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ON THE BORDER
ZAPATA COUNTY
Huge seizure by CBP
Court mulls monthly meets
Counterfeit watches found By STEPHANIE IBARRA
By JJ VELASQUEZ
THE ZAPATA TIMES
THE ZAPATA TIMES
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers announced the confiscation of the largest counterfeit seizure in monetary value in the port’s history Friday morning. Approximately 1,120 Louis Arden and Audemars Piguet replica watches and more than 3,000 watches used to mask the transportation of the counterfeit items were seized. Joe Uribe, Laredo port of entry assistant port director, said had the 1,120 watches been genuine, they’d be worth an estimated $28.7 million. The seized watches varied in aesthetic authenticity, with some displaying plastic faceplates meant to resemble Audemars Piguet’s trademarked brushed and polished surfaces that display hexagonal screws encircling the brushed bezel. Uribe said though the batch had no Audemars Piguet markings and were not made of the same quality materials, Audemars intellectual property rights are protected via the faceplate’s trademarked design. Items that infringe on trademark, copyrights and patents are considered theft of intellectual property, said Nancy Becker, Laredo field operations acting director. On a national level, Becker says the production and transportation of counterfeit items “threaten America’s economic vitality and international security. “Trading these illicit goods funds criminal activities and elicits crime. To protect both
During County Judge Rosalva Guerra’s term from 2006 to 2010, Commissioners Court went from meeting twice a month to once. On Monday, commissioners will consider adding another meeting to the monthly docket as a way to streamline county payments, as well as to pre-approve payments before invoices are brought to the court. The commissioners meet regularly on the second Monday of every month. If approved, the measure would add a meeting on the
See SEIZURE PAGE 10A
See COMMISSIONERS PAGE 10A
LOCAL CRIME
Deputies find pot on truck By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Photo by Ulysses S. Romero | The Zapata Times
Import Specialist Enforcement Team at U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Laredo Port of Entry display a shipment of counterfeit watches combining a value of $28.7 million on Friday afternoon at the World Trade Bridge conference room during a press conference. CBP seized 10 boxes containing 1,120 watches on June 29..
A routine traffic stop in Lopeño, off U.S. 83, landed a Zapata teenager in jail and yielded more than 1,600 pounds of marijuana Friday morning. For now, Mario Alberto Esquivel, 19, is facing a possession of marijuana charge, a second-degree felony punishable with two to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. However, Zapata
See BUST PAGE 10A
PRESIDENTIAL VOTE
Mexico confirms Peña Nieto win By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON ASSOCIATED PRESS
MEXICO CITY — The official count in Mexico’s presidential election concluded on Friday with results showing that former ruling party candidate Enrique Peña Nieto won by a 6.6 percentage-point margin, almost exactly the same lead as a vote-night quick count gave him. The final count by the country’s electoral authority, which included a ballot-by-ballot recount at more than half of polling places, showed Peña Nieto getting 38.21 percent of votes in Sunday’s election. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, got 31.59 percent. Lopez Obrador said he will file a formal legal challenge to the count in electoral courts next week, based on the allegation that Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary
Party, or PRI, engaged in vote-buying that illegally tilted millions of votes. PRI officials deny the charge. “Rivers of illicitly obtained money were used to buy millions of votes,” Lopez Obrador told a news conference Friday. He also claimed that the recount of ballots at more than half of polling places had not been carried out as thoroughly as promised. Josefina Vazquez Mota of the conservative National Action Party got 25.41 percent of votes cast, and the small New Alliance Party got 2.29 percent, barely passing the two-percent barrier needed to preserve the party’s place on future ballots. Almost 2.5 percent of ballots where voided; while some voters in Mexico void their ballots as a form of protest,
See PEÑA NIETO PAGE 10A
Photo by Alexandre Meneghini | AP
A man protests against major Mexican TV network Televisa in front of the Democratic Revolution Party headquarters where Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, presidential candidate, gave a news conference, in Mexico City, on Friday.