Steve Neavling

Thirteen female guards are accused in a federal indictment of working with an inmate gang to smuggle drugs and other banned items into a Baltimore jail, the USA Today reports.

Four of those women were impregnated by the leader of the gang, the .

Inmates and the guards were charged with racketeering, drug trafficking, extortion, bribery and money laundering, the USA Today reported.

The Black Guerrilla Family was formed in San Quentin Prison in 1966, the USA Today wrote.

Steve Neavling

What is a teenager doing with nearly $500,000 in meth?

That’s what the Border Patrol agents want to know after a service dog sniffed out contraband in his sedan at the Pine Valley-area checkpoint in southern California, San Diego 6 reports.

Agents said they found 23 packages of meth that have an estimated street value of $498,000, San Diego 6 wrote.

The drugs were found under the front fenders of the Mexican citizen’s car.

The teen was behind bars in San Diego as late as Thursday evening.

Steve Neavling

Prominent New Jersey attorney Paul Bergrin, who is accused of using his law firm to commit crimes, including drug trafficking, prostitution and the murder of an FBI informant, is on trial in Newark federal court, Reuters reports. 

The trial began Tuesday and is the prosecution’s second attempt at landing a conviction against Bergrin.

The 57-year-old is charged with 24 counts of charges, including orchestrating the 2004 murder of Kemo DeShawn McCray, an FBI informant who was a witness against one of his clients.

The first trial ended in a hung jury in November 2011.

Steve Neavling

Fox 5 San Diego listed some unusual ways people have tried to smuggle drugs and humans across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Also included are photos, including one of a man found sewn into the upholstery of a van seat.

Other photos depict people hidden in compartments in the floor of a car or hidden in the engine of a van.

In one photo, 73 illegal immigrants are squeezed into the back of a tractor trailer.

STORIES OF OTHER INTEREST

• Coast-to-Coast Bank Robber Eludes FBI Hunt
• FBI Investigating West Alabama Narcotics Task Force
• Suspect Bragged about wanting to Shoot Children at School
• Cooperating Witness in Trenton FBI Investigation Close with Mayor Mack
• Are You Being Watched? Some Accused of Hacking into Web Cams

Steve Neavling

 A new border outpost for CBP has opened in an isolated section of southwest New Mexico to combat a rise in crimes related to drug trafficking, authorities announced Thursday, the Associated Press reports.

For the first time, the mountainous region of Bootheel will be patrolled around-the-clock by CBP.

The idea was to place agents along smuggling routes, the AP reported.

The outpost is named “Camp Garza” to memorialize Agent Rene Garza, who was killed in 1999.

According to the AP, the area was one of the last unguarded regions along the U.S-Mexico border.

Steve Neavling

 A 23-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department is accused of leaking information about a federal investigation into drug trafficking organizations, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.

An unsealed indictment Wednesday accuses Rafael Cordero, 51, of the police department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit, of tipping off his half-brother, David Garcia, about a search warrant and a surveillance camera on a telephone pole.

Cordero also is accused of hiding drug money and evidence against Garcia, according to the Daily News.

Cordero has been charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal agents.

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told the Daily News that Cordero will be suspended for 30 days with the intent to terminate.

Steve Neavling

More than a dozen foreign nationals in Milwaukee have been arrested for alleged ties to the Mexican Posse gang, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

The suspects – 13 from Mexico, one from the Dominican Republic – are in the custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is cracking down on foreign-born gangs.

All have criminal histories, ranging from narcotics trafficking to theft.

“Violent street gangs account for a burgeoning amount of crime in our communities in the Midwest and across the country,” Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, told the Journal Sentinel.

Shoshanna Utchenik

Details of Thursdays’ massive drug bust reveal an ongoing game of whack-a-mole between the DEA and drug smugglers working the commercial airline systems.

In this recent bust the DEA and FBI, in concert with Puerto Rican and local authorities, disabled two rings trafficking cocaine into the U.S., primarily through Puerto Rico Muniz International Airport.

ABC reports that one ring was allegedly led by Maribel Rodriguez Fragoso, known as La Flaca or “the Skinny Woman.” Between 2010 and 2012, La Flaca’s ring used airport baggage handlers to load cocaine-stuffed luggage onto commercial flights headed to cities all along the East Coast.

The second ring’s nine year run ended with the 2009 DEA operation Heavy Cargo. Allegedly led by American Airlines worker Wilfredo Rodriguez Rosado, fellow American Airlines employees smuggled more than 9000 kilos of cocaine into the U.S. mainland, says ABC. Heavy Cargo saw 23 people, including 9 American Airlines employees, indicted. Rodriguez and 21 others pleaded guilty.

Wednesday the DEA announced 20 more indictments related to Rosado’s American Airlines ring.

DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Caribbean Division, Pedro Janer said of the repeated and ongoing incidences of drug smugglers exploiting holes in airport security, the “DEA will continue to dismantle these organizations that think they can blatantly use legitimate entities to carry out their smuggling operations.”

This weeks’ 45 indictments and 36 arrests are a good start.

To read more click here.