MARBELLA CLUB

Arrested Camorra boss Ciro Mazzarella in the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic. He was listed among the Italian government's 100 most dangerous fugitives.Mazzarella fled to Columbia from Italy in 2006, before moving to Costa Rica and then to the city of Santo Domingo, where he allegedly continued to coordinate various Camorra activities.Money raked in by Italy's Mafia surged to 130 billion euros last year, a 40 percent increase on 2007, Italian research institute Eurispes reported last month.
Drug trafficking remains the primary source of revenue, bringing in about 59 billion euros, while arms sales earned the Mafia 5.8 billion euros. Organised crime groups draw off 92 billion euros of untaxed revenue or about 6 percent of Italy's GDP each year from Italian businesses, through protection payments, usury and other forms of extortion, Eurispes said.Italian authorities confiscated 5.2 billion euros in assets from the Mafia in 2008 - including 2.9 billion euros from the Camorra, 231 million euros from 'Ndrangheta and 1.4 billion euros from the Sicilian Mafia.

Thiwat: Accused of strangling German
Arrested a tattooist suspected of killing a German woman found dead on a beach on Koh Phangan in Surat Thani province.The half-naked body of Astrid Al Assaad-Schachner, 45, was found on Sunday morning on Ban Wok Nai beach. She was wearing only a pair of jeans.Police assumed she might have been strangled. There was no trace of sexual assault. A wallet with 690 baht cash and a passport were left near the body, which was about 300 metres from a pier.Pol Col Charoon Uchupap, a superintendent at Koh Phangan police station, said Mrs Assaad-Schachner arrived in Koh Phangan on Dec 10 last year and rented a house.It was her second visit to Koh Phangan. Her first visit was in 2007 when she spent four months on the island.
On Saturday night witnesses saw the woman drinking beer at a bar about a kilometre from where her body was found. She left the bar at 10pm. Witnesses told a joint investigation team of Koh Phangan and CSD police that Mrs Assaad-Schachner was last seen with tattooist Thiwat Kasempok, 29.After he was arrested, Mr Thiwat admitted to strangling the woman as he had been outraged that she had told other tourists he was attracted to her and had tried to rape her.Mr Thiwat said it was her who had approached him, but he was not interested in her. Mr Thiwat insisted he had not raped the woman, said Pol Lt-Col Jom Singnoi of the CSD.Koh Phangan is famous among international tourists for its full moon parties.

Drugbust on Prague underground scene, and it is a third cocaine bust in about 40 days. Police officers from the national anti-drug central (NPC) have seized three members of an organized gang who were producing and selling cocaine in Prague. One of them was caught when he was selling 300g right in front of a MC Donald’s premise. According to the recently published report of Prague criminality cocaine became a common drug, but we somehow didn’t realize how common until we read almost every two weeks about dealers being busted. According to a doctor from Prague centre Drop-In Jiri Presl the increasing popularity of this deadly substance returns Prague to its First-Republic reputation – “Prague used to be famous for cocaine.”