A 22 year old woman was charged with possession of a weapon in a prohibited place after she attempted to bring three double edged, 6 inch knives into the Travis County Criminal Justice Complex, according to an affidavit.

The affidavit said Kendra Tostado was walking into the courthouse when deputies scanned her backpack and found the knives. Tostado admitted to owning the knives, the document said.

Weapons are not allowed in the courthouse, and several signs posted inside state that. The charge is a third degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Tostado was arrested and remained in the Travis County Jail on Tuesday with bail set at $10,000.

If you have been charged with murder, sex crime, fraud, assault, etc., please contact The Law Office of Hector Gonzalez III, P.C. at (210) 495-9999 for your free consultation.Una mujer de 22 años fue acusada de posesión de un arma en un lugar prohibido después de que ella intentó llevar cuchillos de 6 pulgadas de doble filo, tres en el Travis County justicia penal complejo, de acuerdo con una declaración jurada.

La declaración jurada dijo que Kendra Tostado estaba caminando en el Palacio de justicia cuando los diputados analizan su mochila y encontraron los cuchillos. Tostado admitidos para los dueños de los cuchillos, dice el documento.

Armas no están permitidas en el Palacio de Justicia, y varios signos publicados dentro del mismo Estado. El cargo es un delito grave de tercer grado, punible con hasta 10 años de prisión. Tostado fue detenido y permaneció en la cárcel del Condado de Travis el martes con fianza de $10.000.

Si ha sido acusados de asesinato, crimen sexual, fraude, asalto, etc., póngase en contacto con el derecho Oficina de Héctor González III, P.C. en (210) 495-9999 para su consulta gratuita.

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A person commits an offense if the person knowingly engages in the business of transporting or transferring a firearm that the person knows was acquired in violation of the laws of any state or of the United States.  For purposes of this subsection, a person is considered to engage in the business of transporting or transferring a firearm if the person engages in that conduct: on more than one occasion; or for profit or any other form of remuneration.

An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree, unless it is shown on the trial of the offense that the offense was committed with respect to three or more firearms in a single criminal episode, in which event the offense is a felony of the second degree.

This section does not apply to a peace officer who is engaged in the actual discharge of an official duty.

If conduct that constitutes an offense under this section also constitutes an offense under any other law, the actor may be prosecuted under this section, the other law, or both.

If you, or someone you know, are a victim of smuggling, theft, assault, etc., please contact the San Antonio Law Office of Hector Gonzalez III at (210) 495-9999 for a free consultation.

Law Offices of Hector Gonzalez

909 NE Loop 410 Suite 715, San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 495-9999 Hector Gonzalez | Google Profile | Google Review |

The San Antonio lawyer for a Somali man accused of smuggling suspected terrorists into the United States disputed the government’s allegations Thursday, saying his client only sought a better life.

In earlier court filings, federal prosecutors alleged Ahmed Dhakane, 25, was a member of groups the government considers terrorist organizations.  They also claim he led a large-scale ring in Brazil that smuggled “violent jihadists” into country via Texas, by using a network of corrupt officials and teaching his clients to commit asylum fraud.

Prosecutors also contend Dhakane raped a woman who accompanied him as he tried to get asylum after crossing into Brownsville on March 28, 2008.  Prosecutors seek 20 years in prison for him.  A pre-sentence report recommends 27 years to nearly 34 years. 

But Dhakane’s lawyer, assistant federal public defender Alfredo Villarreal, filed a sentencing memorandum Thursday that paints Dhakane as one of millions of Somali refugees seeking better lives and seeks a sentence closer to 10 years because Dhakane’s only proven crimes are two counts of lying to try to get asylum.

Dhakane is set for sentencing on Thursday in a hearing in which counterterrorism agents are expected to testify about the organizations he was allegedly affiliated with-al-Barakaat and Al-Islami-and how he fit into them.  The government’s memo said the groups are affiliated with Somalia-based Al-Shabaab, which has aligned itself with alQaida and Osama bin Laden.

In his memo, Villarreal reminded U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez that Dhakane did not plead guilty to terrorism charges, and that Dhakane is Christian not Muslim.  It said Dhakane’s father was ordered executed in 2006 by an Islamic court because of his belief in secular rule for Somalia.  Villarreal’s memo asked why the woman is still in contact with Dhakane after raising the rape allegations.  It predicted some of Dhakane’s alleged smuggling clients, expected to testify at his sentencing, would say what they think the government wants to hear to improve their own chances of staying in the United States.

On November 2, Dhakane pleaded guilty to two false statement charges: He admitted he mischaracterized how he entered the United States, and that he falsely claimed a woman was his wife so she also could enter the United States.

“The government . . . seeks to have Dhakane sentenced not for the proved false statements on the asylum application, but for unsubstantiated claims of terrorism and rape it lodges against Dhakane,” Villarreal wrote.

The memo said Dhakane worked for al-Barakaat, a money remittance system used by Somali expatriates after the collapse of the central banking system in the 1990s.

In the wake of the 9-11 attacks, the U.S. government claimed al-Barakaat aided the financing of terrorists, but the system was also used by the United Nations to get money to Somalia in support of its missions there, the memo said, citing studies and the 9-11 Commissions Report.

The memo also said U.S. authorities misconstrued Dhakane’s association with members tied to groups seeking an Islamic state in Somalia, saying Dhakane was imprisoned and mistreated by some of the Islamists after he converted to Christianity in 2002.

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The parents of an inmate who died last year from a heroin overdose at a privately run federal jail in downtown San Antonio have sued the operator, alleging guards may have smuggled the drugs in and provided them to the prisoner.

The suit filed by Albert and Sandra Gomez, which was moved from state court to federal court last week, states that their son, Albert Gomez Jr., died May 19 from a heroin overdose while he was held at one of the more secure parts of the Central Texas Detention Facility.

The 685-bed facility is owned by Bexar County, but has been managed for years by the Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group Inc., which has a contract with the county and the U.S. Marshal Service to house federal pretrial inmates there.  The suit names GEO and a female guard, listed as “Jane Doe 1,” as defendants.

The suit alleges guards are improperly trained to handle people with drug addictions and can freely participate in “black market sale of drugs to prisoners.”

One of the Gomez couple’s lawyers, Matt Wymer, said he has been informed that a criminal investigation has been launched, but the Marshal Service declined comment because the matter is in litigation.  The GEO Group did not respond to a request for comment, but denied the allegations in a court-filed response.

Wymer said Gomez’s family has been provided little information from the agencies; so the parents sued as a measure of getting access.

Court records show Gomez pleaded guilty in February 2010 to passing counterfeit $100 bills at area businesses and was released on bond.  A month later, he was rearrested for allegedly violating his bond conditions by using heroin.  He was being held in administrative segregation when he was found unresponsive the morning of May 19, 2010, the suit said.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner concluded in its autopsy and toxicology report that Gomez, 25, died of “heroin toxicity.”

Wymer said he and his co-counsel, Joel Perez, learned from a source who was at the jail at the time that a guard provided the heroin Gomez ingested.

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909 NE Loop 410 Suite 715, San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 495-9999 Hector Gonzalez | Google Profile | Google Review |

In a bid to stem the flow of American money and weapons into Mexico, a key committee in the Texas House is examining a proposal that would give the Department of Public Safety permission to assist the federal government in the creation of southbound inspection checkpoints along the border.

A 2009 report released by the federal government stated that 87 percent of the guns seized by Mexican law enforcement agencies between 2004-2009 were traced back to the United States.

Of the American sourced guns seized in Mexico, 39 percent of them came from Texas, more than any other state.

“A lot of effort has been concentrated on, and the emphasis has been on northbound traffic,” said Laredo Mayor Raul Salinas, who is a former FBI agent.  “If we’re allowing weapons to go south, it’s part of the problem because those weapons are being used to commit crimes.”

Money and guns smuggled across the border into Mexico, which has strict gun control laws, have been blamed for helping to fuel the violent drug war that has wracked that country.

DPS Director Steve McCraw testified it could cost as much as $125 million per biennium to provide southbound operations for all checkpoints.

McCraw and the bill’s author, Rep. Aaron Pena, R-Edinburg, both expect drug cartels to adapt to the new efforts to crack down on the money laundering and gun smuggling.

“It’s not that hard to see our operation and adapt and we’ve got to recognize that they will,” McCraw said.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced in 2009 that her department would make southbound checkpoints a priority of federal border law enforcement.

“We’ve been doing southbound checkpoints for years,” said Roger Mainer, a spokesman with the El Paso office of the Customs and Border Protection agency.

Since U.S. Customs and Border Protection re-established southbound inspections in 2009, seizures of weapons and money have increased; through fiscal years 2009 and 2010, about $55 million and 484 guns were seized during southbound inspections.

Salinas said he hoped the House bill would provide checkpoints that were “more visible (and) more active” than the current southbound checkpoints.

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A Laredo lawyer who pleaded guilty earlier this month to a racketeering charge was sold out by a Houston-based drug trafficker with connections in Mexico and across the U.S., according to court documents.

Alonzo Ramos, a 40-year-old attorney from a politically connected Laredo family, pleaded guilty in a Dallas federal court to one count of interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

According to his plea agreement, Ramos acted as an intermediary between the Houston trafficker, who was facing charges in Louisiana, and other traffickers who wanted him to keep quiet.

Ramos gave the trafficker $48,500 in drug proceeds not to snitch, according to the plea agreement.

But the trafficker, Lizandro Tijerina, was already cooperating with authorities.

Tijerina testified in a 2008 trial in Louisiana that in the early 2000s he moved hundreds of pounds of cocaine a month to cities like Chicago, Atlanta and New Orleans and to states as far north as New York and New Jersey.  Tijerina testified that he purchased the cocaine from the Gulf Cartel in Mexico.

Tijerina allowed federal agents to record his conversations with Ramos, according to court records.

Law Offices of Hector Gonzalez

909 NE Loop 410 Suite 715, San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 495-9999 Hector Gonzalez | Google Profile | Google Review |

In Donna Texas, less than a week after inaugurating the newest Rio grande Valley crossing to Mexico, customs and border protection officers seized a cache of weapons including 20 small caliber rifles and 4,448 rounds of ammunition.  Saturday’s seizure marked the first significant catch for officerrs at the Donna Rio Bravo international bridge, which opened Dec 14 in a gala ceremony.

After stopping a pickup crossing the border, they found the rifles and ammunition, as well as four shotguns, two handguns and four high capacity magazines.  The driver, a mexican citizen living in Mcallen has been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations.

En Donna Texas, menos de una semana después de inaugurar el cruce de Valle del río grande más reciente a México, costumbres y oficiales de protección de frontera incautaron una caché de armas incluidas 20 rifles de calibre pequeño y 4,448 cartuchos. Incautación del sábado marcó la primera captura significativa para officerrs en el puente internacional de Donna Río Bravo, que abrió sus puertas el 14 de diciembre en una ceremonia de gala.

Luego de detener una camioneta cruzando la frontera, encontraron los fusiles y municiones, así como cuatro escopetas, pistolas de dos y cuatro revistas de alta capacidad. El conductor, un ciudadano mexicano residente en Mcallen ha sido entregado a la inmigración de los Estados Unidos y de investigaciones de seguridad de patria de aduanas policiales.

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909 NE Loop 410 Suite 715, San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 495-9999 Hector Gonzalez | Google Profile | Google Review |

In the Texas city of Brownsville in the Rio Grande Valley a citizens report about suspicious activity led Border Patrol agents to a stash of $1.4 million, customs and Border Protection has reported.   The marijuana was in 220 packages with a total weight of more than 1,700 pounds.  It was found wednesday in an abandoned cinderblock building on a ranch in Garceno about 10 miles west of Rio Grande City.

The illegal drug trade is a global black market, competing with legal drug trade, dedicated to cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of those substances which are subject to drug prohibition laws. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs by drug prohibition laws.

A UN report said the global drug trade generated an estimated US$321.6 billion in 2003.[1] With a world GDP of US$36 trillion in the same year,[2] the illegal drug trade may be estimated as slightly less than 1% of total global commerce. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally.

Effects of illegal drug trade on societiesThe countries of drug production have been seen as the worst affected by global drug trade.

Even so, countries receiving the illegally-imported are also affected by problems stemming from drug trade. For example, Ecuador has allegedly absorbed up to 300,000 refugees from Colombia who are running from guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug lords, says Linda Helfrich. While some applied for asylum, others are still illegal, and the drugs that pass from Colombia through Ecuador to other parts of South America create economic and social problems.[6]

 Violent crimeIn many countries worldwide, the illegal drug trade is thought to be directly linked to violent crimes such as murder; this is especially true in third world countries, but is also an issue for many developed countries worldwide.[7] In the late 1990s in the United States, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that 5% of murders were drug-related.[7] However, after a crackdown by U.S. and Mexican authorities in the first decade of the 21st century (part of tightened borders security in the wake of the September 11 attacks), border violence inside Mexico surged, with the Mexican government estimating that 90% of the killings are drug-related.En la ciudad de Texas de Brownsville en el valle del Rio Grande un informe de los ciudadanos sobre actividades sospechosas llevó a agentes de la patrulla fronteriza a un stash de 1,4 millones de dólares, ha informado de aduanas y protección fronteriza. La marihuana fue en 220 paquetes con un peso total de más de 1.700 kilos. Se constató el miércoles en un abandonado cablear basándose en un rancho en Garceno a 10 millas al oeste de la ciudad de Río Grande.

El comercio ilegal de drogas es un mercado negro global, compitiendo con el comercio de drogas legales, dedicado al cultivo, fabricación, distribución y venta de las sustancias que están sujetos a las leyes de prohibición de drogas. Mayoría de las jurisdicciones prohibir el comercio, excepto bajo licencia, de muchos tipos de medicamentos por las leyes de prohibición de drogas.
Un informe de la ONU dice que el comercio mundial de las drogas genera un 321.6 millones de dólares en 2003.[1] Con un PIB de 36 billones de dólares en el mismo año del mundo, [2] el comercio ilegal de drogas puede estimarse como un poco menos de un 1% del comercio mundial total. Consumo de drogas ilegales está muy extendido en todo el mundo.
Efectos de comercio ilegal de drogas en societiesThe países de producción de drogas han sido vistos como el peor afectan por el comercio mundial de las drogas.

Aún así, los países que reciben la ilegalmente importado también se ven afectados por problemas derivados del tráfico de drogas. Por ejemplo, Ecuador presuntamente ha absorbido hasta 300.000 refugiados de Colombia que se esté ejecutando desde guerrilleros, paramilitares y los señores de la droga, dice Linda Helfrich. Mientras que algunos solicitaron asilo, otros son aún ilegales, y las drogas que pasan de Colombia a través de Ecuador a otras partes de América del sur crean problemas económicos y sociales.[6]

CrimeIn violento asesinan de muchos países del mundo, que el comercio ilegal de drogas parece estar directamente vinculados a crímenes violentos tales como; Esto es especialmente cierto en los países del tercer mundo, pero también es un problema para muchos países desarrollados en todo el mundo.[7] Por ejemplo, la Oficina Federal de investigación a finales de 1990 en los Estados Unidos, estima que el 5% de los asesinatos estaban relacionados con las drogas.[7] Sin embargo, después de una represión por las autoridades estadounidenses y mexicanas en la primera década del siglo XXI (parte de la seguridad de las fronteras más estricta a raíz de los ataques del 11 de septiembre), la violencia de la frontera dentro de México aumentaron, con el Gobierno mexicano, estimando que el 90% de los asesinatos están relacionados con las drogas.

Law Offices of Hector Gonzalez

909 NE Loop 410 Suite 715, San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 495-9999 Hector Gonzalez | Google Profile | Google Review |

U.S. agents are armed with inside information that could help lead them to top Mexican drug cartel leaders, thanks in part to a Houston man who was a member of an arms trafficking group that sent more than 300 military style weapons to Mexico.  Christian Garza was sentenced this month to three years in federal prison as a result of a pleas bargain taht offered leniency in exchange for telling U.S. officials about his  connections in the Zeta cartel.

The Zeta’s, a crime syndicate launched by former members of the Mexican military thrives on weapons sent from the United States to  maintain there position in the multi billion dollar drug trade.  The Zeta’s are know for being gruesom, aggressive and efficient.  Top leaders are dodging multimillion dollar rewards for their arrests by the U.S. and Mexican governments.

My criminal law firm is available 24/7 if any member of the Zeta cartel is arrested and needs assistance from a spanish speaking criminal attorney with the experience, reputation and resources to deliver a proactive aggressive criminal defense.Agentes estadounidenses están armados con información que podría ayudar a ellos al comienzo líderes de cartel de la droga mexicanos, gracias en parte a un Houston el hombre que fue miembro de un tráfico de armas de plomo de grupo que envió más de 300 militares estilo armas a México. Christian Garza fue condenado este mes a tres años de prisión federal por una que trato de súplicas ofrecida clemencia a cambio de decirle a funcionarios de Estados Unidos sobre sus conexiones en el cartel de Zeta.

La Zeta, un sindicato del crimen lanzado por ex miembros del ejército mexicano se nutre de las armas enviadas desde los Estados Unidos para mantener la posición allí en el tráfico de drogas de multi mil millones de dólares. La Zeta se conoce por ser gruesom, agresiva y eficaz. Altos dirigentes esquiva multimillonarias recompensas para sus arrestos por los gobiernos de Estados Unidos y México.
Mi firma de derecho penal está disponible 24/7 Si cualquier miembro del cártel Zeta es arrestado y necesita la asistencia de un abogado criminal con la experiencia, reputación y recursos para ofrecer una agresiva Defensa Penal proactiva en español.

Law Offices of Hector Gonzalez

909 NE Loop 410 Suite 715, San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 495-9999 Hector Gonzalez | Google Profile | Google Review |

A Cameron county sheriff’s deputy admitted accepting bribes to help smugglers pass weapons into Mexico, federal prosecutors said.  Jesus A. Longoria of Brownsville pleaded guilty to taking cash to let a vehicle carrying 13 semiautomatic firearms pass uninspected through a border bridge lane he was monitoring.  the smugglers, who turned out to be an undercover federal agent, paid Longoria $4,000 in exchange.

Longoria was watching for southbound stolen vehicles as part of a joint local federal crackdown on smuggling contraband and stolen goods to Mexico.  The guns were recovered before entering Mexico.  Longoria faces up to 10 years inprison plus $250,000 in fines.

Law Offices of Hector Gonzalez

909 NE Loop 410 Suite 715, San Antonio, TX 78209 (210) 495-9999 Hector Gonzalez | Google Profile | Google Review |