Notorious Irish gangster John Gilligan, 71, has admitted that he’s destined to go to hell because of his many crimes.
Asked in a documentary series if he’s likely to go to hell, the drug trafficker replies: “If there is one, yeah”. Gilligan's gang was responsible for the murder of crime journalist Veronica Guerin in 1996.
In 2002, Gilligan was acquitted of her murder.
The crime boss is described as a 'dangerous psychopath' who 'took on the institutions of the state and lost'. "John Gilligan was a big player in the mid-90s, but he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was,” says a former top cop. In October 2013 Gilligan was released after serving 17 years in jail for drug trafficking. After being injured in an assassination attempt in 2014, Gilligan left the country to live in Spain. In 2018 he was arrested at Belfast International Airport and charged with money laundering.
Gilligan and two others were arrested in Spain in October 2020, when cops seized weapons and drugs. He is on bail.
Madonna of the Yarnwinder by Leonardo Da Vinci, worth more than £40m, was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in 2003 when two axe-wielding men overpowered a guide. Four years later two private detectives, claiming to be brokering the reward money, were arrested in a sting and put on trial with three lawyers. All walked free, with one still trying to claim the reward. The painting was recovered.
In 1974 thieves forced open the iron bars on a window at Kenwood House and made off with Vermeer’s The Guitar Player, then worth £5m. The painting was found after an anonymous tip in the cemetery of St Bartholomew’s Church in London, wrapped in newspaper.
Robert Gentile, a mobster who cops suspected in the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist in Boston died of a stroke at age 85 in 2022. Its thought he once had some of the stolen artwork. 13 pieces from the collection, including works from Rembrandt, Vermeer and Degas were lifted. The art has never been found. Among the stolen works was 'The Concert', one of 34 known works by Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable stolen painting at over $200 million. Some $500 million worth of art, including Rembrandt’s 'Storm on the Sea of Galilee' was stolen.
'The Concert' by Vermeer
The Gardner heist was carried out by two men dressed like cops who overpowered a night security guard who had buzzed them in. During a polygraph test, Gentile had an intense reaction when shown images of the missing paintings, while he remained calm when shown unrelated artwork. The museum offered a reward of $5m. In 2017 this was doubled to $10m.
33 years after the heist, the empty frames still hang in the Gardner Museum.
'Storm on the Sea of Galilee'
'A Lady and Gentleman in Black' by Rembrandt, painted in 1633.
Cops seized nearly 9.5 tons of cocaine in the port of Algeciras.
This is the largest cocaine bust in Spanish history. Logos on the drugs corresponded to 30 different criminal networks across Europe. The 9,436 kilograms (20,802 pounds) of cocaine were hidden in crates of bananas sent from Ecuador.
The boss of Asia’s biggest crime syndicate and one of the world’s most wanted men was extradited to Australia in late 2022. 9 months later and there has been nada to report on true kingpin Tse Chi Lop.
The UN estimated Sam Gor’s annual revenue at $21 billion.
Newspapers describe Tse Chi Lop, 60, as Asia’s El Chapo. That isn't a fair comparison, he was far bigger than that. Tse Chi Lop is a Chinese-born Canadian and the leader of a multi-billion dollar drug syndicate, The Company.
Tse is billed as the biggest drug importer to be nabbed in two decades. He was arrested in Amsterdam in January 2021. Tse ran a drug syndicate known as 'Sam Gor,' Cantonese for 'Third Brother'
The crime group employs top chemists who manufacture synthetic drugs like fentanyl, meth, ecstasy and ketamine around the world.
Tse Chi Lop was born in Guangzhou in 1963 and immigrated in 1988 to Toronto, where he was part of the Big Circle Boys. Toronto taught Tse his business. The seeds for what would become the world’s largest drug empire were planted during his days surviving the heroin glut in the late ’80s and early ’90s. He was jailed in the U.S. from 1997 to 2006 for heroin trafficking after being arrested with senior members of the Rizzuto family, including Emanuel Raguso. By 2011, Tse and his family had left Toronto and moved to Hong Kong. Around this time he teamed up with Chung Chak 'John' Lee to form the meth syndicate that became Sam Gor. Their innovation was guaranteed delivery. If a dealer paid for drugs, he’d receive them. If they were seized, Sam Gor would replace them at no cost.
Chung Chak 'John' Lee
Guaranteed delivery was possible because production costs were negligible. This was the idea on which they built an empire. Synthetic drugs are cheap to produce. It takes hundreds of farmers to generate a tonne of heroin. It takes few workers in a lab to make a tonne of meth.
The materials to make meth, pseudoephedrine, anhydrous ammonia and red phosphorus, are cheap, less than $1,000 a tonne in some cases, and widely available in Asia. A kilo of meth cost dealers in Myanmar $4k. It would then sell for $200k in the streets of Australia. By the late 2010s, Sam Gor accounted for 70% of the meth in Australia. Australians spent $8.5b on 11.5 tonnes of meth, two-thirds of it cooked in the Golden Triangle. Sam Gor controlled between 40% and 70% of the $90b Asian market, dominating the trade in the Philippines, South Korea and Japan. In 2019, after a huge bust, Australian cops posted an international warrant for Tse’s arrest with Interpol. Tse got on a flight back to Canada, but a stopover in Amsterdam sunk him. The moment he stepped off the plane at Schiphol airport, he was arrested.
Fischer was using a non-immigration visa with permission to stay in the kingdom until July 12, 2024. Cops tracked him down to where he was hiding in the area of Muang District, Chiang Rai Province.
German HA Dennis Fischer, 50, never got to finish his tea as he was arrested in Chiang Rai, Thailand following a formal request for extradition. He is accused of a severe assault in Germany. HA in Thailand have kept a low profile by necessity after a state crack-down caused by invading HA from Oz.
Dead man walking Wagner Boss Prigozhin has met his fate to no one's surprise.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said he and his men would be regarded as traitors if they abandoned their positions in the city of Bakhmut. For the second time in a matter of days he said his forces would leave Bakhmut if they did not receive the ammunition they needed. "A combat order came yesterday which clearly stated that if we leave our positions (in Bakhmut), it will be regarded as treason against the motherland. That was the message to us," Prigozhin said. He referred cryptically to a 'grandfather figure'. Many suspect that is his boss Putin.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said that he had received a promise of more ammunition from the Russian army following his unprecedented public threat to pull his forces from Bakhmut due to a lack of ammunition. Prigozhin's blistering attack using crude and emotional language was heard by Putin.
Prigozhin said that all decisions regarding Wagner's operation would now be taken by General Surovikin. Surovikin, an army veteran with a brutal reputation was replaced by Valery Gerasimov, who is regularly criticized by Prigozhin.
“On May 10, 2023 we will have to hand over our positions in Bakhmut to units of the defence ministry and withdraw Wagner units to rear camps to lick our wounds,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
US National Security said that more than 20,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and another 80,000 wounded in fighting in Ukraine since December. Half of the dead were from the Wagner group. Last week Prigozhin told a Russian pro-war blogger that Wagner fighters in Bakhmut were down to their last days of supplies of bullets.
Montreal cops are trying to figure out who torched the house of notorious HA Rob Barletta. Barletta’s upscale home north of Montreal was gutted by fire. Firefighters were called to the suspicious blaze that broke out at 4:15 a.m. at a home on Boulevard du Grand Héron in Saint-Jérôme. Robert Barletta, 53, was renting the home. It was raided on June 6 by cops as part of an investigation into drug trafficking by Montreal Hells Angels. Barletta is said to be part of a group of Montreal HA feuding with another organized crime group over control of sports books in Quebec.
Another house on the same street was targeted in a suspected arson earlier this week. Three Ontario homes formerly owned by Barletta were destroyed by fires. They were among the $40m in assets seized as part of Operation Hobart.
HA Robert Barletta and two cronies, all of whom were charged in a crackdown on illegal sports betting, are embroiled in a multi-million dollar lawsuit over a botched luxury development. Naturally there are multiple unsolved arsons. Barletta was the ringleader of the gambling operation that cops say took in $160m over six years. Barletta, Douglas Adams, and Michael Curtis were all charged in Operation Hobart, a two-year investigation of illegal gambling that flopped miserably.
A multi-million dollar home burns west of Thornbury.
They all walked. $40m in assets seized as part of Operation Hobart stand to be seized as proceeds of crime. A Lake Drive property is one of seven bought in Barletta’s name or by him, using AMG 2016 Family Trust, held by a Toronto law firm.
Dutch Schultz (Arthur Flegenheimer) was a New York City Jewish gangster who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging, loan sharking and the numbers racket.
Along with other rackets, Schultz began extorting New York restaurant owners and workers. Those gangsters who skimmed the take did not last long. "Dutch Schultz was ugly; he had been drinking and suddenly he had his gun out. "Schultz wore his pistol under his vest, tucked inside his pants, right against his belly. One jerk at his vest and he had it in his hand.
All in the same quick motion he swung it up, stuck it in Jules Martin's mouth and pulled the trigger. It was as simple and undramatic as that—just one quick motion of the hand. Dutch Schultz did that murder just as casually as if he were picking his teeth.” When Davis later read a newspaper story about Martin's murder, he found out the body was found in a snow bank with a dozen stab wounds. When Davis asked Schultz, the boss dead-panned, "I cut his heart out."
At the time of the Martin killing, Schultz was fighting a tax evasion case: U.S. Attorney Thomas Dewey had set his sights on Schultz. Schultz was convicted of the charges, but they were overturned.
Schultz went before the Mafia Commission and asked permission to kill Dewey. All were against it because the full weight of the law would come down on them. Schultz was furious at the outcome of the vote; he accused the Commission of trying to steal his rackets and "feed him to the law." After Schultz left in a seething rage, the Commission decided to kill him. Albert Anastasia sent Jewish mobster Louis Buchalter to kill Schultz.
Bonanno boss Joseph Bonanno thought the idea was "insane."
Dutch Schultz at the courthouse in 1935.
Buchalter died in the electric chair at Sing Sing on March 4, 1944.
At 10:15 p.m. on October 23, 1935, Schultz was shot multiple times at the Palace Chophouse at 12 East Park Street in Newark, New Jersey. Doctors performed surgery but were unaware of the extent of damage done to his abdominal organs by a ricocheting bullet.
They were also unaware that the gunmen had intentionally used rust-coated bullets in an attempt to give Schultz a fatal bloodstream infection (septicemia) should he survive the gunshot. Schultz lingered for 22 hours before dying of peritonitis. Two bodyguards and Schultz's accountant were also killed.
Cops recorded the gangster's rambling last words as he died of peritonitis caused by a rust-coated bullet.
"Oh, mamma, mamma, please don't tear; don't rip..."
"Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast."
"I will be checked and double-checked and please pull for me."
"I can't come; express office was closed."
"Please crack down on the Chinaman's friends and Hitler's commander."
"These native children make this and sell you the joint."
"You can play jacks, and girls do that with a soft ball and do tricks with it."
"Who shot me? No one."
Bernard 'Lulu' Rosenkrantz was Schultz's chauffeur and bodyguard. He was shot at the Palace Chophouse moments after Schultz was shot. He died two days later in hospital. He produced a map before dying. Though estimated to be worth over $7m ($140m in 2020 dollars) when he died, no trace of Dutch Schultz's wealth was found. Its thought Schultz hid his treasure in a buried safe somewhere in the Catskill Mountain range.
The story says he stashed away his fortune somewhere around Phoenicia, New York. When Schultz was gunned down in 1935, the location of his loot died with him.
Otto "Abbadabba" Berman was accountant and financial advisor to gangster Dutch Schultz. He is known for coining the phrase "Nothing personal, it is just business." He died in a hail of gunfire.
Buchalter died in the electric chair at Sing Sing on March 4, 1944. 
