Former Cape Town cop breaks bad

Former Cape Town cop Sandile Edward Mroqoza, 40, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for robbing a cash-in-transit vehicle of R2.3m ($125k) using a police vehicle. He was convicted of robbery with aggravating circumstances. The cash was found hidden in his fridge.

173 guns seized

Toronto cops say 173 guns were seized in Canada and the U.S. as part of a cross-border firearms trafficking investigation. Project Moneypenny began in March 2022 by Toronto police’s guns and gangs unit. It resulted in a large number of firearms seized, 42 people arrested, and 422 criminal charges laid. Fentanyl, carfentanil and cocaine and $184k cash was also seized. Cops seized about 1.5 kilos of fentanyl/carfentanil with a street value of $300k, and 1.8 kilos of cocaine. 87 handguns were wrapped in bubble wrap and then in holiday paper in an attempt to avoid detection by border security.

Seized firearms originated in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, and Texas.

'Gold Mafia' - update II

Al Jazeera’s Gold Mafia documentary fingers Uebert Angel as a main player. Son Uebert Angel Juniour is being called out on social media. “Its a family of thieves and fraudsters.” “Your father is a thief.”

Arrests are said to be imminent, including prophet Uebert Angel. https://www.uebertangel.org/

Players implicated in the gold Mafia including prophet Uebert Angel have had their assets frozen by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit. Angel is captured on camera offering to use his diplomatic cover to carry dirty cash into Zimbabwe. Assets of Ewan McMillan, Kamlesh Pattni, Uebert Angel, and Simon Rudland were reported to banks on March 30 for seizure.

"Second Republic under President Mnangagwa operates as the First Citizen’s emphasis has always been on honest hard work."

Uebert Angel

"Any person found to have engaged in acts of corruption, fraud or any form of crime, will face the full wrath of the law,". Two parts of the documentary aired on Al Jazeera. It exposes cleric Uebert Angel, Ewan McMillan and Simon Rudland. They masterminded a gold scheme that siphoned tonnes of gold out of the country to Dubai.

https://www.ajiunit.com/investigation/gold-mafia-smuggle-zimbabwe-rudland-macmillan-pattni/

Heroin production up in Helmand province

Helmand province in Afghanistan is the heart of the most productive opium-growing region on earth. 2/3 of world heroin production comes from Helmand.

The Taliban claims opium poppy cultivation stopped in Afghanistan. Although there was a sharp drop in 2001 when it was last in control, opium poppy cultivation in Taliban-held areas has risen. Opium farming is a major source of employment in Afghanistan. The Taliban profits through taxes on the opium crop and indirectly through processing and trafficking. A 10% cultivation tax is collected from opium farmers. The deserts of Helmand are being turned into new growing areas through the use of solar panels. Arrays of solar panels feed pumps that bring groundwater to surface reservoirs.

The first report of an Afghan farmer using solar power was in 2013. Since then growth has been exponential. Buying diesel to power their pumps used to be the farmers' biggest expense. Adulterated diesel in remote areas causes pumps and generators to regularly break down and require repair. An array of solar panels and an electric pump has virtually no running costs.

New farms are appearing further into the desert. In 2013 157,000 hectares were under cultivation. In 2019 it was 344,000 hectares. In 2017 there was bumper opium harvest of 9,000 tonnes which crashed prices. Overall production decreased, but not for the farmers with solar power in Helmond Province. This increase in productivity has been felt around the world.

Bank robber, 78, foiled

The Pleasant Hill, Missouri Police Department said that Bonnie Gooch, 78, walked into Goppert Financial Bank last week and handed the teller a note demanding "13,000 small bills." Gooch also apologized to the teller, writing, "Thank you, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She left the bank with the money but was stopped by cops about two miles away. Her breath smelled strongly of alcohol, and they found the stolen bills scattered throughout her car. Gooch was previously convicted of robbing a bank in California in 1977 and a bank in the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit in 2020. Her probation for the second conviction ended in November 2021.

PlayStation box = 22 years in jail for dealer

During a raid of that condo, cops found 30 kg of fentanyl and more than $500k in cash.

Maurice Montain McCoy, Jr., 41, of Moreno Valley, California, led a drug ring that trafficked fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine across the country. The DEA investigated McCoy's stash house in July 2017. Agents traced a UPC code off of a Sony PlayStation box used to deliver heroin to a customer.

It was the largest fentanyl seizure in Michigan and one of the largest in the country.

Vancouver fraudster Mark Chandler in California jail

Former Langley real estate developer Mark Chandler sits in Terminal Island, a low-security federal prison in San Pedro, Calif., serving a six-year sentence for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. It’s his second conviction in the United States. Chandler fought extradition to the U.S. B.C.’s real estate watchdog issued a formal notice of hearing alleging Chandler mishandled more than $10m of deposits from home buyers for a Langley condo project called Murrayville House.

Would-be buyers waited years as repeated construction delays stalled the project.

Mark Chandler was busted for fraud in California following an FBI investigation. The charges resulted from an investigation into a development project known as Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles between 2008 and 2011. “The record of the case portrays a fraud that does not exist,” said Chandler’s lawyer. The judge disagreed, and ordered Chandler extradited to face trial in the U.S. Chandler is best known for the Murrayville House project which dissolved into multiple lawsuits in 2017.

Units in the development were sold to two, three, or even four purchasers.

All contracts were eventually voided in court. Chandler accumulated a long list of lawsuits from burnt creditors, including from an American private jet leasing agency, a Vancouver yacht charter company, a Ferrari Maserati dealership, and a waterfront Hawaii getaway. Chandler had repeatedly lied and forged documents to dupe his investors, prosecutors noted. It was his second conviction in the United States, following a 2003 guilty plea to theft in Arizona. After that incident, Chandler was deported, given three years of probation, and ordered to pay $189,550 in restitution.

Empty, scuttled semi-submersible found in Spain

Spanish cops discovered a semi-submersible off the northwestern coast of Galicia on March 13. The ship was found scuttled, likely on purpose after the traffickers had finished unloading their cargo. Authorities suggested it may have been sitting there for weeks. The vessel could have carried up to five tons of cocaine.

The 16-meter (52-foot) vessel was spotted half sunk a kilometer off the coast in the Arousa estuary in the Ganorthwester. A similar vessel with three metric tons of cocaine on board was found in another northern Spanish estuary in 2019. The Galicia semi-submersible may be a sign of things to come. "There is nothing technically from stopping these vessels being used more frequently to smuggle drugs to Europe," one expert said.

Crack, cocaine resurgence in NYC

A record influx of Colombian cocaine has spurred the return of crack — the cheap, smokable scourge that sparked a crime wave in New York in the late 1980s and 1990s. An increase in cocaine supply has driven down street prices to levels not seen in decades.

Cops say a rock can be had for $5. Turf wars are breaking out as dealers battle over street corners, just as they did 30 years ago. Abundant supply and efficient processing have sent wholesale prices plummeting. An uncut kilo of cocaine, which hit an all-time high of $35k five years ago, is now about $17k.

In New York, 2,668 people died of drug overdoses in 2021, an increase of 78% since 2019 with fentanyl detected in 80% of the deaths.

Texas man brags about robbing cartel - MIA in Mexico

Texas man Erik Tadeo Ramirez bragged about stealing $50k from a Mexican drug cartel. Less than two hours later, he was kidnapped by a group of armed men from a home in southern Texas and taken over the border. The FBI says he's still missing. Witnesses overheard him bragging on a phone call about stealing money from the Cartel del Noreste while he was at a house party in Laredo at about 11 p.m. on March 23. At 12.45 a.m. on March 24, a group of masked men arrived at the location in a blue Dodge pick-up truck and assaulted Ramirez before forcing him into the car. On March 27, U.S. authorities arrested Jonathan Cavriales, who is a member of CDN.