http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/drugcartels/ en-us Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:09:27 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047976/posts A package of baby diapers yielded an unlikely load in Mexico on Friday, according to the defense ministry: nearly half a million dollars in cash. Soldiers conducting a routine check "found in a tractor-trailer a packet of diapers containing 490,300 dollars," the ministry said. It said that the cash was likely a stash of narco-dollars destined for money-laundering, as the truck had come from Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state in Mexico's northwest, a region known for trafficking by major drug cartels. The driver of the truck was arrested. Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published,... Breitbart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047976/posts#comment Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:09:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046048/posts Recent attacks are a troubling sign innocents aren't off-limits MEXICO CITY — Many Mexicans have long shrugged off the violence shaking their country by telling themselves it only affects those involved in the narcotics trade and corrupt law enforcement officers. But innocent civilians, once considered largely off-limits, now find themselves increasingly targeted. In the past five days, two attacks in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa claimed the lives of perhaps more than a dozen people with no apparent connection to the drug trade — including at least four teens, a 12-year-old girl and a father-and-son team of university accounting... Houston Chronicle Mexico City Bureau http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046048/posts#comment Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:50:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037044/posts MEXICO CITY — Unknown assailants shot to death a Federal Police commander and his bodyguard in a Mexico City restaurant at mid-day on Thursday, Mexican officials said. Igor Labastida, head of the Traffic and Contraband office of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), was shot dead along with one of his bodyguards, spokesperson Minerva Amado with the attorney general's office (PGR) said. "Two subjects got out of a black vehicle, entered a restaurant where the commander was eating and opened fire on him and his escorts," said Amado. Two other Labastida bodyguards were wounded and hospitalized, Amado said. Police are searching... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2037044/posts#comment Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:32:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036235/posts Authorities say it's the biggest pot bust in Cocke County in the last five years, maybe more. Around 10 a.m. Monday, helicopter pilots spotted hundreds of thousands of marijuana plants growing in the Cherokee National Forest in Cocke County. They alerted officers on the ground, and the crew trekked more than a mile into the forest from Interstate 40, where they came upon what they call a DTO, or drug trafficking organization. "They just live in it, move in, grow, and that's all they're there to do is grow marijuana," Special Agent Jason Poore said of the growers. Poore is... WBIR http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036235/posts#comment Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:47:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030209/posts Police may have found the smoking gun — literally — that could ensure convictions for six suspects in the gruesome, execution-style murders of three college-bound New Jersey youths. The gun, a .357-caliber revolver, was recovered from the Long Island, N.Y., house of a reputed MS-13 gang member, and it may have been used in several other killings, authorities said Thursday. Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2030209/posts#comment Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:44:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2024290/posts Mexico: the danger of 'drug ballads'  Last Updated: 12:01am BST 01/06/2008       In the past two years, 15 mexican musicians have been murdered. Their crime: to fall foul of the country's drug barons. Ioan Grillo reports It was three in the morning and the Mexican group Banda Guasavena were driving back from a concert at a cockfighting festival, just over the border from Texas. The audience had been even more rapturous than usual and Fausto Castro-Elizalde, the band's horn player, recalls them chatting happily about the evening.   Grupo Cartel de Sinaloa pose in a cemetery full of extravagant... The Telegraph (U.K.) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2024290/posts#comment Sun, 1 Jun 2008 06:00:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020216/posts <p>MEXICO CITY — The U.S. Congress has scaled back on President Bush's anti-drug plans for Mexico and put human rights conditions on some of the aid, drawing fire from some Mexicans who accuse American lawmakers of meddling in their country's internal affairs.</p> Houston Chronicle/NYT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020216/posts#comment Fri, 23 May 2008 14:42:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2009929/posts U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States... Previous Thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2009929/posts#comment Thu, 1 May 2008 22:06:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017926/posts CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Drug cartels are sending a brutal message to police and soldiers in cities across Mexico: Join us or die. The threat appears in recruiting banners hung across roadsides and in publicly posted death lists. Cops get warnings over their two-way radios. At least four high-ranking police officials were gunned down this month, including Mexico's acting federal police chief. Mexico has battled for years to clean up its security forces and win them the public's respect. But Mexicans generally assume police and even soldiers are corrupt until proven otherwise, and the honest ones lack resources, training and... newsmax.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2017926/posts#comment Mon, 19 May 2008 04:33:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007322/posts TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Fourteen Mexican drug gang members were killed and eight others were injured in a gun battle near the U.S. border on Saturday, one of the bloodiest shootouts in Mexico's three-year-long narco-war. Rival factions of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border fought each other with rifles and machine guns in the early hours of the morning, police said. The bodies lay in pools of blood, strewn along a road on the city's eastern limits, surrounded by hundreds of bullet casings. Many of the victims' faces were destroyed. "By the way this... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007322/posts#comment Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:57:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004326/posts Mexican authorities have scored key victories in recent months in their ongoing campaign against the Tamaulipas-based Gulf Cartel. An increased military presence in cities along the nation's northern border has yielded numerous arrests of top organization officials and high-profile raids on drug stashes and safe houses. But there is evidence that despite their successes, the cartel and its paramilitary wing, the Zetas, are adapting. Leaders of both have moved out of once prominent hotspots and may be entering new forms of criminal and legitimate business, say law enforcement officials and analysts. "When the smoke clears and the military leaves, we... The Monitor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2004326/posts#comment Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:22:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1995304/posts Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and... Previous Thread http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1995304/posts#comment Wed, 2 Apr 2008 03:13:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1997413/posts EL PASO, Texas - Mexican Consulate officials in El Paso, Texas, said Mexican drug cartels have been posting help-wanted ads in Juarez, Mexico, newspapers. The officials said publications including P.M., El Diario de Juarez and El Norte have been printing vague help-wanted ads that are designed to trick young people into smuggling drugs over the border into the United States, the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News reported Friday. Mexican Consulate spokeswoman Socorro Cordova said the issue came to the attention of officials nine months ago when the family of a driver stopped at the U.S. border showed the ad to Mexican... UPI http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1997413/posts#comment Sun, 6 Apr 2008 01:46:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993786/posts Murders and kidnappings on both sides of the border have significantly increased in recent years. The violence along the U.S.-Mexican border has increased so dramatically that the Juárez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz asked Mexican President Felipe Calderón to send more help as reported in the El Paso Journal. Only thirty federal officers had been sent at that time to Juárez despite repeated requests for more help. It's necessary and urgent to have agents from the federal preventive police to patrol the streets the way that we need to confront this situation," Reyes Ferriz said in a news conference. The Mexican... http://www.borderfirereport.net/michael-webster/u.s.-mexican-border-drug-war-kills-more-than-war-on- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993786/posts#comment Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:44:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993562/posts Nearly 1,000 Mexican troops arrived at the international airport in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, yesterday to quell drug war violence that has surged recently in the city across the border from El Paso, Texas San Diego Union http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993562/posts#comment Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:22:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1992751/posts CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico – The government of Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Thursday announced a military surge of more than 2,000 soldiers in this besieged border community – caught in the crossfire between two warring drug cartels. "Operation Chihuahua," named after Mexico's biggest state, nestled against New Mexico and Texas, is aimed at restoring law and order in a region that many say has grown lawless. Since Jan. 1, nearly 200 people have been killed in this city of 1.2 million. "In this fight, Chihuahua is not alone," said Mexico's interior secretary Juan Camilo Muriño, who was accompanied by the... The Dallas Morning News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1992751/posts#comment Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:17:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1991922/posts NEW YORK -- The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has released a new report. It warned that the axis between South American drug cartels and the Albanian mafia have reached "alarming proportions", while reports by several intelligence agencies show that Kosovo is a distribution center on the crossroads of global routes and pathways of drug trafficking. This presents reason for concern, primarily because of the new pathways of drug trafficking, and "inclusion of cocaine in the range of products offered by the groups that are active along the Balkan drug route", the UNODC annual report for 2007... B92 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/1991922/posts#comment Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:48:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1990447/posts MEXICO CITY - Suspected drug cartel gunmen killed five people in an attack on a police station in central Mexico and during their subsequent escape, authorities said on Saturday. At least six masked, heavily armed men raided the police station in the town of Jerecuaro, in the state of Guanajuato, on Friday, shooting and killing two police officers and a secretary. Making their escape in sport utility vehicles, they gunned down another two police officers on a nearby highway, state authorities said. Police later found one of the gunmen dead of a gunshot wound in one of three abandoned bullet-riddled... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1990447/posts#comment Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:11:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1988497/posts MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican soldiers battling a violent drug gang and corrupt local police confiscated a sport utility vehicle decked out with extras worthy of a James Bond movie. Cartel members rammed their SUV into a military truck patrolling in the state of Tamaulipas and threw a hand grenade before making their escape with the help of local police, the army said in a statement late Tuesday. Following a shootout with the gang, soldiers said they arrested four municipal police and confiscated an armored Jeep Grand Cherokee equipped with a smoke machine and spike sprayer meant to deter pursuers.... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1988497/posts#comment Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:56:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982344/posts Soldiers seized assault rifles, grenades, marijuana and bulletproof vests bearing police insignia after a brief shootout in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. No one was wounded in the overnight exchange of fire with three suspects hunkered down in a house in La Mesa district, army Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito told reporters Friday. Troops seized 91 assault rifles — some with butts of gold and ivory — along with 18 grenades, the bulletproof vests and more than 880 pounds of marijuana, Aponte Polito said. The three suspects, aged 25 to 33, were arrested. The bust followed weeks of bloody confrontations... AP news http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982344/posts#comment Sat, 8 Mar 2008 06:35:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1974059/posts Drug cartel hit men have killed a popular Mexican singer, along with his manager and assistant, near the U.S. border, authorities said Wednesday. Jesus Rey David Alfaro, known as the Little Rooster, is one of at least six singers of narcocorrido ballads about drug trafficking who have been slain since Mexico's drug war flared in 2006. "We believe Alfaro had links to the Arellano Felix cartel," said an official with the Baja California attorney general's office, who declined to be named. Alfaro's body was found last week covered with a blanket on the edge of the city, with rope marks... LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1974059/posts#comment Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:41:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1956678/posts They've already shot up his house and gunned down three cops. He urges citizens to stand with him. TIJUANA -- The bullet holes pockmarking the walls of his home were just three days old when Alberto Capella Ibarra took over the police force of this violence-plagued city. Twenty gunmen dressed in black had swarmed his yard in the middle of the night, and he'd fought them off, firing an automatic rifle. Taking office Dec. 1 as the city's secretary for public security, Capella, a longtime activist, declared war on organized crime and challenged citizens to join him in the battle.... Los Angeles Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1956678/posts#comment Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:42:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944404/posts MORELIA, Mexico -- Sergio Gómez roared into town in a big SUV, entourage in tow, pressed suits, fancy cowboy boots. Everything about him said superstar. He had an international following and a star on the walk of fame in Las Vegas. More than 20,000 fans swarmed the parking lot of this colonial city's soccer stadium to dance and hear him sing romantic "Duranguense grupero" pop songs backed by a driving drumbeat. After the show, in the small hours of Dec. 2, Sergio Gomez was kidnapped. Police found his body the next day. He'd been strangled and beaten. His face --... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1944404/posts#comment Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:49:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1937024/posts MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Gunmen shot a crime reporter 45 times in a Mexican town plagued by drug violence on Saturday after a high-speed chase as he tried to escape on his motorcycle. Cut off by a vehicle in Uruapan, in the state of Michoacan, Gerardo Garcia fled on his motorcycle as far as his home, where his pursuers killed him, police and a source at the newspaper where he worked told Reuters. Mexico's drug cartels are battling for control of regions key to trafficking South American cocaine and other drugs into the United States. Mexican journalists are targets of... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1937024/posts#comment Sun, 9 Dec 2007 18:13:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1916329/posts Informer tells of corrupt Mexico October 25, 2007 By Jerry Seper - An informant who worked for U.S. authorities for more than four years says government, police and military authorities in Mexico have been corrupted by drug smugglers, often carrying out kidnappings and killings on the orders of drug cartel bosses. The accusations are outlined in sworn testimony before a U.S. immigration judge by Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez Peyro, a former Mexican police officer who was paid $224,000 for information U.S. anti-drug agents used to convict dozens of high-ranking Mexican drug traffickers. Ramirez told U.S. Immigration Judge Joseph R. Dierkes in... The Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1916329/posts#comment Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:50:18 GMT