ICE Agent Leads Police on 45-Minute Chase After Getting Busted in Marijuana Smuggling Sting

 Jason Alistair Lowery, 34, is a deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and customs enforcement. He's also allegedly a weed smuggler who led authorities on a 45-minute chase -- in his government-owned vehicle -- after getting busted in a marijuana smuggling sting.

Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer Carrick Cook tells New Times that DPS has been monitoring Lowery for several weeks after a known smuggler tipped off authorities that he was working with a law enforcement official.

"Initially, we kind of dismissed [the smuggler's claims]," Cook says. "Independent sources found out later that the information was credible."

Cook says that after monitoring Lowery for several weeks, authorities stashed 23 bundles of weed in the desert in the Vekol Valley, about 45 minutes South of Phoenix. Officers watched as Lowery loaded 14 of the 23 bundles into his government-owned vehicle and took off.

Cook wouldn't say how Lowery knew the weed would be there, but says the information was disseminated through the proper channels.

When police attempted to pull him over, Lowery stopped briefly before taking off into the desert, Cook says.

The chase reached speeds of up to 110 miles per hour, and Lowery was seen throwing 10 of the 14 bails of marijuana out of the vehicle as he attempted to evade law enforcement.

The chase came to an end when Lowery flipped the vehicle he was driving, and surrendered to police.

Authorities believe Lowery was taking the weed to the home of 33-year-old Joshua Duane Powell, of Arizona City, who is currently out on bail for other felony charges. According to Cook, Powell already faces "decades in prison" for his previous crimes.

According to DPS documents first obtained by the Associated Press, Powell was previously arrested after a separate investigation last month turned up multiple bulletproof vests, weapons, stolen night-vision equipment, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and various drugs inside his home.

According to document, "since [Powell's] release only a few weeks ago, he has amassed a small arsenal of weapons and has proven to continue involvement in the illicit drug trade."

When police searched Powell's home yesterday, they found 14 rifles and guns in the trunk of his car, seven of which had been reported stolen.

Lowery was booked into Pima County jail on charges of smuggling and felony flight. Powell was also booked into jail on similar charges.

ICE spokesman Vinnie Picard issued a statement about Lowery's arrest, saying "ICE is cooperating with federal and state authorities in this matter. We hold our officers and agents to the highest levels of responsibility and are committed to supporting the agencies investigating this incident." 


http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/10/ice_agent_leads_police_on_45-m.php#more

Ex-Chandler officer Dan Lovelace, at center of Florence prison abuse probe

A former Chandler cop now working as a Pinal County detention officer is under internal investigation after using pepper spray on a detainee.

Dan Lovelace, who was at the center of two wrongful death suits that cost Chandler more than $4.6 million, was hired by the Sheriff's Office in mid-2009.

A Sheriff's Office statement said Lovelace used a "short burst of pepper spray" on an ICE detainee after he had defecated on the floor of a holding area and did not respond to detention officers' commands Dec. 11.

Lovelace has been transferred to another position within the department and does not have contact with inmates until the investigation is complete. Results are expected later this week.

The statement said the Professional Standards Unit reviews each use-of-force incident.

Lovelace shot and killed an Ahwatukee woman trying to fill a forged prescription at a Chandler drug store drive-through in 2002 while her toddler sat in the back seat. He was fired and charged with second-degree murder. A jury acquitted him, and in 2005 Lovelace fought unsuccessfully to get his job back.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu -- a Chandler police officer and union leader before voters put him in office -- sat with supporters at some of those proceedings. In 2009, he hired Lovelace to work in a Florence jail.

Babeu in 2009 said the college-educated Lovelace was hired in May and completed an eight-week detention officer training course in Tucson where he was selected to speak to his graduating class.

He is working in the Pinal County Adult Detention Center in Florence, which houses up to 1,504 pretrial inmates, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, and individuals sentenced to county lockup. Corrections officers do not carry weapons, nor do they enforce the law, Babeu said.

The 2002 shooting death of Dawn Rae Nelson, 35, ended Lovelace's career on the Chandler force but many came to his defense. Two of the jurors who acquitted him of murder charges later befriended him and showed up at personnel hearings as Lovelace fought to get his job back.

A motorcycle officer at the time of shooting death, Lovelace also had been involved in a 2000 high-speed chase that killed a college student. He was given a letter of reprimand for not using his siren in the chase.

The city settled wrongful-death lawsuits in both cases and paid out more than $4.6 million.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/2010/12/21/20101221pinal-lovelace-under-investigation.html

Joe Arpaio's 168 287(g) Officers: Names, Ranks, Serial Numbers, Etc.

Sharing is caring. That's why I'm posting a link to a list of the names, ranks, serial numbers, hire dates, and pay rates for Sheriff Joe Arpaio's 287(g)-trained deputies. (You can view the list, here.) These are the deputies trained by the feds to enforce federal immigration law, and according to this roster released by the sheriff's office in response to a public records request, there are 168 of the Hispanic-hunting gendarmes in Arpaio's ranks.

Notable names include Sgt. Brett "Shut Up" Palmer, known for making hostile remarks toward elected county and city officials during an MCSO press conference earlier this year; Deputy Loren Gaytan, the MCSO's liaison to the town of Guadalupe and a participant in the MCSO's notorious Honduras project, training law enforcement down there; and Officer Anthony Reese, who may have been present when immigrant Maria del Carmen Garcia Martinez's arm was broken in MCSO custody.

Oddly, neither SWAT Team Captain David Letourneau, nor Lieutenant Joe Sousa are listed as being 287(g)-trained, though both are usually part of MCSO's anti-immigrant sweeps and raids.

I had asked ICE for this list through a FOIA request. But despite the vaunted "transparency" of the Obama administration, the feds responded to my request with a document wherein the actual names of the deputies involved were redacted. The MCSO to its credit simply coughed up the list shortly after I asked for it.

Recently, certain human rights activists in town have informed me that they've been trying to obtain this list to no avail, so now everyone will have it at their disposal. After all, whether they like it or not, these deputies are public servants. We pay their salaries, and have a right to know who they are.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/08/joe_arpaios_168_287g_officers.php

Joe Arpaio's Guards Break Woman's Arm, ICE Releases Her on Own Recognizance

Maria del Carmen Garcia Martinez, after being released from ICE custody.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a suspected illegal immigrant Thursday night after it was determined that her arm had been broken while she was in MCSO custody.

Maria del Carmen Garcia Martinez was released on her own recognizance, her left arm slung in a cast after she received treatment at St. Joseph's. She had been turned over to ICE earlier in the day by the MCSO. ICE took her to St. Joseph's for medical attention, photographed her injuries and released her with a pending court date around 8 p.m. from its offices on Central Ave.

Martinez, being greeted by her family outside ICE's Central Avenue HQ.

Martinez, 46, was met by her family, Respect/Respeto activist Lydia Guzman and a couple of reporters, including yours truly. Her left arm was swollen as was her leg and ankle. As her daughter Sandra translated, she explained that she was recently arrested by the Phoenix Police Department, after she was questioned about posting signs for a yard sale.

She said she was arrested for a having a fraudulent I.D., even though her I.D. was an out-of-date I.D. card from California, according to her. Martinez was then collared and booked into MCSO custody.

(Oddly, the Phoenix PD's on-call spokesperson, an Officer Holmes, said he could find no record of Martinez in their system.)

While in custody at Lower Buckeye Jail, Martinez said she was brutalized by six MCSO detention officers, who were trying to get her to put her fingerprints on a voluntrary removal order, a document wherein an undocumented foreign national gives his or her consent to be repatriated.

(Lydia Guzman asserted that sometimes MCSO will attempt to get a fingerprint instead of a signature for the VR form. An ICE spokesman had no immediate explanation for this procedure.)

Martinez refused, as was her right, but the officers tried to force her, she said. They stepped on her, twisted her arm, and beat her. She noticed that one of the officers was Hispanic.

"Why are you doing this to me, when you came from Mexico also," she told the Hispanic guard.

She was placed in a cell by herself, and later that night she was visited by eight MCSO officers, who warned her to sign the VR, or, "We're all going to get you," she said they told her.

Martinez's right hand was swollen, and stained with blue ink.

A fellow inmate advised Martinez's daughter that her mother had been beat down. She feared for her mother's life, and advised her lawyers, who filed an emergency stay on Martinez's behalf.

According to her daughter Sandra, Martinez was a housemom, who stayed home and took care of the family. Martinez's husband works as a handyman. They came here three years ago from California, looking for a less expensive way of life.

"I'm proud of her, and I'm glad that she's out," said Sandra, her eyes welling with tears. "I couldn't sleep. I would think of her, and cry every night because I missed her so much."

Ironically, because the MCSO has apparently abused her, Martinez may get to stay in this country permanently, noted Guzman, who has been following the case since Martinez was arrested.

For updates on this item, check this related Bird column, and this Feathered Bastard blog update.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/03/joe_arpaios_goons_break_womans.php