CCTV captured a brazen jewellery store heist in Queensland by two thieves armed with guns and disguised in burkas. Rhia Jewellers owner Madhuri Azam told the BBC the thieves made off with over A$200,000 in goods. |
Friday, May 26, 2023
Oz jewelry heist caught on camera
Operation Hobart
An Ontario judge allowed the state to seize about $200k found underneath Dmitri Kellesis’s bed. His 92-year-old mother, Sotira, can keep $75,000. "This location was clearly a gambling hall with obvious gambling paraphernalia and Mr. Kellesis’s claim brings to mind Captain Renault in Casablanca,” the judge wrote. |
Dimitris Kellesis stands to lose the loot cops lassoed as part of Operation Hobart in 2019. The hearing was the first of what will be more as the crown tries to keep $40m in cash, silver, gold, jewelry, high-end vehicles and luxury homes seized from what cops called the biggest illegal online sports gambling ring in Canada. Operation Hobart fizzled with criminal charges tossed due to unreasonable delay. |
![]() | 28 were charged and a gaming house in Mississauga and five illegal gambling websites run by the Hells Angels were shuttered. The sites operated under Ultimate SB, Titan SB, PlaytoWin SB, Privada SB and Players SB. The sites brought in $13m from January to July of 2019 alone.![]() | ![]() |
![]() | Three Hells Angels and one prospect were charged, Robert Barletta, Craig McIlquham, Eugenio “Gino” Reda, and Raffaele Simonelli. Barletta and McIlquham ran the operation. Cops say it took in more than $160 million in revenue over a six-year period before police shut it down and seized $40 million in assets. | ![]() |
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Oath Keepers - Stewart Rhodes = 18 years
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the US Capitol riot.
![]() | The sentence is the longest yet given to a Capitol rioter. Prosecutors had asked for 25 years.870 have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 17 have been accused of seditious conspiracy, the high crime of using force to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Seditious conspiracy is a Civil War-era statute, rarely prosecuted, which carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison. Members of far-right militia the Oath Keepers — including founder Stewart Rhodes, have been charged with this. | ![]() Rhodes plotted an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden. |
![]() Oath Keepers spent months planning their roles in the riot. | Seditious conspiracy is defined as two or more people plotting "to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States." The Oath Keepers are an anti-government, right-wing political organization committed to supporting and defending their demented interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. ![]() |
![]() | The five accused Oath Keepers also face charges of conspiring to obstruct and obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, and conspiring to prevent an officer from discharging duties. Those who physically entered the Capitol building - Watkins, Meggs and Harrelson - are charged with property destruction. |
Denis Desputeaux revisited
Kenny Maheu, left, and Denis Desputeaux were sentenced in 2018 for drug trafficking. | Busted for trafficking tied to the Hells Angels in 2018, Denis Desputeaux posted a threat to cops on Facebook. That didn't go over well and he was ordered to turn over a sample of his DNA to cops. Desputeaux, then 24, received a 28-month prison term. Desputeaux was busted for drugs again with Seeyomak Salemi-Seyfeddin in 2022. | The Percuter investigation reeled in a score of HAMC and associates. |
3 busted in Vancouver with pure fentanyl
Cops seized 1 kg of pure fentanyl, heroin, fentanyl mixed with other drugs, carfentanyl, ketamine, methamphetamine and MDMA in November 2020. $24,000 was also seized. Karina Marie Graham, 32, has been charged with three counts of trafficking a controlled substance and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking. Leo Minh Trung Thach, 27, has been charged with four counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking. And, Trung Thanh Nguyen, 40, has been charged with one count of trafficking a controlled substance and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking. Around 82% of the 11,171 B.C OD deaths since 2016 involved fentanyl. |
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
Rapper Fetty Wap pleads guilty = 6 years
After the FBI arrested rapper Fetty Wap, he was released on $500k bail, which was revoked soon after he threatened to kill someone and held a gun during a FaceTime call. His guilty plea makes his sentence 6 years, an improvement from the decade to life if he was found guilty at trial. Prosecutors wanted 9 years. |
| $1.5m cash, 16kg cocaine, 2kg heroin, fentanyl, handguns and a rifle were seized. Fetty’s lawyer said at the time, "this is all a big misunderstanding. He sees the judge today. Hoping he gets released so we can clear things up." | Willie Junior Maxwell II - Fetty Wap |
Liberian traffickers vanish
Most surmise the not guilty verdict was a result of jury tampering. | Four drug dealers arrested in Liberia for trafficking cocaine worth $100 million have vanished immediately after a jury found them innocent in a surprise verdict. The men – Lebanese, Liberian, Guinean and Portuguese – were arrested in a bust last year which involved US and Brazilian intelligence. They were accused of smuggling 500 kg of cocaine in a container of pig’s feet from Latin America. Liberia and West Africa form part of a key drug trafficking route. |
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
Boss Bartolo Bruzzaniti busted
![]() | Business was going well for Bartolo Bruzzaniti, 47, a member of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta who had become part of Raffaele Imperiale's network. Bruzzaniti wrote in encrypted chats: «No problem, Milan if we have the price I'll take the city and all. Don't worry, we'll send them to board. 70 percent of Milan have all been friends of mine for 30 years » Bruzzaniti, known as "Gargiazza" was heir to the 'Ndrangheta families of Africo (Reggio Calabria). The international brokers Raffaele Imperiale and Bruno Carbone made shipments from Holland of 300 kilos of cocaine per week. | Raffaele Imperiale and Bruno Carbone |
Things ended poorly for Bruzzaniti when he was busted May 5, 2023. 645 kg of cocaine, 240kg of hashish and 30kg of ketamine was seized. Milan is the epicenter of international cocaine trafficking, with the men of the 'Ndrangheta confirming themselves as true leaders of the drug trade. An 'Ndrangheta-Camorra joint venture. The drugs arriving from Holland were stored in the warehouses of Gerenzano (Varese). The other clans in Italy and in Milan were supplied, including one led by Davide Flachi. Bruzzaniti said on wiretaps: "Milan is rightfully mine". 40 mafioso were busted. |
Oz Cocaine kingpins face music over 1.2 tonne cocaine bust
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![]() | Rohan Arnold, 43, had been denied bail after being charged with five counts of importing a commercial quantity of drugs. At more than 1.2 tonnes of cocaine, it was the second largest cocaine seizure in Australian history. The stockyard director and steel importer was one of three men arrested following the discovery of cocaine hidden inside hollow prefabricated steel on a Chinese container boat in Sydney. | ![]() |
![]() | The 2576 blocks of cocaine had a retail street value in Australia of half a billion dollars. Arnold - along with Tristan Waters, 34, and David Campbell, 48 were detained at gunpoint in a Serbian hotel, where a bag containing $1 million cash was being exchanged. | ![]() |
Monday, May 22, 2023
Costa Favolosa carrying 95 kg of cocaine
French cops busted 4 Brazilian drug smugglers with 95kg aboard the Costa Favolosa. It appears to be the largest quantity of cocaine seized from a cruise ship. French authorities in the port of Marseille became suspicious of two travelers as they prepared to go ashore during a port call on May 2. A known drug smuggling port, the French were doing bag checks of the people going ashore when they noticed the couple acting suspiciously. |
The Costa Cruises’ ship is the Costa Favolosa. It is a large cruise ship accommodating over 3,000 passengers. The ship was on a cruise that had departed Savona, Italy, and after the port call in France was due to sail to Morocco. It was in the process of repositioning to Northern Europe for the summer. Cruises from Brazil to Europe at the end of the season appear to have become a new target for the drug cartels. Last year, 10 passengers were apprehended with 54 kilos of cocaine aboard the MSC Seaside when the cruise ship arrived in Valencia, Spain. Shortly after it was revealed that Brazilian cops had arrested six passengers attempting to board the Costa’s Costa Diadema in the port of Santos. |
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