Raid

The investigation of a Baltimore homicide detective, accused of conducting an unauthorized search at an apartment while looking for his missing teenage daughter, has broadened as authorities seek to determine whether other law enforcement resources were used to aid the search. According to law enforcement sources, city investigators are trying to determine whether officers improperly used phone-tracking technology to help find Detective Daniel T. Nicholson IV's 15-year-old daughter, who ran away from home Friday.

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.

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 Sun would seem to favor raising taxes especially for the Transportation Trust Fund ("A silver lining," April 12). But would the transportation fund need additional money if governors past and present had not been allowed to raid it to cover their spending? Tell us how much was taken from the fund in the last 6 to 10 years. Would the amount start with a "B"? Vivian Vann, Glen Burnie

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.

Unless the House of Delegates reverses a Senate decision, Maryland's legislature will undermine the widely popular effort to create new places for outdoor recreation, as well as efforts to protect Maryland's best farmlands and forests. This decision would impact Maryland's residents and visitors alike by taking money set aside for land conservation and using it instead to pay for storm water projects. The Senate voted to raid all the land conservation programs. They took $26 million of the Program Open Space money, took money that was supposed to be paid back to Program Open Space and the Maryland Agricultural Land Protection Foundation, and completely defunded the Rural Legacy program.

Baltimore Inspector General has released his final report on last year's gambling raid at a Department of Transportation yard. Nearly a dozen workers were arrested, but prosecutors got just one conviction, prompting critics to say the operation was overblown. I interviewed David DeCarlo in January who said he was not involved in the gambling but was caught up as a bystander ( read story here ). He was fighting to get his job back. The IG, David N. McClintock, defended the raid to me in January: If gambling "was going on and it's not anymore, then it was worth it. ... The day everybody is happy with what we're doing is the day we're not doing something right.

Three people were arrested and more than a dozen guns were seized Thursday in the culmination of a two-month investigation into a gun distribution ring. "They got a major gun dealer off the streets," said Det. Donny Moses, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department. Ronald Van Price Jr., 37, Keith James, 34, and Jessica Correa, 24, were arrested and are expected to be charged by federal authorities, who assisted with the inquiry, Moses said. Maryland's U.S. Attorney's Office had not released the exact charges by 10:30 p.m. Thursday.

An Anne Arundel police corporal was charged Friday after allegedly warning drug suspects that a search warrant was going to be executed for their residence, police said. Anne Arundel County Police Cpl. Rick Alexander, 36, a 14-year member of the department, was arrested and charged with obstructing and hindering a police officer, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to distribute cocaine, according to a statement Friday evening from county police. Around 10 p.m. Thursday, Anne Arundel County Police executed a narcotics search and seizure warrant in the 1300 block of Juniper Street, in Shady Side, police said.

If city workers and union officials think busting up a party in which municipal employees were drinking and gambling on the job is overzealous, then Baltimore could use a lot more zeal. The fact that the city inspector general's 2011 raid on a Department of Transportation facility has resulted in only one criminal conviction should not be taken as an indication that this was much ado about nothing or that the workers involved were somehow unfairly persecuted. City residents pay a lot of taxes to fund those workers' salaries, and they deserve to know that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated.