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Editorial: On Prohibition
Unusual News 10/20/06

Oct 19, 8:15 AM (ET)
By Matthew Verrinder

NEW YORK (Reuters) - At least four funeral homes stole human body parts from thousands of corpses to sell for use in transplants in a scheme in which seven funeral directors have pleaded guilty, New York prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The plot's suspected ringleader, Michael Mastromarino, a former New Jersey oral surgeon who ran a Fort Lee, New Jersey, company that sold human tissue for medical implants, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday along with three others to new charges in the case, including body stealing and opening graves.

The prosecutor said the case raised concerns that some tissue provided for possible use in transplants could have been tainted.

"These ghoulish thieves thought they could pull off the crime of the century, stealing bones from the dead, without any thoughts of their victims' families or the transplant recipients who would receive possibly tainted bone and tissue grafts," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said in a statement.

One of the bodies possibly harvested was that of famed British broadcaster Alistair Cooke, longtime host of the U.S. TV program "Masterpiece Theater," who died in 2004. Prosecutors said the suspects changed documents to show Cooke died at age 85 of a heart attack, not at age 95 from cancer.

The seven unidentified funeral directors who pleaded guilty to undisclosed charges agreed to cooperate in the investigation, Hynes said. They all agreed to surrender their licenses and face prison time, based on their level of involvement, he said.

Court papers said Mastromarino and the three others worked with funeral homes to take bones and organs from dead people without the consent of their families or from people who were ineligible for organ donations because they had died of serious illnesses.

They sold the parts through legal medical channels for hip replacements and other operations, resulting in a profit of millions, according to the court papers.

The four men forged death certificates and organ-donor consent forms to create the appearance the dead donated their bodies and were eligible to do so, court papers said.

The transplanting of tissues such as muscle, skin and bone is common in the United States and the trade in implantable body parts is legal, providing certain conditions are met.

Mastromarino and the three others were previously indicted in February on charges including conspiracy, unlawful dissection and forgery. Those charges were superseded by the indictment announced on Wednesday.

A grand jury brought the additional charges against the men in a new indictment including the suspected theft of more bodies at funeral homes in Rochester, New York, the Bronx and Manhattan, Hynes said.

Prosecutors said it was suspected that more funeral homes were involved in the scheme.

The suspects remain free on bail. They each face a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Oct 20, 8:58 AM (ET)
By Joe Ortiz

MADRID (Reuters) - It's the world's most expensive cigar -- $440 each and it only comes in boxes of 40 -- but is it the best? Nobody knows because no one has smoked one.

The Cuban havanas from the Cohiba brand are so precious that no one has actually lit one yet, although the blend was tested by a group of tasters before the cigar went into hand-made production, according to Norma Fernandez, the "torcedora" or cigar-roller from the El Laguito factory in Havana.

The cigar was launched in Spain Thursday by Altadis, the exclusive importer of Cuban cigars into Spain.

When they say "hand-made," they mean it. In this case there were only two hands involved and they both belong to Norma -- she rolled all 4,000 cigars in the strictly limited edition -- a labor of love.

"I've been doing this for 39 years but I still love it," said Norma who admits to smoking cigarettes and the odd Cohiba panatella and was selected from the senior rollers for this special task.

Fernandez also had the honor of deciding on the tobacco blend to be used which was designed to honor 40 years of the Cohiba brand, being true to the house style but giving this cigar a special touch.

"But I'm not going to reveal the formula," she told reporters.

The Cohiba "Behike," named after a tribal chief of Cuba's indigenous Taino tribe, can only be bought in special humidors -- $18,860 for the 40 cigars.

A lot of money. But maybe not for someone who can appreciate this delicate blend of the world's most selected tobacco leaves. Either way, just like the cheapest old stogie, it'll be up in smoke.

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/458/police_drug_corruption

Busy, busy, busy. Judges on cocaine, cops dealing cocaine, cops selling ecstasy, Air Force pilots smuggling ecstasy, police chemists pilfering from the evidence pile, and, of course, jail guards smuggling dope into prisons. Let's get to it:

In Las Cruces, New Mexico, the state Judicial Standards Commission filed a petition last Friday seeking the removal of a Dona Ana County magistrate on the grounds he tested positive for cocaine, according to the Associated Press. Magistrate Carlos Garza, 42, has denied using drugs and vowed to fight the move. Garza has been suspended by the commission since September 20, when he failed to comply with a commission order he submit to a drug test. According to the commission, he has since failed another drug test. The commission also accused Garza of trying to pressure a Mesilla deputy marshal during a traffic stop where the judge was in a car with a woman "with whom he had a personal relationship" and asking a court clerk to clear the woman's license early in a drunk driving case. He was put on probation by the Judicial Standards Commission earlier this year in that case, and he said the charge he used cocaine was a continuation of a commission vendetta against him. He said the cocaine metabolites found in his system could have been received through "passive exposure." Garza is running unopposed for reelection in next month's elections.

[Ed: Whether to include mere drug use/possession by criminal justice personnel among the examples of corruption is a dilemma Drug War Chronicle routinely faces. We've opted so far to include them, because a judge who uses illegal drugs may also be a judge who presides over trials of, and pronounces sentences on, other drug users who have only done the same thing (hypocrisy); and because the judge is violating a law he has sworn to uphold (it being a law with which we disagree notwithstanding). Still, it bears reminder that there is a difference between drug use even by police or judges vs. profiting from the drug trade or other examples of official misconduct.]

In Durham, North Carolina, a Durham County sheriff's deputy has been arrested in a drug raid at a local bar and two more deputies have been fired for working security there. Deputy Michael Owens, the owner of the raided bar, was charged along with four others with trafficking cocaine and conspiracy to traffic cocaine, and he faces the additional charge of maintaining a building for the purposes of distributing cocaine. Deputies Brad King and Keith Dotson, who worked off-duty as security for the club, were suspended that same night, the Durham Herald Sun reported, and fired early this week. Authorities reported seizing 1.4 ounces of cocaine during the raid.

In Biloxi, Mississippi, a former Biloxi police officer pleaded guilty last Friday to selling ecstasy, the Biloxi Sun Herald reported. Darrell Cvitanovich, who resigned from the force after his arrest, faces up to 30 years in prison after he admitted selling four ecstasy tablets to a friend. Cvitanovich, who is the son of a former Biloxi police chief, was arrested in June 2005 after an investigation into allegations he was involved in drug activities. During a search of his home, police found 11 ecstasy tablets and a small amount of methamphetamine. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and transfer of a controlled substance, but pleaded last week to the single sales charge. Cvitanovich is free on $50,000 bond pending sentencing.

In New York City, a US Air National Guard pilot who took an Air Force jet to Germany and carried back 200,000 ecstasy tablets was sentenced last Friday to 17 ½ years in prison. Capt. Franklin Rodriguez, 36, and his coconspirator, Master Sgt. John Fong, 37, had pleaded guilty in federal court after being busted for the April 2005 flight. Fong awaits sentencing. The pair went down after federal law enforcement agents watched Fong load 28 bags into a BMW sedan and found them filled with ecstasy tablets, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors said Rodriguez had repeatedly flown drugs on military flights, bringing hundreds of thousands of ecstasy tablets to the US. The feds found more than $700,000 cash in his apartment. They have it now.

In Philadelphia, a former civilian chemist for the Philadelphia Police Department was arrested October 11 on charges she stole drugs for her own use, the Associated Press reported. Colleen Brubaker, 30, came under suspicion in April and resigned in May. Authorities now accuse her of grabbing pain-relieving opiates like Oxycontin, Percocet, and Vicodin to feed her own habit. She is charged with drug possession, theft, receiving stolen property, tampering with evidence, obstruction, tampering with public records or information, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence. Since Brubaker was the chemist responsible for hundreds of drug cases, public defenders are now looking into the possibility that some of them may have to be dismissed.

In Stillwater, Oklahoma, a Payne County sheriff's deputy has been suspended without pay pending an investigation by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control, the Associated Press reported. Local officials are mum about exactly what Deputy Brooke Buchanan, a 13-year veteran of the department, is accused of doing, but they did confirm that a special prosecutor has been named in the investigation. The investigation could take several more weeks before any charges are filed.

In Lubbock, Texas, a Lubbock County jail guard was arrested Sunday night as she arrived at work carrying marijuana, KLBK-CBS 13 TV in Lubbock reported. Renata Hernandez, 26, is charged with introducing a prohibited substance into a correctional facility. She faces between two and ten years in prison. While sheriff's office spokesmen said they believed she was bringing the weed into the jail to sell it, they have not been able to prove that yet.

 

Unusual News Archives

                             Unusual News 12/15/06
                             Unusual News 12/09/06      Unusual News 10/27/06
                             Unusual News 12/02/06      Unusual News 10/20/06
                             Unusual News 11/24/06      Unusual News 10/13/06
                             Unusual News 11/18/06      Unusual News 10/08/06
                             Unusual News 11/11/06      Unusual News 9/29/06
                             Unusual News 11/03/06      Unusual News 8/21/06