Laura Zuniga, 23, detained on suspicion of drug and weapons violations has been stripped of her crown in the Hispanoamerican Queen pageant, contest organizers said Saturday.
Zuniga was stripped of first-place honors for “failure to comply with the regulations of the title she represents,” Bolivia-based pageant organizing company Gloria Promociones said in a statement. She beat more than 19 contestants from Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States to win the title in October.
Runner-up Vivian Noronha of Brazil will receive the crown.
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Nuevo Laredo. – More than 4 tons of marijuana in addition to other drugs and pirated CD’s,were destroyed yesterday by personnel of the Army in the presence of federal, state and municipal authorities.
Operativo Permanente, has resulted in the seizure of enormous amounts of narcotics in Nuevo Laredo, Nuevo Guerrero, Cd. Mier, Miguel Alemán, Díaz Ordaz y Camargo, according to spokesmen from the First Motorized Cavalry regiment, headquartered in Nuevo Laredo.
The contraband was turned over to the Military and State and local authorities by the Procuraduría General de la República (PGR), after being used as evidence in administrative and legal proceedings
The contraband was incinerated at Cuarentenaria Station, located on the Ribereña Highway, between Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa.
The destruction of the goodies was overseen by members of the local Subdelegation of the PGR, of the Federal Agency of Investigations (AFI), the Army, the Preventive Federal Police (PFP) and the Municipal Police.
Among the items destroyed were various chemicals from a clandestine laboratory in the Municipality of Miguel Aleman that were part of a meth lab.
Also destroyed were more than 50,000 pirated CD’s seized in raids around the city.
This is more evidence of President Calderon’s ongoing effort to fight organized crime and corruption in Mexico.
Mexico deserves and needs the $1.4 billion dollar aid package recently approved by Congress to fight the cartels. Mexico does not need US interference or boots on the ground however. Calderon is quite capable of turning this country around.
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.
The latest wave of military and federal police action in the troubled border region continued Friday when police chased and exchanged gunfire with organized crime suspects along the main highway between Matamoros and Ciudad Victoria, authorities said.
The pre-dawn shootout began when drivers of a late-model Hummer and a Land Rover failed to stop for police, resulting in a 20-mile high-speed chase, authorities said. Two people in the Land Rover were arrested with four firearms and about $10 worth of Colombian pesos in their possession, according to police.
An unknown number of occupants in the Hummer escaped, leaving 37 firearms, 29 packs of cocaine, 500 boxes of ammo and 12 grenades in the vehicle.
Thursday’s record weapons bust by the military was a fortuitous act, according to news reports quoting a regional military spokesman. During a routine patrol before sunrise Thursday, soldiers stopped a Jeep Grand Cherokee and detained the driver, who reportedly tipped them off to the stash. Federal press statements didn’t include that detail.
On Friday morning, Mexican news media began buzzing with reports that 100 soldiers had surrounded the PGR’s offices in Matamoros, sparking speculation that a high-value drug gang target had been arrested — or that the military was investigating the federal agency.
The PGR’s news office said officials would comment on the mobilization today.
Mexico’s military has flooded the troubled region in the past month after a spate of violence that included the slaying of a politician and police officers.
Days after they arrested four Nuevo Laredo police in January, soldiers raided at least five city police stations from Nuevo Laredo to Matamoros, taking away officers’ firearms.
Only two of hundreds of disarmed officers were reportedly arrested but as of Friday, most police forces still had not been given their weapons back, in spite of requests from Tamaulipas state officials worried about an increase in common crimes.
Luis Astorga, a sociologist with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the raids were a military show of force to put cops in line, rather than a strategic long-term plan to fix police forces.
“The federal government and all the governors know that the (city-level) police are up to their necks in the transferring of drugs and the protection of traffickers,” said Astorga, who has authored books on drug trafficking and the military. “It’s a bit like, ‘Look, we’re watching you.’”
Tamaulipas is the territory of the Gulf Cartel, whose alleged leader is behind bars in Houston waiting a federal trial
Sean Mattson – Express News
MEXICO CITY .- The government of Mexico extradited to the United States, an agent of the United States Border Patrol, accused of collaborating with drug traffickers for the entry of Mexican drug shipments into the United States through El Paso, Texas.
With the surrender of former CBP agent Arturo Arzate Jr.. aka “Tury”, this brings to 103, the number suspects extradited abroad, of which 99 have been handed over to the American authorities, to date during the Presidency of Felipe Calderon.
The Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) announced the extradition of this border officer, who will be brought to trial in the US , before the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas, He has been detained in Mexico for the past five months
According to the writ of extradition, Azarte is accused of using his position as a Border Patrol officer to accept payments for drug smuggling organization to permit passage of drugs and other contraband through his post in El Paso Texas.
Investigations into these criminal operations began in 2005, reported the PGR.
The Attorney Generals Office (PGR) reported with the help of witnesses, surveillance and and wiretaps, evidence was collected establishing Azarte’s guilt and association with organized crime.
Azarte was turned over to Federal Marshals in Mexico City on Wednesday at the PGR hangar.
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