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Twenty-five suspected Spanish Cobra gang members arrested Wednesday morning now face federal drug and gun charges, while six more are being sought as fugitives. Those being sought as fugitives are: -- Ernesto Vargas, 22, of 1055 N. St. Louis Ave.; -- Daniel Bonilla, 25, of 2544 N. Harding Ave.; -- Erick Brito, 27, of 2526 W. Cortez St.; -- Taki Spencer, 28, of 1017 N. Rockwell St.; -- Gilberto Vargas, 20, of 3907 W. Armitage Ave.; and -- Chauvet Stiggers, 22, of 8000 S. Kedvale Ave. In all, 31 people face state or federal charges, according to a release from the FBI. Federal drug charges, including cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana distribution, were lodged against 18 suspects, while and 13 more face state drug and gun charges, according to the release. The charges are the culmination of a two-year investigation called "Operation Snake Charmer," a cooperation between local, state and federal law enforcement to break up the hierarchy of Chicago drug trafficking street gangs...

Convicted killer Kevin Watts blames the lure of quick money to support his life with gangs on the streets of San Antonio for his demise and a date Thursday with the Texas executioner."Fast money is the eyecatcher so we do things to get ourself situated," Watts, 27, said in a recent interview from a small cage in the visiting area of death row. "If you make this choice, you've got to deal with it." Watts was set for lethal injection Thursday evening for the execution-style slayings of three people during a robbery at a Korean restaurant in San Antonio more than six years ago. The wife of one of the shooting victims also was abducted and raped. "Some innocent people lost their lives in my case and that was a crappy price for them to pay because I didn't deserve to play God," he said.His even-tempered acknowledgment from prison was a far cry from his outburst in a San Antonio courtroom earlier this year when he ripped into a judge setting his executio...

Todd O'Connor, who fathered four children and twice faced court on drug charges but was never jailed, that up to $700,000 in cash was hidden in his city apartment. Police, who uncovered the cash, believe O'Connor's apartment was ransacked shortly after his death.Yesterday, friends insisted it had only been visited by family collecting personal belongings.They had been unaware how much money O'Connor, estranged from his wife in recent years, had stashed.Detectives are investigating his business dealings in a bid to identify his killer and head off what they fear could become a round of reprisal attacks.Yet some who were close to O'Connor dismiss this talk."The police seem to be attempting to find a feud that doesn't exist and isn't going to happen," one of O'Connor's friends said. "He was the most harmless guy in the world. You'd have to be an idiot to think he'd start a war." Among the mourners was prominent Kings Cross pr...

Gangsters from the Heavy Mob from England may be behind an explosion in cash-in-transit robberies that has seen hundreds of thousands of pounds seized from security guards in the west of Scotland in the past few months.Masked robbers have carried out 17 cash-in-transit "hits" in the Glasgow area this year, with more than £700,000 snatched from security guards delivering money to cash machines at banks, supermarkets and shops.That compares with only five robberies for the whole of last year – and the rise has triggered urgent talks between police, banks and security companies on how to tighten procedures.The group, which has been formed under the auspices of the Scottish Business Crime Centre in Stirling, held its first meeting last month, and is understood to have come up with a range of ideas to make cash-in-transit robberies harder to carry out.Timing of cash deliveries, public awareness, the position of cash machines and specific security measures employed by the security ...

Adrell Bennett, 19, of Wade Street near Martin Luther King Drive, was shot dead when at least two people forced their way into an apartment at Arlington and Myrtle avenues in the Greenville neighborhood just after midnight, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said. Investigators think Bennett was targeted. A resident of the building said a teenage girl screamed, "They killed my cousin!" after the gunfire took the life of the man whose photograph was published Saturday in The Jersey Journal. Authorities said last week Bennett was a gang member with the "52 Hoover Street Gangsta Crips." The building resident, who chose not to give her name, said she woke to the sound of gunshots, then heard an apartment door slam, and then what sounded like two people running down the stairs. Bennett was at the apartment with five teenage girls and an 18-year-old man when someone came to the door, DeFazio said. The man was recognized and the door was partially opened when he and a...

Four Britons were being held on the Costa del Sol today accused of the shooting of a Liverpool man last month.Beachfront bar security boss Marvin Herbert was gunned down on September 24 at Puerto Banus, the millionaires’ yacht marina on the edge of Marbella.The 33-year-old was shot five times in the eye, the groin, pelvis, right leg and right arm.He was attacked in broad daylight by a lone gunman in front of dozens of witnesses.Herbert remains in hospital after a series of operations. Police immediately said they believed the attack was a “settling of scores” related to drug trafficking.Puerto Banus and nearby Nueva Andalucia is a favourite hang-out for British and other international “costa crooks”.Herbert is said to have spent several hours drinking coffee alone on the terrace of Solly’s Diner in Puerto Banus before the shooting.At the time sources suggested the attack could have been revenge for the shooting of another Liverpool man in Marbella.Several other tit-for-tat shootings ha...

Don Jessup's killing was a near-perfect crime.Jessup, a 60-year-old motorcycle gang boss, disappeared Dec. 16, 2004, slipping away without notice or explanation. No body was found. No murder weapon. No substantive forensic evidence recovered. Still, on Monday, a King County jury was introduced to John Price, the 37-year-old biker charged with first-degree murder.Sheriff's deputies investigating Jessup's disappearance narrowed in on Price after the chance arrest of Jason Rebman, a White Center drug dealer who traded information on Jessup's killing for leniency after being found with 2 pounds of methamphetamine, according to court documents. Rebman connected police with two women who say they were in the Ravensdale home when Price shot Jessup to death over a dispute about a motorcycle.Addressing the jury Monday, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole focused on a smattering of letters and phone calls Price made to the would-be witnesses against him. In O'Toole...