joint customs surveillance and the civil guard service anti-drugs operation has been cleared with the seizure of about 800 kilograms of hashish in Xàbia and the arrest of two British citizens tripulaban's recreation that drugs under the roof in a proof area was misleadingly boat. The hide method is novel, because the hashish was under the so-called bath and yesterday had to use a radar to access to the area between the town and transitable cover.
The boat and detainees were transferred to the port of Alicante, where yesterday proceeded to make registration and seizure of drugs in presence of the Secretary of the Court of guard.
Arrested two are English and Irish source and late yesterday morning were transferred by agents of the team organized crime and Antidroga (EDOA) of the civil guard from one of the docks of West area until the command of Alicante, where it was planned the investigation and interrogation of the taken together with who participated in the operational customs officials.
Interceptada boat has a length of seven metres approximately and each is equipped with two Suzuki 115 horsepower engines. The boat was supposedly the journey the Alicante coast directly from Morocco, sources close to the case. Researchers try to find out if the download of the drug port was Xàbia or really addressed there detect that had been discovered.
The vessel was intercepted at nine in the evening last Monday in the Fontana in Xàbia, boat mooring there on the beach of the Arenal area canal. The boat approached there the be pursued by a helicopter customs to suspect that could carry drugs. Arenal neighbors noted that the helicopter landed on the beach and customs officials ran towards the two occupants. Two traffickers were captured a few metres of the place where abandoned the vessel.
At first sight there was no drug in the boat, but to suspicions that ocultara a cache of hashish the gunboat customs it moved to Alicante, where arrived on the two in the morning. The arrested spent the night in the civil guard dungeons and yesterday were driven back to the port to perform logging in the presence of the Court Secretary. The drug was distributed in packages of different sizes and apart from the resin of hashish had enough bundles of pollen of hashish, which is more expensive in the black market.
The anti-drugs operation remains open and new arrests depending on the progress of investigations are discarded.
The two British detainees not had been arrested previously by customs, although not has transcended if they were fichados by the civil guard or the national police.
This cache seizure confirms that networks of drug trafficking that operate between Morocco and the Spanish coast wager lately more by the introduction of the caches in instead of the powerful pneumatic boats in great length recreational craft and equipped with four or six outboard engines.
Nancy Cedeno, 34, of Laval, Que., is alleged to have supplied preapproved customs forms to drug traffickers so they could arrange to have their couriers go through the airport with luggage packed with cocaine without having to be searched.
Among other things, Cedeno is charged with accepting bribes while she worked for Canada Border Services Agency. Omar Riahi, 33, is alleged to have recruited Cedeno for traffickers who smuggled drugs through the airport with the Mafia’s support. Among the eight charges he faces are two related to allegedly corrupting Cedeno.
Riahi worked for Canada Border Services Agency in 2004 and is described in court documents as being a military police officer when he emerged as a suspect in Project Colisee, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit investigation into the Mafia’s leaders and associates.Three people accused of acting as couriers for the drug traffickers — Jean Marie Fritz Balmir, 38, Julie Chateauneuf Fleury, 27, and Jean Michel Reacarld, 41 — are also part of the trial at the Montreal courthouse before Judge Claude Millette.All five are charged with taking part in a general plot to import cocaine into Canada. Mafia leaders like Francesco Arcadi and Francesco Del Balso are named as non-indicted co-conspirators in the charge. Both men are currently serving 15-year prison terms they received last year after pleading guilty last year to charges filed in Project Colisee. Ivan Enrique Bayter, 44, of Vaughn, Ont., was supposed to be part of the same trial but pleaded guilty to conspiracy and a gangsterism charge on May 4. Sentencing in his case is scheduled to begin in September
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera leads the Sinaloa cartel, which is battling for turf along the border.Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, a 54-year-old drug cartel leader is the most wanted man in Mexico. He's also one of the most wanted men in the United States. 1 of 3 For five years, the State Department has kept a $5 million bounty on his head, calling Guzman a threat to U.S. security.Guzman, who leads the Sinaloa cartel, is a key player in the bloody turf battles being fought along the border.
He recently upped the stakes, ordering his associates to use lethal force to protect their loads in contested drug trafficking corridors, according to the Los Angeles Times.The cartel's tentacles and those of its chief rival, the Gulf cartel, already reach across the border and into metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; and Charlotte, North Carolina, Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Joseph Arabit told a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in March."No other country in the world has a greater impact on the drug situation in the United States than Mexico does," said Arabit, who heads the DEA's office in this year's border hot spot, El Paso, Texas. See where Mexican cartels are in the U.S.A December 2008 report by the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center revealed that Mexican drug traffickers can be found in more than 230 U.S. cities.So far, the U.S. has largely been spared the violence seen in Mexico, where the cartels' running gunbattles with police, the military and each other claimed about 6,500 lives last year. It was a sharp spike from the 2,600 deaths attributed to cartel violence in 2007.
Fifteen individuals associated with the a Los Angeles street gang known to be linked to the Mexican Mafia were charged for their roles in a narcotics distribution ring operating in and around Compton, California, announced several federal and local officials in Los Angeles including, Thomas O’Brien, United States Attorney in Los Angeles; Timothy J. Landrum, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles; Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles; Leroy Baca, Sheriff of Los Angeles County; Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General for the State of California.
An investigation was initiated in 2008 to address gang-related crime reported by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department in the Compton area. The investigation focused on identifying and disrupting members of a drug trafficking network there. According to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, several associates of the gang are charged with distribution and/or conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, a schedule II narcotic drug controlled substance. Four people are charged with being in the United States illegally following deportation after felony convictions.“Today's successful operation is an example of how law enforcement has joined forces at all levels to free our communities from the violence brought into our neighborhoods by these criminal drug organizations," said Timothy J. Landrum, DEA Special Agent in Charge. In executing the operation early this morning, Agents and police from several federal, state and local agencies executed four federal arrest warrants, five state arrest warrants and six search warrants that resulted in the seizure of narcotics, weapons and explosives. Six individuals charged in the federal cases were already in custody. In addition, twenty parole searches and ten probation searches were carried out. “It is vital for law enforcement at all levels to collectively address drug distribution networks which fuel the violence wreaking havoc in Los Angeles communities, and sustain the lifeblood of criminal enterprises like the Mexican Mafia,” said Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles. “By shutting down a major source of drugs and weapons, these arrests will deal another hammer blow to the persistent violence that terrorizes Compton,” Attorney General Edmund G. Brown said.
Those charged in the federal cases include: Oscar Ceballos, 31, of Los Angeles (distribution of methamphetamine and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine)Noe Chairez , 28, of Los Angeles (distribution of methamphetamine)
Denisio Delgado, 33, of Los Angeles (distribution of methamphetamine.
Daniel Alberto Gonzalez, 30, of Los Angeles (distribution of methamphetamine)
Jorge Torres, 20, of Los Angeles (distribution of methamphetamine)
David Zavala, 22, of Los Angeles (distribution of methamphetamine and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine)
Victor Mendoza , 36, residing in U.S. illegally (re-entering the U.S. after two deportations, including for felony)
Adolfo Mendoza, 34, residing in the U.S. illegally (re-entering the U.S. after two deportations, including for felony)
Victor Zermino, 34, residing in the U.S. illegally (re-entering the U.S. after two deportations, including for felony)
Cesar Guevara-Ponce, 26, residing in the U.S. illegally (re-entering the U.S. after two deportations, including for felony)
Those charged by the State of California in the methamphetamine distribution operation include: Ernesto Alonso Martinez, 39, of Los Angeles; Gerardo Chavira, 21, of Los Angeles Brian Doyle, 42, of Los Angeles; Benjamin Rodriguez, 33, of Los Angeles; Francisco Rodriguez, 34, of Los Angeles
“ICE is committed to using every tool at its disposal to combat gang-related crime and violence here in the Southland,” said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Los Angeles. “Our immigration and customs authorities are proving to be powerful weapons in this effort and we will continue working closely our law enforcement partners to attack and dismantle the gangs that have terrorized our communities.
Prosecutors claim Samantha Orobator, 20, was in possession of 1.5lb (680g) of heroin when she was arrested at Wattay airport in Laos in August. Legal charity Reprieve has called on the UK government to intervene with the Laotian authorities on her behalf. The Foreign Office says it is "paying close attention to her welfare".
Miss Orobator, from London, has been held since her arrest at Phonthong prison in the south east Asian country. She became pregnant in the prison in December and is due to give birth in September. In Laos, anyone caught with more than 1lb (500g) of heroin faces a mandatory death sentence. Reprieve legal director Clive Stafford Smith said that on Thursday the authorities in Laos announced that they were bringing forward her trial by around a year to next week.Nothing that happens in that prison is voluntary
Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve He believes the decision to move the trial was only taken after arrangements were made for her to see a lawyer for the first time. He said: "It's pretty shocking that they would do that apparently to avoid her seeing a British lawyer before she has to go to trial. "The notion that no lawyer should be appointed to defend her is outrageous." He said she was "certainly not guilty" and had originally told police the drugs were not hers.
Mr Stafford Smith added: "We're dealing with a woman who has clearly become pregnant in prison. Nothing that happens in that prison is voluntary". Labour MP Stephen Pound, vice chair of the all party group on the death penalty, said Miss Orobator was being kept "in the most inhumane circumstances". He criticised conditions in the prison saying there was evidence of "no space, no light, no exercise, no diet, no food, no consideration of the needs of a woman carrying a baby". There is no British Embassy in Laos and the nearest is in the Thai capital, Bangkok. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are paying close attention to her welfare and are in discussion with the Laotian authorities about her case.
"We have visited Samantha every month and we have kept in close contact with the family." She said Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Minister Bill Rammell will raise the issue with the Laotian foreign minister when he visits the UK on 7 May. But Mr Stafford Smith fears that could be too late. He said: "The trial will be over by then. We're calling on the government to do everything in its power". He wants the trial to be put back and for Reprieve lawyers and mental health professionals to be allowed into the prison. He is also seeking assurances that Miss Orobator will be provided with a proper defence. Miss Orobator was born in Nigeria but lived in south London from the age of eight. Her father lives in Nigeria and her mother and three sisters live in Ireland. She had been on holiday in Thailand and the Netherlands before travelling to Laos.
At least 39 people have been sentenced to death in Laos since 2003.
Joseph Callahan, 20, allegedly tried to hide the .38-caliber revolver under the seat. The detectives from the department's Anti-Crime Unit recovered the gun, along with nine packets of crack cocaine, which have a street value of about $180, police said.
Callahan, who is from the Somerset section of Franklin, was charged with unlawful possession of a handgun and possession during a drug offense. He was also charged with possession of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school.
He was being held yesterday at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick in lieu of $25,000 bail, with no 10-percent cash option, a prison records official said.
Authorities have arrested 12 people on drug-related charges. A number of agencies participated in the investigation, including the Brown County Drug Task Force as well as federal and state authorities along with immigration officials. The FBI helped with translation, since most of the people arrested spoke only Spanish, said Deputy Chief John Gossage of the Brown County Sheriff’s Department. United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining other individuals on immigration related offenses not associated with the distribution ring.Authorities executed 14 search warrants at residences in Green Bay, Howard and Bellevue in connection to the ring.Agents said they would talk about the investigation and arrests at 10 a.m. Friday at the Brown County Sheriff Department.
Canadian citizen Kin Fai Chan and his associate Chun Fung Lo, of Hong Kong, admitted to the scheme in Federal Court in Sydney, Australia last week and were just sentenced. Lo got seven and a half years for playing a more limited role in the ring.The Australian charges stemmed from a B.C. investigation by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. Ye pleaded guilty to heading the drug ring last December and was sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court to 18 years.Chan and Lo were charged with attempting to possess 15 kilos of methamphetamine. The drugs had been manufactured in Canada and hidden in the linings of specially-modified suitcases. They were then shipped from Vancouver to Australia. CFSEU investigators alerted partners with the Australian Federal Police to the incoming shipment which led to the arrests of Chan and Lo.CFSEU Supt. Doug Kiloh said the guilty pleas down under show the extent to which law enforcement agencies work together internationally.“This is a good example of the excellent cooperation CFSEU continues to receive from our international policing partners and demonstrates the value of our efforts both locally and internationally,” Kiloh said.
Christopher Wiggins, 42, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Cocaine from South America believed to be worth more than 650 million euro (£580 million). Wiggins, based in the Costa del Sol in Spain, pleaded guilty at a brief hearing in Cork Circuit Criminal Court.The pair were detained after Irish navy, gardai and customs swooped on the 60ft ocean-going boat, Dances With Waves, 170 miles off the west Cork coast last November.Intelligence agencies had tracked the boat for two months across the Atlantic.
Sierra Leone handed 5-year prison terms Tuesday to eight foreigners convicted of drug-smuggling.Justice Nicholas Browne-Marke also imposed fines ranging from $1.5 million to $5 million for the eight convicts, who include a Miami-based businessman with dual U.S.-Colombian citizenship, two Colombians, two Mexicans, two Venezuelans and one man from Guinea-Bissau.The men were convicted late Monday in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. The court found they had attempted last year to illegally import 700 kilograms (1,500 pounds) of cocaine in a Cessna plane with Red Cross markings. The convictions and sentences are subject to appeal.
The men landed the plane July 13 at Lungi international airport, which serves the capital. After finding authorities at the airport, the group fled but were later arrested.Drug smugglers seeking to move cocaine from South America to Europe are increasingly using West Africa as a transit point.Nine foreigners -- a US citizen, one Colombian, six Venezuelans and a Guinean-Bissau national -- were each sentenced to five years in jail with fines ranging from 1.5 million dollars to five million dollars.Sierra Leone court convicted 15 people including nine foreigners to prison sentences of up to five years for trying to smuggle a record cocaine haul into the country last year.The highest fine of five million dollars was handed to the 30-year-old American national, identified as Harvey Perez.The remaining Sierra Leoneans received jail terms ranging from three to five years and fines of between 49,505 and 16,502 dollars.The men were all arrested after more than 700 kilograms (1,500 pounds) of cocaine was discovered on a Venezuelan plane bearing a fake Red Cross emblem which landed at Freetown's Lungi international airport on July 13, 2008.The haul was a record for Sierra Leone and one of the biggest in the region last year.West Africa has become an important transit point for cocaine coming in from South America en route to lucrative European markets.Initially 18 people were on trial for the record haul but during the nine month trial three were released after the prosecution dropped the charges against them.Judge Nicolas Browne-Marke recommended the expulsion of the foreign convictsbut said he left it to the foreign ministry to determine whether where they would serve their jail sentences.Sources told AFP that several of the foreign nationals were also sought on drugs charges in other countries including the United States and could be extradited to stand trial abroad.The court ordered the entire load on cocaine to be destroyed and recommended that the seized Cessna plane be sold to the highest bidder.They men can appeal their convictions in the coming 21 days, the judge explained.After the haul, Sierra Leone toughened up its drugs laws and passed a measure which retroactively raised the maximum sentence for cocaine trafficking to life in prison.
Dennis Carrillo was arrested after authorities found 17-grams of crack cocaine, 2 digit scales and other drug-related evidence inside his home on El Paso Street.Narcotics officers with the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office and Police Department made the arrest
Sean Patrick Wiseman, 23, of Greeba Road, Willaston, Douglas, and Steven Jonathan Corkill, 21, of no fixed address, were remanded in custody by Deputy High Bailiff Alastair Montgomerie until Tuesday.
Both are charged with being concerned in the production of cocaine between March 31 and April 3 and attempting to possess cocaine with intent to supply on April 2.The charges follow an alleged seizure of drugs in the Union Mills area on April 2.Both men were granted legal aid.
Tia Shorts was crowned Miss Maryland USA in 2004. Her boyfriend, 30-year-old Joey King, was arrested Tuesday after being pulled over by officers who found heroin, cocaine and an undisclosed amount of cash in his car, police said. Later that night, police said, they also pulled over King's brother, James Gilbert King, 32, and their 67-year-old mother, Hyacinth King, finding cocaine, cash and a loaded handgun in their car. Police said they then obtained a search warrant for Shorts' home and found the drugs, ammunition and cash inside. All three have been released on bail.former Miss Maryland USA, Tia Shorts, for narcotics and gun-related offenses after detectives executed search warrants at a residence in Germantown earlier this week. Police say at about 7 p.m. on Tuesday, detectives developed information that there was drug activity at an address on Pickering Court in Germantown. One suspect, identified by police as 30-year-old Joey Garcia King, of that same address, was seen leaving and stopped by officers. He was found to be in possession of heroin, cocaine, and an undisclosed amount of cash. Detectives then obtained a search and seizure warrant for the address. A few hours later, police say, a vehicle was seen leaving the address and was stopped by officers. Located in the vehicle were quantities of cocaine, an undisclosed amount of cash, and a loaded handgun. The occupants of the vehicle were identified by police as King's brother and mother, James Gilbert King, 32, and Hyacinth King, 67, both of the 25100 block of Hickory Ridge Lane in Gaithersburg. Detectives served the search and seizure warrant for the address and found ammunition, marijuana, and an undisclosed amount of cash. Tia Shorts, of that address, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute, and possession of cocaine and marijuana. Police also charged the three other suspects on drug and weapons charges.
Joey King was charged with possession with the intent to distribute heroin and cocaine, possession of heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, and possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime. James King was charged with possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute, possession of cocaine, possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a handgun in a vehicle.
Hyacinth King was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute, possession of cocaine, possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a handgun in a vehicle.
On Pickering Court where Shorts lives, some neighbors say they had their share of suspicions about what was going on behind closed doors where police say Shorts lived with 30year-old Joey King. "You'd see cars come up and stop come up and stop and then park and leave," said one man. Another woman added, "There was just a lot of odd people in and out."
Joey King was ordered held on a $60,000 bond. James King was being held on $50,000 bond. Hyacinth King was held on $75,000 bond. Tia Shorts was held on $10,000 bond. They each posted bond and have been released.
Devin W. Schutter could potentially be sentenced to 216 years in a state prison if convicted on all counts against him.“The offer that I made would include significantly less time than that,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Arnold Mordkin.The terms of the plea deal on the table have not been made public. Schutter’s public defender, Steve McCrohan, said last month that the plea would include “several years in prison.”Chief District Judge James Boyd agreed in early March to give Schutter a little over a month to decide whether to agree to plead guilty, presumably to amended lesser charges than he is facing now.He has nine local criminal cases pending, with accusations ranging from dealing cocaine to threatening to kill a local woman to alleged violations of his bond and probation conditions for drinking alcohol and failing court-ordered drug tests.Schutter pleaded not guilty to all charges last year, and was set to go to trial this week. But in November he was implicated by Fremont County authorities in a drug distribution ring that was smuggling heroin and cocaine into the Four Mile Correctional Facility through a milk truck driver.His trial was then canceled, and his lawyer has been negotiating with the district attorney ever since.The potential penalties are so high in his cases, in part, because Schutter has three prior felony convictions and the district attorney has filed habitual criminal charges against him that enhance his possible sentencing terms.
Schutter has been in Pitkin County Jail since his most recent arrest on Nov. 6. He is scheduled to appear in district court at 10:30 a.m.Schutter’s younger brother, Stefan, is an inmate at Four Mile serving a 10-year sentence for gun and drug possession. He was arrested on those charges shortly after serving six years behind bars for his role in a series of armed robberies carried out by local teenagers in 1999. He also faces new charges for allegedly conspiring with his brother to bring drugs into the prison.
Jamaine Mingo was sentenced to 200 months in federal prison after being convicted in a jury trial of conspiracy to distribute crack and powder cocaine.Also sentenced today was 35-year-old Tashwan Vailes of Albany, to 10 years in prison after being convicted in a guilty plea of conspiracy to distribute crack and powder cocaine.
Mingo and Vailes were arrested in April 2007, along with 24 others, for distributing drugs in the Capital Region between May 2006 and January 2007.The group, known as the Cocaine Cowboys, obtained cocaine in New York City and Arizona, and had the drugs transported to Latham for distribution, said federal prosecutors.The investigation culminated with a drug bust on the I-90 in the city of Albany on Jan. 6, 2007, when investigators seized 777 grams of crack cocaine and 266 grams of powder cocaine in a van. The drugs had been transported via Amtrak from New York City to Albany for distribution in the Capital District from a stash house in Latham, said prosecutors.Others sentenced in the case include:
Sean Torres, Age 27, Bronx, New York 268 months
Morris Alvarez, Age 24, Bronx, New York 87 months
Omar Astacio, Age 27, Bronx, New York 188 months
Joey Corretjer, Jr., Age 25, Bronx, New York 38 months
Jean C. Gonzalez, Age 27, Bronx New York 240 months
Juan Ogando-Ramirez, Age 26, Philadelphia, Pa. 37 months
Anthony Torres, Age 28, Bronx, New York 168 months
Jason OHare, Age 32, Watervliet, New York 60 months
Jamel Broadus, Age 35, Troy, New York 72 months
Ricardo Rowley, Age 26, Albany, New York 120 months
Jermaine Ivy, Age 20, Albany, New York 54 months
Ezekial McClain, Age 31, Albany, New York 240 months
Charles Nix, Age 29, Bronx, New York 240 months
Jonathon Gordon, Age 27, Watervliet, New York 130 monthsYadira Polanco, Age 27, Bronx, New York 30 months
Shenoll Bruno, Age 26, Latham, New York 40 months
Richard Duval, Age 67, Troy, New York 24 months
Fourteen people charged were identified as distributors of cocaine, including seven suspected of selling large amounts of the drug on Amelia Island and in other parts of Nassau County. The six-month undercover operation involved the Jacksonville Drug Enforcement Administration High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Task Force that provided personnel, equipment and expertise, Hurley said.
Arrests over 10 days beginning March 20 included the seizure of drugs and cash, according to a release from the department. On March 31, a search warrant was executed at a home in Jacksonville that is suspected to be a distribution point for drugs to Fernandina Beach.Among the 14 people who are charged, five were still being sought Monday on federal indictments.
"These are all multi-ounce dealers," said Capt. David Bishop of the Fernandina Beach Police Department. He said he expects arrests in the case will have an impact on street sales.The operation follows behind a 2008 investigation dubbed Operation Fish Net that resulted in the arrest of almost three dozen people charged with dealing drugs.
"These guys are a little further up the food chain," Hurley said of the recent arrests. He said the department worked with the task force in both operations. The federal indictments and state arrest warrants involve 27 criminal counts, mostly for the sale and delivery of crack cocaine.
Rapper Coolio pleaded not guilty to charges he received after an incident that took place inside Los Angeles’ LAX Airport last month.
The charges Coolio pleaded not guilty to include cocaine possession and battery and possession of drug paraphernalia.The 45-year-old rapper and reality TV star is currently out on $10,000 bail and is expected back in court on April 20.On March 10, Coolio was arrested at LAX after crack cocaine and a crack pipe was found inside his luggage. Before being arrested he was on his way to Australia for shows in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney.In the mid-'90s, Coolio, a member of WC's Maad Circle, soared to fame when his single “Gangsta’s Paradise” was featured on the Dangerous Minds Soundtrack, earning the Los Angeles rapper numerous awards and making him a flagship artist for Tommy Boy Records. Coolio went on to release several albums including My Soul, El Cool Magnifico, and The Return Of The Gangsta.
Sentenced Eric Bush, 29, Anderson, to 25 years.Judge Spencer suspended 15 of those years, leaving Bush to serve 10. Bush pleaded guilty on March 9 to two counts of dealing in cocaine, both Class A felonies, with each charge carrying a maximum sentence of 50 years.
Considered one of the best basketball players in Anderson High School history, Bush’s 1,348 points made him the Indians’ No. 4 all-time leading scorer. Spencer asked Bush whether his legal trouble generated feedback from the public.“Not so much vocally, but I know I disappointed a lot of people,” Bush said. “Since all of this started, I can tell I took a lot of things for granted.”Officers from the Madison County Drug Task Force twice used a confidential informant to buy cocaine from Bush in September 2006. When detectives went to serve a warrant for Bush’s arrest in December 2007, they detected an odor of marijuana, found a small amount of the drug and a set of digital scales with residue that later proved to be cocaine.Madison County Deputy Prosecutor Pat Ragains called Drug Task Force Detective Stephen Blackwell to testify.“Judge, it’s my belief and also my co-workers’ belief that Eric should spend as much time in jail as possible,” Blackwell said. “The reason is because of the chances he has been given as a young black man that many other young black men do not.”Blackwell said Bush was accepted into a supportive home, that his basketball skill helped him attend college, where he earned his associate’s degree and came within a semester of a bachelor’s degree. Despite his advantages, Bush gravitated toward a dangerous lifestyle and received probation for misdemeanor marijuana possession. Even when DTF officers confronted Bush to change his ways, he ignored them.“The evidence suggests Mr. Bush is still involved in the narcotics trade,” Spencer said, noting the 15 months between the DTF buys and the discovery of scales at Bush’s home. Bush told Spencer he experienced a life-changing event when his son was born in February 2007. He said he now spends seven or eight hours a day with the child. When asked by Williams why he would sell cocaine, Bush said: “Selfishness, greed. Just trying to make a fast buck.”Spencer said he enjoyed watching Bush play basketball and seemed perplexed by his involvement in drugs.“You live in Anderson, Indiana,” Spencer said. “You must have seen with your own eyes some of the people whose lives have been destroyed by this stuff.”
Former University of Washington wide receiver Reggie Williams was tased and arrested for cocaine possession at a Houston nightclub Sunday. Houston police say Williams got into an altercation at the Open City Lounge. Two off-duty Houston police officers who were working security asked Williams to leave. Police say he refused and became combative, fought with one of the officers and had to be tased. Williams was taken to jail where police found a bag of cocaine on him. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance and booked. He is free on $2,000 bond. In February, Williams was charged with possession of marijuana and DWI, but those charges were dismissed. Williams is a free agent after playing his first five NFL seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He caught 189 passes for 2,232 yards and 18 touchdowns.
Michael Petrowski, 37, and his wife, Star Petrowski, 33, investigations led to the seizure of more than $50,000 worth of heroin, $100,000 in cash and two handguns, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office. The probe began after authorities received a tip that Michael Petrowski was "responsible for distributing significant amounts of heroin in the Asbury Park area," according to the prosecutor's office. Petrowski and his wife sold heroin to an undercover police officer at least six times from February to April, authorities said. The prosecutor's office said a search of the couple's Asbury Park residence turned up 104 bricks of heroin -- the street value estimated at $52,000. Authorities also said cocaine and a small quantity of marijuana were seized.
"These arrests constitute another substantial attack upon heroin distribution networks operating in the Asbury Park area," Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin said in a statement. "We will continue our efforts to identify and dismantle any such group as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of our communities." Both were charged with numerous counts of possession and distributing a controlled dangerous substance, and intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of school property, authorities said.
Michael Petrowski is being held at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in lieu of a cash-only bail set at $925,000.
Isaiah Foster, 50, of Ashley Avenue, and David Maggitti, 41, of Awendaw, were charged with possession with the intent to distribute cocaine and possession with the intent to distribute cocaine within close proximity of a school, Francis said. Nathaniel T. Phoenix, 27, and Edward Taylor, 26, both of North Charleston, were charged with manufacturing cocaine base, possession with the intent to distribute marijuana, manufacturing cocaine base within close proximity of a school and possession with the intent to distribute cocaine, Francis said. The men remained at the Charleston County Detention Center Monday night. Their bond amounts ranged from $50,000 to $130,000.
U.S. Border Patrol agents found 270 pounds of cocaine valued at $8.6 million in a tractor-trailer passing through the agency’s Laredo Sector checkpoint on Interstate 35, officials said Monday.The drugs and truck were seized Saturday. The driver, whose name was not released, was turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In other seizures announced Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Laredo last week found nearly three tons of marijuana in two commercial trucks enrolled in the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) lane program, touted as a way to allow carefully screened companies speedier bridge crossings.
Shannon McKeiver, 30, Martin Carr, 44, Janet Washington, 40, Tawanda Brookins, 35, Derrick Thompson, 26, all of Philadelphia, and a 33-year-old Lansdale man, Kevin Jordan, were all convicted for their part in the drug distribution network that sold cocaine in Philadelphia, the suburbs in Montgomery and Delaware counties and the Lehigh Valley, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office (AG).
As well, Jordan was convicted of attempted kidnapping.
Carr, Washington and Brookins, who had all been free on bail during the trial, were incarcerated Thursday and their bail set at $100,000, according to Bellis.
Gray and 15 other defendants charged in the drug ring are expected to plead guilty in the near future, the AG investigator said Friday.
The investigator said one defendant, Jerome Hall Jr., who turns 28 Sunday, could still be headed to trial.
The trial prosecutor was Senior Deputy Attorney General Iva Dougherty, of the AG's Drug Strike Force Section.
The drug investigation began in 2006 when Attorney General narcotics agents, working with Philadelphia police, made a series of controlled undercover cocaine buys from Zakia "Pye" Clark, a Philadelphia woman.
When the two drug operations were busted in March 2008, a total of 22 suspects were arrested, including 32-year-old Brandon Gray, who was a bartender at the Great American Pub in Conshohocken at the time, according to court papers.
"We were able to achieve our goal, by putting a dent in the violence and drug trafficking in the Philadelphia area," said Kenneth Bellis, the state Attorney General's regional director in Allentown, who helped investigate the case.
A year earlier, agents heard the suspected drug dealers discuss "a serious drought" of cocaine in the Philadelphia region owing to a large Caribbean seizure of 42,845 pounds of the drug by federal authorities, and dubbed the investigation "Operation Dry Spell," according to reports.
During the two-week trial, before Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Steven T. O'Neill, Bellis translated the 238 wiretapped phone conversations offered as evidence in the complicated investigation.
He said there were many more calls recorded during the probe, and other suspected drug dealers and customers investigators did not identify.
The probe not only dismantled the two cocaine networks, but also disrupted a planned kidnapping and robbery of a rival drug dealer by one of the organizations.
"They were planning to commit the robbery of another drug dealer," Bellis said. "We were able to stop them."
From listening to wiretapped conversations, he said authorities guessed who the rival was and warned the person about the plot.
Evidence and testimony regarding the drug organizations was presented to a statewide investigating grand jury, which recommended filing criminal charges March 7, 2008, and the case was referred to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.
Controlled drug purchases from Clark helped agents and police identify two of her major suppliers - McKeiver, nicknamed "Whoopie," and Preston "PR" Suttles, according to authorities.
McKeiver and Suttles each had well established drug networks that operated independently, the grand jury found, and the two groups were capable of distributing up to four kilograms - nearly nine pounds - of cocaine a month, with an estimated street value of $400,000.
During the cocaine shortage, or "dry spell," McKeiver and Suttles scrambled to find suppliers, authorities said.
Witnesses told investigators that Gray, who worked at the Conshohocken bar on Fayette Street, had referred them to Hall and Isiah Nathaniel to buy cocaine, according to the criminal complaint. In exchange for the business, Hall allegedly gave Gray cocaine for free.
"(These) drug dealers were supplying bars in Conshohocken and West Conshohocken," Bellis said.
In 2007, an undercover agent went to the Great American Pub and asked Gray if he could "hook her up" with cocaine. The bartender allegedly told her he'd have to make some phone calls, and offered to drive her to Philadelphia to buy some cocaine. She told him that she could not go.
When she pressed Gray to get some of the illicit drug, he reportedly said, "No, no, I don't do that anymore," but 10 minutes later he found her in the bar and took her to a bathroom where he handed her a dollar bill with cocaine inside, authorities allege.
Later, the substance tested positive as cocaine, police report.
For 20 years, the nonprofit North Penn Educational Foundation has raised money to aid innovative projects and programs in district classrooms.
Deputy Cody Wayne Flint-Davis allowed inmates to place a bag of drugs into a mop bucket which they brought into facility. The sheriff’s office says he also tipped inmates off about shakedowns and distributed illicit photos.Sheriff Tommy Seagraves said inmates tried to bring in about 50 ecstasy pills. Only 19 were recovered.
Twenty-one-year-old Flint-Davis was arrested Friday on several charges including official misconduct and failure to perform the duty required by an officer.His bail was set at $55,010. It is unclear if he has a lawyer.
Derail Lamar Bess, 26, is charged with trafficking in cocaine over 400 grams, a first-degree felony, and burglary, grand theft and possessing a vehicle with an alteredvehicle identification number, all third-degree felonies.According to the reports, Bess was wanted in two separate cases from 2008.On Nov. 20, a report says Bess was seen standing in an empty lot in the 200 block of Lincoln Court in Auburndale, beside a parked car and a white box containing five baggies of white rocks. The rocks tested positive for cocaine and weighed about 695 grams, the report said.On Dec. 6, another report claims Bess broke into Konger Storage in Winter Haven and took a yellow 1969 Cadillac DeVille convertible. The car was painted black and the VIN number was altered.A confidential informant tipped off authorities to the changes, and deputies tracked down the vehicle, the report said.Bess was being held at Central County Jail Saturday without bail.
Frank Aidoo, a 55-year-old Ghana-born Dutch citizen, admitted to having ingested pellets of heroin-and later he passed 100 of them, containing a total of 1.2 kilograms of heroin, according to federal charging papers."Internal smugglers are relatively rare, especially here at BWI, so these CBP officers should be applauded for detecting this seriously dangerous concealment method and keeping heroin off our nation's streets," said James Swanson, CBP Port Director for the Port of Baltimore, in a press release sent out today. "Carriers run an enormous risk of a pellet breaching. It could mean almost certain death if only one pellet breached inside a carrier's body." Aidoo is "lucky to be alive," Swanson concluded. The press release included a photo of the pellets that had traveled inside Aidoo's intestinal tract.Two weeks earlier, hotel security at Baltimore's Marriott Waterfront Hotel alerted law enforcement to a half-kilo of heroin in a room rented by Edward Aboagye, a 27-year-old Ghanian who prosecutors accuse of being part of a conspiracy that was smuggling heroin pellets ("Room Service," Mobtown Beat, March 25). Aboagye, a Morgan State University senior and car salesman, maintained his innocence, insisting that he rented the hotel room in order to meet a man about a car transaction.
Other than the alleged use of pellets and the fact that both defendants are of Ghanian descent, there appears to be no connection between the two arrests-though Aidoo's case, coming so quickly on the heels of Aboagye's, suggests that Ghana-tied "internal smuggling" may not be so rare, after all. Turns out, there's a track record of busting similar operations in Maryland.In 2006, a couple from Bowie, Godfrey Bonsu and Victoria Boateng, were convicted of heroin smuggling by a federal jury. They had been bringing heroin into the U.S. from Ghana, Germany, and the United Kingdom, using Ghanian couriers who swallowed pellets, arrived at BWI, and delivered them at hotel rooms, where Boateng and Bonsu retrieved the drugs.According to the U.S. Department of Justice's National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), "West African criminal groups, primarily Nigerian, employ couriers to transport heroin" to BWI on "twice-weekly commercial flights from Ghana." In August 2000, the NDIC report continues, two such couriers were arrested within a week of one another at the airport, bringing in a combined total of nearly two kilograms of heroin.Since Ghana is known as a country from which travelers to BWI smuggle heroin pellets, another recent federal case involving a Ghanian arriving at BWI is worthy of mention.On March 23-between the arrests of Aboagye and Aidoo-a woman arriving from Ghana on British Airways flight 229 (the same that Aidoo took, days later) presented herself as a U.S citizen, returning from a three-month visit with friends and family in Ghana. She had a passport in the name of Melinda Rochelle Chapman, but in her baggage were photo IDs bearing the name Mabel Penelope Aryee. Under questioning, according to the charging papers, the woman admitted that she is actually Aryee, is from Ghana, and is not a U.S. citizen.Given the sudden prevalence of Ghanian heroin pellets arriving at BWI, it's a pretty good guess that the questions law enforcers have for Aryee are only just beginning.
The dismembered remains of criminal Keith Ennis (29), from Oakway, Clondalkin, were found three weeks ago by Dutch police, but only now have been identified, after DNA tests. Mr Ennis' family were notified yesterday.Butchered body of a man packed into a suitcase and dumped in an Amsterdam canal is that of a Dublin drug dealer.
He had been on the run from gardai having absconded while on bail on gun and drug charges. Detectives believe that Ennis may have been butchered by criminals from Dublin.His body was cut into a number of parts, stuffed in a suitcase which was then dumped into the waters of the canal.A number of Ennis' rivals threatened him in the recent past, believing him to have been responsible for giving gardai information which led to the discovery of drugs weapons and a drug mixing 'factory' in October 2007.Ennis, who lived at Oakway in Clondalkin, was targeted on the street by members of the Pearse St drugs unit because of his known association with a major drug dealing gang. On searching him, they found €23,000 which they confiscated.Garda sources said that two days later, members of the unit went to give him a receipt for the confiscated cash and decided to search his apartment at the same time.
"They turned over his apartment and found a gun and drugs. In follow-up searches they hit the jackpot with a drug mixing factory," said the source.
35 Nigerians had been arrested this month alone in Switzerland for alleged smuggling 15 kg of cocaine from West Africa between 2005 and 2008. According to a report, Swiss police had broken up a West African cocaine ring and dismantled a Nigerian cocaine network which smuggled the drug into Switzerland from France and the Netherlands by train, using female drug mules. The crackdown is part of a European investigation termed "Inox". In the recent Inox case, a Togo-based criminal group smuggled cocaine to Europe via Brussels airport using drugs mules. The mules were met by suspected Nigerian gang members, who distributed the drugs on their behalf throughout Europe, including Switzerland, collected the profits and redistributed them back to Togo, the Punch reported. Swissinfo reported that to obtain visas to enter Switzerland, dealers placed orders with Swiss companies at trade fairs in Germany and then requested commercial invitations to travel to the European country. In February, a Lausanne court jailed two Nigerian asylum seekers working for a Togolese criminal group for smuggling cocaine into Switzerland and money laundering.
Langley B.C. trucker Robert Shannon is going to federal prison for 20 years. On the outside, it looked like a log truck. But inside each of those logs were giant stashes of drugs. The scheme was used to transport tons of pot and coke across the border. Shannon’s lawyer told the judge at sentencing Friday that his client is a “glorified mule” and that others ran the drug empire, but prosecutors say Shannon controlled a vast transportation network that used the Hells Angels for muscle.
Shannon’s fleet of trucks carried pipes with marijuana stashed inside, trailers with false walls and drugs in RVs and even a church van. “It was huge. You're talking about tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine. Tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana,” said ICE Agent in Charge Leigh Winchell. Shannon set up shell companies with forged documents to move his vehicles through the border and even offered drug suppliers a guarantee against the cops intercepting the load. “If 100 of the 7,100 pounds of marijuana we seized during this investigation were taken off, the guys who provided the marijuana would be compensated and insured for a percentage of that load. It's big business,” said Asst. U.S. Attorney Adam Cornell. At sentencing, the judge didn’t buy prosecutors’ arguments that Shannon threatened a co-conspirator who cooperated with law enforcement. This is a big drug case with 38 other people indicted or convicted. Some of them include Americans who received the drugs and used Shannon’s trucks to ship cocaine up into B.C.
