Two international crossings in Starr County, the Falcon Dam crossing and the Starr County bridge, were put on alert Wednesday afternoon."
Saturday 20 November 2010
Heavy fighting in and around Cd. Mier – Mexican military – It’s payback time
Two international crossings in Starr County, the Falcon Dam crossing and the Starr County bridge, were put on alert Wednesday afternoon."
Mexican army kills 11 in drug clash
PressTV - Mexican army kills 11 in drug clash: "Mexican troops have clashed with gunmen believed to belong to the 'Los Zetas' drug cartel, killing 11 of them, according to the Defense Ministry.
The ministry said the clashes took place in the state of Tamaulipas, near Nueva Ciudad Guerrero, a city that faces the US state of Texas across the Rio Grande, when a patrol responding to reports of armed men came to blows with them, AFP reported on Friday.
The gunmen opened fire on the patrol, triggering the firefight, the ministry said.
The gunfight led to the deaths of 11 gang members. Two men were also arrested, who confessed that they were members of the Los Zetas drug cartel.
Los Zetas was formed in the 1990s by former members of an elite military unit. The gang's main business is smuggling drugs into the United States. It also smuggles people across the border and engages in extortion and kidnapping.
Following the incident, soldiers seized 11kg of marijuana, nine rifles, four handguns, one rocket launcher and 22 cartridges for a variety of weapons."
Texas Governor Endorses U.S. Troops in Mexico | KTSM News Channel 9
Texas Governor Endorses U.S. Troops in Mexico | KTSM News Channel 9: "Texas' governor says it is time to send U.S. troops into Mexico to fight the drug war.
On MSNBC, Rick Perry said the murders of American citizens in Mexico is justification enough.
'I think we have to use every aspect of law enforcement that we have including the military i think we have the same situation that we had in colombia Obviously, Mexico has to approve any type of assistance that we can give them. But the fact of the matter is these drug gangs are people who are highly motivated for money, they are vicious, they are armed to the teeth. And I want to see them defeated,And any means we can to run these people off our border and to save Americans' lives, we have to be engaged in.'"
2 bodies hung from bridge, man beheaded in Tijuana
2 bodies hung from bridge, man beheaded in Tijuana: "Two men were slain and hung from a bridge, another was decapitated and a fourth was shot to death over 24 hours in Tijuana, the latest gruesome killings in a Mexican border city where hopes had risen that cartel violence was decreasing.
The bodies of two men were found hanging from the Los Alamos bridge early Friday, said Fermin Gomez, Baja California state's deputy attorney general for organized crime.
Both victims had their hands and feet bound and one had his head covered with a black plastic bag. One of the bodies fell into traffic when the rope broke.
A day earlier, a human head was found underneath another bridge in Tijuana, which sits across from San Diego, California. The body of the 24-year-old man was found 12 hours later alongside the highway from Tijuana to the beach town of Ensenada."
The bodies of two men were found hanging from the Los Alamos bridge early Friday, said Fermin Gomez, Baja California state's deputy attorney general for organized crime.
Both victims had their hands and feet bound and one had his head covered with a black plastic bag. One of the bodies fell into traffic when the rope broke.
A day earlier, a human head was found underneath another bridge in Tijuana, which sits across from San Diego, California. The body of the 24-year-old man was found 12 hours later alongside the highway from Tijuana to the beach town of Ensenada."
Monday 25 October 2010
Thirteen retirees have been shot dead at a detoxification centre near the Mexican border city of Tijuana
Thirteen retirees have been shot dead at a detoxification centre near the Mexican border city of Tijuana, police say.
The reason for Sunday's attack was not immediately known, a police official told the AFP news agency, but it was apparently linked to the drug war that has claimed thousands of lives this year.
Elsewhere in the country, a mother and her two teenage children were killed in Torreon in the northern Coahuila state, when men in vans opened fire on a group of police patrol cars. The officers and soldiers returned fire.
It was not clear who fired the shots that killed the bystanders, but the state attorney general's office said it was investigating and expressed condolences to the victims' families.
"Because they were driving where the shooting took place, a 14-year-old boy, his 18-year-old sister and their 47-year-old mother were killed," the office said.
None of the criminals or the police officers were wounded in the firefight and no arrests have been made, officials said.
Coahuila has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Sinaloa cartel and the Zetas drug gang.
The woman who says her husband was gunned down by Mexican pirates now has a new mission.
The woman who says her husband was gunned down by Mexican pirates now has a new mission.
After a long road trip, Tiffany Hartley is back in Colorado and says she plans to raise awareness about border violence.
Last month Tiffany and her husband David were jet skiing on Falcon Lake along the border of Texas and Mexico when they were attacked. Hartley says gunman in boats shot and killed David and she fled from the area because she was concerned for her safety. His body has not been found and it's believed the Zetas drug cartel is responsible.
"I had to leave him. I had to make that choice of leaving him and saving my own life," she said on Sunday in La Salle with her parents nearby. "That was the hardest decision ever."
Tiffany says she wants to keep this story in the news. She will soon be appearing on several national talk shows to continue telling David's story.
"I'd rather him be next to me, with me then having to do all this by myself," she said on Sunday.
The investigation into the case continues, but now with a federal focus from the Mexican government.
Tiffany remains optimistic about the investigation and thankful for American assistance.
"If Mexico doesn't let us in and doesn't let us help then their hands are tied. Now we are at the mercy of Mexico and their government," she said.
Tiffany said she'd like to speak to members of Congress of about the violence along the border.
"I don't want David's death to go in vain, but I want people in America to realize this is a big issue."
After a long road trip, Tiffany Hartley is back in Colorado and says she plans to raise awareness about border violence.
Last month Tiffany and her husband David were jet skiing on Falcon Lake along the border of Texas and Mexico when they were attacked. Hartley says gunman in boats shot and killed David and she fled from the area because she was concerned for her safety. His body has not been found and it's believed the Zetas drug cartel is responsible.
"I had to leave him. I had to make that choice of leaving him and saving my own life," she said on Sunday in La Salle with her parents nearby. "That was the hardest decision ever."
Tiffany says she wants to keep this story in the news. She will soon be appearing on several national talk shows to continue telling David's story.
"I'd rather him be next to me, with me then having to do all this by myself," she said on Sunday.
The investigation into the case continues, but now with a federal focus from the Mexican government.
Tiffany remains optimistic about the investigation and thankful for American assistance.
"If Mexico doesn't let us in and doesn't let us help then their hands are tied. Now we are at the mercy of Mexico and their government," she said.
Tiffany said she'd like to speak to members of Congress of about the violence along the border.
"I don't want David's death to go in vain, but I want people in America to realize this is a big issue."
shooting death of U.S. citizen David Hartley on Falcon Lake was a mistake
Reliable sources in Mexico have provided information that the Sept. 30 shooting death of U.S. citizen David Hartley on Falcon Lake — which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border — was a mistake committed by a low-level member of the Los Zetas drug trafficking organization. Those responsible for Hartley’s death are believed to have disposed of his body and that the Zeta hierarchy was conducting a damage-control operation to punish those responsible for the death and to distance the cartel from the murder.
Sources further reported that the murder of the lead Tamaulipas state investigator on the case, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas — whose head was delivered in a suitcase to the Mexican military’s Eight Zone headquarters in Reynosa on Oct. 12 — was a specific message from Los Zetas to Mexican authorities to back off from the investigation.
It has become obvious that a solid understanding if lacking of the context within which Hartley’s killing occurred was lacking in media discussions of the case. Viewing the murder as part of the bigger picture of what is occurring in Mexico makes it far easier to understand not only why David Hartley was killed, but why his body will likely never be found — and why his killers probably will not be held accountable for their actions, at least in the context of the judicial system.
There has been a growing fracture between the Gulf cartel and its former enforcement arm, Los Zetas, which had become an independent drug trafficking organization. Los Zetas were becoming increasingly aggressive and that the Gulf cartel was struggling to fend off these advances. In fact, it looked as if Los Zetas were about to swallow up the Gulf cartel.
What had been a tense standoff between the two cartels erupted into open warfare in January 2010 when Zeta leader Sergio “El Concord 3” Mendoza Pena died in an altercation between Mendoza and a group of men reporting to Gulf cartel No. 2 leader Eduardo “El Coss” Costilla Sanchez. After learning of Mendoza’s death, Los Zetas No. 2 Miguel “Z-40” Trevino Morales gave Costilla an ultimatum to hand over those responsible for Mendoza’s death by Jan. 25. When the deadline passed without his demand being met, Trevino ordered the kidnapping of 16 known Gulf cartel members in the Ciudad Miguel Aleman area as retaliation. The war was on.
Fearing the might of Los Zetas, the Gulf cartel reached out to their longtime enemies, the Sinaloa federation, and asked for their assistance in dealing with Los Zetas. The leader of the Sinaloa federation, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, has no love for Los Zetas, who as the former military arm of the Gulf cartel engaged in many brutal battles with Guzman’s forces. Together with another enemy of Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacana (LFM), Guzman joined forces with the Gulf cartel to form an organization known as the New Federation. The stated goals of the New Federation were to destroy Los Zetas, along with the remnants of the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (VCF) organization, aka the Juarez cartel.
A move by the New Federation to destroy the remnants of the Arellano Felix Organization (aka the Tijuana cartel), now very weak, would allow the organization to dominate Mexican drug smuggling routes into the United States. If this New Federation consolidation were to occur (it has not happened yet), it would also likely result in a dramatic decrease in violence in the long term. But the VCF and Los Zetas have not yet been vanquished. This means that while the New Federation clearly has been able to gain the upper hand over the past several months, both Los Zetas and the VCF continue a desperate fight for survival and turf that in the short term means the level of violence will remain high.
The emergence of the New Federation was accompanied by the collapse of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a group formerly allied with the Sinaloa federation that broke away from Sinaloa and allied with Los Zetas and the VCF to fight against El Chapo and his allies.
Sources further reported that the murder of the lead Tamaulipas state investigator on the case, Rolando Armando Flores Villegas — whose head was delivered in a suitcase to the Mexican military’s Eight Zone headquarters in Reynosa on Oct. 12 — was a specific message from Los Zetas to Mexican authorities to back off from the investigation.
It has become obvious that a solid understanding if lacking of the context within which Hartley’s killing occurred was lacking in media discussions of the case. Viewing the murder as part of the bigger picture of what is occurring in Mexico makes it far easier to understand not only why David Hartley was killed, but why his body will likely never be found — and why his killers probably will not be held accountable for their actions, at least in the context of the judicial system.
There has been a growing fracture between the Gulf cartel and its former enforcement arm, Los Zetas, which had become an independent drug trafficking organization. Los Zetas were becoming increasingly aggressive and that the Gulf cartel was struggling to fend off these advances. In fact, it looked as if Los Zetas were about to swallow up the Gulf cartel.
What had been a tense standoff between the two cartels erupted into open warfare in January 2010 when Zeta leader Sergio “El Concord 3” Mendoza Pena died in an altercation between Mendoza and a group of men reporting to Gulf cartel No. 2 leader Eduardo “El Coss” Costilla Sanchez. After learning of Mendoza’s death, Los Zetas No. 2 Miguel “Z-40” Trevino Morales gave Costilla an ultimatum to hand over those responsible for Mendoza’s death by Jan. 25. When the deadline passed without his demand being met, Trevino ordered the kidnapping of 16 known Gulf cartel members in the Ciudad Miguel Aleman area as retaliation. The war was on.
Fearing the might of Los Zetas, the Gulf cartel reached out to their longtime enemies, the Sinaloa federation, and asked for their assistance in dealing with Los Zetas. The leader of the Sinaloa federation, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, has no love for Los Zetas, who as the former military arm of the Gulf cartel engaged in many brutal battles with Guzman’s forces. Together with another enemy of Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacana (LFM), Guzman joined forces with the Gulf cartel to form an organization known as the New Federation. The stated goals of the New Federation were to destroy Los Zetas, along with the remnants of the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (VCF) organization, aka the Juarez cartel.
A move by the New Federation to destroy the remnants of the Arellano Felix Organization (aka the Tijuana cartel), now very weak, would allow the organization to dominate Mexican drug smuggling routes into the United States. If this New Federation consolidation were to occur (it has not happened yet), it would also likely result in a dramatic decrease in violence in the long term. But the VCF and Los Zetas have not yet been vanquished. This means that while the New Federation clearly has been able to gain the upper hand over the past several months, both Los Zetas and the VCF continue a desperate fight for survival and turf that in the short term means the level of violence will remain high.
The emergence of the New Federation was accompanied by the collapse of the Beltran Leyva Organization, a group formerly allied with the Sinaloa federation that broke away from Sinaloa and allied with Los Zetas and the VCF to fight against El Chapo and his allies.
Three bystanders died in the crossfire of a shootout between gunmen, police and soldiers in northern Mexico
Three bystanders died in the crossfire of a shootout between gunmen, police and soldiers in northern Mexico on Sunday.
The victims were a 14-year-old boy and two women aged 18 and 47, according to a statement by the prosecutors' office in northern Coahuila state.
The statement said gunmen traveling in two vehicles opened fire on a convoy of federal police and soldiers in the city of Saltillo, Coahuila. The officers and soldiers returned fire.
It was not clear who fired the shots that killed the bystanders, but the state attorney general's office said it was investigating and expressed condolences to the victims' families.
"They are civilians who unfortunately died in the exchange of gunfire," it said, describing a running series of confrontations between police and assailants who allegedly fired shots into the air to clear bystanders from their path at one point.
Mexico's army, which has taken a leading role in combating drug gangs, has come under criticism for alleged indiscriminate use of force and firing on civilians.
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/world/3-bystanders-killed-in-northern-mexico-shootout-toll-in-party-massacre-rises-to-14-105656428.html#ixzz13MERMBPi
The victims were a 14-year-old boy and two women aged 18 and 47, according to a statement by the prosecutors' office in northern Coahuila state.
The statement said gunmen traveling in two vehicles opened fire on a convoy of federal police and soldiers in the city of Saltillo, Coahuila. The officers and soldiers returned fire.
It was not clear who fired the shots that killed the bystanders, but the state attorney general's office said it was investigating and expressed condolences to the victims' families.
"They are civilians who unfortunately died in the exchange of gunfire," it said, describing a running series of confrontations between police and assailants who allegedly fired shots into the air to clear bystanders from their path at one point.
Mexico's army, which has taken a leading role in combating drug gangs, has come under criticism for alleged indiscriminate use of force and firing on civilians.
Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/world/3-bystanders-killed-in-northern-mexico-shootout-toll-in-party-massacre-rises-to-14-105656428.html#ixzz13MERMBPi
death toll rose to 14 in the weekend massacre at a boy’s birthday party in Ciudad Juárez,
death toll rose to 14 in the weekend massacre at a boy’s birthday party in Ciudad Juárez, the Chihuahua State attorney general’s office said Sunday.
Related
Gunmen burst into the party in a small concrete house in a working-class Ciudad Juárez neighborhood on Friday and opened fire, killing 13 people immediately and wounding 20, state officials said. A 14th victim died in the hospital late Saturday night.
A 13-year-old girl was the youngest of the dead, which included several older teenagers. A 9-year-old boy was wounded.
Ciudad Juárez has become one of the most violent cities in the world since the Mexican government began its crackdown on drug cartels four years ago, and murder fueled by the drug trade has become so routine there that residents are not easily shocked. But the massacre on Friday night, like several other moments in the city this year, seemed to cross a line.
Mr. Calderón sent a message via Twitter, saying, “With sadness and profound indignation, the federal government expresses its most energetic repudiation of the murder of various young people in Ciudad Juárez.”
Related
Gunmen burst into the party in a small concrete house in a working-class Ciudad Juárez neighborhood on Friday and opened fire, killing 13 people immediately and wounding 20, state officials said. A 14th victim died in the hospital late Saturday night.
A 13-year-old girl was the youngest of the dead, which included several older teenagers. A 9-year-old boy was wounded.
Ciudad Juárez has become one of the most violent cities in the world since the Mexican government began its crackdown on drug cartels four years ago, and murder fueled by the drug trade has become so routine there that residents are not easily shocked. But the massacre on Friday night, like several other moments in the city this year, seemed to cross a line.
Mr. Calderón sent a message via Twitter, saying, “With sadness and profound indignation, the federal government expresses its most energetic repudiation of the murder of various young people in Ciudad Juárez.”
Gunmen in the Mexican city of Tijuana have shot dead 13 people at a drug rehabilitation centre
Gunmen in the Mexican city of Tijuana have shot dead 13 people at a drug rehabilitation centre, say police.
The attack appeared to be connected to the long-running violent conflict between drugs gangs in the the country, in which thousands have been killed.
On Saturday, 14 people, most of them teenagers, were shot dead at a party in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Last week, police in Tijuana destroyed 134 tonnes of cannabis - the largest drugs haul ever seized in the country.
The drugs, with an estimated street value of at least $340m (£214m), had been wrapped in 15,000 separate packages.
Police in Tijuana, just over the border from San Diego, California, said the latest killings happened when an armed gang burst into the Camino drug treatment centre in the city.
They lined the victims up and shot them with high-powered weapons, El Universal newspaper reported.
Drugs rehabilitation centres have been attacked by gunmen before - observers say the gangs accuse the clinics of protecting rival dealers.
Police also believe drug cartels use the clinics to recruit hitmen and smugglers, threatening to kill those who fail to co-operate.
The attack appeared to be connected to the long-running violent conflict between drugs gangs in the the country, in which thousands have been killed.
On Saturday, 14 people, most of them teenagers, were shot dead at a party in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.
Last week, police in Tijuana destroyed 134 tonnes of cannabis - the largest drugs haul ever seized in the country.
The drugs, with an estimated street value of at least $340m (£214m), had been wrapped in 15,000 separate packages.
Police in Tijuana, just over the border from San Diego, California, said the latest killings happened when an armed gang burst into the Camino drug treatment centre in the city.
They lined the victims up and shot them with high-powered weapons, El Universal newspaper reported.
Drugs rehabilitation centres have been attacked by gunmen before - observers say the gangs accuse the clinics of protecting rival dealers.
Police also believe drug cartels use the clinics to recruit hitmen and smugglers, threatening to kill those who fail to co-operate.
Sunday 10 October 2010
people in the car were Zetas cartel members; as the soldiers approached them, the gun battle began
Just a little over a week since the reported shooting death of American David Hartley on the waters of Falcon Lake, Mexican Soldiers searching the area discover a car in the brush. The Mexican National Defense Ministry said the soldiers were conducting patrols around the town of New Guerrero, Mexico, near the southern shore of Falcon Lake when they found a car with six people inside. According to officials, the people in the car were Zetas cartel members; as the soldiers approached them, the gun battle began. The Defence Ministry said all six of the alleged cartel members were killed and one soldier was wounded. The area is a well known territory of the Zetas Drug Cartel.
mayor-elect of a small town in Oaxaca state has been slain
mayor-elect of a small town in Oaxaca state has been slain, police have said, on the heels of 11 murders of mayors in Mexico so far this year.
Antonio Jimenez, who was about to take over the mayor's post in Martires de Tacubaya, a town of 1,200, was murdered Friday on his way home from working in the country. There was no motive or suspect immediately known, police said.
Jimenez, 47, was a teacher and member of the center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Authorities have blamed the murders of the other mayors on organized crime and drug gangs.
Violence has spiraled across the country since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime gangs, involving some 50,000 troops, in 2006.
Antonio Jimenez, who was about to take over the mayor's post in Martires de Tacubaya, a town of 1,200, was murdered Friday on his way home from working in the country. There was no motive or suspect immediately known, police said.
Jimenez, 47, was a teacher and member of the center-left Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
Authorities have blamed the murders of the other mayors on organized crime and drug gangs.
Violence has spiraled across the country since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on organized crime gangs, involving some 50,000 troops, in 2006.
Saturday 9 October 2010
Hallan cuerpos descuartizados en Ixmiquilpan | Noticias | BlogdelNarco.com
Hallan cuerpos descuartizados en Ixmiquilpan | Noticias | BlogdelNarco.com: "dismembered with a message allegedly organized crime, were found the bodies of two men in the community Fitzhi, in the municipality of Ixmiquilpan.
The bodies were found about 05:00 in the morning by staff of the Research Coordination, after receiving a call in which he reported the find.
Upon arriving in the area, noticed items that were located where the mutilated bodies of two men of arms, feet and head. According to authorities, the heads were wrapped with masking tape and one side was two cards with the legend 'cons welcome the appointment, the state of Hidalgo, allegedly signed by the Gulf Cartel and La Familia Michoacana.
After conducting the survey in the area, the bodies were lifted by the staff of the Attorney General's Office (PGJE) and transferred to Semefo."
José Gerardo Garza Mendoza alias “El Gory”
El Blog del Narco: "El director de Tránsito del municipio de Cerralvo, José Gerardo Garza Mendoza alias “El Gory” , abandonó este jueves las celdas del Cereso de Apodaca, luego de ganar un amparo contra el auto de formal prisión.
Fue el juez Tercero de Distrito de esta entidad quien absolvió al funcionario, luego de permanecer una semana detenido al ser acusado de incurrir en varios delitos."
NARCOTWEETS Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars | World news | The Guardian
Twitter feeds and blogs tell hidden story of Mexico's drug wars | World news | The Guardian: "small army of bloggers and tweeters is filling the gaps left by traditional media in Mexico that are increasingly limiting their coverage of the country's drug wars because of pressure from the cartels.
'Shots fired by the river, unknown number of dead,' read one recent tweet on a busy feed from the northern border city of Reynosa, #Reynosafollow. 'Organized crime blockade on San Fernando road lifted,' said another. 'Just saw police officers telling a group of narcos about the positions of navy checkpoints,' ran a third.
Nothing of this kind appeared in the city's papers which, along with most media outlets in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, have become better known for what they do not publish than for what they do.
Tamaulipas is one of the most intense battlegrounds of the drug wars being fought in Mexico between the federal forces and at least seven cartels.
Gun fights lasting hours, grenade attacks in shopping streets, military swoops on suspected kingpins – all ignored. Six local journalists in one city disappeared in two days, and there was hardly a word from their terrified colleagues."
'Shots fired by the river, unknown number of dead,' read one recent tweet on a busy feed from the northern border city of Reynosa, #Reynosafollow. 'Organized crime blockade on San Fernando road lifted,' said another. 'Just saw police officers telling a group of narcos about the positions of navy checkpoints,' ran a third.
Nothing of this kind appeared in the city's papers which, along with most media outlets in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas, have become better known for what they do not publish than for what they do.
Tamaulipas is one of the most intense battlegrounds of the drug wars being fought in Mexico between the federal forces and at least seven cartels.
Gun fights lasting hours, grenade attacks in shopping streets, military swoops on suspected kingpins – all ignored. Six local journalists in one city disappeared in two days, and there was hardly a word from their terrified colleagues."
Mexico Nabs 17 Suspected Members of Gulf Cartel
Latin American Herald Tribune - Mexico Nabs 17 Suspected Members of Gulf Cartel: "Marines arrested 17 suspected Gulf cartel members in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, the Mexican navy said Tuesday.
The arrests of the suspects, who were paraded before reporters on Tuesday at the Matamoros Naval Sector base in Tamaulipas, was made possible by “information obtained via naval intelligence work,” the navy said in a statement.
Marines seized 49 rifles, two handguns and 42 vehicles, including several trucks with trailers, automobiles and SUVs from the suspects.
The operation also netted small amounts of cocaine and marijuana, 101,533 rounds of ammunition, six hand grenades, 125 uniforms, 10 helmets, five bullet-proof vests, 31 cell phones, 20 radios and two relay stations.
This is the second mass arrest of Gulf cartel members carried out by marines recently in Tamaulipas, which borders Texas."
The arrests of the suspects, who were paraded before reporters on Tuesday at the Matamoros Naval Sector base in Tamaulipas, was made possible by “information obtained via naval intelligence work,” the navy said in a statement.
Marines seized 49 rifles, two handguns and 42 vehicles, including several trucks with trailers, automobiles and SUVs from the suspects.
The operation also netted small amounts of cocaine and marijuana, 101,533 rounds of ammunition, six hand grenades, 125 uniforms, 10 helmets, five bullet-proof vests, 31 cell phones, 20 radios and two relay stations.
This is the second mass arrest of Gulf cartel members carried out by marines recently in Tamaulipas, which borders Texas."
NARCOCINEMA Mexico's drug violence on screen
BBC News - World News America - Mexico's drug violence on screen: "deadly drug war has become a daily reality for the people of Mexico. Last weekend alone, nearly 50 people were killed in violence tied to the cartels. The disturbing trend has permeated many aspects of Mexican culture and even the movies offer little escape.
As the BBC's Julian Miglierini reports, a whole genre of films is bringing the drug related violence to the big screen."
As the BBC's Julian Miglierini reports, a whole genre of films is bringing the drug related violence to the big screen."
5 of a family killed in Mexico drug war - Hindustan Times
5 of a family killed in Mexico drug war - Hindustan Times: "Gunmen murdered five members of a family in Mexico City, in what may have been a 'settling of scores' between rival drug traffickers, a senior official has said. 'Some indications have been found inside the residence that point to an issue related to 'narco-retailing'. They tell us of possible direct revenge against this family,' district attorney Miguel Angel Mancera said.
The gunmen murdered Clemente Sanchez Salinas, a 51-year-old seller of bags and raincoats, and took the other four people in a vehicle, which was later found with the bodies of three men and a woman, the district attorney said."
The gunmen murdered Clemente Sanchez Salinas, a 51-year-old seller of bags and raincoats, and took the other four people in a vehicle, which was later found with the bodies of three men and a woman, the district attorney said."
Mexico’s Drug War Crosses the Border | FrumForum
Mexico’s Drug War Crosses the Border | FrumForum: "Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia confirmed the information provided to The Brownsville Herald by Mexican law enforcement officials who stated that one of the men killed is the younger brother of former Gulf Cartel members Alberto “Beto Fabe” Castillo Flores and Oscar “El Apache” Castillo Flores, 33. Beto Fabe, who served as a lieutenant with the cartel, was killed in Matamoros last summer while Oscar Castillo joined the Zetas criminal organization. El Apache was arrested in Brownsville in July and remains in federal custody. According to court documents, he was caught in a multi-agency operation that was led by ICE, along with Luis Alberto “El Pelochas” Blanco Flores, and Jose Ezequiel “El Niño” Galicia Gonzalez. A source with firsthand knowledge of criminal activity in Mexico stated that both El Apache and his group belonged to a cell of the Gulf Cartel that switched sides and began cooperating with the Zetas. According to the source, Beto Fabe was the Plaza boss of the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros but let his brother El Apache work for both that cartel and the Zetas in Matamoros."
Mexican Arrests Zetas Boss in Cancun
Latin American Herald Tribune - Mexican Arrests Zetas Boss in Cancun: "The suspected boss of the Los Zetas drug cartel in the southeastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo was captured by army troops, the Defense Secretariat said.
Jose Angel Fernandez de Lara Diaz, who was based in Cancun, was arrested last Friday in the Caribbean resort city, the secretariat said.
Fernandez de Lara told authorities that he belonged to Los Zetas and was put in charge of operations in the area by the group’s leader, Heriberto Lazcano, in June.
The suspect was in charge of drug trafficking, people trafficking and kidnapping in Quintana Roo."
Jose Angel Fernandez de Lara Diaz, who was based in Cancun, was arrested last Friday in the Caribbean resort city, the secretariat said.
Fernandez de Lara told authorities that he belonged to Los Zetas and was put in charge of operations in the area by the group’s leader, Heriberto Lazcano, in June.
The suspect was in charge of drug trafficking, people trafficking and kidnapping in Quintana Roo."
Forty-eight Americans were killed in Mexico during the first six months of 2010
Americans on a deadly pace in Mexico | World | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "Forty-eight Americans were killed in Mexico during the first six months of 2010 — a deadly pace that appears likely to exceed any previous year of homicides on record, according to the Houston Chronicle's analysis of the U.S. State Department's death registry.
The tally doesn't include two Texans reported killed Sept. 30 in separate incidents in isolated areas of Tamaulipas, where the terrorist group known as the Zetas has been warring with their Gulf Cartel rivals in communities all along the Southeast Texas border.
A college freshman from Brownsville, Jonathon William Torres Cazares, was shot and killed after authorities say his public bus got hijacked on a highway in Tamaulipas."
The tally doesn't include two Texans reported killed Sept. 30 in separate incidents in isolated areas of Tamaulipas, where the terrorist group known as the Zetas has been warring with their Gulf Cartel rivals in communities all along the Southeast Texas border.
A college freshman from Brownsville, Jonathon William Torres Cazares, was shot and killed after authorities say his public bus got hijacked on a highway in Tamaulipas."
David, was shot to death by Mexican pirates chasing them on speedboats across Falcon Lake on Sept. 30 as they returned on Jet Skis
search for a missing American tourist presumably shot and killed by Mexican pirates on a border lake has been thwarted by threats of an ambush from drug gangs, U.S. officials said Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar told reporters that Mexican authorities are doing everything they can to find David Hartley's body while trying to keep their own crews safe.
"When darkness was falling (Wednesday evening), they got word that there might be an ambush," Cuellar said. "People that are trying to do their job on the Mexican side are facing a risk, they're right inside the hornets' nest ... they had to suspend the search."
Cuellar said the search resumed midmorning Thursday.
Tiffany Hartley said her husband, David, was shot to death by Mexican pirates chasing them on speedboats across Falcon Lake on Sept. 30 as they returned on Jet Skis from a trip to photograph a historic Mexican church. Neither his body nor the Jet Ski has been recovered. Texas officials have warned boaters and fisherman that pirates frequent the Mexican side of the lake, a 25-mile by 3-mile dammed section of the Rio Grande.
That part of Tamaulipas state is overrun by violence from a turf battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Zeta drug gang, made up of former Mexican special forces soldiers, and both are battling the Mexican military.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, campaigning for re-election in Houston, said such threats were no excuse.
"I don't think we're doing enough. When you call off the search the way they did ... and give as the reason because the drug cartels are in control of that part of the state, something's not right," Perry said. "We do not need to let our border continue to deteriorate from the standpoint of having drug cartels telling whether or not we can go in and bring the body of an American citizen who was killed. That is irresponsible."
search for an American tourist reportedly shot dead on a border lake by Mexican pirates has been hampered by threats of an ambush from drug gangs.
U.S. officials say the search for an American tourist reportedly shot dead on a border lake by Mexican pirates has been hampered by threats of an ambush from drug gangs.
David Hartley was a native of Loveland, Colorado, and he has family who lives here.
A rally is scheduled to begin Friday with a walk at 12:30 p.m. from Four Mile Historic Park in Denver. The group will go to the Mexican Consulate and rally there at 1:00 p.m. The idea is to turn up the pressure on the Mexican government to recover Hartley’s body.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas said the search for David Hartley was temporarily halted Wednesday evening as Mexican officials “worried about being ambushed because they’ve gotten the call already.”
David Hartley was a native of Loveland, Colorado, and he has family who lives here.
A rally is scheduled to begin Friday with a walk at 12:30 p.m. from Four Mile Historic Park in Denver. The group will go to the Mexican Consulate and rally there at 1:00 p.m. The idea is to turn up the pressure on the Mexican government to recover Hartley’s body.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas said the search for David Hartley was temporarily halted Wednesday evening as Mexican officials “worried about being ambushed because they’ve gotten the call already.”
confirmed member of the Sex Money Murder gang
Wallace Parrish, 19, of West Fourth Street was arrested last weekend in connection with the Sept. 28 death of 44-year-old Johnston Avenue resident Isidro Leonardo, an employee of United Taxi on Watchung Avenue. Parrish made his first appearance before Superior Court Judge Joan Robinson Gross on Wednesday, when he did not comment at length about the case that authorities have described as a robbery gone wrong.
It was not immediately known Thursday whether Parrish had secured legal representation, but details about his life during the months leading up to Leonardo's death seemed to reveal a troubled background that included a 2009 arrest in Ewing.
Mercer County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Casey DeBlasio said Tuesday that Parrish in June entered a three-year pretrial intervention program that was to include requirements of periodic supervision and 50 hours of community service. Pretrial intervention, or PTI, is a program through which defendants, mostly first-time offenders, are offered rehabilitative alternatives to traditional prosecution. Assuming certain conditions are met, successful completion of the state's PTI program results in charges faced by a defendant being dismissed.
DeBlasio said Wallace had no criminal record prior to August 2009, when he was charged with robbery, endangering an injured person and solicitation or recruitment to join a street gang in connection with an incident involving five other teenagers.
The Union County Prosecutor's Office, in announcing Parrish's arrest last weekend, identified him as a confirmed member of the Sex Money Murder gang set, which is active in the Trenton metro area and in Plainfield. Plainfield Police Sgt. Larry Brown, the division's veteran gang specialist, said Parrish was known to local authorities prior to Leonardo's death, but only dating back a short while.
It was not immediately known Thursday whether Parrish had secured legal representation, but details about his life during the months leading up to Leonardo's death seemed to reveal a troubled background that included a 2009 arrest in Ewing.
Mercer County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Casey DeBlasio said Tuesday that Parrish in June entered a three-year pretrial intervention program that was to include requirements of periodic supervision and 50 hours of community service. Pretrial intervention, or PTI, is a program through which defendants, mostly first-time offenders, are offered rehabilitative alternatives to traditional prosecution. Assuming certain conditions are met, successful completion of the state's PTI program results in charges faced by a defendant being dismissed.
DeBlasio said Wallace had no criminal record prior to August 2009, when he was charged with robbery, endangering an injured person and solicitation or recruitment to join a street gang in connection with an incident involving five other teenagers.
The Union County Prosecutor's Office, in announcing Parrish's arrest last weekend, identified him as a confirmed member of the Sex Money Murder gang set, which is active in the Trenton metro area and in Plainfield. Plainfield Police Sgt. Larry Brown, the division's veteran gang specialist, said Parrish was known to local authorities prior to Leonardo's death, but only dating back a short while.
Thursday 30 September 2010
Cocaine with an estimated street value of nine and a half million euro has been seized in Dublin.
Cocaine with an estimated street value of nine and a half million euro has been seized in Dublin.
They were found by Gardai during a search of a house in Corrib Road, Terenure.
A drug-mixing factory was uncovered in a joint effort by Terenure and Kevin St Garda stations. Two automatic weapons were also recovered.
The seizure is part of an on-going investigation into South Dublin organised crime and also included raids of separate properties in Tallaght and Walkinstown from which two people are still being questioned.
The investigation is part of wider operation into the activities of two gangs involved in a feud in the suburbs of Crumlin and Drimnagh in southwest Dublin.
They were found by Gardai during a search of a house in Corrib Road, Terenure.
A drug-mixing factory was uncovered in a joint effort by Terenure and Kevin St Garda stations. Two automatic weapons were also recovered.
The seizure is part of an on-going investigation into South Dublin organised crime and also included raids of separate properties in Tallaght and Walkinstown from which two people are still being questioned.
The investigation is part of wider operation into the activities of two gangs involved in a feud in the suburbs of Crumlin and Drimnagh in southwest Dublin.
Sergio Vega, a Mexican musician known as "El Shaka" gave an interview to an entertainment website announcing that rumours of his grisly murder
Sergio Vega, a Mexican musician known as "El Shaka" gave an interview to an entertainment website announcing that rumours of his grisly murder had been greatly exaggerated.
"It's happened to me for years now," he complained. "Someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I've been killed or suffered a terrible accident. Then I have to telephone my dear mother – who suffers from heart trouble – to reassure her that in fact I am still alive."
This time, Vega sadly never got to make that call. Around 9.30pm, as he was being driven to a late-night concert in Angostura, a town near the US border in his native state of Sinaloa, a gang armed with automatic weapons drove up to his speeding vehicle in a white truck and opened fire. The 40-year-old singer's assistant Sergio Montiel, who was also in the car and miraculously survived, told reporters that after the vehicle was forced off the road, the gunmen ran up to the passenger side, where Vega had been sitting, and "finished him off" with shots to the head and chest. More than 30 bullets were found in his pockmarked corpse.
Yesterday, as fans across Mexico paid tribute to "El Shaka", the eighth star of the Grupero genre of Latin music to have been murdered in recent years, a lawyer for Vega's family blamed the killing on car thieves, saying he was a "good man" who did not have any "problems" with the sort of people who carry out organised hit jobs.
But others doubt that assessment. As both the circumstances and timing of the crime suggest, they say, Vega was almost certainly taken out because he'd become entangled in one of the many ongoing turf wars between Mexico's drug cartels. His band, Los Reyes del Norte, had in recent years become famed for their "narcocorridos", a genre of romanticised ballads set against a polka beat which recount, in glamorous detail, the lives, loves and murderous exploits of the country's most feared cocaine barons.
The life of a narcocorrido singer can be highly lucrative, since rich gangsters – who make profits estimated at 3,000 per cent on drugs smuggled from Central and South America, where they are produced, to the USA where they are largely consumed – are prepared to pay tens of thousands of dollars to be immortalised in specially- commissioned songs.
It isn't exactly a safe line of business to be in, though. A singer who writes catchy songs honouring the criminal activities of one gang immediately puts himself somewhere near the top of the hit-list of rival syndicates, who dislike seeing praise publicly heaped upon their enemies. Vega was no exception. A translation of the chorus of one of his recent hits reads: "I'm going to ask you a favour/Shaka told his people/I want to have some coca paste processed/Because that's what the customer wants/At the end if it rains and I get wet/You will get wet as well."
In gangster argot, "making it rain" means to shower bullets on a victim.
In the past three years, a string of prominent Grupero stars have been kidnapped and brutally killed, including Sergio Gomez, a Grammy-nominated singer with the band K-Paz de la Sierra, kidnapped after a concert in the western state of Michoacan in 2007 and found strangled several days later.
Although the eight dead musicians pale into insignificance when measured against the official total of 22,000 who have been killed since December 2006 – when Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announced that he was declaring "war" on the drug-smuggling business – their deaths have nonetheless provoked soul-searching.
Police chiefs last year cancelled Grupero concerts in border towns like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, amid fears that they would end in violence and a prominent politician, Oscar Martin Arce, recently proposed a law to restrict all music and film that celebrates crime. "Society sees drug ballads as nice, pleasant, inconsequential and harmless, but they are the opposite," he said.
That has only served to further glamorise the genre, though, and the aftermath of Vega's killing saw YouTube forced to remove dozens of grisly films setting footage of his bullet-ridden Cadillac to recordings of some of his most famous ballads.
The singer, famed for his white cowboy hats and thick moustache, was one of 13 brothers from a working-class family who was born in Ciudad Obregon in the northern state of Sonora in 1969. He and several siblings came to prominence in 1989 after they signed a deal with the Phoenix label Joey Records as the band Los Hermanos Vega.
In 1994, Vega fell out with several brothers and split from the group to found Los Reyes del Norte. They began recording narcocorridos roughly six years ago and, perhaps ironically, were one of the groups performed at the concert at which Sergio Gomez had been kidnapped.
Asked about that killing, along with the murder of singer Carlos Ocaranza – who was gunned down last August as he left a bar where he had given a concert in Guadalajara – Vega was philosophical.
"I navigate through heavy themes (in my songs)," he said recently. "It can be a bit frightening but you have to put your faith in God."
"It's happened to me for years now," he complained. "Someone tells a radio station or a newspaper I've been killed or suffered a terrible accident. Then I have to telephone my dear mother – who suffers from heart trouble – to reassure her that in fact I am still alive."
This time, Vega sadly never got to make that call. Around 9.30pm, as he was being driven to a late-night concert in Angostura, a town near the US border in his native state of Sinaloa, a gang armed with automatic weapons drove up to his speeding vehicle in a white truck and opened fire. The 40-year-old singer's assistant Sergio Montiel, who was also in the car and miraculously survived, told reporters that after the vehicle was forced off the road, the gunmen ran up to the passenger side, where Vega had been sitting, and "finished him off" with shots to the head and chest. More than 30 bullets were found in his pockmarked corpse.
Yesterday, as fans across Mexico paid tribute to "El Shaka", the eighth star of the Grupero genre of Latin music to have been murdered in recent years, a lawyer for Vega's family blamed the killing on car thieves, saying he was a "good man" who did not have any "problems" with the sort of people who carry out organised hit jobs.
But others doubt that assessment. As both the circumstances and timing of the crime suggest, they say, Vega was almost certainly taken out because he'd become entangled in one of the many ongoing turf wars between Mexico's drug cartels. His band, Los Reyes del Norte, had in recent years become famed for their "narcocorridos", a genre of romanticised ballads set against a polka beat which recount, in glamorous detail, the lives, loves and murderous exploits of the country's most feared cocaine barons.
The life of a narcocorrido singer can be highly lucrative, since rich gangsters – who make profits estimated at 3,000 per cent on drugs smuggled from Central and South America, where they are produced, to the USA where they are largely consumed – are prepared to pay tens of thousands of dollars to be immortalised in specially- commissioned songs.
It isn't exactly a safe line of business to be in, though. A singer who writes catchy songs honouring the criminal activities of one gang immediately puts himself somewhere near the top of the hit-list of rival syndicates, who dislike seeing praise publicly heaped upon their enemies. Vega was no exception. A translation of the chorus of one of his recent hits reads: "I'm going to ask you a favour/Shaka told his people/I want to have some coca paste processed/Because that's what the customer wants/At the end if it rains and I get wet/You will get wet as well."
In gangster argot, "making it rain" means to shower bullets on a victim.
In the past three years, a string of prominent Grupero stars have been kidnapped and brutally killed, including Sergio Gomez, a Grammy-nominated singer with the band K-Paz de la Sierra, kidnapped after a concert in the western state of Michoacan in 2007 and found strangled several days later.
Although the eight dead musicians pale into insignificance when measured against the official total of 22,000 who have been killed since December 2006 – when Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announced that he was declaring "war" on the drug-smuggling business – their deaths have nonetheless provoked soul-searching.
Police chiefs last year cancelled Grupero concerts in border towns like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, amid fears that they would end in violence and a prominent politician, Oscar Martin Arce, recently proposed a law to restrict all music and film that celebrates crime. "Society sees drug ballads as nice, pleasant, inconsequential and harmless, but they are the opposite," he said.
That has only served to further glamorise the genre, though, and the aftermath of Vega's killing saw YouTube forced to remove dozens of grisly films setting footage of his bullet-ridden Cadillac to recordings of some of his most famous ballads.
The singer, famed for his white cowboy hats and thick moustache, was one of 13 brothers from a working-class family who was born in Ciudad Obregon in the northern state of Sonora in 1969. He and several siblings came to prominence in 1989 after they signed a deal with the Phoenix label Joey Records as the band Los Hermanos Vega.
In 1994, Vega fell out with several brothers and split from the group to found Los Reyes del Norte. They began recording narcocorridos roughly six years ago and, perhaps ironically, were one of the groups performed at the concert at which Sergio Gomez had been kidnapped.
Asked about that killing, along with the murder of singer Carlos Ocaranza – who was gunned down last August as he left a bar where he had given a concert in Guadalajara – Vega was philosophical.
"I navigate through heavy themes (in my songs)," he said recently. "It can be a bit frightening but you have to put your faith in God."
