33-year-old woman was arrested by Italian police after she tried to smuggle more than five pounds of cocaine in her breast and buttock implants.

 The woman, who was not identified, hoped to sneak by police with help from her plunging neckline and tight clothes. Instead, she attracted the attention of airport security, according to a Daily Mail story.

When she couldn’t explain her trip to South America, two female security officers searched her and found the fake implants, which had cocaine crystals molded into them, the newspaper reported.

“They stopped her for questioning because she was so alluring and her story about why she was in South America just fell apart,” Antonio Di Greco, police chief at Fiumicino airport, said.

After being pulled aside, Di Greco said the model became aggressive with officers. She was being held at the Rome airport on charges of international drug trafficking.

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Snakes on a plane (almost) in Argentina

 

Snakes on a plane (almost) in Argentina Authorities in Argentina caught a man trying to board a plane with almost 250 poisonous snakes and endangered reptiles.

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chauffeur from Kent has been jailed for eight years after being caught smuggling £300,000 of drugs into Britain hidden inside cans of beer.

 

Stephen Leon, 49, was stopped by border officials in his Lexus at the Channel Tunnel entrance in Coquelles in northern France on July 28 last year.

He claimed he had been visiting the Continent to view churches in France and Belgium before stopping off at Calais to buy some beer.

But when border officials opened one of the cans from his eight cases, they found it contained orange tablets, later found to be the Class A drug 2C-B.

The relatively-unknown drug - similar in effect to ecstasy and LSD - weighed around 33lb (15kg) and had an estimated street value of £300,000.

Leon, of Bonar Place, Chislehurst, was jailed on Tuesday after being found guilty of drug smuggling by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court, the UK Border Agency said.

Malcolm Bragg, the UKBA's criminal and financial assistant director, said: "I hope the sentence handed out here shows that we, and our law enforcement colleagues, are serious about tackling the criminals responsible for bringing illegal drugs into Britain.

"The UK Border Agency has robust controls in place and this intervention shows we will not hesitate to take the strongest possible action against those involved in drug smuggling."

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Italians arrested after sailboat capsizes and cocaine is recovered

Italians arrested after sailboat capsizes and cocaine is recovered

An Italian couple is under arrest in Brazil, accused of carrying 700 pounds of cocaine on their sailboat.

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Customs agents seized more than six pounds of cocaine last week that two smugglers tried to take into Newark Liberty International Airport

Customs agents seized more than six pounds of cocaine last week that two smugglers tried to take into Newark Liberty International Airport, including some that was hidden inside deflated soccer balls, the government announced today.

On Thursday, customs agents were inspecting Heber Razuri Leon’s luggage after the 46-year-old Peruvian citizen had arrived at the airport from Peru, the agency said. What they found were four pair of sandals and four deflated soccer balls that were unusually heavy, and later determined to be filled with 4.9 pounds of cocaine.

Razuri Leon was also charged with smuggling and drug offenses. The total street value of the drugs was put at more than $300,000.

The bust came one day after agents arrested Daniela Mastromarino, 29, an Italian citizen, after she arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on a flight from Costa Rica, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said. The agency said she was trying to smuggle 1.2 pounds of cocaine in a false bottom of her suitcase.

The border patrol turned over Razuri Leon and Mastromarino to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Officials said the two will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark. K. Both defendants are being represented by federal public defenders. K. Anthony Thomas, who is representing Razuri Leon, declined to comment on the charges.

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Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco or “Valenciano”, arrested on 27 November in Aragua state, was wanted by the United States for drug smuggling.

Venezuelan authorities deported two Colombians accused of drug trafficking and wanted by Interpol with red alerts, the minister for justice and internal affairs, Tareck El Aissami, told press. He described the event as “one of the most important captures we have made in Venezuela”.

One of the men, Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco or “Valenciano”, arrested on 27 November in Aragua state, was wanted by the United States for drug smuggling.

According to Radio Mundial, from 1990 until February 2008, Bonilla Orozco was one of the main traffickers of drugs to the U.S. Based in Medellin, Colombia; he sent large quantities of cocaine via boats to Mexico, to then be distributed in the US. He has also been accused of being responsible for almost 10,000 murders in Colombia.

According to Associated Press the U.S had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.

Aissami said Venezuelan authorities had been working on his capture since March. Colombian president Jose Manuel Santos thanked the Venezuelan government for the “high value” capture the next day. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez also said at the time that the capture was an example of improved drugs cooperation between the two countries.

The second man, Gildardo Garcia, arrested on 23 October this year in Merida state, was wanted for Colombia drug smuggling and first degree murder.

El Aissami said that so far this year the Venezuelan government has arrested 21 people wanted internationally. He pointed out that the number is significant since U.S government reports constantly accuse Venezuela of “not contributing to the world fight against drugs”.

El Aissami has said a number of times that the national government has arrested and deported drug traffickers more frequently since Venezuela end relations with the U.S’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) because the it devoted most of its time to spying rather than to fighting drug trafficking.

Even though the DEA had its offices in Venezuela’s National Anti-Drugs (ONA) head office, the minister added that Venezuelan officials had not had access to those areas. In fact, not even ONA authorities were able to inspect those offices.

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Spanish, Italian police smash drug smuggling ring

 

Spanish and Italian police made five arrests while busting a drug-trafficking ring that for years smuggled cocaine from South America to Europe, investigators said on Friday. The group arranged for narcotics to be put on merchant ships headed to Europe. Just before the vessels arrived at their destination, the smugglers would dump cocaine packages overboard, Spanish police said in a statement. Members of the gang waiting in inflatable boats would then pick up the cocaine and take it to shore, from where it was distributed to customers in Spain and Italy, officials said.Two members of the group were detained in the Italian port city of Genoa in March in a joint operation by Spanish and Italian police. Police detained another three members of the group, including its leader, three months later in the northwestern Spanish coastal region of Galicia. "During the search of the home of the ringleader, police found a vault camouflaged behind the wall of the cellar, which housed security cameras that monitored the rest of the house as well as two large safes, cash, valuable watches, computer equipment and documents," police said in the statement. Police also seized 55 kilos (120 pounds) of cocaine, three cash-counting machines and five cars. Spain is the main gateway to Europe for cocaine from Latin America and for cannabis from north Africa

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US agents laundered drug money

 

Anti-narcotics agents working for the US government have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds to see how the system works and use the information against Mexican drug cartels, The New York Times reported Sunday. Citing unnamed current and former federal law enforcement officials, the newspaper said the agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders. Some 45,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, when its government launched a major military crackdown against the powerful drug cartels that have terrorized border communities as they battled over lucrative smuggling routes. According to these officials, the operations were aimed at identifying how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are, the report said. The agents had deposited the proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents, the paper noted. While the DEA conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years, The Times said. As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests, the report said. According to The Times, agency officials declined to publicly discuss details of their work, citing concerns about compromising their investigations. But Michael Vigil, a former senior official who is currently working for a private contracting company called Mission Essential Personnel, is quoted by the paper as saying: "We tried to make sure there was always close supervision of these operations so that we were accomplishing our objectives, and agents weren?t laundering money for the sake of laundering money."

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DRUGS baron Curtis “Cocky” Warren is serving 13 years behind bars – but his tentacles still stretch around the globe.

Curtis Warren

 

He is suspected of operating a £300million empire built on smuggling cocaine, heroin and cannabis in deals with criminal cartels in Latin America, the Middle East and Spain. And all from his jail cell.

But 48-year-old Warren faces the biggest challenge yet to his evil enterprise as police launch a double assault in the courts on his fortune.

Authorities in Jersey are set to haul him before a judge next month to face a £200million Confiscation Order after he was convicted of drug smuggling on the Channel Island in 2009.

And in a second attack the Serious Organised Crime Agency, in a rare move, is asking judges to impose a Serious Crime Prevention Order in the High Court in London to stop him in his tracks when he is released in 2015. Yesterday Warren’s legal team won an adjournment in the High Court to delay a hearing scheduled for this week so they can prepare the crime lord’s defence.

With typical arrogance he told his lawyers to fight the bid on the grounds it breaches his “human rights”.

The SCP order, signed by Alun Milford, the Chief Crown Prosecutor and director of the Serious Organised Crime Division, seeks to restrict Warren’s use of communication devices and public phones.

It demands that he never has more than £1,000 in cash, to “make it harder for him to buy drugs or reward criminal associates”. And a financial reporting requirement will “deter him from acquisitive crime and give law enforcement authorities the opportunity to investigate any wealth he comes into”.

A source said: “Curtis is almost untouchable. A mobile is vital to him. It’s all he needs to operate. There are thousands of mobiles smuggled into the prison system and he has the means to get one.”

Curtis Warren, from Liverpool, leaves The Royal Court in St Hellier

Warren is the only convicted criminal ever to appear on The Sunday Times rich list, which in 2005 described him as a “property developer” with an estimated fortune of £76million. But according to underworld sources his real wealth is four times that.

He appointed himself chairman and chief operating officer of a global operation to flood Britain with cocaine and heroin.

His criminal associates say Warren’s business philosophy was simple and effective – drugs are a product to buy and sell like oil and gold. He is a meticulous planner whose organisation resembles the layers of executives and managers you find in a City institution, said a police source who has followed Warren’s career.

Before the euro was introduced, he was said to be putting £1million a week in money-laundering scams after trusted couriers changed cash into German marks and Dutch guilders and moved it abroad.

Paul Grimes, a gangster turned supergrass after his son died from a heroin overdose, said: “Warren wanted to be the cock everyone looks up to. He loves the status.”

Even behind bars it is feared Warren still handles deals and keeps phone numbers in his head as he links supplies to smugglers.

Detectives believe he has villas in Spain, Turkey and Gambia, owned through an intricate web of associates who also operate a Spanish casino, Turkish petrol stations and 250 rental properties in the North West of England.

Warren says the claims are “ridiculous”, alleging that he only has a flat in Liverpool’s Albert Dock and a house on the Wirral.

Softly-spoken Warren started his criminal career at the bottom when he was just nine and living at home with his dad, sailor Curtis Aloysius, and mum Sylvia, a shipyard boiler attendant. He was recruited by a gang to climb through small windows and burgle homes. By 11 he was carrying out muggings and armed robberies in the tough estates of Toxteth, Liverpool.

At 18, he was sent to borstal for assaulting police. In an adult jail eh honed his talent for crime.

Warren started selling drugs on the street and rubbing shoulders with Liverpool’s biggest villains, who underwrote huge cocaine consignments with Columbia’s Cali mobsters worth millions.

GRAFTING

He does not drink or take drugs, allowing his photographic memory to be razor-sharp at all times – especially in jail. On the outside, he has always shunned flash cars and big houses and wears tracksuits instead of Armani suits so as not to attract attention.

“Cocky takes no unnecessary risks,” said an ex-associate.

Paul Grimes added: “Unlike me and my crew, he wasn’t out till all hours in the pubs and clubs. He wasn’t flash. If he was grafting it was all VW Golfs and Passats or a low-key Rover.” Streetwise Warren gave contacts nicknames, including The Vampire, The Egg On Legs and Cracker to throw eavesdropping police off the scent.

His methods developed a business worth hundreds of millions as the drug trade exploded in the 1980s. He became a trusted client of Colombian cocaine cartels, Turkish heroin producers and Spanish cannabis suppliers.

It enabled him to get huge ­quantities of drugs on credit.

As he left court on a technicality during a 1993 trial for smuggling cocaine worth £250million, he is said to have told Customs officers he was “off to spend my £87million from the first shipment and you can’t f****** touch me”. Grimes, who will be under witness protection for the rest of his life, said: “Warren is a parasite.”

As Merseyside turf wars worsened in the mid-1990s, Warren moved to Sassenheim in Holland.

When Dutch police intercepted 400kg of cocaine, the game was up – for the time being.

At other addresses controlled by Warren, officers discovered a £150million haul containing 1,500kg of cannabis, 60kg of heroin, 50kg of ecstasy, 960 CS gas canisters, three guns, ammunition and £400,000 in Dutch guilders. The bust put Warren behind bars for 12 years in 1997.

In 2005, Dutch police charged him with running a drug smuggling cartel from his cell but the case was dropped because of insufficient evidence.

On his release, Warren returned to his manor in Merseyside to take up his mantle as the King of Coke.

But within weeks he was busted plotting what he described as “just a little starter” to get himself re-established as the No1 drugs baron in Europe.

PROPERTIES

He was jailed again in 2009 for 13 years for trying to smuggle £1million of cannabis into Jersey – for which he is still behind bars at Full Sutton Prison near York.

Following his sentence at Jersey’s Royal Court, SOCA said Warren was on its Lifetime Offender Management List.

However, Warren could now have his vast fortune seized. After he was jailed, Jersey authorities said they were determined to force Warren to hand over his assets and are seeking a Confiscation Order for more than £200million.

Warren is determined to take his fight against the Confiscation Order – which could see police seize his properties purchased with proceeds of crime – all the way to the European courts.

His solicitor said his client will “fight it all the way”.

Last week, in a similar case that will strike fear into the London underworld, kingpin Terry Adams, 57, was jailed for eight weeks, for breaching a Financial Reporting Order, after authorities demanded details on his spending.

Officers are determined that this week’s application in the High Court will finally nail Warren’s sinister organisation.

It is understood that this is the first SCPO to be applied for through the High Court.

Breaching any SCPO can lead to five years in jail and an unlimited fine. But in true Cocky fashion, Warren laughs off the order as “a mere irritant” in his bid to remain the drug trade’s Numero Uno.

WARREN once killed a fellow prisoner in a fight.

Cemal Guclu, a Turk serving 20 years for murder, attacked him at Hoorn Prison, Holland, in 1999.

Warren punched Guclu to the ground and kicked him in the head four times. Incredibly, Guclu got up but Warren struck him again. He hit his head on the ground and later died.

Warren was convicted of manslaughter and had four years added to his sentence.

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