Recently in Organized Crime Category

The spokesman for the state's Justice Department forwarded me the state's significant cases for May. Included are big weapons, drugs and fraud cases. Enjoy.

CACHE OF WEAPONS AND AMMO FOUND IN PROBATIONER'S RESIDENCE

Special Agents with the Bureau of Firearms (BOF) checked the Armed Prohibited Person System and noted that a subject, Tom Powell, was listed as owning three firearms; however, due to previous criminal conviction he is prohibited from possessing and owning firearms. When agents determined that Powell was on searchable probation out of San Benito County, they conducted a search of his residence and located over 1,300 rounds of ammunition and a large gun safe. Powell told officers he had sold all of his weapons but he could not produce any records regarding the sales. A locksmith was called to the residence and opened the safe where agents retrieved five rifles, four handguns and one shotgun. Powell was arrested while other agents continued the search of the house. Located in the attic were additional weapons, including an unregistered AR-15 assault weapon, a 12-gauge shotgun and a revolver.

COMMERCIAL BRIBERY SCHEME AT CAL CASINO

While Special Agents from the Riverside Office of the Bureau of Gambling Control (BGC) were investigating several management employees of the Pechanga Resort and Casino, the Agents uncovered evidence that floor supervisor, Kathy Zhou, who was recently suspended from her job, was charging casino job applicants $3,000 each to falsify their job applications to secure employment. Agents monitored a telephone conversation between Zhou and one of her "customers," during which she instructed the individual not to say anything to DOJ agents. Zhou admitted to the witness during this conversation that she lied to the agents when they questioned her, and was admonishing everyone involved to "keep their stories straight." Zhou was arrested on charges of commercial bribery and obstructing a criminal investigation.

You talkin' ta me? Yeah, that's right, fugedaboudit ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A reputed acting mob boss and eight other suspected gangsters were arrested Wednesday on federal charges accusing them of coast-to-coast Mafia crimes, ranging from gangland hits in New York to a home invasion by police impersonators in Los Angeles, authorities said.

Nothing like a good mob caper to round out the day.

usatoday.com

On the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy's slaying at a Los Angeles hotel, The San Francisco Chronicle writes about the conspiracy theories that abound in the case.

Examples:

-- Sirhan fired his .22-caliber revolver from a few feet in front of Kennedy, according to police, yet Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi reported that the fatal shot was fired less than one inch from Kennedy's head, behind his right ear. Of the four shots fired at Kennedy, all came from the rear. None of this was raised at Sirhan's trial because his defense was based on the theory that he suffered from "diminished capacity" rather than on any challenge of prosecutors' evidence.

-- Sirhan's revolver held eight rounds; a radio reporter's tape recording of the shooting has sounds of what one audio expert describes as 13 shots. Sirhan never had a chance to reload before bystanders tackled him. Two of the sounds on the tape are what forensic experts call "double shots," which means two shots so close together that they couldn't have come from the same revolver.

-- Several witnesses saw a security guard just behind Kennedy draw his revolver, and one reported seeing him fire it.

-- Over the years, Sirhan has told investigators who interviewed him in prison that he was in a hypnotic trance during the shooting and can't remember it at all. He said he could not remember writing, "RFK must die." He did not respond to an interview request for this story.

sfgate.com

NPR is taking a deep look at rising gang violence in Los Angeles, starting out in South L.A. during a ride-along with veteran LAPD Sergeant Herb Cirilo. npr.org

LAPD Detective Bill Longacre got the tip in December 2005: Someone had rented a storage locker and filled it with stolen guns and jewelry.

When he opened the locker, he found a bag mixed with family heirlooms and other valuables taken from across Los Angeles County. And he discovered photos and copies of a visa, all with the same name - Ignacio Del Pe a Rio.

Showing the photos to the clerk and manager of the storage facility, Longacre discovered that the man was the same one who had rented the locker.

Over the next two months, Longacre used a database that matches suspect descriptions, and he came up with a few matches for Rio, who turned out to have 35 aliases and whose real name was Roberto Caveda. Quickly, he realized he had a big case on his hands.

As Longacre closed in, Caveda made a crucial mistake on Feb. 16, 2006 - when he was caught during a burglary in Sherman Oaks.

The arrest capped a spree in which Caveda admitted to burglarizing more than 1,000 homes in two years and led police to $16 million in recovered property, some buried near the 118 Freeway in Granada Hills.

Partly because of his work on that case, Longacre, 61, was honored Thursday with the 2008 Robert Presley Institute of Criminal Investigation Investigative Excellence Award.

That's Longacre in the photo above. I interviewed him in the third floor interview room at Parker Center, the same room Charles Manson was interrogated in the 60s and later O.J. Simpson. Behind the air conditioning gauge in the room the department had a video camera set up to record confessions back in the day.

Gunmen killed the head of Mexico's federal police force early Thursday in a brazen hit against the man who had become the public face of the country's war on drug cartels.

What's wrong with this picture?

An inter-agency police auto theft task force uncovered a cache of machine guns, stolen cars and motorcycles and a hunting dog breeding operation run out of a home in Sylmar and didn't publicize it when the story broke in 2006.

Here's the story in a nutshell, given to me by the good folks from the Task Force for Regional Auto Theft Prevention (TRAP) - West Team. TRAP is a team of cops which investigates commercial vehicle theft and fraud countywide.

The case began July 27, 2006, at 9 p.m. when LAPD Mission Division patrol officers found a stolen Nissan Altima parked in front of a home in the 13000 block of Parkland Circle in Sylmar. The thief had stolen the car by stealing someone's identity from a lost wallet. And the suspects used his information to purchase vehicles.

The next day, at 8 a.m., TRAP detectives saw the suspect, identified as Don Park, leave his residence, get into a Nissan Maxima - which turned out to be stolen - remove the sun shade and back out of the driveway.

Detectives confronted Park and later determined that five other vehicles at the residence were also stolen.

Park faces auto theft, making a false financial statement and identity theft charges at a court hearing set for next month.

A search of Park's residence turned up 45 firearms, large amounts of ammunition, ballistic vests, police scanners, and 11 automatic assault weapons/machine guns in an upstairs bedroom that had been converted into a storage room.

Police found an additional cache of ammunition in the living room cabinet. Additional weapons charges were also filed against Park.

In the garage of the home, detectives discovered three stolen motorcycles, taken from a locked motorcycle dealership on Hollywood Way in Burbank. The suspects had cut the chain to a locked gate in August 2004 afterhours.

Police also found that Park had been allegedly illegally breeding hunting dogs at his residence and had previously been cited by Animal Regulation officers for the activity.

Eleven dogs were confiscated and held pending the investigation.

Park has a prior felony conviction for robbery with a gun and was sentenced to 92 months in the state prison. Park had previously been deported to Korea after completing his sentence. Park entered the country and illegally set-up residence, police said.

Some people have money. Others might never have it. Here's a couple accused of stealing other people's money, going 'shopping' and then getting caught in a police sting. Now, we all pay for their stay in jail. It's the American way.

A husband-and-wife were in custody in connection with operating a organized crime ring that stole credit card information, created forged credit cards and going on a trans-continental U.S. shopping spree, buying computers, other high-tech devices and gift cards, police announced this morning.

dailynews.com