-Caveat Lector- > POLICE `IN DRUG-SMUGGLING RING' > > > GERMANY SAID it had uncovered a drug ring of at least 25 border > police, who in one case allegedly smuggled cocaine through > Customs by carrying suitcases full of the drug while wearing > their uniforms. Five police at Frankfurt airport were arrested in > the sting operation. > LOOKING OUT FOR CHILDREN IN WORLD'S MURDER CAPITAL > > Week in the Life OLARA OTUNNU, UN SPECIAL ENVOY > MONDAY: Olara Otunnu, the special United Nations representative > for children and armed conflict, is on a fact- finding mission in > the Colombian town of Medellin. As far as Colombians are > concerned, Medellin is the murder capital of the world. > > He has come to put children on the international agenda - a tall > order in a country where 15 million live below the poverty line > and a third of all paramilitary fighters are children. At a home > for prostitutes and former gang members, Mr Otunnu meets Valeria, > a 15-year-old "sicario", or assassin. Sicarios are often paid by > the drug barons to kill at point- blank range. With no emotion, > Valeria talks of how she held up a taxi driver and cut his throat > "by accident". She coyly admits that in the future she wants to > be a marine biologist. > > TUESDAY: Next stop, Soacha, a shanty town on the outskirts of the > capital, Bogota. The police refuse to patrol this area, and Mr > Otunnu is accompanied by a security guard. At a school run by > police cadets because of the murder rate among the teaching > staff, he is told that this is a microcosm of Colombia's > fractured society. Among the students are gangs loyal to the > paramilitaries, the rebels and the drug barons. And the school > building reflects the nation's recent history - battered and > decaying. There are few books and virtually no furniture. Mr > Otunnu hears that many children witnessed the recent murder of a > teacher, but that not a single one would talk about it. > > WEDNESDAY: Mr Otunnu meets Javier. He left his village at 14 and > joined the rebels. He says he did it because he was hungry. He > gave himself up to the army at 16 after seeing a group of his > friends slaughtered for trying to desert the guerrilla militia. > They were caught, tied to a tree and Javier saw a bullet go into > each head. Mr Otunnu, who is from Uganda, sings an Acholi welcome > song. This should be surreal, but somehow it isn't. > > THURSDAY: Before leaving Colombia, he meets the other UN agencies > on the ground - the children's fund, Unicef, is there, as is > UNHCR - the refugee agency - and UNDP, the development programme. > When he was appointed in 1997, critics said yet another layer of > UN bureaucracy would be created. But perhaps he is pointing the > way. With an office of fewer than 12 people, he has wrested > pledges from the Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka not to recruit > children under 17. And he has obtained commitments, from > governments and guerrilla factions in Sudan, Burundi, Congo and > Angola not to use soldiers under 18. Whether they fulfil their > promises is another matter. > > FRIDAY: New York. The contrasts in Mr Otunnu's life are huge. > Today he is at UN headquarters drumming up support for a security > council resolution on children - the first of its kind. He says > that resolutions are international law, and that even rebel > groups eventually want power and legitimacy. They may not have > signed treaties such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the > Child, but they can be shamed. > > SATURDAY: Mr Otunnu relaxes. He has no children of his own. But > he has adopted six from his brother and sister, who are both > dead. If it were not for the bad blood between himself and the > Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, he might have been secretary > general of the UN. Museveni intervened to prevent it and Kofi > Annan ultimately took the top job. > > Christopher Gunness > > Olara Otunnu was interviewed for the Children in Arms > documentary, to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 8pm on 7 > September. > HOW WALL ST WAS FLEECED BY THE MOST EVIL GANGSTER IN THE WORLD > > > DESCRIBED AS "the most dangerous mobster in the world", Semion > Mogilevich is in the mould of James Bond's adversaries, Ernst > Blofeld and Dr No - except that Mogilevich is real. The > 53-year-old is said to be an evil genius who, from his base in > Budapest, controls a crime syndicate with tentacles across the > world. He is also known as the "Brainy Don" because he has an > economics degree from the University of Lvov. > > According to The New York Times, investigations into Mogilevich > have uncovered a massive East-to-West money-laundering operation > using facilities at the Bank of New York. A senior London-based > executive of the bank is suspended on paid leave. The New York > Times claims her husband's company had an account through which > up to $10bn was passed. Both were Russian-born. > > Semion Mogilevich has had close connections with Britain and it > was the British intelligence service, MI6, which tipped off the > American federal authorities of its suspicions that the bank was > being used by money launderers. > > MI6 and the Police National Crime Intelligence Service (NCIS) > have been keeping a close eye on Mogilevich since the mid-1990s, > when he tried to set up an earlier money-laundering operation. A > leaked NCIS report from 1995 said: "Semion Mogilevich is one of > the world's top criminals who has a personal wealth of $100m. He > is the target of law-enforcement agencies and security services > in several countries and as a result of the effect of his > financial impact on the City of London he clearly falls in the > category of an NCIS core criminal." > > Last year New York's Village Voice magazine obtained secret FBI, > CIA and Mossad reports that assert that Mogilevich traffics in > nuclear materials, drugs, prostitutes, precious gems and stolen > art. His hit men operate in the U.S and Europe. > > He is said to control everything that goes in and out of Moscow's > Sheremetyevo International airport. He even bought a bankrupt > airline of the former Central Asian Soviet Republic to ship > heroin out of the Golden Triangle. Legally he has bought a large > tranche of the Hungarian armaments industry. > > After the article was published, American intelligence warned the > writer, Robert Friedman, that Mogilevich had put out a $100,000 > contract on him. The writer and his wife had to go into hiding. > > For once the expression "Mr Big" is no exaggeration. Yet little > is known of Mogilevich's early years. He first came to the > attention of the Soviet authorities in the 1970s when he was > involved involved in petty theft and counterfeiting with a gang > based in the Moscow suburb of Liubertskaya. > > Mogilevich made his first millions in the early 1980s, stealing > from his fellow Jews. During the great exodus of Soviet Jews to > Israel he made countless deals to buy the assets that emigrants > were not allowed to take - roubles, furniture and art - promising > to forward the proceeds to Israel. He never did. Thousands of > Jews were fleeced. > > On these proceeds he established a petroleum company, Arbat > International, and registered it on Alderney, the tax haven in > the Channel Islands. One of his partners in this venture was > Vyacheslav Ivankov, the infamous Russian Mafioso. Ivankov went to > New York to take over the Russian Mafia, and was convicted in > 1996 of extortion against two Wall Street brokers. Arbat was > later sold. > > In the 1990s, bloody gang wars in Moscow forced many of the top > mobsters to leave town. Mogilevich and his lieutenants moved to > Israel and acquired Israeli citizenship. According to an Israeli > intelligence report, Mogilevich "succeeded in building a > bridgehead in Israel" and was "developing significant and > influential [political] ties". > > In 1990 Mogilevich married a Hungarian woman. This gave him > Hungarian nationality and, with Mossad breathing down his neck, > he moved his operations to Budapest. From there he bought a > string of nightclubs across Eastern Europe which were also fronts > for prostitution. > > By the mid-1990s, Mogilevich needed to take money earned in his > wide range of criminal activities in the East and "launder" it > through legitimate companies in the West, without arousing the > interest of authorities here. In one of his first attempts, he > used an unsuspecting London law firm. One of the principals of > the practice was Adrian Churchward, 53, a solicitor from Romford, > Essex, whose Russian wife had been one of Mogilevich's earlier > girlfriends but knew nothing of his criminal activities. > > Mogilevich, posing as a legitimate businessman, set up two > British companies with Mr Churchward and his partner. Large sums > of money started going through the hands of the London lawyers. > This attracted the attention of the Metropolitan Police, who in > an operation codenamed "Sword", raided the homes of the lawyers > in May 1995, and seized pounds 2mfrom their account in the Royal > Bank of Scotland. > > No prosecutions followed. The two joint companies were dissolved, > as was the law practice. Mr Churchward now runs his own practice. > > > As a result of Operation Sword, the police thwarted Mogilevich's > attempt to launder money here, and he is banned from entering > Britain. But British intelligence has kept a close eye on him. > > MI6 became suspicious of an account at the Bank of New York. The > account was linked to a British company called Benex Worldwide > Ltd, which was set up in 1998 with an address in Woodford Green, > Essex. The main director is a 44-year-old Russian businessman > called Peter Berlin. > > Mr Berlin's wife is Lucy Edwards, who is a London-based vice > president of the Bank of New York. Over a year ago, British > intelligence told the American authorities that Benex had an > account at the bank which was experiencing massive transfers of > money. Benex is said to have links to a Canadian company called > YBM Magnex which has been identified as a front for Semion > Mogilevich. > > Following the tip-off, the FBI approached the bank and with its > co-operation monitored transfers going through the account. In > the period from October to March this amounted to some $4.2bn in > more than 10,000 transactions. Federal authorities believe as > much as $10bn has passed through the account. > > As a result, Lucy Edwards has been suspended on paid leave. A New > York- based vice president of the bank, Natasha Gurfinkel > Kagalovsky, who controlled the accounts for the bank, has also > been suspended. Both she and her husband are also Russian-born. > > Despite the staggering amount of money passing through the > account, the bank had only filed one "suspicious activity report" > with the Federal authorities. These reports are meant to be filed > at the slightest hint of money laundering. > > On Wednesday night the National Crime Squad raided the luxury > home of Peter Berlin and Lucy Edwards in a West End apartment > block. Mr Berlin told The Independent that they have no comment. > Mr Berlin and his wife later drove to their solicitors, Theodore > Goddard, to take advice over the allegations. Neighbours say the > couple were quiet and unflamboyant. One said she thought that > they bought the flat two years ago for pounds 500,000 in cash. > > Investigations are still at an early stage. No one has been > charged. The Bank of New York said yesterday that there is no > suggestion of wrongdoing by the bank. > > "The bank has been co-operating with the office of the United > States Attorney General for the Southern District of New York," > it said. > > In his rare interviews, Semion Mogilevich maintains that he is a > honest and straightforward businessman. >From TheIndependent (UK) http://www.independent.co.uk/atp/INDEPENDENT/ A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." Universal Declaration of Human Rights + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut." --- Ernest Hemingway + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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