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Nathanson Centre for the study of Organized Crime and Corruption |
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VANCOUVER - The kingpin of a pair of Richmond drug labs that had the chemicals to make 15 million hits of ecstasy has been handed the longest prison sentence in Canadian history for such a crime. (Vancouver Province)
Smugglers' cargo: Cop-killing guns JUAREZ - A deadly trade is occurring along the US border with Mexico - a flood of guns, heading south, used by drug thugs to kill Mexican cops. (CNN)
Crime boss killed by drug gang DUBLIN - Murdered gangland figure Paddy Doyle was shot dead in Spain after falling foul of an international drugs gang. (Independent) PREVIOUS: Gang chief shot dead in Costa ambush
ORILLIA, Ont. - Provincial police have now charged a total of 18 people in an ongoing investigation into an alleged international casino cheat team. (CP)
Battle to break Britain's crime lords LONDON - Career criminals used to treat a spell in prison as an occupational hazard, confident that they would soon be revelling in their ill-gotten gains. Now the police are seizing millions in assets, from racehorses to holiday homes. But are they making a dent in crime’s £18 billion annual bill? (Times online) PREVIOUS: Police chiefs 'rewarded for failure' Police smash cocaine empire Police smash into home of 'cocaine kingpin' UK drug trade
MOSCOW - Police swooped on Semion Mogilevich when he emerged from a business meeting at Moscow's World Trade Centre. They formally arrested him on Thursday, together with his business partner Vladimir Nekrasov, a millionaire Russian businessman. (Guardian Unlimited) MORE: The end of 'Brainy Don'?
VANCOUVER - BC has become a major hub for cocaine smuggling over the past two years, with gangs bringing in the drug from the US for transport across Canada and around the world, says an internal Canada Border Services Agency report. The October 2007 document, obtained by The Vancouver Sun through the Access to Information Act, said the amount of cocaine seized at land border crossings in BC has tripled in the past few years - with no apparent increase in local demand. (Vancouver Sun)
VANCOUVER - An Air Canada employee is at the centre of an international investigation after authorities at Vancouver International Airport seized a large quantity of cocaine before Christmas. . (Vancouver Province)
SAN ANTONIO - Federal prosecutors released an indictment accusing nearly two dozen alleged prison gang members of racketeering in the shooting deaths of 22 people here and in nearby communities. Most of the 23 accused Texas Mexican Mafia members are leaders in the prison gang that authorities say uses intimidation and violence to control segments of the prison population and neighborhoods on the outside, said US Attorney Johnny Sutton. (AP)
VANCOUVER - Zhen Ai Xu, otherwise known as Pinky, gets to keep her silver BMW SUV. But she has had to give up to the BC government one of her houses, a million-dollar Richmond home run as a high-volume brothel that was raided by police last Feb. 8. (Vancouver Province) PREVIOUS: Warrant reveals pimp's life Top madam earned millions Police bust Pinky's places
VANCOUVER - Inter Maritime looked just like any other nondescript company with an office on Howe St. in Vancouver's rough-and-tumble financial district in 2003. (Toronto Star) |
GUINEA-BISSAU - The roads outside the X Club nightspot in Bissau, capital of the world's fifth poorest country, are cracked and pot-holed. They have not been repaired since they were torn up by the tracks of military vehicles during Guinea-Bissau's civil war of the late 1990s. (Guardian UK)
CHICAGO - Boris Stratievsky was "a professor" of money-laundering, washing millions of dollars for shadowy Moscow clients, his father said, according to one transcript of many conversations secretly recorded by the FBI. (Chicago Sun Times)
WINNIPEG - RCMP in Manitoba have arrested 16 people from British Columbia after raiding more than a dozen rural properties investigators said housed marijuana grow operations. RCMP executed search warrants on 13 properties Tuesday in rural areas around the province's capital region. (CBC)
Organised gangs behind hate crimes MOSCOW - A group of teenagers arrested for their involvement in racially motivated killings may have been behind over forty attacks. Film footage depicting the violence has been seized by the police. It shows victims being assaulted in Moscow parks in broad daylight. Investigators say this new evidence points to organised crime and that the killings were ordered and paid for. (Russia Today)
LONDON - Five members of a gang of armed robbers were found guilty today of stealing £53m from a Securitas depot in the UK's biggest ever cash robbery. They were convicted by an Old Bailey jury over the robbery in Tonbridge, Kent, in February 2006. (Guardian UK) PREVIOUS: : 5 convicted Gang found guilty Securitas depot robbery
SEATTLE - When Vancouver prostitute Sandra Maas wanted to smuggle some marijuana or oxycodone into the US, all she had to do was call her friend, US border guard Desmone Bastian, to see what lane he was working at. (Vancouver Sun)
VANCOUVER - The head of the RCMP's national drug branch is debunking claims by the United States' drug czar. (CP) PREVIOUS: Altered ecstasy from Canada flooding US Canadian made, meth-laced ecstasy being dumped into US
A Vancouver man has been charged with smuggling millions of dollars worth of marijuana stashed in snowmobiles, inflatable boats and travel trailers into Alaska. Special Agent Dan Wardlaw of the US Internal Revenue Service said 36-year-old David Knutson was indicted yesterday by a grand jury in Anchorage. (CanWest)
Motive in 'dead presidents' killing SAN BERNARDINO - Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Kersey said gang leader Johnny Agudo and his subordinates were ambushed on July 9, 2000, because Agudo had "ratted" on Salvador Orozco Hernandez, identified in 2006 as a drug-trade controller in U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration documents. (Press Enterprise)
NY grand rabbi pleads not guilty LOS ANGELES - Naftali Tzi Weisz, 59, the Grand Rabbi of Spinka, and the others were arrested after an indictment was returned Dec. 18 accusing the group of 37 counts including conspiracy, mail fraud and money-laundering. (AP) PREVIOUS: Rabbi and associates charged Spinka financial controversy |
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Nine days after registering his presidential exploratory committee last November, Rudy Giuliani appeared in Singapore to help a Las Vegas developer make a pitch for a $3.5 billion casino resort. (Chicago Tribune) |
Suspects nabbed in skimming ring CALGARY - Organized criminals from Eastern Canada have racked up millions in ATM fraud in Calgary, hitting at least 2,500 locals, say cops. (Sun Media) MORE: Pair hunted in 'huge' ATM scam |
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BERLIN - Once the work of South Americans and Africans, Germans are now serving as human couriers to smuggle cocaine into Europe inside their bodies.. (Spiegel) |
VANCOUVER - Crime analysis shows marijuana grow operations are moving to bigger houses, hiding behind more bushes and growing more dope than ever. (Vancouver Province) |
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LONDON - Naveen Sagar laundered drug money, orchestrated false defences and supplied bogus witnesses to help major criminals to evade justice. (Times online) MORE: Drug gang's solicitor is jailed |
MONTREAL - André Chartrand, of Prévost, was arrested yesterday as part of Operation Channel, a joint police investigation led by the RCMP. (Montreal Gazette) MORE: 28 suspects arrested |
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Border guard charged in drug bust VANCOUVER - Shortly after midnight Thursday, waiting police officers watched their target, a Canada border guard, wave two identical GMC suburbans past his post at the Pacific Highway Crossing. (Vancouver Sun) MORE: Border guard busted |
VANCOUVER - A Lower Mainland man who built secret compartments on contract for cross-border drug smugglers had his home raided by the RCMP, but the Mounties weren't able to find enough evidence to charge him. . (Vancouver Sun) |
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Drug rings becoming sophisticated OTTAWA - Organized crime is continuing to fuel the drug trade in Canada and a new report notes that criminal organizations are branching out and becoming more sophisticated. (CanWest) REPORT: Drug Situation Report 2006 Canada now a major producer of ecstasy: RCMP BC at hub of global drug trade Fast facts on BC drug trade Somali drug may fund terrorism |
Authorities can't get rid of poster boy VANCOUVER - Nok Souvannarath, a Laotian immigrant ordered deported a dozen years ago, is a poster boy for gangsters in the Lower Mainland. This 46-year-old has been convicted, imprisoned, ordered deported, denied his appeal and been charged again and again with drug and weapons offences. But he remains in Canada. (Vancouver Sun) |
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Chen proposed marriage to avoid triad wrath SINGAPORE - Hong Kong singer-actor Edison Chen, who quit showbiz last week in the wake of the sex photo scandal fallout, had proposed to his girlfriend Vincy Yeung four times to try to dodge triad revenge, a Hollywood gossip website has reported. (The Straits Times) PREVIOUS: Did Edison leak photos himself Chen to quit after scandal Hong Kong ogles, blushes Film star sex scandal 'Silly' Hong Kong starlet sorry Arrests over sex videos |
MONTREAL - A lawyer who laundered money for an international drug trafficker was taken into custody at the Laval courthouse yesterday after being handed a prison term of more than three years. Pierre Boivin, 59, a specialist in financial law, found himself on the opposite side of the prisoner's dock when Quebec Court Judge Paul Chevalier ruled in a case that had been stalled for years by an attempt by the lawyer to withdraw the guilty plea he entered in September 2005, along with two co-accused. (Montreal Gazette) |
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SAN BERNARDINO - Competing Canadian-based Asian organized crime syndicates are setting up elaborate marijuana grow-ops in Southern California selling highly potent “BC Bud” for up to $6,000 a pound. (Asian Pacific Post) PREVIOUS: Houses linked to Asian gangs San Bernardino Sun feature: Grass Valley |
Botched kidnap plots nets jail time VANCOUVER - They may have been bumblers, but they've been sentenced to serious time behind bars for kidnapping. Toan Anh Nguyen, Julio Augusto Madrid and Kaven Wei Chung were convicted after two botched abductions occurred within a two-week period in the summer of 2005. (Vancouver Province) |
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CHIMALTENANGO, Guatemala - Gang members have stopped tattooing themselves, resorting to low-profile ways of identifying themselves. Today, gang members with tattooed faces, are either dead, in prison or hiding. (AP) |
VANCOUVER - A Salvadoran member of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha-13 gang is living in BC despite fears by immigration officials that the gang has a "single brutal purpose" of carrying out criminal activity by any means. (Vancouver Sun) |
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More than 130 arrested in Quebec MONTREAL - The RCMP, along with police forces in Quebec and members of the Canadian Border Services Agency, arrested more than 130 people Tuesday in and around Montreal after a major fraud bust. Police raided five locations -- including a warehouse and two residences -- that were allegedly part of a telemarketing scheme that operated in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. (CTV)MORE: Alleged fraud ring busted in Montreal |
Crime groups 'buy' politicians SOFIA - Organised crime groups in Bulgaria are "buying" politicians, magistrates and civil servants to legalise businesses and extend control over lucrative markets, an independent anti-graft organisation said on Wednesday. (Javno) MORE: Organised crime invested in Bulgaria's municipal elections Transportation, smuggling and Organized Crime The drug market in Bulgaria |
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39 indicted for money laundering WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury in Baltimore has indicted 39 people in an international money laundering scheme using an informal currency transfer system known as hawala, the US Justice Department said on Thursday. (Reuters) |
WASHINGTON - Police in five countries have nabbed more than 77 people and seized about US$2.1 billion in counterfeit cheques bound for the United States in a sweeping crackdown that included an arrest in Canada. (AP) |
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Hundreds mourn Taiwan gang boss TAIPEI - The body of one of Taiwan's most infamous crime bosses, Chen Chi-li, has been flown back to Taipei, where hundreds attended a memorial service. Chen, a leading figure in the Bamboo Union, Taiwan's largest gang, died of cancer in Hong Kong earlier this month. (BBC) PREVIOUS: Police on alert Triad society |
MONTREAL - A police force veteran, Const. Pierre Goulet was arrested in June 2006 following a covert investigation that uncovered his role in a wide-reaching scam to import cocaine through the Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport. (CBC) PREVIOUS: Scared into new crimes Don't keep me in jail Badge used to launder money |
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ICBC sues 95 accused in car thefts VANCOUVER - Ninety-five BC residents, including two young men awaiting trial for a gangland kidnapping, were sued by ICBC Friday in a massive fraud case involving more than $1.2 million worth of stolen vehicles. (Vancouver Sun) |
Stolen designer clothing found BASSANO, AB - Mounties aren't ruling out that organized crime may be behind the bust of a Bassano shop caught selling $1-million worth of designer clothing stolen from Calgary. (Calgary Herald) |
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'BC Bud violence arrives in Everett EVERETT - When Everett detectives in July found two people shot to death and more than 1,000 marijuana plants growing in two south Everett houses, experts say they also uncovered evidence of a disturbing trend. The same organized criminals responsible for Canada's multibillion-dollar "BC Bud" marijuana industry appear to be moving into the neighborhood. (Seattle PI) |
TORONTO - Answers to a crime that shocked and mystified Toronto for almost 15 years - when bold, professional killers literally shot their way into a suburban warehouse and executed two workers - have finally been revealed in New York, as two Chinese crime bosses now face life in prison for arranging the massacre. (National Post) PREVIOUS: Leader of Chinese OC Family and lieutenant convicted of murders |
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Million-dose man picks suicide NEW YORK - At 36, Christopher Lance presided over a Long Island drug empire that generated over a million doses of steroids for what one assistant district attorney in Nassau County called "an amazing clientele base." (NY Daily News) PREVIOUS: Steroid ring bust International operation targets anabolic steroids |
GUINEA-BISSAU - How can you hope to battle organised, rich and ruthless international drugs gangs when there is not even a proper prison in the country? This is the problem faced by the authorities in Guinea-Bissau, which some fear could be on its way to becoming Africa's first "narco-state". (BBC) |
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SYDNEY - Two men have appeared in a Sydney court charged with attempting to smuggle 16kg of the illicit drug ice into Australia hidden in two marble tables. The men, 23-year-old Hong Kong citizen Tsz Shing Law and 25-year-old Canadian national Matthew Gar-Wei Tam, did not apply for bail, which was formally refused in Parramatta Local Court today. (SMH) MORE: Vancouver man in jail after drug bust in Australia |
ABBOTSFORD - A man ordered deported 12 years ago was on $50,000 bail when he appeared in court this week on weapons charges and was again released on bail. Attorney-General Wally Oppal said yesterday the Crown will consider appealing this week's ruling to free Nok Souvannarath on $1,000 bail. (Vancouver Province) PREVIOUS: Deportee gets bail on drugs, gun charges |
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$2 trillion threat to world security International organized crime has become a $2 trillion behemoth that threatens to pervert democracy around the world and fuel already dangerous levels of global inequality, a new study warns. (Guardian UK) PREVIOUS: 2007 State of the Future Dangerous Alliance: Terrorism and Organized Crime |
MONTREAL - Canada Border Services agents routinely patrol the corridors and waiting rooms of Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, on the lookout for anyone appearing suspicious. They hit the jackpot last Friday, when they found $770,000 in U.S. $100 and $20 notes in the suitcase of a woman heading to Mexico. (CanWest) |
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Crystal meth may have sparked crack price plunge OTTAWA - A hit of crack that cost $10 a year ago can now be bought for $2.50 on Ottawa streets, and Ottawa's police chief suggests competition from crystal meth may have helped cut crack prices. (CBC) |
International criminal gangs are now cashing in on people trafficking, with large cargo vessels smuggling Asian migrants across no less than three continents towards their desired destination - the UK. (Panorama) PREVIOUS: Russian Mafia The Russian Mafia |
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GRAND FORKS, BC - A former BC union boss caught smuggling cocaine was jailed in the U.S. for eight years yesterday after refusing to co-operate with authorities. Perley Edmund Holmes, 50, was arrested by US Border Patrol agents on Jan. 18, 2007, in Washington state, less than a kilometre from his rural property. (Vancouver Province) |
Corrupt officials hinder investigation MOSCOW - Corrupt law enforcement officials and civil servants have tried to obstruct an investigation by the Prosecutor General's Office into Vladimir Barsukov, a wealthy St. Petersburg businessman and reputed head of the Tambov organized crime group, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said Monday. (Moscow Times) MORE: Police detain suspected gang leader |
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New York blows away the competition Researchers have been scouring rivers in Europe and the US for traces of cocaine consumption. The result: Cocaine use is probably much greater than previously assumed -- and New Yorkers are the biggest coke-heads of all. (Spiegel) |
Steep rise in Europe cocaine use 2007 state of the drugs problem in Europe Mountains of coke along the Rhine The Thames: awash with cocaine Italian river 'full of cocaine' Cocaine in surface waters: a new evidence based tool to monitor community drug abuse |
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WASHINGTON - Has fighting terrorism caused the FBI to shift its focus sharply away from domestic organized crime, white-collar crime and drug crime? Overall, the FBI made almost 19,000 cases that were prosecuted in 2001. In 2006, the number was 12,700. Yet, crime in the United States, in general, has fluctuated only a few percentage points up and down in recent years, the FBI's statistics show. (Ledger) |
New Senegal record cocaine haul Senegal has made its biggest seizure of cocaine - about 1.25 tons with a street value of $100m - just a few days after the previous record haul. The drugs were found in the seaside resort of Nianing after an empty sailing boat with 1.2 metric tons was found nearby last week. Experts say that West Africa has become a major hub in the trafficking of cocaine from Latin America to Europe. (BBC) |
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Police sought to freeze suspect's property VANCOUVER - A week before alleged criminal mastermind Yong Long Ye was arrested, a secret court hearing was held in Vancouver at which police argued Ye's $6 million worth of real estate should be frozen as suspected proceeds of crime. (Vancouver Sun) |
'We've chopped the head off the snake' Police 'chop head off' alleged drug ring |
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