weapons' supplier, providing firearms to alleged members of Ravi Pujari gang for over three years, has been arrested

weapons' supplier, providing firearms to alleged members of Ravi Pujari gang for over three years, has been arrested from suburban Khar and four sophisticated firearms and 207 live rounds were seized, police said today.

Acting on a tip-off, a trap was laid and the accused Vijay Kalyani, 22,, a resident of Santacruz, was caught while he was moving suspiciously near Khar railway station last evening.

"A pistol, two magazines and seven live rounds were found in a plastic bag Singh was carrying. His interrogation resulted in seizure one more pistol, two revolvers and 200 live rounds from the city suburb's residence of Neel Masqueta, another member of Pujari gang who is currently lodged in jail," joint police commissioner (crime) Himanshu Roy said.

With the operation, police have prevented a number of crimes in the city, Roy said adding, "Had we not arrested this man, he would have used these weapons for different crimes in future. Kalyani was directly in contact with Pujari."

Police did not reveal as to from where Kalyani procured the weapons from.

In the past two years, Pujari gang was actively involved in several crimes across the metropolis following which police had decided to crack down on the gang and trace the people, who provide these gangs logistics' support, Roy said.

The Portland community is dealing with the reality of gang violence.

A memorial service is scheduled Wednesday at Mallory Avenue Christian Church in honor of 18-year-old Shalamar Edmond, who was shot to death in the city's New Columbia neighborhood last week.
Meanwhile, police are investigating two separate gang-related shootings over the weekend.
Investigators said a 16-year-old boy was shot Saturday night in Raymond Park in Southeast Portland.
Neighbors said they saw two teens riding their bikes when the gunfire rang out.
Police have not tracked down the shooter, while the victim is expected to recover.
“He was in a lot of pain, but looks like apparently he’s going to be OK,” said Tommy Matthews, who found the shooting victim. “He’s going to be limping for a while.”
Investigators said gang violence led to another shooting Saturday that happened two hours later inside the Interstate Bar and Grill in North Portland.
Police said two men were shot and they’re both out of the hospital.
Frustration is growing in the community as people believe more teenagers are getting involved with gangs.
“I think they might not be in the gang, but trying to fit in with that group so they can eventually get into that gang,” said a woman, who wanted to remain anonymous. “I definitely think they need more help.”
This weekend’s violence brings Portland’s gang-related shootings to 34 this year.
There were a total of 93 in the city last year.
A police representative said Portland is on pace to have more than 100 this year.
Police recently increased patrols following the spike in gang violence over the last month.
“Hopefully they’ll be able to resolve the situation and it won’t be a violence responding to violence situation,” said Matthews.

16-year-old youth has been charged with murdering two British tourists who were shot dead in Florida last month.

Shawn Tyson will be tried as an adult for first-degree murder after the deaths of James Kouzaris, 24, and 25-year-old James Cooper, Sarasota Police said.

If Tyson is convicted, he will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mr Kouzaris, of Northampton, and Mr Cooper, from Hampton Lucy near Warwick, were gunned down in a rundown Sarasota neighbourhood on April 16.

The friends had been on holiday with Mr Cooper's parents in Longboat Key, about 12 miles from the murder scene.

CCTV images show the pair in bars in downtown Sarasota just 90 minutes before they were murdered.

It is still not known how or why they travelled to the area where they were killed, which was 20 blocks away.

Tyson had reportedly been released from police custody hours before their deaths, despite a judge raising concerns that he posed a danger to the community.

Earlier in the month the teenager had appeared in court on charges that he fired gun shots into an occupied car in an unrelated crime.

The evidence against Tyson in the murder case has not been released, after a judge sealed the court document in which it is detailed.

Authorities say witnesses could be in danger and the investigation damaged if the information is made public.

Two Virginia man who were part of the conspiracy to sell guns to Trenton gangsters

Two Virginia man who were part of the conspiracy to sell guns to Trenton gangsters, including the one used to kill innocent 13-year-old Tamrah Leonard, were sentenced to probation in Mercer Court today.

Bobby Lee Henderson, 24, of Townsend, and Larry Nottingham, 28, of Eastville, both pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a weapon, Peter Aseltine, spokesman for Attorney General Paula T. Dow, said last month.

The two men admitted they conspired with Trayle Beasley, 30, of Trenton, to buy guns from sources in Virginia and sell them to the hungry gangster market in Trenton.

“Seventy-five percent to the crime guns in New Jersey come from out of state and Virginia is the second biggest source state,” said Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor.

In addition to the Leonard shooting on June 7, 2009 during a block party, Beasley’s conspiracy brought into the city the gun used to kill Tracey Crews, 23, inside his city home on Sept. 12, 2008, Aseltine said.

Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mitchel Ostrer sentenced Townsend to four years probation and Henderson to three years probation, in addition to the time served in prison awaiting trial.

Beasley pleaded guilty last month to bringing in 12 guns, including eight handguns, two shotguns, and two rifles.

He faces between 12 and 14 years in prison when sentenced on May 31 in Judge Pedro J. Jiminez Jr.’s court, Aseltine said.

Joliet man already serving 45 years in prison for the murder of an innocent bystander received an additional six years today for abiding by his gang’s code of silence and refusing to testify against an associate gang member.

Joliet man already serving 45 years in prison for the murder of an innocent bystander received an additional six years today for abiding by his gang’s code of silence and refusing to testify against an associate gang member.
 
Robert Meza, 23, was sentenced for “serious direct criminal contempt” by DuPage Judge Kathryn Creswell. Meza refused to testify in the recent trail of Antonio Aguilar, 21, of Addison, for the 2007 murder in Addison of Lorenzo Salazar-Cortez, 22, of Berkeley.
 
Salazar-Cortez was fatally shot as he sat in a friend’s apartment. Prosecutors claimed it was Aguilar who actually fired the fatal shots.

Assistant State’s Attorney Steven Knight said that Meza was obeying his street gang’s code of silence by refusing to testify against Aguilar, who was acquitted of the crime last year by Judge George Bakalis.

The judge said prosecutors lacked sufficient evidence for a conviction and he specifically mentioned Meza’s refusal to testify as a factor in the trial’s outcome.

“You have followed the rules of the gang over that of society,” said Creswell. “Your objective was to further the goals of a street gang. This is particularly senseless because the victim was not a gang member.”

Meza told Creswell that “I am afraid of my safety at Menard” Correctional Center.

He admitted that when he was questioned by Addison police about the shooting he claimed Aguilar and he meant to shoot a rival gang member, but shot into the wrong apartment. But today he claimed that he was innocent of that crime and lied to police to protect a different gang member.

Creswell said previously that state law does not specify any maximum sentence for the contempt “other than reasonable.” But she said she would abide by the plea agreement of no more than 10 years in prison that Meza struck with prosecutors when he pleaded guilty to the contempt charge earlier this year.

When Aguilar’s bench trial before Bakalis began last summer, Meza, convicted of murder in 2008 by a jury, was ordered to testify and was given full immunity from further prosecution by Bakalis, but Meza continually declined.

State law requires Meza to serve 100 percent of the 45-year murder sentence, but only 50 percent of any contempt sentence. Creswell said he should be released when he is 68 years old.

A man has been sentenced to 67 years 4 months, plus 40 years to life, plus life without the possibility of parole for a series of shootings

A man has been sentenced to 67 years 4 months, plus 40 years to life, plus life without the possibility of parole for a series of shootings which occurred between February and March 2005, according to Jan Scully, Sacramento County district attorney.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Helena R. Gweon sentenced Roy Houston on Friday.

Houston was convicted by jury earlier this month for the February 2005 murder of Donald McCall and the attempted murders of Randall Hudson and Joseph McCoy. The jury also found the special circumstance of shooting from a vehicle, personal use of a firearm and gang enhancement to be true, Scully said.

The jury also convicted Houston for attempted voluntary manslaughter with the use of a firearm and the negligent discharge of a firearm in an incident that occurred in March 2005 at the Robertson Center.

In a separate March 2005 incident that occurred at Glenwood Elementary School, Houston was convicted for the attempted murder of Kenneth Bell with the use of a firearm enhancement and shooting at an occupied vehicle that occurred.

The crimes were found be for the benefit of the Del Paso Heights Bloods gang, Scully said.

Wal-Mart to Expand Firearm Sales

Several hundred Walmart stores will be expanding their merchandise to include firearms, and one Tallahassee store is on that list.

 

Mexican drug cartels are being armed with weapons supplied by the U.S., leaked documents show.

The WikiLeaks files, written by U.S. military chiefs, reveal that grenades and light anti-tank weapons seized from drug traffickers in Mexico and Colombia were from the U.S.

A cable entitled ‘Honduras: Military weapons fuel black market in arms’ states that the serial numbers of arms taken from drug gangs coincide with those supplied by the U.S. to the Honduran Armed Forces.


U.S. arms: WikiLeaks file claims weapons seized from Mexican drug gangs were made in America

According to the Defense Intelligence Agency file, the brands and serial numbers seized equipment are the same as a shipment sent to the Second Infantry Battallion in Honduras.

‘The [U.S. Government] has become aware that light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) and grenades supplied to Honduras under the Foreign Military Sales program were recovered in Mexico and Colombia,’ the cable said.

 

‘According to the [Defense Intelligence Agency] report, three light anti-tank weapons (LAWs) were recovered in Mexico City in January 2008, and one was recovered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in April 2008.’

‘Over 50 per cent of the military-type weapons that are flowing throughout the region have a large source between Central American stockpiles, if you will, left over from wars and conflicts in the past,’ said General Douglas Fraser, the head of the U.S. Southern Command in the memo.

According to the report, in April 2008, an investigation by the Honduran Armed Forces showed that the battalion did not know the whereabouts of 26 pieces of military equipment supplied by the U.S. for training.

The weapons had been sent in 1992 as a part of U.S. military sales to foreign armies.
The leaked cable comes as Mexico explores lawsuits against U.S. gun makers to stem flow of illegal arms.

Gun stores on the border between the U.S. have Mexico have been criticised for their firearms ending up in the hands of drug cartels.

Spreading drug gang violence has claimed more than 34,600 lives in Mexico over the past four years with more than 15,000 deaths last year.

The drug wars have prompted foreign governments, including the U.S., to issue a number of travel warnings for parts of Mexico.

The mother of a 16-year-old Outlook girl who was killed when she answered a knock on the door Thursday night says her daughter was not involved in gangs.

She tells the Yakima Herald-Republic that Diana Lopez was an aspiring veterinarian who liked school, though one of her brothers had served time in jail. The teen was also a mother herself of a 2-year-old girl.

Authorities say the mobile home where Lopez lived was rife with gang activity. Dispatchers have fielded 21 calls involving the residence since 1998, five of them weapons offenses.

Investigators say four people dressed in blue with bandanas over their faces pulled up at the home Thursday night. Lopez was shot once in the side and died on her way to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

21-year-old man was rushed to hospital with a lower body gunshot wound after a shooting on Belisle Street off McArthur Avenue near St. Laurent Boulevard on Saturday afternoon

21-year-old man was rushed to hospital with a lower body gunshot wound after a shooting on Belisle Street off McArthur Avenue near St. Laurent Boulevard on Saturday afternoon, police said. Sgt.

Seth Curtis of the guns and gangs unit said the shooting happened at about 3: 30 p.m. outside of a home on the small dead-end street, and that a warrant was being sought to enter that now-empty home to search for possible evidence. Curtis said the home could have links to the victim, the suspects, or both. No suspects had yet been identified, and the victim, who is known to police, was not co-operating, Curtis said. The victim was in stable condition in hospital on Saturday.