A sadistic gang of police impersonators abducted and tortured scores of East Coast cocaine traffickers, forcing them to hand over multimillion-dollar stashes by threatening to squeeze their testicles with pliers, authorities said Tuesday.
An indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charged eight men with robbery conspiracy, drug dealing and an array of other crimes. If it weren't for the drug dealing, I couldn't care less.
Since the spring of 2003, the gang injured about 100 people while committing 100 holdups targeting large-scale traffickers in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, investigators said.
The take: more than 1,650 pounds of cocaine worth $20 million and $4 million in cash.
The scheme "was breathtaking in the scope of its crimes and in the danger it posed to our communities," said U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell.
The robbers, court papers said, "were particularly sophisticated in their tactics," often conducting surveillance on the drug dealers for weeks before arming themselves with handguns and making "a police-style car stop" in cars equipped with lights and sirens. Other times, the gang gained entry into victims' homes by identifying themselves as police officers, then holding entire families hostage at gunpoint for days on end.
The victims were handcuffed, bound with duct tape and subjected to various means of torture during interrogations, including "simulated drowning through repeated submerging of victims' heads in water for extended periods of time," the court papers said.
One victim told investigators that during a 2005 abduction, two of the defendants "applied a pair of pliers to the victim's testicles and threatened to squeeze the pliers if the victim did not talk," the papers added.
Once the information was extracted, the bandits would retrieve large stashes of cocaine and resell it on the streets of New York.
Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson described the crime spree as "a dangerous dance of alleged criminals preying upon alleged criminals, who themselves profited from the desperation of drug abusers."
The defendants, all from the Dominican Republic, were ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty Tuesday in Brooklyn. If convicted, each faces a sentence of 40 years to life behind bars.
#1
What I find so interesting is that a group of civilians were able to do what the cops apparently can't ... find drug dealers and get in their faces.
Seems like most city 16 year-olds don't have any problems finding them either.
That speaks LOADS about our police forces. Something else is up. Why are these drug dealers being allowed to operate in the first place?
#4
It's long been suggested that a team of SOCOM veterans could wipe out much of the organized crime trade in a major city in just a year or two.
However, their methods would have to be "harsh".
Their purpose would not be to arrest the drug dealers, but to kill them and their associates. In some cases on the spot, and in other cases, disappearances.
Surprisingly, they might get away with a lot. In Phoenix, someone figured out that over 35 bodies had been recovered from a stretch of desert over a few years. However, the local news and police refused to look at it as other than individual and minor homicides.
After a short time, such killings build a momentum in the criminal class that persuades many to look for greener pastures, or at least to go legit for a long time.
Man on cell phone hit by train
By KATHY MULADY
P-I REPORTER
A man talking on a cell phone and walking on the railroad tracks in Auburn was hit by a train and killed Wednesday just after noon.
An Auburn Police spokesman said the man was in his 30s or 40s. The man was walking near the 1200 and 1400 block of C Street Northwest, where the tracks parallel the street and there are no signs or crossings. What he meant was, The man STARTED walking at the 1200 block, and after the short ride, ENDED up at the 1400 block.Police spokesman Scott Near said witnesses, including the train conductor, saw the man with the cell phone. The train horn was sounded, but the man apparently didn't hear it. The train was traveling about 80 mph and couldn't stop fast enough to avoid hitting the man.
The accident is being investigated.
It was the second time in about two weeks that a person talking on a cell phone while walking on a railroad track was killed. On April 21, Angelina Rodriguez, a 17-year-old from Kent, was killed by a train. Witnesses told police they saw her talking on the phone. Notice both accidents happened in Kent; must be in the water
#1
It looks like the RR needs to install a radio transmitter (very short range, directional, concurrent with the horn) that causes a squeal on cell phone freqs. Either that or a cow catcher adapted for humans.
A four-year-old girl has been attacked and bitten by a beaver near Östersund in northern Sweden. The incident took place after the girl and her father went out for a walk near their home in the village of Ås. They spotted the beaver at the side of the road and the girl decided it would be fun to pet the animal, newspaper Östersunds-Posten reports.
But the beaver had other ideas and quickly lunged at the girl. The attack was filmed by the girl's father, Marcus Handler, who was standing ten metres away. "What I was seeing through the camera seemed unreal. I just screamed 'no, no' and rushed towards Matilda. Then the beaver started attacking me instead but I managed to jump out of the way and grab hold of Matilda," he told the Östersunds-Posten newspaper.
With his daughter bleeding profusely from one of her wrists and one of her thighs, Handler flagged down a passing car and had the girl taken to a nearby clinic for treatment.
A week has now passed since Matilda's unexpectedly violent brush with the animal kingdom and the girl is eager to speak about her trauma.
"It jumped on me and started biting. I was bleeding a lot. It was silly," she said. Asked what she would do if she ever bumped into the beaver again, Matilda said she would "sword it with a sword". Huzza! Warms my heart to know that there's still some fight left in Sweden.
Maano Aunaduu, a local zoologist, believes the animal felt threatened by the four-year-old. "It did exactly what a dog would have done in a tight situation," he said, adding that it was never advisable to pet a wild animal.
He did however concede that Matilda's experience was rare. "It's the first time I've ever heard of anyone being bitten by a beaver," he said.
#7
They spotted the beaver at the side of the road and the girl decided it would be fun to pet the animal, newspaper Östersunds-Posten reports.
But the beaver had other ideas and quickly lunged at the girl. The attack was filmed by the girl's father, Marcus Handler, who was standing ten metres away.
"What I was seeing through the camera seemed unreal. I just screamed 'no, no' and rushed towards Matilda. Then the beaver started attacking me instead but I managed to jump out of the way and grab hold of Matilda," he told the Östersunds-Posten newspaper.
With his daughter bleeding profusely from one of her wrists and one of her thighs, Handler flagged down a passing car and had the girl taken to a nearby clinic for treatment.
The beaver can stand on its hind legs and balance with its flat tail to chew wood and gnaw bark. It holds the wood with its upper teeth and chews the wood with its lower teeth.
While most mammals use calcium to coat their teeth, beavers use iron. Iron makes beavers' teeth not only orange-colored, but also exceptionally strong. Hence, beavers have no problem using their teeth to cut down trees.
The Beaver's teeth do grow all the life of the beaver because gnawing wood wears the teeth down.
#8
OK I just gotta ask, "How do you tell if that particular Beaver is friendly"?
And yes I got the double meaning there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/07/2008 13:22 Comments ||
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#9
Bitten by a radioactive Beaver, Matilda aquired the super powers of a Beaver. As Beaver Girl, Matilda fights crime by .... chewing trees ... and building dams ... and slapping evildoers with her tail.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
05/07/2008 13:48 Comments ||
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#10
That's what I get for reading these late: all the good snarks are taken.
But hidden in this story just has to be a contry western song; I went into the bush to pet the beaver and she bit me......
In order to ensure a healthy place Canada has banned smoking in federal prisons after a partial ban was largely ignored, the government says.
Think about this, now. You've got those unable to conform to the dictates of society. They've been jugged for various sorts of felonious behavior. Now you want to get them nice and healthy, with good, clean lungs, so they've got lotsa wind to outrun the coppers when they engage in further depredations?
I'd give them all the smokes they can handle, along with a 5000 calorie a day diet, heavy on the mashed potatoes, gravy, and cream pies, easy on the Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Add in a nice, easy, sedentary life that involves downloading all the pørn they can take and a big "closed for repairs" sign on the gym. That way they can come out of jug just as vicious as they want, but the wheezing, gasping lardasses won't be able to do anything about it.
As a result of the ban, which took effect in all maximum-security prisons on Monday, inmates will be barred from smoking anywhere inside or outside prison property, including private visiting rooms and yards. "Since the partial ban was not working in order to ensure a safe, healthy, smoke-free environment, we decided to move towards the total ban," said Lynn Brunette, a spokeswoman for the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). The remaining medium- and minimum-security institutions will see the ban in place by the beginning of June, Reuters said. The ban applies to all guards and staff as well as prisoners. Last year, Canada's federal prison system handled almost 20,000 inmates, three-quarters of whom are smokers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
This probably won't be popular, but keeping in mind secondary smoke and being exposed to it if you're a non smoking guard.
Also, prison is supposed to be punishment, I get tired of hearing about how inmates get to watch cable and other amenities. Let them suffer not getting their precious smokes.
Posted by: Jan ||
05/07/2008 0:22 Comments ||
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#2
I haven't smoked for over 22 years but ima not a hard core anti-smoker.
In fact I'm more put-off by the Fanatics who rail against smoking and second hand smoke 24/7/365.
One particular smoker I know is my current squeeze... and her habit doesn't bother me at all. /[and no! she isn't a nun]
btw, Tobacco is the medium of exchange in every prison World-Wide.
#7
Sorry, Jan, second-hand smoke is right up there with fireplace smoke and automobile exhaust. Like RD, I haven't smoked (regularly) since 1989, and not at all this year.
Ya think second-hand smoke is bad? Go ahead and take a drag off a cigarette.
But there will be riots, and the ACLU will say it violates their rights. Then the black market will start take over. And the smoking will continue.
I still recall a kid in high school, 1965, smoking just ouside the door when a teacher approached. He calmly closed his hand tightly over the cigarette to avoid detention. Plus to demonstrate how tough he was. Such is the power of tobacco.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/07/2008 7:26 Comments ||
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#8
And if they smoke the punishment will be what exactly? Take away their free room and board, free health care, free education, etc.?
#12
BTW, that "secondary smoke" meme is crap. Concentration way too low. It may annoy you, but it's not killing you, any more than your back-yard barbeque is.
#13
sorry for the late reply
I too smoked 3 packs a day, and haven't smoked since I was pregnant years ago. I really enjoyed smoking, but am glad that I don't smoke anymore. I'm not hard core, and also have friends that smoke. My point that I was trying to make was that for inmates to be able to smoke along with all of the other ammenities they get is often more than the regular joe on the outside.
My thought of the guard being exposed, an analogy, to have an aide having to take a patient outside of a hospital to smoke, having to be around the smoke.
Interesting topic, I don't see anything changing.
Posted by: Jan ||
05/07/2008 23:27 Comments ||
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The ancient catastrophe that gave birth to the Moon may have produced additional satellites that lingered in Earth's skies for tens of millions of years.
A new model suggests moonlets may have once occupied the two Earth-Moon Lagrangian points, regions in space where the gravitational tug of the Earth and the Moon exactly cancel each other out. Objects trapped in these points are called Trojans and can remain stationary forever if left undisturbed. . . .
Once captured, the Trojan satellites likely remained in their orbits for up to 100 million years, Lissauer and co-author John Chambers of the Carnegie Institution of Washington say. Then, global warmingthe Bush administrationthe international Zionist conspiracythe CIA, Haliburton, and Hillary Clinton gravitational tugs from the planets would have triggered changes in the Earth's orbit, ultimately causing the moons to become unmoored and drift away or crash into the Moon or Earth. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
05/07/2008 16:30 ||
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#1
"Crash into the Moon or earth" > 'Tis a questionne' I'd asked one of my profs a long time ago at PENN STATE, i.e. did the Earth have two or Moons at one time; + could the YUCATAN/CHIXULUB EVENT which suppos wiped out the Dinos [but NOT WALTER CRONKITE = "DINOSAURS" Show] 65.0 Milyuuhn Yarns ago be one of our own Moons, NOT a Lunoid from outside of Earth's orbit or our own Solar System???
#2
2030/APOPHIS? > on a future day in future Guam, people will look up in horror and awe as they see massive explosions on the Moon.
"HOMER SIMPSON MANEUVER/EFFECT" > CAN THE FUTURE OWG-NWO SUCCESSFULLY DIVERT = DESTROY A DANGEROUS INCOMING SPACE ROCK WIDOUT CAUSING SAME TO CRASH INTO THE MOON, ETC. [theme from DRAGNET = STAR WARS "EMPIRE" Theme here].
D-O-O-O-O-.......H-H-H!
DON'T THINK HOMER'S BELOVED "IS THERE ANYTHING THEY CAN'T DO" DONUTS IS GOING TO BE ENUFF.
A small earthquake struck the D.C. area Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey says. The earthquake measured 1.8 on the Richter scale and the epicenter was 1 mile west-southwest of Annandale (38.828°N, 77.234°W), the U.S. Geological Survey says. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck at 1:30 p.m. About four miles NW of my office, ten miles west of the Pentagon. I heard a boom, no shaking.
Earthquakes with a magnitude of about 2.0 or less are usually called microearthquakes, and about 1,000 occur around the world each day, says Bruce Presgrave, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. U.S. Geological Survey spokesman Bill Leith says it is not uncommon for a D.C. area earthquake to be felt 15 to 20 miles away from the epicenter. In California, a 1.8 magnitude earthquake may not be felt at all, Leith says.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/07/2008 07:32 ||
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#1
The earthquake measured 1.8
i.e. A fat guy jumped off the couch.
Posted by: ed ||
05/07/2008 8:46 Comments ||
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#2
I did not.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2008 8:51 Comments ||
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#7
These little rumbles are always going on. Some in the geological community think that these small earthquakes away from faults are the result of continental crust still rising after the retreat of the glaciers in the last ice age. They could also be from churning of magma below the surface crust.
If you go here, http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/ you will see that in the last 7 days there has been more than 1000 earthquakes of 1+ magnitude in the United States. These things happen all the time and unless they start hitting 3-4 in places like DC, I'd say that there's no real cause for concern.
It's just another "amazing" fact of science that the public is basically ignorant of. The only real link to "global warming" is that the ice isn't covering Canada and the northern US anymore. And you should check to see where AlGore is since his ego weighs about the same as 10 Hoover Dams.
#10
The only earthquake I ever felt in 1986 began with a loud "boom" which for a millisecond I thought was a truck or plane crash. Then I noticed the house vibrating and loose items rattling. I guess hearing is quicker than feeling.
Global Warming is real. After each Ice Age, there has been a period of warming, followed by general cooling. Alternate ages last thousands of years, and change over a single year is barely detectable.
Al Gore is a real jackass. His dogma - Human Caused Global Warming - is based on a warped belief that humans - who produce less than .ooo1% of CO2 produced by sea evaporation - are causing a catastrophe, that requires social engineering to abate.
You do Al Gore an immense favor when you deny that mountain ice caps are not melting; they are. Stick to science; let the other side do the lying.
#16
Yes, Silentbrick, I was trying to make a small joke, to get some discussion going. But you raised an interesting point: I hadn't considered glacial rebound. I assume glaciers covered D.C. 11,000 years ago.
Now if there were earthquakes in Greenland....
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/07/2008 18:02 Comments ||
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#17
ION TOPIX/OTHER > EARTHQUAKE 100 MILES AWAY WAKES UP RESIDENTS OF TOKYO. Early Thursday AM.
May explain strong EM bursts = flashes in skies over Guam, + low/weak-magn rumblers.
Kuwait has warned that it will deport foreigners who instigate gatherings and strikes and will arrest and prosecute the participants.
"The ministry has noticed recently that some Arab and foreign communities resort to gatherings and strikes for various reasons, which are illegal actions and undermine security," the interior ministry said in a statement cited by the official KUNA new agency. "The ministry will take necessary measures to arrest and prosecute participants in such gatherings and will deport those proved to have instigated others," it warned.
The statement comes after Kuwaiti authorities earlier this week deported about a dozen Bangladeshi cleaners who were charged with organizing a strike by hundreds of fellow workers to demand the payment of their salaries. The workers, hired by a local private company under contract with the education ministry, claimed they had not been paid for the past five months and their residence permits had expired a year ago.
Foreigners living and working in Kuwait can be deported under a court ruling and under so-called administrative deportation which is controlled by senior interior ministry officials. Administrative deportation has been strongly criticized by human rights groups as illegal, because there is no right to appeal to its decisions.
There are around 2.35 million foreigners in the oil-rich Persian Gulf state which has a native population of just over one million.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Correction to headline, that should be "Kuwait Crackdown on Slave Revolt"
Do they really, simply not understand that you have to pay people if you want them to work for you?
#2
Wow. Did the MSM really miss this opportunity to bash the US once again? It really must be our fault, right?
Oops...it's still really early here.
Posted by: Ike ||
05/07/2008 10:11 Comments ||
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#3
"Do they really, simply not understand that you have to pay people if you want them to work for you?"
That's the common mistake of vestern civilizations and their representatives like you: many things are taken as granted. It's OK for homogenuous population with high morale, but disaster in multi-culti environment.
To free yourself from the cliches, ask yourself: why not to fool some people if they want / agree to take the risk of being fooled?
A women-only bus service will be soon launched in the city, officials said on Tuesday.
Zakat, Usher, Social Welfare and Women Development Department Secretary Shah Sahib told Daily Times that if the programme went without problems, women-only buses would be on the roads within two to three weeks. Most of the government departments have agreed to the proposal meant to facilitate the women of the city who are facing problems in public transport, he said.
A meeting was held on Tuesday to discuss the proposal at the Social Welfare Directorate, which was attended by the officials from traffic police, district government and transport department to discuss earlier implementation of the project.
Public-private partnership: Shah said that the service would be launched under public-private partnership while the government would oversee the process. He said that the bus service was a part of the chief ministers reforms programme that he had announced after taking oath of office. The programme will be launched under the city district government and the rest of the government agencies will facilities the process, he said, adding that the service would especially benefit working women and female students.
Those at the meeting directed police officials to ensure that men did not occupy seats reserved for women on public transport. The meeting also decided that the new bus service would be different from the current one and would be overseen by women. The drivers would be male, but the conductors would be females and identified by a uniform. The buses would be air-conditioned.
The bus service will aim to be punctual, and on time, unlike the current bus system. It was also agreed that no vehicle would be older than five years and must be certified by motor vehicle examiner (MVE) for road-worthiness. Shah said that transporters could enlist their vehicles for the service and the government encouraged them in this respect. He said that the number of the buses had not been fixed and it would be according to demand. Some transport companies were also interested in running women-only bus service in the city and they were studying its profitability, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
In order to ensure a healthy place Canada has banned smoking in federal prisons after a partial ban was largely ignored, the government says. 
A small earthquake struck the D.C. area Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Geological Survey says. The earthquake measured 1.8 on the Richter scale and the epicenter was 1 mile west-southwest of Annandale (38.828°N, 77.234°W), the U.S. Geological Survey says. The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake struck at 1:30 p.m. 
A women-only bus service will be soon launched in the city, officials said on Tuesday.
