High Court Judges to lose Their bodyguards

"This can not be right. They can not just do this from one day to the next," said one judge High Court on Monday after learning the bodyguards That Were Being Assigned To him taken away. The Interior Ministry HAS BEGUN ITS plan to massively reduce the number of bodyguards Assigned to Judges, Prosecutors and other Officials, High Court sources said. The Reductions, Including the elimination of Government vehicles for Some Officials, are to start in September Taking effect from today. Among Those Who will be left without protection are three anti-corruption Prosecutors who are Investigating the Russian Mafia Currently the Gürtel and Contracts-for-kickbacks case. It was the High Court's chief criminal judge, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who Informed His colleagues of the Government's decision. The Reasons? The Government no longer feels pressured by ETA, Which Announced an end to attacks last fall, and the move is part of overall cost-cutting Measures ordered by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. INITIALLY, Grande Marlaska, High Court Chief Judge Angel Juanes, chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza and Judge Jose Luis de Castro, who covers penitentiary issues, will keep Their bodyguards and official vehicles. The rest of the Judges and Prosecutors will now Have to go to work unprotected and by Their Own means. Interior's decision will Radically change the Manner in Which protection is afforded to Courtrooms Interior's decision, if it is finally Implemented across the High Court, will Radically change the Manner in Which protection is afforded to Courtrooms. Until now, judge and prosecutor Each four police officers HAD Assigned to Them, as well as a vehicle. Some Judges Say That They Will the only protection is now Have Regular surveillance of Their homes. The High Court Judges and Its Prosecutors intendant to file a note of protest With The Interior Ministry, the sources said. Their colds are among a complaint That Neither Justice nor the Interior Ministry Officials to Assess Whether made evaluations at Risk Before They Were Deciding to Eliminate bodyguards. The decision to Affect también said the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) legal watchdog and the Supreme Court. In a statement released on Monday, Prosecutors Say That state has not yet ETA disbanded and the Danger Posed by That terrorists still exists. According To Interior Ministry estimates, police officers who 1.010 Some Were serving as bodyguards will be reassigned to other Duties.

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Bloods gang member from Paterson gets 89 months in prison

federal judge Wednesday sentenced Michael McCloud, of Paterson, to 89 months in prison for his role with the Fruit Town Brims, a set of the Bloods that authorities said terrorized a section of Paterson for years through violent activities connected to dealing drugs. McCloud, 26, also known as “Ike Brim,” was the second Bloods member to be sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler for their part in a broad racketeering conspiracy to sell narcotics in Paterson and Newark. Chesler Tuesday sentenced Ricky Coleman, also known as “Pool Stick” and “Sticks,” 39, of Newark, to 151 months for a range of violent crimes and racketeering. McCloud was among 15 alleged members and associates of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims charged in a 20-count federal indictment with racketeering, murder and other crimes. He was arrested by federal agents in Passaic in January 2011 and pleaded guilty to the RICO conspiracy charge in August. In his guilty plea, McCloud admitted to selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer on August 30, 2006, together with two other members of the gang. McCloud also admitted to participating in two robberies in Paterson in 2006. In the first robbery, McCloud and another gang member who was armed with an AK-47 broke up a dice game and took drugs, cell phones and money. In the second, McCloud worked with other gang members to commit a robbery in retaliation for the shooting of an associate by a member of a rival gang. In the sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa L. Jampol said the Fruit Town Brims had asserted a powerful control of a section of Paterson, centered at the intersection of 12th and 22nd streets. The gang members transformed this section into an area “that was completely uninhabitable,” to the point that residents were too afraid to leave their homes and attend church services, Jampol said. McCloud’s attorney, James Patton, said his client had worked hard to turn his life around, and was working full-time at Domino’s Pizza when he was arrested last January in the RICO sweep. McCloud told Chesler that he couldn’t change the past, but was trying to become a better person for the future. “I’m tired of going in and out of jail,” McCloud said. “I’m tired of letting my family down. And I’m tired of being a failure.” But Chesler was unmoved by this testimony. McCloud’s criminal history is a long one that begins at age 15, and there is nothing to indicate that his repeated contact with law enforcement had done anything to deter the young man from a life of drugs and violence, Chesler said. The sentence – the maximum under federal guidelines, with 36 months subtracted due to time already spent in a state prison – was meant to serve as a deterrent to other gang members engaged in the same activities, Chesler said. “His offenses are horrendous,” the judge said. “He was part of a gang that terrorized citizens of this state.”

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Leaders of El Salvador’s Mara street gangs said they are ready to start negotiations with the government toward a permanent peace pact

Leaders of El Salvador’s Mara street gangs said they are ready to start negotiations with the government toward a permanent peace pact following the success of a three-month-old temporary truce that has lowered the Central American country’s murder rate dramatically. The gang leaders said during a ceremony at the Izalco prison to celebrate the first 100 days of the truce that they want the government to offer job programs or some other sort of aid to gang members in exchange. “We want to reach a definitive ceasefire, to end all the criminal acts of the gangs,” said Mara 18 leader Oscar Armando Reyes. “But we have to reach agreements, because we have to survive. There was talk of job plans, but we haven’t gotten any answers, and it is time for the government to listen to us.” Mr. Reyes said the gangs weren’t thinking of ending the temporary truce. “We are issuing a call for us all to sit down and have a dialogue, to reach a definitive accord,” he said. There was no immediate response from the government. Former leftist guerrilla commander Raul Mijango and Roman Catholic Bishop Fabio Colindres mediated a truce between the Mara Salvatrucha and the Mara 18 gangs in March that has helped lower homicide rates. Mr. Mijango said the country’s homicide rate has dropped from about 14 murders a day in March to about five a day in early June. “This effort has saved the lives of more than 850 innocent Salvadorans,” Mr. Mijango said. An estimated 50,000 Salvadorans belong to street gangs that deal drugs, extort businesses and kill rivals. Gang leaders say they want to stop the violence that has given El Salvador one of the highest murder rates in the world, behind neighbouring Honduras. In April, authorities rejected a proposal that El Salvador’s gangs receive the subsidies the government currently spends on public transportation in exchange for gang members stopping extortion of bus drivers.

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Indicted gang member arrested

last of 27 alleged gang members indicted in April was arrested Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Marshals Service. Darius Smith was taken into custody around 3 p.m. after authorities found him on James Street, officials of the service said. The indictment, handed up April 3, alleges that Smith, 29, conspired to sell more than 280 grams of cocaine and heroin. He was to appear Wednesday in U.S. District Court. Smith was allegedly a member of the Uptown, or Gunners, gang. In an April news conference, U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian said the gang used guns to terrorize the neighborhood and its members marked buildings in the Central State Street neighborhood with graffiti to mark their territory. The investigation led to the arrests of 27 alleged gang members listed on the indictment; 23 were arrested

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Malvern Crew gang member ordered deported

An accused member of the notorious Malvern Crew street gang has lost a last-ditch bid to stay in Canada and is being deported to his native Jamaica for criminality. Raoul Andre Burton, 28, of Toronto, was one of 65 suspected members of the east-end gang rounded up in May 2004 by Toronto Police in Project Impact. Members of the gang were involved in a rivalry with the Galloway Boyz over turf in 2003 and 2004 that left four people dead. Burton was charged with nine offences and sentenced to eight-months in jail along with a 165-day stint of pre-sentence custody. He pled guilty to participating in a criminal organization, known as the Malvern Crew, and two counts of drug possession and trafficking that made him inadmissable to Canada Officers of the Canada Border Services Agency have been trying for years to deport Burton, who arrived here from Jamaica at age 10 and never obtained citizenship. Lawyers for Burton sought to appeal the deportation order to the Federal Court of Canada, but Judge David Near dismissed the application which means Burton will be sent packing. “Mr. Burton was right in the thick of things, an active member of the Malvern Crew, actively participating in the activities of the organization,” Near said in his June 11 decision. “He may have occupied a rather influential or responsible place in the organization.” Near said Burton’s involvement with the Malvern Crew was “significant.” “He was obviously fully integrated and well-invested into the organization,” Near wrote. “He was also prepared to engage in criminal activities on a significant scale for the benefit of the organization.” Police gang experts said Burton was a loyal Malvern foot-soldier who was a “good money-earner” for the gang. Officers said the gang was involved in the trafficking, importation and distribution of drugs as well as other crimes, including murder.

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Gang behind £300m Southampton cocaine smuggling plot jailed

A gang leader and his son who used a luxury yacht to smuggle cocaine with a street value of £300m into the UK from Venezuela have been jailed. The pair, from the Netherlands, hid a tonne of cocaine in a deep compartment specially designed for smuggling. The haul - one of the UK's biggest drugs seizures - was located by border officers in Southampton last year. The men were jailed along with a third man, but the gang leader's other son was acquitted after a trial. Defendants referred to in court only as Klaas L, Robert L and Mohamed Z were convicted of being involved in the transportation of cocaine. Wire tap Their co-accused, Arjan L, 35, was acquitted of the same charge. Klaas L, 61, owner of the yacht, was jailed for seven years; Mohamed Z, 45, for eight years; and Robert L, 33, who was also convicted of possession of a firearm, for five years following a trial in Rotterdam. The drugs were so well hidden that it took the border force, who had been tipped off, six days to find them. The 90% pure drugs were so well hidden it took six days to find them Had the gang been successful, the cocaine could have been transformed into about seven million street deals - a third of the annual UK market, the border force confirmed. Authorities intercepted gang members' telephone conversations with a wire tap and tracked the £1m 65ft pleasure cruiser, the Louise, as it travelled on board a container ship from the Caribbean to the UK. Border force officers discovered a tonne of 90% pure cocaine, the court heard. The haul accounted for almost half of the total cocaine seizures across the UK in 2010/11 which was 2.4 tonnes. Border force director general Brian Moore said: "Today's conviction and sentences see a serious international drug smuggling crime gang brought to justice and clearly demonstrate how the border force are playing a lead role in the fight against the global trade in illegal drugs, helping to protect our communities here in the UK." Loaded machine-gun When the smugglers were arrested in a series of police raids across the Netherlands, officers recovered a loaded machine-gun, a second firearm with silencer, 1.5m euros (£1.2m), and two Harley Davidson motorcycles, the border force said. The cocaine, destined for the Netherlands, via England, was packed inside the boat while it was in Venezuela. The haul is estimated by the border force to be worth about £50m wholesale and up to £300m on the streets. In a police statement, read to the court, Robert L, 33, told how he and his father took the drugs onboard the boat at Isla Margarita, Venezuela. He claimed his father and Mohamed Z made all the decisions and confirmed the final destination for the cocaine was to be Waalwijk, just north of Eindhoven, where the drugs would be bulked out. Klaas L, from the northeast of the Netherlands, was also convicted of laundering 60,000 euros (£48,000). Mohamed Z, from Amsterdam, was also convicted of laundering almost 1.5m euros but was acquitted of possession of a loaded firearm. Passing sentence, the judge said: "The international trade in hard drugs is highly profitable and, with this trade, large criminal profits are gained. "The suspects' actions were mainly financially driven and they did not worry about the social consequences." The yacht has been confiscated and will now be used as a training tool for specialist Border Force search officers.

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Fatal shooting possibly to bolster San Bernardino gang

Anthony Phillips, 26, of San Bernardino, is accused of fatally shooting Maurice Major, 29, of Riverside, at an apartment complex in the 1200 block of North Sierra Way. Phillips was arrested the next day. He is charged with one count of murder, and prosecutors have added a gang enhancement for Phillips' alleged involvement in a San Bernardino gang. Phillips, who was in San Bernardino Superior Court on Thursday, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. During the hearing in front of Judge James Dorr, a detective and an officer from the San Bernardino Police Department were called as witnesses. They testified about the shooting and gangs in the area. Phillips, also known as Ant, is affiliated with the Delmann Heights Bloods, said Officer Jonathan Plummer, a gang investigator with the San Bernardino Police Department. "(The shooting) enhances the gang by sending a message to rival gang members and to the community - that Delmann Heights is very violent," Plummer said. The officer testified about Phillips' reported noteworthy tattoos, including "DH" under his eyes, "Bloods" on his body, "San Murderdino" on his abs and "Delmann Heights" on both arms. Witnesses told police that Major was also a gang member, Detective Albert Tello testified. Advertisement His street name was West and he was affiliated with the West Covina Neighbor Hood Crips out of Los Angeles County. Recently, Los Angeles County gangs have come into the Inland Empire to sell drugs, Plummer said. Delmann Heights, which has more than 150 documented members, claims the boundaries of California Street to the west, Medical Center Drive to the east, Cajon Boulevard to the north and Highland Avenue to the south, according to police. Following a recent gang injunction in Delmann Heights, several DH members have migrated over to the 1200 block of Sierra to sell narcotics, Plummer said. Major's girlfriend told police that on the night of the shooting they were at a party outside a San Bernardino apartment complex, Tello testified. She told police that 20 to 30 people were there, including Phillips. The two men were familiar with each other, she told police, and at one point Phillips approached Major and asked to speak with him, Tello testified. The two walked away, Tello said, and while they were talking they got into an argument. Phillips then allegedly shot the victim several times in the chest, the girlfriend told police. "After he shot the victim, the suspect ran from the complex, put the gun away and ran toward Fame Liquor," on Base Line, Tello relayed on the witness stand. Major was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. Deputy District Attorney David Tulcan said prosecutors are still investigating whether Major had a gun on him that night. Authorities did find a clear, plastic bag with several pieces of suspected rock cocaine on the victim, police said. Testimony in the preliminary hearing will continue on Monday, where a judge is expected to set trial dates. May was a deadly month for the city. There were 12 reported homicides - five in one week. The spate of May violence prompted memories of the 1990s, when gang violence peaked in the area. The number of people killed in the city this year is up to 23

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ranking member of the Fruit Town Brims set of the Bloods street gang was sentenced to 63 months in prison Wednesday

A Jersey City man who is a ranking member of the Fruit Town Brims set of the Bloods street gang was sentenced to 63 months in prison Wednesday for his role in the gang’s criminal enterprises, officials said. Tequan Ryals, 34, had pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy before U.S. District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler, who imposed the sentence in Newark federal court Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. Ryals, with fellow gang members, conspired to distribute quantities of heroin in Jersey City between December 2008 and February 2009, according to court documents and statements. Ryals also made two drug sales monitored by law enforcement in December 2008, officials said. Ryals, who was involved in the daily activities of the Fruit Town Brims from 2004 until his arrest, acted as a middleman drug distributor, officials said. Ryals was supplied “bricks” of heroin by an associate of the set and he resold them to gang members, officials said. The indictment unsealed in January 2011 charged Ryals and 14 other defendants with racketeering conspiracy and other offenses including acts pertaining to murder, murder conspiracy, aggravated assaults, a kidnapping, firearms offenses and various drug distribution conspiracies, officials said. The gang members charged in the indictment ran the gang’s activities in Jersey City, Newark, Paterson and other locations, officials said. In November, Ryals completed a state prison term for drug crimes, corrections records say. Last week, 30-year federal prison terms were meted out to Emmanuel Jones, 28, of Jersey City, and Torien Brooks, 31, of Paterson, both members of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims set of the Bloods, officials said. Jones and Brooks were charged in the July 2004 murder of 17-year-old Michael Taylor of Jersey City, who was gunned down in a case of mistaken identity during gang retaliation, officials said. Fishman credited a number of law enforcement agencies for the investigation leading to Ryals’ conviction, including the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, Hudson County Sheriff’s Office, and Jersey City Police Department.

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Mob snitch who botched three hits ratted out Colombo gangster in murder trial

A mob snitch who couldn’t shoot straight easily pointed the finger at a reputed Colombo gangster on trial for murder. Dino Basciano took the witness stand in Brooklyn Federal Court to testify that he heard Frank (BF) Guerra was part of a hit team that successfully whacked Joseph Scopo in 1993. Basciano, 56, wasn’t much of a hit man himself, botching at least three rubout attempts. In one case, he shot Patricia Capozzalo, the sister of Peter (Fat Pete) Chiodo, telling defense lawyer Gerald McMahon, “I knew I didn’t kill her. She was still screaming when we left.”

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Slain teen Ramarly Graham's twin brothers convicted of heading gang

The twin half brothers of Ramarley Graham, the Bronx teen fatally shot by a police officer in February, were convicted Tuesday for gun possenion and being part of a Harlem street gang. Hodean and Kadean Graham were sentenced to eight years in jail for heading a crew known as "One-Twenty-Nine" and "Goodfellas/The New Dons" between 2007 and 2011 in the area around W. 129th Street, between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. The 20-year-old brothers were cleared of attempted murder. "This violent street gang was as young as it was dangerous, its members having been involved in multiple shootings over a four-year period," Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement. Fifteen members of the gang were convicted on charges of drug dealing and weapons possession. Last week, police officer Richard Haste, 31, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter for shooting Ramarley Graham in the Bronx while officers were investigating a drug deal. As officers made the bust, they were radioed that Graham was armed, when he in fact was not. Graham was shot was trying to flush a bag of marijuana down a toilet. Haste's attorney said in court that the officer was conviced the teen was carrying a weapon.

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shooting a cop dead is now legal in the state of Indiana.

Governor Mitch Daniels, a Republican, has authorized changes to a 2006 legislation that legalizes the use of deadly force on a public servant — including an officer of the law — in cases of “unlawful intrusion.” Proponents of both the Second and Fourth Amendments — those that allow for the ownership of firearms and the security against unlawful searches, respectively — are celebrating the update by saying it ensures that residents are protected from authorities that abuse the powers of the badge. Others, however, fear that the alleged threat of a police state emergence will be replaced by an all-out warzone in Indiana. Under the latest changes of the so-called Castle Doctrine, state lawmakers agree “people have a right to defend themselves and third parties from physical harm and crime.” Rather than excluding officers of the law, however, any public servant is now subject to be met with deadly force if they unlawfully enter private property without clear justification. “In enacting this section, the general assembly finds and declares that it is the policy of this state to recognize the unique character of a citizen's home and to ensure that a citizen feels secure in his or her own home against unlawful intrusion by another individual or a public servant,” reads the legislation. Although critics have been quick to condemn the law for opening the door for assaults on police officers, supporters say that it is necessary to implement the ideals brought by America’s forefathers. Especially, argue some, since the Indiana Supreme Court almost eliminated the Fourth Amendment entirely last year. During the 2011 case of Barnes v. State of Indiana, the court ruled that a man who assaulted an officer dispatched to his house had broken the law before there was “no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers.” In turn, the National Rifle Association lobbied for an amendment to the Castle Doctrine to ensure that residents were protected from officers that abuse the law to grant themselves entry into private space. “There are bad legislators,” the law’s author, State Senator R. Michael Young (R) tells Bloomberg News. “There are bad clergy, bad doctors, bad teachers, and it’s these officers that we’re concerned about that when they act outside their scope and duty that the individual ought to have a right to protect themselves.” Governor Daniels agrees with the senator in a statement offered through his office, and notes that the law is only being established to cover rare incidents of police abuse that can escape the system without reprimand for officers or other persons that break the law to gain entry. “In the real world, there will almost never be a situation in which these extremely narrow conditions are met,” Daniels says. “This law is not an invitation to use violence or force against law enforcement officers.” Officers in Indiana aren’t necessarily on the same page, though. “If I pull over a car and I walk up to it and the guy shoots me, he’s going to say, ‘Well, he was trying to illegally enter my property,’” Sergeant Joseph Hubbard tells Bloomberg. “Somebody is going get away with killing a cop because of this law.” “It’s just a recipe for disaster,” Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police President Tim Downs adds. “It just puts a bounty on our heads.”

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federal-led effort to take down ranking members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas.

Steven Walter Cooke, an Aryan Brotherhood of Texas general (U.S. Department of Justice)

An article in today’s Houston Chronicle delves into an ongoing federal-led effort to take down ranking members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. The sweep of arrests, pleadings and sentencings, which seem to come one after another, has reportedly left the group in disarray, to some extent.

There has also reportedly been a shift at the top of the food chain, with one deceased general being replaced and another, whose status is unclear, possibly being replaced.

There is also reportedly growing concern within  the organization as to whether any members or affiliates have been pulled in to cooperate with law enforcement. The authorities have come at the gang from so many different directions and have locked up so many people, that it is probably tough to even figure out who is free, who is behind bars, and whether the still ongoing investigation is fading away or just getting a second wind. Here’s the story I wrote:

In a cellphone photo confiscated by police, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas general Steven Cooke poses with two stainless-steel .45-caliber pistols aimed straight ahead; a finger on each trigger; barrels locked and loaded.

Authorities contend that he later used one of those pistols to shoot an Aryan rival in the head. In another picture, he clutches a daunting .50-caliber military-style rifle. In one more, he holds a modern “street sweeper,” a 12-gauge shotgun fed by a drum of about 20 rounds.

After four years, an ongoing statewide investigation into some of the gang’s most menacing members has resulted in the prosecution of 34 for federal crimes such as racketeering and murder, and in the incarceration of another 30 in state prisons. Cooke, known as “Stainless,” is one of them.

A review of court files and exclusive interviews with those investigating and prosecuting the gangsters – and some associates who remain free – documents a drug-enraged trail of crime across the state.

“What we noticed is that they tend to beat up on each other a lot,” said Malcolm Bales, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, noting that most attacks are retribution against renegades or rivals.

“We continue to get information about people who have been disappeared, and the level of violence associated with their organization is something that we cannot tolerate,” Bales said. “I don’t compare them to the Mafia. They are too weird and dysfunctional in how they handle their lives – heavy drug use and sociopathic personalities.”

Authorities have secretly recorded their conversations, phone calls and meetings. Photos show them meeting in a barn-turned-hideout and a Tomball bar.

Some now sit in prison isolation cells as authorities limit their reach; others hide after informing on fellow Aryans.

The gang is carved into five territories, each with a so-called general, who commands legions of convicts, both in and out of prison, and doesn’t hesitate to beat down, burn or blow away those who cross them.

Acts of violence

Richard Boehning, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel and Army Ranger who is a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent, leads an 80-person multi-agency statewide task force in nabbing the gang members.

When Boehning testified against one now-imprisoned gangster, he described the significance of the Aryans’ tattoos, the roots of their white supremacist views, and the mantras that guide their wrath.

Among the most common: “God forgives. Brothers don’t,” he said. “It simply means that  you may seek forgiveness from the good Lord, but when it comes to not doing something for the organization, ‘we are not going to forgive you.’ ”

One general near Lufkin had a gangster blast his own best friend in the head with a shotgun or he’d be killed for not obeying. Another in Dallas had a gang tattoo burned off a guy’s torso with a blowtorch.

In Tomball, Cooke ordered a dozen gang members to stand in a circle and pulverize one of their own for stealing dope, a gun and a girlfriend from a ranking officer. Grunts and taunts were captured on a cellphone video made by one of the gangsters.

Texas Department of Public Safety agent Brandon Bess interviewed four of the five generals.

“Every one of them have a completely different personality,” he said, “a completely different way they operate – the way they control people, from extremely calm to extremely gangster to extremely intelligent.”

Addicted to meth

What they all had in common – besides the ability to be brutal, charismatic and quote chapter and verse from the gang’s constitution – is a methamphetamine habit that made them wild, paranoid and ultimately vulnerable, he said.

“A lot of them share being like a father figure; a lot of people who end up with our families don’t have a family of their own,” said a person wh o is part of the Aryans.

Cooke, a professional tattoo artist seen as one of the most controlling of the leaders, was sent to prison in part on his wife’s testimony.

“Of course I fear for me my life,” Sharleiy Cooke said from an undisclosed location via e-mail. “I think him being in the feds (federal prison) just gives him more power and control over a higher class of criminal.”

 

Carl Carver

Carl Carver, another general, ordered a hit that resulted in a gang member and his girlfriend being lured into the countryside in Nacogdoches County and blasted in the head with a shotgun.

He pleaded guilty to racketeering and violence charges last year. He was sentenced to life, but is not listed as in U.S. Bureau of Prisons custody.

 

Terry Sillers

Terry Sillers, who goes by “Little Wood,” was busted last year after using a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to lead Fort Worth-area police on a chase broadcast live via a news helicopter.

‘General of generals’

Another general, Frank “Pancho” Roch Jr., died in Houston last year.

He was found in the cab of a truck parked along U.S. 59. A master manipulator, authorities say, with head-to-toe tattoos, he spent nearly all of his adult life behind bars.

Frank Roch

 

He was the gang’s “general of generals,” but is believed to have died of natural causes.

He was under investigation at the time of his death.

Larry “Slick” Bryan was sentenced to 30 years in state prison on a Bexar County drug charge, and is to be released next year.

He is now the gang’s most senior general. A position even more powerful in the streets.

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