New! Click below to see the video trailer on youtube for
Sohlberg and the White Death
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Obsession. Paranoia. Murder. Money Laundering. Secret Swiss bank accounts. And the White Death.
Sohlberg and the White Death is finally available worldwide as the third of the Inspector Sohlberg series.
I hope that readers will enjoy this giant novel on crime . . . it's taken straight out of police files. Meet the characters who live and die in the brave new underworld of international drug cartels and corrupt governments.
Research for the book took me on an incredible journey through obsession, paranoia, murder, money laundering, drug smuggling, and secret Swiss bank accounts.
A French detective (Commissaire X in Lyon) gave me the idea for the title when he said that cocaine, heroin, prescription narcotics, etc. are "The White Death". He took me along on several raids and shared information on several investigations. I was shocked at the size, power, and sophistication of the international drug cartels, specially the 'Ndrangheta criminal organization of southern Italy. The 'Ndrangheta control cocaine smuggling into Europe. Their annual take-home pay is in the billions of dollars. One member of the Pelle Crime Family was caught stashing the equivalent of $ 2 billion U.S. dollars ($ 1.47 billion euros) in the walls of his mansion near Paris, France. Obviously, crime pays.
The commissaire also introduced me to cartels' absolute corrupting power which controls and ruins many policemen, including Michel Neyret. The former Deputy Chief of Police for Lyon, France, has yet to completely clear his name from multiple criminal charges for corruption charges. See, Chrisafis, Angelique, "French 'supercop' arrested on suspicion of colluding with drugs barons." The Guardian, 30 September 2011: online.
Readers will enter a brave new world where criminals easily earn $ 27 billion in cash. And, yes, that cash is sitting unclaimed in 200 pallets at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, Russia. See, Stewart, Will. “Is Saddam Hussein's fortune in a warehouse in Moscow? Mystery over £16.75bn piles of cash left at airport for six years” Daily Mail. 29 Sept. 2013: online.
The existence and location of the $ 27 billion dollars has been reported in many newspapers, including the Daily Mail (London, UK). The shipper, Farzin Koroorian Motlagh, has proven to be elusive in the extreme during all interviews with police and journalists. Part of the money, without a doubt, comes from the 'Ndrangheta. I have no doubts that the Pelle-Vottari-Romeo clan from San Luca is the source.
I hope that readers will enjoy this giant novel on crime . . . it's taken straight out of police files. Meet the characters who live in the brave new underworld of international drug cartels. Danger lurks everywhere for Inspector Sohlberg as it does in real life for the brave individuals who fight corruption and crime.
I hope that readers will enjoy this giant novel on crime . . . it's taken straight out of police files. Meet the characters who live and die in the brave new underworld of international drug cartels and corrupt governments.
Research for the book took me on an incredible journey through obsession, paranoia, murder, money laundering, drug smuggling, and secret Swiss bank accounts.
A French detective (Commissaire X in Lyon) gave me the idea for the title when he said that cocaine, heroin, prescription narcotics, etc. are "The White Death". He took me along on several raids and shared information on several investigations. I was shocked at the size, power, and sophistication of the international drug cartels, specially the 'Ndrangheta criminal organization of southern Italy. The 'Ndrangheta control cocaine smuggling into Europe. Their annual take-home pay is in the billions of dollars. One member of the Pelle Crime Family was caught stashing the equivalent of $ 2 billion U.S. dollars ($ 1.47 billion euros) in the walls of his mansion near Paris, France. Obviously, crime pays.
The commissaire also introduced me to cartels' absolute corrupting power which controls and ruins many policemen, including Michel Neyret. The former Deputy Chief of Police for Lyon, France, has yet to completely clear his name from multiple criminal charges for corruption charges. See, Chrisafis, Angelique, "French 'supercop' arrested on suspicion of colluding with drugs barons." The Guardian, 30 September 2011: online.
Readers will enter a brave new world where criminals easily earn $ 27 billion in cash. And, yes, that cash is sitting unclaimed in 200 pallets at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, Russia. See, Stewart, Will. “Is Saddam Hussein's fortune in a warehouse in Moscow? Mystery over £16.75bn piles of cash left at airport for six years” Daily Mail. 29 Sept. 2013: online.
The existence and location of the $ 27 billion dollars has been reported in many newspapers, including the Daily Mail (London, UK). The shipper, Farzin Koroorian Motlagh, has proven to be elusive in the extreme during all interviews with police and journalists. Part of the money, without a doubt, comes from the 'Ndrangheta. I have no doubts that the Pelle-Vottari-Romeo clan from San Luca is the source.
I hope that readers will enjoy this giant novel on crime . . . it's taken straight out of police files. Meet the characters who live in the brave new underworld of international drug cartels. Danger lurks everywhere for Inspector Sohlberg as it does in real life for the brave individuals who fight corruption and crime.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
The essence of the NSA spy program PRISM: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Chapter 6 of my book Sohlberg and the Gift is based on NSA and CIA sources who introduced me to the notorious PRISM spy program that’s now making headline news.
I started meeting with NSA and CIA sources when I began writing Sohlberg and the Gift. A glimpse into their shadowy world blew my mind. I also met with sources from Norway’s intelligence agency PST (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste). All of the sources confirmed what many of us had long suspected. The NSA maintains an enormous spy facility inside Norway where the USA spies on everyone— including American and foreign companies, government officials, and civilians.
The underground facility (protected by 1,400 feet of granite walls) is a high-security mountain fortress known as the “Electrolux Center” in Europe and “Hoover Center” in the USA. It’s named after vacuum cleaners because it’s literally an electronic vacuum cleaner that sucks up and intercepts all telephone and Internet communications and signals between the USA and Europe. Since 2001, the NSA has forced and blackmailed telecom manufacturers and providers of telephone communications and Internet services into allowing the agency to capture, copy, and reroute every electronic and digital signal in the world.
Where does all this information go? Utah where the NSA has a $ 1.7 billion data storage facility. Expansion plans call for construction to begin on another 1 million square feet of buildings to house computers with a daily 4 trillion terabyte storage capacity. Stalin and Mao would be proud specially when American government officials use Orwellian doublespeak to call this spying effort “data mining” and “antiterrorism”.
One source in Norway took me deep inside the intimidating Krokskogen forest which surrounds Mt. Gyrihaugen. We meandered through a labyrinth of steep mountain valleys. Soon we came upon barbed wire and chainlink fences protected by cameras, infrared sensors, and motion detectors. Thanks to the source’s clearance, we passed high-voltage electric fences. I observed small concrete buildings below signal towers that were high on top of the mountain ridges. Parabolic Cassegrain dishes sprouted like mushrooms in the valleys.
My sources explained that the CIA and NSA also like to spy on large companies and that many intelligence analysts and senior level people at the CIA and NSA had used inside information to make tens of millions of dollars (and more) from intercepted business communications. Of course these illegal and tax-free profits are tucked away in Swiss and other offshore banks.
“Yes,” one source explained, “Why not? . . . They spy on you and me and everyone else in the free and not-so-free world.”
By the way, “Atle”, the hairless albino computer prodigy in my book, is not a real person. He’s based on a mix of my sources, which include Norwegian National Archive employees who have access to Marigold. The Marigold file supposedly has all the information on who killed Olaf Palme the Swedish Prime Minister in 1986 and why. One of my next books will be based on the explosive information that I discovered.
As the saying goes, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
I started meeting with NSA and CIA sources when I began writing Sohlberg and the Gift. A glimpse into their shadowy world blew my mind. I also met with sources from Norway’s intelligence agency PST (Politiets sikkerhetstjeneste). All of the sources confirmed what many of us had long suspected. The NSA maintains an enormous spy facility inside Norway where the USA spies on everyone— including American and foreign companies, government officials, and civilians.
The underground facility (protected by 1,400 feet of granite walls) is a high-security mountain fortress known as the “Electrolux Center” in Europe and “Hoover Center” in the USA. It’s named after vacuum cleaners because it’s literally an electronic vacuum cleaner that sucks up and intercepts all telephone and Internet communications and signals between the USA and Europe. Since 2001, the NSA has forced and blackmailed telecom manufacturers and providers of telephone communications and Internet services into allowing the agency to capture, copy, and reroute every electronic and digital signal in the world.
Where does all this information go? Utah where the NSA has a $ 1.7 billion data storage facility. Expansion plans call for construction to begin on another 1 million square feet of buildings to house computers with a daily 4 trillion terabyte storage capacity. Stalin and Mao would be proud specially when American government officials use Orwellian doublespeak to call this spying effort “data mining” and “antiterrorism”.
One source in Norway took me deep inside the intimidating Krokskogen forest which surrounds Mt. Gyrihaugen. We meandered through a labyrinth of steep mountain valleys. Soon we came upon barbed wire and chainlink fences protected by cameras, infrared sensors, and motion detectors. Thanks to the source’s clearance, we passed high-voltage electric fences. I observed small concrete buildings below signal towers that were high on top of the mountain ridges. Parabolic Cassegrain dishes sprouted like mushrooms in the valleys.
My sources explained that the CIA and NSA also like to spy on large companies and that many intelligence analysts and senior level people at the CIA and NSA had used inside information to make tens of millions of dollars (and more) from intercepted business communications. Of course these illegal and tax-free profits are tucked away in Swiss and other offshore banks.
“Yes,” one source explained, “Why not? . . . They spy on you and me and everyone else in the free and not-so-free world.”
By the way, “Atle”, the hairless albino computer prodigy in my book, is not a real person. He’s based on a mix of my sources, which include Norwegian National Archive employees who have access to Marigold. The Marigold file supposedly has all the information on who killed Olaf Palme the Swedish Prime Minister in 1986 and why. One of my next books will be based on the explosive information that I discovered.
As the saying goes, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
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