Latest news with #extradiction
BreakingNews.ie
7 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
George Gibney expected to return to Ireland to face criminal charges
Former Irish Olympic swimming coach George Gibney is expected to return to Ireland as early as Tuesday to face criminal charges. The 77-year-old was arrested on foot of an Irish extradition warrant in Florida earlier this month. Advertisement Mr Gibney has been charged with 78 counts of indecent assault and one charge of attempted rape against four minor females aged between eight and 15 years at the time of the alleged offences. It is understood that Mr Gibney will be flown back to Ireland tonight and is expected to arrive in Ireland on Tuesday. He is being accompanied by gardaí on the flight. He will be brought before Dublin District Court once he arrives back in the state. It comes almost two weeks after a US judge ordered the extradition of Mr Gibney. Advertisement US magistrate Judge Daniel Irick made the order at a hearing in Florida earlier this month. The decision came after Mr Gibney had agreed to be extradited from the US to stand trial over multiple sex offence charges. In court documents, it stated that Mr Gibney is sought by the Irish Government, which has filed charges against him and obtained a warrant for his arrest. Mr Gibney, who had sex offence charges against him dismissed in the 1990s, has lived in the US for years. Advertisement In 2020, the podcast Where Is George Gibney, produced by Second Captains and the BBC, highlighted allegations of abuse against Mr Gibney and prompted new complainants to come forward.
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Ecuador's biggest drug lord ‘Fito' extradited to US
Ecuadorean gang leader Adolfo Macias Villamar, also known as 'Fito', is set to appear in a federal court in the United States, where he will plead not guilty to international charges of drug and weapons trafficking, his lawyer says. The Ecuadorean government on Sunday extradited the notorious drug trafficker, a month after he was recaptured following a 2024 escape from a maximum-security penitentiary, the country's prison authority said. Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, was serving a 34-year sentence at a prison in Guayaquil for a slew of crimes, including drug trafficking, organised crime, and murder. The flight transporting Macias landed in New York state on Sunday night, the report said. His lawyer told the Reuters news agency that Macias 'will plead not guilty' before the Brooklyn federal court on Monday. Details of the handover to the US government and the extradition were not specified. The US government has yet to issue an official statement following the extradition. The US Attorney's Office had filed charges in April against Macias on suspicion of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms violations, including weapons smuggling. The former taxi driver turned crime boss agreed in a Quito court last week to be extradited to the US to face the charges. He is the first Ecuadorean extradited by his country since a new measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which President Daniel Noboa sought the approval of moves to boost his war on criminal gangs. Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world's two top cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as rival gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control. Cult following Soon after Macias escaped from prison in January 2024, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of 'internal armed conflict' and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to 'neutralise' the gangs. The move has been criticised by human rights organisations. As a drug lord, Macias cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public. While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to 'the Ecuadorian people' while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches. Macias's Los Choneros has ties to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, Colombia's Gulf Clan, which is considered the world's largest cocaine exporter, as well as Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organised Crime Observatory. His escape from prison prompted widespread violence and a massive military and police recapture operation, including government 'wanted' posters offering $1m for information leading to his arrest. On June 25, Macias was found hiding in a bunker concealed under floor tiles in a luxury home in the fishing port of Manta, the centre of operations for Los Choneros. Noboa declared he would be extradited, 'the sooner the better'. 'We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law,' Noboa told CNN at the time. More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador's ports, according to government data. In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine.
Reuters
a day ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Ecuador gang leader 'Fito' to plead not guilty in US after extradition
QUITO, July 20 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean gang leader Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as "Fito," is set to appear in U.S. federal court on Monday, where he will plead not guilty to international charges of drug and weapons trafficking, his lawyer said. Macias, the leader of the Los Choneros gang, was taken out of prison in Ecuador earlier on Sunday to be handed over to U.S. authorities. The U.S. and Ecuadorean governments have not confirmed his extradition. Flight data shows that a U.S. government plane departed from Guayaquil after 2 p.m. local time. "Mr. Macias and I will appear tomorrow before the Brooklyn federal court ... where he will plead not guilty," his lawyer, Alexei Schacht, told Reuters. "After, he will be held in a to-be-determined prison." Macias escaped last year from Ecuadorean prison, where he was serving a 34-year sentence for a slew of crimes. He was recaptured last month. The U.S. Department of Justice has stated that under Macias' direction, Los Choneros committed violent acts against law enforcement, politicians, lawyers, prosecutors and civilians. Ecuador's government says the gang exercises vast control over the nation's prisons, which are plagued by corruption and overcrowding. Ecuadoreans voted in favor of allowing the extradition of citizens in a referendum called by President Daniel Noboa, who has vowed to crack down on rising crime.
The Sun
6 days ago
- The Sun
Vile people smuggler who trafficked 9 adults & 2 kids argues getting deported would be ‘too disruptive for his children'
A PEOPLE smuggler who trafficked nine adults and two children has argued that being deported would be too disruptive for his kids. Miklovan Bazegurore's lawyers tried to argue that being extradited to Belgium would breach his right to family life. They claimed that his daughter, 10, who has special educational needs, would suffer if he was jailed in a different country. The Kosovan national was locked up in 2018 after pleading guilty at Aylesbury Crown Court to conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration. He had links to a lorry that was caught by the National Crime Agency in Milton Keynes in 2016 having nine Albanian adults and two children hidden next to a concrete mixer inside. Since his release in 2023, he has been fighting extradition to Belgium, where he was handed a separate conviction for people smuggling and sentenced to five years. His lawyer tried to argue that extraditing him would 'be extremely disruptive for the children', according to The Times. But The Court of Appeal his offences as part of an 'international smuggling ring" were so bad that extradition outweighed the impact on his kid. Bazegurore is expected to be deported in the next few weeks. It comes after a sick Palestinian gran won permission to come to Britain for medical treatment — despite fears it could undermine immigration controls. The 67-year-old has a daughter, 50, living in Britain. She argued successfully at an immigration tribunal last month they had a right to family life under a European Human Rights rule. But in court documents seen by The Sun on Sunday, the Home Office warned it could also lead to a 'proliferation' of similar applications. The woman, who suffers from spinal stenosis, is financially supported by her daughter. She lives in war-torn Gaza City and was deemed vulnerable by the tribunal as she suffers from PTSD and depression. The treatment is expected to cost about £20,000 at a private hospital in Windsor, Berks, and the woman will return to Gaza after it is completed. Upper Tribunal Judge Rebecca Owens allowed her appeal for a visitor visa. 'Right to family life' deportation loophole to FINALLY be closed in long-awaited crackdown By Harry Cole and Jack Elsom A LONG-awaited crackdown on dodgy 'family life' loopholes in deportation cases will take a huge step forward. Judges will be ordered to ignore bogus claims featuring laughable excuses which left-wing lawyers have been able to repeatedly exploit. An Albanian criminal was recently allowed to stay under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights partly because his son does not like chicken nuggets abroad. A senior Government source promised: 'The bonkers predicament that Britain finds herself in where a migrant can dodge deportation thanks to our own lawyers weaponising Article 8 because they don't like chicken nuggets is over. 'The European Convention on Human Rights has taken the mickey for far too long and we will change the law to give primacy to our sovereign Parliament.' Under Article 8 of the ECHR, people are able to claim their right to a family or private life, which is often weaponised by left-wing lawyers fighting for asylum seekers and foreign criminals to stay in the country. The Government will instead propose a law change to give British courts primacy over ECHR rulings — but the move will require Commons legislation.
Russia Today
12-07-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Russian crypto engineer detained in US asks Trump for pardon
A Russian crypto entrepreneur incarcerated in the US has appealed to President Donald Trump for a pardon, a human rights advocate has told RT. Anatoly Legkodymov, who has already served a sentence in the US for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, is now facing extradition to France to stand trial on the same charges. Legkodymov, the founder and majority owner of cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, was arrested in Miami in January 2023 by the US Justice Department. It accused him of running a platform that facilitated more than $700 million in proceeds from illegal gambling and drug transactions. The DOJ said Bitzlato failed to implement basic money laundering safeguards. In December 2023, Legkodymov, a Russian national and resident of Shenzhen, China, pleaded guilty to the charges, and in July 2024, a US court sentenced him to the 18 months he had already served. At the time, the judge noted that the harsh detention conditions were a factor in not imposing a longer term. Prosecutors sought at least four years, arguing that he 'created a clearinghouse for dirty money.' He was supposed to be deported to Russia after being released, but the US authorities blocked the move after receiving an extradition request from France, where he is facing up to 20 years for the same charges. Commenting on the situation, Ivan Melnikov, the vice president of the Russian branch of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, told RT that Legkodymov's decision to seek a presidential pardon was driven by concerns over double jeopardy. Melnikov noted that being prosecuted twice for the same activities 'violates all legal norms.' He argued that Legkodymov 'is not a criminal,' but got caught up in a 'political campaign against the crypto market and talented Russian programmers.' According to Melnikov, hopes for clemency are buoyed by changing US attitudes towards the cryptomarket, illustrated by Trump's recent decision to pardon Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road dark web marketplace, as well as several BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange executives. 'There is hope for a return to a more balanced and fair approach to digital finance and for gradually improving dialogue between the US and Russia,' Melnikov said. During Trump's current term, Washington and Moscow have completed several prisoner exchanges. Last month, the Russian Embassy in the US said it is monitoring the Legkodymov case, and that he must be returned to his homeland.
