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Street gang sweep nabs 27 members in U.S. - People's Daily Online : "targets the Black Angels street gang that has allegedly engaged in violent crimes and wide-ranging narcotics trafficking that helped fund the Mexican Mafia. In addition to the 27 arrested this morning, 25 defendants were already in custody. Authorities are continuing to search for the additional eight defendants named in the indictment."

Rival motorcycle gangs brawl in SE Minn. StarTribune.com : "brawl between rival biker gangs in southeastern Minnesota prompted police to close a lane of U.S. Highway 61 after pulling over more than 100 bikers. Winona County Chief Deputy Ron Ganrude tells the Winona Daily News that police were called Saturday afternoon to a parking lot in Minneiska where members of the Hells Angels and Outlaws motorcycle clubs were fighting. No one was cited for fighting, however, because no one would talk to the officers. One man with facial injuries said he fell. Two men were cited for possessing brass knuckles."

Friends of Ours: Street Gangs Seek To Kill Cops : "revelations came as law enforcement unveiled the chilling results of long-running 'Operation Under Siege' - 104 suspects, dozens of guns, two slayings and piles of drugs and cash. The sprawling case was built on wiretaps - including recordings of gang associate Jeith Livingston, who blabbed about plans to protect his drug turf by killing cops on patrol. 'He intended to position himself on rooftops and shoot police officers who were compromising his business in Far Rockaway and South Jamaica,' Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said."

Muscatine boy shot in what police believe is a gang-related shooting : "17-year-old Muscatine boy was shot just before 1 p.m. today in the 500 block of West Fifth Street, according to Phil Sargent, the Muscatine Police Department's assistant chief. Earl N. Wooten was shot in the upper body and is being treated at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where he was taken by Muscatine Fire and Ambulance. Information about his condition wasn't immediately available. The shooting is believed to have been gang-related and an act of retaliation for events from Friday night, Sargent said in a news release without elaborating on what had happened earlier. He was not immediately available for further comment. The shooting remains under investigation, Sargent said. He said the police are looking for a number of individuals."

Jury finds LA detectives negligent in teen death - San Jose Mercury News : "federal jury has found that two Los Angeles police detectives were negligent when they told a gang member he had been identified as a killer by a teenage girl who was later murdered by another member of the gang. The jury found Friday that detectives Martin Pinner and Juan Rodriguez violated the constitutional rights of the slain girl, 16-year-old Martha Puebla, but found Puebla and her parents were also negligent in her 2003 death and awarded them no money. U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder awarded them $1 in nominal damages. Deputy City Attorney Elizabeth Fitzgerald argued Puebla's testimony at a preliminary hearing about the gang affiliation of convicted killer Jose Ledesma led to the retaliation, not the detectives' ruse. Fitzgerald said Puebla and her parents were offered witness relocation but refused. ———"

Suspected gang member shoots man, dog on Santa Cruz's Westside - San Jose Mercury News : "suspected gang member shot a 24-year-old Santa Cruz man and his dog on Woodrow Avenue on Saturday night, according to Santa Cruz police. The victim was riding his bicycle on Woodrow near Plateau Avenue, exercising his pit bull terrier-mix, at 7:15 p.m. when several men in a gold truck asked him his gang affiliation, Lt. Rick Martinez said. When the 24-year-old denied any gang affiliation, one of the men stepped out of the truck and shot at least four times with a small-caliber semi-automatic handgun, hitting the victim in the right thigh and the dog in a paw, Martinez said. A bullet also grazed the victim's torso. The shooter got back in the truck, and the driver fled west on Plateau. A passerby saw the victim on the sidewalk and gave him a ride to his parents' house nearby, police said."

Leader in double killing has strong gang ties courierpostonline.com Courier-Post : "Kuasheim Powell, of the 500 block of Berkley Street, was the leader in the group killing of Muriah Huff, 18, of Cinnaminson and Michael Hawkins, 23, of Mount Holly, assistant prosecutor Ira Slovin said during an arraignment hearing for Powell on Tuesday.Powell was the one who shot Hawkins five times in the head during the hours-long killings on Feb. 22 inside the Berkley Street home, Slovin said.A day before Powell allegedly helped kill Huff and Hawkins, police say he shot and injured two 21-year-old brothers near the light rail River Line 36th street station."

Cops: Gang member killed in Greenfield shooting thecalifornian.com The Salinas Californian : "25-year-old known Norteño gang member was fatally shot in Greenfield late Tuesday in what police say may have been the second attempt on his life. Chief Joe Grebmeier said Rene Lopez Jr. was fired on about 8:55 p.m. while standing with another person in a side garage of his parents' home on the less-than-100 block of Elmwood Circle."

Ex-gangster admits to role in two murders Metro Vancouver News Blog : "former member of the notorious Red Scorpions gang has chosen a hard escape route out of the gangster life: A minimum 25-year prison term after admitting his part in two murders. Anton Hooites-Meursing turned up in a New Westminster courtroom yesterday and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the strangling death of drug dealer Randy MacLeod, 22, in suburban Surrey in 2001."

Recent Crimes Spark Fears Of Bad Old Days In NYC - 1010WINS.com : "'SUBWAY SLAUGHTER'' screamed the headline of the New York Post. ``Death Rode The 2 Train, Two slain in horror ride on West Side subway'' led the Daily News. The spate of crime, including three shootings and dozens of arrests for what the mayor called ``wilding'' April 5 near Times Square, has some questioning whether the decades-long reduction in crime is starting to shift as the city struggles with massive budget cuts and a shrinking police force. 'It's very upsetting,'' said Adele Dressner, who owns a business near 34th Street. ``It could happen in the best and worst neighborhoods.'' But criminologists and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly caution against suggesting there's a trend. 'We've had some high-profile events,'' Kelly said. ``But that's going to happen in a big city like this ... it's important to keep it in context.''

Tension simmers in South Africa as Eugene Terre'Blanche is laid to rest World news The Guardian : "Eugene Terre'Blanche was laid to rest in peace yesterday as family members threw petals on his coffin. But there was every sign that the white South African's extremist views have not been buried with him. At a funeral service Terre'Blanche's coffin was defiantly draped in the flag of his far right Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) movement, the swastika-style insignia and blood red surround reminiscent of the Nazis. Just before noon the coffin was borne into church by burly but pot-bellied men in green berets and brown shirts with 'Boerkcommandos' epaulettes. The congregation burst into a passionate rendition of the apartheid era national anthem, Die Stem and some gave Nazi-style salutes. The casket, topped with a red and white floral wreath, was placed beneath the pulpit alongside a framed photograph of Terre'Blanche, a man who once threatened to wa