Drugs - Busts, Research, Legislation, Corruption

[aphaziak]

I lost my original thread in the last crash, so out of sheer boredom at work I am resurrecting the tradition in a new thread.

B.C. fisherman held in drug bust again

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...ugbust11m.html



A drug-smuggling Canadian fisherman who mysteriously escaped prosecution after being caught off Washington's coast in 2001 with 2? tons of cocaine in his boat's hold ? one of the largest drug seizures in Northwest history ? apparently is at it again: U.S. authorities have charged him after his sailboat was stopped off the coast of Colombia carrying 400 kilograms of coke.

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter

A Canadian fisherman and drug smuggler who escaped prosecution after authorities seized his boat and cargo of 2 ? tons of cocaine off the Washington coast in 2001 is now suspected of trying to smuggle 400 kilograms of cocaine from Colombia by boat.

The Oct. 18 arrest of John Philip Stirling, a gruff 60-year-old fisherman from Vancouver Island, marks the third time in a decade that he's been caught red-handed smuggling large quantities of drugs, according to court records. Until now, he's managed to avoid prosecution on both sides of the border, although nobody has ever said on the record how.

He remains unabashed and unapologetic, according to charges filed in the recent case in Miami.

While being transported to the Federal Detention Center in Miami, Stirling is alleged to have remarked that "there was nothing wrong with cocaine trafficking and that the United States should mind its own business."

The charges say Stirling's sailing vessel, the 58-foot Atlantis V, was intercepted 300 miles off the Colombian mainland by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Confidence on Oct. 17. The boat, which was in international waters sailing under a Canadian flag, was shadowed by the cutter while the Coast Guard awaited authority from Canada to board her.

The next day, while still awaiting permission, an Atlantis V crewman identified as Luigi Barbaro jumped into the sea and was picked up by the cutter.

"Barbaro informed the USCG that narcotics were on the Atlantis V and that he feared for his life." He claimed the remaining crew members were preparing to scuttle the boat. In the meantime, a second crewman jumped and was rescued, according to the charges.

After Canada provided permission to board the boat, a team from the Confidence found 358 bundles of suspected cocaine, weighing roughly 880 pounds, hidden behind woodwork. Two of the bundles were later found to contain heroin and methamphetamine, the charges say.

In 2006, Canadian authorities boarded another fishing vessel captained by Stirling in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and found $6.5 million worth of marijuana. Stirling was charged in British Columbia. However, the prosecution was "stayed" ? without explanation ? and Stirling and his crew went free.

But the 2001 case involving Stirling and another boat, the Western Wind, still sets eyeballs rolling in federal law-enforcement circles.

Stirling was master of the 88-foot tuna boat, which was stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca off Cape Alava. Under several tons of frozen fish, searchers found nearly 5,000 pounds of cocaine in bags marked as sugar. At the time, it was considered the largest cocaine seizure in Northwest history.

U.S. Customs took Stirling and four crewmen into custody, only to release them to Canada a few days later without official explanation. He was never charged.

Stirling, in an interview with The Seattle Times the following year, admitted he was smuggling the drugs but said he'd been caught in a squeeze-play between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Hells Angels.

Stirling said the RCMP backed out of a deal to pay him $1 million to set up a drug sting of the Hells Angels. Stirling said he'd been approached about the deal by a biker intermediary he met in prison in the early 1990s while serving time for smuggling drugs.

The bikers helped him buy the Western Wind, he said, but then the RCMP pulled out of the deal. He claimed he was left owing money and drugs to the bikers, and said they'd kill him if he didn't deliver.

Law-enforcement sources on both sides of the border told a different story.

They said Stirling told the RCMP the deal had gone south ? so to speak ? and that he had simply gone fishing. However, while at sea, he said, he received a threatening email from the bikers telling him to go to Colombia and get the drugs, or else.

Either way, it was a double-cross, said Donald Bambenek, a retired senior agent with U.S. Customs who was running the investigation onboard the Western Wind that day.

The Canadians refused to provide information about Stirling, citing a law that offers complete and unqualified protection to police informants. Nor would they cooperate with any plan to try to salvage the drug delivery in British Columbia, even though it gave the RCMP a chance to crack the Hells Angels.

Canadian officials also refused to let armed ? or even unarmed ? U.S. agents on Canadian soil, Bambenek said.

"The way things worked is that the Canadians had to protect their informant, even if he went sideways on them," he said. "It was frustrating. We hit several roadblocks. We were in international waters, and a lot could have been done, but it wasn't."

Calls left with the RCMP media office in Vancouver were not immediately returned.

"All I can say is I hope that nobody is stupid enough to use him in any fashion as an informant," said Bambenek, who now runs an investigative agency in Gig Harbor.

Stirling did make overtures, according to the Miami charging documents.

"Stirling waived his right to an attorney, but stated that he would not provide information unless he was going to be released from custody," wrote FBI Special Agent Eric McGuire. "However, when Stirling was notified that an immediate release was not possible, he decided to invoke his right to counsel."

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com
---

Guy has some serious connections higher up to get away with that much weight, that many times. And he waved his right to an attorney but wouldn't talk until he was let go. Awful bold. Curious to see if he gets time for this one.

[HockeyGirl]

Ooh good. I need somewhere to write about my cartel readings.

Speaking of drugs, I was just reading that teens are turning to drinking straight bleach to pass drug tests.
Teens are stupid.

[PCP777]

I could use my boat.....nah.

[g r ee n ey e s]

Ooh good. I need somewhere to write about my cartel readings.

Speaking of drugs, I was just reading that teens are turning to drinking straight bleach to pass drug tests.
Teens are stupid.

I completely face palmed when I heard that some kids are sticking alcohol soaked tampons up their ass to get drunk. Insanity!!

[whackjob]

kids these days! i don't get it, they have the internet. they should know better.

the top story for a number of days is the one about the congressman's daughter fighting to legalize pot. it's like, who cares about what's going on around here, CONGRESSMAN BILBRAY'S DAUGHTER SMOKES WEED (for her medical condition)!!!

[HockeyGirl]

I completely face palmed when I heard that some kids are sticking alcohol soaked tampons up their ass to get drunk. Insanity!!

Ugh the pain that must cause

(without the over reaction part)

[aphaziak]

Study on teen drug abuse busts ethnic stereotypes

http://bostonherald.com/news/national/general/view.bg?articleid=1381032&format=text

By Christine McConville | Tuesday, November 15, 2011 |

Black and Asian teenagers are much less likely to do drugs and drink booze than white kids the same age, according to a new study that raises fresh questions about ethnic stereotypes.

The report, which tallied the drug and alcohol use of 72,561 Americans between 12 and 17 years old over a three-year period ending in 2008, also showed that kids in general prefer smoking pot to swilling booze, and that they?re all abusing more prescription painkillers each year.

But to Dr. Dan Blazer, a Duke University psychiatrist and the study?s senior author, the varying levels of drug use among different ethnic groups is most revealing.

"There's a myth out there that black kids are more likely to have problems with drugs than white kids," he told The Pulse.

His findings, however, tell a different story.

Blazer found that 35 percent of the white kids in the group, 37 percent of the Native Americans and 32 percent of Hispanics consumed alcohol in the last year.

By comparison, only one in four black kids and about one in five Asian teens reported drinking alcohol during that period.

Marijuana use varied, too. Less than 6 percent of Asian kids reported smoking dope over the past year, about half the percentage of white, black and Hispanic teens who did. The group mostly likely to smoke weed: Native American teens. One in four said they used marijuana.

Boston-based researchers said the findings are in line with earlier studies, yet the drug and alcohol myths die hard if they ever die at all.

But why these discrepancies exist is the question Blazer now faces.

He has his theories.

Many of our students at Duke are Asian, and they say, "We just don?t use drugs like the other students at Duke, so maybe there's a cultural damper on the use of drugs among Asians," he said.

"We don't really have a good explanation on why blacks use fewer drugs. It could be economics, or it could be something else."

"But we do know that white teens that use substances and abuse substances are less likely to get involved in crime (than their African-American peers) because they tend to have more financial resources."

Then again, he adds, "Maybe those white kids are in a situation where they actually have a protective cluster around them, so their drug use doesn't come to the attention of the public."

But one thing is clear.

"All of the drugs that we looked at are illegal for adolescents to be using, and they are using them, so it's very hard when you look at data like this to say, "We don?t have a problem" he said.

[aphaziak]

How to eliminate Afghan drug production

Editor's Note: Viktor Ivanov is the Director of Russia's Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Viktor Ivanov.

By Viktor Ivanov - Special to CNN

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn....l-?poppy?-map/

In early September, the upper house of the Afghan parliament accused the international community of failing to wage a successful fight against drug production and trafficking in Afghanistan. This accusation is supported, in their view, by the growth of the heroin manufacturing industry in the country to an estimated worth of about $50 billion.

Equally disappointing is the conclusion of the U.S. Congress Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, co-chaired by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Grassley, which acknowledges the absence of distinctive results of international efforts in Afghanistan to combat drug production. Both senators draw attention to the need to destroy opium poppies as the main way of eliminating drug production.

Also discouraging is that the United Nations estimates that in the decade since U.S. and NATO military operations began in Afghanistan, Afghan heroin has killed a million young people in Eurasia. Moreover, shortly after the start of military operations, it came to the United States itself and, according to American experts, about two million Americans have become addicts. U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman said earlier this year that drug trafficking from Afghanistan poses a threat not only for Russia but for the United States as well.

What has stymied progress in the fight against Afghan drug production? There are three main causes.

First, the most effective tactical approach to combating drug production?crop extermination?is not applied in Afghanistan today. Simply put, if there were no crops, there would be no drugs. Rather, current strategies focus on strangling drug trafficking routes, which are difficult to expose and extremely criminalized. Considering that trafficking routes in Eurasia and Central Asia cover more than 25 million square kilometers, whereas all opium poppy fields in Afghanistan comprise no more than 1,300 square kilometers?20 thousand times smaller than the overall trafficking territory?it seems misguided to focus on the former.

A more effective approach would be to begin at the root of the process, where the crops grow, and introduce appropriate legal norms so that land where drug crops are discovered could be expropriated and owners strictly punished. The application of effective measures against land owners with crops of opium poppies would make anti-drug programs more targeted, tied as they are to the people behind the trade as opposed to a regional administration.

Second, the current approach to combating drug production and trafficking in Afghanistan is ideological. Current strategies focus on the movement and finances of the Taliban, which, even the U.S. State Department has conceded, is the beneficiary of only a minority of drug profits?less than $150 million?compared to the $50 billion in total revenues of Afghan heroin traffickers. As a result, powerful crime syndicates remain outside the focus of the world's attention and are sufficiently resourced to bribe officials, influence policies of other states and, perhaps, to fund international organizations.

This approach sacrifices anti-drug missions to geopolitical objectives. This is not dissimilar to the situation in Noriega?s Panama, with respect to which the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Drugs and International Operations of the U.S. Senate concluded: ?In some ways foreign policy considerations impair the ability of the United States to wage war against drugs. Foreign policy priorities ? from time to time delayed, hindered or directly contradict enforcement efforts aimed at preventing the diversion of drugs into the United States.?

Third, in the fight against drug production there is virtually no use of modern digital technology. In the era of iPhone and GPS, this is anachronistic at best. The time has come to incorporate digital systems into the fight against drug production. I would like to introduce Russia?s initiative for digital measures to eliminate Afghan drug production: the Digital Poppy Road Map.

We propose creating an interactive map as an informational resource available to all people to consolidate information on Afghan drug production in one place. It would record all relevant information on crops, drug labs, warehouses and routes of transit. The goal of this project will be to consolidate this information so that it can be constantly revised and updated by a number of parties.

The map will identify key drug production infrastructure and supply hubs, opium and marijuana fields, opium markets and bazaars, drug laboratories, drug holdings, trade paths, etc. Such a map will enable authorities to identify and localize the exact infrastructure contributing to the production of these brands, which will give a new understanding of this complex issue.

Placing such a map in the public eye will enable us to coordinate anti-drug trafficking assignments to the appropriate authorities. This will promote transparency and cooperation among key international players in the Afghan anti-trafficking movement.

According to our estimates, tens of billions of dollars a year are spent on anti-drug programs without much success. Thorough digitization can be done for just $150 million a year, by our estimates. The digitization of the fight against drug production would require the close cooperation of Russia, the United States and other global bodies. It is an affordable, effective and badly needed tool against the scourge of the global drug trade.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of Viktor Ivanov.
--

All nice and well except for failing to mention that if they just destroy the poppy crops, the already poverty stricken farmers will have no income available at all. Due to the geography of the country and the climate, there are not many profitable crops that can be grown there. Even if they are, the roads into and out of the mountains are treacherous, and that is if you have any means of transportation to begin with. As with so many of the drug problems here, the larger issues behind the problem are never addressed.

[aphaziak]

Military Vehicles Assist Local Law Enforcement

http://www.wbng.com/news/local/Military-Vehicles-Assist-Local-Law-Enforcement-133898683.html

By WBNG News

November 15, 2011
Oxford, NY (WBNG Binghamton)

The Chenango County Sheriff's Office adds a military Humvee to its Narcotics Enforcement Team.

The Sheriff's Office was given a 1992 military Humvee through the United States Military 1033 Program.

This program allows law enforcement agencies to receive free surplussed property from the Department of Defense.

This military property must be used for Narcotic Enforcement efforts.

The Humvee was painted and altered to create a safe working environment for law enforcement.

Any alterations made to the vehicle were paid for by seized drug money in Chenango County.

The Sheriff's Office received a second military Humvee in August of 2011 from the Fort Drum Military base.

That vehicle will be will also be converted into a Narcotic/Emergency Response Vehicle

[aphaziak]

San Diego drug tunnel bust yields 17 tons of marijuana

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_1...-of-marijuana/


The entrance to a tunnel discovered Nov. 15, 2011 near Otay Mesa, Calif.

(CBS/AP) SAN DIEGO - About 17 tons of marijuana was seized in the discovery of a cross-border tunnel that authorities said Wednesday was one of the most significant secret drug smuggling passages ever found on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The tunnel, discovered Tuesday, stretched about 400 yards and linked warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana, authorities said.

U.S. authorities seized around nine tons of the drug from inside a truck and at a warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, while Mexican authorities recovered about eight tons south of the border.

Authorities spoke at a news conference surrounded by packages of seized dope festooned with labels of Captain America, Sprite and Bud Light. The markings are codes to identify the owners.

Photos taken by Mexican authorities show an entry blocked by bundles that were likely stuffed with marijuana, said Paul Beeson, chief of the Border Patrol's San Diego sector. Tunnel walls were lined with wood supports and the passage was equipped with lighting and ventilation systems.

The tunnel was about four feet high and three feet wide.

Two men allegedly seen leaving the San Diego warehouse in a truck packed with about three tons of pot were pulled over Tuesday on a highway in suburban La Mesa and arrested. A California Highway Patrol officer was overwhelmed by the smell, according to a federal complaint.

Cesar Beltran and Ruben Gomez each face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, said Alana Robinson, chief of the U.S. attorney's narcotics enforcement section in San Diego. They were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

Although cross-border tunnels have proliferated in recent years, the latest find is one of the more significant, based on the amount of drugs seized.

Raids last November on two tunnels linking San Diego and Tijuana netted a combined 50 tons of marijuana on both sides of the border, two of the largest pot busts in U.S. history. Those secret passages were lined with rail tracks, lighting and ventilation.

As U.S. authorities tighten their noose on land, tunnels have emerged as a major tack to smuggle marijuana. Smugglers also use single-engine wooden boats to ferry bales of marijuana up the Pacific Coast and pilot low-flying aircraft that look like motorized hang gliders to make lightning-quick drops across the border.

More than 70 tunnels have been found on the border since October 2008, surpassing the number of discoveries in the previous six years. Many are clustered around San Diego, California's Imperial Valley and Nogales, Ariz.

California is popular because its clay-like soil is easy to dig with shovels. In Nogales, smugglers tap into vast underground drainage canals.

San Diego's Otay Mesa area has the added draw that there are plenty of warehouses on both sides of the border to conceal trucks getting loaded with drugs. Its streets hum with semitrailers by day and fall silent on nights and weekends.

After last November's finds, U.S. authorities launched a campaign to alert Otay Mesa warehouse landlords to warning signs. Landlords were told to look for construction equipment, piles of dirt, sounds of jackhammers and the scent of unburned marijuana.

U.S. authorities linked last November's finds to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, headed by that country's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The cartel has expanded its sphere of influence to Tijuana in recent years.

U.S. authorities said the sophistication of the latest tunnel suggests that a major Mexican drug cartel was involved, but no link has been established.

[aphaziak]

Police say one street bust led to massive drug raid

Matthew Coutts, ctvtoronto.ca
Date: Thursday Nov. 17, 2011 2:38 PM ET

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111117/project-decepticon-drug-bust-raid-111117/20111117/?hub=TorontoNewHome



A massive series of raids that pulled in more than $1 million worth of marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy off the streets was lauded as a significant blow to the drug trade in southern Ontario on Thursday, but investigators said they were realistic about the effects it will have in the long run.

"I am realistic that it will have a short-term impact and other folks will fill the void. That is the nature of this drug business; someone is always willing to take the risk and step in," Staff Insp. Randy Franks said during a press conference on Thursday.

"But for the time being we have made a significant dent to this group."

More than two dozen people were arrested on Wednesday as police executed morning raids across Toronto, York and Durham in the culmination of "Project Decepticon," a months-long investigation into the illicit sale and distribution of drugs.

Twenty-six search warrants were executed on homes and businesses across the Toronto area, including York, Durham, Belleville, and Hamilton.

"It was across the city and outside of the city as well," Franks said. "It wasn't focused in any particular community or neighbourhood."

Police allege that the following was seized during the raids:

• approximately 23,330 ecstasy pills valued at $466,600
• approximately 28 grams of crack cocaine valued at $1,500
• approximately 54 grams of powder cocaine valued at $5,940
• approximately 230 grams of hashish valued at $5,750
• approximately 86 lbs. of marijuana valued at $343,000.

Police say that two active marijuana grow operations were also dismantled during the raids, resulting in the seizure of 607 marijuana plants, with an estimated street value of $607,000.

Police also seized more than $100,000 in Canadian currency, some $5,000 in U.S. currency and two handguns.

Six vehicles were seized as offence-related property in Project Decepticon.

"Decepticon" is the name of the villainous robots from the Transformers cartoons and movie series. Police said the name is a reference to the Transformers logo, which was found stamped on ecstasy pills seized early in the investigation.

During the press conference on Thursday, Franks outlined how a simple street-level drug bust in Scarborough grew in size and scope to encompass as many as six independent drug rings.

Franks said Toronto Police Service's Drug Squad linked one group of drug dealers to others across the region, who would allegedly rely on one another when their supplies of narcotics ran low.

"We usually focus on the smaller cells. We don't usually see the co-operation ? among these various groups," Franks said. "These are probably a number of different cells on their own. In this investigation the investigators were savvy enough to connect them."

Thirty-four men and women between the ages of 18 and 55 have been charged with a litany of drug possession- and trafficking-related offences, as well as various weapons offences.
--

Project Decepticon... love it.

[aphaziak]

$680,000 drug bust in Queens

A drug thug was busted in the middle of a Sports Authority parking lot in Queens on one of the busiest shopping days of the year ? with 20 kilos of coke in his trunk, cops said yesterday.

Kwame Deschamps, a 27-year-old licensed barber from Lynn, Mass., was acting suspiciously Saturday in the store?s lot on Woodhaven Boulevard in Forest Hills, police said.

Cops investigated and reported finding in his car?s trunk more than $600,000 in cocaine and about 4,000 OxyContin pills, which can go for up to $20 a pop, or a total of $80,000.

Deschamps was arraigned and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

He had been arrested in Massachusetts in 2009 for marijuana possession, according to police.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/drug_bust_in_queens_UCkg2MaZteL4l53teeaGGP#ixzz1fE Hqgw3c

Wow. Intelligence at its finest.

[angelaiscaustic]

OH MY GOD I used to be a cashier at that Sports Authority!

[aphaziak]

first dup post evar!

[aphaziak]

Police From Braintree, Around State Bust Alleged Prescription Drug Ring

The following information was supplied by the Braintree Police Department. Where arrests or charges are mentioned, it does not indicate a conviction.

By Joseph Markman

November 29, 2011

http://braintree.patch.com/articles/...tion-drug-ring

Men from Braintree, Duxbury and Maine were arrested on Friday, Nov. 25 by a Massachusetts State Police drug unit, following a two-month investigation by several police departments, including Braintree, that turned up evidence of prescription drug trafficking.

Duxbury, Marshfield, Norwood and Quincy police also contributed to the investigation that led to the arrests of James Hughes, 60 of Duxbury, Edward P. Hartnett, 34 of Braintree, and Brian Denoncourt, 26 of Hancock, ME, according to a statement by Braintree Deputy Chief Russell Jenkins said.

As a result of their investigation, police determined that Hughes was legally obtaining a "large, monthly prescription" of Oxyocodone pills and then selling them to Hartnett, owner of the Bikerz Finest Motorcycle shop on Providence Highway in Norwood, Jenkins said.

On Friday, detectives noted that Hartnett picked up 2,500 Oxycodone pills and then followed him to his bike shop in Norwood. A search of Hartnett after he left the shop led police to find $15,000 in cash. Hartnett then "made statements to the detectives as to how he came in possession of the money," Jenkins said, and a warrant search of the shop turned up 2,500 30mg Oxycodone pills, along with another $5,100 in cash and two stun guns.

All three men were subsequently arrested. Jenkins said Denoncourt was linked to the alleged crimes through the investigation and is believed to have conspired with Hartnett to possess the pills.

"Approximately 1000 of the roughly 2500 pills seized were located in Denoncourt's jacket pocket," Jenkins said.

Hughes, Hartnett and Denoncourt were arrested by the Norwood Police and charged with trafficking in Oxycodone over 200 grams and conspiracy to violate the Controlled Substances Act, Jenkins said.

Hartnett and Denoncourt were also charged with possession of Oxycodone with intent to distribute and possession of a stun gun. All three men were due to be arraigned in Dedham District Court on Monday morning.

In addition, a later search of Hartnett's Braintree home uncovered more than one pound of marijuana, Jenkins said.

[aphaziak]

OH MY GOD I used to be a cashier at that Sports Authority!

hahahah are you serious? that's amazing. that's a serious amount of weight and money!!!

[angelaiscaustic]

hahahah are you serious? that's amazing. that's a serious amount of weight and money!!!

YES. I picked up a seasonal job there for side money like 3 years ago. I'm dying laughing hahaha

[Ron_NYC]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...pFO_story.html

Honored former Colo. sheriff faces meth for sex charge; held in jail named for him

[aphaziak]

Classy all around. And not only did he sell meth for sex with guys, but he was pinching some off the bags. Bastard!

[aphaziak]

Noriega returns to Panama a largely forgotten man


Panama's former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega takes part in a news conference in Panama City in 1998. Noriega left Paris early on Sunday, headed for a prison in his home country to serve a 20-year term for the murders of opponents during his rule. Noriega, now 77, was toppled in a U.S. invasion in 1989 and has spent the last two decades behind bars, first in Florida and then in France after being convicted for drug trafficking and money laundering.

By Associated Press

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news...-forgotten-man

PANAMA CITY - More than two decades after the U.S. forced him from power, Manuel Noriega returned to Panama on Sunday as a prisoner and, to many of those he once ruled with impunity, an irrelevant man.

Some Panamanians feel hatred for the former strongman and rejected American ally; a few others nostalgia. But hours before his arrival in the capital, Panama City, it seemed like few had any strong feelings at all. The crowds were not of protesters or supporters but holiday shoppers.

French officials turned Noriega over to their Panamanian counterparts early Sunday. His flight from Paris, with a stop in Madrid, landed in Panama that evening. Officials said a helicopter was waiting to whisk him to the El Renacer prison.

Noriega served prison terms in the U.S. and France before being sent back to Panama to answer for the deaths of political opponents. The ailing, 77-year-old former general is returning to a country much different from the one he left after surrendering to U.S. forces Jan. 3, 1990.

The government, once a revolving cast of military strongmen, is now governed by its fourth democratically elected president, Ricardo Martinelli.

El Chorrillo, Noriega's boyhood neighborhood and a downtown slum that was heavily bombed during the 1989 invasion, now stands in the shadow of luxury high-rise condominiums that have sprung up along the Panama Canal since the United States handed over control of the waterway in 2000.

The rotting wooden tenements of the community have been replaced by cement housing blocks. Noriega's former headquarters have been torn down and converted into a park with basketball courts.

While some Panamanians are eager to see punishment for the man who stole elections and dispatched squads of thugs to beat opponents bloody in the streets, others believe his return means little.

"I don't think Noriega has anything hugely important to say," said retired Gen. Ruben Dario Paredes, who headed Panama's army before Noriega took over in the early 1980s. "The things he knows about have lost relevance, because the world has changed and the country has, as well."

"In politics, he won't have any great impact, because the people of Panama have other concerns," said Marco Gandasegui, a sociology professor at Panama's Center for Latin American Studies.

Things were different in the 1970s and 1980s, when Noriega, whose pockmarked face earned him the nickname "Pineapple Face," became a valuable ally to the CIA. At that time, Noriega helped the U.S. combat leftist movements in Latin America by providing information and logistical help, and also acted as a back channel for U.S. communications with unfriendly governments such as Cuba's.

But as the Cold War waned, Noriega became a more powerful and unforgiving dictator at home. Tensions developed between the strongman and U.S. officials, who also had been aware for some time that he was also working with the Colombia-based Medellin drug cartel.

A U.S. grand jury indicted him on drug charges in 1988, escalating tensions between his forces and U.S. troops stationed around the Panama Canal. A U.S. Marine was killed in one clash. President George H.W. Bush also accused Noriega's men of abusing a U.S. Navy serviceman and his wife.

On Dec. 20, 1989, more than 26,000 U.S. troops began moving into Panama City, clashing with Noriega loyalists in fighting that left sections of the city devastated. Twenty-three U.S. troops, 314 Panamanian soldiers and 200 civilians died in the operation.

The dictator hid in bombed and burned-out neighborhoods before he sought refuge in the Vatican Embassy, which was besieged by U.S. troops playing loud rock music. When he gave up he was flown to Miami for trial on drug-related charges.

Noriega was convicted on the U.S. drug trafficking charges two years after the invasion, and served 17 years. He received special treatment as a prisoner of war and lived in his own bungalow with a TV and exercise equipment.

When his sentence ended, he was extradited to France, which convicted him for laundering millions of dollars in drug profits through three major French banks, and investing drug cash in three luxury Paris apartments.

In Panama, Noriega was sentenced in absentia to 20-year prison terms for the murders of military commander Moises Giroldi, slain after leading a failed 1989 rebellion, and Hugo Spadafora, a political opponent found decapitated on the border with Costa Rica in 1985. He received a 20-year sentence in a third case involving the death of troops who aided one of his opponents in a rebellion, and could be tried in the deaths of other opponents.

Unlike his minimum-security digs outside Miami, Noriega's cell in Panama's El Renacer prison will be spartan.

Noriega "will be located in an individual cell, without luxuries and in similar conditions to the rest of the inmates," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Vielka Pritsiolas said.

Pictures posted on the ministry's website showed a cell with little more than a bed, a table, and a shelf. It has its own tiny bathroom, relatively wide window slits and door screens that look out onto a sunny, tropical space with plants.

Noriega's lawyers in Panama have said they plan to request house arrest under a law that allows those over 70 to serve their sentences at home. His legal team says he has blood pressure problems and is paralyzed on the left side as a result of a stroke several years ago.

Hatuey Castro, 82, a Noriega opponent who was detained and beaten by his henchmen, says it is about time Noriega paid for what he did.

"Noriega was responsible for the invasion and those who died in the operation," he said. "He dishonored his uniform, there was barely a shot and he went off to hide. He must pay."

Others are more sympathetic toward the aging ex-general. When last seen during his extradition from the United States to France, he appeared to have difficulty walking and was assisted by others.

"This man has paid for his crimes, and it looks like he can hardly walk anymore," said 67-year-old retiree Hildaura Velasco. "If he dies in prison, or at home, what does it matter?"

Dance professor Ileana de Sola, 80, says it's time to let the past go.

"At his age, they should forgive him and not hurt him," she said. "The people in the Panamanian government now have been good and not so good. So he's not the only one who has committed sins. ... They should leave him alone."

Although they are probably in a minority, there are also those who harbor a certain nostalgia for the Noriega era. Panama has seen a spike in street gangs and drug violence since his ouster.

The country also remains a base for international drug trafficking and money laundering, and suffers from income inequality. Its government is struggling with an ambitious plan to expand the Panama Canal, and to balance foreign investment in tourism and mining against concerns they could harm the environment.

Where Martinelli, the current president, rose to prominence as a supermarket magnate, Noriega worked hard to develop the image of a man of the people. His private life was that of a rich man, but publicly he stressed his humble origins and spent weekends courting the residents of rural towns and villages.

Noriega "did bad things, but he also did good things," said Sabina Delgado, 60, a mother of six who has lived her whole life in El Chorrillo, which has been hit by a wave of violent gang crime. "Imagine, when he was here, the country didn't have as much crime. There weren't as much drugs, there was more control."

[aphaziak]

Police bust family business run from shed

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/mor...-1226219428802

A photograph of Bad Boy in his Skye meth lab was seized by police. Supplied

NURSING an air pistol as he sits in front of a makeshift drug lab, it seemed like happy days for this methylamphetamine "bad boy".

Working from a backyard shed at his southeast suburban property, he was a key player in a thriving family business with a good chunk of the local "ice" market.

But when the Clandestine Laboratory Squad started to take an interest, he went from Breaking Bad to behind bars on remand.

In May 2009, the squad started looking at the production and sale of methylamphetamine in and around Frankston.

At the same time, a chemical company in the Dandenong area was burgled and chemicals and equipment used to manufacture amphetamine-like substances were stolen.

The next night, the same property was burgled, and more chemicals and glassware stolen.




Days later, police moved on a property in the Pearcedale area and arrested a man, charging him with burglary, theft and drug offences.

Chemicals and gear from the break-ins were located, but most of the booty was still missing.

Three months later, more search warrants were executed in Carrum Downs, Skye and Langwarrin.

Six members of the same family were arrested and methylamphetamine, imitation guns, cannabis, cash and computers seized.

Some property was identified as being from the burglaries of May.

At the Skye property, where four children lived, was a backyard shed containing an efficient and potentially deadly lab.

The man was later convicted of possessing equipment for the purposes of drug manufacturing.

Six people were arrested and later faced charges including drug and firearm offences, possession of precursor chemicals, and having drug manufacturing equipment.

Property suspected of being the proceeds of crime was confiscated.

[HockeyGirl]

Ha the way this story was written made me laugh. Go on with yo bad self girl

From 'Blair Witch' to pot peddler

In 1999 Upper Darby native/actress Heather Donahue and her "Blair Witch Project" co-stars made moviegoers nauseous with their shaky camera-work.

But by 2007 Donahue was controlling nausea for medical marijuana patients in California, where she was growing weed.

Donahue, who'll be 37 next week, documents her year spent cultivating marijuana in "GrowGirl," out Jan. 5 from Gotham Penguin Publishing.

She received her own prescription for medical marijuana in 2007 to treat PMS. We asked whether that meant she smoked only one week a month, and she replied, "It's a very flexible medicine."

And you might be happy to know that her PMS is now under control.
http://articles.philly.com/2011-12-1...esidency-rules

[aphaziak]

Weed does help with PMS.

[Ron_NYC]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-scholars.html

[aphaziak]

Yea, while I'm all for drug research and trying to understand better ways of managing addiction, that article is just absolutely ridiculous. Heroin is one of the cheapest drugs there is, and the amount of crime even locally has definitely not dropped because of this. Addicts are desperate, and especially a heroin habit, which gains momentum and tolerance with a ferocious speed, doesn't have much of a limit on what is too much. Even if it were a $1 for a fix, most people who have gotten into committing crimes to support their habit have already sold everything they have of value, even their bodies. There is no end and there is never "enough", no matter what the price. Until they come up with a way to support people in a therapeutic manner, provide better social services, education and treatment, none of the violence that comes from drug sales will ever cease.

Oh, and a nice local example:

'Nervous bowels' alleged bank robber in jail

http://www.newstimes.com/policerepor...er-2412992.php

NEW MILFORD -- A local man charged with robbing a New Milford bank Friday is depicted in court documents as a drug-addicted ex-convict with nervous bowels whose wife and two young children were in the car when police said he committed the robbery.

Russell D. Mace, 55, of Pumpkin Hill Road, has a criminal record in Connecticut dating to 1982. He served time in federal prison after being convicted of bank robbery in 1989, according to an arrest warrant made public after Mace appeared in court Monday morning.

Both Mace and his wife, Erin Mace, 35, were arraigned in state Superior Court in Bantam and remain jailed on bond. She has not been charged in the robbery but is accused, along with her husband, of a purse-snatching outside a New Milford supermarket in November.

Police said they quickly honed in on Mace after viewing surveillance film of the holdup at a Union Savings Bank branch because of previous dealings with him and because what police said is the getaway car, a white Toyota with a missing hubcap and broken side mirror, had been involved in a traffic accident they investigated a few days earlier.

At least one supervisor inside the East Street bank anticipated trouble because a teller and a customer said they had seen a man "pooping" in the parking lot "and not being discreet" minutes before the 3:35 p.m. robbery, according to police.The supervisor warned tellers that the man who had been in the lot was coming into the bank and directed them to lock their cash drawers, bank employees told police.

Mace was "sweating and appeared nervous" as he told a male teller, "This is a robbery. Give me all your money," according to court documents.

The teller, who locked only one of his two cash drawers, gave the robber $3,050, which included a marked $20 bill police described as "bait money."

Erin Mace told police she and the couple's two children, a boy, 4, and a girl, 1, waited in the car while her husband went into the bank.

"I didn't know what he was doing. I thought Russell might have had to cash a check. He didn't say and I didn't ask," she told police.

Erin Mace, who told police that both she and her husband are heroin addicts, said she was curious about what happened, but didn't say anything until Mace pulled "a big wad of money" out of his sweatshirt as they were driving away, according to the affidavit.

"Russell robbed the bank out of desperation. Russell was just doing it for the family," police quoted her as saying.

Investigators were able to quickly track Russell and his family to New Britain by "pinging" his cell phone. He was taken into custody later Friday. Investigators said they recovered $2,777, including the marked $20.

Police had obtained Mace's phone number when they questioned him and his wife about the supermarket purse-snatching several weeks earlier, according to arrest warrant affidavits.

Police said the children were in the car that Russell Mace was driving Nov. 23 when their mother grabbed a shopper's purse out of a cart in the Stop & Shop parking lot.

During an interview with the Maces at their apartment later that day, the 4-year-old blurted out, "Daddy didn't take the purse, my mommy did," police said.

Both parents were charged in that crime Friday and were held in custody while police obtained an arrest warrant in the bank robbery case.Russell Mace is being held on bonds totalling $150,000 for the larceny and the bank robbery. Erin Mace's bond for the purse-snatching was set at $18,000.Their cases were transferred to state Superior Court in Litchfield, where both are scheduled to appear Jan. 4.