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A recent surge in arrests and cocaine seizures in Peru points to an increased presence of Mexican drug cartels, counter-narcotics officials say. The cartels have also contributed to more drug-related violence in Peruvian cities, ports and in remote valleys in this Andean country where coca, cocaine's base material, is grown, the officials say. Peruvian claims of Mexican cartels expanding echo those by officials in other Latin American countries, from Honduras to Argentina, where Mexican gangs have supplanted once-powerful Colombian cartels as kings of the illicit-drug underworld. .... That Mexican drug lords are sending emissaries here is no surprise to Hidalgo...

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2009 – The Department of Homeland Security is “still considering” the use of National Guard troops along the U.S.-Mexico border, along with several other initiatives, the DHS secretary said in a White House press briefing today. “This issue requires immediate action,” Janet Napolitano said. “We are guided by two very clear objectives. First, we are going to do everything we can to prevent the violence in Mexico from spilling over across the border. “And second, we will do all in our power to help President [Felipe] Calderón crack down on these drug cartels in Mexico.” Napolitano...

Earlier this month, the United Kingdom announced that it is reopening dialogue with the political wing of Hezbollah. Unlike the United States, the United Kingdom has only banned Hezbollah's terrorist (External Security Organization) and military wings. The ban on the terrorist wing came in 2000, while the ban on the military wing only came in June 2008 in response to Hezbollah's "providing active support to militants in Iraq who are responsible for attacks both on coalition forces and on Iraqi civilians, including providing training in the use of deadly roadside bombs," for plots to kidnap British security workers in Iraq,...

AUSTIN — Mexican drug cartel violence is not spilling into Texas, several frustrated border mayors told a state legislative committee Monday in an effort to dispel public perceptions that their communities are under siege. “For me to believe that our cities are so endangered by all this violence that we need to send the military to the border is a knee-jerk reaction,” McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez told the House Border and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee. Cortez, mayor for 19 years, said his daughter in San Antonio recently called to express apprehension about his re-election because of fears he might become an...

Reporting from San Diego -- A U.S. citizen was one of the three men who were found decapitated this week in Tijuana, Mexican authorities said Friday. The body of George Harrison, a 38-year-old former Chula Vista resident, had been dismembered and mutilated and was dumped in a vacant lot near Tijuana's beachside bullring. Harrison had several drug-related convictions in the United States and was suspected of drug trafficking in Mexico, Baja California Assistant Atty. General Rafael Gonzalez said.

March 4, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-crm-189.html Colombian Paramilitary Leader Extradited to the United States to Face U.S. Drug Charges WASHINGTON – Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, a/k/a "El Mellizo," was extradited today from Colombia to the United States to face narcotics trafficking charges, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). According to the indictment, Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, together with his twin brother Victor, led a major Colombian narcotics trafficking organization known as "the Twins" or "Los Mellizos" Organization. Victor...

CF assist drug busts valued at $272mNR - 09.02 - February 27, 2009OTTAWA - Canadian Forces’ Operation Caribbe is seeing some early successes in 2009 after supporting drug busts in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean that stopped some $272 million worth of cocaine from reaching the streets of North America. Since 2006, CF ships and aircraft have been participating in U.S.-led multinational counter-drug operations off the southern approaches to North America. “One of the goals of the Canada First Defence Strategy is for Canada to be a strong and reliable partner in the defence of North America. Operation Caribbe...

The Gulf Cartel in Mexico has now been deemed the biggest terroristic threat in the United States, including in North Texas. In recent months, there have been no kidnappings or deaths related to the Gulf Cartel in North Texas, authorities say. However, a large task force recently arrested dozens of cartel members and confiscated millions in cash, drugs and weapons. The Gulf Cartel has been called one of the most dangerous groups in the world, and authorities said they have waged a war to control all the drugs coming into the U.S. from Mexico. "They are fighting back with the...

Grenades used in three recent attacks in Monterrey, Mexico, and Pharr, Texas, all originated from the same lot delivered from South Korea... That the grenade used in the third attack reportedly came from Mexico indicates that in addition to the well-known path of weapons flowing from the United States into Mexico, arms also are flowing from Mexico into the United States. The first of the three attacks targeted the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico. In the second incident, again in Monterrey, gunmen attacked a local TV station on Jan. 12 in an attempt to intimidate the news agency into cutting...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg19.htm February 10, 2009 tg-19 Treasury Targets Financial Network of Fernando Zevallos Gonzales Washington, DC -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated 26 companies and 14 individuals tied to Peruvian drug kingpin Fernando Zevallos Gonzales. This financial network, based in Peru, Panama and the British Virgin Islands, is now subject to financial sanctions pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act ("Kingpin Act"). "Our action demonstrates the importance of following the changing networks of major drug kingpins, like Fernando Zevallos," said OFAC Director Adam J....

NATIONAL GANG THREAT SUMMARY Gangs pose a serious threat to public safety in many communities throughout the United States. Gang members are increasingly migrating from urban to suburban areas and are responsible for a growing per- centage of crime and violence in many communities. Much gang-related criminal activity involves drug trafficking; however, gang members are increasingly engaging in alien and weapons trafficking. Additionally, a rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships with U.S.- and foreign-based drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) and other criminal organizations to gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs.

Mexican drug trafficking organizations are now the greatest organized crime threat to the United States, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Department of Justice. The National Drug Threat Assessment for 2009, released last month by the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center, says Mexican drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) operate in more than 230 cities across the United States. These drug syndicates not only smuggle drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, they also produce drugs here in the United States. Their smuggled products include cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana, and their domestically produced products include methamphetamines and marijuana. The...

SNIPPET: "The entire report mentions the overlap with terrorist activities exactly ONE time, and that, in a footnote relating to prison radicalization." SNIPPET: "This, despite the fact that there is an undeniable and growing link between terrorist organizations and the organized criminal pipeline."

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0901/090114tampa.htm January 14, 2009 Colombian drug lord gets life in prison following joint law enforcement investigation TAMPA, Fla. - A high ranking member of a Colombian drug cartel was sentenced here to life in prison Monday following a multi-agency investigation comprised of several federal agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ivan Gonzalez-Bejarano, 48, linked to the Cali Cartel, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday to a term of life imprisonment for conspiracy to import and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. The joint federal investigation, that spanned...

TWELVE more children are being groomed to carry out suicide attacks against British forces in an escalation of the Taliban’s new dirty war. As Gordon Brown, in Afghanistan yesterday, praised the bravery of three Royal Marines killed by a 13-year-old suicide bomber, we disclose that the attack is just the start of a concerted campaign to drive out British troops. Intelligence sources say 12 Pakistani children are being groomed at a secret camp in the mountains where their controllers give them heroin as part of their brainwashing techniques. The campaign is designed to sap morale and turn public opinion against...

Istanbul Police said 222 kg of heroin, 184 kg of hashish, 2 kg of cocaine and thousands of synthetic pills were confiscated in 141 operations in several parts of the metropolis.

For those of us who were covering the conflicts in Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s, there was no group more terrifying than Peru's Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) an Maoist organization intent on causing rivers of blood to flow in order to achieve the proletariat utopia. After many years and countless dead, Sendero was largely dismantled and its chief ideologue , Abimael Guzman, who ran a horrific cult of personality, was jailed. The group was widely thought to have been put out of business permanently. Now, as the Washington Post reports, Sendero, a designated terrorist entity, is coming back....

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...

Severed Head Found Outside Mexican Base A severed head reportedly accompanied by a note of defiance from organized crime gangs was found outside a military barracks in Veracruz state on Saturday. The head was found in a box outside the army base in Veracruz city, just hours after the government announced it was sending troops to respond to a shooting attack. The box also held a message saying gangs would continue operating despite the presence of troops, Mexico's Reforma newspaper reported. The victim's body was found shortly afterward on a street in another neighborhood, wrapped in a sheet. On Friday,...

DALLAS -- At least 18 Dallas County teenagers have died from using cheese, a mixture of black tar heroin and powderized Tylenol PM tablets. The deaths have been reported throughout the county. Most of the victims are male, and involve equal numbers of white and Hispanic youth. One girl who died was found with the phase "Cheese Please" scrawled on her body with a marker. The spread of cheese in schools has parents and law enforcement officials worried. Children as young as 11 have been caught with the concoction. Right now, cheese heroin seems to be a Dallas phenomenon. But...