Drug-Trafficking Charges Outline Insurance Plot
|
|
A federal grand jury in Baltimore has indicted 31 people on drug-trafficking charges, officials announced yesterday, alleging a sophisticated and unusual operation in which illegal profits were laundered by purchasing life insurance policies for drug users and others, without their knowledge. Authorities allege that Paulette Martin, 57, of Takoma Park and Richard Gunn, 52, an insurance agent in Burtonsville, acquired at least 17 life insurance policies over almost a decade. “Some of those individuals did die sudden and violent deaths,” said a law enforcement official familiar with the case who spoke on condition on anonymity because the information is considered sensitive. “The investigation into the circumstances surrounding those deaths continues.” Payments from the policies taken out for those who have since died generated hundreds of thousands of dollars, the official said. Proceeds were collected as recently as March. The defendants were not charged in connection with the deaths. The indictment alleges drug offenses and mail and wire fraud. “This is sort of a novel and potentially cutting-edge form of identity theft,” said Evan Hendricks, editor of Privacy Times, a Washington newsletter. “This is definitely a new spin, and it’s quite a scary one, actually, in the sense that you start stealing people’s identities and it only pays off when they die. That builds in all the wrong incentives.” More : washingtonpost.com |