 | Overdose deaths from cocaine rose 22 percent from a year earlier to 14,205, according to data from the CDC. U.S. deaths from cocaine have increased by more than 250% since the beginning of 2015. The trend is similar in the UK. |  |
 | Cocaine purity has risen steadily with production while prices have fallen. The EU says the purity of street-level cocaine is at its highest levels ever. Crack carries a high risk of death as addicts often push cardiovascular and respiratory systems to collapse. |  |
 | The Parole Board of Canada praised former elite Nomads Hells Angels Richard Mayrand's "considerable" progress and efforts. It noted he has been "without incident" for three years. He will no longer need to disclose his personal finances to the federal correctional service, which is one of the conditions he had to comply with since serving the last third of his sentence in the community. Mayrand led the powerful Nomads when Maurice 'Mom' Boucher was arrested in December 1997 for the murders of two correctional officers. He was one of the influential HA who negotiated a truce with the Rock Machine and Bandidos in December 2000. It ended a biker war that killed more than 150 people in six years in Quebec. |  |
 | In 2004, he was sentenced to 22 years in jail for conspiracy to murder, drug trafficking and gangsterism. Mayrand left the Hells Angels on good terms in 2009, 25 years after refusing to turn his back on them when they killed his older brother Michel in the infamous 1985 Lennoxville massacre.  |
 | Spanish police seized over six tonnes of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas and arrested 16. The raid in the port of Malaga also netted 300,000 euros, guns and luxury vehicles. |  |
 | The operation broke up a trafficking ring made up of well-known Dutch criminals based on Spain’s Costa del Sol. The cocaine was hidden in a banana shipment that arrived by boat in Portugal and was then transported by truck to Malaga in southern Spain. In April, Spanish police made a record seizure of nearly nine tonnes of cocaine in a shipping container that was also carrying bananas in the southern port of Algeciras. |  Spain is the main entry point to Europe for cocaine, mostly from Colombia. |
 | High profile HA Larry Amero was arrested in Ottawa in January and brought to B.C. on charges that he plotted to kill Sandip Duhre and Sukh Dhak. In 2012 Amero was arrested in Montreal and charged in a major cocaine trafficking case. He remained in pretrial custody in Quebec until his charges were stayed in 2017 after his lawyer successfully argued that the delay was unconstitutional. Amero's 3 day hearing will conclude Friday. |  |
 | France’s Calanques national park has stepped up patrols to protect its endangered species and ecosystem. It has fallen prey to a brutal type of organized underwater crime. Four men have been convicted over a major poaching operation. |  For years, they had crept into the park’s protected sea zones and stole huge quantities of endangered fish to sell illegally to restaurants in Marseille. |
 | They went out in the early morning, at night or in bad weather, dropping off divers by boat and hiding their catch underwater or in secret compartments under the boats. All had regular jobs. They made over $200,000 after stealing at least 4.5 tonnes of fish and seafood between 2015 and 2017. Their catch ranged from sea urchins and octopus to the endangered dusky grouper and corb – all stolen from protected no-fishing zones. Wire taps revealed the men who claimed they had “a passion for the sea” cared nothing for conservation, only money. The poachers believed that they could operate their crime with complete impunity. Experts pointed out that priceless marine life had been plundered for rock bottom black-market prices. |
 | A Guelph man has been arrested after trying to cross from the United States to Canada with 127kg of cocaine in his transport truck. The man told officers he was transporting from Port Huron to Sarnia, via Texas. His truck underwent an x-ray, where four anomalies were found in the cab. |  112 vacuum-sealed packages tested positive for cocaine. The man was arrested. He had crossed into the United States in the same truck 25 times since April. |
 Ahmad 'Adam' Doudar | The accused assassins of bikie crime boss Mick Hawi had access to internal police radio conversations using a black market transmitter. The Lone Wolf bikie gang members were allegedly eavesdropping on police. Tow-truck driver Moustafa Salami was arrested and charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder. Tusuf Nazlioglu, 37, and Ahmad 'Adam' Doudar, 38, have been charged with the targeted killing. |  Yusuf Nazlioglu |
 | Nazlioglu used to look at Hawi as a mentor. The Lone Wolf bikies were under pressure to pay Hawi $300,000 at the time of the killing. |
Former Kelowna president Damiano Dipopolo and vice-president Lester Jones were kicked out of the HAMC in bad standing for pilfering club f...
