U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Larry James Allred Cuts Deal That May Pin Him to Cell for 8 Years for Selling Fake Disney Pins

Remember the two knuckleheads who dared try to import counterfeit Disney collectible pins and sell them on the Internet?Hell, even Vlad Putin's too scared of the Mouse to pull that shit.The second of the two guys pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges and enhancements for past crimes that could send hi ... More >>

Meet The Chronically Deported Mexican Determined To Live In The USA

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has an annual budget of nearly $12 billion, nine divisions, planes, helicopters, night-vision and audio spy equipment, fences, dogs, boats, guns, checkpoints and more than 45,600 agents, but it can't stop one dirt poor but determine Mexican, Sergio Alcal ... More >>

Miguel Lerma Jr., Former Border Officer, Gets 6 Years for Raping Two Women

Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Miguel Lerma Jr. pleaded guilty today to forcibly raping one woman and raping a second who passed out after too much alcohol.The 33-year-old Fountain Valley resident, who faced up to 32 years in state prison based on an April 2011 statement from pro ... More >>

Stanley Kuo Jua Yang Gets 30 Months for Hawking Knock-Offs of Exercise Machines

An Irvine man was sentenced this morning to 30 months in federal prison for hawking counterfeit goods, including knock-offs of Bowflex, Ab Circle Pro and Malibu Pilates exercise machines.United States District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner in Los Angeles immediately remanded Stanley Kuo Jua Yang, 3 ... More >>

Straight Outta Syria

Orange County is home to growing numbers of refugees from that country's growing civil war

How Much is a Dead Mexican Worth? According to the U.S. Government, Less Than a Used Hyundai

One night in July 2008, U.S. Border Patrol agents with the Department of Homeland Security found Tomas Sanchez Orzuna on a street in San Clemente, sprayed him in the face with toxic chemicals, handcuffed him, beat him, took him to a check point station and hosed him down so violently with water he d ... More >>

Arizona Senate Bill 1070's Days of Rage

[Crossing the Line] The U.S. Supreme Court and President Barack Obama leave the undocumented and their allies no choice but to escalate civil disobedience

Cartels Say Thank You To OC's Medical Marijuana Crackdown!

This week has been full of crappy news for advocates of medical marijuana here in Orange County. First, there was the failed effort by U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) to amend the Justice Department's spending bill by preventing funding for the federal crackdown of medical mar ... More >>

Mexican Marijuana Smuggler Who Targeted San Clemente and Laguna Beach Gets Punished

A federal judge in Orange County has punished an international drug smuggler and human trafficker who targeted San Clemente, Laguna Beach and Dana Point as his points of illegal entry into the United States.Sergio Ramos-Atondo, a 37-year-ol Mexican national, will serve 97 months in federal prison fo ... More >>

Border Violence No Big Threat to U.S., Report Says

All the talk about Mexico's rampant drug-related violence bleeding into the U.S., along with the threat of terrorists creeping in from the southern border, is overblown, according to a new study. The Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes itself as a group focusing on human rights, demo ... More >>

Meth Softball Rolls to San Clemente Border Stop

​I'm just spitballing here, but I bet if you had a bunch of meth heads play against one another in a softball game with a softball made of methamphetamine, that game would end very quickly.Like before the first half inning ends when said meth heads break open the ball. Breaking bad, indeed.It's a ... More >>

San Clemente Coke Bust Caps 5 Days of Border Patrol Seizures of $1.4 Million in Drugs

​Hey, remember that Lake Forest cocaine safe house from Tuesday? Julio Cesar Perez-Arellano and Tomas Agustin Della Rocca Held in $4 Million Cocaine Bust Perhaps some recent U.S. Border Patrol busts produced some of the coke originally headed there.

Korean Tourist Nabbed at LAX with 63 Pounds of Erection Medicine

​Was a 40-year-old Korean national visiting Southern California hoping to obtain the biggest, longest-lasting erection in world history?Or did he just want everybody he knew to be, well, excited for weeks?Authorities briefly detained the unidentified tourist earlier this month at Los Angeles Inter ... More >>

10 Held After Human Smuggling Boat Intercepted

​Ten people were detained early this morning after the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol intercepted a boat used for human smuggling off Seal Beach, authorities said.A Seal Beach police officer said on live television that the Harbor Patrol had been tipped off about the boat's arrival around 1 ... More >>

Robert Edward Smyrak and Larry James Allred: Two Knuckleheads Bootlegged Disney Pins

​Is there any doubt Disney will sue the balls off anyone who bootlegs its merchandise? Nope.Need proof? Just ask the two Southern California knuckleheads who were busted importing $2 million worth of bootlegged Disney pins from China.Learn more about their attempted scam (and some even more distur ... More >>

Crystal-Meth Block Did Not Come Standard With Jetta Searched Near Border Checkpoint

​Border Patrol agents boast they intercepted a "bumper crop" of crystal methamphetamine near the San Clemente checkpoint last week.Wednesday morning's encounter with a "nervous" 24-year-old woman resulted in the discovery of 12 pounds of crystal meth hidden in the rear bumper of ... More >>

[UPDATED With Charges, Arraignment Date] Miguel Lerma Jr., Border Patrol Officer, Held in Sexual Assaults of Women in Garden Grove and Long Beach

​UPDATE, APRIL 4, 3:24 P.M.: U.S. Customs & Border Protection officer Miguel Lerma Jr. has been charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, sodomy by force and forcible oral copulation for allegedly attacking a woman in Garden Grove, plus one felony count of rape by use of drugs f ... More >>

Illegals in U.S. Marine Uniforms Get Off Easy

"Who you calling illegal, maggot!"​Head south of the Orange County border on the 5 freeway and you quickly encounter people in one of two kinds of uniforms: those of U.S. Border Patrol officials (think San Clemente checkpoint) and those of the U.S. Marines Corps (think Camp Pendleton).People in bo ... More >>

Did Arrestee at Border Pucker Up With a Meth Mouth?

​Four pounds of crystal meth were found taped inside the jacket of a woman at the San Clemente border checkpoint Sunday morning, according to the feds.The 34-year-old Chula Vista woman (and yes, haters, U.S. citizen) was riding in a van headed north on the 5 freeway. When she got out of the van, a ... More >>

Mexican Pop Singer Kalimba Jailed on Rape Charge

 Twenty-eight-year-old Mexican pop singer Kalimba Ibar, former member of band OV7 and the singing voice of Simba in the Latin American film version of The Lion King, was jailed on rape charges on Jan 20. According to the Associated Press, Kalimba was deported from the U.S. to Mexico after ... More >>

Khapra Beetle: The Destructive Breed of Beetles Discovered in Rice Shipment at LAX

Not what you want in your rice.​Things could have become pretty buggy for producers of grain and seeds if U.S. Customs and Border Protection would have been slacking on the job. On Dec. 29 at Los Angeles International Airport, CBP intercepted a shipment of Indian rice arriving from Saudi Arab ... More >>

Beached Boat Found at Crystal Cove State Park; Illegal Immigrants May or May Not Have Been Aboard

May need adjustments for water-based crossings.​Around 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning, a call came into the police from a woman reporting that she'd seen a small fishing boat come ashore, with nearly a dozen people sitting inside. Upon striking sand, the boat emptied, the people discarded life jackets ... More >>

The Feds Bury Border Patrol Abuses of Immigrants

But what's been unearthed reveals a culture of cruelty

Need a Job? Orange County Career Fair's Got 'Em

​Aflac, Wells Fargo, Farmers Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, National University, The Art Institutes, the University of Phoenix, Forest Lawn Memorial Parks, the Automobile Club of Southern California and United States Customs and Border Protection are among the companies and agencies participating ... More >>

Grinding Justice

Operation Streamline costs millions, tramples the Constitution, treats migrants like cattle, doesn't work

The Orange County Interwebs Horror Show Reviews Are In

​This week's collection of things on the Interwebs from or about Orange County includes netizen reviews of a car shop, a sandwich shop, UC Irvine dorms, hotspots for meet-ups, Fullerton City Council candidates, San Clemente's immigration checkpoint and Huntington Beach white boys who refer to them ... More >>

20 Illegal Immigrants Busted Landing Boat at Calafia State Beach This Morning

Smithsonian InstitutionBoat people of another era.​Twenty undocumented immigrants trying to enter the U.S. illegally by sea were arrested this morning at Calafia State Beach in San Clemente.The 17 men and three women, all from Mexico, were riding in a small craft that hit land about 3 a.m., accor ... More >>

OC Sighs as the Only Illegal Things Border Patrol Finds in Car's Trunk are 230 Pounds of Weed

Courtesy of U.S. Border PatrolTrunk full of skunk weed​Missed this one earlier, but U.S. Border Patrol agents earlier this week seized 230 pounds of marijuana stashed in the trunk of a sedan at a San Clemente rest stop.

Badlands: From Ground Zero of the Immigration Crisis Along the Mexican Border

Tougher border enforcement in California and Texas has spelled disaster for southern Arizona

Rainbow Harbor Terror Attack is Just a Drill

​If you swing by Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach today and notice an unusually large presence of law enforcement types running around like chickens with their heads cut off, you are witnessing neither an actual terror attack nor filming of pick-up scenes for Monday night's 24 finale.

Tariq Ramadan's Looming OC Speech Draws Warning From Muslim Group

Wikipedia CommonsTariq Ramadan​What the American Islamic Forum for Democracy derides as the "Tariq Ramadan American Islamist Victory Tour 2010" includes a May stop near Disneyland, where American Muslims are being warned by the self-described liberty lovers to "be on guard" as the Swiss academic ... More >>

Orange County Snowfall Averted

​Three separate busts over the past couple weeks in Orange County prevented cocaine authorities say was worth $20 million from reaching their destinations.

Today, Medical Marijuana. Tomorrow, Legalize It!

How Many Anti-Illegals, Anti-Liberal Buzzwords Can Royce Work Into His Anti-Healthcare Rant?

Rantin' Royce!​It's the home game sweeping the Republic: Count how many anti-liberal/anti-illegals/pro-hater buzzwords and references are in the latest email to supporters from Rep. Ed Royce (R-The White Side of Fullerton).The email (Punctuation, capitalizations and boldface intact) follows after ... More >>

Dude, Where's My VW Bus That Was Stolen 35 Years Ago? Oh, There It Is

Courtesy of U.S. Border and Customs ProtectionFound it!​You never know what will turn up in a container at the Long Beach port. Sure, the vast majority are filled with legal products bound for store shelves all across this great land. But every so often inspectors will find smuggled guns, drugs, h ... More >>

Was Brotherhood Member Brenice Lee Smith a Felonious Monk?

Crime Time: Rapers! Robbers! Wife Killer! Bad Cops! And a Real Bozo!

It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--a day late and many dollars short of paying off the creditors who won't stop calling! Top photos courtesy of Huntington Beach Police Department A BOZO NO-NO: Here's the original suspect description Crime Time received for the Oct. ... More >>

Crime Time: An Especially San Clemente/ Huntington Beach Edition

It's the Weekly's weekly round-up of local police calls--with an especially heavy emphasis on San Clemente and Huntington Beach. MONDAY, OCT. 5 He died for your remote. Who's the Patron Saint of Stupidity Again? A 50-inch Viso plasma TV was stolen out of the beer tent erected for the weekend F ... More >>

Rohrabacher's 'Prayers Answered' with Bush's Clemency for Jailed Border Agents

On the dark side for fans of equal justice, President Bush granted an 11th hour clemency for two ex-federal border agents who shot an unarmed Mexican drug dealer, destroyed evidence, covered up a crime scene and filed false reports about what happened. On the bright side, a senior White House offici ... More >>

Tuesday's Headlines & Surprises: Rohrabacher Joins ACLU?

Dana Adopts ACLUish Torture Position! At an Oct. 12 rally, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Skipped Vietnam Combat Duty) repeatedly blasted solitary prison confinement. “Long periods of solitary confinement are considered torture,” Rohrabacher said to a tiny Huntington Beach crowd that looked st ... More >>

Sunday's Headlines & Surprises: iPhone Thumb Surgery?

Picking themselves up with your bootstraps: The lobbyists at the Orange County Tourism Council believe they are entitled yet again to a public handout. And, once again, they're going to get it without even a minute of public debate. The board of supervisors placed on its Tuesday consent calender a ... More >>

Dude, Where's My Pot?

Ten years after California legalized medical marijuana, OCs war on cannabis continues

Fresh Perspective

"Fresh perspective" and "new eyes" have been Bush administration buzzwords since the nomination of Robert Gates to be Secretary of Defense was announced. Whether the eyes of Mr. Gates-- which saw no evil when he was the Number 2 man at the CIA while the Reagan administration was busy undermining th ... More >>

Film

MOJADOS: THROUGH THE NIGHT

Picks 'n' Pans

Don't miss Freedom From Despair and Mojados: Through the Night at Fullerton Film Fest. Don't bother: A Dios Momo So Board With the USA

Seeking low wages and lax environmental laws, OC boardmakers reluctantly find themselves in Asia

!Ay! !Mi Estomago!

Letters

American Girl

Screw Cheneyland! Homes where bold types dwell

July-September