*** Reputed members of Wood Street gang arrested for the murder of police officer Trevor Nettleton in Las Vegas, NV. The moving police funeral procession for Officer Nettleton:
*** Drug cartels and street gangs are recruiting "children . . . into criminal ways with promises of glittery goods and glory" in Rio Grande Valley, TX:
"These guys are all over the schools," says Edinburg detective Robert Alvarez. "They start as young as elementary. They start in junior high. And by that time, they're getting real serious as far as recruitment to get into the gang… If you don't put a stop to them there, by the time they get to high school, it's almost too late." * * * "We have kids picking up guns and shooting at each other," says Robert Alvarez. "I would think - if you take a good look at it - this year Valley-wide we've had more drive-bys than the past five years combined." He adds, "You're going to see those younger crowds of juvenile offenders committing very, very serious, very unbelievable crimes."
*** In El Paso, TX the FBI and local police arrested thirteen alleged members and associates of the Bloods on drug trafficking charges: "The Bloods were allegedly involved in street-level crack cocaine sales and distribution of the club drug Ecstasy."
*** Investigation in Portsmouth, VA results in take down of 26 alleged gang members and associates including reputed Bloods leader.
*** Bloods member gets life in prison following conviction for murder he committed at the age of 16 in Lynn, MA.
*** Reputed MS-13 member charged with fondling 13- and 15-year old girls behind a middle school in San Antonio, TX.
*** MS-13 associate charged with murdering 9-year-old boy hangs himself in Washington, D.C. jail.
*** Three men with alleged ties to MS-13 indicted on charges of killing pimp in Alexandria, VA during a robbery: "Court documents said that [the victim] was a pimp who had just taken a woman from Maryland to Virginia for prostitution and that the men charged in his death were involved in a conspiracy to extort money from people involved in prostitution."
*** Reputed Mexican Mafia leader Ralph "Perico" Rocha charged in Los Angeles, CA "with orchestrating a large-scale extortion scheme": "Authorities offered few details on the nature of the extortion scheme, except to say that the charges stemmed from a larger investigation into organized crime."
*** Street gangs using Twitter in their plots . . . "and the cops who track them are fast behind":
Investigators are monitoring the traffic in hopes of sweeping up gangbangers before the bloodshed - and searching Twitter after attacks for clues. "It is another tool ... just like old phone records," a police source said. "We can go through them [messages] to track these guys."
