by Micheal Delamere | Mar 20, 2015 | Related Local Business
A chilling phone call highlights some of the techniques that criminals in Honduras use to extort their victims, underscoring the ways in which extortion gangs take advantage of the country’s precarious security situation to instill fear.
In the recording of an extortion call obtained by the Honduran media, a man who identifies himself as “Mafia,” the leader of a gang with the same name, demands that the owners of a bus company pay him around $4,760 and a weekly “war tax.”
“If not,” the criminal states, “we are going to have it out with the owners of the buses and we’re going to burn them alive.”
During the call, “Mafia” tells the victim to meet him the following day at 11 a.m. and warns him not to contact the police or turn off his cellphone. He then describes threats the gang carried out in two of Tegucigalpa’s most violent neighborhoods, La Torre and Flor de Campo.
“We charged [another bus company] rent in Flor de Campo and we killed one of them because they didn’t believe us at the beginning. So if you don’t believe us, listen to me closely, because later I’m going to make you listen…if you don’t believe us the same thing is going to happen to you as happened in La Torre and Flor de Campo with me, get it?”
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by Micheal Delamere | Feb 20, 2015 | Related Local Business
By: Malia Zimmerman
Published February 25, 2015
FoxNews.com
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Michael Delamere, founder of Seattle-based Premier Risk Solutions, built his company largely on training security personnel for Fortune 1000 corporations and providing on-the-ground protection for corporate executives in areas where terrorists and drug cartels flourish.
His teams have faced down danger in Mexico, the Philippines and, more recently, in Nigeria, where the militant Islamic group Boko Haram has carved out a territory of its own in the blood of innocent countrymen. Last month, Premier Risk hosted a delegation of top security officials from Saudi Arabia for a wide-ranging training program that touched on crime, security, communications and emergency management.
Delamere, who has been in the security industry for 17 years, specializes in protecting his clients from terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, Hamas and Hezbollah.
Although Premier Risk has provided training to Saudi clients, it monitors the threat and tactics of terrorist groups mainly to protect clients who must travel into harm’s way. He said companies like his are also in greater demand than ever.
by Micheal Delamere | Feb 18, 2015 | Related Local Business
Executive protection professionals are facing unprecedented challenges—downsizing, layoffs, and a general negative attitude toward senior executives at every level. Training continues to be essential, especially now when executive protection is being asked to do more with less. Whether top corporate executives, wealthy or famous families, dignitaries, diplomats, religious leaders, celebrities, politicians, or military leaders—they are counting on a professional to guide them through the inevitable risk-prone situation!
This comprehensive program is designed to cover the skills and procedures required to provide effective personal protection and meet the needs of a full range of student interest, from entry-level to seasoned practitioners—planning, research, intelligence, networking, and the art of executive protection. Real case studies are used—ones that reinforce these techniques and teach best practices—with less emphasis on the GUN.
Immediate benefits of participation in this program include:
- Learn executive protection’s underlying philosophies and the mindset that drives both the protection specialist and a professional protection program.
- Understand what it takes to succeed in this highly specialized profession and how to prepare for an entry-level position.
- Develop the benchmarks of a thorough advance survey.
- Learn the critical significance of the choreography of protection.
- Review real-world residential and workplace issues.
- Examine transportation security issues—both domestic and international—and bullet-resistant vehicles.
- Learn counter-surveillance techniques and their application to modern protection methods.
Premier Risk Solutions LLC President, Michael Delamere, has attended and successfully completed this certificate program in Executive Protection.
by Micheal Delamere | Feb 18, 2015 | Crime
By one watchdog’s count, about 86 percent of the world’s most violent cities are based in Latin America, a phenomenon that has remained constant for the past four years.
According to the non-governmental organization Mexican Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice (or the CCSP-JP by its Spanish acronym), the world’s most violent cities are predominantly found in Latin America. (The NGO explains its sources and methodology for calculating each city’s homicide rate in a report accompanying the list.)
The CCSP-JP has released this list every year since 2011, and comparing them helps illustrate a few interesting trends regarding homicide rates in the region.
by Micheal Delamere | Feb 15, 2015 | Surveillance & Security
BOGOTA, Colombia — Their names he never knew, but their faces he could never forget. At the end of every month, men using aliases such as “Smelly Feet” and “Grandpa” casually slipped into the backseat of his unlicensed taxi, a rusting 1985 Chevette, to demand their payment.
For years, drivers of pirate cabs in the sprawling slum of Usme, on the southern outskirts of Bogota, had no choice but to pay up. Either that or risk watching extorters set ablaze their cars or hurt their loved ones.
“Whenever I left my house I looked behind my back,” said the driver, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear for his safety. Eventually, he mustered the courage to denounce the racket to police who, months later, launched an armed sweep.
“They were so sure of themselves,” he said, recalling with fright the terror he lived with. “They never thought they’d be caught.”
For many Colombians, the threat of such shakedowns remains.
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by Micheal Delamere | Feb 10, 2015 | Related Local Business
Some tech boardrooms go to expensive lengths to protect the top brass, authorizing company funds for cars, drivers, bodyguards, and home security systems to keep the CEO safe.
The cost is high, but proponents view safeguarding the CEO as a necessary business expense. The CEO is among a company’s most valuable assets, and protecting that asset can minimize corporate risk and align with shareholder interests.
Network World analyzed pay packages at 49 tech companies and found seven that itemized security-related perks received by the CEO. One of the most expensive programs is at Oracle, which paid $1.5 million to secure CEO Larry Ellison’s primary residence.
“We require these security measures for Oracle’s benefit because of Mr. Ellison’s importance to Oracle, and we believe these security costs and expenses are appropriate and necessary,” Oracle wrote in its proxy statement. Ellison paid for the procurement and installation of the security equipment, Protection, and he’s responsible for maintaining the system. Oracle pays for the annual costs of security personnel.
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by Micheal Delamere | Dec 22, 2014 | Crime
Illegal armed groups in Colombia make approximately $14 billion a year in drug trafficking and illegal mining activities, said the country’s top financial intelligence official Tuesday.
According to Luis Edmundo Suarez, director of the financial crimes unit FIAU money, Colombia’s drug trafficking groups launder some $10 billion annually, a figure corresponding to about 3% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
The FIAU estimates that illegal mining generates around $4 billion annually for organizations like rebel group FARC and neo-paramilitary group Urabeños .
“These resources enter the Colombian economy and are washed in the same economy or through international mechanisms used by criminals for money laundering purposes,” said Suarez.
The official explained that illegal money enters the economy by two channels: through financial schemes or traditional cash-driven companies.
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