Tag Archives: smuggling
Who are the Freshwater Five and what did they do? Two of the men will have their convictions considered
In 2011, five men were given a combined 104-year prison sentence for masterminding a £53m drug smuggling operation. On May 29, 2010, a small fishing boat, the Galwad-Y-Mor, left the Isle of Wight on what the crew claimed was a routine trip to catch lobster and crab in the Channel. That night, a large drug operation led by the Serious Organised Crime Agency was taking place,,, Two of the men, Jonathan Beere and Daniel Payne, will have their convictions considered by the Court of Appeal this week. >click to read<
Freshwater Five: Radar evidence suggests surveillance plane and a suspect vessel – The Court of Appeal hearing begins tomorrow for two of the Freshwater Five, where new information will be put before the judge. All five men protest their innocence – following the trial they were sentenced for a total of 104 years; >Click to read<15:10
Record NSW Coke Bust? Police find tonne of suspected cocaine on a commercial fishing boat
An unusual-looking route bought the Coralynne to the attention of authorities and, as investigators boarded the fishing vessel, it didn’t take long to confirm their suspicions — it was allegedly carrying more than a tonne of what presumptive testing suggests is cocaine. As police boarded the boat, a fire broke out in the engine room. It was extinguished before officers found what they allege was more than a tonne of drugs that were sitting inside the boat. There was no attempt made to conceal the cocaine, >photos, click to read< 08:33
Smuggling the “Codfather” Profits: Bristol County Sheriff Captain Convicted
A Captain with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office was convicted today by a federal jury in connection with helping Carlos Rafael, known as the Codfather in the fishing industry, and the owner of one of the largest commercial fishing businesses in the U.S., smuggle the profits of his illegal overfishing scheme to Portugal. Jamie Melo, 46, of North Dartmouth, Mass., was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States and one count of structuring the export of monetary instruments. U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper scheduled sentencing for Oct. 24, 2018. The jury acquitted the defendant of one count of bulk cash smuggling. >click to read<22:30
‘The Codfather’ expected to report to prison today
A New Bedford fishing magnate who pleaded guilty to multiple charges is expected to report to prison Monday to begin his sentence. Carlos Rafael — also known as “The Codfather” — will serve about four years on charges of smuggling, falsifying documents and evading fishing quotas. He’ll also have to serve three years’ probation and pay fines of up to $200,000. link 10:03
Jury clears fish broker in alleged tuna smuggling scheme
A Marblehead tuna broker has been cleared of federal charges that he orchestrated a scheme to illegally catch and export bluefin tuna. Robert Kliss and his Lynn-based business North Atlantic Traders were found not guilty of charges that included conspiracy, smuggling and falsifying records, by a U.S. District Court jury on Friday. Kliss, his business and a captain-for-hire, John Cafiero, were indicted in April following a four-year investigation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and federal prosecutors. The allegations came to the attention of investigators in 2012, after a member of the crew on the famous fishing boat the F/V Hannah Boden came back from a swordfishing trip off the coast of Long Island, New York, and reported to the boat’s manager that Cafiero had also been fishing for bluefin. click here to read the story 21:17
How the illegal pursuits of a fishing empire could affect an entire industry already struggling under intense regulation.
He’s been dubbed the Codfather. Carlos Rafael, owner of a fishing empire that is the largest in the Northeast if not the country, is accused of exploiting federal fishery regulations to get ahead and misreporting hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish. His alleged crimes expose the pitfalls of a system meant to help fishermen and their catch coexist. It’s a tale of fraud, smuggling and organized crime better suited to the big screen than the docks of New Bedford.,, Besides tax evasion and fraud, the problem with Rafael’s plan is that it undermined the efforts of federal authorities to manage healthy fisheries and avoid over fishing. Fishermen from Rhode Island to Maine have had their catches limited by federal quotas since 2009 under a program regulators say promotes sustainable fishing, but for many fishermen it’s meant hanging up their hooks. During the first year of the catch-share program, there were 440 commercial boats. That number dwindled to just 120 by 2013. Read the story here 09:16
‘Aquatic cocaine’: Fish bladders are latest Mexican smuggling commodity
One hundred twenty-one fish swim bladders lay before Garcia Pereda on the concrete floor, most of them white, some with shades of pink. The smell of fish guts was overwhelming, a stench Garcia Pereda never grew accustomed to, even as he went from bust after bust of the illegal smuggling. This was a huge haul of “aquatic cocaine”: 39 kilos of totoaba fish swim bladders, with a Hong Kong street value of $750,000. Not quite as big as a recent bust, thought Garcia Pereda, where they’d stopped 600 bladders from getting across the U.S.-Mexico border, flowing eventually to China. The fishermen – Jorge Garcia sat on the back of his truck, selling fish filets and shrimp to tourists wandering the boardwalk in San Felipe. He looked out at the water, disgusted that his two boats are not doing what Garcia was raised to do: fish big game like totoaba. “We’re being punished,” he said. “Young fishermen from out of town are coming in, fishing illegally in the water, making tons of money.” Read the story here 11:04
