Police are preparing another foray into the Vila Cruzeiro slum in a bid to oust the drug traffickers who control the area

Police are preparing another foray into the Vila Cruzeiro slum in a bid to oust the drug traffickers who control the area. The six-day assault has left 30 people dead and buses and cars have been torched in street fighting between police and drug traffickers.

Police claimed to have wrested control of the area from drug gangs but TV helicopters filmed scores of armed men fleeing up the surrounding hills into neighbouring districts.

It was not immediately clear if the police had definitively turfed the gangs out of Vila Cruzeira or if they had simply pushed them into other areas.

Fighting over the last few days has seen gangs torching 60 vehicles and firing at police with automatic weapons.

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MS-13 — a gang known for beheading its victims

Violent Hispanic Gang In Canada | ELLIOT LAKE News & Views: "Local Canadian police agencies are now fearing a surge in violence as MS-13 — a gang known for beheading its victims — starts clashing with rival street gangs."

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Toronto’s Galloway Boys, Malvern Crew, Ardwick Blood Crew and the Jamestown Crips.

Violent Hispanic Gang In Canada | ELLIOT LAKE News & Views: "Canada’s 100+ identified street gangs have worked their way into the public realm through high-profile arrests, or their own bloody acts of aggression, such as Toronto’s Galloway Boys, Malvern Crew, Ardwick Blood Crew and the Jamestown Crips.
Perhaps the most alarming of all, however, is the growing presence of the ‘Mara Salvatrucha,’ a gang whose parent group in the United States was recently labeled by Newsweek magazine as “the most dangerous gang in North America.”
Better known as the MS-13, the gang was originally formed in Los Angeles by young men fleeing civil strife in El Salvador."

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Gangster Disciples, Imperial Gangsters, Latin Kings and Vice Lords

Four main street gangs are found in the city, Racine Police Department spokesman Sgt. Martin Pavilonis said.
Those are the Gangster Disciples, Imperial Gangsters, Latin Kings and Vice Lords. He said other, smaller units exist within those groups.
It's true that most are connected to Chicago, Pavilonis said. The Gangster Disciples apparently are the exception; he said that gang came down from Milwaukee.

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Gardaí use seized bulletproof cars in gangland operations - The Irish Times - Wed, Oct 27, 2010

Gardaí use seized bulletproof cars in gangland operations - The Irish Times - Wed, Oct 27, 2010: "TWO BULLETPROOF BMWs seized from criminals are now being used as Garda cars, according to the annual report of the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab).
The Irish Times understands the emergency response unit has been using them in Limerick on high-risk gangland operations. The vehicles, a BMW X5 4X4 and a BMW 3 Series car, were registered to brothers Ger and Wayne Dundon, both members of a feuding Limerick gang. The vehicles are worth about €350,000.
Wayne Dundon has recently completed a sentence for threatening to kill a barman who refused to serve his 14-year-old sister in a pub. He is regarded as the leader of the McCarthy-Dundon gang.
It is understood that while the Cab had initially planned to sell the Dundons’ seized cars, concerns emerged as to who might buy them, given that they are bulletproof.
It was then decided the vehicles should be retained by the State as specialist Garda cars.
The Cab’s annual report also confirms that Irish criminals trying to evade the bureau are moving their wealth and assets offshore."

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Tip-off in gangland gun hunt - Herald Scotland | News | Crime & Courts

Tip-off in gangland gun hunt - Herald Scotland | News | Crime & Courts: "Police acting on a tip-off yesterday searched gardens in Edinburgh for a gun that may have been used in a gangland shooting last month.
About 50 Lothian and Borders Police officers scoured private gardens in the Broomhouse area for the gun, or guns, and drugs after intelligence indicated weapons were stashed there.
Controversial businessman Robert Kelbie, 27, was shot in the back in a suspected gangland hit at Bannatyne’s Health Club in Newcraighall, Edinburgh, last month.
Mr Kelbie discharged himself from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary the same day he was shot.
During yesterday’s hunt, police acting on information from the public stopped five men in a car in Broomhouse Loan at around 12.30pm and seized £1500 of heroin and valium.
Three men, aged 22, 36 and 27, have been arrested and charged with drugs offences and two others were being questioned by police."

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Jamaica: Four die in attacks linked to gangs - Scotsman.com News

Jamaica: Four die in attacks linked to gangs - Scotsman.com News: "Jamaican police said four men were killed and four seriously wounded in a gang-related incident.
Investigators said gunmen opened fire late on Saturday on a group of men playing cards at a house in Spanish Town, a southern Jamaican city where violent gangs battling for control over extortion and drug rings are deeply entrenched."

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Canal trawled as hunt for missing Kenny is linked to 'Guinea Pig' - National News, Frontpage - Herald.ie

Canal trawled as hunt for missing Kenny is linked to 'Guinea Pig' - National News, Frontpage - Herald.ie: "WATERWAY believed to be a dumping ground used by 'Canal Butcher' Mark Desmond has been trawled in the James Kenny McDonagh search.
The Garda Water Unit trawled the Grand Canal at Hazelhatch searching for suspected gangland murder victim Kenny McDonagh this week, following ground searches in the same area of west Dublin last week.
The same waterway is where Kenny McDonagh's enemy Desmond is suspected of dumping two men's bodies in 2000.
Gardai painstakingly searched an area of the canal at Hazelhatch last Tuesday -- a mile from where the missing man's burnt-out car was found.
Mark Desmond -- known by his gangland nickname 'Guinea Pig' -- is known to stay at a property in the nearby Celbridge area.
Officers from the Water Unit called off the search after it became apparent that no trace of the missing man was to be found. But more searches in the west of the city are planned."

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300 crowd border club after fleeing Zetas drug gang | World | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

300 crowd border club after fleeing drug gang | World | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "300 men, women and children from the colonial ranching town of Ciudad Mier, a 10-minute drive from Texas, have taken refuge in the Lion's Club in this small city on the Rio Grande — fleeing for their lives from the gangland killers called the Zetas.
The refugees deserted Mier en masse during the past week after Zetas attacked in force to wrest it back from rival thugs of the so-called Gulf Cartel narcotics smuggling organization. Businesses and houses were burned, refugees say, and innocents murdered. Government forces have not yet reacted, they say.
'Either the government doesn't want to act or they are waiting until the bands kill off one another,' said a refugee, who spoke on the condition his name not be used out of fear of the gunmen.
The Zetas began attacking Mier just hours after the killing by Mexican marines last Friday of Gulf Cartel boss Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen, known everywhere as Tony Tormenta, or Tony Storm. Officials on both sides of the border have warned that Tony Tormenta's demise is all but certain to unleash havoc as rivals fight to replace him.
Events in Ciudad Mier suggest that the already vicious conflict of the past nine months between the Zetas and Gulf Cartel, who were allies for more than a dozen years, seems ready to tip into scorched-earth war."

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El Ponchis, the sadistic executioner who is terrorising Mexico.... at the age of 12 | Mail Online

El Ponchis, the sadistic executioner who is terrorising Mexico.... at the age of 12 | Mail Online: "He works alongside a posse of women dubbed the Chavelas, who are responsible for dumping the bodies of his victims. Some of them are believed to be his sisters.A Mexican Army spokesman said: 'We understand El Ponchis works under the command of Julio Jesus Radilla. Sadistic: The hitman favours cutting his victim's throats'El Ponchis was identified as the paid executioner of Radilla's enemies.'These victims were tortured, their throats cut and bodies dumped at roadsides.'Gruesome videos of El Ponchis torturing and executing his enemies have been circulated online.His favoured technique is to slit the throats of his victims using a cutting technique which leaves the head hanging by a thread.The killer has also posed for photographs wielding a rifle and standing beside a body.El Ponchis works for the South Pacific Cartel (SPC) which operates in Morelos, Mexico, and is headed by Radilla.Most of its members are between 12 and 23. They are behind a number of brutal massacres and Radilla and El Ponchis reportedly escaped when the Mexican army raided an SPC base in the town of Tejalpa last month."

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