file photo/dea

Mexico on Wednesday extradited drug kingpin Oscar Arriola to Colorado to face drug charges, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced on Thursday. He will appear in court in Colorado Thursday.

Authorities said he was flown on a DEA plane from Mexico to El Paso, Tex, to Denver.

Arriola had been custody in Mexico since his arrest on February 2, 2006.

Authorities alleged that Arriola headed an international cocaine ring that smuggled more than 2 tons of cocaine per month into the U.S.

“We deeply appreciate the cooperation we’ve received from Mexico in the extradition of Oscar Arriola to the United States to face this serious federal drug charge,” DEA Special Agent in Charge in Denver Jeffrey D. Sweetin said in a statement.

“According to the allegations, his organization’s drug trafficking in Mexico and the United States allowed him to amass incredible wealth, at the expense of the citizens of both countries,” he said.”He will now be held accountable in U.S. District Court in Colorado for those illegal activities.”

DETROIT — Michigan attorney John Stephen Shelly found a way to supplement his income from his law practice.

The 49-year-old ran part of a gambling ring out of his law offices in suburban Detroit in St. Clair Shores as well as bars in Detroit and Dearborn, authorities said.

Earlier this week, he and associate David Stronski, 55, of Grosse Point Park pleaded guilty to being part of a multi-state sports betting ring for college and pro sports that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Authorities say the operation made as much as $25,000 a week.

One of the Rembrandt Pieces Stolen

Advances in DNA testing aren’t just being used to solve murders and rapes.

The FBI is hoping to take advantage of the new advances by submitting evidence from the great art heist 20 years ago at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston which included three Rembrandts and a Vermeer, the Boston Globe reports. It is believed to be the largest heist in world history in terms of dollars.

The FBI on the case declined to say what had been submitted for analysis, but the Globe reported that people familiar with the case “said it would probably include long strips of duct tape used to tie up the museum’s two night watchmen, whom the thieves overpowered to get access to the artwork.”

“If they left any sweat on that duct tape, a sample could be drawn, and with that sample there’s the possibility of a result,” Dr. Bruce Budowle, former senior scientist of the FBI’s Quantico lab told the Globe.

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Hal Turner/msnbc photo

The trial in Brooklyn federal court involving right wing racist Internet radio host Hal Turner illustrates the tough balancing act the FBI has to deal with when handling an informant who is less than an ideal citizen.

Turner is accused of posting messages last summer on his blog advocating the death of U.S. Court of Appeals judges in Chicago who upheld a gun ban.

But on Wednesday he testified at his trial that the FBI talked to him in 2005 about helping solve the murder of the family of a federal judge in Chicago and suggested he “ratchet up the rhetoric”. The FBI apparently thought the killer might be a white supremacist, Turner’s target audience, according to the New York Times.

He in turn posted a photo of the Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow with the statement “worthy of death”, the Times reported.

This past summer, he posted on his blogs that  the Court of Appeals judges in the gun ban ruling were “worthy of death”. His defense is essentially  that he was doing the same thing the FBI had asked him to do in the past. One of those judges testified earlier this week that he felt threatened by the posting on the blog.

Turner’s first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked. That could happen again.

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OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Ex-Wisconsin Mayor Gets 3 Years in Internet Sex Sting (AP)
• RFK’s Son Criticizes LAPD (AP)
• Superior Court Judge Expected to Be Named Maine U.S. Attorney (Maine Justice)

By Steven Levin

As a recovering federal prosecutor, I see an occasional injustice that I might not have seen when I was with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Maryland. A businessman, for instance, is wrongfully targeted and subsequently suffers from the toll such an investigation takes on both his personal and professional life.

I also see the occasional injustice in which those who should be targeted and should be indicted avoid either one or both. Enter Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). So far, with him, the system has failed us. The question begs to be asked: Why has he not been indicted?

If Representative Rangel were (merely) Mr. Rangel, how long do you think it would take a prosecutor to seek an indictment for tax evasion based on, as reported by The New York Times, his alleged failure to report rental income earned from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, or his alleged receipt of gifts related to his rental of four rent-controlled apartments for less than market value? The answer in part would simply be before the statute of limitations runs.

But all is not lost. At least the system seems to be working in North Carolina, where Ex-Sen. (Now “Mr” ) John Edwards appears to remain the target of a federal grand jury for his alleged improper use of campaign funds.

Only time will tell if Mr. Edwards goes from the target of an investigation to a defendant in an indictment. If so, I suspect that few would see an injustice in that.

Levin can be reached at slevin@levingallagher.com.

By Allan Lengel

President Obama on Wednesday nominated Willie R. Stafford, a background investigator for the Greensboro, N.C. police epartment, for the U.S. Marshal spot for the Middle District of North Carolina.

His bio is a follows, according to a White House press release:

Willie R. Stafford currently serves as a background investigator for the Greensboro, NC, police department, and is an independent consultant providing pre-employment screening and promotional testing services for law enforcement agencies.

From 1975 to 2004, Stafford served with the Greensboro Police Department in a variety of operational positions. He retired as the Assistant Chief of Police for the Western Operations Bureau. Stafford earned a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs in 1988 and a Bachelor’s Degree in American History and Psychology in 1975, both from the University of North Carolina.