drugs

Voters remain more concerned about Mexican drug violence coming to this country than they are about illegal immigration, and most favor use of the U.S. military on the border to prevent it. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 34% of Likely U.S. Voters are more concerned about illegal immigration. Fifty-seven percent (57%) worry more about drug violence. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Those figures are little changed from four years ago.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 3-4, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. Read more about 69% Favor Use of U.S. Military on Border to Keep Mexican Drug Violence Out

The Obama administration reversed itself Thursday, acknowledging to Congress that it had, in fact, released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants from immigration jails due to budget constraints during three weeks in February.

The director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, John Morton, said his agency had released 2,228 illegal immigrants during that period for what he called "solely budgetary reasons." The figure was significantly higher than the "few hundred" immigrants the Obama administration had publicly acknowledged were released under the budget-savings process. He testified during a hearing by a House appropriations subcommittee.

Morton told lawmakers Thursday that the decision to release the immigrants was not discussed in advance with political appointees, including those in the White House or Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. He said the pending automatic cuts known as sequestration was "driving in the background."

"We were trying to live within the budget that Congress had provided us," Morton told lawmakers. "This was not a White House call. I take full responsibility."

The Associated Press, citing internal budget documents, reported exclusively on March 1 that the administration had released more than 2,000 illegal immigrants since Feb. 15 and planned to release 3,000 more in March due to looming budget cuts, but Napolitano said days later that the AP's report was "not really accurate" and that the story had developed "its own mythology."

"Several hundred are related to sequester, but it wasn't thousands," Napolitano said March 4 at a Politico-sponsored event.

On March 5, the House Judiciary Committee publicly released an internal ICE document that it said described the agency's plans to release thousands of illegal immigrants before March 31. The document was among those reviewed by the AP for its story days earlier.

The immigrants who were released still eventually face deportation and are required to appear for upcoming court hearings. But they are no longer confined in immigration jails, where advocacy experts say they cost about $164 per day per person. Immigrants who are granted supervised release _ with conditions that can include mandatory check-ins, home visits and GPS devices _ cost the government from 30 cents to $14 a day, according to the National Immigration Forum, a group that advocates on behalf of immigrants.

Morton said Thursday that among the immigrants released were 10 people considered the highest level of offender. Morton said that although that category of offender can include people convicted of aggravated felonies, many of the people released were facing financial crimes. Four of the most serious offenders have been put back in detention. Other people released include immigrants who had faced multiple drunken driving offenses, misdemeanor crimes and traffic offenses, Morton said.

After the administration challenged the AP's reporting, ICE said it didn't know how many people had been released for budget reasons but would review its records. Read more about Gov't acknowledges thousands released from jails

Drugs discovered during an Albany traffic stop Monday afternoon led detectives to Salem, where police arrested two men suspected of dealing methamphetamine.

About two pounds of meth and more than $5,000 in cash were seized.

Police served search warrants on two Salem residences after midnight on Tuesday, busting open the door of one home.

Albany Police Detective Lt. Brad Liles said local drug investigations often lead police out of Linn County, because major traffickers don’t typically live in the area.

And individuals caught with controlled substances often will cooperate with police, he added.

The little fish will sell out the big fish.

“That’s how the drug world works,” Liles said.

Enrique Gallegos-Zaragoza, 32, and Antonio Mendoza-Garcia, 28, both of Salem, were arrested on charges of delivery and possession of methamphetamine, and delivery of methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold was placed on Gallegos-Zaragoza, who also was charged with first-degree child neglect.

Mendoza-Garcia’s initial bail was set at more than $1 million, and he was charged with endangering the welfare of a minor, as well.

Corvallis police and the Salem task force of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency assisted Albany police in serving the search warrants.

Liles said that after the traffic stop, the driver helped police set up a drug buy with Gallegos-Zaragoza in the parking lot near the Roth’s IGA and McDonald’s off Portland Road in Salem.

Gallegos-Zaragoza was arrested at about 6:30 p.m. Police secured his home in a trailer park off Lancaster Drive until a search warrant was obtained.

Further investigation also led police to a house in the 3900 block of N.E. 39th Avenue.

Early Tuesday morning, police served the search warrants on the residences.

The cash was found at Gallegos-Zaragoza’s home.

Police forced open the door on Mendoza-Garcia’s 39th Avenue residence and found the meth.

Liles said an Albany dealer would typically purchase an ounce of methamphetamine for about $1,000, but broken down into user amounts, the value would be much higher. Read more about Traffic stop leads to drugs, arrests

Three individuals were arrested in Keizer on Wednesday following a long-term methamphetamine distribution investigation.

Keizer Police Department detectives working with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Salem-Area Task Force along with agents from the Oregon Department of Justice served search warrants at the Platinum Spa Auto Detail on River Road N and at the location at Lana Avenue NE as well as a residence at 5270 Woodwind Court N.

Investigators arrested Samuel Diaz-Zermeno, Cesar Leon-Barbosa and Jesus Leon-Barbosa on charges including unlawful delivery of methamphetamine and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.

The investigation started in 2010 when Keizer police detectives got information that Cesar Leon-Barbosa, who owns Platinum Spa Auto Detail, was selling methamphetamine from his business locations with help of his brother Jesus Leon-Barbosa.

Officials said Diaz-Zermeno was contacted as part of this investigation on Wednesday and was found with one pound of methamphetamine.

Investigators recovered more than one and one half pound of methamphetamine, about one and a half ounces of cocaine as well as scales and more than $67,000 in cash.

The street value for the controlled substances is about $25,000.

The three individuals were booked into the Marion County Corrections Facility.

Officials said the investigation is still on-going and additional charges and additional arrests are expected.
 

ICE HOLD - Samuel Diaz-Zermeno, Cesar Leon-Barbosa and Jesus Leon-Barbosa Read more about Meth investigation leads to three arrests in Keizer

A Stockton man was arrested Monday for allegedly carrying 4.5 pounds of methamphetamine on a bus passing through Medford.

Police received a tip that Flavio Jaimes-Toribio, 18, was hauling the meth north from California and into Oregon, Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement officials said in a news release.

Jaimes-Toribio was charged with delivery and possession of methamphetamine and lodged in the Jackson County Jail on $510,000 bail.

Flavio Jaimes-Toribio - ICE HOLD

  Read more about California man found with 4.5 pounds of meth on a bus near Medford

The Department of Homeland Security has started releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants held in local jails in anticipation of automatic budget cuts, in a move one Arizona sheriff called politically motivated -- and dangerous.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement released more than 500 detainees in his county alone over the weekend. A spokesman for Babeu told FoxNews.com that ICE officials have said they plan to release a total of nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants.

The numbers, though, are in dispute. ICE officials said that it's unclear how many ultimately might be released and that only 303 have been released from four Arizona facilities so far, though all those are in Pinal County. According to ICE, 2,280 detainees are still in custody in those facilities.

Babeu described the move as a "mass budget pardon" and suggested the administration was going to unnecessary lengths to demonstrate the impact of the so-called sequester.

"President Obama would never release 500 criminal illegals to the streets of his hometown, yet he has no problem with releasing them in Arizona. The safety of the public is threatened and the rule of law discarded as a political tactic in this sequester battle," he said.

An ICE spokeswoman confirmed the plans without specifying how many illegal immigrants might be released.

Spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said ICE had directed field offices to make sure the "detained population" is "in line with available funding." She stressed that ICE would continue to prosecute the cases while keeping them under supervision.

"Over the last week, ICE has reviewed several hundred cases and placed these individuals on methods of supervision less costly than detention," she said. "All of these individuals remain in removal proceedings. Priority for detention remains on serious criminal offenders and other individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety."

The announcement comes after DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on Monday warned about the potential impact of the cuts. She said the department "would not be able to maintain the 34,000 detention beds as required by Congress."

"We're doing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester. But there's only so much I can do," she said. "I'm supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?"

Republicans in Congress, though, have challenged the numerous Obama Cabinet secretaries warning about the devastating impact to their departments. With cuts set to take effect Friday and no deal in sight to avert them, Republicans claim the administration is trying to make the cuts seem worse than they are -- some want to give the administration more leeway so that high-priority agencies don't get hit as hard.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., called the move to release illegal immigrants "abhorrent." "By releasing criminal immigrants onto the streets, the administration is needlessly endangering American lives," he said in a statement.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., also said "these savings could be much more safely and rationally achieved."

In Arizona, Babeu slammed the move, painting his community as a victim of gridlock in Washington.

"Clearly, serious criminals are being released to the streets of our local communities by this mass budget pardon. These are illegals that even President Obama wants to deport. This is insane that public safety is sacrificed when it should be the budget priority that's safeguarded," he said.
  Read more about DHS releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants, blaming budget cuts