Faced with a growing number of drug trafficking, money laundering and
\norganised crime investigations, the head of Cape Verde\u2019s judiciary police
\nsaid his agents may know who the traffickers and money launderers are, but
\ndo not have enough resources to catch them all.<\/p>\n
According to scientists at France’s National Museum of Natural History, a
\nnew species of gecko has been discovered — after it hatched from an egg
\nremoved from a nest on a South Pacific island and carried 12,000 miles to
\nParis in a box lined with Kleenex. The island, Espiritu Santo, is one of
\nthe larger South Pacific islands of the Vanuatu Archipelago, east of
\nAustralia.<\/p>\n
Oscar Silva dos Reis Tavares, who directs high-level crime investigations
\nat the judiciary police, said his agents are handling 150 investigations,
\nincluding 10 money laundering cases. But the police should be looking into
\nmore, he said: \u201cWe can\u2019t just go up to someone on the street and use what
\nthey say as evidence in a court of law. This is a small community. People
\nmay know who earns money illegally, but we need proof.\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles police are using motion-activated cameras to warn vandals that
\nthey’re being watched.<\/p>\n
In the past five years, the islands have increasingly been used as a
\ntransit point for drugs coming from Latin America, destined for Europe and
\nWest Africa, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
\nMinister of Justice Marisa Morais said Cape Verde\u2019s geography has left it
\nopen to transatlantic traffickers: \u201cOur geographical location is both a
\nprivilege and a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Police in Solomon Islands have confirmed around three houses were burnt
\nto the ground over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The new reptile species, which was formally assigned the Latin name,
\nLepidodactylus buleli, is only three inches long as an adult, and lives
\nnear the tops of the rainforest on the west coast of Espiritu Santo, eating
\ninsects and possibly drinking nectar from flowers.<\/p>\n
The houses belonged to Malaitan settlers in West Guadalcanal about a 30
\nminute drive from the capital Honiara.<\/p>\n
Based on government records, Cape Verde, with a growing tourist economy,
\ncontrols more than 700,000sqkm of water that include 10 islands and eight
\nislets with 1000km of volcanic, at times difficult to access, coastline.<\/p>\n
Police say a dispute had risen among the settlers after a young man had
\ndefiled a young girl and caused a row between the settlers.<\/p>\n
But despite a recent jump in tourism dollars, the government reported about
\n10 percent of its population living in extreme poverty as of May 2008.
\nIllegal housing settlements continue spreading out in northern Praia
\nneighbourhoods like Safende, Calabaceira, and San Pedro, which lack
\ndrainage, roads and easy access to water.<\/p>\n
Geckos are small to medium-sized reptiles in the family Gekkonidae. These
\nfascinating animals are unique among lizards because they are vocal: their
\nsocial interactions frequently involve chirping sounds.<\/p>\n
In a recent UNODC report, researchers wrote that what appears as legitimate
\neconomic growth in some West African countries may be explained through the
\ndrug trade: \u201cOnce the channels for disguising drug money have been
\nestablished,\u201d wrote UN researchers, \u201cthey can be used for concealing all
\nmanner of criminal proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many geckos also have specialized toe pads that rely on weak intermolecluar
\nattractive forces, known as van der Waals forces, to enable them to climb
\nsmooth and vertical surfaces, and even to stroll upside down across
\nceilings. It is estimated that there are roughly 2,000 species of geckos
\nthroughout the worldwide — and many are still to be discovered.<\/p>\n
According to the 2008 African Development Bank and Organization of Economic
\nDevelopment report for Cape Verde, its economy grew more than 10 percent in
\n2006, in large part from tourism investments, which increased more than
\ntenfold from 2004-2006 to $509 million. Since then, the government has
\npassed legislation to attract additional foreign investment.<\/p>\n
The motion triggers a recorded voice that states, “This is the Los Angeles
\nPolice Department. It is illegal to spray graffiti or dump trash here.” The
\nvoice warns vandals that they are being recorded and will be prosecuted.<\/p>\n
The egg was collected, along with eight others, from a nest that had been
\nfound in the treetops during a collecting trip to Espiritu Santo in 2006.
\nIvan Ineich, the museum’s herpetologist, noticed a bloody carcass that had
\naccidentally hacked in half by one of collectors.<\/p>\n
Josep Coll, European Commission ambassador in Cape Verde, said legitimate
\nforeign investments can be undermined by money laundering: \u201cYes, we can
\nhave the mirage of a booming economy, but this is false if there are
\nillegal investments, condemned by international law, in the mix which lead
\nto unfair competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
The camera provides a high-resolution image of the tagger and the vehicle.
\nIt can capture an image of a license plate from 250 feet.<\/p>\n
Economists call this the \u201cDutch disease\u201d effect, when illicit businesses
\ngenerate more money and jobs than the legal economy.<\/p>\n
“I said to myself ‘this guy looks bizarre,’ but I couldn’t tell right away
\nit was a new species because it had been so massacred,” Ineich said.<\/p>\n
Proof of Missing Iceberg?<\/strong><\/p>\n Police chief Tavares said the country\u2019s crime lab has limited chemical Climbers later collected a plant where nine minuscule gecko eggs had been The number of organised, drug and money laundering cases jumped from 19 to “We don’t have a doubt that we’ll be able to identify them once we get them Tavares said in the last four years, the government has frozen 12 accounts Police also say the fires were not caused by indigenous people of the area Though legislation criminalised money laundering in Cape Verde in 2002, the Three cameras installed last year led to an 85-percent decline in graffiti This is the first time a new species of lizard has been identified from an In passing the amendment, Cape Verde\u2019s Council of Ministers wrote that This new species of gecko is not thought to be endangered.<\/p>\n A woman in Pico Rivera was killed last summer when she confronted taggers When asked to quantify trafficked contraband circulating in Cape Verde, Faced with a growing number of drug trafficking, money laundering and organised crime investigations, the head of Cape Verde\u2019s judiciary police said his agents may know who the traffickers and money launderers are, but do not have enough resources to catch them all. According to scientists at France’s National Museum of Natural History, a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[55,10,11,17,35,42,43,45,47],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nanalysis capabilities and relies on analyses conducted in Portugal for
\ninvestigations. But it is more than lab improvements that are needed, said
\nTavares. \u201cIt has been impossible to pin down one of the most well-known
\ntraffickers here [Cape Verde] when we don\u2019t have phone recording equipment
\nto investigate.”<\/p>\n
\nhidden. Ineich wrapped the eggs in wet Kleenex, packed them into a pillbox
\nand carried them home, where he gave them to a friend who raises lizards as
\na hobby. Unfortunately, eight of the geckos died after temperatures in the
\nterrarium plummeted during a power outage, but the ninth lived.<\/p>\n
\n60 between 2007 and 2008. There may be more, said Tavares: \u201cWe don\u2019t know
\nif we are addressing 10 percent or 90 percent of the problem. It may be the
\ntip of the iceberg, or we may be at the base.\u201d<\/p>\n
\non camera,” said police Captain Sharyn Buck.<\/p>\n
\nworth more than US$1 million as a part of ongoing high-level crime
\ninvestigations. He added that since 2007, the government has seized $1
\nmillion worth of land and homes, and cars worth more than $622,000.<\/p>\n
\nbut by those within the settlers community.<\/p>\n
\nmost recent amendment requires for the first time that those working in
\nfinancial transactions, including lawyers, bill collectors, auditors and
\naccountants, report any suspicion of money laundering.<\/p>\n
\nand those locations, according to the LAPD. The LAPD recently installed 10
\nmore cameras. The cameras were installed after a series of violent
\nconfrontations that involved vandals.<\/p>\n
\nindividual raised from an egg rather than from adults collected from the
\nwild, according to France’s National Museum of Natural History.<\/p>\n
\nmoney laundering in Cape Verde is \u201cconnected to a circuit of organised
\ncrime, such as traffic of arms, people, drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nnear her home.<\/p>\n
\nJustice Minister Morais pointed to the Atlantic Ocean behind the Praia
\nhotel where she spoke at a recent high-level ministerial conference on drug
\ncrimes: \u201cHow big is our problem? Well, how big is the ocean?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"