Criminology and Psychology

Punitive sentences totalling 85 years, which were passed down last week on three English gang members, are unlikely to stem the tide of transatlantic drug shipments. As he fielded calls last week from people eager to discuss the record prison sentences handed down to four drug smugglers over the €440 million haul of cocaine recovered off west Cork, Michael Colgan repeated one message over and over again. Intelligence is key to tackling the highly organised and well-resourced drugs gangs that target the European market, insisted Colgan, the head of the Customs drug enforcement unit. Yet the 1,500 kilos of cocaine was seized off Cork because of an accident that was both dramatic and absurd - the shipment would have safely landed in Ireland if one of the smugglers had not accidentally put diesel, rather than petrol, into the fuel tank of an inflatable boat. The seizure cast a spotlight on Ireland’s part in the international drugs trade and raised a major question for Irish law enforcement

Charges against Tetra Pak heir Hans Kristian Rausing and wife Eva have been dropped Hans Rausing, 45, an heir to the multi-billion pound Tetra Pak drinks carton empire, was embarrassingly drawn into the public eye in April after his wife Eva, 44, was caught trying to smuggle heroin and crack into a function at London's American embassy.When £10m home the couple share with their four children in exclusive Cadogan Place, Chelsea, was then searched, officers found more crack and heroin - and £2,000 worth of cocaine, enough to fuel a whole nightclub full of drug-users. Typically, addicts caught with such huge quantities of drugs will face a prison sentence.But at Westminster magistrates court yesterday, it was revealed that all charges against the couple are being dropped after a 'protracted correspondence' between their lawyers and the Crown Prosecution Service.Instead, they are each to accept a 'conditional caution', which will probably involve the pair promising to a

Ramiro Vanoy Murillo, 60, and Francisco Javier Zuluaga Lindo, 38, are among 14 paramilitary members extradited to the U.S. in May for their alleged roles in a massive cocaine smuggling operation in the late 1990s. The two entered their pleas before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in downtown Miami.Under a plea agreement, Vanoy Murillo faces up to 19 years and Zuluaga Lindo more than 17 years behind bars. Prosecutors said they would drop additional charges against the two at sentencing. Each could also face up to $4 million in fines.The Bush administration agreed it would not seek life sentences as a precondition of their extradition. But on Tuesday, Moore reminded the defendants that he was not bound by the plea agreement in deciding sentencing.A lean, bespectacled Vanoy Murillo, sporting a shaved head, and a husky Zuluaga Lindo attended the hearings quietly. Both wore standard beige jumpsuits, their feet in shackles and spoke only in response to the judge's questions.At one p

In January 1998, Matheson was convicted of accessory after the fact involving a theft of over $500. In August 2000, Matheson was convicted of possession of Methylenedioxy Amphetamine also known as MDMA or Ecstacy and possession of cocaine. As a result of his second conviction, which took place in Allen Parish, Matheson was sentenced to serve nine years in the department of corrections. “It’s a relief to get him off the streets,” said Vernon Parish Sheriff Sam Craft. “He’s got two prior felony convictions and if convicted of these charges he will be a three time loser.” Matheson will face charges of operation of a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. On April 4, task force agents along with numerous other law enforcement agencies went to the Matheson’s residence located on 226 Willie Doyle Road in Pitkin. Agents discovered the components of a methamphetamine laboratory at the residence and as a result of the discover

man is dead after being shot by a sheriff's deputy during a law enforcement sweep through Buffalo to round up members of a violent drug gang. Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson says a Niagara County sheriff's deputy fired at the man inside a home Tuesday morning after the man aimed a gun at the officer. The man's name was not released. He was pronounced dead at a Buffalo hospital. The shooting happened as 400 officers from several agencies participated in Operation Third Strike, fanning out at 5 a.m. with federal arrest warrants. About 20 suspects are in custody. The shooting is under investigation

The Libyan authorities have seized 50kg of heroin in a record haul, the interior ministry said in a statement on Monday. Heroin of "pure quality" was seized in the Al-Wahat region in the east of the country, the ministry said. It did not specify if any arrests were made. The statement said that the amount was the largest ever seized in a North African country and the second largest recorded in Libya. Efforts are being made "to eradicate the epidemic" in Libya where illegal narcotics are considered "weapons of mass destruction," the statement said, without elaborating. Drug trafficking carries the death penalty in Libya, a key transit route for drugs that come mainly from Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. Last week the authorities announced they had seized one tonne of hashish in the southeastern region of Tazerbo.

Kelowna RCMP say a marijuana grow operation busted Thursday was linked to the Hells Angels.The Kelowna drug section dismantled a grow operation in the 2000-block of Ethel Street, according to a news release Friday."Seized from the house were 86 'mother plants' and approximately 3,000 immature 'clone plants'. Police believe the house was being used as a clone factory of sorts, whereby the immature plans were being produced from the mother plants and were then available for sale or relocation to other marijuana grow sites," the release stated.Police also seized about $40,000, about eight pounds (3.6 kilograms) of dried marijuana bud and a sawed off pistol-grip shotgun."From evidence gathered at the scene, police suspect the operation is linked to the Hells Angels Organized crime group," the release said.RCMP did not explain what evidence allegedly linked the operation to the Hells Angels, nor could they be reached for comment.A woman, 26, was arreste

Federal authorities in New Jersey say they have broken up a drug trafficking ring that was a major supplier of marijuana to Bermuda -- in the process touching off a political scandal on the island. Two men, one a resident of Bloomfield and the other alleged to be the husband of a top government official in Bermuda, were arrested after agents seized 700 pounds of marijuana last week at a warehouse in Orange. Douglas Collier, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Newark, said the operation differed from most, because rather than importing drugs into this country the traffickers were big-time exporters. The agency believes the traffickers had made five shipments totaling more than 2,000 pounds from Port Newark to Bermuda since last summer. Agents valued the pot at $15 million. "It was unique," Collier said. "They were taking advantage of this beautiful island without law enforcement looking at them." Taken into custody at the warehouse on July 15 were

Sleuths of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Thursday arrested a man and recovered from him four kg of heroin, worth Rs.40 million in the international market. Liakat Ali alias Lakhwinder Singh, 34, was nabbed with the contraband wrapped in a polythene bag near the Chandigarh airport. He had gone there to deliver the packet to a Nigerian who, however, failed to turn up, NCB officials said. “A close-knit network of heroin traffickers is run by a group based in Pakistan and their kingpin is a Pakistani national who is at present lodged in a Punjab jail,” NCB zonal director Saji Mohan told mediapersons. “They bring this heroin via Amritsar. Some Nigerians are the main buyers who further take it to European markets,” he said. During interrogation, Ali, a resident of Behlana village near here, told NCB officials that he had got this consignment Wednesday from Bittu who came from Amritsar. Ali, a drug addict, came in contact with drug traffickers when he was lodged in Patiala jail five year

Eight people - including a Canadian customs officer - have been charged in connection with the RCMP investigation of a drug ring.The investigation, which began in 2007, stemmed from information provided by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI.The FBI established links between drug suppliers in Quebec and New Brunswick following the arrest of a cannabis supplier in Florida. The customs officer was arrested last week during a controlled delivery of drugs across the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing between Quebec and the U.S. Four people have been arrested by RCMP in Quebec and Edmunston, N.B., and three other people are still being sought.

Three new drug charges laid against ABC journalist Peter Lloyd in Singapore include one count of possessing utensils that carried traces of the veterinary drug ketamine. Nicknamed Special K, ketamine is also a recreational drug used for its psychedelic or hallucinogenic effects.The other two new charges against Lloyd are methamphetamine consumption without authorisation, and possessing utensils that carried traces of methamphetamine, a charge sheet shows.The consumption charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail or a $S20,000 ($15,400) fine, or both. The other two charges each have a maximum penalty of three years in jail or a $S10,000 ($7700) fine or both.The three new charges relate to events on July 16, the day of the ABC South Asia correspondent's arrest while on leave in Singapore. Lloyd was grim-faced as he appeared today before the Singapore Subordinates Court on charges of possessing and trafficking the drug ice. During a brief hearing the court heard that the thr

The Maine-based Coast Guard cutter Tahoma arrived in Miami today with 10,000 pounds of confiscated cocaine.The cutter has been working with U.S. and British navy patrols in the Caribbean, operations which in late June led to the seizure of 13,000 pounds of cocaine worth about $227 million on the street.On June 26, the Tahoma boarded a 120-foot Honduran ship Miss Dayanna 76 miles south of Jamaica and found the 10,000-pound cocaine stash hidden on board. The 270-foot Tahoma's home port is Kittery.The Coast Guard said its cutter named Tahoma intercepted a boat bound for Honduras in June in the Windward Passage, the section of the Caribbean Sea between Cuba and Hispaniola. The Honduran ship was on its way from Venezuela to Honduras when Coast Guard officials deemed it suspicious and boarded the vessel.Officials said they found almost 200 bales of cocaine carefully packed inside a hidden compartment in a fuel tank onboard the ship. Twenty-five bricks of cocaine were packed into each bal

Senegalese police are unravelling a Latin American drug smuggling network thought to be using the West African nation as a hub for trafficking to Europe and the United States after seizing cocaine worth over $200 million. Police have discovered 2 454kg of cocaine and arrested three South American men since a deserted sailing ship, apparently broken down, drifted into a popular coastal resort last Wednesday with 50 sacks of the drug on board.The arrests at the weekend of the men from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador - who police said were caught in possession of guns, satellite navigation equipment and foreign and local cash - led authorities to discover a further drug stash in a private house."The South Americans created a fish farming company as a front in the (coastal town of) Ndangane where they invested millions before declaring the company bust and reinjecting the cash into the circuit," Moussa Fall, head of the investigation department of Senegal’s paramilitary police, t

Five guards at a Miami-Dade County prison are charged with smuggling drugs into the facility.Federal indictments also charge them with taking cash from inmates in return for helping to deliver the drugs inside the prison.They were arrested Friday. The guards worked at Dade Correctional Institution in Florida City, about 28 miles north of Miami.A kitchen employee at the prison and several inmates were also charged.Prosecutors say the arrests were part of an FBI investigation called Operation Birdcage. An undercover officer posed as a drug dealer and sold cocaine and heroin to the guards.

Jerome Levore Parker, 29, was arrested in March after Transportation Security Administration screeners at Tucson International Airport found bundles of cocaine hidden inside his suitcase and computer bag. Parker had flown into Tucson from New York and was planning to fly to London the following day. Parker pleaded guilty to attempted transportation of narcotics for sale in Pima County Superior Court last month. Parker’s attorney, Brad Roach, told Judge Richard Nichols Parker only agreed to carry the drugs because he was behind in child support. Upon his arrest, Parker immediately confessed, Roach said. “This is not who Jerome is. It was very atypical. He doesn’t come from a family where this behavior is typical,” Roach said. He had hoped to negotiate a plea agreement in which probation was available, but the Pima County Attorney’s Office refused because of the amount of the drugs, Roach said. Roach told the judge he hoped he would give Parker a mitigated sentence of 2.5 years. Nichols

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Friday that U.S. intelligence led Mexican forces to a small submarine captured this week packed with 5.8 tons of cocaine. Chertoff called the vessel's seizure Wednesday off Oaxaca state in southern Mexico "a great example of our cooperation." "We shared information with the Mexican navy, but the Mexican navy acted alone in actually executing the seizure," Chertoff told a news conference in Mexico City. Mexican navy Vice Adm. Jose Maria Ortegon said the 30-foot (10-meter) green submarine was equipped with GPS and a compass, and its crew had planned to drop off its shipment on Mexican shores. The navy has since stepped up patrols in the area. Authorities arrested four Colombian crew members who claim to be fishermen forced by drug cartels to move the cargo. They say they left the Colombian port of Buenaventura about a week ago. Similar makeshift submarines carrying drugs have been discovered off Colombia and Centra

59-year-old man from Carlton in Sydney will appear via videolink before Parramatta Local Court today after allegedly trying to smuggle more than 577 grams of cocaine through Sydney International Airport.After arriving on a flight from Santiago, Chile, yesterday morning (19 July 2008), the man was detained for a frisk search by Customs officers. During the search, a large package was found concealed around the man’s groin. He was then interviewed by Australian Federal Police agents at the airport.The AFP has charged the man with importing a marketable quantity of a border-controlled drug, cocaine, contrary to the Criminal Code Act 1995.The maximum penalty for this offence is 25 years imprisonment

Guinea-Bissau police have arrested the head of the air traffic control tower at the country's main airport after the seizure of a plane suspected of carrying cocaine, a senior police officer said on Sunday.The tiny former Portuguese colony has become a major hub for smugglers trafficking Colombian cocaine to Europe due to its poorly policed Atlantic shoreline and widespread corruption in an ill-resourced public administration, anti-drugs experts say.Last week authorities seized two planes suspected of being used by smugglers at the main international airport in the capital Bissau."The head of the control tower and his deputy were arrested at work. They were questioned and detained in the cells of the judicial police," a senior officer of the force, which covers drugs crimes, told Reuters on Sunday. The men, who are yet to appear in court, have not been charged.The officer declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of drugs investigations in Bissau, which U.N. offici

ABC's most senior staff will meet the network's South Asia correspondent, Peter Lloyd, in a Singapore jail this morning for the first time since his arrest for drug trafficking.The ABC's director of news, John Cameron, flew to Singapore last night, joining the ABC's legal adviser, Rob Simpson, who arrived in Singapore after Lloyd was charged with possessing and trafficking methamphetamine last week. Bail was set at $45,000. Lloyd's next court appearance is on Friday. The ABC said yesterday that Mr Simpson was in Singapore to ensure appropriate legal representation was in place."The ABC's director of news, John Cameron, will be in Singapore early this week and is hoping to be able to speak directly to Peter," it said. "The ABC has not yet had any direct contact with Peter Lloyd since his arrest in Singapore last week."Lloyd, 41, was arrested last Wednesday. Singapore's Central Narcotics Bureau alleged its officers found 0.8 grams of metham

Anti-narcotics police in Guinea Bissau on Saturday arrested the three-man Venezuelan crew of an executive jet suspected of being used to smuggle cocaine into West Africa, an officer said.The arrival of the Gulfstream jet at Bissau airport last weekend, having apparently come from Venezuela, had triggered a stand-off between police who wanted to search it and the army, which blocked access to the plane, diplomats said."Three Venezuelans are being held at the moment by the judicial police," counter-narcotics unit chief Sana Camara told Reuters, without giving further details.Investigations into what they were flying into the tiny former Portuguese colony, an increasingly popular landing spot for the trans-Atlantic cocaine trade, would continue, he added.International drug experts believe top officers in Guinea Bissau's various security services facilitate the passage of tonnes of cocaine through one of the world's poorest countries.The United Nations said 6.5 tonnes of

The man was arrested yesterday during a police drug raid and was allegedly caught with 0.8 grams of "Ice", a crack pipe and six syringes, a Singaporean newspaper confirmed last night.41-year-old Australian man charged with dealing drugs in Singapore could face 15 strokes of a cane and jail time if he is convicted. "His urine was screened positive for amphetamines and he is under investigation in trafficking a controlled drug,"."If convicted he faces imprisonment of between five and 20 years and between five and 15 strokes of the cane."It is not known what state the Australian man if from, but he was in Singapore on a social visit pass.His arrest was part of a greater drug operation by Singaporean police, in which two other men were charged with the same offence and six others were caught under the influence of drugs.The 40-year-old will be charged in court today. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman in Canberra confirmed the arrest last nigh

Police in Sierra Leone said Tuesday they had arrested a total of 58 suspects, including a number of foreigners, in connection with Sunday's record cocaine bust in the West African state.Deputy Inspector-General Oliver Somassa said those detained included Americans, Mexicans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Brazilians and nationals from Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria. He did not give precise figures.Others included local airport officials and five police officers. An air traffic controller and an employee of a bank at the airport were picked up trying to cross into Guinea, Superintendent Frank Sesay said.Sources said the suspects were being detained at the maximum security Pademba Road prison in the capital Freetown. A checkpoint manned by armed guards was set up on the main road to the prison on Tuesday evening. Somassa said police were still searching the area around the airport in an effort to track down other suspects."We have made a lot of progress and we are on top of the affair,&quo

Cocaine with a street value of €250,000 was seized in Dublin last night. The drugs were found during the search of a car on the Malahide Road at about 9pm, a Garda spokesman said. The operation was carried out by officers from the Garda National Drugs Unit. One man was arrested and is being questioned in Coolock Garda Station under Section 2 Drug Trafficking Act.In another incident, a pipe bomb and a hand grenade, along with up to 200 kilos of cannabis and one kilo of cocaine, were found during a Garda raid on a house in Finglas west, Dublin, last night.A man in his 40s was arrested at the scene in Barry Drive and an Army bomb disposal team was called in to assist local Garda teams.The grenade and pipe bomb were taken away for further examination following the search which took place shortly before 6pm.Garda sources believe the man was storing the weapons and drugs for a drugs gang in the area. Local Garda members, the Finglas Drug Unit and Crime Task Force were involved in the operati

Police have charged seven people in Melbourne and Sydney over a drug importation worth more than $31 million.."Three of those arrests are in Sydney - a 23-year-old Padstow woman, a 24-year-old Prestons man and a 23-year-old man from Punchbowl.They've all been charged with drug importation and possession and will face court in Melbourne today. Authorities in the United States detected the drugs in a shipment to Australia in May.93 kilograms of ecstasy, 46 kilograms of cocaine and 27 kilograms of ice were removed from the container housing massage chairs and spa baths.Australian Federal Police monitored the consignment to an address in Melbourne's west - they've now arrested seven people.The arrests follow a similar seizure of drugs also hidden in a consignment of foot spas in Melbourne last month. AFP national manager border and international Tim Morris said the latest arrests were a significant result."The range of illegal commodities within this consignment and t

military operation has seized drugs worth £26million being smuggled to Britain from Iran.Royal Marines stormed dozens of vessels after they were spotted leaving small ports and tracked by Royal Navy warships until they entered international waters. Commandos in inflatable speedboats forcibly boarded the "dhows" loaded with heroin, cocaine, cannabis and "speed".Last night a defence source said: "The majority of the heroin and hash had been grown in Afghanistan.It is transported from provinces like Helmand to Iran and smuggled to Europe by boat. This is a huge haul and will hit the Taliban hard."The naval operations - involving frigates HMS Chatham and HMS Montrose and the destroyer HMS Edinburgh - were all made in the socalled smuggling "hash highway" off the Iranian coast.

Five people, including three from Portugal, were being questioned over a drugs seizure of more than £5 million worth of cocaine. Dyfed-Powys Police said a multi-agency operation led to arrests on and around the Pembrokeshire coast. The five suspects have been transferred to police stations in the north west of England. Two people are from the area.

A passenger plane loaded with 1,540 pounds of cocaine was found abandoned at Sierra Leone's main airport Sunday, police said.Airport officials discovered the craft, which was registered to a South American country, along with a handful of guns apparently left behind by a two-man crew before dawn, said Francis Munu, a police official in the capital. Munu said police had organized a search party to try to find the pilots of the plane. With cocaine prices in Europe surging ahead of prices in the United States, drug smugglers in South America are increasingly ferrying cocaine to West Africa, from where it is parceled out to hundreds of individual traffickers who carry it north. Major seizures have been made in Guinea-Bissau and Ghana, and it is widely believed that other countries along the coast are also being used by drug runners Sierra Leone made its biggest catch of cocaine on Sunday when it seized 700 kg (1,545 lbs) of the drug on a plane which landed at Lungi international airpor

A leader of the Tijuana cartel is alleged to be Enedina Arrellano Felix, whose brothers had managed the cartel, once the most powerful in Mexico. Another prominent woman is Sandra Avila Beltrán, dubbed "La Reina del Pacifico," the Queen of the Pacific, for her alleged role in shipping cocaine from Colombia to Mexico for the Sinaloa cartel. She was arrested last year and faces charges of organized crime, money laundering and conspiracy to traffic drugs. "We're definitely seeing more women, and we're seeing them playing a more important role," said Jack Riley, special agent in charge of the El Paso office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "They have other skills to influence rivals. They're more persuasive and more organized about their activities, whether money laundering or running their own operations." An earlier crime figure known as "La Nacha" remains a legend in Ciudad Juárez. Ignacia Jasso arguably created the first J

Martin Wanden pulled from the sea near where drugs worth €440 million were found off the west Cork coast has denied any involvement in drug smuggling.Martin Wanden, an English national, told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that he had no involvement in the smuggling of cocaine and only ended up in the water after he went to assist a friend, who told him he had got into difficulty while fishing. “I am not guilty. I never at any point took any part in what happened. If the police had kept an open mind on this from day one I would not be here, but because I was in the water they thought I was guilty,” said Mr Wanden.Mr Wanden said he had been spending time in west Cork and was camping near Kilcrohane Pier on the night of July 2nd, 2007, when he got a call from a man called Charlie.Charlie managed a car sales business in Britain and he had given him his sister’s car to sell. When he rang Charlie in June to say he was going walking in the Lake District, Charlie suggested that he come to Ireland

DEFENCE attorney for alleged drug kingpin Norris 'Deedo' Nembhard, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, yesterday applied for leave in the Court of Appeal, to allow for an application to the United Kingdom-based Privy Council in a last ditch bid to stop Nembhard from being handed over to United States authorities.On Wednesday, Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne, attached her signature to extradition warrants allowing for Nembhard and three other alleged drug dealers, Robroy 'Spy' Williams, his brother Glenford Williams and Vivian Dalley who were held along with Nembhard in 2004, to be handed over to the US.But Samuels-Brown told the Observer yesterday that she would be using every legal channel to prevent her client from being extradited. "We wrote back to her protesting her proposed action. We have now made an application for leave to apply to the Privy Council. We have also filed a constitutional motion in the Supreme Court," Samuels-Brown said. Former police corpora

Ugur "Mike" Yildiz was charged last month with illegally exporting firearms. He allegedly smuggled 237 guns into Windsor, Canada.Yildiz was trying to get rid of his weapons after the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revoked his license at Chicagoland Bells gun shop in Franklin Park, authorities said. Since 2006, Canadian police have recovered 25 of his guns, two of which were used in attempted murders, U.S. authorities said. Yildiz ran Chicagoland Bells until 2005. The City of Chicago targeted Bells in an unsuccessful lawsuit claiming it was a public nuisance because many of the guns it sold wound up in crimes in the city.

Two London men have been jailed after being found guilty of smuggling cocaine with an estimated street value of £800,000 into the UK.Sotiris Andreas, 50, and Pavlos Petrou Andronicou, 61, both of Enfield, were sentenced to 14.5 and 19 years by a judge at Canterbury Crown Court.A customs spokesman said 14.4kg of the 20kg cocaine haul was 100% pure.

court in southern Vietnam sentenced two Taiwanese men to death for their involvement in an international heroin trafficking ring, local media reported Friday. The People's Court of An Giang province, 190 kilometres south-west of Ho Chi Minh City, handed death sentences to Wei Chun Lung and Lee Chih Wen at a two-day trial that ended Thursday, the People's Police newspaper said. The court also sentenced two Vietnamese accomplices, Phan Thi Cam Tu and Huynh Thi Anh, to 20 and 18 years in prison. According to the court's indictment, the ring was uncovered on May 20, 2007 when Anh was arrested en route from Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City with 1.2 kilograms of heroin in her luggage. The province's anti-narcotics force later arrested other members and found more heroin at the Ho Chi Minh City hotel room of ring leader Lee, People's Police said. The group confessed to having brought 2.5 kilograms of heroin from Cambodia into Vietnam. They said the heroin was then illegally tr

Daniel Davis, of Sandyhill Way, Ballymun, north Dublin, was taken to the Bridewell District Court yesterday by members of the Garda National Drugs Unit. The unit seized about 20kg of heroin, with an alleged estimated value of €4 million, near the Halfway House pub, at Ashtown, on the Navan Road, on Monday night. Detective Garda Declan O’Connell gave details of the arrest, charge and caution. He told Judge William Hamill he had earlier arrested Mr Davis and charged him with Section 3 and Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act. These sections refer to possession and possession for the purposes of sale or supply respectively. He said Mr Davis made no reply when he read out the charge. Following an indication that there would be an application for free legal aid from the accused, Det Gda O’Connell said he would be seeking a statement of means. Judge Hamill directed the defendant to provide such a statement and to lodge it with the prosecution before the next court appearance.

Police in Vietnam’s largest city have arrested three Vietnamese-Australians for allegedly trafficking around two kilograms of heroin, media is reporting.The three were arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport on Tuesday (local time), the Cong An Nhan Dan (People’s Police) newspaper said, without identifying them or saying what flight they had planned to board.Police in the communist country also confiscated $10,000 and six mobile telephones, the report said.Vietnam is considered a major trafficking hub for the heroin trade, on route to Australia, where hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees and migrants have settled since the Vietnam war ended in 1975.Several Vietnamese-Australians have been arrested this year for trying to smuggle heroin on aircraft, often concealed inside their bodies.On June 13 police arrested three Vietnamese-Australians accused of being members of a drug trafficking ring, including a woman who had tried to board a flight to Australia carrying 250 grams of heroin

Romanian authorities aided by colleagues from the US and several EU states have broken up a 17-person drug and cigarette smuggling gang, the Romanian border police said Monday. The gang contained members from Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine with the US-based Ukrainian leader appearing before a New York court. Those arrested were also charged with money laundering. The gang is suspected of having coordinated the transport of cocaine from Latin America into Western Europe. They are also believed to have smuggled cigarettes from Eastern Europe into Western Europe via Romania. The investigation took eight months and involved Romania's border police, secret service, special police units as well as tax and customs authorities

"It was an enterprise concealed in suburbia," said DEA Agent Douglas S. Collier, spokesman for the agency's Newark office that worked the Esteves case. "They had so much money they didn't know what to do with it."While several neighbors, who would only speak anonymously, said last week that they wondered about the Esteveses' ostentatious lifestyle, narcotics investigators say it fits a pattern.Drug kingpins, they say, move to the suburbs for the same reasons as anyone else - for comfort and security. And, like other goal-oriented entrepreneurs, many flaunt their success. "It's about the money and living the lavish lifestyle," said FBI Agent John M. Cosenza, who supervises a drug task force out of Philadelphia. "We're seeing more and more moves out to the suburbs." They move to an affluent community because they want a nice home and better schools for their children," said Jeremiah A. Daley, executive director of the Phila

Israeli police say they have made the biggest drug siezure in the country's history. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says customs officials at the Haifa port found 104 kilograms (278 pounds) of pure cocaine hidden in coffee cans shipped from Colombia. He says it's "definitely" the biggest drug bust ever made in Israel.Police say the cocaine had a street value of more than $15 million.The uncut cocaine was discovered last month. Police say they arrested eight suspects, but released them due to lack of evidence. Police say they are still investigating.

A couple with four children, three of whom are below 16 years, was sentenced to death by the High Court hereThursday for heroin trafficking five years ago. High Court Justice Ahmad Maarop also convicted them of possession of the narcotic and sentenced them to 15 years to jail, from their date of arrest in 2003, which they are to serve before their execution.Justice Ahmad, now a Court of Appeal Justice, however, granted them a stay on the death sentence pending an appeal. Azaha Abd Rani, 49, and his wife Zainun Mohd Noor, 42, both from Kelantan, were composed and unfazed when Justice Ahmad Maarop read out the verdict. However, Azaha grasped his wife 's left hand when leaving the dock after the sentencing.“Based on our country’s law, it is a mandatory death sentence for those convicted of drug trafficking and it’s our (court) responsibility to mete out the death penalty,” said Justice Ahmad.The court also noted that Azaha, a taxi driver, had given a sworn statement while Zainun chose

Employee of Kosovo Parliament’s has been arrested in Serbia under suspicion of possessing heroin. Serbian police arrested two Kosovar Albanians and one Serb for possession of heroin near the Serbian town of Kursumlija on Wednesday, according to Kosovo’s public broadcaster. It was reported that the two Kosovars are brothers, one of them who is a lawyer and the other, a driver who works in Kosovo’s Parliament, while the Serb detainee is from Serbia’s southern town of Nis. The three are being held in a local jail, where they will remain for one month until investigations are over. Veton Elshani, the spokesman for the Kosovo Police Service told Balkan Insight that they have asked international police from the United Nations in Kosovo, UNMIK, to work with Serbian police in retrieving more details on the case.“UNMIK police contacted the Serbian Interior Ministry on Thursday and we are expecting an answer by later today,” Elshani explained.

Police arrested a 36-year-old man who was caught near the Dead Sea area allegedly carrying 13 kilograms of heroin and 40,000 ecstasy pills weighing a total of five kilograms. Officers from the Negev district, in concert with Border Police personnel in the area, noticed a suspicious figure loitering in a region long known as a gateway for drug smuggling. The contraband is estimated to be worth millions of shekels. The suspect, a Bedouin resident of the Negev, was taken into custody for questioning. Police will request the Be'er Sheva Magistrate extend his remand. Earlier this year, police and IDF troops seized the largest shipment of pure heroin ever to be intercepted on the border with Lebanon, a total of 32.5 kilograms of pure heroin, worth some NIS 30 million. Police Superintendent Ami Mualem, commander of the force' Lebanon border unit, told Haaretz that a joint police-IDF patrol in the Biranit area detected two men with large packs on their backs. Police arrested the two,

Florida press on Tuesday reported that 43-year-old Bahamian Rickey Thompson is possibly facing a life sentence in connection with the deaths of three illegal immigrants who drowned in what Florida authorities say was a human smuggling attempt gone wrong.In addition to three counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Nigel Warren, of Jamaica, and Haitian citizens Roselyne Lubin and Alnert Charles, Thompson faces 27 other criminal counts, including alien smuggling resulting in death and importing drugs into the United States. The jury in that case was reportedly asked to consider, among supposed stacks of photographs and bags of narcotics, two exhibits attorneys said should settle the case: a picture of a dead man and a secretly recorded telephone conversation. The picture allegedly shows the body Warren, one of three illegal immigrants whose 2006 drowning death could mean a life sentence for Thompson, a fisherman and allegedly "part-time smuggler." However, Thompson’s de

The national carrier Air Jamaica, which has been struggling to stay in the sky, is facing more problems on Wednesday afternoon.According to reports coming out of the United States, Customs Department agents announced that they intercepted a stash of cocaine and marijuana weighing nine pounds in total hidden aboard an Air Jamaica airliner in Philadelphia.The drugs were found hidden in a food cart of the Air Jamaica flight from Kingston that arrived in Philadelphia Sunday night.The Philadelphia Inquirer said Customs agents pegged the value of the seizure at about US$44,000 or J$3.2 million. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Philadelphia International Airport say the cocaine and marijuana were found in eight packages stowed aboard an Air Jamaica flight Sunday after an alert crew member notified CBP officers of the suspicious packages. No arrests have been made.Allan Martocci, CBP Area Port Director for the Port of Philadelphia applauded the Air Jamaica crew for repo

More than 193m euros ($153m, $300m) worth of cocaine has been seized in a raid on a sailboat heading for the Basque region, Spanish officials say. The Interior Ministry says police arrested two people on the boat. Five others were arrested in the city of Bilbao. More than 1,500kg of cocaine were seized in the operation. The authorities say the two people arrested on the boat were an Italian and a Venezuelan. Spain is the main entry point into Europe for cocaine smuggled from South America. More cocaine is consumed in Spain than in any other European country, according to a report published last year by the European Union's drug agency, the EMCDDA.

Schapelle Corby, guarded by two prison officers, spent more than three hours in the Gardenia Salon, adjacent to the wing of Sanglah Hospital where she was admitted late last month.Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby has been allowed out of a Bali hospital,where she is being treated for depression, to shop, have her hair done and get a pedicure.“She was here from 11am until 2.10pm, guarded by two fully-armed officers,” salon worker Ida Ayu Purnama said.“She was here for a temporary hair straightener for one hour, and a pedicure for one hour.“After she was finished she saw lots of journalists outside, so she was waiting for a few moments inside.” Wearing jeans, a blue cap and matching tank top, the 30-year-old tried to hide her face when she eventually left the salon.An employee of a nearby market said Corby also did some shopping there on Tuesday afternoon, again with an escort of two police officers.“She spent quite a long time here, almost two hours. She bought some snacks and

Anthony Barnett, 44, of South Hempstead, L.I., pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and was scheduled for sentencing Oct. 15 by Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III.Assistant Attorney General Kevin Kane of the Organized Crime Task Force said in court that investigators were led to Barnett last summer by tapping the cell phone of David A. Phelps, 36, of Niagara Falls, the leader of the cocaine ring, who has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing as he supplies prosecutors with information on his associates."His local sources of cocaine had dried up," Kane said. "Mr. Phelps was reaching out across the state .‚.‚. trying to locate new sources of cocaine."Kane said investigators heard Phelps ask another man for Barnett's phone number. On Aug. 16, the two made contact, and Phelps left for New York City about midnight and drove overnight to Queens. In the meantime, state investigators in the Big Appl

uncovered a large scale drug operation including up to in what is one of the state's biggest seizures. Police raided a property called Kinvarra on Hollybank Road at Waroo yesterday, finding between 2,000 and 3,000 cannabis plants and two sheds

Schoolboys are being preyed upon by London drugs barons and forced to smuggle drugs into Norfolk, a court heard yesterday.A judge at Norwich Crown Court warned that the young mules, who bring substances like crack cocaine to the county, would face substantial custodial sentences in an attempt to send out a strong message to fellow crooks. But he added that the youths were being exploited by “evil men” who evade detection.Following the sentencing of a 17-year-old - described as a “bright student” who went off the rails - Norfolk police moved to warn criminal gangs that the county is not an easy target and the force is determined to eliminate this “scourge”.However, this is the latest in a string of cases which have seen Norfolk suffer the overflow of crime from the capital. In the most extreme example, 20-year-old drug dealer David Watson was last year jailed for stabbing to death HMV security Paul Cavanagh guard after coming to the city to peddle heroin.Judge Philip Curl said the court

Navy is using Special Boat Service snipers to intercept cocaine shipments heading to Europe from producers in Colombia and Bolivia, it emerged last night. A team of special forces soldiers was on board a Lynx helicopter on Saturday – also carrying Prince William – that spotted and stopped a smuggling vessel north-east of Barbados. The boat was en route to Europe from Latin America. The Prince was among a team dispatched from his ship, HMS Iron Duke, which intercepted the 50ft speedboat, known as a "go-fast". American coastguards and British sailors who boarded the boat discovered more than 900kg of cocaine with a street value of £40m. It is believed the shipment was destined for cities in Europe, including the UK. The team aboard the Lynx became suspicious after spotting the power boat 200 miles out to sea, and arrested the five crew members on board. The boat, which was said to be in poor condition, sank soon after it had been searched. Prince William had joined HMS Iron Duk