2 Get Life in Prison After Fatal Florida Mall Shooting

Published November 02, 2010

| Associated Press

MIAMI-- Two men convicted of charges arising from the shooting death of an armored truck guard at a suburban Miami mall have been sentenced to life in prison.

A federal judge in Miami sentenced 25-year-old Emmanuel Maxime and 26-year-old Dwight Carter on Tuesday.

Maxime was convicted in August of conspiracy, robbery and using a firearm in connection with the robbery. Carter was convicted a month earlier on counts of using a firearm in connection with the robbery, drug trafficking and causing the death.

Authorities said 51-year-old Carlos Alvarado, who worked two security jobs to support his family, was killed in the Dec. 1, 2008 shooting at the Dadeland Mall.

In February, two women who served as lookouts were each sentenced to about 20 years in prison.

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Mexican Prison Warden Nabbed for Alleged Drug Ties

MEXICO CITY -- The director of a maximum-security federal prison notorious for the escape of Mexico's top kingpin was arrested for alleged ties to drug gangs, authorities said Friday.

Francisco Javier Gomez Meza was arrested Thursday on suspicion of links to organized crime while he was a top official at the federal Attorney General's Office, according to a statement from the Public Safety Department. It did not elaborate on the allegations or give any indication that Gomez engaged in corruption as director of the Puente Grande prison in the western city of Guadalajara.

Between 2001 and 2008, Gomez was in charge of police deployments at the Federal Investigative Agency, a now-defunct police force tied to the Attorney General's Office. Before that, he was in charge of arrests and federal prison transfers.

An official at the Attorney General's Office said Gomez left the agency in 2008 because he was under investigation as part of "Operation Clean House," a sweeping corruption probe that led to the arrest of several top security officials for allegedly protecting the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. It was not clear if Gomez, who had not been charged at the time, resigned or was fired.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gomez was appointed director of the Puente Grande prison in early 2010.
Officials at the Public Safety Department -- which oversees the federal prisons -- declined to comment on how Gomez was named to such a high-profile post.

Puente Grande has in the past been notorious for scandals including the 2001 escape of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. Guzman, one of the world's most powerful drug traffickers, broke out of the prison by hiding a laundry truck. Several guards have been convicted of helping him.

The prison holds several infamous inmates including Rafael Caro Quintero, a drug cartel leader who is serving a 40-year sentence for the torture-murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

Corruption at all levels has been a relentless obstacle in Mexico's drug war, despite continuous attempts to purge municipal, state and federal police forces.

President Felipe Calderon replaced the Federal Investigative Agency with the 30,000-member Federal Police in an attempt to create a new, better-trained force.

Some 3,200 federal police have been dismissed this year for failing routine background checks and other tests designed to detect corruption, and the government touts the firings as evidence that it is rigorously trying to keep the new force clean.

Gomez's arrest came at the end of a particularly violent week in Mexico's drug war. More than 50 people were killed in five apparently unrelated massacres, including the shooting of six young men in a gritty Mexico City neighborhood -- an attack that fueled fears of the capital falling prey to the cartel-style violence has terrorized other parts of the country.

The bloodshed continued Friday with the discovery of a man shot to death and left in the Pacific resort city of Acapulco, according to a police report. He was found with a threatening message -- two days after Mayor Jose Luis Avila Sanchez warned people to stay indoors after dark because of rising violence in Acapulco.

Six people were killed in the city Wednesday, including three men and a woman found with their hands bound and tied.

Authorities in Acapulco are also investigating the disappearance of a Canadian businessman who disappeared there last week.

In western Michoacan state, meanwhile, soldiers arrested five people traveling in two cars with weapons and marijuana. Among those detained was the former mayor of the town of Tzitzio. A Defense Department statement said they are suspected of having ties to La Familia drug cartel.

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Calif. Man Home After Release From Iranian Prison

LOS ANGELES -- A California businessman who spent more than two years in an Iranian prison after being accused of passing money to a rebel group returned home Thursday.

Reza Taghavi, 71, arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at about 7 p.m. with his attorney, former U.S. diplomat Pierre Prosper, who won Taghavi's release after talks with Iranian envoys.

After clearing customs and meeting separately with his immediate family, Taghavi arrived at a terminal room where he was greeted by dozens of cheering friends and relatives. He flashed a dimpled smile as he hugged and kissed supporters, many of whom burst into tears as they clapped and chanted "We love you!"

In halting English, Taghavi told reporters: "My name is Reza Taghavi, I've been in Iran in jail for 29 years. Now I'm glad that I'm back to the United States in my home now."

"I'm glad that I'm here and hope everything can be all right from now on," he added.

Taghavi, a retired Orange County businessman who regularly visits his native Iran, was jailed on allegations that he passed $200 to someone suspected of links to a rebel group called Tondar. Tondar is suspected of a 2008 mosque bombing that killed 14 people in the southern city of Shiraz.

Taghavi was never charged and denies knowingly supporting the faction. He was freed Saturday after 2 1/2 years in prison and had to meet with survivors of the bombing as a condition of his release.

For a time early Thursday, Taghavi and Prosper worried he might not be able to leave on time. Iranian authorities threw up unexpected last-minute passport requirements once Taghavi arrived at the airport, Prosper said. It took hours to resolve, but Taghavi boarded the flight as scheduled.

Prosper told The Associated Press that although Iran allowed Taghavi to leave, it did not dismiss his case outright.

Iran appears hopeful it can use Taghavi's release to draw attention to the threat of violence and terrorism by opponents of the clerical regime.

Taghavi agreed to discuss the group Tondar and the wrong he claims the group did to him as a condition of his release.

"He's ready to tell his story, because he feels aggrieved," Prosper said. Prosper hinted that Taghavi may sue someone from the group, but he would not elaborate.

It is not clear whether Iran was trying to use Taghavi's case for any larger purpose, such as a bargaining chip with the United States or a means to open back-channel discussions that might one day help improve relations.

Prosper is a former diplomat and Republican political appointee with no current government connection. He has briefed U.S. officials on the case before, and said Thursday he will do so again if asked. He traveled to Iran several times during negotiations.

Taghavi's daughter, Leila Taghavi, said earlier this year that her father is kind and giving, and his impulse to help people got him into trouble.

Taghavi's release comes as Iran is under international sanctions over its nuclear program. The U.S. and allies believe Iran could use its nuclear labs to eventually produce weapons-grade material, while Iran claims it only wants reactors to produce energy.

Taghavi's lengthy imprisonment was much less known than the case of three American hikers who were detained along Iran's border with Iraq last year and accused of spying.

One member of the trio, Sarah Shourd, was recently released on $500,000 and returned to the U.S. Her companions, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, remain jailed in Iran and could face trial on espionage charges.

Shourd and families of the two men deny any crime was committed and contend that if the trio did cross the border into Iran, it was an accident.

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Inmates brawl at Southern Calif. prison; 4 stabbed

Published October 10, 2010

| Associated Press

NORCO, Calif. –  Authorities say a brawl involving about a dozen inmates at a Southern California prison sent four men to the hospital with stab wounds.

California Department of Corrections spokesman Luis Patino said Sunday night that the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco will remain on lockdown until the investigation is complete.

Patino said the fight broke out among 10 to 15 inmates in a prison dorm Sunday morning and was quickly quelled.

He says the four injured are in serious condition but expected to survive.

Several other inmates at the center — which holds about 5,000 inmates in Riverside County — had scrapes, cuts and bruises and were treated at the prison.

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