LAS VEGAS â Federal authorities say they seized C-4 military explosives from the home of a Colorado man accused of conspiring with a Navy special forces SEAL and a Las Vegas man to smuggle machine guns from Iraq into the U.S. for sale and shipment to Mexico. Federal prosecutors and agents in Las Vegas and Colorado say authorities also found grenades and night-vision goggles in the Durango, Colo., home of 34-year-old Richard Paul. Paul and 36-year-old Andrew Kaufman of Las Vegas are being held on charges that they conspired with Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle to smuggle and sell weapons to an undercover federal agent in Nevada. Bickle was being held in San Diego, where a prosecutor says federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents are still serving warrants in searches for evidence. AP's earlier story is below. LAS VEGAS (AP) â A Navy SEAL in California and men in Nevada and Colorado have been arrested and accused of smuggling machine guns from Iraq into the United States for resale on the black market, federal authorities said Thursday. The special forces SEAL, Nicholas Bickle, 33, of San Diego, Las Vegas resident Andrew Kaufman, 36, and Richard Paul, 34, of Durango, Colo., were arrested Wednesday in those cities, the U.S. attorney's office in Las Vegas said. A complaint filed Oct. 29 and unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas accuses the trio of conspiring to smuggle and sell 18 weapons and 14 other firearms since June to an undercover federal Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in Las Vegas and Colorado. Bickle is accused of smuggling about 80 AK-47 weapons from Iraq or Afghanistan, including factory-made 7.62 mm Iraqi machine guns that the complaint said would be difficult or impossible to trace. Other weapons included Ruger handguns. "According to the other members of the organization, this was possible because Navy SEALs are not searched when returning from deployments," the document said. Bickle began SEALs training in August 2005 and did two tours in Iraq, said Lt. Cate Wallace, a Navy spokeswoman. He is currently assigned to a SEALs team on the West Coast. "This type of behavior is not reflective of the character within the Navy SEALs community," Wallace said. The investigation began on tip from a confidential informant who faced felony battery domestic violence and robbery charges in Nevada and is cooperating with authorities, the complaint said. Neither the informant nor the undercover agent is identified. Las Vegas-based ATF Special Agent Eric Fox alleges in the complaint that at least one of the accused coconspirators bragged that the guns were from the military in the Middle East and would be untraceable. The complaint cited text message and bank records, and said at least one sale involved 10 AK-47 rifles for $1,300 each, and six handguns at $300 apiece. The conspiracy charge alleges that Bickle, Kaufman and Paul engaged in firearms dealing without paying a special tax, possessed a machine gun that wasn't registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, and transferred an unregistered machine gun. If convicted, each faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. A statement from Daniel Bogden, U.S. attorney in Las Vegas, said Bickle was due to appear Thursday in federal court in San Diego. Paul appeared Wednesday in federal court in Durango, and was ordered held pending another hearing Thursday, Bogden said. On Thursday, he was ordered held without bond and transferred to Nevada. A search warrant affidavit remains under seal. Kaufman was due Thursday before a federal magistrate judge in Las Vegas. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101104/ap_on_re_us/us_weapons_smuggling_navy_seal
This has been a sore spot for a very long time. NAVSPECWAR has always maintained that they could not allow SEAL's to be searched after deployments due to OPSEC. The thought process was they couldn't very well allow some smuckatelli Customs Agent going through their shit if said Customs Agent didn't have the right clearances which as the Navy has maintained had to be done on an op-to-op basis. Not to impugn or imply any law was ever broken, including in this case.
This is, of course, to miss the point entirely. The point is that none of this would happen if drug cartels didn't want to buy weapons. Drug cartels wouldn't want to buy weapons if drug cartels weren't in business. Drug cartels wouldn't be in business if drugs were legal. Legalize drugs you half the crime rate, end 3rd world parasite drug cartels, corrupt and bloated government departments, end pointless harassment of millions of americans who have harmed no one, save billions which go to salaries and operations of obese government departments, and the prosecution and incarceration of their victims, then GAIN billions in revenue with taxes on drugs, and create a plethora of new jobs in that industry...
The story that you posted says nothing about "Mexican drug cartels," anywhere in it. That may well prove to be the allegation that the ATF chooses to use against the defendants. If it does I'll comment on that then. That being said I've long argued against the lunacy of Drug prohibition and the immorality of a self-financing war. Which is a exactly what the war on drugs is.
The real "game" here (AS IT TYPICALLY IS.....) is you can conduct all this common activity for your regular compensation (military pay plus the little "juice" they sprinkle in your pockets for their side ops). Once you go "solo" and try to make more coin thinking you can out smart THEIR "game" then it is all over for you.......they will jack you up and let the world come down on you. These guys are very lucky and there must have been a good reason they were not just another "field loss" (taken out). When you accept THEIR side ops money you are from that point on OWNED by them......any sign you try to bail or work your own juice on the side and it is all over for you (typically). So it truly becomes............"The only easy day was yesterday" :eek: The REAL world when you mix it up with the OPERATORS of the criminal syndicates bites back hard......no deviations from THEIR plan or else!
the drug war is a big win for those that want to limit freedoms and get more control over US citizens, that's all it is about... still, people don't get it, they equate voting to legalize drugs with condoning drug use.. it's easy to find out that places on the planet that have no drug laws have little drug use but nobody points that out well enough/often enough to make a difference...
GREAT POINTS! Also, the "War on Drugs" is a CON JOB to militarize the local law enforcement throughout the country through FEDERAL PROGRAMS (UUGH!!!). No better way to get the local townie cop to have CONTEMPT for his local town neighbors then through another psycho-mind-fuck Federal Training Program (of course in full SWAT team outfits....LOL!). :eek:
Exactly. It's inane. It's tantamount to saying that not wanting to execute gays or allowing gay adults to consensually be gay is that same as being a homosexual. Big difference. Yet for some reason the indoctrinated sheeple don't get it...