Police authorities have seized 42 tonnes of cocaine since January this year, 17 more than in the whole of 2025, national director of the Judicial Police (PJ), Carlos Cabreiro, has
The post Cocaine seizures in Portugal “already exceed 42 tonnes” this year appeared first on Portugal Resident.
On Tuesday, the Technical Investigation Unit of the General Attorney’s Office arrested four members of the National Police for their responsibility in the death of Afro-Colombian Donovan Balanta, which occurred while he was in police custody in Bogota.
RELATED: Colombia Groups Demand Justice Over Donovan Balanta Death
The officers are being investigated for the crimes of homicide and aggravated torture. The investigation seeks to clarify both the reported physical assaults and the alleged failure to provide medical assistance that preceded the victim’s death.
According to authorities, the events date back to September 20, when a patrol responded to a dispute between neighbors in southern Bogota, which escalated into a confrontation between civilians and police officers.
During the operation, Donovan was detained by the officers. The Attorney General’s Office maintains that a sub-lieutenant and three patrol officers allegedly handcuffed him, punched and kicked him, and used a Taser on him.
Se conocen nuevos detalles del caso Donovan Balanta: capturan a cuatro policías y buscan a otros dos
— Noticias Caracol (@NoticiasCaracol) October 19, 2026
Ampliación 👉 https://t.co/cAFAhkNcOT pic.twitter.com/reGjVavYX4
The text reads, “New details emerge in the Donovan Balanta case: four police officers captured and two others sought”
The investigation indicates that, after his arrest, Balanta was taken to a police station, where the violence allegedly continued while he was detained within the official facilities.
According to the case file, the victim repeatedly requested medical attention due to respiratory difficulties and severe chest pains. Another detainee also reportedly requested assistance for Balanta, but he did not receive timely help.
The National Institute of Legal Medicine determined that the cause of death was a cardiac arrhythmia caused by the electric shocks he received during the procedure, according to the results of the forensic analysis.
Experts also documented multiple burns and various injuries on different parts of his body, evidence that supports the hypotheses investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office regarding possible acts of torture.
Demonstrators gather in Bogota to defend labor rights, public education, and social reforms.
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 14, 2026
Trade unions, social movements, and students took to the streets of Bogotá to protest in defense of labor rights, public education, and key social protections achieved for workers.… pic.twitter.com/Mfx1HL1vpN
teleSUR: JP
Source: teleSUR
A couple endured moments of sheer terror on Sunday night when their Porsche was rammed by another vehicle in Torres Vedras, leading to a violent confrontation with five men, at
The post Gang makes off in stolen Porsche after kidnapping couple near Torres Vedras appeared first on Portugal Resident.
© Michael Anthony Adams/The New York Times
Fairfax County, Virginia, police officer Scott Abram was charged with two counts of misdemeanor shoplifting for stealing merchandise from two Target stores. Police say that while using the self-checkout at a Target in Burke, Abram scanned a cheaper item's barcode to pay less for another item, then left the store with both products despite only paying for one. Abram was in uniform and on duty at the time. Police say he had committed a similar theft at a Target in Springfield the day before, while off duty. A 23-year veteran of the Fairfax County Police Department, Abram chose to retire rather than face termination. Each charge is a misdemeanor that can carry up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine if convicted.
The post Brickbat: Sticky Fingers appeared first on Reason Magazine.
© Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal, via USA Today, via Reuters
A man was injured on Tuesday morning when he swerved off the road in Paliometocho, Nicosia, and ended up in a field, trapped in his car.
The police were notified at 5.07am of the accident and the fire brigade responded with a vehicle and rescue team to release the man from his car.
According to the police, the driver lost control of his car and drove into a field, where the car turned on its side.
The man was injured and taken by ambulance to Nicosia general hospital.
Six people were arrested, including for possession of drugs and illegal residence, during overnight police operations.
The police pulled over 472 vehicles and checked 583 drivers and passengers.
A total of 294 reports were filed, including 67 for speeding, one for drink driving and one for using drugs. Eleven vehicles were impounded.
The police also raided 33 establishments and filed one report.
Police brought 271 people to police headquarters following Sunday’s disturbances in Milan, including 220 minors. Of those detained, 32 were formally arrested and another 28 were reported to the judicial authorities, according to figures released on Monday, 19th October.
The violence has prompted the Italian government to consider further restrictions on those involved in violent demonstrations, potentially introducing additional powers directed at organised disorder and juvenile offenders.
The disturbances began during demonstrations on Saturday, 17th October, organised amid growing dissatisfaction over household expenses, public services and wider political grievances.
Although the protests initially included peaceful participants, groups of masked individuals subsequently confronted riot police in central Milan. Officers used tear gas and water cannon as demonstrators erected burning barricades and threw objects at security personnel.
The unrest continued on Sunday, when shops were attacked close to Piazza del Duomo, one of Milan’s principal commercial and tourist areas.
Among the premises targeted were branches of Decathlon, Arc’teryx and Vodafone. Television footage showed damaged shopfronts, overturned street furniture and burning rubbish containers.
According to police figures reported on Monday, 174 of those taken to police headquarters were subjected to preventive detention measures introduced under recent Italian security legislation.
Fourteen members of the security services were reported injured during Sunday’s disturbances, including ten police officers and four members of the municipal police.
The judicial authorities are examining the conduct of individuals suspected of taking part in attacks on businesses and confrontations with officers. Prosecutors have sought custodial measures against several adults accused of offences including devastation, looting and aggravated resistance.
The large proportion of minors among those detained has become a central issue in the political response.
Milan was not the only city affected by disorder. Saturday’s demonstrations also produced confrontations in Turin, Bologna, Brescia and Bergamo.
Italian police reported arrests across the affected cities, while the scale and organisation of the disturbances have raised questions about whether different groups were acting independently or using demonstrations as opportunities for coordinated violence.
There is not yet sufficient publicly established evidence to attribute the disorder to a single organisation or political movement.
The clashes coincided with major protests in neighbouring France, where similar concerns over living costs and public administration have contributed to increasingly confrontational demonstrations.
Although the grievances overlap, the Italian and French movements have different political backgrounds and organisational structures.
Following a meeting at Palazzo Chigi on Monday, Meloni’s government indicated that it was considering a legislative response, potentially through an emergency decree.
According to details of the government discussions, proposals under examination include additional measures against violent offences, changes to preventive policing and possible restrictions addressing road blockages.
Some measures could be drawn from security legislation already under consideration in the Italian Senate. Ministers have also discussed the need for more effective intervention against juvenile offenders.
The meeting included Deputy Prime Ministers Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and senior officials from the police, Carabinieri and intelligence services.
The government has stressed that peaceful demonstrations must remain protected while arguing that violence and organised destruction require a stronger response.
No final legislative text had been adopted at the conclusion of Monday’s meeting. A decree could be considered by the Council of Ministers as early as Tuesday, although the precise content remains subject to further examination.
The unrest has also produced a dispute between Milan’s municipal authorities and the national government.
Mayor Giuseppe Sala questioned the adequacy of the policing arrangements, arguing that the number of officers initially deployed was insufficient to control the disturbances.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi rejected that criticism, while senior government figures accused local political leaders of failing to condemn the violence unequivocally.
The disagreement reflects a wider question over how responsibility for anticipating and containing serious public disorder should be divided between local administrations and national security authorities.
Italy’s opposition has also challenged the government’s handling of the disturbances. Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi criticised Meloni and Piantedosi over their failure to prevent the violence, calling for a change in leadership at the Interior Ministry.
The political argument is likely to intensify if the government proceeds with emergency legislation. Supporters of stronger police powers argue that the existing framework is insufficient to deal with rapidly organised disturbances, while opponents will scrutinise the proportionality of new restrictions and their effect on peaceful protest.
The immediate test for the government will be whether additional legal powers can improve public-order operations without replacing effective policing, intelligence gathering and judicial enforcement.
PJ Judicial Police have arrested two employees of a museum in Lisbon on suspicion of issuing discounted or free tickets in situations not covered by the scheme, appropriating the amount
The post Lisbon museum employees suspected of embezzling ticket money appeared first on Portugal Resident.
Around 100 jerrycans were found in the early hours of this morning near the fishing harbour at Assenta Beach, in São Pedro da Cadeira, in the municipality of Torres Vedras,
The post Jerrycans with 2,000 litres of fuel found near beach in Torres Vedras appeared first on Portugal Resident.
Eleven people were arrested during overnight police operations across Cyprus targeting criminal activity, traffic offences and public order violations, police said on Monday.
The arrests were made in connection with various offences, including illegal residence, possession of duty-free tobacco, possession of suspected stolen property, theft, drug possession and drink driving.
During the operations, officers stopped and checked 533 drivers and 134 passengers, while inspections of 41 premises resulted in five complaints.
Traffic checks led to 350 complaints for various offences, including 216 for speeding, while seven additional traffic violations were investigated.
Police also impounded six vehicles as part of their investigations.
A total of 281 alcohol tests were carried out, resulting in seven complaints, while one preliminary drug test returned a positive result.
Police said preventive operations would continue on a daily basis.
Two adults and one child aboard a small plane were injured when it crashed Saturday in San Jose, California.
The post VIDEO: One Child, Two Adults Injured When Small Plane Crashes on California Roadway appeared first on Breitbart.
© Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Walking through East Cleveland, Ohio, feels a touch like you've wandered onto the set of a postapocalyptic film noir. Grand, gilded homes announce themselves on neighborhood streets, some crowned with turrets, many with windows punched out like missing teeth. Often, no one is home, because no one lives there. It is safer than 1 percent of U.S. cities.
So why did local law enforcement pour considerable time and resources into pursuing a man for a sound truck?
That question is not really a legal one, at least not in the most technical sense. But it is the driving force behind a thorny case a federal court recently resuscitated: Fambrough v. City of East Cleveland, a saga concerning a man whose vehicle became an obsessive target of the East Cleveland Police Department (ECPD) after he used it to campaign for a mayoral challenger.
Some of the facts are in dispute. But the basic gist is as follows: William Fambrough, long a politically engaged East Clevelander, campaigned for Juanita Gowdy—a challenger to then-Mayor Brandon King—by broadcasting messages around the city with his sound truck. That ultimately came to an end after law enforcement impounded the car, cited him for parking and noise violations, and prosecuted him for the latter.
Fambrough sued, alleging the complex legal odyssey set into motion over his step van amounted to First Amendment retaliation, an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment, and a violation of the 14th Amendment's proscription against selective enforcement. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit rejected some of those claims. But it resurrected claims against King and his chief of staff, Michael Smedley—depriving them of qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that inoculates state and local government officials from facing lawsuits if their alleged misconduct was not "clearly established" as illegal in prior case law. It also revived Fambrough's retaliation claim against the city.
As the 6th Circuit summarizes: King "says he received a phone call from a resident who complained about Fambrough's sound truck and someone else's box truck being parked in a residential area," so he told someone to take care of it. Scott Gardner, then the city's chief of police, "was concerned about selectively enforcing" the parking ordinance—which prohibits parking a truck in front of residential property, except for loading or unloading—because it is indeed almost never enforced. This was the beginning of a long pursuit, which ultimately saw a swarm of officers dispatched to Fambrough's house in August 2021 to confiscate the vehicle, allegedly resulting in $6,000 in damage. Fambrough also had to pay $528 in fees to get the damaged truck back.
"All the attention City officials gave Fambrough struck Gardner as unusual," the 6th Circuit notes. "The mayor's office wasn't this attentive even in homicide cases. And considering that the City had around only 50 police officers at the time and had 'serious crime problems,' Gardner thought it was odd to devote this much attention to permitting and parking issues." Based on available data, East Cleveland's violent crime rate is 1,409 per 100,000 residents, about four times higher than the national average.
Yet Gardner ultimately got on board. Smedley phoned him on August 9 "extremely upset," according to Gardner, and told the police chief he was "incompetent" for failing to "take care of" Fambrough's sound truck. Smedley wanted the "utmost enforcement as possible." So Gardner sent an email. "Please, find this vehicle and tow it," he wrote to all of ECPD. "Cite the operator with disturbing the peace and loud music. Please contact me as soon as this is complete to claim a surprise." A surprise!
Police succeeded. "On its face, the email told officers to tow Fambrough's truck regardless of whether it was parked illegally," writes the 6th Circuit. "And the Noise Ordinance authorizes seizure only of 'the sound device used,' and only upon conviction. So Gardner's instruction to tow the truck wasn't authorized by municipal law." The court still held that the seizure did not violate the Fourth Amendment. It also gave Gardner qualified immunity, ruling it is not clearly established that someone who acts as a conduit for someone else's alleged retaliation—which here came from the mayor's office—is a "responsible party."
Heather McCollough, the city's assistant law director, subsequently prosecuted Fambrough for allegedly violating the noise ordinance. According to a sworn declaration from Fambrough's attorney, McCollough outlined some of Fambrough's offenses on a call: that he "made complaints about the police department" and filed "public records requests," among other issues. Notably, it is legal to do those things. McCollough was typically willing to resolve minor noise complaints, she added, but not so much in this case, because Fambrough needed to "stand down." (He ultimately pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct, a reduced charge.)
"Only after [Fambrough] began supporting Gowdy's election was the weight of the law thrown against him," the 6th Circuit writes in its analysis of potential municipal wrongdoing. "And the City's police officers didn't uncover Fambrough's violations of their own accord. Instead, City decisionmakers sent them to Fambrough's home each time to enforce the Parking Ordinance. So the timing of the parking-related enforcement actions supports an inference that Fambrough's political speech was the motivating factor—as does the fact that the City rarely enforced the Parking Ordinance against anyone else despite having plenty of opportunities to do so." Incredibly, a photo of another truck can be seen down the street on the same day law enforcement came to fetch Fambrough's vehicle. (The law also includes pickup trucks, so the city arguably has a lot of enforcement to do if it sincerely believes this law matters.)
King allegedly set the chain of events into motion while Smedley took the driver's seat. "Smedley's pattern of incessantly calling and berating Gardner," the 6th Circuit adds, "clashes with the idea that Smedley was chiefly concerned with minor permitting, noise, or parking issues." After all, if that were true, why would the problem appear to begin and end with one person?
Over five years have passed since the ordeal. Although Fambrough is now potentially closer to getting in front of a jury, he has yet to actually state his case, still burdened by the onerous process government actors invoke to kill such suits before the community can assess the merits. King, meanwhile, won that election. He left office in May 2025, however, after he was found guilty of one count of theft in office, four counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, three counts of representation by public official or employee, one count of filing a false disclosure statement, and one count of soliciting improper compensation.
The post He Campaigned for the East Cleveland Mayor's Opponent. Then Police Came for His Truck. appeared first on Reason Magazine.
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