Monticello man arrested after receiving package from Jamaica with marijuana
(this occurred in Monticello, New York, USA.)
MONTICELLO - A Monticello man is in the Sullivan County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail after he was arrested for signing for a packagefrom Jamaica that contained marijuana. [NAME REDACTED], 30, was charged with felony criminal possession of marijuana and misdemeanors of forgery, endangering the welfare of a child and unlawful growing cannabis.
The package was intercepted on Friday May 29 in Miami by US Customs and Border Protection when it arrived on a plane from Jamaica. It was addressed to a person at 32 Lawrence Avenue in Monticello.
On Tuesday, June 2, members of the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office, Monticello Police and the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, led by Sheriff's Det. Sgt. Peter Ramos, conducted a controlled delivery at the residence.
After the package was signed for, police executed a search warrant in apartment one and discovered a small marijuana grow operation.
Police recovered the package, which contained a duffle bag with marijuana sewn into the lining. A total of nine ounces were seized.
Sheriff Michael Schiff thanked Assistant District Attorney Megan Galligan who prepared the search warrant, the Monticello Police and Homeland Security, which all worked together on the case.
Livingston Co. man charged with importing designer drug This occurred in Hemlock, NY, USA (I think)...
Created: 05/27/2015 3:43 PM WHEC.com
A Livingston County man is facing charges for trying to import a designer drug.
Officials say 41-year-old Jack Jett, of Hemlock, is charged with unlawful possession and importation of a controlled substance.
Prosecutors say Jett ordered Alpha PVP online and was arrested after a controlled delivery by officials.
"Some areas around the country are sounding the warning bell about the dangerous effects of Alpha PVP," said U.S. Attorney William Hochul. "In the last year alone, our Office has prosecuted nine defendants on charges involving this dangerous and potentially deadly drug. Seven of those nine defendants now stand convicted."
Jett faces 20 years in prison and million dollar fine.
Man faces lengthy jail term after drugs found in mail
Mississauga News | May 20, 2015 | By Louie Rosella
MISSISSAUGA -- A Toronto man and Nigerian national is facing a lengthy prison sentence after what looked like a parcel of air valves in the mail instead turned out to be more than $250,000 worth of heroin.
The shipment, intercepted by Canada Border Services Agency officers at the International Mail Processing Centre in Mississauga, was replaced by the RCMP as part of a controlled delivery to a home in Etobicoke on July 25, 2011 which led to the arrest of Peter Ukwuaba.
He was convicted by Justice Casey Hill last week of importing heroin, conspiracy to import heroin and possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking.
In the trunk of Ukwuaba's car at the time of the arrest was a parcel replaced by the police for one mailed from India which had contained heroin, court heard
Minutes before the arrest, the accused accepted delivery of the substituted parcel on behalf of a "consignee recipient" named on the wrapping which he used to share a home with.
Ukwuaba's position is that he had no knowledge whatsoever that the package from India contained an illicit drug and that he was simply safeguarding the package.
After a CBSA officer discovered nearly three pounds of heroin during what he believed to be an "inconsistency" on an x-ray screen within a package from India, the RCMP decided to attempt a controlled delivery of the parcel which had been mailed from India. The box was outfitted with a tracking device to allow a police team to maintain surveillance as well as a silent alarm to alert the police if someone opened the box.
Ukwuaba, who bought and sold cars and earned a commission, had no business premises - he sometimes worked from home.
When he accepted the parcel after delivery by an undercover RCMP officer posing as a Canada Post mail worker, there was sweat on his forehead, "and from his facial expressions the accused appeared nervous," the undercover officer testified.
Court heard heroin is manufactured from opium to create a new and more potent substance - the process for making heroin, a drug providing a large load of morphine to the brain and a powerful high, is complex and requires a well-set-up lab to provide a quality product - it takes 10 kilograms of raw opium to produce one kilogram of heroin.
The judge said the Crown proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt and that Ukwuaba's claim that he didn't know the package was heroin is nonsense.
"The accused, I am satisfied, was present at (the Etobicoke home) fully expecting the parcel's arrival - it was no coincidence that he was present when the controlled delivery was made," the judge said.
"In the result, the Crown has established beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused intended to agree with others to import heroin into Canada and assisted and encouraged others in the initial formation of that agreement which agreement was completed. Through his actions, the accused further assisted and facilitated the importation of the heroin into Canada and, on taking physical custody of the shipped package, the accused was in knowledgeable possession of heroin for the purpose of trafficking.
The judge added that "heroin was a valuable commodity. Commercial-oriented heroin traffickers, keen to avoid loss through detection, rip-off or otherwise, would be unlikely to trust such internationally-shipped cargo to handlers without knowledge of the illicit nature of the package's contents."
Ukwuaba returns to court this summer for sentencing.
$80,000 in Bitcoin Seized in International Dark Web Crackdown
gwern's mentioned in this one! Maybe you guys already saw this. It's worth going to the coindesk page because there are links to documents...
Yessi Bello Perez (@yessi_kbello) | Published on May 18, 2015 at 15:00 BST
Law enforcement agencies have seized $80,000 worth of bitcoin as part of an international undercover investigation that tracked the illegal selling of firearms on a dark web site, according to a statement by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
Four people across Australia have been charged with attempting to buy illegal firearms, while a further 17 arrests have been made across Europe and North America, the statement reveals.
The joint investigation between the United States Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), AFP and Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) focused on the international trade of illegal firearms by a US-based seller, who was later identified as a 33-year-old man living in Montana.
The operation first started when ACBPS shared information with HSI, enabling agents to begin a covert operation using the seller's account, which led to the identification of Australian-based customers attempting to buy illegal firearms.
The controlled delivery of six parcels to addresses in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory also resulted in the seizure of a wide range of illegal goods, including firearms, ammunition, two clandestine laboratories, drugs, computer equipment and mobile phones.
HSI acting special agent Kevin Kelly said the joint operation should serve as a warning to those using the dark web for the purchase of illicit goods, adding:
"Anyone who mistakenly thinks that they can get away with these types of crimes by hiding in the endless depths of the Internet must know that HSI will seek them out and bring them to justice."
Steve Lancaster, national director of investigations and assistant commissioner at the ACBPS, noted the arrest of the US based supplier had removed a significant firearm threat to the Australian border.
He said: "People using these sites should not be fooled by claims of online anonymity, each transaction builds up a global web of intelligence which international partners are using to target you."
In Europe and North America, the arrests resulted in the confiscation of additional firearms, ballistic armour and illegal drugs. Possible idenfitication
Gwern Branwen, a security researcher, believes he has identified both the dark web marketplace and the alias used by the seller.
The expert exposed his findings in the DarkNetMarkets sub-reddit. Branwen linked the arrest of Justin Moreira, from Hyannis (Massachusetts), charged with attempting to buy a firearm from a federal undercover agent to the investigation undertaken by US an Australian law enforcement.
According to the criminal complaint, uploaded by Branwen, Moreira used the alias "jd497" to order his weapon on the Agora marketplace. The weapon is believed to have been sold by a user with the "weaponsguy" alias.
Branwen also highlighted that the dates of the criminal complaint matched those included in the AFP's recent statement.
How a drug dealer's IP was found out by package tracking
Suspect routinely checked tracking on shipments of methylone from China.
by Cyrus Farivar - May 15, 2015 7:10 pm UTC
A federal drug case in Massachusetts has shed new light on how the United States Postal Service's (USPS) law enforcement unit uses something as simple as IP logs on the postal tracking website to investigate crimes.
According to a December 2013 affidavit of an ongoing federal criminal case in Rockland, Massachusetts, one alleged drug dealer named Harold Bates was found out simply by the digital trail he left on the USPS' Track n' Confirm website. The affidavit was added to the court docket in January 2015, and the case was first reported by Motherboard.
Bates was charged back in March 2014 with conspiracy to import methylone (also known as "molly"), importation of methylone, and possession with intent to distribute methylone, among other crimes. Last month, the judge in the case ruled against Bates in his attempt to supress evidence seized in those packages.
The judge's memorandum and order explains that postal investigators found 500 grams of a substance that turned out to be methylone in a package to be delivered in Hollywood, Florida. That statement could suggest that investigators found the suspicious package first and then manually checked IP logs to see if anyone had been searching for tracking information. Once they located Bates' IP address, they may have checked to see if it had been used to search for other packages.
But in the affidavit, United States Postal inspector Stephen Dowd seems to imply that this link happened in a more automated fashion.
As he wrote, "The USPS database reflected that an individual using a computer or other device with IP address 75.67.6.214 accessed the USPS Track 'n Confirm website to track the progress of both the Florida Parcel and Bates Parcel #1."
Neither the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) nor Bates' attorneys responded to Ars' multiple requests for comment.
Ahmed Ghappour, a law professor at the University of California, Hastings, told Ars that he has never seen a case like this before. "What's most bizarre about this case is the tip-off by algorithm," he said. "It seems that the investigation was triggered by a system that mines Track N' Confirm user-data in order to detect suspicious activity."
"The Dowd affidavit is very clear that Postal Inspectors discovered a connection between packages delivered to Florida and Massachusetts before initiating contact and obtaining consent to search the Florida package," Ghappour said. "The affidavit is not clear whether the mere act of tracking packages addressed to different cities was sufficient to trigger the investigation or whether other factors, such as foreign return address, came into play."
You've got mail from China
The affidavit provides further detail on how Bates was investigated.
Once the USPIS found the matching IP addresses, it quickly determined that they belonged to a Comcast IP block. After requesting Comcast to hand over subscriber data, investigators found that the subscriber linked to the IP address at the time was someone named Matthew Demaggio of Rockland, Massachusetts.
After checking further records, the USPIS determined that Demaggio has been in jail in Massachusetts since September 2013 due to an armed robbery conviction. The USPIS then checked what postal mail was being delivered to the Rockland address and found that it was being addressed to Bates.
Dowd continued:
"I have verified through a USPS letter carrier that Bates regularly received mail at the Bates Residence for at least the past six months through the present. I also reviewed records maintained at the Rockland Post Office and determined that five prior Express Mail parcels from either China or Hong Kong had arrived addressed to Bates at the Bates Residence since October 21, 2013."
For three of those packages, Bates had called ahead to the post office and arranged to come pick them up in person rather than wait for them to be delivered. So Dowd and his colleagues anticipated that he might do this again.
On November 13, 2013, Bates Parcel #1 arrived at the Rockland post office, and Dowd arranged for a controlled delivery--he secretly watched Bates arrive in the building and pick it up.
A dog named Lucky
There, Bates picked up his package and paid for a postal scale with $50 in cash. He and a woman that he was with drove to East Water Street in Rockland, where Massachusetts State Police (MSP) were surveilling his residence. The MSP watched as Bates placed two large white plastic garbage bags in a dumpster behind his building. Once Bates and the woman drove away, the MSP retrieved the bags.
Inside the bags was a host of evidence suggesting that Bates was involved in some sort of business from China.
By December 2013, the two USPIS packages from China had arrived, and both had been tracked with the same Comcast IP address. Updates were being sent to the e-mail address satva1100@ymail.com, the address previously associated with package tracking.
Dowd called an officer in the nearby Braintree Police Department to bring his drug-sniffing dog "Lucky."
Dowd continued:
"I traveled with the two parcels to the USPS facility in Braintree, Massachusetts, where I placed the Parcel #2 and Parcel #3 at different ends of a large loading dock. I also placed six other innocent parcels among the two suspect parcels as controls."
Officer Seibert advised that upon reaching Parcel #2 and Parcel #3, "Lucky" reacted in a positive manner for the scent of controlled substances. No further indications were observed in the search area. Based on my training and experience, I know that a positive alert means that the parcels contain narcotics or were recently in close proximity to narcotics.
Dowd then "assumed the role of letter carrier" and attempted to deliver the packages to a woman named Julie Carlozzi at a different address on Maple Street, just a half mile away from Bates' East Water Street residence. When Carlozzi didn't respond, Dowd left a notice of a missed delivery. Less than an hour later, Carlozzi called the post office and said she would come pick them up in person.
When she picked up the packages, she was followed by undercover law enforcement. She drove to a nearby Rite Aid where she met Bates, who took the packages from her and put them in his car.
Based on these observations, the authorities sought and received a sealed warrant to search Bates' packages and his home, and USPIS planned for a controlled delivery of two more packages for Carlozzi.
The bust took place the next day, on December 7, 2013. Carlozzi picked up her packages and drove to the same Rite Aid, where she again met Bates. The surveillance tail lost Carlozzi while another group stayed with Bates. After he stopped for gas, law enforcement made their move to arrest him.
Bates was arrested and taken to the Rockland Police Department, where he was interviewed. He waived his Miranda Rights and told the officers that he "received an e-mail from someone in China" and began ordering molly from that person; he paid for it with Western Union money transfers. He also consented to a search of his laptop and iPhone and gave officers the passwords to his e-mail and Skype accounts.
Bates' trial is set to begin in federal court in Boston on August 10, 2015.
Mexican national pleads guilty to meth conspiracy
Updated: Wednesday, May 13, 2015 5:33 PM EDT By News Release SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI (USA)
Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Mexican national pleaded guilty in federal court today, as his jury trial was scheduled to begin, to his role in a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of methamphetamine in southwest Missouri.
Jaime Gonzalez-Alvarado, 34, a citizen of Mexico residing in South Baja, Calif., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Barry County, Mo., from March 1, 2012, to Oct. 11, 2013. He also pleaded guilty to possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute.
Co-defendants Julio Vincente Mendoza, 33, a Mexican citizen who is a resident alien residing in Monett, Mo., Camilo Acosta, Jr., 22, of Imperial Beach, Calif., and Ernie Soto, 22, and Armando Arizpe, 24, both of Los Angeles, Calif., have pleaded guilty to their roles in the drug-trafficking conspiracy.
By pleading guilty today, Gonzalez-Alvarado admitted that he directed the delivery and then the distribution of methamphetamine, which was being delivered from California to Mendoza's residence in Monett. This methamphetamine was then distributed by Gonzalez-Alvarado and others in the Monett area and throughout southwest Missouri.
On Oct. 11, 2013, law enforcement officers in Oklahoma seized one of these shipments of methamphetamine that was enroute to Mendoza's residence in Monett. Officers seized 15 tape-wrapped bundles of methamphetamine weighing 14.61 kilograms.
On the same day, Missouri law enforcement officers conducted a controlled delivery of a portion of the methamphetamine to Mendoza's residence, where they arrested Gonzalez-Alvarado and the other co-conspirators. Officers executed a search warrant and seized $57,660 found in a locked safe, $3,000 found in a downstairs bedroom, a Smith and Wesson 10mm semi-automatic handgun with 50 rounds of ammunition, packaging material consistent with the packaging of methamphetamine, approximately 3.5 grams of methamphetamine, a glass pipe commonly used to ingest methamphetamine and a drug ledger notebook which contained names, numbers, and currency amounts.
Under federal statutes, Gonzalez-Alvarado is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison without parole on each of the two counts. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall D. Eggert and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Nhan Nguyen. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Missouri State Highway Patrol; the Canada County, Okla., Sheriff's Department; the Barry County, Mo., Sheriff's Department; and the Barry County, Mo., Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
The Bethlehem police Emergency Response Team entered a home Wednesday morning in the 500 block of Sixth Avenue in the city.
Sarah M. Wojcik |By Sarah M. Wojcik on February 26, 2015 at 10:35 AM, updated March 02, 2015 at 12:04 PM
Word that a West Bethlehem man was receiving packages of marijuana in the mail prompted Northampton and Lehigh county authorities to send a package as part of a drug sting operation, according to court records.
Juan Carlos Pedraza, 45, of the 500 block of Sixth Avenue, was being watched by the Bethlehem Special Operations Bureau and Vice Unit as part as a drug investigation by the Northampton and Lehigh county drug task forces, records say.
Authorities learned Pedraza was receiving packages containing marijuana at his Sixth Avenue home, records say. They contacted the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to conduct a controlled delivery of drugs to the home that Pedraza shares with a girlfriend, court papers say, after intercepting a package that contained a large amount of marijuana.
Authorities watched as Pedraza received the package Wednesday and took it into his home, records say. Authorities and members of the Bethlehem police Emergency Response Team then served a search warrant at the residence. Witnesses to the raid said police forced their way through the front door and smashed a front window.
Court records say Pedraza was found inside, already cutting into the package with a kitchen knife. Another man was also present, police said, but was not related to the drug offense.
Police searched the home and found heat-sealed packages of suspected marijuana, multiple parcels consistent with packaging drugs, two digital scales -- one of which had marijuana residue on it -- and two cellphones. Authorities say they also found roughly $3,200 in a safe that also contained two handguns.
Police say tests performed on the suspected drug came back positive as marijuana.
Pedraza was arraigned at 10:30 p.m. before on-call District Judge Ronald Manescu on charges of possession with the intent to deliver marijuana, possession of marijuana and possession with the intent to use drug paraphernalia.
He was sent to Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Police: Pair ordered marijuana from Colorado
Last updated: May 08. 2015 5:26PM - 2205 Views By Randy Garner
Authorities say a Cheraw couple who ordered marijuana from Colorado got a special delivery Wednesday.
Alfred Quick Jr., 29, and Antonia Green, 30, face charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana after an investigation Cheraw and Bennettsville police conducted along with Chesterfield County sheriff's deputies.
The investigation began when the Cheraw Police Department received information regarding a package addressed to a home in Cheraw which contained marijuana.
"We were able to intercept that package from UPS and obtain a search warrant for that package" said Cheraw Police Chief Keith Thomas. "The package did contain approximately 2 ounces of marijuana inside which was packaged inside of a glass mason jar which was wrapped in Mother's Day gift-wrapping paper."
Thomas said after police confirmed the contents of the package to be marijuana, they repackaged the contraband and dispatched an undercover police officer to conduct a controlled delivery to the address on the package label: [APT ADDRESS REDACTED]
Thomas said the officer delivered the package to the home and asked for Green, whose name was on the package's label. The undercover officer then asked Green to sign for the package.
"She signed for the package and then turned and went back in the house," said Thomas. "Once she went back into the house, our entrance team went to the door, knocked on the door, announced that we had a search warrant for the apartment. They opened the door for the police. We then searched the property based on that search warrant."
Upon searching the home, police say they found the delivered package as well as a small amount of marijuana.
"The marijuana was actually shipped from Colorado," said Thomas, "Colorado has passed a law where it's legal to purchase up to a certain amount in Colorado, but you have to maintain it in Colorado -- you can't leave the state with it. Whoever shipped it is operating outside the boundaries of the law.
"The companies that are actually in the business selling marijuana in Colorado know what the laws are, so this is someone that is knowingly violating the law, they are just using UPS and other delivery services to help facilitate that."
Thomas said that the package was sent anonymously and police are working to determine who sent it.
"Someone in Colorado actually shipped it to them," he said. "There is an ongoing investigation as to where this marijuana was shipped from and who shipped it. That is ongoing at this point, but we have made a arrest on the receiving end of that transaction. They are entering into that agreement knowing that they are violating the law on both ends of it."
That's about it from the first 2 pages of "controlled delivery" search @ https://news.google.com
Wow 2 ounces. I wonder who they pissed off enough to tip LE