Results tagged “raid”

On Monday, the Allegheny County District Attorney dropped all charges against two Jackson Heights-based anarchists accused of listening to police scanners and sharing riot cops' movements with demonstrators on Twitter during the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Elliot Madison and Michael Wallschlaeger were arrested on September 24th in a Pittsburgh hotel room, where they were found sitting in front of personal computers listening to both police and EMS scanners. On Monday, lawyers for the men were poised to argue for the unsealing of a secret 18-page affidavit authorizing the raid, but then the prosecution unexpectedly withdrew all charges. A spokesman for the district attorney offered this explanation:

After an extensive review of the facts and circumstances underlying those two arrests... there appears to be sufficient evidence to suggest that certain acts that occurred during the G-20 summit were not isolated incidents confined to Allegheny County but instead may have been related to more expansive activities that went beyond the Pittsburgh G-20 in both time and substance. That being the case, a determination was made that until further investigative activities by law enforcement agencies can be completed, it would be more prudent to have the current charges withdrawn rather than prosecuted at this time.

That's right, a Twitter crackdown. A lawyer for Jackson Heights social worker Elliot Madison, 41, says that the feds searched his client's house for 16 hours on Thursday after Madison was arrested on September 24th at a Pittsburgh hotel room with another man. What were they up to? Sitting at laptops sending Twitter messages advising G20 demonstrators about riot police activity in the streets. And yet real Twitter threats like Lindsay Lohan and Courtney Love remain at large.

President Obama's been in office just eight months, and already the government is moving in to disarm the citizenry. Why, just the other day they raided Anthony Cortese's house over in Midland Beach, Staten Island, confiscating his weapons and dragging him off in handcuffs, all because he hadn't registered some of his firearms with Obama's thought police! Cortese says he's a big game hunter (he owns property up in the Catskills) and tells the Staten Island Advance, "I think it's absolutely horrible that in America, they would take away a man's hunting rifles. I have to fight to get them back."

After raiding three homes in Flushing, Queens early Monday morning, the FBI is apparently set for more! The Daily News provides the tip-off: "Fearful of a Madrid-style subway train bombing, authorities are poised to make more raids to seize bomb-making materials at locations in Queens, sources said Wednesday... Another source said an earlier raid uncovered nine backpacks and cell phones, raising memories of the March 2004 bombings in Madrid."

48-year-old Calixta Guerrero was in her underwear in her Washington Heights apartment around 6 a.m. yesterday when police started pounding on the door. She told them she needed a moment to cover up, but cops shouted, "Open the f-----g door, right now!" So Guerrero complied, and was promptly forced to the floor and handcuffed. Good morning!

An interesting police strategy is described in this otherwise "non-story" on Free Williamsburg, which overall delves into a rumor that someone is out to bring down the Market Hotel, a Todd P venue in Brooklyn. The promoter has now addressed the rumors that were in the original story, which focused on a "raid" that took place last Friday and included baseless accusations that he was "being brought up on a slew of charges including weed and underage alcohol distribution."

Yesterday, FBI agents raided the Lexington Avenue office of William Parente. Parente killed himself after killing his wife and two daughters in a Maryland hotel room last week—the Long Island family had been visiting the eldest daughter at college. Based on some papers left in the room, it's believed Parente was in financial trouble. Newsday reports, "Investors have said Parente used the money to make high-interest commercial bridge loans" (with high returns) and that the FBI has spoken to many individuals who invested $20 million with Parente over the past two decades. Some investors had demanded their money back, but Parente stalled on giving them the money and when he did, the checks bounced. One person said, "No one questioned him, because everyone knew him. I don't understand where the money could have gone." The FBI left the office with dozens of file boxes and a hard drive.

While no arrests have been made yet, more details have emerged on the Inspector General's Wednesday raid on the State Liquor Authority's Harlem office, where some two dozen employees control 65 percent of the state’s operating licenses and permits for bars, restaurants and liquor stores in NYC, Long Island and Westchester County. Police sources say employees would not only accept cash bribes in exchange for expedited license processing, but also bottles of booze, and gift cards for meals and clothes—some payoffs even included Applebee's gift cards. Stay classy, SLA.

We may have mentioned that the occupation of NYU's student center ended with a whimper, but after watching this 9:22 minute video of NYU security daring to enter the barricaded cafeteria occupied by student protesters last week, we're worried our faces are now permanently frozen in deep cringe. According to NYU Local, the footage was recorded not by an NYU student but by a strident young man from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA., who seems truly appalled that officials have violated their inner sanctum, "making everyone very upset," while also deliberately ignoring his orders: "You may not detain us, you are on camera!"

The feds say that Long Island investment broker Nicholas Cosmo ran a $370 million Ponzi scheme from his offices in Hauppauge and Queens. And what's more, he "lost $80 million of his clients' money playing the commodities market and paid an additional $55 million in commissions to associates," not to mention personal things ("jewelry, hotel rooms, limousines, payments to his wife and a private baseball league") and the feds say they could only locate $800,000 of the $370 million, according to Newsday. In Cosmo's scam, 1010 WINS explains he told investors they'd "make returns as high as 80 percent a year from interest collected on short-term loans to businesses" but the "returns" they received was "actually money provided by subsequent investors." Yup, that's a Ponzi scheme! Newsday also reports that today, "Worried Agape World investors turned up at the company's offices in Hauppauge and Jackson Heights Monday but found empty offices and a federal raid in progress."

Yesterday, the Westbury, Long Island office of the Railroad Retirement Board was was raided by federal agents who are investigating possible fraud in disability payments to Long Island Rail Road retirees. While the NY Times recently detailed how 90-97% of LIRR employees were applying for--and receiving--disability benefits upon retirement since 2000, it turns out the feds had been investigating the situation for the past six months.

Nothing says press conference like raiding a 32 stores in what the city dubs "Counterfeit Triangle" and hauling away over a $1 million worth of brand-name products. The raid, taking down stores in the area bounded by Canal Street, Walker Street and Centre Street, occurred in the early morning, with cops using bolt-cutters to gain entry and tractor-trailers to take the haul away Coach, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbanna, Dior, Prada, Rolex, Fendi, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Dora the Explorer and Oakley merchandise.