Organized Crime

The hardened women of San Luca want you to know a thing or two about their notorious town. Not everyone belongs to the mob, they will tell you. And many who do are driven to it by poverty and neglect. It's a tough sell, no doubt. San Luca, a remote hilltop town in southern Italy, is the ancestral home and principal headquarters of a criminal organization that has emerged as the country's most powerful and dangerous mafia, the 'Ndrangheta.

MEXICO CITY - Operation Cleanup was a showcase effort to stamp out corruption within Mexico's elite organized-crime bureau. Twenty-five top law-enforcement officials were arrested in the weeks after the operation was launched in 2008, most accused of acting as highly paid moles for a leading drug cartel, the very villains the officials were supposed to be chasing. Today, the cases against them are a shambles, yet another example of Mexico's systemic corruption and a weak judiciary unable to fix it. The operation is also the most high-profile prosecution among the many that fell apart under the government of President Felipe Calderon, which ended nearly five months ago. This week, a federal judge freed the highest-ranking of those ensnared by Operation Cleanup.

Sgt. Jerry Wooters first encountered Jack "the Enforcer" Whalen at Hollywood's Mark Twain Hotel, which served as an office of sorts for the big man trying to fill the void left by the jailing of Mickey Cohen. Whalen was imposing -- some swore he was 6-foot-4, 250 -- and had the thickest hands anyone had seen. He'd once clobbered a dance instructor in the lobby of the Mark Twain to collect a $15 debt. Now he was messing with two members of the Gangster Squad, who called for backup.

A former Mexican liaison officer who worked closely with U.S. law enforcement was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to passing on sensitive information to organized crime members in Tijuana, federal authorities said. Jesus Quiñonez Marquez, 51, the former top liaison official for the Baja California attorney general's office, was arrested in 2010 as part of a wide-ranging investigation targeting the remnants of the Arellano Felix drug cartel. Quiñonez, in his plea agreement, admitted that he provided information to help crime bosses avoid arrest in a double homicide case in Tijuana.

Reputed underworld figure Robert (Fat Bobby) Paduano, accused of trying to take over the Newport Beach drug trade, pleaded guilty Monday to 43 felony counts of residential robberies, extortion, conspiracy to sell cocaine and false imprisonment. As part of an agreement with county prosecutors, Paduano was sentenced to eight years in state prison. Paduano's guilty plea came after a lively and unusual exchange between the defendant and Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher J. Evans.

The mob-style rub-out of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel 50 years ago today at the Beverly Hills mansion of his street-wise, auburn-haired mistress has endured as one of Los Angeles' most romanticized murder mysteries.

An NBC attorney attempted Friday to persuade federal appeals court judges in Pasadena to strike down the largest libel verdict against an American news organization--a $5.3-million judgment that the network defamed singer Wayne Newton in newscasts that linked him to organized crime figures. NBC lawyer Floyd Abrams said the stories were the product of aggressive reporting, not ill will, and should be protected by the First Amendment. But Newton's lawyer, Morton R.

A defense attorney in the Mexican Mafia case asked Tuesday for a mistrial after another defense attorney said her client should not have been charged because the other defendants talked about killing him and his mother.

Jurors have begun hearing testimony in the first in a series of trials that federal prosecutors say should be the coup de grace to an organization that once had seemed all but unstoppable. For a quarter of a century, the El Rukn Nation, under one name or another, has ruled large swaths of Chicago's South Side through violence and intimidation.

On the Home Shopping Network, the story lines are as thin as an overworked credit card. About the only drama unfolding amid the endless parade of cut-rate merchandise offered to cable television viewers is whether perky hostess Erin Morrissey's enthusiasm will give out before the supply of pink cubic zirconia bracelets at $29.75 each. But from behind the scenes of the $1-billion-a-year merchant-of-the-air have come details of a continuing drama that sounds improbable even by TV movie standards.

MOSCOW - A senior Muslim cleric was killed and another seriously injured in what appeared to be coordinated attacks Thursday in centralRussia's Tatarstan republic. Valiulla Yakupov, the Islamic chief ideologue in the predominantly Muslim region, was shot by gunmen several times about 10 a.m. as he was leaving his home, officials said. The injured cleric managed to make his way to his car parked nearby, where he died, Eduard Abdullin, spokesman for the Tatarstan branch of the Russian Investigative Committee, said in televised remarks.

Los Angeles and Orange counties ranks among the top 10 locales nationwide plagued by organized retail crime, a survey finds. Organized crime has become increasingly sophisticated as groups of thieves -- sometimes organized into gangs -- hit up stores and make off with thousands of dollars in merchandise that is later returned or sold. According to the National Retail Federation's annual organized crime survey, the stagnating economy has exacerbated the problem -- in the last year, 96% of retailers said they were victims of organized crime, up from 94.5% in the previous year.

ROME - A bomb exploded at the entrance of a high school in southern Italy named for the wife of a slain anti-Mafia judge, killing a 16-year-old girl and injuring at least four people as students were arriving at school for Saturday classes. Police were investigating the possibility of organized-crime involvement in the attack in the Adriatic port city of Brindisi, but authorities said it was too early to exclude other possibilities. They noted that the school is named for Francesca Morvillo, the wife of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone.

Javier Guzman, a 25-year-old industrial engineer, eased his SUV toward the curb on a recent Sunday as a masked state police officer in the middle of the road signaled him to pull over. Guzman rolled down his window, greeting the officer with a " buenas tardes . " "Do you live here? Where are you coming from?" the officer asked. "I live here, this car is mine," Guzman replied. He had nothing to hide, yet began coughing nervously. The officer, dressed in black, from combat boots to ski mask, circled the vehicle.

SAN DIEGO - For years, Benjamin Arellano Felix eluded U.S. law enforcement while running a Mexican drug cartel that terrorized rivals and poured hundreds of tons of cocaine into the country. So when the handcuffed kingpin arrived in San Diego aboard a government plane last year, U.S. authorities gathered on the tarmac, sharing hugs and handshakes as he was handed over to his longtime pursuers. But the sense of triumph has turned to disappointment in some quarters as Arellano Felix approaches his judgment hour in court Monday.

Britain's bestselling tabloid on Monday launched a blistering attack on the police for arresting five of its journalists over the weekend in an investigation of media corruption and unethical practices undertaken as a result of the country's phone hacking scandal. Scotland Yard is treating reporters at Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper "like members of an organized crime gang," said Trevor Kavanagh, the paper's associate editor. He lashed out at what he called a police "witch hunt," warned that Britain was falling behind former Soviet bloc countries in terms of press freedom and criticized police raids on journalists' homes during which officers sifted through "intimate possessions, love letters and entirely private documents.

Ever since Al Capone bought a mansion on Miami's Palm Island in 1928, South Florida has been a destination for organized-crime figures who want to relax and do a little business. The rackets have evolved over the years -- loan-sharking, extortion and gambling have largely given way to stock scams, money-laundering and white-collar fraud. And the gangsters of yore have been joined by rivals from Russia, Israel and South America. But the culture of greed and violence has remained constant.

LAPD detectives are investigating whether the shooting of two men at a North Hollywood synagogue in October is the work of Israeli-connected organized crime. The Oct. 29 shooting ignited fear that it was a hate crime, but Los Angeles police officials quickly ruled that out. In the last few weeks, LAPD investigators have concentrated their resources on the idea that the shootings were designed to silence someone. "It is something we are looking at, but we have made no definitive conclusions," Deputy Chief Michael Downing, head of the LAPD's Counter Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau, told The Times.

The Mob Museum opening in Las Vegas on Feb. 14 has a message for wannabe brides and grooms: Be the first to set foot inside the museum -- and get married too. Seven couples will be selected randomly to tie the knot or renew vows at the courthouse-turned-museum at 300 Stewart Ave. Couples 21 and older have until 11:59 PST tonight (Tuesday) to enter the Married at the Mob Museum  contest. Other perks: airfare for two from a U.S. location to Las Vegas, a two-night stay at the El Cortez Hotel (once owned by mob leader Bugsy Siegel )

Sixty reputed members of an Iraqi drug-trafficking organization in El Cajon have been arrested and authorities seized more than $630,000 in cash, 3,500 pounds of marijuana, dozens of high-powered firearms and several explosive devices, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The organization was run out of a social club and has suspected links to the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and an Iraqi organized crime syndicate in Detroit, according to law enforcement officials. The social club, located on East Main Street, has been a "hub of criminal activity conducted by Iraqi organized crime," El Cajon police Chief Pat Sprecco said.