Sept. 21, 2001 – Seven men from Colombia and the Domnican Republic picked up at sea early Thursday were charged in U.S. District Court Friday with conspiring to smuggle more than half a ton of cocaine into the United States.
The men, who appeared before Magistrate Judge Geoffrey Barnard on St. Thomas wearing orange prison jumpsuits, will be held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Rufino Rodriguez Sanchez, Julio Rodriguez Valdez, Bautista Rodriguez-Rijo, Marco Aurelio Otalora, Huber Gomez Garcia, Julio Balbuena-Peru and Reginaldo Matos-Cueva were arrested early Friday after the two boats they were aboard were stopped near Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands, according to a court affidavit signed by Drug Enforcement Administration agent Mark McHugh.
In one of the boats, narcotics agents found 20 cocaine bales weighing more than 50 pounds each, McHugh stated in the affidavit. One estimate put the value of the cocaine at about $10 million.
Officials indicated that five of the men were from the Dominican Republic and two were from Colombia but did not identify the individuals by nationality.
About 11 p.m. Wednesday, U.S. Coast Guard officials contacted the DEA about a vessel sitting stationary in the water near the Saba Bank between Sint Maarten and the Virgin Islands. Smugglers use the area frequently for air drops of narcotics destined for waiting boats, McHugh stated in the affidavit. A Dutch naval vessel reported at the same time that a low-flying airplane was in the area, according to court documents.
The Coast Guard tracked the vessel by radar and positioned two cutters southeast of the Virgin Islands, and boats were dispatched by the British Virgin Islands police and U.S. National Park Service, McHugh wrote.
While the vessel was being tracked, a second suspect boat headed toward the first, and the two boats, running without lights, met up about 15 miles southeast of Norman Island, according to the court papers.
About 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Coast Guard personnel stopped the first boat and took the four men aboard into custody. They also found the 20 bales of cocaine on board the 30-foot vessel.
The other boat, a smaller, speedier vessel, attempted to flee. After a chase, officers from the B.V.I. police, Park Service and Coast Guard halted it and took the three men aboard into custody. Investigators found traces of cocaine on two of the men in that boat, McHugh wrote.
YUSUF SENTENCED FOR EMPLOYING 3 ILLEGALS
Sept. 21, 2001 – The owner of the Plaza Extra supermarkets on St. Croix and St. Thomas has been sentenced to one month of home confinement and one year of probation for having employed three illegal aliens.
Fathi Yusuf had pleaded guilty in June 2000 to three counts of hiring undocumented workers. The maximum penalty for each count was six months in prison and a $3,000 fine.
As part of his sentence, Yusuf, 60, will be allowed to go to work while he is on home confinement. He must provide investigators a list of all of his employees each month, according to court records.
Since entering his guilty plea, Yusuf, a father of 10, has received permission at times to travel to Jordan and the West Bank to attend to family matters, including the weddings of two of his children.
In entering the plea agreement last year, Yusuf admitted to hiring Ahmed Daas in September 1998, as well as Mohammed Alqadi and Suleiman Mohammed Jussef in 1999, according to court documents.
Fathi Yusuf had pleaded guilty in June 2000 to three counts of hiring undocumented workers. The maximum penalty for each count was six months in prison and a $3,000 fine.
As part of his sentence, Yusuf, 60, will be allowed to go to work while he is on home confinement. He must provide investigators a list of all of his employees each month, according to court records.
Since entering his guilty plea, Yusuf, a father of 10, has received permission at times to travel to Jordan and the West Bank to attend to family matters, including the weddings of two of his children.
In entering the plea agreement last year, Yusuf admitted to hiring Ahmed Daas in September 1998, as well as Mohammed Alqadi and Suleiman Mohammed Jussef in 1999, according to court documents.
7 CHARGED IN COCAINE SEIZURE AT SEA
Sept. 21, 2001 – Seven men from Colombia and the Dominican Republic picked up at sea early Thursday were charged in U.S. District Court Friday with conspiring to smuggle more than half a ton of cocaine into the United States.
The men, who appeared before Magistrate Judge Geoffrey Barnard on St. Thomas wearing orange prison jumpsuits, will be held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Rufino Rodriguez Sanchez, Julio Rodriguez Valdez, Bautista Rodriguez-Rijo, Marco Aurelio Otalora, Huber Gomez Garcia, Julio Balbuena-Peru and Reginaldo Matos-Cueva were arrested early Friday after the two boats they were aboard were stopped near Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands, according to a court affidavit signed by Drug Enforcement Administration agent Mark McHugh.
In one of the boats, narcotics agents found 20 cocaine bales weighing more than 50 pounds each, McHugh stated in the affidavit. One estimate put the value of the cocaine at about $10 million.
Officials indicated that five of the men were from the Dominican Republic and two were from Colombia but did not identify the individuals by nationality.
About 11 p.m. Wednesday, U.S. Coast Guard officials contacted the DEA about a vessel sitting stationary in the water near the Saba Bank between Sint Maarten and the Virgin Islands. Smugglers use the area frequently for air drops of narcotics destined for waiting boats, McHugh stated in the affidavit. A Dutch naval vessel reported at the same time that a low-flying airplane was in the area, according to court documents.
The Coast Guard tracked the vessel by radar and positioned two cutters southeast of the Virgin Islands, and boats were dispatched by the British Virgin Islands police and U.S. National Park Service, McHugh wrote.
While the vessel was being tracked, a second suspect boat headed toward the first, and the two boats, running without lights, met up about 15 miles southeast of Norman Island, according to the court papers.
About 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Coast Guard personnel stopped the first boat and took the four men aboard into custody. They also found the 20 bales of cocaine on board the 30-foot vessel.
The other boat, a smaller, speedier vessel, attempted to flee. After a chase, officers from the B.V.I. police, Park Service and Coast Guard halted it and took the three men aboard into custody. Investigators found traces of cocaine on two of the men in that boat, McHugh wrote.
The men, who appeared before Magistrate Judge Geoffrey Barnard on St. Thomas wearing orange prison jumpsuits, will be held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Rufino Rodriguez Sanchez, Julio Rodriguez Valdez, Bautista Rodriguez-Rijo, Marco Aurelio Otalora, Huber Gomez Garcia, Julio Balbuena-Peru and Reginaldo Matos-Cueva were arrested early Friday after the two boats they were aboard were stopped near Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands, according to a court affidavit signed by Drug Enforcement Administration agent Mark McHugh.
In one of the boats, narcotics agents found 20 cocaine bales weighing more than 50 pounds each, McHugh stated in the affidavit. One estimate put the value of the cocaine at about $10 million.
Officials indicated that five of the men were from the Dominican Republic and two were from Colombia but did not identify the individuals by nationality.
About 11 p.m. Wednesday, U.S. Coast Guard officials contacted the DEA about a vessel sitting stationary in the water near the Saba Bank between Sint Maarten and the Virgin Islands. Smugglers use the area frequently for air drops of narcotics destined for waiting boats, McHugh stated in the affidavit. A Dutch naval vessel reported at the same time that a low-flying airplane was in the area, according to court documents.
The Coast Guard tracked the vessel by radar and positioned two cutters southeast of the Virgin Islands, and boats were dispatched by the British Virgin Islands police and U.S. National Park Service, McHugh wrote.
While the vessel was being tracked, a second suspect boat headed toward the first, and the two boats, running without lights, met up about 15 miles southeast of Norman Island, according to the court papers.
About 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Coast Guard personnel stopped the first boat and took the four men aboard into custody. They also found the 20 bales of cocaine on board the 30-foot vessel.
The other boat, a smaller, speedier vessel, attempted to flee. After a chase, officers from the B.V.I. police, Park Service and Coast Guard halted it and took the three men aboard into custody. Investigators found traces of cocaine on two of the men in that boat, McHugh wrote.
7 CHARGED IN COCAINE SEIZURE AT SEA
Sept. 21, 2001 – Seven men from Colombia and the Dominican Republic picked up at sea early Thursday were charged in U.S. District Court Friday with conspiring to smuggle more than half a ton of cocaine into the United States.
The men, who appeared before Magistrate Judge Geoffrey Barnard on St. Thomas wearing orange prison jumpsuits, will be held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Rufino Rodriguez Sanchez, Julio Rodriguez Valdez, Bautista Rodriguez-Rijo, Marco Aurelio Otalora, Huber Gomez Garcia, Julio Balbuena-Peru and Reginaldo Matos-Cueva were arrested early Friday after the two boats they were aboard were stopped near Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands, according to a court affidavit signed by Drug Enforcement Administration agent Mark McHugh.
In one of the boats, narcotics agents found 20 cocaine bales weighing more than 50 pounds each, McHugh stated in the affidavit. One estimate put the value of the cocaine at about $10 million.
Officials indicated that five of the men were from the Dominican Republic and two were from Colombia but did not identify the individuals by nationality.
About 11 p.m. Wednesday, U.S. Coast Guard officials contacted the DEA about a vessel sitting stationary in the water near the Saba Bank between Sint Maarten and the Virgin Islands. Smugglers use the area frequently for air drops of narcotics destined for waiting boats, McHugh stated in the affidavit. A Dutch naval vessel reported at the same time that a low-flying airplane was in the area, according to court documents.
The Coast Guard tracked the vessel by radar and positioned two cutters southeast of the Virgin Islands, and boats were dispatched by the British Virgin Islands police and U.S. National Park Service, McHugh wrote.
While the vessel was being tracked, a second suspect boat headed toward the first, and the two boats, running without lights, met up about 15 miles southeast of Norman Island, according to the court papers.
About 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Coast Guard personnel stopped the first boat and took the four men aboard into custody. They also found the 20 bales of cocaine on board the 30-foot vessel.
The other boat, a smaller, speedier vessel, attempted to flee. After a chase, officers from the B.V.I. police, Park Service and Coast Guard halted it and took the three men aboard into custody. Investigators found traces of cocaine on two of the men in that boat, McHugh wrote.
The men, who appeared before Magistrate Judge Geoffrey Barnard on St. Thomas wearing orange prison jumpsuits, will be held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Rufino Rodriguez Sanchez, Julio Rodriguez Valdez, Bautista Rodriguez-Rijo, Marco Aurelio Otalora, Huber Gomez Garcia, Julio Balbuena-Peru and Reginaldo Matos-Cueva were arrested early Friday after the two boats they were aboard were stopped near Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands, according to a court affidavit signed by Drug Enforcement Administration agent Mark McHugh.
In one of the boats, narcotics agents found 20 cocaine bales weighing more than 50 pounds each, McHugh stated in the affidavit. One estimate put the value of the cocaine at about $10 million.
Officials indicated that five of the men were from the Dominican Republic and two were from Colombia but did not identify the individuals by nationality.
About 11 p.m. Wednesday, U.S. Coast Guard officials contacted the DEA about a vessel sitting stationary in the water near the Saba Bank between Sint Maarten and the Virgin Islands. Smugglers use the area frequently for air drops of narcotics destined for waiting boats, McHugh stated in the affidavit. A Dutch naval vessel reported at the same time that a low-flying airplane was in the area, according to court documents.
The Coast Guard tracked the vessel by radar and positioned two cutters southeast of the Virgin Islands, and boats were dispatched by the British Virgin Islands police and U.S. National Park Service, McHugh wrote.
While the vessel was being tracked, a second suspect boat headed toward the first, and the two boats, running without lights, met up about 15 miles southeast of Norman Island, according to the court papers.
About 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Coast Guard personnel stopped the first boat and took the four men aboard into custody. They also found the 20 bales of cocaine on board the 30-foot vessel.
The other boat, a smaller, speedier vessel, attempted to flee. After a chase, officers from the B.V.I. police, Park Service and Coast Guard halted it and took the three men aboard into custody. Investigators found traces of cocaine on two of the men in that boat, McHugh wrote.
YUSUF SENTENCED FOR EMPLOYING 3 ILLEGALS
Sept. 21, 2001 – The owner of the Plaza Extra supermarkets on St. Croix and St. Thomas has been sentenced to one month of home confinement and one year of probation for having employed three illegal aliens.
Fathi Yusuf had pleaded guilty in June 2000 to three counts of hiring undocumented workers. The maximum penalty for each count was six months in prison and a $3,000 fine.
As part of his sentence, Yusuf, 60, will be allowed to go to work while he is on home confinement. He must provide investigators a list of all of his employees each month, according to court records.
Since entering his guilty plea, Yusuf, a father of 10, has received permission at times to travel to Jordan and the West Bank to attend to family matters, including the weddings of two of his children.
In entering the plea agreement last year, Yusuf admitted to hiring Ahmed Daas in September 1998, as well as Mohammed Alqadi and Suleiman Mohammed Jussef in 1999, according to court documents.
Fathi Yusuf had pleaded guilty in June 2000 to three counts of hiring undocumented workers. The maximum penalty for each count was six months in prison and a $3,000 fine.
As part of his sentence, Yusuf, 60, will be allowed to go to work while he is on home confinement. He must provide investigators a list of all of his employees each month, according to court records.
Since entering his guilty plea, Yusuf, a father of 10, has received permission at times to travel to Jordan and the West Bank to attend to family matters, including the weddings of two of his children.
In entering the plea agreement last year, Yusuf admitted to hiring Ahmed Daas in September 1998, as well as Mohammed Alqadi and Suleiman Mohammed Jussef in 1999, according to court documents.
'OPENING DOORS' IS A CLOSED CASE, KNIGHT SAYS
Sept. 21, 2001 – If the local radio talk show "Opening Doors" returns to the V.I. airwaves, it apparently won't be on WVWI/Radio One.
Management at the station abruptly yanked the program after the broadcast last Friday, in which the host and several callers expressed what some listeners took to be anti-American sentiments.
Randolph H. Knight, president of Knight Quality Stations, of which WVWI is one, has been terse in his public comments about the decision, but on Friday he indicated he is sticking by it. He confirmed that he has a tentative meeting set with the former host, but added, "Iris Kern will not be on my station again."
"I don't know what I said that was so incredibly offensive," Kern, a mental-health counselor and executive director of The Safety Zone on St. John, said Thursday night. But she added that she had allowed some callers to criticize the United States after last week's terrorist attacks on the mainland. "I don't think that was very well received," she said.
In recent broadcasts she also had questioned the decision of the United States to pull out of the World Conference against Racism held the first week of September in Durban, South Africa, which she attended. She said Thursday that she had been surprised by the widespread anti-American sentiments expressed at the conference.
Knight is calling his action a "programming change." He told the Source, "I wanted more of a variety show."
June Archibald, a veteran publicist and host of WVWI's weekend "Saturday Basket" show, is now hosting the "Morning Mix" in Kern's old time slot of 7:30 to 9 a.m., Monday through Friday.
"Opening Doors," created after longtime morning show host Anita Davis relocated to the mainland, would have had its second anniversary next month. "Closing doors is a little more appropriate," Kern said. She added that she is "not going shopping" for another station to host the program. "If somebody offers me something, I'll think about it."
Management at the station abruptly yanked the program after the broadcast last Friday, in which the host and several callers expressed what some listeners took to be anti-American sentiments.
Randolph H. Knight, president of Knight Quality Stations, of which WVWI is one, has been terse in his public comments about the decision, but on Friday he indicated he is sticking by it. He confirmed that he has a tentative meeting set with the former host, but added, "Iris Kern will not be on my station again."
"I don't know what I said that was so incredibly offensive," Kern, a mental-health counselor and executive director of The Safety Zone on St. John, said Thursday night. But she added that she had allowed some callers to criticize the United States after last week's terrorist attacks on the mainland. "I don't think that was very well received," she said.
In recent broadcasts she also had questioned the decision of the United States to pull out of the World Conference against Racism held the first week of September in Durban, South Africa, which she attended. She said Thursday that she had been surprised by the widespread anti-American sentiments expressed at the conference.
Knight is calling his action a "programming change." He told the Source, "I wanted more of a variety show."
June Archibald, a veteran publicist and host of WVWI's weekend "Saturday Basket" show, is now hosting the "Morning Mix" in Kern's old time slot of 7:30 to 9 a.m., Monday through Friday.
"Opening Doors," created after longtime morning show host Anita Davis relocated to the mainland, would have had its second anniversary next month. "Closing doors is a little more appropriate," Kern said. She added that she is "not going shopping" for another station to host the program. "If somebody offers me something, I'll think about it."
EDA BOARD MEETING
The Economic Development Authority Board will meet at 10 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 24, at the DPNR Conference Room, St. Croix.
VETERANS COUNSELING SCHEDULE
Counseling for veterans has been scheduled from 2 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the Veterans Affairs office located at #2C Estate Contant, St. Thomas.
Couselor Teresa Barajas of the Veterans Affairs Regional office in San Juan will answer questions on benefits, claims, pensions and compensation.
For more information call 773-6663.
Couselor Teresa Barajas of the Veterans Affairs Regional office in San Juan will answer questions on benefits, claims, pensions and compensation.
For more information call 773-6663.
VETERANS COUNSELING SCHEDULE
Counseling for veterans has been scheduled from 2 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 26, at the Veterans Affairs Office located at #2C Estate Contant on St. Thomas.
Counselor Teresa Barajas of the Veterans Affairs Regional office in San Juan, Puerto Rico will answer questions on benefits, claims, pensions and compensation.
For more information call 773-6663.
Counselor Teresa Barajas of the Veterans Affairs Regional office in San Juan, Puerto Rico will answer questions on benefits, claims, pensions and compensation.
For more information call 773-6663.
VETERANS COUNSELING SCHEDULE
Counseling for veterans has been scheduled from 2 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27, at the Veterans Affairs Office in Estate Richmond, Christiansted, St. Croix.
Counselor Teresa Barajas of the Veterans Afffairs Regional office in San Juan, Puerto Rico will answer questions on benefits, claims, pensions and compensation.
for more information call 773-6663.
Counselor Teresa Barajas of the Veterans Afffairs Regional office in San Juan, Puerto Rico will answer questions on benefits, claims, pensions and compensation.
for more information call 773-6663.
