Tag Archives: organized crime

Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Italian police break mafia ring exporting fake olive oil to U.S.

By Umberto Bacchi

ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Italian police said they have busted a crime ring exporting fake extra virgin olive oil to the United States, highlighting the mafia’s infiltration of Italy’s famed agriculture and food business.

Twelve people with links to the ‘Ndrangheta, the organized crime group based in the southern Calabria region, were arrested on Tuesday on a series of charges including mafia association and fraud, police said in a statement.

The gang shipped cheap olive pomace oil to the U.S. where it was re-labeled as the more expensive “extra virgin” variety, prized for its rich taste and health benefits, and distributed as such to retail stores in New Jersey, they said.

Italian crime syndicates earned an estimated 16 billion euros ($16.85 billion) in 2015 through illegal activities in the agriculture sector, up from 15 billions in 2014, according to Italy’s agricultural association, Coldiretti.

Besides counterfeiting products, gangs make money seizing control of farmland and firms, fixing prices, controlling distribution and through labor exploitation, studies say.

In 2015, crime groups forced more than 100,000 Italians and migrants to work long hours for little pay in fields across the country, according to a report by Italian General Confederation of Labor union (CGIL).

Read Full – http://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-crime-food-idUSKBN1602BD

Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Cocaine worth £50m washes up on Norfolk beaches

Loss of the drugs would be ‘major blow’ to criminals, says crime agency

Cocaine with a street value of £50m has washed up on two Norfolk beaches.

Around 360kg of the drug was found on Hopton beach, near Great Yarmoth, and across another section of the coast near Caister, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

A member of the public contacted Norfolk Police after finding several different coloured holdalls containing packages of cocaine.

The crime agency said the loss of the drugs would be a “major blow” to the criminals involved.

Matthew Rivers, from the NCA’s border investigation team, said: “We are now working with Border Force, the Coastguard Agency and Norfolk Police to try and establish how the bags ended up where they did, however it is extremely unlikely that this was their intended destination.

“This is obviously a substantial seizure of class A drugs, and its loss will represent a major blow to the organised criminals involved.”

Superintendent Dave Buckley, from Norfolk Constabulary, said: “We are assisting the National Crime Agency with their searches and whilst we believe we have recovered all the packages, should any member of the public find one they are urged to contact Norfolk Constabulary immediately on 101.

“We will have extra officers in the area to monitor the situation.”

Sourced From – http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cocaine-drugs-50-million-washed-up-beach-norfolk-great-yarmouth-hopton-a7574486.html

Blog, Criminal, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Mafia queen pleads guilty to smuggling cocaine through Queens restaurant

The wife of a mob-connected Queens restaurant owner who trafficked drugs admitted on Monday to pushing the narcotics through the eatery’s basement.

Eleonora Gigliotti pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to the top charge of conspiracy to import cocaine.

She faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison and also agreed to pay a $1.625 million forfeiture judgement.

Judge Raymond Dearie could sentence Gigliotti to the maximum of 171/2 years behind bars.

Gigliotti, 56, was slated to go to trial at the end of March for smuggling more than 110 pounds of cocaine from Costa Rica in shipments of cassava to her family’s restaurant, Cucino a Modo Mio, in Corona.

If Gigliotti had been convicted at trial, she could have faced life in prison, authorities said.

The Gigliotti family allegedly has ties to the Genovese mob family and served as a connection to the ’Ndrangheta crime group in Italy.

Prosecutors said in 2014 that Gigliotti had traveled to Costa Rica with more than $360,000 in cash that she delivered to cocaine dealers.

Gigliotti also agreed to forfeit the property seized, including $124,874 in cash, seven handguns recovered from the business, ammunition, an automated money counter and brass knuckles, according to a law enforcement source.

Her husband, Gregorio, 60, and 36-year-old son, Angelo, were convicted on drug and guns charges after a jury trial last July.

They face mandatory minimums of 15 and 20 years behind bars, respectively.

At the trial, Dearie concluded that lawyers for Gregorio Gigliotti and his son had tried to stack the jury with women by using all their preemptory challenges to exclude men.

After a panel of 10 women and two men was selected, federal prosecutors Margaret Gandy and Keith Edelman complained that the defense had discriminated against men.

Dearie later ruled that after reviewing the transcript of jury selection, he found “a pattern of attempting to exclude men” and was going to restore two men back on the jury.

At the time, defense lawyers Elizabeth Macedonio and Alan Futerfas had insisted that there was no bias against men — explaining that some of the challenges were based on “gut” feelings.

It didn’t work — and jurors found both men guilty on July 22 after deliberating for just three hours.

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

Anonymous threatens Donald Trump with leaks about ties to mafia and child trafficking

Donald Trump has not yet taken up office, but he has already managed to whip up tidal waves of opposition not only in the US, but around the world. Among the president-elect’s opponents is Anonymous, the hacktivist collective.

The group took to Twitter — Trump’s favorite medium — to issue a pre-inauguration warning: “This isn’t the 80’s any longer, information doesn’t vanish, it is all out there. You are going to regret the next 4 years”. The tirade came as Trump lashed out at reports about criticism from outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan; Anonymous responded by threatening the billionaire with damaging leaks.

The loose collective warned Trump that “Roy Cohen and your daddy aren’t here to protect you anymore” before suggesting that the president-elect had a few more skeletons ready to come out of his closet. Trump was told “not to waste money hitting us with your Moldavian bot farm”, but it is the threat of possibly damaging revelations that sparked interest:

Blog, Criminal, Immigration, International, Legal News, Organized Crime

Chinese Triads And Italian Mafia Running The Irish PPL Smuggling

Two Aer Lingus staff among three arrested at Dublin Airport over alleged people smuggling

THREE PEOPLE arrested in connection with alleged smuggling of illegal immigrants through Dublin Airport are to appear in court tomorrow morning.

Two of the men arrested are Aer Lingus employees. The third was a suspected illegal immigrant. Gardaí suspect the two Aer Lingus workers were facilitating this man’s illegal entry into the state.

The arrests of the three men (aged 61, 56 and 28) took place at the airport last night in an operation carried out by the Garda Immigration Bureau (GNIB) assisted by the Garda Special Detective Unit (SDU).

The three men are currently detained at Ballymun and Coolock garda stations.

Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, Assistant Commissioner John O’Driscoll said gardaí have searched a number of premises and vehicles as part of the investigation.

They are working to identify how many occasions in the past this may have taken place. He said gardaí investigating this incident were analysing a “considerable amount of data”.

Illegal immigrants were disguised as Aer Lingus workers so they could be smuggled through Dublin Airport in a global people smuggling scam that netted gangsters up to €12m.

Two male Aer Lingus employees, aged 61 and 56, and a Chinese national (28) were being quizzed by gardai last night following a major sting operation on Sunday, when an Aer Lingus flight landed in Dublin from Madrid.

More arrests are expected in the investigation, which is said to involve a number of dangerous international gangs.

A massive garda investigation has found that up to 600 people may have been smuggled into the country at an estimated cost of around €20,000 per person as part of the scam.

The Herald has learned the extent of the smuggling operation recently came to light after a man who entered Ireland illegally attempted to leave on a flight to another EU country.

Authorities noticed there was no official record of the individual entering the country, and a criminal probe was launched into the smuggling of people taking place at Ireland’s main airport.

“This raised a red flag and the Garda National Immigration Bureau launched a major surveillance operation at the airport,” a senior source said.

Diverted

Gardai have discovered the illegal immigrants arrived on Aer Lingus flights from European destinations and then left the plane with other passengers.

While walking with other passengers in the airport, they would be diverted away by criminals involved in the scam before they reached immigration and customs checks at the airport.

The operation would see them taken to a secure area of the airport and they would be given uniforms and high-visibility jackets to disguise them as Aer Lingus employees.

The non-nationals were then driven from airside to landside in Aer Lingus vehicles such as catering vans and trucks.

Gardai have established that the immigrants were then dropped at a location north of the airport, where they were picked up by associates.

Sources say gardai believe that about 100 illegal immigrants a year came into the country this way and that the scam had been in operation for around six years.

It is understood that most of the people smuggled into the country came from Asian countries, particularly China, and many left here for other EU countries shortly after arriving.

Gardai believe a network of international crime gangs are involved in the scam and these include Italian gangs, Eastern European mobs and even Chinese crime groupings.

iItelligence

“While there are two gentlemen arrested after Sunday night’s sting operation, gardai are in no doubt that there were many other people involved in this criminal operation both in Ireland and abroad,” a senior source said.

“Expect more arrests to follow,” the source added.

Sunday’s arrests stemmed from an intelligence-led operation, which a senior garda said is possible as a result of civilian staff being placed at passport control.

Assistant Garda Commissioner John O’Driscoll said yesterday: “In recent times there has been a reconfiguration of personnel working the immigration control at Dublin Airport, which has involved an input of civilian staff attached to Irish Naturalisation and Immigration control booths.

“We have arrested three people, two of whom are employees of a carrier of passengers. One person is a potential illegal immigrant, who illegally entered the state, who was facilitated by our two suspects.”