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 Sheriffs 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 nations 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.
I wonder if the jury in Santa Maria, CA. would convict Muhammed, or let him walk. After all, for awhile there, it was "The Nation of Islam" who provided Jackson-Muhammed's "security."
Bump
Mexican Smuggler Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
I thought they had the death penalty in Texas for convicted murderers.
ping
ping
Oh, I missed that. Thanks for clarifying.
Anyone who tattooes their face should be thrown in jail on general principle.
Houston--sanctuary city.
hey uncle cornpone! http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:ZqAe19omq1QJ:www.usatrivia.com/vpbilbj.html+%22uncle+cornpone%22&hl=en
Animales!
Garcia-Flores was convicted in January [again, I assume of this year] 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.
Why wasn't Garcia-Flores in jail for his January conviction of "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"? If he had been, this wouldn't have happened.
And all he got was a lousy 12½ years for causing this man's death?
D'oh!
Dragging a man to death chained to the rear of your vehicle...where've I heard of this crime before?
I wonder how the open borders supporters would like those guys living next door...
Well! From what I read last night....one of them proudly hires them! So? Living next door shouldn't be a problem.
This is so disgusting...to think ANYONE supports this freakish behavior is beyond me.
A few months ago it happened in Gallup, NM to an illegal. A woman from Mexico set him up and they tied him up and chained him to the bumper and dragged him for over a mile. He lost over 50% of his flesh, including his 'private parts.' He's out of the hospital and recovering at home, after spending months in the hospital. As an indigent, of course. They arrested two people and have charged them with conspiracy and murder. It makes me wonder if this is common practice in Mexico.
Guess I'll have to do some searching, I thought all the OBL's denied hiring illegals. "For the love of money is the root of all evil", they don't care how much this harms their country or their fellow American's, as long as they can make a quick buck with slave labor.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
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