fei ch’ien - flying money - Italian cops bust ‘Ndrangheta, Chinese money brokers

Italian police arrested 40 in a new crackdown targeting the 'Ndrangheta and their dealings with Chinese money launderers. Investigations have shown how drug cartels in Italy are increasingly using shadow networks of unlicensed Chinese money brokers to conceal cross-border payments. The network was able to handle drug shipments with South American cartels, including the Brazilian Primeiro Comando da Capital, and Colombian, Peruvian, Mexican and Bolivian rings. After receiving the drug cash, the Chinese money brokers forwarded it to trading companies in China and Hong Kong. The companies then delivered the money to the drug brokers and the South American cartels through agents. The investigation was helped by accessing encrypted chats on the Sky Ecc platform, dismantled in 2021 by Europol.

The earliest known use of paper money is from the Tang dynasty. This dynasty lasted from the year 618 to 907 AD, with paper money appearing around 800. This money, known as 'flying cash', were certificates issued by the Tang government to pay local merchants in distant parts of the empire.

See ----->Jean François Eap - Sky Global
See ----->Belgian drug lords hit hard by Sky ECC bust

Quincy Promes busted for 1300 kilos of cocaine

Two batches of about 650 kilos and 713 kilos of cocaine were intercepted in the port of Antwerp at the end of January 2020.

Quincy Anton Promes is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for Russian Premier League club Spartak Moscow. He represented the Netherlands national team. He is facing charges of attempted murder and drug smuggling. He is being prosecuted for the importatioin of more than 1300 kg of cocaine with a value of £65 million.

Marc Laflamme-Berthelot guilty of murder

Marc Laflamme-Berthelot, 39, and Manuel Savoie, 47, entered guilty pleas for manslaughter on Dec. 7 for the Laval murder of Kellen Seow, 34, in 2017. Prosecutors sought and received a dangerous tag for Laflamme-Berthelot who is looking at another 16 years. Laflamme-Berthelot was arrested at the Port Cartier Institution, a maximum-security federal penitentiary. He is serving a lengthy sentence he received in 2019 after pleading guilty to charges related to a home invasion at the home of Montreal mafioso Francesco Del Balso on May 6, 2017, seven weeks after Laflamme-Berthelot killed Seow.

Manuel Savoie, 48, organized the kidnapping. He was sentenced to 10 years.

Kellen Seow was beaten and stabbed to death over a drug debt. See ----->Francesco Del Balso a walking target

Krasimir 'Karo' Kamenov whacked

Krasimir 'Karo' Kamenov and his wife were killed in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to the couple, their two maids were also shot. Karo was known as part of the former Bulgarian criminal group VIS-2. Kamenov was wanted on a red notice by Interpol due to involvement in the murder of the Bulgarian criminal police’s former boss, Lubomir Ivanov, in early 2022. A political shakeup may be behind the killings. “We are going back to gangster times,” Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor said. Kamenov owns a fruit and vegetable market in Sofia. Large quantities of cocaine were found at the market several times in recent years. Kamenov had given evidence before a foreign jurisdiction in the last six months.

It could be related to the OneCoin crypto-pyramid and the investigations into fraud queen Ruzha Ignatova. She disappeared in 2017 and hasn't been seen since.
See ----->Ruja Ignatova - ‘crypto queen’ tipped off

Jimi Sandhu whacked in Phuket - update VIII

Matthew Dupre has been extradited to Thailand to face trial for the murder of UN gangster Jimi 'Slice' Sandhu. Dupre, 38, agreed to voluntarily return to Thailand. His list of skills included “hand to hand combat, unconventional warfare and sharpshooter.”

The Department of National Defence said that Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre served in the armed forces from 2005 to 2013 and Gene Karl Lahrkamp from 2012 to 2018. Lahrkamp purchased a 14 acre property on the outskirts of Trail in October 2017 for $180k. The business of his company was guide outfitting and breeding Belgian Malinois dogs. Cops have searched the property along with another in Alberta. Thai cops identified the 2 gunmen wanted for the killing of Jimi Sandhu on Feb 4 in Rawai, Phuket. Arrest warrants for Canadians Gene Karl Lahrkamp, 36, and Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre, 36, were issued Sunday. The gunmen arrived in Phuket 6 weeks before the shooting and departed 2 days after the murder.

The pair fled Phuket to Bangkok before leaving the country from Suvarnabhumi Airport on the evening of February 6th. Lahrkamp reportedly left for Frankfurt.

Thai cops found two guns at a beach in Phuket which they say were used in the murder of Jimi Sandhu. Police used metal detectors to search the seaside by the Rawai beachfront villa and found a semi-automatic Walther PPK and a CZ gun in the water.

Gangster Jimi Sandhu, 32, was shot to death at a beachside resort in Rawai, Phuket. The two gunmen are likely foreigners. Nineteen spent 9mm and .38 casings were found at the murder scene.

Sandhu was killed after he pulled into the parking lot of his rented villa at the Beachside Hotel. A maid found Sandhu lying in a pool of blood next to his vehicle some 8 hours after 2 gunmen on CCTV camera fired 20 shots at close range. A tracking device was found on the vehicle.

Sandhu was affiliated with the UN gang. He was deported from Canada in 2016 for “serious criminality.” The dead man had 2 IDs on him. He held a valid passport for ‘Mandeep Singh’ and ‘Amarjit Singh Sindhu’.

See ----->Former Abbotsford gangster Jimi Sandhu arrested for drug operation in India
See ----->Gene Karl Lahrkamp dead

Cocaine importer Guillaume Latour-Laitre going away for a long time

Guillaume Latour-Laitre, 26, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute, after U.S. border cops found 142 kg of cocaine hidden in a trailer. At the border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers performed an outbound inspection on the tractor-trailer and discovered the cocaine hidden in a secret compartment in the trailer. Latour-Laitre admitted that from November to December 2019, while vice-president of a Quebec trucking company, he trafficked cocaine from the U.S. to Canada via tractor-trailer. Latour-Laitre was extradited from Canada in late 2022. He faces a minimum 10 years and up to life in prison, a term of supervised release of between five years and life, and a maximum $10m fine.

“He was offering [the trucker] $250 per kilo of cocaine. Each truck could contain 250 kg,”

A co-accused trucker was sentenced to 72 months in prison and five years of supervised release.

384kg cocaine found in loader in Oz = 11 years, 6 months

Australian border officials cracked a major drug-smuggling case involving a piece of construction equipment stuffed with 384 kilograms of cocaine. The cocaine was concealed inside the hydraulic arm of a second-hand excavator. Border officials spotted the drugs using a routine X-ray check at a port in Sydney. Adam Hunter, 33, got 12 years and Timothy Engstrom, 34, 11 years. Both men have been charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug.

Shane 'Wheels' Maloney rolls as fugitive - parole revoked

Still rolling whilst wanted, nothing has been heard of Shane 'Wheels' Maloney since fall 2022.

Shane Kenneth Maloney, 43, told a parole board he’s sick of a life of crime. “I’m content with the little things right now,” Maloney said. “I have no interest in going back to jail … " Wheels fell off the wagon and he is going back to jail as soon as cops reel him in.

Maloney served less than three years of his sentence in Collins Bay Pen after pleading guilty in Feb 2017 to stockpiling one of the biggest arms caches in Canadian history, and drug trafficking.

Paraplegic gangster Shane Kenneth 'Wheels' Maloney, was granted limited parole after serving more than two years in prison for drug trafficking and a massive stockpile of guns and explosives. Maloney was granted six months of day parole to be served in a halfway house. He is part-way through a 10-year prison sentence that was reduced to less than six years for time served. Maloney was part of the Wolfpack. He has complained much during his prison stay including back pain, wrist pain, and psychological distress.

Maloney split his criminal career between Montreal, Vancouver and the GTA.

His weapons cache that was seized by the Sûreté du Québec in Oct 2012 raids netted 1,475 sticks of dynamite, two pounds of C-4 explosives, remote controls, detonators and hundreds of firearms and prohibited gun parts. Maloney said he wasn’t sure how many illegal guns he owned, but said the number was less than 90. He said that society has nothing to fear from him. Maloney has close ties to Montreal's West End Gang and Wolfpack associate Rabih 'Robby' Alkhalil.

Rabih 'Robby' Alkhalil

See ----->The Alkhalil Brothers

'Spring cleaning' one year on

Hugues Leblanc, 47, was found tied up in the trunk of his burnt-out vehicle in Pointe-aux-Trembles in May 2022. Stéphane Dupuis was whacked on April 12 and Sébastien Giroux on May 10. All three men had something in common, they did drug business for the Hells Angels. The three Hells Angels-related murders in Montreal were carried out on territory controlled by HAMC Jean-Richard Lariviere. Known to police as a cocaine trafficker, Leblan worked for the Montreal section of the Hells Angels. Stéphane Dupuis was a close associate of HA Mario Brouillette, a man considered a top actor in organized crime in Quebec. Sébastien Giroux had close ties to hitman turned informant Frédérick Silva. One year on and all 3 murders remain unsolved. Jean-Richard 'Race' Larivière, received his Hells jacket in March 2017.

See ----->Here.

Oz jewelry heist caught on camera

CCTV captured a brazen jewellery store heist in Queensland by two thieves armed with guns and disguised in burkas. Rhia Jewellers owner Madhuri Azam told the BBC the thieves made off with over A$200,000 in goods.

Operation Hobart

An Ontario judge allowed the state to seize about $200k found underneath Dmitri Kellesis’s bed. His 92-year-old mother, Sotira, can keep $75,000. "This location was clearly a gambling hall with obvious gambling paraphernalia and Mr. Kellesis’s claim brings to mind Captain Renault in Casablanca,” the judge wrote.

Dimitris Kellesis stands to lose the loot cops lassoed as part of Operation Hobart in 2019. The hearing was the first of what will be more as the crown tries to keep $40m in cash, silver, gold, jewelry, high-end vehicles and luxury homes seized from what cops called the biggest illegal online sports gambling ring in Canada. Operation Hobart fizzled with criminal charges tossed due to unreasonable delay.

28 were charged and a gaming house in Mississauga and five illegal gambling websites run by the Hells Angels were shuttered. The sites operated under Ultimate SB, Titan SB, PlaytoWin SB, Privada SB and Players SB. The sites brought in $13m from January to July of 2019 alone.HA Deabaitua-Schulde, murdered in March 2019, was a collector for the gambling ring.

Three Hells Angels and one prospect were charged, Robert Barletta, Craig McIlquham, Eugenio “Gino” Reda, and Raffaele Simonelli. Barletta and McIlquham ran the operation. Cops say it took in more than $160 million in revenue over a six-year period before police shut it down and seized $40 million in assets.

See ----->Project Hobart on the rocks - et c'est fini
See ----->Michael Deabaitua-Schulde murder trial over

Oath Keepers - Stewart Rhodes = 18 years

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in the US Capitol riot.

The sentence is the longest yet given to a Capitol rioter. Prosecutors had asked for 25 years.870 have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 17 have been accused of seditious conspiracy, the high crime of using force to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Seditious conspiracy is a Civil War-era statute, rarely prosecuted, which carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison. Members of far-right militia the Oath Keepers — including founder Stewart Rhodes, have been charged with this.

Rhodes plotted an armed rebellion to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden.

Oath Keepers spent months planning their roles in the riot.

Seditious conspiracy is defined as two or more people plotting "to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States." The Oath Keepers are an anti-government, right-wing political organization committed to supporting and defending their demented interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

The five accused Oath Keepers also face charges of conspiring to obstruct and obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, and conspiring to prevent an officer from discharging duties. Those who physically entered the Capitol building - Watkins, Meggs and Harrelson - are charged with property destruction.