A 25-year old college student has reached a $4.1 million settlement with the federal government after he was abandoned in a windowless Drug Enforcement Administration cell for more than four days without food or water, his attorneys said Tuesday. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Six Colombian nationals were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for the kidnapping and murder of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent. A seventh Colombian was charged with trying to destroy evidence in the case.
The indictment alleges that DEA agent Terry Watson was slain at the hands of an organized group of robbers who operated taxi cabs in Bogota, Colombia in order to lure victims whom they perceived as wealthy.
The defendants, who are all under arrest in Colombia, targeted Watson for what the defendants called a “millionaire’s ride,” says the indictment.
Watson was working for the U.S. Mission in Colombia when he entered a taxi cab on June 20 operated by one of the defendants and was then allegedly attacked by two other defendants — one who used a stun gun on Watson and another who stabbed Watson with a knife.
Watson was able to escape, but he soon collapsed and was brought to a hospital, where he died from multiple stab wounds.
The indictment was handed up in federal court in Alexandria, Va.
The defendants are Gerardo Figueroa Sepulveda, 38; Omar Fabian Valdes Gualtero, 27; Edgar Javier Bello Murillo, 26; Hector Leonardo Lopez, 23; Julio Estiven Gracia Ramierez, 30; and Andrés Alvaro Oviedo-Garcia, 21. Each was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, one count of kidnapping and one count of conspiracy to kidnap. Oviedo-Garcia was also charged with two counts of assault. In addition, the grand jury indicted Wilson Daniel Peralta-Bocachica, 30, also a Colombian national, for allegedly trying to destroy evidence associated with the murder.
A Justice Department official declined comment on the question of extraditing the seven to the U.S.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Keith Speights, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
Do you know someone who needs to lose weight? Helping them do so could end up saving you money over the long run. What’s more, even helping a total stranger lose weight could save you money as well. How can this be true? We first need to take a look at Medicare.
Nearly 1.5% of every dollar you make goes to the federal health care program. If you’re self-employed, you kick in twice as much because you must pay the employer’s portion also. And if you fit in Obamacare’s high income classification, you’ll tack on another 0.9%.
But you’re really paying even more for Medicare. Of the $530 billion received by the federal program in 2011, $223 billion came from the general Treasury fund and only around $196 billion derived from payroll taxes. The government actually spent $550 billion — more than it received. That total amounts to a little over $12,000 spent per enrollee.
As Medicare spending grows, more money will be needed. Guess who’s going to pay up? All of us. However, if the spending could somehow be controlled, taxpayers should be able to hang on to more of their hard-earned dollars. That’s where a new study comes into play.
Dr. Kenneth Thorpe — a former Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and current chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health — led the research team that conducted a study published recently in Health Economics Review. This study found that more than $12,000 per patient could be saved over a 10-year period by helping Medicare beneficiaries lose weight. That comes to as much as $144 billion.
The problem is in actually achieving that weight loss. Bariatric surgery can cost at least $18,000. That wipes out all of the estimated savings. Intensive behavioral therapy, or IBT, for weight loss is much less expensive, but it isn’t enough for many obese individuals. Is there another option? Thorpe and his colleagues suggest that combining IBT with new weight-loss drugs could hold the key to helping Medicare beneficiaries lose weight and thereby reducing spending.
Currently, two weight-loss drugs have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. VIVUS markets Qsymia. Arena Pharmaceuticals stands ready to begin selling Belviq once the Drug Enforcement Administration finalizes scheduling of the obesity drug. Another company, Orexigen Therapeutics , hopes to receive approval for Contrave and launch the drug commercially in 2014. The problem for those who think one or more of these drugs could help with lowering Medicare costs is that the program doesn’t reimburse patients for taking any of them. Not a dime.
The FDA agreed that Qsymia and Belviq are safe enough for the public. Clinical studies found both drugs to be effective in helping patients lose weight. Even one of the studies that the government used as a basis for its decision to reimburse for IBT concluded that combining weight-loss drugs with …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
County attorneys in Arizona who have targeted the proliferation of legal synthetic drugs like “spice” and “bath salts” are reportedly seeing their efforts make their way into the courtroom.
The Arizona Republic reports that a federal indictment filed late last week in U.S. District Court in Phoenix reveals the international scope of the conspiracy to traffic those drugs and the large amounts of money that may be involved.
Federal prosecutors allege Nicholas Pascal Zizzo and Michael Rocky Lane shopped around the world for someone who could supply them with a legal version of MDPV, a chemical that the federal government had recently prohibited and was used in the manufacture of bath salts. The men secured the chemicals legally from China and made a few other cosmetic changes to remain on the right side of the law, according to court documents.
“After October of 2011, defendant Zizzo and others ceased using the name ‘Eight Ballz Bath Salts‘ and started utilizing the name ‘Eight Ballz Ultra Premium Glass Cleaner,’ ” according to the indictment.
The new chemicals were legal, but a 1986 law makes it illegal to manufacture, distribute or possess substances that have a similar effect on the nervous system as banned drugs, the newspaper reports.
By late 2011, when the federal Drug Enforcement Administration took action to outlaw three chemicals commonly found in bath salts, the potential dangers of synthetic drugs were already well-known. Nearly a year earlier, federal officials had banned five chemicals commonly found in the synthetic marijuana-like substance commonly called spice amid reports of frantic teens showing up in emergency rooms around the nation strung out on the legal chemicals.
And invoking that law in criminal prosecutions in Arizona is unique, said Bruce Feder, an attorney for Lane who has practiced for 35 years and is aware of one other case where the Analogue Act was cited.
“Something must have happened in the Justice Department to precipitate these indictments,” Feder said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona did not respond to a request for comment about this case or the government‘s efforts to target synthetic drugs in general, the newspaper reports.
The federal sting that originally took down Lane, Zizzo and three others was part of a nationwide undercover operation in late July known as “Operation Logjam.” The local defendants were done in by federal agents posing as Hells Angels who purchased 2,500 powder packets of “Eight Ballz” from one of the defendants, Benjamin J. Lowenstein, in a late June meeting at a parking lot on Thunderbird Road, according to a federal affidavit.
Federal officials have speculated that the Arizona suspects generated “tens of millions of dollars” in profits.
By Keith Speights, The Motley Fool
Filed under: Investing
“Wait” seems to be the operative word for the obesity drug industry these days. Investors in VIVUS are still waiting to see if Qsymia can attain the levels of commercial success that they anticipated. Arena Pharmaceuticals anxiously awaits finalization of scheduling for Belviq by the slow-moving U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. But the biggest wait of all belongs to Orexigen Therapeutics . Here’s the latest on the waiting game for the third potential weight-loss drug to hit the market — Orexigen’s Contrave.
In a hurry
After the initial New Drug Application, or NDA, for Contrave was not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Orexigen hurried to move forward with the cardiovascular study needed to satisfy the FDA. The company launched this additional research, called the Light Study, in June. By early July, Orexigen announced that enrollment was going much faster than initially expected and could wrap up in first quarter of 2013 — taking around half the time originally anticipated.
That outlook actually proved to be pessimistic. Orexigen completed screening for the Light Study by mid-December, enrolling around 9,000 patients to participate in the study and cutting off more than a year from the initial timetable. The next major milestone for the research will be an interim analysis. That analysis can’t occur until 87 or so major adverse cardiovascular events, or MACE, occur with the patients. After the herculean efforts to get the study going so rapidly, Orexigen must now essentially wait for bad things to happen.
In January, the company announced that the resubmission process for the Contrave NDA could be hurried along somewhat. The FDA will allow a summary report from the Light Study interim analysis to be used with the NDA in lieu of a complete report. While the complete clinical study report will be required within 60 days of the resubmission, this decision cuts time out of the process.
How long will the waiting game take? Orexigen says that plans are to submit the NDA again by the end of this year. However, company executives have hedged in recent comments, stating that this time frame could be pushed back to early 2014 if the MACE rate is on the low end of the target 1% to 2% range.
Late to the game?
A key question for investors looking at Orexigen relates to how successful Contrave can be as a late entrant to the obesity drug market. With Qsymia already on the market and Belviq likely to launch in the U.S. any day now, will Contrave be too late to the game? The answer is: “It depends.”
If Arena and VIVUS manage to achieve tremendous success and develop great patient and prescriber loyalty for their drugs, Contrave could face an uphill battle to gain a foothold. VIVUS recently introduced promotions that appear to be designed to attract and hold on to customers in anticipation of near-term competition from Belviq. With the earliest possible commercial launch of Contrave still over a …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance
Kim Ridgway and her wife, Kimberly Bliss, can well envision the shop they plan to open — where they’ll put the accessories, the baked goods and the shelves stacked with their valuable product: jars of high-quality marijuana.
Like many so-called “potrepreneurs” throughout Washington and Colorado, they’re scrambling to get ready for the new world of regulated, taxed marijuana sales to adults over 21 — even though the states haven’t even figured out how they are going to grant licenses.
Farmers and orchardists are studying how to grow marijuana. Some medical pot dispensaries are preparing to switch to recreational sales. Labs that test the plant’s potency are trying to figure out how to meet standards the states might develop.
It’s a lot of work for something that might never happen.
“We don’t want to devote all our time and finances to building a business, only to have the feds rip it out from under us,” Bliss said. “There’s a huge financial risk, and a huge personal risk. We could end up in federal prison.”
While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, both states legalized the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana last November and are setting up rules to govern state-licensed growers, processors and retailers.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who is due to appear Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said the Justice Department is in the final stages of deciding whether to sue to block the measures. State laws can be trumped if they “frustrate the purpose” of federal law.
A group of former Drug Enforcement Administration heads and the United Nations drug control group this week renewed calls for the administration to sue, and some legal scholars say it’s hard to see how the schemes would survive a court challenge.
Nevertheless, tempted by dreams of changing people’s perception of pot and making some decent money, Bliss and Ridgway are meeting with lawyers, recruiting investors, sketching store plans and scoping out locations — all in the hopes of a grand opening on their first wedding anniversary.
After 28 years together, they got married in December on the first day the state’s new gay marriage law allowed it. They say they like the idea of becoming pioneers in the cannabis industry, too.
Hilary Bricken, a Seattle lawyer advising those interested in the marijuana industry, said she’s heard from people in many walks of life. Among them are a consulting firm that wants to help state-licensed growers make their operations environmentally friendly; a plant nursery that figures it already has the greenhouses; and a struggling chocolatier who sees financial salvation in “pot chocolate.”
“It’s super-exciting, and it’s a testament to the power of industry,” she said. “It’s a solution for many people that are hurting economically right now, and for better or worse, they’re brave.
“These are the people who are going to push the buck to change the national conversation,” Bricken said.
Her law firm, Harris and Moure, has been advising clients to write business plans that cover everything from where they’re getting their seed money and insurance to their security …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Chicago’s new Public Enemy No. 1 is a cartel kingpin in Mexico.
It’s the first time the Chicago Crime Commission has used the label since Prohibition.
The commission and the Chicago office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will formally give Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman that distinction Thursday.
The Public Enemy No. 1 label was created for mobster Al Capone. But the DEA says Sinaloa cartel leader Guzman is more menacing than the Chicago gangster was.
The DEA‘s top Chicago official, Jack Riley, says Guzman resides in a Mexican hideaway. But he says Guzman’s cartel is now the main narcotics supplier to Chicago and so is effectively a local crime boss.
Guzman has been indicted on federal trafficking charges in the nation’s third-largest city.
Chicago’s new Public Enemy No. 1 is a cartel kingpin in Mexico.
It’s the first time the Chicago Crime Commission has used the label since Prohibition.
The commission and the Chicago office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will formally give Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman that distinction Thursday.
The Public Enemy No. 1 label was created for mobster Al Capone. But the DEA says Sinaloa cartel leader Guzman is more menacing than the Chicago gangster was.
The DEA‘s top Chicago official, Jack Riley, says Guzman resides in a Mexican hideaway. But he says Guzman’s cartel is now the main narcotics supplier to Chicago and so is effectively a local crime boss.
Guzman has been indicted on federal trafficking charges in the nation’s third-largest city.
An explosion tore through a hotel near SeaWorld San Diego where a couple was allegedly extracting hash oil, sending guests fleeing for safety and putting three people in the hospital, authorities said.
A 22-year-old man in the room suffered life-threatening injuries in the Wednesday explosion at the three-story Heritage Inn Sea World Hotel, authorities said. Also hurt were a woman in the room and a young man staying next door.
Julie Jordan of San Diego was sleeping with a friend’s baby in a nearby room when she felt the building shake violently, then heard a loud explosion. She ran outside and saw a shattered window and a badly injured man sitting at the bottom of some stairs, she said.
“There was chaos. I was very confused. When I came out of the room, I didn’t know which way to turn,” she said.
Another guest, Joseph Tydingco, said “It was like a disaster zone in there.”
Investigators found several boxes containing canisters of butane inside the room where the blast occurred, police Lt. Joseph Ramos said.
The butane apparently was ignited by a cigarette, Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque said. The second-floor room looked like a “war zone,” he said.
“It was a very intense and devastating explosion,” Luque said.
Hash oil is made by packing finely ground stems and leaves of marijuana plants in a pipe and pouring butane through it, said Amy Roderick, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which is leading the investigation. The liquid typically is then cooked on a stove to separate the butane.
Hash oil averages about 15 percent THC, the chief intoxicant in marijuana, according to the DEA. A drop or two is about as potent as a marijuana cigarette.
The DEA did not confirm that a cigarette ignited the butane or know the size of the drug operation.
“It just looks like a bomb that blew up there,” Roderick said. “It’s hard for us to tell what was going on there.”
The DEA will review the evidence before deciding whether to send the case to the San Diego County district attorney’s office for criminal charges.
Authorities said the couple in the room where the explosion occurred suffered burns, and the man in the neighboring room had bruises, cuts and possible burns.
The badly burned man was in “very, very serious” condition, Luque said. His female companion and the man in the next room — both believed to be around 20 years old — were in moderate condition. Their names were not released.
Joseph Tydingco, 52, rushed out of his room after what felt like a major earthquake and saw black smoke billowing from rooms. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and, with another guest, removed mattresses as they heard people screaming outside.
Tydingco, a SeaWorld maintenance worker, estimated that walls collapsed in six rooms. Police said at least four rooms were destroyed or badly damaged.
The blaze was mostly under control within minutes of the blast, which happened at about 11:15 a.m.
Tydingco said the hotel largely caters to vacationing families on tight budgets and local residents who lack enough cash to sign a rental lease.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Iran‘s elite Quds Force and Hezbollah militants are learning from a series of botched terror attacks over the past two years and pose a growing threat to the U.S. and other Western targets as well as Israel, a prominent counterterrorism expert says.
Operating both independently and together, the militant groups are escalating their activities around the world, fueling worries in the U.S. that they increasingly have the ability and the willingness to attack the U.S., according to a report by Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. His report points to two attacks last year — one successful and one foiled by U.S. authorities — as indications that the militants are adapting and are determined to take revenge on the West for efforts to disrupt Tehran’s nuclear program and other perceived offenses.
The report’s conclusions expand on comments late last year from U.S. terrorism officials who told Congress that the Quds Force and Hezbollah, which often coordinate efforts, have become “a significant source of concern” for the U.S. The Quds Force is an elite wing of Iran‘s powerful Revolutionary Guard, the defenders of Iran‘s ruling clerics and their hold on power.
The report comes amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the West, including a persistent stalemate over scheduling six-party talks on Tehran’s nuclear program and anger over reports that the U.S. and Israel were behind the Stuxnet computer attack that forced the temporary shutdown of thousands of centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010.
More than 20 terror attacks by Hezbollah or Quds Force operatives were thwarted around the world between May 2011 and July 2012, with nine coming in the first nine months of 2012, Levitt said in the report.
“What is particularly striking is how amateurish the actions of both organizations have been: Targets were poorly chosen and assaults carried out with gross incompetence,” Levitt said in the report. “But as the groups brush off the cobwebs and professionalize their operations, this sloppy tradecraft could quickly be replaced by operational success.”
Levitt is a senior fellow and director of the Washington Institute’s Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. From 2005 to early 2007, he served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department.
The two key attacks, the report said, include the plot by a Texas man to assassinate Saudi Arabia‘s ambassador to the United States. Manssor Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen with an Iranian passport, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and murder-for-hire last October and told the court that Iranian military officials were involved in the planning. Iran has denied that link.
His effort was foiled when he tried to hire what he thought was a drug dealer to carry out the attack in a Washington restaurant. The man was actually a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source.
While that plot highlighted a growing willingness to wage attacks in the U.S., a second, more successful plot in Bulgaria suggests that militants may be learning from their missteps.
Last July, a bomb killed a bus driver and five Israelis, and wounded 30 others, when it struck a tour bus in a caravan. Officials have blamed the attack on Hezbollah.
Other attacks over the past two years have also identified repeated links between Hezbollah and the Quds force — a long alliance that historically involved the Iranians arming, funding or training the Lebanon-based militants and using them as proxies.
In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last September, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said “the Quds force, as well as the group that it coordinates with, Lebanese Hezbollah” posed a significant source of concern.
FBI associate deputy director Kevin Perkins added, “We look at it as a serious threat, and … we are focusing intelligence analysts and other resources on that on a daily basis to monitor that threat.”
According to Levitt, the efforts to disrupt Iran‘s nuclear program have only made Tehran more eager to see a successful attack carried out. He said that both Hezbollah and the Quds Force have been hampered by the increased security triggered by the 9/11 attacks.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Iran‘s elite Quds Force and Hezbollah militants are learning from a series of botched terror attacks over the past two years and pose a growing threat to the U.S. and other Western targets as well as Israel, a prominent counterterrorism expert says.
Operating both independently and together, the militant groups are escalating their activities around the world, fueling worries in the U.S. that they increasingly have the ability and the willingness to attack the U.S., according to a report by Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Studies. His report points to two attacks last year — one successful and one foiled by U.S. authorities — as indications that the militants are adapting and are determined to take revenge on the West for efforts to disrupt Tehran’s nuclear program and other perceived offenses.
The report’s conclusions expand on comments late last year from U.S. terrorism officials who told Congress that the Quds Force and Hezbollah, which often coordinate efforts, have become “a significant source of concern” for the U.S. The Quds Force is an elite wing of Iran‘s powerful Revolutionary Guard, the defenders of Iran‘s ruling clerics and their hold on power.
The report comes amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the West, including a persistent stalemate over scheduling six-party talks on Tehran’s nuclear program and anger over reports that the U.S. and Israel were behind the Stuxnet computer attack that forced the temporary shutdown of thousands of centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010.
More than 20 terror attacks by Hezbollah or Quds Force operatives were thwarted around the world between May 2011 and July 2012, with nine coming in the first nine months of 2012, Levitt said in the report.
“What is particularly striking is how amateurish the actions of both organizations have been: Targets were poorly chosen and assaults carried out with gross incompetence,” Levitt said in the report. “But as the groups brush off the cobwebs and professionalize their operations, this sloppy tradecraft could quickly be replaced by operational success.”
Levitt is a senior fellow and director of the Washington Institute’s Stein Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. From 2005 to early 2007, he served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department.
The two key attacks, the report said, include the plot by a Texas man to assassinate Saudi Arabia‘s ambassador to the United States. Manssor Arbabsiar, a U.S. citizen with an Iranian passport, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and murder-for-hire last October and told the court that Iranian military officials were involved in the planning. Iran has denied that link.
His effort was foiled when he tried to hire what he thought was a drug dealer to carry out the attack in a Washington restaurant. The man was actually a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration confidential source.
While that plot highlighted a growing willingness to wage attacks in the U.S., a second, more successful plot in Bulgaria suggests that militants may be learning from their missteps.
Last July, a bomb killed a bus driver and five Israelis, and wounded 30 others, when it struck a tour bus in a caravan. Officials have blamed the attack on Hezbollah.
Other attacks over the past two years have also identified repeated links between Hezbollah and the Quds force — a long alliance that historically involved the Iranians arming, funding or training the Lebanon-based militants and using them as proxies.
In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last September, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said “the Quds force, as well as the group that it coordinates with, Lebanese Hezbollah” posed a significant source of concern.
FBI associate deputy director Kevin Perkins added, “We look at it as a serious threat, and … we are focusing intelligence analysts and other resources on that on a daily basis to monitor that threat.”
According to Levitt, the efforts to disrupt Iran‘s nuclear program have only made Tehran more eager to see a successful attack carried out. He said that both Hezbollah and the Quds Force have been hampered by the increased security triggered by the 9/11 attacks.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
To onlookers, Monsignor Kevin Wallin‘s fall from grace at his Connecticut parish was like something out of “Breaking Bad,” the television series about a high school chemistry teacher who becomes a methamphetamine lord.
The suspended Roman Catholic priest was arrested on federal drug charges this month for allegedly having methamphetamine mailed to him from co-conspirators in California and making more than $300,000 in drugs sales out of his apartment in Waterbury in the second half of last year.
Along the way, authorities said, he bought a small adult video and sex toy shop in the nearby town of North Haven named “Land of Oz & Dorothy’s Place,” apparently to launder all the money he was making. He has pleaded not guilty, and jury selection in his trial is scheduled to begin March 21.
On social media sites, people couldn’t help but compare Wallin with Walter White, the main character on “Breaking Bad” who was making so much cash that he and his wife bought a car wash to launder their profits. He has also been dubbed in some media as “Monsignor Meth.”
Wallin, 61, was the pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport for nine years until he resigned in June 2011, citing health and personal problems. He previously served six years as pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Danbury until 2002.
He was granted a sabbatical in July 2011. The Diocese of Bridgeport suspended him from public ministry last May.
Diocesan officials become concerned about Wallin in the spring of 2011 after complaints about his appearance and erratic behavior, diocese spokesman Brian Wallace told the Connecticut Post.
Some reports of his behavior were startling.
“We became aware that he was acting out sexually — with men — in the church rectory,” Wallace told the newspaper, adding that church officials deemed the sexual behavior unbecoming of a priest and asked Wallin to resign.
Wallace didn’t return several messages left by The Associated Press.
“News of Monsignor Kevin Wallin‘s arrest comes with a sense of shock and concern on the part of the diocese and the many people of Fairfield County who have known him as a gifted, accomplished and compassionate priest,” the diocese said in a statement on Jan. 16 after learning about Wallin’s arrest. “We ask for prayers for Monsignor Wallin during the difficult days ahead for him.”
Wallin’s arrest called attention to larger problems within the church, said Voice of the Faithful in the Diocese of Bridgeport, one of many local chapters of the lay organization formed in response to the sexual abuse crisis in the church.
“Catholics have to ask whether the mandatory obligation of celibacy imposes a harmful burden on priests and whether women ought to be admitted to the priesthood,” the group said in a statement. “The steady decline in the number of priests, the aging of priests, the terrible sin of pedophilia among priests, and the downfall of Monsignor Wallin are all signs of a sickness in the priesthood. It is time to seek a remedy for this awful malady that threatens the Eucharist, the center of Catholic life.”
Elizabeth Badjan, a member of the St. Augustine congregation, told The New York Times that Wallin needed the prayers of parishioners.
“This is all the work of evil,” she said as she left Mass last weekend. “He was not close enough to God. He was tempted by the devil.”
Wallin’s case has drawn comparisons to that of the Rev. Ted Haggard, a well-known evangelical megachurch pastor in Colorado who was forced out of his job in 2006 after a male escort alleged Haggard had paid him for sex and bought crystal meth.
Federal agents arrested Wallin on Jan. 3, and a grand jury indicted him and four other people on drug charges on Jan. 15. All are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of a substance containing methamphetamine and 50 grams of actual methamphetamine, a crime that carries 10 years to life in prison upon conviction.
Wallin is also charged with six counts of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Last July, Drug Enforcement Administration agents in New York told agents in the New Haven office that there was an unidentified Connecticut-based drug trafficker distributing methamphetamine in the region. Two months later, an informant told the DEA that the trafficker was Wallin, according to an affidavit by agent Jay Salvatore in New Haven.
The Connecticut Statewide Narcotics Task Force was also investigating Wallin.
Authorities said an undercover officer with the state task force bought methamphetamine from Wallin six times from Sept. 20 to Jan. 2, paying more than $3,400 in total for 23 grams of the drug.
Federal agents also say they learned through wiretaps and informants about other sales Wallin was making.
Connecticut U.S. Attorney David Fein said federal and state authorities worked together in “the dismantling of what we allege was a significant methamphetamine distribution organization that spanned from California to Connecticut.”
Also charged in the case were Kenneth Devries, 52, of Waterbury; Michael Nelson, 40, of Manchester; Chad McCluskey, 43, of San Clemente, Calif.; and Kristen Laschober, 47, of Laguna Niguel, Calif. Authorities say McCluskey and Laschober were involved in the shipping of methamphetamine to Wallin.
Messages by the AP were left lawyers for Wallin, McCluskey and Laschober. Wallin is being detained without bail at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, state records show.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
To onlookers, Monsignor Kevin Wallin‘s fall from grace at his Connecticut parish was like something out of “Breaking Bad,” the television series about a high school chemistry teacher who becomes a methamphetamine lord.
The suspended Roman Catholic priest was arrested on federal drug charges this month for allegedly having methamphetamine mailed to him from co-conspirators in California and making more than $300,000 in drugs sales out of his apartment in Waterbury in the second half of last year.
Along the way, authorities said, he bought a small adult video and sex toy shop in the nearby town of North Haven named “Land of Oz & Dorothy’s Place,” apparently to launder all the money he was making. He has pleaded not guilty, and jury selection in his trial is scheduled to begin March 21.
On social media sites, people couldn’t help but compare Wallin with Walter White, the main character on “Breaking Bad” who was making so much cash that he and his wife bought a car wash to launder their profits. He has also been dubbed in some media as “Monsignor Meth.”
Wallin, 61, was the pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport for nine years until he resigned in June 2011, citing health and personal problems. He previously served six years as pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Danbury until 2002.
He was granted a sabbatical in July 2011. The Diocese of Bridgeport suspended him from public ministry last May.
Diocesan officials become concerned about Wallin in the spring of 2011 after complaints about his appearance and erratic behavior, diocese spokesman Brian Wallace told the Connecticut Post.
Some reports of his behavior were startling.
“We became aware that he was acting out sexually — with men — in the church rectory,” Wallace told the newspaper, adding that church officials deemed the sexual behavior unbecoming of a priest and asked Wallin to resign.
Wallace didn’t return several messages left by The Associated Press.
“News of Monsignor Kevin Wallin‘s arrest comes with a sense of shock and concern on the part of the diocese and the many people of Fairfield County who have known him as a gifted, accomplished and compassionate priest,” the diocese said in a statement on Jan. 16 after learning about Wallin’s arrest. “We ask for prayers for Monsignor Wallin during the difficult days ahead for him.”
Wallin’s arrest called attention to larger problems within the church, said Voice of the Faithful in the Diocese of Bridgeport, one of many local chapters of the lay organization formed in response to the sexual abuse crisis in the church.
“Catholics have to ask whether the mandatory obligation of celibacy imposes a harmful burden on priests and whether women ought to be admitted to the priesthood,” the group said in a statement. “The steady decline in the number of priests, the aging of priests, the terrible sin of pedophilia among priests, and the downfall of Monsignor Wallin are all signs of a sickness in the priesthood. It is time to seek a remedy for this awful malady that threatens the Eucharist, the center of Catholic life.”
Elizabeth Badjan, a member of the St. Augustine congregation, told The New York Times that Wallin needed the prayers of parishioners.
“This is all the work of evil,” she said as she left Mass last weekend. “He was not close enough to God. He was tempted by the devil.”
Wallin’s case has drawn comparisons to that of the Rev. Ted Haggard, a well-known evangelical megachurch pastor in Colorado who was forced out of his job in 2006 after a male escort alleged Haggard had paid him for sex and bought crystal meth.
Federal agents arrested Wallin on Jan. 3, and a grand jury indicted him and four other people on drug charges on Jan. 15. All are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of a substance containing methamphetamine and 50 grams of actual methamphetamine, a crime that carries 10 years to life in prison upon conviction.
Wallin is also charged with six counts of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
Last July, Drug Enforcement Administration agents in New York told agents in the New Haven office that there was an unidentified Connecticut-based drug trafficker distributing methamphetamine in the region. Two months later, an informant told the DEA that the trafficker was Wallin, according to an affidavit by agent Jay Salvatore in New Haven.
The Connecticut Statewide Narcotics Task Force was also investigating Wallin.
Authorities said an undercover officer with the state task force bought methamphetamine from Wallin six times from Sept. 20 to Jan. 2, paying more than $3,400 in total for 23 grams of the drug.
Federal agents also say they learned through wiretaps and informants about other sales Wallin was making.
Connecticut U.S. Attorney David Fein said federal and state authorities worked together in “the dismantling of what we allege was a significant methamphetamine distribution organization that spanned from California to Connecticut.”
Also charged in the case were Kenneth Devries, 52, of Waterbury; Michael Nelson, 40, of Manchester; Chad McCluskey, 43, of San Clemente, Calif.; and Kristen Laschober, 47, of Laguna Niguel, Calif. Authorities say McCluskey and Laschober were involved in the shipping of methamphetamine to Wallin.
Messages by the AP were left lawyers for Wallin, McCluskey and Laschober. Wallin is being detained without bail at the Bridgeport Correctional Center, state records show.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
