Tacet Thursday

40 In A 45

Boosting Gattuso Google Rankings

I added a recent picture of my Virginia State Policeman, Special Agent Anthony (Tony) Gattuso, to the sidebar of one of my other sites.

Notice just the hint of a smile on his face? The image doesn’t do him justice; he’s positively gorgeous!

DC Federal Bureau Of Investigation Demands End To ID Checking

Shout Out To All My Department Of Justice Readers, Yo!

FBI Dodge Charger XVX-7684

News That Makes You Go “Hmm…”

Charlottesville man arrested during jail visit

A Charlottesville man was arrested on drug charges Sunday when he went to visit someone in the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail, police officials said.

The arrest comes less than five months after Indio Martinez, 22, was released from state prison for his role in a 2008 shooting of a Charlottesville teenager.

Martinez was arrested on Sunday on two counts of distribution of cocaine, according to information from the Albemarle County Police Department.

He was being held without bond Wednesday in the jail where he was arrested.

Court records show an Albemarle County grand jury indicted Martinez on the drug charges on June 6.

Albemarle County Police Sgt. Darrell Byers said jail officials called the police Sunday evening after Martinez showed up for inmate visitation.

“It is routine for the jail to check for warrants when someone comes in for visitation,” Byers said on Wednesday. “We got a call from the jail that a wanted person was in their lobby and we went over and picked him up.”

Byers said he did not know specifics about the charges against Martinez or if they are related to the drug case against his older brother, Pee Wee Carmello Martinez, also 22.

Pee Wee Carmello Martinez was arrested on Feb. 21 after members of the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force initiated a traffic stop on Interstate 64 in eastern Albemarle County, according to a JADE media release at the time.

At the time of Pee Wee Carmello Martinez’ arrest, investigators said there were more arrests expected in the case.

(More)

Electrochemical Cells

I remember way back when, Detective Paul Best informed me his primary role in the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement (JADE) Task Force was playing electronic handy-man; he’d fix up the dilapidated devices employed by their officers so that they would be in at least quasi-functional shape for surveillance operations. While we spoke in length about the sorry condition of much of their gear, I never thought to ask him about what powers the equipment -- a point that’s kind of weird for somebody like me, who thrives on minutia, to neglect. Too late now to fish for such information from any of their members myself.

These are the batteries utilized by the Virginia State Police (VSP) Criminal Intelligence Division (CID) Technical Support Unit (TSU):


According to my super-sexy source, the VSP are only permitted to use each electricity supplier once per investigation because they can’t risk having an old one go dead when they’re surreptitiously, say, taping a suspect confessing illegal activities to a wire-wearing snitch. Makes sense.

I’m told, however, at the Parham Road Richmond office, the voltaic piles are recycled. Upon removal they’re dropped in a box, and Special Agents and Troopers are free to take and install them in incidental contraptions non-essential to work-conducted procedures.

It may or may not be ironic that the AAs which run the camera I tote to shoot pictures of VA State Policemen and the AAAs which drive the Olympus I carry to also record them came out of that very box. It definitely is, though, in my opinion, wicked funny.