Two Mexican nationals are facing time in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a heroin trafficking case. Prosecutors say 22-year-old Ignacio NieblasJr., who was living in southern New Mexico, and Bryan Gabriel Marquez-Flores Jr., a 19-year-old resident of Phoenix, entered their pleas in federal court in Albuquerque on Friday. The two men each face a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. Nieblas and Marquez-Flores were arrested in February after federal agents seized more than 10 pounds of heroin from them at a train station in Albuquerque. Authorities said the heroin was concealed inside the men's luggage.
Authorities are investigating possible drug smuggling at the Santa Fe County jail. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that a corrections officer found 170 Suboxone strips with a pair of hair clippers being brought to an inmate last week. According an affidavit filed in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, the clippers were brought by 31-year-old Lauren Herrera. Herrera had been instructed by another woman who had spoken on the phone with an inmate. A sergeant monitoring inmate phone calls searched the clippers and found the drugs. Suboxone is a drug used to treat opiate dependency. Investigators believe the delivery was for several inmates. Herrera was arrested Monday on several charges including bringing contraband into a jail.
The state won't be relying on the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center and its $200 million in reserves for help covering Medicaid funding. The Albuquerque Journal reports that UNM refused a request to give $50 million to New Mexico's Human Services Department to help with Medicaid. UNM executive vice president David Harris says university officials heard the request at a meeting in mid-February. He says the state indicated it could not guarantee repayment. Human Services Department spokesman Kyler Nerison confirmed the meeting with the university; and according to Harris, it's not unusual for the state to ask the university for financial assistance. The state says the department is $86 million short of its projected need for the next 15 months.
And while a subcommittee of the state’s Medicaid Advisory Committee is quietly looking at ways to shore up a projected $417-million shortfall, one legislator is scolding the group for shutting the public out of its discussions. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that finance committee chairman John Arthur Smith, a democrat from Deming, wants all discussions on the $6-billion Medicaid budget to be open to the public – the advisory committee shut out reporters and others from a meeting at the capitol last week. The head of the Human Services Department shot back by saying in an email that lawmakers have underfunded the Medicaid program, and he’ll be seeking a supplemental appropriation for the current fiscal year. The federal government funds most of the program for the state’s indigent and disabled population through matching funds of about three-to-one.
A Massachusetts college student has been arrested in Santa Fe after drunkenly entering the wrong home. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, police say 22-year-old Garrett Curran of Bolton Massachusetts, wandered into a home around 3 a.m. Saturday. He then fell asleep at the foot of a bed occupied by a 7-year-old girl. The child woke up and got her father. Curran allegedly initiated a fight with the father, who called police. Curran, a student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, was booked on suspicion of breaking and entering, criminal trespass and child abuse for fighting in front of the girl.
New Mexico's state land commissioner is ordering a broad examination of easements for injection wells used by the oil and natural gas industry to dispose of waste water, in response to environmental damage at a site in the southeast of the state. As of Friday, state regulators still were negotiating with a Midland, Texas-based company to clean up a spill of oily water at an injection site 20 miles southwest of Eunice, New Mexico. Public Lands Commissioner Aubrey Dunn is instructing his agency's district managers to look at each of about 60 waste-water disposal sites on state trust land. Administrative reviews of leases also are planned. State regulators accuse Siana Operations of trespassing and damaging the site outside Eunice after it stopped making lease payments. Siana is not commenting.
A group from Los Alamos, once the building site for an atomic bomb, is making an unprecedented trip to a country that was devastated by the weapon. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that Los Alamos Historical Museum representatives are traveling throughout Japan to gain that country's perspective on the impact of nuclear warfare. The team will visit several cities including the two that were targeted with the bomb — Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Museum director Judith Stauber says they will meet with a bomb survivor, researchers and leaders of two museums. The trip has been in the works for two years and is partially funded by a $10,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
In national and international news:
Belgian prosecutors say three people have been ordered held on charges of participating in terrorist group activities. Prosecutors have not released details on the allegations against the three, or whether they're linked to last week's terror attacks on the Brussels airport and subway system. A fourth person has been released without being charged. Meanwhile, officials will be testing today whether the Brussels international airport is capable of resuming passenger service. There's no word on when that service will resume. Four more people wounded in last week's terror attacks in Brussels have died. The Belgian minister says the death toll is now 35. Meanwhile, U.S. authorities have confirmed that four Americans were killed in the attacks, including a husband and wife who were dropping someone off at the Brussels airport.
Hillary Clinton wants voters to consider what Republican front-runner Donald Trump might do to shape the Supreme Court. Clinton plans to say in a speech in Madison, Wisconsin, today that Trump could roll back the rights of individuals, empower corporations and undo some of the nation's progress. Clinton is campaigning in Wisconsin ahead of the state's primary and plans to speak today at the University of Wisconsin about President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland. Clinton's campaign says the Democratic presidential candidate plans to call on Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa to commit to giving Garland a hearing. And she also intends to rebuke Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who is among the Republicans blocking the Garland nomination.