Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Cops seize £2.4m coke ‘headed for NI market’
Officers hail major success
DEADLY Cocaine
COCAINE with an estimated value of £2.4million has been seized by gardai.
The haul was discovered after Milford District Drugs Unit, of the Donegal Garda Division, seized and examined a van in an intelligence-led operation.
A spokesman said: “The search resulted in the seizure of 41kg of a substance believed to be cocaine with an estimated value of €2,800,000.”
Investigating officers at Milford are liaising with the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau and detectives from the PSNI in one of the largest seizures in recent times.
Garda Supt David Kelly, Milford, who is leading the investigation, said: “This significant seizure has reduced the supply of illegal drugs in our community thereby increasing community safety”.
Officers suspect the drugs were being imported to also supply the demand for cocaine in Northern Ireland.
If we’ve got any sense then one result of this pandemic, which was first detected in a seafood market in China, will be that humans learn to treat animals better.
That should include banning UK travel firms from promoting holidays to venues that exploit elephants, a known source of infections.
Elephants in the worst tourist sites across Asia are captured in the wild while still babies and horribly abused to make them submissive to human commands.
They also transmit tuberculosis to humans and are a likely conduit for other diseases.
Duncan Mcnair, chief executive of Save the Asian Elephants, says he has identified 110 British travel companies that ignore voluntary guidelines to stop promoting the worst venues, arguing that only a legal ban will be effective.
Dr Clifford Warwick, of the Emergent Disease Foundation, says it is entirely possible that a captive elephant population could be infected with coronavirus, which would then be transmitted back to humans in close contact with them, including tourists.
He is also calling for an end to a controversy closer to home – a market selling snakes and amphibians that takes place four times a year at Doncaster Racecourse.
“Covid-19 is but one of a myriad of global pandemics that has origins in or around wildlife markets,” he says.
“Yet this devastating disease might almost as easily have emerged from wildlife markets in the UK.
“In my view, it is a matter of time until a new pandemic arises, and places such as Doncaster cannot be ruled out as possible future ‘ground zeros’.
“Wherever many stressed wild animals are gathered and displayed or sold, the health and welfare of animals and people can become serious concerns.”
Elaine Toland of the Animal Protection Agency, which is campaigning for an end to all trading in wildlife for pets, said: “We are in no position to criticise China when inhumane wild animal markets still continue here.”
The Doncaster show is run by the International Herpetological Society and the next event is due to take place on June 27 this year. It declined to comment on the record.
Devastating disease might as easily have come from UK wildlife market
IN one of the more heated phone calls I’ve had lately, company director Reginald Larry-cole bawled at me: “You’ve got it totally wrong, I’m telling you now because I will sue you like you won’t believe.”
A lot of swearing followed, but to cut to the chase: his business group has just been put into administration, leaving investors fearing for their savings.
He ran Buy 2 Let Cars Limited which billed itself as a lucrative alternative to the low interest rates offered by banks.
Depending on how much you invested, you could get an astonishing return of 11% per year, or 27% over three years.
The income came from a source where you wouldn’t expect to find much money – the subprime sector.
Cash put in by savers would be used to buy cars that would be leased to people with poor credit histories. The marketing material made a meal of how Buy 2 Let Cars helped key workers.
“Your investment helps NHS staff like Chipo get to and from her job in a brand new and reliable vehicle,” ran one of its Facebook posts.
I emailed Mr Larry-cole in January with what I thought were reasonable questions.
First, is this incredible 27% return being funded by money from key workers?
Second, how safe was the investment, given that the latest accounts showed that Buy 2 Let Cars owed creditors £34million, parent company Raedex was £10.9m in the red, and sister company Rent 2 Let Cars was £9.5m in debt.
This was when Larry-cole went ballistic. “You go find me one investor who has not got their money back,” he shouted down the phone.
I tried again, asking: “Can you guarantee that investors who put their money in now will get the full promised return and their capital returned?” “Andrew, listen to what we are saying and how we do it,” he said.
“We are not making 27% from NHS staff, we are not doing that.”
So where else does the money come from if not from leasing vehicles to key workers?
He answered by telling me to attend one of his regular online presentations, insisting: “You make sure you listen to the plan and understand it before you spout sh**.”
“I’m not spouting anything, I’m asking questions on behalf of potential investors,” I answered. Listen to me, until you see the f***ing plan you cannot write sh** about it. You do not know what you are talking about.”
I explained that I’d seen his plan laid out step-by-step on the Buy 2 Let Cars website, but this did not satisfy him and I duly attended a presentation.
This included numerous clips of customers saying how happy they were with their rental cars and investors saying things like, “Once you’ve paid your money you have nothing to do, it’s all dealt with, you just wait for the money to come in every month.”
Soon after I was emailed by co-director Scott Martin, who said: “Our commercial environment remains sound and we will be here to serve our clients for years to come.”
But all was not sound. On February 19, the Financial Conduct Authority banned Raedex from taking new business because it was insolvent.
This week Raedex, Buy 2 Let Cars and Rent 2 Own Cars Limited were all placed into administration.
Why did it take so long for the watchdog to act over Raedex, a company that it regulated?
The investment website Bond Review warned back in June 2018 that this was a very high risk investment that could result in “permanent and total loss”.
Consumer money campaigner Mark Taber tweeted this week: “The FCA had all this information so what were they playing at letting more and more investors get sucked in?”
The regulator responded: “We have engaged with the firm on several occasions regarding regulatory issues.”
Once you’ve paid, just wait for the money to come in every month