Weapons Charge

A veteran Los Angeles police officer who owns a private security company in Belize surrendered to federal authorities Monday after being indicted on a weapons charge. Johnny Augustus Baltazar, 50, is accused of illegally shipping 10 handguns and 1,500 rounds of ammunition to the Central American nation, where he owns a company called Elite Security, according to authorities. Prosecutors suspect the guns were intended for use by employees of the company. Baltazar did not have the required license to export the firearms, officials allege.

San Francisco 49ers All-Pro linebacker Aldon Smith was activated to the 53-man roster from the non-football injury list Thursday, two days after he turned himself in to Santa Clara County authorities as he faces weapons charges. Smith had been undergoing rehabilitation at an in-patient facility for substance abuse since late September and missed five games. With San Francisco (6-2) on its bye this week, Smith could resume practicing and working out on his own, then formally practice next week ahead of a Nov. 10 home game against the Carolina Panthers.

The Orange County district attorney's office filed a felony weapons possession charge Friday against the son of the principal at Santa Margarita Catholic High School, a private school in Rancho Santa Margarita. Robert Hemenway, 18, a former student at the school, had a gun in his car while parked in the school's parking lot in January, said Tori Richards, a district attorney spokeswoman.

BEIRUT -- The United Nations Security Council called an emergency meeting in New York on Wednesday afternoon to discuss allegations of a deadly chemical weapons attack outside the Syrian capital, Damascus. The announcement came amid mounting calls for a U.N. investigation into opposition charges that a poison-gas attack by the Syrian military killed hundreds of people early Wednesday across a broad swath of the city's suburbs. The allegations remained uncorroborated -- and Syrian authorities have labeled them a fabrication -- but the White House urged the U.N. to deploy an inspection team already on the ground in Syria to look into the matter.

Criminal charges have been filed against an 18-year-old man arrested for carrying a billy club during a riot outside a Westwood theater Aug. 3. Kevin Lyle Bailey, who lives in the Fairfax District, was arrested at 1:35 a.m. Aug. 4 outside a theater at Westwood Boulevard and Broxton Avenue. He was charged with possession of an illegal weapon and possession of a deadly weapon with intent to commit an assault, according to the city attorney's office, which filed the charges.

A man accused of selling an undercover agent two machine guns on behalf of former KNBC-TV Channel 4 helicopter pilot Bob Pettee pleaded guilty Friday to a federal weapons charge. Jeff Miller, 46, entered his plea to one count of unlawful possession and / or transfer of a machine gun during an appearance before U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to say whether Miller had agreed testify against Pettee, who is scheduled to go on trial Jan.

A Lancaster man, whose arsenal of guns, grenades and an antitank rocket launcher was seized in a September raid, was sentenced Monday to 180 days in County Jail for possession of a deadly weapon. Chris Sundahl, 44, pleaded no-contest to the charge in a sentencing agreement with Lancaster Superior Court Judge Charles E. Horan, who dropped remaining weapons charges. Sundahl also received five years' probation as part of the sentence.

A fugitive gun enthusiast who caught the interest of federal authorities because of a possible connection with an Oklahoma City bombing suspect was ordered Friday to return to California to face an unrelated weapons charge. Steven G. Colbern, formerly of Oxnard, waived his right to an identity hearing in federal court and will be transferred to the Central District of the U.S. District Court in California.

Linebacker Winston Moss, traded to the Raiders by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before last weekend's draft, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor weapons charge and was fined $400, ordered to perform 300 hours of community service and put on probation for a year by a Tampa judge Friday. The charge stemmed from an incident in which Moss allegedly pointed a gun at a cocktail waitress and pulled the trigger twice outside a nightclub last January.

Paroled sex offender Robert Lee Donaldson, who is awaiting trial on charges he raped four children and teen-age girls just months after his release from prison, has been charged with another crime that could send him to prison for life under the state's recently enacted "three strikes" law. Donaldson, 35, who has been held on $2 million bail since his arrest last fall, was charged last month with possessing a weapon in prison, a felony that would be his third strike, Deputy Dist. Atty.

University of Washington cops first noticed Justin Miles Jasper when he sat up in the bed of his truck, which was parked at the Seattle campus on the night of July 2. He was shirtless and in a sleeping bag. Police did not learn until the next day that the truck was stolen and that Jasper was armed, according to court documents. Jasper, 22, made an initial appearance in federal court Thursday to answer an indictment in which he is charged with possessing Molotov cocktails, stolen weapons and body armor, which police say they found in the truck.

A Texas paramedic arrested last week will plead not guilty to a federal charge of having bomb-making materials and will waive a formal arraignment on a new federal indictment, it was reported Wednesday. Bryce Reed, who was among the emergency crews that responded to a deadly fire and explosion at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, was scheduled to appear at a detention hearing and arraignment Wednesday afternoon. Reed has not been linked to the April 17 disaster that killed 14 people and injured more than 160. Wednesday's federal proceeding was canceled, Jonathan Sibley, a lawyer for Reed, told reporters in Texas, according to media reports.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Wednesday: Soulja Boy is arrested on drug and weapons charges in Georgia. ( Los Angeles Times ) Lindsay Lohan is headed back to court amid reports that the actress is not showing up for her mandatory community service. ( Los Angeles Times ) Shia LaBeouf gets in another fistfight, this time in a Vancouver bar. ( Los Angeles Times ) Morrissey is trying to sue NME for printing an interview he says made him seem racist.

The Mexican government's efforts to prosecute former Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon collapsed Tuesday after a federal judge tossed out weapons charges and another judge blocked authorities' last-ditch efforts to keep him under arrest on a new murder charge. Hank, whose highly publicized arrest June 4 seemed to puncture the bubble of impunity that had long protected him, smiled as he walked away from detention at a hotel in Tijuana. Flanked by his attorneys, Hank's motorcade made its way back to his estate behind the historic Agua Caliente racetrack, which he owns, as supporters in cars honked their approval.

Mexican military forces on Saturday arrested the former mayor of Tijuana, Jorge Hank Rhon, after an early-morning raid at his compound resulted in the seizure of 88 weapons and more than 9,000 rounds of ammunition, military officials said. Hank, 55, a flamboyant casino mogul and one of Mexico's wealthiest men, was taken to the federal attorney general's office in Tijuana and then by armed convoy to an air force base, as supporters lined the streets to protest his transfer to Mexico City.

Los Angeles County prosecutors filed additional counterfeiting and weapons charges Thursday against a man who spent six weeks on the run from authorities after making a dramatic escape from his downtown loft overlooking the Federal Reserve building. Brian Alexik, who authorities likened to Jason Bourne, the fictional secret agent known for his daring getaways and high-tech gadgetry, was charged with seven new felony counts — including forgery and drug charges — under an amended criminal complaint filed by prosecutors in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Missouri's Anthony Peeler, expected to be a first-round choice during next week's NBA draft, received five years' probation after pleading guilty Tuesday to a felony weapons charge and two related misdemeanors. The guilty plea will keep Peeler from being tried for allegedly attacking a woman last month in her Columbia, Mo., apartment and pointing a gun at her head. "He won't spend any time in jail," assistant prosecutor Tim Wynes said after a 30-minute hearing in Cole County Circuit Court.

Los Angeles police said Friday that they are searching for a 28-year-old suspected gun dealer in connection with the massacre of four men at a San Fernando Valley restaurant. Nerses Arthur Galstyan is considered to be armed and very dangerous and is still at large somewhere in the city, possibly hiding with the aid of friends or relatives, said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, speaking at news conference downtown. Investigators said they believe anger was behind the attack April 3 against six acquaintances at the Hot Spot Mediterranean Restaurant on Riverside Drive in Valley Village.