(ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT) SMUGGLING SUSPECTS ARE FREED (BY MEXICO)

MEXICO CITY - A Mexican federal judge has dismissed charges against four people accused of participating in a human-smuggling ring linked to the deaths of 19 illegal immigrants in Texas. The four, who are wanted by federal prosecutors in Houston, fled to Mexico after an abandoned trailer containing bodies was found at a Victoria truck stop on May 14, 2003. Victor Sanchez Rodriguez; his wife, Emma Sapata Rodriguez; Rosa Sarrata Gonzalez; and Octavio Torres Ortega were among 14 people indicted by a Houston federal grand jury in June 2003. They were arrested in Mexico with 11 others, who are not wanted in the United States.

The charges were thrown out because 34 witnesses presented by Mexico's Federal Attorney General's Office had falsified identifications, Judge Hector Lara said Wednesday. "It was a very weird case," Lara said, adding that prosecutors have appealed the decision. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City has not received a request for extradition of the four people sought in Houston, a spokeswoman said. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston could not comment because U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore has imposed a gag order. Justice Department officials in Washington, D.C., declined to comment.

The four were released last week from Mexico City's high-security Eastern Prison, according to penitentiary records. Rodriguez, Sapata and Sarrata have been placed in a holding station in Mexico City because they are U.S. citizens, the records show. Torres, who claims Mexican citizenship, was freed with the 11 others. Still uncertain is whether the three fugitive Americans will be deported or whether U.S. officials will seek to extradite them and Torres.

Jordan Paust, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said Mexico refuses extradition if the death penalty or life imprisonment is possible. Exceptions are made only when the executive branch of the U.S. government gives assurances that neither will be imposed. U.S. prosecutors say Rodriguez and Torres headed smuggling operations that funneled immigrants to another ring, which provided transportation from Harlingen to Houston. That ring is believed to have recruited truck driver Tyrone Williams. More than 74 people were loaded into a trailer he was towing.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Williams, saying he ignored the victims as they beat on the trailer walls as air grew scarce. The victims died of dehydration, suffocation and hyperthermia. Mexican federal agents arrested 15 suspects, including the four wanted in the United States, in August 2003 and March 2004. They were charged with organized crime and human trafficking, with maximum sentences of 52 years in prison. Mexican prosecutors presented statements from the 34 witnesses, who said they had paid the defendants to smuggle them into the United States, Lara said. Prosecutors also presented statements from four federal policemen accusing the suspects of trafficking. Lara said the statements were contradictory and based on unnamed informants. Spokesmen for the Mexican attorney general declined to comment Wednesday.

Me? I'd send 'em to Guantanamo. Mexico is our enemy, NOT our friend. The gov't despises us and encourages their citizens to flee to the US illegally. They are a bunch of rich thugs that do now want to reform their gov't or make it truly responsive to their citizens. The answer? Build a Mexico Wall, similar to the Berlin Wall. Anyone caught illegally entering the States gets an automatic 5 yr. jail sentence of hard labor.

Mexico does not take us seriously. Neither does W understand the immigration fiasco at all. As a native Californian I can honestly say that if we do NOT seriously enforce our illegal immigration laws it will be the death of our culture and way of life. Schools already are a living hell in CA. Believe me, I taught there for 9 yrs. in public school just seeing 'em get worse & worse. Illegal immigration has a lot to do with this problem as well as crime. Get serious. Enforce the laws. America is not Mexico's dumping ground and is not their employment agency. That is the Mexican gov'ts responsibility! Outta here...

Pubdate: Wed, 12 Jan 2005
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2005 The Associated Press
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Source does not print LTEs from outside its circulation area.
Author: Oscar Arana, Associated Press
FORMER U.S. DRUG CZAR SAYS DRUGS ARE BIGGER PROBLEM THAN TERRORISM

MEXICO CITY ( AP ) -- Retired U.S. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, drug czar under former President Bill Clinton, said Wednesday the war against drugs is a bigger problem than the war against terror.

Speaking at a news conference in Mexico City, McCaffrey said 52,000 people die from drugs each year compared to the 12,000 U.S. troops that have been killed or wounded in Iraq since the war started.

Better cooperation between Mexico and the United States has helped win small battles in the fight against drugs, McCaffrey said, adding that the countries now share evidence and have common laws for money laundering, polygraph testing and wire tapping.

"Ten years ago we had zero legal cooperation on extradition between the U.S. and Mexico. Now it's not true," he said. "The U.S. extradites American citizens to stand trial in Mexico, and Mexico has extradited some U.S. and bi-national citizens to stand trial in the States. A lot remains to be done, but we're getting better."

McCaffrey denied the idea that drug cartels in Mexico are merging to gain power, despite comments published Wednesday in Mexico from organized crime prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, who said two major drug cartels are now controlling Mexico's drug trade.

Santiago Vasconcelos said the two main cartels are headed by Osiel Cardenas Guillen, currently in jail, and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, escaped from jail, and he added that both groups are warring for control of the country's drug routes.

He also said the Arellano Felix gang, once believed to be the country's most powerful, is now controlled by Cardenas.

But McCaffrey said he doubted the claims.

"It's impossible to believe a criminal organization will come together in trust," he said. "It's about money, destruction of children, work ethic and democracy. There's probably 30 organizations and a 100 more north of the border."

McCaffrey said he had confidence in federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo's ability to carry out the war against drugs, adding that Mexican soldiers had made improvements in fighting corruption that needed to be replicated by law enforcement.

IRAQI ILLEGAL ALIENS IN MEXICO
By Michelle Malkin · February 02, 2005 07:22 PM

Here's a notable story on two Iraqi illegal aliens with fake passports caught in Mexico:

Two Iraqis have been charged with immigration offenses in Mexico after being arrested last week in Tijuana, according to Mexican officials.

The Iraqis, Steven Yohanan Kurkis and Kaml Meti Bashar, presented passports from Greece with the names Nikolaos Skarvelis and Nabil Megalli, according to a news release from the Mexican Attorney General's office obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The American, Samer Toma Oraha, presented an expired U.S. passport to Mexican immigration authorities after arriving in Tijuana from Mexico City on an Aeromexico flight Jan. 26, according to Mexican authorities.

The Iraqis traveled from Greece to Spain and then to Mexico and were going to be led into the United States by Orhora for a fee of $10,000 each, according to a preliminary investigation.

A federal judge in Mexico will determine whether to pursue the charges against the men. They were being held in a Tijuana state prison.

It's not the first time Iraqi smugglees have been caught south of the border down Mexico way. I reported on the phenomenon three years ago here.
When it comes to enforcing immigration laws in their own country, Mexican officials are unapologetically ruthless. Can you imagine if we held Mexican "undocumented workers" in conditions like those of a Tijuana state prison? Amnesty International would be howling.

Just saying.

www.michellemalkin.com

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