Holiday fraudsters netted £6million from bogus budget sites.

Holiday fraudsters netted £6million from bogus budget sites.A gang of fraudulent travel agents who scammed more than 20,000 sun seekers out of their holidays have been jailed for up to seven years each. fraudsters advertising budget breaks on teletext and the internet. Sixty-four-year-old Christakis Philippou was the ring leader. His mistress Evangelia Liogka oversaw the agencies and call centres, bankrupt accountant Timothy Entwistle masterminded the gang’s finances, while Peter Kemp managed the day to day running of their 26 front firms. Together, prosecutors say they made the perfect team. The scam was simple - set up bogus budget holiday sites advertising bargain breaks in Greece, Spain and Cyprus, take holidaymakers’ money then close the firm down. Between 2003 and 2006 such sites made £6million for the gang funding a luxury lifestyle of plush homes, fast cars and of course exotic holidays. Today the gang were brought to justice for defrauding an estimated 20,000 people. At Southwark Crown Court the gang were jailed for up to seven years each.
It was credit card companies and travel industry body ABTA that were left to pick up the tab for the gang’s crime. The victims of this scam say long term lessons must be learned. Mr Reynolds thought because he booked with an ABTA approved company he would be safe, now he wants them to be more careful about whom they approve.

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six Somalis charged with taking a French luxury yacht’s crew hostage

Paris court has charged six Somalis with taking a French luxury yacht’s crew hostage off Africa this month, officials say.The six were flown to Paris after being detained on Friday by French commandos in a helicopter raid, soon after the 30 hostages were released.The hostages - 22 French citizens, six Filipinos, a Cameroonian and a Ukrainian - were seized a week earlier.No passengers were aboard the Ponant at the time of the abduction. A senior legal source said Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had given his consent for the suspects to be taken out of the country.

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Douglas Fleming was the subject of a two-year undercover police operation, during which he was trailed to the West Indies.

Douglas Fleming was the subject of a two-year undercover police operation, during which he was trailed to the West Indies.Yesterday, a jury at the High Court in Glasgow found the case against him not proven. It is the second time the Crown has failed to secure a conviction against Mr Fleming, 43, for alleged involvement with a global cocaine-smuggling operation. On the first occasion, in September 2004, the case against him collapsed after it emerged that police officers involved in the trial were watching the proceedings from a remote viewing room, which the defence counsel argued could be prejudicial to the case.It had been alleged he was involved in the attempted transfer of as much as 200 kilos of cocaine from Colombia through the Belgian port of Antwerp.The court heard Mr Fleming, from Langbank, Renfrewshire, who is believed to have served as a police officer in Scotland in the late 1980s, had been followed to Antigua, where he met up with Martin Toner.
An alleged drug smuggler, Mr Toner was murdered and his body dumped in a field in Langbank in July 2004. He had been due to appear at the High Court accused of being involved in the importation of cocaine. Throughout his trial, Mr Fleming, who owned a construction firm and a property development company, said he knew Mr Toner, and that their common interest was property. He denied having anything to do with drugs.
At Mr Fleming's trial, an undercover Belgian policeman, known only as "Mike", told the jury he had infiltrated a multimillion-pound drugs operation. The court heard he had been recommended to Colombian drug barons as a fixer in Antwerp by a source they trusted. "Mike" claimed Mr Fleming, whom he said he knew as "Ben", contacted him by telephone to talk about importing a container of drugs from Colombia.
The court heard evidence from a Colombian drug dealer who said he witnessed 200 kilos of cocaine being loaded into a container allegedly intended for transport to "Ben" and others. "Mike" alleged Mr Fleming arrived in Antwerp on 29 October, 2001, to meet him to discuss how the drug could be removed from the container, and how to bring in further loads. "Mike" was part of Operation Backslider, which targeted Mr Fleming and others, including Mr Toner. "Mike" said he knew the latter as "Tom".
Mr Fleming, thought to be originally from Inverness, was cleared yesterday of smuggling cocaine, along with Mr Toner, on various occasions in 2001 and 2002. A second charge, of being concerned in the supply of cocaine between 23 February and 11 May, 2002, was also found not proven. His co-accused, James Cameron, 49, from Springburn, Glasgow, was found not guilty of being concerned in the supply of cocaine in Glasgow in 2002.

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Katelyn Triolo,Sue E. Farrell,Adam Lang are scheduled to be arraigned Friday in First District Court, Hempstead.

Canonico, 23, of 2051 Paddock Road, Seaford, told them he arranged to meet two women - identified by police as Katelyn Triolo, 20, of 1081 Carukin Street, Franklin Square, and Sue E. Farrell, 25, of 243 Roslyn Road, Mineola - at the Gulf gas station at 2201 New Hyde Park Road.The meeting, police said Canonico later told them, was to sell the women heroin.
Police said Canonico met the women—and they got into his car. It was then, police said, that a man, identified as Adam Lang, 27, of 22 Eldridge Place, Glen Cove, approached the vehicle, produced a handgun, pointed it at Canonico and the trio stole his cell phone and wallet, as well as $340 from him.But as the trio fled from the scene, Canonico decided to call 911—to report the robbery.The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of all four: Canonico, Triolo, Farrell and Lang, police said.Canonico was charged with third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance; Triolo and Farrell were each charged with first-degree robbery and second-degree robbery. Lang was charged with first-degree robbery, second-degree robbery, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance and four counts of fourth-degree possession of a dangerous weapon.All four are scheduled to be arraigned Friday in First District Court, Hempstead.

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Scott Rush was arrested at the island’s international airport with heroin strapped to his body face the death penalty.

Scott Rush was arrested at the island’s international airport with heroin strapped to his body faces the death penalty. The death sentence for Rush is seen here as particularly harsh, given that three other couriers -- known as drug mules -- arrested with him on Apr. 17, 2005, were sentenced to 20 years and to life in prison. Originally awarded a life sentence, Rush’s appeal only resulted in his sentence being increased to death.
"It’s anyone’s guess (as to) why Scott’s penalty was upgraded to death when anyone looking at the case could see that it’s pretty obvious that he was just a mule," says Martin Hodgson from the prisoner advocacy group, Foreign Prisoner Support Service (FPSS). But this latest development has provided the impetus for further scrutiny of the role played by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in the arrests of the Bali Nine by the Indonesian authorities.



The Indonesian Supreme Court’s decision in early March to commute the death sentences of Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen to life imprisonment was described by Stephen Smith, Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, as "very welcome news", a sentiment also expressed by human and civil rights organisations around the country.
The three’s initial life sentences were reduced to 20 years on appeal but then upgraded to death following prosecutors’ counter-appeals. The three men were arrested -- along with the condemned ringleader Myuruan Sukumaran -- with 350 grams of heroin in a suitcase at a Bali hotel in 2005.
They can hope that with good behaviour their life sentences will be further reduced and they will be allowed to serve out part of their prison terms in Australia. But Sukumaran, his co-ringleader Andrew Chan, and Scott Rush, one of the drug couriers -- "I think it’s unfortunate whenever the AFP assists in arrests of Australians overseas knowing that the penalty is the death penalty," Hodgson told IPS.
After initiating the investigation into the group in Feb 2005, the AFP tipped-off Indonesian police regarding the expected activities of the Bali Nine. In letters dated Apr 8 and 12 of that same year -- written in Indonesian and titled ‘Heroin Couriers From Bali To Australia’ and ‘Currently in Bali’ -- AFP officers provided their Indonesian counterparts with detailed information about members of the group and how they expected the heroin to be transported.
In a 2006 interview with the Australian Broadcast Commission (ABC) television programme ‘Australian Story’, Mike Phelan -- the AFP officer ultimately responsible for the decision to provide the Indonesians with the intelligence about the group -- explained that the letters alerted Indonesian authorities about the group for the first time. The letters advised Indonesian police to take "whatever action you deem necessary". The AFP defends its action as a success. AFP commissioner Mick Keelty has refused to apologise, saying that police acted lawfully and in accordance with government policy. The AFP says that the arrests stopped more than eight kilograms of heroin -- at an estimated value of 4 million Australian dollars -- from hitting Australian streets. Additionally, the AFP is confident that the syndicate behind the Bali Nine’s actions -- which they say was responsible for previous drug smuggling -- was closed down with the help of Indonesian surveillance and subsequent arrests.
But Hodgson from FPSS says that while the AFP is obliged to work with law enforcement agencies in other countries, the arrests could have been made in Australia, where the death penalty has been abolished. Hodgson argues that prior to the group’s departure from Australia, the AFP "could have, at the very least, arrested those they knew to be leaving". Phelan, however, said that this was not an option at the time. "There was just simply not enough evidence" to charge members of the group with conspiracy to commit a crime, he told the ABC. The AFP officer also rejected the option of arresting the Bali Nine when they arrived back in Australia -- another course of action open to the AFP, according to Hodgson -- as the decision to arrest the group was made under Indonesia’s "own laws and own jurisdiction".
The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) has also spoken out against the AFP’s actions. AFP documents obtained by the NSWCCL under freedom of information laws show that Australia’s federal police are still lawfully allowed to cooperate with foreign law enforcement agencies on a police-to-police basis prior to a person being charged with an offence that may lead to the death penalty. The AFP is only barred for cooperating once a death penalty charge has been filed. However, the ‘Practical Guide on International Police-to-Police Assistance in Death Penalty Charge Situations’ indicates that the AFP can still continue providing assistance following such a charge if the attorney-general or minister for home affairs give their approval. The AFP "needs to re-address their protocols when it comes to assisting in cases that will ultimately lead to the death penalty," Hodgson says. Australia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -- which aims to abolish the death penalty -- in 1990, but it has not been adopted into domestic law and is therefore not legally binding. Hodgson says that Australia has an obligation to "not only oppose the death penalty but to ensure that we don’t facilitate it in any way".
"If the AFP is conducting practices that result in the death penalty, even if indirectly, then they need to review those procedures," he argues.

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Police have seized a fleet of luxury limos

Sydney police have seized a fleet of luxury limos including a stretch Hummer, a house, and a Harley Davidson as part of an ongoing investigation into a major cocaine smuggling syndicate.As well as the stretch Hummer the hire cars include two stretch Chrysler limos, another two Chryslers, a Range Rover and a Corvette.
They've also seized a house at Ryde.Police say in the last 12 months they've arrested 14 people and seized about 20 million in cash, five million in assets, large quantities of high-grade cocaine and guns including gold plated 357 magnum.
Two men were arrested yesterday over the drug ring police say imported hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Los Angeles, and they say there's more to come.

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Mark Cadogan . bought a high-performance BMW M3 for £50,000, a luxury Aston Martin for £130,000 and two Audi convertibles for more than £100,000

Mark Cadogan, described as the ringleader of a major Newcastle cannabis distribution network, was jailed for 10 years at Newcastle Crown Court.
admitted charges of conspiracy to supply the Class C drug and money laundering.
Jailing him Judge Beatrice Bolton said: "You have been described as a Mr Big - a big time dealer of cannabis."You made a considerable amount of money out of it and employed others to do your dirty work, while living a lavish lifestyle as a result."
The court was told Cadogan and his partner Melanie McElderry, 29, spent around £350,000 in cash during the three years of their conspiracy.
Between 2003 and 2007 they bought a high-performance BMW M3 for £50,000, a luxury Aston Martin for £130,000 and two Audi convertibles for more than £100,000.
They also enjoyed 24 trips to Spain in just 19 months, a trip to the FIFA World Cup in 2006 and a holiday to the luxury Gleneagles hotel in Scotland.
They invested the drugs money into a string of properties in the north east, including homes in Newcastle and North Shields, as well as investing in business and property ventures in the East European country of Armenia, in an attempt to launder the cash.Christopher Knox, prosecuting, said: "Had it not been for this defendant's arrest, and the seizure of his assets, he would have been a very rich man.
"He was not a man with his hands actually on the drugs which he conspired to supply.
"He got others to do that."On one occasion police officers seized a lorry with over a tonne of cannabis hidden in a batch of tiles, destined to be distributed into Cadogan's underground network.Cadogan boasted he could afford to lose more than a million pounds in bad debts and police seizures, as he "hadplenty", said Mr Knox.
"Clearly, this loss did not have such a devastating effect on his business, as he could still afford to buy an Aston Martin for £130,000 a few days later," said Mr Knox.Jonathan Goldberg QC, defending Cadogan, said his lavish lifestyle led to his downfall."He was perhaps a prisoner of his own success," he said."Short of placing a neon sign above his head in the city of Newcastle and saying 'I'm a flash drug dealer', one wonders how much else he could have done to alert the police to what he was up to."This may be the top of division two, but the first division players would not be very impressed with him."Cadogan made a total of £1.351,008 from his drug dealing. He must forfeit his realisable assets of £923,757 to the police's asset recovery team.He will also be banned from travelling abroad for eight years from his release from custody.

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Guy Philippe again denied any involvement in drug trafficking, adding, "I will not allow those who are plotting to eliminate me to humiliate me."

Guy Philippe, who led an armed revolt in 2004 against then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, told a radio talk show he was peacefully going about his business in the small seaside town of Pestel."They came here to terrorize the population. They said they were looking for me, but I am right here in Pestel now," Philippe, a former district police chief, ex-army officer and failed presidential candidate, told Signal FM radio by cellphone.
"I am here at home and I am staying here," he said, also announcing he planned to run for a seat in the Haitian Senate.
Dozens of U.S. anti-narcotics agents and federal police, backed by Haitian counter-narcotics police, descended on Pestel in darkness early on Tuesday, hunting Philippe, according to local officials and witnesses. The force searched for Philippe house to house but failed to find him.Philippe, who stayed on the line for over an hour with the radio show fielding questions from the host and callers, said he would not allow U.S. agents to arrest him.
"I can give you the guarantee that this is not going to happen," he said.
Philippe said about 100 foreign anti-drug and FBI agents participated in the raid. U.S. officials in Port-au-Prince declined to provide any figures, and U.S. federal prosecutors in Miami, where drug charges have been brought against Philippe -- according to media reports -- said they had no comment.
Philippe again denied any involvement in drug trafficking, adding, "I will not allow those who are plotting to eliminate me to humiliate me."
He said he planned to compete in elections expected to take place over the coming months to fill some Senate seats.
"I am going to run for senator, because I am a citizen of this country," he said.

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John Faba Jr a serial killer who was just getting started in his career

John Faba Jr., 30, is currently serving a 40-year sentence for the 2000 murder of high school student Angela Durling. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the teen's death.Last week, Faba Jr. was charged in the slaying of his former girlfriend, 25-year-old Alicia Eakins. Eakins had been missing for eight years before her body was found in the Ocala National Forest in Southern Putnam County, where Faba Jr. led detectives. According to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, interviews with a critical witness implicated the convicted killer in his father’s death.Ralph Faba Sr. died in October 1999. Deputies found him hanging in the woods. At the time, the death was ruled a suicide. The younger Faba told deputies at that time that he arrived at his home, in the 700 block of Stokes Landing Road at 2:20 p.m. Deputies said Faba Jr. told them that he noticed a gate leading to the back of the property was open and he proceeded to the rear of the property and observed his father hanging from a tree. He stated that he cut the rope, began CPR and called 911.
Based on the evidence and information gathered at the time of Faba Sr.'s death, the Medical Examiner ruled the death a suicide.However, the father’s case was reopened in conjunction with the Eakins' disappearance. With new information, investigators recently classified Faba Sr.'s death as a homicide.
Faba Jr. was interviewed in reference to his father’s death and as a result of the information gained during the interview, he was charged with murder in his father's slaying."This man was, in our opinion, a serial killer who was just getting started in his career," said prosecutor John Tanner. "He will never see the light of day outside of prison again."Faba Jr. is expected to have a first appearance hearing Wednesday morning.

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