Wednesday, June 25, 2008

26 Indicted as U.S. Targets Drug Gang

CHARLOTTE -- A federal grand jury has indicted 26 reputed members of the MS-13 gang on federal racketeering charges related to a cross-border drug-trafficking ring, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.

Federal authorities say MS-13 is one of the largest gangs in the nation, with 10,000 members in the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

"Today's indictment is merely the latest sign of the gang's reach, and it shows the breadth and seriousness of the crimes that MS-13 members are alleged to have committed," Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said at a news conference in Charlotte.

Authorities fanned out across Charlotte on Tuesday, arresting suspected gang members at several apartment complexes. Twenty of the men named in the 55-count indictment were in custody by the afternoon.

Federal authorities conducted a similar operation against 22 alleged MS-13 members in 2005 in Prince George's and Montgomery counties.

Grand Jury Calls Tex. Teen in Sect

SAN ANGELO, Tex. -- A 16-year-old girl has been subpoenaed to appear Wednesday before a grand jury hearing testimony against members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The girl, a daughter of the sect's jailed prophet, denies investigators' claims that she was abused, saying she has never been married and doesn't have a baby. The criminal case in Schleicher County follows state child welfare officials' ill-fated April seizure of more than 400 children at the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado. The Texas Supreme Court forced the state to return the children from foster care this month.

Immigration Firm Faces Probe

The nation's largest immigration-law firm is under federal scrutiny over whether it helped major U.S. corporations disqualify American job applicants and give thousands of high-paying positions to immigrants. The unprecedented Labor Department inquiry centers on the New York firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy. The Labor Department is auditing all pending applications for legal immigrant workers the firm has filed on behalf of its corporate clients.

-- From News Services