-from english.ohmynews.com-

By Alan Mota

Nationwide Operation involved more than 25,000 policemen

A group of dedicated policemen — more than 25,000 to be precise — proved Friday that they were willing to go all the way to set an example for criminals all over Brazil, and help clean up the country’s reputation of being corrupt and dominated by crime, as many third-world countries are, especially in South America.

In a mega-operation that began on Monday last week but had its climax on Friday, the officers arrested over 2,000 criminals in 25 states and the capital, Brasilia. (Brazil has 26 states.) The number of those arrested is preliminary and could grow considerably as only 11 states and the capital have had their stats revealed so far.

The overwhelming majority of the busts were made in only one state, Sao Paulo, the biggest state of the country in almost every meaning of the word. It has the largest population of over 30 million people, the largest state GDP and hosts the country’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, with over 18 million people. The state had 1,675 criminals detained by the police. More than 640,606 objects — fake reproductions or objects with no receipt — were apprehended and 1,634 vehicles were seized. There were also 257 weapons and 32,195 kilos of drugs seized, including cocaine, crack and ecstasy pills. Three casualties, all of them criminals, took place during the operation.

Among these criminals, there were surprisingly sophisticated gangs. One of them used to steal cargo in Santos port — the biggest of the country — opening large containers of merchandise without breaking the locks and replacing the stolen goods with bags of sand.

Sao Paulo was the biggest venue for the operation, but the police were strong in other states too. In the agricultural state of Mato Grosso, 131 were arrested. The state of Parana had 29 arrests. In Pernambuco, in the northeast, 33 people were arrested, while 22 cars were seized. The state of Espirito Santo, which during the last few years became one of the most dangerous in the country, had 64 arrests.

The operation, according to commanding officers, was intended to show that the police are nationally integrated and coordinated, and that its focus on fighting crime won’t be deterred by state boundaries or different offices. The point can be considered proven, but the mega-bust also revealed some weaknesses.

In the state of Rio de Janeiro, for example, the 80 arrests made by the officers can be considered a little short of expectation, especially when compared with Sao Paulo. Rio shares with Sao Paulo the title of most dangerous state in the country, and with a population of over 15 million people, 80 arrests does not raise many eyebrows. It’s even worse when taking into consideration that over 12,000 policemen — 20 percent of the state’s force — took part in the operation. It’s a little disappointing and even suspicious for some, as the Rio de Janeiro police force has suffered recently with several inside operations to fight corruption. It’s considered one of the most corrupt in the country. It was a chance for the Rio police force to clear its name, and it remains to be seen if the population will applaud or suspect the recent operation.

Another example is the capital, Brasilia. A district court that has seen a rise in crime in the last few years, the capital had 222 officers mobilized to go after 451 warrants, but only 43 people were arrested, less than 10 percent of the goal.

A surprising aspect of the operation was the astounding involvement of underage criminals. The stats remain to be seen in all states, but in Sao Paulo alone 219 minors were arrested. That’s approximately 13 percent out of the 1,615 detained in the state — an alarming proof of how gangs are recruiting more among the young kids in “favelas,” or Brazilian shantytowns, and poor neighborhoods. This promises to raise more discussions about the criminal majority age in Brazil, after a recent crime involving minors and the death of a child shocked the country.

Another negative aspect exposed by the bust was the precarious condition of the Brazilian prison structure. In the state of Espirito Santo, which had 60 arrests, the police stations could not hold the number of detained so they were placed in buses parked outside the stations while awaiting charges. In Mato Grosso, a state that lacks 3,300 places in detainment centers for its criminals, the stations were completely full. This forced officers to overload prisons and stations with criminals.

The police force, as integrated as it might be, is still not completely connected. The police in the state of Minas Gerais, host of the third biggest city in the country — Belo Horizonte — didn’t take part in the operation at all. While all the other offices in the country carried on the mega-operation, the police in Minas Gerais followed their daily routine of investigation and arrests, with no special effort. The police chief of the state stated that there was still integration among the Minas Gerais police and other states.

The bust can also be considered a major test for the Brazilian justice system. In a normal setting, the system is already considered badly managed and a bit primitive, based on old rules that make the system act as slow as ever while overloading the upper stances of justice, such as state and national supreme courts. This way, only a small percentage of cases are solved and a small percentage of defendants go to jail. Now, with more than 2,000 cases popping up at once, all levels of justice and almost every state will have the responsibility of making sure that the unprecedented effort of the policemen doesn’t go to waste due to the incompetence of judges and attorneys.

The possibility of the operation being a form of protest was also raised. Recently there have been some strikes and protests from officers throughout the country — one is still going on, even during the operation, in the state of Piaui — and the population has had its trust in the police force shaken. One of the directors of the police force in Brasilia said that the operation had as one of its goals to attract attention for the capabilities of the police in the country, but soon after, the chief of police in the state of Sao Paulo who was head of the mega-operation, Mario Leme, stated that the focus of the operation was solely on law enforcement.

However, the operation was indeed a great display from the national police force. Despite all the problems such as corruption, bad equipment and low salaries, the force was still capable of putting itself together to show that law is still enforced in Brazil, now more than ever, and that the long tradition of impunity that gave Brazil a bad name can and will be replaced by a tradition of efficiency and justice. The operation as a whole — which involves, obviously, fair trials and punishment for the guilty — is still far from over. But it’s good to see a positive headline about crime in Brazil, after all

©2007 OhmyNews

-from wmcstations.com-

Sheriff’s deputies recovered stolen items in McKenzie, Brighton, Millington, Atoka and multiple locations in Shelby County.

This is a big bust for the Tipton County Sheriff’s Department and a relief for people who live there.

The thieves not only hit houses but also took things out of cars.

They didn’t seem to be looking for any one specific item, just whatever they could take.

It is quite a haul.

Tipton County Sheriff’s Departmente recovered thousands of dollars in stolen property. Fancy guitars, amps , X-boxes, four wheelers and copper wiring were among the items recovered.

The merchandise was from as far away as Iowa.

Deputies charged nine people in what they are calling a major theft ring. And there could be more arrests.

“We started filing charges the first part of the week some of the warrants are still being filed and some of those people are still being picked up,” says Deputy Chief Donna Turner with Tipton County Sheriff’s Department.

Three of the suspects are students at Brighton High School. No one from the school would say if the students have been suspended or expelled.

A tip from someone living in a Tipton County neighborhood led police to suspects who started talking and that led them to other suspects.

Turner says the thefts have been going on for a year. Most of them have happened in an Atoka neighborhood.

“As tight as the security is and many officers and things we have on this road you would think they would look twice. There’s a sheriff that lives next door workd for the sheriff’s department got won that lives there we’ve got some thast live around the corner. There jsut picking select houses and hitting them,” says neighbor Kim Wilson.

Wilson hopes the Tipton County Sheriff’s department has shut down the burglarly ring for good.

At least two of the suspects have previous records. The investigation is not over .

There could be more arrests and more merchandise recovered.

-from amny.com-

By John Valenti

Authorities have busted a highly organized ring responsible for the theft in Queens of more than 60 high-end vehicles, such as Hummer H2s and Cadillac Escalades, and sold to buyers in other states as well as Mexico.

Following a 14-month undercover operation dubbed “Operation Key Code” by the New York City Police Department’s Auto Crime Division and the Queens District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau, nine people from Brooklyn and Queens were arrested and charged in the 58-count indictment announced Thursday by Queens District Attorney Richard Brown and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Brown said the automobiles were valued at more than $2 million and were stolen using key codes “surreptitiously obtained from auto manufacturers” and sold after being affixed with newly stamped vehicle identification numbers.

The auto theft ring, law enforcement officials said, was broken down into “ringleaders,” “locksmiths,” “steal men” and “taggers/brokers.”

The ringleaders, Brown said, received orders for vehicles and coordinated the thefts. The locksmiths cut keys for the targeted vehicles using vehicle identification numbers provided by the ringleaders.

The steal men then stole the vehicles and delivered them to so-called “lay-up” locations. The taggers/brokers then replaced the vehicle identification number plates — or altered them — and affixed them with forged National Highway Traffic Safety Administration stickers before they were sold.

Charges in the indictment include enterprise corruption under New York State’s Organized Crime Control Act, as well as grand larceny in the second and third degrees, attempted grand larceny in the second and third degrees, robbery in the second degree, criminal possession of stolen property in the second and third degrees, and conspiracy in the fourth degree.

The defendants were arraigned Wednesday in Queens County Supreme Court before Justice Richard L. Butcher.

If convicted, the defendants each face up to 25 years in prison, Brown said.

-from officer.com-

By nbc4.tv

A gang member and convicted felon was convicted Tuesday of murdering a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy in an ambush-style attack in Hawaiian Gardens.

Memorial ImagesDeputy Involved Shooting Images

The Norwalk Superior Court jury deliberated less than a day before finding Jose Luis Orozco, 29, guilty of first-degree murder for the June 24, 2005, shooting death of Deputy Luis Gerardo “Jerry” Ortiz of Diamond Bar.

Jurors found true the special circumstance allegations of murder of a peace officer, murder while lying in wait and murder to avoid arrest, which makes Orozco eligible for the death penalty.

The panel is due back in court next Tuesday for the start of the trial’s penalty phase. The jury will be asked to recommend whether Orozco should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Ortiz, a member of the anti-gang detail at the sheriff’s Lakewood station, was checking identifications of people inside units at an apartment building in the 12200 block of East 223rd Street when he was shot in the face from behind an apartment door.

The 35-year-old married father of two had been investigating an attack four days earlier, in which a man was shot in the back while doing yard work at a Hawaiian Gardens home.

Along with the murder charge, jurors convicted Orozco of one count of attempted murder involving the Hawaiian Gardens shooting and two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Jurors also found true allegations that Orozco personally discharged a handgun and that he committed the crimes for the benefit of a criminal street gang.

Orozco has prior felony convictions for auto burglary, possession of a firearm by a felon and resisting an executive officer, according to the district attorney’s office.

Orozco was arrested hours after the shooting after being found hiding a few doors away, and a .38-caliber revolver was recovered. He has remained jailed without bail since then.

Sheriff Lee Baca, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton were among thousands of mourners who attended the slain deputy’s funeral in June 2005 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

-from 640toronto.com-

TORONTO/AM 640 TORONTO - The hunt is on for a pair of thieves who managed to pull off the second armoured car heist in a month in Toronto.

A month ago today, a Securicor truck was knocked off at Queen and Roncesvalles.

The same company was targetted overnight, with a truck hit at Martin Grove and Westway in Etobicoke.

The guards weren’t hurt but the thieves are believed to have made off with thousands of dollars and one of the guard’s guns.

-from wthr.com-

By Steve Jefferson, Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - The battle continues against Illegal gambling establishments. Metro vice officers raided two more sites Friday morning. They simultaneously executed search warrants on North Central Avenue and West Roache Street.

Vice officers escorted almost a dozen people from a so-called North Central Avenue pool hall. There are no pool tables inside, but police say they found found plenty of evidence of illegal gambling. “This is one of the bigger raids that we have conducted so far,” said Lt. Doug Scheffel, IMPD.

Officers carried out several plastic bags of evidence, including a shotgun and a revolver. They also confiscated thousands of dollars. Police arrested nine employees at the business, charged with promoting illegal gambling. They also issued summons to ten customers for unlawful gambling.

Officers even found business cards stating the gambling times. Vice considers this one of the more sophisticated operations. “Especially when you have nine different employees. Some of the department stores don’t have that many employees,” said Scheffel.

At the same time, other vice officers hit a house at 1410 West Roache Street, the second raid at that location in two months. They carried out several bags of evidence and countless illegal gambling tickets. It too is commonly known as a “pea shake house.” Customers could bet their numbers against numbers on pea-sized numbered balls shaken up and tossed from a bottle.

The Roache Street raid netted four employees arrested and only two customers. But metro vice promise there is more to come.

Detectives say they will continue to investigate illegal gambling establishments and follow-up on any other complaints associated with illegal gambling.

On Thursday, police made a bust at a near-downtown car wash, and earlier this week they conducted a separate raid at the Pendleton Trade Center, where they issued summons to 60 people and also cited a State Trooper, Kyle Freeman.

IMPD is looking into whether any of its own officers were involved in illegal gambling at the Pendleton Trade Center location after reports that police vehicles were seen parked outside.

-from latimes.com-

By Richard Winton, Times Staff Writer

LAPD arrests 31 alleged leaders and seizes 45,000 heroin balloons

For decades, the 5th and Hill gang allegedly was the biggest drug dealer in downtown Los Angeles.

The leaders lived in the suburbs and other parts of L.A., where they produced thousands of heroin balloons at their homes and then had middlemen deliver them downtown, police said. There, day laborers, homeless people and even some children as young as 12 allegedly helped peddle the heroin. For decades, the 5th and Hill gang allegedly was the biggest drug dealer in downtown Los Angeles.

The leaders lived in the suburbs and other parts of L.A., where they produced thousands of heroin balloons at their homes and then had middlemen deliver them downtown, police said. There, day laborers, homeless people and even some children as young as 12 allegedly helped peddle the heroin.

The LAPD had struggled to destroy the gang, frequently arresting low-level dealers only to see them replaced immediately.

But on Wednesday, police said that after a months-long crackdown, the gang — and with it a main source of heroin in Los Angeles — had been dismantled.

Police said they recovered 45,000 balloons of heroin during the 10-month investigation. They also found 85 pounds of tar heroin, they said, enough when diluted to fill half a million balloons.

Officers arrested 31 people who they alleged were leaders of the gang, as well as scores of alleged street sellers who worked for them.

They reached the kingpins, detectives said, because of video surveillance tapes that tracked the movement of drugs in and out of downtown.

The LAPD’s much-touted crackdown on skid row crime has led to 5,400 arrests and a 30% drop in crime since it began in September. But the alleged demise of the 5th and Hill gang offers a glimpse into how drug dealing was able to flourish downtown for decades.

The gang thrived because its leaders stayed far away from the actual drug sales, LAPD Capt. Andrew Smith said.

Authorities believe that the gang got the heroin in bulk from Mexico. The drugs would come to the homes of the gang’s leaders in Santa Fe Springs, Fontana and South Gate. There, authorities allege, women meticulously processed and diluted the heroin, packaging it in single-dose “balloons.”

Downtown turned out to be an ideal spot to find dealers because of the low-income immigrants and people down on their luck there. Smith said the gang could offer some of them better money than what they could earn doing manual labor.

The gang typically charged $5 to $10 per hit of heroin, with the dealers storing balloons in their mouths to avoid detection. When they made a sale, the dealers would spit out the balloon and give it to the customer, Smith said.

Young teenagers — some related to the dealers, other found on the downtown streets — were used not to sell the drug but to move it among sellers, Smith said. The teenagers were given the risky job of conveying significant quantities of drugs to various street corners.

But 5th and Hill used the couriers’ ages to its benefit, police said.

“They took advantage of the fact that they were children and knew we could not bring serious charges against them,” Smith said.

The gang got its start in the 1970s as a loose band of thugs who committed street robberies downtown. By the 1980s, the gang had evolved into a huge source of heroin in drug bazaars spread across skid row. By the mid-1990s, the gang controlled many of the key intersections along 5th Street and Broadway, where people from across Southern California came to buy heroin.

Detectives said 5th and Hill’s customers were not all from downtown. Many were tracked back to the San Gabriel Valley, Hollywood, South Los Angeles and beyond. An LAPD detective who impersonated a 5th and Hill drug dealer nabbed actor Brad Renfro last year when he tried to buy eight balloons of heroin.

The gang, Smith and others said, was not known for feuding with other gangs, but it did use violence to protect its business.

LAPD Senior Lead Officer Kathy McAnany said 5th and Hill employed “enforcers” who would threaten and beat up rivals as well as their own dealers who got out of line.

“About two years ago I and another officer rolled up on a beating of a homeless guy by one of the gang’s enforcers,” she said. “He was putting a … whooping on him.”
The arrests come as the LAPD enters the seventh month of a major crackdown on drugs, crime and blight in downtown.

It is part of a larger effort by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton to revive the skid row area, which has the largest concentrations of homeless people and drug dealing in the city. More than 20% of all Los Angeles drug arrests occur on skid row. While the crackdown has resulted in a surge of arrests, it has also met with ire from the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims that police are harassing homeless people and unfairly arresting some of them.
The LAPD assigned 50 extra officers to downtown in September, and this deployment helped bolster the attack on 5th and Hill, Smith said.

Police started arresting hundreds more suspects a week. And slowly, Smith said, they got low-level dealers to identify middlemen, who then ultimately connected them to top leaders.

Detectives got lucky thanks to the growing number of downtown surveillance video cameras. Once they got a line on the middlemen who were bringing the drugs downtown, police used two dozen video cameras connected to the Central Division station to find their car license plates and track their movements. This eventually led them to the kingpins, Smith said.

Among those arrested, the LAPD identified Pedro Sanchez-Limon, also known as Hector Rodriguez, as the gang’s leader and major supplier. They said Alberto Blanco, also known as “El Moro,” was his right-hand man, and Jamie Chacon Diaz, also known as “Archie,” was the gang’s money collector. Abel Flores, also known as “Barbs,” was identified as the gang’s chief street enforcer. They face multiple charges of selling drugs and conspiracy.

Sanchez-Limon and Diaz had been deported previously but reentered the U.S. illegally, authorities said, and Blanco had been deported twice. Detectives said the gang leaders have long criminal histories.

Detectives admit that the downtown drug trade continues.

“While we haven’t wiped out narcotics sales in the Central [station] area, we have put a major dent in them,” said Capt. Jerry Szymanski, head of LAPD Narcotics.

“A lot has been said about us going after those users,” he said. “Well, what we haven’t been able to say is we have been going after a major supplier.”

-from kentnews.co.uk-

A CRIMINAL compared to a member of the gang in the ultra-violent film Reservoir Dogs wrote a book describing the horrific methods he used on rich burglary victims.

Robert Talbot, 29, of Farnborough, Bromley, was part of a five-strong gang jailed last week for stealing around £1 million worth of luxury goods and cars from wealthy homes.

Talbot and his brother Adam, 19, from Chislehurst, stole another £1m worth of property in separate burglaries.

When police searched Robert Talbot’s home they found a document called Largin’ It, in which he explained how he had always been taught to target “the wealthy and multi-millionaires”.

He justified his choice of victim by saying they were “heavily insured”, Kingston Crown Court heard.

Police said Talbot and his gang broke into properties by removing panes of glass from windows or doors. They would forcibly shake their victims awake, before tying them up, gagging them and threatening them with violence.

They began to cut off the ear of one of their victims, businessman Damian Bischoff, until he gave them the code to a safe - apparently copying a scene from Quentin Tarantino’s film Reservoir Dogs. One woman was threatened with sexual assault.

In Talbot’s Largin’ It book, he said he couldn’t stand criminals such as muggers who went for poor and vulnerable victims.

He wrote about enjoying the adrenaline rush of his crime and boasted about out-smarting “Mr Plod”.

The gang were responsible for six raids in Bromley between July 2005 and January 2006, the court heard.

Denny Cummings, 29, of Vartry Road, north London, Vincent Bellamy, 30, of Old Ford Road, east London, Daniel London, 43, of Welling, Robert Talbot, of Farnborough, and Adam Talbot, of Chislehurst, were all charged with conspiracy to rob six houses. The Talbot brothers pleaded guilty to a further charge relating to other domestic burglaries.

They were sentenced on Tuesday. Robert Talbot was jailed for ten years and six months, while his brother Adam got seven years in prison. Cummings was given a 15-year jail sentence, Bellamy got eight years and London was sentenced to six years.