Posted on 08/07/2008 6:39:32 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
Prince George's County police announced yesterday that they have arrested a deliveryman and another man who they say are involved in a scheme to smuggle marijuana by shipping packages addressed to unsuspecting recipients, including a delivery last week to the wife of the mayor of Berwyn Heights.
The county Sheriff's Office SWAT team and narcotics officers raided the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, after intercepting a package addressed to her that was filled with 32 pounds of marijuana. During the raid, officers broke down Calvo's door and fatally shot the family's two black Labrador retrievers.
(snip)
Police Chief Melvin C. High would not rule out that Calvo and Tomsic had some involvement in the delivery. Asked whether police had cleared them, he said: "From all the indications at the moment, they had an unlikely involvement, but we don't want to draw that definite conclusion at the moment." He later said, "Most likely, they were innocent victims."
Neither he nor Sheriff Michael A. Jackson apologized for the raid, which they said was conducted responsibly, given what deputies and officers knew at the time.
(snip)
Jackson said yesterday that his team was justified in entering the home as forcefully as it did because Calvo's mother-in-law screamed when she saw the officers approaching the house. The noise, he said, could have alerted any armed occupants of the home or allowed time for destruction of any evidence.
He also defended the shooting of the dogs. He said his deputies were "engaged" by the dogs, by one as they entered the house and by the other as they made their way through it. Neither dog bit a deputy, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
All of Prince George’s County government is sinking to the level of a 3rd world nation - just like its neighboring D.C. There’s nothing but cronyism and corruption throughout.
How the hell are they going to destroy 32 pounds of pot in seconds? Eat it?
Sheriff Michael A. Jackson you sir are a f****** liar.
If anyone belongs in a cell, it's you and those lying officers you employ.
L
Another “isolated incident.” More dead dogs and another botched raid. Time for Cato to update the database:
http://www.cato.org/raidmap/index.php#
Well that makes it OK then. As long as the police acted "in good faith" The two at the house were lucky that the officers were not "in fear for their lives" after all the police "want to go home to their families at the end of the day"
Sometimes a private delivery service will discover these things and that's when you will almost invariably find local cops doing the followup.
Notice that the article has a "local deliveryman" involved ~ I didn't find who he worked for, but it looks like a private scheme designed to defeat all the federal agencies.
Eventually we will find out more about this case and how the deal worked, but it's possible that when it works it is later found that the "recipient" is, in fact, "the intended recipient" or the next door neighbors. Recall a murder a couple of years back where a kid was ordering his drugs through the mail, and to avoid detection gave somebody else's address. Then he'd wait for the delivery and stop by and pick it up before the hapless homeowner knew what happened. He messed up one time and his response was to murder the neighbor.
I suspect the local cops have this in mind and probably figure it ain't over!
I'm guessing your interest is in the "privacy of MJ delivery" and not the possibility that somebody could get killed over this.
That’s a fact, Jack.
Reason number 124,593,659,394 against the drug war. It is increasingly indefensible every day
Recalled, is the Atlanta incident a couple of years ago where a 90-something-year-old granny was killed outright by these macho ‘Dick Tracys’ in a botched invasion. The cops were caught lying, covering up, etc., convicted, issued their Vaseline and went away. Hope some large, mean, lard-ass, ‘Bro finds the time to re-train these street-level punks.
How the hell can you fight a war on anything using garden-variety brain-dead rejects?
“In some quarters, this has been viewed as a flawed police operation and an attack on the mayor, which it is not,” High said. “This was about an address, this was about a name on a package . . . and, in fact, our people did not know that this was the home of the mayor and his family until after the fact.”
In my opinion, performing a dynamic no-knock entry without performing due diligence, getting all of the facts and making sure that you have the right house amounts to criminal negligence. Someone should be prosecuted or at least fired for incompetence.
Also any officer that feels threatened by a Black Lab enough to shoot it shouldn’t be trusted with a loaded weapon. It shows an extreme lack of judgement. I can understand a Rottweiler, Pit Bull, Doberman, etc. But a Black Lab?? Boot that bum from the force and make room for a decent officer.
You guess incorrectly.
My interest is that the cops weren't issued a 'no knock' warrant, and then proceeded to serve it in a 'no knock' manner.
Everyone is extremely lucky no one was killed. Although truth be told I don't think in this case one of those idiot cops catching a fatal bullet would have been a bad thing.
Their Sherrif lied, and they lied. They violently entered a private home in an unauthorized manner. The Mayor would have been perfectly within his rights to shoot them dead.
L
The entire bunch should be fired. Tho not a fan of lawsuits, these “officers” should get their clocks cleaned in a court.
Not incompetent - say, rather, criminal.
“I suspect the local cops have this in mind and probably figure it ain’t over!”
I suspect the cops are desperately trying to save their own asses right about now. They’ve seriously screwed (not to mention shot) the pooch and if they can’t find something to pin on the mayor or his family they’re gonna have to pay big time.
No DC is cleaning up. The problems have been moving to PG.
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