court in Torrevieja has imprisoned three out of four people arrested for drug dealing on the Costa Blanca and Costa Calida .
One of the men is a police officer from San Miguel de Salinas . The group distributed the drugs to nightspots across the coast and the National Police described the haul as like a drugs supermarket .They also found all of the things needed for the preparation of the narcotics before sale , including acetone , gas , precision tools and a pill making machine .
All of this was found at the homes of the suspects in Los Montesinos .
Monday, 29 September 2008
Ray Hegarty who laid carpets for Tony Blair, the Queen Mother and George W Bush has been charged with smuggling £4million of drugs.
Ray Hegarty who laid carpets for Tony Blair, the Queen Mother and George W Bush has been charged with smuggling £4million of drugs. Ray Hegarty enjoyed mugs of tea with the Prime Minister when he refurbished No10 three years ago. ASJ Carpet Planners, based in Mitcham, south London, have employed the 47-year-old for 30 years. He was arrested by Customs officers at Dover a year ago behind the wheel of a truck he had driven from Spain. They have accused him of having 2.5 tons of cannabis hidden inside. He was released on bail but has been charged with importing drugs and will go on trial in March.
Briton was held in jail on Spain's Costa del Sol yesterday accused of spraying Nikki Beach club with gunfire.
Briton was being held on Spain's Costa del Sol yesterday accused of spraying a disco with gunfire. The man in his 30s, who has not been named, was remanded in custody by a judge in Marbella. He is alleged to have fired during a pitched battle at the crowded Nikki Beach club last month in which a man was shot in the leg.
Friday, 26 September 2008
Johannes Cornelis Smeding,and 38 other Dutch and Norwegian suspects are alleged to have smuggled 300 kilograms of marijuana into Norway
Johannes Cornelis Smeding, 50, was detained on Thursday afternoon in the seaside resort of Pattaya, which is notorious for crime and prostitution.
He and 38 other Dutch and Norwegian suspects are alleged to have smuggled 300 kilograms of marijuana and other drugs into Norway in Apr 2006. So far 26 alleged members of the gang have been arrested. 'He will be extradited to Norway soon as he faces no charges in Thailand,' Colonel Manad Sriwongsa, of Thai immigration police, said. Col. Manad said Smeding had entered Thailand soon after fleeing Norway in 2006. He married a Thai woman and had set up a bar business in Pattaya
He and 38 other Dutch and Norwegian suspects are alleged to have smuggled 300 kilograms of marijuana and other drugs into Norway in Apr 2006. So far 26 alleged members of the gang have been arrested. 'He will be extradited to Norway soon as he faces no charges in Thailand,' Colonel Manad Sriwongsa, of Thai immigration police, said. Col. Manad said Smeding had entered Thailand soon after fleeing Norway in 2006. He married a Thai woman and had set up a bar business in Pattaya
Bhamian Gayle, , shot Sarah Johnson as she spoke with intended target Jermaine Broughton DJ known as Hurricane Jermaine.
Bhamian Gayle, 23, of Ferndale Road, South Norwood, shot 32-year-old Sarah Johnson as she spoke with intended target Jermaine Broughton – a DJ known as Hurricane Jermaine.
Miss Johnson was hit by three bullets to her chest, arm and buttock but has since recovered.The Old Bailey heard Gayle told Mr Broughton he was a "dead man" at a soccer tournament the day before the August 27 shooting last year. Gayle and accomplice Robert Tate, 25, went looking for Mr Broughton at Virgo's nightclub on the Old Kent Road, where Gayle shot Miss Johnson by mistake.
The pair escaped, but three days later tried to find Broughton at another nightclub. They were arrested following a tip-off the next day.
The pair were convicted of attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life on Monday. Gayle was also convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Miss Johnson was hit by three bullets to her chest, arm and buttock but has since recovered.The Old Bailey heard Gayle told Mr Broughton he was a "dead man" at a soccer tournament the day before the August 27 shooting last year. Gayle and accomplice Robert Tate, 25, went looking for Mr Broughton at Virgo's nightclub on the Old Kent Road, where Gayle shot Miss Johnson by mistake.
The pair escaped, but three days later tried to find Broughton at another nightclub. They were arrested following a tip-off the next day.
The pair were convicted of attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life on Monday. Gayle was also convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Marvin Herbert,attacked in possible revenge attack for the shooting of another Liverpool man in Marbella last month.
Marvin Herbert, head of security for a beachfront bar in the millionaires’ marina playground of Puerto Banus.In his mid-30s, he is said to have spent several hours drinking coffee alone on the terrace of Solly’s Diner in Puerto Banus on Wednesday.
He was joined by a second man, also thought to be British, at around 7.30pm. The pair were talking before the attacker pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Herbert five times as he walked towards his blue BMW across the road.Despite being shot in the eye, twice in the crotch, once in the arm and once in the leg, he survived.
He is said to be in a serious condition in a Spanish hospital.His attacker calmly walked away and got into a waiting vehicle which sped off.Hilario Lopez, the Spanish Interior Ministry’s representative in Malaga, said the victim had a criminal record in Britain and the shooting was believed to be related to drug trafficking.sources suggest the attack could have been a revenge attack for the shooting of another Liverpool man in Marbella last month.Spanish police are investigating links to two other shootings of Irish gangsters believed to be linked to drugs disputes.Several other tit-for-tat shootings have taken place in the resorts in recent months.
One witness told Puerto Banus’s local daily newspaper Sur: “We thought it was a firework going off until we saw the man lying on the ground, his face destroyed and covered in blood. It was like a film, his body was convulsing, although he was able to say something.”Marbella and Puerto Banus have long attracted Liverpool criminals.Budget airlines fly from Manchester and Liverpool to nearby Malaga regularly.Numerous city gangsters are said to be in Spain, including some with links to high-profile murders such as that of Colin Smith, Curtis Warren’s former right-hand man shot dead in Speke last November.As the main gateway into Europe for cannabis smuggled across the Mediterranean from nearby Morocco, a number of Irish drug lords, Eastern European gangs and London criminals also base themselves on the so-called “Costa del Crime”.
He was joined by a second man, also thought to be British, at around 7.30pm. The pair were talking before the attacker pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Herbert five times as he walked towards his blue BMW across the road.Despite being shot in the eye, twice in the crotch, once in the arm and once in the leg, he survived.
He is said to be in a serious condition in a Spanish hospital.His attacker calmly walked away and got into a waiting vehicle which sped off.Hilario Lopez, the Spanish Interior Ministry’s representative in Malaga, said the victim had a criminal record in Britain and the shooting was believed to be related to drug trafficking.sources suggest the attack could have been a revenge attack for the shooting of another Liverpool man in Marbella last month.Spanish police are investigating links to two other shootings of Irish gangsters believed to be linked to drugs disputes.Several other tit-for-tat shootings have taken place in the resorts in recent months.
One witness told Puerto Banus’s local daily newspaper Sur: “We thought it was a firework going off until we saw the man lying on the ground, his face destroyed and covered in blood. It was like a film, his body was convulsing, although he was able to say something.”Marbella and Puerto Banus have long attracted Liverpool criminals.Budget airlines fly from Manchester and Liverpool to nearby Malaga regularly.Numerous city gangsters are said to be in Spain, including some with links to high-profile murders such as that of Colin Smith, Curtis Warren’s former right-hand man shot dead in Speke last November.As the main gateway into Europe for cannabis smuggled across the Mediterranean from nearby Morocco, a number of Irish drug lords, Eastern European gangs and London criminals also base themselves on the so-called “Costa del Crime”.
British man with the initials MH is in a stable, but serious, condition following emergency surgery at the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella
British man (MH) is in a stable, but serious, condition following emergency surgery at the Costa del Sol Hospital in Marbella after being shot several times outside a busy shopping centre on the calle Ramón Areces in the exclusive Puerto Banús district at around 7.30pm yesterday evening. The victim, who is believed to have been in trouble with the police back home in the UK, was hit in the right eye, the genitals, the right leg, right arm and pelvis. It is suspected that the attack may have been drug related. The shooter, who is described as a powerfully built young man, fled the scene after the attack, and remains at large.
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Liverpool Lad survives being blasted in the face, leg, arm, pelvis and genitals
The Liverpool expat,in his 30s , was blasted in the face, leg, arm, pelvis and genitals as he left a restaurant.It was the third shooting in the Costa del Sol resort in five weeks, and took place just yards from packed bars and shops.The victim was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery but amazingly survived.
He had just left Solly's Diner, a British restaurant in Puerto Banus, and was about to get into his dark blue BMW when he was shot in broad daylight at 7.30pm last night.The gunman approached him, pulled out a weapon and shot him five times before walking calmly away, witnesses said.The victim collapsed on the floor in a pool of blood as panic broke out among people drinking or shopping nearby.Incredibly, he was still conscious and able to mutter a few words when an ambulance arrived 15 minutes later. One witness told a local newspaper: "We thought they were fireworks until we saw the victim on the ground, with his face destroyed, full of blood."It was like a film his body was convulsing, but he managed to utter a few words." A police source said it was "a miracle" that he had survived the shooting.One report said the gunman was also thought to be British.He walked away "in complete calm" then got into a waiting getaway car, a witness said.The shooting is being investigated by police from Malaga's Anti-Drug and Organised Crime Unit UDYCO.Forensic teams spent yesterday evening searching the scene for clues while detectives began studying CCTV footage.Local reports said the victim had lived in Marbella for several years.
One witness said the victim had sat drinking coffee for several hours on the terrace of Solly's Diner before he was shot.He said: "He sat on his own with a coffee. He was talking constantly on his mobile. Once in a while he got up, walked up and down the street and then sat down again."
A spokeswoman for the Costa del Sol hospital said: "The man suffered multiple gunshot wounds in his right leg, pelvis, genitals, right arm and right eye.
"He was operated on during Wednesday night and he in now in intensive care in a serious but stable condition." A spokesman for the National Police in Marbella said: "We are investigating a shooting in Puerto Banus but cannot give out any more information at this stage.Detectives are investigating possible links to two recent shootings in Marbella.Three people were injured in a shootout in the Aloha Gardens restaurant on 21 August.And two more were injured in another shooting at the Nikki Beach nightclub on 22 August.
Marbella resident in his 30's from Liverpool shot in Puerto Banus
Police and forensic experts inspect the scene of the shooting in Puerto Banús last night 
The man was shot as he left a cafeteria in Calle Ramón Areces, to walk to his car, a dark blue British registered BMW which he had left illegally parked with the windows open.
The victim was said by witnesses to be a man in his 30's from Liverpool who has been resident in Marbella for some years. A man in his 30’s, first reported to be Eastern European by some sources, but now considered to be British by most media, has been injured in a shooting incident in a cafeteria in Puerto Banús, Marbella. At least five shots were fired in the port at 7,30pm last night, according to emergency service sources, with four of the shots hitting the man in the face after a first shot to the knee. He is reported to be seriously injured. Witnesses described the victim as a tall and athletic blonde man, and say he is British, from Liverpool, and has been living in Marbella for several years. They say the shooter, who is also thought to be British, talked to him for some time before opening fire.
Police think that what was the third shooting in the town in less than a month, was a possible settling of criminal scores.
The man was shot as he left a cafeteria in Calle Ramón Areces, to walk to his car, a dark blue British registered BMW which he had left illegally parked with the windows open.
The victim was said by witnesses to be a man in his 30's from Liverpool who has been resident in Marbella for some years. A man in his 30’s, first reported to be Eastern European by some sources, but now considered to be British by most media, has been injured in a shooting incident in a cafeteria in Puerto Banús, Marbella. At least five shots were fired in the port at 7,30pm last night, according to emergency service sources, with four of the shots hitting the man in the face after a first shot to the knee. He is reported to be seriously injured. Witnesses described the victim as a tall and athletic blonde man, and say he is British, from Liverpool, and has been living in Marbella for several years. They say the shooter, who is also thought to be British, talked to him for some time before opening fire.
Police think that what was the third shooting in the town in less than a month, was a possible settling of criminal scores.
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Royal Dutch Shell to warn it may not be able to meet contractual obligations on shipments of crude from the Niger Delta
Nigeria’s army said on Monday itwould continue to fight criminal gangs in the oil-producing Niger Delta, underlining the fragility of a ceasefire declared by the region’s main militant group.The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND)declared a temporary ceasefire on Sunday after a week of attackson oil platforms, pipelines, flow stations and gas plants in theheartland of Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry.The six days of violence cut Nigeria’s oil output by at least 150,000 barrels per day and forced Royal Dutch Shell(RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to warn it may not be able to meet contractual obligations on shipments of crude from the country.The army welcomed the ceasefire announcement but said thatits strategy of fighting a network of criminal gangs involved incrude oil theft and kidnappings for ransom in the Niger Deltaremained unchanged.“We are not at war, so the issue of a ceasefire does notarise,” said Brigadier-General Mohammed Yusuf, spokesman forNigeria’s defence headquarters.
“If the restive youths are actually ready to lay down theirarms, then we will change our tactics. If there is no crime,then we will change our tactics. All we want is peace for thedevelopment of the area,” he said.Security experts say a loose coalition of various armedgroups operate under the MEND franchise in the anarchic delta,where foreign oil firms including Shell, Chevron (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Total(TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Agip (ENI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have interests.
“If the restive youths are actually ready to lay down theirarms, then we will change our tactics. If there is no crime,then we will change our tactics. All we want is peace for thedevelopment of the area,” he said.Security experts say a loose coalition of various armedgroups operate under the MEND franchise in the anarchic delta,where foreign oil firms including Shell, Chevron (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Total(TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Agip (ENI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have interests.
Boom time for the buccaneers, who can earn €1.5 million a time for their trouble.
Pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and AK-47s control the waters far out to sea; close to shore, the threat of Islamist suicide boats keeps captains watchful."It used to be a good place," says Mohamed Shoaib Siddiqui, the Pakistani master of the MV Golina, a rust bucket of a cargo ship loaded down with food desperately needed by Somalia's starving population."It was like Kenya with disco bars, nice hotels, a good life. Then the security situation changed. None of that is possible now."His 829km (510-mile) voyage from the Kenyan port of Mombasa was possible only by staying close to the guns and missiles of a naval escort.
As the master turns the vast hull of the Golina towards Mogadishu's harbour, a Canadian frigate armed with a 57mm cannon stands guard.Cdr Chris Dickinson scans the shoreline with high-powered binoculars from the bridge of Ville de Québec, watching for high-speed skiffs leaving the harbour. Anything that gets within 500 yards of the cargo ship or escort will be turned to driftwood within seconds."The threat here for us is small boats - a suicide boat or a boat armed with RPGs or small arms," he says.The ship's helicopter has been dispatched to make passes close to Mogadishu's pockmarked villas and bombed-out hotels looking for potential threats.
This is the only way humanitarian aid can be delivered to the world's most dangerous city.An estimated 8,000 people have died in the past year-and-a- half of conflict. Tens of thousands more have fled the capital.Last week, Islamist insurgents ordered the city's airport to close amid intelligence reports they had recently received a shipment of surface-to-air missiles.And it could be about to get much worse for Somalia's embattled population, which hovers close to famine. The Ville de Québec is due to return to Nato duties at the end of the week and aid officials are desperate to find another country to continue the escorts.Denise Brown, deputy Somalia director of the World Food Programme, says using land routes could only deliver about 10 per cent of the aid needed."We currently do not have a firm offer for any naval escort and we have 45,000 tonnes of food which needs to be distributed in October," she says. "We are expecting merchant captains to come back to us and say that they won't go in without an escort. It is crunch time."While almost half of Somalia's population needs emergency food aid, the country's armed entrepreneurs are busy exploiting the anarchy to earn hard currency. On land, they run protection rackets and roadblocks; at sea, they call themselves pirates, although they have little in common with the cutlass-wielding brigands of old.The power vacuum has allowed pirates to launch 55 attacks on vessels as they skirt the Horn of Africa this year. Shipowners are warning they may soon be forced to reroute their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, increasing costs to consumers.
Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau based in London, says the frequency of attacks is unprecedented and could only be stemmed with international action."Somalia has no government able to deal with piracy. Neighbouring countries lack the resources to tackle this problem," he says. "The only forces that can do anything are coalition naval forces."A US-led naval taskforce, set up as part of "Operation Enduring Freedom" to tackle terrorism, has been given responsibility for trying to keep the sea lanes open.They have established a series of waypoints marking a safe corridor through the Gulf of Aden, which is patrolled by warships and coalition aircraft overhead.And last week European Union foreign ministers announced plans to set up a co-ordination centre to help tackle the threat.But so far the billions of dollars of warships, with their radar, missiles and helicopters, seem powerless to halt the ragtag bands of pirates in simple, fast-moving skiffs.
The result is boom time for the buccaneers, who can earn €1.5 million a time for their trouble.Today there are thought to be 10 gangs operating around Somalia with as many as 1,000 members. Two years ago there were only 100 or so pirates.
In all, 13 ships are under the control of pirates. Two more vessels - a Greek cargo ship and a Hong Kong-flagged vessel - were snatched last week and attacks are being reported almost daily.
As the master turns the vast hull of the Golina towards Mogadishu's harbour, a Canadian frigate armed with a 57mm cannon stands guard.Cdr Chris Dickinson scans the shoreline with high-powered binoculars from the bridge of Ville de Québec, watching for high-speed skiffs leaving the harbour. Anything that gets within 500 yards of the cargo ship or escort will be turned to driftwood within seconds."The threat here for us is small boats - a suicide boat or a boat armed with RPGs or small arms," he says.The ship's helicopter has been dispatched to make passes close to Mogadishu's pockmarked villas and bombed-out hotels looking for potential threats.
This is the only way humanitarian aid can be delivered to the world's most dangerous city.An estimated 8,000 people have died in the past year-and-a- half of conflict. Tens of thousands more have fled the capital.Last week, Islamist insurgents ordered the city's airport to close amid intelligence reports they had recently received a shipment of surface-to-air missiles.And it could be about to get much worse for Somalia's embattled population, which hovers close to famine. The Ville de Québec is due to return to Nato duties at the end of the week and aid officials are desperate to find another country to continue the escorts.Denise Brown, deputy Somalia director of the World Food Programme, says using land routes could only deliver about 10 per cent of the aid needed."We currently do not have a firm offer for any naval escort and we have 45,000 tonnes of food which needs to be distributed in October," she says. "We are expecting merchant captains to come back to us and say that they won't go in without an escort. It is crunch time."While almost half of Somalia's population needs emergency food aid, the country's armed entrepreneurs are busy exploiting the anarchy to earn hard currency. On land, they run protection rackets and roadblocks; at sea, they call themselves pirates, although they have little in common with the cutlass-wielding brigands of old.The power vacuum has allowed pirates to launch 55 attacks on vessels as they skirt the Horn of Africa this year. Shipowners are warning they may soon be forced to reroute their vessels around the Cape of Good Hope, increasing costs to consumers.
Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau based in London, says the frequency of attacks is unprecedented and could only be stemmed with international action."Somalia has no government able to deal with piracy. Neighbouring countries lack the resources to tackle this problem," he says. "The only forces that can do anything are coalition naval forces."A US-led naval taskforce, set up as part of "Operation Enduring Freedom" to tackle terrorism, has been given responsibility for trying to keep the sea lanes open.They have established a series of waypoints marking a safe corridor through the Gulf of Aden, which is patrolled by warships and coalition aircraft overhead.And last week European Union foreign ministers announced plans to set up a co-ordination centre to help tackle the threat.But so far the billions of dollars of warships, with their radar, missiles and helicopters, seem powerless to halt the ragtag bands of pirates in simple, fast-moving skiffs.
The result is boom time for the buccaneers, who can earn €1.5 million a time for their trouble.Today there are thought to be 10 gangs operating around Somalia with as many as 1,000 members. Two years ago there were only 100 or so pirates.
In all, 13 ships are under the control of pirates. Two more vessels - a Greek cargo ship and a Hong Kong-flagged vessel - were snatched last week and attacks are being reported almost daily.
Pirates attacked a record 17 ships in the Gulf of Aden in the first two weeks of September compared to just 10 in the entire year of 2007
throwback to 17th century days of Spanish galleons, Barbary pirates and avenging royal navies, pirates attacked a record 17 ships in the Gulf of Aden in the first two weeks of September compared to just 10 in the entire year of 2007, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Center. "This is the highest number of piracy attacks we have seen in the past five years," said Cyrus Mody, manager of the London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) which runs the Piracy Reporting Center, the word's nodal anti-pirate organization. Mody estimates that around 1,000 active pirates in the region have increased attacks on shipping after shifting base from theeast coast of Africa to the Gulf of Aden, which yachties call "pirates' alley". The concern reached crisis level on September 18, with leading international shipping associations such as BIMCO, Intercargo and the International Transport Workers' Federation calling for urgent United Nations action, saying the situation is "in danger of spiralling completely and irretrievably out of control".
Shockingly for governments, pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia and Yemen are currently holding 11 ships and nearly 250 crew members hostage. Pirates are demanding and often getting ransoms from US$2 million to $9 million.
Replacing the Malacca Strait as the world's deadliest waters, the Gulf of Aden is spinning its own 21st century pirate story: multi-billion-dollar oil tankers, pirates defying navy patrols to capture ships and crews for fabulous ransoms and even two flourishing pirate towns. An Indian sailor, Maria Vijayan, who was held captive by Somalian pirates for 174 days, told Asia Times Online of the existence of a pirate town called Harardheere, 400 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu.
Harardheere is a stronghold for hundreds of pirates and their families, and Cyrus Mody of the International Maritime Bureau confirmed its existence.
The other more well known modern pirate town is the port of Eyl in the Somalian region of Puntland, a modern day version of Tortuga, the 18th century Haitian island pirate town made more famous in the movie trilogy Pirates of the Caribbean .
Eyl is an infamous nest for Somali pirate-captured ships as well as a supporting industry feeding off an estimated $30 million in ransom booty that Gulf of Aden pirates bagged in 2007, a staggering indication of the extent of piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Vijayan was chief officer of one of two South Korean ships Mavuno I and Mavuno II that Somali pirates captured off Mogadishu at around 2.30 am on May 15, 2007. The pirates were heavily armed, on a high speed white vessel and began firing before boarding the ships. "We came to know of this pirate town because three South Korean crew members were taken there and imprisoned for 17 days," says Vijayan while narrating details of his harrowing nearly six-month captivity. "The pirates extracted $2 million dollars over a period of time from my company," says Vijayan, now rebuilding his life from his residence in Kanyakumari, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The United States Navy finally rescued Vijayan and his badly traumatized crew on November 4 2007, after keeping continuous surveillance on the pirate-captured ships. The Indian government, Vijayan said, did nothing. The Somali pirates doing the actual daily dirty work are simple, poorly paid unemployed youth recruited from the interiors of civil war-torn Somalia, according to Vijayan. "I think they must be barely paid $20 or $30 for a piracy operation," he laughed, compared to the $2 million or more ransoms the pirate chief masterminds extort.
"The pirates are well-organized in groups of 15 to 20," says Vijayan, who did not rule out involvement of sections of the Somali army or warlords now tearing the country apart. How strongly the Gulf of Aden pirates have entrenched themselves became clear when, despite an American navy presence and successful French commando assault on September 15, Aden pirates the next day brazenly seized a Hong Kong and a South Korean flag-bearing ship. "The world cannot accept this ... today, these are no longer isolated cases but a genuine industry of crime," French President Nicolas Sarkozy had said a day earlier on September 15, after the French navy parachuted commandos to rescue an elderly French-Polynesian couple, Jean-Yves and Bernadette Delanne from Somali pirates. The world pays a high price to pirates terrorizing the Gulf of Aden. "3.3 million barrels of crude oil - nearly 4% of daily global demand - daily pass through the Gulf of Aden waters that is also a crucial access route for cargo ships from Asia to Europe and the US, " said Manoj Joy of the Chennai-based Sailors Helpline. "So going by these figures, the Gulf of Aden is becoming a gold mine for the pirates." A gold mine it is. Aden pirates freed a Spanish fishing boat after receiving a $1.2 million ransom this April. A German piracy victim Niels Stolberg told the weekly Der Spiegel that pirates had seized his ship 'BBC Trinidad' and its crew for three weeks, threatened to blow up the $23 million ship, demanded a ransom of $8 million and finally settled for $2 million. "The governments have to act very fast to save hostages," says Vijayan of the estimated 250 sailors of many countries now suffering hostage trauma. "Having experienced what it is to be held captive by pirates, I know what the victims must be going through." He says the Indian government and navy must get involved as thousands of Indian workers sail the Gulf waters. Indian seafarers are particularly aggrieved, complaining of government inaction even though Indian seamen are among the worst-hit piracy victims. While Vijayan gratefully acknowledges American and South Korean governments for rescuing him and his crew, he says that no Indian government official has met him, and more astonishingly, no one from the Indian Navy has interviewed him. Yet the Indian Navy, sans homework, has sought government permission to intervene after 18 Indian sailors were among the crew of 22 of the MT Stolt Valor, a chemical tanker carrying a Hong Kong flag that Aden pirates hijacked on September 16. Unconfirmed reports say the pirates are demanding a $9 million ransom. The Indian Navy finally announced plans on September 20 to patrol the Gulf of Aden, along with navy forces from other countries. "India is one of the largest suppliers of manpower to the global shipping industry and it is of paramount importance for the government to make sure their lives are safe," said Manoj Joy, of the Chennai-based Sailor's Helpline. "The seafarers are contributing in a big way to the Indian economy." Other Indian sailor associations are threatening to strike if the government does not effectively act soon. War-torn Somalia has allowed foreign warships to enter its territorial waters to tackle piracy, while the UN Security Council has passed a resolution letting naval vessels enter Somalia's territorial waters and repress piracy "by all necessary means". Successful multi-million dollar ransom demands are multiplying "copycat" pirate attacks, say International Maritime Bureau officials, with pirates running amuck in Somalia, which has had no functioning central government since former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was booted out in 1991.
Since trigger-happy, heavily-armed Gulf of Aden pirates also fire rocket-propelled grenades, fears increase of an oil tanker being blown up and throwing the crucial global trade waterway into a oil-spill nightmare. An IMB official said it's a "miracle" that no oil tanker has been hit with rocket fire. The IMB website has published two photographs of three white-painted pirate "mother ships", said to be Russian-made trawlers and a tugboat that pirate gangs use as base to launch fast, inflatable boats for attacking victim ships. Seafarer associations globally also say that ship owners are not doing enough to protect their vessels and crew, and must invest in better security, a few thousand dollars to protect lives and avoid paying million dollar ransoms. The IMB recommends that ship owners use latest security systems such "Secure-Ship", a non-lethal, electrical fence to repel uninvited guests visiting with rocket launchers. Other Inmarsat and other satellite systems-based anti-piracy gizmos include the ShipLoc, which lets shipping companies easily track their vessels, as well as enabling an attacked crew to send a SOS. Though some governments are waking up to the Gulf of Aden piracy threat, there is little coordinated, sustained global action. Yemen and Oman, two Gulf of Aden countries, are discussing establishing a regional center to combat piracy. European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels this month created a crisis group to deal with future hijackings. Spain announced that it is sending a P-3 Orion military aircraft to patrol the waters off the coast of Somalia, while the US Navy and France have made clear they will not be handling pirates with kid gloves.
Cyrus Mody of the IMB says some governments unfortunately try to hide the piracy problem, partly to avoid fears of safety about their ports, fears that could affect trade interests, aid, grants or concessions they get.
"Either governments may accept piracy as a problem and deal with it," says Mody, "or they may try to suppress reports." In which case 21st century pirates have not to much to worry about, while the rest of the world increasingly does.
Montreal Mafia trafficked drugs through the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport
Montreal Mafia apparently had their hands in half the pots in Montreal- threatening coffee shops that didn’t purchase their beans from their approved wholesalers, threatening non-Montreal contractors who did work in the city, and driving shops that didn’t comply with their demands out of business.They also trafficked drugs through the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport, involving employees in several levels and divisions of the airport. They brought hundreds of kilos of cocaine through the airport into Canada- enough to keep the Navy supplied for a few years, at least.
They also beat, severely, people who owed them money- gamblers and other people who owed them money. Notably, they beat up John Xanthoudakis, the CEO of a Norshield Financial Group, in a law office on Place Ville Marie, where apparently his face “opened like a pancake” and that he “was pissing blood”. Xanthoudakis, they claimed, owed them five million dollars. They also drove insurance broker and financial advisor Magdi Samaan to suicide, and forced his widow to remortgage her home to pay off the mobsters, who claimed that her husband had defrauded. funds from members of the Montreal Italian community. (via)While all of this is sordidly interesting so far, we have to wait until mid-October for the full charges and details, sadly. However, while these six have gone in through plea bargains, many other lower gang members will be working their way through the courts- so hopefully some of this information, and more, can be a part of the legal record.
They also beat, severely, people who owed them money- gamblers and other people who owed them money. Notably, they beat up John Xanthoudakis, the CEO of a Norshield Financial Group, in a law office on Place Ville Marie, where apparently his face “opened like a pancake” and that he “was pissing blood”. Xanthoudakis, they claimed, owed them five million dollars. They also drove insurance broker and financial advisor Magdi Samaan to suicide, and forced his widow to remortgage her home to pay off the mobsters, who claimed that her husband had defrauded. funds from members of the Montreal Italian community. (via)While all of this is sordidly interesting so far, we have to wait until mid-October for the full charges and details, sadly. However, while these six have gone in through plea bargains, many other lower gang members will be working their way through the courts- so hopefully some of this information, and more, can be a part of the legal record.
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Gangster Rajesh More alias Raju, 38, of the Karanjikar gang, has been arrested by the Mulund police.
Gangster Rajesh More alias Raju, 38, of the Karanjikar gang, has been arrested by the Mulund police. Acting on a tip-off that More would come to a hotel at Panch Rasta in Mulund, the police laid a trap and nabbed him at midnight on Wednesday. On Thursday, he was remanded in police custody till September 17. More, who had earlier worked as a sharp shooter for underworld don-turned-MLA Arun Gawli, joined Vinayak Dattaram Karanjikar who also parted ways with Gawli and formed his own gang. He has been working for Karanjikar since the late 1990s and has cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion and kidnapping registered against him at police stations in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane. Police first got clues about More when he and some other members of the Karanjikar gang threatened a builder from Mulund on August 31 last year. When they barged into the builder’s office wielding guns and asked the staff to make a call to someone called as Bhai, their act was caught on the CCTV. The builder had lodged a complaint and submitted a copy of the recording to the police. The Karanjikar gang extorted money mostly from builders in the eastern suburbs. Karanjikar, 45, was killed in an encounter with the Mumbai crime branch officials on January 15. Senior inspector Prakash Landge of the Mulund police said, “More has confessed that he was involved in threatening the Mulund builder last year.”
Friday, 12 September 2008
Simels represented Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, once the head of a murderous Queens drug gang, against allegations in 2005 he funneled $1 million
Defense attorney Simels has represented the mobster immortalized in "Goodfellas," a drug kingpin with ties to hip hop and other notorious clients in his long career.Now a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Brooklyn puts Simels in their company: It accuses him of plotting to silence prosecution witnesses against an alleged drug trafficker by, in his words, "eliminating" them.Simels, 61, was arrested Tuesday on charges of witness tampering and obstruction of justice and was released on $3.5 million bond. His attorney, Gerald Shargel, has called the allegations false."Bob Simels is well-known as a tenacious, effective and highly capable defense lawyer and he was doing his work," Shargel said.Simels represented Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, once the head of a murderous Queens drug gang, against allegations in 2005 that he funneled $1 million in drug proceeds into Murder Inc., then a chart-topping rap music label. McGriff eventually switched lawyers and was jailed for life last year after being convicted of paying $50,000 for the 2001 killings of an aspiring rapper and another man.According to his Web site, Simels has also represented former football star Marc Gastineau and Henry Hill, whose exploits were the basis of the 1990 Martin Scorsese mob film "Goodfellas." The site also names Shaheed "Roger" Khan, the Guyanese businessman whose case has landed the lawyer in trouble.Kahn was arrested and brought to the United States in 2006 on charges he ran a cocaine smuggling operation that was protected by a paramilitary organization in Guyana known as the Phantom Squad.Drug Enforcement Administration investigators allege that this May, with Kahn awaiting trial in Brooklyn, a Phantom Squad member who was cooperating with them learned that Simels wanted to talk to him.The DEA says that during conversations over the summer, some secretly recorded, Simels asked the cooperator to help him locate potential government witnesses and pondered what to do when they were found. The attorney "discussed a range of options, from offering them money to murdering their family members," the criminal complaint says.In one conversation recorded in May about bribing an unnamed witness, the cooperator suggested the witness "might suddenly get amnesia" if paid enough money."That's a terrible thing, but if it happens, it happens," Simels responded, according to the complaint. Later in the same meeting, the lawyer remarked, "Obviously, any witness you can eliminate is a good thing."In June, the complaint says, Simels gave the cooperator $1,000 for expenses in pursuing the same witness, but cautioned that Kahn didn't want the witness's mother harmed."He'd like as much pressure being put on as possible," Simels allegedly said. "But he thinks if (the witness's) mother gets killed ... the government will go crazy."
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Australian and his Thai girlfriend are both recovering from surgery at Bangkok Hospital Phuket after being attacked by a knife-wielding cat burglar
Australian and his Thai girlfriend are both recovering from surgery at Bangkok Hospital Phuket after being attacked by a knife-wielding cat burglar in their home in Rawai early yesterday morning.The Swiss-born Australian, a retired teacher who asked that his name and address not be published, said he and his girlfriend underwent surgery yesterday and were “slowly on the mend”.“Somebody broke into the house – I don’t know how they got into the house – on Wednesday, between three and four in the morning,” the Aussie told the Gazette this afternoon in a telephone interview.“We have two bedrooms. My girlfriend went to bed early and slept in one bedroom. Then I woke up and I could hear shouting. I thought maybe the television was on, but I couldn’t see any flickering.“So I went out and I could see that the door was closed to the second bedroom. So I opened it and there was a man in a mask fighting with my girlfriend. I jumped in, and that’s how it all got started. She gotstabbed and I got stabbed.”A second man spotted outside the home may have been serving as a “lookout” for the burglar, he said.The Aussie was slashed four times and stabbed once in the stomach.His girlfriend, who owns the home they share, was stabbed in the back of the head, punched repeatedly and slashed on one of her hands, he said.From her hospital bed, the 35-year-old girlfriend told the Gazette she awoke when the attacker closed the bedroom door.“We never close the doors when we sleep, so the sound of the door closing woke me. When I tried to scream, the attacker put his hand over my mouth and held a box-cutter to my throat and punched me in the stomach,” she said.The knife cut her neck open, but no major arteries were severed and she is recovering well, though she is still in a great deal of pain in the neck and stomach, she said.“This is the first time anything like this has happened at my home and we have never had any conflicts with anyone before,” she added.Doctors at the hospital said the couple could be released as early as tomorrow, her boyfriend said.The Gazette has thus far been unable to confirm with Chalong Police that evidence collected at the scene included skin tissue of the attacker and his shoes, as reported in a Thai-language newspaper.
One officer was quoted in that report as saying that police believe the attacker was “probably a local youth looking for things to steal”.Investigators were hard at work trying to track him down because the incident could have a bad effect on tourist confidence, the officer was quoted as saying.
However, Chalong Police Duty Officer Thienchai Duangsuwan, who arrived at the crime scene at about 5 am, told the Gazette that evidence from the scene included a fake gun, the cutter used to slice the victim’s throat and the balaclava the intruder was wearing.As nothing was taken by the intruder, police now suspect the attack might not have been a simple case of a bungled robbery, so they will investigate other motives, he said.
One officer was quoted in that report as saying that police believe the attacker was “probably a local youth looking for things to steal”.Investigators were hard at work trying to track him down because the incident could have a bad effect on tourist confidence, the officer was quoted as saying.
However, Chalong Police Duty Officer Thienchai Duangsuwan, who arrived at the crime scene at about 5 am, told the Gazette that evidence from the scene included a fake gun, the cutter used to slice the victim’s throat and the balaclava the intruder was wearing.As nothing was taken by the intruder, police now suspect the attack might not have been a simple case of a bungled robbery, so they will investigate other motives, he said.
Saturday, 6 September 2008
Jeffrey Michael O'Shaughnessy (32), from Limerick, is alleged to have indecently assaulted the woman in a lift
Jeffrey Michael O'Shaughnessy (32), from Limerick, is alleged to have indecently assaulted the woman in a lift, before trying to strangle her as she attempted to escape. The 45-year-old Spaniard was on her way to work in a law firm, when the alleged attack happened on Wednesday morning in Malaga on the Costa del Sol. She has told police that Mr O'Shaughnessy followed her into the lift as she headed to the lawyer's office where she works, grabbed her by the neck and indecently assaulted her. Colleagues heard her cries for help as the lift reached the third floor of the building in central Malaga – and have told detectives they raced out to find the Irishman trying to strangle her with one hand and forcing her mouth shut to stifle her screams with the other. A police patrol which was near the scene arrived minutes later to take O'Shaughnessy away in handcuffs. The alleged victim has told investigators she had never seen the Irishman before. Today O’Shaughnessy was in custody pending a court appearance before an investigating judge who is now probing the incident. The court hearing will be closed to the press and the public and is expected to conclude with O'Shaughnessy's remand in custody. A spokesman for Malaga's National Police said: “A 32-year-old Irishman is currently being held in custody on suspicion of indecent assault and attempted murder.” A source added: “If it had not been for this woman's colleagues hearing her screams and coming to her aid, we could have had a murder on our hands. “The attack took place in daylight in a public place. It defies logical explanation.
“We're not sure if the attacker had been following his victim or was an opportunist who struck when he got his chance. “An investigating judge will now try to get to the bottom of what has happened.”
“We're not sure if the attacker had been following his victim or was an opportunist who struck when he got his chance. “An investigating judge will now try to get to the bottom of what has happened.”
Achmad Olong, 42, pleaded guilty to a charge of people-smuggling last week.
Achmad Olong, 42, pleaded guilty to a charge of people-smuggling last week.
A Northern Territory court was told Olong arranged the passage of 353 asylum seekers, charging fees of between $US1700 ($2000) and $US3500 each. After two failed attempts, the vessel headed out to sea from Indonesia with its human cargo but was stopped in November 1999 by HMAS Dubbo at Ashmore Reef, about 800km west of Darwin.
Olong's defence lawyer Greg Smith said his client had smuggled the people, who were mostly Iraqis, because he felt sorry for their suffering under Saddam Hussein.
Handing down a five-year sentence today with a minimum non-parole period of 30 months, NT Justice Stephen Southwood said the vessel was overcrowded and rank.
"Some passengers were holding up children and yelling out for assistance," he said.
"The Australian boarding team were confronted with an overpowering stench, rubbish littering the decks, stifling heat, and numerous people were ill, including a woman who was in labour and another woman experiencing a possible miscarriage."
The sentence was welcomed by Federal Minister for Immigration Senator Chris Evans, who called people-smuggling an "abhorrent crime".
A Northern Territory court was told Olong arranged the passage of 353 asylum seekers, charging fees of between $US1700 ($2000) and $US3500 each. After two failed attempts, the vessel headed out to sea from Indonesia with its human cargo but was stopped in November 1999 by HMAS Dubbo at Ashmore Reef, about 800km west of Darwin.
Olong's defence lawyer Greg Smith said his client had smuggled the people, who were mostly Iraqis, because he felt sorry for their suffering under Saddam Hussein.
Handing down a five-year sentence today with a minimum non-parole period of 30 months, NT Justice Stephen Southwood said the vessel was overcrowded and rank.
"Some passengers were holding up children and yelling out for assistance," he said.
"The Australian boarding team were confronted with an overpowering stench, rubbish littering the decks, stifling heat, and numerous people were ill, including a woman who was in labour and another woman experiencing a possible miscarriage."
The sentence was welcomed by Federal Minister for Immigration Senator Chris Evans, who called people-smuggling an "abhorrent crime".
No official statistics are kept for the number of foreigners who have suffered a car accident, heart attack, violent robbery
Pamela Crane, 72, a British citizen and a permanent resident of New Zealand, disappeared last year after visiting Russia with a tour group. Her son went to pick her up at the Auckland Airport on June 10, 2007, but found she was not on the flight.
The British and New Zealand embassies, together with local authorities, conducted an extensive search, and Crane's body was found a week later near Sergiyev Posad, a tourist destination 70 kilometers northeast of the city. Prosecutors said she had left on her own for Sergiyev Posad but are not sure what happened after that. They said she had apparently been strangled with a rope and robbery was a possible motive. No arrests have been made.Korobkov, the police spokesman, said relatives who suspect foul play should turn to prosecutors. "If you are sure that your relative has became a victim of a crime, you should file an appeal with the prosecutor's office," he said.
U.S. citizen Pete Kendrick about $45,000 and hours in the Russian Embassy in Washington to bring his father home after a car crash.But his efforts proved in vain. Lawrence Kendrick, 68, died in intensive care shortly after his return to Kentucky. The son worried for days that the delay might have led to his death.
"The prognosis of Russian doctors was a good bit different than the hospital over here," he said by telephone from Lexington.Later he learned that the head injuries had been so serious that no doctor could have saved his father.No official statistics are kept for the number of foreigners who have suffered a car accident, heart attack, violent robbery or other life-threatening emergency in Russia. But everyday headaches only seem to multiply, leaving anxious relatives scrambling to cut red tape, navigate an unfamiliar bureaucratic system and raise funds to cover costs.If the loved one is in a coma or dead, relatives can wait for weeks to learn what happened.Lawrence Kendrick, a member of a Baptist missionary group, traveled to Bryansk in early June to visit friends he had made on a previous trip to Russia, his son said. A dump truck hit the taxi that he and others were riding in on June 6, striking Kendrick's side of the vehicle.Kendrick, who was left in a coma, suffered brain injuries and fractures to his ribs, pelvis, left hip and leg. One other person was lightly injured in the accident.Kendrick's participation in the missionary group meant his friends relayed the news of the accident back to his family in the United States immediately.Prompt information can be vital in an emergency. U.S. journalist Daniel Nehmad was hit by a car as he was crossing Moscow's busy Leningradsky Prospekt in 2002 -- but his family and friends only found out a week later.
Friends contacted the police and U.S. Embassy after not seeing Nehmad for several days. They found him, however, by calling hospitals in and around Moscow and discovering that an unidentified patient matching Nehmad's description was lying in a coma at the Botkin Hospital. Nehmad, who wrote several articles for The Moscow Times, had no identifying documents with him."It was a miracle that he survived," his mother, Diane Nehmad, said Tuesday by telephone from Maplewood, New Jersey.
"Because he had no documents to identify him, he was placed with homeless people who did not get much attention in the hospital. But one of the doctors realized that he was not just a beggar because he was clean and had wonderful American teeth," she said. "Since he needed expensive antibiotics, which hospital lacked, she bought them with her own money and thus saved him from death."His parents came to Moscow and arranged to have him airlifted to the United States. He has nearly made a full recovery, his mother said.With tougher visa rules introduced last year, it took Kendrick's family a week and more than $1,000 to obtain their Russian visas. "Literally, it took us a whole day just to figure out which form was right," Pete Kendrick said. There is no procedure in place to offer expedited visas for the families of those injured in Russia.The family spent thousands of dollars more for transportation to Moscow and on to Bryansk, located 380 kilometers southwest of the capital. When Kendrick's son and wife, Ramona, arrived in Bryansk, they were told that doctors knew he had suffered brain injuries but were unsure to what extent.
"The thing that was a surprise to us was that it's a pretty big hospital there in Bryansk, but to get his CAT scans done they had to put him in an ambulance and bring him somewhere else," Pete Kendrick said.Because of his critical condition, Kendrick was transferred to the American Medical Center in Moscow nearly a week later.
"Moscow's kind of a big bear to navigate without any help," the son said.He and his mother began making arrangements to have Kendrick flown by air ambulance back to Lexington. With the flight costing $150,000, Kendrick's wife put their home up for sale.Unexpectedly, their travel-insurance company agreed to cover 50 percent of the airlift, leaving $75,000 to raise, Pete Kendrick said.In a twist of fate, the family of a U.S. patient in Italy who had ordered an air ambulance no longer needed it after their loved one died. Not wanting to lose the money they had paid, they donated the flight to the Kendricks.With the flight booked, the doctors began to worry whether Kendrick would survive the trip without undergoing brain surgery first. After a few days of tests, they agreed to let Kendrick fly without an operation. When he finally arrived back in Kentucky on June 23 -- 17 days after the accident -- he was rushed to the University of Kentucky's Chandler Medical Center and placed in intensive care. He died on July 2, never recovering consciousness.
The family wondered whether a misdiagnosis or the delay in flying to the United States might have caused the death. A team of University of Kentucky doctors ran their own tests and determined that Kendrick's injuries had been fatal, said Steve Fegenbush, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Junction City, where Kendrick was a member.While the Kendricks had no trouble locating their loved one, Nils Kalvatn Schoeyen from Norway was less fortunate. He spent two weeks searching for his uncle, Erling Selmer Larsen, who had failed to return to Oslo from a Christmas vacation in Thailand in 2002. Schoeyen found him lying forgotten in a Moscow morgue.No one contacted Larsen's family or the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow, even though Larsen was carrying his passport. He died of a heart attack on an eight-hour Aeroflot flight to Moscow, where he was supposed to transfer to an Oslo-bound plane.
Officials from the police and the Botkin Hospital morgue, where the body was sent, explained at the time that they had tried to contact the embassy but could not get through because they had the wrong phone number.Under the law, a morgue is only required to hold a body for two weeks. If no one claims the body, it is buried in a grave marked with a number. Cases of exhumation from these graves are rare.
Schoeyen found his uncle, an unmarried retiree with no children, after calling around and stumbling across a passenger who had been on the Aeroflot flight. The passenger said someone had died on the plane. Schoeyen immediately contacted the Norwegian Embassy, which traced Larsen to the morgue. "I'm not angry, just disappointed and very surprised that this could happen," Schoeyen told The Moscow Times at the time. "I just can't see why they should take so long."Moscow police spokesman Vladimir Korobkov refused to discuss any specific cases, but he said the first thing a foreigner should do if someone has disappeared is call the Accident Registration Bureau. Since 2006, every large city has the bureau, which collects information about unidentified people brought to hospitals, drunk tanks, morgues and police stations. Multiple calls to the Moscow bureau (688-2252) went unanswered Tuesday. An operator at the St. Petersburg bureau (812-579-0055) said no one spoke English there.If the bureau cannot provide assistance, Korobkov said, contact the local police station by telephone or in person, and the police officer on duty will fill out a missing persons report. He suggested providing the police with photographs of the missing person, any available identification documents, and items the person touched for fingerprints.Another option is to call the police hotline, 02, if no other phone numbers are available. Operators who speak English are available.By law, police are supposed to open a criminal investigation if a person is not found in 10 days, but in reality, they tend to do so after about a month. As such, people often turn to private investigators."Of course, the earlier we start to search, the more likely we are to find the missing person," said Sergei Igolkin, head the Bureau of Private Investigations, a private detective agency in St. Petersburg.Igolkin said the hardest cases to crack are instances when foreigners are targeted by criminals, such as a prostitute slipping drugs into a foreigner's drink in nightclub and robbing him. Criminals who use barbiturates or other substances can overdose their victims."In this case, the body is hidden in a remote area, and the chances of it being found and identified quickly are low," Igolkin said.
The British and New Zealand embassies, together with local authorities, conducted an extensive search, and Crane's body was found a week later near Sergiyev Posad, a tourist destination 70 kilometers northeast of the city. Prosecutors said she had left on her own for Sergiyev Posad but are not sure what happened after that. They said she had apparently been strangled with a rope and robbery was a possible motive. No arrests have been made.Korobkov, the police spokesman, said relatives who suspect foul play should turn to prosecutors. "If you are sure that your relative has became a victim of a crime, you should file an appeal with the prosecutor's office," he said.
U.S. citizen Pete Kendrick about $45,000 and hours in the Russian Embassy in Washington to bring his father home after a car crash.But his efforts proved in vain. Lawrence Kendrick, 68, died in intensive care shortly after his return to Kentucky. The son worried for days that the delay might have led to his death.
"The prognosis of Russian doctors was a good bit different than the hospital over here," he said by telephone from Lexington.Later he learned that the head injuries had been so serious that no doctor could have saved his father.No official statistics are kept for the number of foreigners who have suffered a car accident, heart attack, violent robbery or other life-threatening emergency in Russia. But everyday headaches only seem to multiply, leaving anxious relatives scrambling to cut red tape, navigate an unfamiliar bureaucratic system and raise funds to cover costs.If the loved one is in a coma or dead, relatives can wait for weeks to learn what happened.Lawrence Kendrick, a member of a Baptist missionary group, traveled to Bryansk in early June to visit friends he had made on a previous trip to Russia, his son said. A dump truck hit the taxi that he and others were riding in on June 6, striking Kendrick's side of the vehicle.Kendrick, who was left in a coma, suffered brain injuries and fractures to his ribs, pelvis, left hip and leg. One other person was lightly injured in the accident.Kendrick's participation in the missionary group meant his friends relayed the news of the accident back to his family in the United States immediately.Prompt information can be vital in an emergency. U.S. journalist Daniel Nehmad was hit by a car as he was crossing Moscow's busy Leningradsky Prospekt in 2002 -- but his family and friends only found out a week later.
Friends contacted the police and U.S. Embassy after not seeing Nehmad for several days. They found him, however, by calling hospitals in and around Moscow and discovering that an unidentified patient matching Nehmad's description was lying in a coma at the Botkin Hospital. Nehmad, who wrote several articles for The Moscow Times, had no identifying documents with him."It was a miracle that he survived," his mother, Diane Nehmad, said Tuesday by telephone from Maplewood, New Jersey.
"Because he had no documents to identify him, he was placed with homeless people who did not get much attention in the hospital. But one of the doctors realized that he was not just a beggar because he was clean and had wonderful American teeth," she said. "Since he needed expensive antibiotics, which hospital lacked, she bought them with her own money and thus saved him from death."His parents came to Moscow and arranged to have him airlifted to the United States. He has nearly made a full recovery, his mother said.With tougher visa rules introduced last year, it took Kendrick's family a week and more than $1,000 to obtain their Russian visas. "Literally, it took us a whole day just to figure out which form was right," Pete Kendrick said. There is no procedure in place to offer expedited visas for the families of those injured in Russia.The family spent thousands of dollars more for transportation to Moscow and on to Bryansk, located 380 kilometers southwest of the capital. When Kendrick's son and wife, Ramona, arrived in Bryansk, they were told that doctors knew he had suffered brain injuries but were unsure to what extent.
"The thing that was a surprise to us was that it's a pretty big hospital there in Bryansk, but to get his CAT scans done they had to put him in an ambulance and bring him somewhere else," Pete Kendrick said.Because of his critical condition, Kendrick was transferred to the American Medical Center in Moscow nearly a week later.
"Moscow's kind of a big bear to navigate without any help," the son said.He and his mother began making arrangements to have Kendrick flown by air ambulance back to Lexington. With the flight costing $150,000, Kendrick's wife put their home up for sale.Unexpectedly, their travel-insurance company agreed to cover 50 percent of the airlift, leaving $75,000 to raise, Pete Kendrick said.In a twist of fate, the family of a U.S. patient in Italy who had ordered an air ambulance no longer needed it after their loved one died. Not wanting to lose the money they had paid, they donated the flight to the Kendricks.With the flight booked, the doctors began to worry whether Kendrick would survive the trip without undergoing brain surgery first. After a few days of tests, they agreed to let Kendrick fly without an operation. When he finally arrived back in Kentucky on June 23 -- 17 days after the accident -- he was rushed to the University of Kentucky's Chandler Medical Center and placed in intensive care. He died on July 2, never recovering consciousness.
The family wondered whether a misdiagnosis or the delay in flying to the United States might have caused the death. A team of University of Kentucky doctors ran their own tests and determined that Kendrick's injuries had been fatal, said Steve Fegenbush, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Junction City, where Kendrick was a member.While the Kendricks had no trouble locating their loved one, Nils Kalvatn Schoeyen from Norway was less fortunate. He spent two weeks searching for his uncle, Erling Selmer Larsen, who had failed to return to Oslo from a Christmas vacation in Thailand in 2002. Schoeyen found him lying forgotten in a Moscow morgue.No one contacted Larsen's family or the Norwegian Embassy in Moscow, even though Larsen was carrying his passport. He died of a heart attack on an eight-hour Aeroflot flight to Moscow, where he was supposed to transfer to an Oslo-bound plane.
Officials from the police and the Botkin Hospital morgue, where the body was sent, explained at the time that they had tried to contact the embassy but could not get through because they had the wrong phone number.Under the law, a morgue is only required to hold a body for two weeks. If no one claims the body, it is buried in a grave marked with a number. Cases of exhumation from these graves are rare.
Schoeyen found his uncle, an unmarried retiree with no children, after calling around and stumbling across a passenger who had been on the Aeroflot flight. The passenger said someone had died on the plane. Schoeyen immediately contacted the Norwegian Embassy, which traced Larsen to the morgue. "I'm not angry, just disappointed and very surprised that this could happen," Schoeyen told The Moscow Times at the time. "I just can't see why they should take so long."Moscow police spokesman Vladimir Korobkov refused to discuss any specific cases, but he said the first thing a foreigner should do if someone has disappeared is call the Accident Registration Bureau. Since 2006, every large city has the bureau, which collects information about unidentified people brought to hospitals, drunk tanks, morgues and police stations. Multiple calls to the Moscow bureau (688-2252) went unanswered Tuesday. An operator at the St. Petersburg bureau (812-579-0055) said no one spoke English there.If the bureau cannot provide assistance, Korobkov said, contact the local police station by telephone or in person, and the police officer on duty will fill out a missing persons report. He suggested providing the police with photographs of the missing person, any available identification documents, and items the person touched for fingerprints.Another option is to call the police hotline, 02, if no other phone numbers are available. Operators who speak English are available.By law, police are supposed to open a criminal investigation if a person is not found in 10 days, but in reality, they tend to do so after about a month. As such, people often turn to private investigators."Of course, the earlier we start to search, the more likely we are to find the missing person," said Sergei Igolkin, head the Bureau of Private Investigations, a private detective agency in St. Petersburg.Igolkin said the hardest cases to crack are instances when foreigners are targeted by criminals, such as a prostitute slipping drugs into a foreigner's drink in nightclub and robbing him. Criminals who use barbiturates or other substances can overdose their victims."In this case, the body is hidden in a remote area, and the chances of it being found and identified quickly are low," Igolkin said.
Charlie Northfield was smuggled across the border to Senegal by agents for a British security firm. He returned to his home in Plymouth
Charlie Northfield was smuggled across the border to Senegal by agents for a British security firm. He returned to his home in Plymouth yesterday, having spent six months in the Gambian Mile 2 Prison or under under house arrest in the capital, Banjul. The father of three was spirited out of Banjul at the weekend and driven 125 miles though the bush before swimming a flood-swollen river to cross the border into Senegal. He was flown from the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to Morocco and then on to Britain. Mr Northfield, 48, had been held on the orders of the Gambian Government, which accused his employers, Carnegie Minerals, of illegal exporting. He was held in prison for ten days before being released on bail of $450,000 (£253,000) to await trial on three charges of “economic crime” and one of theft. He described the escape as being like “something in a film”. Mr Northfield said yesterday: “I was driven in a few different taxis and we passed through several police checkpoints. The driver sorted things out, but I was worried someone would recognise me as my face had been plastered on the front pages of their papers. “Probably the most frightening part was reaching a river that I had been told would be shallow enough to walk through. It was swollen and quite fast-flowing so I had to strip off and swim across. The river was about 50 yards across and I was swept another 100 yards downstream. By the time I reached the other side I was completely knackered. I really have a great sense of relief. The whole thing has been a nightmare.” Mr Northfield said that he had left The Gambia because he believed that he would not be given a fair trial. “I had been to court 13 times but they were no closer to starting the trial and I had a strong sense they never would be,” he said. “The ordeal was not going to end unless we did something. We had tried negotiating but to no avail, and I was feeling desperate.” Mr Northfield's passport had been confiscated by the Gambian authorities and he had to obtain temporary papers to fly home. He is now waiting for a new passport before he can travel to Thailand to be reunited with his wife, Neung, and children, Charles, 18, Thomas, 11, and Natalie, 7. “It has been extremely difficult for them, as it was hard to communicate,” he said.
The escape was organised by Martin McGowan-Scanlon, a former army captain who heads a security consultancy in Torquay, Devon. He said that he had arranged the rescue because he was incensed at Mr Northfield's treatment. “The regime in Gambia used Charlie as a pawn in its disagreement with his former employers,” he said.
Mr Northfield travelled to The Gambia last October to manage the company's operations there. In February the authorities charged him and the company over the alleged understatement of the value and content of mineral exports, and cancelled the company's mining licence. They denied all charges. Crispin Grey-Johnson, the Gambian Foreign Minister, said that 20,000 tonnes of sand with “heavy concentration of uranium” had been exported to Australia and China between 2006 and December 2007.
The escape was organised by Martin McGowan-Scanlon, a former army captain who heads a security consultancy in Torquay, Devon. He said that he had arranged the rescue because he was incensed at Mr Northfield's treatment. “The regime in Gambia used Charlie as a pawn in its disagreement with his former employers,” he said.
Mr Northfield travelled to The Gambia last October to manage the company's operations there. In February the authorities charged him and the company over the alleged understatement of the value and content of mineral exports, and cancelled the company's mining licence. They denied all charges. Crispin Grey-Johnson, the Gambian Foreign Minister, said that 20,000 tonnes of sand with “heavy concentration of uranium” had been exported to Australia and China between 2006 and December 2007.
Charlie Northfield was smuggled across the border to Senegal by agents for a British security firm. He returned to his home in Plymouth
Charlie Northfield was smuggled across the border to Senegal by agents for a British security firm. He returned to his home in Plymouth yesterday, having spent six months in the Gambian Mile 2 Prison or under under house arrest in the capital, Banjul. The father of three was spirited out of Banjul at the weekend and driven 125 miles though the bush before swimming a flood-swollen river to cross the border into Senegal. He was flown from the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to Morocco and then on to Britain. Mr Northfield, 48, had been held on the orders of the Gambian Government, which accused his employers, Carnegie Minerals, of illegal exporting. He was held in prison for ten days before being released on bail of $450,000 (£253,000) to await trial on three charges of “economic crime” and one of theft. He described the escape as being like “something in a film”. Mr Northfield said yesterday: “I was driven in a few different taxis and we passed through several police checkpoints. The driver sorted things out, but I was worried someone would recognise me as my face had been plastered on the front pages of their papers. “Probably the most frightening part was reaching a river that I had been told would be shallow enough to walk through. It was swollen and quite fast-flowing so I had to strip off and swim across. The river was about 50 yards across and I was swept another 100 yards downstream. By the time I reached the other side I was completely knackered. I really have a great sense of relief. The whole thing has been a nightmare.” Mr Northfield said that he had left The Gambia because he believed that he would not be given a fair trial. “I had been to court 13 times but they were no closer to starting the trial and I had a strong sense they never would be,” he said. “The ordeal was not going to end unless we did something. We had tried negotiating but to no avail, and I was feeling desperate.” Mr Northfield's passport had been confiscated by the Gambian authorities and he had to obtain temporary papers to fly home. He is now waiting for a new passport before he can travel to Thailand to be reunited with his wife, Neung, and children, Charles, 18, Thomas, 11, and Natalie, 7. “It has been extremely difficult for them, as it was hard to communicate,” he said.
The escape was organised by Martin McGowan-Scanlon, a former army captain who heads a security consultancy in Torquay, Devon. He said that he had arranged the rescue because he was incensed at Mr Northfield's treatment. “The regime in Gambia used Charlie as a pawn in its disagreement with his former employers,” he said.
Mr Northfield travelled to The Gambia last October to manage the company's operations there. In February the authorities charged him and the company over the alleged understatement of the value and content of mineral exports, and cancelled the company's mining licence. They denied all charges. Crispin Grey-Johnson, the Gambian Foreign Minister, said that 20,000 tonnes of sand with “heavy concentration of uranium” had been exported to Australia and China between 2006 and December 2007.
The escape was organised by Martin McGowan-Scanlon, a former army captain who heads a security consultancy in Torquay, Devon. He said that he had arranged the rescue because he was incensed at Mr Northfield's treatment. “The regime in Gambia used Charlie as a pawn in its disagreement with his former employers,” he said.
Mr Northfield travelled to The Gambia last October to manage the company's operations there. In February the authorities charged him and the company over the alleged understatement of the value and content of mineral exports, and cancelled the company's mining licence. They denied all charges. Crispin Grey-Johnson, the Gambian Foreign Minister, said that 20,000 tonnes of sand with “heavy concentration of uranium” had been exported to Australia and China between 2006 and December 2007.
FBI doubles reward for 'most wanted' fugitive James "Whitey" Bulger
FBI doubles reward for 'most wanted' fugitive James "Whitey" Bulger
The FBI has doubled to £1 million the reward for information leading to the capture of a notorious Mob fugitive last seen in Britain. James "Whitey" Bulger, a Boston Irish mobster, has been on the run for 13 years and has been charged with 19 murders.
After Osama bin Laden, Bulger - head of Boston's feared Winter Hill Gang - is regarded as America's most wanted fugitive and was an inspiration for the Oscar-winning thriller The Departed.Now 78, the convicted bank robber and government informant was last seen in Piccadilly Circus in September 2002.The FBI went to Italy last year after a man and woman resembling Bulger and his girlfriend were captured on video footage but they turned out to be Germans.The pair have avoided the authorities since 1995 when they vanished after Bulger was tipped off by a former FBI agent that he was about to be charged with racketeering.
The FBI believed he fled America before 2001 and has been living under a false passport and alias, surviving off millions of dollars secreted in bank safety deposit boxes.Unconfirmed sightings were subsequently reported as far apart as Canada, South America, Europe and Thailand.Bulger, who is balding, had links with corrupt federal agents while his brother led the Massachusetts Senate for nearly 20 years.He was the inspiration for Frank Costello, the Boston crime lord played by Jack Nicholson in The Departed."I am confident that he will be captured," Warren Bamford, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said on Thursday.
Mr Bamford said the FBI would issue a new "Top Ten" wanted poster with new Bulger head shots to its 56 field offices in the United States and 60 offices around the world.
Thai officials say they are seeking to shut down hundreds of Internet Web sites
Thai officials say they are seeking to shut down hundreds of Internet Web sites as part of their state of emergency decree to counter anti-government protests.
Mun Patanotai, the country's Minister of Information and Communications Technology, says his department has told Internet service providers to close down about 400 Web sites which the government deems to be national security threats, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Wednesday.Thai communications officials claim the sites "disturbed the peaceful social order and morality of the people, and/or which were considered detrimental to national security."The Guardian said Patanotai has also gone to court seeking permission to block an additional 1,200 Web sites.
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej Tuesday announced a series of emergency measures curtailing civil liberties in an effort to ease the protests, in which thousands have taken to the streets to demand his resignation.
Mun Patanotai, the country's Minister of Information and Communications Technology, says his department has told Internet service providers to close down about 400 Web sites which the government deems to be national security threats, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Wednesday.Thai communications officials claim the sites "disturbed the peaceful social order and morality of the people, and/or which were considered detrimental to national security."The Guardian said Patanotai has also gone to court seeking permission to block an additional 1,200 Web sites.
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej Tuesday announced a series of emergency measures curtailing civil liberties in an effort to ease the protests, in which thousands have taken to the streets to demand his resignation.
Who is Harry Nicolaides (aka King Kong) ?
Harry Nicolaides (aka King Kong) latest appointment as senior lecturer in social psychology at the Prince of Songkla University was the result of an extensive email campaign before he left shores in the Antipodes in July 2003. Joseph Goebbels, German Nazi leader and the minister for propaganda in the Third Reich, would have been proud of the mass dissemination of my CV to most educational institutions in Thailand. My CV may have even crossed the desk of a few paramilitary organisations and revolutionary groups on the border of Thailand and Burma. My anarchic tendencies would have made these applications ill fated as even terrorists are inclined towards petty officialdom. Notwithstanding the loss of these fertile opportunities as a writer I have managed to transform the current position at the university into a great source of inspiration for my students
and myself. I just hope Identity fraud is not a serious crime in Thailand...Garry Ridler, a friend from Australia was visiting Phuket as a tourist. I managed to convince him to assume my identity for the first lecture to the 120 students in the course of social psychology at the university. We had him tailored beautifully at Raymond’s on Rat-U-Thit Road, Patong Beach in a tattersall check shirt woven from Egyptian cotton with a silk, blue paisley tie and navy coloured, pleated trousers. As he stands nearly six feet 4 and is a man of generous girth the figure he cast was imposing. I briefed him on the subject matter and gave him an impressive resume which he noted on an overhead projector to the compliant audience of students in the massive university auditorium. PhD from Cambridge University, Doctoral thesis on psychoanalytic theory, Chairman of psychologists at Oxford University, author of two definitive textbooks in the field: Psychology and Society, 1987, 10th edition, Prentice Hall and Sociocultural Theories in the Modern World, 1962. None of the students recognised that as Garry looks about forty years old a book published in 1962 would make him somewhat of a child prodigy.
Garry spoke authoritatively about nothing for some time while all students paid meticulous attention and wrote copious lecture notes on the rambling dissertation. When I arrived and introduced myself as the course lecturer challenging Garry’s position an incredulous student remarked that Garry looked more credible than I did! In fact some thought I was his son! The exercise was an object lesson in the fallibility of human perception in the field of social psychology. Lecture number one was a resounding success. In the second lecture I presented a multiple-choice test which included the following question:
Behaviourism was developed through the empirical experiments of Ian Pavlov and
A. A dog that would salivate at the sound of a ringing bell
B. A monkey that would juggle coloured balls
C. A buffalo that could dance the Tango
D. A chicken that could sing the national anthem
One student circled D. This student has obviously been witness to the most astonishing case of identity fraud the world has ever seen (a man pretending to be a chicken)……. Now where did I put that gorilla suit……?
Harry Nicolaides Savage, ruthless and unforgiving, VERISIMILITUDE pulls away the mask of benign congeniality that Thailand has disguised itself with
Harry Nicolaides is a famous tourism-award winning Australian and best selling Australian author. His first book – Concierge Confidential - published in 2002, generated unprecedented national publicity and attracted reviews from Australian political leaders and world famous sporting and entertainment figures. An iconic figure in the hospitality industry as magazine publisher, radio commentator and service professional, Harry was immortalised in Michael Heppell’s international best seller - Be Brilliant – as an individual who achieved brilliance with raw talent and tenacity. In 2003 Harry Nicolaides relocated to live in Thailand for two years. He worked as lecturer in Social Psychology at The Prince Of Songkla University in Phuket, where he taught for over a year. He drove across Thailand from south to north and gathered material for his new book. He is currently a lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality at Mae Fah Luang University in Northern Thailand and living in the heart of the Golden Triangle - Chiang Rai. His new novel – VERISIMILITUDE – is a trenchant commentary on the political and social life of contemporary Thailand. It is an uncompromising assault on the patrician values of the monarchy, the insidious infiltration of religious missionaries in the education system and the intimate relationship between American foreign policy and Thailand’s battle against Muslim insurrections in the south.
Savage, ruthless and unforgiving, VERISIMILITUDE pulls away the mask of benign congeniality that Thailand has disguised itself with for decades and reveals a people who are obsessed with Western affluence and materialism and who trade their cultural integrity and personal honour for the baubles of Babylonian America.
Working as a hotel concierge in Melbourne has prepared me well for the itinerant life as Writer-at-large in Thailand. My instinctive networking skills have gained me employment as an English teacher to beautiful Thai girls at the Amanpuri – the world’s most exclusive resort, helped me to develop friendships with the senior constabulary of the Phuket police force (avoiding liability for recklessly endangering the life of former Malaysian President Mahatir by nearly colliding with his 17 car motorcade on a private road) and become a senior lecturer to 120 students in social psychology at the Prince of Songkla University. A few phone calls and I can be on a million-dollar yacht sharing stories with a maverick boat captain who has smoked pot with Robert De Niro, got drunk with Mel Gibson and rubbed sun tan lotion on Nicole Kidman’s back. And all this happens in Phuket, Thailand exactly four degrees north of the Equator where there is just three degrees of separation between Nicole Kidman’s buttocks and my left hand.
Friday, 5 September 2008
Harry Nicolaides, the Melbourne writer arrested on a charge of insulting Thailand's royal family, has described his appalling prison conditions
Harry Nicolaides, the Melbourne writer arrested on a charge of insulting Thailand's royal family, has described his appalling prison conditions and his fear of contracting tuberculosis, and pleaded to be allowed to apologise."I want to immediately apologise to the royal family for my reckless choice of words," Nicolaides told The Weekend Australian at Bangkok Remand Prison. "I want to write a comprehensive letter apologising with the greatest humility to the Thai people for the way the Thai press presented what was written in the book." Nicolaides is distressed by his conditions of imprisonment, which could extend for 84 days before he can be released on remand. Bail of 500,000 baht ($17,820) raised by his girlfriend and her friends has been refused. He fears he has been deliberately isolated as the only farang (foreigner) in a prison cell crammed with 60 or more Thais. Nicolaides said he entered the prison on Monday a healthy man, although almost suicidal over the threat of 15 years' jail, but he now had swollen lymph glands, chest pains, constipation and stomach cramps and could not eat. Almost all the other inmates in his cell were coughing and wheezing, he said. "There is a rumour going around that some of them will be transferred to the tuberculosis ward (of the prison hospital), which is terribly overcrowded," he said. He feared his condition was deteriorating so quickly he would be vulnerable to tuberculosis infection. Nicolaides was arrested at Bangkok's international airport as he tried to fly home to Melbourne on Sunday night, and held on a warrant charging lese majeste, or offences against the crown, a crime he did not know existed.
The charge was provoked by a passage in his 2003 novel Verisimilitude: is the truth the truth.
"I wrote that from King Rama, and I didn't say which King Rama, to the Crown Prince, Thai men are well-known for having multiple wives and concubines for entertainment," he said. Nicolaides said the passage was in the form of "an omniscient narrator passing a rumour to the protagonist ... it's a work of imaginative fiction".
He acknowledges the passage, from a period of his life when some of his writing was "flaky", offended Thai culture and tradition. "But I'm not that person now," he said. He had returned to Thailand seven months ago, mainly to spend time with his girlfriend, who teaches at Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai, where he previously taught.
The charge was provoked by a passage in his 2003 novel Verisimilitude: is the truth the truth.
"I wrote that from King Rama, and I didn't say which King Rama, to the Crown Prince, Thai men are well-known for having multiple wives and concubines for entertainment," he said. Nicolaides said the passage was in the form of "an omniscient narrator passing a rumour to the protagonist ... it's a work of imaginative fiction".
He acknowledges the passage, from a period of his life when some of his writing was "flaky", offended Thai culture and tradition. "But I'm not that person now," he said. He had returned to Thailand seven months ago, mainly to spend time with his girlfriend, who teaches at Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai, where he previously taught.
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Hanix Thompson taxi operator shot to death
Dead is Hanix Thompson, 29, from Hendon, Norwood in the parish. Crime continues to surge in Montego Bay, St James, following the shooting death of a taxi operator yesterday.Constable Richam Davis, Constabulary Communications Network liaison officer for the parish, said Thompson was gunned down on Johnson Hill in Glendevon about 7:20 a.m. Reports are that residents heard several loud explosions and alerted the police. Thompson's body was subsequently found with several gunshot wounds. His Toyota Corolla motor car was taken by his killer(s). The taxi operator was taken to the Cornwall regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead. No motive has been established for the murder. However, the Montego Bay Criminal Investigation Branch (CIB), is appealing to persons with information to contact them immediately.
Thompson's death has pushed the number of homicides in St. James to 139 since the start of the year. Meanwhile, the Anchovy police were kept busy by scores of residents in Mount Carey, St. James who mounted a roadblock on Monday morning. Police say the road was blocked about 9: 20 a.m. by residents protesting the absence of electricity and water supply from their community. However, the protest was short-lived as the police cleared the roadblocks and maintained a presence in the area.
Thompson's death has pushed the number of homicides in St. James to 139 since the start of the year. Meanwhile, the Anchovy police were kept busy by scores of residents in Mount Carey, St. James who mounted a roadblock on Monday morning. Police say the road was blocked about 9: 20 a.m. by residents protesting the absence of electricity and water supply from their community. However, the protest was short-lived as the police cleared the roadblocks and maintained a presence in the area.
250 kg of cannabis with a street value of around £527,000 was seized
250 kg of cannabis with a street value of around £527,000 was seized on August 29.
Officers from the UK border agency stopped a lorry after it arrived on a ferry from Bilbao in northern Spain.After searching the vehicle, the drugs were discovered hidden in some furniture.Two male lorry drivers, both UK nationals, have been arrested and will be released on bail until January 27, 2009.
Carole Upshall, regional director south of UKBA said: 'This is an excellent result. Smugglers are criminals who are only out to make a profit.'They do not care about the harm that they cause by smuggling, whether it is drugs, dangerous counterfeit cigarettes or illegal immigrants.'
Bob Gaiger, HM Revenue & Customs spokesman in the South, said: 'Regional ports like Portsmouth should not be seen as a soft touch by smugglers.'
Officers from the UK border agency stopped a lorry after it arrived on a ferry from Bilbao in northern Spain.After searching the vehicle, the drugs were discovered hidden in some furniture.Two male lorry drivers, both UK nationals, have been arrested and will be released on bail until January 27, 2009.
Carole Upshall, regional director south of UKBA said: 'This is an excellent result. Smugglers are criminals who are only out to make a profit.'They do not care about the harm that they cause by smuggling, whether it is drugs, dangerous counterfeit cigarettes or illegal immigrants.'
Bob Gaiger, HM Revenue & Customs spokesman in the South, said: 'Regional ports like Portsmouth should not be seen as a soft touch by smugglers.'
Harry Nicolaides from Melbourne, Australia, was shocked there was an arrest warrant out for him when he tried to fly out from Bangkok to Australia
Australian Writer arrested in Bangkok, Thailand on Lese-Majeste charges - Insulting Thai RoyaltyAn Australian writer was arrested on Sunday on his departure at Bangkok’s airport. The Australian man faces a lese-majeste charges for a book he wrote in 2005 insulting Thailand’s Royal family.The Australian embassy identified the Australian man as a 41 year old Harry Nicolaides from Melbourne, Australia, who was shocked there was an arrest warrant out for him when he tried to fly out from Bangkok to Australia.Lese-majeste is a crime that can carry a jail sentence of up to 15 years in Thailand.Police identified the book written as “Verisimilitude” with a published dated of June 2005.
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