Police Officer Goes Missing after Shootout in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – A police officer disappeared following a shootout in Apatzingan, a city in western Mexico, where gunmen murdered two other officers and five civilians, Michoacan Gov. Salvador Jara said.

Officers assigned to guard the La Fortaleza de Annunaky ranch failed to return when expected, prompting their commander to send out a patrol car to search for them, Jara said.

The patrol car met up with the other officers halfway to the ranch and the three patrol cars headed back to town.

The officers came across a tractor-trailer loaded with scrap metal and an SUV.

“When they found these two vehicles, the patrol cars started to pass them and that’s when they were attacked by armed men. There is a shootout and they (the officers) head off, find a motorcycle rider and that’s how they sent word (to other officers),” the governor said.

The shootout was over quickly and the gunmen torched one of the patrol cars, “but they didn’t realize that reinforcements were coming,” Jara said.

Officers killed the tractor-trailer’s driver, his assistant and three other civilians, the governor said.

Investigators have not determined whether the men belonged to a criminal organization, Jara said, but he indicated that they may have been members of the Caballeros Templarios drug cartel.

The La Fortaleza de Annunaky ranch belonged to Caballeros Templarios boss Nazario Moreno, who died in a shootout with marines on Jan. 9, 2014.

Iran - Lawyer arrested for shaking hand's ( adultery in "sharia law " )

 Posted on: 16th June, 2015

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HRANA News Agency – Mohammad Moghimi, Atena Farghdani’s lawyer who had gone to visit his client was arrested and transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison.

According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), Davud Nemati, one of his friends has published this news and written: “A man named as Hamidi said he has been arrested because of shaking hands with his client which has been written in the record as ‘adultery’.”

Mr. Moghimi has informed Mr. Nemati of these through a phone call from Rajai Shahr Prison and has also told that a bail of 20 million Thomans has been issued for him and hopefully he is going to be released soon.

Mohammad Moghimi is a human rights lawyer and his client, Atena Farghdani has been recently sentenced to 12 years of imrisonment for her peaceful activities.

Police Seize 3.4 Tons of Cocaine in Southwest Ecuador

QUITO – A total of 3.4 tons of cocaine packed into a container bound for Manzanillo, Mexico, were seized in Guayaquil, a port city in southwestern Ecuador, the National Police said Sunday.

The drugs were found on Friday by specially trained dogs in a container whose manifest said held a substance used to produce animal feed.

The cocaine was in 67 sacks containing a total of 440 bricks of the drug.

Officers searched a warehouse and a house in Guayaquil’s La Puntilla residential district, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The investigation was expanded to the central coastal city of Manta, where two Mexicans and a Colombian were arrested.

An Ecuadorian who worked for the shipping firm that was sending the container to Mexico was also detained.

Two Hondurans arrested in Manta were released after officials determined they were not involved in the smuggling operation

Puerto Rico Judge Gets 10 Years for Bribery

 

SAN JUAN -- A Puerto Rico Superior Court Judge was sentenced to 10 years in prison today after being convicted earlier this year of accepting bribes to acquit a businessman of vehicular homicide charges. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez of the District of Puerto Rico made the announcement.

In January, a federal jury convicted Judge Manuel Acevedo-Hernandez, 63, of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and receipt of a bribe by an agent of an organization receiving federal funds. Chief U.S. District Judge Aida M. Delgado of the District of Puerto Rico imposed the sentence.

Acevedo-Hernandez presided over the trial of Lutgardo Acevedo-Lopez, 39, a certified public accountant in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. Acevedo-Lopez was charged with criminal vehicular homicide based on his role in a June 2012 collision involving the vehicle he was driving and another car, which resulted in the death of the other driver.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Acevedo-Lopez used an intermediary to bribe Acevedo-Hernandez by paying taxes owed by Acevedo-Hernandez; paying for the construction of a garage for Acevedo-Hernandez’s home; and providing Acevedo-Hernandez with a motorcycle, clothing and accessories, including cufflinks and a watch. In exchange, Acevedo-Hernandez acquitted Acevedo-Lopez of all charges.

In August 2014, Acevedo-Lopez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and to paying a bribe to an agent of an organization receiving federal funds. Acevedo-Lopez has not yet been sentenced.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s San Juan Division. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Peter Mason and Menaka Kalaskar of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Henwood and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jose Capó of the District of Puerto Rico.

Russian Woman Admits She Dismembered Mother, Sister in Mexican Border City

MEXICO CITY – A 19-year-old Russian woman confessed that she murdered her mother and 12-year-old sister, whose dismembered bodies were found at their house in Tijuana, a border city in northwest Mexico, media reports said.

Anastasia Lechtchenko Masney, who was the prime suspect in the murder case, was found and arrested in Sinaloa, another northwestern state.

The teenager confessed that she beheaded and dismembered the bodies, removing the heart from one body and the eyes from the other.

The suspect told investigators she flushed the body parts down the toilet because she believed her mother and sister were witches.

The dismembered bodies of Yulya Masney Safonchik, a 42-year-old Russian-born Mexican citizen, and her daughter, Valeria Lechtchenko Masney, were found last week inside a house in Tijuana, located near San Diego, California, the Baja California Attorney General’s Office said.

Anastasia Lechtchenko Masney lived at the house with her mother and sister, but she was not home when AG’s office agents went to the property.

Investigators launched a search for the teenager, the AG’s office said.

The suspect often disappeared from home and was reported missing several times to authorities by relatives who feared that people traffickers had abducted her.

Authorities, however, determined that she had left of her own will and had drug problems.

U.S. Considers Sending Mechanized Infantry to Eastern Europe

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon considers sending up to 5,000 soldiers, heavy artillery and tanks to Eastern Europe in response to Russian support for Ukrainian separatists, the New York Times said Saturday.

If carried out, this will be the first time since the Cold War that the United States sends mechanized infantry to NATO’s extended borders in Eastern Europe as a dissuasive power.

It would also be the most serious step taken as yet by the United States in response to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Moscow’s support for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, a country long in the realm of Russian influence but which since 2014 has been strengthening its bonds with the West.

NATO has already stepped up military exercises on its eastern borders and has expanded surveillance by air and sea.

Since NATO extended its borders in 2004 to include the Baltic republics – Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – the United States has avoided making any permanent deployment in the area bordering on Russia.

The level of troops and military equipment being considered would be similar to the amount kept for a decade in Kuwait following the Iraqi invasion that led to the first Gulf War in 1990, the newspaper said.

The proposal, a symbol of the commitment to the collective defense of NATO countries, must be approved by Defense Secretary Ash Carter with the support of U.S. President Barack Obama.

This go-ahead could come before the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels at the end of this month.

Some European partners have been reticent during the crisis to enter into such mobilizations, which could push Russia to an escalation of its role in the conflict.

(Russian ) Mother and Daughter Slain, Dismembered in Mexico

TIJUANA, Mexico – The dismembered bodies of a Russian immigrant woman and her 12-year-old daughter were discovered inside a home in this northwestern Mexican city, the Baja California state Attorney General’s Office said.

Investigators are questioning the woman’s husband and older daughter, prosecutor Jose Maria Gonzalez Martinez told the media.

The bodies of Yulya Masney Safonchik, 42, and Valeria Lechenko Masney were discovered Wednesday night by police responding to a complaint from neighbors about a foul smell coming from the family’s home in the Playas de Tijuana neighborhood.

Homicide detectives found the victims’ remains stuffed into plastic bags.

The killings would have taken place on Tuesday, Gonzalez Martinez said, adding that Valeria’s older sister and the girls’ father were being interrogated.

Investigators have found evidence that the older daughter, who was not at the residence when the bodies were found, might have been involved in the crime, the prosecutor said.

Authorities eventually located the older daughter with several friends, who were also detained briefly until investigators were satisfied that they were not connected to the double-murder.

The older daughter has a history of substance abuse and the family had reported her missing on several occasions, Gonzalez Martinez said.

The girls’ father, also a Russian immigrant, told interrogators he did not live with Yulya and his daughters and that he only came to the house Wednesday night because neighbors informed him about the police activity at the residence, the prosecutor said.