Hells Angel sues Livermore, seeks $1 million in damages

 

member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club has sued Livermore for $1 million, claiming police violated his civil rights by falsely accusing him of carrying a handgun. Joel Silva filed suit against the city in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Friday. The Sonoma County resident claims the false handgun claim stemmed from a Sept. 5, 2008, incident when another club member was involved in an altercation with an off-duty air marshal. Livermore has not yet responded to the claim. According to court records, the incident occurred after Silva and a group of 11 other riders on Interstate 580 exited onto First Street to stop for gas. While filling up, member Michael Fenton got into an altercation with Shawn Futrell, an off-duty air marshal, who accused Fenton of trying to force him off the freeway, which caused him to lose control of his motorcycle. Futrell called Livermore police, who detained Silva and the 11 other members. Silva said he was handcuffed, searched and detained twice by police before being let go. Fenton was arrested. As Silva was preparing to leave, officers surrounded him and demanded to search his motorcycle. According to the suit, Silva refused but police searched anyway and claimed to find a .38 caliber handgun. Silva was arrested on suspicion of being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. He spent 24 hours in jail but no charges were filed in Alameda County. Silva was later charged in federal court Advertisement based on the claim that he had a handgun. A federal judge later ruled that whether or not Silva had a handgun, his Fourth Amendment rights were violated and suppressed the evidence, according to the suit.

Your right to die in a bikie war shootout

 

AT A guess you could probably assume that none of the High Court judges live in Merrylands, where the Nomads and Hells Angels are engaged in what the police reassuringly describe not as a bikie gang war but merely "tit for tat violence". It is also unlikely that any of these eminent jurists live in Northmead, where an innocent woman had her house strafed with bullets while she was sleeping last week in a zany address mix-up by a bikie who was having trouble reading his UBD. Presumably, none of the judges live in Adelaide's north-western suburb of Semaphore where an 11-year-old boy, the son of a former member of the Finks, was shot in the leg while he slept during a home invasion last month. When the ambulance arrived and the media turned up, bricks were hurled from the home. None of the witnesses to the shooting of the 11-year-old boy would initially co-operate with the police. It was reported however that the Finks had offered their own reward of $500,000 for information on the identity of the shooter. This shooting and its unco-operative aftermath reinforced the fact that members of bikie gangs do not look to the police and the courts for assistance. That's what civilised and law-abiding people do. To this end the police, and particularly the courts, are letting civilised and law-abiding people down. None of the High Court judges could find Merrylands or Semaphore with a packed lunch, a GPS and a team of indigenous trackers. And even the cops seem depressingly ambivalent about what is going on in middle Australian suburbs such as these. Perhaps it was just an unfortunate choice of words but NSW Gangs Squad commander Arthur Katsogiannis seemed too laid-back by half on Sunday in discussing the bikie shootings in Sydney's west, a staggering eight of which have taken place since last Thursday. "If this was a full-scale war between the Nomads and the Hells Angels you would not have the shootings isolated at one particular area, they would be right around the metropolitan area and around the state," he said. No dramas then. But it is the courts which really take the cake on this issue. Just over a year ago the High Court had a chance to seriously disrupt the freedom of bikie gang members to behave in an anti-social and criminal manner. Bombarded by civil libertarian tripe, the court opted to throw in its lot not with the civilised and law-abiding majority but the one per cent "who don't fit and don't care" - to borrow from the Hells Angels' own mission statement. The NSW and SA governments had both passed legislation which would have declared bikie gangs criminal organisations and enabled police to seek orders from magistrates preventing bikies from associating with each other and visiting certain addresses. But this invited the tediously predictable criticisms from academics and defence lawyers along Basil Fawlty lines that this is exactly how Nazi Germany started. One academic warned there was nothing stopping the authorities from using the same laws against the local lawn bowls club or Apex or Rotary. Andreas Schloenhardt, from the University of Queensland law school, fired up at the time: "This legislation is dangerous ... There is little in the legislation that can stop the Attorney-General from banning a bowling club." Certainly that could have been a handy application, in the event that the ladies' four stopped making scones and started manufacturing methamphetamine. But none of this is funny if you live in Ermington or Merrylands or Northmead or Semaphore and are busily keeping your head down, literally, as the "tit for tat violence" continues. The High Court had its chance to make the community safer and it blew it. The NSW and SA laws would have disrupted the lawlessness which has continued and reached a new crisis point since last Thursday and opted instead, on the basis of some legally arcane pedantry about usurping the authority of the Supreme Court, to strike down those laws. Meanwhile the cops are doing a cracking job standing behind police cameras and raiding pubs to make sure no one has had more than four standard drinks, and the High Court judges are happily ensconced in those suburbs where the Nomads and Finks and Hells Angels tend not to tread. People in normal suburbs must deal with that on their own.

Legal community rattled by attack on Hells Angels lawyer

 

legal community is raising questions after a criminal lawyer known for defending members of biker gangs was assaulted outside his home. The victim has been identified as Gilles Doré, who was involved in the criminal proceedings linked to arrests in the wake of Operation SharQc. He is also known as a prominent defence lawyer in the first Hells Angels' mega-trial in 2002, which ended in the murder conviction of Hells leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher. Montreal police say the 58-year-old man was assaulted outside his Outremont home on Friday night. Police say the victim was beaten by one or more individuals. No one has been arrested and the police do not have a description of a possible suspect. Colleagues said Monday he was in stable condition. Colleagues concerned Lawyers say they regularly get threats from all types of clients, which don't always lead to an attack. One defence lawyer, Eric Sutton, said he questioned whether the police will investigate the case with the same veracity with which they investigate other crimes. He said there is a perception that defence lawyers are closely connected with those they represent, which is not always the case. "The defence lawyers get associated with their clientele, and I'm not sure the police will prioritize this case the way it perhaps should have been," he said. "But I don't want to presume that." Richard Prihoda, president of the Defence Attorneys Association of Montreal, calls the attack completely unacceptable under any circumstances. Prihoda said in an interview that if the attack is found to be related to Dore's work, then it is more than just an assault. "It's not just an attack on one lawyer, it's an attack on the whole judicial system," Prihoda said. "As with the Crown prosecutors and the judges, we're a part of the system." Prihoda said the association will discuss the recent attack, at a previously scheduled meeting on Wednesday. "I went to the courthouse today (Monday) and everybody is asking questions," Prihoda said. Prihoda said he hopes that police can resolve the case, as well as other outstanding attacks on Quebec lawyers. Similar attacks on attorneys Montreal defence lawyer Joseph La Leggia was attacked in similar fashion last December near his home. He has since resumed practising law. Another Montreal lawyer, Thomas Kiriazis, who is not a defence lawyer, has also been targeted. The business lawyer says he has been the victim of death threats and a firebombing in front of his home, located in the same neighbourhood where Dore was attacked. Dore battling 2002 Bar suspension In addition to the 2002 megatrial, Dore is currently involved in the massive Hells Angels megatrial being held in Montreal. Dore is due before the Supreme Court of Canada soon, where he is attempting to overturn a lower-court decision that upheld a 21-day suspension he was given by the Quebec Bar Association during the 2002 megatrial. The suspension was over a critical letter Dore sent to a Quebec judge over comments that judge made at the bail hearing of one of his clients.

Gangster dead in Vancouver daytime shooting

 

brazen gangland slaying in a busy area one block from a Vancouver police station has left witnesses to the Sunday morning shooting extremely shaken. A man dressed in black clothing approached the victim as he walked his dog and shot him six times in the chest from close range, according to witness accounts. A witness, who asked to be identified only as Sylvia, said she heard six gunshots. “It sounded like fireworks,” said Sylvia, who was enjoying a cappuccino at a nearby cafe just before 10 a.m. “We looked out the window and saw a hooded man — a man in a black hoodie and black pants. He just ran up the road.” She then noticed someone lying on the ground on the northeast corner of the intersection. “I ran over to see if he needed help,” said Sylvia. Two other passersby were already at his side. “They were checking for a pulse. He had a pulse for a short time,” she said. The witness said he had been shot six times in the chest. “There was a lot of bleeding. We ran back and got him a blanket. The police were there very quickly, in less than a minute, and after that emergency people took over.” While the victim’s body lay under a blanket, Vancouver police officers armed with large rifles searched for a suspect. Sylvia described the victim as a white man in his 20s who had been walking a dog before he was shot. Vancouver Police Department Const. Jana McGuinness confirmed the targeted shooting marked the city’s 13th homicide of 2011. “We do believe he has some gang links,” said McGuinness, who did not name the victim. After the shooting, the victim’s pet, a French bulldog, ran around frantically until one of the passersby managed to bring it under control.

Body found in search for Dublin drug addict killed over $4,000 gang debt

 

Irish police have recovered the body of a drug addict murdered over a debt of just a few thousand dollars. Ciaran Noonan, a 29-year-old father of one, was abducted near his East Wall home in Dublin on October 20th. His body was discovered in a ditch on farmland five miles from the Meath town of Trim on Friday night. Noonan’s family visited the site and laid flowers after the body was removed and taken to Tallaght hospital for a post mortem. Police believe Noonan was beaten to death after he was snatched in broad daylight on Russell Avenue in the East Wall. A priest in County Meath received a phone call last week with information about the location of the addict’s body. Speaking to the media, officers outlined their belief that Noonan was killed over a small drug debt to a Dublin gang, believed to be no more than $4,000. The gang had forced Noonan to collect money from other addicts in the north inner city but it is believed he used the money to feed his own habit and ran foul of the gang’s notorious leader. Noonan was heard shouting "I’m dead" as he was hit with an iron bar and dragged into the back of a car. Officers believe the gang intended to beat Noonan severely to force him or his family to pay his drug debt but the punishment beating went horribly wrong. Two women, arrested on suspicion of withholding evidence relating to the kidnapping, have been released without charge. Noonan’s mother Geraldine told reporters: “We had hoped that Ciaran would be found alive. At least now we can give him a funeral.”

Newfoundlanders arrested in RCMP drug bust

 

Two people from Newfoundland and Labrador have been arrested in an interprovincial drug bust against the Hells Angels motorcycle club. The accused are 41-year-old Scott Hutchings from Bell Island and Jocelyn Dunn, 26, from St. John's. The pair have been charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine. They were both arrested on Friday afternoon in St. John’s. They were taken in a bust dubbed "Operation Longridge," which was led by the Ontario Provincial Police. According to a press release issued by the RCMP on Saturday the operation was “targeting members and associates of (an) outlaw motorcycle gang, specifically the Hells Angels Kitchener, Ontario chapter.” The release went on to state that Hutchings and Dunn were arrested in an undercover operation by the RCMP St. John’s Drug Section in cooperation with the Ontario Biker Enforcement Unit. In addition to arresting the two suspects police also seized $50,000 and an unreleased quantity of anabolic steroids. There were more arrests connected to this case made in Ontario but it is unclear at this time how many there were in total. Hutchings and Dunn will appear again in court on Monday.

Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré — who has represented alleged Hells Angels — is in hospital with serious injuries

Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré.

Montreal criminal lawyer Gilles Doré — who has represented alleged Hells Angels — is in hospital with serious injuries after being assaulted outside his home.

According to Radio-Canada, the 58-year-old lawyer was violently beaten outside his house in Montreal's tony Outremont neighbourhood Friday evening.

Without confirming his identity, police said the victim was found lying on the ground outside his house near Glendale and Pratt Avenues.

The victim was in a coma but later regained consciousness and was able to speak with detectives.

Police have no suspects.

Doré rose to prominence a decade ago when he defended high-ranking Hells members involved in Quebec's notorious 2002 mega-trial.

That mega-trial ended with the murder conviction of Maurice "Mom" Boucher, alleged biker kingpin.

Doré also represents several presumed Hells bikers arrested two years ago in a massive dragnet against organized crime.

The bust, known as Operation SharkQC, netted more than 100 arrests, including dozens of full-patch members of the notorious biker network, according to police.

Top Hells leader arrested after evading police

 

key player in Quebec's bloody biker war was arrested Wednesday after two-and- a-half years on the lam. Steve Duquette, 45, was a top lieutenant in the Sherbrooke, Que., chapter of the Hells Angels. The group plotted the deaths of rival Rock Machine bikers in a conflict that saw more than 100 people, including bystanders, killed in the 1990s and early 2000s. Duquette did not resist when he was picked up Wednesday in Montreal. He appeared in court Thursday on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, gangsterism, drug trafficking and conspiracy to traffic.

Belizean Bloods have been charged with drug trafficking and passport fraud

 

Two dozen members of a Chicago street gang have been charged with drug trafficking and passport fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday. The charges against the members of the Belizean Bloods street gang, said to operate in Chicago and Evanston, Ill., were contained in an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, a release said. The charges arise from two coordinated investigations that included agents from multiple federal law enforcement agencies as well as the Chicago and Evanston Police Departments, the department said. In 2009, the Chicago Field Office of the U.S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service began investigating alleged passport fraud by Belizean nationals, while at the same time the FBI and Evanston and Chicago police were investigating alleged narcotics trafficking by suspected members of the Belizean Bloods

Arrests of Mexican drug cartel leaders in Texas raise concerns

 

The recent arrests of three alleged drug gang leaders from Mexico and the shooting of a sheriff's deputy in South Texas are raising fears among some Lone Star State officials that the brutal drug wars plaguing Mexico are taking hold north of the Rio Grande. On Sunday, Deputy Hugo Rodriguez of Hidalgo County in the southern tip of Texas was shot several times when he pulled over a vehicle containing a person kidnapped by members of Mexico's Gulf Cartel, County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said. Rodriguez's bulletproof vest saved his life, Trevino said. "I have always said we have never reported spillover violence, but I have to say that this particular incident is our first example," Trevino said. Trevino said cartel leaders told members to enter the United States to search for marijuana stolen from the cartel. The Mexican gang used members of a Texas-based street gang, mostly illegal immigrants, to seek out the drugs, Trevino said. And three alleged high-ranking leaders of the Gulf Cartel have been arrested in Texas in the past two weeks after seeking refuge in the United States in the aftermath of internal gang warfare, according to federal court documents released this week. "Amazingly, these individuals are using Texas as a safe haven to protect themselves from the very violence that they have created," U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, told reporters this week. The internal warfare was sparked by the September murder in Mexico of Samuel Flores Borrego, a top Gulf Cartel leader, according to the court documents. His death has led to a power struggle between two factions of the Gulf Cartel. DRUG ARREST Rafael Cardenas Vela, 38, the nephew of a co-founder of the Gulf Cartel, was arrested October 21 in Port Isabel, Texas, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He is charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute drugs and using a fraudulent passport. Two other Gulf Cartel members, Eudoxio Ramos Garcia and Jose Luis Zuniga Hernandez, have been arrested in Texas in the past week, according to ICE. All three arrests are related to the split in the Gulf Cartel, said Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical intelligence for the Austin-based private intelligence firm STRATFOR. "The friction between two parts of the Gulf Cartel has been brewing for the past couple of months, and now it appears it is breaking out into all out war," Stewart told Reuters on Thursday. "It is quite possible that the information that led to Cardenas' arrest was actually leaked to U.S. authorities by his rivals in the cartel." Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Wednesday wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama that the three arrests and the shooting of the deputy show that the administration is failing to secure the border. "I implore you to aggressively confront this escalating threat," Abbott wrote. A call to the White House press office was not immediately returned on Thursday. Monica Weisberg-Stewart, a McAllen business owner and the chairwoman of the security committee of the Texas Border Coalition, said incidents like the ones from the past two weeks aren't new in South Texas. "There is still less crime down here on the border than there is in most parts of the country," said Weisberg-Stewart, whose coalition includes elected officials and business owners. "What we need is to work on establishing a true sense of security, and not take reactive steps, which will give us a false sense of security."

An alleged high-ranking member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) has been charged with a revocation of parole warrant

 

An alleged high-ranking member of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang (OMCG) has been charged with a revocation of parole warrant by officers from the Gangs Squad’s Strike Force Raptor. Part of Strike Force Raptor’s charter is to monitor members of OMCGs who have been released from Corrective Services custody with parole conditions. Their inquiries led them to a man who had allegedly fled to Queensland. About 6.30pm on Wednesday 2 November 2011, a 41-year-old man was arrested in Tugun, Queensland, by officers from the Queensland Police Service’s Task Force Hydra. He faced Southport Magistrate’s Court yesterday where he was remanded into the custody of Strike Force Raptor officers. He was subsequently taken to Tweed Heads Police Station, in northern NSW, and charged with the revocation of parole warrant. He has been transferred into Corrective Services custody. Strike Force Raptor was established by the State Crime Command’s Gangs Squad in 2009 and is a proactive, high-impact operation targeting outlaw motorcycle gangs and their alleged associated criminal enterprises.

Hells Angels held a party in Tallinn last Saturday that climaxed with a fight that broke out between a night club security guard and two Finnish citizens

 

motorcycle gang Hells Angels held a party in Tallinn last Saturday that climaxed with a fight that broke out between a night club security guard and two Finnish citizens who were later brought to trial and “essentially thrown out of the country,” as one law enforcement officer put it. Having caused a raucus at the night club, three Hells Angels members had called their friends for help, but police - who had been keeping an eye on their festivities - were standing by and preempted a further conflict, reported ETV. Police say the otherwise peaceful party, attended by Hells Angels members from six countries, is just one sign that motorcycle gangs are expanding to Estonia. A local biker club has been courting the Hells Angels to get full membership. Another local club has already gained membership and established a new headquarters for a second international organization, Bandidos, which Finnish law enforcement has dubbed the biggest organized crime ring in their country. The two groups - Hells Angels and Bandidos - cannot be allowed to come together. “Violence is relatively probable,” said Elmar Vaher, who heads the North Prefecture of the police. He recalled the Great Nordic Biker War in the 1990s, in which 11 were killed, 96 injured, and weapons such as AK-47s were used. "There is a principle that commiting a common crime can tie people more closely to one another than anything else," said Vaher. Authorities now fear new cases of prostitution and drug trafficking. Although police have searched one of these local biker clubs on several occasions, and discovered illegal drugs in one instance, the Estonian biker organizations cannot yet be labeled as criminal, they say. Estonian police have been watching the activities of biker gangs since 2005, when Finnish colleagues identified a problem. "Along with the public club activities, there are more shady dealings as well," said Vaher. "Their handwriting is generally clever. They want to show that they mean well - international associates have built kindergartens [...] But there are also hidden crimes, mainly drugs, prostitution, and serious financial crimes." While Vaher submitted that not every person with a motorcycle and a leather jacket can be considered a criminal, he said some markings - such as the Hells Angels's “1%” insignia - are a clear statement of endorsing criminal activity. Upon inquiry, however, the Estonian biker club associated with Hell Angels defended itself, saying that it is just a group of hobbyists, that every societal demographic has crime, and that criminal activity - indeed - is not a prerequisite for membership.

Report: Nevada Top 10 in Gang Members

 

Street gangs are a growing problem in southern Nevada. The FBI ranks Clark County as the 10th worst area in the nation for the number of gang members. More than 15,000 roam the streets, and those are just the ones authorities know about. The report shows the trends authorities are seeing in gangs. Biker gangs are getting more and more members. Hispanic-based gangs are expanding faster than other gangs. Twenty states, including Nevada, are seeing these same trends. Rachal Richardson used to have gang ties. Lights and sirens were something she was used to. Her ties to gang life are over, but not before being exposed to plenty of violence. The mother of four traded in violence and crimes scenes for a better life 10 years ago. She's not surprised Clark County is in the top 10 counties of the country when it comes to gang presence. "With sex is drugs and money and with that comes gangs, people trying to protect their turf, their name, or their pride," she said. With more than 15,000 gang members identified through the report, those who work closely with gang members say more needs to done. "We don't have enough money on prevention programs, where the kids can be involved and don't fall into that path of crime," said Esther Brown with the Embracing Project. Brown has never been in a gang, but moved to America from Spain and saw the need to reach out to those in gangs. She started the Embracing Project, a gang-prevention charity. "You are a gang member, let's look for solutions. What do you need so you can leave the gang. Some of the kids, it's difficult to leave the gang because their family are gang members," she said. She hopes this recent report opens the eyes of the community. "It's everywhere. People think, 'Oh, not in Summerlin. We don't have gang-bangers.' It's everywhere. Gang activity is everywhere," she said. Most of the gangs identified in this report are from street gangs. Two motorcycle gangs have seen a growth in Nevada, but gang-related drug activity in the report was fairly low compared to the overall gang presence in the state.