Tag Archives: legal news

Nigerian Mafia Use Venezuelan Drug Mules to Reach Europe

A Nigerian trafficking network is now using “mules” to move drugs from South America to Europe, exemplifying how this growing drug consumer market is drawing mafias from around the world to the Americas.

A recent report by the Investigative Rebel Alliance (Alianza Rebelde Investigativa – ARI) zeroed in on the arrest of two Venezuelan citizens who had carried hundreds of capsules of cocaine into France in early 2020. This would have been just one of many cases of Venezuelans being used as drug mules by Colombian or Brazilian criminal groups, except for one striking difference. This time, the drug traffickers were Nigerian.

The ARI report broke down how Nigerian mafias have become a small, yet growing player in South America’s drug trafficking scene. This network uses Venezuelans as drug mules to carry cocaine to France, leaving from Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana.

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Who killed Brian Laundrie? ‘1000% a coverup’, says Internet as skeletal remains found

Brian Laundrie’s remains were found in Florida’s Myakkahatachee Creek Environmental Park

Brian Laundrie is officially a dead man. FBI confirmed his death saying remains found in Florida’s Myakkahatachee Creek Environmental Park belongs to Laundrie. The family of Gabby Petito who had been vocal while the FBI, Dog the Bounty Hunter, John Walsh, and other authorities searched for their daughter’s fugitive boyfriend, has gone silent over the sudden discovery. His remains being identified marked the end of a manhunt that people across the globe were tuned into. A lot of questions still remain unanswered including who killed him, when did he die, and what was the cause of his death.

For the uninitiated, Laundrie went missing in mid-September, a couple of days after his girlfriend was reported missing. The two were on a cross-country trip from which only Laundrie returned following which he camped up at his parents’ Florida home. Petito’s parents said there was no response from the Laundrie’s over Petito’s whereabouts and they had to file a missing report.

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5 ways celebrities in the Pandora Papers use the offshore system

Alongside politicians and billionaires, the Pandora Papers reveals how the rich and famous also make use of offshore havens, from Jackie Shroff to Shakira, Ringo Starr to Sachin Tendulkar.

Shakira did it. So did Ringo Starr, Claudia Schiffer, Julio Iglesias and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar.

They have all set up companies “offshore,” in places like the British Virgin Islands (BVI), where tax rates are low or zero and where their businesses — and their identities — are hidden from the public.

And they’re among the celebrities, politicians and billionaires named in a trove of leaked files obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Those records are part of the Pandora Papers, an investigation of the offshore financial system that the rich and famous use to buy yachts and private jets, invest in real estate and protect their families’ wealth while avoiding scrutiny.

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Biden pushes to end ban on negotiating Medicare drug prices; Big Pharma pushes back

Undoing the ban is the linchpin of President Joe Biden’s healthcare agenda. It would mean lower costs, with savings put into things such as dental coverage for retirees.

As a participant in Medicare’s prescription drug program, Florida retiree Donna Weiner would like to pay less for her medicines, which cost her about $6,000 a year.

And as a retired accountant who spent 50 years handling the books for companies, she sees a way to get there.

“You know from working in a business that it makes no sense for an administrator of a plan or a company not to be involved in what they have to pay out,” said Weiner, who lives in Longwood, Florida, near Orlando.

For Medicare “to negotiate those prices down would be thousands of dollars back in my pocket every year,” she said.

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