FBI Snags 24 Suspected Credit Card Hackers

Federal agents have been watching websites where hackers illegally distribute credit card data—and their work has paid off. Today, they arrested 11 people in the US and 13 overseas, reports Reuters.

Under the two-year sting, agents set up a fake online forum of their own where people could trade stolen account numbers.

The arrest foiled about $200 million in bogus purchases involving more than 400,000 compromised cards, authorities say. All of the suspects are males between the ages of 18 to 25, which might have been apparent by screen names like “JoshTheGod" and “IwearaMAGNUM.”

Some of those charged face 40 years in prison if convicted. Their arrests will cause a "significant disruption to the underground economy," an FBI spokeswoman tells the New York Times.

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Is this the worst way to hide 204kg of cocaine?

The more than 200kg cocaine that was seized by Bolivian drug police. Picture: AFP

BOLIVIAN drug-smugglers seem to be running low on ingenious ways to hide their masses of cocaine.

Disguising the stash as flour or washing-up powder appears to be a little too old school for South American drug-runners – with the new method of choice being to wrap their blocks in Swastikas.

A van carrying 204kg of cocaine in brick-type moulds plastered with the Nazi stamp is the latest bust, as authorities attempt to stamp down on the raging drug trade.

The branding destroyed all chances of the smugglers making it safely to a farm to have the drugs cut, with Special Counter-Narcotics Police Force (Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra el Narcotrafico – FELCN) intercepting the van in the town of Warnes.

The driver was arrested by authorities at the scene.

The anti-narcotics chief confirmed it was the first time a shipment had been discovered with this symbol. If the mules plan on having future success with such deliveries, perhaps it should be the last.

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Prostitution rackets emerging in Goa

Business conferences and commercial events are serving as a new front for flesh trade with girls from various states being trafficked for these events in Goa, officials have said.

Police officers, who raided a few such events, said they were surprised to find during their investigations that a number of event management companies ran prostitution rackets under the guise of organising events in the state.

"The girls were found to have been brought with proper knowledge of what they have to do during the conference in the guise of event management," police inspector Gurudas Kadam, who busted a racket run by an Andhra Pradesh-based company, said at a consultation session here.

Kadam is among other officials who are participating in the two-day long consultation to formulate a strategy to check human trafficking for sexual exploitation in Goa.

Government and NGO representatives from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram-considered as source states for trafficking-are participating in the programme, which began here today.

Speaking at the conference, Women and Child Development department Director Sanjiv Gadkar said the state government would network with the source states to verify whether the event management companies organising conferences in Goa have valid registrations.

"Consultations with the source states will help the state government in its efforts to ascertain the background of the girls who are usually employed by the event management companies during business conferences," Gadkar said.
 

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Burmese national, two others held with drugs

A Burmese national, along with his two accomplices allegedly carrying 161 kg of narcotics for smuggling to Burma and China, has been remanded to judicial custody for 11 days.
The alleged Burmese national identified as Thomas Nihmunga, Abhinav Singh Chauhan, a Delhi resident and a Mizo
woman named Lasangpuii are remanded to police custody till July 2 by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Vinod Yadav.

 The trio was arrested by the special cell of Delhi police on June 21 on a tip-off that Chauhan would be carrying huge quantity of narcotics.

Chauhan was apprehended with 161 kg of ephedrine, a psychotropic substance concealed in layers of bed sheets, packed in seven plastic packets. Chauhan was travelling in a hired taxi and was on his way to Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh from where he had planned to take a train to Guwahati.From there,the consignment was to be sent to Burma and China through Mizoram .

The police said Chauhan had disclosed that the consignment belonged to Lasangpuii, who was living at Masjid Moth here, and he was only a carrier. The police subsequently arrested Lasangpuii and then Thomas, from whom they recovered 2 kg of ephedrine.

It was also revealed that the consignment was procured from Dehradun in a form of medicine strips and upon reaching Delhi, Thomas would peel off the strips and convert the consignment into packets, which were then collected by Chauhan to be sent to Guwahati.

The police have now sought the custody of Chauhan and Lasangpuii to interrogate them to nab others in the drug smuggling syndicate.

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Police bust nude party in Hyderabad, arrest 14

Cyberabad police late on Friday night swooped down on a holiday resort on the outskirts of the city and raided a party.

HYDERABAD: Cyberabad police late on Friday night swooped down on a holiday resort on the outskirts of the city and raided a party. More than 50 people were present at the do, including call girls. Many of them fled during the raid leaving behind their expensive cars. Fourteen persons were arrested and booked under the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act.

According to the police, Vijayawada-based cement businessman Devireddy Veera Narayana Reddy (32) hosted a birthday party at Swagruha Resorts at Pilgipuram village in Hayatnagar on Friday night. The party kicked off around 9.30 pm and based on a tip-off, the police raided the premises at 11 pm.

On reaching the spot, cops found the party on with loud music. "Half-naked girls were dancing around, most of the people were drunk while some others were sleeping with women in rooms. The girls said they were brought for the party from Delhi, Mumbai, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh," said a police officer.

Several of Reddy's wealthy friends, who were having fun with the call girls, fled the premises leaving behind their swanky cars, including BMW, two Volkswagen cars, Laura and a Toyota Fortuner. Police seized 11 cars from the resort.

Of the 16 accused, resort owner PS Reddy and party orgainser Akhtar Mamu were absconding. Police arrested 14 others from the party, including Veera Narayana Reddy. The number of the accused could increase after police zero in on those who fled.

"Akthar Mamu had arranged the girls with the help of resort owner PS Reddy, '' said Hayathnagar inspector G Srinivas Kumar. Drugs were not found on the premises.

Police suspect similar parties might have been organised at Swagruha resort earlier.

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