The Tillicum Park Gangsters are affiliated with the Black Gangster Disciples, and the Lakewood Police Department Gang Unit is familiar with their organization in the low-income neighborhood.

Alleged gang members attempted to increase their drug dealing activity by cornering Tillicum Park apartment complexes in Lakewood, Pierce County prosecutors said Thursday as they charged 11 people with multiple counts of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance.

The drug dealing charges, however, represent a piece of the organization's alleged criminal operations.

The Tillicum Park Gangsters are affiliated with the Black Gangster Disciples, and the Lakewood Police Department Gang Unit is familiar with their organization in the low-income neighborhood. Their cases include narcotics trafficking, weapons violations, witness intimidation, drive-by shootings and murder, according to a Pierce County affidavit.

Seven of the 11 were formally arraigned Thursday, charging documents state, and three remain at large. The court issued warrants for the arrest of the three, and one is being held in the Snohomish County Jail on other charges and is expected to be arraigned next week.

Bail was set at $250,000 for six of the seven defendants arraigned Thursday.

Lakewood detectives have strategically waited to strike. Lengthy examination into the Gangster Disciples, intelligence from informants and search warrants dating back to 2009 resulted in a blow to the criminal gang's membership.

"Our goal is not only to get these defendants off the street, but also to send a message that deters gang violence in our community," said Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist.

Court documents also state that in 2010 a series of controlled buy operations resulted in a search warrant being served at the Berkeley Apartments on Al Casino Love, a verified and convicted TPG member. A source who did not want to be named told Lakewood Patch that the model of the gangster on the street selling drugs has evolved into a more concealed approach, adding that the Union Crest apartments in Tillicum had been experiencing suspicious activity.

"TPG aren't living the thug life on the street, but they're still selling drugs," the source said. "For the most part, they are aging out."

Trial was set for July 6 for the suspects arraigned Thursday.

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Black Gangster Disciples street gang,Deputy Sheriff’s arrested Rodney King this morning on East Fourth St. in Montgomery.

Deputy U.S. Marshals and investigators with the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force(GCRFTF) and Montgomery County Deputy Sheriff’s arrested Rodney King this morning on East Fourth St. in Montgomery. During the investigation this morning to locate King, investigators seized a short barreled shotgun and a 9mm pistol.

The U.S. Marshals Task Force in Montgomery received information from the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force (GLRFTF) in Chicago that Rodney King was believed to have fled to Montgomery after his involvement in a shooting in Chicago. Chicago investigators informed the Marshals that on March 16, 2011, King, while armed with a 9mm pistol, shot an individual in Chicago and fortunately the victim survived.

King is charged with Attempted First Degree Murder. He is a known member of the Black Gangster Disciples street gang in Chicago and is a suspect in several other crimes of violence in the Chicago area.

Task Force investigators were able to determine that King was hiding at a house on East Fourth St. and the arrest team converged on the residence as King was leaving. “King was taken in to custody without incident”, said U.S. Marshal Art Baylor. “Even though our task force arrests dangerous criminals and sexual predators every day, it is always rewarding when we are able to get a violent offender like King off the streets of Montgomery”, Baylor added.

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since 1995, Bulger, now 81, has been on the run. He fled the city, and probably the U.S., after receiving a tip from the FBI agent

James Bulger's story reads like the plot of a thousand mobster films. An Irish-American boy grows up in the poor neighborhood of South Boston — Southie — turns to a life of crime and ends up leader of the Irish Mob. Smart, charismatic and generous to those he liked, Bulger — whose blond hair earned him the nickname Whitey — was both feared and revered. At the height of his power in the 1980s, he was allegedly taking a share of almost every drug deal and racketeering operation in Boston.

But since 1995, Bulger, now 81, has been on the run. He fled the city, and probably the U.S., after receiving a tip from the FBI agent he had worked with as an informant that an indictment for federal racketeering was on its way. In the years that Bulger — who is also accused of 19 counts of murder, extortion and drug dealing — has been a fugitive, several of his Mob associates have been arrested and, in some cases, served time. The FBI handler who helped him escape, John Connolly, is currently in prison for his role in the 1982 killing of a businessman who was about to testify against members of Bulger's gang.
(Top 10 Unsolved Crimes.)

There are more than 60,000 fugitives worldwide at any given time, most of whom manage to disappear across international borders, according to Interpol, the global police body tasked with facilitating cooperation among its 188 member countries. And only a small fraction of those fugitives are high-profile crime figures like Bulger. It may have been a stretch when, speaking to the U.S. magazine the Atlantic on May 2, the Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. excused his government's inability to track down Osama bin Laden by pointing to the FBI's failure to find Whitey. But the long, fruitless hunt for Bulger is a perfect example of just how hard it is to track a criminal who has fled to another country.

In 2000 the FBI's Boston branch created a unit with the single purpose of finding the runaway Mob boss. Since then, a team has been following leads across the U.S. and to South America and Asia. Currently the task force thinks he could be in Europe. But even there, where criminals are up against some of the world's best-organized police forces, the search is painfully slow. International crime fighting is painstaking work, and even democracies that cooperate with one another on a whole range of policy matters are reluctant to give up their national prerogatives when it comes to law enforcement.
(Top 10 Notorious Fugitives.)

If Bulger went home to Southie today, he'd find the place much as he left it. The streets are still lined with dollar shops, liquor stores and squat, run-down wooden homes. But Bulger isn't going home. In January 1995 the FBI was readying racketeering charges against him. When former FBI agent Connolly, who had become close to the mobster, heard about the indictment, he warned his old friend. Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig drove out of Southie for good. Almost everything the FBI knows about their movements since has come from interviews with people who knew Bulger, along with clues picked up from searches of his Boston properties. The file on Bulger runs to more than 13,000 separate documents. By talking with FBI task-force members (many of whom asked to remain anonymous for the safety of their families) about what's in that file, it's possible to build a picture that could give clues as to the kind of life Bulger's living.

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16-year-old gang member gets 27 years for 15-year-old's death

Both boys were 15. One jumped from the car and shouted a gang challenge at the other, who had been riding his bike and listening to music on a hot afternoon in Sunnyside.

The shooter fired quickly, sending two bullets into David Baldonado, including one that nicked his carotid artery.

Baldonado, who police say did not appear to be involved in gang life, stopped at two houses before finally finding help at a third, where he collapsed on a couch. He later died, joining several teen victims of gang-related killings that were among the 27 Yakima County homicides in 2010.

"I don't know why they shot me. I don't bang," he said, according to a statement recounted in court by Sunnyside police Detective Erica Rollinger.

She described the murder as a "botched execution" and noted that defendant Alex Bueno now has at least half of a tattoo that would represent a gang symbol for "Norteño Killer" on his arm.

On Thursday, Bueno, now 16, was sentenced to 27 years for the premeditated first-degree murder of Baldonado last July. His guilty plea averted a trial that might have seen him put behind bars for life if prosecutors had opted to pursue aggravating factors.

Baldonado's mother, backed by more than a dozen relatives and supporters, struggled to express her thoughts to Judge Michael McCarthy.

"This is my son," she said, showing Bueno a picture. "This is what you took from me."

She said she wished the sentence was longer.

Deputy prosecutor Gary Hintze, part of the gang unit in the county prosecutor's office, acknowledged that the plea could be seen as an "imperfect resolution, but it makes sense and I stand by it."

The turning point at trial would have been whether Bueno's chance encounter with Baldonado on the way to a barbecue with friends was sufficient for a first-degree murder conviction.

If jurors had favored a defense argument against premeditation, Bueno could have faced as little as 16 years. Under state law, he must serve at least 25 years before earning time off for good behavior.

Defense attorney Mickey Krom said the shooting was a tragedy for all involved. He said the whole situation might have been avoided if his client hadn't reportedly been drinking and using drugs beforehand, and he challenged some of the assertions made by police in describing the severity of the case.

In a brief statement that could barely be heard across the courtroom, Bueno said he wanted to begin serving his sentence.

"I'm sorry for what I did," he said.

McCarthy called the case every parent's nightmare -- which happens to be Bueno's gang moniker, according to police -- and said those who "play the blue and red game" need to realize the foolishness of their actions.

"Killing people because of the color of their shirt is moronic, it's cruel, it's horrible," McCarthy said.

Police said Baldonado was wearing a maroon shirt and a red belt. Although earlier reports from police had suggested he was shot because he was a rival gang member, Rollinger said her investigation had not proven that out.

Baldonado's relatives had said he was not a gang member, although they said it was difficult for a boy of his age to grow up in the Sunnyside area without befriending youngsters with gang ties.

 

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