Split in the Spanish Town, St Catherine-based ‘Clansman’ gang has sparked tension around the bus park in the old capital.

The police say a split in the Spanish Town, St Catherine-based ‘Clansman’ gang has sparked tension around the bus park in the old capital.Police sources said that thugs from the notorious gang were feuding over the spoils of an extortion ring, which was being operated in the park.“Criminals from the Clansman gang are at odds over the extortion racket which they operate in the bus park … . They have people in fear,” The rift is suspected to be the motive behind the shooting death of a 21-year-old man on Thursday.The man, Shane Hill of Corletts Road in Spanish Town, was reportedly shot and killed about 9:30 a.m. as he walked in the community.
A man is said to have walked up to him and opened fire.Investigators say intelligence suggests that Taylor is part of a break-away group. The men who have distanced themselves from the gang have allegedly started their own racket.“Based on what we found out, it can be summed up that some men weren’t happy with how the gains were being divided, so they created their own group, so to speak, and started their own collecting,” the investigator explained. He added: “This is a very serious situation as it can prove dangerous, both to them, as well as the other persons who use the bus park.”He further explained, “Taxi and bus operators may end up on the wrong side of either group depending on who they decide to pay.”

Juan Cardenas, 17, and Jose Herrera Gonzales, 23,arrested two suspect members of the Surenos,Sur 13 street gang.

Port Arthur Police say Juan Cardenas, 17, and Jose Herrera Gonzales, 23, were arrested after they were accused of firing shots at someone from a car in the 3000 block of 7th Street. Cardenas and Gonzales are in the Jefferson County Jail on charges of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. Bond is $150,000.arrested two suspect members of the Surenos or Sur 13 street gang.Police looking for a third suspect, Mario Cardenas Lopez, 18. They have a warrant for his arrest for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. He's 5'6", 120 pounds. He has a tattoo of the number 13 on his chin.

UN gang member Barzan Tilli-Choli, 27, and associates Nicola Cottrell and Aram Ali, made their first appearance behind bulletproof plexiglass

UN gang member Barzan Tilli-Choli, 27, and associates Nicola Cottrell and Aram Ali, made their first appearance behind bulletproof plexiglass in Surrey Provincial Court's room 107 Extra security was in place for the appearance, including metal detectors at the front door, and additional police in the courthouse.The three each face two counts of attempting to kill Fraser Sutherland, 40, and Tyler Willock, 27, with a firearm.Tilli-Choli was charged in Vancouver in 2007, along with UN gangmates Thanh Kiet Kha and Koth Gott Chanthapathet, with assault and uttering threats, but was convicted only of a breach.Two other threatening charges laid in Vancouver in 2006 were dismissed.Cottrell has no other charges in B.C. according to a provincial court database search.Ali, 23, was already facing a series of drug trafficking and stolen property charges in North Vancouver when arrested in the attempted murder.
A fourth accused, Sarah Trebble, was also charged over the weekend with being in the vehicle knowing there was a firearm inside.
Trebble is the former live-in girlfriend of full-patch White Rock Hells Angel Larry Amero, The Vancouver Sun has learned. She and Amero share a car lease for a 2007 Cadillac Escalade, according to personal property records.Prosecutor Ralph Keefer refused to comment on the case outside court Monday. Willock is a close associate of Jonathan, Jarrod and Jamie Bacon and the Red Scorpion gang, and was the intended target of the shooting outside T-Barz strip club on East Whalley Ring Road and 104th Ave. But Sutherland, who was driving his leased Range Rover with Willock in the back, is the one who ended up wounded when the bullets started flying.Surrey RCMP said at the time that Sutherland's vehicle left the scene and headed for Langley but couldn't make it home. An ambulance attended to him at 216th and Fraser Highway about 12:40 a.m. Feb. 16.
Tilli-Choli has assumed a greater role in the UN gang since leader Clay Roueche was arrested in the U.S. last May on cocaine and marijuana smuggling charges. Roueche remains behind bars in Seattle awaiting trial in April.Tilli-Choli is also close to Mike and Peter Adiwal, twins convicted of a gangland kidnapping who have played leading roles in the Independent Soldiers.Tilli-Choli, Cottrell and Ali were still wearing their street clothes when they were led into court Monday and placed in separate prisoners' boxes.A tattoo reading "Barzan" with a Chinese character underneath could be seen on the back of Cottrell's neck.A young woman in the public gallery began weeping uncontrollably when she saw Ali, gesturing to him through the glass. A sheriff had to calm her down as tears streamed down her face.

Colombia extradited Miguel Angel Mejia on Wednesday, making him the 16th paramilitary warlord dispatched to the United States

Colombia extradited Miguel Angel Mejia on Wednesday, making him the 16th paramilitary warlord dispatched to the United States on drug trafficking charges in less than a year.The 49-year-old Mejia was an anomaly among far-right militia bosses. After initially demobilizing in a peace pact with the government, he returned to being a fugitive and authorities say he ran a major drug gang.His extradition Wednesday aboard a DEA Super King turboprop plane was confirmed by Col. German Jaimes, deputy director of Colombia's judicial police, who said Mejia was bound for Washington, D.C. News media were not invited to witness the departure.
Police killed Mejia's twin brother and alleged crime partner Victor in an April 2008 raid. Mejia himself was captured the next month in a false compartment in a truck cab. The United States had offered $5 million rewards for the capture of either Mejia, who were known as the twins, "Los Mellizos" in Spanish
Miguel Angel was first indicted in the United States in 2000 and is to be tried in District of Columbia federal court.He and brother began trafficking in the 1990s and shipped 4 to 10 metric tons of cocaine to the United States and Europe monthly, according to Col. Cesar Pinzon, chief of Colombia's judicial police.Mejia's lawyer, Angelica Maria Martinez, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that her client faced no charges in Colombia but nevertheless confessed to leading a far-right militia that she said was responsible for the massacre of 10 people in 2004 in a town called Flor Amarillo.Prosecutors say they are investigating Mejia's involvement in many more killings.Martinez said Mejia was hoping that in exchange for confessing to his crimes and handing over ill-gotten gains he might negotiate a reduced sentence in the United States.U.S. prosecutors have shown themselves ill-disposed to such deals, however, seeking prison terms of well over 20 years for other Colombian paramilitary warlords extradited there on drug trafficking charges.Since taking office in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe has extradited more than 800 criminal suspects to the United States to stand trial, the vast majority on drug trafficking charges.

There is no end in sight in the Danish gang war that has been raging for more than half a year.

On Sunday night two masked youths, connected to the immigrant gangs that are fighting out a turf war with the Hell's Angels, attacked a pub on Amager in Copenhagen. They forced a man to lie on his belly at gunpoint and then fired 10 shots into the pub, killing one and injuring two, before shooting the man on the street in his kneecaps. The incident is the third in as many days. On Saturday night a 32-year-old man trying to park his car on his way to a concert was shot by youths on bikes, and on Friday another random victim, a young man, not connected to any of the involved groups, was shot and had his throat cut in execution style at an estate in Copenhagen's troubled Norrebro area, probably by people connected to the AK81 supporters of Hell's Angels.The gang war has been pasteurising life in the Danish capital for far too long. The police have tried to control matters, but rather than being solved, the problems seem to be escalating and the locals are increasingly staying indoors or even moving out of the trouble spots. Normal Copenhagen residents fear being mistaken for a gang member by stressed criminals worried for their own safety. The number of casualties unrelated to the various groups is rising dramatically.

The Danish minister of justice, Brian Mikkelsen, insists that the fight against the gangs is being won, but it certainly doesn't feel that way walking on Norrebro in central Copenhagen on the weekend. The atmosphere, in an area usually full of people in shops and cafes, is tense – the locals just want the problems and the criminals to go away.

The Danish integration minister, Birthe Ronn Hornbech, is now contemplating the introduction of a new set of laws that will in effect mean that all foreigners caught committing a crime involving a weapon will be expelled from the country. The proposed policy is supported by the rest of centre-right government and the Danish People's party, and therefore looks likely to be passed in parliament. But several experts have warned that the new zero tolerance strategy is risking institutionalised inequality. While the tough line might have some effect on the immigrant gangs, it could easily be seen by the Hell's Angels as giving them the upper hand and reason to start an offensive.
Danish police have increased their presence in the Copenhagen trouble spots, but so far they have been hapless bystanders. The gang war is being fought between two factions fighting for control of the lucrative drugs market. But, for all the shootings and stabbings, the real victims are the local residents. It is strange that it should take dozens of episodes with firearms and several deaths before the police are willing to upgrade their presenceThe ongoing gang war, with its clear ethnic tensions, has done little to better the already strained relationship between white Danes and foreigners. But while the Hell's Angels and their supporters are a clear and relatively easily defined group, the immigrant gangs are less well known. It is them the Danish population fear the most. But these gangs do not represent the foreigners in Denmark, they just give them a bad name. While there is every reason to clamp down on the gangs' criminal activity, legislating one's way out of trouble is often not the answer. If a white boy gets a small prison sentence for carrying a weapon while a foreign boy is expelled for the same crime, surely that is bound to make the foreigners feel even more stigmatised. The question then remains: what to do? Few in Denmark seem to have a clear idea. The original plan was to let the gangs fight it out, but that now seems a far too dangerous proposition for the rest of the Danish population.

60 shootings have rocked Copenhagen, half linked to the gang war that has exploded into a full-blown gang warfare

person was killed and three others were injured in yet another shooting in Copenhagen early Monday in what appeared to be linked to a raft of gang-related shootings there in recent days,
Four people were hit when unknown assailants opened fire outside a cafe in the Danish capital and all were rushed to hospital by ambulance, head of the investigation Tommy Keil told the Politiken daily's website. One of the victims had died, he said, adding that it was too early to say anything about the condition of the others who had been shot. "This appears to be gang related," police spokesman Henrik Olesen meanwhile told the paper. Copenhagen has since Friday been the scene of several violent shootings in what seems to be part of an escalating gang turf war between Hells Angels bikers and their supporters and youths of immigrant origin in the Danish capital in recent months. On Friday, a man of Iraqi origin was shot and killed, while an ethnic Dane remained in critical condition after three men on bicycles shot up his car as he and a friend were looking for a parking spot on Saturday. Over the past seven months, more than 60 shootings have rocked a traditionally calm Copenhagen, with around half linked for certain to the gang war that exploded into full-blown war on August 19 when a 19-year-old man of Turkish origin was executed on the street.

Australian cinema chain has said it will no longer show an acclaimed film about Lebanese gang violence in Sydney after brawls erupted

The film is spliced with footage of an alcohol-fueled rampage at Cronulla Beach in Sydney, in which thousands of white men attacked anyone who looked Middle Eastern. cinema chain in Australia has said it will no longer show an acclaimed film about Lebanese gang violence in Sydney after brawls erupted during screenings. The independent movie "The Combination" is a gritty portrayal of racism and ethnic discord between white and Middle Eastern Australians.

The incident sparked Australia's worst racial violence as Lebanese and other Middle Eastern gangs launched retaliatory attacks over two nights in a city that prided itself on its good race relations.

The Greater Union cinema chain said it was canning the film after violence broke out at two screenings last week. On Thursday a security guard was hospitalized after being attacked by a group of thirty people watching the film.
Two nights later a brawl broke out at the same cinema. The police were called but the suspects had left by the time the police arrived.In a statement Grand Union said: "Maintaining the safety and security of our staff and patrons is our main concern and priority. As such a decision has been made to suspend all sessions of this films." The low budget film's director, David Field said he was "devastated" by the decision."It's a beautiful film. It doesn't advocate violence," he said. "I hope people can calm down and I'm hoping we can find a way to amend the situation."
The Australian Film Syndicate (AFS), the movie's distributor, condemned the decision. "The first Australian film to be released in 2009 is experiencing exceptional box office in its first week of release, which makes this unprecedented move all the more devastating for everyone involved, especially for the audiences that are now going to miss out," an AFS spokeswoman said.Keysar Trad, the president of the Australian Islamic Friendship Association, said there was no need to suspend the movie. "From what I know, the incidents were not connected to the movie which itself doesn't glorify violence," she said. "This is a society which celebrates freedom of speech and suspending this movie is an infringement of that."The film has already made headlines for the wrong reasons, when one of its young stars, 19 year-old Ali Haidar, pleaded guilty to an assault charge and was jailed for seven months last week.There are about 180,000 Lebanese in Australia with nearly three quarters of them living in Sydney.

Gangland battle and stabbing at the Southern Hills Mall.

Gangland battle at the Southern Hills Mall. At least a dozen people were involved in the possibly gang-related incident. When officers arrived, they found a man who had been stabbed on his torso and to the face. Police say these kind of incidents can happen anywhere.
"You just have to be more aware of your surroundings, not assume that wherever you're at one place or another. If you see people that look like they're squaring off or starting to yell or hollar, or stuff like that. Get ahold of police, or get ahold of mall security, get ahold of authorities wherever they may be," says Sgt. Dave Bishop, Sioux City Police Department.22-year-old Jeremy Saul of Sioux City was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Police did arrest a male juvenile and charged him with disorderly conduct but he is not a suspect in the stabbing.

Third Gang related slaying to take place in Salinas in the past 24 hours

third homicide to take place in Salinas in the past 24 hours happened Friday afternoon when a man was fatally shot in front of an apartment complex, police said.
The 24-year-old received multiple gunshot wounds to the torso at about 12:45 p.m. at 945 Del Monte Ave.He was pronounced dead a short time after police officers arrived at the scene. Officials are currently looking for the shooter who fled on Del Monte Avenue to an apartment complex on N. Sandborn Road.There is no word at this time if the shooting was gang-related and dozens of people who gathered around the crime scene gave little information to police about the gunman or gunmen, officials said.
The victim is the latest in a string of homicides -- nine in all -- to hit Salinas, a city of about 140,000.Less than 24 hours earlier, two teenagers were shot dead in the parking lot of 918 Acosta Plaza at about 8 p.m.Carlos Mejia, 17, and Francisco Alfaro, 16, were approached by two men who pulled out handguns and fired multiple gunshots, authorities said.Police Chief Dan Ortega said he isn't sure if Friday's shooting was in retaliation the shootings of Mejia and Alfaro.The chief did say, however, that the streets of Salinas would be heavily protected Friday evening and into the weekend."The gang task force is in town tonight (Friday) and we will still have operation Cal Grip with the CHP going on. So we're going to have the streets saturated tonight and this weekend," Ortega said.Police are investigating Thursday evenings shooting as gang-related, but the mother one of the teenagers gunned down said her son wasn't involved with gangs.Carlos Mejia was a bass player in the school band for years and was going to graduate from Everett Alvarez High School, his family said."There is nothing we can do. We were trying as hard as we can, he was always refusing, he was never trying to get in that (gangs). I don't know what to say," said Mejia's mother, Marta.Mejia's dad took him and his sister to school every day to watch his activity, and the family said Carlos refused gang life despite the pressures.Mejia's sister told KSBW Action News 8 she has no idea why anyone would go after her brother."They're going to regret what they did to him, because he didn't do anything bad," Vanessa Mejia said. "I don't know why they went after him if he never did anything to them, and I hope they get what they deserve for doing that to my brother."The rash of homicides comes just one day after Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue attended a summit in Santa Rosa along with officials from 12 other gang-plagued cities to talk about the need for sustained state and federal support.

Donahue said the $2.6 million he learned would be directed to Monterey County pales next to the $14 million he must cut from the Salinas general fund over the next three years.

At the current pace, 2009 would shatter the previous homicide record for Salinas that was set in 2008 with 25.

“Dead Rat” and “Military Justice.” The confessed shooter, retired general Alejandro Flores, was widely hailed as a hero for firing at the 30-year-old

Graphic photos of the alleged thief’s corpse were splashed over the front pages of Mexican tabloids beneath headlines such as “Dead Rat” and “Military Justice.” The confessed shooter, retired general Alejandro Flores, was widely hailed as a hero for firing at the 30-year-old man who had tried to force his way into the military man’s Mexico City home. “Of course he did the right thing,” wrote Felipe Alcocer in one on-line forum on the incident. “I wish everyone would act in the same way and get rid of this anti-social scum.” Given Mexico’s widespread breakdown in security, the praise for Flores’ Feb. 5 act of self-defense is unsurprising. The conviction rate in the thousands of murders and kidnappings afflicting the nation every year is estimated to be as low as 5%. Women and children are also increasingly among those killed by criminal gangs. And the limits on the legal system’s ability to stem the tide of violent crime has produced a growing, shadowy movement for vigilante justice. In recent months, at least three new clandestine groups have promised to hunt down and murder criminals to help restore order. As in the killing of the alleged thief by Flores, such groups have been cheered on in public forums. “My sincerest congratulations to these brave men with their courage and determination,” wrote a reader of Mexican newspaper Milenio. “God help them with their noble cause.”

It is too early to say whether these self-proclaimed avengers will become a significant force in Mexico’s battle with crime. Some of them may simply be angry citizens sending out messages not backed by any action. Others could be fronts for drug gangs, who want to present themselves as public guardians while running their own criminal rackets. But whomever is really behind these particular groups, the growing demand for justice by any means necessary raises concerns about the security situation in Mexico if the government remains unable to suppress the crime wave.

The most widely publicized vigilante campaign has emerged across the Texas border in Ciudad Juarez, which has become Mexico’s deadliest city with 1,600 murders last year. A self-styled Juarez Citizens’ Command sent an e-mail to local media in January saying it will give the government until July 5 to restore order or execute one criminal a day. Signed by “Comandante Abraham,” the group claims it is financed by local businessmen, and includes university students, entrepreneurs and professionals in its ranks. It offers to cooperate with military intelligence and says it supports the government, but argues that the elected politicians have failed.A second shadowy group, called the Popular Anti-Drugs Army, materialized among farming towns in the southern state of Guerrero in November. Displaying blankets with written messages on bridges and buildings, the group claims to be made up of family men who have come to together to force drug dealers off the street. “We invite the people to join our struggle and defend our children who are the future of Mexico,” it said on one of the blankets. Unlike the Juarez group, the Guerrero “Army” has been linked to several killings, including the decapitation of an alleged drug dealer in December. Local press allege the group is commanded by a rancher whose children were targeted by the gangs.Sociologist Rene Jimenez notes that vigilante justice has already become a reality in several parts of the country. “The state is failing to keep control in certain areas so people take justice into their own hands,” he said. “This vigilantism shows that the conflict is entering a new phase. Violence will breed more violence.”
There are certainly some unfortunate precedents: Self-proclaimed anti-gang vigilantes became a key part of the civil war in Colombia, where they morphed into paramilitary armies with thousands of members. These groups fought leftist guerrillas and allied with the government to bring down major drug traffickers such as the notorious Pablo Escobar. Many of the paramilitary leaders later confessed they had funded their own activities by dealing drugs, but claimed they virtually stopped anti-social crime in areas under their control. Gustavo Duncan, who authored a book on the Colombian paramilitaries, says similar organizations could emerge in Mexico amid the breakdown in state authority. “While Mexico may not ever get as bad as Colombia, some of the factors are very similar,” Duncan notes. “When the state cannot keep control in certain areas, it leaves a vacuum for these type of organizations to step in and in many ways they become the state.”