Dealer caught by undercover cop (From Gazette): "Alexander Jeffery is the first person to be sentenced as part of Operation Hayward, launched by police in Braintree this summer.
Jeffery, 24, supplied one wrap of heroin to an officer, known as Kelly, in Braintree on July 30.
The deal was recorded and Jeffery, of St James Road, Braintree, was arrested later.
He admitted supplying heroin when he appeared for sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court and was jailed for 12 months, suspended for 18 months.
Judge Anthony Goldstaub QC also gave him a 12-month drug rehabilitation order."

Huntington Station Man Busted for Heroin Possession - Huntington, NY Patch: "Reinaldo Cruz, 46, of Forest Place was arrested and charged with third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance after cops issued the search warrant at 3:30 p.m. Friday and said they found heroin and more than $10,000 in cash at his home.
Cruz is scheduled to be arraigned in First District Court in Central Islip on Saturday."

CTV British Columbia - Gang task force tackles escalating violence in Prince George - CTV News: "city of 80,000 has become a battleground for rival gangs such as the Game Tight Soldiers and the Independent Soldiers, some of which originated in the Lower Mainland.
Members of the Uniformed Gang Task Force have visited Prince George twice in the past two months to help deal with the problem by sharing tactics with local law enforcement and gathering information.
Criminologist Rob Gordon says while there has been a 'buoyant' drug trade in the region for years, recent developments have escalated the situation into a full-fledged turf war.
Ironically, the problem may have been inflamed by successful crack downs on local Hell's Angels members who police believe dominate the local drug scene.
'They've taken out a few of their key people. That leaves a vacuum,' Gordon said. 'The demand for the product doesn't go away.'"

CTV British Columbia - Gang task force tackles escalating violence in Prince George - CTV News: "city of 80,000 has become a battleground for rival gangs such as the Game Tight Soldiers and the Independent Soldiers, some of which originated in the Lower Mainland.
Members of the Uniformed Gang Task Force have visited Prince George twice in the past two months to help deal with the problem by sharing tactics with local law enforcement and gathering information.
Criminologist Rob Gordon says while there has been a 'buoyant' drug trade in the region for years, recent developments have escalated the situation into a full-fledged turf war.
Ironically, the problem may have been inflamed by successful crack downs on local Hell's Angels members who police believe dominate the local drug scene.
'They've taken out a few of their key people. That leaves a vacuum,' Gordon said. 'The demand for the product doesn't go away.'"

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - Police warning for drug gangs after Haverfordwest swoop: "“a heroin retail conspiracy” at boastful dealer Andrew Lowndes’ home in Fleming Crescent, Haverfordwest.
Dyfed-Powys Police who bugged Lowndes’ home under what they called Operation Picasso, finally swooped on April 29 this year.
The force estimated that Lowndes, a heroin user and dealer, and Vincent Carter, originally from Newport, had trafficked and sold anything between a quarter and half a million pounds worth of heroin in Pembrokeshire over a six-month period.
Lowndes bragged he could sell about 15g of heroin a day, with a street value of up to £1,500.
Astonishingly, all 13 members of the drugs gang were heroin users."

South African Airways hostess Elphia Dlamini, 42, was caught by a sniffer dog after she flew to Heathrow from Johannesburg.

Portland dealer pleads guilty to running black-tar heroin ring that led to two overdose deaths in 2009 | OregonLive.com: "Portland heroin dealer pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring with his brother-in-law to run a major black-tar heroin distribution ring that led to the overdose deaths last year of Patrick McGinnis and Joshua Reeves. The two dealers referred to their business as 'The Store,' operated the sales like a dispatch center and paid for sellers to be smuggled into the United States from Mexico, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Bickers said. Share Under a plea deal, Jose I. Hernandez Flores, 38, nicknamed 'Pepe,' is expected to face 13 years in prison, then deportation. He'll be sentenced in November. His brother-in-law, Jose Luis Torres Rojas, 30, known as 'Chad,' is scheduled to plead guilty on Friday, and face an 11 1/2-year sentence, mostly due to his greater degree of cooperation."

Record haul of heroin part seized: News24: World: News: "Bulgarian border police on Monday seized a record 13.1 tonnes of a key chemical used in heroin production, and two people have been arrested, the interior ministry announced.

The chemical acetic anhydride, seized at the southeast Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint with Turkey, is enough to make around 5 200kg of heroin, experts estimate.

The precursor was seized in a truck loaded with paper rolls that concealed 13 cans of the chemical, the customs agency said.

It was travelling from Hungary to Turkey, it added.

The interior ministry had initially put the quantity of the chemical at about 10 tonnes.

'This is the biggest ever haul of acetic anhydride seized in Bulgaria"

sentenced Jaime Arturo Zamora, a 40-year-old former Houston city parks employee, to 327 months in federal prison without parole — a sentence even more stringent than that of Mexican Gulf Cartel boss Osiel Cardenas.

As part of Zamora's plea agreement, court records show, he admitted to his involvement in a drug conspiracy and could have been eligible for a sentence of as little as 10 years. Instead, Hittner doled out much more, though not the maximum of life in prison.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston would not comment on specifics of the sentence.

"What I can tell you, is that is the upper end of the guidelines," said Angela Dodge of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Cardenas, convicted in Houston and considered one of the most diabolical drug warlords in recent times, is serving 25 years but is set to be released in 14 years.

Hittner also ordered Zamora to forfeit $3 million, the same amount he is accused of shipping to his partners in Mexico, according to a statement from the federal prosecutors.

Ricky Hatton filmed using cocaine, allegedly knocked out in bar fight - Bad Left Hook: "More boxing fun for the whole family this week, as British superstar Ricky Hatton has been caught on film snorting cocaine, and is also rumored -- and I stress rumored -- to have been knocked out in a bar fight.
News of the World has video of Hatton and the cocaine, which is sure to stir up major tabloid coverage in the United Kingdom. Joe Calzaghe had a cocaine scandal last year, too, and UK athletes in general seem particularly susceptible to what appears from the outside to be a bit of a tabloid-crazy culture, not that we don't have plenty of that in the States.
As for the bar fight, Simon Wright of the Mirror is reporting it:
The fighter known as 'the Hitman' was knocked out by a single punch to the face after an argument broke out over a fruit machine. A bodybuilder twice his size accused him of pushing in front of him in a queue for the ­machine.
Hatton, 31, was knocked across tables and on to the floor. He then lay dazed on the floor of the Railway Inn in Hyde, Manchester, for several seconds.
Hatton, 31, has kept reiterating that he isn't retired from boxing, but he's ballooned in weight and has been out of the ring since May 2009, when he was knocked out by Manny Pacquiao in two rounds. He has started a successful promotional company in the UK, which has already turned into one of the more notable promotional outfits across the pond. The Manchester native is a known 'partier,' famous for his drinking and night life, so I doubt anyone is truly shocked by this."

Ronnie Wood admits he once smoked meringue by mistake - Entertainment - DNA: "Ronnie Wood has revealed that he was once so addicted to drugs that he mistakenly smoked meringue instead of crack cocaine.
'It got to the point where I would be on my hands and knees looking for crumbs that might have fallen out of the crack pipe,' News of the World quoted him as saying.
'I even banned my children eating meringues in the house after I ended up smoking sugar, believing it to be cocaine,' he said.
The Rolling Stones guitarist, who had a 3,000-pound-a-day freebase coke habit in the 1980s, said in an interview that booze was an even worse problem.
Two years ago, he was downing two bottles of vodka a day.
The rocker, who checked into rehab seven times in 30 years, says he has been sober for six months now and credits new girlfriend Ana Araujo with his success after she poured away all the alcohol in his house.
'It was just a downward spiral. When the last bottle went, it was the end of an era. Something clicked in me,' he added."

Slipknot bassist's death ruled accidental overdose: "Authorities have determined that the death of Slipknot [ tickets ] bassist Paul Gray, whose body was discovered in a hotel room late last month, was caused by an accidental overdose of two heroin-like medications, according to published reports.
The 38-year-old Gray, who was found dead on the morning of May 24, died from a lethal combination of morphine (an opium-based narcotic) and fentanyl, a synthetic form of morphine that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has said 'may be hundreds of times more potent than morphine,' according to The Des Moines Register newspaper. Gray did not have a prescription for either drug."

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Nineteen-Year-Old Drug Baron Excretes Cocaine in Detention: "Two weeks after he was arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Port Harcourt International Airport, nineteen year-old Egede Lucky has reportedly excreted 39 wraps of substance believed to be cocaine while in detention.
The suspected drug trafficker, who was arrested during the outward clearance of Air France AF3031 flight to Paris had, upon his arrest, excreted 962 grammes of the substance concealed in 71 wraps."

Israeli drug dealer gets conditional bail: "major setback to the probe against the politician-police-drug mafia nexus in Goa, a trial court Tuesday released Israeli drug dealer Yaniv Benaim alias Atala on conditional bail citing lack of evidence against him.
Special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act judge Bimba Thali released Atala, saying there was no evidence put forth by the police to justify his presence in judicial custody.
The judge also directed Atala not to venture near the coastal area, which is the scene of narcotics action in the state. He has also been ordered to deposit his passport with the authorities.
Atala, operating in north Goa, was arrested in March this year, after his Swedish ex-girlfriend Lucky Farmhouse uploaded footage where Atala was boasting of his links with senior police officials and politicians. The Swedish model also alleged that a senior politician's son was involved in the drug trade with Atala.
Responding to the development, police said that there is no threat to the Swedish whistle-blower's life.
The crime branch said that the conditional bail was not a setback to them."

B92 - News - Crime & War crimes - Serbia expects Zemun gangster extradition: "Justice Ministry State Secretary Slobodan Homen said that Zemun Clan member Sretko Kalinić is expected to be extradited to Serbia in early July.

He said that the agreement for extraditions between Belgrade and Zagreb is expected to include a special clause for taking power as soon as it is signed.

Homen said that Serbia has already sent Croatia a demand for Kalinić’s extradition, and expects a quick and positive decision by the Croatian government as soon as the agreement is signed.

“What is important is that clear political wills expects for both countries to see Kalinić in Serbia,” he said, reminding that Kalinić, a Croatian citizen, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in absentia in Serbia for his participation in the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić and 19 other murders."

Fort Myers man arrested on drug charges in Cape Coral | news-press.com | The News-Press: "James Desoto Ladson, 25, is charged with two counts of selling cocaine, two counts of possessing cocaine, one count of selling marijuana, one count of possessing drugs without a prescription, one count of marijuana possession and one count of possessing narcotic equipment.


Ladson was arrested Saturday and booked into the Lee County Jail. He was released a few hours later after paying $18,000 bail."

Ex guerrilla: FARC has extensive drug network in Brazil: "ex-FARC commander, who left the organization six months ago after fifteen years of service, told Brazilian publication O Estado de Sao Paulo that during his time in the guerrilla group he took part in several drug-smuggling operations, some worth over $2.6 million.
The former guerrilla, known as 'Carlos' to protect his identity, said that the FARC has established a number of routes for transporting drugs into Brazil, and has 'dozens of subordinates' working throughout the country.
After being smuggled over the border, the drugs are taken to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where they are exchanged for chemicals needed for the production of cocaine or firearms, explained 'Carlos,' who belongs to a government program for demobilized guerrillas."

43 Arrested In Downtown Drug Sting - San Diego News Story - KGTV San Diego: "Forty-three people arrested in a two-month sting are facing a variety of felony drug charges Monday, police said.
Dubbed 'Operation V8,' the sting targeted street level dealers of rock cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana along C Street and in the East Village, Horton Plaza and Core Columbia neighborhoods, San Diego police Capt. Mark Jones said.

Some of those arrested are affiliated with street gangs, he said, adding that 14 were on parole and 10 on probation. All but five remain in custody"

Baggage handler at Memphis airport bagged by feds on drug-smuggling charges » The Commercial Appeal: "After a steak dinner and the promise of thousands of dollars in cash, a baggage handler at Memphis International Airport told his hosts he was onboard with their proposed drug-smuggling operation.
Gora Sow's hosts, however, were an undercover law enforcement officer and a confidential source acting as drug dealers wanting to send suitcases full of drugs to Memphis from Canada.
'(Undercover agent) informs Sow on the amount of Ecstasy, approximately 30,000 to 40,000 pills, coming in on the bag on June 1"

allAfrica.com: Kenya: Woman Held Over Sh85.6 Million Cocaine Haul: "Cocaine worth millions of shillings concealed as office materials destined for the United Nations staff in Uganda has been seized at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Airport police are holding a Ugandan woman who landed in Kenya allegedly carrying the drugs at 7.30pm on Saturday.
The narcotic drugs weighing 21.4 kilograms were wrapped in 10 packets and packed in two plastic boxes bearing UN logos."