A Mexican resident was recently sentenced to 90 months (7.5 years) in federal prison for illegal re-entry into the United States following four previous deportations and four years of mental-competency evaluations.
Horacio Figueroa-Medina, 41, of Hermosillo, was arrested on suspicion of illegal re-entry in February of 2006, officials from the U.S. District Attorney's Office of Arizona said. Tucson police officers pulled over Figueroa-Medina for a traffic violation and discovered he had been deported four times, most recently serving a 57-month (4.75 year) sentence for re-entry after deportation. Police then turned the case over to U.S. Border Patrol, officials said.
Authorities said Figueroa-Medina attempted to present himself as mentally incompetent to stand trial by, among other things, trying to injure himself with a shoe in front of the jury. Mental-health professionals and U.S. District Court Judge Raner C. Collins, who sentenced Figueroa-Medina, eventually declared him competent after four years of evaluations, officials said.
A federal jury in Tucson found him guilty of re-entering the country illegally. He was sentenced June 21.
In sentencing the defendant, Collins considered Figueroa-Medina's criminal history: He had two prior illegal re-entry convictions and three drug-trafficking convictions, officials said. Some people cannot take a hint.
#1
HELO LANO parachute drop him in the Mexican interior
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2010 18:46 Comments ||
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#2
"Some people cannot take a hint."
I dunno - looks to me like he's figured out a way to get a guaranteed 3 hots & a cot - probably in much better conditions than he would face in Old Mehico.
I wouldn't be surprised to see him re-entering illegally again in 8 years or so.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/29/2010 18:58 Comments ||
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#3
Strike a deal with the Mexico prison service so he can serve out his days there.
OSH, Kyrgyzstan -- Virtually all of the tens of thousands of people who fled ethnic fighting in Kyrgyzstan earlier this month
Previous reports had the number at 400,000 refugees, if I recall correctly...
streamed back into the country over the course of a few days last week, driven by fear of losing their citizenship if they did not vote in Sunday's constitutional referendum.
Which answers the question asked previously.
The massive and unexpected shift in refugees' location has disrupted the relief effort. Thousands of tents flown into Uzbekistan by the United Nations are now empty in 46 camps that are formally closed by that country. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of returnees have no homes or shelter back in Kyrgyzstan, and are now badly in need of these very supplies -- as well as terrified for their safety.
Which raises another question: why is voting more important than safety?
Appearances are important ...
The scale of destruction in the Uzbek neighborhoods of this southern city is otherworldly: block after block of charred timbers, downed power lines, burned dump trucks jackknifed into the alleyways, and ubiquitous glass and ceramic tile shards, all smelling of cinders. Everywhere the eye falls has been devastated, ruined, looted.
And, presumably, full of milling multitudes of recently returned mothers and children.
A ring of 11 Russian moles right out of a Cold War spy novel was smashed yesterday -- and among those busted was a flame-haired, 007-worthy beauty who flitted from high-profile parties to top-secret meetings around Manhattan. Classic honey-trap material
Russian national Anna Chapman -- a 28-year-old divorcee with a masters in economics, an online real-estate business, a fancy Financial District apartment and a Victorias Secret body -- had been passing information to a Russian government official every Wednesday since January, authorities charged.
In one particularly slick spy exchange on St. Patricks Day, Chapman pulled a laptop out of a tote bag in a bookstore at Warren and Greenwich streets in the West Village while her handler lurked outside, receiving her message on his own computer, the feds said. A similar exchange occurred at a Midtown coffee shop at 47th Street and 8th Ave. The FBI claimed the two were corresponding via a secret online network.
Last week, an undercover agent pretending to be a Russian official arranged a meeting to talk about the weekly laptop exchanges, pretending to be ready to send the sexy spy on a mission to deliver a fake passport to another female agent, according to the federal complaint. "Are you ready for this step?" he asked. "S¤-¤-¤-, yes," Chapman allegedly gushed.
The undercover instructed her on how she would recognize her fellow spy and how to report back on the handoff, the feds said. "Havent we met in California last summer?" the spy expecting the fake passport was supposed to say. Chapman was to respond, "No, I think it was the Hamptons," according to the FBI. Chapman allegedly was also supposed to hold a magazine under her arm so her counterpart would recognize her, and plant a stamp on a wall map indicate the handoff was a success. It never took place.
Another spy-movie-like maneuver took place in Brooklyn shortly after the meeting with the undercover agent when Chapman darted into a Verizon phone store to buy a cell using the name Irine Kutsov, and an address of "99 Fake Street," the feds said. She only planned to use the phone to "avoid detection of her conversations," the FBI alleged.
At her arraignment last night, she was held without bail as federal prosecutor Michael Farbiarz called her a "highly trained agent" and a "practiced deceiver." "Well, those Ukraine girls really knock me out
They leave the West behind
And Moscow girls make me sing and shout
That Georgia's always on m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-my mind! "
The other suspects, including four middle-aged couples living seemingly ordinary professional lives, were supplied with bogus names and documents and told by Moscow to become "Americanized," infiltrate "policymaking circles" in the United States and send secrets back to the Kremlin, the feds said.
#1
Supposedly, there are still some Soviet-era illegals floating around, but they burrowed deep into the woodwork so that their ex-controllers couldn't find them. Seems they like it here.
#5
Yeah, for a measly $1mil they could have just bought a Illinois Senate Seat. She is kinda good looking, which would have been a dead givaway especially working for NYT.
#7
This reminds me of the probably apocryphal story of a Texas Congressman taking a trip to the USSR in the 60's. When his CIA briefer explained the concept of a honey-trap to him, the Congressman replied:
"Son, if that's the bait they using, they gonna catch ole Bubba every time."
Posted by: Matt ||
06/29/2010 13:46 Comments ||
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#8
It just goes to show that hot gingers can't be trusted, so have to be watched carefully. A lot.
#10
By now those old Soviet-era illegals will have long retired on their US government & academic pensions and moved on to that Workers' Paradise in the skies.
#12
Supposedly, there are still some Soviet-era illegals floating around, but they burrowed deep into the woodwork so that their ex-controllers couldn't find them. Seems they like it here.
I thought many of the illegals had come in from the cold even before the Cold War was over. Given the KGB's current financial straits and the death of Communist ideology, I can't see the incentive to risk anything for Mother Russia. Unless they thought this was a game.
#14
, I can't see the incentive to risk anything for Mother Russia. Unless they thought this was a game.
Oh, Russia is worth risking plenty for to a patriotic Russian. Russia may not garner the customary ass kissing that is usually lavished on China, Japan, etc, by westerners, but her culture is one of the oldest on the planet, equal to the Asian Tigers, and has the beauty of both some European and Asian traits. Not only that, Russia rivals us in certain aspects which is why its cultural bounties have kept us longtime foes.
#23
..and told by Moscow to become "Americanized,"
Definitely not following the DNC playbook. Further, they compounded their offense by not registering to vote Donk in at least one state. Had they done that, Holder probably would have dropped the investigation.
#25
Cross, it was not about Russia much as about China. SVR may want to to change their mind set. The old "spy" stuff is anachronistic. There are other ways to gather information that do not attract attention.
The concept that Russia is still driven by communist ideas has a very long beard. Putin may be authoritarian and wants Greater Russia, but I have hard time suspecting him from commie sympathies. I think that they are afraid that the chicken planted in the west will come home to roost. Seeing the move of 0gabe administration towards what they discarded may be putting them in a slight panic mode.
General Stanley McChrystal, who was forced to resign in dramatic circumstances last week as commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, has told the army that he will cut his ties with the institution he has spent his adult life serving. An army spokesman said McChrystal, 55, has told notified the army of his plan to retire, but he has not yet submitted formal retirement papers.
McChrystal's decision was not unexpected. One of his predecessors, General David McKiernan, was fired as the top commander in Afghanistan in 2009 and left the Army shortly after.
Because he didn't serve long enough as a four-star general, his pension will be based on his previous three-star rank. McChrystal graduated from the West Point military academy in 1976, and has spent his entire career in the army.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Governor Brewer should hire him as the Arizona Border Czar (A.B.C.), and have him try his COIN strategy along the border.
#2
That would certainly underline Arizona's attitude toward the current president, bman. But the governor would have to be very definite about rules of engagement...
Long before Rolling Stone published the story, war correspondent Michael Yon had also levied criticism at McChrystal. Yon came under fire from some milbloggers for his dispatches, and at least one military blog came close to character assassination because of what Yon wrote about McChrystal.
#12
I like the idea of Arizona addressing two problems at once, by hiring unemployed people to be second echelon border watchers. Offer them minimum wage and three squares a day, and I bet you there will be a lot of takers.
#15
An army rule said you had to serve three years in rank to retire in that rank. By the rule, McChrystal would retire as a three star. Just heard he gets to retire as a four star.
#16
What rank he retires really does not matter, other than ego. He will still retire a four star general. He will be retired for pay as a three star unless they give him a waiver. Since he joined prior to 1980 he will still get the % of his highest month, the 4 star month, so it will have no effect on his pay. Its a wash for him either way.
#17
I like the idea of Arizona addressing two problems at once, by hiring unemployed people to be second echelon border watchers. Offer them minimum wage and three squares a day, and I bet you there will be a lot of takers.
Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-06-29 13:59
COIN
The Village by Bing West or the Magnificant Seven?
#18
ION NEWS KERALA > TALIBAN EXPANDING THEIR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE, SAYS EXPERT [AAN = Afghanistan Analysts Network]. Afghan = AFPAK Taliban Militants steadily evol from disparate INSURGENT VIOLENCE into an [organized = unified] POLITICAL ISLAMIST MOVEMENT, BESIDES ALSO EXPANDING THEIR JIHADI ACTIVITIES TO AREAS OUTSIDE OF AFPAK.
In addition, the Talibs are also changing + increasingly diversifying their recruitment focii/pool from traditional PASHTUN TO NON-PASHTUN ETHNIC GROUPS.
* SAME > [Atlantic Council of the United States = ACUS] US THINK TANK: AFGHAN WAR MAY BE LOST BY US IN PAKISTAN | US LOOKING A "SAFE EXIT" FROM AFGHANISTAN WHILE TRYING TO PREVENT AL-QAEDA RE-EMERGENCE. PAK suffering from unabated Home-grown = domestic insurgencies + cross-border Militant flows.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
