Ten men arrested at Mexico drug cartel ranch found guilty of murder
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Al Arabiya
6 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Pennsylvania man charged with beheading father says he was trying to perform a citizen's arrest
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) – The Pennsylvania man charged with fatally shooting then beheading his father and posting it on YouTube said on the stand Wednesday that the killing was Plan B after trying to arrest his father for what he called false statements and treason. Justin D. Mohn, 33, took the stand in a suburban Philadelphia courtroom on the third day of his trial on murder and other charges stemming from the Jan. 30, 2024, homicide of his father, Michael F. Mohn. Mohn, dressed in a blue sport coat, shirt, and tie with his arms shackled to his waist, spoke clearly without any apparent emotion for more than two hours of direct testimony and cross examination. Responding to questions from his attorney, Steven Jones, Mohn said he shot his father in the bathroom of the family's Levittown home after telling him he was going to arrest him. Mohn said his father, who he said was an experienced martial artist, told him he would kill him before he let that happen and reached for the gun. 'Unfortunately, he resisted,' Justin Mohn said, adding: 'I was hoping to perform a citizen's arrest on my father for ultimately treason.' He described a list from his notebook shone during the trial that had the lines 'Boom' and 'Slice' as his Plan B and said he expected his father to go along with the citizen's arrest. He said he differed politically from his parents, describing them as on the left. He told the court he believed his father wanted to stop him from becoming a politician similar to President Donald Trump and that his father gave false statements in an unrelated civil case Justin Mohn brought in federal court. Asked why he beheaded his father, he said he wanted to send a message to federal government workers to meet his demands, which included their resignation as well as the cancellation of public debt, among other things. He said he didn't do it out of hatred for his father or to cause trauma to his family. His mother, Denice Mohn, cried in court at the end of the direct questioning from his attorney. 'I knew something such as a severed head would not only go viral but could lessen the violence,' Justin Mohn said. Prosecutors said Mohn shot his father with a newly purchased pistol, then decapitated him with a kitchen knife and machete. The 14-minute YouTube video he posted was live for several hours before it was removed. Mohn was arrested later that day after scaling a fence at Fort Indiantown Gap, the state's National Guard headquarters. He said in court he knew it was wrong to jump the fence at the site. Prosecutors said he called for others to join him in attempting to overthrow the US government. Mohn had a USB device containing photos of federal buildings and apparent instructions for making explosives when he was arrested, authorities said. He also expressed violent anti-government rhetoric in writings he published online going back several years. Earlier in the trial, the judge heard from Justin Mohn's mother, who said police came to the house he shared with his parents and warned him about his online postings before the killing. Denice Mohn testified that she and her husband had been offering financial support and guidance as Justin Mohn looked for a job. Prosecutors described the homicide as something straight out of a horror film. They said Justin Mohn killed his father—who had been an engineer with the geoenvironmental section of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District—to intimidate federal workers, calling it a cold, calculated, organized plan. The YouTube video included rants about the government, immigration and the border, fiscal policy, urban crime, and the war in Ukraine. In court, Michael Mohn was remembered as a good neighbor and supportive father. In the video posted on YouTube, Justin Mohn described his father as a 20-year federal employee and called him a traitor. During a competency hearing last year, a defense expert said Mohn wrote a letter to Russia's ambassador to the United States seeking to strike a deal to give Mohn refuge and apologizing to President Vladimir Putin for claiming to be the czar of Russia. The judge ruled Mohn was competent to stand trial. Evidence presented at the trial included graphic photos and the video posted to YouTube. The judge warned members of the public at the trial about the images and said they could leave before the photos were shown. The proceedings are known as a bench trial with only a judge, not a jury.
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
Son Of 'El Chapo' Expected To Plead Guilty To Drug Trafficking Charges In Chicago
A son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo is expected to plead guilty to US drug trafficking charges at a Wednesday hearing. He would be the first of El Chapo's sons facing similar charges in the US to enter a plea deal. Prosecutors allege Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his brother Joaquin Guzman Lopez ran a faction of the Sinaloa cartel. They became known locally as the 'Chapitos,' or 'little Chapos,' and federal authorities in 2023 described the operation as a massive effort to send staggering quantities of fentanyl into the US. Ovidio Guzman Lopez previously pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering, and firearms charges tied to his leadership role in the cartel. Online court records indicate he is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors. Speculation about a deal has been percolating for months as behind-the-scenes negotiations have quietly progressed. Ovidio Guzman Lopez's father, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, is serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2019 for his role as the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, having smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years. The brothers allegedly assumed their father's former role as leaders of the cartel. Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He initially pleaded not guilty but has signaled in recent months his intent to change his plea. Joaquin Guzman Lopez and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, were arrested in July 2024 in Texas after they landed in the US on a private plane. Both men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges. Their dramatic capture prompted a surge in violence in Mexico's northern state of Sinaloa as two factions of the Sinaloa cartel clashed. Longtime Chicago mob attorney Joe 'The Shark' Lopez, who has represented Chicago mobsters Mario 'The Arm' Rainone and Anthony 'Tough Tony' Calabrese, said he expects both of El Chapo's sons to pursue plea deals and avoid trials. He estimated that Ovidio Guzman Lopez still may face about 20 to 25 years in prison based on the charges. 'This is an international drug case,' Lopez said. 'These cases are usually very solid, almost unbeatable. There is no upside to them going to trial because they can't win. And he saw what happened when his dad went to trial.' Laurie Levenson, law professor at Loyola Law School and a former assistant US attorney in Los Angeles, added that a plea can be strategic to avoid a revealing trial full of testimony about cartel operations and the actions of both sons and their father. 'For Chapo, I don't think he'd want to get into the details on his family's conduct,' she said. Last week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed skepticism about the possibility of Ovidio Guzman Lopez reaching a plea deal. She reminded people that Mexican soldiers died in the operation to apprehend him. Ten soldiers and nineteen alleged members of the cartel died during the January 5, 2023, operation. 'What did the United States government call organized crime groups in Mexico?' Sheinbaum asked during her daily press briefing last week. To which those assembled called out 'terrorist organizations.' She suggested that by negotiating with Guzman Lopez, Washington was doing one of the things President Donald Trump's administration had said not to do.
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
A Mexican court sentences 10 men to 141 years each in a cartel-run recruitment ranch
A Mexican court sentenced ten men to 141-year prison terms each for their involvement in a Jalisco ranch used by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) to recruit members, kill, and disappear victims. The discovery earlier this year of the Izaguirre ranch, used by the CJNG since 2021, sparked alarm and fear across the region. The ten men were arrested in September 2024 during an initial raid. They were convicted of the disappearance and murder of three victims and ordered to pay 1.3 million pesos (about $65,000) in restitution to the victims' families. Five other suspects await trial, including three municipal police officers, a CJNG operative, and Teuchitlan's mayor, José Murguía Santiago. Murguía Santiago was arrested after Mexico's Attorney General revealed that since 2021, the Jalisco state Human Rights Commission had alerted Teuchitlan authorities about the ranch but was ignored. The case sparked controversy after Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco, a group that searches for missing persons, reported finding numerous charred human bones, clothing, and shoes at the site in March. This highlighted the violence and impunity in cartel-plagued areas and the tragedy of Mexico's 130,000 missing people. Following the report, it emerged that Jalisco state prosecutors delayed the investigation for several months after the initial raid, when the National Guard intervened and arrested the ten men. One body and two of the later-detained men were found on the ranch. Due to missteps by state authorities, the federal Attorney General's Office took over the case. In late April, Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero dismissed claims of cremation sites at Rancho Izaguirre, fueling backlash from activists. Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco responded, saying it recovered seventeen sets of charred human bone remains, now in the custody of forensics teams.
