Citing the tragic consequences of fentanyl on society, a Calgary judge handed former city mayoral candidate Jonathan Sunstrum a 17-year prison term. The judge said the potential profit margins in fentanyl trafficking made harsh sentences an absolute necessity to deter potential wholesalers. The case involved a kilogram of 82% pure fentanyl, which an expert report said could have created 410,000 single two-milligram doses with a street value of $20m. Two milligrams is still a potentially deadly amount.
Sunstrum, 60, was the right-hand man to the head of the ring.
In July cops busted a fentanyl 'superlab' in Alberta. 13.6 kg of fentanyl, 11.9 kg of late-stage precursors 4-ANPP, 6.6 kg of synthetic opioids, 9.9 kg of methamphetamine, 50 litres of gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid and 7,600 kg of chemicals were seized. Project Essence began with a tip of importation of 563 kg of precursors.
This year's most significant drug bust in Rotterdam was 4,178kg of cocaine, worth some 313 million euro. Cops discovered the drugs in two containers from Paraguay, which were loaded onto another ship in Uruguay. The stash was hidden among soya beans. Earlier cops in Rotterdam discovered 1,400kg of cocaine. Overseas, authorities intercepted 5,800kg of cocaine, 2,500kg in Panama, the largest ever seen in the country, and 2,300kg in Colombia. It was all destined for the Netherlands.
Montreal cops are looking for more victims of a chitbag they say made a career out of robbing senior citizens withdrawing money from banks in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve area of Montreal. Jeannetot Savard-Shank, 26, appeared in court on four counts of robbery and one count of possession of a weapon with dangerous intent.
Chigago Four Corner Hustlers gang leader Labar 'Bro Man' Spann was being cross-examined by prosecutors in his trial on racketeering charges alleging he conspired to commit six gangland murders from 2000 to 2003. He calls himself old-school, a leader, a person other like-minded gangsters turned to and treated with respect. But what he isn’t, according to him, is a murderer. Spann repeatedly swore and shouted as he denied involvement in the slayings in the indictment, including the infamous 2003 contract killing of Latin Kings boss Rudy “Kato” Rangel.
Martise Nunnery told jurors he helped carry out the hit on Rangel, which served as the inspiration for rapper DMX’s hit “A ‘Yo Kato.”
Nunnery said he, Spann and the gunman, Donell “Squeaky” Simmons were hired by the Conservative Vice Lords to carry out the hit for a six-figure payout.
Indian cops have arrested gangster Sakil Ahamad’s girlfriend Manasi Nayak alias Baby on charges of extortion from a builder in Cuttack.
Cops said several cases are pending against Baby at police stations in Cuttack. In 2015, she was sent to jail in a murder case. She came across gangster Sakil and had been working on his behalf. Despite being caged Sakil was operating his criminal activities through Baby. Cops arrested Baby and three of her accomplices for extortion.
Joseph Amato Sr., 62, who earlier this year pleaded guilty to shaking down two and stalking his girlfriend with a GPS tracking device, was given little sympathy by a federal judge, who called the defendant’s attributes “almost as bad as they can possibly be.” It's nearly 6 years in the slammer for the wiseguy. Jr gets sentenced later this month.
Joey Amato, 62.
The New York City bus system had a problem when mechanics found a GPS tracker during maintenance in Nov 2016. The Staten Island depot was evacuated and explosives experts were called in to make sure it wasn’t a small bomb. The undercarriage of every bus in the five boroughs was searched using mirrors on metal poles. The tracker came from an unlikely source, Colombo capo Joseph Amato Sr. who had reported it lost. Amato had been keeping tabs on his girlfriend by secretly sticking the GPS on her car. The capo and his son took a pair of plea deals in the case that netted nearly a dozen other Colombo mobsters and associates.
Amato pleaded guilty to racketeering and stalking. He is expected to be sentenced to five to seven years, avoiding a 20 year stretch.
Soldiers Philip Lombardo and Dominick Ricigliano were charged.
The capo sent the woman emails bragging about his influence on Staten Island. One said, “This is my island. Not yours. I have the eyes all over.” In another, Amato — who in 1995 was convicted in the shooting of a 15-year-old witness, boasted that “I’m called a MAN’S MAN!!!” Events eventually snared 20 — including 11 members and associates of the Colombo crime family. They were busted on charges including racketeering, loansharking and extortion. Wiretaps on the phones of Amato, his son Joseph Amato Jr. and Colombo soldier Thomas Scorcia resulted in “thousands of intercepted phone calls and text messages.”
A big rocker raid in Germany in September, 2021 resulted in cops hunting for Ramin Yektaparast. He is the boss of the Mönchengladbach charter. Yektaparast, 33, was born in Germany with Iranian roots. He is wanted worldwide for murdering Kai M., 32, using a sub-machine gun and then dumping the dismembered body in the Rhine river in the German city of Duisburg in February 2014. His victim was found piece by piece with the cops first recovering his arms, then legs, then his torso and eventually his head. Yektaparast began wearing a 'filthy few' patch after the killing.
Cops say Yektaparast has fled to Iran. The rocker's Instagram profile suggests that he is there. The country has no extradition treaty with Germany. Ramin Yektaparast used to be with the Bandidos, defected to the Hells Angels in 2012 and then founded the charter in Mönchengladbach.
Calgary millionaire Ken Carter testified he feared his former girlfriend during their lengthy custody battle. He claims she was connected to the HAMC and Red Scorpions. He is on trial for perjury. Carter and former Calgary cop Steve Walton were earlier convicted of criminal harassment. Carter paid Walton to hire current and former members of the Calgary Police Service to conduct intense surveillance on Akele Taylor. They were all convicted of criminal harassment and breach of trust. Carter was sentenced to three years for orchestrating the harassment campaign, which lasted months. He is appealing.
Steve Walton was sentenced to 3 years, wife Heather Walton 15 months of house arrest.
Walton, Cst. Bryan Morton, Sgt. Bradford McNish, along with Anthony Braile were convicted. McNish was sentenced to six months in jail, while Morton was handed 30 months. Braile, who blew the whistle, was handed a 3 month term, served on weekends. Also busted was Walton’s wife, Heather Walton, who worked as a civilian employee with the CPS. Police databases were accessed hundreds of times to extract private information. Cops even followed Akele Taylor while on duty.
Bryan Morton, Brad McNish
The appeal court found the disgraced pigs “used police time and resources in a campaign of harassment and intimidation against a Calgary woman and accepted payment for doing so.”
Ruja Ignatova is a Bulgarian convicted fraudster. She is best known as the founder of Ponzi scheme OneCoin in 2014, described as "one of the biggest scams in history". She has been on the run since 2017. In early 2019 she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.
In June 2016 the then 36-year-old Ruja, renowned for her expensive dresses and red lipstick, walked on stage at Wembley Arena in front of adoring fans.
She told the cheering crowd that OneCoin was on course to become the world's biggest cryptocurrency. OneCoin, Ruja spewed, was the Bitcoin Killer. "In two years, nobody will speak about Bitcoin any more!" she shouted. The truth was OneCoin wasn't just a fake cryptocurrency, it was a classic pyramid scheme, with the fake coin as its product. The company claimed to have more than 3 million members worldwide.
OneCoin generated some 3.4b euros ($4b) in revenue from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2016, but had zero value. The location of Ruja Ignatova remains a mystery.
Siedlecka claimed to be a “Master Personal Trainer” and “Holistic Transformational Health & Wellness Coach” on Instagram.
Bikini model and former personal trainer Aneta Maria Siedlecka, 42, from the Gold Coast was busted in 2017 for possession of testosterone and a horse drug that mimics steroids. She admitted possession of more than 50g of testosterone and possession of clenbuterol. Clenbuterol is a fat-burning and muscle-building anabolic agent.
Alan Daniels, 43, was high on cocaine as he raced through rush-hour streets at 70mph in an attempt to get away from pursuing cops. He has more than 100 convictions, including 17 for driving while disqualified. Sending Daniels to prison, a judge described his driving on the day in question as "appalling" and he
"should not have been in charge of a hoop and stick, never mind a car".
Zone 43 gangster Karim Kouribibe was escorted by two jail guards for a medical exam. He tried to escape by disarming a guard.
The violence in the streets of Montreal linked to street gangs is getting so bad that cops met with an influential Mafioso from the Rizzuto clan to incite him to bring calm. The Rivière-des-Prairies sector has become a war zone.
Justin Steven Schmitz, 39, a full patch of the Minneapolis HAMC, sold multiple pounds of meth to an undercover cop for around $6k per pound. After pleading guilty in Aug 2020 to meth distribution, Schmitz split from his treatment center and fled to California.
He was busted three months later. Now it's 168 months in jail followed by five years of supervised release.
Emery 'Pit' Martin is off to the big house for 7.5 years after pleading guilty to cocaine trafficking and acting in the benefit of a criminal organization. He is a senior HA in
New Brunswick. Martin, 61, was arrested June 25, 2018 and charged with 10 sweeping drug related offences. 15 other people were arrested in Operation J-Thunder, targeting the sale of cocaine in northern New Brunswick.
Drugs came from the all powerful Quebec Hells Angels.
Portuguese and Spanish cops have seized 5.2 tonnes of cocaine from a sailboat on the high seas and arrested three. It is Portugal's largest drug bust in 15 years and a world-record haul from a sailboat.
Italian cops found a cache of 235 frozen dormice, which are a protected species in Italy. They also found more in cages being fattened up for slaughter. The creatures are a favorite of the ’Ndrangheta, whose members believe eating them during important meetings brings wisdom. They are also on the menu when warring clans make peace. Dormice were widely consumed in ancient Rome, often stuffed with ground pork and pine nuts.
The dormouse population is in rapid decline both in number and range. Many species are extinct. Their habitat tends to be old woodland, which is also in decline.
Soldiers Philip Lombardo and Dominick Ricigliano were charged.
Joseph Amato Jr.
