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Daily Mirror
04-07-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
'I'm joining Arteta's team – I tried for Liverpool deal and caused Man Utd rift'
Former Manchester United star Gabriel Heinze once was regarded as a legend in the making at the club. Joining the Red Devils from PSG in 2004, a Premier League title followed as the Old Trafford faithful adored his full-blooded commitment on the pitch – until he tried to leave United under hugely controversial circumstances. Heinze's next move was viewed as self-sabotage of the highest order as the Argentinian star set fire to his United legacy when he attempted to force a move to Liverpool in the summer of 2007. In doing so he subsequently broke one of English football's most sacred yet unwritten rules: players not move from United to their bitter rivals and vice-versa. Heinze, now 47, is now set to join Mikel Arteta 's coaching staff at Arsenal ahead of the new season as the Gunners are in the midst of a coaching reshuffle, with former assistant Carlos Cuesta having departed for Parma. Heinze's return to the Premier League will no doubt ignite memories of one of English football's most brutal transfer sagas of when the Argentinian was seeking to traipse the M62 divide and join then-manager Rafa Benitez at Liverpool. The controversial switch would have made him the first player since Phil Chisnall in 1964 to move directly between the two sides. Yet the union of Heinze and Liverpool will always be a case of 'What if?' Former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson spectacularly dug his heels in to ensure that the defender would never get his wish. It began as Heinze's agent, Roberto Rodriguez, was reportedly informed by United's then-chief executive David Gill that he could leave for £6.8million. Yet United never foresaw that the full-back would clamour for a switch to their greatest rivals. An offer matching United's valuation was then indeed lodged by the Reds. However, the Red Devils knocked back Liverpool's proposal, to Heinze's dismay, and so lawyers were consulted. "I can assure you, Liverpool will not be getting Gabriel Heinze. We can put that to bed right now and we have done so," Ferguson told Sky Sports at the time. The legendary United boss also claimed United were in the driving seat over the move. Benitez however was left stunned by United's refusal to play ball. "It's clear he's a player we like and he's a very good player," Liverpool's Spanish boss said. "That's the reason why they don't want him to leave for us." In another twist to one of the Premier League's bloodiest transfer tussles, it later emerged that Crystal Palace were offered the chance to buy Heinze by a South American-based agency, and then sell him to Liverpool straight after. This would allegedly pocket the Eagles £1m in compensation, as revealed by former Palace chairman Simon Jordan in his memoir, Be Careful What You Wish For. "My stance was no way were we getting involved and I told Alexander to contact David Gill, Manchester United 's chief executive, and tell him of these attempted shenanigans, which he duly did," Jordan wrote. Heinze and his agent eventually took the case to a Premier League arbitration panel in a bid to engineer the move. However, Jordan's evidence was later used in the hearing which saw United prevail. After losing the right to move to Liverpool, Heinze told the Daily Mail: "My fight is for the freedom to negotiate with any club. United never wanted me to leave for one of the big clubs, but this anti-Liverpool clause is incredible." Liverpool were reportedly expecting Heinze to appeal. Yet a late charge never materialised from the player as United accepted a bid from Real Madrid. "I don't have many regrets from my career as a footballer, but that episode with Ferguson [has] to be one of them," Heinze later said of the ordeal. "I spent three years in Manchester and had some great moments and I regret [leaving the club] a lot." After United, Heinze went on to play for Madrid, Marseille and Roma. The ex-Argentina international called time on his career in 2014 and has since ventured into management, however he has been out of work since November 2023. Arteta and Heinze previously played together at PSG but they will now reunite at the Emirates Stadium. It's fully expected that Heinze's journey to work at another of United's fierce rivals will be without drama this time around.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Yahoo
Raids across Canary Islands in major cocaine gang bust
A major cocaine smuggling operation that used a network of speedboats to transport drugs from South America to the Canary Islands has been taken down, police have said. Almost four tonnes of cocaine trafficked from Brazil and Colombia were seized and 48 suspects, arrested in raids across Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. Spain's Policia Nacional said the gang used 11 so-called narco boats to smuggle the drugs across the Atlantic in a complex operation that involved using an abandoned wreck at sea as a refuelling platform. Police forces from Europe, the UK, South America and the US were involved in planning the raids, dubbed Operation Black Shadow. The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed that a British national was among those arrested. Europol said the gang used speedboats "repeatedly, departing from strategic points in the Atlantic Ocean to a mother ship transporting the cocaine". Investigators revealed the gang used "a complex encrypted communications system to evade law enforcement, including the use of satellite terminals, hard-to-trace phones and a coded language". Police said the raids were months in the planning and saw 29 properties searched, 69 vehicles seized - including boats and jet skis - and cash and firearms recovered. Details of the raids shine a light on the complexity of the networks international drug smuggling gangs use to get narcotics into Europe, a major market for South American-based cartels. Spanish police said the operation had "dismantled one of the largest criminal organisations dedicated to cocaine trafficking". The force also said it had identified a local network in the Canary Islands responsible for distributing the cocaine once it had arrived from South America. Footage of the raids published by Spanish police showed armed and masked officers raiding several houses, arresting suspects and carrying out searches. It is not the first time police have intercepted a large amount of cocaine bound for the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory and popular tourist destination lying around 100km (62 miles) off the west African coast. Police announced in December that they had intercepted a Venezuelan fishing boat 1,000 miles out at sea. It was discovered the vessel - which was so dilapidated it sank while being towed to shore - was carrying 3.3 tonnes of cocaine. Commenting on the latest raid, an NCA spokesperson said: "Alongside our international partners, we are relentless in our efforts to tackle drug trafficking across borders, ensuring it's seized before it reaches the UK criminal supply chain." Royal Navy warship seizes £30m of drugs Brits could face death over Bali drugs plot British woman accused of drug offences tells BBC of Sri Lanka jail conditions
Extra.ie
27-04-2025
- General
- Extra.ie
The Drimnagh boy who grew up to be the most powerful man in the Catholic Church
As the bespectacled, crimson-robed cleric led the procession bringing Pope Francis up the aisle of St Peter's Basilica for one final time this week, many wondered how this 77-year-old, largely unknown Irishman suddenly found himself at the apex of the Catholic Church's ruling hierarchy. Cardinal Kevin Farrell is now the most powerful man in the Catholic Church, his role as camerlengo – the person who runs the Vatican following the death of the pope – is pivotal as he takes charge of the conclave of cardinals who, in the coming days, will choose the next pontiff. But absent from the mourners in Rome was the boy who sat beside a youthful Cardinal Farrell as they made their way to school together more than six decades ago on the number 58 bus in Dublin in the 1950s and '60s. Pic: TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images) Alan Whelan and Kevin Farrell lived just a three-minute walk from one another in the south Dublin suburb of Drimnagh. Separated in age by just six months, they journeyed together each morning until they reached the age of 13 or 14. And then the pair, who spent Saturday afternoons enjoying high-action westerns and the wild adventures of cowboy Roy Rogers at the local youth club, went their separate ways. Alan went on to become a school principal, while the fate of the bookish boy, who did not play sport, was sealed after he went into Clerys department store on O'Connell Street with his parents. The cardinal's childhood friend recalls: 'We got the 58 bus down to Cork Street… He would go one way and I would go the other. 'He got off at St Teresa's school on Donore Avenue, and I went in the other direction to St James's Street [CBS] school. In those days, we did what was called our Primary Cert, and that decided in a way whether we continued, if our parents could pay for it. It wasn't a great deal of money to continue, but it still was a sacrifice. 'About 10% of us went on to secondary education and the rest would have left school around 14. 'I cannot say I can remember him leaving to join the priesthood at 14 with any firmness. I only remember descriptions my parents gave, and they said: 'He went into Clerys as a young boy, and he came out as a young priest.' Pic: Simone Risoluti – Vatican Media via'They were describing getting the cassock, a soutane and so on, and that particular order [the Legionaries of Christ] was very big on wearing hats. They were posh. That's the word my mother used to use about the order. It would have been a round hat, very much in the Italian tradition.' Back then, Clerys was where members of the clergy and aspiring members of the religious orders went to be fitted out for the clothes that would set them apart from others. The day the young Kevin Farrell went through the doors of Clerys would have been a momentous day for him and his family. By then, his older brother Brian had already joined the South American-based Legionaries of Christ order. Even though many young men joined the priesthood at the time, it was still a little out of the ordinary for two brothers just barely out of their childhood to leave their families and homes to become priests. Years later – before the Legionaries of Christ became embroiled in a sex abuse scandal involving its founder, Father Marcial Maciel – the future cardinal's older brother was talked about at one stage as a possible secretary-general of the order. Pic: Vatican Media viaDespite beginning their clerical careers with the disgraced order, the two Dublin brothers were later appointed bishops. And their progress was meteoric. After leaving a post at a university in Mexico, the future Cardinal Kevin Farrell went to Washington, D.C., in the United States, where he worked as an adviser to the then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. However, the senior American cleric also became embroiled in a sex abuse scandal involving adults and children. Cardinal McCarrick was laicised – removed from the Church – in 2019 after an internal Church investigation. Following his stint in Washington DC, Kevin Farrell was appointed Bishop of Dallas. He was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2016. Three years later, he was given the title 'Camerlengo', or the person who runs the Vatican after the death or resignation of a pope. Pope Francis nominated the cardinal for the job in 2019. Cardinal Farrell will remain in the position during the 'Apostolica Sedes Vacans', the period between the death or resignation of a pope and the election of the next pontiff. Pic: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP via Getty Images Cardinal Farrell has even been named in international media reports as a potential outside bet to become the next pope. Technically, a camerlengo can become pope, as has happened twice in history: Gioacchino Pecci (Pope Leo XIII) in 1878 and Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) in 1939. Years after naming him as camerlengo, in 2023, Francis chose Cardinal Farrell as president of the Supreme Court of Vatican City State. He was also named president of the Commission for Confidential Matters. As camerlengo, Cardinal Farrell will be tasked with making arrangements for the conclave. The highly secretive process by which the next pontiff is selected was depicted in last year's hit film of the same name starring Ralph Fiennes, who played the role of camerlengo. But according to Cardinal Farrell's childhood friend, Fiennes' fictional character and the real-life boy who grew up around the corner from him in Dublin have little in common. Alan Whelan told 'The last time we spoke, it was at the World Meeting of Families in 2018 in the RDS in Dublin. 'I joked with him about a postcard I had sent as a nine- or ten-year-old to his family when I was on holiday. Pic: Liam McBurney / POOL / AFP)LIAM MCBURNEY/AFP/Getty Images 'I knew they were a republican family and I had written at the bottom of the address, 'the Irish Free State'. 'He could remember, and we were immediately in that sort of chatter… the years didn't matter. He certainly hasn't forgotten where he has come from. 'And when I saw him in the procession on Wednesday, leading the procession to St Peter's Basilica, he was the main person. When he spoke Latin, you could hear his Dublin accent. 'I was taken aback by that. I thought, 'he hasn't lost his roots', and it reaffirmed for me that he is an Irish cardinal at the heart of what is happening.' However, others hold a different view of the 'humble man from Dublin' who advanced through the ranks to the highest echelons of the Catholic Church. These include the renowned filmmaker and investigative journalist Jason Berry, who exposed sex abuse scandals involving the clergy in America. Pic: Vatican Media viaAsked this weekend about Cardinal Farrell, he told the 'He is an enigma to be honest… He didn't leave many fingerprints. 'He left the Legionaries of Christ, and he became the Bishop of Dallas, Texas, which had a convulsion of abuses there. I can't really tell you how well he did there. I'm not implying he is a failure. He is one of these people who have travelled up the ranks of the hierarchy without leaving many traces.' Mr Berry added: 'A man who came out of a cult like the Legionaries of Christ – that's what it was, in my opinion – he got out and managed to rebrand his career. There has to be something said for him to get so close to Pope Francis.' David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) support group in the US accused Cardinal Farrell of not doing enough to protect children from predatory sex abusing priests. The group cited the Irish-born cardinal in a formal complaint lodged with the Vatican last month. Mr Clohessy told the 'For decades, Farrell has held a number of posts in the Catholic hierarchy. In none of those roles has he done anything but the bare minimum to protect kids, expose predators and help victims. 'Farrell's close affiliation with the now-defrocked Cardinal Ted [Theodore] McCarrick, who both committed and concealed, and Farrell's refusal to come clean about what he knew and did about abuse reports against McCarrick is worrisome in and of itself.' In 2018, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, then head of the Vatican office for laity and family, insisted he was 'shocked' when he heard allegations of years of sexual abuse and harassment by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the man who ordained him a bishop and whom he served as an auxiliary bishop for six years. 'I was shocked, overwhelmed; I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him,' he told Catholic News Service at the time.
Fox News
04-02-2025
- Fox News
New Jersey man arrested in fencing operation allegedly has links to Joe Burrow burglary
Two men who were believed to have ties to a string of burglaries in the U.S., including at a famous pro athlete's home in Ohio, were arrested on Tuesday, officials announced. Dimitriy Nezhinskiy and Juan Villar were charged with "with conspiracy to receive stolen property related to their purchasing of stolen goods that traveled across state lines," the Eastern District of New York said in a news release. The two men will be arranged on Wednesday. Nezhinskiy, of North Bergen, New Jersey and Villar, of Queens, New York, were accused of acting as "fences" for South American-based crime groups who traveled around the U.S. to commit burglaries targeting luxury items. The two were accused of being linked to the "prolific burglar" Bryan Leandro Herrera Maldonado, who officials said committed 16 burglaries in the U.S. between 2019 and 2020. Officials said Nezhinskiy was linked to at least two members of a crew who were allegedly involved in the Dec. 9, 2024, burglary of a "high-profile athlete in Ohio." Sources told Fox News Channel the athlete in question is Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow. Law enforcement officials executed a search warrant for a pawn shop the two men allegedly operated in New York City's Diamond District. Authorities "seized large quantities of suspected stolen property, including dozens of high-end watches and jewelry. Law enforcement also recovered large quantities of cash and marijuana," officials said. Another search warrant was executed in a storage facility in New Jersey allegedly belonging to Nezhinskiy. Officials said "large quantities of luxury goods and clothing, including high-end handbags, wine, sports memorabilia, jewelry, artwork and power tools consistent with those commonly used in burglaries and opening safes" were recovered. Nezhinskiy was arrested in New Jersey, and Villar was arrested in New York, officials said. The arrests came weeks after four Chilean nationals were arrested in connection with the burglary to Burrow's home on Dec. 9, 2024. At the time of the arrest, authorities found "an old LSU shirt and Bengals hat, believed to be stolen from the December 9, 2024 burglary in Hamilton County, Ohio," which is where Burrow's home is located. The search of the vehicle the suspects were in also discovered "two Husky automatic center punch tools wrapped in a cloth towel." The tool has been used by the South American Theft Group, according to authorities. Burrow's home was burglarized while he was in Dallas facing the Cowboys. Police were called to Burrow's home by Olivia Ponton, a model and social media influencer who was identified as Burrow's employee in the incident report. Burrow discussed the break-in a few days after its occurrence during a media availability, where he stressed the difficulty of living a life where his personal information is in the public's eye. "So obviously everybody has heard what has happened. I feel like my privacy has been violated in more ways than one. And way more is already out there than I would want out there and that I care to share, so that's all I got to say about that," Burrow began. "We live a public life, and one of my least favorite parts of that is the lack of privacy. And that has been difficult for me to deal with my entire career. Still learning. But I understand it's the life that we choose. Doesn't make it any easier to deal with." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
