TAMPA - The tractor-trailer was hauling avocados, limes, green peppers and cilantro from Texas when it was pulled over on Interstate 75 in Hillsborough County.

But the produce was only there to mask the smell of the hidden narcotics, investigators said.

The ploy didn't fool a drug-sniffing dog.

The drug seizure came toward the tail end of a nearly two-year undercover operation into gang-related drug activity in the…

A man has died a day after he was shot in the head in an on-going gang dispute as he was driving in a car in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

At 12:25 a.m. Monday, two men were driving north in the 500 block of North Leamington Avenue in a Chevrolet Malibu sedan when at least one gunman approached them on foot and opened fire, shooting the driver in the head and the passenger in the leg, Austin District Lt. Michael Stevens…

A man has died a day after he was shot in the head in an on-going gang dispute as he was driving in a car in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

At 12:25 a.m. Monday, two men were driving north in the 500 block of North Leamington Avenue in a Chevrolet Malibu sedan when at least one gunman approached them on foot and opened fire, shooting the driver in the head and the passenger in the leg, Austin District Lt. Michael Stevens said.

The man shot in the head was identified…

A former private prison security officer goes from guarding inmates to becoming one after attempting to secure cocaine for an inmate.

Juan Nunez, 41, of Coolidge was sentenced Monday to 24 months in a federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.

Nunez previously pleaded guilty to attempt to furnish an inmate with contraband on April 10.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix…

BROWNSVILLE, TX—A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer has been convicted of alien smuggling and bribery, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today.

At a hearing late Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010, on the eve of jury selection for trial, Rudy Trace Soliz, III, 44, of Brownsville, pleaded guilty to two counts of an indictment. He admitted that on Sept. 25 2009, while serving as a public official—a Department of Homeland Security CBP officer—he knowingly allowed a…

Be Careful in Arizona

There is an entire Army whose job it is to protect us from invasion. That Army is based in Atlanta at Ft McPherson and is called Forces Command. Their sole reason for existing is to protect the American homeland.

In my opinion it is unacceptable to have portions of the US declared off limits to US citizens because Mexican drug cartels control the area.

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Who would have believed that inaction by our…

FRESNO, Calif. — As a little boy, Ivan Ramirez was honored as a hometown hero for saving a drowning peer. Now, 13 years later, a jury has convicted the Fresno gang member for his role in a drive-by shooting.

Ramirez, 21, was found guilty Tuesday of shooting at an inhabited house, being a felon with a gun and participating in a gang. He faces a possible life prison term when he's sentenced on Aug. 31.

"They gave Ivan a…

OAKLAND -- The suspected leader of a notorious West Oakland street gang was found guilty Thursday of seven felonies, including attempted murder, and now faces at least 40 years in state prison.

Marc Anthony Candler, 35, who police and prosecutors say ran the Acorn gang and tried to kill a member of a rival gang, joked with bailiffs before the verdict was read and laughed as a court clerk announced the jury's decision.

Candler was arrested in 2008 during one of…

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe rejected an automatic motion to reduce the jury's death sentence recommendation for Travis Jeremy Lewis to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Lewis, 23, of Compton, was convicted May 4 of first-degree murder for the April 3, 2008, slaying…