in Nature Neuroscience, Wallis targeted the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex—two areas in the frontal brain—because previous research has shown that patients with damage to these areas of the brain are impai...

Chief Superintendent Mark Mathias from South Wales Police said: "Each addict can cost society not far off £850,000

Photo: PA   Top officers warned of the increasing cost of drug-ravaged society with hundreds of millions is being spent on the increasing number of addicts. Chief Superintendent Mark Mathias from South Wales Police said: "Each addict can cost society not far off £850,000. "You work through all the treatment, all the criminal justice issues that arise - then you see a significant costs involved." Police in Swansea have launched a £500,00 clampdown in the city known as the "heroin capital of Wales" where officers have seized 1,000 "deals" in the last two weeks. Superintendent Phil Davies said: "Some of these drug dealers have stated they are untouchable. "My message to them is there is no hiding place, we will find you, we will catch you and we will put you behind bars." Addict Amy Protheroe, 20, who has been an addict since she was 13 has just started her fifth treatment programme in Swansea. She said: "When you're a heroin addi...

Hackers Challenge Mexican Crime Syndicate

  The hackers’ message, delivered via YouTube by a man wearing a red tie and a Guy Fawkes mask, was as bold and risky as anything produced by the Zetas, Mexico’s most ruthless crime syndicate. But this time, the Zetas were the target. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. They had kidnapped a geek with backup — a respected member of the hackers collective known as Anonymous. “You have made a great mistake by taking one of us,” said the video’s masked figure. “Release him.” Or else, the message said, the names of government officials, taxi drivers and journalists who worked with the Zetas would be published online. The goal, they said, was the arrest of these suspected collaborators, but was there a possibility they might be killed by a rival cartel? Yes, said self-identified members of Anonymous, acknowledging the danger. Beyond that, might the hackers also be targeted? Were ...