Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Miller identified Eric Sherron Coats as the leader of the Cut Throat gang in court Thursday.Coats was detained without bond Thursday in the central division of the U.S. Court for the Western District of Missouri in Jefferson City.Magistrate Judge William A. Knox ruled to detain the suspected leaderalong with co-defendant Tarron Montez Cason, 25, without bond until trial, scheduled to begin July 20. Both have entered pleas of not guilty on all counts.
Miller said that evidence collected from 60 days of wiretap recordings of Coats' phone led to the identification of Coats, 21, as the leader of the gang. The wiretaps are suspected to have recorded him discussing drugs, rival gangs, gun violence and the drive-by shootings in which Coats and other co-defendants are accused of having participated. Miller stated that this type of call occurred multiple times a day.Coats' attorney, Brian K. Stumpe, said Coats would not be a flight risk if released on bond because he had a chance to flee his house after he was informed that the FBI would be coming to arrest him. Instead, he remained at the house and allowed the FBI to search his home, Stumpe said.Knox granted the prosecution's request to detain Coats despite Stumpe's evidence and letters from Coats' family members, employers and teachers.Coats is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, use of a communications facility to assist in the distribution of illegal substances, possession of a firearm while being addicted to a controlled substance, and involvement in another conspiracy entailing competition with other individuals for drug-trafficking, illegal possession of firearms and firing a gun into a group of two or more people.Wiretaps are also suspected to have recorded Cason talking to Coats about narcotics. Cason has also been convicted of one earlier narcotics felony in Boone County, along with at least 23 misdemeanor convictions, according to Miller. Cason's attorney, Randall England, said Cason could present an alibi defense.
Cason is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and use of a communications facility to aid in the distribution of controlled substances.Coats and Cason are two of the 16 suspected gang members listed in a 34-count indictment. The co-defendants include Coats' mother,Donna C. Coats, and a brother, Koda Alshawn Coats.

Demichael Rashad Jackson, 18, was found guilty of engaging in organized criminal activity — committing aggravated robbery as a gang member — by a jury in 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr.’s court after nearly two hours of deliberation.Tyler gang leader who was out of jail on bond for one charge and on probation for another at the time he robbed five people at gunpoint during a home invasion was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in prison. After learning of his criminal history, which began in 2003, the jury sentenced him to 60 years and a $10,000 fine after more than an hour of deliberation. Jackson, who faced life in prison, will be eligible for parole after 30 years.Jackson, who prosecutors call the "self-proclaimed leader" of the Westside Crips Rolling Sixties gang, busted down the door at 1206 S. Buckley Ave. with two other gang members and pointed a gun at five people, threatening to kill them as he stole their belongings on May 29. As he left the house, Jackson fired his gun at a man standing across the street. He and other gang members pawned and sold some of the items and were found with the rest by police.

The robbery occurred at about 2 a.m. on May 29. At 10 a.m. that same day, Jackson appeared at the Smith County Courthouse and pleaded guilty to assaulting a man. He was allowed to remain out of jail on bond, as he had been, and was told to report to jail in June. At 7 p.m. May 29, Jackson is shown in video surveillance at the Game X Change, wearing one of the robbery victim’s backpacks and pawning stolen video games with other gang members.

Prosecutors played a recording of a phone call from jail in which Jackson was talking to both Ms. Orange and the sister he lived with on Peach Street. During the conversation, the women told him about their “cousin” who broke into a woman’s apartment at Southwest Pines Sunday and was shot in the face by the victim.

Assistant District Attorney Joe Murphy said the Habitat for Humanity house where Jackson lived is now a gang den and riddled with bullet holes from rival gangs.

The detectives say they stumbled upon and thwarted the home invasion involving the "Mexican Mafia" on Wednesday while conducting a probationary search."They were in the right place at the right time," Polk County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Carrie Eleazer said of the detectives.The drug unit detectives initially searched the home at 2011 Gerber Dairy Road for weapons and narcotics. They found methamphetamines and drug paraphernalia, deputies say.As a result, detectives arrested three people who live at the home: Connie Jarvis, 39; Jessica Carden, 26; and Casey Nance, 24. They say they also arrested another person who happened to be at the home, sitting on a couch with a gun on his lap, 27-year-old David Valles of Winter Haven.While the investigation was ongoing, one of the detectives saw a vehicle pull into the home's driveway.The detective approached and saw Manuel Garza, 24, of Wauchula, and Catherine Hale, 22, of Lake Alfred. He determined Garza didn't have a valid driver's license. Hale was found in possession of phentaremine, a controlled substance, deputies say.Hale and Garza were arrested and taken inside the home.As detectives worked on affidavits for the six arrestees, one of the detectives saw a red Dodge Durango come to the home.The detective learned that the driver, 26-year-old Gonzalo Orozlo of Haines City, had a suspended driver's license.Orozlo refused a command to exit the vehicle, so the detective took a key from the ignition and called other detectives for help, according to the release. The four people inside the Dodge were searched, and each had a handgun. Detectives also found cocaine, methamphetamines and $4,230.Dodge passenger Gerardo Moralez, 23, of Haines City, said he and the others had come to the home to commit an armed robbery, detectives say."He further advised that someone who lives at the residence owed drug money to several 'Mexican Mafia' members with whom he is affiliated; that he and the other subjects collect money for the Mexican Mafia in the area; that he has been doing this for three months; that Gonzalo Orozlo is a 'hit man' for the Mexican Mafia; and that Orozlo has bragged about kidnapping and killing people who fail to pay off their drug debts to the Mexican Mafia," the release states. "Moralez had no specific information regarding the people Orozlo had supposedly killed."U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials placed a hold on Orozlo and Dodge passengers Agueda Maldonado and Miguel Flores-Hernandez. The special agent from ICE also agreed to seek federal indictments on all four Dodge passengers for federal firearms offenses, deputies say.Investigators later determined two of the guns found at the scene were reported stolen from Hillsborough County and Winter Haven. One of the guns was in Valles' possession, and the other was in Maldonado's, deputies say.

Fort Pierce Police say community service aide Ebony Baret warned an inmate about an operation against his gang. According to an affidavit, Baret set up three-way calls with the inmate and another gang member to describe the uniforms and cars that officers would be using.She's also accused of helping gang members intimidate witnesses in the inmate's pending trial. Police say Baret had access to all "intelligence and criminal information."Baret's phone calls with the inmate were recorded.Baret was arrested Thursday on charges of obstructing justice and official misconduct. She was released from the St. Lucie County Jail on $10,000 bond.
Jail records did not show any attorney information.

two members of the Hells Angels acquitted of attempted murder in connection with a gunfight in a South Dakota park pleaded guilty today in Rapid City to a federal weapons charge.Chad Wilson of San Diego and John Midmore of Valparaiso, Ind., were earlier found not guilty of attempted murder for their part a 2006 gunfight at Custer State Park that injured five Outlaws Motorcycle Club affiliates.
Wilson is a Canadian citizen who pleaded guilty in federal court to being a non-immigrant alien in possession of a firearm.He's scheduled to be sentenced April 21.Midmore pleaded guilty Wednesday in Sioux Falls to having cocaine in his system and received credit for the 27 months he served in jail.Prosecutors have dropped a charge of conspiracy to commit murder against both men.

Pedestrians run for cover after an apparent gang shooting in broad daylight in a Yakima neighborhood.About 20 people heard or saw the shooting. Just one person was shot, a 17 year old male teen.School let out early Wednesday, so there were a lot of witnesses, including some children. Fortunately, no one else was hit.Two cars pulled up to the intersection of Sixth Ave. and Cherry Ave. Police say someone in a black car fired at the people who were in a silver car.The driver was hit once in the side. Police said there was one other passenger in the car. He ran once it crashed into a telephone pole at Sixth and Roosevelt. Police caught up with him and took him in for questioning.People who live in this neighborhood couldn't believe this happened in the middle of the day, but all those witnesses do give police some leads."Usually we can hear the gunshots at night," Joey Quinnett said. "But nothing's been done like this in broad daylight.""[There were] three to four Hispanic males, apparent gang members dressed in red in a smaller black car with a sun roof and it's been described as a Honda-type vehicle," Capt. Greg Copeland, Yakima Police Department, said. Police think the suspects are in their 20'sWitnesses disagreed on whether the car was a Honda Stealth or a Lexus. The victim's wound was not very severe. He's already been treated and released from Regional Hospital.

About 5 p.m., Seattle police received a call from a man who heard five or six shots near the Starbucks at 23rd Avenue South and South Jackson Street. Police spokeswoman Renee Witt said another caller told them there were some gang members shooting at a car in the Walgreens parking lot."We got varying descriptions of suspects," she said. "We also got information that there were six to seven males running behind Walgreens. But we got no solid descriptions of suspects."Police were looking for a large silver vehicle that might have been involved, but were not sure if that vehicle belonged to a suspect or possible victim.No injuries were reported. A pillar at the bank was the only property damaged.Police sources say that area is known for illegal gun sales.In May of last year, an 18-year-old man was wounded in a gang-related gunfight in the area. He ran into the Bank of America at 23rd and Jackson, saying he'd been shot, stunning customers and employees who called police.

Anthony Paul Johnson Jr., 32, formerly of Westminster; Giang Thuy Nguyen, 33, formerly of Fountain Valley; Truc Ngoc Tran, 31, of Santa Ana; and Tam Hung Nguyen, 33, formerly of Riverside, are accused of murdering fellow gang member Viet Nguyen, 18, after he abandoned the four men Feb. 24, 1995, during a home-invasion robbery in Huntington Beach.

Three members of a Vietnamese street gang will be arraigned Friday morning in Santa Ana for an execution-style retaliation murder of a gang associate more than a decade old, authorities said. Arraignment for a fourth member was pending his return to California.

Alleged gang member from north suburban Waukegan has been charged with the sexual abuse of a teenage girl.Angel Acosta, 21, of the 600 block of South Jackson Street in Waukegan, was charged late Wednesday with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, according to police.Acosta allegedly abused a 15-year-old girl, but details were not available immediately.Acosta, an alleged Latin King gang member, is scheduled to appear for a bond hearing later Thursday in Cook County Criminal Court, 2600 S. California Ave., according to police.

"These gangsters -- and they are gangsters -- are killing one another... However, these gangsters, they have families. They have brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles," Cpl. Thiessen said.
"They have a network of family who know exactly what they are doing. Those people, we are calling on them to help us deal with this issue." Cpl. Thiessen called for action after three people were killed across the Lower Mainland in 24 hours. Raphael Baldini, 21, was gunned down in a busy mall parking lot in Surrey on Tuesday. He died in hospital. Police say the shooting was a targeted hit. Mr. Baldini, who had a lengthy criminal record and was out on bail on gun charges, was renting an apartment in the Balmoral Tower in Surrey in Oct. 2007 when six people were murdered there. On Wednesday, the mother of Christopher Mohan, an innocent man who was one of the murdered men, said police told her of Mr. Baldini's murder. "I told them I was very, very disappointed because for us he held the real answers of what happened that night," she said. Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) spokesman Cpl. Dale Carr said that there is no known link between Mr. Baldini's death and the six Surrey murders, other than the rental agreement. IHIT is also trying to solve the murder of a 21-year-old Port Coquitlam woman who was found dead in a truck in Coquitlam Tuesday night. The woman, who's identity is being withheld pending notification of her kin, was found in a 2003 Dodge pickup truck parked at Mason Avenue and Oxford Street. The car was not registered to her or a boyfriend, Cpl. Carr said. Police have not said how she died. The woman was known to police and her death had "all the earmarks of a targeted incident," Cpl. Carr said. Autopsy results are expected Thursday. On Monday night, James Ward Erickson, 25, was found shot to death inside his second-floor unit in an apartment building in the rough Whalley neighbourhood inSurrey. Police say the shooting was targeted. Mr. Erickson was linked to street-level drug trade in the Whalley area. Cpl. Carr said Erickson's death may be linked to the driveway shooting of Andrew Michael Cilliers, 26, in Newton on Jan. 27. He stressed that the public has to become more involved in "putting a stop to this craziness" by reporting criminal activity. "The police can just not do this on our own," Cpl. Carr said. "If you have information, for crying out loud, give the police a call."

Bodies of a retired Mexican brigadier general and two other men were found Tuesday in a sport utility vehicle abandoned on a highway outside of Cancun, the resort's mayor said. All had been shot many times.Mayor Gregorio Sanchez identified the victims as retired army Brig. Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello, his assistant Tulio Cesar Roman, an active-duty infantry lieutenant, and civilian Juan Ramirez.Tello had been working as a security consultant to the local government when he was killed.There was speculation that the slayings were intended as a warning to Cancun officials, some of whom have sought to rid the popular beach resort of drug traffickers and other gangsters.Elsewhere in Mexico, 14 people were reported killed between Monday night and late Tuesday afternoon in the border state of Chihuahua. Most of the dead were found in Ciudad Juarez.In one incident, a man and a woman were gunned down in a supermarket parking lot and a third person was killed in the checkout line.
Officials said they had not located any suspects or uncovered any clear motive in the killings, part of a wave of mostly drug-related violence.More than 5,000 homicides linked to organized crime were reported last year amid a battle among the world's most powerful drug cartels for territory and resistance to a two-year government crackdown on the cartels.Also Tuesday, a police station near the port of Lazaro Cardenas came under intense gunfire before dawn, killing officer Jose Cruz Zamorano as he sat in a parked patrol car, state police said in a statement. Another officer inside the station was injured.Authorities set up roadblocks to catch the attackers.In the northern border city of Tijuana on Tuesday, 55 city police officers were fired as part of the government's efforts to fight corruption. Police Chief Julian Leyzaola said the officers were involved in extorsion and often missed work.Tijuana has fired 350 police officers since December 2007, when Mayor Jorge Ramos took office.

Hells Angel gang clubhouse has been blown up and shots fired into a nearby tattoo parlour in Sydney's inner west.Emergency services responded to reports of a loud explosion and gun shots at Petersham at about 2am (AEDT) on Wednesday, police said.
Officers arrived at a premises in Crystal Street, reported to be a Hells Angels clubhouse, to find it extensively damaged.Several shots were also fired into a tattoo parlour on nearby Parramatta Road.No injuries were reported at either the clubhouse or the tattoo parlour. Witnesses told police two males drove from the scene in a dark green four-wheel drive which was last seen travelling west along Parramatta Rd.Police said Crystal Street would remain closed for several hours between Parramatta Road and Margaret Street while investigators conducted their inquiries.

Salinas police say a suspected gang member is in custody after two struggles and a foot pursuit Sunday evening.Police say a sergeant with the Violence Suppression Unit, the city's gang unit, contacted Joel Morales, 31, a known gang member, in the parking lot of the N. Davis Road Applebee's restaurant at 7:05 p.m.Upon contact, they said, Morales resisted arrest and fought with the officer. A foot pursuit ensued across North Davis Road where Morales attempted to make his way onto Highway 101, but was stopped at the fence. Police said a second struggle took place there, but Morales was struck with a stun gun and taken into custody. An investigation revealed Morales was a wanted parolee at large, police said, and he was booked into Monterey County Jail.

18-year-old man was being treated for a serious wound Monday after he was stabbed in the back in City Heights in an apparent gang-related attack, police said. The man had just walked out of a store in the 4000 block of Landis Avenue when another young man approached from behind around 4 p.m. Sunday, San Diego police Sgt. Bob Dare said. The assailant stabbed the victim in the back once, then ran to a silver car occupied by four other men, according to Dare. Friends of the victim drove him to the hospital with a wound determined to be serious but not life-threatening, Dare said. Police described the suspect as a Latino of about 17, 5 feet 7, weighing about 190 pounds. He wore a long-sleeve black checkered shirt and jeans and fled in a car similar to a Mercedes Benz, Dare said. San Diego police gang detectives were handling the investigation.

Mobster Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, one of the five Outfit associates convicted in the landmark Family Secrets trial that riveted Chicago for weeks with its lurid testimony about 18 decades-old gangland slayings, was sentenced to life in prison this afternoon.U.S. District Judge James Zagel levied the sentenc after the aging mob boss addressed the court in a gravelly voice and denied having anything to do with the Seifert murder.The judge said that unlike co-defendants in case, Lombardo showed some balance in judgment and some ability to charm people. But in the end, defendants must be judged by their actions, "not about our wit and our smiles," Zagel said."The worst things you have done are terrible, and I see no regret in you," the judge told Lombardo in handing down the life sentence.
Lombardo, the wisecracking elder statesman of the mob, and four other defendants were found guilty in 2007 of a racketeering conspiracy that stretched back to the 1960s and included extorting "street taxes," collecting high-interest "juice" loans, running illegal gambling operations and using violence and murder to protect the mob's interests. He also was found guilty of the 1974 murder of federal witness Daniel Seifert and of obstructing justice by fleeing from authorities after his indictment. He faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.Lombardo was sent to federal prison in the 1980s for conspiring with International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Roy Lee Williams and union pension fund manager Allen Dorfman to bribe Sen. Howard Cannon (D-Nev.) to help defeat a trucking deregulation bill. Cannon was never charged with any wrongdoing and the bill became law with his support.When Lombardo got out, he resumed life as the boss of the mob's Grand Avenue street crew, prosecutors said. He denied it. but his attorney, Rick Halprin, told the trial he ran "the oldest and most reliable floating craps game on Grand Avenue."
When the Family Secrets indictment was unsealed, Lombardo went on the lam for nine months. He ultimately was brought before U.S. District Judge James Zagel.
Two of Lombardo's co-defendants were sentenced last week. Paul "the Indian" Schiro got 20 years for the racketeering conviction, and Frank Calabrese Sr. got life for racketeering and for seven murders.James Marcello, once called Chicago's mob boss by authorities, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the location and arrest of an alleged Latin Kings gang leader wanted on federal drug charges for more than three years. Valentino Sanchez, 32, whose last known address was 8105 White Ave. in Lyons, has been the subject of a nationwide manhunt coordinated by Chicago FBI's Joint Task Force on Gangs since July 2005, when he was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court with violation of federal drug laws, according to a release from the FBI. Sanchez is alleged to be a high ranking member of the Latin Kings who oversaw distribution of wholesale quantities of cocaine at locations throughout Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, the release said.
He is described as a Hispanic male, 5-foot-10 and 210 pounds with medium build, black hair, brown eyes and slight facial hair. He is known to use the street name "Shorty" and is considered armed and dangerous.

Closing arguments began today in the murder trial of a reputed Oak Park gang member charged in the shooting death of one of his homeboys while they were out on a retaliation attack in rival territory.Deputy District Attorney Anthony Ortiz said as many as 30 shots were fired in the June 27, 2005, broad-daylight shooting on Della Circle in the Florin area. One of the shots fired by defendant Denishio Demmitrius Collins, 26, killed David Perkins, 22, one of the eight gang members from the Oak Park Bloods who filled three cars in the assault on a rival Crip set, according to Ortiz."This wasn't an in-the-dark sneak attack," Ortiz said. "These were people who said 'screw it' - this is our war and we're going to bring it to your streets."
After the shooting, the Oak Park gang members dumped the dying Perkins out of one of their vehicles and left him to die, Ortiz said."He was left on a sidewalk to die by his homeboys," the prosecutor said. Their mindset, Ortiz said, was, "'We just shot up a neighborhood. I'm not waiting around to see what happens to David Perkins.'"Prosecutors charged Collins under a theory of the natural and probable consequences of a dangerous act. Ortiz argued that even though Perkins was part of the gang that took the offensive, he still was the victim of the "transferred intent" of his cohorts' implied malice."They just accidentally killed one of their own guys," Ortiz said.Ortiz's argument ran until the lunch hour and was expected to continue afterward.Collins' lawyer, William R. White, will then give his argument before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Kevin J. McCormick sends the case to the jury.

Paul Fontaine, 41, guilty of the murder of Pierre Rondeau. On Sept. 8, 1997, the provincial prison guard was shot while behind the wheel of an inmate transport bus as he approached the Riviere des Prairies detention centre. His partner Robert Corriveau was not injured in the ambush by Fontaine was also convicted of attempted murder as well.In this and other previous trials, Stephane Gagne, the other gunman in the ambush, testified that the murder and an earlier one the same year were carried out on the orders of Maurice Boucher, a Hells Angels leader. Boucher was convicted of the murders in 2002.

Three gang members from Central Islip and Bay Shore have been charged in connection with a bloody attack at a Suffolk mall early this month that left another teen, who they believed was a member of a rival gang, with several stab wounds, Suffolk police said Saturday.Third Squad detectives arrested Wayne Booker, 17, at his home in Central Islip on Saturday morning and charged him with wielding a knife against Christopher Findley, 19, at the South Shore Mall in Bay Shore on Jan. 8.Booker and two men who police said were his associates in the Bloods gang, Edward Burgos, 19, and Gabriel Matos, 19, both of Bay Shore, were charged with first-degree assault and gang assault.Findley, who police said has no known gang affiliations, was inside the mall when a verbal altercation started between him and the three men, who believed from Findley's clothing that he was a Crips gang member, according to Det. Sgt. William Rand.Findley "went outside and they started punching him, and at one point Wayne Booker took out a knife and stabbed him five times," Rand said.The Bay Shore teen ran bleeding through the mall before collapsing near the entrance to Macy's. He was admitted in critical condition to Southside Hospital with a punctured, collapsed lung and a lacerated liver. Findley was just released from the hospital on Thursday, police said.Booker was located at his home Saturday morning and arrested without incident, Rand said. Burgos was arrested Jan. 19. Matos also was charged Jan. 19 in the attack on Findley after Matos was arrested on a weapons charge when he was found in a car with several other people and a gun, police said.Booker was to be arraigned Sunday in First District Court in Central Islip. Matos and Burgos were previously arraigned; each pleaded not guilty.

Raids in Essex County this week netted 20 alleged gang members and their associates who are part of a sophisticated narcotics ring, authorities said.In the latest busts yesterday morning in Newark, law enforcement officials detained five people who were part of an elaborate operation that sold about 100 bricks of heroin and several hundred grams of cocaine per week to gang members in Newark, Orange, South Orange, Irvington and Elizabeth, said Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow.The drug raids, named "Operation Trifecta," began Sunday by targeting upper-level dealers in Orange, Irvington, Elizabeth and Newark. Yesterday's bust focused on Newark apartment buildings on Spruce Street, Johnson Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the Hood Barbershop on Washington Avenue, which served as a central hub for the drug ring, according to Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Fennelly.A worker at the barbershop said yesterday there were no drug dealers at the location and declined to talk further.Of those arrested, 16 are men and four are women, according to a list provided by Dow. All of them are accused of having ties or being members of a Bloods set called Sex Money Murder, Dow said.
In all, 17 of them are Newark residents. The rest are from Orange, Irvington and Elizabeth. Most of them have been charged with possessing and distributing drugs and with conspiracy.
During the investigation, officials focused on "the main players of this drug ring": Newark residents Terrell Horton, 34; Tirik Jackson, 36; Stephon Johnson, 35; and Jamal Wiley, 34, said Paul Loriquet, spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office. The investigation, which started in August, initially focused on three of these men - which led to the name "Operation Trifecta."
"We believe these are the worst of the worst," Dow said in a news conference attended by state Attorney General Anne Milgram; Jose Cordero, the state director of gangs, guns and violent crime control strategies; representatives from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and members of the Newark, Orange, South Orange, and Maplewood police departments.
During the raids, officials also confiscated three loaded semiautomatic handguns, more than a pound of cocaine and 100 grams of heroin, Loriquet said. In addition, authorities seized three vehicles and about $50,000 in cash.
The drug raids are part of the Governor's Strategy for Safe Streets and Neighborhoods initiative that started in April. In Essex County, more than 100 suspected gang members and associates were arrested as part of the program, Loriquet said. Authorities also confiscated about 13 pounds of heroin, 2.2 pounds of cocaine, 12 loaded handguns, and six vehicles.After the anti-crime plan began last summer, 1,844 people arrested in the operations have been charged with crimes including murder, attempted murder, armed robbery and drug trafficking. Prosecutors from 19 of the 21 counties, working with State Police, seized 162 guns, including 22 assault weapons.