Cops gun down mayor's dogs

2008-08-08 10:05

Maryland - A small town mayor whose house was raided and dogs were killed by police appears to be an innocent victim of a drug smuggling scheme, authorities said.

Police kicked in the door and stormed the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, shooting two black Labradors and seizing an unopened package with 14.5kg of marijuana inside. But the drugs evidently did not belong to him or his wife.

Police say Cheye Calvo and his wife appeared to be victims of a plan by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.

The two men under arrest include a FedEx package deliveryman; investigators said the deliveryman would drop off a package outside a home, and the other man would come by a short time later and pick it up.

A furious Calvo said on Thursday that he and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, are asking the US Justice Department to investigate the July 29 raid.

"Trinity was an innocent victim and random victim," Calvo said outside his two-storey, red-brick house in this middle-class Washington suburb of about 3 000 people. "We were harmed by the very people who took an oath to protect us."

Calvo insisted the couple's dogs were gentle creatures and said police apparently killed them "for sport", gunning down one of them as it was running away.

"Our dogs were our children," said the 37-year-old Calvo. "They were the reason we bought this house because it had a big yard for them to run in."

The mayor, who was changing his clothes when police burst in, also complained that he was handcuffed in his boxer shorts for about two hours along with his mother-in-law, and said the officers did not believe him when he told them he was the mayor. No charges were brought against Calvo or his wife, who came home in the middle of the raid.

Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin High said on Wednesday that Calvo and his family were "most likely ... innocent victims," but he would not rule out their involvement, and he defended the way the raid was conducted. He and other officials did not apologise for killing the dogs, saying the officers felt threatened.

Police announced on Wednesday they had arrested two men suspected in a plot to smuggle 189kg of marijuana, and seized a total of $3.6m in pot. Investigators said the package that arrived on Calvo's porch had been sent from Los Angeles via FedEx, and they had been tracking it ever since it drew the attention of a drug-sniffing dog in Arizona.

Police intercepted it in Maryland, and an undercover detective posing as a deliveryman took it to the Calvo home.

Calvo's defenders - including the Berwyn Heights police chief, who said his department should have been alerted ahead of time - said police had no right to enter the home without knocking.

But officials insisted they acted within the law, saying the operation was compromised when Calvo's mother-in-law saw officers approaching the house and screamed. That could have given someone time to grab a gun or destroy evidence, authorities said.

Neighbours have rallied around the couple. On Sunday night, supporters gathered on a ballfield to pay tribute to the family and the dogs.

- AP