Sting Operation

Forty-one people were arrested during a six-hour undercover sting operation aimed at cracking down on prostitution in Sepulveda, Los Angeles police said Sunday. The "trick task force" netted 39 men, one woman and a 17-year-old boy between 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday, said Sgt. Mike Krecioch. The operation centered on the area near the intersection of Nordhoff Street and Sepulveda Boulevard, which has experienced problems with prostitution for some time, Krecioch said.

An unidentified man wearing what he thought was a suicide vest packed with explosives was arrested near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington by FBI agents who had been closely monitoring him in an undercover sting operation, officials announced Friday. “I can confirm there is an arrest of a suspect in Washington D.C. in connection with a terrorism  investigation,” said Bill Carter, a spokesman at FBI headquarters. “It is the culmination of an undercover operation in which the suspect was closely monitored by law enforcement.

Law enforcement officials on Thursday conducted a sting operation in Moorpark in an effort to stem a rash of bicycle thefts that have taken place since June. During the one-day operation at three shopping areas--Lucky, Albertson's and Kmart--authorities from the Ventura County Sheriff's Department apprehended one 17-year-old who allegedly was trying to steal a BMX bike, authorities said. The boy was arrested on suspicion of petty theft but later released, authorities said.

Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, FBI Director Robert Mueller issued a memo to his field offices detailing "one set of priorities" for the agency: Stop the next terrorist attack. This directive marked a new "preemptive" style of law enforcement that has since become the hallmark of our domestic front in the war against terrorism. Under this system, catching an actual terrorist would constitute a failure because the perpetrators would have committed the act. Instead, we are in effect seeking "pre-terrorists" — individuals whose intentions, more than their actions, constitute the primary threat.

Two Oxnard convenience store workers were arrested on suspicion of selling alcohol to minors during a sting operation, police said. Jose Cardenas, 36, of Santa Barbara, co-owner of La Carneceria, 244 North A St., and Linda Karen Diaz, 43, of Oxnard, a clerk at Express Mini Mart, 400 W. Pleasant Valley Road, were arrested Tuesday after selling alcohol to two teenagers, ages 16 and 17, who were working for the police. The two workers were given citations and released.

A criminal complaint has been filed against an auto repairman accusing him of grand theft and insurance fraud after a sting operation by state authorities. The investigation was triggered by a woman who complained to the state Bureau of Automotive Repair that Liberty Auto Center operator Mark Nodd billed her insurance company for car repairs that were never done, said Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert. The shop, which was located in the 9500 block of DeSoto Avenue, has since moved, Lambert said.

The Supreme Court said Monday that it would decide whether government agents may repeatedly entice a presumably innocent person to commit a crime, setting the stage for a major ruling on sting operations. The justices agreed to hear an appeal from a 60-year-old Nebraska farmer who was sent at least 10 mailings by Postal Service inspectors trying to interest him in child pornography.

All wasps are distinguishable from bees by their slender waists and long, slim bodies. But the name "wasp" is commonly given to four closely related flying insects: yellow jackets, hornets, mud daubers and paper wasps. Identifying Wasps The easiest way to tell these wasps apart is by the nests they build. Yellow jackets, which make their homes in the ground, can be spotted buzzing around their underground nest entrance. The other three types of wasps nest above ground.

The U.S. has apologized for not letting Mexican authorities in on a sting operation against a money-laundering network involving 12 of Mexico's biggest banks. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called Foreign Minister Rosario Green after Mexico complained that its sovereignty had been violated. President Clinton also expressed regret on the matter to his counterpart, Ernesto Zedillo.

San Diego police continued a crackdown on men who solicit prostitutes by conducting their second vice operation in as many weekends. On Friday night, police arrested 20 men for soliciting women officers posing as prostitutes near the 2200 block of El Cajon Boulevard. Police said the sting operation was conducted between 9 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. Those arrested were booked at the new city jail and charged with misdemeanor counts of soliciting prostitution.

Congressional Republicans have been upset at the management at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which authorized a botched sting operation near the Mexican border that put guns in the hands of drug criminals. But Republican leaders, responding to complaints from gun-rights lobbyists, have refused to confirm a director for the bureau since it was split from the Treasury Department eight years ago. "They have had nothing but acting directors. Do you wonder why some things would go wrong there?"

A federal firearms investigation that allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of Mexican smugglers was closely monitored by the very top leaders of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to internal emails released Wednesday by a congressional committee. The head of the ATF was briefed weekly on the operation, the emails show, and had asked for access to an online video stream that showed buyers going into the gun shop that was part of the sting operation.

Two men who officials said complained that Muslims "were being treated like dogs" were accused Thursday of conspiring to blow up a synagogue and were being held on terrorism and hate-crime charges in New York. The men were arrested Wednesday night while they buying guns and an inert hand grenade from undercover officers, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at an afternoon news conference attended by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus R. Vance Jr. The case began before the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden on May 2 during a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

How do we break this to Ponch? Federal regulators on Thursday brought securities fraud charges against more than a dozen penny-stock promoters ? including Larry Wilcox, who played California Highway Patrol officer Jonathan "Jon" Baker on the hit TV show "CHiPs" in the late 1970s and early '80s. The Securities and Exchange Commission said it caught the promoters in "various illicit kickback schemes to manipulate the volume and price of microcap stocks and illegally generate stock sales.

Venus Mason wasn't wearing her uniform at the Los Angeles Police Department's press conference outside the Starbucks on Crenshaw Boulevard. With her bright blouse, matching necklace and auburn-tipped dreadlocks, she looked more like the folks watching from the sidewalk than like her fellow police officers behind the microphones. That seemed fitting to me, given Det. Mason's role in the drama that brought us together to mark the arrest of a local man on a murder warrant. This was no high-profile case, like the Grim Sleeper.

An insurance fraud sting targeting auto body repair shops in Orange County ended with the arrest of 53 mechanics Wednesday and Thursday, including Richard Evans, who once appeared on the Speed Channel reality show "Chop Cut Rebuild." Evans owns Huntington Beach Bodyworks. The Orange County district attorney's office conducted 152 covert investigations from January to May in Operation Straight Body, which targeted repair shops that had received consumer complaints over the last three years, authorities said.

The city has received the 1998 California Cities Helen Putman Award for Excellence for a sting operation orchestrated by its police department, officials announced Wednesday. Redondo Beach was one of 23 cities to receive the award from the California League of Cities, said Clark Goeker, the league's assistant director. The award will be presented Oct. 4 at the league's Centennial Annual Conference in Long Beach. The Redondo Beach Police Department was elated at the news, said Capt. Jeff Cameron."

A secretary to a high-ranking Walt Disney Co. executive thought she and her boyfriend were about to pull off an alleged insider-trading scheme — and she wanted to celebrate with a Stella McCartney handbag from Neiman Marcus. "Here is the bag that you are going to get for me," Bonnie Jean Hoxie, a secretary for Zenia Mucha, Disney's head of corporate communications, allegedly wrote in an e-mail to her boyfriend this month. After the boyfriend, Yonni Sebbag, replied that they may reap a windfall from their plot, Hoxie added to her wish list, according to court documents.

One of Iran's most acclaimed film directors has been detained amid an ongoing government crackdown against the opposition, an official said Tuesday. Jafar Panahi, an award-winning director of neorealist films exploring Iran's social topography, along with his wife, 20-year-old daughter and 15 guests were reportedly arrested at his home Monday night in murky circumstances under unspecified charges. Among the guests, according to the reformist news website Aftab, were documentary filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof and his cameraman.