2 suspects in Lowell gun theft back in court

2 suspects in Lowell gun theft back in court

By Associated Press  |   Monday, January 10, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

LOWELL -- Two men facing charges in connection with the theft of about 40 guns from a Lowell home are due back in court this week.

George Rodriguez and Miguel Rivera-Otero are scheduled to appear Tuesday for a status hearing.

Both men were arrested last week and ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty to allegedly stealing the cache of weapons and ammunition from a Dublin Street home earlier this month.

Police tell The Sun of Lowell that Rivera-Otero is a former tenant of the home who moved out just days before the theft, and Rodriguez is a neighbor.

The men face various charges including breaking and entering, larceny, and firearms offenses.

Police have recovered some of the guns but are still searching for others.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1308507

READ MORE - 2 suspects in Lowell gun theft back in court

Police: 40 guns stolen from Lowell home

Police: 40 guns stolen from Lowell home

By Associated Press  |   Wednesday, January 5, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

LOWELL - Police say federal and state investigators are trying to figure out who stole about 40 handguns and rifles from a Lowell home.

Police said Tuesday that officers responded to a Dublin Street home Monday afternoon after the owner reported that someone had broken into the cellar in which he stored a vault containing the guns.

Police say the vault had been compromised and the weapons were missing. Most were registered to the home owner.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, state and Lowell police officers are investigating the case.

Investigators are also trying to determine if the gun owner broke state or federal laws.

Police immediately revoked the gun owner’s Massachusetts license to carry a firearm, saying the potential of the missing firearms being used on Lowell streets is disconcerting.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1307418

READ MORE - Police: 40 guns stolen from Lowell home

Sweep busts top gangs of North Shore

Sweep busts top gangs of North Shore
By O’Ryan Johnson  |   Saturday, November 6, 2010  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage

GUN SHOW: Some of the 34 guns seized in a gang bust on the North Shore.
Photo by Patrick Whittemore

A swarm of 500 police officers, state troopers and FBI agents from New England fanned out yesterday across the North Shore, where they rounded up dozens of thugs and seized high-powered firearms in order to stamp out violence in gang-ravaged Lynn and Lowell.

The sweep, dubbed “Operation Melting Pot,” targeted members of several street gangs in Lynn and Lowell responsible for out-of-control violence, including murders of rivals, said U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.

“The people of Lynn deserve a safe community in which to live and raise their children,” she said. “Unfortunately, there are a few individuals, often belonging to violent street gangs, whose illegal activities diminish the quality of life for all.”

Three years ago, an FBI roundup crippled Deuces Wild, the most powerful gang in Lynn, leaving a power vacuum, FBI agent Jeffrey Wood — the man in charge of the agency’s North Shore Gang Task Force — wrote in an affidavit.

“Similar to other experiences, however, the dismantling of the leadership of these gangs eventually emboldened remaining gangs to step into the void,” he added. “The result has been a dramatic increase in gang-related murders, shootings, stabbings and other violence in Lynn.”

Woods’ chilling document details three years of increasing bloodshed, and includes the shooting of a 16-year-old girl, knife fights inside one Lynn school, a gunfight outside another and the shooting of a teenage girl in January whose willingness to testify left her paralyzed by gunfire. Wood states that in September the FBI wire-tapped a hotel room where gang members discussed plans to attack during a baby’s christening.

Standing in front of two folding tables covered end to end with illegal firearms, police chiefs Kenneth Lavallee from Lowell and Kevin Coppinger from Lynn said the arrests and seizures take dangerous tools away from reckless criminals who have the potential to inflict untold tragedies upon their neighborhoods.

“Every time we can take a gun off the street, we prevent a potential tragedy, we prevent a potential death,” Lavallee said.

The operation targeting several warring gangs has lasted the past 18 months and has resulted in 61 arrests. Yesterday the leadership of those gangs were hauled away, which Coppinger said will send a powerful message to any gangbangers in Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Haverhill and Chelsea.

“If you think you can come into our communities, we will target you,” he said. “We will follow you, build cases against you and prosecute you to the full extent of the law.”

The investigation was a wide-ranging probe into leaders and members of the Avenue King Crips, the Bloods, the Gangsta Disciples, the Deuce Boyz and the Latin Kings in Lynn and Lowell. Coppinger said while the gangs may carry the names of nationally recognized gangs, they are at best loosely affiliated.

“They aren’t taking orders from L.A.,” he said, though he added with the massive firepower they wielded, they were no less deadly.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1294383

READ MORE - Sweep busts top gangs of North Shore