Gambino associate guilty in ‘pants on fire’ torching of Mercedes = 10 years

Tuccio was sentenced to a mandatory 10 years and ordered to pay more than $75,000 in restitution.

Peter Tuccio, 27, pleaded guilty to felony extortion for torching the Mercedes of a Queens businessman who stopped making payoffs to a miffed mob captain. The arson didn’t go quite as planned: co-conspirator Gino Gabrielli set himself on fire. Gabrielli, accompanied by Tuccio, turned up at hospital for treatment of 3rd degree burns.

In December 2015, Tuccio and two others chased a businessman at high rates of speed through the streets of Queens. The unnamed businessman wanted to stop making $400 annual extortion payments to a Gambino crime family captain. That didn't go over well. Tuccio is linked to Mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino.

Two Narco jets land in Belize in 24 hours - update II

Belize cops have located an empty and abandoned Sabreliner jet. The Sabreliner is an American twin engine business jet first built in 1962. The planes can cost less than $200k and can carry 2 tonnes of cocaine. The second plane is a significantly more expensive 1980s Grumman Gulfstream G-III, which was found empty and buried in the mud. It might be worth $900k if it can be moved.

Two illegal landings were registered in Belize within 24 hours. The first aircraft landed in the north while the second landed in southern Belize, in the area of Graham Creek. Cops have not confirmed the landings but have reason to believe that both planes did land. Teams are currently on their way to the locations. It will take them up to 10 hours to get there. Belize is looking for help from the DEA; "It is challenging for us. We are working with our US counterpart, the DEA, to see what we can do to address the challenges that we are currently facing." Belize doesn't have its own radar tracking or interdiction capability, a fact known well by cocaine traffickers.

See ----->Narco planes in Belize

Russian oligarchs losing yachts, villas in Italy

Gennady Timchenko’s €50m yacht, Lena

Italian cops have seized villas and yachts worth at least €140m from four high profile Russians. Yachts belonging to Russia’s richest man, Alexei Mordashov, and Gennady Timchenko were impounded. A villa owned by billionaire Alisher Usmanov on Sardinia, and a villa on Lake Como owned by Vladimir Soloviev have been seized. Mordashov's 65 metre yacht the “Lady M”

Cartels on the hunt for Galil ACE

Mexican criminals have long been associated with foreign weapons like the AK-47 and M16. Today sicarios favour the Galil ACE, an Israeli rifle that is manufactured in Colombia. The Galil ACE is an official weapon for Mexican and Colombian cops. It is not restricted to use by the army, meaning its not automatically illegal to own.

Mob rat 'Frank Capri' pleads guilty in restaurant scam = 5 years

'Frank Capri' (Frank Gioia Jr.) was sentenced to five years in prison according to his plea agreement.

Frank Gioia Jr, was made and a third-generation soldier of the Lucchese crime family. In 1994 he turned rat after striking a deal with feds. He was released in 1999. As part of his deal, Gioia had his life imprisonment sentence reduced to six years. He went into the federal witness protection program and became Frank Capri. He moved to Arizona and became a conman.

Capri used plans to build up to 20 Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill restaurants to steal millions. Capri took up front fees in exchange for long term leases that weren’t honored.

After the Toby Keith restaurant scam collapsed, Capri orchestrated another - this time using the name of country music act Rascal Flatts. One restaurant opened in Stamford, Connecticut, in Aug 2017. It closed owing $1.2m a year later.

Capri and his companies have been ordered to pay more than $65m. Gioia Jr.'s former associates 'perp walk'

Tawny Costa is the mother of two of Frank Capri's children. She was the moll whose name all the restaurants were registered under.

980kg of cocaine seized by cops disappears in Guinea-Bissau

Seven suspects appeared in court in Bissau in a 980kg cocaine case, almost all of which has disappeared. "Last November, 980 kg were seized by the police, but 975 kg have simply disappeared into thin air. It is presumed that it was elements of the security and defence forces who seized this quantity of cocaine," Domingos Monteiro, the director of the judicial police, told the press a cop was arrested in the case. Guinea-Bissau experienced the 14th coup in its troubled history since independence from Portugal in 1974 Feb 1.

The president emerged unharmed after hours of gunfire that left 11 people dead. He sacked the commander of navy and the army's vice chief of staff.
See ----->Africa’s ‘narco-state' Guinea-Bissau

NC cop sold cocaine while on duty in patrol car

Raleigh cop Keven Rodriguez, 33, was charged with distributing cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

If convicted, Rodriguez faces a mandatory minimum of five years behind bars and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Edmonton HA Alan Peter Knapczyk dies in jail

Alan Peter Knapczyk has died in prison at Matsqui. No details have been released.

Two men affiliated with the Edmonton chapter of the Hells Angels had five years tacked onto their prison sentences for conspiring to traffic cocaine and benefiting a criminal organization in 2017. Alberta’s Court of Appeal increased John Reginald Alcantara and Alan Peter Knapczyk’s sentences to 15 years from 10 years for acting as enforcers for a large Fort McMurray cocaine trafficking operation. In September 2012, both were sentenced to a decade in prison. At the time, Knapczyk was a full patch of the Edmonton Chapter, and Alcantara a prospect.

Jeffrey Mark Caines was handed 14 years as head of a huge drug trafficking ring.

The case stretches back to 2005, when Knapczyk and Alcantara agreed to provide protection for a Fort McMurray cocaine trafficker in exchange for $20k a week. Trafficker Jeffrey Mark Cains called in Knapczyk and Alcantara to intimidate the competition.

Carfentanil kills 24 in Argentina - Update

The cop probe has switched to the ‘Mameluco’ gang of convicted drug trafficker Miguel Ángel 'Mameluco' Villalba, who is serving 27 years in prison. Police carried out 38 raids across Greater Buenos Aires, with at least 17 arrests. The operation was ordered by the Federal Court of San Martin and resulted in a "large quantity of drugs" being seized. Evidence was found in both jail cells of Mameluco and his son Iván.

In an audio recording, Villalba orders an underling to “Get that off the street right now.”

Argentine investigators have identified the drug that adulterated cocaine that killed 24 and sickened 74 on the outskirts of Buenos Aires last week. Carfentanil, an opioid 10,000X stronger than morphine, 100 times stronger than fentanyl was found. Effects in humans start at about 1 microgram. 20 micrograms, a gain of salt, is often fatal.

All of the victims were desperately poor.

The victims bought the adulterated cocaine in Puerta 8, a slum known as a drug dealing hub on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Scott Steer - putting the 'P' into Poacher

Gabriola Island resident Scott Stanley Steer has landed in hot water, again. In the latest, the serial poacher led fisheries officers on a high-speed chase on March 2, 2020. The vessel he was driving had no navigational lights visible and he engaged in "evasive manoeuvres, including hairpin turns" and had "near collisions" in the chase to avoid capture. Steer was ultimately arrested after the chase, and was found to have more than 250 illegal crabs. Steer is off for another 6 months in jail and three years probation. He was also handed a lifetime fishing prohibition and a prohibition from being on any fishing vessel.

A forfeiture claim alleges Scott Steer has a 'prolific' history of illegal fishing violations and his assets are derived from crime. The B.C. government wants to seize a Gabriola Island home and more than $1.3m in cash from Steer.

Steer's career of stealing is extensive. Since 2008, there have been 15 different Fisheries and Oceans Canada files on him. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail and ordered to forfeit his crab fishing gear and vessel in 2016. It was his 4th offense. He has poached commercial fisheries, sea cucumbers and crabs for more than a dozen years. In May 2021, Steer was convicted of crab fishing yet again, including contravening his ban for being on a fishing vessel, possessing fishing gear, fishing without a licence, fishing during a closed time and possession of crab caught illegally.

The Stewmaker - El Pozolero

Santiago Meza López, 'El Pozolero', will remain in prison. Meza was told he was being denied freedom because he has yet to be sentenced for more crimes. Pozole is a Mexican stew made with hominy, chicken, pork and vegetables.

El Pozolero confessed to earning $600 per week to submerge cadavers in a tub filled with acid and sodium hydroxide while 'stirring' the bodies for 8 hours until everything but the teeth, nails and some bone fragments dissolved. Meza said whatever remained would be burned before being buried in an empty lot on his property.

Santiago Meza Lopez, aka El Pozolero or The Stewmaker, confessed to helping the Sinaloa Cartel dissolve countless bodies in acid in order to make them disappear. The Stewmaker was first captured in 2009, and was sentenced to a decade in prison in 2012. He is set to be released. He was known to work across 10 locations in Tijuana. He spent years dissolving bodies, and at some point even constructed a drainage system to dispose of the waste.

Tens of thousands of bone fragments — the Stewmaker's leftovers — were uncovered by cops.

The Chicken Coop farm near the US border in Tijuana contained the remains of at least 240 people. The actual number is much higher ... 'Of the 16,500 litres of organic material, the Federal Attorney General's Office said that there could be up to 650 bodies.'

After his arrest Meza Lopez told how he disposed of the bodies and that he was paid $2400 per month for his work.

Sergio Piccirilli has balls - out and about

The Parole Board of Canada granted release to Sergio Piccirilli, 62, but decided he is not ready for full parole. Piccirilli has close ties to the Hells Angels — including childhood friend Salvatore Cazzetta. He is serving a sentence of nine years and nine months that he received in May 2016 after his conviction on charges including gangsterism; conspiracy to possess drugs with the intent to traffic; instructing a criminal offence for an organized crime group; conspiring to import and export controlled substances; and offences related to firearms. Piccirilli will reach his statutory release date in November. On October 4, 2019, Piccirilli was the target of an attempted murder by poisoning at the Drummondville penitentiary. As with other things Piccirilli takes it in stride.

"This guy has balls," said mobster Francesco Arcadi, with cops listening, after Piccirilli entered the Sicilian headquarters, the bar Consenza and drew a gun. Later, RCMP visited Piccirilli to warn him that a contract had been put on his head. "What can I do to help you? the cop asked. “Send me flowers,” Piccirilli replied. Piccirilli then called his ex, Sharon Simon, the Queen of Kanesatake, and asked her to bring him a machine gun.

See ----->Sergio Piccirilli pulls 15 years
See ----->Queen of Kanesatake home up in smoke

UK gangster Moll lived the high life - fearless spending money

Jodie Bowie, 32, met Jonathan Walsh on Facebook while he was serving 14 years for armed robbery. Following his arrest, Bowie tasked her parents and brother to ferry dirty cash. The cash came from their meth and pot trafficking operation. The line ran drugs through the northwest England and Nottinghamshire from Oct 2018 to Oct 2019. During a raid on her home, cops found designer clothes worth more than £100k and £10k in cash. That bust didn't slow her down. Designer clothing valued at £27k and £5,500 in cash was discovered during another cop visit.

Phone messages showed her booking cosmetic surgery. "When it came to spending money, she was fearless." The gang landed 50 years behind bars. Her parents were handed a combined 22 months, suspended for 18 months. Jodie Bowie escaped jail and was handed 21 months jail suspended for two years.

Jonathan Walsh was sentenced to 15 years in jail.