https://twitter.com/susandagostino6/status/1009416451508396033

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/thief-law-razhden-shulaya-convicted-racketeering-manhattan-federal-court

Tuesday, June 19, 2018
“Thief-In-Law” Razhden Shulaya Convicted Of Racketeering In Manhattan Federal Court

Avtandil Khurtsidze, Shulaya’s Enforcer and Former Middleweight World Boxing Champion, Also Found Guilty of Racketeering and Wire Fraud Charges

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RAZHDEN SHULAYA, a vor v zakone or “thief-in-law,” and AVTANDIL KHURTSIDZE, a boxing champion and SHULAYA’s enforcer, were found guilty of racketeering and related charges in connection with a sprawling and violent criminal enterprise operating in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and abroad.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “As a unanimous jury found, Razhden Shulaya and his chief enforcer, Avtandil Khurtsidze, engaged in an array of criminal schemes that included violence, extortion, theft, trafficking in stolen goods, and fraud. Shulaya, a Russian ‘vor v zakone’ or ‘thief-in-law,’ is now a convicted thief under U.S. law. Both defendants now await sentencing for their crimes.”

As established by the evidence at trial:

The Shulaya Enterprise was an organized criminal group operating under the direction and protection of RAZHDEN SHULAYA, a/k/a “Brother,” a/k/a “Roma,” a “vor v zakone” or “vor,” which are Russian phrases translated roughly as “Thief-in-Law” or “Thief,” and which refer to an order of elite criminals from the former Soviet Union who receive tribute from other criminals, offer protection, and use their recognized status as vor to adjudicate disputes among lower-level criminals.
As a vor, SHULAYA had substantial influence in the criminal underworld and offered assistance to and protection of the members and associates of the Shulaya Enterprise.

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Most members and associates of the Shulaya Enterprise were born in the former Soviet Union and many maintained substantial ties to Georgia, Ukraine, and the Russian Federation, including regular travel to those countries, communication with associates in those countries, and the transfer of criminal proceeds to individuals in those countries.

AVTANDIL KHURTSIDZE, formerly a middleweight boxing champion, acted as SHULAYA’s chief enforcer and, as such, engaged in multiple acts of extortion and violence.
KHURTSIDZE was captured on video twice assaulting others in service of the Shulaya Enterprise, participated in recorded acts of extortion of gambling debts, and planned additional acts of violence

MORE...

Twitter Link
https://mobile.twitter.com/SDNYnews/status/1009163016062078977

https://shareblue.com/jeff-sessions-united-methodist-church-charges-child-abuse/

Jeff Sessions’ own church charges him with child abuse
By Eric Boehlert - June 19, 2018

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Citing Paragraph 2702.3 of the 2016 United Methodist Book of Discipline, the group formally charged Sessions “with the chargeable offenses of” child abuse, immorality, and racial discrimination.

“As his denomination, we have an ethical obligation to speak boldly when one of our members is engaged in causing significant harm in matters contrary to the Discipline on the global stage,” the letter states.

The stunning church censure follows Sessions’ ridiculous attempt to use a passage in the Bible to justify the administration willfully tearing families apart, a move that was nearly universally condemned by religious leaders.

More..nice read..fair & just.

"It's Not an Economic Issue, It's a Cultural Issue and It's a Bigotry Issue"

Bret Stevens OpEd columnist for NYTimes & MSNBC Analyst, on Immigration, with Stephanie Rhule

He nailed the problem with Immigration in America

The Economic argument is bull sh*t, the problem is Cultural & Bigotry.

Here if you want to send this on to someone you know.
Congress people, etc

Amy Klobachar talking about this now

https://twitter.com/timkaine/status/1008778755291123712

https://twitter.com/coreypierceart/status/1008784903410999296

Seeking asylum in the United States — often from violence — men, women and children, mostly from Central America, wait in line for days in the sweltering heat.
They sleep on concrete floors. If not for donations from Good Samaritans who regularly visit the area, they would be without fresh food or water.

“These are horrible stories, but I feel like their nightmare might just be starting,” a Mexican official told Amelia McGowan, program director and immigration attorney at Migrants Support Center though Catholic Charities in Jackson. McGowan went to the border — specifically Nogales, Mexico, about an hour south of Tucson, Arizona —- to see the situation for herself.

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While in Nogales, McGowan spoke with dozens of people in line, many of whom had been waiting to speak with officials for days.
She talked with people in the first week of June, days before news stories went public of family separations.

The day she left Nogales, McGowan wrote in a Facebook post:

"While turning yourself in at a port of entry is a lawful and proper means of seeking asylum protection under U.S. law, these families and children now face days of languishing at the border, and traumatized children are likely to be torn from the arms of their only protectors in a policy aimed at 'deterring' people from seeking this lawful protection, which is enshrined in U.S. law.

"Demoralized and retraumatized, these families will then face the arduous and unforgiving asylum process alone and from detention, where their access to legal counsel and other forms of support will be severely limited."

Here is McGowan's first-hand account of her experience, as told to the Clarion Ledger.


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We parked in a McDonald’s parking lot on the U.S. side of the border and took bags filled with supplies. We crossed over the land bridge, and going into Mexico was a very easy process. We went through the scanner and walked on through. On either side of the border there is a covered facility, open air, where people usually wait in the ques.

There were two lines; one really was for asylum seekers and one for everyone else entering the U.S. including permanent residents, tourists and business people. It was really kind of a catch all for everybody. That line, for non-asylum traffic, was moving fairly quickly.

There was a bar separating the two lines, and on the other side of the bar was a line of about 80 people who had been waiting for days to seek asylum in the U.S.

There was yellow tape, kind of like caution tape, mats and towels on the ground. The eeriest thing was there were children’s toys scattered. There were supplies lined up against the walls, these mats, and children playing on the floor. It was a very stark contrast between the two lines. It was kind of harrowing.


On one side, you have these tourists, carrying their souvenirs, their big sombreros coming back from Mexico.
These were tourists who had gone to Mexico for the day.
On the other side you had this police tape. There were families, some single men and single women, young mostly.
About half the people there were children, under the age of 18. There were a few infants to 2 years old.
There were a lot of toddlers and even more young children, I would say 5 to 10 years old.

I met a couple teenagers, a girl and a boy, from Guatemala. Both were unaccompanied minors. The boy was 14. He told me his father had been recently murdered in front of him. I don’t know how old the girl was, I would say about 12, she looked a lot younger.


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Leaving was an emotional experience. Obviously you’ve connected with these families.

You think about this poor little boy that you just met, and they ask for protection.
Not only are they not going to get it but I think that police officer was right.
This might just be the beginning, unfortunately.

All we had to do, this sounds so cliché, but all we had to do was take out our passports and come back home.
We had safety.
To leave people and know what they were going to have to face this uncertainty and this terror, it was really something to jump in this line and come back home.
It was kind of surreal.

We had not yet heard of family separation and then to know what happened days later, undoubtedly, I’m sure it happened to at least some of those families.
To know that that happened, you wonder what their fate was after we so easily left them.

We hope and pray for the best, but we know the reality.



Must Read..
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.clarionledger.com/amp/690945002

Guest- Jeh Johnson
Former United States Secretary of Homeland Security