World: Britons may face execution – November 2000 Britons may face execution
By BBC News - Wednesday, 22 November, 2000
Copyright: BBC News
Drug trafficking is a growing problem in Dubai.
Five Britons are being held in the United Arab Emirates on suspicion of drug trafficking.
If found guilty they could face the death penalty.
The group are alleged to be members of a major international drug gang planning to bring consignments of hashish and cocaine into the Gulf states.
The arrests were made in the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, in the north of the country. The five are in custody and have not yet been formally charged.
Australian connection
Of the five arrested, the UAE police say three are women and one is believed to be an air hostess with the Dubai-based Emirates Airlines.
Police investigating the allegations have also held an Australian woman and two Arab men.
The arrests followed a tip off that a large shipment of hashish was due to be brought into the country.
A big operation led to a large quantity of drugs being seized and several other arrests being made. Many of the Gulf states fear drug traffickers are targeting their countries.
Smugglers believe lack of alcohol and the relative wealth of the region makes it an ideal marketplace for drugs.
British Embassy staff in Dubai are being kept informed of the developments. A spokesman said it was unlikely the death penalty would be imposed if the suspects were found guilty.
A change in the law five years ago means drug traffickers can face execution. But no Westerner has been sentenced to death in the UAE in the last ten years.
But the growing threat of drugs in the region has stiffened political and public opinion. Courts are issuing sterner sentences for drug offenders.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
World: Will the EU be able to clamp down on sex and drugs in Amsterdam – October 2000 Will the EU be able to clamp down on sex and drugs in Amsterdam?
By BBC News - Wednesday, January 7, 1998
Copyright: BBC News
Tackling crime is one of the issues that British Prime Minister Tony Blair sees as a priority as the UK begins its six-month presidency of the European Union.
Organised crime has become increasingly international in character. Trafficking in women and drugs are some of the crimes to be dealt with by the new European body for police co-operation, Europol, which is due to become fully operational later this year.
In the last of our special series looking at the issues of crime, the environment and unemployment, BBC correspondent Mike Donkin went on patrol with Dutch police in Amsterdam's red light district, where sex and drugs are rife:
Organised crime feeds best off sex and drugs, and in Amsterdam there is plenty to satisfy the most voracious of appetites.
Amsterdam is the main conduit for the traffic of women, which the European Union has pledged to stop. The women come from the world over.
It is a trade that is incredibly hard for the authorities to clamp down on. Those who run it are rarely to be found on the streets.
The women themselves, recruited back home for a job in the West, are too fearful to complain when they discover what that job is.
If they do contact police to complain, they are usually deported without an investigation, according to the Dutch group, Foundation against Trafficking in Women. They say the EU must change that.
"The first thing that should be changed in the policies of the European countries is to create the conditions for women to come out, to ask for support, to escape, to press charges," said Marjam Wijers.
"This means they should be allowed a temporary escape permit, they should have witness protection, and they should have appropriate support."
Drugs abound, despite recent successes
When it comes to drugs, Dutch police have had more success in recent months. After a series of high-profile raids, two drugs barons currently await trial.
But heroin and cocaine continue to flow unabated through Holland and beyond.
At an Amsterdam drug addiction centre, Harold takes methadone, a heroin substitute, to try to break a 12-year cycle of abuse. All of his previous efforts were thwarted by the drug pushers.
"They're always trying to sell me drugs. Those people are making very good money out of the drugs."
And as new more fashionable drugs hit the market, the profits of the drug trade expand. At dance parties in Holland, ecstasy tablets are accepted as a norm.
They are even tested for purity at club venues. Experts have concluded that attempting a total clamp-down on drug trafficking can be counter-productive.
"The tougher the measures you take, the more interesting it becomes for some people to bring it in, because prices get higher and with higher prices you always find people who find it very attractive to bring it in," said Roal Karssamarks of the Drugs Prevention Centre.
Getting a grip on organised crime in the cities of Europe can seem like wishful thinking. As international borders open up, the criminals can ply their trade more easily and faster.
The British Government believes that there is only one way in which people can fight back - by knowing exactly how the enemy works.
Behind the walls of what was the Gestapo's headquarters in Rotterdam, Holland, are the offices of Europe's police force. Europol will this year bring together 300 officers from every EU state, and preventing crime will top their agenda.
But Europol's chief warns that we should expect no miracles.
"There will not be an end to crime. But I think that we can have a balance, and crime will not take over our society and our economy," said Jurgen Stenerbeck, Director of Europol.
"There will always be crime in the future, that's for sure. Police alone, customs authorities alone, cannot do the job. We need a common approach by the whole of society and all our states."
A people's Europe cannot be a Europe without victims. But co-operation must be backed by political muscle to keep Europe's underworld at bay.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
UK: Heathrow police officers stole and sold rave drugs – October 2000 Heathrow police officers stole and sold rave drugs
By thisislocallondon - Wednesday 25 October 2000
Copyright: thisislocallondon
Three policemen and an extension-colleague sold rave drugs back onto the streets after they stole 40,000 ecstasy tablets, an Old Bailey jury heard.
The gang hit upon the "blatant and outrageous" scheme to remove more than £500,000 worth of deadly dance pills from under the roof of pine shop manager Jason Proctor.
Prosecutor Orlando Pownall said the police officers, all based at Heathrow Airport, were confident their activities would remain a secret.
However, former detective Duncan Hanrahan, 42, who the court heard was at the root of the plot and was jailed last year after admitting a number of offences, gave evidence against his former colleagues.
DC David Evans, 50, of Dyfed, south Wales, DC Christopher Carter, 47, of Ascot, and DS Leonard Guerard, 52, of Twickenham, all deny conspiracy to burgle ecstasy tablets from the Good Value Pine Shop, in Chiswick High Street, and conspiracy to supply the Class A drug.
A fourth man Vincent Arneil, of Sutton, who is accused of setting up the deal with Proctor, who has admitted various drugs offences, which allowed the officers to take away the drugs, denies the same charges.
Mr Pownall said that, after discussing various ways of stealing the pills with Hanrahan, a warrant was obtained on October 11, 1995, to search the shop "on the pretence there were stolen lighters on the premises."
Carter, Guerard and Evans then raided the shop and stole the drugs from a cardboard box in the basement.
The court heard the drugs went on to be sold, mainly to dealers in Scotland, and the proceeds distributed.
Mr Pownall said: "Despite the blatant and outrageous actions of the three officers, they could rest assured that Proctor would be unlikely to report their misconduct.
"It would be the word of a drug dealer against the word of three police officers."
He said the plot would have remained a secret but for the arrest of Hanrahan in May 1997.
Hanrahan, from Tonbridge, described how Guerard approached him with a box.
He said: "He opened the flaps and I could see inside a large polythene bag which appeared to be full of white tablets."
The trial continues.
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/
UK: Drug couriers were ‘foaming at mouth’ – August 2000 Drug couriers were 'foaming at mouth'
By BBC News - Monday, 28 August, 2000
Copyright: BBC News
A duo branded Britain's most hopeless drug couriers have been jailed after being caught on two inept drug runs.
John McAdams and Matthew Howarth were first caught when they ran ran their car off the road at high speed - then tried to bury half a kilo of cannabis and 800 diazepam tablets while other motorists looked on in amazement.
When police arrived, McAdams was so heavily drugged there was blue foam around his mouth.
He was only capable of grinning inanely.
The pair appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court and were granted bail days later.
But only a day after receiving their fereedom they tried to carry out another run - and only managed to travel a few miles further.
The pair were spotted at a service station - again with blue foam around their mouths - and were arrested.
Police found that they still had their bail orders in their pockets.
Telephone engineers McAdams, 25, from Aberdeen and Howarth, 27, from Inverness, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court on Monday, where they admitted charges of being concerned in the supply of diazepam and cannabis resin. McAdams also admitted dangerous driving.
Howarth was jailed for nine months and McAdams for 11 months
The pair were branded Britain's most hopeless drugs couriers by detectives who worked on the case.
Locked up
Afterwards, one Tayside Police officer said afterwards: "It would be great if every drug dealer made it that easy for us.
"They should probably locked up for their own safety as much as anyone else's."
The duo were first caught on 29 April after a 90 mile per hour crash.
Fiscal depute Chris Macintosh said McAdams had been seen driving a red Peugeot at high speed from Edinburgh towards Perth.
He lost control on a bend shortly after the Forth Bridge and the car ended up flying into a patch of rocky ground being worked on to create a new park and ride.
They declined help from other motorists and then to tried and hide their consignment of drugs.
'Bizarre manner'
"All the witnesses saw both accused behave in a very bizarre manner," Mr Macintosh said.
Cannabis with a street value of £2,600 pounds was recovered, along with 785 diazepam tablets worth £1 each.
On 3 May, a day after they were released from custody, they set off again with another consignment of 813 diazepam tablets.
When they pulled in to Granada Services at Kinross, staff noticed they were both unsteady on their feet.
"One witness noted what he described as blue gunky spit around both their mouths," Mr Macintosh said.
'Amateur' behaviour
Solicitor Stephen Fox said Howarth had taken a valium on the first trip and woke up to find himself upside down in the field.
"It is perhaps indicative of the amateur way they went about it that their behaviour at the service station drew attention to them," Mr Fox said.
"He helped himself to a couple of tablets and the police found them in the car.
"It's about as easy a case as the police will ever have."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
US: ‘E’ explosion catches US off guard – August 2000 'E' explosion catches US off guard
The Independent - 06 August 2000
Copyright: The Independent
Authorities in America are preparing to wage all-out war against smugglers of Ecstasy amid growing evidence of a surge in the circulation of the mood-enhancing drug across the US in big cities and small suburban towns alike.
Long popular in Europe, the drug began to take hold in the US only a few years ago and was initially limited mostly to the rave scene in New York, Miami and Los Angeles. Officials now say the drug has become a commodity in high schools and shopping malls in virtually every state.
The extent of the explosion was spelled out at a three-day conference on Ecstasy in Washington last week. Customs and drugs enforcement officials said that in the past seven months, 8 million pills were seized from traffickers and dealers, more than 20 times the number confiscated for the whole year in 1998.
"The use of Ecstasy has skyrocketed," confirmed Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director. He announced plans to spend $5m (£3m) on an advertising campaign to warn young people against the potential long-term effects that the drug, also called E, can have on the brains of regular users.
Efforts are meanwhile being made to draw up draconian new laws, both at the federal level and in state legislatures, to harden significantly the penalties for those peddling the small pills. The Senate has draft legislation before it named the Ecstasy Anti-Proliferation Act.
A synthetic drug, Ecstasy - or, to use its chemical name, 3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine - was not even declared illicit in the US until 1985. By flooding the brain with naturally occurring serotonin, it elicits feelings of immense well-being and sociability. Not associated with either violent or moody behaviour, it is also called the "hug-drug".
There is an accumulating body of scientific research, however, confirming that use of E can damage the brain. Immediate side-effects can include over-heating and a rise in blood pressure. But it is widely seen by its users as essentially benign and physically non-addictive.
The invasion of the drug has drugs and customs agents switching their attention from Latin America to western Europe. An estimated 80 per cent of the Ecstasy pills entering the US are manufactured in the Netherlands, while the smuggling operations have mostly been traced to Israelis.
"It has changed our institutional mindset," Raymond Kelly, the Commissioner of the Customs Service said at the conference. "We were kind of southern-focused, and now we've had to extend our focus to Europe."
Several recent busts have dramatised the drug's new popularity in America and the toughening attitude of the police and politicians. Ten days ago police in Los Angeles seized more than 2 million tablets worth $40m.
In New Jersey, where a new law was enacted in early July making possession and intent to distribute a first-degree crime, police arrested two university students found with a stash of 49,000 Ecstasy pills in a storage garage in the small town of Neptune.
What began as a criminal investigation has now also become a tragedy. Within hours of being taken to a police cell, one of the pair, Kenneth Gregorio, 23, hanged himself using a drawstring from his trousers.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Word: Locked up in a foreign land – July 2000 Locked up in a foreign land
By BBC News - Monday, 3 July, 2000
Copyright: BBC News
David Chell, the nurse sentenced to death in Malaysia for drug smuggling, is one of thousands of Britons convicted abroad. Some are guilty, others just naïve.
It is the stuff of travellers' nightmares - getting thrown into a squalid prison, facing a stiff penalty for unwittingly acting as a drugs courier.
About 2,600 Britons are in prison abroad, the majority on drugs charges.
Most are held in Europe or the United States and in 95% of cases, the defendants get a fair hearing. But others are not so fortunate, says Stephen Jakobi, of the human rights group Fair Trials Abroad.
Some are convicted on questionable police evidence. Others have no lawyer to argue their case in court, or are presumed guilty because they have had unwittingly links with known criminals during their travels.
"That's the main problem - guilt by association," says Mr Jakobi.
At present, he is working on about 40 cases involving drugs charges, including lorry drivers Allen Davis, 59, from Dorset - now serving his 11th year in a Thai jail - and Steve Bryant, 48, from Essex, who was locked up in Morocco for seven years.
Police raid
Mr Jakobi finds the case of Rachel McGee, a 24-year-old Londoner facing 15 years in a Cuban jail, particularly disturbing.
In October 1998, Ms McGee accepted the offer of cheap flight to Cuba from Karite Clacher, a friend of a man she had been dating. Police arrested Clacher and two acquaintances in a raid on their hotel, tipped off by drug smugglers who arrived from Jamaica with 15kg of cocaine.
Ms McGee, who was just leaving in a taxi to sort out her visa, turned back when she saw police forcing Clacher against a wall, and was also arrested.
The authorities found no drugs on her. Yet she was convicted in a trial conducted wholly in Spanish, in which the prosecution never mentioned her name.
"The best way to ensure that innocent people don't go to jail is to have a lawyer to challenge the police case. Rachel McGee had no lawyer at all," says Mr Jakobi.
"It is guilt by association. What is truly frightening about this case is that it really could have happened to anyone going on holiday."
Of the 30 young British women held in Fort Augustus prison in Kingston, Jamaica, most face drug smuggling charges and most tell a similar tale.
Among them is Lisa Burnett, serving a 15-month sentence for smuggling cocaine, but due for early release in September.
The 21-year-old says she was duped into acting as a drugs courier after accepting a free holiday from a friend.
In 1990, Birmingham teenagers Karen Smith and Patricia Cahill went to Thailand on holiday after a British man they hardly knew offered to pick up the tab.
Both girls served three years in prison after being caught with 66kg of heroin hidden in their luggage, the biggest haul recorded.
Mr Jakobi offered his services after hearing of their plight on a radio news bulletin - his first foray into securing fair trials abroad.
"My first thought was, it must be a joke. Drug smugglers don't trust teenage girls with bags of heroin. It doesn't happen like that."
Bangkok Hilton
Some of the British tourists held overseas return with horror stories about the conditions in which they were held.
In March, a British couple on £10,000 police bail fled Thailand after they had spent three weeks in a Thai prison, on drugs charges.
Although James Gilligan, 25, confessed to possessing cannabis and opium, his roommate Judith Payne, 21, also faced six years in prison.
Neither could face the prospect of returning to the notorious Klong Prem Prison - nicknamed the Bangkok Hilton, Ms Payne said.
She had been held in a room with 80 other women.
"It was filthy. There were no toilet facilities, no room to walk around, no room to do anything. All you could do was lie down, head to foot, with the other prisoners."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Pc accused of drug dealing A police officer and a civilian police employee have appeared in court in connection with the seizure of cocaine and ecstasy worth more than £2m. Police constable Kevin Davies, 28, based at Guildford police station, was charged on Thursday night with conspiracy to supply cocaine and ecstasy.
He was also charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, a Surrey Police spokeswoman said.
Emma Barnett, 29, a civilian worker based at Surrey Police headquarters in Guildford, was charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine and MDMA and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Armed police raids
Three men, Daniel Clark, 29, Piers Ravenhill, 30, and Ben Rickwood, 27, were charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine and MDMA and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
A Surrey Police spokeswoman said on Friday: "All five were remanded in custody and will appear at Woking Magistrates Court this morning."
She said all the charges related to a series of raids across west and north-west Surrey and north-east Hampshire on Wednesday night, in which hauls of cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis were recovered.
The 35 raids involved 330 officers, many of them armed.
- BBC News
A Free Party Documentary Any1 interested in making a documentary ?
Any1 have any spare tech equipment to lend ??
Any1 want to give interviews , opinions on scene blah blah or collect footage from their parties for me to mix in to a documentary ??
I've been thinking about doing this for a while (it's on the to do list ) , and am just looking for feedback for the idea at present .
I was thinking about calling it two thousand and free , and presenting a balanced documentary on the various issues affecting freeparties , interviewing landowners partygoers and party organisers and collecting some of the more bizzare footage from free parties .
The ultimate aim would be a screening on Channel 4 at some point toward the end of the year and could be a real awareness raiser for general joe public , which could in turn change their attitude toward free party culture , or at least let them see it from our side anyway.
It's just an idea in it's infancy at present , but if i get the right feedback and enough folk are interested or willing to help out , then i'd like to do it .
link 2 discussion
Planet Yes Any Ideas wot da new number (or latest) for Planet Yes the ones I have are dead!! e-mail me ( fRiJ_@hotmail.com )if you don't want to post it here.:confused: :confused: :confused:
Alternative Glastonbury Due to police presence the alternative glastonbury will not be on this year. This is what I have gathered from contacts and various reports on the web.
So fuck u pigs if u r reading.
Rollo.
dizzyfunk + free after party deep n groovin underground house
this friday 27th june
dizzy funk @ the park (park road, p'boro city cntr)
solo (da sunlounge)
plus dizzyfunk/safeandsound's sean, andy & iain
9 til 2 £3 before 10 // £5 after
details will be given on night for a free outdoor after party.
Multi Rig dose anyone know if there are any multi rig events being planned in the south any time soon. we was going to one on the solistice but by the time we got there the police had shut it down.
cunts.:(
Party lines hey everyone! does anyone out there have numbers for free party lines (especially pytrance) they dont mind emailing me (I know the drill - I'm not the fuzz) I'd really like to know em. Please mail them to junglistrudeboy@hotmail.com
Cheers.
Keep it free-
-The Toad
The one were waiting for If any one has any news on the alternative Glastonbury, can you please e- mail me on
rowlyg2002@yahoo.com.
Rollo
p.s. becareful whats posted on here about the event as the filth are everywhere watching the usual sites in the west.
Partys in/around Shropshire Anyone any idea of parties in and around the Shropshire area.
Just moved back here recently and things seem to be quiet but I hear rumours of stuff goin, obviously havnt spoken to the right ppl yet :/
Anyways.. me new to these forums so Drop a hello even if you cant help.. and if you can.. Great.. !
Help an old hippy find a party .. PLLLEEEEEEZ...
WoOkIe
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