Liverpool's Farley brothers headed drug gang worth £2m a fortnight

Another Liverpool gang sentenced. two brothers in charge. No flash life style and not linked to violence. Article from Liverpool Echo contains a lot of speculation by police sources as to the extent of their operations.

Spanish reaction to ETA announcement

Article from el Pais. Lots of links to background articles at end of the piece.

ETA declares permanent ceasefire

Hmmm. Lets see how long this one lasts before rejoicing...

Meth flourishes despite tracking laws

Another role for smurfs!
Put a maximum on purchase of pseudoephedrine as a precursor chemical in the manufacture of meth and hey presto! You get a new role for smurfing and more people drawn into the network. When will these people learn to profile the conseuences of new laws before legislating?

Civitas report

Found it at last! i wrote book ten years ago that made the point that you had to include civilian support staff to get a true figure....But the author of the report is making a political point, I suspect.

Study shows strong link between police numbers and crime

I'm not sure it does, but Ive linked to this for the graphic. Still trying to link to the civitas report. The graphic compares relations between police numbers and crime rates across Europe

Grooming and our ignoble tradition of racialising crime

Piece from the Guardian about a series of articles this first week of 2011 published in the Times about child abuse in the Midlands and North of England. The Times now operates a paywall, so i cant link to the articles, but if you subscribe or your Library gets the hard copy, you may be interested in reading them, with the caveats expressed in this article.

How the US let al qaeda get its hands on an Iraqi weapons factory

Extract from a book by Dominic Streatfield "A History of the World since 9/11". The lesson appears to be that once central authority collapses, people will steal and sell everything available. How does the mechanism work? Is it an example of crowd rational economic behaviour a la Steve Reicher, or is there an organised crime network in embryo just waiting for the opportunity? Another possible PhD topic for somebody.

Third SGOC Summer School

The Third Summer School will be held in Macedonia 3rd-16th July. All details and contact emails are on the flyer, linked from the title of this post.

Hero Fireman jailed over £100 million drug ring

Interesting account of a cocaine distribution ring operating in and around London. 33 people have been sentenced for a variety of offences. Operation Eaglewood, involving the Met's Special Intelligence Section.