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Illegal Immigrant Pleads Guilty To Purchasing 91 Firearms
Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times,
An illegal immigrant from Mexico has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to purchasing 91 firearms and 40,000 rounds of ammunition.
A sign displaying "No firearms in Mexico" its outside a border entry point in Naco, Ariz., on March 5, 2025. John Fredricks/The Epoch TimesThe U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon announced on Aug. 10 that Samuel Rodrigo Melo Santos pleaded guilty to being an alien in possession of a firearm and making false statements in the acquisition of a firearm.
Authorities said Melo Santos illegally entered the United States through Arizona in May 2024 but was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol and deported to Mexico.
He later illegally re-entered at an unknown date and location.
Between May 2024 and July 2025, Melo Santos purchased 91 firearms for $56,448, along with 40,000 rounds of ammunition, for illegal resale, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said one of the firearms was later recovered in Mexico.
"This criminal illegal alien from Mexico pleaded guilty to buying more than 90 guns and 40,000 rounds of ammunition so he could illegally resell them," a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement.
"Once his sentence is complete, [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] will remove him from our country."
Melo Santos was arrested by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) on Dec. 16, 2025, before being transferred to U.S. Marshals Service custody.
The investigation was led by ATF, with assistance from ICE Homeland Security Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Harper is prosecuting the case.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 2,227 seizures involving firearms and ammunition have occurred so far in 2026. The agency reported 2,997 such seizures in 2025 and 4,932 in 2024.
In 2026, CBP has intercepted 1,447 handguns and 688 explosives. In 2025, the agency took 2,487 handguns and 473 explosives, compared with 2,299 handguns and 1,816 explosives in 2024.
In February, ATF reported that since Jan. 20, 2025, it had seized 36,277 crime guns and more than 2.3 million rounds of ammunition from prohibited individuals, including gang members and suppliers of transnational criminal organizations.
More than 4,300 of the seized firearms were bound for Mexico for alleged use by violent drug cartels and gangs.
Nearly 650,000 rounds of ammunition were also bound for Mexico - an average of more than 1,600 rounds per day, according to ATF.
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Robocalls Are Increasing In US As Report Lists Worst-Impacted Area Codes
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,
A new report found that Americans are continuing to get bombarded by robocalls, with more than 4 billion recorded in July, according to blocking service YouMail.
A smartphone displays the icons of some of the main artificial intelligence based apps, including Meta AI, Grok, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek, and ChatGPT, in Saint-Mande, France, on July 15, 2026. Martin Lelievre/AFP via Getty ImagesThere were 4.3 billion robocalls received across the United States last month, said YouMail in a news release.
On average, July saw 139.3 million robocalls per day and 1,612 robocalls per second, which is slightly lower than the 141.8 million robocalls per day, and 1,642 calls per second recorded in June.
Unwanted robocalls also increased by nearly 6 percent in July 2026 as consumers received more than 2.1 billion such calls that month, it said.
According to the report, about 51 percent of robocalls were likely wanted, and 49 percent were likely unwanted.
"Monthly robocall volumes have been slowly creeping upward, and we're more than 15 percent above the lowest levels we saw last October," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici in a statement, noting "the dangers of scam calls" despite robocall activity being "much lower than historic levels."
YouMail said that the "most problematic robocall campaigns" in July revolved around pre-approved loan officers that claim to inform a consumer that they have qualified for a loan with relatively low monthly payments.
"Hi, this is Cornelius about your recent personal loan inquiry," said an example of a robocall on loans, provided by the company.
"I'm happy to share that you've qualified for up to $45,000 with monthly payments around $575. I want to take a few minutes to go through the details with you and answer any questions before we get the paperwork started."
That campaign, YouMail said, originated from thousands of separate phone numbers and used a "small set of recurring caller names" with different loan amounts, payment terms, and contact numbers.
More than 40 million calls were generated from the campaign last month, according to YouMail.
Consumers, meanwhile, have reported the loan-related calls as likely spam and said they never asked about or applied for a loan.
According to YouMail, area codes in the United States that saw the largest increases in robocalls in July were: area code 346 in Houston, Texas; area code 470 in Atlanta, Georgia; area code 229 in Albany, Georgia; area code 765 in Indianapolis, Indiana; area code 901 in Memphis, Tennessee; area code 812 in Evansville, Indiana; area code 720 in Denver, Colorado; area code 870 in Jonesboro, Arkansas; area code 931 in Clarksville, Tennessee; and area code 254 in Killeen, Texas.
"As with similar campaigns, this appears to be, at a minimum, illegal telemarketing at scale," the company said. "Based on consumer reports and the behavior of the calls, it's likely to be a scam."
Earlier this month, a bill to reduce robocalls passed in the Senate that cracks down on calls originating from outside the United States.
"As foreign robocallers step up their efforts to exploit and prey on vulnerable people, we need to do more to combat this unlawful practice and protect Americans from scams," said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Va.) in a statement.
Consumers can opt into the National Do Not Call Registry, a federal government database that lists phone numbers of people who have requested that telemarketers not contact them.
Tyler Durden Wed, 08/12/2026 - 17:40