SWAT Raids Md. Mayor's home for pot delivery

You have to hear the audio of the cops' side of this story, which is really slimey sounding.

Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs

Aug. 7 2008


(CNN) -- A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme.

"This has been a difficult week and a half for us," Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. "We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff's deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing."

The raid last week was led by the Prince George's County Police Department, with the sheriff's special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo's home.

Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.

Calvo said he had just returned home from walking his two Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, when his mother-in-law told him a package had arrived for his wife, Trinity Tomsic.

Moments later, Calvo was in his room changing for a meeting when he heard commotion downstairs.

"The door flew open," he said. "I heard gunfire shoot off. There was a brief pause and more gunfire."

Calvo said he was brought downstairs at gunpoint in his boxer shorts, handcuffed and forced onto the floor with his mother-in-law near the carcass of one of dead dogs.

"I noticed my two dead dogs lying in pools of their own blood," Calvo said.

Calvo said his mother-in-law is still recovering from the incident.

"She got the worst of it," Calvo said. "She was literally in the kitchen, cooking a lovely pasta dish, and they brought down the door and shot our dogs."

While he was being held, Calvo said, he told police he is the town's mayor, but they didn't believe him.

Berwyn Heights has its own police force, he said, but Prince George's County police did not notify the municipal authorities of their interest in his home or the package.

"They didn't know my name. All they knew was my wife's name. They matched that to the registration of the car," Calvo said. "It was that lack of communication that really led to what has really been the most traumatic experience of our lives."

After the raid, arrests were made in the package interception scheme.

The incident has prompted the couple to call for a federal investigation because, they say, they don't believe police are capable of conducting an internal investigation.

"They've said they've done nothing wrong," Calvo said. "I didn't sign up for this fight, but I think what we have to do now is make changes to how Prince George's County police and Prince George's County sheriff's department operate."

Calvo said authorities entered his home without knocking and refused to show him a warrant when he requested one.

But Prince George's County Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said legal counsel had informed her that "no-knock" warrants do not exist in Maryland.

Taylor said authorities were acting on a warrant issued based on information available to them at the time.

"This warrant was for permission to search the premises," she said. "The special operations team that supported us made a decision about the necessity of entry at the point of being on the scene."

"No-knock" warrants have drawn criticism before. In Atlanta, Georgia, Kathryn Johnston, 92, was shot to death by police in a botched drug raid involving such a warrant in November.

Taylor, a self-described dog lover, expressed sympathy for the loss of Calvo's dogs, but stopped short of apologizing for the incident.

"We've done these similar kinds of operations over and over again, to the tune of removing billions of dollars of drugs from the community and without people or animals being harmed," she said. "We don't want any of our operations to result in the injury or loss of anybody, and certainly not animals."

The deputies have said they killed the two animals because they felt threatened.

"I would say that the dogs presented a threat, I would imagine, to the special operations situation," Taylor said.

Meanwhile, Calvo and his wife said members of the community have expressed sympathy and concern about the incident.

At a news conference Thursday, Tomsic tearfully recalled a recent encounter with a neighbor who used to wave at the couple as they walked Payton and Chase.

"She gave me a big hug," Tomsic said. "She said, 'If the police shot your dogs dead and did this to you, how can I trust them?' "

Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs - CNN.com

Video: Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs - CNN.com

yea, read about few days ago.. fucked up

FUCK tha police...

HOly shit man!
I bet his mother in law would qualify for MMJ based on PTSD.
I don't understand the "scheme". What was going on, was the mayor unaware of what the package was, was he set up. Someone help me understand that please, I am a little thick in the head I guess.

OK I get it. Helps to click the links!:thumbsup::jointsmile:

I'm speechless.

that is so sick. i don't have much else to say.

Quote:

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Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.

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Isn't that considered entrapment?????

That's an incredibly fucked up story, doesn't even sound real at all... but it is!


.....and people think that cannabis makes us the violent crazy ones.
it's the other way around!

That's outrageous. So my psycho ex, who would love the opportunity to fuck with me, could mail me a pound of brick and then anonymously tip off the cops to watch for it, and then they have the right to enter my home and shoot my dog?

WTF! The judge who signed the warrant based on that type of evidence needs to be knocked off the bench. Sounds like a politically-motivated setup gone terribly wrong to me, and a savvy judge would have questioned that too... I'd start investigating his political rivals.

american communism at its finest......fuckers, come try yo dhoot my dogs, thats that ass!!!!
whiskeytango

this kinda shit happens all day, every day to ordinary citizens.
if you don't have the money to hire a high-powered attorney, you're
screwed.
the whole system is messed up, they say 'if you can't afford an attorney,
one will be appointed'. what a crock of shit. believe me, you don't want to
go in front of a judge with a public 'defender', you'd be better off with a barber in a coma.

these poor people, i bet they don't even get any compensation for the
front door or the dogs!

SnS I seeen you r Post and man ohhh man you have to be blazed!!! LOL I took a while to think about this before posting up... This is my thought's. I have a dog and it would be absolutely devastating to loose him in such a crazy condition. Here is the Kicker to the whole story though this happens all the time. Search Warrants executed at wrong addresses whoops sorry!!! Go get a new door... After torching the people in the house throwing someones Grandmother on the floor WTF!!! Here we have a Politician which IMO he is just like your average LEO. Now he has a different opinion on the LAW but it takes a MAYOR to hit the news and open the eye's of Judges and Police BULLSHIT nothing will change at all... How many people who have 1/2 OZ or 20 Lbs in their house are in possession and will use a firearm against police... I do not believe it to be many at all... Here we have a situation were public acknowledgment is obviously present but how many worse cases went unknown? Here you had a few Sheriffs who thought they could be Supper Men because they were sent out to do what they are not trained for... Even if they are trained LEO special forces would throw your wife Mother Grandmother ect... on the floor Zip tie or handcuff and torture them over an herb... IMO I hope this will make some changes... Really thinking on the matter unfortunate it will not change at all... Evil Shit goes on everyday by LEO and civilians have to just deal w/ it we are used to it but the Politicians are not MD Sheriffs Dept "Will be working in ALASKA Tomorrow"... All due to the double standards that our society has adapted... We have Rights... LOL GL1

today they cleared the mayor of all wrong doing but stopped short of an apology. And then defended the raid! Are you F-ing kidding me? and yet Im the crazy one for thinking the great US is turning into a police state!

There is a MAJOR discussion going on at Topix: Your town. Your news. Your take. on this story with over 3000 post natiowide so far. The people who posted so far are absolutely furious with this story, and rightly so. Please join the discussion and lets keep this story alive as long as possible, so they can't sweep it under the carpet. This is a very very sad event, but it could be to our country's advantage to have had this happen to a Mayor and his family. After all, people don't listen to poor people of color when it happens to them. I am begging everyone to get involved in this discussion and let our feelings be known.

Thanks

LittleNut

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

That's outrageous. So my psycho ex, who would love the opportunity to fuck with me, could mail me a pound of brick and then anonymously tip off the cops to watch for it, and then they have the right to enter my home and shoot my dog?

WTF! The judge who signed the warrant based on that type of evidence needs to be knocked off the bench. Sounds like a politically-motivated setup gone terribly wrong to me, and a savvy judge would have questioned that too... I'd start investigating his political rivals.

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BINGO!

Side notes - This is why you need good home security. Also every 'law abiding' citizen should carry a gun. :D

What would a gun do in that situation? Just more people killed...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spagett

What would a gun do in that situation? Just more people killed...

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Not if you had Granny from the Beverly Hillbilly's :D

Quote:

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The county Sheriff's Office SWAT team and narcotics officers raided the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, after intercepting a package addressed to her that was filled with 32 pounds of marijuana. During the raid, officers broke down Calvo's door and fatally shot the family's two black Labrador retrievers.

Police said the package was one of about a half-dozen retrieved by authorities in the past week along the route of a deliveryman in northern Prince George's. The packages contained a combined 417 pounds of marijuana valued at about $3.6 million.

........

Calvo declined to comment. Timothy Maloney, an attorney for Calvo and Tomsic, said the arrests confirm that Tomsic was a "random victim of identity theft at the hands of major drug traffickers."

........

Police had been tracking the package since a drug-sniffing dog in Arizona drew attention to it. Calvo has said law enforcement officers burst into his home moments after he picked up the package from his porch and brought it in. It had been left on the porch on the instructions of his mother-in-law by police posing as deliverymen. Calvo has said sheriff's deputies entered without knocking and began shooting immediately.

High said one of the men arrested was an independent contractor who worked as a package deliveryman. The police chief did not release the name of either man.

High and Maj. Mark Magaw, commander of the county's narcotics enforcement division, said the two suspects worked in tandem. The officials said that the deliveryman would drop off the package and that the other man would come by shortly thereafter and retrieve it.

At other times, the officials said, the suspects exchanged packages face to face in parking lots. In two instances, Magaw said, the deliveryman mistakenly took drugs to the wrong address, then went to the houses and asked for the packages.

He said police investigating the case uncovered a separate and parallel scheme to use the package delivery system to send marijuana. They arrested two other men yesterday in connection with that conspiracy and seized about 100 pounds of marijuana.

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That was from one of the stories posted on washingtonpost.com. Sounds very fishy, trying to blame delivery guys for it all. Using unknowing people for some kinda weird delivery system??? no way, that's insane.... sounds more like some kinda dirty setups by police that went bad when it involved a mayor, and they got some deliverymen as their scapegoats.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SouthernGuerilla

Side notes - This is why you need good home security. Also every 'law abiding' citizen should carry a gun. :D

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Home security is useless against police. So are guns. Mayor Calvo, as innocent as it appears he is, would still be DEAD right now if he had pulled a gun on the SWAT team that kicked down his door.
DEAD.
With no chance to even say 'you have the wrong house'.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SouthernGuerilla

BINGO!

Side notes - This is why you need good home security. Also every 'law abiding' citizen should carry a gun. :D

---

If the SWAT ever raided me and shot my 2 doggies I would rather NOT have a gun close by, because I would probably do somthing stupid and end up with life in prison.

NY Police Handcuff Children and Shoot a Dog all for a $60 Bag of Pot
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle...f_children_and_

Explaining An Explosion: Police Accountability by Any Means Necessary
Pulse of the Twin Cities - Locally Grown Alternative Newspaper

Owner Speaks Out After Police Shoot, Kill His Dog During Failed Drug Bust
Owner Speaks Out After Police Shoot, Kill His Dog During Failed Drug Bust | ABC 6 | South Eastern Massachusetts

Deputies Shoot Dog After Owner Commands It To Attack
Steubenville/Wheeling breaking news, local headlines, weather and sports

Police shoot dog during drug raid
http://www.pennlive.com/news/patrio...0590.xml&coll=1

Police shoot pit bulls, kill one
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local...tml?source=mypi

Drug bust, dog shot - CBS 21
http://www.whptv.com/news/local/sto...26-bfe40d38489f




Is this a new trend? No way, Jose!

4 Officers Hurt (One by Pit Bull) as Police Fire 26 Shots to Kill Dog in Bronx (2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/24/n...=rssnyt&emc=rss

Government Goons Murder Puppies! (2006)
Reason Magazine - Government Goons Murder Puppies!

Police Report Drug Find, Shootings, Robberies (2005)
Police Report Drug Find, Shootings, Robberies

Shoot First, Ask Questions Later (2002)
DRUG WAR BRIEFS: Shoot First, Ask Questions Later | DrugReporter | AlterNet



Anyone else see a trend here?



Wonder what PETA, the ASPCA and Humane Society thinks about all this?
(Shouldn't someone tell them?- especially PETA! PETA will take it to the max!)


Did you know most serial killers start out by killing pets?



Granny

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Storm Crow

NY Police Handcuff Children and Shoot a Dog all for a $60 Bag of Pot
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle...f_children_and_

Explaining An Explosion: Police Accountability by Any Means Necessary
Pulse of the Twin Cities - Locally Grown Alternative Newspaper

Owner Speaks Out After Police Shoot, Kill His Dog During Failed Drug Bust
Owner Speaks Out After Police Shoot, Kill His Dog During Failed Drug Bust | ABC 6 | South Eastern Massachusetts

Deputies Shoot Dog After Owner Commands It To Attack
Steubenville/Wheeling breaking news, local headlines, weather and sports

Police shoot dog during drug raid
http://www.pennlive.com/news/patrio...0590.xml&coll=1

Police shoot pit bulls, kill one
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local...tml?source=mypi

Drug bust, dog shot - CBS 21
http://www.whptv.com/news/local/sto...26-bfe40d38489f




Is this a new trend? No way, Jose!

4 Officers Hurt (One by Pit Bull) as Police Fire 26 Shots to Kill Dog in Bronx (2006)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/24/n...=rssnyt&emc=rss

Government Goons Murder Puppies! (2006)
Reason Magazine - Government Goons Murder Puppies!

Police Report Drug Find, Shootings, Robberies (2005)
Police Report Drug Find, Shootings, Robberies

Shoot First, Ask Questions Later (2002)
DRUG WAR BRIEFS: Shoot First, Ask Questions Later | DrugReporter | AlterNet



Anyone else see a trend here?



Wonder what PETA, the ASPCA and Humane Society thinks about all this?
(Shouldn't someone tell them?- especially PETA! PETA will take it to the max!)


Did you know most serial killers start out by killing pets?



Granny

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Granny always comming in with the best info :thumbsup: Very informative post! and very sickening at the same time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LittleNut

After all, people don't listen to poor people of color when it happens to them.

Thanks

LittleNut

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wow!! do you really think that! they dont listen to us white boys either after all we are the new minority

the police in the US are the biggest gang there is!! its time know to stand up and fight !! one word REVOLUTION
:hippy: :hippy: :hippy:

Hmmmmmm........

PETA Protesters Arrested After Manure Dump......

PETA picketed a Las Vegas fur shop.....

PETA protesters staged a nasty demonstration.......


From their website.......
Contact PETA

Report cruelty to animals. If an animal is in imminent danger, please contact your local police department immediately. If your local police department is unresponsive, call PETA immediatelyâ??day or nightâ??at 757-622-7382 and dial 2.

About PETA >> Contact PETA >> Contact Options >> E-Mail PETA


If they get upset about the cops "unresponsive" to cruelty, what do you think their response to a cut & paste of my post (#21)? Those PETA folks do tend to take things like shooting dogs rather seriously.

OK, I gave you the tools you need- express your opinions! Strike a blow for animal rights! After all, the cops consider it MURDER if you kill a police dog! Turn about is fair play! Our pets are a part of our families! (I'm a "cat person", but I loved my old yellow lab, Yuba).

Sic em, PETA!

- Granny

SPCA is a pretty good organization, but PETA is just a bunch of hypocritical posers, imho.

PETA Kills Animals | PetaKillsAnimals.com

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Storm Crow

After all, the cops consider it MURDER if you kill a police dog!

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Yeah that's right... you'd be guilty of murdering a police officer. I never realized how hypocritical that is of them.

I heard of this story awhile back but didn't read the specifics. Now that I have I'm just flabbergasted. Being a former MD resident I can attest to the bungling nature of many of it's law officers, but this really takes the cake.

Cops and SWAT are always commenting on how dangerous their jobs are (and they are) - WHICH IS WHY RECON AND RESEARCH ARE DONE ON TARGETS BEFORE THE RAID! Who the hell was in charge of that clusterfvck?!
Simple, non-invasive reconnoitering would have likely established who lived there, thus indicating the absence of armed and dog-protected drug smugglers.

I'm still having a hard time believing they dropped the hammer on those dogs immediately - they were Labs! Labs are a horrible protection breed, it's not like they were confronted with pits or Rotties. One puff of pepper spray or maybe even loud yelling would have sent those dogs running out the back I'd wager. What a shame.

This no-knock stuff is bullshit, and with the Castle Doctrine gaining support, ugh...bad combo for any states that use both.


There has to be more to this then what we've been told, the callous idiocy involved is just mind-boggling. :mad:

Quote:

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After all, the cops consider it MURDER if you kill a police dog!

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That's a great point, and really makes this indifferent oh-well attitude from the cops look even more disgusting.
Bastards!