Ballyfermot gangster, who is understood to have ordered the murders of the Corballys and Ryle, is well known to gardai.

gangsters who killed Robert Ryle had been intending to assassinate another man, it is believed.

Ryle (30) was not the original target of the hit, which gardai suspect was ordered by a notorious gangland boss.

The gun victim died yesterday morning in hospital after losing a three-day fight for his life. Ryle, from Blackditch Road, Ballyfermot, was blasted five times on Foxdene Avenue in Clondalkin shortly before 8.40pm on Sunday.

It is believed his death is linked to a bloody feud between two gangs based in the Bally- fermot area. Brothers Kenneth (32) and Paul Corbally (35) from Ballyfermot were gunned down last June in the dispute.

Ryle, who was an associate of the Corballys, had been driven to Foxdene Avenue by a woman friend on Sunday evening.

When he stepped out of the car to walk up a driveway, he was confronted by a masked gunman, who shot him in the head, neck and upper body.

Ryle was taken to Tallaght hospital where he underwent emergency surgery but he succumbed to his injuries early yesterday. It was the 20th gun murder of the year.

TREATMENT

It is understood the gunman was sent there to murder an associate of Ryle's but when Ryle unexpectedly emerged from the car he was shot.

The intended target was higher up the gang's pecking order than Ryle, who garda regarded as a minor player.

Gardai recovered a handgun they believe was used in the murder. The gunman dropped the weapon when Ryle's companion drove her car into the assassin during the attack.

The killer escaped but gardai believe he sustained injuries and may have sought medical treatment in recent days.

The Corballys were shot dead when a car they were sitting in on Neilstown Road in Clondalkin was sprayed with bullets.

The Ballyfermot gangster, who is understood to have ordered the murders of the Corballys and Ryle, is well known to gardai. He is one of the biggest drug dealers in west Dublin and is hiding out in Portugal.

The major west Dublin drug trafficker is directing his criminal activities from a villa on the outskirts of Lisbon, the Herald understands.

He has been engaged in a bitter gang war with associates of the murdered Corbally brothers since a mass brawl in September 2009, which resulted in the death of British criminal Jason Martin. The criminal, who is in his mid-30s, has convictions for assault, larceny, dangerous driving and criminal damage, but has managed to avoid any drugs convictions.

Read more »

Salvatore Vitale,As a child, he was taught how to swim; as an adult, he was instructed how to kill.

Of all the life lessons that Salvatore Vitale took from a boyhood friend he idolized, two of them became practically second nature: As a child, he was taught how to swim; as an adult, he was instructed how to kill.

The latter skill, he would later admit, was one he practised regularly on behalf of the friend, Joseph C. Massino, who would marry Vitale’s sister, become the boss of the Bonanno crime family and eventually elevate Vitale to serve as the underboss.

Vitale’s criminal life story is laid out in sharp relief in a remarkable document that federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed under seal last month. Nearly three centimetres thick, it contains a saga that spans more than three decades and touches on 23 murders, 11 of which Vitale directly participated in, and many other crimes that he and other mob figures committed.

But the document, which was unsealed earlier this week, also tells another story: how the Bonannos were decimated, in some measure through Vitale’s betrayal in 2003 of the crime family and his own extended family, as he became a star government witness. Using his testimony, federal prosecutors and FBI agents have been able to imprison 51 mob figures, including Massino and the last four acting bosses of the Bonanno family.

Vitale, 62, was sentenced Friday to time served. He had spent about seven years behind bars.

Prosecutors have called his cooperation “groundbreaking by any measure” and filed the 122-page document to seek a more lenient sentence than the mandatory life term set forth in the advisory sentencing guidelines.

In a 10-year assault on the Bonanno family, the FBI and prosecutors have convicted 135 members and associates, making Vitale perhaps the most prolific mob turncoat since Salvatore Gravano, who testified against the Gambino boss John J. Gotti.

Prosecutors say Vitale has identified more than 500 organized crime members and associates in the United States and abroad, and information he has provided has led to prosecutions of high-ranking members of the Colombo, Genovese and Gambino families, in addition to Bonanno family figures.

He has also provided information that led investigators to uncover murder victims buried decades earlier, including in a mob graveyard in a swamp on the Brooklyn-Queens border where two men slain in 1981 were interred.

But some see his cooperation in a very different light.

David Brietbart, who defended Massino at his 2005 murder and racketeering trial, criticized the government’s handling of Vitale and its use of cooperating witnesses in general, noting that a half-dozen admitted killers who testified against his client have been released into “the population at large.”

“I don’t want them living next door to me, and I don’t see how the government justifies that,” he said. “They take someone on and they use him and they file a 120-page motion in order that the individual can go home.”

Until 2002, the Bonanno family stood out among New York’s five Mafia clans in that it had never had a “made” member cooperate with the government and testify in court. That distinction was due in part to the obsessive fear of informants and infiltrators, borne of an undercover FBI agent’s years-long penetration of the family in the 1980s, which cost two Bonanno figures their lives. (The case became the basis for the 1997 movie “Donnie Brasco.”)

But Vitale’s cooperation helped break the Bonanno family, leading to a historic event in U.S. organized crime: Massino’s own betrayal, nearly two years later, of the crime family he headed. An unprecedented act, it made Massino, an Old World stalwart known as the Last Don, the first Mafia boss in this country to cooperate with the FBI and prosecutors.

Slender, soft-spoken and polished, Vitale, who grew up in Brooklyn and Queens and attended City College for a year, made a very effective witness.

He served in the Army as a paratrooper for two years, stationed in Mainz, Germany, and worked as a UPS truck driver and a New York state correction officer before he began working for his childhood friend, Massino, driving a catering truck to sell coffee and pastries at factories and car dealerships on Long Island.

Vitale, whose silver hair always appeared carefully combed (he was known as Good Looking Sal), came to idolize Massino, who was nearly five years his senior.

During the course of his three decades with the crime family, his portfolio of crime was substantial and varied. He told agents and prosecutors of committing arson, burglary, hijacking, loan sharking, extortion, insurance fraud, illegal gambling, money laundering, obstruction of justice and securities fraud. And then there were the murders; Vitale pleaded guilty in April 2003 to racketeering conspiracy and murder-in-aid of racketeering, admitting to 11 killings between 1976 and 1999.

Read more »

Police arrest a total of three suspects in two different high profile murder cases.

Police found the body of 48-year-old Martin Zepeda on Tuesday inside a home on Tulare and Fifth in southeast Fresno. And almost one month to the day, 21-year-old Delmon Newsome was shot the death just yards from his southwest Fresno church.

Police had to serve a total 12 search warrants to solve one crime. The other required hours of undercover surveillance. And their hard work paid off with arrests in both cases.

A memorial still sits outside the home of Martin Zepeda Thursday night. Police say 23-year-old Alfredo Chavez and 19-year-old Brian Munoz have admitted to robbing him and beating him to death.

A break in the case came when police found the two suspects in Zepeda's stolen car in west central Fresno. Zepeda's friend says he's glad someone is in custody.

"My sister told me earlier today had a blog on ABC, channel 30 with his pictures and stuff but it's amazing that they found somebody, that they found his car and they found the people that committed the crime." said Ramon Pulido.

One the same day police solved this crime, they also made an arrest in another high profile murder.

21-year-old Edward Page is jail accused of gunning down 21-year-old Delmon Newsome outside Saint Rest Church in southwest Fresno.

Newsome was a member of the church and had just gotten his life back on track. His pastor says the arrest is bittersweet.

"But unfortunately it was a peer of Delmon. And when I say a peer it was a young person. And so here's a young person who literally thrown their life away." said Pastor Shane Scott.

Newsome's death last month sparked outrage and prompted Pastor Scott to organize a community meeting to try and reduce violent crime in the area. He says it's worked.

"I've seen a community come together to talk about taking their community back." added Scott.

Police say the man arrested in Newsome's death is a validated gang member. And they say one of the suspects in the other killing is also a gang member.

Read more »

Twenty-nine members of the Insane M.O.B. (Money Over Bitches) gang were arrested

Federal and local agents said they took down the most violent gang in Orange County Thursday. Twenty-nine members of the Insane M.O.B. (Money Over Bitches) gang were arrested, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies told WFTV the gang was responsible for drive-by shootings, at least two murders, several attempted murders and drug dealing. Investigators say their criminal enterprise was based out of a barbershop.
A 2006 shooting that left 18-year-old Joey Vera dead was the spark that Orange County Sheriff's investigators say ignited a street war and led to the rise of the county's most violent gang.


Officers say, after a 3-year investigation, joined last year by state and federal agents, they dismantled the gang, arresting 29 men and women and taking weapons and drugs off the street.
"There were always shooting around here," neighbor Will Reyes said.
Investigators say Vera was the gang leader and, when he died, three other men took over, including Teddy Vasquez, the so-called "kingpin."
The men used a barbershop on Hoffman Road, Fade Factory , as their headquarters. Investigators say inside they sold drugs, firearms and also used the barber shop as a front to launder money from their illegal activities.
Investigators used confidential informants and connected the gang members to drive-by shootings, arsons and two murders. In September, after getting a tip, the sheriff's dive team found what's believed to be a murder weapon in Lake Underhill.
While most of the crime was aimed at other gangs, the say the public was always in danger.
"Whenever they get guys like this, it's always better," Reyes said.
Even with leaders behind bars, investigators say the gang tried to hire hit men to kill confidential informants working for the sheriff's office. They also allegedly had ties to Chicago gang activity.

Read more »

Bulger Task Force, an FBI-led team that includes state police investigators and state prisons officers.

FBI has enlisted the help of another federal law enforcement agency in the hunt for fugitive Boston mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger.
The U.S. Marshals Service, known for its success in tracking down wanted men, recently assigned a deputy marshal to work full time with the Bulger Task Force, an FBI-led team that includes state police investigators and state prisons officers.
U.S. Marshal John Gibbons says his agency “looks forward” to bringing the 81-year-old Bulger to justice.
A spokesman for the FBI’s Boston office tells The Boston Globe the hope is that the marshals’ international contacts will help track down Bulger.
Bulger disappeared just before his January 1995 federal racketeering indictment in Boston and was later charged with 19 murders. The last confirmed Bulger sighting was in 2002 in London.

Read more »

Armed robber Brian Leslie O’Callaghan would be recalled with fear by bank staff he menaced, but was yesterday remembered fondly by gangland cohorts.

MAN described as among the heaviest of Melbourne’s underworld figures during the 1970s has died, aged 62.
Armed robber Brian Leslie O’Callaghan would be recalled with fear by bank staff he menaced, but was yesterday remembered fondly by gangland cohorts.
He was a close mate of Raymond Chuck Bennett, who masterminded the Great Bookie Robbery, and was also a member of the notorious Kangaroo Gang.
When Bennett was murdered at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in 1979, it was feared O’Callaghan was the most likely to square up.
O’Callaghan escaped from prison in NSW the day after his mate was killed.
Notorious crime figure Billy Longley, who did time with O’Callaghan in Pentridge Prison’s H Division, said O’Callaghan was highly regarded among criminals.
“He was respected by all who knew him,” Longley said.
“He could conceive a rort, he could take charge of a rort and he could execute a rort.”
Longley said, despite his history of armed robbery, O’Callaghan was not given to excessive violence: “He wasn’t a fighting man. He was more finesse than knuckle.”
O’Callaghan worked with the Kangaroo Gang as it fleeced millions in jewellery and other goods from Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. He escaped from a British prison in 1972, where he was awaiting trial over a jewel robbery, and arrested two years later at a Carlton house.
A former top Victorian detective said O’Callaghan was connected with big names of Melbourne crime, including Edward “Jockey” Smith, Dennis “Fatty” Smith, Norman Lee, Laurie Prendergast, Graham Kinniburgh and Keith Collingburn.
“They were the heaviest of the heavy,” the detective said.
Mark “Chopper” Read said O’Callaghan was the seventh of the Great Bookie Robbery crew, but was in jail when the plan was executed. He said his good mate Bennett later gave him a $1 million cut.
But O’Callaghan’s heroin addiction drove him to poverty.
Read said he gave O’Callaghan $1000 when he saw him outside a Carlton supermarket. “I gave him $1000 and he started crying. He was rapt,” Read said.

Read more »

Two boys left to die during a bloody rampage in a Memphis home

Two boys left to die during a bloody rampage in a Memphis home turned into key witnesses who helped convict their uncle of six murders in one of the city's worst mass slayings.
Jurors concluded Monday after less than two hours of deliberations that Jessie Dotson, 35, shot his brother in the head during an argument, then used two guns to kill five other people, including two young nephews, trying to eliminate all witnesses. He then stabbed three more boys, who hung on for some 40 hours until help arrived, prosecutors said.
Two years later, two of the survivors pointed to their "Uncle Junior" as the man who shot their dad and slashed at them knives, enough to convince the jury that Dotson was guilty of six murders and not the gang members he said committed the crimes. Those same jurors will decide beginning Tuesday if Dotson should be sentenced to death by injection. Dotson showed no emotion, looking straight ahead as the verdict was announced.
One of the survivors, Cecil Dotson Jr., now 11, was found in a bathtub with a 4½-inch knife blade embedded in his skull. The boy, his brother 8-year-old Cedric Dotson, and Jessie Dotson's mother were key prosecution witnesses.
"CJ solved it," said prosecutor Ray Lepone. "He had the courage to come in here and point out his uncle."
Jurors concluded that the short, thin Dotson after a day of drinking, shot and killed his brother, Cecil Dotson, in the dark early morning hours of March 2, 2008. Then he went after everyone else in the house with two guns, boards and several knives, leaving no DNA evidence behind in the house, which the defense pointed out.
Also killed were 4-year-old Cemario Dotson and 2-year-old Cecil Dotson Jr. II; Cecil Dotson's girlfriend, Marissa Williams; and friends Hollis Seals and Shindri Roberson.

Read more »

top ten list is the top ten world most dangerous gangs

top ten list is the top ten world most dangerous gangs

10. Area Boys

Territory: Nigeria and parts of Africa

Criminal activities: Drug trafficking, extortion, murder, inciting riots

Number of members: 35,000

Over the past three decades, Nigeria’s Area Boys have gone from young kids committing crimes of opportunity to a massive if still largely unorganized street gang responsible for acts of extortion and murder.

9. Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC)

Territory: Brazilian prison system

Criminal activities: Drug and gun trafficking, murder, extortion, prison riots, prison breaks, kidnappingNumber of members: 6,000-plus

A Brazilian gang, this gang is one of the newest Brazilian prison gangs to be formed. Founded in 1993 Primeiro Comando da Capital the gang is known to have carried out about 300 attacks, all of them being against public establishments. In order to become part of the Primeiro Comando da Capital, you have to be introduced by a regular member of the gang. An oath must also be accepted.

8. Jamaican Posse

Territory: Jamaica, Eastern United States, UK (known as “Yardies”)

Criminal activities: Drug and gun trafficking, witness intimidation, murder

Number of members: 13,000 to 20,000

Authorities have identified dozens of individual posses within the wider gang. The two most often cited are the Spangler Posse, aligned with the PNP, and the Shower Posse, aligned with the JLP. The Shower Posse reportedly takes its name from the “shower of bullets” it dispenses on its enemies.

The Jamaican Posse have ties in Eastern Canada and Southern US mainly in Florida and have established drugs routes in trafficking.

7. Aryan Brotherhood

Territory: U.S. federal and state prison systems

Criminal activities: Drug trafficking, conspiracy, murder, racketeering, contract killing

Number of members: 15,000-plus

The gang only makes up about 1% of prison populations, but size doesn’t matter to the Aryan Brotherhood. In fact, this gang is known for at least 26% of the murders that occur in prisons around the U.S. The Aryan Brotherhood is split into two groups, usually those in federal prisons and other members that are located in some of the smaller state prisons, especially those in California. In order to join the Aryan

Brotherhood, one has to kill or assault another prisoner.

6. Wah Ching

Territory: Hong Kong, San Francisco, Los Angeles

Criminal activities: Drug and gun trafficking, extortion, murder, software piracy, burglary, gambling, prostitution, loan sharking

Number of members: 100,000 Worldwide

The Wah Ching are also violent and sophisticated, as evidenced by two 1995 raids in Los Angeles that uncovered an underground factory run by the Wah Ching featuring $18 million in counterfeit Microsoft products. The raid also found weapons and explosives, namely TNT and C-4.

Wah Ching is a Chinese American street gang and Triad Society composed of different sets including Ken-Side, Sonny-Side, Paul-Side, T-Side, Alhambra-Side, and Monterey Park-Side, that operate mostly in Southern California but including areas throughout California and Vancouver, British Columbia. During their salad days, they controlled most of the criminal vices throughout San Francisco and Los Angeles’s Asian communities.

The gang has established drug trade routes in China white and the heroine trade.

Allies include Nuestra Familia, Bloods, Crips, Black Guerrilla Family, 14K Triad, Sun Yee On Triad, TAP Boyz, Big Circle Boys, Black Dragon Gang, DC Blacks

5. Bloods

Territory: Los Angeles

Criminal activities: Murder, drug trafficking, robbery, extortion

Number of members: 15,000 to 30,000

Thousands of members of the Blood street gang were establishing themselves as a formidable force among gangs and continued a steady drive for recruitment. At this time, the Bloods were more violent than other gangs but much less organized.

The Bloods are violent and run much of the inner city drugs in the US

4. 18th Street Gang

Territory: Los Angeles, Western and Southern U.S., Central America

Criminal activities: Drug and gun trafficking, robbery, extortion, murder, contract killing, prostitution

Number of members: 65,000

18th Street is considered to be the second largest gang in Los Angeles, California.

18th Street is a well established gang that is involved in all areas of street-crime (as opposed to corporate crime). Some members have even become involved in producing fraudulent Immigration and Customs Enforcement identification cards and food stamps. Several 18th Street gang members have evolved into a higher level of sophistication and organization than other gangs. They also have been linked to occurrences of murder, murder-for-hire, assaults, drug trafficking, extortion, vandalism, drug smuggling, prostitution, robbery, and weapons trafficking, as well as other crimes.

3. Crips

Territory: Los Angeles

Criminal activities: Drug trafficking, robbery, murder, extortion, ID theft

Number of members: 50,000

The alliance with the 18th Street Gang has strengthened has made the Crips even more powerful.

The Crips are one of the largest and most violent associations of street gangs in the United States, with an estimated 50,000 members. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, and drug dealing, among many other criminal pursuits. The gang is known for its gang members’ use of the color blue in their clothing. However, this practice has waned due to police crackdowns on gang members.

2. Mexican Mafia

Territory: Prison but control most of the drugs and Mexican street gangs in the US

Criminal activities: Murder, money laundering, weapon trafficking, drug trafficking, Kidnapping, pandering, racketeering, extortion and illegal gambling

Number of members: 500-600 Inducted Members/ Leaders, over 50,000 Associates

The Mexican Mafia, also known as La Eme (Spanish for the letter M) is a Mexican-American criminal organization, and is one of the oldest and most powerful prison gangs in the United States.

The Mexican Mafia is the controlling organization for almost every Chicano gang in Southern California. All members of Chicano gangs in Southern California are obligated under the threat of death to carry out any and all orders from made Mexican Mafia members. The Mexican Mafia also holds a loose alliance with the Aryan Brotherhood, mainly due to their common rivals within the prison system.

The Mexican Mafia is an organization involved in extortion, drug trafficking, and murder, both inside and outside the prison system. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Mexican Mafia had arranged for contract killings to be carried out by the Aryan Brotherhood, a white prison gang. Both the Mexican Mafia and the Aryan Brotherhood are mutual enemies of the African-American gang Black Guerilla Family.

1 Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13)

Territory: Central America, the United States

Criminal activities: Drugs, guns and human trafficking, murder, contract killing, extortion, kidnapping

Number of members: 70,000

Right now, the street gang getting the most attention around the world is MS-13. The gang is a product of the Cold War, born of refugees from the 1980s Salvadoran Civil War who landed in Los Angeles. For a street gang, MS-13 operates with extreme organizational efficiency.

The majority of the gang is ethnically composed of Central Americans and active in urban and suburban areas.

They have been the most violent and fast rising gang in the North America today. Even the Mexican Drug cartels are paying them for protection of their drug routes.

Read more »