Raid

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.

This would have been unthinkable when I came to The Baltimore Sun twenty-seven years ago. My colleague Kevin Rector has launched a blog at Baltimoresun.com called Gay Matters , in which he and Michael Gold will present "a new home for gay news and commentary. " Mr. Rector will write on politics, policy, crime, and related matters; Mr. Gold will explore aspects of pop culture, sports, and the media. Mr. Rector's introductory post describes the Pepper Hill raid of 1955, in which Baltimore police raided the Pepper Hill Club (on North Gay Street; I am not making this up)

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.

Welcome to Gay Matters, a new home for gay news and commentary at The Baltimore Sun. As website real estate, this blog is something new and perhaps long overdue. But we've been doing this work -- covering news relevant to the gay community -- for a very long time. I took a look back -- all the way back to microfilm -- and found the evidence. In 1955, for example, there were 162 men and women arrested on charges of disorderly conduct at the Pepper Hill Club on North Gay Street in "the largest night-club raid ever made in Baltimore," after male patrons among the club's largely gay clientele were seen kissing each other.

Welcome to Gay Matters, a new home for gay news and commentary at The Baltimore Sun. As website real estate, this blog is something new and perhaps long overdue. But we've been doing this work -- covering news relevant to the gay community -- for a very long time. I took a look back -- all the way back to microfilm -- and found the evidence. In 1955, for example, there were 162 men and women arrested on charges of disorderly conduct at the Pepper Hill Club on North Gay Street in "the largest night-club raid ever made in Baltimore," after male patrons among the club's largely gay clientele were seen kissing each other.

Dan Rodricks ' column ("Bin Laden death: Call it execution, not 'justice,' May 5) was irresponsible journalism. The analogy to Baltimore police and the war on drugs was inapt. I suggest that Mr. Rodricks embed himself with the SEALs someday, fly in a helicopter at night deep into enemy territory, land in an enemy compound, engage in a firefight, and then conduct a room-to-room search for a terrorist. For every country except ours, the rules of engagement would be shoot everyone who was there.

From the street the faded, yellow house on Belair Road looks unassuming. Three large picture windows overlook a community recreation center and an elementary school. It's around the corner from a community baseball diamond. On one recent visit, a small American flag lay discarded on the front lawn, along with a few scattered cigarette butts. A metal pipe protrudes above a side door. Before the police raided this house, prosecutors said the pipe held a surveillance camera placed there by the operators that recorded the number of men who passed through the entrance, and helped monitor the women working inside.

Several concepts that The Sun and its reporters seemingly fail to recognize are "illegal" and "affordability. " I was amazed to read in the article "Tuition bill takes a step forward in Senate" (March 10) by Annie Linskey that roughly two dozen illegal immigrants watched the debate from the Senate gallery on Wednesday. Let's get this straight now — two dozen people who are illegally in this country are watching our state Senate debate a discount for them to attend colleges in a state that has a severe financial problem.

City police said they have busted a large scale drug and gun operation in Northwest Baltimore, seizing weapons and cash and arresting a convicted gun offender. Officers raided a house in the 5300 block of Liberty Heights Ave. on Tuesday afternoon. The target, Roger Dyer, was inside, police said, and was charged with gun and drug offenses. "Investigators believe Dyer was a supplier to Northwest Baltimore's drug supply and contributed to violence in the community," Police said in a statement.

Raid your wine cellar, corkage is coming. The governor signed corkage into law on Tuesday. The new law, which takes effect on July 1, will allow Maryland diners to bring their own wine into licensed establishments. Previously, corkage has been allowed only in unlicensed, or BYOB, establishments. A corkage bill died in the assembly last year, when the practice, which is already permitted in at least 25 other states, would have been introduced in only a handful of counties.

Federal agents found 500 pounds of marijuana and more than 10 kilograms of cocaine, along with an AK-47 and body armor, during raids on homes in Baltimore County and northeastern Baltimore as part of a cross-country drug investigation.  At least two men have been charged through a federal complaint in connection with the raids - Harold and Joseph Ibreham Byrd. Both men have had initial appearances in federal judge before a magistrate judge and are being detained; attorneys are not listed in court records.

Detective Hassan Rasheed had been watching the Northwest Baltimore repair shop for weeks as men brought dirt bikes in and out for repairs. Now police, intent on cracking down on illegal bikes, were prepared to move in. Armed with a search-and-seizure warrant, Rasheed and a team of officers gathered up 16 bikes. Some had been reported stolen. As the officers combed the West Belvedere Avenue repair shop, a crowd gathered outside the barbed-wire-topped fence. "I'm sure everyone's [angry]

I would like to add some points to former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's column "How the welfare state has grown" (April 7). Mr. Ehrlich fails to mention the fact that every president since Lyndon Johnson, beginning in 1964, has raided the Social Security Trust Fund and transferred the money to the government's general fund to pay for the country's wars and for the campaign promises they made to their constituents in order to get re-elected. He also failed to mention that President Ronald Reagan called upon Congress in the early 1980s to increase Social Security contributions because he claimed the system was going broke.

When it comes to higher gas taxes, most Maryland businesses agree on one thing: They want a guarantee that the money designated for highway revenues will go to roads and bridges. But when the rubber met the road in the Maryland House of Delegates, some major business organizations gave away the key to the lockbox. The Maryland business community has been deeply divided on a gas tax increase. Paving contractors, concrete and asphalt companies, engineering firms and other businesses that depend on highway construction have been starving for lack of state transportation funds.

As regulars perused handmade jewelry, discounted bedsheets, slightly-worn stuffed animals and other knick-knacks, dozens of Baltimore County police officers swarmed into a bustling Dundalk flea market Saturday morning to bust vendors allegedly selling counterfeit merchandise. What appeared to be fleece North Face jackets, UGG Boots, DVDs and CDs were seized by officers serving search warrants on 16 vendors at the Plaza Flea Market on Old North Point Boulevard. “They just came running in here and told people to put the stuff down.

The University of Maryland's planned departure from the Atlantic Coast Conference has raised questions about the league's long-term survival, a sobering prospect for fans that grew up on games between the Terps and their Tobacco Road rivals. The first notes of panic emerged Monday, after Maryland announced plans to leave for the Big Ten and its far greater television riches in 2014. "I think the ACC is vulnerable right now," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in taping his show Basketball and Beyond for Sirius XM Radio.

Investigators for the state prosecutor raided the home and office Friday of Julius Henson, the political operative who ordered the controversial Election Day robocalls for former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Emmet C. Davitt, Maryland's new state prosecutor, declined to comment on the raid. Neither Henson nor his lawyer could be reached for comment Friday. WBAL-TV, which broke the news of the morning raid, aired footage showing investigators carrying boxes from Henson's home during an early-morning raid.

An article in the Nov. 23, 1912, edition of The Argus reported a raid on a local drinking establishment. Samuel Bloom saloon on Frederick road at Paradise was raided Sunday night at 7 o'clock by Patrolmen Hutson and Phelps , of the Canton Police Station. The patrolmen, who were dressed in plain clothes, say they entered the saloon and ordered bottle beer which was served to them. They then arrested Samuel Bloom , John Hall , a helper, and two other men as witnesses.

A Baltimore City police detective was charged Thursday with lying in a search warrant affidavit to gain entry to a Canton home, then trying to obstruct an ensuing internal affairs investigation. The raid resulting from the affidavit led to the discovery of guns and suspected drugs, police said at the time, and a 39-year-old man was arrested. But the man's lawyer says an analysis came back negative for drugs, and prosecutors were forced to drop the gun charges after the misconduct allegations arose.