Free Republic

El Salvadoran leaders of the MS-13 gang allegedly put out a contract on the federal agent responsible for a crackdown on its New York factions, the Daily News has learned. * * * Federal prosecutors have indicted numerous MS-13 gang members on racketeering, murder and drug trafficking charges. The targeted agent was the lead investigator on many of the cases. puts_out_hit_on_fbi_agent_assigned_to_crackdown.html#ixzz0Vtl5KNTj

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A new charge has been issued against a man police describe as a suspected serial rapist. Mauricio Morales is already in jail and charged with raping two Nashville women in separate cases. Metro police believe Morales is the man behind the rape of a 10-year-old girl in her own South Nashville home near Old Hickory Boulevard and Nolensville Pike. The alleged incident happened back in April. Crime Scene investigators collected evidence from her room and the TBI crime lab determined the DNA matched Mauricio Morales. A Grand Jury indicted him Friday on the new charges. Morales had...

Cuban refugees are dominating arrests in Florida's indoor marijuana trade in what investigators call a nearly punishment-free crime. ....young Cubans throughout the state are turning to the lucrative business of raising ultra-potent pot worth up to $4,500 a pound, without fear of deportation or lengthy prison sentences. Probation is a common sentence for anyone convicted in state court of running a growhouse, drug agents say. And, unlike other foreign-born felons, U.S. policy prevents the deportation of Cubans. South Florida groups identified by law enforcement as Cuban Drug Trafficking Organizations control hundreds of growhouses that have sprung up from Miami to...

(Note: This is posted here for archival purposes.) # Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) Drug Cartel Violence Threat CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Mexico 28 Oct 2009 U.S. Consulate General Ciudad Juarez issued the following Warden Message on October 28: This Warden Message is being issued to inform American citizens traveling to or residing in the Mexican state of Chihuahua that the US Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez received information on October 28, 2009 that drug cartels operating in the city...

Call it sanctuary on wheels: San Francisco is about to give a big break to people, many of them illegal immigrants, who are caught driving without a license. Beginning Sunday, cops will no longer impound cars the first time drivers are pulled over without a license. The reason: Many such drivers are in the United States illegally - and thus unable to get a license - and the officials pushing the change think that impounding their cars is an unfair hardship.

STAMFORD (AP) — A second man has pleaded guilty in Connecticut to kidnapping and raping a Connecticut jogger in 2003. Forty-year-old Jose Amaya pleaded guilty Thursday in Stamford Superior Court. The plea bargain calls for him to serve 20 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Jan. 21. Darien police say Amaya and Alejandro Mendez assaulted the then-38-year-old woman and forced her into their vehicle as she was jogging, then drove to a secluded spot and sexually assaulted her. Police say the woman later escaped. Amaya was extradited from Mexico last April. Mendez was sentenced in 2005 to 15 years...

Hundreds of people have been arrested in Texas and around the country what officials say is the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel in the U.S WASHINGTON (October 22, 2009)—U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls the arrests of more than 300 people in a series of drug raids in Texas and across the country the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating here. Holder said at a news conference Thursday that the arrests over the past two days were aimed at the U.S. operations of the La Familia cartel. Click here to find out more! Holder...

DALLAS — Drug Enforcement Administration agents — helped by an army of local and state police — raided homes and businesses across North Texas on Wednesday, targeting what they called one of the largest methamphetamine rings in the nation. DEA says a notorious and violent drug cartel called "La Familia" was distributing the meth and cocaine out of Dallas. SWAT teams arrested dozens of people, confisicated numerous weapons and drugs. Sources said the La Familia gang is extremely violent, and known to torture their victims. Law enforcement agents hit 38 locations in the Dallas area, including DeSoto, Duncanville and Grand...

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors took the first step yesterday to prohibit the reporting youths accused of drug crimes to Federal immigration authorities. The measure, will pass next week, will be vetoed by Mayor Newsom, and be overridden by the Board, is packed with intriguing politics. First, from my debate on PBS’s KQED-FM, with the supervisor who has led the fight for the measure, Supervisor David Campos, I believe he is sincere in his concern for the “children”. as he calls them. He himself was an illegal entrant at the age of 14, and went on to earn a...

Calling himself “the poster boy” for those who oppose the enforcement of federal immigration laws, Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he will continue to arrest individuals who are in the country illegally, even if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not renew the 287(g) agreement that the Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff’s Office has operated under for the past two years. “We’ve been doing it for two years and have been very successful, but I guess they don’t like to enforce illegal immigration laws,” Arpaio told CNSNews.com. “[It] doesn’t make any difference. I’m still going to continue my programs, regardless of what...

Police are looking for a man convicted of an Arlington rape more than 10 years ago in connection with the recent rape an 11-year-old girl in Oklahoma City. Melvin Urbina, 33, was sentenced to two years in prison for the 1998 sexual assault of an Arlington woman. He was deported to Mexico after his release in 2001. He returned to the United States illegally and worked in Oklahoma City. Police want to question Urbina about the July 25 sexual assault of a girl who was trying to find some extra chairs for the guests at her godfather’s wedding anniversary party...

HIDALGO COUNTY, TEXAS -- The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department busted a ring of men posing as fake cops Thursday. Deputies are still looking for more suspects. They arrested Eduardo Varela and Rafael Saenz. The men are accused of storming into a home north of Mercedes earlier this month and posing as FBI agents. The suspects allegedly took a 2003 BMV. Investigators said Varela and Saenz implicated five other men. "Ricardo Guzman known as 'El Borrado' may be a former Mexican police officer who also had a district job to recruit illegal immigrants to participate in these home invasions," explained Sheriff...

The sun is beating down as Elizabeth Padilla is laid to rest in the Garden of Eternity cemetery. She lies under a pane of glass. Her pretty face has been made up one last time. "Open your eyes, my darling," her mother cries. "There is something I wanted to tell you." "Princess," her sister wails. "I'll never forget the way you danced and sang." "Why you?" her mother screams. "You were so good." Elizabeth Padilla was 29 and had been a policewoman for eight months when she died. She was killed one Wednesday just before 1:30pm while on her way...

HIDALGO, MEXICO - Thirty-one police officers have been arrested in the state of Hidalgo, on suspicion of collaborating with a gang of drug cartel hit men. The officers were arrested as part of an almost year-long investigation into alleged ties between police and the Zetas cartel. The investigation began last October, when federal authorities arrested seven suspected Zeta accountants and found evidence of monthly payments from the gang to officers. Back in June, 92 officers were arrested on similar charges.

Says boyfriend doused her with gasoline and lit her on fire after an argument SEBASTIAN CO., Ark. - On August 9, Corporal Hobe Runion was called to a home on the Sebastian County line with Oklahoma on a domestic disturbance call that he says was very disturbing. "I've worked a lot of different cases in years in law enforcement, but I've never worked a case where someone caught somebody on fire," Runion said Friday. He said the resident, Petrina Mendez, had called a local EMS unit after an argument with her boyfriend, which ended when investigators say he doused her...

An illegal alien serving a 15-year prison sentence for the hit-and-run murder of a Wisconsin teenager demanded a judge free him because he encountered discrimination when his immigration status was repeatedly referenced in court. In August 2007 the intoxicated illegal immigrant (Eddie Carbajal-Lile) with a previous drunk-driving conviction ran a stop sign and caused a crash that killed a 17-year-old boy. Two other teenagers were injured in the accident and Carbajal-Lile fled the scene but was arrested a month later in Ohio. Incredibly, the illegal immigrant already had open container and drunken driving convictions in Wisconsin, a notorious sanctuary state...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Gunmen broke into a drug rehabilitation center, lined people against a wall and shot 17 dead in a particularly bloody day in Mexico's relentless drug war. The brazen attack followed the killing of the No. 2 security official in President Felipe Calderon's home state. The attackers on Wednesday broke down the door of El Aliviane center in Ciudad Juarez, lined up their victims against a wall and opened fire, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the regional prosecutors' office. At least five people were injured. Authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims. Ciudad...

The Drug Enforcement Administration Friday announced that it found 14,500 marijuana plants growing in a Colorado national park, authorities say are linked to Mexican drug cartels...... they have seen an increase in outdoor marijuana operations run by Mexican drug cartels. In the most recent Colorado case, the marijuana was found in "the remote, rugged terrain" of Pike National Forest, which is about 60 miles southwest of Denver. "The persons who were involved in this criminal activity had no regard for the damage caused to the forest and environment by the waste they left behind," said Jeffrey D. Sweetin, special agent...

Federal Judge refuses to certify class action lawsuit against Sheriff Arpaio and his office for alleged racial profiling during saturation patrols. Phoenix, AZ - The United States District Court in Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres vs. Arpaio denied the motion to certify the lawsuit for class action treatment against Sheriff Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. The judge determined that the motion failed to present sufficient evidence of the fact that a real and immediate threat of future constitutional injury from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office exists to bring their lawsuit in the form of a class action. The...

Los Angeles is now checking the immigration status of inmates as they are released. Link only to L.A. Times

Mexican authorities have been sending more alleged criminals north to the U.S. for trial since President Felipe Calderon took office. Now a Mexican official is worried about a flow in the other direction. Rommel Moreno, attorney general of Baja California state, expressed concern Friday about a plan in California to release thousands of inmates from that U.S. state's overcrowded prisons as a way to help relieve a budget crunch. Moreno noted many inmates in the California prison system are undocumented migrants, and some could be deported once released. A statement issued by his office said that "the repatriation of ex-convicts...

On Wednesday, August 19, 2009, Washington County Sheriff’s Detectives arrested 18-year-old Ramiro Vargas-Ramos and 19-year-old Francisco Lopez-Mendez, both men from the Community of Aloha. Both were arrested for having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl with whom they were acquaintances. The sexual contact happened once in each case and on different dates. In each case the suspect had befriended the girl and later had sexual contact with her. This is not a computer-related sex abuse case. Detectives are concerned that these men may have befriended other young girls and victimized them as well. They are asking anyone with information regarding...

PHOENIX - One day prior to President Barack Obama's visit to the Valley, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a message for the president: "I don't believe in amnesty. That's what all this is about." Arpaio says Obama and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano are off the mark when it comes to illegal immigration reform. "Why doesn't he say, "Let's get rid of all the illegals taking these jobs, so our citizens can have the jobs.' Why are they saying that we should only arrest the employer and not the employees that are here illegally? Now, if I...

SOUTH OF SAN JUAN — A group of suspected drug smugglers attacked two U.S. Border Patrol agents with rocks during a chase near the Rio Grande on Thursday evening. Agents were following a vehicle loaded with marijuana when the driver stopped at the riverbank and fled on foot, Border Patrol spokesman John Lopez said. As agents approached the vehicle to retrieve the drugs, five men emerged from the dense brush and began hurling large rocks at them. “For what reason, that’s unknown to us,” Lopez said about the group’s possible motive. “But the danger presented by a rock in that...

Date: August 15, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FIRE INVESTIGATORS DETERMINE CAUSE OF LA BREA FIRE GOLETA, CA... A week-long investigation by U.S. Forest Service Special Agents, Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit and Fire Investigators has revealed the cause of the La Brea Fire. Investigators revealed that the La Brea Fire was started by a cooking fire in a marijuana drug trafficking operation. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit has confirmed that the camp at the origin of the fire was an illegal marijuana operation believed to be run by a Mexican National Drug Organization. The Narcotics Unit has...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying a prison director in the northern Mexico state of Chihuahua, killing three bodyguards and wounding two more seriously, authorities said Wednesday. Prison director Gerardo Hernandez was unharmed in the attack late Tuesday, but has been replaced in the post for his own safety, Chihuahua state Public Safety Secretary Victor Valencia said. He started the job in June. Valencia said the two surviving guards are in serious condition at local hospitals. The attack occurred in the state capital, also known as Chihuahua. In the border city of Nuevo Laredo, city police found...

An Atlanta jury on Wednesday found a 23-year-old man guilty of aiding terrorist groups after a trial that explored a subculture of youthful extremists who used the Internet to plot attacks and form a loose network connecting North America, Europe and South Asia. Ehsanul Sadequee, the U.S.-born son of Bangladeshi immigrants, faces up to 60 years in prison after being convicted of conspiracy to materially support terrorists. The jury found that he had discussed attacks with accused militants in Toronto and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Along with another Georgia man convicted in June, Sadequee drove to Washington in 2005 to film the...

A man from Kosovo wanted in a New York City slaying awaits extradition from South Texas. The Border Patrol said Wednesday that Arber Mustafaj, 35, was detained with two other men from the former Yugoslavia, including his brother, just before midnight Monday.....

An Athens gang member who police believe was behind a recent increase in gang-related crime faces deportation after authorities determined he'd been masquerading as a U.S. citizen. Milton Alberto Sanabria, 26, was released from prison in May, after serving two years for a rash of car break-ins at the University of Georgia. Police soon after began investigating an increased number of assaults and other crimes. A local gang investigator said gangs seem to attract more members when a hard-core member gets out of prison - someone who had earned "street creds." Among other things, Sanabria allegedly started a fight with...

Expanding Corruption in the United States Another disturbing result of the northward expansion of the cartels is that corruption has seeped across the border into the United States. This is to be expected, given the money involved and the way the United States has for years mismanaged the border. For example, Rey Guerra, sheriff of Starr County, Texas, pled guilty in 2009 to charges that he exchanged information to drug traffickers for money and gifts. And on a federal level a U.S. customs memo of June 29, 1990, obtained by Narco News and published in 2004, tells of corruption that...

The dead always tell a story. .... in Mexico that story is ...... a war becoming more violent and ruthless, mostly because of one group. .... Los Zetas. Imagine a band of U.S. Green Berets going rogue and offering their services and firepower to drug cartels..... Commandos from the Mexican army deserted and set up a cartel, Los Zetas. The U.S. government .... "the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico." "The Zetas .....No. 1 organization responsible for the majority of homicides, the beheadings, the kidnappings, the extortions that take place in Mexico" "They train new recruits...

Federal officials added a quarter-million dollars to the already enormous FBI reward for information leading to the killer(s) of Agent Robert Rosas. Rosas's body was found on the night of July 23 near Campo. The 30-year-old agent was killed while responding alone to a suspected border incursion near Campo. He was shot in the head and body, said Keith Slotter, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego bureau. The $250,000 reward offered Thursday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection is in addition to the $100,000 put up by the FBI last month. Both rewards are for the arrest...

An immigration reform activist says he can't understand why an Alabama judge would grant bail to an illegal alien drug suspect who had been deported 28 times, instead of turning him over to federal authorities. Recently Houston County Judge John Steensland set a $20,000 cash bond for a Mexican national who had been charged with felony obstruction of justice for giving deputies a false identification. Authorities say Luis Hernandez-Arellano has some 32 aliases on his rap sheet and reportedly has been deported from the United States 28 times. The Dothan Eagle reports that the suspect had posted a $15,000 bond...

SAN FRANCISCO -- U.S. judges on Tuesday told California to prepare to release more than 40,000 of its 150,000 inmates to reduce overcrowding in state prisons, which suffer from massive healthcare problems. - - - Snippity-snip - - -

When she and her husband found the man dead in their bathroom a month ago, Celetina Gomez and police didn't know who he was, how he got there or who killed him. But now, homicide investigators say they are searching for two men accused in his death, though they fear the pair fled to Mexico. Filadelfo Aveja Meza, 33, and Filemon Varela-Osorio 39, are charged with capital murder in the slaying of Amando Luviano-Villegas, 22, at an apartment in the 5800 block of Fondren about 5:30 a.m. on June 28. Police believe that the pair crossed the border to Mexico...

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials ordered a Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff to release dozens of illegal immigrants arrested during a recent sweep. The three-day sweep caught up 74 suspected illegal aliens. However, when the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office called ICE regarding the recently arrested illegal aliens, the agency ordered deputies to release all who did not have a criminal conviction in the U.S. According to a report from Judicial Watch, this constituted a violation of the partnership agreement, known as 287(g), that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department has had with ICE for two years. The mystery order resulted in...

Empty turtle shells, decaying skunk carcasses and a set of deer antlers lay strewn about an empty campsite in California's Sierra National Forest. The butchered animals, as well as several five-pound propane canisters, camp stoves and heaps of trash, were all that remained of the 69 marijuana plantations recently uncovered in Fresno County as part of operation "Save our Sierras." The massive operation that began in February has already seized about 318,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.1 billion, officials announced last week. In addition to 82 arrests, the multi-jurisdictional federal, state and local operation netted 42 pounds of processed...

NEW ORLEANS, LA—JALLA PIERRE EMANUEL, age 38, and JACKSON NTONE NDEMBA, age 35, citizens of the Republic of Cameroon, were arrested yesterday by Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and charged by a criminal complaint with conspiracy and wire fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, EMANUEL and NDEMBA fraudulently represented that they could produce two counterfeit bills utilizing one real bill. FBI investigation eventually resulted in a meeting with the defendants in which the defendants expected to receive $60,000 in U.S. currency from which they said they would...

The Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department has entered into a 287(g) agreement, making it the fourth law enforcement agency in Georgia to do so. The 287(g) program deputizes local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. Gwinnett is the first Georgia county to enter into such an agreement since a federal Government Accountability Office investigation released in March raised concerns about the program and led the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency to make some changes. Gwinnett's entry into the agreement is being cheered by anti-immigration groups and lamented by immigrant rights activists.

SAN DIEGO — The FBI is offering $10,000 for help finding the gun of a Border Patrol agent who was slain last week in a rugged area outside San Diego. The FBI says Rosas carried a black Heckler & Koch P2000, a .40-caliber gun. Mexican authorities have detained five men in connection with the case. They say one of them — 36-year-old Ernesto Parra Valenzuela — carried a 9 mm pistol when he was captured.

San Diego, CA ---In the wake of the murder of Border Patrol Agent and father of two Robert Rosas, the issue of illegal immigration and its impact on all of us is again top of mind. The illegal border crosser is often described by the media as a poor migrant worker, that is just looking for a job and a way to support their families. In some cases that is true however almost daily we hear of unthinkable crimes being committed by people who aren’t supposed to be here in the first place. Is Illegal Immigration a victimless crime? Not...

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Friday the federal government released three illegal immigrants arrested in a crime sweep Thursday because their arrests didn’t fit new Department of Homeland Security policies. Arpaio said DHS breached a promise that he could operate under an existing agreement that allows him to enforce immigration law. DHS is requiring all local police agencies with existing 287(g) agreements to sign new ones within the next three months that are in accordance with new policies and department objectives or else lose their authority. “I am stunned that this reversal came about so soon after I was...

DOTHAN, Ala. — An Alabama judge set a $20,000 cash bond for a native of Mexico who reportedly has been deported from the United States 28 times. Houston County Sheriff's Sgt. Jackie Smith said he charged Luis Hernandez-Arellano, 38, with felony obstruction of justice...for giving deputies false identification. Smith said deputies stopped a vehicle on Alabama Highway 109 Thursday for running a stop sign. The driver told deputies his name was Caesar Garza. After Garza failed to provide a driver's license or other identification, deputies were able to positively identify him as Carlos Cortez. Investigators later learned through Immigration and...

Local police agencies empowered by the federal government to enforce immigration law must focus their efforts on criminals who pose a threat to public safety, with less emphasis on those who commit minor crimes, Department of Homeland Security officials announced Friday. The announcement aims to clarify a controversial program that deputizes police to turn over suspects or criminals to immigration authorities for possible deportation. Normally police do not enforce federal law. The law, known as 287(g), took effect in 1996. Most of the participating police agencies signed up under President George W. Bush, whose administration promoted it as a tool...

At a ramshackle homeless shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, on the south bank of the Rio Grande, a group of men stand in the suffocating heat all day. From behind a low cement wall, they stare across at the country where, until recently, they lived, worked and raised families. ... Manuel Cantero is among the men at the shelter. He's a 54-year-old laborer originally from Nuevo Laredo. For the past 29 years, he lived quietly in Miami, worked odd jobs, married and had three kids. "But work began to get scarcer; my wife got into drugs. They deported me. I lost...

Family members have described rape suspect Felix E. Montoya as a short-tempered man prone to violent outbursts, new information that justified increasing his bail to $500,000, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Magisterial District Judge Alyce Farrell granted a request for bail modification for Mr. Montoya, more than doubling the original amount of $200,000, after receiving details about the Taylor man's violent home life, First Assistant District Attorney Gene Talerico said. While Mr. Montoya remains in the Lackawanna County Prison, the public has inundated the district attorney's office with gifts and offers of assistance for the 5-year-old girl he is accused of...

This Backgrounder examines illegal immigration-related document fraud and identity theft that is committed primarily for the purpose of employment. It debunks three common misconceptions: illegal aliens are “undocumented;” the transgressions committed by illegal aliens to obtain jobs are minor; and illegal-alien document fraud and identity theft are victimless crimes. It discusses how some community leaders rationalize these crimes, contributing to a deterioration of the respect for laws in our nation, and presents a variety of remedies, including more widespread electronic verification of work status (E-Verify and the Social Security Number Verification Service) and immigrant outreach programs to explain the ramifications...

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (CN) - A 23-year-old illegal alien faces charges and deportation after he allegedly threatened to blow up a police station and a federal courthouse. Pedro Quino-Teodoro is charged with two counts of making a terrorist threat and one count of attempted obstruction of a governmental function. Police say Quino-Teodoro threatened to kill an officer and his family if immigration authorities were contacted during an assault investigation. Immigration officials confirmed his illegal status. Upon arrest, Quino-Teodoro allegedly said he would destroy the federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau and police headquarters. He is being held on a $100,000 cash-only...

Lawyers, interpreters found guilty in federal asylum case By Sam Stanton Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009 A federal court jury today found all five defendants guilty of conspiracy in a major case involving asylum fraud, one that prosecutors said involved attorneys who spent years concocting phony claims that their clients were being persecuted overseas and should be granted asylum in the U.S. The verdicts, which found the defendants guilty of the main conspiracy counts, came after more than three months of complex testimony and jury deliberations that began in earnest on Monday. "I'm glad it's over, it was a long trial,"...

Policeman's killer, suspected accomplices appear to be illegal immigrants The gunman who fatally shot a Houston police officer in the back before being gunned down by another officer during an undercover sting late Tuesday is believed to have been an illegal immigrant from Mexico, law enforcement officials said Wednesday. Robert Rutt, agent in charge of the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement office of criminal investigations in Houston, confirmed that Houston police had asked for assistance in determining the immigration status of the gunman shot to death in a drug store parking lot after officer Henry Canales, 42, was fatally wounded....