Jorge Rojas and Juan Gonzalez, two gunmen from the Tijuana drug cartel, have been convicted in a San Diego court

Jorge Rojas and Juan Gonzalez, two gunmen from the Tijuana drug cartel, have been convicted in a San Diego court in connection with last year's kidnapping of businessman Eduardo Gonzalez:The pair led a group known as Los Palillos (the Toothpicks) that focused its attacks on alleged associates of the Arellano-Felix drug-smuggling organization, which has controlled the flow of narcotics from Tijuana into Southern California for more than 15 years. * * * Law enforcement officials say Rojas organized the gang of disgruntled ex-gunmen believed responsible for as many as 20 kidnappings and a dozen murders in San Diego County beginning in about 2004.Rojas...

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Two teenage boys face attempted murder charges following a shooting in which two La Salle teenagers were shot and wounded Wednesday night in La Salle.

Two teenage boys face attempted murder charges following a shooting in which two La Salle teenagers were shot and wounded Wednesday night in La Salle.At 8:48 p.m. Wednesday, La Salle police received several 911 calls reporting shots fired in the 400 block of Central Street.At the scene officers found two male victims who were shot outside of 430 Central St. One victim, age 17, was shot in the abdomen, and the other victim, age 19, was shot in the chest.The victims were taken to Illinois Valley Community Hospital in Peru and later airlifted to OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria. La Salle police report the victims were in stable condition. Police did not release the victims' names in a press release and The Times was told no one was available at the police department for further comment...

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Michael Vargas was a captain in the Mexican Mafia gang. His plea resolves allegations involving murder, drug trafficking, extortion, robbery

alleged member of the state's largest prison gang pleaded guilty in San Antonio to conspiracy in a sprawling case that accused the gang of up to 20 unsolved killings.Federal prosecutors say more pleas are expected.They say Michael Vargas was a captain in the Mexican Mafia gang. His plea resolves allegations involving murder, drug trafficking, extortion, robbery, racketeering and related crimes. He'll be sentenced to 20 years in prison under the plea agreement.A second defendant, Ray Carrasco, has already signed a plea deal. Prosecutors say some of the remaining 20 defendants in the case are expected to follow suit.Authorities accuse members of the Mexican Mafia of peddling heroin and cocaine and taxing other drug dealers in some San Antonio neighborhoods. Up to 20 unsolved murders are attributed...

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Gambino crime family boss John Gotti is known to have asked Aryan Brotherhood members to murder his attacker

Aryan Brotherhood (AB) originated in San Quentin prison in 1967. Originally, this gang was established to provide protection for white individuals from black and Hispanic groups, most specifically the Mexican Mafia. Some of the original members of the AB migrated from a 1950s gang known as the "Bluebirds." Other names used in the past were the "Diamond Tooth Gang" and the "Nazi Gang." Today, they number about 15,000 members in and out of prison. In March 2006, four AB leaders were indicted for numerous crimes, including murder, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and racketeering. According to the FBI, although the gang makes up less than one percent of the prison population, it is responsible for up to 26% of murders in the federal prison system. Although members of the AB ordinarily wear numerous...

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Gang war may be escalating in and around Seattle.

Gang war may be escalating in and around Seattle. With as many as 200 gangs now operating in Seattle and King County, and shootings happening with alarming frequency, it's hard for police to keep track of all the rivalries. Seattle Police are aware there's a fierce ongoing feud between South End gangs and Central District gangs in Seattle. "It's been a war, not a new war, an ongoing war," he said. "Police are very aware of who the players are." Police suspect the shooting at Southcenter may have happened because members or associates of Central District gangs ran into their bitter rivals, the South End 74 Hoovers. one gang member threw out an insult about a rival gang member who'd been shot previously. "People don't even have to say anything. If they don't like each other, if they've been...

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Ciudad Juarez seven bodies were dumped before dawn Tuesday at a school soccer field in a leafy, upscale neighborhood in this Mexican border city.

Neighbors found the bodies — beaten, choked, in some cases mutilated and then shot — lined up along the field's fence. Alongside were three banners allegedly signed by a Mexican drug gang with messages directed at a rival gang, police spokesman Jaime Torres said.Hours after the bodies were removed, blood stained the curb, yellow police tape hung from the fence and classes continued at Colegio Sierra Madre, a private kindergarten-through-high school in a neighborhood of stucco homes, manicured lawns and palm trees.Only police in ski masks periodically drove past the campus, which posted an armed guard at the metal gate.Alejandro Pariente, a local prosecutor's spokesman, said the victims have not been identified, and they have no suspects.The homicides were the latest of hundreds of gruesome...

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Kennewick gang fight

15-year-old was injured Friday evening in what appeared to be a gang fight between the boy and several other males, the Kennewick Police Department said. The teen was not severely injured and didn’t require medical attention, police said. However, he did have a foot-long “slice” from the crown of his head down his back, police said. Police are not naming the 15-year-old because he is a juvenile. No suspects have been identified in the attack that took place at 10th Avenue and Hartford Street in Kennewick, authorities sa...

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Banning gun battle that left one person injured

Banning police are investigating a gun battle that left one person injured and several others detained Friday evening.Police responded at 9:26 p.m .Friday to reports of a fight involving several people at 456 E. Nicolete Street peppertree apartment complex, said police Staff Sgt. Steve Hobb. As they were responding to that call, they received several others about shots fired at the same address. When officers arrived, they found one victim suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital where he was treated and released. The fight involved several people and started over a female, Hobbs said.Police so far have interviewed at least 20 people regarding the incident. No arrests have yet been ma...

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Mexican Mafia practiced their rituals. "Brujeria" (witchcraft) altars with figurines of the bandit saint "Jesus Malverde" or "Santisima Muerte"

The Mexican Mafia actually forbade its members from "picking up the Bible" or espousing any form of Christianity. Some members of the Aryan Brotherhood were followers of pagan witchcraft, or worshipers of the devil. In taking on these new belief systems many gang members eschewed the moral codes they had previously ascribed to as part of their religious/superstitious upbringing. In the 1980s, Cuban "Marielitos" brought Afro-Cuban cult beliefs into the Los Angeles drug and gang culture. Santeria, Voodoo, and Palo Mayombe followers became some of the most violent criminal gang members Los Angeles had ever seen. Across the city, small altars with caldrons or "gangas" of fruit, rum, and cocaine, as well as animal blood sacrifices, dotted the map. "Botanicas" (occult pharmacies) that sold the paraphernalia...

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Venezuelans pray at the tomb of the notorious thief Ismael Sanchez, believing he and other dead gangsters can protect them against violent attacks

Venezuelans pray at the tomb of the notorious thief Ismael Sanchez, believing he and other dead gangsters can protect them against violent attacks and robberies. Devotees of the Corte Malandra or Gangsters' Pantheon say the spirits of gangsters who once maintained a reign of terror in Caracas now watch over them in a city where murders and robberies are rife. The Gangsters' Pantheon takes as its symbol a hawk on a motorcycle -- one of Ismael's tattoos -- to honor him, The Rat, Isabelita, Luis, Little Miguel, Antonio and other criminals who once preyed on poor hillside neighborhoods. "The cult started with Ismael, a criminal who robbed the rich to help those who lived in his barrio," said Yamileth, a worshiper who works in a store selling spiritual and religious objects. The roots of the Corte...

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Caracas has become one of the most violent cities on the planet. Armed gangs competing over turf and drug deals wage ruthless, low-level warfare

Caracas has become one of the most violent cities on the planet. Armed gangs competing over turf and drug deals wage ruthless, low-level warfare in the slums. Nationally, homicides have soared to more than 13,000 a year, with 2,710 in Caracas alone, according to leaked government figures. That gives a national rate of 48 per 100,000 people. In some Caracas slums the rate rises to 130. The rate in England and Wales is 1.4.In opinion polls Venezuelans consistently rank safety as their main concern, with 64 per cent expressing fear of being attacked in the street. Kidnappings have also surged, especially 'express kidnappings' in which victims or relatives pay an immediate relatively modest ransom.President Hugo Chávez may pay a political price today in local and regional elections. Voters are...

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Baikal automatic pistol - the gun of choice in gang circles - was unearthed

Baikal automatic pistol - the gun of choice in gang circles - was unearthed when police searched the teenager's home in New Cross, south-east London, in August, along with a magazine and two silencers hidden in a rucksack. Ammunition was found nearby and a machete and barrel brush for another gun were also found in the convicted robber's bedroom. The boy, who is too young to be named, admitted he was in a gang and told police he was holding it for someone else but would not say who. Now 14, he pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court to possession of a prohibited weapon and illegal ammunition. Prosecutor David Atkins said the case was a "prime example" of the gang and gun crime facing police in London. He said: "The gangs are up to 40 to 60 in number. They will be controlled by young men...

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Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, Mexico's representative to the international police force, Interpol arrested

Mexican authorities have arrested a senior police official for allegedly working with drug cartels.The arrest Tuesday of Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, Mexico's representative to the international police force, Interpol was part of a probe into leaks of information to drug gangs.Mexico has seen increasingly brutal drug-related violence, which has claimed thousands of lives.In Tijuana, federal agents and military forces are temporarily replacing hundreds of police officers responsible for patrolling the crime-ridden border town. Five-hundred police officers were sent to training and will undergo background checks.Earlier this month, the top officer of Mexico's federal police force, Gerardo Garay, stepped down following allegations senior officers had helped drug traffickers.President Felipe Calderon...

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Clay Roueche is the operational leader as well as the public face of the UN gang.

UN gang leader Clay Roueche starting buying his cocaine directly from South America after more than 200 kilos and $750,000 cash were seized in the U.S., according to court documents filed Wednesday.In one bugged telephone call, Roueche agreed to "test the water" of a new cocaine route by smuggling more than 50 kilos and said he had a "bunch in Venezuela I've already paid for," the documents say.Roueche has been held in segregation near Seattle since his arrest last May on international drug-trafficking charges. His lawyer wants a judge to allow the Fraser Valley native into the general prison population pending his trial in January.But the U.S....

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Marcelo Lucero, 37, was stabbed to death Nov. 8 in Patchogue, allegedly by seven teenagers in what Suffolk police labeled a hate crime.

Marcelo Lucero, 37, was stabbed to death Nov. 8 in Patchogue, allegedly by seven teenagers in what Suffolk police labeled a hate crime. One of the teenagers was charged with manslaughter as a hate crime. The others face gang assault charges.Schoolchildren in uniforms, girls in blue or red sweaters and plaid skirts, and boys in yellow shirts and black pants, crowded the mile-long processional route as Lucero's childhood friends carried his body. First they stopped at City Hall for a brief ceremony under a blazing sun. Then they made their way to the spacious house Lucero built for his mother, Rosario. Hate and tragedy on Long Island Lucero had planned to finally return to Ecuador soon to live with her and his sister Isabel after 15 years in the United States without ever visiting home."An innocent...

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Six heavily-armed men, including a suspended Pretoria police officer, were arrested

Six heavily-armed men, including a suspended Pretoria police officer, were arrested during a sting operation moments before they could carry out a cash-in-transit heist.The men, who are all from Soshanguve, were arrested on Tuesday by the hi-tech unit and Pretoria crime combating unit without a shot being fired, as they were allegedly preparing to attack guards from Protea Coin, who were about to fill up an ATM at a butchery outside Ga-Rankuwa.The six, including the officer, who is a constable stationed at the protection and security services (PSS) unit, are all out on bail for various crimes, including armed robbery and murder.The PSS includes units such as the VIP protection unit, ports of entry unit and railway police unit.The six are believed to be part of a heavily armed gang wanted for...

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Stanislao Cantelli was playing cards in a social club on the high street of Casal di Principe when someone walked in and fired 18 bullets.

Italy's crack Folgore paratroopers could not save 60-year-old Stanislao Cantelli from the Mafia. Two days after Silvio Berlusconi, centre-right prime minister, in October sent 500 troops to reinforce police in the Naples area after a spate of killings, the Mafia delivered their blunt response. Mr Cantelli was playing cards in a social club on the high street of Casal di Principe - a satellite town and stronghold of the Camorra gangs - when someone walked in and fired 18 bullets. Paratroopers were 200 metres away. By the time the police arrived, the killer and all witnesses had fled. Shops were closing their shutters. Police say Mr Cantelli, a retired cheese factory worker, paid the price for being the uncle of Luigi Diana, a Mafia "pentito" or turncoat whose information had led to the arrest...

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Yaakov Alperon, known as "Don Alperon", was driving his saloon car through a northern suburb of Tel Aviv when the vehicle was torn apart

Yaakov Alperon, known as "Don Alperon", was driving his saloon car through a northern suburb of Tel Aviv when the vehicle was torn apart by an explosion. Two bystanders were also slightly injured in the explosion, one a 13-year-old boy waiting at a bus stop. The attack has raised concerns that an Israeli mob war could be about to spin out of control. Little was left of the car after the explosion, which was apparently set off by remote control just before midday. Don Alperon's body was seen slumped over the steering wheel. A police spokesman said, with understatement, that the security forces were now assessing the situation to see what would develop in Tel Aviv. This is the latest and most serious attack in an Israeli mob war which some fear may once again be coming to the boil. That is worrying...

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Four Albanian men aged between 23 and 35 have been arrested in Athens in connection with a turf war between rival drug gangs

Four Albanian men aged between 23 and 35 have been arrested in Athens in connection with a turf war between rival drug gangs that has led to 11 people being killed and 13 injured since September 2007, police said yesterday.The victims were murdered in various parts of Athens in what was a bloody war between 20 Albanians who had started off as a gang dealing in heroin, cocaine and cannabis.The gang broke up in 2007, leading to months of bloodletting between the rival factions. One of the factions was almost wiped out with only one member surviving, as he had been jailed on drugs charges.Police said that the suspects had a sizeable arsenal of guns in their possession as well as a total of some four kilos of various dru...

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Tijuana police said Saturday they had found a man's severed head bound in duct tape

Tijuana police said Saturday they had found a man's severed head bound in duct tape beside a sign threatening members of a gang he allegedly belonged to. Three other bodies, all with bullet wounds, were also found on Friday in Tijuana.In the nearby city of Tecate, an investigative police officer was found shot to death, and the body on another man — apparently an assailant killed while attacking the officer — was found nearby.Also Saturday, Mexico's Defense Department reported that a regional military commander, Gen. Jorge Cardenas Canton, had committed suicide after suffering a sudden depression.Cardenas Canton commanded army troops in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Like all Mexican military officers, part of his duties included combating drug traffick...

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Jamaica experienced one of its most hellish days ever with the brutal gang rape of a mute woman

Jamaica experienced one of its most hellish days ever with the brutal gang rape of a mute woman, the slaying of three other women and the shooting of a fifth who was yesterday in hospital battling for life.The incidents shocked a country already jolted by a string of ruthless murders of children in recent weeks, the latest being that of 11-year-old Christopher Levi Suckra, a grade seven Petersfield High student whose naked, mutilated body was found Thursday morning in a canefield in Banbury, Westmoreland. Police believe Suckra was also sodomised.Yesterday's torment started when residents of the middle-class community of Mona in St Andrew found the mute woman naked and traumatised in their community.A resident gave the woman a sheet to cover herself while the police were called. The woman was...

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East Tyrone Brigade of the IRA, the most lethal but least criminally corrupt element of the Provisional IRA during the three decades of Troubles

East Tyrone Brigade of the IRA, the most lethal but least criminally corrupt element of the Provisional IRA during the three decades of Troubles in the North, ignored its leadership orders and moved against drug dealers in Dungannon in September this year.The move followed the killing of Eamonn Hughes, 48, a local man who was stabbed to death after an evening of celebrations for his daughter Siobhan's 18th birthday. The working class housing estates in Dungannon, such as Lisnahull, where the Hughes family live, had become beset by the anti-social problems associated with heroin addiction in the recent years of the "peace process".This had never happened before in working class areas of the North, where paramilitary groups simply expelled or shot anyone using hard drugs. In the three years...

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Armando Rodriguez, the main police reporter for El Diario newspaper in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua state across from El Paso, Texas, was shot

Armando Rodriguez, the main police reporter for El Diario newspaper in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua state across from El Paso, Texas, was shot as he was leaving his house to take his daughter to school, the newspaper said on its Web site.Suspected drug gangs shot dead a Mexican crime reporter near the U.S. border on Thursday, the latest journalist victim of a brutal drug war in which traffickers are targeting the media.Relatives of Rodriguez also confirmed his killing. It was not clear why he was targeted."Organized crime in Ciudad Juarez has tried to intimidate the church, schools and now journalists," Pedro Torres, the newspaper's deputy editorial director, told Mexican television.Ciudad Juarez is Mexico's most violent city and security has collapsed since the Pacific-coast Sinaloa cartel...

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Gang war that's spiraling out of control on the Far Northeast Side.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has about a half a dozen officers in their Street Crimes Unit who have to cover the entire county. For the past year, however, their focus has been taking down the gangs they say are terrorizing the Northeast Side."I've never seen so many assault weapons," one neighbor told News 4.Just last week, a 3-year old was shot as she slept. The shooting which led parents to question whether or not their children can be safe in their own homes."It's picked up a lot over on the Northeast Side of town," said Kris Saxon of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.During the day, the signs of gang violence are everywhere."You can see the house is riddled with bullets," Saxon said, pointing to a home in the area. "There's bullet holes up there. They returned fire. There's bullet...

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Italian shopkeepers pay about 250 million euros (203 million pounds) a day to Mafia protection rackets and loan sharks

Italian shopkeepers pay about 250 million euros (203 million pounds) a day to Mafia protection rackets and loan sharks and fear the current downturn could allow the mob to further tighten its stranglehold on the vulnerable economy.The warning came on Tuesday from the Italian shopkeepers' association Confesercenti, many of whose members are frightened into paying the "pizzo" -- as protection money is known -- to the various regional crime groups in southern Italy."The economic crisis makes the Mafia even more dangerous," said Confesercenti Chairman Marco Venturi, presenting a study called "Crime's Hold on Business.""Mafia businesses threaten to use the economy's weakness and uncertainty to strengthen their position," he said, urging banks and government to secure credit so that desperate firms...

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Joseph 'Benbow' Barrett, alleged leader of the Jones Town-based Joe Benbow gang

Joseph 'Benbow' Barrett, alleged leader of the Jones Town-based Joe Benbow gang, and his three co-accused, held for the recent seizure of four illegal guns, appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday. Barrett was charged by police early last week following investigations into the seizure of the guns and more than 20 rounds of ammunition. Also charged are Trudy-Ann Warren, 31, of South Anderson Crescent in Kingston, Marsha Marie Alexandria Johnson, 24, and Wayne Johnson, 35, also called 'Howard Johnson', a taxi operator, both of Benbow Street in Jones Town, St Andrew. All are charged with conspiracy to deceive customs, importation of firearms, conspiracy to import prohibited goods, conspiracy to import firearms and ammunition and conspiracy to import restricted goods....

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Robert Myers, who was convicted in August of first-degree murder, attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle, received two sentences

Robert Myers, who was convicted in August of first-degree murder, attempted murder and shooting into an occupied vehicle, received two sentences of life without the possibility of parole and other life terms on Thursday. 22-year-old man accused of hunting down rival gang members has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in a three drive-by shootings in 2004. Myers is one of three people charged in separate shootings in the San Diego communities of Linda Vista, Mission Valley and Skyline. The others are brothers Dejon Satterwhite, 19, and Edward Eugene Thomas, 21, both of whom are scheduled to go to trial Nov. 17. All three were juveniles at the time of the shootings but were charged as adults. Prosecutor Michael Runyon has said the defendants were on a “hunting trip” to find and kill...

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Three key leaders of two violent Southeast Asian street gangs were arrested

Three key leaders of two violent Southeast Asian street gangs were arrested Thursday in a series of raids in San Diego and Riverside County, the state Attorney General's Office announced yesterday. Two of the three were arrested in San Diego. Their names were not released. Agents seized rifles, a sawed-off shotgun and a Tec-9 machine pistol while serving seven search warrants Thursday morning. Ammunition and night-vision equipment were found. The San Diego police gang unit and Mid-City officers assisted in the raids. Although the two gangs are based in San Diego, many members have relocated to the Temecula Valley, according to the state Department of Justice gang unit. Before Thursday's raids, police had arrested 27 gang members and associates on suspicion of murder, robbery, burglary, identity...

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