By Allan Lengel

An off-duty FBI agent from Chicago on Monday night shot and wounded a teenager in Cleveland Heights who held up him and a friend, WKYC TV reported.

The station, attributing the information to the Cleveland FBI office, reported that the agent and a friend were returning from dinner around 11 p.m. when they were approached by two armed suspects near a park.

One of the suspects pointed a gun at the victims and said, “Don’t turn around or I will blow your head off,” the station reported, attributing the information to the Cleveland Heights Police.

The suspects stole the FBI agent’s wallet, badge and ID then fled, according to the station. The agent chased the suspects and fired two shots, striking the 15-year-old suspect. The other suspect, 19, was also arrested. The condition of the 15-year-old was not known.

By Allan Lengel

The acting capo of the Genovese organized crime family pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to taking part in a conspiracy to commit murder of a hitman for the Russian mob, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Authorities say that Anthony Palumbo, a soldier and Acting Capo in the Genovese Organized Crime Family and operated crews in Brooklyn and New Jersey and oversaw various rackets including including gambling, loansharking and extortion.

Around 1990, when capo Daniel Pagano went to prison, Palumbo was placed in charge of overseeing the Genovese Crime Family’s interests in an illegal mob cartel, which extorted petroleum companies affiliated with the Russian mob.

The Russian mob ran a fraudulent motor fuel bootlegging scheme, in which the petroleum companies evaded the payment of federal and state motor fuel excise taxes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The Genovese and other Organized Crime Families extorted a share of the illegal proceeds, authorities charged.

In about late 1992 or early 1993, a member of the Russian mob asked Palumbo to murder a hitman who worked for him.

Palumbo and his co-conspirators agreed to murder the Russian hitman, but Genovese Crime Family’s higher ups refused to authorize the murder, and the Russian hitman never was killed, authorities said.

By Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON — Prescription drugs stored in medicine cabinets and in kitchens and bedrooms may not be as innocent as they appear.

With that in mind, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, along with government, community, public health and law enforcement partners, plan next month to launch a “Take-Back” initiative “that seeks to prevent increased pill abuse and theft.”

The DEA said it will collect potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs for destruction at sites nationwide on Saturday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“Many Americans are not aware that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are increasing at alarming rates, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs,” the DEA said in a press release.

“Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet,” the release said.

Michele M. Leonhart, Acting Administrator of DEA said in a statement: “This effort symbolizes DEA’s commitment to halting the disturbing rise in addiction caused by their misuse and abuse.”