A four-year investigation has culminated in the seizure of 3.2 tons of hashish hidden in a shipment of olives from Lebanon, authorities said.
Arrest warrants were issued for 15 alleged conspirators, including two lawyers charged with laundering money. Ten people, including the alleged ringleader, 61-year-old Peter Kattar of Andover, were in custody by Friday in the United States and Canada.An undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, passing himself off as a mercenary, penetrated the organization and accepted $500,000 to arrange transportation of the hashish from Boston into Canada.
Court documents alleged some of the defendants began purchasing hashish from growers and producers in the Bekaa Valley region of Lebanon in late 1987. They bribed Lebanese and Syrian government officials and arranged to ship the hash from Beirut aboard a Soviet freighter, the G. Gorbatov.
The value of the hash was estimated at $90 milion.Fighting in El Salvador kills 8 SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (UPI) - The military said Saturday that fierce fighting over 24 hours in El Salvador left eight soldiers and rebels dead.
In a clandestine radio broadcast, rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, accused army troops of firing shots and mortars at civilian homes in San Jose las Flores in Chaletenango province in northern El Salvador.
The army said "fierce fighting" between soldiers and leftist guerrillas in the rebel stronghold of Chaletenango also left eight wounded.
In San Jose las Flores, United Press International reporter Daniel Alder and Miami Herald and CBS news correspondent Thomas Long were wounded by shrapnel from a mortar that exploded about 15 feet in front of them.100 injured as Bangladesh students battle DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - Rival student groups battled with guns and homemade bombs at a university in the north, leaving at least 100 injured, police said Saturday.
The clashes, involving student supporters of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her political rival, Sheik Hasina, occurred Thursday and Friday at Mymensingh Agricultural University, 70 miles north of Dhaka. Authorities ordered the university closed indefinitely to prevent further violence.
Police said 10 students were hospitalized with bullet wounds. About 25 others were treated in government hospitals and private clinics. Many of the injured did not seek treatment for fear of arrest, they said.Manila mayor jailed in casino closures MANILA, Philippines (UPI) - Police arrested the mayor of Manila Saturday and jailed him after he refused to post bail on charges he illegally closed down two casinos in the capital.
Mayor Gemiliano Lopez had just returned to the Philippines from a visit to Canada, the United States and Japan when authorities served him an arrest warrant at the airport. He had refused to pay a $550 bail in the casino case.
Lopez briefly closed the casinos in two posh hotels last year, saying it was part of his drive against gambling in the city. He said if gambling among poor Filipinos is prohibited, the casinos catering to the rich also should be shut down.Men with crossbow rob Dutch soldiers AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) - Two men armed with a crossbow robbed two Dutch soldiers on guard duty of their Uzi submachine guns Saturday, the Dutch ANP news agency reported.
The soldiers were patrolling the perimeter of their barracks in the northern village of Zuidlaren when the men with a crossbow forced them to give up their weapons.
The attackers chained the soldiers inside a truck, where they were found 11/2 hours later, then fled by cutting a hole in the compound's fence.Businessman gets 24 years in loan scandal PHILADELPHIA (UPI) - Businessman Leonard Pelullo has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for squandering $2.2 million in loans from his company and the nation's largest savings and loan.
U.S. District Judge Robert Kelly also ordered Pelullo, 41, to pay $6.8 million in fines and restitution Friday.
Pelullo's misuse of millions of dollars in loans he received to renovate six art deco hotels in Miami led to the downfall of the Stockton, Calif., American Savings and Loan in the mid-1980s.
Pelullo was convicted of using more than 50 companies to divert borrowed money to Royale Group Ltd., his Miami-based real estate development company.In other news . . . SEPARATIST VIOLENCE in Punjab state killed 25 people, including a top Sikh militant allegedly involved in the slaying of more than 1,000 people in gun and bomb attacks, the Press Trust of India news agency said. . . . CAMBODIANS GATHERED sandbags and emergency supplies Saturday to prepare for a new wave of flooding that is blamed in 22 deaths elsewhere in the country and now threatens the capital Phnom Penh. . . . RAIN FELL along the Gulf Coast and the Ohio Valley on Saturday, and cool air pushed southward from the upper Mississippi Valley to New England.