When a Rostered Day Off gets in the way

Information sharing is at the heart of intelligence efforts since 9/11. It commendable when disparate parts of the criminal justice system do their best to keep each other aware of changes in the environment. However, policies themselves must keep up with the intent and practicalities of the new information sharing paradigm. Here is an example when things go wrong and obvious balancing of policy and practice must take place. This is from "The Australian"...

The Australian Federal Police spent almost half a million dollars and more than six weeks trying to track down fugitive Dragan Vasiljkovic. This was despite receiving an email from the accused war criminal informing them of his movements on the day officers sought to arrest him. In a deeply embarrassing and expensive bungle, Mr Vasiljkovic's message regarding his whereabouts on the day he absconded remained unread until well after a warrant had been issued for his arrest because the officer to whom the information was sent was on a rostered day off and did not check his email. The bungle meant that 102 officers spent 3814 hours on a needless hunt.

On March 30 this year, the High Court ruled that Mr Vasiljkovic, the one-time leader of a Serbian paramilitary unit accused of rape and torture during the Balkans War in the early 1990s, should be extradited from Australia to Croatia to face questioning over his alleged crimes. Upon the High Court handing down its decision, a 2006 warrant for Mr Vasiljkovic's arrest was reinstated. But after AFP officers failed to find him at the court, they went to his Coffs Harbour home in NSW, only to find he was not there.

Freedom of Information documents obtained by The Australian have revealed that Mr Vasiljkovic had, as per the conditions of a High Court order, emailed a nominated AFP officer on March 29 -- the day before the warrant for his arrest was issued -- to inform him that he would be flying from Canberra to Coffs Harbour on the morning of March 30. However, the AFP officer was on a rostered day off on March 29 and did not start his shift on March 30 until that afternoon. By the time the officer read the email from Mr Vasiljkovic, the accused war criminal was already on the run, having learned a few hours earlier of the court's extradition order.

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Mexico nabs U.S.-born drug lord 'La Barbie'

Mexican authorities captured a legendary Texan on Monday who is accused of a bloody climb to the top echelon of one of the hemisphere's most powerful drug cartels. Edgar Valdez Villarreal, known as "La Barbie" for his looks, faces a slew of charges in Mexico, but also is wanted in the United States, where he has been indicted for smuggling thousands of pounds of cocaine into this country. The U.S. government has offered a reward of up to $2 million for his capture. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle late Monday, a Houston lawyer representing Valdez, 37, said he fears his client will be tortured or worse before he can be returned to the United States for trial. "I do not think anyone is safe in the hands of the Mexican military" defense attorney Kent Schaffer said. "Something is going to happen."

Most recently, Valdez was indicted in Atlanta on federal charges he imported and distributed thousands of kilograms of cocaine from 2004 to 2006. U.S. prosecutors contend the drugs were often smuggled north through Texas and then on to Atlanta, which is a hub for cartel activity in the Southeastern United States. In turn, millions of dollars in proceeds were sent back to Mexico a similar way, according to court papers. Valdez is said to have been a standout high-school football player in the Texas-Mexico border city of Laredo, where a coach nicknamed him Barbie for his hair and eye color. It is unusual for an American to climb so high in the ranks of Mexican organized crime, but not unprecedented.

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Al Qaeda's Pakistan Lair Captured

In what is being hailed as a major victory against al Qaeda and its allies, Pakistani forces announced the capture of caves described as the nerve centre of militant activity on the Afghan-Pakistan border. An elaborate network of over 150 caves, believed to have once housed Al Qaeda's number two Ayman al Zawahiri, was revealed to journalists by the Pakitani military

"The location of Bajaur, especially Damadola, is very significant. The militants controlled their operations from this place," Maj. Gen. Attar Abbas, Pakistani army spokesman, said. The caves are impossible to spot from the air, but inside the tunnels carved into the moutains was a warehouse of military supplies including stockpiles of guns and ammunition, bazookas, artillery shells, rocket propelled grenades, mines and stolen U.S. army uniforms. Some of the material was from Iraq, others from Iran.

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Afghan Taliban 'shadow governor' is captured in Pakistan

The Taliban "shadow governor" of a northern Afghan province, also considered an important figure in the movement's overall leadership, has been captured in Pakistan, according to Afghan and Pakistani officials. Word of the arrest of Mullah Abdul Salam and a Taliban associate follows disclosure this week of the recent capture, also in Pakistan, of the Afghan Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, whose influence has been described as second only to the movement's spiritual leader and supreme commander, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Intelligence sources in Pakistan on Thursday also reported the arrest of three suspected Al Qaeda militants in the port city of Karachi a day earlier. Taken together, the cluster of captures represents a sharp rise in cooperation from Pakistani authorities in pursuing Islamic extremists, particularly Afghan Taliban militants who in the past have used Pakistani soil as a haven.

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Al Qaeda man captured wearing bomb belt in Yemen

Yemeni forces on Saturday captured an al Qaeda militant wearing an explosive belt who was planning a suicide attack on "economic facilities," a government official said. The man was detained while driving a motorbike in the Khalf area in the Hadramaut region, the Ministry of Interior official said in a statement sent to Reuters. He was named as Saleh Abdul-Habib Saleh Shawash.

"The primary interrogation of this terrorist (revealed) he was planning a suicide attack against economic facilities in Hadramaut ... the interrogation is ongoing to reveal more information about this and to see who else might be involved in the plan," the source said. Yemen has gained a reputation as a haven and a training and recruiting center for al Qaeda militants since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Authorities stepped up operations against the group after its Yemeni wing said it was behind an attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner on December 25.

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Mexico Captures Major Tijuana Drug Gang Leader

Mexican police captured a drug kingpin on Tuesday known for having the corpses of tortured rivals dissolved in acid and blamed for much of a surge in violence in the northern border city of Tijuana. In a fresh victory for Mexico's bloody war on drug gangs, Teodoro Garcia Simental was caught in southern Baja California early Tuesday, police said.

Garcia Simental, also known as "El Teo" or "Tres Letras" for the three letters in his nickname Teo, was apprehended when an elite force of some 50 federal police raided an upscale neighbourhood in the beach town of La Paz near the tip of the Baja California peninsula. They searched several houses before finding him.

"No shots were fired. It was a very fast operation. The investigation has been going on for a long time," a police officer who participated in the operation told Reuters. Garcia Simental was handcuffed and swiftly flown to Mexico City. The top smuggler split from the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel to help Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman -- head of the rival Sinaloa cartel and Mexico's most wanted man -- wrest control of key smuggling corridors in northern Mexico.

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Mafia's No. 2 nabbed in Sicily

The Italian interior minister says police in Palermo have captured the Cosa Nostra's No. 2 in a raid in Palermo, Sicily. Authorities describe convicted Mafioso Gianni Nicchi as a "young, dangerous, ambitious, pitiless killer."

Police found Nicchi, 28, hiding Saturday in an apartment in Palermo. News reports say he tried to flee. Investigators say Nicchi quickly climbed to the top of Palermo-based crime families after the arrest a few years ago of mob boss Salvatore LoPiccolo.

Nicchi, a fugitive since 2006, was convicted last year of extortion and sentenced to 18 years in prison. The news agency ANSA says the bugged conversations of bosses convinced police Nicchi was one of the Mafia's top new bosses.

• "Mafia killer claims Italy PM Berlusconi connection to Mafia", EarthTimes, 12/4/09.
• "La Nostra Nostra in the United States", National Instutue of Justice, 2000.
  

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Warships ward off Somali pirates

The number of ships captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia has dropped dramatically in the past two months because of the presence of an international flotilla of warships plying the waters there and a new willingness on the part of merchant vessels to defend themselves.

"People are acting differently, behaving differently, than they were just six months ago," said U.S. Rear Adm. Scott Sanders, commander of an anti-piracy task force in the region.

Military and shipping officials expected a spike in attacks when the monsoon season ended in early August, said Kim Hall, a Center for Naval Analyses specialist at U.S. 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

There has only been one ship captured since then: a Spanish-flagged fishing boat with a crew of 36 seized Oct. 2. In August and September last year, pirates seized 16 ships, Navy records show. In the same period this year, no ships were seized.

Earlier this year, piracy was threatening to spiral out of control. Armed bands operating from Somalia were hijacking ships and holding crews for millions of dollars in ransom.

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