The latest scandal involving match fixing in European soccer involves "allegations out of Germany [of] criminals supplying sedatives to team doctors and officials to be used to affect players and the outcome of games" as reported by Chris Young for The Toronto Star:
The lawyer for a man accused of kidnapping and fraud in connection with nearly $1.6 million (all figures U.S.) in manipulated soccer bets said that prosecutors believe his client's gang did not shy from "locking up people in basements" or "sedating players" via drugs given to team doctors and hotel cooks. "According to prosecutors, they were extremely violent," Burkhard Benecken, lawyer for a man identified as Deniz C., told the Associated Press. * * * [P]rosecutors believe a network of about 200 people are suspected of being involved, with the ringleaders believed to have profited by at least $15 million, AP reports. * * * German investigators have said that 200 European games are under scrutiny, along with five clubs in Albania and Latvia and nine countries named by German authorities. Few details have been released, but prosecutors have said 15 people have been arrested in Germany and two in Switzerland.
Customers — this, not patients, is what most really are — tell doctors at the dispensaries that they suffer from insomnia, anxiety, headaches, premenstrual syndrome, "chronic pain," whatever, and pay nominal fees for "prescriptions." Most really just want to smoke pot.
Pierce county sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said they are looking for Maurice Clemmons, 37. * * * Troyer said Clemmons is one of several people investigators would like to talk to and can't be called a suspect at this point. * * * Troyer said the suspect is a black male, 5-foot-7 to 6 feet tall, 20s to 30s, scruffy appearance, wearing a black coat with a gray sweatshirt underneath, and blue jeans. A $100,000 reward is being offered for information. Tiplines - for tips only - are (253) 591-5959 or 866-977-2362.
UPDATE: Maurice Clemmons "is holed up at a Seattle house" surrounded by law enforcement, and he is "wounded and possibly dead" as reported by The Associated Press. Clemmons had "a long criminal record punctuated by violence, erratic behavior and concerns about his mental health," and "nine years ago, then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee granted clemency to Clemmons, commuting his lengthy prison sentence over the protests of prosecutors" as reported by The Seattle Times.
UPDATE: Police have come up empty handed after searching the Seattle house where they believed Clemmens was hiding, and "warrants for first-degree murder have been issued against" him as reported by The Associated Press.
"These guys are all over the schools," says Edinburg detective Robert Alvarez. "They start as young as elementary. They start in junior high. And by that time, they're getting real serious as far as recruitment to get into the gang… If you don't put a stop to them there, by the time they get to high school, it's almost too late." * * * "We have kids picking up guns and shooting at each other," says Robert Alvarez. "I would think - if you take a good look at it - this year Valley-wide we've had more drive-bys than the past five years combined." He adds, "You're going to see those younger crowds of juvenile offenders committing very, very serious, very unbelievable crimes."
*** Three men with alleged ties to MS-13 indicted on charges of killing pimp in Alexandria, VA during a robbery: "Court documents said that [the victim] was a pimp who had just taken a woman from Maryland to Virginia for prostitution and that the men charged in his death were involved in a conspiracy to extort money from people involved in prostitution."
Investigators are monitoring the traffic in hopes of sweeping up gangbangers before the bloodshed - and searching Twitter after attacks for clues. "It is another tool ... just like old phone records," a police source said. "We can go through them [messages] to track these guys."
Cultivating marijuana in Indian country represents a new twist in the decades-old illicit drug trade between Mexico and the U.S., the world's largest drug-consuming market. For decades, Mexican drug gangs grew marijuana in Mexico, smuggled it across the border, and sold it in the U.S. But in the past few years, they have done what any burgeoning business would do: move closer to their customers. Illicit pot farms, the vast majority run by gangs with ties to Mexico, are growing fast across the country. The U.S. Forest Service has discovered pot farms in 61 national forests across 16 states this year, up from 49 forests in 10 states last year. New territories include public land in Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, Alabama and Virginia. The area where Mexican gangs seem to be expanding the fastest is on Indian reservations.
Police will likely make additional arrests in the case as more young prostitutes share information with detectives, said Sgt. Chris Bray, who oversees child-prostitution investigations at the Phoenix Police Vice Unit. * * * "It's not organized crime in the traditional sense, but there is cooperation between pimps operating in a city," Bray said. "It's a big track, there's plenty of room for everybody."
Carmela Iuculano was having no more of her husband Pino Rizzo's ways, and after testifying against him she now is urging other Mafia Wives to leave their husbands and the life as reported by John Follain for The Sunday Times:
"I want to say to all those who live with a mafioso: go away, leave them, get your life back. Now you're only slaves, [you think] you have to be good wives and good mothers, but the true freedom is the one I've gained, which allows me to give my children a future," she said.
The currently dead-locked jury returns from its Thanksgiving break to resume deliberations this week, and Eric Shawn from FOX News explores whether it's possible to quit the mob as Junior Gotti contends he did:
The jury announced it was deadlocked, just as the last three juries have since 2005, potentially handing federal prosecutions a stalemate. The U.S. government has so far been unable to convince 48 people that Gotti continued to follow his father's line of work. He has said he quit, in 1999, when he plead guilty to racketeering charges and went away for six years. At the time he said he thought that plea, and the sentence, would wipe the slate clean, but he was slapped with new charges when he left prison four years ago. Prosecutors have ridiculed the claim that he quit.
Alan Markovitz, the gentlemen's club entrepreneur who is behind the Penthouse Club in Philadelphia, PA is out with his new book Topless Prophetas reported by Jane Wells for CNBC, and he writes that some trouble has come with the turf:
I survived two different life-threatening shootings. I survived my club being raided and smeared. I survived some bad business deals. I worked with a partner for a period of time while he was on trial for arranging my murder. I dealt with corrupt politicians, dirty cops, and out-of-control patrons.
Tired of shtick masquerading as talent? The team over at Barely Political spoofs Lady Gaga:
Through Lady Gaga the entertainment industry is delivering a powerless caricature. Whatever happened to the voice of the strong woman in rock n' roll? While Lady Gaga is trying so hard like an adolescent teenager to shock her parents, nobody is going to remember her so-called music. Lady Gaga ain't no talent; she's a manufactured product. But in this era of inauthenticity who cares, right? The only thing that really matters these days is that everybody gets paid.
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