Buster Archive

Monthly archive

  • Canadian border agents today arrested a woman who arrived at the Montreal airport carrying three pumpkins stuffed with cocaine.

    The Halloween seizure netted nearly two kilos of the drug, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (whose fine work has previously been detailed in these pages).

    The pumpkins, discovered during a search of the woman’s luggage, seemed heavy for their size, so investigators X-rayed them and discovered suspicious masses inside. Further investigation revealed that the pumpkins (seen in the above evidence photo) contained bags filled with the cocaine.

    Another CBSA photo shows a white powder on the tip of a knife that investigators plunged into one of the pumpkins.

    The cocaine was turned over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which is expected to file narcotics charges against the woman, whose identity was not disclosed by investigators.

    A kilo of cocaine can sell for in excess of $20,000 in the United States.

  • Emergency medical teams were summoned yesterday to a New York City public school to treat students after a noxious odor was detected in a sixth-grade classroom.

    It was Axe body spray.

    School officials reported that the aerosol deodorant was sprayed around 1 PM in a classroom at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Brooklyn. Emergency Medical Services workers “transported eight students to the hospital,” while the parents of two other pupils brought them to their own doctors, according to the city’s Department of Education.

    The Axe was apparently unleashed by a young scholar who is now facing disciplinary action.

    According to the Axe web site, when the company’s products are used, “your new and improved male musk is released into the atmosphere, quickly reaching nearby females.” This purported “Axe Effect” triggers “increased attention” from “eager, and attractive female pursuers.”

    Not to mention first responders.

  • A knife-wielding woman threw several metal Ninja stars at her younger brother as she chased him down a Florida street late last night following a violent confrontation in their home, police allege.

    Kimberly Martinez, 25, is jailed on felony aggravated assault charges for allegedly battering her brother Randy, 21.

    Kimberly and Randy had argued earlier Wednesday evening about their little sister having a boy over to their home in Fellsmere, a city outside Vero Beach. Randy “did not like it,” while Kimberly said it was okay, according to an Indian River County Sheriff’s Officer arrest affidavit.

    The dispute escalated around midnight, when Kimberly “started to hit and choke Randy” and sought to extinguish a cigarette on his face. After Randy departed the family’s residence, Kimberly “came outside with a filet Knife” and “started to throw Metal Ninja Stars at him.” 

    Luckily for Randy, his sister’s aim was not true. An officer recovered three Ninja stars, one in the roadway and two near Randy’s girlfriend’s auto.

    Pictured in the above mug shot, Kimberly, who is being held in lieu of $21,000 bond, is scheduled to appear for arraignment today.

  • According to Sergio Irey’s mother, the 21-year-old Florida man is unemployed, lives at home rent-free, does not help out with household chores or bills, has allowed his college grades to plummet, and “spends all his time with a girl who is a bad influence on him.”

    Sergio’s loafing does not sit well with Rocio Irey, 45, who has explained to her son that he “needs to get his life on track, straighten up, get a job and start helping around the house,” police report.

    Police report this because last night Rocio and Sergio (pictured at right in happier times) were arguing about his reported layabout ways in their Sarasota home.

    Rocio told a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputy that she became angered at her son “because he was not listening to her, he was back talking to her and he was being disrespectful by interrupting her and ignoring her.”

    So a frustrated Rocio slapped her son across the face twice, explaining, “I slapped him because he was being disrespectful to me, I’m his mother.”

    Sergio--who later acknowledged his churlish behavior--responded by calling the cops on his mother because he “became scared of her and didn’t know what else to do.”

    Though Sergio was uninjured by the slaps, Florida state law required that “the aggressor be arrested” for domestic battery. So Rocio, seen in the adjacent mug shot, was handcuffed and transported to the county jail, where she remains locked up.

    With his mom behind bars, it is unclear who will make Sergio’s bed (or his lunch) today.

  • A pair of Florida men decided to celebrate Halloween this year by dressing up as George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, complete with blackface and blood-stained hoodie.

    The image of the duo (click to enlarge) was uploaded Friday to the Facebook page of Caitlin Cimeno, a Martha’s Vineyard native who captioned the photo “Happy Halloween from Zimmerman & trayvon.” Cimeno, flanked in the photo by the two men, followed those words with a smiley face emoticon.

    Greg Cimeno, 22, portrayed Zimmerman, complete with a “Neighborhood Watch” t-shirt. Cimeno lives in Cape Coral, Florida, where he appears to work for a carpentry firm.

    William Filene, 25, dressed up as Martin, covering his face in black paint and donning a gray sweatshirt with a single bullet hole surrounded by fake blood. Filene, who also lives in Cape Coral, was arrested in June for felony auto theft. His rap sheet also included collars for loitering/prowling and failing to register an automobile.

    In a plea deal, Filene copped to the auto theft charge during an August hearing in Lee County Circuit Court. He was sentenced to 18 months probation, and now has his own page on the Florida Department of Corrections web site (which includes this mug shot).

    After Caitlin Cimeno posted the photo to her Facebook account (which she has since scrubbed), Greg Cimeno responded to comments about the image. “Anything for the laugh,” he declared. When one of Caitlin’s friends wrote that the photo was “Not too funny,” Greg replied, “Not too funny. It’s fucking hilarious!!!”

    In Facebook posts last year, Cimeno referred to elderly women who wore tight pants and tube tops as “tacos,” and, when requesting that a friend contact her, she wrote, “Text ne niggs.” In August, Cimeno also posted a photo of an African American girl wearing a t-shirt reading “Black Girls Rock.” In her accompanying caption, Cimeno wrote, “First of all, sorry Hun but mommy lied to you & secondly if I was wearing a shirt that said something like the truth 'white girls rock' I would be stared at and called a racist cracker.”

    Filene, Caitlin Cimeno, and Greg Cimeno are pictured below out of costume.

  • James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, the rap music manager who also headed a multimillion-dollar cocaine distribution ring, will spend the rest of his life in prison.

    During a hearing today in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Judge John Gleeson gave Rosemond, a 48-year-old repeat felon, a life sentence for his conviction last year on narcotics trafficking charges.

    Before sentencing Rosemond, Gleeson said, “Not all kingpins deserve this, but you certainly do.” Describing Rosemond’s narcotics ring as “astounding in breadth, duration, and intensity,” Gleeson declared that, “You chose this life. And this is the punishment you get.”

    When Gleeson asked whether he wanted to address the court prior to sentencing, Rosemond, dressed in a dark prison uniform, declined. 

    Pictured in the above mug shot, Rosemond is scheduled for trial next month on a separate federal indictment charging him with orchestrating the 2009 murder of an ex-con who had assaulted his teenage son. The victim, Lowell Fletcher, was an associate of music industry rivals with whom Rosemond was feuding.

    Rosemond, who founded Czar Entertainment, previously managed rappers The Game and Too Short, and had business dealings with numerous other public figures, including Wyclef Jean, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Mike Tyson.

  • A Georgia man is jailed on a sexual battery charge after allegedly biting the buttocks of a woman inside an Athens bar, cops report.

    David Franklin Cruz, 23, was partying with a friend inside the Nowhere Bar early yesterday when he took a chomp out of another patron’s rear end, according to an Athens-Clarke County Police Department report.

    The 22-year-old victim fingered Cruz when interviewed by officers. The woman said that Cruz “had dropped to his knees and had bitten her on the buttocks.”

    Cruz, seen in the adjacent mug shot, was also accused of fondling the breast of another woman, though she declined to pursue charges. Two other witnesses told police that the 6’ 2”, 180-pound Cruz “had stopped them on the sidewalk and had tried to kiss each of them and they had to shove him away to fend off the unwanted advances.” 

    While being questioned by a cop, Cruz--who smelled of booze--behaved in a “very agitated and uncontrollable manner.” He was later arrested for sexual battery, public intoxication, and disorderly conduct. A friend of Cruz was also charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct.

    Cruz was booked into the county jail, where he remains locked up on the three misdemeanor counts.

  • A 19-year-old Florida woman was arrested last month for misdemeanor domestic violence after allegedly launching an unprovoked water pistol attack on her boyfriend, police report.

    Giovanna Borge told cops that her beau “said something to her that she did not like,” so she “took a water pistol and squirted him with water.” During the ensuing confrontation, Borge added, her boyfriend (whom she has dated for a year) dumped a container of water on her and struck her with a pillow. The pair also reportedly exchanged shoves.

    Upon investigation, Port St. Lucie Police Department officers concluded that Borge was the “primary aggressor” during the September 27 incident. As a result, she was arrested for “squirting water” on the victim to “antagonize and agitate him against his wishes.” The name of Borge’s damp boyfriend was redacted by cops from an arrest affidavit.

    Officers transported Borge in handcuffs from her Port St. Lucie home to the county jail, where she posed for the adjacent mug shot before being released. She is scheduled for an October 30 Circuit Court hearing.

  • Meet Dennis Lalime.

    The 64-year-old Maine resident was returning home from a Halloween party this weekend when he lost control of his 2002 Buick Regal and crashed into several trees and a rock.

    As first reported by the Morning Sentinel, after police arrived at the scene, Lalime, who was not injured in the crash, was arrested for drunk driving.

    Which then allowed cops to snap the above mug shot (click to enlarge) of the made-up Lalime, who went to the party as the Joker, Batman’s green-haired nemesis.   

    Lalime posed for a second booking photo after scrubbing off his black and white face paint and removing the green highlights from his hair.

  • While being chased by a cop, a Connecticut man allegedly threw a parrot at his uniformed pursuer, who was bit on the hand when trying to shield himself from the feathered projectile.

    Luis Santana, 32, was arrested Tuesday night on several charges, including assaulting a police officer, disorderly conduct, and animal cruelty.

    A patrolman responding to a call about a fight encountered Santana on a Waterbury street around 10 PM. When Santana bolted, bird in hand, Officer Gary Kichar gave chase.

    While fleeing, Santana turned and threw the white parrot at Kichar’s head. When the cop raised his hand to protect himself, the bird bit his finger.

    Kichar was treated at the scene for the bird bite.

    The parrot was initially turned over to animal control officials.

    Santana was apprehended while hiding in a nearby building. Free on bond, he is scheduled for a November 18 court appearance.

    Following the bird tossing, investigators learned of a burglary Tuesday evening during which jewelry and a parrot were stolen. Santana is a suspect in that crime, according to Deputy Chief Chris Corbett of the Waterbury Police Department. Corbett added that the parrot was later reunited with its owner.

  • When Tony Curtis Wells moved into his Florida home last year, he discovered that the prior resident had left behind a pet alligator in the hot tub.

    But instead of calling police or animal control officials about the abandoned reptile, the 32-year-old Wells decided to keep the alligator. Asked by cops what he fed the animal, Wells replied, “Chicken, just chicken,” according to an arrest affidavit.

    Wells, seen in the adjacent mug shot, was questioned yesterday afternoon after cops spotted the alligator while they were at the property serving a narcotics-related search warrant (a 26-year-old woman was arrested after investigators found cocaine and pot).

    Pictured above after being caged, the three-foot creature was lurking in a small pool of water inside the rundown hot tub when photographed by investigators.

    After a check of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission revealed that Wells did not have a permit for the hot tub alligator, the Vero Beach man was arrested on a misdemeanor alligator possession charge.

    Wells was booked into the Indian River county jail, from which he was later released after posting $500 bond. According to court records, Wells is a convicted felon whose rap sheet includes narcotics and gun convictions.

  • During a debriefing session with federal investigators, James Rosemond, the music manager-turned-cocaine kingpin, was reportedly questioned about the sexual preferences of entertainers, including whether Sean “Diddy” Combs was “having sexual relationships with under age boys,” according to a U.S. District Court filing.

    In an affidavit included as part of a new trial motion filed last month, Rosemond recounted his involvement in a series of nine pre-trial “proffer” sessions in late-2011. The meetings were attended by Rosemond, his lawyers, federal prosecutors, and Drug Enforcement Administration and Internal Revenue Service agents.

    The purpose of the meetings was to allow federal investigators to question Rosemond, 48, about his criminal activities and evaluate whether he should be offered a cooperation agreement in advance of his narcotics trafficking trial. Facing overwhelming evidence of his guilt, Rosemond’s best chance of avoiding life in prison was to strike a deal with Department of Justice lawyers.

    However, investigators eventually declined to cut a deal with Rosemond, who was subsequently convicted at trial of running a drug ring that sold millions of dollars’s worth of cocaine. Rosemond, who is nicknamed “Jimmy Henchman,” faces a mandatory term of life in prison when sentenced October 25 in Brooklyn federal court.

    In advance of Rosemond’s first proffer session, defense lawyers provided investigators with the names of eight of his cocaine suppliers, according to court filings. During the proffers that followed, Rosemond implicated himself in a pair of homicide plots, described his drug distribution network, and copped to other crimes.

    Rosemond was also quizzed during an October 4 session about his contacts with several public figures, including Combs, Rev. Al Sharpton, and musician Wyclef Jean.

    At Rosemond’s trial last year, IRS Agent Marc Van Driessche testified that, during the proffer session, investigators questioned the music industry figure about his business transactions with Sharpton and Jean, and asked whether either celebrity engaged in illegal activity. Rosemond denied any improprieties on the part of Sharpton or Jean.

    Van Driessche recalled that Rosemond was also asked about Combs since, “We had information through other witnesses that the defendant may have made an admission to Sean Combs.” The nature of this purported admission was not the subject of further testimony. Van Driessche added that Rosemond described having business dealings years earlier with Combs, and that they had a “cordial relationship.”

    In his September 6 affidavit, Rosemond (seen at left) contended that he reluctantly agreed to the proffer sessions arranged by Gerald Shargel, his former lawyer. Rosemond added that investigators sought to get him to confess to crimes for which he had no involvement. “When the defendant said he didn’t know about a certain event…they accused him of lying,” Rosemond claimed.

    The confrontational sessions turned “awkward,” Rosemond stated, when an investigator showed him “naked pictures” of different women. The purpose of this purported investigative technique is not revealed in Rosemond’s affidavit.

    A prosecutor, Rosemond continued, then “asked about entertainers sexual preferences, including, but not only, Sean Combs having sexual relationships with under age boys.” Again, Rosemond provided no context for these alleged queries.

    During Rosemond’s trial, Shargel complained to Judge John Gleeson that federal prosecutors and agents were only seeking “trophies” when they questioned Rosemond about celebrities during the proffer sessions. And, when Rosemond provided nothing of substance on the high-profile figures, “disappointed” investigators rejected his client’s bid for a cooperation deal. Prosecutors countered Shargel’s claim, declaring that Rosemond was untrustworthy and lied during the debriefing sessions.

    Some of Rosemond’s admissions during the proffer sessions were used against him during his criminal trial. In the new trial motion, Rosemond’s current attorney argues that Shargel provided “ineffective assistance of counsel” by improperly “opening the door” to the government’s use of the damaging proffer material.

    Federal investigators are barred from discussing the details of confidential proffer sessions, the notes from which are not public. Shargel, Rosemond’s ex-attorney, declined an interview request about the debriefing sessions.