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On The Tube

Creative Smuggling:  50 kilos of cocaine base disguised as liquid gel in ice packs

French Connection:  four high-level cops charged with drug trafficking in France

Contraband Trailer:  "you think you're the only guy with a gun?"

Pinball Wizard:  Roger Daltrey takes Tommy back on the road

Colombo Mobster Has Courtroom Hissy Fit

Was he expecting to be treated like underworld royalty or something?

Reputed Colombo consigliere Richard Fusco allegedly wished a federal prosecutor ill health yesterday in a Brooklyn courtroom where he pleaded guilty "to a scheme to shake down the rival Gambinos because he wanted them to pay the medical expenses of a mob stabbing victim" as reported by John Marzulli for the Daily News.   Fusco apparently directed the harsh words at the prosecutor after learning the government "wouldn't consent to removing his electronic monitoring device," and a clerk prompty chided the defendant to "keep your negative comments to yourself!"

Further coverage:

Co-paying for mob crimes

The Truth Behind Drug War Alliances Is Elusive

The first casualty of war is the truth the old saying goes.

A group dubbing itself Los Mata Zetas or the Zeta Killers has claimed responsibility for the murder of 35 narco traffickers from Los Zetas who were dumped last week out of two trucks onto a busy road in the tourist destination of Boca del Rio along the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz state.

The Zeta Killers purports to be acting as a vigilante group on behalf of the people but in reality it's just a front for a hired enforcement crew tied to the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels according to Mexican officials as reported by William Booth for The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, an increasing number of well-respected and highly-informed individuals are speculating that the U.S. "Fast and Furious" gun-running scandal was a CIA operation to arm the Sinaloa cartel in order to defeat Los Zetas as reported by Michael Walsh for the New York Post: 

Under this theory, the Agency feared the los Zetas drug cartel was becoming too powerful and might even mount a coup against the Mexican government. So some 2,000 weapons costing more than $1.25 million were deliberately channeled to the rival Sinaloa cartel, which operates along the American border, to keep the Zetas in check.

Both gangsters and politicians in Mexico long have suspected that the Sinaloa cartel was getting a pass from law enforcement.  For example, last June Congressman Manuel Clouthier stated "it is obvious that in Sinaloa there is a pact" as then reported by Alexandra Olson for The Associated Press:  "'It has been a safe state for organized crime to live there and work there and develop with total tranquility,' he charges."

A top lieutenant for the Sinaloa cartel claimed last month that he and other reputed leaders were allowed by U.S. authorities to bring cocaine into the country for years in exchange for information on rivals, and although federal prosecutors admit to at least one cooperating agreement otherwise deny that Sinaloa traffickers received immunity from prosecution.

Prior related coverage:

Judge Denies Bail For Eddy And Chippy

Two suspected mobsters who are among those accused of shaking down jiggle joints in Providence, RI won't be home for Christmas this year to celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

A federal judge has denied bail pending trial for reputed capo Edward "Eddy" Lato and his alleged soldier Alfred "Chippy" Scivola as reported by Laura Crimaldi for The Associated Press:

Lato's defense attorney, Mark L. Smith, said making a case for freedom would be "futile" given his client's 1999 conviction for racketeering conspiracy. Scivola, however, did make a bid for release, prompting federal prosecutors to reveal some of the evidence from cooperating mob members and secretly recorded conversations. Assistant U.S. Attorney William J. Ferland said the recorded conversations show Scivola "throwing his weight around as a member of the mob."

Former reputed Patriarca boss Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio was indicted for his alleged role in the shakedown racket last January.

Spring Trial For Whitey Bulger Gal Pal

April is the cruelest month the poets say, and Whitey Bulger gal pal Catherine Greig will stand trial on April 23 for allegedly harboring the Irish mobster during their sixteen years on the lam as reported by Laurel J. Sweet for the Boston Herald.  Moreover, according to a court filing, federal prosecutors intend on bringing a superseding indictment with additional charges against Greig as reported by Denise Lavoie for The Associated Press.

Prison Guard Charged As Prison Pervert

Harry Nicoletti, a 59-year-old guard at Pittsburgh's state prison, has been "charged with 92 criminal counts alleging that he sexually and physically abused more than 20 inmates under his control," and "primarily targeted inmates who had been convicted of sex crimes against children or those who were gay or transgender" as reported by Paula Reed Ward for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Apparently Nicoletti wasn't the only suspected pervert working at the prison, and the Allegheny County District Attorney said "he has enough evidence to file criminal charges against 11 additional employees" as reported by Paula Reed Ward for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:  "Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said the majority of those who could be charged are corrections officers, though there are staff members as well."

Meanwhile, over on the west coast, the American Civil Liberties Union is calling for the resignation of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca for allegedly ignoring degenerate guards within the prison system as reported by The Associated Press:

In one case, an inmate at the downtown Men's Central Jail said deputies accused him of stealing mail then punched him, breaking an eye socket, and marched him naked to a cell occupied by two gang members.  Deputies repeatedly ignored the man's cries for help as the gang members raped him while another inmate flushed his head down a toilet to muffle his screams, the man, who had been jailed for making criminal threats, said in a sworn declaration.

Sometimes the supposed good guys are the actual bad guys, and the uniform is nothing more than cover.

FBI: Drug Sales At Boeing Plant

Apparently twirly birds weren't the only things flying high out of a Boeing plant.

The FBI has busted three dozen people for their alleged roles in selling or buying prescription drugs including oxycodone and xanax at a manufacturing facility outside Philadelphia, PA that makes military helicopters as reported by Nathan Gorenstein and Mari Schaefer for The Inquirer:  "'This wasn't an organized ring. It was a number of independent actors,' said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger. 'A number of independent sellers and no shortage of buyers were found by investigators.'"

On The Tube

Self Destruction:  Michael Jackson was his own worst enemy

Trigger Happy:  man shot four times outside Brooklyn McDonald's

Jewel Heist:  thieves cut through concrete wall to grab $2.8M in loot in Atlanta, GA

Cheating Ways:  college whiz kid scores for high school dummies on SAT

The Mob Goes On A Roman Holiday

The 'Ndangheta or Calabrian Mafia long has been investing its drug profits in commercial ventures in northern Italy, and now Anti-Mafia Commission chief Giuseppe Pisanu is warning that the crime group is expanding its reach in the country's capital city of Rome as reported by AGI News.

Italian Police: Mobsters Plotted Against Judges

Nothing gets a mobster's knickers in a knot more than losing their ill-earned spoils.

Italian authorities have arrested twelve reputed mobsters from the Gioia Tauro clan from the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia for their suspected roles in a plot to exact revenge against judges who authorized the seizure of assets allegedly tainted with dirty money from the cocaine trade as reported by Adnkronos:  "The organization launders billions of euros of illegal profits in Italian restaurants, hotels, resorts and other seemingly legitimate businesses, according to Italian authorities."

Five More Souls Lose Their Heads In Mexico

The Headless Horseman who chased Ichabod Crane through Sleepy Hollow is getting some frightful competition in the ghost world as crime groups in Mexico continue to dispatch poor souls into the afterlife without their heads.

In the resort town of Acapulco along the Pacific Coast police discovered a wooden box with five heads outside a primary school as reported by BBC News:  "last month, as the new school year began, dozens of teachers in Acapulco said criminal gangs had threatened them with violence if they did not hand over half their salaries from 1 October."

The cartels long ago diversified beyond the drug trade to include the extortion racket.

Mob Refugee Pleads Guilty To Fraud Charge

Arthur Jones, a former Chicago commodities trader who apparently fled his gambling debts to the mob in 1979 by establishing a new life under a false name in Las Vegas, NV, has "pleaded guilty to felony fraud for seeking an application for a driver's license under a false name" as reported by Chuck Goudie for WLS:  "Nevada authorities found him working at the Rampart Casino under the alias Joseph R. Sandelli . . . in the sports book section of the casino."

Mob Cop Gets Two Years In Federal Prison

A cop from Al Capone's stomping ground of Cicerco, IL has been sentenced to two years in prison "for his role in a mob racketeering crew" as reported by Chuck Goudie for WLS:  Dino Vitale "had pleaded guilty to providing police information to top members of the Chicago Outfit, most notably Mike 'The Large Guy' Sarno."  Last December a federal jury convicted Sarno and others for their roles in a criminal enterprise involving a string of burglary jobs and the bombing of a legitimate video poker firm which competed against Outfit business.

On The Tube

Mud Bowl:  the dirtiest soccer match ever 

Sunken Treasure:  WWII shipwreck with $200M in silver bars discovered off Irish coast

Shakey Moment:  startled tourists flee Washington Monument during August earthquake

Vertigo Inducing:  worker inspects Washington Monument after September hurricane

Drug Lord's Wife Gives Birth To Twins In U.S.

Is America a great country or what?

Emma Coronel, the wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, "traveled to Southern California in mid-July, and on Aug. 15 gave birth to twin girls at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, according to birth records and a senior U.S. law enforcement official" as reported by Tracy Wilkinson and Ken Ellingwood for The Los Angeles Times:

Turns out Coronel, a 22-year-old former beauty queen, holds U.S. citizenship, which entitles her to travel freely to the U.S. and to use its hospitals. By being born in California, her little girls now also have U.S. citizenship.

The Forbes-listed billionaire Guzman heads the Sinaloa cartel which is the 800-pound guerilla in narco land, and the United States has a $5 million bounty on his head.