Vladimirs Mitrevics, alias Podsolnukh (sunflower), a resident of Latvia, and Russian citizen Maxim Tarnopolsky detained

A multiple offender from Latvia and a Russian gangster, formerly a resident of Latvia, were arrested in Ecuador last week along with another citizen of Russia and three Ecuador citizens on the charges of large-scale drug smuggling, informs LETA.
The six were detained by Ecuador Police at Guayaquil Port after a ship sailing under the Spanish flag, that was taking 21 tons of molasses to Barcelona, was arrested. Experts later determined that molasses contained 17 tons of cocaine that had been mixed with the molasses.Guayaquil police inform that it is one of the largest drug consignment to be seized in Guayaquil. The Latvian police have not yet commented.One of the detainees is Vladimirs Mitrevics, alias Podsolnukh (sunflower), a resident of Latvia, and Russian citizen Maxim Tarnopolsky who was convicted in Latvia of vehicular manslaughter and sentenced to ten years in prison, after his "Mercedes-Benz G320" veered onto the wrong side of the road and collided with another three cars, killing three and injuring another three people.
In 2001, Tarnopolskis was sentenced to ten years in prison, but he escaped from Vecumnieki Prison in 2005.Mitrevics was charged and tried several times for various crimes, in 2003 he was given a one-year jail sentence, suspended for six months, for unlawful possession of narcotic substances.

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Joseph Jones,and Norman Jones fled to Spain after the killing and were arrested in Marbella on May 1, 2008.

Joseph Jones, 24, from Crescent Road, New Barnet, and Norman Jones, 50, from Dukes Head Yard, Highgate, abducted landscaper and scrap metal dealer John Finney last year because they believed he had stolen their drugs. They drove the 42-year-old father-of-four 30 miles to a business unit in Hertfordshire and tortured him before killing him and mutilating his body. Two weeks later a member of the public discovered Mr Finney's naked remains behind a garage block in Ickleford.
His hands and head have never been found. The father and son were sentenced today at St Albans Crown Court, in Bricket Road, after a jury on Monday found them guilty of murder. Joseph Jones's friend Mark Curran, 28, of Dollis Valley Way, Barnet, and Gary Lattimore, 40, formerly of Littleheath Road, Bexleyheath, were both cleared of murder. Jailing Norman Jones for a minimum of 33 years and his son for a minimum of 30 years, Judge Mr Justice MacDuff said: "You are both evil men with nothing to commend you. “You committed a meticulously planned murder. You decided summarily to execute a man who you thought, rightly or wrong, probably wrongly, had crossed you.
"It is difficult to comprehend how evil you are. You lack any semblance of humanity." Justice MacDuff said he was "close to tears" after reading a family impact statement from the murdered man's father. He added: “You have subjected the Finney family to unimaginable grief, the loss of a proper man and man of real worth." Speaking after the verdict, Mr Finney’s family said: “The past year has been so very hard for us as a family. We have had to try to understand why a loving son and father was taken from us in such a brutal way and come to terms with this immense loss in our lives. “We have been helped by the support shown by many kind-hearted people around us and we would like to thank them. “But nothing can replace John and he will continue to remain so very much in our thoughts and prayers.”
The sentence means Norman Jones, who was worth £7 million will not be eligible to apply for parole until he is 83. He claimed he had made his fortune from horse racing and property development in Spain, but police suspect he made his fortune through crime. Mr Finney was living with his girlfriend in a caravan at Park Farm, Northaw Road West, Northaw, Hertfordshire, when he was abducted in February last year. He had used his truck a few weeks earlier to help tow another vehicle out of a mud-filled ditch at the farm, which had links to the killers. When a consignment of drugs went missing from it, Mr Finney was suspected of being responsible, but police say he was innocent. The killers then set about a plan to exact revenge, using "dirty" mobile phones to make death threats and purchase the van used to abduct Mr Finney, which were later discarded. Mr Finney was dragged from his car at gunpoint at around 7pm on February 29, 2008. He was taken to a specially rented shack in Knowl Piece, Wilbury Way, Hitchin, and murdered. Mr William Harbage QC, prosecuting, asked the jury to conclude that Mr Finney had been shot in the head and wounds on his body indicated he had been tortured. Mr Harbage said: “Mr Finney seriously upset some thoroughly unscrupulous and ruthless people. This was a callous, cold-blooded, pre-meditated execution of a man against whom they bore a grudge." The Joneses fled to Spain after the killing and were arrested in Marbella on May 1, 2008. Detective Chief Inspector Bill Jephson, who led the investigation, said: "John was the victim of a calculated and pre-planned, savage attack. We will never fully understand the motive for such brutality and only those individuals responsible for John's death will know exactly what happened to him. “John was a well-known and respected member of the travelling community, and his death has had a profound impact. I am extremely grateful for their support and cooperation over the last year and for respecting the investigation.” Patrick Fields of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This was a painstaking enquiry into a particularly brutal and grisly execution of a man who had done nothing wrong." Police believe a fifth person also took part in the murder, who they are still trying to identify.grandson and former son-in-law of gangster Charlie Kray were jailed for a minimum of 63 years Charlie Kray was the elder brother of gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie. He was seen as the quieter one of the trio who brought terror to London in the Sixties. He died aged 73 while serving a 12-year sentence for his part in a drugs plot.

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Raffaele Amato, an alleged boss of the Camorra gang of Naples,nickname is "the Spaniard." He partied in Marbella

Raffaele Amato, involved in a murderous turf war within the Camorra crime syndicate, was picked up Saturday in Marbella in a joint Italy-Spain operation, Naples prosecutor Giovandomenico Lepore said in a statement.Amato is accused of several homicides in connection with a feud dating back to 1991 between two Camorra clans that left more than a dozen people dead, he said.He was a top killer for boss Paolo Di Lauro, who was trying to keep control of the clan from rival Antonio Ruocco, Lepore said.In 2006, Di Lauro was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges of Mafia association, extortion and drug trafficking. On Sunday, prosecutors added subsequent charges to his sentence, along with six other people already behind bars.Amato was arrested in Spain in 2005 but was freed a year later on a technicality.The head of the Naples police squad, Vitrorio Pisani, said Amato had since become "the principal, or one of the principal importers of cocaine in Italy."The Camorra, the equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia for the Naples area, controls drug and arms trafficking, prostitution, extortion and illegal betting rackets.

Raffaele Amato, an alleged boss of the Camorra gang of Naples, had made a base in the glitzy coastal resort of Marbella, police say, even earning the nickname, 'the Spaniard.Neapolitan gangsters such as Raffaele Amato, the fugitive boss whom police captured Saturday night in the city of Marbella, have a name for Spain: La Costa Nostra, or Our Coast.The term plays off Cosa Nostra, or "Our Thing," as the mafia is called, and underscores what authorities say: that Spain has become a top foreign base for the Naples underworld, the Camorra, in the last decade. Spanish police have arrested half a dozen suspected Neapolitan crime figures this year alone."They use that name 'Costa Nostra' because it's like a second homeland for them," said Alessandro Pennasilico, an Italian anti-mafia prosecutor in Naples, in an interview. "They like Spain: the climate, the coast, the beaches, because it's close to their culture. And the Camorra goes where there is business. Spain is an important country regarding the trafficking of drugs."Amato's nickname is "the Spaniard." He partied in Marbella, a beachfront refuge of high-rolling international desperados and dubious fortunes. Investigators say he set up multinational cocaine deals in Barcelona. Moving among Spanish hideouts, he allegedly waged a long-distance war for the gloomy housing projects in Naples that are the heart of his empire.And he speaks Spanish, a language that resembles the Neapolitan dialect even more closely than it does Italian, like a native.The capture of Amato is a major victory for Italian anti-mafia investigators. The balding, 44-year-old kingpin gained notoriety for setting off a turf war with a rival clan between 2004 and 2007 that littered the high-rise slums of Naples with 70 bodies. The battle was retold in "Gomorra," a book by journalist Roberto Saviano, and in the recent film of the same name.Intense Camorra activity in Spain reveals evolving alliances and shifts in globalized crime networks, investigators say. Starting about seven years ago, Amato was a key player in a number of decisive underworld sit-downs in Spain, which is the gateway for Latin American cocaine smuggled into Europe, according to Antonio Laudati, a top official in Italy's Justice Ministry and former chief prosecutor in Naples.Europe became an increasingly hot market for cocaine because of rising demand, a strong currency and the hardening of U.S. borders after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Laudati said in a telephone interview. The Neapolitans met with Latin American and Spanish gangsters to build new partnerships and develop the European market, he said."They reorganized the routes," Laudati said. "One important route for cocaine into Spain went through North Africa. Another crossed the Balkans into Italy. And Barcelona became a hub for a land route for cocaine to Italy through France, where the Marseilles underworld has always had close ties to the Camorra. So you had a mixed operational group of bosses base itself in Spain."
The Camorra enlisted Spanish seagoing smugglers and front companies that concealed loads in shipments of products such as marble and seafood, Laudati said. Italian gangs also took advantage of the booms in real estate and construction in Spain to launder millions, according to authorities.Although the Neapolitan crime clans are flashy and murderous at home, they avoided violence in Spain because it was seen as a place to do high-level business and lie low.Nonetheless, the numerous arrests in Spain show that Spanish and Italian law enforcement have developed good cross-border cooperation. Amato was arrested in 2005 in Barcelona, but was released months later because of a judicial error in which the deadline for his prosecution passed by a day.Police began tracking him again in 2006. He lived in southern Spain and used fake Spanish documents to travel to see his family at upscale hotels in London, Tokyo and Turkey, according to Italian authorities and media reports.Last weekend, patient surveillance and wiretaps culminated when Italian and Spanish police trailed Amato on a 30-mile drive along the Mediterranean from Malaga. They arrested him on his way to a Saturday night date in Marbella, the glitzy capital of "his coast."

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