Tag Archives: cocaine trafficking

Blog, Drug Companies, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

How Yachts Contribute to Trans-Atlantic Cocaine Trade

A yacht, found off the coast of Portugal with the country’s largest-ever haul of cocaine, illustrates how these smaller, private vessels have become a favored modus operandi to move cocaine between Latin America and lucrative European markets.  

Portuguese and Spanish authorities seized 5.2 tons of cocaine, valued at $232 million, on a yacht 550 kilometers off the coast of Portugal on October 18.

The drug bust represented the largest cocaine seizure in Portugal in 15 years. It marked the largest cocaine seizure ever on a yacht, according to Luis Neves, the director of Portugal’s police force for criminal investigations.

The operation was part of an investigation that began in early 2021 into how vast quantities of cocaine from Colombia and Venezuela were being moved to Europe via private yachts, according to a press release issued by Spain’s National Police.

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Blog, Business Law, Criminal, Drug Companies, Immigration, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

El Chapo’s Wife Pleads Guilty To Helping Run The Global Drug Cartel

Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexico’s most notorious drug kingpin, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán,pleaded guiltyThursday to helping him run the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

Coronel was captured and arrested by U.S. officials as she arrived at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in February.

The former beauty queen appeared before a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning and pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana for importation into the U.S., according to the Justice Department.

She also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to launder narcotics profits and another count of engaging in illegal financial dealings related to her husband’s property.

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Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

‘Ndrangheta: Hunting members of the mafia that’s bigger than La Cosa Nostra

In Southern Italy, a herculean effort is underway to bring down a crime syndicate that’s less famous, but more powerful than the Cosa Nostra. Seth Doane reports for 60 Minutes+, now streaming on Paramount+.

It may not look like “The Godfather” or “Goodfellas,” but Southern Italy is in the grips of a crime syndicate much bigger than the Cosa Nostra, the inspiration for those movies. It’s called the ‘Ndrangheta and its members keep a much lower profile while controlling an estimated 50% to 80% of Europe’s cocaine trade.

That more modest lifestyle was on display when 60 Minutes+ went with law enforcement into the forest in Calabria, a region the ‘Ndrangheta has in a stranglehold. Members of an elite hybrid military-police force called the Cacciatori – which in Italian translates to, “the hunters”- showed Seth Doane a small hideout covered in earth that blended into the side of a mountain. An ‘Ndrangheta member on the run had been captured there while making his morning coffee.

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Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Over 20 arrested in major anti-mafia sweep in Lombardy

Catherine Edwards
catherine.edwards@thelocal.com
26 September 2017
09:51 CEST+02:00
Police placed 27 people under investigation as part of a major anti-mafia operation in Lombardy in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

A town mayor is among those accused of corruption in the investigation into ties between the ‘Ndrangheta mafia clan and the worlds of business and politics.

Edoardo Mazza, the mayor of Seregno in Monza province representing Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, was placed under house arrest. Mazza is accused of corruption for awarding construction contracts to groups linked to the ‘Ndrangheta, according to Rai News.

In total, 21 people were arrested, while three were placed under house arrest and another three also face charges. The charges include extortion, abuse of office, bodily harm, drug trafficking, and bribery, all of which are aggravated due to the connection to aggravated crime.

The investigation, which has been coordinated by Milan’s anti-mafia authority (DDA) and prosecutors in Monza, northeast of Milan, began in 2015 and included arrests across the Lombardy region, in Monza, Milan, Pavia, Como and Reggio Calabria.

The stronghold of the ‘Ndrangheta is in Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, but arrests over the past two years show it is operating in northern Italy.

Police believe it has grown bigger than the more well known Sicilian and Neapolitan mafias through its successful cocaine trafficking from Latin America.

Full Read  – https://www.thelocal.it/20170926/over-20-arrested-in-major-anti-mafia-operation-in-lombardy