300 people have been arrested in a two-month crackdown on drug houses. Police carried out 301 search warrants as part of Operation Localise, a nationally coordinated operation focusing on "tinnie houses" - those where cannabis is sold. They made 311 arrests, seized 32.2kg of cannabis and 139g of methamphetamine. Cannabis was found growing at 44 locations, with 2657 plants and seedlings seized. Officers also seized $111,154 in cash, 19 firearms and ammunition. A wide range of charges have been laid, including conspiracy to supply class A, B and C drugs, manufacturing methamphetamine, participating in an organised criminal group, unlawful possession of a firearm and threat to kill. "This was a sustained programme of enforcement to combat drugs and disrupt organised crime groups" said Assistant Commissioner Malcolm Burgess. "Tinnie houses are hubs for criminal offending. The people who run them are often not only dealing cannabis, but also methamphetamine. They invariably receive stolen property, take payments for drugs and are involved in organised crime groups. "Such houses cause misery in communities and we are sending a clear message that they won't be tolerated. "We will continue to protect our communities from the harm caused by drug dealers and stamp out the anti-social behaviour they create." Police are trying to seize assets from 47 of those arrested. They will have to prove they are not the proceeds of criminal activity. Mr Burgess said he was confident the operation had caused "significant disruption" to drug dealing and warned dealers they would continue to be the subject of close police attention.

drugs gang responsible for smuggling cocaine with a street value of up to £40m into the UK has been convicted at the High Court in Glasgow. They were involved in importing the drugs from Spain between 2007 and 2009. The ringleaders were Keith Blenkinsop, of Annan, and Lindsay Harkins from Helensburgh. Three men who acted as mules - Andrew Burns, of Helensburgh; Robert Dalrymple, of Gretna; and James Elvin, from Clydebank - were also convicted. The cocaine was concealed inside suitcases and holdalls flown by couriers into Prestwick, Glasgow and Newcastle airports. The court heard how the drugs were concealed beneath a false bottom sewn into suitcases The court heard how the operation came to an end when one of the gang's couriers, David Harbinson, 41, of Annan, was caught with some counterfeit £20 notes and blurted out details of the drugs scheme to police. A teller at a Marks and Spencer bureau de change in Carlisle noticed the currency among a bundle of sterling he wanted to convert to euros. Mr Harbinson subsequently gave evidence against his former associates and has now been placed on a witness protection programme. He told advocate depute Iain McSporran, prosecuting, that the gang had a direct connection to Colombian drug barons. He said Blenkinsop and Harkins were the brains behind the operation while the other accused were couriers paid to take euros to Spain and bring back drugs. In fact, the gang exchanged so much sterling into euros that Blenkinsop's local post office won an award for the amount of euros it sold. The jury was told they sourced their cocaine from Colombians based in Barcelona and transferred it to Harkins' house in the Spanish city. Harkins, a former upholsterer, would then put the drugs inside a suitcase and sew in a false bottom. The cocaine brought in by the gang was mostly destined for the Glasgow area, although some of it was also sold in Dumfries. Refuted claims Mr Harbinson also gave the court a detailed breakdown of how he was approached to become a courier and the payments made to transport the drugs. All of the accused claimed that he was a liar and a self-confessed cocaine addict and said that nobody would have used him as a drugs courier. After a five-week trial Blenkinsop, 43, of Winterhope Road, Annan; Harkins, 44, of West Princes Street, Helensburgh; Burns, 56, of Old Luss Road, Helensburgh; Dalrymple, 43, of Loanwath Road, Gretna; and Elvin, 35, of Garscadden View, Clydebank, were all convicted of being concerned in the supply of cocaine in Scotland, England and Spain. Blenkinsop was also convicted of being involved in the supply of cannabis and amphetamines while Harkins was found guilty of supplying amphetamines. Dalrymple and Elvin were only convicted of being involved in the drugs operation as couriers in 2009.

Mexican military helicopters have been flying over Texas, a staging ground for missions into Mexico to fight drug traffickers, a Mexican official said. The San Antonio Express-News reports Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. said as many as 10 of the Mexican helicopters have been spotted flying over south Texas in daylight during the past 17 months. U.S. Federal and state agencies would not elaborate on the missions, the newspaper said. But a Mexican official with knowledge of the flights said, "Yes, I can tell you they exist, they are going on -- certainly for the last couple of years." Most of the helicopters have been sighted near Falcon Lake, where Mexican authorities are battling the Zetas cartel, the Express-News said. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, who represents part of Harris County and is chairman of the Homeland Security Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, would not confirm details about the flights. "It is a highly sensitive, coordinated effort to take out the cartels that has been effective," McCaul said. "Beyond that, I don't want to compromise the operations or the safety of our agents." Catherine Frazier, deputy press secretary for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, said state law enforcement officials are not told in advance of the flights. "Failure to do so stirs up unnecessary concern among local people and could result in situations of mistaken identity or friendly fire, putting our peace officers and citizens in harm's way," she said.

In September 2008, 11 decapitated bodies were discovered in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. When police arrested the killers, they found an altar in their home dedicated to Santa Muerte – the patron saint of death for Mexican drug cartels. One year later, an illegal immigrant called Jorge Flores Rojas was arrested in North Carolina for running a sex ring. He, too, had built a shrine in his east Charlotte apartment to Santa Muerte. Flores forced his girls to have sex with as many as 20 men a day while he knelt in his living room praying to the skeletal figure of death. In August 2011, the Mexican army stumbled upon a tunnel that ran right under the US border for 300 metres. It was six feet high and equipped with lights and ventilation. It also housed – you guessed it – an altar to Santa Muerte. Europeans complain mightily that Muslim immigration has introduced fundamentalism to their secular continent. Yet they tend to look upon Middle America’s fear of illegal Hispanic immigration with contempt, as if its paranoia was motivated entirely by racism. Reporting on new legislation designed to drive illegal immigrants out of the Deep South, The Guardian’s Paul Harris writes that it heralds, “The prospect of a new Jim Crow era – the time when segregation was law – across a vast swath of the old Confederacy. [The legislation] will ostracise and terrorise a vulnerable Hispanic minority with few legal rights.” Indeed it will, and that is a tragedy. But the debate about illegal immigration isn’t just about competition over jobs or lingering white racism. Many Americans share the European fear that mass migration is subverting their democratic culture from within. In the same way that exotic cells of Jihadists have established themselves in London and Paris, criminal gangs motivated by bloodlust and kinky spiritualism have been found living in the suburbs of Boston and Atlanta. One of its many manifestations is the cult of Santa Meurte. Santa Muerte is part Virgin Mary, part folk demon. The image of a cloaked saint wielding a scythe is supposed to offer those who venerate it spiritual protection. Offerings come in the form of flowers, alcohol, sweets and tobacco. Contraband can be used to invoke protection from the police. For the poor of Mexico – a nation torn between extremes of wealth and injustice – Santa Muerte is a very pragmatic saint. Like the gang leaders who offer hard cash in return for allegiance, she provides material blessings that the Catholic Church can no longer afford to bestow. Tens of thousands of Mexicans living in America venerate Santa Muerte and have no association with crime. Nor is the cult purely ethnic: in North California, the Santisima Muerte Chapel of Perpetual Pilgrimage is tended by a woman of Dutch-American descent. But the prevalence of Santa Muerte imagery among drug traffickers injects an interesting cultural dimension to the debate over illegal immigration. It accentuates American fears that the drug war in Mexico is turning into an invasion of the USA by antidemocratic fanatics. The Mexican conflict has claimed 35,000 lives since it began in 2006. Recently, the violence has spilled over the border and spread throughout the US along narcotics routes that stretch from Arizona to New York. The warring cartels are bound by a perverse ideology, with Santa Muerte as a unifying icon that terrifies opponents into submission. The gang known as Los Zetas marks its territory by mounting severed heads on poles or hanging dead bodies from bridges. Its members are family men who regularly go to church. A splinter group, called La Familia, is fronted by a fellow called El Mas Loco (The Craziest One). Loco has published his own bible, a confused mix of peasant Marxism and passages culled from American self-help books. The goal of these groups is to undermine democracy and govern autonomous secret societies through family, blood and religion. It’s a global trend. The Lord’s Resistance Army that slaughtered and raped its way across Uganda from 1987 to 2007 was led by a man who claimed to channel the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the culprit behind this apocalyptic criminality was the death of Communism, which deprived thugs and thieves of a secular ideology to justify their actions. Organisations like FARC and Real IRA converted overnight to pushing drugs. But in Mexico, family and religion filled the vacuum left by the failure of socialism. Whatever its origins, the spread of the cult of Santa Muerde reflects the fact that the debate over immigration in the US is about more than economics. Sadly, Mexicans seeking work get caught in this existential drama and are either swallowed up into the gangs or demonised in the US for crimes they have not committed. Nevertheless, Americans of every ethnicity are legitimately concerned about their country being poisoned by a criminal subculture that blends political corruption with ritualised murder. Europeans should not be so quick to judge their transatlantic friends. Americans face a vicious threat of their own.

Authorities in Panama say they have broken up a major cocaine trafficking organization that moved drugs from Colombia to Panama and then north to Mexico and the United States. Panama's Drug Prosecutor Javier Caraballo says 80 Panamanians and Colombians were arrested Monday in simultaneous raids across the Central American country. Caraballo says the group moved at least 18 tons of cocaine in the last two years mainly through the Caribbean and was led by alleged Colombian drug trafficker Jorge Indalecio Marmolejo. Caraballo said Tuesday the group distributed cocaine from gangs linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Drug gangs are increasingly using Central America to ship drugs and launder money.

Joshua Leo Johnson, vice-president of the Sonoma County Hells Angels, surrendered to Lake County authorities in connection with the beating of a rival gang member and a companion at Konocti Vista Casino in June, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office. Johnson, 35, an iron worker, remains in jail pending a hearing on his $500,000 bail, officials said Tuesday. Two other Hells Angels — Nicolas Felipe Carillo, 32, and Timothy Robert Bianchi, 33 — were arrested during a warrant sweep in Santa Rosa and Petaluma last week, authorities said. A fourth suspect, David Dabbs 32, remains at large. Dabbs also is being sought on a San Diego no-bail warrant for alleging kidnap and torture, according to the Lake County Sheriff's Office. The suspects are charged in the vicious beating of Michael Burns, 39, a rival motorcycle gang member, and Kristopher Perkin, 48, during a tattoo convention at the casino. Perkin was not seriously injured.

key witness in a case against a Hell's Angels member accused on drug and gun charges is missing along with two other men, raising the suspicions of relatives and authorities in a western Massachusetts town. Police say 44-year-old David Glasser, 58-year-old Edward Frampton and 47-year-old Robert Chadwell, haven't made any banking or credit card transactions and haven't been in contact with family members since they vanished more than a week ago. The men shared an apartment in Pittsfield. "Three people, all in the same house, missing — yeah, something happened, something tragic," Les Chadwell, brother of Robert Chadwell, told The Berkshire Eagle newspaper. "We'll never hear from them again, and you can quote me on that." Glasser was expected to testify this month in the robbery, assault and kidnapping trial of Adam Lee Hall, the reputed sergeant at arms of the Berkshire County chapter of the Hells Angels. Hall has pleaded not guilty in Berkshire Superior Court to a host of charges including kidnapping, assault, witness intimidation, extortion, cocaine distribution and weapons crimes. He had been free on bail but was arrested Sunday on extortion and child pornography charges alleging he got someone to text him inappropriate photos of a 16-year-old girl. Hall was arraigned on the new charges Tuesday in the Berkshire court. A judge ordered him held on $1 million bail, and his case resumes Oct. 3. He still is scheduled to go on trial on the other charges Sept. 19. Authorities said the criminal cases against Hall stems from a dispute he had with Glasser. They said Hall believed Glasser stole an automobile part from him in 2009, so he retaliated by threatening Glasser, beating him with a baseball bat and forcing Glasser to turn over his car to him. Hall later tried to frame Glasser, hoping it would stop Glasser from testifying against him about those allegations, authorities said. They said Hall got a woman he knows to falsely accuse Glasser of robbing her at gunpoint. Glasser was cleared of any wrongdoing. William Rota, Hall's attorney, said his client denies all the allegations and looks forward to his trial. He said he doesn't know what to make of Glasser and his two roommates all missing at the same time. "I would not be surprised with the authorities to suspect (Hall's involvement), but I have no reason to suspect that it's true," he said. Pittsfield police Capt. Patrick Barry said the men have been missing since the night of Aug. 27 or early the following morning — the weekend that Tropical Storm Irene hit New England. They were last seen at their apartment, he said. Barry and Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless would not comment on any possible ties between Hall and the disappearance of the men, but they said they can't rule out foul play. "It's now well past a week, and other information we have indicates that this was not just a matter of them leaving for parts unknown," Capeless told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He declined to elaborate.

gang member recruited in a murder-for-hire conspiracy was sentenced to death Thursday for killing a man who was set to inherit a family-run business in Rancho Dominguez, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office. Armando Macias, 35, of Lancaster was found guilty by a jury in April of one felony count of special circumstances murder with an allegation of murder for financial gain in the slaying of 44-year-old David Montemayor, the prosecutor's office said. Macias, who is the fifth defendant to be sentenced in connection with Montemayor’s murder since 2006, was also found guilty of kidnapping to commit robbery, possession of a firearm by a felon, street terrorism, attempted murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, officials said. Macias, who has a prior strike conviction for voluntary manslaughter in 1993, also was slapped with several sentencing enhancements in connection with Montemayor’s murder. Prosecutors allege that in 2002, Montemayor’s sister Deborah Perna, 54, of Anaheim and her co-worker Edelmira Corona, 34, of Pico Rivera solicited the help of 44-year-old gang member Anthony Navarro of Canyon Country to kill Montemayor. Perna was jealous that her father intended to pass control of the family company to her brother, who she believed was stealing from the business, prosecutors said. Navarro recruited gang members Gerardo Lopez, 26, of Pacoima, Alberto Martinez, 33, of Castaic, and Macias in a kidnap-and-murder-for-hire scheme, prosecutors said. On Oct. 2, 2002, the men kidnapped Montemayor, a father of three, at the family business in Rancho Dominguez and headed to the victim’s home in Buena Park, where they were told he kept thousands of dollars in cash, prosecutors said. On the way, Montemayor, who only had one arm, managed to escape the car. But Macias shot him in the head as he fled, prosecutors said. Lopez also fired at Montemayor before the gang members raced off in their car, triggering a police car chase, authorities said. Police eventually stopped the vehicle and arrested Macias, Lopez and Martinez. Both Navarro and Martinez have been earlier sentenced to death for their role in Montemayor’s murder. Lopez, the other gang member, and Perna, the victim’s sister, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to information from the district attorney's office. Corona, the co-worker, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 18. She faces a maximum of 22 years in prison, officials said.

Six members of the Texas Syndicate prison gang — including its Rio Grande Valley leader — were sentenced to serve time in federal prison for several charges including racketeering, kidnapping and drug charges. Chief U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa on Monday sentenced 40-year-old Jose Ismael Salas, the gang’s regional head, to 20 years in prison for drug and racketeering offenses, court records show. Salas originally pleaded guilty April 2, 2009, to two separate charges of possession with intent to distribute 6 kilograms of cocaine on Aug. 12, 2004, and a similar charge for 39 kilograms of marijuana on March 28, 2003. The charge alleged that the intent of the possession of the drugs was to further the goals of the criminal organization. Among the five other Texas Syndicate members who were sentenced was Fidel Valle, 45, who received a sentence of 10 years and six months in prison. Valle was described as the drug supplier for the organization. He entered a guilty plea July 28, 2009, to the charge of possession with intent to distribute 6 kilograms of cocaine. Court records show that Aug. 12, 2004, after speaking with Salas, Valle tried to sell the cocaine to other Texas Syndicate members but was stopped by authorities during a traffic stop. Also sentenced was Romeo Rosales, 41, who received 12 years and seven months in prison for the kidnapping of Amancio Pinales, who was abducted and eventually gunned down in Mexico on Aug. 12, 2004. Noel De Los Santos, 33, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the March 20, 2003, murder of fellow gang member Crisantos Moran. According to information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Moran had been ordered to kill a rival gang member from Peñitas, but after arriving there with De Los Santos and another member named Jose Armando Garcia, he failed to carry out the killing and was slain instead. Earlier this year, Garcia was given a life sentence. Two other Syndicate members were sentenced for a separate murder connected to the organization. Cristobal Hernandez, 31, and Arturo Rodriguez were sentenced to 10 and 20 years, respectively, for the murder of Marcelino Rodriguez in June 2007. The two men had aided a third man known as Raul Galindo, who shot Rodriguez in the back of the head. The two men then set the vehicle containing his body on fire. Rodriguez had been named in a sealed court document that had been provided to them by an employee at a law firm that was defending Rodriguez. The Texas Syndicate had sanctioned the death of Rodriguez.

These troubling deaths are just a portion of Winnipeg’s climbing homicide cases this year. As of Thursday, Winnipeg has 29 homicides recorded, well above last year’s total of 22. Winnipeg’s deadliest year on record was 2004 when there was 34. “The numbers are a lot higher than we would like to see,” said Const. Jason Michalyshen, Winnipeg police spokesman. “It’s concerning to us, and it should be concerning to everyone.” The latest victim is Joseph Lalonde, 48, who was brutally beaten with a baseball bat. Two 15-year-old boys were charged with second-degree murder. A total of 10 youths have been charged in connection to the 2011 deaths. Michalyshen said it’s been a challenging year. “Our resources have been very busy making sure no stone is unturned, making sure that these investigations are investigated thoroughly, and arrests are made,” he said. Three cases are unsolved — Cara Lynn Hiebert, 31, was found dead in her home on Redwood Avenue on July 19; Baljinder Singh Sidhu, 27, was stabbed to death during a brawl on Osborne Street on Aug. 5; and 24-year-old April Hornbrook was found dead outside a building on Main Street on Aug. 27. Many violent crimes continue to occur in Winnipeg’s North End, a concerning stat for Coun. Harvey Smith (Daniel McIntyre). “The communities have to be working together and you don’t really have enough of that in the North End,” Smith said. “You have to have recreational activities, and ... I tend to think we should get more support for Citizens on Patrol.” Edmonton has the most homicides in Canada, with 34. Calgary has just three. “We’re very fortunate right now, but that could change before the end of the year,” said Calgary police Insp. Cliff O’Brien, who works in that city’s major crimes unit. O’Brien said there’s “no magical answer” for why the numbers are so low, but gave credit to the good work of officers and medical staff. Calgary police has a gang suppression team, who monitor entertainment districts, targeting known gang or organized crime members. “We have legislation here where we can kick people out if we can prove they’re associated with a gang,” he said. “That has helped us a lot.” O’Brien admits there’s a certain “element of luck.” “We’ve had those high rates before and I know that we will have those high rates again.”

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.

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.

Two drug traffickers were killed and 22,200 methamphetamine pills seized late on Sunday night in a clash with a combined force of police and para-military rangers of the Pha Muang Force in Thoeng district of Chiang Rai province, police said. Pol Maj-Gen Songtham Alapach, the Chiang Rai police chief, said the combined police-ranger force laid in wait near Rom Pho Thong village in tambon Tap Tao of Thoeng district between kilometre markers 56-57 on the road to Phu Chi Fa mountain near the Thai-Lao border after learning that a drug gang would transport speed pills across the border from Laos. Late in the night, the combined force spotted five men carrying backpacks and AK47 rifles walking down from the mountain and ordered them to stop for a search. The smugglers opened fire and a 10 minute gunfight followed. After the clash, the police and rangers examined the area and found the bodies of two men who were killed in the fight.  One of them was identified as Laopho sae Wang, 50, a villager of Rom Pho Thong village, and the other was an unidentified Hmong from neighbouring Laos. The three other smugglers fled back across the border. A backpack containing 22,200 methamphetamine pills and a 9mm pistol were also found at the scene.

Police and federal agents swept through several suburban homes Tuesday, arresting members of the "Almighty Gaylords" street gang following an 18-month undercover investigation into allegations of drug dealing, gun trafficking and violent intimidation. Nine alleged members of the gang were charged with federal gun crimes, including selling an AK-47 assault rifle, and six others were charged with state drug and gang crimes, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Topics Juvenile Delinquency Crimes Gang Activity See more topics » Beginning in 2009, an informant inside the gang recorded conversations with gang members and bought guns and set up drug deals under the surveillance of investigators, led by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, authorities said. Once violent players in Chicago's decades-long neighborhood battles over integration, not much has been heard from the Gaylords since the 1970s. But the investigation, which involved ATF, Cook County sheriff's police and the Addison Police Department, lifts the curtain on the remnants of a gang that followed the white-flight path to the suburbs over the years. A secretive, somewhat ragtag network, the Gaylords in the western suburbs are often described as the "Gray Lords," a handful of middle-age men nostalgic over their youth spent brawling with Hispanics in the city's ethnic neighborhoods. "The Gaylords never were an especially organized gang, and gang life meant mainly drugs, alcohol, racism and fighting," said gang expert John Hagedorn, who teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Having interviewed gang members over the years, he said they were "more of a model for racist, white youth than for an organized criminal entity." Investigators say the case shows a more serious threat. Other members were charged in a 2010 shooting, which the investigation revealed may have been related to internal gang strife. And the informant told investigators that gang members claimed the Gaylords carried out the 2009 murder of a North Side bar owner. Charged Tuesday were the alleged leader of the Addison faction of the gang, James Grace, 40, as well as Edward Rand, 46, and Daniel Springhorn, who allegedly supplied the gang with guns he purchased at Wisconsin gun shows. Springhorn, 56, known as "Stone Greaser," lives in Sharon, Wis., and Rand lives in far north-suburban Antioch. Other members arrested Tuesday live in Lombard, Villa Park and Elmhurst. The federal defendants are charged only with gun trafficking crimes, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Three alleged members, including Grace's brother, Wayne Grace, were charged with felony drug crimes in DuPage County, according to the DuPage County state's attorney's office. Another three individuals were charged with associating with gang members, a misdemeanor. The case took shape when a longtime member who wanted out of the gang became a police informant. While many of the gang members, like James Grace, are unemployed ex-cons, some have strong ties to law enforcement. Alleged gang members identified by the investigation include a Cook County sheriff's deputy, an Elmwood Park auxiliary police officer, a Michigan corrections officer and the son of a former suburban police chief, according to law enforcement sources. None of the law enforcement officers associated with the gang have been charged in the case. Much of the gang's gun supply came from Wisconsin. At Springhorn's rural home, agents discovered a cache of guns that included assault rifles. Investigators found that Springhorn and Rand, who is prohibited from possessing firearms because he is a convicted felon, regularly bought weapons at gun shows in Wisconsin

on Aug. 14, when a group of teenage Norteño gang members pulled out a gun and shot two rival Sureños on a quiet residential street in broad daylight. Fear prompted Luis' mother, Teresa Mendez, to bring him and his sister Noela to a community meeting Tuesday night, which was organized by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office in the wake of the shooting. "I want to know how to prevent situations like this," said Mendez, who believes there are gang members on her son's youth soccer team. Luis has told her he knows kids in his class who have already become Norteños and Sureños like their older brothers or cousins. But she didn't know her son had been offered drugs until a reporter asked him about it. It was at the Pillar Ridge mobile home community, a known gang hotspot, Luis said. "They were, like, 15 or 16," he said. "They told me they had some extra if I wanted it." More than 300 Coastsiders packed into a meeting room Tuesday for a series of Advertisement presentations that amounted to a master class on gang warfare. Locals were shocked to learn that Half Moon Bay is immersed in an all-out coastal battle between Norteños and Sureños, who have been threatening each other for months with coded graffiti in plain sight. One recent tagger painted the number "187," a reference to the California Penal Code section on murder. Retaliation is now a major concern and the Sheriff's Office has beefed up patrols. "It's a war that's going to be going on for some time, but it's a war that's worth fighting," Sheriff Greg Munks said. Officers have arrested four suspects: 21-year-old Christian Serrano DeLeon, who police believe is the gunman; Mason Paul Wessel, 19; Marco Antonio Barajas, 18; and a 17-year-old resident of Moss Beach. But even arresting every gang member in town won't make the problem disappear, officials acknowledge. They need the community's help to address the deeper crisis that's taken root when young people grow up together, go to the same schools, and end up joining rival gangs. Older gang members reach out to younger kids in middle school and offer them acceptance and a seductive feeling of power and belonging in the most vulnerable period in their young lives, according to sheriff's Deputy Mike Smyser. "They don't have much money. You can take a kid into town and buy him a cheeseburger, and you've got a friend," Smyser said. Meanwhile, their parents (mostly first-generation farmworkers) are often too distracted catch the warning signs before it's too late. They work long hours and don't notice changes in their children, Mendez said. "Latinos, we have to work a lot, but we don't really pay attention to the kids. We leave them around too much," she said. Smyser has spent 10 years tracking gang activity and juvenile crime as a school resource officer on the San Mateo County coast. He said the shooting was a major wake-up call. "I've seen fights with fists and fights with sticks. But I've never seen fights with guns," he said. Smyser has counted about 50 Norteños and 40 Sureños on the coast, two rival Mexican-American gangs that originated in the California prison system. They go by local names like Media Luna Norteños, Coastside Locos, and neighborhood-specific gangs like Moonridge Outlaws. Those numbers are modest as compared with gang sets in East Palo Alto or Redwood City, according to the Sheriff's Office, which estimates 2,000 confirmed gang members in San Mateo County affiliated with more than 50 gangs. In a small town like Half Moon Bay, it's not a mystery who's in a gang or where they congregate, said Smyser. A quick search on YouTube for one local gang turns up a video filled with youthful Norteños flashing gang signs, drinking beer and showing off their Half Moon Bay gang tattoos. By the time they reach high school, kids are already sporting gang colors: red for Norteños, blue for Sureños. Drug dealers wear purple. Half Moon Bay High School counselor Kira Gangsei said she's worked with many gang members to turn their lives around -- but it's not easy. "They don't care about school as much. Getting involved with drugs, selling drugs -- once that happens, it's harder to get them back on track," she said. The high school uses a number of classes, workshops and nonprofit programs to teach students about the dangers of gang life, drinking and unhealthy relationships. Many are led by former gang members. Now it's the community's turn. The shooting has already prompted neighborhoods to come together and form Community Watch groups, and locals have volunteered to paint over graffiti and mentor youth with the Sheriff's Activities League. "I'm not going anywhere. If it has to be me standing my ground, then yes, I'll embrace it," said Brett Bowers, a father of two who lives in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred.

One man believed to be from Northern Ireland and two from the Irish Republic were among 13 people arrested as part of a major drugs haul in Ibiza. A total of 4,000g of cocaine was seized along with 3,600 ecstasy pills and 5,000g of crystal meth after eight properties were searched. Also recovered were 69,000 euros, along with some cannabis and anabolic steroids. It is understood the man from Northern Ireland is 30 and from County Antrim. The latest drugs haul is part of a wider operation by the Guardia Civil which has seen 73 people arrested and 30 properties searched. 'Large demand' The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said the majority of the pills which have been seized are known as Pink Rock Star and are similar to those believed to have poisoned eight people in Ibiza in July. It said those detained are "members of one of the most active gangs on Ibiza which is the main supplier of cocaine and other designer drugs". A Soca spokesman said enquiries were carried out on the basis of intelligence obtained by the Guardia Civil after other gangs involved in drug trafficking on the island were dismantled. It said the "majority of these gangs were British and took advantage of the influx of young people during the summer". It added that enquiries found that the gang, which is now dismantled, only travelled to Ibiza in summer to "meet the large demand for drugs on the island during this period". Nine of the other men arrested were British nationals. One of the men was a Polish national.

Four drug dealers and a money launderer have been jailed for a total of 16 years and three months. The men were arrested and put before the courts as part of Operation Parrot, a large-scale investigation carried out by Lancashire Constabulary's Serious and Organised Crime Unit (SOCU.) Appearing before Liverpool Crown Court, Mikki Wills, 22, of Belvedere Gardens, Stockport, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and was jailed for four years. Jamie Halsall, 28, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine and possession with intent to supply heroin and was jailed for six years. Darren Simmonite, 49, of Sackville Road, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis and was jailed for three years. Terrence Harrison, 54, of Sandstone Road, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis and was jailed for two years and three months. David Place, 41, of Tulketh Road, Ashton, pleaded guilty to money laundering and was jailed for one year. DI Simon Brooksbank, of SOCU, said: "This was a large scale organised crime gang who were based in Preston but who were also operating throughout Lancashire, Manchester and areas of Yorkshire. "They were a sophisticated group who attempted to frustrate police investigations with their advanced use of telephony systems, while laundering their money in a bid to hide the profits. This ultimately proved unsuccessful and they are now behind bars. "I am pleased with these sentences, which will go towards restricting the supply of drugs onto the streets of Preston." Operation Parrot was aimed at smashing a drugs ring which had been operating across Preston, with a supply chain that reached out into Stockport, Sheffield and West Yorkshire. The covert policing operation was carried out between 2009 - 2010, culminating in a series of raids being executed in November which resulted in the arrest of seven people. During the course of the investigation, officers seized significant amounts of cannabis, cocaine and heroin, with a total street value of over £350,000, along with substantial amounts of cash.

TAIWAN police say they've busted a drug smuggling ring responsible for transporting $66.06 million worth of narcotics to Australia, New Zealand and Japan. A total of nine suspects have been arrested, including the suspected leader of the ring, 40-year-old Fan Chu-lin, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said on Monday. "This is definitely one of the largest smuggling rings to be uncovered in many years," bureau official Yang Ming-chang said. Over a 10-year period, the group allegedly smuggled hundreds of kilograms of ecstasy and amphetamines from Hong Kong and China to Japan, New Zealand and Australia. It also smuggled large amounts of marijuana from Thailand and Holland into Taiwan. According to preliminary estimates, the drugs smuggled by the group over the 10-year period totalled at least $65.5 million, Yang said. If convicted, Fan could face a minimum 20 years in jail under Taiwanese law.

 World’s Most Wanted Man. The name thrown up most frequently, on account of how mystically elusive he appears to be, was one Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and the biggest drug lord in Narcoville. Since he broke out (or “walked out” is the common consensus) of a maximum security prison in 2001, Guzman’s drug-trafficking empire has gone supernova, his estimated $1 billion personal fortune landing him a spot on the Forbes List as the 11th richest man in Mexico.

The Sinaloa Cartel controls more territory than any other drug-trafficking organization (DTO) in Mexico, distributing Colombian cocaine as well as domestically-produced marijuana, opium, and methamphetamine. The organization has successfully smashed its rivals’ operations in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and other key smuggling hubs to the point where formerly powerful cartels are either hanging on for dear life or mere tributaries. Then there’s the 800-pound gorilla in the room – the fact that independent analysts and countless officials cite collusion between the Sinaloa Cartel and the federal government, which apparently prefers Guzman’s mob over the others. “El Chapo” – the nickname means “Shorty” – is routinely described as “el capo del panismo”, “capo” meaning drug boss and “panismo” referring to the current ruling party, the PAN, or National Action Party.

Mexico has seen the worst kind of action since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug-traffickers in 2006. Over 45,000 troops and federal officers have been deployed across the country in a US-funded crackdown, leading the DTOs to fight each other even harder over both cross-border traffic and a rapidly growing domestic market. In the resulting melee, former big names like the Tijuana and Juarez Cartels have taken serious losses; budding rivals like La Familia Michoacana and the Beltran Leyva Organization have come and gone, but the Sinaloa Cartel has only grown stronger. Its last major rival, the infamously violent Los Zetas, has made some gains but is taking a pounding from the Mexican military, which has made a slew of arrests and seizures against it. 

Born into poverty, for “El Chapo” Guzman the drug trade was an easy route to otherwise unattainable wealth (opium and marijuana have been big business in fertile Sinaloa since the early 20th century) and as a young man he became an apprentice of Pedro Aviles Perez, one of the first generation of big-time Mexican traffickers. Ambitious and savvy, Guzman took over what became the Sinaloa Cartel when the legendary Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo (“the Godfather”) was busted in 1989. Four years later, Guzman was arrested and sentenced to twenty years for drug-trafficking and bribery, but on the eve of being extradited to the US in 2001, he miraculously escaped from Puente Grande maximum security prison in Jalisco. The most famous breakout in Mexican history purportedly occurred “A-Team”-style in a laundry cart, the wheels greased by $2.5 million worth of bribes for prison officials. 

Guzman’s escape took place early in the presidency of Vicente Fox, the first PAN administration after the 70-year PRI regime was thrown out in 2000. Every Mexican administration since the 1970s is said to have had its preferred drug lord. Whereas the PRI supposedly favored the Gulf Cartel in the ‘90s, the arrival of the PAN saw a shift of allegiance to the cartel with the closest ties to the party. Soon after leaving Puente Grande, Guzman called a meeting of top capos to plot the future of the Mexican drug trade, going after the then-dominant Gulf organization (now an ally) and later breaking a long-held truce with the Juarez Cartel, leading to a violent turf war in the border city of the same name. The goal was expansion and dominance, and Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel has been a juggernaut ever since.

“El Chapo” has taken on near-mythical status; rumors fly about his latest whereabouts and activity, or how hundreds of guests – including local politicians and police – raised their glasses when he married for the third time in 2007. For ordinary Mexicans, he is the personification of the intense “narco-violence” plaguing the country, which has gotten much, much worse since Calderon turned up the heat. The president’s apologists (and there are very few) claim that the PAN backs Guzman under the notion that it’s better to live with one all-powerful cartel and then negotiate peace. But Calderon leaves office next year, almost certainly handing over the reins to the PRI, and the cartel war goes on unabated between the Sinaloa Federation (Guzman and his allies) and a loose coalition of Los Zetas, the Juarez Cartel, and other DTOs.

Guzman commands significant respect (and fear) among Mexico’s downtrodden as a self-made man who stuck several fingers up to the authorities, particularly in his native Sinaloa where country songs portray him as a Robin Hood-type figure, albeit with AK-47 replacing crossbow. He has myriad political and business connections and the financial clout to buy new ones. His current rumored hideout is in the northern state of Durango.

There’s a theory brewing in Mexico, however, which says that Calderon is now so unpopular after five years of socially-devastating policy that he has not only cost his party next year’s election, but risks going down as one of the country’s worst ever presidents (which the average Mexican will tell you is no easy feat). After Bin Laden’s death hit the headlines, many domestic observers suggested that Calderon’s only option to salvage his legacy and leave office on a high is to pull an Obama “black-ninja-gangster” moment (as Bill Maher would say) and take Guzman down. The Colombian government pulled off a similar coup with Pablo Escobar in 1993, which had absolutely no effect on the cocaine trade but at least gave the impression that Colombia could kick some tail.

But just as one can question whether Bin Laden’s death really meant anything beyond retribution for 9/11, it’s uncertain what taking down “El Chapo” would do for Mexico’s Drug War. The major DTOs regularly go through internal upheavals where factions split off and go to war with one another, or one capo makes a power play to take control of the organization, leading to yet more bloodshed. The Sinaloa Cartel has long been considered the most stable of the Mexican DTOs, largely on account of Guzman’s iron hand. For that reason, “El Chapo” may be too valuable to simply wind up as trophy kill.

At some stage, the Mexican government will have to declare an endgame in the Drug War, or civil protests like the 100,000-strong March for Peace in Mexico City in May, and subsequent “Peace Caravan” that culminated in Juarez/El Paso, will become increasingly politicized. While obviously blaming the drug cartels as much as the politicians, many Mexicans resent the fact that their country has become a war zone due to the mores of US anti-drug and pro-militarization policy. As for Calderon – facing savage criticism at home – it’s likely that he didn’t expect the cartel war to get this bloody or drag on for so long. Yet while his own public decries his policies, Calderon continues to receive the green light from the Obama administration for further zero-tolerance. One might imagine the rhetoric from Washington if Hugo Chavez had deployed 45,000 troops to do the job of the police in Venezuela – allusions to military dictatorship, Soviet-style authoritarianism, not to mention “human rights abuses” would be rampant, and probably followed by an excuse for US intervention.

Needless to say, painting “El Chapo” as the drug trade’s Bin Laden is far easier for both media and politicians than addressing the more crucial issues of drug law reform and vast consumer demand, factors that feed men like Guzman. For Mexico, there are also huge questions to be asked about why an estimated 450,000 citizens have turned to the incredibly risky drug trade for employment in the first place. The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has devastated Mexican agriculture and driven many small farmers to grow opium and marijuana in its place. Meanwhile, in the cities, unemployed youth join street gangs that ultimately work for the DTOs, providing muscle in exchange for guns, cars and cash.

Mexico needs to find a way out. With nearly 40,000 lives lost and violence continuing to swell in trouble spots like Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, something has to give. The inevitable return to power of Mexico’s old guard, the PRI, next year may see more of a willingness to negotiate with the cartels, but just as the death of Osama Bin Laden is really just a footnote in the “War on Terror”, the capture or killing of “El Chapo” would only lead to more massacres in Mexico’s own never-ending war.

The elderly are killed. Young women are raped. And able-bodied men are given hammers, machetes and sticks and forced to fight to the death.
In one of the most chilling revelations yet about the violence in Mexico, a drug cartel-connected trafficker claims fellow gangsters have kidnapped highway bus passengers and forced them into gladiatorlike fights to groom fresh assassins.
In an in-person interview arranged by intermediaries on the condition that neither his name nor the location of his Texas visit be published, the trafficker also admitted to helping push cocaine worth $5 million to $10 million a month into the United States.
Law enforcement sources confirm he is a cartel operative but not a fugitive from pending charges.
His words are not those of a federal agent or drawn from a news conference or court papers.
Instead, he offers a voice from inside Mexico's mayhem — a mafioso who mingles among crime bosses and foot soldiers in a protracted war between drug cartels as well as against the government.
If what he says is true, gangsters who make commonplace beheadings, hangings and quartering bodies have managed an even crueler twist to their barbarity.
Members of the Zetas cartel, he says, have pushed passengers into an ancient Rome-like blood sport with a modern Mexico twist that they call, "Who is going to be the next hit man?"
"They cut guys to pieces," he said.
The victims are likely among the hundreds of people found in mass graves in recent months, he said.
In the vicinity of the Mexican city of San Fernando, nearly 200 bodies were unearthed from pits, and authorities said most appeared to have died of blunt force head trauma.
Many are believed to have been dragged off buses traveling through Mexico, but little has been said about the circumstances of their deaths.
The trafficker said those who survive are taken captive and eventually given suicide missions, such as riding into a town controlled by rivals and shooting up the place.
The trafficker said he did not see the clashes, but his fellow criminals have boasted to him of their exploits.
Killing 'for amusement'
Former and current federal law-enforcement officers in the U.S. said that while they knew Mexican bus passengers had been targeted for violence, they'd never before heard of forcing passengers into death matches.
But given the level of violence in Mexico — nearly 40,000 killed in gangland warfare over the past several years — they didn't find it tough to believe.
Borderland Beat, a blog specializing in drug cartels, reported an account in April of bus passengers brutalized by Zeta thugs and taunted into fighting.
"The stuff you would not think possible a few years ago is now commonplace," said Peter Hanna, a retired FBI agent who built his career focusing on Mexico's cartels. "It used to be you'd find dead bodies in drums with acid; now there are beheadings."
Even so, Hanna noted, killing people this way would be time-consuming and inefficient. "It would be more for amusement," he suggested. "I don't see it as intimidation or a successful way to recruit people."
Hidden behind designer sunglasses and a whisper of a beard, the trafficker interviewed by the Houston Chronicle talked at a restaurant's back table. He had silver shopping bags filled at Nordstrom, but seemed anything but a typical wealthy Mexican on a Texas shopping trip.
As a condition of the interview, he asked that he be referred to only as Juan.
He has worked as a drug-trafficker in Northern Mexico for more than a decade, he said, but has grown tired of gangsters running roughshod over each other and innocent civilians.
Juan, who has worked with the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, the two major drug organizations that control territory along the South Texas-Mexico border, said that back home, he sleeps with a semiautomatic rifle by his bed and a handgun under his pillow.
"It is like the Wild West. You can carry a gun and you are Superman," he said of gangsters and killing at will. "Like everybody says, it is out of control now. We have to put a stop to it."
A recent U.S. Senate report contends the Zetas are the most violent of Mexico's cartels. Its members are believed to be responsible for the recent killing of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who was shot on a Mexican highway.
'They brag about it'
Just on Thursday, authorities in Mexico said they arrested members of the Zetas and seized 201 automatic weapons, 600 camouflage uniforms and 30,000 rounds of ammunition.
"I am not defending the Sinaloa or the Gulf Cartel," Juan said of the Zetas' main rivals. "I earn more money with the Zetas, but I know the (crap) they do," he said. "They brag about it."
With the recent killing of the ICE agent and perhaps other attacks, the Zetas also are breaking the golden rule for Mexican traffickers: Don't kill Americans, he said. It brings too much heat.
If the Zetas are crushed, violence will lessen, he said, and Mexico's older cartels will go back to the older way of doing business - dividing up territory and agreeing not to clash with each other.
Death toll has exploded
Mike Vigil, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was the chief of international operations, said Mexican gangsters used to understand that violence should be used sparingly.
"They love brutality," Vigil said of the Zetas. "They do not care whether you are a police officer, a trafficker or an innocent bystander.
"The drug-trafficking organizations are eventually going to have to deal with the Zetas."
The death toll has exploded since Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006 and dispersed military troops throughout the country to fight the cartels. The resulting battles have wrought carnage among local politicians, soldiers, gangsters and civilians alike.
As for the military, Juan said, "They are not helping," noting that the soldiers, like the gangsters, seem to kill whoever they want.
He also discussed some of the finer points of drug trafficking.
Checkpoints no problem
"We don't hide it," he said, telling stories of openly off-loading tractor-trailer rigs of cocaine in parking lots. "These are not lies. Everybody in Mexico knows it."
Even the checkpoints Mexican officials operate along the highways between Central Mexico and the border do not pose much of a problem, Juan said.
The trick, he confided, is to send someone in advance to bribe a commander so a drug load won't be bothered.
"It is better to tell them," he said. "It will cost you more if they catch it."
Tries not to be flashy
As for how he's been able to survive a decade, Juan said the secret is not being greedy or flashy enough to draw attention from other gangsters, who these days show no hesitation to cut down rivals.
He said he can quickly size up in a bar or cafe who is likely to be a trafficker, from the money they spend to the way they talk, sit or eat.
"You can tell in a restaurant or anywhere - that guy is moving dope," Juan said.
Other keys to longevity in the business: knowing your place in the Mexican under­world's hierarchy and not giving the impression you are making more money or interested in taking a chunk out of another gangster's livelihood.
"You keep doing the work you do," Juan said. "Stay at your level."