A nurse has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the deaths of three patients at a hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

Rebecca Leighton, 27, of Heaviley, Stockport, was arrested at home and is being questioned after two men and a woman died at Stepping Hill Hospital.Police believe insulin was deliberately injected into saline containers.Sixty detectives have been involved in the inquiry and officers have questioned more than 50 people so far.Tracey Arden, 44, 71-year-old Arnold Lancaster, and George Keep, 84, have all died at the hospital in the past month.A fourth patient, a man in his 40s, remains critically ill.Greater Manchester Police believe the sabotaged saline containers were used by at least two wards, A1 and A3.Deaths 'unexplained'The force said they were working on the assumption the contamination had taken place on the site.The four patients are among a total of 14 whose treatment since 7 July is being examined by police.Dr Chris Burke, chief executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are aware that Greater Manchester Police have made an arrest this morning of a 26-year-old female.Security has been increased at the hospital"As the police are continuing with their enquiries, we are unable to provide any further details, but it is important to stress that no charges have been made at this stage."A hospital spokesperson said it hoped to return to full business by 0900 BST on Thursday, although security measures would remain in place.The Nursing and Midwifery Council, which regulates nurses in the UK, said: "We are aware that an individual is being questioned who may be a nurse. Fitness to practice proceedings will be commenced immediately, if appropriate."Detectives were called to the hospital after an experienced nurse reported a higher-than-normal number of patients on her ward with "unexplained" low blood sugar levels.Officers found insulin had contaminated a batch of 36 ampoules in a storeroom close to ward A1.Security has been increased on the hospital site and staff have been told to work in pairs when they check or administer drugs.Senior NHS bosses at the hospital are having daily meetings with police.Insulin is always stored in a fridge in a locked treatment room but saline has also been locked away as a result of the incidents.Contaminated bagSouth Manchester coroner John Pollard has opened and adjourned inquests into Ms Arden, Mr Lancaster and Mr Keep.Police have said a damaged bag containing saline solution was found in the maternity ward but it had not been contaminated.Assistant Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, leading the inquiry for Greater Manchester Police, said: "It is important to stress that this product has not been contaminated and, in fact, the damage could very well be accidental, as can happen quite easily in a busy hospital environment."Extra security measures are in place across the hospital and staff continue to be vigilant, which of course is to be expected."Due to heightened awareness, staff are alerting police to anything they feel might be suspicious or relevant to the investigation and to date there has been no further contamination of any product since the control measures were introduced."n arrested on suspicion of murder after the deaths of three patients at a hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

Rebecca Leighton, 27, of Heaviley, Stockport, was arrested at home and is being questioned after two men and a woman died at Stepping Hill Hospital.

Police believe insulin was deliberately injected into saline containers.

Sixty detectives have been involved in the inquiry and officers have questioned more than 50 people so far.

Tracey Arden, 44, 71-year-old Arnold Lancaster, and George Keep, 84, have all died at the hospital in the past month.

A fourth patient, a man in his 40s, remains critically ill.

Greater Manchester Police believe the sabotaged saline containers were used by at least two wards, A1 and A3.

Deaths 'unexplained'
The force said they were working on the assumption the contamination had taken place on the site.

The four patients are among a total of 14 whose treatment since 7 July is being examined by police.

Dr Chris Burke, chief executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are aware that Greater Manchester Police have made an arrest this morning of a 26-year-old female.


Security has been increased at the hospital
"As the police are continuing with their enquiries, we are unable to provide any further details, but it is important to stress that no charges have been made at this stage."

A hospital spokesperson said it hoped to return to full business by 0900 BST on Thursday, although security measures would remain in place.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council, which regulates nurses in the UK, said: "We are aware that an individual is being questioned who may be a nurse. Fitness to practice proceedings will be commenced immediately, if appropriate."

Detectives were called to the hospital after an experienced nurse reported a higher-than-normal number of patients on her ward with "unexplained" low blood sugar levels.

Officers found insulin had contaminated a batch of 36 ampoules in a storeroom close to ward A1.

Security has been increased on the hospital site and staff have been told to work in pairs when they check or administer drugs.

Senior NHS bosses at the hospital are having daily meetings with police.

Insulin is always stored in a fridge in a locked treatment room but saline has also been locked away as a result of the incidents.

Contaminated bag
South Manchester coroner John Pollard has opened and adjourned inquests into Ms Arden, Mr Lancaster and Mr Keep.

Police have said a damaged bag containing saline solution was found in the maternity ward but it had not been contaminated.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, leading the inquiry for Greater Manchester Police, said: "It is important to stress that this product has not been contaminated and, in fact, the damage could very well be accidental, as can happen quite easily in a busy hospital environment.

"Extra security measures are in place across the hospital and staff continue to be vigilant, which of course is to be expected.

"Due to heightened awareness, staff are alerting police to anything they feel might be suspicious or relevant to the investigation and to date there has been no further contamination of any product since the control measures were introduced."

Corrupt police officers must face full weight of law

Police officers found guilty of taking money from News International should face the full weight of the law, Cambridge’s MP insists.
Julian Huppert was among 11 MPs listening to the evidence of senior Met officers Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates when they appeared before the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee yesterday.
Answering questions at the committee, Sir Paul, who resigned as Commissioner of the force on Sunday, revealed that nearly a quarter of the Met’s communications team previously worked for the News International.
And Mr Yates, who quit as assistant commissioner on Monday, said it was time for the newspaper company to face up to its responsibilities – “confidently” predicting officers would be jailed.
Dr Huppert, the only Liberal Democrat on the committee, said: “Their evidence raised a whole series of concerns for me about what has being going on in the Met.
“The general attitude seemed to be that officers did not know who was in charge of what, and there seem to have been constant links with News International.
“If officers have broken the law, then there must be action. Corruption in the police must lead to prosecutions.”
The committee hearing took place in a room close to where Rupert Murdoch and his son James were facing their intensely-awaited grilling by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee about the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
Rupert Murdoch told MPs he could not be held responsible for hacking, saying he was let down by “people I trusted”, but adding he was “humbled” by what had happened.
There was drama when a man threw a paper plate covered in shaving foam over him as he gave evidence. The media tycoon’s wife Wendi leapt to his defence, first pushing him away and then smacking the plate over the demonstrator as he was led away by police.
Dr Huppert said: “I heard the noise next door when the incident happened.”
The MP said he was doubtful about the Murdochs’ claims that they were unaware of the extent of the wrongdoing at News International.
Dr Huppert said: “Senior executives should know what is going on in the organisations they’re in charge of.”

 

The Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates has become the second high-profile Scotland Yard officer to resign over the phone-hacking scandal.

The resignation of Yates – the country's top counter-terrorism officer – comes a day after his boss, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, stepped down.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said: "Assistant commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA). This has been accepted. AC Yates will make a statement later this afternoon."

His decision to quit came as the Metropolitan Police Authority's professional standards cases subcommittee held a meeting to consider a slew of complaints against him.

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said the resignations of Yates and Stephenson were "regrettable but right". He said: "Whatever mistakes have been made at any level in the police service, now is the time to clear them up."

The MPA disciplinary committee, which met on Monday morning, announced that it had decided to suspend Yates pending an inquiry into allegations following the phone-hacking scandal.

Cressida Dick would replace Yates in the interim, Johnson said.

Green party MPA member Jenny Jones said the resignation should have happened earlier and left Johnson with a lot to explain.

"I think it's a real pity Yates did not go before his boss," she said. "It just shows who the most honourable person is. Boris has mishandled this from the start and he obviously has lots of questions to answer."

Earlier on Monday it emerged that Yates had been recalled to give evidence before the Commons home affairs select committee on Tuesday.

Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the committee, said: "The committee has recalled Mr Yates to give evidence tomorrow to clarify aspects of his evidence that he gave to the committee last week and following the statement of Sir Paul Stephenson."

When he appeared before the select committee last Tuesday, Yates expressed regret at his 2009 decision not to reopen the phone-hacking investigation. He insisted he had always told the truth to MPs investigating the issue and suggested that the News of the World "failed to co-operate" with police until the start of this year.

He told the committee: "I can assure you all that I have never lied and all the information that I've provided to this committee has been given in good faith.

"It is a matter of great concern that, for whatever reason, the News of the World appears to have failed to co-operate in the way that we now know they should have with the relevant police inquiries up until January of this year.

"They have only recently supplied information and evidence that would clearly have had a significant impact on the decisions that I took in 2009 had it been provided to us."

Vaz told Yates that his evidence was unconvincing and warned him it was "not the end of the matter".

Under-fire police chief John Yates said he had done "nothing wrong" today

Under-fire police chief John Yates said he had done "nothing wrong" today amid speculation he will be suspended over the phone hacking scandal.

The assistant commissioner said "give me a break" to reporters after a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority claimed his position had become untenable in the wake of Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation as commissioner.

John Yates to be suspended, say reports

One top figure at the Metropolitan police has already been sacrificed to the phone hacking scandal, with commisioner Sir Paul Stephenson's resignation. Now, it looks like the future of assistant commissioner John Yates is hanging in the balance, too.

The Metropolitan Police Authority's (MPA) professional standards is currently meeting to discuss Yates's handling of the phone hacking crisis. Also under discussion will be his links with Neil Wallis, the former News of the World executive whose employment with the Metropolitan Police ledStephenson to resign yesterday.

The committee does not have the power to dismiss Yates, but it can call for further investigation.

Boris Johnson has called an emergency press conference for 2pm. According to the Daily Telegraph, the mayor will announce that Yates is to be suspended, pending an investigation over his role in phone hacking and his relationship with Wallis. The newspaper quotes a source as saying: "If an investigation is ongoing he cannot stay in his job."

This follows increasing pressure on Yates to step down. Several people have now called for his resignation, including John Prescott, an independent member of the MPA, and a London Assembly member. However, the signs are that Yates, who twice decided not to reopen the inquiry into telephone hacking, will not resign of his own accord. Last week, when Keith Vaz asked if he was considering his position, he said:

No, I haven't. And if you're suggesting that I should resign for what News of the World has done and my very small part in it, I think that's probably unfair.

The last week has not shaken this, clearly, as he told Sky News this morning: "I've done nothing wrong". Sources say that he does not plan to step down unless the judge-led inquiry finds him guilty of wrong-doing.

 

China arrests 36 for fraud on Alibaba

Chinese police have arrested 36 people connected with operating an online fraud on Alibaba.com and other websites, the company has said.

Those arrested stand accused of duping overseas buyers of more than $6bn (£3.7bn) by posing as suppliers on the Chinese e-commerce websites.

The fraud resulted in the chief executive and chief operating officer of Alibaba quitting earlier this year.

Alibaba is China's largest e-commerce group.

"The arrest of the suspects hits online scammers hard," said Alibaba.com boss Jonathan Lu.

The company said the arrests were made following a 40-day investigation earlier this year.

Reduced complaints
Alibaba said it had introduced strict procedures in an attempt to prevent a repeat of such cases.

As a result, the number of fraud complaints received monthly by the website declined by 70% between February and June, Alibaba officials said.

The company said it would keep up its efforts to ensure the safety of its consumers.

"We will continue to co-operate with defrauded buyers and police to pursue the investigation, arrest and sentencing of those who commit crimes using our platform," said Linda Kozlowski of Alibaba.com.

"If scammers think they can hide on the internet and that no-one will go after them, they are wrong," she added.

 

Despite warrants, arrests not likely in Lebanese prime minister’s death

Warrants issued for the arrest of four men wanted for the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri have the potential to tear Lebanon apart – but don’t expect the men to stand trial or even be arrested any time soon.

Mr. Hariri and 22 others were killed on Valentine’s Day 2005 from the blast of a massive truck bomb on the corniche in downtown Beirut. More than six years later, the warrants were given to Lebanon’s Prosecutor-General, with the demand his officials arrest the four Lebanese citizens.


The names of the four people have not officially been revealed, but Lebanese media report that all four are members of Hezbollah, the militant Shia political movement that now controls the government of Lebanon.

The men reportedly include Mustafa Badreddine, said to have been Hezbollah’s deputy military commander, and brother-in-law of the late Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh. The others – Salim Ayyash, also known as Abu Salim; Assad Sabra and Hassan Anise, who changed his name to Hassan Issa – are relative unknowns.

Hezbollah has denounced the tribunal as a U.S.-Israeli front and says it will never allow its people to be tried. It toppled the previous government of Saad Hariri over the pending tribunal actions, and the whole country lives in fear of a return to the kind of civil war that plagued the country from 1975-90.

Saad Hariri, son of the late Rafik Hariri, hailed the tribunal’s act as “historic.”


Maybe so, but “nothing’s going to happen,” said Karim Makdisi, deputy director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, “and Hariri knows it.”

“If they try to serve the warrants they’ll be blocked,” Mr. Makdisi said. And if they ever should actually arrest someone, all hell will break loose.

Officials in the newly formed government of Najid Mikati have 30 days to report to the tribunal “on the measures they have taken to arrest the accused.” It doesn’t mean they have to serve the warrants within that first month.

“Lawyers will spin things out,” Mr. Makdisi said, suggesting they’ll comply with the technical reporting requirements but make absolutely no real move to arrest anyone.

“It’ll be a case of ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you,’ ” he said.

Of course, it helps in protecting Hezbollah that Lebanon’s new Justice Minister, Shakib Qortbawi, is a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Maronite Christian party led by General Michel Aoun, a close ally of Hezbollah. The Justice Ministry was the one post Gen. Aoun insisted his party be given during deliberations to form the coalition. His allegiance to Hezbollah won him their support, and gave him the largest number of seats in cabinet.

For his part, Mr. Mikati said his government “will act responsibly” in dealing with the tribunal’s request.

A statement from his office read: “The government confirms that it will follow the progress of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which was set up in principle to see justice served in a manner that is neither politicized nor vengeful, and as long as it does not negatively affect Lebanon’s stability and civil peace.”

In other words, the government will put stability and civil peace ahead of the arrest warrants, and the situation will remain as it is for a long time to come.

“Lebanon may be the safest place for the four wanted guys to be,” Mr. Makdisi said. “They don’t even have to hide out.”

Saad Hariri understands this, and if the Mikati government does nothing, as expected, Mr. Hariri figures to use that as leverage against the prime minister in the lead up to elections less than two years away.

In much the same way Mr. Hariri’s March 14 political movement came to power in the wake of his father’s assassination, Mr. Hariri hopes that a backlash against the Mikati government will make the people see that Mr. Hariri is the better Sunni leader to run the country.

The only complication in all of this is if Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad should fall from power. Indeed, the warrants may not be the last ones the tribunal issues.

Detlev Mehlis, the first head of the international inquiry, stated publicly that Hezbollah acted as the sub-contractor of the Syrians. Ominously, General Ghazi Kanaan, Syria’s Interior Minister, was reported to have “committed suicide” in October 2005, after allegations surfaced in Lebanon that he was behind the Hariri assassination.

With all the uproar currently in Syria, an indictment against Syria’s leaders could help propel Mr. al-Assad from office.

In that event, Hezbollah will become very concerned. The Assad regime is a close ally and the principal conduit to Hezbollah’s main benefactor, Iran.

“The worse things get for Assad, the more nervous Hezbollah becomes,” Mr. Makdisi said.

The question is, says Joseph Bahout, a lecturer in Syria-Lebanese studies at Sciences Po in Paris, “If the Syrian regime gets weaker, will Hezbollah gradually become more flexible … or, on the contrary, will it increasingly pursue a radical position and bitterly defend its share [of power]?”

 

Lawyers in China are increasingly being attacked, harassed and ‘disappeared’

In the past year, the Communist party has tightened its grip on China’s legal system and reminded lawyers that the party controls the country’s courts.
The tiny number of Chinese lawyers who try to use the legal system to highlight abuses of power or defend activists and religious groups have found themselves increasingly targeted in the past year, according to Amnesty International.
“Intimidation, harassment, violence, arbitrary detention were all increasingly used against lawyers and their families in 2010. Such acts are carried out in more and more blatant ways, with officials abandoning even the pretence of obeying the law,” said the Amnesty report.
The report came on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the Communist party, ahead of which cadres have tightly censored any dissent.
Amnesty also said the government had suspended or revoked lawyers’ licences to stop them from taking on sensitive cases. Amnesty has counted 30 lawyers who have had their right to practice stripped from them since 2008.

The pressure intensified in February with one of the broadest campaigns of repression in years. Dozens of lawyers were rounded up and questioned as the Communist party worried whether the so-called Arab Spring democracy movement would spread to China.
Among them were Teng Biao, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, who disappeared halfway through February and did not surface for more than two months. Jiang Tianyong, a lawyer who represented victims who had been infected with AIDS by botched blood transfusions, also disappeared for two months.
All the lawyers who were “disappeared” have kept a low profile since their re-emergence, suggesting they had been intimidated. Meanwhile, one of China’s most famous lawyers, Gao Zhisheng, has now been missing for over a year, despite a brief re-emergence during which he left behind an interview accusing the authorities of torturing him.
The Communist party’s determination to exert total control over China’s courts contradicts a pledge this week in London by Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier that the “future China” would be one that “fully achieves democracy, the rule of law, fairness and justice”.

 

A man has plunged to his death after "planking" on a seventh-storey balcony in Brisbane's inner-south this morning

A man has plunged to his death after "planking" on a seventh-storey balcony in Brisbane's inner-south this morning, police have confirmed.

Acton Beale, aged 20, fell from the balcony of a unit block on Main Street in Kangaroo Point shortly before 4.30am.

He was trying to lay face down on the balcony railing of his apartment when he suddenly fell.

Paramedics spent 20 minutes trying to revive Mr Beale at the scene, however, he died a short time later.

Planking, which involves somebody lying flat on their stomach in unusual or different environments, is a burgeoning internet craze that has attracted thousands of fans right across Australia.

Photographs of their exploits are usually shared through social media sites such as Facebook.

Deputy Police Commissioner Ross Barnett today said his worst fears about planking had been realised.

“This morning we have seen a young man take this activity a step further and attempt to plank on a balcony. Unfortunately he has tragically fallen to his death,” he said.

Mr Barnett said the 20-year-old and another person had been out during the night and had been planking in various spots on their way home.

"He has tragically lost his footing and fallen to the ground below," he said.

"It is what we've been fearing."

Mr Barnett warned people against taking unnecessary risks in a bid to out-do each other for the ultimate photograph.

“Accepting a risk of injury for yourself is one thing, but the potential is there for others to be injured as a result of your behaviour,’’ he said.

Earlier this week, a man was charged in Gladstone for trespassing on police property when he "planked" across the back of a police car.

"If other people break the law during this activity they will be charged as well," Mr Barnett said.

“But no penalty will ever return this young man to his family and friends.

‘‘This is a tragedy and our condolences go to the family.”

People have already condemned the internet craze on Facebook following the man’s death.

‘‘One life has been lost because of this! Think of what could happen if it went wrong. Don't be stupid ... think before you do this!’’ one person wrote.

Investigations are continuing.

Citibank (C.N) said a former employee had committed fraud in Indonesia and sought to reassure card clients on Saturday, a day after the central bank slapped lengthy bans on its credit card and wealth management businesses.

Citibank (C.N) said a former employee had committed fraud in Indonesia and sought to reassure card clients on Saturday, a day after the central bank slapped lengthy bans on its credit card and wealth management businesses.

The sanctions came as Indonesian police investigate both the death of a Citi credit card client following questioning by debt collectors and a case of alleged embezzlement of around $2 million in its wealth management business.

Citi, which has previously only said it uncovered suspicious transactions, sent a letter to credit card holders on Saturday aimed at keeping them onboard, saying it had taken corrective action and the suspensions would not impact clients.

"We regret the two recent incidents involving the tragic passing of a credit card customer and the unacceptable fraudulent actions of a former employee," said Citi country officer Shariq Mukhtar in the letter.

"We are committed to restoring public trust in our franchise."

Police have detained a former wealth manager at the U.S. bank and said the case involves around $2 million.

An Indonesian woman has filed a civil suit against Citi seeking $347 million in damages, after her husband died on March 29 following questioning over bills on a Citi credit card.

Indonesia's central bank barred Citigroup's local unit from adding new credit card clients for two years and new customers for its premium wealth service for a year starting May 6. It said if the police found crimes were committed, it would revoke the bank's operating license.

The penalties will hit the expansion of Citi's business in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, where global banks are seeking to tap rising middle class wealth and millionaire tycoons.

YOUNG man who was chased and stabbed to death last weekend was murdered because of a drugs debt of about €2,000,

Gardai are now satisfied David Byrne owed money to a local gang in payment for drugs.

And the 19-year-old paid for his delay in handing over the cash with his life.

Officers also think there had been a minor personal dispute between Mr Byrne and the prime suspect.

The revelation emerged as gardai last night continued to question four male and two female teenagers about the murder at an apartment complex in south Dublin at the weekend.

Two of the seven detained in a garda round-up on Tuesday were released without charge.

But a second girl was detained on suspicion of withholding information about the stabbing and was being held last night under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, which allows the gardai to hold her without charge for up to three days.

Two of those being questioned are suspected of playing a major role in the stabbing, which took place in the Emmet Court apartment complex in Inchicore at around 10.30pm on Saturday after Mr Byrne had been chased by at least four attackers.

Gardai have established that the prime suspect had a deep personal dislike of Mr Byrne for some time.

After Mr Byrne had failed to settle his debt for drugs, his attackers decided to ambush him as he left his home at Davitt House, where he lived with his mother.

At least four men, wearing hooded tops, were waiting for him shortly after 10pm but he managed to escape from them and ran across a footbridge over the Grand Canal.

Europol said overnight police in several countries have arrested 184 alleged members of the pedophile ring and rescued 230 children since the operation began in 2007.

Europol said overnight police in several countries have arrested 184 alleged members of the pedophile ring and rescued 230 children since the operation began in 2007.

"Six-hundred-and-seventy suspects have been identified, 184 arrests have already been made and 230 children, the victims of these terrible crimes, have been identified and rescued from further harm,'' the policing agency's director, Rob Wainwright, said during a press conference in The Hague.

"We expect these numbers to rise further,'' he said, adding: "This is already the biggest case of its kind we have ever seen."

Dubbed Operation Rescue, Europol said the probe started three years ago, and targeted an online network, its server based in The Netherlands, with almost 70,000 members worldwide at its height. It has since been taken down.

The suspects were members of an online forum, boylover.net, that promoted sex between adults and young boys.

Europol said the website operated as a forum where members connected without committing an offence. Having made contact on the site, they would then use other channels, such as email, to exchange images and films of children being abused.

"I can confirm that this is one of the most successful police operations in recent years in what is probably the largest online paedophile network in the world,'' Wainwright said.

In the course of the investigation, the agency sent more than  4000 intelligence reports to police authorities in more than 30 countries.

Fifteen Victorians are among the Australians arrested by Australian Federal Police officers since investigations began in 2007.

The AFP started investigating in August 2007 and discovered several of the internet addresses came from Australian internet service providers.

AFP high tech crime operations investigation manager Grant Edwards said four children had been removed from harmful situations and arrested 31 suspected offenders.

"The Australian suspects in this operation are aged between 19 years and 84 years, including four suspects we will allege were senior members of this syndicate,’’ Commander Edwards said.

"These suspects are from all walks of life, from scout leaders, to lifesavers and teachers."

Two of the Victorians arrested since the operation began, George Iliakis and Philip Alan Reid, have already been jailed.

Brighton Grammar teacher Iliakis, of Edithvale, was jailed last year after handcuffing and gagging children to fuel his twisted fantasies.

Iliakis, who was jailed last year for four years with a minimum of two years, had a decade-long obsession with young boys and kept more than 16,000 child pornography images at his marital home.

For four years the grade 6 teacher used the name "Mr Teacherman'' to trade sick requests with other online child porn users, sending them videos and photos he had taken himself.  He did not molest any students at the exclusive bayside school.

Reid, of Malvern, was jailed over child pornography in 2008 for three years with a minimum of 15 months.

The former music teacher admitted writing a note about how to "seduce and develop relationships with young males", sentencing judge Lance Pilgrim said.

The AFP worked along side the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Europol and other international agencies as part of the bust, dubbed Operation Rescue.

Commander Edwards said the total number of children safeguarded around the world would never be known because child porn was ``such a limitless crime”.

The website, which portrayed itself as a discussion only forum where people could share their sexual interest in young boys without committing any specific offences, has been taken down.

Members made contact on the site and moved into more private channels like email to exchange and share illegal images and films of children being abused.
Internet investigators also tracked offenders who had migrated to other sites.

Commander Edwards said further investigations and risk assessments then continued against multiple suspects who did not realise they were being probed.

"At the end of the day, our goal is simple: child safety," he said.

Nightclub bouncer Carl Whant was last night charged with the murder of teenager Nikitta Grender

Nightclub bouncer Carl Whant was last night charged with the murder of teenager Nikitta Grender and the “child destruct­ion” of her unborn baby.
Whant, 26 – a cousin of Nikitta’s boyfriend Ryan Mayes – will ­appear before magistrates tomorrow.
Nikitta, 19, of Newport, Gwent, had been due to give birth this coming Thursday, Ryan’s 18th birthday.
Use of the child destruction charge, which dates from 1929, is rare.
District Crown Prosecutor Stacey Turner said: “Offences relating to unborn children fall outside the scope of murder legislation.
“Therefore in respect of Nikitta Grender’s unborn child, we have advised Gwent Police to charge Carl Whant with the offence of child destruction under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929.”
Nikitta was stabbed twice in the bedroom she shared with Ryan early last Saturday. The flat was set on fire.


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Mondevergine back in the slammer, this time with his bail set at a cool $1 million by a Common Pleas Court judge.

Steven "Gorilla" Mondevergine, the former outlaw biker boss, figured he'd be out on bail in a snap when he waived extradition from Gloucester County and agreed to be taken to Philadelphia last month to face attempted-murder and assault charges.

At first, that is how it played out for the 55-year-old ex-leader of the Pagans Motorcycle Club.

But then, at a bail-modification hearing, an assistant district attorney started talking about a box of shotgun shells, a medieval jousting weapon, and a 7-inch knife found in the hulking ex-cop's South Jersey apartment.

Assistant District Attorney Brian Grady coupled that with the biker's alleged history of violence. And two days after he was released on $75,000 bail, Mondevergine was back in the slammer, this time with his bail set at a cool $1 million by a Common Pleas Court judge.

"There's just not a legitimate purpose to have any of this," Assistant District Attorney Brian Grady said last week in explaining the motion he filed two weeks ago that got Mondevergine's bail increased.

"This" was the contraband that Grady said authorities had confiscated Dec. 15 when they arrested Mondevergine at his apartment in Turnersville.

The box of shotgun shells presents an additional problem for Mondevergine because of his racketeering conviction. Convicted felons are prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition. That offense alone could carry a five-year prison sentence.

Grady also pointed to the other items found in the apartment as he argued that Mondevergine was a danger to society and that his original bail was exceedingly low.

Laying the items before Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Palumbo during the Dec. 21 hearing, Grady pointed to what authorities described as a "boot knife," a weapon with a 7-inch blade and a leather sheaf. The sheaf had two straps that, Grady said, could be wrapped around an individual's calf to hide the knife under a pant leg.

He also showed the judge a three-foot ax handle and a medieval weapon known as a flail found in the apartment. A flail is a spiked steel ball attached to a chain that is attached to a short steel pole.

Grady said there was no indication that Mondevergine was either a collector of medieval weaponry or a participant in Renaissance fairs.

It also could not be determined if the flail was from Mondevergine's days as a Pagan leader and underworld enforcer.

"There's just no legitimate reason to have any of this," Grady said for a second time.

Arnold Silverstein, Mondevergine's attorney, declined to comment after a preliminary hearing scheduled for Tuesday was postponed until Jan. 31.

Mondevergine, unable to post the higher bail, remains in the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.

He is charged with the shooting and stabbing of Timothy "Casual" Flood in a Pagans clubhouse in January 2008.

Flood, who took over the top spot in the biker gang after Mondevergine was sentenced to 27 months in prison in 2001, was shot once in a knee and stabbed in the back.

Authorities say they believe Mondevergine and several associates burst into the clubhouse, near Torresdale Avenue and Disston Street in Northeast Philadelphia. Mondevergine, they say, targeted Flood because Flood was part of a group within the biker gang that was trying to force Mondevergine to "give up his colors" and leave the club.

Flood, 47, who was recently convicted of a minor gambling charge linked to a broader investigation into Pagans operations up and down the East Coast, at first declined to provide information about the assault.

But sources say he may now be cooperating and helping the district attorney build the case against Mondevergine.

Besides the weapons and ammunition seized from Mondevergine's residence at the Country Place Apartments on Fries Mill Road, Grady introduced evidence about the Pagans' history of violence and Mondevergine's leadership in the group.

The allegations were similar to charges in a federal sentencing memo at the time of Mondevergine's 2001 conviction. These included references to the Pagans' involvement in drug dealing, extortion, and violence.

Mondevergine was described in the mid-1990s as a close associate and enforcer for then-mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino.

Mondevergine had been fired from the Philadelphia police force in 1982 after being accused of accepting a bribe to protect a gambling operation. He denied those charges, which were dropped.

In 1999, he was shot nine times while walking home from a South Philadelphia bar. Authorities attributed the shooting to a dispute between the Pagans and a street-corner gang.



Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20110110_Seized_weaponry_keeps_ex-Pagans_leader_jailed_on__1_million_bail.html#ixzz1Adp9x1av
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The Geezer Bandit, allegedly robbing a U.S. Bank in Poway, has captured the public's imagination.

Geezer Bandit bank heist spree continued ,The Geezer Bandit, allegedly robbing a U.S. Bank in Poway, has captured the public's imagination.

Move over, John Dillinger, here comes ---- a geezer?
Certainly, modern-day bank robbers are not the Tommy-gun-toting bandits of the Depression era, but come on. A Poway mom, a former biker and a transient were among those identified or charged as bank robbers in North County last year.
That list doesn't even include the most infamous robber to hit the region in recent years, the Geezer Bandit, who may or may not be an actual geezer, according to the FBI.
The apparently geriatric bandit began his spree in 2009, when he held up six banks in San Diego County, including one in Carmel Valley and one in Rancho Santa Fe. But his legend grew in 2010 as he robbed six more banks, including one in Temecula and one in Bakersfield.
Late last year, authorities bumped up the reward for information leading to his capture from $16,000 to $20,000.
"The Geezer Bandit captured America's interest from his very first robbery," said San Diego FBI spokeswoman April Langwell.
Gaining notoriety
TV comedians, including Jay Leno, and T-shirt makers also took notice.
In one of his monologues, Leno joked about the Geezer Bandit.
"The last time he walked into a bank in San Diego, he pointed a gun at the clerk and said, 'What did I come in here for?'" Leno said.
Entrepreneurs have started selling T-shirts that say, "I (heart) Geezer bandit."
Leno and T-shirt makers were not the only ones capitalizing on the Geezer Bandit's fame. One other alleged bank robber claimed he was the infamous robber.
On Nov. 1, Edward Bernard Power, 58, a former Mongol outlaw biker, was overheard saying that he was the Geezer Bandit during his attempt to rob a Carlsbad bank. He was arrested later the same day and pleaded not guilty to the bank robbery charges later that week.
Authorities said Power was not the Geezer Bandit. To date, the real Geezer remains elusive as ever.
The FBI named the Geezer Bandit for his elderly appearance. In photos released from bank surveillance videos, the robber appears to have a wrinkled face and wears eyeglasses.
The bandit typically wears a hat, usually a dark baseball cap or newsboy cap, gray slacks, dress shoes and a blue blazer. He was known to tote an oxygen tank during his earlier heists. He appears to be a white man between 60 and 70 years old, about 6 feet tall and 190 pounds, according to the FBI.
Despite his elderly appearance, FBI agents have warned that he is armed and could be dangerous.
He has used a revolver in some of his heists.
Based on witness reports, authorities also have raised the question of whether the Geezer may actually be a younger man wearing Hollywood-type makeup or a Halloween "old man" mask.
In 2010, the Geezer Bandit accounted for six of the county's more than 160 bank robberies, as of Dec. 23, FBI Special Agent Darrell Foxworth said. Although that total number may appear large, it was not an unusually high number for the region in recent years, Foxworth said.
Odd characters
Over the past five years, 2007 had the most heists, with 171; 2009 had the lowest number, with 101 robberies. There were 165 bank robberies in 2008 and 142 in 2006.
According to FBI statistics, most bank robberies are committed by young men. About 95 percent are committed by men, about one-third of the offenders are between ages 18 and 29, roughly half of the suspects are black and about 40 percent are whites, according to the FBI.
About half of all bank robbers are caught, according to the FBI.
However, not everyone fits those demographics. The Geezer Bandit was just one of the many unusual characters who graced bank surveillance cameras countywide.
In March, Roxanne Pennock, 37, a married mother of five kids, was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for robbing two Poway banks. She also pleaded guilty to robbing two Temecula banks.
She told authorities that she lied about making sales at work and earning an extra $4,000 in commissions. When her boss caught her and threatened legal action, the Poway woman promised to repay him.
And to get that money, Pennock said she secretly turned to what she felt was her only option: bank robbery.
One of the banks she robbed was so close to her residence that she was able to run home and put her clothes in the washer as she listened to the police sirens approach the bank, according to a probation report included in court documents.
Power, the man who allegedly claimed to be the Geezer Bandit, was featured in a 2005 North County Times story. Power told the newspaper at the time that he was a former Mongol outlaw biker who left the gang after a stint in prison in 1991 on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon.
He told a reporter at the time that he hoped to overcome his racist and criminal past to become a role model for kids.
In January, a 63-year-old transient was arrested on suspicion of bank robbery. Stephen Hill allegedly entered the First Republic Bank in Del Mar and handed the teller a note demanding money.
A deputy later spotted him in a vehicle on South Coast Highway 101. Agents allegedly found the money and the demand note in Hill's car, authorities said.

Ernst & Young LLP, raised no red flags.

As time ticked down for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the embattled investment bank expanded its use of an accounting trick to mask the extent of its borrowing. Its auditor, Ernst & Young LLP, raised no red flags.

Now, the giant accounting firm could face civil fraud charges as early as this week, alleging that it helped Lehman hide the truth from investors ahead of the bank’s catastrophic downfall in September, 2008.

UK High Speed Fibre Optic Broadband Could Trigger Internet Crime Surge − ISPreview UK

UK High Speed Fibre Optic Broadband Could Trigger Internet Crime Surge − ISPreview UK: "Next year, the UK economy will benefit from new high-speed fibre optic internet connections, which could boost online trade by nearly £20 billion. This is a huge opportunity for legitimate commerce – and for online fraudsters.

Of the 385 police officers in England and Wales dedicated to online work of all kinds, around 85% are tackling child exploitation and the internet trade in child abuse images.

The shows how little of our specialist cyber capacity is dedicated to the kind of online crime I’ve discussed. We do not have the equivalent of the US’s federal Cyber Command to combat this kind of crime.'"

grenade thrown into a square in Mexico's northern business city of Monterrey on Saturday, injuring 12 people in an attack

grenade thrown into a square in Mexico's northern business city of Monterrey on Saturday, injuring 12 people in an attack the government blamed on drug gangs.

Unidentified men on foot threw the grenade from the edge of a square where people had gathered on a warm autumn night in the municipality of Guadalupe, which is part of Monterrey, police said. Four children were among the injured.

"There was a loud explosion and people started screaming and running," a witness, who declined to give her name, told local radio.

The explosion was the fourth from a grenade during the weekend in Monterrey, one of Latin America's premier business cities. No one was injured in the earlier attacks.

Television images from Saturday's scene showed crying children rushed to the hospital, their heads wrapped with white bandages, but no one was seriously injured, Guadalupe Mayor Ivonne Alvarez told local newspaper El Norte.

Mexico's Interior Ministry condemned the incident and promised a crackdown. It blamed organized crime for the grenade attack in a reference to drug cartels vying for smuggling routes into the United States and Mexico's lucrative home-grown drug markets.

"These actions underline the need for the three levels of government ... to face head on the threat from organized crime," the ministry said in a statement.

Monterrey, which has close U.S. business ties, had been an oasis of calm but has been sucked into Mexico's drug war since the start of this year. One of the three grenade attacks on Friday across Monterrey came in the center of the city near the U.S. consulate, which had been targeted at least twice with grenades in 2009.

The government blames a split between the powerful Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, for much of the violence, which also has surged in neighboring Tamaulipas since the start of the year.

In September 2008, a drug gang killed eight revelers in a grenade attack on Independence Day celebrations in the city of Morelia in western Mexico, raising the specter of what the Mexican media called "narco-terrorism."

But fears of a surge in attacks on civilians have not materialized across Mexico and most of the dead in the drug war are hitmen, corrupt police and soldiers, although civilians have been caught in the cross-fire of deadly shootouts.

More than 29,000 people have died in drug violence since President Felipe Calderon launched his army-led offensive on drug cartels in late 2006.

The explosion in Guadalupe is likely part of a wider intimidation campaign by drug gangs across northern Mexico. Drug gangs detonated several bombs in cars in Tamaulipas state earlier this year but no one was injured in the blasts.

While the drug war has become notorious for grisly murders, Mexico has yet to reach the level of violence of Colombia in the 1980s and early '90s, when drug smugglers set off powerful car bombs and also bombed a commercial airliner, killing 107 people, in protest at extraditions to the United States.

Nashville may be ground zero.

Nashville may be ground zero.

Area police have been making bigger heroin busts over the past three years than in the past decade as a fresh influx of cheap, widely available heroin hits the streets. Mexican drug cartels have pumped out more than 400 percent more heroin than just six years ago, and one of the main trafficking routes runs straight through Nashville, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Yes, we have seen a rise in heroin in the state of Tennessee," said Kristin Helm, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. "It's up more in Middle Tennessee than in the rest of the state."

Heroin busts in and around Nashville are increasing, with larger quantities being seized.

Dickson County detectives made the biggest heroin bust in county history in June, seizing $90,000 worth of black tar found hidden in a potato chip bag in a car. In September, Metro police nabbed three alleged drug mules carrying more than $50,000 worth of heroin from Ohio to be distributed in and around Nashville.

"I've been doing drug work for about 10 years," said Sgt. Buddy Rhett, in Metro police's narcotics unit. "When I first started drug work, you didn't really see heroin. It's been increasing over the last three years."

In 2007, Nashville officers seized 99 grams of heroin, and in 2009 that number had risen to 991 grams.

Though law enforcement isn't calling the resurgence an epidemic, some treatment centers are seeing more patients with heroin addictions than in the past.

"People are snorting it and injecting it, adolescents all the way to people into their 30s," said Chuck Rapp, admissions coordinator at the Cumberland Heights drug treatment center.

Bikie gang members charged over shooting - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Bikie gang members charged over shooting - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "Two members of the Comanchero bikie gang have been charged over the shooting of Hells Angel gang member Peter Zervas at Lakemba in March last year.
Mr Zervas was shot eight times, a week after his brother Anthony Zervas was bashed to death at Sydney Airport.
A 30-year-old Matraville man and his 26-year-old brother have this afternoon been charged with conspiracy to murder and participate in a criminal group."

Alleged gang members held in Daly City slaying

Alleged gang members held in Daly City slaying: "Carlos Mejia-Quintanilla, 20, of San Francisco and David Mejia-Sensente, 26, of Daly City were taken into custody at about 5:30 p.m. Friday in the shooting death of Alexander Castanon, said Daly City police Sgt. David Mackriss.
Castanon, 26, was found on the 6200 block of Mission Street at 12:24 a.m. June 21 by officers who were investigating reports of gunfire, Mackriss said.
Castanon, who lived two blocks away, was shot in the head, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators believe some kind of altercation occurred on the bus, said Mackriss, who did not elaborate.
Castanon worked at the Baby Blues BBQ on Mission Street in San Francisco and was not a gang member, police and friends said.
Three other alleged gang members were also arrested Friday by Daly City police."

British Troops Face Allegations Of Smuggling Heroin

British Troops Face Allegations Of Smuggling Heroin: "Britain's military police are investigating allegations that British soldiers may have smuggled heroin out of Afghanistan using military aircraft, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Sunday.
An official spokeswoman said the investigation was focusing on service personnel posted to airports in Camp Bastion and Kandahar.
'Although they are unsubstantiated, we take any such reports very seriously and we have already tightened our existing procedures both in Afghanistan and in the U.K., including increasing the use of trained sniffer dogs,' she said, ading: 'Any of our people found to be engaged in trafficking of illegal narcotics will feel the full weight of the law.'
Afghanistan accounts for almost 90% of the world's total production of opium. NATO has said that the revenue generated by illegal opium trade is financing and sustaining the Taliban insurgency in the war-torn country."

BBC News - Italian mafia boss arrested in France

BBC News - Italian mafia boss arrested in France: "top mafia boss and one of Italy's most wanted men has been arrested in the south of France after a decade on the run, officials said.
Giuseppe Falsone is thought to be the mafia boss for the province of Agrigento in Sicily.
He has already been sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and international drug trafficking.
The 40-year-old has also been linked to renowned mobster Bernardo Provenzano, who was arrested in 2006.
He was caught in Marseille and is believed to have had plastic surgery and to have been using false identification.
Police footage showed a small hideaway in the south of France where they say Falsone had been living."

DRUGS are being smuggled into Edinburgh's Saughton Prison

DRUGS are being smuggled into Edinburgh's Saughton Prison hidden behind postage stamps and inside felt-tip pens, it was revealed today.

The increasingly inventive ways inmates use to obtain drugs on the inside were shown in documents obtained by the Evening News using freedom of information laws.

They also described drugs being sewn into jeans and jogging bottom waistbands and eve
n in the labels of clothing such as boxer shorts.

The documents reveal that a soaring amount of drugs, mobile phones and weapons have been found in the Edinburgh prison this year. On average, around five batches of drugs, three mobile phones and one weapon have been confiscated every week for the past two months.

LSD and SIM cards were found behind stamps on letters to inmates. In cells, wardens discovered mobile phones hidden in light fittings, and drugs, weapons and mobiles hanging from string out of the window.

Since January this year, cell finds include spears made out of mop handles and hooks; 215 packets of tobacco in just two cells; a stash of counterfeit DVDs including a porn collection; a knife made out of a razor blade and a brush; and an inhaler converted into a crack pipe.

Hells Angels were arrested in a massive drug sweep in the Montreal area Tuesday morning

Hells Angels were arrested in a massive drug sweep in the Montreal area Tuesday morning

The Weston Mercury - Businessman on trial for gun crime

The Weston Mercury - Businessman on trial for gun crime: "Cam Mu, of Brean Down Avenue in Weston, will begin his trial after being charged with possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, as well as assault.

Mr Mu previously pleaded not guilty to both charges at North Somerset Courthouse in St Georges.

The trial could last several days"

New York City Mob Tour

John (Cha Cha) Ciarcia hopes to bring some of the city's old gangland history back to life with a new bus tour."Everybody loves the mob," said Ciarcia, a restaurateur, radio host and actor who had a bit part in "The Sopranos." "We'd like to give them a taste of history in the mob."There are plenty of Mafia walking-tour guides - famed mob rat Henry Hill himself wrote "A Goodfella's Guide to New York."Bus tours of "Sopranos" filming locations in New Jersey are still popular nearly three years after the TV show's finale.Ciarcia's bus tour of blood-soaked Manhattan will be the first of its kind, say organizers, who were surprised by the lack of competition.
"There's a lot of things that are hidden in plain sight," said tour guide Moses Gates, 34, who intentionally looked the part in his black gloves and heavy gold chain.The gory front-page photos of the executed executioner ensured the hit went down in history.The Dapper Don's Mulberry St. den, where the FBI recorded damning tapes, is now a store that hawks $300 minimalist leather shoes to oblivious hipsters.
Most people rushing through Columbus Circle have no idea that Colombo crime-family boss Joe Colombo was shot there just before addressing an Italian Unity Day rally in 1971.The New York City Mob Tour (nycmobtour.com) offerings will include newsreels and film clips showing the way the locations once looked. The tours also will show tourists where famous fictional mob scenes were filmed.Ciarcia came up with the idea for the mob bus tour with his childhood pal Vinny (Skinny) Gione.They plan to charge $50 per person for a two-hour tour leaving from Ciarcia's Mulberry St. café, Bocca al Lupo, and driving through Little Italy to midtown and back.

large collection of Howson paintings in the possession of his ex-manager, William O’Neil, were reportedly seized in October

Back from the edge of financial and mental collapse – legal guardians for the painter have now agreed two mainstream exhibitions in London and Edinburgh.
First images were released yesterday of a show of Howson drawings to take place in late March at the prestigious Flowers East gallery in London. He called them the “cream of the crop” from works he had kept for himself.A second exhibition has been provisionally agreed at the Scottish Gallery, one of Edinburgh’s oldest and best-known private galleries, in early 2011. It will be his first show there since 1988.
Last month a court appointed legal guardians for Howson at his own request after sales of his work threatened to descend into chaos.He suffers from a form of autism known as Asperger’s syndrome and was described as struggling in social interaction and business dealings.Howson, 51, has been showing at Flowers, which has branches in London and New York, since 1987. But he has had an on-off relationship with the gallery. He said: “The reason the exhibition was done was to re-establish contact with the gallery. I’ve fallen out with them but also been friends.

“It’s drawings I’ve earmarked over the past five or six years that are the best of my work that I’ve kept to myself, the cream of the crop. We were trying to get back into the London market, we are also trying to establish contact with a major Scottish gallery.”His last major exhibition of oil paintings at Flowers in October 2008 reportedly sold out for over £700,000 before it opened.The new show features a selection of mostly pastel, pen and ink and pencil drawings.One – Falling Star – was a study for The Harrowing of Hell oil painting which sold in 2008 with a £300,000 price tag. But it bears an uncanny resemblance to the artist himself, visibly in trauma, while another work, Tilting At Windmills, is also full of angst.
A spokeswoman for Flowers said: “Howson is an incredible draughtsman and he has produced an outstanding body of work. It is a comprehensive selection of recent studies. Frankly, we were blown away by the pieces.”
Howson has been a driven and hugely productive artist despite personal turmoil, including past battles with addiction and alcoholism. In late 2006, a show devoted to St Andrew, at the council-run City Art Centre in Edinburgh, featured more than 80 paintings and drawings.Last year, as part of the celebrations of Robert Burns’s 250th anniversary, he produced scores of artworks inspired by the bard. Three galleries at the Glasgow Art Fair feature his work next month.A large collection of Howson paintings in the possession of his ex-manager, William O’Neil, were reportedly seized in October by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency.

Howson was recently commissioned to paint the martyrdom of St John Ogilvie at the renovated St Andrew’s Cathedral in Glasgow. It is expected the Pope will view it when he visits in September.



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Tags: Contemporary Artists, pen and ink, flowers in october, Contemporary Artist, Modern Artist, business dealings, tilting at windmills, Paintings, falling star, cream of the crop

Alberto Hurtado Osorio, 60, was behind bars in Colombia last night

Alberto Hurtado Osorio, 60, was behind bars in Colombia last night. His arrest came two years after the Australian Federal Police and counterparts in South America and Latin America launched a sting to smash his cartel, which is suspected of smuggling drugs across the world through the post.Osorio, who served two years in Sydney on drug charges in the early 1990s, had been on the AFP's secret "top 10" target list for years.But the Colombian, a senior member of a well-known Bogata-based cartel, had eluded police by constantly moving throughout the South American country and keeping the operation at arm's length.It is alleged the drug cartel was smuggling cocaine to contacts in Australia in comparatively small amounts -- about 300g -- via air mail, certified mail and private parcel companies.Police have no idea how much cocaine the cartel had managed to smuggle into Australia. It was sent from Peru and Argentina in a bid to disguise its Colombian origins.Police began to close in on Osorio late last year after the AFP intercepted three consignments of 300g of cocaine in Sydney. At the same time, Peruvian authorities seized two consignments bound for Australia.
The gang is also suspected of smuggling drugs into other major Western markets worldwide.Peruvian police arrested two men at the same time Osorio was picked up. All three have been charged with trafficking and will face trial in their respective countries.
The investigation into the cartel's Australian connections is continuing.
AFP investigators said yesterday drug-smugglers had returned to using the post after the post-September 11, 2001, security crackdown on ports and airports made it increasingly difficult to smuggler large amounts of drugs.AFP national manager for serious and organised crime Kevin Zuccato said Osorio's arrest was a significant development in Australia's fight against drugs."This guy has been on our radar since 1992," Mr Zuccato said. "Increasingly, smugglers are sending comparatively smaller amounts of drugs through the post and with `swallowers' on planes."It is difficult to know how much drugs this gang got in to Australia. It is not about the quantity of the drugs seized but the quality of the crook we arrest and stop from bringing drugs into this country. He was a very senior member of a significant drug syndicate in Colombia, with suspected links to other syndicates."
Police arrested 25 people in Australia this week for allegedly mailing drugs around the country hidden in different items, including a teddy bear.The AFP said it had seized 145 parcels and 73kg of drugs.The teddy bear was used to hide a new drug called "miaow", which has been likened to ecstasy.

Scott William Schneider, 30, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to driving while impaired and possession of a prohibited firearm.

Scott William Schneider, 30, was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to driving while impaired and possession of a prohibited firearm.He was handed a two-year and nine-month sentence, a 10-year firearm ban and a two-year driving ban.
Schneider was carrying a loaded handgun when he was arrested early Christmas Day after a hit-and-run in the 800-block Parker Street in White Rock.His passenger, a 27-year-old White Rock man, is scheduled to appear in Feb. 18 in Surrey Provincial Court, where he will face charges of uttering threats and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.In 2008, Schneider was acquitted, alongside White Rock Angel Villy Roy Lynnerrup and chapter president Douglas Falconer Riddoch, for assault charges stemming from a home invasion and assault in 2007.