60-year-old conman returned to the spot where he faked his own death in a canoe to reflect on a £680,000 sting that ­secured his place in criminal ­notoriety alongside wife Anne.

60-year-old conman returned to the spot where he faked his own death in a canoe to reflect on a £680,000 sting that ­secured his place in criminal ­notoriety alongside wife Anne.

And he spoke of the moment nine years ago when he paddled out to his “death” from the shoreline overlooked by the huge house his family lived in.

Darwin told how he gave no thought to the ramifications of his selfish act – the grief of his two sons Mark, 35, and 32-year-old Anthony, a £100,000 search and, finally, a six-year jail sentence.

Speaking for the first time since being freed from prison after serving half his time, he claimed crippling debt had left him so desperate, the thought of suicide had crossed his mind.

Darwin said: “As I was paddling out, I thought shall I do it for blooming real.”

But he stuck to his plan and so began a shocking tale of deception and greed that gripped the nation.

Saddled with a £240,000 mortgage and debt collectors poised to swoop over a year-old credit card bill, Darwin told how his mounting problems clouded his ­judgment over the hurt he would cause his sons.

He added: “My boys had grown and moved away from home, they had lives of their own.

“I was trying to sort out a future for me and Anne. I thought it would be hard for a month or two for them, then I genuinely believed they would move on.

“I honestly thought my sons would get over it in a month or two.

“I always felt I’d tell them at some stage. But I had not considered when. Then, when it came to it, it was ­impossible. It stayed that way for years.”

STRESSED

To his neighbours in Seaton Carew, Co Durham, Darwin seemed to have it all. His 27ft lounge had a commanding view of the bay, he owned a string of 14 rented properties in the area, worked full-time as a prison officer and had a Range Rover on the drive.

But he was staring at a county court hearing over his credit card debt and his “rosy” lifestyle was about to crumble around his ears.

Darwin added: “I was asset rich, cash poor. I didn’t have that money in my pocket, it was a huge problem.

“Anne was just so stressed out. I had options, I could have smuggled drugs, telephones into prison, I could have burgled houses.

“But I realised looking at our policies that I was worth more dead than alive, and that stuck in my head.

“The way I looked at it that was the logical option.”

Desperate Anne suggested she would walk into the sea and take her own life.

Darwin said: “She said it would end all my problems. But I told her people know you can’t swim and will know it’s suicide so the insurance won’t pay out.”

So, the canoe plot was hatched. He would be “drowned” at sea, Anne would get the £680,000 from pensions and insurance companies and they could start a new life. Darwin disappeared on Sunday, March 21, 2002.

It had been stormy the night before and the North Sea swell was large enough to cause an accident in a tiny craft.

After paddling into the sea, he returned to shore where Anne was waiting to drive him to Durham railway station.

Speaking about the cost of the search mission, Darwin said: “I honestly didn’t think about that.

“I just thought the canoe I’d pushed back out to sea would be washed up and the assumption would be I was dead.” With £100 in his pocket, he headed for Cumbria and stayed in a B&B. For the next few weeks he lived in a tent on a remote beach along the Solway Firth, growing a beard, beach combing and buying essentials from a supermarket as temperatures plummeted.

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Tory researcher has been arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling after police found the party drug GBL in parcels sent to the head office of one of Yorkshire’s largest councils.

A Tory researcher has been arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling after police found the party drug GBL in parcels sent to the head office of one of Yorkshire’s largest councils.

Martin Thomas, 38, was detained by detectives investigating suspicious packages delivered to North Yorkshire Council’s County Hall headquarters in Northallerton.

He is employed by the council as a research and communications officer for the Conservative group, which controls the authority with a 22-seat majority.

The council last night confirmed it had suspended Mr Thomas, who worked from an office in County Hall.

Officers from the UK Border Agency arrested the researcher at his home in Northallerton after receiving a tip-off that drugs were being smuggled into Yorkshire from abroad.

The Yorkshire Post understands they are investigating a number of parcels which were delivered to his home, as well as those sent to County Hall.

Said to have euphoric and sedative effects, GBL, or gamma-butyrolactone, became an increasingly popular drug on the party scene in the late 2000s.

But supplying the drug, which is usually sold as an odourless liquid in small bottles or capsules, was made illegal in 2009 after the Government came under growing pressure to ban so-called “legal highs”. A common solvent used in paint strippers and stain removers, it is controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act as a Class C substance like tranquillisers, ketamine and some painkillers

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Chris Halliwell: profile of murder suspect in Sian O'Callaghan investigation

Declared bankrupt last January, the 47-year-old had only been working for Five Star private hire in Swindon for a couple of weeks before he was arrested.
Not new to the taxi scene, he was known by the other local drivers for the fact that he always used to wear a suit to work.
Previously employed by United Radio Cars, he had also tried his hand at construction and window cleaning.
He married wife Lisa in July 1991 and the couple went on to have three children – two daughter and a son.
They met when he was 23 and she was just 16 and lived in the Broad Green area of Swindon with their children.

Yesterday, neighbours in Broad Green recalled a strained marriage.
"They were living together but they weren’t getting on well," said one former neighbour.
“There were problems between husband and wife, then they moved away from here and then after they moved away from here they got divorced.”
Originally a window cleaner, Mr Halliwell lived in a rented flat on the County Road in Swindon before moving into a two-up two down terrace in nearby Broad Street with his girlfriend Lisa Byrne, a shop assistant, in the late 1980s.
Her father, Tony, a builder, and Sylvia, a former bus conductor, lived opposite and the family was staunchly Catholic.
By the time they married at Holy Rood Roman Catholic Church in 1991, Mr Halliwell was working with his father-in-law as a builder.
Neighbours still remember his large transit van parked outside their house.
Dennis Sutton, who married the young couple in 1999, said he knew Lisa's family.
"I do remember the event but didn't really stay in touch with them," he said. "I knew Lisa's family better as they were Catholic.
"I am shocked about all this. You never imagine such things happen so close to home."
The couple later moved a few miles away to Ashbury Avenue, but about five years ago Mr Halliwell moved in with Heather Widdowson, who lived a few doors down.
“He moved away with his missus but then moved in with another woman up the street, she was a bit older than him,” recalled the former owner of the corner shop at Broad Street.
He proudly introduced her to his former neighbours as his "new missus".
Speaking about Mr Halliwell’s arrest, the shop owner said: “He is the last person I would have thought would have done anything like this.
“He was all right, a family man, I used to have a laugh with him, when he moved away he used to pop in.”
Yesterday, the house he shares with Mrs Widdowson, a mother of three daughters, remained cordoned off by the police as forensic teams continued to trawl through the property.
His sister Sarah, from whom he is estranged, said she hadn't spoken to him for nearly 20 years and both their parents are dead.

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South Side shootout involving police this week was started by suspects who were trying to fire on rival gang

South Side shootout involving police this week was started by suspects who were trying to fire on rival gang members when they were actually shooting at officers in an unmarked police car, prosecutors said Saturday.

The alleged gunman, Julian Davis, 22, of the 2200 block of West 51st Street, is charged with two counts of attempted murder and a count of aggravated discharge of a weapon. Cook County Judge Jackie Marie Portman ordered him held in lieu of $400,000 bond Saturday.

The man accused of driving the car Davis was in, Anthony Rollins, 25, of the 2200 block of West 50th Place, is charged with aggravated flight from police and a host of traffic offenses. He was ordered held in lieu of $300,000 bond.

The men were caught following a short foot chase when the car they were in crashed after one of them fired at the unmarked car near 47th Street on Western Avenue about 4 a.m. Thursday and police returned fire.

No one was injured in the shootout, although the alleged shooter was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries after the crash.

A woman who was in the car with the two men was released without being charged, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Anne Dwyer.

The officers were headed north on Western Avenue just after 4 a.m. Thursday when a tan Mercury pulled up next to them near 47th Street, said Police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli. The 22-year-old man then began firing shots at them, and the officers returned fire, Mirabelli said.

Both cars were hit in the exchange, prosecutors said.

The officers began chasing the Mercury north, and during the pursuit the shooter threw the gun he had been using out of the car, Mirabelli said.

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handgun, a large amount of marijuana and a bulk of cash were seized during a search of a Fillmore home.

handgun, a large amount of marijuana and a bulk of cash were seized during a search of a Fillmore home.

The search was conducted on Friday by Fillmore police and Ventura County sheriffs as part of an ongoing gang-related weapons investigation. Authorities searched a home on the 700 block of Akers Street.

Two suspects were arrested during the search. Steven Chaveste, 30, of Fillmore was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, and Matthew Chaveste, 36, also of Fillmore was charged with possession of narcotics with the intent to sell.

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Moshe Katsav, Israel's former president, who was on Tuesday sentenced to seven years in jail for rape

Moshe Katsav, Israel's former president, who was on Tuesday sentenced to seven years in jail for rape, rose from impoverished beginnings to the top job in the country only to fall from grace and become a political leper.
Katsav was formally indicted in March 2009, more than two years after the case went public, for offences committed against his employees when he served as tourism minister and president, including rape and sexual assault.
The Iranian-born bureaucrat, who rose from impoverished origins as a child immigrant to Israel's top job, resigned in June 2007 and became ostricised within the political establishment, his humiliated and loyal wife Gila in tow.
Despite strenuously professing innocence to a litany of sex and rape charges, and refusing enormous public pressure to resign for months, Katsav stepped down as part of a plea bargain that incensed women's rights groups.
However, he later decided that instead of facing trial for lesser charges he would "fight until the truth comes out" and called the deal off.
He was convicted in December of rape, sexual harassment, indecent acts and obstruction of justice following an 18-month trial which included harrowing details which portrayed him as a sexual predator who routinely harassed his female staff.

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Two Los Angeles police officers Friday pleaded guilty to charges of insurance fraud

Two Los Angeles police officers Friday pleaded guilty to charges of insurance fraud stemming from a case in which one of them had his car torched and the other helped cover up the crime.

As part of a deal he struck with prosecutors, Anthony Robert Villanueva, 24, admitted that last April he arranged to have his 2001 Lexus sedan taken to the desert and set on fire. Villanueva then reported the car stolen and submitted a claim with his insurance company to be reimbursed, prosecutors said.

Under the settlement terms, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Horwitz dismissed two other counts against the officer -– one for arson and another for filing a false report of a criminal offense. Horowitz spared Villanueva a prison sentence, giving him three years probation and 400 hours of community service.

The second officer, Ricardo Rebolledo, 27, vouched for Villanueva and his alibi on the day of the fabricated theft in a letter to the insurance company, the district attorney’s office said in a statement. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of insurance fraud and was sentenced to three years of formal probation and 200 hours of community service.

Both officers, who were rookies at the time of the attempted fraud, could have been sentenced to more than five years in state prison had they been convicted of the original charges. Villanueva's guilty plea likely brings an end to his short career as a Los Angeles Police Department officer.

Sgt. Mitzi Grasso, an LAPD spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail that when an officer pleads guilty or is convicted of a felony, the department will "terminate their employment."

Rebolledo, who pleaded to a lesser misdemeanor charge, could get a wide range of punishment from an admonishment to firing, depending "upon the circumstances surrounding the officer's misconduct," Grasso said.

The officers did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

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Police forces across the UK have paid out a total of £770,000 in compensation to people bitten by police dogs

Police forces across the UK have paid out a total of £770,000 in compensation to people bitten by police dogs in the past three years, the BBC has found.

One bite during a chase led to a payout of almost £49,000, Radio 4's You and Yours discovered.

That is more than the cost of employing two junior constables for a year and comes as police budgets face a 20% cut.

Police chiefs said dogs were an essential resource and training of them was being constantly improved.

According to information obtained through Freedom of Information requests, Greater Manchester Police paid the most compensation of any force, a total of more than £180,000.

The Metropolitan Police had the second highest total, paying out £95,000.

Forty-three forces provided a breakdown of their figures by the type of person bitten. Between them, 2,725 suspects were bitten, along with 196 police staff and 155 other members of the public.

Eight police forces reported more than 100 dog bites over the last three years.

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Spider venom can cause four-hour erections 'the new Viagra'

Spider venom can cause four-hour erections 'the new Viagra' | Mail Online: "In her study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, Dr. Nunes’ experiment managed to give erection-challenged rats with high blood pressure a bit of a boost.

A peptide called PnTx2-6 was given to the flaccid rats, who achieved side-effect free erections.

Dr. Nunes said: ‘We found the toxin responsible [for the erections] and performed experiments using hypertensive rats which have severe erectile dysfunction. The toxin was able to normalise the erectile dysfunction in these animals.’

The spider’s toxin worked in a different way to drugs such as Viagra though and Nunes told MSNBC: ‘This is good because we know that some patients don’t respond to the conventional therapy.

‘This could be an optional treatment for them.’

She is also hopeful that the toxin could help female sexual dysfunction, but has not yet studied this.

The Brazilian wandering spider, which has a leg span of over four inches, has already been found in some American and Canadian supermarkets but is normally found in tropical banana plantations.

According to the curator of arachnids at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum, Rod Crawford, only 10 humans out of 7,000 have died from its bite."

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GANG of men from Bolton have admitted being involved in the running of a multimillion pound booze smuggling operation.

GANG of men from Bolton have admitted being involved in the running of a multimillion pound booze smuggling operation.

Businessman Saleem Khan, aged 45, of Kilworth Drive, Lostock, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court on Friday to import duty evasion fraud. He is the eighth member of the gang to plead guilty to playing a part in the huge fraud, after a longrunning investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officials.

It is believed Khan was a key player in the gang, which had a network of storage facilities across Bolton, as well as a distribution network with drivers and packers. The smuggling ring supplied large quantities of alcohol, mainly cans of beer and lager, to shops in Bolton.

Some of the alcohol was smuggled into the country and some was bought duty-free in the UK for sale abroad, then diverted back to the UK.

It is thought the gang’s duty evasion scam was worth up to £2 million.

This does not include the value of the drinks and the profits, which would have run into many more millions.

Legitimate businesses pay duty on alcoholic drinks sold in the UK depending on their alcohol content.

The men, who have already pleaded guilty to their involvement at earlier hearings, are: Mark Norris, aged 44, of Radbourne Grove, Lostock; Zulfkhar Hussain, aged 54, and Sharif Hussain, aged 23, both of Cross Street, Bolton; William Booth, aged 53, of Dunoon Drive, Astley Bridge; Richard Booth, aged 20, of Hill Cot Road, Astley Bridge; Kevan Ashcroft, aged 61, of Halliwell Road, Halliwell; and Walter Patton, aged 60, of Lorne Street, Farnworth.

Khan was arrested in April 2008, and the others in 2007 and 2008 after HMRC officials raided warehouses across Bolton.

They seized thousands of cans of lager, which were stacked to the rafters — in one case officials found 150 pallets of beer.

The warehouses raided were at Pilot Industrial Estate, Lostock Industrial Estate and Bolton and Sunnyside Business Centre.

Some of the men were arrested handling the goods, some after a surveillance operation and some were forensically linked to the smuggling ring by documents or fingerprints.

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Bulgaria's Mafia War: Resolve versus Results: Bulgaria's Mafia War: Resolve versus Results - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency

Bulgaria's Mafia War: Resolve versus Results: Bulgaria's Mafia War: Resolve versus Results - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency: "'The Bulgarian government has demonstrated political will to combat major organized crime rings and has begun prosecuting numerous cases where the defendants are high-level organized crime figures,' the report reads.

Here is culprit – the four letter word 'will' – for the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party and for Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, this is certain and unprecedented praise; the opposition sees it as criticism."

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125,000 people have purchased illegal ‘top-ups’ for their meters from gangs offering electricity at half the price.

An estimated 125,000 people have purchased illegal ‘top-ups’ for their meters from gangs offering electricity at half the price.
Prepay electricity meters work like pay-as-you-go phones. You purchase energy at newsagents and garages by topping-up a plastic 'key'.
The key is then plugged into your meter and the amount is added to your account.
But last year hackers cracked the technology used to create engineer’s keys that come with £50 credit.
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Libya rescue: William Hague says Gaddafi 'must go'

Tony Blair had kept the government informed about telephone conversations he had had with the Libyan leader over recent days.

The foreign secretary said the UK was 'working intensively' to establish how many Britons remained in Libya and said the Foreign Office 'continued to urge British nationals to leave' the country."

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Abbotsford police drive home message about gangs in Hummer

Abbotsford police drive home message about gangs in Hummer: "What was once used for drug trafficking has become the latest beacon of the Abbotsford Police's battle against gangs in the city.

At a press conference Wednesday the APD unveiled its new cruiser - an H2 Hummer - that will make its rounds, spreading the message that gangs are not welcomed in Abbotsford as part of Operation Reclamation.

A man who was convicted of drug trafficking and weapons possession once used the vehicle, however it was surrendered under BC's Civil Forfeiture Act and given to the APD to use as a motorized billboard for fighting organized crime.

The hummer won't be used as a regular police cruiser, but it will be driven to schools and put on display at Abbotsford Heat games for students and the general public to view."

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Gangs threaten paramedics in Mexican border city

Gangs threaten paramedics in Mexican border city  " Private paramedics in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's murder capital, are being threatened with death by drug traffickers, who have prohibited them from taking people with gunshot wounds to neighboring El Paso, Texas, hospital officials told Efe.

An average of five people a day sustain gunshot wounds in the border city and the majority of them ask to be taken to El Paso, which is just across the Rio Grande, for security reasons.

Gunmen have sometimes chased ambulances or entered hospitals in Juarez to finish off people who survived shootings.

The paramedics, many of whom are volunteers, began receiving death threats last year via the Life 1 radio frequency used by first responders and the threatening messages have been 'constant' since then, emergency services coordinator Juan Arras told Efe."

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List names 'Costa del Crime' wanted

List names 'Costa del Crime' wanted: "Anthony Fraser, grandson of former violent East End gangland enforcer 'mad' Frankie Fraser, and son of a convicted drug smuggler. The 39-year-old Londoner is wanted over the importation of two tonnes of cannabis - worth £5 million - hidden in a lorry load of frozen chicken from Holland in 2009.
Others included Glaswegian William Paterson, 31, wanted over the murder of gangster Kevin 'Gerbil' Carroll in January last year. Criminal Carroll, dubbed Scotland's 'public enemy number one', was blasted 10 times by masked gunmen outside an Asda superstore in Robroyston, near Glasgow.
Darren O'Flaherty, 36, of Liverpool, is wanted after a lorry driver was held at knifepoint while his load of electronics was stolen in North Yorkshire in 2006. The fugitive is also the prime suspect for the murder of Irishman John O'Neill, who was shot dead in a crowded bar in the Spanish resort of Benalmadena last summer.
Details of all 10 men will be posted by Crimestoppers on a 'most wanted' website targeting the region. Several Spanish coastal resorts have been dubbed the 'Costa del Crime' since the 1970s because hundreds of wanted British criminals are thought to have fled there."

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Bruno Mars gets probation in Vegas cocaine case

Bruno Mars gets probation in Vegas cocaine case - Yahoo! News: "Bruno Mars had two firsts this week. One was winning a Grammy. The other came Wednesday when the 25-year-old singer-songwriter pleaded guilty to cocaine possession.
Unlike the award for his hit, 'Just The Way You Are,' his brush with the law in Las Vegas may not last forever.
Mars will avoid prison and will have no conviction on his record if he stays out of trouble for a year and meets other conditions of his plea deal.
Clark County District Judge Jessie Walsh made sure Mars understood that he could face up to four years in state prison if he violates the terms of the agreement.
'You understand the penalty range?' she asked.
'Four years,' Mars replied, standing in a dark suit with his hands at his sides.
The judge gave Mars, whose real name is Peter Gene Hernandez, probation, a $2,000 fine, 200 hours of community service at a nonprofit organization and eight hours with a drug counselor in Los Angeles."

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Police warn Katie Price about hostage plot | Unreality TV

Police warn Katie Price about hostage plot | Unreality TV: "Police have reportedly warned Katie Price that she may be targeted by a violent gang.

The officials are said to have received information that the criminals are planning a raid on Jordan’s home, in which they hold her hostage while they ransack and rob her property. The gang have already acted upon Steven Gerrard’s wife Alex Curran and the fiancee of Manchester United ace Darren Fletcher.

A source close to police told The Sun:

“Police got specific intelligence information that they were going to target her.



“That is one of the reasons she has had to ramp up her security."

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Infinity Chilli- 'Record-breaking' chilli is hot news

BBC News - 'Record-breaking' chilli is hot news: "Tests have revealed the 'Infinity Chilli' to have a Scoville Scale Rating of 1,176,182 - hotter than chilli reportedly used in hand grenades by the Indian military. But what is the attraction of this insanely hot ingredient?

The story of the world's hottest chilli begins not in Mexico or Bangladesh, but next to the barbed wire at RAF Cottesmore in Leicestershire.

Nick Woods, working shifts as an RAF security guard and considering his growing family, decided he had to do something more entrepreneurial with his life.

That was five years ago. What was Nick's hobby - cooking up hot sauces in his kitchen - developed into his Fire Foods sauce business, and now the 38-year-old Grantham man finds himself literally in possession of hot property.

Like many great discoveries Nick says he developed the Infinity Chilli accidentally."

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Biba reminds brokers of new motor law

Biba reminds brokers of new motor law - Postonline: "The DVLA in conjunction with the Motor Insurers' Bureau and the British Insurance Brokers’ Association is reminding drivers that a new law to be rolled out in late spring will mean that they must keep their vehicle insured unless they have notified the DVLA that is it is being kept off the road.
Information about the new law is being distributed with all V11 tax renewal forms from March in addition to the guidance and video available now on Direct.gov.
David Evans, DVLA’s corporate affairs director, said: “We know that uninsured drivers are a menace on our roads and add around £30 to honest motorists’ premiums."

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Joanna Lumley joins legal aid campaign

Joanna Lumley joins legal aid campaign - Telegraph: "The actress, who famously won better rights for Gurkhas to settle in the UK, has joined lawyers across the country to attack proposals to slash funds for those fighting civil court cases.
Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, has proposed civil legal aid should only be routinely available to those who face losing their life, liberty or home under the biggest shake-up of the system in its 50-year history.
People fighting a wide range of legal battles — from warring families and school disputes to clinical negligence and personal injury — will be denied access to public funds under the plans.
The reforms are designed to cut the £2.1 billion legal aid bill by £350 million within four years and by more than £400 million within a decade.
But the Law Society warns the move is 'ill-conceived and unfair' and will leave half a million people a year with the prospect of fighting battles without legal representation."

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Scotland’s biggest force has sacked three officers and a civilian member of staff for sharing sensitive information with criminals.

CLOSER vetting of potential police recruits is being demanded after it was revealed Scotland’s biggest force has sacked three officers and a civilian member of staff for sharing sensitive information with criminals.

Strathclyde’s Deputy Chief Constable, Neil Richardson, has revealed 27 of the region’s 199 known criminal gangs have invested time and money trying to infiltrate the police force.

The revelation has brought calls for the reintroduction of visits to the homes of new recruits. They used to help filter out unsuitable candidates but were axed before an SNP-led recruitment drive which resulted in 1000 new officers being taken on across Scotland in 2008/09.

Threats, sex, money, drugs and blackmail are among tactics used by criminals to either “turn” officers, forcing them to becoome informers for gangsters, or to coerce them into passing on sensitive information from the Scottish Intelligence Database and other sources."

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Smartphones to run operators into the red

 Smartphones to run operators into the red: "Rocketing smartphone use could drive mobile operators into losses in three years unless they rapidly adopt technology to capture more revenue from data services, according to a US network company.
Rising investment costs to handle exploding data traffic combined with lower revenue per unit of data could begin to drive some operators into the red in as soon as two years, Tellabs said it calculated based on independent analyst data.
'Carriers can spend themselves bankrupt well before users run out of hunger for capacity,' said Tellabs chief executive Rob Pullen.
'Our study shows that simply adding dumb capacity is unsustainable. To avoid the 'end of profit', carriers must bring intelligence to their networks -- it is critical to carrier survival,' he was quoted as saying in a statement.
A number of industry players expect mobile data traffic, driven mostly by smartphones, to nearly double each year for the next several years."

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A COMPUTER hacker from Paignton has admitted stealing $12million worth of poker chips from an American gaming company.

A COMPUTER hacker from Paignton has admitted stealing $12million worth of poker chips from an American gaming company.: "COMPUTER hacker from Paignton has admitted stealing $12million worth of poker chips from an American gaming company.

Ashley Mitchell, 29, of Little Park Road, Paignton, admitted accessing the system belonging to the Zynga Corporation and stealing 400 billion chips.

He then sold some of the virtual chips on the black market for £53,000.

The IT businessman appeared at Exeter Crown Court yesterday and admitted five counts relating to the hacking together with 41 other offences which he asked to be taken into consideration."

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Russian cop ‘in London gang rape’ | The Sun |News

Russian cop ‘in London gang rape’ | The Sun |News: "18-year-old girl was allegedly drugged and then filmed while being assaulted by seven Russian men, including intelligence officer Oleg Vladimirvich Ivanov, 23.

The attack is said to have happened early on Sunday during a party among English language students at prestigious Bellerbys College in Greenwich, South London.

Police retrieved iPhones with harrowing footage of the Malaysian victim being raped by a succession of men. Ivanov is one of four Russians charged with rape. He appeared at Woolwich Magistrates' Court yesterday with Gregory Andreev Melnikov, 22, who was also charged with attempted rape.

On Tuesday Norayr Davtyan, 25, and Arnen Simonay, 26, appeared at the same court charged with rape. All four were remanded in custody to appear at Woolwich Crown Court on February 1.

They all claim to be students, but well-informed sources say Ivanov worked in the Intelligence Section of the Moscow Police."

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One Hyde Park, the world’s most expensive apartments, opens its doors for the first time - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance

One Hyde Park, the world’s most expensive apartments, opens its doors for the first time - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance: "A total of 86 flats at One Hyde Park, thought to be the most expensive residential development in the world, have been officially unveiled by the property duo, the Candy brothers. Prices at the highly anticipated Knightsbridge project start at £6.5m for a simple one-bedroom flat and soar to £140m for one of the penthouses. Averaging about £6,000 a square foot, the prices are higher than any other residential space, according to property experts.
City grandees including Lord Fink, the hedge fund guru, Ken Costa of Lazards, and Bernie Ecclestone of F1 joined international investors and celebrities including Gary Lineker, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Theo Fennell at the launch."

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Hong Kong seizes $33 mn cocaine haul

Hong Kong seizes $33 mn cocaine haul - Yahoo! News: "Hong Kong customs officers have made the territory's second largest ever drugs haul, seizing cocaine worth HK$260 million ($33.4 million) hidden in planks bound for mainland China.
The seizure of 290 kilogrammes (639 pounds) of the drug was the largest yet made by the city's Customs and Excise Department and is believed to be the second biggest the city has seen, a customs spokesman told AFP Thursday."

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Drugs courier awaits fate after decade on run - Local News - News - Gazette Live

Drugs courier awaits fate after decade on run - Local News - News - Gazette Live: "ONE-TIME fugitive’s future hangs in the balance today after he spent a decade on the run following a major drugs raid.
Former gym manager Zaffer Majid, 48, faced the music for a large narcotics seizure after fleeing UK justice to Pakistan more than 10 years ago.
He was caught delivering a sports bag packed with 684g of heroin to his Middlesbrough workplace back in April 1999, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.
The high-purity drugs, split into 25- ounce packages, were worth £25,000 in bulk, £37,600 broken down into deals, at the time.
Prosecutor Jolyon Perks said Majid brought the bag of drugs to the Cleveland Health Spa on Bright Street, which he ran.
Police found the sizeable stash behind the reception desk.
Officers in the former National Crime Squad, targeting the supply of large amounts of heroin in the town under Operation Paisley, were watching Majid and his gym."

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South American drug gangs funding al-Qaeda terrorists - Telegraph

South American drug gangs funding al-Qaeda terrorists - Telegraph: "Islamic rebels familiar with the barren terrain of the Sahara have struck deals under which they provide armed security escorts for drug traffickers in return for a slice of their profits.
Counter-terrorism experts said that the terrorists belong to the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group, which has kidnapped a series of Westerners and killed a British tourist last year.
They warned that the money they receive from drugs gangs could be used to attract new recruits and plan terrorist attacks on European cities.
Olivier Guitta, a counter-terrorism and foreign affairs consultant, said that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Marxist rebel group, was the 'force behind the agreement with AQIM'.
In the past drugs were flown or shipped from South America straight to Spain or Portugal but the introduction of more rigorous controls in those countries led FARC to change its way of operating."

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The cartel of the Beltran Leyva brothers

The cartel of the Beltran Leyva brothers was so powerful and violent as ephemeral. Began to set in the administration of Ernesto Zedillo, after the death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and consolidated in the administration of Vicente Fox Quesada, when he got relations that led to Los Pinos. Then came the abrupt end after he declared war against the Sinaloa cartel and allied with the Zetas. Now only Hector, H, and so far there is only a shadow on the mystery.

The death of the Beltran Leyva criminal organization began as the January 21, 2008 with the sudden arrest of Alfred, the youngest of six sons of Don Carlos Beltran Araujo and Dona Ramona Leyva. It was this fact that caused the explosion of the Sinaloa cartel and the war broke out in a mob family that was currently fighting for control of drug trafficking throughout the country.

There was no organization more powerful. The formed Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, Ismael "El Mayo Zambada, Ignacio Nacho Coronel, Juan José Esparragoza, Blu, the Beltran Leyva brothers, led by Arthur, Barbas, and Cázarez Salazar brothers, led by Victor Emilio.

President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa had declared war on drug traffickers since he took power and the beating of cartels and agreements with some of them, kept pressure on criminal organizations.

2007 was a year dominated by clashes in several parts of the country, especially in Tijuana, Baja California and Michoacan, and drug seizures and destruction of crops. In an unprecedented event occurred Sinaloa, as it recorded the destruction of at least a thousand hectares of marijuana in place that was being grown on irrigated land, most located in the center of Sinaloa.

Not since Operation Condor, carried out by the government of former President Jose Lopez Portillo in several Mexican states, Sinaloa drug traffickers had felt such pressure. Still, the great barons were still in the trafficking of drugs into the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa. And together, through the expansion of its legal business worldwide, through which clean silver, hard to destroy a monster.

But it was the Government itself paved the way for negotiations with the bosses of Sinaloa. At least since May 2007 it was discovered in Culiacan of the first contacts between senior military commanders and leaders of the cartel. Never say whether these meetings were endorsed by the Presidency of the Republic, but the contacts were of the highest level.

Still, the fight against drug trafficking did not stop. Continued seizures and destruction of orchards in the valleys and the mountains. But understanding the mechanisms of drug lords and government were the same. A year had passed and the war had not borne fruit Calderon regarding apprehension of major drug traffickers.

And this is where it is estimated that the arrest of Alfredo Beltran Leyva cartel was a delivery, a fee to be paid to operate and in which, he said, his brother (Mark) Arturo had agreed.

Mocha's arrest, which occurred the morning of January 21, 2008, was seen as the first blow to the Sinaloa cartel, but then the signs indicate that the federal government had reached agreements with the bosses to let them operate Sinaloa status to reduce their levels of public exposure: to reduce abuses, killings, murders of policemen, military attacks ...

This was the turning point, marked a before and after the most powerful cartel in America today. And anticipate their fate. Arturo Beltrán emplazaría their partners soon to rescue his brother from prison. He would put money, men and weapons, as necessary. But the request was denied. And then came the break, the explosion. From the last week of April, killing two machines were declared a war that eventually blood would bathe the entire country.

The end of Barbas

At the time of the break, the Chapo Guzman and the Beltran Leyva brothers shared territories in various parts of the country. Together they had conquered Guerrero, the last phase with the support of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, The Barbie, Barbas assassin's primary. As the cartel had decided to take Tamaulipas to the Gulf Cartel and its armed wing, the Zetas and that is why dozens of gunmen from Chapo and Arturo Beltrán had been transferred to that entity. They also began to fight Nuevo León. When war broke out, fighting between them began throwing casualties on both sides. Guerrero was bloodied and the drug war, police and military all denominations brought their share of executed. These balances are inscribed the feds killed in Culiacán in two events that occurred three days apart in June 2008 and the eight soldiers beheaded in Guerrero in December of that year. Like the assassination of the commander of the Federal Police, Edgar Eusebio Millán Gómez, in May 2008, just the war began, crime was attributed to Arturo Beltrán.

After the break, Arturo Beltran was harassed by the government. Coincidence or not, but in December 2008 when, under President George W. Bush, the United States formally joined Marcos Arturo Beltran Leyva cartel boss, under a U.S. narcotics.

The boss began to rise as a drug boss in the administration of Ernesto Zedillo after the death of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, and became important during the administration of Vicente Fox, after they went public with their relationship with Los Pinos through the tour coordinator presidential, Nahum Acosta Lugo.

But it was not until he broke with his former associates and friends of Sinaloa that the United States was put in the spotlight. A year later, on December 3, 2009, the Treasury Department froze U.S. assets of cartel Beltran Leyva brothers on U.S. soil. The restrictions included a 22 people and ten companies linked to the organization.

The provision of the Treasury did not disclose the identity of individuals and companies allegedly linked to the Beltran Leyva, but said that the organization controls related to air transport companies and land, sale of electronic trade in health products, consulting service businesses and even hospitals.

In Mexico, the companies were located in the states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Chiapas, Sonora, Jalisco, Estado de Mexico, Baja California and the Federal District.

U.S. authorities accused the Beltrán Leyva cartel to smuggle cocaine from Central and South America and heroin from Mexico into the United States. They further claimed that he was responsible for countless murders of elements (police and soldiers) in the fight against drug trafficking.

The siege against the Beltran Leyva was closed. Thirteen days after the measure gringa, Dec. 16, the boss of bosses was killed and displayed by the Navy as a war trophy in Cuernavaca.:Text may be subject to copyright.This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder

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