Latest news with #Kock
TimesLIVE
2 days ago
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
TimesLIVE racer finishes second at a rain-soaked East London circuit
Prince George Grand Prix circuit — a sunny East London Friday practice day greeted the throng of racers in the eight classes of the Extreme Festival Tour powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday. The rehearsal preceded an eventful qualifying and racing on a Saturday morning marked by cold and rainy weather resulting in a number of racing incidents and another second place podium finish for the No 50 TimesLIVE Toyota GR Yaris. Qualifying With panic about this track having set in weeks before in our GR Yaris rookie group, its reputation preceded its real enjoyment. It's the fastest circuit on the calendar with potential to hit more than 220km/h on some sections and it introduced us to new and wilder emotions, the crucial decision-making pro racers face at times for a chance at victory and as pure survival tactics. A wet East London immediately offered surprises, starting with loss of control of my GR Yaris on the sixth lap of qualifying. I held on but decided the conditions were too dangerous and opted to exit the session before its close. An undamaged car was the priority no matter where I'm placed on the starting grid. The drama taps were then switched on. The first red flag was raised when dealer man Riaan de Rui hit a patch of water that trickled onto the main straight during the GR Cup group two qualifiers, his GR Corolla careening off the track and landing on its roof. The Gauteng resident escaped uninjured, but it caused a long delay as race marshals rebuilt the tyre wall. With the day's arrangements muddled up and with the rest of the qualifiers scrapped, the luck I'd hoped for going into this race shined when GR Cup team manager Leeroy Poulter made the call that Friday's practice times would now determine the start grid positions for the late race. It would also be a single 12-lap race for double points instead of the regular pair of eight-lap heats. The heat My fastest practice time of 1:36.563 meant starting fifth on the mixed dealer/media class grid and third in our GR Yaris field, behind Car Magazine's Kyle Kock. A good launch on a dried track had me neck-and-neck with Kock with AutoTrader's Lawrence Minnie nearby heading into turn 1 — the frighteningly fast Potters Pass curve. We continued towards the even faster Rifle bend and into the slow Cocobana right turn with me still behind Kock and him tailing dealer man Mario De Sousa. Sticking close by paid off as Kock skidded and overshot his braking on approach to Beacon bend with De Sousa holding back to avoid contact. The fracas created an opportunity for me to pass on the inside line and I didn't miss the chance to capitalise and pounced for a double overtake on the pair onto the main straight. I never looked back until the chequered flag where I finished second in the class behind winner and championship leader Nabil Abdool from SuperSport. The weekend's point haul is a bigger cushion against Kock who arrived in East London a single point behind me in the overall standings. The next round will be a return to Cape Town's Killarney raceway on September 13.
Boston Globe
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Quincy 400 celebration to celebrate July 4 with maritime festival
'And the Marina Bay area is a beautiful spot, and I think some people forget about it,' Kock said in an interview with the Globe. 'It's beautiful out in the boardwalk, so it's a chance for us, also, to liven up the boardwalk for the July 4th weekend and bring folks out there, and hopefully the businesses will reap some of the benefit.' The city, best known as the birthplace of US Presidents John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, tries to plan family-friendly celebrations, Koch said. Advertisement 'It's challenging raising a family in these times, so anytime we can help families ... give them some things to do for enjoyment.' The festival kicks off with a cake-cutting ceremony at the Clock Tower at 3 p.m. Friday, followed by a Lexington Minutemen Reenactment from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Orchid Reed Band will also perform later that evening, the statement said. Advertisement Saturday's festivities will include a decorated children's bike and wagon parade, performances by the Middlesex County Fife and Drum and The Sultans Band, and a light up your boat display for Marina Bay Members, the statement said. Sunday's schedule includes a decorated dinghy parade, performances by fire eaters and magic shows, and sand sculptures. 'Not everyone gets to go away, you know, to the Cape or wherever. A lot of families [are] around, so it's a great thing for a family to do on the July 4th weekend,' he said. Koch said that he is especially looking forward to the illuminated boat display, in which boat owners will be encouraged to turn on their lights. 'The marina is one of the largest in the northeast and it's a very active place,' Koch said. 'If a lot of the folks get into that, that will be quite a sight.' Adam Sennott can be reached at
TimesLIVE
12-05-2025
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
TimesLIVE racer finishes second overall at Aldo Scribante
The Extreme Festival Tour powered by Coca-Cola visited Gqeberha's Aldo Scribante circuit this past weekend. If you've ever wondered whether a bunch of regular guys who write about cars, and others who sell cars for a living, could be turned into pro-racers in a season, this particular racing tour can give you the answer. TimesLIVE has been right in the middle of the competition with five other media houses in a specific GR Yaris class. There's Toyota dealer staff in GR Corollas, and a youth development class racing in GR 86 coupes. The Toyota Gazoo Racing SA field is popular at race meetings for their menacing black paint colours and the close racing between the amateur race drivers. Two rounds have been completed in Cape Town's Killarney circuit and Kyalami in Midrand thus far. Us media hacks had been using first generation GR Yaris models launched in SA in mid-2021, and equipped with six-speed manual gearboxes. My previous outings have yielded two third-place podium finishes. This past weekend Aldo Scribante brought a lot of new things, starting with box-fresh MY25 GR Yaris car fitted with automatic transmissions, and a second place overall finish. It was a hard-won step up though. The media field arrived at the Bay of Bluewaters with horns sharpened and cars visually transformed. Note the now black and yellow TimesLIVE car instead of the multicoloured cousin from last month's race. The shock to the system and a true test of racing mettle started with Friday's two practice rounds. Aldo Scribante has a notoriously coarse tarmac surface, and we initiated ourselves with the track on old tyres. Not surprising that we slithered about all day, learning little about the new car's racing prowess. Saturday morning's qualifying session, and both morning and afternoon races would be completed on fresh rubber though. A racing strategy was another first-time requirement for the band of media challenge racers. Drivers had to make a call whether to use all of the eight qualifying laps on the abrasive surface to hunt for an advantageous grid start position, risking the vitality of the tyres for the main races, or use fewer qualifying laps to preserve the grip and rely on race craft for a good outcome. I opted for the latter, qualifying 14th overall at the start and fourth in the bunched-up dealer and media classes. With fresher tyres fitted, the first race was a spirited affair that saw me pick out opponents, including my closest points and class rival Kyle Kock from Car Magazine after he left the door open at the Dunlop corner. The qualifying gamble paid off, with a second-place finish in the GR Yaris bunch at the end of race one. The second race was an even more frenzied fight. Once more, on the rolling start I managed to outrun Kock and a dealer Corolla GR to the first corner, and onto the rear bumper of class leader Nabil Abdool, who was behind the leading GR Corollas of Paul de Vos and Mario de Sousa. A small lapse in concentration resulted in overshooting a braking point, and onto the grass we went but I held on, rejoining the field behind Kock, who hadn't wasted a second to capitalise. The small, powerful and loud car that's been as fast and nippy in places where the bigger cars rule was just on song on the day. Though finishing race two in third place, a higher race lap time aggregate ahead of Kock was enough to secure a second overall podium finish on the day and a beautiful Aldo Scribante podium winner's trophy. Four races are still to be staged during 2025, and with a new found vigour among the rookie competitors the series is starting to heat up, and the prospects of turning the car guy next door into a Top Gear Stig ever more curious. Follow the action on YouTube, or better yet, come to the races.
Wales Online
12-05-2025
- Wales Online
He pretended to be a quiet antiques dealer but was really up to no good on a huge scale
He pretended to be a quiet antiques dealer but was really up to no good on a huge scale Johnny Kock used a pond liner company as a front for a vast criminal enterprise 125 kilos of cocaine was seized on its way to Liverpooll after being imported by antiques dealer Johnny Kock A man who masqueraded as a "respectable businessman" exploited a small business as a façade to unleash an avalanche of cocaine upon Merseyside, with the overall haul approaching nearly a billion pounds. Johnny Kock operated under the guise of this seemingly legitimate business to import colossal quantities of potent cocaine concealed in boxes of washing powder – inadvertently involving innocent companies in his scheme. The Dutch national, who resided in Wavertree, Liverpool, stands accused of orchestrating the traffic of up to six tonnes of the controlled substance across 57 different consignments for local criminal networks. Kock, who spent several years living in Liverpool and feigned a career as an antiques trader, fell into the hands of authorities during an operation initiated by the National Crime Agency (NCA) towards the end of 2013. When the trial was underway, the prosecuting lawyer remarked: "It's at the very highest level of drug importation into this country." Meanwhile, a judge at the crown court echoed this severity, saying: "In terms of the amounts of cocaine this must be one of the biggest ever offences considered by the courts." For orchestrating this colossal drugs conspiracy, Kock received a 25-year prison sentence. He later died at HMP Berwyn in Wales during August 2021, reports the Liverpool Echo. Johnny Kock (Image: NCA ) Article continues below Kock resided in an unassuming semi-detached abode on Willow Road, Wavertree, sharing his life with his younger partner Deborah Fagan. To those acquainted with him, he projected a demeanor described as "quiet, intelligent and unsuspecting". An individual familiar with Kock conveyed: "[He] presented himself as a respectable businessman, getting on in age, and there was nothing to raise suspicion. "Everything about him seemed legitimate, even down to the way he dressed. It was perfect for the crime gangs because no-one in authority would cast doubt on him." Posthumously, while speaking with the ECHO, Rob Kock, his brother, acknowledged that although it was common knowledge he was involved in criminal activities, he insisted he was not a "bad guy". Rob shared some insight stating: "He ran a transport business, but transporting illegal stuff. He fetched the stuff and delivered it. He was long in this business and made a lot of money with it all those years." Nevertheless, Kock managed to evade scrutiny for a considerable duration until a seizure by Border Force agents brought him into the spotlight. This incident reached a head in October 2023 when the discovery of 23 kilos of cocaine and 110,000 Euros, en route to a warehouse at Knowsley Industrial Park in Kirkby, set off alarms. The illicit materials were found concealed in a shipment of soap powder at the Channel Tunnel entrance in Coquelles, France. Geaplan Folien, a German company that unknowingly arranged deliveries of pond liner and later washing powder to Koch, was informed about the discovery and alerted police to an impending shipment. German customs in Bremen discovered 107kg of high-purity cocaine within the consignment. The shipment was permitted to continue its journey to Kirkby, but the drugs were replaced with decoy packages. As police searched his latest delivery, Kock anxiously enquired about the delay but, failing to notice anything unusual, he and his partner Fagan were present to collect it. Unaware that the drugs had been substituted, he loaded his boxes of washing powder into his van and was subsequently arrested as he drove away on Edge Lane onto the M62. Police also discovered £4,570 in his van and £7,170 at the home he shared with Fagan - believed to be proceeds from his drug importing operation. Investigators believe that the arrest of Kock, who is suspected to have operated covertly in Liverpool from 2010 until his apprehension in October last year, has shut down one of the UK's largest drug trafficking routes. Investigations revealed that Kock had frequently visited Geaplan's headquarters in Edewecht – 40 miles from the Dutch border – in person to pay for the pond-liner in cash since at least April 2010. Orders were sent to multiple locations, but they consistently ended up with Kock's Aquaries Ltd, situated in the Binns Road industrial estate in Old Swan, as the final recipient. In Kock's 2014 court appearance, the prosecution stated that the two impounded shipments represented just two out of a known total of 57 deliveries made to his business. Kock's Dutch connections were believed to have enabled the drugs pipeline between mainland Europe and Merseyside. The police estimated that at the very least, £3.5 million worth of ultra-pure cocaine was imported on a fortnightly basis due to his operations. However, the court discovered he could have potentially smuggled up to 6,000 kilograms, worth nearly a billion pounds if sold on the streets. At that time, the National Crime Agency (NCA) reported that the UK received between 25 and 30 tonnes of cocaine annually. An authority added that upon finding a discreet, yet consistent cocaine supply channel in the northwest, Liverpool gangs "must have thought they had struck gold". Initially, Kock admitted to collaborating to circumvent the import prohibition on Class A substances and three instances of holding illicit goods. However, he tried to change his plea on the narcotics charge to not guilty, insisting he had assumed it was cannabis and never checked the contents. This attempt failed following a two-day trial. Judge Mark Brown condemned the drug trafficker, emphasising the audacious nature of the operation, stating: "It was in my opinion a relatively simple but audacious way of getting class A drugs into the UK. Whilst it isn't possible for the prosecution to determine precisely the weight of cocaine you imported it was obviously a vast amount, at least between 1,300kg and 6,000kg, worth many, many millions of pounds." The judge further remarked on the quality of the narcotics concerned: "Also this was high purity cocaine that no doubt would have been cut up for street dealing. This case highlights the ease with which vast amounts of cocaine can be imported into this country. You must have known you were playing for high stakes both in financial reward and the consequences if discovered." In addition, Kock's accomplice received a prison term, serving 12 months following a guilty plea regarding his involvement with the drugs-related finances. Cocaine imported by Johnny Kock was seized on the continent in a consignment of soap powder Subsequently, Kock faced a Proceeds of Crime Act proceeding where authorities aimed to recoup the remains of the operation's enormous profits. Revealing Kock's historical run-ins with the law, the hearing detailed escapes from capture in 1992 and 1994 involving distinct schemes. The judge was informed that Kock had avoided legal repercussions despite one incident where customs officers discovered 108kg of cannabis within a lorry he manned. Recounting his criminal history, the court learned: "There was a successful prosecution in relation to his ex-wife's brother, but (Kock) never faced criminal proceedings. He was never heard of until he was stopped with a fake passport in 1994, but he absconded from a customs controlled area before he could be arrested." In 2021, the ECHO reported that Kock, who was serving his 25-year sentence at HMP Berwyn, was discovered deceased in his cell on August 16. An inquest revealed that Kock, who had declined a Covid vaccination and treatment for his long-standing heart issues while incarcerated, had tested positive for Covid-19. However, according to Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers, this was not a contributing factor in his death. The inquest concluded that the cause of death was heart failure, as determined by a Home Office post-mortem, and the coroner ruled it a death due to natural causes. Following the inquest, the ECHO spoke with Kock's brother, Rob, who described his sibling as having a "difficult life" yet remaining a "big guy full of humour" even while serving his prison sentence. Rob Kock shared: "The last years before he got arrested we had no contact at all. I had my own life with relatively young kids and he had his own business as we found out when he got arrested in 2013 and convicted in 2014. "His sons came to Amsterdam to tell me about what happened. Because he was my brother, I wanted to know if he was interested in contact. I managed to find the address of the prison where they locked him up and sent him, together with my other brother, a letter to see if he was interested in contact. Which resulted in over two hundred letters sent by him to me and my brother over the years. "In those letters it was clear despite the incredibly long sentence he got, he always stayed positive and full of humour. His letters were really fun to read and even made me feel proud of my brother. "He accepted his fate, his sentence, did not complain, and through the lines I could read he was like a big father to all the prisoners and wardens in HMP Whitemoor. Everybody liked him, which I experienced myself twice, when I visited him in 2018 and 2019." He remarked: "He was definitely not the big drug baron as mentioned in all those newspaper stories. In the years that I've met him I always had the feeling 'he had the heart in the right place' as we say in Holland. "He disliked class A drugs, he always mentioned to us, so I was very surprised he was caught with class A drugs. I asked him when I visited how this could happen, but he never gave a clear answer. Now I will never know why, but this must have had some reason." Despite the reasons for Kock's involvement in the drug trade, it proved to be extremely profitable. His part in introducing what might have been close to £1bn worth of cocaine into the north west stands as one of the gravest narcotics conspiracies the UK has witnessed. Article continues below
Arab News
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Germany says monitoring Russia's use of ‘disposable' agents
European intelligence services believed that Russia was behind the plotKock declined to go into detail but said German authorities were 'closely observing the means Russian services are now resorting to'BERLIN: Germany said Wednesday it was monitoring changing Russian sabotage tactics, after media reports linked a plan to plant explosive devices on cargo planes to low-level operatives hired by intelligence services believed that Russia was behind the plot, which saw parcels explode at two DHL depots last July, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily and public broadcasters WDR and NDR people implicated in the operation were believed to be 'disposable' agents with no official position in the Russian intelligence services, according to the low-level agents were typically recruited via messaging apps to carry out tasks for money, the report about the incidents at a regular press conference, German interior ministry spokeswoman Sonja Kock said investigations were 'continuing intensively.'Kock declined to go into detail but said German authorities were 'closely observing the means Russian services are now resorting to,' including the use of 'so-called low-level agents.'Kock also told the briefing that Russian intelligence services operating in Germany had been 'recently weakened by the expulsion of numerous agents.'Another interior ministry official later told AFP that she was referring to the April 2022 expulsion of 40 Russian diplomats who were intelligence officers, and further departures of diplomats the following explosions at DHL depots in Leipzig, Germany and Birmingham in Britain have been described by Germany's domestic intelligence chief Thomas Haldenwang as a 'lucky accident' because of the limited before a parliamentary committee in October, Haldenwang said 'there would have been a crash' if the parcels had exploded mid-flight on said Wednesday that the 'danger of sabotage... has increased significantly in Germany since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.'German authorities were doing 'everything in our power to thwart... Russian espionage, sabotage and cyber-attacks,' she said.
