Latest news with #criminalgangs
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
Cocaine haul worth nearly £100m seized in one of UK's biggest-ever drugs busts
A haul of cocaine worth nearly £100m has been seized at a UK port, authorities say. The haul, weighing 2.4 tonnes, was found under containers on a ship arriving from Panama at London Gateway port in Thurrock, Essex. It had been detected earlier this year after an intelligence-led operation but was intercepted as it arrived in the UK this week. With the help of the port operator, 37 large containers were moved to uncover the drugs, worth an estimated £96m. The haul is the sixth-largest cocaine seizure in UK history, according to Border Force. Its maritime director Charlie Eastaugh said: "This seizure - one of the largest of its kind - is just one example of how dedicated Border Force maritime officers remain one step ahead of the criminal gangs who threaten our security. "Our message to these criminals is clear - more than ever before, we are using intelligence and international law enforcement cooperation to disrupt and dismantle your operations." Container ships are one of the main ways international gangs smuggle Class A drugs into the UK, Mr Eastaugh said. Meanwhile, cocaine deaths in England and Wales increased by 31% between 2022 and 2023, according to the latest Home Office data. Elsewhere this weekend, a separate haul of 170kg of ketamine, 4,000 MDMA pills, and 20 firearms were found on a lorry at Dover Port in Kent. Experts estimate the ketamine's street value to be £4.5m, with the MDMA worth at least £40,000. The driver of the lorry, a 34-year-old Tajikistan national, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of smuggling the items, the National Crime Agency said.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
How authorities found a drug kingpin's luxurious hideout in Ecuador
Ecuadorian forces have revealed how they captured the country's most-wanted man, drug lord Adolfo 'Fito' Macías, more than a year after his brazen prison escape prompted the president to declare an internal armed conflict to crack down on the country's most violent gangs. After an almost 18-month manhunt for the leader of the criminal group Los Choneros, the Ecuadorian Security Bloc made a breakthrough on June 25. They obtained intelligence that alerted them to a luxurious home in the province of Manabí, the gang's longtime stronghold for drug operations. Authorities immediately traveled to the area and launched a 10-hour operation to try to find and capture the notorious gangster. To prevent the raid from being thwarted, the military and police shut down access within a 15-block radius so no one could enter or leave the site. Special teams from the armed forces eventually entered the property to gather more information and take control of the house. It was a fully equipped villa, featuring a pool, a gym, appliances, a game room, marble-like walls, and features that indicated the property was still under construction. In one area of the house, there was a perfectly camouflaged hole in the floor, containing a bunker with hidden access and air conditioning. 'Police and armed forces on the scene began conducting a search with instruments to see where alias 'Fito' was hiding,' Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg said. A surveillance flight had identified an irregular crop field behind the house, so authorities requested the use of excavators to locate the drug lord. 'They started to excavate. As soon as this happened, Fito panicked because if we continued, the roof of his bunker would collapse. At that moment, he opened the hatch, where the military was already located, and climbed out of the hole where he was hiding. That's how we detained him,' Reimberg said. Soldiers pinned Macías to the ground, pointed weapons at him and ordered him to say his full name out loud. 'Adolfo Macías Villamar,' he said while lying on the floor with his hands behind his back, footage from the army showed. After the operation, authorities arrested Macías, along with four other men identified as part of his security detail. Macías was immediately transferred to the Manta Air Base and then to the Guayaquil Air Base. From there, he was taken to the maximum-security La Roca prison, located in the Guayaquil prison complex, behind La Regional prison, from where he escaped in January 2024. A photo later released by the interior ministry showed the drug lord locked inside his cell. President Daniel Noboa said Ecuador is working to extradite him to the United States – where he faces drugs and weapons charges – and is awaiting a response from American officials. Macías is one of Ecuador's most notorious gangsters and is the only founding member of Los Choneros believed to still be alive. In 2011 he was sentenced 'for a string of crimes, including homicides and narcotics trafficking,' according to think tank Insight Crime, but sprung out of jail in February 2013 before being recaptured months later. Little is known about his life prior to crime, but he gained a reputation for being the gang's money laundering expert while incarcerated for over a decade. Before he fled prison in 2024, the government was planning on moving Macías to a higher-security facility. Noboa's press secretary told a local channel that the news had likely reached Macías and prompted him to make his escape.
CNN
18 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
How authorities found a drug kingpin's luxurious hideout in Ecuador
Ecuadorian forces have revealed how they captured the country's most-wanted man, drug lord Adolfo 'Fito' Macías, more than a year after his brazen prison escape prompted the president to declare an internal armed conflict to crack down on the country's most violent gangs. After an almost 18-month manhunt for the leader of the criminal group Los Choneros, the Ecuadorian Security Bloc made a breakthrough on June 25. They obtained intelligence that alerted them to a luxurious home in the province of Manabí, the gang's longtime stronghold for drug operations. Authorities immediately traveled to the area and launched a 10-hour operation to try to find and capture the notorious gangster. To prevent the raid from being thwarted, the military and police shut down access within a 15-block radius so no one could enter or leave the site. Special teams from the armed forces eventually entered the property to gather more information and take control of the house. It was a fully equipped villa, featuring a pool, a gym, appliances, a game room, marble-like walls, and features that indicated the property was still under construction. In one area of the house, there was a perfectly camouflaged hole in the floor, containing a bunker with hidden access and air conditioning. 'Police and armed forces on the scene began conducting a search with instruments to see where alias 'Fito' was hiding,' Ecuador's Interior Minister John Reimberg said. A surveillance flight had identified an irregular crop field behind the house, so authorities requested the use of excavators to locate the drug lord. 'They started to excavate. As soon as this happened, Fito panicked because if we continued, the roof of his bunker would collapse. At that moment, he opened the hatch, where the military was already located, and climbed out of the hole where he was hiding. That's how we detained him,' Reimberg said. Soldiers pinned Macías to the ground, pointed weapons at him and ordered him to say his full name out loud. 'Adolfo Macías Villamar,' he said while lying on the floor with his hands behind his back, footage from the army showed. After the operation, authorities arrested Macías, along with four other men identified as part of his security detail. Macías was immediately transferred to the Manta Air Base and then to the Guayaquil Air Base. From there, he was taken to the maximum-security La Roca prison, located in the Guayaquil prison complex, behind La Regional prison, from where he escaped in January 2024. A photo later released by the interior ministry showed the drug lord locked inside his cell. President Daniel Noboa said Ecuador is working to extradite him to the United States – where he faces drugs and weapons charges – and is awaiting a response from American officials. Macías is one of Ecuador's most notorious gangsters and is the only founding member of Los Choneros believed to still be alive. In 2011 he was sentenced 'for a string of crimes, including homicides and narcotics trafficking,' according to think tank Insight Crime, but sprung out of jail in February 2013 before being recaptured months later. Little is known about his life prior to crime, but he gained a reputation for being the gang's money laundering expert while incarcerated for over a decade. Before he fled prison in 2024, the government was planning on moving Macías to a higher-security facility. Noboa's press secretary told a local channel that the news had likely reached Macías and prompted him to make his escape.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Daily Mail
Organised crime gangs in 'arms race' with car makers over security technology as vehicle thefts soar by 75 per cent in a decade - now 130,000 stolen every year
Car makers are locked in an 'arms race' with criminal gangs over security as thefts soar by 75 per cent in a decade, a new report shows. About 130,000 vehicles are stolen each year, driven by increasingly sophisticated groups who exploit advanced technologies and insufficient police responses, a think tank said. Vehicle theft now costs the UK economy about £1.77billion a year and has driven an 82 per cent increase in car insurance premium quotes since 2021, the report, Organised Vehicle Theft in the UK: Trends and Challenges, found. The charge rate for vehicle theft offences has fallen from 9.2 per cent in 2014 to just 2.6 per cent in 2024, and many police forces have scrapped their specialist vehicle units. Criminals are able to adapt 'more swiftly than anticipated' to manufacturer's security updates, and criminals use sophisticated document fraud methods to 'alter a car's identity' then sell it abroad, the report found. 'The research findings depict a vehicle security ecosystem that has less resilience and fewer resources than the criminal threat it confronts,' the report states. 'Vehicle theft is no longer a low-level, opportunistic crime, but rather a high-value, low-risk form of serious and organised crime with domestic and international dimensions. 'The criminal vehicle theft economy is far more resilient than the public and private systems meant to stop it.' The charge rate for vehicle theft offences has fallen from 9.2 per cent in 2014 to just 2.6 per cent in 2024, and many police forces have scrapped their specialist vehicle units Drawing on interviews with police, engineers and industry leaders, the research documents the rapid evolution of vehicle crime from opportunistic thefts to high-tech operations with sophisticated international links. Stolen vehicles flow almost interrupted from UK ports to international hub markets including the UAE, Cyprus and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – often leaving Britain the day they are stolen. Criminal gangs exploit vulnerabilities in vehicle software with innovative devices that can cost £20,000 – but unlock thousands of cars, the report found. Its authors, Elijah Glantz, Mark Williams and Alastair Greig, of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), recommend urgent reforms to counter the threat. A RUSI spokesman said: 'The report is a stark warning that vehicle theft in the UK is no longer a petty opportunistic crime but a dynamic and profitable form of serious and organised crime that crosses borders, exploits loopholes, and undermines public trust in the criminal justice system. 'A national response that is both agile and transnational must evolve to meet a threat.'
The Sun
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Britain's borders are broken – and we can only mend them by bringing in ID cards
FOR most people that I meet , concern about immigration is more about those arriving on small boats than those coming legally to study or work. It is the undocumented arrivals that worry people, not least when they remain here illegally and disappear into the sub-economy organised by criminal gangs. 2 Over 40,000 people arrived on our shores from France last year, and that number is expected to be much higher in 2025. Unknown numbers of those arriving this way are not claiming asylum but are absorbed into the 'black market'. They melt away to work as cash-in-hand labourers or in car washes or barbers' shops in towns and cities across the United Kingdom. It is a cycle of exploitation that leaves everyone poorer. Illegal immigrants are paid a pittance, British workers are undercut, and the state does not get any tax from this illicit economy. We have the tools to confront this abuse - but have failed to use it. The time has come to bring in ID cards. I have spoken over many years about the importance of introducing a comprehensive and robust identity system in the UK. But we have reached a moment of reckoning. The government must grasp the nettle and come up with a proper plan for ID cards, and all the safeguards that must go with it. Identity cards are a simple, cheap and practical way of tackling the illegal immigration crisis and the black market. Everyone with a right to live and work in Britain would have their details on their card. For most of us, the card would be uploaded to our smartphone - like the NHS app or our Covid vaccine passports. If someone does not have a smartphone they could carry a small ID card around in their wallet, just like a driving licence. This simple, pocket-sized card would immediately transform the state's ability to crack down on illegal immigration. At a glance the authorities would be able to tell if someone is in Britain legally or illegally. If migrants needed an ID card to work in Britain, claim benefits or receive NHS treatment, they would be far less likely to come here illegally, something that the Government has already acknowledged in the White Paper in May. By its very existence, the scheme would stem the tide of small boat migrants. Bosses would be required to check that all their workers have a proper ID card. If they didn't then sorry - no job. Dodgy bosses who hire illegal immigrants without the proper ID would be more easily identified by inspectors. Without the ability to earn cash, illegal migrants would be far less likely to come here in the first place. Those who are here would be more easily identified and deported. This would in turn help British workers, whose wages would no longer be undercut by illegal workers. And it would help the British state by ensuring businesses are legitimate and paying their fair share of tax. 2 I know ID cards can work because I tested them when I was Home Secretary. Sadly only 15,000 were rolled out. Back then, in the early 2000s, migrants were being smuggled into the UK hidden in lorries arriving through the Channel Tunnel. We saw that trade slashed by two thirds. People smuggling gangs realised it was not worth trafficking people to the UK if they could not work or claim benefits here. ID cards worked. It made no sense to ditch them. But the Coalition government of 2010 scrapped them. That was a decision that has harmed our borders ever since. I wont pretend ID cards were not controversial. Civil liberties campaigners railed against the scheme raising the spectrum of a knock on the door and a demand to see proof of identity. But this was always a farcical caricature. Most of us have willingly handed over our data when we sign up for a social media account, or get a loyalty card with our favourite supermarket. Big tech companies like Elon Musk's X or Facebook already know nearly all our details and have the capacity to analyse our online activity. Mobile phones track our activity; where we have gone that day and even how many steps we have taken. The introduction of ID cards would not create a police state, but would be a crucial weapon in our armoury to fight illegal immigration. Properly organised, with built in safeguards, an identity system of this kind would safeguard us all.
