Nicaragua nabs fake reporters in cash scheme

[Magda Hassan]

Wonder what this is about....?

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[TD="class: articleTitle"]Nicaragua nabs fake reporters in cash scheme[/TD]
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[TD]Six fake Mexican TV vans and 18 individuals caught entering country from Honduras with $7m hidden inside vehicles.

Last Modified: 25 Aug 2012 08:10




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Six mini-vans bearing the logo of Televisa, the Mexican state-run television conglomerate were stopped [AFP]

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[TD="class: DetailedSummary"]Nicaraguan police have seized at least $7m from 18 individuals who tried to enter the country from Honduras, claiming to be Mexican television workers, authorities have said.
Police chief Aminta Granera said on Friday that the group had tried to enter Nicaragua last Tuesday through the border crossing of Las Manos.
They were traveling in six mini-vans bearing the logo of Televisa, the Mexican state-run television conglomerate, and claimed to be working for it.
The "fake journalists" said they were traveling to Nicaragua to cover the high-profile of trial of suspects in the killing of Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral last year.
According to Granera, the money was discovered in hiding places inside the vans during a border inspection.
Police are currently trying to determine if "the suspects have ties to organised crime", said Granera.

She said Televisa had informed Nicaraguan authorities through the Mexican Embassy that none of its television crews had been dispatched to Nicaragua at this moment.
Nicaraguan authorities say they are now working with Interpol to check whether the group has any links with criminal organisations.
Mexican drug-trafficking cartels are known to smuggle drugs and huge sums of money to and from Colombia through Central American countries.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2...76752.html

[Magda Hassan]

24 December 2013 Last updated at 01:04

Nicaragua extradites 18 Mexican drug traffickers who posed as TV journalists

The group had posed as journalists of Mexico's biggest broadcaster Televisa to enter Nicaragua in August 2012


Nicaragua has extradited 18 Mexicans who posed as television journalists to smuggle more than $9m (£5.5m) into the country, officials say.
The Mexicans were arrested last year when they tried to enter Nicaragua pretending to work as reporters from Mexico's Televisa network.
Police found the cash and traces of cocaine hidden among their television equipment.
A Nicaraguan court found them guilty of drug-trafficking and money laundering.
Last January, a Nicaraguan judge sentenced the 17 men and one woman to 30 years in jail, but the sentences were reduced to 18 years on appeal.
As they were led on to a plane in the capital, Managua, Nicaraguan police spokesman Ramon Avellan told reporters that they would serve their sentences in Mexico.
Fake press cards The group was arrested in August 2012 as it tried to cross the border into Nicaragua from Honduras.
Police said the fake TV crew was travelling in six vehicles, some painted with Televisa logos, and carrying fraudulent press passes.
But as soon as the arrests were announced, the Mexican broadcaster denied it had sent any journalists to Nicaragua.
Prosecutors said the Mexican nationals belonged to a "highly organised" criminal group that trafficked "large quantities" of drugs between Costa Rica and Mexico.
Mexican drug cartels use Central America to transit cocaine from South America and onto more lucrative markets in the US .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-am...WEET993687