Crime Archives - Page 2 of 4 - MICHAEL O. ALLEN

DEA RETURNS TO HOUSE; Washington Township Site Was Raided in 1990

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, March 14, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A03

Federal drug agents returned Friday to remove materials from a house that was the scene of a similar raid almost two years ago, when they took chemicals from the premises.

A spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration declined to say what was removed from the house at 451 Ridgewood Road.

“The house is under custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, and they are just taking out different materials out of the house,” DEA Special Agent Victor M. Pedalino said. “There is no other comment that I’m going to make at this time.”

About a half-dozen workers in protective gear were observed labeling and removing oil drums and bottles from the house and garage. Three large trucks being used by the workers were parked on the property.

Pedalino declined to say whether Keith Mantell, who operated a chemical company called Isogenics out of the house, was ever charged following the May 1990 raid, or whether Friday’s activity came as a result of that raid. He also declined to say when the Marshal Service took control of the house.

At the time of the raid two years ago, township officials tried to calm residents fears by informing them chemicals stored at the home did not contaminate the neighborhood.
Friday, Township Administrator Agnes Smith referred all questions to Police Chief Justin Georgetti, who referred all questions to the DEA.

Caption: Federal agents removing materials Friday from a Ridgewood Road house in Washington Township. PHOTO – AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD

March 14, 1992

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DENTIST WITH NO LICENSE ARRESTED AFTER COMPLAINT

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, March 13, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | D02

The state Consumer Affairs Division and police say Miguel Gonzalez was the dentist of choice for a Hispanic clientele in the township. The problem, officials said, was that Gonzalez did not have a license.

Police this week arrested Gonzalez at his apartment at 304 72nd St., where he practiced, Lt. Timothy Kelly said Thursday.

Nancy Erickson, director of communications for the division, said the arrest followed an anonymous complaint. The agency’s enforcement bureau, which acts on complaints to the New Jersey Dentistry Board as well as all other professional boards in the state, inspected Gonzalez’s apartment on Tuesday.

The investigator found syringes and anesthetic drugs and concluded that Gonzalez, 40, was practicing without a license, Erickson said.

Sgt. Joseph Bode executed a search warrant at the apartment about 4 p.m. Wednesday and seized bottles of Novocain, syringes, patients records, and dental equipment. Gonzalez, a dental technician at a Union City laboratory, was arrested.

However, Gonzalez could not be charged with practicing medicine without a license because there is no state law that penalizes failure to have a dentistry license, Kelly said.

Gonzalez is scheduled to appear in Municipal Court next week on charges of illegal possession of the Novocain, unlawful possession of hypodermic needles, and wrongful impersonation. Erickson said the Consumer Affairs Division could fine Gonzalez for practicing without a license and issue a cease and desist order.

Kelly said Gonzalez may have been a dentist in Cuba, but did not have a license to practice in this country. Working mostly at night, Gonzalez treated about four patients a day, he said.

March 13, 1992

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COCAINE PROFITS AID CRIME FIGHT

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By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, March 6, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B03

Leonidas Paula’s ill-gotten gains from the cocaine sales he made from his Little Ferry apartment until he was arrested 16 months ago will go to good use helping local law enforcement fight crime.

The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Little Ferry Police Department recently were on the receiving end of a check for $135,000, which was split 50-50. It was their share of $169,000 that Paula forfeited as part of a 15-year prison sentence for three counts of cocaine distribution and one count of maintaining a drug-production facility.

“This is just a great way to hurt drug dealers because you are hitting them where it hurts in the pocketbook,” said Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy.

The 1986 Crime Control Act provides for law enforcement agencies to share in the proceeds from criminal investigations in which they were involved. Robert Van Etten, U.S. Customs special agent-in-charge, presented the check in Fahy’s office.

“It’s like Christmas in March,” Little Ferry Police Chief Donald Fleming said. “We are going to be frugal with the money. . . . We are going to update the narcotics division in the detective bureau, buy some new equipment, and send people to courses.”

Paula was charged in November 1990 after five men who had bought cocaine from him were arrested coming out of his North Village apartment, which was under surveillance by Little Ferry police and the Bergen County Narcotics Task Force. Among other things, authorities seized $9,282 and bank accounts in New York City and numbers to safe-deposit boxes that later yielded $169,000.

March 6, 1992

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MAN HELD IN HANDGUN ATTACK ON WIFE

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, January 4, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A04

Yvone Kaiser told police her husband returned home a few days ago with a 9mm handgun he had just bought on the street in the Bronx and pointed it at her.

“It only takes one shot, right between the eyes,” Kaiser, 29, told police he said to her at the time.

On Thursday, after a dispute over money, Kaiser stood six feet away and fired the gun at his wife as she sat on a living room couch holding their 15-month-old daughter, Jacklyn, police Capt. Gary Fiedler said. The shot missed.

The couple’s other daughter, Julie, 4, was standing nearby, as were Yvone Kaiser’s two daughters from a previous marriage Crystle, 9, and Monique, 11. Her husband then left the room, and she called police.

Kaiser, 27, was being held in the Bergen County Jail Annex on Friday on $500,000 bail. He was charged with attempted murder, simple assault, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and possession of a firearm without a permit.

Teaneck Municipal Judge James E. Young also issued a temporary restraining order against Kaiser, barring him from going to the couple’s Alpine Drive home, and granted temporary custody of the children to Yvone Kaiser. As mandated in the new Domestic Violence Prevention Act, a hearing will be held in two weeks to determine whether the order should become permanent.

The incident began shortly after 6 p.m. Thursday, when the self-employed transportation consultant closed his office, which is in the house. He sat next to his wife on their bed and asked her how much money they had. She took the money out of her purse and counted $2,200, Fiedler said.

“Impossible, it should be $3,200,” she told police he screamed, then slapped her. “You stole my hard-earned money. Where did you spend it?”

She then went into the living room, where her husband followed her with the gun.

Police later found the gun that they say was used in the shooting, along with empty shell casings and two other handguns. They also found ten $100 bills in the bedroom, but Fiedler said he did not know if that was the missing $1,000 that the couple were fighting over.

January 4, 1992

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DRIVER USES GUN TO VENT FRUSTRATION

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, December 19, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B08

A 19-year-old Englewood man fired several shots in the air, apparently in frustration that the car he was riding in was hemmed into a spot at a parking lot behind The Rink in Bergenfield on Wednesday, police said.

Werner Lewis of East Terrace Circle, being held on $10,000 bail at the Bergen County Jail Annex, was charged with firing the handgun as patrons left the rink about 1:17 a.m. Wednesday, Deputy Police Chief George Grube said.

Two men in the car with Lewis, Miguel Brown of 304 West Palisade Ave., and Marlon Anderson of 217 Wilber St., both 18 and from Englewood, were charged with illegal possession of the same handgun and were being held on $5,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail, Grube said.

About 20 off-duty police officers were working as security guards at The Rink that night, one of the busiest nights there, Grube said. They found a .32-caliber handgun, three spent shells, and nine live rounds in the car, he added.

“Apparently, he didn’t try to hit anybody,” Grube said of Lewis.

The deputy chief said it was the third shooting in Bergenfield during the past nine days. A man fired two shots Sunday into the bulletproof window at the South Washington Street Amoco gas station during a robbery, Grube said. The attendant was uninjured, although the man escaped with $58.

A 27-year-old Englewood Cliffs man was freed on $20,000 bail Dec. 8, after being charged with firing a gun at a crowd outside a Bergenfield Tavern. No one was hit.

Grube said Wednesday’s shooting at The Rink was the second one there this year. A man fired a shot into a crowd in January but did not strike anyone, he said.

December 19, 1991

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TIP LEADS COPS TO ALLEGED DRUG DEALER

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, December 13, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | Page B07

Acting on an anonymous tip, city detectives have arrested a suspected drug dealer and a couple he had hired to sell crack and heroin for him, police said.

Frankie Lee, 28, of Berdin Place, Hackensack, was being held Thursday in the Bergen County Jail Annex in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Lee was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of heroin and marijuana, and possession within 1,000 feet of a school, Deputy Police Chief John Aletta said.

Facing the same charges but released on $5,000 bail were Gregory Bease, 35, and his common-law wife, Brenda Bathes, 44, both of 370 Park St., Hackensack, police said.

The arrest occurred sometime after 10 p.m. Wednesday, the time that narcotics detectives received information that a drug rip-off would be taking place at the Park Street address, Aletta said.

Detective Sgts. Arthur Mento, Robert Wright, and Louis D’Arminio, who responded to the tip, pursued Lee after he left the apartment, Aletta said. Officers Thomas Foschini and Thomas Staron, in marked patrol cars, arrested Lee a few blocks down Park Street, he said.

The detectives arrested Bease and Bathes, seizing about 25 vials of crack, a bag of heroin, and assorted drug paraphernalia, he said. Further investigation revealed that Lee delivered the drugs to the couple so they could sell it for him, Aletta said.

December 13, 1991

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FOUR SUSPECTS IN DRUG RING ARRESTED SOLD AGENTS COCAINE NEAR SCHOOL

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Friday, November 1, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | 6 Star | NEWS | Page B04

Four alleged drug dealers were being held in the Bergen County Jail Thursday on $150,000 bail each, and county law enforcement officials say the arrests indicate they are beginning to crack key drug rings.

Facing charges of drug possession and distribution are Ernesto Villar, 34, and Eleanora Barclift, 28, both of Elizabeth, and Ivette Quinones, 34, and Luis Aiacena, 32, both of Newark, said Bergen County First Assistant Prosecutor Paul B. Brickfield.

Undercover agents bought cocaine from the suspects on Sept. 13, then arranged Wednesday’s “buy-and-bust” in Elmwood Park, he said.

About 3:10 p.m. Wednesday, Elmwood Park and state police, plus the Bergen County Narcotic Task Force, arrested the four after they sold 10 ounces of cocaine to an officer on Route 46 west, near the Gantner Avenue School, Brickfield said.

Villar drove a truck into a police car while trying to escape, Brickfield said. He said Investigator James Giblin, whose foot was broken, required surgery Thursday. Two other officers were treated for minor injuries.

Barclift was charged with two counts of selling cocaine to an undercover agent 10 ounces Wednesday and a quarter-ounce on Sept. 13. Villar faces similar charges, plus three counts of aggravated assault against a police officer.

Aiacena and Quinones, who face similar drug charges, were each also charged with one count of receiving stolen property the car they drove to the site, police said.

“Ten ounces is a significant amount of cocaine,” Brickfield said. He said the task force is targeting the larger dealers.

November 1, 1991

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FLORIO SEEKS NEW WIRETAP LAWS CITES ELECTRONIC USE IN CRIME

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, October 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Against a din of voices protesting his policies, Governor Florio on Wednesday proposed updating state wiretap laws to enable law enforcement officials to intercept communications on electronic devices such as beepers and fax machines.

“It is time we stop fighting crime with one hand tied behind our back,” Florio said in front of city police headquarters as he proposed the amendment, which Assemblymen Byron M. Baer, D-Englewood, and D. Bennett Mazur, D-Fort Lee, said they would introduce in the Assembly next month.

The amendment would target drug dealers and organized drug activities, Florio said, and would allow police to get court orders to intercept communications on beepers, faxes, and cellular telephones, which they are not allowed to do under current law.

“If there is anything we’ve learned about dealing with drug dealers, it’s that they are very sophisticated. They keep up with the times. They are right in there using all the high technology to further their bad business. Today they communicate with beepers, computers, fax machines, whatever,” he said.

Current laws allow law enforcement officials to get court orders to wiretap traditional telephones when they suspect criminal activities are taking place. New Jersey failed to update its laws in this area in 1988, as required in a 1986 law updating federal wiretap laws, the governor said.

Hackensack Police Chief William C. Iurato said any tool that assists police in fighting drugs is appreciated, particularly in the areas delineated in Florio’s proposed legislation.

Lt. Ron Natale, commander of the department’s detective bureau, said the proposed amendment would enable police to remove drugs from the streets as well as conduct other investigations.

Natale mentioned a search in June for Kelly Gonzalez, a 4-year-old Hackensack girl kidnapped from her home because her father was allegedly involved in a dispute over drugs. Kelly was returned to her mother after eight days in captivity.

“He, the victim’s father, had beeper contact with numerous people, and had we had legislation of this nature at that time, it may have led to a more speedy recovery of the victim,” Natale said.

Baer said he would work to get the bill passed quickly.

“Without these tools, even the legendary Elliot Ness and Joe Friday would be left behind by modern criminals who use beepers, radios, computers, fax machines, ultramodern automatic weapons, and cop-killer bullets,” Baer said.

A group of about 30 placard-carrying protesters waited for Florio, heckled him during his 10-minute speech, then booed when he finished. An amused smile playing on his face, he weathered cries of “Florio, go home” and other shouts from passing motorists.

“It’s the political season, after all,” Florio said.

Keywords: FLORIO; NEW JERSEY; LAW; ELECTRONIC; HACKENSACK; POLICE; CRIME

Caption: PHOTO – JOHN DECKER / THE RECORD – Governor Florio on the steps of police headquarters in Hackensack on Wednesday calling for updated state laws on the use of wiretaps.

October 24, 1991

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HACKENSACK POLICE ARREST 15 FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, September 21, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | Two Star B | NEWS | Page A03

In what police call a continuing crackdown on drug transactions, 15 people have been arrested during the past week.
The arrests occurred during routine motor-vehicle stops or during surveillance for ongoing investigations, Hackensack Police Detective Sgt. Mike Mordaga said.
Except for a Hartford, Conn., man, all of those arrested were from Hackensack.
The latest arrest was made about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, when Julius Williams, 26, of 27 Newman St., was allegedly seen selling cocaine at First Street and Central Avenue, Mordaga said.
When officers approached him, Williams took off in his car, leading police on a high-speed chase. He abandoned the car on Lehigh Street and fled on foot, Mordaga said.
Jumping backyard fences and ducking into alleyways, Williams made his way to Railroad Avenue, where he was arrested.
Williams was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail in the Bergen County Jail on Friday. He was charged with possessing and distributing cocaine and heroin, distributing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, and resisting arrest.

Keywords: HACKENSACK; DRUG; SALE; CRIME

September 21, 1991

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AIRPORT DRUG BUST SETS RECORD 40 POUNDS OF HEROIN SEIZED

By michael o. allenHomepage, The RecordNo Comments

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Saturday, August 24, 1991

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

Customs agents arrested two sisters arriving at Newark Airport from Sweden on Thursday with about 40 pounds of heroin, worth $18 million on the street, authorities said Friday.
“This is the largest heroin seizure at Newark International Airport,” said Robert Van Etten, special agent in charge for the U.S. Customs Service.
The previous largest shipment seized at the airport was 11.7 pounds on Oct. 11, 1990, Van Etten said. “As the number of international flights at Newark Airport increases, U.S. Customs has seen an increase in narcotics smuggling at Newark,” he added.
Judy Merle Corbin, 42, of Atlanta and her sister, Sandra Sue Corbin, 41, of Kansas City, Mo., were arrested about 6:30 p.m. Thursday in possession of a suitcase and roller bag that had secret compartments and false bottoms filled with heroin, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ana T. Escobar.
Van Etten said the women were couriers for a Nigerian heroin-smuggling organization. The organization shipped the heroin from Thailand to Sweden, then employed the women to bring it into the United States, he said.
Van Etten declined to disclose what led Customs to the women or the circumstances of the arrest. He did say that the women had lengthy criminal records.
They were charged with importing heroin and were being held without bail in the custody of U.S. marshals, Escobar said.

Keywords: NEWARK; AVIATION; DRUG; CRIME; RECORD

August 24, 1991

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