To be perfectly honest folks, I didn't see this one coming,
consequence I think, of having shed many years ago the paranoia that
almost every Venezuelan carries like a second skin. I thought I was safe
in Central London. Until Monday morning,
when some thugs most probably
sent by chavismo and/or its boligarch associates
broke into my flat and stole my laptops. They didn't take my wallet,
money, valuables... mind you they even left behind one of their own rain
jackets and a mobile phone. Frankly I don't know whether to laugh or
cry about it. On the one hand, I have to respect the boldness of the men
who carried out this action. I have used plural all along on purpose,
for there is CCTV evidence of at least three men, totally unrelated to
the residents of the building where I live, trying to gain access to it.
Neither of them bothered to cover their faces. In fact, one of them
spoke to the porter and tried to force his way in, in three separate
instances, through the front door of the building, while another stood
at a very close distance and laughed at the porter. I have got to
interpret their boldness as if they purposefully wanted to send a strong
message: "we came to your flat, we broke into it in broad daylight, and
we can't care less about being caught by video cameras or be seen."
Another part of me is convinced that this is most definitely the work
of chavistas. For only chavistas can break into a flat to steal laptops
containing sensible information and leave behind so much evidence, such
as their own phone. This reminds me of the typical Venezuelan "rambos"
that make up the "intelligence" forces in that country: smash first and
never bother with details.
Guapos y apoyaos sort of attitude. But then, if they could do that, it is evident they are prepared to do anything, including
re-launching a defunct British intelligence agency (MI-16) and "reporting" that "my house had been raided on Wednesday" (that'll be 48 hours after the fact).
My interpretation of events after two days is this: thug no. 1
manages to get through piggybacking on somebody exiting the building. He
then gets in the lift, and makes his way in the floors above to the
staircase. Goes down the stairs and opens the fire exit door to thug no.
2. Both of them were carrying rucksacks. One, or the two of them, then
wait, in the staircase, until I leave the flat (I was at home at the
time the first gets into the building). Thug no. 3, who is wearing
running clothes, tips them when he sees me leaving the building. Door
lock is forced with a screw driver, and they get into my flat. But then,
something must have alerted them. Footage of roughly one hour later
shows no. 1 outside the front door of the building, ringing the intercom
presumably to no. 2, who's inside my flat. He tries that three times,
but does not manage to get in. He rings different flats, alerting
different neighbours. In one occasion he even talks to the porter, and
says in broken English that he has a meeting with "John" in the flat
next to mine. By this time the porter suspected something was going on.
So no. 3 also tried the front door, once, and fails. They leave with
exactly what they came for, nothing else.
I got back from a run to realize the mat is misplaced, and when I saw
the lock noticed it's been forced. Went to the porter's office and
reported it to the police. The porter then shows me footage of what had
happened outside the front door. When I entered the flat with the police
I noticed, by the door, the rain jacket of no. 2. The police officer
picks it up and notices a mobile phone inside. He shows me some text
messages, in Spanish, along the lines of "estoy en la escalera" and
"llamame quando estes listo". The log shows a number of different mobile
phone numbers.
They took only the computers, suggesting the order was "bring the
laptops". It shows a level of discipline on the one hand, and the most
absolute lack of common sense on the the other. Like foot soldiers. They
took laptops, but didn't take backup servers staring at them (don't
worry about coming back chaps, my stuff is backed up -much before you
came- in
plenty of places you will never be able to reach).
They took laptops, but didn't take my phone, or my wallet, passports,
documents, etc. So what to make of that? They spent about an hour here,
which would have given them enough time to bug the place. However I have
found no evidence of it, and a proper, professional sweep will be done
in the next few days. What will happen right now is this: I am going to
make "
los tres chiflados" instant online celebrities:
Thug no.1: notice the phone in his hand, either that one, or another just like it, was left in my flat.
Thug no.2: notice his rain coat, something very similar was left in my flat.
Thug no.3: coming to alert the others.
I am going to then ask, both publicly and privately, my fellow
bloggers, investigative journos, law enforcement mates and contacts
around the word, and everyone else I can enlist, to help me get to the
bottom of this. If I don't get killed first, which is a definite
possibility considering the above, I am going to make my short, mid, and
long term personal goal to expose whoever was stupid enough to contract
such an incompetent bunch of half wits to do this.
UPDATE 21.14.2014: Further to the break into my flat
on Monday, this morning I found four printouts of recent photographs of
my children and myself, presumably taken from quite a distance, going
about our business in Central London. The printouts were left inside the
pocket of one of my coats, in my bedroom.
This new development leads me to believe that it weren't the laptops
they were after, that was just a bonus. I take those pictures as an open
threat, to my children and myself. I take those pictures as a form of
terrorism. The message is clear: whoever is behind this wants me to know
that my family can be harmed at their wish.
I shall take this as I interpret it to be. Yesterday I posted
pictures of the three suspects (SEE ABOVE). Given publication of certain
"reports" in a chavista rag in Venezuela (primicias24.com), I think I
have a good idea of who is behind this. London's Metropolitan Police has
been informed.
Only Tuesday last week I was at the Offshore Alert conference here in
London, listening to Bill Browder explain how Sergei Magnitsky had
taken the trouble to document every single thing the Russian State did
to him, until his untimely assassination. That eventually led to the
Magnitsky Act. Taking inspiration from him, I shall try to do the same: I
will keep a public record of what is happening, and in case my family
or myself perish, interested parties in the future -like Bill Browder-
will hopefully take an interest and the Venezuelan culprits will pay the
consequences of their actions.
UPDATE 27.11.2014: Got home yesterday to find a
letter from Tbilisi. The sender used an address in China, you can
imagine where this is going... So I opened the envelope, and there was
another envelope inside it, containing four printouts similar to the
ones left inside my flat after it was broken into last week. In the back
of one of the printouts, a message:
Obviously the police has been notified, but I wanted to add a bit of comment on this new development.
On Monday this week, blogs, profiles and documents started appearing
online, in Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, Scribd, Blogger and even in Rip
Off Report. All of them would contain allegations about me being an
"internationally wanted criminal, drug dealer, extortionist, car thieve,
and pedophile". They contain pictures of me and my youngest daughter
(original and photoshoped) taken during a surveillance period spanning
months.
The "pedophile" bit caught my attention, after all primicias24.com,
wordpress blogs, dodgy websites, and lately the very own uncle of my
wife, have been publishing stuff about me being "gay, homosexual, having
AIDS, being involved in drug trafficking...",
mind you my poor mother died in 1983 and yet
primicias24.com
"reporters" resurrected her and put her on top of an alleged drug
trafficking ring that "operated" between 2006 and 2012.
The pedophilia accusation is a new one made against me, but I
remembered I had seen it before. Derwick Associates initiated a lawsuit
against Banco Venezolano de Credito, Oscar Garcia Mendoza and Rafael
Alfonzo in a Miami court in 2012-2013. Accusations of pedophilia made
against Rafael Alfonzo started appearing online around that time.
Alfonzo even got his bedroom bugged and a video of him sleeping was posted online. This
was much before it was revealed by Pro Energy Services former
employees, or the Wall Street Journal, that US Federal Agencies and New
York City prosecutors were probing Derwick. Another interesting aspect
is that, around that time,
RaFa Nuñez, the self styled "white hacker" of Clean Perception and former convict was
promoting Derwick online.
Equally interesting is the fact that the person who wrote and has been
uploading to Tumblr and other sites the ludicrous allegation about me
being a "pedophile", appeared upset at the fact that I have a selfie
with the Dalai Lama in my Twitter profile, given that he/she is meant to
be an admirer of the Dalai Lama. Check what RaFa wrote to me in an
email in May this year:
Como budista y veo que tienes al Dalai Lama en tu avatar, creo en causa y efecto. Estoy en contra de la difamación, arrogancia o venganza sin sentido.
Coincidence?