Plane enters US at night from Mexico

[NUKE]

Anyone else here about this? I heard on the local radio show this morning.

A Cessna crossed the boder from Mexico into Texas and was forced to land near San Antonio. The plane had no lights on and appeared to be trying to avoid radar.

For Chinese nationals where inside. The plane is owned by two people, one is Arabic, the other had a "western " sounding name.

Two years ago the plane wqs never re-registered with the FAA and the FAA had been trying to contact the owners.

I don't recall when this happed , but I think it was really recent.....as in maybe days ago.

Makes me really mad that we don't take our borders that seriously down south. I'm also wondering what the US will do when the next shoe drops and we have another terrorist masacre.

If this is true, why isn't it big news?

[Glas]

I dont see the big deal, just seems like 4 people trying a novel way to skip across the border.

I dont think the plane could do much damage, a Cessna would have trouble blowing up a Wendy House.

[Raider179]

yeah seen the same report.

The reports also relate these guys to the dirty bomb threat.

I actually thought it showed we were taking our airspace seriously. I thought maybe they should have been shot down to make a point to deter others but then we would lose any info they might posess.

Like you said this was recent at least thats how they made it sound so we will just have to wait.

They also have had one of those chinese women in custody since november and said she has no links to terrorism.

couple chinese guys flying in a plane owned by someone named Afzal Hameed makes me very nervous.

[JB88]

Originally posted by Raider179
yeah seen the same report.

The reports also relate these guys to the dirty bomb threat.

I actually thought it showed we were taking our airspace seriously. I thought maybe they should have been shot down to make a point to deter others but then we would lose any info they might posess.

Like you said this was recent at least thats how they made it sound so we will just have to wait.

They also have had one of those chinese women in custody since november and said she has no links to terrorism.

couple chinese guys flying in a plane owned by someone named Afzal Hameed makes me very nervous.

i smell either propaganda...
or very very dumb terrorists.

[Glas]

Hmm a Cessna with a dirty bomb?

Maybe that Wendy House isnt as safe as I thought....

[2bighorn]

By Associated Press


SAN ANTONIO - Two small planes left South Texas border cities around the same time Monday night, both bound for San Antonio with lucrative and illicit cargoes.

One of the aircraft carried more than 100 pounds of potent marijuana north from Mexico, the other four Chinese citizens who had spent the previous month on a perilous trip from their homeland to find work in the United States.

But federal officials ended up catching up to both flights - one from Laredo and the other from Eagle Pass. Four accused smugglers were arrested and the illegal immigrants, who may have paid tens of thousands of dollars for the fruitless journey, will likely be deported.

"We don't believe these Chinese we have apprehended pose any type of national security threat," said Alonzo Pena, special agent in charge of the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

He added that the four were still being questioned by immigration agents on Tuesday afternoon.

He said the two men and two women carried Chinese passports, and that their names didn't match up with those on a list of Chinese citizens sought by authorities.

Immigration officials did not immediately release the identities of the pilot, a Mexican citizen, or any of the Chinese passengers. The pilot is expected to be charged with smuggling illegal immigrants, Pena said.

Pena said his agency found out about the immigrant plane through its efforts to catch the drug plane.

"We had information on a pilot we were looking at on a narcotics issue, and we learned that another plane was leaving from the same area," he said. "We received information that we should look at the second plane."

He said the Chinese apparently began their excursion from their native country in December and that they first landed in Central America.

From there they made their way north through Mexico, covering part of the distance on foot. They crossed the Texas border to Eagle Pass a day or so before they were caught, he said.

Pena would not say how much the immigrants paid to be transported, but he said prices from China commonly range upwards of $40,000 per person.

The four-seat Cessna 172P was last registered to Hameed Afzal and Alyce S. Taylor, who live in San Antonio.

Afzal, who runs a flight school, did not immediately return a call Tuesday from The Associated Press. But he told the San Antonio Express-News that he rented the plane to a man whom he would not identify.

"We rent airplanes to qualified pilots, just like you rent cars to qualified drivers," he told the newspaper. "What they do afterwards, you can't say what they will do."

Pena would not say whether Azfal was a suspect in the smuggling operation.

Initial reports stated that the Cessna carrying the Chinese was forced to land by federal agents, but Pena said the aircraft filed and then followed its flight plan from Eagle Pass to San Antonio.

He said his agency tracked the plane's 125-mile trip by radar. As a precaution, it also launched aircraft to intercept the craft if it did not land as scheduled at Stinson Municipal Airport, a few miles south of downtown San Antonio.

"Fortunately they did follow the flight plan, so that made it easier for us," Pena said.

FBI and local police joined immigration agents in surrounding the plane once it landed and taking the five into custody.

The drug plane, which ended with the arrest of the pilot and two other men, touched down briefly at Stinson before taking off again for Austin, said Denton Lankford, an immigration department spokesman.

Immigration agents nabbed the three at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport with 108 pounds of marijuana, Lankford said. All three men were Mexican citizens, he said, though two were legal residents of the United States.

[NUKE]

Originally posted by Glas
Hmm a Cessna with a dirty bomb?

Maybe that Wendy House isnt as safe as I thought....

The fact that they had a plane at all is wierd. The fact that they had to be given access to the plane, and one of the owners is Arabic is double wierd.

It's not like they chose the easiest way to cross the border. Why did they need a plane? How did they afford the plane? And they just happen to be Chinese....after an earlier warning that Chinese nationals were being sought for a possible dirty bomb attack in Boston, after having been smuggeled across the Mexican border. The word was that they would first go to NY and recieve a container at a port.

So yeah, it's something to be concerned about.

I don't know if it's common for Chinese to be comming across the Mexican border, but I have never heard of it before

[NUKE]

thanks 2Bighorn, I had been wondering about this all day. Seems to be cleared up.


Man, I'm the worst typest

[JB88]

one could take lessons from the government on the fine art of trolling.

[NUKE]

Originally posted by JB88
one could take lessons from the government on the fine art of trolling.

god you are dense.

government? who said anything about the government.

Man, I wish you would think at least for at least 10 minutes before you reply to posts.

[JB88]

Originally posted by NUKE
god you are dense.

government? who said anything about the government.

Man, I wish you would think at least for at least 10 minutes before you reply to posts.

mwa.

dont you think for eight seconds that these things arent being considered deeply and thoughfully before being released to the ever growing paranoia of the american public.

to everything...(turn turn turn)

[OIO]

Sorry guys but i gotta say that if illegal drugs are smuggled into the US by the TONS every year, theres no reason why dirty bomb material couldnt have already been smuggled into the country.

[hawker238]

Why couldn't you just smuggle something in on a boat?  Even if the boat got clearance from the port it sailed from, and just made a rendezvous with another boat that loaded something onto it.

The possibilities are endless.

[NUKE]

Originally posted by JB88
mwa.

dont you think for eight seconds that these things arent being considered deeply and thoughfully before being released to the ever growing paranoia of the american public.

to everything...(turn turn turn)

okay, maybe you should wait 20 minutes

[JB88]

Originally posted by NUKE
okay, maybe you should wait 20 minutes

you might try it sometime and tell me if it works.

mwa.