BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. — Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table.
Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple’s two dogs and seizing the unopened package.
In it was 32 pounds of marijuana. But the drugs evidently didn’t belong to the couple.
Police say the couple appeared to be innocent victims of a scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars’ worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.
The two men under arrest include a FedEx deliveryman. The investigators said the deliveryman would drop off a package outside a home, and the other man would come by a short time later and pick it up.
Now, federal authorities say they’re looking into how local law enforcement handled the July 29 raid. FBI agent Rich Wolf said late Thursday that the bureau had opened a civil-rights investigation into the case.
Calvo, 37, insisted the couple’s two black Labradors were gentle creatures and said police apparently killed them “for sport,” gunning down one of them as it was running away.
The mayor, who was changing his clothes when police burst in, also complained that he was handcuffed in his boxer shorts for about two hours along with his mother-in-law, and said the officers didn’t believe him when he told them he was the mayor. No charges were brought against Calvo or his wife, who came home in the middle of the raid.
Prince George’s County Police Chief Melvin High said Wednesday that Calvo and his family were “most likely . . . innocent victims,” but he would not rule out their involvement, and he defended the way the raid was conducted. He and other officials did not apologize for killing the dogs, saying the officers felt threatened.
Police announced Wednesday that they had arrested two men suspected in a plot to smuggle 417 pounds of marijuana and seized a total of $3.6 million in pot.
