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WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2009 – Iraqi forces, working with U.S. advisors, wounded and captured a suspected terrorist and arrested an alleged weapons smuggler in recent operations, military officials reported. Elements of the Iraqi special operations forces detained a suspected terrorist who was wanted for engaging in sectarian violence in Baghdad yesterday. He was armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, and when approached the Iraqi soldiers with the intent to fire, they shot and wounded him. The elite counter-terrorism force was operating under the authority of a warrant issued by the Central Investigative Court of Karkh. Iraqi soldiers rendered medical aid...

An alleged drugs dealer appeared in court on Friday after "holding out" for more than two weeks before finally going to the toilet. Damien Ankrah, aged 27, was arrested on July 13 on suspicion of transporting heroin by placing the drugs in a condom and swallowing them. But it was almost August before he went to the toilet and police had to use new legislation to get the evidence. The exceptional effort led Dyfed-Powys Police to warn drugs dealers not to try the same thing. Ankrah was arrested in Haverfordwest and detained at Pembroke Dock police station, where officers told...

MEXICO CITY — Mexico says it found nearly one ton of cocaine hidden inside frozen shark carcasses. Prosecutors says hundreds of packages stuffed in the bellies of dozens of dead sharks seized in the Gulf port of Progreso contained 1,965 pounds (893 kilograms) of cocaine. The Attorney General's Office says the sharks were found in two containers on Tuesday. The containers had been shipped from Costa Rica. There was no immediate information on its intended destination.

Given away by bird poop on his socks, fancy pants here was charged Tuesday in California with smuggling exotic Asian songbirds from Vietnam into the United States by strapping them onto his legs. Droppings on Sony Dong's socks and feathers peeking out from under a pant leg tipped off a Los Angeles International Airport inspector in March, who arrested the 46-year-old. Dong wore an elaborate set of leggings with buttoned cloth wrappings, which held more than a dozen birds (pictured), the Associated Press reported. Inspectors had flagged Dong for inspection because he had abandoned a suitcase of 18 birds in...

Two California men were indicted today on federal charges that they illegally smuggled Asian songbirds into the country, most recently last month when one of the defendants, returning from a trip to Vietnam, was found with 14 live birds strapped to his legs. As seen in the below evidence photo, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at Los Angeles International Airport discovered the birds under the pants of Sony Dong. According to a Department of Justice press release, CBP agents inspected Dong and "found bird feathers and droppings on his socks, as well as birds' tail feathers visible under his...

A massive earth-moving project is transforming Smuggler's Gulch near San Diego from a narrow canyon used by cattle thieves, bandits and illegal immigrants into a plugged breach. Reporting from San Diego -- Smuggler's Gulch lived up to its infamous name. For a century, the narrow canyon leading into California from Mexico provided cover for cattle thieves and opium dealers, bandits and booze runners. More recently, it has hidden thousands of illegal immigrants on their journey north, sealing its place in border lore. Now, it's a fading memory. The canyon has been all but wiped off the landscape, its steep walls...

BISBEE — An employee of American Border Patrol, a non-governmental organization, was threatened on Thursday by a suspected smuggler near the U.S.-Mexico border near Palominas. At about 2:15 p.m. Thursday, Mike Christie was driving a quad on the group’s ranch toward Border Monument Road on his way to Highway 92. Christie saw a white pickup truck heading north and he suspected the driver was involved in nefarious activity. “As he approached it, the fellow turned around and went back to the border,” said Glenn Spencer, president of American Border Patrol. A short time later, the man revved the engine of...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A Mexican smuggler responsible for an accident that killed 10 illegal immigrants in the Arizona desert two years ago was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison. Adan Pineda-Doval, 22, received the maximum sentence from Judge Stephen McNamee for the deadly incident in which he flipped over a vehicle packed with illegal immigrants while trying to flee Border Patrol agents near Yuma, Arizona. In October, Pineda-Doval was convicted of 10 counts of transporting illegal immigrants resulting in death, one count of placing lives in jeopardy and one count of re-entry after deportation. "This incident speaks to the...

SAN DIEGO – Border Patrol agents shot a suspected migrant smuggler early Wednesday in a predawn raid on a San Ysidro motel. The injured man was hit in the leg, police said. He was taken to a San Diego hospital where his wound was deemed not life-threatening. The incident began shortly after 3:30 a.m. when several uniformed Border Patrol agents entered Room 252 of the Economy Inn on Via de San Ysidro off Interstate 5, said San Diego police Capt. Cesar Solis. That's where they confronted two Latino men, one of whom was known to have a history of immigrant...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - An Irish woman who crossed a breached border into Gaza with her daughter said Wednesday that border guards were preventing them from returning to Egypt. Treasa Ni Cheannabhain said she and her daughter, an Egyptian national, entered Gaza on Saturday, more than a week after Hamas militants knocked down the border wall. As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flooded into Egypt, Ni Cheannabhain, 56, said she sneaked into Gaza with her 19-year-old daughter, Naisrin el-Safty, to distribute money to needy Gazans. Egyptian guards resealed the border Sunday, ending the 12-day breach. Ni Cheannabhain said she...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Soldiers from Company B, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, captured 13 suspected insurgents during a nighttime air assault mission in Sayafiyah, a small village outside of Salman Pak, Nov. 24. One of the detainees was a high value individual (HVI), who was a member of al-Qaida in Iraq wanted for weapons smuggling and financing attacks on Coalition forces in Salman Pak and Al Ja’ara. “According to our intelligence, the insurgent we apprehended was an expert bomb maker and VBID (vehicle borne improvised explosive device) maker,” said 1st Lt. Matthew Barwick, from Lanham, Md., fire support...

If convicted of the marijuana-related charges, he faces up to 40 years in prison EL PASO — An admitted Mexican drug smuggler shot by a pair of U.S. Border Patrol agents who were convicted in the shooting made his first appearance on marijuana charges Friday in federal court. Handcuffed and wearing a bulletproof vest, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila was escorted to the federal courthouse Friday by two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents. He declined to speak with reporters as he walked the short distance from the jail and did not speak in court except to acknowledge that he understood the charges....

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2007 – Coalition forces captured four suspected terrorists believed to receive support from within Iran in a pre-dawn raid in a village in Iraq’s Diyala province today. One of the four is a highly sought operative believed to be a senior leader in a weapons-smuggling network, military officials reported. The captured terrorists are suspected of facilitating the transport of weapons and personnel from Iran into Iraq. They are also believed to have facilitated the flow of deadly, armor-piercing explosively formed projectiles to be used against coalition forces. "Coalition troops remain relentless in our pursuit of those terrorists...

MEXICO CITY — It was the largest seizure of cash in the history of drug enforcement: $207 million, mostly in crisp $100 bills, stuffed into walls, closets and suitcases in the Mexico City home of a Chinese-born businessman. Zhenli Ye Gon told The Associated Press that most of the money belonged to Mexico's ruling party. He said party officials delivered it last summer in duffel bags stuffed with $5 million apiece and threatened to kill him unless he guarded their cash. In a statement Sunday night, the Mexican government called his tale "a perverse blackmail attempt" aimed at getting himself...

Iraq raid nabs al-Qaida smuggler BAGHDAD April 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi forces reportedly captured a reputed al-Qaida commander in a raid in Nineveh Province, the Multi National Forces headquarters announced Saturday. The identity of the high-value prisoner was not released but he was described as a mid-level al-Qaida member involved in smuggling insurgents into Iraq from Syria. The MNF said the capture was made Friday in the village of Fadiliyah by Iraqi forces who swept in by air early in the morning. There was some resistance from a sentry; however, he was wounded and captured. Elsewhere in Iraq, the MNF...

A Mexican man who led authorities on a high-speed chase in an SUV hauling illegal immigrants and nearly 700 pounds of marijuana was sentenced to more than 19 years in state prison. Jovanni Mendoza, 26, of Tijuana, was sentenced Friday in federal court. He was convicted earlier this year of 10 felony counts of smuggling aliens and drugs. More than two dozen U.S. Border Patrol agents showed up in court to urge a stiff sentence for Mendoza, saying he was suspected of making many dangerous, high-speed runs in San Diego County during his decade-long smuggling career. Mendoza had at least...

A Mexican drug addict who smuggled immigrants was sentenced to three years in prison yesterday for triggering a hoax that prompted a national security alert, a coast-to-coast manhunt and fears that terrorists would detonate a nuclear bomb in Boston. José Ernesto Beltran Quiñonez, 34, apologized in San Diego federal court during the sentencing for falsely telling a 911 operator in January 2005 that two Iraqi men and four Chinese chemists were awaiting an atomic bomb.

SAN DIEGO – The leader of a ring responsible for smuggling more than 100 undocumented immigrants into the United States through San Diego's East County was sentenced Monday to 15 years and eight months in federal prison. Armando Rangel-Rodriguez was convicted March 17 on 10 counts of bringing in illegal aliens for financial gain. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan. According to court documents, Rangel-Rodriguez's arrest was the result of an in-depth investigation by the Border Patrol into alien smuggling in the Jacumba and Boulevard areas of San Diego County. At least nine drivers who smuggled aliens...

The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday called for congressional hearings and an investigation into the case of two Border Patrol agents convicted of violating an alleged drug smuggler's civil rights. Committee members asked for the investigation during a House field hearing about border security and immigration in El Paso, Texas, after Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Chino-based Friends of the Border Patrol, presented his opening statement, which included the agents' story. Family members of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, the convicted agents, attended the hearing. The agents, who are free pending their sentencing hearings in September, were not...

A head-on collision between a Dulzura woman and a suspected migrant smuggler landed the woman in the hospital. But instead of blaming the smuggler for her troubles, the woman said it is the Border Patrol’s fault. Yolanda Jaco was on her way home from work on Tuesday night when the crash happened. As she drove past Jamul eastbound on Highway 94 -- just minutes from her home in Dulzura -- she said saw the headlights coming at her. The next thing Jaco remembered, she said, was being in a lot of pain and Border Patrol agents screaming at a suspected...

Nationwide Rally to Stop Illegal Immigration on Saturday, July 1st, at noon, at every City HallOn May 1st - Million of Illegal Aliens Marched in our StreetsTwelve million illegal aliens demonstrated their political power, and declared May 1st to be A Day Without Undocumented Workers ( illegal aliens ). They boycotted the USA, all US businesses and institutions. Millions of them marched in our streets, carried Mexican flags, shouted "Si se puede!", and demanded new laws from our Congress. On July 1st - U.S. Citizens Nationwide Rally and BoycottRally to stop the invasion by millions of illegal aliens. 1-Day boycott...

USA Citizens Day - July 1st Immigration Control Rally Nationwide Rally on Saturday, July 1st, at noon, at your City HallMay 1st - Million of Illegal Aliens Marched in our StreetsTwelve million illegal aliens demonstrated their political power, and declared May 1st to be A Day Without Undocumented Workers ( illegal aliens ). They boycotted the USA, all US businesses and institutions. Millions of them marched in our streets, carried Mexican flags, shouted "Si se puede!", and demanded new laws from our Congress. July 1st - U.S. Citizens Nationwide Rally for Immigration ControlRally to stop our continuous invasion by...

An immigrant smuggler was convicted Tuesday of causing the deaths of three passengers in a June 2003 crash while fleeing authorities. A jury deliberated for nearly six hours before finding Antonio Sanchez, 30, guilty on three counts of second-degree murder. Sanchez, a Mexican citizen, was retried for speeding away from the California Highway Patrol on state Route 78 near Borrego Springs, killing a woman and two men he was trying to smuggle into the country. He was originally convicted in March 2004 on similar charges and sentenced to 53 years to life in prison. But a state appellate court reversed...

DOLORES HIDALGO, Mexico (AP) -- Barely 18, Jose belongs to Mexico's new generation of migrant smugglers -- young, savvy and happy to see Uncle Sam further tighten border security. Why? It's good for business, he says. Jose figures more migrants will seek his help if the U.S. Senate approves legislation to double the Border Patrol and put up a virtual wall of unmanned vehicles, cameras and sensors to monitor the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Cases are coming to light of smugglers making $1 million or more. And Jose reckons the earnings will rise yet higher if new obstacles go up....

A former Border Patrol agent who is accused of being an illegal immigrant and also is accused of helping to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States from Mexico has been deemed a flight risk and will be held without bail, a federal judge ruled today. Magistrate Judge Anthony Battaglia ruled that Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, is an illegal immigrant himself, and no amount of bail could ensure his return to court, reports The San Diego Union-Tribune. Battaglia also said, "the temptation for Ortiz to flee to his Native Mexico is strong."

CBS 5) It was the ultimate bad hair day for a would-be drug smuggler. Investigators say a bad toupe tipped them off to more than $100,000 worth of heroin hidden underneath -- superglued to the man's head. Customs and border protection officers say the man, arriving on a flight from Columbia, glued 40 packets of heroin to his head. "Because he used superglue, they took him to a medical facility to have it removed," said Officer Jennifer Conners. "Even at that, it pulled out the hair wherever they removed a package, so he ended up looking like a spotted cat."...

It was the ultimate bad hair day for a would-be drug smuggler. Investigators say a bad toupe tipped them off to more than $100,000 worth of heroin hidden underneath -- superglued to the man's head. Customs and border protection officers say the man, arriving on a flight from Columbia, glued 40 packets of heroin to his head. "Because he used superglue, they took him to a medical facility to have it removed," said Officer Jennifer Conners. "Even at that, it pulled out the hair wherever they removed a package, so he ended up looking like a spotted cat." Agents said...

A Mexican man who used a fake U.S. birth certificate to get into the Border Patrol was helping to smuggle illegal immigrants, authorities said yesterday. Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, an El Cajon-based Border Patrol agent on administrative leave, was arrested yesterday and charged in San Diego federal court with falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. He also is charged with conspiring with another Border Patrol agent to smuggle immigrants and is scheduled to be arraigned in U.S. District Court this morning. There is no indication in court records that the other agent, who was not identified, has been arrested....

Feds bust girl-smuggling ring in Jersey By LEO STANDORADAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER An international ring smuggled girls as young as 14 into the U.S. from Honduras and forced them to work as virtual slaves in New Jersey bars - and endure brutal beatings if they protested, authorities said yesterday. Some of the girls were raped by smugglers and those who became pregnant were forced to take abortion drugs so they could stay on the job, prosecutors said. "This was inhumane and sadistic treatment of young women who were kept as virtual slaves," said Newark U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie. "These are...

MATAMOROS, March 1, 2005 — An El Salvador man remained in federal custody Monday after he allegedly kidnapped his 22-month-old son from Houston and then tried to smuggle three Central American immigrants into the United States last week. Mexican authorities said they arrested Fredy Antonio Fuentes Gutierrez, 29, Thursday after they received information that he was staying in the area. Fuentes allegedly kidnapped his son from his mother Brenda Alvarez in Houston and took him to Mexico last week. Alvarez could not be reached for comment Monday. Houston area law enforcement officials could not confirm the kidnapping report at press...

TUCSON - A Mexican national has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly smuggled illegal immigrants into the United States. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. Jorge Ayala Guardarrama-Ascuncion, also known as Jorge Ayala-de Ascuncion, was indicted on 15 counts on Wednesday, according to a U.S. Attorney for Arizona press release on Thursday. The 31-year-old man from Estapa del la Sal, Mexico, was allegedly part of an illegal immigrant smuggling operation. He allegedly brought 13 illegal immigrants into the United States, putting them and himself in a truck. According to the government's...

A Pole caught carrying five kilos (11 lbs) of amphetamines at the Norwegian border failed to convince a court that he had been summoned to Norway to donate sperm. The man was stopped at Svinesund on the Swedish-Norwegian border during a spot customs check of a passenger bus last May, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports. Customs officials found five kilos of amphetamines in his luggage and his fingerprints on the packaging the drugs were in. The man's story was that he had come to Norway to donate sperm to a Norwegian couple that he had met via the Internet. They had...

The arrest this month of two Tucson men on charges of smuggling marijuana inside coffins isn't the first time traffickers have used strange methods to try to get their drug loads into and through the United States - nor will it be the last. Officials have had little to say about their investigation into the recent coffin case. Robert Dean Harper and Timothy Gavin Hynd face charges in connection with the smuggling of 610 pounds of marijuana through Oklahoma, where they were stopped by the state Highway Patrol on Dec. 10. Both men, who told investigators they were working for...

Truck-death judge threatens prosecutor over Ashcroft letter By HARVEY RICE Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A federal judge today threatened to hold a prosecutor in contempt if he failed to get a letter from U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft by the end of the day stating his refusal to explain why the only death penalty ever sought in an immigrant smuggling case is against a black man. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore made the threat after Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Roberts told her that Ashcroft was refusing to release information on how the Justice Department determined it would seek the death...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A suspect swallowed nearly $50,000 in cash in a failed attempt to smuggle the funds out of Colombia, officials said Monday. Bogota airport police said they X-rayed the suspect because he was acting nervous while preparing to board a flight for Lima, Peru. The photo showed dozens of latex-wrapped packets inside his stomach and police assumed it was drugs, since such a smuggling technique is used by traffickers. But as the suspect passed the packages from his body, police discovered they were filled with cash - $47,500. "We find drugs inside the stomachs of smugglers all...

BROWNSVILE, Feb. 18, 2004 — A Porter High School teacher was sentenced Tuesday to 27 months in federal prison without parole on one count of dealing firearms without a license. Sotero Sotelo, 31, an eight-year employee of the Brownsville Independent School District, pleaded guilty to illegally selling firearms in November from his La Cueva drive-through beer store in Southmost. Sotelo, who taught history, remains free on a $100,000 bond while he awaits a jail date. He will receive a notice from the United States Bureau of Prisons informing him of his surrender date, court records show. The conviction and sentencing...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) - A convicted money smuggler was a key fund-raiser for an Islamic charity he knew financed terrorism, and once used an airport bathroom to secretly deliver $10,000 to the group, prosecutors allege.</p> <p>Alaa Al-Saadawi later "defied logic" by telling investigators he gave the $10,000 to a member of the Global Relief Foundation in a bathroom stall at Chicago's O'Hare Airport because he was "scared of gangsters," according to papers filed in federal court in Brooklyn.</p>

A man accused of leading a Yucatan man to his death from hypothermia in Cochise County this week is facing charges of felony alien smuggling, said a Border Patrol official. U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame said Jose Santos Castaneda-Martinez, 22, led a group of six illegal entrants into Arizona earlier this week. The group included Tiburcio Us-Chan, 40, who died from exposure to the cold early Tuesday near Palominas. The temperatures were in the high teens to low 20s at the time the group was found. Palominas is about 90 miles southeast of Tucson, near the Mexican border. Us-Chan,...

Mohamed Ali bin Hj Ibrahim does not seem to believe in the old adage 'Once bitten, twice shy," For this 39 year old man who was convicted just a few months ago for smuggling alcohol, was caught again with contraband booze on Sunday and faced justice on Monday. In this rather bizarre case, Mohd Ali admitted smuggling booty of Tiger beer into the country in an effort to pay the outstanding fines for bringing-in liquor last October 2003. He was nabbed by the Royal Brunei Customs and Excise Department personnel on Sunday night and was re-convicted yesterday. Mohd Ali was...

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - German officials said on Wednesday they had arrested a man suspected of smuggling linked to the Iraq war, but declined to confirm a media report that he was wanted for recruiting suicide bombers to attack U.S. troops. A spokesman for the Munich state prosecutor's office said police arrested the 29-year-old Iraqi on Tuesday on suspicion of smuggling in connection with the U.S.-led war on Iraq. "We are still at the early stages of the business," the spokesman said, giving no further details. He declined to confirm a report in Thursday's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that the suspect...

RAMSEY CANYON -- A sensor that went off in the Huachuca Mountains led U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Naco Station to find a large quantity of marijuana Tuesday night. Four illegal immigrants who denied they had anything to do with the marijuana also were taken into custody. Agents seized 777 pounds of marijuana, which has an estimated street value of $621,600. The Border Patrol launched a helicopter out of Libby Army Airfield in an attempt to round up other suspected drug smugglers, mules as they are called. At least 10 were able to successfully flee apprehension in the dark...

The author of a book on rebuilding Iraq was arrested at Kennedy International Airport for allegedly smuggling stolen 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts out of Baghdad, authorities said Saturday. Joseph Braude, author of "The New Iraq," was released on a $100,000 bond after a preliminary appearance Saturday before U.S. Magistrate Roanne L. Mann at the Brooklyn federal courthouse. Braude, 28, was arrested Friday night after arriving at the Queens airport on a flight from London, said U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf. Braude actually brought the priceless stolen artifacts into the United States on June 11, she said. Braude bought the three ancient pieces...

Reuters EL PASO, Texas, April 18 — A load of marijuana rigged with an incendiary device was discovered this week at one of the busiest crossing points on the U.S.-Mexico border, but authorities initially kept it secret fearing it could cause drug violence to escalate, an official said on Thursday. The device was the first workable booby trap known to have been found on the border since U.S. Customs Service inspectors began stepped-up security procedures aimed at thwarting potential terrorists -- and the first ever discovered in a cargo of narcotics, said U.S. Customs spokesman Roger Maier. ''It appeared to...