Latest Organized crime News

Haiti police retake control of a police station in the capital that was attacked by gangs

Jul. 02, 2024 10:20 AM EDT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Officers regained control of a police station in Haiti's capital that had been the target of armed gangs in recent months, authorities said Monday. The station in Gressier, located in the western tip of Port-au-Prince, was most recently attacked on...

Haiti's gang violence has displaced 300,000 children, the UN says

Jul. 02, 2024 00:05 AM EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Gang violence in Haiti has displaced more than 300,000 children since March, the U.N. children's agency said Tuesday as the Caribbean country struggles to curb killings and kidnappings. Children are more than half of the nearly 580,000 people who have...

2 killed, 5 injured in gang-related shooting in Southern California's high desert, authorities say

Jun. 27, 2024 13:08 PM EDT

LANCASTER, Calif. (AP) — Two people were killed and five others injured during a gang-related shooting in Southern California's high desert, authorities said. Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were called to the scene in the city of Lancaster, about 42 miles (68 kilometers)...

Haitians hold their breath as newly arrived Kenyan police force prepares to face gangs

Jun. 26, 2024 17:03 PM EDT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Anticipation is mingling with fear across Haiti as the country welcomes the fourth major foreign intervention in its history to fight gang violence choking the Caribbean country. A couple hundred police officers from Kenya met early Wednesday with Prime...

Gunfire, lawlessness and gang-like looters are preventing aid distribution in Gaza, an official says

Jun. 26, 2024 11:14 AM EDT

LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) — Thousands of tons of food, medicines and other aid piled up on a beach in war-torn Gaza is not reaching those in need because of a dire security situation and lawlessness on the ground, a U.S. aid official said Wednesday. Truck drivers are getting caught in...

ICC convicts al-Qaida-linked leader of abusing prisoners in Mali

Jun. 26, 2024 10:18 AM EDT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court on Wednesday convicted an al-Qaida-linked extremist leader of the religious persecution and torture of prisoners in Mali in 2012-13 when he headed the Islamic police in the historic desert city of Timbuktu. Al Hassan...

US ambassador visits conflict-ridden Mexican state to expedite avocado inspections

Jun. 25, 2024 04:40 AM EDT

MORELIA, Mexico (AP) — United States Ambassador Ken Salazar praised Mexico’s effort protect American agricultural inspectors in the conflict-ridden state of Michoacan on Monday, a week after the U.S. suspended avocado and mango inspections following an attack on inspectors. ...

US judge sentences Germine Joly, former leader of a powerful gang in Haiti, to 35 years in prison

Jun. 24, 2024 19:46 PM EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A man who once described himself as “king” of a notoriously violent gang in Haiti and is linked to the kidnapping of 16 U.S. citizens was sentenced to 35 years in prison Monday in a federal court in Washington, D.C. Germine Joly, best known as...

Pakistani police charge 23 people with being part of a mob that murdered a blasphemy suspect

Jun. 24, 2024 02:47 AM EDT

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Police in Pakistan have arrested 23 people accused of being part of a mob that killed a man suspected of desecrating the Quran, Islam’s holy book, officials said Monday. The suspects were charged with murder and burning a police station in Madyan, a...

US will gradually resume avocado inspections in conflictive Mexican state, ambassador says

Jun. 21, 2024 21:17 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — U.S. government inspections of avocados and mangoes in the Mexican state of Michoacan will gradually resume, U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar announced Friday, a week after they were suspended over an assault on inspectors. The U.S. Agriculture Department inspectors...