Contract Killing On The Increase In Costa Rica

 

According to the Sección de Estadísticas del Departamento de Planificación del Poder Judicial (Statistics Section of the Planning Department of the Judiciary) the number of murders presumed by hired killers in 2010, went from 13 victims in 2009 to 40 in 2010, placing the La Carpio, Leon XIII, Los Cuadros y Guararí de Heredia as the places of highest incidence. Judicial authorities presume that organized crime groups, use this method to assert their interests in various criminal activities, as they are listed in order of importance: drug trafficking, gang revenge, robbery of drug traffickers (known as tumbonazos) and executions tied to the sale of illegal drugs. However, statistics show a slight increase in intentional homicides during the past year, compared to 2009, from 525 to 527 victims. The study found that the rate of homicide victims per 100.000 inhabitants remained virtually unchanged from 2009, settling at 11.5%. The existence of homicides associated with what is known as "error or omission," or those who were not the target and suffered mistaken identity or omission by the murderer, almost doubled in 2010 over 2009, for a total of 16 deaths. Also, the number of foreigners killed in the country increased by 7.6%, bringing the figure to 112 individuals, Nicaraguan and followed by Colombian nationals being the target. The use of firearms to commit homicide, again saw increases during 2010, bringing the total number to 319, which is equal numbers in 2008 and the highest throughout history. Good news for women as statistics indicate that the number of femicides dropped in 2010, from 15 victims in 2009 to 10 last year. However, the major cause of femicides continues to be attacks by cohabitants (60%) and spouses (40%). Contract or hired killing (sicario in Spanish) is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may be a single person, a group of people, a company, or any other kind of organization. The hired party may also be one person, such as a hitman, or a group of people, or an organization. In most countries, including Costa Rica, a contract to kill a person is void, meaning that it is not legally enforceable. Any contract to commit an indictable offense is not enforceable. Furthermore, both the actual killer and the person who paid the killer can be found guilty of murder. Contract killing provides the hiring party with the advantage of not having to be directly involved in the killing. This makes it more difficult to connect that party with the murder. Throughout history and in many different parts of the world, contract killing has been associated with organized crime and also vendettas. For example, in recent United States history, the gang Murder, Inc., which committed hundreds of murders in the 1920s to the 1940s on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate, is a well-known example of a contract killer.

Vallucos gang members get life in prison for 'ice pick' murder

 

Cameron Park man accused of stabbing and killing a woman with an ice pick will spend the rest of his life in jail. After two and a half hours of deliberation, a Cameron County jury sentenced Ernesto Berlanga to life in prison for the August 2005 murder of Patricia Salas. The two had been fighting when he stabbed her in the neck and then fled the scene. Prosecutors previously identified Berlanga as a member of the Vallucos prison gang. Berlaga was already serving a 25-year sentence for gouging the eye of a fellow inmate at the Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center back in 2006.

Gangs Squad investigates shootings

 

Gang-squad detectives are investigating the drive-by shooting of a family home in Blacktown four weeks ago. Investigators refused to comment on the case but have said all lines of inquiry are open. That includes whether the drive-by shooting was related to other shootings at homes linked to gang-members around western Sydney in the past few weeks. Police believe the shooting at Indigo Way at Blacktown on the night of August 9 was a case of mistaken identity. The Department of Housing property was formerly occupied by a family linked to the gang Notorious but had a family of six Afghan refugees living in it at the time of the shooting. No one was harmed despite three bullets penetrating the interior walls of house.

Bacon Funeral Cancelled

A funeral service for slain gangster Jon Bacon, 30, was to be held later this week for family and close friends. But several sources have told me that the family decided to cancel the event.

Instead, Bacon was cremated and the family gathered in a Lower Mainland park Tuesday to say good-bye.

The Gang Task Force has said publicly they would be on-hand for the funeral of any high-profile gangster, including Bacon, to ensure public safety. Obviously there would have been security concerns surrounding any Bacon event, considering the long list of enemies that Jon, his brothers, and their associates have.

There was a viewing at Langley's Henderson Funeral Home last Friday attended by only 30 people or so. Police watched from a respectful distance and there were no incidents.

I will leave the Real Scoop up and running for your comments until Wednesday morning and then close it down till Labour Day so I can get back to my end-of-summer plans.

Let's hope that things remain relatively quiet out there in terms of gang violence.

 

Drunk gangster busted with loaded gun

A man with out-of-province gang connections was arrested in downtown Kelowna early Wednesday morning.

On August 24, at approximately 2:26 a.m., the Kelowna RCMP were advised of a disturbance call in the 300 block of Bernard Avenue.

A drunk man with organized crime connections was busted with a loaded handgun in Kelowna early Wednesday morning.
"Upon arrival the RCMP received information that a large white male had been standing on the sidewalk with what appeared to be a handgun in his pants and his shirt pulled up over the lower half of his face," says RCMP Staff Sgt. Terry McLachlan.

McLachlan says the male had reportedly been in an altercation with patrons in a bar and stated that he was waiting for someone to come out of the bar.

"The male was reported to have departed in a white SUV. When RCMP members arrived, the described white SUV was not seen."

Officers spotted a similar white SUV across the street with the suspect inside.

"The 29-year-old intoxicated male was taken into custody and a loaded .45 calibre handgun was seized from the white SUV."

McLachlan says the male is affiliated with organized crime in Edmonton, Alberta, and has an existing warrant from there.

The male will be appearing in Kelowna Provincial Court Wednesday, August 24, to face weapons-related charges.

 

Jonathan Bacon won't appear in court again, after all. The eldest of three perennially accused, criminally sanctioned brothers, he was facing trial on more drugs and weapons charges. Then bang, bang, bang. Bullets flew on Sunday.

Jonathan Bacon won't appear in court again, after all. The eldest of three perennially accused, criminally sanctioned brothers, he was facing trial on more drugs and weapons charges. Then bang, bang, bang. Bullets flew on Sunday. One-third of a notorious fraternal enterprise is gone.

Bacon was shot dead Sunday afternoon after leaving the Delta Grand Okanagan, a conspicuous hotel and casino complex in downtown Kelowna. A masked assailant pointed an automatic rifle at a white Porsche Cayenne and fired, killing Bacon and wounding as many as five other passengers, including two women and at least one known member of the Hells Angels, reportedly a close friend of the deceased. The shooter fled in another vehicle. As of Monday afternoon, no arrests had been made.

According to published accounts, Bacon and alleged criminal cohorts had been under police surveillance but not immediately before the brazen attack, which took place about one kilometre from a clubhouse used by a local chapter of the Hells Angels.

It had to be horrifying, especially to bystanders at the Delta Grand, but violence has followed the Bacons everywhere. Alleged to be the core of a criminal gang called the Red Scorpions, the brothers have suffered attempts on their lives before, and had always survived. Police took the very unusual step of warning the public to steer clear of the Bacons, lest innocents get caught in gang wars and deadly crossfire.

Jonathan, 29, survived a 2006 shooting on the driveway of his family's former Abbotsford home. James (Jamie) Bacon, 25, the youngest of the three brothers, took a bullet outside the same suburban house the following year, as he climbed out of his brother's Corvette sports car.

"Someone, but more likely two people, opened fire on him with a barrage of 45 calibre bullets," read a B.C. provincial court judgment, related to that shooting incident.

"At least five bullets hit the Corvette, seven went through the attached garage door, and one became embedded in [a Bacon family SUV]. James Bacon was hit by one bullet in the back between his shoulder blades, which would likely have seriously injured or killed him, except for the ballistic vest he was wearing."

The Bacons aren't boys to back down. Jamie fired back at his unnamed assailants with a Glock handgun, a prohibited weapon in Canada. Two men then emerged from the Bacon home and stashed the weapon in a "secret compartment" installed inside the family SUV.

Police discovered the gun, and three other prohibited semi-automatic weapons, inside the secret compartment, during their investigations the next day.

Not two weeks prior, Jamie Bacon was sentenced to three years in prison, on an earlier drugs-related robbery conviction. Why was he not locked behind bars, but instead free to drive around in a Corvette? Because the court had determined he'd already served an "equivalent sentence" of 14 months for the robbery, in pre-trial custody. So he walked, took a bullet in the back, and fired at his assailants with his Glock.

He was arrested again in 2008, this time with Jarrod, the middle Bacon brother, now 28. The pair were accused of dozens of firearms offences. Jamie was eventually convicted on some of those charges; Jarrod's charges were stayed. But their legal problems were far from over and their notoriety only grew.

In 2009, Jamie was charged with first-degree murder, and conspiracy to commit murder, for his alleged role in the 2007 massacre of six people in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb. He was delivered to a Surrey remand centre and eventually was placed in solitary confinement. He complained: He found his living conditions deplorable.

Bacon took the remand centre to court and won. A B.C. Supreme Court judge found that Bacon's Charter rights had been breached. "His treatment by the administration and guards is highly arbitrary and further accentuates his powerlessness," the judge ruled.

Later court documents attest that "Mr. Bacon's circumstances at Surrey Pre-Trial have improved considerably" since the ruling. His trial on the so-called Surrey Six charges still looms.

Jarrod Bacon, meanwhile, is locked up and awaiting trial on charges related to more drug trafficking allegations. Jarrod avoided prosecution in 2004 on an attempted-murder rap; the charge was stayed after an alleged victim refused to testify.

Although brother Jonathan's luck ran out Sunday, all three Bacon boys had caught some breaks.

They benefitted from able defence lawyers and a legal system that spat them back into society. And they had supportive parents: That's made their trajectories more strange.

The brothers didn't come from poverty or a broken home. As one judge noted recently in a court decision, the Bacons brothers were raised "in a middle-class home - both parents had good employment."

David Bacon was employed by the Abbotsford school district, and was put on paid leave in 2008. Susan Bacon has been manager at a local credit union.

They have stood by their sons - and fought for them, in the courts and in the press - through all of the shootings, the accusations, the trials and convictions, and through what they have claimed are campaigns of police and public harassment aimed at themselves, always themselves, the self-appointed victims caught in a cycle of mean-spirited prosecution, to say nothing of guns and drugs and bloodshed.

Now they are forced to cope with the murder of one of their own. Awful for any parent. But no one can say this came as a surprise.

Everyone was warned and we all saw it coming: Retaliatory violence. What else could come, except for more?

Camden torture-murder suspect indicted in separate shooting incident

A city man who is among 10 accused of the February 2010 torture-murders of an alleged gang rival and his girlfriend has been indicted by a Camden County grand jury in connection with a pair of shootings the day before that incident, Camden County Prosecutor Warren W. Faulk said Wednesday.

Kuasheim “Piesto” Powell, 25, of Berkley Street, is charged in the presentment with two counts each of attempted murder and aggravated assault and weapons offenses.
 
Powell is accused of shooting two Camden brothers, Tyee and Tomeik Harris, 22 and 21, outside a NJ Transit train stop at 36th Street and River Road in Pennsauken Township on Feb. 21, 2010. It is alleged Powell got in an argument with Tyee Harris after Harris said hello to Powell’s girlfriend in passing. Harris called his brother to help him and shortly after Tomeik Harris arrived Powell drew a gun and shot them both. It is alleged he fled on foot.
 
Powell is also accused of participating in killing Muriah Huff, 18, of Cinnaminson Township and Michael Hawkins, 23, of Mount Holly Township at a home on Berkley Street here on Feb. 22, 2010. Powell is the alleged triggerman in Hawkins murder. After Hawkins was shot to death, Powell allegedly came downstairs, pistol-whipped Huff and ordered others to “finish her off.”

Huff was beaten with a wooden chair until it fell apart, punched, choked and had a plastic bag placed over her head. A 14-year-old girl, Sharara Carter, admitted she attempted to stab her. Carter is serving a 20-year term.

The victims were buried in a shallow snow-covered grave. Carter is among two of the defendants who have pleaded guilty in connection with the murders.

 

man has been convicted for taking part in a series of gang killings that randomly targeted people in San Pablo who wore red.

The Contra Costa Times reports that a jury found 22-year-old Jorge Camacho guilty of three counts of murder and conspiracy Thursday.

Authorities say the gang decided to randomly shoot people wearing red to reclaim their territory after a loss of gang leadership. Four people died in the 2007 and 2008 shootings.

Jurors found Camacho guilty of killing two people himself and conspiring in a third, but acquitted him in the murder of a 15-year-old boy.

Camacho faces life in prison without parole at his June 17 sentencing.

He's the fourth gang member convicted at trial. Six others reached plea deals, and one trial remains for Hector Molina, who's charged with killing the 15-year-old.

___

gang member with scenes from a liquor store murder tattooed across his chest was sentenced to 65 years to life in prison, according to reports.

Anthony Garcia was convicted of first degree murder in April in connection with the Jan. 2004 killing of John Juarez in front of Ed's Liquor in Pico Rivera, Calif.  According to the Whittier Daily News, Garcia was sentenced on Thursday.

The case went cold until Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detective Sgt. Kevin Lloyd came across a photo of Garcia's tattoo, and recognized the crime scene images and details of the killing.

"I remembered in 2004, I'd been at the scene when the murder occurred in the city of Pico Rivera and so right away, it caught my attention," Lloyd told CBS affiliate KCBS Friday of the tattoo. "The victim was standing at the corner, gets shot in the head and then falls down in the... driveway of the liquor store."

Lloyd said the murder was a shooting against Garcia's rival gang.

Garcia was arrested at a La Habra home in October 2008. Parker said he confessed while in the Norwalk sheriff's station jail and was booked for murder the same day.

"All I can say is he's very boastful and arrogant and so he was very proud of his tattoo and when he was in a position, he would talk to other people about it," Lloyd added.

The man who drove the getaway car also confessed and faces 20 years in prison.

Detective Lloyd said in his 30 years in law enforcement, he had never seen a tattoo that depicted an entire crime scene, until this unusual case.

Gur Finkelstein, a lawyer who represents the Scientology Center in Israel paid mobster members of the Jaffa gang

Gur Finkelstein, a lawyer who represents the Scientology Center in Israel  paid mobster  members of the Jaffa gang,  an Arab organized crime gang of assasins between 120 and 140 thousand NIS for assassination attempts on his ex-wifes husband 
Finkelstein is also alleged to have commissioned a hit against Tel Aviv building inspector Shoter Hovel, after the latter had stopped work on construction for the Scientology sect that Finkelstein represented.

flashy New York City mobster has been convicted of federal charges he ordered a gangland hit in 2004.

flashy New York City mobster has been convicted of federal charges he ordered a gangland hit in 2004.

A Brooklyn jury reached the verdict against former acting boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano on Monday, its fourth day of deliberations.

Basciano already was serving a life sentence for an attempted murder conviction in 2007. This time, prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for the killing of a mob associate who ran afoul of the Bonanno organized crime family.

The trial featured testimony by former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, the highest-ranking member of a New York City Mafia family ever to testify against his own.

Jurors heard secret recordings by Massino that prosecutors said captured the 51-year-old Basciano admitting to the killing.

James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, were attempting to flee when they were shot multiple times and left to die in a run down housing project known for drug dealing and gang activity

Detectives believe and left to die in a run down housing project known for drug dealing and gang activity.
One theory being investigated is that they accepted a lift back to their rented condominium in the fashionable tourist resort of Longboat Key after spending the night bar hopping.
But instead, they were driven to the low income housing project where they were ambushed by at least one armed teenager.
Police sources said both men had been running away when they were gunned down. Their bodies were found 50 feet apart.
They were still in possession of cash, and police did not find any evidence to suggest they had been wanting to buy drugs.

Local residents living near the crime scene said they had been told the two former University of Sheffield students were ambushed by masked men who attempted to rob them.
Sonja Seymour, 31, who lives on the street, said:” I heard that when they arrived here there were already some people waiting for them. They were wearing masks.
“The men ran away and they were shot. I saw one of them lying in the street on his back with his arms outstretched. The other was across the road and lying in his back.
“They were not moving. The ambulance arrived and tried to work on the two men, but they could not do anything. They were covered up and taken away and the police put up all yellow tape.”
A police source said: ”It is entirely plausible that they were taken to this location where they were confronted by at least one individual. We are still trying to determine why they would want to be in this area at that time of night. We know they did not have their own transport so they were brought to this location. Someone could have called ahead and people were waiting for them
"It was late at night and the would not have known what this area was like."
The bodies of Cooper and Kouzaris were found in an area known as Newtown in the north of Sarasota.
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with the double murder.
Police sources revealed he had been arrested for a violent gun offence just over two weeks ago when shots were fired in an attempted robbery.
The teenager was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon but released by a court while police carried out further inquiries.
As it was his first offence the boy, who has just turned 16, was released but police said they had been planning to pursue the case.
The alleged killer’s name has not been released but he lives with his mother in the housing project block where both men were killed.
Police said he will be charged as an adult which could lead to the death penalty if convicted of first degree murder.
The parents of Mr Cooper, a former child tennis star, were said by a family friend to be “too distraught” to speak about their only son’s death.
Speaking outside the rented condominium building a family friend said: ”They are both hysterical and are still just coming to terms with what has happened.
“It is like a very bad film, a complete nightmare.”

Gang members found guilty in Juarez murders

A pair of imprisoned gang members has been found guilty of murdering two brothers who were gunned down more than a decade ago while visiting their cousin's clothing store on Lincoln Boulevard.

The verdict was read Tuesday in the murder trial of David Robles and Jessie Garcia, cousins affiliated with local street gangs and the Mexican mafia who law enforcement officials said were out to settle a dispute over drugs and money when they and two other suspects drove to the Westside Clothing store on Oct. 27, 1998 and shot and killed Michael Juarez, 27, and Anthony Juarez, 19, and wounded two others.

The shooting raised alarm in Santa Monica because of the extreme nature of the crime. The Juarez brothers, who were visiting from out of town, and the two who were wounded were described by police as innocent victims who had no ties to gangs.

"We've been waiting for this day for a long time," said Francisco Juarez, the victims' uncle. "Justice has finally been served and now we're hoping this brings some closure."

The defendants were convicted on two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder. Robles is scheduled to be sentenced on May 3. Garcia is expected to return to court on May 19. Both could receive life in prison.

For Ginger Blackstone, the mother of Anthony Juarez, the verdict was welcomed but it has done little to ease the family's pain. She and her ex-husband, Bill Juarez, Anthony and Michael's father, recently had to bury their daughter, who they said fell into a deep depression following her brothers' murder and committed suicide.



The family also had to endure a mistrial in 2009 when a jury failed to reach a verdict.

"We were extremely frustrated [after the first trial], but we are so grateful this time around," she said. "We thought the prosecution did an excellent job. It was tough to sit through it again and see those crime scene and autopsy photos. And even though I'm still dying inside at least we were able to get justice for our boys, something we've been fighting for for years."

Fighting through tears, Bill Juarez said he was extremely grateful for the work of Santa Monica detectives as well as the kindness and support given to the family from various sources over the past 11 years.

SMPD Detective Michael Bambrick, who took over the case in December 2004 after the previous lead detective retired, said eye witness testimony along with DNA evidence collected from a ski mask left at the scene of the murders were key pieces in the prosecution's case the second time around.

He said police initially believed the murders were in retaliation for an earlier shooting involving a gang member, however, further investigation led detectives to believe a dispute over drugs and money fueled the hit. The suspected target was not at the clothing store the day of the shooting, Bambrick said.

"It could have been they were trying to send a message," he said of the shooters.

Three men wearing masks entered the clothing store shortly before noon, opened fire and ran out. Bambrick said Robles acted as the getaway driver and was positively identified by witnesses. Garcia dropped his mask in the store and was also identified by witnesses.

Using DNA evidence collected from the mask, Bambrick said detectives were able to link Garcia and Robles, who were roommates at the time, to the crime scene. The two other shooters were never identified. Bambrick continues to investigate in hopes of locating the suspects.

"We're still working it, but there's not a ton of information out there," he said, urging anyone who may have knowledge about the shooting to come forward.

As for the Juarez family, Blackstone said she is looking forward to sentencing when she will be able to speak directly to the defendants and tell them how their actions have hurt the family. She hopes Robles and Garcia spend the rest of their lives behind bars so they suffer for their crimes.

At the time that murder charges were filed, Robles, also known as "Puppet," was serving an eight-year sentence in Corcoran State Prison. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in February 2001. Garcia, also known as "Psycho," was convicted of carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon with a firearm causing great bodily injury in May 1999. He was serving a 15-year sentence.

 

TEENAGE gang is suspected of using a young girl's mobile phone to lure a 19-year-old youth to his death last weekend.

Gardai believe that the gang used the girl's mobile phone to send David Byrne a text message to get him to leave his flat.

The gang of boys were outside a local chip shop when Byrne emerged at 10pm last Saturday. They chased him into a car park where he was knifed six times in the back and side and left for dead. Mobile phone records show he received text messages encouraging him outside shortly before he died.

The prime suspect for the stabbing and three other boys suspected of involvement are all juveniles. Seven teenagers, including two 13-year-olds, were arrested but released without charge. Byrne had an outstanding debt to drug dealers, which one source put at €8,000.

The murder has led to renewed concerns over the effects of gangland culture on schoolchildren. The problem is believed to be particularly acute in the south city enclaves of Crumlin and Drimnagh where a murderous feud has raged for years between rival drugs gangs.

David Byrne was a street dealer who graduated from his local youth club to peddling hash around the area, according to gardai. Although he was just 19, he had been in trouble since he was in his early teens. He came to garda attention for drinking in public places, theft, burglary and selling drugs and at one point he was the subject of a barring order.

He might still be alive had his stash not been seized by gardai last year. He had bought €8,000 worth of cannabis from a gang of teenage dealers who, although under 18, were slightly further up the criminal pecking order than he. Before he had the chance to sell it, the cannabis was seized by gardai, according to sources. Without the drug to sell, Byrne had no way of paying his debt. He had certainly been hounded for the money over a long period of time and had survived a previous stabbing.

At 10pm last Saturday week, teenagers loitered outside a local chip shop on Benbulben Road in Drimnagh -- the scene of numerous altercations between local youths including the murders of two Polish men.

When Byrne emerged from his flat in nearby Davitt House, they chased him across a bridge over the Grand Canal and through St Michael's council estate to Inchicore.

The gang had caught up with him in the car park of Emmet Court apartment complex. CCTV footage shows a hooded youth stabbing him six times in the back and side.

Residents looked on horrified. One of them rang gardai, but Byrne had suffered a punctured lung and kidney and bled to death where he lay.

The teenagers may not even have been aware that they had killed Byrne, according to gardai. Closed circuit television caught them up running back to the chip shop on Benbulben Road, moments after they attack.

Other young teenagers who had congregated at the takeaway may have noticed their bloodied clothes.

Gardai arrested seven local teenagers, four on suspicion of murder and three on suspicion of withholding information. Two were 13 and they included two girls.

Byrne's stabbing occurred in a week when sociologist Niamh Hourigan warned that children as young as three were used by criminal gangs to spread fear and intimidation.

Gardai said David Byrne's death was not connected to the long-running murderous drugs feud between the two criminal gangs vying for dominance in Crumlin and Drimnagh.

But it was a by-product of the gangland culture that festers in some communities, drawing in local children as mules and gofers. A 16-year-old was caught with a pipe bomb in the area last summer. In 2008, two Polish mechanics were stabbed in the head with a screwdriver by a 17-year-old after accidentally brushing against a crew of "highly aroused and mouthy" teenagers outside the same chip shop where David Byrne's alleged killers lurked.

"They are used for bringing stuff from Billy to Jack. If they don't talk to police, and work their way up, they continue up the organisation," said one source

Pierre Mercado, a former member of the Asian Boyz street gang appeared in court handcuffed and wearing a blue prison suit to have his charges consolidated into one case.

Pierre Mercado, a former member of the Asian Boyz street gang appeared in court handcuffed and wearing a blue prison suit to have his charges consolidated into one case.

Pierre is the younger brother of Marvin Mercado, who was convicted of eight murder charges last month.

The younger Mercado is facing four counts of murder and one count of a home invasion robbery. The crimes were done in three separate incidents. He is facing life in prison.

Consolidating the cases would make his trial move faster. The jury trial is expected to last five weeks.

As members of the Asian Boyz gang, Pierre and Marvin were connected to a series of gang-related murders and violent crimes in the mid 1990s. They fled to the Philippines in the late 90s, where they lived as fugitives under false names. They were eventually captured and sent back to the US to face trial in 2007. Marvin was given a life sentence after being found guilty of eight murders and ten attempted murders last month.

While the Mercado brothers were hiding out in the Philippines, seven members of the Asian boys were handed life sentences. Pierre Mercado is the last of the Asian Boyz to face trial. His jury trial is expected to begin in August.

Indian Posse street gang 'striker' who stabbed a man pleads guilty to aggravated assault - Brandon Sun

Indian Posse street gang 'striker' who stabbed a man -- nearly piercing the victim's heart -- was acting under orders of higher ranking gang members, court has heard.
Crown attorney Jim Ross described how the blade entered through the victim's back, passed through his ribs, punctured a lung and 'nicked' the victim's heart."

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Army Troops Rescue 16 Kidnapped in Mexico

Army Troops Rescue 16 Kidnapped in Mexico: "Soldiers rescued 16 people being held hostage in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas and killed two suspected kidnappers in a shootout, the army said Monday.

An army patrol was attacked Saturday near the highway that links Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, and Mante, the 8th Military Zone said.

The soldiers “repelled the attack, killing two of the suspected assailants,” the army said.

The hostages – three women and 13 men – being held by the suspects were rescued, the 8th Military Zone said, without providing further details about the group.

Army troops seized a rifle, three ammunition clips and a vehicle that had been reported stolen.

In August, 72 Latin American migrants were massacred at a ranch in Tamaulipas."

Mexico’s Teen Hitman to Be Held Under Preventive Arrest

Latin American Herald Tribune - Mexico’s Teen Hitman to Be Held Under Preventive Arrest: "Mexican teenager accused of being a drug cartel hitman who allegedly decapitated his victims has been ordered held in preventive arrest for 60 days by a juvenile court judge, giving prosecutors and the defense more time to gather evidence in the case, the press reported.

Edgar Jimenez Lugo, a 14-year-old boy known as “El Ponchis” (The Cloak), allegedly committed several murders for the South Pacific drug cartel.

A judge in the central state of Morelos ruled that the boy should be kept in prison while the investigation moves forward.

The teenager spent several hours Sunday at the courthouse in Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos, and was taken away with his head covered and under tight security.

Prosecutors have charged the boy with murder, illegal arms possession and drug possession, the Reforma newspaper reported on its Web site."

Borderland Beat: Four Cops Die in Ambush in Ciudad Juarez

 Four Cops Die in Ambush in Ciudad Juarez: "Four municipal police officers were killed and one was wounded in an ambush staged by gunmen in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s murder capital, police spokesmen said.

The officers were driving Saturday through Aguilas de Zaragoza, a neighborhood on the east side of the border city, when the gunmen opened fire on them at the intersection of Acamapiztle and Cuauhtlatoatzin streets."

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Jailed gangster Colin Gunn wins demand for prison officers to call him 'Mr' - mirror.co.uk

Jailed gangster Colin Gunn wins demand for prison officers to call him 'Mr' - mirror.co.uk: "NOTORIOUS gangster will now be called “Mister” by prison officers.
Colin Gunn, serving 35 years for ordering the killing of two ­grandparents, made an official complaint that he did not receive enough respect.
Officers at Belmarsh Prison in South-East London have now been told to address him as “Mr Gunn” after the Prison and Probation Ombudsman upheld his claim."

DISCLAIMER:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder