MARBELLA CLUB

Following two separate police operations, the suspects in the robbery of an Australian national, shooting of businessman Ernesto Dy, and other previous hold ups in Bacong, Dauin and Dumaguete were arrested, Tuesday. They are believed to be members of the so-called Martisan gang which victimizes beach goers and dating couples. But one of their alleged accomplices was severely injured after he was ambushed on Wednesday night by still unidentified gun men near his house in Banilad, Bacong which also resulted to the death of his common law wife. Two of their remaining cohorts are still being pursued by authorities.First to fall was Mario Dindo Tabanag, 34, a resident of Sitio Lawigan, Brgy. Sacsac, Bacong after Vanessa Vidgen the wife of the Australian National, Douglas Vidgen positively identified him as one of those who robbed them a few days earlier.Seized from Tabanag were one .22 caliber hand gun and several pieces of jewelry. He implicated Danilo Celestial, alias Enteng, 27, as the mastermind and was later arrested by joint PNP elements from Bacong, Dauin and Dumaguete inside his residence in Purok Santan, Brgy. Taclobo, Dumaguete City Celestial yielded one caliber 38 revolver snubnose with four live ammunitions, one white plastic container with marijuana leaves, 3 cellular phones, 2 chargers, one pair pearl earrings, hairclip, ring, Australian coins and one coin purse. The two have been charged appropriately before the prosecutor’s office.Not so lucky was alleged gang member Emeliano Venenoso, 33, who may have escaped arrest but was ambushed by still unidentified men who shot him and his common law wife Cristy several times before fleeing. Venenoso who was hit in different parts of his body survived but Cristy was declared dead on arrival at the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital.

Craig Johnson, 35, was sentenced in 2006 to 12 and a half years in prison, although British reporting restrictions prevented details of his case from being made public until now. After accomplices of Johnson were imprisoned in September, the true picture emerged of the outwardly respectable businessman.Investigators say they believe Johnson’s assets in Dubai may be even more valuable than those already seized in the UK, which totalled more than £6 million (Dh31.5m).Customs officials in the UK seized Johnson’s helicopter, yacht, luxury cars and mansion, all of which were found to have been purchased with the proceeds of crime. At one point, Johnson owned several properties across Dubai, as well as a luxury car dealership and a professional racing team.“It is fair to say that, as extravagant a lifestyle as Johnson lived in the UK, we firmly believe the lifestyle he lived out here in Dubai was as extravagant, if not more so,” said Euan Stewart, criminal investigations director with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK.Investigations into other assets are continuing, with officers keen to establish whether any of his properties in the UAE were, in fact, bought legitimately. Although there is an extradition treaty in place between the UAE and the UK, there is no formal process for recovering the proceeds of crime. Investigators are hopeful, however, of recovering millions of pounds that Johnson has been ordered to repay the British government.

The court records show that Johnson was part of a gang that imported and exported mobile phones between companies owned by gang members, with value added tax (VAT) being kept illegally at every stage of the proceedings. The profits of the VAT fraud were then filtered through a series of bank accounts and business transactions.

The phones were imported – at least on paper – VAT-free from various EU countries. In many instances the phones did not even exist. The paperwork showed they had been sold on more cheaply, but with VAT added, through a chain of companies known as “buffers”. Sham invoices were issued.Once the goods had been sold a number of times they would be re-exported via a corrupt freight forwarding company. The exporter would then claim a credit from the British customs department for the VAT paid on the purchase of the phones, and the company that “imported” them would disappear when its VAT bill was due to be paid.While the fraud was being carried out, Johnson boasted of owning a major car dealership in Dubai. Company records show that Johnson still owns a 12-per-cent share in the dealership, and an employee said he believed Johnson was still owner. No one else at the company would respond to questions about Johnson.In 2002, Johnson spent £1.75m to establish a Dubai rallying team, Protrak World Motorsport Management, and competed twice in the Middle East Rally Championship. But when he was detained in the UK in 2003 and his string of investments unravelled around him, his workers, mostly from the UK, found themselves abandoned in Dubai. The team disbanded soon afterward, and most of the staff have left Dubai.Drivers, staff and management who worked for Protrak all declined to be interviewed for this article.An associate of Johnson’s in Dubai said: “He had private jets and helicopters and whatnot and there are not many expats who have that. Back then, four or five years ago, it was a smaller community, and the big fish seemed even bigger back then.” He said most people in Dubai had “no idea” about the extent of Johnson’s fraud, and that rumours of Johnson’s imprisonment emanating from the UK had reached only a few people Johnson knew in Dubai.In June 2006, Johnson was one of seven men imprisoned in the VAT scam after an eight-month case at Birmingham Crown Court. The scam cost the UK government £68 million (Dh359m) and led to a five-year inquiry by British customs officials. Details of the case emerged only after another VAT fraud case in which Johnson was implicated ended in September.
In November, Wolverhampton Crown Court, which was hearing the HMRC claim for reimbursement, ordered Johnson to pay a further £26m he was found to have made through money laundering, or face another 10 years in prison. He was ordered to pay £8m of that sum within the next year. Mr Stewart said: “This result is down to the excellent co-operation we had from the UAE on a federal level and, in particular, from the Central Bank.”He also paid tribute to the “landmark work” carried out by diplomatic staff in the UAE on creating an extradition treaty between the UAE and the UK, which will facilitate the investigation of money laundering in the country.
Cameron Walker, a law enforcement co-operation counsellor with the British embassy in Abu Dhabi, welcomed the more general efforts to catch British VAT offenders living in the UAE.“There are elements in the UAE – the ministries, banks and police – who are now working very closely with us and realise the extent of the problem,” he said. “The co-operation of the Central Bank, the police and the Government has been tremendous when you consider it is not a UAE problem.”

Mexican beauty queen arrested in the company of heavily armed drug suspects will be released after prosecutors decided not to charge her with any offense, the attorney general's office said on Friday.Laura Zuniga, 23 and the reigning Miss Sinaloa, was detained along with seven men in December at a military checkpoint. Police found assault rifles and more than $55,000 in cash in the luxury vehicles they had been driving.The raven-haired beauty from the drug-infested northwestern state of Sinaloa has been a fixture in the Mexican media since she was arrested and placed in a federal detention center.The attorney general's office said on Friday it had not found evidence that she was involved in criminal activity.Prosecutors believe Angel Garcia Urquiza, a leader of the Juarez drug cartel who was with her at the police checkpoint, is Zuniga's boyfriend. Urquiza and the other men arrested at the checkpoint near the western city of Guadalajara remain in a federal detention center.
Zuniga was slated to compete in the 2009 Miss International contest but she was stripped of her Queen of Hispanic America title in the wake of the arrest.Sinaloa state is home to major drug smuggling routes into the United States and is a key battleground in the brutal turf war between Mexico's violent drug cartels.The escalating battles between cartels and police claimed more than 5,700 lives last year, despite the deployment of the army en masse, and the increasing lawlessness poses a major challenge for President

internal affairs division of the Autonomous Police yesterday arrested at dawn two security agents of the Montjuïc Sants station in Barcelona. The investigation against the two policemen, who head of the department of number 22 of Barcelona, was launched six months ago when one of the defendants was heard in a telephone conversation with a Romanian crime syndicate operating primarily in the subways. The
investigation determined that the agent of 25 years had control of the gang. The two policeman were arrested at three in the morning along with five other members of the criminalgang. One of the internal affairs officers found at one of the policemans home gun's with serial numbers removed, an electric truncheon (tazar), a significant amount of cocaine and a lesser amount, hashish. Also seized were objects such as - jewelry, televisions, cameras, mobile phones etc, as well as documentation from other theft victims. The two police officers last night were held in separate cells at the Les Corts. They will today be questioned and when they will very shortly appear before a court. The investigation began six months ago. The investigating officers of the regional area were following a group of Romanian theives. After hearing one of the gang members in converstion during an intercepted call with
one of the arrested parties, the case was then passed to Internal affairs. The accused officer in question, was then assigned to a group of plainclothes policeman in Sant Marti that is dedicated to the fight against repeating offenders.
The monitored calls then showed that the agent had become the leader of the criminals. Part of the crimes committed was that of money being taken from stolen credit cards. He was also found to be philandering with a drug dealer in his home that he shared with his Romanian girl, police found a bag of cocaine and a set of scales. The other accused officer of 32 years of age, has been found to have had a lesser involvement. The internal affairs division are continuing with their enquiries and have also found two other offenders who have been involved with stealing. The two detainees are the latest developments and the investigation continues.

Organised crime unit of the Spanish police is investigating the murder of Richard Keogh (30), from Cabra in Dublin. Security sources in Spain say the killing is believed to be drugs related. Keogh, a father of four children aged between two and nine years, was wounded several times after at least 10 shots were fired in a drive-by shooting in Benalmadena Costa near Marbella. He was walking along a pavement with this wife at about 11.35pm on Saturday when a car pulled up and at least one occupant opened fire. Keogh collapsed on the pavement outside the Torrequebrada Hotel. The dead man is originally from Carnlough Road, Cabra, but in recent years had settled with his family in the Belfry estate, Duleek, Co Meath. On November 2nd, 2007, Keogh was putting his bin out for collection when a gunman fired at least five shots at him as his wife and two-year-old son looked on. He was wounded in the shoulder and arm but managed to run back into the safety of his home. His attacker tried to run into the house but Keogh’s partner slammed the door shut as a number of bullets hit the house. Shortly after the murder attempt, Keogh put his five bedroom detached property up for sale and moved with his partner and children to southern Spain. Keogh has been a target of the Garda National Drug Unit for a number of years as part of Operation Rugby and Operation Banish. He was associated with a man from Cabra who was a member of an international gang caught with cocaine valued at €400 million off the coast of Spain a number of years ago. Keogh’s assets are currently being investigated by the Criminal Assets Bureau. Garda sources said they regarded Keogh a “significant player” in the drugs trade here. The deceased was one of a growing number of gangland figures involved in the motor trade in Dublin. He was a partner in a garage in the north inner city. Garda sources said that while he had addresses in Balbriggan and Duleek before moving to Spain, he remained closely associated with drug dealers from Cabra and from Dublin’s north inner city. He and was also associated with the Finglas-based gang once led by Martin “Marlo” Hyland.
Gardaí suspect that when Keogh moved to Spain he began sourcing cocaine and other drugs from international gangs there for export to his contacts in Ireland. They believe his murder is most likely linked to a drugs dispute with an international cartel rather than with any Irish criminals based in Benalmadena Costa. Southern Spain is popular with Irish gangs because it is the European distribution hub for cocaine smuggled from Colombia via West Africa. Keogh’s murder is the latest in a series of killings in which Irish drug dealers have been shot after relocating to continental Europe. Peter Mitchell (39), of Summerhill in Dublin, was wounded in a shooting in Marbella last August. He was a one-time associate of John Gilligan. Drug dealer Paddy Doyle, of Portland Place, in Dublin, was shot dead near Marbella last February. The former leaders of the notorious Dublin Westies gang, Shane Coates and Stephen Sugg, were shot dead in Alicante, southern Spain, in early 2004. John McKeon, from Finglas in Dublin, has been missing presumed dead in Spain for over three years. Cork drug dealer Michael “Danser” Ahern was found dead in the freezer of an apartment in Portugal in 2005.

Richard Keogh.has been shot dead in a gangland-style attack in Spain’s Costa del Sol. The victim, aged 30, was gunned down in the resort of Benalmadena, near Torremolinos, at around 11.30pm last night.It is understood the victim,was walking down the street when a gunman arrived in a car and fired several shots. Originally from Carnlough Road in Cabra, he moved to Spain two years ago after a previous attempt on his life in Duleen, Co Louth.According to reports, the father-of-four died after a car pulled up and a gunman fired at least 10 shots at him.Gardai said they will assist the police force in Spain with their investigation in to the gun attack. “An Irish national was shot dead in Spain,” said a spokeswoman.
“We will co-operate if requested to and will assist in whatever way we can,” she said.Keogh has been shot dead in a gangland style attack in the resort of Benalmadena, near Torremolinos in Spain at approximately 11.30pm last night. Police in the Costa del Sol have launched an investigation into the fatal attack.It is understood the victim may be from Co Meath. The 30-year-old,Keogh was walking down the street when a gunman arrived on the scene by car. He fired several shots and the victim was hit a number of times. It is understood he died at the scene.It has been reported police are investigating the possibility that the murder was linked to a turf war between rival drug gangs in the area.

Police in Argentina confiscating and seizing over 300 kilos of Cocaine!
Sources said the drug is worth of more than two million U.S. dollars in Argentina’s illegal market, and the value could increase to 12 million euros (about 16 million dollars) once it lands in Europe

Ronald O'Dea, 42, and James McDonald, 39, both from Glasgow, were detained following police raids in November. Londoners Stephen Denis Brown, 42 and Brian Rawlings, 63, were also arrested in a joint operation with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency. The men are expected to spend several months in prison before facing trial at the National Criminal Court in Madrid. The operation also resulted in the arrest of Gerard Mooney, from Dublin, in October 2008. It is alleged that a truck that he was driving to Scotland contained 70kg of speed when it was stopped by police near Oxford. The subsequent raids in Marbella, on the Costa del Sol, and Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, resulted in the Britons being arrested. The money laundering charges relate to the seizure of property in Spain along with luxury goods worth nearly £11m. These included a Ferrari F430 Spyder, a 599 Fiorano, two Hummers, a Porsche Cayenne turbo, an Audi Q7, a Mercedes 63 AMG and two BMWs. A luxury yacht was also confiscated.

Thai police formally charged leading leftist commentator Giles Ungpakorn on Tuesday with insulting the king, the latest in a slew of lese majeste cases critics say are stifling dissent and freedom of speech.Following are details of some of those who have recently fallen foul of the law, which carries between 3 and 15 years in prison for insults or threats to the deeply revered monarchy.In many cases, the status of the investigation is unclear due to police reluctance to discuss the taboo issue of the monarchy's role in politics, which is officially nil.

JAKRAPOB PENKAIR - A spokesman for ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Jakrapob had to resign as a minister in the pro-Thaksin government in May after being accused of slandering the king in a talk at Bangkok's Foreign Correspondents' Club.

JONATHAN HEAD - The British BBC correspondent in Bangkok has received three lese majeste complaints. One was related to an online BBC story not written by Head which did not place the photograph of the king at the top of the page, as is customary in Thailand.

CHOTISAK ONSOONG - The young political activist was accused by police in April of insulting the monarchy for refusing to stand during the royal anthem that precedes all movie screenings in Thailand.

JITRA KOTCHADEJ - A union activist and friend of Chotisak, Jitra was fired by bosses at her clothing factory in August for appearing on a TV panel discussion wearing a T-shirt saying "Not standing is not a crime," a reference to Chotisak.It is not known if she has been charged by police.

SULAK SIVARAKSA - A leading academic and long-time critic of the lese majeste law, the 75-year-old was taken from his Bangkok home late one night in November and driven 450 km (280 miles) to a police station in the northeast province of Khon Kaen.
There, he was charged with insulting the monarchy in a university lecture he gave in December the previous year.

HARRY NICOLAIDES - An Australian author, English teacher and long-time resident of Thailand, Nicolaides was sentenced to three years in jail this week for defaming the crown prince in his 2005 novel, 'Verisimilitude'. Only seven copies of the book were sold.

DARUNEE CHARNCHOENGSILPAKUL - More commonly known as "Da Torpedo," the pro-Thaksin campaigner was arrested in July after delivering an exceptionally strong 30-minute speech denouncing the 2006 coup and the monarchy.She is thought still to be behind bars, although it is not known if she has been formally charged.

SUWICHA THAKHOR - Suwicha was arrested last week on suspicion of posting comments on the Internet that insulted the monarchy. His arrest coincided with a speech by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva saying the law should not be abused.

OLIVER JUFER - The Swiss national was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2007 for spraying black paint on huge public portraits of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He was pardoned and deported after serving four months.

"The grim reality about generational debt bondage in the Third World
and the enslavement of Thai women into the sex industry are revealed
in VERISIMILITUDE. Towns in Northern Thailand whose populations have
been decimated by the AIDS virus have been left as dustbowls
littered with orphans, widows and stray dogs. This is the horror of
the truth not dissembled by politicians, deconstructed by academics
or finessed by journalists."

Police and medics were called out to the police box at Soi Nernplubwan on Sunday 11th January, after Mr. Jeff Johnson arrived to report that he had just been stabbed whilst drinking with his wife at a friend’s bar. Apparently, the 59 year old got into an argument with the owner, named as Alan, which turned nasty as he stabbed Mr. Johnson in the chest. He was rushed to hospital and an investigation is now under way about the incident.

Three Frenchmen found themselves at Pattaya Police Station on the morning of the 20th January, charged with the serious crime of drug possession and drug taking. The three, Enriquez, 29, Sanz-Fernandez, 39 and Zaidi aged 36, together with two teenage Thai women were given urine tests which proved positive to taking drugs. They were caught in a police raid at an apartment in Soi Bonkai 2, South Pattaya where they were involved in a swinging sex and drug party. The men, who have only recently arrived in Pattaya, all denied the allegations even though two large packets of marihuana were seized as evidence against them. They have all been detained for further questioning.

According to news reports, the offensive passage in Verisimilitude amounts to three sentences that concern the romantic life of an unnamed crown prince

."From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for
their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had
many wives "major and minor "with a coterie of concubines for
entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire
family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed
indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and
fathered another child. It was rumoured that if the prince fell in
love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her
family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all
vestiges of their existence expunged forever."

As reporters covering Nicolaides were warned that it would be just as illegal for them to repeat the passage as it was for him to publish it, news reports I've seen don't say what the disrespectful sentences are. They do say that the law Nicolaides broke has never been invoked by the royal family itself, always by government officials who say the offense puts national security at risk.

Why? Because Thai democracy is constantly falling apart and being patched back together, and the near universal reverence in which the Thai people hold their King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 81, has been deemed indispensable to keeping the country in one piece. Here's blogger Sean Nelson, an American who's taught in Thailand, calling Nicolaides a "fool," adding, "To openly publish such a book and remain in Thailand is asking for trouble."

Nelson continues, "If you do some research on the life of King Bhumibol, you'll see a great man. He's used his ancient powers to up-lift (in a close and personal way) impoverished rural Thais. He took a strong interest in up-lifting the far North of his nation out of suffering and opium-growing. Coffee is now the thriving crop and the land is ideal for it. Not only has he crossed boundaries by allowing commoners to openly look at him, but also to lay hands on him (laugh if you will, but it's a profound symbol.) Considering the culture to which he belongs, he has been a strong force for liberty and equality in Thailand. And, in my possibly wrong opinion, expatriates who under-mine the royal family or the crown prince shit where they sleep."Which, from the descriptions of prison life in Bangkok, might be what Harry Nicolaides will be doing for the next three years. Unless the king pardons him -- and given the king's forgiving history with a law he has said he personally regrets, this is an outcome that's not only possible but even, we must hope, likely.
There are bloggers who maintain that Verisimilitude is so obscure they question whether the book actually exists. They seem to be looking for reasons not to sympathize with Nicolaides. But here's a post from the Akha Heritage Foundation (the Akha are a tribe who live in the hills of northern Thailand) that not only claims the book exists but reviews it, calling it a "trenchant commentary on the political and social life of contemporary Thailand....Savage, ruthless and unforgiving, VERISIMILITUDE pulls away the mask of benign congeniality that Thailand has disguised itself with for decades and reveals a people who are obsessed with Western affluence and materialism and who trade their cultural integrity and personal honour for the baubles of Babylonian America." Then the post prints what it claims is an excerpt from Nicolaides's book, an excerpt describing the romantic exploits of a crown prince. Read it if you dare, but then don't plan a vacation to Thailand.The Akha Heritage Foundation post says, "Write the Thai Government, the Australian Government, and demand his release." That would be a welcome development, and I'm not sure their post brings it any closer.

Lese majeste literally means an offense or crime committed against the ruler or supreme power of a state - or, in other words, the crime of dissent. In Thailand, this provision is routinely used to silence any form of criticism of the government.

A recent case that has been brought to our attention is that of Associate Professor Giles Ji Ungpakorn, from the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. He is facing Lese Majeste charges for writing a book A Coup for the Rich, which criticised the 2006 military coup. He also wrote an article on the coup for Asia Sentinel. Others who have been accused of Lese Majeste are former government minister Jakrapop Penkae, who asked a question at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Bangkok, about exactly what kind of Monarchy they have in Thailand. There is also the case of Chotisak Oonsung, a young student who failed to stand for the King’s anthem in the cinema. Apart from this there are the cases of Da Topedo and Boonyeun Prasertying. In addition to those who opposed the coup, the BBC correspondent Jonathan Head, an Australian writer names Harry Nicolaides and social critic Sulak Sivaraksa are also facing charges. The latest person to be thrown into jail and refused bail is Suwicha Takor, who is charged with Lese Majeste for surfing the internet.

The Thai Minister of Justice has called for a blanket ban on reporting these cases in the Thai media. The mainstream Thai media are obliging. Thus there is a medieval style witch hunt taking place in Thailand with secret trials in the courts.

Shuffling to the front of the court in leg chains, he said one muted word: "Guilty."
The judges sentenced Nicolaides to six years in prison, reduced to three because he pleaded guilty.Thailand is one of the few nations in the world to retain the archaic lese majeste law and the penalty is a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum of 15 years.Nicolaides' brother, Forde Nicolaides, said last night his family was extremely distressed at the outcome of the case."We will now do all that we can to ensure that Harry remains strong, healthy and positive in the circumstances," he said."Harry does not intend to appeal the decision but … wishes to focus … on considering an application for royal pardon."

writing three ill-conceived sentences in a novel that sold fewer than 10 copies, Melbourne man Harry Nicolaides was yesterday sentenced to three years in a Thai prison.

Barefoot, wearing leg shackles and looking drawn and weary, Nicolaides stood to hear his sentence.The would-be writer was arrested at Bangkok Airport on August 31 last year on charges of lese majeste — the crime of maligning the revered Thai monarchy.A book he had written in 2006, Verisimilitude, contained a brief reference to an unnamed crown prince. The passage was deemed insulting and a complaint was made to the police.On his way home to Melbourne in late August, the 41-year-old apparently had no idea a warrant for his arrest had been issued months earlier.Nicolaides was charged, repeatedly denied bail and finally brought to a Bangkok court yesterday for his long-awaited trial.
Hyperventilating and crying, Nicolaides said his time in prison has been "torture". "This has to be a bad dream," he said. "I've faced uncertainty for five months." Nicolaides said although he had lived and worked in Thailand, he was ignorant of the consequences of the lese majeste law."I was aware an obscure law existed. I did not believe it would apply to me," he said."I didn't have the foresight to contemplate that my words would offend."Since his arrest, Nicolaides has been held in a cell along with dozens of Thai prisoners. His family fears his health is failing and the emotional pressure is taking its toll.With his voice catching, he went on to say he had no idea who had filed the complaint against him. He had no intention of insulting the king, he said, and he respected the king as he respected his father."Words are empty vessels that we fill with meaning; the person who made that complaint filled those words with meaning all their own," he said.
The judges were forced to impose a jail term when Nicolaides declined to fight the case

Leonidas Vargas became the ideal contact for new generations of drug traffickers who sent drugs to Europe, among them Daniel “El Loco” Barrera. Nevertheless, Vargas’ luck changed in July 2006 when Spanish authorities detected his activities and arrested him. A few months ago he was placed under house arrest because of his delicate state of health, as he had serious heart problems. In July of this year a trial was to begin against him. That is where some of the reasons for his murder could lie. In the drug trafficking world it is said that behind the crime could be Barrera and Pedro Oliverio Guerrero alias “Cuchillo,” another of Vargas’ partners. They may have decided that they didn’t want to run the risk that “El Viejo” would implicate them at the trial, which would complicate even further their legal situation. In addition, Vargas was no longer “useful” because for the last two years he had been in prison and in that time those two traffickers had made new European contacts to smuggle drugs through Venezuela. With Vargas’ death the last representative of a generation of drug traffickers has been annihilated.
murder of Leonidas Vargas caused a big stir in both Spain and in Colombia, but because of two different reasons. The Spaniards could not get over their surprise over the way in which the crime occurred. And in Colombia many ask themselves who is responsible for the death of the last of the big drug trafficking capos who emerged in the 1980s.

Although for the Spaniards Vargas was a complete unknown, his death occupied newspaper headlines there. That is not surprising. The Colombian drug trafficker, known by the alias “El Viejo” or “The Old Man,” was assassinated last Thursday by two contract killers who entered his room on the fifth floor of Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid where he had been hospitalized for a week. With a pistol with a silencer and in front of another patient who was in the same room, the killers shot him four times and fled. In Spain, crimes like that aren’t common. That is why the case has caused such shock.

In Colombia, where unfortunately it isn’t that unusual for assassins to enter hospitals to finish off their victims, Vargas’ death caused a lot of unease, especially in the mafia world. At 59 years of age, Vargas had been involved in the drug trafficking business for more than three decades. At the end of the 70s he met Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, alias the 'Mexicano.’ With that mafia head, Vargas became a part of the Medellín cartel. His center of operations was always in Caquetá and in Putumayo, in the south of Colombia, from where he supplied drugs for the “Mexicano,” Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa brothers among other cartel members. In little time he amassed a great fortune and became one of the most powerful mafia capos in the country. In 1993 he was arrested by police in Cartagena and received two sentences of 19 and 26 years in prison for illegal enrichment, drug trafficking, homicide and arms possession. In 2001 he was freed after obtaining reductions in his sentences in reward for studying and working. After leaving prison he lived for a while in Chile but later moved with some of his family to Spain. Although he no longer had debts with justice and had been able to save a big part of his illegal fortune, excessive ambition led Vargas to continue in the “business.” In 2003 he was investigated by the Colombian Fiscalía, the prosecutor general’s office, because a private plane of his loaded with drugs crashed in Honduras. He was exonerated but the two investigators who launched the investigation were dismissed afterwards when it was discovered that there had been irregularities in the case.

Cops in LA charged 30-year-old Marlo "Bow Wow" Jones with robbery and burglary with the special allegation that the crime was in furtherance of a street gang. Well, that's good news, you say. Now for the bad news. You see, "Bow Wow" was part of an initiative hatched in the City of the Angels to fight gangs. In other words, Jones was one of those "former gang members" who was receiving LA tax-payers' funds to work with inner city youth to convince them not to join gangs.This particular "former gang member" had been making appearances with USC football coach Pete Carroll and others as part of the city's gang reduction efforts. In addition, Jones, like others, was getting public funds courtesy of LA City Council member Janice ("Big Bucks") Hahn, who was doling money out in her role as an "anti-gang crusader".Jones, a "former member" of the Grape Street Crips, who had served seven years for robbery and drug violations, also pleaded guilty last October to a charge of spousal abuse and received five years probation. He was involved in a group called "Unity One", a sub-contractor of the Toberman Neighborhood Center. He is charged with being involved in a January 5 robbery of a rap-singer at the Universal City Hilton.

Peruvian crime bosses convicted of drug trafficking charges over the past several years owe the government 177 million soles in civil compensation, reported state prosecutor Sonia Medina.The Peru lawyer told Andina news agency that among these criminal leaders, Fernando Zevallos founder of Aerocontinente airlines, was the convict that owed the most money.It was reported that Zevallos, who began serving a 20-year sentence in 2005 for having ties to a drug ring known as "Los Norteños", owes the State 100 million soles.Zevallos, who was placed on the 10 most dangerous drug traffickers list in the United States, was also under investigation in Chile for money laundering.Also on the list of drug traffickers that owe Peru money are a gang of 33 people from the Tijuana cartel, who began serving 25 - 35 year sentences in 2007 for attempting to take 1.7 tons of cocaine to Mexico from the Chimbote port in Peru.

Charles Elroy Laplace there was no slap-up last supper of the type served on Death Row in America, nor the company of a reassuring pastor. Instead, he was bound hand and foot and cast on to a grubby mattress in the corner of his fetid cell, then left for eight hours to contemplate his impending fate. Paralysed and rendered incontinent with fear, Laplace lay there all night, begging the Lord for mercy and pleading for someone to call his mother or his lawyer - anyone who might save him at the last.But his wretched entreaties were drowned out by the singing of his prison guards, who saw fit to celebrate his coming execution with a rum-fuelled 'gallows party' that lasted long into the small hours. It was not until 8am the following morning that Laplace's torment was finally brought to an end. As the death knell tolled in Her Majesty's Prison, Basseterre, capital of the Caribbean islands of St Kitts & Nevis, and a crowd gathered outside the forbidding crimson gates, he was frogmarched ten paces to an ancient wooden gallows inside the jail. Built for multiple hangings, the gibbet had three separate nooses and Laplace's head was covered with a white hood and placed in one of them. The 40-year-old bakery van driver just had time to wish his six children a happy life and mutter his forgiveness for the trial judge who had sentenced him to death, before the lever was thrust forward and the boards fell away beneath him. Soon news of his execution spread through the island and his murdered wife's family raised a triumphal flag - then the rum began to flow again. This probably sounds like some gruesome scene from the West Indies of bygone days, when ruthless white sugar plantation bosses routinely lynched their troublesome black serfs on these shores, often in public to set an example. Yet although the gallows where Laplace was dispatched were, indeed, built in the mid-19th century, in fact this most unmerciful execution took place just three weeks ago. The macabre ritual was described to me this week, with shockingly dispassionate candour, by the hangman who dispatched Laplace, a local character named Simeon Govia. Unshaven and gaunt, Mr Govia, aged 47, is no master executioner in the Albert Pierrepoint mode, of that we can be sure.Paradise lost: There were 23 murders in St Kitts last year which has a population of just 46,000
In fact, he admits that he was hired because he has family ties to a senior prison official, performed his first execution after a five-minute 'lesson' from an officer, and had no idea what would happen until his victim fell. Small wonder, for he usually makes his living by massaging British female tourists on the beaches of this supposedly idyllic volcanic outcrop (and bedding them where possible, he told me with a gap-toothed grin). He claims he volunteered for the job of St Kitts official hangman - a role that has been vacant for ten years since the last execution was carried out here - because he believes passionately in 'an eye for an eye'. However, as he charges just £30 for providing his sensual rub-downs and the government offered him a fee of £1,800 to dispatch Laplace, perhaps that was not the only reason why this roving gigolo was so keen to make a temporary career switch.
'That guy went as good as gold, man,' Mr Govia told me. 'He didn't whimper or holler. He was very brave and knew he had to go through with it. He didn't suffer, either. I pushed the lever and he was gone in an instant.' Had he suffered nightmares the night before he did the deed?'No man. The guards put me in a room and gave me a tot of whisky and nice food, and I slept sound. There are eight more guys on Death Row, and when they want me to hang the next one I'll be more than ready to oblige.' That day will surely come very soon. For despite recent U.S. research suggesting that capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to murder, and a worldwide trend towards its abolition, senior politicians in St Kitts & Nevis are convinced it is the only effective answer to the violent crime epidemic sweeping the island. A generation ago, murders were a rarity here. Now this tiny Commonwealth country - Britain's first colony in the Caribbean - is in the grip of a terrifying gang war which has made it, statistically, the murder capital of the world, with a record 23 killings last year among a population of just 46,000. It is highly unlikely that Prime Minister Denzil Douglas will mention this unwanted distinction this morning when he makes a speech at the airport to welcome the first holidaymakers off the inaugural British Airways flight direct to St Kitts. However, with the sugar industry having recently collapsed and the pair of islands - which measure just 23 miles long by five miles wide - now totally dependent on tourism, Mr Douglas is acutely aware that the murder of just one foreign visitor could spell disaster for the economy.The cane Harvest - but falling sugar prices has meant the tiny island has become more dependent on tourismIf he has any doubts as to its likely effects, he need only look to neighbouring Antigua, where empty hotel rooms and half-deserted beaches are the legacy of last summer's brutal shooting of Welsh honeymoon couple Ben and Catherine Mullany. With the credit crunch taking a toll on winter bookings in the Caribbean, similar fears are gripping leading politicians throughout the crime-plagued West Indian archipelago. And so, ignoring a clamour of protest led by Amnesty International and other human rights organisations, they are dusting down gallows that have stood idle for decades, ready to resume hanging on a scale not seen since the most draconian days of British rule. These former colonies are now fiercely independent nations, of course, but they have retained the British legal system, and although capital punishment for murder was finally abolished in their mother country 40 years ago, it has remained on their statute books.

Death sentences have therefore continued to be handed down for the most gruesome killings for many years - but they are often set aside by the Privy Council in London, which remains the final court of appeal for many Commonwealth countries.
For a variety of reasons, the Privy Council often rules capital punishment 'unconstitutional'. And if defence lawyers can drag a case on for more than five years, hanging is commuted to life imprisonment on humanitarian grounds because the murderer is deemed to have suffered enough while waiting on Death Row.
Now, though, many Caribbean nations are sick of seeing their courts undermined by out-of-touch legal overlords in dusty chambers 4,000 miles away in London, and they are flexing their muscles.

Determined to deal with violent criminals in their own way, a few years ago they set up their own appeal court - the Caribbean Court of Justice - based in Trinidad. The idea is that this will eventually replace the Privy Council as the islands' court of last resort, thus severing their last legal ties with Britain.
Jamaica - another Caribbean idyll - has decided to keep capital punishment on its statute books because of its high murder rateBut the transitional process is dragging on interminably and in recent weeks, the pressure for draconian justice, Caribbean style, has been rapidly intensifying. In Jamaica, whose population is barely bigger than that of Birmingham, but which last year suffered some 1,300 murders - twice as many as in the whole of Britain - the Senate has just voted to keep hanging on the statute books. No one has been hanged there since 1988 but legal experts believe the drugs-related killing spree has reached such a critical point that it is sure to be resumed soon. Meanwhile, on many smaller islands to which the violence is spreading like a fast-growing tumour, the clamour to bring back the noose grows louder by the day.
In St Vincent, for example, people are demanding the swift execution of Shorn Samuel, 35. He was sentenced to hang a few weeks ago for lassoing a young woman as she waited at a bus stop, and beheading her with a cutlass, simply because she rejected his advances. They are equally eager to string up Patrick Lovelace who was convicted of the abduction of 11-year-old Lokeisha Nanton. He raped the little girl, then hanged her from a mango tree. (His conviction was overturned on a technicality, and his retrial begins on Tuesday). 'There is an overwhelming call here for capital punishment to be resumed,' St Vincent journalist Kirby Jackson says. 'There's a sense of frustration that we are bound by the Privy Council, which is seen as part of an outdated culture. 'Some people don't like hanging because of its historic connotations. They refer back to the Fifties and Sixties in the southern USA, when a lot of black people were wrongly hanged. But as a society we have moved on. We know what is right or wrong in the Caribbean and we are capable of deciding that for ourselves.'
'We must do something to stop the killing'
It is a sentiment I heard echoed in St Kitts repeatedly this week. Hearing about the subject I was researching, people have approached me in the streets to argue passionately for the right to hang criminals without foreign interference. On his weekly radio phone-in show, Prime Minister Douglas insisted that he took 'no comfort' in the recent hanging of Laplace - whose lawyers apparently missed the deadline for an appeal to the Privy Council 'by mistake'. It was simply a matter of allowing the law to take its course, he said solemnly. With an election looming, however, and the premier hoping to win a historic fourth term in office, he knows which way the wind is blowing. Even the island's most senior criminal defence lawyer, Methodist pastor Reginald James, told me he would no longer represent convicted murderers after completing his current caseload, which includes an appeal for a pastor's son alleged to have murdered his sister-in-law. 'We have never had so many killings on this island and we must do something to stop it,' lamented the 68-year-old barrister, adding that as a Christian and patriot, his conscience no longer allowed him to fight to spare murderers from the gallows. Disgorged from the giant cruiseships which dock in Basseterre's scenic harbour for a few hours' shopping and sightseeing, day visitors may still believe they really have landed in 'paradise'.

If they were rash enough to venture a few hundred yards up the hill, to marijuana-scented ghettoes like that around Westbourne Street, however, they would glimpse a very different place. Here, gangs who pathetically model themselves on the Crips and Bloods of Southside Los Angeles - even wearing their blue and red colours - are embroiled in a turf war the viciousness of which makes inner-city Britain seem positively tranquil.

'Hanging won't stop nothing. You check?' one man who called himself Bugie told me indolently. 'It'll just make people do their killing cleaner so they don't get caught.'
'My son should not have died' Business owners are so fearful of these characters that they close shops and offices early to leave for home before the sun sets.
'It's not just that there's crime here - it is the fact it's all so vindictive,' says Lucille Rawlins, a 52-year-old Birmingham woman whose parents emigrated to Britain from St Kitts in the Fifties, and who came to live here four years ago.
Mrs Rawlins was hoping for a tranquil life here only to be brutally mugged. She and her Kittitian husband are now planning to return to the comparative safety of the West Midlands.

On Wednesday another British expat, in his 60s, also required hospital treatment after being beaten by three youths during a robbery at his home in beautiful Frigate Bay.

In desperation the government have just hired a new ' crimebuster', recently retired FBI chief Mark Mershon, who achieved considerable success in fighting the gangs in Oakland, California. In a refrain familiar to many in Britain, Mr Mershon largely attributes the moral degeneration of St Kitts to the breakdown of family life and the rise in the number of single mothers. He has come armed with an impressive action plan and bravely promises a reduction in the murder rate this year. Until he gets results, however, Kittitians will pin their faith on the perceived deterrent effect of the rope. Charles Laplace was no gangster - if we believe his mother, Naomi Williams. He was a 'quiet home-boy' turned temporarily insane by his wife Dian's infidelity.'My son should not have died,' she told me, weeping.'They hanged him out of spite. When I heard they were going to hang him I walked to the Governor General's house and begged him to spare my son but he just said he could do nothing. There were all those other criminals. Why did they have to pick on him?' The answer, though no one will admit as much, is that the government felt the need to make a public statement of intent, and his was the easiest case. I am assured by well-placed officials that it won't be the last. £1,800 a go is still mighty good money
Who, then, will be next to mount the gallows in HMP Basseterre? In the rum houses this week, various names were being touted, including Warrington Phillip, aged 40 - once a local cricket hero who almost made the West Indies test team. He was recently convicted of slashing the throat of his wife, Shermel.

According to well-informed sources, the most likely candidate for the gallows is Romeo 'Buncum' Cannonier, a fearsome criminal for whom many islanders believe hanging to be far too lenient. In 2004, the hulking 'Buncum' shot dead a police officer who had the temerity to walk through his 'manor' at the lonely northern end of St Kitts.

He was duly arrested but from his prison cell he ordered a 'hit' on the informant whose evidence placed him behind bars. However, locals maintain that he evaded conviction for his most nauseating crime. He is said to have abducted a young mother and held her as his sex slave in a disused house for days before strangling her. He reputedly buried her two-year-old daughter alive. The investigation was appallingly mishandled - which is not uncommon here - and so on that occasion, Cannonier, who is in his mid-30s and whose father was hanged for some half-remembered murder, swaggered to freedom. The authorities are said to be determined that he won't cheat justice a second time. Whether his hanging - if it takes places - will stem the bloody tide of murders in paradise remains to be seen, though given that three people were shot just a day after the authorities made an example of Charles Laplace, it seems unlikely. In the final analysis, perhaps the only real winner will be Simeon Govia, the gigolo hangman. In the Caribbean islands the price of life may be all too cheap these days - but £1,800 a go is still mighty good money.

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