Gangland leader James "Whitey" Bulger has been ordered to be sent to Massachusetts to face charges following his arrest in Santa Monica, California.
Irish American Bulger (81), among the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives since 1999, and girlfriend Catherine Greig (60) were arrested early yesterday by FBI agents following a tip-off.
Bulger appeared yesterday in federal court in Los Angeles and was ordered sent to Massachusetts, where he was indicted. In a 111-page indictment dated May 23rd, 2001, Bulger is described as a leader of a criminal organisation known as the "Bulger Group" and "Winter Hill Gang."
The gangs committed extortion, loan sharking, bookmaking, narcotics trafficking and murder, beginning about 1972, the government said. Bulger was wanted in connection with 19 murders. The group is also linked to illegally shipping arms to the IRA and importing about 36 tonnes of marijuana into the United States, both in 1984, prosecutors said.
Bulger and accomplices that year allegedly buried three murder victims in the basement of a South Boston home, then dug them up a year later when it was being sold.
The group maintained contacts with police officers to get information on investigations, according to the indictment. Bulger, a one-time FBI informant, used disguises and travelled in Europe, Canada and Mexico after fleeing, the FBI said. His aliases included Harold Evers and Ernest E. Beaudreau.
Bulger and Greig, both represented by public defenders, did not challenge the government's request to keep them detained at yesterday's hearing, Assistant US attorney Robert Dugdale said. They were ordered transferred to Boston "forthwith" where they will be arraigned, he added.
The arrests came a day after the FBI's Boston office was to air public-service announcements about Greig, who fled with Bulger in 1995. She was wanted for harbouring a criminal and is not accused in any of his crimes, the FBI said in a June 20th statement about the advertising campaign.
Bloomberg
