Chicago Gangland 2013 News - Page 5
09/27/2013 -- Gang hit with sweeping federal racketeering charges
"Wilbert Moore was gunned down outside a South Side barbershop seven years ago by a violent street gang known as the Hobos because he had been secretly cooperating with law enforcement, authorities say.
On Thursday, authorities announced a crackdown on the gang with sweeping federal racketeering charges against its leader and eight other members for everything from narcotics trafficking to homicide, including the January 2006 slaying of Moore."
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09/24/2013 -- No bond for 4 charged in mass shooting at park: 'God took care of them'
"Two men in their 20s opened fire into a park on the South Side last week -- wounding a 3-year-old boy and 12 other people -- after one of the men had been grazed by a bullet hours earlier, police said today
They did not aim at anyone in particular but "just shot into the park" because they believed it was controlled by a rival gang, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters."
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09/20/2013 -- Chicago park shooting leaves 13 wounded, including 3-year-old boy
"Those behind a late-night attack at a southwest Chicago park in which 13 people were wounded, including a 3-year-old, used an assault-style weapon to spray the crowd with bullets, making it "a miracle" no one was killed, the city's police superintendent said Friday.
Ballistics evidence shows that those behind Thursday night's attack used a 7.62 mm rifle fed by a high-capacity magazine, police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told reporters. That type of weapon, he said, belongs on a "battlefield, not on the street or a corner or a park in the Back of the Yards," the neighborhood where the shooting took place."
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09/19/2013 -- Man charged in sweeping racketeering gang case
"Federal authorities arrested a man Thursday as part of the sweeping Imperial Gangsters street gang racketeering case.
Vincent Garza was arrested in East Chicago and is charged with conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity and conspiracy to posses with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, according to court records. He's also charged with two counts of murder in aid of racketeering activity and two counts of murder resulting from the use and carrying of a firearm during a violent crime."
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09/18/2013 -- Texas Leader of Latin Kings Street Gang Sentenced in Indiana to 262 Months in Prison for Racketeering Conspiracy
"A Texas leader of the Latin Kings street gang was sentenced today in Hammond, Ind., to serve 262 months in prison for racketeering conspiracy, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney David Capp of the Northern District of Indiana.
According to the third superseding indictment filed in this case, the Latin Kings is a nationwide gang that originated in Chicago and has branched out throughout the United States, including the state of Texas. The Latin Kings is a well-organized street gang that has well-defined leadership and is composed of regions that include multiple chapters. The third superseding indictment charges that the Latin Kings was responsible for more than 20 murders in southeast Chicago, northwest Indiana and Big Spring, Texas."
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09/17/2013 -- Public Enemies: Social Media Is Fueling Gang Wars in Chicago
"Last year more than 500 people were murdered in Chicago, a greater number than in far more populous cities such as New York and Los Angeles. The prevalence of gun crimes in Chicago is due in large part to a fragmentation of the gangs on its streets: There are now an estimated 70,000 members in the city, spread out among a mind-boggling 850 cliques, with many of these groupings formed around a couple of street corners or a specific school or park. Young people in these areas are like young people everywhere, using technology to coordinate with their friends and chronicle their every move. But in neighborhoods where shootings are common, the use of online tools has turned hazardous, as gang violence is now openly advertised and instigated online."
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09/16/2013 -- Heroin Pushed on Chicago by Cartel Fueling Gang Murders
"The two Mexican couriers were hauling a tractor-trailer full of cash: $3 million collected for drugs sold on the streets of Chicago. Juan Gonzalez and David Zuniga were driving their rig through Indiana in October 2011, transporting the money to Mexico. As they stopped to fix a flat tire, three members of the Gangster Disciples, Chicago’s biggest street gang, held them up at gunpoint.
The gang had bought the drugs -- and now these members wanted the money back. They pistol-whipped and handcuffed Zuniga. As the gangsters were hooking their own purple Kenworth cab to the money-laden trailer, Gonzalez fled through a cornfield and called the police.
Gonzalez, who worked for Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, made a surprising request that fall day: He wanted proof for cartel leaders that police had confiscated the $3 million."
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09/16/2013 -- Ex-Metra board member has ties to former gang leader’s family
"In the mid-1990s, Winndye Jenkins ran a concert-promotion business that federal authorities alleged was used by the Gangster Disciples to launder drug money.
She works at a construction company run by Larry Huggins, a government contractor, fund-raiser for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and, until recently, member of Metra’s troubled board of directors, the Better Government Association has learned.
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09/15/2013 -- CTA chairman’s name on letter vouching for notorious gang leader
"Battling gang violence has been one of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s top priorities.
But one of Emanuel’s top appointees, CTA Chairman Terry Peterson, appears to have taken a different tack in the mid-1990s: Lobbying for the early release of the imprisoned leader of the Gangster Disciples — one of the largest and deadliest street gangs in Chicago, the Better Government Association has learned."
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09/14/2013 -- Man Pleads Guilty In Imperial Gangsters Racketeering Case
"Another East Chicago man pleaded guilty to taking part in the racketeering conspiracy by the Imperial Gangsters’ drug trafficking operation.
During his change of plea hearing Friday afternoon at U.S. District Court in Hammond, Michael Anthony Castillo, 22, also pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute more than 100 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms of marijuana."
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