Free Republic

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican troops today seized the municipal police headquarters in the resort city of Cancun as an investigation deepened into the slaying there of a recently retired army general. Scores of soldiers backed by two armored cars took over the offices amid press reports that Cancun's police chief and other officials may be implicated in the Feb. 2 torture-killings of Gen. Mauro Tello, his bodyguard and his driver. Cancun's public safety chief and six officers from its traffic police department were removed from their posts, the mayor's office said today. Federal investigators arrrested the public safety director, Francisco...

175 Alleged Gulf Cartel Members and Associates Arrested in Massive International Law Enforcement Operation "Project Reckoning" Leads to the Seizure of $60 Million and More Than 40 Tons of Illegal Drugs From One of Mexico's Largest Drug Trafficking Cartels NEW YORK - Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey announced that 175 individuals were arrested on Sept. 16, 2008, on charges related to an international drug trafficking cartel in a coordinated enforcement action by hundreds of international, federal, state and local law enforcement officials throughout the United States and Italy. Including the operations announced today, a long-term investigation of one of Mexico's...

Authorities have arrested a father and son believed to be top leaders in the Tamaulipas-based Gulf Cartel, Mexican officials announced Thursday. Federal prosecutors allege Rogelio "El Rojo" Díaz Cuellar led the drug trafficking organization's operations in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas State and coordinated the movements of several loads of drugs into the United States. His son - Rogelio "El Roger" Díaz Contreras - was also arrested for allegedly playing an active role in his father's cell, Mexico's attorney general's office said in a statement. "The cell led by this drug trafficker was an important support for the (cartel),"...

US authorities deported a former Mexican soldier and a known member of the ‘zetas' back to Mexico. Wanted by Mexico's attorney general's office, Raul Hernandez-Barron known as ‘Flander', was turned over to Mexican authorities around two in the afternoon by the Reynosa international bridge. He was arrested in a Starr county residence by a combined task force made of state and federal agencies. Hernandez-Barron deserted the Mexican army and became a member of the ‘zetas', a commando known to carry out killings and acting as drug couriers for the gulf cartel. Once in Reynosa, Mexican authorities said the suspect would...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — A wild, 30-minute shootout reportedly involving bazookas and a grenade invaded the streets of an upscale neighborhood here, though details were few. Mexican and U.S. sources familiar with the incident Friday night said three people were killed and four injured, but neither local nor federal officials would give an official version of events. No newspaper in Nuevo Laredo printed an article about the incident, which according to sources involved a bazooka, a grenade and assault rifles. News of it was published only in the newspaper El Norte of Monterrey and the Web site EnLineaDirecta.info. El Norte...

For those of you who are against the concept of securing our borders, I would like to introduce you a group called the ZETAS. These guys are all ex-Mexican Army, trained by the U.S. at the School of the Americas, are the hired guns of the Gulf Cartel of Osiel Cardenas, and they now have a foothold in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Two of them spoke to KRGV-TV Monday night, the first interview on either side of the border. Here is the link to the original report: KRGV-TV (NEWSCHANNEL5.tv)

WASHINGTON — Paramilitary enforcers for Mexican drug cartels are responsible for a wave of violence in Nuevo Laredo that poses a serious threat for residents on both sides of the Southwest border, U.S. law enforcement officials told a House committee Thursday. Assassinations, kidnappings and daylight shootouts between military-trained gangs place citizens at risk along the border where violence has soared past historical norms, officials said. "These paramilitary groups work for the cartels as enforcers and are a serious threat to public safety on both sides of the border," said Chris Swecker, the FBI assistant director for the criminal investigative division....

A renegade band of Mexican military deserters, offering $50,000 bounties for the assassination of U.S. law-enforcement officers, has expanded its base of operations into the United States to protect loads of cocaine and marijuana being brought into America by Mexican smugglers, authorities said.

FBI bulletin outlines possible terrorist plot at Texas border BY ALFREDO CORCHADO AND JASON TRAHAN The Dallas Morning News DALLAS - (KRT) - Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the international boundary at dozens of improvised crossings. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle drugs and humans. Now there is growing concern they could become deadly conduits for terrorism. The concern is buttressed by a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, that contains the vague outlines of...

The Mexican Attorney General's office thinks the "Zetas" gang (ex-army commandos and the muscle of the Gulf Drug Cartel) may have come into possession of the SA-7 Grail missile.

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican federal government is investigating whether the feared Gulf Cartel drug-smuggling mafia is armed with surface-to-air missiles as part of a plot to assassinate President Vicente Fox or shoot down a commercial airliner. "We do not want to alarm the public," Mexican Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said at a news conference Saturday. "The first thing is to find out if it is true." Federal agents are trying to determine the source of what may be a U.S. government analysis warning as many as 80 SA-7 Soviet-made shoulder-mounted missiles are on the black market...