From Maryland State Police:
A combined law enforcement effort led by the Carroll County Drug Task Force led to the arrest of two suspects believed to be involved in a large scale distribution of heroin in the region.
The accused are identified as Shani McDonald, 32, of the 2400 block of Battersea Place in Windsor Mill and Vernon Kidd, Jr., 49, of the 1300 block of Sykesville Road in Finksburg, Maryland. Both were arrested during a traffic stop on Monday in Harford County. The Organized Crime Unit of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General is prosecuting the case and both were charged with drug kingpin, possession with intent to distribute, and CDS (Controlled Dangerous Substance) import into the state. They are currently being held at the Harford County Detention Center.
Over the course of an intensive six-month investigation, investigators from the Carroll County HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) initiative to include the Maryland State Police, Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, Westminster Police, and Homeland Security Investigations, identified a narcotics dealer distributing large amounts of heroin throughout Carroll and Baltimore Counties. McDonald was identified as the dealer distributing heroin in Hampstead, Manchester, Finksburg, and Westminster City in Carroll County and parts of Baltimore County. Police believe McDonald and Kidd were transporting the drugs from New York into Maryland for the distribution.
On Monday, September 12,2016 at 5:30 p.m., troopers from the JFK Barrack conducted a traffic stop of a 2007 Mazda CX 7 on I-95 at exit 89 in Harford County. Kidd was the driver and McDonald was seated in the rear passenger side of the vehicle. Over 1,000 grams of cocaine were recovered from the trunk.
Based on further investigative efforts, two residences were established for McDonald along with two additional stash houses being used to store the illegal drugs, material to package the drugs for distribution and currency from the drug proceeds. Court authorized search and seizure warrants were issued for those residences, located in Baltimore County and Baltimore City. The warrants were executed by members of the Carroll County HIDTA initiative, Maryland State Police and Maryland State Police Gang Enforcement Unit which resulted in the recovery of almost 600 grams of heroin, $10,827.00 in U.S. currency, and two hand guns, one of which was found to be stolen in 1995.
The Carroll County HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area), is a drug task force and is comprised of Maryland State Police, Westminster City Police and deputies from the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations. The unit focuses on the investigation and prosecution of mid to upper level drug dealers distributing controlled dangerous substances to and around Carroll County, Maryland and subsequently following the drugs to the source of distribution.
Cooperative law enforcement investigations like this will continue as police focus efforts on the distribution and use of heroin throughout Maryland. For information about heroin, or how to get help for someone believed to be using heroin, call 211, or visit http://bha.dhmh.maryland.gov/.
These look like 2 fine upstanding citizens.
These manufacturered narcotics are never going away. I hate to be a downer but unless our medical industry invents a star trek style medical device that unaddicts people and fixes the mental health problem with a wave of the instrument overtop the brain, with a beep borp deep deep sound, it ain’t getting better and it’s only going to get worse.
I was sitting at a Route 40 and 222 in Cecil County and a guy in a pickup truck got out of the passenger seat and gave the driver next to him a big lunch box, in broad daylight. Both vehicles continued into Harford County where the pickup truck made a U Turn right in Aberdeen.
Maybe it was lunch?
No bail please. If these individuals are released on bail wouldn’t there be a risk that they might distribute heroin and cocaine again? Why place lives at risk by granting bail?
It’s all about demand and supply (not supply and demand!), as long as there are addicts that need a fix someone will be sure to supply it. It’s the addiction that needs to be addressed. Dealers won’t sell if people won’t buy.
You have no clue. Where the jobs at? What is putting them in jail going to accomplish? They didn’t bring the drugs in America….America brings in all the drugs to keep us pressed down open your eyes and think about it.
If those two are kingpins I’m the Easter bunny
Thanks to all the officers and investigators involved. Now it’s up to the courts to do their part to ensure these criminals (alleged at this point) do not do this again. Likewise the courts must send a message to any future perpetrators that hard time awaits.
Hey Charles p why don’t you ask Mr. Hope and Change, Omalley and other Democrat Politicians that run this State? Oh wait they invited Sanctuary and they probably took those Jobs.
O’Malley runs the state? Serious question what year do you think it is?
Epic fail dipshit.
Yes he does as it will take years to undo all of the a he did to this state. It’s not like a light switch genius.
Harm*
I wonder what the traffic stop was for? If there was no probable cause for the stop, other than the police suspected drugs in the vehicle, then the search and subsequent seizures from the car and the houses is completely illegal.
Come on man. Six month of intensive investigation. I am quite sure they had plenty of PC. They had enough to arrest those guys probably months ago. They were just waiting to take them off when they were fat. What better way to substantiate your investigation than to catch them guys dirty. I know in the past we have bantered back-and-forth over PCA issues but this one seems pretty cut and dry to me.
Maybe, I was just wondering what the stop was for. The article does not say. I am under the impression that a legitimate traffic stop is required. Even speeding would do it. But pulling them over for no reason and then conducting a search may be considered, “unreasonable”. If you have any info, please share…..
Are you referring to the fruit of the poisonous tree rule, where if you have an improper search, the prosecutor can’t use the resulting evidence in court? There are exceptions to that rule, such as the independent source exception, and the inevitable discovery exception. Even if the stop was improper (not likely), it seems the independent source exception or the inevtable disovery exception would apply to the drug stashes they had in their residences. If the stop was proper and there were illegal drugs in plain view or they had exigent circumstances the police can arrest.
My guess is they scanned the car with a dog and that is acceptable, even for a seat belt violation. As far as the other stuff your mentioning, unless there is some sort of physical evidence, or plain view like you mentioned, the search is supposed to be based on probable cause. Hearsay and unsubstantiated evidence does not meet the warrant requirement. Still, the article does not mention any of the exceptions you refer to. The stop must be proper or the other searches are worthless, but you have to appeal all the way to a federal court, where your rights actually get acknowledged. Maryland, uses “domestic terrorism” tactics and intentionally improper decisions by the corrupt Court of Appeals, that try to answer and manipulate 4th amendment questions that are beyond their jurisdiction. You have to remember, Maryland is all about tricking you out of your rights, especially a 4th amendment issue that is a federal question of law. 9 times out of 10, the federal questions are already answered, but the Court of Appeals is a “domestic terrorism” organization that has little regard for the actual established federal law.
The exceptions mentioned are well established case law recognized in all US jurisdictions. If you have doubts, look at the wikipedia article on the fruit of the poisonous tree rule or doctrine, or any book on the law of criminal procedure. The prosecutor will probably raise these exception if the defense challenges the search and evidence. The articles usually don’t go into detail so of course the exceptions are not mentioned.
Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533 (1988), the Court ruled that when officers conduct two searches, the first unlawful and the second lawful, evidence seized during the second search is admissible if the second search “is genuinely independent of [the] earlier one”. This means that information gathered during the original search can not be used to institute a secondary search or the evidence is inadmissible.
Yes, you are quoting the case that establishes the modern version of the independent source exception. I am inclined to think that the exception may apply to the illegal drugs they had in their houses tht were later seized. I have heard the exception is broadly applied. We shall see with this case.
Oh they will get convicted. But it will be an illegal conviction due to the breaking of established federal law and acts of “domestic terrorism” that the Maryland Courts allow in their zeal to gain a conviction. I’ve already told you, the precedents of the Maryland Court of Appeals are acts of “domestic terrorism”. Anytime a terrorist organization such as the HIDTA Task Force makes a bust the conviction is guaranteed because the courts, prosecutors and the defendant’s own attorneys will work together to deprive them of their rights under color of law. Make no mistake, they will get convicted, but it will be due to the breaking of established federal law in a public policy of drug control that will put the defendant’s lives at danger in an unconstitutional sentence of prison. Anytime someone goes to prison their safety can not be guaranteed by the prisons and is an act dangerous to human life. I see you still feel that “domestic terrorism” is the way the legal process should work. That is unfortunate.
@SC
Please explain the basis of your hypothesis. What information do you have to substantiate your feelings that anything involving this investigation was done improperly? Sometimes your statements make me believe that you are a closet sovereign citizen who believes that the government has absolutely no jurisdiction over you or your actions. That is a little scary!!!!
I don’t have to explain my hypothesis. I already have. Let’s just say I have personal experience with the “domestic terrorism” in your county. We’ll leave it at that. I’m sorry your scared over my thoughts. Why don’t you have one of those “terrorists” you employ come to my house and murder my mother and I? I’ll be in the basement on the computer. Please murder Mom quickly, she doesn’t deserve the torture she has been put through for the last 7 years, due to your “domestic terrorism”. Now, you got me scared. I’m fearful…..
I just wanted some explanation or understanding regarding statements that you posted. Nothing more and nothing less. You may want to have your medication levels checked. In all the time that you have been posting I have have never seen more delusional and manic type behavior. I wish you the best in overcoming your issues.
Just leave him be… every time someone gets a parking ticket in Harford County we get to rehear the Saga of the Unfairly Prosecuted Drug Addict. Apparently they got a form wrong… instead of checking the box for “give medal” they checked “prosecute”.
@ Ad Nauseum – Really? What drug or drugs am I supposed to be addicted to terrorist. The only drugs I use on a daily basis are Lisinopril and Norvasc, which are blood pressure medications. Just because I don’t use marijuana anymore I’m supposed to adapt to your way of thinking? Get real, your pathetic.
@ Open Your Eyes – I don’t take the SSRI Lexapro anymore. Find a new means to attack. Just because I believe in the constitution and not the “domestic terrorism” you believe in makes me delusional or manic? I disagree. I just tell the truth, get over it and yourself. You will never get me to do what you want me to.
…’domestic terrorism’…. You like that phrase, don’t you? You use it fairly often as of late.
….I do not think it means what you think it means…
Maybe. Maybe not. There is a reason legislation was passed in 1992 to prevent the government from being sued under the title 18 USC@2331. It’s due to the fact that the government and its agents are committing acts that fit the statute. Look, if you don’t like being referred to as a “domestic terrorist”, then stop acting like one. I love this country, but I hate what our government has become. If people don’t speak out, it will just keep getting worse. I will leave you with this one last question. Do the actions of our government in recent years, fit the model our fore fathers intended, or do they resemble those in “Mein Kampf”? Just think about it. I’m done here.
Uh-oh. They better toss out all the charges because the press release didn’t disclose every bit of the investigation to Soul Crusher’s satisfaction.
This is all about ifs. I do not know the situation. As I said before, if the traffic stop was not legitimate and they were pulled over for no reason other than an ongoing CDS investigation, then the search will be illegal. If that search is illegal and they used the evidence from the search to institute secondary searches, then they are illegal too. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable asking why they were pulled over. I’m sorry you feel different.