Four cops from the elite Chicago special operations section are charged with robbing, beating, kidnapping and intimidating suspected drug dealers. According to published reports, as many as nine cops are suspected of abusing their police power in the latest episode of drug-war corruption. Part of the drug-war strategy is to take the ill-gotten goods from the drug dealers -- take their real estate, their fancy ccars, boats, airplanes and cash. Seize and forfeit, seize and forfeit -- that's the drug-war way. Half the confiscated loot goes to the arresting agency and half to the feds. [continues 381 words]
John Galligan -- the former partner of the man described by prosecutors as Chicago's most corrupt police officer -- has been moved from prison into home confinement, authorities said. Galligan was serving his 57-month sentence at a minimum-security prison in Yankton, S.D. He was placed on home confinement Aug. 9 and is scheduled to be freed from the federal Bureau of Prisons' custody Dec. 12, a bureau spokesman said. Galligan declined comment through a lawyer. Bid For Shorter Term Weighed [continues 193 words]
Demands Longer Term In Chicago Drug Case In an extraordinary move, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee privately demanded last month that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago change its decision in a narcotics case because he didn't believe a drug courier got a harsh enough prison term. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), in a five-page letter dated June 23 to Chief Judge Joel Flaum, asserted that a June 16 decision by a three-judge appeals court panel was wrong. [continues 1542 words]
The Author of the New Book 'Bad Trip' Discusses Why Anti-Drug Laws Are the Terrorist's Best Friend and What This Year's Election Means for the War Against Drugs. Joel Miller's first book, Bad Trip: How the War Against Drugs is Destroying America (http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-0785261478-3) (WND Books), is a devastating examination of government anti-drug policies. Publishers Weekly calls the book a "well-researched, bitingly written account," and "a formidable challenge to the reigning prohibitionist orthodoxy." [continues 1693 words]
Fallout from the case of a cop dubbed one of Chicago's most corrupt continued Wednesday with three officers pleading guilty to a scheme to steal cocaine from a drug trafficker, blame it on someone else and then cover it up. In what federal prosecutors called a first for the Chicago area, two of the officers--Edgar I. Placencio and Ruben Oliveras--were charged not for financial gain from the scam but for covering up for colleagues. Placencio, with 11 years on the force, pleaded guilty to a felony civil rights violation. Oliveras, a 16-year veteran, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor civil rights charge. [continues 523 words]
Monday morning, Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard congratulated some 150 officers and their families at a commendation ceremony. The officers' deeds ranged from safely disarming a man who had pulled a gun at a crowded Chicago Transit Authority station, to unraveling a scheme in which a bank employee was siphoning away an elderly woman's life savings, to carrying a man who could not walk--and his oxygen tank--from a burning building. Monday afternoon, Hillard stood with federal prosecutors as they disclosed the indictment of three Chicago officers for allegedly conspiring to possess and distribute cocaine. In 1998 the three allegedly took seven kilograms of cocaine from a vehicle police had impounded in order to sell five kilos and pocket the proceeds. The government's narrative also accuses one of the three of obstructing a murder investigation. (One officer has pleaded guilty; the others have pleaded not guilty.) [continues 781 words]
Lenient Sentence Reflects Help In Investigations A gang member whose extensive talks with the FBI prompted corrupt former Chicago Police Officer Joseph Miedzianowski to refer to him as the "Mouth of the South" was sentenced Friday to 5 years in prison for his role in the ex-cop's drug ring. U.S. District Judge Blanche Manning accepted the prosecution's recommendation that Frederick Rock receive a lenient sentence instead of a possible 9-year term because of his cooperation in the case against Miedzianowski and in two other FBI investigations. [continues 240 words]
Six pending drug cases and an unsolved murder have drawn new scrutiny from police and prosecutors after a Chicago police officer and a detective were named in a corruption indictment unsealed this week, sources say. Chicago police Detective Jon Woodall and officer James Benson, along with fellow Grand Central District officer Peter Matich--who did not work on any pending drug cases--are charged with stealing 11 pounds of cocaine from an impounded car in 1998. Each plotted to receive $12,000 from the sale of the drugs, said the federal indictment unveiled Monday. [continues 188 words]
Three rogue cops ripped off 11 pounds of cocaine from a drug dealer's car in a scheme tied to disgraced Chicago police gang investigator Joseph Miedzianowski, federal prosecutors said today. Chicago police officer James B. Benson pleaded guilty this morning in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to possess cocaine. He faces 135 to 168 months in prison. He was released on $4,500 bail. Benson declined to make any statements as he stood before Judge John W. Darrah in a brown leather jacket and blue jeans. [continues 372 words]
Listen to Joseph Miedzianowski, the man called Chicago's most crooked cop, and you hear a terrifying talent for talking. It's a talent that helped him nab criminals, seduce informants and perpetuate his own tough-guy legend. It's a talent that also helped turn his informants into partners in crime and inspire equal parts fear and loyalty among his cronies in the cocaine ring he ran. And in the end, it's a talent that trapped him, as federal prosecutors wiretapped his phones to record his secret life as a drug dealer and as a close friend to gang-bangers. [continues 324 words]
He vacationed with drug dealers, sold them arms, talked too much The beginning of the end for Chicago cop Joseph Miedzianowski came Dec. 9, 1998, when an operator with AT&T security left a puzzling message at his office in the Gang Crimes Unit. The telephone company wanted to talk about a wiretap on a suspect's phone. "Now this was a request by me?" he said when he returned the call, knowing he hadn't ordered a wiretap. "Well, not necessarily ... it has your name on the order," the operator said. [continues 3475 words]
When former Chicago police officer John Galligan needed help paying the bills for his criminal defense attorney, more than 1,000 people showed up at the fund-raiser. But Galligan's loyalty to friends, which inspired such a turnout, also proved his undoing, prosecutors said Friday as Galligan was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for helping his longtime partner, a notoriously corrupt cop. "I stand before this court ashamed, humiliated," Galligan told U.S. District Judge Blanche Manning on Friday. The former gang crimes specialist and Vietnam War veteran apologized for bringing discredit to "the Chicago Police Department, the City of Chicago, family, friends." [continues 234 words]
Cops call it velocity. The rapid-fire exchange of dollar bills for dime bags. Cash flowing from a drug deal into a bank account under an assumed name. Money being pulled from the account to buy luxury cars, designer clothing and more dope. The high-speed spin cycle that makes dirty money clean. "The faster you can spend the money to buy the dope, the faster you sell the dope, and the more money you make," said William O'Brien, the assistant Cook County state's attorney in charge of the office's Narcotics Prosecution Bureau. "One way to stop the velocity is to throw a wrench into the money aspect of it. Once it gets deposited and the bulk cash is turned into a blip on the computer screen, we can't do anything about it." [continues 4542 words]
Miedzianowski Case Spurs Inquiry While prosecuting a former officer who for years operated a drug ring from inside the Chicago Police Department, federal authorities discovered that as many as five other officers were involved in narcotics activity that included setting up drug dealers and stealing their cocaine, according to FBI documents obtained by the Tribune. The Police Department, which is assisting in the federal investigation, stripped three officers of their badges in the summer of 1999 and reassigned them to department headquarters, where they continue to perform administrative duties. [continues 1375 words]
Chicago police officers are trained never to let their partner down. But a 23-year veteran of the force paid the price Thursday for helping his partner run an interstate drug ring. John F. Galligan, 51, pleaded guilty to helping his partner run the crack cocaine operation and then lying to cover it up. Under a plea agreement, federal prosecutors recommended that Galligan serve 57 months in prison. Galligan's partner, Joseph Miedzianowski, was found guilty of orchestrating the drug operation last April after a 12-week trial. [continues 204 words]
On April 20, while the Chicago Police Department awaited the return of the jury's verdict in former Police Officer Joseph Miedzianowski's corruption trial, WBBM-AM radio announced the discovery that kilos of cocaine were missing from a Chicago Police Department evidence vault. Word is that detectives assigned to investigate the drug pilferage have been seen snooping around the vault, and heard calling, "Here, little kilo. Here, little kilo." A few weeks ago, Chicago Police Supt. Terry Hillard ordered his officers not to moonlight at rave parties where kids are known to be dealing and consuming drugs. Who knows--next week, he might order Chicago police not to sell illicit drugs, either. In contrast, in Austria, officials in a project called "Check It" allow teens to have their "club drugs" tested during rave parties, and within 15 minutes the test results are posted by an anonymous number so kids know what drugs they are about to take, their potency and whether they contain contaminants. The drug war supplies endless material for humor, irony and, of course, drugs by the kilo and by the ton. [continues 364 words]
CHICAGO (AP) - A former police officer praised for breaking up street gangs was convicted Monday of joining gang members in conspiring to sell $2 million worth of cocaine. Joseph Miedzianowski, a 22-year police veteran, faces a maximum of life in prison after conviction on 10 counts including racketeering, conspiracy to sell cocaine, selling cocaine and wire fraud. The defense said it would appeal. Four Miedzianowski associates were also convicted. As a gang-crimes specialist, Miedzianowski, 48, was free to roam the city, developing informants. He testified that his seeming friendship with Imperial Gangsters and other street gang members was designed to gather information. [continues 157 words]
On the long list of casualties in the war on drugs we now can add missionary Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter Charity. The two were killed when a Peruvian military jet shot down their plane over South America in the mistaken belief that it was ferrying cocaine. Since Peru began such aggressive drug interdiction actions in the mid-1990s--at America's insistence--the military reportedly has forced more than 30 drug-running planes from the sky and seized more than a dozen on the ground. [continues 331 words]
Officer's Lawyer Derides Witnesses, Evidence In Closing The lawyer for Joseph Miedzianowski on Monday ridiculed the government's charges that the ex-cop led a dual life as a Chicago police officer and a drug kingpin, calling prosecutors' evidence non-existent and their witnesses liars. Thomas Breen told jurors the gang leaders and violent drug dealers who testified against Miedzianowski did so to get shorter prison sentences. "They're felons. Their loyalty is only to the mob and themselves, to the Maniac Latin Disciples and the Imperial Gangsters, and all the trash that ruins our parks and schools," Breen said in his closing argument. [continues 353 words]
Prosecutor Begins Closing Arguments Standing in front of a jury, a federal prosecutor Wednesday held up Joseph Miedzianowski's police badge and service revolver to make his point that the former Chicago police officer had used both to allegedly protect gang members and dealers affiliated with his drug ring. "With this badge and this gun, and all the power of the Chicago Police Department, Joseph Miedzianowski was supposed to take drugs off the street," Assistant U.S. Atty. John Lausch said. "Joseph Miedzianowski did the opposite." [continues 474 words]
