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COLUMBUS, N.M. (KRQE) - Federal documents state a gun smuggling operation allegedly run by three public officials from a tiny New Mexico border town had ties to Mexican drug cartels and some of the weapons were used in several murders. Last week, federal agents raided Columbus in Luna County arresting Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Village Trustee Blas Gutierrez and Chief of Police Angelo Vega, along with several others. In total, 11 people are accused of smuggling guns into the Mexican cities of Cíudad Juarez and Palomas. Palomas sits just across the border from Columbus. For the first time the federal arresting...

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A private jet owned by a North Texas company has been impounded for the past 2 1/2 weeks and its passengers and crew detained by the Congolese government in central Africa, where officials say it was used to smuggle gold from rebel territories in the nation's eastern provinces. The plane was leased by Southlake Aviation, based in suburban Dallas-Fort Worth, to a subsidiary of CAMAC International, The Dallas Morning News reported in its Sunday editions. CAMAC company is owned by Kase Lawal, a Nigerian-born Houston oil tycoon an appointee of President Barack Obama to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy...

A 52-year-old Highland Park father is one of two U.S. citizens charged with agreeing to sell missiles and other weapons to the Taliban for their use against American troops in Afghanistan, according to a complaint unsealed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week. Oded Orbach, born in Israel, was among seven men arrested in an international sting operation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Paid informants posing as Taliban representatives conspired with the men to ship narcotics through West Africa — with a portion intended for the United States — and to use the proceeds to buy weapons for protecting Taliban-owned...

Surveillance stopped a pair of alleged drug smugglers from hauling about 273 kilos of marijuana over the border fence with the help of a ladder, public records reflect. A U.S. Border Patrol agent on Thursday saw 10 people coming out of the Rio Grande carrying bundles and a ladder near the Rancho Grande Subdivision in La Paloma. The agent saw the suspects use the ladder to get the bundles over the border fence, according to the complaint filed before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio in federal court. The complaint states that the agent also saw a green minivan drive in...

PHARR — Federal authorities arrested a 21-year-old Pharr man who allegedly tried to smuggle a machine gun into Mexico. A Pharr police officer stopped Julio Cesar Ramirez's in a white 2006 Hummer H3 as he attempted enter the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge, according to a criminal complaint. The officer said he noticed a black gun case in the back seat of the Hummer and called U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to the scene. Ramirez claimed he had no guns inside the vehicle, but when officers opened the case, they found a Browning .30-caliber machine gun with a tripod inside, the...

Want to smuggle immigrants across the border? Well, there's an app for that. It's a game called "Smuggle Truck: Operation Immigration" and it's causing outrage. Developed by a Boston-based tech company, the game allows users to drive a truck full of immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border and through the desert, all the while trying to keep the human cargo from falling off. Scores are calculated by the number of immigrants helped crossing the border. The most careful drivers are awarded a "Green Card" for saving passengers' lives. On the other hand, the "Smugglers Run" award goes to “pedal-to-the-medal reckless speed-run...

The Teheran regime has hanged 66 individuals since the end of 2010, according to France 24 International News. Among them was a 46-year-old Iranian-born, Dutch national Sahra Bahrami, who was hung on January 29 on drug-smuggling charges. Holland's Foreign Ministry said it was "shocked, shattered by this act by a barbaric regime," according to Agence France Presse. Bahrami's sister dismissed the Iranian charges, which she contended were fabricated. "She doesn't even smoke cigarettes, let alone possessing drugs. How could someone who participates in election gatherings and endangers her life, engage in such actions against her country?" she is quoted as...

PHILIPPINES congressman Ronald Singson has admitted he tried to smuggle cocaine into HK in his underpants. The colourful 42-year-old, who is from one of the Philippines' most high-profile political families, admitted to bringing 6.67 grams of cocaine and two tablets of the narcotic Nitrazepam into the city on July 11, 2010. He was arrested at Hong Kong's international airport by customs officers who found a small amount of cocaine and pills in his luggage, with six grams of cocaine hidden in his underpants. The total value of the cocaine was about $2000. The politician, also a music promoter whose business...

SAN DIEGO -- U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents. Said Jaziri, the former Imam of a Muslim congregation in Montreal, was hidden inside a car driven by a San Diego-area man who was pulled over by U.S. Border Patrol agents...east of San Diego. Jaziri allegedly paid a Tijuana-based smuggling group $5,000 to get him across the border...saying he wanted to be taken to a "safe place...

KABUL, Afghanistan (Jan. 24, 2011) — A joint Afghan National Security and International Security Assistance Force vehicle-interdiction operation targeted insurgent smuggling routes in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, yesterday. Several insurgents were killed and a large quantity of weapons and narcotics was found during the operation. Acting on multiple intelligence reports and tips from local citizens, the patrol saw a suspicious vehicle parked outside of a small compound. As the patrol moved to search the vehicle and compound, they were engaged by two armed men. The patrol returned fire, killing the two men. As the patrol moved further into the compound,...

Texas bar owners sentenced for hiring illegal alien barmaids/prostitutes Monday, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced Tereso Olivo, 54, to 15 months in federal prison without parole and two years of supervised release on human smuggling charges. In Spanish, Nancy Olivo, 43, then implored the judge: “I ask, your honor, to have leniency on me for the sake of my children. I know I was wrong.” She was sentenced to two years of probation with six months of house arrest. An illegal alien herself, Olivo is scheduled for deportation proceedings after she serves her sentence. Three months ago, the couple...

Nogales Border Patrol agents were involved in a shoot out on Sunday North West of the city. The BP agents responded to a sensor that was tripped near the U.S./Mexico border and were greeted with fire from alleged illegal aliens...the illegal aliens were smuggling drugs and were armed with AK-47s. Once the Border Patrol arrived on the scene the illegals fired their weapons and BP agents returned fire. There were no injuries...Nogales Border Patrol spokesperson, Mario Escalante said the incident is under investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is looking into the confrontation. “The shooting incident happened, but...

Deputies arrested a man Friday who is accused of hiding crack cocaine in his buttocks. Charles Everette Robinson, 30, of the 3300 block of Ellington Court, Fort Myers, was charged with battery on a nurse, trafficking cocaine, introduction of contraband into a detention facility and two felony counts of driving while license is suspended/habitual offender. Bond was set on all but one of the driving counts which had bond denied. He remained Monday in Lee County Jail. According to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office reports: While deputies searched Robinson after his arrest, they believed he was “possibly holding something in...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal agents seized five pounds of C-4 military explosives from the Colorado home of a man accused with a Navy SEAL and a Las Vegas associate of smuggling machine guns from Iraq into the U.S. for sale and shipment to Mexico, authorities said Thursday. Grenades and night-vision goggles also were found in the Durango, Colo., home of 34-year-old Richard Paul, according to federal prosecutors and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents in Las Vegas and Colorado. Paul and Andrew Kaufman, 36, of Las Vegas, were arrested Wednesday and appeared Thursday before federal magistrate...

~ EXCERPT ~ CHENNAI, INDIA (BNO NEWS) – A Sri Lankan Man, who had swallowed 2,060 diamonds worth up to Rs. 3 crore ($674,715 dollars) packed in several condoms, was arrested at an airport on Tuesday, local media reported Thursday. Mohammed Shakif, 43, of Galle, Sri Lanka, was smuggling the precious stones in 42 condoms and had just arrived in Chennai, located in the southern region of India, when a team of suburban police acting on a tip off inquired him. According to the police the precious stones were worth between Rs. 1.5 crore ($337,357 dollars) and Rs. 3 crore...

Two 150-year-old dolls have been x-rayed in a bid to discover if they were used by Confederate soldiers to smuggle medical supplies past Union blockades during the U.S. Civil War. It is thought the large dolls - Nina and Lucy Ann - had their hollowed out papier-mache heads stuffed with quinine or morphine for wounded and malaria-stricken Confederate troops. The Union blockade lasted from 1861 until 1865 and was intended to thwart the delivery of weapons, soldiers and supplies such as medicine to the South....

Miami seems more and more like the Casablanca of movie legend. This month, a Palestinian man and a Cuban migrant were charged in an FBI counter-terrorism probe with plotting to buy hundreds of stolen assault rifles, high-tech bombs and remote-control detonators to ship to the West Bank. Shortly before that, Miami Beach arms wunderkind Efraim Diveroli -- already convicted of selling banned Chinese-made munitions to the Pentagon -- was arrested on new firearms charges in Brevard County after he allegedly tried to import rounds of ammunition from South Korea. And two years ago, a ring of foreigners and businesses was...

NOTE: THIS IS THE NEW ISRAEL-RELATED THREAD Note The following news brief is a quote: Report: IDF attacks targets in south, central Gaza Strip Published: 08.17.10, 23:45 / Israel News Palestinians reported that the IDF had fired towards open ground in Khan Younis and attacked the smuggling tunnels in the south of the Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded Tuesday morning from shells fired into the western Negev. (Ali Waked)

YORK – At least $1 million in cash was discovered inside a tractor-trailer Friday afternoon during a routine inspection along the turnpike. Maine State Police said they found the stash of cash after detaining the driver and a passenger while they examined driver logs. The driver, 35-year-old Jhon Rivera-Ramirez, was ultimately arrested for falsifying logs. He was later released on bail. State police said Ramirez was traveling with a passenger, Jose Javier Perez, 46, who was not charged in the stop. Police did not say where the men were coming from or where they were going. State Police Lt. Thomas...