Tag Archives: fishing trawlers

Fishing trawlers, a no-show submarine and mutiny: the full story of a historic drug haul

This failed drug importation was the third of five smuggling attempts by the ambitious NSW-based syndicate over two years. Only on the fifth attempt did they succeed in bringing drugs to Australia. But the victory was short-lived, as a massive police operation culminated with mass arrests and a 500-kilogram cocaine haul seized when it was brought into the Hawkesbury River on Christmas Day 2016. The end result was 18 related convictions, with combined prison sentences of 250 years. After the final sentence was handed down last week, the full story, starting with the beginnings of the syndicate back in mid-2014, can be told at last.  The dramatic saga involved mutiny at sea, a mysterious “submarine”, the French Navy and a cast of colourful characters. >click to read< 21:32

Canada’s cocaine cowboys: How a two-year RCMP sting led all the way to Mexican kingpin El Chapo

It was March 12, 2015, and Stephen Tello was having second thoughts. The following day he was due to meet a man called Joe at a steakhouse in Toronto. Joe was a transportation broker who, for the right price, had told Tello he could smuggle huge amounts of cocaine into Canada. He could have drugs collected at sea in the Caribbean, he said, before swapping them onto fishing trawlers closer to Newfoundland, for safe passage to harbour. The two had met before, but their first deal hadn’t worked out. Now Tello, who lived a double life as a Toronto real estate,,, >click to read< 11:56

Conservationists, West Coast bottom fishermen embrace ‘grand bargain’

People who love fresh Northwest seafood and the sea should take note of what happened this week in a hotel conference room by Portland’s airport. There, the Pacific Fishery Management Council approved a plan to protect more coral, sponges, reefs and other sensitive animals and formations from the nets of bottom trawlers who work off the West Coast. The measure also offers something for fishermen: a reopening of some prime fishing areas that had been off-limits. >click to read<18:22