NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) - As border security has tightened, drug cartels have turned to tunneling beneath the ground to avoid detection. Nearly 170 tunnels have been found nationwide since 1990, most along the Arizona and California border with Mexico. The job of searching these networks can be dangerous, so the U.S. Border Patrol is unveiling its latest technology in the underground war - a wireless, camera-equipped robot that can do the job in a fraction of the time. How are they built? [continues 273 words]
WEST PALM BEACH (AP) -- Authorities investigating the slaying of a family of four alongside a Florida highway said Friday that the father probably was involved in drug trafficking and that the suspected killer is in custody. The suspect was among three men and a woman arrested Wednesday on drug charges who are "persons of interest" in the killings, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said. No one has been charged in the slayings. The couple and their two young sons were found shot to death Oct. 13 off a desolate stretch of Florida's Turnpike near Port St. Lucie, about 50 miles north of their home in the Palm Beach County city of Greenacres. [continues 604 words]
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh cannot own a gun and must submit to random drug tests under an agreement filed Monday that will dismiss a prescription fraud charge against the conservative commentator after 18 months if he complies with the terms. Limbaugh said on his radio show that "I have been undergoing random drug tests for two years and seven months. In the agreement, I have not admitted guilt, so that's the news." He added: "Do you think if there was any real evidence, we would have reached a settlement?" [continues 448 words]
Radio Host Accepts Tough Restrictions WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (AP) - Rush Limbaugh declared victory Monday after signing a deal with prosecutors that will dismiss a prescription fraud charge in 18 months if he complies with the terms. Under the deal, Limbaugh cannot own a gun, must submit to random drug tests and must continue treatment for his acknowledged addiction to painkillers. But he did not have to admit guilt, and he continued to proclaim his innocence on his radio show. "From my point of view, the end result will be as if I had gone to court and won, but the matter is concluded much sooner," the conservative commentator, 55, told his listeners. "I have spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars with lawyers over the past 27 months fighting this at every stage." [continues 128 words]
As Part Of An Agreement To Dismiss A Prescription Fraud Charge, Radio Commentator Rush Limbaugh Must Undergo Random Drug Testing WEST PALM BEACH - Rush Limbaugh must submit to random drug tests under an agreement filed Monday that will dismiss a prescription fraud charge against the conservative commentator after 18 months if he complies with the terms. He also must continue treatment for his acknowledged addiction to painkillers, and he cannot own a gun. The agreement did not call for Limbaugh to admit guilt to the charge that he sought a prescription from a physician in 2003 without revealing that he had received medications from another practitioner within 30 days. He pleaded not guilty Friday. [continues 280 words]
Radio Host Doesn't Admit Guilt, But Must Continue Treatment For Addiction. WEST PALM BEACH -- Rush Limbaugh declared victory Monday in his long- running fight to clear his name after signing a deal with prosecutors that will dismiss a prescription fraud charge against him in 18 months if he complies with the terms. Under the deal filed Monday, Limbaugh cannot own a gun, must submit to random drug tests and has to continue treatment for his acknowledged addiction to painkillers. But he didn't have to admit guilt and he continued to proclaim his innocence on his radio show. [continues 544 words]
Experts Say Both Sides Can Declare The Resolution To Drug Case A Win WEST PALM BEACH -- After three years under suspicion, Rush Limbaugh can finally put behind him an investigation that exposed the conservative commentator's own drug problems and thrust him into the spotlight for the very things he derided in others on his radio talk show. None of it affected his ratings for a show that airs weekdays on nearly 600 stations and draws about 20 million listeners a week, Limbaugh spokesman Tony Knight said. [continues 493 words]
Drug Charge To Be Dropped If Limbaugh Remains In Rehab WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh and prosecutors in the long-running prescription drug case against him reached a deal Friday calling for the only charge against the conservative commentator to be dropped without a guilty plea if he continues treatment. Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant filed Friday charging him with fraud to conceal information to obtain prescriptions, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Jail. He and his attorney Roy Black left about an hour later, after Limbaugh was photographed and fingerprinted and he posted $3,000 bail, Barbera said. Prosecutors' three-year investigation of Limbaugh began after he publicly acknowledged being addicted to pain medication and entered a rehabilitation program. They accused Limbaugh of "doctor shopping," or illegally deceiving multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions, after learning that he received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion. [continues 249 words]
West Palm Beach, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh yesterday reached a settlement with prosecutors in a fraud case involving prescription painkillers, though the conservative radio commentator maintained his innocence. Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities about 4 p.m. on a warrant for fraud to conceal information to obtain a prescription, the first charge in the nearly three-year-old case, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the state attorney. He was released an hour later on $3,000 bail. Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, said his client and prosecutors reached a settlement on a charge of doctor-shopping. [continues 244 words]
With law enforcement focused on terrorism, gang-related bloodshed on America's streets is rising to levels not seen since the mid-1990s, when the crack epidemic was still raging, authorities say. Homicides are up sharply this year in cities such as Los Angeles, Oakland, Calif., and Little Rock, Ark., a surge attributed largely to gang members killing each other or those caught in the crossfire. "We had a stranglehold on it and we allowed them to breathe. We relaxed our grip and now they're back," said Wes McBride, president of the California Gang Investigators Association. The now-retired McBride spent 28 years on gang detail with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. [continues 736 words]
Crime: At The Intersection Of Two Interstate Highways, Arkansas Patrolmen Engage In A High-Stakes Game Of Hide-And-Seek. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. -- On his hands and knees, Sgt. Scott Fraley crawls over boxes of cherries stacked eight high in a refrigerated trailer. His partner, Sammy Brown, a private first-class, talks to the driver of the truck. "You hauling anything illegal? Marijuana . . . cocaine?" Brown asks. "No, sir!" comes a nervous reply. Brown looks the man up and down, watching body language, then directs his eyes toward Fraley, who is holding up a ripe, red cherry in his black-gloved hand. [continues 1318 words]
