Daycare Center Also Secret Stash House
June 30th, 2009 by Rick
The Special Moments Daycare Center in East Flatbush was the scene of an attempted robbery on Friday, around twenty minutes after noon. Three suspects busted into the building where napping kids had been dreaming in quiet slumber. After responding via a 911 call, cops arrived at the scene and shot one suspect, 32-year-old Brooklyn native, Gavin Nugent, when he raised his loaded 9mm pistol at them.
After being admitted into the Kings County Hospital Center for gunshot wounds to the torso and wrist, Nugent was charged with burglary, robbery and weapons possession along with his two other accomplices, 35-year-old Dwayne Jackson and 39-year-old Carl Grierson. The reason for the attempted break-in wasn’t apparent until one of them told the police just why exactly they were trying to rob a daycare center.
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly commented:
It now appears the day care center was a drug haven, or where drugs in significant quantities were kept, primarily marijuana. [...] Marijuana was located at the scene, along with at least $100,000 in cash. It appears to be what the robbers were looking for.
Police then arrested 37-year old Donna Rogers, the operator of the daycare center, and her husband, 36-year-old Sherwin Rogers and charged them with possession of marijuana. Not sure what to say about this one, other than kids & drugs generally don’t mix. Now go do some coloring.
Funeral Home Director Busted for Growing
June 24th, 2009 by Rick
After receiving information about a marijuana grow operation, Missouri River Drug Task Force served a search warrant Monday on Helena Funeral Chapel in Helena, MT and discovered 70 marijuana plants in the attic. Jason Blaine Thornock was arrested and jailed with charges of “criminal production” or “manufacture of dangerous drugs.”
Thornock, who posted $50,000 bail on Tuesday, is a licensed medical marijuana card holder. Under the Montana medical marijuana law he is allowed six marijuana plants and one light, which was exactly what the police left after their raid. Sixty-four plants were entered as evidence as the investigation continues.
Pot Falls from Sky, Arrests Ensue
June 23rd, 2009 by Rick
Two New Mexico men became paranoid in the skies for good reason above Norwalk, Ohio when a jet belonging to U.S. border patrol (that happened to be working with Homeland Security) began following their single engine, 1963 Mooney airplane.
Dropping to an altitude so that one of them could dump a duffle bag that contained 20-25 pounds of weed, they figured that the authorities wouldn’t be able to track the pot that landed.
Ryan C. Thomas, 47, of Albuquerque and Greg J. Baca, 47, of Los Alamos were charged each with a second degree felony — one count of trafficking marijuana. The pair might have gotten away with the mid-air drop but a witness had seen the bag land in a field near May Road and State Rt. 598 south of Willard, Ohio and then called the authorities. The plane landed in Norwalk-Huron County Airport where they were greeted by k-9 drug sniffing dogs who immediately alerted the authorities to a suspicious marijuana odor on the plane.
Frozen Sharks Are the New Drug Mules, Mexico Cracks Down
June 18th, 2009 by RickArmed officers of the Mexican Navy patroling the Gulf coast port of Progreso in Yucatan state seized a ton of cocaine on board a freight ship. X-ray machines and drug sniffing dogs helped uncover the smuggling operation, which stashed “slabs” of cocaine within more than 20 frozen sharks.
Mexican Navy Commander Eduardo Villa said:
We are talking about more than a ton of cocaine that was inside the ship. [...] Those in charge of the shipment said it was a conserving agent but after checks we confirmed it was cocaine.
On Tuesday the Mexican Navy revealed the largest methamphetamine lab in Mexico. Initially thought to be used to water a marijuana plantation, a holding tank, in the remote part of the northern state of Sinaloa, was discovered to feed water into two huge sheds, which contained ephedrine (12,905 gallons), a chemical agent used to make methamphetamine.
Officials claim that it was enough to manufacture 40.2 tons of material, which could equate to 309 million individual hits. That’s enough to give everyone in the United States one dose and still have 3 million left over. That was from one source. How many other high level operations are scattered throughout the country that are under the radar? Too many.
For this reason, Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent 45,000 troops and federal police to wage war with the cartels to try and stop the drug violence in his country. This year alone 2,700 people have been killed due to drug related violence, while last year 6,300 were killed.
President Obama should take note because the cartels have already crossed the border in numerous ways, which has brought their violence and drugs into the states. However, Mexico realized that the problem was not just the organized crime element, they discovered that prohibition wasn’t working. They had the fortitude and sense to go ahead and legalize personal amounts of various recreational drugs and stop populating their prison system with drug related offenses.
Mexico was given $1.4 billion by the United States to fund their war on the cartels. That money allowed to purchase the mobile technology used by the Mexican Navy. Many high level bosses have been already captured and many more are now being hunted down. Corrupted officials connected to various cartels have been uncovered. Cartel operations have been uncovered in all of North America.
Major Drug Busts of the Week
April 28th, 2009 by Rick
Trucker Busted, 600 Pounds of Pot Seized
On Thursday, a trucker from Texas was pulled over on Interstate 70 in Lafayette County in NW Missouri and after a search of his tractor trailer at a secondary location, police find 600 pounds of marijuana.
Two Arrested on Missouri Drug Bust
A drug raid was authorized in Neosho, Missouri which led to 2 arrests and the seizure of an undisclosed, but large amount of meth, individually packaged for resale, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and a large amount of cash.
Heroin Packed Iranian Books Seized
On Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers said that earlier in the week at a DHL center based in Wilmington, Ohio they intercepted a shipment of heroin, hidden in books that originally came from Iran.
Border Patrol Agents Score a Turkey
In 3 separate incidents, U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Tucson Center, stopped hidden compartment smuggler operations. All together 3,684 pounds of marijuana were seized. All together in the first 6 months of the fiscal period of 2009, the Tucson Center has seized about 600,000 pounds – a record for Border Patrol.
On Wednesday, at Border Patrol Checkpoint State Route 85, agents arrested 4 people when they found 1,000 pounds of marijuana ($800,000) within a hidden compartment in 2 vehicles’ trailers.
Also on Wednesday, at Interstate 19 Checkpoint, a man was arrested after a K-9 drug sniffing dog alerted agents to the presence of possible contraband in a vehicle and after a secondary inspection was conducted 127 pounds ($101,600) was discovered in a hidden compartment.
Agents from the same station on early Thursday chased a suspicious vehicle and stopped the vehicle 3,000 feet north of Mexico causing the driver to bail and like Speedy Gonzalez, haul ass back home, leaving behind 2,557 pounds (over $2,045,000) of marijuana, packaged in 105 bales.
Thumbs Getting Greener in the Mormon State
November 3rd, 2008 by Perry
More than 90,000 marijuana plants were seized this year in rural Utah, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. During the months where the southern portion of the state has suitable conditions for growing marijuana, the state has seen an influx of what the federal government believes to be cartel-related activity.
Scott Burns, the deputy “drug czar” at the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy said:
These are large-scale, narco-traffickers. [...] These are the big guys.
What I found interesting is that no where in the story does the federal government justify why it believes its cartel activity, rather than local growers. The only reasoning offered is the appearance of the fields in Utah is a result of recent border tightening since 9/11. That combined with the scale of the operation, and its proximity to California and Mexico, apparently means cartel involvement.
I find it a little strange that there’s absolutely no cartel violence in Utah though. The DEA fails to explain how a state that’s 58 percent Mormon and 95 percent “white” according to the 2000 census, managed to smuggle in a whole cartel operation past the borders undetected.
Jeff Whatcott, commander of Central Utah Narcotics Task Force, said:
It’s still like looking for a needle in a haystack.
But you have to give it our federal government; drop a needle that smells like weed and by golly, they’ll go digging through that haystack.
Del Taco Hooks it Uuuup
October 27th, 2008 by Perry
A Del Taco in Colorado has a new item on the menu, and the manager isn’t so thrilled about it. One not-so-bright fast food employee was trying to multi-task and serve more than just delicious discount tacos.
Dennis Klermund, 26, served fast food orders with extra green sauce (i.e. – pot). The only problem is he didn’t keep track of his regular customers, and accidentally treated one couple to a special combo meal.
His customers found a bag of weed with their food order, that was supposedly for a friend of Klermund’s.
Now, instead of a hook-up and some cash, Dennis got arrested for marijuana and paraphernalia possession. Looks like Dennis just got a lesson in customer satisfaction…
Santonio Eludes DBs, but Cops Smelled Him Coming
October 24th, 2008 by Alex
Oh man, this is good news for me. Considering I’m a diehard NY Giants fan, and my team is playing the Steelers on Sunday, Santonio Holmes couldn’t have had better timing to get pulled over with marijuana.
Coach Mike Tomlin has already placed the 3rd year wide receiver on the ‘inactive list,’ which means no fade routes or slot duty for the 2nd leading receiver in Pittsburgh.
With that said, he handled the stop really well. Santonio admitted to police that he had smoked in his SUV that day before, but was not impaired when he got pulled over. He handed the pot to the officers, and was released with a summons and a court date.
Unfortunately, Holmes has had some prior legal issues, so let’s hope this minor infraction can get swept under the rug quickly … right after they lose to the Giants.
