Andrew Tahmooressi

Last updated
Andrew Tahmooressi
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Marine Corps
Years of service2008-2016
RankSergeant

Andrew Tahmooressi is a US Marine veteran who was imprisoned in Mexico after crossing the Mexican border with loaded guns.

Contents

Early life

Tahmooressi grew up in Weston and graduated with honors from the Cypress Bay High school in 2007. He earned a pilot's license at the age of 17 and then moved to the Alaska's Kodiak Islands where he joined a commercial fishing crew. After his return to Florida he attended a local community college which he left to join the Marines. [1] [2]

Career

In 2008, Tahmooressi joined the US Marines, he served two combat tours in Afghanistan. In 2012, Tahmooressi was honorably discharged but remained a reservist with commitment until 2016. [2] [3] [4]

Mexican border crossing

Around 10:30 p.m. on March 31, 2014, Tahmooressi crossed the Mexico–United States border in his Ford F-150 truck with three loaded guns. [5] Tahmooressi claims he was driving out of a parking lot with the intention of heading north but instead took a wrong turn [6] and drove into the El Chaparral Port of Entry where Mexican custom inspectors examined his pickup truck and found more than 400 rounds of ammunition and three loaded guns: a .45 caliber pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun and a 5.56mm AR-15 style rifle. [7] [8] [9]

Tahmooressi was imprisoned in Tijuana's La Mesa Prison on illegal gun charges awaiting his trial. He was later moved to El Hongo Prison, Tecate after he attempted escape by climbing over a gate and heading up onto a roof, and then onto another one. He gave up when a guard opened fire, and an incident in which he slashed his neck with a broken light-bulb. [10] [11] [12] [13]

Tahmooressi first appeared in court May 28, 2014, but after Tahmooressi fired his first attorney the night before the hearing, which was postponed as a consequence. [14] Tahmooressi was released from prison on Friday, October 31, 2014 after a judge in Tijuana ordered his immediate release, following pressure that U.S. politicians put on Mexico to release him. Eight months after he was jailed. Tahmooressi flew back the same day in a private jet. [15] [16] [17]

Additionally at the time of crossing the Mexican border and during his imprisonment, Tahmooressi was suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder. [10] [2] [18]

Possession of drugs

Tahmooressi was then arrested in Dearborn County, Indiana in the early morning on April 7, 2016, and sentenced to a one-month jail sentence on one count of possession of marijuana under 30 grams. [19] [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tijuana Cartel</span> Criminal organization based in Tijuana, Mexico

The Tijuana Cartel or Arellano-Félix-Cartel is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Founded by the Arellano-Félix family, the cartel once was described as "one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico". However, since the 2006 Sinaloa Cartel incursion in Baja California and the fall of the Arellano-Félix brothers, the Tijuana Cartel has been reduced to a few cells. In 2016, the organization became known as Cartel Tijuana Nueva Generación and began to align itself under the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, along with Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO) to create an anti-Sinaloa alliance, in which the Jalisco New Generation Cartel heads. This alliance has since dwindled as the Tijuana, Jalisco New Generation, and Sinaloa cartels all now battle each other for trafficking influence in the city of Tijuana and the region of Baja California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evin Prison</span> Prison in Iran

Evin Prison is a prison located in the Evin neighborhood of Tehran, Iran. The prison has been the primary site for the housing of Iran's political prisoners since 1972, before and after the Islamic Revolution, in a purpose-built wing nicknamed "Evin University" due to the number of students and intellectuals housed there. Evin Prison has been accused of committing "serious human rights abuses" against its political dissidents and critics of the government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Ysidro, San Diego</span> Community of San Diego in California

San Ysidro is a district of the City of San Diego, immediately north of the Mexico–United States border. It neighbors Otay Mesa West to the north, Otay Mesa to the east, and Nestor and the Tijuana River Valley to the west; together these communities form South San Diego, a practical exclave of the City of San Diego. Major thoroughfares include Beyer Boulevard and San Ysidro Boulevard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán</span> Mexican drug lord incarcerated in a US federal prison

Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, commonly known as "El Chapo", is a Mexican former drug lord and a former leader within the Sinaloa Cartel, an international crime syndicate. He is considered to have been one of the most powerful drug traffickers in the world.

Otay Mesa is a community in the southern section of the city of San Diego, just north of the U.S.–Mexico border.

Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, commonly referred to by his aliases El Jefe de Jefes and El Padrino, is a convicted Mexican drug lord and a former Federal Judicial Police agent. He was one of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s. Throughout the 1980s, the cartel controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jose Compean</span>

José Alonso Compeán is a former United States Border Patrol Agent, convicted of shooting (wounding) a fleeing, illegal alien drug smuggler on the United States–Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, on February 17, 2005, and of covering up the shooting: i.e. "obstructing justice by willfully defacing the crime scene". On 19 January 2009, President Bush commuted the sentences of both Compean and fellow agent Ignacio Ramos, effectively ending their prison term on March 20, 2009, and they were released on February 17, 2009. They were granted full pardons on December 22, 2020, by President Donald Trump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Kokesh</span> American political activist

Adam Charles Kokesh is an American libertarian political activist, radio host, and author. Kokesh was a U.S. 2020 Libertarian presidential candidate running on the single-issue platform of an "orderly dissolution of the federal government."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Héctor Luis Palma Salazar</span> Mexican drug trafficker

Héctor Luis Palma Salazar, commonly known as "El Güero Palma", is a Mexican former drug trafficker and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and Ismael Zambada García. After the brutal murder of his family ordered by his boss Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Palma engaged in a string of vicious crimes to avenge his lost ones. Palma was arrested on June 23, 1995, and extradited to the United States where he served a jail sentence until June 2016. He was then deported back to Mexico and charged with a double homicide for having murdered two Nayarit police officers back in 1995. Palma is currently incarcerated at the Altiplano Prison, near Mexico City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinaloa Cartel</span> Transnational drug-trafficking organization

The Sinaloa Cartel, also known as the CDS, the Guzmán-Zambada Organization, the Pacific Cartel, the Federation and the Blood Alliance, is a large, international organized crime syndicate that specializes in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering. It was established in Mexico during the late 1980s as one of a various number of subordinate “plazas" operating under a predecessor organization known as the Guadalajara Cartel. It is currently headed by Ismael Zambada García and is based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with operations in many world regions but primarily in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Baja California, Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua. It also has a notable presence in a number of other regions in Latin America, such as Colombia; as well as in cities across the U.S. The United States Intelligence Community generally considers the Sinaloa Cartel to be the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world, making it perhaps even more influential and capable than Pablo Escobar’s infamous Medellín Cartel of Colombia was during its prime. It is also frequently referred to by other non-government based media sources as one of the most powerful and feared criminal organizations in the world and indisputably the most powerful in Mexico. During the leadership of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and Ismael Zambada García, the multi-billion dollar international drug trafficking empire supposedly controlled at least 91% of the world's heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana trade, regularly exporting multi-ton shipments of narcotics to the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The organization has also been known to utilize narcosubmarines, boats, ships, trains, helicopters, and cargo planes for their smuggling operations. The Drug Enforcement Administration considers them to be "the biggest, most powerful drug cartel of all time".

The Sonora Cartel, also known as Caro Quintero Organization, was a Mexico based criminal cartel. Upon the cartel's disintegration, its leaders were incorporated into the Tijuana Cartel and Sinaloa Cartel.

Miguel Ángel Caro Quintero is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Sonora Cartel, a defunct criminal group based in Sonora.

La Mesa prison is a penitentiary in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, near the Mexico–United States border. It is located in the La Mesa section of the city.

A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a high-ranking crime boss who controls a sizable network of people involved in the illegal drug trade. Such figures are often difficult to bring to justice, as they are normally not directly in possession of something illegal but are insulated from the actual trade in drugs by several layers of staff. The prosecution of drug lords is therefore usually the result of carefully planned infiltration into their networks, often using informants from within the organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Security incidents involving Barack Obama</span> Assassination attempts and threats against the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama

Barack Obama, who was the 44th president of the United States, was involved in multiple security incidents, including several assassination threats and plots, starting from when he became a presidential candidate in 2007. Secret Service protection for Obama began after he received a death threat in 2007, while serving as the junior United States senator from Illinois and running for president. This marked the earliest time a candidate received such protection before being nominated. Security was increased early for Obama due to fears of possible assassination attempts by white supremacist or other racist groups or individuals against the first African American major party presidential nominee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Arellano Félix</span> Mexican medical doctor (born 1955)

Carlos Alberto Arellano Félix is a Mexican medical doctor who is known for his illegal involvement in money laundering for the Tijuana Cartel. Carlos was born on the 20th of August in the year 1955 in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa. Historian Paul Eiss states that Culiacán is the origin of modern drug trafficking and the home of Mexico's most powerful drug cartel. Carlos is currently working as a licensed surgeon. He finished his surgical training at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara The Tijuana Cartel is an organisation that is notorious for being one of the most well-known drug trafficking groups in Mexico to smuggle goods into the United States. Carlos’ family is made up of seven brothers and four sisters who inherited the Arellano Felix Organisation from their godfather, Miguel Ángel Félix. Despite Carlos’ involvement in money laundering for the Tijuana Cartel, he is one of two brothers who remains free and is not wanted by the United States law enforcement.

The Barrio Azteca, or Los Aztecas, is a Mexican-American street, and prison gang originally based in El Paso, Texas. The gang was formed in the jails of El Paso in 1986 and expanded into a transnational criminal organization. Currently one of the most violent gangs in the United States, they are said to have over 3,000 members across the country in locations such as New Mexico, Texas, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania as well as at least 5,000 members in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arizona Border Recon</span> American paramilitary militia group in Arizona

Arizona Border Recon (AZBR) is an American paramilitary militia group in Arizona composed of former military, law enforcement and private security contractors.

Matthew John Heath is a United States citizen who was arrested by the government of Venezuela in September 2020 and subsequently charged with offenses related to terrorism and arms trafficking. Heath is a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps where he specialized in signals intelligence and had previously worked for MVM, Inc., a Virginia-based private security contractor.

References

  1. ↑ "Another US Marine shackled in Mexican prison on gun charges". Stars and Stripes. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  2. 1 2 3 "Gun case leaves Marine shackled in Mexico jail". The Buffalo News. 2014-05-01. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  3. ↑ JOHNSON, TIM (May 2, 2014). "Another US Marine shackled in Mexican prison on gun charges". Stars and Stripes. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  4. ↑ "U.S. Marine held on gun charges, shackled in Mexican prison". The Columbian. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  5. ↑ Briquelet, Kate (2014-05-25). "Marine hero stuck in Mexican prison on gun charges". New York Post. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  6. ↑ "Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi's Story: The US Marine Behind Bars In Mexico". International Business Times. 2014-06-24. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  7. ↑ "U.S. Marine In Mexican Jail Is Now Free, Mexican Judge Orders". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  8. ↑ "The story and spin behind ex-Marine Tahmooressi, jailed in Mexico". Los Angeles Times. 2014-08-07. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  9. ↑ "Ex Marine no ingresó a México por error". ZETATIJUANA. May 9, 2014. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  10. 1 2 Potter, Matt (May 2, 2014). "U.S. Marine reported shackled in Tijuana prison". www.sandiegoreader.com. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  11. ↑ Johnson, Tim. "Another U.S. Marine shackled in Mexican prison on gun charges" . Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  12. ↑ "Why Is a US Marine in a Mexican Jail? The Case of Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi | Boston.com". www.boston.com. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  13. ↑ Noble, Zach. "Marine Imprisoned In Mexico Tells Of Harrowing Escape Attempt". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  14. ↑ "After 101 days in Mexican prison, Marine Sgt. Tahmooressi arrives for day in court". Fox News. 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  15. ↑ "Mexico orders release of US marine". BBC News. 2014-11-01. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  16. ↑ "Marine veteran freed from Mexican jail returns home to Broward County". Miami Herald. November 1, 2014. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  17. ↑ "Marine veteran freed from Mexican jail". San Diego Union-Tribune. 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  18. ↑ Schroeder, Peter (2014-05-31). "GOP Rep. to meet jailed Marine in Mexico". TheHill. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  19. ↑ Schogol, Jeff (2017-08-07). "Marine vet who was held in Mexico now jailed in Indiana". Marine Corps Times. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  20. ↑ "Tahmooressi arrested in Indiana on drug charge". KGTV. 2016-04-11. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.