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Posted on 05/22/2004 11:31:33 PM PDT by SteveH
ATF Agents Arrest 14 in Multistate Operation(Gestapo Alert!)
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040521/clf044_1.html
May 21, 2004
ATF Agents Arrest 14 in Multistate Operation
Friday May 21, 5:17 pm ET
RENO, Nev., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- John A. Torres, Special Agent In Charge of the San Francisco Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), announced today that ATF agents in California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah and Washington State participated in the arrests of 14 people after a federal grand jury returned indictments charging them with federal firearms violations. All of the defendants were charged with dealing firearms without a license, illegal sales of firearms, possession of unregistered firearms, and possession of firearms by prohibited persons. One of those arrested, Laquan J. Abdulrahim of East Palo Alto, Calif., was also charged with possession of body armor by a violent felon, the first time a defendant in Nevada has been charged with this federal violation. This charge alone carries a maximum penalty of three years in federal prison.
Dubbed "Operation Over The Line," the year-long investigation into the illegal purchasing and trafficking of firearms ultimately led agents to individuals in three other states. During the course of the investigation, more than 400 firearms were seized with dozens more to be retrieved in the near future. ATF undercover agents purchased approximately 30-40 firearms from various individuals, including some that were illegal. The agents purchased firearms from federally licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) as well as unlicensed dealers.
"Although some of these transactions took place at various gunshows in Nevada, a minority group of people chose to use gunshows as a conduit to conduct their illegal activities," Torres said. "The gun shows were not the target of our investigation."
In addition to the arrest warrants, agents served a federal search warrant at the residence and business of Larry B. Reimer, of Pahrump, Nev. Reimer was arrested pursuant to the grand jury indictments. Reimer, a licensed firearms dealer, was charged with the illegal transfer of a semiautomatic weapon and the illegal sale of a firearm. These charges carry a maximum penalty of five years each in federal prison.
Among the items recovered at another search warrant location in Nevada were a number of firearms, including machine guns, as well as explosive materials.
Torres praised the Reno Police Department, Washoe County Sheriff's Department, the Nevada Highway Patrol, California Highway Patrol, the West Sacramento Police Department and the California Department of Justice for assisting ATF in this investigation.
"ATF will continue to reduce illicit firearms trafficking by investigating individuals who provide firearms to prohibited persons, who deal without a license, and who sell firearms illegally. Working with our state and local partners toward this endeavor will keep firearms out of the hands of criminals," Torres said.
More information on ATF is available at www.atf.gov .
Contacts: Nina S. Delgadillo, PIO, ATF Pager: 888-533-8597 Tom Cannon, Resident Agent In Charge Office Phone: 775-784-5251
Source: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives
Similar thread here but worth repeating.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1140541/posts
I guess now that the border problem is all fixed and since we are no longer at risk of attack from terrorists the feds have more time to do this kind of thing.
Oh God!!!!!!!!!!!!.....the horror!
I realize the Gestapo did confiscate weapons that were illegal under the Third Reich, but those people caught were sent to concentration/labor camps or killed on the spot. Please don't compare US law enforcement agencies to the murderous Gestapo who rounded up innocents for mass murder as a matter of policy. (Yes Waco was a mass murder of civilians, but done due to poor leadership rather than standing policy). Remember how angry we get as conservatives when some left wing radical calls us Nazis due to our beliefs.
GWB pumped up the federal government with our money. They've got to do something with it. The article mentions 400 firearms. My guess is it cost about $100,000 per firearm.
What you seem to have missed in the body of the story is the guy from East Palo Alto...now that is gang city...his name is rather Muslim sounding and he had body armor (as aviolent felon no less) as well as some nasty guns. This ain't the Gestapo....more likely it is a crack down on folks who may be working with some rather unsavory groups from the mIddle East
Note that during these years under President Bush that the number of DEA/BATF no knock warrant "hits" has gone down to nearly zero? Under Clinton, they were almost monthly if not more.
Gestapo is a bit over the top, don't you think?
So let me get this straight.
You can sit there and make an honest comparison of a US law enforcement agency, however poorly led, with congressional oversight in a democratically elected country to a secret police run by Heinrich Himmler sworn by duty to liquidate Jews and other 'undesirable' human beings?
Words mean things, and when someone sees this kind of stupid comparison being offered on FR our reputation suffers.
you forgot, this is FR...
Cops killed by criminals: heros
all others: jackbooted nazi thugs.
I know all about East Palo Alto. It's mostly Hispanic now, followed by Blacks. I'm not into just pre-judging people by their names (or ethnicity, or any other superficial trait). People have a right to self defense, period. Take away their natural right to self-defense, and you take away their humanity. I know many on FR will disagree, but IMHO FR has become (over?)populated with people who aren't so much conservative as they are reactionaries. And the title was dragged over verbatim from how it is posted at that other conservative EBB...
so would "gestapo" be in the headline if the story was
Laquan J. Abdulrahim arrested in firearms sting.
My guess is the headline would be "ATF Agents Arrest 14 in Multistate Operation(Religion of peace Alert!)"
WACO was set in motion under Bush I.
I think it's open, especially given that it's the ATF. See #11.
Amen.
Just be a man and say you were wrong and not dig yourself into a deeper hole of ignorance.
EPA is mostly hispanic, then islanders, then blacks now. I try not to drive through after dark since they like to shoot at passing cars... Or from passing cars. Still you gotta get off/to the bridge sometimes.
It seems you have failed to remember Waco and Ruby Ridge where Clinton trying to appease his tree hugging friends clearly went over the line! People have the right to bear arms but not have banned or unregistered weapons. As for passing judgement because of a name! We earned that right 9/11/01. These people were clearly not upstanding people or we would not even be discussing this. Janet Reno violated more civil rights than anyone in recent history yet you fail to mention this.
Any gun dealer who sells to a person with an Islamic name should be arrested.
(And, please, don't nobody respond with a "But, Timothy McVeigh wasn't Islamic..." response. Those were different times.)
What's your solution for elected officials who keep the borders open where Islamics can walk into America?
Bzzzt wrong. Show me the JBTs who killed people at Waco in prison for life, or lined up in front of a firing squad. Until that happens, these people deserve only penury, beating, humiliation, and death.
Must be a RENO thing...
They're still using that tired, old line?
If it's their job to keep "guns out of the hands of criminals," they're the most inept government agency in human history.
Yes, it was that too. . . and those at the scene of the carnage 'ver chust folloving orders,' so lets give them a pass.
Soundz roughly accurate, to me...
;-/
Bull****!!! This case will make it into the DEMS remarks next time guns are brought up in the Senate/House.
Ruby Ridge occurred in Aug. 1992, not including the ATF setup sting which started in 1989. Clinton wasn't inaugurated until Jan. 1993.
Bush I was president in the 1989-1992 timeframe.
It seems you might be interested in reading George Bush: the Unauthorized Biography if you haven't already.
How did a small agency charged with collecting the tax on tobacco and booze grow into this? Do they still pay any attention to their “alcohol and tobacco” mission?
What you seem to have missed in the body of the story is the guy from East Palo Alto...now that is gang city...his name is rather Muslim sounding and he had body armor (as aviolent felon no less) as well as some nasty guns. This ain't the Gestapo....more likely it is a crack down on folks who may be working with some rather unsavory groups from the mIddle East
Bang
Please tell me which infringements of the right to keep and bear arms are not allowed? I challenge you to describe any limits that remain under present policies.
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Hmmmm....where do you get that? I haven't read that anywhere in the Constitution. Explain please, if you will.
Ain't that the truth!!!
Molon Labe!
The Gestapo was only peripherally involved in rounding up Jews, they were more into political opponents, and resistance groups in occupied countries and they did alot of counter intelligence stuff as well.
What difference does it make if your rights are violate by a democratically elected body or by a single dictator? Either way your ass is grass. Furthermore, BATFE agents are (theoretically) sworn to support and defend the Constitution, which is hard to do when the basis for existence of the agency is blatantly unconstitutional on it's face. (Other than the collection of the booze and smokes taxes side, which is no longer part of the agency anyway as it was left in Treasury when BATFE moved to Justice. They retain the AT part of the name because they still enforce the laws against not paying those taxes and administer the regulations on those industries). Thus all BAFTE agents involved in the "F" and "E" parts of the organization's are in direct violation of their oaths, which can't even be said of the Gestapo agents.
It is really rather simple....If you are a violent felon ( one of the bad guys) you may not own body armor...doesn't matter where you live. I suggest that you take a deep breath and relax just a little bit. The hysteria that is prevalent about this is right up there with a Michael Moore rant...
The very notion of "banned weapons" and "registered weapons" probably sets the founding fathers to spinning in their graves. What part of "right of the people" and "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
They no longr collect the taxes that were their fig leaf for existence. They do still enforce the laws (and make the regulations which the also enforce) on transportation, packaging and so forth. They are now part of the "Justice" department, not the "Treasury" department, where the tax collecting is still done.
Non-citizen criminal invaders have no 2nd amd rights at all. Go troll elsewhere, we have your rap down pat.
So non-citizen criminal invaders (aka misdemeanor economic refugees) have no God-given unalienable right to self-defense, eh? That is what the felonious criminal yahoos thought before they assaulted unarmed women and children and were subsequently thrown in jail for their criminal deeds.
The point is that such a law, if if affects felons who have served their time, including any probationary time, and most especially if the prohibition was not an explicit part the sentence, is a minimum a violation of due process, and arguably of the second amendment as well. But that aside, what is the point? Some former felons, even violent ones (and that can cover way more territory than one might think), may have enemies who want to kill them. If they are going to go back to their old ways, lack of a vest wouldn't stop them. Furthermore the law wouldn't stop them from getting a vest any more than it would stop them from getting a gun if they were so inclined. After all if armed robbery, murder or rape is on ones agenda, and the penalties for second (or additional) offenses of those doesn't deter, the additional penalty for having a gun or a vest are not likely to figure into the calculations much at all.
Your pitiful analogy doesn't hold water. We are talking about people who have gotten out of prison and have completed their sentences, not as your illustration would have it, people still under sentence.
TMG nailed it, CJ is the senior troll around here (trolling since '98), and probably holds the record for having the most conservatives banned. Don't fall into his troll trap!
Cultural Jihad is a her I think.
It is really rather simple....If you are a violent felon ( one of the bad guys) you may not own body armor...
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