Free Republic

The DEA believes that Barrio Azteca, an El Paso, TX-based street gang with ties to the Juarez drug cartel, has information on the brazen assassination of U.S. consulate workers earlier this month, and the agency has stepped up pressure on its members with a series of raids as reported by Daniel Borunda for the El Paso Times: A total of 54 members and associates of the Barrio Azteca gang have been arrested as part of Operation Knock Down, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said Monday. The DEA-led crackdown is one of the largest law enforcement efforts ever...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Suspected drug hitmen have killed 10 patients in a Mexican rehabilitation clinic, the second such attack this month in the city of Ciudad Juarez on the U.S. border, authorities said on Wednesday. Drug gangs have targeted rehab clinics in the manufacturing city across from El Paso, Texas, accusing them of protecting dealers from rival gangs. State attorney spokesman Vladimir Tuexi said the victims, nine men and one woman, were killed late on Tuesday as they finished praying before going to bed.