Buried at the bottom of a Milenio story on Tuesday’s police shooting in Monterrey is an observation that may explain why authorities took so long to explain what happened. “The crime is being investigated in the interior of the federal forces,” Milenio reported, summarizing what Patricio Patiño, a federal undersecretary of public security, told the media late yesterday.
12/09/2007
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MONTERREY, Mexico — Two federal police officers were shot dead Tuesday and two more were injured by gunfire in yet another attack on law enforcers in this violence-torn metropolis. The officers met a hail of high-caliber gunfire around 10 a.m. at a gas station close to a Holiday Inn Express near the center of the city. A least 100 shell casings littered the street around the scene.
Sep 052007
05/09/2007
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Extradition possible for Arellano Félix MEXICO CITY – Drug kingpin Benjamín Arellano Félix, whose Tijuana cartel once supplied 40 percent of the cocaine consumed in the United States, has been sentenced to 22 years in Mexico’s toughest maximum-security prison, the Mexican federal Attorney General’s Office said yesterday. Arellano, 54, was sentenced Monday by a federal judge on organized crime and drug trafficking charges. In April, he received a five-year sentence for possession of an AK-47 and a .38-caliber pistol during his March 2002 arrest in a home he shared with his family in Puebla state.
19/08/2007
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MARÍN, Mexico — The last time Americans proficient in weapons came here, they sacked the town. Héctor Cantú, the mayor 161 years later, is ready to forgive that old grudge from the Mexican-American War, and welcome some arms experts back. Like most small-town police departments around Mexico, his embattled police force is badly outgunned by vicious drug gangs. Like many in the border state of Nuevo León, it is understaffed because some of its officers were arrested on charges of collusion with narcos. Cantú will take any help he can get. “As long as it goes through the proper channels,” ….Read More
Aug 182007
18/08/2007
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“The tentacles of this drug trafficking enterprise spanned both national and international territories,” said James L. Capra, special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Division Office. “As criminal members were identified, the scope and magnitude of this organization’s destructive powers became apparent.
17/08/2007
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As reported in todays edition of El Manana newspaper Officials of the PGR destroyed “21 toneladas 25 kilos 196 gramos 860 miligramos de marihuana, 1 kilo 659 gramos 700 miligramos de cocaína y mil 859 pastillas psicotrópicas.” Or in other words, 21.25 tons of pot, 1.7 kilos of cocaine and 859 “happy pills”, probably Ecstasy or something similiar. You can read the story here if you care to. It goes to show Mexico is just as interested in fighting illegal drugs as we are. Although I firmly believe legalization might be the answer and the means to the end.
17/08/2007
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An indictment charging 32 people, including seven from Laredo, with conspiracy, drug trafficking and money laundering charges, is scheduled to be unsealed this morning in federal court.The indictment culminates a two-and-a-half-year DEA-led investigation involving more than 20 local, state and federal agencies. The investigation, “Operation Puma,” raked in 20 tons of cocaine and marijuana and more than $7 million in cash and drug-related assets belonging to an unnamed international Mexican-based, drug trafficking and money laundering organization.
16/08/2007
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Authorities are sounding the alarm about an influx of assault rifles, armor-piercing pistols and fragmentation grenades from the United States, weapons that they say are increasingly being used to kill police and soldiers fighting drug cartels. U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials report a sharp increase in both the flow and firepower of U.S. weapons across the border. Particularly worrisome are assault rifles and “cop-killer” pistols. Mexico has strict firearms laws, few gun stores and a mere 4,300 private licensed gun holders among its 105 million people. The United States, with nearly as many guns as people, has more than ….Read More
Jul 032007
03/07/2007
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This is too absurd to be believable! MEXICO CITY (AP) — A Chinese-Mexican businessman charged in the largest drug-related cash seizure in history accused a top Mexican official of forcing him to stash millions in illicit campaign funds in the walls and closets of his Mexico City mansion. In the first major accusation linking the administration of President Felipe Calderon to Mexico’s drug underworld, Zhenli Ye Gon claims Javier Lozano Alarcon, now Mexico’s labor secretary, threatened to kill him unless he stored duffel bags stuffed with at least $150 million. But key details in his version of events seem contradictory, ….Read More