Pattern emerges in raids on bodegas

In 1995, Payer Ahamed, who emigrated from Bangladesh, opened a store he called Mohamed's Oasis on Germantown Avenue in Tioga.

The store inventory includes small items of clothing, knickknacks, and a large assortment of fragrant oils and perfumes with bins containing hundreds of small, empty glass vials, ostensibly for the fragrances when they are decanted.

In nearly two decades in America, Ahamed, 49, never had any brushes with the law.

Until May 22, 2007.

Little did he know, but Ahamed had been targeted by a team of Narcotics Field Unit officers who increasingly turned their focus in 2007 on merchants who supplied the small zippered packets used to contain drugs. Selling them is illegal if they are intended for the drug trade.

But a disturbing pattern is emerging among many of the merchants the narcotics officers targeted. Most are immigrants with no criminal records. Many say the police helped themselves to cash and merchandise while conducting their searches - after first disabling store security cameras.

In some cases, the merchants allege that officers destroyed merchandise seemingly out of spite - crushing cartons of cigarettes or leaving freezers open to thaw while the store owners were in custody.

At Mohamed's Oasis, Officer Jeffrey Cujdik led a five-man undercover team of Philadelphia narcotics investigators into the store. They confiscated drug paraphernalia - small plastic bags used by dealers to package drugs for individual sale.

Ahamed and his wife, Rahana Ahamed, 35, were arrested and charged with possession of paraphernalia and conspiracy.

The Inquirer has identified 21 merchants who were charged in the last two years on the basis of search warrants sworn out by Jeffrey Cujdik or his brother Richard Cujdik, both members of the elite Narcotics Field Unit.

Several cases were dismissed or thrown out of court. Of those defendants who were convicted, most got less than a year of probation. None received prison sentences.

Two merchants who appealed their convictions - including Ahamed - were promptly raided again by undercover officers.

"I think it was partly retaliatory - they may have been seen as an easy target," said lawyer Todd Edward Henry, who represented Samir Almagatha, 53, whose Snyder Avenue shop in South Philadelphia was raided in 2007 and again last year after he appealed.

That and other charges are being investigated by the federal-local task force formed after allegations from a former informant. Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey says he will take action to correct any problems once the investigation is completed.

Complaints are also being filed with the department's Internal Affairs unit, spurred in part by the city's 385-member Dominican Business Association, which launched a media campaign yesterday to get bodega owners to come forward.

"This isn't just a Dominican problem . . . it's a much bigger problem," said Danilo Burgos, president of the association.

Speaking on Spanish-language radio, Burgos also asked for a meeting with Mayor Nutter and Ramsey and urged Maria D. Quiñones-Sánchez, Seventh District Council member, to call for a hearing. "I'm sure she will step up to the plate and take these allegations seriously and ask for an investigation to take place," Quetcy Lozada, director of Quiñones-Sánchez's office, said later.

"We want the truth to be explained and to make the people who broke the law to pay for it," Burgos told The Inquirer. "Our business owners need to feel comfortable when approached by the police."

The narcotics officers' alleged misconduct came to light after federal and local investigators began examining dozens of cases brought by Jeffrey Cujdik when his longtime informant alleged that the officer had falsified evidence in several cases to obtain search warrants. The Philadelphia Defenders Association moved Friday to throw out 24 convictions it said were based on allegedly false affidavits.

The raids against the neighborhood merchants, first reported in the Philadelphia Daily News, raise questions about the Police Department's tactic of sending in undercover officers when the job might be done with less expense - and less ill will in the community - by local uniformed officers.

"You'd think the first line of attack would be to send somebody in from the local district to tell the merchants to stop selling the paraphernalia," said Henry, Almagatha's attorney.

But Ramsey says police often target merchants in response to community complaints about drug activity in or around stores. Enforcing anti-paraphernalia laws is a legitimate response, he said, as long as police do not misbehave.

"It's a quality-of-life issue, and it's one we take very seriously," Ramsey said. "But it's not an excuse for officers to go in and overstep their authority. Certainly, if you're going into a store and drink a bottle of Pepsi or a bottle of water and a bag of chips, that's unacceptable. That's totally inappropriate, if that in fact is what's going on."

A law enforcement source familiar with Jeffrey Cujdik's squad said those officers had a reputation for helping themselves to food and drinks during raids. The source said a supervisor in another squad instructed his officers not to mimic that behavior, advising that it was illegal.

Ramsey and Deputy Commissioner William C. Blackburn said some merchants who sell paraphernalia also sell drugs. But in only three of the 21 cases examined were the defendants also charged with drug possession.

John J. McNesby, president of Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police, who spent 10 years as a narcotics officer, said the store owners would not change their behavior if uniformed officers encouraged them to stop selling paraphernalia.

"It doesn't work like that," he said. "They're not going to stop selling it, because there's a lot of money in it."

The police union claims the merchants are lying because they didn't file complaints with police Internal Affairs. Some merchants have told The Inquirer that they were too frightened to complain to police but that they immediately told their attorneys.

Ahamed, the Bangladeshi merchant, said the police were rough and "cursed a lot" during the 2007 raid. Charges were dismissed against his wife. He appealed his conviction in September 2007, and his store was raided again three weeks later.

His appeal succeeded - the charges were not prosecuted - and a judge dismissed charges in the second arrest for "lack of prosecution."

Some merchants said they did not report alleged misconduct because their attorneys advised them it was not worth the effort to complain because judges tend to favor police testimony.

"I want to fight the case," said Jose Duran, 28, who said police pillaged his West Oak Lane shop on Sept. 11, 2007. But Duran said his attorney had arranged for him to get nine months of probation, and he did not pursue his fight.

"They did helluva damage," said Duran, a native of the Dominican Republic, who alleged the officers took about $10,000 from the store, along with cartons of cigarettes and snacks.

The officers dismantled his video-surveillance system before conducting their search, but not before a backup system captured images of the officers cutting wires to the cameras. The video is posted on Philly.com.

Some merchants said they were terrified when police raided their stores.

Du Hyon and Yun Kyung Nam, who go by David and Eunice Nam, said police smashed through the door of their tobacco shop in the 6000 block of North Fifth Street in Olney in July 2007.

They were confused by the guns at first until they realized the armed men were police.

David Nam, 62, said the officers quickly dismantled the security cameras. Then the officers ordered the Nams - immigrants from South Korea - to put their personal belongings, including keys and wallets, on a countertop.

"I was so scared," said Eunice Nam, 56, her hand clutching her chest. The two were handcuffed and spent the night in jail.

According to the search-warrant application Jeffrey Cujdik filed, a confidential informant had spent $40 to buy "rock bags" a few days before the raid. He said David Nam showed him a chart with different sizes and colors, and the informant selected one.

When the Nams returned to the store, they said merchandise, including cigars and cigarettes, was missing. Other boxes of cigarettes had been thrown to the floor and crushed, they said.

About $4,000 was also missing, but they said police documented only about $2,500.

According to court records, a municipal judge last year found the Nams guilty of possession of drug paraphernalia and criminal conspiracy. They appealed the verdict and lost last Monday.

Jenkintown lawyer Jon Fox said authorities were planning to seize the Nams' store through forfeiture. The Nams agreed not to pursue further appeals and authorities agreed not to pursue forfeiture. The Nams were put on six months of probation.

"They're good people. They did the right thing. They came to America, worked hard, and were recognized for their contributions to the community," Fox said, referring to their support of the Police Athletic League and other youth programs. "This is insanity.

"These people are as straight-shooting, law-abiding citizens as you can find," Fox said. "They didn't know what these bags were used for."