ICE investigation leads to 15-year sentence for Arizona drug smuggler

TUCSON, Ariz. - An Arizona man who previously pleaded guilty to drug smuggling and firearms charges was sentenced to 15 years in prison yesterday for his involvement in a conspiracy to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana.

Oscar Perez, 39, of Arivaca, Ariz., appeared before U.S. District Judge Cindy K. Jorgenson. Perez' conviction followed a long-term investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol.

Court documents show that Perez was the ringleader of a drug trafficking organization that brought marijuana into the United States from Mexico, using backpackers or horses. The marijuana was then taken to property owned by the Perez family for further distribution within the United States. When agents executed search warrants at those properties, they seized numerous firearms.

"Oscar Perez was an established drug smuggler who showed no compunction about involving his family in these illicit activities," said Richard Crocker, deputy special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in Tucson. "ICE is committed to targeting, investigating and dismantling the criminal organizations responsible for smuggling narcotics into the United States."

Seized weapons linked to crimes throughout Baja

Rivals fight over 'control of region'
By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 29, 2008

TIJUANA – Weapons seized after shootouts between rival gangs that claimed at least 13 lives have been linked to eight other high-profile crimes in Tijuana, Rosarito Beach and Ensenada, authorities said yesterday.

Those crimes include last month's killings of two Mexican migrant protection officers in Tijuana's Colonia Libertad neighborhood near San Ysidro, an assassination attempt in December on Rosarito Beach's police chief, and the November theft from Ensenada's morgue of the body of a drug trafficker killed during the Baja 1000 off-road race.

During a news conference yesterday in Tijuana, state law enforcement officials offered some new details about Saturday's gunbattles, the deadliest in recent years. Federal authorities have taken over the investigation because it involves organized crime. They offered no information.

21 arrested after stash-house raid

By Adriana M. Chávez / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 02/17/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

JUAREZ -- Police in north Juárez arrested 21 men Friday during a raid on a stash house in the Campestre Arboleda colonía.

Police, who were acting on an anonymous tip, raided the home on Calle Oregon and found guns, including 10 AK-47's, doses of crack cocaine and federal police uniforms.

Police said they suspect that the men, who are being described as hit men, are involved with a Juárez drug-trafficking cartel.

Arms cache in Miguel Aleman, biggest seizure in decades

February 9th, 2008

MONTERREY, Mexico — A huge weapons cache found in a ranch building near the Texas border this week was the nation’s single largest weapons bust in 20 years, said the federal attorney general’s office, or PGR, in a statement Friday. A Mexican army unit found the stockpile, which included 89 assault rifles and more than 83,000 rounds of ammunition, on Thursday near Miguel Alemán, a border city just south of Roma, authorities said.

Soldiers also seized about 9 metric tons of marijuana and arrested five people at the ranch, called “El Mezquitito,” the Defense Ministry said in a brief statement.

The latest wave of military and federal police action in the troubled border region continued Friday when police chased and exchanged gunfire with organized crime suspects along the main highway between Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria, authorities said.

Yuma Border Patrol Agents Seize Drugs, Cash, Shotgun

Monday, February 04, 2008

Yuma, Ariz. – Yuma, Ariz. Border Patrol agents assigned to the checkpoint on Interstate 8 apprehended two illegal aliens possessing drugs, paraphernalia, cash and a sawed-off shotgun Saturday night.

About 9 p.m. a canine handler assigned to the checkpoint referred a 1999 Ford Expedition to secondary after his canine alerted to the vehicle. At the secondary inspection lane, an agent conducted a brief field interview with the two occupants of the vehicle and determined that both were citizens and nationals of Mexico illegally present in the United States.

During a comprehensive search of the vehicle, agents discovered a shotgun with an illegally shortened barrel along with five grams of methamphetamine, three grams of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and about $2,600 of U.S. currency.

One of the vehicle’s occupants, Martin Lorenzo-Banos, had been apprehended for immigration related offenses on 23 previous occasions and had been arrested for criminal offenses including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, disorderly conduct with a weapon, driving with a suspended license, false reports to law enforcement officials, and possession of narcotics and paraphernalia. The second subject had no prior immigration or criminal offenses.

Lawmakers revive plan for entrant firearms ban

By Howard Fischer

CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES

PHOENIX — State lawmakers are trying to resurrect a law designed to keep those in the country illegally from carrying firearms.

The proposal by House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, says all foreigners in this country are forbidden from having guns. But there would be exceptions allowing permanent legal residents and some visitors, such as hunters and target shooters, to be armed.

Shoppers, tourists and other temporary visitors from foreign countries, however, would be prohibited.

That's what lawmakers thought they were enacting four years ago when they adopted a statute that essentially piggy-backed Arizona law onto federal statutes that deal with the rights of non-immigrant foreigners to carry weapons.

But in a unanimous decision last year, the state Court of Appeals pointed out that federal law specifically refers to weapons involved in interstate commerce. What that means, the appellate court said, is people could be convicted of violating state gun laws only if prosecutors could prove the weapon in question was "shipped or transported in interstate commerce."

High-powered weapons seized in Arizona, feds say

The Associated Press

Published: 12.28.2007

PHOENIX - Spread across a conference table at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix are enough weapons to equip several carloads of drug runners.

Agents said Thursday they found the 42 weapons in a storage locker about 10 days ago.

The guns are worth $250,000: Belgian-made "FN" handguns, semiautomatic AK rifles and other pistols.

They also found four olive boxes loaded with 50-caliber cartridges, ammunition that's big enough to take out an airplane.

Some of those guns end up in the hands of California gangs or with coyotes herding illegal immigrants into the U.S.

Still, Mangan said a majority of the guns are smuggled into Mexico for use by drug dealers.