AlphaBay, Hansa Shut, but Drug Dealers Flock to Dark Web DreamMarket

Two of the largest online black-market sites have been shuttered in a law enforcement crackdown, but drug dealers have moved in a hurry to a third “dark net” emporium, where listings of fentanyl and heroin have already spiked, according to analysts.

The newfound popularity of DreamMarket highlights the whack-a-mole challenges of policing drugs sold online even as government officials touted the the death of the other two sites, AlphaBay and Hansa.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department announced Thursday that AlphaBay — described as a major source of fentanyl and heroin that has been linked to overdose deaths — had been seized and closed down.

“This is likely one of the most important criminal investigations of the year — taking down the largest dark net marketplace in history,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The so-called dark net is a part of the Internet that can only be accessed by specialized software or hardware and contains clandestine websites not found through normal search engines.

Alphabay and Hansa advertised drugs, chemicals, counterfeit documents, weapon and computer malware among many other items and services, cloaking users in anonymity. Authorities said AlphaBay alone was responsible for at least a billion dollars worth of commerce, using bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.

AlphaBay’s suspected founder, Alexandre Caze, was arrested earlier this month in Thailand at the request of U.S. officials. A week later he was found dead in his cell.

As soon as authorities shut down AlphaBay, sellers began migrating to other sites, according to Kela Targeted Cyber Intelligence, a Tel Aviv company that specializes in monitoring the dark net.

Full Read  – http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alphabay-hansa-shut-drug-dealers-flock-dark-web-dreammarket-n785001?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma

O.J. SIMPSON STERN & EMOTIONAL … at Parole Board Hearing

O.J. Simpson had no problem getting tough while addressing Nevada’s Parole Board Commissioners … but he was also overcome with emotion.

The NFL Hall of Famer was granted parole by unanimous decision Thursday but not before an intense hearing that also included some chuckles from the board.

The 70-year-old NFL Hall of Famer addressed Nevada’s Board of Parole Commissioners via video conference. The earliest he can be released from Lovelock Correctional Center is October 1.

He’s served 9 years of his 33 year prison sentence.

He was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman — and many legal experts feel his 33 year sentence was payback for the controversial murder trial verdict. That event, the board said, did not factor in its decision to grant parole.

Las Vegas lawyer indicted for allegedly giving cellphone to inmates

July 6, 2017 – 1:46 pm

Alexis Plunkett, a Las Vegas defense lawyer charged with improperly providing a cellphone to jail inmates, was indicted Thursday on a dozen felony charges.

Plunkett, 36, has said that she is in a relationship with one of the inmates, 26-year-old Andrew Arevalo, who also was indicted, and that she used the cellphone to make calls regarding bail, which she believed she was authorized to do.

Investigators reported that they have video of Plunkett and Arevalo kissing at least three times during afternoon and late-night visits at the Clark County Detention Center in downtown Las Vegas.

Arevalo, a documented member of the Surenos gang who goes by the nickname “Silent,” has felony convictions dating to 2009.

He was shot in the face during a 2014 shooting at Nevada’s High Desert State Prison that left another man dead. With Plunkett as his attorney, Arevalo sued the Nevada Department of Corrections and others, including the former director of prisons.

Earlier this year, Arevalo was arrested after police found him with guns, body armor and meth while driving a 2004 Chevy Avalanche owned by Rogelio Estrada, whom Plunkett also represented. Investigators said Plunkett provided her cellphone to both men at the jail.

Estrada faces similar charges but was not indicted Thursday.

Neither Plunkett nor her attorney, Michael Becker, could immediately be reached for comment.

Because there are multiple defendants, prosecutors decided to take the case to a grand jury after a lack of progress in negotiations, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Jay P. Raman. Details of the negotiations have not been made public.

Asked about the allegations against Plunkett, Nevada State Bar Counsel Stan Hunterton said: “That’s pending investigation, and I cannot comment.”

Full Read – https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/courts/las-vegas-lawyer-indicted-for-allegedly-giving-cellphone-to-inmates/

THE MAFIA IS TEAMING UP WITH NIGERIA’S ‘VIKING’ GANGSTERS TO RUN SEX RINGS IN SICILY

Mafia members in Sicily are teaming up with a Nigerian gang that uses machetes on its enemies and only accepts degree-qualified members, to run sex rings on the Italian island.

Police sources told The Times that members of the Vikings—a gang that sprung out of Nigerian universities in the 1980s and demands that members have no criminal record—have collaborated with the local Cosa Nostra, or the Sicilian Mafia in Ballaro, a town in Sicily, and were threatening to expand into the capital Palermo.

The groups have worked together on vice rings involving Nigerian women who have been trafficked to Italy as sex workers. Nigerian women began traveling to Italy in the 1980s to work as fruit pickers but soon turned to sex work, and an estimated 30,000 have since been trafficked from the West African country to work as prostitutes in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, The Guardian reported.

Read Full – http://www.newsweek.com/mafia-nigeria-migration-sex-work-trafficking-629627

Factbox: Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer has experience with the mob and music

Alan Futerfas, the lawyer Donald Trump Jr. has hired to represent him in connection with Russia-related probes, has over 25 years experience in handling government investigations and criminal cases.

John Moscow, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, described Futerfas as a “top-flight lawyer” who is both “high-powered and low-key.”

Here are some facts about Futerfas:

He became a top mob defense lawyer early on

Miami-born Futerfas joined the law firm of veteran criminal defense lawyer Gerald Shargel after graduating from Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York in 1987, and quickly became a partner. He left to form his own firm in 1994.

In one of his biggest cases from that period, Futerfas won a new trial in 1997 for mob captain Anthony Russo after it was revealed that a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent may have leaked information to fuel an organized crime war in the early 1990s.

He expanded into white-collar cases

Futerfas encountered Moscow in the early 2000s case against former Tyco International chief executive L. Dennis Kozlowski. Futerfas represented Christine Berry, Kozlowski’s art consultant, in the sales tax avoidance investigation that led to the larger case over Kozlowski’s corporate “looting.”

In 2010, he represented hedge fund group HFV Management in connection with a wide-ranging probe by the New York attorney general’s office into corruption in the state’s pension fund.

He has also handled cybercrime cases

Futerfas is defending Ziv Orenstein, one of three Israelis charged by federal prosecutors with hacking into JPMorgan Chase & Co and the Wall Street Journal, among other rtargets, as part of a massive “pump and dump” scheme. Orenstein pleaded not guilty.

Another client of Futerfas was Nikita Kuzmin, a Russian national who agreed last year to pay $6.9 million for creating computer malware that made users’ bank accounts vulnerable to cyber criminals.

He worked one summer for a longtime lawyer to Donald Trump

In the summer of 1985, while he was in law school, Futerfas worked for lawyer Jay Goldberg, who went on to become Trump’s divorce lawyer.

Futerfas said he did not come to Trump Jr. through Goldberg.

He studied at Juilliard

Futerfas earned his undergraduate degree from the prestigious performing arts school. He still plays bass trombone for the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony.

(Corrects paragraph 5 to “may have leaked” instead of “deliberately leaked”)

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Anthony Lin and Jonathan Oatis)

Sourced From – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-factbox-idUSKBN19V2T3