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Diesel thieves fuel up with $63K in fraudulent sales, police say

Diesel thieves fuel up with $63K in fraudulent sales, police say

Yahoo31-01-2025

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police in Covington, Tennessee, say they have uncovered thousands of gallons of fraudulent diesel fuel sales worth some $63,000.
Two suspects in Memphis are accused of using multiple trucks to fill containers full of diesel, then charging the fuel to fraudulent credit cards, police said. A third suspect is still wanted.
The investigation began late last year with a tip about suspicious trucks and transactions at a CO-OP 24/7 gas station in Covington. Police say they also found similar thefts in Fayette and Hardeman counties.
Detectives worked jointly with Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Memphis Police Department and Somerville Police Department to develop suspects.
8 detained by ICE from DeSoto County jail
Over the last few days, U.S. Marshals executed search warrants at two Memphis addresses and arrested two suspects.
Rylan Hughes, 22, was charged with Theft of Property Over $1,000. Covington detectives say they seized several debit cards, cell phones, and a white Ford F350 truck.
Jordan Sykes, 23, was charged with Theft of Property Over $1,000. Both Hughes and Sykes were taken to jail at the Tipton County Sheriff's Office and are being held on a $100,000 bond.
A third suspect, identified as Andre Davis Jr., 30, of the 3000 block of Eagle Trace inMemphis has active warrants for Theft of Property Over $1,000.
Davis is a fugitive and is avoiding capture by law enforcement. Anyone with tips can contact Covington Police at 901-475-1261.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Abrego Garcia to return to US to face charges
Abrego Garcia to return to US to face charges

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Abrego Garcia to return to US to face charges

The Trump administration has moved to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia from imprisonment in a Salvadoran facility in order to file a criminal case against him with charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. The return of Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported despite being protected from removal to his home country, comes after administration officials had fought court rulings ordering his return. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he would never live a 'peaceful' life in the U.S. The newly unsealed indictment charges Abrego Garcia with unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens and a related conspiracy charge. He stands accused of making more than 100 trips from Texas to other parts of the country over the course of years to transport migrants in exchange for payment. The investigation stems from when the Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled over Abrego Garcia in December 2022 for speeding, and video of the incident shows the officer skeptical of a van full of passengers without any luggage. The indictment alleges Abrego Garcia falsely told the officer he was driving construction workers from St. Louis, but he was actually on one of his trips transporting undocumented migrants. 'The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order. Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they're bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him,' attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told The Hill in a statement. 'This shows that they were playing games with the court all along. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you're punished, not after. This is an abuse of power, not justice. The government should put him on trial, yes—but in front of the same immigration judge who heard his case in 2019, which is the ordinary manner of doing things, 'to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,' as the Supreme Court ordered.' Attorney General Pam Bondi lauded the case. 'Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant, and they agreed to return him to our country,' she said. 'The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring. They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women.' Bondi also said Friday that after his trial, and serving his sentence if convicted, Abrego Garcia would be deported to El Salvador. It's not clear how such a move would be lawful, as an immigration court judge in 2019 barred him from being deported to his home country. 'This is what American justice looks like upon completion of his sentence. We anticipate he will be returned to his home country of El Salvador,' she said. The Trump administration had been ordered by several courts to return Abrego Garcia, most recently in a Supreme Court decision from April saying the White House must 'facilitate' his return. For months the White House argued that only meant supplying a plane if the government of El Salvador wished to return him. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said during a televised Oval Office meeting with President Trump that he would not do so. But in another recent case, the Trump administration arranged Wednesday for a Guatemalan man wrongly deported to Mexico to return to the U.S. on the return leg of a deportation flight, the first known instance of the administration's compliance with a court order directing the return of a migrant. And on Monday, the Justice Department alerted the lower court judge overseeing the ongoing proceedings in the Abrego Garcia case that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was leading negotiations over the man's return. The new case against Abrego Garcia will no doubt ignite significant scrutiny. Bondi said the case was based on 'recently found facts.' 'Thanks to the bright light that has been shined on Abrego Garcia, this investigation continued with actually amazing police work, and we were able to track this case and stop this international smuggling ring,' she said. Friday's court filings make numerous references to Abrego Garcia's alleged membership in MS-13, saying he was also often accompanied by members of the gang. But his family has denied he had any affiliation with the gang. A review of court records by The Hill show the accusation is largely based on a tip from one confidential informant. 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And so the reason why he is back and was returned was because it's an arrest warrant which was presented to the government and in El Salvador. So there's a big difference there as far as whether it makes the ongoing litigation in Maryland moot,' he said. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador and had demanded his return, said the Trump administration had an obligation to return him to the U.S. and have its claims weighed by the U.S. court system. 'For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States,' he said in a statement. 'As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it's about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all. The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.' Updated at 4:36 p.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Attorney general says Kilmar Abrego Garcia was part of international smuggling ring
Attorney general says Kilmar Abrego Garcia was part of international smuggling ring

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time9 hours ago

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Attorney general says Kilmar Abrego Garcia was part of international smuggling ring

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on April 6, alleging that the immigrant from El Salvador was part of an international smuggling ring and characterizing his behavior as "disturbing." Bondi made the announcement minutes after a federal court in Tennessee unsealed charges accusing him of transporting "illegal aliens for financial gain" and conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. She said the incidents took place over years and included women, children, and violent gang members. The charges are the latest twist in the story of the man whose improper deportation to a Salvadoran prison created controversy over deportations without due process under the administration of President Donald Trump. For months, multiple courts had ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. The same day the charges were unsealed, the government brought Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. to face them. 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If he's convicted, the maximum prison sentence for Abrego Garcia's conspiracy charge is 10 years in prison and $250,000. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Disturbing': Pam Bondi announces Kilmar Abrego Garcia charges

Deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to US to face charges
Deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to US to face charges

Yahoo

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Deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to US to face charges

A man the Donald Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador has been brought back to the United States, where authorities say he will face criminal charges. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, a Salvadoran immigrant who had lived nearly half his life in Maryland before he was deported in March, faces charges of transporting undocumented migrants inside the US, according to recently unsealed court records. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday that Abrego Garcia was returned to the US to 'face justice'. The indictment against him was filed on May 21, more than two months after he was deported in spite of a court order barring his removal. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which suspected Abrego Garcia of human trafficking but ultimately issued only a warning for an expired driver's license, according to a Department of Homeland Security report. Bondi, speaking at a news conference, said a grand jury had 'found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring'. She said Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the US after American officials presented his government with an arrest warrant. Abrego Garcia had been sent to El Salvador as part of a Trump scheme to move undocumented migrants it accuses of being gang members, to prison in the Central American country without due process. Bukele said in a social media post that his government works with the Trump administration and 'of course' would not refuse a request to return 'a gang member' to the US. Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said Abrego Garcia could face up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted. But 'that does not deal with the ongoing matter of whether or not he should be deported', she added. 'That's a separate legal matter.' Abrego Garcia will have the chance to enter a plea in court and contest the charges at trial. If he is convicted, he would be deported to El Salvador after serving his sentence, Bondi said. In a statement, Abrego Garcia's lawyer, Andrew Rossman, said it would now be up to the US judicial system to ensure he received due process. 'Today's action proves what we've known all along – that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,' said Rossman, a partner at law firm Quinn Emanuel. Abrego Garcia's deportation defied an immigration judge's 2019 order granting him protection from being sent back to El Salvador, where it found he was likely to be persecuted by gangs if returned, court records show. Trump critics pointed to the erroneous deportation as an example of the excesses of the Republican president's aggressive approach to stepping up deportations. Officials countered by alleging that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang. His lawyers have denied that he was a gang member and said he had not been convicted of any crime. Abrego Garcia's case has become a flash point for escalating tensions between the executive branch and the judiciary, which has ruled against a number of Trump's policies. The US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, with liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor saying the government had cited no basis for what she called his 'warrantless arrest'. US District Judge Paula Xinis also opened a probe into what, if anything, the Trump administration did to secure his return, after his lawyers accused officials of stonewalling their requests for information.

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