Bribery scandal fugitive caught in Mexico
A real estate broker who fled after being indicted on charges related to a bribery scandal at the state Office of General Services was captured in Mexico this week.
The arrest of Richard B. Sawyer, 55, a former Clifton Park resident, caps a federal investigation that focused on the role of political contributions in the awarding of state contracts.
Sawyer was arrested Thursday in Cabo San Lucas. He will be flown back to Albany to face charges in the case, authorities said.
A federal grand jury indictment on May 12 alleges Sawyer took part in a bribery scheme involving Ronald H. Laberge, founder of one of the of the Capital Region’s largest engineering and development firms.
Laberge pleaded guilty in October last year to providing $2,500 to a state leasing agent who manipulated a rental contract in Troy from which Laberge stood to net several hundred-thousand dollars.
More: newsday.com
More videos suggest bribery in Mexico
The ``video scandal'' returned to Mexico on Friday after local media broadcast new footage of politicians from the party of presidential front-runner Andrés Manuel López Obrador either requesting or giving money to a now-jailed businessman.
In one video, a former official from the Democratic Revolutionary Party, or PRD, hands over a suitcase containing what reports say is $1 million to the businessman, Carlos Ahumada. In a second video, a former gubernatorial candidate is seen asking Ahumada for a campaign contribution.
PRD officials said the videos were part of a campaign to embarrass the party before the
Mexico fugitive nabbed in Del Rio
The local U.S. Marshals Service office has picked up a man wanted in the killing of a prostitute in Mexico.
The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force took David Antonio Garza Muniz, 37, into custody Thursday as he left his home in Del Rio.
Marshals were holding him for extradition, LaFayette Collins, U.S. marshal for the Western District of Texas, said in a release.
Garza was convicted of manslaughter in the 1996 beating death of a prostitute in Mexico over a spat about money, the release said.
More: mysanantonio.com
Texas fugitive arrested in Mexico
A fugitive sex offender from Del Valle has been located in Mexico after being featured on America’s Most Wanted, the Texas Attorney General's office announced Tuesday.
The Attorney General’s Fugitive Unit had been seeking Charles Randall Brunson, 38, for violating his parole. Brunson was convicted in 1997 in Travis County for sexually assaulting his four-year-old daughter.
After the America’s Most Wanted report aired in late September, a couple living in Jalisco, Mexico, contacted authorities to say Brunson was living in the area. The Attorney General’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice worked with Mexican officials
Prosecution failures mount in Mexico
Many, many Mexicans thought they saw Rene Bejarano getting caught red-handed taking bribes. Now they have learned they didn't.
The former top aide to Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador walked out of jail last week after a judge dismissed money-laundering charges against him, despite a secretly recorded video that showed him taking tens of thousands of dollars from a city contractor and stuffing it into suitcases and his jacket pockets.
The video, first broadcast on a morning TV news show hosted by a clown, ignited a corruption scandal last year that tainted the popular mayor's presidential ambitions. But
Man caught smuggling bullets, vests to Mexico
A Mexican man was caught trying to smuggle 8,700 rounds of ammunition and 10 bulletproof vests from the United States to Mexico, Customs and Border Protection agents said today.
The seizure occurred Thursday at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge.
Driver Martin Armando Arredondo Meza, 28, fled from the car he was driving when customs officials began searching it. He tried to run into Mexico but agents and local police caught him.
The ammunition and vests were found in the car trunk.
Arredondo Meza was arrested on federal charges of illegal export of war materials and
Woman caught smuggling $119,912 to Mexico
A 25-year-old Donna woman was caught trying to cross into Mexico with nearly $120,000 under her clothes, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Thursday.
Aurora Garcia was arrested on federal charges of bulk cash smuggling Wednesday after agents at the Hidalgo international bridge pulled aside the taxi she was in and discovered the cash.
Garcia declared $1,000 but gave a negative declaration for currency in excess of $10,000, weapons, or ammunition.
CBP officers said they noticed discrepancies in Garcia's clothing, which turned out to be bundles of money totaling $119,912.
It is a federal offense not to declare
Arizona Fugitive Detained in Mexico
Mexican authorities have detained and begun deportation proceedings against an Arizona man formerly on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, a U.S. official said Thursday.
Gary Edward Lasher, 28, was arrested Wednesday in the Caribbean resort city Playa del Carmen, said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record.
Lasher is wanted in Oxnard, Calif., for allegedly beating his mother-in-law unconscious and placing her in his car trunk before she was able to escape. He has been charged with kidnapping, kidnapping for ransom, and false imprisonment with violence in a California state arrest
American fugitive detained in Mexico
The nine-month search for a man wanted in the abduction and slaying of a Dallas restaurateur ended with an arrest in a Mexican resort town Friday.
Mexican federal authorities captured Edgar "Richie" Acevedo in Cabo San Lucas and were preparing to take the 25-year-old former waiter at an Oscar Sanchez family restaurant to Mexico City, Dallas police said.
FBI Special Agent Lori Bailey confirmed the arrest, but would not discuss details.
Sanchez was kidnapped the morning of Jan. 18 in what police believe was a staged car wreck in Dallas. His body was found in a field in
Grouper fight flares in Gulf of Mexico:-
Recreational and commercial fishermen are being pitted against each other by a plan to limit hauls of red grouper in the Gulf of Mexico.
Federal fishery management officials have proposed closing Gulf of Mexico grouper fishing to recreational fishermen, allowing commercial boats to continue their catch, the Christian Science Monitor reported Friday.
Florida state officials have said they do not intend to enforce that ban, since tourists pay $26 million a year to Florida charter boats to fish in the gulf.
The Monitor said recreational fishermen pull in about 18 percent of the 5.3 million pounds of
Police chase naked driver into Mexico
A naked man driving a Chevrolet S-10 pickup led police on a chase to the international border yesterday before leaving the truck and running into Mexico, where he was caught.
The man was first observed parked in an alleyand exposing himself about 12:15 p.m. near Texas Street in North Park. Responding officers tried to stop the truck, but the driver sped off, San Diego police Sgt. Jim Schorr said.
During a police chase, the driver avoided three spike strips set down on roadways by officers at various locations.
On Interstate 5 at Interstate 905, the man
