Tag: Organized Crime
Lu Jianwang, Operating an Unlawful Agency, New York 2025
⏱ 2 min read A Bronx man, Lu Jianwang, also known as ‘Harry Lu’, has been convicted of operating a secret police station in lower Manhattan for the Chinese government. The station, run by the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Public Security, targeted Chinese dissidents in the US. Lu, a US citizen, was found…
Russell L. Spencer, Jr., PCP Distribution Conspiracy, Missouri 2026
⏱ 2 min read A high-ranking member of a PCP trafficking organization has been convicted in federal court after a lengthy investigation and trial in Kansas City. Russell L. Spencer, Jr., 47, was found guilty of conspiring to distribute more than a kilogram of PCP in the Kansas City area. According to investigators, Spencer spent…
James Pavlounis, Social Security Fraud, California 2018
New Rochelle con man James Pavlounis is trading in car keys for prison bars after being sentenced to 37 months behind bars for a brazen, decade-long scheme to defraud the Social Security system and evade taxes. The 53-year-old owner of Select Parking Systems wasn’t just providing a service; he was running a sophisticated operation built…
Yúnior Benavides, Drug Trafficking, Connecticut 2026
West Hartford, CT – A convicted drug trafficker, once run out of the country, is back in federal custody after a routine traffic stop exposed his illegal reentry. Yúnior Benavides, 49, a Dominican national, now faces years behind bars after federal agents caught him driving on March 6, 2026, revealing a blatant disregard for a…
Mikal McCracken, Armed Carjacking, Pennsylvania 2022
Philadelphia streets ran red with fear for over two years as a ruthless crew of carjackers terrorized drivers, leaving a trail of shattered glass, bullet holes, and one dead Marine in their wake. Now, five members of that crew are staring down the barrel of life sentences after a federal jury delivered guilty verdicts on…
Mikal McCracken, Armed Carjacking, Pennsylvania 2022
⏱ 2 min read PHILADELPHIA – A crew of Philly stick-up artists is facing serious time after a federal jury slammed them with convictions for a brutal carjacking racket that left at least one man dead and another targeted for silencing. U.S. Attorney David Metcalf announced the guilty verdicts today, capping a case built on…
Philly Carjacking Crew Guilty: Murder & 29+ Robberies
⏱ 2 min read RELATED: Philly Guard Admits Pepper-Spray Rampage SEE ALSO: Billings Man Gets 4 Years for Gunpoint Threat PHILADELPHIA – A five-man crew faces decades in prison after a federal jury slammed them with convictions in a terrifying wave of armed carjackings that stretched across the city and ended in two deaths. The…
Rafael Enrique Gámez Salas, Murder, California 2024
A notorious leader of the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua (TdA) is off the streets, but not before a calculated attempt to vanish within the US prison system. Rafael Enrique Gámez Salas, 40, was taken into custody by US Marshals Wednesday following the completion of a federal sentence in San Bernardino County, California. He’s…
Joseph Amato, Racketeering, New York NY, 2023
Get the latest on the sentencing of six Genovese Organized Crime Family defendants for racketeering. Learn about their charges and the sentences they received.
Shannell Gosine, Cocaine Transporter, New York 2023
Buffalo, NY – Shannell Gosine, a 28-year-old Houston woman, confessed in federal court today to her role as a key transporter in a sprawling cocaine distribution network that stretched from the Mexican border to the streets of Buffalo. Gosine wasn’t just making deliveries; she was a vital link, hauling multi-kilo loads of cocaine north while…
