Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FED"s Use CALEA- To Tap Nextel's "Push-To-Talk"

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 13:43:05 -0400

17 arrested in West Side drug bust

08/30/03

John Caniglia
Plain Dealer Reporter

Authorities swooped into the West Side yesterday, arresting 17 men
accused of peddling crack cocaine in the suburbs.

Drug agents seized 12 cars, about $200,000 worth of cocaine and
$130,000 in a case that led to suppliers in Mexico, California and Arizona.
The arrests came after a federal grand jury indicted the men Wednesday
on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana in
Lakewood, Brook Park and other suburbs.

The investigation, dubbed
Operation Rock Solid,
focused on sales near West
73rd Street, between Clark
and Denison avenues, and
involved more than two years
of undercover buys.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys
Joseph Pinjuh and Edward
Feran said the accused
ringleader, Randall Allman,
27, of Cleveland, and others
would fly or take trains to
Chicago, Los Angeles and
San Diego to pick up loads of
cocaine and marijuana, then
drive the drugs back to Northeast Ohio.

Once in Cleveland, they delivered it to street-level dealers, according to
the indictment. On at least a couple of occasions, though, they came
back empty-handed.

Two men - Paul Sinatra, 24, of Cleveland, and Eric Sarka, 24, of
Lakewood - were stopped at an Amtrak station in Chicago in March with
nearly $50,000, according to the indictment.

Allman and Sarka were stopped at an airport in San Diego last year with
more than $20,000. In both cases, the money was seized, but the men
were not charged.

Cleveland police and agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
had informants tape calls to Allman and others. Pinjuh said the group
used "push-to-talk" cellular phones, mistakenly believing federal agents
would never listen.

"This has to be a wake-up call to the suburbs," Pinjuh said. "When people
talk about crack, they think, I don't have to talk to my kids about that
because it's an inner-city problem.' Well, it's in the suburbs, and it's a
trend we've seen for the past few years."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

[email-masked], 216-999-4128

http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1062235923108620.xml?nohio

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