Cocaine

A 24-year-old man who was given a month in prison and a six-month stint in boot camp after he was convicted of dealing cocaine in 1992 was found guilty of the same charge in two cases in the past two weeks in Harford County Circuit Court. He got much stiffer sentences this time.Juan Valentino "Mookie" Howard of the first block of East Bel Air Ave. in Aberdeen will serve the first 10 years of concurrent 30-year terms in state prison without the possibility of parole.Judge Stephen M. Waldron accepted Howard's guilty plea Wednesday in the sale of cocaine to an undercover police officer.

A cocaine trafficking ring that for years distributed "vast amounts" of Honduran cocaine throughout the mid-Atlantic region has been busted, and three Maryland residents and 25 Virginia residents involved have been arrested, according to federal prosecutors. The drug ring, based in Northern Virginia, routinely paid couriers to fly into the United States from Honduras with cocaine stashed in shoes, decorative wooden frames and other "innocuous items" that would blend in with their luggage, according to a statement on the bust released Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

A cocaine trafficking ring that for years distributed "vast amounts" of Honduran cocaine throughout the mid-Atlantic region has been busted, and three Maryland residents and 25 Virginia residents involved have been arrested, according to federal prosecutors. The drug ring, based in Northern Virginia, routinely paid couriers to fly into the United States from Honduras with cocaine stashed in shoes, decorative wooden frames and other "innocuous items" that would blend in with their luggage, according to a statement on the bust released Thursday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Two city drug dealers have been sentenced to prison in separate cases, including one who police said dealt cocaine in a small neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore called the 4X4, according to federal prosecutors. In that case, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office said that 30-year-old Tony Robinson, known by "Peterman" and "Pete," was part of a drug group from June 2009 through August 2010 in the area between Edison Highway and Belair Road. Prosecutors said that Robinson pleaded guilty in the case in which he sold 280 grams of cocaine and 5 kilograms of powder cocaine.

BEL AIR -- An Edgewood man, who Harford drug agents say is the head of a drug ring operating in the county, was being held without bond yesterday after his arrest during an overnight raid by the county's Narcotics Task Force. Jason E. Easter, 25, of the 1400 block of Charlestown Drive in Edgewood was arrested early Monday by task force officers after they discovered cash and 21 ounces of cocaine in his vehicle, said Harford Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ginger Rigney. Police also arrested five others on a variety of drug and weapons charges after serving warrants at several homes, Rigney said.

A 24-year-old Columbia man was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in the Howard County detention center for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Elijah Jackson, of the 5200 block of Rivendell Lane, was running away from police after a fight outside a house party last June when 23 packets of crack cocaine and one packet of powdered cocaine fell out of his hat, prosecutors said. They had asked Circuit Court Judge Lenore Gelfman to sentence Jackson to three years in prison, but Gelfman opted to send him to the detention center out of concern for his safety.

A 36-year-old Baltimore cocaine dealer was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Friday, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Antionio Liburd was also ordered to forfeit a semi-automatic handgun and more than $13,000 seized from his home this spring. U.S. District Court Judge Ellen L. Hollander enhanced his sentence after finding that Liburd was a "career offender," with at least four prior drug convictions, the prosecutors' office said. Baltimore police said they found more than 150 baggies of cocaine, containing 20.5 grams of the drug, inside Liburd's truck, and eight more grams hidden in his pants, during a search performed in March.

In his later years, the eminent doctor wore a tall silk hat, ordered his suits from a London tailor and his shoes from a Paris boot maker. In the fireplace of his mansion on Eutaw Place, he burned only hickory logs cut on his summer estate in North Carolina and aged at least three years. He was a dignified and meticulous man with a long, white mustache, pince-nez and the slightly reproachful look of a Victorian gentleman.As the first surgeon-in-chief of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. William Stewart Halsted had helped transform surgery from a brutal business for amateurs to a delicate science.

Stowaways hiding in a ship's rudder cavity provided a surprise for New York's harbor police recently and illustrated some of the new difficulties for the illegal drug-importing business.The pattern is clear. During times when drug importers had unrestricted access to South Florida's shores, "cocaine cowboys" fought street battles for control of a burgeoning market. Marijuana and cocaine streamed in from Latin American countries in private planes and on commercial flights. But the open lawlessness was met by tough new intra-agency strike forces, tighter coastal patrols, aerial surveillance and police penetration of narcotic rings.

A 31-year-old Curtis Bay man was sentenced to more than 21 years in federal prison Friday for dealing crack cocaine, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Lonnie Bivins' sentence was enhanced after the judge found him to be a "career offender" with two prior drug convictions. Bivins and his conspirators sold $500 to $4,000 worth of crack and powder cocaine per day in the Curtis Bay area of Baltimore from 2005 through 2008, according to court records. Law enforcement authorities witnessed Bivins making drug transactions for a year before arresting him in February 2008.

Every illicit drug seems to have its own strange culture and appeal. The modern cocaine trade is socially linked to cash, flash and ostentatious cars. Marijuana has a certain pseudo-intellectual cache. Ecstasy is the vitamin E of the all-night dance party scene. And then there's heroin. Part of the family of drugs extracted from the sap of the poppy bulb, it is among the oldest and most potent painkillers. Its cousin, morphine, remains the pain-killer of last resort even in an era when many similarly ancient remedies have been replaced by more easily controlled synthetic compounds.

A federal judge sentenced a Baltimore man, Stephen Johnson , to 151 months in prison Monday for possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland. Baltimore police officers found a clear plastic baggie containing cocaine, a gun, 88 rounds of live .38-caliber ammunition and more than $3,000 in cash upon executing a search warrant at Johnson's home on May 13 of last year, according to the news release. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett also sentenced Johnson, 31, three years of supervised release after completing his sentence.

A 36-year-old Baltimore cocaine dealer was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Friday, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office announced. Antionio Liburd was also ordered to forfeit a semi-automatic handgun and more than $13,000 seized from his home this spring. U.S. District Court Judge Ellen L. Hollander enhanced his sentence after finding that Liburd was a "career offender," with at least four prior drug convictions, the prosecutors' office said. Baltimore police said they found more than 150 baggies of cocaine, containing 20.5 grams of the drug, inside Liburd's truck, and eight more grams hidden in his pants, during a search performed in March.

Howard Markel's "An Anatomy of Addiction" starts, like a shot, on May 5,1884. A Bellevue Hospital orderly summons Dr. William Stewart Halsted to save the leg of a laborer who has fallen from a scaffolding. Famous for the speed and virtuosity of his surgery, Halsted notes the shattered shinbone piercing through the skin — and abruptly retreats from the examination table, because he's not fit to operate. He takes a cab home and sinks "into a cocaine oblivion that lasted more than seven months.

Anne Arundel County Police on routine foot patrol Monday observed a Laurel man rolling a suspected marijuana cigarette and eventually arrested him with charges related to possession of controlled dangerous substances, or CDS. Officers of the Western District on foot patrol in the 3400 block of Laurel Fort Meade Road around 9 p.m. said they observed Darnell Mark Riddles, 25, rolling a suspected marijuana cigarette. Riddles was arrested, and after a search, police located nine baggies of suspected crack cocaine individually wrapped for sale with an estimated street value of $180, and a switchblade knife.

As former Ravens player Mike Flynn watched with his wife in a Towson courtroom, a judge gave a suspended five-year prison sentence Thursday to a Pikesville woman accused of obtaining $10,000 from the ex-offensive lineman by falsely claiming to need treatment for terminal cancer. Lisa Hoppenstein Cohen, 41, the wife of a chiropractor and the mother of two, was also given three years of supervised probation and must repay the Flynns. She began that process outside the courtroom, doling out $2,000 in cash to Flynn, who then counted it. Cohen was ordered to pay the rest of the money before the conclusion of her probation.

Drugs, thousands of dollars and a gun were seized in a raid Tuesday night in East Baltimore, according to Baltimore police. Police arrested Anthony Martin, 22, in connection with a raid on Townway Court in the Oliver neighborhood, several blocks east of Greenmount Cemetery, police said. The seizure yielded 88 vials of cocaine, $3,819 and a loaded 0.40-caliber weapon, according to authorities. Community members tipped police off on the activity on Townway Court, said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized last week more than 20 pounds of cocaine found in a shipping container at the Baltimore seaport, the latest case highlighting how illegal drugs make their way into the city. The drugs were discovered Wednesday, wrapped in eight bricks and placed in a blue backpack that was found in a container of steel parts. The ship had travelled from China through Panama to the United States, officials said. The cocaine was estimated to have a street value of $650,000.

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a 31-year-old College Park man to 150 months — more than 12 years — in prison for possessing crack cocaine and intending to distribute it. Josue Monroy, who pleaded guilty to the charges, must also serve five years of supervised probation upon his release, under the terms of the sentence pronounced by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt. The judge noted that Monroy is a "career offender" with two prior drug convictions.