Latest news with #smuggling
Free Malaysia Today
32 minutes ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
MACC records statement of ‘Datuk' in scrap metal smuggling probe
The businessman is being investigated by MACC in connection with a suspected large-scale smuggling syndicate operating across five states. PETALING JAYA : The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has recorded a statement from a businessman with a 'Datuk' title as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of scrap metal smuggling. An MACC source said the man had been overseas since July 12 and had returned to Malaysia last night, Utusan Malaysia reported. 'He came to the MACC headquarters to have his statement recorded. The process is still ongoing,' the source was quoted as saying. The businessman is among several individuals being investigated in connection with a suspected large-scale smuggling syndicate operating across five states. The anti-graft agency has so far seized assets estimated to be worth over RM183 million, including eight properties in Penang, six luxury vehicles, and five branded watches believed to be owned by the 'Datuk'. MACC has also frozen 45 company accounts and 82 personal bank accounts involving funds totalling RM51 million. Investigations are being carried out under Sections 16 and 18 of the MACC Act 2009. Authorities are also probing possible offences under the Income Tax Act 1967, the Customs Act 1967, and anti-money laundering laws.
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
$153 million of cocaine found hidden in banana shipment in Russia
Russia said Wednesday it had seized 1,800 pounds of cocaine hidden under a shipment of bananas, calling it its largest bust of drugs from Latin America this year. Russia's customs service, working jointly with the FSB security service, said it had uncovered a batch worth "more than 12 billion rubles ($153 million)" stashed in banana containers. The cocaine packages — disguised in briquettes bearing the label of a French luxury fashion brand — were discovered in a "hidden cavity" under the bananas, it added. In a post on social media, the Federal Customs Service of Russia released images of the cocaine and said service dogs helped sniff out the hidden drugs. Customs officials said they carried out the bust after a tip-off from "foreign colleagues about the intention of a South American criminal group to organize a smuggling channel for cocaine supplies to Russia." It said an investigation had been opened into large-scale drug trafficking, a charge that in Russia carries maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Russia has a zero-tolerance policy towards drug use and smuggling, handing heavy sentences to those convicted of trafficking small amounts of narcotics -- including foreigners. Cocaine smuggling into Russia has surged over the past two years, according to Russia's Izvestia newspaper. Drug traffickers are increasingly looking to the country as a transit hub, in part because the Ukrainian port of Odesa has become inaccessible due to the war in Ukraine, the paper said. Cocaine has been found hidden in banana shipments across the globe in recent months. In May, employees at a Norwegian fruit distributor discovered a packet of cocaine in a box of bananas, alerting customs officials who found a stash of 147 kilos. Last December, authorities in the Dominican Republic confiscated nearly 9.5 tons of cocaine from a banana shipment at the country's most important seaport. In August 2024, customs agents seized more than 200 pounds of cocaine at the port in Greece from a ship carrying the fruit. The month before that, police dogs in Ecuador helped find more than six tons of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment headed to Germany. In March last year, Bulgarian customs officials confiscated about 170 kilograms of cocaine from a ship transporting bananas from Ecuador. The month before that, British authorities said they found more than 12,500 pounds of cocaine hidden in a shipment of the fruit, breaking the record for the biggest single seizure of hard drugs in the country.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Germany to close loophole to allow police to seize small boats in Starmer migrant deal
Germany have agreed to close a loophole that will allow police to seize small boats being used in the Channel as part of a 'friendship treaty' with the UK. Sir Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz are due to sign the deal on Thursday, just one week after the prime minister struck a 'one in, one out' migrant return deal with France's Emmanuel Macron. While there is no similar returns deal with Germany, it does include a pledge that they EU country will make people smuggling to the UK an offence by the end of 2025. While people smuggling into fellow EU countries is a crime under German law, trafficking migrants into the UK has not been illegal since Brexit. The majority of asylum seekers who cross the Channel embark from the French coast, however Germany is viewed as a transit country for migrants and is frequently used as a storage hubs for boats and transport equipment. At least 22,000 people have already made the journey since January, putting 2025 on course to be a record year for crossings. Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, had won German agreement to change the law to criminalise assisting the smuggling of migrants to the UK in December with Mr Merz's predecessor Olaf Scholz However, a change in government in Berlin meant that it had to be renegotiated and will now be announced on Thursday. Prior to his visit, Sir Keir said: 'Chancellor Merz's commitment to make necessary changes to German law to disrupt the supply lines of the dangerous vessels which carry illegal migrants across the Channel is hugely welcome,' Sir Keir said. 'As the closest of allies, we will continue to work closely together to deliver on the priorities that Brits and Germans share.' During Mr Merz's visit, the leaders are expected to unveil an agreement to jointly produce defence exports such as Boxer armoured vehicles and Typhoon jets and commit to developing their deep precision strike missile in the next decade, with a range of more than 2,000 kilometres. The chancellor and Sir Keir will also sign a bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty that includes plans to set up a new UK-Germany Business Forum. Sir Keir said: 'The Treaty we will sign today, the first of its kind, will bring the UK and Germany closer than ever. It not only marks the progress we have already made and the history we share. 'It is the foundation on which we go further to tackle shared problems and invest in shared strengths.' A series of commercial investments are being announced to coincide with the visit, worth more than £200 million and will create more than 600 new jobs. These include defence tech company Stark setting up a production facility in Swindon, its first outside Germany, and conversational AI firm Cognigy investing £50 million and expanding its UK team from 13 to 150.
CBC
3 hours ago
- CBC
Neighbours shocked after dad and son charged with manufacturing and smuggling guns
Social Sharing Residents of a suburban cul-de-sac in east London say they were shocked when heavily-armed police officers in tactical gear descended on their quiet street and later laid drug manufacturing and smuggling charges against a father and son who had lived on the street for years. The police raid happened May 29 on Fundy Avenue, with an "intense and sudden" police presence before dawn that ended with police seizing home-made guns, firearms parts, a 3D printer and an assortment of drugs. "It happened very early in the morning," neighbour Alex Raemisch said. "We saw the lights, sirens, and lots of activity." The small circle of houses is a tight-knit community, according to another neighbour Rachel Chew. There's a communal basketball net for the kids on the street, and the neighbours have garage sales and barbecues together, she added. "This place is a beautiful spot in the evenings and on weekends," she said. The surprise raid included tactical officers and police dogs swarming the small bungalow at around 5 a.m., neighbours said. Benito Schiavone, 33, and his father, Modesto Dino Schiavone, 57, are now facing charges related to smuggling and manufacturing prohibited weapons and devices. They will also be charged with drug possession when they appear in court, officials said. When CBC News knocked on the accused men's door, the older Schiavone answered but declined to speak. He returned home the same day he and his son were arrested, according to neighbours. The two men were rarely seen by neighbours, and the home belonged to another family member, Chew said, adding she was angry that illegal activity could have been happening next door. "You don't know what that might bring," she said. "This is our little hub…and I think that that's just kind of an insult to what we're trying to build together." The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) worked with the London police to investigate the two men and to conduct the raid. The two men were initially flagged in October 2024 when packages containing a silencer and a 50-round magazine were intercepted at a mail processing facility in Mississauga, officials said. While the raid came as a shock to the neighbours, similar searches happen about six times a year in suburban homes, said Abid Morgan, the director of the CBSA's Ontario firearm smuggling enforcement team. "It's just your average neighborhood where we see a lot of this type of firearms manufacturing taking place, especially utilizing 3D printers," he explained. "From time to time, narcotics are seized as well." Starting in 2019, CBSA began to see 3D-printed weapons appear regularly, Morgan said, adding that as the printing technology advances and is able to make increasingly capable weapons, it's becoming fairly commonplace. While the exact number of firearms seized during the Fundy Avenue raid is unknown, it was on the "upper end of average," Morgan said. The items seized included: privately manufactured firearms firearm parts a 3D printer 35 g cocaine 24.5 g carfentanil oxycodone and boric acid The accused are scheduled to appear in London court in July, facing eight counts each of unauthorized possession of a prohibited firearm, four counts each of smuggling prohibited devices, four counts each of unauthorized importation of a prohibited device, and two counts each of manufacturing a prohibited firearm.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
British woman charged in Germany with Thai cannabis smuggling
A 21-year-old British woman has been charged in Germany with trafficking drugs from Bradford, from Knebworth in Hertfordshire, was arrested at Munich Airport nearly three months ago, on 22 in Germany said she had been charged with attempted transit of cannabis and abetting the international trafficking of will appear at a hearing in Munich District Court on 6 August. Thailand decriminalised cannabis in 2022, when "low strength" weed became July 2024, the British government announced a partnership with Thai customs to tackle a "surge" of illegal cannabis shipments to the then, more than 50 British nationals have been arrested in Thailand for attempted cannabis smuggling. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
