Gary Arnold sentenced for kidnapping elderly US couple = 16 years

Gary Arnold was sentenced to 13 years in prison for helping kidnap a couple in their 70s from upstate New York and holding them for ransom in a botched cocaine deal. He faced seven charges including two counts each of kidnapping, illegal confinement and extortion. Arnold ferried the couple to Quebec via Akwesasne, a Mohawk reserve that straddles the Canada-U.S. border. Arnold’s cellphone was traced to the crime scene. Franco D’Onofrio, 57 pleaded guilty to forcible confinement, extortion and conspiracy. He bought 15 years. Kosmas Dritsas, 51, was sentenced to 13 years.

Michael Helm

The parole board said that the cocaine seized during the arrest belonged to the Hells Angels. A Montreal chapter member escaped charges. Sandra and James Helm were abducted and taken to a house in Magog. They were rescued by a Sûreté du Québec SWAT team two days later. The motive for the kidnapping was a failed drug transaction involving 50 kilograms of cocaine and the couple’s eldest grandson, Mackenzie Helm, 30. The kidnappers refused to believe Helm had been arrested and was busted in jail.

Italy lassoes two tonnes of cocaine at sea

Italian cops found almost two tonnes of cocaine floating at sea off the island of Sicily. The Guardia di Finanza, the country’s tax and customs police, called it a record seizure. The drugs were stored in some 70 waterproof packages. Every package was carefully sealed and held together by fishing nets. The bundle contained a luminous device which cops said allowed the shipment to be tracked. Italian police said that they were likely dropped by a cargo ship, and was intended to be recovered later and brought to land. The number of cocaine seizures in Italy has been growing rapidly since 2020. In 2020 Italy seized 13.4 tonnes of cocaine, a record. In 2021 it was 20.07 tonnes of cocaine. In 2022 it was 28.1 tonnes of cocaine.

2 charged for attempted hit on HA tied Carlos Fernandes

McLee Charles, 38, and Gahens Lee Souverain, 23, are charged with attempted murder of HA associate Carlos Fernandes, 50. Fernandes is a former member of the first iteration of the Ontario Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels. He was a member when it was shuttered.

In 2018, Fernandes pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and gangsterism, and was sentenced to 42 months.

The attempt on Fernandes’s life occurred in Terrebonne on Feb. 16, 2022.

Souverain is charged with the attempted murder of Davide Barberio, a member of the Montreal Mafia. Charles’s record includes conviction for his role in the death of Raymond Ellis, 25. Ellis was killed in Montreal on Oct. 23, 2005 after being attacked by a group, including Charles, who were part of a Blues street gang. Charles pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case of mistaken identity and was sentenced to over seven years.

Davide Barberio

See ----->Attempted hit on Davide Barberio
See ----->Martin Bernatchez shot in Granby

Gangster turned politician Atiq Ahmad, brother shot dead

Gangster turned politico Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead in Prayagraj by unidentified gunmen while they were being escorted by police. The moment was caught on camera. 3 men fired at close range, killing the handcuffed men.Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were brought for a court hearing in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case. Atiq Ahmed was an Indian criminal, gangster, and politician. He had served as a member of the Indian Parliament and the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from the Samajwadi Party. He had more than 100 criminal cases registered against him and was in jail from 2019 until his assassination. Ahmad’s son Asad was killed in a police encounter on April 13.

Anthony Zottola guilty of murdering father = life

Anthony Zottola

Bushawn 'Shelz' Shelton

Anthony Zottola, 45, was found guilty in the plot to murder his father and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Anthony Zottola hired a Bloods gangster to kill his father in 2018. He was charged along with nine others in the murder of his mob connected father in a McDonald's drive-thru. Anthony Zottola hired Bushawn Shelton to carry out the murders.

Sylvester ‘Sally Daz’ Zottola

All face a mandatory punishment of life.

Shelton was paid $200k to rub out Zottola so the son could seize control of his father’s $45m real estate empire. The men were also charged in the near-fatal shooting of Anthony's brother, Salvatore Zottola. They are charged with murder-for-hire, unlawful use of a firearm, and causing death with a firearm.

See ----->Bronx Drive-thru mob hit was "like in the movies"
See ----->Shooting of Mafia associate's son caught on camera

Ekene Anigbo goes away on weapons charges - update

Charges were laid Friday against Red Scorpion gangster Ekene 'Lololanski' Anigbo and his associate Jalen Falk for the murder of Kathleen Richardson. Richardson was killed in her Naramata home on June 9, 2021. A third gangster Shahram Tokhy is also charged. Anigbo was arrested in October 2021 after he carried two loaded semi-automatic firearms into a Richmond hotel lobby. He is notorious after being named as a top Vancouver gangster.

Ekene Dillichuwu Anigbo, 23, pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited or restricted and loaded firearm. The 'top 6' Vancouver gangster bought himself four years on Sept. 26 after he carried two semi-automatic firearms into a hotel lobby. He was on probation at the time for possession of a loaded P80 handgun. Anigbo "presented a risk to public safety". The judge noted that Anigbo had pledged he wanted to turn his life around and committed to doing so. That was pure bullshit. With credit for time served, Anigbo has a remaining 33.5 months.VPD say Anigbo, also known as rapper Lolo Lanski, is a member of the Kang/Red Scorpion group.

$897,540 forfeited in Saskatchewan

The Saskatchewan Highway Patrol located $897,540 in Canadian cash during a commercial traffic inspection on a semi-truck in 2022. Cops found two large duffle bags that were filled with cash in a clear and vacuum-sealed plastic bag. Two were arrested, and then released.

Mohammed Majidpour misunderstood = guilty

Mohammed Majidpour has pleaded guilty to arson, assault and shoplifting charges with sentencing likely in May.

Prolific Vancouver repeat offender Mohammed Majidpour, 35, remains caged, and is now facing an arson charge on top of a slew of robbery and assault charges. He is now accused of torching a car. Cops recognized him instantly and he was busted again. He was previously wanted Canada-wide for an attack on a woman.

That attack involved hitting a 19-year-old student over the back of the head with a pole.

$7.5m in fentanyl, cocaine seized in Vancouver drug bust

Project Toluene launched in January, focusing on a group manufacturing and trafficking drugs throughout the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. The investigation led cops to a fentanyl lab operating out of a house in a residential Richmond neighbourhood. On March 21 the team executed a search warrant to raid the home and dismantle the lab, seizing more than 7kg of suspected fentanyl, 800 grams of methamphetamines, and $39,000 cash from inside. A man in possession of an additional 15 kg of suspected fentanyl, 2kg of cocaine, and nearly $48k cash inside his vehicle was arrested nearby.

A search warrant at a condo in Coal Harbour returned 4.7 kg of fentanyl and $272k cash.

Man accused of butchering villagers still a Canadian

Orantes in 2011

A man accused of slaughtering villagers in Guatemala using a grenade, gun and sledgehammer is still fighting Canada's attempt to revoke his citizenship. Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes denies he concealed participation in a 1982 massacre by the Guatemalan military when he obtained Canadian citizenship a decade later. He paints himself as an instructor at a military training school, working with local communities in Guatemala to build good relations. Sosa Orantes, 64, was served a 10-year sentence for immigration fraud in the United States, where he also held citizenship until it was revoked in 2014.

In the early 1980s, the Guatemalan military junta began a ruthless campaign against guerrilla groups that wiped out 440 villages, killing over 75,000 people. Sosa Orantes was a senior member of a military special forces group that led a mission to Las Dos Erres in December 1982. Military members killed at least 162 civilians, including 67 children. Women were raped and children were thrown into an 18-metre dry well. "The members of the special forces group killed their victims by hitting them on the head with a sledgehammer, by hitting their heads on a tree, by shooting them, or by slitting their throats," the federal submission says.

Sosa Orantes represented himself in the Federal Court case from a Phoenix prison cell. "I was not in Las Dos Erres," he writes. Sosa Orantes says that in late 1982 and early 1983 he was busy travelling to several towns as part of a goodwill effort, handing out notebooks, pens, chalk, educational games and sports equipment for children. Sosa Orantes married an American woman and attained U.S. citizenship in September 2008. In 2010, the U.S. discovered he had committed immigration fraud by concealing his past. He was arrested the following year in Canada. In ordering his extradition to the U.S. to face trial, the Alberta Court said the evidence establishes Sosa Orantes was one of the commanding officers who decided to murder the villagers and that he "actively participated in the killings with a sledgehammer, with a firearm and a grenade."

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.