Eideard

Similar bonds seized in arrest in 2009 at Malpensa Airport in Milan

Italian anti-mafia prosecutors said they seized a record $6 trillion of allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds, an amount that’s almost half of the U.S.’s public debt.

The bonds were found hidden in makeshift compartments of three safety deposit boxes in Zurich, the prosecutors from the southern city of Potenza said in an e-mailed statement. The Italian authorities arrested eight people in connection with the probe, dubbed “Operation Vulcanica,” the prosecutors said.

The U.S. embassy in Rome has examined the securities dated 1934, which had a nominal value of $1 billion apiece, they said in the statement…

The financial fraud uncovered by the Italian prosecutors in Potenza includes two checks issued through HSBC Holdings Plc in London for $325,000 – checks that weren’t backed by available funds, the prosecutors said.

As part of the probe, fake bonds for $2 billion were also seized in Rome. The individuals involved were planning to buy plutonium from Nigerian sources, according to phone conversations monitored by the police…

Most of the early reports this morning don’t have anymore information than this. No doubt there will be updates coming from Italian authorities. A helluva a counterfeiting plot. The cunning bit is that counterfeiting old securities reduces the requirement to meet contemporary anti-counterfeiting technology.

What I’d like to hear more about is what the frack were these gangsters planning on doing with plutonium? Is the Mafia getting ready to build their own nuclear weapons?

Police in India say they have arrested six foreign nationals suspected of defrauding hundreds of people using text message and email scams…

Authorities seized 14 laptops, seven memory sticks and 23 mobile phones, as well as fake documents and cash. The arrests come after security firm Kaspersky reported that India now sent more spam than any other country in the world.

Police said the six men, all Nigerian, would be remanded in custody until 12 January. The arrests signal attempts to crack down on a growing cybercrime problem in the region…

Mumbai-based internet security specialist Vijay Mukhi said poor enforcement of laws meant spammers could act with impunity.

“We have an Information Technology Act that was introduced in 2000. But we don’t have any convictions under it and it’s silent on spam,” he said…If I’m a spammer, I would rather spam from India to India and the rest of world because nothing will happen to me.”

It’s still the biggest hoot of the day that the 6 spammers busted happen to be from Nigeria.

Is it because of bigotry on the part of the coppers? Easier to arrest African nationals. Or have the world’s leading spam hustlers actually started moving to India because they feel safer committing cybercrimes from there?

An Albuquerque restaurant owner called it one of the strangest events he’s ever seen: three men arrested after they stole toilet paper from his bathroom.

The incident went down at Burgers, Dogs and Wings on Saturday.

Employee Josh Flannery-Stewart said when the three men entered his restaurant, he was immediately suspicious. “They weren’t really talking. Their eyes were all messed up and droopy and dilated,” Flannery-Stewart said.

Shortly thereafter, workers said they noticed the men come out of the bathroom carrying rolls of toilet paper. In all, police said the man made off with about a dozen rolls, but they didn’t get far.

“They got in their car and all of a sudden APD (Albuquerque Police Department) was surrounding them,” Flannery-Stewart said. Officers said the men were already under surveillance by police.

Flannery-Stewart said the men were suspected of having a mobile heroin rig…

The restaurant manager said they were able to get the toilet paper back.

Guess the Albuquerque coppers didn’t need it for evidence.

You know, there aren’t too many crooks roaming the streets of America with an overwhelming amount of smarts, anyway. These clowns certainly score high on the dumbometer.

Several police officers in northern Mexico allowed a violent drug gang to hold kidnap victims in the local jail while ransom payments were being negotiated…

Four police officers from Juárez, a suburb of the city of Monterrey, are being held pending further investigation, said Jorge Domene, the security spokesman for Nuevo León state.

The scandal came to light this week when state and federal police freed two kidnapping victims from jail cells in Juárez. Investigators believe that the victims were abducted by the extremely violent Zetas cartel and that the officers were working for the Zetas, Domene said…

Domene noted that last weekend, the Nuevo León attorney general’s office detained 73 local policemen from a half dozen communities in the state who confessed to having performed various services for gangs, including spying, acting as lookouts, and carrying out killings and kidnappings…

The most scandalous case of prison corruption came to light in July 2010, when an investigation revealed that guards and officials at a prison in the northern city of Gómez Palacio had freed inmates belonging to a gang, lent them guns and sent them off in official vehicles to carry out drug-related killings, including the massacre of 17 people earlier that year.

The guards allowed the inmates to return to their cells after the killings so that they would be safe from reprisals, authorities said at the time.

“We have barely been in time to put the brakes on organised crime in the first stages, but in some towns, in some areas of the country, they have infiltrated authorities in a practically symbiotic relationship,” President Felipe Calderon said during a speech to members of the business community on Thursday.

With friends like these…

No “reforms” have been passed by their Congreso. State and local governments most often manage those relationships by bribery, kickbacks and protection payoffs – rather than by housecleaning and prosecution. Force of arms is the only solution attempted by the Calderon government. Half-measures at best.

Chinese municipal contest: guess which cooking oil is counterfeit?
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

China has detained more than 2,000 people, seized tonnes of tainted products and closed more than 5,000 companies in a five-month crackdown on food safety problems, but the road ahead remains tough, state media said on Monday.

“Our recent campaign has achieved notable success. But this is just a beginning,” an unnamed official from the cabinet’s food safety task force told Xinhua news agency.

“The campaign should not be given an excessively high appraisal. We cannot lower our guard or rest up, and must be aware of the complex, long-term nature of the food safety problem and remain on high alert,” the official added…

China has struggled to rein in health safety violations in the unruly and vast food sector despite harsh punishments and repeated vows to deal with the problem.

Since July, Chinese courts have sentenced at least a dozen people to jail, including one person who received a suspended death sentence, for their roles in producing or selling pork tainted with toxic chemicals.

In the latest scandal, authorities detained 32 people for making and selling tonnes of cooking oil dredged from gutters and repackaged for sale as new.

Overdue.

I believe the Chinese government is aware of the task. Especially if they intend to grow their international commerce in foodstuffs. But, like anything else involving human beings and corruption, sometimes you need more than good intentions to resolve corruption. Like a lot of people with badges!

Two in three of those involved in the riots who had a criminal record had never been to jail, despite amassing an average of 15 previous offences each, figures have shown.

One in four people charged over the violence and looting that swept through English cities had committed more than 10 previous offences, with one in 20 having more than 50, the Ministry of Justice figures showed…

Four in 10 of males aged 10-17 who were brought before the courts over the riots had at least one previous conviction, compared with just one in 50 of those aged 10-17 in the general population.

But the officials said that while those involved in the violence and looting were ”much more likely than the population as a whole to have previous convictions, there is also evidence of some people being drawn into the criminal justice system for the first time…”

New figures for the crown courts showed 79 jail sentences have been handed down so far, with nine in 10 of those appearing in crown courts being sent to prison, compared with one in three for similar offences last year.

For those dealt with in magistrates courts, 97 have been sent to jail – four in 10 of those who have been sentenced – compared with one in 10 of those who appeared before magistrates for similar offences last year.

Overall, sentences were tougher too, with those involved in the riots being jailed for an average of 10.4 months for violent disorder, compared with an average of 5.3 months last year.

For burglary, the average for those involved in the riots was 14.1 months, compared with 8.8 months last year.

Mr Clarke added: “I congratulate the courts for delivering swift and firm justice, which stopped the riots spreading further.

“I am dismayed to see a hardcore of repeat offenders back in the system…

He went on: “We are making our jails places of hard work, getting criminals off drugs and alcohol, toughening community sentences and making offenders pay back to victims and communities for their crimes.”

The paying back part is praiseworthy – not often realistic though.

Sounds like the Brits have to make the same sort of decision we’re barely starting to make in the US about our own drug gangs. Make rehab and education available in the slammer — but, count on warehousing some of these miserable lowlifes often and for bigger time.

One of the Goddesses

A church called the Phoenix Goddess Temple has been accused of being a house of prostitution, and a six-month undercover investigation has resulted in the arrests of 20 women and men who worked there…

Authorities are still searching for 17 more people — all of whom have been indicted — in connection with the prostitution enterprise, said Sgt. Steve Martos, a Phoenix police spokesman. The 20 people arrested so far have been charged with prostitution or other offenses, police said.

During a Wednesday search of the Phoenix temple and two church-related sites in nearby Sedona, police seized evidence showing that “male and female ‘practitioners’ working at the Temple were performing sexual acts in exchange for monetary ‘donations,’ all on the pretense of providing ‘neo tantric’ healing therapies,” Phoenix police said…

“What’s unusual is that they were trying to hide behind religion or church, and under the guise of religious freedom, they were committing acts of prostitution,” Martos said…

The website says at one point: “Sex is a holy, sacred and divine healing force at the core (of) our beings. Once we embrace this force instead of deny it, we become successful, happy and powerful manifestors.”

The website also features unclothed women, listed as residing in several states, under a “Goddesses” section.

Of course, prostitution should be made legal as should any number of other “morality” crimes. Allow for sensible regulation, health checks and above all else – collect taxes.

I guess that applies to real churches, too.

A Florida lawmaker is pushing to repeal a state law that makes it illegal to cohabitate with someone who is not their spouse, and makes it a crime punishable by a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail.

According to 2010 U.S. Census figures, at least 544,907 Floridians reported being an “unmarried partner” — meaning they live in an intimate relationship with someone they are not married to, and thus are in defiance of Florida statute 798.02…

Last week, state Rep. Ritch Workman filed legislation — HB 4021 — to repeal that provision, as well as a related one that bars people from “living in open adultery…”

“What you do in your bedroom is your business, not the business of my great state,” said Workman, a Republican from Melbourne, adding that the statute is rarely enforced. “Quite frankly, I just want it gone…”

Actually, over 100 couples were arrested and charged under the law in the last year. Which illustrates how backwards Florida is – if nothing else.

Workman, himself married with two children, stressed that his legislative initiative is not anti-marriage or anti-family.

Rather, he described it as a practical move to remove statutes that are no longer realistic in today’s society. Workman said most legislators, even those who are more conservative in Florida, don’t want to discuss cohabitation and adultery.

“And I say ‘Great, let’s not talk about it,’” he said. “Let’s talk about an unenforceable and unenforced law that needs to be off the books.

Go back to our post a few days ago about the failure rate of Bible Belt marriages compared to educated parts of the country.

Police in the United States and seven other countries seized computers and servers used to run a “scareware” scheme that has netted more than $72 million from victims tricked into buying fake anti-virus software.

Twenty-two computers and servers were seized in the United States and 25 others in France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom…

The suspects involved in the scheme, who were not identified, planted “scareware” on the computers of 960,000 victims. The scareware would pretend to find malicious software on a computer. The goal is to persuade the victim to voluntarily hand over credit card information, paying to resolve a nonexistent problem.

Latvian authorities seized at least five bank accounts believed to have been used by the leaders of the scam…

U.S. authorities also said…they disrupted a second scam, charging two Latvians with running a similar scareware scheme that led to $2 million in losses through an advertisement placed on a Minnesota newspaper’s website…

Law enforcement officials would not confirm whether the seizures were directly connected to a raid early on Tuesday morning at a web-hosting company in northern Virginia where they took servers, a move that disrupted more than 120 websites.

U.S. authorities have been more aggressive this year in trying to stem cybercrime and have been scrambling to investigate several hacking attempts on U.S. institutions and corporations.

I know there’s no patch for stupid; but, it seems possible – since there have already been a few examples in the field – for the FBI to place software on a few compromised machines and trace back control of botnets to criminal sources.

Grab and incarcerate the crooks – and throw away the key.

One of the suspects being taken to Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe

Three suspected al Qaeda members had been planning a bomb attack in Germany for four months when they were arrested, federal prosecutors said.

Rainer Griesbaum, a federal prosecutor, told a news conference on Saturday that the trio, led by a 29-year-old Moroccan, had planned to detonate their device in a crowded area but had not yet picked a target. “They were still in the experimental phase,” Griesbaum said. “They were planning to explode a device packed with pieces of metal in the midst of a large crowd…”

The three were detained in police raids in Duesseldorf and the nearby city of Bochum at 6:30 a.m. on Friday after authorities, who had been monitoring the group, decided they might be getting close to carrying out an attack…

Bild newspaper reported that the Eurovision Song Contest, watched by more than 100 million television viewers, was a possible target. The contest will be held in the western city of Duesseldorf on May 14…

Griesbaum said the 29-year-old Moroccan had attended an al Qaeda terror camp in the Waziristan region of Pakistan near the Afghan border in 2010. He returned to Germany in May 2010 and was attempting to build a terror network here with an estimated seven to eight members…

The other suspects are a 31-year-old electrician identified as Jamil S., who holds dual German and Moroccan citizenship, and a 19-year-old with German and Iranian citizenship, Amid C., who was about to graduate from high school…

Germany’s Der Spiegel news magazine reported on Saturday that the CIA as well as Morocco’s intelligence agency had worked with German authorities on the investigation.

Authorities said they decided to launch the raid on Friday when the suspects discussed making a “detonator for a bomb”…

Berlin views Germany as a potential target because it has nearly 5,000 military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, the third largest contingent of the…international force fighting the Taliban-led insurgency.

Though most conventional journalists don’t mention it, the fact that there are almost 54,000 American military stationed in Germany – for decades – is part of the equation. Certainly the CIA recognizes that their presence makes them targets – and provocative to questions of foreign policy.