18 charged in weapons scheme
New York U.S. authorities charged 18 people in an alleged scheme to smuggle grenade launchers, shoulder-fired missiles and other Russian military weapons into the United States.
The arrests resulted from a yearlong investigation in which an FBI informant posed as an arms buyer who claimed to have ties to al Qaeda.
The case, which took investigators to South Africa, Armenia and the Georgian Republic, also included wiretaps on seven phones and interceptions of more than 15,000 calls, according to prosecutors, the FBI and police.
The informant, an explosives expert, contacted the FBI after he was approached by a man who said he had access to weapons from the former Soviet Union and believed the informant could find a willing buyer, federal prosecutors said.
Using a digital camera, members of the ring, which included Armenians and South Africans, provided pictures of the weapons they said they had available for sale, prosecutors said.
Security tight for Atlanta suspect
Atlanta Ringed by 19 officers in a cinderblock jail room, his hands and ankles shackled, the man accused in the crime spree that left an Atlanta judge and three others dead went before a judge Tuesday for the first time since the rampage.
Brian Nichols, 33, was informed that authorities plan to charge him with murder.
Nichols looked straight ahead during the five-minute hearing and did not make eye contact with anyone in the room, including the judge. He spoke only once, when Judge Frank Cox asked him if he had any questions.
“Not at this time,” he said.
Nichols was held without bail on the rape charge he was on trial for Friday, when he allegedly overpowered a guard at the Fulton County courthouse, stole her gun and started a rampage that terrorized Atlanta and left four people dead.
Boy explains denial of Jackson molestation
Santa Maria, Calif. The teenage boy who says Michael Jackson molested him left the witness stand Tuesday after telling jurors that he denied the abuse to a school administrator because he was tired of the other kids making fun of him.
The conversation with the administrator occurred after the broadcast of a TV documentary that showed Jackson with the boy. In the documentary, the pop star acknowledged sharing his bed with children but characterized the practice as innocent.
The boy, now 15, testified he was harassed by schoolmates who said he had been “raped” by Jackson, and he got into fights as a result. He was then sent to see the school’s dean, who asked him whether Jackson had molested him.
“I told him that it didn’t happen,” the boy said. “All the kids were already making fun of me at the school and I didn’t want anyone to think it had really happened.”
Police chief jailed after two DUI busts
Strasburg, Va. The police chief of a Virginia town got busted for drunken driving – twice in one day.
Middletown Police Chief Roger Ashley, 41, was ordered held without bail Monday, after spending the weekend in jail.
Officers responded to the first incident Saturday after Ashley’s unmarked police car had run into a vehicle. His blood-alcohol level was 0.29, according to the arrest warrant – more than three times Virginia’s 0.08 legal limit. His driver’s license was suspended.
Five hours later, he was arrested a second time, in his personal vehicle, Strasburg Police Chief Marshall Robinson said. Police said he had a 0.25 blood-alcohol level.
Middletown officials expressed sadness over Ashley’s arrests.
“Roger has done so much for the town over the years,” Mayor Gene T. Dicks said of the man who has been with the town’s police department since 1987.