[El Narco 720p Torrent
Tilo Chopin
This work is intended to be an initial primer on the subject of narco-submarines, that is, those specially fabricated vessels utilized principally by Colombian narco traffickers and developed to smuggle cocaine into the United States illicit drug market.
The U.S. Department of State, through its Narcotics Rewards Program, is offering rewards of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Maduro Moros, up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Cabello Rondn, Carvajal Barrios, and Alcal Cordones, and up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Marn Arango.
Maduro Moros, Cabello Rondn, Carvajal Barrios, Alcal Cordones, Marn Arango, and Hernndez Solarte have each been charged with: (1) participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy, which carries a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence and a maximum of life in prison; (2) conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, which carries a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence and a maximum of life in prison; (3) using and carrying machine guns and destructive devices during and in relation to, and possessing machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of, the narco-terrorism and cocaine-importation conspiracies, which carries a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence and a maximum of life in prison; and (4) conspiring to use and carry machine guns and destructive devices during and in relation to, and to possess machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of, the narco-terrorism and cocaine-importation conspiracies, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The potential mandatory minimum and maximum sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.
In his role as a leader of the Crtel de Los Soles, Maduro Moros negotiated multi-ton shipments of FARC-produced cocaine; directed that the Crtel de Los Soles provide military-grade weapons to the FARC; coordinated foreign affairs with Honduras and other countries to facilitate large-scale drug trafficking; and solicited assistance from FARC leadership in training an unsanctioned militia group that functioned, in essence, as an armed forces unit for the Crtel de Los Soles.
An indictment unsealed today in the District of Columbia charges Vladimir Padrino Lopez, 56, Minister of Defense of Venezuela. The indictment alleges that from March 2014 until May 2019, Padrino Lopez conspired with others to distribute cocaine on board an aircraft registered in the United States.
Padrino Lopez, who holds the rank of General in the Venezuelan armed forces, held the authority for interdicting aircraft, many of which are registered in the United States, suspected of being used to traffic drugs from Venezuela to countries in Central America. On numerous occasions, Padrino Lopez ordered or authorized the Venezuelan military to force suspected trafficking aircraft to land or to shoot down the aircraft. However, Padrino Lopez allowed for other aircraft whose drug trafficking coordinators paid bribes to him to safely transit Venezuelan airspace.
Maikel Jose Moreno Perez, 54, current Chief Justice of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, was charged via a criminal complaint in the Southern District of Florida with conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering in connection with the alleged corrupt receipt or intended receipt of tens of millions of dollars and bribes to illegally fix dozens of civil and criminal cases in Venezuela.
The complaint alleges, for example, that the defendant authorized a seizure and sale of a General Motors auto plant with an estimated value of $100 million in exchange for a personal percentage of the proceeds. Similarly, the complaint alleges that the defendant received bribes to authorize the dismissal of charges or release against Venezuelans, including one charged in a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme against the Venezuelan state-owned oil company.
Colombian authorities arrested Yamit Picon-Rodriguez aka Choncha, 36, Jose Gabriel Alvarez-Ortiz aka Alex, 26, and Henry Trigos-Celon aka Moncho Picada, 43, based on a provisional arrest request of the United States.
Suspected ELN leader Villegas-Palomino aka Carlos El Puerco, 38, is also charged and considered a fugitive as are Jaime Miguel Picon-Rodriguez aka Chencho and Jairo, 38 and Diomedes Barbosa-Montao aka El Burro, 38.
A federal grand jury in Houston returned the three-count indictment Feb. 12. All six defendants are charged with distribution of a controlled substance, knowing or intending to provide anything of pecuniary value to a person or organization that engages in terrorism or terrorist activity (narco-terrorism), participating in an international cocaine distribution conspiracy and international cocaine distribution.
According to the indictment, Villegas-Palomino and his co-defendants were involved in an ongoing 20-year conspiracy to distribute cocaine from Colombia to the United States knowing or intending to provide pecuniary support to the ELN.
In early 2019, Villegas-Palomino, Picon-Rodriguez, Trigos-Celon, Barbosa-Montao and Alvarez-Ortiz also allegedly participated in distributing approximately 30 kilograms of cocaine in Colombia having reasonable cause to believe it would be imported into the United States.
On Oct. 8, 1997, the State Department officially designated ELN as a foreign terrorist organization. It continues to operate as one of the largest narco-terrorism organizations in the world. The U.S. Department of State through its Narcotics Rewards Program, is offering up to a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Villegas-Palomino.
OCDETF brings together the combined expertise and unique abilities of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Its principal mission is to identify, disrupt, dismantle and prosecute high-level members of drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations and enterprises.
Acknowledgements: the lead investigator on this Global Witness report was Ken Silverstein. Global Witness is grateful to NBC News for making available to us material from an NBC and Reuters interview with Alexandre Henrique Ventura Nogueira. Unless otherwise indicated, this material is referenced in the text as (NBC/Reuters).
One key player in the laundering of drug money at the Trump Ocean Club was notorious fraudster David Eduardo Helmut Murcia Guzmn, whom a U.S. court subsequently sentenced to nine years for laundering millions of dollars' worth of illicit funds, including narcotics proceeds, through companies and real estate.
Moreover, investing in luxury properties is a tried and trusted way for criminals to move tainted cash into the legitimate financial system, where they can spend it freely. Once scrubbed clean in this way, vast profits from criminal activities like trafficking people and drugs, organized crime, and terrorism can find their way into the U.S. and elsewhere. In most countries, regulation is notoriously lax in the real estate sector. Cash payments are subject to hardly any scrutiny, giving opportunistic and unprincipled developers free rein to accept dirty money.
Global Witness has been exposing money laundering for almost a decade and has played a leading role in developing strategies to tackle it, such as the creation of public registries listing the true owners of companies. Our investigations show just how damaging the laundering of dirty funds can be. Far from being a victimless crime, money laundering keeps poor countries poor, props up dictatorships and fuels corruption and criminality.
1. Appropriate law enforcement authorities, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller, should investigate these allegations and, if appropriate, hold President Trump accountable for his actions. The congressional committees looking into this issue should likewise investigate these allegations and, if appropriate, hold President Trump accountable for his actions.
3. Every country should require the real estate sector to know who their clients are and the source of their funds as a precaution to ensure that dirty money is not being laundered into the property market.
4. Every country should require lawyers who carry out transactions for their clients, including the buying and selling of real estate and the creation of companies, to know who their clients are and the source of their funds.
This was quite a turnaround. Back in 2004, Trump's real estate empire had seemed close to collapse after five bankruptcies in 14 years left his organization with an accumulated debt of almost $2 billion. This left him virtually cut off from commercial loans. Trump relaunched his career with a business model based largely on self-promotion. He started selling his name to luxury real estate projects, leveraging the Trump brand in lucrative deals that often involved minimal investment on his part and little risk if the project tanked.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Alan Garten, executive vice president and chief legal officer of the Trump Organization, said Bayrock and the Sapir Organization were responsible for apartment sales and for conducting due diligence on buyers.
As reported by the New Yorker, in 2012 the Trump Organization signed a licensing deal to develop the Trump International Hotel and Tower Baku, Azerbaijan. The developer was Garant Holdings, a company headed by Anar Mammadov, son of the then-Transportation Minister Ziya Mammadov. Ziya Mammadov in turn has close ties to the Darvishi family, whose members headed firms reportedly controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Struggling financially at this time, Donald Trump seized the chance to be that name, and to embark on his very first international licensing venture. He struck a deal with Khafif, and the Trump Ocean Club (TOC) was announced in New York City on April 24, 2006.