The Mega Merged Drug Busts Thread

U.S. agents bust Canadian customs official in marijuana smuggling scheme

U.S. agents bust Canadian customs official in marijuana smuggling scheme

Oct 01 2004
Canadian Press

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - A Canadian customs official with more than 20 years of experience is facing charges she conspired with eight other people to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of marijuana into the United States.

Rose Palmer, 51, an agent of the Canada Border Services Agency, and Roger Goodsell, 34, both of Stanstead, Que., were arrested this week in the United States by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.

Palmer worked in the Stanstead region, across the border from Derby. She had worked for the Canadian agency for more than 20 years, said Martin Bolduc, the regional director for communication for the agency. She was off duty when she was arrested.

"Fortunately, for us these cases are isolated," Bolduc said. "We rarely see a customs inspector being charged with such a thing."

Palmer is in custody pending a hearing in federal court Monday.

Goodsell, a Canadian citizen, was released.

On Sept. 16, a federal grand jury in Burlington indicted Palmer, Goodsell and seven others on a variety of marijuana smuggling charges.

The others charged in the case are: Scott Frechette, Sherry Slack, Alain Bouffard, Everett Slack, Brenda Dubois, Allen Royea and Michele Ricci. The release did not provide the ages or hometowns of those seven individuals.

Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of $65,000 US, a pickup truck and a property in Manchester, N.H., that belong to Frechette. He was arraigned in May and released.

Sherry Slack, a Canadian citizen, was arraigned May 19 and released.

The indictments are also seeking the forfeiture of $2.5 million worth of property belonging seven other defendants, including Palmer and Goodsell.

The release did not say why Frechette and Sherry Slack were arraigned in May.

Acting U.S. Attorney David Kirby wouldn't provide any additional information about the case.

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King of Bling deposed after drug empire dismantled
Four years of graft lead police to gang leader who led double life in London and Jamaica
Rosie Cowan, crime correspondent
Saturday October 2, 2004
The Guardian

Timing was everything, when Detective Sergeant Steve Waller finally got hold of Owen Clarke, aka the King of Bling, aka Father Fowl, Britain's biggest cocaine importer.

Thirty seconds earlier and Clarke's fingerprints would not have been all over the implements he was using to cook up crystals of crack cocaine. Thirty seconds later and he might have escaped through the second floor window he was trying to shimmy out of when police burst in.

Scotland Yard, the national criminal intelligence squad, customs, the FBI, and Jamaican authorities were all involved in Operation Jasle to catch the flamboyant multi-millionaire drugs baron.

Now, Det Sgt Waller, who ran the on-the-ground police unit on Clarke's tail reveals the story behind four years of intelligence-gathering, surveillance and hard graft.In July 2000, when Operation Trident, Scotland Yard's black gun crime unit was established, officers set about finding out every scrap of information about Clarke. Then they picked off his lieutenants, dismantling his kingdom as they inched closer to the man himself. Finally, they caught Clarke making crack, and that, together with a conviction for supplying cocaine, was enough to jail him for 13 years.

"It was very, very satisfying," admits Det Sgt Waller, a detective of the old school who battled bureaucracy to keep the investigation going. "Not only the cocaine market but the violent activities of the British Link-up Crew [a notorious Jamaican/UK drugs gang] have been severely disrupted. Fewer drugs on the streets, fewer bodies in car boots."

Det Sgt Waller estimates Clarke's reign as head of the British Link-up Crew lasted more than 13 years, a marathon in an underworld. He crafted an empire, using dozens of human "mules" to import multi-million-pound consignments of drugs from Jamaica, by plane, cruise ship and cargo boat, and then hundreds more dealers who sold it all over London and every major English city, from Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester to Bristol and Brighton.

Now, handcuffed on the floor against the fridge in a grimy kitchen in Colindale, north-west London, Clarke was a long way away from the "bling-bling" life he led in Jamaica. It was a parallel existence, alongside his life in a nondescript two-bedroom bungalow in Sudbury, north-west London, with his English wife.

In Jamaica he mixed with pop and sports stars. He owned a multi-million-pound cliff top mansion, drank champagne at £200 a bottle and smoked cannabis joints rolled in £50 notes. He threw huge parties for up to 7,000 people at La Russe, a beachfront nightclub, outside Kingston.

"It was Jamaica's Hollywood," said Det Sgt Waller. "We have videos of these parties where British-based Jamaican gangsters dressed to outdo each other in suits and watches worth tens of thousands of pounds. It was all about status. They would even flick their shoes up to show the price tags. "On one occasion, a lorryload of designer dresses arrived as gifts for all the female party guests. Father Fowl had gold chains dripping off him, and he always made his entrance like a rock star, to wild applause."

Clarke, who drove a £75,000 Jaguar, laundered money by exporting top-of-the-range cars, of which police have recovered four, a fraction of the number he dealt with, said Det Sgt Waller.

Womaniser


The drugs baron was an insatiable womaniser. At the time of his arrest, he had eight girlfriends and had seduced countless others. "He tried it on with almost every woman he met," said Det Sgt Waller. "Quite a few turned up in court with babies and toddlers in tow and I'm sure there are a few more in Jamaica. Yet they were incredibly loyal to him, maybe because he was so generous with his cash."

For a man whose wealth and power created many enemies, Clarke led a charmed existence. The bullet richoted off his arm when he was shot at in London in 1999, and he survived at least two murder attempts in Jamaica.

But his luck was running out. In 2000, detectives started on one of his "generals" - Nadia Codner, who ran his network in Hackney/Stoke Newington, north-east London. A four-month surveillance snared Codner and three others, recovering £1m-worth of cocaine. The jury took just 11 minutes to convict Codner who was jailed for 15 years.

In the next few years, other "senior officers" tumbled like ninepins. Paul "Pepsi" Hamilton and Vernal "Luddy" Anderson supplied the Luton and Bedfordshire areas. Police discovered 50 kilos of cocaine, worth about £10m, had passed through their crack conversion factory in Luton. Clarke recruited Mikey McDaniel and Bibsy Findlay to take over from Pepsi and Luddy, but police caught them too, finding a kilo of cocaine in the washing machine in their Harrow flat.

The next target was Sherise Taylor, Clarke's main Birmingham courier, then, brothers Michael and Gifford Sutherland, from Croydon, south London. Their main role was finding and financing couriers, but the UK and Jamaican authorities were clamping down on Clarke's supply routes, so a key part of the brothers' job was developing new routes through Panama and Havana.

They recruited Phoebe Goran, a 53-year-old Zambian-Irish woman, in Dublin to carry out a complicated pick-up in Antigua, which resulted in all three being arrested at Waterloo station. Then, Clifton Rochester, Clarke's right hand man in Bristol, was arrested by the national crime squad.

Surveillance


By now the squeeze was on. Officers already had hours and hours of surveillance and telephone tapes, linking Clarke to Rochester, the Sutherlands and the others. Although in personal terms, everyone had always been dispensable to Clarke, he needed business done and now the panic-stricken phone calls flew, wondering what was happening and how he would replace his people.

Then detectives spotted a new face, 24-year-old Jason "Jazzy P" Sadler. Jazzy P and Clarke often visited the same flat in Colindale, but never arrived or left together. Clarke had by now perfected a new, more efficient way of making crack, and police were sure this address was key to this operation.

In June last year, they spied him meeting a man in Harlseden, north-west London, from whom he collected a large envelope. They trailed Clarke to the flat in Colindale, and five minutes later Jazzy P turned up carrying the same brown envelope.

Police lay in wait, crouching in cubbyholes outside the second floor flat. Det Sgt Waller counted down five and a half minutes before he gave the order to pile in. "He was completely taken by surprise," said Det Sgt Waller

"At first, he thought we were other dealers going to rob him. When he realised what was happening, his look was priceless.

"He's a real cry baby. He's never acted the tough man since he was arrested. He always expected others to take the rap, and he pleaded he was forced to deal drugs. But the jury was having none of it. Clarke is where he belongs and the streets are a safer place."

Link

Ice flow to county is cut off

Ice flow to county is cut off

By JAYMES SONG The Associated Press

HONOLULU – A drug trafficking operation that allegedly imported 20 pounds of Mexican-made crystal methamphetamine into Maui County every month has been dismantled, authorities said Friday.

Thirteen suspects were charged Friday with conspiracy to distribute and possess the drug and three more suspects were at large, U.S. Attorney Edward Kubo Jr. said.

“We will continue to do a full-court press on ice,’’ he said at a news conference on Friday.

The three fugitives are Marco Antonio Davidson-Cervantes and Fernando Iribe Tirado of Mexico, and Brian U’u of West Maui, authorities said.

The charged suspects are Moses Kiakona, Sham Vierra, George Keahi Jr., Arnold C. Arruiza, Glenn Fernandez, Mary H. Vandervelde, Antonio Panlasigui Jr., Dawn Galarita, Leslie Jaramillo, Tiare Smith, Adele Criste, Robert Eisler and Melissa Ordonez.

If convicted, they would each face a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.

Police officials on Maui were unavailable to comment Friday night on reports of federal and county officers involved in searches and arrests at several residences in West Maui on Thursday and Friday.

“Cervantes and Tirado were the Mexican sources bringing the ice into the United States via Los Angeles,’’ Kubo said. “It was then to flown to the island of Maui where it was given to Moses Kiakona who distributed not only to Glenn Fernandez but also to Sham Vierra.’’

Most of the drugs were shipped or mailed into Maui, the FBI said. The drugs were also ferried onto Lanai.

“During the course of this investigation, Vierra boasted of bringing in as much as 20 pounds of ice each month into Maui since November of 2000,’’ Kubo said. “If this is true, then assuming a user consumes approximately one-sixteenth a gram, we are talking about 145,152 hits coming into the island of Maui each month.’’

“Operation Tap Out’’ was launched in January 2003 after a confidential informant told Maui police that Kiakona was “involved in the importation of a large quantity of crystal methamphetamine,’’ according to court documents.

The investigation was led by the Maui Police Department and the FBI, but also involved Honolulu, Kauai and Hawaii County police departments; state drug agents; and other federal agencies.

Hawaii County Police Chief Lawrence Mahuna said the bust was the result of the strong partnership of law enforcement against a drug that “has taken a tremendous toll on our state.’’

A crucial component of the investigation was surveillance of the suspects’ cellular phone calls.

“What we’re looking at right now is an organization that has been taken down by federal wiretap laws,’’ Kubo said.

Authorities executed 10 search warrants on Maui on Thursday, seizing two pounds of ice, more than $250,000 in cash and two rifles. Stacks of cash totaling $141,782 were found in one house.

“As you can see, there’s money in this,’’ Maui Police Chief Tom Phillips said at the news conference in Honolulu. “I don’t know how many of you have $140,000 laying around the house. That’s what they’re in this for.’’

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Fishermen Catch $1.2 million in Hash

Don't know if this is better here or the Lounge--feel free to move.

Looks like I've been fishing in all the wrong places...

Whole article:


Fishermen Catch Hash Worth $1.2 Million

MADRID (Sept. 30) - A small Spanish fishing boat netted more than it bargained for this week when it hauled up 23 bales of hashish instead of the usual batch of anchovies.

The catch off the Mediterranean port of Sant Carles de la Rapita Wednesday was worth more than 1 million euros or $1.2 million, Civil Guards said Thursday.

Two other boats separately found two bundles each. The guards said the haul, weighing nearly a ton in total, could be part of a consignment thrown overboard by traffickers interrupted by a patrol boat earlier this month as they were preparing to land.

09/30/04 08:23 ET

Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

From AOL news:
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20040930082509990005

---------------------> The Mega-Merged Drug Bust Thread

7-year-old's tip leads to mother's drug bust

7-year-old's tip leads to mother's drug bust

October 6, 2004

BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter


The little boy dreams of becoming a professional football player, and he adores the Chicago Cubs, proudly wearing his Sammy Sosa jersey.

Reality for this 7-year-old, however, was the smell of marijuana smoke wafting through his mother's Northwest Side apartment.

So the boy snitched on his mom.

Now she's in jail, charged with possession of marijuana, cocaine and hallucinogenic mushrooms -- all felonies.

On Tuesday, Charlotte Lewis, 34, appeared in Cook County bond court, where Judge Mary Margaret Brosnahan set her bail at $200,000.

Dressed in a sweat top and jeans, Lewis stared straight ahead and said nothing.

Outside the courtroom, her attorney, Santo J. Volpe, described Lewis as "very sophisticated," and a "classy young lady."

Prosecutors think otherwise.

They say police confiscated 5,000 grams of cannabis, 77 grams of cocaine and five grams of mushrooms from Lewis' home in the xxxx block of West Altgeld. Total street value: $31,325.

But it was her son who made the bust possible.

On Monday, the boy's father, who doesn't live with Lewis, came to pick up his kid. The boy confided that he'd seen mom grow, cut and smoke marijuana, and that he knew it wasn't a good thing for her to be doing. So the father, worried about his son's safety, went to police, said Chicago Police Officer Michael Birmingham.

On Tuesday, police showed up at Lewis' home.

Peering through the front window, police allegedly saw the woman sitting in her living room in front of a coffee table. Arrayed in front of her were several folded pieces of paper allegedly cradling cocaine. And there was a plastic bag containing a "crushed leafy substance." Lewis let police inside. Marijuana's distinctive aroma led them to the basement and the attic. Throughout the house, police found 60 marijuana plants, a scale and bags filled with drugs.

Volpe insisted Tuesday his client is innocent and said the case has more to do with a domestic dispute between Lewis and the boy's father.

"I don't know how [the drugs] got there, and I don't know if that's what they are," Volpe told reporters.

He pointed out that his client has no criminal record and said Lewis has an artistic background of some sort, but didn't know the details.

"She's very talented," Volpe said.

Lewis had lived with her son at the West Altgeld address since the summer of 2003. She drew attention because she was pretty and because she seemed to have a lot of male guests.

"She said she was studying nursing, but I never saw her go anywhere," said one neighbor, Gaspar Serrano.

Though Serrano never saw drugs, some mornings he'd notice an odd fragrance -- something like "burning grass," he said.

Contributing: Frank Main

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-dope06.html

he will regreat this later on in life. 5,000 grams is alot of weed though far from personal. roughly 11 pounds if im not mistaken

^^I'd be more worried about the 77 grams of cocaine...

That kid is going to need some major therapy when he grows up.

Half Of Residents In Canadian Town Implicated In Sweeping Pot Raid
Associated Press
October 6, 2004

SEYMOUR ARM, British Columbia -- This lakeside hamlet is so remote it can be reached only by boat or logging road, and so small there is only one store. But investigators say many of the 60 residents were involved in one business operation -- growing marijuana.

One hundred Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers executed search warrants on 14 homes and 14 vehicles Tuesday and found several factory-sized operations within a 2 1/2-mile radius, said Police Superintendent Marianne Ryan. At least 16 people were arrested in the rustic town about 240 miles northeast of Vancouver and more arrests are likely, she said.

"We've never seen anything like this before, not where a whole community is affected this way," Ryan said.

The raid followed a two-year investigation that started with complaints from other residents, and some officers were approached on the town's dirt street by people who thanked them for the raid, officers said.

"These people are really glad this is over," Sgt. John Ward said.

Ed Doll, who has spent summers in Seymour Arm for 20 years, said the village was an ideal spot for marijuana businesses.

"This is a remote area only accessible by boat and a single logging road. It's the last place anyone would look," Doll said.

Shane Roth said he didn't want the place to be known for drug activity.

"I don't want people to think Seymour Arm and then think of that kind of culture," Roth said.

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26 indicted in gun, drug probe

26 indicted in gun, drug probe

By WILL DAVID
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 8, 2004)


WHITE PLAINS — A 15-month investigation by federal and local law enforcement agencies culminated yesterday in the indictments of 26 people on federal gun and drug charges.

Teams of FBI agents and local police struck at dawn, arresting 17 men in Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Peekskill, White Plains and Elmsford. Seven suspects had already been incarcerated; two were still being sought.

"The guns taken off the street posed a serious threat to our communities," White Plains Public Safety Commissioner Frank Straub said at a news conference announcing the roundup. Straub was in Washington last month to petition Congress to extend a federal assault weapons ban, which was allowed to expire, and repeated his call for a ban yesterday. New York state has a similar law.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, police from Yonkers, White Plains, Greenburgh and Westchester County, the county Probation Department and the state Division of Parole.

Assistant U. S. Attorney Maria A. Barton, chief of the White Plains office, announced the indictments with Straub and other police officials at her side.

"We are hoping that, this time, we send a very strong message that they cannot keep doing this over and over," she said.

Thomas Belfiore, commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, said the cooperation between agencies during the investigation was a "model" for future criminal and terrorism probes.

Federal authorities said the investigation was not over. Agents bought 19 handguns and rifles for prices from $300 to $1,000. Authorities seized a total of a half-pound of crack worth $8,000 to $9,000. Six of the suspects were on parole, four on probation and, one, Darrin "D" Cannaday of Peekskill, was convicted of sodomizing a minor.

Suspect Toure "Pun" Clarke of Yonkers, accused of selling an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle to an FBI informant, has already been convicted of two state felonies: attempted third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Takara "TK" Pass, who was already in custody, has four drug felonies on his state rap sheet. He is accused of selling a semiautomatic pistol with a defaced serial number to the same informant, authorities said.

The 26 defendants could face between five and 200 years behind bars. The operation began in Yonkers as an investigation into the Bloods street gang, officials said, and evolved into a countywide guns and drugs probe.

"This is not a gang takedown, but certainly this is how the investigation was started," Barton said. She said a lot of drug and gun merchants were loosely organized, but would not characterize any of the defendants as gang members.

Yonkers Police Commissioner Robert Taggart said the suspects in that city were concentrated on Warburton Avenue and Nodine Hill — high-crime areas that are targeted by police. "These arrests will have a significant effect on the crime rate," he said.



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Rapper Beanie Sigel Gets Year in Prison

Rapper Beanie Sigel Gets Year in Prison

By DAVID B. CARUSO
The Associated Press
Saturday, October 9, 2004; 12:49 AM

PHILADELPHIA - Rapper Beanie Sigel was sentenced to a year in federal prison Friday on a gun-possession charge stemming from a traffic stop.

Sigel, 30, could have received more than three years, but the judge cited the rapper's charity work and drug abuse treatment in taking leniency.

"It is clear that the defendant has made a substantial effort to change his life," said U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick.

Prosecutors had argued that Sigel was much like the man he presents himself as in his gritty lyrics: a ruthless, dangerous gangster.

The charges stemmed from a 2002 incident in which Sigel jumped from his car and ran after a traffic stop. He allegedly tossed a loaded gun during the short chase. Officers also found prescription drugs and marijuana in Sigel's Cadillac Escalade.

Sigel's rap sheet dates to when he was a teenager and makes it illegal for him to own a handgun.

Pleading for leniency before a courtroom of supporters that included the rap superstar Jay-Z, Sigel acknowledged that he was in a "reckless situation, a dangerous situation" at the time of the incident, but told the judge he was a changed man.

"I'm not the guy that people think I am," he said. Motioning to his children, he said, "I want them to be able to lift their heads up and say, 'That's my dad. That's Dwight Grant. Not Beanie Sigel."

Family members and business colleagues told the judge that the rapper has a "positive message" and is a good role model for kids.

That suggestion irritated prosecutor Curtis Douglas.

"The very idea that this defendant is here as a role model is somewhat repulsive," Douglas said.

The rapper, whose birth name is Dwight Grant, also faces trial in January on charges that he shot and seriously wounded a man outside a Philadelphia bar, and also faces charges that he punched a man in the face.

Sigel was a protege of Jay-Z, and his records have sold more than 1 million copies. In a sequel to his 2002 movie "State Property," Sigel plays an imprisoned drug dealer.

He pleaded guilty to the gun charge earlier this year. Sigel also must serve two years probation and pay a $25,000 fine.

Link

Head of ecstasy ring says he caused harm

October 13, 2004

Head of ecstasy ring says he caused harm

"To stand here and say I'm sorry would almost be laughable in light of what has happened," said Policelli.

By Tyra Braden
Of The Morning Call

Upper Mount Bethel Township businessman Duane Policelli, the ringleader of what authorities say was one of the largest Ecstasy manufacturing and trafficking operations on the East Coast, will spend up to 15 years in state prison.

Policelli also was fined $25,000 during a sentencing hearing Tuesday in Northampton County Court.

Also Tuesday, President Judge Robert A. Freedberg sent two lesser players in the drug operation to prison. Gregory Prendes of Bethlehem Township was ordered to state prison for one day less two years to eight years and fined $15,000, and Geno Catanzariti of Palmer Township was sentenced to county prison for one to four years.

The judge said Catanzariti was entitled to less punishment because he was most cooperative with investigators and prosecutors. Catanzariti is eligible for immediate work release.

Policelli cried softly during his sentencing.

''To stand here and say I'm sorry would almost be laughable in light of what has happened,'' Policelli told Freedberg, adding that he knows he has caused ''immeasurable harm'' to the people who used the Ecstasy he manufactured. ''Today is the culmination of two years of grief and anguish,'' he said.

Policelli in May pleaded guilty to being part of a corrupt organization, conspiracy to manufacture Ecstasy, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of Ecstasy. In August, Prendes pleaded guilty to delivery of Ecstasy and conspiracy to deliver Ecstasy, and Catanzariti pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver Ecstasy and being part of a corrupt organization.

Authorities discovered the drug ring, which they said supplied Ecstasy throughout the East Coast, in 2002. The investigation revealed the organization operated from a laboratory in a 30,000-gallon fuel tank buried under Policelli's carport.

Policelli used prepaid cell phones bought using fictitious names and toy pagers used by buyers to leave orders, according to court documents. Undercover investigators said they bought Ecstasy from Policelli, who put pills under a rock at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in response to coded orders they placed.

The drug ring, Freedberg said, ''had the potential to do major, major damage.'' The judge said that in fashioning a sentence, he considered not only Policelli's rehabilitative needs but also the need to deter others from doing what Policelli did.

Policelli's sentence is beyond state sentencing guidelines, and Freedberg cited case law from state Superior Court that says harsher sentences are warranted in such matters.

Lawrence Cherba, the deputy attorney general who prosecuted the case, noted that Policelli had cooperated with authorities during the investigation and had testified last month at the trial of Bangor dentist Michael Pacifico, the only person arrested in the ring thus far to go to trial.

State agents also charged William Hartranft of Saylorsburg and James P. McCarthy of Upper Mount Bethel with participating in the ring.

Pacifico, 51, was convicted last month of criminal conspiracy, delivery of a controlled substance and being part of a corrupt organization.

Hartranft, 30, is scheduled for trial in December on charges of conspiracy, delivery of Ecstasy and participation in a corrupt organization.

McCarthy, 61, killed himself in June on the day he was scheduled to plead guilty in court. He had been charged with conspiracy and participating in a corrupt organization.

Erv Fetherman, who owns Erv's BYOB adult entertainment club in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, pleaded guilty in December to drug possession for having bought Ecstasy. Cherba said Fetherman was placed on probation for a year.

LInk

Pot seized from Spring Valley house

Pot seized from Spring Valley house

By RANDI WEINER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: October 16, 2004)


SPRING VALLEY — Police confiscated nearly 100 marijuana plants and more than $50,000 worth of special lights, hydroponic growing chemicals and commercial-grade air purifiers from a house on xxxx xxxxx Street yesterday.

One person was taken into custody when police raided the two-story house about 4:30 p.m. By 7:30 p.m., Spring Valley police and members of the county's Hazardous Materials Unit were in the home cataloging the contents and removing black plastic garbage bags of potting soil and 4-foot-tall plants.

"It's a pretty elaborate setup," said Spring Valley Police Lt. Paul Modica.

The home, brick with a gray shingle front and bow window, was cordoned off last night by yellow tape. A firetruck parked outside provided lighting as officers moved through rooms constricted by trash bags and empty cardboard boxes. One room on the first floor had rows of plants in bins against one wall underneath five high-intensity lights, air conditioners and purifiers scattered nearby and wires snaking around ventilation shafts that had been cut through the ceiling. The plants were in seed, ready for harvesting.

Police had been alerted to something odd in the area and spent a month investigating the neighborhood, finally pinpointing xx x xxxxx as the target.

Marijuana grown hydroponically is more powerful than that grown strictly in dirt or potting soil, Modica said. Fifty pounds of nonhydroponically grown marijuana sells for about $100,000 on the street, he said. The marijuana taken from the house has to be weighed before a value can be put on it, he said.

The home belonged to a Brooklyn resident who apparently had been renting it out, Modica said.

"This is one of the biggest grow operations I've ever seen," said officer Ted Hughes as he walked through the house. "We're almost completing our fourth shift straight — but it's worth it. Any dent we can put in the traffic, anything we can do to cost them money or inconvenience them is worth it."


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[edit: removed address]

^^^^^^^ This hapend near where I live.

ANTHONY (65) IS DISABLED, HE LIVES IN A WARDEN-CONTROLLED FLAT... AND HAS BEEN JAILED FOR 7 1/2 YEARS FOR DEALING HEROIN
BY JO BURCH, Evening Telegraph
15 October 2004

As the 64-year-old stepped out of the warden-controlled flat with his walking stick and his dog, he had the appearance of a harmless infirm man.

Former pub landlord Anthony John Kesler's disguise was so good it was a few months before people became suspicious about the resident of Tintagel Close in Normanton.

The police raided his flat on March 4 after complaints about "goings-on" at his front door, where he had installed a CCTV system to keep an eye on his many visitors.

His wicked deception started to be unravelled when officers discovered 12 bottles of methadone in the fridge and about £250 of heroin in two film cases, Derby Crown Court heard yesterday.

Kesler, a former Royal Marine and his then fiancee, Trudie Jones (24), who was living with him, were arrested and bailed.

But, 26 days later, officers came across Kesler in his mobility car, a Vauxhall Corsa, and arrested him after a wrap of heroin was found on his driver, heroin addict Ann Kitchener (37), of Waterford Drive, Chaddesden.

During a strip search at the police station, 19 wraps of heroin - worth about £200 - were found hidden between Kesler's buttocks and he had £765 cash on him.

The police also discovered what Kesler had really been using his walking stick for - not to keep him steady on his feet but to stash his heroin, the court heard.

They learned Kesler, who suffers from high blood pressure, had hollowed it out at the rubber end to secrete the class A drug inside.

His "sophisticated" scam made him £58,280 in just four months, the court heard.

Kesler, who was on benefits, bought a brand new Kia Sorento for more than £20,000, a £1,000 engagement ring for Jones and other jewellery, such as a diamond bracelet, to keep the women he "cynically manipulated" on his side.

Now 65, Kesler, who admitted two charges of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, twice walked free in 2001 and 2002 with a fine and a rehabilitation order respectively for similar offences.

Jailing him for seven-and-a-half years, Judge Andrew Hamilton told him those sentences were "ludicrous" and he "no doubt told a sob story about how elderly and disabled" he was.

He said: "When you went out to collect drugs, you went in disguise, taking a dog and a walking stick you didn't need to use.

"Here you are, a poor old disabled man. You are no such thing. You're a wicked man who uses your infirmities to deceive other people."

Jones, who gave Kesler "favours" in return for heroin, was jailed for three years after admitting possessing heroin with intent to supply.

Kitchener, who admitted supplying heroin, was given a three-year rehabilitation order.

Link

Agents go online to nab drug buyers

Agents go online to nab drug buyers
Posted on Fri, Oct. 15, 2004

E-deals have led cops to 10 dealers, 9 customers

Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. — Some investigators in Wisconsin have adopted the persona of drug dealers over the Internet in a new strategy aimed at catching drug users.

In one of the first cases in Wisconsin to use the strategy, officials recently charged 10 people they believe to be drug dealers and nine would-be customers after adopting the suspected dealer's online identity.

The U.S. Department of Justice has promoted the strategy in the past year, and agents in the western district of Wisconsin have started using it in the past six months, said J.B. Van Hollen, the U.S. attorney for the district.

The strategy, called sanctions-based demand reduction, is partly in response to some foreign countries that have complained the United States is not trying to curb drug demand, Van Hollen said.

"It's a way of showing that yes, we are doing something about the drug demand," he said.

In the recent case in his district, investigators say Thomaz W. Franzl, 27, of Chicago, offered 13 different substances for sale online, from common prescription drugs to cocaine and methamphetamine, according to charges filed against him.

A Rhinelander man who became an informant after he was arrested used his credit cards to buy more than $6,000 in cocaine, OxyContin and Ketamine from Franzl, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Madison last month.

"Before, we probably would have just taken Mr. Franzl and closed down the site and not done anything further," Van Hollen said. "We wouldn't have gone down the ladder to figure out who some of his buyers are."

Instead, agents used the suspect's Internet persona and pretended to fill Internet orders.

On Oct. 6, a federal grand jury in Madison indicted nine would-be customers on an attempted drug possession charge, which carries a sentence of up to one year.

They also face one count of using the Internet to facilitate the unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, which carries a maximum sentence of four years.

Until now, local and state authorities have primarily prosecuted drug users, while federal authorities concentrated on kingpins and major dealers.

Van Hollen said selling drugs over the Internet is an increasing problem.

"People have a tendency to believe that when they're in the sanctity of their home or office, law enforcement officers won't see them," he said.

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Thai police arrest drug suspects, seize 1.2 million speed pills
Associated Press
October 17, 2004

BANGKOK, Thailand: Thai police have arrested three suspected drug dealers and seized 1.2 million speed pills and 12 kilograms (27 pounds) of heroin from them in separate undercover operations Sunday, officials said.

Somsak Palae, a hilltribe man, was arrested after he gave 12 kilograms (27 pounds) of heroin to a plainclothes officer posing as a buyer near a hotel in the capital, Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Pansiri Prapawat.

Somsak later told a press conference the heroin had originated in neighboring Myanmar, and that he had planned to sell it to a Nigerian drug gang before his arrest.

Separately, police raided a house in Bangkok's Klong Toey slum area where they arrested the owner, Anan Skulwong, and seized about 1 million methamphetamine tablets from him. The stimulant methamphetamine is also known as speed.

They stormed a second house in the neighborhood where police arrested an unidentified woman and confiscated another 200,000 of the pills, said Lt. Gen. Watcharapol Prasanworakit, chief of the Narcotic Suppression Police.

"The heroin and ... (methampetamines) were smuggled in from Myanmar and hidden in the Klong Toey slum awaiting distribution to buyers,'' Watcharapol said.

The three suspects were detained and are being held in police custody pending trial on drug trafficking charges. If found guilty, they face a maximum penalty of death.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra launched a high-profile war on drugs last year that left more than 2,500 suspects dead. Authorities blamed most of the deaths on gang infighting, but human rights advocates accused police of carrying out extrajudicial killings.

Thaksin recently launched a new anti-drug war, saying in a speech at a re-election campaign rally Sunday that illicit drugs were again on the rise in Thailand.

"I will send all the drug dealers to live with Yomphabal,'' Thaksin said, referring to a mythical Thai figure who emerges from hell to claim the souls of bad people.

Officials say hundreds of millions of methamphetamine tablets are trafficked into Thailand annually, mostly from jungle laboratories along the rugged border with neighboring Myanmar.

The influx of the cheaply produced drug triggered an addiction crisis in Thailand, where experts believe millions of people have become addicted to the stimulant in recent years.

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Leader in NYPD Drug Scandal Pleads Guilty

Leader in NYPD Drug Scandal Pleads Guilty

Associated Press
Mon, Oct. 18, 2004

NEW YORK - A former narcotics detective who led a group that stole cocaine worth millions and resold it on the streets pleaded guilty Monday to the theft of police funds that started the investigation that brought the ring down, prosecutors said.

Thomas Rachko, 46, admitted he and another detective took the cash from a man he believed was a drug courier but was actually an undercover agent working on a joint police and U.S. customs money laundering investigation.

Rachko pleaded guilty to grand larceny charges, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

In June, Rachko pleaded guilty in federal court to leading five others in a ring that stole cash and 100 kilograms of cocaine from drug dealers between 1998 and 2003 and sold it to other dealers.

Rachko could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for stealing the cash, Brown said. He faces up to 27 years when sentenced on the federal charges.

Another detective, Julio Vasquez, also has pleaded guilty to stealing the cash and to federal narcotics conspiracy charges. He will be sentenced to one to three years for the theft and up to 27 years on the federal charges.

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Three Arrested in Drug Bust

Three Arrested in Drug Bust

October 18, 2004
By Melinda O'Malley

BOISE -
According to Boise police there's a new drug on the streets. One they've only come across two times this year, but expect to see again.

It's called DMT and like methamphetamine it can be created in homespun labs, something narcotics officers said they found during a drug bust at an apartment complex at xxxx xxxxxxx in Boise.

Wearing protective clothing a group of specially trained officers began a process they said they expect to repeat, the deconstruction of a DMT lab. "Its pretty new to us too, we're still learning about it," said Mike Harrington, an officer with the Boise Police Bandit Task Force. The specially trained officers destroyed a drug lab were officers said DMT was made. DMT is an illegal drug a lot like the hallucinogen LSD. Tree bark is used to make DMT but other ingredients are similar to those found in another, dangerous illegal drug. "A lot of the same ingredients as a meth lab," said Harrington. "But They use root bark in this one and a couple different items, I suspect we'll see several of these coming up here."

Inside the apartment police said they found a DMT lab and a meth lab, a third lab was discovered in a car parked nearby. Arrested were Casey Allen, 20 years old of Boise, Valerie LaChapelle, 43 of Boise and Philip Conner, 24. All three are held in the Ada County Jail on $100,000. bond.

Drug enforcement agents said DMT was popular back in the 60's and 70's and point out that as with most things, even illegal drugs go through trends. "Like in the 80's the drug of choice was cocaine, right now the drug threat in the west is still methamphetaime," said Larry Hedbert, with the local DEA.

DMT is known to cause impaired judgement, which can lead to rash decisions and accidents. It's also known to cause frightening "trips" or "flashbacks". The three suspects arrested face felony charges of conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance.

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Smuggler Arrested With $197,000 In Stomach

Smuggler Arrested With $197,000 In Stomach

POSTED: 11:53 pm EDT October 19, 2004

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Before boarding a plane in Madrid, a Colombian smuggler ate a pricey meal that landed him in trouble upon his arrival in Bogota.


Customs officials in the Colombian capital noticed the man, whose name was not released, appeared to be in distress after arriving at Bogota's El Dorado International Airport.

"He looked nervous -- sweating, and all that, and so we X-rayed him," Customs Police Lt. Sandra Gutierrez said Tuesday.

Inside his stomach were 40 latex-wrapped packets containing a total of $197,000 in large denomination bills, Gutierrez said.

Smugglers often transport drugs by inserting them into condoms and swallowing them. On a rare occasion, they even bring back drug profits into Colombia the same way.

It is against the law in Colombia for anyone to bring in or take out of the country more than $10,000 in any currency. Gutierrez said the suspect was arrested Sunday.

Colombia is by far the world's biggest producer of cocaine, which nets traffickers huge profits, most of it in hard cash. Many try to repatriate the profits back to Colombia, and must try to circumvent currency controls.


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