News: March 2010

Glen Ridge welcomes first female police chief

Published March 31, 2010

March 31, 2010

GLEN RIDGE—Sheila Byron-Lagattuta was the first woman to be hired by the Glen Ridge police department almost 28 years ago when she became a dispatcher straight out of high school. Now Byron-Lagattuta is the borough’s first female police chief. Monday was the 46-year-old’s first full day on the job. She replaces Chief John Magnier, who took a job with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Vermont.

David Gard/New Jersey Local News ServiceSheila Byron-Lagattuta has been named the acting police chief of the Glen Ridge Police Department. “She has set a number of firsts for the department,” said borough administrator Michael Rohal.

The outgoing chief is on terminal leave until his official retirement date at the end of the year. Until then, Byron-Lagattuta is both captain and acting chief. She said her base salary is $112,000. Byron-Lagattuta, who was born in Denver, Colo., but raised in Glen Ridge since age 5, said she fell into police work when a guidance counselor at Glen Ridge High School told her about an opening at the department.

After two weeks, she was hooked.

“I always loved getting to the truth of a story, whether it be a report of a crime or something that’s happening here at the police department,” she said. The pace of the work fits her, too. A small department is either quiet or really busy. It can go “from zero to 60 miles an hour in a minute,” she said. She said being a woman never hurt her career.

“They were all very careful to realize that this had been a male-dominated profession for so many years that they didn’t want to start off with having any problems,” she said. “So I mean, really, talk about having 25 brothers. Everyone is really kind and protecting. You want to fit in and be one of the officers instead of being the girl. I was just lucky enough to have some progressive chiefs.” In 1989, as a juvenile detective in her early 20s, Byron-Lagattuta worked with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office to investigate a rape case that drew national media attention. A group of high school athletes were accused of sexually assaulting a mentally disabled girl with a baseball bat and a broomstick. Three were convicted. The case divided both the town and the police department, Byron-Lagattuta recalled.

“I always thought the case was about sticking with your guns and following through with an unpopular case,” she said.

Byron-Lagattuta met her husband, Charlie Lagattuta, a detective at the Cedar Grove Police Department who recently retired, while investigating a string of burglaries and robberies. They’ve been married for 18 years and have three children.

Mayor Peter Hughes said Byron-Lagattuta was chosen last week based on the outgoing chief’s recommendation and an interview with the public safety committee, made up of three council members and the mayor.

Now that she’s chief, Byron-Lagattuta said she’s held every position in the department. That experience informs her decisions when looking for ways to cut the $2 million police budget. “This just sort of is the culmination of the entire time I’ve worked here,” she said, “to be able to get to the top and be able to use all the experience I have to make the police department a better place to work and make the borough an even better place to reside.”

© 2010 NJ.com. All rights reserved.
By Nic Corbett/For The Star-Ledger

Gangs Continue to Organize

Published March 30, 2010

When authorities smashed a street gang that dealt drugs and violence in Camden, they swept dangerous figures off street corners along Broadway.

But the alleged leader of the Nine Trey Headbustas was nowhere near the scene of the group’s crimes between October 2003 and January 2008.

Investigators assert Michael Anderson, a high-ranking Blood known as the Original, Original Gangster, oversaw the Headbustas from a state prison cell—his home since 1996.

Anderson, a 37-year-old career criminal from Essex County, still awaits trial on charges that include conspiracy to commit murder, racketeering and multiple drug offenses. But authorities says the alleged ability to run a group like the Headbustas from behind bars reflects the growing reach and sophistication of criminal street gangs.

“They are much more disciplined in what they do, and that’s not a good thing,” said Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk, referring to the spread of nationwide gangs like the Bloods and Crips.

“There’s evidence that these gangs are more tightly organized, more hierarchical,” said Lee Seglem, a spokesman for the State Commission of Investigation. “Some are on the same kind of evolutionary path as (traditional) organized crime.”

The SCI has reported that New Jersey’s gangs now “thrive inside prison walls,” saying imprisoned members use smuggled cell phones, coded letters and even illicit conference calls to direct lawless acts on distant streets.

In fact, the SCI—which describes criminal street gangs as “the most serious crime issue in New Jersey today”—describes the state’s prisons as “something resembling a branch office for the recruitment of new members and the furtherance of a criminal enterprise.”

And while the gang presence is growing in prisons, some members are craftily adopting a lower profile outside the walls.

Those gang members—who once would have worn red clothing to show they’re Bloods or blue garb to mark a Crip—now are downplaying such tell-tale clues. Some are also shunning gang tattoos, says Lt. Daniel Riccardo of the street-gang unit at the state’s Division of Parole.

“They’re seeing the value of not drawing attention to themselves,” he observed of the gangs, which often mark their turf with graffiti. “It’s like anything else: The criminals learn what we’ve figured out and they change it.”

Indeed, in a May 2009 report, the SCI said a survey of the state’s 21 county prosecutors found “they are seeing individuals otherwise known to be gang members with diminished and/or less obvious tell-tale tattoos, clothing and other physical markers.”

The trend isn’t universal. In Camden, young recruits are again flaunting colors and gang tattoos, said prosecutor’s spokesman Jason Laughlin. “They seem to be more proud and more open about showing their affiliations,” he said of the younger members.

And while gangs largely focus on the violent drug trade, some are moving toward white-collar crimes like check and credit card fraud, said Michael Poulton, acting senior supervisory resident agent for the FBI’s Cherry Hill office.

“Gangs are doing whatever they can to make money,” Poulton said.

Local Presence
Gang members have a “widespread” presence across New Jersey, according to the most recent survey conducted in 2007 by the State Police. But except for occasional hot spots like Camden, the gangs are “thin on the ground”—meaning towns usually report fewer than 50 members “and often more like a dozen,” that report says.

In South Jersey, for example, the 2007 survey found gang members in 68 percent of Burlington County’s communities and 58 percent of Gloucester County’s. But only about 500 gang members lived in both counties in 2009, according to an FBI report.

In contrast, the State Police survey found gang members in 54 percent of Camden County communities, a lower level than the neighboring counties. But the total gang population was much higher in Camden County—ranging between 2,500 and 3,500, according to the FBI’s 2009 report.

“Gangs are really a societal issue that permeates urban, suburban and rural areas throughout not only New Jersey but across the country,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton.

In most South Jersey communities—65 percent of those reporting gang members—the dominant criminal group is the Bloods, said the State Police report. That matches the statewide total for the gang, which the SCI calls an “equal opportunity recruiter.”

“Power is in numbers, and the Bloods members are well aware of it,” said a 2009 report by the Philadelphia/Camden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.

In a concern that’s unique to this region, about 10 percent of the South Jersey sample reported a motorcycle club, the Pagans, as their most serious problem, the State Police said.

In Gloucester County, Dalton said, gangs are active in the drug trade and have been involved in robberies and some violence. But the highest level of activity is recruiting new members, he said.

In Camden County, Faulk blames street gangs—whether independent drug rings or national gang affiliates—for more than half of the violence in Camden in the past two years.

Gang rivalries fueled a killing spree in Camden near the end of 2007—with 10 homicides in January 2008 alone, said Faulk. The city’s murder rate has fallen sharply since then due to a crackdown by law enforcement.

Faulk said his office has not tracked how many of Camden’s homicides—94 since January 2008—were gang-related. He also noted gang activity in Gloucester Township, Lindenwold and Winslow.

In Burlington County, gang activity is concentrated in Burlington City, Mount Holly, Pemberton Township and Willingboro, according to Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi.

He said national gangs have spread into the county from Camden in the South and Trenton in the north. But a home-grown group—Muslims Over Everything, or M.O.E.—also plagued Burlington County.

“They were the most organized and violent in the county,” Bernardi said of the gang, which robbed numerous banks in 2008. A series of targeted initiatives has wiped out the gang, Bernardi said.

Feeling You Belong

Gangs attract members for both emotional and economic reasons, law enforcement officials say.

“Gangs do provide a feeling that you belong to something and that someone cares about you,” said Tim Deery, a supervisory narcotics agent for Pennsylvania’s Office of Attorney General. That agency’s investigation of an alleged crystal meth ring tied to the Outlaws Motorcycle Club led to the arrests of 40 people in August, including 10 South Jersey suspects.

And gangs can help members with their day-to-day lives, offering a job or other forms of financial support, as well as a sense of personal security.

“They will provide a lot of things that normally a family will provide for a kid,” said John Lore, a law professor and co-director of the Children’s Justice Clinic at Rutgers School of Law in Camden.

Unlike families, gangs also provide the feeling that someone is afraid of you.

“You have that ‘muscle’ aspect,” said Andrew Rongaus, a Pennsylvania deputy attorney general who’s prosecuting the crystal-meth case. “They’re scary dudes.”

That fear can help boost profits from drug sales, extortion and other crimes. “People who may be competitors are less likely to mess with you,” observed Rongaus.

Gangs also make financial sense in sales-driven businesses like the drug trade, the prosecutor said.

“It’s like when you go to a warehouse club. You buy in bulk and you get a better price,” he observed. “At the end of the day, they’re in it to make money.”

And just like conventional businesses, national gangs are installing more formal leadership structures as they grow.

“The largest Bloods sets in New Jersey . . have adopted a traditional organized-crime structure similar to the Mafia,” the SCI noted in its report. “They maintain a strict internal ranking system for members and borrow terms . . such as ‘capo’ and ‘don.’ “

Authorities are ratcheting up their efforts, too.

“We’re getting more sophisticated as well,” said Deirdre Fedkenheuer at the state Department of Corrections, which now deploys trained dogs to sniff out cell phones.

The DOC seized 226 cell phones from its prisons and 165 from halfway houses between August 2008 and July 2009. The smuggled phones typically are prepaid models, and inmates often hide memory cards loaded with gang-related numbers for use when a phone is available, authorities say.

“We’re trying to convince the federal government to enact legislation that would allow the jamming of cell-phone signals at prisons,” noted Matt Schuman, another DOC spokesman. “It is really critically important to limit cell phone use at prisons.”

DOC also routinely interviews incoming inmates to spot possible gang affiliations, then shares its intelligence with county jails and law enforcement agencies.

But the SCI report says gang members regularly manipulate prison systems—including the conventional pay-phone service and cash accounts—to further criminal activities. They shake down vulnerable inmates and their families, corrupt prison staffers, and deal in drugs and other contraband. Some even rent time on their cell phones, the SCI noted.

In court records, state authorities detail wiretapped calls made by Anderson, the alleged leader of the Headbustas, from Trenton State Prison. The calls went to the cell phone of a Newark woman, who is charged with illegally connecting Anderson with other gang members.

In one call, accused gang member Nathaniel “Finesse” Clay in Camden complains to Anderson about a higher-ranking Headbusta who allegedly wants a weekly cut from cocaine sales of $1,000—“a stack.”

In another, Anderson tells Clay that he needs an “O” delivered to North Jersey—an alleged reference to an ounce of cocaine, according to state authorities.

(In those often-cryptic conversations, the court record notes, Anderson and Clay regularly replaced C’s with B’s—turning one woman’s name from Celeste to Beleste, for instance. That practice is a Bloods tradition meant to show disrespect for the rival Crips.)

The gangland presence in prison—more than 4,600 of the state’s 22,000 inmates are gang members, according to the SCI—helps recruit members from newly arrived inmates.

It also allows gangs to threaten those members who cooperate with investigators in exchange for a lighter sentence.

“There’s such an outreach (for gangs) in prison,” said Deery. “They have a long arm all over the place.”

But more sophisticated gangs are not less dangerous gangs.

“As long as you have that (criminal activity) going on, you’re going to have recurring outbreaks of violence,” warned Seglem at the SCI.

Law enforcement authorities express confidence in their ability to thwart the gangs. One sign of success: Of the 15 accused Headbustas named in a July 2008 indictment, 11 have pleaded guilty.

And an initiative launched by the Governor’s Office in the spring of 2008 netted at least 258 suspected gang members in South Jersey and 530 statewide.

But even as gang members are taken down and violence falls in places like Camden, authorities know the battle is far from over.

“This is not a problem that is going to disappear in the next year or two,” said Bernardi in Burlington County. “I think we are left with this for decades to come.”

Courier-Post Staff

Brazen Attempts to Kill Members of a Gang Task Force

Published March 21, 2010

A string of “brazen attempts” to kill members of a gang task force in Riverside, California, has led to a $200,000 reward for information.

Authorities hope the reward will encourage people to come forward with information related to three booby traps targeting members of the Hemet Gang Task Force, part of a countywide initiative dedicated to combating gang-related violence in Riverside.

“These brazen attempts to kill police officers in the line of duty are an outrage and even a form of urban terrorism. Our brave men and women in uniform put their lives on the line every day to keep our streets safe,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown said Thursday. “We urge anyone with information on the attacks to come forward immediately.”

Brown was joined by Riverside District Attorney Rod Pacheco, Sheriff Stanley Sniff, Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana and Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone in the public appeal for information.

Multiple local, state and federal agencies, including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives contributed to the reward.

Authorities believe the close timing and identical targets of the attacks indicate they could be related, said John Hall, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

On December 31, 2009, the unmarked headquarters of the Hemet Gang Task Force was targeted by someone who redirected the natural gas line on the roof into the building, filling up the office with deadly gas. Two task force members entering the office smelled gas and backed away before flipping the light switch and potentially causing the building to explode.

On February 23, a task force member at the Hemet headquarters opened a security gate outside the building, which launched a homemade zip gun attached to the gate. The weapon fired, missing the officer’s head by inches.

The headquarters has since been moved to an undisclosed location, where extra security precautions are being taken, Hall said.

On March 5, 2010, criminals targeted a task force member who had parked an unmarked police car in front of a convenience store in Hemet. The officer found what appeared to be a homemade pipe bomb hidden underneath the vehicle.

“There’s a person or people out there, a bunch of idiots that are trying to do damage to us. We mean to catch them. We mean to see them spend the rest of their life in jail,” Dana said. “I’m hoping now, with $200,000, somebody’s gonna have noticed one of them, call us, tell us who it is, and let us get something done.”

Hemet is one of eight local, state and federal agencies that make up the Riverside County Gang Task Force, which was formed in 2006 to address the growth of criminal street gangs and outlaw motorcycle gangs countywide.

As the county expanded and its population grew, so did the presence and reach of organized crime, Hall said. Since 1997, the number of gangs in Riverside County has grown from 266 to 391, according to the task force’s Web site, and total gang membership has grown to 10,620 members countywide.

Since the task force’s inception, the number of gang members and violent crimes has decreased and the amount of arrests and warrants served has increased, Hall said.

On Wednesday, at least 31 members of the Vagos motorcycle gang were arrested at locations throughout Riverside County in “Operation Everywhere,” which spanned four states.

Hall said he could not say whether the Vagos were believed to be involved in the Hemet booby traps, citing an ongoing investigation. He said it was safe to assume that some gang activity was involved in the attacks.

“It’s possible that the gang members are feeling threatened, that we’re starting to impede on their activity and they’re retaliating,” he said. “The investigation is still fluid and no arrests have been made, but they’re not targeting regular police. It’s reasonable to believe that they are targeting members of the task force specifically.”

Source:CNN

Man Arrested In Connection to Fairfield Police Officer Shooting

Published March 14, 2010

FAIRFIELD — A Nutley man was charged with attempted murder after police say they linked his gun and rental car to the January shooting of an off-duty police officer in a road rage incident, law enforcement officials said today.

Preye L. Roberts, 24, allegedly shot Fairfield police officer Gerald Veneziano Jan. 30 after following his car to a parking lot near Fairfield police headquarters. Veneziano, who was shot in the neck and torso, told investigators he did not know his assailant, but he was able to describe the car and part of the license plate.

After investigating the shooting for weeks, police broke the case after Roberts was arrested for allegedly firing a weapon on Route 22 in Union Township, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino said in a press conference this morning. Investigators used the Integrated Ballistics Identification System, a database used by local law enforcement officers, to link the gun and weapon in the Union case to the shell casings found where Veneziano was shot.

“Projectiles and shell casings are almost as significant as fingerprints,” said State Police Sgt. Jeff Kronenfeld, one of the law enforcement officials working on the case.

Veneziano, of Belleville, is in stable condition at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange, recovering from his injuries. On Friday night, investigators went to the facility to show photos of Roberts to Veneziano, who identified him as the man who shot him in January, police said.

Law enforcement officials said Roberts and Veneziano did not know each other before the alleged shooting.

Investigators said they also linked Roberts to the shooting because he was allegedly renting a black Dodge Caliber with a “W” in the license plate. Veneziano had previously told police his assailant was driving a black SUV with a “W” in the license plate.

Roberts is being held at the Union County Jail in Elizabeth, police said. Bail was set at $100,000 for the Route 22 shooting and an additional $500,000 for the Fairfield shooting.

Neighbors in Nutley described Roberts as a mature young man who appeared to be well-raised. He lives in a white, two-story house with his parents and two sisters, neighbors said.

“Ten years ago when we moved into the neighborhood, he was the first one in the family to introduce himself,” said Mike Treshock, who lives next door.

Another neighbor who declined to give her name characterized Roberts as “a very respectful and wonderful kid” from a good family.

“You couldn’t ask for better neighbors,” she said.

Police said Roberts was arrested at 1:41 a.m. on Feb. 13 for allegedly firing a weapon near a liquor store on Route 22 in Union.

The shooting does not appear to be related to the Jan. 30 shooting in Fairfield, where Veneziano was shot.

In that case, Veneziano told investigators he was driving to work in his silver Volkswagen Passat when a black SUV began following him from Clifton into Fairfield after a road rage incident.

Veneziano told investigators he eventually pulled into a parking lot near Fairfield police headquarters, identified himself as a police officer and confronted the occupant of the other car.

The police officer—who was not in uniform and not wearing a bullet proof vest—was shot multiple times. He returned fire, shooting 13 rounds from his service weapon before collapsing.

Multiple law enforcement agencies and police departments spent weeks working on the case before Roberts was charged today, officials said.

“We were all very happy, very pleased and very relieved,” said Kronenfeld, one of the law enforcement officers working on the case. “When you can put closure to something like this, it’s very satisfying.”

Staff writers Chris Megerian and Kelly Heyboer contributed to this report.

Smell of Pot From Chimney Leads to Record Bust

Published March 13, 2010

Smell of Pot From Chimney Leads to Record Bust

A patrol cop with a sensitive schnoz was credited today with uprooting what authorities say is the biggest marijuana-growing operation in New Jersey’s history.

Police last month raided six homes - several of them $1 million McMansions - and seized more than $10 million worth of cannabis growing inside under artificial lights, authorities announced today.

“While law enforcement in New Jersey has encountered high-tech indoor marijuana growing operations in the past, we have not seen anything to match the volume of production of this criminal enterprise,” said state Attorney General Paula T. Dow.

The bust might not have happened if Officer Thomas Lucasiewicz had been suffering from a head cold. The Monroe Township cop was on patrol Feb. 12 when he smelled burning marijuana in an upscale Middlesex County community.

At first, Lucasiewicz thought somebody might be smoking a joint in a car parked nearby, said Sgt. Steve Jones, a state police spokesman.

“But with his bloodhound senses, he realized it was much stronger than he first thought,” Jones said. “He followed his nose. Then he saw smoke rising from a chimney.”

Overpowered by the scent, Lucasiewicz called his squad. When backup arrived, Lucasiewicz knocked on the door of the single-story ranch house.

They were greeted by a surprised man, “the gardener, essentially, who was burning some of the unusable parts of the plants in the fireplace,” Jones said.

Lucasiewicz arrested the gardener, Thu N. Nguyen, 44, and, realizing he had uncovered a huge grow operation, called in the state police.

Inside the rented home, investigators found 1,064 plants in four cultivation areas set up in the basement and the master bedroom. In the garage they found 50 pounds of packaged pot.

During the following week, state police raided five more rented homes in Millstone Township, Old Bridge, Manahawkin and Manalapan.

“They each had been turned into pot factories,” Jones said.

Along with a vast array of indoor cultivation equipment, police seized 3,370 growing plants, 115 pounds of harvested marijuana and $65,000 cash from the four homes.

“These were not run-down houses,” Jones said. “These were high-end homes in affluent neighborhoods. Several of them were worth in excess of $1 million and rented for $4,000 a month.”

Jones said illicit growers usually don’t operate out of their own homes because the houses are subject to forfeiture.

The growers took the liberty of modifying several of the homes, cutting 16-inch holes in the floors and ceilings to accommodate vents and ductwork, Jones said.

Six people, all of Vietnamese descent, have been charged with running marijuana cultivation facilities. They were also charged with theft of services for bypassing utility meters. Three remain at large and are believed to have fled the country, Jones said.

Nguyen, a Canadian citizen, remained at the Middlesex County Jail after failing to post $1 million bail.

Tuan A. Dang, 35, of Port Monmouth, and Ngoc H. Bui, 35, naturalized U.S. citizens who were both arrested Feb. 18 at the Millstone Township operation, were charged with maintaining a marijuana-growing facility and other counts. They both remain lodged on $1 million bail each at the Monmouth County Jail.

By Sam Wood

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER