Free Republic

Reputed gang members have been disappearing from the streets of South Florida. Four members of the Latin Kings in Broward, gone. The leader of a Mara Salvatrucha-13 crew in Lake Worth, nowhere to be seen. Members of Los Vatos Locos and 18th Street Gang, vanquished from the streets of Miami. On Friday, it was revealed why. LocalLinks During the past few weeks, authorities have rounded up 22 suspected gang members in South Florida as part of a national sweep that netted 375 gang members in 23 states. The initiative is part of Operation Community Shield, an anti-gang program aimed at...

A brutal crew of baby-faced Tren de Aragua migrant gangbangers at a city-funded Manhattan shelter are pulling off armed robberies in Times Square — and they’re getting away with it .. Nearly two dozen young migrant thugs, some as young as 11 years old, are part of a dangerous asylum-seeking brat pack that has graduated from purse snatchings to gunpoint heists targeting New Yorkers and tourists alike .. they’re managing to stay out of jail because of their ages and the Empire State’s lenient criminal justice laws, ... “They kind of had a graduation of sorts, and a progression where...

The vicious migrant gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) has been recruiting increasingly younger members to engage in coordinated crimes and attacks in Times Square, in the heart of New York City. As reported by the New York Post, the ring consists of at nearly two dozen illegal aliens, with some as young as 11 years old so that they appear less threatening at a first glance. The gang coordinates their efforts to commit various crimes such as snatching purses and holding civilians at gunpoint, primarily targeting New York residents and tourists. But due to their age, their migrant status, and...

A former Boston Public Schools (BPS) academic dean who shot a student in the head was convicted Thursday of recruiting teens into joining a gang, according to MassLive. A member of the Latin King and Queen Nation, and an ex-academic dean at BPS, 63-year-old Shaun Harrison, also known as “King Rev,” was sentenced to 218 months in prison after pleading guilty to “conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity” in August 2022, the District of Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office announced, according to MassLive. As an employee at English High School, his job was to counsel troubled...

A former Boston Public Schools academic dean who led a double life as a member of the Latin Kings gang and shot a student pleaded guilty to racketeering charges Tuesday, the U.S. District Attorney for Massachusetts announced. Shaun “Rev” Harrison, 63, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct enterprise affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity, more commonly referred to as RICO conspiracy, in federal court... In 2015, the DA said, Harrison was hired by BPS as an academic dean at English High School. In that role, Harrison was to act as a mediator between teachers and students, contact families when...

WELLINGTON, Fla. - A shooting was reported Monday outside the Mall at Wellington Green in Palm Beach County as the complex was crowded with shoppers buying last-minute Christmas gifts, authorities said. A spokesperson for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department said a gunman shot at deputies and wounded a police dog, which later died at a veterinarian emergency center. Deputies said they waited until three individuals left the mall to make arrests, with two being taken into custody. The third individual took off running and shot the police dog before deputies returned fire and wounded him, deputies said.

GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) - A 5-day cooperative operation between various law enforcement divisions led to a massive crime bust in Gulfport. Forty people were arrested as a result of Operation Shark Tank, carried out by the Gulfport Police Narcotics Division, US Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force, MBN, ATF, HSI and MDOC. The arrests took place between April 16- April 20. Officials say several firearms and narcotics were seized during this operation. Operation Shark Tank is a sub-operation of Operation Triple Beam, a six-week-long violence reduction initiative for the Southern District of Mississippi under the U.S. Department of Justice....

An international drug trafficking ring forced dogs to swallow bags of cocaine and then brutally sliced the animals open to retrieve them. Police said they arrested 75 people across northern Italy and Rome for using the dogs in a drug scam - at least 50 were died after being cut open. Large breeds such as Great Danes, Labradors and Mastiffs were used by the gang to maximise their trafficking.

With tears steaming down her face, a Paterson woman who police say was kept by her boyfriend in a padlocked bedroom for the better part of two years showed up in court Tuesday and defended her alleged captor as a “loving, good man.” “I want this all to stop!” a sobbing Nancy Rodriguez told reporters in the hallway of Superior Court in Paterson, moments before her boyfriend, Michael Mendez, was led before a judge to answer charges of kidnapping, criminal restraint and drug distribution. Rodriguez disputed the state’s contention that Mendez, a reputed drug dealer and member of the Latin...

VAN NUYS - Immigration activists, officeholders and Christian leaders rallied at a San Fernando Valley church on Saturday, renewing angry calls for President Barack Obama to order a halt of deportations they say shatter the families of legal U.S. residents. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, and immigration-reform proponent Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., were among the speakers at La Iglesia en la Camino (The Church on the Way) in what was billed as a bipartisan town-hall meeting. "When communities are terrorized by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children...

He was told there was a party at a brick house on Osborne Place, a quiet block set on a steep hill in the Bronx. He showed up last Sunday night as instructed, with plenty of cans of malt liquor. What he walked into was not a party at all, but a night of torture — he was sodomized, burned and whipped. All punishment, the police said Friday, for being gay. There were nine attackers, ranging from 16 to 23 years old and calling themselves the Latin King Goonies, the police said. Before setting upon their 30-year-old victim, they had...

A southwestern Illinois man claims he shot in self defense when a 17-year-old gang-banger attempted to break into the home where he was staying Tuesday night. Law officers, however, tell another story. They say the 38-year-old shooter fired at the teen from a distance of 75 to 100 feet away. And -- they say -- the teen wasn't trying to break into the house. He was shot while spray painting graffiti on the garage in the backyard. The incident occurred unincorporated Collinsville just down the street from the Fairmount Park race track. The teen was found a few blocks away...

Note: The following text is a quote: 11 arrested during ICE-led joint operation in Myrtle Beach, S.C., targeting gangs Arrests include members and associates of 18th Street, Latin Kings, and Sur13 street gangs MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Nine foreign-born gang members and associates and two U.S. citizens with ties to local violent street gangs were arrested here Wednesday following U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-led investigation. The operation, dubbed Community Shield, was a multi-agency effort spearheaded by ICE. Among the participating agencies were the Myrtle Beach Police Department's Gang Unit, 15th Circuit Drug Enforcement Unit, Myrtle Beach Police Department's Street...

New blood: Violent gang life is passed down from parent to child BY VERONIKA BELENKAYA DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Sunday, June 15th 2008, 2:13 AM Warga/NewsA longtime member of the Lating Kings, here with his 4-year-old, says he wants to be a peacemaker and hopes his son follows suit. Newborn Blood, known as a Blood drop, is draped with beads and flanked by guns. Police later seized the pistols from the parents.  The images as chilling as they are heartbreaking: An infant with a semiautomatic handgun next to each tiny shoulder. A child no more than a year old...

Juan Rosario is surrounded by officers in this July 2006 picture. "I'll put a bomb in your car," witnesses said a reputed Latin Kings member told an assistant prosecutor in open court on Thursday.  Those in the Hackensack courtroom for a routine hearing said they weren't sure who reputed capo Juan Rosario of Passaic was talking to at first, but then he made it clear -- pointing at Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Catherine Fantuzzi. "Now he's got another charge of terroristic threats on him," said her boss, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli.Rosario, 47, known as "King Black Rose,"...

massive drug sweep that netted at least two non-U.S. citizens in Hazleton, Pa., demonstrates that local municipalities need the power to crack down on illegal immigrants, according to the city's mayor, Lou Barletta. After a seven-month investigation, the state Attorney General's Office announced Thursday that it had charged 40 people - all of them suspected dealers - with involvement in a Northeast Pennsylvania cocaine ring that allegedly made $31 million over three years and is based in Hazleton. Among those charged were two illegal immigrants and five or six other noncitizens with green cards

A lineup of team logo baseball caps denounced as tailor-made for gang members was ordered removed from store shelves by its manufacturer Friday after complaints from baseball officials. "It has been brought to our attention that some combinations of icons and colors on a select number of our caps could be too closely perceived to be in association with gangs,"... The three styles in question used colors and symbols linked to three gangs: an all-white cap with a blue bandanna, the trademark of the notorious Crips; an all-white cap with a red bandanna worn by the rival Bloods; and a...

Homeland Security panel also says traffickers are forming ties with U.S.-based gangs The U.S. Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies at the U.S.-Mexico border are outgunned by increasingly ruthless and well-armed Mexican drug cartels, a new congressional report concludes. "The cartels use automatic assault weapons, bazookas, grenade launchers and improvised explosive devices," the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee report said. "In contrast, U.S. Border Patrol agents are issued 40-caliber Beretta semiautomatic pistols." The report, scheduled to be released today by U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said drug cartels are able to break the encryptions on Border Patrol and sheriffs'...

MISSION — Family and gang were one and the same for Leobardo Villarreal. So in March it was no coincidence that federal authorities finally arrested Villarreal, a 22-year-old second-generation member of the gang Hermano Pistoleros, through a tip they got after arresting his father and fellow gang member Juan Eladio Villarreal-Saenza, officials said. The Pistoleros, whom the FBI says Mexican drug cartels are hiring to run drugs and do contract killings, operate in Mexico and the United States. They are highly mobile, organized criminals who also happen to be illegal aliens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. While the federal...

The Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and Vice Lords were born decades ago in Chicago's most violent neighborhoods. Now, their gang graffiti is showing up 6,400 miles away in one of the world's most dangerous neighborhoods -- Iraq. Armored vehicles, concrete barricades and bathroom walls all have served as canvasses for their spray-painted gang art. At Camp Cedar II, about 185 miles southeast of Baghdad, a guard shack was recently defaced with "GDN" for Gangster Disciple Nation, along with the gang's six-pointed star and the word "Chitown," a soldier who photographed it said. The graffiti, captured on film by an Army...