Seize

Baltimore police have shut down four street vendors accused of selling bootlegged copies of movies months before they are to be released in video stores, seizing more than 500 cassettes.Four people were arrested in separate raids Wednesday afternoon on a West Baltimore street corner and in front of the state office complex on West Preston Street, where police said tapes were being sold from an old Chevrolet van.The movies, which sold for $10 each, included "Waterworld," "Pocahontas," "Under Siege II," "The Net" and "Species" -- popular films that are playing in theaters and are not scheduled to be in video stores for at least nine months.

Baltimore police seized three assault rifles and more than 7,000 rounds of ammunition in a drug raid on an East Baltimore house just north of Patterson Park. Francisco G. Milos, 29, reportedly told officers he had the weapons because he was "preparing for the war," according to charging documents. When one of the arresting officers, Sgt. Lennardo Bailey, asked him who was going to be part of the war, Milos did not reply, police say. The search warrant was executed on the home in the 100 block of N. Kenwood Ave. in the Baltimore-Linwood neighborhood at 9 p.m. Wednesday, the result of an investigation that included undercover purchases of marijuana from the location, police said.

I've devoted the past several months, and every day this week, totally to health care reform. I've attended rallies, met with congressional staff members, made phone calls and marched. Finally, for the first time since the election in Massachusetts, I am cautiously optimistic that we might actually get it done. I'm optimistic because senators like Harry Reid and Chris Dodd are finally speaking publicly, and forcefully, about getting the job done with or without the Republicans. Representatives like Congressman Anthony Weiner are plainly stating the facts on the House floor about our congressional representatives being a subsidiary of the insurance firms.

A Frederick man on his way to Jackson Hole, Wyo., was given a citation Wednesday afternoon for having a stun gun in his carry-on luggage at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. The unidentified passenger was stopped by a Transportation Security Administration officer who detected the combination stun gun/flashlight in his luggage. Maryland Transportation Authority Police confiscated the weapon and cited its owner on a state weapons charge. There was no impact to airport operations and the man was allowed to catch his flight.

Anne Arundel County detectives charged three people and seized $27,500 worth of what they believe to be marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms this week from a home in Arnold, police said. The raid, which stemmed from the investigation of an anonymous complaint, took place about midnight Wednesday at a home in the 1100 block of Gator Court, police said. Charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia were David A. Bennett, 25; Catherine D. Kirby, 21; and Dominick N. Purdham, 24, police said.

Authorities in Harford County have arrested 13 people they say are part of a major drug ring that distributes marijuana throughout the county. The Harford County Task Force, working with federal agents, seized more than 250 pounds of marijuana and $400,000, according to the sheriff's office. The investigation began in the summer of 2008 and ended with the indictment Tuesday of Antonio Boston, 51, of Aberdeen, who authorities say was the ring leader. A spokesman for the sheriff's department said that large quantities of the drugs originated in Mexico and were smuggled across the Arizona border.

City police executing a search warrant seized a semi-automatic rifle and arrested a convicted felon who was using a valid driver's license with a fake name, police said. The Baltimore Police Department's computer crimes division, investigating child pornography, conducted the search Wednesday on a home in the 4900 block of Greencrest Road, in the Frankford neighborhood, about 6:30 p.m., police said. Inside, officers recovered a Hi-Point 9 mm rifle and "various digital media," police said.

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.

Frederick County sheriff's deputies seized 30 marijuana plants from a house garden outside New Windsor after a mortgage company employee spotted the plants on a routine investigation, officials said.The house -- on Hemp Avenue, which runs off Route 31 about a mile into Frederick County -- was unoccupied when they confiscated the plants Monday, deputies said. The plants ranged from a foot to 7 feet high, said Sgt. Ralf Berger, a spokesman for the sheriff's office. Some of the plants were in containers and appeared to have been harvested.

FIGHTING DRUGS is a dirty business, but that doesn't mean the government should descend into the gutter with the drug dealers.Anne Arundel County Police Chief Larry Tolliver, in his letter to the editor at right, defends the practice of seizing cars in misdemeanor drug cases.He says his policy is to "enforce vigorously all laws controlling substance abuse," which includes seizing property as allowed under Maryland law.But the issue is not whether this policy is within legal bounds.Secure in our possessionsThe issue is that the current methods being used by county police to enforce the law violate one of the most basic rights we have as citizens: to be secure in our possessions.

After dropping two of its previous three contests, No. 11 Maryland needed to boost its morale and the team got that by walloping visiting Colgate, 18-6, in the regular-season finale for both teams at Byrd Stadium in College Park Saturday. The victory is expected to cement one of the NCAA tournament's eight seeds and a home game in the first round for the Terps (10-3). Just as important is that the team gets some momentum as it heads into the postseason. “It's huge,” senior long-stick midfielder Jesse Bernhardt said.

Salisbury has not missed an NCAA tournament since 1988, capturing the championship 10 times - including in each of the last two seasons. With a 14-4 record and the No. 4 ranking in the South region, the program is in solid position to extend its consecutive streak to 25 appearances. But that is not how coach Jim Berkman feels. He said the team is determined to defeat St. Mary's (11-6) in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament final at Sea Gull Stadium on Sunday and seize the automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament.

Anne Arundel County Police say a call to a hotel in the Linthicum Heights area on Monday resulted in the seizure of more than 120 grams of suspected cocaine and other drugs and more than $10,000 cash. The call also resulted in one arrest on drug possession charges, and a warrant issued for a Baltimore man on similar charges. Police said on Monday just after 11:30 a.m., officers went to Sleep Inn in the 6000 block of Belle Grove Road for a report of an unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Breakups are awkward, uncomfortable, difficult experiences. Just recently, I experienced a breakup of sorts, as I initiated the end of a relationship dating back 25 years. The relationship in question: myself and the Maryland Republican Party. People have different reactions when I told them I'd switched my registration from "Republican" to "Unaffiliated. " Conservatives worried I was drifting to the left, perhaps bending to the influence of my Obama-loving friends. As for liberals, some exulted that the political outlier in their lives finally seemed to be getting it. Well, sorry folks … but I guess I still don't get it. My switch is a non-ideological gesture of frustration by someone who has worked for and around some of the MDGOP's most notable and successful political figures — including Helen Bentley and Bob Ehrlich — over the past quarter-century.

No. 7 Loyola took great joy in snapping a 13-game losing skid to No. 13 Johns Hopkins with Saturday's 8-4 victory. But even happier times could just be down the road. Saturday's win may have further strengthened the reigning national champion's pursuit of an at-large berth to the NCAA tournament regardless of what occurs in the Eastern College Athletic Conference tournament being held at Hobart in Geneva, N.Y. later this week. According to Laxpower.com which compiles its own Rating Percentage Index (RPI)

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]

Baltimore police arrested two men yesterday and reported seizing large amounts of narcotics and cash after a four-month investigation of drug activity in the southwest section of the city. City police seized more that 3 pounds of cocaine, 4 ounces of raw heroin, 1.5 ounces of morphine and $10,000 in cash in raids at five locations, as well as three vehicles and two handguns allegedly used in the drug trade, according to Detective Mark Lunsford of the Central District Drug Enforcement Unit.

A strong odor of marijuana in a Joppa home where Harford County sheriff's deputies had responded to settle a domestic dispute on Sunday has led to the arrests of a young couple and the seizure of about eight pounds of marijuana, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Deputies responded to the home in the 800 block of Chatfield Road about 12:15 p.m. for a report of a verbal altercation between Michael Allen Brandt, 26, and Julia Michele Leonard, 24, the sheriff's office said.

Baltimore County police seized $1.5 million worth of counterfeit merchandise after a raid at a Dundalk flea market last month, the department announced Wednesday. Charges are pending against 19 people who rent space in the market, not the flea market owners, police said. The vendors have not been identified. Officers raided the North Point Plaza Flea Market on Old North Point Boulevard on Feb. 16, taking more than 4,000 pairs of shoes and 3,500 phone accessories along with pirated movies and music and clothing items.