Recently in H&S Category

This from the DA's office:

LOS ANGELES - The District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division announced charges today against a former Glendora police officer accused of taking money.

Timothy Radogna, 33 (dob 07/10/75), is charged with one count each of possession of a controlled substance with a firearm, possession for sale of a controlled substance and grand theft exceeding $400.

Radogna could be arraigned as early as tomorrow in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center. The defendant was charged in a felony complaint for arrest warrant on May 14. Radogna is being held on $150,000 bail.

If convicted as charged, the defendant faces a maximum term of nine years and eight months in state prison.

WHittier PD, the DEA and the Orange County regional narcotics supression team served federal search warrants at three southland locations as part of an ongoing effort to bring down a viscous group of drug traffickers, officials said Thursday.

The group, known as the Jorge Cuveas-Mares DTO, was targeted by the Whittier PD, but hte investigation quickly became national in scope, a Whittier PD official said.

Warrants were also served in LA, San Francisco, Detroit, Indianapolis, Philly and Dodge City, Kansas.

The investigation ultimately resulted in the seizure of 300 kilos of coke, 160 pounds of meth and $3 million in cash.

Arrested were Jennifer and Nicolas Sendis of Whittier. They are in federal custody. 

Not a lot of new stuff to report in the Long Beach case of five people shot to death at a homeless encampment in Long Beach. Here's what LA homeless blog is reporting:

Just like the murder three weeks ago of a homeless man in the Rampart area of Los Angeles, the police have not figured out who murdered the five homeless persons in Long Beach, a large city just south of Los Angeles.
<snip>.

Of course, having five people shot to death has rattled this local neighborhood.

KCBS2/KCAL9 has video from the crime scene here.

Here's the latest story from our sister paper the Long Beach Press-Telegram:

There are some fascinating peeks at the workings of the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang in the federal grand jury indictment released Tuesday.

Their brutality is apparent:

"On August 18, 2006, in Los Angeles County, defendant (William `Dago Bill' Shawley) advised an undercover law enforcement officer that he and defendants (David `L.A. Bull' Gil) and (Aaron `Sick Boy' Price) had captured an individual and tortured him for three hours, by breaking the man's knuckles with a pair of pliers, breaking his knee by hitting it with a metal pipe."

Alongside the action, a sub-plot emerges from the pages and pages of court documents.

It lies in the ongoing feuds among individual Mongols and a turf battle between bikers and area street gangs who are loyal to La Eme.

While there's been a push by former Mongols president Ruben "Doc" Cavazos to recruit street gang members, old-time members have been resistant.

Meanwhile, newer members have been reluctant to pay taxes on illicit drug sales to La Eme, because they are already paying the Mongols.

Last year, Cavazos wanted to broker an agreement between the organizations, but instead found himself targeted, according to the indictment.

According to the indictment, an informant told an undercover ATF agent that "Cavazos was attempting to negotiate with La Eme to compensate them for the narcotics-trafficking being conducted by Mongols members.

"Cavazos had met with

Although the meeting took place on the other side of town, it's pretty clear the San Gabriel Valley is fertile ground for organized crime.

This is prime turf for credit card scams, dope deals, money laundering, extortion, prostitution, assault and murder.

Stuff that happens here every day. Stuff that often gets reported in the newspaper, but in a disconnected, bullet-points-on-a-blotter sort of way that occasionally fleshes out the big picture.

Think about all the groups that operate in our neighborhoods. There's La Eme. We have the Wah Ching and assorted other Asian gangs. Crips and Bloods rule some neighborhoods, while Armenian and Russian gangsters continue to filter into the SGV from Glendale and Los Angeles.

If anything it's a Balkanization of sorts. And from time to time, each gang has its moment in the spotlight because of a large-scale federal or county prosecution.

Despite turf battles and rivalries, the prosecutions of these gangs highlight plenty of similarities - mainly the desire to make money. Lots of it. By any means necessary - including beatings and murder.

But it also paints a picture of young men who believe they are the last true individualists in America.

In his 1966 book "Hell's Angels," Hunter S. Thompson saw violent motorcycle gangs as part of the bleak and terrible rise of a new form of gangsterism dispensing equal amounts of violence and dope.

"(They are) not some romantic leftover, but the first wave of a future that nothing in our history has prepared us to deal with," Thompson wrote.

Just heard a funny story on the scanner out of La Verne.

Apparently some druggie went into a liquor store, bought a cup of ice, handed the clerk a dollar and his bag of "H&S 11350"

Not sure if that's meth, coke or heroin, but the dispatcher said the culprit appeared to be "strung out" and "sweating profusely."

We'll keep an eye on this one...

Going through old clip files today, I decided to pull two ratty envelopes. The first was labeled Crime, Murder, 1967. The second was Crime, Murder, 1967.

Here's a short crime story from May 2, 1968:

'HIPPIE HOUSE'

Monrovian Fatally Shot in Scuffle

A Monrovia youth was shot to death Wednesdat during a fight at a Sierra Madre "hippie" house and police have arrested a 23-year-old man on suspicion of murder.

Fatally wounded in the shooting was George D. Corbin, 19, of 1315 S. Mountain Avenue. He was shot in the upper chest with a .22 caliber pistol.

Booked by Sierra Madre police on charges of murder and assault with intest to commit murder was Bruce Allan Lewis, 535 Brookside Lane, Sierra Madre.

Police said Corbin was pronounced dead at St. Luke Hospital in Pasadena shortly after the shooting.

Another youth -- Michael Fulsom, 19, of 735 E. Beckville St., Duarte -- was shot in the right hand during the scuffle at the Brookside Lane house. He was transported to the County  Hospital prison ward in serious condition.

Detectives said Corbin and four friends, including one girl, were at the Brookside Land house when a fight erupted.

Corbin and Duncan J. Demming Jr., 21, also of 535 Brookside Lane apparently started fighting and Lewis joined in the scuffle.

Fulsom was later booked on several outstanding traffic warrants and Demming was charged with possessing marijuana.

Police said the "hippie" house was in the Sierra Madre Canyon area, whoch used to be an artists colony."

One day after an informant for the El Monte PD was killed, detectives continued their string of pot busts with a roust in Rowland Heights. A home at 2040 Bing Court, yielded more pot than a bust at the gated El Monte community on Maxon Road last Friday.

Who knew there were gated communities in El Monte? Apparently they exist. The last time I remember running into one it was a front for a slave-labor sweat shop.

In any event, today's gated community involves the discovery of a grow home, $1 million in plants and three arrests. Here's the lowdown:

EL MONTE - Police arrested three San Gabriel residents Thursday and raided three homes in connection with a nearly $1 million pot operation.

Authorities believe Henry Kwong, 22, Yue Huan Mai, 25, and Denise Guan, 32, were all involved in a "sophisticated " operation that netted about 700 marijuana plants.

Officers found the plants in three second-floor bedrooms at a home in the 2800 block of North Maxson Road -- an El Monte gated community called Maxson Villas, El Monte police Det. Peter Lopez said.

Police have linked the suspects to a second Walnut home allegedly being converted to support marijuana cultivation and a third San Gabriel home, where tools for a pot grow, thousands of dollars in cash and a pound of marijuana were found, Lopez said.

Story here.