By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Four people accused of plotting to murder a DEA task force officer were indicted by a Texas grand jury on Wednesday.

Those charged with conspiracy to use interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire were Manual Garcia Gomez, 22; Jorge Humberto Velazco Larios, 27; Eva Denisse Gomez Garcia, 38; and Alicia Yuritzi Juarez Martinez, 31, NBCDFW-5 reports.

Larios and Gomez have been arrested, while Garcia and Martinez are still in the loose, believed to be in Mexico.

“The Dallas Violent Crime Task Force is dedicated to protecting our citizens. This includes ensuring the safety of our law enforcement partners,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno. “The defendants wanted to harm a DEA task force officer and that is unacceptable. Fortunately, we were able to prevent a dangerous act from occurring and successfully apprehend a group of violent criminals.”

The defendants face up to 10 years in prison.

Brandon Cory Lecroy

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

A white South Carolina man wanted to hire someone to kill and hang his black neighbor and then place a “flaming cross” in his yard.

Little did he know, the man he tried to hire turned out to be an undercover FBI agent, according tot he U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The Slate reports that Brandon Cory Lecroy, 25, was  charged with solicitation to commit a crime of violence and use of interstate commerce facilities int he commission of murder-for-hire.

Police said the Greenwood County man found the undercover agent through a white supremacist group and offered $500 for the murder.

Lecroy told the agent he wanted “hang his neighbor from a tree” and have a “burning cross” staked in the front yard. Authorities said Lecroy even advised the agent of the best time to murder his neighbor and offered money for future murders.

Lecroy, who was arrested after he provided a $100 down payment to murder his neighbor, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A former Laguna Beach man who tried to arrange for the kidnapping and murder of a judge, two prosecutors and a pair of FBI agents was convicted Tuesday.

John Arthur Walthall, 60, was convicted of soliciting the murders after a judge earlier sentenced him to 14 years in prison for fraud, MyNewsLA.com reports.

Prosecutors said he wanted someone to kill U.S District Judge Andrew Guilford, two prosecutors and a pair of FBI agents who helped in the case.

Walthall is accused of spilling his plans to inmates and an undercover FBI agent.

Brenda Delgado, 33.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A 33-year-old Dallas woman who disappeared after authorities said she arranged the murder of a dentist who was dating her ex-boyfriend has been added to the FBI’s Most Wanted list, the Dallas Morning News reports. 

Brenda Delgado, who was indicted on capital murder charges, is accused of giving Kristopher Ledell Love drugs and money in exchange for killing Kendra Hatcher on Sept. 2. A drug cartel allegedly helped provide the money and drugs.

Authorities said Delgado was motivated by jealousy of Hatcher, who was dating Delgado’s ex-boyfriend.

Love was arrested and faces a state capital murder charge and a federal weapons charge.

By Danny Fenster

A six-year sentence was handed down to  Santa Barbara County, Calif., resident Eugene Darryl Temkin, 51, who solicited an FBI informant posing as a “hitman” to murder several individuals, the FBI announced on Monday.

A judge found Temkin guilty of soliciting a crime in violence, attempting to interfere with interstate commerce by threats and violence, and using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of a murder-for-hire after a bench trial in August, according to the FBI. The marks for the hitmen included Temkin’s wife, a former business partner of his and a Bel-Air man.

“The evidence showed that defendant engaged in criminal conduct of the worst sort: With meticulous planning and full contemplation, defendant agreed to pay a hitman, ‘Pavel’ [who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer], to brutally kill in cold blood three people, two of whom he barely knew,” prosecutors said in court documents. “What is more, these killings were only to take place after ‘Pavel’ first tortured the victims in order to force them to pay $15 million into defendant’s off-shore bank account.”

A source told law enforcement officials about Temkin’s plans to hire a hitman in late 2009 to kill his former business partner, which began the investigation. Over several months agents posing as professional killers met with Temkin, discussing plans and deals. Temkin told the “hitmen” the former business partner should pay him $15 million in compensation for losses he believes he sustained in a failed business plan to open a casino in Africa.

Temkin even discussed with the undercover agents particular forms of torture, murder and rape which would be likely to get the victims to pay the fees. Temkin had been threatening and harassing the victims for almost a decade before meeting with potential hitmen.

These cases all seem to follow scripts right out of television crime shows. In this case, like many others, the person hired a hitman who just happened to be a cooperating federal witness. Soon to be on Law and Order.

By George Anastasia
Inquirer Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA — A South Philadelphia mortgage broker was ordered held without bail yesterday on murder-for-hire charges as prosecutors revealed that the man he allegedly attempted to hire was a cooperating federal witness who secretly recorded several conversations in which the murder plot was discussed.

“Make it look like a robbery,” Mahn Huu “Bruce” Doan said, according to a partial transcript in a pretrial motion filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine E. Sykes.

“Do whatever you think is best in your mind where it don’t bring back heat,” Doan allegedly added during the conversation recorded May 1 at his business office in the Econo Lodge Airport Hotel in South Philadelphia.

Prosecutors allege that Doan wanted a hit man to kill two individuals and maim a third. While authorities have not identified the targets, sources familiar with the investigation said one was a Center City lawyer and the others were plaintiffs the lawyer represented in a civil suit against Doan.

For Full Story

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