Harry 'The Hook' Aleman

Harry Aleman in 1977

Harry 'The Hook' Aleman (January 19, 1939 – May 15, 2010) was a Chicago mobster and a feared enforcer for the Chicago Outfit during the 1970s. Aleman got the nickname "Hook" from his boxing career in high school. In the early 1970s, Aleman started working as a collector for the Outfit. He is famous for being the only person in the US ever to be acquitted of murder, then legally tried and convicted for the same murder when the initial trial was found to be corrupt. A Chicago judge was recruited specifically to acquit Aleman at trial. It later emerged the judge had been bribed.

On September 27, 1972, Aleman fatally shot Teamsters official William Logan in his Chicago neighborhood. Two witnesses watched Aleman commit the murder. Aleman was a classic sociopath and is credited with 13 murders in Chicago between 1971 and 1976.

Harry Aleman died from lung cancer on May 15, 2010.

Plea deal for woman with pharmacy up vagina on hold

Bree-anne Alicia Buhler, 25, pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and possession of stolen property after an 'over the top' high speed police chase in the Okanagan. Buhler managed to avoid 3 spike belts during the extended chase, and the disintegration of a front tire barely slowed her down after a fourth. Buhler was eventually arrested and 3.8 grams of heroin was found in the stolen truck. When she was being booked she began vomiting. At hospital, doctors found a pharmacy of heroin, meth and cocaine stashed in her vagina. A joint submission that would have amounted to 210 days in jail and 12 months probation was questioned by the judge, a rare circumstance.

“All of this is clearly dangerous … this is over the top aggravating circumstances” said the judge in response to defence submissions that the chase was "out in the boonies". The judge noted Buhler was on probation at the time. She was sentenced to 14 months in 2017 for a massive property-crime spree. The judge requested case law from the Crown and defence to support the 210 day joint submission, something neither had. Buhler was in custody on other charges so the judge adjourned the sentencing to allow them to produce case law in support of the ridiculous deal.

Japanese pair extradited in $1.5B Las Vegas Ponzi scheme

Edwin Fujinaga

Father and son, Junzo Suzuki, 70, and Paul Suzuki, 40, have been extradited from Japan in connection with a $1.5 billion Ponzi scheme that prosecutors called one of the largest frauds in U.S. history. They were charged in a 2015 indictment with eight counts of mail fraud and nine counts of wire fraud. In November, a federal jury convicted Edwin Fujinaga, the 72-year-old former chief executive of MRI International, on eight counts of mail fraud, nine counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. Fujinaga ran the enterprise that stole more than $1 billion from 10,000 victims, most of them Japanese.

Fujinaga used new investors' money to pay off previous investors and fund a lavish lifestyle that included a Las Vegas golf course mansion, a private jet, luxury cars and real estate in Beverly Hills and Hawaii. He was scheduled to be sentenced last week, but the hearing was postponed after Fujinaga said he had vertigo. Prosecutors will be asking for 50 years behind bars.

See ----->Ponzi Fraudster Fujinaga walks away from his loot

Teacher charged with hiring hitman to kill student after molestation

Deonte Taylor, 36, who is HIV positive, is accused of taking a student out of class and molesting him. Three years later, police said the teacher tried to hire a hit man to kill the child and his family. Taylor and his accomplice/boyfriend Michael Johnson, 66, have pleaded not guilty to a multitude of charges. Police said while Taylor was working as a teachers aide at Lusher Elementary in 2015, he molested a 7-year-old student. Charges weren't filed immediately and Taylor went on to get other teaching jobs.

Taylor was arrested in November 2018 after his DNA was found to be a match to samples found on his former student.

Months later, while behind bars awaiting trial, police said Taylor and Johnson tried to hire a hitman to kill the child and his family. Taylor was still being paid by the Ferguson-Florissant School District. Taylor is facing felony sodomy charges, while he and his boyfriend face conspiracy to commit murder and witness tampering charges.

Supreme Court sides with cops in internet child luring

Sean Patrick Mills

In a blow to child molesters and the underage sex trade, undercover cops posing as children do not need to obtain a judicial warrant before using email or instant-message services to communicate with someone suspected of child luring, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. The high court decision came in the case of Sean Patrick Mills, a Newfoundland man convicted of internet luring after a police officer posed online as a 14-year-old girl named "Leann". Police used a screen-shot program to capture and record copies of the communications used to nail Mills, but they did not have a court-approved warrant.

Mills argued cops violated his Charter Rights

All seven Supreme Court judges concluded Mills should be found guilty. They said that adults cannot reasonably expect privacy online with children they do not know.

Melbourne factory fire - links to 'criminal operation' and Hells Angels

A Melbourne factory that exploded into a chemical inferno is linked to another factory that went up in flames last August.

The blaze choked suburbs with thick toxic smoke and caused schools to close. An investigation, launched after the West Footscray fire, identified "an alleged criminal operation" involving over a dozen Melbourne sites where vast amounts of hazardous chemicals are being stored, in most cases unlicensed. Christopher Baldwin, owner of the West Footscray site leased by White.

Graham White outside one of the sites inspected

Code-named Operation Hydrogen, the EPA investigation led the regulator to numerous locations — including the Campbellfield site that exploded in flames, where it found over 35 million litres of hazardous chemicals. The alleged criminal operation "involved the acceptance of chemical waste from various businesses for a fee, which is then stockpiled in warehouses". Graham White was jailed last week after a large haul of illegal weapons was discovered when police raided his western Victorian property. Documents state there is anecdotal evidence he is "linked to the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang". "The financial benefits for White and his associates probably total millions of dollars."

See ----->Oz man Graham Leslie White linked to Melbourne fire, toxic waste, HA

Carfentanil on the rise - Elephant in the room

The DEA in California have issued a new warning about carfentanil. The warning comes as the opioid is being reported more and more. Carfentanil-laced pills are being disguised as prescription pills and sold by street gangs. The profit margin is massive. Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid that’s 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl.

This space maintains a news 'alert' for carfentanil. The alerts have increased from 1 or 2 per month on average to that many each day.

Today there are half a dozen stories.

Carfentanil is a threat authorities have long feared, and for good reason. It is extremely potent, deadly, and cheap. It is also resistant to narcan. Carfentanil was detected in 13 of 90 illicit-drug overdose deaths in January in B.C. It was detected in 35 deaths in all of 2018 and 71 deaths in the last seven months of 2017. Total overdose deaths in B.C. in 2018 were 1,510. That number was 1,486 in 2017 and 991 in 2016.