South London men face furniture drug smuggling charges

 

Six men have gone on trial accused of conspiring to smuggle more than £2.5m of cocaine into the country. Kevin Hill, 27, of Cartmel Gardens, Morden, Wayne Smith, 19, of Westmoreland Way, Mitcham and Carl Charles, 33, of Yorkshire Road, Mitcham, face charges of attemtping to import 13.5kg of the drug. Three other men Craig Hughes, 35, from Orpington, Conrad Crandon, 55, from Edmonton and Terence Tremblett, 32, from Brixton, also face the same charge. The offences date back to October and November, in 2009, when border agency officers at Tilbury Docks, in Essex, flagged up a container holding a number of items of wicker furniture and brush mats. After closer inspection, the jury heard, the officers found the brush mats had been injected with cocaine which, when separated, came to a total of more than £2.5m. Simon Wild, prosecuting, told the court that a respectable removal firm, called Grants of Cheam, based in Coomber Lane, Croydon, had allegedly received a phone call from a Keith Thompson in late October, 2009, who said he wanted to store a shipment. Grants of Cheam, unknowingly, agreed to take on the shipment but they did not hear from Mr Thompson for two weeks, the court heard. On November 10, 2009, Mr Thompson allegedly arranged for the furniture and mats to be delivered and they arrived that day. There followed a series of arrests after the items had reached Croydon and all six men were charged with conspiracy to smuggle, which they all deny. The trial, which started at Croydon Crown Court on Wednesday (September 7), is expected to last three weeks.

Illegal alcohol find ‘one of the UK’s largest seizures’

 

A QUARTER of a million pounds worth of illegal alcohol has been seized in a raid in Glasgow. Officers from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) took the illegal alcohol and dismantled an alcohol relabeling factory after a two-day operation and have claimed the seizure is one of the largest in the UK. A Glasgow man has been charged with evasion of duty following the discovery last week.

Vicente Zambada's lawyers claim he and other cartel leaders were granted immunity by U.S. agents

Vicente Zambada's lawyers claim he and other cartel leaders were granted immunity by U.S. agents — and carte blanche to smuggle cocaine over the border — in exchange for intelligence about rival cartels engaged in bloody turf wars in Mexico.

Controversial defence: Vicente Zambada's claim could throw new light on how U.S. authorities deal with Mexican drug cartels

Experts scoff at the claim, which U.S. prosecutors are expected to answer in a filing Friday in federal court.

But records filed in support of his proposed defence have offered a peek at the sordid world of Mexico's largest drug syndicate, the Sinaloa cartel, which is run by his father, Ismael Zambada, and Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.

It's a world of brutality, greed and snitching, and federal agents would love to have the younger Zambada pass along more intelligence, especially if it could help bring down his family's operation or lead to the capture of Guzman, a billionaire who escaped from a Mexican prison in a laundry truck in 2001.

Main man: Vicente's father Ismael Zambada, godfather of the Sinaloa cartel, pictured at a party in 1993

'It comes down to whether he would be willing to give up his dad or Guzman,' said David Shirk, who heads the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

'Would he be willing to give up his own dad? It seems unlikely.'

Zambada, 35, has rarely been seen since his 2009 arrest in Mexico City, after which Mexican authorities paraded him before TV cameras in a stylish black blazer and dark blue jeans.

His suave image was a sharp contrast to a photo of him with moustache and cowboy hat released by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2007.

He may have upgraded his look after he assumed control over cartel logistics in 2008 and, federal officials say, received authority to order assassinations. 

Mexico's most wanted man: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who escaped from prison in a laundry truck

He was arrested and extradited to Chicago a year later to face trafficking conspiracy charges punishable by up to life in prison.

The Sinaloa cartel is one of Mexico's most powerful.

Named after the Pacific coast state of the same name, it controls trafficking on the border with California and is battling rival cartels in an effort to expand east along the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border.

Accustomed to luxury in Mexico, Zambada has been held in a 10ft by 6ft cell in Chicago, is often served meals that have gone cold and hasn't been outside in 18 months, his attorneys say.

U.S. District Court Judge Ruben Castillo told the government on Thursday to file a response to those complaints.

'It comes down to whether he would be willing to give up his own dad. It seems unlikely'

Armed marshals led the shackled Zambada into Thursday's hearing.

He appeared at ease, even smiling and winking at a woman sitting on a spectators' bench.

Castillo will decide later whether Zambada's provocative immunity claim has any credibility, but many experts said they were skeptical.

'Personally, I think it is a bunch of malarkey,' said Scott Stewart, who analyzes Mexico's cartels for the Texas-based Stratfor global intelligence company.

'I mean, what the defence is saying is that a huge amount of cocaine was allowed to pass into the United States unimpeded.

'Why would you even have sought his extradition if there was this potential backlash?"

U.S. prosecutors briefly discounted Zambada's claim in one filing, but more details are expected in Friday's documents.

A spokesman for U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald would not comment on the allegation.

Neither would a Washington spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, whose agents Zambada claims to have dealt with in Mexico.

However, clandestine intelligence deals are not uncommon, and conspiracy theories abound in Mexico about the government going easy on one cartel to keep the others under control.

Five arrests in 'slavery' raid at Greenacre travellers' site

 

Four men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of committing slavery offences in the raid at Greenacre travellers' site, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, on Sunday. The men, who are English, Polish and Romanian, were found in "filthy and cramped" conditions, police said. Detectives believe some may have been there for up to 15 years. Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote They were told they could not leave and if they did they would be beaten up and attacked” Det Ch Insp Sean O'Neill Bedfordshire Police Those arrested are being held on suspicion of committing offences under the Slavery and Servitude Act 2010. They are being held at police stations across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. Weapons, drugs and money were also found at the site, police said. More than 200 officers were involved in the raids. 'Shockingly filthy conditions' The men, all believed to have been victims of slavery, were taken initially to an undisclosed medical centre for treatment. The men were kept in appalling conditions, police said They have been placed in the care of the local authority. Det Ch Insp Sean O'Neil said: "The men we found at the site were in a poor state of physical health and the conditions they were living in were shockingly filthy and cramped. "We believe that some of them had been living and working there in a state of virtual slavery, some for just a few weeks and others for up to 15 years." He added that the men appeared to have been "recruited" from soup kitchens and benefits offices and included people with problems such as alcoholism. He said: "They're recruited and told if you come here we'll pay you £80 a day, we'll look after you give you board and lodgings. "But when they get here, their hair is cut off them, they're kept in in some cases [in] horseboxes, dog kennels and old caravans, made to work for no money, given very, very small amounts of food. "That's the worse case. Some are treated a little bit better, but they were told they could not leave and if they did they would be beaten up and attacked. "But in fact some people did leave and told us what was going on and when we looked back since 2008 we were aware of 28 people who had made similar accusations." Police have appealed for help and ask anyone with any information to contact them in confidence. During the operation, Bedfordshire Police were assisted by officers from the UK Human Trafficking Centre. Police joined forces with dog handling sections, helicopter and firearms support units, to execute search warrants at the traveller site.

Canadian truckie had 96kg of cocaine under floorboards

 

Canadian truck driver who pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine under the floorboards of his truck was part of an operation that sent more than one tonne of drugs across the United States border into Canada since 2009, federal authorities said. Ravinder Arora, 30, of Brampton, Ontario, faces at least 10 years in prison at his December sentencing. Arora was about to cross the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge from western New York into Ontario last September when his nervous demeanour led US border agents to search his truck. They found 96kg of cocaine worth more than US$3.8 million ($4.5 million) in a compartment beneath the trailer's floor. It was believed to be the largest single narcotics seizure in the region's history. As part of a plea agreement, Arora admitted making four other trips and agreed to co-operate in the continuing investigation into what authorities believe is a larger smuggling operation. Two other people, including the owner of the trucking company that employed Arora, are awaiting trial.

FLOTILLA of the world's most luxurious super-yachts converged on the Balearic Islands off Spain on Thursday for a very special celebration with a distinctly Australian flavour.

 

The Packer family's luxury tinnie, the converted icebreaker the Arctic P, was joined by Rupert Murdoch's huge yacht Rosehearty, just off the picturesque island of Formentera for the combined birthday celebrations of scions Lachlan Murdoch and his old buddy, James Packer.

A couple of Virgos, Murdoch turned 40, while Packer notched up 44 years.

Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch.

Murdoch has also taken delivery of a brand new super-yacht, which has been under construction for the past two years. He was joined by his former supermodel wife turned television personality and yoghurt spruiker, Sarah, along with their three children, Aiden, Kalan and Aerin, while Packer was with his former model-singer wife, Erica, and their two children, Indigo and Jackson.

In recent days, Rupert Murdoch and his wife-bodyguard, Wendi, were spotted in nearby Majorca. They were with Murdoch's trusted The Wall Street Journal lieutenant Robert Thomson and dined with one of Spain's most influential newspaper editors, Peter J. Ramirez, of El Mundo.

PS hears the Murdochs wanted a ''low key'' affair following their most recent tribulations of the phone hacking scandal.

The old chums marked their milestones with the obligatory water sports and fine dining one is accustomed to on board a floating gin palace teeming with staff.

The Arctic P has spent several months in southern Spain, where Packer and his Ellerston polo team have been competing.

Formentera is famous for its fine white sand, bright turquoise waters, fishing villages, dramatic cliffs and caves. Over the past few weeks it has hosted the likes of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, along with their small village of children.

Packer has also been making frequent visits to England to inspect the almost completed works being undertaken at his new $40 million polo complex.

For more than a year, contractors have been levelling, draining, seeding and rebuilding at Manor Farm in the Sussex village of Selham,

a former dairy that is being leased by Packer from the Cowdray Estate.

Packer will launch an assault on the English polo season next year, just as his late father Kerry Packer did 30 years ago, when he bulldozed his way into the sleepy West Sussex village of Stedham to set up a "turf farm".

For years, Packer's grand English estate hosted the rich and famous of Europe during polo matches, complete with lavish marquees and white-gloved waiters

Annan man was part of £40M cocaine gang

 

THREE DUMFRIESSHIRE men were part of an international drug smuggling gang which brought up to £40 million of cocaine into the UK. Keith Blenkinsop of Annan was one of the ringleaders in the group which also included Robert Dalrymple of Gretna, David Harbison of Annan and three others. But their drugs network, which stretched from Columbia to Scotland via Spain, unravelled after Harbison turned supergrass. The drugs courier was caught with some counterfeit £20 notes and blurted out details of the drugs operation to police who quizzed him in Dumfries. A five-week trial at Glasgow High Court heard how the gang was importing massive amounts of cocaine into the country between 2007 to 2009 and distributing it in the Glasgow area with some also being sold in Dumfries and Galloway. Blenkinsop, with fellow ringleader Lindsay Harkins of Helensburgh, sewed the cocaine into suitcases in Barcelona and used couriers to bring it into Glasgow, Prestwick and Newcastle airports. Over a two-year period the gang flew out to Spain with suitcases full of Euros and came back with two kilos of cocaine at a time. At the conclusion of the trial on Wednesday, Blenkinsop, 43, of Winterhope Road, Annan; Harkins, 44, of Helensburgh, Andrew Burns, 56, of Helensburgh, Robert Dalrymple, 43, of Loanwath Road, Gretna, and James Elvin, 35, of Clydebank, were all convicted of being concerned in the supply of cocaine in Scotland, England, and Spain. Dalrymple and Elvin were only convicted of being involved in the drugs operation as couriers in 2009. The court heard that despite the massive size of their operation, the gang managed to remain completely under the radar of the UK’s drug enforcement agencies. The gang was snared because a teller in a Marks and Spencer’s bureau de change in Carlisle noticed counterfeit notes among a bundle of sterling that gang member David Harbinson was wanting to change into Euros. When Harbinson was arrested by police, he turned supergrass and gave evidence which put his former associates behind bars. He has now been placed on a witness protection programme. He told advocate depute Iain McSporran, prosecuting, that the gang had a direct connection to Columbian drug barons. Harbinson said that Blenkinsop and Harkins were the brains behind the operation and the other accused were merely couriers paid to take Euros to Spain and bring back drugs. In fact the gang exchanged so much sterling in Euros that Blenkinsop’s local post office won an award for the amount of Euros it sold. The jury was told they sourced their cocaine from the Columbians based in Barcelona and transferred them to Harkins’ house in Barcelona. Harbinson even told police that Harkins had an X-ray machine at the Barcelona house, like those used at airports, to make sure that the drugs would not be spotted – although he never said this in the witness box. When Blenkinsop’s house in Annan was searched 12 kilos of cannabis resin were found in a holdall in the attic. Dad-of-two Harbinson, 41, said that he would fly out to Barcelona with Euros in his suitcase and travel back to Newcastle with two kilos of cocaine. He told the court that he was offered £2,000 per kilo of cocaine to bring it into the UK and added: “I was told that Lindsay would fit up a suitcase and you would never know it was there.” Mr Harbinson said had changed a total of £250,000 sterling into Euros for Keith Blenkinsop in the Dumfries and Carlisle areas. All accused claimed that Harbinson was a liar and a self-confessed cocaine addict and said that no one would have used him as a drugs courier. Blenkinsop was also convicted at the High Court in Glasgow of being involved in the supply of cannabis resin and amphetamines between January 2007 and June 19, 2009. Harkins was found guilty of being involved in the supply of amphetamine. Blenkinsop was caught with three others off the Spanish coast in a yacht containing four tonnes of cannabis resin worth £12 million. Prosecutor Mr McSporran told the court that Blenkinsop had been sentence to four years imprisonment in Spain in 2004 for a drugs offence. All five will be sentenced next month. Judge Lord Doherty ordered background reports before sentencing them. Yesterday, Detective Inspector Gary Coupland who headed up a team of up to 30 officers who worked on the case for around nine months, told the Standard: “This was quite a complicated operation and we used Interpol to gather evidence in South America and Spain. It is a good example of how serious organised crime does not just affect the large city areas.”

NSW businesses warned of travelling conmen

 

Residents and businesses in NSW are being urged to be on the lookout for travelling conmen and itinerant domestic gangs. A nationwide crackdown aims to have scammers who visit Australia seasonally removed from the country and barred from re-entering, as well as local gangs that travel around conning people. NSW Fair Trading Minister Anthony Roberts on Monday warned of conmen specialising in scams such as bitumen laying, roof painting and back-of-truck dealings on electronics. "We want to catch these crooks, hold them accountable for their crimes and keep the market fair and free of rip-offs," he said in a statement. "What we are dealing with is organised, criminal activity that creates market distortions as legitimate businesses face unfair competition." The conmen structure their operations so consumers are often unable to get remedies in courts, consumer tribunals or through dispute resolution. They are the focus of a new nationwide strategy finalised at the Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs in Canberra earlier this year. "All Australian consumer protection jurisdictions are working together under the new Australian Consumer Law with concerted, nationally coordinated operations using new prosecution powers and remedies," Mr Roberts said.

ORGANISED crime gangs are targeting environmental contracts as a new way of laundering money

ORGANISED crime gangs are targeting environmental contracts as a new way of laundering money amid concerns that illegal dumps are being set up that could contaminate public water supplies.
The Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) said it had identified a growing trend of organised criminals becoming involved in contract companies which take refuse to landfill sites. The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) said it also had concerns about the way some sites were being run, in some cases without proper licences and permits. They fear chemicals are not being properly treated and are being allowed to escape into the ground and, ultimately, into water sources.

Senior SCDEA officers believe clampdowns on organised crime gangs, using businesses ranging from taxis to children's nurseries to launder drugs profits, has led to a search for other lucrative contracts in which large amounts of cash can be hidden.

The crime gangs are now becoming involved in businesses which gain large financial contracts to dispose of different types of waste at landfill sites and scrapyards.

Any business in Scotland which transports, treats or disposes of any type of waste must have a waste permit, or be registered with Sepa.

However, police sources say some contracts have gone to companies which were legitimately set up but which had links to organised crime.

Money made through criminal activity, such as drugs smuggling, is then funnelled into the company and passed off as legitimate profits. Crime bosses hope this will stop prosecutors from using Proceeds of Crime legislation to seize their assets, as the money they possess will have come from a legal waste management businesses rather than a criminal enterprise.

At the same time, Sepa said, some organised crime groups were setting up illegal waste disposal sites and landfills, which were not being run with the necessary permits and safety precautions, and harmed the environment.

Detective Superintendent Tom Tague, of the SCDEA's information unit, said: "We look closely at certain business types that crime groups could infiltrate, such as the security industry, taxi companies, and now environmental waste.

"They have their ill-gotten gains and they want to legitimise their money in some way and the environmental industry is an emerging one.

"It's a big business and quite easy to try to launder illegal money and legalise it."

indictment charging seven members or associates of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) Street Gang with racketeering and the commission of three violent acts—three murders

A sealed four-count indictment charging seven members or associates of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) Street Gang with racketeering and the commission of three violent acts—three murders—in aid of racketeering has been unsealed following the arrest of the men charged, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today along with FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephen L. Morris.

The indictment, returned by a Houston grand jury on July 27, 2011, alleges Hector Ovidio Molina Fuentes, aka Hector Ovidio Madrid and Negro, 33; Jose Gabriel Garcia Calderon, aka Lunatico, 19; Ernesto Manuel Mejia, aka Sleepy, 18; Samuel DeJesus Argueta, aka Chucky, 21; Ronald Alexander Gomez, aka Topolliyo and Keeper, 19; Jaime Eduardo Lopez Torres, aka Pinguino, 29; and Carlos Contreras, aka Pupusa, 21, were members and associates of MS-13, a criminal organization in Houston that functioned as a unit engaged in murder, attempted murder, drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, and conspiracy to further the objectives of the gang. Those objectives included preserving, protecting, promoting, and enhancing the power, territory, and reputation of the gang—the enterprise—through the use of intimidation, violence, threats of violence, assaults and murder and keeping victims and community members in fear of the gang as well as providing financial support and information to MS-13 members including those incarcerated in the United States and elsewhere. The indictment was unsealed today.

Calderon, Gomez, Argueta and Mejia were arrested on June 28, 2011, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Smith on July 30, 2011, and have been ordered to remain in custody without bond pending trial. Torres appeared on Aug. 11, 2011, after his arrest on unrelated charges in Arkansas and will be detained pending trial. Contreras was arrested July 29, 2011. After a hearing before a U.S. Magistrate Judge, Contreras has also been ordered held without bond pending trial. Fuentes, who is currently in custody on unrelated charges in Panama, is pending extradition to the United States.

“Gang activities reach out from far beyond the neighborhoods in which they are ongoing and into the communities in which we live,” said Moreno. “But the long arm of the law has now reached far beyond the borders of our district to bring these defendants to justice. These charges represent the continuing cooperative law enforcement efforts in this district to combat violent gang activity.”

According to the indictment, the men allegedly committed violent crimes in furtherance of the enterprise for the purpose of gaining entry into the gang or maintaining or advancing their position within the gang. Among those crimes were the murders of Saul Garduno, 15, Jonathan Hernandez, 24, and Anayanci Roche, 17, on March 14, May 5, and June 1, 2011, respectively.

“Our investigation into this violent gang is not over. We will continue to pursue MS-13 and any other gang members who seek to poison our streets with drugs and violence,” said Morris. “The public is an important partner in this fight. We ask you to come forward with any information about this gang or other violent gangs in our communities.”

The MS-13 gang had its origins in the 1980s in Central America and the United States and is a national and international criminal organization whose members conduct gang activities in the United States and Central America. According to the indictment, the word “Mara” is the term used in El Salvador for gang, while the phrase “Salvatrucha” is a combination of the words “Salva”—an abbreviation for Salvadoran—and “trucha,” which is a slang term for the warning “fear us,” “look out” or “heads up.” Male gang members are required to complete an initiation process, often referred to as “jumped in” where the new member is beaten by other members until the count of 13. Female gang members are initiated by either being “jumped in” or submitting to sexual activity with gang members. MS-13 gang members often display their membership through tattoos reading “MS” or “MS-13” in gothic lettering and/or by wearing the gang’s colors—blue and white—or clothing bearing the number “13” or numbers when added together total 13. MS-13 members pay dues which are used for the benefit of and provided to MS-13 members who are imprisoned in the United States, El Salvador and Panama as well as to buy firearms to be used to conduct the enterprise’s illegal activities.

The enterprise also has a hierarchy organized into “cliques,” or smaller groups operating in a specific city or region which hold regular meetings to discuss gang rules, collect dues and discuss gang business including illegal activity. The leaders of individual MS-13 cliques are typically called “shot callers,” “Jefe de Clica” (clique boss) or “Palabrero” (one who has the word). Above the shot caller are the MS-13 leaders, often referred to as “corredores de programa” (program leaders). Above them are the “palabreros de programa” (program shot callers) and above this group are the “principle shot callers.” Finally, the “cabecillas nacionales” or national heads convey their orders to subordinates by the use of telephones even while incarcerated. According to the indictment, the defendants were members of a Houston area clique in which Fuentes and Calderon were shot callers and Mejia, Argueta, Gomez, Torres and Contreras were gang members.

These charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI-led Multi-Agency Gang Task Force, which includes the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Houston Police Department, Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In addition, this investigation was worked in close coordination with the Houston Police Department’s Homicide Division and their newly established gang squad.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tim S. Braley and Mark Donnelly are prosecuting the case.

To report potential gang activity in the area, please visit stophoustongangs.org. The newly established website, created by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, was designed to inform and educate the public about gangs and also allows anyone to report gang crimes anonymously.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence.

Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.

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.