Thomas Joseph Byrne, 40, of The Woodlands, who worked as a supervisory special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston office, died

Thomas Joseph Byrne, 40, of The Woodlands, who worked as a supervisory special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston office, died Saturday in a New Orleans hospital from injuries he suffered in an assault and robbery Aug. 28, officials said.Byrne had been in New Orleans attending the Organized Crime Enforcement Drug Task Force conference when he was attacked, said Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the DEA's Washington headquarters.The agent apparently was walking to his hotel from an unknown location when the robbery occurred.Byrne may have been the victim of an abduction, because he was found on a street about 40 blocks from where he was last seen, according to information posted on the www.policelink.com Web site.A passer-by found Byrne in the road at Interstate 610 and Interstate 10 and called for help, said Commander Bob Young of the New Orleans Police Department.
The agent was taken to a hospital, where he underwent several surgeries before he died Saturday night.Byrne is survived by his wife, Maureen, and four children, ages 8, 6, 4 and 2.Fellow agents were gathered Wednesday at the Byrne home in The Woodlands, where his family declined to comment.He joined the DEA in 1992 as an intelligence research specialist and worked in the agency's Miami field division and its Bahamas office before being reassigned to Houston in 2006.Many of Byrne's relatives are current or former federal law enforcement agents themselves. His father is a retired DEA special agent living in Virginia, and his father-in-law is a retired FBI agent. Other in-laws also work or previously worked for federal law enforcement agencies.The city's police are investigating with the help of the DEA, FBI and U.S. Marshals Service field offices in New Orleans.
Two people — Joseph Miller and Ameal Parker — have been arrested on state charges of possession of stolen property and possession of an access device card, New Orleans police said. Their birthdates and hometowns were unavailable because police computers were still down after Hurricane Gustav.The two are accused of using Byrne's credit cards, said Violet Szeleczky, a spokeswoman with the DEA's Houston office.

No murder charges have been filed but the investigation is continuing, said Young.

Shane McRoy Smith pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court yesterday to entering nine buildings in Pembroke

Shane McRoy Smith, 44, of Fenton's Drive, Pembroke pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court yesterday to entering nine buildings in Pembroke, Devonshire and Smith's as a trespasser between June 26 and Aug. 29 and causing unlawful damage to three while stealing property valued at a total of $5,690.
The goods ranged from cigarettes and cash to lighters, air freshener and phone cards taken from C-Mart, Noah's Ark, Van Buren's gas station in Flatts, Serpentine Liquors, HWP gas station on St. John's Road, and the Empire Grocery.
He asked for seven similar crimes to be taken into consideration.
Senior Crown Counsel Carrington Mahoney, citing Mr. Smith's lengthy record of similar convictions, asked the court to commit the defendant to the Supreme Court for sentencing.That would expose Mr. Smith to a maximum of 10 years in jail instead of the five available in the lower court.
"They were drug induced," Mr. Smith said of his crimes when asked by magistrate Tyrone Chin.He identified heroin as his drug of addiction.When Mr. Chin suggested drug court, Mr. Smith said that he wasn't eligible because of the attempted murder conviction.The magistrate nonetheless directed that the defendant attend drug court today as an observer, remanded him in custody and also set a sentencing date of September 16 pending pre-sentence reports.

Sharon Ropa, 37, allegedly took part in moving ecstasy from Sydney to Melbourne, selling ecstasy to dealers and laundering millions of dollars

Sharon Ropa, 37, allegedly took part in moving ecstasy from Sydney to Melbourne, selling ecstasy to dealers and laundering millions of dollars, Melbourne Magistrates Court was told today.The global operation was uncovered by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) last month and led to the seizure of 4.5 tonnes of ecstasy tablets and 24 arrests across Australia. The tablets were hidden inside tomato tins shipped from Italy to Melbourne and were estimated to be worth $440 million. The court was told Ms Ropa received significant amounts of money from trafficking drugs to dealers and moved millions of dollars obtained from ecstasy trafficking by a process known as "cuckoo smurfing". The process involves substituting legitimate overseas money transfers for drug money. Ms Ropa, of Melbourne, is charged with trafficking a commercial quantity of ecstasy and dealing with more than $7.4 million in cash being the proceeds of crime with the accused head of the syndicate, Pasquale Barbaro.
She is also charged with aiding and abetting Mr Barbaro to import a commercial quantity of cocaine between January and August this year.
Defence lawyer John Saunders said any money Ms Ropa had access to was as part of her courier role. "She was really doing Mr Barbaro's bidding," he said.
"She's delivering and receiving money from him. She's a gopher."
Magistrate Simon Garnett accepted Ms Ropa played a subsidiary role in the operation and released her on bail on a $150,000 surety.

kingpin Michael Hurley, died last year in jail while awaiting trial. Former rugby league player Les Mara pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was jailed

Operation Mocha, which allowed 7kg of cocaine worth more than $1 million to be sold on Sydney streets to infiltrate a drug syndicate, was slammed by the High Court.
The botched operation, which failed to recover 6kg of the drug, was approved by the head of the NSW Crime Commission Phil Bradley, at a meeting attended by current Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione and his predecessor Ken Moroney.It should never have been sanctioned, said the court in a scathing judgment.The High Court said Mr Bradley would have foreseen that selling cocaine would, "involve a risk of seriously endangering the health of some at least" of the drug users.By declaring the approval to sell the cocaine invalid, the High Court has cast doubt over convictions secured by the operation, defence experts said.Eleven men were originally charged, three with conspiracy to import cocaine and the others with supplying the drug in Sydney.
The kingpin Michael Hurley, died last year in jail while awaiting trial. Former rugby league player Les Mara pleaded guilty to conspiracy and was jailed for a minimum of 13 years. Shayne Hatfield also pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and is awaiting sentence.The High Court challenge was mounted by Gilbert Gedeon, who is awaiting trial charged with supplying cocaine, and David Dowe, who is appealing his conviction and 12 years' jail sentence for supplying the drug.

Man arrested on Tuesday for attempting to sell and deliver a 9mm pistol, ammunition, a grenade launcher, and 23 hand grenades to Rio de Janeiro

Brazil’s slums have been overrun by violent drug-trafficking gangs. Regular battles have led to violence between rival gangs. Police have been fighting these gangs in increasingly violent conflicts recently. The police received two surprising discoveries this week.First, a man was arrested on Tuesday for attempting to sell and deliver a 9mm pistol, ammunition, a grenade launcher, and 23 hand grenades to Rio de Janeiro. Authorities have said he was going to sell these weapons to the gang called the “Red Command” but was caught during a routine drug check on the bus heading toward Rio.The next day, police conducted a raid in one of the slums. Instead of finding the drug gang lord they were searching for, they found caimans in the back yard of a house owned by the mother-in-law of an alleged drug dealer. Caimans are crocodile-like reptiles and authorities said these animals were used by drug-trafficking gangs. They were used not only to intimidate rivals, but also to dispose of bodies after a conflict between gangs. This has led authorities to believe that the gangs are using more brutal methods than they expected.
The animals were sent to a local zoo and three arrests were made. A few guns and a small amount of drugs were also confiscated.