Shot girl, 5, is one of Britain's youngest gun crime victims

A five year old girl is in a critical condition in hospital after being caught in the crossfire when teenage gangsters opened fire on rivals.


The girl, who has not been named, was shot in the chest while a 35-year-old man was shot in the face.
The shootings happened inside a newsagent in Stockwell, south London, at 9.15pm on Wednesday night.
The girl, who was visiting a relative at the store with her mother, is one of Britain’s youngest ever victims of gun crime.
Police said that the girl and the man, who are said to be Sri Lankan but not related, were innocent victims of a gangland feud.
The intended victims, two black youths, had been chased into the store and were hiding when their rivals, three black youths, opened fire from outside the shop. The suspects escaped on bicycles.

Kirubakaran Nantheesparan, a family friend of the shop owners, witnessed the shootings. She said: “They were screaming at each other and throwing the bottles. Then I saw one pull out a gun and fire the shots.
“I saw the gun right next to me. I heard the shots fired. At first we thought they had been hit by bottles but there was too much blood. We didn't know that the girl had been shot. She was lying down in the shop in shock.
“The girl was lying on the ground and the mum ran over to her. She screamed ‘call the police, call the police’, there was so much blood. It was everywhere.
"She’s a little girl. She was in shock and on the ground, not saying anything.”
Local resident Mareh Silva, 34, was coming out of the shop with friends at about 9pm and said she saw three black youths, faces covered with scarves and balaclavas drop their bikes outside.
“I looked in and saw a lot of blood on the floor but I didn’t want to look at what had happened and I was very scared,” she said.
Stockwell Road was sealed off at both ends while forensic officers searched for evidence.
Detective Chief Inspector Tony Boughton said that the male victim lived in a flat above the shop while the girl was with her mother visiting the store owner, whom they are related to.
Mr Boughton said: “This is a very serious case. They (the victims) could have died and may still do. If you fire a gun into a crowded shop, there is a chance you will kill someone.
“The assumption is at the moment is that the firearm is fired through the open door because there is no damage on the outside.”

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Andrew Ross, of Hawarden, Flintshire, admitted conspiring to smuggle cocaine at Mold Crown Court in 2009.

Following an investigation into his assets, Ross will have £20,000 seized under proceeds of crime laws, a judge at Mold decided on Monday.

The rest of the money can be pursued if Ross comes into funds in future.

A second member of the gang, who made £620,000, was given a confiscation order for £1,689.

Keiran Foulkes, of Halkyn, Flintshire, had previously been sentenced to 18 months after admitting being involved in supplying cocaine.

Again, the rest of the money can also be pursued in future.

Nine members of the gang were jailed in September 2009 for a total of more than 44 years.

The court was told that Ross, helped by others, organised the distribution of cocaine.

Drugs went from Rhyl, Denbighshire, to Anglesey and also into Flintshire, where they were further diluted at a house in Halkyn.

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Police arrested 21 of London's most dangerous gangsters

Police arrested 21 of London's most dangerous gangsters during a series of dawn raids today.

Eight gangs were targeted in a huge operation involving hundreds of officers. It came as the Met announced it has compiled a database of more than 1,000 of the most active and violent criminals.

The raids on 41 homes in seven boroughs - part of efforts to disrupt organised criminal networks - also saw the seizure of drugs and £10,000 in cash. The 21 men arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply class A drugs are aged between 15 and 35.

The Standard joined more than 20 riot officers from the Territorial Support Group as they smashed down the door of a Battersea flat and arrested a man in his thirties. Sources said he was believed to be a senior figure in the SUK (Stick'em Up Kids) gang.

At another address officers found 30 drug wraps and dealing kits. Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse, who attended the raids, said: "These are all about taking out the really wicked individuals luring young people into gangs. We want to hammer the gangs in London and get them off the streets."

Other gangs thought to have been targeted by the Met today include a Mitcham-based group known as Terror Zone. Detective Superintendent Mick McNally said: "All of the people arrested have links to gang violence."

Territorial Policing Commander Steve Rodhouse said: "Today's raids demonstrate our determination to continue dismantling the gang networks responsible for a disproportionate amount of criminality in London."

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Virginia Tech fined $55K for response to shootings

Nearly four years after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, victims' family members and campus safety advocates say it isn't the fine amount of $55,000 Virginia Tech faces that matters, but that the school finally will pay for the mistakes it made during the rampage.
 
The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday fined the school for waiting too long to notify students about the shootings on April 16, 2007.
 
"The bottom line is just having a monetary amount points out what they did was wrong. There's really no way you can replace 32 people, or even seek to equate that with money," said Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin was shot but survived. "Even if they charged them a dollar, it would have done the same thing."
 
Department of Education officials wrote in a letter to the school that the sanction should have been greater for the school's slow response when student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 students and faculty and then himself. The amount was the most the department could levy for Tech's two violations of the federal Clery Act, which requires timely reporting of crimes on campus.
 
"While Virginia Tech's violations warrant a fine far in excess of what is currently permissible under the statute, the Department's fine authority is limited," wrote Mary Gust, director of a department panel that dictated what punishment the school would receive for the violation.
 
The university avoided the potentially devastating punishment of losing some or all of its $98 million in federal student aid. While that's possible for a Clery Act violation, the department has never taken that step and a department official said it was never considered for Virginia Tech.
 
University officials have always maintained their innocence and said they would appeal the fine, even though it's a relatively small sum for a school of more than 30,000 full-time students and an annual budget of $1.1 billion. The amount would cover tuition and fees for one Virginia undergraduate student for four years, or two years for an out-of-state undergrad.
 
"I don't think any amount of money would ever be enough, because it's not about that," said S. Daniel Carter, director of public policy for Security On Campus, a nonprofit organization that monitors the Clery Act. "It's about accountability, and it's about making sure students at Virginia Tech and across the country are kept are safe."
 
Only about 40 schools have come under review for Clery Act violations in the 20 years the law has been in place. The largest fine to be levied was $350,000 against Eastern Michigan University for failing to report the rape and murder of a student in a dormitory in 2006.
 
Carter said it's "a shame" the department had only really began fining schools for noncompliance in 2005.

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dawn raids were part of a new Metropolitan Police initiative to try to tackle organised crime in the capital,

Metropolitan Police have made 22 arrests in a series of raids across London targeting gang-related crime.

A total of 41 addresses in Wandsworth, Merton, Sutton, Kingston, Waltham Forest, Lambeth and Croydon were targeted on Wednesday.

Twenty-one men aged from 15 to 35 were arrested for conspiracy to supply class A drugs. One woman was arrested for breaching her bail conditions.

Police also seized drugs, £10,000 in cash and various stolen goods.

All of the men arrested are being questioned at police stations across south London.

The dawn raids were part of a new Metropolitan Police initiative to try to tackle organised crime in the capital, called Operation Connect.

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Raymond “Raymo” Gutierrez, 31, and Alvaro “Tito” Saldana, 26, are facing first-degree murder charges with gang enhancements

Raymond “Raymo” Gutierrez, 31, and Alvaro “Tito” Saldana, 26, are facing first-degree murder charges with gang enhancements in the death of Roger Villanueva on May 25, 2008.

Villanueva was shot to death in the backyard of an Angelus Street home during a memorial barbecue to Moses Rodriguez, who was murdered in Turlock in 2006.

On Monday Stanislaus County Deputy District Attorney Thomas Brennan presented a gang expert witness to prove the prosecutions claim that the killing of Villanueva was done to benefit the Norteño street gang.

Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Teso, a classification and a gang specialist deputy testified to the gang culture inside the Stanislaus County Jail that Gutierrez and Saldana are accused of being a part of.

Teso’s testimony included detailed descriptions of the Norteño’s organization behind bars and what is expected of the members.

When an inmate comes into the jail and they claim a certain gang affiliation or the intake deputy uses other indicators like tattoos to establish a likely gang affiliation, they are placed in segregated housing to protect the general population from recruitment and assaults.

According to Teso’s testimony, new inmates to the jail who claim Norteño affiliation are required by the gang’s hierarchy to fill out a new arrival questionnaire listing everything from their name to the charges against them. These questionnaires are written on “wellas” referring to the tiny handwriting on small bits of paper that gangs use, Teso said.

Both Gutierrez and Saldana had filled out new arrival questionnaires for the gang that were later confiscated during a cell search, Teso said.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

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Judy Moran put on a show for the cameras.

Judy Moran put on a show for the cameras.

With a smile and a wave to the assembled media, the gangland widow known for her blow-waved tresses and flamboyant dress headed off to jail on Wednesday for orchestrating her brother-in-law's execution.

Earlier, she looked down, her face reddened and she clasped a tissue in her hands as a Victorian Supreme Court jury declared it had found her guilty of murdering Des "Tuppence" Moran.

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She pursed her red lips and appeared stony-faced in a courtroom packed with lawyers and journalists.

At 66, Moran, who has already buried two husbands and two sons to gangland murders, may now spend the rest of her days behind bars for killing off another Moran.

The jury of nine men and three women accepted that, although she didn't pull the trigger, Moran entered into a pact with gunman Geoffrey "Nuts" Armour to murder the brother of her second husband Lewis Moran.

Jurors deliberated for seven days following a month-long trial, and were given several extensions of time after having trouble reaching a unanimous verdict.DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder.

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Mexico Arrests Drug Boss Linked to US Agent's Death | Americas | English

Mexico Arrests Drug Boss Linked to US Agent's Death | Americas | English: "Mexico's military has arrested the alleged regional head of the Zetas drug cartel in connection with the recent murder of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent.

Navy officials say Sergio 'El Toto' Mora was detained, along with five other men, during a raid Sunday in the northern state of Coahuila.

Authorities say Mora was directly in charge of Julian Zapata Espinoza, who was arrested last week for allegedly carrying out the killing of agent Jaime Zapata."

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Jockey Danny Nikolic quizzed after murder of father-in-law Les Samba | Herald Sun

Jockey Danny Nikolic quizzed after murder of father-in-law Les Samba | Herald Sun: "Nikolic presented himself at the St Kilda Rd offices of the crime department this morning to discuss the cold-blooded street execution of the millionaire racing identity.

He spoke to officers for about two hours, denying involvement in the killing.

The champion jockey was not accompanied by a lawyer.

Homicide squad chief Det-Insp. John Potter said Nikolic was not being treated as a suspect.

Nikolic is the former husband of Mr Samba’s daughter Victoria, who was a Melbourne Spring Carnival ambassador.

Nikolic, who rode Thorn Park to win the 2004 Stradbroke Handicap for Samba, yesterday said the death was a major surprise.

'It's a huge shock,' Nikolic said."

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