Kelowna banana cocaine splained

Kelowna RCMP landed 20 kg of cocaine inside two banana shipments in 2019. The drugs were found by two unsuspecting grocery stores, leading cops to conclude a pickup was missed by traffickers. No charges were laid.

HA 'Brutal South' chapter busted again

Steven Belshaw, sergeant-at-arms for the 'Brutal South' chapter of the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang has been arrested during a series of police raids. "This mob prance around, taking steroids, lifting weights and standing over people," a cop said. "We will allege that these people are part of a large criminal group and we know they are responsible for a number of violent crimes and drug supply."

Underbelly - Williams and Veniamin

Smiling, one couldn't tell two of Australia's most notorious killers were bumping off scores of rivals. Youthful-looking drug kingpin Carl Williams and hitman Andrew 'Benji' Veniamin were at their height. By the end of their gangland conflict, 36 men would be dead - seven personally murdered by Veniamin. Both men would soon meet their doom. Veniamin bought two bullets in the neck and one in the head. Mick Gatto claimed self defense and was acquited. Williams was beaten to death at Barwon Prison by inmate Matthew Johnson.

Their story was told in a made for TV series called Underbelly.

355 members of 'Ndrangheta in 'maxi-trial'

The trial grew out of an investigation of 12 clans linked to convicted 'Ndrangheta boss, Luigi Mancuso. Mancuso, 66, is head of one of the 'Ngrangheta's most powerful crime families, based in the town of Vibo Valentia. Once a band of thugs, today they are said to control 80% of Europe's cocaine trade, raking in about £50b a year — or 3% of Italy's GDP. They formed an allegiance with cartels in South America, who manufacture the cocaine, and Albanians, who distribute it.

Extreme brutality is the 'Ndrangheta's trademark. Three judges are assigned to oversee Italy's largest mafia trial in more than 30 years. Prosecutors claim the gangsters infiltrated almost every aspect of life in Italy's Calabria region. The trial is expected to take at least a year and will involve 355 defendants, 400 lawyers and 900 witnesses.

Another Barletta arson

A luxury home destroyed in a recent fire had been restrained in a police crackdown on an HA gambling ring. It has connections to three men charged with money laundering. The five-bedroom home at 189 Lake Dr. had just sold for $7.9m. The home on Georgian Bay is the third connected to Robert Barletta to be destroyed by fire.

Homebuilder Michael Curtis, 37, and developer Douglas Lang Adams, 58, were charged with money laundering and possessing proceeds of crime as part of Operation Hobart. Robert Barletta narrowly survived a March 30, 2020, attempt on his life.

Gangsters land free money

Solid Gold is a peeler bar with a tight connection to the Calabrian Mafia.

A list published by CRA reveals those who have cashed in from a program, created last spring, that finances 75% of companies' payroll. It cost taxpayers $55 billion.

Solid Gold has received government assistance. Influential Calabrian mobster Moreno Gallo was expelled from the country for serious criminality in January 2012 and murdered the following year in Mexico was once the owner. In recent years, arson and gunfire have occurred often around Solid Gold. The Pro Gym, linked to the Hells Angels for years has also received free money. Vice-president of Pro Gym is Christian Ménard, a Sherbrooke Hells Angel.

"The subsidy was used to pay part of the salaries of the employees with whom we have kept an employment relationship" says the biker, who has pledged to ignore Covid-19 lockdowns. Individuals convicted of tax fraud by Revenu Québec had no problems. WE Charity (UNIS in French) is also on the list. It is embroiled in scandal after Trudeau hired it to manage a $900m student volunteer program. The program earned WE Charity nearly $43m million in management fees.

SC cops land huge drug haul

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office in SC announced the largest meth seizure in the county’s history. More than 500 pounds of meth was seized. Also found was 9 pounds of fentanyl, cocaine, weapons, and $415k in cash. Mexicans Christian Eduerdo Tinejero Pena, 22, and Jairo Martinez Covarrobias, 37 face a mountain of charges.

Cops say the bust is worth $8m and is cartel related.

Cocaine smuggling route through Libya

Drug traffickers are increasingly looking to North Africa as a transhipment point for cocaine. Customs inspectors at Malta Freeport seized 612 kg of cocaine worth $84m in December, a record haul. Three days earlier, authorities at the port of Guayaquil in Ecuador seized 582kg of cocaine hidden in 19 pieces of teak bound for Libya and Syria. The size of the two shipments to Libya strongly suggests onwards transport to Europe.

Christian Deschênes’s plea denied

It all added up to a 45 year sentence.

After passes to leave prison to visit his dying wife were cancelled due to COVID-19, Christian Deschênes sued. His plea has been denied. In 2001 he was arrested in a plot to kidnap Francesco Arcadi, the street boss of the Rizzuto Mafia clan. While he faced trial, he was nailed as a conspirator in a $1m armoured truck heist.

Deschênes, now 64, isn’t the man he once was, the parole board was told. Housed in a minimum-security facility in Laval, he was granted unescorted temporary absences, although he was turned down for full parole and day parole. His wife has terminal cancer with a dire prognosis of about a year.

328kg of cocaine landed in Florida

St. Thomas cops Teshawn Adams, Shakim Mike.

Six men, including two police officers, were arrested after agents found 328 kg of cocaine at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport. The four who were aboard the plane are U.S. citizens residing in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Shakim Mike, Maleek Leanard, Roystin David and Teshawn Adams were arrested.