Winnipeg cops seize $7m in cocaine, meth

Also seized were a dozen vehicles, guns, and several properties.

Project Onyx tracked large amounts of cocaine, meth, and MDMA shipped to Manitoba from Ontario and B.C. Cops searched 13 homes and businesses. Seizures included 50kg of cocaine, 20kg of meth and $500k in cash.

Chris Silva

Chris Silva, who owns Hudson Bagels on Sherbrook Street in Winnipeg, was busted on Dec. 14 with trafficking, possession for the purposes of trafficking and possession of property or the proceeds of crime. In one case a Gucci gift bag containing $45k in cash was allegedly handed over to Silva, and another in which he's accused of using an alias to send $90k to an address in British Columbia.

Montreal mafia debt collection case study

François Mazzantini with envelope of cash from cops.

The dive into the world of mafia extortion and debt collection begins on March 11, 2021. That day, François Mazzantini and brothers Antonio and Pasquale Piscopo assaulted Joël Ayoub with a baton at his condo building on Chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine over a debt of $15k. Ayoub, 63 years old at the time, suffered serious injuries requiring hospitalization. A cop operation witnessed Pasquale Piscopo go twice to the Danesi café and once to Antonio Pietrantonio, known to be a member of the Montreal mafia.

A double agent then contacted the suspects and posed as an individual who purchased Ayoub's debt and negotiated the terms of repayment. The gangsters said the debt had grown to $140k. The three were arrested on May 6, 2021. Cops discovered brass knuckles and three daggers in Mazzantini's vehicle. They also found 13 telescopic batons and $12k in cash. They landed more than $675k from one of the men. Mazzantini pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and extortion, and was sentenced to 48 months, while the two brothers were sentenced to 36 months.

Antonio 'Tony Suzuki' Pietrantonio

End of the line for 'Mikey Smash' - Update III

Russell Raymond Vannoy pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter of Michael Adam Morales and was sentenced to six years in prison. Vannoy, 63, a member of the Devils Diciples MC, was arrested on murder and gang charges in the stabbing death of Hells Angels prospect Morales in downtown Bakersfield. Guthrie’s footage shows the president of the Bakersfield HAMC shake hands with Vannoy before Morales enters and starts swinging. Video evidence proved Vannoy acted in self-defense when he killed Morales. Morales swung a bar stool and had a handgun as he attacked Vannoy. Footage clearly shows the gun fall down and out of Morales’ pant leg.

Michael Adam Morales 32 was killed after being stabbed inside one of downtown Bakersfield’s most famous dive bars, Guthrie’s Alley Cat. News of Morales' death spread fast through the local biker community. Morales affiliation with the Hell's Angels MC was prominent on his Facebook page. He had 3 young children. The bar strictly enforces a 'no colors' policy, but some local bikers have begun to employ "subterfuge," the owner said, by wearing "soft colors" or covering gang colors or emblems only to reveal them later.

"No matter how nice the bikers appear to be, or how much they say they love your joint, stuff like what happened will happen," he said. "It will follow them every time. It's an iron law."

3D-printed ghost guns redux

A stunt driving 18-year-old Bolton teen is facing multiple charges after being busted with multiple 3D-printed guns. Two weeks ago in Winnipeg cops arrested 2 two for multiple ghost guns. Two others were arrested and charged with weapons trafficking offences in November. Cops raided a rural home in Manitoba in Dec 2021 and busted Ryan Buhler, 34. Its 3 years in the pen for his arsenal, the mandatory minimum. Border cops found undeclared 'firearm components,' including metal parts and inserts used to reinforce 3D-printed guns.

Making 3D-printed receiver blanks and creating 3D-printed ghost guns is illegal in Canada. Why are they multiplying? The cost to 3D print a firearm frame and then import the slide and other components from the US is a few hundred dollars. This returns a weapon worth at least $2,500 on the street, and often much more. Ghost guns cannot be traced, making them highly desirable by gangsters. In Feb 2022 William Rainville was put away for 5 years. He was busted with 249 Glock frames and parts. His is not the only ghost gun operation. See ---->Here.

UK robbers go away for long time

Brothers Benjamin Murphy, 37, and George Murphy-Bristow, 28, were locked up for a combined 31 years for impersonating two elderly men to gain entry to a jewellery store. They wore latex masks to disguise themselves before the hiest. Brandishing a knife and hatchet, they terrorized staff before fleeing.

The jury took an hour to convict on all counts.

Cops stopped George Murphy-Bristow's car and found the two masks and the same clothing worn by the suspects in the robbery. Forensics found saliva on the inside of the masks belonging to the brothers.

Zamal Hossain - “Yes, I broke the law. Anything else?”

In a rare move, Ontario’s new home construction regulator has stripped a Toronto builder of his licence to construct new homes. Albion Building Consultant Inc. has a history of noncompliance from 2016. It was convicted of 11 violations, and fined $15,000 for each plus a $3,750 victim surcharge on each. The $206,250 fine remains unpaid and Zamal Hossain defiant. His wife, Farida Haque, was also convicted of acting as a vendor of a new home without being licensed.

Hossain says he was being investigated because of his race. “I’m a brown guy. English is my second language that’s why this happened in this country,”. Hossain claimed competing builders from Italian or Portuguese backgrounds routinely break the law but face no consequences like he does.

Kristopher Teichrieb ordered to pay $6.9m - update

Kristopher Teichrieb a 'man' who savagely beat Jessie Simpson with a baseball bat in 2016 has been ordered to pay $6.9m following civil court proceedings. He brutally inflicted catastrophic, permanent injuries. The house formerly belonging to Kristopher Teichrieb will be sold, with the sale benefiting the victim’s family. A B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled that when Teichrieb sold his home to his parents for $1, he was trying to shield his assets from impending civil liability from his heinous, senseless crime.

Jessie Simpson

Teichrieb pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Teichrieb became eligible for statutory release in March 2021. He had been charged with attempted murder. Jessie Simpson turned 19 years old while in a comma for nine months, and will need 24-hour care for the rest of his life. Teichrieb walked into a Kamloops courtroom with a big smile on his face on Monday July 18, 2016, waving at a group of friends and family seated in the gallery. He has been in custody since he was arrested.

Kristopher Teichrieb

Jessie Simpson

19-year-old Jessie Simpson remained in a coma on Monday after being beaten with a baseball bat on Holt Street in Kamloops on June 19. Kristopher Teichrieb, 39, has been charged with attempted murder. The assault occurred around 4:50 a.m. when Teichrieb looked out his window and saw a male standing in his driveway. He went outside to confront the boy and assaulted him with a weapon. Simpson, who graduated from South Kamloops secondary, was coming home from a grad party before the incident. He is described as small, standing about 5-foot-6, with a slight build. Simpson was chased down Holt Street and suffered three open skull fractures. He cried for mercy and received none from Teichrieb.

Kristopher Teichrieb

https://www.gofundme.com/2adhpvg

Quebec gangsters drive through GTA mall - update

Israel Muamba, 19, and O'Brian Grant, 18, both of Quebec, have been arrested and charged after they allegedly drove a vehicle through the glass doors at Vaughan Mills Mall, on Feb. 1. Both have been returned to York Region and are being held in custody for a bail hearing. A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for a third K9, Lesane Pillay.

Brazen thieves in a stolen black Audi A4 smashed their way into the Vaughan Mills Mall north of Toronto. They drove through the mall to an electronics store, stole numerous electronic devices and then fled.

Anatoly Legkodymov busted - Bitzlato

Anatoly Legkodymov

Anatoly Legkodymov, 40, was arrested in Miami and is charged with conducting an unlicensed money-transmitting business. His company processed more than $700m of illicit funds from 2018 to 2022. Bitzlato told customers and would-be customers that it had lax identification requirements. That made Bitzlato a haven for criminals world-wide. The company frequently did transactions with Hydra Market, the world’s largest dark-net marketplace. German cops shut down Hydra Market in April 2022. Prosecutors said that Bitzlato was subject to U.S. money-laundering rules even though it was based in China and run by a Russian.

Although the company claimed that it didn't allow U.S. users, prosecutors said the company did substantial business with Americans.

Bitzlato was a cryptocurrency exchange that was founded by Legkodymov in 2016. Bitzlato allowed customers to purchase cryptocurrencies with cash, exchange cryptocurrencies for other cryptocurrencies, and send cryptocurrency to other users. According to the Amended Complaint, since May of 2018, Bitzlato has processed $4.58 b worth of cryptocurrency transactions. Legkodymov is looking at 5 years.

Russian crime bosses killed in Ukraine

Three Russian crime bosses recruited by the Wagner Group were killed in the war in Ukraine. They are Sergei Maksimenko, Andrei Berezhnykh, and Igor Kusk. Maksimenko was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the Republic of Mordovia. He headed a criminal group in the city of Penza.

Berezhnykh was sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder and other crimes in Saratov Oblast from 1994 to 2011. Berezhnykh was killed during the fighting in Ukraine on December 8, 2022, having joined Wagner a month earlier to escape prison.

Igor Kusk had been serving a 23-year prison sentence in Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic. Kusk established his criminal group, the Kuskovites, in Tatarstan in 1998. The group was active and were notable for having many veterans of the Afghan war in their ranks. Ihor Kusk was brought to the Russian city of Nizhnyokamsk by plane in a closed coffin. Sources say that he was killed by a mine. Relatives say his head was blown off by a shell fragment.