Results tagged “fbi”

Gapers Block points us in the direction of this story, showing that famed Chicago writer Studs Terkel was tracked by the FBI for most of his life under suspicion of being a Communist. You can check out all 99 pages here [PDF].

A pair of Chicago men - David Coleman Headley, 49, and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48 - have been arrested for alleged terror plots against sites in Western Europe including the Danish newspaper that caused an international incident a few years back by printing a cartoon featuring the prophet Muhammad. According to the Tribune:

Last week, six black students, all males, from Washington University in St. Louis alleged they and some friends were not allowed in to Mother's Night Club and claimed their race as the reason. At the time, the bar claimed the students were in violation of its dress code, including baggy pants. The students turned away alleged that white students with equally or more baggy pants were allowed inside and at one point, one of the denied students, Senior Regis Murayi, switched pants with a student who had been allowed inside and was still denied entry. In an interview with the Tribune, representatives of the bar said other black students had been admitted and pointed out a photo of two of the denied students wearing backwards baseball caps, insisting the caps were associated with gangs and that it was concern over gang violence which led to the denial of entry. Murayi countered, “In and of itself that’s racial in that they automatically assumed that we were a gang."

• NIU's police chief, Donald Grady, has been placed on a leave of absence after allegations of improper ethical behavior were made by NIU's student newspaper.
• Joseph Caputo, a former pricing analyst for MPC Products who turned FBI informant, has been awarded $4.5 million for helping the FBI crack a price-inflating case against the company.
• In the wake of all the fuss over the CTA's new proposed hikes and service cuts, The Reader's Whet Moser took a thoughtful look at transit issues in a few other large cities.

Craigslist buyers uncovered a scam by people pretending to be Illinois National Guardsmen who need to sell big ticket items like cars and boats in a hurry before they're deployed overseas. After receiving several calls, the Illinois National Guard verified that the names of the sellers on Craigslist were bogus according to Chicago Breaking News. Guard spokesman Michael Chrisman said the verbiage is almost the same in every ad, only the type of vehicle for sale is different.

• Chicago 2016 CEO Patrick Ryan, speaking at today's press conference in Copenhagen, cited a new Zogby poll that claims 72 percent of Chicagoans support the Olympic bid.
• The Teen Cop Impersonator is back in the news as a judge has ordered him to three months in juvenile detention for violating the rules of his home confinement.
• The FBI is asking for the public's help in tracking down a Cicero man wanted in connection with a 1996 murder.

• The FBI has charged four area men in a child-pornography case; the men apparently did themselves no favors by referring to their groups as "Boy Lovers."
• U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush will introduce the "Bereaved Consumers Protection Act," federal legislation on cemetery regulations, inspired by the Burr Oak scandal.
• The CTA is the recipient of a new $1.5 million grant to help buy cleaner buses.

In one hell of an "oops!," it seems around 50,000 felons released from Illinois state prisons over the past several years without submitting DNA samples as required by law. The law is meant to collect DNA samples from felons on their release to check any potential links to unsolved crimes. According to the Tribune:

The Illinois Department of Corrections released nearly 10,000 felons without gathering their DNA since the law was enacted. And Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan's office estimates that county probation departments did not secure samples from 40,000 additional felons, mostly in Cook County, due to delays in implementing the law.

• The Chicago Park District has made the controversial decision to rename the site of "The Ft. Dearborn Massacre" (located at at 18th Street and Calumet Ave.) to "Battle of Ft. Dearborn Park."
• Will County Judge Stephen White today delayed a change of venue hearing on Drew Peterson's case until October 2nd and began preparing the jury pool.
• The Spire is looking even less likely than before.

In one of the stranger stories we've run across this morning, the FBI has apparently arrested a man who hacked into the CTA's radio frequencies and was passing himself off as a rail official. According to the Tribune, "Once the threat was identified, CTA officials implemented precautions limiting the individual to communicating with the CTA's operations command center, but not to train operators or other personnel in the field." He's no teen cop impersonator, but that doesn't make us feel any better. [via]

Come on, feel the Illinoize indeed. Nevermind those 44 arrests in New Jersey last week. It seems that although that would seem to give The Garden State an advantage in corruption over Illinois, the FBI's statistics say otherwise. According to a report in the Sun-Times, Illinois still ranks pretty high in corruption if you're going by the number of FBI agents tracking political corruption cases. Chicago ranks 2nd in terms of U.S. cities, only behind Washington, D.C., putting Illinois near the top. Not only that, but former Springfield bureau chief Weysan Dun is now in charge in Newark so it's pretty easy to see where he cut his chops in preparation for last week's big bust.

With the crime scene expanding and new horrific discoveries almost every day in the Burr Oak Cemetery case, the FBI has joined the investigation. Chicago Breaking News reports that an FBI forensics team is now on the scene, helping to map the cemetery grounds and determine what the scope of the actual crime scene is.

• Bail was set at $1 million for the cab driver accused of sexually assaulting a passenger.
• University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman spoke briefly today on ending the admissions process at the school that gives favor to certain "connected" students.
• The FBI is now investigating a suspicious package found this morning at Riverside Plaza.

The Red Line Bandit isn't the only bank robber grabbing headlines this week. The FBI is also asking for the public's help in tracking down the "Bulletproof Bandit," so named because he wears a bulletproof vest during his robberies. The bandit is described as caucasian male, between 30 to 35 years old, between 6 foot to 6 foot 2 inches tall, medium build with dark hair and is suspected in three robberies since late-March. [WGN Radio]

With bank robberies a pretty common occurrence these days, the FBI has decided to launch a new campaign seeking public help on the numerous bandits wandering around. The new Bandit Tracker website serves as sort of a clearing house for information on recent robberies and wanted bandits including location, descriptions, and - in most cases - photos of the bandits as well. the site also boasts a map feature that helps in looking for patterns. The FBI, CPD, and Cook County Sheriff's office worked with Dallas-based Electronic Tracking Systems (ETS) on the website. [via our pal Jeff Coen]

A man shot and killed by police this morning was a suspect in 30 area armed robberies. The shooting happened around 7 a.m. at a Marathon gas station in Harwood Heights. Police and FBI agents were staking out the gas station as it matched a pattern the suspect followed. Damn, guys. Good call. Between 40 and 50 law enforcement officials have been on surveillance in the area, looking for a man who either drove a white van or worked with a get-away driver who did. Officers were watching the Marathon station, located at at West Montrose Avenue and Forest Preserve Drive, when they saw the white van park and the suspect, placing a surgical mask over his face, enter the store.

• Former FBI agent Vo Duong "Ben" Tran is now the main suspect in a 2002 North Side double homicide.
• Linda Pithyou, 29, a teacher at Lawrence Hall Services, has been accused of having sex with one of her teen students.
• John Morphey, the brother of Tom Morphey - the lone witness in the case of Stacy Peterson's disappearance - is speaking to the press on his brother's behalf and, guess what, he thinks Drew killed her.

Among the more shocking incidents to rattle the Chicago-area were the "Tylenol murders" in 1982, when seven people died after ingesting Extra Strength Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide. Investigators determined that the pills had been taken from store shelves, tampered with, and replaced. A total of 8 poisoned bottles were eventually found. Area-wide warnings were issued -- we still remember the chilling announcement made over our junior high PA system telling us to avoid Tylenol products. The scare led to a recall of 31 million bottles of Tylenol products, and a revamping of over-the-counter drug packaging. The case was never solved.

Life imitates 24. A police officer snared in the sting that resulted in the arrests of multiple law enforcement officers in the fall claims he's innocent because he was working undercover, too. Archie Stallworth (pictured right) was one of several Harvey police officers and Cook County sheriffs arrested for an alleged drug conspiracy in which they took pay to allow drug dealers to keep their business flowing. Stallworth was arrested for making false police reports but handed said reports over to the Sun-Times and insist that they're not fake.

According to the charges against Stallworth, he met the undercover FBI agent at a south suburban fast-food restaurant July 26 to provide security for a meeting. Afterward, the agent paid Stallworth $300 and said he needed someone to provide security for drug deals.

Continue reading "Cop Arrested In Sting Claims He Was Undercover, Too"

Vicente Garcia, the man alleged to be the Chicago Latin Kings' supreme regional officer was arrested in late December in the town of Tamazula, Mexico. Garcia was originally charged with federal drug and firearms offenses last fall as a result of Operation Pesadilla but had succeeded in side-stepping authorities. Four others remain at large. According to the Trib, the FBI alleged Garcia oversaw "the distribution of cocaine and firearms throughout the Chicago area."

Photo by ropesack