http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/06/police.impersonators.ap/index.html

Apparently, this 'gang' had been doing this for a while....

interesting read

Quote :

" NEW YORK (AP) -- A gang of police impersonators abducted and tortured cocaine traffickers, forcing them to hand over multimillion-dollar stashes by holding their families hostage or threatening to squeeze their testicles with pliers, authorities said Tuesday. An indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, charged eight men with robbery conspiracy, drug dealing and an array of other crimes. Since spring 2003, the gang injured about 100 people while committing 100 holdups targeting large-scale traffickers in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, investigators said. The take: $4 million in cash and more than 1,650 pounds of cocaine worth $20 million, which authorities say the men sold on the streets of New York. Sometimes, abduction attempts led to shootouts between the robbery crew and associates of the drug dealers, authorities said. The scheme "was breathtaking in the scope of its crimes and in the danger it posed to our communities," U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell said. Authorities seized several kilograms of cocaine, more than 20 handguns, handcuffs, police scanners and vehicles equipped with lights and sirens. The men, court papers said, "were particularly sophisticated in their tactics," often conducting surveillance on the drug dealers for weeks before arming themselves with handguns and making "a police-style car stop" in cars equipped with lights and sirens. Other times, the gang gained entry into victims' homes by identifying themselves as police officers and then holding entire families hostage at gunpoint for days on end. The victims were handcuffed, bound with duct tape and subjected to various means of torture during interrogations, including "simulated drowning through repeated submerging of victims' heads in water for extended periods of time," the court papers said. One victim told investigators that during a 2005 abduction, two of the defendants "applied a pair of pliers to the victim's testicles and threatened to squeeze the pliers if the victim did not talk," the papers added. Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson described the crime spree as "a dangerous dance of alleged criminals preying upon alleged criminals, who themselves profited from the desperation of drug abusers." The defendants, all from the Dominican Republic, were ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty Tuesday in Brooklyn. If convicted, each faces a sentence of 40 years to life behind bars."

5/8/2008 12:06:11 PM

i've read reports of this going on - on a small scale, but this is new (not for the mob though).

5/8/2008 12:11:09 PM

No kidding. I guess that's how they get down in the Dominican Republic

5/8/2008 12:20:20 PM

I, personally, have memorized what the local police and sheriff's badges and uniforms look like, and would be suspicious of people in plain clothes flashing badges or wearing "POLICE" t-shirts. Movie-prop badges can be bought by anyone with titles like "metropolitan police" or "special agent", so look closely if someone flashes one at you. Most real badges have the specific agency's name on them. Official-looking ID cards are easy to fake, too, so the only thing you can really do is call the department to verify a dubious cop. Of course if a gun were thrust in your face it wouldn't matter whether or not it was a real cop.

5/8/2008 5:00:51 PM

^spoken like a true police impersonator

5/8/2008 5:03:11 PM

at least they're doing it to criminals and not raping women driving on country roads.

5/8/2008 5:20:13 PM

it's just all sorts of fucked up I think

5/8/2008 5:29:04 PM

Quote :

"Of course if a gun were thrust in your face it wouldn't matter whether or not it was a real cop."

problem is that you wouldn't know if the person was real or fake by their badge unless they were close enough to hold you with a gun.

i saw a person get pulled over and they drove until they reached a busy fast food parking lot. pretty much your only resort if you believe something is fishy.

5/8/2008 5:38:53 PM

^ yep, and by that point in time, if it's a real cop they'll probably be pissed that you didn't stop as soon as the sirens went off.

then drag you out of the car by your hair, and shoot you with a taser
until you die

5/8/2008 5:41:11 PM

i'd be down with this if they burned the drugs and kept the money. the fact that they re-sold the drugs deserves life.

5/9/2008 10:11:14 AM

Yet more reason that drugs should be legal.

5/9/2008 10:18:30 AM

^^ well, I can't say that I would be down for that....

but yeah, that basically turns them from a group of vigilante justice into organized crooks

5/9/2008 11:32:14 AM

Drug prohibition has definitely created way more problems than we had 40 or 50 years ago. It's turned the government into our mommy, telling us that drugs are bad for us and punishing us if we use them, when we, as adults, should be free to make that choice for ourselves. The war on drugs has created more violent crime due to the laws of supply and demand. There's a huge demand for recreational drugs, and a limited supply due to prohibition, therefore the prices are through the roof. Did we learn nothing from the 1920s? So addicts steal and rob to get the money to afford their habits, and dealers and druglords kill to protect their interests. With more violent people in the population, cops become paranoid and violent in response, viewing everyone as a potential criminal and treating decent people like shit. So then violence becomes the expected norm among cops, and you get both real and fake cops who get a power trip from pushing people around because of their own mental health issues. In return, people develop a distrust & dislike of cops, which turns cops into even bigger assholes because nobody likes them.

5/9/2008 12:19:52 PM