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From the Los Angeles Times

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Court program helps women turn their lives around

Women facing a return to state prison for nonviolent felonies plead guilty and enter treatment instead. Most are going on to lead crime-free lives.

by Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times

October 19, 2010

Sprinting down the Hollywood Hills on a radiant April morning, a 35-year-old meth addict named Orange told herself in a moment of clarity: "This is it. You're done."

Fast approaching from behind was a furious homeowner who had caught her burglarizing his home. Somewhere in Long Beach, her parole officer was probably tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for her to show up.

She came up to the edge of a cliff with nowhere to run. Thirty feet below, rush-hour traffic zoomed by on Cahuenga Boulevard. She thought about her prior arrests and what another one — her 21st — would mean.

She jumped.

::

On any given day, Judge Michael Tynan's fourth-floor courtroom in downtown L.A.'s criminal courts building is crowded with lives in need of redemption.

Over the years, the 73-year-old Army veteran with a gruff, no-nonsense voice has taken on populations that others have given up on — the county's drug addicts, homeless, mentally ill and, in recent years, women parolees. The Los Angeles County Superior Court judge oversees a number of programs known as collaborative or problem-solving courts, designed to address the underlying issues — addictions, mental health, poverty — that lead to repeated arrests and prison terms.

The former public defender has a way of encouraging people — or sometimes scaring them straight — that has made his court-supervised treatment programs successful.

Tynan believes that, given the chance and support, people can turn their lives around.

Since 2007, Tynan has been running the Second Chance Women's Re-entry Court program, one of the first in the nation to focus on women in the criminal justice system. Through the court, women facing a return to state prison for nonviolent felonies plead guilty to their crimes and enter treatment instead.

Although women make up only a small fraction of prison inmates, their numbers have been climbing for decades at a far steeper rate than men's. Women are also more likely to be convicted of nonviolent drug or property crimes motivated by addictions or necessity.

As Tynan reads through their files, the women anxiously wait. They fix their makeup, step out for cigarette breaks and halfheartedly flip through the pages of well-worn mystery and romance novels. Some come cradling pregnant bellies, others pushing strollers with young children.

Based on what he sees in the report and what the women have to say, Tynan doles out sanctions or incentives such as a month back in jail, an order to write a 1,000-word essay or permission to go on an out-of-town trip.

It hasn't been all success. Of the close to 200 women who have entered the program since it began in 2007, one relapsed and died from an overdose. A couple dozen failed treatment and were ordered to serve out their sentences in prison.

But overwhelmingly, the women are making it through treatment and going on to lead crime-free lives.

A former drug-dealing mother of four recently began working for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services mentoring other troubled parents. A woman who once had an abusive boyfriend who set her on fire is now preparing for secretarial school and reconnecting with her daughter. A recovering alcoholic with repeated DUI arrests who was severely anorexic, bordering on heart failure, is playing soccer and taking theater classes in junior college.

"A lot of them have been really, really beleaguered and beaten up, primarily by the men in their lives," Tynan says. His court, he adds, "is just a sliver of what's needed."

::

Orange survived the fall, but she broke her back and shattered her foot so badly that it swelled until the skin ripped. A few months later, she was wheeled into Tynan's court, facing burglary charges, as a candidate for the Re-entry Court program.

She thought she saw skepticism in the judge's eyes as he read through her file. She feared he wouldn't accept her because of the severity of her injuries and her prior felonies. She just barely propped herself up on crutches, hoping Tynan would think her injuries were less serious than they were.

With her record, the alternative was a lengthy prison sentence.

Her downward spiral had begun at age 13, when her grandmother, who raised her, abruptly passed away. She was left with an inattentive mother, a physically abusive stepfather and a string of drug-dealer boyfriends, some of whom beat her bloody and drove her near suicide.

What started with alcohol and marijuana quickly became LSD and cocaine and, ultimately, meth. A DUI arrest at age 17 was followed by a growing list of petty theft, burglary and drug charges. She did six months, then three years, then five years and four months. After each release, she was back behind bars in less than a year. Life on the outside felt abnormal and uncomfortable.

Now, for the first time, she was being shown a different path. The proceedings went by in a blur — she couldn't focus on anything but the pain and staying on her feet. Later, someone told her, Tynan agreed to give her a chance.

::

Thirty miles east of Tynan's courtroom, the women of the Re-entry Court program are housed in a Pomona drug treatment facility for women called Prototypes.

The complex has the look and feel of an elementary school, with bright-colored murals, playgrounds and dirt plots sprouting gardening projects. The dorms are painted in pastel shades, with the occasional motivational quote taped onto the wall.

Here, the women are referred to as clients or patients rather than defendants or inmates. Binders and book bags take the place of handcuffs and jail scrubs, and women shuttle between therapy, life- and job-skills classes, chores and support group meetings. Mothers are reunited with their young children and given counseling and parenting classes.

Behind closed doors, the path to recovery is slow and painful as women learn to open up about their past. Some lived on the street for decades, hustling or resorting to prostitution for the next fix. Many had their children taken away and had felt, at one point, that it would be best if they stayed away. All had addictions, often compounded by mental illness and histories of trauma and abuse.

"There are a few of them who come in so broken and so sick that you're amazed that they're alive," said Nancy Chand, a deputy public defender who acts as the attorney for most of the women. "They come to realize that it wasn't their fault that they were hurt. As that shame starts to come off, the confidence comes out."

Their time here, a minimum of six months but longer for most, is designed to prepare them for another shot at life — be that a job at McDonald's, a new relationship with their children or paralegal school.

The treatment, currently funded through a grant from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and donated services from Prototypes, costs about $18,000 for each woman per year. But compared with keeping them in prison and their children in foster care for years, the state is saving millions of dollars, the program's organizers say.

::

Orange sinks into an army green camping chair outside her home as the screen door swings shut behind her.

It is dusk. She sucks away at the one addiction left in her life — Marlboro Reds — and flicks the ash into a rusted coffee tin. She wants to quit — as soon as she can get her insurance to pay for nicotine patches.

Her first months here in Pomona were less than smooth. Saddled with the pain and bitterness over what she had done to her body and life, she threw tantrums when she wasn't allowed to smoke and screamed in the hallways.

Tynan sent her to county jail for 30 days and ordered her to write an essay on "self will." That was all the reminder she needed of the life that she was being given a chance to leave behind.

"It took jail to wake me up," she recalled. "I'm not going back."

In April, around the time she marked two years' sobriety, she was allowed to move out of residential treatment into a sober living home near Prototypes. She decorated her half of the room in black, white and pink. There's no air conditioning, but she and her roommate have each served prison time in the desert.

In court shortly before her move, Tynan praised her, noting that her report called her "tremendous" and "hard working." Orange told him that after the last round of surgeries on her foot, she's going back to school. She asked that her last name not be made public because she didn't want employers to know the details of her former life.

She's learning the everyday routines that make up a normal life. She is learning to cook, starting with rice and pasta.

"I've always had my food prepared for me by the prison chefs," she says sheepishly.

She's also learning to forgive herself and to rely on others. She's patching up her relationship with her mother. When her cellphone rings on this day, she tells her mother about going to group therapy and then to the thrift store.

She takes a deep drag on her cigarette and ponders the years she has lost. She wishes she'd come across the Re-entry Court sooner, she says. But she also realizes she's one of the lucky ones.

"How many thousands are in the system?" Orange says, staring into the horizon. "I think about all the girls whose files don't make it there."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-reentry-20101019,0,988875,print.story

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Deaths from abuse and neglect increase among children under L.A. County oversight

Confidential documents show the numbers climbing in recent years, contradicting previous reports by the Children and Family Services agency.

by Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times

October 19, 2010

More children have died in each of the last two years from abuse or neglect after being under the eye of Los Angeles County's Department of Children and Family Services despite assurances by county officials that the problem was getting better, according to confidential county documents reviewed by The Times.

The number of deaths from abuse and neglect rose from 18 in 2008 to 26 in 2009, and 2010 so far is on track to be even worse, with 21 maltreatment fatalities in the first eight months of the year, according to the figures. The department publicly released some of the case files of child deaths Monday morning after repeated inquiries from The Times but has not yet released the overall statistics, which have been circulating among senior county officials.

The majority of the maltreatment fatalities occurred while county social workers were actively overseeing the child's welfare or just days or months after they had closed the case for the child, the records show.

The data represent the first time the public has gained access to the department's accounting of how many children in its care have died of maltreatment. The trend contradicts previous accounts the department had provided to other county officials.

As recently as August, department Director Trish Ploehn provided statistics to the Los Angeles County Commission for Children and Families showing that the number of maltreatment fatalities had dropped from 18 in 2009 to six in the first seven months of 2010. Her statement was provided to The Times in response to a California Public Records Act request. Ploehn declined repeated requests for an interview for this article.

One of the previously undisclosed child deaths was that of Miaamor Steen, a 5-year-old girl from Inglewood, who was found on Sept. 16 in the bathtub of an extended-stay motel, unconscious and not breathing, police said. The girl's mother, Jennine Steen, and her boyfriend, Solomon Walters, were arrested on murder charges.

Records indicate that the departments' child abuse hotline had received two calls about Mia. The most recent investigation was closed about a month before her death, with no finding of abuse. The girl's father, Donya Steen, said he made one of those calls after hearing that Mia was being beaten by her mother.

"Something has gone terribly, terribly haywire in the oversight of these children," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a persistent critic of the department's handling of child deaths.

Yaroslavsky questioned whether the department's drive to reduce the number of children removed from their families and placed in foster care has led it to leave too many children in unsafe conditions.

The number of foster children has dropped from 52,000 in 1997 to 18,800 this year. During this period, the department has focused on keeping children with their parents by giving the adults drug treatment, parental training and other services.

The drive has been motivated by the belief that a child's welfare is best served by his or own family, even when that family is somewhat troubled. But the reduction of foster children is also a budgetary imperative.

Under an experimental federal and state program known as the Title IV-E waiver, Los Angeles County agreed to accept a fixed sum for foster care. If costs exceed that amount, the county must pay the difference. If the county spends less than the federal allotment, the county can use the leftover funds to pay for other programs designed to reduce child abuse and neglect.

Yaroslavsky said he agreed that children belong with their own families whenever possible but worried that the department has been so single-minded in its drive to reduce the number of foster children that social workers have been blinded to the fact that some parents are too dangerous to be left in control of children.

"The facts need to dictate how DCFS handles these marginalized children. Evidence can't be ignored because there is an orthodoxy that says kids need to be kept with their families," Yaroslavsky said.

Backers of the program have resisted suggestions that the drive to reduce foster care has contributed to a rise in abuse or neglect.

Oscar Ramirez, spokesman for the California Department of Social Services, said the state did not believe the IV-E waiver "has led to systemic instances of child maltreatment, but we remain committed to working with anyone who has concerns with the IV-E waiver and have a standing offer to meet to better understand those concerns as the state's implementation of this waiver continues."

Others who have studied the waiver program say that earlier indicators were already suggesting problems. Child safety indicators under the waiver have become "an area of concern," said Charlie Ferguson, a San Jose State University professor and the state's independent evaluator of the waiver program.

Ferguson said officials had studied data involving children who had not been removed from their homes after an allegation of child abuse had been substantiated. They found that those children experienced an increased rate of substantiated abuse within a year. The rate has increased by 19% since the Title IV-E waiver began in 2007, he said.

Ferguson's review does not include fatality data because he is reviewing only data that is comparable among all California's counties and with jurisdictions elsewhere in the country.

Carole Shauffer, executive director of the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center and one of the state's leading advocates for abused or neglected children, said she was hesitant to connect the waiver with the rise in child fatalities because she worried that too little information is available.

"What analysis has been done by the department?" she asked. "Have they really looked at this? Have they looked at the experience level of the social workers who handled these cases? If they are ignoring this type of analysis, they are foolish."

It's unknown how much analysis has been done, but there is some reason to believe that the department has not diligently collected the raw data needed for such evaluations.

The data on maltreatment fatalities were recently revised under the supervision of the county's Office of Independent Review. They are part of a larger group of fatalities tracked by the department, which includes children who died of causes other than abuse.

The county's record-keeping regarding the overall number of such fatalities has been flawed. Last month, for example, the county's records reviewed by The Times showed that 91 children tracked by the department had died, of a variety of causes, in 2003. This month, the department's records showed the 2003 fatality figure as 146. The number is subject to further revision, county records showed.

At Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas's urging, the Board of Supervisors ordered Ploehn this month to compile fatality statistics for the last 20 years. The vote was 4-1, with Supervisor Don Knabe opposed.

To the extent that the department already has such information, it has been difficult for the public to obtain. At Supervisor Gloria Molina's behest, the Board of Supervisors asked the county's Office of Independent Review to look at whether the department was following a state law that mandates the release of case files when a child dies of abuse or neglect.

Michael Gennaco, the office's chief attorney, found the department inappropriately hid dozens of cases from public view. Whether the failure to make the files public was intentional or not remains under review. At the time, Ploehn said she was in full agreement with the report, but it took a month and a half before the department had a single case file ready for review.

In a written statement, Ploehn said, "although there has been a considerable workload associated with the release of these documents, we do acknowledge that the release of these files has taken longer than we had hoped — and the public has consequently had to wait longer than it should."  

Two senior department managers have alleged that the department deliberately concealed information, and Gennaco said he is investigating their claims. Thus far, however, he has not verified an intent to hide, and he suggested that the workers responsible for public disclosure may have been unaware that state law mandated disclosure.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-child-deaths-20101019,0,2726218,print.story

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Four convicted in New York synagogue bomb plot

The defendants had argued they were victims of entrapment by an FBI informant.

by Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times

October 19, 2010

Reporting from New York

A jury Monday found four men guilty of plotting to blow up Jewish targets in New York City and shoot military planes out of the sky, brushing aside defense claims that they were victims of entrapment by a paid FBI informant who befriended them at their mosque.

The four — alleged ringleader James Cromitie, David Williams IV, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen — were arrested in a nighttime raid in May 2009 after leaving cars they believed were laden with explosives outside a synagogue and a Jewish center in the Bronx.

Prosecutors called it a "chilling plot" and an example of the danger of home-grown terrorists. Defenders of the four, all Muslims from the working-class city of Newburgh, north of New York City, said they would not have been involved in a plot were it not for pressure put on them by the Pakistani-born informant.

"It's a miscarriage of justice," said Susanne Brody, the lawyer for Onta Williams. She and other defense lawyers said they planned to appeal.

Alicia McWilliams-McCollum, David Williams' aunt, accused the FBI of "wickedness" in coming to Newburgh and targeting the four. "We have been used and nobody cares," she said after the verdict. "This case should never have happened."

Prosecutors heralded the convictions as another blow to home-grown terrorists and said it didn't matter that their car bombs were loaded with FBI-provided duds incapable of exploding or that the Stinger missiles they bought were useless.

"Home-grown terrorism is a serious threat," said U.S. Atty. Preet Bharara. "The defendants in this case agreed to plant bombs and use missiles they thought were very real weapons of terrorism. We are safer today as a result of these convictions."

The verdict followed eight days of deliberations and several weeks of testimony, most of it by the informant, Shahed Hussain, who gained the men's confidence by pretending to be a member of a Pakistani-based terrorist group and then secretly recorded their conversations.

Hours of those recordings were played to jurors, and prosecutors said they showed Cromitie's hatred of Americans and Jews in particular, a hatred purportedly fueled by the war in Afghanistan. In one meeting, recorded Dec. 5, 2008, a laughing Cromitie tells Hussain he has fantasized about blowing up "something huge," like a football stadium. "I always think big," he says. Hussain remains quiet except for an occasional "hmmm" as Cromitie rambles on and jokes that he should get a Purple Heart for launching a major attack.

But in a meeting on April 7, 2009, Cromitie initially appears resistant to Hussain's appeals to bring the plot to fruition quickly.

"I'm just thinking … I don't want anyone to get hurt," he says as Hussain warns him that his handlers in Pakistan are becoming impatient. After Hussain and Cromitie agree that women and children should be spared, though, Cromitie's demeanor changes and he agrees that it's OK for U.S. soldiers and men to be targets.

"I don't care if it's a whole synagogue of men, I will take them down," he says. "I'm not worried about nothing. What I'm worried about is my safety."

The defense said the recordings showed that Cromitie was easily swayed by Hussain and that all four defendants were egged on by promises of money and other rewards.

Each of the four faced eight counts, including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and attempting to kill officers and employees of the U.S. government. Cromitie and David Williams were convicted on all eight counts. Payen and Onta Williams were convicted of seven and acquitted of the last charge, of attempting to kill U.S. officers and employees.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror-trial-20101019,0,4134660,print.story

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Mexico authorities seize 105 tons of marijuana destined for the U.S.

Baja California authorities seized 105 tons of marijuana Monday morning in what is believed to be one of the largest drug busts in recent Mexican history, according to Mexican authorities and media reports.

Some 10,000 packages of marijuana were hidden in six cargo containers stored in a warehouse in an industrial part of Tijuana. The marijuana was discovered after police on routine patrol intercepted a convoy of vehicles escorting a tractor-trailer that had left the warehouse, officials said.

After a shootout, 11 people were arrested. Police and soldiers, acting on information from the suspects, raided the warehouse and two homes near the coast, where smaller amounts of marijuana were found.

The neatly packaged cannabis — guarded by masked, heavily armed soldiers — was later displayed for the media at Morelos Army Base in Tijuana. Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica, the military's top commander in Baja California, said the drugs had an estimated street value of 4.2 billion pesos, or about $340 million.

The marijuana was destined for the U.S., he said.

The seizure is the latest blow against organized crime groups operating in Baja California, a major staging ground for drug smuggling into California. In April, the military seized 19 tons of pot in a Tijuana warehouse. Security forces have also arrested many major drug cartel figures and significantly reduced the kind of high-impact, gang-war violence that afflicts other border cities.

“With these results, it is evidence once again that the strategy … continues striking the operations and financial structure of the organized crime groups,” said a statement released by the the Mexican military.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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26 arrested in connection with 3 illegal immigrant smuggling attempts

Federal authorities thwarted three maritime smuggling attempts over the weekend in San Diego County, arresting 24 suspected illegal immigrants and two suspected smugglers, and seizing two boats and more than $63,000 in smuggling proceeds.

Early Saturday, four people were arrested near Imperial Beach after being smuggled into the country on two personal watercraft, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A few hours later, agents arrested 11 would-be immigrants at Torrey Pines State Beach. The panga-style boat they were in was stopped trying to escape, and two suspected smugglers were arrested.

On Sunday, agents foiled an attempt to smuggle nine people via a 40-foot sailboat into Mission Bay. Five of the immigrants were arrested in a hotel room, where the criminal profits were discovered.

The incidents mark the latest in a sharp surge of attempts to smuggle illegal immigrants into California by sea. The boats depart from small ports and beaches near Rosarito Beach and head north.

Federal authorities have arrested 867 illegal immigrants in the last year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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From the New York Times

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A Spray of DNA to Keep the Robbers Away

ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands — When the McDonald's down from City Hall here was burglarized a few years ago, its managers decided they needed a new security system.

It was just about that time that local police officers were offering something totally different that they hoped would stem a rising tide of robberies that occur mainly in the immigrant neighborhoods of this rough-and-tumble port city. The new system involved an employee-activated device that sprays a fine, barely visible mist laced with synthetic DNA to cover anyone in its path, including criminals, and simultaneously alerts the police to a crime in progress.

The mist — visible only under ultraviolet light — carries DNA markers particular to the location, enabling the police to match the burglar with the place burgled. Now, a sign on the front door of the McDonald's prominently warns potential thieves of the spray's presence: “You Steal, You're Marked.”

The police acknowledge that they have yet to make an arrest based on the DNA mist, which was developed in Britain by two brothers, one a policeman and the other a chemist. But they credit its presence — and signs posted prominently warning of its use — for what they call a precipitous decline in crime rates (though they could not provide actual figures to back that up).

But the goal is not so much capturing crooks as scaring them away. “The whole thing is prevention, not about recovering stolen goods or capturing criminals,” said Donald van der Laan, whose company, the Rhine Group, distributes the spray. As far as the DNA is concerned, “the material is identical” to human DNA, he said, “though there is a different sequence of components.” Much of the spray's effectiveness, he said, comes from the mystique surrounding DNA.

“No one really knows what it is,” he said. “No one really knows how it works.”

At this McDonald's the DNA liquid is contained in an orange box the size of a large paperback book, mounted over an entrance door. “You don't smell it; you don't see it; nobody knows it's there,” said Jean-Paul Fafie, who has managed the McDonald's for the last 12 years.

The system and the all-important warning sign seem to have successfully warded off any potential robbers. But there were kinks to be worked out.

“In the beginning, it went off many times, even when there was no robbery,” Mr. Fafie said. “And the police came every time.”

The false alarms were caused by employees who forgot, or never knew, about the protocol for secretly activating the system — removing a 10 euro bill from a special bill clip kept behind the counter.

“We didn't train our counter people properly,” Mr. Fafie said sheepishly. As for a potential thief, he said, “we hope he'll think twice before coming in.”

Across the restaurant, Dilek Gokceli, 30, sipping coffee with her husband, said she had not noticed the sign on the door alerting the public to the presence of the spray.

Mrs. Gokceli said she felt reassured. “It's for my sake, if there's danger,” she said. “For the police, they don't have to search a lot.”

The city is pushing the use of the spray and sometimes assuming the cost; it is also promoting the use of a kind of DNA crayon with which valuable items like computers or cameras can be marked to facilitate their identification as stolen goods.

Already about 4,000 computers at Erasmus University here have been marked. Creative Factory, a former industrial building on the edge of the harbor that is now home to innovative start-up companies, began using the crayons after computers and other electronic equipment were stolen.

“We are surrounded by crime-ridden areas,” said Leo van Loon, the executive director of Creative Factory, which stands wedged between the harbor's water and the tough Charlois neighborhood.

There have been instances in which customers have been sprayed inadvertently. But no one has been falsely accused, Mr. van der Laan, the company owner, said.

Down along Beijerlandselaan, a shopping street in the south of the center, Jale Sag has owned Gulnar jewelers for the last three years and has seen a wave of robberies peak and then recede.

Partly, she says, that is the result of closed-circuit television cameras that were installed all along the street — there are two outside her store and two more inside — but also because the police department and the city paid for a DNA spray system to be installed in her store.

She says she has seen a difference. Robberies were “a real problem,” she said. “Nowadays, it's going better.”

Just down the street, Bart Vos, 51, a manager at a barge company, gazed in the window of Jansen, another jeweler outfitted with the DNA spray. “They see that sign,” he said, “they think twice.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/world/europe/19rotterdam.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Agents Deported by U.S. Are Honored in Moscow

MOSCOW — Russian sleeper agents, arrested in the United States this summer and deported to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange, received top government honors from President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Monday.

“Intelligence agents who worked in the United States and returned to Russia in July” were among staff members from Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service to receive awards at a Kremlin ceremony, Natalya Timakova, the president's spokeswoman, told Russian news media. She would not say which awards were given out or whether all 10 of those arrested this summer were among the recipients.

The agents, who were arrested in the suburbs of New York, Boston and Northern Virginia, have been widely lampooned in the West as bumbling caricatures of a bygone era. For over a decade they used false names, invisible ink and other vestiges of the cloak-and-dagger era to gain access to the type of information more easily downloaded from the Internet. In the end they were not even charged with espionage.

In Russia, however, they have been praised by Russia's top leaders for their service to the motherland.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, a former K.G.B. agent himself, sang patriotic songs with the agents when he visited them shortly after their arrival in Moscow, he told reporters this summer.

At the time, Mr. Putin lambasted the “treachery” that led to their arrest, warning that “traitors always meet bad ends.” He also predicted the former sleeper agents would have “bright and interesting futures.”

The agents themselves have been lying low since their return — all except for Anna Chapman, who allegedly passed encrypted messages to Russian officials from a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan's TriBeCa neighborhood. With her fondness for Bond girl cocktail dresses and evocative Facebook photos, she has become a darling of the tabloids here. Sightings of the young redheaded Ms. Chapman — in an upscale hotel here and a fancy restaurant there — have been common.

She was last spotted earlier this month at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, where she arrived to see off cosmonauts headed for the International Space Station.

“What brought me to Baikonur,” a statement about the trip posted to Ms. Chapman's Facebook page said. “Pride for my motherland and humanity in general. What happens there is much bigger than us and probably one of very few examples when all nations and countries are really working together for greater purpose.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/world/europe/19russia.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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U.S. Pushes to Ease Technical Obstacles to Wiretapping

WASHINGTON — Law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, citing lapses in compliance with surveillance orders, are pushing to overhaul a federal law that requires phone and broadband carriers to ensure that their networks can be wiretapped, federal officials say.

The officials say tougher legislation is needed because some telecommunications companies in recent years have begun new services and made system upgrades that create technical obstacles to surveillance. They want to increase legal incentives and penalties aimed at pushing carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast to ensure that any network changes will not disrupt their ability to conduct wiretaps.

An Obama administration task force that includes officials from the Justice and Commerce Departments, the F.B.I. and other agencies recently began working on draft legislation to strengthen and expand a 1994 law requiring carriers to make sure their systems can be wiretapped. There is not yet agreement over the details, according to officials familiar with the deliberations, but they said the administration intends to submit a package to Congress next year.

To bolster their case, security agencies are citing two previously undisclosed episodes in which major carriers were stymied for weeks or even months when they tried to comply with court-approved wiretap orders in criminal or terrorism investigations, the officials said.

Albert Gidari Jr., a lawyer who represents telecommunications firms, said corporations were likely to object to increased government intervention in the design or launch of services. Such a change, he said, could have major repercussions for industry innovation, costs and competitiveness.

“The government's answer is ‘don't deploy the new services — wait until the government catches up,' ” Mr. Gidari said. “But that's not how it works. Too many services develop too quickly, and there are just too many players in this now.”

Under the 1994 law, the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act, telephone and broadband companies are supposed to design their services so that they can begin conducting surveillance of a target immediately after being presented with a court order.

Officials from the Justice Department, the National Security Agency, the F.B.I. and other agencies recently began working on a draft of a proposal to strengthen and expand that law. There is not yet internal agreement over its details, according to officials familiar with the deliberations, but they said the Obama administration intended to submit a package to Congress next year.

The disclosure that the administration is seeking ways to increase pressure on carriers already subject to the 1994 law comes less than a month after The New York Times reported on a related effort: a plan to bring Internet companies that enable communications -- like Gmail, Facebook, BlackBerry and Skype -- under the law's mandates for the first time, a demand that would require major changes to some services' technical designs and business models.

The push to expand the 1994 law is the latest example of a dilemma over how to balance Internet freedom with security needs in an era of rapidly evolving — and globalized — technology. The issue has added importance because the surveillance technologies developed by the United States to hunt for terrorists and drug traffickers can be also used by repressive regimes to hunt for political dissidents.

An F.B.I. spokesman said the bureau would not comment about the telecom proposal, citing the sensitivity of internal deliberations. But last month, in response to questions about the Internet communications services proposal, Valerie E. Caproni, the F.B.I.'s general counsel, emphasized that the government was seeking only to prevent its surveillance power from eroding.

Starting in late 2008 and lasting into 2009, another law enforcement official said, a “major” communications carrier was unable to carry out more than 100 court wiretap orders. The initial interruptions lasted eight months, the official said, and a second lapse lasted nine days.

This year, another major carrier experienced interruptions ranging from nine days to six weeks and was unable to comply with 14 wiretap orders. Its interception system “works sporadically and typically fails when the carrier makes any upgrade to its network,” the official said.

In both cases, the F.B.I. sent engineers to help the companies fix the problems. The bureau spends about $20 million a year on such efforts.

The official declined to name the companies, saying it would be unwise to advertise which networks have problems or to risk damaging the cooperative relationships they government has with them. For similar reasons, the government has not sought to penalize carriers over wiretapping problems.

Under current law, if a carrier meets the industry-set standard for compliance — providing the content of a call or e-mail, along with identifying information like its recipient, time and location — it achieves “safe harbor” and cannot be fined. If the company fails to meet the standard, it can be fined by a judge or the Federal Communication Commission.

But in practice, law enforcement officials say, neither option is ever invoked. When problems come to light, officials are reluctant to make formal complaints against companies because their overriding goal is to work with their technicians to fix the problem.

Once a carrier's interception capability is restored — even if it is at taxpayer expense — its service is compliant again with the 1994 law, so the issue is moot.

The F.C.C. also moves slowly, officials complain, in handling disputes over the “safe harbor” standard. For example, in 2007 the F.B.I. asked for more than a dozen changes, like adding a mandate to turn over more details about cellphone locations. The F.C.C. has still not acted on that petition.

Civil liberties groups contend that the agency has been far too willing on other occasions to expand the reach of the 1994 law.

“We think that the F.C.C. has already conceded too much to the bureau,” said Marc Rotenberg, the president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “The F.B.I.'s ability to have such broad reach over technical standard-setting was never anticipated in the 1994 act.”

The Obama administration is circulating several ideas for legislation that would increase the government's leverage over carriers, officials familiar with the deliberations say.

One proposal is to increase the likelihood that a firm pays a financial penalty over wiretapping lapses — like imposing retroactive fines after problems are fixed, or billing companies for the cost of government technicians that were brought in to help.

Another proposal would create an incentive for companies to show new systems to the F.B.I. before deployment. Under the plan, an agreement with the bureau certifying that the system is acceptable would be an alternative “safe harbor,” ensuring the firm could not be fined.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/19wiretap.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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6 more cops punished in police brutality case

Seven have been stripped of duties

October 19, 2010
SUN-TIMES STAFF

Six more Chicago police officers have been stripped of their duties in the wake of the alleged beating of a suspect in police custody last week, the Chicago Police Department said Monday.

The move comes just days after Supt. Jody Weis announced that a police supervisor had been relieved of his police powers in connection with the case.

"As part of this ongoing investigation, a total of seven members of the department have been relieved of their police powers and placed in administrative positions, pending the outcome of the investigation," Chicago Police spokeswoman Lt. Maureen Biggane said.

Police have released almost no details about the incident, including when or where it occurred or what happened to the suspect.

But WGN-TV News, citing unnamed sources, reported last week that the incident involved either a current or a former Columbia College student who showed up drunk Oct. 7 at a Columbia College residence hall, and then threw a beer can at an arriving police officer. WGN reported that the officer took the student into a room inside the residence hall and assaulted him. Meanwhile, WMAQ-TV reported a Chicago police camera perched high atop a pole across the street from a fast-food restaurant may have recorded the incident. The altercation happened about 10 p.m. last Monday near West 79th and South Vincennes, police sources said, telling WMAQ-TV that officers were responding to a call about a man with a gun but got involved in fisticuffs.

Relatives of the alleged victim told the Sun-Times they would have no comment.

"This conduct, if true, is inexcusable, and is completely out of the line of the standard of professionalism with which our members are expected to conduct themselves,"

Weis also said that he is looking at whether other police officers were involved.

"We will also determine whether any other Chicago Police Department members witnessed the incident, and what actions, if any, they took," he said. "If members are found to have neglected action or to have failed to report the incident, appropriate and swift action will be taken."

A police source said the supervisor is a sergeant and that he will likely be shifted to administrative duties during the investigation.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2814568,CST-NWS-brutality19.article

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From the Detroit News

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Steven Demink

Feds: Sexual Svengali led moms to assault own kids by Robert Snell The Detroit News October 15, 2010 A Redford man accused of manipulating women in three states into sexually assaulting their children was ordered held behind bars today by a federal judge. Steven Demink, 41, is facing three child pornography charges that could send him to prison for more than 30 years. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mona K. Majzoub ordered him temporarily detained after a federal prosecutor described Demink as a flight risk and a danger to children in the area and nationwide. "He only needs Internet access and the power of his mind," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Mulcahy said. A federal prosecutor described Demink as a sexual Svengali who met women on websites devoted to single parents. Using the pseudonym Dalton St. Clair, he portrayed himself as a father of a 14-year-old daughter. He convinced women in Idaho, New Hampshire and Florida to assault their children — assaults that were photographed or streamed over the Internet and viewed by Demink, according to Mulcahy.

There were five victims, all under the age of 18, according to Mulcahy.

Demink is due back in U.S. District Court Oct. 28 for a preliminary examination.

His lawyer, Timothy Dinan, did not comment before quickly leaving the hearing with Demink's parents.

Demink's court hearing comes a week after authorities rescued three children in Virginia and Florida who were assaulted by their mothers, according to Mulcahy. The mothers have been arrested on sex charges.

This isn't the first time Demink's name has surfaced in connection with child porn, Mulcahy said.

In 2003, Demink's name appeared on a list of people who subscribed to child porn sites compiled during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation. Demink subscribed to three child porn sites, Mulcahy said.

But he never faced charges in that case.

The current case dates to December 2009 and a mother in Idaho who investigators say sexually assaulted her 5-year-old son at the direction of an online chat partner named Dalton St. Clair.

Agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security searched Demink's home Sept. 2 and seized a computer from his bedroom. A quick check found several images and videos of what are suspected to be child porn, according to court records.

In an interview that day, Demink admitted creating the Dalton St. Clair persona to meet women on the website singleparentmeet.com, according to authorities.

In one case, authorities said, he told agents about chatting with a woman who performed sex acts on her children and streamed the video on a Web cam.

Demink also told investigators about chats with three other women who had sexual contact with their kids, according to an affidavit filed by a Homeland Security special agent.

One woman e-mailed Demink photos of her molesting a 14-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter.

In the Florida case, Demink told the mother he had a doctorate in psychology and could help her son, who was suffering from "mental issues," according to the affidavit.

Dalton gave the mom a series of instructions that escalated from cuddling to nudity and, eventually, performing oral sex on her son, according to the affidavit.

When either of the woman's children would resist the abuse, which was being photographed, Demink would promise trips or items such as a Sony PlayStation 3, according to the affidavit

From the Department of Homeland Security

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Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Visit to San Diego

Release Date: October 18, 2010

San Diego, Calif. - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano visited San Diego today to meet with federal, state and local law enforcement leaders, visit National Guard troops helping to secure the Southwest border and highlight the ongoing efforts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to bolster border security while expediting the flow of legal travel and trade.

“We have devoted unprecedented amounts of manpower, infrastructure and technology to the Southwest border under this administration,” said Secretary Napolitano. “Over the past two years, our seizures of illegal drugs, currency and weapons have increased significantly—helping to make the Southwest border more secure than ever before.”

While in San Diego, Secretary Napolitano visited National Guard troops stationed at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station who are providing direct support to federal law enforcement personnel in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to smuggle people and goods illegally across the Southwest border. In May, President Obama authorized the deployment of an additional 1,200 National Guard troops along the Southwest border as part of the administration's unprecedented efforts to crack down on transnational smuggling and cartel violence.

She also joined CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin at the San Ysidro Port of Entry to highlight several results of the Obama administration's deployment of unprecedented levels of personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border. Click here to view a factsheet highlighting these accomplishments.

In fiscal years 2009 and 2010, CBP seized more than $104 million in southbound illegal currency—an increase of approximately $28 million compared to 2007-2008. CBP and ICE also seized more than $282 million in illegal currency, more than 7 million pounds of drugs, and more than 6,800 weapons in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 along the southwest border—increases of more than $73 million, more than 1 million pounds of drugs and more than 1,500 weapons compared to 2007-2008.

Secretary Napolitano also highlighted the 36 percent decrease in Border Patrol apprehensions from nearly 724,000 in fiscal year 2008 to approximately 463,000 in fiscal year 2010—indicating that fewer people are attempting to cross the border.

Earlier today, Secretary Napolitano met with federal, state and local law enforcement leaders at the San Diego Maritime Unified Command, a unified federal, state and local maritime law enforcement operation in the San Diego and Orange County maritime region, to discuss the integral role of the Unified Command in securing our ports and maritime borders.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1287439266630.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the International Intellectual Property Summit

Hong Kong ~ Monday, October 18, 2010

Thank you, Superintendent O'Grady. I appreciate your warm welcome, and I am grateful for the support – and the inspiring example – that you and your colleagues in the An Garda Siochana are providing to the international law enforcement community.

I would also like to thank INTERPOL, Hong Kong Customs, and Underwriters Laboratories for hosting this important conference – and for bringing together so many leaders, experts, and partners from law enforcement agencies across the world.

During my service as the Attorney General of the United States, I have had the privilege of working with many of you on a broad range of issues. I have seen, firsthand, the power of our joint efforts. And I am convinced that the work of our nations' law enforcement agencies – to combat terrorism, to dismantle drug cartels and human trafficking rings, to stop child pornographers and others who would prey on our most vulnerable citizens – is more effective because of our collaboration. To address new and emerging threats – and to protect the security, and defend the liberties, of the people we serve – this cooperation must continue.

It is fitting that we are gathered here in Hong Kong – a center of global innovation – to chart our course forward. Not only is Hong Kong one of the world's most vibrant and modern cities, it is headquarters for so many leading international organizations and corporations. It is a hub for international politics, law, education, and commerce. And, this week, I hope it is the meeting ground for unprecedented international cooperation.

This conference is an important opportunity – a chance to focus the attention, and to harness the talents and resources, of the international law enforcement community in protecting intellectual property rights, safeguarding innovation, ensuring the health and safety of our citizens, and combating the international networks of organized criminals now seeking to profit from IP crimes.

Together, we are signaling that a new era of cooperation, engagement, and vigilance has begun. And we are sending an unequivocal message to criminals profiting from the ingenuity of others or endangering the safety of our citizens by selling defective or dangerous counterfeit goods. We will find you. We will stop you. And you will be punished.

Protecting intellectual property is a top priority for the United States – for President Obama, for me, and for America's law enforcement community. Today, I am eager to share some of ways we are working to accomplish this goal and to overcome the challenges we all face.

In the United States, and here in Asia, intellectual property accounts for a significant and growing segment of commercial trade. But the same technologies that have spurred rapid growth in the legitimate economy have also allowed criminals to misappropriate the creativity of our innovators and entrepreneurs – and to operate global enterprises that survive by executing IP schemes. In fact, for every technological and commercial quantum leap we have made, criminals – and often entire international criminal syndicates – have kept pace. They have developed sophisticated methods for committing every imaginable type of intellectual property offense. They aren't just selling counterfeit clothing or electronics. They're selling defective and dangerous imitations of critical components, like brake pads, or everyday consumer goods, like toothpaste. They're conducting corporate espionage. They're pirating music, movies, games, software, and other copyrighted works – both on our cities' streets and online. And the consequences are devastating. The global software industry is a prime example.

According to recent industry reports, it is now estimated that, worldwide, more than 40 percent of all software installed on personal computers is obtained illegally – with forgone revenues to the software industry topping $50 billion. These are funds that could have been invested in new jobs and next-generation technologies. And software piracy affects more than just the software industry – since, for every $1 of PC software sold, it's estimated that more than $3 of revenues are lost to local IT support and distribution services. Other IP and support industries are seeing the same ripple effect of losses – and current trends are alarming. Perhaps most concerning of all, however, is the widespread growth we've seen in the international sale of counterfeit pharmaceuticals, which can put the stability of corporations – and, more importantly, the health of consumers – at serious risk.

For too long, these illegal activities have been perceived as "business as usual." But not anymore. As each of you knows, stealing innovative ideas or passing off counterfeits can have devastating consequences for individuals, families, and communities. These crimes threaten economic opportunities and financial stability. They suppress the ingenuity of our people and businesses. They destroy jobs. And they can jeopardize the health and safety of the men and women we are sworn to protect. Intellectual property crimes are not victimless. And we must make certain that they are no longer perceived as risk-free.

As global criminal networks increasingly fund their illicit activities through intellectual property crimes, our challenge is not simply to keep up. Our strategies must become more sophisticated than those employed by the criminals we pursue. Our collaboration across borders must become more seamless. And our determination must not waver.

But the simple truth is that our chain of necessary and desired enforcement is only as strong as its weakest link. Let me be blunt: Not every country, not every organization has done enough. It is time to be clear, and honest, about where we can – and where we must – improve. If we are going to turn the page on the problem of international intellectual property crime, we must fully assess current efforts and commit to making meaningful, measurable enhancements.

Like many of your own governments, the Obama Administration recognizes that our nation's economic prosperity is increasingly tied to industries – like software or life sciences – that rely on strong IP enforcement. That is why we have created a new framework, and called for an increased level of activity, to better protect intellectual property rights.

As many of you know, last year, President Obama created a new leadership role in the White House – Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator – and appointed Victoria Espinel to fill this position. I am pleased that Victoria is here with us today. As IP Enforcement Coordinator, her first order of business was to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to guide our government's efforts to protect intellectual property, including copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. The strategic plan was released by the White House this summer. Already, it is strengthening and streamlining our efforts to detect and prosecute IP crimes. This work is just one example of the administration's renewed focus on IP protection.

Last December, Vice President Biden convened the administration's first intellectual property summit, which brought together cabinet officials and industry leaders to discuss intellectual property rights and policies – and to identify ways to improve our enforcement efforts. During that summit, I had the chance to discuss the Justice Department's intellectual property enforcement strategy and the critical work being done by some of our most talented lawyers and investigators.

A key part of this strategy is led by Justice Department prosecutors – many of whom are focused exclusively on computer and intellectual property crimes. I am committed to making sure that these prosecutors have the resources and the specialized training necessary to prevent, identify, and stop IP violations – and to spot emerging crime trends more quickly.

Of course, the outstanding work of our prosecutors isn't done, and couldn't be accomplished, in isolation. It is supported by the skills and dedication of the investigative agents who develop the cases we bring in court. At every level of the Justice Department, we are committed to improving partnerships with our federal law enforcement colleagues – and with leaders across the international law enforcement community. In particular, I would like to note the great work being done through the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, which is led by our colleagues in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The IPR Center brings together investigators and analysts from a number of federal agencies to coordinate our efforts to investigate counterfeiting, online piracy, and other IP violations.

To build on the contributions and achievements of our prosecutors and investigators, in February of this year, I reestablished the Justice Department's Task Force on Intellectual Property. Chaired by the Deputy Attorney General, the Task Force includes senior leaders from across the Department. And, as many of you know, it's focused on facilitating coordination among international law enforcement partners. A cornerstone of this effort is the Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinator program.

With the help of our colleagues in the Department of State, the Justice Department has deployed two federal prosecutors – based in Bangkok, Thailand, and in Sofia, Bulgaria – to manage our IP protection efforts in Southeast Asia and in Eastern Europe. They work closely with our international counterparts to share information and evidence regarding joint investigations and to enhance IP enforcement training programs. Here in Asia, one of our law enforcement coordinators is actively engaged in efforts to strengthen the work of the IP Criminal Enforcement Network.

But this work is not just for our coordinators alone. Following this conference, I will travel to Beijing, where I look forward to meeting with my counterparts and other officials to discuss how we can build on our nations' bilateral enforcement efforts through the Intellectual Property Working Group of the U.S.-China Joint Liaison Group for Law Enforcement Cooperation. Together, I hope we can work to identify the most pressing, and perilous, gaps in our enforcement mechanisms – and begin taking the steps required to close these gaps, strengthen IP protections, and fulfill the most critical obligations of public service: ensuring opportunity, fostering prosperity, and protecting the safety and health of our people.

In this work, I pledge my own best efforts. And, today, I ask for yours. I will continue to seek out and seize opportunities to foster stronger relationships, and greater cooperation, among international law enforcement agencies. But I also know that, without your help – and until every nation makes a commitment, and takes action, to ensure aggressive IP enforcement – we will not solve the challenges that now bring us together.

Strong partnerships provide our best chance for success. In fact, we've seen, clearly, how international collaboration can lead to effective prosecutions. As Attorney General, I am particularly proud of the work we're doing in the United States to fight intellectual property crime in the courtroom. But I also that recognize that our outstanding record of criminal prosecutions could not have been achieved without the help of our partners around the world.

Recently, the Justice Department has made significant and encouraging progress in prosecuting individuals, and international criminal organizations, that traffic in counterfeit pharmaceuticals. For example, just two months ago, we successfully prosecuted a defendant who was selling fake cancer medications to patients in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The drugs – which he marketed as a rare, experimental treatment – were manufactured in Canada, but advertised and sold globally over the Internet. With assistance from Canadian and German authorities, this individual was apprehended and extradited to the United States, where he was finally brought to justice.

And earlier this year, in Richmond, Virginia, the Justice Department won convictions in one of the largest intellectual property cases in U.S. history, involving more than $100 million in counterfeit luxury goods. The defendants were part of an international group of criminals that owned and operated 13 companies and 8 manufacturing plants. During the investigation, Hong Kong authorities provided critical help in obtaining evidence for trial, and we remain extremely grateful for that assistance.

These are just two of many examples, but each illustrates the vital importance of international cooperation in the fight against IP crime. Without the help of our international partners, we could not have brought these crimes to light – or brought the criminals involved to justice.

The Justice Department is also exploring ways to strengthen its IP enforcement efforts by incorporating the legal tools we use routinely to combat money laundering, fraud, and other types of economic crime. And we have included intellectual property crime as a focus area of the Justice Department's International Organized Crime Strategy.

Although the progress we have made in the United States, and around the world, is encouraging – we cannot yet be satisfied. And we must not become complacent.

Each of us – and every member of the international law enforcement community – has pledged to protect the rights and security of the citizens we serve. But none of us can fulfill that promise alone. In this age of instantaneous global communication, when criminal activity knows no bounds, our enforcement work must extend beyond our own borders. Working together is no longer just the best way forward. Now, it is the only way forward.

On behalf of the United States, I am grateful for your partnership, your leadership, and your cooperation in protecting the safety of our citizens, the strength of our markets, and the intellectual property rights of our nations' innovators and entrepreneurs.

This is critical, and urgent, work. And we must never let our differences, and occasional disagreements, blind us to the central truth that the security, basic freedoms, and best interests of our citizens are, and will continue to be, intimately connected.

Our task is great – but our success is possible. Only if we work in common cause, only if we put the full measure of national commitment in our efforts, and only if we honor the values we share, can we – and will we – create a world in which intellectual property crime is not the domain of the future, but a marker of the past.

Thank you.

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2010/ag-speech-101018.html

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From ICE

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50 charged in huge multi-state marijuana trafficking ring

NEW YORK - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) uncovered a huge, multi-state marijuana trafficking ring. The trafficking operation transported tons of marijuana from Florida and California to the greater New York City area from the early 1990s to 2010.

Today, Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; James T. Hayes, Jr., special agent in charge of ICE HSI in New York; John P. Gilbride, special agent in charge of the New York Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA); Bridget G. Brennan, special narcotics prosecutor for the City of New York and Rose Gill Hearn, commissioner for the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) announced the arrest of dozens of individuals involved in the marijuana trafficking ring. They also noted that more than 50 individuals have been charged.

During a long-term proactive investigation dubbed "Operation Green Venom," federal and local law enforcement officers working with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor for the City of New York ("Special Narcotics") used more than 20 separate federal and state wiretaps to infiltrate drug trafficking crews that controlled the importation and distribution of marijuana throughout the greater New York City area. Since July 2008, law enforcement has seized more than $1.85 million in marijuana proceeds and more than 225 pounds of marijuana linked to this organization.

"These criminal organizations have allegedly dominated the illegal marijuana market in New York City for almost 20 years," said ICE HSI Special Agent in Charge James T. Hayes, Jr. "The high profile stature of some of the alleged members of these organizations is especially troubling. Just as these organizations relied on each other to expand their illicit business and fuel the growth of their drug distribution network, ICE HSI will continue to partner with our federal, state and local law enforcement brethren to cripple those same networks."

Those arrested include: Kareem "Biggs" Burke, a founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, and Matthew "Magazine Guy" Stang, an advertising representative for High Times magazine. The leader of the organization, Manuel Geovanny Rodriguez-Perez, also known as "Manny," "Shorty" or "Rodriguez," was also arrested.

The defendants are expected to appear in Manhattan federal court later this afternoon. Several court-authorized search warrants have been executed New York, New Jersey and Florida in connection with these arrests.

Rodriguez-Perez is the alleged leader of this marijuana-trafficking operation. He allegedly imported tons of marijuana into New York City during the past two decades. He was also the primary participant in more than 10 telephone calls intercepted during the investigation. He discussed discussing violent acts, including his threat to "hunt" a customer who was late paying for marijuana.

The indictment also charges marijuana "brokers" who assembled drugs in Florida and individuals that transport it to New York and elsewhere. Brokers include: Jesus Sanchez, Daniel Fernandez, and Miguel "Manganzon" Cerda. Individuals who prepare the marijuana for transportation include: Jose Betancourt, Arturo "La Vieja" Mena-Sifonte, Osmel Vazquez-Perez, also known as "Come Pizza" or "Omel." Drivers who transport the marijuana include: Adel "Adel Santana" Santana-Zamora, Idael "Fidel" Mena-Hernandez and Javier Falcon.

The complaint charges a total of 40 defendants, including: Kareem "Biggs" Burke, a founder of Roc-A-Fella Records, Matthew "Magazine Guy" Stang, an advertising representative for High Times magazine, and members of three separate "cells" that distribute marijuana in New York City and New Jersey. The Rodriguez Cell was controlled by Rodriguez-Perez. The Pena Cell was controlled by brothers, Ariel "Bin"or "Vin" Pena and Kenneth "Kool Breeze" Pena. The Jimenez-Perez/Delgado Cell was controlled by Richard Jimenez-Perez, also known as "Milton Delgado" or "Javier Ramirez-Santiago."

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amie N. Ely, Daniel P. Chung and Sarah E. Mccallum will prosecute the case arising from "Operation Green Venom." The charges contained in the indictment and the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Most Wanted

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
http://www.ice.gov/about/contact.htm
HOTLINE: - 1-866-DHS-2-ICE

Alhakk, Yusef Child Pornography ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bonilla-Orozco, Maximiliano Drug Trafficking ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cardenas-Meneses, Joel Alien Smuggling ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chang, En-Wei "Eric" Illegal Technology Export ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Garzon-Anguiano, David Drug Smuggling ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gonikman, Veniamin Human Smuggling ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Grewal, Jasbir Singh Drug Smuggling ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Levi, Zeev Alien Harboring, Document Fraud ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pena-Pena, Luis Kidnapping ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sotelo, Mario Human Trafficking, Alien Smuggling ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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