Two men who claim to belong to rival street gangs are behind bars after police investigated a pair of unrelated cases of gun violence in the Trainsong Park area of west Eugene.

One of the suspects, 18-year-old Daniel Sotelo of Cottage Grove, allegedly intended to shoot West Side Piru gang members during a drive-by incident near the park on Sept. 23. The shooting was prevented when Sotelo’s handgun malfunctioned, police said.

Sotelo is a “self-identified leader” of the South Side Play Boy Sureno Trece gang, police said.

Sotelo was arrested Thursday and is being held in the Lane County Jail on charges of attempted murder, attempted first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and menacing.

Sotelo’s arrest came one day after Eugene police apprehended a West Side Piru member on charges that he shot up a young family’s Wilkie Street home last year because he suspected that they had become “neighborhood whistle-blowers,” police Sgt. Scott McKee said.

The suspect, Barry Hasty Jr., faces charges of menacing, unlawful use of a weapon and reckless endangering in connection with the Sept. 13, 2010, shooting in a Bethel area neighborhood about one block south of Trainsong Park.

McKee said West Side Piru gang members claim the park as “their turf” and that neighbors have complained to police about gang-related gunfire and vandalism in the area.

Hasty, 20, lives in the neighborhood and is accused of firing several gunshots into the side of a home that had been rented by a young couple and their three children.

Although no one was injured, bullets flew through two bedrooms — one of which was occupied by a sleeping baby, police said.

McKee said the shooting prompted the family to move from the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, an investigation is continuing into the drive-by shooting attempt that led to Sotelo’s arrest.

Hours after the attempted shooting, Sotelo and others returned to the area and confronted a man they had wrongly suspected of being a West Side Piru member, police said.

The alleged driver in the return visit to the area, 38-year-old Loucinda Reeves of Eugene, was arrested Thursday on charges of hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and furnishing alcohol to minors.

Police said in a news release that Reeves associates with the South Side Play Boy Sureno Trece gang and has helped them in a number of ways.

A Lane County grand jury indicted Reeves, Sotelo and Hasty on Tuesday.

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Two alleged associates of the Hells Angels have been charged after a police officer was put in a headlock and punched several times

Two alleged associates of the Hells Angels have been charged after a police officer was put in a headlock and punched several times in front of a Kelowna nightclub Tuesday.

Shortly after 2 a.m. two uniformed Kelowna RCMP members were on patrol when they saw a fight break out between several men on Leon Avenue. When they moved in to arrest the main aggressor, one of the officers was jumped from behind and attacked.

The officer who was punched ended up with swelling and bruising.

Kelowna RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Ann Morrison was unable to say what caused the fight.

“I can confirm we are having difficulty receiving cooperation from the parties involved,” she said.

Kelowna’s Pedro Amestica, 39, was charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. He does not have a criminal record and police say he is a known associate of the Mission City chapter of the Hells Angels.

Thomas Volker, a 37-year-old from Mission, is charged with assaulting a police officer. He has a criminal record and police say he is a member of the Mission City Hells Angels.

Both men have appeared before a justice of the peace and have been released from custody. Their next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 12 in Kelowna

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Suspect in Juárez consulate killings extradited

 

An alleged prison gang member wanted in connection with the killing of a U.S. consulate employee, her husband and another employee's spouse has been extradited to the United States, Mexican authorities have announced. Joel Abraham Caudillo was handed over to FBI agents Dec. 20 in Veracruz at the same time that Julian “El Piolin” Zapata Espinoza, wanted in the February killing of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata, was extradited. Mexican authorities announced Caudillo's extradition this week. He's one of 35 people charged in a drug conspiracy case that alleges that the Barrio Azteca prison gang, working with the Juárez Cartel, engaged in drug trafficking and murder on both sides of the Rio Grande. Officials say that gang members in Ciudad Juárez on March 13, 2010, killed U.S. consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton; her husband, Arthur Redelf, an El Paso County jailer; and Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, the husband of a consulate employee. Caudillo is accused of destroying one of the vehicles used in Ceniceros' killing. Extraditions in the case have been done surreptitiously during holidays. Near Labor Day weekend in 2010, Jesus Ernesto “El Camello” Chávez Castillo, a suspect in the killings, was brought to San Antonio for a closed court hearing. Court records in his case remain sealed.

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all is quiet on Calgary’s gang front.

 

With no killings between FOB and FK in nearly three years and the biggest case of them all — the 2009 triple murder at Bolsa Restaurant — resulting in at least two convictions, it would be tempting to assume all is quiet on Calgary’s gang front. That assumption would be wrong. As detailed in a recent article, no small amount of effort goes into monitoring the gang members who aren’t either dead or in jail to prevent any further violence. However, we live in a society that values quantifiable results: while it’s easy to tally the number of bad guys who have been arrested, the amount of drugs seized or illegal guns taken off the street, it’s much harder to measure how many murders police may have prevented. It has happened, however, and only continued pressure will keep the violence in check. But that’s not the only unfinished business for Calgary police: there are at least 20 homicides connected to the gang war which remain unsolved — investigations police have been able to devote more time to, thanks to the relatively low number of homicides recorded in Calgary during 2011. Prior to the Bolsa massacre, when innocent restaurant patron Keni Su’a was slaughtered trying to flee the eatery, it was common for Calgarians to be indifferent to the death toll as long as gangsters kept killing each other. Bolsa exposed the fundamental flaw in that indifference: allow criminals with little regard for human life to run loose and it’s only a matter of time before an innocent is hurt or killed. The public may not be clamouring for police to solve the murders of 20 people who were either gangsters or people who made the poor choice of hanging out with criminals, but Bolsa demonstrated why all Calgarians have a vested interest in getting their killers off the street. For homicide investigators, an unsolved case is a case that needs solving — no matter if the victim was a criminal himself. “We are looking at cold case homicides, and included in that is, of course, are all the organized crime ones,” Staff Sgt. Grant Miller of the homicide unit said recently. “We’re motivated to solve them.” We live in a country where the rule of law is supreme, and it dictates justice must be available to all — justice that’s meted out in a courtroom, not at the end of the barrel of a gun.

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3 people wounded in drive-by shooting on Hudson

 

Three people are being treated at local hospitals after a drive-by shooting on Hudson Avenue this afternoon. According to Rochester police Capt. Peter Leach, officers responded to Hudson Avenue near Weeger Street at 4:20 p.m. for a report of people shot. Upon arrival, they found three people shot outside of a grocery store. Leach said the shots were fired by people driving by in a gray minivan. After the shootings, the minivan drove away on Weeger Street and struck another vehicle, at which point the van’s occupants got out and ran away. Leach said the victims were a 28-year-old Greece woman, a 23-year-old city man and a 25-year-old city man. All the victims’ injuries are believed to be non-life-threatening, he said. The woman is being treated at Strong Memorial Hospital; the men at Rochester General Hospital, he said. Police are searching for the suspects.

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Four senior British police officers are under investigation over allegations of misconduct for partaking in a gangland killing case, news reports said.

Staffordshire Police launched an inquiry into the murder of amateur footballer Kevin Nunes, 20, who was gunned down in a country lane in 2002, British media reported. 

Nunes, a drug dealer who had been on the books of Tottenham Hotspur, was shot dead in an execution style killing after a gang dispute. 

His killers, Levi Walker, Antonio Christie, Adam Joof, Michael Osbourne and Owen Crooks were all jailed for life after being found guilty of murder by a jury at Leicester Crown Court. 

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) will look into the handling of the investigation into case of the four officers, including the lead on police ethics. Five men were jailed in connection with the killing in 2008. 

The IPCC confirmed that formal notice of investigation had been served on “a number of former and serving Staffordshire Police officers”. 

Meanwhile, Northamptonshire Police Authority confirmed that its force's chief constable Adrian Lee and deputy chief constable Suzette Davenport were being investigated. 

Lee is also the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers' ethics portfolio.

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Nathaniel D. Robinson, 19, of 24 Lyon St., Apt. 3, was booked last night at the Worcester Police Department on charges of murder and carrying a firearm without a license.

Another man allegedly involved in the killing of Javier A. Santiago outside City Hall on Nov. 30 has been arrested on a murder charge after he was picked up in the Bronx, N.Y., on a murder warrant.

Nathaniel D. Robinson, 19, of 24 Lyon St., Apt. 3, was booked last night at the Worcester Police Department on charges of murder and carrying a firearm without a license. The police log indicates the incident occurred at 455 Main St. — the same address listed for where Mr. Santiago was gunned down and the same one used when Patrick Pierre Jr., the co-defendant in this case, was arrested.

An arrest warrant on the murder charge for Mr. Robinson was issued Dec. 6 in Central District Court, according to court records and the police log.

Mr. Robinson was picked up sometime on Dec. 9 in the Bronx and brought to a courthouse there, according to court records in New York. He was scheduled to appear in court again there yesterday. Worcester detectives apparently later delivered him here on the murder charge.

Mr. Robinson is expected to appear today in Central District Court to face the murder charge.

Mr. Pierre, 21, was arraigned Dec. 7 in Central District Court on murder and firearms charges stemming from the shooting death of Mr. Santiago, a 20-year-old city resident.

Prosecutors said the midday shooting next to City Hall involved opposing gang members. Sometime before the shooting, the combatants were in an altercation in an alley that runs from Franklin to Federal street, adjacent to the Telegram & Gazette building.

Authorities have not said whether Mr. Robinson was the man who fatally shot Mr. Santiago, but Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Quinlan said in court that Mr. Pierre handed a firearm to another man before the shooting.

Authorities reviewed a surveillance camera videotape of the altercation in Allen Court, which occurred 40 minutes before the fatal shooting. The tape led to the arrest of 17-year-old Javon Rodriguez on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and misleading investigators.

Mr. Quinlan said at Mr. Rodriguez’s arraignment that the video showed Mr. Rodriguez running down the alley, followed by a group that included Mr. Santiago, then turning and waving a knife.

Mr. Rodriguez is accused of lying to police when questioned after the shooting. He allegedly sought help after the initial altercation, and Mr. Pierre and the alleged gunman, not identified by name during court proceeding, responded.

Authorities initially thought Mr. Santiago died from complications involving an asthma attack.

It was later discovered at an autopsy that he had been shot once in the upper torso and died from the gunshot wound.

Court records identified Mr. Santiago as a member of the Providence Street Posse gang. Authorities have said the shooting of Mr. Santiago involved members of the Kilby Street gang.

Mr. Pierre was identified as a member of the Kilby Street gang in court records associated with stabbings at a movie theater at The Shoppes at Blackstone Valley in Millbury. The attack on two men was on May 8, 2010, and involved many members of the Kilby Street gang.

Records show the victims in the case were from Plumley Village. Court records indicate Kilby members feud with members of Plumley Village East, which is aligned with the Providence Street Posse.

Mr. Pierre had been sentenced to 5 years’ probation in October after being found guilty of multiple counts of aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery stemming from the attacks at the theater.

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Starting Off Small, Ending Up Infamous Feds Target Transnational Gangs

Before dawn on a balmy December day, about half a dozen Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarm in front of a ranch house on a quiet block in Brentwood, Long Island, and knock on the door of José Rubio.

Rubio, 31, is suspected to be one of more than 2,000 members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, slang for “street-smart Salvadorans,” on Long Island. The FBI has charged 12 members of the gang with nine homicides there since 2008.

Minutes later, ICE agents led Rubio, a stocky man with a goatee and black curly hair, away in handcuffs. His wife, Melissa, watched in silence from their lawn, tears streaming down her face.

The Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 gang, began establishing a strong presence on Long Island more than 15 years ago. There, like across the country, it committed violent crimes that have caused some to label it as the country’s most violent gang.

But according to Suffolk and Nassau County police departments their focus on the gang, coupled with efforts by the FBI and ICE, has brought the violence down this year.



Starting Off Small, Ending Up Infamous

Mara Salvatrucha started off as a small street gang in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Since then it has spread across at least 42 states and Central America. The gang is notorious for brutal slayings of rival gang members and its own suspected of working with the law enforcement.

On Long Island, a large Salvadoran community attracted new immigrants — in the mid 1990s some started organizing into the MS-13 gang; others came already having been members of the gang in other places.

Today, the gang has more than 20 cliques, and some of the strongest ones are in Hempstead, Freeport, Brentwood and Central Islip, according to the FBI.

Over the years MS-13 captured headlines with brutal murders, such as the stabbing of 15-year-old Michael Alguera at a Hempstead High School handball court in 2008, or last year’s shooting of 19-year-old Vanessa Argueta and her 2-year-old son Diego in Central Islip.

Long Island’s “Baddest Gang”

Special Agent Reynaldo Tariche, from the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, says that what makes MS-13 one of the most dangerous gangs are crimes that have no specific purpose.

“It’s not profit seeking,” Tariche said. “It’s pure violence to establish themselves as the baddest gang in Long Island.”

But police say violence caused by MS-13 on Long Island is down. Work done by federal and local authorities has resulted in homicide, racketeering, drug and extortion charges against nearly 50 MS-13 members and associates since 2008.

It is a product of investigations, which tend to be long and arduous, often because witnesses are unwilling or too afraid to cooperate. Results, however, have shown what Detective Sergeant Mike Marino, head of the Nassau County Police Department’s gang section, describes as “taking out the significant portions of the MS-13 gang, leadership and members.”

He cites the three-year long investigation into the death of Michael Alguera, the high school student, which resulted in murder charges against Louis Ruiz and David Valle, members of Hempstead MS-13 clique, this November.

This year, more than 20 MS-13 members were sentenced or charged using Racketeer and Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, or RICO, in the Eastern District of New York federal court. RICO was originally passed in the 1970s to deal with the Mafia, but as street gangs took center-criminal stage federal prosecutors have used it more commonly to target them, particularly since the 1990s. It allows them to charge individuals for being members of a group or “enterprise” that commits crime, with the possibility of obtaining lengthier jail sentences.

(Photo: James Hayes, ICE's Special Agent in Charge of Investigations. Mirela Iverac/WNYC)

Feds Target Transnational Gangs

While local police and the FBI have been zeroing in on MS-13 and other transnational gangs on Long Island for years, ICE started targeting them to a greater degree after James Hayes took over the position of special agent in charge of investigations in 2009.

“I thought there were a lot of threats associated with criminal gang activity, transnational gang activity in the New York area,” Hayes said. “And we went from a total of 27 arrests in 2009 to 310 in fiscal year 2011 that just ended.”

Those arrests, as well as that of José Rubio, which will show up in the stats this year, are a part of ICE’s national gang enforcement initiative known as Operation Community Shield. It began in 2005 specifically targeting MS-13, whose many members were not citizens. (It has since expanded to more than 2,000 gangs and cliques.)

Rubio, although having committed crimes much smaller than those that have made the MS-13 gang so infamous, is worthy of ICE’s attention, according to Hayes.

“When we’re looking at who should we target, we’re looking at people who committed crimes in the past … and are members of all criminal organizations, in particular transnational gangs,” he said.

In 2007, Rubio was convicted of possession of a forged instrument and disorderly conduct. Eight years earlier he came into the country illegally from El Salvador.

A few days after his arrest, though, Rubio strongly denied any affiliation to MS-13 in an interview in one of ICE’s facilities in downtown Manhattan.

“I’m not. I told them wasn’t. I’m not a member of MS-13, you understand?” he said, sitting in a small room, handcuffed and wearing a lime-green jumpsuit. “I don’t deny it — I have family members who are in the gang.”

Rubio said all he was interested in was being reunited with his wife, Melissa, a U.S. citizen, and their two children, who are 3 and 2-years old.

He is currently in Hudson County Correctional Facility, waiting to appear before an immigration judge, who will decide whether he will be deported back to El Salvador.

 
“Unintended consequences” of Deportations

Some experts point out that deportations often are not an end to the problem of transnational gangs.

“The unintended consequence is you spread a gang that initially is heavily focused in parts of Los Angeles,” said John P. Sullivan, senior research fellow with the Center for Advanced Studies on Terrorism. “It now gets to spread its tentacles to other places. And those new cliques or cells start to replicate.”

Additionally, deportations don’t prevent gang members from crossing the border again — around 20 percent return, according to ICE.

Sgt. Marino of the Nassau Police Department also strikes a cautionary note when talking about success in dealing with MS-13.

“It is cyclical,” Marino said. “Once we deal with one group, they’re out of commission for a while. They seem to come back over time.”

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arrested four Florida residents accused of being part of the “Felony Lane Gang”

Naperville police have arrested four Florida residents accused of being part of the “Felony Lane Gang” suspected in thefts around the Western suburbs.

An off-duty officer noticed suspicious activity from two vehicles in a parking lot near 75th Street and Fort Hill Drive in Naperville about 12:28 p.m. Saturday, police said. During that time a female in the group performed an unspecified drive-up transaction at a nearby bank.

On-duty officers responded to the scene Saturday to investigate and arrested four people.

Alisa B. Freeman, 41, of the 900 block of Prospect Road, Oakland Park, Fla., was charged with financial identity theft, conspiracy to commit a financial crime and fugitive from justice. Nicholas S. Ferguson, 22, of the 3400 block of NW 5th Ct., Lauderhill, Fla; Darryl Dixon Jr., 25, of the 800 block of NM 19th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Melvin D. Ferrell, 26, of the 1400 block of SW 46th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., all were charged with conspiracy to commit a financial crime.

Police say they believe the four are part of the gang that got its name from being known to use the farthest drive-up lane at the bank to cash phony checks. Police first warned residents about the group in late September and said at the time the gang was believed to have been responsible for 60 smash-and-grab burglaries from vehicles amounting to $100,000 since August 2010.

Officials have previously said they do not know how large the group may be.

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Feuding street gangs may be responsible for an early Sunday shooting in a suburban Montreal strip club that left four people injured

Feuding street gangs may be responsible for an early Sunday shooting in a suburban Montreal strip club that left four people injured, police said.

"There are certain elements found at the scene that is making us believe this may be a street gang conflict between two rival groups," Laval police Constable Frank Di Genova said.

"It's not confirmed 100 percent, but it seems to lean that way."

All four victims -- three men who suffered gunshot wounds and a woman hit by flying glass -- were expected to recover, said police, who had made three arrests. No names had been released.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported there were about 150 people inside and outside the bar when the shooting broke out about 2 a..m.

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Adelaide was in the grip of a bikie war or that police had lost the battle against violent gangs.

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THE gunman who terrorised O'Connell St diners in the latest battle in Adelaide's bikie war was lurking outside Caffe Paesano eight hours before he fired on his Comancheros targets.

A witness to the Sunday night shooting in the busy restaurant said he had seen the man, believed to be a Hells Angels member, at the North Adelaide cafe at lunchtime that day.

Like the frightened diners who ducked under tables as the bikies returned fire, the witness said he did not want to be identified.

Police yesterday said the shootout on one of Adelaide's most popular dining strips - and just over 1km from where hundreds of families enjoyed Christmas carols by the Torrens - is linked to the shooting of Comancheros president Vince Focarelli.

But police Assistant Commissioner Grant Stevens rejected suggestions Adelaide was in the grip of a bikie war or that police had lost the battle against violent gangs.


"I wouldn't suggest we've lost the battle against bikies," he said. "This is not a bikie war when we have rival gangs drawing a line in the sand, so to speak."

Focarelli remains in hospital under guard after being shot by an unknown gunman at Munno Para West about midnight on Thursday.

The former leader of the New Boys street gang, Focarelli had surgery for a leg wound on Friday in Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The Caffe Paesano shooting, shortly after 9.30pm on Sunday as eateries on the strip were beginning to close, was the fourth gun attack in seven days involving bikie gangs in Adelaide.

"We believe these are isolated incidents that happened to occur in close (time) proximity but we know they are separate and distinct incidents involving different groups," Mr Stevens said.

"It might not be with the sanction of the group itself, but as individuals, they are violent people and as groups they are more violent.

"This is not something that has just arisen in the last few weeks. There has been incidents of violence between outlaw motorcycle gang members and, unfortunately, there will continue to be incidents of violence.

"Our job is to minimise that as much as possible and take action when these occur to hold those people to account."

It is understood police know the identity of those involved in the Paesano shootout.

Other recent shootings have included:

THREE masked men firing shots into an empty Burton house, owned by a man with bikie links, about 12.30am on Saturday.

AN UNKNOWN gunman fired a dozen shots, believed to be from a 9mm handgun, into the luxury Glenelg North home of George Polites, 57, about 3.30am on December 11, but police say that was not related to Sunday's attack.

FOCARELLI shot in the leg at a Munno Para West home and escaping by smashing through the window of a neighbouring house.

A MAN who received a single gunshot wound to his right knee in the southern suburbs on Sunday is refusing to co-operate with police.

Police would not reveal which bikie club the cafe gunman was linked to, but it is understood to be the Hells Angels. The two clubs have a historic feud in the eastern states. He walked off O'Connell St to within 3m of the Comancheros members and fired at least one shot from a "small handgun" while they sat at an outside table.

Customers and staff at the cafe ducked under tables for safety, and were lucky not to be caught in the crossfire as one bullet shattered a glass display cabinet in the restaurant.

One of the Comancheros returned fire, hitting the gunman in the leg.

He fled, heading west on Tynte St and was chased by one of his targets. The chase was captured on CCTV and the footage has been seized by police.

More shots rang out as the men ran through O'Connell St to Tynte St but police would not confirm the number fired or the calibre of handguns used. The injured gunman has yet to seek medical attention.

North Adelaide residents said they heard "five or six" gunshots, which some people initially thought were fireworks.

Mr Stevens said the cafe owners were co-operating with police.

"I will not make any conclusions in relation to whether it's payback or how it is related," he said.

"We have information suggesting to us that the people involved are connected to each other. Both of those people have gone to ground and have not come forward."

Mr Stevens said street shootings and rampant violence by bikies occurred across the country and was not "unique to Adelaide".

"The people involved are known to each other, this is not a random incident (but) I can't elaborate any further," he said.

"This may be the first time it's happened in O'Connell St and in a coffee shop, but we've seen shooting incidents in other public venues in the CBD of Adelaide. This is not something we want happening in South Australia."

Mr Stevens said police were focused on the North Adelaide shooting and the hunt for the people who shot the son of Mark Sandery.

Seven extra officers dedicated to investigating the shooting will join the 44 officers in the Criminal Gangs Taskforce.

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There have been 11 seemingly random shootings on Ottawa streets since Nov. 1, including three on the weekend

With nearly a dozen shootings on city streets in the past month and a half, and with no arrests or charges so far, Acting Police Chief Charles Bordeleau said Monday the service was undertaking an intense, two-month “high-enforcement” campaign to clamp down on gang activity.

Speaking to the Ottawa Police Services Board, Bordeleau promised a “high-visibility” effort by a beefed-up guns and gangs section to determine who was doing the shooting and to arrest those responsible.

“Ottawa is still a very safe city, but there’s no question that, in the last month or so, we’ve had an increase in shooting,” Bordeleau said in a brief interview. “Some of the shootings that have taken place can be attributed to gangs. We’re targeting known gang members who are possibly linked to these shootings.”

There have been 11 seemingly random shootings on Ottawa streets since Nov. 1, including three on the weekend. Early Sunday morning, there was a shooting in at the Wal-Mart at 2210 Bank St. Similarly, police raced to the York Street area in the ByWard Market after reports of a shot being fired shortly after 2 a.m. on Friday, About three hours later, police received reports of gunshots in the area of Cedarwood Drive and Walkley Road.

In the latter incident, three men were seen fleeing the area in a silver-coloured car. When police arrived, they found a minivan on Cedarwood Drive with the windows shot out.

Bordeleau acknowledged that the motive for the shooting may involve rival gangs trying to intimidate each other. “I think there’s a bit of that, that’s what’s going on,” he said.

With this in mind, the police department is bolstering its guns and gangs unit and its Direct Action Response Team to focus on gang activity, identify suspects in the shootings and, hopefully, lay charges, Bordeleau said.

“Any shooting that takes place in our city, whether it’s targeted on not, is a concern for us. That’s why we’re taking it seriously and why we’re increasing enforcement and visibility.”

Since the shooting spree began, Ottawa-area hospitals have treated a number of victims of gunshot wounds. On the other hand, police have arrived at shooting sites around the city to find no one was hurt.

In a Nov. 24 shooting, police were called to Sandalwood Drive around 4: 30 a.m. after shots were fired into the back of the residence belonging to the family of a man who killed a Ledbury Banff Crips street gang member. Nawaf Al-Enzi, was convicted last year of the murder of Mohamed Zalal, 22. Members of the Al-Enzi family were in the house at the time of the shooting, but no one was injured.

Police officials have said they’ve found no overall pattern to the shootings. They have also been hampered by the seeming lack on witnesses and the apparent reluctance of even intended victims to talk.

“It’s very difficult when the evidence, the witnesses and the intended victims are providing limited information,” Staff Sgt. Mark Patterson, the officer in charge of the guns and gangs unit, said recently.

The unit has investigated nearly two dozen shootings this year.

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gang member has been sentenced to 155 years in prison for the shooting death of a 16-year-old honor student after a homecoming football game at a Long Beach high school.

gang member has been sentenced to 155 years in prison for the shooting death of a 16-year-old honor student after a homecoming football game at a Long Beach high school.

A judge sentenced 18-year-old Tom Love Vinson on Monday for killing Melody Ross on Oct. 30, 2009, at Woodrow Wilson High. Vinson was 16 at the time but was tried as an adult.

Jurors convicted Vinson of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder for wounding two men, as well as attempted voluntary manslaughter of another teenage girl.

The jury also found that Vinson committed the crimes to further a street gang.

Vinson testified that he opened fire after a gang rival pointed a gun at him as hundreds of people were leaving the game. Ross was a bystander.

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teenager who murdered a 16-year-old schoolboy outside a pub in Stretford has denied his motive was revenge for another gangland killing.

 

A teenager who murdered a 16-year-old schoolboy outside a pub in Stretford has denied his motive was revenge for another gangland killing. Moses Mathias told Manchester Crown Court he intended to commit a robbery but instead fired at a vehicle carrying Giuseppe Gregory out of "fear for my life". He said he did not learn of the death in May 2009 until the next day. Àt the age of 15 he later went on the run. Mathias, now 18, remained at large until he was arrested in Amsterdam earlier this year on a European Arrest Warrant after a joint investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency and GMP. He was flown back to the UK in June and four months later admitted the murder of the youngster who was gunned down in the early hours of May 11 in a car outside the Robin Hood pub in Stretford. In March 2010, Mathias's associates Njabulo Ndlovu and Hiruy Zerihun, then aged 19 and 18, were jailed for life and ordered to serve minimum terms of 21 years and 23 years respectively after they were convicted of Giuseppe's murder. Their trial heard the pair carried out the attack in revenge for the murder of Zerihun's boyhood friend Louis Brathwaite, also 16, who was shot dead in a betting shop in Withington, south Manchester, in January 2008. They were affiliated to Fallowfield Man Dem, a splinter group of the notorious Gooch Gang, who targeted Giuseppe and his friends because of their association to the rival gang the Longsight Crew. Mathias, of no fixed address, also admitted possessing - with Zerihun and Ndlovu - an imitation firearm, a self-loading pistol, a .32 pistol and six .32 bullet cartridges. But now he has argued the basis of his plea and claimed he did not know Louis Brathwaite, saying in evidence that the plan was to enter the pub and "rob the tills".

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two years of crisis and bank debt in Europe, the roaring euro party is over.

 

 Greeks are emptying their bank accounts, Italians are proposing that the Roman Catholic Church begin to pay nearly $1 billion in property taxes on lucrative hotels and businesses, and in the UK, protesters sans jobs have settled near 10 Downing in the wake of the nation’s biggest general strike in years. Spain has seen well-dressed panhandlers in Madrid. The Netherlands report higher bankruptcies and lower exports. French banks are cutting thousands of jobs. And in bailed-out Portugal, two religious and two civil holidays – weekdays off – will now fall on weekends, even as healthcare costs there have suddenly doubled in many hospitals. All across Europe, the severity of belt-tightening and public anger has brought a new stream of “austerity stories” to the fore: job cuts and their effect, new instances of ethnic hate, worry about social stability. Rising right-wing violence The majority of these stories flow out of Europe’s southern tier, the “less competitive” economies. Two Senegalese street traders in a Florence market were shot and killed Dec. 13 by a right-wing fanatic and three wounded. Higher piles of uncollected garbage sit on Greek streets and there’s an increase of drugs and crime there. Immigrants who used to be welcome labor five years ago in Greece, Italy, and especially in Spain, are now subject to heavy ID checks and public frowns, and there are more spasms of violence by vigilante groups. At times, the surly climate means that “Anyone who might pass for migrant runs the risk of being beaten up,” says Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch Europe. “There’s a gloomy mood… in ordinary neighborhoods that I visit… worry about jobs, benefits, social security and the cost of living,” says Pap Ndiaye, social historian at the Paris School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences. “On top of that, minorities are concerned about backlash or adding problems to the general population. A few years ago, minorities with degrees were leaving France for Great Britain but now the UK is no longer so hospitable. Now we are seeing a phenomenon of looking to the Americas. More professionals are moving to Montreal, for example… with no plans to come back to France.” Belt-tightening across the spectrum To ease austerity, Greece is selling ferryboats to Turkey and what appear to be third-world items like string, used auto parts, and TV antennas to improbable places like the Bahamas and the Marshall Islands. Italy this week said it will release some 3,300 prisoners with less than 18 months on their sentence – remanded to their homes – to save an estimated $500,000 a day. As Greece ekes out its EU bailout loans quarterly – the next tranche is still under negotiation – ordinary folks are depleting their bank accounts. The governor of the Greek central bank, Georgios Provopoulos, recently told parliament, "In September and October, savings and time deposits fell by a further 13 to 14 billion euros. In the first 10 days of November, the decline continued on a large scale.” The effect is to reduce the ability of banks to lend, he said. Some of the austerity effect may be indirectly positive. In Spain, archeologists outside Seville are glad that the building craze of the past 10 years has been halted, since planned shopping centers were to be erected on unexplored Copper Age settlements. Spanish police have also cracked down on a sophisticated forgery ring that was printing 50 euro notes out of a canning factory. In Italy, the 950 members of parliament that make nearly $200,000 a year are expected to cut their pay as the new government of Mario Monti seeks to deal with a cumulative 1.9 trillion euros in debt. Italy’s politicians earn twice that of French and German counterparts, and four times that of Spanish. Strains in northern Europe Yet various stresses and strains owing to new fracturing in Europe are not restricted just to the southern tier. Britain reports a 17-year high in unemployment even as EU figures show it has the 2nd highest living standard in Europe. London riots last August took place mainly among have-nots. Prime Minister David Cameron decided last week to opt-out of a German-French-engineered intergovernmental EU treaty designed to force discipline on EU states and stop future crises, seen as possibly isolating Britain. The decision highlighted an earlier decision by the town council of Bishop’s Stortford to alter an official 46-year old “sister city” or “twinning” relationship with the German town of Friedberg, near Frankfurt. The council is made up of mostly Tory or “euroskeptic” politicians and critics chided the town for downgrading the sister city status at a time of drift of European unity. More pertinently, perhaps, official November figures in the Netherlands, a more competitive state, show that some 610 businesses declared bankruptcy, an increase of 85 from October, and up from an average of roughly 500. Meanwhile, Dutch exports declined for the first time in two years in October. Dutch finance minister Jan Kees de Jager told reporters this week the country faces recessionary times and said there “are no taboos” in what may be cut in the budget. “We felt this coming. It is certainly not positive,” he said. “There are no easy times ahead of us.” The Netherlands will cut an estimated $24 billion under austerity measures, though the Freedom Party of anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders says it will not vote for cuts without a promise to end some $6 billion in foreign development aid.

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Brits who invested their savings in their adopted countries may not be able to withdraw cash and could even lose their homes if banks call in loans

Marbella, Andalusia, Spain (pic: Getty)

EMERGENCY evacuation plans for Brits living in Spain and Portugal are being drawn up amid fears of the euro collapsing.

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The drastic proposals emerged as a former Security Minister warned expats could be left stranded and destitute by the break-up of the single currency.

Brits who invested their savings in their adopted countries may not be able to withdraw cash and could even lose their homes if banks call in loans, worried ministers are warning.

The Foreign Office is preparing to bring them back from Spain and Portugal if the two countries are forced out of the euro, triggering a banking collapse.

A million Brits live in Spain and 50,000 in neighbouring Portugal – plus a million in the other eurozone countries.

And Baroness Neville-Jones, who only stepped down as a minister in May, called the situation “very, very worrying”.

The Tory peer – who once chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee for MI5, MI6 and other security agencies – said: “Spain is clearly a vulnerable area. If that happens, one of the things that will happen in a crash of that kind, is that the banks would close their doors. You would find that there are people there, including our own citizens, a lot of them, who couldn’t get money out to live on. So you would have a destitution problem.”

British planes, ships and coaches could be sent to pluck our citizens from debt-ridden Spain and Portugal

Commenting on the evacuation plans, she added: “I think they are right to be doing that. I think this is a real contingency that they need to plan against – very, very worrying.”

Officials are braced for a nightmare scenario where thousands end up penniless and sleeping at airports with no means of getting home. Planes, ships and coaches could be sent, with some expats being brought out through Gibraltar.

The Foreign Office could offer small loans while piling pressure on the banks to give Brits access to their funds.

Spanish and Portuguese banks guarantee the first 100,000 euros deposited by savers but many put limits on withdrawals in a crisis.

A powerful credit rating agency downgraded 10 Spanish banks last week, while another warned over the weekend the debt crisis was threatening to spiral out of control.

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Spanish king forced son-in-law to quit job in 2006

 

 

King Juan Carlos told his son-in-law in 2006 to cut ties with a company now mired in corruption allegations, an official at Spain's royal palace said Sunday. Authorities are probing the activities of a non-profit company run by Inaki Urdangarin between 2004 and 2006. "(The king) ordered him to stand down from his activities and he sold his shares," said the official, who works at the royal palace's press office, confirming reports in the Spanish press. "He was told he shouldn't work for himself and it would be better if he worked overseas." Urdangarin, 43, also known as the Duke of Palma de Mallorca, now works for Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica in Washington, where he lives with with his wife, Infanta Cristina. The scandal, the first to hit Spain's royal family in years, centres on Urdangarin's time at the helm of the Instituto Noos, now suspected of siphoning off money from contracts paid by the regional government of the Balearic Islands, where the institute is based. The royal palace did not uncover any lies or fraud in 2006, the source said. However, a royal legal advisor found signs the Noos institute was possibly involved in commercial activities not consistent its non-profit mission. On December 12, the royal palace froze Urdangarin out of official activities over the scandal. The royal family traditionally maintains a discreet profile in Spain, where Juan Carlos is widely respected, credited with guiding the country to democracy after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. The scandal has nevertheless caused anger at a time when ordinary Spaniards are being squeezed by spending cuts and a lack of jobs, with an unemployment rate of 21.5 percent. 

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Spain's longest-serving inmate received a government pardon yesterday that saw him and his family convinced that he would walk free immediately

After 35 years in jail and eight successful breakout attempts, Spain's longest-serving inmate received a government pardon yesterday that saw him and his family convinced that he would walk free immediately – only for him to remain behind bars.

Since 1976, Spanish courts have found Miguel Angel Montes Neiro guilty of more than 30 robberies and armed burglaries, many committed while on the run. But even as a spokesman for the Spanish government, Jose Blanco, confirmed yesterday that Montes Neiro, 61, had received a pardon for two of his multiple crimes, another outstanding sentence – for robbery and illicit possession of firearms – will see him remain in jail.

Montes Neiro, from the province of Granada in southern Andalusia, was predictably delighted when news of the pardon broke yesterday lunchtime, telling his family by phone: "Don't come to the prison gates when I get out, I want to walk the first two or three kilometres so I can feel the fresh air like a free man."

However, it emerged that his pardon was only partial and that a court review of a 13-year sentence was still pending.

Montes Neiro spent his first night in the cells in 1966, aged 16, when he was arrested for stealing a packet of cigarettes. His first formal sentence came a decade later for desertion – but not before he had spent 10 days in army prison for stealing a sub-machine gun.

During his numerous breakouts, the most recent in 2009 when he spent two hours on self-imposed parole to attend the wake for his mother, Montes Neiro found the time to marry twice and have two children – and to commit a string of hold-ups and kidnaps.

Montes Neiro's record is as varied as it is long. He has been convicted of beating up hostages on three occasions, and he once formed part of a gang that broke into a Granada home and threatened to cut off a man's thumb unless his wife revealed the location of his safe.

His escapes include one from a maximum security prison in the Spanish colony of Ceuta in 1979, but perhaps his most dramatic breakout came in 1981: after hanging himself in a staged suicide bid, breaking two ribs, he escaped from prison hospital in a taxi.

On the run for a total of three years, his repeated recapture was facilitated by his tendency to remain in or near his home town. His one spell abroad, in Morocco, ended when he returned to Granada because he missed his family.

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28 mobsters arrested after Mafia boss's girlfriend turns police informer

Arrested: Gaspare Parisi, whose girlfriend Monica Vitale has given police information about his alleged Mafia dealings
Italian police today arrested 28 Mafia mobsters after the girlfriend of a Godfather turned informer.
Monica Vitale, the partner of boss Gaspare Parisi, spilt the beans on the activities of her lover and his associates because she could no longer stand his life of crime and is now in hiding with round-the-clock protection.
With Monica's priceless information officers carried out a 15-month surveillance operation on the gangsters - using listening devices and hidden cameras - finally moving in to make the arrests early this morning in a massive dawn swoop codenamed Pedro.
The men were held in a series of raids in Palermo, Sicily, the Mafia's island stronghold - and during the operation it also emerged that one arrested mobster, Calogero Lo Presti, had been extorting money from a TV crew who were making a crime series on the Mafia.
Lo Presti and his associates had managed to infiltrate the set of popular TV show Squadra Antimafia (Anti-Mafia Squad), which revolves around a group of brave police officers fighting corruption and organised crime in Palermo.
'She has told everything she knows to a team of detectives and prosecutors and now as a result she is under police protection, as she is a key witness'

He had managed to secure lucrative contracts with the show for catering and transport and he was recorded boasting to one friend: 'If they carry on paying and using the services we provide they will have no problems on the set.'
Video footage released by police in Palermo showed armed officers climbing over fences to launch raids on the villas and houses of those arrested, and in other footage those held were seen having a series of meetings to discuss criminal activity.
Miss Vitale, who told police she was used to collect extortion payments from designer boutiques in Palermo, also revealed that she had overheard a murder being discussed by mobsters during her time with Parisi.

Murdered: Miss Vitale told police she had overheard talk of the murder of former MP Enzo Fragala, who was beaten to death last year
She told police how lawyer and former MP Enzo Fragala was beaten to death in Palermo in February 2010 on the orders of boss Tommasso Di Giovanni after he 'failed to show respect to the wife of another mobster who had been arrested'.
Di Giovanni was among the 28 people held in the police operation. One mobster suffered a fractured leg as he tried to escape police capture by jumping from a staircase. He was under armed guard in hospital.
A police spokesman in Palermo said: 'This was a very successful operation against Mafia activity in the city and led to 28 people being arrested. It came at the end of 15 months of surveillance and much of the information came from Monica Vitale.
'She has told everything she knows to a team of detectives and prosecutors and now as a result she is under police protection, as she is a key witness.'
He added that those arrested had been held on charges of Mafia association, extortion, drug trafficking and robbery.
Police named the staircase-jumping Mafia boss as Nicola Milano.
Father-and-son mobsters Giovanni and Fabrizio Toscano tried to escape in their pyjamas from a police night raid but were caught.
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Spanish, Italian police smash drug smuggling ring

 

Spanish and Italian police made five arrests while busting a drug-trafficking ring that for years smuggled cocaine from South America to Europe, investigators said on Friday. The group arranged for narcotics to be put on merchant ships headed to Europe. Just before the vessels arrived at their destination, the smugglers would dump cocaine packages overboard, Spanish police said in a statement. Members of the gang waiting in inflatable boats would then pick up the cocaine and take it to shore, from where it was distributed to customers in Spain and Italy, officials said.Two members of the group were detained in the Italian port city of Genoa in March in a joint operation by Spanish and Italian police. Police detained another three members of the group, including its leader, three months later in the northwestern Spanish coastal region of Galicia. "During the search of the home of the ringleader, police found a vault camouflaged behind the wall of the cellar, which housed security cameras that monitored the rest of the house as well as two large safes, cash, valuable watches, computer equipment and documents," police said in the statement. Police also seized 55 kilos (120 pounds) of cocaine, three cash-counting machines and five cars. Spain is the main gateway to Europe for cocaine from Latin America and for cannabis from north Africa

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father of three was killed in bed near his sleeping wife and children when his house was sprayed with bullets in a drive-by shooting

 

Oakland police say a father of three was killed in bed near his sleeping wife and children when his house was sprayed with bullets in a drive-by shooting. Officer Kevin McDonald said one of many bullets passed through a wall and hit 46-year-old mechanic Thourn Nhep, who was pronounced dead at the scene when police arrived Saturday. Neighbors say a mid-size sedan sped away after the shooting. McDonald tells the Oakland Tribune (http://bit.ly/s7iXXn) the shooting was not random, but did not give further details of who was targeted and why. No one had been arrested. Nhep's 18-year-old daughter Sok told the Tribune it was the third time the house had been shot at recently. Sok said her father was a "good guy" who had nothing to do with violence.

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The alleged members of the Dominican-based Trinitarios gang all face charges of racketeering, narcotics conspiracy and gun trafficking

Suspects accused of selling guns and drugs.

Authorities collared 38 Bronx and upper Manhattan gangbangers Wednesday after a two-year probe into a notorious crew, officials said.

The alleged members of the Dominican-based Trinitarios gang all face charges of racketeering, narcotics conspiracy and gun trafficking, authorities said.

The undercover investigation — which involved officers from the NYPD, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Homeland Security — netted about $25,000 worth of drugs and 12 firearms in Wednesday’s raid, police said.

One weapon recovered, a Mac-11 machine gun, was painted the same shade of green the gang uses in its colors.

Federal prosecutors said the crew committed and planned violent acts, including murder, to protect its turf from rival gangs that include the Bloods, Crips, the Latin Kings and Dominicans Don’t Play.

“We believe we put a big dent in the Trinitarios gang,” said Capt. Lorenzo Johnson, the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Bronx gang squad.

Six people who were connected to the gang members were also arrested, police said. Authorities were still looking for about 12 other members of the gang.

Prosecutors said the Trinitarios sold firearms, including semiautomatic rifles, a shotgun and handguns, and transported them across state lines.

Numerous members of the Trinitarios who were arrested are also members of a smaller splinter gang, the Bad Boys, prosecutors said.

Johnson said most of suspects were already “known to the department in some manner,” and had long terrorized several blocks in Washington Heights and parts of the Bronx, including Marble Hill.

“Anytime we can help the community feel safer is a good day,” he said.

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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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US agents laundered drug money

 

Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders. Some 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, when its government launched a major military crackdown against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorized border communities as they battled over lucrative smuggling routes. According to these officials, the operations were aimed at identifying how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are, the report said. The agents had deposited the proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents, the paper noted. While the DEA conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years, The Times said. As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests, the report said. According to The Times, agency officials declined to publicly discuss details of their work, citing concerns about compromising their investigations. But Michael Vigil, a former senior official who is currently working for a private contracting company called Mission Essential Personnel, is quoted by the paper as saying: "We tried to make sure there was always close supervision of these operations so that we were accomplishing our objectives, and agents weren?t laundering money for the sake of laundering money."

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DRUGS baron Curtis “Cocky” Warren is serving 13 years behind bars – but his tentacles still stretch around the globe.

Curtis Warren

 

He is suspected of operating a £300million empire built on smuggling cocaine, heroin and cannabis in deals with criminal cartels in Latin America, the Middle East and Spain. And all from his jail cell.

But 48-year-old Warren faces the biggest challenge yet to his evil enterprise as police launch a double assault in the courts on his fortune.

Authorities in Jersey are set to haul him before a judge next month to face a £200million Confiscation Order after he was convicted of drug smuggling on the Channel Island in 2009.

And in a second attack the Serious Organised Crime Agency, in a rare move, is asking judges to impose a Serious Crime Prevention Order in the High Court in London to stop him in his tracks when he is released in 2015. Yesterday Warren’s legal team won an adjournment in the High Court to delay a hearing scheduled for this week so they can prepare the crime lord’s defence.

With typical arrogance he told his lawyers to fight the bid on the grounds it breaches his “human rights”.

The SCP order, signed by Alun Milford, the Chief Crown Prosecutor and director of the Serious Organised Crime Division, seeks to restrict Warren’s use of communication devices and public phones.

It demands that he never has more than £1,000 in cash, to “make it harder for him to buy drugs or reward criminal associates”. And a financial reporting requirement will “deter him from acquisitive crime and give law enforcement authorities the opportunity to investigate any wealth he comes into”.

A source said: “Curtis is almost untouchable. A mobile is vital to him. It’s all he needs to operate. There are thousands of mobiles smuggled into the prison system and he has the means to get one.”

Curtis Warren, from Liverpool, leaves The Royal Court in St Hellier

Warren is the only convicted criminal ever to appear on The Sunday Times rich list, which in 2005 described him as a “property developer” with an estimated fortune of £76million. But according to underworld sources his real wealth is four times that.

He appointed himself chairman and chief operating officer of a global operation to flood Britain with cocaine and heroin.

His criminal associates say Warren’s business philosophy was simple and effective – drugs are a product to buy and sell like oil and gold. He is a meticulous planner whose organisation resembles the layers of executives and managers you find in a City institution, said a police source who has followed Warren’s career.

Before the euro was introduced, he was said to be putting £1million a week in money-laundering scams after trusted couriers changed cash into German marks and Dutch guilders and moved it abroad.

Paul Grimes, a gangster turned supergrass after his son died from a heroin overdose, said: “Warren wanted to be the cock everyone looks up to. He loves the status.”

Even behind bars it is feared Warren still handles deals and keeps phone numbers in his head as he links supplies to smugglers.

Detectives believe he has villas in Spain, Turkey and Gambia, owned through an intricate web of associates who also operate a Spanish casino, Turkish petrol stations and 250 rental properties in the North West of England.

Warren says the claims are “ridiculous”, alleging that he only has a flat in Liverpool’s Albert Dock and a house on the Wirral.

Softly-spoken Warren started his criminal career at the bottom when he was just nine and living at home with his dad, sailor Curtis Aloysius, and mum Sylvia, a shipyard boiler attendant. He was recruited by a gang to climb through small windows and burgle homes. By 11 he was carrying out muggings and armed robberies in the tough estates of Toxteth, Liverpool.

At 18, he was sent to borstal for assaulting police. In an adult jail eh honed his talent for crime.

Warren started selling drugs on the street and rubbing shoulders with Liverpool’s biggest villains, who underwrote huge cocaine consignments with Columbia’s Cali mobsters worth millions.

GRAFTING

He does not drink or take drugs, allowing his photographic memory to be razor-sharp at all times – especially in jail. On the outside, he has always shunned flash cars and big houses and wears tracksuits instead of Armani suits so as not to attract attention.

“Cocky takes no unnecessary risks,” said an ex-associate.

Paul Grimes added: “Unlike me and my crew, he wasn’t out till all hours in the pubs and clubs. He wasn’t flash. If he was grafting it was all VW Golfs and Passats or a low-key Rover.” Streetwise Warren gave contacts nicknames, including The Vampire, The Egg On Legs and Cracker to throw eavesdropping police off the scent.

His methods developed a business worth hundreds of millions as the drug trade exploded in the 1980s. He became a trusted client of Colombian cocaine cartels, Turkish heroin producers and Spanish cannabis suppliers.

It enabled him to get huge ­quantities of drugs on credit.

As he left court on a technicality during a 1993 trial for smuggling cocaine worth £250million, he is said to have told Customs officers he was “off to spend my £87million from the first shipment and you can’t f****** touch me”. Grimes, who will be under witness protection for the rest of his life, said: “Warren is a parasite.”

As Merseyside turf wars worsened in the mid-1990s, Warren moved to Sassenheim in Holland.

When Dutch police intercepted 400kg of cocaine, the game was up – for the time being.

At other addresses controlled by Warren, officers discovered a £150million haul containing 1,500kg of cannabis, 60kg of heroin, 50kg of ecstasy, 960 CS gas canisters, three guns, ammunition and £400,000 in Dutch guilders. The bust put Warren behind bars for 12 years in 1997.

In 2005, Dutch police charged him with running a drug smuggling cartel from his cell but the case was dropped because of insufficient evidence.

On his release, Warren returned to his manor in Merseyside to take up his mantle as the King of Coke.

But within weeks he was busted plotting what he described as “just a little starter” to get himself re-established as the No1 drugs baron in Europe.

PROPERTIES

He was jailed again in 2009 for 13 years for trying to smuggle £1million of cannabis into Jersey – for which he is still behind bars at Full Sutton Prison near York.

Following his sentence at Jersey’s Royal Court, SOCA said Warren was on its Lifetime Offender Management List.

However, Warren could now have his vast fortune seized. After he was jailed, Jersey authorities said they were determined to force Warren to hand over his assets and are seeking a Confiscation Order for more than £200million.

Warren is determined to take his fight against the Confiscation Order – which could see police seize his properties purchased with proceeds of crime – all the way to the European courts.

His solicitor said his client will “fight it all the way”.

Last week, in a similar case that will strike fear into the London underworld, kingpin Terry Adams, 57, was jailed for eight weeks, for breaching a Financial Reporting Order, after authorities demanded details on his spending.

Officers are determined that this week’s application in the High Court will finally nail Warren’s sinister organisation.

It is understood that this is the first SCPO to be applied for through the High Court.

Breaching any SCPO can lead to five years in jail and an unlimited fine. But in true Cocky fashion, Warren laughs off the order as “a mere irritant” in his bid to remain the drug trade’s Numero Uno.

WARREN once killed a fellow prisoner in a fight.

Cemal Guclu, a Turk serving 20 years for murder, attacked him at Hoorn Prison, Holland, in 1999.

Warren punched Guclu to the ground and kicked him in the head four times. Incredibly, Guclu got up but Warren struck him again. He hit his head on the ground and later died.

Warren was convicted of manslaughter and had four years added to his sentence.

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