Men who smuggled drugs from Dover to Skelmersdale jailed

 

A gang who smuggled heroin and cocaine into the UK hidden in a lorry have been jailed for a total of 31 years. Carl Robinson, 30, and Graham Miller, 38, both of Skelmersdale, were tracked bringing the drugs from Dover to Lancashire in August last year. They were arrested after meeting Ian Adderley, 46, of Kirkby, in Skelmersdale. All three pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import and supply Class A drugs at an earlier hearing. They were arrested in dawn raids on 12 August after a major surveillance operation carried out by officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, Titan. Officers also seized the class A drugs which had an estimated street value of more than £1m. 'Ill-gotten gains' Robinson, who also pleaded guilty to affray in connection with an incident at a pub in Skelmersdale on 6 August, was sentenced to nine years and nine months in prison. Adderley, who also admitted cannabis production was sentenced to 12 years, and Miller to nine years and six months in jail. Speaking after the trial, Det Supt Jason Hudson, head of operations for Titan, said it would do all it could to end the mens' criminal enterprise. "Titan is here to dismantle and disrupt the organised crime groups causing the greatest levels of harm to the North West," he said. "This group clearly fit that category and we are committed to not only arresting and bringing those people to justice but also financially ruining them, to ensure that all the financial gain that they have managed to achieve through their ill-gotten gains can be taken off them."

Misery among heroin addicts in Afghanistan

 

U.N. Secretary General Ban ki-moon said Thursday that Afghanistan will never be stable unless it tackles its drug problem. He spoke at an international conference in Vienna. Ninety percent of the world's opium originates in Afghanistan's poppy fields -- and much of that is turned into heroin. CBS News contributor Willem Marx took a look at the problem. Beneath a notorious bridge in downtown Kabul, a human tragedy festers. For more than a year now, hundreds of heroin addicts have lived there -- an ancient opium den in a modern urban sewer. Thousands more drop in each day to buy, smoke and inject their daily fix. "How do you react when you see that level of misery?" Marx asked Jean-Luc Lemahieu, who heads the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime for Afghanistan. "Appalling, appalling," he said. "And even more appalling, it is happening just below and in front of us." Lemahieu said with ever more users injecting their drugs, there's a troubling new statistic. Around 1 in 14 of Afghanistan's drug users is now believed to be HIV positive. And with addicts sharing needles, that number is soaring. This is how an HIV epidemic brews. We watched as men reused bloody syringes again and again -- so many, that we had to walk carefully among the addicts for fear of treading on an errant needle. "Each day my life was getting worse and worse," said Abdulrahim Rejee, a former heroin user who crawled out of this despair a year ago. Today he lives with nine other recovering addicts in a shared home. Abdulrahim credits a pilot program involving methadone, a heroin substitute that requires no needles. It is widely viewed as the best defense against the spread of HIV here. "I feel my life has changed 100 percent," he said. "I have rejoined my family, and I feel very healthy." But methadone is available for just a fraction of Afghanistan's addicts -- Abdulrahim and 70 others. "We need to expand the delivery of that service to a lot more addicts than what we are able to do today," said Lemahieu. The only other option here is to go cold turkey at a detox clinic. Under the bridge one morning, Marx saw an addict collapse from an overdose. Abdulrahim jumped in to resuscitate the struggling man. "When I go to that bridge," Abdulrahim told Marx, "I want to help those people, that they can live like me." The man barely survived barely, But with limited care available, he lived only to shoot up another day. This misery persists, while a deadly virus continues to spread.

'Britain's war against Afghan opium production is failing'

 

Britain’s war against opium production in Afghanistan is being lost, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, with outputs of the class-A drug soaring to record levels in the past decade despite western intervention.

Actor given 42-month sentence for conspiring to buy cocaine Actor given 42-month sentence for conspiring to buy cocaine

The film version of Un Simple Soldat will have to wait. Montreal actor Tony Conte, 48, was sentenced to a prison term of 42 months Thursday for conspiring to purchase cocaine. The fact he became involved in film projects as his trial approached last year was not enough to prove he is rehabilitated, Superior Court Justice Sophie Bourque decided at the Montreal courthouse. In January, a jury convicted Conte on charges of conspiracy and drug possession with intent to traffic. Factoring in time he has already served, Conte has more than 39 months left on his sentence. The actor sighed audibly while listening to Bourque's decision but his face registered little reaction when he learned he was heading to a federal penitentiary. Conte, who acted as a Mafia associate in the 1990s French-language TV series Omertà, had tried to convince Bourque he merited a suspended sentence because he was already rehabilitated. During a sentence hearing on Feb. 2, he testified he slipped into a deep depression after his arrest in October 2008, but recovered months before his jury trial in December and started working on various projects, including a film adaptation of Un Simple Soldat, by Quebec writer Marcel Dubé. Dubé testified at the Feb. 2 hearing that the project was to start production this year, and that Conte held a crucial role as actor and producer. Bourque acknowledged Conte's efforts at resurrecting his career but noted he persisted in lying about how he ended up at a downtown hotel on Oct. 29, 2008, ready to buy 30 kilograms of cocaine from an undercover police officer. During his trial, Conte told the jury he was there to look in on a guest of the hotel at the request of a friend named Diego Guzman Diaz who had resided in St. Léonard. Conte testified the man he knew as Diaz had been kicked out of Canada because of an expired visa and had called him from Mexico to ask that he look in on his ill friend at the hotel. Det.-Sgt. Stephane Durocher told the sentence hearing "Diego" was actually Vladimir Estenssoro, 42, of Bolivia who was removed from Canada three times in the past decade for residing here illegally under aliases. In 1999, Estenssoro - a suspected street gang member - was convicted of trafficking in several kilos of cocaine in Montreal. While in prison, he hung out with members of the Hells Angels, according to Parole Board of Canada records. On Thursday, Bourque said Conte's insistence on maintaining his false version of events - even after a jury rejected it - is a sign he has not been rehabilitated. Bourque determined that Conte merited a sentence similar to that of Anthony Riccio, 54, whom Conte described as his partner while making his deal with the undercover agent. Riccio was sentenced to a 42-month prison term after pleading guilty to conspiracy and drug trafficking charges in 2010.

Cruise Ship Cocaine Bust

 

An "altercation" brought a New Zealand couple to the attention of US law enforcement officials investigating the discovery of cocaine on a cruise ship docked in San Francisco. New Zealanders Tony Earl Wilkinson, 42, and Kirsty Harris, 25, were passengers on the P&O cruise ship Aurora when they were arrested in San Francisco on January 25 after 5.8kg of cocaine was allegedly found in their cabin. Before their cabin was searched, officials had already searched the cabin of another passenger, Australian Ahmed Rachid, 27. He was also arrested after 7.9kg cocaine was allegedly found in his cabin. Homeland Security Investigations special agent Craig Hyatt said in an affidavit that after the seizure of cocaine from Rachid, agents had learned he had a possible association with Wilkinson and Harris. "Officers and agents learned from ship personnel that Rachid recently had an altercation with another passenger onboard who was later determined to be Harris," agent Hyatt said. Rachid also told agents that while he was sightseeing in Curacao on January 16, he had been approached by a Hispanic male, with whom he had arranged to transport cocaine to Australia. Rachid had said that he had arranged that, on his arrival in Sydney, he would be paid for transporting the cocaine after contacting an associate of the Hispanic male. He told agents he had smuggled seven bundles of cocaine to his cabin without any incident. In his cabin he had placed all the seven bundles in his suitcase, which he locked. Hyatt said that when officers and agents went to the cabin on the Aurora where Wilkinson and Harris were staying, they had been met by Wilkinson who appeared to be holding drug paraphernalia. "Wilkinson then attempted to shut the cabin door on the officers while simultaneously opening the cabin bathroom door, temporarily blocking the main cabin door," Hyatt said. "Agents heard the bathroom faucet turn on and observed Wilkinson rinsing what appeared to be drug paraphernalia in the sink." During a search of the cabin a set of keys was found concealed in a light fixture. The keys opened a black case, inside which agents found several packages of a substance which later tested positive for cocaine, with an aggregate weight of 5.8kg. The earlier search of Rachid's cabin was carried out after a conversation he had with a border protection officer during a routine passport control check, Hyatt said. Brick packages, weighing a total of 7.9kg, were found inside locked luggage in Rachid's room. The packages tested positive for cocaine. Ad Feedback Wilkinson, Harris and Rachid were charged with possession with intent to distribute more than 5kg of cocaine.

Mountain man invades cabins, lives in luxury Mountain man invades cabins, lives in luxury Mountain man invades cabins, lives in luxury

He's eluded authorities for more than five years, a mountain man who roams the wilderness of southern Utah, breaking into remote cabins in winter, living in luxury off hot food, alcohol and coffee before stealing provisions and vanishing into the woods. Investigators have clawed for clues, scouring cabins for fingerprints that match no one and chasing reports of brief encounters only to come up short, always a step behind the mysterious recluse. They've found abandoned camps, dozens of guns, high-end outdoor gear stolen from the homes and trash strewn around the forest floor. But the man authorities say is armed and dangerous and responsible for more than two dozen burglaries has continued to outrun the law across a swath of mountains not far from Zion National Park. He's roamed across 1,000 square miles of rugged wilderness where snow can pile 10 feet deep in winter. And while there have been no violent confrontations, detectives say he's a time bomb. Lately he has been leaving the cabins in disarray and riddled with bullets after defacing religious icons, and a recent note left behind in one cabin warned, "Get off my mountain." "You wouldn't want to come across that guy," said Iron County Det. Jody Edwards, who has been working the case since 2007. Theories about his identity have ranged from two separate men on the FBI's Most Wanted List — one sought for the 2004 killing of an armored-truck guard in Phoenix, another for killing his wife and two children in Arizona. Some have also speculated the man may be a castaway from the nearby compounds of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the polygamous sect run by jailed leader Warren Jeffs. AP This undated photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office shows a remote camp littered with supplies and trash in the southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park. Authorities believe the camp was left behind by a suspect in more than two dozen burglaries of mountain cabins over an area of roughly 1,000 square miles for the past five years. Advertise | AdChoices The FBI recently discounted the theory that the man was the fugitive sought in the armored-truck guard killing after authorities got the first pictures of him from a motion-triggered surveillance camera outside a cabin. The photos showing a sandy-haired man in camouflage on snowshoes, a rifle slung over his shoulder, were taken sometime in December. "We believe that is not Jason Derek Brown," FBI special agent Manuel Johnson told The Associated Press. Edwards wasn't so quick to rule out the possibility, given the close resemblance to the 42-year-old Brown, who was raised Mormon and is a highly educated, well-traveled avid outdoorsman. Johnson said the FBI has considered the possibility that the cabin burglar may be Robert William Fisher, described as a survivalist, hunter and angler who authorities say killed his family then blew up their house in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2001. However, at 50 years old, Johnson is doubtful it's the man in the surveillance photos, who appears much younger. Only on msnbc.com Now: Social viewing on msnbc.com and TODAY.com New witness accounts suggest John Wayne Gacy accomplice Franklin: I jumped off bed at Houston news How Anthony Shadid shaped my life and work Studies: Toxic pavement sealant poses health risk A Greek’s only hot-seller: tear gas masks Artist facing foreclosure turns court ruling into art So while detectives believe they are getting close, buoyed by the recent photos, the shadowy survivalist remains an enigma. No missing person report appears to fit, and fingerprints lifted from cabins have yielded no match. 'I don't think this guy is normal' Meanwhile, cabin owners are growing more frightened by the day and are left wondering who might be sleeping in their beds this winter. "He's scaring the daylights out of cabin owners. Now everyone's packing guns," said Jud Hendrickson, a 62-year-old mortgage advisor from nearby St. George who keeps a trailer in the area. In November 2010, Bruce Stucki, another cabin owner, said a burglar broke into his cabin through a narrow window, pried open a gun case with a crowbar and laid out the weapons but took none. At a nearby cabin, the man reportedly took only the grips from gun handles. "He could stand in the trees and pop you off and no one would know who killed you," Stucki said. Some cabins he has left tidy and clean, while others he has practically destroyed, even defecating in one in a pan on the floor. "He should know he's being followed, but I don't think this guy is normal in any way," said Stucki, who, like many cabin owners, has a lot of his own theories. "He's anti-religious, waiting for the mothership to come in," Stucki speculated. Advertise | AdChoices Investigators say they have found several of the man's unattended summer camps, what they initially thought were left behind by "doomsday" believers preparing for some sort of apocalypse because of the remote locations and supplies like weapons, radios, batteries, dehydrated food and camping gear. Stocked with guns Edwards said two camps found a few years ago were stocked with 19 guns. One of the camps also had a copy of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild," a book about a young man who died after wandering into the Alaskan wilderness to live alone off the land. The cabin burglar has managed to avoid being seen all but twice over the years, each time retreating into the forest. In recent weeks, it took detectives an entire day to reach a remote cabin after getting a report that lights had been seen on inside overnight. It turned out they were solar-powered lights on the porch, and the cabin was empty — another dead-end. The coffee and alcohol the survivalist favors plays into some cabin owners' assessment that he could be a castaway from the nearby twin towns of Hildale or Colorado City on the Utah-Arizona border. The so-called lost boys are said to be regularly booted from the polygamous sect there by elders looking to increase their marriage opportunities with young women.

Nazi Germany succeeded in "destroying" confidence in British bank notes across Europe by flooding the continent with forgeries during World War II

 

Nazi Germany succeeded in "destroying" confidence in British bank notes across Europe by flooding the continent with forgeries during World War II, according to secret files made public Friday. By the end of the six-year conflict, the fakes were so rife they were not accepted in mainland Europe, papers released from the National Archives showed. Nazi Germany began forging British notes in 1940 in preparation for the planned invasion of Britain, according to a report drawn up in August 1945 by Sir Edward Reid of MI5, the domestic security and counter-intelligence service. A captured German agent said the plan was to scatter the notes by air over Britain during an invasion "in order to create loss of confidence and general confusion". Although the invasion plan was abandoned after the Battle of Britain, when the Luftwaffe failed to gain aerial supremacy over the Royal Air Force, the Nazi forgers carried on churning out the fake notes. "What they subsequently produced was a type of forgery so skilful that it is impossible for anyone other than a specially trained expert to detect the difference between them and genuine notes," Reid reported. The forgers produced counterfeit sterling with a face value of £134 million -- the equivalent of 10 percent of all sterling in circulation. The fakes were circulated in neutral Spain and Portugal, to raise money while simultaneously damaging confidence in sterling, and also began turning up in Egypt. The practice backfired when it turned out that German agents being sent to Britain had been issued with the fake notes, quickly alerting the authorities to their presence. Reid reported that one department of the German secret service would be selling the forged notes in Lisbon, and another department buying them in the belief that they were genuine. Few of the notes reached Britain before the Allied invasion of France in 1944, when they began turning up in large numbers, mainly due to the activities of Allied troops. "It turned out that what was common was the selling of army stores on the French black market and the using of the francs so received to buy British notes to send or smuggle home," Reid wrote. "A good deal of undesirable activity took place in this way, and although British troops undoubtedly did their share, it appears that American and Polish troops were both more active and more adept in this line." Reid admitted that by the end of the war, the German forgers had achieved their objective. "At present no one will accept a Bank of England note in any neutral country of Europe except at a very large discount," he wrote. He recommended recalling all notes worth £5 and over, which the Bank of England did, issuing fresh notes with a metal strip as an added security feature. The fake notes were made by Jewish inmates at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, whose experiences were dramatised in the film "The Counterfeiters".

Bankrupt Irish tycoon Quinn could face jail

 

Ireland's onetime richest man could face jail after a state bank launched contempt proceedings against him on Friday, saying he was blocking it from seizing hundreds of millions of euros of properties in eastern Europe and Central America. The Irish Banking Resolution Corporation (IBRC) asked the High Court to declare former billionaire Sean Quinn in contempt for violating an order not to interfere with foreign property assets worth an estimated 500 million euros. Quinn, who has come to personify the rapid unravelling of Ireland's "Celtic Tiger" economy, could be jailed if he is found to have breached the July High Court order. Quinn, 65, turned a rural quarrying operation on his family farm into a 4 billion euro globe-spanning empire. But he lost over 1 billion euros in a disastrous investment in Anglo Irish Bank shortly before the bank collapsed under the weight of failed property loans and he was declared bankrupt in a Dublin court last month. IBRC, which was created from the remains of Anglo Irish Bank, accused Quinn of stripping assets from foreign-based companies to prevent it from securing money it is owed. IBRC faces "a very substantial loss" if it fails to secure assets in Russia, Ukraine and Belize, Paul Gallagher, senior counsel for IBRC said. "The effects of what we say is the contempt, is continuing to happen, happening very quickly and the damage which we are trying to stop will have happened in other jurisdictions," Gallagher said. The application for a contempt order also named Quinn's son Sean Jnr and his nephew Peter Quinn. A barrister representing the Quinn family said they denied breaching the injunction. The judge ordered a full hearing for March 21

Record $6 Trillion of Fake U.S. Bonds Seized

 

Italian anti-mafia prosecutors said they seized a record $6 trillion of allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds, an amount that’s almost half of the U.S.’s public debt. The bonds were found hidden in makeshift compartments of three safety deposit boxes in Zurich, the prosecutors from the southern city of Potenza said in an e-mailed statement. The Italian authorities arrested eight people in connection with the probe, dubbed “Operation Vulcanica,” the prosecutors said. The U.S. embassy in Rome has examined the securities dated 1934, which had a nominal value of $1 billion apiece, they said in the statement. “Thanks to Italian authorities for the seizure of fictitious bonds for $6 trillion,” the embassy said in a message on Twitter. The financial fraud uncovered by the Italian prosecutors in Potenza includes two checks issued through HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) in London for 205,000 pounds ($325,000), checks that weren’t backed by available funds, the prosecutors said. As part of the probe, fake bonds for $2 billion were also seized in Rome. The individuals involved were planning to buy plutonium from Nigerian sources, according to phone conversations monitored by the police. The fraud posed “severe threats” to international financial stability, the prosecutors said in the statement. HSBC spokesman Patrick Humphris in London declined to comment when contacted by telephone. The U.S. Secret Service assisted the Italian authorities, spokesman Edwin Donovan said. Money Laundering Creating fake Treasuries is a “common scam, especially in Italy,” he said. The tipoff was the “astronomical” face value of each bond, he said. Fake bonds in high denominations are more common in Europe, where people are less familiar with the face value of U.S. Treasury bonds than in the U.S., he said. Zurich’s public prosecutor’s office provided material to their Italian counterparts in Potenza in 2011, according to Corinne Bouvard, a spokeswoman for the senior public prosecutor’s office of the canton of Zurich. The Swiss part of the investigation ended on July 22, she said. The Italian investigation initially focused on a Sicilian who was living in Potenza and was “already known for money laundering and exporting currency abroad,” according to the statement from the Potenza prosecutor’s office. Phony U.S. securities have been seized in Italy before and there were at least three cases in 2009. Italian police seized phony U.S. Treasury bonds with a face value of $116 billion in August of 2009 and $134 billion of similar securities in June of that year. The U.S. Secret Service averages about 100 cases a year related to bonds and other fictitious instruments.