The Deal She Made With Police Turned This Activist into an Outcast THE DRUG WAR paid a visit to Stacy Litz's Powelton Village apartment on a Thursday afternoon, armed with a warrant, handcuffs and an offer. It was September 2011, and Litz was well-aware that any deal, even a nickel bag of weed, could make her a target, but she'd chosen sides long before the law came knocking on Baring Street. Litz was a political-science major at nearby Drexel University at the time, fully engaged in libertarian and anarchist causes, denouncing government for poking around in private lives. [continues 1001 words]
Series of Events Shape American Tolerance For the past quarter-century, the debate over law enforcement has leaned heavily in support of cracking down on crime and fighting the wars on drugs and terrorism. The Rev. Al Sharpton leads a protest of New York's "stop-and-frisk" program in 2012. Last week, a federal judge sitting in New York said the department made thousands of racially discriminatory street stops and appointed a monitor to direct changes. But with the simultaneous rise of liberals in President Obama's Democratic coalition and Rand Paul-style libertarianism among Republicans, concern over government intrusiveness has moved to the forefront, sparking a debate that would have seemed unimaginable during the cocaine wars or in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. [continues 1366 words]
(Editor's note: This is the final story in a three-part series examining the Two Rivers Drug Enforcement Team, the drug task force known as TRIDENT; its undercover work and use of confidential informants; and its history, including the federal funding it receives, and why some law enforcement agencies have opted out of joining. Thursday's installment focused on TRIDENT's undercover operations; on Friday, an informant's story about why he signed on to help TRIDENT and the ramifications of his assistance, along with allegations about his behavior during that time, were covered.) [continues 2285 words]
Program Instructed Agents to Alter Investigative Trail. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Details of a Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by IRS agents for two years. The practice of re-creating the investigative trail is now under review by the Justice Department. Two high-profile Republicans have also raised questions about the procedure. A 350-word entry in the Internal Revenue Manual instructed agents to omit any reference to tips supplied by the DEA's Special Operations Division, especially from affidavits, court proceedings or investigative files. The entry was published and posted online in 2005 and 2006, and was removed in early 2007. The Internal Revenue Service is among two dozen arms of the government working with the SOD, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. [continues 435 words]
The Feds Have Concluded Americans Would Rather Be Safe Than Free In March, Sen. Ron Wyden asked Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper if the federal government had "any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans." Mr. Clapper replied, "Not wittingly." In June, we learned that the National Security Agency (NSA) had not only been collecting millions of Americans' phone data, but every American's phone data - wittingly. This astounding level of surveillance that government officials first denied quickly became something they were eager to defend. All of it was essential and necessary, we were told. President Obama and others also assured us that the NSA was only collecting "metadata" and not eavesdropping on our phone calls. [continues 804 words]
Agents Instructed to Omit References to Operation. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Details of a Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by IRS agents for two years. The practice of re-creating the investigative trail is now under review by the Justice Department. Two high-profile Republicans have also raised questions about the procedure. A 350-word entry in the Internal Revenue Manual instructed agents to omit any reference to tips supplied by the DEA's Special Operations Division, especially from affidavits, court proceedings or investigative files. The entry was published and posted online in 2005 and 2006, and was removed in early 2007. The Internal Revenue Service is among two dozen arms of the government working with the SOD, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency. [continues 416 words]
Agents Apparently Told to Conceal How Probes Began. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across the nation to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. Although these cases rarely involve national security issues, documents show that law enforcement agents have been directed to conceal how such investigations truly begin - not only from defense lawyers but also sometimes from prosecutors and judges. [continues 473 words]
Agency Funnels Information to Federal Authorities. WASHINGTON (Reuters)- The Justice Department is reviewing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit that passes tips culled from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a large telephone database to field agents, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. Reuters reported Monday that agents who use such tips are trained to re-create the investigative trail to effectively conceal the DEA unit's involvement from defense lawyers, prosecutors and even judges, a policy many lawyers said could violate a defendant's right to a fair trial. Federal drug agents call the process of changing the true genesis of an arrest "parallel construction," according to a training document. [continues 248 words]
BENNINGTON COUNTY - The decriminalization of marijuana is now in effect, but some local officials are waving cautionary flags. They believe that it may not only result in increased public use, but cause some other problems as well. The new law - which went into effect July 1 - prevents Vermont residents from being arrested for carrying less than an ounce of marijuana. The law removes the criminal penalties associated with possession of small amounts of cannabis and replaces them with civil fines ranging from $200 to $500 depending on whether a person is a repeat offender. For those under the age of 21, the offense will be treated the same as possession of alcohol, which would include referral for court diversion for the first and second offense. However, failure to complete the diversion program would result in a $300 fine and a 90-day driver's license suspension for the first offense and a $600 fine and 180-day license suspension for the second offense. A third offense could result in up to 30 days in jail, a $600 fine or both if diversion was not completed for both the first and second offenses. A person under 16 may have a delinquency petition filed and must be given a chance to participate in the diversion program unless the courts determine otherwise. [continues 1437 words]
Most people don't think "cops" when they think about who supports marijuana legalization. Police are, after all, the ones cuffing stoners, and law enforcement groups have a long history of lobbying against marijuana policy reform. Many see this as a major factor in preventing the federal government from recognizing that a historic majority of Americans - 52 percent - favors legalizing weed. Top 10 Marijuana Myths and Facts But the landscape is changing fast. Today, a growing number of cops are part of America's "marijuana majority." Members of the non-profit group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) say that loosening our pot policy wouldn't necessarily condone drug use, but control it, while helping cops to achieve their ultimate goal of increasing public safety. Here are the five biggest reasons why even cops are starting to say, "Legalize It!" [continues 1064 words]
Shipments: Big operators buy directly from cartels, others through wholesalers in border states such as Arizona and California. Drugs are smuggled into the U.S. in cars, trucks, planes and on individuals. Drugs are then taken to "stash houses" and divided into smaller loads. Sophisticated traffickers rarely keep drugs in their homes. Instead, they distribute from other houses and businesses to insulate themselves from prosecution. Drugs are driven north hidden in cars, freight trucks and in luggage on Mexican bus lines. Mexicans in the country illegally and desperate for cash often work as drivers. [continues 851 words]
Big-time drug traffickers aren't easy to take down, not even in a small Oregon city where cops can see what they're doing. They rarely handle the drugs they sell. They switch phones and cars often. They silence associates with threats and violence. Most troubling, the smartest traffickers use the same surveillance tools on police that police use on them. Federal agencies devote about $10 billion a year and thousands of officers to drug investigations. Yet officials at all levels acknowledge they'll never stamp out the problem, only hold it in check. [continues 2001 words]
Marijuana dispensary raids put state laws under the spotlight Agaunt, anxiety-ridden Lori Duckworth spent Thursday cleaning the room where she stored and doled out medical marijuana to patients seeking relief from various ailments for the past five years. She did this knowing there's a chance she will never run a medical cannabis dispensary again. "If I'm convicted on all these charges, I will probably spend the rest of my life in prison," Duckworth said. Duckworth, 48, and her husband, Leland Duckworth, 49, each face 22 felony drug charges. Police allege the pair used their dispensary at Southern Oregon NORML as a front to sell marijuana for profit. [continues 1461 words]
Ten years ago I left Paris on the Friday before Halloween riding the high-speed, Belgian THALYS train headed for Amsterdam. Although most Europeans call it All Souls Day, their holiday is similar to ours, and my coach was packed with college students, many in costume and most of them drinking heavily. They were bound for Amsterdam and the Netherlands' recently opened coffee houses - then, they would be on to the city's synth-beat dance halls. Marijuana was the draw, trance dancing, the high and communal hotel rooms the payoff. [continues 2798 words]
The concerns with federal drug informant Andrew Chambers Jr. have existed for years. They have been the subject of national TV news programs, newspapers around the country chronicled his activities, and a report from the Drug Enforcement Administration documented his lies and betrayals. Those concerns did not discourage federal agents in Phoenix from using Chambers as an informant in a heroin-smuggling case in which DEA investigators labeled him as reliable. But federal prosecutors on Tuesday asked a federal judge to dismiss the charges against Luis Hernandez-Flores and Saul Sandoval, accused of smuggling in a case in which Chambers was the key informant. The motion was filed at 6:16 p.m. Tuesday just hours before The Arizona Republic published a story on the DEA's use of Chambers on the front page and on azcentral.com. [continues 749 words]
A government informant who was terminated by the Justice Department years ago amid accusations of serial perjury has been reactivated and is working an undercover drug case with DEA agents in Phoenix, prompting allegations of government misconduct by a defense lawyer in a pending case. Andrew Chambers Jr., once labeled in court records as "the highest-paid snitch in DEA history," gave false testimony under oath in at least 16 criminal prosecutions nationwide before he was exposed in the late 1990s, according to U.S. District Court filings. [continues 2577 words]
CLIENTS OFTEN CLAIM entrapment when a police officer catches them red-handed in some unlawful act, especially when one of the participants is an undercover cop. It offends a sense of fair play to learn, suddenly, that the voice on the other end of a telephone line was actually a police officer pretending to be someone else. Isn't police deception enough to prove entrapment? The answer, sadly, is no. I've said it before and I will say it again: The police are entitled to use deception to solve crimes. What the police are not permitted to do is induce you to commit a crime. So what is entrapment? [continues 897 words]
Police Apparently Timed Pot Raids to Lock Up Defendants for As Long As Possible No matter what you think of medical marijuana, and without making any assumptions about guilt or innocence, it's fair to say local police agencies displayed an excess of zeal in raiding local pot dispensaries late last month. Defendants Leland and Lori Duckworth, David James Bond, 44, and Michael Robert Schanno, 40, were jailed May 24 after officers from several local police agencies raided dispensaries in Medford and Gold Hill. Each was charged with multiple felony counts of conspiracy to deliver marijuana. [continues 390 words]
Abbotsford Police must review scores of criminal files after Tuesday's announcement that an APD officer is facing criminal charges for helping a drug dealer avoid arrest. Const. Christopher Nicholson, charged with conspiracy to traffic drugs, breach of trust and obstruction of justice, has had his badge seized and is suspended from the force. Suspected of feeding false information to fellow drug squad officers who relied on it to obtain search warrants, Nicholson also allegedly conspired with a confidential informant to have drugs planted in a home, with other police officers conducting a search warrant soon after. [continues 353 words]
Documents Detail Allegations of Lies on Drug Arrest; Lawyer Says Account Is Overblown Dallas police said Monday that they are investigating everyone involved in the decisions surrounding the actions of two officers accused of lying about the arrest of a man for drug possession and the circumstances leading to a raid on a pot den. Police spokesman Lt. Paul Stokes released a news statement saying that "the Dallas Police Department is continuing the administrative investigation into the actions of all personnel involved" after the Friday firings of Jon Llewellyn, 30, and Randolph Dillon, 44, who are charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, and aggravated perjury. Both are third-degree felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. [continues 749 words]
Accusations of Lying, Tampering Recall Similar Events a Decade Ago In an episode reminiscent of the city's embarrassing 2001 fake-drug scandal, two Dallas police officers were arrested Friday on accusations that they lied in court and tampered with evidence in drug cases. The officers' arrests, and the circumstances that caused them, have raised questions about whether Police Chief David Brown's top commanders dragged their feet for about a year after concerns arose about the two officers' truthfulness. In a brief telephone interview late Friday, Brown categorically rejected any assertions that his department was slow to react. He declined to elaborate. [continues 1293 words]
Police called him Ziggy and worked with him as a drug agent for 16 years - until cops double-crossed him as retribution for supplying information that took down fellow officers. Those were among the explosive allegations defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme made on the first day of the trial of Ziad Chafchak, 42, charged with two counts of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking. The case provides a rare glimpse at the murky police-informant world. Chafchak was arrested around 4:30 p.m. on May 15, 2008, in the parking lot of a three-storey apartment building in the 800 block of Louis Avenue, where police allege he had a stash house for his crack and cocaine business. [continues 640 words]
A federal appeals court has refused to overturn the decades-old conviction of a marijuana dealer who argued that FBI agents lied during pretrial hearings in his case to protect longtime -informant James "Whitey" Bulger. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit concluded Monday that even if the FBI withheld information about Bulger's role in the 1983 arrest of Michael F. Murray, the case did not warrant a new trial or sentence -because there was overwhelming evidence that Murray was guilty. [continues 608 words]
From their expressions, it was impossible to tell whether the convicted cops - the lying and justice-jamming cops - were pleased, relieved, even kicking up their heels inside their heads. They will not spend a single day in prison. That was surely enough to put a smile on those five faces. But grins would have been inappropriate. And these former Toronto drug squad officers, as we know from their years of court appearances, have mastered outward stoicism. What we also now know: Forty-five days of house arrest has been deemed sufficient punishment for dirty cops. [continues 957 words]
MISSION, Tex. - Drug traffickers have long profited here and in other Texas border towns. But their success has sometimes depended on forging unusual alliances. Some of the very officers sworn to combat the drug trade have been illicitly earning cash by helping vehicles transporting marijuana and cocaine avoid detection from law enforcement agents, serving as escorts and scouts during the shipments, the authorities say. Last month, four lawmen - two Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies and two Mission police officers - were arrested and accused of escorting loads of drugs in exchange for cash after a corruption investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the F.B.I. and other agencies. In court documents filed by federal investigators, the four men were accused of escorting vehicles carrying cocaine for $2,000 to $6,000 per trip. [continues 1018 words]
'Cartel Grows' Might Not Involve Drug Gangs After All WELDON, Kern County - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in Kern County. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure whom they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers or just poorly paid fieldworkers camping miserably in the brush. Twenty minutes later, after a lights-off drive for a mile, the agents climb out of two pickup trucks and sift into the high desert brush. [continues 427 words]
Few Cartel Ties Found in Forest Operations WELDON, Calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in central California. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure whom they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers or just poorly paid fieldworkers camping miserably in the brush. Twenty minutes later, after a lights-off drive for a mile, the agents climb out of two pickup trucks and sift into the high desert brush. [continues 1272 words]
U.S. Crackdown On Growers Fails To Lead To Big Players Weldon, calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in Kern County, Calif. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their rifles and ammunition, not exactly sure who they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers, or just poorly paid fieldworkers camping miserably in the brush. Twenty minutes later, after a lights-off drive for a mile, the agents climb out of two pickup trucks and sift into the high-desert brush. [continues 1063 words]
'POT' GROWERS FIND NATIONAL FORESTS ROOMY WELDON, Calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty California field in Kern County. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure who they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers, or just poorly paid field workers camping miserably in the brush. Twenty minutes later, after a lights-off drive for a mile, the agents climb out of two pickups and sift into the high desert brush. [continues 1584 words]
Investigators Find It Difficult to Trace Marijuana Growth on National Forest Land to Mexican Cartels. WELDON, Calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in Kern County. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure whom they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers, or just poorly paid field workers camping miserably in the brush. [continues 1615 words]
U.S.-Vetted Sensitive Investigative Units Rack Up Impressive Successes In The Drug Wars Using American Technology And Training At A Relatively Low Cost. CARTAGENA, Colombia - Under cover of a moonless night in early July, the crew took no more than five minutes to load more than a ton of cocaine on a motorboat beached on a deserted shore of the Guajira peninsula in northeastern Colombia. Equipped with three 200-horsepower engines, the "go-fast" craft then roared off toward the Dominican Republic, the first stop on the drugs' way north. [continues 866 words]
Special Units Rely on American Technology and Training, Racking Up Impressive Successes at a Relatively Low Cost. CARTAGENA, Colombia - Under cover of a moonless night in early July, the crew took no more than five minutes to load more than a ton of cocaine on a motorboat beached on a deserted shore of the Guajira peninsula in northeastern Colombia. Equipped with three 200-horsepower engines, the "go-fast" craft then roared off toward the Dominican Republic, the first stop on the drugs' way north. [continues 1543 words]
'They were poor, aboriginal, drug addicted and they were not taken seriously' Bias against the poor, drug-addicted sex workers in Vancouver's troubled Downtown Eastside led to a series of failures that allowed serial killer Robert Pickton to spend years hunting his victims unimpeded by police, a public inquiry has found. Commissioner Wally Oppal's 1,448-page final report, released Monday, chronicles years of mistakes that allowed Pickton to lure dozens of women to his farm in Port Coquitlam, with little interference from police and even less concern from the public. [continues 451 words]
As a faithful soldier in the "War on Drugs," Tony Sexton had his hand in thousands of drug busts, beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the early 1980s. He worked his way up the ladder of the Thurston County Sheriff's Department as a deputy, sergeant and undersheriff. Later, he served as the chief investigator for the Washington State Patrol's Drug Control Assistance Unit, helping smaller counties and cities around the state penetrate the drug culture by nurturing informants, sending civilians and police officers undercover and doing whatever it took to bust drug users and drug peddlers in high schools, nightclubs, taverns and on the street. [continues 732 words]
Re: "Young pawns in the drug war -- Police are enlisting youthful offenders for work that's risky, unregulated and sometimes deadly, says Sarah Stillman," Sunday Points. Thank you, Sarah Stillman and The Dallas Morning News, for publishing this commentary on current insane, violence-promoting drug-war tactics. It is morally bankrupt to punish nonviolent adults for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other medicinal or social drugs. Young nonviolent informants' deaths and other triggered violence from drug prohibition across the nation are an outrage that can no longer be tolerated. [continues 91 words]
Police are enlisting youthful offenders for work that's risky, unregulated and sometimes deadly, says Sarah Stillman On the evening of May 7, 2008, a 23-year-old woman named Rachel Hoffman got into her silver Volvo sedan, put on calming jam-band music, and headed north to a public park in Tallahassee, Fla. A recent graduate of Florida State, she was dressed to blend into a crowd: jeans, T-shirt, black Reef flip-flops. On the passenger seat beside her was a handbag that contained $13,000 in marked bills. [continues 2492 words]
ALLEN PARK - Police say a pair of medical marijuana dispensaries they raided Sept. 25 were operating illegally. One dispensary was in a shopping complex at the corner of Reeck Road and Maylawn Avenue. Interim Police Chief James Wilkewicz said that site was doubly in the wrong because the operators lied on the certificate of occupancy filed with the city. According to their filings, they were operating a car service, he said. The other dispensary was on Ecorse Road between Allen and Pelham in a small building next to a store that sells smoke supplies. It was operating without a certificate of occupancy at all, the police chief said [continues 384 words]
Fertile soil and favourable weather conditions have produced bumper field crops across Chatham-Kent this fall. Farmers may be happy, but not necessarily local law enforcement. The combination of favourable growing conditions also produces abundant marijuana plants, shielded by corn in area fields. And keeping up with the pot growers got a lot harder this year, according to Chatham-Kent police intelligence unit member Const. Neal Iles. Municipal police didn't get to utilize the RCMP helicopter as they have in the past. [continues 362 words]
As California's outdoor marijuana growing season nears its end for 2012, drug officials are reporting a sharp decline in crop seizures for the second year in a row. The latest figures show that local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are on track to eradicate an estimated 1.5 million plants from outdoor gardens - mostly on public land - down from a decade high of about 7.3 million plants in 2009. This year's seizure total would be the lowest since 2004, when a little more than 1.1 million plants were eradicated, according to federal Drug Enforcement Administration statistics. [continues 722 words]
ALLEN PARK - Yesterday afternoon police raided a pair of medical marijuana dispensaries that were operating illegally. Interim Police Chief James Wilkewicz said the dispensaries were operated by the same people, and were illegally serving dozens of clients a day. One dispensary was in a shopping complex at the corner of Reeck Road and Maylawn Avenue. Wilkewicz said the site was doubly in the wrong because the operators lied on the certificate of occupancy filed with the city. According to their filings, they were supposed to be operating a car service. [continues 246 words]
Judge rules against street gossip as reliable intelligence RCMP detectives trying to crack down on the drug pipeline from Ottawa to Iqaluit will need to publicly reveal more reliable information from confidential informants after a judge derailed a trafficking case, branding it as dangerously weak and possibly built on gossip. The decision came even though police seized three kilograms of marijuana in their investigation. "I am of the view that the administration of justice would be brought into disrepute by the admission of the evidence in this matter," Nunavut Justice Sue Cooper ruled. [continues 691 words]
Paso sheriff's candidates Fortney, Nocco and Radford discuss ways to fight drugs in county Pasco County sheriff's candidate Roger Fortney's solution to fighting drug crime is simple: Keep close tabs on offenders. Really close. "I believe if we worked closer with parole and probation we could convince them to stop committing the crimes or to move out of the county," said Fortney, 59, who worked in road patrol for 23 years at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office before retiring as a corporal in 2009. He is one of three candidates -- along with Maurice Radford, 50, a former major with the Sheriff's Office and current Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco, 36 -- vying for the top spot in the Republican primary Aug. 14. The winner will square off against Democrat Kim Bogart in November. [continues 1296 words]
This is the story of Central Field Command drug squad, Team 3, and the long, at times tumultuous, effort to investigate and prosecute officers and also stave off a full-blown public inquiry. The saga has never been publicly told in its entirety. It's about the thin blue line of police solidarity, about a task force led by an outsider but otherwise involving officers investigating their own - a squad entrusted to enforce laws that declare a futile, never-ceasing war on drugs. [continues 7223 words]
Kathryn Johnston was doing pretty well until the night the police showed up. Ever since her sister died, Johnston, 92, had lived alone in a rough part of Atlanta called the Bluff. A niece checked in often. One of the gifts she left was a pistol, so that her aunt might protect herself. The modest house had burglar bars on the windows and doors; there had been break-ins nearby. Eight officers approached the house, and they didn't knock. The warrant police obtained, on the basis of a false affidavit, declared they didn't have to - the house where their informant had bought crack that day, the affidavit said, had surveillance cameras, and those inside could be armed. [continues 7549 words]
Tactical officers, guns drawn, crash through doors of a low-rent dwelling, followed by narcotics detectives who fan out to search for drugs and guns. Cut to two coppers standing alone in a room. "Let's do it," says one, before they flip the mattress, exchange a complicit glance, and stuff a bundle of bills behind their bulletproof vests. Drug-related police corruption has long provided rich fodder for Hollywood, whether this scene from the acclaimed TV series TheWire, or the movie Serpico, the true story of an honest drug cop from the 1970s who fought rampant dishonesty in the New York City Police Department, or the portrayal by Denzel Washington of a rogue Los Angeles narcotics officer in 2001's Training Day. [continues 969 words]
Four of five former drug squad officers on trial in the city's largest cop corruption case were previously charged with defrauding the Toronto police force. For the sake of trial fairness, however, references to these so-called "Fink Fund" allegations were not heard by a jury that began deliberations Tuesday. Raymond Pollard, 48, Joseph Miched, 53, Steven Correia, 45, Ned Maodus, 49, and their former boss, John Schertzer, 54, are variously charged with conspiracy to attempt to obstruct justice, perjury, extortion, theft and assault. [continues 594 words]
One afternoon last August, at a hospital on the outskirts of Los Angeles, a former beauty queen named Emma Coronel gave birth to a pair of heiresses. The twins, who were delivered at 3:50 and 3:51, respectively, stand to inherit some share of a fortune that Forbes estimates is worth a billion dollars. Coronel's husband, who was not present for the birth, is a legendary tycoon who overcame a penurious rural childhood to establish a wildly successful multinational business. If Coronel elected to leave the entry for "Father" on the birth certificates blank, it was not because of any dispute over patrimony. More likely, she was just skittish about the fact that her husband, Joaquin Guzman, is the C.E.O. of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, a man the Treasury Department recently described as the world's most powerful drug trafficker. Guzman's organization is responsible for as much as half of the illegal narcotics imported into the United States from Mexico each year; he may well be the most-wanted criminal in this post-Bin Laden world. [continues 7668 words]
Property Search Violated Charter Rights, Man Argues A former Ottawa police officer now accused of growing and selling more than $1.4 million worth of marijuana attacked the warrant police used to find the plants, arguing in court Thursday that it was based on the information of unreliable tipsters and violated his Charter rights protecting him from unreasonable search and seizure. Michael Floyd wants the evidence collected during the execution of the warrant at his Page Road property in February 2005 - including 1,475 marijuana plants and growing equipment - tossed out. [continues 507 words]
With a Big Bust in January and a Major Conference This Fall, We've Been Psychedelicized IT TOOK A POLICE battering ram to bust down the door of the West Philadelphia apartment. Once inside, police discovered a colorful cache of psychedelic drugs - enough LSD to open thousands of "doors of perception" for six to eight hours at a time. The Jan. 31 raid appeared to be a true flashback to a bygone era, with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration calling the 9,500 hits of LSD on tie-dyed images of Homer Simpson and Jerry Garcia an "anomaly" in Philadelphia. And since two of the five suspects arrested were Drexel students, the raid became known as the "Drexel LSD bust" in the media, with reporters interviewing students and getting statements from university officials. [continues 1170 words]
Judge orders jury to acquit police officers on five of 14 counts. A significant chunk of the Crown's case against five former Toronto Police drug squad officers fell away Monday as a Superior Court judge ordered the jury to acquit them on five of 14 counts. The judge's ruling came on the same day John Schertzer, the former leader of Team Three of the central field command drug squad, took the stand to defend himself publicly for the first time. [continues 565 words]
