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Three Face Cocaine-Trafficking Charges (NY)
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- US Official: Drug Traffic May Return to Caribbean (FL)
- Staten Island Man, an Alleged Marijuana Kingpin, Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy (NY)
Three Face Cocaine-Trafficking Charges (NY)8 November 2011 UPI
(Return to Contents) US Official: Drug Traffic May Return to Caribbean (FL)8 November 2011 Miami Herald A top U.S. State Department official said Tuesday that drug traffickers may return to old Caribbean smuggling routes as law enforcement pressure builds against them in Mexico and Central America. The assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement said the Caribbean routes used to ship cocaine and other drugs in the 1970s and 1980s are the most logical for traffickers. Those routes led most often to South Florida but also to other Southern U.S. states. "I do not see it right now, but simple logic and common sense tells you that you probably are going to see it in the next two or three years," he said in an interview. "They are going to look for alternative routes." Right now less than 3 percent of cocaine and other illegal drugs are smuggled into the U.S. through ocean routes, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Traffickers most commonly bring the drugs produced in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and elsewhere north through Central America, or off its coasts, into Mexico and then over land into the U.S. But the official said the cartels are "in the process of being chased out of Mexico" and are beginning to eye Central American countries as an alternative base of operations. And that, he said, would make the Caribbean once again a more attractive option than moving drugs through South America or up the eastern Pacific coast. The official was in Miami this week for meetings at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters between U.S. ambassadors in Latin America and their counterparts at the State Department in Washington. Among the topics being discussed are regional security plans for both Central America and the Caribbean aimed at disrupting criminal organizations, securing borders and increasing cooperation. Attacking drug organizations takes a comprehensive approach, said the official, who was previously ambassador to both Colombia and Venezuela. "You cannot just do eradication, just do interdiction, just to laboratory takedowns ... You must address all aspects of the problem, and we cannot do it alone," he said. One emerging threat is the increasing use of submarines and semi-submersible vessels to transport large amounts of cocaine up the Central American coastline. The Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection earlier this year detected a true submarine in the Caribbean near the Honduras-Nicaragua border that sank but had more than seven tons of cocaine aboard. "The first ones looked like something kids would put together in the backyard. Now what we are seeing is pretty sophisticated stuff," the official said. "I don't see this yet as a crisis, because we don't see the numbers. But it is their ability to transport anything that should cause us some concern." Source: [www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/08/2492674/us-official-drug-traffic-may-return.html] (Return to Contents) Staten Island Man, an Alleged Marijuana Kingpin, Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy (NY)8 November 2011 SILive.com He was only in his 20s and lived in his parent modest Meiers Corners home, but he had all the trappings of great success — luxury cars, including a Bentley and BMW convertible, fancy jewelry and a $40,000 watch. But the man was not a high-flying financier or Internet magnate; he traded in marijuana — more than 110 tons of it, as the kingpin of a billion-dollar international drug ring that smuggled the contraband from Canada into the U.S. through a Native American reservation on the New York state border, authorities allege. Now, he is destined for a more modest lifestyle after pleading guilty in Brooklyn federal court to conspiracy charges. He could land behind bars for the rest of his life. The ring operated between November 2007 and mid-2010, according to court papers filed by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The drugs had a conservative retail value of more than $1.7 billion dollars, said prosecutors. "It is neither an exaggeration nor hyperbole to state that the defendant and his criminal enterprise generated illegal proceeds exceeding the Gross Domestic Product of a small country," contended two Assistant U.S. attorneys in court papers. The defendant was supplied by a consortium with ties to the three most powerful organized crime groups in Canada, including the Hell’s Angels, said prosecutors. Those groups control virtually all of Montreal’s drug trade, court filings said. The contraband was concealed in vehicles entering New York from Canada through the Akwesasne Native American reservation in upstate Franklin County. The defendant and his minions also smuggled the contraband in boats with sophisticated hydraulic traps for concealment purposes and in private jets, said court papers. Prosecutors said the weekly shipments of pot were delivered to "stash houses" on Staten Island and Queens. It was then distributed by street-level dealers in the metropolitan area, including the Island, court documents stated. The defendant, who according to Advance records, owned a cellular phone store in Tottenville as recently as 2006, also reached into California, Florida, Massachusetts and multiple locations in Canada, said court records. A raid of the defendant’s Buchanan Avenue home last year netted about $77,000 in cash wrapped in rubber bands, drug ledgers for "hundreds" of marijuana shipments, and 16 cell phones and BlackBerries, said court records. He allegedly used at least two of the electronic devices to send text messages regarding drug shipments and payments. Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents also found five fake driver’s licenses. Previously, a May 2009 raid at a defendant-controlled Staten Island stash house raked in more than 600 pounds of hydroponic marijuana and $500,000 cash, said court papers. Afterward, he took refuge for several months in Canada, where he had been ferried across in a motor-less boat under the cover of darkness. He later went to Israel before returning to the U.S. in the fall of that year. Once home, the defendant resumed his drug enterprise, raking in more than $6 million per week during the height of its operation, said court papers. He ruled with an iron fist, allegedly whipping a worker with a belt at a California stash house after $100,000 in marijuana went missing. He also turned venomous when an associate threatened to go to police. Prosecutors said he sent this text message: "(I)f you interfere with my life and make me uncomfortable, you will leave me no choice but to do the same back to you in a much worse way." The defendant pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to import 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) of marijuana or more and conspiracy to launder drug proceeds. Source: [www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2011/11/staten_island_man_an_alleged_m.html] (Return to Contents) Directory: gifiles -> attach -> 136 attach -> Adaptability Sustainment attach -> Pop-up 1 ("C" Chechnya) Header Text: Emir of the Caucasus Emirate Doku Umarov Image attach -> Russia and Islam are not Separate attach -> Chapter 13: The Northern Caucasus attach -> Russia 100209 Basic Political Developments attach -> The evolution attach -> The devolution 136 -> How the World will Change in the Next 30 Years: World Experts Talk about Global Trends and Forces that will Sweep the 21 136 -> Unclassified//for official use only Download 159.92 Kb. 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