POLISH national has been charged with drug smuggling offences after police seized cocaine with a street value of about £500,000 at Birmingham Airport.
Read more...Ricardo Larios-Trujillo, 20-year-old Ramon Cortez and 34-year-old Homer
Larios, all of Lawrenceville; 30-year-old Rigoberto Delgado-Orozco
of Buford and 29-year-old Alexander I. Acher of Southborough,
Mass., were also charged with possession with intent to distribute
more than 5 kilograms of cocaine.The U.S. Attorney's Office says Larios-Trujillo, Delgado-Orozco,Cortez and Larios belong to a Hispanic street gang called South
Side Myfas, and along with Acher used Larios-Trujillo's Monster Car
Audio in Lawrenceville to store and distribute cocaine.
Angela Lavonne Chiles was found in possession of prescription pills when she started her Wednesday morning shift. Investigators then discovered that she had been taking other contraband into the facility.Authorities say Chiles was fired and booked into jail on charges of introduction of contraband into a detention facility and unlawful compensation for official behavior.
Read more...Thomas McKendrick was jailed for eight years for attempting to import over £20,000 worth of heroin into the Isle of Man, inside his body. Detective Sergeant Allan Thompson told Howard Caine it was a substantial amount of the drug and he was constantly amazed by the methods employed by couriers, and the risks taken by end us
Read more...Indicted Woodrow Ormiston on five counts related to drug dealing.On Monday, Ormiston entered a plea to one count of the indictment – distributing 500 grams or more of cocaine – as well as a new charge recently filed by federal prosecutors.Late last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Trgovich filed a single charge of wire fraud, accusing Ormiston of providing false information to mortgage lender Countrywide Home Loans in order to obtain a mortgage. Ormiston claimed to make $6,000 a month as owner of Furious Cycles, according to court documents.Ormiston also consented to giving up a pair of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and $66,000 in cash to the federal government, according to court documentsAlong with Ormiston, the grand jury indicted Michael A. Bower, 32, on counts of conspiracy to distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine, maintaining a building for the purpose of dealing drugs, possessing firearms to further a drug crime, money laundering and two counts of dealing cocaine.
The two men were accused of trafficking drugs out of Waynedale homes from January to April. Also indicted were Kevin Bender, 45, and Dan Phillips, 46, both of Fort Wayne. They are accused of dealing cocaine and witness tampering. Last spring, federal prosecutors obtained indictments for Alan Lichty and Shane Silvers, both of Fort Wayne.Each is charged with conspiring to deal 500 grams or more of cocaine, dealing cocaine and possessing a firearm to further a drug crime. Lichty was indicted on five additional charges of dealing cocaine, as well as an additional charge of possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, court documents said.
According to court documents, agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as officers with the Fort Wayne Police Department gathered information about Bower and Ormiston since 2005. Silvers lived in a home owned by Bower and would pick up cocaine from Ormiston’s home.Investigators found drugs in a garage of a house owned by Ormiston, where he would leave drugs for dealers to pick up and then leave money in their place, court documents said.
When Fort Wayne police arrested Ormiston in May, he had $21,600 in cash in his truck, as well as four cell phones and about a gram of cocaine, according to court documents. According to the indictments against Bower, in August Bower obtained a loan from GMAC to buy a 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche, saying he was employed by SS Computer & Tech for four years, with an income of $40,000 a year. Investigators learned Bower started SS Computer & Tech to hide money earned by dealing drugs, according to court documents.
Gerard Hagan, with an address in Liverpool, was to be paid GBP£5,000 to ensure the safe arrival of the cocaine from the Caribbean to Ireland.He was one of four men involved in the operation, which ended in disaster after the boat sank off the coast of west Cork on the 2nd of July last year.Two of the other men involved were sentenced to 30 and 25 years, while Mr Hagan's sentence of ten years is to be backdated to July 2007.
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Antonio Galarza was arrested in the northern city of Monterrey on suspicion of weapons violations and money laundering on Saturday.Galarza is suspected to be the leader of the Gulf Cartel in the border city of Reynosa, a major point for smuggling cocaine into the US.Suspected members of the Zetas, the paramilitary arm of the Gulf Cartel, hung a series of banners along the roads in the Pacific coast resorts of Acapulco and Zihuatanejo on Saturday, accusing federal officials of protecting a rival cartel.Near Mexico City, 11 policemen were shot to death in about half a dozen drug-related attacks over three days, prosecutors said on Sunday.Alberto Bazbaz, the Mexico state prosecutor, said police had arrested 10 people suspected of links to the killings, which occurred on highways and police checkpoints on the outskirts of the capita
Ragip and Kemal Shabani channeled 1.5 tons of heroin through Europe from the mid-1990s until 2003, when they were shut down, prosecutors said. They used a small town in Kosovo as their base with branches in Macedonia, Albania, Spain and the Czech Republic, according to the Federal Criminal Court.The trial — considered one of Switzerland's largest-ever drug cases — was held under high security in the southern town of Bellinzona, with only some relatives and journalists allowed into the courtroom.Judge Jean-Luc Bacher sentenced Ragip Shabani to 15 years in prison for breaking Swiss narcotics law, and ordered the 42-year-old to pay 300,000 francs ($261,400) in court costs.Kemal Shabani, 28, was given only a two-year suspended sentence for participating in a criminal organization, and was charged 90,000 francs ($78,400) in court costs.Defense lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, which also ordered that the Shabanis' assets be confiscated. The assets include five luxury cars and Kosovo properties such as houses, restaurants and shopping centers.
The court dropped a charge of money laundering for lack of evidence.The brothers' father, 69-year-old Tariq Shabani, was acquitted in the case and was granted compensation of 47,000 Swiss francs ($41,000) for his time in custody during the investigation.Bacher said the verdict took into account the fact that Switzerland had only partial jurisdiction in the case because much of the drug smuggling allegedly happened in other countries.The Shabani clan had already come under suspicion in some countries before the 1998-99 Kosovo war, but it continued to operate after the territory was placed under U.N. administration, the indictment said.A six-year investigation led to the arrest of Ragip Shabani in 2003 in Macedonia's capital of Skopje. His brother and father were arrested in Germany in 2005, according to the indictment.Police across Europe confiscated 970 kilograms (2,140 pounds) of heroin during raids carried out from 1997 to 2003 in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and Kosovo, which is now an independent country.
Inmates in Greek prisons are planning to launch a hunger strike against the bad conditions in these institutions, Vima reports.
Protests are expected to escalate on Monday, where the strike is expected to start. Prisoners have addressed a list of 16 requests for the Ministry of Justice, most of them linked to observing human rights and providing medical service.
Nigeria Prison Service is recruiting special duty officers, otherwise known as hangmen.Saturday Punch investigation showed that the recruitment started about four years ago when it was discovered that the service had only two hangmen. Since the beginning of the exercise, the number has risen to about 12, with Lagos State having at least four hangmen. It was, however, gathered that 10 of the new hangmen were yet to master the intricacies involved in executing condemned convicts by hanging. Saturday Punch gathered from a reliable source in the NPS that for now, the men, who were also trained as general duty officers, would be involved in routine prison work until their skills were needed. He said, “We see the reluctance of the state executives to sign the death warrants as a temporary issue. They are confused for now and see the death penalty as a political issue. We believe that as democracy progresses, they will see the need to follow due process.”Saturday Punch also found out that there were about 300 inmates on death row nationwide, out of which over 100 were in Lagos State. A senior official in one of the prisons in the state told our correspondent that the warrants for the execution of some of the death row inmates had been on the state governor’s table since 2000.He said the immediate past governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, did not sign any and Governor Babatunde Fashola has not done so too. The source added, “But Tinubu commuted some of the death row inmates sentences to life imprisonment.”The source said the recruitment of more hangmen was a routine procedure pending when the governors decided to sign warrants. He said, “When you are called to execute an inmate, it must be done precisely. There is no room for mistake. The person must die at once; not that the person will not die and you will have to do it again. So, there is a need to get people who are well trained to handle this job.”Explaining further on the process of execution, the source said, “There is no big deal about it. You know that only a few people in the service know these hangmen. To others, they are just colleagues. It is for their safety and state of mind. So, that is why a hangman will not operate in a state as general duty officers. If a time comes for them to perform their duties, a date will be fixed and the headquarters in Abuja will invite the person or persons they want to use.“Nobody, except the state comptroller will know the real reason and he would have told the person. From Abuja, the person will go to the place of assignment. It won’t take more than three days. Two days to set up and test run, and the D-day. He will come back and none of his colleagues will know.”
The NPS spokesman, Kayode Odeyemi could not be reached on the telephone, but the Lagos State NPS spokesman, Ope Fatinikun, confirmed the presence of the hangmen in the command. He, however, said he had no idea of their identity or number.Fatinikun also admitted that there were a large number of death row inmates in the prisons in the state, explaining, “We have six females and 101 in the maximum prison. But some of them are still fighting for their lives at the Appeal Court and Supreme Court. But many of them are awaiting the governor’s signature.”
Mr Iovine, 44, nicknamed “o’ninno” — the baby — because of his small stature, is wanted for murder and other crimes, and is listed among the 30 most dangerous criminals in Italy. He has been on the run for 12 years.According to an investigation that was published in Corriere della Sera yesterday the villa of Mr Iovine may be only the tip of an iceberg. Italian police sources suggested that there were scores of similar cases in the Naples area of Nato service personnel living in houses that were owned by the Camorra. There are several Nato facilities in the area, notably a US telecommunications centre in Bagnoli and the US Air Force base at Capodichino.American Nato officers have been renting a villa near Naples for years that belongs, indirectly, to Antonio Iovine, a clan chieftain of the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia
“It’s ludicrous, isn’t it? The coffers of Nato, to which Italy also contributes, are helping to fill the coffers of the Camorra,” Franco Roberti, the co-ordinator of the local anti-Mafia bureau, said.The villa rented by the American officers, near the town of San Cipriano d’Aversa, was bought in 1986 by Mr Iovine’s mother, with what investigators believe were the wages of his criminal activities. Because it is registered in her name, prosecutors have so far failed to present sufficient evidence of its criminal origins.The two-storey villa is surrounded by a high wall topped by a fence with several video cameras along its perimeter. It is only 18 miles from the US bases.Colonel Carmelo Burgio, who heads the 1,360 Carabinieri in the Naples area, which is infested by the many family-based clans that make up the Camorra, said: “Last year we succeeded in sequestering €100 million [£79 million] of assets belonging to the Bianco-Corvino clan of the Camorra, including about 50 villas. We then discovered that 40 of these were rented out to Nato personnel. Most of them are still living there, with the difference that the rent, which ranges between €1,500 and €3,000 a month, is now paid into a state fund.”
Colonel Burgio said that the Camorra clans were masters at camouflaging their purchases, which were used to launder illegal earnings. He said that Mr Iovine’s wife, who was arrested in July for extortion and for managing contacts between her husband and other clan chiefs, “has letters from friends saying they gave her as presents everything of any value in her house, furniture, TVs, clothes everything”. There were even hundreds of pairs of expensive shoes, each with a “present note” from a friend.The military duty officer at the US Embassy in Rome said that he had no knowledge of the situation and declined to comment. Military personnel at the American Joint Forces Headquarters in Naples and at the Capodichino airbase also said that they knew nothing of the matter, and that nobody was available to comment.
Officers from Cleveland Police stopped a man on the A689 near Hartlepool and discovered the cash, which lead to the search of a flat in Ingleby Barwick. Police found what they believed was class A drugs, including crack cocaine and amphetamines, at the property in Hadleigh Walk on Thursday. A 24-year-old man was arrested and questioned by police.
Read more...Michael Pavlou, 21, jumped from his bedroom window when police arrived at his home, but he was arrested nearby.When he was taken to the police station he handed over about £3,500 of amphetamine in his sock, said prosecutor David Lamb.Pavlou said that he had been handed the powder by a friend, and he admitted that he had handled it before in return for free amphetamine and cash.He had a 2005 conviction for possession of heroin, Teesside Crown Court was told.Peter Wishlade, defending, said that Pavlou, from the Ragworth estate, lived in an area where the police were not respected, and when they called at his door his first reaction was to run away.
Pavlou had turned to using amphetamine to rid himself of addictions to heroin and crack cocaine.Mr Wishlade added: “He fully anticipates what is going to happen to him today, that he is going to be made subject to a custodial sentence.“When he got to the police station following his arrest he volunteered that the amphetamine was in his sock.“He took it out and he handed it to the police.”Judge Tony Briggs told Pavlou: “Those who are involved in the supply of drugs to others always run the risk of custodial sentences.“In this case you have passed the custody level, and custody is inevitable.“There is nothing in evidence that you are anything other than a harbourer of these drugs, which enables the sentence to be somewhat reduced.”
Pavlou, of Doncaster Crescent, Ragworth, was jailed for 15 months after he pleaded guilty to possession of a Class B drug with intent to supply it on February 14.
Steven Allen Longbrake of Central Point was convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine for his role in packing and repacking drugs for distribution, Polk County prosecutor Harold Cuffe said.On Sept. 5, Longbrake was in Polk County Circuit Court on an unrelated drug case and was to be taken into custody when he attempted to run from a sheriff's deputy, Cuffe said. He soon was caught before leaving the building.While in jail, Longbrake reportedly wrote to another inmate and bragged that he was hiding methamphetamine that he had brought to court with him. Deputies searched him and found small bags of methamphetamine and packaging materials, Cuffe said.Longbrake was sentenced to eight months in jail on the manufacturing methamphetamine conviction Friday.
Read more...Larry Norris Canada, 25, pleaded guilty Friday to using and carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime. He faces at least five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.Marchello Dornell Miller, 27, pleaded guilty Friday to possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine. He faces up to 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $2 million.Clifton Earl Robinson, 33, pleaded guilty Friday to possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.Quincy Head, 27, pleaded guilty Thursday to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
James Darrell Lister Jr., 27, pleaded guilty Thursday to possession with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine and crack cocaine. He faces up to 40 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $2 million.Larry Donell George, 26, pleaded guilty Thursday to possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine. He faces up to 40 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $2 million.
According to information in court, since January 2006, the defendants had been distributing crack cocaine in the Longview area.
An 87-count federal indictment was returned on May 13, charging 29 people, including these six, with federal crimes.
Three men arrested in the largest methamphetamine seizure in Oregon have been convicted on drug and conspiracy charges. A federal jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts of a 10-count indictment against Octavio Mendoza-Morales, 36; Heriberto Montenegro-Mendez, 33; and Hector Villarruel-Lopez, 38. They were charged with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine, and various counts of possession. They were arrested after a 20-month investigation by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and an Oregon interagency police team. The ringleader, Ricardo Mendoza-Morales, was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison following his guilty plea last summer. Prosecutors said more than 40 pounds of methamphetamine was seized. In addition, almost three kilograms of heroin, some cocaine, five vehicles with hidden compartments and $197,000 in cash were seized.
Read more...Two men who trafficked ecstasy tablets smuggled into Tasmania on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry have been given jail terms.37 year old Todd Arthur Smith was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, and 40 year old Anthony Wayne Coleman 9 months.
23 year old Matthew Christopher Pepper was given a three-month suspended sentence for his lesser role.The court heard Smith had received nearly 4,000 ecstasy tablets in the deal, with a street value of nearly $200,000.He gave Coleman one thousand tablets to distribute, and Pepper was enlisted to be a middle man.
In the Hobart Criminal Court, Justice Peter Evans said their willingness to distribute the drugs was startling and deplorable.
Sukhray Singh Saran 21-year-old Winnipeg man pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking and was sentenced to six years in prison. "There is certainly a tragedy in all of this when you have a person of such a young age (going to prison)," said Crown attorney Jeremy Aikerstream. Police arrested Saran, then 19, and two other men in August 2007, while raiding a Portage Avenue drug den. Court heard police had been monitoring the activities of a criminal group involved in large scale cocaine trafficking in early 2007 when the trail led to a Leila Avenue apartment.
Read more...Sudinia Johnson of hamilton and Otis Kelly of Fairfield are each in jail on a million dollar bond tonight.The Butler County Sheriff says the two were traveling from Chicago to Butler County with 7 kilos of cocaine.He says authorities tracked the men from Chicago and pulled them over in Fairfield. Deputies also seized five vehicles in the investigation."It's one of the most sophisticated set ups we've ever seen. It's got hydraulics, it's got an alarm system on it. You can't get in to get to those drugs without an alarm going off and you have to set the hydraulics so the safe opens in the back seat." The sheriff says the suspects live in Butler County and distribute the drugs to dealers in the area.Fifteen pounds of cocaine from Chicago, by way of Mexico, estimated to be worth more than $500,000 on the street.Bonds were set at $1 million each for Sudinia Johnson, 34 of Hamilton, and Otis Kelly, 40 of Fairfield. Arrested at Pleasant Avenue and Nilles Road in Fairfield, the pair are charged with drug trafficking and possession.That was most of the haul undercover Butler County sheriff's investigators seized Wednesday in Fairfield in what officials say is the county's second largest cocaine bust. It occurred just a few months after the county's biggest bust."This is the second one of these we have had in about four months. You almost have to be one stupid criminal to come to this community with what we've got going on with the drug seizures and the arrests," Sheriff Rick Jones said Thursday.Jones would give few details about the investigation because he says more arrests are expected.Earlier this summer, a separate federal investigation in Butler County led to a bust where 17½ pounds of cocaine were found hidden in the bumper of a car.
Read more...Jamel “Bump” Brannon, 28, of no permanent address, was identified as the main organizer of illegal drug sales in Riverside and Black Rock. He remains at large.
Individuals arrested Wednesday in the sweep were: Stacey Matthews, 22, of Condon Avenue; Jonathan Decerro, 17, of Albany Street; Laicie Manzella, 19, of Condon; Yashiara Maldonado, 18, of Condon; Kathleen Wargula, 18, of Laird Avenue; Linda Wargula, 54, of Laird; Charles Lynch, 32, of Grove Street; Michelle Anthony, 25, of Condon. Also, Michael Burgos, 23, of Esser Avenue; Ruben Rosario, 18, unknown address; Deveraux Jaeckle, 16, of Germain Street; James Goree, 33, of Laird; Bobby Johnson, age unknown, of Grote Street; Charles Lynch, 32, of Grote; Mark Lucas, 20, of Laird; Derek Taton, 22, of Loretta Avenue, Town of Tonawanda; Deborah Wagaman, 52, of Herkimer Street; Jennifer Pladas, 32, unknown address; Martin Lauber, 33, of Herkimer; Shannon Fitzpatrick, 24, unknown address; Allen Vance, 35, of Grote; and Antoinette Burhanan, 24, of Grote. Individuals previously arrested on warrants were identified as Doyl Avino, 41; Tyrell Legall, 35; Larry Chavers, 33; Tremaine Williams, 20; Clifford Collier, 45; Jamar Young, 19; Kelly Garcia, 35; Winston Foy, 32; Isaiah Jones, 18; Asante Kwabena, 32; Sterling Rather, 31; Johnny Lewis, 28; and E. Jay Corp, 33. In addition to Brannon, 12 individuals are still wanted on warrants: Dwayne A. Wilson, 37; Johnny Smith, 18; John Shelton, 19; Leandro Juan Rodriguez, 33; Roberto Leon, 17; Marjorie Patterson, age unavailable; James C. Johnson, 22; Kevin D. Jakubczak, 21; Carlo A. Gibson, 23; Marquis L. Ford, 26; Sammy Delgado, 29; and Lamaine Clark, 24.
Carlos Patino Restrepo was flown to the United States and arrived in an armored car for his arraignment Thursday in U.S. District Court in Central Islip.Patino Restrepo, 44, is accused of bringing tons of cocaine into the United States beginning in the 1990s, according to court documents, Newsday reported. He is charged with conspiracy to possess and import cocaine into the country, with intent to distribute.He pleaded not guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert, who ordered him held without bail as a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Patino Restrepo’s New York attorney, Todd Merer, denied that his client had threatened to kill the previous prosecutor and agent on the case, telling Newsday the charges were based on the fraudulent testimony of two or three Colombians.
In Colombia, authorities considered Patino Restrepo an accomplice of top cocaine lord Wilber Varela, who was on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s list of most wanted fugitives, with a $5 million reward for his arrest. Varela was found shot to death earlier this year in Venezuela.The cartel would deliver the cocaine to the Colombian port of Buenaventura, where Mexican transporters loaded it on boats and planes to the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Patino Restrepo was arrested last year in Colombia, and authorities there approved his extradition to the United States.
Jeffrey Conway,who had a trial with Celtic Football Club, agreed to mind drugs for a person he met at a party in return for some cocaine for his own use.
Conway, of Belclare Avenue, Poppintree, Ballymun pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of the cocaine in his bedroom at his family home on June 1, 2007.Judge Katherine Delahunt remanded Conway in custody earlier this month to allow her consider reports handed into court before she finalised his sentence.
She told Conway today that she had read the reports carefully and she was now going to adjourn the case again to allow for an updated probation report and urine analysis. She readmitted Conway to bail to allow him to engage with the probation service and adjourned sentencing to next July.Garda Angela McFadden told Mr Garret Baker BL, prosecuting, that when gardaí acting on confidential information attended at the Conway family home, they were met by the accused who brought them to his bedroom and pointed at a wardrobe containing a large shopping bag holding a block of cocaine.Garda McFadden said the cocaine weighed 485.9 grammes and was valued at more than €34,000.Conway, who has no previous convictions, told gardaí he had a met a person at a party who had asked him to mind the drugs and in return he would receive some cocaine for personal use. He said he had been using cocaine heavily for a year and was spending up to €200 a week on the drug. He said he owed about €1,600 to financial institutions, was unemployed and "could not go on without cocaine".Garda McFadden agreed with defence counsel, Mr Luán Ó Braonáin SC (with Mr Paul Greene BL), that Conway had cooperated with gardaí in relation to his own role and was not distributing the drugs himself.Dr David Gibney told Mr Ó Braonáin that Conway had come to him in 2007 seeking assistance in securing a place on a residential detoxification programme. He said Conway had successfully completed the programme and now spoke to transition year students about the dangers of drug addiction.
Dr Gibney said in his experience with drug addicts Conway was "exceptional and had done very well".Mr Ó Braonáin submitted that Conway was a vulnerable individual who dealt with his insecurities via alcohol and cocaine use. He said he was open to exploitation by others as his "default setting" was to say "yes" to people in order to keep them happy and make them like him.He said Conway had "excelled at football" and had a trial with Celtic Football Club as well as playing League of Ireland football. He said Conway had now put together a business plan to set up as a contract plumber.Mr Ó Braonáin said Conway had successfully attended at The Rutland Centre to deal with his drug addiction and was now benefiting other young people in the community by passing on his knowledge of the dangers of drugs.He asked the court to take into account that Conway was "an exceptional and specific offender" who had entered the earliest possible plea of guilty. He said Conway’s family were in court "in bountiful numbers" to support him.
Traci C. Buckley, 28, smuggled a “dangerous narcotic” into the jail by passing it to inmate Raymond H. Sitterly, 31. Deputies didn’t identify the drug.The pair were arrested on Saturday during the act of smuggling, deputies said, after a week-long investigation by detectives and corrections staff members.Both were charged with first degree promoting prison contraband, a felony. Buckley was arraigned in Oxford and released on her own recognizance. Both are scheduled to appear in Town of Norwich Court at a later date, police said.
Read more...Thomas McIntyre, 40, was caught after police raided his home in Cairnton Place, Tillicoutry, last May. Detectives moved in after quizzing users who confessed to often buying drugs from McIntyre.
At the High Court in Glasgow, McIntyre admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin between 1 January and 10 May last year. It emerged he had already served a five year jail-term for drug dealing after being convicted in 2003. He accepts that heroin brings misery, he knows that better than most Liam O'Donnell Defence lawyer
Judge Lord Bracadale reduced the latest sentence from seven years due to his guilty plea. The court heard police questioned several addicts after being alerted to McIntyre's drugs trade. One man admitted he had acted as a "runner" for the accused to help deliver heroin. Officers then raided McIntyre's home on 10 May last year.
A woman there admitted that McIntyre sold drugs. Police also seized £865 in cash and two mobile phones. A number of text messages on the phones were from users looking to buy drugs. McIntyre was later detained and admitted dealing heroin on a daily basis. Liam O'Donnell, defending, said McIntyre had been lured back into drugs on his release from jail and had been spending up to £1,000-a-day on cocaine and heroin for himself. The lawyer added: "He was approached by an individual claiming that money was owed. He accepts that he had a choice, but chose to re-enter the world of drug dealing. "He is a man who has not made money through drugs, but made money for others. He accepts that heroin brings misery, he knows that better than most."
Mr O'Donnell also said McIntyre's mother had disowned him and that he had latterly been living with friends. McIntyre also admitted failing to appear for a previous court date. Lord Bracadale sentenced him to 12 months on that charge to run concurrently with the six and a half years.
Sebastian Araujo, 42 and Moises Solano, 50 were scheduled to appear for a bond hearing Tuesday after police found 25 kilos of cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $2.5 million, on them at a North Side gas station.
After Grand Central Area Spanish Gang Task Force officers received information that a vehicle was being used to transport a large quantity of narcotics from Texas to Chicago, they set up surveillance at a North Side gas station that was supposed to be the drop-off point for the drugs.They saw the vehicle approach the gas station and detained two men, Sebastian Araujo, 42 and Moises Solano, 50, at the scene, according to a release from police News Affairs.While they were being held, a drug-sniffing dog was brought in, who detected something in the rear panels of the vehicle's back seats, the release said.Police removed the panels and found numerous cellophane-wrapped brick-like objects, which were tested and found to be cocaine, the release said. A total of 25 kilos of cocaine was recovered, which has an estimated street value of more than $2.5 million.Araujo and Solano, both of near west suburban Northlake, were taken to the Albany Park District police station for processing and charged with possession of a controlled substance. They were expected to appear for a bond hearing Tuesday, police said.
Richard Arthur Daniels, 38, of Beechwood Road, Wibsey, was jailed for ten years. Anthony Davies, 27, of Lloyds Drive, Low Moor, got six years.
A third Bradford man, Dean Martin, 30, of Glendale Drive, Wibsey, is expected to be sentenced next week. Daniels had admitted a charge of conspiring to supply cocaine. Davies and Martin pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drugs.
The court heard that much of the prosecution case was built around surveillance of the mastermind John Roe, 40, of Workington, Cumbria, who organised one major pick up of imported cocaine and cannabis valued at £29,000 from London. Police secretly recorded his conversations as he journeyed from Bradford to London. He was jailed for 12 years. The gang included a man, Brian Mounsey, 50, of Stockton-on-Tees, once sentenced to death in Thailand for drug dealing but commuted to 40 years in prison. He was jailed for ten years. The senior detective who led the investigation said the gang was regarded by police as the number one threat to law and order in Cumbria.
Detective Inspector Jason Hudson, of Cumbria Constabulary’s serious and organised crime unit, said: “The impact of these convictions can’t be underestimated.”
The conspiracy involved links with drug barons in Yorkshire and outside the UK. Roe admitted three charges of conspiring to supply cannabis, and one each of conspiring to supply cocaine and amphetamines. Surveillance gave police key evidence against the gang’s importer, Gino Obiekezie, a 34-year-old London man with a Nigerian passport, who admitted two counts of conspiring to supply class A drugs and one of importing cocaine. He was jailed for eight years.
Miguel Fernando Villarreal-Ochoa guilty of conspiring to posses and possessing with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine.The trial for the 35-year-old owner of Villarreal Transport started last Wednesday with the jury making their decision at 8 p.m. Friday.Brownsville FBI agents received information that a large amount of narcotics was located at a certain address in Brownsville.
Authroties found cocaine and thousands of dollars of cash af Villareal-Ochoa's Brownsville home.The trucking company owner is expected to be sentenced on Jan. 26, 2009 where he faces 10 years to life in prison and a maximum fine of $4 million dollars.
Mexican law enforcement agents have captured Eduardo Arellano Felix, a suspected leader of the brutal, Baja California-based drug cartel responsible for smuggling large amounts of cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine to the United States.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had offered $5 million for information leading to his capture. Arellano has been indicted in U.S. federal court in San Diego. Mexican officials said Sunday that Arellano was arrested at a Tijuana residence Saturday night, along with his daughter. The daughter's name was not available. They have been taken to Mexico City, as is the case with most high-profile arrests in drug cases. The DEA also confirmed Arellano's detention. It is the latest in a series of arrests in recent years that has weakened the organization. As the cartel has lost its grip on the lucrative drug-smuggling routes into the United States, a deadly battle for control of the Tijuana region has ensued. Eduardo Arellano's arrest follows that of his three brothers, Benjamin, Francisco Rafael and Francisco Javier, and the death of a fourth, Ramon, who was killed in a 2002 shootout with Mexican police in the state of Sinaloa.
Eduardo Arellano, nicknamed El Doctor, has been described as a reclusive former medical student in charge of overseeing the group's finances. With the removal of his brothers, he played an increasingly important role. A nephew, Fernando Sanchez Arellano, has been said to be in charge of the group's day-to-day operations. But Sanchez has been challenged by a former crew leader, Eduardo Garcia Simental, known as El Teo, and their battle has claimed the lives of close to 150 people in Tijuana in the past month.
Antonio F. Ropiza, 30, of Riverhead, pleaded not guilty to a count of second-degree murder Monday in Riverhead Town Justice Court, court officials said.Town Justice Allen Smith ordered Ropiza held in county jail without bail.According to police, Beatrice Shaw's mother discovered her daughter's dead body inside her apartment around 3:15 p.m. Friday. Police said Ropiza stabbed Shaw the night before after he fought with Shaw over some crack cocaine he'd obtained from her. Defense lawyer James Saladino of Riverhead said his client had suffered an unspecified brain injury 10 years ago and had recently been taking medication."He told police he stopped taking his medication a month ago," Saladino said. "I don't know if he completely understands what is going on."Deputy Insp. Robert Oswald, commanding officer of the Suffolk police major crimes bureau, said the defendant and victim had a "casual relationship between them based on their mutual use of crack cocaine.""He was dissatisfied with the quality or quantity of crack cocaine he had gotten from her," Oswald said.Ropiza, of 12 Fairview Dr., is due back in court on Oct. 30.
Read more...Courtney T. Moragne, 26, formerly of Pierce Avenue, was sentenced for unlawful gun possession and possession of crack cocaine with intent to sell, both felonies.
Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives worked on the case with Niagara Falls Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard P. Maigret said Moragne was arrested with crack cocaine in June 2006, November 2006 and again in January 2007.Moragne also was found to be in possession of loaded firearms during both of the 2006 arrests, Maigret said. He pleaded guilty to criminal charges in May.
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