November 8th, 2005, 02:25
Yes I remember you, m'dear.
<blockquote>Quote:<hr>In fact, IMHO Thailand might be a better country if Thorpe returned to her own country and took all of her aliases, prejudices and unsubstantiated statements.<hr></blockquote>
Really? and what makes you such an expert? Do you know what Thai think of Africans? Their opinions are a lot more severe than mine I can assure you.
Africans in Bangkok are <span style="text-decoration:underline">very very</span> dangerous and there is a good reason for this. African criminal gangs have long used Bangkok as a center for criminality - Nigerian 419 scams, drug trafficking and fraud. The decent ones - the poor - can't afford the ticket. The Nigerians have now spread to Tokyo and Seoul and brought their criminal habits with them.
Africans used to operate in Patpong but were removed by the police - FACT.
Sorry if these facts don't fall in line with your touchy feely liberalism - ever been to Lagos, old hippy? Give it a try there are lots of new friends waiting to meet you - I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time.
Here's a bit of bedtime reading:
Worldwide, there are hundreds of Nigerian criminal cells located primarily in major metropolitan centers in North America, Europe, and Asia. Recent estimates suggest that more than 500 Nigerian crime cells are operating in at least 80 countries. Nigerian criminals take advantage of large West African ethnic communities in these cities to establish the infrastructure needed to support a wide range of criminal activity-- foremost among them drug trafficking and sophisticated schemes to defraud individuals, businesses, and governments--which reap billions of dollars in illicit proceeds. <span style="text-decoration:underline">Nigerian crime groups also facilitate illegal immigration of Nigerian nationals to metropolitan areas around the world, whom they then use for filling high-risk, low-level roles in drug trafficking</span>, and are involved in trafficking women and children to Europe, especially Italy. The United States and Britain are the primary targets of Nigerian criminal activity, with Nigerian crime cells elsewhere in the world purchasing drugs or providing financial and logistical support.
* Between 25 and 30 percent of the heroin seized at US international airports in recent years was taken from couriers employed by Nigerian trafficking groups, according to US Customs data.
While a large number of Nigerian criminal groups operating overseas appear to be small and autonomous, many others belong to large criminal syndicates based in Nigeria. The smaller groups frequently pool resources and are able to tap into highly fluid networks in countries around the world to facilitate their criminal operations. Many Nigerian crime groups in countries around the world appear to be compartmented cells of larger syndicates controlled by crime barons based primarily in Lagos. The barons, some of whom have substantial economic and political clout in Nigeria, oversee the day-to-day operations of a network of crime cells deployed worldwide to undertake or support a wide range of criminal activities.
Drug Trafficking
Nigerian criminal syndicates are among the world's most active traffickers in Asian heroin--particularly to the United States--and are increasingly trafficking South American cocaine to various regions in Africa and throughout Europe. Producing no heroin of their own, Nigerian traffickers have well-established networks in Southeast and Southwest Asian countries to acquire the drug. The steady and virtually uninterrupted flow of Nigerian-controlled heroin from these source regions is facilitated by criminal cells in transit countries along the way. Nigerian traffickers typically smuggle only small quantities of drugs, using both express mail services and thousands of individual couriers in an effort to overwhelm market country customs and law enforcement capabilities and to lessen the cost of any seizures. They tend to avoid sending drug couriers on direct flights from drug-producing and key transit countries to market countries, relying instead on a widely diverse number of routes transiting airports throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
* Using techniques and concealment methods similar to those used to smuggle heroin from Asia, Nigerian criminal syndicates dominate transatlantic cocaine shipments between Brazil and Africa, from where the drug is transshipped to markets in South Africa and Europe.
* In planning their drug courier runs, Nigerian traffickers make careful study of customs and security procedures in producer, transit, and market country air and sea ports. They readily adapt to international law enforcement measures against them. Nigerian traffickers, for example, are now recruiting "low profile" couriers who are less likely to draw the attention of international customs agents. These include Caucasians, women (often with children), and the elderly. To avoid scrutiny at US international airports, Nigerian traffickers sometimes deliver drugs to Canada or Mexico for overland transshipment into the United States.
Financial Fraud Schemes
In addition to their significant role in narcotics smuggling, Nigerian criminal syndicates are involved in a wide variety of financial fraud schemes that target private citizens as well as businesses, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. The most notorious of these are advance fee scams, in which thousands of unsolicited letters and faxes based on fraudulent representation are sent by Nigerian criminals to businessmen worldwide with the promise of great profits at the cost of upfront cash investment. The letters and faxes set forth simple investment schemes, promises of "easy money," elaborate assurances, and extraordinarily low risk. They provide detailed instructions for establishing linked bank accounts and exchange of authorization letters and account numbers to give the appearance of legitimacy, then require various transaction fees before any moneys can be released. Victims of Nigerian fraud schemes may be strung along for months or years paying transactions fees and taxes before realizing they are being conned.
* In 1999, US victims reported several hundred million dollars of losses to Nigerian advance fee frauds, according to US law enforcement. These figures do not include losses to victims from outside the United States. In addition, many people do not report being victimized by advance fee fraud schemes because of fear or embarrassment.
* During one six-week period in 1998, US postal authorities destroyed some 700,000 advance fee letters that had arrived in New York's JFK International Airport.
Nigerian criminal cells worldwide also specialize in sophisticated schemes targeting banks and financial institutions through credit card and check fraud, student loan and mortgage frauds; insurance companies through fraudulent claims for automobile accidents, personal injuries, and life insurance; and government entitlement programs through false or appropriated identifications and theft from legitimate recipients. Illicit funds raised through financial fraud schemes are often used to capitalize narcotics trafficking. The penetration of government bureaucracies in many countries has enabled local Nigerian cells to defraud government entitlement programs.
www.fas.org/irp/threat/pub45270chap3.html#r21 (http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/pub45270chap3.html#r21)
</p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p092.ezboard.com/bsawatdeeforum.showUserPublicProfile?gid=drannethr ope>Dr Anne Thrope</A> at: 7/11/05 4:20 pm