“Crime and Punishment Week” wraps up….hopefully. 

THREE FORMER NEW ORLEANS FIREFIGHTERS WERE SENTENCED THURSDAY along with a fourth man to varying lengths of prison terms for operating a drug ring.

After a long period of surveillance and evidence-gathering in 2007, the four were arrested and indicted last November.  Faced with overwhelming evidence, they all pled guilty on April 10 and 11 of this year.

The three firefighters, Eddie Sandifer, Milton Joseph and Aaron White acted along with Damon Burkhalter to sell heroin to purchasers at White’s house and also on the premises of several fire stations in the city.

WRNO radio reports:

2 of the firefighters, 22-year-old Eddie Sandifer III and 25-year-old Milton Joseph IV pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute drugs. 

The third firefighter, 24-year-old Aaron White pleaded guilty to maintaining a drug-involved premises in the 1400 block of N. Derbigny Street.

A co-defendant, 40-year-old Damon Burkhalter, who pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute heroin, drew the longest sentence of nearly 22 years in prison, because he was found to be a “career offender” based on seven prior convictions.

Joseph was sentenced to 10 years in prison, White was ordered to serve 3 years and Sandifer drew a sentence of 18 months.

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C & P Week is almost wrapped up, anyway:

Former Fire Chief Sentenced For Embezzling

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Bruce Sames, former fire chief of Prior Lake, was sentenced in Scott County on Friday for embezzling more than $13,000 from Fire Department bank accounts.

He was sentenced to up to five years’ probation, 15 days in jail and 30 days’ community service. He is also being ordered to have a gambling assessment done.

Sames, 49, of Jordan, had been part-time fire chief since 1997. He took money from the department over a period of one year. Fire Department treasurer Brian Davis first noticed the discrepancies when he gave a $50 check to Sames for a firefighter recognition dinner, but when the checking account’s monthly statement arrived, the check amount had changed to $5,500.

Sames told county sheriff’s detectives that he had intended to repay the money, but his construction business had been slow and he had financial problems because of gambling and a divorce.

TV CHANNEL 10 WIS IN COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA is reporting from Barnwell, S. C., that the state police have arrested the Long Branch VFD fire chief on charges of embezzlement.

They say that from January 2005 through December 2007, Horace G. Delk, Jr. of Barnwell, stole more than $5,000 from the department and spent it for himself.

Delk is charged with one count of embezzlement of public funds and five counts of forgery.

He is also a paid firefighter for the city of Barnwell.

A GROWING LAW-ENFORCEMENT PROBLEM that can impact both fire and EMS units is the phenomenon of what are termed “cloned vehicles.”

Usually trucks, these are vehicles that are cosmetically decorated to look like genuine company-owned trucks so that they can be used for smuggling activities.  More often than not, the drivers will be wearing counterfeit, or stolen, uniforms of the company being imitated.

The expense and effort to acquire and prepare these trucks indicates that they are involved in major criminal activity, and as such, you can expect them to be occupied by dangerous and perhaps violent people.  If they are involved in a crash or fire, they might not be cooperative, especially if you start looking through places where they don’t want you.  Ahhhh…… just one more thing that you have to watch for while you’re out there.

The clones in these photos were taken in different states.  As you can imagine, there are clones in your county, too.  This photo collection, along with the one we used in the Morning Lineup today, were assembled and distributed by the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement.

This DirectTV clone was discovered when the officer became suspicious about a CD player installed in the dashboard. Inspection led to finding hollowed-out cable spools that contained $1.07 million in cash.

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An alert Border Patrol agent spotted this clone because he recognized the ID number on the side as being wrong. The “H” numbers are used only on Jeep vehicles while this type of van has “C” numbers. He found 31 illegals being smuggled into the country in the back.

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This cloned Texas D.O.T. truck was spotted because it had heavily-smoked window glass that is not used on the genuine highway trucks. The back seat area, truck bed and tool box were all filled with bales of marijuana.

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This work van designed to look like a contract cable tv installer’s truck was carrying nearly 800 lbs. of cocaine. What directed the police officer to investigate was the “how’s my driving?” telephone number that had “advise” spelled wrong. They later found that dialing that number connected you with one of those adult chat lines that charges 99 cents-per-minute when you call.

Again, we will repeat:  These things can show up anywhere.  Be careful.

WHILE THE DEERFIELD BEACH, FLORIDA, FIRE DEPARTMENT was out working an auto accident early Tuesday morning, a thief broke into the fire station.

After looking through a ladder truck and taking a portable radio from it, he went over to the Command Unit and started it up.  Next he drove it away from the station for about 300 yards, then ransacked it, destroying a lot of computer equipment to the tune of $10,000.

On Friday the police released a videotape recorded by the station’s security camera and asked for the public’s assistance in identifying the criminal.

Television Channel 4 has the STORY and SURVEILLANCE VIDEO.