3 MS-13 Members Sentenced to Prison for a Gang-Related Murder and Shooting

Three MS-13 gang members were sentenced to federal prison for violent crimes that they committed on behalf of the gang, including the 2006 murder of a rival gang member and 2008 shooting of a teenage boy, announced Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Acting U.S. Attorney John A. Horn of the Northern District of Georgia.

Miguel Guevara, aka Blacky, 31, of Fort Walton Beach, Florida; Irvin Mejia Cruz, aka Triste, Lil Triste, 24, of Duluth, Georgia; and Walter Aldana, aka Goofy, 24, of Norcross, Georgia, were sentenced to 30 years in prison, nine years in prison, and 10 years in prison, respectively. U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story of the Northern District of Georgia imposed the sentences.  The defendants each pleaded guilty in October 2013 to RICO conspiracy, and Guevara also pleaded guilty to using a firearm in relation to the commission of a crime of violence.

According to admissions made in connection with the defendants’ guilty pleas, the charges and other information presented in court, Mara Salvatrucha 13, or MS-13, is an international gang that originated in El Salvador and Honduras and spread to the United States. MS-13 members are organized into regional “cliques” within the larger gang. Each clique has a leader, often referred to as “the first word,” who conducts weekly meetings. At these meetings, members discuss their crimes and their plans to retaliate against rival gang members. The clique leaders collect dues from the gang members, which they use to buy guns and post bail for jailed gang members. Clique leaders often send money back to MS-13 leaders in their home countries, and report back to the same leaders about the clique’s activities on behalf of the gang.

MS-13 has operated in the greater Atlanta area since at least 2005. The gang staked out Gwinnett and DeKalb Counties as their home territory, where they committed murders, attempted murders and armed robberies, among other crimes.

According to admissions in connection with his guilty plea, Guevara was a member of MS-13, but in 2006, he decided to become less active in the gang and sought permission to “calm down” from the leader of his clique, Miguel Alvarado-Linares, aka Joker. Alvarado-Linares discussed this with other members at a meeting of the clique on Dec. 23, 2006, and the other gang members agreed that Guevara would have to shoot at a suspected rival gang member before he could become inactive. Guevara admitted that he and other gang members went to a nightclub in the early morning hours of Dec. 24, 2006 to hunt for rival gang members. Guevara admitted that he saw two rival gang members walk out of the night club and get into a car. Guevara and the other MS-13 members then followed the rival gang members. As the rival gang members exited the freeway, the MS-13 gang members pulled alongside, and Guevara fired multiple shots at the rival gang members. Guevara killed one of the gang members and wounded the other.

In connection with their guilty pleas, Cruz and Aldana admitted that they belonged to the same MS-13 clique. They further admitted that Mejia Cruz advised Aldana to shoot someone if he wanted to earn more respect within MS-13, and, on Aug. 21, 2008, Mejia Cruz gave Aldana a gun for the task. Aldana admitted that he left Mejia Cruz’s house with the gun, and encountered a group of teenagers, some of whom were playing basketball. Aldana challenged the teenagers, “Who do you claim,” asking to which gang they claimed allegiance. He then started firing into the crowd and struck a 14 year-old boy in the back. Aldana called out “Mara Salvatrucha” as he fled on foot.  He later returned the firearm to Mejia Cruz.

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Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality is stuffed into Corrupt Illinois #WheresMine

Public funds spent on jets and horses. Shoeboxes stuffed with embezzled cash. Ghost payrolls and incarcerated ex-governors. Illinois' culture of "Where's mine?" and the public apathy it engenders has made our state and local politics a disgrace.

In Corrupt Illinois: Patronage, Cronyism, and Criminality, veteran political observers Thomas J. Gradel and Dick Simpson take aim at business-as-usual. Naming names, the authors lead readers through a gallery of rogues and rotten apples to illustrate how generations of chicanery have undermined faith in, and hope for, honest government. From there, they lay out how to implement institutional reforms that provide accountability and eradicate the favoritism, sweetheart deals, and conflicts of interest corroding our civic life.

Corrupt Illinois lays out a blueprint to transform our politics from a pay-to-play–driven marketplace into what it should be: an instrument of public good.

"Corrupt Illinois is the most comprehensive account of corruption in our state ever published. It proposes cures, which will take decades to implement fully, but which deserve our attention now."--Governor Jim Edgar, from the foreword

"Gradel and Simpson have chronicled corruption in Illinois for decades. Here they sum up their findings in distressing, damning detail. The authors propose important steps to tamp down this corruption."--James A. Nowlan, former state representative and co-author of Fixing Illinois: Politics and Policy in the Prairie State

"Corrupt Illinois documents the vast scope and depth of corruption in Illinois politics, which is a monumental achievement in itself. Of equal importance, it explores the underlying roots of that corruption, building an understanding of its dynamics and the policy changes necessary to address it."--Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science, University of Illinois at Springfield

Thomas J. Gradel spent 35 years as a media consultant and served on the staff of Governor Dan Walker. He is a freelance writer and political researcher. Dick Simpson is a professor, former head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, former Chicago alderman and congressional candidate. His books include Rogues, Rebels, And Rubber Stamps: The Politics Of The Chicago City Council, 1863 To The Present (Urban Policy Challenges), and The Struggle for Power and Influence in Cities and States.

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Fugitive for 6 years Arrested in Switzerland

Wander Junior Vargas Canela, aka Wallis Torres, an inmate who escaped the Massachusetts Department of Correction and fled to Switzerland, has been turned over to United States authorities following his arrest in Switzerland.

Special agents from the FBI’s Violent Crime Task Force escorted Canela from Switzerland to Logan International Airport. The FBI worked with the Massachusetts Department of Correction’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit (FAU) to locate Canela and bring him back to Massachusetts.

An arrest warrant had been issued for Canela, under his assumed identity of Wallis Torres, out of West Roxbury District Court on September 17, 2008, the day after he escaped from the Boston Pre-Release Correctional Center. He was serving a four- to seven-year sentence for possession of a Class B substance with intent to distribute.

Investigators developed information which indicated Canela had fled the United States and was traveling within Europe, specifically in the areas of Spain and Switzerland. They also learned that Canela was using an assumed name, Wallis Torres, while in Massachusetts.

On December 13, 2013, a federal arrest warrant was issued out of the United States District Court in Massachusetts for Canela on a charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution which holds a maximum imprisonment of five years.

FBI Boston and members of FAU developed several leads in Spain, the Dominican Republic, and Switzerland relative to the activities of Canela. With the assistance of the FBI’s legal attaché offices in these respective countries, it was determined that he was residing in Switzerland.

On April 15, 2014, Canela was arrested by the Canton Aargau Police (Switzerland) for possession of cocaine and was held in Swiss custody on a provisional arrest warrant generated by FBI Boston/FAU seeking extradition back to Massachusetts.

Upon arrival, Canela will return to the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Correction where he will serve the remainder of his outstanding sentence; four years and four months. He will also face additional charges relating to his escape and unlawful flight.

“This is a great example of multiple government agencies and nations working together to bring fugitives like Canela back to the United States to face justice,” said Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “I want to thank the government of Switzerland for its excellent cooperation, as well as the Massachusetts Department of Correction’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Massachusetts State Police, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office and the Essex County District Attorney’s Office.”

Massachusetts Department of Correction Commissioner Carol Higgins O’Brien added, “We extremely pleased with the law enforcement and interagency partnerships that allowed this fugitive to be returned to Massachusetts to serve out the remainder of his sentence.”

Canela, aka Torres, 29, had been a fugitive for six years.

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Boston Mob Wives Reality Show Casting Call

Are you a woman with a personality that pops and a connection to Boston’s criminal underworld?

Boston Mob Wives, a new reality show in production, could be your big break. The first casting call is scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. on Sunday, February 22 at the Four Points Sheraton in Revere.

Henry “Nacho” Laun, Jenna DeRose, and Timothy Baker are looking to cast the new Boston-based reality show. Laun is a former member of Mark Wahlberg’s original real-life entourage. He has had bit parts in numerous Wahlberg films, including The Departed, The Fighter, Ted, and Ted 2. He plays himself on Wahlburgers.

DeRose is a mom of two who lives in Revere. Her husband, Timothy Baker, is also involved in the project.

The original Mob Wives series first aired on VH1 in 2011, but DeRose wasn’t a fan of the original. “I was disgusted. They don’t act classy. The women I know from Boston who have ties to the mob act way classier than that,” she said.

So, what does it take to become a cast member of Boston Mob Wives? You don’t need to have a current connection to organized crime in Boston, nor do you need to be a wife, DeRose told Boston.com.

“If their personality pops and they have mob ties from the past—their grandfather or great uncle—that works,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to think it’s about the mob that’s going on now. It’s about peoples stories from the past.”

DeRose said the people she grew up with who were involved in organized crime were “good guys just trying to make a living.”

“When you say ‘mafia’ to me I think of guys trying to protect their city,” DeRose said. “If they left the mafia alone, Boston would be a safer city.”

DeRose made several claims to her mob pedigree. “Whitey [Bulger] actually taught me how to ride a bike. I grew up around this,” she said.

Bulger was convicted in November 2013 for multiple murders, drug trafficking, racketeering and other charges.

DeRose also told Boston.com she’s the niece of Bernard “Bennie” Zinna, was involved in organized crime.

Zinna was charged in the 1966 gangland murder of boxer Rocco DiSeglio, but was later acquitted. In 1969, he died after being shot multiple times in his Cadillac. His body was found in Revere, just two miles from where the casting call is set to take place.

Would the producers be open to casting someone who is married to an individual who is currently active in organized crime? The answer is yes, according to DeRose, who explained that if the “wife” was discussing a “current situation,” producers would have to shield the identity of the “husband.”

“His name would have to be Joe Black or something.”

Presumably Bitey Wulger could also work.

Thanks to Hilary Sargent.

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Catholic Priest Pleads Guilty to Passing Messages for Convicted Mob Hit Man Frank Calabrese Sr.

In a case that reads like a movie script, a Catholic priest on Wednesday pleaded guilty to trying to help a convicted mob hitman recover a purported Stradivarius violin hidden in the wall of a house.

Eugene Klein, who had been a federal prison chaplain, admitted to conspiring in 2011 to defraud the United States by passing messages from mobster Frank Calabrese to an unnamed associate on how to get the violin out of Calabrese`s Wisconsin home.

If found and authenticated as made by 18th-century instrument maker Antonio Stradivari, such a violin would have been worth millions of dollars. Calabrese had also claimed the violin had once been owned by pianist Liberace, according to local media accounts.

Calabrese, also known as "Frankie Breeze," was serving a life sentence at the federal prison in Springfield, Missouri, in connection with more than a dozen gangland slayings.

Federal authorities were selling his property to compensate the families of victims, and he wanted the violin recovered before the house was sold, court documents said.

Klein, 66, had been permitted to meet with Calabrese regularly to provide religious ministries, like giving communion. He knew that he was not supposed to pass messages to and from Calabrese, prosecutors said. But Klein agreed to be a messenger, the plea agreement said. The communications included a letter concealed in religious reading materials and passed to Klein through a slot in the door of Calabrese`s prison cell, the plea agreement said.

The letter had instructions on how to find the violin, and how to get into the home. Klein didn`t turn over the letter but admitted to telling the unnamed person what it said.

Federal authorities had found paperwork about a 1764 violin in another of Calabrese`s homes. A certificate describing the violin bore an emblem with the word "Stradivari," but it said the violin was made by Giuseppe Antonio Artalli, court documents said.

No violin was found.

Thomas Durkin, Klein`s attorney, questioned whether the violin ever even existed, and he compared the hunt for it to "looking for a unicorn," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Durkin was not immediately available for comment.

Klein, of Springfield, Missouri, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on June 23.

Calabrese died in prison in 2012.

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CBS Newsman Bob Simon's Forty Days

In Forty Days, the late celebrated CBS newsman, Bob Simon, recalls the trauma of the forty days he spent in an Iraqi prison during the Persian Gulf War and reveals how he relied on the memories of his life and family to pull him through.

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Will @MSNBC Suspend @TheRevAl Over Purported Lies Related to Work as a FBI Mafia Informant?

With its swift and severe punishment of Brian Williams, NBCUniversal declared yesterday that it will not stand for on-air talent lying to viewers.

Now that the media conglomerate has delineated that bright line, when does the Rev. Al Sharpton’s suspension without pay begin?

In the wake of last year’s lengthy TSG report about Sharpton’s secret work as a paid FBI Mafia informant, the MSNBC host sought to blunt the story’s disclosures with a series of lies told at a pair of press conferences, on his nightly “Politics Nation” program, and in a report on Williams’s own NBC Nightly News (which was rebroadcast on NBC's Today show).

Sharpton, 60, cast himself as a victim who first ran into the FBI’s warm embrace when a scary gangster purportedly threatened his life. He was “an American citizen with every right to call law enforcement” for protection, Sharpton told his MSNBC audience. His sole motivation was to “try to protect myself and others.”

He needed the FBI’s help, Sharpton claimed, because his relentless advocacy on behalf of African-American concert promoters had angered wiseguys with hooks in the music business. “I did the right thing working with the authorities,” Sharpton assured viewers. As for being branded an informant, that was a label for others to worry about. “I didn’t consider myself, quote, an informant. Wasn’t told I was that,” said Sharpton.

These claims, broadcast by NBCUniversal, were demonstrably false.

Sharpton was, again, lying about when, how, and why he became a government informant. This historical rewrite was intended to cast his cooperation in the most favorable--even heroic--light possible. The true story, however, was grimier and far less commendable.

Sharpton was once an organized crime associate who got caught up in an FBI sting and immediately agreed to join Team America to stay out of prison. The street-smart preacher’s decision to become an informant was borne out of fear and a desire for self preservation, a calculus not unique when someone is cornered by men with badges.

Now, if NBCUniversal cared to examine the televised claims Sharpton has made about his work as an informant, the company’s newly formed internal affairs division could review hundreds of pages of FBI documents chronicling Sharpton’s work as “CI-7,” short for confidential informant #7, and they could track down members of the FBI-NYPD organized crime task force for which Sharpton surreptitiously recorded his meetings with gangsters. And company brass would certainly want to review the first story to expose Sharpton as a snitch, a January 1998 Newsday piece authored by a Murderers Row of reporters: Bob Drury, Robert Kessler, Mike McAlary, and Richard Esposito. If that last guy’s name rings a bell, well, it is probably because Esposito--now senior executive producer of NBC's investigative unit--is heading the network’s review of Williams’s Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina claims.

Could there be a better man to head the Sharpton Task Force? Luckily, Esposito’s memories of Sharpton’s FBI activities remain clear, as evidenced by a article (“Rev. Al Sharpton and Me”) he wrote for the NBC News web site the day after TSG published its Sharpton story last April.

As detailed by TSG and Esposito and his Newsday colleaugues, Sharpton agreed to become an informant after he was secretly videotaped discussing a possible cocaine deal with an undercover FBI agent.

Sharpton was “flipped” on a Thursday afternoon in June 1983 when he showed up at a Manhattan apartment expecting to meet with a former South American druglord seeking to launder money through boxing promotions (like those handled by Sharpton pal Don King). The role of "druglord" was played by undercover FBI Agent Victor Quintana.

After Sharpton entered the apartment, FBI Agents Joseph Spinelli and Kenneth Mikionis emerged from the bedroom. They then played Sharpton a videotape of a prior meeting with Quintana during which cocaine was a topic of conversation. While the agents were unsure whether Sharpton had said enough to warrant a criminal prosecution, the civil rights activist had no doubt he was in trouble. Sharpton agreed on the spot to begin working as an informant.

The following day, at Spinelli’s direction, Sharpton recorded the first of several conversations with King, a major FBI target. Sharpton, of course, has repeatedly lied when asked whether he made such consensual recordings for his FBI handlers.

Over the next several years, Sharpton worked with FBI agents and NYPD detectives as they put together criminal cases against leaders of the Genovese organized crime family. For example, he used a briefcase outfitted with a hidden recording device to tape ten meetings with a Gambino crime family figure named Joseph Buonanno.

In sealed court filings, federal investigators lauded “CI-7” as a reliable, productive, and accurate source of information about mobsters. The FBI noted that its informant gathered information about La Cosa Nostra matters through his contact with members of four of New York’s five mob families and via “conversations with LCN members from other parts of the United States.”

About nine months into his work as an informant, Sharpton was purportedly threatened by Salvatore Pisello, a mob associate affiliated with MCA Records in Los Angeles. Pisello, Sharpton claimed in his autobiography, Go and Tell Pharaoh, was angry that the activist was agitating to have African-American promoters included in the “Victory Tour” starring Michael Jackson and his brothers. Presumably, such involvement by these promoters would have cut into Pisello’s piece of the lucrative tour.

The reported threat, however, amounted to nothing but talk. Sharpton, however, has cast the incident--for which he is the sole witness--as the motivation for him approaching FBI agents for some federal succor.

While Sharpton’s sleight of hand when it comes to matters temporal and factual is well established, he chose to boldly use the airwaves of NBCUniversal--his employer--to broadcast lies about his tawdry past.

Unlike Williams, however, viewers should not expect an apology--even a mangled one at that--from Sharpton.

Thanks to TSG.

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