Griselda Blanco
dadeland mall killings

The beginning of the miami cocaine wars.
The notorious shooting spree occurred on July 11, 1979, and branded Miami one of the most violent cities in the United States.

It happened when two men in a white Mercedes-Benz and two other men in a white Ford van pulled up to the Crown Liquor store at the Dadeland Mall in Miami. Police have theorized that the two men in the van with the ``Happy Time Party Supply`` logo were enforcers for Griselda Blanco, boss of a Medellin drug cartel.

After a bloody shootout that left mall shoppers terrified, the two men from the Mercedes lay dead in the liquor store; the liquor-store clerk lay wounded outside.

``These guys are as ruthless as anybody would ever run across,`` Singleton said of three suspects -- Guillermo Velasquez, Jorge Ayala and Alonso Ayala. ``These guys are the epitome of the cocaine cowboys back in the late `70s and early `80s.``

Police think the three men were paid enforcers for Blanco, also known as La Madrina, or The Godmother. Blanco, who is now in a federal prison, headed one of Colombia`s most powerful drug families.

Russian Mob,California
Kidnapping, murders of 5 russian emigres.

Jurijus Kadamovas (1966-) and Iouri Mikhel (1965-) are two Russian immigrants to the United States currently on Federal death row for 5 kidnapping for ransom related murders. The kidnappings occurred over a four-month period beginning in late 2001, in which the kidnappers demanded ransom. Documents related to the case allege the crew demanded a total of more than $5.5 million from relatives and associates, and received more than $1 million from victim's relatives.

Prosecutors said the victims were killed regardless of whether the ransoms were paid. The bodies were tied with weights, and dumped in a reservoir near Yosemite National Park. Federal prosecutors sought the death penalty under murder during a hostage-taking, (18 U.S.C. 1203), a federal crime.

On March 12, 2007 Kadamovas and Mikhel were sentenced to death.

LOS ANGELES — The discovery was chilling: five bodies dumped in a scenic reservoir in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

Four of the corpses, held down with gym weights, were so deeply submerged that police divers had to use a robotic vehicle to recover them. The other body had floated to the surface earlier when its weights slipped off.

Ainar Altmanis, the man who led investigators to the submerged bodies, was sentenced Wednesday to 23 years and 4 months in federal prison.

His sentencing marks the end of a six-year probe into the killings of four wealthy Russian immigrants and a U.S. businessman in late 2001 and early 2002. All were kidnapped for ransom and killed, investigators said.

Altmanis is the sixth person sentenced in the case; two received the death penalty.

The 48-year-old Latvian citizen pleaded guilty to three counts of hostage-taking resulting in death and one conspiracy charge.

"I got totally confused in this life," he said in Russian through a court translator while looking at family members of the victims. "The life of the person I have become, I do not want it. Please forgive me."

Altmanis, who illegally immigrated to the U.S. in 1991, wept and apologized repeatedly at the sentencing.

"This man should suffer more than my son," said Ruven Umansky, the father of victim Alexander Umansky. "He should stay in prison the rest of his life."

In addition to Umansky, the victims were real estate developer Meyer Muscatel; Russian banking mogul George Safiev; Safiev's accountant Rita Pekler; and Safiev's business partner Nick Kharabadze.

All were killed even though their families and friends gave the kidnappers a total of $1.2 million. Prosecutors said the kidnappers used much of the money to buy new vehicles and mink coats for their girlfriends.