All posts tagged: busted

Legends on Netflix: The undercover customs officials who busted £1bn worth of class-A drugs

Legends on Netflix: The undercover customs officials who busted £1bn worth of class-A drugs

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter In the early Nineties, Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise was losing its battle with the country’s drug gangs. Heroin was flooding in from northern Pakistan, through Turkish and north London crime networks, and onto the streets. Overwhelmed and seemingly out of options, the Investigation Division did something nobody saw coming. At the behest of Margaret Thatcher, they recruited a small team of their own officers, gave them false identities – “legends”, in the trade – and sent them deep into the criminal underworld. These were not trained intelligence agents. Not police detectives. They were customs officials, used to checking suitcases and occasionally confiscating Scotch. Barely overseen and with limited funding, these undercover narcs ended up seizing more than 12 tonnes of heroin, with a street value of over £1bn. If this sounds like the plot of a thriller, that’s because it …

Iran Says It Busted Up Over 100 ‘Pro-Monarchist Cells’ Working With US, Israel

Iran Says It Busted Up Over 100 ‘Pro-Monarchist Cells’ Working With US, Israel

Published by Jenni Sidey

Iranian authorities have newly announced hundreds more arrests across the country, describing that anti-government “pro-monarchy cells” and “traitors” have been exposed and caught.  Tehran officials have touted busting up more than 100 of these alleged cells in 26 of Iran’s 31 provinces in a major overnight security operation, describing that these groups were aligned with US and Israeli interests. Security forces from the Intelligence Ministry “have identified and arrested 111 monarchist cells across 26 provinces before they could take action on the last Wednesday of the year,” the ministry stated according to Fars. AFP/Getty Images The ministry said that firearms, knives, and other weapons of various types were recovered. As for how many individuals were precisely rounded up and detained, this was undisclosed. According to more details via Al Jazeera: The ministry says four suspected spies linked to the United States were arrested in Hamedan city and West Azerbaijan province, both in the country’s west. Authorities also arrested another 21 people accused of cooperating with the London-based broadcaster Iran International, which is outlawed in Iran. Iran …

A Montreal Narco Network Busted For Allegedly Smuggling Super Fentanyl Into America

A Montreal Narco Network Busted For Allegedly Smuggling Super Fentanyl Into America

Published by Jenni Sidey

Submitted by The Bureau’s Sam Cooper, An elite Montreal-based narco network allegedly exported carfentanil and next-generation synthetic opioids 100 times deadlier than fentanyl to American consumers via the dark web, leading to the arrest of four yesterday, after 13 months of joint surveillance by U.S. federal agencies and Quebec police, and a seizure of more than 600,000 tablets of synthetic drugs in December. The four suspects charged are reportedly connected, through their alleged street gang affiliate, to the Wolfpack Alliance — a network tied by DEA sources to a British Columbia fentanyl superlab, and by Canadian law enforcement and expert sources to Canadian outlaw motorcycle gangs, Iranian organized crime, and the Sinaloa Cartel. On Wednesday, Quebec’s ENRCO — the unit mandated specifically to target organized crime leadership — arrested four residents of Montreal’s South Shore suburbs on charges connected to a network that had been, for more than a year, allegedly manufacturing and exporting carfentanil and industrial quantities of substances newer and deadlier than fentanyl to consumers in the United States. The investigation was conducted …

Louvre Faces €10M Loss After Decades-Long Ticket Fraud Busted

Louvre Faces €10M Loss After Decades-Long Ticket Fraud Busted

Published by José Betancourt

A sweeping fraud scheme targeting ticket sales at the Louvre was uncovered earlier this week, leaving the scandal-plagued museum facing losses estimated at more than €10 million. The Palace of Versailles was also implicated in the scheme, which involved the sale of counterfeit tickets and the overbooking of guided tours, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed on Thursday. French authorities shared that nine people have been arrested, including two museum employees, several tour guides, and one individual suspected of organizing the scheme. The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that more than €957,000 in cash—plus €67,000 in foreign currency—was seized, in addition to €486,000 in separate bank accounts. According to Le Parisien, three vehicles and multiple safe deposit boxes were also confiscated. Related Articles The Louvre told the publication that it is “facing a resurgence and diversification of ticket fraud”, prompting the museum to “put in place a structured plan to combat fraud”, notably through “preventive and curative actions (…) and monitoring of their results”. The institution added that the ongoing police operation “was carried out following a report from …

Tesla Stock Plummeting Since Musk Busted in Epstein Files

Tesla Stock Plummeting Since Musk Busted in Epstein Files

Published by José Betancourt

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images Late last month, new “Epstein files” from the Department of Justice revealed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was in regular correspondence with deceased sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, going as far as to invite himself to his notorious Caribbean island, asking when the “wildest party” would take place in a 2012 email. It was a damning contradiction of Musk’s previous claims that he’d “refused” Epstein’s offer, and they seemed to throw the billionaire into a tailspin. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tesla’s shares have been plummeting since the DOJ’s release. Shares are down almost eight percent over the last five days since the emails were released. It’s the very last thing Tesla needs right now. The company’s brand has already suffered greatly under Musk’s leadership, with droves of potential buyers being pushed away by his inflammatory rhetoric and embrace of far-right ideals. The company’s core business has also been floundering as of late, with Musk announcing that it’s ending production of its Model S and X vehicles, while turning the factory that used to …

Five myths about learning a new language – busted

Five myths about learning a new language – busted

Published by skeptic

Language learning is often a daunting prospect. Many of us wish we had learned a language to a higher level at school. But even though adults of all ages can do well in acquiring a new language, fear – or the memory of struggling to memorise grammar at school – can hold us back. We both work in languages education and recognise the real benefits that learning another language can bring. As well as myriad cognitive benefits, it brings with it cultural insights and empathetic awareness. With that in mind, we’re here to dispel five myths about language learning that might be putting you off. Myth one: it’s all about grammar and vocabulary In fact, learning about people, history and culture is arguably the best part of learning a language. While grammar and vocabulary are undeniably important aspects of language learning, they don’t exist in isolation from how people communicate in everyday life. Language learning can help us to have “intercultural agility”: the ability to engage empathically with people who have very different experiences from …