Pablo Escobar 'Cocaine Hippo' whacked by car - update

There are nearly twice as many 'Cocaine Hippos' as was thought. The most exhaustive count yet has estimated over 160. All from 3 females and 1 male imported by Pablo Escobar in the early 1990s. Colombian officials have struggled to manage their hippo issue. After they ordered an aggressive male killed in 2009, a photo of soldiers posing with the corpse sparked national outrage. There have been a series of attacks on humans since. Researchers advocate culling the animals. They say it would solve the problem before it becomes impossible to fix.

The driver was cruising along at night when he ran into the massive beast after it jumped out. The hippo's dead body was laid out on the street in the gory aftermath. There was another crash in December, and the hippo roadkill created a national conversation.

The driver was unharmed.

See ----->Pablo Escobar’s hippos - deportation the final solution

Steven Lynn Rowntree accused of importing weapons

Nova Scotia biker Steven Lynn Rowntree was deployed twice to Afghanistan during his stint in the Royal Canadian Navy. Rowntree, 43, was fingered last August when CBSA intercepted a package of 10 centrifugal knives at their international mail processing centre in Mississauga. The knives are prohibited weapons in Canada and smuggling them into the country can trigger massive penalties, including up to 5 years in jail. Rowntree is a member of a 1% HA puppet club called the Route 333 Niners. Niners president Dave ‘Pinkie’ Duggan (he wears a pink mohawk) was adamant that the Niners are not a support club for the Hells Angels. Cops explain that the dominant OMG awarding the 1% diamond patch means the group is HA connected.

The CBSA's January search of Rowntree's home in Lower Sackville returned an arsenal.

Slovakia hosts HAMC world run

HA are gathering in the town of Šamorín, Trnava Region, about 30 km from Bratislava. The American Embassy published a security alert about the gathering. It notes that the United States government has designated the club an OMG and foreign members are barred from entering the USA. A World Run was marred by Canadian biker violence in Greece in 2015.

See ----->3 Alberta Hells Angels charged with murder in Greece
See ----->Killer Dustin Swanson is back

Organized retail crime

Four masked men march in a line through a Home Depot store in New York this year. Two appear menacing bodyguards, while the two others confidently push carts stacked with boxes of high-value items out the door. Home Depot executives say the New York-area crew is part of a growing threat across North America: organized retail crime. ORC is where groups of criminals steal prized items to sell online or elsewhere. ORC has reached unprecedented levels, sparking deadly violence at some stores. The risk is low and the payoff high. The Home Depot investigated 400 cases of organized retail theft in the past year and that is increasing in double digits. Retailers across the US reported a 26% jump in organized retail crime between 2000 and 2021, amounting to tens of billions.

Serious bust on Vancouver Island - update

Cops seized a host of guns, drugs, stolen goods, and cash. A loaded 50-caliber Desert Eagle handgun was found. About 12 kilos of drugs and weapons, including a loaded AR15-style rifle, were seized when multiple police groups carried out search warrants in Langford, Saanich, Victoria and the Malahat.

Also seized were six kilograms of a liquid drug suspected to be GHB. Cops arrested a 25-year-old man for possession of controlled substances for the purposes of trafficking and unauthorized possession of firearms. He was bound by conditions at the time of his arrest for prior charges related to drugs. His bail was revoked and he remains in custody. The cannon Desert Eagle goes for $1,800 and is guaranteed to stop near anything. The Desert Eagle is a gas-operated, semi-automatic pistol known for chambering the .50 Action Express, the largest centerfire cartridge of any magazine-fed self-loading pistol.

Traffic stop goes poorly for Javier Mendoza Corral

Fayette County Georgia deputies clocked a Mercedes-Benz traveling 87 mph in a 50 mph zone on May 21. The stench of pot gave cops a reason to search. They found a large stash of drugs, including meth, cocaine, crack cocaine and pot, as well as a loaded handgun, and weigh scales. Cops say that felony drug arrests have increased 136% in the last year. "One reason is the open border. Drugs just continue to flow over the border." Prices of crack have imploded due to increased supply and that is causing a serious rise in busts. Javier Mendoza Corral remains caged in the Fayette County Jail.

fei ch’ien - flying money - Italian cops bust ‘Ndrangheta, Chinese money brokers

Italian police arrested 40 in a new crackdown targeting the 'Ndrangheta and their dealings with Chinese money launderers. Investigations have shown how drug cartels in Italy are increasingly using shadow networks of unlicensed Chinese money brokers to conceal cross-border payments. The network was able to handle drug shipments with South American cartels, including the Brazilian Primeiro Comando da Capital, and Colombian, Peruvian, Mexican and Bolivian rings. After receiving the drug cash, the Chinese money brokers forwarded it to trading companies in China and Hong Kong. The companies then delivered the money to the drug brokers and the South American cartels through agents. The investigation was helped by accessing encrypted chats on the Sky Ecc platform, dismantled in 2021 by Europol.

The earliest known use of paper money is from the Tang dynasty. This dynasty lasted from the year 618 to 907 AD, with paper money appearing around 800. This money, known as 'flying cash', were certificates issued by the Tang government to pay local merchants in distant parts of the empire.

See ----->Jean François Eap - Sky Global
See ----->Belgian drug lords hit hard by Sky ECC bust

Quincy Promes busted for 1300 kilos of cocaine

Two batches of about 650 kilos and 713 kilos of cocaine were intercepted in the port of Antwerp at the end of January 2020.

Quincy Anton Promes is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for Russian Premier League club Spartak Moscow. He represented the Netherlands national team. He is facing charges of attempted murder and drug smuggling. He is being prosecuted for the importatioin of more than 1300 kg of cocaine with a value of £65 million.

Marc Laflamme-Berthelot guilty of murder

Marc Laflamme-Berthelot, 39, and Manuel Savoie, 47, entered guilty pleas for manslaughter on Dec. 7 for the Laval murder of Kellen Seow, 34, in 2017. Prosecutors sought and received a dangerous tag for Laflamme-Berthelot who is looking at another 16 years. Laflamme-Berthelot was arrested at the Port Cartier Institution, a maximum-security federal penitentiary. He is serving a lengthy sentence he received in 2019 after pleading guilty to charges related to a home invasion at the home of Montreal mafioso Francesco Del Balso on May 6, 2017, seven weeks after Laflamme-Berthelot killed Seow.

Manuel Savoie, 48, organized the kidnapping. He was sentenced to 10 years.

Kellen Seow was beaten and stabbed to death over a drug debt. See ----->Francesco Del Balso a walking target

Krasimir 'Karo' Kamenov whacked

Krasimir 'Karo' Kamenov and his wife were killed in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to the couple, their two maids were also shot. Karo was known as part of the former Bulgarian criminal group VIS-2. Kamenov was wanted on a red notice by Interpol due to involvement in the murder of the Bulgarian criminal police’s former boss, Lubomir Ivanov, in early 2022. A political shakeup may be behind the killings. “We are going back to gangster times,” Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor said. Kamenov owns a fruit and vegetable market in Sofia. Large quantities of cocaine were found at the market several times in recent years. Kamenov had given evidence before a foreign jurisdiction in the last six months.

It could be related to the OneCoin crypto-pyramid and the investigations into fraud queen Ruzha Ignatova. She disappeared in 2017 and hasn't been seen since.
See ----->Ruja Ignatova - ‘crypto queen’ tipped off

Jimi Sandhu whacked in Phuket - update VIII

Matthew Dupre has been extradited to Thailand to face trial for the murder of UN gangster Jimi 'Slice' Sandhu. Dupre, 38, agreed to voluntarily return to Thailand. His list of skills included “hand to hand combat, unconventional warfare and sharpshooter.”

The Department of National Defence said that Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre served in the armed forces from 2005 to 2013 and Gene Karl Lahrkamp from 2012 to 2018. Lahrkamp purchased a 14 acre property on the outskirts of Trail in October 2017 for $180k. The business of his company was guide outfitting and breeding Belgian Malinois dogs. Cops have searched the property along with another in Alberta. Thai cops identified the 2 gunmen wanted for the killing of Jimi Sandhu on Feb 4 in Rawai, Phuket. Arrest warrants for Canadians Gene Karl Lahrkamp, 36, and Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre, 36, were issued Sunday. The gunmen arrived in Phuket 6 weeks before the shooting and departed 2 days after the murder.

The pair fled Phuket to Bangkok before leaving the country from Suvarnabhumi Airport on the evening of February 6th. Lahrkamp reportedly left for Frankfurt.

Thai cops found two guns at a beach in Phuket which they say were used in the murder of Jimi Sandhu. Police used metal detectors to search the seaside by the Rawai beachfront villa and found a semi-automatic Walther PPK and a CZ gun in the water.

Gangster Jimi Sandhu, 32, was shot to death at a beachside resort in Rawai, Phuket. The two gunmen are likely foreigners. Nineteen spent 9mm and .38 casings were found at the murder scene.

Sandhu was killed after he pulled into the parking lot of his rented villa at the Beachside Hotel. A maid found Sandhu lying in a pool of blood next to his vehicle some 8 hours after 2 gunmen on CCTV camera fired 20 shots at close range. A tracking device was found on the vehicle.

Sandhu was affiliated with the UN gang. He was deported from Canada in 2016 for “serious criminality.” The dead man had 2 IDs on him. He held a valid passport for ‘Mandeep Singh’ and ‘Amarjit Singh Sindhu’.

See ----->Former Abbotsford gangster Jimi Sandhu arrested for drug operation in India
See ----->Gene Karl Lahrkamp dead

Cocaine importer Guillaume Latour-Laitre going away for a long time

Guillaume Latour-Laitre, 26, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute, after U.S. border cops found 142 kg of cocaine hidden in a trailer. At the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers performed an outbound inspection on the tractor-trailer and discovered the cocaine hidden in a secret compartment in the trailer. Latour-Laitre admitted that from November to December 2019, while vice-president of a Quebec trucking company, he trafficked cocaine from the U.S. to Canada via tractor-trailer. Latour-Laitre was extradited from Canada in late 2022. He faces a minimum 10 years and up to life in prison, a term of supervised release of between five years and life, and a maximum $10m fine.

“He was offering [the trucker] $250 per kilo of cocaine. Each truck could contain 250 kg,”

A co-accused trucker was sentenced to 72 months in prison and five years of supervised release.

384kg cocaine found in loader in Oz = 11 years, 6 months

Australian border officials cracked a major drug-smuggling case involving a piece of construction equipment stuffed with 384 kilograms of cocaine. The cocaine was concealed inside the hydraulic arm of a second-hand excavator. Border officials spotted the drugs using a routine X-ray check at a port in Sydney. Adam Hunter, 33, got 12 years and Timothy Engstrom, 34, 11 years. Both men have been charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

Shane 'Wheels' Maloney rolls as fugitive - parole revoked

Still rolling whilst wanted, nothing has been heard of Shane 'Wheels' Maloney since fall 2022.

Shane Kenneth Maloney, 43, told a parole board he’s sick of a life of crime. “I’m content with the little things right now,” Maloney said. “I have no interest in going back to jail … " Wheels fell off the wagon and he is going back to jail as soon as cops reel him in.

Maloney served less than three years of his sentence in Collins Bay Pen after pleading guilty in Feb 2017 to stockpiling one of the biggest arms caches in Canadian history, and drug trafficking.

Paraplegic gangster Shane Kenneth 'Wheels' Maloney, was granted limited parole after serving more than two years in prison for drug trafficking and a massive stockpile of guns and explosives. Maloney was granted six months of day parole to be served in a halfway house. He is part-way through a 10-year prison sentence that was reduced to less than six years for time served. Maloney was part of the Wolfpack. He has complained much during his prison stay including back pain, wrist pain, and psychological distress.

Maloney split his criminal career between Montreal, Vancouver and the GTA.

His weapons cache that was seized by the Sûreté du Québec in Oct 2012 raids netted 1,475 sticks of dynamite, two pounds of C-4 explosives, remote controls, detonators and hundreds of firearms and prohibited gun parts. Maloney said he wasn’t sure how many illegal guns he owned, but said the number was less than 90. He said that society has nothing to fear from him. Maloney has close ties to Montreal's West End Gang and Wolfpack associate Rabih 'Robby' Alkhalil.

Rabih 'Robby' Alkhalil

See ----->The Alkhalil Brothers

'Spring cleaning' one year on

Hugues Leblanc, 47, was found tied up in the trunk of his burnt-out vehicle in Pointe-aux-Trembles in May 2022. Stéphane Dupuis was whacked on April 12 and Sébastien Giroux on May 10. All three men had something in common, they did drug business for the Hells Angels. The three Hells Angels-related murders in Montreal were carried out on territory controlled by HAMC Jean-Richard Lariviere. Known to police as a cocaine trafficker, Leblan worked for the Montreal section of the Hells Angels. Stéphane Dupuis was a close associate of HA Mario Brouillette, a man considered a top actor in organized crime in Quebec. Sébastien Giroux had close ties to hitman turned informant Frédérick Silva. One year on and all 3 murders remain unsolved. Jean-Richard 'Race' Larivière, received his Hells jacket in March 2017.

See ----->Here.

Oz jewelry heist caught on camera

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.