#criminal-underworld

#criminal-underworld

Andrew Pritchard initially smuggled cocaine for the UK club scene using hard-sided suitcases packed with concealed drugs and decoy luggage to evade airport security.

Dublin City Council confirmed this week it is liable for levies, potentially amounting to tens of thousands of euro, due to the continued dereliction of the Kinahan gangster's former home on Kildare Road, Crumlin.

Jason Thompson, a guard at HMP Isis, was suspended as the Metropolitan Police investigated his involvement in smuggling drugs and contraband into the prison. He was sentenced to four years and six months for conspiracy and misconduct.

This was a fantastic seizure by our colleagues at Border Force, and taking this amount of cocaine out of circulation will have deprived the organised criminals involved of millions in profits.

We did have an unusual seizure, we had a gold bar seized. I think it might be just indicative of the type of criminal lifestyle some of these drug dealers want to lead, the sort of bragging rights and things.

More than 100 law enforcement agents conducted high-risk search warrants across three locations. The first was an active methamphetamine lab in the 8000 block of Center Drive in Valley Springs. A second site was located in the 2000 block of Golf Road in Turlock, which contained all the equipment necessary to operate as a lab but was shut down before production began. The third site, located in the 900 block of Reno Avenue in Modesto, was used by the drug trafficking organization to store and distribute illicit narcotics.

The cartel said it was seizing the store, which would only be allowed to sell online outside the state. That was in early 2022, when vapes were still legal in Mexico, a market worth $1.5 billion. But earlier this month, the country banned the sale - although not the use - of electronic cigarettes. Experts believe organized crime will now consolidate its control over the sale of the devices.

These semi-submersible boats have been used for years by drug gangs to smuggle cocaine from South and Central America. In more recent months as the price of cocaine has plummeted, gangs have changed tactics: instead of letting the boats sink on delivery, they have started to reuse the vessels, setting up a refuelling platform at sea and sending the boats back so they can make as many journeys as possible.

The 38-count superseding indictment names defendants whom prosecutors identified as members or affiliates of the Anti-Tren gang that emerged from Tren de Aragua, which federal authorities on Jan.20, 2025 designated a foreign terrorist organization. Prosecutors used racketeering conspiracy or RICO statutes, tying groups to crimes, for a wide range of actions, including some linked to an April 15, 2024 double murder in the Bronx.

Federal and local agents say they pulled about 10 kilograms of cocaine out of New York City's drug pipeline on Wednesday, arresting one person in a coordinated operation that officials are pitching as another quiet win in an ongoing effort to choke off wholesale supply.

Mexico has sent another 37 alleged members of Mexican criminal organisations to the United States, the country's security minister said, amid US President Donald Trump's threat of ground attacks against drug cartels in the region. The handover of alleged drug cartel members on Tuesday is the third major transfer to the US in the past year and brings the total number of suspects transferred to 92.

Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho, consolidated one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organisations in part due to a unique franchise-based structure. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the CJNG maintains a presence in every state of Mexico, with varying levels of influence, and operates in more than 40 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, and throughout the US.

Bernadette Thornton, a healthcare worker, admitted two counts of money laundering on dates between March 2020 and December 2022, totalling €282,477 in an AIB account and a Revolut account. Meanwhile, Alisha Thornton pleaded guilty to two money laundering charges totalling €231,018 on dates between January 2021 and December 2022 in an AIB account and a Revolut account.

According to his eight-count indictment, the ex-cop took more than $30,000 in exchange for transporting drugs, including approximately eight kilograms of cocaine; providing unauthorized armed protection for a drug trafficking enterprise; and submitting false reports to the NYPD to help a co-conspirator avoid repayment of a drug-trafficking-related debt. Nguyen entered a guilty plea to three of the indictment's eight counts bribery and narcotics distribution conspiracy, and a firearm charge before U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres Thursday.

Their attackers had tried to burn them to cover their tracks, but the double femicide left no doubt: it bore the mark of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization. In the wake of the crime, investigations and news reports about the Venezuelan gang followed. And arrests began. Although the Mexico City Security Secretariat tried to downplay its role, police operations proved that this criminal network, after spreading across the continent, was already operating in Mexico.

Juan Carlos Valencia González has emerged as a key contender to take over the $20 billion criminal empire after "El Mencho" died in a Mexican special forces raid on Sunday. The 41-year-old is the slain chief's stepson. According to law enforcement, his mother Rosalinda "La Jefa" González Valencia was married to the drug kingpin and was a major player on the financial side of the cartel.

Whole areas of western Mexico have been all but shut down after a surge in cartel violence sparked by a military raid that killed one of the world's most wanted drug traffickers, known as El Mencho. Schools were closed in several Mexican states, and foreign governments warned their citizens to stay inside after the drug lord, whose real name is Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, was declared dead on Sunday.