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This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #476)
Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues

Our "This Week's Corrupt Cops" feature may have been on hiatus while your editor was down South America way, but it's been pretty much business as usual. We're back now, and here's this week's edition with the usual cast of crooked cops and greedy guards. Let's get to it:

In Randolph County, North Carolina, a juvenile detention supervisor has been indicted on federal cocaine trafficking charges. James Ledwell, 37, who spent the last nine years teaching young people about the dangers of drugs, was arrested February 28 on federal charges. The indictment came three weeks after Ledwell was busted trying to sell more than a half-pound of coke to a Greensboro police officer.

In Hollywood, Florida, a veteran detective has surrendered after being charged along with three other officers in a sting where they thought they were protecting mob shipments of drugs and stolen art, diamonds, and watches. Hollywood Detective Thomas Simcox, 50, surrendered to federal agents February 28 and was released later that same day on a $350,000 bond. The four officers were charged with drug trafficking and other offenses after a two-year FBI sting in which they agreed to "protect and facilitate" criminal activities for what was supposed to be a "criminal organization based out of New York." Instead, it was feds posing as mobsters. Now the cops face up to life in prison.

In Scranton, Pennsylvania, a Scranton police officer was arrested March 1 after allegedly dealing drugs while on duty. Officer Mark Conway, 36, was in uniform when Lackawanna County detectives found five Oxycontin tablets and 33 methadone tablets in his car. Conway went down after an informant told police Conway had been addicted to heroin for more than a year and the informant had scored for him numerous times. A second informant recorded a conversation with Conway in which the officer agreed to deliver Oxycontin and methadone for $780. Conway was charged with possession of methadone, possession of OxyContin, unlawful delivery of OxyContin and two counts of using a telephone for a drug transaction. He is out on $25,000 bail.

In Fishkill, New York, an Ulster County jail guard was arrested Monday after being caught with 10 ounces of cocaine. Shawn Forte, 30, faces a charge of first degree criminal possession of a controlled substance after he was stopped for "speeding" on Interstate 84 in Fishkill. According to state police, the charges stemmed from an investigation by the Ulster County Sheriff's Office and the Ulster Regional Gang Enforcement Narcotics Team. Forte was being held without bail at the Dutchess County Jail as of mid-week, and more charges could be pending.

In Beaver, Pennsylvania, an outside report has found that the Beaver County Jail is "tainted" with sex, drugs, and violence, and jail guards are involved. The report found guards having sex with prisoners, guards physically abusing prisoners, guards accused of providing drugs to prisoners, and nearly half of prisoners who had been in for at least 60 days and were tested for drugs came back positive. Beaver County Controller Richard Towcimak, who chairs the prison board, said board members were "completely disheartened" by the report, while Beaver County District Attorney Tony Berosh said he would turn it over to the state attorney general's office.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Anonymous (not verified)

are these few examples part of a bigger picture?

what percentage of police are dirty?

could we live without police?

Sun, 03/11/2007 - 12:38pm Permalink
Anonymous (not verified)

The state the poor USA is in ["I got a glimpse of his soul" - GWB on Putin, last week], lost in a whirlpool of medieval superstition, it's a safe bet a.) most corruption is in red states [christian liberals] and b.) any move toward a perceived immoral stance will be resisted. It's a tough Everest you've picked.

Good move. Should be more of it.

Institutionalised rape of incarcerated human beings is a USA delectable. Can't get enough. Only Russia rapes and kills it's children at around the same rate as this 'god-fearing' land. They kick off with the "discipline camps", where normal teens of lazy, disinterested, wealthy parents spend their formative years. They worship convicted slime bags - consider Pastor Ted. Advocating for the jailing of gays and drug users - only to be found out as a "barebacking, gay ice freak". Forgiven overnight, and deluged with money, support, power brokers. He is- after all- a Man Of God!!!

Silly me...

Not a healthy place old US of A'hole. God hates drugs, because drugs are 'evil'. Ergo - the Drug War is a divine solution. It's a 2 pronged problem - both prongs sound total illusions. I mean - yikes! - 89% of these nuts believe virgins give birth, dead people walk, fly, manipulate molecules with mind power, and they themselves talk to imaginary beings. When hurricanes bear down, don't move, don't help, don't react - talk to thin air...

This is not a logical nation. Most believe in biblical prophecy and shoot em down solutions. "Deluded" is understating the current administration. Sociopathic is more like it, and masochistic the people: swallowing lie, after lie, and too terrified to even vote without gods permission. Bulldoze the lot, and re-read Jeffersons vision, I say.

If they claim cancer is a "deterrent" against immoral thoughts and withhold care to ensure the immoral die; which they indeed do - this project's a tough one. They passively kill teens who have sex, by with - holding treatment. Vile, godless junkies are much further down the scale. Or, further up the mountain.

Hopefully, the ever-exposed lies around non-existent "Terror" lurking under ones bed, will help bring the populace around. Maybe, just maybe, they'll think for themselves - but I doubt it.

This Sept will be 6 yrs post 9/11, without so much as a fart on US soil. Yes, terrorists flew the craft. Also - Yes, President Bush had hard copy warnings of just that event.

Wakeup!!!

The only thing to cut through the nonsense, is proof of how flawed this illusion is. Failing that, it's already apparent US economy is lagging. Let's just hang in 'till the monster consumes itself, as the Chinese [with no such illusions and the super-power of tomorrow] used to say.

The best we can do, is watch, try to help and learn. Learn to never, ever trust this nuthouse nation again.

Good work gang - keep it up.

Sun, 03/11/2007 - 10:53pm Permalink

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