Lucinda F. Boyd's Blog – July 2010 Archive (38)

PONTIAC, Mich. -- A Detroit-area woman who pleaded guilty to having sex with the biological son she gave up for adoption and later tracked down on the Internet has been sentenced nine years to 30 years in prison.

Thirty-six-year-old Aimee L. Sword of Waterford Township apologized at her sentencing Monday in Oakland County Circuit Court. She had pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree…

LOS ANGELES

Three men whose arrests led to the discovery of hundreds of pounds of marijuana in a railroad tanker car have been charged with drug possession in Los Angeles.

The district attorney's office says 28-year-old Jesse Lopez, 18-year-old Justin Coffey and 19-year-old Kristopher Maldonado were each charged Tuesday with two…

The Detroit News

July 12: Police remove a child from a home in Highland Park, Mich., where a woman reportedly held her 3-year-old grandson hostage for several hours.

HIGHLAND PARK, Mich.

Police in the small Detroit enclave of Highland Park are investigating what a neighbor described as the bloody ax…

PHILADELPHIA - July 13, 2010 -- Three Philadelphia police officers plotted with drug dealers and staged a traffic stop and drug seizure in a scheme to steal $15,000 worth of heroin from a supplier and sell the drug, federal authorities charged.

Officers Mark Williams, James Venziale and Robert Snyder were named in a 14-count indictment announced Tuesday, along with Snyder's wife and three suspected drug dealers. The plan went awry…

COLUMBUS - Efforts to stop gang violence in Ohio's youth prisons are ineffective and three facilities remain unacceptably dangerous places for young people, according to a new report.

While the Department of Youth Services has tried to fix the problem, the agency is also guilty of "a widespread and somewhat misguided belief that gang violence may no longer be a significant problem," the report released late Wednesday said.

"The time has come for a different approach to gang…

A two-week federal investigation in Gallatin County ended Friday with the arrest of 10 Mexican-born men, seven of whom are associated with a…

Lawrence White's image as street-hardened rapper has served him well, but it remains a point of contention in the trial to determine his inclusion in a gang injunction in his native Colton.

In closing briefs filed late last month, the San Bernardino County district attorney's office argues that White -- as "40 Glocc" -- consistently flaunts his membership in Colton City Crips, supporting police and…

MEXICO CITY – The drug-cartel enforcer told an unsettling story: A woman who worked in the Mexican border's biggest U.S. consulate had helped a …

Police trampled over the scene where one man was killed - in front of his young family

Mexico's Ciudad Juarez is one of the world's most dangerous cities, plagued by battles between drug gangs. A BBC team witnessed its violence at first hand on a police patrol, as Ian Sherwood reports.

The sun sets early now that winter is approaching. It is nearly 1800 and Ciudad Juarez has already descended into darkness.

We drive up to Estacion Delicias…

They decapitate, torture, and extort. Then they pray, and donate to charity.

The "Familia" cartel is perhaps the most extreme example of the paradoxical enemy which Mexico faces as it tries to defeat organised crime.

It is a fight which would be much easier if the cartels were simply maverick gangs on the fringe of society.

But they are, in many areas, part of society.

"La Familia was originally a social structure. And in many ways it still is," says a…

Mexican drug gangs have expanded their activities in the US with heroin production doubling in 2008, the US justice department says in a report.

Despite US funding for the war on drugs, trade in marijuana, ecstasy and methamphetamine also grew, the National Drug Threat Assessment said.

The report found that Mexican groups were active in every region of the US.

Gangs were moving an estimated $40bn (£27bn) in cash back into Mexico across the border…

A clash between rival gangs in a prison in Mexico's north-western state of Sinaloa has left 29 inmates dead.

The killings brought the number of dead on another day of apparent drug-related violence to more than 40.

In the western state of Michoacan, 12 police officers died in an ambush by suspected drug cartel gunmen.

Michoacan and Sinaloa are home to rival drug gangs that are fighting turf wars and battling security forces.

Officials said 18…

The Police Department’s gang squad, which has come under fire for its treatment of Detroit residents, is being reduced

The Gang Enforcement Unit from…

The Police Department’s gang squad, which has come under fire for its treatment of Detroit residents, is being reduced

The Gang Enforcement Unit from…

While the Department of Youth Services has tried to fix the problem, the agency is also guilty of "a widespread and somewhat misguided belief that gang violence may no longer be a significant problem," the report released late Wednesday said.

"The time has come for a different approach to gang…