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In January 2009, retired Gen. Mauro Tello Quiñones took command of a police unit charged with combating drug-related violence in the popular Mexican tourist destination of Cancún. The assignment lasted just one week. In early February, Tello and two aides were kidnapped and killed. Before murdering Tello, the assailants broke his arms and legs and tortured him for hours. The incident provoked shock across Mexico, with the governor of Quintana Roo state calling it "truly horrible." Even by the standards of the violent drug war that has consumed Mexico of late, this crime stood out for its brazenness and brutality....

MEXICO CITY – Assailants on Tuesday gunned down the mother, aunt and siblings of a marine killed in a raid that took out one of Mexico's most powerful cartel leaders — sending a chilling message to troops battling the drug war: You go after us, we wipe out your families. The brazen pre-dawn slayings came just hours after the navy honored Melquisedet Angulo as a national hero at a memorial service.

The Zetas, Mexico's notoriously brutal group of paramilitary thugs, are expanding their role as bully businessmen along the Texas-Mexico border, branching out from traditional criminal enterprises such as extortion and drug trafficking and buying legitimate businesses, U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials say. The group, which authorities say operates a weapons and drug distribution hub in North Texas, now calls itself "The Company" and has over the past year evolved from extorting businesses to owning them outright, the officials say. "They own used-car lots on both sides of the border, restaurants, discotheques, liquor stores," said Robert García, a detective with...

An alleged hitman for the Zetas and the Mexican Mafia may be hiding out in the Rio Grande Valley. The U.S. Marshal’s Service told Action 4 News that Joseph Allen Garcia is wanted for murder and a number of other crimes in Laredo. A local agency spokesman said 22-year-old murder hitman is known to frequent South Padre Island and is asking for the public’s help in catching him. Garcia is wanted for a December 13, 2003 shooting in Laredo where one person was killed and three others injured. The accused hitman was 16-years-old at the time of the shooting. Authorities...

MEXICO CITY — A pair of shootouts between troops and gunmen in northern Mexico have killed 13 people, including a bystander and a drug trafficker linked to the killing of a retired army officer. Navy spokesman Adm. Jose Luis Vergara said troops were searching a villa Friday in a suburb of Monterrey named Juarez when they were ambushed by a group of heavily armed men. Eight gunmen were killed and nine more were arrested in the initial shootout, Vergara said. Television images showed a garden littered with bloodied corpses. Several handcuffed men sat on the ground with shirts pulled over...

How nine Houston men were assaulted and robbed in the ranchlands of Mexico MEXICO CITY — Like generations of Texans, nine Houston hunters traveled each autumn into northeastern Mexico's wildlife-rich ranchlands for a few uninterrupted days of shooting game, far removed from the workday world. But that ended abruptly last month after the men were rounded up, robbed and terrorized by well-armed marauders. The nine were wrapping up an afternoon of white-wing dove hunting about 100 miles south of the Rio Grande when a dozen men, armed with assault rifles, roared into the grain field in pickup trucks. The businessmen,...

NUEVO LEON, MEXICO - The number two leader of the Zetas Drug Cartel was arrested during a raid. Hernandez and the eight members were arrested and are behind bars. Two police officers, who were standing watch outside the home, were also put arrested for allegedly providing security for the cartels. Mexican authorities got a tip the Zetas leader Carlos Martinez Hernandez and eight other cartel members were hiding out ina house in Nuevo Leon. When police raided the home, they found two people who had been kidnapped being held hostage. During the investigation, authorities found an arsenal of weapons. They...

MATAMOROS, Mexico — This border city near the mouth of the Rio Grande is eerily quiet on most days — eerie because its streets are largely the lair of the Zetas gunmen, the most feared and savage gangsters in Mexico. On other days, gunbattles ensue in broad daylight between heavily armed Zeta enforcers and those who get in their way — as happened last month when soldiers stopped a suspicious carload of men on a street that runs along the Rio Grande levee through a wealthy Matamoros neighborhood. The gunmen opened fire, tossed grenades. Bullets tore into houses and businesses...

MEXICO CITY – A general is among the nearly 4,000 officers and men who have deserted from the Mexican army during the past 6½ years, Milenio newspaper reported Monday, citing government documents. The defense department opened legal proceedings for desertion against 3,972 soldiers between 2003 and July 2009. Among the soldiers being investigated are a general and more than 1,000 other officers. The report does not specify the number of those cases that have arisen since December 2006, when newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderon began deploying tens of thousands of soldiers to battle Mexico’s powerful drug cartels. Since then, there...

A 58-year-old Luling man will be keeping his nose clean for the next few years. Thursday Alfred Dwight Watkins was sentenced to ten months in federal prison for dealing firearms without a license. After his prison sentence he will be under supervised release for three additional years. The judge also ordered him to pay a $11,232 fine. Last August Watkins admitted to selling firearms at Austin and San Antonio gun shows even though his license had expired in 2003. According to authorities, Watkins admitted that in order to 'flip' more firearms he mislead customers by telling them they didn't need...

Prosecutors say a gun battle between gangs fighting for control of an area near Mexico's border with Guatemala has left seven people dead. Two women are hospitalized with injuries suffered in the attack in a rural part of Chiapas state. The women apparently belonged to one of the gangs. Chiapas' Attorney General's Office said Tuesday that gunmen dressed in black attacked rivals in an area where the Zetas drug gang is active.

Four suspected kidnappers who allegedly posed as drug cartel members when demanding ransoms have been killed in a prison fight in northern Mexico. The four had been ordered to stand trial last week, and one of them said he feared for his life. Authorities say the four had posed as members of a notorious cartel hit squad, the Zetas.

DECATUR, AL -- Decatur police have arrested one suspect in a Sept. 11 gang-style shooting at Funland Park and are searching for a second suspect who is considered to be armed and dangerous. Jose Luis Gonzalez, 19, was arrested Tuesday at the B&B Trailer Court on Modaus Road and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of second degree assault, shooting into an occupied vehicle and shooting into an occupied vehicle. He's being held in the Morgan County Jail on bonds totaling $400,000. Police are still searching for Samuel Trejo Carbajal, 19, of Elkmont....

EL PASO, Texas — U.S. businesses are reporting threats by extortionists claiming to be members of drug cartels, a sign criminal tactics common in Mexico are showing up north of the border. Last week alone, at least two El Paso businesses reported to police calls they had received from a man identifying himself as a "Zetas commander" working for the "Gulf cartel." One man, in a "bullying voice," called an El Paso businessman and demanded "$50,000 immediately, or the next time we'll see you, it will be at the funeral of a loved one," the businessman said. The businessman spoke...

Note: The following text is a quote: Home » Briefing Room » Justice News Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden Speaks at Project Gunrunner Press Conference HOUSTON ~ Thursday, October 1, 2009 Good morning. I am happy to be here today with ATF Acting Director Melson and our partners in state and local law enforcement to highlight the real successes of Project Gunrunner and announce our plans to build upon those accomplishments. This administration and this Justice Department have made protecting the integrity of our Southwest Border a top priority. That means stemming the tide of illegal drugs and illegal...

Nuevo Laredo authorities arrest a group of alleged kidnappers that posed as members of the Zetas. The group had already kidnapped three people and was arrested by state police and Mexican soldiers. All seven including three women were involved in the kidnappings. According to police they would research their victims and their families and ask them for ransom money. When authorities made the arrests they were able to rescue their latest victim. Authorities also confiscated two weapons and six vehicles used in the kidnappings.

REYNOSA — Four men were killed during a confrontation between the Mexican military and a convoy of men armed with grenades and bazookas, according to Mexican media reports. The four killed apparently fought the military with grenades and bazookas, according to the Reforma news agency. Several people, including three federal police officers and a bystander, were reportedly injured. The standoff occurred about 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Aldama and Luis Echeverría, about four blocks south of the Rio Grande and west of Reynosa's downtown square, according to the Reforma report. The standoff occurred near the city's infamous Zona...

TIJUANA, Mexico — Firefighters found six bodies inside a burning car in Tijuana, and 15 people were killed in three separate shootings in another northern Mexican border town besieged by drug violence, authorities said Tuesday. Near Mexico's southern border, meanwhile, the bullet-ridden bodies of eight men suspected to be drug traffickers were found in a Guatemalan frontier town. In Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, four bodies were found in a burning compact car's seats and two in the trunk, according to a police report Tuesday. The victims' identities and the motive for the killings were not released, but...

HIDALGO, MEXICO - Thirty-one police officers have been arrested in the state of Hidalgo, on suspicion of collaborating with a gang of drug cartel hit men. The officers were arrested as part of an almost year-long investigation into alleged ties between police and the Zetas cartel. The investigation began last October, when federal authorities arrested seven suspected Zeta accountants and found evidence of monthly payments from the gang to officers. Back in June, 92 officers were arrested on similar charges.

Rosalio Reta: "I liked the lifestyle... killing people" Prisoner 1447523's name is Rosalio Reta. He was born and raised in Texas. By the age of 13 he was an assassin for one of Mexico's drug cartels. Convicted of two murders (he says he killed many more), he will probably spend the rest of his life behind bars. Hanging around with his friends in Mexico (in the border areas many people frequently cross over on business and pleasure), one told him his brother worked for a cartel. "I thought it was cool. Got involved. That's how everything started. There's no way...

Fugitive Apprehended with 3 Illegal Aliens Hidden in SUV Thursday, 03 September 2009 07:44 CBP San Ysidro, CA. - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers apprehended a 44-year-old fugitive and rescued three illegal aliens hidden in the vehicle he was driving at the San Ysidro port of entry early this morning. Two of the illegal aliens, including a 15-year-old male, suffered burns and were hospitalized [snip] _________ El Financiero (Mexico City) 9/4/09 Mexican shoot-out closes Texas university The University of Texas branch in the border city of Brownsville was evacuated and closed this afternoon after a gunfight on the Mexican...

BROWNSVILLE — Stray bullets from a shootout across the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, pierced a building and a car Friday at the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, prompting university police to close campus early. No one at the university was injured. "There has been report of a shooting incident on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River and it has posed a problem to the Riverside campus. Individuals in the Education and Business Complex, the new Library and the new Classroom Building on University Blvd. should leave the area. All others on campus should avoid this area and...

China, Nuevo Leon - A murder in Mexico has ties to the Valley. Not only were the victims headed home after a shopping trip in the Valley, but their alleged killer was driving a van with Texas plates. The shooting happened in the small town of China in Nuevo Leon state. It's along the highway connecting Monterrey to Reynosa. Officials say a red van followed a group of women home after they left from a shopping trip in McAllen. When they got to China, a driver and passenger of that van opened fire. Two women died, six were hurt. The...

MEXICO CITY – A convoy of gunmen engaged state police in a running shootout Friday that killed five officers and possibly one of the attackers in the western Mexico state of Jalisco, authorities said. The state attorney general's office said the gunbattle began when a convoy of seven vehicles carrying at least 30 gunmen approached state policemen on a local highway. Four policemen died in the initial fighting and another officer was killed when police gave chase to the assailants. The body of a dead man was found in one of the vehicles involved in the gunbattle and might be...

The dead always tell a story. .... in Mexico that story is ...... a war becoming more violent and ruthless, mostly because of one group. .... Los Zetas. Imagine a band of U.S. Green Berets going rogue and offering their services and firepower to drug cartels..... Commandos from the Mexican army deserted and set up a cartel, Los Zetas. The U.S. government .... "the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico." "The Zetas .....No. 1 organization responsible for the majority of homicides, the beheadings, the kidnappings, the extortions that take place in Mexico" "They train new recruits...

REYNOSA — Soldiers seized 20 grenades and arrested one man as they patrolled the Mexican side of the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge on Monday. The Mexican army encountered a Chevrolet Suburban registered in Tamaulipas on Monday. Inside the vehicle, soldiers foundh 20 hand grenades concealed within a roll of foam sponge, according to a statement from Mexico's secretary of national security. Soldiers arrested 21-year-old Roberto Gaspar Caballero of Reynosa. The military turned over Gaspar, the grenades and vehicle to the local police in Reynosa, according to the statement.

REYNOSA — Mexican soldiers seized more than 136,000 rounds of ammunition, more than 9,400 bullet magazines, 20 firearms and a grenade inside an abandoned house here Tuesday morning. Soldiers in a motorized cavalry unit were patrolling the southwest side of the city along Calle Acción Común in Colonia Unidad y Efuerzo about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday when they came upon an abandoned house, according to a statement from the Mexican Secretary of National Security. A light was on inside the house and the front door was open, soldiers said. Inside the house, the army found: > Six AR-15 .223 rifles >...

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan drug boss Juan Jose "Juancho" Leon was summoned by Mexican traffickers for what he was told was business. Instead, dozens of attackers ambushed his entourage with grenades and assault rifles, killing Leon and 10 others in a brazen demonstration of power. Mexican drug traffickers are branching out as never before — spreading their tentacles into 47 nations, including the U.S., Guatemala and even Colombia, long the heart of the drug trade in Latin America. The expansion comes amid a military crackdown in Mexico and the arrests of major Colombian suppliers and poses a new challenge for...

Note: The following text SNIPPET is a quote: Alleged Mexican Cartel Leaders, Associates Targeted in Newest Effort to Combat Drug Trafficking Organizations Today the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced coordinated actions against the Gulf Cartel/Los Zetas drug trafficking organization, now known as the "Company," in the latest in a series of efforts by the U.S. government to neutralize and dismantle this violent cartel. Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen, Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sanchez, Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano and Miguel Trevino-Morales, high-level Mexican leaders of the Company and 15 of their top lieutenants, have been charged in U.S. federal courts with drug trafficking-related crimes. Also...

JUAREZ -- Law enforcement agents in our sister city have arrested four alleged members of the paramilitary Zeta gang. XHIJ Channel 44 in Juarez is reporting the suspects were allegedly trying to kidnap a Mexican Coca-Cola executive. Late Monday, Mexican soldiers spotted the suspects inside a truck and ordered them to stop. Some of the suspects inside the truck then proceeded to shoot at the soldiers, according to XHIJ. The confrontation then led to a high-speed chase and another shootout ensued. The soldiers were able to stop the suspects and rescue the alleged victim. Police officials said no one was...

LAREDO, Tex. — When he was finally caught, Rosalio Reta told detectives here that he had felt a thrill each time he killed. It was like being Superman or James Bond, he said. “I like what I do,” he told the police in a videotaped confession. “I don’t deny it.” ... The young men all paid a heavy price. Jesus Gonzalez III was beaten and knifed to death in a Mexican jail at 23. Mr. Reta, now 19, and his boyhood friend, Gabriel Cardona, 22, are serving what amounts to life sentences in prisons in the United States. Other young...

When Mario Anguiano successfully ran for mayor of Colima three years ago, no one much cared that his brother and cousin were in prison on drug charges. Now that he's running for governor of Colima state, a banner appeared in the capital city mocking Anguiano's family ties by linking him to the Zetas, a gang of drug hit men: "Welcome to Colima! Soon to be territory of our boss of bosses, Mario Anguiano Moreno. The Zetas support you, and we are with you until death." The drug war is playing in Mexico elections like never before. Usually a taboo subject...

NEAR WESLACO — A 38-year-old man's location remains unknown after he was abducted by suspected Mexican drug traffickers Sunday evening. Isidro Rodriguez's abduction came after his two younger brothers allegedly stole a large amount of cash from an unidentified drug trafficking organization, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño. Rodriguez's relatives told sheriff's deputies that two men in a Range Rover SUV pulled up to his property at 318 Beto Garcia St., north of Weslaco, the sheriff said. The SUV's passenger hopped out, pointed a gun at Rodriguez and barked at him in Spanish to get inside the vehicle about 7...

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican police found 11 bodies - most with their hands and feet cut off - inside an abandoned car in the border state of Sonora Thursday in violence attributed to drug traffickers battling for control of the region. Sonora's state prosecutors said in a statement that the bodies were discovered inside a sport utility vehicle on a road between the towns of Caborca and Sonoyta along with a threatening message. The SUV had been stolen in Arizona. Prosecutors did not reveal what the message said or the identities of the bodies. They said the killings are linked...

FBI is advising law enforcement officers across the country that a Texas cell of Los Zetas — an increasingly powerful arm of the Mexican Gulf Cartel drug trafficking syndicate — has acquired a secluded ranch where it trains its members to “neutralize” competitors in the United States.

Man is one of Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug traffickers MEXICO CITY — Mexican police on Wednesday arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug traffickers. Sauceda Gamboa appears on a list of 24 alleged drug traffickers published by prosecutors in March. Authorities have offered rewards of up to $2.1 million for each suspect. Together with a list of 13 lower-ranking drug suspects, the group covers Mexico's most powerful cartel operators. With Sauceda Gamboa's arrest Wednesday at a home in the border city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, authorities have arrested five...

DONNA - Police are investigating a kidnapping purportedly carried out in Reynosa by members of Los Zetas, the Gulf Cartel's enforcement wing. A Donna woman reportedly told police she received several phone calls from suspects claiming to be members of Los Zetas a week after her son was kidnapped in Reynosa during a trip to Diaz Ordaz. The woman called police from her home on April 19 only after the men grew impatient and threatened to kidnap her other son if she did not pay a ransom soon for the victim's release, police records show. The woman told police the...

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Police on Saturday said they arrested a Mexican drug cartel hitman wanted in connection with the abduction of a US anti-kidnap expert in December and the death of at least five people. German Torres Jimenez, who allegedly works for the powerful Gulf drug cartel, was detained after a shootout in the eastern city of Veracruz, Mexico's Public Safety Secretariat (SSP) said in a statement. ... Torres is allegedly one of the founders of Los Zetas, the armed wing of the Gulf cartel. Los Zetas reportedly took control of the organization when cartel boss Osiel Cardenas was...

WASHINGTON — Mexican drug cartels are spreading south into Central America, U.S. drug enforcement officials said Wednesday, as the Obama administration put new pressure on drug kingpins ahead of the president's trip to Mexico City. Drug Enforcement Administration officials said there are growing signs the stepped-up law enforcement efforts on the U.S.-Mexico border are driving the cartels south toward Central America. "We're looking at what happens south of Mexico as well, because that's just as important as what's happening on our border," said DEA Chief of Operations Thomas Harrigan. "With more and more success the Mexican government has, literally they're...

Little town, big hell. That proverb about turmoil in small communities has never seemed truer than in this gangster-besieged village and a neighboring one in the bean fields and desert scrub a long day's drive south of the Rio Grande. Since right before Christmas, armed raiders repeatedly have swept into both villages to carry away local men. Government help arrived too late, or not at all. Terrified villagers - at the urging of army officers who couldn't be there around the clock - have clawed moats across every access road but one into their communities, hoping to repel the raids....

MEXICO CITY – Police in northern Mexico caught a gang that allegedly stole oil from state-owned pipelines and smuggled it across the border to sell it to U.S. refineries, authorities said Tuesday.

Mexico’s Gulf Cartel may have 40 bullet-proof vests emblazoned with “FBI” and “DEA” to trick their drug-trafficking rivals, according to a new law enforcement advisory. Baseball caps and T-shirts with the agencies' names long have been a fad among everyday citizens, but ballistic armor raises the stakes and concerns, officials said. “It is believed the Gulf Cartel intended to use the vests as a distraction while they were conducting enforcement activities against their victims,” reads a message prepared by an FBI intelligence coordinator. The advisory, which was distributed Monday, comes as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano plans to...

From the original 31 members, the Mexican organized criminal faction Los Zetas has grown into an organization in its own right, operating separate from the Gulf Cartel and just as violent Between the first of the year and mid-March, 2009, the Mexican criminal organization most commonly known as "Los Zetas" has been busy. Members of this group have been linked to a death threat delivered to the president of Guatemala, a grenade thrown into a bar in Pharr, Texas, the death of a high-ranking military general in Cancun, and a fair share of the organized crime-related deaths registered this year...

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – Guatemalan security forces have discovered a camp run by Mexico's most violent drug gang where traffickers trained dozens of gunmen, police said on Friday. Security forces were tipped off about suspicious activity at a ranch in Quiche, in the central highlands, by residents who said men in ski masks were asking villagers to join their ranks, police chief Marlene Blanco said at a news conference. Two commanders of the Zetas, the armed wing of Mexico's Gulf cartel, and 37 recruits fled the camp before the police and army arrived, leaving behind 500 grenades, six rifles and...

GUATEMALA CITY — A hitman training camp for Mexico's infamous Gulf cartel was found in northern Guatemala, along with 500 grenades, police said Friday. In a news conference, police director Marlene Blanco said officials also seized six rifles, three motorcycles and several boxes of ammunition during Thursday's operation. People at the site fled before authorities arrived because they "heard the noise of the helicopters" used in the raid, said Nery Morales, a spokesman for Guatemala's Interior Ministry. "We searched the area, but didn't find anything," he said. Mexican drug cartels often use grenades in attacks, and many of the weapons...

ZAPATA - The nearly 50 deputies who make up the Zapata County Sheriff's Office have encountered Zetas, busted narcotics smugglers and grappled with dangerous gangs over the past several years, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez says. But that's nothing compared to the potential threat he sees on his community's horizon. With Mexican drug trafficking organizations battling their country's government and each other just south of the border, the threat that violence could spill over into his rural jurisdiction weighs ever heavier on his mind. "If you could see all the intelligence we get, you'd have no doubt," he said. "You can't ignore...

Drug War Doublespeak By Laura Carlsen | March 9, 2009 Through late February and early March, a blitzkrieg of declarations from U.S. government and military officials and pundits hit the media, claiming that Mexico was alternately at risk of being a failed state,1 on the verge of civil war, losing control of its territory, and posing a threat to U.S. national security.2

REYNOSA — Mexican federal police arrested a suspected member of Los Zetas accused of weapons smuggling and illegally monitoring telephone conversations among government officials. Rolando "El Roli" de los Santos Guerra, 31, was wanted by federal authorities on organized crime and weapons smuggling charges. Mexican federal police and troops captured de los Santos on Monday near El Naranjito colonia in Reynosa, according to a statement from the Mexican secretary of public security. De los Santos is accused of performing wire taps at hotels, hospitals and government agencies for Los Zetas, a gang of armed enforcers believed to have branched off...

MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government on Monday offered $2 million rewards each for information leading to the capture of 24 men identified as the country’s narcotics smuggling kingpins, including the bosses of the Gulf Cartel bordering far south Texas. Topping the most-wanted list are Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada of the Sinaloa Cartel based in the Pacific Coast state. Arturo Beltran Leyva, who leads a cartel that carries his name, carried a $2 million reward, as do the heads of the Juarez Cartel based in the violent city opposite El Paso, the La Familia Cartel...

Ditches don’t always deter raids, but federal troops can’t be spared CUAUHTEMOC, Mexico — Little town, big hell. That proverb about turmoil in small communities has never seemed truer than in this gangster-besieged village and a neighboring one in the bean fields and desert scrub a long day’s drive south of the Rio Grande. That proverb about turmoil in small communities has never seemed truer than in this gangster-besieged village and a neighboring one in the bean fields and desert scrub a long day’s drive south of the Rio Grande. Since right before Christmas, armed raiders repeatedly have swept into...