Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Swiss police said Thursday they stumbled across a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the search engine company’s satellite mapping software.

Police said the find was part of a bigger investigation that led to the arrest of 16 people and seizure of 1.2 tons (1.1 metric tons) of marijuana as well as cash and valuables worth 900,000 Swiss francs ($780,000).

Officers discovered the hemp field in the northeastern canton (state) of Thurgau last year while investigating an alleged drug ring, said the head of Zurich police’s specialist narcotics unit Norbert Klossner.

The plantation, measuring almost two acres (7,500 square meters), was hidden inside a field of corn. But officers using Google Earth to locate the address of two farmers suspected of involvement in the drug operation quickly spotted the illegal crop.

“It was an interesting chance discovery,” said Klossner.

AP - An attorney for a woman accused of killing her daughter has filed a motion seeking more information about his client’s ex-boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend posted a picture on MySpace that showed a man and woman with the title “win her over with chloroform.”

Jose Baez, an attorney for Casey Anthony, filed the motion late Friday afternoon. Someone also did a search for the word “chloroform” on a computer in a home where Anthony lived, and trace amounts were found in her car.

Baez wants prosecutors’ information about ex-boyfriend Ricardo Morales, who was questioned by detectives at least twice.

Morales told detectives he posted the picture on his MySpace page around the beginning of 2008, before someone searched for “chloroform” Anthony’s home computer.

Police have identified the two teenagers who died in a shooting in Miami that also injured seven others.

Authorities were still searching for the person or people responsible for the shooting with an assault rifle. Authorities said the group was playing a dice game outside a store in the Liberty City neighborhood when the shooting started Friday.

Documents released yesterday reveal more about what was found at the crime scene along with Caylee Anthony’s body, including details about how the body was bagged and clothing that was found with the remains.

What was discovered: 

•  A heart-shaped sticker that was intentionally stuck to the duct tape found on Caylee’s mouth.
• The duct tape itself covered her entire mouth and went over her hair.
• A separate heart-shaped sticker was found.
• The body was found in a cloth laundry bag placed inside a trash bag.
• Several items of children’s clothing.
• A stainless steel knife.

In response to this evidence, a search warrant was executed on the Anothnys’ home looking for similar items as described above.  Included in the search warrant was chemicals, recipes to make chloroform, baby medication, diapers, cell phones, toothbrushes, and hairbrushes.

For more information on what was found, read the search warrant.

Additional details include information concerning a previous 911 call that the Orange County Meter Reader made in August.  The meter reader had seen a gray bag near the same location where the body was later found; the meter reader, however, did not open the bag because he reported a 5 foot rattlesnake in the area.

Two WPB priests are set for trial in what law enforcement says could be one of the biggest embezzlement cases to hit the U.S. Catholic Church.

Jury selection was set to begin Wednesday in West Palm Beach.

Authorities accuse the two priests of stealing money from a parish in Palm Beach County for years. The two are charged with stealing more than $850,000.

Both priests are free on bond after pleading not guilty to grand theft.

There has been a hint of a possible plea bargain between sides, but nothing certain.  A circuit court judge would have the final say whether to accept a plea deal or not.  A hearing on the plea bargain is set for Wednesday.

Want to work for the FBI?  Learn Rule #1:  Never embarass the Bureau.

 John Connolly, ex-FBI agent and handler for the FBI’s second most wanted man:  Whitey Bulger, was found guilty by a Miami-Dade jury of second degree murder for his role in killing a Boston businessman in Florida.
The judge gave Connolly 40 years, but who knows if that sentence will stand due to statute of limitations issues.  Connolly is already serving a 10 year federal sentence for racketeering.

So how does an ex-FBI agent get convicted of murder?  How was he connected to the Irish mob underground?  Who were the main characters that led to his demise?  Who is Whitey Bulger or Steven the Rifleman Flemmi? 

If you want the details to this true crime saga, read the book Black Mass or, for a “cheaper version,” watch the movie The Departed, which is loosely based on true events. 

Here is a snippet from the Boston Globe:

In November, after an eight-week trial, the jury found Connolly guilty of second-degree murder with a gun for leaking information to longtime FBI informants James “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi that prompted the gangsters to orchestrate the murder of John B. Callahan.

Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders, testified that Connolly warned him and Bulger that the FBI was seeking Callahan for questioning and the businessman would probably implicate the gangsters in the 1981 killing of World Jai Alai owner Roger Wheeler.

Hit man-turned-government witness John Martorano told jurors that at the urging of Bulger and Flemmi, he lured Callahan to Florida and killed him. The 45-year-old executive’s body was found Aug. 2, 1982, in the trunk of his car at Miami International Airport.

 Over the last several years, drug smugglers from Colombia have used submarines, or semi-subs, as a means to bring cocaine into the United States and other demand-oriented countries.

The Government responded by attempting to intercept these semisubmersibles before they made land.  However, as soon as law enforcement would get close, the occupants of the sub would scuttle the vessel and with it any trace of evidence.  No evidence = no prosecution. 

Now, the counter-move …

The Drug Trafficking Vessel Interdiction Act of 2008 was signed into law in September. The statute makes it a felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, to travel through international waters in the vessels, technically known as self-propelled semisubmersibles.

In other words, the law makes it illegal to even travel on one of these semisubmersibles, contraband or no contraband.  

CNN’s Azadeh Ansari has the article.

Recently, Massachusetts passes a law that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, making possession of one ounce of marijuana or less punishable by a civil fine of $100.00.
The ballot initiave was passed by the voters, however the Massachusetts State Legislature could amend or repeal the new law, as they have done with prior initiatives passed by voters.

JHW: Massachusetts is my home state, so of course this law is of particular interest to me. However, I find myself in slight disagreement with this new law. Essentially, if you possess less than 28 grams of marijuana (1 ounce), then you will not have a criminal record; you’ll be responsible for a civil fine instead. To put it another way: If you are caught with several dozen joints, you will no longer be reported to the state’s criminal history board. No arrest. No trial. Just a civil penalty.

Ann Shibler

The First International Conference on CyberSecurity took place last week in New York.  At the conference, experts from Bulgaria, the Netherlands, China, and the U.S. spent three days tackling the issue of fighting cyber crime, which includes: Terrorism, child pornography, and the internet black market in which trafficking of passports, bank accounts, and social security numbers are bought and sold

The FBI sponsored the event at Fordham University.  With the number of cyber threats escalating worldwide, the need for comprehensive security analysis and solutions has reached critical mass.  The conference gatherer 200 security experts from countries around the world.  The experts catorgorized global cyber treats, strategies and techiniques to combat the treats.

JHW:  This supports my theory that Cybercrime will be the white-collar crime of the future.

The Lord of Cybercrime, a Ukrainian named Maksym Yastremski, who has been linked to almost every major breach of US retail networks has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by a Turkish court. 

Yastremski’s reputation in the cybercrime underworld is well known.  He is a top seller of stolen credit card information.  The US Attorneys Office believes that Yastremski earned more than $11 million selling stolen credit card information and magnetic strips between 2004 and 2006.  Prices for a sinle credit card ranged from $20 to $100 and were sold in batches of 10,000.

Now here’s the Miami connection …

Yastremski allegedly worked with Albert Gonzalez of Miami and two other Miami men who helped hack into the US-based networks.  The networks were usually loosely guarded wireless networks where vast amounts of consumer information was passed.  The group would plant “packet sniffers” that eventually yielded over 40 million credit and debit card numbers.

TJX, on of the biggest victims, says it has spent $130 million in dealing with the information breaches.

JHW says:  Wow, huge catch.  I wonder what US authorities will do now that he is in custody in Turkey for the next 30 years.  Clearly the US wants to know who else he was working with, other hacks he contemplated, other crimes, etc. etc.  Is there any incentive to talk to US authorities if it won’t help his sentence?  And why am I not surprised that the Lord of Cybercrime had help out of the MIA?   Just remember what I once saw on a bumbersticker:  “Miami: Sunny places, shady people.”