South African Casino Gang attacking casinos

In a daring strike during the early Sunday morning hours, armed robbers raided the Boardwalk Casino in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. While the casino was passing through a relatively slow time of both the day and week, a large group of between ten to fourteen men carrying pistols and rifles entered through the casino's main entrance.
The Casino Gang then overpowered security guards on the premises and made their way to the cashier's cage, which they ransacked, stealing an undisclosed amount of cash.
The Boardwalk Robbery Plan was followed by casino employees during the episode. This meant remaining calm and cooperating with the gang so as to avoid harm to gamblers and staff, while an alarm that silently notified police and security forces was activated.
Police arrived as the armed gang were fleeing the casino. Gunshots were fired, although there are conflicting reports as to whether the shots were fired by police or robbers. No injuries were inflicted, and the thieves escaped in a waiting vehicle.
There has been a pattern of armed gangs attacking casinos in South Africa over the last few months, and the similarities are too strong to not believe the acts are being committed by the same organization. In August, six men armed with AK-47s robbed the Newcastle Casino in Johannesburg on a Sunday evening. In early October, the Carnival City Casino was taken down by fifteen armed men on Sunday just past midnight. In late October, an attempt to rob Montecasino, also in Johanesburg, by ten men was thwarted as five were captured and the rest escaped emptyhanded.
Although Mervyn Naidoo, general manager of the Boardwalk, asserted the amount of money stolen was "relatively small" and no players or employees were hurt, the ongoing cycle leaves one wondering if South Africa can maintain the safety of its casinos. For now, at least, perhaps Sunday is a good day to find other entertainment than casino action.

Drug mule gangs

Jamaica Police are reporting that a significant dent has been made in the number of drug mule gangs smuggling narcotics out of the country.
Statistics from the Narcotics Division show that the number of drug mules arrested last year fell by 19 per cent when compared with the figure for 2006.
"Throughout 2007 we arrested a total of 5,496 persons for drugs, a significant reduction from the 6,793 persons arrested in 2006," Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, Carlton Wilson disclosed.
The Acting ACP, who heads the Narcotics Division, pointed out that of the persons arrested, 5,257 were Jamaicans, with 4,927 being males and 330 females. Foreign males and females accounted for 174 and 65 arrests, respectively. Britons accounted for 119, Americans 51 and Canadians 22.
According to Wilson, of the 6,793 drug mules arrested in 2006, 6,039 were Jamaican males and 403 were females. Foreign males accounted for 257 and females 94.
Meanwhile, he explained that 171 persons were arrested at the Norman Manley International Airport and 220 persons at the Donald Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay last year. Of those arrests, 121 persons were destined for the United Kingdom, 17 for Canada, 21 for the USA and 17 for Curacao.
"Drug users are all across the social spectrum of the country and they use all sorts of means to smuggle the drugs. These include body packing, swallowing, storing in commercial goods, appliances and wood carvings, and in one instance last year, jacuzzis," Wilson pointed out.
He further noted that the drug mules ranged between the very young and the very old people, who are trying to deceive through their age. "[You find] people who are in wheelchairs, people over 70 years old, people who are blind, you find them packed with drugs going out of the country from time to time," he said.

Wilson appealed to drug mules and other persons involved in the drug trade to desist. "It is very damaging to your body and you need to look around and see what it has done to your colleagues and other people. You can pay visits to the rehabilitation centres, speak to people who are actually involved to get the stories first hand," he said.

"It is totally destructive. If you want to continue a normal, good life, desist from doing drugs," he warned.

The Narcotics Division has a mandate to report on the eradication, interdiction and demand reduction of drugs throughout the country.

new offences of directing or being involved in organised crime.

"For too long the gangsters of the criminal underworld have been able to direct their evil enterprises and operate with apparent impunity, profiting on the backs of decent hard-working Scots and their families.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill is proposing new offences of directing or being involved in organised crime.
A consultation on the details of any new legislation is to seek the views of law enforcement organisations and other stakeholders involved in the fight against organised crime.
When introduced the legislation's main objective would be to make it easier to convict those organised criminals who direct criminal operations.
The proposals are expected to be endorsed today at the second meeting of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce. The Scottish Government will then develop proposals to be introduced to the Parliament at the earliest opportunity.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said:
"This Government has already made clear its determination to tackle serious organised crime in all its forms. That includes the criminal kingpins as well as their lieutenants and the foot soldiers who do their dirty work.
"Organised crime is a global issue and already Canada and Ireland are using the law to target the godfathers of serious organised crime. We want to learn from their experiences to help us tackle this menace to our society.
"These new offences will make it easier to convict the so called "untouchables". This Government wants to send a message to these gangsters in Scotland and further afield that there are no "untouchables" in our society.
"We will pursue these parasites with vigour and will be uncompromising in our pursuit of those who peddle drugs and indulge in other criminal activities. That is why we set up the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce which holds its second meeting today.
"We are working together with the police and other law enforcement agencies to put these criminal networks out of business."
The aim of the new offences would be to catch people either directing or being involved in organised crime and for the offence to be covered by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
The Scottish Government will consider similar offences that are already in place in Canada and the Republic of Ireland when developing our proposals.
Canadian offence - For the purposes of the Canadian criminal code, a criminal organisation means a group, however organised that:
is composed of three or more persons in or outside Canada; and
has one of its main purposes or main activities the facilitation or commission of one or more serious offences that, if committed would likely result in the direct or indirect receipt of a material benefit, including a financial benefit, by the group or by any of the persons who constitute the group.
Irish offence - The Irish model is along similar lines and is contained in the Criminal Justice Act 2006. Organised crime is defined as an element of criminal activity that is carried out by criminal organisations which have as their main purpose the commission of one or more serious offences in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit. The 2006 Act defines a 'criminal organisation' as a structured group composed of three or more persons acting in concert and one which is established over a period of time. A 'serious offence' means an offence for which a person may be punished by imprisonment for a term of four years or more.
Further work is required on the precise terms of the offence being proposed by the Justice Secretary and its penalties. For example, it could be framed as separate criminal offences or a statutory aggravation. It will be subject to a formal consultation process in the normal manner.
The Serious Organised Crime Taskforce was set up by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and brings together key organisations involved in the fight against organised crime including the Crown Office, ACPOS, SCDEA, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the Scottish Prison Service amongst others

"Scissionisti" clan

"Scissionisti" clan Rome flying squad, working alongside those of Naples, Caserta, Perugia and Macerata, with activities coordinated by the central anti-crime headquarters of state police and the central anti-drugs headquarters, is in the process of arresting a large number of members of a vast criminal organization, made up of Italian and Nigerian citizens involved in international drug trafficking. Two hundred and fifty state police are working in several Italia cities, backed by helicopters and dog units. The operation, name "Black Shoes", led by the Naples anti-mafia district headquarters, has reconstructed the route of drug trafficking from South America to Europe, with traffickers attentive to ever single detail of drug imports. Receivers for the drugs were organizations with links to the Camorra, who then distributed the "goods" across the Italian peninsula. From Suriname and Guyana cocaine and heroin were brought into Italy with Nigerian runners who hid the drugs in false soles of their shoes or swallowed capsules filled with it. The leaders of the organization whose purpose was that of international drug trafficking and which has been dismantled by the Rome flying squad acted in Campania. The 2-year operation, which was collaborated in by the police of the following countries, made it possible to identify the operative cells in Guyana, Suriname, Holland, Romania, India, Pakistan, Uganda, and Ivory Coast. The role played by women whose relatives are involved in the Camorra played an essential role, making it possible to maintain contact between the bosses in prison and their accomplices by way of "pizzini" (small slips of paper) hidden in the seam of clothing and coded with elementary codes to decipher. At the end of lengthy investigations, the Rome flying squad managed to identify the connections between Nigerian traffickers and those at the head of organized crime in the Campania region. Some members of the "Scissionisti" clan supplied themselves with the drugs to then distribute it over the Campania market. Among the crimes with which those arrested are being charged is that of mafia-related criminal association.

John Deere International tractor Gang

British authorities have linked recent thefts of John Deere tractors in rural England to the criminal gang responsible for similar thefts across Europe over the past four years. The National Plant Equipment Register (TER) fears that this gang has set up a base in southwestern England and intends to target dealerships there. According to the TER, this gang changes the identities of the stolen tractors and then sells them as far afield as Australia.

Monya Elson,Semyon Mogilevich

50 police commandos in Moscow captured Semyon Mogilevich, one of the world’s most feared mafia bosses accused of arms dealing, drug running, uranium trafficking and multiple murders. Authorities estimate his worth to be around $100 million. The FBI, Interpol and the UK police have sought Mogilevich for numerous international crimes including fraud, racketeering and money laundering. Monya Elson, a known associate of Mr Mogilevich, claimed in an interview given ten years ago that Mogilevich was “the most powerful mobster in the world”. During a 2005 speech in Hungary Robert Mueller, then FBI director said: “Right here in Budapest, Ukrainian-born Semion Mogilevich established the headquarters of his powerful organized crime enterprise.”

White slaves in Italy

A joint international investigation of “24 hours” daily and “168 hours” weekly revealed the scheme for transforming Bulgarian girls into white slaves in Italy. The investigation includes their narratives, taped in Rome, Rimini, Padua, Venice, Pescara and other places as well as opinions of ecclesiastics working with the support of Vatican and trying to save the girls. About this topic Italian and Bulgarian policemen are also talking, the Bulgarian ambassador in Rome as well and many others.
Two of the girls did not hide their names and faces, others whished to remain anonymous. Most authoritative Italian foundations have helped them to be saved and to begin a new life. They are supported also by the Italian police after they accepted to collaborate to the state. The editorial office has at its disposal audio and video tapes of our sources involved in the investigation.
This is the story of Iliana Dimitrova from Vratza town, forced by his boyfriend to become a prostitute

My name is Iliana – I was 21 years old, when they made me a prostitute. In Vratza I met one boy, an Albanian – Dragan Leskei, his friend had a Bulgarian girlfriend. For about a month they used to come to the restaurant owned by Valter Papazki and his brother Georgi – The culturist guy, where I’ve worked as a waitress. I had no problems with the brothers.
With the Albanian – talks, jokes, drinks, tips – little by little we’ve get to know each other, we become close and they started to talk over with me: come to Italy, people there are making good money. I’ve hesitated for whole one month. Then I made an international passport and get a French visa – it was easier to get visa for France. We’ve tried to enter through Slovenia – they did not permit us. But we’ve succeed through Austria though.
Dragan had told me he has a house in Rome, where I will live, till I find a work. He used to urge me to learn the language, he used to explain to me that I will take care for children or for elderly people – this will be my job. He had promised to earn up to 1000 lv per month. This is a lot of money, because I will live to his place without to pay a rent. I tempted and I left. I did not know anybody in Italy except him.
There were people in Bulgaria occupied with
the organization of the traveling
The name of the driver is Valerian. He had a Mercedes and had transported up to 3-4 persons, and charged them 450 lv each. Most recently he used to drive people towards Kolefero. To this place he had driven half of the gypsies from Liliache village, Vratza region.
Valerian had known many Bulgarians who had leaved for 5-6 years in Chikane village near Rome. They were from a village near Vratza town. I stayed to their place 2-3 hours till the Albanian came to pick me up.
I had lived with him and 3 more Albanian in his digs for a month. He had not force me to become a prostitute, he used to help me to get used with the life in Rome. But he started to become more and more jealous, he did not allow me to talk to anybody – neither to girls not to boys, he started to meddle into my life. That is why I left him and went to the Bulgarian family in Chikane.
But there were no work at all. The time has passed and they told me: we will go to one acquaintance of our – Tzvetomir, he is born in 1969, he works as a life-guard at the seaside in Tor san Lorenso.
They introduced us to each other, he was from Sofronievo village. I explained to him that I am looking for a job and asked him if he hear something that might be appropriate for me to give me a call.
After a week he called me and told me to come immediately to his place. I packed my luggage and left. Together we started to ask for a job, but all over the place we’ve received only negative responses. This lasts for three months. But he used to tell me – don’t worry, you may take whatever you want to eat and drink, you will give me back the money when you start to work. This way I lived from June to the beginning of August. We had lived in a garage near the beach; there was no warm water, nothing at all. We used to have a bath into a wash basin with a cold water admixed with a sand. After two months Tzvetomir flied into a rage: you owe me money, we have to settle the accounts with you.
Either you go to work on the street,
or I will sell you!
“How you will sell me!?”, I am telling him. “I will give you back the money, but you see what the situation is”. “I do not care”, he replies. “Either you go to work on the street, or I will sell you!” We quarreled for two days. Then he came together with Kiril, a friend of him. I knew he is dealing with prostitutes. He used to speak with a soft accent; he was not from Vratza region. They told me: “Get dressed, we are going out”.
They picked up my stuffs and we left with Kiril’s BMW. They emptied my handbag; they took my passport, everything. Yet I had no choice and they took me out on the street to work. I used to work on three places. For the first one Kilir told me that it is his region. It was located at the industrial zone of the town. They put condoms into my handbag and explained to me how much to take for an oral sex, how much for a standard one and how much for the rest of the services I would offer. The first day was very poor. The clients are clear about everything and are telling you by their own how to act. They explain to you – the other girls are doing this, the other that. This way passed my appointment with the first client.
I used to try to tell Tzvetomir that I am a human being and I am not a good for sell and that he can not be a master of me. He replied that he does not care and that he wants back his money. He told he has plans to come back to Bulgaria to open a gas station in his village and that he needs money. He used to want to earn at least 300 EURO per night and if I had not the money the problems begun.
In the beginning he used to behave comparatively well with me. Afterwards he started to make scandals each and every night and to repeat: I do not like this, we have to do this thing this way, I want to show me how you used to do it with this client, with the other client and so on. Then he started to make rows for the money, why I earned so little.
He forced me to write down the registration numbers of the clients, how old they are, what exactly they’ve told me. He used to order me before to enter into the client’s car to put on my mobile phone and to come to save me if something happens.
What he possible could do! I am all alone, but he is 30 km away. The first month I used to go to work from 2 p.m. till 6 p.m. After we’ve changed the place – we went towards Ostia. There I worked during the nights, because during the daytime
The black prostitutes were on the streets
And they’ve wanted to beat us
But they are real savages! Tzvetomir found some Romanian friends, one Romanian girls used to work for them, she do it because she wanted to, she was a little bit crazy.
They robbed me on the first week, The Italian guys were doped. One of them was like a skeleton, he pretended as if he wanted to hire me. He took me to some place with the car and there another man appeared and pulled out a knife. The one on one of my side another on the other side and both started to shout at me: Give us the hand bag! I shout: No! Then he stabs me in the leg. He cut the handle of the bag and kicked me.
I had all kinds of clients, among them there were perverts as well. One wanted to make a pee into his mouth. Other had bold heads, all covered with tattoos. Once I went with one of these and in the beginning he seemed normal to me. Then he started to speak, to explain how it was in the prison, how he has killed people – it was terrible!
The Romanians carried us out with the car. In Ostia on the street have worked Romanian girls, girls from Spain, black women – it was very hard to find a place, they chase us away all the time. We’ve managed to get along with the other prostitutes, despite they’ve fall upon to beat us. We used to tell them – however we will be beaten either by you or by the pimps, we make no difference. So, please leave us in peace.
Tzvetomir and the Romanian have passed constantly and if we were not at the specific place – they beat the life out of us. We used to work near Ostia – right in front of the sea there is a big pine wood,
the place is called
Kastel Fusano
It was terrible! Toped and drug addicted used to come, they made a lot of problems, because they could not finish fast.
They used to stay in the car longer and I had to concoct something to tell Tzvetomir. For not beat me I used to lie him – I used to tell him that I’ve forgot to dial him or the line has broken down, but everything was useless.
Even though he personally forced me to become a prostitute he treated me as we were boyfriends, he used to introduce me to his friends. He started to get drunk and started to attack me with questions: Why you passed with this guy 30 seconds more and something like this. Do you know that if you’ve been back to your place earlier you could get at least one more client.
I was a prostitute for several months and then I met one Italian, a client of mine. He asked for my telephone number and he wanted to go out together for a pizza, to a hotel. After I used to go out with him I did not want to be with other clients. And I used to lie Tzvetomir, that the day has been poor. The Italian used to give me more money, but I used to refuse them, because I had not any way to justify this money. When Tzmetomir found the money he started to beat me. This was the reason why the Italian used to bring me coca-cola, cigarettes, something to eat – 2-3 times a week. I used to hide them into a safety place in the wood.
The break of the camel’s back came
On New Year’s Day
We used to celebrate at Tzvetomir’s friend. There were other prostitutes as well. The men get drunk and ordered us to make them strip-tease. They used to applaud us and to put money into our underwear. At down together with Tzvetomir we came back to the garage where we used to live. I poured cold water into the wash basin and started to take a bath. All of a sudden Tzvetomir rushed and roared: “Why you take off your clothes?” I shrink back into the corner of the garage. He started to jostle me with fists on my head; he used to kick me in the stomach. It lasted about an hour, but finally I managed to pluck out of him. I grab a glass and throw it into the wall. With a peace of glass I cut my veins and blood spilled all over the place. Tzvetomir step back and suddenly he became gentler. On the other day he gave me as a present a gold bracelet. This was the first time he called me “lady”. But later he added the price of the bracelet to my debt to him. And soon after this everything started from the very beginning.
Iliana’s saving
Tzvetomir stated to Iliana she owes him 1000 lv. and will work for him till she pays her debt.
He takes her all the money. They go our together for shopping – they buy everything they need for the house, drinks, cigarettes and everything he wants. This expenses though he adds to Iliana’s debt.
(Cvetomir is in the center, on the left of Iliana)

This way she gives him back the money but at the same time her debt enrages.
“In a certain moment it made no difference for me. No matter how much money I used to earn my debt used to become bigger and he used to beat me each and every night.”, the girls recalls. Then the Italian client who is in love with her decides to help her. After the end of one of their meetings, with a SMS he invites her to go out together for a pizza. She hides the messaged from Tzvetomir, because he is drunk again and he will beat her. But she forgets to delete the message – in the morning he founds it and make a big scandal. The day after he expects her to come back from work and again is very drunk. She goes to bed and at one time
he wakes her up
with a fists in her head.
He cracks her ear-drum.
“You will not go to emergency aid; you will not go to work.” He shouts. He keeps her cooped up for two days and on the third day he sends her at the street. “How to go out, it is so cold out there, it is February; the ear hurts me a lot?”, Iliana cries. “I do not care”, Tzvetomir shouts. At the street she gets a client and asks him to give her a ride to the hospital. She calls Tzvetomir from the hospital to tell him she does not give him away. She lies to the doctors she had some fight with a gipsy woman.
She comes back and Tzvetomir does not strike at her for a week. Then he starts to beat her again. Bulgarians from Chikane village call and just because she has spoke with them Tzvetomir slaps her twice very hard.
“I am leaving!”, she decides firmly.
“You can’t”, he shouts. When he understands that she is unflagging he throws her away without a phone, without anything. She calls the police from a telephone booth. They come and she explains to them that she had broken with her boyfriend and she does not want to come back to him but he does not give her back her cloths. She
still does not want to
make a complaint
against Tzvetomir after he forced her to be a prostitute.
The police take his data and worn him to leave her in peace.
They tell him that if she does not call them by 24 hours, they will arrest him. Iliana explains them that she has a daughter in Bulgaria and that he threatens her using this fact. Tzvetomir used to tell her that if she gives him away to the police, he will send people to kidnap her daughter and to sell or kill her. The child by that time is 6 years old.
“I did not gave him away, but said that we’ve quarreled and I want to leave him”, Iliana tells.
She takes the bus to Rome. She calls her Italian friend. He accommodates her into a boarding-house, he gives her money, and they together are looking for a job. Later
He rents a house near by Rome
and they start to live together
He is about 40-years old, married man. A month later he gives her money and helped her to obtain a permit to enter her native country Bulgaria. Iliana goes back to Vratza, she issues a passport of her daughter and takes her to Rome.
She lives with the Italian about one month more, and then he goes back to his wife. Meanwhile he has arranged with the assistance of his friends from the police Iliana to make a complaint against Tzvetomir. She brings the policemen to the places where she has worked as a prostitute. But Tzvetomir has changed his lodging and has found Iliana’s new telephone number. He calls her and convinces her to come back to him. Iliana pretends she is prone to do this and pumps information out of him about the place where she can find him. She determines his new address and informs the police.
After her departure Tzvetomir
has taken three new
girls to work for him.
They live in a rented house in Tor san Lorentzo. He is arrested at the same place. One of the girls reconfirms Iliana’s testimonies that Tzvetomir has threatened her in the same way as Ilaia. He is detained for 6 months. “After he is out on bail after one Bulgarian guy pays for him. This is the same Violin who regularly drives a bus from Bulgaria to Rome”, Iliana says.
For six months period she is put in an asylum with nuns, but she had a row with the supervisor. She wants to take her away her child on the ground of she does not cares for her daughter. They expel her and call to other asylums not to accept her, because she provokes problems. But sister Ester from “Karitas” takes her and 6 months Iliana lives in her asylum. They become friends. Afterwards Iliana succeeds to rent a municipality home.
She works at two places as a cleaning lady and an ironer
at the first one till 2 p.m. but the second from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. She walks around the congested Roma streets with her motor bike, a present from her Italian friend. She already leaves together with her daughter, mother and her little brother. She thinks Tzvetomir lives in piece in Tor San Torino, he has changed the lodgings and drives VW Golf. She has seen him once at the square in front of Termini station; she passed by him on her motor bike.
“I am afraid of him, but not during the day – he could not dare to teach me. The six months in prison are not enough for him, he has to pass through all this that I was forced to do”, the girl says with tear drops in her eyes.
The Italian madam
“Tzvetomir and Kiril used to know one Italian woman, that had brothels in Tor san Lorentzo. Her name is Marina D.”, Iliana tells.
Marina had had connections with policemen and if some verification starts she always been warned. Then only one girl used to go out of the brothel together with her and she has presented her as a maid. Marina has owned 3 houses with at least 3 girls in each one of the houses. Kiril had two of them – Sylvia and Ivka, the third one has worked for the Italian woman.

“Unexpectedly the one of the Kiril’s girl disappeared – she went out on the evening and we never saw her again. Kiril tried to find her, but without a success.”, Iliana Says. The other girls had been Kiril’s mistress as well. He had connection with the Bulgarian force groups – they’ve constantly came to his place. They’ve bring him some little machines thanks to which he could earn money out of the poker automated machines. All day long Kiril was occupied with this – he used to go from one hall to another.
“I was against to work into the house, although it was an oasis of vegetation. There were rumors that clients with sexual perversion are tying the girls to the chairs, gag their mouths and start to mock at them. Even Madam Marina was tortured and
humiliated this way.”, Iliana says.
The houses were under the control of another Italian woman, Adriana, she is approximately 50 years old. She had drove Hyundai with leather damask. “As you see her you could never imagine she is dealing with prostitutes. She had a lot of money. They were very close with Kiril’s girlfriend, they used to go for shopping and bars together.”, Iliana recalls. Afterwards Kilir’s girlfriend also became Madam and other girls started to work for her and used to compete Adriana’s business. Soon after they quarreled and started a war for clients.
Sister Ester:
They kill the girls
and cut them with knives
Sister Ester since 8 years is a chief of International department of “Caritas”, an organization that supports the victims of traffic with people.

The asylum that she is in charge of have been opened 4 years ago. Sister Ester arranged the visit with Iliana whom they’ve helped to come back to the normal life.
- Sister Ester, which one of the girls you are taking care of is the most affected by the pimps?
- One was coop up in one apartment for 7 long months. The apartment was with shutters, she has lived in artificial light – this has been the place where she has served her clients. They locked her during the night and they have carried her products to cook herself. For this 7 month period she has leaved the apartment only twice.
- How she was saved?
- She has become pregnant, the pimp has not locked her one night and she managed to escape. She has read a tall free number in the metro station for assistance of the victims of trafficking with people. She was ruined – physically and mentally, she has been convinced that her life will be over in that apartment.
- Was she beaten black and blue?
- No, she was not, but one of the girls was covered all over her body with razors as a punishment. Another one was with dislocated shoulder, third one was lost three teeth and her palm was cut very bad.
- Is always the violence the reason why the girls are running away?
- One girl was escaped because the pimps have given her too little money in comparison with what she has earned.
- How much?
- They have given her 2000 EURO monthly, but she has earned 300-400 EURO per day. She lives with us at the moment.
- What is the situation after the changes adopted in the Italian legislation?
- The last change in the law imposed shifting of the girls from the streets to apartments. This is even more dangerous for them, because diminishes their chances to communicate with other people and to be saved.
- Where in Rome are located these apartments?
- At almost every cross-street at the ring road.
- Are there cases girls to refuse to be prostitutes any more because they’ve fallen in love and had had an affair?
- Yes, an Italian came once in “Caritas” and he wanted to help him to save one girl. She has refused to testify against her pimps, because among them there were members of her family. Later the girl and the Italian man get married and now they have two wonderful children and I am their godmother.
- Did some of the girls try to kill themselves?
- Yes, one Ukrainian girl was lost all her humanity. She was into a deep depression, she used to refuse to rise from the bed, we hardly have convinced her to eat something. She passed in this condition about 20 days, afterwards little by little she started to recover herself.
- How the pimps control the girls?
- They raped them at their arrival, afterwards they threaten and beat them. In addition they tell them that they will force their sisters to become prostitutes also, that members of their families will be beaten or directly liquidated.
- Are the pimps dangerous?
- It happens to kill the prostitutes who have testified against them, or to sell their children.
- Who are the cruelest?
- The Albanians, but recently the Romanian as well. But nobody is as cruel as the Albanians. But we have to remind – they are supported by the Italians.
- Are the pimps participants of the organized criminality?
- All this is part of a huge organization. Some are responsible for the deliveries of fresh bodies, others forced them to work here. There are many different chains, this business is not under the supervision of one and the same people, and there are many people of different nationalities involved in this. There are Bulgarians, Italians also. The route of the traffic is changing all the time – once it may pass through Bulgaria, other time through some other place.
- Does the policemen help the pimps sometimes?
- No, but there is one policeman who has taken advantage of the services the girls for free of course.
In Sofronievo village they know
That Tzvetomir have been arrested
“Yes. There were such rumors in the village about Tzvetomir – that he has been put in Italian jail and they’ve detained him because he forced girls to become prostitutes”, Anatoli Angelov mayor of Sofronievo village says.
He also states Tzvetomir’s parents are divorced and his mother has married for second time. His father all day walks around the village with his horse and his cart and is looking for some work. Tzvetomir’s brother Hrisim is doing the same before to go off somewhere in Sofia.
The father has earned some money, he has been ready to do the work for a bottle of wine or brandy. “Hard-working people, they use to drink, but they are quiet and do not make problems.”, the mayor claims.
70-80 people have left Sofronievo and now are in Italy. The mayor had not heart among the women from his village to have prostitutes. Most of the people who have left were over 45-years old, and they left to Italy to look after elderly people.
Before to leave, Tzvetomir had had several long lasting relationships in the village. For a long time he has lived in his father’s house with the legal adviser of the Kozlodui Atomical Electric plant. He has been very close also with a woman from the village – Marieta. He is still in contact with her and they are friends.
She is married to an Italian
and most of her time she spends in Italy.
After Tzvetomir’s arrest she has driven his father to visit him after he was release from jail. Marieta’s house is close to the gas station on the main road to Vratza, the neighbors say.

We are welcomed by a teenager over there, who introduces himself as a big friend of Tzvetomir and obviously he is ready to tell us good things about him.
In that moment Marieta proper comes, she appears to be his mother. She comes with a car, accompanied by her husband with a thick gold chain on his neck.
The woman is also ready to talk about Tzvetomir, as well as to have photos, but her husband warns her not to do this. But yet she states Tzvetomir is a very good boy and he has never been occupied with bending someone to be a prostitute. She is convinced that he has been get into a hot water by Iliana, who was jealous and was mad about the fact he do not want to be with her.
According to Marieta and the man who refuses to introduce himself, Iliana has prostituted in secret and when Tzvetomir has known about this he has driven her away. “Iliana was a true prostitute yet in Bulgaria before to leave to Italy”, the man declares. He claims she first has worked for the Albanians and after they’ve driven her away she has been in a very hard situation. Tzvetomir has taken pity on her and has taken her from the street, but she has made him this dirty trick, he claims. The man though rejects to declare this officially.
According to him many other girls have lived at Tzvetomir’s place in Italy, but none one of them was forced to become a prostitute.
Tzvetomir’s father, who appears with his cart and starts to work at Marieta’s yard – they are really close. The man does not like to talk a lot – he hardy manages to say that he has been in Italy and has seen his sons, who “used to go to some people to sign some papers”. Marieta and the man explain that Tzvetomir is obliged to go every day to the police to sign. They do not think he will be putted into prison. They are accepting to resent our number to him and to call us in the editorial office in order to write his opinion.
Tzvetomir did not want to call.
According to non-official information he is sentenced by a court of the first instance and now he appeals. According to the Italian law for inclining to a prostitution and violence the punishment is between 6 and 10 years.
Russians and Albanians
are controlling the business
The body business in Italy is under the control of the Russian and the Albanian mafia. The Albanians are even more powerful after they’ve taken the place of the Turkish groups in the drug market. They are working together with the Italian organized criminality. The Bulgarian criminal groups have some misunderstanding with the Albanians.
These disputes are founding expression in trashes of Bulgarian pimps and prostitutes. It is a common practice the Albanian pimps pull Bulgarian girls and they force them to work for the Albanians. This is the reason why the Bulgarian pimps pay them some kind of tax voluntary.
The Romanian mafia also manages their prostitutes and is in a dispute for the leading role with the Albanians. The Bulgarians often come into unions with Albanian and Romanians in the traffic of prostitutes also through Kosovo, Tirana and Bucharest.
Italy is the headquarters of the Nigerian groups that also have serious interests in the trade with fresh bodies. Apart of the street business with fake branded glasses, hand bags, watches and accessories they are controlling also the black skin seductresses at the street that offer the lowest prices of sex services. Tangible presences in this business have also the Russians, Ukrainians and Moldavians mafia guys. The Russian mafia in Italy is in charge of more serious deeds as money laundry.
They brush the girls
like a street rubbish
In January 2002 Silvio Berluskoni proposes brothels to be opened, banned with a law since 1958 under pressure of Vatican. The public indignation explodes the campaign “Clean hands” starts against the prostitutes who sweep over the streets. The police make dozens of arrests of pimps and trafficants.
Rimini resort,
The native town of Frederico Felini,
is the hottest spot of the prostitution in Italy at that time. Over 4000 hotels are full of tourists. It swarms with East-European bands. “The first mass actions against prostitutes start in Rimini and Bolognia”, the deputy police chief in Rimini,
Richo Sabato recalls.

“We detained 800 prostitute from Nigeria, Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Russia. We arrested and put in jail 650 pimps”.
During these actions hundreds of girls start to talk. Over 30 organizations are taking care for their saving. “We used to hide them in communes”, Djanpietro from “Papa Ioan XXIII” tells. That organization has saved more than 4000 girls. Many other new girls start to come some of them used to pretend to repent. “We’ve disclosed that parts of them are spying for the pimps”, he recalls.
The police start to chase Bulgarian pimps
In 2001 the police in Modena arrests 36 Albanians accuse of exploitation of girls from Eastern Europe. The net is active in Torino, Bolognia, Ferara and Mantua. Among the victims there are also Bulgarians, driven by Bulgarian trafficants. In Torino a band of four Bulgarians is revealed. They’ve attracted girls from Sofia, Sandanski and other towns by promising them legal work. In March 2002 39-years old Bulgarian girl complains to the police that she has been kidnapped and has been forced to prostitute by another Bulgarian girl and two Albanians. During the investigation it becomes clear that the channel is ruled by VIS force group from Plovdiv.
In May 2003 the cops arrest at the street in the exotic sea resort Peskara a Bulgarian prostitute without documents.
The police “release” the girl under observation. Soon they reveal that Plovdiv group of pimps and trafficants regularly are replenishing the streets with new prostitutes. After one-year work the police arrest 5 Bulgarian pimps and 15 girls, offering their bodies at “Ponte Lingo’s” sea side street. After the operation they start to track out 13 more Bulgarian, tangled into the pimp’s devil-fish. Part of them is unapproachable.



One more girl
is ready to leave
For just 5 minutes not far away from Vratza “24 hours” daily representative almost persuaded a street girl to be driven to work in Italy and taped the incident with a hidden camera.

The prostitute explained that she blows for 15 levas but the standard sex is 20 levas. Prior she has worked for bigger amounts abroad. There she has earned 70 levas for blowing and 100 EURO for full service.
She has come back because her pimp did not pay her. The girl ponders over our proposition to drive her to work in Italy. She was ready to give her answer on the next day. The editorial office has a videotape.
The investigation is realized with the assistance of the Danish Organization of the Investigational Journalists. Read in the next issues the stories of other Bulgarian girls, forced to be prostitutes, as well as details about mafia nets in Bulgaria and Italy.

Bulgarian Investigative Journalism Center (BIJC) is an nongovernmental and uncommercial foundation, whose main goal is to organize and produce journalistic inquiries against the corruption and the organised crime. BIJC popularize the investigative journalism in Bulgaria and in the European Union.The foundation unites bulgarian journalists with experience in the area of the investigative journalism.

Bulgarian bandit groups in Malaga

"The organized Bulgarian bandit groups dealing with car thefts get involved more and more seriously into the coca traffic coming from South America. Just in Malaga, Marbella, Benalmadella and Toremolinos act 5-6 such bands formed by Bulgarians. They are very closely connected with the Columbian cartels and very active as well.", Alfledo Marihuan, a Director of "Criminal department" in Malaga says for "168 hours" weekly and adds: "Approximately 20 Bulgarians are arrested in Malaga after they had been captured with different quantity of coca starting from 1 and reaching 50 kilos. The arrested people are mules. We have almost no information about their bosses, but soon will bring them into the spot light."
According to Alfredo Marihuan, the Bulgarians in Latin America are in touch with the people responsible for the Distribution in Europe. Our countrymen constantly travel to Columbia and Venezuela. They negotiate the deals and organize the transport of the shipments to Spain and Europe. "This tendency was proven once again by the six Bulgarians we detained with 819 kilos of coca in February in Soto Grande and Barcelona.", Alfredo Marihuan says.
More than 1000 Bulgarian car thieves are listed into the card indexes of the Spanish police. They have been arrested and released in numerous police operations. This forces them to look for a new path where they are still not popular, hence not known for the police. They've already tried the robberies, blackmails, trafficking of cars, arms and hashish. The car thieves are doing everything within their power and use all their international contacts in order to gain a share from the coca business. In this field the earnings are bigger, but the risks lower having in mind that on the Spanish territory roam about all types of international mugs. During the negotiations between the Bulgarians and the Columbians for 819 kilos of white dust our countrymen do not even think that the special services are already follow their footprints. A mysterious killing refers the police toward the Bulgarian group.
On February 26, 2004 at Tampiko Str. in Madrid a man is speaking inside a phone cabin. Two men on motorcycles come close to him. They pull out submachine guns and open fire. The man dies covered with from 10 bullets. The two assassins run away. In the victim's passports there is a text:
Gusepe Loro from Venezuela
The passport turns out a forged one. The Spanish cops verify the picture of the victim with their albums. They ascertain that in 2001 the Bulgarian special police services had been forwarded the picture of the same person. The Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs informs them that he is engaged with coca traffic of vast size. After he is killed the Spanish cops send an inquiry to Bulgaria and dactyl scoped marks from the victim's car. The expertise shows that the killed one is Dimo Neikov Jelev, born on 7 August, 1967 in Karapelit village, Dobrich region.
Jelev's adventures - the hidden skull-cap
Still in 1993-1994 Dimo Jelev gets into the field of vision of the Bulgarian special services. His start up in the cocaine business coincides with the genesis of the Bulgarian drug organization in Bulgaria. In the beginning of 90's Jelev is a lone wolf and he does not participate in grouping. He repeatedly closes the ways between Bulgaria and Turkey. From a huckster he evolves to a drug mule. He travels all over Europe. In Vienna he draws together with Kuzman Guslekov - a drug Traficant shoot dead in 1999 in Sofia because of 600 kilos Columbian coca that disappeared mysteriously. At this time Guslekov yet had been released from an Austrian prison when he had served a sentence, he had introduced in the cocaine business and lives like a citizen of the world. In 1995 Dimo Jelev is detained in Austria for heroin traffic. He receives an effective sentence. For several months period Jelev digs a tunnel and manages to escape from the prison. He hides in different European countries. He is caught in Switzerland. Then he is extradited to Austria where he serves his fulltime sentence. Dimo Jelev leaves the prison and goes to Spain with Kuzman. Guslekov gives shelter to him at his big house in Marbella - at this time the late drug dealer is in warm relations with high-standing persons from the cartels. Guslekov gets Jelev into the schemes. He starts to organize cruises with yachts between Spain, Columbia and Venezuela. He has at least 10-12 forged passports. The close friends around Kuzman and Dimo form an international group from Bulgarians, Spaniards, Italians, English men and Russians. The main investor of the group is Misha - a Jew from a Russian origin. He is indecently rich, an owner of a palace in Marbella and unique yacht, where he often welcomes Guslekov. During an ordinary row in the high seas
Misha is executed
but his yacht blew up. Mass arrests of members of the group in Marbella follow. Italians and Spaniards are detained for drug trafficking, their bank accounts and property are pit in an execution. Kuzman Guslekov gets away with it. Later he comes back to Bulgaria. In his Sofia circle are the late Poly Pantev, Bai Mile, Robert Stefanov, Serbian bandits close to the terrorist Sreten Yosich. In the end of 99's continually to Kuzman is also Konstantin Dishliev, shoot dead with 10 bullets on May 14 this year in front of an Indian restaurant "Tadj Mahal" in Sofia.
"At the end of 90's Kuzman gets Konstantin Dishliev into the schemes for money laundry of resources coming from Spain. He helps him to become a boss in the leasing business", a close friend to the late Guslekov says for 168 hours daily. "A man of confidence in the group was also Dishliev's brother-in-low Brendo, who also has strong positions among the Bulgarian car thieves and cocaine dealers in Spain." After Gislekov's murder the organization continues to exist.
In 2001 Dimo Jelev from Dobrich comes back to Bulgaria after almost 10 years spent abroad. He makes tours around the disco clubs in Varna and Sunny Beaches with his Porsche Kayen. He renames himself from Dimo Dimitrov to Dimcho Jelev. He actively travels between Spain, Venezuela and Columbia. Each time he spends there between 4 and 6 months. Bulgarian special services catch up Jelev in a hot connection with a group from Varna and Pleven, occupied with thefts of cars, a group leaded by Ivan Paunov-Govanito and Ivo Birovski - The Box.
"The organization has structures in Spain and in Bulgaria and is active in the car and hashish traffic. Since 2000 it enters also in the cocaine business. The trafficking of the elite drug becomes priority for the organization in the latest years.", a top official from the Internal Ministry says for 168 hours weekly.
Bulgarian special policemen inform their Spanish colleagues that Dimo Jelev is dealing with trafficking of coca in large quantity. His false identity secures him anonymity until the day of the shooting down.
The Spanish policemen discover a Columbian trace in the attempt, but can't prove it. The murder remains undiscovered. Shortly before the shooting of Dimcho Jelev the cops catch
2 tons of cocaine
in an uninhabitable accommodations in Madrid. The warehouse is next to Jelev's apartment. Another 150 kilos of cocaine are found by the cops in the neighboring accommodation. Witnesses claim they've seen him round about. Each time he had appeared in groups of two or three men. The dealer is punished, after somebody's refusal to pay for the detained shipments of coca, shows one of the leading versions for his killing.
Special policemen start to investigate Jolev's connections. After his killing his mobile phone had registered missed calls from Bulgaria. In Jelev's apartment a note book is found. All his accounts - debit and credit are strictly listed in it, by the victim himself. He mentions also specific names and figures. The police find as well his phone book. He had had a colorful contact list - Bulgarians, Spaniards, Columbians and Venezuelans. The net connected with the late Jelev starts to brighten up. His friends do not suspect they are already in the daylight.
One year later
Bulgarian-Spanish organization plans his serial hit with coca. "Such well equipped and structured Bulgarian organization in Spain we detain for the first time.", Eloy Alvares, Director of Drug traffic department in Judicial police in Madrid comments for 168 hours weekly. The project started with the investigation of the Bulgarian group in Barcelona. We discovered that some of their members had taken on houses and offices by the side of the port located between Malaga and Cadis. The rent contracts were signed on behalf of a company headquartered in Gibraltar. We used to watch the group. We understood they are ready to transfer with a yacht a huge quantity of cocaine from Columbia to the sea cost of Costa del Sol. The itinerary, chosen from the Bulgarian is unusual. The seacoast of Costa del Sol is used mainly for trafficking of hashish coming from Morocco through the strait of Gibraltar towards Spain. "Cocaine" yachts sail mainly from Venezuela to Martinique Island, but the fishing ships loaded with a larger quantity of drugs turn to Galicia."
"We've expected the cocaine to move from Malaga towards Barcelona and after towards another European country.", a participant in the police action comments. "All men on the yacht were from Varna. Several times the yacht had changed its name in the open sea.", the same source adds.
The cops loose the yacht's traces. It is discretely laid at Soto Grande, located at 70 kilometers from Marbella.

Bulgarian Investigative Journalism Center (BIJC) is an nongovernmental and uncommercial foundation, whose main goal is to organize and produce journalistic inquiries against the corruption and the organised crime. BIJC popularize the investigative journalism in Bulgaria and in the European Union.The foundation unites bulgarian journalists with experience in the area of the investigative journalism.

Martin Foley 'The Viper' remains in critical condition

Martin Foley remains in a critical condition in hospital today after he was shot repeatedly in an assassination attempt yesterday.
A garda at the scene of the shooting of Martin Foley, at Kimmage Road West, Dublin, yesterday.Foley (55) and also known as 'The Viper' is reported to have been hit by up to six bullets from the ten fired by the gunman who shot Foley as he was driving out of the Carlisle gym on Kimmage Rd Lower just after 3pm.
Foley has undergone surgery in St James' Hospital to remove at least one bullet and his condition is described as "critical".
It is understood he has been hit a number of times in the upper and lower body.
Gardai investigating the shooting have also recovered a white Ford van which they believe was used by the gunman. This vehicle is being examined by Garda technical experts.
It is understood that Foley had spotted the gunman as he approached and tried to escape in his car before crashing after a short distance. He then tried to continue his escape on foot.

It is the latest in a series of murder attempts on Foley who has survived at least four previous attempts on his life. No one was arrested following the shooting

Martin Foley 'The Viper' remains in critical condition

Martin Foley remains in a critical condition in hospital today after he was shot repeatedly in an assassination attempt yesterday.
A garda at the scene of the shooting of Martin Foley, at Kimmage Road West, Dublin, yesterday.Foley (55) and also known as 'The Viper' is reported to have been hit by up to six bullets from the ten fired by the gunman who shot Foley as he was driving out of the Carlisle gym on Kimmage Rd Lower just after 3pm.
Foley has undergone surgery in St James' Hospital to remove at least one bullet and his condition is described as "critical".
It is understood he has been hit a number of times in the upper and lower body.
Gardai investigating the shooting have also recovered a white Ford van which they believe was used by the gunman. This vehicle is being examined by Garda technical experts.
It is understood that Foley had spotted the gunman as he approached and tried to escape in his car before crashing after a short distance. He then tried to continue his escape on foot.

It is the latest in a series of murder attempts on Foley who has survived at least four previous attempts on his life. No one was arrested following the shooting

Girl Gangs

Girl gangs, are on the rise on the Cape Flats, sucking young girls into drug trafficking, petty crime and prostitution.
While the association of women with male gangs is not new, observers say girls from 14 to 18 are now forming their own gangs, which are affiliated to mainstream gangs or operate independently.
Many of the gangs appear to have roots in schools, raising concern about violence in schools in a context where gang warfare is a constant reality, with competing gangs engaged in ongoing battles for territory. Girl gangsters tend to be disruptive at school, picking fights and engaging in violent behaviour.The attraction of teen girls to gangs is explained by a December policy paper released by the Children and Youth in Organised Armed Violence project, which conducts research into gangs.
The paper said children turned to gangs for assistance and support when there was nowhere else to turn.
This was because gang infested communities often had a lack of access to social and health services, which in turn fed into a perception that they were marginalised.
The threat of being caught up in gang conflict led to children seeking the protection of one gang over another.

John,Geraldine Gilligan

Gilligan (55) found from an early age there was more money to be made from crime.
He had secured the first of his sixteen criminal convictions as far back as July 1967, when he was given the probation act at on a charge of larceny.
His first experience of Mountjoy jail was in 1977, when he was given an 18-month sentence for receiving stolen goods.
Ten more prison sentences were to follow, before he released from Portlaoise jail after a four-year jail term.
While Geraldine struggled with the mundane problems of meeting her weekly bills, Gilligan had been working out a plan that would see him provide her with the life she desired.
Gilligan had established himself as the head of a gang that specialised in robbing warehouses but discovered in jail there were easier ways to make money and they all centred on drug trafficking.
Shortly after his release from prison, he embarked on a criminal enterprise -- smuggling cannabis into Ireland -- that would make him and Geraldine into a wealthy couple.
Garda inquiries estimated he had grossed about €16.8m from drug-dealing between early 1994 and October 1996.
At the same time, he was also engaged in smuggling guns, some of which were stored in a grave in a Jewish cemetery in Tallaght.
The weapons were to be used by the gang to intimidate potential criminal rivals and as part-exchange with paramilitary groups, such as the INLA, to discourage their interest in his gang's distribution network.
Faced with a massive cashflow, he began gambling to launder his money. But it was the purchase of the Jessbrook equestrian centre near Enfield, on the Kildare-Meath border, that tickled Geraldine's fancy.
She had finally acquired her dream home and for the past nine years has fought to prevent the Criminal Assets Bureau from taking it away from her.

86 Gangs. 1,720 members

Security Minister Martin Joseph stated that there were now 86
gangs, comprising up to 1,720 members across the country.
He said the average size of each gang varied between 15 to 20
members, which meant that the total membership was between
1,300 to 1,720 persons.
Criminal gangs in Trinidad and Tobago are multiplying and
fast, both in terms of the numbers of gangs and the numbers of
persons joining gangs. The activity is leaving one with
inescapable conclusion that the society is now under greater
threat.
The situation has deteriorated considerably over the past 18
months. The last time Joseph gave a head count, he told the
House of Representatives on June 6, 2005, that there were some
"500 hardcore members" in the "66 known gangs".
Yesterday's figures therefore represent an over 340 per cent
increase in the membership of gangs and a 30 per cent increase
in the numbers of gangs.
Joseph said the reason for the proliferation was because
"splinter groups were being formed within gangs as a result of
some displacement activity".
Asked by Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj whether any of
these criminal gangs were brought to justice in the courts,
Joseph said his understanding was that a number of them were,
but he did not have the specific information.
The minister has repeatedly stated that the record murder toll
for last year was the result of gang-related activity, since
most of the homicides in Trinidad and Tobago are gang-linked.
He also stated that most of the gang-related activity is
directly linked to the problem of the illegal drug trade and
the prevalence of firearms.
Yesterday, Joseph said among the initiatives taken since 2006
to arrest gang members were the establishment of the Homicide
Prevention Working Group and the Inter Agency Task Force
(IATF), which created a presence in Carenage, Diego Martin,
Beetham Gardens and Cocorite. This was in addition to the
established centres of operation in Quarry Street, Charford
Court, Harpe Place and Beverly Hills, he said. (See Page 6)
He said because efforts to disrupt the activities of gangs
also had to include initiatives to disrupt the drug trade,
Government had also restructured the Homicide Bureau of
Investigation, established the Repeat Offenders Programme,
purchased vehicles, established police posts in the
Morvant/Laventille area to deal with rising gang activity; the
establishment of the Crime and Problem Analysis Branch; E-999
patrols, roadblocks and other police and joint army and police
patrols.
In response to another question, Joseph revealed that the
Firearms Interdiction Unit had seized a total of 111 firearms
and 2,813 rounds of ammunition between 2003 and 2005, when it
was disbanded. The areas from which the arms and ammunition
were retrieved included Chatham, Port of Spain, Arima,
Tableland, Claxton Bay, San Fernando, Chaguanas, Princes Town,
Laventille, Cunupia, Longdenville, Cedros, Sea Lots, Valencia,
Morvant, Curepe, Valsayn North, Trincity, Rousillac, Toco,
Maracas Bay and Tobago.
He said the FIU was disbanded in July 2005, and since then the
Police Service has seized 110 firearms in the last six months
of 2005, 266 in 2006 and 220 in 2007.

David Rivera

David Rivera, 33, a member of the MS-13 gang, has alleged links to several murders and prior arrests on sexual assault and drug charges as well as a conviction for gun possession.
He was arrested in an apartment complex in the Rampart section of Los Angeles by ICE agents and detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division.
Rivera attempted to escape out the back of the property before agents nabbed him, ICE said.
In addition to Rivera, officers also arrested two other suspected gang associates on immigration violations.
Rivera had been deported and illegally re-entered the country, ICE alleged. If convicted, Rivera could receive up to 20 years in federal prison.
He had been sought by authorities for four years and is expected to make his initial court appearance this afternoon in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, ICE said.
“This arrest is the pay-off for perseverance, great police work and partnership with local law enforcement,” said Jennifer Silliman, deputy special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Los Angeles.
“We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement counterparts in Los Angeles to target gang members like this man who put our communities and neighborhoods at risk,” she said.

Viet Boyz gang.Asian Boyz, Buc Lao Killers, Krazy Boyz

Nine of the defendants are members of the Viet Boyz gang,
Two sets of indictments, returned by a grand jury Jan. 8 and unsealed Friday, allege drug-related crimes from October 2004 through August 2007.
Many of the charges involve possession or distribution of the drug MDMA, which goes by the street name ecstasy. Although ecstasy use can be fatal, it often gets passed around as a party drug, authorities say.
Hinshaw said the indictments stem from a sheriff's investigation that began about three years ago. Because of the investigation's wide scope and the need for more resources, sheriff's investigators joined with a Drug Enforcement Administration task force, Hinshaw said. Wichita police also assisted.
The arrests began Thursday, and as of Friday afternoon, about 18 of the 27 defendants had been arrested, Hinshaw said.
They are expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Wichita on Monday.
The investigation involved the use of wiretaps and undercover drug purchases, Cross said. The undercover buys began in late 2004, U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said.
One of the indictments, 30 pages long and covering 94 counts, names 20 defendants on charges including possession with intent to distribute ecstasy, possessing a firearm to further drug trafficking and unlawful use of a telephone for drug trafficking.
A second indictment, 15 pages long and with 36 counts, names seven defendants on such charges as ecstasy possession or distribution and charges involving cocaine and marijuana.
Most of those charged are in their 20s and live in Wichita. But they also include residents of Newton, Lawrence, Atlanta, Ga., and Garland and Lubbock, Texas, the U.S. attorney's office said.
According to the 2003 Kansas Drug Threat Assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center, "Asian Boyz, Buc Lao Killers, Krazy Boyz, and Viet Boyz distribute MDMA at the retail level in Wichita."
The report said that most ecstasy in Kansas is made in the Netherlands and Belgium and transported by traffickers on commercial aircraft and then by private vehicles.
According to the report, "MDMA is generally taken orally in tablet or capsule form. MDMA abuse is a concern among law enforcement and public health agencies in the state because the drug can cause psychological problems similar to those associated with methamphetamine and cocaine abuse, including confusion, depression, sleeplessness, anxiety and paranoia."
The drug also can lead to kidney failure, strokes, seizures and heart attacks, the report said.
The crimes alleged in the indictments can lead to maximum penalties of up to 40 years in prison and fines of up to $4 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The indictments call for the forfeiture of some defendants' property "obtained directly or indirectly" from the alleged crimes.
The indictments specifically call for forfeiture of a 2004 BMW 525I, a 1998 Lexus and a 1996 Honda CX.

Sergei Schneider aka Semyon Mogilevich

Semyon Mogilevich, known as the “Brainy Don” because of his economics degree, has reportedly ruled a powerful Eastern European organised crime ring since the 1990s.
He is thought to be worth around $100 million. He is wanted by the FBI, Interpol and the UK police for numerous international crimes including fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
Police seized Mr Mogilevich, 61, and a large group of his bodyguards outside a Moscow supermarket on Wednesday night, Russian police confirmed today.
Heroes in suits fight back against Mafia
Company bosses in Sicily are taking their lives in their hands to end the protection rackets
State television showed footage of the alleged mobster as police held him and bodyguards against their luxury cars. They also broadcast film of the rarely photographed figure in custody, wearing jeans, a cap and leather jacket.
“Sergei Schneider has been arrested. He is better known as Semyon Mogilevich. He has several names, several nationalities and has been wanted for more than 15 years,” said Anzhela Kastuyeva, a Moscow police spokeswoman.
The arrest was made in connection with an investigation into an alleged $2 million tax evasion scheme run in connection with Arbat Prestige, a successful chain of Russian cosmetic stores. Vladimir Nekrasov, the owner of Arbat-Prestizh, was arrested in the same raid.
Monya Elson, a known associate of Mr Mogilevich, claimed in an interview given ten years ago that the Ukrainian was “the most powerful mobster in the world”.
An investigation by US newspaper the Village Voice, which apparently brought a death threat for its author, cited classified FBI and Mossad documents claiming that he was responsible for trafficking nuclear materials, drugs, prostitutes, precious gems, and stolen art. He was also said to have run a series of contract hit squads operating in the US and Europe.
Mr Elson claimed Mr Mogilevich, who was born in the Ukraine, controlled everything going in and out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, which he called a ''smugglers' paradise”.
The Mogilevich family were reported to live in two opulent villas near Prague where they reportedly operated torture chambers run by young enforcers trained by veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war.
In December 1994, British police officers, tipped off by their counterparts in eastern Europe, first began investigating allegations that the Mogilevich organisation might be laundering profits from arms dealing, prostitution, extortion and drug trafficking through a firm of London solicitors.
Detective Sergeant John Wanless, who investigated the Red Mafia’s role in the UK at the time told the Sunday Times: "Semion Mogilevich is one of the world's top criminals, who has a personal wealth of $100m. As a result of the effect of his financial impact on the City of London, he clearly falls in the category of a core criminal."
In 1999 London investigators attempted to question him once again, this time over a $10 billion money-laundering scheme that unwittingly embroiled the Bank of New York and a network of other leading financial institutions in the UK, America and six other countries.
Mr Mogilevich is also included on the FBI wanted list for racketeering, securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. The Bureau warns that he should be considered armed, dangerous and an escape risk.
During a 2005 speech in Hungary Robert Mueller, then FBI director said: “Right here in Budapest, Ukrainian-born Semion Mogilevich established the headquarters of his powerful organized crime enterprise.”
“The group engaged in drug and weapons trafficking, prostitution and money laundering, and organized stock fraud in the United States and Canada in which investors lost over 150 million dollars.”
UK authorities and the FBI are unlikely to ever get the opportunity to question the man even after his arrest as Russia has no extradition treaty with either country.

Brijesh Singh

Brijesh Singh, had been evading arrest since his escape from police custody in 1986.
The Delhi police had been looking for him for the past three years in connection with an extortion case in the Capital and a Special Cell team led by ACP Sanjeev Kumar Yadav eventually arrested him at Bhubaneswar in Orissa on Wednesday evening.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh said: “Brijesh had been untraceable for over two decades, but his terror was felt especially in eastern U.P. The police did not have his latest photograph for several years which helped him evade arrest for so long. He was once spotted in Delhi a year ago, but his identity could not be established and he managed to flee.”
Brijesh entered the world of crime in 1984 when he along with his accomplices allegedly committed a double murder to avenge the killing of his father over a land dispute.
His rivalry with politicians like Mukhtar Ansari and Afzal Ansari led to multiple murders and gang warfare across eastern Uttar Pradesh and northern Bihar. “Brijesh along with his gang members attacked the election convoy of Afzal Ansari killing six persons on May 2, 1991,” said Mr. Singh
He allegedly shot liquor mafia Virender Tata while he was being escorted from Allahabad Central Jail to an Azamgarh court. A sub-inspector, a head constable and an advocate were also killed in the attack.
In 1991, Brijesh and his accomplices stormed into a judge’s room chasing one Maya Singh Naate and allegedly shot him and a constable dead.
He along with his accomplice Tribhuvan Singh allegedly killed a sub-inspector and two Maharashtra police constables and a member of Arun Gawli’s gang whom he suspected to be involved in the murder of Dawood Ibrahim’s brother-in-law. Brijesh had worked for Dawood Ibrahim for a few years and left the don’s gang after the Mumbai serial blasts. He later got into liquor, coal and real estate business to establish his own empire.
“Once he even stormed into a hospital dressed as a policeman carrying an AK-47 rifle and murdered one Sadhu Singh who had come to meet his wife and newborn baby. Sadhu’s wife and child also sustained injuries in the attack. Later in the day, Brijesh killed eight persons, including Sadhu’s brother .

EL Mochomo Beltran Leyva.

The Baldies have battled the Gulf Cartel in shootouts in the beach resort of Acapulco that have horrified residents and tourists in recent years.
Beltran Leyva and three other people arrested with him were carrying some $US900,000 - about $A1 million - in cash in two suitcases. "Among his key functions was transporting drugs, money laundering, and bribing officials," the spokeswoman said yesterday.
Prosecutors say Beltran Leyva is a close lieutenant of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, Mexico's most wanted man and the head of an alliance of smugglers based in Sinaloa state.
The United States, whose Congress is debating sending surveillance and detection equipment to help Mexico's year-old drug crackdown, praised the arrest, with Ambassador Tony Garza in Mexico calling it a "significant victory".
The Sinaloa gang is in a bitter fight with the rival Gulf Cartel, based south of Texas, for control of smuggling routes.
More than 2500 people died in gangland-style killings last year as Mr Calderon launched an army crackdown on drug cartels. Many of the killings were gruesome, with victims often tortured or beheaded and their bodies left in the street.
Beltran Leyva, who has four brothers also accused of being leading traffickers, was the head of two teams of hitmen known as "The Baldies" and "The Blondies" in two western states.
Mr Calderon has deployed 25,000 troops and federal police to crush drug cartels in an offensive that has had mixed results. Scores of traffickers have been arrested, and some extradited to the US, but violence has not abated.
Drug hitmen last week broke traditional codes of honour against killing children when they murdered a three-year-old boy and a girl aged nine in the tough border city of Tijuana.
US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said on a visit to Mexico last week that the spurt in killings emphasised the need to keep up pressure on "drug terrorists" and pledged tighter controls on US guns flowing across the border illegally.

"I'm a rat," Emiliano "Emo" Gonzales member of Arillotta's "crew"

Emiliano "Emo" Gonzales, aligning with state police in 2003 was a slippery slope.
He told jurors today in an extortion conspiracy case that his on-again, off-again relationship with investigators led him to the witness box in Hampden Superior Court, saddled with an unsavory label.
"What happens to rats?" Assistant District Attorney Carmen W. Picknally asked Gonzales during questioning.
"They get killed," Gonzales responded.
"And what are you, sir?" Picknally asked.
"I'm a rat," he said, after admitting he wore a body wire to record conversations with defendants Anthony J. Arillotta, 39, of Springfield, and brothers Ty C. Geas, 35, and Fotios "Freddy" Geas, 40, both of West Springfield. The three are standing trial for extortion conspiracy. Each has pleaded innocent.
The trial began Wednesday before Judge Constance M. Sweeney.
The defendants are accused of trying to shake down Carlo and Gennaro Sarno, cousins from Greater Springfield who once owned profitable - but illegal - video slot machines. The accused allegedly used Gonzales as a conduit to pitch a mandatory profit-sharing plan. He testified that he recorded three meetings on the subject in May 2004.

Video slots machines, or "fruit machines," have historically been vulnerable to "tribute" demands from mobsters, according to criminal investigators.



Arguments and testimony have portrayed Arillotta as an emerging organized crime leader attempting to trump other gangsters the Sarnos were paying in the wake of the fatal shooting of former boss Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno on Nov. 23, 2003. The Geas brothers were violent ex-convicts who Arillotta had recruited as his henchmen, investigators have said.

Gonzales told jurors he approached state police after a dust-up at his bar, Emo's Place, earlier that month. After the fight, one brawler, Frankie A. Roche, came back and trashed the bar - including three of the Sarnos' poker machines. Bruno reportedly ordered Roche to make restitution. Bruno was killed less than two weeks later.

Roche, Fotios Geas, and Brandon D. Croteau, have been charged in connection with Bruno's slaying. That case is pending, and has figured only subtly in the extortion trial.

Gonzales faces a 15-year mandatory sentence for drug trafficking after a 2005 arrest. He is testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors.

He told jurors today the "turmoil" on the streets after the Bruno shooting spurred him to approach law enforcement five years ago. He said he asked investigators to lead him in shackles to their first meeting in 2003.

"I had them handcuff me because the patrons that were there .¤.¤. I didn't want them to get any suspicions," he said.

Gonzales said he was a member of Arillotta's "crew" until he was arrested with drugs in 1992 and went to prison for a decade.
After being released, Gonzales said he began working as a collector for the Sarnos' poker machine business. He admitted under cross-examination that he also continued to dabble in drug dealing and fencing stolen goods.
With a foot in both worlds, Gonzales told jurors he agreed to pose as a conduit for the Sarnos, and wore a body wire for state police during discussions with the defendants in 2004.
The first audible recorded meeting took place on the morning of May 5, at the White Hut restaurant in West Springfield. Jurors heard a recording of the defendants' alleged plans to put 10 of their own slot machines in choice spots across the city.
The recorded talks included scornful references to aging mob soldiers Felix L. Tranghese and Mario Fiore mentioned during testimony as men who were offering the Sarnos protection. The Sarnos have refused to testify at the trial.
From the first May 5, 2004 meeting came these exerpts:
Fotios Geas: "And then you got these old timers that think they wrote the (expletive) book on being sharp, and they're (expletive) stupid. You know?"
And later, Arillotta: "It's the hard way or the nice easy way, OK? We are in the machine business. So we're going into spots .¤.¤."
After allegedly threatening to take sledgehammers to the Sarnos' machines and have 15 guys "run them over 85 times" with a car if the police interceded, Arillotta continued at another recorded meeting on the same day: "Those vending machines, those are ours. If we want, we'll take every single one of them. Felix ain't stopping us, and Mario Fiore ain't stopping us. But we don't want to do that. We're being (expletive) gentlemen about it."
Gonzales testified Arillotta pulled the plug on the entire plan after confronting him about cooperating with police on May 14. Gonzales was arrested on drug charges a year later and fled to Canada; he was apprehended three months later and remains held without bail.
He is due to continue testifying tomorrow. Gonzales will face cross-examination by defense lawyers Vincent A. Bongiorni, Daniel D. Kelly and Peter M. Murphy.

Jose Luis Santiago, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman

Jose Luis Santiago, the point man in the country's war on drug gangs and the official in charge of extraditing drug bosses to the United States, said the suspected hit men may belong to the Sinaloa Cartel, which dominates Mexico's Pacific Coast cocaine smuggling routes.
Mexico's deputy attorney general said on Thursday that three men arrested in Mexico City last week with shoulder-fired rockets, rifles and a submachine gun were planning to kill him.
"It's one of the risks run by all of us who are committed," Santiago was quoted as saying in the daily Reforma newspaper's online edition.
Police stopped a car in an upscale neighborhood during a late-night check last Thursday and found the men and the weapons. Santiago said an investigation indicated they were on their way to ambush him.
President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 25,000 federal police and soldiers to hunt down drug cartels near the U.S. border and in other troubled areas around Mexico, which was hit by some 2,500 drug gang murders last year.
In northern Mexico, drug gangs frequently murder local police, judges and politicians in the middle of the conflict. But attacks on senior federal authorities are rare.
Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa Cartel, escaped from prison in 2001 and remains at large. One of his top lieutenants was arrested this week.

Brajesh Singh, Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan

Brajesh Singh, one of India’s most wanted Mafia dons with a history of extortion, murder and tender fixing cases spread across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal and Gujarat was arrested by the Delhi police and produced in a court here today.
Singh, operating with several alias, had confessed to the police that he had been involved in a dozen murders in UP and had earned Rs 10 crore a year from extortion. But police believe that the amount he would extort runs to over Rs 100 crore per annum.
He is suspected to have links with Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. He used to call the shots in all CPWD contracts in UP and a few other states, said a police officer.SNS

Ricardo Scarpino gangland slaying

Scarpino, 37, was gunned down Saturday night as he pulled up to a downtown steak house. The Vancouver man, who had been linked to gang activities, was shot dead in an SUV by at least two men. A passenger seated behind Scarpino was also killed. Scarpino's fiancée and another man survived the ambush at what was to have been an engagement celebration. The streets were busy blocks from a Vancouver Canucks hockey game that had let out.Fifteen years after Ricardo Scarpino pulled a gun and killed a man sitting across the table from him at a busy restaurant, it was his turn at the other end of the barrel.
Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, meeting reporters at a previously scheduled press conference to unveil plans to cut violent crime by 10 per cent, instead found himself answering questions about the city's latest gang-style hit and residents' fears over the public gunplay.
"People can walk the streets of Vancouver," Chu said yesterday. But he added: "They need to be vigilant and be aware of their surroundings.
"Overall, the majority of the streets are safe."
Scarpino, recently released from jail after two decades of scrapes with the law, shot and killed a 24-year-old man in a Los Angeles restaurant in 1993 but faced only firearms charges because he claimed self-defence.
Vancouver's first homicides of 2008 continue a trend that has plagued the Vancouver area. The toll includes six people found dead last October in a Surrey apartment – including two innocent bystanders – and four men killed in three public shootings in one week.
Area police forces and the RCMP formed a task force last fall to try to stop the gang-related bloodshed.
Chu said he wants to stop criminals from carrying guns but stopped short of a calling for a city-wide handgun ban, a move Toronto Mayor David Miller is advocating for his city.
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, however, said he would support such a ban. "The fact is criminals are still going to do what they can to get illegal guns," Sullivan said.

Eulalio "Lalo" Martinez, Daniel Ahumada, Lomas Rosemead street gang

Donald "Pato" Schubert was shot to death in the carport of his apartment building in the San Gabriel Valley city of Rosemead.
A member of the Lomas Rosemead street gang pleaded guilty to killing Schubert, a plumber and former gang member.
With that, the case was filed away, forgotten by nearly everyone except Schubert's family.
Then, earlier this month, the case suddenly returned to life. At a hearing in Pasadena Superior Court guarded by a dozen deputies, including two SWAT officers, a judge ordered , 46, a reputed member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, to stand trial for Schubert's killing.
Martinez has sat in a "maximum-security cell" at Pelican Bay State Prison for nearly 15 years.
But law enforcement officers and gang members say he controls the Lomas Rosemead street gang, ordering members to funnel him taxes collected from local drug dealers and directing killings, often by using notes with micro-writing -- known as kites -- smuggled out of the cellblock.
If proved, the case against him would support a belief widely held by law enforcement officers and gang members that many homicides that appear to be simple street-gang fights are instead contract murders ordered by members of the Mexican Mafia, known as the Eme, Spanish for M.
The case is noteworthy because rarely are Eme members prosecuted for street homicides. Often, any link between a specific killing and the Eme is obscure.
Moreover, once an actual triggerman is prosecuted, investigators often have no time to dig further into why the crime was committed. Even when a detective believes there's something more to a killing, a link is often hard to prove.
The case against Martinez, for example, relies on the words of three convicted murderers, one a former Eme member and another a crack dealer who said he once saw a note from Martinez ordering Schubert's death. No such note is in evidence in the case.
Much of the case hinges on Daniel Ahumada, the crack dealer and Lomas gang member who pleaded guilty to killing Schubert. Recently, Ahumada, serving 15 years to life in prison, has come forward to implicate others, including Martinez.
At the recent hearing, Martinez's lawyer, Michael Belter, said the case constructs only a "very tenuous link" to Martinez by "three men who have every motive in the world" to lie. "We have no physical evidence. We have faded memories," he said.
Through a family member, Martinez declined a request for an interview.
Despite the difficulty of proving a link between street killings and the prison gang, the reality of such ties is taken as true by many law enforcement officials and gang members who say the Eme has gained control over street gangs in the last 15 years.
"Usually when an Eme member has a neighborhood sewn up, there's no gang slaying that's not approved" by him, said a Lomas gang member who said he was Martinez's lieutenant on the streets briefly a few years ago. The man, like several others interviewed, spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from the gang.
Gang members do the Eme's bidding out of either fear or adulation for men they've usually never seen and know only as the "big homies," gang members say.
"The gangs don't run the gangs no more," said a Lomas Rosemead gang member who is doing time in state prison. "Everything's getting run from inside here."
Law enforcement officials say that with gang members as its street soldiers, the Mexican Mafia has evolved into a region-wide organized crime syndicate. The Eme collects taxes from drug dealers and sometimes prostitutes and even unlicensed ice cream vendors on the street.
They also say the gang orders murders on the streets and riots in county jails and thus is a force affecting public policy far beyond prison walls.
"The average gang killing is not always a gang killing," said Rene Enriquez, a long-time Eme member who dropped out in 2002 and is in prison in protective custody. The Eme "has this mythical ability to get people to do its bidding."
A veteran homicide detective believes that included the killing of Pato Schubert. Sheriff's Det. Frank Gonzales, a year from retirement now, has delved into unsolved killings in the Lomas Rosemead barrio for 13 years.
Several of the homicides appeared to be simple street-gang killings, he said. "On the surface, they all looked that way," Gonzales said. "Until you had sources, you would think it was a regular gang murder. But fortunately, people opened up."
Gonzales believes Martinez ordered half a dozen murders, though he declines to name them, saying he hopes to have charges filed over the next year.
Schubert's killing is the first to go to court.
Lomas Rosemead is a Mexican American gang dating to the 1950s and based in the poor neighborhood covering the hills above Rosemead, an unincorporated piece of L.A. County territory that had neither sidewalks nor sewers until the 1980s.
The gang and barrio were profiled in Luis Rodriguez's classic 1993 book on Latino street gangs, "Always Running."
Rodriguez, a former Lomas member, described an insular barrio with a gang that warred with other San Gabriel Valley rivals but took orders only from others in the neighborhood. At that time, the idea that anyone would kill a fellow gang member who wasn't a snitch was unthinkable.
At first, as Gonzales investigated shootings in the neighborhood, he got nowhere. Gonzales grew up in a Mexican barrio and knows that kids growing up in such neighborhoods learn early not to talk to police officers. Cultivating sources took years.
"A lot of times it doesn't happen in the first meeting or thesecond, third or fourth meeting. They're going to test your credibility, your word," Gonzales said. "You think 'this interview I'm going to learn a lot,' and you walk away with nothing. But you keep on trying."
Through the years, as Gonzales looked for a friendly face in Lomas, the Eme extended its control over the neighborhood. Loyalty to friends was supplanted by loyalty to the Mexican Mafia. Barrio gang unity dissolved. As years passed, more Lomas gang members died.
"They were killing each other off," said Det. Ruben "B.J." Bejarano, who has worked on the cases with Gonzales in recent years.
People in the neighborhood "didn't know who to trust any more," Gonzales said. "More and more people were being killed from within the gang. As I kept knocking on doors, they were telling me about other unsolved murders" believed connected to Martinez.
The detective now believes that on Martinez's orders, Lomas Rosemead gang members began turning on homeboys who were lifelong friends.
"I believe they weren't doing the work he wanted done," Gonzales said.
The killings, say the detectives and several current and former gang members, may also have stemmed from Martinez's desire to punish people he believed responsible for the murders during the 1990s of his brothers, Avelardo and Genaro.
"It was common knowledge among a lot of members that he wanted people responsible for killing his brother [Avelardo] to be killed," said Enriquez, the former Eme member.
"He wanted other people to do it for him."
"It's saving face. He cannot let anybody kill his family member and get away with it," said another long-time gang member and Eme associate. "He was very hard line."
Gonzales believes Schubert may have given a ride to a man who helped kill Martinez's brother, Avelardo, without knowing the killing had just taken place.
Martinez was due to be paroled from prison in September, after serving 14 years for robbery. Hours before the parole, Gonzales faxed to prison authorities the case charging him with Schubert's death.

Organised gang smuggled music , films believed to be produced in Russia and Ukraine as well as producing their own counterfeit discs.

Polish border police arrested eight people involved in the smuggling and manufacture of pirate CDs and DVDs in a raid carried out on 16th January. Officers also seized illegal firearms, including handguns, a machine gun and a sawn-off shotgun; contraband cigarettes and tobacco; as well as € 50,000 in cash.

The border police from the region of Klodzko smashed the organised gang who both smuggled music and films believed to be produced in Russia and Ukraine as well as producing their own counterfeit discs. The pirate CDs and DVDs were destined for the German market.
During the raid some 66,000 CDs, DVDs, CD-Rs and DVD-Rs and 108,000 inlay cards were seized along with counterfeit inlays and packaging. The discs contained a mixture of German and international repertoire. Officers secured the secret laboratory used for the illegal reproduction of discs which contained computers, two tower burners and two high-quality printers.
Four of the eight suspects arrested, including the one German citizen, were remanded in custody for three months. The other four suspects were released. The investigation continues.
The case highlights the value of a partnership approach between the public and private sector and the close and professional working relationship of the ZPAV, which represents the Polish recording industry, and IFPI, which represents the recording industry worldwide. A representative of FOTA, which represents the film industry in Poland, was also present during the raid to determine the legitimacy of the seized discs.
Len Hynds, Head of Enforcement at IFPI, says: “These raids clearly show that music and film piracy in Poland is tightly controlled by organised criminal gangs with an international reach. The Polish border police have done a fantastic job in breaking up this gang, but we are aware that there are others out there that we need to tackle.
“It is also self-evident that these gangs do not limit their activities to music and film. Evidence gathered suggests links to tobacco and illegal drug smuggling as well as people trafficking. It is to be hoped that when the case comes to court the authorities issue deterrent sentences to help tackle this ongoing problem.”