Keyword: texassyndicate
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SNIPPET: "Actually, two have been convicted by a jury for using their nightclubs to launder the proceeds of drug and weapons deals, one was acquitted of money laundering but has pled guilty to a drug trafficking charge, and one of those convicted of money laundering has now been charged with tax evasion. And that's not to mention the failure to pay state liquor taxes and fees, the unsolved murder of a one-time business partner, and various immigration-related issues. Money was transferred in to a relative and known Hizballah operative in Lebanon, and there are strong ties to the Lebanese expat...
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Police say Pardo and his team were selling between $3,400 and $6,250 worth of heroin each day. His restaurant and home behind Jovita's were two of 10 locations raided at 5 a.m. Thursday. Agents used explosives to get through his front door, which they say is always barricaded with a 2x4-inch piece of wood. In all investigators seized heroin, cars, guns, ammunition, real estate and $36,000 in cash.
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The Yassine family of Austin, Texas is apparently quite the enterprising group. Led by Hussein “Mike” Yassine, the Yassines were quite diversified. They own 8 bars. According to law enforcement authorities they are also a one-family crime wave. They are involved in murder, money laundering, drug dealing–and they have a brother back in Lebanon who is part of Hezbollah.
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The Austin American-Statesman reports that Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo made a comment this week regarding San Antonio at a news conference touting recent successes against the Mexican Mafia. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the 309 years doled out on Friday are “a tremendous gift to the people of Austin.” “The Mexican Mafia is not welcome in Austin,” Acevedo said. “I hope they go back to San Antonio.” Federal, state and Austin law enforcement officials took part in the Tuesday presser. The Statesman reported: The FBI said the case is the largest joint prosecution of the gang in Austin....
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NEAR EDINBURG — A 34-year-old man died from 11 stab wounds at an Edinburg hospital Monday morning, deputies said. Hidalgo County Sheriff's deputies responded to Edinburg Regional Medical Center, where a doctor said LeeRoy Berrones, 34, arrived at the hospital and seemed to be "highly intoxicated and unresponsive to questions," Sheriff Lupe Treviño wrote in a statement. Doctors removed Berrones' shirt and found nine stab wounds on the left side of his rib cage, one in his chest and another on his left arm. During emergency surgery, doctors learned Berrones' heart had been punctured and he was bleeding internally. Berrones...
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Ten people have been indicted in connection with a killing prosecutors allege was a botched kidnapping attempt carried out by members and associates of the Texas Syndicate prison gang on behalf of the Zetas. Juan Manuel "Pugs" Marquez Rodriguez, 27, is charged in the indictment with murder in the Dec. 21, 2006, death of Julio A. Serrano. He and nine others were indicted last week in state district court. Only Marquez is charged with murder. All 10 face charges of criminal conspiracy and engaging in organized criminal activity involving the attempted kidnapping of Serrano, which resulted in Serrano's death. The...
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Members of rival El Salvadorian gangs were arrested by Border Patrol agents over the weekend just north of Laredo on Interstate 35, an indicator of the increasing through traffic by violent gang members the Laredo Police Department has noticed in recent months."Mostly they're transient," said Sgt. Armando Elizondo, supervisor of LPD's Juvenile Enforcement Team, which deals with local gang activity. "They use this area as a crossing point." Sunday, a 22-year-old gang member was arrested by agents at the Texas Travel Information Center at the 18-mile marker on the interstate at about 2 p.m. He had tattoos showing he's a...
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Juan Manuel Marquez-Rodriguez was supposed to use a baggie of marijuana to lure Julio Adrian Serrano out of his home on Gallagher Avenue that cool December morning in 2006, as two other men lay in wait to kidnap him at gunpoint.But when Serrano went out to meet Marquez, he spotted Sergio "Pelon" Oslan Rivera jumping over a nearby fence. Serrano immediately turned around and ran back into his trailer. Marquez, 27, pulled out a .40 caliber pistol and fired at Serrano, then 19. One bullet hit Serrano in the back, killing him on the spot, according to information Laredo police...
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Suspect linked to two other sets of charred remains EDINBURG — A man linked to three burned bodies found since 2005 went on trial Tuesday, charged with one of the killings. Manuel Alvarez, 33, is accused of the murder of Apolinar Ramos, a Mid-Valley based drug associate with ties to the Texas Syndicate prison gang. Irrigation district workers found Ramos’ charred remains Dec. 22, 2005, in a sugar cane field south of Donna. He had been shot three times in the chest, placed in a Dodge pickup truck and set ablaze. Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorney Monica Barron Auger said...
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MISSION — Family and gang were one and the same for Leobardo Villarreal. So in March it was no coincidence that federal authorities finally arrested Villarreal, a 22-year-old second-generation member of the gang Hermano Pistoleros, through a tip they got after arresting his father and fellow gang member Juan Eladio Villarreal-Saenza, officials said. The Pistoleros, whom the FBI says Mexican drug cartels are hiring to run drugs and do contract killings, operate in Mexico and the United States. They are highly mobile, organized criminals who also happen to be illegal aliens, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. While the federal...
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One of the suspects sought to join Texas Syndicate, affidavit states A Port Isabel fisherman was lured to his death in a West Brownsville park late Monday during a man’s initiation into a Texas prison gang, according to court records released Thursday. Brownsville police on Wednesday arrested Jose Miguel Vasquez Jr., 39, and Andres Garcia, 25, on murder charges in the stabbing death of 47-year-old George Garza. A probable cause affidavit released after their Thursday morning arraignment states that the two men used a knife to stab Garza to death as part of Garcia’s initiation into the Texas Syndicate prison...
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WASHINGTON — Paramilitary enforcers for Mexican drug cartels are responsible for a wave of violence in Nuevo Laredo that poses a serious threat for residents on both sides of the Southwest border, U.S. law enforcement officials told a House committee Thursday. Assassinations, kidnappings and daylight shootouts between military-trained gangs place citizens at risk along the border where violence has soared past historical norms, officials said. "These paramilitary groups work for the cartels as enforcers and are a serious threat to public safety on both sides of the border," said Chris Swecker, the FBI assistant director for the criminal investigative division....
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Federal, state and local authorities announced Tuesday that they had disrupted a cell that smuggled large amounts of a potent type of methamphetamine to San Antonio and Dallas. At least 16 pounds of Mexican meth, or "ice," was seized as part of the three-year investigation led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The street value of that amount of drugs before they are cut is about $218,000. At a news conference, ICE agents said that, with the help of agencies including the San Antonio Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,...
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It's been almost 3 1/2 years since Austin club owner Paresh Patel was last seen. He was leaving one of his clubs on Sixth Street on a late September afternoon with thousands of dollars in cash. Patel told a relative in a subsequent cell phone call that he was heading to another of his clubs in the Warehouse District. But he never arrived. He failed to pick up his children that evening. No one has heard from him since. During a federal court trial that ended last week, Patel's story re-emerged. Three members of the Texas Syndicate prison gang were...
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