News
in
Brief
10/8/99
Jane Tseng, [email protected] General Motors Faulted for Sneaky Drug Sweep A court in Bowling Green, Kentucky has reprimanded the General Motors' Corvette assembly plant there for using "underhanded and nonprofessional" methods in policing its employees. A GM employee had hired Aset Corp., a private security agency, to conduct a drug sweep of the plant. The agency placed an attractive woman undercover in the plant, where she was instructed to make occasional comments about wanting to "have a joint" during the workday. Seventeen workers were arrested on marijuana charges during the five-month sweep of the plant, most of whom have already plead guilty. The court issued its reprimand after it fined a GM employee a symbolic one-cent for trafficking less than eight ounces of marijuana. Nebraska Court Strikes Down Conviction On Saturday (10/2), the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that drug-sniffing dogs cannot be used outside an apartment without reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed. The decision was prompted by the conviction of an Omaha man who was sentenced in June for a conviction of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver. After receiving a tip that he was distributing cocaine from his apartment, police had searched the hallway outside of Eddie R. Ortiz, Jr.'s home with a drug-sniffing dog and obtained a "no-knock" search warrant based on the dog's reaction. The police then searched the residence in Ortiz's absence and seized $17,300, a quarter ounce of cocaine and four ounces of marijuana. Ortiz turned himself in a week later and was sentenced to two to three years in prison by Douglas County Court. In its ruling, the court said that the tip that the police had received was not adequate grounds for bringing a drug-sniffing dog into the hallway outside of Ortiz's apartment. The Nebraska Supreme Court overturned Ortiz's conviction with its Saturday decision, ruling that the police officers violated Ortiz's fourth amendment rights because apartment dwellers have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the hallways immediately outside their doors. "Arms-for-Drugs" Deals on the Rise in Latin America The State Department's 1999 International Narcotics Control Strategy report indicates that Suriname's military may be behind the recent rise in the number of arms-for-drugs deals. "There are disturbing reports of money laundering, drug trafficking and associated criminal activity involving current and former government and military officials," reads the report. Last August, Brazilian police seized an airplane headed for Colombia loaded with weapons from Suriname. According to Brazilian press, among the weapons found aboard the plane were two rockets, a rocket launcher capable to bringing down a small airplane, and an Uzi sub-machine gun. It is believed that the airplane was headed for the Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). Suriname's former President, Desi Bouterse, was convicted of making five cocaine shipments to the Netherlands and Belgium between the years of 1989 to 1991 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Bouterse remains at large in Suriname today and may run again for Presidency. Bouterse denies all charges, though many high-ranking officers in the Suriname army have been arrested on drug charges over the past decade. Although the bulk of the drug trafficking from Suriname appears to be oriented toward Europe, the United States has taken a growing interest in the country. Officials of the US Drug Enforcement Administration say that they hope to get a permanent presence in Suriname within the next year.
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