In what prosecutors called a drug smuggling conspiracy between Mennonites and a Mexican drug cartel, a man on Monday was sentenced to 15 months in prison for aiding the movement of tons of marijuana to the US.
Mennonite Christians have historical ties to the Amish, radical Protestant reformers originally known as Anabaptists who adopted pacifism and fled persecution in central Europe for North America. Some conservative Mennonite communities still wear traditional dress and avoid modern technologies.
Abraham Friesen-Remple was sentenced in US District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to using a telephone to facilitate the distribution of marijuana. A US federal judge said he would likely be released later in the day because of time already served.
Prosecutors said he played a minor role as a driver, helping the Juarez cartel — based in the US-Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua — smuggle drugs in the gas tanks of cars and inside farm equipment.
Friesen-Remple was one of seven people indicted, all but one of whom are members of a Mexican Mennonite community in Chihuahua.
Prosecutors also say the Mennonites also grew marijuana for the cartel.
The investigation involved wiretaps in which 32,200 calls were recorded in Spanish and a German dialect used by Mennonites.
Authorities said the operation moved to North Carolina after the arrest of a person who ran a Colorado auto body shop involved in the case.
Court records show Friesen-Remple delivered a shipment of marijuana — hidden in a farm bulldozer — to a home in Shelby, North Carolina. US Drug Enforcement Agency agents tapped his telephone and learned that he was getting directions from someone in Mexico.
The following month, a fellow member of the alleged drug ring, who became a cooperating witness, told agents that Friesen-Remple delivered the 714kg of cannabis that agents found during a search of his home, according to court records.
Friesen-Remple was arrested on Aug. 20 last year, at the Santa Testa Point of Entry in New Mexico. He pleaded guilty to using a telephone to facilitate the distribution of marijuana.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the