Showing posts with label drug bust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drug bust. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

NYPD Cops Brag About Tiny Pot Bust on Twitter — So the Internet Destroyed Them

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With acute deterioration in public support and vociferous backlash against the State’s already-failed war on drugs, police departments nationwide should have grasped by now the perils of boasting about drug raids on social media — particularly when the booty consists solely of cannabis and cash.


Two NYPD cops from Queens, stern-faced before an insignificant seizure of weed in a post to Twitter, thus, are either obstinate braggarts, or hapless gluttons for punishment — and the Internet responded accordingly.


Officers Sardone and Winter of the 106th Precinct in Ozone Park stand in front of a table displaying a few dozen gram bags of pot, two machetes, and (perhaps as a cautionary tale) one can of Monster Energy drink, seem to appear concerned for the citizens they heroically rescued from, well, some weed dealer.


“One less marijuana dealer on our streets thanks to Officers Sardone and Winter,” reads the caption accompanying an equally clinical picture, posted from the official Twitter account of the New York Police Department’s 106th Precinct.





Not interested in letting the iconic dimebag bust image sink to the Internet’s dusty corners, or perhaps in the interest of increasing traffic to the precinct’s site, the pair of hero cops proceeded to tweet new versions shortly after the original first appeared.


Although the posts indeed received a smattering of neutral support, Twitter otherwise annihilated the bust as one farcical example of many throughout the duration of the wholly illogical and anachronistic war on drugs.




Volumes of research and findings from myriad scientific studies tout the healing and curative properties of cannabis and its derivatives, like cannabidiol (CBD) oil — yet, the DEA and Federal Government have remained bullheaded, failing to reschedule cannabis from its classification as a dangerous substance devoid of any potential medical use.


But that cult of a fervent few dedicated to destroying weed’s well-established counterculture acceptability has been backfiring in the current context of reputable medical research and loosening of state marijuana laws.


Fully 88 percent of people in the U.S. agree medical cannabis use should be legal, while 61 percent say, when it comes to recreational use, ‘legalize’ — the highest percentage of legalization supporters ever recorded by CBS News for that poll.



READ MORE:  This is Why It"s Illegal, Study Confirms Cannabis Makes You Peaceful -- Alcohol Fuels Aggression 



Almost needless to say, that the pair of chest-puffing NYPD cops stood victorious over a few dozen grams of pot, two knives, and an energy drink, became an instant Internet goldmine — the keenest of which noted the drug war’s astonishing hypocrisy, summarized in this highly-polished yet substantively flat reminder it’s altogether illogical to continue the war on drugs.


Following are just a few examples of many in which Twitter users deflated unnecessarily large egos, while educating law enforcement about the pitfalls of enforcing unjust laws.



























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Thursday, March 9, 2017

Police Dispatch Supervisor Busted in Massive 600lb Mexican Drug Conspiracy

Cincinnati, OH — A Cincinnati Police Department dispatch supervisor was among six people arrested in Ohio on Tuesday in conjunction with a traffic stop in which police scoured a vehicle and confiscated over a quarter ton of cannabis, which authorities say emanated from Mexico.


Law enforcement officials claim the weed holds a value of around $500,000.


Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones told the media on Wednesday the Fairfield stop of a tractor-trailer led officers to conduct a detailed search — leading to the discovery of nearly 600 pounds of cannabis in a “hidden well” built into the vehicle’s walls.



“It took [the suspects] about six hours to get the dope out of the back of the tractor trailer and into the U-Haul,” Tim Reagan, Resident Agent in Charge of the Cincinnati Office of the Drug Enforcement Agency, told local NBC affiliate, WLWT.


Officials said undercover agents and sheriff’s deputies observed the group’s activities for six hours before swooping in to make arrests.


“They got into the semi truck, and at that point, the doors were locked,” the sheriff explained. “They were inside, taking the walls apart inside the truck. At that point, the doors were opened, the marijuana was put into the U-Haul truck, and at that point, there was a stop made in Fairfield.”


Sheriff Jones noted the bust came after a monthlong investigation.



According to WCPO, court documents state Taneal Poole — a ten-year police veteran and dispatch supervisor — allowed live-in boyfriend, Damian Gray, to use her home in Silverton to store hundreds of pounds of marijuana.


“Poole was charged with possession of drugs, a first-degree felony, as well as permitting drug abuse, a fifth-degree felony,” WCPO reports.


Besides Poole and Gray, Jose Antonio Santiago-Razo, Brandon Guijosa, Miguel Alberto Trillo, and Oscar Paz-Diaz were also arrested on charges of drug possession and trafficking, after being caught with 400 pounds of pot — approximately 200 additional pounds were discovered after the execution of a search warrant for the dispatch supervisor’s home.


Without identifying whom, Jones told the press one of the men arrested was here illegally from Mexico — and was previously deported in October.


“Lord knows how many times and what he’s brought across the border,” Jones, who also called cannabis “poison,” asserted, “but at this time, hopefully when he goes through the good old U.S. court system, hopefully he gets some prison time here in the good old United States before he is deported again.”



Reagan, from the DEA, added that, allegedly, this isn’t the first time the same suspects transported drugs into the Greater Cincinnati area, and the DEA had worked this specific case for a month.


“We are confident that four or five times at least they ran this up into this area,” he said, noting additional arrests are still possible. “Very sophisticated traps in the back of the trailer. Like the sheriff said, it took them, we believe, about six hours to get the dope out of the back of the tractor-trailer.”


Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black emphasized the police department would cooperate fully with the DEA’s investigation of Poole, who worked for the Cincinnati police since 2007.


While arresting a police supervisor for literally hundreds of pounds of cannabis certainly rests within the purview of the law, it must be emphasized this plant has never killed anyone — it’s marijuana prohibition and the larger war on drugs doing a bang-up job of that.


Indeed, the government’s misguided reign of terror against anyone daring to ingest or possess this plant — whether for medical or recreational purposes — arguably began American policing down the authoritarian path to militarization and a culture of impunity for police in the justice system.


Of course it theoretically isn’t right to break the law — or, at least, there are often disproportionately grave consequences for nonviolent drug offenders who do — but when the prohibition in question serves only to stuff the coffers of for-profit prisons, generate revenue for police departments, and permanently ensnare otherwise upright citizens in our farce of a justice system, it’s difficult to respect what that law ordains.



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