Tag Archives: organized crime news

Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Biggest Mafia bust in Ontario, Canada, nets 15 arrests, $33 million worth of homes and cars

A Mafia bust — believed to be the biggest in the Canadian province of Ontario — has resulted in 15 arrests and the seizure of homes and sports cars worth $33 million.

“Project Sindicato” targeted the Figliomeni crime family which has links to Italy’s notorious ‘Ndrangehta Mafia clan in Italy, York Regional Police announced Thursday.

“(The Figliomeni crime family) has benefitted from generations of crime to live a glamorous and indulgent lifestyle at the expense of law-abiding citizens,” Police Chief Eric Jolliffe said, according to the Toronto Sun. “We have dismantled the financial structure of this organized crime organization both here and in Italy.”

The investigation led to separate arrests of 12 individuals in Calabria, Italy, according to CTV News. Those arrests were announced Wednesday by Italian State Police.

York Police launched the investigation 18 months ago in response to a spike in shootings and arsons in Vaughan, a city north of Toronto, CTV reported.

Those arrested were accused of operating nearly a dozen illegal backroom gambling dens in various cafes and extending loans to tapped-out gamblers at extortionate rates who were then threatened with harm if they didn’t pay up, CTV reported.

The arrests included the reputed head of the crime family, Angelo Figliomeni, who was charged with directing a criminal organization, money laundering and fraud, police said.

Read Full Article From – https://www.foxnews.com/world/biggest-mafia-bust-in-canada-nets-15-arrests-33-million-worth-of-homes-and-cars

Blog, Business Law, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

He sold antiques in Florida. Then he helped ‘El Chapo’ launder $100M of dirty gold

BY JAY WEAVER AND NICHOLAS NEHAMAS

jweaver@miamiherald.com

nnehamas@miamiherald.com

January 16, 2018 08:00 AM

Updated 10 hours 10 minutes ago

The Chicago drug dealers working for notorious Mexican gangster El Chapo had a big problem on their hands: What should they do with the millions of dollars in cash they earned from selling cocaine?

They bought gold. Tens of millions of dollars worth from pawnshops — rings, necklaces and watches.

Then they had to find a place to fence it all.

More than a thousand miles away, in an industrial warehouse in South Florida, they found the perfect partner: an obscure gold-trading company called Golden Opportunities. El Chapo’s crew shipped the metal in dozens of FedEx deliveries to the Hallandale Beach company, according to federal court records.

The owners of Golden Opportunities, Jed and Natalie Ladin, may not have known they were working with Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo — but between 2011 and 2014 his brutal Sinaloa cartel laundered nearly $100 million of cocaine cash through Golden Opportunities, court records show.

A drug cartel’s Midas touch

Mexico’s brutal Sinaloa cartel used a small South Florida gold business to launder nearly $100 million in cocaine profits. Here’s how they did it.

The Ladins did more than look the other way: After selling the gold to big refineries that would melt it down for manufacture into coins, bars and high-tech consumer products, Golden Opportunities wired the proceeds to Sinaloa shell companies in Mexico. That made Jed, 69, a former antiques dealer, and his wife, Natalie, 65, part of an international money-laundering operation transforming El Chapo’s cocaine profits into clean cash.

The money-laundering pipeline was revealed in 2014 in the ongoing federal prosecution of 30 members and associates of the Sinaloa cartel in Chicago. Already, more than half of the defendants have pleaded guilty, including the group’s two leaders. A dozen other alleged participants are fugitives. (El Chapo is in a U.S. prison awaiting trial for a different series of crimes.)

The Ladins’ case shows how international organized-crime groups manipulate America’s hush-hush gold industry to launder money and keep their businesses running. Even minor industry players like the Ladins can wind up playing supporting roles in vast criminal operations. While the couple was never charged in the Chicago case, Golden Opportunities shut down after the Ladins pleaded guilty in 2014 in a separate money-laundering prosecution involving gold.

Full Read http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article194188089.html

Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Organized Crime and Prostitution on the rise in Iceland

Organized crime is on the rise and prostitution and human trafficking is a growing problem in Iceland, according to a new report on organized crime released by the strategic analysis division of the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police earlier this week.

The police has seen increase in criminal offences and cases that have ties to organized crime, such as human trafficking, prostitution and narcotics. At least ten different organized crime groups are active in Iceland according to the report.

Hells Angels, Outlaws, Bad Breed

At least three motorcycle gangs are trying to establish themselves in Iceland, Hells Angels, Outlaws and Bad Breed. In previous years, the Icelandic police has been successful in hindering motorcycle gangs in gaining significant foothold in Iceland, but according to the report there are now definite signs that they are actively working to expand their presence in Iceland. Many members of the motorcycle gangs in Iceland have ties to the illegal drug trade, money laundering, and are known to be armed.

Read Full – http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2017/10/26/organized_crime_and_prostitution_on_the_rise_in_ice/

Blog, Criminal, Legal News, Organized Crime

Mafia boss accused of ordering hit on his daughter over policeman lover

Pino Scaduto, head of the Bagheria syndicate in Sicily, arrested after he allegedly asked his son to carry out killing

A Sicilian mafia boss who ordered the assassination of his daughter from behind bars because she was in love with a policeman has been arrested – after his son refused to carry out the hit.

Godfather Pino Scaduto began blaming his earlier arrest and conviction on his daughter’s burgeoning relationship with a senior Italian policeman.

Full Read – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/31/mafia-boss-accused-of-ordering-hit-on-his-daughter-over-policeman-lover

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