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The following news release was sent by U.S. Customs and Border Protection: TUCSON – Tucson Sector Border Patrol Agents seized a vehicle replicating a Budweiser delivery van smuggling thirteen illegal aliens near Three Points, Ariz. Yesterday morning at 9:00am, Border Patrol agents assigned to the Tucson Station encountered a suspicious Budweiser Van traveling north from the border. Agents recognized this was abnormal and the vehicle appeared out of place. Agents were able to then successfully yield the van using emergency lights and sirens from their patrol cruiser. Inside the van agents discovered 13 illegal aliens of which eight were citizens...

McALLEN, Texas — Four illegal immigrants were found in the back of a Wal-Mart truck, and the driver and two alleged accomplices were accused of trying to smuggle them through a Border Patrol checkpoint. Authorities acting on a tip arrested driver Alejandro Hernandez and two other suspects Thursday just south of a checkpoint at Falfurrias, authorities said. The four Mexican nationals in the trailer were also taken into custody. Documents filed in federal court Monday allege that Hernandez, 50, unloaded a delivery at a Wal-Mart in McAllen, then stopped at a truck stop in nearby Edinburg where he picked up...

Seven adults and a juvenile are under arrest after an undercover Fish and Wildlife Commission investigation into an illegal marine life theft ring. Some of those arrested were taking marine life and exporting it to New York and Amsterdam. The FWC says the six-month investigation in the multi-million-dollar scheme worked under a fake company called One Tropical Way. The group advertised and bought illegally obtained products from a group known to sell illegal marine life. Investigators say the ring operated for at least five years prior to the investigation. A news briefing in Tampa is expected to reveal specifics regarding...

A U.S. official says American law enforcement arrested a top Mexican immigration official for carrying about 77 kilograms of marijuana. The U.S. official identified the Mexican official as Francisco Celaya-Carrillo. The official said he was stopped in Lukeville, Ariz. Sunday afternoon, as he was coming into the country in a pickup truck to do some shopping and said that a Customs and Border Protection officer inspected the vehicle and found marijuana in the gas tank and in the spare tire.

A Federal Way man beat, raped and enslaved his Afghan teen bride, forcing her to perform domestic labor.... Mohammad Atahee, 37, and four other King County residents kept the girl out of school so nobody would intervene in the secret arrangement and so she would be available to cook, clean, do laundry and perform child care ..... Mohammad Yousuf, who pleaded not guilty, and Nasima Yousuf were released under travel restrictions and a judge's order to make no direct or indirect contact with the girl.... The Afghan girl was 13 in 2005 when Nahid Yousufi and Nasima Yousuf persuaded her...

The son of a Florida congressman arrested near Willcox on Sept. 14 pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to transport and/or harbor illegal aliens for financial gain, said Sandra Raynor, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix. The felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both, Raynor said. The Democratic congressman, who is seeking a seventh term this November, is being challenged by Panama City Republican Mark Mulligan.

Los Angeles, California - An elevator mechanic employed by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) was formally indicted today for smuggling foreign nationals into the United States by bypassing established security at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Roberto Amaya Canchola, 53, a United States citizen and Los Angeles resident, is charged in a six-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury here this afternoon with bringing illegal aliens into the United States for financial gain and with bringing illegal aliens into the country without presenting them to an immigration officer. If convicted on all six counts, Canchola faces a maximum...

KEY WEST, Fla. -- The U.S. Coast Guard discovered 7 tons of cocaine on a homemade submarine that featured sophisticated navigation equipment. Coast Guard officials said the apparent Colombian drug runners were taken by surprise on the 70-foot vessel. The sub was stuffed with $187 million worth of drugs. Four people were taken into custody in international waters. The vessel and the people aboard were on their way to Key West Thursday. The bust happened off the coast of Costa Rica after a U.S. Navy airplane spotted the sub.

A group of suspected smugglers are to go on trial for pumping thousands of litres of cheap Russian vodka into the European Union through an underwater pipeline. The accused built a 2-kilometre pipeline through a reservoir that marks the Russian-Estonian border, and managed to pump 6,200 litres of spirits across before getting caught.

Phoenix Police and Department of Public Safety officers found at least a dozen undocumented immigrants and three human smugglers at a west Phoenix home. A DPS official said officers also found weapons in the home near 31st Avenue and Van Buren Street Monday afternoon. There is no word on how long the victims had been held in the home, or if there are any injuries. Stay with ABC15.com as more information becomes available.

OTTAWA — Canada is one of the top three world suppliers of the psychedelic drug ecstasy, and a significant supplier of marijuana to the United States, the government admitted on Friday. A survey of organized crime by Criminal Intelligence Services Canada found that Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium were the primary sources of ecstasy, an illegal drug that's popular at clubs, raves and rock concerts. "Canada continues to be a major producer for both domestic and international markets, exporting significant quantities primarily to the U.S. and to a lesser extent, Japan, Australia and New Zealand," the report said. Echoing U.S....

The U.S. drug czar...< >"Cooperation's gotten worse and the problem's gotten bigger,"...< >...Venezuelan officials have yet to agree to his request for a meeting...< >...begin using U.S.-provided equipment for scanning cargo in Puerto Cabello...< >

WASHINGTON - The chaos in Georgia has forced the United States to halt a high-priority program that was helping the former Soviet republic to identify possible smugglers of nuclear bomb components across its borders, long considered a transit point for terrorists seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction, according to US officials. A team from the US Nuclear Security Administration was providing Georgian authorities with radiation equipment and training at key border crossings and the Batumi airport on the country's Black Sea coast when Russia invaded two weeks ago. The advisers were forced to flee the country within days, according...

EVEN as Russia and Georgia continue their on-again, off-again struggle over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a frenzied tea-leaf reading about the war’s global political ramifications has broken out across airwaves and think-tank forums. But as the situation on the ground recedes inevitably to some new form of the pernicious “frozen conflict” that has plagued the region since Georgia’s civil wars of the early 1990s, few are paying attention to a less portentous but equally critical international threat: an increase in the longstanding, rampant criminality in the conflict zones that is likely to further destabilize the entire Caucasus region and at...

HIDALGO -- In a sign of the times for a federal agency that routinely announces million-dollar cocaine and marijuana busts: Customs and Border Protection has issued a news release about a $400 fine because of an extra tank of fuel. The fine was levied Sunday against a 22-year-old Edinburg man who crossed the border with an extra tank of diesel in the bed of his pickup. Because of Mexican government subsidies, diesel fuel currently sells at about half the U.S. price across the border. Customs agents have noticed a sharp rise in the number of people trying to bring full...

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh denied on Friday that his organization had agreed to stop weapons smuggling efforts on Gaza's border with Egypt as part of the cease-fire deal with Israel, and claimed it was incapable of such action. According to a Reuters report, Haniyeh - speaking to worshipers ahead of Friday prayers in Gaza City - said: "We cannot talk about stopping smuggling because it is something beyond our ability as a government and we did not give a commitment in this regard." Haniyeh added that Hamas would not force other organizations in Gaza to abide by the truce,...

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican woman and her three American daughters have been caught smuggling $1.16 million worth of cocaine into Texas from Mexico, a rare case of a mother and her family trafficking drugs, U.S. customs said on Friday. The four women stashed the cocaine under their clothes and inside their 2006 Mercedes Benz and tried to cross through the Brownsville, Texas entry port from eastern Mexico. A sniffer dog alerted customs agents to the smell of cocaine emanating from the car and agents also noted unusual bulges under their clothes, finding cocaine packages on three of the...

AUSTIN — Truckers who smuggle drugs or people into the United States are now risking not only prison time but the loss of their commercial drivers' licenses as Texas uses a long-standing law in a new border-crime crackdown. “Up until today, when those lawbreakers had their trucks apprehended, they were convicted in federal court, they typically paid a small fine or served a brief sentence, then it was back to business as usual. Well, starting today, that all changes, ” Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday at the Texas Capitol with U.S. Border Patrol sector chiefs. “If you are a commercial...

A rare form of tuberculosis caused by illegal, unpasteurized dairy products, including the popular queso fresco cheese, is rising among Hispanic immigrants in Southern California and raising fears about a resurgence of a strain all but eradicated in the U.S. Cases of the Mycobacterium bovis strain of TB have increased in San Diego county, particularly among children who drink or eat dairy foods made from the milk of infected cattle, a study in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases shows. But the germ can infect anyone who eats contaminated fresh cheeses sold by street vendors, smuggled across the Mexican border or...

The latest threat assessment prepared for special border enforcement teams says pleasure boats are among the increasingly inventive means used by crafty couriers to slip illicit cargo — including drugs, guns and people — from one country to the other. The marine environment “is viewed as particularly vulnerable and porous to smuggling activity” due to the many challenges in keeping tabs on lakes, waterways and tiny coves, says the August 2007 report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. One American criminal group has children carrying bags of tobacco swim across the St. Croix River between...

While it's politically popular to impose confiscatory taxes on America's 40 million tobacco smokers, there are a number of consequences one might consider, but let's start out with a quiz. If a carton of cigarettes sells for $160 in New York City, and $35 in North Carolina, what do you predict will happen? If you answered tons of cigarettes will be going up I-95 from North Carolina to New York City, go to the head of the class. Smuggling cigarettes is illegal; so the next quiz question is: Who is most likely to engage in cigarette smuggling? It's a mixed...

When Lakeville police stopped a mini-van going 81 miles per hour at 2:30 a.m. on Interstate Hwy. 35 last week, they found that it was packed with 15 illegal immigrants who had been in the van for seven days. The Ford Windstar, which has allotted space for seven people, was en route to Minneapolis. Lakeville police said it had been specially modified with heavy duty springs and suspension parts to accommodate the additional weight. All 15, including the driver, are expected to be deported to Mexico, said Tim Counts...

Minutes south of Interstate 10 and Sealy, the pastures along FM 1458 are their own silent world in the morning. Mists lift to reveal black cattle, brown and spotted horses, snow-white egrets underfoot in lush green grass. Then a concrete mixer comes churning down the blacktop. Just up the road is a small subdivision. More are sure to come as city dwellers, including weekenders and retirees, move out in search of a quieter, simpler life — and relief from city traffic. Although the gradual influx may bring greater changes in the long run, what disturbs residents most is the planned...

Alleged gun smuggling leader arrested in TucsonBy: The Associated Press Updated at: 04/04/2008 02:16:41 PM PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona authorities have arrested a Tucson man accused of being the leader of a gun smuggling network that supplied a Mexican drug cartel with weapons. Authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of 23-year-old Victor Manuel Varela Jr., who is accused of supplying the Juarez cartel in Palomas, Mexico with rifles and guns. Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, says Varela’s network illegally bought the firearms in Arizona, transported them to New Mexico and then took...

<p>On Sept. 6, something important happened in northern Syria. Problem is, no one knows exactly what. Except for those few who were involved, and they're not saying.</p> <p>We do know that Israel carried out an airstrike. How then do we know it was important? Because in Israel, where leaking is an art form, even the best-informed don't have a clue. They tell me they have never seen a better-kept secret. Which suggests that whatever happened near Dayr az Zawr was no accidental intrusion into Syrian airspace, no dry run for an attack on Iran, no strike on some conventional target such as an Iranian Revolutionary Guard base or a weapons shipment on its way to Hezbollah in Lebanon.</p>

McALLEN - Human smugglers are employing increasingly risky and dangerous methods to transport illegal immigrants since security tightened along the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement officials said. "They're getting less area they can successfully enter," said Oscar Saldaña, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman. "That's why were seeing more of these desperate acts. And unfortunately, we anticipate there's going to be more of these types of events." On Thursday a Ford F-150 carrying more than 20 illegal immigrants collided with another vehicle on Expressway 83 in Peñitas, leaving three dead and another 14 injured. They were the latest victims of what appears...

Dorset man smuggling parts to Iran, says US By Patrick Sawer A British pensioner is at the centre of a worldwide police hunt after being accused by United States authorities of smuggling military parts to Iran. Brian Woodford, 77, who owns a 17th century manor house and 100-acre estate in Dorset, has been charged in his absence with selling millions of pounds worth of US military and civilian aircraft parts to the Islamic regime in Tehran. His wife Laura was arrested after arriving at San Francisco on a flight from Hong Kong with two catalogues from a Chinese company that...

The smuggling of stolen antiquities from Iraq's rich cultural heritage is helping finance Iraqi extremist groups, says the U.S. investigator who led the initial probe into the looting of Baghdad's National Museum. Marine Reserve Col. Matthew Bogdanos claimed both Sunni insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite militias are receiving funding from the trafficking. Bogdanos, a New York assistant district attorney, noted that kidnappings and extortion remain the insurgents' main source of funds. But he said the link between extremist groups and antiquities smuggling in Iraq was "undeniable." "The Taliban are using opium to finance their activities in Afghanistan,"...

A smuggling suspect in a stolen car with illegal migrants led Chula Vista officers on a 100 mph pursuit Thursday night before crashing in Otay Mesa, Chula Vista police said. Four men were arrested. A Chula Vista officer saw a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix speeding along Olympic Parkway and tried to stop the driver about 10:15 p.m., Lt. Scott Arsenault said. The driver allegedly sped onto southbound Interstate 805, turned east on state Route 905 and lost control trying to turn south on Otay Mesa Road. The car went off the road and the driver and one passenger ran into...

Three men were due in court Thursday for allegedly smuggling a boatload of illegal immigrants who were stranded without food or water for three days off the San Diego coast.The three were among 15 people aboard a rickety 24-foot boat rescued Wednesday 12 miles off the San Diego coast and 20 miles north of the Mexican border, according to Customs and Border Protection.The trip started in a fishing village near Playas de Rosarito, said Mike Unzueta, the lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigator in San Diego. The smugglers switched boats on Mexico's Coronado Islands but the boat's engine died...

EL PASO — Customs agents found nearly $1.9 million hidden in the doors of a sport utility vehicle at an El Paso port of entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Tuesday. Agents found the cash, wrapped in bundles and hidden in the doors of a 1992 Ford Expedition, after using a density meter to inspect the vehicle Monday morning, CBP spokesman Roger Maier said. "The driver was a little bit nervous, a little bit shaky," Maier said. "So the agents used ... a density meter. It registered higher than normal, consistent with contraband. They started looking closer at...

SAN DIEGO – A 24-year-old U.S. citizen suspected of smuggling two illegal immigrants was arrested at the San Ysidro port of entry Saturday, officials said. The woman, a San Diego resident, was registered in the SENTRI frequent traveler program and was using one of the program's exclusive travel lanes at the time of her arrest. Agents said she presented U.S. passports for herself and her son around 10 p.m. An agent reached behind the driver's seat and felt a person hidden in the Dodge Ram truck, officials said. The woman was sent to a secondary inspection area where agents discovered...

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP)-- Forty-eight people accused of taking part in an immigrant trafficking ring have been indicted on human smuggling and money laundering charges, authorities said. People cross illegally into the U.S. near San Luis, south of Yuma, Arizona. The group brought in as much as $130,000 a week moving people from Naco, Mexico, to its center of operations in Phoenix and then to destinations across the United States, Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said Thursday.

Savvy criminals are using some of the country's most credible logos, including FedEx, Wal-Mart, DirecTV and the U.S. Border Patrol, to create fake trucks to smuggle drugs, money and illegal aliens across the border, according to a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Termed "cloned" vehicles, the report also warns that terrorists could use the same fake trucks to gain access to secure areas with hidden weapons. The report says criminals have been able to easily obtain the necessary vinyl logo markings and signs for $6,000 or less. Authorities say "cosmetically cloned commercial vehicles are not illegal." In...

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Coast Guard, Border Patrol works to keep Great Lakes safe Story by Aileen Heiman Times are changing. Almost everywhere we go there are precautions and security measures to follow in the event of a terrorist attack. However, what most of us fail to realize is that there are people working together every day on the water to keep illegal aliens and materials from entering the United States. Prior to 9-11, there was only talk of a much-needed collaboration between Border Patrol and the United States Coast Guard. The attacks produced an instant reaction to the problem of patrolling the border....

STOLEN PICKUPS Cartels swipe rugged Ford F-250s, F-350s in state for smuggling drugs and humans Houston entrepreneur Bill Christmann was shocked when thieves stole his souped-up black Ford F-250 pickup from his west Houston driveway one night last July. But shock turned to concern the next day after Christmann learned thieves had driven the 2001, heavy-duty, four-wheel drive truck to Laredo, loaded it with illegal immigrants and drove it back from the border, roaring off-road through fenced ranch pastures. Police chased the truck south of San Antonio before the smugglers crashed the vehicle into a tree. The smugglers escaped, and...

Ongoing warfare with rival drug cartels across the border seemed to have quieted down this year, but the amount of drugs entering through the border and moving through the streets of Laredo – by any means possible - is ever-growing, officials said.Some 165 tons of narcotics, worth $140 million which failed to make their way through Laredo's four international bridges this fiscal year, is proof of this ever-growing trend. That is how much marijuana, cocaine, meth and heroin Mucia Dovalina, chief CBP officer and uniformed public affairs liaison, said was intercepted from Oct. 1, 2006 to Sept. 30, 2007. Finding...

Chinese Immigrants Chase Opportunity in America by Irene Jay Liu Listen Now [7 min 47 sec] add to playlist Irene Jay Liu, for NPR This newly built home stands in the Fujian province. Many newly built homes are empty because the owners live in America. Morning Edition, November 19, 2007 · Over the past two decades, illegal immigrants from the Fujian Province of China have flooded into New York City's Chinatown. Entire blocks of the city have become a microcosm of Fujianese culture. Hundreds of thousands of Fujianese have been voluntarily smuggled into the United States by people known, in...

CALEXICO, Calif. -- About 8.85 tons of suspected pot worth an estimated $67 million was seized at the Calexico port of entry, federal agents reported Saturday. The contraband was seized Friday, co-mingled with shipments of flat panel television sets, said David de la Peza of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. A tractor-trailer truck was in the Free and Secure Trade entry lane at about 4:20 p.m. Friday when drug-sniffing dogs alerted officers, de la Peza said. Officers discovered 1,019 large packages containing 17,701 pounds of suspected pot among the TVs. The accused smuggler is a 25-year-old Mexican and registered...

A Swede has been arrested for trying to smuggle 655 kilos of kebab meat into Norway, Norwegian media have reported. Norwegian police say the man had stuffed the back seat and the trunk with white plastic 'sausages' filled with meat. The man was reported to have reinforced the car's suspension so that the car would not look weighed down. The man said he had been offered cash payment to take the meat to Oslo, according to Dagens Nyheter. As Norway is not in the EU the amount of meat that can be taken into the country from Sweden is limited...

AL FALLUJAH, Iraq (Oct. 9, 2007) -- There’s less violence on Fallujah’s streets these days, but there are still some insurgents bold enough to try to sneak weapons through one of the city’s numerous checkpoints. As the threat remains, so do the Marines who regulate inbound traffic by searching for contraband on possible smugglers. Due to the sensitivities of Arabic culture, this task, at times, requires a woman’s touch. In order to search women, Combat Logistics Battalion 8, 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward), provides a temporary Female Search Team upon the request of 2nd Marine Division’s Regimental Combat Team 6....

<p>U.S. game officials seized this Fiji Island banded iguana was seized from a Long Beach, California, home.</p> <p>Jereme James, 33, of Long Beach, California, faces a single count of smuggling, according to a federal indictment returned Friday in Los Angeles. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.</p>

LOS ANGELES — A man accused of stealing three endangered iguanas from a nature preserve in Fiji and smuggling them into the United States in his prosthetic leg has been indicted. Jereme James, 33, of Long Beach, faces a single count of smuggling, according to a federal indictment returned Friday in Los Angeles. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Prosecutors say James stole the Fiji Island banded iguanas while visiting the South Pacific island in September 2002. He then brought the reptiles to the U.S. by hiding them in a special compartment he had constructed...

RAWALPINDI: The Customs Collectorate, Rawalpindi, has recovered huge quantity of heroin and hashish, concealed in the Holy Quran and religious books being parcelled to United Kingdom (UK) through International Mail office, Customs sources told The News. Collector Customs Muhammad Ashraf Khan and Additional Collector Dr Arsalaan, received information that a drug mafia active in Pakistan, was sending huge consignments through mail for a long time, the sources said adding, the authorities constituted a raiding party comprising deputy collector, Naveed Iqbal, superintendent Wasim Ahmad and inspectors Afaan Younas, Muhammad Ismail and Imtiaz Bhatti to conduct raids at International Mail offices in...

CAIRO (Reuters) - A Saudi passenger tried to smuggle a large number of reptiles, including cobra snakes and infant Nile crocodiles, out of Egypt in his luggage, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Sunday. The discovery of the reptiles in the passenger's bags triggered a brief panic among security personnel at the Cairo International Airport, witnesses said. The 22-year-old passenger, identified only as Anas, said he needed the reptiles, which also included chameleons, for scientific research at his university in Saudi Arabia. His collection will be handed over to Egypt's main zoo in Cairo.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A criminal ring that Arizona police said used a shuttle service to smuggle drug and human trafficking profits to Mexico has been broken up with 47 people indicted, authorities said on Friday. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said the firm shuttling passengers from Phoenix to Sonoyta, Caborca and Puerto Penasco in Mexico moved some $2 million a month in dirty money for at least 20 different human and drug trafficking organizations. The people indicted included drivers and other employees of the shuttle firm. They face a range of charges including money laundering, conspiracy and illegally conducting a...

BAGHDAD - U.S.-led forces swooped into the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City on Wednesday, killing 32 suspected militants and detaining 12 others in fighting and an airstrike targeting alleged smuggling networks from Iran. Iraqi police and witnesses said nine civilians were killed in the attack, which occurred hours before Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Tehran for his second visit in less than a year. Iraq, which like Iran is majority Shiite, has managed a difficult balancing act between Tehran and Washington since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, trying to maintain good relations with its powerful neighbor while not...

And therein lies one of our country's dirty little secrets: Mexican drug runners getting a free pass back to Mexico if they're caught with less than a quarter-ton of pot. Cochise County attorney Ed Rheinheimer spells it out. "If a seizure is made of an amount less than 500 pounds, the case doesn't get prosecuted." You read that right. Drug runners doing business without punishment. But don't blame the county attorneys. Remember: These are federal cases and should be federally prosecuted. But guess what? They don't get prosecuted by the feds and now, they don't get prosecuted by guys like...

Slogan tree smuggler executed in N Korea Published: Monday, 6 August, 2007, 02:06 AM Doha Time SEOUL: North Korea has publicly executed a trade official for chopping down and smuggling cherished “slogan trees” on which founding leader Kim Il-Sung reputedly carved anti-Japanese messages, a report said yesterday. Senior local timber trader Oh Mun-Hyok was shot dead and four accomplices sentenced to life imprisonment on July 23, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said, quoting unnamed diplomatic sources. Local government and trade officials were forced to watch Oh’s public execution at Yonsa in the northern province of North Hamkyong, it said. The...