Sydney Fish Market drug bust

Fifteen men were arrested on Christmas Day in a $15 million cocaine bust.  Several of the men were arrested on the fishing boat Dalrymple as it docked at the Sydney Fish Markets on Christmas night.

The Dalrymple was allegedly used to ferry drugs between a mother ship stationed out to sea, that held drugs smuggled from Chile into NSW ports.  About 500 kilos of cocaine was seized from a dinghy at Brooklyn, just north of Sydney.

It took NSW police, the Australian Federal Police (AFD) and Australian Border Force two and a half years to finally bring them down.  And there were some famous names among them.

Former Sydney Roosters player John Tobin 57 and Darren Mohr, who once owned Bondi Rescue HQ Cafe were among them and lifeguards from the famous television how Bondi Rescue helped to run Mohr's cafe.  Thirteen other men aged between 29 and 63 have also been charged.

Darren Mohr lists his occupation as the owner of Martini Motors and is also the former owner of Bondi Rescue HQ cafe.  His Instagram profile shows a love of Harley Davidson motor bikes, Rolls Royce cars and being photographed without a shirt.

Melbourne terror attack foiled

Flinders Street Station

The hate goes on, and on, and on.  Good police work this week prevented planned terror attacks on Flinders Street Station, Federation Square and St Paul's Cathedral on Christmas Day.

St Paul's Cathedral

Police now have Abdullah Chaaranim, Hamza Abbas, Ahmed Mohamad and Ibrihim Abbas all safely locked up. Two other men and a woman were also arrested but released without charge.

The would-be killers are young members of  the Lebanese-Australian community.  They were born here, raised here, yet wanted to kill as many Australians as they possibly could.

And when Immigration Minister Dutton made the comment "of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 of those people are from second and third generation Lebanese-Muslim backgrounds" he was hailed as a racist.  But you can't argue with the truth and if the Lebanese community can't fix it, we must.

Federation Square

And as always, the Islamic Council of Victoria said they 'strongly condemned' the plot.

And to make things worse, Malcolm Turnbull made one of his most ironic comments to date - he said we had a very successful multi-cultural society - when we obviously do not. 

We need to pass laws that will enable us to send these thugs and their entire families, back to their country of origin.

Anders Breivik's human rights violated

Noway has completely lost its mind.  A court has ruled that the cold-blooded killer Anders Breivik's solitary confinement has violated his human rights.

It seems the once fierce Viking nation has gone soft on criminals, even this mass murderer who snuffed out 77 Norwegian lives.

Last month Breivik took the Norwegian authorities to court, and won.

Judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic wrote in her decision...... the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment "represents a fundamental value in democratic society - this applies no matter what - also in the treatment of terrorists and killers."  She then ordered the government to pay Breivik's legal costs of 331,000 kroner.

Breivik had argued that solitary confinement, frequent strip searches, and being handcuffed while moving between cells, violated his human rights.  And the coffee was cold, the prison food was worse than "water-boarding" and having to eat with plastic cutlery was disgusting.

Norway's most notorious prisoner was sentenced in August 2011 to a maximum of 21 years - which can be extended if still considered a danger - for killing 8 people in a bomb attack and then shooting dead another 69, most of them teenagers on an island in July 2011.

He has one cell for living, another for studying and a third for physical exercise and is provided with exercise equipment, a DVD player, games console, typewriter, books and newspapers.

But now he won't have to speak to his lawyer behind a glass wall, he will be allowed more contact with a "visitor friend" from a local church and will spend more time outdoors.

Although Norway prides itself on the humane treatment of prisoners, concentrating more on rehabilitation than punishment, the thought of this man receiving special treatment is insane and extremely offensive.

Ms Dhu's treatment by police inhumane

Ms Dhu, her Christian name is withheld because of cultural reasons

Last night on ABC's 7.30 Report, we saw a very sick young Aboriginal woman, Ms Dhu, being handled by police with contempt.

Footage of a female police officer lifting her off the bed and letting her drop heavily onto a hard floor was hard to watch. And it told a story - there was zero compassion here because they thought she was pretending.

But it wasn't only the police who were totally uncaring, twice she was sent to hospital and twice, medical staff failed to pick up on what was wrong, and sent her back to the cells.

She had suffered two broken ribs after her partner threw her to the ground on April 2014, but one of her ribs didn't heal properly and became infected.  The coroner found the infection entered her bloodstream more than once when she was injecting herself with amphetamines.

Ms Dhu had been detained at the South Hedland Police Station lock up for three days for unpaid fines totalling $3,622, a stupid law that needs to be changed.

Ms Dhu's mother Della Roe said no-one has been held accountable for her death.  And it's true, nobody has - not one police officer nor any of the medical staff.

Okay, they had no way of knowing that infection was raging inside her body but they didn't even bother to take her temperature or give her an x-ray.  If they had, one simple dose of antibiotics would have saved her life.

One doctor diagnosed her as having "behavioural issues" before sending her back.

Footage of Ms Dhu being dragged like a sack of potatoes to a van waiting to take her to hospital for the third time was hard to watch. They took her to the Hedland Health Health Campus where she died shortly after.

The coroner said "The behaviour towards her by a number of police officers was unprofessional and inhumane.  Their behaviour was affected by preconceptions they had formed about her."

There are people who will say that she was typical of what happens in Aboriginal communities.  Men beat their partners on a regular basis and she was a drug user.

But it shouldn't matter.  She was in the care of police who failed to recognise her need for urgent medical attention.  It's a disgrace. 
And it's racist.

Eddie Obeid finally gets what he deserves

Eddie Obeid’s disgrace. How Mr one percent defined stupid

By  Neil Chenoweth, Financial Review article, 15 December 2016

The really appalling aspect of Edward Obeid's humiliation and disgrace, as he disappears behind prison doors for three years for looting the public purse at Circular Quay, is the revelation just how soddingly dim the man was.

Eddie defined a whole new paradigm of Stoopid. He could Stoopid for his country.

For a quarter of a century as a public figure he worked on the basis that no matter what he did, he could always lie his way out of the consequences.

There was no threat of exposure too pressing, no predicament so dire, that a few well placed fibs couldn't sort everything out.

The appalling thing is that this strategy worked . . . and worked . . . and worked. It made him one of the most powerful—and certainly the most corrupt—figures in the NSW Parliament.

He was brutally efficient at controlling Labor factions. But it's impossible to follow his course through successive inquiries before the Independent Commission Against Corruption without realising that if Obeid had shown any real intelligence, today he would be unbelievably wealthy.

We should be thankful for that. He was incompetent even at being corrupt.

And what does that make the rest of us, who tolerated successive state governments where he played kingmaker?

Perhaps his genius was to realise that being bright is hardly a prerequisite in politics. It's not rocket science.

Two years ago, with one line he changed our whole understanding of society's privileged "One Per Cent".

In the Obeid universe, this is a reference to the "one per cent chance" that he would ever be charged on any of the matters investigated by the ICAC.

Oops.

Always outraged at any slur on his honour

Back in 1987 former Prisons Minister Rex Jackson set the standard for cases of rorting the public purse: he was sentenced to 10 years for taking a $12,000 bribe. He served three years.

Obeid's conviction of misconduct in public office related to pressuring Ministers and public servants for concessions worth up to $2 million to leases for two restaurants he secretly owned at Circular Quay.

Obeid was always outraged at any slur on his honour. In June 1995 he was furious when The Australian Financial Review referred to him in an article about the secret Swiss accounts that controlled Rene Rivkin's printing firm Offset Alpine.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission was investigating Obeid's possible involvement. But he said he had not been able to reply to the Financial Review's queries because he was in hospital having a triple bypass.

Apparently he had had a heart attack around the time that it was revealed that ASIC had uncovered the Swiss accounts.

It was not until December 2009 that the Financial Review revealed that former Labor Cabinet Minister Graham Richardson transferred $1 million of the Offset Alpine share proceeds from his Streeton Foundation account in Zurich to a Beirut account in December 1994 (despite handwriting the instructions to the bank, he denies owning the account or the money).

And it was not until 2014 that Kate McClymont and Linton Besser revealed in their biography, He Who Must Be Obeid, that the Beirut account that got the money was held by a partner of Obeid.

The super profits come from mining

Back in 2009, Obeid had swung back into the orbit of the Financial Review after state political reporter Tracy Ong began digging with Angus Grigg and myself into reports that Obeid had scored a big payout for buying a property, Cherrydale Park. It was in the Bylong Valley where a mining lease had just been granted to an unknown company called Cascade Coal.

Obeid told a wonderful series of whoppers about his love for the Bylong Valley.

"We went and had a look at it and fell in love with the situation and the farm," he said. Not only that, he would fight any mine plan that affected Cherrydale.

Meanwhile an employee of Cascade Coal had confirmed the company held an option to buy the Obeid property.

To this point, the highlights of Obeid's career had been to rip off Sydney City Council for $11 million, the Circular Quay restaurants wheeze, and a string of suspicious land deals, while destroying the careers of public servants who tried to thwart his get-rich schemes.

By Sydney standards these were all relatively minor scams. As leader of the dominant Terrigals Right faction in the Labor government, Obeid made and broke successive Premiers, but when it came to corruption he was a small-town grifter.

Here's the thing. In Sydney you get rich via property deals. But the super profits come from mining.

Obeid was the former Mines Minister, and he didn't get it. So when it came to making money from a coal permit he was focused on the property deals—an $8 million profit selling Cherrydale Park and another $22 million as their share of adjoining blocks held through associates.

As the ICAC hearings would show, it seemed almost belatedly in the tender for coal leases that the Obeids twigged that there was more money in a 20 per cent share in the mine.

That turned into a $60 million deal with Cascade Coal plus $7 million or so in an unrelated deal with mining group Coalworks and suddenly Obeid was looking at a payout of close to $100 million (though thanks to the killjoys at ICAC he ended up with only $30 million and a large tax bill).

By December 2009 the Financial Review had mapped out the Obeid family's new coal investments: Loyal Coal, Buffalo Energy, Buffalo Resources and Buffalo Coal.

The story triggered panic moves to disguise them in yet more companies, organised through finance consultant Andrew Caidbay.

Grigg ran hot chasing the story through early 2010. And then the Financial Review backed off.

Documents that emerged in 2012 show that after questions from Grigg, Kaidbay emailed a Coalworks executive on April 15, 2010 that "the AFR is on a political witch hunt from what I have heard from sources at the AFR".

Five days later another Coalworks exec emailed that Kaidbay had told him that he had contacted the then editor of the Financial Review, Glenn Burge, whom Kaidbay described as a personal friend, and was told the paper was trying to connect the grant of exploration licences with Eddie Obeid.

Editors face complex choices when they decided whether or not to run a story. Burge decided the story did not stack up.

Grigg and resources writer Jamie Freed would go on to win a Walkley award for subsequent stories about deals by Cascade Coal, triggering a decision by acting Premier Andrew Stoner in 2011 to announce the coal leases would be referred to ICAC.

None of Obeid's deals were sophisticated

Grigg met with ICAC investigators in May 2011, two months after Labor had been swept from power.

"There was no interest at all from ICAC until after the election," says Grigg.

Did ICAC fear that an investigation of government members could trigger retaliation? But ICAC's independence was protected by law. It would take a vote of both houses of parliament to dismiss a Commissioner.

Or the government could change the ICAC Act.

The critical point in ICAC's investigation came a year later, when the City of Sydney obtained extensive records from the Obeid family businesses which Kate McClymont of the Sydney Morning Herald obtained from the court register.

Obeid was toast.

The documents for the first time pierced the corporate veil that hid Obeid's control of the family interests through a series of trusts.

It led ICAC to the Cascade Coal deal. It also revealed the family's secret ownership of the Circular Quay restaurants.

Counsel Assisting Geoffrey Watson and Commissioner David Ipp pieced together how Obeid's corrupt reach had spread across a string of dirty deals.

None of Obeid's deals were sophisticated. His eventual public examination at ICAC by Geoffrey Watson was a monument to silliness. He fell into all the traps.

Obeid was all bluster: "Mr Watson, I'm not intimidated by you or anyone else," he said early in his testimony, glaring. "Do. You. Understand. That?"

Watson pricked Obeid's vanity, suggesting that he had paid a $330,000 instalment for Cherrydale by squirrelling away his parliamentary salary.

Obeid claimed instead that it was from a $330,000 defamation payout from Fairfax Media (the actual payout was $160,000).

Pressed again, Obeid exploded that he was no squirrel: "Mr Watson. Don't come and say I'm squirrelling away anything. I've spent more money than you've made in a life time, so don't come and—"

The damage was done. Obeid needed to keep to his story that he had no money. But he couldn't help himself. He just couldn't explain where the money came from.

Eddie was clearly the brains trust of the family. His sons didn't sound so clever.

When it came to ICAC's Circular Quay inquiry Obeid's barrister painted an affecting picture of Eddie as a migrant child, bullied at school, called a Wog and a Dago, and now victimised by ICAC.

As Obeid put it, ICAC was "making a mountain out of a mole".

None of it worked. No one believed him.

Obeid spent millions on a Supreme Court case claiming prejudice by ICAC, Commissioner Ipp and Watson. Justice Hammerschlag threw it out in September, describing the case as "manifestly untenable" and "borders on the eccentric".

Obeid has health problems again. His sentencing hearing in August was postponed after he was taken to hospital for a night for a stroke. His lawyers say he has "limited life expectancy".

But then again, if Eddie Obeid's career shows one thing, it's that he is a survivor.

Mr One Per Cent has a plan. Would he lie to you?

•  

Asian grocery stores selling deadly pills

Article from news.com.au

A PILL originally marketed as “Indian Viagra” and containing Opium is being openly sold in South Asian grocery stores in Australia.

SBS Radio’s Punjabi program uncovered the illegal importation of the pill known as Kamini Vidrawan Ras (Kamini) after listeners raised concerns.

The pill, which contains highly addictive substances as well as heavy toxic metal, is being sold as ancient Indian herbal therapy but there’s nothing holistic about it.

Independent laboratory testing on products purchased in Melbourne revealed that the pills contain Codeine, Morphine and Papaverine — major components found in Opium.

“Many people have contacted us about opiates and other illicit substances imported from India being easily accessible in most Australian cities,” SBS Punjabi Radio executive producer Manpreet Kaur Singh said.

The investigation found there was between one and five per cent (approximately between 2mg and 20mg) of Opium in a typical Kamini tablet. 

“This is definitely not an Ayurvedic medicine. It contains chemicals and components which are probably banned in most countries around the world. It is highly addictive.

This medicine is so dangerous that if someone overdoses on it, it can even be fatal,” Melbourne medical practitioner Dr Gurdip Aurora told SBS.

It’s believed the pills may be imported into Australia alongside grocery items.

Erika Jayne Girardi lowers the tone of Beverly Hills Housewives

I think the producers of Beverly Hills Housewives made a mistake signing up Erika Jayne Girardi.

People say there is no such thing as 'class' anymore, but there really is, and Erika Jayne doesn't have it, in fact she lowers the tone of the whole show.

Lawyer Thomas Girardi was a frequent patron of a restaurant where Erika Jayne worked as a waitress and when she caught his eye, she saw the opportunity she had been waiting for and jumped at it. Her dream of becoming a star could now come true if she played her cards right.  And she played those cards very well because after seventeen years of marriage and a successful career, she's right where she expected to be.

And then the offer of Beverly Hills Housewives came along.  She makes no apology for being a gold digger, using an elderly man's money to get what she wants.  Four letter words fall regularly from her gutter mouth and her sleazy show fits her personality perfectly.

Her husband on the other hand, lives up to the old adage 'A man is only as old as the woman he feels.'

Thomas Girardi has been a successful lawyer for 50 years.  In 1970, he was the first lawyer in California to win a $1 million plus award for a medical malpractice case.  He also worked on Erin Brockovich's case against Pacific Gas and Electric and won $333 million for the 659 residents of Hinkley, California.

But trouble is brewing.  He's recently been accused of stealing money from a $130 million settlement his firm achieved for employees of the Lockheed Corporation over chemical exposure.

There's no denying Erika Jayne is a smart woman, she wouldn't be where she is today if she wasn't, but how she got there is beyond the pale.

Flynn Brown, Byron Bay Drug Lord

Byron Bay is a popular holiday destination, known for it's beautiful beaches, surfing and scuba diving sites.  It's also a notorious party town.

Police in Byron Bay were so worried about Flynn Brown's drug activities, they set up a sting to trap him.  And it worked.   After months of hard work, he finally slipped up when he sold "8 ball" cocaine to an undercover cop.

He fronted Byron Bay local court yesterday charged with 13 counts of supplying prohibited drugs including ice, cocaine, MDMA, cannabis and heroin-laced pills.

Police allege he sold drugs to fellow students at Byron Bay High School, locals, tourists, and music festival patrons.

Police intercepted 7700 phone calls and text messages in a three months period and discovered large amounts of cash and drugs hidden around the town in safe hiding places. 

Magistrate Michael Dakin granted Brown bail, imposing strict conditions with a $200,000 surety and when Brown's father asked if the amount could be reduced to $150,000, Mr Dakin refused.

Mary Miller's deadly home brew

Mary Miller

Nearly two years ago, Mary Miller from Lightning Ridge was accused of selling toxic homemade "rum" and "Tia Maria" to indigenous alcoholics in the remote community of Collarenebri, Western NSW, for up to $150 a crate.

NSW Deputy State Coroner Helen Barry has found that Sandra Boney 40, Norman Boney 46 and Roger Adams all died from drinking Ms Miller's moonshine which contained methanol - a deadly liquid which can be produced from poorly distilled spirits.

Three days after Sandra Boney's death on 6 February 2015, police went to Ms Miller's Pokataroo property and seized a home brew kit belonging to Ms Miller's partner Graham Stewart and boxes of homemade rum and Tia Maria.

In handing down her findings into the deaths on Tuesday, Ms Barry said that despite an official cause of "organising pneumonia" in each death, it was the moonshine or ethanol which killed all three.

Even after three deaths, Ms Miller reopened her illegal grog shop "the next day after they died, like it was nothing" the inquest heard.

Margaret Boney

The coroner found Ms Miller had manufactured and sold the homebrew to the Boneys' sister Margaret, and it was so strong, it could paralyse the drinker's arms.

Methanol is a colourless, inflammable liquid found in antifreeze, fuel for stove tops or paint solvents, and can cause blindness and death.

Yet Mary Miller has faced no charges and continues to operate her shop Collie Pickers.

Why?  Don't black lives matter?

American tourist dies on Mount Warning

Mount Warning is a must-do on the Australian tourist route.  The 8.8 km, five hour return walk through the rainforest, culminates in breathtaking 360 degree coastal views stretching from the Gold Coast to Byron Bay.

On Tuesday, American tourists Sam Beattie and his partner Michele Segalla were sleeping in their tent on top of Mount Warning, intent on seeing the sun rise the next morning, when a vicious electrical storm broke overhead.

Lightning struck a tree and surged through Sam Beattie's feet, which were resting against the tree, into his body.

Two hikers came across their tent shortly after and found Ms Segalla hysterical and huddled next to her partner's singed body. One of the hikers gave CPR for over an hour, but he couldn't be saved.

Michelle's hair was singed but apart from minor injuries to her neck and head, she was otherwise okay.

The couple bought a van and were heading down the coast and were only two months into their 12 month Australian adventure.

Because there is no mobile phone coverage in the area, they would not have known about the numerous warnings on radio and television about the impending dangerous storms.

Eddie Obeid too sick for jail

by JANET FIFE-YEOMANS, The Daily Telegraph

December 1, 2016 6:30pm

Despite his years of skulduggery, the former ALP powerbroker was able to rely on 55 character references attesting to his honesty, integrity and “good deeds”, including one from former Rabbitohs rugby league player, coach and administrator George Piggins.

“I have always found him to be good humoured, genuine, and a very willing helper and as having a real desire to help the club, its supporters and the people of the South Sydney District,” Mr Piggins said in a reference tendered to the court. Mr Piggins said of Obeid that he had “never had an occasion to doubt his honesty”.

Other references came from members of the Lebanese community as his legal team urged the court not to jail Obeid.

The former MP was charged over his lobbying of a senior public servant about lucrative Circular Quay leases without revealing his family’s stake in the outlets. His family had leases for Cafe Sorrentino and Quay Eatery.

“The time he has left on this planet, not to be too dramatic about it, is shortened,” his counsel Brad Hughes SC, said, urging a suspended sentence or home detention.

“Any time taken out away from his family is more precious because it is limited.”

Mr Hughes said Justice Robert Beech-Jones should take into account Obeid’s public work: “You are dealing with a man who has 20 years of service in parliament and that should not be discounted.’’

But Crown Prosecutor Peter Neil SC said Obeid was “far from death’s door”.

“We wish him well,” Mr Neil said, acknowledging Obeid had a “constellation” of medical issues including diabetes and a recent stroke.

“(But) the courts have repeatedly stated that ill-health cannot be allowed to become a licence to commit crime. Nor should offenders expect to escape punishment because of ... their health”.

Mr Neil said the only appropriate penalty was jail: “The public are entitled to accountability and transparency from those holding public office, especially elected politicians, and the avoidance of conflicts of interest.’’

There is no maximum penalty in NSW for misconduct in a public office and Mr Neil referred to former state prisons minister Rex Jackson, who was jailed for 10 years with a non-parole period of five years for accepting bribes. Justice Beech-Jones continued Obeid’s bail and will sentence him on December 15.

Moutia Elzahed sent home

Hamdi Alqudsi

One of the wives of Isis recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi got a shock this week when her case was thrown out by the judge.

Moutia Elzahed, joined by her husband and two sons, launched a civil case for compensation over 'assault and battery, wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and intimidation' when her Sydney home was raided in September 2014.

But there was a problem.  She refused to stand for the judge or remove her face covering.  She would never reveal herself to any man who is not related by blood, she said.

Judge Audrey Balla went out of her way to accommodate her wishes and offered to close the court while she gave evidence, as well as offering another room for her to speak via video link.  But both options were refused by her lawyer Clive Evatt because the male legal counsels would still be able to see her face.

So the judge sent her home.  "It's not fair" she said.

Her husband, Hamdi Alqudsi is currently serving a minimum of six years jail for helping young Australians to travel to Syria to fight in the war where Australian soldiers are currently serving.