law enforcement official says the FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sought to hack into the phones of Sept. 11 victims

.
The official spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
New York City-based News Corp. has been in crisis mode.
A rival newspaper reported last week that the company's News of the World had hacked into the phone of U.K. teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 and may have impeded a police investigation into the 13-year-old's disappearance.
More possible victims soon emerged: other child murder victims, 2005 London bombing victims, the families of dead soldiers and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The FBI's New York office hasn't commented. There's been no response from News Corp. or to a message left with the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan.

Italian police arrest Corleone mafia boss

Italian police on Friday announced the arrest of the 79-year-old mafia boss of Corleone -- the Sicilian hilltop town made famous by "The Godfather" trilogy -- following a three-year investigation.
Gaetano Riina is the brother of former Cosa Nostra kingpin Toto Riina, who is serving multiple life sentences for sanctioning scores of killings.
Riina was picked up in the city of Mazara del Vallo where he was living while allegedly controlling the Corleone clan, the police said in a statement.
The charges against Riina and three other men arrested on Friday including two of his relatives are for extortion and criminal association.
The police said the clan has continued to play a "central role" in the mafia despite multiple arrests of the crime syndicate's historic leadership.

 

Five men have been arrested in an operation against organised crime.

Detectives said two firearms were also seized when they stopped the men in two cars in Kill, Co Kildare.

The Garda's Organised Crime Unit was backed up by the armed Emergency Response Unit during the stop and search around 1am on Sunday.

The five men, all in their 30s, have been taken to Clondalkin and Ballyfermot Garda stations and are being detained under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

The firearms have been sent for ballistics tests.

Russia tries to make sense of Chechnya colonel murder

The brazen killing of a Russian army colonel who murdered a 18-year-old Chechen girl in 2000, prompted Saturday a bout of soul-searching, with some mourning the Caucasus war veteran and others fearing fresh ethnic clashes.

Budanov, convicted of the murder of Elza Kungayeva, was shot dead in broad daylight Friday in central Moscow in a contract-style killing.

Even after his death he remains such a polarising figure that the Kremlin and Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who has called the colonel a schizophrenic and “the enemy of the Chechen people,” have remained conspicuously silent.

Supporters including army officers and football fans have deposited heaps of flowers at the murder scene amid a heavy police presence.

“We are proud of him. He did not foresake his duty and did not betray his fatherland,” Yana Nikolayeva, holding a picture of Budanov, told AFP as her male companion stood nearby clutching red carnations.

Former officer Mikhail Lebedev, who spent six months on a tour of duty in Chechnya in 2003, defended the colonel as a “true leader” who never betrayed his men. “You have to understand that it was war. He acted according to the laws of wartime.”

Budanov was jailed for 10 years for Kungayeva’s murder but freed on parole in 2009 after serving most of the sentence, provoking angry protests by Chechens and Russian rights activists.

He was the commander of a tank regiment deployed in Chechnya after the start of the Kremlin’s second war against separatists in 1999 and decorated with an Order of Courage, one of the most coveted army honors.

Arrested in 2000 and stripped of the honour, he was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering Kungayeva in 2003. Charges of raping Kungayeva were dropped during the trial although rights activists still believe there was forensic evidence to convict him on this count. Budanov, who said he thought the Chechen woman was a sniper, denied raping her.

In a snap poll conducted by the popular Echo of Moscow radio earlier in the day, 68 per cent of respondents said Budanov deserved sympathy, while another 32 per cent said they did not feel sorry for him.

For human rights activists, Budanov symbolised blatant rights abuses of the military in the Caucasus, while others saw him as a victim of horrific circumstances.

The two wars with separatists in the 90s remain one of the most tragic pages in Russia’s modern history, with Kremlin policies pitting Orthodox Russians against the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus.

Scores of poor, low-educated soldiers were sent to the Caucasus, never to return. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, rights activist Natalya Estemirova and lawyer Stanislav Markelov who protested abuses in the war-torn region were all killed.

Investigators said Budanov’s murder could have been aimed at stirring up ethnic tensions, while others chalked it up to blood revenge.

The murder follows unprecedented ethnic riots in Moscow in December and comes as the country gears up to mark the Day of Russia, a state holiday.

Opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta cautioned against jumping to conclusions over the motive of the killing.

“A dead Budanov is dangerous for us all,” it said. “Hatred at the ethnic level ends up not in blood revenge but in a bloody mess.”

“May he rest in peace,” added Moskovsky Komsomolets mass-circulation daily. “A symbol and the bane of the second Chechen war, the tormentor and tormented, a Russian officer of the Russian army the way it was at the start of the 21st century.”

 

Mexico's bloody drug war escalated this week in the western states of Nayarit and Michoacán, raising fresh fears that large swaths of Mexico have descended into lawlessness.

Gunfights between rival drug gangs left 29 dead in Nayarit Wednesday, according to the AP. Police found the bodies, all male and dressed in fake military uniforms, along the highway around 14 bullet-ridden trucks and SUVs.
The fight was apparently a battle between the powerful Sinaloa Cartel - which has long been active in Nayarit - and Los Zetas, a violent paramilitary gang.
In nearby Michoacán state, three days of gun battles forced hundreds of people to leave their homes. The number of casualties are not known.
Officials said about 800 people were displaced to shelters when fighting broke out Monday. Some of the refugees started to return home after the fighting abated Wednesday.
The surge in violence is likely due to the break up of the La Familia cartel, which dominated Mexico's methamphetamine trade from Michoacán, the gang's home turf. La Familia has been in disarray since its messianic leader, Nazario "El Mas Loco" Moreno, was killed in December.
A new gang, "The Knights Templar," emerged in Michoácan in March. The Templars is thought to be made up of former La Familia members led by Servando "La Tuta" Gomez. Authorities believe another La Familia leader may be fighting with Gomez for control.
Unlike Mexico's other drug gangs, La Familia and its successors have a stated social purpose and cartel members work to provide for the poor and galvanize support among the local population. Corruption is widespread in Michoacán; La Familia is thought to have infiltrated all levels of municipal and state government.
The federal government is increasingly concerned that Michoacán - a strategic point between Mexico City and Guadalajara - has become virtually ungovernable. As the Wall Street Journal points out today, the state is a good example of why some U.S. military analysts and government officials worry that Mexico's drug wars could quickly become an insurgency.

Druglord 'El Chapo' Moves Operations to Argentina

Quoting an anonymous source in the Argentine government, Noticias Argentinas said that Guzman began living in the country with his wife and stepdaughter in 2010. The fugitive only moved on early this year after being alerted that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was pursuing an arrest order, according to the report, traveling to Paraguay, Colombia, and then Europe.

“It is believed that he used a new false identity,” the official said. “But this we can say, there are registers of his wife and stepdaughter leaving Argentina in March of this year.”

The allegation, which has not been independently confirmed, conflicts with the image of Guzman holed up in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains, protected by loyal gunmen and friendly locals. Reports of the Sinaloa kingpin going abroad have emerged periodically, but never to the extent of the latest story, which has him traveling from country to country with his family.

However, because of the pressure at home from the Calderon government’s ongoing campaign against organized crime, many Mexican gangs have shifted portions of their operations abroad. Perhaps the biggest example of this is the Zetas’ growing role in Guatemala, but Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel has been detected as far away as Malaysia and Australia. And with a number of the most notorious Mexican gangsters arrested or killed by the government in the past 18 months, it is also not inconceivable that Mexican capos would think it a safer option to take refuge outside of the country.

If so, this would mirror the pattern set by Colombian drug traffickers. Because of the improved capacity of the Colombian authorities, many capos, who a generation ago would have operated unmolested in Cali, Bogota, and Medellin, have found it more practical to operate abroad. As a result, instances of Colombians being arrested on drug charges in other regions of South America or in Mexico have become more common.

In one famous Argentine example, Hector Edilson Duque Ceballos, alias "El Monoteto," was shot to death along with a colleague in a Buenos Aires parking lot in 2008. Duque Ceballos had been one of the highest-ranking members of Colombia's Cordillera Cartel.

Mexican drug lords also have a long history in Argentina, dating back to former Juarez capo Amado Carrillo’s plans to move there in the 1990s. According to Proceso, Guzman had been building his presence in the South American nation since at least 2007, using a series of evangelical churches as fronts for his organization.

Other Mexican groups have followed Guzman into Argentina. According to Edgardo Buscaglia, a researcher with the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, members of the Tijuana Cartel are working with Guzman’s people in the country. Authorities have also uncovered evidence of the Zetas operating there, though not in tandem with Guzman.

Guzman’s work in Argentina centers primarily on the production and distribution of synthetic drugs, according to the Proceso report. This is concentrated in three poor northern provinces: Chaco, Formosa, and Misiones. As a result, Guzman’s group has easy access to Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay, including the notoriously lawless tri-border area that Argentina shares with the latter two nations. Guzman has also allegedly invested significant amounts of money in some of the largest cities in Argentina, such as Buenos Aires, Cordoba, and Santa Fe.

The appeal of Argentina for drug syndicates is rooted in a number of factors. With its long coastline and busy port system, Argentina is a valuable source of important precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs from Asia. The relative weakness of state institutions in much of  its territory means that capos have little trouble in corrupting officials. Guzman, for example, was reportedly tipped off about the DEA order by a collaborator in the Argentine government. Furthermore, with more than 40 million citizens, the country also provides a significant retail market for drugs.

 

Dhian Thapar was gunned down outside his Whitby home after taking over a popular South Asian TV show whose host had been shot and killed.

Dhian Thapar was gunned down outside his Whitby home after taking over a popular South Asian TV show whose host had been shot and killed.

But like the murder nine months earlier of Prithyi Vij in Toronto, police have made no arrests in Thapar’s Feb. 22, 1992 killing.

Both murders were execution-style.

Durham Regional Police appealed for help again recently to solve the killing of the wealthy dentist and father-of-three who owned several Metro businesses, including the India Theatre on Gerrard St. E. Investigators continue to believe the killings are linked.

There were rumours Thapar, 49, was targeted by a black Muslim gang.

And four months after his slaying, Toronto Police charged a man with threatening to kill his son over a cancelled cultural show.

Investigators also suspected ties to the May 27, 1991 murder of Umesh Shantilan Raniga, 24, in his Gerrard St. jewelry store — one day before Vij’s shooting.

Interrupted while on his phone, Raniga’s cries for mercy — calling his killer “brother” while being repeatedly stabbed — were played to successive juries before the accused killer was acquitted for a second time.

No one else has ever been charged.

“These cases never close,” says Michael A. Davis, a former Toronto homicide detective who handled Vij’s case.

“There were so many different angles, but we didn’t have anything solid to point to a killer or killers,” he says. “Obviously we had an open mind ... we didn’t have tunnel vision.”

Vij “was assassinated, as far as I’m concerned. The killer was waiting for him,” he says.

“There were so many people we spoke to,” says Davis, who runs a private investigation business that bears his name. Investigators developed several theories and decided “it was close to home,” Davis says.

“I’m not pointing fingers,” he says. “Obviously his wife wasn’t the triggerman.”

Police probed reports of financial problems with Vij’s business, marriage issues related to frequent absences from home for work and community events, plus Thapar ousting Usha from the radio show.

It was also an era of social tensions linked to India’s politics, including the 1985 Air India bombing, plus the wounding three years later of an outspoken Punjabi newspaper editor in B.C. — fatally silenced in 1998.

The White Rock chapter of the Hells Angels supplied marijuana and muscle to a multimillion-dollar cross-border drug-smuggling ring

The White Rock chapter of the Hells Angels supplied marijuana and muscle to a multimillion-dollar cross-border drug-smuggling ring in which 22 people have so far been charged, U.S. court documents allege.

U.S. law enforcement agents allege Hells Angel associate Trevor Jones was the Canadian "boss" of the drug ring alleged to have distributed up to a tonne of pot and 200 kilograms of cocaine a month for several years.

The ring was broken up last month with a series of arrests in several states and the seizure of almost $2 million US and 1,000 kilograms of cocaine from various locations.

The just-unsealed court documents say that Jones, who is not charged on the indictment, was observed by U.S. agents meeting a key member of the drug ring in Las Vegas in February.

And the documents say that U.S. members of the gang were caught on wiretap in April trying to get guns, baseball bats and pepper spray for the B.C. bikers so they could go after an associate believed to have stolen 106 kilograms of cocaine.

In fact, the coke had been seized by police.

"I believe that cocaine was destined for Canada and for the Hells Angels, possibly Trevor Jones," special agent Bryan Winger, of Homeland Security, testified in one court affidavit.

Among those now in custody are Jacob Stuart and Richard Lamar, the two Washington men alleged to have led the U.S. side of the operation, and John Washington, described as the group's main Seattle customer and "a member of the Blood street gang."

Three Canadians were also picked up: Glen Stewart -a 51-year-old who lives in Blaine -and Michel William Dubois and Mario Joseph Fenianos, who were arrested on April 26 in Los Angeles.

Dubois and Fenianos were arrested in a vehicle containing a duffel bag full of cocaine after agents observed them arriving to meet associates of the Sinaloa cartel.

The investigation began in early 2010 when U.S. Homeland Security came across three separate drug cases that all linked back to Stuart and his associates. Investigators got a series of wiretap authorizations and watched suspects in several states for months.

The U.S. Attorney said in one court document that the Stuart gang was international in scope, receiving shipments of B.C. bud trucked over the border, which were then transported across the U.S. using "aircraft flown by multiple pilots, who all have been observed by surveillance agents picking up suspected loads of marijuana."

Several suspects caught in the act agreed to become confidential informants and linked the case back to the Hells Angels in B.C., the documents said.

Members of the drug ring were "prepared to use violence to further their activities." Suspects were caught on tape plotting abductions and beatings as part of debt collecting, the U.S. Attorney said.

"Stuart was also intercepted talking to Lamar about obtaining guns, pepper spray, and baseball bats for use by a different crew of enforcers being sent down from Canada to investigate a large amount of missing drugs," one document said.

Stuart says on wiretap that he needs "some heaters, burners" -which is slang for firearms.

"They want some right now -our boss man does -because they are sending some people down to deal with the situation," he said.

One document alleges that Jones, 41, is the owner of Surrey's T-Barz strip club and the twin brother of fullpatch White Rock Hells Angel Randal Jones.

"Interviews with cooperating confidential informants (CIs) and subsequent wire intercepts indicate that the primary source of supply of the marijuana to the Jacob Stuart drug trafficking organization is a person who has been identified by their moniker of Red," Winger said in his April 26 affidavit to the court.

"Red is the nickname or code name for Trevor Jones. ... According to Canadian law enforcement Trevor Jones is a Hells Angels member and/ or associate."

Winger further alleges that while Jones was not captured on wiretap during the investigation, "we have intercepted calls we believe are about Jones and surveilled meetings between Jones and Lamar, acting on Stuart's behalf."

And he quoted records that confirmed that Jones "did fly from Canada to Las Vegas, making entry into the U.S. on Feb. 14, 2011" and stayed at the hotel where Lamar was sent by Stuart twice over several days.

"We believe that during this and the previous trip, Lamar was delivering money to Trevor Jones, which the Stuart drug trafficking organization owed for marijuana obtained from the Jones brothers," Winger testified in a court document.

After meeting Jones, Lamar is captured in one call to Stuart saying Jones praised him: "he says you're his best guy, which is good."

Jones, who lives in Langley, did not return telephone or email messages left for him Friday through T-Barz.

Detectives will question Britain's most feared gangster over the unsolved murders of two of his associates 13 years ago.

Convicted crime godfather Terry Adams, 56, will be asked about the assassination of Saul "Solly" Nahome and the disappearance of Gilbert Wynter in 1998.

Scotland Yard has announced a new inquiry into the two suspected "hits" and linked the deaths for the first time.

The men knew each other and worked for the north London-based Adams crime syndicate which is said to have amassed a £200 million fortune from racketeering and drugs trafficking.

Mr Nahome, a 48-year-old accountant who worked as a bookkeeper for Terry Adams, was shot dead outside his home in Finchley in November 1998.
Wynter, 37, an enforcer who also worked for the family, disappeared after leaving his home in Tottenham in March the same year.

He is believed to have been murdered and is rumoured to be buried in the foundations of the Millennium Dome.

Once charged with murdering former British high jump champion Claude Moseley, allegedly on the orders of Adams, Wynter walked free after the chief prosecution witness refused to give evidence.

Scotland Yard say they plan to use new forensic techniques to examine items relating to both the murder of Nahome and the disappearance of Wynter. Detectives plan to talk to about 20 associates of the Adams syndicate.

Adams was released from jail last year after serving half of a seven-year sentence for money laundering and is now thought to be living in north London.

Detective Chief Inspector David Manning said: "The cases have never been closed. Having reviewed both investigations and with advances in DNA techniques, we decided to launch a last-ditch effort to bring them to a successful conclusion."

Police in Arizona have arrested 25 suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel,

Police in Arizona have arrested 25 suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel, significantly hampering the group's ability to smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants from Mexico, authorities said on Thursday.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said the suspects -- believed to be members of the Jesus Valencia-Rodgriguez cell of the powerful Sinaloa cartel -- smuggled drugs and undocumented immigrants through the remote Tohono O'odham Indian Nation on the Arizona-Mexico border.

The suspects, who were arrested in Phoenix, Tucson and on the Tohono O'odham nation, face state charges including drug and human smuggling, money laundering, conspiracy and participation in a criminal syndicate. No federal charges were filed.

Arizona straddles a major trafficking corridor for smugglers hauling drugs and illegal immigrants into the United States from Mexico.

The sweep followed an 18-month investigation, said Doug Coleman, the DEA's special agent in charge for Arizona.

"This organization is going to have to reconstitute itself, and when they do we'll be ready," Coleman said.

Valencia-Rodriguez is believed to be at large in Mexico, and U.S. officials plan to ask Mexican authorities for help in capturing him. The cartel will require months or years to recover, Coleman said.

Most of the suspects are U.S. citizens and the rest Mexican, said Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, who announced the arrests at a Tucson news conference.

The smuggling operation used sophisticated methods, including spotters hidden in the Arizona desert with solar-powered radios and night-vision equipment to alert smugglers when law enforcement was near, Horne said.

"This criminal enterprise was a well-organized operation that constantly worked against law-enforcement interdiction efforts," he said.

Valencia-Rodriguez is responsible for bringing illegal aliens and tons of marijuana across the border, often using a gate that allows tribe members to cross the border unrestricted, Horne said.

Authorities also seized more than 10,000 pounds of marijuana and shut down stash and safe houses in Tucson and Phoenix during the investigation. More arrests are expected, Horne said.

Coleman could not say how significant the arrests are for the cartel, because authorities do not know how many such cells exist.

"If I knew how many there were, I would arrest them," he said.

two-year investigation, the Weld District Attorney’s Office has arrested a Fort Collins man on 14 criminal counts alleging organized crime, forgery and theft in a series of real estate transactions.

two-year investigation, the Weld District Attorney’s Office has arrested a Fort Collins man on 14 criminal counts alleging organized crime, forgery and theft in a series of real estate transactions.

The district attorney’s office has investigated the alleged mortgage fraud scheme for two years, and investigators presented their findings to a Weld County grand jury last week.

The grand jury indicted Matthew Sysum, 41, on:

» One count of a violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act — Pattern of Racketeering, punishable by eight to 24 years in prison.

» Nine counts of felony forgery, punishable by one to three years in prison.

» Three counts of theft of $15,000 or more, punishable by four to 12 years in prison.

» One count of theft, $20,000 or more, punishable by four to 12 years in prison.

The indictment claims that from Jan. 31, 2003, to Dec. 31, 2007, Sysum “engaged in racketeering activity that resulted in financial gain for Sysum through fraud and deceit regarding the purchase and sale of real property for the purpose of investment property,” according to a news release.

The 26-page indictment outlines a series of real estate sales in those four years involving about $9 million in loans from various banks — including a $1.6 million loan from Cache Bank and Trust in Greeley and a $1.5 million loan from First National Bank in Fort Collins — received through forged real estate documents and contracts that “falsified property appraisal values, which were used as a basis for bank loan applications,” the release stated.

The properties included a corner off of 5th and Campbell streets in Kersey, a ranch in Firestone, a property off of U.S. 85 in Platteville, a property in Kiowa and his personal residence in Loveland, the release stated.

District attorney’s investigators arrested Sysum at his home Friday. He posted a $50,000 bond to get out of jail.

The first and only time the Weld District Attorney’s Office charged Colorado Organized Crime Control Act violations involving real estate, former Greeley developer Mark Strodtman was indicted on 23 felony counts involving 11 theft, 11 forgeries and a Colorado Organized Crime Control Act charge. A Weld District Court jury convicted him in November 2009. He was sentenced last year to 31 years in prison. He was the first person in Weld to be convicted under the state’s organized crime control act.

There are five executed in Veracruz

Authorities Veracruz Attorney's Office, confirmed that during yesterday five men were found executed.

The discovery was made in the Gulf of Mexico when police elements came to a land located in the town named Carlos A. Carrillo.

The five executed men had signs of having been tortured, and until their identities are unknown.

Police executed in Guadalajara, Jalisco

During Monday night, an element of the Auxiliary Police of the State of Jalisco was executed by an armed group.

Reports reveal that the police were having dinner at a restaurant when the bullets caught him, his body was left in the parking lot.

The fact led police mobilization in the Valle Verde subdivision, the municipality of Guadalajara.

Court officials say an Albanian man has been sentenced to life in prison for leading a major drug ring and involvement in seven murders.

Alfred Shkurti, 45, was convicted Monday of ordering six murders and personally committing a seventh as head of a gang active in Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, which trafficked drugs to western Europe.

The victims were described as rival gang leaders and local businessmen.

Court officials said Shkurti was also convicted of weapons offenses and destruction of property.

He had initially been charged with ordering more than 20 murders, as well as several kidnappings and desecration of graves.

Shkurti was arrested in Turkey and extradited to Albania in 2009 on an international warrant.

Suspected drug traffickers and money launderers will be prosecuted by a new unit dedicated to taking organised crime gangs off Scotland's streets.

The Crown Office said its Serious and Organised Crime Division (SOCD) will focus on those profiting from organised crime.
About 50 specialist staff based in Edinburgh and Glasgow will work on cases involving serious fraud, money laundering, drug and people trafficking and bootlegging.
The division, launched on Thursday by the Solicitor General, is also tasked with seizing cash from criminals under Proceeds of Crime legislation.
Frank Mulholland QC said: "Organised crime groups are a corrosive influence in Scotland and are constantly seeking to find new opportunities to sustain their businesses by way of drug dealing, bootlegging, music piracy, money laundering and people trafficking to name but a few.
"To meet this challenge we must continually evaluate and improve our practices and procedures allowing us to be forward thinking and focused and remain one step ahead of those who see crime as way of life.
"I am confident that this new division with its dedicated specialists will be very effective in tackling serious and organised crime in Scotland."
Deputy chief constable Gordon Meldrum, director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), said: "I welcome any new measures that aim to make life more difficult for serious organised crime groups.
"We already have excellent links with the Crown Office, as well as a range of other partners.
"This new dedicated team will make our partnership even stronger and our collective efforts against serious organised crime more effective."

if-you're-indicted, you're-invited soirees.

In another era, it would have been considered one of those if-you're-indicted, you're-invited soirees.

The VIP list for the Las Vegas Mob Experience gala Tuesday was dotted with names from the days when casinos served as ATMs for organized crime.

Not since the Tropicana's opening night April 4, 1957, have so many prominent underworld names gathered under its roof.

More than 1,500 were invited for this mob scene, including relatives representing the who's who of infamous hoodlums.

Introductions were rife with the potential of awkward moments.

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's daughter Milicent was there. So was Cynthia Duncan, the step-granddaughter of Meyer Lansky, the Mafia's financial mastermind who reportedly ordered the hit on Bugsy.

Carl Manno, meet Nick Micek.

Manno is the grandson of Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana. Micek is a descendant of Chicago's Aiuppa crime family. Investigators believe Joe Aiuppa had Giancana knocked off.

Also on the guest list: Nancy and Vincent Spilotro, the wife and son of former Las Vegas hitman Tony Spilotro, who, in turn, was taken out by fellow mobsters.

On hand to represent another mob generation: Frank Vincent and Tony Sirico, who starred in "The Sopranos."

Fans of Martin Scorsese's "Casino" will recognize Vincent as one of bat-wielding hitmen who whacked Joe Pesci's character, which was based on Spilotro.

Also among the eclectic gala crowd: longtime New York Post mob reporter Jack D. Fox, Associated Press special correspondent Linda Deutsch, who has covered many of the most notorious U.S. trials over 40 years, and Edie Lederer, AP's chief U.N. correspondent , who was in town celebrating her birthday

Police claim that Organised Crime Squad officers approached the men as they sat in the vehicle at a service station on Thomas Road in Kwinana.

Two men have been charged with several offences after they were allegedly stopped with a stolen BMW yesterday.

Police claim that Organised Crime Squad officers approached the men as they sat in the vehicle at a service station on Thomas Road in Kwinana.

Police allege that as the officers approached the car to talk to the two men the driver ran into nearby bushland.

The 33-year-old man was later detained and the 22-year-old passenger was also arrested.

When the officers searched the 22-year-old man they allegedly found a stun gun.

Police say a search of the nearby bushland also revealed clip seal bags containing methylamphetamine.

During a search of their Cannington residence, officers found a quantity of ammunition and a bag of drugs, similar to that found in the bushland.

The 33-year-old man has been charged with possess methylamphetamine with intent to sell or supply, stealing a motor vehicle and no driver's licence.

He will appear in the Rockingham Magistrates Court later today.

The 22-year-old man will be charged by summons with possessing a prohibited weapon, and will appear in court at a later date.

Havard spent the past seven years in an English jail after his 2004 arrest or involvement with a global identity theft ring with ties to Russian organized crime. Havard, when he fled Texas, had pending state charges that included drug dealing, engaging in organized crime, counterfeiting of IDs and aggravated robbery.

A former Southern Methodist University student who fled the U.S. nearly a decade ago has pleaded guilty to passport fraud.
A federal judge in Dallas on Tuesday accepted the plea from 28-year-old Douglas Havard and ordered him to be sentenced June 20.
Havard, who was extradited this month from England, faces up to 10 years in prison.
Investigators say Havard spent the past seven years in an English jail after his 2004 arrest or involvement with a global identity theft ring with ties to Russian organized crime. Havard, when he fled Texas, had pending state charges that included drug dealing, engaging in organized crime, counterfeiting of IDs and aggravated robbery.
The Dallas Morning News reports defense attorney Paul Coggins says Havard is doing all that he can to accept responsibility.

Police have seized $35 million worth of goods since a new law came into effect in 2009.

In the latest Ten One magazine, police said the assets were "restrained" under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.

Of the $35m, $21m was linked to organised crime groups.

Restraining property under the Act is usually done before it is forfeited to the Crown although the Act also allows property to be forfeited without being restrained.

Police said property worth $5.1m had been forfeited under the Act.

Last month nearly $2.5m in drug money was forfeited to the Crown.

The money was found by detectives searching a foreign exchange shop in central Auckland in 2006.

It was restrained under old law before the new Act came into force but was forfeited to the Crown at a hearing in the High Court in Auckland last month.

Police said the new law allowed property to be forfeited without a criminal conviction.

The police national manager of the Financial Crime Group, Superintendent Peter Devoy, said it was satisfying for police to see the new Act working.

"This is just the beginning. There will be a lot more to come," he said in Ten One.

Organic food fraud: One in six restaurants lie about the origin of their offerings | Mail Online

Organic food fraud: One in six restaurants lie about the origin of their offerings | Mail Online: "Food stores and restaurants have been accused of misleading their customers by claiming to sell ‘organic’ or ‘fresh’ produce.

A survey by trading standards officials found that one sixth of outlets were charging more for menu items by claiming the food had a higher nutritional value than it truly did.

Among the worst offenders in the inquiry was a restaurant that claimed to have cooked dishes with fresh mozzarella but actually used economy cheddar while another outlet advertised ‘home-made pies’ which were really purchased from a nationwide wholesaler."

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