Federal and local agents said they took down the most violent gang in Orange County Thursday. Twenty-nine members of the Insane M.O.B. (Money Over Bitches) gang were arrested, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputies told WFTV the gang was responsible for drive-by shootings, at least two murders, several attempted murders and drug dealing. Investigators say their criminal enterprise was based out of a barbershop.
A 2006 shooting that left 18-year-old Joey Vera dead was the spark that Orange County Sheriff's investigators say ignited a street war and led to the rise of the county's most violent gang.


Officers say, after a 3-year investigation, joined last year by state and federal agents, they dismantled the gang, arresting 29 men and women and taking weapons and drugs off the street.
"There were always shooting around here," neighbor Will Reyes said.
Investigators say Vera was the gang leader and, when he died, three other men took over, including Teddy Vasquez, the so-called "kingpin."
The men used a barbershop on Hoffman Road, Fade Factory (see map), as their headquarters. Investigators say inside they sold drugs, firearms and also used the barber shop as a front to launder money from their illegal activities.
Investigators used confidential informants and connected the gang members to drive-by shootings, arsons and two murders. In September, after getting a tip, the sheriff's dive team found what's believed to be a murder weapon in Lake Underhill.
While most of the crime was aimed at other gangs, the say the public was always in danger.
"Whenever they get guys like this, it's always better," Reyes said.
Even with leaders behind bars, investigators say the gang tried to hire hit men to kill confidential informants working for the sheriff's office. They also allegedly had ties to Chicago gang activity.

five people were killed and three others were wounded during deadly clashes between Mexican Marines and drug gangs in the northern region of Mexico.

An initial police report said that on Thursday at around 7 p.m. local time, the gunmen and Marines clashed in Monterrey - Mexico’s third largest city - as the Governor of Nuevo Leon, Rodrigo Medina, was giving his first Government Report.

“During the confrontations, people from the organized crime groups lost their lives and one or more of them were detained by the Marines. We also understand, although its unofficial, that there are wounded Marines and possibly a fatality as it was a high-caliber confrontation,” Luis Carlos Treviño Berchelmann, the State’s Secretary of Public Security, said.

Three men were killed at the scene and relief agencies arriving at the scene initially reported an 18-year-old woman who was seriously wounded, as well as two marines. While the numbers of fatalities are conflicting, at least five fatalities were confirmed.

Security forces had surprised the drug traffickers who immediately reacted by throwing a grenade against the Marines. After both sides opened fire, the gunmen tried to escape through a back alley, but their vehicle was disabled with a bazooka.

While military forces were called in to provide assistance after the confrontation, a total of 12 street blockades were reported on major avenues of Monterrey. Drug gang blockades, in which drug lords order the blocking of streets to avoid the deployment of security forces who are conducting operations against them, are not uncommonly reported.

As a result, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the scene, another shootout between Marines and gunmen began. Security forces were able to arrest two individuals, but there were no immediate reports of casualties from that incident.

The incidents are currently being investigated, and it is still unclear if the gunmen involved in the second shootout are linked to the people involved in the initial confrontation.

Drug smuggling gangs in Mexico have sent well-armed assassins, or "sicarios," into Arizona to locate and kill bandits who are ambushing and stealing loads of cocaine, marijuana and heroin headed to buyers in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security has warned Arizona law enforcement authorities.

In a memo sent in May and widely circulated since, the department said: "We just received information from a proven credible confidential source who reported that a meeting was held in Puerto Penasco in which every smuggling organization who utilizes the Vekol Valley was told to attend. This included rival groups within the Guzman cartel."

Joaquín Archivaldo Guzman Loera heads what formally is known as the Sinaloa Cartel, which smuggles multi-ton loads of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the United States. One of the most powerful and dangerous drug gangs in Mexico, it also is known as the Guzman cartel, which has been tied to the production, smuggling and distribution of Mexican marijuana and heroin and has established transshipment outlets in the United States.

The Vekol Valley is a widely-traveled drug smuggling corridor running across Interstate 8 between the Arizona towns of Casa Grande and Gila Bend, continuing north towards Phoenix. It gives drug smugglers the option of shipping their goods to California or to major cities both north and east.

The Homeland Security memo said a group of "15, very well equipped and armed sicarios complete with bullet proof vests" had been sent into the valley. It said the assassins would be disguised as "groups of 'simulated backpackers' carrying empty boxes covered with burlap into the Vekol Valley to draw out the bandits." Once identified, the memo said, "the sicarios will take out the bandits."

The federal government has posted signs along Interstate 8 in the Vekol Valley warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and the local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.

The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego. They warn travelers they are entering an "active drug and human smuggling area" and may encounter "armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed."

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, told The Washington Times earlier this month that Mexican drug cartels have posted scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and "they literally control movement.

"They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has," he said. "This is going on here in Arizona. This is 70 to 80 miles from the border -- 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States."

The sheriff said he had asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to patrol the border, but instead got 15 signs. He also has confirmed that he got the Homeland Security memo warning of the assassins.

Rising violence along the border has coincided with a crackdown in Mexico on warring drug gangs, who are seeking control of smuggling routes into the United States. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has waged a bloody campaign against powerful cartels, and more than 28,000 people have died since he launched his crackdown in late 2006.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, has called the signs "an insult to the citizens of border states."

"American citizens should not have to be fearful for their lives on U.S. soil," he said. "If the federal government would do its job of enforcing immigration laws, we could better secure the border and better protect the citizens of border states."

Two years ago, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the investigative arm of Homeland Security, said in a report that border gangs were becoming increasingly ruthless and had begun targeting not only rivals, but federal, state and local police. ICE said the violence had risen dramatically as part of "an unprecedented surge."

The Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center, in its 2010 drug threat assessment report, called the cartels "the single greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States." It said Mexican gangs had established operations in every area of the United States and were expanding into rural and suburban areas.

suspect allegedly involved in murders, robberies and kidnappings in the Matara distrcit was killed by a group of unidentified men yesterday in Nadugalawella, Matara, police said.

Thihagoda police said that the suspect had left his house on his motorbike after he received a call on his mobile phone.

The victim Naveen Jayawickrama (30) was a resident of Pallimulla, Thihagoda. He had commenced his criminal activities in 1997 by conducting a robbery. Then followed by killing a youth in the area by using a sword in 2003. In 2004 he had conducted a robbery and taken away cash amounting to Rs.400, 000.

In 2008 he had assaulted an inmate while he was in remand prison at the Matara prison. Police said that the victim is believed to have been killed by using a T56 assault rifle. He has been shot into his head. Several rounds of ammunition similar to T56 bullets were found around his body.

MOST of the men implicated in the recent wave of car robberies are honest looking people who lure their victims by suggesting to them a lucrative business deal. They have businesses or white collar jobs and engage in car robbery for extra income.

Two of them, Kato and Wasswa Kayemba are twin brothers.

The stories of the gruesome murders of car owners by armed robbers and the rampant robberies of new vehicles have dominated the media headlines this week and left many Ugandans shocked.

The sudden arrest of a chain of suspected robbers has unearthed details about the suspects and the innocent Ugandans who they killed.

Information emerging from the security circles shows how the merciless thugs trapped their victims to death and later burnt their bodies with acid to kill evidence.

These brutal murders came to the limelight at the beginning of the month when Police impounded a suspected stolen car at the Uganda-Rwanda border.

The vehicle, an Ipsum was impounded after Police officers at Mirama Police Station found out that it had a fake number plate, UAL 330D. The number plate reportedly belonged to a Benz. As a result, Police arrested John Mugabe the occupant of the car. He was transferred to Jinja Road Police Station.

Police found that the Ipsum belonged to Hazaria Kafuluma, a special hire driver at Kajjansi stage, who had earlier been brutally murdered.

After the interrogation, Mugabe led Police to one Ssempebwa alias Robert Kazawula suspected to be the leader of the gang.

On arresting him, Ssempebwa confessed his involvement in several bloody robberies before leading Police to his base at Nakigalala-Kajjansi. Ssempebwa and his gang had been executing some of their deadly missions at the base.

At the base, Police discovered five other vehicles suspected to have been robbed. Ssempebwa confessed that his gang killed the owners before executing the robberies.

There was also a pit latrine at the base where the gang dumped the number plates cut from the robbed vehicles. Over 20 number plates were retrieved from the latrine.

Some of the latest murdered car owners include Nkata Mugaga of Namasuba and one Mubarak of Najjanankumbi.

Mugaga was killed and his body dumped at Ndejje. His relatives failed to identify the body because its face had been burnt with acid beyond recognition.

The other victim was Jean Claude Ndezi a businessman who the gang lured into a fake fuel deal before killing him and robbing his Ipsum UAM 576Z. The gang told him that they had smuggled fuel which he could buy at a very cheap price.

They told him that the fuel was in a store around Nkozi University and when he accepted the deal they went with him to see it. On the way they killed him and bought petrol which they used to burn his body.

Ssempebwa and his gang first befriended the victims before tricking them into fake missions and business deals, which later led them into the death traps.

Some of the survivors say that the gang called the victims to different destinations. Since Police arrested Ssempebwa, several bodies of the people killed in the robberies have been discovered. More robbed vehicles and more suspects have been got.

The recovered vehicles include Ipsums UAL 330D, UAL 760V, UAM 576Z, UAL 330D, a Super Custom UAM 524U and a Corona UAE 935P.

Most of the vehicles are, however, still at Kajjansi Police Station. Security operatives suspect the car owners who have not turned up to claim them were killed.

There is also suspicion among the security circles that the gang has been conniving with some officials of Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) to forge logbooks for robbed vehicles before selling them off again.

Police spokesperson for Kampala Metropolitan Ibbi Ssenkumbi said they are investigating URA over the suspicion.

The brutal murder of the car owners has shocked the public. What is even more shocking is discovering that the suspects killed their close friends during the robberies.

Ssempebwa has been known to be a security operative attached to the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence.

For several years, he has been in possession of a pistol and an AK47 riffle and nobody was concerned about him because there was a perception that he legally possessed them.

He is believed to be the ring leader having joined the lucrative business in 2004. He told Police that he personally recruited several members of the gang into the ranks.

But to recruit you, your current job had to be connected to the car business. Most of those he recruited were money lenders, bankers and officials from URA.

One of the arrested suspects Mohamed Ssekatawa worked in a micro-finance. He reportedly linked the gang to the institution to get loans using the robbed cars as security.

But after securing the loans, the person who secured it on behalf of the gang would default and the bank would impound the car and sell it off. In that way, the gang would have lost nothing.

At his village, Ssempebwa had stopped residents on his village from traveling beyond 8:00pm allegedly for security reasons and whoever defied that would be punished.

Little did they know that the early night curfew he had imposed only worked for him and his gang to execute his deals When he was disowned by CMI after his arrest, everyone was shocked. The public however wondered how a person would possess illegal firearms even with the knowledge of security organs like the Police.

Ronald Kanyankore, one of the suspects who had been arrested told Police that he joined the gang in 2006. He revealed that he got obsessed with killing after seeing Ssempebwa hitting a victim to death.

Others who have been netted include Yusufu Katongole 37, a resident of Kasubi zone II who is a car dealer at Bukuli, Abdullah Ssenfuma 57, of Namungona Lubya, Francis Abiku 27, of Nansana-Nabweru, Edward Bagalagaza 31, of Bulenga and Charles Yigga of Kitebi.

Others are Bernard Muhangi, Daniel Mugume. Some other two suspects are still at large. They include the twin brothers Kato Kayemba and Waswa Kayemba suspected to have fled to Kenya.

Los Zetas criminal group challenged the governor of Nuevo Leon, Rodrigo Medina. While the governor presented his First Report as Governor in the presence of the federal public security secretary, Genaro Garcia Luna, 11 governors and close to a thousand invited guests, there were 32 "narco-roadblocks" in 18 of the most important roadways and intersections in the metropolitan area of Monterrey as well as a shootout which left six dead.

Read more: http://www.poder360.com/dailynews_detail.php?blurbid=9569#ixzz12Werw6LJ

chilling details have emerged on how a gang of hard-core criminals has over five years been robbing vehicles, murdering the owners and discreetly disposing of their bodies after burning them.

The Police have recovered five bodies of victims suspected to have been killed by suspects recently arrested in connection with a series of car robberies and murders.

Investigations have also unearthed the tricks the gang has been using to lure the victims. The tricks included using the victim’s wife or girlfriend, who would easily convince their partner to trust the gang in any transaction.

The Police suspect that the group has been active over the last five years but had managed to keep their activities secret.

Arrested over a week ago in Makindye, a city suburb, the gangsters had stolen or robbed vehicles and murdered the owners. In some cases, they set the bodies ablaze to conceal evidence.

Kajjansi Police boss Francis Kabera yesterday said the bodies were recovered in various parts of the country.

Some of the suspects, according to the Police, confessed to being involved in the crimes and led the detectives to the murder spots.

The investigations are being handled jointly by the Special Investigations Unit and the Rapid Response Unit.

The gang, it emerged, set up a company to sell stolen vehicles, often passing them off as vehicles of loan defaulters.

Kajjansi criminal investigations department boss Daniel Batte yesterday said the bodies recovered included that of Claude Ndeezi, Constantine Ssempala and of two others only identified as Kafuluma and Mubarak. One other body was not identified.

Ndeezi’s body was recovered from Nkozi, Kafuluma’s from Buwama, Mubaraka’s on Masaka Road and Sempala’s from Bweya.

The Police said the arms of Nkata, another victim, were tightly tied behind his back, coupled with strangulation. His remains were burnt.

The Police, who believed he was a mob justice victim, took the body to the city mortuary.

It was later buried in an unmarked grave in a public cemetery in Lusaze, Kampala.

Eight members of the group are in Police custody.

The Police told New Vision that some of the bodies were recovered after the suspects confessed and led them to the places where they were dumped.

Batte said the group would pounce on their victims, strangle them before setting the bodies on fire to disguise the cause of death.

The gang, the Police said, would at times pose as passengers, but would murder the driver on the way.

On other occasions, the wives and girlfriends of the victims were reportedly used to lure them into their traps.

The Police suspect that the group has been active for the last five years but managed to keep their activities under wraps.

The Police said the lid was blown off the gang when they disagreed with a potential customer.

The thugs, who were selling a Toyota Ipsum had finally accepted to trade it with a Toyota Corona, on condition that the owner of the Corona topped up the difference with some money, which he did. “It turned out that the other party had already sold the car to another person. A wrangle ensued and the aggrieved party reported the matter to the Police,” Kabera said.

The gang allegedly also use trickery to acquire vehicles.

“They would claim that they want a car for self-drive for two weeks or more, then pay some sum of money and drive off with the car. They would immediately forge car documents and mortgage it,” Kabera said.

Over 10 vehicles have so far been recovered in the ongoing investigations.

Lorain gang members sentenced to prison - morningjournal.com: "Bohannon Miller, 20, was sentenced to eight years in prison for participating in a criminal gang. He was acquitted of complicity to felonious assault.

Avery Taylor, 22, will serve 15 years behind bars for participating in a criminal gang, receiving stolen property and felonious assault. The men were sentenced by Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge James Miraldi. They were arrested as part of a gang sweep in February that netted more than 17 suspects

Taylor and Bohannon received the maximum prison terms allowed.

“I think the sentence was way too harsh because he didn’t do anything wrong,” Miller’s defense attorney Patrick Farrell said. Farrell argued in the jury trial, in early September, that his client was not part of a gang. Farrell said there will be an appeal. During the trial, the police and prosecutors were “targeting” Lorain men and women based on witnesses lacking in credibility and lackluster evidence, he said."

Gang members are helping to convict themselves by posing with weapons and bragging about their exploits on cell phones and the web.
A combination of egos and modern technology is proving a valuable tool in the fight against gang crime, say experts.

Prosecutors are increasingly using Facebook photos, cell phone videos and even jewellery to draw links between defendants and gangs in shooting cases.

Alvone Maybury, 24, found guilty yesterday of a brazen shooting on a city street, helped seal his own fate thanks to videos on his BlackBerry showing him posing with a gun and threatening “Parkside n****s”.

His lawyer, Llewellyn Peniston, yesterday criticized the decision to allow the videos to be shown in court.

He said: “I don’t believe circumstantial evidence showing loose gang ties should go before the jury. It’s like saying a medallion or something like that is hard evidence of gang links.

“I wear a cross around my neck but it does not mean that I am Christian.”

But painting suspects in gun cases as gang members is increasingly common in Bermuda — and if prosecutors can show it is relevant to the case it is admissible in court.

Last month, a BermyNet picture of Anthony Swan making hand gestures was used to associate him with the 42 gang and helped convict him of a shooting attack on Raymond ‘Yankee’ Rawlins.

Three men were still in custody last night in connection with the shooting of Jeremiah Dill on Parsons Road on Monday.
Mr. Dill, 27, suffered injuries to his upper leg in the drive-by shooting close to the One Stop Variety store at about 10:30am.

He was not seriously hurt and was discharged from hospital on Monday evening.

Mr. Dill has lost two siblings to violent crime.

His brother Edward ‘Sleepy’ Dill was stabbed to death by his girlfriend in 2006, while his sister Ruth Binns was killed by her boyfriend the following year.

alleged gang member offered to strike a deal with police to help them recover a firearm, a court heard yesterday.
Detectives say Alvone Maybury offered to give them information in exchange for not being prosecuted over a photo on his cell phone in which he is holding what appears to be a gun.

The 24-year-old is accused of firing a gun at members of the Parkside gang on Reid Street, Hamilton, on December 18.

It has been said he is linked to rival gang 42.

Mr. Maybury, of no fixed abode, denies charges of possessing a firearm and ammunition and discharging a firearm.