YOKY RIDGE, Colombia-On a hilltop base shielded with sandbags, police sharpshooter Jose Diaz gazed into thick jungle as a fellow commando checked tripwires protecting the stronghold. A radioman listened in on the fighters they were battling. "They're always looking for the right moment to attack our base," said Hector Ocampo, commander of the Colombian detachment in a cocaine-trafficking corridor near Panama. Their adversaries weren't the FARC rebels that security forces had long fought, but a cocaine-trafficking gang known as the Gulf Clan. In the year since the powerful Marxist guerrillas disarmed, drug gangs like this one have battled each other and the state for control of the booming cocaine trade in remote regions where the FARC once ruled. [continues 872 words]
That old New Orleans con of, "I betcha I can tell you where you got them shoes," just took on a whole different meaning. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration's just released list of "Drug Slang Code Words," for 2018, "shoes" is one of 353 terms the cool kids are using for cannabis these days. (I bet you thought there would be 420.) So, offering to tell the tourists where they obtained their footwear could spark a panic. [continues 364 words]
Guns, gangs unit member has pleaded not guilty A suspended Hamilton police officer fed drug traffickers sensitive information and favours in return for cash payments, a Crown attorney said Monday during his opening address to a Toronto jury. Craig Ruthowsky, a former member of the Hamilton Police Service's guns and gangs unit, has pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice, bribery, breach of trust, trafficking and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. He became ensnared in a Toronto Police Service wiretap investigation called Project Pharaoh aimed at gathering evidence of drug and firearm trafficking in Toronto's west end, Crown attorney John Pollard said in Superior Court. [continues 326 words]
Charges include fraud, bribery, trafficking A suspended Hamilton police gangs and weapons enforcement unit officer already awaiting trial for his alleged role in helping a drug trafficking organization is facing 16 new criminal charges. On Tuesday, Craig Ruthowsky was charged with bribery, two counts of breach of trust, two counts of obstructing justice, public mischief, two counts of weapons trafficking, fraud under $5,000, trafficking marijuana, perjury, two counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, robbery and two counts of trafficking cocaine. [continues 613 words]
When Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week jettisoned an Obama administration policy that had been aimed at sparing less-serious drug offenders from harsh sentences, he called his new, more aggressive approach "moral and just." But the verdict among law-enforcement and legal professionals is more mixed. Government data, along with interviews with former U.S. attorneys who advised the Justice Department under President Barack Obama, suggest the previous policy achieved several, though not all, of its goals. Then-Attorney General Eric Holder announced the policy that was to be embodied in what became known as the "Holder memo" in a 2013 speech to the American Bar Association. Mr. Holder pledged that federal prosecutors would focus on more dangerous drug traffickers and avoid charging less-serious offenders with crimes that required long, mandatory-minimum sentences. Mandatory-minimum sentences, he said, had led to bloated, costly prisons and disproportionately ravaged minority communities. [continues 702 words]
A recent Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court decision tested the weight the justice system places on confidential police informants. The case revolved around a British Columbia man arrested and charged in Newfoundland with drug-related offences in February 2015. The accused applied to the court to have certain police evidence excluded from his case - particularly the police informant information - - stating that his rights under Section 9 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms were breached. He claimed police did not have reasonable grounds to make the arrest nor search his vehicle. [continues 866 words]
America's sheriffs have given President Trump a woefully inaccurate view of civil asset forfeiture-the process through which police seize, and prosecutors literally sue, cash, cars and real estate that they suspect may be connected to a crime. "People want to say we're taking money and without due process. That's not true," a Kentucky sheriff told the president last month at a White House meeting. Critics of forfeiture, the sheriff added, simply "make up stories." In fact, thousands of Americans have had their assets taken without ever being charged with a crime, let alone convicted. Russ Caswell almost lost his Massachusetts motel, which had been run by his family for more than 50 years, because of 15 "drug-related incidents" there from 1994-2008, a period through which he rented out nearly 200,000 rooms. [continues 725 words]
[photo] In this Jan. 5, 2010, file photo, a northbound Amtrak Acela passes through Middle River, Md. For years, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has engaged in a questionable use of thousands of informants. The DEA has used airline employees, parcel services workers and even staff at other government agencies, such as the Transportation Safety Administration and Amtrak, as its informants, in violation of Justice Department policies. According to a recent audit from the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, the DEA amassed an army of more than 18,000 informants between October 2010 and October 2015. Informants are offered cash rewards of up to $500,000 or 25 percent of successful cash seizures, whichever is less, and the DEA made $237 million in payments to more than 9,500 sources during this period. [continues 425 words]
The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the payout to the woman, whom LAPD investigators believe is one of at least four women James Nichols and Luis Valenzuela coerced into sex. The Times generally does not name alleged victims of sex crimes. Nichols and Valenzuela, both 41, were working as narcotics detectives in Hollywood in 2010 when they arrested the woman, according to one of her attorneys, Dennis Chang, and a search warrant affidavit LAPD investigators filed as part of their criminal investigation into the officers' conduct. [continues 449 words]
TRENTON - Ed Forchion wants to film a reality show chronicling the impact of the country's so-called War on Drugs on his life. He has a couple titles in mind: "The War on NJ Weedman." Or perhaps even better, "Marijuana Martyr." Forchion pointed to prosecutors' desire in a drug case in Trenton that could land him in prison for years to protect the identity of a confidential informant who allegedly purchased weed from him several times at his downtown city business. [continues 814 words]
Suspicious Itineraries Pay Huge Dividends to Federal Drug Agency USA TODAY identified 87 cases in recent years in which the Justice Department went to federal court to seize cash from travelers. Federal drug agents regularly mine Americans' travel information to profile people who might be ferrying money for narcotics traffickers - - though they almost never use what they learn to make arrests or build criminal cases. Instead, that targeting has helped the Drug Enforcement Administration seize a small fortune in cash. DEA agents have profiled passengers on Amtrak trains and nearly every major U.S. airline, drawing on reports from a network of travel-industry informants that extends from ticket counters to back offices, a USA TODAY investigation has found. Agents assigned to airports and train stations singled out passengers for questioning or searches for reasons as seemingly benign as traveling one-way to California or having paid for a ticket in cash. [continues 1550 words]
DAGUPAN CITY The anti-illegal drug campaign of President Duterte is getting out of hand, and the public should not simply turn a blind eye to the killings. Sen. Leila de Lima acknowledged the gravity of the drug problem in the country, but stressed the measures against it should respect the rule of law. "We cannot simply believe that all those who were shot dead grabbed the guns of arresting police operatives or they fought in an armed encounter with lawmen," De Lima said during a testimonial dinner for the successful 2015 Bar examiners of the University of Pangasinan on Friday. [continues 515 words]
A religious group regularly visits the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) to preach love and hope to inmates and offer women and illegal drugs on the side, according to reports reaching Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. "We have found out some of the possibly religious personnel who were conducting preaching inside the penitentiary have been used to bring drugs as well as prostitutes inside the penitentiary," Aguirre said, citing information he received from a member of a non-government organization and three NBP guards who visited him recently. [continues 717 words]
Drug Conviction Quashed A man who hid drugs in his rectum had his trafficking conviction overturned Wednesday because Sarnia police detained him for 43 hours waiting for him to defecate before taking him to a justice of the peace. In throwing out the conviction, Ontario's highest court also criticized officers for how they treated Jeffrey Poirier during their "bedpan vigil search." "I do not accept that the officers were acting in good faith," the Appeal Court ruled. "The manner in which the search was carried out was a flagrant breach of the appellant's rights." [continues 296 words]
When Mexico declared an all out war on drug cartels and drug dealers, they had a real war on their hands. Thousands, not just hundreds of Mexican citizens and criminals were slaughtered and the killings continue to this day because the drug cartels are not willing to give up the illegal trade. In the Philippines, if the situation is as bad as authorities have said: 80 percent of barangays infiltrated by drug dealers - approximately 2 million +/- drug users - and a billion dollar industry, then "You ain't seen nothing yet!" [continues 944 words]
A group of men met among the tombstones of a Paso Robles cemetery sometime in 2014. Two of them were lawmen from the SLO County Narcotics Unit, a multiagency group dedicated to tackling drug crime in the county. The third was a civilian. A man with a wife and kids and a past checkered by drug use and criminal charges. They were there for different reasons. The lawmen knew drugs were flowing into the county. They wanted to root out the criminals responsible for selling them and put the dealers behind bars. The third man was just looking to stay away from the wrong side of those same bars. [continues 3166 words]
WAVERLY, Ohio - Sure, some people grow marijuana in Pike County. And, yes, some people nurture the tender plants near clearings where the sunshine will hit them and where a water source - generally the Scioto River or one of its feeder creeks - is readily available. Increasingly often, though, people are moving their operations indoors, adding grow lights and irrigation to keep it all under roof, hidden from nosy neighbors and men and women with badges. This is not just a Pike County problem. Growing marijuana as a cash crop isn't uncommon in Appalachian communities, where the land is fertile and the opportunity to make money doing something else often isn't. [continues 1033 words]
UPPER DARBY - The life of Bernadette Scarduzio wasn't always a struggle. As a young girl she was active, played sports, enjoyed freedoms that most neglect as liberating experiences - the ability to walk without support, the dexterity to open a can of soda, the strength to climb a set of stairs. At only 36 years old, due to a rare neurological disorder, she relies on a motorized chair for mobility and requires caretakers day and night to assist with otherwise uncomplicated tasks. Strenuous physical therapy multiple times a week is simply to stave off the rapid effects of muscle degeneration. [continues 2753 words]
Law enforcement should not be allowed to seize a person's assets before there is a criminal conviction and a clearly established nexus between someone's assets and criminal activity. This very simple set of premises is completely rejected under the system of civil asset forfeiture, a practice which allows law enforcement agencies to take a person's property or cash with minimal due process and without a criminal conviction ever taking place. The practice incentivizes the allocation of law enforcement resources to crimes and strategies that maximize the potential for generating revenues that boost the budgets of local police and sheriff's departments. [continues 565 words]
The parents of a North Dakota State College of Science student found dead of a gunshot after working as an undercover drug informant want the FBI to take over the investigation. Andrew Sadek, a 20-year-old student at the Wahpeton community college, was a drug informant before he went missing in May 2014. About two months later, his body was found in the Red River near Wahpeton with a gunshot to his head. His parents, Tammy and John Sadek, who live in Rogers, have said they believe their son was murdered, possibly because of his work as an informant. However, autopsy results offered no conclusion on whether someone killed him or whether he killed himself. [continues 308 words]
Kingpin's Plea With U.S. Triggered Years of Bloodshed Reaching All the Way to Southlake Zetas Saw Gulf Cartel Leader As Traitor, Declared a War That Has Killed Thousands of People A plea agreement between a Mexican drug kingpin and the U.S. government helped generate a violent split between two drug cartels that led to the deaths of thousands of people in Mexico and along the Texas border, a Dallas Morning News investigation has found. A masked gunman fired multiple times at Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa with a 9 mm handgun through the passenger window of his Range Rover at Southlake Town Square in May 2013. Three Mexican citizens were arrested more than a year later and charged with stalking, and aiding and abetting in the hit. [continues 4074 words]
A self-described Michigan "soccer mom" who had "every belonging" taken from her family in a drug raid has been cleared of all criminal charges, 19 months after heavily armed drug task force members ransacked her home and her business. But in many ways, her ordeal is only beginning. Annette Shattuck and her husband, Dale, had been facing felony charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession with intent to manufacture marijuana and maintaining a drug house. But last month, Michigan Circuit Court Judge Daniel Kelly threw out all criminal complaints filed against the Shattucks "on the grounds of entrapment by estoppel," according to court filings. Entrapment by estoppel occurs when a government official leads a defendant to think that their conduct is permissible under the law. [continues 1213 words]
WASHINGTON - Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up. Nine District of Columbia police officers smashed through her door, pointed a shotgun at her face and ordered her to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a soft-spoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 990 words]
WASHINGTON - Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up. Nine District of Columbia police officers smashed through her door, pointed a shotgun at her face and ordered her to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a softspoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 516 words]
Pursuing Drugs and Guns on Scant Evidence, D.C. Police Sometimes Raid Wrong Homes - Terrifying Residents Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up as nine D.C. police officers smashed through her door. A shotgun was pointed at her face, and she was ordered to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a soft-spoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 3913 words]
The parents of a young woman whose 2010 murder remains unsolved have alleged their daughter was a confidential informant for Phoenix police, a position that may have placed her in direct contact with her killer. On Tuesday, the family of Nicole Glass filed a wrongful-death suit against the city of Phoenix for what they say were officers' failure to warn the 27-year-old about the dangers of their arrangement. The lawsuit alleges negligence on the part of the recruiting officers and their supervisors, all labeled as John Does for now. [continues 1020 words]
Lawyers Want to Know If Informant Used by Cops Was Also Involved in Their Case A probe into alleged criminal wrongdoing by Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) senior managers in connection with the use of an informant could affect a major drug case in this province. Lawyers representing three men facing trafficking charges want to know if the informant used by police in their case was the same person who is at the heart of the investigation into RNC senior managers. "We are not proceeding until we know if the source is the same source that's been (spotlighted) in the media," defence lawyer Randy Piercey said Monday when the drug case was called in Newfoundland Supreme Court in St. John's. [continues 619 words]
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Ryan never imagined he would one day be a snitch. The soft-spoken University of Alabama student was watching a movie with a couple of friends at his off-campus house in Tuscaloosa one evening in late 2012 when a team of plainclothes West Alabama Narcotics Task Force officers knocked on his door. They were there to serve a warrant to search his home, as he had been outed as a drug dealer by a friend and fellow UA student the task force had "turned" and used as a confidential informant. Little did Ryan know, he would soon be turning on his own friends at the university. [continues 1517 words]
Forced Recuitment? With China developing an appetite for marijuana, methamphetamine and other illicit substances, Chinese authorities are looking to stars as front-line soldiers in the battle against drugs. BEIJING - Imagine if, after arresting a wave of celebrities on drug charges, U.S. government officials pressed the heads of major Hollywood studios, A-list actors, recordlabel chiefs and chart-topping singers to sign promises that they would stay away from vices such as drugs, pornography and gambling. Simultaneously, substance-abusing performers found their films shut out of cinemas, forcing producers into hasty reshoots and re-edits, and news media began running editorials criticizing top directors for failing to inform on associates they had seen smoking pot or taking Ecstasy. [continues 940 words]
Imagine if, after arresting a wave of celebrities on drug charges, American government officials pressed the heads of major Hollywood studios, A-list actors, record-label chiefs and chart-topping singers to sign promises that they would stay away from vices like drugs, pornography and gambling. Simultaneously, substance-abusing performers found their films shut out of cinemas, forcing producers into hasty re-shoots and re-edits. And news media began running editorials criticising top directors for failing to inform on associates they had seen smoking pot or taking ecstasy. [continues 1047 words]
Dallas Should Try Citations Over Jail for Pot David Brown is Dallas' police chief and, as such, admits he has mixed feelings when the question is whether his officers should write citations instead of booking into jail those arrested for small amounts of marijuana. You can see how this might be. The cop in Brown sees minor busts as one more tool to develop informants or just information that might lead to bigger busts. Every arrest is potential leverage over a suspect, even if it's just an ounce or two of weed. [continues 399 words]
There was nothing new in your most recent editorial about the federal government's war on drugs ("DEA whitewash," Monday Review-Journal). The logic for legalization of recreational drugs has been common knowledge for many decades, yet the reasons for government resistance have never been forensically addressed. Law enforcement relies heavily upon informants, lots of government-laundered money and citizens who fear and respect the institution. The results of prohibition have been Whitey Bulgers, Drug Enforcement Administration parties and a rebellious population, all of which contribute to rotting the very soul of our once-great republic by undermining the national will. [continues 162 words]
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders recently pledged that "no president will fight harder to end institutional racism." But he doesn't have to wait for the White House to do it. He could start right now, in his own backyard. Thanks to a lawsuit filed in Rutland, Vt., the world is about to get a rare, behind-the-dashcam look at police culture in a rural Vermont town. It ain't pretty. To be sure, police in Rutland have a tough job. The once-idyllic town has battled the scourge of heroin for years. New York City drug dealers flock there to sell their wares at a higher profit. [continues 1263 words]
His indictment is barely a week old, but many of his former friends in organized labor and the cannabis industry have already buried Dan Rush. Rush, 54, was once the gregarious director of the United Food and Commercial Workers' national medical cannabis and hemp division; on Aug. 10, he was indicted in federal court on two felony counts of violating labor law. The lifelong union man - the first labor organizer to make a serious effort to bring the nascent marijuana industry on board in 2010 - is accused of selling out those same workers in order to pay off a debt. [continues 812 words]
The Santa Ana Police Department arrested a suspect last weekend in the theft of a package from a home's doorstep after video from the homeowner's surveillance camera linked her to the crime. Another crime solved thanks to the proliferation of private video surveillance, and the police, whose jobs are made easier by it, are undoubtedly happy to have it. But when their own are caught on video behaving badly, the Santa Ana Police Officers Association would prefer you never saw it. Or, at least that is what is suggested by a lawsuit seeking to prevent video taken during a raid at Sky High Collective in May from being used as evidence in potential disciplinary action. [continues 348 words]
Outrageous. That might best describe the conduct of Santa Ana police officers during their recent raid of an Orange County pot shop. Caught on tape, police officers sworn to enforce the law can be seen disabling surveillance cameras and then sampling the store's pot-laced edibles and making disparaging remarks about a disabled woman inside the business. Yet, as disturbing as that conduct is, it is not the most troubling aspect of the officers' behavior. More disconcerting is their refusal to accept responsibility for their actions. Instead, they seek to shield themselves behind California's wiretapping laws. [continues 514 words]
SANTA ANA - A judge on Wednesday postponed a decision on whether to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the Santa Ana Police Department from using surveillance video in an internal affairs investigation over officers' actions in a pot shop raid. Three unidentified officers and the Santa Ana Police Officers Association have filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent internal affairs investigators from using a hidden camera video from a May 26 raid at Sky High Collective to determine if department policies were violated. [continues 466 words]
DEA Hit for Poorly Vetting Traffickers on Its Payroll WASHINGTON - Drug traffickers who cooperate with federal investigators are poorly vetted, and the Drug Enforcement Administration did not properly monitor at least 240 informants some of whom crossed the line into illegal activity and were under criminal investigation by other authorities. That's the conclusion of a new report from the Justice Department watchdog, who found another weakness in the DEA's oversight of its informants: Some of them get workers' compensation benefits from the government despite questionable qualifications. [continues 341 words]
Inspector General Finds Sensitive Program Run 'Without Rigorous Review' The Drug Enforcement Administration doesn't follow established guidelines for handling confidential informants and has paid millions of dollars in dubious or unverified federal disability payment to informants and their families over the years. Those are two of the findings in a report by the Department of Justice Inspector General into the drug agency's program for dealing with confidential informants. The report was based in part on the review of certain case files from San Diego that used confidential informants. [continues 483 words]
Drug Enforcement Administration informants - some paid, others working to stay out of jail - can sell large quantities of drugs without much supervision, and sometimes set up busts for years while simultaneously collecting federal workers' compensation, according to a scathing report issued Tuesday by the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General. The report, a year in the making, described one informant who was injured in 1997, and from then on got $500 a week in federal workers' compensation, even while continuing to serve as a paid source. Inspectors "estimate that between 1997 and 2012, the DEA paid this individual a total of $ 2,186,813," including $353,000 in workers' compensation, a $1 million award for a bust, plus other payments and housing expense checks, the inspectors wrote. [continues 740 words]
The DEA Overpays Informants Without Oversight An audit released last week by the Department of Justice provides fresh evidence that the Drug Enforcement Administration needs a thorough retooling that goes beyond the replacement of its director. The audit by the Office of the Inspector General concluded that the federal government paid informants millions of dollars and allowed them to buy and sell drugs with minimal oversight in a drug-enforcement program riddled with deficiencies. It confirmed the disturbing revelations of a yearlong investigation by the Post-Gazette, which found the DEA paid informants at least $146 million over five years, informants acted on the DEA's behalf for decades and - perhaps most problematic - a disproportionate share of federal acquittals were attributable at least in part to problems with informants. [continues 277 words]
The Alturas Rancheria - totaling three members or nine, depending on which faction one believes had not been content with the earnings from its humble wood-plank gambling house, the Desert Rose Casino. It had pursued various ill-fated ventures, including payday lending and manufacturing cigarettes. Now, Del Rosa warned in a series of letters to authorities, the tribe was converting a cavernous, tented event center on the reservation into a huge facility for growing marijuana. "The tribe is acting as a beard for private operators who are attempting to use the medical marijuana law of this state and tribal sovereignty for massive personal profit," Del Rosa wrote Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Ferrari in a letter dated May 27. [continues 1796 words]
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Growing pot in Ohio is fast becoming an inside job. Investigators have seized $326 million in marijuana across the state since 2008, but the number of plants found in recent years has plummeted. Authorities attribute the drop to a greater push by growers to cultivate their plants indoors. The reasons are simple: Growers can avoid police, thieves and unpredictable weather. More importantly, they can make far greater profits with more potent pot. As organizers push a state plan to legalize marijuana in Ohio, police continue to go after an underground market that thrives. Finding that market, however, has become much more difficult. [continues 1044 words]
SANTA ANA (AP) - The Orange County district attorney's office has formed a special committee to review its use of jailhouse informants following misconduct allegations that have sidetracked some criminal cases. The committee of independent experts has begun looking into its practices and plans to release its recommendations by year's end, the DA's office announced Monday. The committee includes a retired Orange County judge, a former county Bar Association president, a retired Los Angeles County prosecutor and an ethics lawyer. A law school professor is a committee adviser. [continues 155 words]
VPD Targeted Seven Dispensaries in 18 Months The business of investigating and prosecuting illegal marijuana dispensaries in Vancouver has yet to result in the successful prosecution of any suspects whom police arrested over an 18-month span while executing nine search warrants at city pot shops. In examining court records and conducting interviews with Vancouver police, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and a dispensary operator, the Courier learned that only three people were charged in connection with raids on two pot shops. [continues 1444 words]
Recently, a story featuring Pat McGrath lamented on a new law that changed the way law enforcement deals with low level drug users ("Drug law's unintended consequence fewer informants," June 10). I am very happy about these changes. When someone is forced into doing further despicable deeds, such as lying, I can see no long term benefit to society. Breaking down the moral codes we should live by only perpetuates itself - as we can see by the failed "war" on drugs. This has created far more corruption at high levels than the supposed damage of use. [continues 109 words]
Voters have unknowingly cut into drug agents' supply of informants, some law enforcement officials say. The Yuba-Sutter drug and gang task force, NET-5, has had difficulty recruiting low-level criminals to become informants since voter-passed Proposition 47 went into effect and undercut prosecutors' leverage to make deals, according to Commander Martin Horan. Drug possession charges used to be considered "wobblers," meaning authorities could determine if they would be charged as felonies or misdemeanors. These would come with different sentencing structures, which gave prosecutors options. [continues 258 words]
Hamilton's Own Chief of Police Championing Change So Suspended Cops Don't Get Paid There is a Hamilton cop sitting in a jail cell right now earning up to $100,000 a year. He's facing drug and organized crime charges after being swept up in a massive police project aimed at cracking a violent criminal network. He is already suspended from duty, has been arrested before and is facing 26 disciplinary charges. Yet we are still signing Det. Const. Craig Ruthowsky's hefty paycheque. [continues 643 words]
Det. Const. Craig Ruthowsky Has Been Under Police Suspension Since 2012 A veteran Hamilton gang and gun officer, suspended for the last three years, remains in a Toronto jail after being swept up in a series of raids by police targeting gang activity in the Greater Toronto Area. Officers forced their way into the Hamilton home of 41-year-old Det. Const. Craig Ruthowsky at about 5 a.m. Thursday, as similar raids were being carried out at 50 locations from St. Catharines to Durham region. [continues 752 words]
Complaint Says They Stole Hundreds of Thousands in Probe of Drug Website Attorneys for the former federal agents said they were innocent but declined further comment. Two former federal agents in Baltimore who led an undercover hunt for the head of an online drug marketplace called Silk Road have been charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars during the investigation. The agents, Carl M. Force, 46, a 15-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration who resigned last year, and Shaun W. Bridges, 32, a special agent with the Secret Service who resigned this month, made their first appearances in court Monday after the unsealing of the criminal complaint in California. [continues 1257 words]
