Jurors convict two men of first-degree murder in shooting death near Delray Beach

 

A jury convicted two men of first-degree murder Tuesday in connection with the 2007 shooting death of John Blazevige, whose body was found outside his still idling pick-up truck near Delray Beach. It took three days for jurors to return the verdicts against Michael Marquardt and Louis Baccari at the end of the week-long trial. At times they seemed entrenched into two separate camps, but in the end they made the unanimous decision to return the convictions on murder and armed robbery for each man. "We were surprised, and disappointed," Baccari's defense attorney Andrew Strecker said. "We thought for sure it would have been a hung jury." More puzzling, Strecker said, were the jury's findings in their verdict. For example, they found that Baccari, the alleged triggerman, had not used a firearm during the robbery of Blazevige, but they convicted him of armed robbery anyhow. Prosecutors Sherri Collins and Aaron Papero built their case largely on the testimony of Antonio Bussey, who deputies originally said was responsible for the killing. His DNA was found on the murder weapon, but he told deputies that Marquardt had made him touch the gun after Baccari shot Blazevige during a bad drug deal, telling him that they were "all in it together." Bussey made a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 21-year sentence. Hours before they returned the verdicts Tuesday, jurors asked to hear Bussey's testimony again. Baccari's and Marquardt's attorneys Strecker and Scott Skier asked Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath to also allow jurors to hear their entire cross examinations of Bussey, but the judge ruled that jurors only needed to hear a small portion of it. Colbath also denied defense attorneys' subsequent requests for a mistrial. Baccari's relatives outside the courtroom described him as a warm-hearted person and said they were convinced there was no way he would ever harm Blazevige, who had been his longtime friend and formerly lived in West Palm Beach. Prosecutors had said that Blazevige was addicted to prescription drugs and had met Baccari, Marquardt and Bussey to buy pills when he was killed. But defense attorneys, along with Baccari's family, say Bussey made a deal with prosecutors even though he knew he was the one who killed Blazevige in order to avoid the life sentences both Baccari and Marquardt will now inevitably receive as result of their convictions. Colbath set sentencing for Marquart, a landscape company owner who lived in Boynton Beach, and Baccari for April 2.

Drug gangs report blasting UK cities as dangerous

 

 Comment By Professor Alan Stevens Drug gangs report blasting UK cities as dangerous is too confusing The problems are nowhere near as deep in Manchester or Liverpool as they are in Rio de Janeiro – or even San Francisco A masked municipal policeman stands outside a shopping mall in MexicoAP On one hand it is right to state that there are communities in British cities suffering from social exclusion and marginalisation and that this contributes to their drug and crime problems. But on the other, these ­problems are nowhere near as deep in Manchester or Liverpool as they are in Rio de Janeiro or Ciudad Juarez – or even San Francisco or Los Angeles. The problem with the INCB report is that the wording is unclear. It gives the impression that its comments on no-go areas could apply equally to all of these cities. But it should have been more careful in specifying which ones it was referring to. The cities in Central and South America have more extreme ­problems which come from bigger social inequalities. They are dramatically more affected by crime and health problems. For example, in the past few years in Rio there have been repeated attempts to crack down on the areas controlled by violent drug markets. For a while these places were no-go zones. But authorities have acted in a militaristic fashion in the past year as they prepare for the World Cup.

British cities are becoming no-go areas where drugs gangs are effectively in control

British cities are becoming no-go areas where drugs gangs are effectively in control, a United Nations drugs chief said yesterday. Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), said there was “a vicious cycle of social exclusion and drugs problems and fractured communities” in cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. The development of “no-go areas” was being fuelled by threats such as social inequality, migration and celebrities normalising drug abuse, he warned. Helping marginalised communities with drugs problems “must be a priority”, he said. “We are looking at social cohesion, the social disintegration and illegal drugs. “In many societies around the world, whether developed or developing, there are communities within the societies which develop which become no-go areas. “Drug traffickers, organised crime, drug users, they take over. They will get the sort of governance of those areas.” Prof Ghodse called for such communities to be offered drug abuse prevention programmes, treatment and rehabilitation services, and the same levels of educational, employment and recreational opportunities as in the wider society. The INCB’s annual report for 2011 found persistent social inequality, migration, emerging cultures of excess and a shift in traditional values were some of the key threats to social cohesion. As the gap between rich and poor widens, and “faced with a future with limited opportunities, individuals within these communities may increasingly become disengaged from the wider society and become involved in a range of personally and socially harmful behaviours, including drug abuse and drug dealing,” it said.

The daily Sun had systematically paid large sums of money to “a network of corrupted officials” in the British police, military and government.

A day after presiding over the publication of his new, damn-the-critics Sun on Sunday tabloid, Rupert Murdoch was confronted with fresh allegations from a top police investigator that the daily Sun had systematically paid large sums of money to “a network of corrupted officials” in the British police, military and government. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Readers’ Comments Share your thoughts. Post a Comment » Read All Comments (130) » The allegations, part of a deepening criminal probe into The Sun and Mr. Murdoch’s defunct News of the World, highlight the challenges to Mr. Murdoch and his News Corporation as he seeks to minimize the threat to his British media holdings. They also cast a harsh spotlight on the freewheeling pay-for-information culture of the British media. In public testimony on Monday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, who is leading the criminal investigation into Mr. Murdoch’s newspapers, said The Sun, long a source of special pride and attention for Mr. Murdoch, had illegally paid the unidentified officials hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for news tips and “salacious gossip.” She said the payments had been authorized “at a very senior level within the newspaper.” Her comments, unusual during a continuing criminal inquiry, directly undercut Mr. Murdoch’s campaign of support for the embattled newspaper. On Feb. 17, the 80-year-old Mr. Murdoch made a grand entrance into the Sun newsroom, where, marching around in shirtsleeves, he vowed to reinstate journalists suspended in the criminal investigation, offered to pay their legal bills, issued a robust statement about the paper’s probity and announced that he was defying conventional industry wisdom by starting a Sunday issue. Ms. Akers said illegal activities had been rife at the paper. “There appears to have been a culture at The Sun of illegal payments, and systems have been created to facilitate such payments whilst hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money,” she told the Leveson Inquiry on media ethics and practices, led by Lord Justice Leveson. The payments involved “frequent and sometimes significant sums of money” to public officials, she said. In a statement, Mr. Murdoch said that “the practices Sue Akers described at the Leveson Inquiry are ones of the past, and no longer exist at The Sun.” He remained publicly bullish, helping promote the new Sun on Sunday in newspaper stores and announcing on Twitter that it had sold 3.26 million copies. In another blow to Mr. Murdoch, related this time to The News of the World, a lawyer for the Leveson Inquiry said Rebekah Brooks, a former Murdoch executive, was apparently informed by the police in 2006 that detectives had evidence that the cellphones of dozens of celebrities, politicians and sports figures had been illegally hacked by an investigator working for the newspaper. The disclosure, contained in a September 2006 e-mail from a company lawyer to the editor of The News of the World, Andy Coulson, is highly significant. Until late in 2010, Mrs. Brooks, Mr. Coulson and other officials at News International, the British newspaper arm of News Corporation, repeatedly asserted that the hacking had been limited to a single “rogue reporter” — the paper’s royal correspondent, Clive Goodman. The assertion was rendered implausible, at best, by the fact that the police had information that so many hacking victims existed, and that so few of them had anything to do with the royal family. Monday’s disclosures could not have come at a more inopportune time for Mr. Murdoch. In recent weeks, morale at The Sun hit a low point after a number of senior editors and reporters were arrested on suspicion of illegally paying sources. At the same time, journalists at The Sun and elsewhere released a stream of angry attacks at the police, saying the investigation had gone too far and was targeting reporters for what they said was normal behavior in the British tabloid press like taking sources out to lunch or paying whistle-blowers. “The Sun journalists who have been arrested are not accused of enriching themselves — they were simply researching stories about scandals at hospitals, scandals at army bases and scandals in police stations that they believed their readers were entitled to know about,” Kelvin Mackenzie, a former editor of The Sun, wrote in The Daily Mail. “If the whistle-blower asks for money, so what?” The Metropolitan Police Service’s highly unusual decision to release specific details of a continuing investigation seemed designed to rebut such criticism. “The cases we are investigating are not ones involving the odd drink, or meal, to police officers or other public officials,” Ms. Akers said. “Instead, these are cases in which arrests have been made involving the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists.”

Putin assassination plot foiled: Russian officials

 

Ukrainian security services have thwarted a plot to kill Russian PM Vladimir Putin, Russian officials say. Two suspects were detained in the Ukrainian port of Odessa, Russia's state-owned Channel One TV reports. The arrested men were both shown on TV admitting their involvement in the plot, after an explosion at a flat in January in which one suspect died. Ukrainian security officials have refused to confirm the arrests were part of a plot to assassinate Mr Putin. But the Russian prime minister's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told the BBC that the report was correct: "this was absolutely a plot to kill the prime minister." The attack was to happen after next Sunday's presidential vote, the report said. Mr Putin is expected to win the election and get a third term as president. The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow said the two men were both shown on Russian TV, one being interrogated and the other giving an interview. Continue reading the main story Analysis Daniel Sandford BBC News, Moscow The Ukrainian security services have told the BBC that they did arrest some people in January after an apartment explosion. But when we asked them if it was part of a plot to assassinate Mr Putin, spokeswoman Maryna Ostapenko said she did not know what to say. She would not go on the record to confirm that this was part of a plot to kill Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. So it goes back only to the very detailed Russian Channel One report which even interviewed one of the suspects. But at this stage the Ukrainian authorities do not confirm that these men are being held in any way in connection with an assassination plot. In the footage, both admit plotting to attack Mr Putin. One, identified by Ria Novosti as Ilya Pyanzin, said he had been hired by Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov to carry out the killing and also by Ruslan Madayev, the suspect who died in the Odessa explosion. The other suspect was named by Channel One as Adam Osmayev, said to have been on an international wanted list since 2007. The plotters were planning to plant mines on Kutuzovsky Avenue in Moscow, used by Mr Putin on a daily basis, the report said. Russian media report that Mr Pyanzin was arrested in the Odessa flat where the explosion happened. He told police that he and Madayev had flown to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey, with precise instructions from representatives of Doku Umarov. According to the reports, details of the plot were found on laptops in the flat, along with a video showing Mr Putin's motorcade. Mr Osmayev was reported to be the local fixer in Odessa and the instructor for the plotters, and had lived for a long time in London.

You can buy a Kalashnikov for a hundred euros on the back streets of Athens

"You can buy a Kalashnikov for a hundred euros on the back streets of Athens and people are doing so to guard their property," Mr Chrysanthopoulos told me from his home outside the capital yesterday. Thanks to the disastrous euro, his country is sliding remorselessly towards bankruptcy and disintegration. Modern Greece is an economic corpse, kept on life support by Germany and France, who fear the euro will be destroyed if they admit the truth. Last week's £110BILLION bailout was not aimed at rescuing the Greek people. It was to save the euro from total collapse. Yet the country seems doomed to another historic crisis as disastrous as the German occupation, a bloody civil war and years of military rule. "What we risk today is anarchy, the collapse of society and a breakdown in law and order," says Mr Chrysanthopoulos, 66. "We have more than 20,000 homeless families in Athens alone. "There are food lines for the hungry, which have not been seen since the Second World War. "Penniless pensioners are begging in the streets. People are bartering for essentials, living hand to mouth." Sooner or later they will be thrown out of the euro — the greatest peacetime catastrophe in the history of Europe. Hatred seethes against Germany, which in 1942 reduced Greece to starvation and slavery during its brutal Nazi occupation. A Greek radio station has just been fined for describing German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "dirty Berlin slut". Nazi resistance fighter Manolis Glezos, now 89, says Germany plundered Greece for the equivalent of £138billion in the 1940s. "They grab us by the throat for the debt — let's do the same to them for the reparations," he says. Germans hit back, branding the Greeks "idle swindlers". They claim nobody pays tax because bandit politicians steal their money. The insults are fuelling precisely the nationalistic antagonism that sowed the seeds for two world wars — and which the EU was created to eliminate forever. Germany and France, who must accept the blame for allowing Greece into the euro at all, are terrified of contagion. So they are forcing this humiliated nation to slash pay and pensions to starvation levels. Last week's costly bailout has bought time — and the fantasy of an orderly default. Mr Chrysanthopoulos feels betrayed by the euro currency con. But he is not alone. Charles Kennedy, the Lib Dems' fervently pro-euro ex-leader, last week admitted: "I was wrong." His successor, the made-in-Brussels Nick Clegg, admits he would no longer join the euro. Two former editors of the fanatically pro-Brussels Financial Times confess they backed the wrong horse. Ex-EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein admits: "The euro has failed." We will never hear honesty like that from Ken Clarke and Michael Heseltine, who lost the Tories three elections by stoking the row over Europe. But unlike Mr Chrysanthopoulos, they will probably die comfortably in their beds without witnessing the hideous consequences. Greek instability risks spilling over to fragile ex-fascist regimes Spain and Portugal. If it does, we can only hope it doesn't bring chaos to Italy — then to France. People will take only so much belt-tightening austerity. More revolutions have been triggered by oppressive taxes than anything else. The drive for ever closer political and economic union and the end of national rivalry was aimed at ending war in Europe. We must pray the arrogant fools who launched this undemocratic juggernaut do not achieve precisely the opposite.

TONY Adams has been compared to TV gangster Tony Soprano, and his gang are rumoured to be responsible for 25 murders.

 

 When he appeared in court last November, he gave his address as the cottage in Barnet. Land Registry documents confirm the property is owned by Cole, 31. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the player, who has a multi-million-pound property investment portfolio. Adams, once said to be worth £150 million, headed a notorious North London crime gang nicknamed the A-team or Adams Family. He bought a yacht and sent his daughter to a private school. But in 2007 he was jailed for seven years — for money laundering his own wages — after an undercover operation by MI5 and the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Just like Chicago mobster Al Capone, he had escaped justice for years before finally being nailed for tax evasion. Officers spent 21 months and £10 million eavesdropping on Adams. During the probe his accountant was killed in a drive-by shooting, and a hitman was reputedly buried in the foundations of London's O2 Arena. A search of Adams' £1million former home uncovered £700,000 worth of stolen goods. Adams was released in 2010 after serving half his sentence. But last year he was sent back to do the rest of his time after he defied a financial reporting order and failed to declare luxury purchases including a £7,500 facelift. His earliest release date is now December 2013.

Britain’s crime hot spots revealed

 

The findings, posted on an interactive website, will allow the public to discover how many cases of robbery, vehicle crime and other offences take place in their area – and to rank areas from best to worst. Oxford Street in London's West End was revealed to be the shopping destination surrounded by the most crime. During 2011, there were 656 vehicle crimes, 915 robberies and 2,597 violent crimes within three quarters of a mile of the Oxford Street branch of John Lewis. There were also 5,039 reported instances of anti-social behaviour – equivalent to 14 a day. High streets and shopping centres in Bristol, Brighton and Derby also featured in a top 10 of crime hot spots, according to the website ukcrimestats.com.  A spokesman for the New West End Company, which represents Oxford Street traders, said: "We need to remember that this is an area with extremely high footfall, with over 200 million visits a year. This data needs to be seen in context. "Oxford Street has seen an overall reduction in crime over the past 10 years, with our lobby for harder sentencing on crime having a positive impact." The Croydon postcode CR0 was found to have the highest number of crimes reported last year, with 5,000 more than any other postal area. The south London suburb was the scene of some of the most severe rioting last summer. During 2011, 2,081 burglaries, 3,258 violent crimes and 8,316 instances of anti-social behaviour were reported in the CR0 postcode district. Dan Lewis, the chief executive of the Economic Policy Centre, the Right-of-centre think-tank which carried out the analysis and created the website, said: "On the one hand it is good that the Government is now publishing such detailed crime statistics, but the official police website does not allow the public to put these figures in context. "It has taken us, as a private sector provider, to harness this data in a way which is much more helpful to consumers. "It's not just important that the Government becomes more transparent, it's vital that what information is published is actually useful to the public." Seven of the 10 schools with the highest number of crimes within three quarters of a mile of their gates were in London. Two were in Portsmouth and one in Bristol. Almost 8,250 acts of anti-social behaviour, robbery, vehicle crime or violent crime were reported within three quarters of a mile of Charing Cross railway station in London last year, 1,700 more than Newcastle's central railway station, which had the second-highest crime rate. There were also high numbers of crimes around stations in Birmingham, Blackpool and east London. Anyone craving a life free from crime should consider a move to Wales. Nearly a third of the 50 postcode districts with the lowest number of reported crimes last year were in Wales, with several on the island of Anglesey. Official figures suggest that the Welsh village of Garndolbenmaen, on the edge of the Snowdonia national park, had one reported crime last year – a single case of anti-social behaviour. Steve Churchman, who runs the village shop serving the 300 residents, said the area was "like Beirut" when he moved there from London eight years ago. "We had a real problem with anti-social behaviour back then," said Mr Churchman. "There was this gang of kids. We had a phonebox vandalised, a bus stop graffitied and a few break-ins." Mr Churchman said the falling crime figures in the village were a result of pushing for convictions on those residents who stepped out of line and having police office and community support officers out on the beat. The children who caused the trouble had grown up and were now "nice lads", he added.

Gangster’s moll rents a house from Ashley Cole

 

Gangster's moll Ruth Adams, 51, pays about £1,500 a month to rent the Chelsea defender's three-bedroom cottage. Her husband Terry, 57 — a fan of Chelsea's London rivals Arsenal — also lived at the property for 17 months between prison sentences. He moved in to the £600,000 home in Barnet, North London, after his release from a seven-year stretch for money laundering, before being banged up again last year. Neighbours often see loyal Ruth — who married Adams 29 years ago — driving a top-of-the-range Lexus. One local said: "It's funny that it's Cole's house because Terry is an avid Arsenal fan and was once linked to buying the Gunners. "Ruth is very polite but won't engage you in conversation for long. She's still close to her husband."

One of Italy’s most notorious gangsters, Enrico De Pedis, is buried in a Roman Catholic basilica near Piazza Navona.

 

 Why the Vatican allowed a top mobster to be buried in Sant’Apollinare has been a source of furious speculation since 1997, when the resting place of De Pedis — gunned down seven years earlier — was first revealed. The answer taking shape looks like something bestselling author Dan (The Da Vinci Code) Brown would have had trouble dreaming up. The story goes back to the 1980s and includes money-laundering allegations against the Vatican’s bank, the attempted assassination of the late Pope John Paul II, the murder-suicide of two Vatican Swiss guards, and the widely publicized kidnapping of a teenage girl. The shocking tale’s many threads began meshing in the mid 2000s. They were revived this week by the latest in a series of leaks that have rocked the Vatican — leaks observers believe are the result of an internal power struggle, one that has fuelled speculation about jostling to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. This time, a January letter from Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s spokesperson, has made its way to the media. The three-page letter, revealed by a program on the state-owned Rai Tre channel, focuses on the kidnapping of Emanuela Orlandi, a 15-year-old Vatican City resident who disappeared in 1983. She was last seen leaving her regular piano lesson outside the Vatican City walls. Her father was a clerk in the office organizing papal events. Last summer, a former member of De Pedis’ infamous Magliana gang, Antonio Mancini, was interviewed by La Stampa newspaper after spending years in jail. He said De Pedis had loaned the Vatican a huge sum of money. There is speculation it was to help fund Solidarity, the 1980 democracy movement in Poland, John Paul’s homeland. Mancini said Orlandi was kidnapped to pressure the Vatican when some of the money wasn’t returned. De Pedis’ girlfriend had said similar things a few years earlier. At the time, the Vatican was the main shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano, which had gone bankrupt. Roberto Calvi, Ambrosiano’s head, was found hanging from a London bridge in 1982. Mancini said part of De Pedis’ peace deal with the Vatican included burial in Sant’Apollinare, a church built in the 18th century and now run by the ultra-conservative Opus Dei movement. Church officials say De Pedis was buried there because he helped the poor. They’ve had less to say about the ruthless, Rome-based gang he headed. In January, Orlandi’s brother led a demonstration in front of the church, demanding the tomb be opened. Since an anonymous call to Rai Tre in 2005, there has been talk of it perhaps containing evidence of Orlandi’s disappearance. The Orlandi family wants to know if the body in the tomb is indeed De Pedis’. In his letter, Lombardi alludes to the rumours, according to excerpts released by Rai Tre. He also notes the cardinal in charge of the basilica has said he’s willing to have the tomb opened. “I don’t understand why this hasn’t happened yet,” Lombardi writes. Lombardi then discusses the Vatican’s refusal to help Italian police on some aspects of the Orlandi kidnap investigation. He wonders “if the non-collaboration with the Italian authorities . . . was a normal and justifiable affirmation of Vatican sovereignty, or if in fact circumstances were withheld that might have helped clear something up.” Reached by the Star, Lombardi laughed when asked about the letter. “You don’t have anything more important to write about?” he said. “I’ve had enough of this story. It seems like such a secondary thing to me that I have no comment to make.” Earlier leaks of Vatican documents included recent private letters to the Pope complaining of corruption and cronyism in the awarding of contracts. Other documents emerged reigniting allegations of money-laundering at the Vatican’s bank. Finally, a bizarre confidential letter from a Vatican official described a presumed plot to kill Benedict and discussed his potential successor. The day before Lombardi’s letter became public, another TV channel broadcast an interview with a man claiming to be a Vatican employee who leaked one of the documents. He looked like the Mafia turncoats Italians are used to seeing on TV — much of his face was covered by sunglasses, hat and scarf, and his voice was disguised. He complained about the failure to investigate the Orlandi kidnapping and alluded to the death of two Vatican Swiss guards in 1998. In that incident, Alois Estermann, commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard at the Vatican, was killed, along with his wife, by Cedric Tornay, a young Swiss guard who then shot himself. That murder-suicide has spawned books filled with theories as to what really happened. One widely quoted scenario comes from Ferdinando Imposimato, a former magistrate who officially investigated some of the biggest criminal cases in Italy, including the shooting of Pope John Paul in 1981, and cases involving De Pedis’ gang. Imposimato is convinced secret police services in the former Soviet Union were involved in the plot to kill John Paul. He says Estermann was a spy for East Germany’s Stasi secret police, and was involved in Orlandi’s kidnapping. She was targeted because her father was the first to suspect Estermann as a spy, and told Imposimato so in 1981. Estermann was eventually killed, Imposimato says, because he knew too much. Imposimato is now working with the Orlandi family. Both are pushing for a full investigation — and the opening of De Pedis’ tomb.

Russia: a gangster state

 

Vladimir Putin came to power nearly 13 years ago to give Russia some direction after the increasingly ramshackle rule of Boris Yeltsin. Next Sunday, he stands for re-election as president after a four-year interlude in which his puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, has kept the seat warm for him. He is certain to be elected for a further six years, a constitutional amendment to extend the term having been passed in 2008. What can be expected from his return to the highest post in the land? The 1990s saw an exciting surge in the liberalisation begun under Mikhail Gorbachev. But its downside was the seizure of the commanding heights of the economy by the oligarchs. Under Mr Putin, they have been bridled or persuaded to flee the country. For those tempted to step out of line, the fate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former oil magnate who has served nearly a decade in jail, serves as a warning. Into their shoes have stepped the siloviki, or men of power – bureaucrats, like their master, who have wasted or pillaged money that should have gone into modernising the economy. The turning-point came with the grossly rigged parliamentary elections last December, which drove tens of thousands of demonstrators on to the streets. As Masha Gessen said in her interview with the Telegraph Magazine on Saturday: “It’s humiliating to vote and have your vote stolen in that blatant manner... It’s saying: you don’t exist.” The most that can be hoped next Sunday is that the poll will be cleaner. But, given the unimpressive opposition, the best form of protest is abstention. Locked so firmly into the corrupt system he has created, Mr Putin is unlikely to have the courage to embrace radical reform. His long period in power is a reminder that a state without constraints becomes a gangster.

New Lockerbie bomber evidence' may clear Abdelbaset al Megrahi

'Lockerbie: Case Closed accessed the ‘secret contents’ of the legal review into the case of Abdelbaset al Megrahi. Programme makers pored over the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission’s investigation to find fresh evidence – including the ‘dramatic results’ of new scientific tests that go against the original evidence. The documentary says the previously unseen information was not known to the commission and ‘comprehensively undermines’ the case against Megrahi. A total of 270 people were killed when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, south-west Scotland, on December 21, 1988. Megrahi is the only man to have been convicted of the atrocity – Europe’s worst terrorist attack. The Libyan was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 but returned home in August 2009  after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. At the time, doctors estimated Megrahi had three months to live but he is still alive. Earlier this month, members of the Justice For Megrahi group accused the government of an ‘orchestrated desire’ to keep details of the case under wraps. They also said politicians ‘either have to be dishonest or ignorant’ to allow the secrecy to continue. The programme will be shown at 8pm on Al Jazeera English. It includes an interview with Megrahi filmed in December. John Ashton, who was part of Megrahi’s defence team, said: ‘The wrong man was convicted.’

Man claims he was under duress from gangland figure to steal

 

A jury has been told that a man accused of attempting to steal €1m from a cash-in-transit van over four years ago was acting under duress from gangland figure Eamonn Dunne. Joseph Warren (aged 30) of Belclare Crescent, Ballymun, has pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to conspiring to steal cash from Chubb Ireland at Tesco supermarket on the Shackleton Road in Celbridge on November 2, 2007. Detective Inspector Eugene Lynch headed a surveillance operation that observed five other men, Eamonn Dunne, brothers Alan and Wayne Bradley, Jeffrey Morrow and Michael Ryan travelling in four different vehicles behind the cash-in-transit van as it drove from the Chubb Security base in Birch Avenue, Stillorgan to the Tesco Shopping Centre. All six men were arrested that morning after Mr Warren and Mr Ryan were seen approaching the Chubb van as it was parked in Tesco Shopping Centre. Mr Warren was carrying a consaw while Mr Ryan tried unsuccessfully to open the doors of the van with a set of keys he brought with him. Det. Insp. Lynch told Alan Toal BL, defending, that he “could not say” when it was suggested to him that Mr Dunne was “public enemy number one” who was “supposed to have killed 17 people”. He accepted a further suggestion from counsel that according to media sources, Mr Dunne was “a gangland figure of calibre” but said he had no evidence of that. “He was an integral part of an organised criminal gang responsible for firearms, cash-in-transit robberies and drugs,” Det Insp Lynch said but again replied there was no evidence that he “would kill for the hell of it” as suggested by counsel. “He was massively involved in the assassination of Baiba Saulite and no one could touch him for the amount of murders he carried out as leader of this gang,” Mr Toal said referring to what he termed “general held views in the media”. Det. Insp. Lynch again repeated that he could not answer that. He told Mr Toal that he had never been made aware that Mr Warren claimed he was acting under duress from Mr Dunne that day. The detective said his only role in the investigation was to lead the surveillance operation. He said he was also unaware that Mr Warren had been the subject of a threat to his life in January or February 2008 and he had been formally warned by the gardai of this threat. Darryl Caffrey (aged 37), the Chubb Security worker who was a passenger in the cash-in-transit van that day, told Deirdre Murphy SC, prosecuting, that he provided inside information to two men, knowing that it would be used to organise a robbery. He said he gave the two men, previously unknown to him but whom he referred to as “Dog” and “Liverpool man”, information about the company, including the registration details of the unmarked delivery vehicles and how the safes were accessed. He said he handed this information over during a number of meetings in 2006 and 2007. Mr Caffrey told the jury he had provided “Dog” with the registration details of four jeeps used by Chubb at the time after the man told him if he had that information he could get keys cut for the vehicles. He informed “Dog” that Chubb headquarters had to be contacted by phone to open the safe and access cash before it was dropped off at an ATM. He also told him that Chubb workers wore casual clothes, drove unmarked jeeps and carried the money to the ATMs in sports bags. Mr Caffrey said he had also been instructed to propose a suitable route which he felt would be an easy target for a gang to rob. He said he provided “Dog” with a map on October 30, 2007, with a route marked in black pen, of a specific run he regularly did in Ballymore Eustace, Wicklow. Mr Caffrey said he was “given the impression” that it would be the Ballymore Eustace run that the gang would target. He said “Dog” told him the gang would put up “road closed” and “diversion” signs along the route that would eventually lead to a building site. His jeep would then be surrounded by armed men, he and his colleague would be tied up, dumped off and their phones taken off them before the robbers would drive away in the van. He said “Dog” told him he would get a phone call the day before “the job was going down” to give him time to get rid of his mobile phone and any links between them. He never got the call. Mr Caffrey agreed with Mr Toal that he did not know any of the men that were arrested at the Tesco Supermarket that day. He confirmed that he did not know Mr Warren. The trial continues before Judge Tony Hunt and a jury of seven women and four men.

500,000 passengers allowed to enter Britain on Eurostar without border checks

 

Home Secretary Theresa May told the House of Commons that border security checks at ports had been suspended regularly and applied inconsistently for more than four years. Mrs May also said students from low risk countries had been allowed to enter Britain even when they did not have visa clearance. She said the practice was unlawful and discriminatory. John Vine, the independent chief inspector of the UK Border Agency, launched an investigation after it emerged the UK's border checks were being relaxed at ports and airports without ministerial approval. His report found that border staff went "over and beyond" any scheme approved by ministers. It also discovered that the biometric chip reading facility had been deactivated on 14,812 occasions at a number of ports between January and June 2011.

Teenagers jailed for south London murder

 

teenager accused of two gang murders at the age of 16 has been sentenced to a life term. Jordan Williams was told on Thursday he would serve a minimum of 18 years for murdering Daniel Graham, 18, who was stabbed 24 times in 45 seconds. Williams, who turned 17 last month, was part of a gang which attacked Graham as he stepped off a bus on 29 January last year. Williams was later arrested for the murder of promising athlete Sylvester Akapalara, 17, who was shot dead in Peckham, south London, a month before. But a jury cleared him of that killing, which resulted in Sodiq Adeojo, 20, being jailed for a minimum of 30 years, also on Thursday. Williams, Colin Aghatise, 16, and Lennie John, 24, all from Peckham, were found guilty on Wednesday at the Old Bailey of murdering Graham. Williams and Aghatise were ordered to be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure, with Aghatise given a minimum term of 15 years. John, 24, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years. They were said to be members of the GMG gang, which is said to stand for various names, including Guns, Murder and Girls. Graham was attacked with knives and a broken bottle in front of horrified passengers as he got off a bus in East Dulwich, south London. He was helped back on to the 176 bus by passengers, but died from his injuries. Judge Timothy Pontius told the defendants: "Daniel Graham was murdered in circumstances of horrific and merciless brutality. "He was killed in an attack which, for all its brevity, was intensely ferocious. "At least four, and probably more, played an active part. They were acting like a pack of hyenas." Williams had taken one of two lock-knives he kept at home to a party where violence was likely to arise at the meeting of two opposing groups. Williams and Aghatise were both 15 at the time. All three defendants were from decent homes and had good academic achievements. But on the night "they all too readily followed the pack instinct". The court was told that Williams was a server at his local church and had been elected chairman of his school council. And John's mother was said to work at a central London magistrates court. Duncan Penny, prosecuting, said trouble flared at an under-18s event at Dulwich Hamlet football club and a gun was fired, hitting a youth in the leg. He said a row broke out between Graham's friends and another group of youths. Penny said: "Daniel's group was punched and knives were produced and it appears a firearm was discharged and at least one shot was fired. "Daniel's group fled the party and their escape route took them past East Dulwich railway station. They were pursued by members of the defendants' group." Graham had tried to take refuge on the double-decker bus before changing his mind and jumping off. But he was attacked in front of passengers by a large group of youths who subjected him to "a volley of punches, kicks and stamps" to the body and head. Penny said CCTV on the bus showed the time of the attack as 12.09am. "It lasted in the region of 45 seconds," he added. "In that short period he had received 24 stab wounds, having been descended upon by a group of murderers." Passengers made the driver drive off while Graham, who was covered in blood, was laid across two seats by a nurse and her sister. After seeing some of the attackers at the next stop, the bus drove on until police and an ambulance reached it in Lordship Lane. Williams and John were identified by a youth who had viewed them rapping on YouTube. Aghatise's DNA was found on a broken bottle with Graham's blood on it. Graham had gained seven GCSEs and was doing business studies. He did voluntary work for the NSPCC children's charity in his spare time. His mother, Stephanie, said in an impact statement to the court that she had been devastated by his death. She added: "Everyone loved Daniel. He was instantly likeable to all who knew him."

Hells Angel charged over Sydney ice labs

 

Police say they have charged a senior member of the Hells Angels bikie gang over the discovery of two illegal drug laboratories earlier this week. The 33-year-old man was arrested with an alleged Hells Angels associate on Wednesday afternoon at an apartment block at North Ryde, in Sydney's north-west. Police say they found drugs and a loaded handgun at the unit. The apartment was raided by officers investigating the discovery of two methylamphetamine labs on Tuesday in the city's south-west at Catherine Field and Narellan. Specialists from the Drug Squad's Chemical Operations Team are still working to dismantle the equipment and chemicals used in the manufacture of ice. Both men arrested yesterday have been charged with drug manufacture and other drug offences, while one has been charged over the pistol. Two other men who were arrested at the lab sites on Tuesday, aged 36 and 41, remain before the courts.

1993 £1m Felixstowe heist: Suspect Eddie Maher was 'bankrupt'

 

A man wanted in Suffolk over a £1m heist in 1993 had been declared bankrupt with debts of more than $30,000 (£19,000), American court papers have revealed. Eddie Maher, 56, originally from Essex, was arrested on 8 February after being found in Ozark, Missouri. Mr Maher had $85 (£54) in his bank account when he filed for bankruptcy in 2010. He is due in court in America on 22 February for a preliminary hearing. Anonymous tip-off Mr Maher disappeared in 1993 after a security van packed with cash was taken from outside a bank in Felixstowe. The former security guard, who had been living in South Woodham Ferrers when he disappeared, has been charged with immigration and firearm offences in the United States. Bankruptcy papers filed in November 2010 revealed Mr Maher had got into financial difficulties. They showed that he had $17,061 (£10,881) of loan and credit card debts. He also owed $1,759 (£1,121) in hospital and doctors bills and $3,148 (£2,007) in unpaid tax. The security van disappeared after stopping outside Lloyds Bank, in Felixstowe, in January 1993 Assets listed on the court papers included a rifle and digital camera valued at $170 (£108) and a 1997 Mercury Mountaineer car valued at $1,700 (£1,083). He was working as a broadband technician and earned $1,896 (£1,208) a month. His monthly expenses totalled more than $1,807 (£1,151). 'Financial management' course The papers also revealed Mr Maher and his family regularly moved home. Between May 2007 and September 2010, they lived in three addresses within the Ozark area. After being declared bankrupt in November 2010, Mr Maher was forced to complete a course in "personal financial management" on 13 December 2010. Police in America arrested Mr Maher after receiving an anonymous tip-off that he was a "fugitive wanted in England". Papers from a US District Court, in Springfield, Missouri, revealed Mr Maher cannot afford a lawyer. Suffolk police is looking to start extradition proceedings to bring Mr Maher back to the UK.

The lucrative illicit market in “B.C. Bud”

 

The lucrative illicit market in “B.C. Bud” — by far the province’s largest agricultural crop — is controlled largely by Asian and biker gangs.  Grow operations have led to gang warfare in what were once peaceful Fraser Valley farm towns. “The case demonstrating the failure and harms of marijuana prohibition is airtight,” wrote the former B.C. AG’s,  “massive profits for organized crime, widespread gang violence, easy access to illegal cannabis for our youth, reduced community safety and significant and escalating costs to taxpayers.” Four former Vancouver mayors signed a similar letter recently, which was endorsed by the city’s current Mayor Gregor Robertson. Prominent law enforcement figures, including Mandigo and ex-U.S. Attorney John McKay, are backing I-502 on this side of the border.

Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric, Russian Igor Russol and Moroccan Houssain Ait Taleb have made appearances in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court.

 

 They have all been branded by police as underworld figures with links to organised crime. Yesterday, community safety MEC Dan Plato said he was concerned about these developments. "I am worried about the fact that so many high-profile underworld figures are involved in Cape Town. I am worried about the number of foreign nationals involved in organised crime in Cape Town. "My question is: why are all these foreign people heading for Cape Town, doing their business in Cape Town and finding Cape Town so cosy and appropriate?" Plato said new names of underworld figures were daily being added to the list "known to us". The latest high-profile case involves local businessmen Mark Lifman and André Naudé, who both allegedly ran Specialised Protection Services, providing security to Cape Town nightclubs, without the necessary permits. On Friday, Naudé, the company's CEO, was released on R1000 bail after handing himself over to police. A warrant of arrest has been issued against Lifman, who is in China on business. Charges against 13 of the company's bouncers, including Taleb, were dropped last week. Yesterday, Russol appeared in court accused of extorting R600000 and a Porsche Cayenne from businesses in and around Cape Town. His bail application was postponed to tomorrow. Next month, Gavric is set to appear in court on two cases. He is accused of fraudulently entering South Africa in 2007 and is also facing extradition to Serbia, where he has to serve a 35-year jail sentence for three murders. The Serb was driving Cyril Beeka when Beeka was killed in a drive-by shooting last year. Beeka, too, has been branded an underworld figure. He is also said to have had links to SA Secret Service boss Moe Shaik. Last week, Western Cape police commissioner Lieutenant-General Arno Lamoer told parliament that drugs with a street value of R12-billion had been confiscated in the province since April , and that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Plato said that though police had managed to prevent drugs from finding their way into the provinces via the roads, the ports were "wide open". He said: "We heard through the grapevine that [some] underground figures are also responsible for drug trafficking. "We're dealing with high-profile, professional and sophisticated gang and drug bosses and we need people to outplay them. I do not believe the SAPS in its current format is in that position," he said. Plato said this was a clear indication that specialised police units should be reinstated. Plato said he had met Lifman and businessman Jerome Booysen, who have both been linked to the underworld. Booysen has been fingered in court as a possible suspect in the Beeka murder. He has also been linked to Specialised Protection Services and suspected of being a leader of the Sexy Boys gang. Both men, Plato said, wanted to clear their names and insisted they were not involved in crime. He admitted that he had been criticised for meeting the two, but said it was the right thing to do. "Many are saying: 'Don't speak to gangsters.' My take is, if we are not going to start speaking to these people, who is going to talk to them? Who is going to change their mindsets? "Booysen is the president of the Belhar Rugby Football Club. He deals with vulnerable youngsters. It was appropriate for me to face him and challenge him. But he said: 'I'm not giving them drugs'." Plato said Lifman had denied being linked to the murder of Yuri "the Russian" Ulianitski. Ulianitski was killed in a late-night ambush that also claimed the life of his four-year-old daughter, Yulia, in May 2007. After meeting Plato, Lifman left the country. Lawyer William Booth confirmed a warrant of arrest had been issued against him. Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela said the elite unit had embarked on a "crackdown on the security industry in Cape Town".

'FAT' FREDDIE'S GIRL IN SUICIDE VIGIL

Hood's lover desperate to raise awareness over spate of young victims

 

 

FUNDRAISER: Vicky Dempsey poses with picture of her brother 

THIS is gangster 'Fat' Freddie Thompson's girlfriend posing for photographs at a fundraiser for suicide awareness last week. Vicky Dempsey (31) has been dating 'Fat' Freddie since they were teenagers and has stayed loyal to the notorious criminal through thick and thin. 

 

The pretty blonde - who has an 11-year-old son with Thompson - recently turned up in court for her partner's extradition hearing. But last weekend, the mum-of-one was part of a group who camped out near the Guinness Hopstore in Dublin to raise cash for suicide charity. The fundraiser was arranged after a "spate" of suicides among young people in the south-inner city.

Violent

In August 2008,Vicky's brother, Les, tragically took his own life just days before his 26th birthday at a house in Clondalkin, west Dublin. Les was an associate of 'Fat' Freddie's but was not regarded as a serious or violent criminal by cops. A source told the Sunday World that her brother's death has had a "terrible impact" on Vicky.

"They were very close and she took it very hard. Les was a very well liked guy, he wasn't a hard man or anything like that.

"She does a lot for suicide awareness charities since and arranges a fundraising ball in his honour every year."

Vicky's other brother, Karl, is one of Thompson's key associates. In 2000, Karl was jailed for five years after he was caught with
€63,000 of heroin. The Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) also ordered him to cough up €424,987 following an investigation in 2002. Writing on the tribute website, Vicky recently posted a heartbreaking tribute to Les.

She wrote: "I've one son Brad and a partner Frederick.

"Les is Brad's godfather and is sorely missed by every single one of us. life is just never gonna be the same without my lovely brother."

Gardai believe 'Fat' Freddie is the leader of one of the two gangs locked in the bloody Crumlin/Drimnagh feud. Last year, he was extradited following a request by Spanish police investigating godfather Christy Kinahan's drugs ring. Thompson is suspected of sourcing shipments of drugs and weapons from Kinahan and arranging for them to be smuggled into Ireland.

Last weekend, Vicky was also joined by the family and friends of another well-known southinner city criminal at the 24-hour camp out.
Last March, Bernard 'Gack' Lee took his own life just days before he was due to be sentenced for heroin dealing. In March 2008, Lee (28) had sold a large quantity of heroin to undercover gardai who were monitoring his activities. Gardai believe Lee was a member of a crime gang headed up by crime figure Greg Lynch.

Last Saturday his close friend, Ciara Comerford, held a photograph of 'Gack' as she posed for pictures. Fat Freddie is currently relaxing in Marbella after being released from custody, having only been quizzed for a matter of hours following his extradition.

Bail

Despite the seriousness of the charges, the maximum sentence that the mobster is facing is just nine years in prison. The Spanish authorities have not provided any direct evidence to back-up assertions that Thompson is a key member of the Kinahan gang.
They claim that he is a "trusted right-hand man" of Kinihan.