Posts

Seven Hours at the Border: Marine Held in Mexico’s New Legal Team Hones Case

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News The new lawyer for Andrew Tahmooressi, the U.S. Marine held in Mexico for more than two months after mistakenly crossing the border with registered guns, is planning a new legal strategy to win the sergeant’s freedom.

Tijuana-based attorney Lamberto Jesus Esquer Dabdoub will be looking at the prolonged amount of time Tahmooressi was held at the border in the custody of the Mexican military March 31 in what Tahmooressi felt was a failed shakedown.

“Andrew felt something was fishy when the military showed up and wanted to arrest him after the customs officials were willing to accompany him back to the U.S.,” said his mother,Jill Tahmooressi, who plans to travel to Tijuana next week for a news conference with Esquer. “Andrew told me he felt there was an implied expectation of a bribe of some sort by the military but nothing was ever directly requested. He was very uncomfortable with their demeanor.”

The Tahmooressis fired Andrew’s previous attorney amid claims he told the Marine to lie about past travels across the border. The legal shakeup has thrown the already-vague timetable for his case into limbo. But when the case gets back on the docket in Tijuana, Esquer plans to focus on the seven-hour period Tahmooressi spent in custody but without charges at the border between San Ysidro, Calif. and Tijuana.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Must Respond to Jailed Marine’s Petition

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APLast Friday Breitbart Texas reported on Andrew Tahmooressi, a 25-year-old marine who was imprisoned in Mexico for having illegal guns in his car. Tahmooressi claims he was driving to San Ysidro, California to meet a fellow veteran and accidentally took a wrong turn across the border. Crossing into Mexico with the firearms has resulted in his incarceration in a Mexican prison for over two months.

At a border stop in Tijuana, Mexican officials searched the marine’s car. They found three guns which while legal in the United States, are illegal to possess in Mexico. According to Tahmooressi’s lawyer, he is currently being charged with the possession of firearms meant for the exclusive use by the Mexican military. He is currently facing six to 21 years in a Mexican prison.

After serving two tours in Afghanistan Tahmooresi was diagnosed with PTSD. His mother Jill Tahmooressi has repeatedly voiced her concerns that the Mexican jail is not prepared to handle a U.S. veteran with PTSD and has been very active in lobbying for her son’s release. She has appeared on dozens national television and radio programs to tell Andrew’s story and to encourage viewers to sign a WhiteHouse.gov petition she created on his behalf.

Read more from this story HERE.

U.S. Marine ‘Left Behind’ in Mexico (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP / U-T San Diego, Alejandro TamayoMarines learn in boot camp that you always take care of a buddy, and you “never leave a Marine behind.” This is something a commander in chief who never wore his country’s colors apparently does not understand, so Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi goes on trial Wednesday in Mexico, subjected to the “justice” he can expect in a Tijuana courtroom.

Sgt. Tahmooressi, a veteran of three combat tours of duty in Afghanistan, has been in a Mexican prison since March 31 because he made a wrong turn near the border south of San Diego. He became confused in unfamiliar traffic and turned into a lane that forced him to enter a Mexican border checkpoint with no way to turn back. He told border agents that he was trying to make a U-turn and had no intention of entering Mexico. He told them that he had three legally owned weapons with him, stowed with the personal items packed in his pickup truck. He was looking for a place to live in San Diego, having just moved from Florida.

Mexican police arrested him and threw him into a cell with a dozen thugs in a jail 40 miles from Tijuana. He faces the prospect of sweating for the next two decades behind bars.

Read more from this story HERE.

Marine Jailed in Mexico Receives Order to Report to USMC Superiors

/19 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News It might be the first order U.S. Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi doesn’t obey.

The mother of the reservist, who is being held in a Mexican jail after mistakenly crossing the border with registered guns, told FoxNews.com her son just got an “Order to Muster” letter from the Marines telling Tahmooressi to report to the 4th Civil Affairs Group in Hialeah, Fla., on June 14. Although a Marine spokeswoman later told FoxNews.com that the corps is aware of Tahmooressi’s current circumstances and does not expect him to report, failure typically can result in “other than honorable discharge” and affect Veterans Administration benefits.

“You are among the elite citizens of our nation who, if needed, are ready to answer the call to defend our freedom,” reads the May 9 order written by Sgt. Maj. M.E. Sprague, which also reminds the recipient that, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”

Jill Tahmooressi said the letter was the latest painful reminder of her son’s plight despite service to his country that includes two tours of duty in Afghanistan resulting in post-traumatic stress disorder. Tahmooressi was arrested March 31, after accidentally driving into Mexico with three legally purchased weapons in his truck.

A Marine Corps spokesman told FoxNews.com reservists on Individual Ready Reserve, as Tahmooressi is, are contractually required to attend the one-day session to have their physical readiness evaluated should they be recalled to active duty. The letter does not represent a call-up to active duty.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mom of Marine Jailed in Mexico Says Son ‘Not a Criminal,’ Hopes for White House Response

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News The mother of a U.S. Marine being held in a Mexican prison on weapons charges told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Monday that her son is “not a criminal,” and she is hoping President Obama will respond to his plight.

Jill Tahmooressi said on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” that she recently saw her son Andrew after he was transferred to a new prison. She said she was able to bring him clothes and books but not food, and that her son told her he was always hungry.

Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 25, has claimed he was headed to dinner in San Ysidro, California on March 31 when he mistakenly wound up at a border crossing point in Tijuana. According to his mother, Tahmooressi said he made a wrong turn, and Mexican authorities found three guns in his truck.

In an interview on the Mexican border, Jill Tahmooressi told Van Susteren her son would have never intended of smuggling or selling his guns, adding he had them for self-defense.

“He needed those firearms for his own sense of security,” she said. “He never – not for any price – would he have sold those guns.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Mexico to Legalize Vigilantes Fighting Drug Cartel

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP / Eduardo Verdugo

Photo Credit: AP / Eduardo Verdugo

Mexico’s government plans on Saturday to begin demobilizing a vigilante movement of assault rifle-wielding ranchers and farmers that formed in the western state of Michoacan and succeeded in largely expelling the Knights Templar cartel when state and local authorities couldn’t.

The ceremony in the town of Tepalcatepec, where the movement began in February 2013, will involve the registration of thousands of guns by the federal government and an agreement that the so-called “self-defense” groups will either join a new official rural police force or return to their normal lives and acts as voluntary reserves when called on.

The government will go town by town to organize and recruit the new rural forces.

“This is a process of giving legal standing to the self-defense forces,” said vigilante leader Estanislao Beltran.

But tension remained on Friday in the coastal part of the state outside the port of Lazaro Cardenas, where other “self-defense” groups plan to continue as they are, defending their territory without registering their arms. Vigilantes against the demobilization have set up roadblocks in the coastal town of Caleta.

Read more from this story HERE.

John Kerry Won’t Testify About Benghazi Because He’ll Be in Mexico, Despite Subpoena

/13 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Secretary of State John Kerry is planning to be in Mexico on the day of a congressional hearing on Benghazi for which he was subpoenaed to testify.

The scheduling conflict drew a befuddled response Wednesday from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has ordered him to appear.

“There appears to be some confusion between State Department staff and the Secretary, who said publicly yesterday that he would comply with the subpoena for his testimony,” committee spokesman Frederick Hill said. “The State Department has not contacted the Committee directly.”

The State Department announced Wednesday morning that Kerry is scheduled to be in Mexico City May 21-22, for talks on trade, education and security.

May 21 is when the House oversight committee wants Kerry to testify, to discuss newly uncovered documents regarding the administration’s public explanation of the attacks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Woman, 73, Accused of Operating Drug Tunnel Uncovered Under Mexican Border

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Tucked inside one of a string of warehouses, hidden behind boxes of televisions and plastic three-wheel toys, under a concrete slab and down a 70-foot shaft, is a tunnel Mexican drug dealers hoped to use to move hundreds of pounds of marijuana and cocaine into the U.S.

But on Friday, agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday’s discovery of the tunnel and arrested the woman accused of overseeing its construction, 73-year-old Glennys “Gladys” Rodriguez, of Chula Vista, Calif. Authorities had been watching the warehouse for months.

“Here we are again, foiling cartel plans to sneak millions of dollars of illegal drugs through secret passageways that cost millions of dollars to build,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. “Going underground is not a good business plan. We have promised to locate these super tunnels and keep powerful drug cartels from taking their business underground and out of sight, and once again, we have delivered on that promise.”

This was the sixth cross-border passageway discovered in the San Diego area in less than four years. A seventh was found Thursday nearby. If laid end-to-end, the seven tunnels would extend a distance of nearly two miles.

Agents from the San Diego Tunnel Task Force uncovered the two sophisticated smuggling tunnels in an area known as Otay Mesa, an industrial park surrounded by rolling hills, desert and several major freeways connecting the U.S. to Tijuana and large manufacturing plants south of the border.

Read more from this story HERE.

Capture of Mexican Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Ignites Fight Over Trial Location

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News After narrow escapes from the military, law enforcement and rivals over 13 years on the run, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is back in Mexican custody. Now, what is likely to be a lengthy and complicated legal process to decide which country gets to try him first will begin.

In Mexico, Guzman is likely to face a host of charges related to his role as the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, the country’s most powerful drug organization and a key player in the yearslong violence that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 2006.

Grand juries in at least seven U.S. federal district courts have handed up indictments for Guzman on a variety of charges, ranging from smuggling cocaine and heroin into the United States to participating in an ongoing criminal enterprise involving murder and racketeering.

Mexico convicted the man whose nickname translates to “Shorty” on drug trafficking and murder charges in 1993. Guzman had served less than half of his 20-year prison sentence when he escaped from jail in 2001. The Mexican government is almost certain to levy a host of new charges related not only to his escape but also to his role in running the global drug-empire that the Sinaloa Cartel has become.

Calls for his extradition to the United States started just hours after word spread of his arrest Saturday morning at a condominium in Mazatlan, a beach resort town on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

Read more this story HERE.

Report: ‘Fast and Furious’ Gun Turns Up at Mexico Shootout Scene

/7 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP/Alex Brandon

Photo Credit: AP/Alex Brandon

A gun from the failed U.S. operation known as “Fast and Furious” turned up at the scene of a shootout between Mexican authorities and alleged cartel gunmen last month, according to CNN.

U.S. officials told CNN at least one AK-47-style gun that could be traced back to the failed gun-walking scheme was found at the scene.

The shootout on Dec. 18 left five alleged cartel members dead in Puerto Penasco, a popular tourist site in Mexico.

The now-defunct Fast and Furious program began in 2009 and was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Agents allowed low-level weapons purchasers to cross the Mexican border in an attempt to expose trafficking routes used by Mexican cartels. But the agency ultimately lost track of some weapons, including two found at the scene of the killing of a border patrol agent in 2010.

Read more from this story HERE.