North America
More than $4m in jewelry stolen: A gang of thieves made off with more than $4 million in loot from a Fairfield jewelry store after an elaborate heist that began with the kidnapping of two store employees at an apartment more than 40 miles away, police said Friday in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Four or five men wearing masks and gloves broke into the apartment in Meriden on Thursday, and bound and gagged four people, including the manager and another employee of a Lenox Jewelry store in Fairfield, police said. The employees were then taken at gunpoint in the manager’s BMW and driven about 40 miles (65 kms) from Meriden to the store in Fairfield, police said.
“We’re not sure yet whether the (robbers) followed them home or were lying in wait for them there,” Deputy Police Chief Christopher Lyddy told the Hearst Connecticut Media Group. (AP)
$2.8 bn in drug assets seized: The US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) last year seized $2.8 billion dollars in illicit drugs assets and profits, including some $750 million in cash, the agency’s top official said Friday.
Michele Leonhart told a congressional panel that the drug seizures occurred between October 2011 and October 2012, during the last US fiscal year.
“During FY 2012, DEA denied total revenue of $2.8 billion from drug trafficking and money laundering organizations through asset and drug seizures,” Leonhart said. “This includes nearly $750 million in cash seizures.” (AFP)
US avalanche forecaster killed: Authorities say they’ve recovered the body of an avalanche forecaster who was killed in a snow slide in Utah.
The Utah Department of Transportation says 34-year-old Craig Patterson died in the avalanche Thursday in Big Cottonwood Canyon. UDOT described him as a veteran backcountry skier who had worked at the agency since 2006.
Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal says Patterson had contacted a co-worker about 1:30 pm Thursday but didn’t return home from work in the evening. (AP)
Scandal could cost mlns: Getting rid of an abusive college basketball coach has already cost New Jersey taxpayers more than $1 million, but the awkwardly handled saga could cost them millions more in years to come.
That’s because one of Wall Street’s top credit rating agencies said that the controversy over video-taped episodes of physical and verbal abuse by a Rutgers University coach, and the delay in his dismissal, could contribute to a downgrade of the public university’s credit rating. (RTRS)
‘Canadian Psycho’ to stand trial: A Canadian ex-porn actor will stand trial for premeditated murder in the grisly killing and dismemberment of a 33-year-old Chinese student, a judge ruled Friday.
Sufficient evidence was heard during a preliminary hearing to warrant prosecuting Luka Rocco Magnotta for the murder of Lin Jun in May, Court of Quebec Judge Lori Renee Weitzman said.
A trial date will be set on April 29. (AFP)