Latin Kings, Belizean Bloods, Two-Six Boys, Sureño 13s and Latin Dragons T transnational gangs remain a major problem in nearly every U.S. city

Latin Kings, Belizean Bloods, Two-Six Boys, Sureño 13s and Latin Dragons
T transnational gangs remain a major problem in nearly every U.S. city. Transnational gangs differ from traditional American street gangs in that their members are foreign born and absent family connections to the communities in which they reside.

Transnational gangs, like their indigenous American counterparts, are largely financed by the illicit drug trade. Based on law enforcement reports, the transnational gangs appear to be more violent toward competing gangs as well as innocent, ordinary citizens who may come into contact with them.

Interdiction of transnational gangs is the province of local police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Homeland Security Investigations. Both ICE and HSI are policing agencies within the U.S. Department Of Homeland Security.

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Original Gangster -- who says he lives by a code as timeless as the tattoo singed along his eyebrow.

When gang members “put some work in,” they go after rival gang bangers, the gang leader said.

They don't go after innocents.

The 34-year-old gang leader testified Tuesday that he was outraged when he learned that some younger members of his gang, 18th Street, may have been caught up in the robbery spree that left Luis Fernando-Silva and Tari Glinsmann dead and Omahan Charlie Denton wounded.

“My concern was that they took innocent people's lives,” he said. “It shouldn't have happened. That's not what we do.”

The old-school gang member's view of that vicious crime spree came as prosecutors transitioned their case from details of the deadly shooting spree to the three teens authorities allege committed those crimes.

Hands stuffed in his hooded sweatshirt, the gangster took the stand and said he is a member of 18th Street — a Los Angeles-based gang with offshoots in Omaha.

In November 2008, he said, he knew some of the younger members of the gang, including Eric “Scrappy” Ramirez, 17, and Edgar “Blackie” Cervantes, an 18-year-old who lived with the elder gangster.

He also knew a teenager he said was a member of a gang friendly to the 18th Street gang: Juan “Hectic” Castaneda. Castaneda, then 15, was a member of MBC, a gang alternately known as Melrose Boulevard Criminals and Must Be Crazy.

Shortly before midnight, Nov. 12, 2008, the gang leader said, Cervantes returned home with a message both veiled and not so veiled.

“We shot someone at 15th and Dorcas Streets,” Cervantes said, according to the gang leader. “Watch the news.”

He said he stayed up all night, waiting for the 5 a.m. news.

He said he was outraged by the images he saw on TV. Reports of three working people shot, of a murderous rampage from 15th and Dorcas Streets through two parts of Dundee.

A spree that went against their code.

The elder gang member said he confronted Cervantes.

“He said, ‘Scrappy went trigger happy,'” the gang leader recalled in court Tuesday.

He said he ordered Cervantes out of his house, in part because of his outrage and in part because he knew that Cervantes had been using his car.

He didn't want to get caught up in the mess, he said.

Cervantes eventually cooperated with authorities and told them what he told his gang leader — and more. He is expected to testify later in the trial.

Castaneda's attorney, Douglas County Public Defender Tom Riley, pressed the gang leader on what he said were varying statements to police.

Riley: “The detectives asked you some of the same questions that we're asking here, didn't they?”

The gang leader: “Yes.”

Riley: “It's just that some of the answers are different?”

The gang leader: “Always.”

Before the gang leader gave jurors a snapshot of gang life, prosecutors gave a glimpse of the last moments of the last victim, Tari Glinsmann.

During a break in the trial, Eugene Glinsmann described how much his wife had said his youngest daughter Tari took after him. Gentle demeanor. Ready laugh. Quick smile.

And he described something else: How much his stomach was churning at the thought of her death being replayed in court.

Dread gave way to reality Tuesday morning.

Two pictures went up on a courtroom screen, one after the other.

In the first photo, Glinsmann relaxed on a stoop in her home. Hair pulled back into a ponytail. Flip-flops on. Jeans rolled up her calves. A beaming smile.

In the second photo, the 27-year-old was on the ground, her body splayed next to her car in the Infinite Oil parking lot, 52nd and Leavenworth Streets.

The crime-scene photo captured other elements of what prosecutors described as an execution-style killing: A single, spent bullet in a puddle of blood near Glinsmann's body. The stocking cap that she had gone back into the convenience store to retrieve — only to be met by two robbers with a gun.

It was all Glinsmann's loved ones could take. Eugene Glinsmann cupped his chin in his palm and stared solemnly ahead.

Seated nearby, his oldest daughter, Patti Glinsmann, let out a muffled groan with each crime-scene photo of her little sister.

As an investigator described the photos, she folded her arms in front of her, lowered her chin and softly wept.

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Daquan Stevens —Â member of the street gang International Robbing Crew

Daquan Stevens —Â member of the street gang International Robbing Crew and one of several subjects of the June CL cover story "Gang Mentality" — pleaded guilty yesterday to two murders and a kidnapping. He received three life sentences on top of the 75 years he was already serving.

The murders that Stevens admitted to committing — the 2006 shooting death of Iraq veteran Ryan Harmon, and the 2005 suffocation and beating of business owner Mamadous Barry — were among IRC's more brutal and, certainly, more senseless crimes.

In a 2007 interview, Stevens told police Harmon's murder was carried out after a dispute over parking:


"Me and [fellow IRC member] Marciell [Easterling], one day we sitting in front of Magic City. [They] tried to charge him to park in front of the club. So I laugh. No harm in laughing. [Harmon] was like, 'What the fuck so funny?' I even took time out to explain myself to the man. 'Hey, look bro, it was nothing like that.' I turned back to look at Marciell, and I then turned back around. They done rolled the back window down — then pointed a pistol at me. Marciell got a gun on him. I grab him, tell him no. I pull off. [A couple of days later], me and Marciell seen him again and shot through the back of [Harmon's] truck. [We] went and put the gun up at the house, and that was it. Then we went to the club."
Stevens pumped 14 shots from an AK-47 into Harmon's vehicle, striking and killing him.

Barry was discovered dead in his bathtub in late 2005. He'd been badly beaten, and suffocated after plastic bags were duct taped about his face and head. Fellow IRC member Jeremy Dunn indicated to police witness Gary Lester that the gang had left Barry tied up in the bathroom and that he "must've starved to death." Lester's was the kidnapping Stevens pleaded guilty to. Members of IRC also attempted to suffocate Lester with plastic bag, but he escaped.

Stevens is currently serving his sentence at Hays State Prison

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Normand Marvin (Casper) Ouimet, a member of the gang’s Trois Rivières chapter who is also wanted in a case where he is alleged to have taken control

officers from several police forces arrested most of the 156 people named in an indictment that lists several serious charges including conspiracy, gangsterism and 22 counts of first-degree murder. The murders were carried out within the context of a bloody conflict over drug-trafficking turf between the Hells Angels and rival criminal organizations that stretched from 1994 to 2002, a period commonly referred to as the biker war.


At least 16 people named in Operation SharQc are still being sought, according to the Sûreté du Québec’s website.


That includes Normand Marvin (Casper) Ouimet, a member of the gang’s Trois Rivières chapter who is also wanted in a case where he is alleged to have taken control of masonry companies to launder money.


Included among the nine men who began their bail hearing are Normand (Billy) Labelle, 55; Michel (Sky) Langlois, 64; Yves (Flag) Gagné, 59; Bertrand Joyal, 53; and Marc-André Hotte, 38.


All five are alleged to be full-patch members of the gang. Superior Court Justice James Brunton placed a publication ban on all evidence that will be presented over the next two weeks.


Despite the very serious charges involved, being granted a release in Operation SharQc is not an impossible task. Earlier this year, the Quebec Court of Appeal supported a decision Brunton made in August 2009 where he granted the release of six men. At least 16 people in all have been released while they await a possible trial so far.


Specific trial dates have yet to be set, but most of the people charged are expected to return to court in December.



Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Nine+charged+Operation+SharQc+seek+release/3550776/story.html#ixzz10RoMTABF

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The Pagans,It's a gang no different than the Bloods or the Crips or any gang,

arrest that netted four local members of the Pagans motorcycle gang in a far-ranging murder and racketeering conspiracy to deal cocaine and kill members of the rival Hells Angels was out of the ordinary for the area, police say.

Motorcycle gangs with reputations for violence and drug dealing, such as the Pagans, Hells Angels and Outlaws, can be found at parties and biker bars in the Catskills and Hudson Valley, but the groups have largely coexisted without problems.

This doesn't mean that the police don't characterize these groups as "anti-social" and suspect some members of crimes, such as distributing narcotics.

"Some are violent," said state police Senior Investigator Mike Orrego, who is assigned to the state police's barracks in Liberty: "Some have a nose for making money. You can't go by the assumption that they are a couple of idiots on bikes. "» They have far-reaching tentacles that reach out to all communities."

Last week, the feds nabbed 17 members of the Pagans after a 21-month probe on charges of murder conspiracy, racketeering, extortion, witness tampering, drug distribution and firearms offenses.

Among those arrested were Tracy Lahey, 33, of Swan Lake; Douglas "Doc" Youmans, 49, and Robert "Comanche" Santiago, 40, both of Ellenville; and Walter Tarrats, 40, of Sussex, N.J. Along with Long Island and Trenton, N.J., members, they're accused of plotting to kill members of Hells Angels and affiliated clubs using grenades, and distributing cocaine, oxycodone and methamphetamines, among other charges.

In the news release, the feds called Lahey and Youmans "ranking members of Pagans chapters based in Sullivan County." Federal authorities wouldn't comment further.

Numerous Hudson Valley biker groups have friends in the Hells Angels and join events and party together, according to one source in the biker community. The Pagans, who don't get along with the Hells Angels, keep to themselves and hang in Sullivan.

Local police couldn't pinpoint how many hard-core biker gangs operate locally. The groups, by most accounts, aren't well organized and have remained quiet.

"Every once in a while you have a bar fight but when you get there nobody knows anything," Sullivan County Undersheriff Eric Chaboty said.

The Department of Justice estimates the entire national membership of the Pagans gang at 300-350 members operating mostly along the East Coast, with headquarters in Delaware County, Pa.

"It's a gang no different than the Bloods or the Crips or any gang," said Capt. Dennis Barry of the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

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10 Comanchero bikers to stand trial for murder. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Ten bikers will go on trial for murder after a vicious brawl between rival gangs at a Sydney airport resulted in a man being bludgeoned with a metal pole and stabbed to death with a knife and scissors, a court said Thursday.

A chance meeting between members of the rival Hells Angels and Comanchero gangs on a flight led to cell phone calls for reinforcements when the plane landed.

Hells Angel Anthony Zervas, 29, died after being struck and stabbed when a fight broke out in front of stunned onlookers at a domestic airport in Australia's main city on March 22, 2009. The battle began at an arrival gate and rolled through the airport to a Qantas Airways check-in desk where Zervas died.

A preliminary court hearing ended on Thursday with Sydney magistrate John Favretto ordering 10 Comanchero bikers to stand trial for murder. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

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suspected drug hitmen killed the mayor of a town outside Mexico's northern business city of Monterrey

7 people were killed in a drug gangs shootout in Mexican resort city of Acapulco, according to local authorities.

The Associated Press reports that Guerrero state investigative police director Fernando Monreal said gunmen used grenades and automatic rifles to attack a house in a residential area of Acapulco on Thursday.

The state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, has become a drug cartel battleground.

Mexican police source also said that suspected drug hitmen killed the mayor of a town outside Mexico's northern business city of Monterrey Thursday. He was the fourth public official slain in little over a month.

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“Operation Blood Trail” alleged that gang-affiliated dealers shipped tens of thousands of dollars worth of drugs every month

Forty-one members and affiliates of the Bloods street gang shipped cocaine, heroin and marijuana from Long Island and Brooklyn to upstate New York where the drugs were was sold in a massive distribution ring, state attorney general’s office said Wednesday.



A Long Islander holds bundled decks of heroin in her hands.
The suspects were rounded up Wednesday after being indicted on corruption and drug dealing charges following a seven-month investigation by New York’s Organized Crime Task Force, which used wiretaps, covert surveillance and undercover agents. Most of those accused are from Albany but many are originally from Long Island, according to a spokesman for the attorney general.

“Operation Blood Trail” alleged that gang-affiliated dealers shipped tens of thousands of dollars worth of drugs every month to Albany’s South End, Arbor Hill, Clifton Park, Lake George, Watervliet, Schenectady, Troy, and Cohoes.

The lone suspect to still reside on Long Island, 32-year-old Ronald “Nino” Wright, who allegedly ordered a hit on co-defendant Myles “Busy” Jackson, reputed leader of the Albany-based G-Shine faction of the gang, in an attempted coup, prosecutors said. Jackson survived the shooting.

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