Missouri National Guard soldiers and airmen were still on "alert" Saturday afternoon to "avoid wearing a military uniform in public" because of a "direct threat" in retaliation to a gang-related shooting around Fort Sill, Okla., earlier in the week. The cautionary warning was issued Friday. According to an internal memo leaked to the Columbia Missourian, "soldiers ... shot Crips gang members; in retaliation Crips has asked its members to shoot any soldiers on sight." MoreStory Related Articles Oklahoma shooting leads gang to threaten Missouri National Guard According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Crips is a collection of gangs throughout the U.S. with an estimated membership between 30,000 and 35,000 operating out of 221 cities in 41 states. Missouri is one of those states. Lt. Col. Levon E. Cumpton, who issued the memo, said the message "came out through Army channels"; Fort Sill is an Army base in Lawton, Okla. He called the action a "precautionary measure." According to Cumpton's memo, National Guard troops were instructed not to "wear a military uniform out for evening dining, shopping, and other personal matters." Full-time members were cautioned to "consider commuting to/from work in civilian clothes — specifically, if they need to make personal stops between home and work." Spokesmen for the Missouri National Guard and Fort Sill declined to elaborate on the incident, saying the investigation is in the hands of the Lawton, Okla., Police Department. Yet as of Saturday afternoon, "the alert has not been rescinded," said Maj. Tammy Spicer, the public affairs officer for the Missouri National Guard. The decision to call off the alert will come from the Joint Operations Center in Jefferson City. "As far as we know, and even the Lawton Police Department know," the gang’s threat is "just an unsubstantiated rumor," said Fort Sill Public Affairs Officer Keith Pannell during a phone call late Friday night. KSWO-TV 7 News in Lawton reported two Air Force bases in Oklahoma, Tinker and Altus, issued similar orders to enlisted soldiers. The Altus Air Force Base Facebook page commented Friday night on receiving "information on a criminal threat to military members in the Lawton-Fort Sill area." The incident that sparked the direct threat seems to be tied to a "brutal” home invasion in Lawton earlier in the week, with the four main suspects in the invasion being Fort Sill soldiers. They are believed to be responsible for shooting four people and injuring two others early Tuesday morning who, according to rumors circulating in the city, were gang members with ties to the Crips. The Missourian was unable to reach the chief of police who is handling the case.
Despite intense security for a national meeting of Mexico's state prosecutors and tough talk from top cops, criminals dumped more bodies in Veracruz three days after gunmen left 35 corpses on a major avenue during rush hour. An official said Friday that police found 11 bodies around town Thursday, even as this Gulf of Mexico port city ramped up security for the prosecutors meeting by deploying hundreds of soldiers, sailors and police on the streets. It was unclear who left the most recent group of bodies. Officials believe the New Generation gang was behind the dumping of 35 bodies Tuesday on a busy street just a half-mile (kilometer) from the convention hall as a grim message to the Zetas drug cartel, which dominates the region. Authorities had established a security perimeter around the metropolitan area, with soldiers in trucks stopping people in town they considered suspicious. The prosecutors meeting was Thursday and Friday. Residents in Veracruz said this week's horrors had only deepened the fear scaring visitors away from the tourist destination and keeping some residents at home at night. In August, panicked parents rushed to fetch their children from Veracruz schools after a couple posted Twitter messages warning of nonexistent drug cartel attacks on banks and schools.
Two brazen, targeted shootings of known British Columbia gangsters in less than a month may be the kindling that sparks renewed gang warfare in the Lower Mainland, say police. The officer who heads the province's gangs task force issued an "unusual" alert Tuesday to anyone with links to two notorious crime families after a known gangster was shot and wounded last week in Surrey, B.C. Supt. Tom McCluskie told reporters both that incident and the high-profile slaying of Red Scorpions' gang boss Jonathan Bacon in August amount to a high expectation by his 80 investigators that more attacks are on the way. "We're anticipating retaliatory violence, yes," he said at a news conference held at an office of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit in Delta, B.C. "I'm not trying to instill fear in the citizens, but certainly there's enough tension in there that we're concerned there will be a retaliation, that there will be further violence." The 24-year-old man shot in his car on Friday was a known member of the Dhak crime group, which police say runs an illegal drug ring throughout the Lower Mainland. One member of that family, Gurmit Dhak, was shot dead in his BMW at a suburban Burnaby mall last October, in another scenario police said was planned. Anyone with ties to either the Dhak or Duhre crime families are currently believed to be in heightened danger, and hanging around with such people could result in peril, McCluskie said. He said he's especially concerned for the members' girl friends and those who are simply connected on the social scene. Members of both groups have been linked to criminal activity on numerous occasions by police in B.C. in the past. While the public is not the intended target, McCluskie said, there's no telling where or when the tension will flare up again as gang rivalries rear their ugly head. It means bystanders could even get caught in the crossfire, he said. Thirty-year-old Bacon was shot to death outside a posh hotel in Kelowna. The gunfire that put the latest gangster in hospital broke out on a city street. "It's the fact these guys don't care where it is, they have no regard whatsoever for the general public," McCluskie said. Officers are examining the possibility the two incidents are directly linked, although at this point it's too early to draw conclusions, he said. "As of right now we haven't made any confirmed connection." The news conference is the most vocal and direct police have been in declaring expectations around the possibility of more bloodshed since Bacon died. Tit-for-tat clashes became a weekly occurrence for several months back in 2009, as turf battles played out in the Lower Mainland. There were at least four dozen shootings that year in the Vancouver area alone. Tensions were reduced to simmering, however, as police changed their strategy, made arrests of prominent players and conducted more behind-the-scenes enforcement. Police say alarm bells went off for many dealing with the organized crime world when Bacon was unexpectedly taken out. A full-patch member of the Hells Angels and another alleged gang member were hit by the mid-day volley of gunfire on Aug. 14, while two others accompanying them in a luxury SUV were also wounded. McCluskie said he's "pleased" with how his team is progressing in that investigation, but couldn't say when any arrests may be made. McCluskie wouldn't give any details about the new "intelligence" his team has gathered suggesting people tied to the two families are in danger, in order to protect the investigation. He said officers have already conducted several "duty-to-warns," telling known gang members they have reason to believe they might be next. "I'm not confident it reaches all those individuals, I'm hopeful," he said, noting he's less concerned about giving the groups credence by putting out the warning than letting the public know the risks. "Quite often the gangs don't listen to us very well."
Suspected drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at rush hour beneath a busy overpass in the heart of a major Gulf coast city as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened drivers. Mexican authorities said Wednesday they are examining surveillance video for clues to who committed the crime. Horrified motorists grabbed cell phones and sent Twitter messages warning others to avoid the area near the biggest shopping mall in Boca del Rio, part of the metropolitan area of Veracruz city. The gruesome gesture marked a sharp escalation in cartel violence in Veracruz state, which sits on an important route for drugs and Central American migrants heading north. The Zetas drug cartel has been battling other gangs for control of the state. Prosecutors said it's too soon to draw conclusions from the surveillance video. "We're not going to confirm or deny anything," Veracruz state Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez told the Televisa network Wednesday. "We're looking at it in different ways, we're seeing different numbers, that's why we don't want to get ahead of ourselves." Escobar said the bodies were left piled in two trucks and on the ground under the overpass near the statue of the Voladores de Papantla, ritual dancers from Veracruz state. He said some of the victims had their heads covered with black plastic bags and showed signs of torture. Police had identified seven of the victims so far and all had criminal records for murder, drug dealing, kidnapping and extortion and were linked to organized crime, Escobar said. Motorists posted Twitter warnings said the masked gunmen were in military uniforms and were blocking Manuel Avila Camacho Boulevard. "They don't seem to be soldiers or police," one tweet read. Another said, "Don't go through that area, there is danger." Veracruz is currently hosting a conference of Mexico's top state and federal prosecutors and judiciary officials. Local media said that 12 of the victims were women and that some of the dead men had been among prisoners who escaped from three Veracruz prisons on Monday, but Escobar denied the escaped convicts were among the dead. At least 32 inmates got away from the three Veracruz prisons. Police recaptured 14 of them. Drug violence has claimed more than 35,000 lives across Mexico since 2006, according to government figures. Others put the number at more than 40,000.