co-defendant in the Hells Angels trial last week was found not guilty on several charges.

 

co-defendant in the Hells Angels trial last week was found not guilty on several charges. Timothy David Hill, 45, of Rock Hill was acquitted on charges of attempted murder, attempted armed robbery, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy by a York County jury Friday. Hill was represented by public defenders Harry Dest and B.J. Barrowclough. The main defendant, 58-year-old William "Spook" Sosebee of Rock Hill, was convicted of attempted armed robbery, kidnapping, possession of a knife during a violent crime and first-degree assault and battery, according to a news release from the 16th Circuit Solicitor's Office. Judge John C. Hayes sentenced Sosebee to 10 years in prison with no parole. Sosebee was accused of stabbing Jim Moye of North Carolina at Wall Bangers Social Club on East Main Street. Moye, 58, is a member of Iron Order, another motorcycle club, and had stopped at Wall Bangers, according to the solicitor's office news release. Evidence at the trial showed that Moye, who had never been to the bar before, did not know that the Hells Angels considered Wall Bangers "their bar," according to the release. After Moye arrived, Sosebee approached him and beat him in the head with the handle of a Bowie knife, according to the solicitor's office. Sosebee put the knife to Moye's throat and demanded he hand over his Iron Order motorcycle vest. Moye refused and repeatedly asked to be allowed to leave. Sosebee then stabbed him in the abdomen. Moye survived after undergoing surgery at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. Officers were called to the hospital after the stabbing, but Moye would only say "it was a motorcycle thing," according to reports. A witness identified Sosebee to officers. At the time of the stabbing, Hill also had been arrested and charged and was called a member of the Red Devil, a support group of the Hells Angels, in a Rock Hill Police report. However, Hill was found not guilty last week by a York County jury and was released.

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The Rise of the Dark Souls, the Black Mask, the Thunder Bikers and the Iron Beast are a sure sign the feared gang is trying to reclaim lucrative territory

The Hells Angels, decimated by a series of raids, are reorganizing under the guise of four so-called puppet clubs, QMI Agency has learned. The emergence of the Dark Souls, the Black Mask, the Thunder Bikers and the Iron Beast are a sure sign the feared gang is trying to reclaim lucrative territory, say experts. Three of the four new Hells puppet clubs in Quebec have quietly announced their presence on the Internet. The Black Mask Facebook page says it has a base in Scott, east of Quebec City. Newly established in four regions of the province, the puppet clubs sport colours inspired by the Hells as well as jackets adorned with distinctive logos and marked "MC" for Motorcycle Club. Undercover Montreal police officers gathered information on the clubs by infiltrating a biker meeting at a Montreal bar in November, sources tell QMI Agency. Sixty aspiring bikers were met by three members of the Nomads, the select Hells chapter once run by Maurice (Mom) Boucher and now based in Ontario. Police gathered evidence, but didn't make any arrests. Montreal police and Quebec provincial police declined to comment for this story. But a provincial police investigator last month confirmed the Hells' push-back into Quebec. "The Ontario Nomads have some influence in Quebec that they had not had before 2009," said Insp. Michel Pelletier. He added that Quebec's Hells leadership needed reinforcements to run their rackets because nearly all of its members were nabbed in Project SharQc, a sweeping 2009 biker roundup. Hells clubs virtually disappeared following Operation Springtime 2001, the first of a set of massive raids that crippled Quebec biker gangs and ended a bloody 10-year war that claimed 150 lives, including those of bystanders. A 2003 report by the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada said biker proxy clubs allow higher-ups to stay out of the spotlight. "The outlaw motorcycle gangs will use clubs ... for criminal acts in order to avoid prosecution," said the CISC report. "However, it seems that the clubs are becoming increasingly rare because it is difficult to control and because of the success of (raids)."

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Hector Morales, 38, is president of the motorcycle gang "No Remorse,"

Hector Morales, 38, is president of the motorcycle gang "No Remorse," according to a police report. (Orange County Jail / December 2, 2011)

Hector Morales, 38, is president of the motorcycle gang "No Remorse,"His stepson, a juvenile, was charged with burglary to an occupied dwelling.

A third suspected gang member, Jose Juan Velez, 22, was also arrested on a charge of resisting arrest. Police say he failed to comply with their commands during the investigation.

Records show Morales has now been jailed more than a dozen times in Orange County since 2005, on charges including burglary and assault on a law officer

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Rich Egyptians weigh emigration as Islamists surge

 

For decades, Egypt's Westernised elite kept the country's growing religosity at arm's length, but a projected Islamist surge in the first post-revolution polls has driven many to think of moving abroad. Sporting the latest fashions and mingling in upmarket country clubs, Egypt's rich fear a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood and hardline Salafis in the first phase of parliamentary elections presages change ahead. "I hope they don't impose the veil and ban women from driving like in Saudi Arabia," said coquettish fifty-something Naglaa Fahmi from her gym in the leafy neighbourhood of Zamalek. In a nearby luxury hotel, Nardine -- one of Egypt's eight million Coptic Christians who are alarmed by the prospect of a new Islamist-dominated parliament -- is pondering a move aroad. "My father is seriously thinking about sending me and my brothers elsewhere because he thinks we won't have a future in the country with the Salafis," said the banker in her twenties. Ten months after a popular uprising ended the 30-year autocratic rule of Hosni Mubarak, millions of Egyptians embraced their new democratic freedoms earlier this week at the start of multi-stage parliamentary elections. The preliminary results to be published on Friday were expected to show the moderate Muslim Brotherhood as the dominant force, but with a surprisingly strong showing from the hardline Al-Nur party. Its leaders advocate the fundamentalist brand of Salafi Islam, rejecting Western culture and favouring strict segregation of the sexes and the veiling of women. They say they have been the victims of Islamophobia and sustained fear-mongering by liberals in the Egyptian media. Nevertheless, the fear that they will try to impose their values on the rest of society has driven Angie to consider leaving her comfortable Cairo life behind. "My husband recently got a job offer in Dubai. In the beginning I was hesitant, but now, with all that's happening, I'm encouraging him to take the job and I'll join him with our daughter," she said. "The Gulf has become more liberal than Egypt," she told AFP. For Ahmed Gabri, having the Islamists in power means having his freedoms restricted. "I will leave the country," said Gabri, a Muslim. "I will not stand living in a puritanical climate. Why don't they just let people live the way they want?" The next parliament will be charged with writing a new constitution and the idea of an Islamist-dominated assembly has sent shockwaves through some segments of society. Many stress the difference, however, between the different Islamist groups. "They don't scare me. We have democracy now which means we'll be able to remove them if they don't suit us," said Manar, a tall blonde in her 40s. "It's the not the Muslim Brotherhood that worries me because they want to appear in the best light, it's the Salafis that I'm concerned about," she said. Iman Ragab, a shop assistant, has resigned herself to the election's likely outcome. "This is democracy, you have to accept the results of the ballot," she said.

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confrontation was between members of the outlaw Gypsy Jokers and Comancheros motorcycle gangs

 

A confrontation between rival bikie gangs saw 12 members ejected from the Danny Green fight in Perth. West Australian Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan confirmed on Thursday two gang members were arrested, with one charged with assaulting a public officer. They were led out of Challenge Stadium by members of the Gang Crime Squad during the cruiserweight bout between Green and Poland's Krzysztof Wlodarczyk on Wednesday night. It is believed the initial confrontation was between members of the outlaw Gypsy Jokers and Comancheros motorcycle gangs. "It's not an unusual occurrence at these sorts of events - it is one reason why we have such a large security response," Mr O'Callaghan said.

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Hells Angel pleads not guilty in NV casino killing

 

California member of the Hells Angels has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder for his role in a September brawl at Nevada casino that erupted into a shootout that claimed the life of his San Jose chapter president. Cesar Villagrana of Gilroy, Calif., is accused of shooting two members of the rival Vagos motorcycle gang the night that his longtime friend Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew was shot to death on the floor of John Ascuaga's Nugget in Sparks. Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer on Thursday tentatively assigned him the same Jan. 17 trial date she earlier set for the Vagos accused of killing Pettigrew - Ernesto Gonzalez of San Francisco. But Villagrana's lawyer, Richard Schonfeld of Las Vegas, doesn't expect a trial before the end of 2012.

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former full-patch member of the Hells Angels who was the bike gang's treasurer and top man in the Toronto area is in a fight to avoid deportation to Scotland.

 

Mark Alistair Stables, who has no criminal record and has been living here for more than 40 years, was found inadmissible to Canada by an Immigration and Refugee Board for being a member of a criminal organization, the Hells Angels.

He appealed the decision to the Federal Court of Canada, and two weeks ago that court ruled Ottawa can make plans to deport Stables even though he doesn't have a criminal record.

The nine-year "full patch" member was a former Sergeant at Arms and president of the Hells Angels Ontario Corp., in which he acted as a treasurer for 10 chapters for seven years.

"He was very involved in many aspects of the Hells Angels activities," Judge Yves de Montigny said in his decision. The "positions would have given him a good knowledge about the organization's purpose, mandate, agenda or activities."

De Montigny said Stables was "not isolated" from gang activities and "was fully integrated into the Hells Angels."

Court heard Stables arrived in Canada from Scotland with his parents at the age of seven and never obtained citizenship. He joined the gang in 2000 and claimed to quit in 2009.

His immigration problems began in 2006 after he was found carrying Hells Angels paraphernalia and phone numbers as he arrived on a flight at Vancouver International Airport. A report for his deportation was filed.

The board noted Stables had no "exit date" on his Hells Angels tattoo to show that he left the gang.

Stables still has appeals available to him before he can be deported, officials said.

Police said the Hells Angels are involved in drug trafficking, importation of drugs, manufacturing and distribution of drugs, thefts, extortions, firearms, prostitution, money laundering and murder.

"The organization collects intelligence on policing, and it operates a number of clubhouses that make it safe to conduct illegal business," the high court said. "Chapters are usually opened for the purpose of manufacturing or distributing drugs."

de Montigny said members who get in trouble with the law are assisted by club dues that are used to defray their costs.

Police said the Hells Angels is considered the primary producer and distributor of illegal drugs in the U.S. and Canada.

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Venezuela arrests Colombian drug kingpin

 

The arrest of Maximiliano Bonilla-Orozco at his home in Venezuela's third largest city of Valencia on Sunday was announced, perhaps not coincidentally, during a visit by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. After a five-hour meeting at the presidential palace, Santos thanked Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez for the "welcome gift" of capturing "a very high-value" drug trafficker "who has caused terrible damage to our country." Venezuelan Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami said Bonilla-Orozco, 39, would be extradited to the United States, where he was charged with drug trafficking in a 2008 indictment in a New York court. The United States accuses Bonilla-Orozco of trafficking several tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States, and transporting more than $25 million in drug-related proceeds from the United States to Mexico. "Maximiliano Bonilla-Orozco is the leader of an extensive transnational narcotics exportation and transportation organisation that distributes thousands of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, to the United States," a US State Department profile says.

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Hells Angels members Robert Thomas and Norm Cocks, appeared in courtroom 67 at the Vancouver Law Courts Monday for a first appearance on a second-degree murder charge.

The seven Kelowna men accused of beating Dain Phillips to death last June have had their trial moved to Vancouver.

All seven, including Hells Angels members Robert Thomas and Norm Cocks, appeared in courtroom 67 at the Vancouver Law Courts Monday for a first appearance  on a second-degree murder charge.

Thomas and Cocks remain in custody, while the others – Cocks dad Robert, brothers Daniel and Matthew McRae, Thomas Vaughan and Anson Schell – are out on bail.

Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie said the decision to move the case to the Lower Mainland was made “given the number of the accused, the number of counsel involved and the demands the case would place on court resources in Kelowna.”

“The Crown perspective is that the matter should proceed in Vancouver.  As a result, the Crown filed the Direct Indictment with the Supreme Court in Vancouver,” he said.

There is a ban on publication on evidence and submissions in the case.

The trial won’t get underway until at least January 2013.

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Murder trial begins for two Hells Angels, five others

 

two full-patch Hells Angels, made their first appearance in a Vancouver courtroom Monday for the June beating death of Kelowna resident Dain Phillips. The men - Hells Angels members Robert Thomas and Norm Cocks - as well as Cocks' father Robert, Anson Schell, Thomas Vaughan and brothers Daniel and Matthew McRae were charged with second-degree murder two weeks after the fatal assault on Phillips on June 12. They made their initial appearances in Kelowna Provincial Court, where five of the accused were released on bail. But Crown prosecutors have decided to proceed by way of direct indictment, meaning the case goes straight to B.C. Supreme Court without a preliminary hearing at the Provincial Court level. And prosecutors have moved the case to Vancouver, where the accused appeared Monday in a new high-security courtroom built for an unrelated gang murder case. Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie said the decision to move the case to the Lower Mainland was made "given the number of the accused, the number of counsel involved and the demands the case would place on court resources in Kelowna." There is a ban on publication of evidence and submissions in the case. Justice Arne Silverman put the matter over until Dec. 19, with a tentative start date for the eight-month trial sometime in January 2013. Thomas, 46, and Norm Cocks, 31, appeared wearing red prison garb from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre, where they remain in custody. The others - Dan McRae, 21, Matt McRae, 19, Schell, 19, Vaughan, 22 and Robert Cocks, 53 - arrived with relatives and supporters, each being directed to seats behind bulletproof Plexiglas. No one from Phillips's family attended Monday. The Vancouver Sun earlier reported that Phillips, a married father of three, tried to intervene peacefully in a dispute two of his sons were having with a pair of brothers with whom they had attended Rutland secondary. When Phillips drove to a meeting place on McCurdy Road in the early evening of June 12, he was attacked by a group of men who had arrived in two separate vehicles. He died later in hospital. Insp. Pat Fogarty, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said after the arrests that Phillips was trying to resolve the problem when he was savagely attacked. The elder Cocks is president of a Hells Angels puppet club called the Throttle Lockers, while the four youngest accused were described by police as gang associates. The case is believed to be the first in the 28-year-history of the Hells Angels in B.C. where a club member has been charged with murder.

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Gas gang, which stands for Guns and Shanks,Five convicted of killing gang rival aged 15

 

Five teenagers were convicted today of chasing a 15-year-old boy from his school gates and stabbing him to death in a gang-related attack. Zac Olumegbon was knifed in the heart and also had wounds to his chest, neck and buttocks. His hands and arms were scarred showing that he had tried to ward off the blows. He was cornered by the youths wearing hoodies in a back garden 100 yards from the Park Campus school in West Norwood. Another schoolboy was also stabbed but Zac was the prime target in the attack in July last year. At the Old Bailey four of the youths were found guilty of murder and a fifth convicted of manslaughter. They can be named for the first time today after Judge Giles Forrester QC lifted an anonymity order. The murderers are Helder Demorais, now 17, Kyle Kinghorn, who is 18 today, Ricardo Giddings, 17, and Jermael Moore, 17. Moore was a promising grime artist, known as J-kid or Younger Sneaky, who had posted videos on YouTube under a gang name. Some of the footage, which includes the sound of shots being fired, shows hooded and masked youths making gun symbols with their hands as he raps lyrics. Shaquille Haughton, 16, was the youth convicted of manslaughter. They will be sentenced next month. The court heard that Zac was a victim of a feud involving the Gas gang, which stands for Guns and Shanks (knives), based around Loughborough Road and the Angel Town estate in Brixton. Their rivals were the The five youths arrived at the school by car knowing their victim would be turning up for class. The teenager had spoken at a conference on youth violence the day before and vowed to help other teenagers, his mother said in a statement. He wanted to share his experiences with those who had endured "similar struggles to him", said Shakira Olumegbon. She said he had left for school "happy" on the day of his death after discussing the future with her. But Ms Olumegbon received a phone call from school to tell her he had been attacked. She said: "I remember praying he would be okay. The scene that confronted me was indescribable."

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Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, 53, arrived at Washoe County jail for proceedings related to the Sept. 23 shooting of Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew of the Hells Angels inside a hotel-casino

 

Vagos motorcycle gang member arrested in the slaying of a rival at a Sparks casino was transferred Monday to Reno from California to await a court appearance on a murder charge, authorities said. Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, 53, arrived at Washoe County jail for proceedings related to the Sept. 23 shooting of Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew of the Hells Angels inside a hotel-casino, Sparks police said. Pettigrew was president of the Hells Angels chapter in San Jose, Calif. The extradition of Gonzalez came after Hells Angels member Cesar Villagrana, 36, was rearrested Thursday in San Jose on an indictment charging him with murder in the case, Sparks police Detective Rocky Triplett said. Gonzalez's lawyer, David Chesnoff, wasn't immediately available for comment. Gonzalez was arrested Sept. 30 in San Francisco. Villagrana, of Gilroy, Calif., was with Pettigrew when he was shot. Two Vagos members were wounded in the casino shootout, and another was shot in the stomach the next morning by a gunman in a passing car. Triplett said Villagrana was charged with murder because he can be seen on casino security video drawing a gun and shooting at others. Villagrana was arrested the night of the shooting with a 9mm Smith and Wesson semi-automatic handgun that had been reported stolen in Arizona in 1998, police said. He was previously freed on $150,000 bail after being charged with felony assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed weapon illegally and discharging a firearm in a structure. Villagrana has not entered a plea on any of the charges. Richard Schonfeld, defense co-counsel, told Sparks Justice Court Judge Susan Deriso during a court appearance that Villagrana came from a stable family and had no prior felony convictions.

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Four-year sentence for fatal Maple Ridge stabbing

 

A drunken argument between two men on their way to an after-hours bash at a Hells Angels clubhouse led to the fatal stabbing of one and a four-year sentence for the other. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ronald McKinnon handed Coquitlam's Andrew Leach the jail term Monday after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter for killing James William Ball on Sept. 25, 2009. Leach has already been in jail for more than two years, so McKinnon credited him with double-time and said the sentence equalled an eight-year term. McKinnon addressed Ball's family in the New Westminster courtroom before pronouncing the sentence. "I can only express the court's sympathy for their very grave loss. Nothing done today is going to lessen their burden or make things easier. I read the very poignant victim impact statements which underscore the loss and pain this offence has occasioned to these innocent victims," McKinnon said. "I doubt that I am the first person to observe that this death was completely avoidable which makes it all the more tragic." Crown prosecutor Andrew Blunt read an agreed statement of facts and played a grainy, dark video of the fatal stabbing behind a Safeway on Lougheed Highway in Maple Ridge. Leach, Ball and a third man had been drinking at Club Climax in Maple Ridge until it closed at 2 a.m. They all decided to head to a nearby HA clubhouse for an after-hours party in a truck driven by the third man, Blunt explained. During the ride, Ball, 43, and Leach, now 28, began to argue. The driver pulled over behind the Safeway to relieve himself, as the conflict between the two men escalated and they got out of the truck. The Safeway video shows Leach repeatedly stabbing Ball, who is left slumped over a railing on the loading dock. The driver panicked and took off, though later returned for Leach, Blunt said. Ball was not discovered for more than three hours and later died from massive blood loss. McKinnon noted that the injuries to his neck, chest and abdomen wouldn't have been fatal if Ball had received help right away. "It seems apparent that immediate aid for Mr. Ball following his stab wounds would have saved his life," McKinnon said. Instead, Leach was dropped at his Coquitlam condo and learned the next day that Ball had died. The friend present at the crime scene ended up cooperating with police and wore a wire when he later met with Leach to get details of the stabbing. During the recorded meeting, Leach said "because he used a small knife, the wounds should not have been fatal." He explained that he had got rid of the murder weapon and burned his clothes. Leach was originally charged with second-degree murder. He pleaded guilty two months ago to manslaughter. The young father had no criminal history until the stabbing, McKinnon noted. "While one can evoke alcohol as a contributing factor, it does not excuse the crime nor does anyone suggest that it should," the judge said. "Perhaps it stands as a wake-up call to those whose consumption of alcohol tends to deprive them of reason and sense." He said he didn't know what the argument was about, "but it had to be something quite frivolous but made into a big deal because of alcohol consumption."

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Police wrest control of Rio's largest slum

 

Crack police forces were Sunday in full control of Rio's largest favela after launching a dawn assault to eject narco-traffickers who had been ruling the area for 30 years. "I have the pleasure to inform you that Rocinha and Vidigal (a neighbouring favela) are under our control. There were no incidents and no shots were fired. We don't have any information on arrests or weapons seized," Alberto Pinheiro Neto, chief of the military police, told a news conference. "The communities have been our control since (1900 AEDT) and we are withdrawing our armour and, in 45 minutes, we will reopen the streets," which had been closed since 0400 GMT ahead of the operation. Advertisement: Story continues below Built on a steep hillside overlooking the city and located between two wealthy neighbourhoods, Rocinha is home to 120,000 people. The long-anticipated operation in a city that has one of the highest murder rates in the country is part of an official campaign since 2008 to restore security in Rio before the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, which Brazil will host. Backed by navy armour and commandos and with two helicopters flying low overhead, hundreds of special forces police and 200 navy commandos punched their way into Rocinha and Vidigal at dawn. "The arrival of the UPP (a police unit set up to pacify the favelas) will be positive for the new generations to put an end to narco-trafficking. I want my sons to stay away from trafficking," said 51-year-old Carlos Alberto, who was one of the few Rocinha residents willing to speak to the press. But not everyone supported the police operation. A few women were seen crying. All access to the two favelas has been blocked since 2.30am (1102 AEDT). Earlier three vehicles blocked one of the avenues in the upper part of Rocinha. Dozens of policemen in the perimeter asked journalists present in the area to remain behind as they fanned out in the narrow alleys. Streets were deserted, with only a few residents watching from their windows as the troops made their advance. "We hope the pacification will not be just about ejecting the drug traffickers but also to bring sanitation, education, health," said community leader Raimundo Benicio de Souda, 4known as Lima. "There are people living (here) among cockroaches, urinating and defecating in a can," Lima told AFP, adding that for this reason "the pacification must have these people as a priority". William de Oliveira, president of the Favelas People's Movement, wearing a shirt with the inscription "I love Rocinha, said: "We want the people to be treated with dignity, respect, that those who have been involved in crimes be jailed but not assassinated" by police." Authorities estimate that about 200 criminals remained inside Rocinha following last week's capture of local drug kingpin Antonio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, also known as Nem. Nem was caught hidden in the trunk of a car, along with several accomplices and a few corrupt policemen who were protecting them. Nem was a model employee of a telecom company who "stumbled" into organised crime after getting a loan from a former Rocinha drug baron to pay for medical care for one of his daughters. To pay back his debts, he reportedly began dealing drugs and later took over as chief of the gang which controls Rocinha. The capture of Rocinha, the 19th favela to be pacified by police, recalled the huge operation launched by joint police and military forces to seize control of Rio's Alemao favela, home to 400,000 people in November 2010. Alemao was retaken after three days of clashes that left 37 people dead. Since Friday, heavily armed police had been besieging Rocinha, checking all cars going or leaving the area. Endemic and chronic urban violence has long tarnished the image of Rio, where more than 1.5 million people live in 1,000 slums spread throughout the city.

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Cody Lumpkin is a 7-4 soulja till da end

 

Cody Lumpkin is a 7-4 soulja till da end. Or, in gangster-speak, he’ll be a Gangster Disciple until he dies. That’s how the 21-year-old Athens man shows himself to the world on his Facebook page, replete with photos of him flashing gang signs, posing with guns, bragging about money and disrespecting women. Whether or not he’s a genuine member of the notorious Gangster Disciples street gang, Lumpkin played the part last weekend when, police say, he killed a man with a gunshot to the head. The shooting happened Sunday night at Rolling Ridge Apartments off Kathwood Drive, where Jeremy Sean Buchanan was shot and killed by Lumpkin in an apparent robbery, which police said also was drug-related. “Cody Lumpkin gives every appearance of being a gang member,” said Robert Walker, a nationally-known gang expert who analyzed Lumpkin’s Facebook page Friday. He never directly states he’s a member of a gang, but Lumpkin uses what gang investigators call alpha-numeric code to tell people who he is. According to Walker and other gang experts, when Lumpkin wrote he is “7-4,” the corresponding letters are G and D, for Gangster Disciple. Also on his Facebook page, Lumpkin lists a well-known Gangster Disciple “prayer” as his favorite quote: “When i die $how no pity $end my $oul 2 6angsta city, dig a hole 6 feet deep and lay 2 $taffs acro$ my feet, lay 2 $hotguns acro$ my che$t and tell King Hoover i did my be$t.” He replaces the “G” in gangster with a six, because the Gangster Disciple’s symbol is a six-pointed star. The ode also pays tribute to the Chicago-based gang’s founder, Larry Hoover. “I see pictures of him with his friends, and everybody’s flashing signs, there’s weapons involved, so, yeah, I’d say he’s a gang-banger,” said Walker, a former agent with the U.S. Border Control and Drug Enforcement Administration who trains law enforcement agencies and others in gang awareness. Walker’s consulting firm, Gangs Or Us, maintains a website to educate the public, and another that only can be accessed by law enforcement officers to share gang intelligence. Just because a group calls itself the Gangster Disciples, Crips, Bloods or Latin Kings doesn’t mean they are affiliated with those national criminal synidicates, according to Sgt. Christopher Nichols, an Athens-Clarke police gang investigator. “The criminal street gangs most prevalent in the state of Georgia, to include Athens, are hybrid gangs or, as I like to call them, homegrown gangs” that adopt the names of the well-known gangs, Nichols said. They can be just as dangerous. “Though hybrid gangs may not pay dues to larger organizations, it does not mean that they are not the ‘real deal,’ ” Nichols said. “Hybrid gangs commit the same types of crimes as the traditional street gangs, but not on as large of a scale.” Some young men band together in gangs for a sense of belonging, a feeling they don’t get from their own families when there’s no parental guidance, Nichols said, or they bow to peer pressure. “They may have been exposed to it by other family members, they may have friends that are associated with criminal street gangs, or it may start out as youth without proper direction becoming involved in criminal activity,” Nichols said. Once a young man joins a gang, starts carrying guns, covers his body with tattoos and adopts the other trappings of a gangster, he might be on a path where violence is inevitable. “There is a saying, ‘You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?’ ” Nichols said. “No one likes to be called out or challenged. If a person portrays that they are ‘hard,’ then they cannot allow someone to embarrass them, especially in front of a group. “The person feels obligated to fulfill whatever image they have presented so that they are not all show,” he said. The violence sometimes turns deadly, according to Walker. “People who never thought they’d be killing someone find that once in a gang they are expected to kill,” he said. People have banded into small gangs for generations in Athens, usually groups that identified themselves either with the Eastside or Westside. But technology has made it easy for teens to learn the lingo of the big-time gangs, according to Nichols. “If a person wants to know something about gang culture, they can simply look it up on the Internet, view videos, print pictures and download reading material,” he said. “Technology has increased the rate of learning for those wanting to delve into the criminal street gang world.” Athens-Clarke police didn’t publicly acknowledge the community had a gang problem until 2004, when a duplex off North Avenue was raked with gunfire in a drive-by shooting to settle a beef between rival Hispanic gangs. But Jean Turner Horton literally saw the writing on the wall as early at 1999 when, as a state probation officer, she began snapping photos of gang graffiti on public housing. One photo depicted a six-pointed star with a “G” in the middle, a tag associated with the Gangster Disciples. Horton brought the photos to the Athens Housing Authority, which immediately adopted a zero-tolerance policy for gang activity. Since that drive-by, which wounded three men, Athens-Clarke police began taking measures to fight back, including graffiti eradication, collecting gang intelligence and requiring officers to undergo gang recognition training. “I’m really glad that Athens finally recognized it had a problem,” Horton said. “I can drive through Athens and not notice graffiti on the walls anymore.” Last year, an officer on patrol came across strange writings on the wall of a vacant house in West Athens that would be mumbo-jumbo to a lay person, but he recognized it for what it was. In one message on the wall, the tagger referred to a “Slob” — a derogatory term for a Bloods gang member — and replaced the “ck” in a profane word with “cc,” since the letters CK mean Crip killer in gang graffiti. Police didn’t believe the writings were made by genuine Crips, but found it disturbing nonetheless. “Anytime there’s gang tagging going on it’s of concern to the police department because it means they are trying to identify certain areas of the county and claim it as their territory,” Athens-Clarke Assistant Police Chief Tim Smith said. Walker was impressed with how far Athens-Clarke police have come in identifying gang activity and learning ways to suppress it. “Gangs are here to stay, and that’s why it’s important for police departments to take action, like getting proper training and arresting gang members,” he said. “We’ll cure cancer before we solve the gang problem.” Police will not discuss Cody Lumpkin’s possible gang ties while his murder charge is pending. But his gangster lifestyle shows how the problem can be just out of sight, until a tragic crime again brings it into the forefront. “There will always be things happening that the police do not know about,” Nichols said. That’s why the police need the help of others, including the schools, churches, community organizations and individual residents, he said. “Only by working together as a community can problems such as theft, drugs and gang violence be curtailed,” Nichols said. People who are suspicious of gang activity should report it immediately, he said. Athens-Clarke police also offers a gang-awareness presentation, and Nichols urged people who have questions about street gangs to call the police department.

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Gang member gets 21 years in prison

 

Gang banger was sentenced Wednesday in Norfolk federal court to 21 years in prison for participating in a pattern of racketeering activity, including a home invasion and conspiring to distribute controlled substances, and possession of a firearm in a crime of violence. According to court documents, in the summer of 2006, Darren Antoine Pollard, 35, and other members of the Bounty Hunter Bloods/Nine Tech Gangsters executed a home invasion in Portsmouth. Pollard was familiar with some of the individuals who lived at the home, because he worked with them in the past. Pollard and other gang members had attended a party at the home the night of the home invasion, a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

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Wild gang fight in US emergency room

 

A WILD gang fight involving at least a dozen thugs in a Bronx hospital emergency room ended in bloodshed when one gang member pulled a gun and began firing - wounding two hospital employees, police sources told the New York Post. Bullets ricocheted in the packed ER waiting room - with many children nearby - at Bronx Lebanon Hospital about 7:00pm local time. A 42-year-old security guard took a bullet in the groin and a 37-year-old male nurse was hit in the shoulder. "I heard the shots, three of them, pop, pop, pop," said nurse's aide Joi Cummings. "It was just chaos, total chaos. Everyone was running. I saw a security guard on the stretcher. "It's so sad. You go to a hospital to get help, you don't think you're going to get shot." The incident stemmed from a long-standing beef between members of the Riverpark Towers Crew (RPT) and their Burnside Money Getters rivals, police sources said. Related Coverage Two wounded in emergency room shooting Herald Sun, 2 days ago UK looks to US after riots Foundation, 10 days ago Judge 'to be in a coma for days' The Daily Telegraph, 1 Sep 2011 Authorities 'in denial' on gangs Herald Sun, 22 Aug 2011 Casualty a gang battleground Herald Sun, 20 Aug 2011 A member of RPT was being treated for a gash below his eye from a fight earlier in the day when he was alerted that guys from both gangs were in the waiting room, sources said. Police were questioning several people last night, but the shooter had escaped, sources said. No one had been charged by early today and the gun was not recovered. A hospital spokesman said employees "were able to stop the situation from progressing" because of their quick intervention.

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Police raid Perth bikie properties

 

42-year-old Rebels motorcycle gang member is one of three people being questioned by police after a search of his home in Calista, south of Perth. Police say they found a 22 calibre, self-loading handgun, cash, cannabis and a trafficable quantity of what they believe to be methamphetamine during this morning's search of the Edmund Road house. No charges have been laid at this stage. Gang Crime Squad detectives have also raided a home linked to a bikie gang in Morley this afternoon. They say they were searching for stolen motorcycles, firearms and drugs. The raids are part of a continued effort by police to disrupt the activities of motorcycle gangs.

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Joseph Patrick John Lagrue handed himself in at Solihull police station in September after the brawl between members of the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws biker gangs

One of Birmingham’s ‘Most Wanted’ crooks is facing justice over a battle between rival bikers at the airport in which one man nearly died.

Joseph Patrick John Lagrue handed himself in at Solihull police station in September after the brawl between members of the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws biker gangs in January 2008.

Up to 30 people, some armed with hammers, machetes, knuckledusters, knives and a meat cleaver, were involved in the fight following a trip to Spain.

Families of holidaymakers were forced to dive for cover as the violence swept through the terminal.

A police source said Lagrue, 43, understood to be a member of the Outlaws, had played a “key role" in the violence.

But he was not tracked down following the incident and, in January last year, detectives named him as ‘wanted’ and added his face to their website.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said that following his arrest on September 27 he appeared before magistrates in Solihull charged with rioting.

He has pleaded guilty to the offence and will be sentenced later this month.

“Joseph Lagrue was wanted by police in connection since the investigation commenced and our efforts to track him down never ceased,” the spokesman said.

“This was a significant disturbance played out in the full glare of a busy international airport terminal.

"Families returning to Birmingham from their holidays were forced to take cover as two groups attacked each other with gratuitous violence.

“Weapons were produced and used and there were a number of injuries.

“The arrest of Joseph Lagrue brings this significant investigation to a close.”

The mob violence exploded near the arrivals hall of the airport after rival members discovered they were on the same flight from Alicante, in Spain.

Members of both gangs were met by associates, who provided them with weapons, as they arrived at the airport and began brawling in front of terrified families.

Several men were injured and one almost lost his life after suffering a serious head injury.

In July 2009, Neil Harrison, then aged 46, of Bell Green Road, Coventry; Paul Arlett, then 35, of Cradley Road, Dudley; Mark Price, then 50, of Westbury Road, Nuneaton, Warwickshire; Sean Timmins, then 38, of Brewood Road in Coven, Staffordshire; Leonard Hawthorne, then 52, of Penn Road, Wolverhampton; Mark Moseley, then 46, of Orchard Rise, in Birmingham, and Jeremy Ball, then 46, of Plant Street, Cheadle, Staffordshire, were each jailed for six years after being convicted of rioting.

Another man, Mark Larner, then aged 47, of Tudor Road, Upper Gornal in the Black Country, fled to South Africa “with a substantial amount of money” before being sentenced. He later handed himself in to police in Bristol and was jailed in November 2009 for six years.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said Lagrue had pleaded guilty and was remanded in custody until later this month when he is due to be sentenced at Warwick Crown Court.

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Frank Lucas, the Harlem drug kingpin whose life inspired the 2007 film starring Denzel Washington, was charged with theft by deception

Jim Cooper/APFrank Lucas, the man that Denzel Washington portrayed in the movie "American Gangster," is shown in New York in this file photo from Nov. 2, 2007. 

 

Frank Lucas, the Harlem drug kingpin whose life inspired the 2007 film starring Denzel Washington, was charged with theft by deception last month after he tried to bilk the U.S. Treasury out of $17,345 meant for his teenage son, authorities said.

The Social Security check was issued to Lucas in early October, said Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, but he told government officials the payment was lost when he changed addresses and asked them to send another.

The 81-year-old Lucas — who moved to Newark in the 1980s after he served prison time for running a massive drug empire that smuggled nearly pure heroin into New York and New Jersey — allegedly cashed both checks, Carter said.

Lucas faces up to five years in prison if convicted, Carter said. He is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Newark on Nov. 28.

The Social Security checks were meant for Lucas’ 15-year-old son, Raymond, said Richie Roberts, the former prosecutor’s detective who prosecuted Lucas in 1976 and later became his defense attorney and confidant.

The government provides Social Security benefits to a child if their parent is unable to care for them due to age or infirmity. Lucas, who once claimed he earned $1 million per day selling his "Blue Magic" brand of heroin, is now confined to a wheelchair, suffers from diabetes and severe arthritis and is unable to provide for his son, Roberts said.

Through his attorney, Lucas has denied any wrongdoing.

The theft charge is a far cry from the criminal activity that allowed Lucas to rise from a penniless Harlem resident in 1946 to one of the country’s most infamous and wealthy drug lords by the 1970s. After moving from North Carolina, Lucas’ rise to prominence began under famed Harlem numbers boss Bumpy "Ellsworth" Johnson.

When Johnson died in 1968, Lucas set out to break the Italian Mafia’s stranglehold on the drug trade in New York, importing nearly pure heroin from Southeast Asia that he sold on the streets of Harlem and Newark. Lucas controlled the gang, referred to as the "Country Boys" from a towering mansion in Teaneck.

Roberts, who oversaw the Essex County Prosecutor’s Bureau of Narcotics in the 1970s, obtained an indictment for Lucas when he shut down a Newark heroin ring led by Lucas’ brother, Vernon. Roberts prosecuted Frank Lucas, winning a conviction that would have sent the kingpin to prison for more than 60 years.

But Lucas became a government informant and his testimony led to the arrest of countless drug dealers and crooked police officers. He served less than 10 years of his sentence.

"His cooperation resulted in the arrest of anybody and everybody he ever sold a dime bag too," Roberts said.

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Deadly shooting probe spreads to Vancouver suburb

 

The investigation into the slaying of a man gunned down Sunday morning in Vancouver has spread to the suburban community of Port Moody, CBC News has learned. Axel Curtis, 29, was hit when at least six shots were fired in broad daylight, about 9 a.m. Sunday at the corner of Ash and 7th Avenue West as he walked his dog. Police said Curtis was known to them and had past gang affiliations. There were no other injuries, and witnesses said the assailant, a man in a black hoodie, left the area on foot. Neighbours of a Port Moody apartment also frequented by Curtis say there was a sudden spike in police activity around the building Saturday night, hours before the shooting. On Monday, police searched the seventh-floor apartment, owned by Curtis’s father. Police would not comment on the Port Moody side of the investigation, but a female neighbour — who asked not to be identified — said the night before Curtis was killed in Vancouver police and emergency vehicles appeared to be stationed outside the Port Moody condo. "There was an ambulance ready to go,” the neighbour said. “With the police officers … driving back and forth, which struck me as a little strange, that maybe they were anticipating something happening." Watched for months The woman said officers appeared to be watching the apartment for months, and believes local residents should have been warned if violence was anticipated at the building. "They're kind of denying what I think is the public's right, or the people living on that floor's right … that there's possibly a safety concern." Curtis had previous convictions for drug trafficking, firearms possession and obstructing police. Curtis featured briefly in a CBC documentary on Vancouver gangsters, where he suggested to a female police officer who stopped him on the street in Downtown Vancouver that he had left the gang lifestyle. “I'm a changed man,” he told the officer in the production entitled “The Gangster Next Door.” “Oh, I don’t think so,” the officer replied.

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Hells Angel sues Livermore, seeks $1 million in damages

 

member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club has sued Livermore for $1 million, claiming police violated his civil rights by falsely accusing him of carrying a handgun. Joel Silva filed suit against the city in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Friday. The Sonoma County resident claims the false handgun claim stemmed from a Sept. 5, 2008, incident when another club member was involved in an altercation with an off-duty air marshal. Livermore has not yet responded to the claim. According to court records, the incident occurred after Silva and a group of 11 other riders on Interstate 580 exited onto First Street to stop for gas. While filling up, member Michael Fenton got into an altercation with Shawn Futrell, an off-duty air marshal, who accused Fenton of trying to force him off the freeway, which caused him to lose control of his motorcycle. Futrell called Livermore police, who detained Silva and the 11 other members. Silva said he was handcuffed, searched and detained twice by police before being let go. Fenton was arrested. As Silva was preparing to leave, officers surrounded him and demanded to search his motorcycle. According to the suit, Silva refused but police searched anyway and claimed to find a .38 caliber handgun. Silva was arrested on suspicion of being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. He spent 24 hours in jail but no charges were filed in Alameda County. Silva was later charged in federal court Advertisement based on the claim that he had a handgun. A federal judge later ruled that whether or not Silva had a handgun, his Fourth Amendment rights were violated and suppressed the evidence, according to the suit.

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Your right to die in a bikie war shootout

 

AT A guess you could probably assume that none of the High Court judges live in Merrylands, where the Nomads and Hells Angels are engaged in what the police reassuringly describe not as a bikie gang war but merely "tit for tat violence". It is also unlikely that any of these eminent jurists live in Northmead, where an innocent woman had her house strafed with bullets while she was sleeping last week in a zany address mix-up by a bikie who was having trouble reading his UBD. Presumably, none of the judges live in Adelaide's north-western suburb of Semaphore where an 11-year-old boy, the son of a former member of the Finks, was shot in the leg while he slept during a home invasion last month. When the ambulance arrived and the media turned up, bricks were hurled from the home. None of the witnesses to the shooting of the 11-year-old boy would initially co-operate with the police. It was reported however that the Finks had offered their own reward of $500,000 for information on the identity of the shooter. This shooting and its unco-operative aftermath reinforced the fact that members of bikie gangs do not look to the police and the courts for assistance. That's what civilised and law-abiding people do. To this end the police, and particularly the courts, are letting civilised and law-abiding people down. None of the High Court judges could find Merrylands or Semaphore with a packed lunch, a GPS and a team of indigenous trackers. And even the cops seem depressingly ambivalent about what is going on in middle Australian suburbs such as these. Perhaps it was just an unfortunate choice of words but NSW Gangs Squad commander Arthur Katsogiannis seemed too laid-back by half on Sunday in discussing the bikie shootings in Sydney's west, a staggering eight of which have taken place since last Thursday. "If this was a full-scale war between the Nomads and the Hells Angels you would not have the shootings isolated at one particular area, they would be right around the metropolitan area and around the state," he said. No dramas then. But it is the courts which really take the cake on this issue. Just over a year ago the High Court had a chance to seriously disrupt the freedom of bikie gang members to behave in an anti-social and criminal manner. Bombarded by civil libertarian tripe, the court opted to throw in its lot not with the civilised and law-abiding majority but the one per cent "who don't fit and don't care" - to borrow from the Hells Angels' own mission statement. The NSW and SA governments had both passed legislation which would have declared bikie gangs criminal organisations and enabled police to seek orders from magistrates preventing bikies from associating with each other and visiting certain addresses. But this invited the tediously predictable criticisms from academics and defence lawyers along Basil Fawlty lines that this is exactly how Nazi Germany started. One academic warned there was nothing stopping the authorities from using the same laws against the local lawn bowls club or Apex or Rotary. Andreas Schloenhardt, from the University of Queensland law school, fired up at the time: "This legislation is dangerous ... There is little in the legislation that can stop the Attorney-General from banning a bowling club." Certainly that could have been a handy application, in the event that the ladies' four stopped making scones and started manufacturing methamphetamine. But none of this is funny if you live in Ermington or Merrylands or Northmead or Semaphore and are busily keeping your head down, literally, as the "tit for tat violence" continues. The High Court had its chance to make the community safer and it blew it. The NSW and SA laws would have disrupted the lawlessness which has continued and reached a new crisis point since last Thursday and opted instead, on the basis of some legally arcane pedantry about usurping the authority of the Supreme Court, to strike down those laws. Meanwhile the cops are doing a cracking job standing behind police cameras and raiding pubs to make sure no one has had more than four standard drinks, and the High Court judges are happily ensconced in those suburbs where the Nomads and Finks and Hells Angels tend not to tread. People in normal suburbs must deal with that on their own.

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legal community is raising questions after a criminal lawyer known for defending members of biker gangs was assaulted outside his home.

 

 The victim has been identified as Gilles Doré, who was involved in the criminal proceedings linked to arrests in the wake of Operation SharQc. He is also known as a prominent defence lawyer in the first Hells Angels' mega-trial in 2002, which ended in the murder conviction of Hells leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher. Montreal police say the 58-year-old man was assaulted outside his Outremont home on Friday night. Police say the victim was beaten by one or more individuals. No one has been arrested and the police do not have a description of a possible suspect. Colleagues said Monday he was in stable condition. Colleagues concerned Lawyers say they regularly get threats from all types of clients, which don't always lead to an attack. One defence lawyer, Eric Sutton, said he questioned whether the police will investigate the case with the same veracity with which they investigate other crimes. He said there is a perception that defence lawyers are closely connected with those they represent, which is not always the case. "The defence lawyers get associated with their clientele, and I'm not sure the police will prioritize this case the way it perhaps should have been," he said. "But I don't want to presume that." Richard Prihoda, president of the Defence Attorneys Association of Montreal, calls the attack completely unacceptable under any circumstances. Prihoda said in an interview that if the attack is found to be related to Dore's work, then it is more than just an assault. "It's not just an attack on one lawyer, it's an attack on the whole judicial system," Prihoda said. "As with the Crown prosecutors and the judges, we're a part of the system." Prihoda said the association will discuss the recent attack, at a previously scheduled meeting on Wednesday. "I went to the courthouse today (Monday) and everybody is asking questions," Prihoda said. Prihoda said he hopes that police can resolve the case, as well as other outstanding attacks on Quebec lawyers. Similar attacks on attorneys Montreal defence lawyer Joseph La Leggia was attacked in similar fashion last December near his home. He has since resumed practising law. Another Montreal lawyer, Thomas Kiriazis, who is not a defence lawyer, has also been targeted. The business lawyer says he has been the victim of death threats and a firebombing in front of his home, located in the same neighbourhood where Dore was attacked. Dore battling 2002 Bar suspension In addition to the 2002 megatrial, Dore is currently involved in the massive Hells Angels megatrial being held in Montreal. Dore is due before the Supreme Court of Canada soon, where he is attempting to overturn a lower-court decision that upheld a 21-day suspension he was given by the Quebec Bar Association during the 2002 megatrial. The suspension was over a critical letter Dore sent to a Quebec judge over comments that judge made at the bail hearing of one of his clients.

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Legal community rattled by attack on Hells Angels lawyer

 

legal community is raising questions after a criminal lawyer known for defending members of biker gangs was assaulted outside his home. The victim has been identified as Gilles Doré, who was involved in the criminal proceedings linked to arrests in the wake of Operation SharQc. He is also known as a prominent defence lawyer in the first Hells Angels' mega-trial in 2002, which ended in the murder conviction of Hells leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher. Montreal police say the 58-year-old man was assaulted outside his Outremont home on Friday night. Police say the victim was beaten by one or more individuals. No one has been arrested and the police do not have a description of a possible suspect. Colleagues said Monday he was in stable condition. Colleagues concerned Lawyers say they regularly get threats from all types of clients, which don't always lead to an attack. One defence lawyer, Eric Sutton, said he questioned whether the police will investigate the case with the same veracity with which they investigate other crimes. He said there is a perception that defence lawyers are closely connected with those they represent, which is not always the case. "The defence lawyers get associated with their clientele, and I'm not sure the police will prioritize this case the way it perhaps should have been," he said. "But I don't want to presume that." Richard Prihoda, president of the Defence Attorneys Association of Montreal, calls the attack completely unacceptable under any circumstances. Prihoda said in an interview that if the attack is found to be related to Dore's work, then it is more than just an assault. "It's not just an attack on one lawyer, it's an attack on the whole judicial system," Prihoda said. "As with the Crown prosecutors and the judges, we're a part of the system." Prihoda said the association will discuss the recent attack, at a previously scheduled meeting on Wednesday. "I went to the courthouse today (Monday) and everybody is asking questions," Prihoda said. Prihoda said he hopes that police can resolve the case, as well as other outstanding attacks on Quebec lawyers. Similar attacks on attorneys Montreal defence lawyer Joseph La Leggia was attacked in similar fashion last December near his home. He has since resumed practising law. Another Montreal lawyer, Thomas Kiriazis, who is not a defence lawyer, has also been targeted. The business lawyer says he has been the victim of death threats and a firebombing in front of his home, located in the same neighbourhood where Dore was attacked. Dore battling 2002 Bar suspension In addition to the 2002 megatrial, Dore is currently involved in the massive Hells Angels megatrial being held in Montreal. Dore is due before the Supreme Court of Canada soon, where he is attempting to overturn a lower-court decision that upheld a 21-day suspension he was given by the Quebec Bar Association during the 2002 megatrial. The suspension was over a critical letter Dore sent to a Quebec judge over comments that judge made at the bail hearing of one of his clients.

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United Nations gangster killed in a hail of bullets in Vancouver

 

29-year-old man linked to the United Nations gang was gunned down in a brazen morning shooting in a busy Vancouver residential neighbourhood Sunday. The Vancouver Sun has learned the shooting victim is Axel Curtis, who has several convictions for drug trafficking, fraud and possession of a firearm. Curtis is considered a low-level member of the UN gang. He was shot dead at about 9:30 a.m. while walking his French bulldog at the corner of Ash Street and Seventh Avenue, near his eight-storey apartment building. The shooting took place as people were walking and cycling nearby, and was witnessed by residents in the building where Curtis lived. Vancouver police spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness said Curtis was shot multiple times. “We are comfortable in saying this was a targeted shooting,” McGuinness said at a news conference at the cordoned-off scene Sunday afternoon. The shooting is the 13th homicide of the year in Vancouver. Police were interviewing multiple witnesses and expect to release a description of the shooter as soon as they have enough information. The interview process could take some time, said McGuinness, as some witnesses were being offered support because of the traumatic effect of the shooting. At least one witness was in tears Sunday morning at the scene. “As you can appreciate, people who saw this happening — which typically you would only see happening in the movies — it would be just so shocking and quite distressing,” said McGuinness. Neighbours described hearing six to 10 gun shots in rapid succession. Some people came to the assistance of the gunned-down man, performing CPR, but he was dead at the scene, said McGuinness. Shocked neighbours described the incident as concerning because of the possibility that bystanders could be caught in the gunfire. Police said there were bullet holes in the business Optical Factory at the northeast corner of Ash and Seventh where the shooting took place. Police also cordoned off a coffee shop on the south side of Seventh, just across from the shooting. Most neighbourhood residents declined to give their names in interviews as they were frightened by the nature of the incident — rapid gunfire in broad daylight in an otherwise quiet neighbourhood. Some already suspected it was a gang shooting. “It’s too close to home,” said Suzanne, a nearby resident who would not give her last name. Katy Erwin, who has lived in the area for five years, didn’t see the shooting but saw the police cars converge on the scene. She said the area is normally quiet. However, she added there have been some incidents in the past, including three years ago when 10 or so police vehicles converged on a nearby area. McGuinness said the neighbourhood’s shock is understandable, but noted people with gang ties live in all communities in the region — in high-priced homes and in apartments. Police were combing the crime scene for forensic evidence, and were going to follow up with businesses in the area to see if they had surveillance footage. The shooter was described by neighbourhood witnesses as wearing a dark hoodie. The dead man, Curtis, had a criminal record. He was sentenced to two years in jail in August 2007 after being arrested in Vancouver for trafficking and possession of a firearm. He was also given a 10-year firearms prohibition. He was convicted of a West Vancouver fraud in 2006 and got 18 months probation. And he faced trafficking charges in Surrey after being arrested in December 2004. He was also charged with trafficking in Abbotsford in June 2009, but the case was later dismissed. At the time of his death Sunday, he had one outstanding charge of driving while prohibited in Port Moody in the summer of 2010. He was due to go to trial for that in March, 2012. Curtis used several aliases, including Anthony Bartoli, Colin Richardson, Albert Curry, Gabriel Pellegrino and Michael Ross.

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Gangster dead in Vancouver daytime shooting

 

brazen gangland slaying in a busy area one block from a Vancouver police station has left witnesses to the Sunday morning shooting extremely shaken. A man dressed in black clothing approached the victim as he walked his dog and shot him six times in the chest from close range, according to witness accounts. A witness, who asked to be identified only as Sylvia, said she heard six gunshots. “It sounded like fireworks,” said Sylvia, who was enjoying a cappuccino at a nearby cafe just before 10 a.m. “We looked out the window and saw a hooded man — a man in a black hoodie and black pants. He just ran up the road.” She then noticed someone lying on the ground on the northeast corner of the intersection. “I ran over to see if he needed help,” said Sylvia. Two other passersby were already at his side. “They were checking for a pulse. He had a pulse for a short time,” she said. The witness said he had been shot six times in the chest. “There was a lot of bleeding. We ran back and got him a blanket. The police were there very quickly, in less than a minute, and after that emergency people took over.” While the victim’s body lay under a blanket, Vancouver police officers armed with large rifles searched for a suspect. Sylvia described the victim as a white man in his 20s who had been walking a dog before he was shot. Vancouver Police Department Const. Jana McGuinness confirmed the targeted shooting marked the city’s 13th homicide of 2011. “We do believe he has some gang links,” said McGuinness, who did not name the victim. After the shooting, the victim’s pet, a French bulldog, ran around frantically until one of the passersby managed to bring it under control.

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‘Notorious gangster’ shot dead

 

man, who police described as a “notorious gangster and shooter,” was shot dead on Tuesday night. David “Pickles” Thomas, 39, was shot once in the face by a gunman at Wharton Street, Laventille. His death pushed the murder toll to 303 for the year compared with 400 for the same period last year. Thomas was the 33th person to be murdered since the state of emergency was declared on August 21. A report said Thomas was liming near a dirt track  around 9 pm when a man accosted him and shot him in the face. Officers of the Homicide Bureau, Port-of-Spain, and Besson Street Police Station responded. He was rushed to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Police said Thomas was killed at the same location where gang leader, Anthony “Thirteen” de Vignes, alias Tony Kingsdale, was fatally shot  on June 15, 2008. Detectives said there were many attempts made on Thomas’ life. Residents claimed even though he “was living a certain lifestyle” he was very polite. Homicide officers are continuing investigations.

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DEFECTIONS between the Nomads and the Hells Angels bikie gangs could have sparked a spate of drive-by shootings, police said yesterday.

 Identifying ... The Nomads motorcycle gang's logo. Source: Supplied 

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But Gangs Squad commander Arthur Katsogiannis said the tit-for-tat violence was part of a dispute between individual bikies and not a war between the clubs.

Superintendent Katsogiannis and Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad commander Deborah Wallace yesterday called for a end to the violence after shootings near the Ibrahim family home in Merrylands and at Ermington over the weekend.

Among possible motives for the violence was a number of recent defections between the clubs, known as "patching over", Supt Katsogiannis said.

"If this was a full scale war between the Nomads and the Hells Angels you would not have the shootings isolated at one particular area, they would be right around the metropolitan area and around the state," he said.

"It is a conflict between two or three individuals who are part of those gangs, and the conflict is solely between themselves and we're trying to resolve that."

Police have linked eight shootings since last Thursday to the dispute, including one inNorthmead where an innocent woman's house was sprayed with bullets as she slept.

In the last attack, a Merrylands home belonging to a member of the Ibrahim family was shot at on Saturday about 8.45pm. A black four-wheel drive was seen leaving the area after shots were fired, but no one was injured and there was no damage to the house.

In the later incident, police were called to a house at Ermington about 12.05am yesterday after the owner came home and discovered damage to the front of the house.

Police believe the damage to a wall and window was caused by a bullet. No one was in the house at the time.

Strike Force Felix, established to investigate the shootings, has made "significant inroads" about the identity of those involved and the cause of the dispute, Supt Katsogiannis said. "We want to reassure the public that we are doing everything possible."

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Newfoundlanders arrested in RCMP drug bust

 

Two people from Newfoundland and Labrador have been arrested in an interprovincial drug bust against the Hells Angels motorcycle club. The accused are 41-year-old Scott Hutchings from Bell Island and Jocelyn Dunn, 26, from St. John's. The pair have been charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine. They were both arrested on Friday afternoon in St. John’s. They were taken in a bust dubbed "Operation Longridge," which was led by the Ontario Provincial Police. According to a press release issued by the RCMP on Saturday the operation was “targeting members and associates of (an) outlaw motorcycle gang, specifically the Hells Angels Kitchener, Ontario chapter.” The release went on to state that Hutchings and Dunn were arrested in an undercover operation by the RCMP St. John’s Drug Section in cooperation with the Ontario Biker Enforcement Unit. In addition to arresting the two suspects police also seized $50,000 and an unreleased quantity of anabolic steroids. There were more arrests connected to this case made in Ontario but it is unclear at this time how many there were in total. Hutchings and Dunn will appear again in court on Monday.

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Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré — who has represented alleged Hells Angels — is in hospital with serious injuries

Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré.

Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré — who has represented alleged Hells Angels — is in hospital with serious injuries after being assaulted outside his home.

According to Radio-Canada, the 58-year-old lawyer was violently beaten outside his house in Montreal's tony Outremont neighbourhood Friday evening.

Without confirming his identity, police said the victim was found lying on the ground outside his house near Glendale and Pratt Avenues.

The victim was in a coma but later regained consciousness and was able to speak with detectives.

Police have no suspects.

Doré rose to prominence a decade ago when he defended high-ranking Hells members involved in Quebec's notorious 2002 mega-trial.

That mega-trial ended with the murder conviction of Maurice "Mom" Boucher, alleged biker kingpin.

Doré also represents several presumed Hells bikers arrested two years ago in a massive dragnet against organized crime.

The bust, known as Operation SharkQC, netted more than 100 arrests, including dozens of full-patch members of the notorious biker network, according to police.

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