Good morning, and welcome to the Important California publication. It’s Thursday,Jan. 27. I’m Justin Ray.
A troubling gun-smuggling case in California is a symptom of the larger situation of weapons from the U.S. ending up in Mexico.
A Southern California man has been charged with directing a conspiracy to ship weapons to a drug trafficking group that legislation enforcement officers describe as probably the most highly effective in Mexico.
Federal authorities charged Marco Antonio Santillan Valencia, 51, of Whittier and three different alleged members of the operation (together with his son, Marco Santillan Jr.) with conspiring to evade restrictions on the export of firearms, conspiring to launder cash and possessing ammunition as a felon.
The small print within the case are eye-opening. Stopped by legislation enforcement in San Bernardino County, Santillan Jr. and two others had been discovered to be transporting 64,400 rounds of ammunition, 20 50-round ammunition belts, rifle scopes, $52,471 in money and $10,000 in cash orders, in response to an indictment unsealed lately.
The weapons and ammunition had been stated to be certain for members of the Jalisco New Era Cartel, identified by its Spanish initials, CJNG, in response to legislation enforcement. Prosecutors cited a Fb message by which Santillan Jr. allegedly stated that “Mencho’s cartel” was “shopping for all the things.”
Santillan has pleaded not responsible. His legal professional didn’t instantly return a Occasions request for remark.
The larger image
What stays underdiscussed is the truth that many weapons present in Mexico got here from this facet of the border.
“Gun management is among the most divisive political points in the US, however the debate hardly ever considers how lax American gun legal guidelines have fueled violence in Mexico,” as Kate Linthicum wrote in a 2019 article.
Between 2014 and 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ran practically 80,000 traces for the Mexican authorities to see the place weapons discovered within the nation originated. The ATF discovered that 70% of firearms recovered got here from stateside. Nonetheless, the company states an vital caveat: Many different weapons recovered in Mexico weren't submitted for tracing, which means the quantity is probably going an undercount.
As many as 150,000 folks had been killed in Mexico on account of organized crime between 2006 and the top of 2018, in response to the Hint, a nonprofit journalism group. You could be questioning how a lot Mexico’s personal weapons are taking part in a job within the carnage. However Mexico has very strict gun laws. In truth, there is just one gun retailer within the total nation.
"We kill one another, and also you ship the bullets,” Salvador Alanis Trujillo, 40, of the United Entrance of Neighborhood Police of the State of Guerrero, stated bluntly to The Occasions.
Associated studying:
- Journalists throughout Mexico took to the streets Tuesday to condemn the killings of colleagues and demand that authorities to do extra to guard information gatherers in one of many world’s most harmful international locations for the press.
- The secretary of international affairs of Mexico explains why his nation is making an attempt to curb violence by going after U.S. gun producers in court docket.
And now, right here’s what’s occurring throughout California:
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L.A. STORIES
Movie show security throughout COVID, the sequel: This time it’s private. Two years into the pandemic, have well being specialists and business leaders’ up to date suggestions made moviegoing safer? “I feel it’s OK to go to the theater, however go together with safety,” stated Dr. Georges Benjamin with the American Public Well being Assn. Los Angeles Occasions
UCLA gymnastics stood collectively in opposition to racial injustice, then was ripped aside by it. Two gymnasts instructed The Occasions a teammate used a racial slur, which prompted a college response that some gymnasts of colour discovered to be inadequate. “I do know for a indisputable fact that myself and my Black teammates suffered vastly,” one Bruins gymnast stated. Los Angeles Occasions
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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
College students would get $500 a month beneath a brand new Common Primary Earnings pilot venture proposal from state Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose). If handed, 5 California campuses would pilot this system: Fresno State, CSU Los Angeles, San Francisco State, CSU East Bay, and San Jose State.
In a current interview with the Fresno Bee’s Ed Lab, Cortese stated money funds could be extra useful for college students as a result of their wants change and evolve. Money would give college students flexibility. “The large concept is that it’s much less prescriptive,” Cortese stated. Fresno Bee
Town of Modesto paid $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged it was accountable in a 2015 incident by which a pupil was hit in a crosswalk close to Modesto Excessive College. The lawsuit alleged that the town knew the crosswalk was harmful and had a historical past of collisions however didn't make it safer. Modesto denied the allegations in court docket filings, and the town denied any accountability in its settlement settlement. Town spent $280,155 in authorized prices and $79,104 in different prices defending itself, bringing the full to somewhat greater than $1.6 million. Town paid the primary $1 million from its personal funds, and its insurance coverage paid the steadiness. Modesto Bee
Supreme Court docket Justice Stephen G. Breyer to retire, giving Biden his first appointment. Breyer, a California native and 1994 appointee of President Clinton, is the senior member of the three-justice liberal bloc, and his retirement is unlikely to change the court docket’s ideological steadiness. Nonetheless, his retirement supplies President Biden and Democrats a golden alternative to reenergize voters after current setbacks. Los Angeles Occasions
Nancy Pelosi’s determination to run once more leaves one huge thriller. The Home speaker’s plan to hunt reelection extends one in every of San Francisco’s longest-running, most-fevered political guessing video games: Who will succeed the Democrat when she lastly does step apart? Los Angeles Occasions
CRIME, COURTS AND POLICING
State authorities are investigating after members of a Riverside County gang job pressure shot and killed a person suspected of promoting fentanyl in Hemet final week. The California legal professional common’s workplace introduced Tuesday that it could independently examine the capturing, which occurred at 11:36 p.m. Jan. 18. Los Angeles Occasions
Killing of LAPD officer brings scrutiny to one in every of L.A.'s oldest and largest gangs. Seven a long time in the past, Latino youths in South Los Angeles banded collectively to kind a gang referred to as Florencia. Over time, demographic and social shifts have weakened many road gangs and induced some to die out altogether. Florencia did the other, legislation enforcement officers say. The gang is now on the heart of the killing earlier this month of an off-duty Los Angeles police officer. Los Angeles Occasions
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CALIFORNIA CULTURE
Palm Springs Worldwide Airport surpassed its all-time passenger report for the month of December, the seventh-straight month-to-month report damaged, officers stated. The whole passenger rely for December was 276,527, an 8.6% enhance from the earlier report set in December 2018, in response to officers. Moreover, the full passenger rely for the whole thing of 2021 was 2,092,943, a rise of 67% in contrast with 2020. KESQ
Video captures Laguna Hills pupil shouting racist slurs at Black basketball participant. An Orange County mom is talking out after her son confronted racist feedback throughout a basketball sport Friday evening in opposition to Laguna Hills Excessive College. Los Angeles Occasions
Sacramento EMTs overwhelmed amid Omicron wave. NBC Information went inside Sacramento County Emergency Medical Companies Company, chatting with emergency medical technicians who're overwhelmed amid the wave of the Omicron variant. Whereas using together with the staff, one member stated: “Individuals are overworked. We’re working as a lot as we are able to. I don’t know the way for much longer we are able to do it.” NBC Information
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CALIFORNIA ALMANAC
Los Angeles: Sunny 73 San Diego: Sunny 67 San Francisco: Sunny 63 San Jose: Sunny 68 Fresno: Sunny 66 Sacramento: Sunny 61 Porcupines want love too.
AND FINALLY
Additionally, I lately requested readers for the music they hearken to when they need some nostalgia of their lives. Here's a response from Invoice Barnes:
My jukebox is a set of music movies I watch on YouTube. These movies deliver me again to my childhood in Escondido and my time in L.A. as a school pupil and a brand new husband and father. I’m speaking concerning the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies. For my recollections of the Nineteen Sixties within the golden period of California music, there’s nothing just like the movies of the Mamas and the Papas. For the ‘70s, I actually benefit from the movies of Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. These teams had been the titans of the airwaves again then and with good cause. My favorites: “Twelve Thirty (Younger Women Are Coming to the Canyon) by the Mamas and the Papas, “Silver Springs” by Fleetwood Mac and “Resort California” by the Eagles. Oh, the times of a sunlit future within the Golden State!
If in case you have a reminiscence or story concerning the Golden State, share it with us. (Please preserve your story to 100 phrases.)
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