Posted on 05/26/2003 9:19:45 AM PDT by veronica
Aukai Collins -- the U.S.-born former Islamic holy warrior, former FBI informant and author of "My Jihad" -- is being held in northern Mexico on weapons and illegal immigration charges after authorities found an assault-style weapon and grenades in his vehicle.
Collins is believed to have been working as a bounty hunter, seeking a fugitive from the United States when he was arrested Tuesday by state police in the northern state of Durango, according to the Mexican attorney general's office.
Charges against Collins, 29, of Phoenix, and companion Mariel Fernanda Santillan, an Argentine woman who Collins described as his girlfriend, are not related in any way to terrorism, a spokesman for the attorney general's office said Sunday.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico did not return messages left on Sunday.
Collins and Fernanda have been charged with transporting weapons in violation of Mexico's federal firearms law and entering the country illegally, the attorney general's office said. They were being held Sunday at a state jail in the northern Mexico city of Durango.
In the 2002 memoir "My Jihad," Collins recounted his journey into the world of Islamic extremism, from his jailhouse conversion to Islam as a troubled teenager in San Diego to combat in Chechnya and an invitation to meet with Osama bin Laden at a terror camp.
Disillusioned by his experiences abroad, Collins approached the U.S. government in 1996 to share information and became a paid informant of the FBI. The version of events in his book, which cannot be independently verified, added to evidence that U.S. intelligence officials missed opportunities to unravel the links to terrorists prior to 9/11.
Collins, who now works as a bounty hunter, told Mexican authorities he was contracted by a private firm to find a person wanted on drug trafficking charges in Arizona. He and Fernanda crossed the border at the Mexican city of Nogales and were searching for the fugitive in the town of Canelas in Durango state when they were arrested.
In Collins' vehicle, police found an assault-style weapon, six ammunition cartridges containing 270 rounds, 12 grenades and night vision equipment.
A conviction on the federal firearms charges could carry penalties of 10 years or more in jail, the attorney general's office said.
Collins told Mexican authorities that he is a Muslim but that he does not belong to any terrorist organization or practice terrorism, the attorney general's office said.
In Fox's defense, the public failed to oust the PRI from the Mexican legislature. They have blocked every single thing he has proposed.
Not in Mexico. They searched his truck found his gun, and away he went for several weeks in the TJ jail. It took a hell of a lot of pressure (organized by local San Diego talk hosts, NOT the state dept) to get him sprung.
He didn't get his new truck back though, and still had to pay for it.
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