Paraguay Arrests 18 Police over Brazilian Inmates' Escape

Also, 18-y/o girl smuggled into prison and murdered

Corruption is Everywhere - definitely in Paraguayan prisons

By Renzo Pipoli

Authorities said two Brazilian inmates escaped from a Paraguay prison on Sunday.

File Photo by f11photo/Shutterstock/UPI

(UPI) -- Paraguay officials detained 18 police guards and placed them under investigation after an escape Sunday of two Brazilian inmates from a high-security prison.

Paraguay's internal security vice minister said inmates Thiago Ximenes, identified as a criminal band leader, and Reinaldo Araujo, identified as a hitman, escaped without a shot being fired from the Agrupamiento Especializado prison in Asuncion.

"Evidently there was police complicity in the escape of two members of the Fist Commando Capital," Paraguayan President Mario Abdo said Monday, reported 45 Ultima Hora.

He said 18 police officers, including two higher ranking officials, are under investigation for potential complicity.

The first stage of the escape, that involved cutting iron bars, occurred in a prison section where the guard in charge had requested permission to leave for family reasons, but superiors did not replace him. Security cameras in other areas that could have foiled the escape were damaged.

The detentions occur within of a month of a deadly incident in the same jail that sparked replacements of Paraguay's top police officials. In November, a Brazilian leader of the Comando Vermelho bank, Marcelo Pinheiro, was able to get an 18-year old girl inside his cell.

The incident became known after the girl was killed. Authorities said Pinheiro may have killed her to avoid extradition to Brazil, possibly because he has privileges in Paraguay he wouldn't have in Brazil.

Instead of being retained in Paraguay for a murder trial, he was immediately expelled by the Paraguayan government, which had already prepared his extradition.

An investigation by Paraguayan newspaper ABC cited a police source that said Paraguay criminals can pay up to $1,600 to arrange for illegal visiting privileges in high-security prisons.

Jail guards are also involved in selling weapons to inmates, it added. Weapons are sold "in parts" and assembled inside jails, the report said. Police uniforms have also been sold to Brazilian criminals who planned to use them to escape, it added.

The border between Brazil and Paraguay is a point from which drugs and weapons are smuggled into Brazil. They end up in the poorest neighborhoods of Brazil's biggest cities, which are plagued by drug related violence, according to Brazilian authorities. Brazilian police have cracked down on such organizations in recent months.

Crab Meat & Caviar: Notorious Russian Thug Lived Luxury Life in Maximum Security Prison

Corruption is Everywhere - In Russian Prisons? - You Bet!

© Tatyana Kuznetsova / Sputnik

Jailed for organizing brutal murders and extortion, a Russian crime lord lived the high life behind bars, as photos show him indulging in crab meat and caviar while holding banquets with his buddies.

He wasn’t nicknamed ‘Zlodey’ (the Villain) for nothing. Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz is one of the most ruthless thugs in Russia.

In 2010, his gang dispatched a death squad to kill a farmer in the southern Krasnodar Region. The thugs entered the man’s home and murdered him and his family. Neighbors were visiting him at that time, so they killed them, too, and then torched the place. In all, 12 people were butchered that night, including four children.

The hideous crime so shook the nation that the name of the small town the unlucky farmer lived in – Kuschevskaya – became a household name for rampant crime.

The gang members were apprehended shortly thereafter. The public was shocked to learn that they had terrorized the area for decades, acting unhinged and committing crimes with near-total impunity.

The gang leader was sentenced to life in prison (the death penalty is de facto banned in Russia) and later died behind bars. His close associate, Tsepovyaz, who facilitated the murders and paid the killers, got nearly 20 years in jail – a strict-regime penal colony in the Amur Region of Russia’s Far East.

Photos recently published in the media show that the term ‘strict regime’ actually means the opposite when dealing with a man of refined tastes such as Tsepovyaz. Steel bars didn’t come between him and his gourmet meals and parties, as one photo captured him enjoying crab meat and red caviar, both local delicacies.

Some pictures show him having what appear to be banquet parties with friends, sporting smartphones with internet access. These things are not only strictly forbidden but effectively blur the line between prison and hotel.

How did a notorious mobster like Tsepovyaz get away with all this luxury? His wife, Natalya, was sending him money. In fact, she claims to have sent him up to 3 million rubles (US$45,400) a year.

“Yes, we were talking. He was calling me, sending the credit card numbers,” she told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Natalya and Vyacheslav are now divorced, but when they still were a couple, the loving wife sent her inmate husband money not only to order expensive food but to pay “hefty sums” for dentistry and even to buy bees and beehives – beekeeping was his prison hobby.

The crime lord’s legal team believes that the photos may have been leaked online in connection with the ongoing court battle between former spouses over various assets. Speaking to Interfax news agency, his lawyer said the damning pictures were likely dumped online to generate negative buzz around Tsepovyaz and to “influence the judge’s decision.”

The correctional services say they uncovered Tsepovyaz’s leisure activities last year. The ensuing probe led to several correctional officers being “disciplined,” Deputy Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service Valery Maksimenko told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. He also said the pictures of Tsepovyaz’s escapades are from 2015. 

“What can I say – even in the remotest regions, sometimes it’s hard to avoid corruption, especially if a convict, who conspires with the officials, has the gift of persuasion and – what’s important – crazy amount of money.”

The Investigative Committee, meanwhile, has started its own probe following the scandal. The committee’s chief, Aleksandr Bastrykin, called on investigators to thoroughly check the prison and “immediately press criminal charges” if necessary.

300 Migrants Storm Spanish Exclave of Ceuta, Attack Police with Acid

And the Spanish government actually wants these people???

African immigrants celebrate as they enter the immigrant center in Ceuta on Wednesday.

© Reuters/Fabian Bimmer

Seven police officers suffered acid and lime burns as more than 100 sub-Saharan migrants jumped the border fence that separates Morocco from Spain's north African exclave of Ceuta.

Approximately 300 people tried to enter European territory by storming the fence on Tuesday night. Press reports state that as many as 200 were successful, however officials in the autonomous city say they have only accounted for 115 new arrivals.

The migrants cut part of the, 8.4km-long (5.2 mile) fence and used battery acid, quicklime and excrement to attack police officers, El Pais reports. The police revealed on Twitter that seven members of the force suffered injuries during the incident.

Do you believe this?

Because of vacations, the border was manned by fewer than 10 agents when the migrants chose to storm the fence. Numbers were also reduced because it was the first day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim festival. The Unified Association of the Civil Guard (AUGC) police representative group has long been critical of the shortage of officers manning the border.

The union should sue the government for leaving those guards in such a predictably vulnerable position.

Once inside the fence the migrants raced through the streets in a bid to reach the Temporary Immigrant Stay Center (CETI). The Red Cross treated the migrants who suffered cuts and bruises when they arrived there.

Local news outlet El Faro de Ceuta published video footage of the migrants running around in the city after breaching the border. They can be heard shouting “Boza! Boza!”, which means “victory” in, the west African language of Fula.

The Ceuta border fence is regularly breached by large groups of migrants looking to get into Europe. In late July, more than 700 people stormed the fence and more than 600 of them managed to cross the barrier in what Spanish police described as one of “the most violent and numerous entries” of migrants in recent months.

In February 2017, more than 500 stormed the fences of Ceuta.

2 Officers, 1 Worshiper Killed in Attack on Orthodox Church in Chechnya

War on Christianity - Islam storms church in Chechnya

Two officers and a worshiper were killed as armed militants attempted to storm an Orthodox church in Russia’s Chechnya. The attack was thwarted by law enforcers, who shot dead four militants.

The Church of Michael the Archangel in Grozny, the capital of Russia’s Republic of Chechnya, was attacked on Saturday by a group of gunmen, who attempted to take parishioners hostage.

A female worshiper told RIA-Novosti that the shooting outside the church began during the evening service, which was attended by around 15 people.

“One of the men rushed to block the door with a chair… we were holding the door,” the woman said, adding that shots from what she thought were pistols and machine guns were fired.

She also said that the priest’s children were playing outside when the attack began, and his wife had to rush from the church to lead them to safety.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said that two officers were killed at the church, while one worshiper also lost his life. Knives and a sawn-off shotgun were recovered from the militants after they were eliminated.

“The professionalism of the police officers guarding the church prevented more serious consequences of the attack and avoided a large number of casualties,” the Investigative Committee said on its website.

The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, also confirmed the elimination of the militants as a result of a “swift security operation.” Three of the killed militants were residents of Chechnya, while the leader of the gang was from “one of the neighboring regions,” he added. 

Kadyrov also said that "there is intelligence data that the militants received the order [to carry out the attack] from one of the Western countries."

Mufti Ismail Berdiyev, chairman of the Coordination Center of North Caucasus Muslims, has condemned the attack, which he said was aimed at destabilizing the situation in Chechnya.

“It was deliberately done during the holy month in order to destabilize the situation. It’s the month of Ramadan now. It’s the time when not only wars are forbidden, but even foul language is outlawed,” Berdiyev told TASS.

And yet, in most Islamic countries, where Christian churches are permitted, they have to be guarded by police continuously, even in Ramadan.

The attack was “yet another attempt by pseudo-Islamic extremists to pit Orthodox Christians and Muslims against each other,” said Vladimir Legoyda, head of the Synodal Information Department of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Radicalized French Prisoners Suspected of Plotting Attacks Days Before Release

The New Normal - French style

Apparently, both men were radicalized in prison. It makes a good case for segregating radicalized Muslims from the rest of the prison population.

The entrance of the prison of Fresnes, near Paris. © Patrick Kovarik / AFP

French police have charged two radicalized prison inmates with plotting terrorist attacks – within days of their scheduled release.

In the first such case in the history of French anti-terrorism the men, who were radicalized behind bars while serving time for non-terrorist crimes, are due to be released from Fresnes prison, just south of Paris, next week.

French TV news station LCI report that the men had plotted attacks against numerous targets including prison guards while they were in prison and police officers at a police station after they were released.

French intelligence services had been watching the two men for several months.

Cameroonian Charles-Henri M. was reportedly the mastermind behind the potential attacks. The 28 year old was an Islamic State sympathizer. His accomplice was 22-year-old Frenchman Maxime O, who is also a radical Islamist.

France 24 reports that the pair were also planning to use methods including hostage-taking and gun attacks.

The investigation began last December after a phone containing details of a plot to murder “disbelievers” was found in Charles-Henri’s cell.  

Charles-Henri M. was incarcerated for robbery in 2013 and was due to be released on Tuesday. Maxime O. was jailed for attempted murder in 2014, he was due to get out next week.

While being questioned by police LCI report that Charles-Henri praised his “brothers” who carried out the terrorist attack in the Bataclan theatre in November 2015. He also admitted to plotting attacks.

France has been in a state of emergency since 130 people were killed in terrorist attacks, one of which targeted the Bataclan, in Paris in November 2015. The country has suffered several smaller attacks since then.

Fresnes, FR

Pakistani Officers Guilty in Bhutto Assassination After Decade-Long Trial

One of the few ever hopes of Pakistan ever emerging from the Dark Ages was murdered either because she was a woman, or because it was politically expedient, or because she threatened the extraordinary level of corruption in that backward country

By Sara Shayanian  

Security officers stand patrol outside the courthouse in Pakistan Thursday after verdicts were announced in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Photo by S. Shazad/EPA

UPI -- After nearly a decade-long trial, two security officers were sentenced on Thursday to 17-years in prison for failing to protect former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto from being assassinated in 2007.

An anti-terrorism court handed down the verdicts and the sentences Thursday, which convicted two police officers and acquitted five suspected militants in Bhutto's death.

Bhutto served as Pakistan's prime minister twice before being killed by a gun-and-bomb attack after a campaign rally. Authorities at the time claimed that the Taliban was behind the attack. Twenty-two people died along with Bhutto.

However, the court acquitted defendants Aitzaz Shah, Sher Zaman, Abdul Rasheed, Rafaqat Hussain and Hasnain Gul who had all been accused of being Talibani militants associated with the assassination.

According to Pakistan Today, they had initially been charged with "killing, hatching a criminal conspiracy to kill, assisting the perpetrators, using illegal explosive material and spreading terrorism".

The lawyer for the five suspects argued that Benazir strayed from U.S. policy and, therefore, the United States was to blame for Bhutto's death.

The courts on Thursday also declared Pakistan's president at the time of the assassination, Pervez Musharraf, as an "absconder".

Musharraf has been out of Pakistan since 2016 and will be arrested and brought to trial if he returns. Authorities have been ordered to seize his property.

Bhutto was killed in Rawalpindi, just weeks after she returned to Pakistan after years of self-imposed exile.