Body in river
Police are seeking the identity of a woman whose body was found in the East River off East River Park on Mon., April 23, and who may have been the victim of a crime. She had several tattoos: three butterflies on the left side of her neck, a tribal rose tattoo below her neck and another on her left foot, a linear tribal tattoo in the middle of her back and a tribal design on her left pelvis, police said.
The victim also had a round tongue stud with a marijuana leaf symbol. She was wearing three rings, one with the letters “Chi” on the top part of the band, and a yellow metal chain necklace. The victim may have been Asian. She was between the ages of 30 and 40, 5 feet 5 inches and was wearing black Nike sneakers, a red hooded sweatshirt and red sweatpants.
The Seventh Precinct Detectives Squad is asking informants to phone 212-477-7671.
L.E.S. shooting
An argument among teenagers near the corner of Madison and Rutgers Sts. near the LaGuardia and Rutgers Houses at 4:30 a.m. Mon., May 14, ended with gunfire and one man, Eddie Maldonado, 18, hit in the hand and thigh, and taken to Bellevue Hospital in stable condition. Plainclothes police on the Rutgers grounds on another matter gave chase to two people fleeing from the scene and fired one shot at one of the suspects, who turned and pointed a .22-caliber pistol at them, police said. A 16-year-old from Brooklyn, believed to be the one who pointed the pistol, was arrested, but no weapon was found. The other suspects escaped.
White money scam
The F.B.I. arrested Calvin Swen in the lounge of the Tribeca Grand hotel on Tuesday night May 1 and charged him with conspiracy and fraud in connection with a scheme involving the attempted sale of “white money” to an F.B.I. undercover agent.
Swen, known as Jerome, and an unnamed co-conspirator, met the undercover on April 20 and offered what was purported to be stacks of U.S. $100 bills that the government had originally intended as aid for Sierra Leone, Africa, but had dyed white to fool rebels who had hijacked previous money shipments, according to the complaint.
The conspirators told the undercover that the white paper could be converted back into legal tender by using special chemicals and legitimate $100 bills, and they gave a demonstration of the process, the compliant says.
The conspirators then agreed to give the undercover $10 million in $100 bills of white money, and the undercover said he would furnish $5 million in $100 bills of legitimate money to be used to convert the white money. For that service, the undercover was to get 30 percent of the white money, according to court papers.
They met again on the afternoon of May 1 in the Tribeca Grand to close the deal, first in a room where they had a disagreement on how the exchange was to happen. The undercover wanted to see the white money first and “Jerome” wanted to see the $5 million legitimate money first, court papers say.
At 7 p.m. that day, the undercover met Jerome again in the Tribeca Grand lounge, where Jerome brought a rolling duffle bag with eight large bricks of white paper, each of which Jerome said was $500,000 of white money. Jerome said the co-conspirator would bring the other $6 million in white money. However, the co-conspirator did not appear and Swen, alias Jerome, was arrested, according to the complaint.
Swen was released with travel restrictions on a bond of $250,000, pending a court appearance next month.
Dishonest guest
A woman who lives on W. 21st St. told police on Sun., May 6, that she met a man in a local bar whom she thought was a friend of her friends and invited him to her apartment. She showed him around the apartment, and after he left a couple of hours later, she discovered that her gold sapphire ring valued at $5,000 and other jewelry valued at $2,400 were gone, police said.
Noise dispute
A resident of W. 18th St. near Eighth Ave. told police on Sat., May 5, that he was looking out of his window that faces a back yard that he shares with Helen’s, a bar at 169 Eighth Ave., when a man came into the yard from a back door of Helen’s and shouted abusive words at him. The resident acknowledged that he has a running dispute about noise coming from the bar.
Stabbed on street
A man who was walking with a woman friend on the northwest corner of Eighth Ave. at 15th St. on Sunday evening May 6 was stabbed in the lower left side of his abdomen for no apparent reason by a stranger, police said. The victim was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in stable condition.
Marijuana arrest
Police arrested three men in a car parked at the curb on the north side of W. 17th St. just east of Ninth Ave. at 11:20 p.m. Tues., May 8, and charged them with possession of a large amount of concentrated cannabis with intent to sell. Mark Espada, 20; Morris Douge, 19; and Reynaldo Rivera, 20, were charged.
Albert Amateau
