Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll murder trial

PHOTOGRAPHS of the spot where gangland figure Kevin “Gerbil” Carroll was shot dead were shown to a murder trial jury yesterday. The pictures – shown on day one of the trial – included an image of an Audi with smashed windows. The court was told the car was “subject to a significant degree of examination”. Carroll, 29, was shot in the car park of Asda in Robroyston, Glasgow, in January 2010. Ross Monaghan, 30, has been accused of Carroll’s murder. It is alleged that, while masked and acting with others, Monaghan repeatedly discharged loaded handguns at him, shooting him on the head and body. Monaghan is accused of – while acting with others – attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of a revolver, pistol and ammunition in undergrowth in Coatbridge and Airdrie. It is also claimed a car bearing false number plates was set on fire. Monaghan also faces a number of firearms charges. He denies all the charges against him at the High Court in Glasgow and has incriminated Mr X, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and seven others. The trial, before Lord Brailsford, continues.

popular Caribbean dancing style used by adults, known as 'daggering', is sexualising the dance floors of a much younger generation.

 

 Teenagers as young as 11 are modelling sex acts and rape, in the form of daggering, on the dance floor with their peers. Deputy Children's Commissioner Sue Berelowitz said: "there's not a lot separating that kind of behaviour from actual violent, coercive sex." Footage seen by Channel 4 News [see above] shows an under-18s club night in East London. As with all 'under-18s' club nights, everyone is between 11 and 16. Some of the children look much younger. The club is packed. The music: Caribbean dancehall. The dancing style: daggering. It is a style of dancing that any carnival regular will be used to. Aficionados will no doubt, have a more technical description of the style but it mainly involves women bending over and rubbing their backsides up against the men's crotches. During that August weekend in Notting Hill every adult gives it a go. But what's different about this night club is that every child is giving it a go. Spurred on by the DJ, the 'daggering' becomes more enthusiastic, some of it verging on violent. Boys and girls end up on top of each other on the floor simulating sex. Throughout the night someone employed by the club promoter (presumably an adult) is filming it all and uploading it on the club's website via YouTube.

Colombo crime boss Thomas Gioeli plotted murder in Long Island church garden

 

Thou shalt not kill — even if you’re praying in a church garden beforehand. Colombo crime boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli plotted a top gangster’s murder in the same Long Island church garden where he regularly prayed to his maker, mob turncoat Dino Calabro revealed yesterday. The genesis of the slaying of Colombo mobster William “Wild Bill” Cutolo is just another example of Gioeli’s unorthodox religious practices. Prosecutors have claimed that Gioeli was involved in the 1982 murder of former Catholic nun Veronica Zuraw, who was hit by a stray shotgun blast when Gioeli and another thug were allegedly killing a pornographer and his son. Thomas Gioeli  allegedly plotted a mob hit to take place in the home of Dino Saracino (left), a witness said yesterday. “I’m going to hell” for Zuraw’s death, Gioeli later moaned, court papers say. Gioeli routinely prayed in the Massapequa, LI, church garden not far from his Farmingdale home, Calabro chirped yesterday in Brooklyn federal court. But any heavenly help Gioeli might have earned from his garden devotionals was offset by all the blood on his hands, which Calabro detailed. In 1999, Colombo boss Alphonse “Allie Boy” Persico and crime-family captain Jack DeRoss became concerned that Cutolo would make a play to take over the strife-ridden clan, Calabro testified. One day that year, Calabro said, Gioeli summoned him to the church garden to discuss Cutolo’s body, if not his soul. “He told me he had just left Pooch and Betty Boop,” said Calabro, explaining that those were nicknames for Persico and DeRoss. Gioeli then made a hand gesture, covering up several fingers, to indicate Cutolo, whose other nickname, “Billy Fingers,” reflects digits missing from one of his hands. “They wanted to kill him,” Calabro said of Cutolo, who was lured to the house of Calabro’s cousin “Little Dino” Saracino. There, Calabro testified, “I shot him in the head.” Gioeli allegedly directed Calabro and others where to bury Cutolo’s corpse.

New Black Panther leader arrested as group sets bounty in Florida shooting

 

high-ranking member of the New Black Panther Party was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. DeKalb County Sheriff's Office Hashim Nzinga, 49, was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. More Atlanta area news » Immigration-related complaint may become ‘moot' 'Chicken Man' house explodes Trayvon Martin rally at Capitol draws many Gang member guilty of 2011 killing Hashim Nzinga, 49, recently announced on CNN that his group was offering a $10,000 reward for the capture of George Zimmerman, the man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. CNN identified Nzinga as the chief of staff of the New Black Panther Party. According to a DeKalb arrest warrant, Nzinga was in possession of an FN Herstal 5.7 x 28 handgun, which investigators said he pawned at a shop on Rockbridge Road. That alleged transaction would be illegal due to Nzinga’s convictions last month for felony deposit account fraud in Gwinnett County, the DeKalb Sheriff's Office said. Nzinga was arrested by members of the fugitive squad at a probation office in Lawrenceville and transported to DeKalb County Jail. The New Black Panther Party is offering a $10,000 bounty for the capture of Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch captain who shot and killed Martin, an unarmed teenager, last month. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," Black Panther leader Mikhail Muhammad said Saturday at a rally in Sanford, where Martin was killed Feb. 26, according to Fox News. Zimmerman has claimed he shot Martin in self-defense, but the New Black Panthers are calling for mobilization of 10,000 black men to capture Zimmerman, who has gone into hiding, the Orlando Sentinel reported. "He should be fearful for his life," Muhammad said. "You can't keep killing black children." According to the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the New Black Panthers "is a virulently racist and anti-Semitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers." The group was founded in Dallas in 1989 and believes black Americans should have their own nation, according to the SPLC. Zimmerman shot Martin as he returned to his father's house from a store where he had bought candy. Zimmerman told a 911 dispatcher that Martin was acting suspicious and told police that he was attacked by Martin. Sanford police say they were advised by prosecutors that they did not have enough evidence to charge Zimmerman.

Russian shot in UK was due to give evidence

 

Russian banker shot five times close to London's financial district had been days away from giving evidence to an investigation into the attempted murder of a former business associate, his lawyer has said. German Gorbuntsov, who at the height of his business empire owned four Russian banks, was walking towards his apartment block near the Canary Wharf banking district when a gunman opened fire on Tuesday evening, leaving him badly injured. London police said on Saturday they were keeping an open mind about the motive of the attack. Gorbuntsov's lawyer, Vadim Vedenin, said the 45-year-old remained in a medically induced coma to give him a chance to recover, and that doctors were hoping to revive him in about three days. Vedenin said his client had been due to give evidence before the end of the month to an investigation by Russian prosecutors into the attempted murder of another Russian banker and former business associate of Gorbuntsov's, Alexander Antonov, in 2009. "He was preparing to give evidence on certain people. He has already given it in written form and he was going to do so in official testimony," Vedenin said by phone on Saturday, adding that Gorbuntsov had come to London because he feared for his life. The attack occurred outside the door of a block of high-end serviced apartments a short walk from the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf. A member of the building's staff, who declined to give his name, said he heard no shots, but ran outside when he heard frantic shouting. "He is a customer here. He was still alive. He spoke to us in Russian. I understood what he was saying," the member of staff, a Polish man, said. "He was swearing a lot." LONDON RUSSIANS London is home to thousands of Russian business people seeking capital, prestige and, in many cases, a haven from the rough and tumble of their home country's financial world. Alexander Antonov made his career in the nuclear industry, then became its banker as owner of Konversbank, a financial institution founded to serve the nuclear industry about two decades ago. Antonov said he and Gorbuntsov had disagreed over the terms of a bank sale just before the debt crisis of 2008, but that there had been no acrimony. "Our relationship is friendly, and it has always been friendly," he told Reuters. "I have a great personal interest in his testimony." The attempt on his life in 2009 was linked in Russia to the 2008 murder in Moscow of Ruslan Yamadayev, a powerful opponent of the Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The two incidents were tried as a single case and three men were convicted. But the person or persons who ordered the murders was never identified, and the case had lain dormant until this year. Diplomatic relations between Russia and Britain have been tested by a series of disputes involving Russian emigres. Russia has refused to extradite the man suspected of murdering former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko by putting radioactive polonium in his tea in London. Meanwhile London courts have refused to extradite men wanted in Russia, including the Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider turned fierce critic with criminal convictions in Russia. Berezovsky, who says the charges brought against him in Russia are politically motivated, said by telephone from London that he did not know Gorbuntsov personally, nor did he know of any Russian criminals hiding out in London. "One can give differing views, but it is important to understand that, from my not-exactly-dilettantish point of view, there is no place safer than London from Kremlin bandits or from Russian or international criminals," he said. "But that of course is no guarantee they won't get you."

Pimps Arrested in Spain for 'Barcoding' Women

• 

  In this photo released by the Spanish Police on Saturday March 24, 2012 a tattoo in the form of a bar code is seen on the wrist of a woman in this hand out photo. Spain´s Interior Ministry says police have arrested 22 persons of Romanian nationality on suspicion of using violence to force women into prostitution and tattooing them with bar codes as a sign of ownership. Officers freed one 19-year-old woman who had been beaten, held against her will and tattooed with a bar code and an amount of money which investigators believe was the debt the gang wished to extort before freeing her. The women were tattooed on their wrists, and the freed woman had the sum 2,000 euro ($ 2,650) etched onto her skin. (AP Photo/Spanish Police) (AP2012)

MADRID –  Police in Spain arrested 22 alleged pimps who purportedly tattooed women with bar codes as a sign of ownership and used violence to force them into prostitution. 

Police are calling the gang the "bar code pimps." Officers freed one 19-year-old woman who had been beaten, held against her will and tattooed with a bar code and an amount of money — €2,000 ($2,650) — which investigators believe was the debt the gang wished to extort before releasing her.

The woman had also been whipped, chained to a radiator and had her hair and eyebrows shaved off, according to an Interior Ministry statement.

 

22 killed in drug violence in south Mexico state

 

Gunmen ambushed and killed 12 police officers who had been sent to search for the bodies of 10 people whose severed heads were found in southern Guerrero state, authorities said Monday. Guerrero state police spokesman Arturo Martinez said six state and six local officers were killed Sunday night on a road leading out of the town of Teloloapan. Another 11 officers were wounded. The attack on the officers occurred as they were traveling in six patrol pickups and searching for the bodies of seven men and three women whose severed heads were dumped outside the town's slaughterhouse earlier Sunday, Martinez said. The heads were left with a message threatening the La Familia drug cartel, whose home base is in neighboring Michoacan state. Teloloapan is near the area shared by both Guerrero and Michoacan states and known as Tierra Caliente for its steamy weather. The region is a violent, mountainous zone that has been used by drug traffickers to grow marijuana and opium poppies for years. It has been plagued by drug violence in recent years as drug gangs fight to control the area. Authorities say La Familia has been severely battered in the fighting. Soldiers have been sent to the area but that hasn't stopped gunmen from killing priests, politicians, police chiefs, or anyone else who gets in the way. Two years ago, nine police officers were kidnapped in Teloloapan when they were investigating the death of a man in the village of El Revelado. The bodies of eight of the officers were found days later. Six had been dismembered. One was found alive. More than 47,000 people have died in drug violence nationwide since President Felipe Calderon began a crackdown on drug cartels in December 2006.

Seven mutilated bodies found in Mexico

 

AUTHORITIES in central Mexico State have found the mutilated bodies of seven men near a shopping mall. Mexico state Attorney General Alfredo Castillo says police and firefighters received a report of a burning vehicle in the town of Metepec and found the mutilated bodies falling out of three oil drums left nearby. Castillo says the victims have not been identified and that a motive in the killings is not yet known. Local media reported yesterday that a message threatening state police was left near the bodies. Castillo declined to comment on the content of the note. Several drug gangs, including La Familia whose base is in neighbouring Michoacan state, have been spreading into Mexico State, which surrounds Mexico City, as they wage turf battles.

A family of five murdered two men and dissolved their bodies in acid baths at home

A family of five murdered two men and dissolved their bodies in acid baths at home - before flushing the leftover 'sludge' down the lavatory.

Police said the family are from Holland but used the house in Germany as a 'chop shop' to dispose of their victims, who they killed with an icepick and a semi-automatic gun.

An international manhunt is now underway after two of the killers went on the run in South America.

Grisly: Alan Gergeri, left, was killed with an icepick while Mohammed al Jader, right, was cut down in a hail of bullets last year, allegedly for trying to blackmail the family. Their bodies were dissolved in acid

The horror house was only uncovered after neighbours complained of a 'peculiar' smell coming from the property in Tuddern, in Germany.

And police have not ruled out the possibility that there are more victims as they collect human remains from the sewerage system of the small town.

 

More...

• Dramatic siege in Toulouse suburb as armed police surround house of 'Islamic warrior' suspected of being serial killer
• Murder police quiz three youths after cancer doctor is found sprawled on pavement outside his home

 

Revenge was the motive for the murders, said police. 

Although a mother and her two adult sons have been arrested her husband and adult daughter have fled to South America, German police believe.

House of horror: The family used the house in Germany as a 'chop shop' to dispose of their victims, who they killed with an icepick and a semi-automatic gun

The family, who are Dutch but lived in Germany, was arrested after neighbours complained of a 'peculiar' smell emanating from the house.

'The case concerns a man who was shot and another who was hit with an icepick whose throat was slashed,' said public prosecutor Daniele Weymar in the German town of Tuddern not far from the Dutch border.

'We have found human remains.'

Gruesome: A church in the small town of Tuddern, Germany, where police have not ruled out the possibility of more victims as they collect human remains from the sewerage system

One victim was killed in Belgium. The first victim was Alan Gergeri, 24, an Iraqi who the family accused of homosexually raping one of their sons.  He was murdered in 2009.

The second man, Mohammed al Jader, 29, was cut down in a hail of bullets last year, allegedly for trying to blackmail the family.

The Dutch family from the town of Sittard in Limburg owned the horror-house in Germany and used it as the 'chop shop,' said police, where bodies were cut up and laid in the hydrochloric acid vats.

One police officer said; 'The house was a terrible sight.  Bone fragments and a green gloop were found at the bottom of these vast vats that were filled with acid. 

'Fingers and feet bones have been found a mile away in the sewers.'  Gas masks were found in the house - used by the family as they poured the acid from barrels into the decomposing tanks.'

Hydrochloric acid is highly corrosive and in a highly diluted form is found in many household cleaners. Some 20 million tonnes of it are produced annually around the world.

A unique cross-border forensics operation is underway between Dutch, German and Belgian police that continues while Interpol scours for the missing family members who are thought to be in Venezuela.

Aachen chief prosecutor Robert Deller said jurisdiction in the case for prosecution has been turned over entirely to The Netherlands.

FEMALE pals of Murder Inc thugs John and Wayne Dundon are using SEX to recruit hitmen to execute gangster's moll April Collins.

The Irish Sun can reveal two women close to the depraved brothers have been sleeping with a string of young Limerick thugs in a bid to recruit them as killers.

The female mobsters, who we can't name for legal reasons, want their former friend murdered at all costs.

Last Friday, brutes Wayne, 33, and John, 29, were convicted of threatening to kill members of April's family, for which they face up to ten more years behind bars.

But now the blood-soaked savages fear April will testify against them for ordering at least FOUR gangland murders — including those of innocent victims Shane Geoghegan, 28, and Roy Collins, 35.

And a senior security source told the Irish Sun last night: "The Dundons are terrified April can now obliterate them for once and for all.

"She has first-hand knowledge of several murders and attempted murders.

"By the time she's finished testifying, the Dundons and their associates might never get out of prison again.

 

Eight years together ... Ger and April before she ditched him

"That's why their female pals have been bedding a string of young fools around Limerick and recruiting them to kill April and stop her talking.

 

"These girls are obviously pretty good in bed because these young fools are prepared to do anything for them — as long as they get plenty of sex."

April, 24, who lived with Ger Dundon for eight years and was privy to Murder Inc's darkest secrets, has agreed to tell all she knows.

She's said to be a "dead woman walking" since deciding to do the unthinkable — turn State's witness against her ex's psycho siblings.

Last month, April helped to convict Murder Inc hitman Barry Doyle, 25, for the murder of innocent rugby player Shane Geoghegan in 2008.

She made the decision to become a supergrass after John and Wayne Dundon threatened to kill her and members of her family, including her ma, her gangster da and her brothers.

They made the chilling threats when they learnt she was having an affair with gang-rapist Thomas O'Neill, 24, after brother Ger, 25, was jailed for five years in February 2011.

April had dumped the father of her three children — and refused to bring their young kids to see their da in prison.

Her mother Alice, 48, and her younger sister also gave evidence of being threatened by the lardy mobsters.

During the trial, Alice said Wayne told her his bro John would "give some fool ten grand" to kill her son Jimmy.

She said Wayne then told her his face would be the last her gangster son Gareth, who'd also been a member of Murder Inc, would see — "because I'm going to kill him myself".

He also warned her: "You're digging your own grave; it's very easy to make people disappear." Mr Justice Paul Butler said the Special Criminal Court found April's evidence to be fully believable.

He said the court was also impressed by the "entirely credible and convincing" evidence of her mother Alice, and was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt Wayne had intimidated and made threats against her.

Although heavily pregnant with sicko O'Neill's twins and living under constant armed Garda protection, April is determined to help cops smash Murder Inc once and for all.

Despite her condition, Collins insisted on being present in court to see the three judges deliver their verdicts against the Dundons last Friday.

A GANG of “guns for hire” who spread lawless violence in a spate of gun and grenade attacks across Merseyside were today starting life behind bars.

 

The five were the “go to” men for gangsters across the area as they carried out attacks on underworld rivals.

But their spree saw innocent people caught in the middle as indiscriminate shootings and grenade attacks escalated.

At the top of the tree sat Tony Downes and Kirk Bradley, a “thick as thieves” pair of career criminals from Huyton, and Gary Wilson, who used his ill-gotten gains to buy himself a plush seafront Southport home.

Bradley and Downes, both 26, never got their hands dirty – Downes was directing operations from his cell in HMP Liverpool and was said to be the group’s “chief executive” by a judge yesterday.

Instead their underlings, “trusted and active lieutenants” Craig Riley and Joseph Farrell, were given “jobs” to carry out and would farm some tasks out to younger crooks wanting to make a name for themselves.

On their instructions, the young thugs would be given guns or explosives and an address or a specific individual to target.

They threw grenades into a room where a woman babysitting her seven-year-old grandson was sleeping and shot people in the legs and stomach, leaving them with life-changing injuries.

Their “modus operandi” saw them use the same guns over and over again – two guns linked to the group were used in 16 different shootings – and carry out their attacks on scrambler bikes, ideal for a quick getaway.

Police slammed the gang as “parasites, the worst kind of mercenary” after bringing them to justice.

A covert police operation was launched to snare those linked to more than 20 incidents over two years.

As the net closed on them, officers took an arsenal of weapons off the streets.

At Woolwich Crown Court yesterday the “chapter” in the ongoing fight against gun crime was brought to a close by high court judge Mr Justice Henriques when he sentenced each of the gang to life imprisonment.

Only Farrell, Wilson and Riley were actually in the dock at Woolwich yesterday.

Downes and Bradley escaped from a prison van in Manchester last summer as they were being brought to court in Liverpool.

Their escape caused their trial, which was in its 11th week at the time, to collapse and a retrial at maximum-security Woolwich was ordered.

But the day after they were convicted in their absence, Downes was picked up after eight months of freedom.

Michel Smith, a Quebec member of the Hells Angels wanted se 2009 in connection to 22 murder cases, has been arrested by authorities in Panama

 

Michel Smith, a Quebec member of the Hells Angels wanted se 2009 in connection to 22 murder cases, has been arrested by authorities in Panama, according to media reports. However, officials from the Surete du Quebec and RCMP were not immediately able to confirm or deny the reports. According to the RCMP, Smith is a member of the South Chapter of the Hells Angels and goes by the nickname "L'animal." He has been on the run since 2009 in connection with a police crackdown on the Hells Angels biker gang. He faces 29 criminal charges - including 22 murder charges. Citing Panamanian local media and Agence France-Presse, the QMI news agency reported that Smith, 49, had been detained by police Friday evening in the Playa Coronado region, on the Pacific Ocean coast of the Central American nation. A Canada-wide warrant issued by the RCMP said he was being sought for murder, gangsterism, drug trafficking and related conspiracy charges. His Central American connections were known to authorities. "Smith is likely to visit Panama and speaks French," the warrant stated. Const. Erique Gasse of the RCMP's C Division in Montreal said he had relayed a request for official word on Smith's status to RCMP officials in Ottawa, who did not immediately return a phone call. Asked for confirmation of the arrest report, Surete du Quebec spokesperson Sgt. Christine Coulombe said: "I have no information on this." Smith is "considered to be violent," according to the warrant. Aside from "L'animal," his aliases have included Mike Smith-Lajoie, Michel Lajoie-Smit and Michel Lajoie. The warrant describes Smith as 172 centimetres tall and weighing 95 kilograms, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Alleged Quebec Hells Angels member arrested in Panama

 

Quebec fugitive -- and alleged member of the Hells Angels -- who is wanted on murder charges has been arrested in Panama, local media reports say. Michel Smith, 49, who was linked to Quebec's deadly biker war in the 1990s, was reportedly arrested Friday. Smith -- whose nickname is "animal" -- has been on the run since 2009. He was taken into custody by local police in the tourist area of Playa Coronado on the Pacific Ocean coast, according to local reports. The reports said he had been under surveillance for about two months before his arrest. Smith faces 29 charges, including 22 counts of murder. Police in Canada had not confirmed the news as late Sunday night. Smith is to be extradited back to Canada, police officials in Panama said in a news release. Smith has long been alleged to be among the top men affiliated with the Hells Angels when it was at war with the Rock Machine biker gang in the 1990s and early 2000s. The gang war killed more than 150 people. While most of the victims were members of the rival gangs and their affiliates, two prison guards and an 11-year old boy -- a bystander -- also died. An RCMP warrant describes Smith as 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing 210 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Kevin Nunes killing: Five cleared at appeal court

 

Five men jailed for a gangland murder have been cleared on appeal. Kevin Nunes, 20, a drug dealer, was seized at gunpoint and shot dead in Staffordshire in September 2002. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it did "not seek to uphold the convictions" of the men nor press for a re-trial. The court heard that concerns about the credibility of the key prosecution witness, Simeon Taylor, were not disclosed to the defence. Execution-style killing Four senior police officers - including Northamptonshire's chief constable and deputy chief constable - are being investigated over misconduct claims relating to Staffordshire Police's investigation into the murder. Judges were told on Thursday of an affair between two police officers involved in the case, which may have had a bearing on the evidence given by the witness. Mr Taylor said at the trial he had witnessed what happened, but has since retracted his evidence. Mr Nunes, an amateur footballer on the books of Tottenham Hotspur, was shot in an execution-style killing in a country lane after cutting in on a gang's lucrative trade moving crack cocaine from Wolverhampton to Aberdeen. Levi Walker, from Birmingham, Adam Joof, from Willenhall, West Midlands, Antonio Christie, from Great Bridge, West Midlands, Michael Osbourne and Owen Crooks, both from Wolverhampton, were found guilty of his murder at Leicester Crown Court in 2008.

Speed Freak Killer" Wesley Shermantine links his partner in crime Loren Herzog to more murders and says he also trained up a killing "apprentice," in a letter he sent from death row

Speed Freak Killer" Wesley Shermantine links his partner in crime Loren Herzog to more murders and says he also trained up a killing "apprentice," in a letter he sent from death row to KTXL-TV in Sacramento, Calif.

Shermantine, who is believed to have killed as many as 20 people with Herzog, has been sketching maps showing the location of victims' remains and giving them to Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla in return for payment.

The killer's information helped California police find the remains of Cynthia Vanderheiden, who disappeared in 1998, aged 25, and Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler of Stockton, Calif., who went missing in 1985, aged 16. They also found more than 1,000 bones and bone fragments buried in a well.

In his latest letter, Shermantine claims that DNA tests on the other remains will show they belong to JoAnn Hobson, a 16 year old who disappeared in 1985, and a pregnant black woman, who he claims Herzog dumped with help from members of the Hells Angels.

Herzog, who killed himself earlier this year, also killed a hunter in Utah in 2004, according to Shermantine.

Shermantine, currently on death row in San Quentin jail, describes how Herzog wanted to join the Hells Angels and needed to build up a reputation, so he began training an apprentice named "Jason Jones," who he taught to kill without being detected.

He says he warned Jones to leave the country before any more burial sites were uncovered.

Shermantine, who claims he is not a killer, explains how he will not reveal any more burial sites because he has not been paid by Padilla.

He also criticizes the police search for bodies and the excavation of the well, claiming police "just crushed, busted the bones all to pieces."

Authorities believe Shermantine and Herzog killed up to 20 people in a drug-fueled killing spree in the 80s and 90s.

They were both jailed but Herzog was released in 2010 after an appeals court ruled investigators illegally coerced his confession. Herzog killed himself in January after Shermantine began revealing the burial places of victims.

Gang killed fellow member after he fled robbery, prosecutors say

 

The trial of four alleged gang members who prosecutors said killed a fellow gang member in 1995 in retaliation for abandoning them during a robbery is expected to begin Thursday. The alleged members of Viets for Life, Anthony Paul Johnson, 35, Giang Thuy Nguyen, 36, Tam Hung Nguyen, 36, and Truc Ngoc Tran, 34, are each charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder and if convicted face life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said. According to prosecutors Johnson, known as "whiteboy," Giang Nguyen, known as "yang" and Viet Nguyen, forced their way into the Huntington Beach home of a classmate of Viet Nguyen's to rob it in February 1995. At some point, Viet Nguyen fled, believing he had been recognized by someone in the home. Later that day, the defendants met and plotted to kill Viet Nguyen for leaving and to prevent him from implicating others, prosecutors said. The next day, Johnson and Giang Nguyen convinced Viet Nguyen to drive to Costa Mesa with Tam Nguyen, who was called "dopeman," to buy drugs. Truc Tran followed behind in a separate car, prosecutors said. During the drive, Tam Nguyen pretended to be sick and they pulled over to the side of the road. Tam Nguyen then allegedly pulled out a .45 caliber semiautomatic and shot Viet Nguyen in the back of the head. Tran picked Tam Nguyen up after the shooting, prosecutors said. The defendants told other members of the gang that Viet Nguyen was killed by a drug dealer in Costa Mesa and the case went cold until 2006, when the Costa Mesa Police Department and the Orange County district attorney's office began re-investigating. [Updated at 3:30 p.m.: An attorney for Tam Nguyen said his client is innocent and will be found not guilty at trial. "He wasn’t even there," said Michael Khouri. One of the main witnesses in the case, Khouri said, “has admittedly lied to the police for decades.” Nguyen is a father who was working at a manufacturing company in Minnesota before he was arrested and extradited to California, he said.] Opening statements in the case are expected to begin Thursday at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

Tempe Nightclub Shooting Involved Gang Member

 

There are new developments surrounding Friday night’s mass shooting at a Tempe nightclub. Police are releasing the identity of one of the shooters, a known gang member. 19-year-old Raynon Jones is being held on $1 million bond on charges of aggravated assault and being a member of a criminal street gang. He was arrested shortly after the shooting, and two other suspects have not yet been located. Fifteen people were hurt in the shooting between rival gangs, but no one was killed. It happened outside The Clubhouse near Broadway and McClintock in Tempe, as 300 people waited in line to see rapper Nipsey Hussle.. Authorities believe the shooting started after Jones and two other members of the South Phoenix Vista Bloods taunted rival gang members. "They were in line together there was a conversation that escalated into an argument that escalated into gunfire," says Tempe Police Lt. Mike Horn. According to court paperwork, Jones was seen "pulling up his shirt" and "displaying a handgun inside his waistband.” A witness told police he made the comment "we can do this now" as he started to reach for the gun. 15 people were caught up in gunfire. There were five female victims and 10 males, ranging in age from 17 to 43. Two of those victims were actually discovered inside Jones' SUV as he was leaving the scene. Police also found a 9 millimeter handgun. Investigators tell us many of the victims are gang members as well, who do not want to press charges. Police say they refuse to help identify the two remaining suspects “We are very fortunate no one died Friday night next time we may not be so fortunate,” says Lt. Horn. “We have got to ensure we catch these guys before they kill somebody, because it will happen.” “My sister was here and somebody tried to come in, they were shot in the leg,” says Carla Lopez, who works at Los Favoritos restaurant, a few doors down from the club. “I guess a lot of people tried to come in but they told them to lock the doors." The gunfire also rattled the nerves of neighbors. “I live right next door, I have a one month old and a three and a half year old, and when I heard two men on the loose and fourteen people had been shot a hundred yards from our door… this place needs to be closed down,” says Judson Covert. Of the 15 people injured, no one suffered life-threatening injuries. One person remains hospitalized in serious condition. Police say they are working on getting surveillance photos of the two remaining suspects. They are also looking into whether they club did everything it needed to do in terms of security.

Trial of Rogue Tijuana Gang Raises Question of Violence Spilling Over to San Diego

 

The two defendants, Jose Olivera Beritan and David Valencia, are charged with involvement in several kidnapping and murder cases in San Diego in 2007. The two men were members of a Mexican gang, the Palillos, which once worked for the Tijuana Cartel (also known as the Arellano Felix Organization). But after the gang leader's brother was killed by the Tijuana command, the Palillos relocated to San Diego circa 2003. They used their knowledge of the Tijuana Cartel's US network to kidnap members who were living in the US. The gang also targeted drug dealers, businessmen, and police. While active in San Diego, the Palillos used several tactics commonly deployed by gangs across the border. They wore police uniforms when they kidnapped their victims. After collecting the ransom money, they did not always set the hostages free. In at least two cases, the captives were killed and their bodies dissolved in acid. The Palillos are so associated with this practice that the head of Baja California's Association for the Disappeared recently called for the FBI to investigate whether as many 20 people missing in Tijuana were killed and had their remains destroyed by the Palillos in the US. San Diego law enforcement cracked down on the organization in 2009, issuing charges against 17 members. Some of them fled to Mexico, but at least two were recaptured and extradited back to the US. Beritan and Valencia are the first of the suspected Palillo gang members to go on trial, in a case which has been cited by the FBI as an example of Mexico's drug violence spilling over the border. But other prominent cases of spillover violence between Tijuana and San Diego involve violence moving southwards rather than north. In the 1990s, the cartel recruited members of San Diego street gang Barrio Logan, also known as Calle 30, as mercenaries. The recruits received combat training and plenty of cash, and in return tortured, kidnapped, and killed on the cartel's behalf. Barrio Logan was reportedly behind the 1993 killing of Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo in 1993. In 1997, a Mexican judge charged seven Barrio Logan members with the attempted assassination of Jesus Blancornelas, the publisher of Tijuana-based investigative magazine Zeta. A 2011 report by Zeta magazine suggested that such recruitment campaigns are not a thing of the past. The piece argued that a former member of the Tijuana Cartel, now working for rival organization the Sinaloa Cartel, has enlisted members of Barrio Logan to cleanse the city of rival drug trafficking cells. One of those Barrio Logan recruits reportedly included Armando Perez, whom the magazine describes as one of San Diego's "most wanted" criminals, after he killed his wife in San Diego City College in 2010. The Zeta report suggests that the faction of the Tijuana Cartel allied with the Sinaloans sought to recruit US gang members, as a way of gaining an edge during Tijuana's cartel wars. This is a reminder that while it would be easy to label the ongoing Palillos trial as a clear example of Mexico's violence "spilling over" the border, such violence has apparently moved in both directions. It's worth noting that the Palillos shifted their operations to the US under very specific circumstances: they were in the unusual position of finding it safer to operate on US soil rather than Mexican. They could avoid their enemies, and act on their grudge against the Tijuana Cartel's leadership, targeting victims who were unwilling and unable to go to the police. The group were able to prosper in San Diego in large part by exploiting their knowledge of the Tijuana Cartel's network. The Palillos are, arguably, a unique phenomenon, rather than being indicative of an overall trend of spillover violence. The more realistic risk is not that Mexican gangs will pack up and move to the US, as happened in the Palillos' case, but that criminal organizations like the Tijuana Cartel will deepen their collaboration with US street gangs, using them to move, protect, and distribute drug shipments. The city of San Diego has as many as 81 street gangs, according to a report by local radio station KPBS. The extent to which the Tijuana Cartel is currently working with such gangs is currently unclear. But when discussing the risk of spillover violence, the deepening of business links between Mexico's cartels and US street gangs is a far more likely prospect than that of Mexican gangs choosing to relocate north of the border. Any gang that did so would probably eventually face a fate similar to the Palillos.

Wheels of Soul outlaw motorcycle gang member pleads guilty

 

Allan "Dog" Hunter, 33, of Chicago, was present during the March 6, 2011, shooting death of Javell T. Thornton, 32, also of Chicago, at 126 South Main St. according to a federal indictment. As part of his plea, Hunter, a member of the Wheels of Soul outlaw motorcycle gang, admitted Thursday in federal court that he conspired with other members of the gang to dispose of several firearms after the shooting. WOS was in Marion for a meeting at a private motorcycle club. In the early morning hours of March 6, a fight at the gang's after-hours party spilled onto the sidewalk on South Main Street. When the dust settled, three men were injured with stab and gunshot wounds, and Thornton was dead. The federal indictment states that Anthony R. Robinson shot three victims in the back as they fled the party, killing Thornton and seriously injuring another. Hunter reportedly fired a handgun indiscriminately into the crowd while wearing a bulletproof vest. Robinson has been indicted on one count of murder in aid of racketeering activity and one count of attempt to commit murder in aid of racketeering, along with other federal charges for murder and racketeering activities in other states, according to the federal indictment. Eighteen members of the WOS were indicted on federal charges June 9, 2011. One member allegedly stabbed another person in the head during a fight at a Chicago motorcycle club, then shot another in the stomach. The indictment says gang members are required to carry weapons - mostly guns, but also hammers, knives and other weapons.

Rapper Young Buck -- Shot at 11 Times in Attempted Drive-by

 

A woman riding in the passenger seat of an SUV driven by Young Buck was shot in the shoulder early this morning when another car drove alongside and opened fire, but the rapper was unharmed ... this according to a local report.  The woman was treated and released according to WSMV in Nashville, TN. There was a third passenger in the vehicle who was also not injured.  The shooting occurred at approximately 3:30 AM, police told the television station. Young Buck is from the area and was reportedly back in town for a music project.

Hells Angels bikie war will explode in Kings Cross.

 

POLICE investigating the Hells Angels have launched a new taskforce amid fears a full-blown bikie war will explode in Kings Cross. The Sunday Telegraph can reveal the operation, code-named Strike Force Cheviot, was set up after 40 to 50 members of the Hells Angels descended on the red-light district last month. Police believe the "unprecedented" act may have been designed to send a message to rival bikie group Nomads, which have long controlled security in the area. Detective Superintendent Arthur Katsogiannis, commander of the NSW Gangs Squad, said police had been watching the situation closely since the February 5 incident. "Yes, we are aware and monitoring the situation with what happened at Kings Cross that night with the Hells Angels", Mr Katsogiannis told The Sunday Telegraph. "It was an unprecedented act from the Hells Angels and that's why it's important the Gangs Squad involved ourselves from the beginning. "Safety of the community is our top priority and we will not be allowing any OMCGs (outlaw motorcycle gangs) to carry on with that type of behaviour". Police are investigating a possible outbreak of violence between the Nomads and the Hells Angels, who have been on an expansion and recruitment drive for months around Sydney. It is one of several lines of inquiry being probed by Cheviot detectives. They are also looking at a credible allegation that Hells Angels members went to Kings Cross to confront a member of the Nomads clan who works in the area. The man, who for legal reasons cannot be named, was formerly a member of the Hells Angels but "patched over" several months ago. Since then he has been performing unofficial security tasks for nightclub premises in Kings Cross, including venues aligned with local identity John Ibrahim. Law enforcement sources said when the Hells Angels descended on the nightspot they arranged themselves across the road from a club where the man was believed to be working, and demanded he come outside. "That forms part of several lines of inquiry we are looking at," Mr Katsogiannis said, adding that officers from Strike Force Raptor were patrolling Kings Cross on the night of the incident and quelled the situation. "If they (Raptor police) didn't intervene at the time, it could have been a lot worse". Police have connected the Nomads member with some of the recent shootings across southwestern Sydney, all of which are under investigation. In November, The Sunday Telegraph revealed the individual was the target of a drive-by attack at an Oporto restaurant in Merrylands, which occurred two days after he was released from custody. Mr Katsogiannis said Strike Force Cheviot officers, would continue weekend patrols of Kings Cross to prevent any outbreaks of violence for "as long as it takes".

Bailed Kyle Thain and James Harris return from Spain

 

Two men from Essex accused of attempted murder in Spain have returned to England. Kyle Thain, 24, and James Harris, 29, had been in Spain for the past seven months after being accused of attacking two men in an Alicante bar in July 2011. The pair, both from Southend, were held in a Spanish prison for four months without charge. They have now been allowed to return to England on strict bail conditions. Mr Harris returned to the UK on Tuesday and his friend Mr Thain arrived at Stansted Airport on Wednesday evening. New lawyer As part of the conditions of their return to the UK, both men must sign in at the Spanish consulate in London twice a month. Speaking before her son Mr Thain's arrival, Sharon Harris, said: "I am so excited and nervous at the same time. "I still can't believe it. I won't be happy until I've got my arms around him at the airport." Both men have protested their innocence and have said they can prove they were elsewhere at the time of the attack. They were released from jail in November and given their passports back after each paid £6,000 in bail, but were told they could not leave the country. A new lawyer has now negotiated their return home. Pablo Sebastian, a Spanish lawyer working in Alicante with offices in Hadleigh in Essex, has been helping the boys' families secure their release. "We are very relieved to have them home," he said. "It is an improvement because they are back with their friends, family and at their jobs." 'Lives disrupted' Mr Sebastian said the men's "impeccable behaviour" while on bail in Spain had persuaded the Spanish judge to allow them back to the UK. It is thought the men's families have paid about £25,000 to cover travel, accommodation and legal costs since the pair were arrested. The men must now wait to hear if they must return to Spain for a trial. Richard Howitt, MEP for the East of England, is now calling for a change in European law to ensure minimum standards of justice across all member states. "The idea they have been several months in prison, outside the country and suffered such a huge financial loss is unacceptable," he said. "If we had a system whereby you respect and uphold each other's system of justice, then Kyle and James could have come home seven months ago. "But their lives have been totally disrupted, as have their families', which is why we need better standards of judicial co-operation at European level."