Drug Smuggling Accused Border Guard Baljinder Kandola At Loss For Words At Trial

 

While one former Indo-Canadian border guard got five years for his part in a drug smuggling ring – another is currently on trial for his part in a different operation that brought millions of illicit drugs into Canada. Baljinder Kandola, a former Canadian border guard who was charged with being part of a cocaine-smuggling ring, was at a loss for words during much of his testimony on Tuesday to explain why he risked so much to help a millionaire auto-parts importer for nothing in return. Under cross-examination by Crown counsel James Torrance, Kandola said he agreed to wave his co-accused Shminder Singh Johal and associates in his three automotive companies through the border, helping them avoid inspection, reported the Province newspaper. Kandola — who worked at the Pacific Highway crossing from July 2001 until his arrest on Oct. 25, 2007 — admitted he made unauthorized use of Canadian Border Services Agency databases to come to the conclusion Johal had been subjected to inspections over the years unfairly. “He asked if I was able to wave him through,” Kandola told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly, who is hearing the case without a jury. “It would save him time and money, and he wouldn’t be harassed.” Torrance reminded Kandola of his testimony a day earlier, when he said he was risking his job, his pension and his standing in the Sikh community by breaking his oath to protect Canada’s borders. “What was [Johal] offering you in return?” asked the prosecutor. “He didn’t offer me anything,” replied Kandola. “In my mind he was bringing auto parts into Canada.” Torrance asked, “This [waving Johal through] was definitely something you shouldn’t do?” “Yes,” agreed the witness. “Then why would you want to help a successful millionaire businessman?” Kandola replied: “I don’t know, I’ve asked myself the same question.” Torrance turned to Kandola’s illegal use of the databases to come to the conclusion Johal was unfairly harassed. A “lookout” had been placed on Johal’s border crossings after a tip from the RCMP. “Did you not consider [Johal] was previously suspected of smuggling cocaine?” asked Torrance. “No,” said Kandola. “That was all cleared up by your queries [into the databases]?” “I guess so,” replied the defendant. Torrance then meticulously went through Kandola’s phone, text and CBSA database records to show that he called Johal to let him know when he was in position to wave him through the border and when the “lookout” was on or off during the wee hours of Feb. 10, 2007. Asked if he was paid by Johal when they met at a 7-Eleven store the next day, Kandola denied it. Kandola was arrested on Oct. 25, 2007, shortly after he waved through a car driven by Herman Riar that contained 208 kilograms of cocaine. Riar pleaded guilty to drug smuggling and was sentenced last year to 12 years in prison. Kandola and Johal have pleaded not guilty to charges of drug smuggling, illegal firearms, conspiracy and bribing an official. The trial in New Westminster is scheduled to last three more weeks.

Britain's FBI 'abandoned chasing crime Mr Bigs because it's too difficult'

 

The elite unit set up by Labour to fight major criminals has failed to catch crime bosses because it is ‘too difficult’ and may even have been infiltrated by the underworld, says a whistleblower. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is supposed to be Britain’s answer to the FBI. When it was launched, Tony Blair pledged the organisation would ‘make life hell’ for the country’s ‘Mr Bigs’. It recruited from the cream of the police, immigration, customs and MI5 and had more than 4,000 staff in offices all over the world.  But Tim Lee, a former intelligence officer with SOCA, claims the agency has been blighted by corruption and bureaucracy. Mr Lee, 58, who joined SOCA in Nottingham when it was formed in 2006, paints a damning picture of his five years in the organisation. He claims: An investigation into a crime boss was mysteriously dropped when a SOCA officer with alleged links to the suspect took over the running of the case. Allegations of serious sexual misconduct made by a female SOCA worker against a male colleague were covered up. Hostility arose between police, customs and immigration officers when operational units were first formed in 2006.

B.C. skipper linked to cocaine shipment posed beside pile of cash

 

Just weeks before notorious B.C. skipper John Philip Stirling was caught near Colombia on a boat full of cocaine, he sent his neighbour in Chase — a community in B.C.'s Shuswap region — photos of himself lying on the floor beside a giant pile of money.

 

In the accompanying email, Stirling told Shawn Martin that he wouldn't repay cash he owed him despite being flush after a recent trip to the South American cocaine centre.

 

Bizarre details of Stirling's feud with his neighbours, Martin and his mother Myrna Beckman, over loans totalling $30,000 are laid out in a suit and counter-suit filed in August and September in Kamloops Supreme Court and obtained the Vancouver Sun.

 

Stirling was arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard on Oct. 18 just north of Colombia with 400 kilograms of cocaine secreted aboard his sailboat. He is currently detained in a Miami Detention Centre where he told officials "there was nothing wrong with cocaine trafficking and that the United States should mind its own business."

 

"He further remarked that if Canada didn't have such high taxes, (he and his co-accused) could get legitimate jobs."

 

If allegations in the B.C. court documents are accurate, some in the town of 2,500 were aware of Stirling's plan to import cocaine.

 

Martin and Beckman, who live down the road from Stirling and his wife Marlene, say in their court claim they heard at a barbecue last March "that the plaintiff John Stirling was in Colombia setting up a massive cocaine deal."

 

Martin and Beckman said their efforts to get repayment on several loans to the Stirlings were met with threats and harassment.

 

They also said accusations by the Stirlings that the neighbours were the aggressors in the dispute are ridiculous — Martin has dwarfism and gets around with crutches and a wheelchair; his mother, 63, is his caregiver.

 

Both Martin and Beckman declined to comment to the Sun because their case is before the courts. Marlene Stirling did not return calls.

 

The documents show that Stirling, a 60-year-old convicted cocaine trafficker, struck first against his neighbours, filing a suit on Aug. 29 asking for $10 million in damages.

 

Stirling said in a brief synopsis that over the last two years, his disabled neighbour and mom have threatened the Stirlings "with bodily harm and death."

 

"The defendants have written the plaintiffs blackmail letters for money," Stirling wrote. "The defendants have caused anxiety, depression, stress, loss of sleep requiring medical care to the petitioners.

 

"The defendants have caused travel to become necessary from Colombia for John Stirling at great expense and loss from work to protect his family . . . The defendants have or have attempted to hire Hells Angels to cause murder or physical harm to the plaintiffs and have made statements by phone and email of that intent," the Stirling claim said.

 

The neighbours fired back in a detailed defence filed Sept. 14, denying all the allegations and making a counter-claim.

 

They said that, unlike Stirling, they have no criminal record and no connection to the notorious biker gang.

 

"The defendants do not know any Hells Angels or Hells Angels associates and have never had dealings with them or hired them to do anything," Martin and Beckman said, adding the only information they have about the Angels came from the Stirlings themselves.

 

"The plaintiff Marlene Stirling also told the defendants that two Hells Angels members sat at her kitchen table and had coffee on multiple different times," the documents said.

 

They said they learned in an Internet search of Stirling's 2001 bust on his fishing boat, the Western Wind, with 2.5 tonnes of cocaine owned by the Hells Angels. He was never charged.

 

Tensions escalated between the former friends in August, when Stirling "was back from Colombia and was bragging that he had two suitcases full of money containing in excess of $200,000," the mother-son team said.

 

Martin fired off an email, "asking John to pay the rest of the money the plaintiffs owed the defendants for loans from June 1, 2007, to Feb. 23, 2011."

 

On Aug. 23, Stirling sent his neighbours "an email with a picture of him laying on the floor of his Adams' Lake residence with a pile of money in front of him, holding a piece of paper with Aug. 19, 2011, written on it," the claim said.

 

The email said: "I told you if you waited you would have got paid, but since you didn't, you will never receive a dime and everyone else has been paid back for their investment but you."

 

They said Stirling warned them that he would go to court and ruin them if they didn't back off.

 

"The defendants have videotape evidence of the plaintiff John Stirling threatening to kill more than one person at gunpoint," the documents said.

 

"On Sept. 10, 2011, the defendants were informed that the plaintiff John Stirling has been seeking to hire people to burn down the defendants' house and cause physical harm to them."

 

Martin and Beckman said "a man calling himself Ryan showed up at the defendants' residence wearing a black leather jacket with a Hells Angel patch and was looking for the plaintiff John Stirling because John apparently owed this guy Ryan money."

 

Martin said in the court statement that he called Stirlings' house and warned Marlene that someone was looking for John "and that he sounded really p—ed off."

 

 

ARRESTED 60-year-old, who is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Marbella area of Spain

Armed Naval and Gardai personnel with cocaine which was seized from a yacht off the west coast of Ireland

 

A BLACKPOOL man has been arrested for allegedly being part of a £250m international cocaine smuggling racket.

 

Police, acting under orders from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) – dubbed Britain’s FBI –swooped in the town to capture John Alan Brooks.

The 60-year-old, who is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Marbella area of Spain, was found at an address in Marton.

His arrest comes as part of a major investigation which was launched in 2008 when a 1.5 tonnes shipment of cocaine was seized off the coast of Ireland.

The luxury yacht Dances With Waves was carrying drugs with an estimated value of 300m euros or £250m.

Naval officers boarded her after she got into trouble 170 miles off the south west coast of Ireland.

Brooks is known to have had addresses previously in both the Commonedge Road area of Blackpool and in Lytham and St Annes.

It is believed he was visiting family members in Blackpool when police moved in.

A spokesman for SOCA confirmed: “A man allegedly linked to a plot to smuggle 1.5 tonnes of cocaine into the UK on board the boat Dances with Waves was arrested as part of a Serious Organised Crime Agency investigation.

“John Alan Brooks has been charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.

“He is originally from Blackpool, but has been living in the Benahavis area of Spain,

“He appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Monday. He has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Birmingham Crown Court this coming Monday.”

The drugs seizure was reportedly the largest in Irish history when it was made in November 2008.

Dances With Waves – a 60ft ocean-going yacht – had set sail from Trinidad and was heading for the UK when it got into difficulties in stormy weather.

It was reported 70 bales of cocaine were on the verge of capsizing when Naval officers moved in.

Authorities were forced to board the ship in “horrendous weather conditions” to prevent evidence being lost in the seven-metre swells.

Experts said although the yacht could travel at high speeds, it was not designed for rough weather.

Under armed guard, the crippled yacht was sailed to Castletownbere, west Cork, where plastic-wrapped bales which filled the hull were unloaded and stacked on the quayside.

n Philip Doo, 52, from Brixham, David Mufford, 44, of Torquay, and Christopher Wiggins, 42, with an address in Spain’s Costa del Sol were arrested on the yacht.

They later pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply.

All received 10-year sentences at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in May 2009

Attacks on Montreal lawyers lead to mistrial in cabbie murder

 

Violent intimidation tactics targeting Montreal lawyers appear to be working. A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a murdered cab driver after the defence counsel suddenly quit. Joseph La Leggia, said to be despondent over the savage beating last Friday of fellow lawyer Gilles Dore, withdrew "for medical and personal reasons," Judge Michael Stober announced in court. La Leggia had himself been badly beaten outside his home last December, the third lawyer so targeted in the past 12 months. The lawyer represented Nigel John, accused of second-degree murder in the Nov. 2009 death of taxi driver Mohammed Nehar-Belaid. The judge discharged the jury when La Leggia's co-counsel said they couldn't continue in La Leggia's absence. "This is an exceptional situation," said Crown prosecutor Helene Di Salvo. "We never expected that to happen in the middle of the trial, but there were no other options." The legal community has been on edge because of the three unsolved attacks. Last Friday lawyer Gilles Dore was beaten into a coma with a baseball bat outside his Montreal home. He represents three bikers facing trial for murder and gangsterism. Last month, the home of business litigation lawyer Thomas Kiriazi was targeted by Molotov cocktails. On Tuesday, someone left a suspicious package at the home of Montreal civil lawyer Bogdan Catanu. But fears were eased when police said the package was not meant as a threat and was simply an empty suitcase that had been dropped off by a bystander.

Son of Mom Boucher back in jail after Joliette charges

 

Francis Boucher, the son of notorious Hells Angels leader Maurice (Mom) Boucher, is back behind bars after he is alleged to have violated his statutory release on a 10-year prison sentence. The younger Boucher, known by the nickname Le Fils when he was part of a Hells Angels underling gang, was sentenced in 2002 after pleading guilty to charges filed from Operation Springtime 2001, a major police investigation into the biker gang's Nomad chapter in Montreal. Boucher, 36, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking and participation in a criminal organization. The charges involved crimes committed during a bloody conflict between the Hells Angels and other organized crime groups in Quebec from 1994 to 2002. Boucher was able to leave a federal penitentiary in 2009, after he reached the twothirds mark of his sentence. The Gazette has learned that he was returned to a penitentiary in Laval this year and is scheduled to have a hearing before the Parole Board of Canada in December. The board is to decide whether to revoke his statutory release officially. His release is believed to have been suspended when Boucher was arrested and charged on Aug. 31 in Joliette with harassment of, and threatening to kill or cause bodily harm to, a woman. According to court records, he has been detained since his arrest by Repentigny police. His next court date in that case is scheduled for Nov. 16. Maurice (Mom) Boucher is serving three life sentences for orchestrating the murders of two prison guards and the attempted murder of another.

New Orleans homicide rate is 10 times the national average. But gangs and drugs don't explain it.

New Orleans

At half-past midnight, as Halloween stretched into All Saints Day, a thick crowd of revelers was milling around the corner of Bourbon and St. Louis streets in New Orleans' famed French Quarter when a series of gun shots erupted. On security footage later released by police, the crowd scattered as suddenly as a school of bait fish at the approach of a barracuda.

But for eight in the crowd it wasn't quick enough. Seven were wounded and one, 25-year-old Albert Glover, the target of the attacker, died on the scene.

Just over an hour later and six blocks away, gunfire rang out again. This time Joshua Lewis, 19, and three other teenagers were cut down in a fusillade of 32 bullets fired by a single assailant following a brief altercation. Lewis later died at a local hospital. In all 16 people were shot in New Orleans on Halloween night, a butcher's bill that shook even the jaded citizens of America's deadliest city.

The violence left New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas strapped to the hot seat. Appointed by Mayor Mitch Landrieu in May of 2010, Mr. Serpas—the former police chief of Nashville, Tenn.—came into office vowing to stem a tide of violent crime and reform what he called "one of the most dysfunctional police departments in American history." In Mr. Serpas's first 18 months more than 60 officers have been fired or have resigned under investigation, including members of the department's top brass. Overall, nearly 200 officers have left for a variety of reasons.

Over the same period, the city's murder rate has risen. As of this week, 164 homicides have been committed in New Orleans in 2011, on pace to eclipse last year's total of 172. To put that number in perspective, New York City, with more than 20 times the population of New Orleans, had 536 murders last year. If New York had New Orleans's homicide rate, more than 4,000 people would have been murdered there last year, about 11 every day.

In response to public outcry over the bloodshed, Mr. Serpas has offered a plethora of reform ideas. His public statements are peppered with references to his 65-point plan to remake the department, the adoption of crime-interdiction strategies such as Project Safe Neighborhoods, and enhanced community policing efforts to help repair the police department's tattered image.

Enlarge Image

Associated Press

The French Quarter in New Orleans

With his outlines, flow charts and ready recitation of reams of statistics, Mr. Serpas sounds every inch the embodiment of a modern police commander. Early in his tenure such proficiency was a welcome change from the questionable competence of his predecessors. But as the murders have persisted and department morale has sagged, his penchant for data-speak has worn thin on the citizenry.

To be fair, from the outset Mr. Serpas has been somewhat circumspect about his department's ability to reduce homicides. When pressed he is apt to say things like there is no "silver bullet" and he comes close at times to suggesting that the murder epidemic is beyond his power to stem—a point which, whatever its accuracy, does not instill confidence in a traumatized populace.

At a city council hearing following the Halloween shootings, Mr. Serpas was pressed to identify the source of the murder problem. Were more police the solution? Not really, he responded. He's brought in nationally recognized researchers to advise the department on the root of the murder problem, but they didn't have any easy answers: "People who've studied homicide their whole life say 'Why is that number that way?'" he told the council.

In March, the Justice Department (which is negotiating a consent decree regarding court supervision of the New Orleans Police Department) released an analysis of the city's crime problem that did contain some insights. Contrary to popular perception, it found that New Orleans' overall crime rate—including its rate of violent crime—is lower than that of other cities of comparable size. It's even lower than the crime rate in such family-friendly destinations as Orlando, Fla.

But that news comes with a giant caveat: The Big Easy's homicide rate (52 homicides per 100,000 residents) is 10 times higher than the national average and almost five times that of other cities of its size.

Why is the city such a murder outlier? In many jurisdictions, the Justice Department notes, gangs and drugs are principal drivers of the murder rate. Not so in New Orleans, which has comparatively little gang activity or organized violence related to the drug trade. Nor do the killings tend to happen in back alleys or vacant buildings as they often do in other places. More often they occur in residential neighborhoods in close proximity to witnesses. And more often the motivation is not random robbery, but revenge or argument.

In short, the killing in New Orleans is personal. "What appear to be different about homicides in New Orleans are the circumstances of the events," Justice Department investigators noted. "In reading the narratives of the offenses, one is struck by their ordinariness—arguments and disputes that escalate into homicide."

This presents Mr. Serpas and his troops with a different sort of policing challenge. Law enforcement can disrupt gangs and target drug kingpins. But what does it do about a culture in which Glocks have become the preferred tool for settling petty disputes?

The word Mr. Serpas and other officials frequently invoke to describe their approach is "holistic," a term more commonly associated with ashrams and yoga gurus than big city cops. But at bottom, the superintendent insists, the bloodshed in New Orleans isn't going to be solved just by putting more cops on the beat or cracking down on minor violators. After all, Mr. Serpas noted, the Halloween night shooting of eight people on Bourbon Street happened with policemen standing a few feet away from the gunman. "It did not make a difference in this young man's mind."

Changing the mindset of young men who settle beefs with bullets is a tall order for any community. To make an enduring dent in the murder rate, the cops will need to get into the neighborhoods, at a granular level, using street intelligence, diversion programs and targeted sweeps on a sustained level. And even then, breaking the city's crippling culture of violence will take more than a reformed police force can provide.

Police raid Perth bikie properties

 

42-year-old Rebels motorcycle gang member is one of three people being questioned by police after a search of his home in Calista, south of Perth. Police say they found a 22 calibre, self-loading handgun, cash, cannabis and a trafficable quantity of what they believe to be methamphetamine during this morning's search of the Edmund Road house. No charges have been laid at this stage. Gang Crime Squad detectives have also raided a home linked to a bikie gang in Morley this afternoon. They say they were searching for stolen motorcycles, firearms and drugs. The raids are part of a continued effort by police to disrupt the activities of motorcycle gangs.

Joseph Patrick John Lagrue handed himself in at Solihull police station in September after the brawl between members of the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws biker gangs

One of Birmingham’s ‘Most Wanted’ crooks is facing justice over a battle between rival bikers at the airport in which one man nearly died.

Joseph Patrick John Lagrue handed himself in at Solihull police station in September after the brawl between members of the Hell’s Angels and Outlaws biker gangs in January 2008.

Up to 30 people, some armed with hammers, machetes, knuckledusters, knives and a meat cleaver, were involved in the fight following a trip to Spain.

Families of holidaymakers were forced to dive for cover as the violence swept through the terminal.

A police source said Lagrue, 43, understood to be a member of the Outlaws, had played a “key role" in the violence.

But he was not tracked down following the incident and, in January last year, detectives named him as ‘wanted’ and added his face to their website.

A West Midlands Police spokesman said that following his arrest on September 27 he appeared before magistrates in Solihull charged with rioting.

He has pleaded guilty to the offence and will be sentenced later this month.

“Joseph Lagrue was wanted by police in connection since the investigation commenced and our efforts to track him down never ceased,” the spokesman said.

“This was a significant disturbance played out in the full glare of a busy international airport terminal.

"Families returning to Birmingham from their holidays were forced to take cover as two groups attacked each other with gratuitous violence.

“Weapons were produced and used and there were a number of injuries.

“The arrest of Joseph Lagrue brings this significant investigation to a close.”

The mob violence exploded near the arrivals hall of the airport after rival members discovered they were on the same flight from Alicante, in Spain.

Members of both gangs were met by associates, who provided them with weapons, as they arrived at the airport and began brawling in front of terrified families.

Several men were injured and one almost lost his life after suffering a serious head injury.

In July 2009, Neil Harrison, then aged 46, of Bell Green Road, Coventry; Paul Arlett, then 35, of Cradley Road, Dudley; Mark Price, then 50, of Westbury Road, Nuneaton, Warwickshire; Sean Timmins, then 38, of Brewood Road in Coven, Staffordshire; Leonard Hawthorne, then 52, of Penn Road, Wolverhampton; Mark Moseley, then 46, of Orchard Rise, in Birmingham, and Jeremy Ball, then 46, of Plant Street, Cheadle, Staffordshire, were each jailed for six years after being convicted of rioting.

Another man, Mark Larner, then aged 47, of Tudor Road, Upper Gornal in the Black Country, fled to South Africa “with a substantial amount of money” before being sentenced. He later handed himself in to police in Bristol and was jailed in November 2009 for six years.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said Lagrue had pleaded guilty and was remanded in custody until later this month when he is due to be sentenced at Warwick Crown Court.

John Philip Stirling, 60, is in a Florida jail after U.S. authorities allegedly seized 400 kilograms of cocaine from his vessel

 

Phil Stirling, shown here in 2000, told U.S. authorities there’s nothing wrong with cocaine trafficking, and said the States should mind its own business.

Photograph by: RIC ERNST, PNG

A self-described drug smuggler who walked away unscathed from two high-profile drug busts in B.C. has landed himself in hot water south of the border.

John Philip Stirling, 60, is in a Florida jail after U.S. authorities allegedly seized 400 kilograms of cocaine from his vessel on Oct. 18.

According to U.S. court documents, Stirling, in an unprompted outburst while being transported to a detention centre, said there was nothing wrong with cocaine trafficking and that the U.S. should mind its own business.

“He further remarked that if Canada didn’t have such high taxes, they could get legitimate jobs,” said the affidavit.

Stirling’s defiant comments did not come as a surprise to retired RCMP Sgt. Pat Convey, who spent years chasing the man.

“That sounds like our man, Mr. Stirling,” said Convey, reached at his Vancouver Island home.

Stirling was a “big, flamboyant, boisterous guy who enjoyed taking chances,” said Convey. “That’s what he was about. He was a drug trafficker. I think he’s been that all his life.”

Stirling — who had admitted to The Province in 2002 that he started smuggling dope when he was 16 — was skippering the Atlantis V when it was spotted on a routine patrol by the U.S. Coast Guard about 400 kilometres north of Colombia on Oct. 17.

When inspectors boarded the ship, they allegedly found 358 packages of drugs — mostly cocaine, but also some heroin and methamphetamines.

Stirling and his crew — fellow Canadians Thomas Arthur Henderson and Randy Wilfred Theriault, Colombian Jose Manuel Calvo Herrera and Italian Luigi Barbaro — were arrested and charged.

According to Barbaro’s statement, the ship departed from Santa Marta, Colombia, and was headed to Australia.

Stirling, who was sentenced to five years in jail in the 1980s on cocaine-related charges, had been arrested twice before in similar circumstances.

In a highly publicized case, Stirling was caught by U.S. authorities off Washington’s Cape Alava in 2001 with 2½ tonnes of cocaine, worth more than $250 million, aboard the Western Wind.

He was turned over to the Canadians. Later, he claimed he was an RCMP informant and that he was transporting the cocaine for the Hells Angels. No charges were laid.

Stirling was again arrested in 2006 after authorities found 155 bales of marijuana aboard a vessel near Vancouver Island. The charges were stayed.

Convey believes Stirling might finally get the reckoning he has eluded in Canada.

“The Americans play a different game from us, and quite frankly, our system leaves a hell of a lot to be desired,” he said.

“If they proceed with the case and they got him with the many hundred kilos [of cocaine], he’s going in for a long time.”

A member of the Hells Angels biker gang, Mazdak Fabricius, is accused of the murder, which was the starting point for a bloody gang war in Copenhagen

 

62 people were arrested near Copenhagen on Tuesday following a clash between two rival gangs outside a courthouse where a gang member was on trial for the 2008 murder of a young Turk, police said. The people arrested in the Copenhagen suburb of Glostrup had "ties to gangs and bikers," a police statement said. Rival gangs have been battling for years over control of Copenhagen's illegal drug market. According to various media, close to 100 people clashed outside the Glostrup courthouse where the man suspected of gunning down a young Turk in Copenhagen in 2008 was on trial. A member of the Hells Angels biker gang, Mazdak Fabricius, is accused of the murder, which was the starting point for a bloody gang war in Copenhagen. Journalists at Tuesday's scene said members of the Hells Angels and its support group AK81 faced off against the Tingbjerg group, described as the "immigrants."

Three brothers from hell

 

These are the three brothers from hell -- two killers and one a suspected hitman. Two of the men, Eric and Keith Wilson from Ballyfermot in Dublin, are now suspected of being involved in over ten gun murders between them. Keith Wilson (23) was today beginning a life term in jail for the gangland execution of hitman-for-hire Daniel Gaynor in August, 2010. His brother Eric 'Lucky' Wilson (27) is serving 23 years in a Spanish prison for the murder of British criminal Daniel Smith in a packed bar on the Costa del Sol. Their older brother John (34) was released from garda custody in September after being arrested by officers probing a shooting at the Players Lounge pub in July, 2010, which left three innocent men with serious injuries. John -- who has survived three assassination attempts -- showed up every day at Keith's dramatic murder trial. Yesterday's conviction is being hailed as a major breakthrough in the fight against organised criminal activity in Dublin.

Frank Lucas, the Harlem drug kingpin whose life inspired the 2007 film starring Denzel Washington, was charged with theft by deception

Jim Cooper/APFrank Lucas, the man that Denzel Washington portrayed in the movie "American Gangster," is shown in New York in this file photo from Nov. 2, 2007. 

 

Frank Lucas, the Harlem drug kingpin whose life inspired the 2007 film starring Denzel Washington, was charged with theft by deception last month after he tried to bilk the U.S. Treasury out of $17,345 meant for his teenage son, authorities said.

The Social Security check was issued to Lucas in early October, said Katherine Carter, a spokeswoman for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, but he told government officials the payment was lost when he changed addresses and asked them to send another.

The 81-year-old Lucas — who moved to Newark in the 1980s after he served prison time for running a massive drug empire that smuggled nearly pure heroin into New York and New Jersey — allegedly cashed both checks, Carter said.

Lucas faces up to five years in prison if convicted, Carter said. He is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Newark on Nov. 28.

The Social Security checks were meant for Lucas’ 15-year-old son, Raymond, said Richie Roberts, the former prosecutor’s detective who prosecuted Lucas in 1976 and later became his defense attorney and confidant.

The government provides Social Security benefits to a child if their parent is unable to care for them due to age or infirmity. Lucas, who once claimed he earned $1 million per day selling his "Blue Magic" brand of heroin, is now confined to a wheelchair, suffers from diabetes and severe arthritis and is unable to provide for his son, Roberts said.

Through his attorney, Lucas has denied any wrongdoing.

The theft charge is a far cry from the criminal activity that allowed Lucas to rise from a penniless Harlem resident in 1946 to one of the country’s most infamous and wealthy drug lords by the 1970s. After moving from North Carolina, Lucas’ rise to prominence began under famed Harlem numbers boss Bumpy "Ellsworth" Johnson.

When Johnson died in 1968, Lucas set out to break the Italian Mafia’s stranglehold on the drug trade in New York, importing nearly pure heroin from Southeast Asia that he sold on the streets of Harlem and Newark. Lucas controlled the gang, referred to as the "Country Boys" from a towering mansion in Teaneck.

Roberts, who oversaw the Essex County Prosecutor’s Bureau of Narcotics in the 1970s, obtained an indictment for Lucas when he shut down a Newark heroin ring led by Lucas’ brother, Vernon. Roberts prosecuted Frank Lucas, winning a conviction that would have sent the kingpin to prison for more than 60 years.

But Lucas became a government informant and his testimony led to the arrest of countless drug dealers and crooked police officers. He served less than 10 years of his sentence.

"His cooperation resulted in the arrest of anybody and everybody he ever sold a dime bag too," Roberts said.

Deadly shooting probe spreads to Vancouver suburb

 

The investigation into the slaying of a man gunned down Sunday morning in Vancouver has spread to the suburban community of Port Moody, CBC News has learned. Axel Curtis, 29, was hit when at least six shots were fired in broad daylight, about 9 a.m. Sunday at the corner of Ash and 7th Avenue West as he walked his dog. Police said Curtis was known to them and had past gang affiliations. There were no other injuries, and witnesses said the assailant, a man in a black hoodie, left the area on foot. Neighbours of a Port Moody apartment also frequented by Curtis say there was a sudden spike in police activity around the building Saturday night, hours before the shooting. On Monday, police searched the seventh-floor apartment, owned by Curtis’s father. Police would not comment on the Port Moody side of the investigation, but a female neighbour — who asked not to be identified — said the night before Curtis was killed in Vancouver police and emergency vehicles appeared to be stationed outside the Port Moody condo. "There was an ambulance ready to go,” the neighbour said. “With the police officers … driving back and forth, which struck me as a little strange, that maybe they were anticipating something happening." Watched for months The woman said officers appeared to be watching the apartment for months, and believes local residents should have been warned if violence was anticipated at the building. "They're kind of denying what I think is the public's right, or the people living on that floor's right … that there's possibly a safety concern." Curtis had previous convictions for drug trafficking, firearms possession and obstructing police. Curtis featured briefly in a CBC documentary on Vancouver gangsters, where he suggested to a female police officer who stopped him on the street in Downtown Vancouver that he had left the gang lifestyle. “I'm a changed man,” he told the officer in the production entitled “The Gangster Next Door.” “Oh, I don’t think so,” the officer replied.

Your right to die in a bikie war shootout

 

AT A guess you could probably assume that none of the High Court judges live in Merrylands, where the Nomads and Hells Angels are engaged in what the police reassuringly describe not as a bikie gang war but merely "tit for tat violence". It is also unlikely that any of these eminent jurists live in Northmead, where an innocent woman had her house strafed with bullets while she was sleeping last week in a zany address mix-up by a bikie who was having trouble reading his UBD. Presumably, none of the judges live in Adelaide's north-western suburb of Semaphore where an 11-year-old boy, the son of a former member of the Finks, was shot in the leg while he slept during a home invasion last month. When the ambulance arrived and the media turned up, bricks were hurled from the home. None of the witnesses to the shooting of the 11-year-old boy would initially co-operate with the police. It was reported however that the Finks had offered their own reward of $500,000 for information on the identity of the shooter. This shooting and its unco-operative aftermath reinforced the fact that members of bikie gangs do not look to the police and the courts for assistance. That's what civilised and law-abiding people do. To this end the police, and particularly the courts, are letting civilised and law-abiding people down. None of the High Court judges could find Merrylands or Semaphore with a packed lunch, a GPS and a team of indigenous trackers. And even the cops seem depressingly ambivalent about what is going on in middle Australian suburbs such as these. Perhaps it was just an unfortunate choice of words but NSW Gangs Squad commander Arthur Katsogiannis seemed too laid-back by half on Sunday in discussing the bikie shootings in Sydney's west, a staggering eight of which have taken place since last Thursday. "If this was a full-scale war between the Nomads and the Hells Angels you would not have the shootings isolated at one particular area, they would be right around the metropolitan area and around the state," he said. No dramas then. But it is the courts which really take the cake on this issue. Just over a year ago the High Court had a chance to seriously disrupt the freedom of bikie gang members to behave in an anti-social and criminal manner. Bombarded by civil libertarian tripe, the court opted to throw in its lot not with the civilised and law-abiding majority but the one per cent "who don't fit and don't care" - to borrow from the Hells Angels' own mission statement. The NSW and SA governments had both passed legislation which would have declared bikie gangs criminal organisations and enabled police to seek orders from magistrates preventing bikies from associating with each other and visiting certain addresses. But this invited the tediously predictable criticisms from academics and defence lawyers along Basil Fawlty lines that this is exactly how Nazi Germany started. One academic warned there was nothing stopping the authorities from using the same laws against the local lawn bowls club or Apex or Rotary. Andreas Schloenhardt, from the University of Queensland law school, fired up at the time: "This legislation is dangerous ... There is little in the legislation that can stop the Attorney-General from banning a bowling club." Certainly that could have been a handy application, in the event that the ladies' four stopped making scones and started manufacturing methamphetamine. But none of this is funny if you live in Ermington or Merrylands or Northmead or Semaphore and are busily keeping your head down, literally, as the "tit for tat violence" continues. The High Court had its chance to make the community safer and it blew it. The NSW and SA laws would have disrupted the lawlessness which has continued and reached a new crisis point since last Thursday and opted instead, on the basis of some legally arcane pedantry about usurping the authority of the Supreme Court, to strike down those laws. Meanwhile the cops are doing a cracking job standing behind police cameras and raiding pubs to make sure no one has had more than four standard drinks, and the High Court judges are happily ensconced in those suburbs where the Nomads and Finks and Hells Angels tend not to tread. People in normal suburbs must deal with that on their own.

Legal community rattled by attack on Hells Angels lawyer

 

legal community is raising questions after a criminal lawyer known for defending members of biker gangs was assaulted outside his home. The victim has been identified as Gilles Doré, who was involved in the criminal proceedings linked to arrests in the wake of Operation SharQc. He is also known as a prominent defence lawyer in the first Hells Angels' mega-trial in 2002, which ended in the murder conviction of Hells leader Maurice "Mom" Boucher. Montreal police say the 58-year-old man was assaulted outside his Outremont home on Friday night. Police say the victim was beaten by one or more individuals. No one has been arrested and the police do not have a description of a possible suspect. Colleagues said Monday he was in stable condition. Colleagues concerned Lawyers say they regularly get threats from all types of clients, which don't always lead to an attack. One defence lawyer, Eric Sutton, said he questioned whether the police will investigate the case with the same veracity with which they investigate other crimes. He said there is a perception that defence lawyers are closely connected with those they represent, which is not always the case. "The defence lawyers get associated with their clientele, and I'm not sure the police will prioritize this case the way it perhaps should have been," he said. "But I don't want to presume that." Richard Prihoda, president of the Defence Attorneys Association of Montreal, calls the attack completely unacceptable under any circumstances. Prihoda said in an interview that if the attack is found to be related to Dore's work, then it is more than just an assault. "It's not just an attack on one lawyer, it's an attack on the whole judicial system," Prihoda said. "As with the Crown prosecutors and the judges, we're a part of the system." Prihoda said the association will discuss the recent attack, at a previously scheduled meeting on Wednesday. "I went to the courthouse today (Monday) and everybody is asking questions," Prihoda said. Prihoda said he hopes that police can resolve the case, as well as other outstanding attacks on Quebec lawyers. Similar attacks on attorneys Montreal defence lawyer Joseph La Leggia was attacked in similar fashion last December near his home. He has since resumed practising law. Another Montreal lawyer, Thomas Kiriazis, who is not a defence lawyer, has also been targeted. The business lawyer says he has been the victim of death threats and a firebombing in front of his home, located in the same neighbourhood where Dore was attacked. Dore battling 2002 Bar suspension In addition to the 2002 megatrial, Dore is currently involved in the massive Hells Angels megatrial being held in Montreal. Dore is due before the Supreme Court of Canada soon, where he is attempting to overturn a lower-court decision that upheld a 21-day suspension he was given by the Quebec Bar Association during the 2002 megatrial. The suspension was over a critical letter Dore sent to a Quebec judge over comments that judge made at the bail hearing of one of his clients.

United Nations gangster killed in a hail of bullets in Vancouver

 

29-year-old man linked to the United Nations gang was gunned down in a brazen morning shooting in a busy Vancouver residential neighbourhood Sunday. The Vancouver Sun has learned the shooting victim is Axel Curtis, who has several convictions for drug trafficking, fraud and possession of a firearm. Curtis is considered a low-level member of the UN gang. He was shot dead at about 9:30 a.m. while walking his French bulldog at the corner of Ash Street and Seventh Avenue, near his eight-storey apartment building. The shooting took place as people were walking and cycling nearby, and was witnessed by residents in the building where Curtis lived. Vancouver police spokeswoman Const. Jana McGuinness said Curtis was shot multiple times. “We are comfortable in saying this was a targeted shooting,” McGuinness said at a news conference at the cordoned-off scene Sunday afternoon. The shooting is the 13th homicide of the year in Vancouver. Police were interviewing multiple witnesses and expect to release a description of the shooter as soon as they have enough information. The interview process could take some time, said McGuinness, as some witnesses were being offered support because of the traumatic effect of the shooting. At least one witness was in tears Sunday morning at the scene. “As you can appreciate, people who saw this happening — which typically you would only see happening in the movies — it would be just so shocking and quite distressing,” said McGuinness. Neighbours described hearing six to 10 gun shots in rapid succession. Some people came to the assistance of the gunned-down man, performing CPR, but he was dead at the scene, said McGuinness. Shocked neighbours described the incident as concerning because of the possibility that bystanders could be caught in the gunfire. Police said there were bullet holes in the business Optical Factory at the northeast corner of Ash and Seventh where the shooting took place. Police also cordoned off a coffee shop on the south side of Seventh, just across from the shooting. Most neighbourhood residents declined to give their names in interviews as they were frightened by the nature of the incident — rapid gunfire in broad daylight in an otherwise quiet neighbourhood. Some already suspected it was a gang shooting. “It’s too close to home,” said Suzanne, a nearby resident who would not give her last name. Katy Erwin, who has lived in the area for five years, didn’t see the shooting but saw the police cars converge on the scene. She said the area is normally quiet. However, she added there have been some incidents in the past, including three years ago when 10 or so police vehicles converged on a nearby area. McGuinness said the neighbourhood’s shock is understandable, but noted people with gang ties live in all communities in the region — in high-priced homes and in apartments. Police were combing the crime scene for forensic evidence, and were going to follow up with businesses in the area to see if they had surveillance footage. The shooter was described by neighbourhood witnesses as wearing a dark hoodie. The dead man, Curtis, had a criminal record. He was sentenced to two years in jail in August 2007 after being arrested in Vancouver for trafficking and possession of a firearm. He was also given a 10-year firearms prohibition. He was convicted of a West Vancouver fraud in 2006 and got 18 months probation. And he faced trafficking charges in Surrey after being arrested in December 2004. He was also charged with trafficking in Abbotsford in June 2009, but the case was later dismissed. At the time of his death Sunday, he had one outstanding charge of driving while prohibited in Port Moody in the summer of 2010. He was due to go to trial for that in March, 2012. Curtis used several aliases, including Anthony Bartoli, Colin Richardson, Albert Curry, Gabriel Pellegrino and Michael Ross.

Michael Jackson sisters happy with justice

 

Michael Jackson's sisters La Toya and Rebbie are relieved and happy after a court jury found the late pop superstar's personal physician Conrad Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the singer's anaesthetic-induced death. After the verdict was announced Monday, his sisters let fans know they were happy with the climax of the trial. "Victory was served," said La Toya, while her sister added: "I'm just happy it's over with. Nothing will bring him back, but I'm just happy he (Murray) was found guilty." La Toya confirmed she was the courtroom guest who said "Yes!" as the verdict was read. The Jackson family has been a constant presence in court throughout the trial and Janet Jackson cut short her Australian tour to be at Monday's climax. She was joined by brothers Randy and Jermaine and her parents Joe and Katherine, contactmusic.com reported. A statement from Katherine and Joe Jackson read: "We have been waiting for this moment for a very long time and we couldn't hold back tears of joy in the courtroom. Even though nothing can bring back our son, justice has finally been served!" The two added: "We can't wait to go home and share this day with Michael's children." The 50-year-old Jackson died June 25, 2009 at his Holmby Hills estate in Los Angeles when he was preparing for his comeback series of 50 sold-out London concerts. The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office ruled Jackson died of "acute propofol intoxication". Prosecutors accused 58-year-old Murray of failing to properly monitor Jackson after giving him a lethal dose of propofol. They contended that the cardiologist repeatedly acted with gross negligence, repeatedly denied appropriate care to his patient, and that it was Murray's repeated incompetence and unskilled acts that led to Jackson's death. Murray was a little bit shocked by Monday's decision, Xinhua reported. He was handcuffed after the verdict was read and was immediately remanded to custody in county jail without bail pending his sentencing Nov 29. At the conclusion of the six-week trial, the seven-men, five-women jury read the long-expected verdict. Murray, who faces up to four years in prison, remained stone-faced as the verdict was announced, showing no visible reaction. The jury deliberated for about eight-and-a-half-hour before reaching a verdict. When the verdict was announced, some cries of "yes" could be heard from the courtroom audience. Jackson fans were seen celebrating when the news spread outside the courthouse. Droves of fans gathering outside the courthouse were elated by the news. One man, who asked not be named, said this was a victory for Jackson and his family. "Murray is guilty because he failed to call 911, this is negligence for a doctor", he said.

GUILTY! Michael Jackson's doctor found guilty of manslaughter in King of Pop's death

To many of his devoted patients, Conrad Murray was a caring doctor who would offer treatment for free to the poor.

But his secret double life as a deadbeat dad and a compulsive womaniser led him to take a lucrative job as Michael Jackson's personal drug doctor.

Desperate for cash to pay his mounting debts, Murray took the lucrative post injecting Jackson - no questions asked - with nightly doses of the knock-out sleep drug that ultimately killed the world's biggest star. 

Murray's $1.2m Las Vegas mansion was about to be repossessed after he fell $96,000 behind with the mortgage in 2009 when Jackson asked him to travel to London with him as his full-time physician, official documents reveal.

His two medical practices in Nevada and Texas faced $631,000 in court judgments and he was late paying a $64,000 personal loan and thousands of pounds in child support.

The Grenada-born doctor's spiraling debts were the reason Murray demanded $4.8m from Jackson when he was first offered the job, said friends. He later settled for $160,000-a-month.

Hours after being convicted of causing the death of the King of Pop, Murray was revealed as the King of the Cads.

Murray, who is married, has fathered at least seven children with six women, most of them out of wedlock.

According to court records, he has also been sued more than a dozen times for claims including breach of contract and unpaid child support.

 

 

 

In April, 2009, Murray was sentenced to 10 days in jail for non-payment of child support and was ordered to spend 25 days behind bars for the same reason in 2007. On both occasions, he eventually paid up to avoid going to prison.

Partner: Nicole Alvarez, 29, told the jury she had been living with Murray for the last three to four years and had a son with him. She said he called her while her was in the ambulance with Jackson en route to hospital

Prosecution witness: Sade Anding was a cocktail waitress who met Murray in Houston was on the phone to him when Michael Jackson's heart stopped

 

More women: The court heard from Michelle Bella (L) an exotic dancer Murray met in Las Vegas, and Bridget Morgan (R) a former girlfriend who testified she called Murray earlierthe morning Jackson died

He was also arrested twice on charges brought by former girlfriends, once for fraudulent breach of trust and once for domestic violence, although he was never convicted.

While still living with his doctor wife, Blanche, and their two children in Las Vegas, Murray was also paying the $2,564-a-month rent on a flat in Santa Monica, California, for his 29-year-old actress lover Nicole Alvarez.

Gangster dead in Vancouver daytime shooting

 

brazen gangland slaying in a busy area one block from a Vancouver police station has left witnesses to the Sunday morning shooting extremely shaken. A man dressed in black clothing approached the victim as he walked his dog and shot him six times in the chest from close range, according to witness accounts. A witness, who asked to be identified only as Sylvia, said she heard six gunshots. “It sounded like fireworks,” said Sylvia, who was enjoying a cappuccino at a nearby cafe just before 10 a.m. “We looked out the window and saw a hooded man — a man in a black hoodie and black pants. He just ran up the road.” She then noticed someone lying on the ground on the northeast corner of the intersection. “I ran over to see if he needed help,” said Sylvia. Two other passersby were already at his side. “They were checking for a pulse. He had a pulse for a short time,” she said. The witness said he had been shot six times in the chest. “There was a lot of bleeding. We ran back and got him a blanket. The police were there very quickly, in less than a minute, and after that emergency people took over.” While the victim’s body lay under a blanket, Vancouver police officers armed with large rifles searched for a suspect. Sylvia described the victim as a white man in his 20s who had been walking a dog before he was shot. Vancouver Police Department Const. Jana McGuinness confirmed the targeted shooting marked the city’s 13th homicide of 2011. “We do believe he has some gang links,” said McGuinness, who did not name the victim. After the shooting, the victim’s pet, a French bulldog, ran around frantically until one of the passersby managed to bring it under control.