Stories related to: organized crime

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 gold inside a deposit box, the Guardian reports. More »

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 been due to testify this week against an accused gangster who's a member of Italy's ruling party. More »

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 the hospital or the surgeon were aware of their patients' underworld connections. More »

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 was killed Friday, and the chief of police operations against drug trafficking was shot dead the day before. More »

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 a wave of violence linked to drug cartels. The motive for yesterday’s shooting was unclear, the BBC notes. More »

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 parents pay up before they realize that their loved one is safe. More »

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,"  reports the BBC, referring to the transatlantic the mob link. More »

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,” a source told the New York Post. “It dismantles the infrastructure of the family.” More »

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 the Mafia and Bloods that smuggled drugs and phones to inmates in a Jersey prison. More »

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 and crime. Police suspect gang involvement, but they have no evidence and usually no motives. More »

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, will serve as a legal precedent, the Guardian reports. More »

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. "This is something that differentiates us from other cities." More »

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 cohorts and an ex-cop, the Chicago Tribune reports. More »

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 service. More »

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 trying to crack down after years of lax enforcement. More »

Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy admitted to betting on games he officiated and pleaded guilty today to two gambling-related felony counts. Donaghy, who turned himself in, told a Brooklyn judge he divulged game information and his picks on NBA games to gambling associates; he was paid for correctly choosing winning teams. More »

Police are calling the killing of six Italians early today in Duisburg, Germany, a probable Mafia hit job, Der Spiegel reports. Five bodies with gunshot wounds to the head were found outside an Italian restaurant, and a sixth man died en route to the hospital. The incident is one of the largest mass murders in Germany in years. More »

A weary David Stern expressed grave disappointment yesterday in referee Tim Donaghy, who the FBI alleges bet on games he officiated. At a somber news conference without the omnipresent NBA logo behind him, the commissioner made clear his belief in Donaghy's guilt, which he likened to treason. Donaghy has not been charged. More »

A Russian billionaire with possible mob ties plans to buy a major stake in the company that aims to purchase Chrysler. If aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska  does buy the $1.54 billion stake in Magna International, the cash will come in handy for the Chrysler deal. But Oleg's shady past may raise flags for regulators, the Wall Street Journal reports. More »

The mayor of Nagasaki was murdered yesterday by a gangster affiliated with Japan's largest organized-crime syndicate. The assassin, who shot Iccho Ito twice in the back, reportedly was steamed that the city refused to pay for damages to his car after he drove it into a hole at a construction site. More »