Free Republic

Bakersfield Police Lt. Hajir Nuriddin is worried. You can see it on her face and on the faces of Capt. Joe Bianco and Sgt. Joe Aldona as the trio gathers in the basement of police headquarters. Gang-related shootings in Bakersfield have spiked in the first half of this year, Nuriddin says. And to make matters worse, witnesses, street-level informants, and even anonymous tip lines have fallen all but silent. "Has our city become desensitized by the violence that is occurring right in front of our eyes?" Nuriddin asks.

Probation officers arrested a 15-year-old girl Friday afternoon who is suspected of helping gun down five people -- one fatally -- at a family reunion over the July 4 holiday weekend. Laquiria Foreman is facing charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and participating in a gang.

Arrests in Texas and California Target Members of Known Outlaw Motorcycle Gang in Methamphetamine Distribution Conspiracy Two Defendants Charged in Conspiracy are Hockley County, Texas Sheriff Deputies LUBBOCK, TX—Twenty-eight defendants, including sheriff deputies and members of a motorcycle gang that is a support club of the Bandidos Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (OMG), are charged in a 110-count federal indictment, returned earlier this week in Lubbock, Texas, for allegedly operating a major methamphetamine trafficking organization since January 2003 in west Texas, Arizona, and in the Modesto, California, area, announced James T. Jacks, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Today,...

In Harrisburg, the capital city of Pennsylvania, crime has become such a problem that Stanley Lawson of the NAACP has asked Governor Ed Rendell to call in the National Guard to restore order. During the month of June, twelve young people were gunned down. Many in broad daylight. Mr. Lawson said: “We’re beyond what the Harrisburg police department can do. We need help.” Another NAACP member, Stanley Mitchell, in declaring the need to suspend some civil rights, added: “We have the civil right not to be shot.” It’s easy to attack their willingness to demand martial law with a mandatory...

For those interested in exploring one of the greatest internal and transnational threats to the United States, there is a new book out this week by Samuel Logan, This is For the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America’s Most Violent Gang. The book traces the history of Brenda Paz, a young Honduran who joins MS-13 and eventually becomes the most effective police witness against the organization, before she was killed. But besides the individual story, the book shows just how powerful and ruthless the MS-13 has become. Given that it now has chapters in thousands of cities across the United...

For those interested in exploring one of the greatest internal and transnational threats to the United States, there is a new book out today by Samuel Logan, This is For the Mara Salvatrucha: Inside the MS-13, America's Most Violent Gang. The book traces the history of Brenda Paz, a young Honduran who joins MS-13 and eventually becomes the most effective police witness against the organization, before she was killed. But besides the individual story, the book shows just how powerful and ruthless the MS-13 has become. Given that it now has chapters in thousands of cities across the United States,...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 4 (UPI) -- A brutal gang war is being waged in and around Vancouver as the Canadian city prepares for the 2010 Winter Olympics, authorities say. Jim Chu, the chief police constable in Vancouver, said at least 18 young people have been killed in 2009 to date in gangland violence, including attacks in broad daylight, the Chicago Tribune reported online Saturday. "Let's get serious. There is a gang war, and it's brutal. What we have seen are new rules of engagement for the gangsters," Chu said. Pat Fogarty of British Columbia's Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit...

In an eighteen-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in February 2009 and unsealed this morning, 34 defendants are charged with narcotics and firearms violations arising from an alleged conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine in and around San Bernardino and Redlands under the oversight of the Mexican Mafia. The indictment was announced today by Thomas P. O’Brien, United States Attorney in Los Angeles, and Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles, on behalf of the San Bernardino-based Gang Impact Team (GIT), which includes the full-time participation of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department,...

Note: The following text is a quote: June 24, 2009 46 street gang members and associates arrested in New Jersey-wide operation ICE works with local law enforcement agencies to make arrests NEWARK, N.J. - Forty-six gang members and associates were arrested as a result of a statewide public safety initiative in New Jersey led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Investigation in Newark. The operation ended June 20. Each of those arrested were targeted for their membership, participation or association with violent street gangs. The success of the operation dubbed "Community Shield" was the result of an...

Note: The following SNIPPET is a quote: Twenty-Four Defendant Indictment Names Members and Leaders of Notorious MS-13 Gang, Alleging Federal Racketeering Violations, Including Multiple Murders In the first indictment in Los Angeles to allege racketeering charges against the MS-13 Gang, several members, leaders and associates were arrested early this morning after the return of a federal indictment which charges two dozen defendants, including the executive director of a non-profit gang intervention organization with violations ranging from murder and conspiracy to commit murder and extortion to narcotics trafficking, announced Thomas O'Brien, United States Attorney in Los Angeles, Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director...

Three men who allegedly stormed into a West Side Denny's over the weekend and killed a 34-year-old cook were in the United States illegally, and one had been deported less than a year ago after an arrest. Pablo Ortiz, who police say is a member of the notorious Salvadoran gang MS-13, was arrested in Albuquerque in May 2008 on suspicion of DWI. After a judge found him guilty, Ortiz spent 46 days at the Metropolitan Detention Center. He was released on July 7. -SNIP- Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "put him on a plane and sent him back to El...

SULTAN, Wash. (AP) -- Five teens were charged Friday with second-degree murder in the beating and stabbing death of a 17-year-old Marysville youth in this Snohomish County town.

... FRANCISCO arrived in Hempstead, a decaying inner-ring suburb in Nassau County, nine years after his mother. She had come ahead in the early 1990s, as the Salvadoran civil war was ending, leaving Francisco in the care of an aunt until she could save $5,000 to pay a smuggler to ferry him across the border to join her. Francisco was 12 when he crossed from Tijuana to San Diego in 2001, stuffed in the trunk of a Honda next to several strangers. The trip was terrifying, but later he would say it had toughened him for life on Long Island....

Some find El Monte police officer's side business -- selling clothing with gang symbols -- dismaying June 20, 2009 When El Monte Police Officer George Fierro was seen on video kicking a prone, heavily tattooed gang member in the head at the end of a televised high-speed chase, he received some criticism but also a good amount of praise. Then the 15-year police veteran's side business made the news, and no one advocated giving him a medal for that. When he's not fighting crime and chasing gang members, Fierro sells a line of clothing. Hiscompany's website is known "for its...

<p>Montgomery County prosecutors secured murder indictments today against six people who had been previously charged in connection with the slaying in January of a 15-year-old who was stabbed 72 times and dumped in a Gaithersburg creek.</p> <p>For the first time in Montgomery, a county grand jury also indicted the defendants under a 2007 law that allows judges to sentence gang members who commit violent crimes to an additional 20 years in prison.</p>

A Columbus city park was the scene of what is being reported as a shootout last night, leaving two injured, one of them critical with a gunshot wound to the head. Details are sketchy, but from what is available it would seem that it was either drug or gang related. Anti-gun officials who would like to be able to ban handguns in their parks will undoubtedly point to this incident as an example of why they should be allowed to do so. Of course, they're already allowed to ban street drugs, crack down on gangs, and to frown upon turf...

Note: The following text is a quote: Wife of Gang Leader Pleads Guilty to Narcotics Charges On the day her trial was to begin in U.S. District Court in Lubbock, Texas, Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation (ALKQN) member Marie Chavez, aka "Shorty," the wife of an alleged ALKQN leader Jose Nava, aka "Chino," pleaded guilty to a superseding indictment charging her and 16 co-defendants with various offenses related to alleged narcotics and weapons trafficking and violent activities. Specifically, Chavez, 28, of Lubbock, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute five kilograms...

Nearly three months before her fatal stand-off with Rock Hill Police, 15-year-old Yvette Williams had enrolled in a program to help young people get out of gangs. Williams was the first student to sign up with Project GO — short for Gang Out — in Rock Hill. The middle-schooler had some gang affiliations, said Project GO executive director A.V. Strong, but she was working hard to get out. Strong said he last saw Williams at a church workshop, and he spoke Tuesday at her funeral. Strong, who supervises the statewide program from Columbia, said the teen was making progress. He...

There wasn't much to celebrate after police arrived early Thursday morning at a Studio City club. Authorities raided a birthday party at the Platinum Club on Ventura Boulevard. The rental club is just east of Tujunga Avenue. Investigators said members of the South Los Angeles Rolling 60s gang were at the party. The gang is one of Los Angeles' largest and most dangerous, police said. "They're one of the larger gangs in South Los Angeles," said LAPD Sgt. Dan Horan. "They're well established. There was a gang injunction against them in the neighborhood that they claim. That area around there...

ALEXANDRIA, VA—A federal judge today sentenced 29-year-old Sergio Amador Amador to life in prison for killing a suspected rival gang member. Amador and Oscar Omar Lobo-Lopez fatally shot Melvin Reyes, a suspected rival gang member, on May 5, 2007, in Springfield, Va. On Feb. 27, 2009, Amador pled guilty to murder in aid of racketeering before United States District Judge T.S. Ellis III. Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Joseph Persichini Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office; Colonel David Rohrer, Fairfax County Chief of Police; and James Dinkins, Special...

Boys who have a so-called "warrior gene" are more likely to join gangs and also more likely to be among the most violent members and to use weapons, a new study finds. "While gangs typically have been regarded as a sociological phenomenon, our investigation shows that variants of a specific MAOA gene, known as a 'low-activity 3-repeat allele,' play a significant role," said biosocial criminologist Kevin M. Beaver of Florida State University. In 2006, the controversial warrior gene was implicated in the violence of the indigenous Maori people in New Zealand, a claim that Maori leaders dismissed. But it's no...

Note: The following text is a quote: Highlighting Recent FBI Gang Investigations The U.S. is seeing a rise in gang membership across the country and as membership spreads from urban to suburban areas, so does the associated criminal activity. Gangs are involved not only in auto theft, assault, home invasions, armed robbery, and extortion, but also in fraud, identity theft, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, alien smuggling, and murder. “As our communities are exposed to higher levels of crime and violence, the FBI, along with local, state, and federal partners, are responding with an even greater measure of significant law enforcement...

Crofton, MD -- It's hard to imagine anything Jenny Adkins could have done differently to protect her 14-year-old son, Christopher. She moved to a bucolic corner of Anne Arundel County, indulged his love of football and ice hockey to keep him from roaming suburban malls, and allowed him to wander unsupervised only along a mile-long tree-lined street between her home and that of her ex-husband, a Prince George's County sheriff's deputy. Five weeks ago, when Christopher mistakenly found himself between two groups of school friends that had started calling themselves gangs, Adkins even swiftly moved her son to a different...

Facefwd.com <> The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force - one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon. The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the last days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said...

Criminal offenders, teen moms, dropouts, runaways and other wayward youths will score summer jobs with federal stimulus cash as most Bay State kids desperately scramble to land coveted seasonal gigs in a tight economy. Requirements for summer jobs: • Lacking basic skills. • Pregnant or parenting. • School dropout. • Homeless or runaway. • Court-involved or an “offender.” • An English as a Second Language learner or an immigrant.

The dealers who sold guns to 10 Houston men accused of supplying Mexican drug gangs with military-style weapons aren't liable, U.S. officials say. Even though the accused men would come into gun stores to pay cash for five modified M-16 rifles at a time, the dealers who didn't report the activity did nothing wrong under U.S. gun laws, the Houston Chronicle reported Sunday. "Technically, they don't have to do anything unless they suspect something is wrong," Franceska Perot, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Houston division, told the newspaper. "Unless they knew where the...

Five-year-old Kayla Mitchell and her two sisters have their own bedroom, but the girls have always felt safer sleeping with their mother. But early this morning, as Kayla slept with her family, she was struck in the head by one of six bullets that pierced their Pleasant Grove home in an apparent drive-by shooting. “I can’t think of a safer place to be for a 5-year-old than with her mother in bed,” said Lt. Andrew Harvey, a Dallas police spokesman. Kayla was in serious condition after undergoing three hours of surgery at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. Her mother, Shanika Sherman,...

Slaying of Deputy Jerry Ortiz triggered four-year investigation HAWAIIAN GARDENS - Almost 1,400 law enforcement officials converged on Hawaiian Gardens in a series of pre-dawn raids Thursday as part of the largest federal indictment against a street gang in United States history. Varrio Hawaiian Gardens, Hawaiian Gardens' oldest and most notorious gang, waged a racist campaign to eliminate black people from the community via attempted murders and other crimes, according to the federal racketeering indictments that werei unsealed Thursday. A total of five indictments charged 147 members and associates of the gang, and federal, state and local law enforcement officials...

The 18-year-old accused of gunning down a middle school student at a bus stop earlier this month allegedly shot him twice and then continued on his way to high school, police and prosecutors said today at a press conference announcing his arrest. "This was a cold-blooded assassination of a middle school student," said Assistant District Attorney Joshua Wall at the press conference at Boston police headquarters. Xzeniyeju Chukwuezi is accused of walking up to Soheil Turner, 15, as he waited for a bus on Dudley Street at 7:20 a.m. on May 7 and firing two bullets into his head. Boston...

Federal authorities Thursday accused a south Los Angeles County street gang of a litany of crimes, including the murder of a sheriff's deputy and racially motivated attacks designed to drive African Americans from their town. The charges, part of a massive racketeering case dubbed Operation Knock Out, were outlined in several indictments charging 147 members and associates of the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens gang with murder, attempted murder, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and witness intimidation.

SAN FRANCISCO—Emile Fort was sentenced yesterday to 496 months in prison, five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine to the Victim’s of Crime Fund, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced. Yesterday’s sentence was the result of a plea agreement that was entered into by Fort and the United States on March 3, when Fort pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to conduct the affairs of a racketeering influenced corrupt organization in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1962(d). Fort, 28, admitted to being an associate of the Down Below Gang -...

Federal authorities said they would announce today a huge sweep of Latino gang members allegedly responsible for violence against law enforcement and racially motivated attacks against blacks. The announcement followed the arrests of dozens of suspected gang members during raids early this morning. A news release from the U.S. attorney's office called it the "largest gang takedown in United States history." The indictment is the latest of several investigations that found gangs participating in race-based violence. Federal prosecutors two years ago charged members of a Latino gang with a violent campaign to drive blacks out of the unincorporated Florence-Firestone neighborhood...

FBI is advising law enforcement officers across the country that a Texas cell of Los Zetas — an increasingly powerful arm of the Mexican Gulf Cartel drug trafficking syndicate — has acquired a secluded ranch where it trains its members to “neutralize” competitors in the United States.

John E. Murphy, Acting United States Attorney, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Joseph M. Arabit and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge David Cuthbertson announced that this morning, federal and state authorities arrested six individuals charged in a federal grand jury indictment with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. Those arrested in El Paso this morning include: 23-year-old Elizabeth Vaquera (aka “Liz,” “Chicken Head”), 31-year-old Javier Soto (aka “Buddha”), 29-year-old Miguel Hernandez Reyna (aka “Smurf”), 29-year-old Raul Castro (aka “Listo”), 29-year-old Alberto Provencio (aka “Menace”), 20-year-old Lee Villegas-Marquez (aka...

After a Sensational Crime, a Trial Marked by Quiet By MEG BORTIN May 17, 2009 PARIS — In the two and a half weeks since 27 people went on trial here for the brutal 2006 kidnapping, torture and killing of a young Jewish man, little has filtered out about the proceedings. Despite the sensational nature of the case and the serious issues it has raised — from the rise of anti-Semitism in some sectors of French society to the way the police handled the investigation — the French are essentially unable to follow the courtroom drama because of a law...

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- The Rev. Michael Pfleger has ordered the American flag at St. Sabina Church hung upside-down -- a historic sign of distress -- to symbolize the growing death toll among the city's youngsters. So far this school year, 36 children and teens have been murdered -- more than one a week -- and Pfleger is among a chorus of weary Chicagoans who say the slayings aren't getting the attention they deserve. Had 36 kids died of swine flu this year, "there would be this great influx of resources that say, 'Let's stop this, lets deal with this,'...

CONCORD — A fight between two groups ended with the stabbing of one man, and the beating of another with a baseball bat, police said. The fight began as an argument between the two groups of about seven men at 6:15 p.m. at Willow Pass Park on East Olivera Road, Lt. Darrell Graham said. A 22-year-old man was stabbed in the neck and suffered minor injuries. Another unidentified man was struck in the head with a bat, but ran away with the rest of the suspects as police arrived. The victim who was stabbed was taken to John Muir Medical...

Note: Photos included. # Taking a Stand Against MS-13 05/01/09 Our MS-13 Task Force was able to resolve the case quickly because the victim came forward with security surveillance tapes of the robbery. After MS-13 gang members robbed a Houston beauty salon at gunpoint last January and sexually assaulted a salon employee, one of the gang members went a step further: he took the owner’s picture so he knew exactly who she was. If she thought about going to the police, he said, she would be sorry. The owner was also told that from now on, she would be expected...

WASHINGTON — It’s no longer a question of whether additional National Guard troops will be sent to the nation’s southwest border to help combat drug trafficking, arms smuggling and southbound shipments of drug cash. It’s only a question of when — and who pays for it, Uncle Sam or the taxpayers of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. The Obama administration and the governors of the border states are wrangling over prospective duties for the 1,500 additional citizen soldiers requested by the four states to augment local law enforcement along the 1,947-mile frontier with Mexico. Those talks have serious financial...

Ex-gang member shows no reaction when he gets maximum for tying couple to anchor, throwing them overboard. SANTA ANA A former Long Beach gang member-turned-youth-minister showed no emotion today when he was sentenced to death for his role in the murders-at-sea of a Newport Beach couple who were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard. The presidentially-named John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 43, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by an Orange County jury in January for the Nov. 15, 2004 deaths of Thomas and Jackie Hawks. The jury also found that he committed multiple murders for financial gain, which...

Note: The following text is a quote: ICE arrests 17 in operation targeting transnational gang members WICHITA, Kan. - Local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, in close partnership with the Wichita Police Department, made nine arrests Wednesday during an operation targeting violent transnational street gangs and their illegal alien gang members and associates. Eight other arrests were also made during the operation's planning phase. This is the latest joint local action of an ongoing national ICE effort to target foreign-born gang members. These arrests were made under an ongoing national initiative of ICE's National Gang Unit called "Operation...

Two men with possible gang affiliations have been charged with capital murder and two other suspects are expected to be charged in the beating death of a Loudoun County man during a morning stroll with his wife last month, authorities said yesterday. The attack was a "random robbery gone bad," Loudoun Sheriff Stephen O. Simpson said. Police began to home in on the four suspects while executing search warrants in connection with a flurry of burglaries, robberies and assaults in Loudoun County. Some suspects appear to be either members of or associated with a regional street gang, but it does...

Lord Of The Flies Savages: Gang of Children Stripped, Beat And Tortured Boy, 15, Before Leaving Him For Dead In A Shallow Grave By CHRIS BROOKE 28th April 2009. Four children stripped and whipped a teenager before dumping him unconscious in a shallow grave in a scene reminiscent of the novel Lord of the Flies. The 15-year-old victim, who has a mental age of seven, was hit with planks and had lit cigarettes forced up his nose. He begged for mercy from his tormentors - a girl of 14, two boys aged 11 and another boy of 13. The girl...

LANSDOWNE, Va. - Prosecutors say it seems gang members are beginning to attack innocent people after the arrests of four people in the brutal beating of a Lansdowne woman and the murder of her husband in March. Rushing from the Loudoun County courthouse too upset to speak, the family of accused killer Darwin Bowman went to hire him an attorney. Bowman could face the death penalty for the murder of William Bennett and the attack on his wife Cynthia. In court via closed circuit feed from jail, Bowman wore an orange jumpsuit and a grim expression. He and three other...

SNIPPET: "COPENHAGEN (AFP) — 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. But a 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. [...] The battle over drug sales, revenge and wounded honour pits Hells Angels bikers and their offshoot called AK81 against gangs of...

In semi-rural Hidalgo County which lies to the north of the Rio Grande River separating Texas and Mexico, Sheriff Guadalupe Trevino reckons that there are about two dozen hardcore gangs operating -- a staggering number for a county with about 750,000 people. "We have a serious gang problem here and have for a long time ... I believe we have more gangs than any other county on the border," Trevino told Reuters. The extent of the problem -- the gangs often keep their fighting among themselves -- is hard to comprehend driving past citrus orchards or down the busy roads...

In a legal first for the state of Minnesota, a Ramsey County District judge on Friday ordered members of a street gang to stay away from one another during the Cinco de Mayo celebration on St. Paul’s West Side next weekend. Judge Gregg Johnson granted the city of St. Paul’s request to sue the Sureño 13 gang and 10 of its members in an effort to prevent violence at the event, which draws about 100,000 people every year. Under the order, the named members aren’t prohibited from going to the event, they just can’t associate with other known Sureño members....

A man who authorities said led a local clique of the gang Mara Salvatrucha has been convicted in federal court in Alexandria of murdering a rival gang member in Springfield in 2007, and the man now faces a mandatory life sentence. Federal prosecutors said Oscar Omar Lobo-Lopez, 30, of Springfield was the leader of Hollywood Locos Salvatrucha, an offshoot of the gang MS-13. Lobo-Lopez and fellow gang member Sergio Amador had been hunting for Melvin Reyes because he reputedly belonged to the 18th Street gang, authorities said. On May 5, 2007, Lobo-Lopez and Amador found Reyes in the Springfield Garden...

According to Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger, his jusisdiction is experiencing an increase in gang violence, particularly from Hispanic gangs like MS-13 and the Latin Kings. A great majority of these gangs are illegal aliens. Maryland is one of the most pro-illegal immigration states in the country because of its sanctuary cities, taxpayer-subsidized day labor centers, support for non-citizen voting and lax drivers license laws. Chief Manger reports that incidences of murder, rape, assault, burglary, and robbery have increased in Maryland in 2008, much of it attributable to gangs. In fact, the FBI recently reported that gangs are now...

VISTA ---- Oceanside gang member Meki Gaono was found guilty Monday of first-degree murder in the 2006 ambush of Oceanside police Officer Dan Bessant. Bessant, 25, was assisting a fellow officer during an unrelated traffic stop in a gang-plagued neighborhood when he was felled by sniper fire on Dec. 20, 2006. Prosecutors had argued that Gaono and two fellow teenage gang members drank beer and watched the police activity for about 15 minutes and then opened fire to make themselves and their gang look tough on the streets. The jury, which deliberated for about 10 hours since getting the case...