Federal Agents

Imean Shaheed was working last Sunday when federal agents rushed into the Patapsco Flea Market, announced over the loudspeaker that the bazaar was closed for business and shut down vendors selling knockoff Nikes, Louis Vuitton bags and Tiffany & Co. jewelry. "It was like the movies," the 20-year-old Shaheed said Saturday after the Cherry Hill flea market re-opened. Some booths were empty, but the parking lot was full and customers flocked to vendors such as Shaheed who were open for business.

Last month, I received emails from two people I know but who don't know each other: one a close friend and Second Amendment supporter, and the other a regular reader who sends me news items she believes the "liberal media" are willfully suppressing. Each sent me a story link about recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security purchases of huge stockpiles of ammunition, including hollow-point bullets. A Forbes.com column penned by Larry Bell, replete with conspiratorial overtones, suggested that the Obama administration is up-arming itself while trying to disarm the citizenry.

Vendors at the Patapsco Flea Market have a history of allegedly selling counterfeit and pirated merchandise, according to an affidavit, which outlined the latest accusation that resulted in a raid Sunday by federal Homeland Security Investigations special agents. Capping a 2 1/2-year-long investigation into counterfeit apparel and accessories as well as pirated DVDs and musical recordings, federal investigators confiscated numerous items being sold there. Federal authorities released few details about the raid, but the affidavit details several undercover operations that found that many of the items sold at the flea market were fake.

The directions to the alleged brothel told the men that if they saw a house with green awnings, they'd gone too far. But some of them apparently misunderstood; would-be customers have shown up for years at the nearby house in Towson. Despite neighbors' complaints, police say, Di Zhang, 42, continued to operate the brothel from a white Colonial-style suburban home on Joppa Road, advertising on websites until this month, when county police and federal agents moved in. Neighbors said they weren't surprised to learn that Zhang, the operator of Jade Heart Health, had been charged with prostitution and human trafficking.

The directions to the alleged brothel told the men that if they saw a house with green awnings, they'd gone too far. But some of them apparently misunderstood; would-be customers have shown up for years at the nearby house in Towson. Despite neighbors' complaints, police say, Di Zhang, 42, continued to operate the brothel from a white Colonial-style suburban home on Joppa Road, advertising on websites until this month, when county police and federal agents moved in. Neighbors said they weren't surprised to learn that Zhang, the operator of Jade Heart Health, had been charged with prostitution and human trafficking.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A guard opened fire at a federal prison yesterday as federal agents tried to arrest him and five others in a sex-with-inmates scandal, sparking a gunfight that left him and an Orlando agent dead. Agents shot and killed Ralph Hill, 43, a guard for about 12 years at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee. William 'Buddy' Sentner, 44, a special agent with the Justice Department's inspector general office who worked in Coleman, died in the exchange of bullets.

SALISBURY -- Relatives of 107 suspected illegal immigrants kept vigil yesterday outside the Wicomico County Detention Center as federal agents interviewed workers picked up Wednesday morning in raids on two Eastern Shore poultry processing plants.Neither family members nor reporters were allowed to speak with the workers, who were taken from the Allen Family Foods plants in Cordova and Hurlock by federal immigration agents and held at the jail here.Orlando Fuentes, 25, a Guatemalan who works at an Easton golf course, said that if his Mexican wife, Carmela, 24, is sent home, he will probably ask that their two sons, both U.S. citizens, be sent along with her."

Eleven suspected illegal immigrants who were digging ditches and fixing mulch beds in Columbia were arrested yesterday morning in Oakland Mills village by federal agents.Ten of the suspects were being questioned last night at the Baltimore office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to INS spokesman John Shallman.A Mexican juvenile was released last night into the custody of local family members, while another juvenile was being held at the INS office, Shallman said.Agents arrested 10 workers along Thunder Hill Road, south of Route 175, about 11 a.m., after receiving a tip about illegals in the area, Shallman said.

Targeting human trafficking, federal agents participated in a joint operation with local law enforcement that led to the arrest of 23 men alleged to have solicited sex from undercover officers along U.S. 1 in Jessup. The sting brought agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, together with officers from local and state police departments. While local law enforcement goes after so-called johns to deter prostitution, their value to federal authorities is as a source of information for cases against human traffickers.

Fire and police officials are continuing to investigate Wednesday's two-alarm blaze at a Glen Burnie auto body shop in which two people died. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting in trying to determine the cause of the morning fire, Division Chief Michael Cox said, and the state medical examiner's office is helping to identify the bodies, which were badly burned, he said. Officials have not released the names of the victims, but family members and co-workers say they were 45-year-old Macho Acevedo and 17-year-old Yoni Ramos, according to WJZ-TV.

Federal agents in Baltimore helped lead an operation that this week seized and shut down nearly 700 U.S.-based websites linked to the sale of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs as part of an international effort to upend the global online drug trade. The local operation, known as Bitter Pill, was part of an international initiative led by Interpol that spanned 100 countries and confiscated 3.7 million doses of counterfeit medications worth an estimated $10.5 million, according to federal officials.

Targeting human trafficking, federal agents participated in a joint operation with local law enforcement that led to the arrest of 23 men alleged to have solicited sex from undercover officers along U.S. 1 in Jessup. The sting brought agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, together with officers from local and state police departments. While local law enforcement goes after so-called johns to deter prostitution, their value to federal authorities is as a source of information for cases against human traffickers.

In 1995, Barack Obama released "Dreams From My Father," a compelling memoir full of stories about his life that -- though often not exactly true -- persuaded many people that this young man had a great political future ahead of him. Nearly a decade later, Mr. Obama introduced himself to the country with a stirring speech at the 2004 Democratic convention in which he conceded, "I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story...

Last month's raid on the Patapsco Flea Market in Southwest Baltimore netted $47.3 million worth of counterfeit luxury goods, the largest seizure at a flea market in the United States, federal authorities announced Thursday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations also confiscated $1.5 million in cash, which it described as "suspected criminal proceeds. " Federal officials released new details of the April 22 raid on the bazaar, where authorities say vendors sold counterfeit and pirated goods with the market owner's knowledge.

Imean Shaheed was working last Sunday when federal agents rushed into the Patapsco Flea Market, announced over the loudspeaker that the bazaar was closed for business and shut down vendors selling knockoff Nikes, Louis Vuitton bags and Tiffany & Co. jewelry. "It was like the movies," the 20-year-old Shaheed said Saturday after the Cherry Hill flea market re-opened. Some booths were empty, but the parking lot was full and customers flocked to vendors such as Shaheed who were open for business.

Vendors at the Patapsco Flea Market have a history of allegedly selling counterfeit and pirated merchandise, according to an affidavit, which outlined the latest accusation that resulted in a raid Sunday by federal Homeland Security Investigations special agents. Capping a 2 1/2-year-long investigation into counterfeit apparel and accessories as well as pirated DVDs and musical recordings, federal investigators confiscated numerous items being sold there. Federal authorities released few details about the raid, but the affidavit details several undercover operations that found that many of the items sold at the flea market were fake.

For weeks, federal agents say, they had Antonio Martinez under surveillance, watching as he pulled up jihadist videos on computers in Baltimore County libraries and posted Facebook messages urging holy war on nonbelievers. The agents tracked his every move, the hours he spent staring at the screen, his comings and goings. On Dec. 7, the night before Martinez — he prefers the name Muhammad Hussain — embarked on what the agents say was an attempt to attack the Armed Forces Career Center in Catonsville, he wrote via Facebook to a man he believed was helping him but who was an undercover FBI agent.

Undercover federal agents rented a booth at Patapsco Flea Market to gain access to its management as part of a 2 1/2 -year sting targeting merchants selling counterfeit and pirated goods - an investigation that resulted in a raid Sunday on the Southwest Baltimore marketplace, according to a search warrant and affidavit released Monday. Capping the intensive investigation into fake brand-name clothes and accessories, as well as pirated DVDs and musical recordings, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations confiscated numerous items being sold at the sprawling market.

Antonio Martinez renounced terrorism and expressed regret Friday for trying to blow up a Catonsville military center, shortly before he was sentenced to 25 years in prison - closing a case that brought a radical holy war to Maryland. Prosecutors suggested Martinez's turnaround was insincere. Materials indicating his continuing connection to terrorist beliefs were seized recently from the 22-year-old's cell, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Manuelian. He appears to still have a "mindset" of wanting to kill in the name of religion, more than a year after the failed attack, Manuelian said at the sentencing hearing.