Saturday, 23 January 2010
Crime Will Be Legalized If Amnesty Wins
Gilchrist Points To The Undefended U.S. /Mexican Border
".......one of the ring members hit Trevi?o's ankles and wrists with a hammer. The kidnappers are accused of using a rifle to hit Cepeda's genitals."
A kidnapping ring is accused of taking its Rio Grande Valley victims to Mexico where they were tortured, held for ransom and in one case -- killed. The trial for alleged kidnapping ring member Luis Alberto Avila-Hernandez started before U.S. District Court Judge Randy Crane in McAllen on Tuesday.
Several witnesses have testified against Avila-Hernandez, including the relatives of victims and his co-defendant Gerardo Zamora-Espinoza. The Associated Press reported that Zamora-Espinoza testified that the kidnappings where committed on the behalf of the Mexican Gulf cartel's enforcers. Zamora-Espinoza told jurors that the body of kidnapping victim Daniel Ramirez, Jr. was "cooked" on a ranch in Mexico.
Court records show that Ramirez was kidnapped from his Country Village Store outside off FM 88 and 13 Mile Line north of Weslaco in August 2008. A criminal complaint filed against Avila-Hernandez shows that the kidnapping took place because Ramirez refused an offer to work with the Gulf Cartel.
Avila-Hernandez acted as lookout outside the store and helped drive Ramirez to a ranch in Mission where he was held before being taken to Mexico.The Associated Press reported that Zamora-Espinoza's nephew ran the kidnapping ring.
Zamora-Espinzoa testified that his nephew told him they were "cooking the body" of Ramirez at a ranch in Mexico. Ramirez was killed even his father had paid $40,000 out of a $100,000 dollars ransom. But court documents obtained by Action 4 News show that Ramirez was not the only victim.
The group is also accused of kidnapping Antonio Gonzalez in August 2008 where they demanded $30,000 dollars and a vehicle for his release. The ring also accused of kidnapping victims Sergio Cepeda and Adrian Trevi?o in September 2008. The men were held at a home in Mission where one of the ring members hit Trevi?o's ankles and wrists with a hammer. The kidnappers are accused of using a rilfe to hit Cepeda's genitals. They held Cepeda for ransom for $40,000 dollars and two vehicles.
You have got to READ MORE......
'I know I'm rolling the dice ... but it's important for me to be cleared'
One of the two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose cases have been covered in hundreds of WND reports has confirmed he will seek a retrial to overturn his felony convictions.
The sentence for Ignacio Ramos - along with the sentence for fellow former agent Jose Compean - was commuted by President Bush as he was leaving the presidency. The two border agents were convicted of various charges that stemmed from firing their service weapons at a fleeing drug smuggler, and they were given prison terms of more than a decade.
Ramos, who has relocated with his family from El Paso to the Houston area, told the Houston Chronicle he will seek the new verdict.
"I know I'm rolling the dice," Ramos said. "We don't go into it blind. We talk about it, and we both know the risks. And it's hard knowing what the possibility is. But it is important for me to be cleared." While Bush commuted the prison sentences - releasing them for time served - a pardon was not granted, leaving the felony convictions on their records.
The original case stemmed from the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of Oswaldo Aldrete-Davila. The two officers said they thought Aldrete-Davila was armed and made a threatening move. Ramos and Compean were charged under the "wrong law," U.S.C. Section 924(c) that imposes a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence on a person using a weapon in the commission of a federal crime.
Aldrete-Davila was granted immunity for his drug smuggling by federal prosecutors in exchange for his testimony against the agents. He crossed the Rio Grande and picked up a marijuana-loaded vehicle near El Paso. After a car chase in which he fled from the officers, he abandoned the vehicle and ran back across the border on foot. He was shot in the buttocks as he ran.
The petition collected more than 40,000 signatures by the time President Bush commuted the agents' sentences. The letter campaign produced more than 3,000 FedEx letters to the White House. WND sent copies of some of the news stories and commentaries to the agents in prison. When Compean learned about the petition and FedEx campaign, he sent a letter to WND from the Federal Correctional Institution in Lisbon, Ohio.
"Although our case received attention before we reported to prison, I truly believed people would forget all about us," Compean wrote at the time. "Once we reported to prison, I was very happy to see how wrong I was. I have received thousands of letters from people all over the country. I have also received letters from other countries such as Italy and even a few from soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Joe Loya, Ramos' father-in-law, also said at the time he was thankful for the in-depth coverage. "We can only thank Joseph Farah, Jerome Corsi and the staff at WorldNetDaily because from the beginning you have been with us and you never gave up on the case," he said at the time of the commutation. "Your reporting had a lot to do with the decision today by President Bush to commute the sentences."
The Chronicle reported in the 11 months since Ramos was freed, he's moved from El Paso to Katy, Texas, obtained a job, and reassembled his life. However, he said he still feels he's the victim of wrong. "Even though there are people that believe in you, and there are people helping you, it's not easy to live with. It's very hard," he told the newspaper. "Because if you didn't know the story, ... if you just look at what's left on my record, you'd be like, 'Oh my God, I can't leave my kids around this guy, or I can't be around this guy. This guy is dangerous.'"
Characterizing Ramos and Compean's incarceration as a "political prosecution," Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, earlier called for a congressional investigation into alleged prosecutorial misconduct by Sutton under the direction of Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Poe also called for an investigation into the alleged role of the Mexican government in demanding that Ramos and Compean be prosecuted. The U.S. Supreme Court later declined to hear an appeal of the original case. WND is the resiurce to part of this article. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=122344
Don't stop now, READ MORE
Time To Gear-Up For The Coming Amnesty Fight!
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Jim Gilchrist founded the multi-ethnic Minuteman Project on Oct. 1, 2004, after years of frustrated efforts trying to get a neglectful U.S. government to simply enforce existing immigration laws. Jim Gilchrist is a passionate defender of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and an avid supporter of law enforcement organizations. He has appeared on over 3,500 radio and TV news and commentary shows in shows in the past twelve months, and he believes he is only one of millions of 21st century minutemen / women / children who want the U.S. to remain governed by the "rule of law" and who want proactive enforcement of our national security protections and our immigration legal code.
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