Gang murdered drug dealer then blew up his house

 Drugs gang executed one of their dealer's and then blew up his house to cover-up the murder, a court heard this afternoon. Colliston Edwards, 38, of no fixed address and Andre Johnson, 25, also of no fixed address are accused of shooting Leroy Burnett, 43, after he kept back some of their money from drugs deals. Max Walter, 21, of no fixed address was then recruited by the pair to blow-up his house in Crichton Road, Battersea the Old Bailey...

Jurors convict two men of first-degree murder in shooting death near Delray Beach

 A jury convicted two men of first-degree murder Tuesday in connection with the 2007 shooting death of John Blazevige, whose body was found outside his still idling pick-up truck near Delray Beach. It took three days for jurors to return the verdicts against Michael Marquardt and Louis Baccari at the end of the week-long trial. At times they seemed entrenched into two separate camps, but in the end they made the unanimous decision to return...

Drug gangs report blasting UK cities as dangerous

  Comment By Professor Alan Stevens Drug gangs report blasting UK cities as dangerous is too confusing The problems are nowhere near as deep in Manchester or Liverpool as they are in Rio de Janeiro – or even San Francisco A masked municipal policeman stands outside a shopping mall in MexicoAP On one hand it is right to state that there are communities in British cities suffering from social exclusion and marginalisation and that this...

British cities are becoming no-go areas where drugs gangs are effectively in control

British cities are becoming no-go areas where drugs gangs are effectively in control, a United Nations drugs chief said yesterday. Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), said there was “a vicious cycle of social exclusion and drugs problems and fractured communities” in cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. The development of “no-go areas” was being fuelled by threats such as social...

The daily Sun had systematically paid large sums of money to “a network of corrupted officials” in the British police, military and government.

A day after presiding over the publication of his new, damn-the-critics Sun on Sunday tabloid, Rupert Murdoch was confronted with fresh allegations from a top police investigator that the daily Sun had systematically paid large sums of money to “a network of corrupted officials” in the British police, military and government. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and...

Putin assassination plot foiled: Russian officials

 Ukrainian security services have thwarted a plot to kill Russian PM Vladimir Putin, Russian officials say. Two suspects were detained in the Ukrainian port of Odessa, Russia's state-owned Channel One TV reports. The arrested men were both shown on TV admitting their involvement in the plot, after an explosion at a flat in January in which one suspect died. Ukrainian security officials have refused to confirm the arrests were part of a plot...

You can buy a Kalashnikov for a hundred euros on the back streets of Athens

"You can buy a Kalashnikov for a hundred euros on the back streets of Athens and people are doing so to guard their property," Mr Chrysanthopoulos told me from his home outside the capital yesterday. Thanks to the disastrous euro, his country is sliding remorselessly towards bankruptcy and disintegration. Modern Greece is an economic corpse, kept on life support by Germany and France, who fear the euro will be destroyed if they admit the truth....

TONY Adams has been compared to TV gangster Tony Soprano, and his gang are rumoured to be responsible for 25 murders.

  When he appeared in court last November, he gave his address as the cottage in Barnet. Land Registry documents confirm the property is owned by Cole, 31. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the player, who has a multi-million-pound property investment portfolio. Adams, once said to be worth £150 million, headed a notorious North London crime gang nicknamed the A-team or Adams Family. He bought a yacht and sent his daughter...

Britain’s crime hot spots revealed

 The findings, posted on an interactive website, will allow the public to discover how many cases of robbery, vehicle crime and other offences take place in their area – and to rank areas from best to worst. Oxford Street in London's West End was revealed to be the shopping destination surrounded by the most crime. During 2011, there were 656 vehicle crimes, 915 robberies and 2,597 violent crimes within three quarters of a mile of the Oxford...

Gangster’s moll rents a house from Ashley Cole

 Gangster's moll Ruth Adams, 51, pays about £1,500 a month to rent the Chelsea defender's three-bedroom cottage. Her husband Terry, 57 — a fan of Chelsea's London rivals Arsenal — also lived at the property for 17 months between prison sentences. He moved in to the £600,000 home in Barnet, North London, after his release from a seven-year stretch for money laundering, before being banged up again last year. Neighbours often see loyal Ruth...

One of Italy’s most notorious gangsters, Enrico De Pedis, is buried in a Roman Catholic basilica near Piazza Navona.

  Why the Vatican allowed a top mobster to be buried in Sant’Apollinare has been a source of furious speculation since 1997, when the resting place of De Pedis — gunned down seven years earlier — was first revealed. The answer taking shape looks like something bestselling author Dan (The Da Vinci Code) Brown would have had trouble dreaming up. The story goes back to the 1980s and includes money-laundering allegations against the Vatican’s...

Russia: a gangster state

 Vladimir Putin came to power nearly 13 years ago to give Russia some direction after the increasingly ramshackle rule of Boris Yeltsin. Next Sunday, he stands for re-election as president after a four-year interlude in which his puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, has kept the seat warm for him. He is certain to be elected for a further six years, a constitutional amendment to extend the term having been passed in 2008. What can be expected from his return...

New Lockerbie bomber evidence' may clear Abdelbaset al Megrahi

'Lockerbie: Case Closed accessed the ‘secret contents’ of the legal review into the case of Abdelbaset al Megrahi. Programme makers pored over the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission’s investigation to find fresh evidence – including the ‘dramatic results’ of new scientific tests that go against the original evidence. The documentary says the previously unseen information was not known to the commission and ‘comprehensively undermines’ the...

Man claims he was under duress from gangland figure to steal

 A jury has been told that a man accused of attempting to steal €1m from a cash-in-transit van over four years ago was acting under duress from gangland figure Eamonn Dunne. Joseph Warren (aged 30) of Belclare Crescent, Ballymun, has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conspiring to steal cash from Chubb Ireland at Tesco supermarket on the Shackleton Road in Celbridge on November 2, 2007. Detective Inspector Eugene Lynch...

500,000 passengers allowed to enter Britain on Eurostar without border checks

 Home Secretary Theresa May told the House of Commons that border security checks at ports had been suspended regularly and applied inconsistently for more than four years. Mrs May also said students from low risk countries had been allowed to enter Britain even when they did not have visa clearance. She said the practice was unlawful and discriminatory. John Vine, the independent chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, launched an investigation...

Teenagers jailed for south London murder

 teenager accused of two gang murders at the age of 16 has been sentenced to a life term. Jordan Williams was told on Thursday he would serve a minimum of 18 years for murdering Daniel Graham, 18, who was stabbed 24 times in 45 seconds. Williams, who turned 17 last month, was part of a gang which attacked Graham as he stepped off a bus on 29 January last year. Williams was later arrested for the murder of promising athlete Sylvester Akapalara,...

Hells Angel charged over Sydney ice labs

 Police say they have charged a senior member of the Hells Angels bikie gang over the discovery of two illegal drug laboratories earlier this week. The 33-year-old man was arrested with an alleged Hells Angels associate on Wednesday afternoon at an apartment block at North Ryde, in Sydney's north-west. Police say they found drugs and a loaded handgun at the unit. The apartment was raided by officers investigating the discovery of two methylamphetamine...

1993 £1m Felixstowe heist: Suspect Eddie Maher was 'bankrupt'

 A man wanted in Suffolk over a £1m heist in 1993 had been declared bankrupt with debts of more than $30,000 (£19,000), American court papers have revealed. Eddie Maher, 56, originally from Essex, was arrested on 8 February after being found in Ozark, Missouri. Mr Maher had $85 (£54) in his bank account when he filed for bankruptcy in 2010. He is due in court in America on 22 February for a preliminary hearing. Anonymous tip-off Mr Maher...

The lucrative illicit market in “B.C. Bud”

 The lucrative illicit market in “B.C. Bud” — by far the province’s largest agricultural crop — is controlled largely by Asian and biker gangs.  Grow operations have led to gang warfare in what were once peaceful Fraser Valley farm towns. “The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight,” wrote the former B.C. AG’s,  “massive profits for organized crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal...

Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric, Russian Igor Russol and Moroccan Houssain Ait Taleb have made appearances in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court.

  They have all been branded by police as underworld figures with links to organised crime. Yesterday, community safety MEC Dan Plato said he was concerned about these developments. "I am worried about the fact that so many high-profile underworld figures are involved in Cape Town. I am worried about the number of foreign nationals involved in organised crime in Cape Town. "My question is: why are all these foreign people heading for...

'FAT' FREDDIE'S GIRL IN SUICIDE VIGIL

Hood's lover desperate to raise awareness over spate of young victims  FUNDRAISER: Vicky Dempsey poses with picture of her brother THIS is gangster 'Fat' Freddie Thompson's girlfriend posing for photographs at a fundraiser for suicide awareness last week. Vicky Dempsey...

Rapper and Bloods Gang leader indicted for murders and racketeering

Up-and-coming Rap music performer Ronald Herron, also known as “Ra Diggs,” “Ra Digga” and “Raheem,” was charged in federal court on Monday in Brooklyn, New York, with multiple crimes, including three murders related to his leadership of a "set" of the Bloods Street Gang.    A federal indictment charges the 30-year old suspect with a whopping 23 counts, including murder, racketeering, murder...

. Ronald Herron, who calls himself "The Big Homie," dabbled as a self-styled rapper under the name "Ra Diggs" until he was busted in 2010

 The leader of all Bloods street gangs in New York City was hit with a sweeping new indictment today charging him with murder and several murder conspiracy charges. Ronald Herron, who calls himself "The Big Homie," dabbled as a self-styled rapper under the name "Ra Diggs" until he was busted in 2010 after a four-year FBI-NYPD probe involving more than 65 undercover drug purchases. Brooklyn federal prosecutors say he unleashed a reign of terror...

Sun newspaper 'will continue' says Rupert Murdoch

 News International owner Rupert Murdoch has said he is committed to publishing the Sun newspaper, following the arrest of five of its employees. They were among eight people arrested over alleged corrupt payments to police and public servants. A Surrey Police officer, a member of the armed forces and a Ministry of Defence employee were also arrested. Sun editor Dominic Mohan said he was "shocked" by the arrests but pledged to continue to...

Rupert Murdoch flies into London as five Sun journalists arrested over alleged corruption

 The journalists, including The Sun’s deputy editor, were detained at dawn as part of the Metropolitan police investigation into corruption of public officials. A serving officer with the Armed forces and his wife, who is a Ministry of Defence official, were also arrested at an address in Wiltshire. It is the first time the Armed Forces have been drawn into the widespread police inquiry launched following phone hacking revelations at The Sun’s...

drug gang threatened to kill an officer per day

 2,000 police are hunkering down in hotels in Mexico's most violent city of Ciudad Juarez after a drug gang threatened to kill an officer per day if their chief refused to resign. Eleven police officers, including four commanders, have already been killed in the city across from El Paso, Texas, since the start of the year. The city's mayor this week ordered police to use several local hotels as temporary barracks to protect themselves from attacks...

Twenty seconds of shooting, 432 bullets, five dead policemen.

  Four of the corpses are sprawled over a shiny new Dodge Ram pickup truck that has been pierced so many times it resembles a cheese grater. The bodies are contorted in the unnatural poses of the dead - arms arched over spines, legs spread out sideways. The bloodied fifth man is lying three metres from the pickup. His eyes are wide open, his right hand stretched upward clasping a 9mm pistol - a death pose that could have been set up for...

ruling on how much money will be confiscated from the ringleader of an international drugs gang that was based in Wiltshire is due next week.

 Police believe David Barnes made as much as £29m from illegal activities and want to seize it under the Proceeds of Crime Act.Barnes, 42, of Berkshire, was convicted of conspiracy to supply Class B drugs and jailed for 12 years in 2010.He appeared at Gloucester Crown Court...

Four members of a criminal gang have been jailed for their role in one of the biggest alcohol smuggling frauds ever uncovered in Britain.

The complex scam was worth an estimated £50 million a year in unpaid duty and VAT and allowed the men to buy fast cars and luxury homes, investigators said.They used their positions and contacts in the drinks trade to conceal dozens of truckloads of alcohol being moved into Britain...

Senior Sun journalists arrested in police payments probe

 Five Sun newspaper journalists have been arrested as part of Operation Elveden, the police inquiry into alleged inappropriate payments to public servants. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian The Sun has been plunged into crisis following the arrest of five of its most senior journalists, including the deputy editor, over allegations of inappropriate payments to police and public officials. The five Sun journalists are understood to...