Allan Foster .David ‘Noddy’ Rice

Police believe Allan Foster flew from his Spanish hideaway to assassinate David ‘Noddy’ Rice in South Shields in May 2006 with a silenced semi-automatic gun.
It is thought he flew back out of the country the day after the killing, at a seaside car park near Marsden Grotto, and has remained a fugitive since.

Mr Rice, who had been known to police, was sitting in his car in Marsden Grotto, South Shields, at around 4pm on Wednesday, May 24, when the gunmen opened fire.
The 42-year-old, of St Vincent Street, South Shields, crawled out before being shot again in the head as he lay on the concrete. devastated family said: "Nod had many aspects to his make up, most of which were positive.

"Not only was Nod a devoted and loving father to his seven children, he was also in regular contact with the rest of his family who he dearly loved and was loved by in return.
"Until recently in fact Nod was the father of five children, all boys, so when his fiance gave birth to twins, one of whom was a girl, it appeared his life was almost complete.
"Regardless of the circumstances surrounding his death, Nod didn't deserve to die in such a brutal and violent manner."
David ‘Noddy’ Rice gangland killing on Tyneside Allan Foster two years ago has been named among 10 suspected criminals hiding in the “Costa del Crime”.
Yesterday Foster, 31, was named among 10 suspects who will be posted by Crimestoppers on a most-wanted website targeting the Costa del Sol.
The 10 include other men wanted for murder, serious violent offences, robbery and for their roles in multi-million pound drug trafficking rings.
The Spanish coastal resorts have been dubbed the Costa del Crime since the 1970s because hundreds of wanted British criminals are thought to have fled there.

Mr. Mao was standing on the street stacking oranges when he was killed.

No arrests have been made, and the only solid lead disclosed by police involves two black men seen fleeing the scene in a small silver car.
The pair is thought to have either witnessed the shooting or to have been the intended targets.
At the time, 6:30 p.m., the street was packed with shoppers and homeward-bound residents, several of whom gave statements to police.
But after the first day of the investigation the flow of information swiftly dried up, much to the homicide squad's dismay.
Now witnesses appear to be responding to a fresh appeal for assistance. Along with at least two anonymous Crime Stoppers tips, four people stepped forward yesterday and will be interviewed, Det. Gray said.
Hours of closed-circuit surveillance tape are also being scrutinized.
Tomorrow evening on Gerrard Street, meanwhile, at the exact time and place of Mr. Mao's death, a Chinese-language flyer will be handed out seeking further help.
Later in the evening, Mr. Mao's family will hold a ritual at the site of his death, stemming from the belief that a soul taken by such violence could remain in a sort of limbo.
At around 9 p.m., a monk will bring to the crime scene a piece of Mr. Mao's clothing that will be used to summon his soul to the Wing Sung Funeral Chapel on Spadina Avenue, where his body has been laid out in preparation for his funeral Friday.
A recent arrival to Canada and the father of two young adults, Mr. Mao was standing on the street stacking oranges when he was killed.
His death struck a public nerve, marking the second gun killing of a bystander in Toronto in under a week: A shooting on Yonge Street in the early morning of Jan. 12 claimed the life of 42-year-old John O'Keefe as he was walking home.
Det. Gray said she remained hopeful the killing will be solved but refused to speculate on what sparked the gunplay.
"It doesn't matter to me frankly, I can't imagine what motivation there might be," she said.
"There was some kind of argument between two groups, but I refuse to speak to motive because then it becomes like an excuse - and there's no excuse, right?"
Yesterday Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair moved to assuage public anxiety over the two deaths during questioning by the Police Services Board.
"It's important to keep these things in perspective," he said.
"There were three such events in all of 2007. So far this year there are two. It is not indicative of a trend. It is worrisome ... but I don't think it is proof that the city is unsafe."
Chief Blair said the federal government does not support his call for a firearms ban in Ontario, but that proposed federal legislation to introduce new offences, increase mandatory minimum sentences and reform bail conditions for gun offenders has "great promise."
He said that while police have made great strides in dismantling gangs and engaging the community, policing is only one aspect of the battle, which includes stemming the availability of firearms and streamlining the prosecution of offenders

Eric Burton

Eric Burton became a public eyesore at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when five digital billboards began broadcasting his face across Central Florida.
The faces of the region's most notorious fugitives will reach tens of thousands of motorists daily as part of an advertising push in support of Crimeline, the cash-for-tips crime-fighting program.
"It's absolutely huge for us," Crimeline coordinator Barb Bergin said after Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and police Chief Val Demings unveiled a billboard mock-up at police headquarters. "The more people who see them, the more cases we can help solve."
Burton, 32, is being sought in the New Year's Day killing of an Orange County man and the shootings of two teenagers.
He was last seen fleeing in a metallic-green 2002 Ford Mustang from the shooting outside a bar on South Rio Grande Avenue.
Images of Burton and other fugitives will alternate with conventional advertising on the billboards, which are owned by Clear Channel Outdoor. The company is donating the advertising space to Crimeline.
Arrested 42 times before, Burton is the sort of repeat felon targeted by another Crimeline program that Dyer discussed Wednesday.
"We are breaking the culture of silence," said the mayor, referring to an aggressive campaign offering $1,000 rewards to anyone who gives information leading to the confiscation of an illegal gun and an arrest with gun charges. "We've saved lives because Orlando residents have taken a stand against violent crime."
In the gun bounty's first year, Crimeline received 910 tips on criminals with guns in Orange County.
As of Wednesday, the program had agreed to pay $38,000 for gun tips last year. Not all of the rewards had been collected because some tipsters have not claimed the money.

Overall, tips to Crimeline in 2007 led to 1,199 arrests and cleared 1,372 criminal cases in the six-county Central Florida region, Bergin said.

The "WANTED" billboard campaign, which Clear Channel Outdoor runs in several cities, has produced numerous arrests in Philadelphia, Memphis and Indianapolis, according to police.

The Central Florida billboards are at the intersections of State Road 408 and Kirkman Road; Interstate 4 and Fairbanks Avenue; I-4 and Wymore Road; Semoran Boulevard and U.S. Highway 17-92; and S.R. 434 and U.S. 17-92.

Yvonne Narine

Yvonne Narine, 63, who was convicted in November of one count of solicitation of murder, was sentenced to the term on Friday in Superior Court in Riverside. She also was ordered to pay restitution to the victim, Harry Narine, who was 57 at the time of the crime.

The prosecution of Narine stemmed from an Aug. 16, 2006, meeting with two undercover Corona police detectives.In that meeting, prosecutors said, Narine talked about killing her husband, who was a correctional officer at the California Institution for Men in Chino. At the time, the Narines were attempting to reach a settlement in a divorce.

The officers tape-recorded the conversation with Yvonne Narine, who could be heard telling the detectives that police knew she wanted her husband killed.
Narine believed that, following the stabbing death of another officer at the Chino prison, killing her husband there would not be traced to her, according to police.
Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Jennifer Mullins, said during the trial that her client never intended to have her husband killed and that no money exchanged hands.
Narine had been drinking the day of the meeting with detectives, Mullins told jurors earlier. She also said Narine was intimidated and was afraid to disappoint a neighbor who had arranged the meeting with the undercover officers.

Stephen Bruce Porter

Stephen Bruce Porter guilty of eight charges, including burglary and deprivation of liberty, as well as three counts of rape.
Porter was arrested in February last year after a 19-year-old student was repeatedly raped in her home at Wooloowin by a man who stole bedsheets and cash when he left.
The prosecution is seeking a sentence of 16 to 18 years.
Porter's defence counsel told the court he was a member of the Stolen Generations who was taken from his own family when he was very young, passed between foster homes and eventually sent to boys' homes, juvenile detention and jail.

Christopher Allen Scheibe aka Sgt. Joseph Anthony Ramirez

Christopher Allen Scheibe to five years in prison, suspending all but the 123 days he had served, and ordered him to repay the county Police Department $2,500 for the cost of responding to the hoax. Scheibe also was sentenced to five years' probation
Scheibe entered an Alford plea to one count of making a false statement regarding the use of a destructive device, meaning that he did not admit guilt but conceded that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. Prosecutors dropped four other charges.
Scheibe, of the 600 block of Jumpers Hole Road, called police Sept. 8 and identified himself as Sgt. Joseph Anthony Ramirez, who had returned from his third tour of duty in Iraq to find that his wife had cheated on him and taken their two children to Michigan, according to charging documents.
He told police that he and three other disgruntled Iraq war veterans, equipped with an assault rifle with a high-powered scope and 30 rounds of ammunition, had barricaded themselves with five hostages in his home . He said he wanted flak jackets sent to all troops in Iraq and demanded to speak with the president. He said he was ready to die if police did not comply.
After closing roads and bringing in a special-response team, police determined that the elaborate scenario was a hoax.

MV Rozen

MV Rozen, was reported hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia . An American warship was on its way to the scene, this morning, BBC News reported, adding that there were no immediate demands from the pirates, who boarded the ship armed with AK-47’s.
The ship had just delivered 1,800 tons of food aid in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Somalia, when the pirates attacked. It is unclear whether any of the crew were injured.
Somali pirates are becoming a well-known problem in the shipping corridors along east Africa — and Time reports that they now rival the armed gangs who plague the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea.
But the operator of the Rozen, Motaku Shipping of Mombasa, Kenya, has had a particularly rough time of it in recent years.

Pirates: Beach Boy, instructed the reporter on some of the finer points of hijacking a ship:

Bedlam erupted on the ship’s decks as the pirates tried to round up the frightened crew. Lukman and two others were on the bridge. They switched on the public address system and started beating the captain until his shouts for the crew to surrender blared over the ship’s loudspeakers. “Please, they are killing me,” he cried.
Mr. Gwin spent enough time with real-life pirates to learn that one of them, Jhonny Batam, had a reputation as “a gentleman of opportunity” and a talent for singing Rod Stewart’s “Sailing.” Another, known as Beach Boy, instructed the reporter on some of the finer points of hijacking a ship:
I kicked off my shoes and copied the technique. The bamboo’s natural joints offered a good grip, even when wet, and its stiffness made it easier to climb than a rope. To reach the decks of taller ships, Beach Boy said they would lash two or three bamboos together. I reached the top and slid down. “You could be a pirate,” Muhammad said. The others laughed. I started to put on my shoes when I felt a powerful grip on my shoulder and a cold blade of a parang on the back of my neck. “Then you grab the first sailor you see,” Muhammad barked in my ear. “Tell me where the money is!” My heart skipped a beat before I realized he was just demonstrating the next step in an attack: “And the sailor will follow you like a water buffalo.”

100 "suitcase sized" nuclear weapons are unaccounted for.

retired General Alexander Lebed, former secretary of the Russian Security Council, told the CBS news program "60 Minutes" that he believes more than 100 "suitcase sized" nuclear weapons are unaccounted for. Lebed's charge elicited an immediate response from several senior Russian government officials, including Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who denied the existence of these weapons—known in the West as atomic demolition munitions (ADMs)—and argued that the Russian arsenal remains safe and secure. The State Department also reiterated its strong confidence in Russia's command and control system. Lebed's account is detailed in a new book, One Point Safe, by journalists Andrew and Leslie Cockburn.

2005 stolen firearms

Court records showed Kenneth Wayne Cashwell and William Ellsworth Grumiaux pleaded guilty earlier in the year to possessing, receiving and concealing between May 2003 and August 2005 stolen firearms which had been "shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce".

The records, which showed both men agreed to cooperate with authorities and testify about any crimes they knew of in plea deals filed last November,

unlicensed weapons and equipment

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether staff from controversial US security company Blackwater smuggled weapons to Iraq, according to reports.
Some employees are alleged to have sent over unlicensed weapons and equipment, that could have been used by a group labelled as terrorist by the US.

The North Carolina-based firm said it was not aware of such an investigation.

stun gun use

The National Criminal Intelligence Service, which is planning to launch an investigation into stun gun use, said this rise could partly be attributed to evidence that ordinary people and businessmen were buying them in France and Thailand, where they are legal, and bringing them back to the UK.

report on gun crime commissioned by the Home Office

Illegal firearms have become increasingly accessible to younger offenders who appear more likely to use these firearms recklessly,” a report on gun crime commissioned by the Home Office cautioned last year.

2,710 handguns known as HS95s which were smuggled out of Croatia in the late 90s

mayhem that can be caused by a single batch of illegal weapons was demonstrated by a study of 2,710 handguns known as HS95s which were smuggled out of Croatia in the late 90s. One was used to shoot Derek Dunne, an Irish gangster, in the neck after he opened the door to his Amsterdam home in January 2000. In May the following year another weapon from the same consignment was wielded by the Basque gunman who assassinated Manuel Giménez Abad, a Spanish politician, in Madrid.

909 firearms last year along with 61,867 rounds of ammunition.

When police moved in, they found that Cinga had sold 18 Baikal IZH-79s pistols to the pair. Each came with a silencer and 20 rounds of ammunition. Banking records showed that Smith had transferred around £2,500 to Lithuania before his arrest.

At Blackfriars crown court yesterday, Cinga, 34, was jailed for seven years and Smith, 47, for 10½. The sentencing of Magee, 43, was adjourned.

Officers from Operation Trident, the Scotland Yard unit set up nine years ago to reduce shootings and murders among black men in particular, seized 909 firearms last year along with 61,867 rounds of ammunition. In one raid on a suburban semi opposite a school in Dartford, Kent, they are alleged to have found hundreds of firearms mounted on every available stretch of wall space. Further seizures were made around London by police who are not members of the 300-strong Trident team, as well as by other police forces. Customs officers, meanwhile, intercepted 762 firearms and 7,407 rounds being smuggled into the UK last year. They often discovered the firearms had been parcelled up with consignments of drugs. Police believe that eastern Europe - particularly the Baltic states - are the source of many of the illegal firearms in the UK.

Guns are being smuggled into the UK using online auction sites such as eBay

Guns are being smuggled into the UK using online auction sites such as eBay, according to a report by MPs due out this week.

Although the sale of weapons is illegal on eBay, the report is expected to say that villains are getting round the barriers by buying component parts, such as barrels, firing mechanism and triggers.

According to the Sunday Times, which has seen a copy of the report, the committee of MPs is to call on the Government to take action.

The paper quotes the report as saying: "This loophole is a potential route for illicit weapons into the UK and should be addressed."

You can buy one for £50 or £70 with a load of ammunition

The smuggling of the weapons, some of which he said were manufactured in India and China, others sold in Eastern Europe, was made easier due to easier communications and international travel connections.

Mr Gray, who has written the book Armed Response about his experiences in the Met, described Britain's borders as "porous to say the least".

"Buying weapons in Europe and bringing them into England is not really a problem, bringing them in to the Kent Cinq Ports is even less of a problem," Mr Gray said.

"It is very easy," he added

Mr Gray said he believed the extent gun crime was being "underplayed" in Britain.

He said "The number of weapons that are in criminal hands I would suggest has gone up enormously."

And Mr Gray said nowadays, on the streets of a city like Manchester it could be possible to get hold of a gun within hours: "If you were a member of a certain fraternity and of a certain age group I don't think you would have trouble getting one at all. Within an hour, I suspect, if you were in touch with the right people."

Mr Gray even said he thought it was possible Kalashnikov AK47 assualt rifles could be making their way into this country.

"In places like India, we have village craftsmen who can clone a Kalashnikov assault rifle very efficiently. India, China all over the place.

"The Kalashnikov is one of the most lethal weapons in the world, but it is also commonly available."

Mr Gray said he believed gun crime in the UK was spiralling: "Gun crime in general is rising, it is out of control. I believe the public do not have a full picture of what is going on nor the extent of it."

He said the weapons were available for under £100, along with bullets.

"You can buy one for £50 or £70 with a load of ammunition, I understand. Guns have been made for the past two centuries, there are loads of them out there," he revealed.

Mr Gray was not hopeful for the future of cracking down on gun crime, despite the Government's proposed Violent Crime Bill, saying Brits would have to learn to live with it.

"I don’t think we are going to be able to stamp it out I think we are going to have to live with it," he said.

"It is very difficult for the British public to digest what they are now faced with, but they have no choice.

"It will never be possible to train enough armed policemen, let alone recruit them to deal with the problem as it is now. The resources required are absolutely enormous and our society would change

“What we’re seeing is the emergence of this, and a whole series of undesirable things emerging from new media,”

Three Scottish teenagers from Glasgow’s Xcross gang put a video on YouTube in which they gloated over the killing of a 21-year-old father.

In the film they threaten another man - called Jinky - with the same punishment: “Jinky, wee man, get back to Norfy [a tower on a local council estate] before we murder ye like Willie Smith, ye dafty, do you want to get put in a box an’ all?”

Caught by the police, the three stars of the disturbing internet movie pleaded guilty to culpable homicide last week, allowing the story of their online bragging to be told. Plastered all over the Scottish newspapers last week, it is hardly surprising that the shock that such videos exist have begun to lead to calls for better regulation of the video-sharing website.

In the past fortnight MPs have queued up to criticise YouTube in an attempt to look tough on law and order, in response to the spate of gun crime. As a result, John Whittingdale, who chairs the Commons Culture Select Committee, is considering a public enquiry into the topic.

“What we’re seeing is the emergence of this, and a whole series of undesirable things emerging from new media,” Mr Whittingdale said. “There are also concerns about cyber-bullying and about the use by some Islamic fundamentalist groups of some pretty appalling websites.”

Don't blow your life away - Trident launches hard-hitting new advertising campaign

targeting 13 to 19 year olds in a bid to dissuade them from becoming the gunmen of the future.


Trident launched a powerful advertising campaign targeting 13 to 19 year olds in a bid to dissuade them from becoming the gunmen of the future.

The campaign features radio and TV ad’s produced from real prisoners views to bring the message home: "Don’t blow your life away."

Magnum pistols bought for £400

The street talk was of Magnum pistols bought for £400, of replica firearms which sell for £50 and can be converted to fire bullets retailing at £1 a time. The talk is chilling because it seems so incongruous on tree-lined suburban streets on a warm August afternoon. Then someone tells you to take a look at YouTube.

Two grainy films, crude but terrifying, mirror each other, each beginning with the street sign for their precious turf and moving on to show guns, dogs, cars and motorbikes. The Crockys get to the point swiftly with a picture of a heavy weapon, followed by shots of a revolver with its chamber open, a sawn-off shotgun and a handgun with an ammunition clip. The pictures of the arsenal are interwoven with footage of wheelies on a trail bike, pit bull terriers and a circling quad bike.

People are being warned of a new threat from organised crime gangs

People are being warned of a new threat from organised crime gangs, many of them from Romania, who are targeting cash machines and stealing millions of pounds each year.

The crooks are using pinhole cameras, card skimmers and other gadgets to obtain personal identification numbers, card details and in many cases the cards themselves, from customers.

Detective Inspector Roger Cook, head of the City of London Police's Cheque and Credit Card Unit, said cash machine fraud had cost the banks more than £30m so far this year.

He said the gangs - some of which are also involved in human trafficking and prostitution - were becoming more and more sophisticated and were spreading out across the UK.

London's gang culture has identified 169 separate groups

A police report on London's gang culture has identified 169 separate groups, with more than a quarter said to have been involved in murders.
Gangs are responsible for more than a fifth of youth crime in London, according to the Metropolitan Police report seen by BBC London.

The unpublished report found that nearly half of London gangs had been involved in serious assault.

Three teenagers have died in shootings in south London in two weeks.

The largest number of gangs are said to be in Hackney, east London (22 gangs); Enfield in north London (13); Lambeth and Merton in south London (12 gangs each); Waltham Forest in north east London (11) and Brent in north west London (11).

Gangs were found to have around 20 to 30 members, and to commit crimes in smaller groups of three to six.


It's definitely a war out there

Former gang leader

African-Caribbean gangs were described as the largest group, followed by south Asian and white gangs.

Religion was also found to be a defining factor, with some gangs comprising solely Muslim or Catholic members, for example.

The report distinguished between 19 gangs considered responsible for a high level of harm and 29 regarded as using a medium level.

A former gang leader said some young people became gang members in order to feel protected.

"They feel safe within a gang because you have got older people in the gang who are always going to look after you," he said.

"You are always moving as a pack. It's as you fight in a war.

"If you are fighting in a war you are not going to send just one soldier out. It's definitely a war out there."

Impact 'enormous'

Criminologist Dr John Pitts, from the University of Bedfordshire, said: "There are probably no more than 1,500 to 2,000 young people in gangs in all of London, but their impact is enormous."

Dr Pitts said the influence of gangs could determine which schools and colleges young people felt able to go to.

"There are quite a number of youth workers in London boroughs who are finding it impossible to run a service," he added.

Fifteen-year-old Billy Cox is the latest victim of violence blamed on gangs.

There does seem to be evidence of a rise in the number of gangs

Metropolitan Police Commander Paul Minton

He was shot in the chest at the family home in Clapham, south London.

third fatal shooting of a teenager in south London in less than two weeks

The Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, has held an emergency meeting after the third fatal shooting of a teenager in south London in less than two weeks.

join a gang or participate in gang delinquency

A new study confirms that parental behavior can affect how likely teenagers are to join a gang or participate in gang delinquency.
But the study also reveals that the same behaviors that discourage gang activity in teens from one ethnic group might have no effect, or even encourage gang activity, in teens from a different ethnic group.

The same research indicates that gang intervention programs, which often focus on teens' peer relationships, could be more effective if they also addressed the parent-teen relationship.

Teen Gang and Gang Violence has taken on a new light in today's age.

Gangs prey on the weak child that yearns to fit in with a false illusion they are accepted into the “cool crowd”. With most Gangs as with Teen Cults, they can convince your child that joining "their Gang or Cult" will make them a "well-liked and popular" teen as well as one that others may fear. This gives the teen a false sense of superiority. Remember, many of today’s teens that are acting out negatively are suffering with extremely low self confidence. This feeling of power that they believe a gang or cult has can boost their esteem; however they are blinded to the fact that is dangerous. This is how desperate some teens are to fit in.

In reality, it is a downward spiral that can result in damage both emotionally and psychically. We have found Teen Gangs and Teen Cults are sometimes hard to detect. They disguise themselves to impress the most intelligent of parents. We have witnessed Gang members who will present themselves as the "good kid from the good family" and you would not suspect their true colors.