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Guyana named in major New York Mafia shakedown

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Guyana is featured prominently in the latest major international crack down on drug cartels in the New York area.

 

The 15 count indictment was unsealed on Tuesday in the Eastern District of New York Federal Court and details a major drug smuggling ring that involved drug cartels in the U.S and Italy who were relying  on links in Guyana to ferry more than 1000 pounds of cocaine via containers to the United States then on to Italy.

 

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations seven defendants were charged with narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and firearms offenses based, in part, on their participation in a transnational heroin and cocaine trafficking conspiracy involving the ‘Ndrangheta, one of Italy’s most powerful organized crime syndicates.

 

“The defendants—

‘Ndrangheta member Raffaele Valente, also known as “Lello”;

Gambino associate Franco Lupoi;

Bonanno associate Charles Centaro, also known as “Charlie Pepsi”;

Dominic Ali;

Alexander Chan;

Christos Fasarakis; and

Jose Alfredo Garcia, also known as “Freddy”—

were arrested earlier Tuesday.

 

In a coordinated operation, Italian law enforcement authorities arrested 17 members and associates of the ‘Ndrangheta in Calabria, Italy, who were involved in the narcotics trafficking conspiracy, among other crimes”, the FBI said.

 

The seven defendants arrested in the United States are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday before Chief United States Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold, at the United States Courthouse.

 

The FBI said that as alleged, Lupoi also set into motion a plot to transport 500 kilograms of cocaine, concealed in frozen food, in shipping containers from Guyana to Calabria.

 

In the course of these conspiracies, Lupoi assured his confederates of his relationship with a corrupt port official in Gioia Tauro, indicating that in return for €200,000, the official could guarantee passage of unlimited containers of contraband.

 

In New York, Lupoi joined forces with defendants Alexander Chan and Garcia to orchestrate the Guyana-Italy cocaine conspiracy.

 

In conversations recorded by the undercover agent, the conspirators discussed their connections to Mexican drug cartels operating in Guyana, South America, and plotted to transport 500 kilograms of cocaine internationally, hidden in shipments of frozen fish or pineapples.

 

On the Italian side, Ursino and his co-conspirators planned to use a fish importation company to receive the shipment.

 

As set forth in Italian court documents, the conspiracy slowed when shipping containers originating from the same Guyanese shipping company were seized in Malaysia and found to contain more than $7 million in cocaine hidden in pineapples and coconut milk.

 

Guyanese drug enforcement officials are expected to conduct their own probe in wake of the latest case in the United States.

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The Dots will be connected....

(1) How the Electronic Telephone Spy  Equipment purchased by Jagdeo Govt  and given to Roger Khan fit in the puzzle?

(2) How Morgan was protected and shielded in Guyana?

(3) Where the Convicted Queens Mortgage Broker (awaiting Sentence)....... and Offshore ANTIGUA Bank (which went bankrupt) ........and Texas Bank Owner (who is now sitting in US federal prison) fit in the Scheme and the part they played...and the relevance of Shipping 40 foot Containers Directly to Jagdeo at the President Residence.

(4) How Money Laundering Concerns by the US Govt were Ignored by the Jagdeo Govt.

(5) How Gun Smuggling became part of the Operations.

(6) How Gold & Fuel Smuggling are tied into the Money Laundering & Narco Operations.

(7)The Real Reason.. Why Jagdeo refused to pass the Money Laundering Bill when the PPP had a Majority in Parliament......and no one could have stopped him from passing the bill.

(8) Secret visits at highest levels between Guyana and Suriname when the Narco Warehouse and Distribution Center was being setup and put in place.

(9) How the Limacol T20 Cricket, EZ-Jet & Marriot Hotel linked to the Big Picture.

(10) Why the Mortgage Broker sentence is being Delayed by the US Govt.

 

UNCLE SAM MOVES SLOW....BUT SURE

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Joint US-Italy operation targets Mafia ring

 
 

Officials say 24 people arrested in connection with plot to move drugs worth millions of dollars from South America.

 
Last updated: 11 Feb 2014 23:14



 
The 'sting' operation was carried out after midnight in New York and just before dawn in Italy [AFP]

Police in the US and Italy have broken up a major transatlantic Mafia ring, arresting 24 people accused of plotting to move hundreds of millions of dollars in drugs between South America, Italy and North America, officials say.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Italian agents jointly carried out Operation New Bridge simultaneously just after midnight in Brooklyn, New York, and just before dawn in Italy, American and Italian officials announced in Rome on Tuesday.

Those arrested were accused of international drug-trafficking, money-laundering and membership in organised crime, the Reuters news agency said.

The "sting" operation involving undercover agents and phone-tapping offered more evidence that the Calabria-based 'Ndrangheta had overtaken its Sicilian cousin, the Cosa Nostra, and was trying to make inroads in the US by forging ties with one of the traditional New York organised crime families, the Gambinos.

The clans of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta, a version of the Sicilian Mafia on the southern mainland of Italy, and members of the Gambino Mafia family in New York, were in the advanced stages of plans to smuggle 500kg of pure cocaine from Guyana in South America to the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria.

Italian investigators estimated the street value of the cocaine after cutting at about $1bn.

The drugs, supplied by Latin American drug cartels, were to have been sent to Italy hidden in shipments of canned fruit.

Some of it would then have been smuggled to the US.

Undercover agent

"The 'Ndrangheta determined to move deadly narcotics across international boundaries," Marshall Miller, US assistant attorney, said.

He said the operation struck at "the heart of international organised crime".

The operation began in 2012 when investigators detected a plan by members of the Ursino clan of the 'Ndrangheta to smuggle large amounts of drugs.

An undercover agent was dispatched to Italy and was successful in infiltrating the clan.

Federico Cafiero De Raho, chief prosecutor in Reggio Calabria, said the US undercover agent, named "Jimmy" , was granted special dispensation by the police to operate in Italy and had played "a key role" in the operation, the AFP news agency said.

The 'Ndrangheta organisation was "willing to work through familial connections to work hand in glove with other crime families," Loretta Lynch, a US prosecutor in New York, said. Her office is prosecuting those arrested in New York.

Investigators have said that in recent years 'Ndrangheta clans have made inroads in criminal activity in northern Italy and elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Germany, and now want to expand in the US.

"What we see here is 'Ndrangheta attempting to gain a foothold in the New York area and the United States," Miller
said.

"We also see efforts to forge cooperation between the 'Ndrangheta and the Cosa Nostra."

FM

US setting up

DEA office in Guyana

to go after drug lords

President Donald Ramotar and US Ambassador, Brent Hardt.

President Donald Ramotar and US Ambassador, Brent Hardt.

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The United States (US) is to set up an office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) here to help go after drug kingpins at a time when there is a shift in trafficking routes, American Ambassador Brent Hardt announced on Thursday.

“There is definitely a shift to this region as we work closely with Mexico and Central America to tighten up some of the areas there so this does have a strategic purpose in that sense that the flows are increasing and there is need to boost our presence and engagement in the Caribbean,”  he told reporters.

He said the DEA would be moving equipment and personnel very soon in keeping with Congressional approval to set up for the office in Guyana. It would be based in the US Embassy.

The American envoy has previously said the anti-drug agents of the police and Customs and Anti Narcotics Unit (CANU) would have to be screened to ensure that that they do not leak vital information to suspects.  He explained on Thursday that local agents would be responsible for arresting suspects after receiving and sharing intelligence with the DEA.

“It’s a matter of working to build cases, use the intelligence to draw on DEA’s global and regional organisations,” he said.

Hardt echoed the desire of President Donald Ramotar for the passage of amendments to the Anti  Money Laundering and Countering of Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT)Act.

FM

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