News From the Border

Providing the news from a different front but from a war that we must win as well! I recognize the poverty and desperate conditions that many Latinos live in. We, as the USA, have a responsibility to do as much as we can to reach out to aid and assist spiritually with the Gospel and naturally with training, technology and resources. But poverty gives no one the right to break the laws of another sovereign nation.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Judge in Mexico City sentences smuggling-ring leader to 14 years

By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 23, 2006

TIJUANA – The owner of a Lebanese restaurant who confessed to running a smuggling ring that helped Middle Easterners cross the border to San Diego has been sentenced to 14 years in prison by a federal judge in Mexico City.

Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, the owner of La Libanesa restaurant, was the leader of a criminal group whose clients paid between $3,500 and $4,500 to be taken by car to San Diego, according to Mexican law enforcement authorities.

Boughader, a Mexican of Lebanese descent, was initially arrested by U.S. authorities in December 2002 on smuggling charges.

In March 2003, he pleaded guilty in federal court in San Diego to running a ring that helped more than 100 immigrants cross the border to San Diego; most of the clients were Lebanese, including one man who died from heat exhaustion. Boughader was sentenced to a year and a day, but apparently he didn't serve the entire sentence.

posted by missionaryman | 7:34 AM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Its quite remarkable that Mexico had a stiffer sentence for this would be terrorist than the US. This joker smuggled some 200 people into the US and received a slap on the wrist with a 1 year sentence. What a joke! Shame on the US for having such lenient laws on smugglers.

9:04 PM  

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