Federal authorities said this afternoon they have arrested eight people — and are seeking a ninth — with ties to the Drew Street clique of the Avenues gang on suspicion of drug trafficking and human smuggling.
Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement served search and arrest warrants Tuesday night and this morning at locations in the Imperial Valley and Los Angeles.
One of the sites in the 2800 block of Avenue 34 in northeast L.A. was the base of operations for the alleged smuggling ring and served as a “drop house” before illegal immigrants were taken to their final locations, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said in a prepared statement.
The ring charged people up to $4,500, provided phony immigration papers and smuggled the human cargo into the United States from Mexico by concealing them in trucks and hidden compartments of vehicles.
Some of the defendants face up to 30 years in federal prison if convicted on all counts.
A federal grand jury indictment names Teodoro Alvarez-Estrada, 56, and his wife, Aquilina Alvarez, 56. They were arrested after a search of their northeast Los Angeles home turned up three firearms, including a semiautomatic handgun and a .357 Magnum revolver, ICE officials said.
Also arrested were Eduardo Alvarez-Marquez, 35, of Los Angeles, and Holtville residents Martina Araceli Carreon, 44, and Jose Carreon, 47. Others in custody included Calexico residents Ruben Servin-Mejia, 37, and Maria Toledo-Fierros, 49, and Yesenia Rubi Mendoza-Gonzalez of Mexicali, Mexico.
The investigation into the smuggling ring began in August 2008 from information developed by the Los Angeles Police Department and federal authorities in their probe of crime tied to the Avenues street gang.
The ring is alleged to have smuggled over 200 illegal immigrants into the U.S. annually. Federal investigators said at one point the alleged smugglers were negotiating with Avenues gang members to bring Maria Leon, matriarch and shot-caller of the Drew Street clique, into the United States from Mexico.
Leon, now serving an eight-year federal prison sentence for racketeering crimes related to the Avenues street gang, eventually used another smuggling group, federal authorities said.
“This case illustrates the disturbing ties we’re increasingly finding between local street gangs and criminal organizations,” said Kevin Kozak, deputy special agent in charge of the Los Angeles ICE office. “ICE is working not only to target and dismantle violent street gangs, but also the criminal organizations that support the gangs’ illegal activities.”
Blanca Zendejas Nienhaus, an ACLU of California spokesperson, told about 15 people who huddled in the square during a rain-soaked morning press conference. “This has led to an atmosphere of terror where immigrants are afraid to contact police.”

I’m applying to work for the federal government, and have good chances of getting in. As a single person with one income only, I cannot get the mortgage I would with two incomes. Although my salary is decent now, it only limits my option to a $190,000 home for a 15-year mortgage, and 15 years is really what my target goal is in terms of acquiring a home. I’m looking for a condo or townhouse with 1-2 bedrooms in an area that has a very low crime rate, a neighborhood with a good reputation. I think I cannot be very picky, but I have an advanced degree, and most likely will hold a professional job with the federal government. Therefore, I want to be around with people of similar professional and educational achievements. But I know I can’t be very picky. I certainly know for sure that I won’t want to be living in a high crime neighborhood, with a poor school system, and high drug trafficking. Please advise me what my options are. Please be specific in terms of neighborhood names, city names (the suburbs are fine as long as they are within less than a 30 minute commute.)

Here’s a question frequented on Yahoo answers that was born out of Capitalism: “Am I Pretty?”
Blaaghhh
It’s because of young girls having this type of mentality where they feel that all of their self worth lies in their looks, and consequently a bunch of titillated men who want, want, want, that we have things like human trafficking and prostitution, because both parents are out working (they have to because of inflation and globalization), and the child has no guidance but the television, peer pressure, and advertisements targeting them. Capitalism is the cause for cultural dissent. It’s ******* amazing that people can’t see this. God help our world. I would venture to say that even communism would be better than this anarchist capitalistic society. At least in a socialized society built on Marxist ideals, humans can progress and become motivated by something other than monetary gain, and primordial, carnal desires. Because not only has capitalism squeezed the life out of our homes, replacing family dinners with microwaved meals, family nights with PlayStation’s and World of War craft, park gatherings and conversations with cell phones and shopping sprees, but it has also choked creativity and individual thought out of humanity as well and left us as empty robotic consumers, and tired assembly line workers who can’t think but to want a little poon at the end of the night.
In the great words of the late George Carlin: “**** Hope!”
My question to you: Give me one GOOD reason why Capitalism is better than Socialism. Other than being motivated by money and power, other than producing quality material (which I would say would still exist in a socialized society). Let me say this, there are other motivators in this world besides materialistic ones. Take away materialism, monetary gain, social status, and the financial division of classes, and they will be replaced with other motivators, I assure you. Motivators that are much more valuable and conducive to our expansion as a species than materialistic ones.

My exams start on monday and i’ve been revising and preparing; we’ve been told that we’re doing a film review in the exam so i’ve tried to do one and memorize it; i’m only year8 but i’ve got the highest target level in the year (level 7a/8c) which is like well shocking because most people are level 6’s and i’m like level 5 in maths? and i’m only good at English so i’ve gotta get this level (yn). Anyway is this okay? I chose the film Taken to review because i know it quite well and i enjoyed it.
anyway:
Taken, despite it’s retread James Bond/Jason Bourne action sequences, with car chases, drug dealing and fight scenes, works on the strength of it’s lead, Liam Neeson. With an attention-capturing tagline that reads “I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t let my daughter go, I will find you; I will kill you”, how are you not intrigued to find the conclusion of this action-packed film? The beginning may seem, and sound, a little ridiculous, however, the film is entertaining to say the least. You can’t go wrong in watching this exciting thriller.
When Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) retires from the government business to spend more time with his beloved daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) he is not too pleased when Kim has the oppurtunity to go to Paris with her friend Amanda. Reluctantly, Bryan agrees, as long as she calls him when she arrives and every night before she goes to sleep. While on the phone to Bryan one day, Kim sees Amanda being attacked by strangers on the other side of the apartment, and it is a matter of minutes before Kim is kidnapped by an Albanian sex trafficking ring. Using his fascinating skills and abilities, Bryan has to find her before she is lost forever.
Produced and co-written by ‘The Professional’ and ‘La Femme Nikita’ director Luc Besson, the story is clichéd and predictable, but Neeson is the attraction. For an action film, it has all the elements you could possibly imagine: violence, fighting and a happy ending and with a running time of 90 minutes, the pace is quick and steady. It’s the same man-saves-the-day stuff we’ve seen in the past, only with an interesting twist, so sit back and enjoy the movie.
?xx

I’m writing a flash fiction story and I want to know if mine is good?
The Angel of Death
One would normally say: “It was a dark and stormy night…” but not for me, never for me. It wasn’t dark, or stormy, it was too hot, too bright when I came into this world. I have no memory of my mother. My true father, a Templar, stationed at Jerusalem, who was too drunk to notice me half the time, left me to myself. He raised me, kept me under his roof, fed me his own food, and raised me without my mother. His deeds may sound noble, but they weren’t. He himself wasn’t noble; he was a self-made man who trafficked in human lives. He bought, sold, and kidnapped children, men, women; whomever he could get his grimy paws on for gold. Most went to mines, others as servants to wealthy noblemen, and even some to darker fates too horrible for even me to mention. I was 14 when the White Angel came to claim his life, I barely remember it, but what I know, I shall tell you.
There was an array of noise, the clash and clang of steel on steel, the sound of metal crushing bone into tiny fragments. My father’s lackeys were forming up to protect him, putting their own lives on the line to protect the man whose life they knew was forfeit. The man in the white hood took them down with ease, their blood splattering on his robes, blossoming like flowers into the fabric in great quantities. The slaves in the warehouse were screaming as the blood, hot from life, drizzled onto their sweat-drenched bodies as the men were turned into lifeless corpses. “Stay away from me!” my father cried as he shoved the last of his remaining lackeys in front of him as the White Angel advanced at a wicked pace. He threw the two men off the roof and onto the streets below, terrifying the innocent merchants and citizens. He tackled my father to the ground and dispatched his life with a blade in the throat.
I let out a small shriek of surprise as my father was assassinated. Fear went rushing through me like water through a broken dam. His gaze shot to my trembling figure huddled up against the roof garden I had been watching from. I was a witness to this murder, this strange liberation from a horrible man who I had once called and claimed as my father. The beak of the cowl hid the assassins’ eyes in shadow, but he didn’t seem too pleased.
I have heard of the infamous assassins, robed in white, walking the streets and eliminating their targets, skillfully never leaving a single trace of evidence behind. Their leader, Al Mualim, a name that few dare to utter, a man better known as “The Old Man of The Mountain”, trains them in their deadly trade.
He advanced towards me, his blade drawn and steps even, I pressed up against the wall of the garden, paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t feel my body, except for the increasing tremors. I focused in on the blade, an intriguing symbol forged into the base of the blade itself: a strange ‘A’ and quarter of a circle above it. He still advanced, taking what seemed dramatically, slow, even, and intimidating steps towards me. I caught a good glimpse of his face inside his hood as he hefted the blade over his head and brought it crashing down into my shoulder. With a spray of hot crimson elixir, all went black…