ICE touts $41 million cash seizure in Mexico, Colombia

Mexican and Colombian officials working with U.S. agents have seized about $41 million in cash hidden in shipping containers, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency announced Monday.

Colombian authorities seized $11.2 million in U.S. currency in Buenaventura, Colombia, on September 9.

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The U.S. agency, commonly called ICE, says the seizures were made September 9-18. It called them the largest seizure of cash ever found in shipping containers destined for Colombia and the largest for the agency since its inception.

According to ICE:

• On September 9, Colombian customs inspectors and Colombian national police, acting on intelligence reports, seized $11.2 million in U.S. currency hidden in two shipping containers. The containers were aboard a vessel that sailed from the Port of Manzanillo, Mexico, and was headed to Buenaventura, Colombia. Colombian customs inspectors said it was the most cash ever seized by police at a port in the nation.

• On September 10, a second seizure of U.S. currency estimated at $11.2 million also was made at the Buenaventura port.

• On September 11, a shipment of $11 million was discovered hidden inside two shipping containers at the Port of Manzanillo.

• On September 14, ICE special agents, along with Colombian authorities, discovered three additional shipping containers in Buenaventura containing about $5 million in $100 and $50 bills. These shipping containers also originated in Manzanillo.

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• On September 18, authorities seized $2.15 million in $100 bills concealed inside two containers aboard a vessel that arrived in Manzanillo.

"This seizure represents a bad day for organized crime," ICE Director John Morton said at a Monday news conference in Washington. "Forty-one million dollars is not a rounding error. The loss of that kind of money hurts."

All of the money was concealed in sacks of fertilizer chemicals in containers transported on commercial ships, Morton said.

"When it's packed in very large containers, it's extremely difficult to probe; it's extremely difficult to X-ray. And so it was a very good means of concealing currency," he said.

The ports of Buenaventura and Manzanillo are key points along a well-known route used for smuggling cocaine northward to Mexico and then on to the United States, and for sending cash back into Colombia, where most of the cocaine originates, ICE said in a news release.

Morton called the smugglers "very, very sophisticated," saying they were using the lawful shipping trade to send drug profits from the U.S. through Mexico to Colombia.

Morton said the money will be forfeited in accordance with the laws of the nations where it was seized, with Colombia keeping $28 million and Mexico getting $13 million.

"None of these monies will be forfeited to the United States," he said.

While large, this month's cash seizure is not a record. In March of 2007, officials in Mexico officials confiscated $207 million in cash in what was then called the largest drug-related cash seizure in history.

ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, investigating financial crime, trade fraud, narcotics smuggling and cash smuggling, the agency said. ICE was established in 2003 after the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

U.S. to Honduras: End emergency decree now

The U.S. State Department is calling on Honduras' de facto president to immediately rescind an emergency decree that limits constitutional rights such as freedoms of expression, travel and public congregation.

Robert Micheletti, de facto president of Honduras, says he'll repeal an emergency decree, but not immediately.

"The freedoms inherent in the suspended rights are inalienable and cannot be limited or restricted without seriously damaging the democratic aspirations of the Honduran people," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in a statement late Monday night.

Earlier Monday, Roberto Micheletti announced he would repeal the law, but it would not be immediately. The decree will undergo a legal review, he said.

Still, Micheletti's announcement was an about-face. He had announced the policy less than 24 hours earlier in response to unrest that increased significantly after ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya secretly returned to Honduras on September 20 and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

The 45-day decree announced Sunday night forbids any unauthorized public gatherings, allows officials to make arrests without a judicial order and lets the government close down news media that threaten "peace and order."

Micheletti said he would consult with the supreme court to repeal the decree, after a meeting with the leading presidential candidates.

"This decision was made because (Zelaya) was calling for insurrection ... but I'm going to listen to the other powers of the state and we're going to make the most wise decision in the interests of Honduras," Micheletti said, according to the newspaper La Prensa.

Monday marked the three-month anniversary of Zelaya's ouster in a military-led coup on June 28.

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In the wake of Micheletti's decree, Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the OAS, said the Canal 36 TV station and Radio Globo were reported closed.

The owner of Canal 36, Esdras Amado Lopez, told CNN that 60 soldiers entered his station Monday morning to shut it down. They removed all of the equipment, he said.

"They say that we offended the dignity of the president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti," Lopez said, adding that he sees his station not as pro-Zelaya, but "pro-people."

Honduran soldiers were stationed in front of the shuttered TV and radio stations and would not allow anyone to enter.

The United Nations, the OAS and the European Union have condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. Micheletti has vowed that Zelaya will never return to power and has said the deposed president will be arrested if he comes out of the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital.

Micheletti has accused Zelaya of using the embassy to instigate an insurrection and this weekend gave the Brazilian embassy 10 days to decide the ousted president's status. Brazil rejected the Honduran ultimatum.

On Monday night, Zelaya addressed the United Nations General Assembly via a mobile phone that his foreign minister held up at the podium.

A "serious crime is taking place when the voice of the people is silenced and when the people who are being repressed are likewise silenced," Zelaya said.

Two U.S. service members killed in the Philippines

Two U.S. service members were killed in the Philippines when their vehicle rolled over a landmine Tuesday morning, military officials said.

The service members with the Joint Special Operations Task Force were getting supplies for a school on the island of Jolo when their vehicle struck the explosive, said U.S. Navy Capt. Jeff Breslau.

Authorities were investigating the incident, Breslau said.

Jolo is one of many islands in the Southeast Asian nation.

Several Islamic militant groups, some of which have ties to al Qaeda, are active in the region and want to establish a separate state for the country's minority Muslim population, according to the U.S. State Department. Among them is Abu Sayyaf.

The government has been fighting to contain the group, which is blamed for several terror attacks in the country, including the bombing of a ferry in 2004 that left about 130 people dead.

U.N. group: Gaza acts amounted to war crimes

A United Nations group will present a scathing report Tuesday on Israel's conduct during its military offensive into Gaza that began late last year.

The U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict is headed by Richard Goldstone.

In the report, released earlier this month, the U.N. group accused Israel of committing "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during its military incursion into Gaza from December 27 to January 18.

The group, called the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, is headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone.

Goldstone is scheduled to present the 400-plus page report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Tuesday.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights will present her own report after Goldstone.

Goldstone's report also found that Palestinian militants committed war crimes, but the overwhelming majority of the report's criticism targets Israel.

Israel did not cooperate in the investigation.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement earlier saying Israel "did not feel able to cooperate with the Fact Finding Mission because its mandate was clearly one-sided and ignored the thousands of Hamas missiles attacks on civilians in southern Israel that made the Gaza Operation necessary."

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The report claims that the Israeli Defense Forces "failed to take feasible precautions required by international law to avoid or minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects."

The U.N. report also said Israel fired the chemical agent white phosphorous in civilian areas, intentionally fired upon hospitals using high-explosive artillery shells, and failed to provide effective warnings to civilians or U.N. workers before attacks. It also claims that Israel used Palestinian civilians as human shields and deliberately attacked Palestinian food supplies in Gaza.

The report recommends that the U.N. Security Council require the government of Israel to launch appropriate independent investigations into the findings of the report within three months. The findings also recommend that the alleged Israeli war crimes be explored by the International Criminal Court's prosecutor.

The findings also call on the Palestinian leadership to investigate alleged war crimes, for militants to respect humanitarian law, and for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on humanitarian grounds.

U.S. to Honduras: End emergency decree now

The U.S. State Department is calling on Honduras' de facto president to immediately rescind an emergency decree that limits constitutional rights such as freedoms of expression, travel and public congregation.

Robert Micheletti, de facto president of Honduras, says he'll repeal an emergency decree, but not immediately.

"The freedoms inherent in the suspended rights are inalienable and cannot be limited or restricted without seriously damaging the democratic aspirations of the Honduran people," said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in a statement late Monday night.

Earlier Monday, Roberto Micheletti announced he would repeal the law, but it would not be immediately. The decree will undergo a legal review, he said.

Still, Micheletti's announcement was an about-face. He had announced the policy less than 24 hours earlier in response to unrest that increased significantly after ousted President Jose Manuel Zelaya secretly returned to Honduras on September 20 and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

The 45-day decree announced Sunday night forbids any unauthorized public gatherings, allows officials to make arrests without a judicial order and lets the government close down news media that threaten "peace and order."

Micheletti said he would consult with the supreme court to repeal the decree, after a meeting with the leading presidential candidates.

"This decision was made because (Zelaya) was calling for insurrection ... but I'm going to listen to the other powers of the state and we're going to make the most wise decision in the interests of Honduras," Micheletti said, according to the newspaper La Prensa.

Monday marked the three-month anniversary of Zelaya's ouster in a military-led coup on June 28.

Don't Miss

• Honduras revisits emergency decree
• Tensions between Honduras, Brazil
• Zelaya: Brazilian Embassy attacked with gas

In the wake of Micheletti's decree, Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the OAS, said the Canal 36 TV station and Radio Globo were reported closed.

The owner of Canal 36, Esdras Amado Lopez, told CNN that 60 soldiers entered his station Monday morning to shut it down. They removed all of the equipment, he said.

"They say that we offended the dignity of the president of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti," Lopez said, adding that he sees his station not as pro-Zelaya, but "pro-people."

Honduran soldiers were stationed in front of the shuttered TV and radio stations and would not allow anyone to enter.

The United Nations, the OAS and the European Union have condemned the coup and demanded that Zelaya be reinstated. Micheletti has vowed that Zelaya will never return to power and has said the deposed president will be arrested if he comes out of the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the nation's capital.

Micheletti has accused Zelaya of using the embassy to instigate an insurrection and this weekend gave the Brazilian embassy 10 days to decide the ousted president's status. Brazil rejected the Honduran ultimatum.

On Monday night, Zelaya addressed the United Nations General Assembly via a mobile phone that his foreign minister held up at the podium.

A "serious crime is taking place when the voice of the people is silenced and when the people who are being repressed are likewise silenced," Zelaya said.