Abu Dhabi death sentence pair were 'big-time dealers'

The two men sentenced to death for selling Dh1,500 worth of marijuana to an undercover policeman were experienced dealers involved in smuggling larger quantities of drugs including opium and heroin, according to the head of Abu Dhabi Criminal Court. Related ■ UAE death sentence for Briton and Syrian to face significant checks ■ Briton and Syrian sentenced to death for drug dealing in Abu Dhabi Topic Crime The sentencing of Briton NL, 21, and MB, 19, from Syria, earlier this week caused controversy for the relatively small amount of drugs involved. But Chief Justice Sayed Abdul Baseer said yesterday that the pair's involvement in drug dealing had been observed by police long before the sting operation in which they were caught selling 20 grams of hashish. He said the pair had previously dealt in harder drugs, including opium and heroin, and were involved in a highly organised and professional operation. "They would study the market and plan their steps ahead," said the chief justice. The chief justice added that the pair knew what they were doing each day in advance. "They even discussed what penalty they could face if they were caught," he said. Experts who examined the mobile phone and BlackBerry messenger records of the two men uncovered numerous discussions between the two about various drug deals in which they debated how to import the drugs and how to sell them once they were in the country. In one conversation the Briton - who had previous convictions for possessing and taking drugs - described the state of the UAE drug market, explaining that 1kg of hashish could fetch Dh9,000. He also mentioned that he believed the punishment for dealing was a life sentence, while the maximum jail term for consumption was four years. A separate conversation between the Briton and a Spanish person, identified as R, showed that the Briton had shipped at least one consignment of drugs into the country, while a third phone call involved an Emirati man requesting an undisclosed amount of opium. In yet another conversation the Syrian asked the Briton to provide him with Dh1,000 worth of hashish. The Briton then asked for a chance to cut the requested amount and weight it - proof, said the chief justice, that the pair were involved in dealing, and not just consuming drugs. Items recovered from their homes were also consistent with dealing, he said. "Police found [in the Briton's house] special cutters to cut hashish and sell it later on," said the chief justice. Officers also found paper rolls used to pack hashish and other instruments used to consume the drug. The chief justice took the opportunity to explain why two others involved in the case were given more lenient sentences. He said that the third defendant GA, a 17-year-old Emirati who was ordered to enter rehabilitation, was guilty only of consuming the banned drug Tramadol. In such a case, where a juvenile was involved, the law prescribed a period of rehabilitation. The fourth defendant FM, from Sudan, was also convicted of consuming only Tramadol. However, as he was not a minor he received a jail term of one year. As he is not Emirati he will also be deported. The chief justice pointed out that all the defendants had confessed to the charges, noting that the Emirati acquired the Tramadol from the Briton for free, and that the Syrian admitted selling large amounts of hashish through another unnamed Emirati. He also explained that in cases of drug dealing, the law was not concerned with the amount involved or how much it was worth. "The criminal factor is fulfilled through the agreement to sell and buy, not necessarily after money has been paid and the delivery has occurred." Despite the chief justice's comments, the verdict of the criminal court represents only the first stage in a long process. Under law, any death sentence must be presented in four different courts and to 19 judges before it can be passed to the president or ruler of the emirate for approval. A legal source said that in the emirate of Abu Dhabi there were no previous instances of a death sentence for drug dealing passing through all these stages, as the sentence tends to be reduced either by the appeals court or the court of cassation. All death sentences must automatically be appealed by the public prosecution. If the appeal court upholds the verdict the court of cassation then studies the case to see if it fulfils the Sharia requirements. If the court is unconvinced it returns the case to the appeals court for a second hearing. A different panel of judges will then study the case and if they uphold the death sentence the case will return to the court of cassation for a final verdict. Those accused have a chance to defend themselves at each stage of the process.

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Three jailed for smuggling one tonne of cocaine by luxury yacht

Three Dutch men have been jailed for up to seven years for smuggling over one tonne of cocaine on board a luxury yacht, the BBC reports. Klaas L, 61, and owner of the yacht, was jailed for seven years and his son Robert, 33, for five years by judges in Rotterdam. A third man, Mohamed Z, 45, was jailed for eight years. L's other son was acquitted, the BBC said. The drugs were found by Southampton police after a tip-off last year. The motor yacht Louise had been loaded onto a ship transporter bound for Holland while in the Caribbean, where it was already under surveillance. The transporter made a scheduled stop in Southampton where the yacht was searched by British and Dutch officials. Hidden After six days, they eventually found the drugs hidden beneath the bathing platform at the back of the boat. The yacht's owner had tried to pick the boat up in Southampton but were delayed by British officials who said it was no longer seaworthy while the investigation continued. The drugs, with a street value of €45m, were probably hidden on the yacht in Venezuela. According to British media reports, the drug was 90% pure and represented of of the largest finds of a Class A drug ever made in the UK. Police also recovered a million euros in cash, two Harley Davidson motorbikes, two firearms, a silencer and a quantity of ecstasy.

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A key player in a major drug smuggling gang, who fled the country in 2004, has been jailed for nine years today for his involvement in an attempt to smuggle £2 million worth of cocaine into the UK.

Richard Wright Photo: HM Revenue & Customs

Richard Wright, 51, formerly of Chislehurst, Kent, was extradited from the Netherlands.

He was sentenced today for conspiring to import Class A drugs via Zeebrugge in 2004.

Wright had escaped before he could be charged but he continued his illegal activities and was arrested by HM Revenue and Customs officers after he served a jail term in Holland.

Mike O’Grady, Revenue & Customs Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation, said: “Wright fled the UK when circumstances got difficult and he saw we had arrested other gang members associated with the smuggling attempt.

"It became clear that he had continued his illegal activities in the Netherlands in the intervening period when he was arrested by our partners there for similar drug smuggling offences. Combining our intelligence and expertise for both smuggling cases has protected UK citizens and wider European communities from this habitual organised criminal.”

Drugs were believed to be destined for organised crime gangs in Derbyshire and London Credit: HM Revenue & Customs

Seven other gang members were jailed in 2006 following the seizure of 29kg of cocaine at Hull Docks.

The drugs were hidden underneath solidified bitumen, within one of two pods on the rear of a tarmac truck.

The drugs were believed to have been destined for organised crime gangs in Derbyshire and London.

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investigation has exposed the organised criminals who secretly trade organs for British transplant patients for as little as £4,500

 investigation has exposed the organised criminals who secretly trade organs for British transplant patients for as little as £4,500 (Rs 3.85 lakh). The gangs, operating in eastern Europe and the Indian subcontinent, prey on the desperation of patients requiring organs and the poverty of donors who often earn less than £1,000 (Rs 85,754) from the exploitative deals. The so-called organ brokers have developed a network of corrupt officials who provide fake documentation to show that donors are related to the recipients, a legal requirement in Britain and several other countries. They have also recruited corrupt doctors who conduct medical tests and help arrange transplant operations in the donors’ homelands. Police are investigating the first case of people-trafficking for organs in Britain after a woman was brought to the country last month by an eastern European gang that planned to sell her kidney. However, the international trade in human organs has been flourishing for several years. Last month, a report by the World Health Organisation estimated that 10,000 black-market transplant operations take place each year. The illicit trade begins with men such as Tsvetan. He and several other touts were found loitering outside a blood transfusion centre in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, as they offered poor and homeless people 20 euros (Rs 1,401) for a unit of their blood. The blood is resold for as much as 10 times that sum. Far more lucrative, however, is the buying and selling of organs — a point not lost on Tsvetan as he listened to an undercover reporter detail how a female relative in London required a kidney. Tsvetan asked for the woman’s blood type and on being told she was A positive replied: “We have that available. I have a man who has exactly that blood type. We have his full medical reports.… When you see that everything is right then we can talk about money and the guy will go with you to London.” Hours later, he summoned the reporter to a cafe where he handed over a bundle including blood reports, ultrasound scans and X-rays. Pointing to one, he said: “Look, he is A positive, everything is in order. He has no diseases — HIV, hepatitis, everything is negative. We were going to sell his kidney to another patient but the guy died before the transplant could take place.... You are lucky.” Two days later, Tsvetan, his boss Traicho and the donor, Minko Asenov, met the reporter at another cafe. Traicho said: “You can take him to the doctor to check that he is still healthy and his blood group is fine. We will make the appointment tomorrow (Monday) with the doctor who is our friend, he works at the top hospital. He knows everything that we do.… He can do all the tests.” Asenov, a retired factory worker and father of three from Vratsa, a town in eastern Bulgaria, supplements his benefit payments by salvaging scraps from dustbins to sell. “I have sold blood more than 20 times. We are poor people and this is a way to make good money,” he explained. Traicho said Asenov would be escorted to Britain. He quoted a price of 20,000 euros (Rs 13.9 lakh) for Asenov’s kidney. Organ transplants in England and Wales are regulated by the Human Tissue Act, 2004, which prohibits the selling of organs. To combat trafficking, doctors must follow strict rules requiring them to satisfy themselves that a donor is not being paid or coerced. Aware of such strict rules, the gangs have a network of officials who provide bogus papers showing a donor is related to the recipient. It took Traicho and Tsvetan less than an hour to bribe a council official to sign and stamp a document falsely showing Asenov was the father-in-law of the woman awaiting a kidney in London. Kiro, in his fifties, runs a rival organ trafficking gang in Sofia. He warned the reporter who had approached him seeking to buy a kidney: “We are serious people.… The price is £20,000 (Rs 17.15 lakh).” The deal struck, factory worker Dimitar Doychenov was ushered to the table. “I’m doing this for my son who is 18 months old,” he said. “I’m 30 so I should recover fast.” His confidence is misplaced. Donors face poor medical care or are ripped off. The potential risks have failed to dissuade men such as Sanjay Srivastava, a 38-year-old office assistant recruited as a donor by a gang operated by Hemchand Kallu, an ambulance fleet owner in Delhi. At a meeting with an undercover reporter in the city’s Connaught Place, Kallu said: “I have somebody who is ready to donate. He is in need of money and will sign any papers.... Donors are not a problem. The kidney will cost you Rs 400,000-500,000.” Later, Srivastava explained: “The money will help me to get my sister married.” In case he was not a match, Kallu arranged for the reporter to meet another potential donor — a 30-year-old divorced mother of three called Seema Khan. She said: “I just want to give my children a better life.” In Delhi, S.K. Gupta, a GP recommended by Kallu, suggested the transplant be carried out in India where he estimated it would cost £15,000 (Rs 12.8 lakh). He claimed to have previously helped other British transplant patients. Explaining how paperwork falsely stating a relationship between donor and recipient would be required, he said: “Paperwork will cost you an additional Rs 100,000.... Everybody gets a cut. That’s how it’s done.”

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Man charged with importing heroin from Kenya in picture frame

Chicago man has been charged with trying to take possession of heroin concealed in a picture frame he had had shipped from Kenya to the downtown hotel where he worked, court documents show. Taiwo Obayemi, 34, of the 5100 block of South Blackstone Avenue in Chicago, was arrested Wednesday near his home after the picture frame had been shipped to his work place, the W Hotel, 644 N. Lake Shore Dr., according to a federal criminal complaint against him filed today. U.S. Homeland Security agents investigated six packages supposedly containing picture frames or framed prints sent to the hotel from a children’s home in Nairobi, Kenya. The last one, which Obayemi eventually was arrested with, had been sent with a little less than 5 ounces of heroin concealed in it, according to an affidavit filed in the case by a Homeland Security drug agent. Five previous shipments, which also were made via DHL, went from the children’s home in Nairobi to fictitious people at the W Hotel starting in November 2011, according to the agent. Federal agents intercepted the sixth package in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 31. About 4.75 ounces of heroin were found in the frame and the frame was sent on to Chicago, where agents took the heroin out and replaced it with fake heroin. The frame was sent on to the W Hotel, where Obayemi eventually took it and was driven by someone else to his neighborhood, according to the affidavit. When Obayemi got out of the car, agents approached him, and when they identified themselves as police, he began to run and dropped the package, according to the complaint. After his arrest, Obayemi told agents he had a person in Nigeria send the packages to him, and told agents “he accepted the illegal package because of greed and the things he wanted,” according to the affidavit. Text messages to and from Obayemi indicate he was dealing heroin and discussing the price of the drug with customers. In an interview with one of the people who received deliveries at the W Hotel, agents were told that Obayemi had received about five packages in the last year similar to the one he received Wednesday. Obayemi was convicted in 1999 of possessing heroin with intent to distribute and conspiracy to import a controlled substance, and sentenced to 87 months in prison, according to the affidavit. He was released from federal prison in 2004, according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons records. Court information for Obayemi was not available Friday night. The general manager of the W Hotel said in an email that "The hotel continues to cooperate fully with the police on their investigation," but referred all questions "to the authorities."

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Customs officers in Lom find heroin instead of first aid kit

Customs officers in the Northern town of Lom found heroin instead of a first aid kit, the press office of the National Customs Agency announced for FOCUS News Agency. A mobile customs group stopped a car for a check. The vehicle was with Bulgarian registration and was travelling from Bulgaria to Austria, driven by a Bulgarian national. The car was redirected for a thorough check to the Vidin Ferryboat checkpoint, where authorities found a suspicious package put in the space, where the first aid kit was supposed to be. The drug test made on the field responded to heroin. The package contained some 702 grams of heroin. The driver was drawn a statement of customs violation and the case has been referred to the District Prosecutor’s Office

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Customs officers in Lom find heroin instead of first aid kit

Customs officers in the Northern town of Lom found heroin instead of a first aid kit, the press office of the National Customs Agency announced for FOCUS News Agency. A mobile customs group stopped a car for a check. The vehicle was with Bulgarian registration and was travelling from Bulgaria to Austria, driven by a Bulgarian national. The car was redirected for a thorough check to the Vidin Ferryboat checkpoint, where authorities found a suspicious package put in the space, where the first aid kit was supposed to be. The drug test made on the field responded to heroin. The package contained some 702 grams of heroin. The driver was drawn a statement of customs violation and the case has been referred to the District Prosecutor’s Office

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Haji Bagcho sent heroin to more than 20 countries and was once responsible for trafficking a fifth of the world's heroin supply

Haji Bagcho sent heroin to more than 20 countries and was once responsible for trafficking a fifth of the world's heroin supply, prosecutors estimate. In one year alone he is thought to have traded more than 125 tonnes of the drug worth hundreds of millions of pounds, and used the proceeds to give weapons, cash and supplies to Taliban commanders fighting Nato forces. His conviction was a rare success for an international effort which has struggled to dent the Afghan opium trade, or the international drug smuggling networks it feeds. Bagcho, aged around 60, operated a family business from Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan and ran a network of laboratories along the Pakistan border. Khadi Gul, Bagcho's younger brother, told The Daily Telegraph his family had been involved in smuggling and had run a family business from a notorious smuggling bazaar in Ghani Kheyl.

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15 heroin capsules recovered from Nigerian’s stomach

RAWALPINDI: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) arrested a Nigerian man on Sunday after recovery of 15 heroin-filled capsules from his stomach, the ANF said. Qgbnobioma Leonard, having passport number A-2540022, was proceeding to Dubai and onward to Nigeria by PIA flight PK-211 at 12 p.m. The ANF personnel found his activities suspicious. During investigation by the ANF officers, he confessed that he swallowed 15 capsules of heroin, the ANF said. He was sent to the hospital where 15 capsules filled with heroin were recovered.

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