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The Mega Merged Drug Busts Thread

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Banquo

Bluelight Crew
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So many pills that will never have a home, unless they are sold by crooked cops.

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$37m ecstasy bust in Sydney
April 10, 2003

POLICE were today celebrating Australia's second-largest ecstasy haul after seizing tablets with an estimated street value of $37 million from crates imported from Germany.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) said they had severely dented an international drug trafficking syndicate with the seizure of the drugs, which arrived in Sydney by air freight in early February.

Agents arrested two men and seized about 532,000 tablets during yesterday's bust in Sydney's south.

A 28-year-old Australian man from Bondi and a 29-year-old Greek national from Bass Hill were both charged with attempting to possess a prohibited import.

They were to appear in Sydney's Central Local Court today.

"This seizure will have severely disrupted the activities of an international drug syndicate ...," said AFP eastern operations general manager Tony Negus.

During a two month operation leading to yesterday's arrests federal police substituted the ecstasy tablets with an inert substance and then monitored the crates' delivery to a freight forwarding agency in Sydney's southern suburbs.

On Tuesday the crates were delivered to a garage in a unit block in the same area, police said.

Federal agents alleged that both the accused men went to the garage yesterday and tried to disassemble the crates.

Both men then left the garage and drove a short distance away where they were arrested by Federal police.

Australia's largest ecstasy bust was made in December last year when 235 kilograms of the drug were seized in Sydney.

AAP

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6264274%5E1702,00.html
 
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any chance that we'll hear what these were?
I never heard what pills got busted in the xmas time bust last year...
 
It would have been funnier if the cops had switched the real pills with fake ones and instead of busting the guys, they should have let them all kill each other.

I mean, can you imagine how angry someone would be if they got ripped off for half a million ecstasy pills? That'd just be hillarious in and of it's own.

Even if the pills were fronted, can you imagine the reaction these guys would have spending all this effort opening the crates and then realizing they had 500,000 worthless pills?
 
with how how corrupt our law enforcers are, some of these pills will still make the streets in a few months!!
 
Local link to big Aussie drug bust

Local link to big Aussie drug bust
(http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/4/28/nation/drug1&sec=nation)

MELBOURNE: An Australian syndicate allegedly used a shipment of freezers from Malaysia to smuggle the largest quantity of pure Ecstasy ever intercepted by Australian authorities.

Five men were arrested in Sydney after 170kg of Ecstasy powder was seized by police in a shipment of 36 domestic freezers imported to Sydney from Port Klang on April 20, the Australian Associated Press reported.

The Australian federal police arrested the men after the shipment was uncovered.

The haul contained 85% pure Ecstasy that could be made into more than 440kg of tablets with estimated street value of A$92mil (RM212mil), making it the largest seizure of pure Ecstasy in Australia.

The alleged ringleader, 38-year-old Dutch national Cheng Wai Kwong, who resides in Malaysia, was arrested on Thursday before he boarded a plane at Sydney International Airport.

The other four – British national Andrew Philip Riddell, 44, Nicolas James Pollis, 28, Matthew Shane Walsh, 29, and Craig Andrew Small, 31, – all from Sydney, were arrested in the city on Saturday.

They were charged with aiding and abetting in the importation of a prohibited item and were refused bail at Sydney's Parramatta Bail Court yesterday.

They are to reappear at Sydney's Central Local Court on April 29.

Malaysian police arrested another six people believed to be involved in the ring. –Bernama
 
Another Australian Meth Bust!

AUSTRALIAN Federal Police (AFP) have seized another 105kg of the methamphetamine "ice" in an inner-Sydney unit after an earlier bust netted a record 223kg of the drug.

The latest haul, with an estimated street value of $52 million, was discovered on Friday night in the laundry of a Pyrmont unit, hidden in boxes of brown sugar.
The original haul, shipped in boxes of rice noodles from China, was intercepted earlier this month in a joint operation by AFP and Customs officers.

Australian Anna Zhang, 46, of Ultimo, was charged on Wednesday with two counts of possessing a trafficable quantity of narcotic goods, and importing a prohibited import.

Canadian national Wei-Liang Tu, 40, of Carlingford, was charged with possessing and attempting to possess a prohibited import.

Both were remanded in custody to appear in Sydney's Central Local Court on July 16.

The latest discovery took the total amount of ice seized this month to 328kg, worth an estimated $164 million, AFP spokesman Steve Simpson said.

"We are concerned about the size of this importation but we also acknowledge that ice is a popular drug in south east Asia," he said.

"It's to be expected that an affluent country like Australia would naturally become a target for drug traffickers in relation to ice.

"Although we've not seen a lot of it before, we're not hugely surprised that ice should now be seen here in Australia."

AFP agents may make further arrests as investigations continue in Sydney and overseas, Mr Simpson said.
 
From the guidelines:

2. Threads are to be submitted in the sub-forums and must include the following important things: The article in its entirety, the source, the date published, the author’s name, and a link to the story when possible.
 
Thats like 3 busts in the past week, they're going nuts on these poor importers.
 
Pot bust yields $2.4M in cash,Hollywood's biggest raid

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/6285921.htm


Pot bust yields $2.4M in cash
Hollywood's biggest raid
BY EVAN S. BENN
[email protected]

GREENS ON THE TABLE: Hollywood police show the money and the marijuana plants the department seized in raids conducted on houses. WALTER MICHOT/HERALD STAFF


At $2.4 million in cash and more than 700 mature marijuana plants seized, Thursday's eight-house raid was the biggest one-day pot bust in Hollywood's history.

On Friday, Hollywood police laid both greens on a table.

The leafy plants filled the space with a distinct scent, and the stacks of hundred-dollar bills captured everyone's attention.

Police said they believe the four men arrested Thursday ran a pot-growing ring that, with 700 mature plants, could have produced $14 million a year in profits.

On average, each plant produces one pound of street-ready marijuana a month, which sells for about $5,000.

The arrested: Robert James Pelletier, 42, of Hollywood; Michael R. Blood, 40, of Hallandale; and brothers Mark Stephen Bettencourt 33, and Robert M. Bettencourt, 27, both of Hollywood.

They each face charges of marijuana cultivation, marijuana trafficking, conspiracy to traffic drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police are not sure whether the men will be prosecuted in state or federal court, Hollywood Police Capt. Allen Siegel said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration and the South Broward Drug Enforcement Unit -- a federally funded task force with officers from several departments -- assisted in the busts.

The raids began in Hollywood, Dania Beach and Wilton Manors at 5 a.m. on Thursday.

Police found pot plants and high-tech growing equipment in at least five of the eight homes they searched.

They arrested Mark Bettencourt at an apartment on Tigertail Boulevard in Dania Beach.

When police arrested Pelletier at his Rodman Street home, they found the $2.4 million stashed in safes in his truck, Hollywood Police Lt. Tony Rode said.

Rode said officers had been tracking some of the suspects for two or three years, but the officers intensified the investigation -- making connections between the drug houses and getting probable cause for search warrants -- in the past month.

Often, he said, the officers worked 20-hour days trying to nail down the case.

The confiscated money will stay in Broward, Hollywood Police Chief Jim Scarberry said.

As much as 15 percent may be donated to charitable groups in Hollywood.

The rest, he said, will be used to pay officers the overtime they accrued in this case as well as other police department expenses.
 
theres so many better uses for the money but nooo theyll pay police dept expenses! fuckers..
 
Large GHB Bust in Central Florida.

Link to article.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...aug05,0,7982865.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

Story:

What's up, G?

That was the code name for an eight-month investigation by Orange County authorities that resulted in the arrests Monday of nine people connected to a drug ring accused of manufacturing and selling gallons of GHB, known as the date-rape drug.

G is one of many street names for the illegal drug, and agents adopted it for their operation. The phrase "What's up, G?" came up frequently during greetings between undercover officers and suspects.

Those arrested include two University of Central Florida students, an Orange County middle school teacher and a bodybuilder. Warrants have been issued for six more suspects, including two UCF students. All are from Orange County.

Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation agents roused the suspects from their homes between 8 and 9 a.m. A special-education teacher was arrested at Liberty Middle School on Chickasaw Trail.

Authorities said they have dismantled a major ring that supplied the drug on the UCF campus and in downtown Orlando nightclubs for at least a year.

"Central Florida is a safer place than it was yesterday," Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar said at a news conference Monday afternoon. Lamar urged parents to be on the lookout for water bottles and eye-drop containers, commonly used to hold GHB.

Monday's arrests follow the dismantling of a clandestine lab July 26 at one of the suspects' homes and the seizure of several gallons of material used to make GHB, authorities said. The undercover drug purchases, the seized drugs and chemicals used to make it had the potential street value of $405,000 and was enough for at least 60,000 doses, authorities said.

"This is just a fraction of what was going on," said an eight-year undercover narcotics agent who infiltrated the group in March.

Lt. Larry Zwieg, an Orlando police officer and bureau narcotics commander, said one of the ringleaders was bodybuilder Giancarlo Forni, 36, whois accused of supplying the industrial-grade stripper and solvent GBL, which is used to produce GHB. Some bodybuilders have used GHB to stimulate muscles.

GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate, is a clear odorless drug that causes drowsiness, dizziness and loss of inhibition. It is commonly associated with sex crimes on college campuses and the night-club scene. Last year, 19 deaths in Florida were attributed to GHB, according to medical examiners' reports.

"It's definitely a date-rape drug," Zwieg said. "It's easy to get someone in a four-hour stupor with this stuff."

The ring's main distributor, according to undercover agents, was Danielle Stiles, 25, who faces 31 drug-related charges and is accused of conspiracy and trafficking GHB, cocaine and the prescription drug Xanax. Stiles, who was in Health Central Ocoee hospital Monday, will be arrested when she is discharged. It wasn't clear why she was in the hospital.

Since March, undercover agents bought about six gallons of GHB, 1,000 Ecstasy pills, nearly 6½ ounces of cocaine and unspecified amounts of banned steroids from members of the group, Zwieg said.

A wholesale dose of one ounce of GHB sells for between $20 and $25. At the street level, that ounce can be diluted to make 14 doses, each worth about $5 to $10.

"I think this is one of the biggest organizations that we have come across in Central Florida," Zwieg said.

According to agents, Forni sold GBL -- or gamma butyrlactone -- by the gallon to John Gaspar, 22, a UCF pre-law major, whomixed it with Red Devil Lye -- a household drain cleaner -- to make GHB at his apartment. GBL is an industrial solvent that is available from large-scale chemical distributors.

In a July 26 raid, agents seized five gallons of GBL that would potentially yield more than 14 gallons of GHB.

According to agents, Gaspar took the GBL, "cooked" it at his home and distributed the finished product with girlfriend and Liberty Middle School teacher Kristin Cabrera, 25.

Cabrera on Monday started her first year as a special-learning-disabilities instructor at Liberty Middle, principal Karen Wilson said. Cabrera, a UCF graduate, previously taught at Pinar Elementary School.

Gaspar is the son of a Flagler County deputy sheriff who surrendered his son to authorities Monday morning, Zwieg said. Another UCF student and pre-law major, Kenneth Pugliese, 22, is being sought. Zwieg said Pugliese is the son of an ex-New York law officer and is accused of running the clandestine lab with Gaspar.

"I think we got the core of it. There may be a couple of more [suspects] at the top and a few more across," said Zwieg, in reference to the organization.

Six others were apprehended in early morning raids. They are Alexander Bacogiannis, 27, a hospitality major at UCF; Douglas Baggett, 23; Edward Lunsford, 32; and Ryan Sanders, 29; Robert Hunt, 26; and Wade Mathis, 35. All are being held at the Orange County Jail, and somecould face a mandatory 15-year sentence for trafficking in GHB if convicted.

Still at large are Charles Brown, 20, Trina Lanois, 20, Jason Dennis, 32, and UCF finance student Allan Medina, 23.


[edit: please include the full article next time and not just the link. Links die over time and the story may be lost. Thanks]
 
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lol G is so easy to make, like these were the only people making it in that area. Its always college students involved in these thigns too. Wonder if theyll come up with the great idea to start a war on college to expand the war on drugs.
 
Since March, undercover agents bought about six gallons of GHB, 1,000 Ecstasy pills, nearly 6½ ounces of cocaine and unspecified amounts of banned steroids from members of the group,

OUCH!

I'm really surprised at all the people's names involved. It sounds like quite an operation.
 
Police bust drug smuggling rings (Canada)

Police bust drug smuggling rings
Nine arrested in raids and cocaine, heroin, hash oil seized
Dope hidden in airport cargo and luggage, officer says


CAL MILLAR
STAFF REPORTER

Police have smashed narcotic smuggling networks that used high school buddies as drug mules to carry cocaine and heroin from the Caribbean to Toronto and then employed friendly airport staff to get it through security screening.

Staff Inspector Dan Hayes, head of the Toronto police drug squad, said investigators found that drug criminals were using airport workers in Trinidad to conceal narcotics in cargo containers on commercial flights to Toronto.

He said the group also had people working for them at Pearson International Airport who would remove the drugs from the aircraft, then deliver them to members of the criminal organization in Toronto."It was an elaborate scheme," Hayes said during a news conference at Toronto police headquarters yesterday where cocaine, heroin and hashish oil with a street value of about $35 million, which had been seized in raids yesterday, was on display and under guard.

Hayes said a joint forces investigation involving undercover officers from Toronto, Peel, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canada Customs spent the past several months monitoring drug shipments from various parts of the Caribbean.

The investigation culminated with the arrest of nine people yesterday. Warrants have been issued for six others.

Police also seized $303,000 in Canadian cash and another $520,000 in U.S. currency and will attempt to seize a number of luxury vehicles and homes in Canada and Jamaica under proceeds of crime legislation.

Last April, police in Trinidad arrested a ramp attendant at the island country's international airport as he was putting 10.5 kilograms of cocaine and a kilogram of heroin aboard an aircraft. At the same time, members of the joint forces team in Toronto were able to identify "co-conspirators" involved in drug smuggling between Trinidad and Toronto.

A month later, the team seized a quantity of hash oil from another group set up to smuggle drugs from Montego Bay, Jamaica to Toronto and a short time later learned another 102 kilograms of cocaine was being concealed in cargo containers in Trinidad for shipment here on two different flights.

Hayes said 42 kilograms of cocaine was found hidden in a false compartment of one cargo bin and another 60 kilograms of cocaine was hidden in the false roof of another.

He said investigators found high school buddies of the drug traffickers had been paid $5,000 to take luggage laden with drugs back to Toronto after a holiday in Georgetown, Guyana.

The drug mules were also provided with cellphones and told to call a special number when they arrived in Toronto to get a code word and the location of a Canada Customs agent who would get them into the country without having their luggage searched.

In May, two young Toronto women were arrested by authorities in Guyana for attempting to smuggle 46 kilograms of cocaine to Canada.

Hayes said three people were initially arrested and some 45 kilograms of cocaine seized in Toronto after flights from destinations in the West Indies.

"Investigation showed the couriers were recruited and dispatched by an internationally organized group of individuals that became the focus of the investigation," he said.

Police also discovered that quantities of marijuana were being exported to Bermuda from Toronto in small appliances.

The drug probe began, Hayes said, when intelligence units at the airport noticed a dramatic increase in drug smuggling in the spring of last year. They found organized criminals were smuggling drugs from source countries in South America through the Caribbean to Pearson airport.

"Two separate and independent investigations into the importation and distribution of drugs were commenced over a six-month period," he said.

Using 30 undercover police officers, the investigations — code-named Project Lester and Project Gallito — identified a number of people involved in the smuggling operations, including two employees at Pearson and a Canada Customs agent.

Hayes said officers learned kingpins in the smuggling operation were offering $5,000 to people they knew from high school to travel to places in the Caribbean and bring back drugs.

Hayes said the investigation also uncovered evidence of a murder plot in which drug dealers in Antigua were planning to kill the leader of a rival trafficking operation.

"The authorities in the Caribbean were notified and are involved in the continuing investigation," he said. Michael Wayne Streete, 42, of Canlish Rd., Chester Stewart, 39, of White Oaks Dr., Whitby, Steven Forsythe, 44, of Canwith Dr., Whitby, and Dexter Griffith, 31, of Murray Ross Parkway were arrested after police staged a series of raids at homes throughout the Greater Toronto Area. They face charges of conspiracy to import cocaine into Canada and numerous other drug trafficking charges

Andrene Whittaker, 20, of Mississauga Valley Blvd., Mississauga, who had worked as a Canada Customs agent at Pearson International Airport, was charged with breach of trust and conspiracy to import cocaine.

Natalie Morgan, 20, and Jahnoi Beckford, 19, both of Toronto, were charged with importing narcotics.

Warrants have been issued for John Philmore, Brian Charles and Lindon James, all of Trinidad, and Donald Burns Salmon of Toronto and Natasha Lewis of Guyana for conspiracy to import drugs.

Two Mississauga men, Rayon Santo, 33, of Constitution Blvd. and Vinroy Carnakie, 30, of Hurontario St. were charged with conspiracy to import drugs and laundering the proceeds of crime. Santo also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

Police said a warrant has also been issued for Mark Anthony Allen of Frontier Ridge in Mississauga on charges of conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of the proceeds of crime.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...957&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
 
Durban police ecstatic about huge drug bust

Durban police ecstatic about huge drug bust

August 25 2003 at 06:06AM

By Xolani Mbanjwa


Police from the national and provincial crime intelligence units seized 90 000 ecstasy tablets with a street value of more than R7,2-million in Durban at the weekend.

Later, they arrested two Jamaicans and two Britons in connection with drug dealing.

Provincial police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo said R80 000 in cash, 10 cellphones, a large quantity of dagga seeds and machinery to produce drugs were also seized.

Naidoo said a team comprising police from the national and provincial crime intelligence units and from Durban-based Operation West began gathering information on the "large consignment of ecstasy tablets" three weeks ago.

'We have made a phenomenal dent in the drug market'
They were expecting to make more arrests. "We are not going to release the identity of the country from which the shipment came," he said.

Police searched a hotel on Durban's Marine Parade late on Saturday night and found two British citizens, both aged 34, in possession of ecstasy tablets.

"On the same night we arrested a 29-year-old Jamaican citizen at a house in Jacquelin Avenue, Ballito."

Another Jamaican man was arrested on Sunday morning.

Naidoo said the four men, who would appear in the Durban magistrate's court on Monday on charges of dealing in drugs, were staying together in the house in Ballito.

Naidoo said the drugs were relatively new on the market and were meant for the Durban market.

The drugs, known as "Safe Sex Durax" and "Barcadi Breezer Bat", were first detected when Operation West members recovered a small consignment in Durban two weeks ago.

"We believe that we have made a phenomenal dent in the drug market by keeping these drugs off the streets," said Naidoo.

The house in Ballito, where a drug factory was to be set up, together with all the goods seized, would be turned over to the Asset Forfeiture Unit, he said.

http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=vn20030825060643346C828984&set_id=1
 
Authorities arrest 24 in PCP bust in L.A., Houston

Authorities arrest 24 in PCP bust in L.A., Houston




ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:39 a.m. August 27, 2003

LOS ANGELES – Federal agents and police announced the arrests of 24 people in Los Angeles and Houston in a big crackdown on PCP manufacturers and distributors.

Authorities said they seized enough chemicals and laboratory materials to produce at least $3 million worth of the potent hallucinogen on an ongoing basis. Also confiscated were 10 gallons of finished PCP – worth an estimated $100,000 in Los Angeles – half a dozen guns and rifles, vehicles, and $125,000 in cash and other assets.

Ray Tripicchio, chief of the Southern California Drug Task Force, said another dozen people were still being sought in connection with the PCP manufacturing. He said those arrested helped distribute the drug nationwide.

"These individuals are violent career criminals who have extensive criminal records for narcotics trafficking, assault and other violent crimes," Tripicchio told a news conference Tuesday.

One person arrested in the drug investigation is a suspect in a Los Angeles homicide. It was unclear how many arrests were in Los Angeles and how many in Houston.

Steven Woodland of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles said the arrests knocked out a third of the 10 to 15 PCP-producing organizations in the region.

The Southern California Drug Task Force includes about 100 law enforcement officers from 20 agencies. Among those participating in the arrests were the DEA, FBI, LAPD, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, and Ontario, Gardena and Inglewood police.


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20030827-0339-ca-pcparrests.html
 
I can't believe this stuff is still profitable; it never makes any news anyhow. I wouldn't think there'd be a lot of demand.
 
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