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Wednesday 30 July 2008

85 years, which were passed down last week on three English gang members, are unlikely to stem the tide of transatlantic drug shipments

Punitive sentences totalling 85 years, which were passed down last week on three English gang members, are unlikely to stem the tide of transatlantic drug shipments.
As he fielded calls last week from people eager to discuss the record prison sentences handed down to four drug smugglers over the €440 million haul of cocaine recovered off west Cork, Michael Colgan repeated one message over and over again.
Intelligence is key to tackling the highly organised and well-resourced drugs gangs that target the European market, insisted Colgan, the head of the Customs drug enforcement unit.
Yet the 1,500 kilos of cocaine was seized off Cork because of an accident that was both dramatic and absurd - the shipment would have safely landed in Ireland if one of the smugglers had not accidentally put diesel, rather than petrol, into the fuel tank of an inflatable boat.
The seizure cast a spotlight on Ireland’s part in the international drugs trade and raised a major question for Irish law enforcement agencies: is Ireland perceived as a low-risk route through which drugs can be moved into Britain and Europe?
The Cork cocaine consignment originated in South America, and was transported across the Atlantic on a US bought catamaran from the Caribbean. It was almost certainly intended for the British market. Drug smuggling is a risky but lucrative business, and it is unlikely that even the punitive sentences handed down last week at Cork Circuit Criminal Court will stem the tide of transatlantic drug shipments.
Three English gang members received jail terms totalling 85 years. Two of the accused, Martin Wanden, 45, and Perry Wharrie, 49, received record 30-year sentences.
A third man, Joe Daly, 41, was sentenced to 25 years for his part in the smuggling operation which came unstuck off Dunlough Bay in west Cork on July 2 last year.
The case brought to light the vulnerability of the Irish coastline for landing consignments of narcotics. For a coastline totalling about 4,350 kilometres, there is just one Customs cutter boat, the RCC Suirbheir, which is based out of Cork. A second vessel will enter service next year and an internal review team is deciding where this can be most effectively deployed.
The Irish Naval Service also polices waters within a 200mile radius of the Republic. The Garda National Drugs Unit, local garda units based out of Bantry, the Irish Coast Guard, the Naval Service and the Customs drug enforcement unit were all instrumental in the recovery operation that followed the Dunlough Bay discovery.
Last week, as much of the focus centred on the €440million haul and the sentences handed down, one of Colgan’s team was packing his bags and going to join the European Union’s new Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre - Narcotics (MAOC-N). The venture involves seven EU states - Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy – and Colgan believes that the MAOC-N unit will be ‘‘a huge tool in terms of the bigger picture’’.
‘‘This is one of the biggest events, in terms of tackling international smuggling,” he said. ‘‘If you can take out the bulk - the big loads - that is the ideal. Transnational crime requires international cooperation at the highest and most effective level.
‘‘Traffickers do not respect boundaries, so law enforcement has to work across them to maximum effect. The emphasis with the Maritime Analysis and Operation Centre is thinking big.”
Even before the centre officially started operating last September, it had coordinated 22 operations in a trial period since the previous April. That led to ten seizures amounting to over ten tonnes of cocaine.
In recent days, Ireland’s first liaison officer, a member of Colgan’s unit, was dispatched to the permanent staff of MAOC-N, and will be based at the organisation’s headquarters in Lisbon. Gardaí are expected to follow suit and dispatch a liaison officer to the permanent office, where they will share information with EU counterparts.
Smugglers use a variety of methods to get drugs into Ireland. Smaller quantities of cocaine, ranging around one or two kilos in weight, are smuggled in via hand luggage thorough airports. West African gangs also play a ‘‘significant role’’ in using so-called ‘‘human mules’’ to smuggle ingested capsules - usually wax coated condoms - containing cocaine.
Some larger consignments are smuggling into Ireland via ports, in private and commercial vehicles. However, bulk transportations of narcotics originate in Central and South America and require large-scale planning to get them into Europe.
Concealing drugs alongside large commercial boats can provide excellent cover, particularly where there is mixed cargo. ‘‘Illegal trade is very much hidden alongside legal trade,” said Colgan. So Customs is adding a second X-ray container scanner to its arsenal, to scan containers unloaded from vessels at freight ports.
Privately owned boats - such as the catamaran Lucky Day, which transported the cocaine haul to Cork from Barbados on a five-week trip last summer - allow smugglers to transport drugs untracked. In an operation known as coopering, the ‘‘mothership’’ can be met by a smaller boat off the coast and the drugs taken ashore in smaller consignments.
Senior gardaí accept that there is an issue over the exposure of the Irish coastline. However, they insist that intelligence information from contacts in the criminal underworld, followed by lengthy surveillance and tracking of vessels, are what lead to the successful seizure of major bulk consignments of narcotics globally.
Attempting to estimate what drugs get through the net is next to impossible. An often-cited figure that law enforcement agencies catch just 10 per cent of the illegal trade is not based on empirical evidence - although extrapolations are frequently used to guess the extent of domestic drug supply by multiplying the volume of seizures by ten.
A more reliable United Nations study on the trafficking of cocaine from South and Central America, which examined production against seizures, indicated that law enforcement agencies managed to take out up to 42 per cent of drugs in the market.
In the first half of this year, gardaí have seized almost as much illicit narcotics as in all of last year. Drugs with an estimated street value of €46.8 million have been recovered this year, compared with €50.3 million last year. The figures exclude the Cork seizure, as it was not intended for the domestic market.
The figures show that heroin seizures have topped €1 8 million, and seizures of cannabis resin have exceeded the €15 million recovered last year. Cocaine worth €7.2 million has been intercepted.
The scale of the seizures would seem to reflect concerns that the use of drugs, particularly cocaine and heroin, has risen dramatically in Ireland. But Ireland is only a small part of a major international jigsaw.
After the US, Europe is the second-largest narcotics market in the world. The US Drug Enforcement Administration, part of the Department of Justice, estimates that about 80 per cent of cocaine from Latin America not intended for the US market is transported to Europe.
The lure is simple: profits are higher in Europe than in the US. Both in 2006 and last year, wholesale prices for cocaine in the EU area ranged between €28,000 and €56,600 per kilo. Higher supply in the US has forced wholesale prices down as low as $9,000.
Spain is the heart of Europe’s drugs trade, and the main route through which Latin American cocaine and North African cannabis enter the EU area. In 2006, Spanish law enforcement officers seized more than 40 tonnes of cocaine - the fourth highest globally after Colombia, the US and Venezuela.
The scale of the seizures reflects growing demand. More than 3 per cent of all adults in the EU - or about ten million people - have used cocaine at least once in their lives, a historically high figure, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
Research by the Irish National Advisory Committee on Drugs shows that the percentage of Irish people who have used cocaine at some stage in their lives rose from 3 per cent in 2002 to just over 5 per cent in 2007.
Concern over crystal meth seizure
The largest-ever seizure of so-called ‘crystal meth’ in Ireland has sparked concern among gardaí that use of the drug is more prevalent among recreational drug users than previously believed. More than 13lbs of the drug was found in a joint operation in the Midlands by the Garda National Drugs Unit and Revenue’s Customs drug enforcement unit.
Only small quantities of the drug had been found in Ireland previously. The find in Birr, Co Offaly, followed a nine-month investigation, codenamed Operation Chestnut, aimed at drug smuggling from central and eastern Europe. A 39-year-old Lithuanian was arrested and taken for questioning to Tullamore garda station.
Crystal meth, officially known as methamphetamine, is produced from a mixture of chemicals and is highly addictive as a stimulant to the central nervous system. It can be consumed in a variety of ways, such as injected or smoked.
The effects can last for several hours. Immediate effects are euphoria and greater mental focus, although it can also be marked by diarrhoea, nausea and excessive perspiration. Loss of appetite is also a common side-effect of use and chronic users can suffer dramatic and life-threatening weight loss. Other street names for methamphetamine include ‘ice’, ‘crystal’, ‘tina’ and ‘glass’.
Cannabis with a potential street value of close to €1.3 million was also seized in two operations last week.
In one operation by the gardaí and Customs, €1.1 million-worth of cannabis was found in pallets of tiles which had been imported to Dublin from southern Spain. In the second case, cannabis worth €175,000 was discovered in the petrol tank of a British-registered car that arrived in Rosslare on the ferry from Cherbourg, France.

Tuesday 29 July 2008

Charges against Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing and wife Eva have been dropped

Charges against Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing and wife Eva have been dropped Hans Rausing, 45, an heir to the multi-billion pound Tetra Pak drinks carton empire, was embarrassingly drawn into the public eye in April after his wife Eva, 44, was caught trying to smuggle heroin and crack into a function at London's American embassy.When £10m home the couple share with their four children in exclusive Cadogan Place, Chelsea, was then searched, officers found more crack and heroin - and £2,000 worth of cocaine, enough to fuel a whole nightclub full of drug-users.
Typically, addicts caught with such huge quantities of drugs will face a prison sentence.But at Westminster magistrates court yesterday, it was revealed that all charges against the couple are being dropped after a 'protracted correspondence' between their lawyers and the Crown Prosecution Service.Instead, they are each to accept a 'conditional caution', which will probably involve the pair promising to attend drug misuse programmes. They will not even have criminal records, although the cautions will be recorded on police files and could affect later cases.
Neither of the shamed pair appeared in court, where their solicitor made an extraordinary suggestion that the press should be asked to leave to keep proceedings secret. In fact the hearing was held in public as is usual.
Shortly before the hearing, Mr Rausing's parents and siblings had issued a statement in which they said: 'The Rausing family are deeply saddened by Hans's and Eva's situation, and the events leading up to their court appearance today.
'We hope with all our hearts that Hans K and Eva can overcome their addiction and we continue to do what we can to help.'
Court documents revealed that Mr Rausing was charged with possessing 0.2oz (5.63g) of crack cocaine, 0.1oz (2.9g) of heroin and almost 1.8oz (52g) of cocaine at his home.Mrs Rausing faced charges of possessing Class A , But prosecutor Martha Godwin said the charges were being dropped, and police were issuing conditional cautions instead.District Judge Timothy Workman said the drugs charges would be formally discontinued at a hearing next month.The Rausings' solicitor Philip Smith told the court: 'On behalf of both my clients that is a course that is acceptable to them both.'There has been a protracted course of correspondence from my office to the Crown Prosecution Service to enable them to make that very sensible decision.'
Mr Rausing stands to inherit the £5.4 billion Tetra Pak drinks carton empire built up by his Swedish father, also named Hans - who also lives in Britain and has three children. The family are said to have the seventh largest fortune in Britain.
Tetra Pak was founded in Sweden in 1951 by Mr Rausing's grandfather, Ruben Rausing. Its first product was a paper carton used for storing and transporting milk.
The Rausings own numerous properties around the world, including a £50 million estate in Barbados and a 3,000-acre retreat in East Sussex.
Mr and Mrs Rausing have contributed huge sums to addiction tragedies, and Mr Rausing was long believed to have dabbled in drugs - but only after American-born Mrs Rausing's arrest at the US embassy did it become public that both were addicted to crack and heroin.
Both drugs are typically associated with poverty-stricken ghettoes and crime, rather than the salons of west London.
Mrs Rausing is the daughter of a wealthy Pepsi-Cola executive.
After being arrested she said: : 'I have made a serious mistake which I very much regret.'I have made a grave error and consider myself to have taken a wrong turn in the course of my life.

Ramiro Vanoy Murillo , and Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in downtown Miami.

Ramiro Vanoy Murillo, 60, and Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo, 38, are among 14 paramilitary members extradited to the U.S. in May for their alleged roles in a massive cocaine smuggling operation in the late 1990s. The two entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in downtown Miami.Under a plea agreement, Vanoy Murillo faces up to 19 years and Zuluaga Lindo more than 17 years behind bars. Prosecutors said they would drop additional charges against the two at sentencing. Each could also face up to $4 million in fines.The Bush administration agreed it would not seek life sentences as a precondition of their extradition. But on Tuesday, Moore reminded the defendants that he was not bound by the plea agreement in deciding sentencing.A lean, bespectacled Vanoy Murillo, sporting a shaved head, and a husky Zuluaga Lindo attended the hearings quietly. Both wore standard beige jumpsuits, their feet in shackles and spoke only in response to the judge's questions.At one point, asked his level of education, Vanoy Murillo responded: "I did not attend school. I am learning to read now in prison."The twoare accused of conspiring to import thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the U.S. through Mexico. According to the defendants' attorney Dennis Urbano, Zuluaga Lindo offered to provide a boat for transport. Vanoy Murillo offered to sell some of the cocaine.Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he decided to extradite the men because they were still committing crimes from Colombian prisons and had failed to pay restitution to victims.The rest of the 14 were extradited to Tampa, Washington, Houston and New York.
So far, Diego Murillo, 47, is the only other member of the extradited group to have pleaded guilty. He entered his plea in June to drug trafficking charges in Manhattan federal court and faces a sentence of up to 33 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18. Human rights organizations claimed Diego Murillo was behind hundreds of murders in Colombia as part of the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym AUC.
Thousands of Colombians have lodged formal complaints of "atrocious crimes" against the paramilitaries — including murder, rape and kidnapping. Hundreds of mass graves are thought to remain hidden in Colombia.

Robert David Matheson arrested

In January 1998, Matheson was convicted of accessory after the fact involving a theft of over $500. In August 2000, Matheson was convicted of possession of Methylenedioxy Amphetamine also known as MDMA or Ecstacy and possession of cocaine.
As a result of his second conviction, which took place in Allen Parish, Matheson was sentenced to serve nine years in the department of corrections.
“It’s a relief to get him off the streets,” said Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft. “He’s got two prior felony convictions and if convicted of these charges he will be a three time loser.”
Matheson will face charges of operation of a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.
On April 4, task force agents along with numerous other law enforcement agencies went to the Matheson’s residence located on 226 Willie Doyle Road in Pitkin. Agents discovered the components of a methamphetamine laboratory at the residence and as a result of the discovery arrested Matheson’s girlfriend Sabrina Newhouse.
Newhouse was booked into the Vernon Parish Jail and has since bonded on the charges. Matheson on the other has been wanted ever sence, according to Craft.
The Sheriff also said that agents have been following leads, which have led them all over the state attempting to apprehend Matheson.
On Saturday, July 26, agents received information that Matheson was located at his sister’s restaurant, “Down Home,” located near Toledo Town in Sabine Parish.
After following the information and a combined effort between the Sabine and Vernon Parish Sheriff Offices, Matheson was taken into custody without incident at approximately 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
Matheson was immediately transported back to Vernon Parish. At the time of his arrest, Matheson was found to be in possession of a false identification card.
Matheson was released on parole for his second conviction in February 2005 and has since been on parole.
“It’s quite evident, he has not been following the conditions of his release set forth by the state,” said Craft

man is dead after being shot by a sheriff's deputy during a law enforcement sweep through Buffalo to round up members of a violent drug gang.

man is dead after being shot by a sheriff's deputy during a law enforcement sweep through Buffalo to round up members of a violent drug gang. Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson says a Niagara County sheriff's deputy fired at the man inside a home Tuesday morning after the man aimed a gun at the officer.
The man's name was not released. He was pronounced dead at a Buffalo hospital.
The shooting happened as 400 officers from several agencies participated in Operation Third Strike, fanning out at 5 a.m. with federal arrest warrants. About 20 suspects are in custody. The shooting is under investigation

Libyan authorities have seized 50kg of heroin

The Libyan authorities have seized 50kg of heroin in a record haul, the interior ministry said in a statement on Monday. Heroin of "pure quality" was seized in the Al-Wahat region in the east of the country, the ministry said. It did not specify if any arrests were made. The statement said that the amount was the largest ever seized in a North African country and the second largest recorded in Libya. Efforts are being made "to eradicate the epidemic" in Libya where illegal narcotics are considered "weapons of mass destruction," the statement said, without elaborating. Drug trafficking carries the death penalty in Libya, a key transit route for drugs that come mainly from Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. Last week the authorities announced they had seized one tonne of hashish in the southeastern region of Tazerbo.

Friday 25 July 2008

Hells Angels linked to marijuana grow operation

Kelowna RCMP say a marijuana grow operation busted Thursday was linked to the Hells Angels.The Kelowna drug section dismantled a grow operation in the 2000-block of Ethel Street, according to a news release Friday."Seized from the house were 86 'mother plants' and approximately 3,000 immature 'clone plants'. Police believe the house was being used as a clone factory of sorts, whereby the immature plans were being produced from the mother plants and were then available for sale or relocation to other marijuana grow sites," the release stated.Police also seized about $40,000, about eight pounds (3.6 kilograms) of dried marijuana bud and a sawed off pistol-grip shotgun."From evidence gathered at the scene, police suspect the operation is linked to the Hells Angels Organized crime group," the release said.RCMP did not explain what evidence allegedly linked the operation to the Hells Angels, nor could they be reached for comment.A woman, 26, was arrested at the scene and is facing charges of production of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking, possession of proceeds of crime and possession of an unregistered prohibited firearm.Similar charges are expected against a man, 30, who was not at the home when the search warrant was executed.
Kelowna RCMP also reported Friday that a Kamloops man, 31, and an Aberta man, 32, are facing a number of firearm charges after being pulled over in a speeding vehicle at 2:30 a.m. Friday.
The Albertan, who was a passenger in the vehicle, is also charged with assaulting a police officer.The RCMP said a loaded .45 calibre pistol with hollow-point bullets was found in a bag in the car, as well as "a large quantity of cash."
Police said both men were linked to a gang called the "Independent Soldiers."
The identities of the accused have not been released.

Dennis "King" Pamplin, 58, of New Rochelle, N.Y., and Brian Henry, 31, of Bloomfield. arrested

Federal authorities in New Jersey say they have broken up a drug trafficking ring that was a major supplier of marijuana to Bermuda -- in the process touching off a political scandal on the island. Two men, one a resident of Bloomfield and the other alleged to be the husband of a top government official in Bermuda, were arrested after agents seized 700 pounds of marijuana last week at a warehouse in Orange. Douglas Collier, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Newark, said the operation differed from most, because rather than importing drugs into this country the traffickers were big-time exporters. The agency believes the traffickers had made five shipments totaling more than 2,000 pounds from Port Newark to Bermuda since last summer. Agents valued the pot at $15 million.
"It was unique," Collier said. "They were taking advantage of this beautiful island without law enforcement looking at them."
Taken into custody at the warehouse on July 15 were Dennis "King" Pamplin, 58, of New Rochelle, N.Y., and Brian Henry, 31, of Bloomfield.
Authorities said Pamplin's wife is a member of parliament in Bermuda, although he was found living in New York with a woman described in court papers as his girlfriend. Patricia Gordon-Pamplin is the shadow minister of works and engineering and deputy leader of the United Bermuda Party. Her husband's arrest, which has been big news in the Royal Gazette, Bermuda's only daily newspaper, has led to calls for her to resign, but so far she has refused. His lawyer said the couple have two children.

Henry and Pamplin were charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, a federal offense. Their case has been assigned to federal court in Manhattan.

The two have been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn; Henry without bail and Pamplin on a $2 million bond that will require the posting of property in Florida. If released, Pamplin also would be required to remain under house arrest with electronic monitoring.

According to a DEA complaint, the marijuana was owned by Pamplin. Just after noon on July 15, a DEA agent accompanied by other officers who had been watching the warehouse confronted Pamplin and Henry as they left the building. Pamplin gave them permission to search the place, the agent wrote.

A drug-sniffing dog then got interested in six concrete pillars, each 6 feet long and nearly 2 feet around. At that point, Henry allegedly told agents the columns had marijuana hidden inside, and police found it secured in 5-foot-long metal cylinders encased in the concrete.

The agent said Henry told them he assisted in packaging the shipments while Pamplin arranged for their transport.

Henry also told the officers that Pamplin was involved in a car chase in Morris County last year after he was ripped off trying to buy 227 kilograms of marijuana for $120,000. Chatham police records show Pamplin was arrested with two others after a chase on Aug. 28, 2007, and that the trio was found with $97,000, the agent stated.
The agent said a search of Pamplin's home last week turned up records showing wire transfers of thousands of dollars between bank accounts of his in this country and Bermuda from 2005 until this year.
Defense lawyer Paul Bergrin maintained Pamplin is in the asbestos removal business and simply stopped by the warehouse to check out a job, unaware marijuana was on the premises. He insisted Henry pointed the finger at his client in an effort to save himself and predicted Pamplin will be cleared.
Henry's attorney did not return a call for comment.

Liakat Ali alias Lakhwinder Singh, 34, was nabbed with the contraband wrapped in a polythene bag near the Chandigarh airport.

Sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Thursday arrested a man and recovered from him four kg of heroin, worth Rs.40 million in the international market. Liakat Ali alias Lakhwinder Singh, 34, was nabbed with the contraband wrapped in a polythene bag near the Chandigarh airport. He had gone there to deliver the packet to a Nigerian who, however, failed to turn up, NCB officials said.
“A close-knit network of heroin traffickers is run by a group based in Pakistan and their kingpin is a Pakistani national who is at present lodged in a Punjab jail,” NCB zonal director Saji Mohan told mediapersons.
“They bring this heroin via Amritsar. Some Nigerians are the main buyers who further take it to European markets,” he said. During interrogation, Ali, a resident of Behlana village near here, told NCB officials that he had got this consignment Wednesday from Bittu who came from Amritsar. Ali, a drug addict, came in contact with drug traffickers when he was lodged in Patiala jail five years ago, the officials said.
“We are keeping a close watch on the activities of that Pakistan national and of the Nigerian who was expected to come to receive this consignment,” Mohan said.
NCB, however, did not disclose the identity of the Pakistani and Nigerian nationals.

Canadian customs officer - have been charged in connection with the RCMP investigation of a drug ring.

Eight people - including a Canadian customs officer - have been charged in connection with the RCMP investigation of a drug ring.The investigation, which began in 2007, stemmed from information provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI.The FBI established links between drug suppliers in Quebec and New Brunswick following the arrest of a cannabis supplier in Florida.
The customs officer was arrested last week during a controlled delivery of drugs across the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing between Quebec and the U.S.
Four people have been arrested by RCMP in Quebec and Edmunston, N.B., and three other people are still being sought.

ABC journalist Peter Lloyd Three new drug charges





Three new drug charges laid against ABC journalist Peter Lloyd in Singapore include one count of possessing utensils that carried traces of the veterinary drug ketamine.
Nicknamed Special K, ketamine is also a recreational drug used for its psychedelic or hallucinogenic effects.The other two new charges against Lloyd are methamphetamine consumption without authorisation, and possessing utensils that carried traces of methamphetamine, a charge sheet shows.The consumption charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail or a $S20,000 ($15,400) fine, or both.
The other two charges each have a maximum penalty of three years in jail or a $S10,000 ($7700) fine or both.The three new charges relate to events on July 16, the day of the ABC South Asia correspondent's arrest while on leave in Singapore.
Lloyd was grim-faced as he appeared today before the Singapore Subordinates Court on charges of possessing and trafficking the drug ice.
During a brief hearing the court heard that the three additional charges had been laid against Lloyd, who was already facing allegations which could land him in jail for up to 20 years, or earn him up to 15 strokes of the cane.
Amendments have also been made to the two original charges laid against Lloyd of possessing and trafficking methamphetamine, or ice.
It is alleged that on July 9 at Singapore's York Hotel, he sold a packet containing 0.15 grams of methamphetamine to a person identified as Sani bin Saidi for $S100 ($76).Outside court defence lawyer Tan Jee Ming confirmed three additional charges had been laid, but would not immediately reveal what they were. The new charges were not read out in court.The lawyer said he wanted more time to study the new charges before commenting but, asked how serious they were, said: "Comparatively, not that serious.''Lloyd, 41, wearing a blue and white checked shirt and black pants, said nothing as he stood before the judge, who extended his bail before adjourning the case for a week.The New Delhi-based foreign correspondent was released on bail on Wednesday after being arrested last week while on leave in Singapore.
He was also charged with allegedly being in possession of about one gram of ice.

Tuesday 22 July 2008

The Maine-based Coast Guard cutter Tahoma arrived in Miami today with 10,000 pounds of confiscated cocaine.

The Maine-based Coast Guard cutter Tahoma arrived in Miami today with 10,000 pounds of confiscated cocaine.The cutter has been working with U.S. and British navy patrols in the Caribbean, operations which in late June led to the seizure of 13,000 pounds of cocaine worth about $227 million on the street.On June 26, the Tahoma boarded a 120-foot Honduran ship Miss Dayanna 76 miles south of Jamaica and found the 10,000-pound cocaine stash hidden on board. The 270-foot Tahoma's home port is Kittery.The Coast Guard said its cutter named Tahoma intercepted a boat bound for Honduras in June in the Windward Passage, the section of the Caribbean Sea between Cuba and Hispaniola. The Honduran ship was on its way from Venezuela to Honduras when Coast Guard officials deemed it suspicious and boarded the vessel.Officials said they found almost 200 bales of cocaine carefully packed inside a hidden compartment in a fuel tank onboard the ship. Twenty-five bricks of cocaine were packed into each bale."Finding 4 1/2 tons or 10,000 pounds is rather significant," said Lt. John Christensen of the U.S. Coast Guard. "It's one of the larger busts down in the Caribbean in recent times."Authorities said the cocaine is worth about $160 million on the streets.Officials said the find was a major deal for the Coast Guard crew, which spends weeks at a time patrolling the eastern seaboard.
"That's a significant period of time away from your family, and to have actual, tangible results in the end, it provides a reason for being out here," Christensen said.The seven people who were onboard the Honduran ship are now in the custody of the Drug Enforcement Agency. The ship was turned over to the Honduran government.
The U.S. Attorney's Office is expected to prosecute the case.

Senegalese police are unravelling a Latin American drug smuggling network thought to be using the West African nation as a hub for trafficking

Senegalese police are unravelling a Latin American drug smuggling network thought to be using the West African nation as a hub for trafficking to Europe and the United States after seizing cocaine worth over $200 million.
Police have discovered 2 454kg of cocaine and arrested three South American men since a deserted sailing ship, apparently broken down, drifted into a popular coastal resort last Wednesday with 50 sacks of the drug on board.The arrests at the weekend of the men from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador - who police said were caught in possession of guns, satellite navigation equipment and foreign and local cash - led authorities to discover a further drug stash in a private house."The South Americans created a fish farming company as a front in the (coastal town of) Ndangane where they invested millions before declaring the company bust and reinjecting the cash into the circuit," Moussa Fall, head of the investigation department of Senegal’s paramilitary police, told Reuters."Guinea-Bissau was obviously the entry point for the drugs. All the air tickets we have found were from Rio de Janeiro to Bissau. A minute part of the drugs was destined for the local market, the rest was bound for Europe and the United States."One of the South American men was arrested at Saly, a coastal resort south of Dakar popular with European tourists, while the two others were arrested in the Sine Saloum, a sprawling river delta of lush mangrove swamps and islets.Three Senegalese accomplices have also been arrested.South American drug cartels have increasingly been moving their logistics bases to West Africa, lured by lax policing in an unstable region and by the presence of small, underground criminal networks already in place, security experts say.Operating as flexible groups of individuals, they can recruit couriers among a cheap labour force in countries like Senegal who are then used to market illicit products to diaspora populations in European and U.S. drug markets.But Antonio Mazzitelli, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in West and Central Africa, said the latest seizure was probably the biggest ever in the region and suggested a more sophisticated trafficking operation.
"You cannot use west African couriers to smuggle 2,4 tons, it is too much," Mazzitelli said. "There must be bigger players using other means: ships, planes."
Consignments of cocaine have long come from Latin America through the Cape Verde islands off the Atlantic coast, or through Ghana, Nigeria and Togo, from where they are re-exported to markets including Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom.
Mazzitelli said the wholesale price for a kilo of cocaine in Spain, the main entry point to Europe, was around $42 000 in 2005. With a retail price twice that high, the Senegalese haul had a street value in Europe of more than $200 million.
More recently, UN officials have warned that former Portuguese colony Guinea-Bissau, just to the south of Senegal, could become overrun by drug cartels which its cash-strapped security forces are ill-equipped to tackle.Few youths in sport-obsessed and Muslim Senegal use hard drugs such as cocaine but politicians worry that as the country develops and a growing sector of the population becomes wealthy, that may change unless the cartels are fought quickly."Young Senegalese users tend to take tablets, amphetamines, they also take Yamba (cannabis) in cigarettes and sometimes alcohol," parliamentarian Abdou Latif Gueye told local TV.

Five guards at a Miami-Dade County prison are charged with smuggling drugs into the facility.

Five guards at a Miami-Dade County prison are charged with smuggling drugs into the facility.Federal indictments also charge them with taking cash from inmates in return for helping to deliver the drugs inside the prison.They were arrested Friday. The guards worked at Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City, about 28 miles north of Miami.A kitchen employee at the prison and several inmates were also charged.Prosecutors say the arrests were part of an FBI investigation called Operation Birdcage. An undercover officer posed as a drug dealer and sold cocaine and heroin to the guards.

Jerome Levore Parker, 29, was arrested in March after Transportation Security Administration screeners at Tucson International Airport found cocaine

Jerome Levore Parker, 29, was arrested in March after Transportation Security Administration screeners at Tucson International Airport found bundles of cocaine hidden inside his suitcase and computer bag.
Parker had flown into Tucson from New York and was planning to fly to London the following day.
Parker pleaded guilty to attempted transportation of narcotics for sale in Pima County Superior Court last month.
Parker’s attorney, Brad Roach, told Judge Richard Nichols Parker only agreed to carry the drugs because he was behind in child support.
Upon his arrest, Parker immediately confessed, Roach said.
“This is not who Jerome is. It was very atypical. He doesn’t come from a family where this behavior is typical,” Roach said.
He had hoped to negotiate a plea agreement in which probation was available, but the Pima County Attorney’s Office refused because of the amount of the drugs, Roach said.
Roach told the judge he hoped he would give Parker a mitigated sentence of 2.5 years.
Nichols declined, saying he agreed that 12 pounds of cocaine is not a small amount.

Monday 21 July 2008

intelligence led Mexican forces to a small submarine captured this week packed with 5.8 tons of cocaine.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that U.S. intelligence led Mexican forces to a small submarine captured this week packed with 5.8 tons of cocaine.
Chertoff called the vessel's seizure Wednesday off Oaxaca state in southern Mexico "a great example of our cooperation."
"We shared information with the Mexican navy, but the Mexican navy acted alone in actually executing the seizure," Chertoff told a news conference in Mexico City.
Mexican navy Vice Adm. Jose Maria Ortegon said the 30-foot (10-meter) green submarine was equipped with GPS and a compass, and its crew had planned to drop off its shipment on Mexican shores. The navy has since stepped up patrols in the area.
Authorities arrested four Colombian crew members who claim to be fishermen forced by drug cartels to move the cargo. They say they left the Colombian port of Buenaventura about a week ago.



Similar makeshift submarines carrying drugs have been discovered off Colombia and Central America, but the navy says the seizure is a first for Mexico.
Chertoff, who is on a three-day trip to meet with Mexican security officials, said drug cartels are increasingly relying on the subs to smuggle cocaine to the United States.
U.S. officials say traffickers use the vessels to carry about 32 percent of the cocaine moved by water from South America to the U.S.
Costing about US$1 million, the boats are usually painted to blend in with the color of the water, U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Thad Allen told reporters in Washington on Friday.
Many are capable of carrying more than 10 tons of cocaine and can be operated by remote control from hundreds of miles away, Allen said.
Drug cartels have been looking for new ways to move drugs north to the United States as the Mexican government cracks down on drug trafficking across the country.
President Felipe Calderon has deployed 25,000 soldiers across the country to battle drug gangs, which have responded with bold attacks on the military and police. More than 4,000 people have been killed in turf wars, assassinations and shootouts since Calderon took office in December 2006.
Chertoff said Friday that a US$400 million aid package recently approved by the United States would go to help Mexico buy equipment, train agents and coordinate information with the U.S. He also praised Mexico's drug offensive.
"My personal belief is that you got to step down very hard very quickly on those people who challenge the rule of law and defy it, and that's why I'm pleased to see the Mexican military has been involved," Chertoff said. "They have been aggressive, and most of all they haven't been intimidated."

Sunday 20 July 2008

59-year-old man from Carlton in Sydney arrested allegedly trying to smuggle more than 577 grams of cocaine through Sydney International Airport.

59-year-old man from Carlton in Sydney will appear via videolink before Parramatta Local Court today after allegedly trying to smuggle more than 577 grams of cocaine through Sydney International Airport.After arriving on a flight from Santiago, Chile, yesterday morning (19 July 2008), the man was detained for a frisk search by Customs officers. During the search, a large package was found concealed around the man’s groin. He was then interviewed by Australian Federal Police agents at the airport.The AFP has charged the man with importing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug, cocaine, contrary to the Criminal Code Act 1995.The maximum penalty for this offence is 25 years imprisonment

Guinea-Bissau police have arrested the head of the air traffic control tower at the country's main airport

Guinea-Bissau police have arrested the head of the air traffic control tower at the country's main airport after the seizure of a plane suspected of carrying cocaine, a senior police officer said on Sunday.The tiny former Portuguese colony has become a major hub for smugglers trafficking Colombian cocaine to Europe due to its poorly policed Atlantic shoreline and widespread corruption in an ill-resourced public administration, anti-drugs experts say.Last week authorities seized two planes suspected of being used by smugglers at the main international airport in the capital Bissau."The head of the control tower and his deputy were arrested at work. They were questioned and detained in the cells of the judicial police," a senior officer of the force, which covers drugs crimes, told Reuters on Sunday.
The men, who are yet to appear in court, have not been charged.The officer declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of drugs investigations in Bissau, which U.N. officials have said risks being reduced to a "narcostate" by Latin American drugs syndicates.The judicial police -- a branch of the country's security charged with fighting drug trafficking -- had arrested the three-man Venezuelan crew of one of the planes, an executive Gulfstream jet, on Saturday, the head of the force's drugs unit said.The Gulfstream's arrival at Bissau airport last weekend, having apparently flown in from Venezuela, triggered a stand-off between police who wanted to search it and the army, which blocked access to the plane, diplomats said.
International drug experts believe members of Guinea-Bissau's various security services facilitate the passage of tonnes of cocaine through one of the world's poorest countries, one of a number of West African countries used by traffickers.
Police in nearby Sierra Leone have arrested more than 60 people in the past week, including three Venezuelans and eight other foreigners mostly also from Latin America, and seized 700 kg (1,545 lb) of cocaine.The United Nations said 6.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized in West Africa last year. Experts say the seizures represent a tiny percentage of what actually passes through the region.Guinea-Bissau has been regarded as a soft touch for smugglers in part because its police lack funding and basic equipment, making them no match for well-armed and powerful international drugs-smuggling networks with access to planes and speed boats. Experts say widespread corruption is also a factor.
Some Latin American smugglers and their local accomplices arrested during previous seizures have been freed by Bissau's judiciary, which critics say is weak and corrupt.

Peter Lloyd was charged with possessing and trafficking methamphetamine last week. Bail was set at $45,000. Lloyd's next court appearance is on Friday

ABC's most senior staff will meet the network's South Asia correspondent, Peter Lloyd, in a Singapore jail this morning for the first time since his arrest for drug trafficking.The ABC's director of news, John Cameron, flew to Singapore last night, joining the ABC's legal adviser, Rob Simpson, who arrived in Singapore after Lloyd was charged with possessing and trafficking methamphetamine last week. Bail was set at $45,000. Lloyd's next court appearance is on Friday.
The ABC said yesterday that Mr Simpson was in Singapore to ensure appropriate legal representation was in place."The ABC's director of news, John Cameron, will be in Singapore early this week and is hoping to be able to speak directly to Peter," it said. "The ABC has not yet had any direct contact with Peter Lloyd since his arrest in Singapore last week."Lloyd, 41, was arrested last Wednesday. Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau alleged its officers found 0.8 grams of methamphetamine, an improvised smoking pipe and six syringes in his possession. They said his urine had tested positive for methamphetamines on an instant urine-test machine. If convicted, Lloyd could be jailed for between five and 20 years and given five to 15 strokes of the cane.A spokeswoman for the ABC refused to comment on whether the ABC would assist Lloyd with bail, or if he will stay on the payroll. "No one has actually seen him yet; we don't know what legal representation he's organised or the family has," she said. "It's too early … [there are] no long-term plans at all." …"
A statement from the narcotics bureau said it was the alleged supply of a 0.6-gram packet of methamphetamine on July 9 to a Singaporean that led to Lloyd's arrest.
The ABC spokeswoman dismissed reports that Lloyd's legal team were planning to raise suspicions that the man, Sani Saidi, 31, had implicated Lloyd in the $75 drug deal in exchange for a lesser charge.

Anti-narcotics police in Guinea Bissau on Saturday arrested the three-man Venezuelan crew of an executive jet

Anti-narcotics police in Guinea Bissau on Saturday arrested the three-man Venezuelan crew of an executive jet suspected of being used to smuggle cocaine into West Africa, an officer said.The arrival of the Gulfstream jet at Bissau airport last weekend, having apparently come from Venezuela, had triggered a stand-off between police who wanted to search it and the army, which blocked access to the plane, diplomats said."Three Venezuelans are being held at the moment by the judicial police," counter-narcotics unit chief Sana Camara told Reuters, without giving further details.Investigations into what they were flying into the tiny former Portuguese colony, an increasingly popular landing spot for the trans-Atlantic cocaine trade, would continue, he added.International drug experts believe top officers in Guinea Bissau's various security services facilitate the passage of tonnes of cocaine through one of the world's poorest countries.The United Nations said 6.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized in West Africa last year. Experts say the seizures represent a tiny percentage of what actually passed through the region.
"The plane landed a week ago. It seems some bags were taken out of the plane. The military set up a cordon to protect the operation," said one envoy, who asked not to be named.

Thursday 17 July 2008

Australian man charged with dealing drugs in Singapore could face 15 strokes of a cane and jail time if he is convicted.

The man was arrested yesterday during a police drug raid and was allegedly caught with 0.8 grams of "Ice", a crack pipe and six syringes, a Singaporean newspaper confirmed last night.41-year-old Australian man charged with dealing drugs in Singapore could face 15 strokes of a cane and jail time if he is convicted.
"His urine was screened positive for amphetamines and he is under investigation in trafficking a controlled drug,"."If convicted he faces imprisonment of between five and 20 years and between five and 15 strokes of the cane."It is not known what state the Australian man if from, but he was in Singapore on a social visit pass.His arrest was part of a greater drug operation by Singaporean police, in which two other men were charged with the same offence and six others were caught under the influence of drugs.The 40-year-old will be charged in court today.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman in Canberra confirmed the arrest last night.
"The Australian High Commission in Singapore is seeking to offer consular assistance to the man," a DFAT spokesman said.
Three years ago an Australian man was hanged in Singapore after being convicted for trafficking heroine, despite pleas for his life from the then Prime Minister John Howard and international human rights groups.Nguyen Tuong Van was caught at Changi Airport with nearly 400g of the drug while in transit from Cambodia to his Melbourne and put to death in 2005.

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Police in Sierra Leone had arrested a total of 58 suspects

Police in Sierra Leone said Tuesday they had arrested a total of 58 suspects, including a number of foreigners, in connection with Sunday's record cocaine bust in the West African state.Deputy Inspector-General Oliver Somassa said those detained included Americans, Mexicans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Brazilians and nationals from Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria. He did not give precise figures.Others included local airport officials and five police officers. An air traffic controller and an employee of a bank at the airport were picked up trying to cross into Guinea, Superintendent Frank Sesay said.Sources said the suspects were being detained at the maximum security Pademba Road prison in the capital Freetown. A checkpoint manned by armed guards was set up on the main road to the prison on Tuesday evening.
Somassa said police were still searching the area around the airport in an effort to track down other suspects."We have made a lot of progress and we are on top of the affair," he said.The arrests follow the discovery on Sunday of 600 kilos (1,322 pounds) of cocaine in an airplane bearing a fake Red Cross emblem at Freetown's international Lungi airport.Police said the plane had come from Venezuela, which is an important exporter of cocaine shipments destined for Europe.The seizure is a record for Sierra Leone and one of the biggest drugs hauls this year in West Africa.Transport and Aviation Minister Kemoh Sesay said Tuesday maritime and port authorities had been ordered to step up checks on all boats in local waters.

Cocaine with a street value of €250,000 was seized in Dublin

Cocaine with a street value of €250,000 was seized in Dublin last night.
The drugs were found during the search of a car on the Malahide Road at about 9pm, a Garda spokesman said.
The operation was carried out by officers from the Garda National Drugs Unit. One man was arrested and is being questioned in Coolock Garda Station under Section 2 Drug Trafficking Act.In another incident, a pipe bomb and a hand grenade, along with up to 200 kilos of cannabis and one kilo of cocaine, were found during a Garda raid on a house in Finglas west, Dublin, last night.A man in his 40s was arrested at the scene in Barry Drive and an Army bomb disposal team was called in to assist local Garda teams.The grenade and pipe bomb were taken away for further examination following the search which took place shortly before 6pm.Garda sources believe the man was storing the weapons and drugs for a drugs gang in the area.
Local Garda members, the Finglas Drug Unit and Crime Task Force were involved in the operation and they were assisted by the Organised Crime Unit.
It is thought the cannabis has an estimated value of up to €400,000, while the cocaine has an estimated value of €80,000.Earlier yesterday, a 32-year-old man was also arrested in the west Dublin area after gardaí seized an estimated €220,000 worth of cannabis.Officers attached to the Ronanstown drug unit made the arrest following a search of a house in Clondalkin at about 4pm.So far this year, Garda officers have seized almost as many illicit drugs in the first six months of this year as in all of last year.The increasing seizure figures are being driven by sustained high demand for heroin and cocaine.In the past two years heroin has been seized in much greater quantities than any other illicit drug.

Sunday 13 July 2008

Police have charged seven people in Melbourne and Sydney over a drug importation worth more than $31 million.

Police have charged seven people in Melbourne and Sydney over a drug importation worth more than $31 million.."Three of those arrests are in Sydney - a 23-year-old Padstow woman, a 24-year-old Prestons man and a 23-year-old man from Punchbowl.They've all been charged with drug importation and possession and will face court in Melbourne today.
Authorities in the United States detected the drugs in a shipment to Australia in May.93 kilograms of ecstasy, 46 kilograms of cocaine and 27 kilograms of ice were removed from the container housing massage chairs and spa baths.Australian Federal Police monitored the consignment to an address in Melbourne's west - they've now arrested seven people.The arrests follow a similar seizure of drugs also hidden in a consignment of foot spas in Melbourne last month.
AFP national manager border and international Tim Morris said the latest arrests were a significant result."The range of illegal commodities within this consignment and the work of the US authorities highlight the organised nature of international drug smuggling and the priority it is given by the AFP and law enforcement internationally," assistant commissioner Morris said."This seizure has saved the Australian community more than $48 million in associated health and social costs and the AFP will continue to work with its partners in Australia and around the world to combat the trade in illicit narcotics

Royal Marines stormed dozens of vessels after they were spotted leaving small ports and tracked by Royal Navy warships

military operation has seized drugs worth £26million being smuggled to Britain from Iran.Royal Marines stormed dozens of vessels after they were spotted leaving small ports and tracked by Royal Navy warships until they entered international waters. Commandos in inflatable speedboats forcibly boarded the "dhows" loaded with heroin, cocaine, cannabis and "speed".Last night a defence source said: "The majority of the heroin and hash had been grown in Afghanistan.It is transported from provinces like Helmand to Iran and smuggled to Europe by boat. This is a huge haul and will hit the Taliban hard."The naval operations - involving frigates HMS Chatham and HMS Montrose and the destroyer HMS Edinburgh - were all made in the socalled smuggling "hash highway" off the Iranian coast.

Sierra Leone made its biggest catch of cocaine on Sunday when it seized 700 kg (1,545 lbs) of the drug on a plane which landed at Lungi international

A passenger plane loaded with 1,540 pounds of cocaine was found abandoned at Sierra Leone's main airport Sunday, police said.Airport officials discovered the craft, which was registered to a South American country, along with a handful of guns apparently left behind by a two-man crew before dawn, said Francis Munu, a police official in the capital.
Munu said police had organized a search party to try to find the pilots of the plane.
With cocaine prices in Europe surging ahead of prices in the United States, drug smugglers in South America are increasingly ferrying cocaine to West Africa, from where it is parceled out to hundreds of individual traffickers who carry it north.
Major seizures have been made in Guinea-Bissau and Ghana, and it is widely believed that other countries along the coast are also being used by drug runners
Sierra Leone made its biggest catch of cocaine on Sunday when it seized 700 kg (1,545 lbs) of the drug on a plane which landed at Lungi international airport,Impoverished West Africa, with its unguarded coastline and sparsely populated interior, has become an important trafficking route for Latin American drug runners into lucrative European markets."It's the biggest catch ever, we weighed the stuff and it is about 700 kilograms," Assistant Inspector General in charge of crime services Francis Munu told Reuters.
"It's worth around 35 million dollars in street value in New York, according to a UNODC estimate," Munu said, referring to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.Munu also said that the police found five automatic rifles and 350 rounds of ammunition on the plane. Information Minister Ibrahim Kargbo said both members of the plane's crew had fled. "It is not yet clear whether they were merely making a transition for fuel or whether they came to land and make a deposit," he said.

Five people, including three from Portugal, were being questioned over a drugs seizure of more than £5 million worth of cocaine

Five people, including three from Portugal, were being questioned over a drugs seizure of more than £5 million worth of cocaine. Dyfed-Powys Police said a multi-agency operation led to arrests on and around the Pembrokeshire coast. The five suspects have been transferred to police stations in the north west of England. Two people are from the area.

Saturday 12 July 2008

leader of the Tijuana cartel is alleged to be Enedina Arrellano Felix, whose brothers had managed the cartel, once the most powerful in Mexico.

A leader of the Tijuana cartel is alleged to be Enedina Arrellano Felix, whose brothers had managed the cartel, once the most powerful in Mexico.
Another prominent woman is Sandra Avila Beltrán, dubbed "La Reina del Pacifico," the Queen of the Pacific, for her alleged role in shipping cocaine from Colombia to Mexico for the Sinaloa cartel. She was arrested last year and faces charges of organized crime, money laundering and conspiracy to traffic drugs.
"We're definitely seeing more women, and we're seeing them playing a more important role," said Jack Riley, special agent in charge of the El Paso office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "They have other skills to influence rivals. They're more persuasive and more organized about their activities, whether money laundering or running their own operations." An earlier crime figure known as "La Nacha" remains a legend in Ciudad Juárez. Ignacia Jasso arguably created the first Juárez cartel in the 1920s when she ran a heroin business from her middle-class neighborhood near the international bridge to El Paso, according to author Francisco Cruz, whose book, The Juarez Cartel, documents her exploits. Her main clients were U.S. soldiers addicted to heroin, the book and Mr. Campbell say, and her competition was virtually nonexistent after she ordered the killing of 11 rival Chinese traffickers. "Her legend remains very much alive," Mr. Campbell said, "as many of the current female smugglers look to her as a successful role model."
From the time she arrived in Ciudad Juárez in the early 1980s, María Guadalupe knew of La Nacha. A native of Durango state, María Guadalupe said she was attracted to AK-47s, getaway cars and "anything that represented the macho world of smugglers." In Juárez, she found shelter with her aunt, a hard-drinking prostitute.
"Everyone talked about La Nacha, and so, in a way, La Nacha and my aunt became my role models into a different, more adventurous life," she said.
María Guadalupe "engrossed" herself with her new profession. She practiced target shooting and began carrying a gun. And she learned to separate business from personal matters.
"The key is not to let any male dominate you, either in bed or in the heart. It's all business," said María Guadalupe. "At least that's my philosophy, and one that I believe has kept me alive all these years." For others, the life is anything but glamorous.
In Laredo, Texas, a 21-year-old woman identified as "Josefina" recounts in a police video how she got involved with the paramilitary group known as the Zetas at the age of 17. She was trained in their camps. Fearing for her family if she tried to get out, she says, she continued her association with the Zetas, doing "whatever task was asked of me."
"It was a very difficult life, not as pretty as was described to me," she said.
And U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials tell the story of a female police officer in Nuevo Laredo who was moonlighting for the Zetas and sharing intelligence with U.S. and Mexican authorities. When the Zetas killed her husband, she plotted revenge. But the adventure ended when she was gunned down in a car in downtown Nuevo Laredo.

Martin Wanden, an English national, told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that he had no involvement in the smuggling of cocaine

Martin Wanden pulled from the sea near where drugs worth €440 million were found off the west Cork coast has denied any involvement in drug smuggling.Martin Wanden, an English national, told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that he had no involvement in the smuggling of cocaine and only ended up in the water after he went to assist a friend, who told him he had got into difficulty while fishing.
“I am not guilty. I never at any point took any part in what happened. If the police had kept an open mind on this from day one I would not be here, but because I was in the water they thought I was guilty,” said Mr Wanden.Mr Wanden said he had been spending time in west Cork and was camping near Kilcrohane Pier on the night of July 2nd, 2007, when he got a call from a man called Charlie.Charlie managed a car sales business in Britain and he had given him his sister’s car to sell. When he rang Charlie in June to say he was going walking in the Lake District, Charlie suggested that he come to Ireland instead and he did, Mr Wanden said.He added that when Charlie rang him to say that he was in difficulty, he followed Charlie’s instructions and went to Kilcrohane Pier where found a boat with keys. He headed out to sea to try and find Charlie, who was stuck in a cove. “When I gets to the cove, Charlie is there with two other people and when I pull up to the side of the boat, it was full with boxes, and I said ‘What’s going on? And Charlie said ‘Don’t worry, it’s got nothing to do with you’.

“Obviously, something is wrong – the boat is full of boxes – they are obviously not fishing. I said ‘Take me and dump me on the shore’ and he said ‘We can’t, we don’t have time’, ” said Mr Wanden.He said he got into the boat with the boxes in it and Charlie and one of the other two men got into the boat he had come in, and they sped off, leaving him and another man in the boat with the boxes. “They were persistent – bearing in mind, there were millions of pounds worth of drugs, they weren’t going to wait around,” he said, adding that he asked what was in the boxes, but the other man said he didn’t know.He managed to get the engines going and headed for shore, but they cut out, so he and the other man jumped into the sea to swim ashore.Mr Wanden said the other boat came back but didn’t come to his aid and headed back out to sea.
Mr Wanden and his co-accused Joe Daly, Bexley, Kent, and Perry Wharrie (48), from Loughton, Essex, deny possessing cocaine for sale or supply at Dunlough Bay on July 2nd, 2007.The case continues.

Norris 'Deedo' Nembhard,Robroy 'Spy' Williams, his brother Glenford Williams and Vivian Dalley who were held along with Nembhard for extradition

DEFENCE attorney for alleged drug kingpin Norris 'Deedo' Nembhard, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, yesterday applied for leave in the Court of Appeal, to allow for an application to the United Kingdom-based Privy Council in a last ditch bid to stop Nembhard from being handed over to United States authorities.On Wednesday, Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne, attached her signature to extradition warrants allowing for Nembhard and three other alleged drug dealers, Robroy 'Spy' Williams, his brother Glenford Williams and Vivian Dalley who were held along with Nembhard in 2004, to be handed over to the US.But Samuels-Brown told the Observer yesterday that she would be using every legal channel to prevent her client from being extradited.
"We wrote back to her protesting her proposed action. We have now made an application for leave to apply to the Privy Council. We have also filed a constitutional motion in the Supreme Court," Samuels-Brown said.
Former police corporal Herbert 'Scarry' Henry, has waived his right to appeal and will be extradited.The five were among several persons arrested in 2004, after Drug Enforcement Agents (DEA) in the state of Florida served provisional warrants to local authorities claiming the men were part of a drug smuggling ring - which shipped over 5,000 kilograms of cocaine and a quantity of marijuana into the United States.The smugglers allegedly arranged for cocaine to be shipped from the Colombian coast and transferred to a yacht in Jamaican waters before being smuggled into the US.The alleged drug ring was smashed after DEA operatives arrested a nephew of Robroy Williams in a go-fast boat in international waters between the territorial waters of Colombia and Jamaica. The boat was allegedly stashed with cocaine and the man was taken to Guantanamo Bay and then to Florida.The man allegedly told the DEA agents that he was working for his uncle and gave them a complete outline of the drug-running operation after he was offered a plea bargain deal.

Ugur "Mike" Yildiz was charged last month with illegally exporting firearms. He allegedly smuggled 237 guns into Windsor, Canada.

Ugur "Mike" Yildiz was charged last month with illegally exporting firearms. He allegedly smuggled 237 guns into Windsor, Canada.Yildiz was trying to get rid of his weapons after the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revoked his license at Chicagoland Bells gun shop in Franklin Park, authorities said. Since 2006, Canadian police have recovered 25 of his guns, two of which were used in attempted murders, U.S. authorities said.
Yildiz ran Chicagoland Bells until 2005. The City of Chicago targeted Bells in an unsuccessful lawsuit claiming it was a public nuisance because many of the guns it sold wound up in crimes in the city.

Sotiris Andreas, Pavlos Petrou Andronicou were sentenced to 14.5 and 19 years by a judge at Canterbury Crown Court.

Two London men have been jailed after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine with an estimated street value of £800,000 into the UK.Sotiris Andreas, 50, and Pavlos Petrou Andronicou, 61, both of Enfield, were sentenced to 14.5 and 19 years by a judge at Canterbury Crown Court.A customs spokesman said 14.4kg of the 20kg cocaine haul was 100% pure.

southern Vietnam sentenced two Taiwanese men to death for their involvement in an international heroin trafficking ring

court in southern Vietnam sentenced two Taiwanese men to death for their involvement in an international heroin trafficking ring, local media reported Friday. The People's Court of An Giang province, 190 kilometres south-west of Ho Chi Minh City, handed death sentences to Wei Chun Lung and Lee Chih Wen at a two-day trial that ended Thursday, the People's Police newspaper said.
The court also sentenced two Vietnamese accomplices, Phan Thi Cam Tu and Huynh Thi Anh, to 20 and 18 years in prison. According to the court's indictment, the ring was uncovered on May 20, 2007 when Anh was arrested en route from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City with 1.2 kilograms of heroin in her luggage. The province's anti-narcotics force later arrested other members and found more heroin at the Ho Chi Minh City hotel room of ring leader Lee, People's Police said. The group confessed to having brought 2.5 kilograms of heroin from Cambodia into Vietnam. They said the heroin was then illegally transported to Taiwan. Trafficking or transporting 600 grams or more of heroin is punishable by death in Vietnam. The communist country has sentenced at least 27 people to death this year, including 13 death sentences for drug crimes. Three of the death sentences were handed to foreigners.
In March, a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced an Australian woman of Vietnamese origin to death for smuggling heroin. Jasmine Luong, 34, was arrested in February last year when she was trying to bring 1.4 kilograms of heroin to Sydney.

Thursday 10 July 2008

Daniel Davis was taken to the Bridewell District Court yesterday by members of the Garda National Drugs Unit.

Daniel Davis, of Sandyhill Way, Ballymun, north Dublin, was taken to the Bridewell District Court yesterday by members of the Garda National Drugs Unit.
The unit seized about 20kg of heroin, with an alleged estimated value of €4 million, near the Halfway House pub, at Ashtown, on the Navan Road, on Monday night. Detective Garda Declan O’Connell gave details of the arrest, charge and caution. He told Judge William Hamill he had earlier arrested Mr Davis and charged him with Section 3 and Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act. These sections refer to possession and possession for the purposes of sale or supply respectively.
He said Mr Davis made no reply when he read out the charge.
Following an indication that there would be an application for free legal aid from the accused, Det Gda O’Connell said he would be seeking a statement of means. Judge Hamill directed the defendant to provide such a statement and to lodge it with the prosecution before the next court appearance.

Police in Ho Chi Minh City airport have arrested three Vietnamese-Australians for allegedly trafficking around two kilograms of heroin

Police in Vietnam’s largest city have arrested three Vietnamese-Australians for allegedly trafficking around two kilograms of heroin, media is reporting.The three were arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport on Tuesday (local time), the Cong An Nhan Dan (People’s Police) newspaper said, without identifying them or saying what flight they had planned to board.Police in the communist country also confiscated $10,000 and six mobile telephones, the report said.Vietnam is considered a major trafficking hub for the heroin trade, on route to Australia, where hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees and migrants have settled since the Vietnam war ended in 1975.Several Vietnamese-Australians have been arrested this year for trying to smuggle heroin on aircraft, often concealed inside their bodies.On June 13 police arrested three Vietnamese-Australians accused of being members of a drug trafficking ring, including a woman who had tried to board a flight to Australia carrying 250 grams of heroin.Police seized a 35-year-old Vietnamese-Australian woman 10 days earlier when a condom packed with drugs burst inside her body and she required hospital treatment.Vietnam has some of the world’s toughest drug laws, and possessing or trafficking more than 600 grams of heroin carries the death penalty, but the nation has so far refrained from executing any Australian citizens.Foreign Minister Stephen Smith last week said he had supported clemency appeals by two Vietnamese-Australians in talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Monday 7 July 2008

Romanian authorities aided by colleagues from the US and several EU states have broken up a 17-person drug and cigarette smuggling gang

Romanian authorities aided by colleagues from the US and several EU states have broken up a 17-person drug and cigarette smuggling gang, the Romanian border police said Monday. The gang contained members from Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine with the US-based Ukrainian leader appearing before a New York court. Those arrested were also charged with money laundering. The gang is suspected of having coordinated the transport of cocaine from Latin America into Western Europe. They are also believed to have smuggled cigarettes from Eastern Europe into Western Europe via Romania. The investigation took eight months and involved Romania's border police, secret service, special police units as well as tax and customs authorities

Enterprise concealed in suburbia Esteveses' had so much money they didn't know what to do with it

"It was an enterprise concealed in suburbia," said DEA Agent Douglas S. Collier, spokesman for the agency's Newark office that worked the Esteves case. "They had so much money they didn't know what to do with it."While several neighbors, who would only speak anonymously, said last week that they wondered about the Esteveses' ostentatious lifestyle, narcotics investigators say it fits a pattern.Drug kingpins, they say, move to the suburbs for the same reasons as anyone else - for comfort and security. And, like other goal-oriented entrepreneurs, many flaunt their success.
"It's about the money and living the lavish lifestyle," said FBI Agent John M. Cosenza, who supervises a drug task force out of Philadelphia. "We're seeing more and more moves out to the suburbs."
They move to an affluent community because they want a nice home and better schools for their children," said Jeremiah A. Daley, executive director of the Philadelphia-Camden office of the federally funded High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program. Another factor, he said, is safety. Living in the suburbs usually removes a kingpin - and his family - from the violent world of drug dealing and competitors who often use guns to settle disputes. "They move away from the field of fire, so to speak," Daley said.Vicente Esteves, 35, and his wife, Chantal, 30, were living in a spacious new house on Taylors Mills Road in Manalapan when they were arrested. Gerald McAleer, who heads the DEA's New Jersey office, compared the 5,000-square-foot residence - with its dance floor and DJ booth, weight room, game room and home theater with stadium seating - to "something out of the movie Scarface."
Alton "Ace Capone" Coles, convicted this year of using his Southwest Philadelphia hip-hop record company as a front for a $25 million crack cocaine operation, was arrested shortly after moving into a $500,000 home he had built outside Mullica Hill in Gloucester County. In the garage was his $250,000 Bentley. Ricardo McKendrick Jr., part of an alleged father-son team that has been described as a major source of cocaine to Philadelphia drug dealers, lives in an upper-middle-class development in Woodstown, Salem County. The night of his arrest, police found nearly $1 million in cash in the trunk of his Mercedes, parked in the driveway.
The home is on Rockwell Lane between Kingsberry and Queensberry Lanes, around the corner from the posh Town and Country Golf Links country club, where an annual membership is $1,750."It's a long way from 25th and Federal," said Daley, referring to the South Philadelphia neighborhood where McKendrick's father lives in a rowhouse and where, that same night, authorities found 274 kilograms of cocaine. The drugs, in brick form and ready for distribution, had a street value of about $28 million, police said.
The McKendricks, arrested on April 1, are awaiting trial.
Benjamin Ton, who pleaded guilty last year to heading a $50 million marijuana and ecstasy distribution network tied to Canadian-based Vietnamese drug dealers, was living in a spacious home in the Cobblestone Farms section of Sicklerville, Camden County, when he was arrested three years ago. Outside were a Corvette, a BMW and a Lexus.
Not bad for a 30-year-old who, two years earlier, lived in Folcroft and worked as a copy machine repairman.
"There has been a perception in the past that law enforcement wasn't looking out there," Daley said of suspected drug dealers' rationale for moving to the suburbs, and even to some exurbs.
But case after case developed by HIDTA investigations, he said, has led authorities to enclaves in Chester and Delaware Counties, in South Jersey and in New Castle County in Delaware. Coles, the Southwest Philadelphia kingpin, lived in a posh townhouse in Newark, Del., before relocating to South Jersey. Convicted with five associates in March, he faces a potential life sentence. A codefendant, girlfriend Asya Richardson, lived with him in Gloucester County at the time of their arrests. They moved there 10 days before the DEA swooped in.
Richardson, 28, faces a possible 10-year sentence on money-laundering charges. According to evidence introduced during the trial, she was a relatively minor player in the drug ring.
On wiretapped conversations that were part of the investigation, Richardson was repeatedly heard discussing plans for the house that was being built, the draperies she wanted to install, and the shrubbery she hoped to plant.Wiretaps also figure to be a part of the Esteves case, now before a grand jury.Peter Warshaw, first assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, declined to comment on the investigation.
At a news conference about the arrests, authorities alleged that Vicente Esteves was leader of a smuggling operation that imported more than a ton of cocaine a month from Mexico and Colombia.
They charged that the operation generated about $1 million a week for the organization, cash that Esteves turned into his version of the good life.
His home, built on a corner lot in an upper-middle-class neighborhood, is assessed at about $1.7 million. Its market value may be millions more.
When police raided the residence they seized over a million dollars' worth of jewelry, including the Rolex watches, stored in one of the many walk-in closets.In another closet, authorities found Chantal Esteves' Prada shoes, many with photos taped to the boxes so, investigators believe, she could keep track of her footwear.There were a dozen plasma TVs in the two-story home, a pool and cabana, and patio furniture that still had $1,000 price tags attached.The neatly groomed grounds were lined with arborvitae trees that provided a measure of privacy. The entrance to the property was barred by an eight-foot-high iron gate and a plaque that warned "Entire Site Protected by Video Surveillance.""They were a young couple, and I said to my wife, 'How are they making it?' " said one of several neighbors who asked to remain anonymous.
"People get greedy and don't know what to do with their money," he said as he stood in front of his ranch-style home down the block from the Esteves residence. "But it catches up with you. . . . You don't put a house like that on the corner so that everybody can look at you."
Across Taylors Mills Road at the Carchesio Farms nursery, a clerk who also didn't want to give her name said the arrests have been the talk of the town. The clerk said she always wondered about the couple.

Sunday 6 July 2008

Israeli police say they have made the biggest drug siezure in the country's history.

Israeli police say they have made the biggest drug siezure in the country's history.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says customs officials at the Haifa port found 104 kilograms (278 pounds) of pure cocaine hidden in coffee cans shipped from Colombia.
He says it's "definitely" the biggest drug bust ever made in Israel.Police say the cocaine had a street value of more than $15 million.The uncut cocaine was discovered last month. Police say they arrested eight suspects, but released them due to lack of evidence. Police say they are still investigating.

Saturday 5 July 2008

Azaha Abd Rani,Zainun Mohd Noor couple with four children, three of whom are below 16 years, was sentenced to death by the High Court in Malaysia

A couple with four children, three of whom are below 16 years, was sentenced to death by the High Court hereThursday for heroin trafficking five years ago.
High Court Justice Ahmad Maarop also convicted them of possession of the narcotic and sentenced them to 15 years to jail, from their date of arrest in 2003, which they are to serve before their execution.Justice Ahmad, now a Court of Appeal Justice, however, granted them a stay on the death sentence pending an appeal.
Azaha Abd Rani, 49, and his wife Zainun Mohd Noor, 42, both from Kelantan, were composed and unfazed when Justice Ahmad Maarop read out the verdict.
However, Azaha grasped his wife 's left hand when leaving the dock after the sentencing.“Based on our country’s law, it is a mandatory death sentence for those convicted of drug trafficking and it’s our (court) responsibility to mete out the death penalty,” said Justice Ahmad.The court also noted that Azaha, a taxi driver, had given a sworn statement while Zainun chose to remain silent without calling any witnesses in her defence.The couple were charged under Section 39B (1)(a) of the Dangerous Drugs Act and Section 12 (2) of the same act for trafficking and being in possession of heroin, respectively.They were convicted of distributing 12.25g of heroin on December 7, 2003, in front of BP petrol kiosk in Kampung Jabi, Besut.
They were also convicted of being in possession of 9.57g of heroin on the same date, time and area. Earlier in mitigation, defence counsel Aziz Derasi appealed to the court for a lighter sentence in viewof the fact that the offence was their first and they were parents to four children aged 24 years, 15 years, 11 years, and nine years.
But the Deputy Public Prosecutor Othman Abdullah argued that there was only one sentence reserved for cases under Section 39B and that was the death penalty.

Employee of Kosovo Parliament’s has been arrested in Serbia under suspicion of possessing heroin

Employee of Kosovo Parliament’s has been arrested in Serbia under suspicion of possessing heroin. Serbian police arrested two Kosovar Albanians and one Serb for possession of heroin near the Serbian town of Kursumlija on Wednesday, according to Kosovo’s public broadcaster. It was reported that the two Kosovars are brothers, one of them who is a lawyer and the other, a driver who works in Kosovo’s Parliament, while the Serb detainee is from Serbia’s southern town of Nis.
The three are being held in a local jail, where they will remain for one month until investigations are over. Veton Elshani, the spokesman for the Kosovo Police Service told Balkan Insight that they have asked international police from the United Nations in Kosovo, UNMIK, to work with Serbian police in retrieving more details on the case.“UNMIK police contacted the Serbian Interior Ministry on Thursday and we are expecting an answer by later today,” Elshani explained.

Police arrested a 36-year-old man who was caught near the Dead Sea area allegedly carrying 13 kilograms of heroin and 40,000 ecstasy pills

Police arrested a 36-year-old man who was caught near the Dead Sea area allegedly carrying 13 kilograms of heroin and 40,000 ecstasy pills weighing a total of five kilograms. Officers from the Negev district, in concert with Border Police personnel in the area, noticed a suspicious figure loitering in a region long known as a gateway for drug smuggling. The contraband is estimated to be worth millions of shekels. The suspect, a Bedouin resident of the Negev, was taken into custody for questioning. Police will request the Be'er Sheva Magistrate extend his remand.
Earlier this year, police and IDF troops seized the largest shipment of pure heroin ever to be intercepted on the border with Lebanon, a total of 32.5 kilograms of pure heroin, worth some NIS 30 million.
Police Superintendent Ami Mualem, commander of the force' Lebanon border unit, told Haaretz that a joint police-IDF patrol in the Biranit area detected two men with large packs on their backs. Police arrested the two, and were shocked the find the large amount of heroin in the backpacks, Mualem said. "This was the largest quantity of heroin ever captured on the northern border," he added.

Rickey Thompson is possibly facing a life sentence

Florida press on Tuesday reported that 43-year-old Bahamian Rickey Thompson is possibly facing a life sentence in connection with the deaths of three illegal immigrants who drowned in what Florida authorities say was a human smuggling attempt gone wrong.In addition to three counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Nigel Warren, of Jamaica, and Haitian citizens Roselyne Lubin and Alnert Charles, Thompson faces 27 other criminal counts, including alien smuggling resulting in death and importing drugs into the United States.
The jury in that case was reportedly asked to consider, among supposed stacks of photographs and bags of narcotics, two exhibits attorneys said should settle the case: a picture of a dead man and a secretly recorded telephone conversation.
The picture allegedly shows the body Warren, one of three illegal immigrants whose 2006 drowning death could mean a life sentence for Thompson, a fisherman and allegedly "part-time smuggler." However, Thompson’s defense has posited that it was the man’s choice of dress that caused his death in the dark Jupiter Island surf."That man put on four shirts," said defense attorney David Patrick Rowe during his closing statements Monday. "He put on four pants. He put on construction boots, and he put on a jacket...and then he went into the water, not because someone pointed a gun at him — as they (prosecution) want you to believe — but because he wanted to come to America."Federal prosecutors reportedly said the telephone conversation proves Thompson captained yet another boat of illegal immigrants from The Bahamas to Jupiter Island four months earlier in August 2006, when two Haitians drowned and 12 kilos of cocaine washed ashore.During the conversation, a supposed drug mule-turned-informant tells Thompson a passenger from the August trip drowned, prosecutors said, and Thompson replies by warning the informant not to talk about the trip on the phone.Prosecutors apparently contended that the conversation connected two extremely similar smuggling trips, and supported witness testimony that Thompson used a gun to usher his passengers quickly from his 36-foot power boat and make them swim to shore — whether they knew how to swim or not.

Air Jamaica United States, Customs Department agents announced that they intercepted a stash of cocaine and marijuana weighing nine pounds


The national carrier Air Jamaica, which has been struggling to stay in the sky, is facing more problems on Wednesday afternoon.According to reports coming out of the United States, Customs Department agents announced that they intercepted a stash of cocaine and marijuana weighing nine pounds in total hidden aboard an Air Jamaica airliner in Philadelphia.The drugs were found hidden in a food cart of the Air Jamaica flight from Kingston that arrived in Philadelphia Sunday night.The Philadelphia Inquirer said Customs agents pegged the value of the seizure at about US$44,000 or J$3.2 million. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Philadelphia International Airport say the cocaine and marijuana were found in eight packages stowed aboard an Air Jamaica flight Sunday after an alert crew member notified CBP officers of the suspicious packages. No arrests have been made.Allan Martocci, CBP Area Port Director for the Port of Philadelphia applauded the Air Jamaica crew for reporting these suspicious packages to CBP officers. The news comes one day after RJR News reported that the Narcotics Police have had their hands full trying to plug the security leaks at the Norman Manley International Airport.Head of the Narcotics police, Senior Superintendent Carlton Wilson disclosed that his team has observed a resurgence in the trafficking of cocaine through Kingston's airport.
He said some airport workers are now working with drug traffickers to smuggle illicit drugs onto aircraft.SSP Wilson says the workers are using the cover of the multi-million dollar airport construction to sneak drugs onto flights leaving the country.

More than 60 pounds of ganja was seized recently in bathrooms at the Norman Manley Airport.

Thursday 3 July 2008

193m euros ($153m, $300m) worth of cocaine has been seized in a raid on a sailboat heading for the Basque region

More than 193m euros ($153m, $300m) worth of cocaine has been seized in a raid on a sailboat heading for the Basque region, Spanish officials say. The Interior Ministry says police arrested two people on the boat. Five others were arrested in the city of Bilbao. More than 1,500kg of cocaine were seized in the operation. The authorities say the two people arrested on the boat were an Italian and a Venezuelan. Spain is the main entry point into Europe for cocaine smuggled from South America. More cocaine is consumed in Spain than in any other European country, according to a report published last year by the European Union's drug agency, the EMCDDA.

Schapelle Corby has been allowed out of a Bali hospital

Schapelle Corby, guarded by two prison officers, spent more than three hours in the Gardenia Salon, adjacent to the wing of Sanglah Hospital where she was admitted late last month.Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby has been allowed out of a Bali hospital,where she is being treated for depression, to shop, have her hair done and get a pedicure.“She was here from 11am until 2.10pm, guarded by two fully-armed officers,” salon worker Ida Ayu Purnama said.“She was here for a temporary hair straightener for one hour, and a pedicure for one hour.“After she was finished she saw lots of journalists outside, so she was waiting for a few moments inside.”
Wearing jeans, a blue cap and matching tank top, the 30-year-old tried to hide her face when she eventually left the salon.An employee of a nearby market said Corby also did some shopping there on Tuesday afternoon, again with an escort of two police officers.“She spent quite a long time here, almost two hours. She bought some snacks and clothes. She had a look out the door before she left,” he told AFP.
The former beauty therapist is reported to have slumped into depression after Indonesia’s Supreme Court rejected her final appeal in March.Corby is serving a 20-year jail term for trafficking 4.1kg of marijuana into Bali in 2004.Sanglah Hospital doctor Nyoman Rapep said Corby’s condition was improving and she remained under police supervision.“She is always guarded, and it (the salon) is inside the hospital compound,” Rapep said.“She is still undergoing treatment for a few more days … but her condition is getting better.”
Corby was on medication and was being treated by seven psychiatrists, Rapep said.
Corby, who turns 31 next week, has always maintained her innocence and claimed that airport baggage handlers involved in drug smuggling must have put the marijuana in her luggage as she headed to Bali.
But a recent documentary quoted her former defence lawyer as saying he concocted the baggage handler defence.The drugs were found in Corby’s unlocked surfboard bag when she arrived on the Indonesian island for a holiday in October 2004.The head of security at Bali’s Kerobokan Prison Maliki said Corby’s treatment was under the authority of doctors.“That is the authority of the team of doctors. Maybe it is part of the healing process,” he said.“I’m not a doctor, I can’t explain.“When she is cured she will go back to prison, there is no negotiation about that.”

Anthony Barnett pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance

Anthony Barnett, 44, of South Hempstead, L.I., pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and was scheduled for sentencing Oct. 15 by Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III.Assistant Attorney General Kevin Kane of the Organized Crime Task Force said in court that investigators were led to Barnett last summer by tapping the cell phone of David A. Phelps, 36, of Niagara Falls, the leader of the cocaine ring, who has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing as he supplies prosecutors with information on his associates."His local sources of cocaine had dried up," Kane said. "Mr. Phelps was reaching out across the state .‚.‚. trying to locate new sources of cocaine."Kane said investigators heard Phelps ask another man for Barnett's phone number. On Aug. 16, the two made contact, and Phelps left for New York City about midnight and drove overnight to Queens. In the meantime, state investigators in the Big Apple were alerted and, with help from the directions Barnett was phoning Phelps, staked out his bus.About 9 a.m., Phelps got on the bus empty-handed and got off carrying a paper bag full of cocaine. He hopped back into his car and drove back to Niagara Falls, and while en route called his customers to tell them "all was well in the world of cocaine and David Phelps," Kane told the judge.
Phelps' sense of well-being didn't last long. When he got to his girlfriend's home on 22nd Street in Niagara Falls that day, police raided the residence and seized 6.5 ounces of cocaine. Eventually, 22 people were indicted in the operation, and all but three have pleaded guilty.

Kinvarra 3000 cannabis plants in Queensland's south-west


uncovered a large scale drug operation including up to in what is one of the state's biggest seizures.
Police raided a property called Kinvarra on Hollybank Road at Waroo yesterday, finding between 2,000 and 3,000 cannabis plants and two sheds

Schoolboys are being preyed upon by London drugs barons and forced to smuggle drugs into Norfolk

Schoolboys are being preyed upon by London drugs barons and forced to smuggle drugs into Norfolk, a court heard yesterday.A judge at Norwich Crown Court warned that the young mules, who bring substances like crack cocaine to the county, would face substantial custodial sentences in an attempt to send out a strong message to fellow crooks. But he added that the youths were being exploited by “evil men” who evade detection.Following the sentencing of a 17-year-old - described as a “bright student” who went off the rails - Norfolk police moved to warn criminal gangs that the county is not an easy target and the force is determined to eliminate this “scourge”.However, this is the latest in a string of cases which have seen Norfolk suffer the overflow of crime from the capital. In the most extreme example, 20-year-old drug dealer David Watson was last year jailed for stabbing to death HMV security Paul Cavanagh guard after coming to the city to peddle heroin.Judge Philip Curl said the courts were seeing more cases of young men being used to bring class A substances to Norfolk. He said: “The evil men behind this drugs trade sadly seem to evade appearing in the dock and are using young people aged 15, 16 and 17-years-old to bring crack cocaine to Norwich.”
A police spokesman said that the arrest of the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, showed the tough stance officers take in stamping out the drugs trade. He was arrested the moment he stepped off a train at Norwich station as part of a drugs clampdown.He added: “People dealing in drugs can be assured that we will continue to track you down - illegal drugs activity will not be tolerated in Norfolk and it's a mistake to consider the county as a soft touch.
“Drugs can and do affect all parts of society and we need to get the dealers out of our communities. We will continue to monitor the situation closely, respond to any intelligence we receive and work with our partners such as the Norfolk Drug and Alcohol Action Team to combat this scourge.”
Andrew Baxter, prosecuting, told the court the youth was arrested at Norwich station by transport police and was found to have 32 wraps of crack cocaine hidden on him with a street value of £720. The youth told police he had been asked to bring the package to Norwich and was to take it by taxi to an address in Riverside Road.
Judge Curl accepted that the youth was a bright student with no previous convictions but said the offences were so serious it could only be marked by custody: “The message has to go out that young men will receive substantial custodial sentences.”
He sentenced the 17-year-old student to an 18 month detention and training order for bringing crack cocaine with a street value of £720 from London to Norwich by train.
The youth was arrested after he got off the train at Norwich station and told that he was going to be paid for bringing the package to Norfolk.
Bernard Tetlow, defending, said the youth had no previous convictions, adding: “Rather tragically he has been preyed upon and made to carry out something he would not normally do.”

Navy is using Special Boat Service snipers to intercept cocaine shipments heading to Europe from producers in Colombia and Bolivia

Navy is using Special Boat Service snipers to intercept cocaine shipments heading to Europe from producers in Colombia and Bolivia, it emerged last night.
A team of special forces soldiers was on board a Lynx helicopter on Saturday – also carrying Prince William – that spotted and stopped a smuggling vessel north-east of Barbados. The boat was en route to Europe from Latin America. The Prince was among a team dispatched from his ship, HMS Iron Duke, which intercepted the 50ft speedboat, known as a "go-fast". American coastguards and British sailors who boarded the boat discovered more than 900kg of cocaine with a street value of £40m. It is believed the shipment was destined for cities in Europe, including the UK.
The team aboard the Lynx became suspicious after spotting the power boat 200 miles out to sea, and arrested the five crew members on board. The boat, which was said to be in poor condition, sank soon after it had been searched. Prince William had joined HMS Iron Duke, a 4,900-ton frigate, four days before the raid.
The ship, originally designed as a submarine hunter, is part of a counter-narcotics operation that has been stepped up following an increase in cocaine shipments from Latin America to Europe in the past two years. It is also tasked with providing humanitarian assistance between June and October, the core hurricane season.
Despite additional resources being devoted to tackling the illicit shipments, officials involved in drugs operations acknowledge that the risk of being caught is much less on this route than into the US, and traffickers who are apprehended once they are in Europe are rarely extradited.
The Prince, who served in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry, was flown out to the Iron Duke by helicopter from Barbados. He is on a five-week training attachment and Commander Mark Newland, the ship's commanding officer, promised that the Prince "will contribute to all aspects of our operations, including counter-drugs and disaster relief planning".
Commander Newland said: "This is a fantastic start to HMS Iron Duke's North Atlantic deployment. To have a direct impact on the flow of cocaine into Europe, just four days after we arrived in theatre shows the benefit the Royal Navy can have in maritime security.
"From the first moment the Lynx helicopter discovered the suspect vessel, my ship's company, working hand-in-glove with the US coastguards, turned this opportunity into a certainty and ultimately successful seizure. I am immensely proud of all their efforts." The seizure is welcome news for HMS Iron Duke, which has in the past attracted publicity for the wrong reasons. Two weeks ago a member of the crew was arrested after allegations of an indecent assault on a woman in the Barbadian capital, Bridgetown. In 2006, sailors from the ship were accused of going on a drunken rampage at St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly.
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