http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200707/NAT20070716b.html
“Documents Cite Further Offending by Smuggler in Border Agents Case”
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
July 16, 2007
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “(CNSNews.com) - Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez hung his head and confessed that he was storing marijuana in his Clint, Texas, home when federal authorities turned up there.
He admitted to Drug Enforcement Administration agents that he was being paid to hide the drugs by dealers who delivered marijuana on ten occasions in the four months before the agents showed up at his door on Oct. 23, 2005.
According to DEA documents labeled “sensitive,” obtained by Cybercast News Service, Ortiz-Hernandez identified one of the drug dealers as Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, a Mexican who at the time was under a federal immunity deal for a previous drug offense.
Aldrete-Davila was the man at the center of a notorious case in which two U.S. Border Patrol agents were imprisoned earlier this year, unleashing a controversy that continues and will be the subject of Senate hearings this week.
On Feb. 17, 2005, Aldrete-Davila tried to smuggle more than 700 pounds of marijuana across the Mexican border into Texas. Border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean confronted him and he was shot in the buttocks while escaping on foot back into Mexico. Federal prosecutors struck a deal with the Mexican to testify against the two agents in exchange for immunity from prosecution for that offense.
Aldrete-Davila returned to the United States, received free medical treatment at an Army hospital, and was also given “humanitarian passes” allowing him to enter and exit the country as he pleased, while receiving medical treatment for the bullet wound.
As a Senate panel prepares to investigate the prosecution of Ramos and Compean at a hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers have said that one of the questions they intend to put to U.S. attorney Johnny Sutton — the prosecutor who offered the immunity deal — will deal with a second alleged offense by Aldrete-Davila.
“Why was this drug smuggler allowed to get immunity from prosecution without pleading guilty to any crime, then allowed get essentially a visa where he’s allowed to travel back and forth into the U.S.?” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked during a telephone press conference late last week.”
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/070716washington.htm
July 16, 2007
“Money laundering forfeiture complaint filed against $110 million in proceeds”
WASHINGTON
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http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/070712springfield.htm
July 12, 2007
“Former QSI supervisor pleads guilty to harboring illegal aliens, aiding aggravated identity fraud”
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.
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http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/newsreleases/articles/071207santaana.htm
July 12, 2007
“10 U.S. citizens latest defendants indicted in landmark marriage fraud probe
Probe targets Orange County network that arranged sham marriages primarily for Asian aliens”
SANTA ANA, Calif.