Gunwalker guns now showing up at US crimes

For months the ABC15 Investigators have been searching through police reports and official government documents. We’ve discovered assault weapons linked to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ controversial “Fast and Furious” case strategy have turned up at crime scenes in Glendale and Phoenix communities.


Weapons linked to the strategy have been turning up at dangerous and deadly crime scenes near both sides of the border, including the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, who was killed last December.

The ABC15 Investigators uncovered documents showing guns connected to at least two Glendale criminal cases and at least two Phoenix criminal cases also appear in the ATF’s Suspect Gun Database, a sort-of watch list for suspicious gun sales.

All four cases involve drug-related offenses. In one Glendale police report dated July 2010, police investigators working with DEA agents served search warrants at homes near 75th and Glendale avenues in Glendale, and 43rd and Glendale avenues in Phoenix as part of a “large scale marijuana trafficking” investigation.

Police investigators reported they “obtained information that members of the (trafficking) organization were using the homes…as stash houses used to store large amounts of marijuana temporarily.”

They reported finding hundreds of pounds of marijuana, more than $63,000 in U.S. currency and three guns inside the homes. One of the recovered weapons, a Romarm/Cugir WASR-10 rifle, appeared in an official ATF Suspect Gun Summary document in November 2009, proving agents knowingly allowed the suspicious gun sale, months before the weapon turned up at the crime scene.

In a separate Glendale Police Department case, dated November 2010, detectives discovered “bulk marijuana and weapons” inside a residence near 75th Avenue and Bethany Home Road in Glendale. Investigators recovered nearly 400 pounds of drugs and several firearms from the home.

One of the recovered weapons, another Romarm/Cugir WASR-10 rifle, appeared in an official ATF Suspect Gun Summary document in February 2010

 

THE mother and daughter plotted together to hire a hitman,

THE mother and daughter plotted together to hire a hitman, apparently believing that if they stayed close and stuck to their story they would get away with murder.

But last night, after a Supreme Court trial full of twists and betrayal, Coralie Coulter and Helen Ryan were found guilty of the murder of Ryan's husband, Jeffrey.

Mr Ryan, a 48-year-old grazier, died after he was shot by the hitman in 2009 on the $1.1 million farm near Tamworth that he shared with his wife.


Ryan was reportedly ''hysterical'' when found her husband's body. But over the ensuing months the truth came out: that Ryan, Coulter and Ryan's sister Ganene Coulter conspired together to find and then pay a hitman $30,000 to kill Mr Ryan, then to cover up their crime.

In taped phone conversations played to the court, the three women referred to themselves as a ''triangle'' that would not be broken if they stuck together.

But as more evidence emerged, some of it obtained by an undercover policeman who infiltrated the triangle, the alliance crumbled completely, with the women turning on each other.

First it was Ganene Coulter, who pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, conspiracy to murder, and gave evidence against her sister and mother in return for a 30 per cent discount on her sentence.

Then, when the trial began, Ryan claimed that her husband had turned violent, physically assaulting her and another family member. She said that she had paid $5000 to have her husband ''roughed up a bit'', and that her sister had obtained extra money from their mother to have him killed.

Ganene Coulter, she said, had hired the hitman out of jealousy and revenge at the breakdown of a relationship between Ganene and Mr Ryan 16 years before.

But the Crown Prosecutor Terry Thorpe told the court that Ryan was ''a woman scorned''.

The jury heard that her hsuband had been having an affair and wanted to leave the marriage. He had also changed his will to reduce his wife's share of the estate. It was jealousy and greed that drove Ryan to hire the hitman, Mr Thorpe said.

Coralie Coulter told the jury that Ryan had asked her for a loan in September 2009 because ''Jeff was in a lot of trouble''.

But the Crown said she was not ignorant of the plot, as she had claimed, and that she knew exactly what the money she gave her daughter was for, and when the act would be carried out.

The jury took just three hours to find both women guilty.

Mr Ryan's family gasped as the verdict was read out.

The stepson of the former gangster Dave Courtney has been shot dead in south London.

Genson Courtney, 23, was shot in the head and shoulder as he sat in a hired black VW Golf in Greenwich on Sunday night. He was taken to hospital with gunshot wounds and died on Monday morning at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Woolwich.

Scotland Yard said officers were called to Banning Street in Greenwich at 10.50pm on Sunday after receiving reports of gunshots. Sources said the victim had been in a hire car and appeared to have been shot by a gunman who approached the car on foot. Detectives appealed for witnesses to contact them.

Scotland Yard's Trident unit, which specialises in gun crime, has launched a murder inquiry and officers are investigating the victim's background and recent associations. A spokeswoman said they were keeping an open mind about motive.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Gower, who is leading the investigation, said: "At this early stage it is believed a male suspect may have ran from the scene in the direction of Christchurch Way shortly after the shooting.

"I would like to reassure anyone concerned about contacting the police that Trident has great expertise in protecting witnesses and there are a huge variety of measures that can be put in place to protect you."

Genson Courtney's stepfather claims to have been involved in debt-collecting, minding clubs, assault, contraband and murder. He has more recently become an actor and has had small roles in a number of gangster movies.

He claims to have been the model for Vinnie Jones's character Big Chris in the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. He has had published six books, including an autobiography.

A profile on his website reads: "In his time, Dave has been shot, stabbed, had his nose bitten off (they sewed it back on) and has had to kill to stay alive himself."