No changes in restrictions on gay blood donors

A federal panel decides the current limits should stand, but it proposes research that could ease them later.

By Andrew Zajac, Tribune Washington Bureau

June 12, 2010

Reporting from Washington

A high-level federal public health committee Friday declined to recommend a change in restrictions on blood donations by gay men, but it proposed research that could eventually allow some currently barred men to give blood.

In voting 9 to 6 against making any immediate changes, committee members cited what they said was a tiny but still unacceptable increased risk of contamination of the blood supply if current standards were changed.

The restriction on gay men, imposed in 1983 in response to the HIV- AIDS crisis, bans any man who has had sex with another man even once since 1977 from giving blood.

A key point of contention at the two-day hearing in suburban Washington was the disparate treatment of gays, who incur a lifetime ban for a single sex act even years in the past, and heterosexual men or women, who are required to defer giving blood for only one year if they have sex with someone with HIV.

Acknowledging that uneven treatment, the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability said the current donor system is "suboptimal" because it permits "some potentially high-risk donations while preventing some potentially low-risk donations."

It unanimously recommended a series of steps to guide health authorities in moving to a more nuanced policy that would take into account individual behavior, rather than assessing the characteristics of a broad group — such as men who have sex with men.

Recommendations include studying whether questionnaires filled out by would-be donors can be fine-tuned to identify gay men who are not high risk, as well as heterosexuals who are high risk and not weeded out by the current system.

The goal, panel members said, was to improve blood safety while seeking to diminish the discriminatory aspects of donor policy.

The committee also called for studying the feasibility of setting up a protocol of prescreening — testing currently banned men to allow them to become donors — and studying donor demographics to determine which groups are at greatest risk for transmitting a range of blood-borne infectious agents, including newly emerging pathogens.

The panel's proposals, which are nonbinding, go to senior executives at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration, which has the final say on any change in policy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blood-gays-20100612,0,5582258,print.story

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19 killed in attack on Mexico drug clinic

Dozens of gunmen stormed the private drug and alcohol treatment clinic in the city of Chihuahua, authorities said. The center's pastor said the men, outfitted with protective vests and face masks, first claimed to be police.

By Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times

June 11, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

Gunmen stormed a private drug and alcohol treatment clinic in northern Mexico and opened fire, killing 19 people and wounding four, authorities said Friday.

Dozens of armed men arrived in a convoy outside the church-run facility Fe y Vida, or Faith and Life, about 11 p.m. Thursday.

Rene Castillo, the center's pastor, said the men, outfitted with protective vests and face masks, first claimed to be police officers. They fatally shot some of the victims in their rooms, but herded most outside the three-story center before executing them, Castillo said by telephone from the city of Chihuahua.

Castillo said the facility housed two dozen men ages 17 to 60. Some had been gang members involved in criminal activities at one time, he said. But the pastor said the victims were trying to get their lives together.

"They were looking for a way forward," he said.

The attack was the first such incident in Chihuahua, capital of the border state of the same name.

A number of similar clinic attacks, including one in September that left 18 people dead, have taken place in Ciudad Juarez, about 220 miles north of Chihuahua city and the deadliest place in the country as a result of soaring spiraling drug violence.

Drug treatment centers, many of them fly-by-night operations employing questionable strong-arm methods, are targeted by criminal gangs because they sometimes harbor addicts from rival groups or are used as hide-outs, recruiting grounds and drug-selling points, officials and analysts say.

A spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said the shooters Thursday night left behind written messages, but he declined to reveal the contents. Hit men in Mexico's drug war frequently scrawl threatening or taunting notes and drop them alongside the bodies of their enemies.

Authorities did not specify a motive for the attack.

Martin Sandoval, a neighbor who was once treated at the center, said he heard at least three extended bursts of gunfire from what sounded like automatic weapons.

"There were a lot of shots," he said in a telephone interview.

More than 23,000 people have been killed amid drug-related violence in Mexico since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon declared war on drug cartels and mobilized troops to fight them.

Since then, the state with the largest number of killings has been Chihuahua, though its capital has largely escaped the worst of the mayhem.

Calderon, in South Africa to watch Mexico play in the leadoff game of the World Cup, issued a statement condemning the latest clinic attack and vowed not to let up in his offensive against traffickers.

"They are outrageous acts that reinforce the conviction of the need to fight with the full force of the law against criminal groups that carry out such acts of barbarism," Calderon said.

Sandoval said he knew a number of the men at the drug facility and that some were members of the Mexicles gang, which has battled with another violent gang in northern Chihuahua state, the Aztecas.

The two groups are aligned with rival drug cartels that have fought furiously over control of the cross-border smuggling route around Ciudad Juarez.

Castillo, the pastor, said he was at a loss for what might have led to the bloodshed.

"I don't know why," he said. "We don't have problems with anyone."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-mexico-attack-20100612,0,7401086,print.story

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'Prince of Pot' is at a low

The Canadian who thought his seed sales could upend the United States' war on drugs was extradited to Seattle and will likely face five years in federal prison.

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

June 11, 2010

Reporting from Vancouver, Canada

For years, his seed catalogs were scrutinized by discerning cannabis cultivators across the U.S. and Canada, much like the ladies of Cumbria might fuss over Chiltern's inventories of sweet peas and heirloom tomatoes.

There was Blue Heaven pot, capable of producing a "euphoric, anti-anxiety high," or Crown Royal, whose "flower tops come to a flat golden crown, sparkling with gems of THC," or Hawaiian Sativa, with its "menthol flavor that tingles the taste buds and tickles the brain."

The difference between Marc Emery's pot seeds and countless others on the market was that if you bought Emery's, he'd use the money to launch a cannabis tsunami across North America that would set the war on drugs adrift like a cork on a massive sea of weed.

"Plant the seeds of freedom, overgrow the government," Emery urged his clients. With a pot plant on every patio, he declared, violent drug gangs would see their livelihoods disappear and police would be reduced to "running around … chasing all these marijuana plants."

Sooner or later, he promised, "they will simply give up and change the laws."

Well, not yet. Emery, who U.S. authorities fingered in 2005 as one of the top 46 international drug trafficking targets, was ordered extradited by the Canadian minister of justice last month and relinquished to federal marshals in Seattle. He now faces a likely five years in U.S. federal prison.

"In fact I have done these things, so I admit my guilt," Emery said in an e-mail after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. "We are winning, especially in the United States, and I can take a lot of credit for that.... When I am gone, or even locked up here in the U.S., my historical legacy is secure."

Here in "Vansterdam," where cannabis cafes, head shops and even a supervised needle-injection site are prominent features of downtown, pot is a multibillion-dollar industry. And Emery, a longtime fixture at political forums and downtown street rallies, is widely seen as one of its titans.

The extradition of the 52-year-old self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot" has sparked a sovereignty outcry across Canada, where supporters, civil rights advocates and even several members of parliament have demanded to know why he was handed over to the U.S. for an offense that Canada seldom prosecutes.

"It seems like the American war on drugs is just reaching its arm into Canada and saying, 'We're going to scoop you up,'" said Libby Davies, a member of parliament from Vancouver. "The whole thing has struck people as being over the top, harsh, unwarranted — and at the end of the day, what are they trying to prove?"

Canada and the U.S. have been on strangely opposite political trajectories when it comes to the war on drugs.

As early as 2003, the Canadian government appeared poised to decriminalize marijuana, which is regulated only federally in Canada, but backed down under U.S. threats to throw up punitive border controls.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party since 2006 has backed a series of bills, one now pending in parliament, that would mirror widely criticized U.S. policies and impose for the first time a mandatory six-month jail term on anyone convicted of growing six or more marijuana plants.

The U.S., meanwhile, is moving under the Obama administration toward a stronger focus on prevention and treatment. Fourteen states now allow medical use of marijuana, and California voters will decide in November on an initiative that would decriminalize adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and allow small-scale cultivation for personal consumption.

Emery became a target for police in both nations — in Canada because his frequent appearances on international television shows was an irritant to police; in America because his seed business, which at one point reached revenues of $3 million a year, was supplying marijuana-growing operations in at least nine states.

"Marc Emery happened to be the largest supplier of marijuana seeds into the United States," said Todd Greenberg, the assistant U.S. attorney in Seattle who is prosecuting Emery's case.

Emery believes he caught the eye of the Drug Enforcement Administration not because of his seeds but because of what he did with his revenue. Living in a rented apartment with no car and few personal possessions, Emery channeled most of the millions he earned into marijuana legalization and defense efforts across North America.

The Prince of Pot's seed money has helped start "compassion clubs" for medical-marijuana users across Canada, launch the Pot-TV Internet network, and fund lobbying organizations and political parties in North America, Israel and New Zealand.

Many of the state campaigns to legalize the medical use of marijuana in the U.S. did so with donations from Emery. He ran for mayor of Vancouver in 1996, 2002 and 2008, finishing a perennial fourth or fifth.

"When Marc was arrested, he had $11 in his bank account," said his wife, Jodie, 25, who has co-edited Emery's magazine, Cannabis Culture, and served as his deputy in the Marijuana Party of British Columbia, which he founded. The party took 3.5% of the vote in the 2000 elections and made cannabis a must-address issue in every election since.

Emery won few friends in President George W. Bush's administration when former drug czar John Walters, apparently seeking to stamp out rumblings of marijuana decriminalization among Canada's then-ruling Liberal Party, addressed the Vancouver Board of Trade in 2002.

Emery surreptitiously bought a table at the event, and along with fellow activists David Malmo-Levine and Chris Bennett, heckled Walters mercilessly. The next day, activists blew marijuana smoke in Walters' face during a tour of downtown

Not long after that, they figure, is when the U.S. investigation of Emery was launched. But his friends say that only increased his sense of mission — and self-esteem.

"A lot of people take great offense when he gets compared to people like Martin Luther King and Gandhi, and they say, 'Marc, you can't compare yourself to someone like that.' And he says, 'These are men who stood up for things … who suffered for what they represented, and to many, many people, they were the leader of their movement,'" Jodie said.

"Marc does have a gigantic ego," she said.

"Majestic," said Malmo-Levine.

Cannabis has been Emery's holy grail, but it would be a mistake, his friends say, to think of him as a pothead weaned on tree-hugging and the Grateful Dead. To the contrary, he is a libertarian capitalist whose politics lean free-market, individual-rights Republican.

"A lot of people think he's a leftie, but he's really a true conservative. He wants to get the government out of people's lives," his wife said.

As a 17-year-old high school dropout in London, Ontario, he opened his own bookstore, City Lights, in 1975, and clashed with the authorities there for selling banned copies of High Times magazine and the rap group 2 Live Crew's forbidden CD "As Nasty as They Wanna Be."

Emery was arrested not only for selling banned material but for repeatedly defying the province's Sunday closure laws; after years of conflict, he moved to Vancouver, where he hooked up with local hemp activists who shared his growing fascination with the history of cannabis and the governmental campaigns against it.

"'Where, oh where, are the hemp professionals?' He totally slammed all these guys in dreadlocks," Bennett recalled. "I'd say, 'Who are you to criticize anybody? Are you going to get pot legalized?' And he said, 'Just watch me.'"

Emery opened his pot paraphernalia store, BC Hemp, in 1994 and started up his seed business later that year. Over the years he has been arrested more than a dozen times, whether for selling seeds in Vancouver or passing a joint in Saskatoon, but hasn't faced serious jail time until now.

His seed business, he has argued, did more good than harm by undermining the criminal cartels that have turned marijuana trafficking into a corrupt and violent international business.

"What I did was make it possible for small home growers to produce their own made-in-the-U.S.A. marijuana," he said. "I stopped millions of American dollars from flowing to terrorists, cartels, thugs and gangs."

The mainstream marijuana legalization movement in the United States, however, has been largely silent since his arrest, not lending their voices, for example, to the rallies in nearly 80 cities around the world that followed Emery's transfer to the U.S.

It was largely alone that Emery sat in a Seattle courtroom late last month, with only a handful of supporters on the benches.

He had agreed to plead guilty to the single count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, Jodie said, largely to ensure that his two employees also charged in the indictment would not have to serve jail time.

"It was the most preferable of all the alternatives," a subdued Emery told Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, who asked why he was admitting to the charge.

"Sometimes there are no alternatives, you're right," the judge said. "There are only bad and worse."

Emery was led away not long after that, but nobody really expected he'd go quietly.

The Prince of Pot's blog posts from the SeaTac detention center go out regularly on the Internet to his supporters. What he wants to do next, though his attempt to get a recorded phone call out has so far only gotten him stuck in solitary confinement: Potcasts.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pot-20100612,0,5962801,print.story

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From the New York Times

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From Troublemaking Teenagers to Terror Suspects

NORTH BERGEN, N.J. — One was a spoiled child so prone to fits of rage — fights, screamed insults, threats — that his parents began taking him to psychiatrists at age 6 and medicating him in a vain struggle to control his moods. By their count, his short fuse and incendiary tongue forced him to change schools no fewer than 10 times.

The other was arrested three times in less than four months for petty crimes, and seemed like an aimless youth — until he developed a passion for a strict version of Islam that shocked and alienated his Dominican family. Within a few years, he was posting extremist views on the Internet and assailing the United States while predicting its downfall.

Their stories began like many others: troubled teenagers who scare and mystify their neighbors; run-ins with the police while still in high school; parents who cannot compete with the sense of belonging or purpose their boys find elsewhere.

“Of course we tried everything we could,” said Nadia Alessa, mother of Mohamed M. Alessa, the one so given to angry outbursts. “We couldn't just keep him at home.”

The next chapter in such tales often charts a descent into drugs or gangs, but Mr. Alessa, 20, and Carlos E. Almonte, 24, who both grew up in the New Jersey suburbs, apparently had other plans. They were arrested Saturday as they prepared to fly separately to Egypt — and, the authorities say, to join a militant group in Somalia and kill non-Muslims.

How they went from troublemakers to terrorism suspects may never be understood. But conversations with many people who have known them — including the first interviews given by Mr. Alessa's parents since the arrest — make clear that both men were struggling for years, constantly at odds with authority and their immigrant parents. Law enforcement officials had been keeping tabs on them for nearly four years.

Many of their peers dismissed them as hapless blowhards, more pathetic than perilous; friends said they liked to play Ping-Pong, or go into Manhattan and hang out at a halal restaurant. Yet there they are, in transcripts of secretly recorded conversations, talking about shooting and beheading people, and sending American troops home “sliced up in 1,000 pieces.”

Mr. Alessa's parents, Palestinian immigrants, are Muslim, but Ms. Alessa was at a loss to explain her only son's recent transformation. She recalled asking why he was growing a beard: “He said real men grow their beards.”

‘Now Everyone Hates Us'

After years of building a life in the United States — an apartment in North Bergen, a deli in nearby Bergen County where Mr. Alessa's father, Mahmood, is quick to extend credit to customers, who call him “Pops” — the parents now see it all endangered by a son they do not understand.

“Sixteen years we've lived on that street,” Ms. Alessa said. “Everyone loved us. Now everyone hates us.”

A neighbor who has known Mohamed most of his life, Wilmer Precilla, said the young man alternated between craving confrontation and acceptance, making derogatory remarks about Hispanics in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood, then trying unsuccessfully to join a Dominican gang, Patria. “He was always trying to be more gangster than everyone else,” Mr. Precilla said.

Family friends watched Mohamed scream at his mother, smash up his father's car and, in anger, knock the food off a shelf in the deli. When his shaken parents tried to take him to therapists, he screamed, “I'm not crazy.” At times he took medication for anger management, but about three years ago, his mother said, he stopped taking it and stopped seeing therapists.

Mr. Alessa's friends, who knew his temper, told him he needed medical help — an idea he rejected. His parents gave him the latest clothes and cellphones, friends and neighbors recalled. One said he acted like a typical “American rich kid,” even though his parents were not wealthy.

“He was a spoiled kid,” Ms. Alessa conceded. “He acted like a teenager. He thought he was a king.”

She said Mohamed attended the local public elementary school, two Catholic grade schools, a boarding school in Connecticut, a school for troubled youth, three Muslim schools and two public high schools, repeatedly getting into trouble for fighting or mouthing off.

At the two public high schools, North Bergen and KAS Prep, Mr. Alessa made an escalating series of threats against students and staff members through 2005 and 2006, saying that he would blow up the school, mutilate gays and punish women who were not subordinate to men, according to officials granted anonymity to discuss confidential matters. Both schools alerted the Department of Homeland Security .

As a 10th grader at North Bergen High, he had to receive his lessons at a local public library under the eye of a security guard, said Paul Swibinski, a school spokesman, because “administrators felt that his presence in school posed a safety threat to other students and staff.”

In those years, neighbors say, the police were called to the Alessa home several times. The North Bergen police declined to give details, noting that juvenile records were not public, but Lt. Frank Cannella said: “He was known to us, I can tell you that much.”

The Suspects Meet

Around 2005, when he was 14 or 15, Mr. Alessa met Mr. Almonte, who lived in Elmwood Park, but was spending much of his time in North Bergen, 10 miles away. The two hung out with a group of young men who called themselves the PLO. Mr. Alessa was not particularly religious then, but Mr. Almonte, a recent convert to Islam, was becoming more so.

Growing up, Carlos Almonte had a less turbulent childhood. But by the time he was 18, he, too, was running afoul of the law.

In May 2004, with a month left in his senior year at Elmwood Park Memorial High School, Mr. Almonte, a naturalized citizen, was arrested for taking a knife to campus. That August, he was arrested for punching a youth in the parking lot of a supermarket. Two weeks later, he was caught drinking beer in a park.

It was around then, family friends say, that Mr. Almonte turned to Islam. He told Priscilla Caicedo, a young woman he met last year, that his interest began when he heard someone preaching at the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus. He visited mosques in Paterson and Union City, and called himself Omar.

Mr. Almonte's conversion, his compulsion to proselytize, and his friendship with Mr. Alessa all alienated his family, though he continued to live with them. The friction culminated in their living room on May 23, 2009, when, according to a police report, Mr. Almonte began preaching about Islam to his younger brother, Elvin, who demurred, and “Carlos became angry and they both began fighting.”

Their mother tried to separate them and Elvin bit her arm, thinking it was his brother's. Carlos then struck Elvin in the back of the head with a picture frame.

One young man who befriended both suspects said that Mr. Almonte was more easygoing and supportive than Mr. Alessa, and that he liked to read and use computers. Another friend, Martin Robert, said that sometimes while playing Ping-Pong and basketball, Mr. Almonte would try to turn the conversation to Islam but would not insist. “He seemed like a nice, peaceful guy,” Mr. Robert said.

Another student who knew them casually, Mostafa Higazi, said the pair were “very oriented to politics.” He called Mr. Alessa “really a talker, just bragging,” while Mr. Almonte was quiet. He said that he did not recall specific things Mr. Alessa said, but that none of it resembled the bloody talk in the criminal complaint.

Ms. Caicedo met Mr. Almonte more than a year ago when she took her computer for repairs to a store where he worked near his home. Even in the store, she recalled, he began proselytizing, and gave her a book on Islam, which she said she never read.

They talked and traded instant messages, and went out once, as friends, last December. He took her to a Spanish-language service at a mosque in Union City and then to dinner at T.G.I. Friday's. Quiet and serious, he told her he wanted to find a wife who knew that her role was to stay home to cook and clean. “He was like one of those men that had to be the dominant one,” she said.

Recently, Ms. Caicedo said, he told her he was moving to North Carolina, and arranged for her to get his job at the computer store. Hours before he was arrested at Kennedy Airport, they were at the store, Mr. Almonte training her.

A Friendship's Dark Side

But others saw a darker side to the suspects and their friendship. In October 2006, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip that Mr. Alessa and Mr. Almonte talked about holy war and killing non-Muslims, and law enforcement agencies began keeping a watch on them. From the start, the authorities were in touch with Mr. Almonte's family.

“I had a good rapport with the father,” said Detective Anthony DiPasquale of Elmwood Park. “I acquired information and I passed it along to the F.B.I.”

In February 2007, while Mr. Alessa was a high school senior, he and Mr. Almonte traveled to Jordan; the F.B.I. says it was in the vain hope of being recruited by a militant jihadist group.

On a Facebook page started in October 2008, Mr. Almonte posted long quotations from medieval Islamic scholars and present-day radicals like Abu Qatada , considered by many countries to be a terrorist, and the jihadist cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri .

Mr. Almonte was also outraged at the treatment of Muslim prisoners accused of terrorism. He posted a comment concerning Omar Khadr , a prisoner who said he was abused by American interrogators. Mr. Khadr is charged with throwing a grenade when he was 15 that killed an American soldier in Afghanistan. Mr. Almonte wrote: “We feel for our brothers unjustly locked up even afghanistan at the time didn't pose a threat to america for them to attack them over 2 towers but the end of them will be like the end of persia, rome, n the soviet union.”

He posted a photo of himself at a Dec. 28, 2008, protest in Manhattan, holding a sign saying “DEATH TO ALL JUICE,” with the word “ZIONIST” written faintly above “JUICE.”

Mr. Almonte dismissed the religion of American Muslims, saying, “In truth, it isn't Islam.” He showed a particular fixation on the ideas that Muslim men should be bearded, and should hold one another's hands.

In the last two years, Mr. Alessa, too, started lecturing about God and grew a beard. A new friend, Bassem, became a frequent companion of the two men. Friends and Mr. Alessa's parents now believe that Bassem, who offered to put the young men up at the house he said he had in Egypt, was an undercover New York police officer who is cited in the criminal complaint, and who recorded their conversations.

“He pushed them,” Mahmood Alessa said. Ms. Alessa said Bassem “wanted to be a hero, on the backs of these stupid kids.”

Recently, Mr. Alessa told his parents he planned to go to Egypt to study Arabic; he spoke the language, but did not read or write it well.

About two weeks ago, Ms. Alessa snapped a picture of her son that she keeps on her cellphone, a reminder of a serene moment in their home. It shows Mohamed lying on a floral quilt, snuggling Princess Tuna, his cat.

He wanted to take the cat with him to Egypt, but his mother said no, and they argued. When he headed to the airport, he went instead with a big bag of candy from his parents' deli. The F.B.I. seized the candy, his mother said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/nyregion/12suspects.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

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5 Officers Indicted in Katrina Killing

NEW ORLEANS — A federal grand jury charged five police officers Friday in connection with the shooting death of a civilian in the days after Hurricane Katrina .

An 11-count indictment against the officers revealed a sequence of events that led to the body of Henry Glover, 31, being found burned in an abandoned car.

The killing occurred Sept. 2, 2005, four days into the flooding of the city, in the Algiers neighborhood on the west bank of the Mississippi River, according to the indictment . David Warren, a police officer at the time, was charged with shooting Mr. Glover with an assault rifle.

Mr. Warren was arrested by federal agents on Friday after the indictment was returned.

Mr. Glover, who was bleeding to death, was picked up by William Tanner, a stranger, who said he drove him to an elementary school that was being used as temporary headquarters for a police special-operations unit, one that was later hailed as heroic for its hurricane rescue efforts.

There, Mr. Tanner has said, he was beaten by police officers and his car was seized, with Mr. Glover inside. Mr. Tanner left the city but returned weeks later, he said, and found his car, with the remains of Mr. Glover inside, burned and parked on a levee behind a police station.

Two other police officers, Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann and Officer Gregory McRae, were charged with hitting and kicking Mr. Tanner and another man who was with him at the elementary school. They were also charged with taking Mr. Tanner's car and burning it, along with Mr. Glover's body.

They each could be facing 60 years imprisonment.

After the killing, the indictment said, a false police report was drawn up by Lt. Robert Italiano, who later left the force, and Lt. Travis McCabe. Both were charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements to the F.B.I.

The circumstances surrounding Mr. Glover's death were first reported in late 2008 in an article that was a collaboration by the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute and the nonprofit investigative news service Pro Publica .

It became the most gruesome of several deaths that are believed to have occurred at the hands of the New Orleans police, a force that has been troubled for decades.

“Behavior such as described in the indictment has no place in a free society, let alone law enforcement,” Dave Welker, the F.B.I. special agent in charge for Louisiana's Eastern District, said in a statement on Friday.

The case is one of at least eight investigations into actions of the New Orleans Police Department being conducted by the federal government.

Most of the investigations concern events in the chaotic days after the storm. The best known, concerning the shootings of civilians on the Danziger Bridge that left two dead and four wounded, resulted in five guilty pleas from current or former police officers.

Most of the pleas were to conspiracy charges related to an alleged cover-up of the shootings. But the accounts in the pleas described police officers shooting a mentally disabled man in the back and then beating him, and also strafing unarmed civilians. That investigation was continuing and more charges were expected.

Last month, the Department of Justice announced that it would conduct a full-scale investigation into the patterns and practices of the police force, a step that usually results in a legally binding blueprint for wholesale reform.

In a sign of just how grim the view of the police force is in New Orleans, the mayor himself formally solicited such a review, citing a need for “systemic and transformational change.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/us/12orleans.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Lieutenant Cushing had “distinguished himself with gallantry and intrepidity,” she wrote in 2003 in a letter to Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. In her home, she has thick folders stuffed with replies from Washington, including notes from President George Bush and Senator Edward M. Kennedy .

For many years, politicians responded mostly with form letters. But in the early 2000s, Senator Russ Feingold , Democrat of Wisconsin, took up her cause, moved by the elderly woman's passion for a long-ago hero. He consulted historians, who affirmed Lieutenant Cushing's valor, and began a long push to ask the Army to award him the Medal of Honor. Because more than five years had passed since Lieutenant Cushing's death, the medal requires an act of Congress, which is expected to be passed in the next few months.

Mr. Feingold described both Lieutenant Cushing and Ms. Zerwekh as heroes, and said her work showed how ordinary people can shape the telling of history. He attended a ceremony at a monument for Lieutenant Cushing on Memorial Day in Delafield.

It was not that Lieutenant Cushing's exploits were unknown. Indeed, an image of the soldier falling to his death is painted in a cyclorama at Gettysburg.

After becoming fascinated with that painting as a 12-year-old in 1964, Kent Masterson Brown, now a lawyer in Lexington, Ky., wrote a book about the life of the soldier depicted in it: “Cushing of Gettysburg” was published in 1993.

“This was some kind of kid,” Mr. Brown said of Lieutenant Cushing's bravery, noting that the soldier refused to retreat even after being shot.

A graduate of West Point , Lieutenant Cushing had written to a cousin in 1861, saying, “I may never return,” but, he vowed, “I will gain a name in this war.”

Mr. Feingold's office called Mr. Brown to corroborate Ms. Zerwekh's account, and later asked the Department of the Army to consider awarding the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Cushing. After a review of the records, Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh agreed this year to recommend the medal. After some formal steps, the award will become official this summer.

Told that Lieutenant Cushing would be honored, 147 years after his act of valor at Gettysburg, Ms. Zerwekh, who uses two canes, said she got so excited about the news, “I jumped up and down.”

The Medal of Honor was not awarded posthumously during the Civil War, so Lieutenant Cushing was not eligible. Decades later, after the policy was changed to award the medal to the dead, Lieutenant Cushing's name simply did not come up, even though politically connected soldiers of lesser heroism were honored.

“Nobody brought his case to the Army, simple as that,” Mr. Brown said. “He had no advocate for the medal until Margaret Zerwekh.”

Descendants of Lieutenant Cushing have expressed gratitude for Ms. Zerwekh's work. One relative, Robert Cushing, who recently died, had sent her a book with a warm note and an inscription describing her as an “honorary member of the Cushing family.”

It has not been determined yet where Lieutenant Cushing's medal will be housed. He moved to upstate New York from Delafield as a small child after the death of his father.

Mayor Michael Sullivan of Fredonia, N.Y., about 60 miles west of Buffalo, said that Lieutenant Cushing “grew up here,” adding, “We've got a nice museum — we'd love to have it.”

Mr. Sullivan said he planned to ask Senators Kirsten E. Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer of New York to make sure that Fredonia is recognized in some way. With a Wisconsin senator behind the award, he conceded, it is a safe bet that the medal will end up going to that state.

Ms. Zerwekh said she was exasperated that anyone would think that the medal could possibly go anywhere but Delafield. “I'm the one who did all the work,” she said. She has decided that the medal should be housed at the Delafield City Hall. She has not checked yet with the town's mayor, Ed McAleer, but does not anticipate any resistance from him.

“When I tell him to do something, he does it,” she said.

The people who know Ms. Zerwekh say they are not surprised that her campaign has ended in triumph. Eric Vanden Heuvel, the archivist for the Waukesha County Historical Society, has fielded many calls and requests from Ms. Zerwekh.

“She is persistent,” Mr. Vanden Heuvel said. “Let's put it that way.”

PORTLAND, Me. — As patrons at Bull Feeney's danced to a '90s cover band and sipped from cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Eric Coulombe, the manager, fiddled with what he says is the latest weapon against the rowdiness and fighting that has long plagued the bar scene in this seaside city — an iPod Touch.

Bar owners and the police here have started a text messaging system to alert one another when a patron is removed from a bar, is overly belligerent or is seen fighting. The texts will include the person's name, if it is known, a physical description or photo, and what the person was doing.

Alcohol-fueled violence “has really been a problem, and if we can intercept them before anything happens, that's a good thing,” said James E. Craig, the city's police chief.

Restaurants have made Portland a draw in recent years, but it has long been a magnet for pub crawlers who hop among the dozens of bars packed into the city's dense Old Port section. In the summer months, the neighborhood of cobblestone streets and quaint shops can turn raucous at night, with intoxicated patrons fighting, screaming and singing.

“People who live in Portland and the region, they all tell me, ‘I will not go in the Old Port after 10 because of the level of violence' — I mean the fighting, the public drunkenness,” Chief Craig said. “It's really a jewel in the city that everyone should be able to use without issue.”

The idea to start a “text tree,” as it is being called, came out of a security meeting of bar and nightclub owners this year. It is modeled after a video system Las Vegas casinos use to alert one another when people are cheating or gambling illegally.

Participants thought text messaging would be the easiest way to relay the information, since most employees carry a cellphone and can quickly see the message.

“It's an extra set of eyes,” said Jeff Nappi, a bartender at Fore Play, a popular sports bar on Fore Street.

Mike Sauschuck, the assistant chief of police, said the police had enlisted about 25 bars — out of about 30 in the Old Port — to participate in the texting system as of Thursday. So far, he said, bouncers and other bar employees had sent about 20 texts warning of unruly patrons. The texts have not led to any arrests, but Mr. Sauschuck said publicity around the system appeared to have deterred fighting.

Users download a free text-sharing system, which Mr. Coulombe displayed on his iPod Touch. “We hope that before they hit the street, we'll send out notice in advance not to let these people in,” he said.

Some patrons said they were glad the police had added an additional layer of protection, as violence had escalated in recent weeks. Last month, Eric Benson, 24, was walking with a woman after the bars had closed when three men approached and, after a brief conversation, started beating him, according to the police. He later died. A 20-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter.

“Would texting have prevented it?” Chief Craig said. “Possibly, but what I don't know for certain was whether or not the group that is accused was disorderly” at the bars.

Other patrons and civil liberties groups worry that a kind of vigilante justice by untrained civilians could unfairly single out people who match a description but have done nothing wrong.

“We'd be concerned about the police using untrained, unaccountable bouncers to create a database of people that the bouncers claim are disorderly,” said Zachary Heiden, legal director at the Maine Civil Liberties Union.

“I'd be surprised if bars are really so incompetent at identifying people who have been overserved that they need to get the police involved,” he added. “Does this really need to be a government program that identifies people who are too drunk to go into a bar?”

But Derek Lovely, 26, at Bull Feeney's listening to the band belt out “Everlong” by the Foo Fighters , disagreed.

“There's a fight here every night,” he said. “One drunk guy starts a fight, and it escalates. We're hard people in Maine.”

On a recent Thursday night, as closing time approached, two women yelled at each other as they tumbled out of Oasis, where a bikini-clad woman gyrated around a stripper pole. Another woman fought with her boyfriend. At RiRa, a low-key pub nearby, a drunken older man had to be escorted out after screaming at patrons and making threats.

Kate McGrath, the bar's assistant manager, said she recognized the man but did not think the incident warranted the early-warning text system, which many said they would use judiciously.

And when the man left, Ms. McGrath and the remaining patrons watched with relief as he walked off in the other direction, away from the bars.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/us/12bars.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Friends, Neighbors and Facebook

Mister Rogers would be so disappointed in me.

Aside from the people who live in my building, I know the name of only one person who lives on my block: Roger Cohen, a Times colleague.

I want to blame it on the fact that I'm absolutely awful with names and can be quite socially awkward. But that has ever been thus. Then I thought that maybe it was a city thing, but that explanation goes but so far. I'm actually beginning to believe that it's bigger than me, bigger than my block, bigger than this city. I increasingly believe that less neighborliness is becoming intrinsic to the modern American experience — a most unfortunate development.

A report issued Wednesday by the Pew Research Center found that only 43 percent of Americans know all or most of their neighbors by name. Twenty-nine percent know only some, and 28 percent know none. (Oh, my God! When Roger dashes off to Paris this summer, I'll become a “none.”)

Yet I have thousands of “friends” and “followers” on the social-networking sites in which I vigorously participate. (In real life, I maintain a circle of friends so small that I could barely arrange a circle.) Something is wrong with this picture.

I am by no means a woe-is-us, sky-is-falling, evil-is-the-Internet type. In fact, I think that a free flow of information has led to greater civic engagement. Yippee! However, I am very much aware that social networks are rewiring our relationships and that our keyboard communities are affecting the attachments in our actual ones.

For instance, a Pew report issued in November 2009 and entitled “Social Isolation and New Technology” found that “users of social networking services are 26 percent less likely to use their neighbors as a source of companionship.”

And a May study by researchers at the University of Michigan found that “college kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago.” The reason? One factor could be social networking. As one researcher put it, “The ease of having ‘friends' online might make people more likely to just tune out when they don't feel like responding to others' problems, a behavior that could carry over offline.”

Furthermore, an article in The New York Times on Thursday laid out new research that revealed that “feelings of hurt, jealousy and competition are widespread” among children of parents who obsess over cellphones, instant messaging and Twitter at the expense of familial engagement.

There's no need to pine for a return to the pre-Facebook, cardigan-swaddled idealism of Mister Rogers and his charming “neighbors” and “friends,” but it is important for us to remember that tangible, meaningful engagement with those around us builds better selves and stronger communities. I should post that on Twitter.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/opinion/12blow.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Department of Homeland Security

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Secretary Napolitano Announces More Than $11.9 Million in Recovery Act Funding for Fire Station Construction Grants

June 11, 2010

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

Washington, D.C. - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced more than $11.9 million in Fire Station Construction Grants (SCG) funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) - designed to support the nation's first responders while creating jobs and stimulating local economies.

"America's firefighters play a critical role in disaster prevention and response," said Secretary Napolitano. "These Recovery Act-funded fire station construction projects and upgrades will strengthen community preparedness and the nation's emergency response capabilities."

The three Fire Station Construction Grants announced today were selected through a competitive peer review process based on need to build new or modify existing fire stations to enhance response capabilities and protect communities from fire-related hazards. These grants will replace unsafe or uninhabitable structures and expand fire protection coverage in compliance with National Fire Protection Association standards.

The additional grants announced today are a result of a reduction in management and administrative costs. Secretary Napolitano announced 96 SCG grants totaling $166 million in September 2009 and 14 grants totaling $23 million in February 2010.

ARRA, signed by President Obama on Feb. 17, 2009, provided more than $3 billion to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and General Services Administration (GSA) in support of homeland security programs.

For more information on SCG, other preparedness grant programs or the Recovery Act, please visit www.dhs.gov , www.dhs.gov/recovery , or www.fema.gov/grants .

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1276281771240.shtm

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From the Department of Justice

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Good morning, and thank you all for being here.

Today I'm joined by several key leaders in the U.S. government's efforts to combat Mexican drug cartels: Michele Leonhart, DEA Acting Administrator; Kevin Perkins, Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division; and John Morton, Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

We are here to announce the results of Project Deliverance – a 22-month, bilateral investigation focused on the transportation infrastructure in the United States used by Mexican drug cartels to distribute illegal narcotics throughout our country and smuggle weapons and cash across the U.S.-Mexico border. This interagency, cross-border operation has been our most extensive, and most successful, law enforcement effort to date targeting these deadly cartels, and it is a direct result of our ongoing Southwest Border Strategy.

Our aim was to target not just cartel operations, but the networks of individuals across the United States the cartels tap to distribute drugs in our country and smuggle cash and guns out of it. This Project over the last 22 months has led to the arrest of more than 2,200 individuals, including the alleged leader of the Castro-Rocha drug trafficking organization, Carlos Ramon Castro-Rocha. It has also resulted in the seizure of approximately $154 million in U.S. currency, approximately 1,262 pounds of methamphetamine, 2.5 tons of cocaine, 1,410 pounds of heroin, 69 tons of marijuana, 501 weapons and 527 vehicles.

Yesterday, just yesterday alone, as part of this investigation, approximately 3,000 agents and officers fanned out in 16 states in a coordinated enforcement action that has led to the arrest of 429 individuals. In addition to these arrests, we took more than 90 pounds of heroin, and more than 2,900 pounds of marijuana, as well as other illegal drugs, off our streets and we seized more than $5 million in U.S. currency. Let me be clear – this was simply yesterday alone.

These outstanding efforts were coordinated by the Special Operations Division, which is comprised of agents and analysts from the DEA, FBI, ICE, IRS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service and ATF, and by attorneys from the Criminal Division's Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section. More than 300 federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies provided investigative and prosecutorial resources to this investigation. I want to thank the many prosecutors, investigators, and law enforcement officials who contributed to Project Deliverance's success.

Without question, these arrests and seizures will disrupt drug cartel operations and impact the ability of traffickers to move narcotics into the United States.  This operation has struck a significant blow against the cartels, but make no mistake: we know that as successful as this operation was, it was just one battle in what is an ongoing war. These dangerous cartels will continue to attempt to wreak havoc on both sides of the border, and we will continue to target them with every resource available to the federal government and our state and local partners. By deploying more resources to federal law enforcement agencies through our Southwest Border strategy, we have enhanced our ability to target these cartels, but we will not rest until we have defeated them. That's why the President is asking for an additional $500 million in supplemental funds to enhance our law enforcement activities and protection along the border. We have already put into place a multi-layered effort to target illicit networks trafficking in people drugs, illegal weapons, and money, but we need to increase it – and we will.

The progress we have announced today would not be possible without the assistance of our partners in the Mexican government, who are waging a courageous battle against drug cartels within their own borders. We applaud their efforts, and we will continue to stand by them and work with them. Together, I am confident that we can build on the success of this operation – and on last year's landmark investigations, including Operation Xcelerator, which targeted the Sinaloa Cartel and resulted in more than 780 arrests, and Project Coronado, which targeted the La Familia Michoacana Cartel and resulted in nearly 1,200 arrests.

Through these and other law enforcement efforts, we are striking at the heart of criminal smuggling operations. We are also putting drug traffickers, and those who threaten the safety of our communities and the security of our border, on notice. This Administration, working with enforcement at all levels as well as our international partners, is committed to defeating these cartels, and we have proven the power of strong collaboration and coordination in achieving that goal.

Once again, I want to thank the agents, prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and many partners involved in yesterday's takedown and in the success of our ongoing fight against Mexican drug cartel operations.

http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2010/ag-speech-100610.html

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WASHINGTON– A federal jury yesterday convicted a Baltimore Police Department (BPD) officer, Gregory Mussmacher, on civil rights and obstruction charges related to his physical abuse in 2004 of a then-17-year-old arrestee whom Mussmacher assaulted with a baton while the teen was handcuffed, shackled and temporarily blinded by pepper-spray.  A second former BPD officer, Guy Gerstel, pleaded guilty on the first day of trial to lying to the FBI, and admitted that he too had assaulted the teenager while he was restrained.  A third former officer, Sergeant Wayne Thompson, also pleaded guilty, admitting that he engaged in obstruction of justice to help cover up the assaults.

At trial, Gerstel and Thompson testified against their former colleague, defendant Mussmacher.  They and other government witnesses established that Mussmacher had gotten into a verbal argument with the teenager at the scene of his arrest.  In response to verbal taunting from the teen, Mussmacher took off his badge and gun, removed the teen's handcuffs, and challenged him to a fight.  After the arrestee refused to fight the officer, Mussmacher pepper-sprayed him in the face.  A short time later, when Mussmacher had him alone in a room at the police station, he used his police baton to slam the fully-restrained teenager in the face, breaking his orbital bone and fracturing his jaw in two places.  The evidence established that Mussmacher then submitted false and misleading police reports to cover up what had happened.

“Law enforcement officers who use their badges as an excuse to commit egregious acts of violence are an affront to the rule of law,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to aggressively prosecute officers who abuse their power in this manner.”

“Most law enforcement officers earn our confidence by performing their duties with honor and integrity,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland. “Police officers who abuse suspects, write false reports and obstruct justice must be held accountable so that citizens can have confidence in law enforcement agencies.”

Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 23, 2010, and Mussmacher faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

This case was investigated by the Baltimore Division of the FBI, and was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Forrest Christian and Kevonne Small, and Special Litigation Counsel Jeffrey Blumberg, with support from the Baltimore U.S. Attorney's Office. 

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/June/10-crt-685.html

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From ICE

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23 indicted on drug conspiracy charges

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Twenty three people were charged by a federal grand jury for participating in a large-scale conspiracy to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine, according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday. The indictments resulted from a joint investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); the Kansas City Police Department; the FBI; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

The following individuals were charged in a 17-count indictment returned under seal May 26 by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo.: Shawn R. Hampton, aka "Smoke," 34, of Raytown, Mo.; Delbert Roberson, aka "Del," 31; Naricco Scott, aka "Rico," 28; Calah Johnson, aka "Green Eyes," 29; John L. Hooker, aka "Ace," 22; Gregory P. Young, aka "Chan," 37; Ronnell A. Brown, 38; Theodore S. Wiggins, aka "Theo," 29; Antar H. Roberts, aka "Saw," 36; Marcus L. Gay, 36; Andreya Jones, 28; Justin J. Campbell, aka "Shaw," 30; Dorothea L. Cain, aka "Dea," 38; Keiyatie R. White, 20; Jason R. Carter, aka "J-Roc," 23; Mylin D. Smith, aka "G," 26; Sterling F. Byndom, 24; Adrian U. Barrett, 34; Ray A. Johnson, 31; all of Kansas City, Mo.; Ricardo Nevarez, 28; Alfonso Velo, 45; and Alejandro Holguin-Bonilla, aka "Alex," 22; all of Kansas City, Kan., and Brice C. Hale, 37, of St. Louis, Mo. The indictment was unsealed June 10 and made public upon the arrests and initial court appearances of several defendants.

"We have dismantled a major drug trafficking organization," said Beth Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. "The Kansas City Police Department and the FBI initiated an intensive investigation more than a year ago. ICE and ATF joined the investigation in October 2009. These local and federal agencies have worked closely together in a partnership that culminated in this week's arrests. The Department of Justice is committed to disrupting the flow of drugs nationwide, and we are working closely with our law enforcement partners to combat drug trafficking in our community."

"These are significant arrests that dismantled a suspected cocaine trafficking conspiracy in the Kansas City area," said Gary Hartwig, ICE special agent in charge in Chicago. "This is an excellent example of teamwork among local and federal law enforcement. ICE works aggressively to keep illegal drugs out of our communities, and to dismantle the criminal networks that profit from narcotics trafficking." Hartwig oversees a six-state area that includes Missouri and Kansas.

"Working with our federal partners, Kansas City police have helped cut off a major pipeline of narcotics to the metropolitan area," said Kansas City Police Chief James Corwin. "This is one of the largest investigations of its kind that the Kansas City Police Department has ever engaged in, and it's a good example of the major impact we can have on narcotics trafficking and the crime that surrounds it when we join forces."

Hooker, although named as a defendant, was discovered murdered along with his brother the day after the indictment was returned. Their bodies were found May 27 in a shopping cart behind a vacant lot near the intersection of 45th St. and Askew in Kansas City.

The federal indictment alleges that all 23 defendants participated in a conspiracy to distribute five kilograms (11 pounds) or more of cocaine and 50 grams or more of crack cocaine since July 1, 2009.

The federal indictment also charges the following defendants with these additional crimes:

• Hampton is also charged with one count of distributing 500 grams or more of cocaine and three counts of distributing five grams or more of crack cocaine.
• Roberson is also charged with three counts of distributing five grams or more of crack cocaine.
• Scott is also charged with two counts of distributing crack cocaine, one count of possessing crack cocaine with the intent to distribute, and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.
• White is also charged with two counts of distributing crack cocaine.
• Wiggins and Carter are each charged with one count of distributing crack cocaine.
• Johnson is also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. The indictment alleges that Johnson, who has a felony conviction, illegally possessed a Glock .40-caliber pistol on March 7.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Venneman, Western District of Missouri, is prosecuting this case.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1006/100610kansascity.htm

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ICE, USCG arrest 3, seize 532 pounds of cocaine

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) cutter USCG Cushing, working jointly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents, arrested Thursday three alleged smugglers and seized approximately 532 pounds of cocaine in Mayaguez, following an at-sea interdiction of a pleasure craft.

The 26-foot vessel, La Burla, was carrying a shipment of cocaine with an estimated street value of approximately $7.5 million. ICE special agents arrested two Puerto Rican and one Dominican man in connection with the seizure.

"Through these seizures we are sending a clear message that Puerto Rico will not be a safe haven for criminals looking to ship drugs into Puerto Rico and the mainland United States," said Roberto Escobar-Vargas, ICE acting special agent in charge in San Juan. "ICE, along with its federal and local partners, are committed to working together to stop the flow of illegal narcotics into Puerto Rico."

"This is another example of our collective efforts with ICE, DEA, FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Puerto Rico Police and the U.S. Attorney's Office working aggressively to combat drug trafficking organizations and bring smugglers to justice," said Capt. Eduardo Pino, U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan commander.

The crew of the USCG Cushing detected and interdicted the suspicious pleasure craft Thursday morning in waters approximately four nautical miles north of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

Upon interdicting the vessel, the crew of the Cushing conducted an at-sea boarding of La Burla, which revealed the drug shipment hidden inside a compartment onboard the vessel. Further field testing of the contraband yielded positive to cocaine. The crew of the Cushing proceeded to detain all three crew members onboard and escort La Burla to the Port of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

The crew of the Cushing, ICE, and CBP officers conducted a further search of La Burla once it was safely moored in Mayaguez.

The case was transferred to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico for further prosecution.

USCG Cushing is a 110-foot patrol boat home ported in San Juan.

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1006/100611sanjuan.htm

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Virginia man pleads guilty to attempted enticement and child pornography charges

NORFOLK, Va. - Alan Paul Strieper, 25, of Virginia Beach, Va. pleaded guilty today in Norfolk federal court to attempted enticement, receipt of child pornography, and possession of material containing child pornography, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"This disturbing case strengthens our resolve to protect our community from predators who go to great lengths to sexually exploit young children," said ICE Special Agent in Charge Torres. "ICE will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to identify these child predators and bring them to justice."

According to court records, on approximately Dec. 1, 2009, Strieper began engaging in chat sessions with an undercover federal source about Strieper's interest in child pornography and engaging in sexual acts with children. Over the next two months, Strieper discussed with the undercover source his desire to kidnap and rape a child as young as two years old. Strieper eventually asked the undercover source to travel to meet him so that together they could kidnap and rape a child. During subsequent chats, the undercover source agreed to fly from St. Louis, Mo., to Norfolk on Feb. 5, 2010 to put the kidnapping plan into action. Federal agents arrested Strieper when he arrived at the Norfolk airport to pick up the undercover source.

Upon searching his vehicle after Strieper's arrest, ICE agents found two rolls of duct tape, a pre-paid Tracfone, rubber gloves, sponges, bleach and other cleaning materials, several bottles of unknown pills, and a stuffed Elmo doll.

"Today, Alan Strieper admitted he planned to kidnap and rape a child," said U.S. Attorney MacBride. "Thanks to the hard work of ICE agents, we were able to arrest him before he could carry out his plans. My Office is committed to ensuring sexual predators are caught and unable to victimize others."

Strieper will be sentenced on Sept. 7, 2010, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count and a lifetime of supervised release.

This investigation is part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders, and child sex traffickers. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 12,800 individuals.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1006/100611norfolk.htm

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From the DEA

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DEA Announces Largest Single U.S. Strike Against Mexican Drug Cartels and Facilitators

JUN 11 -- EL PASO – DEA El Paso Special Agent-in-Charge Joseph Arabit and other federal, state, and local law enforcement officials today announced 163 arrests in West Texas and New Mexico as part of Project Deliverance, the largest single U.S. strike against Mexican drug cartels and those who facilitate their activities.

“This unprecedented effort has affected every level of the violent, vicious drug trafficking organizations who wreak havoc in communities across the country, including West Texas and New Mexico.  Many of those arrested as part of Project Deliverance used every means of transportation imaginable to move huge amounts of drugs and money between Mexico and the United States,” Arabit said. “Working with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, we have attacked the facilitators – those doing the smuggling and transporting for their Mexico-based organization and cartel leaders.”

 The success of this collection of cases that make up Project Deliverance is undeniable: Record seizures of cash and drugs, and over 2,200 individuals arrested over a 22-month period in the largest law enforcement strike against Mexico-based drug trafficking organizations.  This nationwide initiative involved cases in approximately 26 cities and resulted in the seizure of  2.5 tons of cocaine, 69 tons of marijuana, 1,262 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,410 pounds of heroin, $154 million in U.S. currency, 501 weapons, and 527 vehicles.

Locally, arrests took place in El Paso; Midland, Texas; Andrews, Texas; Ft. Stockton, Texas; Alpine, Texas; Balmorhea, Texas; Las Cruces, New Mexico; Espanola, New Mexico; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Many of these local arrests are the result of DEA investigations reaching into the retail distribution networks locally and will directly impact the drug markets in smaller communities.  For example, Espanola, New Mexico arrests included several local dealers who have preyed on a community where heroin abuse is both endemic and multigenerational and which has one of the highest rates of drug-related deaths in the country.
Arrest breakdown:

• 56 in El Paso, (10 were in custody previously);
• 32 in Midland and Andrews, TX;
• 10 in Odessa, TX, Ft. Stockton, TX, and Balmorhea, TX;
• 65 in New Mexico, including 18 in Espanola/Santa, Fe (5 were in custody previously)

The DEA El Paso Division encourages parents, and their children to visit the following interactive websites at www.justhinktwice.com , www.GetSmartAboutDrugs.com and www.dea.gov .

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/elpaso061110.html

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Over 65 Pounds of Heroin Seized in South Sound Raids
23 Arrested in ‘Dial for Dope' Criminal Organization

JUN 11 -- (Seattle) – A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) led task force and members of the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force, Grays Harbor Task Force and the Lakewood Police Department arrested twenty-three people and seized more than 65 pounds of black tar heroin on June 9, 2010.    This massive coordinated effort was part of a national effort dubbed “Project Deliverance” that targeted the transportation infrastructure of Mexican drug trafficking organizations in the United States.

“Project Deliverance targeted the Mexican-based criminal organizations responsible for transporting and distributing large quantities of drugs in this area and in many other parts of the U.S.,” said Mark Thomas, DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge.  “Today the actions of the DEA, U.S. Attorney, and our law enforcement partners resulted in the seizure of over 65 pounds of heroin.  This is a cogent public safety step since it prevents several million user doses of heroin from poisoning our community.” 

According to records filed in the case, the organization used various drug runners who were working with a ‘dispatcher' to deliver the drugs to customers from Lewis, Pierce, Kitsap, Thurston and Grays Harbor counties.  The customer would call the dispatcher who would direct him/her to a location within a six square mile area of south Tacoma.  At the time of the meet, the drug runner's car would drive slowly past the customer's car signaling the customer to follow.  The cars would proceed into a residential neighborhood in an attempt to identify surveillance and ultimately make the transaction.  Vehicles with hidden compartments were utilized to ship hundreds of thousands of drug proceeds to Mexico.  Over the past few weeks, two vehicles were stopped and nearly $100,000 was seized. 

In the course of the thirteen month investigation, and during enforcement operations yesterday, authorities seized more than 80 pounds of heroin, over $270,000 in cash, 4 firearms, and more than four pounds of methamphetamine.

Twenty-three people were arrested yesterday, either indicted by a grand jury or charged by criminal complaint.  Those arrested include:

            Jose Campos-Pineda, 33, of Spanaway,
            Margarito Lemus-Estrada, 33, of Tacoma,
            Ramon Hernandez-Gomez, 29, of Lakewood,
            Mario Gonzalez Rubio-Garcia, 24, of Tacoma,
            Alberto Flores-Ramirez, 23, of Tacoma,
            Miguel Angel Ventura, 28, of Tacoma,
            Nelson Villegas-Martinez, 38, of Tacoma,
            Juan Reyes-Soto, 39, of Tacoma,
            Javier Jasso-Rios, 32, of Puyallup,
            Ofelia Ramirez, 54, of Tacoma,
            Alicia Alvarez, 33, of Tacoma,
            Calypso Mares, 37, of Tacoma,
            Hirbit Pena-Garcia, 27, of Lakewood,
            Raquel Garcia-Espinoza, 47, of Tacoma,
            Sergio Omar Valencia-Garcia, 33, of Tacoma,
            Elizabeth Salazar, 31, of Tacoma,
            Antonio Lemus-Madrigal, 31, of Tacoma,
            Luis Aguilar, of Tacoma,
            Aerlis Daisy Mejia, 27, of Portland, Oregon,
            Saul Murillo-Prado, 36, of Portland, Oregon,
            Alfonso Contreras-Lopez, 38, of Tacoma,
            Marro Antonio Posse-Castro, 28, of Tacoma,
            Javier Lopez-Rivas, 33, of Tacoma

An indictment or a complaint is merely an allegation and is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Thurston County Narcotics Task Force, Grays Harbor Drug Task Force, and the Lakewood Police Department.  The following agencies provided substantial assistance: Auburn Police Department, Bonney Lake Police Department, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Fife Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Pierce County Prosecutor's Office, Pierce County Sheriff's Department, Puyallup Police Department, Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, Tacoma Police Department, Washington State Patrol and Washington State Department of Corrections.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/seattle061110.html

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17 Charged Federally in Major Syracuse Heroin Trafficking Ring

JUN 11 -- Special Agent-in-Charge John P. Gilbride, Drug Enforcement Administration, New York Field Division, and Richard S. Hartunian, United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, announced the arrest of 17 individuals on federal drug trafficking charges in connection with a vast heroin distribution network operating between Newark, New Jersey and Syracuse, New York. 

            Set forth below is a listing of those arrested, their age, and their city of residence: 
            1.   MARK CAESAR, age 30, Newark, New Jersey;
            2.   DWAYNE BODY, age 24, Newark, New Jersey;  
            3.   KEYFA SAMPSON, age 28, Syracuse, New York;
            4.   LONNIE SPRUIEL, age 27, Syracuse, New York;
            5.   DARNELL WASHINGTON, age 37, Syracuse, New York;
            6.   DERRICK CAMPBELL, age 35, Syracuse, New York;
            7.   DARLEEN SAMPSON, age 47, Syracuse, New York;
            8.   ALPHONSO RAY, age 31, Syracuse, New York;
            9.   SHAQUAIL HARRIS, age 18, Syracuse, New York;
            10. FABRICE LOWE, age 29, Syracuse, New York;
            11. GENEVA BROWN, age 52, Syracuse, New York;
            12. SALAAM BROWN, age 27, Syracuse, New York;
            13. DAVID LOPEZ, age 35, New York, New York;
            14. TITO CUADRA, age 42, Syracuse, New York;
            15. WARREN LEWTER, age 28, Syracuse, New York;
            16. FATEEN SMITH, age 30, Syracuse, New York; and
            17. STARFAYSIA PERRY, age 21, Syracuse, New York.

            These 17 defendants have been charged in U.S. District Court in Syracuse with multiple conspiracy and substantive heroin trafficking charges, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841 and 846.  GENEVA BROWN has also been charged with maintaining a premises at 115 John Street in Syracuse for drug trafficking purposes, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 856. If convicted on the most serious charges against them, each defendant faces a mandatory minimum five year term of imprisonment up to a maximum of 40 years imprisonment, up to a $2 million fine, and at least four years of supervised release following any period of incarceration.

           "This international law enforcement operation led DEA and our police partners around the world.  ‘Project Deliverance' hit home here in the Syracuse, NY area where the Central New York Drug Task Force identified and arrested seventeen individuals who had a role in supplying the communities in New York with heroin.  Law enforcement collaborated in order to deliver the message to drug trafficking organizations worldwide that we will not tolerate their actions and will track them down to deliver the consequences of their illegal heroin distribution crimes in order to put them in prison and off our streets," stated Special Agent-in-Charge John P. Gilbride, Drug Enforcement Administration, New York Field Division.

            U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian said " ‘Project Deliverance' is an excellent example of how the U.S. Department of Justice is working closely and effectively with local law enforcement agencies to identify, arrest and prosecute those who are distributing heroin and other illegal drugs in our community. Our commitment to this effort remains as one of our highest priorities. We will continue to lend our support to federal and local drug task forces and aggressively prosecute all those who attempt to bring illegal narcotics into the Northern District of New York".

            These prosecutions are part of a 22-month national multi-agency law enforcement investigation known as "Project Deliverance," which targeted the transportation infrastructure of Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating in the United States.  The Syracuse part of this far-reaching investigation revealed a major heroin trafficking pipeline from Newark, New Jersey to Syracuse that included multiple New Jersey natives who came to Syracuse and "set-up shop" dealing substantial quantities of heroin here.

            To date, the Syracuse investigation has netted the seizure of (1) more than 57,000 individual packets of heroin, with a net weight of at least 2 kilograms, and a street value of at least $700,000; (2) more than $158,000 in U.S. Currency; (3) 6 handguns; and (4) four vehicles. 

            The Syracuse arrests resulted from an investigation undertaken by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Syracuse Police Department, the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department, and the New York State National Guard, with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, the Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Probation Office, the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office and the New York State Police.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/nyc061110.html

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High Priority Target Indicted for Heroin Trafficking, Arrested in Mexico
Operation Black Pearl targeted importation and trafficking of Mexican black-tar heroin by the Castro-Rocha DTO

JUN 10 - PHOENIX –  A six count indictment was unsealed this week charging Carlos Ramon Castro-Rocha, aka “Cuate”, 36, of Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico for violations of drug trafficking and importation laws.  Castro-Rocha was arrested in Mexico on May 30.

Arrested during the course of Project Deliverance, a nationwide drug enforcement action announced early today by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington, Castro-Rocha has been designated a Consolidated Priority Organization Target (CPOT).  A CPOT designation is reserved for command and control level drug traffickers and money launderers believed responsible for the importation of large quantities of narcotics into the United States. 

“The arrest in Mexico of Carlos Ramon Castro-Rocha aka “Cuate”, the head of a large-scale heroin production and trafficking organization, is the result of the resolute partnership between DEA and Mexican law enforcement, said DEA Special Agent in Charge Elizabeth W. Kempshall “In Arizona and across the United States, we have disrupted the organization's domestic operation.  DEA and our partners are determined to find them, shut down their operations, and bring them to justice.”       

The indictment alleges that between January and April 2009, Castro-Rocha conspired with others to import heroin into the United States from Mexico and distribute the heroin to other locations in the United States.  Castro-Rocha utilized individuals in the Phoenix area who worked as cell heads, transportation coordinators, stash house operators, and drug load couriers to import heroin into the United States to Phoenix, where it was packaged for distribution.  The Castro-Rocha Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) used vehicles with hidden compartments to transport the heroin to locations outside the Phoenix area.  Over 45 pounds of black-tar heroin, directly attributable to Castro-Rocha, was seized as part of Operation Black Pearl.  This amount of heroin equates to approximately 87,088 dosage units with an approximate Phoenix street value of $2.2 million.

“Castro-Rocha was a major target, believed responsible for importing vast quantities of black-tar heroin into this country, a drug that is a growing and a lethal problem in American communities,” said U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke. “This takes ‘Cuate' out of the equation, and we look forward to prosecuting him here in Arizona.  This is also another example of our deepening cooperation with the Republic of Mexico, a vital alliance in this battle against the cartels.”

Castro-Rocha was indicted in November 2009.  On May 30, 2010, Castro-Rocha was arrested by Mexican authorities based upon a request by the United States.  Castro-Rocha is pending extradition to the United States at this time.  He will face charges in the District of Arizona and the Western District of North Carolina.

A conviction for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin and import heroin into the United States carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, a $4,000,000 fine or both.  In determining an actual sentence, Judge Murguia  will consult the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges.  The judge, however, is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.

Also part of Project Deliverance, two individuals in Arizona and California state custody on other charges - Irene Valenzuela-Moreno, 56, of San Luis, Ariz. and Rafael Ochoa, 47, of Ontario, Calif. - were served with federal warrants Wednesday from an Arizona indictment charging them and five others with conspiracy to import methamphetamine.  The seven were indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple narcotics trafficking charges related to their roles in a Yuma-based methamphetamine importation and distribution cell, as well as money laundering charges.  The organization is believed to have moved large quantities of methamphetamine across the Arizona-Mexico border and onward to destinations in the U.S.  Six pounds of meth were seized during the investigation.  Warrants have been issued for the five remaining fugitives.

An indictment is simply the method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raises no inference of guilt.  An individual is presumed innocent until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation into the Castro-Rocha DTO preceding the indictment was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Phoenix Police Department, Mesa Police Department, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, Navajo County Sheriff's Office, Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the Wickenburg Police Department.  The prosecution is being handled by Jonell L. Lucca, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Phoenix. 

The prosecution of Valenzuela-Moreno and Ochoa is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane McLaughlin.  The investigation was conducted by the DEA.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2010/phnx061010.html

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From the ATF

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ATF Warns Consumers: Illegal Explosives Devices Are Not Fireworks

WASHINGTON — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( ATF ) wants consumers to celebrate safely this Fourth of July and be mindful that illegal explosives devices are not fireworks. Illegal or improperly used fireworks can cause severe injuries or even death.

ATF wants to make consumers aware that illegal explosive devices are not fireworks. Users risk injury, disfigurement or death by manufacturing or using them. Illegal explosive devices — commonly referred to as M-80s, quarter sticks, or cherry bombs — often come in plain brown or white wrappers, with no identifying marks. Because they meet neither safety nor quality standards, they are extremely dangerous. They can be highly unstable because heat, shock or pressure can trigger accidental detonation. Consumer fireworks , unless restricted by state or local laws, are fireworks which can be sold to the general public. The Consumer Product Safety Commission ( CPSC ) defines consumer fireworks to those limited to 500 grams of composition, and firecrackers having up to 50 milligrams of flash powder. Reloadable shells are limited to 1.75 inches in diameter, and shells in pre-fused tubes are limited to 2 inches. Any fireworks that exceed these limits are classified as display fireworks and require anyone importing, manufacturing, dealing in, or otherwise receiving display fireworks have an ATF license or permit. Legal fireworks are marked with brightly colored and decorated paper and include a trade name and manufacturing information.

ATF is the federal law enforcement agency charged with enforcing federal explosives laws. ATF actively works with the CPSC , industry partners and with state and local agencies through their fireworks enforcement programs to prevent trafficking of illegal fireworks and to protect citizens from the dangers of illegal explosive devices.

Report the manufacture or sale of illegal fireworks or explosive devices to your local law enforcement agencies and by calling the toll-free ATF hotline at1-888- ATF -BOMB (1-888-283-2662) , or emailing ATFTips@atf.gov .

PSA Available on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ejj5TFvkjQ

More information on ATF and its programs can be found at www.atf.gov .

http://www.atf.gov/press/releases/2010/06/060910-atf-warns-consumers-about-illegal-explosives.html

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Man Admits Role in Attempted Murder-for-Hire of Brown County, Texas, Judge

LUBBOCK, Texas — U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks, of the Northern District of Texas, announced that Jeffrey Dwayne Harrison, 49, pleaded guilty today to his role in the attempted murder-for-hire of Judge Stephen Ellis, 35th Judicial District Court Judge of Brown County, Texas. U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings ordered a presentence investigation report with sentencing to be scheduled after the completion of that report.

Specifically, Harrison pleaded guilty to two counts of using interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. Each count carries a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Harrison was incarcerated on drug charges in the Brown County Jail, in Brownwood, Texas, when he committed these offenses. He is now in federal custody. Brownwood is approximately 67 miles southeast of Abilene, Texas.

According to plea papers filed, on March 2, 2010, law enforcement received information that Harrison had inquired about hiring an individual to murder Judge Ellis, who was handling his drug case. A confidential informant (CI) introduced Harrison to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( ATF ) special agent, working in an undercover capacity, who was portrayed to Harrison as an Aryan prison gang member who could handle this contract. Harrison first contacted the undercover agent by phone and stated:

On March 10, 2010, the undercover agent met with Harrison in the Brown County jail and told him that it would cost $10,000 to do this job because of the high risk involved; Harrison agreed to pay it. On more than one occasion, Harrison told the undercover agent that he could get the $10,000, once saying I'm going to pay and it's going to get even better when I get out.

Later that evening, Harrison called the undercover agent from a phone in the Brown County jail and said:

In another conversation, on March 17, 2010, when the undercover agent met Harrison at the jail, the undercover agent asked Harrison if he had any preference as to how the execution took place. Harrison advised that he did not care as long as the job got done. Harrison advised that he would hear about it and read about it in the funny papers. The undercover agent then asked:

Harrison advised that this was correct, saying It's going to be funny putting this **** in the morgue. Harrison stated that he had a suppression hearing before the judge on March 22, 2010. The undercover agent stated that he/she didn't know if he/she could do the job before the suppression hearing, but that it was going to happen pretty quick.

On March 24, 2010, the undercover agent conducted a ruse with Harrison. The undercover agent, wearing handcuffs, was brought into the same interview room as Harrison. When the two were alone, the undercover agent asked Harrison, did you drop the dime on me? Harrison responded that he hadn't and the undercover agent replied that someone had because he was caught an hour outside of town and that they'd found the body. Harrison repeated that he hadn't said anything.

The undercover agent later re-entered the room with Harrison and advised that he/she was a Special Agent with ATF . Harrison was informed of his constitutional rights, but waived them to speak with law enforcement. The undercover agent said, what I'm telling you is, what you're charged with is promising to pay me something of value to kill [Judge Stephen Ellis] Harrison replied: yeah, I guess I did. U.S. Attorney Jacks praised the investigative efforts of the ATF , the West Central Texas Interlocal Crime Task Force, the Texas Rangers, and the Brown County Sheriff's Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Haag, of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Lubbock, Texas, is in charge of the prosecution.

http://www.atf.gov/press/releases/2010/06/061010-dal-man-admits-role-in-murder-for-hire.html

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23 Nuestra Familia Members & Associates Arrested on Drug Trafficking Charges
37 Charged in Joint Federal, State, and Local Operation

FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that state, local, and federal agents arrested 23 members and associates of the Nuestra Familia organization on drug trafficking and related charges and served more than 20 federal search warrants. An indictment was unsealed today charging 20 individuals with one-count of drug distribution conspiracy. The indictment was returned June 3, 2010, and charges the following individuals:

• Shawn Michael Cameron, 34, and his wife,
• Vanessa Marin Mojarro Cameron, 33, both of Hanford;
• Jose Antonio Velez, 28, of Delano;
• Richard Antonio Salas, 24, of Armona;
• Raymond Louis Avalos, 27 of Hanford;
• Carlos Enriquez, 31, of Lemoore;
• Jerome Landeros, 27, of Hanford;
• Christopher Anthony Medrano, 29, of Hanford;
• Jonathan Omar Marin Mojarro, 20, of Hanford;
• Armando Nunez, 22, of Earlimart;
• Antonio Santos Perez, 38, of Fresno;
• John Reyna, 32, of Hanford;
• Calixtro Israel Sanchez, 22 of Hanford;
• Manuel Alejandro Garcia, 24, of Lemoore;
• Leonard Luera, 22, of Hanford;
• Gamaliel Guerra, 29, of Lemoore;
• Salvador Zamora, Jr., 23, of Armona;
• David Sanchez, 29, of Hanford;
• Ernesto Castro, 30, of Hanford;
• Florentino Acosta, 34, of Fresno.

Eleven of the federal defendants were arrested this morning. Seven of the federal defendants were already in custody.

On May 7, 2010, Florentino Acosta was arrested in connection with possession of approximately $95,000 that was connected to drug trafficking. Christopher Medrano and Jonathan Mojarro were arrested in possession of 10 pounds of methamphetamine. Acosta, Medrano, and Mojarro were subsequently indicted as a co-conspirators with the above-named defendants. Jose Antonio Velez and Felix Alejandro were arrested on June 3, 2010 and charged via federal criminal complaint with conspiring to distribute methamphetamine. The arrests arose as a result of their possession of approximately 20 pounds of methamphetamine.

Seventeen defendants were charged with felony offenses by the Kings County District Attorney. Twelve of those defendants were arrested this morning, and five were already in custody. The total number of state and federal defendants is 37 with 35 in custody.

This case is the product of an extensive, joint investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Kings County Narcotic Task Force, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, working closely with the local agencies of Hanford Police Department, Lemoore Police Department, Corcoran Police Department, Kings County Sheriff's Office, Delano Police Department, Visalia Police Department, Tulare County Sheriff's Office and the California Highway Patrol. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshals Service provided assistance. Assistant United States Attorneys Kimberly Sanchez and Kathleen Servatius are prosecuting the case.

Today federal and state agents seized a kilogram of cocaine, over a pound of methamphetamine, body armor, eight firearms, and over $36,000 cash.

U.S. Attorney Wagner said, Working together, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies here struck a blow against a major drug trafficking network. We will continue to work side by side in our efforts to dismantle violent criminal gangs.

Today's arrests should send a very clear message to those that profit from the illegal drug trade in California, stated ATF Special Agent in Charge Stephen C. Herkins. We will continue to combine our resources with our law enforcement and prosecution partners to identify and remove anyone that uses violent crime to further their criminal activity. Our goal is to make our communities a safer and more secure place to live, and today was another step in that direction.

Drew Parenti, Special Agent in Charge of the Sacramento FBI said, Gang violence is an attack not only on individuals, but also on our communities. The atmosphere of fear created by gang members simply cannot be tolerated. The FBI will continue to combine our strengths with those of federal, state and local law enforcement to tackle gangs as a team.

Kings County Sheriff Chris Jordan stated, This case is a model of cooperation between law enforcement agencies that are local, state, and federal. For six months these agencies combined their manpower and financial resources, fueling an investigation that resulted in the indictment of more than 20 persons on federal charges and multiple state charges yet to be filed. Our goal is to incarcerate these street gang members for a very long period of time.

Hanford Police Chief Carlos A. Mestas said, The takedown of this criminal gang in our communities sends a strong message that we will go to all ends and means at our disposal to keep these thugs off our streets. The teamwork and coordination of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in this endeavor demonstrates that commitment. History shows that other members of this or other criminal organizations will try to fill the void left by these indictments. To those waiting in the wings: we are standing vigilant and waiting for you. The maximum statutory penalty for a violation of this drug trafficking offense is life in prison and a $4,000,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

The charges are only allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The arrests and search warrants were conducted as part of a joint investigation of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force ( OCDETF ). The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.

http://www.atf.gov/press/releases/2010/06/060810-sf-nuestra-familia-members-arrested-on-trafficking.html

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