Criminology and Psychology

Drug bust in Lawton leads to the seizure of more than 4 1/2 pounds of cocaine, weapons and more than $20,000 in cash. Lawton Police Lt. Todd Palmer says the powder and crack cocaine has a street value of more than a quarter of a million dollars. Authorities also seized four pistols and a sawed-off shotgun on Friday from the home in southwest Lawton. Police arrested a 36-year-old man, but his name was not immediately released. He was being held on complaints of trafficking cocaine, possession of paraphernalia and a sawed-off shotgun.

2.5 tons of marijuana was seized in two raids in Miguel Aleman Tamaulipas this week. Units of the First Motorized Calvary Regiment, headquartered in Nuevo Laredo, made the seizures after executing a warrant signed by a Federal Magistrate. A total of 365 packages of marijuana, wrapped in brown paper and duct tape weighing 2, 608.9 kilos, was seized. No word of any arrests or detentions at this time. Military spokesmen reported that, to date, Operation Nuevo Leon-Tamaulipas, an operation to combat the narcotic traffic on the border, has resulted in the seizure of 644 kilos of marijuana, 50.3 kilos of cocaine, 137 grams of heroin, 14 automatic weapons, 27 pistols, 41 shotguns and 3,337 rounds of ammunition. 34 arrests have been made, in addition to $20,816.00 pesos and $54,970.00 dollars, seized 52 vehicles and made four property seizures. This operation is being spearheaded by the First Motorized Battalion Cavalry whose area of responsibility includes the municipalities of Laredo, Nuevo

Britain, and one of the leading consumers of cocaine, according to a new interior ministry report. Drawn up by the ministry's anti-drug division Dcsa, the study concluded that despite efforts and successes by law enforcement agencies around the world, both drug production and trafficking ''continue to rise to alarming levels''. What is even more disturbing, the report observed, ''is not only the danger of the drugs themselves but also the involvement of organized crime and transnational gangs who represent a threat to law and order on a global level''. This threat is greatest for Europe and the United States, ministry experts said, ''because they continue to be the leading markets for illegal drugs''. International cooperation between law enforcement agencies is essential to combat drug production and trafficking ''as well as to dismantle the major transnational criminal organisations operating around the world,'' the

Police seized 2 metric tons (2.2 tons) of cocaine and arrested four alleged members of an international drug-trafficking gang, Peruvian officials said Sunday. In two coordinated raids, police confiscated 1.5 metric tons (1.7 tons) of cocaine from a house in a Lima suburb and the rest from a building in the neighboring port of Callao late Saturday, said Col. Demetrio Perez Vargas, chief of information for Peru's national police. A Venezuelan and three Peruvians were arrested, police said in a statement. The cocaine, found hidden in king-size mattresses, was apparently destined for Europe. Interior Minister Luis Alva Castro told reporters the drugs came from the coca-producing Apurimac River Valley southeast of Lima, where last week Shining Path rebels working with drug traffickers killed a police officer and wounded 11 others in an ambush.Peruvian authorities have confiscated nearly 10 metric tons (11 tons) of drugs in the first three months of 2008, according to the national police

Twelve syndicate members, including three Singaporeans and a Thai, were arrested.The success follows a March 4 operation when police busted a mega drug lab in the city with the seizure of 260kg of drugs worth RM44mil.Five Mexicans, three Singaporeans, a Canadian and a local have since been charged in court with trafficking. Drug haul: Comm Zul Hasnan (second from left) showing reporters the seized heroin in Johor Baru yesterday. Looking on is Federal deputy narcotics director Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Noh Kandah (third from left). In both cases, the drugs, including heroin, Eramine, Ecstasy, syabu and ketamine are believed to be for the international market.Federal narcotics crime investigations department director Comm Datuk Zul Hasnan Najib Baharuddin said that six luxury vehicles and over RM1mil in cash were recovered in the latest raids by federal and state Narcotics officers in cooperation with the Singapore Central Narcotics Bureau. Police got their lead when they arrested two men

Serbian police (MUP) and Customs yesterday confiscated four kilograms of heroin on the border with Croatia.The drugs were found in a bus with Macedonian license plates at the Batrovci crossing.Beta news agency was told at the Customs Directorate that the heroin was divided into eight packages, hidden among the luggage. The bus was traveling to Austria. No details were given as to whether the MUP made any arrests

Police in Russia's Urals region of Orenburg have seized more than 43 kg (95 lbs) of heroin hidden in a wood, local police said on Monday. "43.5 kg of heroin was discovered in a forest [on Sunday] near the village of Sukharechka in the Orenburg Region. The drugs were seized," police said, adding they had been informed of the whereabouts of the heroin by an earlier detained drug dealer.Russia's Urals is a major point in the heroin smuggling route from Afghanistan through the former Soviet Central Asian republics on to Western Europe via Moscow and St. Petersburg. Alternatively, the drugs are smuggled into Turkey and then onto Europe via the Balkans.Russian customs officers in the Urals made their largest-ever drug bust on March 19, seizing a total of 353 kg (780 lbs) of heroin.

Malaysian police have smashed an international drug smuggling ring, seizing 46 kilogrammes of heroin and other drugs worth 15 million dollars, news reports said Monday. Police also arrested 12 people including four Singaporeans and a Thai national as part of the operation in southern Johor state neighouring Singapore, the Star newspaper said."This is the biggest seizure of heroin in the country this year," national anti-drug chief Zul Hasnan Najib Baharuddin was quoted saying by the newspaper.Ten of them will be charged with trafficking, a charge that carries the mandatory death sentence if they are found guilty, the New Straits Times said. As well as the 46 kilogrammes of heroin, (101 pounds), 11,316 ecstasy pills were seized, all of which police believed were going to be smuggled overseas, the newspapers said.Police also confiscated 1.0 million ringgit in cash (313,653 dollars) and several luxury vehicles in a series of raids in the southern state.The raids follow another b

traffickers are always seeking new ways to move their prized product.Many departing Peru on commercial flights are young Western tourists heading back to Europe, where cocaine brings a premium. An underground network recruits them -- in European cafes, on college campuses, in clubs and even in coded newspaper adds."They might approach you in a bar at night, or at the university," said Elena Santos, 24, of Madrid, among the large contingent of jailed Spanish burriers. "They say it's easy, you can make good money."The pledged remuneration may vary, but 5,000 euros (about $7,885) per kilo of cocaine is typical.Traffickers help burriers conceal drugs stashed in checked luggage, taped to torsos, inserted into body cavities, swallowed in latex balls -- a potentially fatal technique, should a capsule rupture. Most burriers are Latin American. But a significant number are Europeans and some Americans, all supposedly inconspicuous because of their looks and passports.But

KAZAKHSTAN customs agents have seized 537kg of Afghan heroin on the Russian border that authorities say is worth $US22 million ($24 million).The record haul in the former Soviet republic amounted to more than 3.5 million doses, customs official Nurlan Alymbekov said, according to Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency. Authorities arrested a Russian who was driving the car where they found the drugs. He was attempting to cross the border in the Kostany region in northern Kazakhstan. Traffickers frequently smuggle heroin through former Soviet republics, three of which - Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan - border Afghanistan, the world's largest opium producer.

The Coast Guard in Florida has recovered 3,200 pounds of cocaine after it was dumped by fleeing drug smuggling suspects. A Coast Guard aircraft conducting patrols in the western Caribbean sighted a suspicious "go-fast vessel" on March 18, according to a written statement from the Coast Guard. "When the smugglers knew they had been detected, the go-fast vessel immediately departed the scene at a high rate of speed," the statement said. The cutter Bear dispatched an MH-65C Dolphin helicopter from Jacksonville, Florida, in an effort to stop the suspects, and also launched a small boat with a law enforcement team on board, authorities said. Meanwhile, the suspected smugglers began dumping bales of cocaine overboard as they fled, the Coast Guard said. Although the helicopter fired shots in an effort to stop the vessel, it was able to elude capture.

A year-long investigation involving undercover surveillance and wiretaps has led to the arrests of 36 Buffalo-area suspects on felony cocaine distribution charges. The suspects have been the focus of local, state, and federal law enforcement scrutiny for months. They are accused of operating a cocaine distribution ring from a number of locations in Buffalo, the towns of Amherst and Clarence, and Lockport. Their illegal drug-dealing activities, according to investigators, were mainly concentrated in Erie County's northtowns. Telephone wiretaps were key to the successful dismantling of this cocaine trafficking organization, according to U.S. Attorney Terrance Flynn."Based upon the state wiretaps, in the past year law enforcement was able to identify these 36 individuals, who were specifically selling and distributing cocaine, as well as marijuana and possibly other drugs," said Flynn. At its height, the ring was netting about $10,000 a week in illegal drug sales. The suspec

Police in Mexican border towns fear for their lives, and with good reason. Five high-ranking Mexican police officials have been killed this year in what Mexican officials say is an escalating war between police and drug cartels.In Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, a police commander was gunned down in front of his home. The weapon used to kill Cmdr. Francisco Ledesma Salazar is believed to have been a .50-caliber rifle. The guns are illegal to purchase in Mexico but can be obtained just north of the border at gun shows and gun shops in the United States. The weapon, a Barrett, was seized in an ATF raid. A round fired from 100 yards away tore through a car door and both sides of a bulletproof vest like those used by Mexican police. "There's nothing that's going to stop this round," Mangan says. ATF special agent Tom Mangan says the .50-caliber rifle has become one of the "guns of choice" for the drug cartels. The weapon fires palm-s

John Mullally was one of three men who masterminded a racket in which millions of pounds worth of cocaine and heroin were shipped into the UK in scaffolding packaging. They used a legitimate construction business as a front for their trade.The 20-strong gang was jailed for a total of more than 200 years in July 2006 following a police operation codenamed Lima, which watched their activities for more than a year. Mullally, 45, formerly of Rutherford Road, Mossley Hill, was jailed for 14 years for conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.Yesterday, he was back before Liverpool crown court for a Proceeds of Crime hearing, where it was ruled he should be stripped of £376,132 in cash and assets.Judge Mark Brown told Mullally he had 28 days to release thousands of pounds from several bank accounts.Thousands of pounds more are already being held by Merseyside police after being seized when he was arrested.Judge Brown also warned Mullally he would be jailed for a further three-and-a-half years

Oshawa trucker hauling a just-in-time delivery of aircraft parts is idling in a jail in Buffalo, N.Y., after being accused of hauling 125 kilograms of marijuana in his cargo. U.S. border officials say Monday's seizure brings the total of Ontario marijuana seized from Toronto-area trucks crossing the border to more than $10 million in the last year. U.S. Customs says it has arrested two Toronto-area truckers each month for smuggling drugs. In this case, the trucker was arrested while taking a load to New Jersey. He was crossing at the Peace Bridge when his rig was examined with gamma-ray technology. Police from both sides of the border are now targeting crime rings using trucking companies for cross-border smuggling. "We have seen an increase in the smuggling of marijuana in the last five years,'' Kevin Corsaro of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.

Kenya is an important transit route for Southwest Asian hashish and heroin dealers. Europe is the primary market and North America the secondary destination. Eastern Africa representative of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Mr Carsten Hyttel, once remarked that South American traffickers had moved into Kenya. This was after the tightening of law enforcement in Spain, which was once a main transit point for cocaine headed to Europe.When The Sunday Standard was investigating the suspected routes and methods used to smuggle hard drugs into the country, the Coast Provincial Criminal Investigation Officer, Mr Bernard Mate, expressed suspicion and mistrust.We were questioned about what we had learnt from our investigations.We met hostility at the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA), which registers private speedboats.A senior KMA officer, who declined to give his name, threatened to call the police after we inquired about speedboats and their link in drugs trafficking.But another officer said th

"There are drugs, there is money, there are guns," Passaic County Prosecutor James Avigliano said yesterday at his Totowa investigative headquarters, where he stood aside dozens of bundles of cash, 12 kilos of cocaine and an AK-47 assault rifle seized in the bust. Timing is everything in business, even the drug business. That was the credo of a North Jersey narcotics gang whose payroll included a UPS truck driver who used his route to express-deliver cocaine, authorities said. A sweep of the ring, said to have ties to the violent Shower Posse drug gang in Kingston, Jamaica, ended Thursday with six arrests, including the driver and a gang ringleader, the seizure of $200,000 in cocaine, $85,000 in cash, two luxury cars, weapons and jewelry. Avigliano identified the alleged ringleader of the operation as Oral Watson, 31, of Paterson, who was arrested after he left the gang's safehouse in Hackensack and led police on a short foot chase. He is being held in the Passaic County

100 Drug Enforcement Administration (D.E.A.) officers, equipped with arrest warrants, in co-operation with Thai police, today arrested a British gang selling steroids illegally in Soi Chaiyapreuk, Pattaya and seized assets worth over Bt 20 million At 8.00 am, 21 March, 2008, Police Major General, Amaresrit Wattanawiboon, Commander of Office of the Narcotics Control Board,(ONCB) who had been co-ordinating with Mr.Andre Kellum, an officer of the D.E.A, acknowledged that there was a gang of foreigners who were running a network selling steroid in Pattaya. The police and D.E.A. officers, acting on arrest warrant no. 98/255, searched a two-storey house in Pattaya New City Village, Soi Chaiyapreuk , Jomtien Beach Road. The police later arrested Mr.Edwin Richard Crawley (44) a British national who lives in the house, which he had used as the centre of operations for his business. According to the police report, Mr. Edwin Richard Crawley originally opened a company called" Nutri Med. Co.

Drug traffickers dumped 3,300 pounds of cocaine into the ocean during a pursuit of their boat by the U.S. Coast Guard and Nicaraguan authorities. The cocaine was bundled in 50 packages that the suspects threw overboard before escaping, after they ditched the small craft on the Nicaraguan coast, El Nuevo Diario reported Friday.Authorities had been chasing the four suspects since Tuesday.

Gunmen aboard a speedboat attacked a security vessel as it travelled to a major oil industry port in Nigeria's Niger Delta, killing a Nigerian sailor, security sources said on Thursday.Around 15 unknown gunmen attacked the vessel late on Wednesday as it travelled along the Bonny river towards Onne, a port used to supply oil industry contractors and ships that service the offshore sector."The vessel was on its way to Onne when armed men attacked," one of the security sources, who works in the oil industry, said. Further details were not immediately available.Onne lies close to Bonny Island, home to a 400,000 barrel-per-day oil export terminal operated by Royal Dutch Shell and to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) plant which exports 22 million tonnes per year of compressed gas.Nigeria, an OPEC member, is the world's eighth-biggest exporter of crude oil and disruptions to supply due to violence in the Delta have been one of the causes of the rise of world oil pric

The RCMP Criminal Organization Marihuana Enforcement Team (COMET) and the Toronto Police Service Drug Squad Clan Lab Team, in a combined effort, have charged four people with drug-related offences in relation to an international drug organization located in the Greater Toronto Area.This investigation, dubbed Project "OCUJO", stemmed from an internationaleffort in partnership with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration(DEA) targeting the criminal enterprise involved in Marihuana Grow Operations(MGO). This criminal organization was involved in both the domestic and trans-border trade of marihuana to the United States and the subsequent return of the proceeds back to Canada. Arrested and charged with drug-related offences are: Van Nhan TIEU, age 50 of Toronto, Ontario Thi Hang TRINH, age 33 of Mississauga, Ontario Thang Trieu PHUNG, age 34 of Mississauga, Ontario David Pham, age 22 of Oakville Yesterday, members of COMET and the Toronto Police Service Clan Lab Team ex

The work over the Kujovic drug-smuggling case aims to cover up the current producers of synthetic drugs in Bulgaria, former director of the special GDBOP division for combating organized crime, Vanyo Tanov declared Thursday.Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry Valentin Petrov is interested in covering up the activities of organisations that produce synthetic drugs and pay the police, Tanov said after a meeting of the temporary parliamentary committee investigating the case.According to the former anti-mafia cop, the alleged Serbian drug-smuggler Budimir Kujovic was arrested because he stopped paying the authorities.60 kg heroin were seized during a check up of car brand Mercedes Vaneo entering Bulgaria from Turkey at Kapitan Andreevo cross-border point, police press centre informed. The heroin was confiscated on Saturday at about 10.00am. and on Sunday the leader of the criminal group – Serbian drug boss Budimir Kujovic was detained. On December 29, 2007 a car entering in the sate

Heroin production in Afghanistan is booming as the Taliban raises money to pay for its insurgency, and there are fears the heroin is making its way to Sydney, filling the void created when Asian production fell and the heroin drought began almost a decade ago.Aladdin's Cave of confiscated narcotics in Kabul, among hollow samurai swords, car parts and fake almonds stuffed with drugs, lie two envelopes. Both had been bound for Sydney.Each contained a marketable quantity - 10 grams - of brown heroin, a colour that distinguishes west Asian production, and a size that reflects, say drug experts, a growing trend towards importing small amounts of heroin to avoid detection.What the people who intended to pick those packages up from newsagency postboxes in Leichhardt and Westmead might not have appreciated is that by ordering Afghan heroin, they were financing the Taliban's battle against Australian forces. Afghan police will soon burn the tonne of heroin, tonne of opiates and five ton

Drug lord Mohamed El Ouazzani, known as El Nene, was allowed to stroll out of prison and probably fled to Spain to avoid serving the rest of an eight-year prison sentence. Six prison guards were jailed for allowing him to escape. Morocco had aimed to erase its cannabis industry by this year, a campaign given added momentum by suspicions that hashish was used to partly pay for dynamite that blew up trains in Madrid in 2004, killing 191 people. A Casablanca court jailed Mohamed Kharraz, better known as Cherif Bin Louidane, for eight years, the government said on Thursday. It ordered 5.2 million dirhams of his fortune to be seized and fined him 500,000 dirhams Moroccan drug baron was jailed along with the former head of Tangier's judicial police after a lengthy trial that pitted the Rabat authorities against powerful interests in the kingdom's northern cannabis growing region.Judicial police officers grabbed Kharraz in August 2006 at the Al Ghouroub (Sunset) cafe near the northern

Ringleader Christopher Pimblett, 34, of Newmarket Gardens, St Helens. Sharon Pimblett, 36, also of Newmarket Gardens. Darren Platt, 42, of Nutgrove Hall Drive, Nutgrove, St Helens. Thomas Green, 26, of Lilley Road, Kensington, was a courier of cocaine. Ian Moffatt, 37, of Falcondale, Winnick, Warrington. Carl Moffat, 25, of Taylor Road, Haydock. Fergus Smith, 26, of Fraser Street, Barrowfield, Glasgow. John Dunbar, 26, of Byers Road, Glasgow. Philip Browne, 63, of Appleby Lawn, Netherley, St Helens, was Christopher Pimblett’s step father-in-law. Barry Brownbill, 35, of Constance Street, St Helens. Peter Jones, 35, of Richard Grove, St Helens. Christopher Kay, 23, Snowberry Crescent, Warrington. John Johnson, 26, of Fairclough Road, St Helens Kenneth Whitfield, 51, of Marina Avenue, Sutton, St Helens. John Carr, 47, of Elephant Lane, Thatto Heath, St Helens. Qamaruddin Munshi , 29, from Avondale Street, Bolton. Michael Peel, 22, Larkspur Road, Sankey Bridges, Warrington Christopher Pim

Bimal Puri, 50, of Otterbourne Gardens, Isleworth, and Glen Clark 47, of Ramsay Close, Colindale, denied a charge of being involved in the illegal importing of 6.5kg of cocaine, of 100 per cent purity. The two other men pleaded guilty. The drugs were said to have a street value of more than £1million. Puri and Clark were found guilty after a two-week trial and remanded in custody. They will be sentenced, together with Jose Perdomo, 49, of Moody Road, Peckham, and Barry Hearn, of Rannoch Close, Edgware, in April. When officers went to the house in Kings Drive, Edgware, they found a rubbish clearance truck with the unpacked computer desks inside. The drugs had been hidden inside the wood of the desks, which had come from Mexico via Madrid and Alicante, Spain.The men were arrested on July 1, their homes searched and various documents and mobile phones found.

Keith Green was stopped by customs officials who discovered two packets hidden behind the glove box of his car, Canterbury Crown Court heard. When the contents were analysed they were found to be two kilos of pure cocaine with a street value of £79,920.Green, 35, of Bellacre Close, Diss, was jailed after he admitted smuggling at Dover on December 16 last year.Claire Harden, prosecuting, told the court that, when stopped by customs, Green said he had been visiting his parents who moved to France 18 months ago but he couldn't be precise about the town where they lived. Deanna Heer, mitigating, said Green had run up about £30,000 in debts on loans and credit cards after he was unable to work for 18 months following an operation for a back problem.She said that he had been offered £4,500 to bring the drugs in and had he been successful would have handed them over at a supermarket car park. She said that Green had been given his expenses, a pre-programmed satnav and a mobile phone and h

Nineteen men accused of operating South Africa's biggest international abalone smuggling ring were re-arrested, released on bail and are to be tried in the Cape High Court later this year.They appeared before magistrate Alta Fredericks minutes after they were arrested in the corridors of Cape Town Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.The 112 charges instituted against the alleged mastermind Yu-Chen (Richard) Chao, 47, of Milnerton, and his co-accused two years ago was struck off the roll in the Cape Town Regional Court on January 28.The State had been granted warrants for the arrest of the accused, who were told to be at court to face the original charges and a contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca).They are alleged to have been in illegal possession of 470 tons of perlemoen valued at R200-million. The 19 were arrested between June and March 20 last year after a two-year investigation by the Organised Crime Unit.On Tuesday, members of the police's Commercial

S imilarities were found by Customs investigators between a business which supplied boats to drug smugglers and a company set up by a Butterwick man, a court has been told. When the finances of Nautexco Marine, set up by Ian Rush, of Brand End Road, were examined in detail by an expert, it was revealed that Rush and the other business had shared suppliers in the UK and customers in Spain. Forensic accountant Jeremy Outen told Ipswich Crown Court, where Rush is on trial, that while he found no evidence of money laundering, there were concerns about four nautical agencies in Spain with which Nautexco Marine had dealt. Those businesses had been implicated, following an investigation into the affairs of the Lowestoft company Crompton Marine, in the supply of high speed, radar-evading boats to drug smugglers operating between North Africa and Spain. Crompton Marine had supplied boats to those agencies, said Mr Outen, before its owners Richard Davison and Ellen George, were arrested in Mar

A Port Arthur man described by police as a leader in one of the city's crack cocaine distribution networks was arrested today, according to a Port Arthur Police Department news release.The unidentified man was found hiding under a house in the 2400 block of Avenue B at about 2 p.m. after ditching his car about a block away when he spotted police. Earlier, clandestine narcotic's officers watched the suspect deliver crack to another man, who was also arrested, the release stated. Police seized 30 crack cocaine cookies worth about $30,000 and another $5,000 in cash from the man, the release stated.An undercover operation in Port Arthur has led to the arrest of a man police believe is one of the top cocaine dealers in the city.Narcotics officers seized more than 30 cookies of crack cocaine and $5,000 cash.Port Arthur police say on the street, the cocaine would be worth about $30,000.Authorities are not releasing the name of the suspected dealer but describe him as an upper level co

Thai court today remanded Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to a maximum-security prison outside Bangkok as investigators decide whether to prosecute him in Thailand, his lawyer said.Bout, known as the "Merchant of Death'' for allegedly funnelling arms to some of the world's most violent conflicts, was arrested in Bangkok on March 6 in a sting operation carried out by Thai police and US anti-drug agents. Shortly after his arrest, he was sent to prison while Thai authorities investigated his case to determine if they could prosecute him in Thailand. He can be held without charge for up to 84 days, but a court must re-approve his detention every 12 days."The court decided to detain him for another 12 days, because Thai authorities have not yet finished their investigation,'' his lawyer Lak Nitiwatvichan said. The United States has already begun the process of seeking Bout's extradition to face charges of conspiring to sell millions of dollars of weapons to

Briton, reported to be from South Tyneside, has been arrested in Spain after £21.5m worth of cocaine destined for the UK was seized. A total of 514 kilos of the Class A drug was found stashed in a warehouse on Friday, in Villajoyosa, four miles from Benidorm on the Costa Blanca.It is thought the haul was destined for the UK after it arrived by lorry from Lisbon, Portugal, shipped in from Gambia, West Africa in a cargo of paper handkerchiefs.Foreign media is reporting the man, with the initials RPJ and from South Shields, is in custody after being arrested at the warehouse, allegedly waiting for the drugs to arrive. The operation was a joint initiative between Customs and Portuguese police, which began on February 29 when drugs were discovered en route from Gambia to Spain. The cargo was allowed to continue on its way, minus the drugs, with police waiting to swoop when the lorry arrived in Spain.The operation continues and Portuguese police say further arrests have not been ruled out.

Police in Lithuania have detained five people suspected of planning to smuggle submachine guns to Britain, a prosecutor said Friday. The people were detained a week earlier in an operation carried out in cooperation with the British police. "The police have detained five people, all Lithuanian nationals, who are suspected of possessing arms and planning to smuggle them to Britain," prosecutor Algimantas Klunka said. Police had found six submachine guns, similar to Croatian-made Agram weapons, during the operation. Police said in a statement that the suspects had been involved in smuggling submachine guns and converted Russian-made gas pistols to Britain for a long time

Yvonne Thompson, 62, of Durban, was stopped by immigration officials in June and refused entry to the UK. She had flown in from Geneva. She appeared to be travelling with only hand luggage, but HM Revenue and Customs Officers became aware that two black suitcases from her flight had been left on the baggage reclaim belt.The cases were found to be hers and they contained the drugs, with a street value of over £100,o00. She also had US$3,000 in her possession, which turned out to be fake.At an earlier hearing Thompson admitted importing a controlled drug. She was jailed at Chelmsford Crown Court on Wednesday, with recorder Phillip Bartle recommending that she be deported at the end of the jail term.

Michael Gilroy was stopped on three separate occasions this year trying to bring the thousands of cigarettes through various English airports, Newcastle Crown Court was told. The 39-year-old travelled to Dubai in January, March and April and tried to bring a total of 54,780 cigarettes into the UK.Mr. Gilroy was given warnings by officials at London City Airport and Newcastle Airport and told by customs officers that he was only allowed to bring in 200 cigarettes without paying duty, the court was told. But he was caught a third time at Heathrow on April 28 and arrested after trying to smuggle in a third batch of 17,200 cigarettes. Mr. Gilroy admitted trying to evade paying £11,108 in tax duty on the goods. Judge Michael Cartlidge told him: 'I have seriously thought about sending you to prison.' He was given a 12-month community order with a supervision requirement when he appeared at Newcastle Crown Court. He was also ordered to complete a drug rehabilitation programme.

Yorkshire aquarium dealer has received a warning notice after HM Revenue and Customs made the UK's largest ever seizure of endangered species and live coral at Manchester Airport destined for the aquarium trade.The animals, valued at £50,000 and protected under The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), were discovered in air freight that had travelled to the UK from Malaysia. It is believed the retailer had pre-ordered items that were discovered in the consignment of live corals and clams.The corals had been stolen from Indonesia's protected reefs and taken to Malaysia before being flown to Britain. In this latest case, they were falsely declared on the Customs import declaration, in an attempt to allow banned species to enter the UK masquerading as unprotected species. Demand is being driven by the fashion for 'reef aquariums' and owners eager to have the rarest and most colourful specimens, even if they are endangered species. But for each l

Martin Patience, of Oldstead Road, Bracknell, was arrested and interviewed at Heathrow by HM Revenue and Customs officers on Wednesday.Mr Patience had arrived at Heathrow Terminal 4 on a flight from Buenos Aires. During a search, drugs were discovered in his baggage. He was remanded in custody at Uxbridge magistrates court and will reappear on the 26 February.

Fiona White, of Cronin Street, Peckham, tried to traffic 14 kg of the drug through Gatwick on December 20.The 33-year-old was arrested after flying back to the UK from Jamaica. Airport based customs officers found the packets of cocaine mixed with the seasoning during a routine check of her bags. Ms. White was sentenced to nine years imprisonment at Croydon Crown Court on February 19, with details released yesterday by HM Revenue and Customs.

Rebecca Berry, 18, of Downs Lane, Hetton, was arrested and charged by HM Customs and Revenue officers for trying to take the cigarettes through the airport on February 11. She pleaded guilty to smuggling 16,600 cigarettes and evading duty of £2,678 after arriving on a flight from Tenerife.Ms Berry had been stopped by Customs officers trying to smuggle cigarettes on two previous occasions. She was stopped at Newcastle Airport in January this year with 16,600 cigarettes and at Heathrow in May 2007 trying to smuggle 17,000 cigarettes.On both occasions, the goods were seized and a verbal warning was given, as well as warning letters.Speaking after her appearance at Loughborough Magistrates' Court, John Macmillan, detection manager for HM Revenue and Customs at East Midlands Airport, said: ‘We hope this sends a clear message to those involved in cigarette smuggling that we will take action to seize the goods and also to bring criminal proceedings.'

Cocaine worth almost £150,000 has been seized by customs officers at Coventry Airport's parcel hub. The latest find means that nearly half a million pounds-worth of cocaine has been seized at the airport, one of the UK's biggest parcel hubs, since December.Customs officials say that criminals are using increasingly inventive methods to try to get drugs into the country. In May, cocaine was found in decorative plaques with flowers on, hidden inside buttons and stashed in boxes of biscuits.

Stephen Rowe, 34, of Trefechan, Merthyr Tydfil, was on his way to Alicante, Spain, when he was stopped going through departures at Cardiff Airport. Cardiff Crown Court heard officers found eight counterfeit 50 euro notes and 20 'reefer style cigarettes' containing cannabis resin in his luggage.Mr. Rowe was taken into custody and his house was searched, where police found a further three counterfeit notes, cannabis bushes and a bag containing 36.6g of amphetamine inside the battery compartment of a child's mechanical toy.He pleaded guilty to attempting to export counterfeit banknotes and attempting to export cannabis resin. He also admitted possessing cannabis, amphetamine and further counterfeit banknotes at his home. Judge Christopher Vosper QC sentenced him to a total of six months in prison, suspended for 12 months, with a requirement that he complete a substance abuse prevention programme.

Angela Edward, 39, of Camrose Road, Ely, Cardiff, was stopped by Customs officers last November after flying in from Amsterdam. A search of her baggage revealed a rolled-up cigarette containing cocaine, as well as amphetamines in her jeans. She admitted importing the drugs and received a 12-month community rehabilitation order and an 80-hour community punishment order, plus £100 costs.

big haul of cocaine - estimated to be worth more than £1m - was seized at Birmingham Airport last Friday (February 1), it was revealed yesterday. Customs officers discovered eight kilos of the drug concealed inside two suitcases that arrived on a flight from Bangul in Gambia. The value of the cocaine was estimated at around £500,000, with the street value double or treble that amount. Three people were arrested in connection with the find. Stanislav Sasmil, aged 24, and Sandra Marisa Soares da Rocha, aged 26, were both remanded in custody until March 3 - charged with drug smuggling offences. A 53-year old man was also arrested but has not been charged. Steve Roper, detection manager for HM Revenue & Customs, said: ‘The success of this operation should send a clear message to organised crime gangs - our intelligence and detection skills are second to none.'

Police have seized drugs worth £160,000 at a house in Burton Green, near Kenilworth, after arresting a man at Birmingham Airport.As part of a two-day operation targeting organised crime, officers from Warwickshire Police Serious and Organised Crime Unit intercepted the man as he prepared to leave the country on Wednesday. After the arrest police executed warrants at an address in Burton Green and seized more than 3.8 kg of cocaine and 200 grammes of cannabis.A 32 year old man appeared at Stratford Magistrates Court on Friday charged with possession of cocaine with intent to supply, attempting to export cocaine and cannabis, and money laundering. He was remanded in custody and will appear before magistrates again on March 19.

A 26 year old Londonderry man has been arrested after the seizure of 250g of cocaine with a street value of £20,000 at Belfast International Airport. The drugs were found during a search of luggage on a flight from Amsterdam.

Daniel McCartney, 60, from St Eithne's Park, Londonderry, was jailed for four months on Friday after Customs officers picked him up three times coming off the same flight at Belfast International Airport. He was first arrested on December 21, 2006 when he came off a flight from Lanzarote with almost 40,000 cigarettes. He took the same route and was caught again exactly three weeks later, this time with more than 50,000 cigarettes and £1,600 in cash. Then on March 29, 2007 - three months after his first arrest - he was caught again coming off the Lanzarote flight.This time he noticed Customs officers at the airport and tried to abandon his luggage. But they challenged him and he admitted the luggage - containing more than 30,000 cigarettes - was his. A follow-up search of his home yielded another 3,760 cigarettes and £2,254 in cash.Customs officials said McCartney had tried to evade duty worth £23,000. On Friday the unemployed man forfeited all the cash and was sentenced to four mon

Johnson Fayiah, a 26-year-old passenger on the flight, was arrested and charged with attempting to smuggle Class A drugs. He was remanded in custody at Antrim Court this week.The three previous cocaine seizures all involved passengers on flights from Amsterdam. In October and in early December Dutch nationals each attempted to smuggle £30,000 worth of the drug into the country, and in mid-December a Londonderry man was arrested after travelling back from Holland carrying more than £2,000 of the drug.

On 187 chaparral-covered acres deep in the hills of southeast Orange County, the ranch features a modest 1930s-era Spanish hacienda, numerous guest rooms with antique mahogany doors, a small vineyard, a well-stocked lake and at least a dozen scattered buildings including stables, caretaker's quarters, pump houses and barns. "It's peaceful, serene and gorgeous," says Jason Hahn, who oversees the place for the family that owns it. "It's a little piece of the 1800s just 7 1/2 miles from downtown San Juan Capistrano; you expect to see Hoss Cartwright walking out of the barn."The largest piece of residential property available in Orange County can be yours for $22.5 million, said Stephen Sutherland, one of the real estate agents trying to sell it. The only drawback, he says, is the property's unsavory history; once the base of a ring of international drug smugglers, it has become something of a monument to southern Orange County's inglorious past. In

The number of migrants making the hazardous journey across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen has spiked this year, but so too has the number of deaths, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today. In the first two months of this year, 182 boats carrying 8,713 people arrived in Yemen, with at least 113 people perishing during the voyage and over 200 missing and presumed dead, UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.Two dozen boats with 2,946 people crossed the Gulf of Aden in the first two months of 2007, with 139 people losing their lives and 19 having gone missing.The surge in crossings this year is partly a result of the use of new smuggling routes, with smugglers having started bringing people across the Red Sea from Djibouti, as well as the more traditional route from Somalia.Although some routes are new, the smugglers' tactics have not changed, with people paying an average of between $130 and $150 to travel on small, fast boats, while thos

migrants board rickety boats in the dark, taking orders from inexperienced seamen. From sandy Mexican shores popular with weekend tourists, they can see downtown San Diego's lights when the sky is clear.Smugglers who charge them about $4,000 each for the illegal crossing often use two boats with different crews for the short trip, forcing them to change at sea, authorities say. That way, the hired hands will have less to tell if they are captured.U.S. officials and academics suspect heightened enforcement on land is pushing migrants to gamble their lives on the kind of dangerous voyages — on flimsy watercraft and with little regard for winter — more commonly associated with Cubans and Haitians braving the Florida Straits."Anytime you put pressure on a point along the border, the traffic moves somewhere else," said Juan Munoz Torres, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection. "The only thing left is the ocean."A spate of recent captures and discoveries of aba

The Customs & Excise Department will increase inspections of cross-boundary coaches and passengers, and deploy drug-detector dogs at all checkpoints over Easter. At a press briefing today Customs Drug Investigation Bureau Head Ben Leung and Divisional Commander (Spur Line & Through Train) Ngan Hon-fat said the department will use advanced technology like ion scanners and X-ray checkers to reduce the chance of people using the huge passenger volume and cargo flow to smuggle drugs. The department will keep close liaison with enforcement agencies through enhanced intelligence exchange to crack down on unlawful activities. It has adopted target-oriented measures to hinder drug trafficking by young people who smuggle drugs across the boundary in folded banknotes, in luggage or packed on the body.Mr Leung said 117 people were arrested for drug cases at land boundary checkpoints last year with 27 of them under 21. Up to February, 41 have been arrested this year. Of them 14 were under

30-year-old man has been jailed for 10 years for smuggling £400,000 worth of cocaine into Heathrow Airport from Argentina.Robert Bennett, from Dart Close in Finchampstead, admitted one count of custom evasion at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday. He was arrested and later charged after a 10kg haul of Class A drugs was found in baggage at Terminal Four on a flight from Buenos Aires on Christmas Eve. Bennett was also given a travel restriction order for five years and there will be a confiscation hearing on July 4.

A US government report says that a quarter of all drugs intended for Europe are imported through Belgium, making the country one of the biggest drug transit ports on the continent. The report says that every year 60 tons of cocaine and 30 tons of heroin arrive in the country.Belgium is an ideal entry point for drugs because of its extensive network of highways and the presence of the port of Antwerp, which also lies close to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.The report says that some of Antwerp's dockworkers are actively involved in the smuggling, mainly of drugs from South America. It also notes that Brussels' Zaventem airport is popular with couriers bringing in drugs from Africa.