[BBC] Four men have pleaded guilty to having 2.2 tonnes of cocaine for supply on board a Panamanian cargo ship in September 2023. "It's for Personal Use, man!"
A multi-agency operation off the Irish coast resulted in the largest such seizure in the history of the state.
The four were due to go on trial having earlier this week failed in a bid to have the charges against them dismissed.
The four men - Ukrainians Mykhailo Gavryk, 32, and Vitaliy Vlasoi, 32; Iranian Soheil Jelveh, 51, and Dutch national 49-year-old Cumali Ozgen - appeared before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Thursday, where they were each arraigned on one of three charges against them.
Eight men in total are facing a number of charges in relation to the drugs seizure.
The 2.25 tonnes of cocaine that was seized from the MV Matthew, a Panamanian-registered bulk carrier, has an estimated value of more than €157 million.
The ship was boarded in a dramatic operation by the Army Rangers, a specialist wing of the Irish Defence Forces, in September 2023, after the ship failed to stop following warning shots.
The men had applied to the non-jury Special Criminal Court on January 13 to have the charges against them dismissed.
On Thursday, Sean Guerin SC, for the State, said the four guilty pleas were acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions on a full-facts basis.
Ms Justice Melanie Greally remanded the four defendants in custody until 24 February, when their cases are listed for mention with a view to fixing a sentence date for next term.
Two other defendants Iranian Saeid Hassani, 39, and Filipino Harold Estoesta, 31, will stand trial on Monday before the Special Criminal Court arising from the seizure of the cocaine.
The two men were remanded in custody until then.
A seventh man, Ukrainian national Vitaliy Lapa, 62, with an address at Rudenka, Repina Str in Berdyansk, was previously arraigned on one of the two charges against him.
Mr Lapa pleaded guilty that on dates between 21 and 25 September 2023, he attempted to possess cocaine for the purpose of selling or otherwise supplying to another.
Mr Lapa was also facing a charge that between 15 July and 23 September 2023, both dates inclusive, within the state, with knowledge of the existence of a criminal organisation, that he participated in, or contributed to, activity intending to, or being reckless as to whether such participation or contribution could facilitate the commission of a serious offence by that criminal organisation or any of its members.
Mr Lapa was the only one of the accused men who did not make an application under the Criminal Procedure Act to have his case dismissed.
UK national Jamie Harbron, 31, has also pleaded guilty to an offence arising from the seizure.
He will appear before the court later this year for a sentencing hearing.
Mr Harbron, of South Avenue in Billingham, pleaded guilty that on a date between 21 and 25 September 2023, both dates inclusive, he attempted to have cocaine in his possession for the purpose of sale or supply, an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
[BBC] Two men in their 40s have appeared in court after the seizure of almost 200kg of drugs in counties Laois and Dublin.
During searches in Mountmellick in County Laois on Tuesday, gardaí (Irish police) seized about 182kg of cocaine and 4kg of cannabis herb.
In a follow-up search in west Dublin, a further 17kg of cocaine was found as well as €25,000 (£20,700) in cash. Eight vehicles and drug paraphernalia were also seized.
Gardaí said the value of the drugs was more than €14m (£11.6m).
Both men who appeared in court on Thursday were remanded in custody.
A third man arrested over the drugs find was released without charge, the Garda (police said).
[Breitbart] Border Patrol agents in Michigan arrested a “leader of hitmen with the Gulf Cartel” during an immigration enforcement action last week.
Detroit Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Morris posted a report on X revealing the arrest of Melquiades Salgado-Garza. Morris described the illegal alien as a leader of hitmen for the Gulf Cartel.
The chief reported that Salgado’s criminal history included charges for burglary, forgery, and immigration violations.
Over the weekend, Chief Morris reported that agents assigned to the Sault Ste. Marie Station apprehended a suspected member of the violent Tren de Aragua Venezuelan prison gang.
Border Patrol agents had been searching for the suspected gang member and found him during a traffic stop. Officials did not release the alleged TdA gang member’s name but said they arrested him as he attempted to retrieve a previously seized vehicle.
Agents from the Marysville Station arrested another illegal alien from Mexico. The Mexican national has been arrested ten times since 1999 for illegal entry into the United States.
Morris said they were processing the Mexican national for removal.
Removal operations across the country are having an impact on border crossings. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks reported a 91 percent decrease in migrant apprehensions at the border compared to the same week last year.
“By stopping the flow at the border, we also streamline the removal of illegal entrants already in the country, reinforcing the integrity of our immigration system,” Banks stated.
[FoxNews] President Donald Trump said he has directed the Secret Service to give him "every bit of information" known about his two attempted assassins last summer during the presidential campaign, according to a report.
"I want to find out about the two assassins," the president told the New York Post Friday. "Why did the one guy have six cellphones, and why did the other guy have [foreign] apps?"
Trump told the Post the Secret Service had been holding back information because of President Biden.
"I’m entitled to know. And they held it back long enough," he added. "No more excuses."
Trump was shot in the ear July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, while speaking at an outdoor campaign rally by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by the Secret Service after shooting at Trump, killing a rally attendee and injuring two others.
Two months later, Ryan Routh, 59, allegedly waited for over 12 hours in brush with a rifle on the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach as Trump was golfing Sept. 15.
A Secret Service agent saw Routh allegedly pointing a rifle through a fence and fired at him. Routh fled and was arrested that day.
He has pleaded not guilty to several counts, including attempted assassination of a presidential candidate and assault on a federal officer, and remains in federal custody. His trial is scheduled for Sept. 8, 2025.
Six cellphones were reportedly found in Routh’s car after his arrest.
Crooks had encrypted messaging accounts on multiple platforms based in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany, according to Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., who was appointed to a congressional task force investigating the assassination attempt.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
[FoxNews] The Secret Service special agent in charge (SAIC) of the Pittsburgh field office was not informed of credible threats to former President Trump ahead of his July 13 outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and detailed in handwritten notes that they didn't learn about the threats until after the assassination attempt when they saw it on television.
In a preliminary report on the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump released on Wednesday by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, top senators listed several key failures of the Secret Service.
"Why am I hearing that there were threats to the site on TV," the SAIC of the Pittsburgh office wrote in a handwritten note after the attempt.
"How can the SAIC of our [field office] not know about any threats and why did they feel that only one part of [Special Operations Divisions] was sufficient to cover it instead of the entire package," the note continued.
According to the report, Secret Service counter snipers had been approved and sent to the Butler event due to "credible intelligence" of a threat. However, many of the Secret Service personnel interviewed by the committee, which they said included the intelligence advance agent and the SAIC of the field office, said they were not made aware of the threat.
In fact, "only two of the [Secret Service] personnel the Committee has interviewed were made aware that there was a credible threat related to former President Trump prior to July 13," the report reads. Only one of those personnel members was then made privy to the underlying classified information about the threat.
Per the committee, the lead advance agent was informed by the second supervisor of Trump's detail that "credible intel" was the reason for the addition of counter snipers to the event's security. The SAIC said the information was not relayed to them, despite the advance agent asking the second supervisor to call the SAIC about the "credible intel."
Even after learning of the counter sniper assignment and "credible intel," the lead advance agent ultimately wrote in a preliminary survey document that "[a]t this time, no adverse intelligence has been developed concerning this visit. Any adverse intelligence that may arise will be passed on to all working supervisors."
#1
"Why am I hearing that there were threats to the site on TV," the SAIC of the Pittsburgh office wrote in a handwritten note after the attempt.
"How can the SAIC of our [field office] not know about any threats and why did they feel that only one part of [Special Operations Divisions] was sufficient to cover it instead of the entire package," the note continued.
#2
Why stop with the SS?
What about several other Federal, State and Local agencies that should have spotted issues.
Besides. How much is left to turn over?
The Guy was seen climbing and on roof for a good 10+ mins and people were screaming about it to police.
Police were on the scene about 5+ mins later after the shooter was 1st spotted, and long BEFORE the 1st shot was fired towards Trump.
The Biden Fed's claim no communications with local & state police about the person on the roof?
We have been given various stories of how Local police engaged him, and had to back off.
The Biden Federal counter-snipers FAILED to spot a figure on the roof within +/- 200 yards. Or they WAITED until shots were fired before acting?
We had High School 16 y/o teenager pics within hours. But then media avoided showing the shooters, current 20+ y/o Long Hair young adult pictures for many days?
The shooter's Social Media / Email and etc were scrubbed unusually quick, even for FB and etc.
Then we learn of a large sum of $$$$$, said to be in foreign banks accounts, which quickly became hush-hush.
The whole area was shutdown, not just the crime scene, as the Biden Fed's washed the roof down of any DNA traces. Then they burned the body, before the investigation was completed?
Hell, the whole process reeks of a pre-planned Patsy planted assassin.
[NEWARAB] Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... 's military said on Saturday that it had regained control of nearly all of Khartoum North, as it intensified its offensive aimed at reclaiming full control of the capital from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The army, at war with the RSF since April 2023, has in recent weeks won back large swathes of the capital and its surrounding areas from the paramilitaries.
On Saturday, the military said it had recaptured Kafouri, a key district in Khartoum North, after pushing the paramilitaries to the outskirts of the city also known as Bahri.
The district, one of greater Khartoum's wealthiest, had been a key base for the paramilitary group, housing properties linked to senior RSF leaders, including Abdel Rahim Daglo, the brother and deputy of RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.
In a statement, military front man Nabil Abdullah said army forces and their allies on Friday pushed out "remnants of the Daglo terrorist militias," from Kafouri and other areas 15 kilometres to the east in Sharq El Nil.
On Thursday, a military source told AFP the army was advancing towards the centre of Khartoum, while eyewitnesses reported festivities there and explosions in the south of the capital.
The developments mark one of the army's most significant advances since the war broke out between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former ally Daglo's RSF, which quickly seized much of Khartoum and other strategic areas.
Fears of reprisals
However,
women are made to be loved, not understood... as fighting rages on in the capital, Amnesty International raised concerns Friday over potential reprisals in areas recently recaptured by the army.
The rights group cited reports of the circulation of lists targeting activists, human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... defenders, medical and humanitarian workers, accused of being "partners of the RSF".
In South Belt, a neighbourhood in Khartoum, the RSF on Saturday detained two members of a local volunteering rescue group at gunpoint from Bashair Hospital - the last partially functioning facility in the area, the group said in a statement.
On Thursday, the RSF had also reportedly detained the manager of Bashair Hospital as well as the head of a soup kitchen and a volunteer, according to local rescuers.
Last week, the UN human rights office documented at least 18 civilian deaths in Bahri since the army began its advance there in late January.
Following the army's takeover of al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani last month, mass executions against civilians were reported.
Human rights groups have accused the army and allied militias of extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, and physical and psychological torture, particularly targeting communities suspected of RSF ties.
Though the RSF has become notorious for alleged ethnic-based violence - leading the United States last month to accuse it of genocide - reports have also emerged of civilians being targeted on the basis of ethnicity in army-controlled areas.
Air strikes in Darfur
Elsewhere, the military has intensified its operations against paramilitaries in the vast western region of Darfur.
In the RSF-controlled Central Darfur state capital Zalingei, a military air strike on a residential neighbourhood killed three siblings and injured three other family members, according to a local group representing displaced people and refugees in the region.
The city has been a stronghold for rebels and gangs other than the RSF, serving as a base for launching attacks against the state.
The Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, a local civil society group, said on Saturday that the army air strike also destroyed homes in the area.
Further south, in the RSF-held South Darfur state capital Nyala, military air strikes killed 57 people within two days last week, according to medical sources at a hospital.
While the RSF holds sway over much of Darfur, the army has consolidated its grip on the country's north and east as well as parts of the centre.
The conflict has devastated the country, displacing more than 12 million and plunging Sudan into the "biggest humanitarian crisis ever recorded" according to the International Rescue Committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/10/2025 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
[RedState] Attorney General Pam Bondi has created a special federal task force to investigate the involvement of US persons and organizations in the October 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 people, including 47 Americans, in Israel. In one of her first acts as Attorney General, Bondi established "Task Force 10-7" for the purposes of:
Pursuing criminal charges, including capital crimes where applicable, against the perpetrators of the October 7 attack;
Providing services to the victims of the October 7 attack and coordinating as appropriate with others to facilitate the return of hostages;
Seeking the arrest and extradition of Hamas leadership charged in the complaint docketed as United States v. Haniyeh, No. 24 Mag. 438 (S.D.N.Y.);
Investigating and prosecuting acts of terrorism, antisemitic civil rights violations, and other federal crimes committed by Hamas supporters in the United States, including on college campuses;
…that’s a big one — thousands will pay now for previous pleasures rioting, vandalizing, and assaulting and battering Jews as well as those who resisted the totalitarian “protesters”..
Investigating and prosecuting those responsible for funding Hamas; and
USAID and the State Department — your turn for attention!
Supporting efforts by the Israeli government, Department of Defense, and Department of Treasury to pursue non-criminal responses to the October 7 attack and other terrorist activities by Hamas.
There is no doubt that some of the perpetrators of October 7 used the out-of-control southern border to enter the United States. There is also no doubt that there was some degree of coordination between the organizers of pro-terrorist "river to the sea," tablecloth-wearing protests, and Hamas leaders in Gaza or Qatar. This task force will also enforce Trump's Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism.
The reference to United States vs. Haniyeh is something of a puzzler. The U.S. indicted Ismail Haniyeh, the now-deceased chairman of Hamas’s Politburo and the equally putrescent head of Hamas's Political Bureau, Yahya Sinwar, not long after the attack. The fact that supervisors and agents working on this case were trawled up in the same purge that engulfed January 6 goons leads me to believe that the FBI deliberately refused to investigate Hamas.
#2
Judging just from what has been seen on College campuses. This should be interesting for the Students, the left leaning Fascist/National Socialist leaning Facility and the do nothing Permissive Admin.
Watch as a pro-Palestine protester attempts to disrupt the Super Bowl Halftime Show at the stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana. As Kendrick Lamar performs, the protester… pic.twitter.com/1laJiweRUV
[IsraelTimes] PA health ministry identifies the two women as Rahaf al-Ashqar, 21, and Sundus Shalabi, 23, who was 8 months pregnant; IDF expands offensive into Nur Shams camp near Tulkarem
The Paleostinian Authority health ministry reported on Sunday that two Paleostinian women, one of them pregnant, were shot and killed by Israeli gunfire in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem, amid an expansion of the IDF’s ongoing counter-terrorism offensive in the northern West Bank.
The IDF Military Police has launched an investigation into the incident, it said, in response to a query later Sunday.
PA health officials identified the two women as Rahaf al-Ashqar, 21, and Sundus Shalabi, 23.
The PA health ministry said Shalabi was eight months pregnant, and added that her husband, Yazan Abu Shola, was severely injured in the incident.
"Medical teams were unable to save the baby’s life due to the [IDF] preventing the transfer of the injured to the hospital," the PA health ministry said in a statement.
She was dead when she arrived at a local hospital, the ministry said.
The incident took place around dawn, Murad Alyan, a Nur Shams resident told AFP.
"The two were trying to leave the camp before the occupation forces advanced into it. They were shot while they were inside their car, and the wife and her baby were martyred, while the husband was injured," Alyan said.
The IDF announced earlier on Sunday that it had expanded its ongoing West Bank offensive, with troops beginning to operate in the Nur Shams camp overnight.
So far, troops have shot several terror operatives and detained wanted Paleostinians in the area, the military said.
The IDF launched a major offensive, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, in the West Bank on January 21 aimed at rooting out Paleostinian terror groups from the Jenin area, which has long been a hotbed of terrorism.
The IDF has acknowledged mistakenly killing several civilians during the operation, including a toddler.
Since October 7, 2023, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 900 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or hard boyz carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 48 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.
[IsraelTimes] Defense Minister Israel Katz warns: ‘Anyone who enters the buffer zone puts their life at risk’; separately, Gazan woman reportedly killed east of Khan Younis
IDF troops opened fire on a group of dozens of Paleostinians who approached the border in the northern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip, near the community of Nahal Oz, on Sunday as Israel warned there would be zero tolerance for Paleostinians approaching troops who pulled back to a buffer zone along the frontier.
The suspects reached just a few hundred meters from troops, who were stationed in the buffer zone. The IDF said the forces moved forward with military vehicles and fired warning shots.
As a result, several of the suspects were hit, and the group withdrew, the military said.
Mahmud Bassal, front man for Gaza’s Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... -run civil defense agency, said there were "three deaders and several injured as a result of Israeli occupation forces opening fire on civilians in the eastern areas of Gaza City."
He urged residents to avoid the eastern areas and Israeli military positions, emphasizing the importance of following official directives.
Defense Minister Israel Katz, responding to the incident, said there would be zero tolerance for Gazooks approaching the border with Israel.
"Israel’s defense policy with Gaza is clear: Anyone who enters the buffer zone puts their life at risk," Katz said in a statement.
"There will be zero tolerance for anyone who poses a threat to IDF troops or the [border] fence and communities. We will not return to the reality of October 7," he added.
Speaking later at the start of a cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would rebuff any advance on the security perimeter granted Israel in Gaza under the terms of the ceasefire there.
"My directive tonight: Nobody approaches the perimeter, nobody infiltrates the perimeter," he said, hours after returning from Washington. "That’s part of the agreement and we will enforce it — enforce it forcefully. We expect Hamas to stand by all its commitments, and this is one of them."
The IDF has warned Paleostinians against approaching the Israeli border and a buffer zone inside Gaza where troops are deployed.
In a separate incident on Sunday, a Paleostinian woman was reportedly killed east of the Khan Younis suburb of al-Qarara in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile,
...back at the dirigible, the pilot and the copilot had both hit the silk.
Jack! Cynthia exclaimed. Do you know how to drive one of these things?
Jack wiped some of the blood from his knuckles.
No, he said. Do you?... the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i "Al Araby al Jadeed" newspaper also reported on Sunday that a high-level Israeli military delegation had traveled to Cairo on Friday to discuss security arrangements along the Israel-Egypt border.
The events on Sunday came after Israeli forces withdrew from the entire Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip overnight Saturday-Sunday, in accordance with the recent ceasefire-hostage deal with the Hamas terror group.
According to the outline of the agreement, on day 21 of the ceasefire, Israel was required to withdraw from the entire corridor and only maintain a presence in a buffer zone of up to around one kilometer along Gaza’s border with Israel.
Israeli forces are still deployed to the Philadelphi Corridor in the Egypt-Gaza border area. Under the deal, on day 50 of the ceasefire, Israel will need to complete its withdrawal from Philadelphi.
[IsraelTimes] Military says tunnel in Beqaa Valley had been struck in the past, latest attack was to prevent its restoration; other facilities belonging to Lebanese terror group targeted
Israeli fighter jets carried out several Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... on Sunday evening, including against a tunnel between Lebanon and Syria used by the Hezbollah terror group to smuggle arms, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The IDF said the tunnel, in the Beqaa Valley, had also been struck in the past. "The IDF is determined to prevent restoration and use of this tunnel," it said in a statement.
The Beqaa Valley area, a Hezbollah stronghold, is north of the Litani River, beyond which the Iran-backed group is required to withdraw under the ceasefire agreement reached in November 2024 after more than a year of hostilities, including two months of all-out war.
Additionally, the military said Sunday the Israeli Air Force targeted several Hezbollah sites in other areas of Lebanon, which included weapons and rocket launchers that "posed an immediate threat" to Israel.
According to the IDF, the targeted sites were "a violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon."
Lebanese media reported a series of strikes in the Nabatieh area, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border with Israel, and in the Baalbek area in the Beqaa Valley, nearly 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Israel.
The strikes came a day after the IAF struck what the IDF said were Hezbollah operatives at a weapons manufacturing site in eastern Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley on Saturday. Lebanon’s state news agency reported six dead and two maimed in that strike.
#2
Presumably, Israel is watching the hard rock mining companies that are doing all this tunneling. Drill, blast, load, haul, dump, shotcrete, ventilation, power… it’s not concealable.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
"Why am I hearing that there were threats to the site on TV," the SAIC of the Pittsburgh office wrote in a handwritten note after the attempt.
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade....
