Scotland Yard drops Official Secrets Act bid against Guardian

Scotland Yard had intended to take the Guardian newspaper to court on Friday in an attempt to force the newspaper into revealing how it obtained information that missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s mobile phone had been hacked. However, following discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the force has abandoned its application for production orders against the newspaper. The decision comes following heavy criticism of the force’s attempt to make the Guardian, and one of its journalists, hand over information which would have revealed the source of many of the newspaper’s phone hacking stories. Various MPs, including the shadow culture secretary Ivan Lewis, questioned the Yard’s attempt. While many national newspapers carried leading articles condemning the Metropolitan Police’s apparent attack on press freedom. And today the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith told the Daily Telegraph that the force’s decision to invoke the Official Secrets Act was “unusual” and could threaten press freedom.

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Daniel Bailey has been told to pay up £194,370 by a court. If he fails to hand over the money within six months, he will face a three-year jail term.

Daniel Bailey (35) avoided prison when he received a 26-week suspended sentence after pleading guilty to producing cannabis. But following a separate investigation into his finances by police, he has been told to pay up £194,370 by a court. If he fails to hand over the money within six months, he will face a three-year jail term.During a hearing brought by police under the Proceeds of Crime Act, Lincoln Crown Court was told officers swooped on Bailey's home, near Spalding, on August 5, 2005. They searched the property and found 22 cannabis plants growing among the flowers in his back garden.More cannabis seedlings were discovered in a shed, and two small lumps of the drug were seized in the house.Bailey was subsequently convicted of production of cannabis, which triggered the probe into his financial affairs.The further enquiries showed that in the six years before his arrest, Bailey had claimed incapacity benefit and income support to the tune of more than £21,000, to which he was

Riaz Mohammed, used a string of front companies to ship the highly addictive narcotic from Turkey.

Riaz Mohammed, used a string of front companies to ship the highly addictive narcotic from Turkey.The Court heard the "sophisticated" operation involved hiding half-kilo packages of the Class A substance in the hollowed out struts of wooden pallets. But despite the gang's best efforts each of the three importations - two to Dover docks and one which arrived at Heathrow airport - were intercepted during an investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).Altogether 24kg of the drug - with an estimated street value of £2.3 million - was seized. In the dock with Mohammed, 41, of Lancaster Road, Leytonstone, east London (25 years), were his lieutenant Ibrahim Janturk, 52, from Tottenham, north London (22 years), and "footsoldiers" Cetin Albar, 35, who lived in Clapton Common, east London, and Emircan Aytac, 48, of Boyson Road, Walworth, south-east London, who got 16 years each.Mohammed was convicted by a jury of three counts of conspiracy to import heroin

Angus McDonald has pointed the finger at three of the people he says were involved with him in a plot to import millions of pounds worth of drugs

Angus McDonald drug runner has pointed the finger at three of the people he says were involved with him in a plot to import millions of pounds worth of drugs into South Cumbria.Angus McDonald, 44, was the first prosecution witness in the trial of two men and a woman accused of helping to launder some of the £35m made from importing cannabis into Windermere.One of the men, John James “Jim” Nightingale, is also accused of being one of those who conspired to import the drug from Spain. Prosecution witness McDonald, of Craig Walk, Windermere, has already pleaded guilty to drugs conspiracy and money laundering charges.Yesterday he became the key witness in the Carlisle Crown Court trial of Nightingale, Sharon Ambrose, and Duncan William Maxwell, who he says were involved with him.The court heard how a gang – led by Liverpool-born George Tymoszycki, who lived in the Lake District for several years – arranged for huge amounts of cannabis to be shipped from Spain to a cash and carry warehouse

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