Cocaine - Blog 2.0 - Gangsters Inc. - www.gangstersinc.org
2024-03-29T08:34:50Z
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Elusive Colombian drug lord “Memo Fantasma” – Mysterious kingpin started under Pablo Escobar
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/elusive-colombian-drug-lord-memo-fantasma-arrested-mysterious-kin
2021-06-26T13:57:50.000Z
2021-06-26T13:57:50.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/elusive-colombian-drug-lord-memo-fantasma-arrested-mysterious-kin" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237161100,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237161100?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Guillermo León Acevedo Giraldo, one of the world’s most elusive and mysterious drug lords, was arrested In Bogota, Colombia, on Friday. He is considered one of Colombia’s most powerful narco kingpins, yet he managed to fly under the radar for decades, evading arrest, and being known only as “Memo Fantasma”. An in-depth report by journalists from <a href="https://insightcrime.org/" target="_blank">InSight Crime</a> brought him into the spotlight.</p>
<p>That 6-part report, titled <a href="https://insightcrime.org/investigations/invisible-drug-lord-ghost/" target="_blank">The Invisible Drug Lord</a>: Hunting 'The Ghost', was published on March 29, 2020, and told the story behind the individual that had puzzled authorities and investigators. It revealed the man behind “Memo Fantasma” and made him a premier target for law enforcement.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Working for Pablo Escobar</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10765882280,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="300" alt="10765882280?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>“Memo Fantasma” or “Will the Ghost” had been a well-known presence in the Colombian drug underworld. But it had been impossible to put an identity to the nickname. As <a href="https://insightcrime.org/investigations/the-invisibles-of-the-drug-world/" target="_blank">InSight Crime reported</a>: “The alias Memo Fantasma has been kicking around the Medellín underworld since the days of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Escobar" target="_blank">Pablo Escobar</a>. He was linked to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Medellin" target="_blank">Medellín cartel</a>, then its successor organization, the Oficina de Envigado, headed by Don Berna. Many had heard of the alias but nobody appeared to have met him, knew what he looked like, or had an idea of his real name.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/pablo-escobars-war-on-colombia" target="_blank"><strong>Pablo Escobar's War on Colombia</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Acevedo Giraldo is alleged to have begun his career working for the Galeano crew in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=NY" target="_blank">New York City</a>. The group received <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a> and would distribute it down the line. When Escobar killed the crew’s leader in 1992, Acevedo Giraldo used the lack of oversight and a recently arrived drug shipment to kickstart his criminal empire.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Paramilitary career</strong></span></p>
<p>He returned to Colombia in 1996 and, according to <a href="https://insightcrime.org/" target="_blank">InSight Crime</a>, “joined the Central Bolívar Bloque, one of several parts of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia or AUC), then the world’s largest paramilitary army and cocaine trafficking group.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/boss-of-evil-pablo-escobar-s-legacy-endures" target="_blank"><strong>Boss of Evil: Pablo Escobar's Legacy Endures</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>By then, he was very adapt at hiding his true identity. By the early 2000s, he was one of the group’s leaders, but when he and seven other top figures signed a letter of intent, as part of the peace deal with the government, Acevedo Giraldo used the alias Sebastián Colmenares. It added another dead-end for investigators looking to untangle his criminal past and present.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Always business</strong></span></p>
<p>While his former colleagues all ended up dead or in prison, Acevedo Giraldo invested his ill-gotten money in legitimate businesses in Europe and South America. He had interests in aviation, cattle ranching, and real estate, selling property to none other than the family real estate business of Marta Lucía Ramírez, Colombia’s current vice president and foreign chancellor.</p>
<p>Acevedo Giraldo had effectively laundered his own identity squeaky clean (or perhaps he had enough influence to make certain people look the other way).</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-spanish-drug-boss-sito-minanco-who-can-t-stop-smugglin" target="_blank">Spanish drug boss Sito Miñanco</a>, who can’t stop smuggling tons of cocaine despite his fame</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Until the journalists of <a href="https://insightcrime.org/" target="_blank">InSight Crime</a> found out the facts, shared their research with the world, and unleased a tidal wave of his old crimes on his well-crafted clean reputation. Yesterday, Acevedo Giraldo was <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/accused-drug-trafficker-guillermo-acevedo-memo-fantasma-captured-in-bogota/" target="_blank">arrested</a> and charged with money laundering, criminal conspiracy and illicit enrichment.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10765882472,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10765882472?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>“Memo Fantasma” is now a ghost in shackles. With his name and face on the frontpage of newspapers and news programs, it will be hard to disappear once more. Not to mention that it is pretty hard to walk through steel prison bars when one is not in fact a ghost.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE – August 14, 2022:</strong> Unless, of course, you have the connections that “Memo Fantasma” has. Earlier this week, he was <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/corruption-or-incompetence-alleged-colombian-drug-lord-released-f" target="_blank">released rom the maximum-security prison</a> where he was being held awaiting trial. The stench of bribery and corruption is strong in this case.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels">Drug Cartels section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong> </p></div>
One of Britain’s most wanted drug traffickers caught in Dubai
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/one-of-britain-s-most-wanted-drug-traffickers-caught-in-dubai
2021-05-11T08:55:42.000Z
2021-05-11T08:55:42.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/one-of-britain-s-most-wanted-drug-traffickers-caught-in-dubai" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237163865,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237163865?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Police in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates last month arrested a British man wanted in the United Kingdom for his alleged role in a large-scale international drug trafficking plot. 35-year-old Michael Paul Moogan, from Croxteth, Liverpool, was a fugitive for 8 years.</p>
<p>He was featured as part of the Operation Captura most wanted fugitives campaign, was apprehended on 21 April as a result of joint working between <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Dubai" target="_blank">Dubai</a> Police and the National Crime Agency (NCA). For operational reasons details could only be revealed now.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-untouchables-how-britain-s-top-gangsters-rich-off-armed-robbe" target="_blank">The Untouchables</a>: How Britain’s top gangsters got rich off armed robberies and smuggling tons of drugs</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Moogan was using numerous false identities to avoid capture. Dubai Police believe that after entering the UAE using a different identity, he tried to avoid CCTV in an attempt to elude detectives. Utilizing the latest capabilities, including the Criminal Data Analysis Centre, they were able to track him down.</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:14pt;">Cocaine café</span></strong></p>
<p>He had been on the run since a raid that took place at a café in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Rotterdam" target="_blank">Rotterdam</a>, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Netherlands" target="_blank">Netherlands</a>, suspected of being used as a front for meetings between drug traffickers and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">cartels</a>, and central to a plot to bring hundreds of kilos of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> into the United Kingdom every week.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-pablo-escobar-of-great-britain-s-cocaine-trade" target="_blank"><strong>The Pablo Escobar of Great Britain’s cocaine trade</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Working with the Dutch National Crime Squad, the NCA became aware of information that linked Moogan and two other British men to the Café de Ketel – a business not open to the public that could only be entered via a security system. NCA officers suspected that Moogan and his associates were involved in plans to import <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a> from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">Latin America</a> to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/europe-overview" target="_blank">Europe</a>.</p>
<p>At the time of the raid, only one of the men, 71-year-old Robert Hamilton, from Manchester, could be found. He was jailed for 8 years in 2014 after pleading guilty to drug charges.</p>
<p>The other man, 57-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fugitive-liverpool-drug-boss-robert-gerrard-turns-himself-in" target="_blank">Robert Gerard</a>, from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Liverpool" target="_blank">Liverpool</a>, handed himself in to the NCA after 3 years on the run claiming the pressure was too much. He pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and was jailed in 2017 for 14 years.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
40 Mafiosi of Cosa Nostra family in Catania arrested - Stashed drugs in cemetery
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/40-mafiosi-of-cosa-nostra-family-in-catania-arrested
2021-05-05T06:30:00.000Z
2021-05-05T06:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/40-mafiosi-of-cosa-nostra-family-in-catania-arrested" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237163085,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237163085?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>40 alleged members of the Santapaola-Ercolano family in Catania, Sicily, were arrested on Tuesday and charged with Mafia association, drug trafficking, extortion, social security and pension fraud. The Santapaola-Ercolano clan is led by infamous boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cosa-nostra-boss-benedetto" target="_blank">Benedetto “Nitto” Santapaola</a> (photo below), who is currently imprisoned for life.</p>
<p>The investigation focused on Mafiosi operating in Siracusa, Cosenza and Bologna and based in Paternò and Belpasso, <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236979466,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236979466?profile=original" /></a>two villages near the city of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Catania" target="_blank">Catania</a>. Authorities uncovered corrupt partnerships with legitimate businessmen, several used the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sicilian-cosa-nostra-overview" target="_blank">Mafia</a> to get rid of toxic waste from their factories or to get an edge on the competition.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cosa-nostra-bosses-pledge" target="_blank"><strong>Cosa Nostra Bosses Pledge Loyalty to the End</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Still, despite these “legit” partnerships, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sicilian-cosa-nostra-overview" target="_blank">Cosa Nostra</a> clan was also heavily involved in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">narcotics</a>. It plotted organizing large shipments of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> from Ecuador. The drugs were to be hidden in a load of bananas.</p>
<p>They also trafficked <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a> and used a local cemetery as a stash place. So much for all that talk about honor. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/sicilian-cosa-nostra-overview">Sicilian Mafia section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Drug dealer who impersonated MMA champion Conor McGregor jailed
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/drug-dealer-who-impersonated-mma-champion-conor-mcgregor-jailed
2021-04-26T10:00:00.000Z
2021-04-26T10:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-dealer-who-impersonated-mma-champion-conor-mcgregor-jailed" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237160083,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237160083?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Some guys just don’t get it. When you’re involved in crime it is best to keep a low profile. It is a bad idea to impersonate the most famous Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion on the planet and hand out business cards with his name on them while dealing drugs. Yet, here we are.</p>
<p>As you can see by looking at his mugshot, Mark Nye does resemble an ageing <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=McGregor" target="_blank">Conor McGregor</a>, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=UFC" target="_blank">UFC</a> champion who made hundreds of millions in both <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=MMA" target="_blank">MMA</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Boxing" target="_blank">boxing</a>. But the 34-year-old look-a-like from Surrey, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=England" target="_blank">England</a>, upped the ante when he handed his drug clients business cards with the name “McGregor Enterprise” written on the front and “Best drops in Surrey” on the back.</p>
<p>You won’t see Nye doing his impersonation on the road anytime soon. He’s been sentenced to 2 years and 9 months in prison for drug trafficking.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
The Pablo Escobar of Great Britain’s cocaine trade
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-pablo-escobar-of-great-britain-s-cocaine-trade
2021-04-17T06:16:10.000Z
2021-04-17T06:16:10.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-pablo-escobar-of-great-britain-s-cocaine-trade" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237158294,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237158294?profile=original" /></a>By Ron Chepusiuk exclusively for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>This is an excerpt from Ron Chepesiuk’s forthcoming book, The Real Mr. Big: How A Colombian Refugee Became the United Kingdom’s Most notorious Cocaine Kingpin. The book will be launched April 20, 2021. Jesus Ruiz Henao, the Real Mr. Big, was the UK’s first billion pound cocaine kingpin. He is described by MI6, British intelligence, as “the Pablo Escobar of the UK’s cocaine trade.” </p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>THE RAID</strong></span></p>
<p>November 27, 2003, 91 Herndon Way, London, United Kingdom</p>
<p>JESUS RUIZ HENAO: “I knew they would come for me, but I did not think it would be at 4 o’clock in the morning in front of my wife and kids. I had another restless night. I awoke, naked, and had made my way to the bathroom. I could hear the movement in the street down below, doors opening and closing, men getting out of the vehicles, mumbles that sounded like orders. I looked through the window, and my heart pounded. It was a police raid.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237159061,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237159061?profile=original" /></a>“I hurried to my desk in the bedroom and grabbed a piece of paper with my most important phone numbers. I barely had time to swallow the paper before the police barged through the front door and fanned out through the house, shouting, “Police, police!” Two of the officers, guns drawn, dashed up the stairs and were at the bedroom door.</p>
<p>“Christ, look at this,” one of them, the tall police officer, said as he peered into the bathroom and gawked at my naked form. The second officer flashed his warrant card and introduced himself. He asked: “Are you Jesus Ruiz Henao?” I nodded, “Yes”. He then said: “You are under arrest for conspiracy to supply a controlled drug, namely cocaine, and conspiracy to launder the proceeds of money laundering. I advise you that anything you say from this point could be used against you in a court of law.” I was stunned and did not reply.</p>
<p>“They gave me some clothes from the bedroom, and I got dressed. I could hear my wife, Maria, and children, Stephanie and Anthony, crying. I wanted to comfort them, but the tall officer advised me to let them be. For some reason, he asked if I spoke English. I said, “Yes.” Then I was asked if I could read and write English and again I replied, “Yes.” </p>
<p>“Back downstairs, they put handcuffs on me and sat me down on the sofa. My wife was brought into the living room, shivering. With a look of despair, she mumbled, “What is going on, Jesus?” I tried to reassure her, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. I was pissed. They had arrested me in front of my family. They didn’t have to do it in my house. They had plenty of chances to do it in the street. They had been following me for months.</p>
<p>“I watched as one of the officers took video footage of each room. Computer equipment, mobile phones and a digital satellite receiver were put carefully in plastic bags and carted away. A policeman grabbed a hundred year old bottle of Scotch I had stored in the liquor cabinet for special occasions, opened it and took a swallow. He looked at me and licked his lips. The arrogant bastard smiled.</p>
<p>“Finally, I was told to stand, and I was escorted to an unmarked police car. I watched as my wife was put in another car. I was told I was going to Charring Cross Police Station where I would be interviewed.</p>
<p> “We drove through the streets in silence, watching the Londoners hustle off to work. I thought about my own “work,” which I had pursued in earnest, becoming what MI5 would later describe as the United Kingdom’s first billion pound cocaine dealer. I had been so careful for ten years, hiding my identity, making sure of the people with whom I dealt.</p>
<p>“Even now I was smug in my belief that I would never be caught. I was out of the drug trade. What could they possibly do to me? </p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237158896,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237158896?profile=original" /></a></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">Drug Cartels section</a> or the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
“We have to do some damage control” - Profile of Moroccan-Dutch female drug boss Naima Jillal
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/we-have-to-do-some-damage-control-profile-of-moroccan-dutch-femal
2021-04-02T11:00:00.000Z
2021-04-02T11:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/we-have-to-do-some-damage-control-profile-of-moroccan-dutch-femal" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237159869,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237159869?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Women who climb to the top of the underworld remain a rare breed, but every now and then several manage to break through that glass ceiling. Among them Moroccan-Dutch drug boss Naima Jillal, dubbed “The Godmother of Cocaine” by the media. Just when police began finding out about her prominent position she vanished without a trace.</p>
<p>Jillal wasn’t a complete stranger to Dutch police. Born and raised in the city of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Utrecht" target="_blank">Utrecht</a>, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Netherlands" target="_blank">Netherlands</a>, she was first arrested in 2005 and charged with making threats. In the years that followed she was busted for <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Fraud" target="_blank">fraud</a>, growing <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a>, and assault. In her defense, she told police that she was in a lot of debt and borrowed money from a lot of people.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237159896,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237159896?profile=original" /></a>Becoming a narco middlewoman</strong></span></p>
<p>Just a woman down on her luck, trying to make it. But then, in 2014, she began popping up in several major drug trafficking conspiracies. Tons of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> were being shipped through ports in the Netherlands and Belgium in containers filled with fruit. Jillal emerged as the broker behind many of these lucrative shipments.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-moroccan-drug-boss-ridouan-taghi-he-who-talks-goes-and" target="_blank">Moroccan drug boss Ridouan Taghi</a> - “He who talks, goes. And everyone around him goes to sleep”</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>She achieved this because she had all the right contacts, she knew the right people in the right places. From the drug dealers on the streets to the drug bosses paying for the shipments and the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">drug lords</a> in Costa Rica and Ecuador supplying the goods, the corrupt custom agents who were able to let shipments go through to the people transporting the stuff to its destination.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Auntie” goes on shopping sprees</strong></span></p>
<p>She was the spider in the web and by acting as a middle(wo)man between these contacts, she rose in stature and power. Because she was a lot older than many of the contacts she worked with, she was named “auntie” by her underlings and colleagues.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/wife-of-el-chapo-busted-on-international-drug-trafficking-charges" target="_blank">Wife of “El Chapo” busted on international drug trafficking charges</a>, aiding husband’s prison break</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Operating out of the beach resort of Puerto Banús near Marbella in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spain" target="_blank">Spain</a> where she lived in a luxury apartment, she enjoyed the riches that came with her job. She was mother to a son and would frequently take him on expensive shopping sprees in Spain and the Netherlands in which they would spend tens of thousands of euros on whatever they wanted. She even bought her son an apartment in the expensive Zuidas neighborhood in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Amsterdam" target="_blank">Amsterdam</a>, the Netherlands.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237160287,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237160287?profile=original" /></a>“Everything is fucked now”</strong></span></p>
<p>Then, on May 30, 2016, shit goes bad. Using encrypted phones, an alleged drug boss sent Jillal a text message: “Those containers are gonna be scanned. We are fucked, auntie. We can’t get to them. This is about a lot of money and long prison sentences, auntie. Everything is fucked now.”</p>
<p>One of these containers was filled with 4000 kilograms of cocaine hidden among a load of pineapples from Costa Rica. For some reason, customs at the port in Rotterdam received a tip and they planned to scan these containers to see what was inside. When they did, they found the load.</p>
<p>“We have to do some damage control,” Jillal texted back to the worried drug boss. “We will just put out a new story.” The drug boss answered: “Agreed.”</p>
<p>Apparently, the new “story” worked. Jillal continued bringing in shipments. But things were not well. Stories later emerge about Jillal in which she is accused of fleecing drug bosses. She offered gangsters to buy into a piece of shipment. This meant that drug bosses were able to spread the risk if a load was caught. But Jillal would allegedly bring in more buyers than was needed. She would than tip off the load to authorities and pocket the cash. Whether true or not, these type of stories are an indication that her position within the underworld was coming under serious pressure.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The vanishing</strong></span></p>
<p>In October of 2019, 52-year-old Jillal underwent a stomach reduction. According to rumors, because she had enough of people calling her fat. She needed rest to recover, but business is always calling. For unknown reasons, she traveled from Spain to the Netherlands that same month.</p>
<p>On the evening of October 20, she was picked up by a car in front of her luxury apartment in Amsterdam. It is the last time she is seen or heard from.</p>
<p>Since her disappearing, there have been many rumors. Multiple crime groups were keeping an eye on her – and not to keep her safe from harm. Some people said she was playing a double role for various rival crime groups, some claim that she might have been working as a police informant.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: The man supplying France with 10% of its hashish:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-man-supplying-france-with-10-of-its-hashish-profile-of-french" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of French drug boss Moufide Bouchibi</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>All pretty good reasons for any gangster to have her killed. This outcome becomes more likely when police put out a report that gruesome photos of a dead Jillal are circulating in the underworld. These photos allegedly show her lifeless corpse cut up in several pieces.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE</strong></span>: On April 25, 2022, prosecutors in the case against drug boss Ridouan Taghi presented evidence they claim was taken from Taghi's encrypted cell phone. The evidence consists of one photo showing a naked woman bound to a chair. On her belly lay a cut off thumb or finger and a toe. A second photo shows the woman lying on the ground on her stomach. Metadata shows the pictures were taken on the night of Jillal's disappearance. Though it has not been definitively determined whether the woman is indeed Jillal, prosecutors suspect it is. </p>
<p>Taghi's lawyer denies her client has anything to do with this murder and says it is unclear how these photos ended up on this phone.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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</ul>
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Drug trafficker who used messaging apps to arrange drug parcels gets 11 years in prison
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/drug-trafficker-who-used-messaging-apps-to-arrange-drug-parcels-g
2021-03-10T06:18:25.000Z
2021-03-10T06:18:25.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-trafficker-who-used-messaging-apps-to-arrange-drug-parcels-g" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237162463,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237162463?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>A man who went on the run after he became wanted for his part in a drug smuggling ring was sentenced to 11 years in prison. 42-year-old Ajah Onuchukwu and his associates became a target of Britain’s National Crime Agency in 2013 when cocaine was found in a parcel that had been sent from St Martens in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Caribbean" target="_blank">Caribbean</a> to an address in North London, England.</p>
<p>NCA investigators were able to link Onuchukwu and his group to at least 77 drug parcels that had been intercepted by Border Force, across 14 different addresses, between June 2008 and August 2014.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Drugs via Skype, WhatsApp, iMessage</strong></span></p>
<p>They organized the transport of at least 4.8 kilos of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> and 210 kilos of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">cannabis</a> over the time they were operating – worth an estimated £1.8 million if sold on the streets of the United Kingdom. The group utilized messaging services such as Skype, Yahoo Messenger, iMessage and WhatsApp to communicate with drug distributors in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Africa" target="_blank">Africa</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Asia" target="_blank">Asia</a> and South America, advising them where to send the parcels.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: From the Caribbean to Dubai and Europe:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/from-the-caribbean-to-dubai-and-europe-profile-of-international-d" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of international drug boss Shurendy “Tyson” Quant</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>After his initial arrest Onuchukwu fled the United Kingdom in 2015 while on bail and was listed as wanted by the NCA. He was captured on a European Arrest Warrant in the Netherlands in 2018 and extradited to Britain a year later. He appeared before Isleworth Crown Court in December [2020] where he was found guilty of three charges relating to attempting to import both Class A and B drugs.</p>
<p>He was sentenced at the same court on Friday, March 5, 2021.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Boss and others</strong></span></p>
<p>Two other men were convicted in 2015 for their part in the conspiracy. 39-year-old Patrick Udensi was believed to be the leader of the group and was sentenced to 14 years for conspiracy to import class A and B drugs.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-untouchables-how-britain-s-top-gangsters-rich-off-armed-robbe" target="_blank">The Untouchables</a>: How Britain’s top gangsters got rich off armed robberies and smuggling tons of drugs</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>47-year-old John Arinze Nwosu was found guilty of importing class B drugs but absconded before trial. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison in his absence and remains wanted by the NCA.</p>
<p>“The seizures we identified probably only cover a fraction of what this group managed to bring into the country,” Ian Truby, from the NCA’s Heathrow border investigation team, said. “Organized crime groups have been known to exploit infrastructure like the post and fast parcel system to bring illicit commodities into the UK, and cause further exploitation and harm to communities."</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
From the Caribbean to Dubai and Europe: Profile of international drug boss Shurendy “Tyson” Quant
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/from-the-caribbean-to-dubai-and-europe-profile-of-international-d
2021-01-28T14:24:47.000Z
2021-01-28T14:24:47.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/from-the-caribbean-to-dubai-and-europe-profile-of-international-d" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237159898,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237159898?profile=original" /></a>By Milko for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Drug boss Shurendy Quant (photo above) came from a small island in the Caribbean, but quickly saw his influence grow from the tropics into the rainy streets of Western Europe. His network enabled him to allegedly establish cocaine pipelines in Jamaica and launder dirty money in Dubai. And he did it all while still in his early 30s.</p>
<p>Shurendy (sometimes also spelled Shurandy) Quant is from the Caribbean island of Curacao, a former colony of the Netherlands. He is one of the alleged leaders of the No Limit Soldiers, a notorious <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">gang</a> that traffics <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> from the Dutch Antilles to the Netherlands in Europe.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/norman-s-cay-from-notorious-cocaine-pipeline-of-the-medellin-cart" target="_blank">Norman’s Cay</a>: From cocaine pipeline of the Medellin Cartel to a fraudulent festival for rich millennials</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The gang is known as ruthless. It is alleged to be behind the assassination of politician Helmin Magno Wiels on May 5, 2013. Dutch crime boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Holleeder" target="_blank">Willem Holleeder</a> is alleged to have contracted the No Limit Soldiers to commit the murder of his two sisters, who testified against him in court, and that of journalist Peter R. de Vries. The two members of the No Limit Soldiers were doing time in the same prison as Holleeder. Holleeder became (in)famous in the Netherlands after masterminding the kidnapping of beer magnate Freddy Heineken in 1983.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Coke pipeline in Jamaica</strong></span></p>
<p>Quant traveled to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Jamaica" target="_blank">Jamaica</a> in October of 2012. According to authorities, he was setting up an international drug pipeline in Montego Bay. He was arrested by police in St. Ann, Jamaica, in April 2013 and extradited to Curacao on April 11. Upon arrival on Curacao, he was placed on a plane to the Netherlands.</p>
<p>Quant was arrested as the main suspect in Operation Athena, an investigation into largescale cocaine smuggling. Fifteen others were also arrested. Authorities claim Quant was the leader of this organization and involved in big cocaine shipments and several murder conspiracies.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: The Black Cobra:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/dutch-boss-henk-orlando-rommy" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of Dutch crime boss Henk Orlando Rommy</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>On January 24, 2014, then 31-year-old Quant saw Dutch prosecutors demand he be sentenced to 15 years in prison if he was to be found guilty of the charges against him. His trial was a massive affair. He was flown by helicopter from the maximum-security prison in Vught to the courtroom in the city of Haarlem.</p>
<p>But the court acquitted Quant of all charges on March 6, 2014. According to the judges, there was insufficient evidence. Most of it consisted primarily of text messages he is alleged to have sent from his encrypted BlackBerry phone. The court ruled it could not determine whether or not Quant sent these messages himself.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>More money, more problems</strong></span></p>
<p>Quant’s legal troubles were still far from over. Starting in 2019, a special team consisting of law enforcement agencies from Curacao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba began investigating Quant’s activities.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Stoned to Death - Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/stoned-to-death-profile-of-jamaican-crime-boss-wayne-sandokhan-sm" target="_blank"><strong>Jamaican crime boss Wayne “Sandokhan” Smith</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>This resulted in Quant’s arrest on November 26, 2020, while he was staying in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Dubai" target="_blank">Dubai</a> in the United Arab Emirates, a known hotspot for drug traffickers from all over the world. 37-year-old Quant was charged with ordering several gangland <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murders</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Kidnapping" target="_blank">kidnapping</a>, leading a criminal organization, and money laundering.</p>
<p><em><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Milko" target="_blank">Milko</a> (a pseudonym) is a Dutchman who has studied organized crime in the Netherlands, its history, and its offshoots in foreign countries for over two decades. He is also very knowledgeable about crime in other European countries and is eager to share his information.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Profile of Turkish drug boss Cetin Gören, one of Europe's most wanted drug lords
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-turkish-drug-boss-cetin-goren
2020-06-30T15:13:14.000Z
2020-06-30T15:13:14.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-turkish-drug-boss-cetin-goren" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237092095,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237092095?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By Milko for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Cetin Gören is a true international operator. As a Dutchman with Turkish roots, he flawlessly moves through the European continent and beyond, organizing massive drug shipments during his travels.</p>
<p>In March of 2007, police in Brazil suspected him of involvement in the smuggling of the party drug ecstasy, along with the Dutchman Eric Adrian Mook, the Libian national Wassin Beyhod, and the Turkish national Mahmet Sait Mavi. Mook was caught with 2.8 kilograms of ecstasy in his luggage and began cooperating with authorities, pointing them towards the other suspects. The drugs were smuggled from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Amsterdam" target="_blank">Amsterdam</a> in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Netherlands" target="_blank">Netherlands</a> via Frankfurt in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Germany" target="_blank">Germany</a> to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brazil" target="_blank">Brazil</a>.</p>
<p>Gören was also the suspected mastermind in the smuggling of 15,000 kilograms of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>. The investigation into the shipment took two years and turned into one of the largest investigations of its kind. In October 2012, police seized 8,000 kilos of coke in the port of Antwerp in Belgium. The drugs were hidden inside a container packed with bananas from Ecuador. Police discovered the shipment during an investigation into a corrupt customs agent named Tim Deelen. The name of notorious crime lord Samir Bouyakhrichan was also dropped as one of the gangsters who participated in this piece of business.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/exclusive-the-art-of-smuggling-by-britain-s-first-drug-baron" target="_blank">The Art of Smuggling by Britain's first drug baron</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Authorities began investigating Gören in April, early May, of 2012, when an informant told the <em>Criminele Inlichtingen Eenheid</em> (Criminal Intelligence Unit) about largescale <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Money" target="_blank">money laundering</a> and possible possession of a firearm. After some further research, agents found that Gören had a criminal record and had been convicted of possession of a gun, drug possession, being a member of criminal organization, spending fake currency, and fraud.</p>
<p>He was also wanted internationally by authorities in both Brazil and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Turkey" target="_blank">Turkey</a> for his involvement in drug trafficking.</p>
<p>On May 4, 2012, Dutch police raided Gören’s residence in the city of Rotterdam. There, they seized a gun, €900,000 euros in cash, and eight cell phones. This evidence, paired with the story of the informant, led police to start Operation Murdoch, an investigation into Gören’s narcotics empire.</p>
<p>Before and during the investigation, police seized several cocaine shipments connected to Gören. The haul ranged from 35 kilos to over 8,000 kilos per seizure. For instance, on February 25, police in Ecuador seized a total of 3668 kilograms of coke, while cops in Belgium seized 8032 kilos of the drug in Antwerp on October 8, 2012. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Read: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/south-america-is-quickly-becoming-a-deadly-destination-for-enterp" target="_blank">South America is a deadly destination for enterprising Dutch gangsters</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p>On June 24, 2014, then 44-year-old Gören was arrested. Dutch newspaper the <em>Algemeen Dagblad</em> called Gören one of Europe’s biggest drug lords, a man who was on Interpol’s Most Wanted list.</p>
<p>Almost a year after his arrest, a court in Rotterdam allowed Gören to await his trial at home. However, he did have to put down €500,000 euro bail and wear an ankle bracelet. He did as ordered. But when, in November of 2016, Gören heard about a possible 14-year prison sentence, he took off his ankle bracelet and disappeared without a trace.</p>
<p>A court eventually sentenced Gören to 12 years in prison on December 9, 2016. According to the judge, Gören, over a period of two years, was the leader of a criminal organization that trafficked large quantities of cocaine from South America to the Netherlands.</p>
<p>To conceal his illegal activities, Gören bought and founded several fruit companies. He used these companies to buy fruit in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">South America</a>, among the fruit his men hid large amounts of cocaine.</p>
<p>Gören was also found guilty of falsifying documents - he possessed a Bulgarian driver’s license and identity card – possession of an illegal firearm, and of laundering almost one million euros in illicit proceeds.</p>
<p>The public and media did not hear about Gören’s escape until April 26, 2017, when the news broke that one of Europe’s most prolific and successful drug traffickers had cut his ankle bracelet and become a most wanted fugitive.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE</strong></span>: On June 30, 2020, police in Turkey arrested Gören in what that country's minister of the interior, Süleyman Soylu, dubbed "the most important anti-narcotics operation in the history of Turkey". Over 60 people were arrested, including Gören, who had been a fugitive for several years.</p>
<p><em><strong>Milko (a pseudonym) is a Dutchman who has studied organized crime in the Netherlands, its history, and its offshoots in foreign countries for over two decades. He is also very knowledgeable about crime in other European countries and is eager to share his information.</strong></em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p></div>
The Milkman always delivers - Profile of British drug boss Brian Wright
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/british-boss-brian-wright
2020-04-27T08:42:06.000Z
2020-04-27T08:42:06.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236984673,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" /></p>
<p><br /> By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a><br /> <br /> Brian "The Milkman" Wright is one of Britain’s biggest drugs barons. His organization smuggled hundreds of millions of pounds (£) worth of cocaine into Britain. Wright was known as a heavy gambler. He would bet £50.000 or £100.000 a time on horse races. But it is said he had fixed some of those races. When former amateur champion jockey Dermot Browne was interviewed by police he said that Wright put corrupt jockeys on his payroll with bribes of up to £5000 per race. Twenty-four leading jockeys have been accused of being associated with Wright. However Wright was never charged with anything.<br /> <br /> The horse races kept the attention away from Wright’s true business: cocaine smuggling. Authorities claim Wright’s organization smuggled £300 million worth of cocaine between 1996 and 1998 alone. Wright got his nickname because of his "job" as a drugsmuggler. They called him "The Milkman" because he always delivered. Wright owned an expensive villa in Spain and rented a £20.000 a month flat in the luxury Chelsea Harbour complex in West London.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236984894,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236984894?profile=original" /></a><br /> In September of 1996 a boat, a 60ft converted fishing trawler, was caught in a storm, abandoned its course to Britain and was forced to dock in Ireland. Customs officers in Cork searched the ship and found 599 kilos of cocaine, worth £80 million, welded inside a disused goods lift. They also discovered a parachute, leading them to believe that the drugs had been dropped to the ship from a plane. The boat’s skipper, an American named John Ewart, was arrested and later convicted of drug running and sentenced to 17 years. The rest of the crew was acquitted. But mobile phone records and items found on the boat made it clear to authorities that Wright was the man behind the shipment.<br /> <br /> After the discovery of the drugshipment by John Ewart British authorities started operation Extend, aimed at eliminating Brian Wright’s organization. They set up a surveillance operation from information gathered from that they saw who were Brian Wright’s most trusted allies. They were his son Brian, Kevin Hanley (from Fulham, London) and Ronnie Soares (a university educated Brazilian). Soares was the link between Wright and the Colombian cocaine bosses.<br /> <br /> In 1998 authorities closed the net and arrested 15 gang members among them Brian Wright Jr. Wright Jr was sentenced to 16 years for importing cocaine. But Brian Wright Sr fled to Northern Cyprus, which does not have an extradition treaty with Britain. In 2003 Wright returned to Spain. On March 15, 2005 Wright was recognized and arrested by Spanish police. He was extradited to Britain to stand trial. He denied the allegations against him. After a two month trial Wright was convicted of conspiracy to evade prohibition on importing a controlled drug and conspiracy to supply drugs. On April 3, 2007 Brian Brendan Wright (60) was sentenced to 30 years in prison.</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE APRIL 2020:</strong></p>
<p>On April 14, 2020, halfway through his sentence, now 73-year-old Wright was released and reunited with his children.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Stoned to Death - Profile of Jamaican crime boss Wayne “Sandokhan” Smith
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/stoned-to-death-profile-of-jamaican-crime-boss-wayne-sandokhan-sm
2020-04-13T12:34:42.000Z
2020-04-13T12:34:42.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/stoned-to-death-profile-of-jamaican-crime-boss-wayne-sandokhan-sm" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237138487,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237138487?profile=original" /></a></p>
<p>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>A Jamaican street legend. That’s who Wayne “Sandokhan” Smith was. He will forever be known as the man who – after police treated his girlfriend harshly - attacked a police station, killed three officers, stole their guns, and got away – if only temporarily.</p>
<p>Born in 1962, Smith grew up in poverty in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Kingston" target="_blank">Kingston</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Jamaica" target="_blank">Jamaica</a>. The island offered little opportunity for the majority of its inhabitants, who had to make do with what they had. For those who had nothing, it meant turning to a life of violence and crime to get by and put food on the table. It was their only way out.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>From Jamaica to New York and Kansas City</strong></span></p>
<p>School definitely wasn’t, for Smith (photo below) at least. He left and got involved in crime. His first arrest occurred in 1979, for <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robbery</a>. Within a few years, he had become the “Don” of a posse bearing his nickname that ruled the Kingston neighborhoods of Olympic Gardens, Waterhouse, Callaloo Bed, and Riverton City, and even had established branches in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=NY" target="_blank">New York City</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Kansas" target="_blank">Kansas City</a> in the United States.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-jamaican-shower-posse-a-family-business" target="_blank">The Jamaican Shower Posse</a>: A Family Business by Dudus Coke</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237138882,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237138882?profile=original" /></a>Smith’s posse smuggled drugs (<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>) into the United States and had his men traffic money and guns back home. If a war broke out on either side of the ocean, the posse would go to war with its rivals on both sides simultaneously. The Jamaicans took their gangster reputation extremely seriously and would die defending it.</p>
<p>No wonder then, that a man of Smith’s (photo right) stature was wanted by police on several shootings and various other offences. He managed to evade capture, however, hiding out in his heavily guarded neighborhood where police would have to come in heavily armed and ready for war if they would want to arrest him.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Diss my girl and I’ll burn down a police station</strong></span></p>
<p>Then, in November 1986, tension erupted in an explosion of violence and death. Accounts vary, but one thing is certain: in their pursuit of Smith, police officers had mistreated or disrespected Smith’s girlfriend. Upon hearing about this, Smith vowed revenge. The police officers involved were from the Olympic Gardens station so that is where he targeted his murderous rage.</p>
<p>He got together several trusted posse members, devised a plan and began tooling up - making several Molotov cocktails and grabbing M-16 rifles. Around 1:00 a.m. on November 19, the group led by Smith attacked the Olympic Gardens Police Station, a structure comprised of two floors with the upper floor housing the bedrooms for personnel and the ground floor the guardroom, armory, and jail.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fbi-arrests-jamaican-gangster-sought-for-4-murders-day-after-it-p" target="_blank">FBI arrests Jamaican gangster</a> sought for 4 murders day after it placed him on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Sergeant Ezra Cummings, Constable Raymond Thomas and District Constable Archibald Robinson were caught completely by surprise. Burning Molotov cocktails flew through the air and engulfed the station in flames as Smith and his posse fired their automatic weapons at the officers. The three aforementioned policemen were murdered in cold blood. The posse looted the armory and made off with an unknown number of weapons, including more M-16s.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Manhunt</strong></span></p>
<p>One officer had managed to hide and alert his colleagues. By then Smith and his crew were nowhere to be seen.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/sandokhan--jungle-justice-for-a-ruthless-killer_11944365---double" target="_blank">attack shocked the nation</a> and every cop in Jamaica had his eyes on this case. Investigators soon discovered a big lead: one of the Molotov cocktails had failed to explode and a fingerprint was lifted from it pointing straight to a man named Kenneth Whorms.</p>
<p>Police found him at a house in Waterhouse in Kingston where they shot and killed him. Inside the house, they found several of the stolen weapons, including one of the missing M-16s.</p>
<p>The next man linked to the case, Nicholas Henry, was caught in Waterhouse as well. More of the weapons were recovered and Henry was eager to share details with investigators in return for his life.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/top-5-drug-lords-killed-while-on-the-run" target="_blank"><strong>Top 5 drug lords killed while on the run</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>After he told them all about the attack and killing of the three police officers, he pointed to Smith as the man who masterminded everything. Henry’s story was corroborated when police raided one of Smith’s safehouses. Inside they found the plan of attack on the police station. But they had just missed the big man himself.</p>
<p>Smith realized there was no way he could remain in Jamaica and booked a flight out of the country. He was at the airport in Montego Bay when his escape plan was thwarted by an immigration officer who discovered his travel documents were false.</p>
<p>Caught and standing in front of police, he allegedly confessed to the murders, saying: “The police [disrespected] my girlfriend and so I decided to retaliate.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Trials and prison breaks</strong></span></p>
<p>Smith was charged with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Arson" target="_blank">arson</a>, and robbery. It looked like the game was over for Smith. He was at a courthouse jail awaiting his trial on September 17, 1987. Then, out of nowhere, he escaped.</p>
<p>Exactly how this happened remains somewhat of a mystery. Smith says a man came and opened his cell door, telling him he was free to go. But once Smith arrived back at his old haunts, his friends and family convinced him that he should turn himself back in. They told him he was being set up by police, who would swoop in with an execution squad and take him out. Smith went to his lawyer and turned himself in.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-kingpin-freeway-rick-ross-moving-tons-of-cocaine-with-a-nod" target="_blank">Drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross</a>: Moving tons of cocaine with a nod of approval from the Reagan White House</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>After a short trial, on March 17, 1988, Smith was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to death.</p>
<p>Authorities weren’t done with him just yet, though. They also charged him with the murder of Eddie Curniffe, who was killed in October 1986 in the midst of a gang war. Again, the verdict was guilty and the sentence death.</p>
<p>Sitting on death row, facing a certain ending, Smith tried every trick in the book and pulled off another prison break on June 15. By now, he was the most wanted man in Jamaica and his behavior came to reflect it. Several weeks after his escape he got in a shootout with police. He was wounded but got away again.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Murder spree</strong></span></p>
<p>Ten days later, he shot and killed Moses “Bredda” Bent in Riverton City. Four days after that, on July 31, Smith and several members of his posse took 16-year-old Robert Wynter from his house and accused him of being a snitch. They tied the young teenager to a car and literally stoned him to death.</p>
<p>Smith was spinning out of control, living from hour to hour, getting more violent with each passing day. He remained the Don, but was making life hell for every gangster operating in the area, especially members of his own posse. Police constantly raided neighborhoods and came down hard on everyone in their hunt for “Sandokhan”.</p>
<p>Enough was enough, someone decided. The big “Bad Man” needed to go. On September 8, 1988, Smith’s bullet-riddled corpse was found lying in the bushes. The bullets were fired by one of the M-16s stolen in the attack on the Olympic Gardens Police Station.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime">Black organized crime</a> section on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Alleged New Jersey mobster admits gun and coke were his
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/alleged-new-jersey-mobster-admits-gun-and-coke-were-his
2020-03-11T17:30:00.000Z
2020-03-11T17:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/alleged-new-jersey-mobster-admits-gun-and-coke-were-his" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237142066,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237142066?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>That gun and the grams of coke? Yeah, those were his, an alleged associate of New Jersey’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family" target="_blank">DeCavalcante crime family</a> admitted in court on Monday. 28-year-old <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Galli" target="_blank">Mario Galli III</a> (photo above) of Toms River, NJ, pleaded guilty to possessing <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> with the intent to distribute and possession of a FEG 9mm Model PGK-9HP gun, loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition, by a convicted felon in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.</p>
<p>On September 19, 2019, investigators from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office executed search warrants on Galli’s residence and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-decavalcante-mafia-family-mobsters-hit-with-drug-charg" target="_blank">recovered</a> around 400 grams of cocaine. The search also recovered an FEG 9mm Model PGK-9HP gun loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition. At the time, Galli was on supervised release from a 2016 federal conviction for conspiracy to distribute in excess of 500 grams of cocaine. He served 30 months in federal prison on that charge.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mafia-author-shares-dark-stories-behind-garden-state-gangland-the" target="_blank">Mafia author shares dark stories behind Garden State Gangland</a>: The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The count of being a felon being in possession of a firearm during a drug crime carries a penalty of five years in prison which must be served consecutively to the penalty for the drug crime, and a $250,000 fine.</p>
<p>Galli will be sentenced on July 7, 2020.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family">DeCavalcante Crime Family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Gangster Disciples Chief of Security admits role in shootings, drug trafficking – Sentenced to 25 years
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/gangster-disciples-chief-of-security-admits-role-in-shootings-dru
2020-03-10T07:30:00.000Z
2020-03-10T07:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangster-disciples-chief-of-security-admits-role-in-shootings-dru" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237138897,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237138897?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>The Chief of Security of the Gangster Disciples for the State of Tennessee was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on Monday. 36-year-old Demarcus “Trip” Deon Crawford (photo above) had admitted to his involvement in the shooting of rival gangsters, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug trafficking</a>, and other crimes.</p>
<p>Crawford was busted alongside his boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-governor-of-tennessee-gangster-disciples-boss-byron-montrail" target="_blank">Byron Montrail Purdy</a> - who, as Governor, ran all the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=GD" target="_blank">Gangster Disciples</a>’ activities in the State of Tennessee - and 14 others in a large-scale RICO conspiracy case titled “Operation .38 Special” in May of 2016.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Enforcer</strong></span></p>
<p>As Chief of Security, Crawford was responsible for enforcing the gang’s rules. During a plea hearing on June 7, 2019, he admitted that he ordered the shooting of rival gang members for retaliation and to maintain his position within the Gangster Disciples, and that he participated directly and indirectly in the activities of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">gang</a>, including acts of attempted <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a> and narcotics trafficking.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-governor-of-tennessee-gangster-disciples-boss-byron-montrail" target="_blank">The Governor of Tennessee</a>: Gangster Disciples boss Byron Montrail Purdy ruled state’s underworld</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Prosecutors said that the Gangster Disciples is a highly-organized national gang active in more than 35 states, involved in numerous criminal activities and that it protects its power through threats, intimidation, and violence, including murder, attempted murder, assault, and obstruction of justice. The Gangster Disciples promotes its enterprise through member-only activities and provides support to members charged with or incarcerated for gang-related offenses.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Organization of the Gangster Disciples</strong></span></p>
<p>The Gangster Disciples were organized into different positions, including board members, and governor-of-governors who each controlled geographic regions; governors, assistant governors, chief enforcers and chief of security for each state or regions within the state where the Gangster Disciples were active; and coordinators and leaders within each local group.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/gangster-disciple-who-held-repo-men-at-gunpoint-as-he-took-his-ca" target="_blank"><strong>Gangster Disciple holds repo men at gunpoint, takes car back</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>The State of Tennessee was divided into specific area codes that defined the separate divisions or "sets" of the Gangster Disciples. The Knoxville set was known by its area code "865," Chattanooga by its area code "423," Nashville by its area code "615," Columbia by its area code "931," Jackson by its area code "731," and Memphis by its area code "901." Crawford was the Gangster Disciples’ "Chief Enforcer" for the State of Tennessee, meaning he was responsible for Gangster Disciple criminal activity in all of those regions.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">Street Gangs section</a> or <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime" target="_blank">Black organized crime</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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From a Spanish strip club straight to jail – Fugitive British drug boss arrested after 6 years on the run
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/from-a-spanish-strip-club-straight-to-jail-fugitive-british-drug
2020-03-04T09:55:53.000Z
2020-03-04T09:55:53.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/from-a-spanish-strip-club-straight-to-jail-fugitive-british-drug" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237137266,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237137266?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>The alleged leader of a Merseyside <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> trafficking group that expected to bank more than £1 million pounds sterling every month has been arrested in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spain" target="_blank">Spain</a> after more than six years on the run. 29-year-old Dominic McInally (photo above) was arrested when officers from the Spanish National Police raided the Casa Masa strip club, near <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marbella" target="_blank">Marbella</a>, in the early hours of February 28.</p>
<p>McInally was a subject of Operation Captura, which targets fugitives from British justice suspected to be hiding out among the British national community in parts of Spain. Jointly run by the National Crime Agency, Crimestoppers, and British and Spanish authorities, Operation Captura has now resulted in 85 subjects being apprehended since 2006. Just ten remain at large.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-untouchables-how-britain-s-top-gangsters-rich-off-armed-robbe" target="_blank">The Untouchables</a>: How Britain’s top gangsters got rich off armed robberies and smuggling tons of drugs</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Crew leader</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237137464,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237137464?profile=original" /></a>Following his arrest, McInally was taken to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Madrid" target="_blank">Madrid</a>, where extradition proceedings will begin. He has been wanted by Merseyside Police since January 2014, when officers intercepted a car in Crosby and recovered 6 kilograms of cocaine in a hidden compartment. Five members of the group allegedly led by McInally were later sentenced to a total of 48 years in prison.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: “Good jobs, boys!”</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/good-jobs-boys-fugitive-liverpool-gangster-tells-cops-when-they-a" target="_blank"><strong>fugitive Liverpool gangster tells cops when they arrest him</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>“The arrest of McInally in Spain is another fine example of forces and agencies working together across borders to apprehend a suspected serious and organized criminal,” Assistant Chief Constable Ian Critchley from Merseyside Police said. “We await the extradition proceedings and in finally seeing McInally put before the courts.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Albanians sentenced on charges they plotted to traffic £500K of cocaine
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/albanians-sentenced-on-charges-they-plotted-to-traffic-500k-of-co
2020-02-12T12:09:34.000Z
2020-02-12T12:09:34.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/albanians-sentenced-on-charges-they-plotted-to-traffic-500k-of-co" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237137656,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237137656?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Three <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Albania" target="_blank">Albanian</a> men were sentenced to prison on Monday over a plot to supply high purity <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> worth £506,000 and having false identity documents. 26-year-old Endri Cena (above, left) and 29-year-old Denis Markeci (above, right) both admitted possession with intent to supply coke and possessing false identity documents after being caught in December last year.</p>
<p>They were jailed for seven years and five years eight months respectively. A third man, 25-year-old Dorian Zili, faced one charge of possessing false identity documents and was sentenced to six months.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Resisting arrest</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237137862,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237137862?profile=original" /></a>NCA officers moved in to arrest the three men – all illegal immigrants with no fixed address - on 6 December as Zili (right) left a property in Britton Gardens, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bristol" target="_blank">Bristol</a>, where the other two men were. Markeci also left the property to get in a VW Golf, and as he was arrested, he tried to escape and caused a violent scuffle with officers. A package of cocaine was found in the Golf.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/clan-based-albanian-drug-gang-busted-across-europe" target="_blank"><strong>Clan-based Albanian drug gang busted across Europe</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Cena, who was carrying a rucksack with four packages of cocaine inside, tried to escape from the Britton Gardens property through a ground-floor back window. As he was caught he also violently tried to escape but was restrained by officers.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>6 kilos of cocaine</strong></span></p>
<p>The property was searched and false identity documents were found including four Italian and two Romanian identity cards, and illicit bank cards. Around £6,300 in cash was recovered and the flat appeared to be used as a drugs warehouse, containing wrapping, latex gloves and scales showing trace amounts of the cutting agent benzocaine.</p>
<p>In total, officers found 6.3kg of cocaine with a street value of £506,000.</p>
<p>Upon completion of their sentences the men will be deported.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<p> </p></div>
Profile of Moroccan drug boss Ridouan Taghi - “He who talks, goes. And everyone around him goes to sleep”
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/profile-of-moroccan-drug-boss-ridouan-taghi-he-who-talks-goes-and
2019-12-17T10:00:00.000Z
2019-12-17T10:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-moroccan-drug-boss-ridouan-taghi-he-who-talks-goes-and" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237106866,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237106866?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Some criminal masterminds appear out of nowhere. Ridouan Taghi is that type of gangster. The Moroccan-Dutch drug boss wasn’t known to the public or police until he had already flooded Europe with drugs and littered the streets with bullet-riddled bodies. It wasn't long before he became one of Europe's most wanted fugitives.</p>
<p>Born on December 20, 1977, in Morocco and raised in the small Dutch city of Vianen, Taghi allegedly eased into his role as one of Europe’s biggest narcotics traffickers by inheriting the routes his grandpa used to smuggle hashish from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Morocco" target="_blank">Morocco</a> to Europe. This is vehemently denied by Taghi’s lawyer, however, who says Taghi’s grandfather was a respected mayor until his retirement.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-narcos-profile-of-miguel-angel-felix-gallardo-mexico-s-e" target="_blank">The Real Narcos</a>: Profile of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Mexico’s “El Padrino” of drug lords</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>If this is how Taghi got his start in the underworld then he was able to keep an extremely low profile for a very long time. The first time his name is mentioned in a police report is in 2015 when authorities bust a hit team which committed murders ordered by organized crime bosses. Taghi was never charged in that investigation.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The Moroccan Keyser Söze</strong></span></p>
<p>Still, he was finally on police’s radar. Not that it helped them build a case, though. Just like the fictional Keyser Söze, Taghi had already vanished without a trace. In 2009 he officially left <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Netherlands" target="_blank">the Netherlands</a> to move somewhere abroad. Where? Nobody knows. Police believe he is traveling under several false identities and might be staying anywhere from Mexico and Colombia to Dubai.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-dea-agents-of-narcos-javier-pena-and-steve-murphy-talk-a" target="_blank"><strong>The Real DEA Agents of Narcos Talk Fact & Fiction</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>After 2015, investigators step up their game and with the help of several informants, they are able to paint a more complete picture of Taghi’s personality and career. One turncoat says Taghi gets his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Panama" target="_blank">Panama</a> and ships it via Morocco into Europe.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237107663,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237107663?profile=original" /></a><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Everyone around him goes to sleep”</strong></span></p>
<p>What stuns investigators most is how much violence Taghi uses to run his organization. Even against his own inner circle. He allegedly had a relative killed in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spain" target="_blank">Spain</a> in 2013 due to a disagreement over a drug shipment, one informant tells investigators.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/iran-allegedly-protects-moroccan-dutch-drug-gangsters-it-used-to" target="_blank">Iran allegedly protects Moroccan Dutch gangsters</a> it used to murder its “enemies of the state” abroad</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>By talking about these crimes, the informant earns himself and his family a death sentence as well, he confides in police. “He who talks, goes. And everyone around him goes to sleep,” Taghi allegedly told him.</p>
<p>Six days after his cooperation agreement is made public, an assassin murders the informant’s brother at his legitimate company in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Amsterdam" target="_blank">Amsterdam</a>. The killer had made an appointment for an internship, but instead shot the man for the life choices of his brother. He was caught on security cameras and arrested shortly thereafter.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Attacking his enemies and the media</strong></span></p>
<p>If the rumors and testimony are to be believed, Taghi is a man who rules by sheer force and terror. Dutch authorities believe he is also behind the attacks on the offices of newspaper <em>De Telegraaf</em> and weekly magazine <em>Panorama</em>, after both outlets published stories about his activities.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237108053,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237108053?profile=original" /></a>More proof of his Taghi’s lust for violence came in 2016 when authorities cracked the Canadian servers of Ennetcom, a company that provided encryption software for mobile phones used by Taghi and members of his organization. The text messages were encrypted with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) but, once decoded, gave investigators an inside look at Taghi’s aggressive leadership style.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Patrón</strong></span></p>
<p>Taghi’s brothers are also part of his criminal enterprise and frequently send texts on his behalf. Taghi is called Pat, short for “Patrón” or boss, by his underlings during these chats about <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a> and mayhem.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/smirking-and-laughing-as-his-victims-died-violent-deaths-profile" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of Irish mob hitman “Fat Freddie” Thompson</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>“Pat just told me that he’s gonna pay you guys handsomely, sir,” Taghi’s brother Morad writes to a member of a murder team. “Pat even said that if you do him in broad daylight you will get paid even better. You deserve it. You show more than any of my crews ever did. You’ve got balls and know what you have to do. You work well together. I love it. That’s working.”</p>
<p>After the 2016 killing of Samir Erraghib, who was shot to death in front of his little daughter, Taghi himself writes to one of his underlings: “Serves that son of a bitch right. Giving up information on our group.”</p>
<p>The man agrees, replying: “He’s a first-class snitch.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Mistaken identity</strong></span></p>
<p>Taghi loves murder. Investigators claim he is involved in at least twenty hits in the past few years. But his eagerness causes his hitmen to make fatal errors. On two different occasions in 2017 they murdered the wrong man. One innocent man was shot to death in Utrecht, the Netherlands, while a second man was blasted to death in Marrakech in Morocco.</p>
<p>The Moroccan victim turned out to be the son of a judge and authorities there began a vicious hunt for the killers. They arrested a slew of men. Police in Morocco have a reputation for using torture to get the information they desire and it didn’t take them long to flip one assassin and get him to spill the beans on Taghi and his brothers, who were arrested soon after.</p>
<p>The big boss man, though, remained elusive. In November of 2018, Dutch police offered the highest reward in the country’s history: €100,000 euros for information leading to his capture or the arrest of his second-in-command Said Razzouki. Taghi was also placed on <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Europol" target="_blank">Europol</a>’s list of Most Wanted criminals.</p>
<p>Far away, out of reach from the law, operating in the shadows, he continued to haunt his enemies.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Busted in Dubai</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE - December 17, 2019:</strong></span></p>
<p>Until the night of December 16, 2019. In cooperation with Dutch police, authorities in Dubai had been able to find the elusive crime boss. While Taghi was asleep at his villa in Dubai, where he had been living under a false identity, they raided his residence and placed him under arrest.</p>
<p>After Dutch authorities put up a $100,000 reward for his capture, Taghi had upped the ante as well. After allegedly ordering the murder of the brother of a witness against him, he had already shocked the Netherlands to its core. But in September of this year, he allegedly went even further.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Killing a lawyer</strong></span></p>
<p>A hit team had been following attorney Derk Wiersum's every move for several weeks. Then, on the early morning of September 18, they pounced. The 44-year-old lawyer had just exited his home in Amsterdam when an assassin shot and killed him. The hitman then jumped in a getaway car driven by a second culprit.</p>
<p>Before his murder, Wiersum was working as the attorney of the witness against Taghi. The same witness whose brother had been assassinated. All fingers pointed to the fugitive crime boss. Especially when police began making arrests in the murder case and busted Taghi's 26-year-old cousin Anouar Taghi.</p>
<p>With the big boss himself in handcuffs, we will find out in a court of law whether or not he was the criminal mastermind behind a wave of vicious gangland killings that rocked Europe. More importantly, we will find out if justice will be served. Either way, with Taghi behind bars, a lot of people will sleep a lot better.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Life in prison</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>UPDATE - February 27, 2024:</strong></span> Moroccan-Dutch crime boss Ridouan Taghi was sentenced to life in prison today in a court in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He was found guilty of six murders, four attempted murders, and several murder plots. Full story: <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/moroccan-dutch-crime-boss-ridouan-taghi-gets-life-in-prison">Moroccan-Dutch crime boss Ridouan Taghi gets life in prison</a></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<p> </p></div>
New Jersey DeCavalcante Mafia family mobsters hit with drug charges
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-decavalcante-mafia-family-mobsters-hit-with-drug-charg
2019-12-13T23:30:00.000Z
2019-12-13T23:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/new-jersey-decavalcante-mafia-family-mobsters-hit-with-drug-charg" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237137884,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237137884?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Two alleged associates of New Jersey’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family" target="_blank">DeCavalcante Mafia family</a> were hit with drug charges on Wednesday. 27-year-old Mario Galli III (photo above, left) and 37-year-old Jason Vella (right) are each charged with trafficking <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> and Galli is also charged with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Guns" target="_blank">gun</a> crimes.</p>
<p>Investigators from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office executed search warrants on each of the defendants’ residences on September 19, 2019, and recovered in excess of 150 grams of cocaine and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug</a> paraphernalia, including digital scales, glassine envelopes, a money counter, baking soda, grinders, and $2,295 in cash.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>FEG 9mm</strong></span></p>
<p>From Galli’s residence they also recovered a FEG 9mm Model PGK-9HP gun loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition. At the time, Galli was on supervised release from a 2016 federal conviction for conspiracy to distribute in excess of 500 grams of cocaine.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mafia-author-shares-dark-stories-behind-garden-state-gangland-the" target="_blank">Mafia author shares dark stories behind Garden State Gangland</a>: The Rise of the Mob in New Jersey</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>The drug charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The gun charges carry sentences ranging from a maximum penalty of 5 to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-decavalcante-crime-family">DeCavalcante Crime Family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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<p> </p></div>
Sinaloa Cartel distributor who supplied Crips, Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords for two decades gets 15-year term
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/sinaloa-cartel-distributor-who-supplied-crips-gangster-disciples
2019-12-11T00:00:00.000Z
2019-12-11T00:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sinaloa-cartel-distributor-who-supplied-crips-gangster-disciples" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237133674,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237133674?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>A Sinaloa <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-cartels" target="_blank">drug cartel</a> distributor was sentenced to 15 years in prison for drugs and gun crimes on December 6. 51-year-old Jesus “Pedro” Raul Salazar-Espinoza of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sinaloa" target="_blank">Sinaloa</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mexico" target="_blank">Mexico</a>, was brought down after a four-year investigation by the Los Angeles Strike Force.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles Strike Force identified Jesus Raul Salazar-Espinoza as a mid-level distributor for the Sinaloa Cartel, who coordinated drug-distribution activities in Mexico, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LA" target="_blank">Los Angeles</a>, and throughout the United States. The investigation revealed that Salazar had previously been deported to Mexico multiple times over the years, but had illegally re-entered the U.S. to continue his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug distribution</a> criminal enterprise.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-real-narcos-profile-of-miguel-angel-felix-gallardo-mexico-s-e" target="_blank">The Real Narcos</a>: Profile of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Mexico’s “El Padrino” of drug lords</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Supplying Crips, Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords</strong></span></p>
<p>Salazar led a Los Angeles-based organization that was fully operational and active for over 20 years. It consistently supplied narcotics, which included <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Fentanyl" target="_blank">fentanyl</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Meth" target="_blank">methamphetamine</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a> to major <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">street gangs</a> such as the Compton-based “Santana Blocc” <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Crips" target="_blank">Crips</a>, the Long Beach-based “Insane Crips,” the Long Beach-based “Rollin’ 20s” Gang, the Mississippi-based <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=GD" target="_blank">Gangster Disciples</a> Gang, and the Mississippi-based Vice Lords Gang and career drug dealers nationwide. The investigation further revealed that Salazar would routinely arrange narcotics deliveries and money pick-ups with his Mexico-based sources in the Sinaloa Cartel.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sinaloa-cartel-hitman-extradited-to-united-states" target="_blank"><strong>Sinaloa Cartel hitman extradited to United States</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>“Mr. Salazar’s 15-year prison sentence is a result of the tireless efforts of law enforcement to bring drug traffickers to justice,” said United States Attorney Nick Hanna. “This case illustrates that drug traffickers will face severe consequences for spreading poison across American communities.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">Street Gangs section</a> or <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime" target="_blank">Black organized crime</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Alleged Chicago gang boss charged with sending funds to ISIS in Syria – other gangsters busted for drugs
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/alleged-chicago-gang-boss-charged-with-sending-funds-to-isis-in-s
2019-11-20T08:00:00.000Z
2019-11-20T08:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/alleged-chicago-gang-boss-charged-with-sending-funds-to-isis-in-s" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237131682,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237131682?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>An alleged <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Chicago" target="_blank">Chicago</a>-area gang boss was arrested last week for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=ISIS" target="_blank">ISIS</a>). 37-year-old Jason “Abdul Ja’Me” Brown (photo above) is accused of providing $500 in cash to an individual on three separate occasions this year, with the understanding that the money would be wired to an ISIS soldier engaged in active combat in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Syria" target="_blank">Syria</a>.</p>
<p>However, instead of the funds going to Syria, they went straight to authorities, as the individual was confidentially working with law enforcement, and the purported ISIS fighter was actually an undercover law enforcement officer.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/outlaw-bikers-joining-fight-against-isis-in-iraq" target="_blank"><strong>Outlaw bikers join fight against ISIS in Iraq</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>AHK street gang</strong></span></p>
<p>Brown is charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. A detention hearing is set for Tuesday, November 21, in Chicago. Prosecutors claim Brown is the leader of the AHK street gang, which is based in the Chicago suburb of Bellwood and comprised of former members of other gangs, including the Black P Stones, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=GD" target="_blank">Gangster Disciples</a>, and Four Corner Hustlers.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/more-outlaw-bikers-gunning-for-isis" target="_blank"><strong>More outlaw bikers gunning for ISIS</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Drug markets</strong></span></p>
<p>Six other alleged AHK members or associates were charged in a separate complaint with federal drug offenses. According to the charges, AHK members trafficked various narcotics in the Chicago area, including a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Fentanyl" target="_blank">fentanyl</a> analogue, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>, and often boasted about the gang’s activities on social media. As part of the investigation, law enforcement shut down the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">gang</a>’s operation of two illicit drug markets on the West Side of Chicago and executed search warrants at numerous locations.</p>
<p>According to the charges, 34-year-old Tristan Clanton is an influential AHK member who leads a drug trafficking operation in Chicago and Bellwood. The organization is responsible for trafficking more than a half kilogram of heroin, at least 474 grams of fentanyl analogue, and distribution quantities of cocaine and other <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a>, the charges allege. Clanton and his crew sold drugs near two intersections in the North Lawndale and Humboldt Park neighborhoods of Chicago. Law enforcement shut down the crew’s operation of these markets as part of the federal probe. </p>
<ul>
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A most wanted man: Moroccan-Belgian drug boss Rachid Bouazza
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/a-most-wanted-man-moroccan-belgian-drug-boss-rachid-bouazza
2019-10-13T09:27:54.000Z
2019-10-13T09:27:54.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-most-wanted-man-moroccan-belgian-drug-boss-rachid-bouazza" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237136878,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237136878?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>An international drug boss from the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Belgium" target="_blank">Belgian</a> city of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Antwerp" target="_blank">Antwerp</a> was placed on the country’s most wanted list, this week. 55-year-old Rachid Bouazza is a Moroccan national and was sentenced to a 20-year prison term in March for his leading role in a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug trafficking</a> conspiracy.</p>
<p>Bouazza led an organization that smuggled large shipments of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> from the Dominican Republic into the port of Antwerp. According to Belgium media, he has been a leading figure in the city’s underworld for the better part of two decades.</p>
<p>In May of 2013 he was sentenced to 4 years behind bars for drug trafficking. Rather than serve his sentence, he vanished and remained a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Fugitive" target="_blank">fugitive</a> ever since. Now, he finds himself standing in the spotlight.</p>
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Britain’s biggest ever drugs pipeline busted by National Crime Agency – Billions worth’ of drugs smuggled
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/britain-s-biggest-ever-drugs-pipeline-busted-by-national-crime-ag
2019-10-10T20:30:00.000Z
2019-10-10T20:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/britain-s-biggest-ever-drugs-pipeline-busted-by-national-crime-ag" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237126087,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237126087?profile=original" /></a>By <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> Editors</p>
<p>Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) calls it “an industrial-scale operation – the biggest ever uncovered in the United Kingdom” involving the importation of over 50 tons of drugs worth billions of pounds from the Netherlands into the UK.</p>
<p>Thirteen men, aged between 24 and 59, were apprehended during dawn raids on Tuesday, in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=London" target="_blank">London</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Manchester" target="_blank">Manchester</a>, Stockport, St Helens, Warrington, Bolton, Dewsbury, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Leeds" target="_blank">Leeds</a>. They are believed to be part of the British arm of a well-established organized crime group that used Dutch and British front companies to import <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">cannabis</a> – secreted within lorry loads of vegetables and juice – through United Kingdom ports over an 18-month period.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-untouchables-how-britain-s-top-gangsters-rich-off-armed-robbe" target="_blank">The Untouchables</a>: How Britain’s top gangsters got rich off armed robberies and smuggling tons of drugs</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Four men and two women from <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Netherlands" target="_blank">the Netherlands</a> were also arrested in April by the Dutch National Police on European Arrest Warrants. They are currently awaiting extradition to the Britain.</p>
<p>“We suspect these men were involved in an industrial-scale operation – the biggest ever uncovered in the UK – bringing in tons of deadly drugs that were distributed to crime groups throughout the country,” Jayne Lloyd, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=NCA" target="_blank">NCA</a> Regional Head of Investigations, said. “By working closely with partners here and overseas, in particular the Dutch National Police, we believe we have dismantled a well-established drug supply route.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Start of investigation</strong></span></p>
<p>The full extent of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug trafficking</a> operation the NCA allege these men were involved in was uncovered following the interception of three consignments in September 2018. They contained 351 kilos of cocaine, 92 kilos of heroin, 250 kilos of cannabis and 1,850 kilos of hemp/hashish, with a total street value of more than £38 million.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237125889,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237125889?profile=original" /></a>Subsequent enquiries led officers to believe they had imported drugs on numerous occasions between February 2017 and October 2018. This investigation linked to an NCA operation, where 13 individuals were jailed for a total of 176 years, after the seizure of more than 100kg of heroin in 2015.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Profile of</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-british-drug-boss-robert-the-voice-dawes-he-was-prepar" target="_blank"><strong>British drug boss Robert “The Voice” Dawes</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Europol, Eurojust, Police of Finland National Bureau of Investigation, Border Force, HMRC and numerous police forces have also supported the NCA with the investigation.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The accused</strong></span></p>
<p>The following men have been remanded to custody: Paul Green (DoB 26/03/65), of Eccleston, St Helens; Sohail Quereshi (DoB 08/07/60), Wood Crescent, White City, London; Mohammed Ovais (DoB 18/01/78), of Bournlee Avenue, Burnage, Manchester; Khaleed Vazeer (DoB 09/11/62), of Westwood Avenue, Timperley, Manchester; Steven Martin (DoB 12/04/71), of Chorley Old Road, Bolton; Mark Peers (DoB 07/02/64), of Norbeck Close, Warrington; Oliver Penter (DoB 01/07/82), of Gladstone Street, Stockport.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237127056,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237127056?profile=original" /></a>Andrew Reilly (DoB 24/11/81) of Grange Park Road, St Helens; Paul Ruane (DoB 25/01/65), of Bewsey Rd, Warrington; Ghazanfar Mahmood (DoB 03/12/70), of Green Lane, Bolton; Ifthikar Hussain (DoB 26/08/73) of Upland Grove, Leeds, West Yorkshire; Vojtech Dano (DoB 23/09/81), of Vulcan Gardens, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire; and Ivan Turtak (DoB 30/08/85), of Vulcan Gardens, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, have been released on bail.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/london-based-albanian-cocaine-gang-sent-to-prison" target="_blank"><strong>London-based Albanian cocaine gang sent to prison</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>All are due to appear at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square, on November 7, 2019.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
California Crip went from selling drugs to funding his own career as an author
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/california-crip-went-from-selling-drugs-to-funding-his-own-career
2019-10-08T19:44:30.000Z
2019-10-08T19:44:30.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/california-crip-went-from-selling-drugs-to-funding-his-own-career" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237134890,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237134890?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Stanley James II isn’t silent about his membership in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Crips" target="_blank">Crips</a>. It’s something that defined him as a person and profoundly impacted his life. Yet, despite the gang life and multiple stretches in prison, he managed to switch careers. Instead of selling drugs, he began writing and selling his own books. “I just used the same hustle ideology I did with drugs,” he tells <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a> in an exclusive interview.</p>
<p>The hustle never stops for 29-year-old Stanley James II (photo above). In 2017, he dropped his first hit novel The Bust (LiveByTheGunDieByTheGun) and he has only been looking forward ever since. He has written over six books in total and is all over social media promoting his writings and unique brand. As someone who lived the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">gang life</a>, he offers an insider’s perspective in his fictional stories that adds a large dose of realism.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Real Talk</strong></span></p>
<p>“Reality is everything for me,” James II tells Gangsters Inc. “I wanna give my readers a true account of what's really going on in our urban communities that's not getting enough exposure. When you read my books, you’re actually watching a movie in which you yourself or someone you know is the main character.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/elusive-drug-boss-frank-matthews-to-hit-the-big-screen-from-narco" target="_blank">Elusive drug boss Frank Matthews to hit the big screen</a>: From narco billionaire at 28 to mysterious phantom</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>It’s not hard to see James II or someone he grew up with as one of the characters, hanging with gangsters, slanging dope, hustling and scheming. But there is much more to James II’s story. “Growing up in Long Beach, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=California" target="_blank">California</a>, for me was pretty much fun and tough at the same time,” he says. “I mean fun as in when I was a kid, I pretty much stayed active and involved in as much as my mother would allow me. As an adolescent I would never leave the house without my tie.”</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:14pt;">The Last Boy Scout</span></strong></p>
<p>Up until his teens he was in the boy scouts and played sports, while also attending church and various community events. He had a pretty care-free childhood, but then things changed. The early 1990s rolled around and he was confronted with the dangers and allure of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">gangs</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: “Corey Hamlet is as smart as any CEO we’ve prosecuted” - Profile:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/corey-hamlet-is-as-smart-as-any-ceo-we-ve-prosecuted-profile-of-g" target="_blank"><strong>Grape Street Crips leader Corey Hamlet</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>“For the most part my neighborhood is run down with murders, drugs, prostitution, and crime. The gang I became a member of is located on the Northside of the Long Beach County borderline of Compton surrounded by Southside Crips and Neighborhood Compton Crips. My gang, the Notorious 4 Corner Bloc Crips, was originally established in the early 1960s as the Squarehood Crips and later changed its name to 4 Corner Bloc Crips in the early 1980's,” James II explains.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Jumped in</strong></span></p>
<p>“I officially crossed over into the gang life around the tender age of 16/17 when my big homie “Big Face” was released from Corcoran State Prison after doing a 5-year bid and I got jumped in for 40 seconds.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237135468,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237135468?profile=original" /></a>By that time, he had already been involved in the drug trade for several years. He started as a 12-year-old, dealing <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Crack" target="_blank">crack</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">powder cocaine</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">weed</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ecstasy" target="_blank">ecstasy</a>, meth and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>. “I made my first $50 dollars off a 50 double up of crack cocaine,” James II remembers. “I didn't even know what I was actually selling for about a year and a half until I finally opened up the package and saw it was pure white cocaine.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-kingpin-freeway-rick-ross-moving-tons-of-cocaine-with-a-nod" target="_blank">Drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross</a>: Moving tons of cocaine with a nod of approval from the White House</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>He received the narcotics from “Big Face” every morning before school. “Me and my friends had to walk down the corner to catch the bus to school. As I walked down the block heading towards the bus stop, I would stop at “Big Face” his house as gang members been out all night into the morning hustling, doing crime, and he would secretly give me several packages to give to the crackheads waiting at the bus stop. I kept $50 off of each package. As I got older into my teens and adulthood, we had several dope spots and several money stash houses in our republic. We had full control of our turf. We had a payphone in front of our neighborhood store London’s Market where a lot of money was made. We ran a whole operation in which we had our whole neighborhood involved.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Gang life</strong></span></p>
<p>Gangs were a part of life – and death – on the streets of California. Though they are mostly associated with drug dealing and drive-by shootings, gangs offer something different for each member. “The current roles being played in any street gang across America vary for different reasons and different terms. When my gang originally started in the late 1960s it was a form of protection for our residents from the outside neighboring gangs as well as the racist groups of people from different cities and blocks coming into our neighborhood committing crimes and burglaries amongst our residents.”</p>
<p>Then things got much darker as drugs ravaged through the neighborhood. “It gradually turned into black-on-black crimes as <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Guns" target="_blank">guns</a>, drugs, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Money" target="_blank">money</a> was brought in from government agents to divide and conquer neighborhoods across the city and county turning us all against one another.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237135672,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237135672?profile=original" /></a>In and out of jail</strong></span></p>
<p>With money rolling in from illicit activities, James II eventually became a target for police. In his twenties, he was in and out of county jails. “From L.A. County to Orange County jails my name rings bells,” he says. “I just recently got off of probation after 8 years. My charges stemmed from commercial burglary, drugs, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robbery</a> and cocaine charges on top of gang enhancements. While in jail I've encountered many heavy hitters and different players of the street game from different places from Los Angeles and throughout the United States.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-boss-ricks-from-selfies-in-the-gym-to-trafficking-heroin" target="_blank"><strong>Drug boss Ricks: From selfies in the gym to trafficking heroin</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>While some see <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Prison" target="_blank">prison</a> as a schooling program or rite of passage, James II sees it differently. “Jail is something I wouldn't wish on anyone not even my worst enemy,” he says. “It's a dead period in your life as you’re slightly disconnected from the rest of the world. Everyday it's a possibility that you wouldn't be coming home, but leaving in a body bag. You’re in there with your enemies and you have no guns, just your shank or two fists.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Escaping reality with words</strong></span></p>
<p>Sitting behind bars made him think. Was this it? Hustling with his gang on the outside just so he could fight rival gangs on the inside? Get released and do it all over again? Something in his mind clicked and he began looking for ways to let his inspiration out to see where it might lead him. He started writing short stories about his gang days and let other inmates read them. “They were blown away in surprise,” he says with pride. “By then I figured I had a calling.”</p>
<p>He loved how his simple words could help people escape the harsh reality of jail life and figured he could take others on a journey into his fictional worlds as well. Using money he had saved from selling drugs, he funded his literary career.</p>
<p>“With little to no experience nor direction in self-publishing and no proper schooling or college degree, I had to take the streets approach. I started with simple poetry chapbooks that consisted of paper and staples made into a cheap booklet that I sold around Los Angeles County for $5 bucks. I just used the same hustle ideology I used for selling drugs, but this time I was hustling books and other people's literature to get by.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Big break</strong></span></p>
<p>He did that for about a year when he was noticed by Los Angeles-based publishing company No Brakes. He inked a joint venture publishing deal with Terry Wroten for his first Gang Tales novel, The Bust (LiveByTheGunDieByTheGun), which is loosely based on his life as a <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Crips" target="_blank">Crips gangster</a>.</p>
<p>While writing The Bust, three of James II’s best friends were hit with murder charges. “If it wasn’t for God and the birth of my son, I would’ve been right there with them,” he says. “The impact it had on me brought out more of me and gave me a clearer perception of this life that thousands of us Crip members had chosen.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-governor-of-tennessee-gangster-disciples-boss-byron-montrail" target="_blank">The Governor of Tennessee</a>: Gangster Disciples boss Byron Montrail Purdy ruled state’s underworld</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>It also made the moment he received the first print edition of his book that much more special. “Man, when I first held my book The Bust (LiveByTheGunDieByTheGun), the physical book, in my hands, no lie, it felt exactly like the first time I copped a brick of cocaine. I felt every emotion shot through my veins. It's like holding a baby, you know. My legacy is forever planted here on this earth.”</p>
<p>That feeling was confirmed when it turned out to be a huge hit, selling over ten thousand units in the first month. It earned him respect from established authors and other publishers began paying him attention as well.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Dreams</strong></span></p>
<p>James II is very happy with how things are going and looks to keep writing “raw vivid Gang Tales living as a traveling researcher” but he is also looking at new adventures. “My plan for the future is to be indulging in screenplay writing as well as acting. Maybe get a spot on 50 Cent's writing team,” he says with a laugh. “Perhaps being able to produce my own films later down the line.”</p>
<p>James II has no shortage of dreams. It’s important to have those and keep dreaming once certain dreams come true. Everyone has a shot. Whether you are in a gang or locked up, poor or without any education: You too can make it.</p>
<p>As a member of an infamous gang, James II had his ups and downs as well. But he realized how every person and situation offers different opportunities. “Everyone chooses to gangbang for different reasons. All Crips don't have the same motives in why we Crip. There's a difference in people who are gang banging and those being a gang member. Change is inevitable!”</p>
<p><em>You can buy Stanley James II’s books on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/author/ref=mw_dp_a_ap?_encoding=UTF8&asin=B01AND4JEG&author=Stanley+%22Babyface%22+James+II&searchAlias=books" target="_blank">Amazon</a> and follow him on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/authorstanleyjamesii/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TgFace" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">Street Gangs section</a> or <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime" target="_blank">Black organized crime</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
United Blood Nation gangsters plead guilty to RICO conspiracy involving multiple murders
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/united-blood-nation-gangsters-plead-guilty-to-rico-conspiracy-inv
2019-09-08T06:02:45.000Z
2019-09-08T06:02:45.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/united-blood-nation-gangsters-plead-guilty-to-rico-conspiracy-inv" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237130098,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237130098?profile=original" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>In the underworld, death is always around the corner. Especially if one was to run into two men nicknamed “Savage” and “Murda Mo,” both are North Carolina members of the United Blood Nation (<a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=UBN" target="_blank">UBN</a> or <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bloods" target="_blank">Bloods</a>) gang who pleaded guilty Friday to Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) conspiracy involving multiple <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murders</a>.</p>
<p>“Savage” his real name is Tyquan Ramont Powell, a 24-year-old from Charlotte, while “Murda Mo” is really named Lamonte Kentrell Lloyd, a 25-year-old from Scotland Neck. They admitted their membership in the United Blood Nation and involvement in murder and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robbery</a> in support of the organization.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Murder and robbery in North Carolina</strong></span></p>
<p>Powell and Lloyd committed two murders and three attempted murders over the course of less than a month. They committed the first murder in Scotland Neck, North Carolina, in January 2016 by shooting into a car with three occupants because they believed that one of the occupants was cooperating with law enforcement and intended to testify in a criminal case against a close associate of the defendants. Bullets struck all three occupants and the intended target of the shooting was killed. They then fled to, among other places, Charlotte, North Carolina, where they sought and received refuge and resources from UBN members and associates while attempting to evade arrest.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/united-blood-nation-godfather-says-he-is-part-of-the-last-ones-th" target="_blank">United Blood Nation Godfather says he is part</a> of “the last ones that God put in power”</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Their murderous streak continued a month later in Gastonia, North Carolina, in February 2016, where they attempted to rob four victims using handguns. When the victims resisted the robbery attempt, Powell fired his firearm and killed one of the victims. That same month, Powell and Lloyd attempted to rob another victim. Lloyd shot the victim in the back of the head, but the victim was effectively treated for his injuries at the hospital and lived.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Major hit against UBN</strong></span></p>
<p>In May 2017, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/83-bosses-and-members-of-united-blood-nation-indicted" target="_blank">83 members of the United Blood Nation</a> were indicted in the Western District of North Carolina for crimes including RICO conspiracy. 78 defendants have now either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial due to this investigation, and 68 have been sentenced. A jury convicted three top leaders of the UBN of racketeering conspiracy in May 2018, and one defendant was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy at trial in July 2019. 74 defendants have pleaded guilty in this investigation, including four who participated in the racketeering conspiracy by, among other crimes, committing a murder in July 2016 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Power of the United Blood Nation</strong></span></p>
<p>According to court documents and evidence presented at a May 2018 trial against <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/prison-bars-couldn-t-stop-powerful-godfathers-of-united-blood-nat" target="_blank">the godfathers of the United Blood Nation</a>, the UBN is a violent criminal <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">street gang</a> operating throughout the east coast of the United States since it was founded as a prison gang in 1993. Its members are often identified by their use of the color red and can also often be identified by common tattoos or burn marks. Examples include: a three-circle pattern, usually burned onto the upper arm, known as a “dog paw”; the acronym “M.O.B.,” which stands for “Member of Bloods”; the words “damu,” or “eastside”; the number five; the five-pointed star and the five-pointed crown. UBN members have distinct hand signs and written codes, which are used to identify other members and rival gang members.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-south-side-cartel-karma-catches-up-to-what-was-once-known-as" target="_blank">The South Side Cartel</a>: Newark’s most violent street gang</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Members of the UBN are expected to conduct themselves and their illegal activity according to rules and regulations set by their leaders. Prominent among these is a requirement to pay monthly dues to the organization, often in the amounts of $31 or $93. UBN gang dues are derived from illegal activity performed by subordinate UBN members including narcotics trafficking, robberies and wire fraud, among other forms of illegal racketeering activity.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">Street Gangs section</a> or <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime" target="_blank">Black organized crime</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out our <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/blog/gangsters-inc-on-social-media">social media channels</a></strong></li>
<li><strong><a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/about-gangsters-inc">About Gangsters Inc.</a></strong></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
“Chappi” and the Medellin Cartel: Profile of German crime boss Heinz Bernhard Chapuis
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/chappi-and-the-medellin-cartel-profile-of-german-crime-boss-heinz
2019-07-04T10:53:10.000Z
2019-07-04T10:53:10.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chappi-and-the-medellin-cartel-profile-of-german-crime-boss-heinz" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237124483,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237124483?profile=original" /></a></strong>By Milko</p>
<p>German crime boss Heinz Bernhard Chapuis had quite the career. He was once viewed as his country's biggest drug boss. But as many if not all in his line of business, his rise was followed by a downfall, so much so that it prompted a judge to emphasize it when he sentenced him to prison.</p>
<p>Nicknamed “Chappi,” Heinz Chapuis was born in Cologne, Germany. The German media called him “the number 1 in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Germany" target="_blank">Germany</a>’s organized drug underworld since the 1990s.” He allegedly had contacts with <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Colombia" target="_blank">Colombia</a>’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Medellin" target="_blank">Medellin Cartel</a> and ran his criminal empire from the city of Lanaken in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Belgium" target="_blank">Belgium</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/profile-of-spanish-drug-boss-sito-minanco-who-can-t-stop-smugglin" target="_blank">Profile of Spanish drug boss Sito Miñanco</a>, who can’t stop smuggling tons of cocaine despite his fame</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237124670,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237124670?profile=original" /></a>On August 9, 1996, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. According to the court in Cologne, Chapuis headed a drug gang which had trafficked <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> into <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/europe-overview" target="_blank">Europe</a> between 1991 and 1994. He did his time and was released from prison in 2006.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Downfall</strong></span></p>
<p>Out on the streets, it didn’t take long for Chapuis to get in trouble again. On April 10, 2008, the now 55-year-old drug boss was arrested again. He was charged with trafficking cocaine and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Meth" target="_blank">meth</a> and allegedly tried to sell an undercover cop 2 kilos of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>.</p>
<p>In August of 2008, Chapuis was sentenced to 5 years in prison. The judge pointed out the drug kingpin’s fall from grace, saying: “Back in the day, you wouldn’t have gotten out of bed for 2 kilos of cocaine.”</p>
<p>His criminal career wasn’t the only thing going downhill. On March 3, 2010, Chapuis was released from prison because of his poor health. He was coping with depression, insomnia, and tinnitus.</p>
<p><em><strong>Milko (a pseudonym) is a Dutchman who has studied organized crime in the Netherlands, its history, and its offshoots in foreign countries for over two decades. He is also very knowledgeable about crime in other European countries and is eager to share his information.</strong></em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Former Bonanno Mafia family consigliere Anthony Graziano dead at 78, his “Mob Wives” daughter reports
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/former-bonanno-mafia-family-consigliere-anthony-graziano-dead-at
2019-05-25T08:25:33.000Z
2019-05-25T08:25:33.000Z
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/former-bonanno-mafia-family-consigliere-anthony-graziano-dead-at" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9236994064,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9236994064?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Longtime Bonanno crime family mobster Anthony “T.G.” Graziano passed away on Friday, his daughter Renee reported. He was 78. Graziano was a powerhouse in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno family</a> and a trusted consigliere of boss Joseph Massino. Unlike his leader, however, Graziano stood tall and remained loyal to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Omerta" target="_blank">omerta</a>.</p>
<p>“I can’t believe you’re gone,” his daughter Renee Graziano wrote on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reneegraziano/" target="_blank">her Instagram</a>. “Life will never be the same without you, my hero, my protector, my rock, my dad, and the best man in the world. Thank you for loving me the way I am and for helping guide my son. We are sure gonna miss you. Rest in peace, daddy.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Mob Wives</strong></span></p>
<p>Renee Graziano got her father in a bit of trouble with his <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> colleagues when she starred in the reality series Mob Wives, which followed several daughters and wives of gangsters and mobsters. Jennifer Graziano, another daughter of Anthony, had created the series.</p>
<p>Luckily for him – and them – he had enough clout within the New York Mafia to keep the television dollars flowing. Though he didn’t speak to his daughters for several years as a result, they eventually set aside their differences.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Friends in high places</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-consigliere-anthony" target="_blank">Graziano</a> had quite the reputation within the underworld. Known as a moneymaker capable of deadly violence, he became a capo in the Bonanno family in the 1980s, authorities listed him as one in 1990.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237124897,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237124897?profile=original" /></a>His close friendship with boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bonanno-boss-joseph-massino" target="_blank">Joseph Massino</a> enabled him to rise even higher up the ladder. He became a consigliere to Massino as the 1990s progressed. But his rank did not keep him safe from the law. He served several years for tax evasion in the early 1990s and pleaded guilty to loansharking, cocaine distribution and a murder conspiracy in 2002 for which he went back inside prison walls for 9 years.</p>
<p>Around that same time, he was hit with other charges in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Florida" target="_blank">South Florida</a>. This time for his role in illegal gambling, loan-sharking and boiler room operations. The boiler room operation was a phony tele-marketing scheme that swindled $11.7 million from investors. Graziano pleaded guilty again and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Man and a half”</strong></span></p>
<p>At one of his trials an associate of Graziano was asked by a reporter whether Graziano would cooperate with authorities. He responded: “Are you nuts? That man is a man and a half.”</p>
<p>He was right. Graziano was as stand up as they come. He was released from prison in 2013 and came out to a new world. One in which his daughters had become rich off a show discussing and honoring the life he went to prison for. He needed some time, but he adjusted. He lived by a code based on family first. He just had to find a way to accept the way his daughters had done things.</p>
<p>“T.G.” Graziano was a stone-cold gangster who did the crime and served his time. He loved his family and was loyal to the very end. To both his blood family and the one he pledged his blood to. These types of qualities are rare nowadays.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family">Bonanno crime family section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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In the Irish city of Dublin, a crew known as “The Family” is flooding the streets with heroin and cocaine
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/in-the-irish-city-of-dublin-a-crew-known-as-the-family-is-floodin
2019-05-16T18:34:07.000Z
2019-05-16T18:34:07.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/in-the-irish-city-of-dublin-a-crew-known-as-the-family-is-floodin" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237119852,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237119852?profile=original" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>Police in Ireland busted a member of what media call “a veteran crime gang known as <em>The Family</em>” and seized almost €300,000 euros of drugs. A 48-year-old man was arrested on Monday night in Ballyfermot, a suburb of Dublin.</p>
<p>Authorities are withholding the man’s identity, as is custom in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ireland" target="_blank">Ireland</a>, but did report that two kilos of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a> with a street value of €280,000, and €12,000 worth’ of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> were seized during the raid.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Dublin’s The Family</strong></span></p>
<p>“The Family” operates in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Dublin" target="_blank">Dublin</a>’s Ballyfermot, Clondalkin and Tallaght neighborhoods and is said to be led by a 43-year-old man who served 6 years behind bars for possession of €2 million worth’ of heroin. He also has a history of violence, using shootings to intimidate rivals. His gang is <a href="https://www.herald.ie/news/gardai-seize-300k-of-drugs-from-veteran-mobsters-the-family-38112765.html" target="_blank">described</a> as “a highly unusual but very effective crew” with some members holding down steady, blue-collar jobs.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Smirking and laughing as his victims died violent deaths -</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/smirking-and-laughing-as-his-victims-died-violent-deaths-profile" target="_blank"><strong>Profile: Irish mob hitman “Fat Freddie” Thompson</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Irish police have been targeting the gang for over two decades, which led to several big busts. In 2015, they seized over €3 million euros of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drugs</a>, three sub-machine <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Guns" target="_blank">guns</a>, two pistols and ammunition.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Throwing cocaine out of a hotel room window</strong></span></p>
<p>Two years earlier, in August of 2013, a 44-year-old gang member in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Spain" target="_blank">Spain</a> on business was so paranoid that the cops were on his tail that he threw out two suitcases filled with almost €4 million euros of cocaine out of his hotel room window. He received a 7-year prison sentence in 2015.</p>
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<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/europe-overview">European organized crime section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Trafficking drugs and dismembering bodies with the Graewe brothers, associates of the Cleveland Mafia
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/trafficking-drugs-and-dismembering-bodies-with-the-graewe-brother
2019-03-21T18:55:56.000Z
2019-03-21T18:55:56.000Z
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/trafficking-drugs-and-dismembering-bodies-with-the-graewe-brother" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237122300,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237122300?profile=original" /></a>By Robert Sberna</p>
<p>The recent death of Frederick “Fritz” Graewe (photo above), a feared mob associate in Cleveland, Ohio, shows that it’s possible to live by the sword but not die by the sword. Graewe, 66, seemingly enjoyed a peaceful suburban lifestyle until passing away of natural causes in February. He had been at home since 1992, when he was released from prison after serving 10 years of a 42-year sentence for mob-related activities. </p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Making a killing</strong></span></p>
<p>Frederick, along with his brother, Hartmut, were key figures in a $15 million-a-year drug ring during the 1970s and early 1980s. As enforcers for the ring, the Graewes doggedly protected and expanded their high-stakes business. According to law enforcement documents, they were responsible for the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murders</a> of a half-dozen mobster rivals and police informers.</p>
<p>In his post-prison years, Frederick had eschewed crime, turning his attention instead to more mundane pursuits. According to his Cleveland Plain Dealer obituary, he was an artist and he enjoyed hunting, fishing, gardening and spending time with his family. </p>
<p>Despite the tranquility of Frederick’s golden years, it would be difficult to overlook his colorful past.</p>
<p>Frederick and Hartmut (known as “Hans the Surgeon” for his affinity for dismembering his victims) were known as merciless killers, whether in protection of their drug turf or as hired guns. As testament to their skills, efficiency and discretion, the German-born <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Graewes" target="_blank">Graewes</a> were closely associated with both the Italian and Irish mob factions in Cleveland--two groups that were locked in a bitter fight over <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cleveland" target="_blank">Cleveland</a>’s rackets.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>War profiteers</strong></span></p>
<p>From 1976 to 1982, Cleveland’s underworld was in turmoil, trigged by the unexpected death of long-time <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Scalish" target="_blank">John Scalish</a>. Because he hadn’t formally named a successor, Scalish left a leadership void that triggered a bloody war between the established Mafia, led by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Licavoli" target="_blank">James “Jack White” Licavoli</a>; and the Irish gang, headed by <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Greene" target="_blank">Danny Greene</a>, a cocky former longshoreman.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-uneasy-accord-of-a-mobster-and-a-cop-in-cleveland-ohio-in-the" target="_blank"><strong>The Uneasy Accord of Mobster Danny Greene and a Cop</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Greene began his career on the docks as a worker and a tenacious labor organizer. Eventually, he muscled his way into the presidency of the local longshoremen’s union. Intensely proud of his Celtic heritage, he wore green jackets, drove a green Cadillac and often handed out green pens to strangers. Shortly after Green was elected longshoremen president, he had the union office painted green and he installed plush green carpeting.</p>
<p>Dozens of underworld figures were killed during the Italian-Irish mob war, oftentimes by car bombing. In fact, the deadly explosions were so prevalent that federal authorities nicknamed Cleveland <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-uneasy-accord-of-a-mobster-and-a-cop-in-cleveland-ohio-in-the" target="_blank">“Bomb City, U.S.A.”</a> in 1976.</p>
<p>The gangland conflict ended on Oct. 6, 1977 when Greene was killed by a car bomb after leaving his dentist’s office. The <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a>-orchestrated explosion tore Greene’s clothing from his body, except for his brown zip-up boots. According to a police report, his left arm was ripped off and thrown 90 feet from the blast. A gold ring with five green stones remained on his finger.</p>
<p>The brothers Graewe not only survived the Italian-Irish conflict, they thrived—primarily by maintaining neutrality and also by earning millions in profits for their various gangland colleagues. The Graewes’ main criminal enterprises were drug trafficking and freelance killings. At some point, they combined those interests and focused their activities on bumping off drug dealers and stealing their stashes. </p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Falling down</strong></span></p>
<p>The Graewes crime spree came to an end in 1982 when they were indicted for murder, narcotics distribution and gambling. Indicted with them were Kevin McTaggart, who was a nephew and lieutenant of Danny Greene; Cleveland Mafia capo Joseph Gallo; and Mafia acting boss Angelo “Big Ange” Lonardo, who financed the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">drug ring</a>.</p>
<p>At their 1983 federal trial, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Zagaria" target="_blank">Carmen Zagaria</a>, a close associate of the Graewes who had turned government witness, provided chilling testimony about the brothers to the spellbound jury. Zagaria, who coordinated the drug ring and served as an intermediary between the Mafia and the Graewes, noted that the drug operation at one time supplied 40 percent of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a> distributed in Cleveland.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-italian-mafia-irish-gangs-chinese-tongs-bootleggers-gamblers" target="_blank">The Italian Mafia, Irish gangs, Chinese Tongs</a>: Welcome to Gangland Boston</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Murders became commonplace for Zagaria and his cohorts. At first, they killed to avenge wrongdoings and to silence suspected rats. Other murders were motivated by greed: If they believed a fellow drug dealer was vulnerable, it’s likely he would be bumped off.</p>
<p>In one situation, Zagaria heard that a competitor named David Hardwicke was trying to sell a kilogram of cocaine in the Cleveland area. At a meeting between Zagaria, the Graewes and McTaggart, the crew decided to steal the kilogram (worth about $40,000 in today’s dollars) and kill Hardwicke. He was lured into a car where Frederick Graewe used a coathanger to strangle him. Hardwicke’s cocaine was sold and the proceeds split among the murder participants. Later, one of Hardwicke’s former drug partners gave Zagaria a $5000 discount on a kilo of cocaine for his service in disposing of Hardwicke.</p>
<p>By 1980, the Graewes and Zagaria had become so emboldened that they were unafraid to rip off and murder their principal drug suppliers—even men who had strong Mafia connections. One of those victims, Florida-based Joseph Giaimo, supplied large amounts of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a>, cocaine and Quaaludes to Zagaria’s crew and other distributors. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/don-king-from-street-thug-to-street-name" target="_blank"><strong>Don King: From street thug to street name?</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p> In early January 1981, they arranged to purchase a ton of marijuana from Giaimo. Runners were sent to <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Florida" target="_blank">Florida</a> to pick up the drugs. Two weeks later, Giaimo traveled to Cleveland to get his money. He was instructed to meet Zagaria and the Graewes at Zagaria’s pet fish store on Cleveland’s west side.</p>
<p>At the store, he was shot twice in the back of the head by Frederick Graewe. His body was bricked into a basement wall of the pet store, then later dumped in a quarry pond.</p>
<p>After Giaimo was missing for a week, representatives of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Miami" target="_blank">Miami</a>, New York and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview" target="_blank">Chicago Mafia</a> came to Cleveland to talk to local mob leaders. Because Giaimo was one of the mob’s largest narcotics conduits in the Southern U.S., his disappearance was a serious concern. The out-of-towners also talked to Zagaria, who was able to convince them that Giaimo had not been seen in Cleveland.</p>
<p>The Giaimo rip-off netted $500,000 ($1.5 million in current dollars) for Zagaria, the Graewes, and their associates.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Bring me my surgical tools”</strong></span></p>
<p>At one point in the Graewes’ trial, Zagaria’s testimony brought horrified gasps from the courtroom when he revealed gruesome details of the murder of William Bostic, a mob affiliate.</p>
<p>Bostic, who was suspected of stealing from a gambling operation run by Zagaria and the Graewes, was lured to Zagaria’s pet store in June 1980. He was then shot twice in the head by McTaggart and taken to the store’s basement. Later, Zagaria said he saw Hartmut bending over Bostic’s body.</p>
<p>In testimony recounted by the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, Zagaria said that Hartmut told Frederick to bring him his “surgical tools,” a meat cleaver 18 to 20 inches long and a knife with a 20-inch blade. Hartmut used the cleaver to chop off Bostic’s left hand. He then went upstairs where the other men were gathered and asked, “You guys want to see a turkey? I took off his helmet and gloves” (meaning his head and hands). Hartmut then said, “I learned you can’t chop off a man’s head from the back, you have to flip him over and slit his throat.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/mobster-and-brother-of-youngstown-mafia-boss-dies" target="_blank"><strong>Ohio mobster and brother of Youngstown Mafia boss dies</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>While Hartmut joked about being sued for malpractice, the men loaded Bostic’s headless body into the Graewes’ Volkswagen, dubbed the “Ambulance.” Zagaria then testified: “Hans grabbed my hand, stuck it in a bucket (which contained Bostic’s hands) and said, ‘Carmen, why don’t you shake hands with your friend before he leaves.’”</p>
<p>Zagaria recalled that his hand touched one of Bostic’s hands and he quickly drew his own hand out of the bucket. Bostic’s body was dumped in a rural area, and his head and hands were thrown in a swamp.</p>
<p>Several days after Bostic’s murder, his family notified police that he was missing. Police searched Hartmut Graewe’s residence and found a ring and watch worn by Bostic on the last day he was seen.</p>
<p>Two years later, the Graewes and their confederates would be arrested, bringing an end to an immensely profitable criminal enterprise. Frederick is now gone, as is Angelo Lonardo, who died in 2006. In 1985, Lonardo flipped, becoming the first sitting Mafia boss to cooperate with the government. Gallo died in prison in 2013. Harmut Graewe and Kevin McTaggart are serving life sentences, with Graewe in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, and McTaggart in a federal facility in Milan, Michigan. </p>
<p><em><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Sberna" target="_blank">Robert Sberna</a> is a Cleveland-based journalist who contributes to several national publications. His first book, House of Horrors: The Shocking True Story of Anthony Sowell, was named 2012 True Crime “Book of the Year” by Foreword Reviews. His most recent book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Badge-387-Simone-Americas-Decorated/dp/1726605639/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=J8M6HWK4QZSYTMGVM50K" target="_blank">Badge 387</a>: The Jim Simone Story, was released in August 2016. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.robertsberna.com" target="_blank">www.robertsberna.com</a><br /> </em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">Organized Crime in North America section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
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Sex Money Murder: The violent rise and fall of deadly Bronx gang ingrained in New York underworld’s history
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/sex-money-murder-the-violent-rise-and-fall-of-deadly-bronx-gang-i
2018-11-07T09:00:00.000Z
2018-11-07T09:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sex-money-murder-the-violent-rise-and-fall-of-deadly-bronx-gang-i" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237111261,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237111261?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Twin, Suge, Pipe, and Pistol Pete. The names still haunt the Soundview projects in the Bronx, New York. Their drugs kept the hood from starving, but their violence caused nothing but pain and horror. Their gang Sex Money Murder ruled supreme and has become part of gangland history. “If they hadn’t been taken down they’d probably have become as powerful as a drug cartel.”</p>
<p>Their entire story has now been documented by journalist Jonathan Green in his book <a href="https://amzn.to/2DlgmPI" target="_blank">Sex Money Murder</a> – <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=SMM" target="_blank">SMM</a>: A searing portrait of the crack epidemic and violent drug wars that once ravaged the Bronx.</p>
<p>“I didn’t just want to write a true crime book,” Green tells Gangsters Inc. “I felt this story was a lot more important than that. It goes beyond that. The social civic history of the 1980s and 1990s, the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Crack" target="_blank">crack</a> epidemic and how that birthed these <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gangs" target="_blank">gangs</a>, and the formation of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bloods" target="_blank">New York Bloods</a>. But I also really wanted to show the background that these guys came from and why they ended up in the gang. You sort of hear about it in rap songs and I wanted to tell all that in a narrative. Which I think had never been done.”</p>
<p><a href="https://amzn.to/2DlgmPI" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237111090,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237111090?profile=original" width="200" /></a>Green (right) is originally from England and first came to the United States in the 1980s when he visited family in New York. He began writing for magazines with most of his work focused on crime. He spent time with a SWAT team and Bounty hunter in Los Angeles. After he had enough of flying back and forth between London and New York, he moved to the Big Apple permanently in the early 2000s.</p>
<p>He wasn’t done traveling, though. He covered crime stories around the globe. He reported on the favelas in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Brazil" target="_blank">Brazil</a>, the gangs in Kingston, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Jamaica" target="_blank">Jamaica</a>, the intersection between crime and terrorism in Sudan, and the coca fields in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Colombia" target="_blank">Colombia</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Sex Money Murder</strong></span></p>
<p>Green’s work on transnational organized crime eventually brought him in contact with former <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=NYPD" target="_blank">NYPD</a> detective John O’Malley, who had been part of an expansive investigation into Sex Money Murder, a gang that hailed from the Soundview projects and held sway across the Bronx and into other states beyond New York.</p>
<p>The former detective introduced Green to one of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=SMM" target="_blank">Sex Money Murder</a>’s leaders, Emilio Romero. Better known on the streets by his nickname “Pipe”, Romero had flipped and become a cooperating witness against his fellow gang members. He was hesitant, but also willing to share his story with Green.</p>
<p>“In the beginning, I couldn’t ask him about his mom or growing up,” Green says. “Pipe told me: ‘Man, this is difficult! I didn’t think it would be that hard.’ We built up a relationship and ended up talking all the time, every day.”</p>
<p>Pipe made his motivations crystal clear to Green. “I really want people to understand that, yes, I was in a gang and I sold crack and we used violence,” the gangster began. “But, I loved my mom, my family, and I want people to understand what made us do the things we did.”</p>
<p>In his <a href="https://amzn.to/2DlgmPI" target="_blank">book</a>, Green goes to great lengths in telling the story of not just Sex Money Murder and its members, but of the community where they grew up, the cops who chased them, and the relatives who were worried sick about their sons, brothers, and fathers or were stricken with sorrow after losing a loved one to the deadly streets.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>BUY:</strong> <a href="https://amzn.to/2DlgmPI" target="_blank"><strong>Sex Money Murder: A story of crack, blood, and betrayal</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Violence at the drop of a hat”</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AU_HlrDtczI?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> </strong></span></p>
<p>“During the 1990s the violence was so out of control,” Green explains. “And police had difficulty getting a handle on this. They couldn’t find any witnesses. Sex Money Murder just got stronger and stronger. These days, guys like that would be in handcuffs within a year or two. But back then they could grow unchecked and Sex Money Murder went from a street gang to a syndicate. They were getting increasingly sophisticated. Laundering drug money and investing it in legitimate businesses, paying out members with clean paychecks, and leasing all the cars so they couldn’t be traced back. If they hadn’t been taken down they’d probably have become as powerful as a drug cartel.”</p>
<p>What fueled Sex Money Murder’s rise was not just the gang’s brain thrust, but also its willingness to engage in violence. Green: “These guys were very violent and very deadly. More dangerous than your average <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a> crew because they were so willing to use violence at the drop of a hat.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“New York streets where killers'll walk like Pistol Pete” - Nas</strong></span></p>
<p>Much of that violence was ordered by the group’s leader Peter Rollock, who was nicknamed Pistol Pete. “’Pistol’ was so flamboyant,” Green explains. “He got the attention of rap stars like Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz who rhymed about his life and crimes. He went clubbing with supermodel Tyra Banks and music mogul Sean Combs (better known as Puffy or P. Diddy). He had this swagger and flamboyance a lot of the other guys didn’t have. But he was also prepared to commit the violence, the murders, himself. Which, normally they delegate that stuff to others, but Pete was quite happy to carry out the murders himself and was proud of them. He advertised the fact he did murders. Boasted about it.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: “Corey Hamlet is as smart as any CEO we’ve prosecuted” - Profile:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/corey-hamlet-is-as-smart-as-any-ceo-we-ve-prosecuted-profile-of-g" target="_blank"><strong>Grape Street Crips leader Corey Hamlet</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In doing so, he created a street legend while still walking those streets. He was always very aware of gangster history and an avid reader of books about the Italian-American Mafia. “Pete absolutely idolized the Mafia,” Green says. “As a kid he had posters of these guys on his wall like others had posters of music stars. He would have [mob boss] <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Anastasia" target="_blank">Albert Anastasia</a> on his wall and people like that.”</p>
<p>It wasn’t just fanboy stuff either. Pete actually studied these Mafia bosses and their activities and actions. Green: “Pipe told me that Pete read a lot about the early Mafia guys and anytime they’d get whacked he’d try to learn a lesson, so he wouldn’t make the same mistake.”</p>
<p>Pistol Pete was not planning on ending up like Anastasia, shot dead in the chair of a barbershop. “After reading about that, whenever he went to have a haircut he’d have a posse with him,” Green explains. “When he went to the barber he made sure the door was locked, that security was posted there. He learned from everything he read. Later on in his career, he was never alone. He always had armed guys with him.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237112078,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237112078?profile=original" width="600" /></a><em>Photo: "Pistol Pete" Rollock posing for pictures behind bars.</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The fall</strong></span></p>
<p>This wasn’t paranoia, mind you. People were frequently getting shot at or killed in those days. But despite the murders, for a long time authorities didn’t do much about it. Green: “Everyone is focused on the Mafia groups because that’s where the glory is. And there was this attitude that because it happened in Soundview, a poor neighborhood, let them kill each other. A classic racist slant which pervaded everything.”</p>
<p>Still, the killings did catch the police’s attention. Especially after Sex Money Murder organized a massacre in broad daylight on Thanksgiving Day in 1997 when it executed two of its own members in front of women and children enjoying the annual game of football. “Even the community rose up after those murders,” Green explains. “Everyone had had enough. The killings and shootings had been going on for so long but this one, at a football game with families and stuff, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237111694,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237111694?profile=original" width="550" /></a><em>Photo: Soundview Homes, the Bronx, New York (courtesy of Jonathan Green)</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Joining the United Blood Nation</strong></span></p>
<p>To top it all off, Sex Money Murder had joined the nationwide <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=UBN" target="_blank">United Blood Nation</a> gang, the first New York crew to do so. The decision to join the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Bloods" target="_blank">Bloods</a> was made by Pistol Pete, who saw it as an expansion of the group’s influence and power and thought it would give them a more fearsome reputation.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/united-blood-nation-godfather-says-he-is-part-of-the-last-ones-th" target="_blank">United Blood Nation Godfather says</a> he is part of “the last ones that God put in power”</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>“Pipe and the others in Sex Money Murder thought that was a huge mistake,” Green explains. “Pipe felt that they didn’t need that. Their reputation was hard. Certainly, Pete had much more of a vicious rep than United Blood Nation founder Omar “OG Mack” Portee. They were tight and loyal and didn’t need to be a part of this big, national organization. People close to Pete also thought it was a mistake because this move puts you on the radar of federal law enforcement. Whereas when you’re a tight, small clique you can do you own thing and not be caught up as much in a federal case. A lot of people at the time were shocked.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Local and federal agencies cooperate</strong></span></p>
<p>Where federal authorities had no interest in Sex Money Murder before, now they finally saw why the group had to be stopped. But wanting something done and actually being able to do it are two different things, Liz Glazer, the lead prosecutor in the investigation, quickly found out. Working with federal agents she realized they would never be able to break this Bronx-based organization. So, she pioneered a hugely effective cooperation between federal and local agencies.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/high-ranking-bloods-gangster-arrested-for-organizing-murder-of-bo" target="_blank">High-ranking Bloods gangster arrested</a> for organizing murder of Bonanno family mobster</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Green: “Liz Glazer realized the local cops knew who all the players were, who the shooters were and who the top guys were. The FBI was different. When they’d come in they didn’t know who everybody was, who the people in the neighborhood were. The violence and killings are carried out by a very small group of people and once you identify them you have an enormous advantage. She realized that by partnering up local detectives with the feds they’d have the power of the federal system with the mandatory minimum sentences of RICO with the expertise of the street cops on the ground. It was a winning strategy in eradicating these gangs.”</p>
<p>With help from detectives like O’Malley and Pete Forcelli, prosecutors were able to bring the gang leaders and members in on RICO charges. Facing serious time in a federal prison, many of them began to weigh their options. Most of them decided to cooperate and testify against their former brothers.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>“Sex Money Murder bangin’ for their rats”</strong></span></p>
<p>Among those to turn their back on Sex Money Murder were “Pipe” and “Suge”, two of the group’s high-ranking and founding members. Both men also sat down with Green for his book. Using their inside knowledge of Sex Money Murder, he was able to paint a vivid picture of the gang’s rise to power and its rapid downfall.</p>
<p>Getting them to trust him, however, was not easy. Green: “Remember, these guys are not used to trusting anyone. Much of their life they’ve been lied to. Gang life is based on deception and lies. Pipe told me once the only guys who know everything are at the top. Guys on the bottom are kept in the quiet about what’s happening. It’s a lifestyle where lies become commonplace so trusting is difficult. When we started it took a lot to establish that trust particularly when talking about cooperating and murders.”</p>
<p>Where cooperators are usually branded rats and snitches “get stitches”, a weird thing happened within the Sex Money Murder crew as a visible split occurred between those who remained loyal and those who cooperated: Both sides continued to show each other love and respect, to some degree.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-kingpin-freeway-rick-ross-moving-tons-of-cocaine-with-a-nod" target="_blank">Drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross</a>: Moving tons of cocaine with approval from the Reagan White House</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>When members of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LatinKings" target="_blank">Latin Kings</a> approached Pistol Pete in prison with an offer to murder Sex Money Murder turncoats, he flat out refused, saying: “We stand on our own, man. We grew up from the sandbox together. Ain’t nobody touch no Sex Money Murder rats.”</p>
<p>“These bonds are tight,” Green explains. “They killed for each other. It’s like a type of army unit. It’s not, of course. The military has a different motivation, but at the same time they also had this very deep sense of camaraderie. After Pete’s stance became clear, they got a reputation in prison for loyalty. Guys locked up would chant: ‘Sex Money bangin’ for their rats!’”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237113053,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237113053?profile=original" width="550" /></a><em>Photo: Soundview Homes, The Bronx, New York (courtesy of Jonathan Green)</em></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The infection that is violence<br /> </strong></span></p>
<p>Pistol Pete went down with his ship, sentenced to life plus 105 years in prison. He was held in solitary confinement out of fear he would use his influence within the United Blood Nation to order violence or murders. At the time of his sentencing he was just 26 years old.</p>
<p>Pipe and Suge were released from prison after cooperating with authorities. Both men struggled with their new lives away from Soundview, but Pipe, especially, has been able to turn his life around and hold down a legitimate job and raise a family.</p>
<p>The justice system tends to punish African-American criminals more severely than whites. Young black males also tend to be arrested for petty things, creating a criminal record early on which makes getting a regular job later on in life that much harder and the gang life that much more attractive, a necessity even. Thus, the vicious cycle of growing up without a father, poverty, crime, and prison perpetuates on and on.</p>
<p><a href="https://amzn.to/2DlgmPI" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237113468,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237113468?profile=original" /></a>Pipe’s reason for telling his story was showing youngsters the reality of it. “These young guys don’t realize that the very people they think are their brothers are the same guys that will murder them,” he told Green. “Every time the set turns on itself and they eat their own. It happened with Sex Money Murder too. They brought on their own destruction because they turned on each other.”</p>
<p>Getting this perspective out was important for Green too. “I wanted to give people caught up in this life some idea of other people who went through it. If Pipe can explain ‘Here’s what happened to me. I started out poor, sold crack for money, then the violence started and once it starts you cannot turn it off. It will go on and on. It will claim your life or someone else’s.’ I wanted to tell that in a personal way, like they knew Pipe and Suge and were invested in their life story and understand it. Because there’s a myth and aura about the lifestyle, which is tragic.”</p>
<p>He continues: “It’s so tragic for the mothers of these guys. It causes a lot of devastation. It’s a selfish motivation: Getting rich no matter what. That kind of hunger eats you out and they always turn and kill each other. It’s like an infection. The violence spreads. And you have to use it or you get murdered yourself. It’s like a security, it keeps you safe. But eventually you become infected yourself.”</p>
<p><em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/2DlgmPI" target="_blank">Sex Money Murder</a>: A story of crack, blood, and betrayal is available at stores <a href="https://amzn.to/2DlgmPI" target="_blank">online</a> or near you. You can find Jonathan Green at his <a href="http://www.jonathangreenonline.com/" target="_blank">website</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/jonathanjagreen" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</strong></em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime">Black organized crime</a> section on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
<p> </p></div>
Members of West Baltimore gang Trained To Go guilty of 9 murders, drug trafficking, witness intimidation
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/members-of-west-baltimore-gang-trained-to-go-guilty-of-9-murders
2018-11-02T06:30:00.000Z
2018-11-02T06:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/members-of-west-baltimore-gang-trained-to-go-guilty-of-9-murders" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237104255,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237104255?profile=original" width="550" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>Eight men were convicted by a federal jury on Wednesday for their crimes committed for the West Baltimore gang known as Trained To Go (TTG). These included nine murders, drug trafficking, and witness intimidation, and dealing heroin, marijuana, and cocaine. Several of the defendants were also convicted of related drug and firearms charges. </p>
<p>“Federal, state and local law enforcement joined together to target the leaders and key members of one of the most violent gangs operating in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Baltimore" target="_blank">Baltimore City</a>,” said U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur. “Today’s convictions prove our continuing commitment to removing armed, violent criminals from our neighborhoods and bringing them to justice in the federal system, which has no parole—ever.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/high-ranking-bloods-gangster-arrested-for-organizing-murder-of-bo" target="_blank"><strong>Bloods gangster arrested for organizing hits on Bonanno family mobsters</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Trained To Go (TTG) is a criminal organization which operated in the Sandtown neighborhood of West Baltimore. Its members sold <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>, and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a>, and used violence and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Murder" target="_blank">murder</a> to defend their exclusive right to control who sold narcotics in their territory.</p>
<p>At trial, evidence proved that between May 20, 2010 and May 25, 2016, TTG gangsters committed acts of violence, including nine murders, shootings, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">armed robbery</a>, and witness intimidation. The violent acts were intended to further the gang’s activities, protect the gang’s drug territory, and maintain and increase a member’s position within the organization. </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nathan-barksdale-inspiration-for-the-wire-dead-at-54" target="_blank"><strong>Crime boss "Bodie" Barksdale, inspiration for The Wire, dead at 54</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Murders were committed in retaliation for individuals robbing TTG members of drugs and drug proceeds, or while TTG gangsters robbed others of their drugs and drug proceeds, as well as in murder-for-hire schemes. To make sure nobody talked to police, they engaged in witness intimidation through violence or threats of violence.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237104681,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237104681?profile=original" width="296" /></a>Much of this deadly violence was committed by 23-year-old Montana Barronette (right), who was <a href="https://www.wmar2news.com/news/crime-checker/baltimore-city-crime/feds-gang-implicated-in-10-baltimore-killings" target="_blank">singled out</a> by authorities as the number one trigger-puller in the city of Baltimore.</p>
<p>The investigation into the gang’s activities was conducted by the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> Baltimore Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Force, which includes FBI special agents and task force officers from the Baltimore, Baltimore County, and Anne Arundel County Police Departments. </p>
<p>The eight men all face a maximum sentence of life in prison on the racketeering and drug conspiracies. Three other TTG members, all of Baltimore, previously pleaded guilty. 25-year-old Brandon “Man Man” Bazemore pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, including three murders and an attempted murder, as well as to drug conspiracy. </p>
<p>Bazemore and the government have agreed that if the court accepts the plea, Bazemore will be sentenced to 25 years in federal prison at his sentencing on November 13, 2018. Co-defendants Hisaun Chatman (31) and James Woodfolk (20) pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and were each sentenced to five years in prison, to be served concurrent to the state sentence each is currently serving.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/grape-street-crips-member-indicted-for-murder-of-bystander-at" target="_blank">Grape Street Crips member indicted for murder</a> of bystander at 2010 summer cookout</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Co-defendant Roger Taylor is still a fugitive, and the charges against him are pending. Anyone who may have information on the whereabouts of Roger Taylor is asked to contact the FBI-Baltimore Field office at (410) 265-8080.</p>
<p>The defendants convicted on Wednesday are: </p>
<ul>
<li>Montana Barronette, a/k/a Tana, and Tanner, age 23;</li>
<li>Terrell Sivells, a/k/a Rell, age 27;</li>
<li>John Harrison, a/k/a Binkie, age 28;</li>
<li>Taurus Tillman, a/k/a Tash, age 29;</li>
<li>Linton Broughton, a/k/a Marty, age 25;</li>
<li>Dennis Pulley, a/k/a Denmo, age 31;</li>
<li>Brandon Wilson, a/k/a Ali, age 24; and</li>
<li>Timothy Floyd, a/k/a Tim Rod, age 28.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">Street Gangs section</a> or <a href="https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/black-organized-crime" target="_blank">Black organized crime</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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<p><strong>Copyright © Gangsters Inc.</strong></p>
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Operation Goodfellas busts $19 million drug trafficking conspiracy from Mexico to Virginia
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/operation-goodfellas-busts-19-million-drug-trafficking-conspiracy
2018-10-17T19:00:00.000Z
2018-10-17T19:00:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/operation-goodfellas-busts-19-million-drug-trafficking-conspiracy" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237119863,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237119863?profile=original" width="600" /></a>By Gangsters Inc. Editors</p>
<p>The drug game is played with lots of players and without borders. Something police discovered once more during Operation Goodfellas when they took down several members of an international narcotics pipeline stretching from Mexico to Virginia.</p>
<p>Nearly 150 law enforcement officers from the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=DEA" target="_blank">DEA</a>, Norfolk Police, and the U.S. Marshals participated in the operation on Tuesday morning in Norfolk, executing arrest warrants on five Hampton Roads men for their alleged participation in a $19 million drug trafficking conspiracy. One man remains a fugitive.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: “Corey Hamlet is as smart as any CEO we’ve prosecuted” -</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/corey-hamlet-is-as-smart-as-any-ceo-we-ve-prosecuted-profile-of-g" target="_blank"><strong>Profile: Grape Street Crips leader Corey Hamlet</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>According to allegations in the indictment, from approximately 2009 to present, several significant drug traffickers from the Ingleside section of Norfolk have been involved in distributing large quantities of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Heroin" target="_blank">heroin</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cocaine" target="_blank">cocaine</a>, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Crack" target="_blank">crack cocaine</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a>.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Controlled buys to source</strong></span></p>
<p>Police began making controlled buys of cocaine in September 2016 from 38-year-old Reginald Sam Beale and continued making controlled purchases of cocaine, heroin, and crack cocaine from Beale’s co-conspirators, including 36-year-old Maurice Antonio Barnes (photo above, right), 37-year-old Brandon Jaami Williams (photo above, left), 39-year-old Breon Lashawn Dixon, and 34-year-old Johnell Deshawn Stepney.</p>
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<li><strong>READ: </strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/prison-bars-couldn-t-stop-powerful-godfathers-of-united-blood-nat" target="_blank"><strong>Prison bars couldn’t stop powerful Bloods Godfathers</strong></a></li>
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<p>Through June of 2018, law enforcement made a total of 29 controlled purchases from the defendants. Evidence obtained in the Summer of 2018 established that Barnes’ local source of supply was obtaining large amounts of cocaine and heroin from a Los Angeles based source of supply.</p>
<p>The cocaine was being trucked to Virginia and off-loaded at a public storage facility in Virginia Beach in 10 and 20-kilo loads. In June 2018, Williams was arrested with 13 kilograms of cocaine (with a street value over $500,000) when he tried to transfer the cocaine from an apartment in the luxury ICON apartments in downtown Norfolk to another luxury apartment on Granby Street.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/drug-kingpin-freeway-rick-ross-moving-tons-of-cocaine-with-a-nod" target="_blank">Drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross</a>: Moving tons of cocaine with approval from the Reagan White House</strong></li>
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<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Mexico connection</strong></span></p>
<p>Additional evidence led to the arrest of two members of the California and Mexico-based drug trafficking organization, 20-year-old Jose Moices Luna-Abrego, of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LA" target="_blank">Los Angeles</a>, and 39-year-old Ulises Abel Garcia-Razo, of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mexico" target="_blank">Mexico</a>, after they flew to Virginia to attempt to retrieve some of the cocaine previously shipped and collect over $500,000 in proceeds. Luna-Abrego and Garcia-Razo were arrested in July 2018 in a successful hotel sting operation conducted by FBI, DEA and Norfolk Police.</p>
<p>Investigators estimate the amount of narcotics this drug trafficking organization is responsible for distributing is 11 1/2 kilos of crack, 436 kilos of cocaine, 54 kilos of heroin, 1 ounce of fentanyl and over 20 pounds of marijuana, with a street value over $19 million.</p>
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