The temptation for the proceeds of crime caused by the Prohibition Laws, is not exclussive to organized crime and the gerneral public, but also to that of our Law Enforcement Officers.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun
Former DEA agent
Sitting in Kitsilano eating breakfast before meeting the city's police board, former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Celerino Castillo III nodded his head furiously.
"Yes, yes, it's all about the money," he said. "The money, it's all so corrupt."
Castillo spent 12 years in the USDA infiltrating Manhattan drug rings, destroying jungle cocaine labs and training anti-narcotics agents. The climax of his career was pulling the curtain back on drug-smuggling by the Nicaraguan Contras with links to Lt. Col. Oliver North and the CIA.
From the Amazon to the slums of Mexico City to the ghettos of America, Castillo has had a front-row seat on the western hemisphere's drug world and come to the conclusion it's time to abandon our current approach.
Mexico is again considering legalization because of the violence and social upheaval caused by illicit drug trafficking, and Canada should be headed down the same path, he says. So should South America and, of course, the U.S.
The money is too corrosive.
"The corruption is everywhere - every month we arrest a law enforcement official, every month," he insisted, "whether it's a border patrol agent or a customs agent or a DEA agent or an FBI agent. We arrest a law enforcement officer once a month, It's huge. The amount of money is just so big. 'I have a mortgage to pay, I have to send my kids to college.' That's always the excuse."
He shakes his head.
He explained that in his state, drug couriers once arrived with suitcases of cash to deposit in local banks: "Now they buy the banks. Especially now with this upheaval. Who else has the ready cash?"
He laughed.
"But that's actually how they're money-laundering today - they buy a bank," Castillo added. "There's no way we can keep up."
In retirement, Castillo has become a featured speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an association of former police, corrections and judicial officers who want to change drug policy.
"There's more production, more product and more of everything than there ever was. The war on drugs doesn't work," he said.
"All I'm hoping for is people to start to listen and educate themselves about what's going on in the world," he said. "I know first-hand. I've seen it from an agent's point of view.
"It's affecting and destroying a lot of families. For 40 years we've been trying this John Wayne approach and it's not working. The bottom line: There are a lot more drugs today than we had 40 years ago."
Police Officers for Drug Law Reform
http://www.november.org/razorwire/2003-01winter/podlr.html
Police drug-related corruption cases are now commonplace across the country. The US government has criminalized millions of American citizens, and America now has the dubious distinction of housing more prisoners than any other nation in the world. "We are working to restore public confidence and trust in law enforcement; we also are working to assist our legislators in reforming current drug laws," wrote Solano.
"It's time to think beyond drug prohibition and adopt a more logical and sustainable drug policy-one that is less reliant on police and imprisonment-a policy with greater emphasis on regulation, prevention and treatment,"
Police corruption, Solano argues, "has gone from a mutual agreement between cop and crook to one of personal gain for the officers' benefit and differs from 'traditional police corruption' usually involving a mutually beneficial arrangement between criminals and police officers; for example, the former offered the latter bribes in exchange for immunity from arrest."
By contrast, Solano points out, several current studies and investigations of drug related police corruption have found on-duty officers engaged in serious criminal activities, such as conducting unconstitutional searches and seizures; stealing money or drugs from drug dealers; selling stolen drugs; protecting drug operations; providing false testimony; and submitting false crime reports.
"Drug prohibition has made police corruption unavoidable and creates inherent incentives for police corruption. The economic incentive alone can make a good officer into a corrupt officer. Police credibility is another casualty of the War on Drugs; how can the police expect citizens to obey the law when the police themselves are partaking in illegal activities," asks Solano in an editorial.
Police officers from Philadelphia, for instance, "have been charged with planting drugs on suspects, shaking down drug dealers for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and breaking into homes to steal drugs and cash. The enormous number of police corruption cases makes clear that the current War on Drugs policies have created widespread and extensive police corruption. The War on Drugs has created and facilitates this new breed of corrupt cops who are wearing the badge to commit murder, steal, and terrorize those they swore to protect. These actions take place across the nation and are not confined to the big cities," wrote Solano.
"Only by ending the War on Drugs will we rid our police forces of drug-related corruption, and only then will the police regain some lost credibility," he insists.
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Two police officers charged in grow-op probe in Toronto, Ontario
TIMOTHY APPLEBY
From Friday's Globe and Mail
July 3, 2008 at 9:47 PM EDT
TORONTO — Two uniformed Toronto police constables face multiple criminal charges, including organized-crime allegations, for their role in what investigators describe as an elaborate marijuana-cultivation operation that ran for at least two years and involved dozens of “grow houses.”
In early morning raids that scooped up a total of 23 people, mostly in York Region, three prison guards who work at the Toronto West Detention Centre were also arrested, as was a real estate agent accused of buying properties in York Region for the express purpose of turning them into marijuana factories.
“This is a betrayal of all the hard-working decent men and women in the Toronto Police Service and of all police,” a grim-faced Chief Bill Blair told an afternoon press conference at police headquarters.
“It's a huge disappointment to us.”
Both in their 30s and both York Region residents, the two officers are Constable Patrick Lee of North York's 31 Division and Constable Kevin Bourne of the east downtown 51 Division, with eight and nine years' service, respectively.
Along with the other accused, they were behind bars last night pending bail hearings in Newmarket Friday morning.
Each officer is accused of participating in an offence for the benefit of a criminal organization, breach of trust, and several drug-related charges, including conspiracy to produce marijuana.
In addition, Constable Lee is charged with obstruction of justice and laundering the proceeds of crime.
Constable Bourne also faces a count of growing marijuana for the purpose of exporting it, but that appears to stem from “an isolated incident,” said Superintendent Jim Ramer, who heads the TPS's Professional Standards Investigative Unit, the in-house disciplinary section that used to be known as Internal Affairs.
Canadian-grown marijuana is regularly shipped to the United States, sometimes in exchange for cocaine and weapons. But in this instance, most of the marijuana was being sold in the greater Toronto area, Supt. Ramer said.
In all, 63 search warrants were served on houses, businesses and several vehicles in co-ordinated 6 a.m. raids that police said netted $60,000 in cash, 17 pounds of marijuana, sophisticated growing equipment and smaller amounts of other drugs, including ecstasy and steroids.
A cream-coloured Escalade was parked Thursday outside the two-storey grey brick home in Maple, north of Vaughan, believed to be the home of Constable Lee. Neighbours said about 10 police cruisers blocked roads around the residence at about 7 a.m. Plainclothes officers entered the residence with handcuffs dangling from their belts, according to a neighbour who asked not to be named.
At the Thornhill townhouse complex where Constable Bourne's parents live, neighbour Audrey Gibson said she could not believe that the officer named in the massive drug bust is the Kevin Bourne she knows.
“He was always pleasant to us, he's a fantastic guy,” she said.
Constable Bourne moved out years ago and started a family of his own, but he still regularly visited his parents in their small red-brick townhouse. Mr. Bourne's parents were taking care of his baby today, Ms. Gibson said.
Shortly before the charges against the two constables were announced, senior officers at the 51 and 31 Division police stations summoned rank-and-file colleagues to brief them about the bad news.
“Obviously this would have been a shock,” a police source said.
Launched by York Regional Police, the investigation stretched back to February of last year.
“What we found was that we had a very elaborate criminal organization that required a very intensive investigation and we believe we have [caught] everybody involved,” Supt. Ramer said.
The names of the other accused will be released today.
The delay stems from the fact that police in York are still tidying up loose ends, and had wanted to wait another 24 hours before announcing the charges.
However, there was concern that the names of the two policemen would leak out, another police source said, requesting anonymity.
Over the years, a handful of Toronto police officers have been charged with assorted drug offences, but this appears to be the first instance in which wholesale marijuana cultivation is alleged.
Chief Blair stressed his view that what he termed “this corruption” has been contained.
“We do our business with honesty and integrity. If we didn't, we wouldn't be able to maintain the public trust in us,” he said.
“Certainly we are disappointed, but I am completely confident that the criminal conduct alleged here does not extend [within the police force] beyond these two individuals.”
The investigation was unusually intense, Supt. Ramer said.
Beyond wiretaps and surveillance, investigators secured permission to intercept communications, which requires a special court order.
Supt. Ramer would not discuss a suggestion that the three jail guards arrested Thursday are accused of distributing marijuana at the 631-bed Toronto West Detention Centre in Rexdale, where they work.
“That's something we'll have to deal with at trial.”
The two accused officers have been suspended with pay, as required under Ontario's Police Services Act.
That status could last for months or years, depending on how the court case unfolds, and Chief Blair made plain it was not an arrangement with which he is comfortable.
“I have asked that the law be changed, and the Association of Chiefs of Police have also asked that the law be changed,” he said.
Toronto Mayor David Miller called the arrests “a very sad development,” but added that they also offer assurance that “on the extremely rare occasion that there is a problem, the police service finds it and acts.”
With a force close to 5,500 uniformed officers and 2,000 civilians, he said “it is a huge organization. … We expect them to uphold the highest standards, but more importantly we expect the institution to find the problems when they occur, which is very rare, and deal with them.”
Constable Wendy Drummond, Public Information
http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/media/text/20080704-list_of_charges_yrp.pdf
Patrick Lee, 31, of York Region
Toronto Police Service officer
Participate in offence for Criminal
Organization S. 467.11 CC
Breach of Trust S. 122 CC
Obstruct Justice S. 139 CC
Laundering Proceeds of Crime S.
462.23 CC
Production of Marihuana S. 7(1)
CDSA x2
Conspiracy to Produce Marihuana S.
465(1)(c) CC x2
Possession Schedule III Substance
(MDMA) S. 4(1) CDSA
Conspiracy to Traffic Marihuana S.
465(1)(c) CC
Possession FTP of Trafficking S.
5(2) CDSA
Kevin BOURNE, 33, of York Region
Toronto Police Service officer
Participate in offence for Criminal
Organization S. 467.11 CC
Breach of Trust S. 122 CC
Conspiracy to Produce Marihuana S.
465(1)(c) CC
Possession of Marihuana FTP of
Exporting S. 6(1) CDSA
Possession of Marihuana S. 4(1)
CDSA
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End police corruption by ending the war on drugs! Vote to legalize and regulate all drugs, and get them off the streets and under controll.
