GANG WAR IN THE VALLEY
For you guys complaining that I haven't been around enough, here's my way of making it up to you. Most of this came from very reliable information and it's backed up with stories that ran in the Daily News about the dust being kicked up in the north end of San Fer, the Valley, not the gang.

The two duelling factions are Vincent Town and Columbus Street. Vincent Town is primarily a paisa set that in the recent past was happy moving rock and kicking up to the Eme shotcallers in Columbus. Apparently, the arrangement has fallen apart. There's a lot of money being made in the area and the Vincent Town wants to keep it all for themselves. According to one person on the street, "Vincent Town don't want to be a bitch anymore."

The inevitable friction has reached the boiling point in the last few weeks and bodies have fallen. The main resistance operator in VT is a previously deported Mexican National named VICTOR "OCHI" CASTRO. Ochi appears to be a slick operator and occasionally dresses up in drag to move in and out of the neighborhood undetected.

In early October, somebody took a shot at Ochi's brother Beyo and Beyo's wife. They missed Beyo but the wife was hit in the leg.

The next day, Ochie rolls up on two Columbus streeters -- Gerardo "Bad Boy" Fajardo and Deanthony "Anger" Prichard. Both are hit and Bad Boy is killed. Anger survived.

About a week later, Ochi and Beyo jack up a truck, pick up two homies and they roll right into the heart of Columbus Street territory. One of the homies takes along an AK for high caliber firepower.

As the truck rolls north on Memory Park Avenue, an Impala with Sal
Casper" Miranda and three of his homeboys is rolling south. This sets the stage for what the military usually calls a "meeting engagement." It's also a little bit like an old time jousting match. Both parties open up with everything they had.

After they pass each other with bullets flying in both directions, the truck stops and the guy with the AK continues shooting at the Impala. Casper apparently takes one in the head and another in the torso. He died at the scene. An innocent bystander some six blocks away was wounded by one of the stray AK rounds. Fortunately, she'll live.

Ten minutes later, the highjacked truck is found burning at Columbus and Tupper.

Politically, this is bad news for VT. There's no angel of the black hand looking out for them. Just the opposite. Not only did they resist the almighty tax, but did so with extreme prejudice. They took out at the very least an Associate. Which is bad enough. If Casper was a full blown brother (unknown at this time if he is or not), then the blow back is going to be severe. Regardless of his status, the fur's flying and the sky's the limit with regard to retaliation.

This story is all over the Valley right now and every little homie with his ear to the ground has heard it. So let's not beef on line about who's telling stories out of school. It's just another week of life in LA and we're just here to report the news as we hear it. The Daily News is all over this beef right now and you'll probably be seeing stories about it anyway. You're just hearing it here first.