Taken from Granma US Federal prosecutors have agreed to reduce the sentences of two terrorists convicted on weapons charges after their lawyers surrendered an illegal stockpile of weapons, explosives and a grenade launcher to federal officers, reported The Miami Herald. The move was designed to help reduce the sentences, of four and three years respectively, to "developer" Santiago Alvarez and his colleague Osvaldo Mitat. Both Alvarez and Mitat pleaded guilty last fall to conspiring to possess illegal weapons in a 2005 criminal case unrelated to the recent firearms surrender. Their plea deal led to complicated negotiations with prosecutors that resulted in the surrender of the new cache of firearms in January. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, in a motion filed over the weekend, said that Alvarez and Mitat "have substantially assisted the government." The firearms surrendered consisted of dozens of machine guns, rifles, C-4 explosive, dynamite, detonators, a grenade launcher and ammunition, federal law enforcement officials said. The cache was considerably larger than the nine illegal firearms seized by federal agents in the fall of 2005 when Alvarez and Mitat were first indicted on weapons charges in Broward County. Agents from the FBI and from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives collected the latest stash of weapons at the Miami law office of Silvia Pinera-Vazquez and Sofia Powell-Cosio. ''We're pleased that the sentence reduction motion was filed, and we look forward to Santiago's and Osvaldo's release and return to the Miami community,'' Piñera-Vazquez said.
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