NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

MORNING REPORT

Thursday, November 20, 2008

===============================================================================================================

INCIDENTS

Organ Pipe Cactus NM

Marijuana Smugglers Sentenced

On April 7th, rangers came upon evidence that a group of marijuana smugglers had entered the park from Mexico and began tracking them. They followed the group for eight miles, then arrested seven smugglers and seized 195 pounds of processed marijuana with the assistance of air support from the Arizona National Guard. During subsequent interviews with an NPS special agent, all seven admitted involvement in the smuggling operation. The case was prosecuted by the Pima County Attorney's Office. On November 10th, that office reported that all seven had been convicted and sentenced to jail terms. V.M.-V. and H.L.-V. were each sentenced to a year in prison; C.M.-B., D.A.-B. and J.R.-H., were sentenced to 19 months; and J.G.-R. and F.R.-L. sentenced to 21 months. The defendants, all illegal aliens from Mexico, will serve their sentences in Arizona State Prison. Upon their release, they will be deported and barred from legal re-entry into the U.S. [Matt Fisher, Special Agent]

OTHER NEWS

The following stories are among those in today's edition of InsideNPS. The internal, NPS-only version of InsideNPS can be found at: HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index . The public version, called NPS Digest, can be found at: HYPERLINK "http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/" http://home.nps.gov/applications/digest/

National Parks of New York Harbor - “Banshee,” one of the U.S. Air Force Academy's falcon mascots, visited Castle Clinton, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on Monday, November 10th.

Grand Canyon NP - The NPS has released the board of review report on the circumsances surrounding the 2007 death of Grand Canyon National Park employee Eric York, who succumbed to pneumonic plague.

Denver Service Center - Denver Service Center has presented special recognition awards to 15 Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Plant Materials Centers for their contributions to revegetation projects at parks across the nation.

WASO Interpretation and Education - Charles “Corky” Mayo has received the 2008 Sequoia Award - the highest recognition given by the National Park Service for interpretation and education.

National Park of American Samoa - Roger Moder, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, will be retiring after 34 years of NPS service on February 3rd.

* * * * *

Submission standards for the Morning Report can be found at the following web site:

HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=viewnpsnewsarticle&type=Announcements&id=3363

Prepared by the Division of Law Enforcement, Security and Emergency Services, Washington Office, with the support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@nps.gov).

--- ### ---