Crime and Justice
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A top Mexican official who once helped his country tackle the growing problem of drug gangs has now been convicted of himself helping drug cartels move weight across south of the border.
Raw Story is reporting that on Tuesday (February 21), the former Secretary of Public Security of Mexico, Garcia Luna, was found guilty in a Brooklyn federal court of taking bribes from drug traffickers who he was supposed to be taking off the streets in exchange for protection and information on rivals and authorities. Prosecutors argued that Luna took millions of dollars in bribes from El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel from 2006-2012 when he was tasked to be taking down the now-infamous drug cartel. Luna now faces at least 20 years in prison for his transgression.
“Garcia Luna, who once stood at the pinnacle of law enforcement in Mexico, will now live the rest of his days having been revealed as a traitor to his country and to the honest members of law enforcement who risked their lives to dismantle drug cartels,” said US prosecutor Breon Peace, welcoming the verdict.
A spokesperson for the current Mexican government, which has accused Garcia Luna of stealing more than $200 million of public funds and has demanded his extradition, said in a tweet that “justice has arrived.”
Prosecutors argued that Garcia Luna, who held high-ranking security positions in Mexico from 2001 until 2012, was the cartel’s “partner in crime.”
We hope Luna enjoyed that money while he could because we doubt anyone’s going to be trying to break him out of prison like his former employer, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Unfortunately for Luna, nine of the 26 people who testified against him were former drug traffickers from Mexico who cooperated with U.S. prosecutors in hopes of getting leniency in their own upcoming trials.
They included former several high-level cartel bosses, including Jesus “Rey” Zambada, Sergio Villarreal and Oscar “Lobo” Valencia.
They claimed to have paid millions of dollars to Garcia Luna collectively, and through Arturo Beltran Leyva, who ran his own drug cartel and served as a go-between with Garcia Luna, known as a “supercop,” in exchange for protection.
Nothing like snitching on law enforcement to help yourself get out of a sticky situation.
Garcia Luna was eventually arrested in Texas in December 2019 and charged with five counts including cocaine trafficking conspiracy and making false statements to authorities. His wife and two children were in court when his guilty verdict was announced.
You have to wonder if he’ll end up in the same prison as El Chapo. Just sayin.’
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Photo: YUKI IWAMURA / Getty
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Young Thug is currently under fire after it is alleged that the popular rapper conducted an illegal drug pill handoff while in a courtroom. According to surveillance footage and swirling accounts, it appears that an associate of the rapper passed him a narcotic pill.
Local outlet WSB-TV reports that Young Thug, real name Jeffrey Williams, was inside Fulton County Superior Court when a co-defendant, Kahlieff Adams, tried to slip Thug a Percocet pill and, according to his legal team, immediately handed it over.
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“His side is the truth. The reality is Mr. Williams had nothing to do with what went on in the courtroom on yesterday. One of the co-defendants on his way to the restroom attempted to pass something to Mr. Williams, who immediately turned it over to the deputy,” Keith Adams said.
When asked if Williams knew it was Percocet being handed to him, Keith Adams said Williams did not know what it was.
“He did not know. We don’t know what it is, did not know. It was turned over to a deputy right away,” Keith Adams explained.
Along with the pill, officials found marijuana, tobacco, and other items wrapped in plastic and food seasoning on Adams’ person in what might have been an attempt to smuggle the items behind bars. An attorney speaking on Adams’ behalf maintains his client’s innocence and shouted down the allegations while charging the state with delaying the jury selection process.
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Meek Mill wasn’t capping when he said his judge was doing him dirty, allegedly. . The same Philadelphia judge who jailed the rapper, and who he essentially accused of having a vendetta against him, has had her criminal cases reassigned, and now she’s suing.
The Philadephia Inquirer reports that Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley has been transferred to civil court and all of the pending criminal cases she was initially tasked with have been reassigned. Brinkley is the same judge who jailed Meek Mill for a parole violation in 2017.
The judge’s behavior while she was overseeing Meek’s case had most anyone taking a look at the details saying she was holding a grudge. For example, in 2018, the Philadelphia District Attorney recommended Meek’s 2008 conviction, for which the rapper at the time was sitting in jail for because of the aforementioned parole violation, should be dismissed. However, Brinkley refused to toss the charges despite the DA noting Meek had already served time for the charges.
“Like many who are currently incarcerated, I was the victim of a miscarriage of justice — carried out by an untruthful officer, as determined by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, and an unfair judge,” said Meek in New York Times op-ed in 2019.
Meek was eventually released on bail, but only after much outcry at the audacity of his treatment by the justice system (the old criminal case was dismissed after he pled guilty to a misdemeanor firearm charge). Flash forward to 2022, and Brinkley’s behavior on the bench is still looking funny in the light, and she’s now claiming that she is the actual victim.
Per the Philadelphia Inquirer:
The unfolding legal battle is the latest chapter in a months-long conflict between Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley and judicial leadership, a feud that began in part over questions about whether Brinkley was showing up to the courthouse on time or managing her caseload effectively. Since the reassignment, lawyers and judges who have reviewed dozens of Brinkley’s cases have discovered a history of her appearing to impose illegal sentences, allow sentences to run past their maximum date, or failing to swiftly address cases remanded to her by higher courts.
This summer, Brinkley, who is Black, filed a gender and racial discrimination complaint against two supervising judges on the court, both of whom are also Black women. And earlier this month, she turned to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court seeking to reverse the decision to reassign her cases, saying in a petition that it “raises unwarranted suspicions about [her] integrity and performance.”
A judge coming under question is a big deal due to the power they wield, deciding to imprison or free someone through what’s supposed to be a lens of justice. Since Brinkley’s transfer, her past cases have come under review by lawyers and judges to see if there are more examples of unseemly judicial behavior. What has been found so far, are numerous cases of lengthy prison terms for suspect parole violations, with many now being outright dismissed, or cases of parolees getting his with the jig.
In the weeks since the reassignment of Brinkley’s cases, lawyers and other judges have been reviewing dozens of matters she presided over and discovered a range of issues. At hearings this month addressing her open probation cases, for example, one lawyer called the situation a “mess.” And Common Pleas Court Judge Mia Perez — who presided over the hearings — was visibly bewildered by some matters that crossed her desk.
In one, Brinkley had sentenced Jeremy Speedling to three years’ probation for a 2019 simple assault and theft. But after Speedling moved to New York, his public defender said, Brinkley sent a letter to his probation officer there changing the terms of his supervision — and then found him in violation and ordered him jailed for 11½ to 23 months.
Brinkley “found [Speedling] in violation for terms he wasn’t aware of,” said the public defender, Elisa Downey-Zayas.
Bruh…
Read the full, disturbing and maddening story right here. Meek picked an inopportune time to leave Twitter, eh?
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The Texas police officer who shot and killed Black woman Atatiana Jefferson in 2019 was hit with an 11-year, 10-month prison sentence on Tuesday (Dec. 20). Forth Worth police officer Aaron Dean entered the home of Jefferson’s mother for a wellness check where the biology graduate was watching her nephew.
The tragic shooting of Atatiana Jefferson occurred when a neighbor called in a nonemergency request to check in on the home. Upon approaching the home, Dean, 38, opened fire, striking Jefferson while her 8-year-old nephew was in the room. Days after the shooting, Dean resigned from the Fort Worth Police Department. According to several accounts, Jefferson and her nephew were up late playing video games.
Local outlet KERA shared in its reporting that the family of Jefferson addressed Dean, with the former officer, who is white, showing little to no remorse.
“I have loathed the idea of you with your family during the holiday seasons for the last three years. Today, I have just arrived at pity,” Ashley Carr, the sister of Jefferson, said.
Jefferson was reportedly saving money to attend medical school in order to assist others, this after obtaining a degree in biology in 2014 from Xavier University.
Dean will be eligible for parole after he serves half of his sentence.
Atatiana Jefferson was 28 at the time of her passing.
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The YSL RICO case goes to trial next month and among the more than two dozen defendants, two more have come forth to enter guilty pleas. The pair joins Sergio “Gunna” Kitchens and Walter “DK” Murphy of alleged YSL members who entered plea deals.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that rapper Slimelife Shawty, real name Wunnie Lee, entered an Alford Plea, the same as Gunna, which means that he maintains his innocence while accepting that it was in his best legal interest to accept the deal. Slimelife Shawty pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act as a first offender. His 10-year sentence was commuted to one-year with time serviced and nine years of probation.
Martinez Arnold, who is a native of California, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the state’s RICO act and participation in criminal street gang activity. With his plea, Arnold had five gun and drug charges dropped and is allowed to visit California to see family.
Both men were ordered to honor a curfew that runs from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. unless they are in school, working or in need of medical care.
As a result of the plea deals taken this week, YSL defendants, including Young Thug, remain ahead of the Jan. 4 jury selection with a handful of the group stating they are without legal representation.
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The Department of Justice is now moving to right a historic wrong by instructing prosecutors to eliminate racial disparities in drug cases at the behest of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
On Friday (Dec. 16), Garland issued directives to federal prosecutors to pursue the same charges and establish equivalent sentencing for both cocaine powder and crack cocaine. The current law sees people who are convicted of possessing 28 grams of crack cocaine receive a mandatory sentence of five years in prison. That same sentence is only given to those who are convicted of possessing nearly twenty times that amount in the powdered form of cocaine. The previous situation highlighted how Black and Latinx defendants were unfairly given heavier sentences under those guidelines which began under President Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs” in 1986.
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Garland’s move to step in and issue these new guidelines comes after the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act, or EQUAL Act, was passed by the Democratic-led House of Representatives last year with Republican support. But despite 11 GOP Senators backing it, the bill was ultimately stalled once it was presented to the Senate for a vote due to lacking the 60 votes needed for its advancement. The ratio at the heart of the act was lowered in 2009 from 100-to-1 under the Fair Sentencing Act which was passed by Congress while President Barack Obama was in office in 2010.
The attorney general sent out his directives in a memo. “In such cases, prosecutors should consider supporting a downward departure or variance,” Mr. Garland wrote. The memo also outlines that these new guidelines should also cover sentences that result from plea agreements. Individual prosecutors still have the leeway to use discretion on this matter from case to case.
The directive prompted some concern from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa who claimed in a statement that “it undermines legislative efforts to address this sentencing disparity.” He continued: “That hard-won compromise has been jeopardized because the attorney general inappropriately took lawmaking into his own hands.”
The move is something that President Joe Biden and his administration have been agitating for since entering office. Garland had issued a memo early last year stating that attorney general’s offices across the country should expect new guidelines to be released. The timing of the move is significant as well, as Congress is in a lame-duck session before the Republicans regain control of the House next year while the Democrats have a firmer control of the Senate.