United States of Europe

  Oakland police say a father of three was killed in bed near his sleeping wife and children when his house was sprayed with bullets in a drive-by shooting. Officer Kevin McDonald said one of many bullets passed through a wall and hit 46-year-old mechanic Thourn Nhep, who was pronounced dead at the scene when police arrived Saturday. Neighbors say a mid-size sedan sped away after the shooting. McDonald tells the Oakland Tribune (http://bit.ly/s7iXXn) the shooting was not random, but did not give further details of who was targeted and why. No one had been arrested. Nhep's 18-year-old daughter Sok told the Tribune it was the third time the house had been shot at recently. Sok said her father was a "good guy" who had nothing to do with violence.

26-year-old man walked down the middle of a street in Hollywood, firing on passing cars with no clear target until police shot and killed him, authorities said. A passing driver was injured. Investigators are trying to determine a motive for the attack, which some people thought was part of a movie. "This is Hollywood, and they do film stuff all the time," Greg Watkins, who was walking along the street yesterday when the shooting began, told the Los Angeles Times. "I honestly thought they were filming something." There were amateur cameras on the man, who in video clips had short hair and wore jeans and a white tank top as he paced back and forth near the busy intersection. Chris Johns captured video of the gunman from his apartment window several stories above the street, and tried to distract and divert the gunman from shooting anyone on the street. "Hey why don't you come up here! Come up here buddy!" Johns yelled. Johns told KABC-TV he saw a plainc

Suspects accused of selling guns and drugs. Authorities collared 38 Bronx and upper Manhattan gangbangers Wednesday after a two-year probe into a notorious crew, officials said. The alleged members of the Dominican-based Trinitarios gang all face charges of racketeering, narcotics conspiracy and gun trafficking, authorities said. The undercover investigation — which involved officers from the NYPD, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Homeland Security — netted about $25,000 worth of drugs and 12 firearms in Wednesday’s raid, police said. One weapon recovered, a Mac-11 machine gun, was painted the same shade of green the gang uses in its colors. Federal prosecutors said the crew committed and planned violent acts, including murder, to protect its turf from rival gangs that include the Bloods, Crips, the Latin Kings and Dominicans Don’t Play. “We believe we put a big dent in the Trinitarios gang,” said  Capt. Lorenzo Johnson , the

  co-defendant in the Hells Angels trial last week was found not guilty on several charges. Timothy David Hill, 45, of Rock Hill was acquitted on charges of attempted murder, attempted armed robbery, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy by a York County jury Friday. Hill was represented by public defenders Harry Dest and B.J. Barrowclough. The main defendant, 58-year-old William "Spook" Sosebee of Rock Hill, was convicted of attempted armed robbery, kidnapping, possession of a knife during a violent crime and first-degree assault and battery, according to a news release from the 16th Circuit Solicitor's Office. Judge John C. Hayes sentenced Sosebee to 10 years in prison with no parole. Sosebee was accused of stabbing Jim Moye of North Carolina at Wall Bangers Social Club on East Main Street. Moye, 58, is a member of Iron Order, another motorcycle club, and had stopped at Wall Bangers, according to the solicitor's office news release. Evidence at the trial showed that Mo

The Hells Angels, decimated by a series of raids, are reorganizing under the guise of four so-called puppet clubs, QMI Agency has learned. The emergence of the Dark Souls, the Black Mask, the Thunder Bikers and the Iron Beast are a sure sign the feared gang is trying to reclaim lucrative territory, say experts. Three of the four new Hells puppet clubs in Quebec have quietly announced their presence on the Internet. The Black Mask Facebook page says it has a base in Scott, east of Quebec City. Newly established in four regions of the province, the puppet clubs sport colours inspired by the Hells as well as jackets adorned with distinctive logos and marked "MC" for Motorcycle Club. Undercover Montreal police officers gathered information on the clubs by infiltrating a biker meeting at a Montreal bar in November, sources tell QMI Agency. Sixty aspiring bikers were met by three members of the Nomads, the select Hells chapter once run by Maurice (Mom) Boucher and now based in Onta

  Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders. Some 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, when its government launched a major military crackdown against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorized border communities as they battled over lucrative smuggling routes. According to these officials, the operations were aimed at identifying how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are, the report said. The agents had deposited the proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, o

Hector Morales, 38, is president of the motorcycle gang "No Remorse," according to a police report.  ( Orange County Jail  /  December  2 , 2011 )   Hector Morales, 38, is president of the motorcycle gang "No Remorse," His stepson, a juvenile, was charged with burglary to an occupied dwelling. A third suspected gang member, Jose Juan Velez, 22, was also arrested on a charge of resisting arrest. Police say he failed to comply with their commands during the investigation. Records show Morales has now been jailed more than a dozen times in Orange County since 2005, on charges including burglary and assault on a law officer

  For decades, Egypt's Westernised elite kept the country's growing religosity at arm's length, but a projected Islamist surge in the first post-revolution polls has driven many to think of moving abroad. Sporting the latest fashions and mingling in upmarket country clubs, Egypt's rich fear a victory for the Muslim Brotherhood and hardline Salafis in the first phase of parliamentary elections presages change ahead. "I hope they don't impose the veil and ban women from driving like in Saudi Arabia," said coquettish fifty-something Naglaa Fahmi from her gym in the leafy neighbourhood of Zamalek. In a nearby luxury hotel, Nardine -- one of Egypt's eight million Coptic Christians who are alarmed by the prospect of a new Islamist-dominated parliament -- is pondering a move aroad. "My father is seriously thinking about sending me and my brothers elsewhere because he thinks we won't have a future in the country with the Salafis," said the banker

  A confrontation between rival bikie gangs saw 12 members ejected from the Danny Green fight in Perth. West Australian Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan confirmed on Thursday two gang members were arrested, with one charged with assaulting a public officer. They were led out of Challenge Stadium by members of the Gang Crime Squad during the cruiserweight bout between Green and Poland's Krzysztof Wlodarczyk on Wednesday night. It is believed the initial confrontation was between members of the outlaw Gypsy Jokers and Comancheros motorcycle gangs. "It's not an unusual occurrence at these sorts of events - it is one reason why we have such a large security response," Mr O'Callaghan said.

  California member of the Hells Angels has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder for his role in a September brawl at Nevada casino that erupted into a shootout that claimed the life of his San Jose chapter president. Cesar Villagrana of Gilroy, Calif., is accused of shooting two members of the rival Vagos motorcycle gang the night that his longtime friend Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew was shot to death on the floor of John Ascuaga's Nugget in Sparks. Washoe District Judge Connie Steinheimer on Thursday tentatively assigned him the same Jan. 17 trial date she earlier set for the Vagos accused of killing Pettigrew - Ernesto Gonzalez of San Francisco. But Villagrana's lawyer, Richard Schonfeld of Las Vegas, doesn't expect a trial before the end of 2012.

  Mark Alistair Stables, who has no criminal record and has been living here for more than 40 years, was found inadmissible to Canada by an Immigration and Refugee Board for being a member of a criminal organization, the Hells Angels. He appealed the decision to the Federal Court of Canada, and two weeks ago that court ruled Ottawa can make plans to deport Stables even though he doesn't have a criminal record. The nine-year "full patch" member was a former Sergeant at Arms and president of the Hells Angels Ontario Corp., in which he acted as a treasurer for 10 chapters for seven years. "He was very involved in many aspects of the Hells Angels activities," Judge Yves de Montigny said in his decision. The "positions would have given him a good knowledge about the organization's purpose, mandate, agenda or activities." De Montigny said Stables was "not isolated" from gang activities and "was fully integrated into the Hells Angels."