1.   The unrest then subsided unexpectedly, but police rejected as unfounded the rumours that they had struck a deal with the criminal syndicates.

2.   The new law empowered police to designate as criminal syndicates those organizations which met certain criteria, including a proportion of convicted felons among their membership.

3.   Experts and local authorities say the recent busts here are the first hard evidence that organized criminal syndicates have been smuggling girls into Seattle.

4.   If terrorists who threaten America buy their weapons, move their people and hide their money by hiring criminal syndicates, why not go after those subcontractors?

5.   Mexico has strict if poorly enforced gun laws and strong criminal syndicates.

6.   Perez, who has been cooperating with investigators since last September, has painted a picture of a criminal syndicate of dirty cops in the Rampart CRASH unit.

7.   They have had little assistance from the West, even though these fledgling democracies are up against sophisticated international criminal syndicates that are better organized, financed and equipped.

8.   Ultraconservatives from right-wing intellectuals to criminal syndicates have always maintained discreet contacts with the conservative governing party, the Liberal Democrats.

9.   What worries law enforcement officials most is that international criminal syndicates are increasingly getting involved in illegal immigration.

10.   A radio commentator who had strongly criticized criminal syndicates and Muslim guerrillas was shot to death Wednesday outside his home in the southern Philippines.