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ITALIAN POLICE SAY they have seized a 14-tonne haul of amphetamines made by the Islamic State group in Syria, calling it the biggest seizure of such drugs in the world.
The drugs, in the form of around 84 million Captagon tablets hidden inside industrial goods within containers, are worth about €1 billion and were intended to be sold on the European market “to finance terrorism”, the finance police of Naples said in a statement.
“We know that the Islamic State finances its terrorist activities mainly by trafficking drugs made in Syria which in the past few years has become the world’s largest producer of amphetamines,” the statement said.
Police said three suspect containers had arrived at the port of Salerno, just south of Naples, containing large cylindrical paper rolls for industrial use as well as industrial machinery.
Cutting open the paper rolls and metal gear wheels with chainsaws, police found them filled with tablets. Video images taken by police showed pills spilling out of the rolls and wheels as they were forced opened.
“This is the largest seizure of amphetamines in the world,” police said.
‘Jihad drug’
Captagon, a brand name, was originally for medical use but illegal versions have been dubbed the ‘jihad drug’ — after being widely used by IS fighters in combat — the police said.
Citing the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Naples police said IS “makes extensive use of it in all territories over which it exerts influence and where it controls the drug trade”.
Once the plants are established, “it is easy for IS to produce large quantities also for the world market for synthetic drugs, in order to quickly accumulate substantial funding”, the statement said.
The amount of drugs seized were sufficient to satisfy the entire European market, police said, without providing a time frame.
A “consortium” of criminal groups were likely involved for the distribution of the drugs, including possibly many clans within the infamous Camorra of Naples, police said.
“The hypothesis is that during the lockdown … production and distribution of synthetic drugs in Europe has practically stopped,” the statement said.
“Many smugglers, even in consortiums, have turned to Syria where production, however, does not seem to have slowed down.”
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As an Irish man living in Australia on a 457 visa i hope to god abbott does not get in.
Have to agree, its gonna go from bad to worse with Abbott in charge!
What’s a 457 visa?
Why?
Temporary Work (Skilled) visa
Sorry to say, he needs ten more seats.
Labour have only themselves to blame
@Margaret the 457 is a 4 year sponsorship visa,if your employer let’s you go you have 30 days to leave the country/get another sponsor.
Labour are too Liberal and this result just goes to show that people like to have values and principles restored to how we act and think
Riobaird, as of July 1st it has changed to 90 days, but the cost of the visa has doubled and they made it more difficult for employers to sponsor foreigners over locals! Positions must be advertised locally for 4 months to prove to immigration that there is no Australian citizen to suitably fill the role that they wish to offer to a 457 applicant!
Big Kev it was actually Labor who wanted to crack down on 457 visas, whereas the Liberal National Party coalition who have swept to office recognise the valued contribution of skilled workers such as yourself. Rest easy friend.
Remember labour got rid of LAFHA!! Yeah you can keep the idiots!! Abbott is for foreign skilled migrants unlike the labour clowns who saddled the country with monstrous debt!! Kevin Rudd was a disgraceful PM. The fighting that went on in that party was truly embarrassing!! Good riddance!!
Abbott may be in favor of foreign workers but he does not like unions, he wants to take in foreign workers to work for less so that Australia is a more desirable place for big corporation to set up their headquarters. At the moment I live in Melbourne and we have excellent pay rates and benefits, Abbott is going to try and take these benefits away and stamp out the union, He also plans to save money by takin away foreign aid, Australia already gives less money to foreign aid than Ireland. And his plans to stop the boats are ridiculous!
Ah Big Kev, nothing like the auld anti-worker, pro-”big business” straw man argument! Your conditions are safe. Relax.
Who does like Unions?
They suck the potential out of companies and are a drain on the economy!!
İf we had compulsory voting in this country it woulf force Government to govern in everyones interest and not those of their core suppoters. İts absence from the agenda of the constitutional agenda is glaring
I dunno. The country is better off if people, who lack the intelligence to understand the importance of voting, don’t vote.
Absolutely right Liam.
If we introduced compulsory voting along with provisions for proxy voting or/and remote voting and a “None of the above” option on the ballot we might see a true representation of the people in the Oireachtas. At the very least it would shake things up.
Yeah cause that’s really what we need. People who can’t be bothered voting being forced to do so most likely without any knowledge or information because they clearly just aren’t interested.
You know what. The right to vote is a privilege and an honour and if you can’t be bothered to take the twenty minutes or so that it takes do so without being forced to do so then as far as I am concerned you can f**k off and stop moaning.
Far too much concern in this country about people’s rights and not enough emphasis on people’s responsibilities.
Well said Jim. Couldn’t agree more.
I have always been a proponent of compulsary voting, and bringing the voting age to 16, purely as it would, while in school enable students to be better involved through politics. Political education is tackled by CSPE but it is a joke subject taught by teachers who need their hours filled. Information should be more easily available, and like the plastic bag tax, if you were to be fined or jailed, it would make it your business to find out what way you should vote. People died so the majority could have a voice, particularly, lower-middle incomes and working classes as well as women.
People often argue “it’s my right not to vote” and so I would argue that a “none of the above” or “reopen ballot” should be on the ticket, to give a fair way to using a vote.
Ye Keith ,lets force 16yr old’s to vote ?
If you make voting compulsory you force people who either don’t care or are not intelligent enough to really consider the policies of either side – then you get tabloid media (such as Murdoch controlled ones) virtually dictating the result of these elections with blatant bias and fear mongering.
This is what happened in Australia, don’t let it happen here
Spot on Dave, that’s how Abbot got into power. Control the media and you control how people think. Through bias and fear mongering. Unfortunately Australians didn’t have much of a choice. Labor was a mess with all the infighting. Abbot sponsored by media corpoations (Murdoch and co). I would be really concerned in regards to who is pulling Abbots strings.
Yeah cos the FF media machine is really worse…
The people who vote for him will be very disappointed when he cannot follow through on his election promises. His idea of “dealing with the boat people” is to intercept them and tow them back to where they have came from and to go to the source of the boats in Indonesia and buy all of the boats,thus preventing the boat people full stop. I can’t imagine that ingenious plan working too well for him….
Why should boat people from other countries be allowed to float here unhindered to Australia?
They should adhere to the correct means and methods to enter Australia.
I voted today.
Large turnout? Yes, as voting is compulsory.
I am not denying that it is a problem,I am merely pointing out that his ideas to deal with the problem are a bit outlandish.
It’s great that “boat people” is the main topic an not social or economical matters just like Ireland in the
early 00
The economy is the main topic. Many Australian’s are disillusioned with Labour from their epic fail of a carbon and mining tax which created little revenue and only heaped more pressure on small businesses. Add on top of this the spiralling costs of the NBN and the rising costs of living and Australian’s are just concerned another few years of labour will heap more economic misery with the Gonski reform and the NDIS set to take place.
Abott has cleverly highlighted the ‘boat people’ and focused alot of attention onto the fact that it was under Labour that the rather successful border control policy Australia had in deterring illegal immigrants was dismantled by Mr Rudd.
If Abbot gets in the country is f&#ked. The man is an idiot. A climate change denialist, anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-fluridation… basically any irrational view you can think of. If the ekect him they deserve what they get.
What’s wrong with his stance on those issues?
The people will decide.
If you don’t know that you need more help than I can offer in a journal comment.
If you’re really interested google these topics:
Scientific method
Peer review
Selection bias
Confirmation bias
Scientific scepticism
Then apply that knowledge.
And you deserved Bertie and Brian did you?
No, however, “the people” (collective) did.
So, if someone who isn’t a leftie gets in the country is stuffed? Interesting theory…
Nice strawman.
That’s not what I said at all.
I said an idiot running the country and the country is stuffed. I’m a fiscal conservative myself. I’m just not stupid enough to deny climate change in the face of overwhelming evidence.
@ Aggressive, I live in Australia. People detest the Labour Party, the ALP are a joke and its been obvious for the last 2 years that tony Abbott would win the next election. He deserves his chance and the vast majority of Australians agree, despite what you think.
Seems if your not a lefty then you are no good around this site, real world is different thankfully
@Joe
You’re right about the bias here. It’s just that most of Abbot’s supporters lack the intelligence to operate a computer.
“He deserves his chance and the vast majority of Australians agree, despite what you think.”
I never said the majority of Australian’s didn’t support him. I said he is an idiot.
An idiot?
Prior to entering Parliament, Abbott studied for a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney, and later for a Master of Arts as a Rhodes Scholar at Queen’s College, Oxford.
An educated idiot!
Nothing like painting everyone with the same brush!! You seem to be misguided in your comments and obviously your judgement on what is right or wrong!! You know…. An idiot!!
Makes Brian Cowen look like Bill Clinton
Ah now go easy mate
I don’t disagree with his policy on stopping the boats, but if he gets voted in that’s bad news for everyone…457 holders, the working class, the gay community. The man can’t string a sentence together. He is a homophobic, anti-working man, anti-everything imbecile. The Australian George Bush. This link says it all…http://youtu.be/kXdcS_7CA1o
Ya know that vid is on a loop for 4/5 of it yeah?
How is he “anti-gay”? The Labor gov had a free vote last Sep about the marriage act. 42-98 against I think by memory with Labor’s PMs (Gillard & Rudd) + Treasurer voting against. Despite 3 years of Labor trying to paint him as a misogynist, homo-phobe baby eating antichrist it just hasn’t washed. He will be a good PM for all.
>Labor’s PMs (Gillard & Rudd)
Wrong, Rudd did not vote against marriage equality. He openly supported it.
This is a backwards step for Australia and everyone will realise that soon enough.
Sorry AggressiveSecularist – Rudd voted against it see for yourself:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-19/same-sex-marriage-bill-voted-down/4270016#votestable
And here is a more recent account of his views:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-02/rudd-appears-on-q-and-a/4930540
He is in full support of marriage equality and made it part of his election platform.
Yes, I actually watched the whole program. He stated that if he won (and I just watched his concession speech live) in the first 100 days he would have a free vote in the Parliament to amend the Marriage Act. It was widely seen as just a vote grab and criticised as such. He didn’t commit to changing anything, as a free vote would have resulted in a negative result. He knew this. Just an empty promise to suck in the gullible.
Rudd’s election platform was just criticising Abbott. He was put back in just to save some of the furniture and prevent the catastrophe that would have resulted with Julia Gillard.
He has now stood down as party leader. The Labor Party can begin to rebuild over the next 3 to 6 years.
Assume you love everything that is labour!! Love debt too?? Love massive looming debt?? Great, vote labour and keep your head in the sand!!
“Speaking to the Liberal Party faithful on June 25 2011, Mr Abbott said that the Gillard Government “was a bit like the Irishman who lost 10 pounds betting on the Grand National and then lost 20 pounds on the action replay”.”
Some more fuel to the anti-Abbott fire along with his sexism and homophobia.
I have to admit that is a good line.
Tony Abbott aka ‘The Mad Monk’ is a strange individual with strange ideas. Impossible to imagine a government led by this man improving anything in Australia, but then the country seems to want him. Go figure. Didn’t they have enough xenophobic, stick-in-the-muddism from JohnHoward? Seems not. Oh dear
It wasn’t Howard’s xenophobia that lost him his election. It was his anti-worker stance.
Economic & social conservatism, personal responsibility & freedom are “weird ideas”? That’s weird!
Would love to be a fly on the wall when this guy sits down with Merkel, Obama, Putin or Cameron.. He makes Enda look intelligent.
Obviously you know nothing about the new PM. Try do a bit of research first, remember the old saying ” better to keep your mouth shut and let people think your stupid than say something and prove them right”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Abbott
Another Edna Kenny… Australian will rue this day for a few years….
Say what you want about Enda, he’s no xenophobe, homophobe or climate change denialist. Abbott is a species all to himself.
Wait.
Bush.
An idiot leading a country of idiots!!
I wish I was back they’re now for this comedy show
No you’re hanging out here rolling around watching the comedy show of all shows!
That’s rich! Glass houses.. lol
Just like Ireland, just like France, just like the US, the govt will change and all the policies will stay the same..
Unfortunely you have to vote in Australia or you get fined, a lot of people can’t see threw the bullshit that is spun to them. Be better off if it was similar to back home as some haven’t a clue.
I always wondered why they elected Gillard, bullshit explains it.
Gillard was not elected by the general public, the voted for labour with Rudd as their PM and it was internal shuffling (and fighting) within the party that saw Gillard take the top job
Abbott has been quoted as saying ” never mind the refugees it’s the migrants who come here to start a better life that aren’t wanted. “
@ Patricia Mc Cann ,can you put that in it’s correct context please?
That’s sarcasm isn’t it? Please tell me that’s sarcasm.
Good on ye Tony, time to save Oz from the greenie menace of carbon taxes and the other nonsense.
Insane how Abbott can be elected as he hasn’t released any policy’s until the day before the election and at the moment he only needs 14 more seats.
Labour did the same last election! It’s called political strategy. It won him the election!
Dave Quinn from the Iona institute thinks this is good news. I could cry. I could f*cking cry.
So Australians finally elected the user-car salesman.
” This is our country and we determine who comes here” — Tony Abbott
Wonderful echos of John Howard.
Just for his policy and approach to immigration I would walk 100 miles to vote for him.
Ireland really needs a similarly strong-minded man to stand up to the soft and gushy EU approach to immigrants.
Who cares?
20 million Australians, the resident Irish and their families back home… anyone living here with something to gain from a reduced unemployment rate supported by emigration….
And those if us heading there!!
This is great news for Australia.
That’s the lefties out in the cold for the foreseable future in Oz, now to cleanse America.
This man will be a disaster, but the entire election campaign was fraught. The focus was mainly on immigrants and boat people (I, thankfully, have recently changed from a 457), the fiscal deficit (currently a ‘whopping’ 11% of GDP) and the carbon tax (which both parties had pledged to drop).
Nothing on healthcare, education, inflated property markets, climate change. The Labor party’s farcical infighting of the last four years has led to this defeat. Fingers crossed Abbott doesn’t do anything too insane before the next election sees him ousted for being a complete loon.
Explain how the market is inflated? The market is certainly not inflated nor is it a bubble nor is it expensive and all of the other words people say when they actually do not understand economics!!
So….explain why you think the market is inflated when economists the country and world over don’t??
Who cares.
Never trust a man who can’t go bald gracefully.
Imagine that, Ozzies have elected a volunteer Fireman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyY-xI6zgfk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Please watch this..
have your say