'La Barbie' Losing the War For Control Of The Betran-Leyva Cartel

The internal war is raging between Hector Betran-Leyva and "La Barbie" and judging by the trail of bodies it appears that Hector is getting the best of "La Barbie". On April 1st, gang members loyal to 'La Barbie' were found decapitated with a note addressed to 'La Barbie' saying "here are your homosexuals". On April 22nd, more corpses have been found, again with a note. This time the note said that the killers were holding 25 more gang members loyal to 'La Barbie' hostage for 'interrogation and execution'. On April 23rd, a key member of the Betran-Leyva Cartel loyal to 'La Barbie was arrested: Jose Gerardo Alvarez Vazquez — known as "El Indio" or "El Chayan". Vazquez had partnered with 'La Barbie' against Hector in the fight for control of the cartel. It appears that 'La Barbie's' days are numbered...

Heist: 'Termite Gang' Burrows Into 3rd French Bank Reminiscent of the Spaggiari Heist

Last Sunday, March 28th a crew made off with at least £22 million after four men tunneled into the vaults of a central Paris bank on the Avenue de l'Opera. Now, just a week later, another bank has been breached. The thieves weren't able to steal any loot this time, but managed to burrow into the BNP Paribas from an ajoining Metro Station. The police suspect that it is the same gang behind both jobs and have named them 'The Termites'.

These jobs are very reminiscent of the notorious Spaggiari heist, which took place in Nice more than 30 years ago. Albert Spaggiari (pictured above), a self-styled master criminal, targeted a Societe Generale branch by digging into the bank vault from below.

He rented a box in the vault and put a loud alarm clock in it, timing it to go off in the middle of the night to check whether there were any sound alarms.

Later Spaggiari and a team of gangsters recruited from nearby Marseilles spent two months drilling into the vault through a 25-foot tunnel from a nearby sewer. During a long holiday weekend in July 1976 they opened 400 safe deposit boxes and got away with some £6million of cash and jewellery.

In all, the Spaggiari gang spent some four days in the vault, eventually leaving a message scrawled on a wall which read: "Without hatred, without violence, without weapons."

Developing: 'Termite Gang' Tunnels Into French Bank (MSNBC)

Developing: "Termite gangs" tunnel into third French bank (Reuters)