Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Today's Blind Items - Big Evil - Mr. Hedge

About a decade ago, an international criminal ring sourced a great deal of money to fund an investment.  This investment has paid off spectacularly for them.

They found a remote corner of an impoverished Asian country, and set up a destination where ultra-wealthy clients could indulge in all sorts of illegal evil.  The owners provide all of these things for their clients.  They even gave the government a piece of the action.

Child prostitutes, check.  Drugs of any kind, check.  Other “goods”, which are in specific demand in that part of the world, are openly available in relatively large quantities.  Pictures have even popped up very recently. 

As a side to all of this, the group also trafficks in endangered animals including bears, tigers and elephants.

67 comments:

sandybrook said...

ELON MUSK!



Oh wait his turns tomorrow again. This must be THE CHURCH!

MontanaMarriott said...

Bangkok, Thailand for the locale?

SkittleKitty said...

Am I the only one longing for a few kindness blinds????

Yechhh.

sandybrook said...

I'd probably choose the Philippines over Thailand for this one since the government has always been corrupt.

Anonymous said...

Diego Garcia ;)almighty..

Flashy Vic said...

Brunei?

Tricia13 said...

No I am as well:)

Erika B. said...

I'm so exhausted from the evils of this world. I need to stop visiting this site and try to focus on positive stuff. It's hard cause I feel like I'm addicted to the pain.

T. W. said...

How do you smuggle a large, endangered animal?

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Same way you smuggle anything else.
Carefully.

Sd Auntie said...

Sick of these W men doing evil crap in 3rd world countries

orangesoda said...

Rich Arabs have been smuggling endangered animals for decades. If you have the $$$, you can make anything happen.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

If the world needs proof of the evil nature of the smuggling trade and the role corruption plays in it, it need not look very far.

David points to what she calls death camps on the Thai-Malaysian border, where a human cargo of persecuted and stateless Rohingya people have been dumped by the smugglers they paid to get them out of Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Their smugglers often turn captors, detaining people in hell-hole camps and starving them while trying to extort money from their families.

Some have been sold to human traffickers. Others have been tortured and killed.

In 2015, dozens of bodies were unearthed in border camps, including that of a young pregnant woman found tethered to a tree in a tidal area and left to drown.

More than 80 suspects - including local politicians and senior Thai army general Manas Kongpan - filed into a Bangkok court on human-trafficking charges in early 2016. But journalists were banned from reporting on the case.

Adrian Grimples said...


Imperial Pacific Resort Hotel · Saipan

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

@Adrian good to call that out as well
What is a 6 star hotel anyway?
What is a six sided star oh wait it's those situationallly "white" people, whatever that means, those shameful sons of Ashkenaz...

longtimereader said...

'Hostel' was a documentary apparently. Fabulous wealth + no legal consequences = dystopian nightmare. After a while you start to think even david icke might have a point, these people are reptiles.

Guesser said...

Could someone try guessing the money making investment from the years ago? The location and company behind it will fall into place. It seems to be connected to something newsworthy.

Unknown said...

@T.W., it helps if you own a cargo company with facilities at airports around the world. That way you don't have to go through customs with the masses. Customs comes to you and uses expedited procedures, so as long as the right people stay bribed, no problem.

I'm stumped on what the other "goods" would be, aside from child prostitutes, drugs, and endangered animals. That seems like the rich criminal tourist trifecta. I must need more imagination.

This must be fake news, though, since all the right people assure us that "international criminal rings" are crazy conspiracy theories that couldn't possibly be real.

LLGator said...

Pattaya, Thailand. The Thai Gov't is super corrupt, but they're basically immune to criticism thanks to thai lese majiste laws. The "goods" may be a reference to ladyboys. Pattaya was a fishing village until fairly recently, now its a 24/7 luxury party town

Guesser said...

I see above,that must be part of it at least. It is well known animal parts are very highly prized on the black market.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Rhino horn and endangered plants. UAE is looting Socotra while no one cares.
Non opiate related drugs
Copies of illegal porn
Counterfeit money
Smuggled mundane goods and materials (doesn't have to be illegal to cheat the tax man)

gauloise said...

Macao? It was run by the portuguese until 2000, now it is part of china , but has its own monetary system, police, legal system, etc, its one of those places where if you do an investment you get residency.

It is like the Las Vegas of Asia, being the regions major gambling center. Its a pretty corrupt, shady place

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

If you want to understand how these smuggling networks work, and how an agency like, oh let's say the CIA, piggybacks off a rival network, and why, start here!
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2017/obama-hezbollah-drug-trafficking-investigation/

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Or were they ever really rivals?
What's that about...
Paper tigers

gauloise said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gauloise said...

A few years ago Wynn Casinos opened a 4.1 Billion resort in Macau. Wynn has known ties to the mafia

DRK said...


Blogger Adrian Grimples said...

Imperial Pacific Resort Hotel · Saipan

10:25 AM

This was the first island I thought of, too

Doug said...

"About a decade ago, an international criminal ring sourced a great deal of money to fund an investment. This investment has paid off spectacularly for them."

In around 2008. A great deal of money. An investment. Paid off spectacularly.

Let's try to figure out what this is.

totaji said...

Is this Netflix again?!

gauloise said...

In 2008, Wynn Resorts paid USD $50 million to Tien Chiao Entertainment and Investment Company Limited "in exchange for the company relinquishing its rights to what is now Wynn's Cotai site, in macau

TK said...

Saipan is part of the Marianas Islands--a US territory--and it's hardly remote (it's a 15-flight from Guam) or impoverished (well-heeled Japanese tourists have been vacationing there for decades).

T. W. said...

LOL Geeljire!

Smugglers always have an inside person.

The Solo Activist said...

Erika B. I feel you sister!!!

T. W. said...

@Cail Corishev

Thank you!

My guess is the other goods are human organs & aborted fetuses.

I read China harvests organs from prisoners. I was also told many kidnappings are for organs & for breeding people who will then have their organs harvested.

Don't get me started on what they do with aborted fetuses. As my mom says, if you want to know what you are eating you need to grow it & cook it yourself.

MeliticusBee said...

Golden Triangle economic zone, Laos-Thailand"
“Goods” May be organ harvesting from China"

CuriousTex said...
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CuriousTex said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kikibunny said...

It was supposed to be the biggest casino in the world

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rite_of_Memphis-Misraim

Emptywood said...

Thailand... "Other “goods”, which are in specific demand in that part of the world"

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/briton-arrested-in-thailand-after-being-found-with-six-roasted-human-foetuses-7766232.html

Dried fetuses.

Unknown said...

@T.W., good thinking on other "goods" in high demand. I don't know if pictures of either of those have been floating around in particular, since I haven't been following the news. The Planned Parenthood price lists that were exposed a couple years ago probably aren't recent enough to be what he means.

Ah, I see @Emptywood has it, you were right on the money.

Mr. Hedge said...

Someone did mention the general area once. However this is a very specific and large luxury destination with a name.

Emptywood said...

How much more evidence is needed that these satanic cults doing this stuff are real?

Sher said...

It's Laos that is in the news for this very recently

http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2141464/mr-big-wildlife-trafficking-could-elusive-laos

"...fabulously wealthy, 58-year-old Su Guiqin is queen of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, a small enclave in the far northwest of Laosthat, just over a decade ago, was a poor fishing village on the Mekong River. With her husband, Zhao Wei, she now runs the Kings Romans empire, a Hong Kong-registered business that took out a 99-year lease on a 3,000-hectare chunk of Bokeo province in a deal with the Laos government in 2007 and transformed it into a lavish gambling resort.

Hundreds of millions of US dollars of investment poured in as jungle, rice paddies and peasant homes were cleared to make way for a casino.

"The Zhao Wei crime network engages in an array of horrendous illicit activities, including human trafficking and child prostitution, drug trafficking and wildlife traffick­ing,” said Sigal Mandelker, US Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence."

Sher said...

From the same article posted above the "other goods" are certainly the endangered animal body parts openly sold:

"...slabs of rhino horn and pieces of ivory were available at stalls inside the entrance of the Blue Shield Casino. In the nearby shopping area, outlets were selling elephant skin and rhino horn for 200 yuan (HK$250) a gram.
Chinese tourists can buy a tiger for 3 million yuan or a moon bear for 170,000 yuan. The animals are sometimes slaughtered and their meat served to gambling parties in the casino’s VIP rooms, they say."

...illgal wildlife body parts at a lobby shop at Don Chan Palace, a five-star hotel just a few hundred metres from the Presidential Palace and government buildings. Inside, we find bottles of tiger bone wine on sale for 1,650 yuan, packets of bear bile powder for 340 yuan and ivory bracelets for 400 yuan."

MM said...

Organs for rich a$$holes on Black Market. Macau, China!

kpist said...

I was thinking other "goods" was ivory, etc... Since they obviously don't care about species survival. I don't think it could be the Philippines, that President is crazy and kills drug dealers.

Emptywood said...

@sher

The Zhao Wei crime network

This might work.

Hey Mr Hedge, have we gotten any hits so far? We could use a hint.

Unknown said...

I could be wrong, but the way I read it, the other "goods" are something separate from endangered animals, which seems to me to include products made from them.

Sad thing is, there are surely multiple operations in quiet parts of the world that fit the general description here (just as there are multiple "islands"), so it could take something pretty specific to nail it down.

Emptywood said...

Intl crime org - The Zhao Wei crime network

Thailand
Laos
Burma

Remote corner of impoverished country... Laos, the casino

All goods mentioned are available. Look at the article above, the network extends to thailand... where the fetuses came from.

Pics of the fetuses popped up recently.

Endangered animal hunting happens at the casino.

We got this?

Mr. Hedge said...

@Sher got it - thank Enty for adding that last sentence about the animals which helped the guessing, no doubt

Brayson87 said...

http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-us-declares-laos-casino-operators-a-criminal-network-2018-1

Sher said...

Ok. i think others may fit but the one in Laos fits EXACTLY.

A decade ago? remote? impoverished? check
"a small enclave in the far northwest of Laos that, just over a decade ago, was a poor fishing village.."

Pictures popped up very recently? Yup. They are in the article.
Published April 14, 2018.

Name of the article?
"A Mr Big of wildlife trafficking: could elusive Laos casino operator be behind rackets that run to drugs, child prostitution?"

Just read it. It's long and goes into much more detail than I can share here.
http://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2141464/mr-big-wildlife-trafficking-could-elusive-laos

Unknown said...

@Emptywood, I think so. Mr. Hedge commented earlier to say the general area had been named (the Golden Triangle had been), but not the specific destination, and I don't think that casino had been mentioned yet when he said that, unless it was by a different name. I'm assuming he won't tell us when we're right, since that kinda goes against the whole point of a blind, but maybe we can take silence as a hint.

Unknown said...

Well, never mind my assumption that he wouldn't confirm it. Thanks, Mr. Hedge.

Sher said...

Thanks Mr. Hedge for the confirmation!
It was an interesting read. Something I would not mormally come across in the news.

T. W. said...

@Cail Corishev & @Emptywood

Thank you both for your contributions as well.

Ever notice the government & the media are promoting eating insects for protein? They are doing this because there is not enough food to go around.

If Monsanto engineers crops that make their own pesticides what will happen to us when we eat them?

Unknown said...

Great job, Sher! Let's hope running that story means some justice is coming for them, at least for the investors and users of it from this country, if it can't be stopped over there.

GoldenObserver said...

This shit makes me so damn sick. I wish that all good humans would band together tomorrow and destroy all of their organizations of evil.

Emptywood said...

I missed the Mr Hedge hints, sorry. I think we nailed it.

IanPhlegming said...

Never weighed in because I had absolutely no clue, but GREAT WORK by others here, and thanks to the Hedge-man for tossing it out (and later confirming).

But....So now what?

Sher said...

These animal parts used to be something procured primarily for traditional medicine. While that is still sometimes the case, these "goods" are now more for status, as gifts.

As Douglas Adams once wrote in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy( on the smuggling of parakeet glands off the planet Antares):

"An Antarean parakeet gland stuck on a small stick is a revolting but much sought after cocktail delicacy and very large sums of money are often paid for them by very rich idiots who want to impress other very rich idiots. "

UnicornsRReal said...

I hear ya and then I start thinking the kindness blinds are planted and think well of course they did it for the pat on the back to offset their bad parts. I'm so jaded. :(

luckythewondercat said...

Apparently animals have more integrity than people.

TruthSayer said...

I don't get it. I thought this was an entertainment gossip website.

Is Mr. Hedge going to be posting a bunch of true crime blinds from now on? If so, I may have to stop reading this site. Hollywood has enough disturbing scandals without him digging up and sharing any piece of child prostitution news he can find.

Someone Else said...

So the other day I was having breakfast with a business associate. We were talking about our current financial challenges and career/retirement goals.

Now this associate is not married and I am not aware he ever has been. Don't know his sexual orientation and never cared, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was gay.
So when he said his goal was to live 6 months out of the year in Thailand I immediately started to wonder.

Hmmmmmmmmmm

Unknown said...

Same... But then I think yoully never find that on a site like this... TBH I lurk this site and I find the comments more telling of people than the entries.

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