Posted on 05/28/2005 7:41:55 PM PDT by CHARLITE
A convicted alien smuggler was sentenced April 14 to 12½ years in prison for dragging a man to death over a smuggling fee dispute last summer, following an investigation federal agents and local police in Houston, TX.
Rafael Garcia-Flores, 37, a Mexican national, had smuggled three illegal aliens into the United States in early July 2004. While collecting the fees for his smuggling services in the parking lot of a Houston shopping center, Garcia-Flores announced that the fee had increased from $1,500 to $1,800.
In an argument that ensued over the $300 discrepancy, Garcia-Flores brandished a pistol and then accelerated his vehicle. When he did so, Jose Santos Lopez-Mejia, the brother of one of the smuggled aliens, was dragged across the parking lot and onto the freeway. When the vehicle crashed to a stop, Jose Santos Lopez-Mejia was thrown into a retention wall.
Garcia-Flores fled the scene on foot, but was apprehended by a security guard at a nearby supermarket. Jose Santos Lopez-Mejia was later transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Houston Police Department officers apprehended three illegal aliens at the scene. Jimy Lopez-Mejia, Henry Reyes-Martinez and Leobel Benitez, all Honduran citizens, admitted they illegally entered the United States near the Rio Grande Valley. They also admitted they had been smuggled and then placed in a stash-house until they could be transported to their final destination of Houston, Texas.
The Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office assisted ICE with the subsequent investigation. Garcia-Flores was convicted in January for aiding and abetting the transporting of undocumented aliens on July 6, 2004, and for being a felon and illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
ICE Deports Illegal Alien Wanted For Kidnapping 7-Year-Old Boy In an unrelated case, a 19-year-old man wanted by Mexican authorities for kidnapping a seven-year-old boy was deported March 23 by ICE detention and removal officers.
Jose Luis Alejandre-Geronima was deported under escort and turned over to the proper Mexican authorities. ICE and FBI special agents arrested Alejandre-Geronima in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 22, 2004. He admitted to being in the country illegally, and was subsequently placed in removal proceedings. An immigration judge ordered him removed from the country on Dec. 17, 2004.
“We will not provide a safe haven for criminals like Alejandre-Geronima,” said John A. Mata, Director of Field Operations for Detention and Removal Operations in Atlanta. “We are committed to restoring integrity to our nation’s immigration system by identifying and removing criminals.”
In Atlanta, ICE has arrested more than 500 criminal aliens since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2005.
Sources: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, US Department of Homeland Security, National Association of Chiefs of Police
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores.
ping
Just updating my tagline...Thanks Char:)
That comes to about 3 illegal alien crooks a day.
I thought they had the death penalty in Texas for convicted murderers.
Where is that written?
I agree, 12 1/2 years for murder. Just read tonight where I guy in N. Carolina was released after 34 years for stealing a black and white TV. There is something really screwed up with the judicial system in this country.
Thanks for your spirited participation in various threads!
Char :)
It is unfortunate that these non-Mexican criminal illegal aliens simply don't understand how the costs of the folks who work for El Presidente Fox keep going up. The fine print on the agreements they signed before they left Honduras said (in Spanish, of course), "prices subject to change without notice."
You win the "UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE WEEK" award.
Something is fishy about this sentence - is it the illegal issue or is he muslim, and Allah forbid, the US sentence him to death.
At $1500 apiece that only comes to One Million, Six Hundred Forty Two Thousand, Five Hundred and no/100 Dollars per year.
That's less than some FReepers make a year.
No wonder he had to raise his fees by $300. Have you priced tortillas and beans in Mexico recently?
Dear John A. Mata,
criminal - n. a person who has commited a crime.
When one enters a country ILLEGALLY, he becomes an ILLEGAL invader, also known as a law breaker or criminal.
I wanted to clarify this for you in hope that there will be no misunderstanding of what a criminal "is."
Muchas Gracias,
JAN
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