organized crime

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Nigerian Gangsters Wage Turf War on Mob in Southern Italy

Turf battles erupt as newcomers seek foothold in lawless southern Italy

(Newser) - African immigrants are being caught in the crossfire as Nigerian gangsters battle the Italian mob for control of southern Italy's drug and prostitution rackets, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Camorra once treated African criminals as useful subordinates, but vicious turf wars have erupted as the newcomers seek a bigger...

Mexican Beauty Queen Busted With Drug Mobsters

Miss Hispanic America found traveling with cartel's Mr. Big in gun-filled truck

(Newser) - Miss Hispanic America 2008 will be finishing this year in jail after cops busted her traveling with seven alleged drug cartel mobsters, the Houston Chronicle reports. Laura Zuniga, from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa, was stopped at a military checkpoint near Guadalajara in a truck full of guns, ammunition and...

12 Headless Crimefighters Found Near Acapulco

Remains believed to be retribution for earlier shootout

(Newser) - Mexican police have found 12 headless bodies an hour away from Acapulco in the capital of Guerrero, a popular destination for Americans on holiday. The dead apparently included soldiers and a high-ranking police officer, reports the Los Angeles Times. Nine heads were bundled in plastic bags and dumped at a...

Top Kidnap Negotiator Kidnapped in Mexico

Officials believe brazen kidnapping a show of force by Mexican crime gang

(Newser) - Masked gunmen have seized a top kidnapping negotiator in Mexico, Reuters reports. Cuban-American Felix Batista, who helped secure the release of dozens of kidnap victims in Colombia, was grabbed outside a restaurant in the northern Mexican city of Saltillo. Authorities suspect the abduction of Batista, who was in the country...

Cybercrime Getting Organized
 Cybercrime Getting Organized 
Jul 16, 2008 5:20 PM CDT

Cybercrime Getting Organized

Hackers, identity thieves working more like mafia; profits increasing

(Newser) - There’s serious money to be made in cybercrime, and its perpetrators are beginning to reflect that fact, Ars Technica reports. Lone hackers have been replaced with hierarchical organizations that divide the criminal risks inherent in stealing and reselling (usually financial) information. The cybercrime "firms" are growing steadily as...

Gold Stash May Solve $51M British Heist

Detectives aim to link secret bullion with long, bloody case

(Newser) - After a long, bloody trail, British investigators may be close to cracking the case of six robbers who lifted $51 million in gold from a London warehouse 25 years ago. Last week, while tracking proceeds from organized crime, Scotland Yard detectives uncovered six suitcases packed with $15 million worth of...

'Super' Mafia Witness Gunned Down in Naples

Slain informant was helping cops bust garbage gangs

(Newser) - The boss of a garbage disposal firm with Mafia links who had turned informant was gunned down in a bar near Naples yesterday, the Guardian reports. The murdered man had been helping police target gangs that control waste disposal in the city, currently gripped by a garbage crisis. He had...

4 Japanese Gangsters Get UCLA Liver Transplants

FBI helped one crime boss with his visa

(Newser) - Four Yakuza gangsters, including one of Japan's most powerful crime bosses, had liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center between 2000 and 2004, the Los Angeles Times reports. Organs were particularly scarce in those years, with over 100 people on the waiting list dying each year. There is no indication that...

Third Top Cop Executed in Mexico Drug War

'We have to take back our streets,' prez pleads

(Newser) - A third key police officer was assassinated yesterday in the intensifying war between Mexican officials and drug cartels, the BBC reports. The deputy police chief of the border town of Juarez was killed when gunmen peppered his car with bullets as he left home. The head of Mexico's anti-kidnap unit...

Thug Attack Kills 10 on Mexican Ranch

Organized crime cited; 2nd shooting in 2 days to target rancher

(Newser) - Sixty gunmen opened fire on a Mexican ranch yesterday, killing 10 and injuring six more, AFP reports. The shooting came a day after another in the same state killed at least seven. Both attacks were on the head of a local cattlemens' organization; both carried signs of organized crime in...

Virtual Kidnap Latest Crime Wave in Mexico

Crooks claim to have kids; terrified parents pay up

(Newser) - Mexican crooks are putting a new twist on an old crime with "virtual kidnapping," the New York Times reports. The criminals are cashing in on the widespread fear of kidnapping by calling families and pretending to have snatched a loved one—usually a child—for ransom. Many panicked...

Sicilian Mafia Rebuilding US Family Ties

NY mob busts expose stronger links between Italians and Yanks

(Newser) - The Sicilian Mafia is sending people to the US to revitalize old family ties with its American cousins that faded in the '80s, according to a new report by the Italian government. The FBI nabbed more than 80 New York mobsters in a recent swoop code-named "Old Bridge,"...

Huge Mob Bust Bags Dozens in NY, Sicily

Entire Gambino family leadership among more than 60 indicted

(Newser) - Authorities in New York and Sicily unleashed a massive mob takedown today, indicting more than 60 suspects, including the entire Gambino family leadership, the New York Times reports; 52 have already been arrested, including underboss Domenico Cefalu and consigliere Joseph Corozzo. “I can't think of a larger single-day roundup,...

Suspected Mob Gambling Ring Smashed
Suspected Mob Gambling Ring Smashed
Dec 19, 2007 3:56 AM CST

Suspected Mob Gambling Ring Smashed

NJ cops bust dozens in major blow to Lucchese crime family

(Newser) - New Jersey officials have nabbed a cadre of suspected mob bosses to bust up a sophisticated $2.2 billion gambling ring, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. Others among more than two dozen arrested included a prison officer and a Bloods gangster, said to be part of an "alarming alliance" between...

Wave of Murders Cuts Down Mexican Musicians

13 unexplained killings in 18 months plague grupero scene

(Newser) - Some of Mexico’s biggest music stars are being murdered, often in gruesome fashion, and no one’s sure why, the New York Times reports. The past year and a half has seen the killings of 13 Mexican musicians, all purveyors of grupero, a country-esque style often dealing with drugs...

Sex Slaves Win Cash Damages
Sex Slaves Win Cash Damages
Dec 16, 2007 12:46 PM CST

Sex Slaves Win Cash Damages

Ruling could open floodgates of compensation for thousands of others

(Newser) - In a groundbreaking decision, Britain has awarded four women smuggled from eastern Europe to the UK and subjected by their captors to "forced prostitution, multiple rapes and beatings" more than £140,000. The decision, the first to consider false imprisonment and forced prostitution as categories for awarding damages,...

Vegas to Build Mob Museum
Vegas to Build Mob Museum
Dec 11, 2007 11:03 AM CST

Vegas to Build Mob Museum

Attraction will display history of crooks who helped build the city

(Newser) - Las Vegas will create a museum showcasing the Mob's role in turning a tiny desert settlement into America's gambling mecca. The $50 million project is slated to be completed in 2010. "Let's be brutally honest, warts and all. This is more than legend. It's fact," said the mayor....

Jury Convicts 5 in 'Family' Affair
Jury Convicts 5 in 'Family' Affair
Sep 10, 2007 5:20 PM CDT

Jury Convicts 5 in 'Family' Affair

Chicago's top kingpin nailed in 'Family Secrets' case

(Newser) - Chicago’s top mob boss was one of five men convicted today in a trial federal authorities dubbed “Operation Family Secrets” after one defendant's relatives offered unprecedented cooperation. Testimony from the son and brother of alleged hit man Frank Calabrese was key in convicting him, along with three Outfit...

Russia Arrests 10 for Murder of Journalist

Chechen crime group, government officers implicated

(Newser) - Ten men were arrested today in the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya last October, the Guardian reports. A Chechen organized-crime boss led the group responsible for the slaying, Russian authorities say. Those arrested are said to include current and former officials in the interior ministry and the security...

Germany Wakes Up to Mafia Problem
Germany Wakes Up to Mafia Problem
Aug 20, 2007 6:13 PM CDT

Germany Wakes Up to Mafia Problem

Italian organized crime gains a foothold across the border

(Newser) - Germany is finding its mafia problem harder to ignore after the murder of six men outside an Italian restaurant in Duisburg last week. The killings were part of a feud between two warring mafia clans, both of which have established major footholds in Germany, Der Spiegel reports. Police are now...

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