Drug Trafficking

I am writing in regards to the article you posted on salaries of state workers ("Coaches, doctors get top state pay" May 24). The problem with this is I am a state employee who puts my life on the line each and every day that I go to work, and I do not feel as though my full name and date of hire should be posted. I work short staffed everyday and in some very rough conditions that no one else would want to do. I am a correctional officer of 16 years in Jessup, and my job is to protect the public, the detainees, the employees and offenders housed behind the fences and walls that the average person has no knowledge of. My salary of $50,000 is hardly enough when you look at the type of work I do and the risk I take to do it. I am at risk of contracting AIDS, TB, head lice, MERSA, other childhood diseases as well, meningitis, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and melanoma and cancer.

A fatal shooting is rare along the tree-lined streets that lead to historic Federal Hill park, where residents and tourists take in sweeping views of the Inner Harbor. So it was especially unusual when two people were killed there on consecutive days in the summer of 2008. There hasn't been another such incident since then. Four years later, police say they've solved one of the murders, arresting 32-year-old Dundalk resident Jason Hamel for the June 20, 2008 killing of 35-year-old Keyva Bluitt.  Bluitt was sitting in a vehicle at about 9:15 p.m. when witnesses said they saw several people jump into a blue Toyota and then heard a shot fired.

There's some good news and bad news in the war on drugs in Harford County.The good news is the state police crack down on drug trafficking on Interstate 95 between the Baltimore-Harford county line and Cecil County is successfully deterring many drug dealers from using the highway to move narcotics, state police say.The bad news is dealers now are avoiding Interstate 95, using new routes to transport drugs. Two of those routes are Chesapeake Bay and the Susquehanna River, say state police.

The ringleader of a heroin ring that imported drugs into Baltimore aboard the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Enchantment of the Seas has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to federal prosecutors. Loxly Johnson, 49, of Norfolk, Va., was the final suspect to be imprisoned in the conspiracy that brought international drug trafficking to the shores of Baltimore. He was convicted after a four-day trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. A Norfolk woman was sentenced to a year, and three men from Jamaica, Nicaragua and St. Vincent and the Grenadines were sentenced to time served awaiting trial, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office.

Howard County prosecutors yesterday dropped drug trafficking charges against a California truck driver stopped Jan. 12 on Interstate 95 with what police said was 103 pounds of marijuana stashed in a hidden compartment of his vehicle. Alejandro P. Chavez, 48, of Pixley, Calif., had been jailed since the incident. "Mr. Chavez did not know drugs were in the truck," State's Attorney Timothy J. McCrone said.

PANAMA CITY, Panama -- Drug trafficking and money laundering continue to thrive in Panama and may have increased since Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega was removed last December, according to U.S. and Panamanian officials.Panamanian authorities are fighting the problems with greater vigilance today, observers said. But the effort has been hampered by a free-for-all being fought over markets General Noriega has been accused of once holding.General Noriega, the former dictator who was arrested during last year's U.S. invasion, is awaiting trial in a Miami jail on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges.

WASHINGTON -- The Central Intelligence Agency continued to work with about two dozen Nicaraguan rebels and their supporters during the 1980s despite allegations that they were trafficking in drugs, according to a classified study by the CIA.The new study has found that the CIA's decision to keep these paid agents, or to continue dealing with them in some less-formal relationship, was made by top officials at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Va., in...

A 20-year-old Severn man pleaded guilty yesterday to a charge of possessing a firearm during drug trafficking and was sentenced to five years in prison without the possibility of parole. Howard County police found 54 bags of crack cocaine, a bag of marijuana and a loaded .40-caliber pistol in Charles A. Pigford's car during a traffic stop just hours after he was released from police custody on a charge of driving with a suspended license, prosecutors said. Pigford, of the 1800 block of Graybird Court, first caught the attention of a Howard officer when he crossed the double yellow line on eastbound Columbia 100 Parkway on Aug. 20, said State's Attorney Timothy J. McCrone, who prosecuted the case.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - If they take power, the Haitian rebels closing in on this capital city are promising a new and more democratic era in this historically troubled and violent country. But experts and diplomats say several of the top rebel leaders are former military and police officials who are suspected of major human-rights violations while in power and who have allegedly financed their insurgency with past profits from the drug trade. That puts the would-be leaders on similar footing with the government of embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who U.S. officials and others say has allowed Haiti to become one of the region's most significant transit points for Colombian cocaine on its way to the United States.

When police carted Gordon Ragler and his wife away in handcuffs last year, neighbors thought the around-the-clock drug dealing in their Southwest Baltimore community had finally come to an end.But 13 months later, the Raglers slipped through a net carefully crafted by undercover drug officers and confidential informants. It didn't seem to matter that police conducted hours of surveillance of open-air drug sales or collected solid evidence to make their case: 50 bags of cocaine and a loaded semiautomatic pistol.

After years of seeking assistance in combatting its growing drug problem, Harford County won approval Monday to join a regional task force that will direct additional federal resources to the county's drug interdiction effort, the White House announced Monday. The county is the latest local government to join the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, in which local law enforcement officials receive money and analysis from the federal government to help target drug shipments.

I am writing in regards to the article you posted on salaries of state workers ("Coaches, doctors get top state pay" May 24). The problem with this is I am a state employee who puts my life on the line each and every day that I go to work, and I do not feel as though my full name and date of hire should be posted. I work short staffed everyday and in some very rough conditions that no one else would want to do. I am a correctional officer of 16 years in Jessup, and my job is to protect the public, the detainees, the employees and offenders housed behind the fences and walls that the average person has no knowledge of. My salary of $50,000 is hardly enough when you look at the type of work I do and the risk I take to do it. I am at risk of contracting AIDS, TB, head lice, MERSA, other childhood diseases as well, meningitis, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and melanoma and cancer.

A former youth counselor pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to drug distribution, admitting that he conspired with a colleague — a Black Guerrilla Family gang leader — to sell heroin while both were employed at a tax-funded community outreach center. Ronald "Piper" Scott could receive a maximum of 20 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 24 in Baltimore's U.S. District Court. Scott was indicted on the drug charge in April alongside Todd Duncan, who has since pleaded guilty in a separate case to racketeering and admitted to a BGF affiliation that included drug trafficking, money laundering, bribery and gang discipline responsibilities.

An accused gang leader who also worked for a city-funded organization to reduce violence pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering Tuesday as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors. Todd Duncan, 36, also faced one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics, but under the agreement, that charge will be dismissed at his sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Wallner told U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles Jr. Federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of 15 years at the hearing, scheduled for Jan. 20. Duncan was one of 15 people indicted on racketeering charges in July for involvement with the Black Guerrilla Family, after an initial indictment in May on drug trafficking charges.

A Millersville man pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that involved luring a 16-year-old from her Ohio home to take her to a "party" and then forcing her to work as a prostitute in his apartment. Craig Allen Corey II, 23, of Chillicothe, Ohio, who had been stationed at Fort Meade, pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Corey was charged last April, after Anne Arundel County police raided his apartment in the 600 block of Millwright Court.

A Millersville man pleaded guilty Thursday to charges that involved luring a 16-year-old from her Ohio home to take her to a "party" and then forcing her to work as a prostitute in his apartment. Craig Allen Corey II, 23, of Chillicothe, Ohio, who had been stationed at Fort Meade, pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges, according to the Maryland U.S. attorney's office. Corey was charged last April, after Anne Arundel County police raided his apartment in the 600 block of Millwright Court.

SAINT-NICOLAS, Quebec -- The bomb was simplicity itself. Fifty pounds of dynamite affixed to the gasoline tank of a Jeep. Insert detonator. Set timing device. Leave vehicle on the quiet street where Hell's Angels live.On March 8, the blast, attributed to a rival gang, shattered the stillness of this community, but hardly scratched the intended target -- the steel-shuttered, concrete-reinforced headquarters of the local chapter of "Les Hells," as riders of the world's most infamous motorcycle gang are called in Quebec.

An East Baltimore drug dealer was sentenced yesterday to life in prison plus five years for drug trafficking and other charges while working as the leader of a drug gang known as "Jigga," according to the U.S. attorney's office. Darrell Alston, 42, was convicted Sept. 23 in federal court of conspiracy to distribute and possess heroin and crack cocaine, as well as possession of a firearm and two counts of witness intimidation, federal prosecutors said. The witness-intimidation charges related to an attempt by Alston to bribe and intimidate two witnesses to keep them from assisting an investigation into the Jigga organization.

T he window of opportunity to bring down drug trafficking organizations in Central and South America is quickly shrinking. However, despite its recent efforts, the Obama administration still lacks the one thing that we desperately need to win the fight against the cartels: a strategy. While it may seem like an obvious thing to have, the United States surprisingly lacks a comprehensive plan to bring down drug trafficking organizations. The federal government does have some counterdrug strategies, but they are either too broad - like the annual National Drug Control Strategy, which reads more like an "accomplishment report" of past successes rather than a "how to" manual - or too narrowly focused, like the National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, which addresses, among other things, ways to strengthen security along the border itself.