Attempted murder, deceit, collusion, perjury, obstructing justice and something else that won't be revealed until a disciplinary tribunal in March. These are your cops, Toronto. "It certainly has been an anomaly week for our service," said Police Chief Mike Saunders, confirming the latest charges Thursday. And you've got to feel some sympathy for the guy, who's barely had a moment's peace since he got the top job. Const. James Forcillo: Guilty of attempted murder in the six rounds he fired at the already dying teenager Sammy Yatim. [continues 1110 words]
It's been pretty well documented that the War on Drugs is in large part a war on black people (read Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow). New allegations from Dothan, Alabama, could be revealing one of the most insidious cases ever to come to light. The Henry County Report (HCR), a police watchdog blog, recently ran a piece that had some of the most salacious allegations one can find: crooked cops in a secret club, cover-ups, evidence planting, and young African-American men systematically victimized by the police. [continues 1353 words]
Toronto police committed "egregious wrongful conduct" after they planted heroin in a drug suspect's car to create a pretext for searching the vehicle, a judge has found. In January 2014, police arrested Nguyen Son Tran in the city's Chinatown after finding 11 grams of plastic-wrapped heroin behind his car's steering column. But Ontario Superior Court Judge Edward Morgan ruled last week the officers never had the right to search the car and they knew that, so they scattered loose powder in a visible location next to the driver's seat. [continues 578 words]
It Was the Largest Dismissal in One Day in City History. A Philadelphia judge on Friday reversed 158 narcotics convictions tainted by allegations of police corruption - the largest such dismissal in one day in city history. The rulings by Common Pleas Court President Judge Sheila Woods-Skipper were the latest fallout from the federal prosecution of seven police narcotics officers. The officers - Thomas Liciardello, Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman, and John Speiser - were acquitted of all charges at a federal trial in May. [continues 501 words]
He Said Drug Squad Stayed Within the Law. Michael Spicer, one of six Philadelphia police narcotics officers charged in a federal corruption case, testified in his defense Friday. And with his career and his freedom in question, he sought to set a few things straight. He never saw anyone on his squad plant drugs, he said. Nobody stole anything, either. And most important, Spicer stressed, nobody ever tried to throw anyone off a balcony. "I don't think I even went out on that balcony. That never happened," he said, rejecting an allegation that in 2010 he threatened to toss a drug suspect from his Old City apartment's third-floor terrace. "That's a complete lie." [continues 632 words]
CAMDEN -- Five men have emerged as symbols of the worst excesses by a squad of rogue cops whose misconduct has spawned dozens of lawsuits against the city. There's Ron Mills, who weighs more than 300 pounds and walks with a cane. He spent nine months in prison after allegedly discarding drugs while outrunning police. And Kenneth Pitts, who was jailed for 11 months and a day after a 2008 arrest for an alleged drug deal he said never happened. The Lawnside man contends he was arrested while bringing groceries to a friend's house in Camden after serving as a chaperone for a youth group. [continues 1182 words]
ST. PETERSBURG - They give police the location of a drug buy, a lead on a witness, the name of a killer. In exchange, confidential informants get cash or a good word put in with a judge to help reduce a criminal sentence. 'Informants are incredibly necessary to solve crime,' said retired Pasco County sheriff's Lt. Bobby Sullivan, a former vice commander. 'Nobody knows crime like the criminal, but you have to keep in mind that they are a criminal. 'They are on the other side.' The distinction was blurred this week when the FBI arrested St. Petersburg police Detective Anthony Foster on charges that he extorted $8,000 in cash and goods from an informant who was trying to avoid jail time. [continues 943 words]
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico-Two Americans detained last year by soldiers who said they found two marijuana-filled suitcases in their truck were found guilty of drug trafficking by a Mexican court. Shohn Huckabee, 23 years old, and Carlos Quijas, 36, were sentenced to five years in prison by a judge here Wednesday. The men said Thursday that they will appeal the verdict. "We aren't guilty," Mr. Huckabee said in an interview at a Ciudad Juarez jail Thursday. "The judge didn't take into account the evidence that was in our favor." [continues 534 words]
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico-Two Americans were driving back to El Paso, Texas, last December after an afternoon across the border in Ciudad Juarez. A few blocks from the border, they were surrounded by Mexican army trucks and pulled from their Dodge Ram. Mexico's military says it found two suitcases full of marijuana in the cab of the pickup truck. Two soldiers later testified that they drove the two Americans to a military compound on the outskirts of town, questioned them briefly, then turned them over to civilian authorities. The Americans were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to sell. [continues 2797 words]
ST. JOSEPH - The Berrien County prosecutor said he will dismiss drug charges against seven people after further investigation into the alleged misconduct of a former police officer. Andrew Thomas Collins, 26, a former Benton Harbor police officer, was arrested Dec. 2 on drug trafficking charges, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Grand Rapids. The indictment claimed Collins used his position as an officer to keep the drugs. He was charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute more than 5 grams of crack cocaine, according to a news release from Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian K. Delaney. Berrien County Prosecutor Arthur J. Cotter said his office met with FBI investigators Monday to review the case. [continues 318 words]
CANDAHUG, Palo, Leyte - The director general of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) admitted that his agency, tasked with the elimination of the supply of and demand for illegal drugs in the country, is forced to "plant evidence" in "some special cases." Undersecretary Dionisio Santiago's admission of the planting of evidence like shabu or other drug paraphernalia stemmed from the question of a reporter during a news conference here Wednesday. The reporter asked how the agency is helping victims of planted drug evidence. [continues 422 words]
Included in charges are evidence tampering, false reporting, drugs Two Huntsville police officers were indicted Friday for allegedly tampering with evidence, falsifying reports and attempting to possess drugs, the department announced Tuesday. Deputy Chief Andy Jackson said the charges stemmed from an internal investigation into alleged policy violations. Officers Wesley Little and Ryan Moore of the north precinct were arrested and booked in the Madison County metro jail. They have since been released on bond. Little was charged with attempting to possess a controlled substance, possession of a firearm with an altered serial number, tampering with physical evidence and false reporting to law enforcement authorities. [continues 352 words]
RALEIGH -- As a Robeson County deputy, James Owen Hunt stole at least $150,000 from drug dealers he stopped on Interstate 95. On Monday, a federal judge ordered him to spend two years in prison and repay the money. Hunt, 41, of Ladson, S.C., cried as he apologized to U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle before his sentencing. "Every day, I think about what I've done and how bad it was," Hunt said. "How it affects my life, and it hurts." He thanked federal prosecutors for giving him the chance to offset his wrongdoing by providing evidence against at least 22 other former Robeson County lawmen who have been implicated in the Operation Tarnished Badge corruption investigation. Hunt had faced a maximum 20 years, but his cooperation landed him a far lower term. [continues 396 words]
An Edenton police officer charged with evidence tampering has pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of willfully failing to discharge his duties. Michael Aaron Davidson, 32, won't spend any time in jail but he will have to surrender his law enforcement certification, court officials said Thursday. Davidson, of 437 Ryland Road, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in jail, suspended on the condition he complete 18 months of unsupervised probation and pay $545 in fines and court courts. One of the conditions of his probation is that he resign from his police officer job with the Edenton Police Department and surrender his law enforcement certification in North Carolina permanently. Davidson had been an officer with the Edenton department for nearly three years when he was put on administrative leave last summer. At the time, he was employed as a detective. [continues 341 words]
(1) DEA RAIDS 10 POT SHOPS Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jul 2007 Source: Los Angeles Times (CA) Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times Author: Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writer Agents Hit the Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Shortly After the L.A. City Council Bars New Facilities for a Year to Write Better Regulations. The gap between state and federal drug laws became apparent again Wednesday when federal agents raided 10 local medical marijuana facilities only minutes after the Los Angeles City Council placed a moratorium on new facilities so rules could be drafted to better regulate them. [continues 7838 words]
Davidson Worked 4 Years As Detective Criminal cases worked on by an Edenton police detective charged with altering evidence will be reviewed, District Attorney Frank Parrish said Thursday. Parrish didn't immediately know how many cases Michael Aaron Davidson had worked on during his nearly four-year tenure with the Edenton Police Department. But Parrish's office does intend to conduct a full review of the detective's cases, he said. "We haven't made any decisions on any one of those cases," Parrish said. He declined to elaborate further, saying he couldn't comment on the matter because it's part of an ongoing investigation. [continues 212 words]
Davidson Says He Has $5k In Seized Money An Edenton police officer charged with altering evidence in a criminal case has acknowledged having nearly $5,000 seized in another case, court documents show. According to an application for a search warrant, detective Michael Aaron Davidson told Edenton Police Chief Greg Bonner July 12 that he had in his possession $4,975.21 seized from drug suspect William Bland in 2005. Bonner had asked Davidson, currently on administrative leave from the Edenton department, about the money after it turned up missing during a State Bureau of Investigation review of Davidson's cases, the search warrant application states. [continues 262 words]
The state probe of an Edenton police detective facing felony criminal charges was sparked by allegations he planted criminal evidence on several suspects he arrested, court documents show. The State Bureau of Investigation's application for a search warrant also indicates that Michael Aaron Davidson -- charged July 10 with altering evidence in a criminal investigation -- has been investigated multiple times during his law enforcement career for allegations that include missing money, use of excessive force and planting evidence. The investigations occurred while Davidson was a police officer with the Kinston Police Department and a deputy with the Tyrrell County Sheriff's Office, the application states. [continues 619 words]
Rafael Perez, the disgraced LAPD officer at the center of the Rampart corruption scandal, pleaded no contest Tuesday to perjury for lying on a driver's license application. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 30 to three years' probation. His plea was entered in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Torrance. Perez was arrested in July for using the name Ray Perez on a license application in June 2005, the Department of Motor Vehicles said. Perez, 39, has since changed his name to Ray Lopez, according to a district attorney's office statement. [continues 60 words]
Repugnant, repulsive and revolting are just a few choice words that describe the actions of three former Jones County sheriff's deputies accused of misdeeds while they were members of a task force established to ferret out illegal drug activity. And those are gentler adjectives. What was once known as the Southeast Mississippi Drug Task Force can now go down as a public farce, all thanks to the actions of Roger Williams, 44; Chris Smith, 34; and Randall Parker, 32. On Tuesday, the three former deputies waived their right to a grand jury investigation and agreed to plead guilty to charges ranging from planting evidence to assaulting defendants and embezzlement. [continues 361 words]
A ranking official of the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday virtually admitted the practice of evidence planting and the tawaran system (bribe bargaining) by members of the police force. PNP Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon, during the weekly Kapihan sa Sulo in Quezon City, confirmed that evidence planting and the tawaran system are being practiced in the police organization as he cited the need for the PNP to cleanse its ranks in order to earn the respect of Filipinos and succeed in its campaign against criminality. [continues 494 words]
Indulging in MJ should be considered a weakness or a sickness, not a crime. The money wasted every year in going after MJ traffickers can be channeled to rehabilitation purposes. There is so much in what guru SJ says that I agree with that I am surprised when I see something he writes that puzzles me. He just wrote: "19 farmers demonstrators were killed near Malacanang because [oligarchic President Cory] refused to see them." So she should be the one to put in the death certificates as the cause of death? In her time in Malacanang, she could not see a lot of people (including then US defense secretary, now VP, Dick Cheney). It is hard to see thousands in Malacanang. [continues 1162 words]
Multimillion-Dollar Crackdown By Police, Prosecutors Jailed 67 Of Province's 115 Full-Patch Hells Angels When B.C. Hells Angels Ronaldo Lising and Francisco Pires were convicted of cocaine trafficking in 2001 and sentenced to 41/2 years in prison, police in B.C. heralded it as a major success. One reason was that, until those two convictions, the Angels in B.C. often boasted -- correctly -- that not a single member of their club was behind bars. Since then, police and prosecutors have had a few more successes against the biker gang. [continues 2397 words]
We're concerned over the fact that the Dallas County district attorney's office has fired special investigator Willie Hughes. The letter of termination cites as the "primary reasons for dismissal" that Mr. Hughes was "dishonest with senior officials in this office and (had) been instrumental in disseminating harmful lies about this office to the news media." If the district attorney's office can demonstrate that Mr. Hughes has been dishonest in his dealings with his superiors and spreading lies, we have no quarrel with his dismissal. Employers must be able to trust the integrity of those who work for them. [continues 451 words]
The Tarpon Springs Police Department has been the target of various investigations and pronouncements by outside authorities, from a 1987 grand jury finding that the department should be disbanded, to a U.S. Department of Justice inquiry last year into the death of a drug suspect, to investigations by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The Justice Department inquiry and past FDLE investigations were closed when investigators did not find enough evidence to pursue cases against the department or its officers. [continues 500 words]
A PASIG City court sentenced the daughter of former actress Deborah Sun to eight years imprisonment after authorities caught her, along with three others, holding a shabu session inside her house in San Juan four years ago. In a 13-page decision Judge Celso Lavina of the Pasig RTC Branch 71 gave Lailanie Salvador, of 125-B F. Roxas Street, Barangay Tibagan, San Juan, the longer jail term while her companions, Anna Marie Gomez, Maria Lourdes Silverio and Ramon Mapili were each sentenced to only four years imprisonment. [continues 195 words]
DETROIT - Eight police officers were acquitted Thursday of charges that they lied, falsified reports and planted evidence to lock up drug dealers and other criminals. The jury, after deliberating for more than three days, found the officers not guilty of all charges. Nearly 100 witnesses testified during the trial, which started Feb. 11 and included five days of closing arguments. Defense lawyers argued the case was built on the lies of criminals who wanted to get the Detroit officers off the force. Outside the federal courthouse Thursday, the officers and their families cried and hugged each other. [continues 152 words]
Four Central Police District (CPD) operatives were charged yesterday before the Quezon City Prosecutor Office for allegedly planting evidence on a widow they arrested during a buy-bust last year. Slapped with violation of Section 29 of Republic Act 9165 were SPO2 Manuel Saldana, PO3 Angelito Resurrecion, PO1 Eliseo Santos and PO1 Jeremiah Englis, all reportedly assigned to the Drugs Enforcement Unit of the CPD Station 8. The case stemmed from the complaint of Alice del Rosario, 46, of 16 J. Ponce St., Barangay Marilag, Proj. 4, Quezon City who claimed the respondents illegally arrested her in her house on March 24, 2003. [continues 147 words]
A State Investigation of Drug Arrests by Tarpon Springs Police Continues, With Claims That Officers Planted Evidence. TARPON SPRINGS - A cloud of suspicion continues to hang over the Tarpon Springs Police Department and its efforts to make drug arrests, months after becoming the target of a state investigation. Chief Mark LeCouris said street informers have told him agents for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have been asking whether police officers have planted drugs on suspects, a charge LeCouris denies. But one suspect has made that allegation to FDLE, and a lawyer in another case unsuccessfully made that argument in court. [continues 1168 words]
SOUTH HAVEN, MI. - An assistant principal who was trying to get a student expelled admitted planting marijuana in the boy's locker, police said. Police say Pat Conroy told them this month that he placed the marijuana in the locker at South Haven High School last year because he suspected the boy was a drug dealer and wanted him expelled. The plan failed because a police drug dog didn't find the contraband during a school search last year. Conroy, who has been placed on administrative leave, said he "lost his perspective" and had done something "stupid, arrogant and unethical," according to a police report. He told police that he only planted evidence once, according to the report. [continues 65 words]
SOUTH HAVEN -- Assistant South Haven High School Principal Pat Conroy told police he placed marijuana in the locker of a student he suspected was a drug dealer last year, but the plan to get the boy expelled didn't work because the city's police drug dog failed to find the contraband during a school search. After Conroy told South Haven police the planted evidence story earlier this month, police raided his high school office Feb. 9 and found a drawer full of numerous packets of marijuana and assorted pills, according to a police report. The district placed Conroy on paid administrative leave that day, according to Superintendent Dave Myers, who read a statement at Wednesday night's school board meeting about Conroy's suspension. [continues 410 words]
SOUTH HAVEN -- Facing a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge, South Haven High School's assistant principal, Pat Conroy, resigned Friday, Schools Superintendent Dave Myers said. Conroy, 52, was arraigned on the charge Friday in Seventh District Court in South Haven and pleaded not guilty, court officials said. If convicted, he could could be sentenced to up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. He was released on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond pending a pre-trial hearing scheduled for March 9. Police said Conroy told them he placed marijuana in a student's locker last year, hoping the boy, whom he suspected was a drug dealer, would be expelled. [continues 392 words]
Police Officers Often Tempted, Frequently Put In Harm's Way "Good cop and bad cop have left for the day. I'm a different kind of cop." - -- Vic Mackey ANYONE who watches The Shield on Global (9 p.m. Sundays) knows who Vic Mackey is. For the uninitiated, Mackey is a fictional Los Angeles Police Department detective who runs an anti-gang squad. Without spoiling your TV viewing, let's just say Mackey's tactics are "unorthodox." Mackey and the show is based on real and ongoing events in Los Angeles, the so-called Rampart scandal. It involves officers from the LAPD's Rampart Division's anti-gang unit who routinely beat gang members, planted evidence on suspects, falsified reports and covered up unjustified shootings in the 1990s. [continues 510 words]
Each time the Supreme Court takes more of our rights away we're told how free we still are. Now, police perjury, burglary and planted evidence are prevalent and called "good police work" by some. Criticize this corrupt system at our own risk, as police beatings and tortured confessions are common. People are maimed and killed in their homes by marauding police in their barbaric drug raids where police and informants share all forfeiture spoils. Thanks to DNA and patriotic outside groups, some innocent people are rescued from death row. How many more innocent victims, convicted of capital and lesser crimes, sit in prison with long sentences, framed by police and prosecutors? [continues 98 words]
How's this for a dagger to the heart? After a federal jury cleared former Dallas police Detective Mark Delapaz Tuesday in what has been the only criminal trial to stem from the infamous fake-drug scandal, some of the Mexican immigrants victimized in the scam were asked to comment. The reaction was about what you would expect from people who were wrongfully imprisoned after being framed with phony evidence and who now saw the man they held responsible walk away scot-free. [continues 704 words]
DETROIT -- A Detroit police officer on Friday acknowledged he lied about finding cocaine in a woman's purse and agreed to become a witness for federal prosecutors in a police misconduct case involving 18 current and former officers. By pleading guilty to depriving the woman of her civil rights -- a misdemeanor -- Hubert Brown of Detroit becomes a central witness to the government's case, believed to be one of the largest of its kind. Eighteen officers have been indicted on charges they falsified reports, planted evidence on suspects, conducted illegal searches, stole money and assaulted people. The bombshell allegations grew out of a U.S. Justice Department civil-rights investigation of the Detroit Police Department that began in December 2000. [continues 250 words]
EARLY morning of August 11, police officers raided a house in Alangilan village, Sta. Catalina in connection with allegations that the occupants are involved in illegal drugs. Myrlinda Baguio, wife of Rolly Baguio (the drug suspect), swore the officers forced themselves into the house and planted evidence to substantiate the allegation of the presence of illegal drugs in their house. Worse, Myrlinda claimed, she was forced to urinate in front of her apparently embarrassed husband and the allegedly laughing keepers of the law because her bladder was filled to bursting out of tension and because they refused to allow her to relieve herself in private. [continues 288 words]
Misconduct Charges For 17 Officers Are Disputed A high-profile corruption case involving 17 Detroit cops is caught up in a dispute between Wayne County prosecutors, who say there's no evidence of misconduct in many of the cases, and federal prosecutors who say there is. Kevin Simowski, a top lieutenant to Wayne County Prosecutor Michael Duggan, says federal prosecutors and the FBI apparently were "conned by a network of career criminals" who claim the cops planted evidence and lied about arrests. [continues 1282 words]
Police Are Suspected Of Rogue Conduct, Threats And Assaults They dangled one man by his legs from a second-story window. They threatened to kill a woman if she told anyone about the way they were treating her. They stepped on the face of another woman with such force, they dislodged a tooth. Prosecutors say these were not the acts of neighborhood gang members, but of 17 rogue Detroit police officers charged in a federal indictment Thursday. The officers allegedly stole drugs, firearms and money from suspected drug dealers during a two-year reign of terror on the city's southwest side. [continues 1374 words]
LUMBERTON - A police officer who was accused of planting evidence on a suspected drug dealer resigned Tuesday. The former officer, James Jordan, was placed on administrative leave in January. Jordan and Lt. Leon Oxendine, who also was placed on leave, were being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation. Lumberton police Chief Robert Grice refused comment on Jordan's resignation. He referred questions to James Moore, the city's human resources director. District Attorney Johnson Britt, who had been out of town, said he didn't know that Jordan had resigned. [continues 200 words]
The trial record emerging from a review of the 1999 Tulia drug cases shows such a dysfunctional criminal justice system that the word justice should be excised from the phrase. Tom Coleman, a virtually unsupervised undercover officer with a questionable history in law enforcement, became a one-man street-sweeping machine, presenting drug cases based on no evidence other than his own word and a recollection of surveillance notes scribbled on his leg. The Swisher County Sheriff's Department didn't check Coleman's background with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement before putting him on the payroll. Had the sheriff made the call, he would have known about the 1996 complaint from Coleman's former employer, the sheriff in Cochran County, who said Coleman should not be in law enforcement. [continues 976 words]
Opposition, Activists Take Thaksin To Task Opposition politicians and human rights activists yesterday accused the government of using extra-legal means to kill drug suspects while playing to the public's emotion by citing the welfare of children to justify it. Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Democrat party deputy leader, said Thaksin Shinawatra was twisting the issue by branding anyone who did not agree with his policy to ``kill off'' drug suspects as ignoring the needs of Thai children. ``Today we can all see if Mr Thaksin is a democratic man or not. His fierce attacks of critics have him using words that are more and more unreasonable. He runs the country using his personal satisfaction as a yardstick rather than what is right and lawful,'' Mr Abhisit said. [continues 433 words]
An ex-Rampart unit member also suspected many others routinely committed crimes. In interviews with state and federal authorities, the onetime partner of corrupt ex-Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez accused nine fellow officers of serious misconduct and said he suspected that many officers in the Rampart Division's anti-gang unit routinely committed crimes, according to confidential transcripts. Former Officer Nino Durden, in sometimes tearful testimony, said sergeants in two different shootings instructed officers to lie about the circumstances of the incidents to make their actions appear more tactically sound when reviewed by police superiors. The officers, he said, went along with the fake stories to protect themselves and colleagues from possible administrative charges. [continues 2438 words]
Bratton asks for an outside panel to review how the LAPD handled the scandal, fearing it could 'bleed this department to death.' Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton called Tuesday for an independent "blue ribbon committee" to account for the LAPD's handling of the Rampart corruption scandal, saying that efforts to do so by department officials have been "totally inadequate." In calling for the formation of the panel, Bratton told members of the city's civilian Police Commission that the Rampart scandal still hangs over the Los Angeles Police Department and that if it isn't addressed, it has the potential to "bleed this department to death." [continues 931 words]
- - D.A. Says Many Would Depend On The Testimony Of Perez And Durden, Who Aren't Credible Los Angles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley announced Monday that dozens of cases against officers implicated in the LAPD's Rampart Division scandal would not result in criminal prosecution. Cooley said he made the decision based on his review of 82 Rampart-related cases that detectives submitted to prosecutors. The district attorney's office decided to not prosecute the cases because of insufficient evidence and because the statute of limitations had expired. Further, many of the cases involved the two main players in the scandal -- Rafael Perez and Nino Durden -- who had entered into plea bargains that protect them from further prosecution. [continues 794 words]
A former Davidson County narcotics officer's statement that he planted evidence should prompt more investigation. David Scott Woodall, who was a lieutenant with the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, said in an affidavit that he was the source of crack cocaine used as evidence against Terrence Maurice Barriet. The suspect was convicted of drug charges and sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison. Woodall is serving a 27-year sentence in the same facility. He was one of three former Davidson County officers convicted on charges of extortion and conspiracy to distribute cocaine and other illegal substances. [continues 97 words]
With each passing year, evidence mounts that America is sadly losing the war on drugs -- not to drug cartels or drug traffickers over there, but to the dependably relentless appetite for illegal drugs created by our neighbors right here at home. Eighty-six years after Congress passed the 1914 Harrison Act that criminalized drugs, America's drug consumption thrives. According to recent surveys and news reports, illegal drugs are cheaper, purer and more available than ever before, and the results are devastating. [continues 867 words]
This time, police did their job right. This time, Gerald Matticks is staying in jail. The man behind the most embarrassing moment in Quebec policing was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in jail for being a major drug supplier to the Hells Angels. His guilty plea came after his trusted right-hand man - a former vitamin-store owner who started out with Matticks by selling stolen chickens - turned on him and talked to police. So Matticks pleaded after getting an iron-clad guarantee from justice officials that he won't be extradited to the United States to face much longer sentences there, even though his drug shipments crossed their soil. [continues 1461 words]
Police in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have used teargas to disperse a demonstration by students who are protesting over the death of another student shot by police on Thursday. Students at Nairobi University were confined to their halls of residence overnight after they started throwing stones in protest, but they took to the streets again on Friday morning. The campus was sealed off and Nairobi's central thoroughfare, Uhuru Highway, was reportedly closed to traffic for a while on Friday morning. [continues 208 words]
