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Thursday 29 May 2008

Iranian forces killed nine armed drug traffickers

news report said Tuesday that Iranian forces killed nine armed drug traffickers.
Irans Fars news agency said the clash took place between security forces and the alleged smugglers in a desert area of the southeastern Kerman province.
"In a clash between security forces and bandits, nine drug smugglers were killed and a large amount of weapons was destroyed," the report said. The region is known to be a major smuggling route for drugs and other illegal materials.

Monday 26 May 2008

Retired Colombian policeman, was arrested in a drugs bust that netted 570 kilograms of cocaine in Spain

Thirteen people, including a retired Colombian policeman, were arrested in a drugs bust that netted 570 kilograms of cocaine in Spain, authorities said Sunday, AFP reported. Suspects from Spain, Colombia, Mexico and Italy were seized in the raids in Rubi and Barcelona in the northeast and Malaga in the south after a seven-month operation, Spanish police said in a statement.

Robert McDowall,Frank Gallagher appeared at the High Court in Kilmarnock to admit being concerned in the supply of drugs.

Robert McDowall, 48, a driver for a Lisburn-based flower importer, and Frank Gallagher, 39, a career criminal from Springburn, Glasgow, appeared at the High Court in Kilmarnock to admit being concerned in the supply of drugs. SCDEA officers had trailed the lorry from Holland and tracked it 400 miles north after it was driven through Customs at the Harwich ferry terminal in Essex. They had been watching as McDowall met Gallagher at a Little Chef restaurant on the M74 at Dumfries. They were watching as Gallagher drove to the deserted Lochside Industrial Estate, with McDowall's truck following. And they were watching as Gallagher reversed up to the lorry trailer and the men started moving boxes to the car. Only then did they swoop, arresting both men. On December 17, the pair were back in court for sentencing. Gallagher, who had a previous drug dealing conviction, got 12 years and McDowall, an Irishman living in Ballantrae, Ayrshire, 10. Jailing the pair, Lord Hardie told Gallagher: "I take into account you are not at the top of the chain and I reserve a life sentence for those who are if they are ever brought to justice."
The judge was half right. Gallagher was not the top man but he was at his right hand. For the first time, the police had got close to Stevenson. They had picked off one of his key lieutenants, a fixer feared for his capacity for violence.
Their sights were now fixed squarely on his boss - and they had an ace in the hole. Stevenson had blundered. He usually arranged business by remote control but for once, he had got too close. He had met McDowall face-to-face before recruiting him to smuggle drugs. That meeting had taken place a few months earlier, over burgers and chips around a table in the garden of the Queen's Hotel. McDowall then ran the small, white-painted hotel with his wife Carol. It was on the main road running through the south Ayrshire village of Colmonell. Much later, Carol would tell the police: "It was a nice day. I was working at the hotel and Robert was there with me when the two guys arrived. "Robert and the two guys sat at a table out the back of the hotel talking. I remember Robert saying to me, 'Can you make Frank and the other guy a couple of chicken burgers?' "I'm not sure what Robert called the other guy but I'm sure it was Jay or a name beginning with the letter J." McDowall and his new acquaintances had a lot to discuss. Within months, Gallagher would be arrested alongside McDowall in Dumfries after taking delivery of two boxes each containing 20 kilos of heroin. The other man visiting Ayrshire that day was Jamie Stevenson. The three men had met just once before, when they'd had a conversation in a car parked by a Tesco supermarket next to Ayr Racecourse, just before Christmas.

A mutual associate from Northern Ireland had introduced them.

The men discussed the possibility of McDowall earning extra money by adding drugs to his lorry's loads as he drove across the continent to Britain.

They suggested he might find a job with a Northern Ireland-based flower importer. They told him there would be good money in it. He agreed.

Money had been tight since the McDowalls had taken over the hotel in the scenic village 14 miles south of Girvan, four years earlier.

Stevenson was usually too careful to be anywhere near the drugs he was pouring into Scotland. He was usually too cautious to discuss those drugs with anyone apart from his tight and loyal inner circle.

So why had he taken the risk of meeting a man he hardly knew to discuss, in incriminating detail, how he was regularly bringing class A drugs into Scotland with the help of complicit HGV drivers and their trucks?

One associate remembers: "Stevenson had a few men whose judgement and abilities he trusted completely and they would usually do any face-to-face stuff. But he had to meet McDowall.

"The guy was potentially going to be a big, big part of what they were doing - a keystone. Stevenson had to see him for himself - satisfy himself."

And it was almost the biggest mistake he ever made.

Stevenson and his henchmen now believe McDowall was already working for the authorities when they enjoyed their burgers al fresco.

They suspect he had already been busted by Customs at Dover as he brought in a load of drugs in January 2003.

They believe he had been allowed to drive away after agreeing to help the authorities land the biggest fish in Scotland.

They believed it enough to take out a £10,000 contract on the life of the suspected informer after he was jailed, along with Gallagher, following a court case that was notable for being the first time the SCDEA's Operation Folklore had ever been mentioned in public. What is not in doubt is that, within a year of the Colmonell meeting, McDowall had been stabbed in jail and told there was a price on his head.

He had also asked for urgent talks with detectives from the elite crime-fighting agency.

In a series of recorded interviews, he would lay bare the scope of Stevenson's drug-smuggling operation. He explained how the flower markets of Rijnsburg, Holland, were being used as cover for some of the huge consignments of heroin, cocaine, speed and Ecstasy being driven into Scotland by HGV drivers on the gang's payroll.
He told how the man he claimed to know only as Jamie from Glasgow was said to be a killer who was armed at all times. He also revealed how this man was the undisputed leader of a gang that had been bringing huge consignments of drugs into Scotland for years, of how his drugs money underwrote a £36million property spree on the Costa del Sol, and of how guns - hard plastic pistols undetectable on Customs' X-ray machines - were another profitable sideline for Stevenson's mob. And he explained how the operation did not depend on individual drivers because Stevenson had his own Scots-based haulage firms.
He told the police everything and, for the first time, they had found a witness to Stevenson's absolute immersion in the drugs trade. And, incredibly, the witness indicated that he could - and would - identify the Folklore team's number one target.

Tuesday 20 May 2008

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced that they recently seized more than $22 million in counterfeit merchandise from China

According to Customs officials, the goods had been manifested as luggage but an inspection of the cargo by Customs officers revealed counterfeit Gucci, Prada, Jimmy Choo, Bulgari, Cartier, Chanel, Versace, Juicy Couture and other fraudulent brand name merchandise.U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced that they recently seized more than $22 million in merchandise from China at the Port of Oakland.
Customs officials said that on May 9 officers inspected shipping containers which had recently been unloaded from the M/V Kota Salam, which had arrived from China.
Customs officials said labels for various designers were also found hidden three suitcases deep, with one inside the other. The labels are normally tagged onto a cheaply made product to make it seem like it's an authentic item, according to Customs officials.Richard Vigna, the Customs' director of field operations for the San Francisco area, said, "The manufacturing of fake products for sale takes millions of dollars away from the trademark holder. Diligent work by Customs officers across the nation helps to end this type of fraudulent activity."
Customs officials said they've launched an initiative to combat terrorism and trade fraud, which is called is the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism.They said it is a joint government and business initiative that builds cooperative relationships to strengthen the overall trade supply chain along with border security enforcement.Dora Murphy, Customs' acting port director, said, Customs and Border Protection "works closely with importers, brokers, carriers, warehouse operators and manufacturers to enforce national regulations for imported goods."
Customs officials said they seize millions of dollars in intellectual property rights merchandise at seaports throughout the nation for registered and recorded trademark holders.

Police raided a house in Lockridge, seizing a pill press and charging three men with importation and possession charges

Drug researchers say this week's haul of ecstasy powder, or MDMA, will have an effect on the national ecstasy market.On Monday a joint operation between Federal and state police forces arrested people in several cities. Police tracking the drug ring had earlier seized and substituted 45 kilograms of ecstasy ingredient MDMA, and kept monitoring the operation before making the arrests.In Western Australia, Police raided a house in Lockridge, seizing a pill press and charging three men with importation and possession charges.Steven Alsop from the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University says such a big haul will affect use."It has an enormous impact. Two main factors influence drug use and that is supply and demand," he said."Clearly this will reduce supply and will have an impact on the availability and that will reduce the likelihood that some people will be able to use the drug."He says the haul will help, but education programs are also needed. "We shouldn't be complacent, we need to match law enforcement effort with demand-reduction strategies as well because of course while people are wanting the drug there'll always be someone willing to supply it," he said.

Four Americans were shot in the head and dumped in a notorious drug-smuggling area in northern Mexico


"The bodies had been there for at least a week. They were spotted by local people out hunting," a municipal police spokesman said.The area where the bodies were found is one of many along the border that gangs use to smuggle marijuana and cocaine into the United States.
Four people believed to be Americans were shot in the head and dumped in a notorious drug-smuggling area in northern Mexico near the California border, Mexican police said.Police in the beach town of Rosarito, across the border from San Diego, said they discovered the bodies of three men and a woman on Sunday in an abandoned car in a remote patch of scrubland near the Pacific coast.Police concluded the victims were US citizens because the vehicle had California licence plates, the men appeared to be black, the woman was white and a US driver's licence was found in the car, the spokesman said.Murders have jumped in Mexico this year, the bulk of them linked to a war between rival drug cartels and security forces that has killed some 1300 people across Mexico since January. But it is unusual for foreigners to be the victims."The bodies had been there for at least a week. They were spotted by local people out hunting," a municipal police spokesman said.The area where the bodies were found is one of many along the border that gangs use to smuggle marijuana and cocaine into the United States.In Chihuahua state, which borders Texas, gunmen killed senior police officer Jose Martinez as he left his home in the city of Parral on Monday morning, the state attorney general's office said.Martinez was head of criminal investigations for southern Chihuahua.President Felipe Calderon, who sent out thousands of troops and federal police to battle drug cartels when he took power in December 2006, said on Monday the escalation in violence was reason to press on."It's a serious fight, it's a war, and it means assuming the consequences," he told a news conference following talks with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel."There is no way the Mexican government will give up this fight. Our pledge and decision is to carry on until we rescue Mexico fully from a situation of abuse and crime," he said.Drug violence killed more than 2500 people in Mexico last year. Grisly slayings in 2008 include the beheading this month of a man whose head was dumped on top of a car in the northern city of Monterrey.Half a dozen high-ranking police officers have been killed this month alone.
Violence has spilled over from the rough city of Tijuana into once-quiet Rosarito and its outlying areas as gangs fight over smuggling routes into California.

Sunday 18 May 2008

Colin 'Smigger' Smith, Britain's so-called Cocaine King with an estimated personal fortune of £200m, murdered in a gangland hit.

Colin 'Smigger' Smith, Britain's so-called Cocaine King with an estimated personal fortune of £200m, murdered in a gangland hit. Six months on, his assassin remains at large despite a massive police investigation. Only now, though, can the circumstances behind the murder of Britain's biggest cocaine baron be revealed. It is a vicious tale of duplicity, violence and retribution in the shadowy world of international drug dealing.But Smith's killing carries more profound implications, threatening a ferocious war between Britain's original drug syndicate, the so-called Liverpool mafia, and the largest Colombian cocaine suppliers to Europe, the Cali cartels. At stake, say underworld sources, is control of Britain's £2bn cocaine market. They revealed that Merseyside's crime gangs believe Colombian cartels ordered the hit on Smith over a missing consignment of the Class A narcotic worth £72m.Merseyside police are aware of at least one meeting in which the heads of Liverpool's cocaine trade met and agreed to avenge the death of Smith, a high-stakes player whose 1,000kg deals were legendary and sometimes affected the price of cocaine throughout Britain. Police throughout Europe are concerned that any attempt by Liverpool's gangs to target the Cali cartel's sophisticated cocaine distribution network will produce a spate of killings.Sources in Amsterdam, where Liverpudlians and Colombians operate together to disseminate cocaine across the continent, claim that Liverpudlian expat dealers in Amsterdam, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Turkey and South America - allied to the Merseyside mafia - have been warned to prepare for a 'mafia-style bloodbath'. Already Liverpool dealers are understood to have shot at least one senior Colombian cocaine emissary in Amsterdam.Smith's murder raises the question of how a suspected foreign mercenary could fly into Liverpool and assassinate one of the country's best known cocaine barons - the first time a Colombian cartel has successfully eliminated one of Britain's biggest dealers on UK soil. Officially Merseyside police will confirm only that the investigation into Smith's murder 'is ongoing', but detectives believe that his death has triggered a standoff in a volatile business. Liverpool's gangs have traditionally worked directly with their Colombian counterparts, with Smith's syndicate buying cocaine from South American networks whose origins can be traced back to the infamous cartels that controlled international cocaine traffic in the 1990s.

Tuesday 13 May 2008

Three people were arrested for smuggling cocaine into Cape Town , OR Tambo international airports,

Three people were arrested for smuggling cocaine into Cape Town and OR Tambo international airports, the police's national head offices said on Tuesday. Captain Dennis Adriao said one man, aged 28, was arrested at OR Tambo airport on Saturday with 5.7 kilograms of cocaine in his possession.
The cocaine had an estimated value of R5-million. The man had arrived on a flight from Lisbon in Portugal. He was a South African citizen. He had hidden the cocaine in desktop pen holders and small lotion bottles. He appeared before the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court on Monday on charges of dealing in drugs and drug smuggling. A 28-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman were arrested at Cape Town International Airport on Monday in possession of eight kilograms of cocaine valued at R10-million.
The pair had flown in from Buenos Aires in Argentina. Both were Durban residents and South African citizens. The two would appear before the Bellevue Magistrate's Court in Cape Town on charges of drug dealing and drug smuggling.
"SA Police are intensifying efforts to stop drug trafficking into our country through profiling and other measures." "We caution people against carrying luggage and packages for other people, especially strangers, as they could face imprisonment of up to 25 years for drug smuggling," said Adriao.

Monday 12 May 2008

Dubai Police have arrested two men in possession of more than six kg of heroin

Dubai Police have arrested two men in possession of more than six kg of heroin, an official said yesterday. He said the drugs found on the Africans was worth a total of more than dhs200,000. “They wanted to smuggle it to Asia, Europe and Africa but we arrested them,” he said.Officers were alerted to the men after a suspect package at Cargo Village was inspected and found to contain some heroin pills. They then traced the box and raided the mens’ flat in Dubai.
“One of them still had heroin pills in his stomach,” the police official said. The men have now been referred to public prosecution.

Dubai police have busted an international drugs trafficking gang which was planning to smuggle a huge quantity of heroin

The anti narcotics officials of the Dubai police have busted an international drugs trafficking gang which was planning to smuggle a huge quantity of heroin to a number of countries, WAM news agency reported Monday. The anti-narcotics officials seized over 6.1 kg heroin worth 615,200 United Arab Emirates dirhams ($167,730) from the African gang during a raid Sunday, an official with the Crime Investigation Department said.“The arrest of the African gang was triggered by police’s discovery of a filter in the parcel in which the heroin capsules, weighing over 1.1 kg, were hidden at Dubai cargo village. The parcel was ready to be flown to an African country,” the official said.After the discovery of the parcel, the CID tracked down the sender, who was staying at a hotel in Dubai.The police raided his room and found many heroin capsules, weighing 4,458 kg. He was arrested along with one of his aides who police suspected to have swallowed some strange materials.According to the police, the man vomited 54 capsules of heroin, weighing 783 grams, after his arrest.
Both suspects were referred to public prosecution for further investigation, pending trial. The UAE, Dubai in particular, is a major regional transportation and shipping hub which gives drug traffickers a chance to smuggle the narcotics to Europe and the US.

West Australian man has been charged with allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine inside bottles of alcohol.

35-year-old West Australian man has been charged with allegedly trying to smuggle cocaine inside bottles of alcohol.Customs officers at Sydney Airport stopped the man for a baggage check when he arrived on a flight from Tahiti on Saturday.
During the search, the officers became suspicious about the contents of a bottle of Irish Cream liqueur and a bottle of fruit cream.
Testing indicated the presence of cocaine in the bottles.
The man is due to appear in Sydney's Central Local Court today.

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Drug mules in Tai Lam Center for Women in Hong Kong

At least seven Cordillera women aspiring for overseas work have turned up in Hong Kong detention centers after they were accused of acting as “drug mules” for an illegal drug syndicate, the Inquirer learned on Tuesday.
A “mule” is the law enforcement term for an unwitting drug courier, according to officials of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) here.Ebgan Inc., a gender rights group, said all of these Filipinos are women, who were enticed to travel to China for free.Lynn Madalang, Ebgan executive director, said the offer of free Hong Kong trips is convenient for local women applying for work overseas.“Some of them are escaping bad relationships or abusive spouses, so a free trip is so tempting, even if you should be concerned that there doesn’t seem to be any strings attached,” Madalang said.She said many migrant workers also believe that proof of travel would increase their chances of securing travel visas for work abroad.
But the women were asked to carry suspicious pieces of luggage to China, Madalang said.Two Cordillera women were consequently jailed when their luggage turned out to conceal heroin when they entered Hong Kong, she said.Ebgan and NBI have been able to tie together at least seven arrests in Hong Kong of Cordillera women because they were all sent there using money given by Benny Annaway, 42, a former taxi driver here.Based on information gathered by Ebgan and NBI, Hong Kong and other Chinese jails have in custody two sisters from Ifugao; a woman from Bauko, Mt. Province; a woman from Sabangan, also in Mt. Province; and two women from Conner, Apayao.
Madalang said she was trying to find out if more Cordillera women were victimized by this drug operation, which, she said, could have been going on since 2006.An official of the travel agency, which issued these women their Hong Kong tickets, said they were cooperating with investigators. The official said the agency sold more than seven tickets to Annaway.Annaway, in an April 24 testimony he made before NBI agent Dickson Maraneg, admitted recruiting several of these women on behalf of a China-based benefactor he identified only as “IFEANYI,” based on a transaction receipt from Western Union.Annaway said he received $2,500 which he distributed to the recruits.He spent on their travel fees and roundtrip airfares and provided each recruit $400 in travel allowances.But Annaway said he was not aware that they were duped into carrying illegal drugs to China.As proof of his good faith, Annaway said his own cousin is among those detained now at the Tai Lam Center for Women in Hong Kong.Annaway said the luggage carried by his cousin, Michelle, to Guangzhou, China, on March 30, was sent to him on March 21 by his China-based wife, Joehan, through a Filipina named Uria.After getting the luggage, Annaway said a man, who identified himself as Joehan’s “boss,” called and directed him to keep the luggage until it was fetched by a person leaving for Hong Kong.Annaway admitted opening the luggage after his wife told him it contained “precious jewelry,” but found them empty.
“I found nothing in the luggage but I was perplexed because they were heavy,” he said.Annaway said he actually kept two pieces of luggage. A woman named Vilma and Michelle each took a luggage to Guangzhou.He said he was later asked to fetch another luggage, which he delivered to a shopping mall in Metro Manila. A black man (which he described in his affidavit as “negro”) took the third luggage, he said.Madalang said local authorities were wondering where the luggage came from.
“There were testimonies that the luggage were marked by customs in Africa, so it must have come from there. But why would it go all the way to the Philippines and then sent to China?” she said.NBI agents and personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, who were approached by the Inquirer, were also wondering why the luggage concealed heroin and not cocaine, which is easier to ship because the drug is refined and is more expensive.Relatives of the detained women from Mt. Province approached Ebgan last week for advice.They carried with them letters sent out by the jailed women. Two letters sent by different women confirmed that Michelle is also in the Tai Lam detention center.

Tuesday 6 May 2008

12 kilo haul is believed to be one of the largest seizures of the drug in the Cleveland force area

Five people have been arrested and amphetamines with an estimated street value of more than £1m found during a police raid on Teesside. The 12 kilo haul is believed to be one of the largest seizures of the drug in the Cleveland force area. It was discovered during a police raid at two properties in the Braid Crescent area of Billingham. The three men and two women, aged between 18 and 28 and all local, are helping police with their inquiries.

Darren Morris, 32, of Preston, Mark Neville, 41, also of Preston; and Peter Hannigan, 49, of Kendal,charged with importing cocaine worth £15 million

Two Preston men and a Kendal man have been remanded in custody accused of conspiracy to import cocaine worth £15 million.
Cumbria Police discovered 140kg of the class A drug after CID officers to stopped and searched two lorries at the port of Harwich in Essex.The seizure of the consignment, which arrived via Holland, is understood to be one of the biggest ever made on the UK mainland,Appearing before South Lakeland magistrates in Kendal, Darren Morris, 32, of Preston, Mark Neville, 41, also of Preston; and Peter Hannigan, 49, of Kendal, were charged with importing illegal drugs.They were all remanded to appear at Carlisle Crown Court on July 7.Detectives in Cumbria are continuing to question a 55-year-old man arrested in Nottingham.

Schapelle Corby's "drug-free" record,Mercedes, definitely smuggled marijuana "inside her" on trips to Bali.

Jodie Power has admitted lying about Schapelle Corby's "drug-free" record, but says her sister, Mercedes, definitely smuggled marijuana "inside her" on trips to Bali.Power said she lied on national TV, and agreed there is an "enormous gulf" between what she told Channel 7's Today Tonight and the ABC about Mercedes and Schappelle Corby's involvement with drugs. In the NSW Supreme Court today, Power admitted lying on the ABC's 7.30 Report about Schapelle Corby having a drug free record "to protect her". In an interview with The 7.30 Report back in March 2005, Power said: "I have never, never seen Schapelle smoke marijuana, never seen her take drugs." In the witness box at the NSW Supreme Court this afternoon, she said that was a lie. "I lied that I hadn't seen her taking drugs," she said, adding it was "to protect her...to get her out of jail". Power, a former best friend of Mercedes Corby, is facing a defamation action, along with Channel Seven, its Today Tonight current affairs show and host Anna Coren after she claimed on air that Mercedes Corby was a drug dealer. Under cross-examination from Stuart Littlemore QC, appearing for Mercedes Corby, Power's credibility was thrown in to question again, when she was asked about what she told Today Tonight about Mercedes Corby and her history with smuggling marijuana in to Bali. The jury was first shown footage from an unedited interview Power did with the Channel Seven current affairs program about a year ago, where Power said Mercedes Corby "compressed and carried it (marijuana) inside her''. Mr Littlemore QC then asked Power if she made up what she told Today Tonight. He said to Power: "It was in her vagina but you have made that up."
Power replied: "No I haven't.'' She then agreed with Mr Littlemore that there was an "enormous gulf" between what she told Channel Seven and the ABC in the interviews she did.

Edwin Naeyaert was charged with attempting to smuggle drugs into the UK and remanded in custody

Edwin Naeyaert, 30, of Ghent, Belgium, was charged with attempting to smuggle drugs into the UK and remanded in custody. He is due to appear before magistrates in Folkestone.Belgian lorry driver is to appear in court in Folkestone on Tuesday charged with drug smuggling after 330lb of cannabis was found hidden among pallets of frozen potato chips.
The drugs, with a street value of about £468,000, were seized by officers from the newly formed UK Border Agency (UKBA) who searched the lorry at Coquelles Eurotunnel Terminal in France on Sunday night.

Punitha K K Samy''I don't know exactly what happened but I believe she could have been duped by her Nigerian lover into carrying the drugs for him,''

Punitha K K Samy, 50, who was last heard of in August 2006, is apparently yet another case of women travelling alone being used as drug carriers by international syndicates that operate in several countries including India, say Malaysian authorities.Her case could boost the government's controversial plan to make a law that would require a woman taking a flight alone to get permission from her family members.The Peruvian prison authorities have contacted Kalai Kumar, a friend and former employer in Ampang here, to inform that she was very ill.
''Punitha gave the prison authorities my contact number. They told me she is suffering from stomach cancer and tuberculosis,'' Kumar told the New Straits Times on Sunday. ''The caller told me they could not contact Punitha's family and that she gave them my name,'' Kumar, who also goes by the spiritual name of Tarapith Yantra Yogi and is the founder of the Tantra Yoga Hindu Organisation, said.
He said Punitha lost contact with her family nine years ago. With nowhere to go, she sought help at his organisation in Pinggiran Batu Caves in Selangor state.
''She stayed and worked with us. She was a social worker who was active in charity work.'' According to Kumar, Punitha left for Dublin, Ireland, in 2005 where she worked as a maid for about a year.
''She returned to Malaysia and worked with me for several months before she packed her bags and said she was going to find a job in Europe. The last I spoke to her was in August 2006 when she called me from Spain to say she had met and fallen in love with a Nigerian and that they were going to get married.''
Then came the call from the Peruvian prison which shocked Kumar.
''I don't know exactly what happened but I believe she could have been duped by her Nigerian lover into carrying the drugs for him,'' he said, urging Punitha's family to contact her.Kumar's mission now is to bring her back, and he is seeking the assistance of the authorities here as well as NGOs.The government move to monitor ''fly-alone-women'', announced Saturday last, has been panned by women's organisations and NGOs as violation of law and of basic human rights.
The government says it is only trying to fight a growing menace. Ninety percent of the 119 Malaysians caught trafficking in drugs last years were women.
The vast majority of these women is aged between 21 and 27 and is believed to have been duped or forced into being ''mules'' for drug syndicates.
It is learnt that Malaysians were prime targets for these syndicates wanting to smuggle drugs into European Union countries, as they do not require visas for stays of up to 90 days or to transit in those countries.

Saturday 3 May 2008

The 25-year-old, from Venezuela, was stopped by customs officers as she stepped off a flight from Malaga, Spain.

The 25-year-old, from Venezuela, was stopped by customs officers as she stepped off a flight from Malaga, Spain.A woman is being quizzed by gardai after the seizure of 210,000 euro worth of cocaine at Cork Airport.The cocaine was allegedly discovered in the woman's personal baggage.

Dutch man has appeared in court charged in connection with a seizure of cocaine at Belfast International Airport.

Dutch man has appeared in court charged in connection with a seizure of 100 small packages of cocaine at Belfast International Airport. Customs officers intercepted the man as he arrived on a flight from Amsterdam on Tuesday. The 24-year-old was charged with attempting to smuggle drugs. He appeared on Friday before Larne Magistrates Court, where he was remanded in custody. He is to appear again via videolink later this month.

"Operation Piano Man." seized guns, approximately nine pounds of heroin, five kilos of cocaine and over $200,000 in cash.

A group of ten illegal immigrants were getting weekly shipments of drugs smuggled in from Mexico. Phoenix police lieutenant Vince Piano said their east Valley customers were mostly teens and young adults. "The group was so regimented over the past ten years that they would work throughout the day and make about $8,000-$10,000 a day just distributing at street level," Piano said. Piano said both buyers and sellers were booked into jail. They seized guns, approximately nine pounds of heroin, five kilos of cocaine and over $200,000 in cash.

Fifteen kilograms of cocaine were seized in a joint raid by Montenegrin and Croatian police

Fifteen kilograms of cocaine were seized in a joint raid by Montenegrin and Croatian police on April 28. Two arrests were made.
Montenegrin police stated that the two arrestees, identified only as E.M. and R.M., are directors of the Esko Company, which is headquartered in the town of Rožaje. Police stated that the pair were using the company’s license to import agricultural products as a front for organising, financing and smuggling cocaine from Ecuador.
E.M and R.M. were arrested when a container, that police believe entered Montenegro through the Port of Bar, was being unloaded from a truck. The container was filled with frozen fruit pulp. Police found one kilogram of pure cocaine hidden in the offering from South America.
The other 14 kilograms were confiscated by Croatian police.
Montenegrin police stated that an intense investigation is ongoing in order to uncover the other individuals who participated in the international drug smuggling ring.
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