Suspected Bali Nine mastermind living in luxury as Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran sit on death row

Indonesian police escort Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan. Photo: Reuters
 

A man police suspect was a mastermind of the Bali nine drug importation is living a life of luxury in Sydney while two junior members of his syndicate, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, await the firing squad in Bali.

The man's lavish lifestyle is funded by a multimillion-dollar lottery pay out, which he won about the time the two young Australians, who acted as the local leaders of the syndicate in Bali, were being sentenced to death.

Former senior police sources said the man has previously been the subject of police drug trafficking investigations. He is believed to have halted his criminal activities after he quite literally won the lottery.

He is described in police intelligence reports as being suspected of high-level involvement in the syndicate that supplied the drugs carried by the Bali Nine mules. The syndicate is likely to have previously imported drugs into Australia.

The man now lives in Sydney and has escaped prosecution for any of his suspected criminal activities. He is believed to have won well over $5 million in the lottery several years ago, after the Bali nine members were arrested.

The extraordinary luck of the man underlines the rarely spoken reality of drug busts: those arrested are usually mid- to low-level players. More senior syndicate members ensure they are not hands-on and continue to traffic drugs once a courier or shore-party is arrested.

Chan and Sukumaran, who were dubbed by Indonesian authorities as the ring-leaders of the importation and who are facing imminent execution for their crime, have never revealed who they were working for, citing fear for the safety of their families back in Australia. It is possible that the pair do not know who were the ultimate organisers of the importation.

The pair had a low- to mid-level involvement in the trafficking for which they were convicted in 2006. Their roles included directing the Australian couriers in Bali.

Fairfax Media reported earlier this week that the portrayal of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran as the key figures in a heroin smuggling syndicate in April 2005 may have damaged their chances of a presidential reprieve.

Police have never arrested the suppliers, main organisers and financiers of the operation.

In 2005, police said they were pursuing "some very relevant avenues of inquiry" in relation to a syndicate that supplied the Bali nine and which was suspected of smuggling large amounts of heroin to Western countries.

Chan was 22 and had been living with his parents shortly before he was arrested in Bali. A Thai prostitute called Cherry Likit Bannakorn has been identified as the courier who delivered two suitcases of heroin to Chan in Bali. She remains the subject of an Interpol red notice but is also likely to be a relatively minor syndicate player.

On April 27, 2005, Indonesian police announced they had shot dead Man Singh Ghale, a Nepalese-born man with a long history of drug trafficking in Indonesia who they linked to the Bali nine operation.

Indonesian undercover drugs agents in Jakarta initially claimed they shot him as he tried to escape, but it emerged later his hands were cuffed behind his back at the time.

Months later, the AFP said that Man Singh Ghale was not the Mr Big in the Bali nine operation.

smh.com.au 11 Feb 2015

Authorities know who the 'ring leader' of the Bali 9 drug operation is BUT choose not to act as a result of corruption and bribes being paid to the AFP and others.

Apparently the Australian population are being mislead that the collection of 'metadata' is to stop crime.

This is NOT the case as it is used to monitor the general populous and has nothing to do with the reduction of crime.

$27m in council rates 'illegal'

$27m in council rates 'illegal'

The State Government has taken legal action against 22 councils after an audit found they had illegally levied more than $27 million in rates on 10,000 properties this year.

In an extraordinary move, Local Government Minister John Castrilli began proceedings in the State Administrative Tribunal in April to have the invalid rates and service charges quashed.

A spokesman for Mr Castrilli said yesterday the councils had failed to obtain ministerial approval before setting differential rates or minimum rates in their 2011-12 budgets, which was required under the Local Government Act.

An estimated 10,380 properties and $27.19 million in rates are involved.

In most cases, even if the SAT action is successful, the councils can impose the same rates after re-adopting their budgets with the relevant approval.

The spokesman said $475,000, spread between 19 of the 22 councils, would likely have to be repaid to ratepayers because it was levied illegally and unlikely to be remedied.

One large metropolitan council made up $349,000 of this amount, though he would not say which one.

For the other 18 councils, the rates refund could range from $1000 to $35,000.

In September, Mr Castrilli told Parliament that checks of 79 budgets for 2011-12 had found 16 councils had incorrectly imposed rates and charges and the issue could largely be fixed via a Governor's Order.

The department said yesterday that further monitoring resulted in 22 councils being taken to the SAT - the only legal avenue available. An application against another council was under consideration.

Six city councils are involved: Kwinana, Belmont, Gosnells, Rockingham, Kalamunda and Cockburn.

The remaining 16 country councils include Albany, Bunbury, Murray, Chapman Valley, Exmouth, Carnarvon and Murchison.

The spokesman said the breaches were "concerning".

Asked whether the issue extended to past budgets, he said the tribunal matter only involved rates that were incorrectly levied in 2011-12.

The spokesman said councils should notify any ratepayers incorrectly charged rates.

The matter will be back before the tribunal on Monday.

au.news.yahoo.com 12 Jun 2012

'council' rates are ILLEGAL full stop.

Exposing Corporate Criminals – Victoria’s sheriff – Brendan Facey

Is this person Victoria's greatest criminal?

In Victoria, Australia there is a person by the name of Brendan Facey claiming to be a sheriff. 

In order to become a sheriff, one must be appointed, lawfully with all the checks and balances in place, which will be put aside for the moment.

There are also other people working out of the ‘Sheriff’s Office’ in Victoria that claim to be sheriffs.

These people claiming to be sheriffs are actually glorified debt collectors and have no lawful authority as ‘sheriffs’ whatsoever.

A (Victorian) sheriff is supposed to be (lawfully) appointed by the Supreme Court of Victoria, and must function for the court exclusively.

Any letter to the prospective client will show that the letter from the “Sheriff’s Office” is addressed from 277 William St Melbourne, also the same place where Tenix Solutions and Civic Compliance Victoria (CCV) reside at.

Sheriff Template letter:

The apparent signatory at the bottom of the correspondence is Brendan Facey, where the actual signature is computer generated.

Now,

Brendan Facey is also an employee of the Department of Justice as a Director of “Infringement Management & Enforcement Services” GPO Box 123 Melbourne 3001, with the current street address of 40/80 Collins St. Melbourne, 3000.

DoJ (IMES) letter signature:

This can be confirmed with any letter from the Department of Justice & Regulation, Infringement Management & Enforcement Services, where [he?] signs the document as a Director, (of) Infringement Management & Enforcement Services (totally different signature than from the ‘Sheriff’s Office’), contrary to his Supreme Court of Victoria appointment as a ‘sheriff’.

Once you ask any so called sheriff the lawfulness of their appointment, they refuse to comment.

If they are actually masquerading as officers of the crown (as indicated by the badge) and they are NOT lawfully sworn in, then they are committing a criminal offence.

Remind them of this next time you speak to a ‘sheriff'.

NB/. The actual validity of law in Victoria is put aside for the purpose of this article.

A small district in the south of China is the likely origin of Australia’s meth imports

A small village in the South of China is responsible for a huge amount of Australia and the world’s meth production. Source: Flickr

 

AUSTRALIA is awash with methamphetamine — and it’s likely coming from a relatively small district in the south of China. 

The area responsible is the Lufeng District and sits on the southern Chinese border, just 200km east of Hong Kong.

The heart of the area is Lufeng’s industrial city of 1.7 million people but aside from the Dinosaur Valley Museum, a slew of lively restaurants and the temperate weather, there is not much to attract tourists.

Lufeng District, highlighted in pink. Source: Supplied

 

Which is probably a good thing because hidden beyond the smoke and bustle of the city, are some of China’s most prolific drug manufacturers.

Certain villages in the area have become so notorious for illegal activity that residents reportedly stand guard with AK-47s and handmade grenades, in order to protect their illegal business.

The reputation of the Lufeng is such that people on social media have taken to calling it “the city of ice.”
Last month police conducted what was the latest drug-related raid in the area, seizing 2.4 tonnes of methamphetamine from a village known locally as “the fortress.”

A year ago, raids in the same area proved equally successful with a three tonne seizure of the drug by Chinese authorities.

Jinjiang Road, Jieshi Town, the centre of the small industrial Lufeng City. Source: Flickr

 

Despite increased police action, the problem is unlikely to be eradicated any time soon.

The difficulty faced by the authorities lies in the huge sums of money to be made in exporting the substance out of Lufeng District, to the rest of the world.

Those controlling the trade in the area only need a single shipment to be a success to turn a giant profit.
Jeremy Douglas is the regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and told news.com.au the production of methamphetamine has overtaken other drugs, such as heroin.

“The money generated is significant, the drug traffickers are incredibly wealthy. They are able to corrupt and they do use corruption as a part of their business model. They just build it into the cost,” he said.

In October 2013, Guangdong police released a list of 109 wanted drug traders along with their residential addresses, all of them were in Lufeng. Source: Supplied

 

China has a huge pharmaceutical industry which is allowing the illicit drug trade to flourish. The precursors required to make the stimulant are commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry and according to Mr. Douglas, they are being diverted from their intended purpose to those operating illegal labs.

“To operate a lab like this, you need a lot of chemicals, which are legitimate, regulated chemicals from the pharmaceutical industry,” Mr. Douglas told the South China Morning Post.

Despite the fact that authorities incinerated 400 tonnes of crystal meth precursors seized in the area just five months ago, plenty more is clearly getting through to the labs.

The Chinese Communist Party has been increasingly proactive in cracking down on widespread corruption, so it’s no surprise that it lies at the heart of the burgeoning meth trade.

A journalist who covers the area for an English language newspaper, but who wished not to be named, told news.com.au that, “generally speaking, it [Lufeng] is considered one of the more corrupt Chinese provinces.”

Another challenge faced by law enforcement is the ease in which manufactures can move the site of production. They will simply shift their activities to take advantage of laws, corrupt officials or other opportunities.

“You can disguise these things as paint factories or anything,” said Mr. Douglas.

The black arrow shows the location of Lufeng, in the Guangdong province of southern China. Source: Supplied

 

Lufeng district is believed to be responsible for one-third of all crystal meth production in China over the past three years, and given its location, is the likely source of a majority of methamphetamine coming into Australia.

On February 18, 2015 two Australian men were charged after 16 kilograms of meth amphetamine was found in a shipment of treadmills coming from China.

And one week later two men from Malaysia and Hong Kong were charged with importing $65 million worth of the drug into Sydney in boxes marked as “kids’s toys.”

Mr. Douglas said these types of trafficking attempts were “highly likely” to have come from Lufeng Province. “Even if the seizure originated from another city, it may also be from there as it might have gone through different networks,” he told news.com.au. 

Seizure of 16kg of crystal meth hidden inside treadmills from China was seized in Sydney last month. Source: Supplied

 

A report last month in the Epoch Times contended that in one bust, up to 20 per cent of the Lufeng village were complicit in the operations of the meth trade.

While that number remains unsubstantiated, Mr. Douglas spoke of one bust in Lufeng where a majority of the village likely knew of the lab.

But the illegal activities that have become so common in Lufeng district represent a growing trend in the region.

Since 2006 there has been a fivefold increase in the number of amphetamine type stimulant (ATS) drug busts in East and South East Asia.

Last week, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) released their annual report and called the expansion of illicit amphetamine-type stimulants “the biggest concern in East and Southeast Asia.”

Due to its price and accessibility, methamphetamine has taken on a new form of popularity in Australia. The drug is even gaining a growing number of middle class users.

While it might be disproportionately emanating from a province is the south of China, as long as the demand remains, methamphetamine is likely to keep turning up on our shores.

news.com.au 11 Mar 2015

So, why are the authorities not doing anything about it?

That's right, because they're involved in the drug business.

The drug business in Australia is worth approximately $200 million per week.

In order to make an impact on the illicit drug trade, the authorities need to step up their work.

If they are not doing this, then they are 'supporting' the flow of drugs into the hands of the masses.

The authorities are also supporting Chinese 'investors' who obtain their funds from the illicit drug trade to invest in Australia, in effect selling 'us' out.

What Russia has against McDonald's and Coke

A McDonald’s sign in Moscow. Source: AAP

 

RUSSIAN officials sharply criticised US fast-food giants Coca-Cola and McDonald’s on Thursday for their “unhealthy” products, comparing aggressive advertising campaigns to a war on citizens. 

An aide to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev took aim at the companies for their “super-calorific” products in a sideswipe at the United States at a time of high tension between the countries over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

“The aggressive marketing they carry out — which has nothing to do with our culinary traditions — is comparable to a war against our people,” said Gennady Onishchenko, speaking to radio station Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei.

Onishchenko was previously Russia’s chief sanitation doctor, notorious for imposing sweeping bans on food imports from countries that were Moscow’s political foes for alleged hygiene breaches.

They’re not loving it. Source: AAP

 

Last year he said Coca-Cola and Pepsi were “chemical weapons”, lamenting that they were not on a list of foreign imports banned by Russia in retaliation for Western sanctions for Moscow’s support of separatist rebels in Ukraine.

“Our children already drink more Coca-Cola than milk. Talking about McDonald’s — they need to change their menu and secondly the culture of food, not snacking or grabbing food, but proper nutrition for a Russian person,” he added.

Also on Thursday, a senior ruling-party politician, Alexei Pushkov, urged McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, which are both major employers and advertisers in Russia, to pull out of the country.

“Don’t McDonald’s and Coca-Cola want to support Obama’s sanctions and rid us of their products? They would be true to their principles and we would be healthier,” the head of the lower house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee wrote on Twitter.

Russian women against a backdrop of Coke advertising in 1998. Source: AAP

 

This was not the first time that McDonald’s has come into Moscow’s crosshairs. Russia last year launched sweeping health checks of more than 100 branches of McDonald’s and the chain was forced to temporarily close branches including the landmark outlet on Moscow’s Pushkin Square which was the first to open in the Soviet Union.

Russia denied that the high-profile checks into the fast-food brand that epitomises the American way of life were politically motivated.

McDonald’s closed its outlets in Crimea after Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in March last year, as well as in areas of eastern Ukraine seized by the rebels.

McDonald’s earnings in Russia and Ukraine were battered in 2014 as a result of their weak currencies.

news.com.au 6 Mar 2015

Two of the world's largest well known companies / trademarks that thrive financially by selling carcinogenic products to the 'masses'.

It is through the ignorance / stupidity that the masses fork out huge sums of money for nutrition-less / carcinogenic products, that allows companies like this to exist.

Some people may still believe that there is hope for 'humanity'.