Tough stance on drugs ‘increases crime’

Tough controls on illegal drugs drive up violent crime, gun offences and murders, according to a new report.
The newly created International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP), made up of experts from around the world, released the study in Liverpool.
Its author, Evan Wood, said: “Drug law enforcement seems to have the perverse effect [...]

‘Evil, cruel, cowardly’ mobster jailed for 11 years

“I’ll be back,” mobster Vincent Latorre vowed to a courtroom packed with supporters after being jailed for 11 years and six months for running a violent extortion ring.
Judge Felicity Hampel called Latorre’s actions “evil, cruel and cowardly” as she took more than four hours to detail his gang’s four-year reign of [...]

Mafia cops target Vatican bank

Anti mafia cops are asking the Pope to authorise access for police to see secret accounts in the Vatican’s private offshore bank as part of money laundering investigations, it emerged today.
The Church’s Institute for Religious Works accepts accounts from priests, Vatican city residents and worshippers who agree to donate part of their money to the [...]

Xie Caiping, Gang ‘Godmother,’ Sentenced To 18 Years In Jail

Xie Caiping, 46, was found guilty of involvement in organised crime and of running a string of illegal casinos hidden in hotels, nightclubs and tea houses.
Mrs Xie, who was also fined 1.02 million yuan (£92,000) was one of the first gangsters to go on trial after a mammoth police operation in the central [...]

Chinese police chief takes fight to triad

Millionaires, police chiefs, illegal casinos, loan sharks and a mafia-busting cop in hot pursuit of hundreds of gangsters. It is not the plot of the latest Hollywood blockbuster movie, but a crackdown on organised crime in China’s city of Chongqing, and its “protective umbrella” of rich and powerful contacts.
Police announced this week [...]

Russian’s Organized Crime Heritage Paved Way For Cybercrime

Russia’s longstanding history with organized crime has nurtured a current crop of sophisticated cybercrime organizations dedicated to information stealing and political “hacktivism.”
During a BlackHat USA 2009 presentation, Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee Internet threat researcher, said that Russia’s history of organized crime has paved the way for the emergence of highly sophisticated cybercrime [...]

While Cheeseman’s away, new don will play

One Medford bookie voiced his fear that “the wrath of God” would befall anyone who dared sell short Carmen “The Cheeseman” DiNunzio, the seemingly soft-hearted godfather of the Boston Mafia.
Lt. Stephen Johnson, who investigates organized crime for state police, never made that mistake. Even now he is proceeding with caution as the [...]

Notorious Bulgaria Galevi Brothers, mafia bosses out of Parliament, out of Jail

The Sofia City Prosecutor, Nikolay Kokinov, announced Monday that there was no reason to put Bulgaria’s notorious Galevi brothers back in jail.
In mid-June, alleged crime bosses, Plamen Galev and Angel Hristov aka the “Galevi brothers”, walked out of jail after both were allowed to run for parliamentary seats and thus receiving immunity [...]

Mafia looking to get a grip on Milan catwalks

On one side is the rich, industrious north, with its booming fashion and finance houses – and on the other is the sun-kissed but undeveloped south, hamstrung by corruption and homeland of the Mafia.
Northern complacency is fast giving way to fear, however. Southern crime syndicates, and in particular the murderous Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, [...]

Chicago Outfit caught in middle of custody battle

A politically connected Cook County state’s attorney’s office employee threatened to use her position to expose her ex-boyfriend as a federal informant against the Outfit, voice mail messages played in court suggest.
Prosecutors are investigating two cell phone messages that narcotics unit administrator Patti Simone left the father of her children, Nicky [...]

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