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Former Mexican President Vicente Fox arrived in Laredo earlier this evening after being invited by local groups to discuss trade between the US and Mexico. But that’s not all that Fox decided to discuss when he got off the plane. Fox was taking on questions about what seems to be escalating violence in Mexico, and not surprisingly, he says the United States shares the blame for what’s happening across the border. Invited by local groups to discuss US-Mexico trade, former president of Mexico Vicente Fox, instead taking time to discuss other matters: “We’re working for the United States. The truth...

German police suspect the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, of using drug trafficking in Europe to fund part of its activities, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. According to the report published on the magazine's website, German police arrested two Lebanese citizens living in Germany last October after they transferred large sums of money to a family in Lebanon with connections to Hezbollah's leadership, including the Shiite group's Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah.

President Hugo Chávez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a U.S. military plane that twice violated Venezuelan airspace on Friday in what he called the latest provocation in the South American nation's skies. Brandishing a photo of the plane, which he described as a P-3, Mr. Chávez said the overflight was the latest incursion in Venezuelan skies by the U.S. military from its bases on the Netherlands' Caribbean islands and from neighboring Colombia. There was no immediate response from the U.S. Defense Department or the White House... Mr. Chávez said the F-16s escorted the U.S. plane away after...

Western Hemisphere Jay Bergman, DEA director for the Andean region of South America, said that most of the planes used for drug traffickers to get cocaine to West Africa have departed from Venezuela. This was the situation in a dozen cases in which there have been seizures, Bergman told Reuters. "Geography is the key reason why Venezuela has become a springboard location," Bergman added. "If you look at the range and refueling requirements, that is the place you have to fly from," the official of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said.

(AP) — SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Caribbean islands battling drug-fueled crime had one of their bloodiest years on record in 2009, with Jamaica, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico hitting or coming close to all-time highs for homicides. The violence reflects the drug trade's deep entrenchment in the region, with high murder rates becoming a fact of life at tourist havens that traffickers use as transit points for South American drugs bound for Europe and the United States. In countries including the Bahamas, which set a record with more than 82 slayings, officials say they are contending with turf battles...

Condemned Briton's 'Heartbroken' Family Beg For Compassion from China The family of Akmal Shaikh, the British man condemned to death in China, have made a last-minute appeal to the Chinese authorities to show mercy. By David Eimer in Beijing 28 Dec 2009 Akmal Shaikh, a British national who is facing the death penalty in China for possession of heroin Photo: AFP/GETTY Mr Shaikh is due to be executed in Urumqi at 10.30am Tuesday morning local time for heroin smuggling. "We're here to plead for clemency and we hope the Chinese government shows compassion. His life is in their hands now,"...

For the first time, three Al-Qaeda operatives have been arrested and charged with drug trafficking as a means of raising funds to support their terrorist activities. The international terror group has increasingly been turning to this form of activity, although its spread to Africa is a new twist in the pattern, according to evidence gathered by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The agency has long been concerned about the group’s ties to the heroin trade in Afghanistan – but according to DEA director Michele Leonhart, the current case reveals a “direct link” between the terror group and drug traffickers...

STERLING, Va. - A close inspection by Customs and Border Protection officers at Dulles International Airport turned up something unexpected. Inside a fully-cooked chicken they found cocaine with an estimated street value of $4,300. The 60.4 grams (2.3 ounces) of coke was found inside two small, clear plastic bags inside the chicken's cavity. Officers discovered the white powdery substance during a secondary inspection after a flight from El Salvador arrived shortly after midnight Saturday. It tested positive for cocaine. "CBP officers have seen many unique narcotics concealment methods, and they all present the same challenges to discover them. Our officers'...

October 22, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://milwaukee.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/mw102209.htm Forty-One Defendants Federally Indicted in Racine Gang Case United States Attorney Michelle L. Jacobs announced today that two indictments were unsealed in federal court charging 41 defendants with various drug-trafficking offenses. The defendants, many of whom are alleged to be members of the Vice Lords and North Side Gangster Disciples street gangs, are charged with, among other things, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A) and 846. The defendants are identified as: Starsius T. Barnes, a.k.a. “Star” (32), Brian T....

October 22, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: Investigation Nets Alleged Cocaine Traffickers in Springfield, Virginia ALEXANDRIA, VA—Nine individuals were arrested this morning on cocaine trafficking charges as part of an ongoing investigation of cocaine dealers working in and around Springfield, Va. Two subjects were already in custody for unrelated state charges. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Joseph Persichini Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office; and Colonel David Rohrer, Fairfax County Chief of Police, made the announcement after the criminal complaint was unsealed and the defendants...

RIO DE JANEIRO – A police helicopter flying over an intense shootout between rival drug gangs in a Rio slum was hit by gunfire Saturday and crashed in a fiery explosion on a football field. Two officers were killed while the pilot and another officer on board suffered burns but managed to escape, a police spokesman said. Bullets flying from the Morro dos Macacos ("Monkey Hill" in Portuguese) slum in northern Rio de Janeiro hit the pilot in the leg as he hovered above the clash, causing him to lose control and crash, turning the helicopter into a blackened wreck.

(English-language translation) BOGOTA - On Saturday, Colombia extradited to the United States FARC [member] Nancy Conde Rubio, from whom the authorities intercepted her telephone conversations and thus secured the rescue of 15 kidnapping victims in the guerrilla [organization's] power. There were three Americans among the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) captives. Thirty-seven-year-old Conde was extradited on an airplane belonging to U.S. anti-drug authorities, said General Luis Ramírez with the Police Criminal Investigation Directorate. He added that the airplane was initially headed for Florida and, from there, the detainee, who was wearing handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, will be taken to the...

As a high-ranking U.S. anti-drug official, Richard Padilla Cramer held front-line posts in the war on Mexico's murderous cartels. He led an office of two dozen agents in Arizona and was the attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara. While in Mexico... Cramer also served as a secret ally of drug lords.... allegedly advised traffickers on law enforcement tactics and pulled secret files to help them identify turncoats. He charged $2,000 for a Drug Enforcement Administration document that was sent to a suspect in Miami.... But the investigation revealed that he worked for "a very high-level drug lord," the...

EL PASO — A body found with its severed arms crossed and placed on its chest in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was identified by authorities Wednesday as a Texas man kidnapped from his home. Sergio Saucedo, 30, was kidnapped from his Horizon City house outside El Paso last Thursday. His mutilated body was found Tuesday, said El Paso County Sheriff's spokesman Jesse Tovar. "It's apparent that the spillover has occurred," Tovar said of the drug violence plaguing Juarez and much of Mexico. Saucedo, who has a long criminal record including convictions for drug possession and money laundering, was kidnapped by three...

The racism of marijuana prohibition Enforcement of marijuana laws disproportionately affects young African Americans -- even though their usage rates are lower than whites'... So while the purported mainstream is delighting to "Weeds" and contemplating the new revenue that state-regulated marijuana would generate, there's even greater urgency to ending the prohibition of marijuana. California can't wait any longer to end the racist enforcement of marijuana laws.

Baruch Vega's cellphone hardly rings these days. It's not like 10 years ago, when the Colombian photographer of models was an intermediary between the Drug Enforcement Administration and powerful drug traffickers, and his phone rang off the hook with calls from federal prosecutors and attorneys in South Florida while he discussed poses with European models at his Miami Beach penthouse. Now Vega, 61, seems to be tired of living on the razor's edge. He wants to put behind him the world that in 2000 took him to jail in the United States on charges of obstruction of justice and money...

The U.S. Forest Service is apologizing for warning that national forest campers who eat tortillas, drink Tecate beer and listen to Spanish music could be armed marijuana growers. The warning was issued Wednesday to the media by Forest Service law enforcement officials who are investigating illegal marijuana plantations in Colorado's national forests. Tortilla packaging and Tecate cans were among the items authorities found recently when they broke up a pot-growing operation in the Pike National Forest southwest of Denver. "I think that's the most entertaining story that I've heard on Latinos in quite a while," Jose Armas, a longtime Latino...

The Drug Enforcement Administration Friday announced that it found 14,500 marijuana plants growing in a Colorado national park, authorities say are linked to Mexican drug cartels...... they have seen an increase in outdoor marijuana operations run by Mexican drug cartels. In the most recent Colorado case, the marijuana was found in "the remote, rugged terrain" of Pike National Forest, which is about 60 miles southwest of Denver. "The persons who were involved in this criminal activity had no regard for the damage caused to the forest and environment by the waste they left behind," said Jeffrey D. Sweetin, special agent...

(English-language translation) During a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in Caracas, American essayist and political analyst Noam Chomsky yesterday criticized the use of Colombian military bases by the United States Army. "The U.S.'s justification to establish military bases in Colombia is narcotraffic. However, this justification is not very serious," the essayist said and added: "There exists an intervention attitude under the pretext of narcotraffic." President Chávez greeted Chomsky at Miraflores Palace, where he received "the warmest welcome". "It was time you visited us and for the Venezuelan people to see and hear you directly," Chávez told the Professor Emeritus...

Drug War: Mexico surprised everyone Thursday by "decriminalizing" drugs for "personal use" to refocus its resources. This may sound good to some, but it's waving a white flag at drug cartels that will now take advantage.President Felipe Calderon's signing off on a law to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, LSD, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin for consumers was justified as a move to differentiate low-level addicts from powerful traffickers and direct enforcement resources to the latter. It may appeal to some who think legalization will end Mexico's violence, but it's more likely to undermine Mexico's fight against cartels. The move will...