Undercover

Only one series premieres tonight, as ABC's "Charlie Grace" brings back one of television's "hunks," Mark Harmon. The Maryland Public Television series "MotorWeek" also reaches a significant milestone.* "Seinfeld" (7:30 p.m.-8 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- What's up with this? Did you notice the suc cessful sitcom still airing in first-run on NBC is now in daily rerun syndication?* "Charlie Grace" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- Mark Harmon ("Reasonable Doubts," "St. Elsewhere") returns to series TV as a Los Angeles private investigator, a former cop. His character has tough cases to solve and a 12-year-old daughter to raise.

The head of online news at the Annapolis Capital has been arrested after investigators in Pennsylvania said he tried to meet for sex with an undercover agent posing as a 14-year-old girl, the paper reported. George Lundskow, 55, faces six charges including two of unlawful contact with a minor for alleged offenses committed last November, court records in Pennsylvania show. Lundskow was taken into custody Friday night, according to Anne Arundel County police, and court records show he is being held without bond.

WASHINGTON -- A great era in journalism is passing, I fear. I lament its loss.It was the era of undercover reporting.I knew it well; it had a glorious history. Our grandchildren will study it the way they study Prohibition, the Wild West or the band Paul McCartney played in before Wings.They will read about Nellie Bly, alias Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, who went undercover for the New York World to expose the awfulness inside a mental asylum a century ago.Or they will read about Upton Sinclair, who went to work in the Chicago stockyards to expose deplorable working conditions.

A 34-year-old Florida man pleaded guilty late Wednesday to illegally selling night vision goggles and other military style gear online to an undercover federal agent in Baltimore pretending to be an overseas buyer — a charge that could land him in prison for 20 years. Anthony J. Torresi, of Coral Gables, did not have the required U.S. Department of State license to sell the items when he posted them on eBay and then arranged to sell them to a buyer who he believed was in New Zealand, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office of Rod J. Rosenstein.

Two West Baltimore brothers were arrested yesterday by Baltimore County undercover police, who said they confiscated $30,000 worth of heroin and nearly $20,000 in cash in a Woodlawn-area motel room early in the day.Charged with distribution of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of a controlled dangerous substance were William Claiborne and Percy Claiborne. Police said both are in their early 30s and live in the 2600 block of Lauretta Avenue.William Claiborne was charged under the state's drug kingpin statute, which mandates sentences of at least 20 years without parole.

JERUSALEM -- A Palestinian human rights agency has charged that Israeli military units working undercover in the occupied territories have killed 47 Palestinians, many of them unarmed youths.The existence of the undercover units, in which soldiers dress as Arab men and women to carry out raids, make arrests and spy on Palestinians in the occupied territories, was finally admitted in a documentary on Israeli state television Friday.Lee O'Brien, a researcher at the Palestinian Human Rights Information Center, said field workers had traced 47 deaths over the past two years to the undercover units.

Westminster police, in a continuing probe of a recent two-month undercover drug investigation, arrested a city man Thursday.Louis "Rusty" Russell Moals Jr., 25, of the 100 block of S. Center St. was charged with one count of a drug distribution conspiracy to an undercover police officer. He also was charged with an unrelated theft and held Friday in lieu of $5,000 bond at the detention center.Police Chief Sam Leppo credited a newly hired officer, who was not identified because he is working undercover, and Detective Sgts.

Westminster police arrested two people during the weekend as part of a two-month undercover drug investigation that resulted in the arrest of 10 people last week.Jay William Myers, 44, of the 100 block of W. Main St. was arrested Friday night and charged with one count each of possession of marijuana, paraphernalia and possession with intent to distribute the drug. He was being held on $10,000 bond after a search and seizure warrant was executed at his home, city police said.Tracy Lynne Barron, 27, of the 700 block of Redwood Drive was arrested Saturday and charged with one count of selling crack cocaine to an undercover police officer July 25. She was being held yesterday on $10,000 bond.

Two undercover police detectives were robbed at gunpoint last week of $40 during a drug sting in Northwest Baltimore, officials confirmed yesterday. The two city detectives were driving in an unmarked vehicle about 2:50 a.m. June 23 when they spotted a man they thought to be a drug dealer in the 4300 block of Reisterstown Road, police said in charging documents. Hoping the man would lead them to a stash of drugs, the detectives allowed him to get into their vehicle, police said. After guiding the detectives to the alley behind the 2800 block of Boarman Ave., the man pulled out a handgun, pointed it at one detective's head and demanded money, court records say. The detective quickly handed over two marked $20 bills, and the robber left the vehicle, police said.

On the surface, Connie Marie Shore's Circuit Court file has all the makings of a big-deal drug case.Five grand jury indictments, an undercover drug buy, and the seizure and sale of the 18-year-old's Chevy truck are detailed in the file.But a closer look at Carroll County Criminal File 17376, her attorneys say, shows that the case of Maryland vs. Connie Marie Shore results from the defendant's "being at the wrong place, at the wrong time with the wrong person."Police say Ms. Shore was arrested by members of the Carroll Narcotics Task Force in February, when her boyfriend, Robert John Stevenson Jr., was observed selling marijuana to an undercover drug agent.

Six alleged members of a robbery crew caught in a sting by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are expected to plead guilty to federal charges, according to a letter filed in the case Tuesday. The government claims that the men were armed drug traffickers who operated out of Waverly. They plotted to rob what they were told was another drug organization's stash house, and were taken into custody in June as they prepared for the raid, according to court filings.

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.

An alleged Baltimore contract killer who went by the street name "Tony Montana" is in federal custody after authorities say he agreed to execute the associate of an apparent drug dealer — who was actually an undercover FBI agent. Court documents outline a series of meetings between 46-year-old Antonio McKiver and the agent, during which conversations were recorded detailing how McKiver would take out the target in exchange for $15,000 and a kilogram of cocaine. "That ain't no problem," McKiver allegedly said in one conversation, according to court records.

During a third undercover operation this month in Linthicum, detectives with the Anne Arundel County police department's vice unit arrested a 19-year-old California woman, who is charged with prostitution and possession of marijuana. Nary Sun of Oakland was arrested about 9 p.m. Tuesday in the hotel district near BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. Officers initiated the investigation earlier this month in response to residents' complaints of prostitution in the area of Old Elkridge Landing Road and Winterson Road.

The six suspects arrested in a federal sting in Hampden on Thursday planned to kill a co-conspirator in a robbery who was actually an undercover ATF agent, according to court documents. Unbeknownst to the suspects, the robbery plot was a ruse - part of a series of Baltimore operations set up by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in recent months. For the second time, gunfire erupted in a public place as authorities moved in for the arrest, this time in the 3300 block of Clipper Mill Rd. Charged in the case are Tracey TheraldineÖ Betters, 20; Blake Aristotle Betters, 23; Brandon Harris, 20; John McLaurin, 22; Aaron Walker, 23; and 18-year-old IsiahÖ Benjamin.

A 65-year-old Linthicum man who molested a 9-year-old girl and exchanged more than 200 text messages with an undercover detective pretending to be her pleaded guilty Thursday to using a cell phone to coerce a minor to engage in sexual activity, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein's office. David Mitchell Rowe admitted to police that he had molested the girl and other young girls in past years, and that he is attracted to minors, the prosecutor's office said.

Some liberals are worried about Mayor Daley's desire to set up a limited version of the Chicago police department's old Red Squad spy unit.Daley says the undercover and intelligence-gathering cops would concentrate on violent street gangs.But opponents fear it would bring back the days when the undercover cops looked for dangerous communists and other subversives, but couldn't find any.Instead, they tried to spy on neighborhood groups, political activists, civil rights workers, hippies, yippies and critics of City Hall or the Vietnam War.As one who was snooped by the old Red Squad, I'm not concerned.

A plainclothes Baltimore City police officer was shot twice in the face last night while attempting to make an undercover drug purchase in the Seton Hill neighborhood, officials said. The officer, a seven-year veteran of the force, was rushed to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was in critical but stable condition last night. His injuries were not considered life-threatening. The 33-year-old officer and his partner, also in plain clothes, were at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Orchard Street shortly after 8 p.m. when they saw a group of people who appeared to be involved in drug transactions, said Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III. The officer was shot in the jaw and cheek when he tried to make an undercover purchase, Bealefeld said.

Anne Arundel County police said Wednesday they've charged five people after investigating alleged drug dealing at the Cromwell Light Rail Station in Glen Burnie. Detectives performed a two-day undercover investigation last week at the station along with Maryland Transit Administration officers. The detectives charged three people with selling drugs to the officers, a fourth person with drug possession and a fifth person with violating probation. During the investigation, the officers seized 15 suspected Xanax pills, 7.62 grams of suspected marijuana, 21 suspected Promethazine pills and $340.

They met three times at Penn Station to discuss the robbery of a cartel's drug stash house, then on Thursday, strapped with handguns, gathered at a 7-11 in Hampden for a last-minute rendezvous before carrying out the plot, according to court documents. The whole operation was a ruse, however, set up by federal agents. It's at least the second time the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has used the method in recent months to identify and arrest home invasion suspects.