Over recent months, the level of violence along the U.S.-Mexican border has begun to rise substantially, with some of it spilling into the United States. Several months ago, the Mexican government began military operations on its side of the border against Mexican gangs engaged in smuggling drugs into the United States. The action apparently pushed some of the gang members north into the United States in a bid for sanctuary. Low-level violence is endemic to the border region. But while not without precedent, movement of organized, armed cadres into the United States on this scale goes beyond what has become ….Read More
26/02/2008
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MEXICO CITY— Investigators found parts from at least eight bodies in a series of backyard pits at a house in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, prosecutors said on Tuesday. The Attorney General’s Office did not say how the victims died or who is believed to have buried their remains, but it did note that 3,740 pounds of marijuana were found in the house during a Jan. 25 raid. Ciudad Juarez is home to the Juarez drug cartel. Mexican cartels frequently use “safe houses” in border cities to store drugs, house gunmen and dispose of slain rivals’ remains. ….Read More
26/02/2008
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MEXICO CITY — Mexican legislators are expected today to overhaul the country’s famously ineffective justice system, implementing public trials nationwide while turning up the heat on organized crime. The long-awaited “justice reform” bill — the result of several years of fierce debate among security experts, academics and human rights activists — would amend the constitution to include the presumption of innocence and other guarantees. It would also provide alternatives to jail for minor crimes, in an attempt to reduce overcrowding in Mexican prisons. Many of the new rights, however, would not apply to suspected members of the criminal mafias, who ….Read More
Feb 202008
20/02/2008
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LAREDO — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized $1.8 million in cocaine and marijuana in three separate incidents recently, according to a news release from the agency. The largest seizure occurred Feb. 17, at the Lincoln-Juarez Bridge when a drug dog reacted to the odor of narcotics emanating from the rear rocker panel area of a 2007 Toyota Camry. Officers found nearly 42 pounds of cocaine. A passenger in the car, Darrell Wayne Phillips, 43, of Clewiston, Fla., was arrested. The cocaine has an estimated street value of $1.3 million. On Feb. 15, at 6:40 p.m. at the Gateway ….Read More
09/02/2008
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MONTERREY, Mexico — A huge weapons cache found in a ranch building near the Texas border this week was the nation’s single largest weapons bust in 20 years, said the federal attorney general’s office, or PGR, in a statement Friday. A Mexican army unit found the stockpile, which included 89 assault rifles and more than 83,000 rounds of ammunition, on Thursday near Miguel Alemán, a border city just south of Roma, authorities said. Soldiers also seized about 9 metric tons of marijuana and arrested five people at the ranch, called “El Mezquitito,” the Defense Ministry said in a brief statement. ….Read More
Feb 082008
08/02/2008
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WASHINGTON — A congressional review of U.S. law enforcement efforts to halt gun trafficking into Mexico was ordered Thursday by a House panel overseeing a $1.4 billion Bush administration plan to fight international narcotics cartels. The review of U.S. law enforcement efforts to stop gun running along the 2,000-mile border, particularly in high-traffic corridors of Laredo; Nogales, Ariz.; and San Diego, Calif., was ordered by the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. The panel heard testimony from U.S. law enforcement officials that 6,700 licensed gun dealers are located along the Southwest border, with only 100 Bureau of Alcohol, ….Read More
08/02/2008
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According to a press release issued by the Eighth Military District in Reynosa, soldiers on routine patrol observed a Jeep Cherokee trying to evade surveillance and a chase ensued. Military units arrested the driver and during interrogation, the suspect directed officials to a safe house in Miguel Aleman where a cache of weapons, drugs and vehicles were seized. Seized were: Nines tons of marijuana 89 AR-15 and AK-47′s 12 shotguns and 5 handguns 235 magazines 83,565 bullets of various calibers 3 frag grenades 30 cal. machine gun on tripod 9 vehicles of various makes and types. President Calderon and the ….Read More
27/01/2008
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Just two of some 1,600 police officers investigated after the army raided police stations in five border cities last week are being subjected to “a criminal process,” the Tamaulipas state government said. Most of the officers were back on the job Saturday. The fate of the two officers was unclear Saturday as city, state and federal authorities were unable to confirm where they were from, if they were under arrest, and what charges, if any, they faced. Tuesday’s coordinated dawn raids by troops and federal agents kept most city police off the streets for days in Matamoros, Reynosa, Ciudad Alemán, ….Read More
Jan 272008
27/01/2008
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“There will be no retreat. We are not going to take a step back. The fight against crime is going to to be permanent, systematic.”