any updates on this
nice sting Wray
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/criminal-gang-jailed-more-200-8019258
Criminal gang jailed for more than 200 years after Europe-wide investigation into encrypted phones
An international operation from the UK, French, and Dutch authorities uncovered the county lines ring after they cracked an encrypted online chat platform they were using to communicate
A criminal gang which was dealing massive amounts of drugs in Leicestershire has been put behind bars for more than 200 years after a police across Europe cracked an encrypted online communication service they were using to communicate.
The service, called EncroChat, provided modified smartphones that allowed its 60,000 subscribers to message each other in secret. But French police discovered in 2017 that it was being used mainly by organised crime gangs to communicate.
The investigation received EU funding in 2019 and a judge in France authorised police to infiltrate EncroChat the following year. Officers then installed malware onto the company's servers, which allowed them to read messages before they were sent and record lock screen passwords.
Police then analysed millions of messages and uncovered a huge amount of information on criminal enterprises across the continent. The information on the criminal enterprises was then passed to forces in a number of countries, including the UK. Three major operations began as a result, which led to the arrest of more than 2,900 people.
Police in the UK alone seized tons of drugs worth millions, weapons including weapons, including submachine guns, handguns, grenades, and an AK-47 assault rifle, as well as hundreds of rounds of ammunition. One of the criminal enterprises was a drugs operation which involved 22 men, who were dealing heroin and cocaine across Leicestershire and other parts of the country.
Members of the gang, aged between 26 and 58, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and were sentenced sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Monday, January 9, and Tuesday, January 10.
Three of the defendants, Christian Kelly, James Morris, and Michael Estrin - all based in Cheshire - were responsible for distributing dozens of kilos of cocaine and heroin into a Leicester-based crime group, which centred around Nigel Julien, Ashley Forde, Ross Sterland, and Ashley Lunn.
The group then supplied smaller scale dealers across Leicestershire, including Ahmed Samanka, Tanveer Arkate, Reece Dagli, Ramone Anozie, Steven Freakley, and Mohsin Raja.
But the Cheshire trio were not just supplying drugs to Leicestershire. They also supplied a large quantity of class A drugs to Nottingham-based Malachi McLeary, who in turn was linked to drugs being distributed from Merseyside and Cheshire via Thomas Fitzpatrick and Michael Breen - as well as other dealers across Nottinghamshire.
Kelly, Morris and Estrin were also caught dealing drugs to to South Yorkshire-based Ian Brennan and Ian Townsend. The rest of the men, Toby Poole, Jamie Holms, Stephen Lees-Rowe, and Matthew Whorlow, were used as couriers by various members of the groups to dispatch drugs across the UK.
Police arrested the 22 defendants during a series of raids in 2020 and 2021, where they also recovered huge amounts of cash and class A drugs. But Kelly fled the UK before he was finally tracked down to a hideout in Spain before he was extradited back to the UK.
The sentences for each man vary from ten months imprisonment up to 16 years and eight months. Some were already serving time for further offences elsewhere in the UK.
EncroChat, whose founders and owners are still unknown, ceased operating in June 2020 as a result of the police operation.
https://twitter.com/katiehobbs
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/district-man-sentenced-151-months-prison-receipt-child-pornography
District Man Sentenced to 151 Months in Prison for Receipt of Child Pornography
Defendant Requested Videos of Babies
Ruben Verastigui, 29, of Washington, D.C., was sentenced today to 151 months in prison on a federal charge of receipt of child pornography.
The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Raymond Villanueva, Special Agent in Charge, Washington, D.C. Field Office, Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Verastigui pleaded guilty on July 9, 2021, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was sentenced by the Honorable Amit P. Mehta. Upon completion of his prison term, Verastigui will be placed on five years of supervised release. He also will be required to register as a sex offender for at least 15 years.
According to the government’s evidence, from April 2020 through February 2021, Verastigui was active in an online group devoted to trading child pornography and discussing child sexual abuse. Verastigui shared child pornography videos with another member of the group and made numerous comments about sexually abusing children. Verastigui indicated his preference for babies, saying they were his “absolute favorite,” and solicited another group member for videos of babies being raped. The other group member promptly sent Verastigui a video of a baby being raped, to which Verastigui responded enthusiastically. The other group member then sent Verastigui numerous other videos of child pornography.
Verastigui was arrested on Feb. 5, 2021. He has been in custody ever since.
>https://twitter.com/katiehobbs
https://twitter.com/GovernorHobbs/status/1616214748827373575
https://twitter.com/GovernorHobbs/status/1616175152290746368
>https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/district-man-sentenced-151-months-prison-receipt-child-pornography
https://heavy.com/news/ruben-verastigui/
all these boots
Kasabian - Club Foot
https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1616222992631205888
From my drafted congressional testimony in December
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2022/12/13/exclusive-transcript-the-full-testimony-sbf-planned-to-give-to-congress/
>https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2022/12/13/exclusive-transcript-the-full-testimony-sbf-planned-to-give-to-congress/
The Full Testimony Bankman-Fried Planned To Give To Congress
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, was scheduled to testify Tuesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services. But late Monday afternoon, he was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government.
Forbes obtained a draft of Bankman-Fried's testimony and is publishing it here, verbatim. You can also read about the top takeaways in his testimony, and everyone he planned to blame in his remarks for the aftermath of FTX’s implosion.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/europe/dutch-police-belgium-torture-shipping-containers/index.html
https://www.insider.com/dutch-police-find-a-torture-chamber-hidden-in-shipping-container-2020-7
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64306691
Italian Pier Antonio Panzeri held in EU-Qatargate bribery probe agrees to tell all
An alleged leader of a criminal network involved in an EU corruption scandal has agreed to reveal which countries were involved and how it operated.
A lawyer for Pier Antonio Panzeri said his client had agreed to "tell all" after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
The former member of the European Parliament is one of four suspects being held in Belgium.
They are suspected of accepting bribes from Qatar and Morocco in return for influencing the Parliament in Brussels.
Qatar has strenuously denied that it tried to gain influence through gifts and money while Morocco has also strongly rejected allegations that it sought influence on issues such as fishing rights and the disputed status of Western Sahara.
The four suspects were charged last month after police seized around €1.5m (£1.3m) in cash during a series of raids on a flat, a house and a hotel. Pictures of stashes of €200, €50, €20 and €10-denomination notes were released by police, including a suitcase found in the hotel which was stuffed with cash.
Prosecutors said Mr Panzeri agreed the plea deal under an informant law used only once before in Belgium.
His lawyer Marc Uyttendaele said he admitted "criminal responsibility", adding: "It is important to know that this is a man who is destroyed and he doesn't have much of a life left."
But his client hoped to "secure his situation" by agreeing to "tell all he knows about the case", Mr Uyttendaele added.
The other suspects include a serving Greek MEP, Eva Kaili, who has been stripped of her role as a vice-president of the Parliament, her partner Francesco Giorgi, and lobbyist Niccolò Figà -Talamanca.
After Mr Panzeri, 67, left the Parliament, he became the head of a lobby group called Fight Impunity. Mr FigĂ -Talamanca worked from the same building in Brussels for a separate NGO.
According to a statement from Belgium's federal prosecutor, the former MEP agreed to the plea bargain under a law modelled on an Italian provision for repentant mafia members or "pentiti" to turn state witnesses.
A spokesman said he faced a year in jail, rather than a "much heavier prison sentence", as well as a fine and confiscation of €1m in assets.
In return he would be required to give details of how the network operated, what the financial arrangements were with the countries concerned, and "the involvement of known and unknown persons within the investigation, including the identity of the persons he admits to having bribed".
The plea deal was released a day after an Italian court agreed to extradite the ex-MEP's daughter, Silvia Panzeri, 38, on suspicion of involvement in the scandal.
The same court in the northern city of Brescia ruled last month that Mr Panzeri's wife, Maria Colleoni, could also be extradited, but Italy's top appeal court will give a final ruling on their case. The two women are currently under house arrest and deny allegations of corruption and money laundering.
Greek MEP Eva Kaili, who also denies involvement in the case, is suspected along with the others of taking bribes from Qatar in return for influencing EU policy-making.
Her partner Francesco Giorgi was reported to have confessed last month to his role in the affair.
However, a reference to "unknown" people within the investigation suggests more revelations are due to emerge.
Prosecutors have already sought to lift the immunity of two more centre-left MEPs, Belgian Marc Tarabella and Italian Andrea Cozzolino.
Lawyers for both MEPs have denied that they played any part in the scandal, but the request is being reviewed by Parliament's legal affairs committee.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1723417/eu-news-qatargate-scandal-roberta-metsola-european-parliament-gifts
EU chief scrambles to save face as police arrest one more in Qatar scandal
The so-called Qatargate scandal engulfing the European Parliament is deepening after one more person was arrested in Italy in connection to the case.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola missed the deadline to submit a list of all gifts she has received during 2022, fuelling transparency doubts over an already-at-crisis institution after the Qatargate scandal. Ms Metsola declared more than 140 gifts in the past days, missing the deadline for disclosure for at least 125 of the declared items. Among the gifts received, gold coins, scarves, prints and wine bottles.
MEPs are required to publicly declare all gifts they receive throughout their term.
Ms Metsola's team said the rule does not apply directly to her by "custom" as she the President of the Parliament as well as an MEP.
The delay in her declaration sparked outrage in Brussels at a time the institution is already scrambling to maintain its reputation.
Michiel van Hulten, director of Transparency International EU and a former MEP told Politico: "This shows the system is broken.
"You can’t operate an ethics system on the basis of unwritten rules. It’s good that she’s now done this, but there’s no prize for sticking to the rules.”
It comes as the alleged ringleader of a European Union cash-for-influence corruption scandal linked to Qatar and Morocco has decided to reveal information about the affair in exchange for a lighter sentence, Belgian prosecutors said Tuesday.
Pier Antonio Panzeri, who was charged last month with corruption, money laundering and membership of a criminal organisation, and his lawyers have signed a memorandum in which he repents for his acts, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
>1st Psychological Operations Battalion
A newly discovered comet could be visible to the naked eye as it shoots past Earth and the Sun in the coming weeks for the first time in 50,000 years, astronomers have said.
https://insiderpaper.com/once-in-50000-year-comet-may-be-visible-to-the-naked-eye/