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Tag: Illegal weapons

  • Saudi Arabia denounces ‘foreign interference’ in Sudan after RSF attacks

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    Saudi Arabia has reaffirmed its support for Sudan’s territorial unity and integrity, denouncing “criminal attacks” by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in North and South Kordofan states that have killed dozens of people, including women and children.

    In a statement on Saturday, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “foreign interference” by “some parties” in Sudan, including the “continued influx of illegal weapons, mercenaries and foreign fighters” for the continuation of the nearly three-year-old war.

    The statement did not specify the parties, though.

    It came a day after the Sudan Doctors Network, a humanitarian group, said a drone attack by the RSF on a vehicle transporting displaced families in North Kordofan killed at least 24 people, including eight children.

    The attack followed a series of drone raids on humanitarian aid convoys and fuel trucks across North Kordofan, including an assault on a World Food Programme convoy on Friday that killed at least one person.

    Fighting between the RSF and Sudan’s army has intensified across Kordofan in recent months following the fall of el-Fasher to the paramilitary group in October. The nearly three-year-long conflict has killed an estimated 40,000 people and pushed more than 21 million — almost half of Sudan’s population — into acute food shortages.

    The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday the deadly RSF attacks “are completely unjustifiable and constitute flagrant violations of all humanitarian norms and relevant international agreements”.

    The ministry demanded that “RSF immediately cease these violations and adhere to its moral and humanitarian obligation to ensure the delivery of relief aid to those in need in accordance with international humanitarian law” and a ceasefire deal agreed by the warring parties in Jeddah in 2023.

    It added that “some parties” were fuelling the conflict by sending in weapons and fighters, despite “these parties’ claim of supporting a political solution” in Sudan.

    The statement comes amid allegations by the Sudanese government that the United Arab Emirates has been arming and funding the RSF. Sudan filed a case against the UAE at the International Court of Justice last year, accusing it of “complicity in genocide” committed by the RSF against the Masalit community in West Darfur state.

    The UAE has denied the allegations.

    Separately, Saudi Arabia has also accused the UAE of backing the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen. The STC, initially part of the Saudi-backed internationally recognised government of Yemen, launched a major offensive last December in the country’s Hadramout and al-Mahra provinces, seeking to establish a separate state.

    The offensive resulted in a split in Yemen’s internationally-backed government, and prompted Saudi Arabia to launch deadly raids targeting the STC.

    The UAE pulled out its troops from Yemen following the Saudi allegation, saying it supports Saudi Arabia’s security.

    Saudi Arabia and the UAE were members of the Arab military coalition, formed to confront the Houthis, who took full control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in 2015.

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  • Neglect of Israel’s Bedouin communities could lead to catastrophe, activist warns

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    Hagai Reznik warns decades of neglect towards Israel’s Bedouin community in the Negev could lead to a catastrophe, citing illegal weapons, crime, and lack of state support as key issues.

    Decades of neglect towards Israel’s Bedouin community could lead to catastrophe, the Rifman Institute for the Development of the Negev’s Hagai Reznik warned on Saturday.

    Most of the Bedouin sector is normative, Reznik commented; however, he highlighted major issues, including the tens of thousands of illegal weapons circulating in the community, as well as repeated extortion and crime.

    The state “does not understand that their conception of Bedouins in the Negev will explode in the public’s face,” he warned.

    Reznik clarified that his dispute is not with any particular prime minister or government’s policy, but with neglect and a lack of understanding from the state as a whole. “Without aggressive treatment with state tools on the issue, including economic development, integration into the workforce, and boundaries and legislative rules being enforced, the situation is becoming a catastrophe.”

    “Some government ministries are listening, but there is no understanding that this requires inter-ministerial cooperation,” he added.

    Members of the Bedouin community in Southern Israel, convene a meeting with journalists, demanding justice for the death of their relative, Osama Abu Eissa, who was executed by Hamas terrorists during the October 7th attack, near Hura village, Israel November 9, 2023 (credit: REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD)

    Due to his work at the Rifman Institute, Reznik has worked on plans to promote the Negev and improve the quality of life for both Jewish and Bedouin residents of the region. However, he warned that the “fact that there are 150,000 Bedouins living in tin shacks, while the regulating body has no legal powers, and regulates only a few percent, if any at all, of property claims,” is a major issue, which leads to Bedouin settlements suffering from terrible neglect, in his view.

    Reznik is also working on an educational program in the community. He argues that many Bedouin students do not study in the Israeli education system, which widens the gap between the communities.

    He accuses the state of being at fault for this, alleging that “Instead of fostering quality Israeli education for integration into society, there is a lack of significant economic encouragement and encouragement of serious crime. Instead of the necessary searches and administrative detention needed for illegal weapons.”

    Over 100,000 illegal weapons, firearms

    The presence of over 100,000 illegal weapons and firearms, according to the Rifman Institute’s estimates, means that criminals in the region are almost as well armed as Israel Police‘s Southern District. “This endangers everyone, both Jewish residents and the majority normative Bedouin population,” Reznik warned.

    “The Negev is already paying a price and will continue to pay a heavy price. This will also harm central Israel, let’s not be mistaken,” he continued.

    “Most of the Bedouin residents are law-abiding and amazing people, but the balance will be disrupted if the neglect continues. We are one step away from there,” he added.

    Those among Reznik’s Bedouin friends who speak out against the state’s neglect feel like they cannot do so under fear of being threatened, he claimed.

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  • A man is convicted of attempted murder in shooting of 2 Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in 2020 | CNN

    A man is convicted of attempted murder in shooting of 2 Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in 2020 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A jury on Thursday convicted a man on charges relating to a series of crimes, including attempted murder in the shooting of two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies outside a transit station in September 2020, prosecutors said.

    Deonte Murray, 39, was found guilty on 10 charges, including three counts of attempted murder, carjacking, robbery, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and illegal possession of firearms, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Thursday.

    Murray shot two sheriff’s deputies while they were sitting in their car outside a Metro station in Compton, California, on September 12, 2020, authorities said. He was arrested three days after the shooting triggered a massive manhunt as the officers underwent surgery and recovery.

    Days before the officers’ shooting, Murray carried out other crimes, authorities said. In Compton on September 1, 2020, he shot the owner of a Mercedes-Benz in the leg with a high-powered rifle before stealing the car, prosecutors said.

    Police initially identified Murray as a suspect in the carjacking and arrested him September 15, 2020, authorities said. As police pursued him that day, Murray tossed a firearm from his car, and the weapon was later found to be the same gun used to shoot the deputies, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Kent Wegener said at the time. The firearm was a ghost gun, Wegener said, using a term for a weapon that is typically challenging to trace because it’s made from assembled parts.

    Police identified him as a suspect in the deputies’ shooting after his arrest in the carjacking, authorities said.

    The deputies’ shooting was caught on surveillance video, which showed a gunman walking up to the passenger door of their squad car parked outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Transit Center and opening fire and running away.

    Murray faces a life sentence in prison, the district attorney said in a news release Thursday. Murray’s attorney declined to comment on the conviction.

    “This verdict reaffirms our commitment to protecting those who serve and sends a clear message that acts of violence will not go unpunished,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said.

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  • 4 gun traffickers charged in New York, marking the state’s 1st prosecution under the bipartisan gun safety bill enacted in June | CNN

    4 gun traffickers charged in New York, marking the state’s 1st prosecution under the bipartisan gun safety bill enacted in June | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Four gun traffickers have been charged with illegally selling over 50 firearms in Brooklyn, marking the first prosecution in New York state under a bipartisan gun safety law enacted last June, law enforcement officials announced at a news conference Wednesday.

    Known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the federal law includes a gun trafficking provision that creates a standalone firearm trafficking conspiracy offense, which New York prosecutors used to charge the gun traffickers. The act also provides increased sentences of up to 15 years in prison for such crimes.

    “Prosecutions of gun trafficking prior to the enactment of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act relied on statutes concerning unlicensed sale, transport, and delivery of firearms, and false statements made to firearms dealers. By using the new law in the charges today, we’re able to streamline those prosecutions by charging firearms trafficking conspiracy as a standalone federal crime,” US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace said.

    “As the first prosecution to utilize this legislation in New York and one of the first in the country, we are demonstrating that we are prepared to use all the tools at our disposal, new and old, to combat gun violence,” Peace said.

    A seven-count indictment was unsealed in court, charging David Mccann, Tajhai Jones, Raymond Minaya, and Calvin Tabron with conspiring to traffic over 50 illegal firearms, Peace said.

    Prosecutors allege there were multiple illegal firearm purchases between January 2022 and August 2022, with the guns being sold during the day from vehicles in and around housing projects in Brooklyn.

    Two members of the gun trafficking operation allegedly got the firearms in Virginia and transported them to New York to be sold in Brooklyn, prosecutors said in a news release. Some of the firearms allegedly had defaced serial numbers and others were made from ghost gun kits, the release states.

    The group allegedly sold the guns to an undercover New York Police Department officer who recorded many of the transactions. The undercover officer allegedly told the group he was a drug dealer and needed the guns, with the intent to resell some of the weapons, prosecutors said.

    The guns recovered were traced back to several shootings in Brooklyn, prosecutors said, including one incident where eight people were struck by gunfire at a family celebration in Brooklyn in April 2022.

    Mccann, Jones, Minaya and Tabron were all arrested Wednesday morning, Peace said.

    Mccann and Minaya are also charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine base. Mccann is also charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, prosecutors said.

    Mccann and Minaya are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

    Jones and Tabron are scheduled to be arraigned in Virginia. They will have their detention hearings on Friday.

    Minaya’s attorney declined to comment. Mccann’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tabron is represented by Federal Public Defenders, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jones will have an attorney appointed to him by Criminal Justice Act, according to an EDNY spokesperson.

    This latest arrest marks one of the first instances where the law was used.

    Last September, a 25-year-old US citizen living in Mexico was charged in connection with trafficking firearms from Texas into Mexico. He was believed to have been the first person charged with part of the Safer Communities Act known as the Stop Illegal Trafficking In Firearms Act, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office from the Southern District of Texas.

    The 25-year-old alleged trafficker was caught driving south on Interstate 35 heading to the port in Laredo, Texas, when he was caught with 17 guns in his car, according to Justice Department officials. In all, he bought 231 firearms, investigators said.

    The bipartisan act, signed by President Biden in June 2022, was the first major federal gun safety legislation in decades and a significant bipartisan breakthrough on one of the most contentious policy issues in Washington.

    The legislation came together in the aftermath of mass shootings at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood.

    On Wednesday, Peace said the new law makes it easier to prosecute interstate gun trafficking cases.

    Eastern District of New York US Attorney Breon Peace speaks during a news conference.

    “Now we can charge the firearm trafficking itself without the obligation to show that someone was in the business of selling firearms and that’s a significant difference in what proof and evidence we would have to put forward,” Peace said, noting that the penalty has also increased. “Under the other statutes, the maximum penalties would likely be five or ten years. Under this Act, they’ll be facing up to 15 years.”

    NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell also spoke about the flood of illegal weapons from nearby states with more relaxed firearm regulations, commonly known as the “Iron Pipeline,” highlighting how police officers were killed in the line of duty with illegal guns from other cities.

    In December 2014, NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot and killed as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn, Sewell said. The gun was bought in a Georgia pawn shop before making its way to New York City, according to Sewell.

    A year later, Officer Brian Moore was shot and killed in Queens with a firearm that was stolen from a pawn shop in Georgia, Sewell said.

    Officers Wilber Mora and Jason Rivera were shot and killed last year while responding to a domestic incident with a gun that was stolen from Baltimore in 2017.

    “Every day, NYPD officers, with our partners, will continue to interdict, interrupt, investigate and hold criminals accountable,” Sewell said. “New Yorkers in every neighborhood should be free from fear and tragedy related to gun violence.”

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  • Man seen at Takeoff’s fatal shooting facing weapons charge

    Man seen at Takeoff’s fatal shooting facing weapons charge

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    HOUSTON — A man who has been accused of illegally having a gun at the time that rapper Takeoff was fatally shot last month following a private party at a downtown Houston bowling alley has been charged in connection with the case, authorities said Wednesday.

    But during a court hearing, prosecutors said the suspect, Cameron Joshua, 22, is not believed to have fired a weapon during Takeoff’s shooting. Joshua is facing a charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon for allegedly having a handgun when the rapper was killed around 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 1 as gunfire erupted outside of 810 Billiards & Bowling following a private party.

    Takeoff, whose off-stage name was Kirsnick Khari Ball, formed one-third of the Grammy Award-nominated rap trio Migos with uncle Quavo and cousin Offset from suburban Atlanta.

    “We believe Cameron Joshua has been appropriately charged in this case and we’re continuing our investigation into the death of Takeoff,” Matt Gilliam, a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, told reporters in a brief statement after Wednesday’s hearing.

    Christopher Downey, Joshua’s attorney, told reporters that he has not seen anything to suggest that his client fired a weapon or had anything to do with Takeoff’s shooting.

    “The bottom line is … Cameron Joshua did not shoot Takeoff,” Downey said.

    When asked if Joshua knows who shot Takeoff, Downey said, “We will discuss that with the DA’s office if we decide to. Right now, we’re charged with offenses and we’re not saying anything.”

    During the hearing, a judge decided to keep Joshua in custody until a bond hearing set for next week.

    Joshua is also facing a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon for allegedly having a weapon when he was arrested on Nov. 22. He had already been out on bond after being charged in Harris County with having a fake ID in September 2021 and with burglary of a vehicle in April. He had also been convicted in October in Los Angeles County of grand theft.

    Houston police have said that least two people discharged firearms when Takeoff was killed. Takeoff’s primary cause of death was listed as “penetrating gunshot wounds of head and torso into arm,” according to an autopsy.

    Two others were hit by gunfire but had non-life-threatening wounds.

    After the shooting, investigators sought to speak with the 40 people who attended the party and fled after the gunfire.

    Migos first broke through with the massive hit “Versace” in 2013. They had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, though Takeoff was not on their multi-week No. 1 hit “Bad and Boujee,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They put out a trilogy of albums called “Culture,” “Culture II” and “Culture III,” with the first two hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

    At a memorial service earlier this month in Atlanta, fans as well as recording artists such as Justin Bieber and Drake celebrated Takeoff’s musical legacy.

    ———

    Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

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  • Authorities: Shooting near Louisiana university injures 11

    Authorities: Shooting near Louisiana university injures 11

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    BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana shooting injured 11 people at a fraternity house near Southern University’s campus, which is in the midst of celebrating its homecoming festivities, and two people are in custody, Baton Rouge police said.

    Authorities initially said nine people were injured early Friday at the party held just off campus. At a news conference late Friday, Deputy Chief Myron Daniels confirmed that two others were wounded, The Advocate reported. Police said the 11 victims have injuries that are not life-threatening.

    The two men arrested were identified as Daryl Stansberry, 28, and Miles Moss, 24, and each faces 11 counts of being accessories after attempted first-degree murder and illegal use of weapons, news outlets reported. It was unknown if either were represented by an attorney who could speak on their behalf. They’re being held in the East Baton Rouge Parish jail.

    A motive for the shooting was not released, but Daniels said investigators believe it was “an isolated incident.” A police spokesman said it appeared to have resulted from something that happened at an annual party, hosted by Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, and not as a result of an ongoing feud.

    It’s not the first time the “Kappa Luau” ended in gunfire. In 2018, LSU basketball player Wayde Sims was shot dead during an altercation at the off-campus party.

    Southern University released a statement hours after Friday’s shooting, emphasizing that the party was not a school-sponsored event and that the shooting did not happen on the university’s grounds.

    Southern University police said officers would beef up security at remaining homecoming events that included Saturday’s homecoming game against Virginia-Lynchburg. The game kicks off at 4 p.m.

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