Results tagged “dea”

A Brooklyn actor is suing Spike TV for labeling him as a drug dealer — not an actor playing one on TV — in its reality show "DEA." Iban Hernandez, 32, says he had to move his family to a safe place after receiving threats from Newark gang members who saw an episode of the drug enforcement-themed program in which he is depicted as a real-life gang informant, not a thespian playing a role in a reenactment.

The mystery of how Cameron Douglas's girlfriend actually thought it was a good idea to bring heroin to his meeting with The Man becomes a little bit less mysterious now. The Daily News reports that Douglas was under house arrest in his mom's $9.25M Upper East Side townhouse when girlfriend Kelly Sott (pictured) delivered a toothbrush filled with 19 bags of heroin. A private security guard was suspicious when he heard Douglas on the phone talking about the toothbrush, as he had just gotten one—so when Sott showed up he confiscated it and found the drugs. (Wonder what was in that first toothbrush!) The DEA later arrested Sott at the Hotel Gansevoort where she was staying; "they found heroin, crystal meth and marijuana in her room. She was held without bail after her arrest, and a federal magistrate ordered immediate treatment for heroin addiction and hypertension." Both Sott and Douglas were reportedly strung out when this occurred.

Last night TMZ reported that Cameron Douglas (spawn of Michael) was arrested in NYC for "possession of methamphetamines with the intent to distribute." Indeed, the Post later reported that the 30-year-old was busted by a DEA task force at the Gansevoort Hotel—and it turned out he was holding around a half-a-pound of crystal meth. They also believe he already sold $18,000 worth (it goes for $80/gram). This isn't the first time Douglas has been busted, either; in 2007 he was charged "with felony possession of a controlled substance after cops found a syringe with liquid cocaine in a car he was in."

Build-a-Bear has made a name for itself over the last decade by letting passers-by take a bird's eye view of the their bears getting stuffed inside workshops around the country. But yesterday police caught up with a group of criminals in The Bronx who have been filling up the teddy bears with bags of heroin over the last year right under their unsuspecting neighbors' noses.

Drug Enforcement Agency agents arrested two bounty hunters in Washington Heights last night, charging them with possession of over 6 pounds of cocaine (street value: $300,000). NY1 reports that the two suspects, Chris Morel and Rensy Adrover, were arrested after being spotted as they put on "ballistics vests and police tactical gear. Investigators say they also had a stun gun, a dagger, bullet proof vests and handcuffs." DEA Officer Wilbert Plummer surmised, "I think they were using it as a cover. This way it would be a little more safe for them to travel through the city with drugs in the car. They didn't have it in a trap or compartment. They had it out actually inside a bag in plain view. [If stopped by cops] They could be en route to somewhere and law enforcement would just believe they were other law enforcement agents driving off somewhere." Morel and Adrover work for a bail enforcement firm in the Bronx; they will be arraigned on drug possession charges, which could bring up to 24 years in prison.

DEA agents seized $3 million in marijuana and $500,000 cash in a raid on a Staten Island home last week, arresting Odede Kariti, 27, and his wife, Yotvat Kariti, 24, along with a third man, Brian Guariglia. According to court papers obtained by the Staten Island Advance, the trio are part of a drug ring that's smuggled millions of dollars of high-grade marijuana from Canada. Authorities have been investigating the ring for two years, and finally took action on May 11th after getting a tip that Guariglia was delivering a 300-pound shipment that day. The weed was stashed in "large hockey bags" in Guariglia's truck, and federal agents arrested him as he made the drop at the Karitis' house. Once inside, they also found "numerous" hockey bags containing another 250-300 pounds of marijuana. Now the Karitis and Guariglia face up to 40 years in prison for trying to distribute a mostly harmless plant whose worst side-effect is patch pants. This is the second major marijuana bust on Staten Island in the past few months; in April three men were nailed for moving "large quantities" of herb in a mobile-home.

A New York Police sergeant admitted yesterday that he illegally used a city police computer to get registration information on two cars as a favor for a Long Island crack dealer. The cars were being used by DEA agents for surveillance on the dealer, Frank Wilson, who gave sergeant Roosevelt Green a pair of sneakers worth $20 and a discount on several other pairs in exchange for the information. Green, an 11-year police veteran, confessed to the misconduct and lying to DEA investigators when they questioned him about his relationship with Wilson. But Green's lawyer insists his client was unaware that Wilson was a drug dealer, telling Newsday that Wilson said he wanted the car ownership information because he suspected robbers were following him. Fortunately, the ownership information was false, to prevent the cars from being traced back to law enforcement. Green faces up to 5 years in prison and has agreed to quit the city police force. It's unclear if he gets to keep the sneakers.

Federal prosecutors have charged an FDNY firefighter with maintaining a marijuana grow house—with 100 plants— in a rented Queens home's basement. Patrick Murray was "arraigned on charges of manufacturing and possessing a controlled substance with the intent to distribute."

Nine people were arrested for allegedly smuggling cocaine inside children's toy packaging. NY1 reports that "four kilograms of cocaine, four handguns, and more than $86,000" during the investigation. The suspects pleaded not guilty to charges including drug possession and money laundering; a prosecutor said, "We're investigating whether they were paid in cocaine." One employee worked in a check-cashing facility, and it's believed he laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars there, and the ringleader allegedly wired the money back to Puerto Rico. As for the smuggling, the DEA says kilos of coke were "concealed inside children’s toy tool boxes and large building toy container boxes" and then "the organization used United States Postal Service Express Mail to make deliveries to drop off addresses in Manhattan and the Bronx."

A tractor trailer stopped in the Bronx turned out to be carrying $16 million in cocaine. Apparently $16 million in cocaine is equal to 400 pounds, as that's how much the authorities confiscated.

A man died while trying to flee the dozens of federal agents who raided a heroin mill in a Castle Hill apartment. The man jumped from a 9th floor balcony to a 6th floor balcony, but "slammed his head against a sixth-floor railing." Two other women who tried to make the same jump were hospitalized.

Two sergeants and a detective were arrested Friday after one was caught on tape providing information on surveillance vehicles to a drug dealer and the other two were caught supplying drugs and cash that they'd stolen from a supposed junkie and then returning it in exchange for information. Sgt. Roosevelt Green was a 12-year-veteran of the NYPD working out of the 62nd Precinct in Brooklyn, who was using a police laptop to run license plate IDs for drug dealer Frank (Big Banana) Wilson. The DEA was tapping Wilson's phone and overheard him discussing federal surveillance vehicles that Wilson suspected were rival dealers. Roosevelt, who was socially acquainted with Wilson (they worked out and played basketball together) accepted athletic gear and clothing in trade for the information. He could face up to ten years in prison.

Last November American Gangster went head-to-head with Bee Movie at the box office, but now the film faces an off-screen battle. The NY Sun reports that Former DEA agents are suing NBC Universal for being falsely depicted on-screen.

Rudy Giuliani's good financial fortune derived from the formation of Giuliani Partners is leading to political misfortune, as yet another piece of lucrative business he conducted in the private sector has come back to haunt his candidacy. Recently, his involvement with Purdue Pharma--the producers of the painkiller OxyContin--has come under scrutiny.

An NYPD detective was arrested in the breaking up of a Bronx drug ring this week. The bust was comprehensive and prosecutors are alleging that officer James Calderon used his inside knowledge of police activities to enable crack and heroin dealers to operate with relative impunity. James Calderon was a 13-year veteran of the force, but is now being accused of acting as an agent for Jorge and Luis Mendoza, Bronx drug dealers who allegedly...

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a picture displaying the woes of cruising in a tacky limo on the streets of San Francisco.

Christmas trees! That's what 700 marijuana plants look like when they were being hauled out by the DEA. WNBC has photographs and video of a pot bust in Washington Heights, and the plants just seem endless, like kudzu. It's the stuff Harold's dreams are made of. WNBC reported, "It took investigators several hours to remove all of the drug-related material from the location." Also, it was "unusual" for so many pot plants to be grown in one city location.

Would this be marketed as "Smackers"? Yesterday, customs agents and the DEA arrested men for smuggling $5 million worth of heroin in candy bars. more than 12 pounds of heroin had been divided into pellets that were placed in 100+ candy bars - and the candy bars were individually wrapped and packaged. So, each bar was worth more like 50 Grand.

It won't be a White Christmas for some people. Yesterday, the Drug Enforcement Agency, along with the NYPD and NY State Police announced a tractor trailer carrying 1,045 pounds of cocaine bound for the Big Apple was seized in NJ. It was the biggest cocaine bust this year, with a street value of $42 million, and the truck was sitting next to a warehouse in Hackensack. From the DEA's press release:

The narcotics were destined for distribution in New York City. The drug shipment, hauled by a 1999 42-foot tractor trailer with Georgia license plates and bearing a Georgia logo, was concealed in an elaborate compartment at the base of the trailer. To conceal the narcotics, metal rails and sheathing running underneath the trailer were detached, and bricks of cocaine were secreted beneath at least 30 of the bays underneath the trailer. The rails and sheathing were then re-bolted to the sides of the trailer. It took hours for agents to extract the cocaine from the underside of the trailer.

Did you realize that yesterday's methampetamine lab busts in the city and Suffolk County happened on National Meth Awareness Day? The things you learn!

The Drug Enforcement Administration announced a $10 million drug ring bust that involved the African plant, khat. Khat has a "very short shelf life" and requires very speedy drug trafficking - one of the ways it was smuggled was through the United Nations mailroom, via diplomatic pouches! (Luggage and boxes were also used to distribute the khat from JFK Airport to Manhattan and the Bronx, and then to other cities.) A story like this can mean only one thing: "Khat Nip" headlines in the Daily News and Post.

A $25 million heroin ring that spanned Colombia, Miami, the Bronx, and Jackson Heights, Queens, was busted by the DEA, which hauled 257 pounds of heroin in NYC alone. Fifty six people have been arrested after the two-year investigation, with 30 arrests yesterday. The DEA credited cooperation from Colombian and local authorities for the big bust, which was prompted by a hotline tip. Heroin was shipped into the U.S. by hiding it in furniture, golf bag linings, or the soles of platform flip-flops - see the photographs. Then it would be put in a Queens stash house and be prepared in "mills in the Bronx for retail distribution under different brand names, including Hypnotiq and Body Bag."

It was a horrible day for coke fiends as police broke up two unrelated cocaine rings. In one sting, bricks of cocaine were smuggled from Mexico using tombstones with the Virgin Mary on them. The DEA arrested 12 people in connection with the ring, including one in Houston and three in Brooklyn. A DEA agent told the media, "Like grave robbers who have no respect for the dead, this drug organization used revered tombstones to smuggle millions of dollars worth of cocaine into New York City." Five of the eight tombstones found in Brooklyn had 20-25 kilos of cocaine each. All told, 194 kilos of coke were seized in Brooklyn with a street value of $8-12 million.

We mentioned the drug mule puppies yesterday, but there are now photographs and more details. The DEA did manage to save a few of the puppies, and even one agent said, "Throughout my 25-year career, this is one of the most outrageous methods of smuggling that I personally have encountered." The drug smugglers claimed they were show dogs! Now that would be an interesting mock-documentary. Authorities believe that the veterinarian is a fugitive in Spain - and they don't even know if the vet has actual vet training! Previous animal-mule incidents include a sheepdog with cocaine balloons, a boa constrictor with condoms filled with cocaine, and fish smugled with liquid cocaine.

This might be the sickest scheme we've heard to smuggle drugs into the country: Stitching bags of liquid heroin into the purebred Labrador retriever puppies. Nooo!!!! The DEA says Colombian drug dealers had a farm of puppies that they'd use to ferry smack to New York City - and three of the puppies died from infections after the dealers removed the packets. The DEA's NY office disclosed this heinous system, as well as noting other arrests they've made in the drug war, saying that puppies, as well as human swallowers and hiding heroin in "body creams...aerosol cans and...linings of purses and luggage," have been used.

The NYPD, plus the state police and the city's narcotics prosecution office, will get some of the money from Cali drug cartel leader Joe Santacruz Londono's bank accounts. Londono had put the hit on Manuel de Dios Unanue, the NYC journalist who was investigating the Cali cartel's influence in Queens; the Cali cartel had controlled the majority of the cocaine trade in NYC and the Northeast. New York City and State's cut will be $3.3 million, which is probably a small fraction of the what drug ring infiltrations actually cost, but it's so symbolic that the checks will be presented in a ceremony. How a check-from-a-dead- druglord's-bank-account ceremony works Gothamist doesn't know, but we're certainly curious.

One of the first thing that came to Gothamist's mind when we first heard about the subway bag searches was "what does this mean for all those subway hopping drug dealers?" Apparently we weren't the only ones wondering, as New York Magazine's Intelligencer tackles the question this week (in short: the searches suck for them and some, especially coke runners, are adding a 'cab tax' in response).

The NIH's information page on heroin. And New Jersey does have some great produce - take a look at its pick-you-own farms.