Gangs of Iraq

Monday, September 15, 2008

US gang-bangers are infiltrating the military, and they're taking their warfare skills back to the streets. Neil Forsyth investigates.

At around 8pm on a Sunday evening in January 2005, 19-year-old Andres Raya went to a booze shop in the Californian city of Ceres. Raya then pulled out an SKS assault rifle – chosen, he had told people, because it would "go through a cop’s vest" – and shot at the ground. He then ran inside the bottle-o and said, "Somebody just fired at me. Call the police."

Cops arrived on the scene almost immediately, just as Raya had planned. They thought they were attending a robbery. They'd actually arrived at an ambush, planned and executed with military precision.

Raya had taken cover around the corner of the building. When the first two officers arrived, he used a warfare technique called "slicing the pie" – working round the corner with only his weapon and aiming eye showing – to take them both down.

As more cars approached with sirens blaring, Raya ran to a nearby garden. For the next three hours, he was the most wanted man in America. SWAT teams, police and the highway patrol all responded to the scene. They shot out streetlights to avoid becoming silhouetted targets and moved slowly from house to house.

But they couldn’t find Raya. They thought he must have escaped, but Raya had used camouflage techniques to virtually disappear only 50m from the original location. When he emerged again, spraying bullets at the crowd of cops, it was pure luck that he was shot and killed before he could cause more carnage.
Raya's fighting techniques had been picked up a long way from California and the Norteño street gang he was suspected of belonging to. He was just back from Fallujah and – as a toxicology report would later reveal – high on cocaine.

It wasn't gang members who’d taught the 19-year-old how to handle an automatic weapon or slice the pie. It was the US Army.

Do you think this is happening in the Australian army? Leave your comment below

User comments

Disappointed pull ur head out of ur ***! In ur 24 years i bet u didn't see 1 minute of actual combat.If u think there are not elements of organised crime and separatist factions entrenched in all western armies then you are completely out of touch with reality.Not to mention Russian organised crime who have created a 500 billion dollar empire of the backs of disaffected soldiers from privates to army group commanders!

Of course they are, what drug pushin', glock slingin', hustlin', gang bangin' gangsta wouldn't want to spend 3-5 years min serving their country and potentially be shipped out to wage war on a foreign country for the opportunity to come back home get doped up on coke and shoot a couple of cops? oh no wait, sorry, you are referring to outside of Hollywood.

I assure you Gangs are just much apart of the army as in any street around Australia. Some areas have them, some dont.

"Do you think this is happening in the Australian army?" Oh please! You people are nothing but ridiculous sensationalists. I have better things to read!

HAVE A GOOD DAY GOODNIGHT

IF YOU DONT LIKE THE TRUTH DONT ASK FOR COMMENTS ON STORIES OR HEADLINES THAT YOU PUBLISE ON THE WEB SOME PEOPLE DO TELL THE TRUTH MORE OFTEN THAN YOU THINK . ANSWER . GETOF YOUR *** TO STREET LEVEL AND TALK TO THE PEOPLE THAT KEEPS THIS BEAUTIFUL WORLD TURNING ,LOOK AFTER THEM FIRST. QUOTE RESPECT WHAT YOU GET IN LIFE, I DO HOPE ITS NOT YOUR POSITION AT WORK THAT CAUSES YOUR DILEMMMA

Everycountry wants their best sons for war then cry mummy when they return and seek help WHAT DO GOVERNMENTS DO OF COURSE *** ON EVERYONE INCLUDING THE ONES THAT ARE CONSTANTLY WATCHING IN SILENCE THINK ABOUT IT

This is an investigative report! Really? The link between an ex soldier and a street gang is tenuous. The attack on Police was a singular event by a sole attacker. Where is there proof that street gangs are infiltrating the Army? Any statistics or empirical data? No. How frequently has an event of this level occurred (since this event happened in 2005)? This is a very light weight article put together, probably adapting an existing story out of the US. Lazy journalism. And to the question posed. I don't know what the chances are that an Australian Street Gang infiltrating the Australian Army however I would strongly recommend it. During my 24 years service I saw many wayward men gain confidence, discipline and respect for others from their service. I strongly suspect that most left the service better men than when they entered.

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