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http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/42724422.html
THE POLICE Department's elite Narcotics Field Unit is supposed to go after big fish - kingpins who package mounds of drugs behind closed doors.
But Officer Jeffrey Cujdik and the officers who worked with him spent a lot of time shooting fish in a barrel.
Day after day, they busted mom-and-pop store owners, most of whom were immigrants with no criminal records, on misdemeanor charges for selling little ziplock bags, which police say are used to package crack cocaine and marijuana.
In six months alone, Cujdik's squad and another squad, which included his brother, Richard, raided 22 bodegas, boutiques, tobacco shops and other stores for drug paraphernalia, according to a Daily News analysis of search-warrant applications between July and December 2007.
That number is seven times more than the unit's 10 other squads combined. Those 10 squads - made up of more than 100 officers - raided only three stores during the same period.
The Daily News over the past three weeks has uncovered allegations leveled by 15 store owners that Cujdik, his brother, and officers who worked with them, destroyed or cut wires to surveillance cameras during the raids. Once the cameras went dark, thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise disappeared, contend the store owners, all of whom were arrested. Their stores were left in shambles. Before the officers left and locked the stores, they allegedly helped themselves to snacks, drinks and cigarettes, and left refrigerator doors open, spoiling the food inside. They swept merchandise from the shelves onto the floor, the merchants said.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said that officers target merchants who sell the ziplock bags because the sales hurt the quality of life in the neighborhood by attracting drug dealers.
"It's a law and unless the law changes, it's enforceable," he said.
"The issue is whether the conduct of the police officers was appropriate. If it's found to be not appropriate, well, then we'll take care of it," he added.
Jeremiah Daley, who headed the Police Department's narcotics division from 1998 to 2002, said paraphernalia cases were not a priority during his tenure.
In fact, his officers had only a handful of such cases during those five years, he said.
"The main focus of the Narcotics Field Unit was to investigate violent drug-related organizations and neighborhood drug traffickers inside residential and commercial properties," Daley said.
The lopsided number of raids conducted by the two squads for which the Cujdik brothers worked, coupled with the store owners' allegations, has triggered concern as to the officers' priorities and motives.
"Rogue cops were using [the law] as an excuse to harass, intimidate, steal from, and destroy your store and hurt your business," said Curtis Rider, whose Pearl of Africa store on South Street was among the 22 raided.
"They really wanted to just come in and get game [steal]. It was a nightmare."
A local criminologist characterizes store owners like Rider as "easy targets."
"These guys are low-lying fruit for a crooked cop," said Patrick Carr, a sociology professor at Rutgers University who specializes in ways to combat crime and drugs.
"By all accounts, these cops are not playing by the rules . . . The number of raids that took place, it just reeks like last month's fish," he said. "There's no altruism in what they're doing. It's naked self-interest."
Jeffrey Cujdik is at the center of an expanding federal and local probe into allegations that he lied on search-warrant applications to gain access to suspected drug homes and became too close with his informants. Investigators are now looking at other officers who worked with Cujdik, as well as the store owners' allegations.
Cujdik, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, has been placed on desk duty and has been forced to surrender his police-issued pistol. His attorney maintains that Cujdik is innocent.
THE POLICE Department's elite Narcotics Field Unit is supposed to go after big fish - kingpins who package mounds of drugs behind closed doors.
But Officer Jeffrey Cujdik and the officers who worked with him spent a lot of time shooting fish in a barrel.
Day after day, they busted mom-and-pop store owners, most of whom were immigrants with no criminal records, on misdemeanor charges for selling little ziplock bags, which police say are used to package crack cocaine and marijuana.
In six months alone, Cujdik's squad and another squad, which included his brother, Richard, raided 22 bodegas, boutiques, tobacco shops and other stores for drug paraphernalia, according to a Daily News analysis of search-warrant applications between July and December 2007.
That number is seven times more than the unit's 10 other squads combined. Those 10 squads - made up of more than 100 officers - raided only three stores during the same period.
The Daily News over the past three weeks has uncovered allegations leveled by 15 store owners that Cujdik, his brother, and officers who worked with them, destroyed or cut wires to surveillance cameras during the raids. Once the cameras went dark, thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise disappeared, contend the store owners, all of whom were arrested. Their stores were left in shambles. Before the officers left and locked the stores, they allegedly helped themselves to snacks, drinks and cigarettes, and left refrigerator doors open, spoiling the food inside. They swept merchandise from the shelves onto the floor, the merchants said.
Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said that officers target merchants who sell the ziplock bags because the sales hurt the quality of life in the neighborhood by attracting drug dealers.
"It's a law and unless the law changes, it's enforceable," he said.
"The issue is whether the conduct of the police officers was appropriate. If it's found to be not appropriate, well, then we'll take care of it," he added.
Jeremiah Daley, who headed the Police Department's narcotics division from 1998 to 2002, said paraphernalia cases were not a priority during his tenure.
In fact, his officers had only a handful of such cases during those five years, he said.
"The main focus of the Narcotics Field Unit was to investigate violent drug-related organizations and neighborhood drug traffickers inside residential and commercial properties," Daley said.
The lopsided number of raids conducted by the two squads for which the Cujdik brothers worked, coupled with the store owners' allegations, has triggered concern as to the officers' priorities and motives.
"Rogue cops were using [the law] as an excuse to harass, intimidate, steal from, and destroy your store and hurt your business," said Curtis Rider, whose Pearl of Africa store on South Street was among the 22 raided.
"They really wanted to just come in and get game [steal]. It was a nightmare."
A local criminologist characterizes store owners like Rider as "easy targets."
"These guys are low-lying fruit for a crooked cop," said Patrick Carr, a sociology professor at Rutgers University who specializes in ways to combat crime and drugs.
"By all accounts, these cops are not playing by the rules . . . The number of raids that took place, it just reeks like last month's fish," he said. "There's no altruism in what they're doing. It's naked self-interest."
Jeffrey Cujdik is at the center of an expanding federal and local probe into allegations that he lied on search-warrant applications to gain access to suspected drug homes and became too close with his informants. Investigators are now looking at other officers who worked with Cujdik, as well as the store owners' allegations.
Cujdik, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, has been placed on desk duty and has been forced to surrender his police-issued pistol. His attorney maintains that Cujdik is innocent.
