istock photo

The U.S. Border Patrol rescued a child who injured his leg on a hunting trip in the mountains of New Mexico, the Associated Press reports.

A Border Patrol crew from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Air and Marine in El Paso rushed to save the child in mountains near Deming.

The AP reported that the agency loaded the boy onto a helicopter.

He is recovering from non-life threatening injuries, the AP reported.

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.

DEA cocaine photo

A DEA bust has led to the arrest of a local firefighter in Albuquerque, reports KQRE.

Acquaintances of firefighter Steve Chavez said he was the last guy they’d expect to be involved in a drug ring. Chavez had been with the department for seven years, according to KQRE. The drug ring he was involved in had links to a Mexican cartel, authorities say.

The investigation involved more than 100 officers from numerous agencies, working for multiple months investigating a ring of large amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana smuggling. Officials raided three homes and an addition property on Thursday, taking 15 into custody.

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By Danny Fenster

Two member of the Bloods street gang were sentenced in a US District Court in Santa Fe, N.M., for a hate crime against a developmentally disabled Navajo,  the FBI said in a statement on Wednesday.

Paul Beebe and Jesse Sanford of Farmington, N.M were convicted and sentenced on federal hate crime charges related to the racially motivated assault of a 22-year-old developmentally disabled Navajo, according to the FBI and the Justice Department. Beebe received eight-and-a-half years in prison and three years’ supervised release, while Sanford got five years and three years’ supervised release.

Beebe, and Sanford were indicted by a federal grand jury, along with a third defendant who pleaded guilty and is still awaiting sentencing, in November 2010 on one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Shepard/Byrd Act), says the FBI. The three were the first defendants charged under the Shepard/Byrd law. Both pleaded guilty.

In August of 2011 the two admitted that Beebe has taken the victim to his apartment, covered in racist paraphernalia, and defaced the victim by drawing on him with markers a number of racist symbols once he had fallen asleep. When the victim awoke, gagged with a towel, Beebe branded him with a heated wire hanger, impressing a swastika into his skin. They recorded the event with cell phone cameras.

Ex-Gov. Richardson

Ex-New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is in for some nail biting.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that a fed grand jury in Albuquerque is looking into possible financial irregularities in Richardson’s failed presidential campaign.

The paper reported that a number of witnesses have been granted immunity.

The paper reported that the feds are looking into whether campaign funds were improperly used to settle a “threatened lawsuit” against Richardson in the fall of 2007 by a former state government worker.

In one of the more repulsive cases of human behavior, two racist men pleaded guilty Thursday in New Mexico to defacing the body of a developmentally disabled Native American of Navajo descent. The defacing included branding the 22-year-old man with a swastika, using a heated wire hanger.

Paul Beebe and Jesse Sanford of Farmington, N.M., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, N.M., to federal hate crime charges related to a racially-motivated assault. A third made pleaded guilty in June.

Beebe, Hatch and Sanford were indicted in November. They became the first defendants to be charged under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (Shepard/Byrd Act), which was enacted in 2009.

“Deplorable, hate-filled incidents like this one have no place in a civilized society,”  Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas Perez said in a statement.

“ No one anywhere, but especially in a state like New Mexico that prides itself on its ethnic, racial and cultural diversity, should be victimized because of what he or she happens to be,” added  U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Kenneth J. Gonzales in a statement. “The young victim in this case was assaulted, branded and scarred because he happens to be a Native American – that simply is inexcusable and criminal. ”

During the plea hearing, Beebe and Sanford admitted that Beebe took the victim to his apartment, which was adorned in racist paraphernalia, including a Nazi flag and a woven dream catcher with a swastika in it, the Justice Department said.

After the victim had fallen asleep, the defendants began defacing the victim’s body by drawing on him with blue, red and black markers, authorities said.

After the victim awoke,  Beebe branded the victim with a swastika, using a heated wire hanger. The victim had a towel stuffed in his mouth at the time, authorities said.

Authorities said the defendants coerced the man into agreeing to be branded and recorded that on a cell phone.

They also admitted  defacing  the victim’s body with white supremacist and anti-Native American symbols, including shaving a swastika in the back of the victim’s head and using markers to write the words “KKK” and “White Power” within the lines of the swastika.

The two also mocked the victim’s heritage by drawing an ejaculating penis and testicles on his back and telling him they were  “native pride feathers,” authorities said. They recorded the incident on a cello phone to show law enforcement they had “proof” the victim consented to the acts.

The push back continues against an ATF regulation that would require gun dealers in four Mexican border states to report multiple gun sales of semi-automatic rifles.

An Albuquerque gun store has become the latest to file suit against the U.S. government to try and block the practice from taking effect on Aug. 14, the Associated Press reported. The states effected include New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Calif.

Ron Peterson Firearms Peterson filed a lawsuit last week, AP reported. The news service reported that it was the third lawsuit to be filed to try and block the regulation from taking effect.

ATF spokesman Drew Wade told The Associated Press on Friday that his agency will vigorously defend the regulation.

Another lawsuit has been filed by National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents the firearms industry, AP reported.