Violent Central American gangsters turning up on Metro Vancouver's streets

Ruben Molina, a prosecutor in Honduras, told media yesterday that the gangs are extremely violent - MS-13 particularly. They're known to dismember their victims and a candidate must commit a robbery and murder just to gain entry into the organization.
violent Central American gangsters turning up on Metro Vancouver's streets.
Supt. John Robins, the officer in charge of the B.C. Integrated Gang Task Force, said police have seen several members of MS-13 and M18 - two of Central America's biggest gangs - in B.C., but stressed that the organizations haven't set up shop here.
"It's been an ongoing trend over the last number of years," he said. "We want to make sure it doesn't develop into a huge significant problem in Canada. We have enough of a gang problem as it is."
To get a leg up on the groups, RCMP invited prosecutors from Honduras and Guatemala - where there are up to 200,000 members among the two gangs - to Vancouver during this week's Western Gang Conference.
Insp. Dean Robinson, the officer in charge of the Lower Mainland Violence Suppression Team, said the problems these gangs cause in Central America are "staggering" and reiterated that gang violence has risen to the top of the RCMP's national priority list

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Liverpool drug gangland

12 Drug dealers have been arrested in a widespread crackdown on hard drugs.Officers yesterday seized about a kilo of amphetamine with an approximate street value of £4,000, a small amount of cannabis and £5,000-6,000 cash.The 12 men and women were picked up after 16 raids.They include one from Aughton, Lancs; three each from West Derby and Everton; two from Old Swan; two from Formby and one from Crosby.
The operation is the result of 18 months of work by the Force Crime Operations Unit.
The unit has in that time seized cocaine, heroin, amphetamine and cannabis with an estimated street value of £1m, two handguns with silencers and ammunition and £24,000 cash. also found 51 cannabis plants in a house on DingleVale in Dingle, and three people were arrested.

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Irelands main prisons Cork, Mountjoy and Limerick special protection is being given to more than 75 prisoners

The ongoing feud between the six main criminal gangs in Limerick has spilled over into the state’s main prisons in Cork, Mountjoy and Limerick, writes John Burke.
special protection is being given to more than 75 prisoners in Mountjoy Prison, due to feuding between gangs in Limerick city which has spread to include a number of gangs in Dublin. The number of prisoners under protection at the jail represents almost a fifth of the inmates.The number does not include others under protection, such as sex offenders. The feud is being directed by fewer than half a dozen inmates who are major players in drugs gangs in Moyross, Southill and St Mary’s Park in Limerick, as well as criminals from several major Dublin gangs.Senior prison sources have said that the prisoners under special protection have asked to go on 23-hour lock-up in a bid to evade the escalating conflict.A study earlier this year found that 45 per cent of 500 prisoners tested at Limerick prison tested positive for some sort of opiate, among which 37 per cent tested positive for cannabis.

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Hanging shoes can be a sign of something troubling blood-chilling signs of gangs and drugs

hanging shoes can be a sign of something troubling Once they are pointed out, they are easily noticed: shoes hanging from utility lines.
For some they are little more than an oddity, barely arousing curiosity. For authorities in some cities they are the blood-chilling signs of gangs and drugs, and perhaps that style of covert advertising is creeping into Prince George.
"They are turf markers, in some places. They are a calling card for a drug dealer or a group of drug dealers," said Rick Stewart, research analyst for the RCMP's Drug and Organized Crime Awareness Services.
Have a look around and you'll see them dangling all over the place, and especially, perhaps coincidentally, in neighbourhoods where drug activity is particularly busy.
"It could mean it is a memorial to someone, or it might be a gang sign, it might indicate a place where drugs are sold, or it could be just some people throwing shoes up to see what happens. It could just be a copycat thing; some kids who saw it somewhere and thought it looked cool," Stewart said. "It should spawn questions in your mind and please have that discussion with kids about it. If they are removed and replaced, why are they replaced? You have to peer into those questions."
Perhaps the most common place to see shoes hanging from wires in big clusters is at the skateboard park. While thats fuel the stereotype that kids on skateboards are involved in nasty behaviour, kids at the skate park have a much more mundane explanation.
"It's the retire wire," said Trevor Moore, a 23-year-old avid boarder. "I've got a pair up there. Those have been up there about a year."
"The city cut them down every once in a while but I think they just gave up. They can't control it," said Braedon Olson, 15.
"We blow through shoes in only a few weeks sometimes," said Josh Bennett, 25, who gestures at the heavy friction a skateboarder's shoes endure. "There's my Adidas pair from more than a year ago."
A nearby parent of one of the boarders put some credence back into the drug connection, however. Without hearing any of the prior conversations, she said in passing that "it usually means there's a crackshack nearby, but I don't think that's what it means here (at the skate park)."
Stewart said one way or another, gangs are communicating to those in the market for drugs and they are communicating among themselves about the boundaries of doing business. The language and symbols may be highly evolved, like the Hells Angels patch worn on the backs of B.C.'s most notorious gang. It might be a certain kind of graffiti or clothes worn a certain way. Or it may be spontaneous and crudely thought out if the gangs involved are only small clusters of drug rabble, like the ones police describe as being around Prince George.
All are in the deadly business of hooking people on drugs, stealing and extorting money, sexually exploiting people, and carrying out untold violence, all in order to win power and money.
"This is not new to us," said Prince George RCMP Supt. Dahl Chambers. "You read about it in the newspaper every day, about it happening in our community. It is not a big city problem, it is a Prince George problem."
Stewart said the antidote to gangs is understanding them, trusting that your kids are smart about it and can help you understand what is going on out there in their community, and the obligation of adults to get involved in the subculture of youth - listen to rap music, read graphic novels, familiarize yourself with the popular social websites, look around the stores where they buy their clothes, go hang out where your kids gather with their friends -- so you too can learn the signs.
"Very few people in your community are involved in crime, and fewer still are involve in gangs," Stewart said. "The point I wanted to get across was for people to notice things, explore, ask questions, communicate, because things constantly change; it is always on the move in the gang world."

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Richard Vallée,leading member of Quebec's Hells AngelsWhen you go to jail here we have a thing called the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program

member of Quebec's Hell's Angels who killed a government witness in 1993 will be sentenced today.Reports say Richard Vallée has only expressed remorse that the victim, a witness who was about to testify against him, was driving a classic sports car when he blew him up. After a career marked by drugs, death plots, and unlikely prison escapes, Vallée will appear in a New York courtroom today to find out if he'll spend the rest of his life behind bars.Vallée's victim was known as the only person who could possibly identify him in a cross-border cocaine smuggling conspiracy.Richard Vallée, once a leading member of Quebec's Hells Angels, expressed some remorse for killing a government witness about to testify against him - he was sorry that his victim was driving a classic Porsche sports car when he blew him up in 1993. After a career marked by drugs, death plots, surprise acquittals and unlikely prison escapes, Vallée will stand today in a New York courtroom to learn whether he will spend the rest of his life in jail. On July 28, 1993, a thunderous explosion tore apart a white, 1977 Porsche, sending both car and body parts across the large parking lot of Bowl-Mart in Rouses Point, N.Y., about an hour's drive south of Montreal. When the victim was identified as Lee Carter, 31, who worked part-time as a bartender at the bowling lane and lived in an adjacent trailer, New York police looked north for answers. Mr. Carter was known as the sole witness who could finger Vallée, a founding member of the elite Quebec Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, in a cross-border cocaine smuggling conspiracy. The Nomads were the architects of the biker war that would claim more than 160 lives. Mr. Carter's troubles, however, started in May, 1992, when he was asked by an acquaintance to move cocaine into Canada. Mr. Carter, whose namesake father said his son "just wanted to do the right thing," feigned interest and then called police, offering to work for them undercover. Working with police, Mr. Carter brought 54 kilograms of fake cocaine into Canada and, at a Montreal motel, was introduced to "Rick" who told him where to deliver the load. Mr. Carter later identified Vallée as the man he met and Vallée and fellow conspirators were soon arrested. In March, 1993, as Vallée's trial approached, his lawyer wrote to the Quebec prosecutor of the case. The letter, U.S. prosecutors claim in court documents, "intended to ferret out what witnesses or evidence connected Vallée to the cocaine." The lawyer was told Mr. Carter was the only witness who was willing and able to identify Vallée.
Mr. Carter did not get a chance to give his testimony; a month before the trial he started his Porsche on a sunny morning after it had secretly been loaded with explosives. Because of the murder of the only witness against Vallée, his drug charges were dismissed. Police in Canada and the United States were fairly sure Vallée was behind the bombing and slowly built a case against him. A neighbour of Mr. Carter said that two days earlier a man who looked like Vallée was asking where Mr. Carter lived. New York police recovered the detonator used in the blast and a year later police in Quebec seized a nearly identical detonator from a man who was visiting Vallée's apartment. Quebec police next searched the apartment of an associate of Vallée's and found a bomb-making kit with Vallée's fingerprints on it.
Then, in 1995, Serge Quesnel, a Hells Angels assassin, agreed to cooperate with police. He told officers that Vallée once learned that Quesnel's mother's maiden name was Carter. "He said, 'Is she any relation to the guy that I blew up in the States?' " Quesnel said. The subject came up a second time: "I was telling him how much the cops hate me because I had killed a guy; they knew it but they weren't able to pin it on me. And he said to me, he goes, 'Well the police hate me even more because I killed one of their witnesses in a drug deal in New York,' " Quesnel said.
"And he said that it was actually a bit of a shame because the guy was driving a really nice car and he had to blow up the car, so it was a shame." Vallée was arrested in Trois-Rivières in 1995 and charged in Mr. Carter's death. He was told there were two witnesses against him. Vallée was unfazed.
"You know what happened to Carter, I blew him up and he did not come to testify. The other two witnesses will also not come to testify," he told officers, according to court documents. Bold action followed those bold words.
In 1997, Vallée concocted a prison fight that gave him a broken jaw and he was taken to a Montreal hospital. There, two days before he was to be sent to the United States, a gun-wielding man confronted guards and helped Vallée flee on a motorcycle.
For years he was a fugitive, featured on both the U.S. Marshals' Most Wanted list and the popular TV show America's Most Wanted. In 2003, he again fooled police when he was stopped in Montreal for drunk driving. After giving officers forged documents and claiming he was a businessman from Costa Rica, he was allowed to walk out of the police station. It was not until the next day, when his fingerprints were checked, that mortified officers learned they had again let Vallée escape. He did not go far, however, and was arrested days later as he left a Montreal dépanneur.
In September in Albany, N.Y., Vallée faced a jury trial for -- as William Pericak, the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case, put it -- "procuring the unavailability of the witness by murder." Although the case was circumstantial and Vallée denied his involvement, an anonymous jury found him guilty.
Judge Thomas McAvoy will sentence Vallée this morning. Mr. Pericak is seeking a life term and $1.4-million in restitution to Mr. Carter's family for the loss of his income. "When you go to jail here we have a thing called the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program where you work," Mr. Pericak said.
"It is our hope that Mr. Vallée works every single day for the rest of his life and that every single day a fraction of that money gets paid to the family of Lee Carter so that each day he has a reminder of what he did."

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Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs

Calgary police were appealing for tips following two shootings that injured two young men.Neither shooting was a random act, said Calgary police, who summed up the gunplay as just the latest example of the "blatant disregard gang members have for innocent members of the community who could have been hit by errant bullets."
Michael Chettleburgh, author of Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs, warns of a rise in the number of young people joining gangs and says the increasing gunplay on Canadian streets is a symptom of a burgeoning drug trade.
"Where there are guns and gangs there are drugs," Mr. Chettleburgh says. "A lot of the violence you see right now across the country, and it is different in different cities, is driven by gang rivalry associated with protection of markets."
Mr. Chettleburgh researched and wrote the 2002 Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs for the federal government and will release the results of a new survey this year.
Mr. Chettleburgh estimates there are between 11,000 to 14,000 gang members under the age of 21 across the country, up from 7,000 in the 2002 Police Survey on Youth Gangs.
In Winnipeg last month, a 15-year-old street gang member was one of three charged in a triple murder after masked shooters opened fire at a house party.
The shootings, a police source told the Winnipeg Free Press, were a result of increasing hostilities between the Central -- a youth-oriented street gang -- and Indian Posse gangs.Edmonton has logged a series of gang-related shootings since January, including several incidents where shots were fired into houses.
And Vancouver has seen 14 gang related homicides since January, according to police.
Last year, several highly public "gangland style" shootings at restaurants, along with the deaths of two innocent bystanders during a targeted drug related hit at a Surrey apartment, spurred police to create a multi-jurisdictional gang unit.
Only six months old, the Uniform Gang Task Force -- made up of 60 officers from Vancouver and surrounding municipalities along with the RCMP -- is in the process of becoming permanent, says Vancouver police inspector Dean Robinson.
The head of the integrated unit says police have laid "loads of charges" and seized three submachine guns among other weapons as the high-profile squad tries to move gang violence out of the "public domain."While there has no doubt been an increase in the prevalence of guns, it is the type of firearms and their use "at the drop of a hat" that worries Mr. Robinson most.
"We've gone from seeing fairly unsophisticated revolvers, to semi automatic pistols to hunting rifles sawed off, to machine guns and military-grade assault rifles," Mr. Robinson says.
In Calgary, Staff Sgt. Martin Schiavetta of the Organized Crime Operations Centre says it is not uncommon for police to find gang members wearing body armour.
Toronto Deputy Police Chief Tony Warr says the propensity for violence has reached down from major drug dealers to minor drug traffickers who carry guns because they are afraid of getting ripped off or shot by their competition."Where in the past it would have been a fist fight, now it is a gunfight over the same minor issues," says Mr. Warr. "There seems to be an acceptance of violence more generally by the community and it is reflected in the way kids are acting in school, what we see on television and by these gangs where, if they have a problem, they shoot a person."
In 2006, 8,100 people across the country were victims of violent gun crimes including robbery, assault and homicide, according to Statistics Canada.
Although the number of violent gun crimes in Canada has not risen in recent years the number of young people using guns in violent crimes has risen in three of the previous four years.That rate has gone up 32% since 2002, according to Statistics Canada.
Part of the is due to a growth in young people joining gangs, Mr. Chettleburgh says, but it is also due to better police intelligence as a result of more money and resources being dedicated to gang units in the wake of high-profile gun violence in recent years.
In Toronto, Mayor David Miller acknowledges a Canada-wide handgun ban isn't a panacea, but says it is the "the next step" in helping to reduce the number of victims of violent gun crimes.
Mr. Miller plans to personally deliver the petition to Parliament Hill in June. So far, it has 20,000 signatures.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has called Miller's campaign well-intentioned, but says handguns are already subject to a ban for all but a few licensed owners and collectors.

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Two rival girl teenage gangs went beserk in a mass brawl

25 women went beserk in a mass brawl just inches from live railway tracks.
The huge punch-up between two rival teenage gangs, one of which was travelling to a nearby fun fair, left two girls needing hospital treatment.
Police say some of those involved used snooker balls wrapped inside socks to club their opponents around the head.
Other items which could have been used as weapons were also discovered littered around the area and on train tracks in the aftermath of the brawl.
It began on the platform at Shoreham train station but spilled onto the railway tracks, endangering the lives of those fighting and also those of people travelling on late night trains.Officers arrested two women, an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old, both from the Brighton area on suspicion of causing affray.The pair were bailed to report to Worthing police station on May 17.A spokeswoman for British Transport Police said: "It was a pretty big fight."It began when one group of women got off the train at Shoreham and came into contact with the other group who were waiting at the station. We don't know what sparked it at the moment."The train arrived on the westbound platform around 10.30pm on Saturday night.Fighting initially took place on the station but quickly spilled onto the railway line.
It is thought one of the groups attempted to back away from the fight but were followed onto the line.
Two women, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, who police said were from the local area, needed treatment at Worthing Hospital for their injuries.The pair were said to have sustained bruising and cuts.Both were kept in for observation overnight and released on Sunday.It is thought the group of women who got off the train at Shoreham were heading to the fun fair being held around half a mile away on land south of Shoreham Airport.
The British Transport Police spokeswoman said: "They were trespassing on the railway line during the fight."It appears as though one of the groups was trying to get away but were chased or followed and the fight continued."The spokeswoman was unable to confirm whether the fight had been prearranged or was spontaneous.
British Transport Police officers from Brighton were sent to the scene and managed to break up those still fighting.
ussex Police helicopter was also sent to the scene later in the evening and spotted some of the women still hanging around the station area.Trains were still running in both directions as the fight ensued.
However no disruption was caused to the railway network.

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Gang leader Wayne Dundon violent attacks in the city were directed from prison

Ger Dundon left Limerick in the company of another young man and woman and went to Spain last week. He has been a regular visitor to the resort of Estepona on the Costa del Sol where he was known to keep company with Dublin gang figure, Paddy Doyle, who was shot dead in the resort in January. Ger Dundon received a suspended sentence for possessing drugs for supply three years ago and has no known legitimate means of income. Doyle was one of the two feuding Dublin gangs originally based in Drimnagh and was suspected of carrying out three murders in November 2005.Last month, when Ger Dundon appeared at Limerick District Court on traffic offences, he pulled up outside the courthouse in the armoured 4X4 and summoned associates, all wearing body armour, via an external PA system built into the front grille of the car. They gathered around the car door and shielded him as he made his way to the entrance.Gardai also believe the recent upsurge of violent attacks in the city was directed from prison by Dundon's brother, the notorious gang leader Wayne Dundon. The McCarthy-Dundon gang have been building up supplies of weapons and other equipment and were said in court last year to have been behind the attempt to buy 20 automatic assault rifles, RPG rockets and handguns from people they believed to be arms dealers. It was, in fact, a sting organised by gardai and British police. Two associates of the gang were imprisoned in December for their part in the plot.
According to sources in Limerick, the McCarthy Dundons became the dominant gang force in the city last year after outgunning their deadly rivals, the Keane-Collopys. Tensions in Limerick had been rising in recent months before the latest round of murders. There have been at least a dozen shootings in the city related to the feuding. The worst, before last weekend, was the incident on March 25 when a gunman armed with an assault rifle fired shots into six houses in St Mary's Park. No one was injured but one bullet narrowly missed the head of an elderly woman sitting in her front living room watching television.At least half of the shooting incidents in the past two months have taken place in the tiny Island enclave of St Mary's Park, St Ita's Street and St Munchin's Street, directed at members of the Keane-Collopy family.Intelligence had already led gardai to strengthen their presence in the city by sending the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) from Dublin. The "less-than-lethal" Taser weapon was put at the disposal of the ERU two months ago after a recommendation by the Garda Inspector, former Boston police commissioner, Kathleen O'Toole.
After last weekend, the head of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Detective Chief Superintendent Noel White, effectively moved his headquarters from Harcourt Square in Dublin to Limerick to direct investigations.
The first murder attempt was on an 18-year-old in the city centre on January 14. A female relative of Noel Campion from Moyross, who was assassinated two years ago, was fired on two weeks later. At the end of March there were a succession of attacks on homes in the Island area where members of the Keane-Collopy clan live.
The first incident last weekend appears to be retaliation for the attacks in the Island. Gardai believe that the gangs decided to take advantage of the fact that Munster was playing Gloucester last Saturday in the Heineken European rugby cup and that many gardai would be taking the day off to enjoy the match.
At around 6am on Saturday a rock was thrown through the window of a house in O'Malley Park. The gunman then burst into the house firing an automatic handgun at a 27-year-old man as he fled upstairs. There were young children in the house at the time. No one was injured. The gunman fired another shot through the front bedroom window as he left.They began searching on Monday morning. "They were examining a mound of earth that had been disturbed and scraped away some earth. An arm popped out, literally," one source said. The gardai did not have an idea who they had found or even suspect that there had been a body at the site. It took almost a day to establish that James Cronin was missing and that it was most likely him. They believe Cronin had been buried in the shallow grave until a more permanent hiding place was found for him. In recent years Limerick gangs have begun hiding corpses in an effort to escape detection. Last week's comments by Limerick councillor John Gilligan on the unusual degree of hatred and viciousness associated with gang violence and also that children were being inducted into the gangs were backed up by local people.One local source, who asked not to be identified, said that the gang are using boys as young as seven to move drugs and guns around the city. Gang members aged only 10 to 12 were terrorising people. Parts of the city have become "no-go areas" for people because of their threats, the source said, adding: "They make the Mafia look like Mother Theresa's children."The source quoted the example of what happened in the aftermath of last year's murder of Moyross gang leader, Noely Campion. In the immediate aftermath of his murder, by the same gang suspected of carrying out last weekend's murders, his family and neighbours became the subject of a campaign of vicious intimidation. Within hours of him being gunned down in Thomand, relatives and friends were warned that they would be shot if they went to his funeral. Junior members of the gang had teeshirts printed with the legend: "Wack wack, Noely got it in the back." They wore them as they stood taunting members of the Campion family as his coffin was brought to burial, the source said.Bursts of shots were fired into the Campion house where his widow, Maureen, and their two children lived. Their car was burned out and then the house itself. Maureen Campion's sister's house next door was also burned out. Another neighbour with a severely disabled son was burned out, as was another neighbouring house because it was believed they too had attended the funeral. The attacks continued after the burning of the four houses. Shots were fired into a car driven by a young woman who was seven months pregnant, simply because she was associated with the family.

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Evangelos Goussis has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Moran, 58, who was gunned down by a balaclava-clad gunman in March 2004.

Michael Yap has described his terror as he was stared down by a masked "commando" gunman running from the Brunswick Club on the night of Lewis Moran's murder.
Michael Yap told the Supreme Court trial of Geelong man Evangelos Goussis he had just left the club and was standing on the other side of the road when he heard gunshots. He looked around and saw two men leaving the club, one of whom stared straight at him."I really felt scared at that time," Mr Yap said.
"Thank goodness he kept on running."Goussis, 40, of Bell Post Hill, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Moran, 58, who was gunned down by a balaclava-clad gunman in March 2004.It is alleged Goussis and two other men accepted a $150,000 contract from Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel to kill Moran.

Mr Yap, a quality engineer, and Brunswick Club member, told the jury he had just left the club and was walking back to his car when he heard gunshots."I heard one at first and then another one soon after and probably more after that," Mr Yap said.Mr Yap said he then saw the shotgun-wielding man running about a metre behind another man, who appeared unarmed. Both were wearing balaclavas.
He said the man with the shotgun was around "five foot, seven, maybe less (170cm)" and seemed to be "pretty agile" and "fairly athletic".
"He ran fairly quickly, he had a bit ... of like a commando look about him the way he was carrying the weapon," Mr Yap said.
Another witness, King Yip Wong, a former Pizza Hut delivery driver, told the court he saw a man chasing two men near the Brunswick Club on March 31, 2004.
Mr Wong was driving down a side alley near the club, when he saw the men. He said the second man had a mask on and was carrying two guns.
Goussis' barrister Stephen Shirrefs has previously told the court his client is not the balaclava-clad gunman seen in Brunswick Club security footage shown to the jury.
The trial before Justice Betty King continues on Monday

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investigation into the conduct of a Thai policeman who shot dead Leo Del Pinto

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej today (Thursday) formally ordered an investigation into the conduct of a Thai policeman who shot dead a Canadian tourist and injured a second.The Thai Premier, in his role as the Chairman of the Department of Special Investigations, ordered the DSI to formally investigate charges of murder and attempted murder.The move comes in the midst of allegations that police in Pai, a picturesque tourist village in northern Thailand, deliberately attempted to cover up the actions of one of their own officers, whom they had to investigate.
The case was taken up by the Thai Human Rights Commission. Commissioner Saisuree Kosolnavin and a team found evidence that completely contradicted the investigation conducted by Police Colonel Sombat Panya of the local Pai police.Colonel Panya claimed that Canadian Leo Del Pinto, 24, from Calgary and Carly Reisig, 24, from Chilliwack, B.C. had made an unprovoked attack on Police Sergeant Uthai Dechawiwat after he broke up a fight between them in January this year.
Uthai, he claimed, shot in self defence as he fell to the ground. His automatic hada hair trigger.The police story was subsequently published in the local press and the wire stories and transmitted worldwide.Police further said that nevertheless Sgt Uthai had been charged with murder and attempted murder but on investigation there was no court record of such charges.Witnesses and forensic evidence examined by Thailand’s leading pathologist Dr. Pornthip Rojanasund however totally contradicted the police story. Forensic evidence showed that the policeman shot down into Del Pinto’s head. Witnesses said that Sergeant Uthai pistol whipped Ms Reisig before shooting her under her left breast.The conduct of the police had earlier been referred by the TNHRC to the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission.
Dr. Saisuree said: “This development is very encouraging. The process has already started as Ms. Reisig and another witness have been allowed to give evidence in court.”

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Rodney Gee believed to be a member of the California Hells Angels arrested

A 34-year-old man who is believed to be a member of the California Hells Angels motorcycle club was arrested at his Pacifica home Thursday morning on assault charges, following several months of police investigation, the Police Department announced. At about 6 a.m., Pacifica police, in coordination with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and the Daly City Police Department, served search warrants in Pacifica and East Palo Alto, according to police. Rodney Gee was arrested at his home on charges of assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury, police reported. He was booked into the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office detention facility in Redwood City with bail set at $50,000.
No other information was immediately available.

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Crack dealers alleged to have ties to the Hells Angels

At least 20 people are to be charged in court as a result of a police crackdown on a downtown drug trafficking network alleged to have ties to the Hells Angels.
The people were arrested yesterday after Operation Surface, a seven-month-long investigation into crack dealers who operated on major streets like St. Hubert St. and St. Laurent Blvd. Twenty-four people were sought on arrest warrants when Montreal police officers began searching homes in LaSalle and Lachine and tourist-room hotels where clients bought and used drugs.
"We have put an end to the operations of a trafficking network of people who claimed to be affiliated with the Hells Angels," said Commander Alain Simoneau, head of neighbourhood Station 21.Simoneau said the investigation involved work on two fronts: Uniformed officers from Station 21 maintained a regular presence on streets like St. Hubert to monitor dealers, while investigators from the drug and morality squad probed drug sales in hotels on the Main."Eventually it became clear the same network was operating in both areas," Simoneau said.
During the investigation, the Montreal police persuaded the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux to close a bar on St. Hubert St., believing dealers were operating there.The Bar du Quartier saw its licence suspended last month. Police said the bar was a public danger because members of rival organized crime groups were clashing inside it. Several sources informed the police the bar was controlled by the Hells Angels.Police also tied other violence along the street to dealing at the bar.Police officers seized more than $75,000 worth of drugs yesterday, including more than 2,500 doses of crack cocaine. They also seized $25,000.Those arrested face charges of trafficking and conspiracy

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As full-fledged member of the Mara Salvatrucha, She had to have sex with a dozen or so of her homeboys one night

Experts say that as many as 100,000 gang members rule the streets of Central America, most of them in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The gangs have affiliated groups in Mexico and the United States, creating an international net of lawlessness. How many of the members are girls is not clear, though a recent study said that as many as 40 percent of the region's gang members may be females, showing off their sexuality even as they learn to strut and throw a fierce punch.
To join one of Central America's fierce street gangs, Benky, a tiny young woman wearing heavy mascara and with tattoos running up and down her arms, had to have sex with a dozen or so of her homeboys one night. She recalls sobbing uncontrollably when the last young man climbed off her and everyone gathered around to congratulate her on becoming a full-fledged member of the Mara Salvatrucha.To stay in the male-dominated gang, her leader ordered her to rob buses, grab chains off people's necks and even kill a girl from a rival gang. She always complied, although Benky is not sure if her female rival lived or died from the bullet that she fired into the girl's back.Girls in the midst of the deeply machista, or male chauvinist, gang culture thriving in Central America often find themselves straddling the line between victims and victimizers. It is abuse in their home lives that often propel them into the gangs in the first place, and those gangs often continue the abuse under the veil of protection. The gang is their adopted family, they say, offering what proves to be an unpredictable mix of affection and aggression."If a girl is getting abused by her father, the gang will step in and end it," said Gustavo Cifuentes, a streetwise former gang member with an extensive rap sheet who now works for Guatemala's government, trying to lure gang members to better, law-abiding lives.
If the girls do not follow the directions of the leader, Cifuentes acknowledged, a beating or even worse will be the result.
"There are a lot more women and girls than anyone imagined," said Ewa Werner Dahlin, the Swedish ambassador to Guatemala, whose government helped finance a Central America-wide study that included interviews with more than 1,000 past and present gang members, male as well as female. "It's a surprise to the experts, and it shows that the authorities have been reacting to gangs without really understanding them."
There are only a handful of girl-only gangs in the region, experts say, with girl gang leaders. Far more common was Benky's reality - a few young women in a sea of tough, sexually charged young men.
With four jail stints behind her, Benky, 23, is now experiencing a new phase of life, but one that is proving just as rough as those she has endured before. Getting out of a gang can be as challenging as getting in or staying in. In Benky's case, when her fellow Maras learned she was trying to abandon them, they shot her six times.After nine months of hospitalization, she now limps through life, selling candy on the buses she used to rob because her gang tattoos disqualify her from most other forms of employment. Most of those in her gang have died in shootouts with the police, she said, but one of the few still living, a man, spotted her recently on the street and yelled out a threat on her life. He was surprised that she had survived the hit."It looks so good from the outside," remarked Benky, who like others in this article asked to be identified by first names or nicknames to avoid stirring up trouble on the streets.To understand her sentiment, one must know how grim her childhood was, and those of many other gang girls. She began living on the streets, at the age of 6, with an older brother. She is not sure what happened to her mother, but she recalls her father having no interest in raising them.
Her brother was shot by a member of the 18th Street gang, which prompted her to join the other giant gang in the region, the Mara Salvatrucha. "I thought it would be like my family," she said. "I thought I'd get the love I was missing. But they'd hit me. They ordered me around. They told me I had to rob someone or kill someone, and I did it."

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Serge Dupras In prison, you mind your own business

Serge Dupras testified in Prince Albert at the first-degree murder trial of Cluney, 33.Simard was a contract killer for the Hells Angels who later testified against the motorcycle gang. He died July 18, 2003, after being stabbed 187 times at Saskatchewan Penitentiary.
When police were investigating, Dupras told them Cluney was rising in the ranks of the Hells Angels because he helped kill Simard for the gang.
But on Thursday, he recanted that story, saying he made it up to get out of segregation.
Dupras, 53, is serving a 24-year sentence for manslaughter.Security was tight as Dupras testified. He was brought to court on a bus filled with armed guards. Officers carrying semi-automatic rifles were stationed in the courtroom and everyone entering the courthouse was searched.Crown prosecutor Robin Ritter won permission from the court to treat Dupras as a hostile witness. Ritter asked Dupras how he could turn a blind eye as a man was being stabbed to death just down the hall.
In prison, you mind your own business, Dupras replied.The trial before Queen's Bench Justice Ron Mills has been adjourned for the weekend and will resume Monday.
Last month, Cluney's co-accused, Alvin Starblanket, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He said he acted alone. He was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 13 years.

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Donnell "Scandalous" Jehan alleged leader of the Black Disciples street gang

Donnell "Scandalous" Jehan, 40, turned himself in to Chicago police Tuesday night. Shuffling out of a federal courtroom with his hands and feet shackled Wednesday afternoon, the alleged leader of the Black Disciples street gang refused to say why he decided to come forward.Jehan was one of 47 members and associates of the gang indicted May 2004 on federal drug conspiracy charges. The group is accused of selling as much as $300,000 per day in cocaine and heroin and laundering those profits through buildings and a record label.
"We are seeking detention both as a risk of flight and a danger to the community," U.S. Atty. Joseph Alesia told U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox to dissuade her from setting a bail for Jehan.
Jehan waved his right to a detention hearing. Cox ordered him to be held without bail.If convicted, Jehan's sentence may be anywhere from 10 years to life in prison, Alesia said. He also could be fined $10 million.Before he gave himself up, Jehan, formerly of the 6500 block of South Ashland Avenue, was the subject of a nationwide manhunt led by the FBI's Chicago office and was featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted."The Black Disciples, which made Jehan its third in command, adapted the best practices of corporate America to make its millions.
Like other gangs prevalent at the time, the Black Disciples adopted a pyramid-type organization led by a CEO-like leader. Gang members paid dues and "taxes" for the right to sell drugs.Before he was charged, federal agents saw Jehan driving then-Ald. Troutman's luxury SUV, law enforcement sources said. Troutman, who was indicted last year on federal charges of taking bribes to approve a development in her ward, admitted she knew him as a businessman. She declined to say whether she had a personal relationship with Jehan.On May 12, 2004, a six-year investigation that led to the arrest of 42 Black Disciples. Jehan and four others managed to slip away.
Jehan was the last remaining fugitive sought in connection with the 2004 raid, FBI officials said. Through the years, the FBI upped the reward offered for information leading to Jehan's arrest to $20,000.
Chicago police arrested him late Tuesday night, Alesia said. He was taken into federal custody Wednesday morning.Jehan's court appointed attorney, federal defender Rachel Zebio said she did not know where Jehan has been the last four years or what prompted him to turn himself in.

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Mike Robert McCreven,Terry Nolan , Barry Ford, Carl Lee Smith charged with second-degree murder and assault

Forty-5-year-old Mike Robert McCreven, 50-year-old Barry Ford, 47-year-old Carl Lee Smith and 41-year-old Terry Nolan are charged with second-degree murder and assault. They remain in jail with bail set at $1 million each after appearing Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court.
Investigators say the four beat and stabbed 38-year-old Dana Beaudine to death Saturday night outside the Bull's Eye Sports Lounge.They told detectives Beaudine said he was part of a rival gang and insulted their group in the bar. Sheriff's detectives wrote in court filings there was no evidence that Beaudine was in a motorcycle gang, although he did own a motorcycle.

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Aimé Simard had been a member of a Hells Angels-affiliated gang, the Rockers, but had given evidence against other gang members in three other murders

A former inmate said he was present at a prison-yard meeting when Alvin Starblanket accepted a $25,000 contract to kill police informant Aimé Simard in 2003 and that another inmate, Christopher Cluney, participated in the murder. Anthony Tawiyaka was testifying yesterday at Cluney's first-degree murder trial. His co-accused, Starblanket, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree murder in the July 18, 2003, killing. He claimed sole responsibility for the crime. Simard, 35, had been a member of a Hells Angels-affiliated gang, the Rockers, but had given evidence against other gang members in three other murders in Quebec and Nova Scotia.

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Vagos motorcycle club "were subjected to domestic torture akin to waterboarding" during the raid.

Members of a motorcycle club targeted in a massive multi-agency raid that netted dozens of arrests on drug, weapons and other charges filed a federal lawsuit against law enforcement agencies involved in the probe.
The complaint alleges that members of the Vagos motorcycle club and their families were victims of unlawful search and seizure, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy, their lawyer, Joe Yanny, said this week.
Yanny said his clients "were subjected to domestic torture akin to waterboarding" during the March 2006 raid. The lawsuit names as defendants the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as local police and sheriff's departments involved in the raid. An ATF spokeswoman told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin her office had just learned of the suit was in the process of reviewing it with lawyers.
The raid, one of the largest coordinated law enforcement probes ever conducted in Southern California, involved some 700 law enforcement personnel.
More than 80 search and arrest warrants were issued and 25 people were taken into custody on federal or state charges that included firearms and drug violations.
The bikers' lawsuit claims that local authorities tear gassed one Vagos member's family dog and taunted another member as he was pulled from a shower naked, while federal authorities looked on. Children of the families targeted were
traumatized by the experience and at least two members lost their jobs as a result of the raid, Yanny said.

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Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club compound,Ronald B. Campbell,Andrea G. Reeder,Dylan C. Grose,William C. Casteel.arrested

Four people were arrested on suspected drug charges, including the group's leader.Methamphetamine was found at the Gypsy Joker Motorcycle Club compound at West 19th Avenue and South Gum Street. Benton County Undersheriff Paul Hart said they needed so many officers as a "precautionary" step because the Gypsy Jokers are known to be connected to drugs and other criminal activities."It is an outlaw motorcycle gang with convicted felons who reside there," Hart said. "We gear up to meet that threat."Some stolen property and a couple of weapons also were seized, he said.
The Violent Crimes Task Force, made up of federal agents and local police detectives, raided the club house and two homes at 5 a.m.The Benton County Regional SWAT team and the Yakima SWAT team were used to help search all the buildings."Because of the large site ... it makes it difficult to secure and make sure everybody is safe," Hart said. "The Violent Crimes Task Force ... developed enough information to believe there was stolen property on this property. They don't have the manpower to effect a safe search warrant so they came to us to help."
SWAT members used loud explosives called "flash bangs" to disorient the people inside the buildings before they entered and made the arrests.Ronald B. Campbell, 57; Andrea G. Reeder, 43; Dylan C. Grose, 52; and William C. Casteel, 39, were booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion of possessing meth.Campbell is the founder and president of the Tri-City chapter of the Gypsy Jokers.Jokers say they're a fraternal club, essentially just motorcycle enthusiasts, but police say otherwise.
Officers were at the club compound about two weeks ago, and Casteel also was arrested then on a warrant for failing to comply with court orders.Wednesday's raid was connected to the March 27 arrest, but no additional details were released because the joint investigation, which involves the FBI, is still ongoing, said Robbie Burroughs, an FBI spokeswoman in Seattle.The club was started in San Francisco on April Fools' Day 1956, but moved to Washington and Oregon after losing a sometimes bloody turf dispute with the Hells Angels in 1967.Police consider the club an outlaw motorcycle gang, like the Hells Angels, because members say Jokers swear allegiance to a lifestyle often at odds with society.

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Jose Franciso Cardoza Quinteros had killed at least four people, thrown grenades into crowds of rivals and been present at the beheading of a woman

Jose Franciso Cardoza Quinteros told Canadian officials that he had killed at least four people, thrown grenades into crowds of rivals and been present at the beheading of a woman by a member of his gang, also known as MS-13.Quinteros, 30, is awaiting a pre-removal risk assessment, which could take months, before it is determined if and when he will be sent back to his Central American home.The federal government wants him locked up as a danger to the public and argued before the Federal Court of Canada on Tuesday that Immigration and Refugee Board member Otto Nupponen erred when he released Quinteros on a $1,000 bond last September.Judge Dolores Hansen reserved her decision after a special sitting in downtown Vancouver.Quinteros has already had three secret refugee board hearings since arriving in B.C. in a rental vehicle driven by his sister, Mery Manzano, with her two daughters inside.The Surrey woman first claimed Quinteros was a stranger who she met at a gas station where he asked her to drive him to the border.But Manzano later came clean with Canadian border agents and confirmed Quinteros was her brother who wanted to make a refugee claim.Quinteros made startling admissions to officials with the Canada Border Services Agency during lengthy interviews on Sept. 4 and 5 during which he said he was with MS-13 from 1999 to 2004. He agreed to have his gang tattoos photographed and to show off the hand signals of the brutal crime group.He was then held in custody until a detention hearing on Sept. 13, when Nupponen said he was satisfied that Quinteros could be released into the community safely pending the outcome of his refugee claim."I can't draw the conclusion from the evidence which has been presented that even any alleged membership by you with the Mara Salvatrucha in the past translates into a current or a future danger in Canada which terms and conditions cannot address," Nupponen said in reasons that were entered Tuesday in Federal Court.But Quinteros was ruled inadmissible to Canada in a ruling Feb. 22, meaning that he is now waiting for government assessment of risks he would face if sent back to El Salvador.His lawyer Shepherd Moss argued that Quinteros poses no risk, has met all conditions since last fall and presents only a "minimal" risk to the public.He said his client later recanted the sensational statement he gave border officials, even though the refugee board ruling said the Salvadoran was in fact linked to the violent gang.Immigration department lawyer Caroline Christiaens said Tuesday the judge should overturn Nupponen's order releasing Quinteros and send the case back to another refugee board member for a new detention review.She went through the litany of offences admitted by Quinteros to Canadian officials, including throwing 20 grenades at rival gangs."We would get together to make plans of what we were going to do . . . like for example, go at night to the neighbourhood of the enemies to throw grenades," Quinteros said. "We would say: 'We are the Mara Salvatrucha' and we just throw grenades in between them."
Quinteros has been in jail in the U.S., Mexico and El Salvador. He admitted being arrested 50 or 60 times.He told Canadian officials that he had risen to the rank of "treasurer." But he said he was forced to quit MS-13 after some members believed he had betrayed them.He pointed to scars all over his body: "This one they broke a bottle of beer, this was with a knife." Another wound came from a machete wielded by a member of his own gang.When the border agent asked if he had arranged any murders, Quintero replied: "I never made any plans, but I was present once when they cut off the head of a woman and they showed the head in the parking lot of the National Police."He was then asked if he had "ever disfigured someone? Have you ever cut someone's limb off?""I think yes, when I throw the grenade," Quinteros said.He said he had probably killed two people in shootings and another "two or three people" in grenade attacks.His last murder came during "a meeting that we planned in a neighbourhood named Milagro. Our rivals were there - the 18s - and we attacked them.
"I remember hitting someone with bullets in his chest and I got two wounds, gun wounds, in my leg."Central American prosecutors are in B.C. this week to meet with police and government officials, including border services and the refugee board, to exchange intelligence about the gang problem and connections between the two regions and organized crime groups.

More and more individuals with connections to Mara Salvatrucha and MS-18 are showing up at the refugee board and before Canadian courts.

Just last month, the Federal Court granted the right to an appeal to Salvadoran refugee claimant Wilber Orlando Cartagena, who said he could be killed by MS-18 if he was forced to return to El Salvador.Another Salvadoran who admitted to being a member of Mara Salvatrucha - Roberto Ernesto Contreras Mendoza - remains in Vancouver while a judicial review of his status continues.Quinteros described how the gangs control the drug trade throughout Central America, Mexico and into the U.S., as well as committing violent robberies and extortions within their own communities for money and to instill fear.
They would organize large street fights with enemies, Quinteros said.
"Every time we got involved in these fights, it was about 500 members of us. . . . I mean the people that have been killed by gang member of my group, I cannot say that I killed them," he said.
"In the battles, many die. In each battle, there were 15 or 20 dead. I was present in the battle - in a fight - when I was in jail where 300 were dead."

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Barragan Drug Trafficking Gang Busted

The Mexican crime family known to South Sound law enforcement agencies as the Barragan Drug Trafficking Gang source of much of the methamphetamine smuggled into Western Washington and the Western U.S.- was rolled up last week in a multistate wave of arrests. Authorities believe they have successfully dismantled the organization with the arrests of 22 members, many of whom lived in Thurston, Cowlitz, Grays Harbor and Pacific counties. Nineteen others also face charges in connection with drug trafficking. The Barragan business was no small enterprise. Officials say the tight-knit crime ring efficiently smuggled about 200 pounds of crystal methamphetamine into the United States each month. In Western Washington, the outfit used the Olympia-Lacey region as a staging area, selling about half its product locally and shipping the rest to other parts of the country. The organization's activities in the region stretch back a couple decades, and it controlled the meth trade along the Interstate 5 corridor. One reason authorities believe they have put the family out of business is that the latest arrests, capping 14 months of investigation by more than 30 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, include two Barragan brothers and three of their cousins, all considered key to the operation. The market for imported meth has exploded in recent years as new state and local laws have made it difficult for addicts to obtain materials for manufacturing homemade meth. While meth-lab busts are way down -- a good thing indeed -- the demand from users remains strong. Such a lucrative market for illicit drugs means that it is almost certain that other criminal entrepreneurs will try to take the Barragan family's place. The Barragan family itself might be capable of staging a resurgence. Nonethless, any victory in the permanent war on drugs is worth celebration. Last week's take-down of the Barragan DTO resulted from textbook persistence and cooperation among law enforcement agencies. It was great police work and a great win for community safety in the South Sound.

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Victor Varela alleged leader of a firearms trafficking network

Victor Varela,alleged Juarez drug cartel gun smuggler leader of a firearms trafficking network operating in the Southwest, was arrested by ATF agents in Arizona. Varela and his so-defendants, who acted as "straw purchasers", purchased a number of firearms in Arizona for the purpose of supplying them to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. Michael A. Golson Sr., ATF Acting Special Agent in Charge for the Dallas Division stated in a news release that "this is evidence of the cooperation by ATF and Mexican authorities to combat illegal gun trafficking and the violence that ensues from it. It also shows the importance of gun tracing and our increased focus to do so on both sides of the border, as the majority of firearms used in border violence originate in the United States."

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The Gangland Killing of Lewis Moran shown to grieving widow

On Monday the court was shown security video of two gunmen storming into the Brunswick Club in Melbourne and chasing Moran as he tried to escape past a row of poker machines.Moran is seen cowering as one of two gunmen corners him, shooting him with a pistol and then firing a second shot as he slumps to the ground.
"Mr Moran was a sitting duck," prosecutor Andrew Tinney.Mr Tinney said that underworld figures Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel wanted Moran dead, placing a $150,000 contract on his head."It is a world of gangland intrigue and violence.
"In Victoria at that time there were men around who were willing to do the bidding of the likes of Carl Williams... for money... or simply because they were asked to by a powerful individual."Evangelos Goussis has pleaded not guilty to Moran's murder and to the attempted murder of Herbert Wrout, who was shot during the attack but survived.Mr Tinnney said a career criminal, who drove the getaway car, would be a central witness to the trial but could not be named for legal reasons.
But Defence barrister Stephen Shirrefs, SC, said the star witness had confessed to killing Lewis Moran before changing his story to accuse Goussis.It is accepted that the unnamed witness shot Herbert Wrout.

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Joseph B. Ibones shot twice by a Crips member

Joseph B. Ibones, 29, son of Cebu City Police Office – Security and Service Group (SSG) Chief Ambrosio Ibones underwent an operation at a private hospital after taking a bullet in the left side of his body. Homicide Section Chief Mario Monilar said the slug hit a portion of Joseph’s liver. He is still under observation.
Senior Insp. Ibones, in a separate interview, called on barangay officials in Pardo to strictly implement the curfew so that gang members will be discouraged from staying in the streets during late hours.
Joseph was reportedly shot twice by a Crips member who was only identified as a certain Berly or Choy. Berly shot Joseph after the latter called the attention of a group of 15 youths to stop throwing eggs at vehicles that passed by the area.
Joseph is not a member of a gang. An investigation led by SPO2 Rey Cuyos of the Homicide Section showed the shooting occurred past 11 p.m., Sunday, while Berly’s group, who were also believed to be
gang members, were gathered along Aznar Road celebrating someone’s birthday. Monilar said that for fun, they threw eggs at passing vehicles and were reportedly very noisy. Joseph, who also resides in the area, passed by on board a motorcycle.
Joseph, who knew most of those who were gathered in the area, advised them to stop what they were doing, This, allegedly irked Berly.
Berly walked a few meters away, pulled out a gun and shot Joseph twice. One of the slugs hit the left side of Joseph’s body.
He was rushed by his neighbor Leonard Labay, a habal-habal driver who witnessed the shooting, to the Cebu City Medical Center. Joseph was later transferred to Perpetual Succour Hospital. A joint team from the Pardo Police Station and Homicide Section is still conducting a manhunt against Berly. Berly, 19, reportedly resides on Ramona Village, Talisay City. Monilar, however, said that Berly was no longer found in his house when police operatives looked for him in the area. Ibones said implementing a curfew will greatly help in the prevention and solution of crimes involving gang members. “They have not done anything productive. They are a menace to society,” he said in Cebuano. He said the area where the incident occurred has been identified as one of the areas where gang members gather. Ibones said the presence of gangs, whether it’s Crips or Bloods, has become one of the major problems in Barangay Pardo. He hopes barangay officials will now find the need to implement a curfew.
Cebu City Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador earlier urged barangay officials to also implement a curfew.

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Hells Angels gang members suspected of attacking a 22-year-old

Two men they say may be Hells Angels gang members suspected of attacking a 22-year-old Casa Grande resident at the Billet Bar during bike week.
Police give this account: The attack took place just before midnight Friday when the Casa Grande man, whose name was not released, supposedly bumped into two men, Jose Cano, 36, and Nathaniel Sample, 30, both of Mesa.Police said Cano and Sample punched and kicked the man in the head and torso.The investigation at the bar, in the 3700 block of Scottsdale Road, led police to believe the men are Hells Angels, they said.The two suspects fled on foot before police arrived, but police later arrested Sample without incident in Mesa on suspicion of aggravated assault, police said.

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motorcycle gang connections were suspected in a fatal stabbing in the parking lot of a Spanaway bar

Two men with possible connections to a motorcycle gang were suspected in a fatal stabbing in the parking lot of a Spanaway bar late Saturday night.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department arrested the two men Sunday, spokesman Ed Troyer said.The victim, 38, whose name isn’t being released until the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office notifies his family, apparently argued with a group of men at The Bullseye Sports Lounge at 14904 Pacific Ave S.When the victim left the bar at about 10 p.m., presumably to return home, several men followed him into the parking lot and attacked him.“He was greatly outnumbered,” Troyer said. “It was four or five against one.”The victim’s friends couldn’t break up the fight or save him after the attack. “They tried to render aid, but the wounds were too catastrophic,” Troyer said.He was pronounced dead on arrival at 10:22 p.m. at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, medical investigator Amber Midkiff said.The suspects drove away by motorcycle and car, Troyer said. Investigators were looking into possible links to motorcycle gangs in Pierce and Thurston counties, and if that played a role in the fight.The suspects were due to appear in court today at 1:30 p.m., and the Sheriff’s Department was continuing to investigate.“We need to do further investigations to find out exactly what everyone’s role was,” Troyer said, “but we believe we have the two suspects in custody.”

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Internet Gang warefare in Ireland

Police believe a riot between two rival gangs in Co Londonderry was organised over the internet. Officers were attacked by a mob of up to 100 youths who hurled bricks, bottles and other missiles as they tried to deal with the disturbance in the Academy Street area of Rosemount on Friday night. Violence broke out at about 10.15pm after a row between two individuals escalated when their friends intervened. Police said they are investigating claims that trouble was orchestrated through social networking websites. Four teenagers were arrested for public order offences as large crowds gathered in the Rosemount area. They were later released, pending further reports. A PSNI spokesman said at least one police vehicle had been damaged during the disturbance. There were no reports of any injuries. Meanwhile, in a separatedisturbance in Co Armagh police were pelted with stones and bottles as they tried to arrest two men in connection with an armed robbery. Trouble broke out in the Drumbeg area of Lurgan on Saturday night after officers tried to arrest the men aged 17 and 23-years-old. There were no reports of any injuries as a result of the trouble. At about 8pm on Saturday two men, wearing balaclavas and carrying handguns robbed premises at Taghnevean Walk in Lurgan. They forced staff to hand over a sum of cash and cigarettes before making off on foot. Two imitation handguns and a quantity of stolen property were recovered by police at Drumbeg. A police spokesman also appealed for four customers in the shop at the time of the robbery to come forward.They are also keen to speak to a motorist who stopped with police on the Tandragee Road at about 8.15pm. The two men aged 17 and 23 were last night charged with armed robbery and are due in court this morning.

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'Ndrangheta organisation, the Calabrian mafia, who are suspected of crimes including murder, extortion, drug trafficking

Italian authorities launched a series of raids on Monday targeting some of the most influential organised crime families in the southern region of Calabria, police said.About 300 officers took part in the operation, in which 42 people were arrested, and homes were searched and weapons seized, according to police in the Calabrian province of Crotone.The raids targeted members of the 'Ndrangheta organisation, the Calabrian mafia, who are suspected of crimes including murder, extortion, drug trafficking and association with the mafia, they added.
The 'Ndrangheta dominates the European cocaine trade with estimated annual sales of 36 billion euros ($56.6 billion) and has outgrown its better-known Sicilian peer, the Cosa Nostra.The organisation gained international notoriety last year after it was blamed for the slaying of six Italian men outside an Italian restaurant in the German city of Duisburg.Police said the dead were victims of a 'Ndrangheta feud going back more than 16 years in which at least 20 have died.

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Police have cancelled the Ink and Iron show at the NEC amid fears that the Hell's Angels and The Outlaws were gearing up for a bloodbath.

Police have cancelled a tattoo show at the NEC amid fears rival biker gangs were gearing up for a bloodbath.
The move follows a clash between the notorious Hell's Angels and arch rivals The Outlaws at Birmingham airport which saw gangs brandish weapons in front of horrified holidaymakers in January.
A 50-year-old man was left fighting for his life after being smashed over the head with a machete in the brawl which left two other men with stab wounds and sent passers-by fleeing for their lives. West Midlands Police have pulled the plug on the Ink and Iron show - which features everything from motorbikes to tattoos - due to be held on April 12 and 13, over concerns of mob warfare.
Officers received a tip-off that the two gangs were planning to use the event as a bloody showdown following the airport fight.Police fear the gangs have chosen Solihull as a battleground following the murder of Hell's Angels member Gerry Tobin who was shot on the M40, in Warwickshire, last August.
Worried police chiefs met up with NEC staff and the promoters of the Ink and Iron show to thrash out their concerns before pulling the plug on the event which traditionally attracts more than 8,000 people from across the country.
A spokeswoman for the NEC said they "regretted" having to cancel the show.
"This decision was not taken lightly and was made after listening to West Midlands Police advice and in consultation with the event organiser," she said.
"We regret the need to make this decision, however, the NEC Group believes the safety of our visitors and employees must always come first."
Solihull police have set up an incident room following the airport brawl and have so far arrested 26 people for a range of offences including wounding and violent disorder.Organisers of the Ink and Iron show have apologised on their website for the show's cancellation."This is due to recently received information from West Midlands police that the show had been targeted for some sort of disturbance and that there was a risk of violence taking place at the show," said a spokesman."Based on this information the NEC has decided to cancel the show to protect the safety of everyone involved." n Four men were arrested in August 2007 in connection with Mr Tobin's murder in a series of raids carried out by Warwickshire Police in Coventry and Nuneaton.The four were all remanded in custody by magistrates.

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The Rock Machine is back on Canada's motorcycle club scene.

The Rock Machine is back on Canada's motorcycle club scene. The club, which gained huge notoriety in the '90s thanks to a bloody war with the Hells Angels, has resurfaced hoping to distance itself from its troubled past and its ties to the Bandidos in the United States. "We're going back to our roots," a member of the re-formed Rock Machine said yesterday, speaking for the club. "It's the most logical choice." The club apparently already has about 72 members. Some of the bikers were with the club when it patched over to the Bandidos in 2000, some absorbed from another Ontario-based club, and many who are "completely new to the bike scene." The source said the Rock Machine hopes to spread across the country in time. But for now it will open two chapters in the east -- Toronto and Kingston -- and two chapters in the west, in Edmonton and Winnipeg. Ron Burling, 37, who is serving eight years in a maximum security prison, will head the chapters out west upon his release, the source said. And while the club has supporters in Quebec, it has no plans to return to its birthplace, where the long and deadly battle between the previous incarnation of the Rock Machine and rival Hells Angels gang was centred. "The days of old-style wars and fighting among bikers are long gone," the source said, explaining the bike scene has changed greatly since then. "We realize that if we keep fighting the way we were, we will ultimately be outlawed out of existence, " he added. The source said the new Rock Machine aims to be more like clubs of 50 years ago, when it was about "bikes and brotherhood." "We want to live a little wild but not be criminals," he said. The Rock Machine was born in 1986 from an alliance of Quebec drug dealers fending off the Hells, which was vying for a monopoly of the province's drug trade.
In the mid-1990s, a violent turf war erupted that left hundreds dead and wounded

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Daniel "Lizard" Hernandez I enjoyed stabbing people member Nuestra Familia prison gang in northern California.

Daniel "Lizard" Hernandez coolly described his outlook on orchestrating murders, robberies and drug sales as a high-ranking member of the notoriously brutal Nuestra Familia prison gang in northern California.
"I enjoyed stabbing people. It didn't matter who it was," Hernandez said before a crowd of about 200 law enforcement members packed into a lecture hall at South Pointe Exposition Center in Sandy this week.
"If someone needed to go, I was willing to do the job if I was available. I'd raise my hand to do robberies or shoot people."
This attitude from a man who eventually cooperated with the FBI to bring down the top of the Nuestra Familia empire was a shock for some who listened. Hernandez described manipulating prison guards, organizing hits on other inmates and sending orders from prison to thousands of gang members around California who subsequently committed crimes on the streets.
But the lessons shared from a seasoned convict were aimed at helping hundreds in law enforcement understand how to better combat gangs as reports of gang activity continue to rise, said Lt. Steve Anjewierden of the Salt Lake Area Gang Project, which sponsored the conference.
Hernandez's session was one of several held over two days at the 2008 Utah Gang Conference in Sandy, which concluded Friday. More than 1,100 people from Utah, Idaho, Arizona and a few scattered states
across the country gathered in Sandy to learn about the latest gang trends and suppression methods from experts in the field.
The growing number of participants at the conference, which is in its 18th year, is a testament to the rising number of gang problems in Utah, said retired gang Detective George Collord, one of the officers who worked on a case called Operation Black Widow that targeted several Nuestra Familia gang members.
Collord now travels with Hernandez to conferences where law enforcement can learn from Collord's perspective as an investigator and Hernandez' life as a gangster.
Fearing for his life in prison, Hernandez cut a deal with the FBI and became an informant. He says he now rejects gang principles.
"Utah has a gang problem as evidenced by the more than 1,000 people at this gang conference," said Collord after his presentation.
The Salt Lake Area Gang Project in 2004 linked 1,266 crimes in the Salt Lake Valley to gang activity.
Those numbers are on the rise, although police officers can't put an exact number on how many gang members there are in the state, said Detective Lex Bell of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Metro Gang Task Force during a seminar about regional gang trends.
Collord said educating law enforcement, schools and others who come into contact with gangs through initiatives like the conference help people to establish skills to diminish gang activity.

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Serafin Sandoval-Vega,Manuel Enrique Camacho,Roxana Hernandez This wasn’t a road-rage shooting. It was a Sureno 13 gang initiation

Daniel Ray Francis, a father of four from Little Flock, was shot in the back of the head May 6, 2006, as he rode in a friend’s car on U. S. 71 Business near Pleasant Grove Road. Serafin Sandoval-Vega, 20, Manuel Enrique Camacho, 27, and Roxana Hernandez, 22, are charged in Benton County Circuit Court in connection with his death. Witness statements show that 32-year-old Francis was gunned down in a gang crime, prosecutors say. Tracy Stith told investigators that he and Francis had been in a roadway dispute with the trio and that both cars took turns cutting in front of each other and slamming on the brakes. After about 15 minutes, Sandoval-Vega stuck a gun out the window of Camacho’s Honda Civic and fired, prosecutors say. “This wasn’t a road-rage shooting. It was a gang initiation,” said Al Valdez, a gang expert. “Mr. Camacho seized an opportunity in a dispute with strangers to let Sandoval-Vega commit a crime to get into a gang.” Sandoval-Vega, whom prosecutors say pulled the trigger, is charged with capital murder, while Camacho and Hernandez are charged with being accomplices. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Sandoval-Vega and Camacho. Hernandez, if convicted, faces up to life in prison. Valdez is a retired California gang investigator who is an adjunct professor with University of California, Irvine. He is a regular guest on the History Channel TV series Gangland.
Circuit Judge Tom Keith will decide before a May 7 hearing if Valdez’s testimony will be allowed as evidence. Defense attorneys Friday called their own expert who contested the findings of Valdez. Valdez said Friday that he made his determination in the case based on gang tattoos on Camacho’s body, on Camacho’s deep involvement with gang crime in California and on statements that he and others made after their arrests in Benton County. Valdez relied heavily on statements by informants who told prosecutors Camacho bragged to them in detail while in the county jail that the killing was a gang initiation. Camacho bragged to informants that he’s a “shot caller” with a local sect of Sureno 13, a Hispanic gang with roots in California, Valdez said. Camacho purportedly said the gang requires new members to shoot someone to get in. Camacho told informants he and the others were “on a mission” the day of the shooting, meaning they were carrying out a gang act or crime, Valdez said.
Camacho told informants he “threw” a gang sign before Sandoval-Vega fired at Francis, and that he told Sandoval-Vega to “shoot that fool,” Valdez said.
As a juvenile, Camacho had been convicted in Monterey County, Calif., in a drive-by shooting, Valdez said. After he moved to Rogers, he told police who questioned him in 2006 that he belonged to the South 18 th Street gang. After his arrest in Francis’ slaying, he bragged to informants that he had “people below him” in the local gang. “This is typical of gang members who leave California and become transplants in other states,” Valdez said. “He became a big fish in a little pond. The local kids looked up to him. He had instant street credibility.” Camacho’s tattoos include “Sur” on his stomach and “13” on his right arm, Valdez testified. On his neck, he has “831” the area code near where he lived in California. Camacho looked gaunt in court Friday and wore the collar of a white dress shirt up high around his neck. He and Hernandez had several supporters in court, while Sandoval-Vega had none. Twyla Francis, widow of the dead man, sat stoically with friends and family. Her face flushed when Valdez said the defendants “played with” Francis and Stith, engaging them in the roadway dispute for about 15 minutes before Sandoval-Vega fired with Camacho’s gun.
The defense expert, Brian Contreras, who runs the nonprofit youth program Second Chance in Salinas, Calif., testified that the shooting lacks the characteristics of a true gang shooting. Contreras studies and works with members of Vagos Sureno, a gang Camacho belonged to when he lived in the Salinas area.

“I don’t believe this crime was gang-related,” Contreras said. “Most gang crime is gangon-gang. The majority of our gang members will not target innocent victims. They’re out for territorial-based control, and they will not shoot an innocent person as an initiation. They’ll target rival gang members.” An arrest affidavit released shortly after the shooting states that Stith and Francis first noticed Camacho’s black Honda Civic after the two men left County Line Liquor in Springdale.

“Look out for the guys behind us,” Francis said to Stith, his coworker at J. B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell.
Stith said the Honda sped up behind his Acura, then quickly passed it. The Civic whipped in front of Stith’s car and applied the brakes three times.
Camacho stuck his hand out the sunroof and made an obscene gesture, Stith said. Stith drove behind the Civic for a while, then passed it. He got in front of the car and, too, tapped his brakes.
The two cars separated and continued north on 71 B. At Pleasant Grove Road, the Civic pulled up alongside Stith and Francis and the tinted passenger window went down. A gun came out and began firing.
Francis was struck three times. Stith said he got the Civic’s license plate and called 911.
Hours later, police arrested the trio at a Bentonville convenience store parking lot. They found a pistol and a box of bullets in Camacho’s car, court records show.

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Christopher Pimblett was jailed for 12 years after Judge Brian Lewis ruled he was the “controlling mind” of the gang.

The 17-strong gang sent £40,000 worth of drugs to Glasgow every week for two years.Liverpool drugs gang that ran a multi-million pound drug racket in Scotland were today beginning jail sentences totalling more than 100 years.
The racket was run by husband and wife Christopher and Sharon Pimblett from their St Helens home.The couple, who have since divorced, dispatched vans with heroin and cocaine hidden inside.The drivers would then return to St Helens with plastic bags stuffed full of cash.By raking in around £40,000 a week, the couple are estimated to have made more than £4m over two years.Yesterday, Christopher Pimblett was jailed for 12 years after Judge Brian Lewis ruled he was the “controlling mind” of the gang.He organised couriers and shipments, and liaised with Glasgow-based Fergus Smith – who was in control of the Scottish side of the organisation.Smith was locked up for 10 years and Pimblett’s former wife Sharon jailed for four years.Judge Lewis said Sharon Pimblett, a former pharmacy worker who was tearful throughout the proceedings, had an “active” role in assisting her husband.He jailed the 17-strong gang, who were convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A, B and C drugs from January 1, 2005 to April 17, 2007, for a total of 108 years and two months.
He said: “This was a large-scale, relatively sophisticated operation which was active for a period of over two years.”

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Arrest the suspected ring leader of a drug trafficking gang controlling that part of the city result killed some 14 suspected drug gang members

Brazilian police have killed some 14 suspected drug gang traffickers in three separate shootouts in the west part of Rio de Janeiro.
About 150 police raided the Coreia shantytown in western Rio on Thursday to arrest the suspected ring leader of a drug trafficking gang controlling that part of the city, police chief Rodrigo Oliveira said. "We came under fire after circling the communities," he said. "We believe the trafficker escaped."
Police have found the bodies of 10 suspected of the gang and managed to arrest three suspects but the gang leader could escape the scene of clashes, he said.
In another development, police killed a car thief and three suspected drug traffickers in two separate shootouts in Rio suburb on Nova Iguacu on Thursday morning. Slum dwellers complained that armed police officers enter and shoot before asking questions. Rio police gunned down some 1,330 suspects last year, registering 25 percent increase from 2006. Rio de Janeiro is one of the world's most violent cities with serious gun fights between police and drug traffickers.

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Lois Anne-Marie MacVey Thunder Bay chapter of the Hells Angels. pleaded guilty in February 2007 to three counts of trafficking cocaine

Lois Anne-Marie MacVey, 57, on Monday to 18 months in a provincial jail for trafficking cocaine.
MacVey is the latest person to be sentenced from the more than two dozen arrested in January 2006 after a multi-police agency investigation into the Hells Angels called Project Husky.
The Crown had asked for a federal penitentiary term of three to five years, while the defence called for a conditional sentence to be served in the community.
MacVey pleaded guilty in February 2007 to three counts of trafficking cocaine.
Pelletier said even if she found MacVey poses no risk to the community, she‘s not satisfied that a conditional sentence – akin to house arrest – would meet the sentencing principals of deterrence and denunciation.
And when trafficking large amounts of cocaine with a high level of commerciality is involved, deterring and denouncing the crime is paramount, she said.
Conditional sentences for trafficking are for those individuals who are selling small amounts at the street level, she continued. In the police investigation, a police agent infiltrated the Thunder Bay chapter of the Hells Angels.
In July and August 2005, MacVey was caught three times on video and audio tapes delivering cocaine to the agent at his home.
Each time, she delivered about one pound of cocaine, or 445 grams.
The agent paid the wholesale price of $20,000 per pound, and the entire amount of more than one kilogram would be worth $100,000 to $130,000 if sold through street-level trafficking.
At an earlier appearance, defence lawyer Lee Baig told the court that MacVey delivered the drugs in order to pay off a debt to Julien Alphonse Roussel, a full-patch member of the Thunder Bay Hells Angels.
She didn‘t have the money to pay her debt, so acted as a courier instead, court was told
MacVey previously had a relationship with Roussel, who is the father of one of her six children.
Roussel is serving a six-year term in a federal prison for various drug crimes, including trafficking.
MacVey acted as a courier, considered the bottom of the drug trafficking ladder, but still an important aspect of the trade, Pelletier said.
There was no evidence MacVey handled cash or had any significant personal benefit.
Aging and ill, she‘s considered a first-time offender.
But her trafficking was done for an organized crime group, and MacVey knew it and was familiar with the club, the judge continued.
Pelletier pointed to a section of the pre-sentence report in which MacVey acknowledged associating with known Hells Angels.
Pelletier said she does not accept MacVey was acting in desperation to repay a loan.
“This is not an isolated single transaction,” said Pelletier.
MacVey was ordered to provide a DNA sample for the national databank, and was given a 10-year weapons prohibition.

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Aime Simard had been a hitman for the Rock Machine motorcycle gang died from “massive bleeding which led to hemorrhagic shock,”

Aime Simard bled to death from wounds sustained in an attack in his penitentiary cell, a pathologist told a first-degree murder trial Thursday.
Simard died from “massive bleeding which led to hemorrhagic shock,” Dr. Roman Michalski told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Ronald Mills in response to the question from Crown attorney Robin Ritter.
“Probably there was no instant death,” said Michalski.
Simard, a member of a gang affiliated with the Hells Angels who became a police informant, was stabbed 187 times on July 18, 2003.
Christopher Robert Cluney, 33, is being tried for first-degree murder. Cluney’s co-accused, Alvin Vern Starblanket, pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life without parole for 13 years.
Earlier Thursday, RCMP Staff Sergeant Jacques Lemieux had told the court it is not easy to become a member of the Hells Angels while in prison.
“You don’t just wake up one morning and decide, ‘I’m going to become a Hells Angel. You have to be known by the organization for awhile” or be sponsored by a member from a geographically close chapter, he said.
“If I were in the pen and sponsored by someone from (the) Saskatoon (chapter), would I have to meet with Saskatoon (members)?” asked defense lawyer Morris Bodnar.
“Eventually, yes,” said Lemieux, adding membership ceremonies take place only after the inmate’s release.
Aime Simard, 35, was found dead in his cell at Saskatchewan Penitentiary just weeks after being transferred to the institution in July 2003. He had been a hitman for the Rock Machine motorcycle gang -- a group affiliated with the Hells Angels -- prior to turning informant against members of the Rockers in exchange for an early parole date.Alvin Vern Starblanket, 26, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in a plea bargain providing a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 13 years.Simard, who was serving a life sentence on three counts of second-degree murder, was scheduled to testify at a Nova Scotia murder trial at the time of his death.Crown prosecutor Robin Ritter said it was common knowledge in prison there was a contract out on Simard's life.While there was no evidence Starblanket received any payment for the killing, Ritter pointed out Starblanket enjoyed a favourable relationship with Hells Angels leader, "Mom" Boucher, at the special handling unit in Quebec where Starblanket was transferred after Simard's death.Defence lawyer Ed Stephens said his client was not a member of any biker gang and killed Simard in a spur of the moment attack, after Simard made veiled threats against Starblanket.
Starblanket's relationship with Boucher was not relevant in Monday's sentencing, said Justice Ron Mills.Starblanket was awaiting sentencing on a manslaughter conviction for the 2002 beating death of a priest, Rev. John Kratko, 61, in Prince Albert at the time of the Simard attack in the prison's maximum security unit, court heard.Starblanket entered the cell where Simard was housed in the early evening of July 18, 2003, Ritter said.Simard was made to lie on the bed, Ritter said.
Using a homemade "shank" comparable to an ice pick, Starblanket stabbed Simard for a "long time," during which Simard was heard "crying and screaming," Ritter said.
Stephens said his client admitted he intended to "finish off" Simard once the attack began."He wanted to make sure he didn't come back after him," Stephens said. "It's the law of the jungle in there."It wasn't planned or deliberate. It was one of these things that happen," he said.Simard, originally from Quebec, was eligible for parole after serving 12 years of his sentence. He was sentenced in 1997.According to a Montreal newspaper report from December 2001, Simard felt "hunted" inside the penitentiary, believing other inmates had branded him a "turncoat."Starblanket declined to say anything before he was sentenced.Mills prohibited Starblanket from ever owning weapons before imposing the sentence that was put forward jointly by Crown and defence."There is no lecture I can give that will have any impact on your life. You've chosen your path," Mills said.

Also Monday, Starblanket's co-accused, Christopher Robert Cluney, 33, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

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David James Oliynyk full-time member of the White Rock Hell's Angels sentenced to 18 years

David James Oliynyk appealed his 2005 conviction on a number of counts, including how the police identified him by voice while he transported by car between Vancouver International Airport and the Chilliwack RCMP detachment in July, 2001.
The trial judge had found Oliynyk and Joseph Elwood Roger Lepage, who was arrested at home in Kelowna, guilty and sentenced them to 18 and 12 years, respectively. A third suspect was also found guilty during the same trial in 2005 but was not part of this appeal.
The three-person appellate court panel dismissed his appeal and that of Lepage on March 28. The two fought their convictions for conspiracy to traffic and import cocaine for different reasons, most notably the manner in which police made voice identifications against them."There was no attempt by the police to elicit information about the crimes from the appellants, nor could there be any doubt on the part of these appellants that they were conversing with police officers. The voice identification evidence obtained by the arresting officers was obtained openly by the officers in the course of a normal arrest procedure," Justice John E. Hall wrote in last week's court decision.
After being arrested at the airport in 2001, Oliynyk was advised of his right to counsel and to remain silent. He asked to speak to a lawyer but the police officers told him he would have to wait until he arrived in Chilliwack, a couple of hours after his arrest.Oliynyk was described in court documents as a full-time member of the White Rock Hell's Angels but was living in Abbotsford at the time of the investigation.
Shortly after he was arrested, he spoke briefly with the police, asking who had "ratted" on him. A police officer later testified he could make an identification of Oliynyk's voice, which was a crucial element as the alleged narcotics network with Oliynyk and Lepage, among others, was being monitored through wiretapping.The original trial judge concluded the police could have made arrangements for Oliynyk to phone a lawyer from the Richmond detachment, but also found no reason to exclude the officer's voice identification.
Lepage similarly argued against a voice identification by police when he was arrested at a home in Kelowna."It is difficult to appreciate on what basis the evidence could or should be ruled to be inadmissible. In my opinion, the judge did not err in ruling the evidence of voice identification to be admissible," Hall wrote.
Oliynyk was one of a number of people identified through the wiretapping investigation of drug activities, one that had roots in the 1996 disappearance and grisly murder of a Chilliwack couple.A brief article in the Aug. 20, 1996 Times first mentions the discovery of resident John Michael Bayer Jr.'s remains five days earlier near Boston Bar.
His common law wife, Lani Louise Sheldon, was never found.
"There is a concern she may have met a similar fate," a police inspector said in a follow-up article.
The victims were believed to have been involved in drug trafficking. After the murder, police sought and finally received authorization in 2000 to gather wiretap evidence against people suspected of Bayer's death and Sheldon's disappearance. Through this, they gained information about the drug network that included Oliynyk and Lepage.

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Robin Moulton member of the Hells Angels Toronto Chapter was arrested in Las Vegas

Authorities say a fugitive Hells Angels motorcycle club member from Toronto is being held on an immigration violation while awaiting extradition from Nevada on cocaine trafficking and firearms charges.U.S. marshals say 38-year-old Robin Moulton was arrested March 25 in Las Vegas. They say the arrest came in a parking lot several kilometres west of the Las Vegas Strip by marshals and members of a regional and federal fugitive apprehension team.
Officials say U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement helped locate Moulton.
He is identified as a member of the Hells Angels Toronto Chapter.
He is being held in federal custody at the North Las Vegas jail awaiting transport to Toronto.

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Infamous Darwin gangs, The Caz Boyz and the Karama Boyz they stomped on people's heads.

One victim, a 30-year Darwin resident, said it was the "most disgusting'' thing he had ever seen in the Northern Territory. Another 54-year-old man, talking to the Northern Territory News as he left Royal Darwin Hospital with eight stitches and bruised ribs, said the Saturday night attack was like a precision "army operation''.
Their mate, in his 30s, was still lying in hospital yesterday unable to talk with both sides of his jaw broken. The men declined to reveal their identities in fear of a revenge gang bashing. The 44-year-old man said they went outside the Hibiscus Tavern, Leanyer, when a barman said "kids'' were trashing vehicles in the car park just after 9.30pm. But as soon as they stepped outside, they were "ambushed'' from behind by 40 teenagers who had been hiding under and behind cars. His 54-year-old friend said the attack was so well-planned, the teens did not skip a beat and bashed a couple who stopped to help. "They set the most beautiful little trap by getting us outside,'' the man said, who was kicked unconscious. "We were attacked from behind - it was definitely premeditated. "I don't know how many people kicked me, but they were all taking turns. But what really upsets me is that there were seven and eight-year-olds watching and admiring what these a******s were doing to us.
"You really don't want kids this young to see this. It is creating a gang culture. They think these guys are heroes.'' The men said there was "no question'' that it was the work of infamous Darwin gangs. "I don't know whether it was the Caz Boyz or the Karama Boyz. But they stomped on people's heads. It was mayhem,'' one victim said. The 44-year-old father said police had been "helpful'' but no arrests were made on the night, with the 40 teens fleeing the area into nearby parkland before officers arrived. He feared "nothing serious'' would be done to stop the random bashings until "someone gets killed or seriously maimed''. "We survived, but they could've bashed an older person,'' he said. "They did the same thing before at the same place six months ago. "Their parents are a joke for letting 10-year-olds run wild at 10pm. Until police start finding the parents, it won't stop. Gangs could overrun Darwin.'' His friend thought implementing a "three strikes'' policy to serve a compulsory National Service cadetship could be the answer. "That's the only way of slowing them down and maybe making some men of these bastards.''

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Eric alias “Titing” shot up the group which included the Camacho brothers together with other Bloods gang members

motorcycle gang, opened fire on a group of youths, wounding five persons in barangay Lorega San Miguel in Cebu City shortly before 4 a.m. yesterday.
The gunman were using an automatic pistol.Three of the victims were minors, brothers Bryan Paul, 17, and Roy Paul, 16, and Thadeo Camacho, 18. All are allegedly members of the Bloods Gang.The two other victims were Mylee Blanquero, 18, allegedly a member of the Alpha Kappa Rho fraternity and Crisanto Sanchez, 42, who was hit by a stray bullet.
Among all the victims, Sanchez is in critical condition after he was shot in the chest.Residents in the area said they were awakened and frightened by the burst of gunfire.
“We thought there was a war because of the gunfire,” a female resident said in Cebuano.According to witnesses, suspects might have used an automatic rapid KG-9 or an uzi or Ingram.Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr. said these kind of firearms can be easily acquired as they can be made locally.Policemen recovered about 33 empty shells of 9 mm pistol, seven deformed slugs and one metal jacket.
Comendador, Cebu City Police Office chief, said in a radio interview that his men were checking if the incident was fraternity related since most of the victims were members of the Bloods gang.
The Camacho brothers together with other Bloods gang members only known as Jogie and Wewaks, were sitting on a folding bed along the sidewalk when suddenly a red XRM motorcycle with two men on board stopped about five meters away from them.
The backrider identified by Blanquero as Eric alias “Titing” of barangay Cogon Ramos rained the group with bullets.Blanquero said he recognized Titing as they were friends before.Sanchez, who was sitting on the doorstep of his house near the group, was also hit.Titing then fled along with the unidentified driver towards barangay Day-as.Bryan Paul was wounded in his left leg, left arm and left shoulder; Roy Paul was shot in the right leg, Camacho got hit in the left leg and chest, while Blanquero suffered a gunshot wound in the left leg.
Homicide investigator Jeffry Gutual said a revenge angle would also be looked into.
Gutual said police would check the background of both parties and see if they had previous conflicts.

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