Gang war was intensifying, and police and community activists were meeting in attempts to quash the violence between the two sides.

Gang war was intensifying, and police and community activists were meeting in attempts to quash the violence between the two sides. It was the summer of 2006, and 18-year-old Herman Taylor III, who attended Belmont High School as part of the Metco program, was walking home from a friend's house in Roxbury.Taylor was gunned down about 500 feet from his front door, an innocent victim in a case of mistaken identity, prosecutors say.His death sent waves of grief and mourning through two communities - in the Humboldt Avenue neighborhood of Roxbury and at Belmont High School, where Taylor was a popular student who excelled academically and as a basketball player.

"Here's why Herman Taylor was killed: He was killed because he happened to be on Humboldt Avenue," said Assistant District Attorney Masai King in an opening statement yesterday in the Suffolk Superior Court trial of Lamory Gray. He is charged with first-degree murder in Taylor's death.

Prosecutors say Gray, whose nickname is "Laws," mistakenly thought Taylor was a gang rival."Laws was a Heath Street soldier," King said. "On July 2006, he went on a mission up Humboldt Avenue to shoot someone from H-Block."Gray, wearing a blue dress shirt and glasses and with his hair in cornrows, sat next to his attorney, James Budreau, as King talked. At one point he glanced over his shoulder toward relatives seated in the courtroom and shook his head from side to side.Gray is also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawfully carrying a loaded handgun. He has been held without bail since October 2007, following a 17-month grand jury investigation, according to prosecutors.The defendant's lawyer said prosecutors cannot prove a motive for the crime, and for that reason they are introducing a gang angle. "The word 'gang' is the Commonwealth's evidence here," Budreau said.
At the time of the homicide, there had been at least

50 shootings between gangs from the Bromley-Heath and Humboldt Avenue areas,

King said.Much of the day's proceedings centered on the testimony of a 19-year-old witness, Shumane Garvin. She testified with the jury excused from the courtroom, saying repeatedly that she could not recollect much of what she told a grand jury, forcing King to present her with transcripts in attempts to refresh her memory.King said Garvin's testimony sharply differed with what she had told a grand jury in 2007, telling Judge Frank Gaziano that earlier she had described "seeing the shooter fire a firearm several times in the direction of the victim, Herman Taylor."Garvin testified yesterday that her brother and the 23-year-old defendant were friends. "There's an inference that she doesn't want to be involved in the case and doesn't want to do anything to hurt her brother or her brother's friend," King said.Budreau said that the prosecution's attempt to identify his client as the shooter through Garvin is deeply flawed and that Garvin has never given a positive identification of the assailant.Marisa Luse, the victim's oldest sister, was the first person called to the witness stand. King gave her a photograph of Taylor. She said that it was the last picture taken of her brother and that she snapped it during a birthday party for their sister in June 2006, a few days before his death.Today, the jury was expected to visit the site where Taylor was killed.

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Posted in: Heath Street soldier

A grenade tossed into a cafe, gunfire in the street, dead bodies splayed on the pavement, residents living in fear

A grenade tossed into a cafe, gunfire in the street, dead bodies splayed on the pavement, residents living in fear -- all sounds out of sync with the medieval cobbled streets and copper roofs of the Danish capital.Bloody gang war between bikers and youths of immigrant origin has shattered Copenhagen's customary calm and jolted officials to boost action against violence that has left three dead and 17 wounded in seven months.But a bloody gang war between bikers and the youth of immigrant origin has shattered Copenhagen's customary calm and jolted officials to boost action against violence that has left three dead and 17 wounded in seven months.Two more attacks this week -- one Friday using a hand grenade -- heightened alarm, even if police would not immediately link them to gangs."We won't accept this settling of scores between gangs that is frightening the population," Anders Fogh Rasmussen said earlier this month before stepping down as prime minister to become NATO secretary general.Officials, he vowed, would "take all necessary means to halt the escalating violence," as Copenhagen's police chief promised to use "Al Capone-like tactics" to go after the gangs.The battle over drug sales, revenge and wounded honour pits Hells Angels bikers and their offshoot called AK81 against gangs of mainly second and third-generation immigrant youths.
The long-simmering conflict exploded into full-blown war last August, after a 19-year-old man of Turkish origin named Osam Nuri Dogan, who was armed and wearing a bullet-proof vest, was executed on the street.His body was riddled with 25 bullets in front of a Copenhagen pizza parlour.A member of AK81 suspected of the killing was arrested but quickly released for lack of evidence.Since then, violent acts of retaliation have become almost a daily occurrence in the capital -- and raised concern of fuelling anti-immigrant sentiment in a country long sceptical of Muslims where tightening immigration has been the cornerstone of government policy.Early Friday, an unknown assailant launched a grenade at a packed cafe patronized by bikers in Christiania, Copenhagen's giant squat and repair of free spirits and marginals since the 1970s. Four were wounded, including a 22-year-old man whose cheek was ripped out by the blast. came a week after another attack in Christiania in which an AK81 member shot and seriously wounded a 30-year-old man in the stomach. Tabloids said it was gangs settling scores but police, again, would not confirm this.The majority of attacks -- including one Wednesday in which police said "two men on a motorcycle" shot and wounded a 29-year-old man of Egyptian-Eritrean descent -- have occurred in the heavily immigrant Noerrebro neighbourhood.The sound of gunfire there has become all too common but residents were shocked out of complacency two months ago when three separate shootings in as many days killed two people with no links to gangs and wounded four others.Protesters dressed in mourning as for a funeral have repeatedly marched through the capital demanding a "gun-free zone" in Noerrebro so people can take a walk "without worrying about being killed by a stray bullet".Rasmussen personally visited a Noerrebro school in early April to try to calm nerves. "You shouldn't have to have a knot of fear in your stomach when you go outside," he told a worried 16-year-old.Police have dramatically increased their presence in trouble zones.Parliament, meanwhile, has scheduled a major hearing on the gang war on April 29 and the justice ministry is preparing a draft law to bolster legal action.The bill, which parliament is expected to approve before summer recess, will "lead to a doubling of penalties for certain types of serious crimes committed in connection with the retaliatory attacks between gangs," said Justice Minister Brian Mikkelsen.It would also dramatically increase jail time for possession of illegal weapons and give police more leeway in tapping phones and holding suspects in custody.'We will give them no peace'

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Posted in: Copenhagen

Outlaw bikie gangs heavily armed Tactical Response Group reponds

Police are still hunting a dangerous gunman who fled a shooting in Attadale that is believed to be connected to outlaw bikie gangs.A 30-year-old man was arrested and charged yesterday after a 2.5-hour standoff with police on Hislop Road on Friday.
The street was closed off and the heavily armed Tactical Response Group was called in after the shooting was reported in front of a suburban house about 10.15am.

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Posted in: Attadale

Calabrian mafia money launderer Mario Condello acted as a go-between for Romanian crime gangs keen to use the Italian secret society

Calabrian mafia money launderer Mario Condello acted as a go-between for Romanian crime gangs keen to use the Italian secret society's distribution network to sell its imported heroin, cocaine and amphetamines. sons of criminal Romanian immigrants have expanded the range of crimes committed by the gangs to include sophisticated frauds, identity theft and credit card scams. Romanians have been charged after credit-card skimming devices were fitted to dozens of ATMs in at least four states.
crime gangs have been the masters of insurance and social security fraud for decades. gangs in South Australia specialise in importing, selling and rebirthing weapons. The former AFP agent said the Romanians were "as good a crime group as you will get", and notoriously difficult to investigate.

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Posted in: Romanians were "as good a crime group as you will get"

Real IRA has carried out at least two murders of drug dealers and shot and injured a number of others, including two in Donegal.

The dissidents’ links with the drugs trade in Dublin are well established, with republicans supplying increasing numbers of pipe bombs to drugs gangs for sums reported to be as much as €30,000. The bombs made by the dissidents are showing signs of increasing sophistication — a development which is causing alarm to security forces on both sides of the border.
Republicans, who last week threatened the North’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, are involved in an increasing cross-border trade in drugs and weapons with Dublin criminals.The PSNI last month discovered a large consignment of cannabis which had been supplied to west Belfast dissidents by a west Dublin gang with no known republican links, who drove the consignment north.Several figures with dissident links are already in prison or before the courts on drugs-related charges, and a number of imprisoned drug dealers have been accepted into the dissidents’ wings of prisons here and in Northern Ireland.According to republican sources in the North, the dissidents in both Derry and Belfast are involved in the drugs trade and in extorting money from non-aligned drug dealers. The Belfast dissidents have even teamed up with former loyalist terrorists who have long been involved in the drugs trade, sharing shipments of drugs smuggled in from Spain.The ’second-in-command’ of the Continuity IRA in west Belfast is currently facing gun and drug charges. The current ‘officer commanding’ of this group in Belfast is a former joyrider and petty thief who has recently acquired an expensive car and, according to local people, is enjoying a lavish lifestyle. They suspect he is also a police informer. So far, the Continuity and Real IRA in west Belfast have confined their activities to “punishment” shootings of local drug dealers who have refused to pay extortion money, but they have also shot and injured at least two innocent victims.In Derry, the Real IRA has carried out at least two murders of drug dealers and shot and injured a number of others, including two in Donegal.The open involvement of the dissidents in the drugs trade is a new development in the world of republican terrorism. In February, the Real IRA in Dublin, a small group composed largely of teenagers and men in their early 20s, shot dead a 21-year-old man, Darren Guerrine, over a small drugs debt.Although the involvement in drugs is public knowledge in republican areas of the North, the dissident groups still appear to be attracting support. It is understood that a former senior IRA man in the north of the city has transferred his support to the dissidents.Police in the North suspect that the dissidents are preparing to launch attacks on Orange parades in the North in order to stir up sectarianviolence. The Troubles in the North escalated when republicans attacked Orange parades on the Crumlin Road interface between the Catholic Ardoyne and Protestant Shankill areas in 1970.Over Easter, the traditional start of the loyalist marching season, an Orange bandsman was badly injured during a parade in the County Antrim town of Crumlin when he was hit on the head by a brick thrown at the marchers.According to republican sources, the rise of the dissidents has accelerated since the Provisional IRA declared itself disbanded two years ago. For the first time this year there was no Provisional IRA ‘Army Council’ statement read out at Sinn Fein-organised Easter Rising commemoration events. It was noted, however, that while numbers appear to be dwindling at the Sinn Fein commemorations, the numbers attending dissident events, though still small, are growing.
Sources in Tyrone said the numbers attending the Sinn Fein-organised Easter commemoration in Carrickmore, traditionally a centre of major support for Sinn Fein and the Provisional IRA, were the lowest in local memory.A veiled threat to Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness came from a Real IRA spokesman wearing a combat jacket and mask who addressed a rally organised by its political wing, the 32-County Sovereignty Committee. Referring to the Deputy First Minister’s condemnation of the dissident killers of the two soldiers and PSNI officer last month as “traitors”, the dissident spokesman said: “Treachery is collaborating with the enemy. Treachery is betraying our country”.The statement, published in a Sunday newspaper last weekend, also admitted the Real IRA murdered former Sinn Fein member and self-confessed former informant, Denis Donaldson at his holiday home in Donegal in 2006. At the time, gardai suspected that the killing had been carried out by a dissident republican related to a former senior IRA figure who was shot dead by the British Army in the Eighties.The Real IRA, responsible for the Omagh bombing in 1998, also threatened to expand its terror campaign to targets in Britain. However, in Derry and in Newry, where their main rallies were held, the bulk of their invective was aimed at Sinn Fein. Over the Easter period a petrol bomb was thrown at a Sinn Fein officer in Derry and paint was thrown at Sinn Fein offices in west Belfast.

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Posted in: “Treachery is collaborating with the enemy. Treachery is betraying our country”.

war between groups of bikers and ethnic minority youths is being fought out on Copenhagen's streets.

Police sirens wailed as patrol cars started to arrive at the scene of a fatal shooting already lit by the camera flashes of eager reporters. Officers began to collect forensic evidence and question a crowd of onlookers for witnesses.This crime scene did not take place on the streets of New York City or Chicago but Copenhagen, the Danish capital, where such incidents have been occurring with increasing frequency.Like many of the other shootings, this one happened in Norrebro, an ethnically-mixed part of the capital where a violent gang war has recently raged.
The scene was tense as young immigrants watched police reinforcements descend on the area; three young men were arrested. They had allegedly shot a man in his car, believing him to be a member of a rival gang.The word on the street about the gang violence mirrors that on the front pages of Denmark's newspapers. They say a war between groups of bikers and ethnic minority youths is being fought out on Copenhagen's streets.Some say the shootings are part of a turf war over the lucrative hashish trade in the city. Others say it has been inflamed by feelings of alienation and marginalisation among ethnic minority youngsters.While few seem to know just who is shooting whom or why, the sense of danger has become so severe that the National Night Owls Association, a voluntary public safety group that patrols the streets, has decided to pull out of the area."This is the first time the organisation has had to give up on an area," Erik Thorsted, from the association, said. Norrebro members of the Blaagaards gang - a group of ethnic minority youths associated with some of the recent violence.In the week we were there, at least two people were killed in drive-by shootings but as we wrapped up our visit, the situation seemed to take a dramatic turn at the ministry of justice.A proposed anti-gang bill aims to double and triple jail terms for some offences, such as weapon possession, gang violence and witness intimidation, among others.
"If you are a criminal with a foreign background then there is only one way - that is out of Denmark and back to the country where you came from"
Brian Mikkelsen, the Danish justice minister
"We'll give police almost anything they ask for. We need extraordinary steps. We won't give the gangs a moment's rest. We want these criminals off the streets," Brian Mikkelsen, Denmark's justice minister, told a packed news conference.
"We have to come down hard on the obtuseness and brutality of the gang environment. If you are a criminal with a foreign background then there is only one way - that is out of Denmark and back to the country where you came from. I think these measures will have an effect on the gang members. It will make them think twice," Mikkelsen said.If passed, it will be some of the most sweeping anti-crime legislation Denmark has ever seen.Filmmaker and journalist Khaled Ramadan shares his views on Denmark's gang war debate However, others say that these gang tensions have been simmering for years and that the authorities have been too slow to react.Morten Frich, a journalist with the daily Berlingske, says: "The police only recently tried to get on top of this. We have seen this coming for about 10 years."
A 2007 police report was the first official attempt to gauge the extent of the problem.It concluded that what the Danish media had for years referred to as 'street groups' were actually fully-fledged gangs and that 14 of them, with about 1,000 members between them, existed.Khaled Ramadan, an academic based in Copenhagen, says race and integration are at the root of the problem."Unfortunately, Denmark didn't learn from other Western countries' immigration experience. Immigrants have become the politician's and media's scapegoat," he said.
Since Denmark's centre-right opposition won its biggest victory in 80 years in November 2001 following a campaign that focused largely on immigration, relations between immigrants and the Danish authorities have grown increasingly tense.
They were further strained when Denmark's largest newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in September 2005, which the Muslim community said were offensive and insensitive.Ritt Bjerregaard, the mayor of Copenhagen, recently said he believes the conflict carries an ethnic dimension. He told local media that there are fears Copenhagen may become polarised as a large group of citizens are made to feel alienated.
Now gang violence threatens to escalate these tensions further.

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Posted in: Blaagaards gang,Copenhagen

Bikie war is about to escalate again

There are fears the bikie war is about to escalate again, with Hell's Angels leaders reportedly ordering their troops to shoot Commancheros on sight.The gang's American leaders believe the Australian Hell's Angels failure to retalitate to a recent spate of attacks has damaged their hard core image.Meantime an alleged member of the Notorious bikie gang has been charged with aggravated robbery with wounding after an altercation in Kings Cross last month.A 51-year-old man with links to the same group is also facing a charge of possessing a drug precursor.Police Minister Tony Kelly said police would respond swiftly to any increase in violence.
"If any of the outlaw motorcycle gangs, including the Hell's Angels, stick up their heads then the NSW police will clamp down on them."They will not let up. They are going to continue their operations to completely eradicate these outlaw motorcycle gangs' behaviour."

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Posted in: Notorious bikie gang

Antonio Meza is a Sureno gang member who killed a suspected Norteno gang member.

Antonio Meza is a Sureno gang member who killed a suspected Norteno gang member. Meza did not enter a plea and will appear in court April 17. “The victim had some Norteno gang affiliations,” Waner said. Santa Rosa police are investigating the possible gang connection to the shooting at Grand Avenue and Pressley Street but police stopped short of saying Meza and Suarez were gang members. Waner said the South Park neighborhood is considered Norteno turf and that Meza drove or was driven there “looking for trouble.” Suarez lived in the neighborhood where he was shot around 9:30 p.m. Police said the suspect’s red car had chrome rims and square tail lights. Meza, a Kelseyville resident, and parolee Fernando Mendoza, 20, were arrested Wednesday afternoon after their vehicle was stopped at Santa Rosa Avenue and Court Street. Mendoza was arrested for a parole violation. Waner said he has a weapons conviction. He has not been charged in connection with the murder but Waner said the case is still under investigation. Meza is also charged with a separate count of being a criminal street gang member. Enhancements to the murder charge allege he intentionally discharged a firearm and committed the murder in furtherance of a street gang. Waner said Meza faces life in prison without parole if convicted. Meza’s attorney Jonathan Steele said he also heard allegations his client is a Sureno gang member. He said Meza’s family is moving from Lake County to Sonoma County. Meza worked at farm jobs with his father and in a maintenance position at a Lake County casino, Steele said. He is being prosecuted as an adult but is being held in the Los Guilicos Juvenile Justice Center under no bail.

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Posted in: Norteno gang,Sureno gang

Dennis Karbovanec sentence is life with the possibility of parole after 15 years

Dennis Karbovanec has pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder after confessing to shooting and killing numerous people in the Surrey Six massacre in October 2007. Dennis admitted to shooting dead innocent victim Chris Mohan and drug dealers Ryan Bartolomeo and Michael Lal. His sentence is life with the possibility of parole after 15 years and he can thank his light sentence to his conscience as well as his desire to assist the police with the Surrey 6 shootings.Even though we don’t know exactly what sort of deal Dennis Karbovanec made with the police and the Crown due a heavily contested publication ban, the consensus is that he told the police everything he knew about the Surrey Six murders and as a result, got some sort of considerations when it came to sentencing. We’re not sure if life in jail can be considered a “consideration” but it is what it is. Some people are pleased that even though Dennis Karbovanec could be back on the streets(under “monitoring” for the rest of his life) in 15 years, many other members of the Red Scorpion gang are going to be locked away as a result of Dennis’ information. Others can’t fathom that the so called “serial killer” and “contract killer” might get out on good behaviour while the families of the murdered are going to suffer for life. There is even a debate as some people express sympathy only for the innocent victims of the Surrey 6 murders versus the people that believe that all the victims should receive equal respect, regardless if they were drug dealers or people in the wrong place at the wrong time.Not only will Dennis’ testimony help lock up other Vancouver gangsters, but it will enable others up and down the line to start weighing their options with a realistic view after the police come knocking. Especially the younger gangsters.

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Posted in: Vancouver gangsters

Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi's time as king of the outlaws may be coming to an end

Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi's time as king of the outlaws may be coming to an end, with the Queensland meeting that voted on a new code of conduct also deciding his day was over.Hawi, the Comanchero national president, has been widely condemned following his alleged involvement in last month's Sydney Airport brawl, in which Hells Angels associate Anthony Zervas was killed.Senior members of more than a dozen clubs have voted to oust the 28-year-old Bexley man.

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Posted in: Comanchero national president

Gang member chased the pair down in an alley and shot both 27-year-olds.

27-year-old Illinois man is dead and another injured after a gang-related shooting in Milwaukee.In an e-mail, Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz says two 27-year-old gang members from Illinois were walking on the south side when they got into an argument with another gang standing on a porch about 12:30 a.m. Saturday.Schwartz says one gang member chased the pair down in an alley and shot both 27-year-olds. One died at the scene and the other was treated for a graze wound.The victims' names have not been released. Police are still working on family notifications.

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Posted in: Milwaukee.

Juan Carlos Balderas, 21, of Encinitas died shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday in a Madison Street lot

Juan Carlos Balderas, 21, of Encinitas died shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday in a Madison Street lot adjacent to the park, authorities said.Balderas was at the park with a group of fellow gang members who were later arrested for the shooting, Cain said."It is possible that this was not their intended victim," the lieutenant said.
Police believe that, before the weapon was fired, Balderas and his fellow Encinitas gang members were in some kind of a conflict with someone from Carlsbad, Cain said. One of the Encinitas gang members fired, the confusion and darkness perhaps contributing to Balderas being struck, he said.By the time police arrived, Balderas was dead. According to the medical examiner's office, he died from a shotgun wound to the chest and armpit region.Witnesses in the residential neighborhood reported seeing people running away, Cain said.By Monday evening, police had arrested three men who Cain described as gang members who accompanied Balderas to Carlsbad. A shotgun was recovered Sunday at the La Costa home of one of the men, Javier Lopez, 19, Cain said. Police believe it was the gun that killed Balderas.Jose Angel Barraza, 26, and Victor Virjilio Lopez, 21, were arrested Monday in connection with the shooting, police said. Victor and Javier Lopez are not related, Cain said.
On Tuesday, Barraza and Javier Lopez were being held at the Vista jail without bail on charges including murder and participating in a criminal street gang, according to county booking logs. Victor Lopez was being held on a parole violation.The killing occurred in a residential area south of downtown Carlsbad claimed by the city's only documented gang, Cain said. He said the Encinitas gang members possibly headed to Carlsbad looking for trouble with their sometime-rivals.

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Posted in: Encinitas gang

18-year-old Damien Ray Garza was arrested Thursday after leaving an apartment in Beaverton, Ore., a suburb of Portland

18-year-old Damien Ray Garza was arrested Thursday after leaving an apartment in Beaverton, Ore., a suburb of Portland. He’s now been charged with the fatal shooting March 26 of 34-year-old Tyrone M. Tinsley.Police said Garza was with some gang friends that evening when Tinsley walked by his house. Tinsley had a bandanna in his back pocket showing his membership in a rival gang, police said.
Garza and Tinsley exchanged insults and Tinsley walked on to buy a beer, police said. On the way back, Tinsley again exchanged insults with the rival gang, police said. Garza and his brother contend Tinsley pulled out a meat cleaver, but others say he’d dropped the cleaver and was unarmed when he was shot, according to police. He was shot in both sides of his head, his chest and his lower back, according to court documents. Garza fled after the shooting, police said.

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Posted in: a suburb of Portland,Beaverton,Ore.

Makoi boys lucrative trade in drugs from New Zealand, is helping to finance gun smuggling of some heavy weaponry from the United States.

lucrative trade in drugs from New Zealand, is helping to finance gun smuggling of some heavy weaponry from the United States.In Samoa strong tradition balances precariously alongside a growing guns and drugs culture.There is a group in Samoa known as the Makoi boys and their business is selling marijuana and P. Their patch is controlled with their weapons of choice - machetes, rocks and axes.
But in Samoa there is another weapon of choice. Guns of all sizes are being smuggled in from the US, and it's becoming big business.
Weapons are hidden in car boots and sold at prices ranging from $300 to $1,500 depending on the type of gun. Even gang members from the US, Samoans who have done prison time and are then deported back to the islands, are surprised at what is now available. But while high powered weapons are easily available in Samoa they are not often used, it's more about flexing muscle. "If south Auckland had access to the guns you can get here in Samoa, south Auckland would be a war zone, a different place and if kids in south Auckland were running around with AK47s they wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger, whereas here you can't," says Herman Loto Salaria, Security Specialist - Pride. Those smuggling and selling weapons also deal methamphetamine brought in from New Zealand. There are several drug lords whose clients include people in top positions of responsibility, so they work in the shadows as there is too much at stake.It appears young Samoans from New Zealand and others with gang affiliations overseas are attracting unwanted attention by selling drugs to kids.

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Posted in: Makoi boys,Samoans from New Zealand

Vancouver another Gangland Slaying

Shortly before midnight, police responded to calls of shots fired in the 2800 block of Bentall Street in east Vancouver. When they arrived at the scene, they found a man slumped over in the driver's seat of a white SUV in a restaurant parking lot. The VPD Major Crimes Homicide Squad is investigating and several witnesses have been interviewed. It appears to be a targeted shooting and further investigation will reveal whether there are links to gang activity.

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Posted in: Vancouver

Comanchero leader Mahmoud Mick Hawi was charged Monday with fighting in public in a way that caused bystanders to fear for their safety

Mahmoud "Mick" Hawi, leader of the Commancheros, is the sixth member of the gang arrested over the clash that left a Hell's Angels biker bleeding to death in front of terrified travelers at a domestic terminal at Sydney Airport.The slaying thrust long-simmering violence between biker gangs in Australia into the public spotlight, raised fears of widespread reprisal attacks and prompted a crackdown by authorities.Hawi, 28, was due to appear in court later Monday. His lawyer, John Korn, told reporters Hawi would ask to be released on bail.In the March 22 brawl, Anthony Zervas, the brother of a Hell's Angels leader in Sydney, was bludgeoned to death with metal poles after members of both gangs disembarked from the same flight from the southern city of Melbourne.A week later, an unknown gunman opened fire on the brother, Peter Zervas, hitting him several times and badly wounding him as he sat in a car outside his apartment building.No one has been charged in Anthony Zervas' killing. The charges against the Commanchero members are for "affray" — fighting in public and causing bystanders to fear for their safety. They face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.Last week, the New South Wales state government rushed through tough new laws that allow officials to ban gangs and imprison those who defy such a ban for up to five years.Police have also launched a new anti-gang unit to tackle biker violence.
motorcycle gang leader surrendered to police Monday and became the sixth biker charged in connection with a brawl that left a rival bleeding to death before shocked travelers at Australia's busiest airport.The March 22 slaying at Sydney's domestic airport thrust long-simmering violence among biker gangs in Australia into the public spotlight, raised fears of widespread reprisal attacks and prompted a crackdown by authorities.No one has been charged with causing the death of Anthony Zervas, the brother of a well-known Hell's Angels member, who was bludgeoned to death during a rolling melee between Hell's Angels and Comanchero gang members through the terminal.Comanchero leader Mahmoud Mick Hawi was charged Monday with fighting in public in a way that caused bystanders to fear for their safety — a crime called affray — at the airport.
Five other Comanchero members have previously been charged with the same offense, and each faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted.John Korn, Hawi's lawyer, said his client gave himself up Monday. Hawi appeared briefly in court and ordered to jail pending a bail hearing Tuesday.A week after the brawl, an unknown gunman opened fire on the victim's brother, Peter Zervas, hitting him several times and badly wounding him as he sat in a car outside his apartment building.Last week, the New South Wales state government rushed through tough new laws that allow officials to ban gangs and imprison those who defy such a ban for up to five years.Police have also launched a new anti-gang unit to tackle biker violence.Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Monday without naming sources that state Premier Nathan Rees and Police Minister Tony Kelly have been placed under 24-hour guard by armed police because of fears bikers could launch attacks in revenge for the crackdown. Rees and Kelly refused to comment.
Biker gangs have existed in Australia since the late 1960s, and turf battles have ebbed and flowed.

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Posted in: Hell's Angels

Five suspected gang members were taken into police custody after a gang battle in Sioux City

Five suspected gang members were taken into police custody after a gang battle in Sioux City Wednesday night.
Rescue crews were called to the 400 block of Cook St. just before 7 pm for a report of someone injured in the fight. Sioux City police say a male juvenile suffering from a serious head injury was taken to a local hospital. His condition has not yet been released. Police believe he was assaulted by several people with crowbars and baseball bats. Most of the five people that were arrested in connection to the incident are adults.Arrested were Justin Lynam, 19, of Sioux City, Jose Rodriguiz, 23, and Ashley Lyons, 21, both of South Sioux City. Also arrested were two 16-year-olds, Eddie Sandoval of Sioux City and Rodrigo Rodriguez of South Sioux City. Police say several other suspects were also identified and will be arrested in the future.

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Posted in: Sioux City