By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com In the Mexican-U.S. drug war, money still corrupts on both sides of the border. The latest: A U.S. border inspector was charged Friday with taking more than $50,000 to let drug-filled vehicles from Mexico pass through his lane, the Associated Press reported. Authorities charged that Oscar Osbaldo Ortiz Martinez,30, a Customs…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Atlanta cop Lucius T. Solomon got tripped up in an FBI sting and will likely head off to prison. The 31-year-old, now a former cop, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Atlanta to corruption and drug charges. He could get up to life in prison at sentencing, which is…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A suspected member of the violent Juarez Drug Cartel in Mexico has been extradited to the states, the DEA in El Paso said. Felipe DOMINGUEZ-Vargas was extradited on Aug. 10 and made his initial appearance on drug charges in U.S. District Court in El Paso on Monday, according to Joseph M….
By Matt Castello ticklethewire.com For a big-time Louisiana drug trafficker, the dog and cockfighting ring served as the ideal venue to help expand his drug ring. Pedro Mendez Ramos, of Church Point, La., who authorities described as “an avid pit bull and cock fighter”, used more than 300 gamecocks and 60 pit bulls as a…
By Glynnesha Taylor ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday passed legislation drastically reducing the sentencing disparity between crack and powdered cocaine — a longtime disparity critics saw as unfairly targeting African Americans. Previously, under the 1986 law, a person selling crack got the same sentence as someone selling 100 times the amount of powdered…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Planes and boats aren’t the only way to transport drugs across water. The DEA said Saturday it helped Ecuadorian officials seize a submarine that could have transported tons of cocaine, the Associated Press reported. It was seized near a tributary close to the Ecuador-Colombia border before it could make its maiden…
By Glynnesha Taylor ticklethewire.com The son of Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf worked undercover with the DEA to bust up a group of drug smugglers who tried using Liberia as a staging area to distribute more than $100 million in South American cocaine to Europe, Africa and the U.S., the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan said….
