Man pleads not guilty for alleged commercial pot operation on Paradise ridge

A man has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from two alleged commercial marijuana, hash and honey oil operations on the Paradise ridge.
On Thursday in Butte County Superior Court, John Brandon Sloane, 31, entered pleas on four felony counts of cultivating pot, possessing pot for sale, manufacturing a controlled substance other than PCP, and transporting pot.

Judge Kristen Lucena set a preliminary hearing for Sept. 1.

On Aug. 11, the Butte County Sheriff's Office Special Enforcement Unit arrested Sloane, reportedly from Georgia, after searching a residence on the 4200 block of Pentz Road.

Deputies reportedly found 131 mature pot plants, 74 immature plants, 43 pounds of processed pot, two pounds of keif hashish packaged for sale, and cash.

They also discovered a commercial honey oil lab and 6.5 ounces of honey oil.

Deputies later searched a Coutolenc Road residence believed to be an auxiliary site.

They discovered another honey oil lab and a hashish extraction operation.

Officials also reportedly found 244 immature plants, 8.5 pounds of processed pot, 1.6 ounces of keif hash and 1.6 grams of honey oil.

Sloane remains in custody with bail set at $1 million.

 

Germany seizes 5 million euros of cocaine in major haul

German police said on Friday they had detained seven men suspected of smuggling an estimated 5 million euros worth of cocaine, in one of the country’s largest ever strikes against drug trafficking.

Police said some 100 kg of cocaine was intercepted in Berlin. The shipment had come to the German port of Bremerhaven from Panama, police said. It was hidden in a container with coffee beans.

Germany’s central location in Europe and its well-developed infrastructure make it a major transit hub for drug commerce, according to the United States’ “2011 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report.”

Traffickers smuggle cocaine from South America to Germany for the domestic market, as well as through Germany to other European countries.

According to media reports, the authorities believed the smugglers were planning to bring a total of 650 kg of cocaine to Germany in three shipments.

 

Suspected members of an Iraqi drug-trafficking organization are arrested

Sixty reputed members of an Iraqi drug-trafficking organization in El Cajon have been arrested and authorities seized more than $630,000 in cash, 3,500 pounds of marijuana, dozens of high-powered firearms and several explosive devices, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

The organization was run out of a social club and has suspected links to the ruthless Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico and an Iraqi organized crime syndicate in Detroit, according to law enforcement officials.

The social club, located on East Main Street, has been a "hub of criminal activity conducted by Iraqi organized crime," El Cajon police Chief Pat Sprecco said.

According to authorities, over the last decade the club has been the center of other investigations for alleged drug sales, gambling, car theft and gun smuggling.

The undercover investigation that led to the latest arrests and seizures, dubbed Operation Shadowbox, has been underway since January as investigators gathered evidence, arrested suspects and served search warrants. A search warrant was served Wednesday at the club, where authorities seized $16,000 and uncovered evidence of illegal gambling, Sprecco said.

Over the years, thousands of Chaldean Christians fled Iraq and arrived in the United States to start new lives in cities such as Detroit and El Cajon, where about one-quarter of the roughly 96,000 residents have Iraqi ancestry.

The undercover operation announced Thursday found connections between the club and members of a suspected Iraqi Chaldean crime organization in Detroit, according to officials with the Police Department and the San Diego branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Operatives from the Sinaloa Cartel, Mexico's most powerful crime organization, supplied the El Cajon traffickers with large amounts of marijuana, which was sold in Detroit for up to three times the purchase value, DEA spokeswoman Eileen Zeidler said.

"That's a typical drug-trafficking pattern," Zeidler told The Times.

In April, an undercover agent was shown a grenade and told that other grenades were available for sale from a Mexican military source, Sprecco said.

Four improvised explosive devices were seized by authorities during the investigation. Police said the 34 confiscated firearms included semiautomatic assault rifles and several fully automatic weapons.

Half of the suspects arrested are expected to be charged with state violations, including sales, possession for sales, conspiracy to distribute narcotics and pharmaceuticals, and possession of firearms by convicted felons, authorities said.

The others will be charged in federal court on suspicion of participating in a continuing criminal enterprise; conspiracy to distribute and distribution of narcotics, marijuana and pharmaceuticals; conspiracy to import marijuana; and possession and distribution of automatic weapons.

 

Drug dealer must surrender cash

A drug dealer jailed for three years after being caught making a large handover of cash has been ordered to surrender more than £91,000, prosecutors have revealed.
William Thomson, now 49, was snared after a surveillance operation near Glasgow almost five years ago.
Thomson - one of the main subjects in a two-year investigation by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency - was observed by police who suspected he was about to receive a substantial quantity of drugs from an English associate.
On October 25 2006, Thomson was spotted handing over a holdall to the driver of a Peugeot car at Roundknowe Road in Uddingston.
Police later stopped the vehicle on the M74 near Bothwell, where they found the holdall containing more than £90,000 in cash. The money recovered in the operation was later stolen by a police production keeper.
Robert Moffat, now a former member of the police support staff, was subsequently found guilty of theft and jailed for 22 months in November 2008.
Thomson, who was known to have links to serious organised crime, was sentenced to three years behind bars after being convicted at Hamilton Sheriff Court in January last year of two offences under proceeds of crime laws.
The Crown Office revealed Thomson, from Kirkmuirhill in Lanark, was hit this week with a confiscation order for £91,415 at the same court.
Lindsey Miller, head of the serious and organised crime division at the Crown Office, said: "The Proceeds of Crime Act gives prosecutors wide-ranging powers to seize back cash and assets from those who choose to make their living from illegal activities. We will continue to use every power available to us to disrupt these criminal enterprises."
Money recovered under proceeds of crime legislation is invested by the Scottish Government in community projects aimed at addressing the effects of crime.

 

Cocaine on luxury yacht is UK's biggest seizure

After a painstaking, six-day search of a million-pound luxury yacht, the Border Agency has seized its largest ever haul of cocaine -- enough to satisfy around a third of Britain's annual demand for the drug.

The cocaine, weighing 1.2 tonnes and with a street value of up to 300 million pounds, was found expertly hidden beneath the bathing deck of the yacht 'Louise' at Southampton docks in June, the border agency said.

Britain subsequently helped Dutch police arrest six men in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The cocaine was originally packed into the specially prepared space in Venezuela before the yacht itself was transported from the British Virgin Islands to Southampton in a cargo ship.

With a purity of 90 percent, the seized cocaine is of a much higher purity than the average seized in the UK, at 63 percent.

Along with the cocaine, the UKBA raid discovered a stash of 40,000 euros in cash and a firearm.

The operation involved intelligence provided by the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the help of French customs authorities.