All posts in Naro Terrorism

Police chief murdered in northern Mexico

by Admin on December 5, 2011 in Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism, Tyrrany, Zetas with No comments

Fox News Latina

Monterrey –  The police chief of Saltillo, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, and his 11-year-old son were killed by gunmen while driving, prosecutors said Monday.

Emmanuel Almaguer Perez was killed Monday morning in the state capital’s eastern Magisterio neighborhood, the Coahuila state Attorney General’s Office said.

Almaguer Perez and his son were driving in their SUV when the gunmen opened fire on them, the AG’s office said.

The bodies of the police chief and his son were found inside the vehicle at the intersection of Seccion 38 boulevard and Arturo Ruiz street.

Almaguer Perez and his son were shot with assault rifles, the AG’s office said.

“Investigators from the Attorney General’s Office worked on Monday morning to remove the bodies, as well as to conduct the necessary field work corresponding to the investigation,” the AG’s office said.

The shooting occurred hours after three people were gunned down at a bar in Torreon, another city in Coahuila.

The Gulf cartel and Los Zetas are the main drug trafficking organizations operating in Coahuila.

Los Zetas, considered Mexico’s most violent drug cartel, mainly operates in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and San Luis Potosi states.

Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with three other soldiers, all members of an elite special operations unit, becoming the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel.

After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories.

The two cartels have been fighting for control of smuggling routes from northern Mexico into the United States.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/12/05/police-chief-murdered-in-northern-mexico/#ixzz1fiSdfhYB

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Along Mexican border, US ranchers say they live in fear

by Admin on November 27, 2011 in Gulf Cartel, Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism, Sinaloa cartel, Zetas with No comments

Despite government assurances that they’re safe, they say the level of violence is rising


Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

By Mark PotterCorrespondent

NBC News
updated 11/25/2011 8:13:18 PM ET

FALFURRIAS, Texas — While walking along a dirt road bordering his property, a South Texas farmer complained about living in fear of Mexican traffickers smuggling drugs and illegal immigrants across his land. He would later ask his visitor not to reveal his identity, for his safety and that of his family.

“I’m a citizen of the United States. This is supposedly sovereign soil, but right now it’s anybody’s who happens to be crossing here,” he said. “I’m a little nervous being here right now. Definitely don’t come down here after dark.”

The farmer said a federal law enforcement agent told him to buy a bulletproof vest to use while working in his fields. Whenever he goes out to survey his agricultural operations, he always tells his office where he is headed, and he has purchased a high-powered rifle.

“One of the basic points of the federal government is to protect the people of this nation to secure the border, and they’re not doing that,” he complained.

Story: Cartels using Ariz. mountaintops to spy on copsThe Obama administration and many local officials have said the U.S.-Mexican border is safer than ever and that reports of violence on the American side are wildly exaggerated. But the farmer scoffed at that argument. “I walk this soil every day and have since I was old enough to come out on my own,” he said. “In this part of Texas, it is worse than it’s ever been.”

Moving families to safer ground
A report recently released by the Texas commissioner of agriculture said cross-border violence was escalating. “Fear and anxiety levels among Texas farmers and ranchers have grown enormously during the past two years,” the report said, adding that some “have even abandoned their livelihoods to move their families to safer ground.”

Retired U.S. Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served as the U.S. drug czar during the Clinton administration and as an NBC News military analyst, is a co-author of the report. During a recent interview, McCaffrey said that while major cities along the Texas border are “pretty safe,” the rural areas between towns are “largely unprotected, and across those areas the (Mexican) cartels are conducting massive movements of illegal drugs and other criminal activity.”

Story: Mexican cartels corrupting more US border officials?

Law enforcement agents say they are seeing more aggressive efforts by Mexican traffickers operating in the Rio Grande Valley. In South Texas alone, the traffickers smuggle hundreds of tons of drugs a year into the United States by floating them on rafts across the Rio Grande, then transporting them by car, truck or on foot — often across private land — into the United States.

Video: ‘Like living in a war zone’ (on this page)The smuggling “clearly has intimidated U.S. citizen who don’t believe they’re safe on their own land in their own country,” McCaffrey said.

Several Texas congressmen and sheriffs have condemned the report, saying its conclusions are overstated and politically driven. But McCaffrey claims the officials not facing facts.

“I think there is an element of denial,” McCaffrey said. “Inside the beltway the senior law enforcement, I think, have fallen in line and said, no, that’s right, the U.S. border is the safest place in America, which is errant nonsense.”

Image: Mike Vickers, leader of a group of Texas landowners

Mark Potter  /  NBC News

Mike Vickers, a veterinarian and rancher, leads a group of Texas landowners concerned about Mexican drug and immigrant smugglers crossing their private property.

Ranchers protecting themselves
Veterinarian and rancher Mike Vickers heads the Texas Border Volunteers, a group of about 300 landowners and supporters who work closely with law enforcement officials to track drug and immigrant smugglers entering the U.S. from Mexico and crossing private land. His primary concern, he said, is the safety of farmers and ranchers who have been confronted by armed traffickers.

“A lot of them have been threatened not to call the Border Patrol or law enforcement if they see smuggling going on their property, otherwise they’ll be killed or their family members may be killed,” he said.

Video: ‘It’s compromised our lives’ (on this page)During a tour of his land and that of a neighbor, Vickers pointed out numerous hiking trails worn by smugglers and illegal immigrants from around the world. He also showed where many parts of the wire fence had been cut and pulled back. “This is not done by wildlife,” he said. “This is done by smugglers and more than likely drug smugglers that have heavy backpacks full of drugs so they can drag the backpack underneath and not have to throw it over the fence.”

In order to prove their claims that thousands of smugglers and illegal immigrants are crossing private American land, the Texas Border Volunteers have erected hidden cameras and share the images with state and federal agents. Describing one of the pictures, Vickers said, “This individual’s got at least 80, maybe 100 pounds on his back. This is probably marijuana with a canvas covering.” Another black and white photograph showed a man hoisting a smaller load. “You know he’s carrying at least 40 pounds of drugs in that backpack. We suspect cocaine.”

Video: Drug flow from Mexico on the riseVickers said that since 2004, about 500 people, mostly illegal immigrants, have perished while on smuggling trips through private property in Brooks County, Texas, alone, where his ranch is located.

A war zone?
Todd Staples, the Texas agriculture commissioner and a candidate for lieutenant governor, argued that many leaders in Washington, D.C., continue to ignore the violence along the border. In a recent article he wrote, “A Webb County rancher checking his cattle is shot at and barely escapes with his life; the suspects are linked to drug cartels. Workers in a Hidalgo County sugarcane field are told by cartel members to stop harvesting the crop ‘or else,” because the sugarcane provides coverage for cartel coyotes smuggling drugs.”

Image: A fence on private land trampled by smugglers

Mark Potter  /  NBC News

This fence on private land apparently was trampled by smugglers trying to get around a Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas.

Vickers said he knows ranchers who have moved their families into nearby cities for their protection and have taken other safety measures. “Everyone is packing a weapon and carrying a cell phone with them. and they’re crazy if they don’t,” he said. “This is happening on American soil; this is a war zone here, there’s no question about it.”

The use of the phrase “war zone” to describe the U.S. side of the border is controversial. The report to the agriculture commissioner states, “Living and conducting business in a Texas border county is tantamount to living in a war zone in which civil authorities, law enforcement agencies as well as citizens are under attack around the clock.”

Video: Drug violence comes to Mexican resort (on this page)Democratic congressmen and some local officials say that conclusion is unfair. Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino was recently quoted by the Houston Chronicle as saying, “The border is not in chaos.” And the newspaper quoted Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Democrat representing El Paso, as calling the claims “political rhetoric” meant to embarrass the Obama administration.

Among ranchers, farmers and law enforcement agents working at the ground level, however, there is considerable agreement that large-scale drug smuggling from Mexico into the United States has been increasing in recent years and that the traffickers are becoming more aggressive. For the farmer too afraid to be identified publicly, it creates a painful dilemma.

“I can’t pick up and move this farm; we’re tied to the land,” he said. “This is the front door to our country. Help us stop it here.”

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Woman decapitated in Mexico for web posting

by Admin on September 24, 2011 in Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism, Zetas with 3 Comments

MSNBC

By MARK STEVENSON

MEXICO CITY — Police found a woman’s decapitated body in a Mexican border city on Saturday, alongside a handwritten sign saying she was killed in retaliation for her postings on a social networking site.

The gruesome killing may be the third so far this month in which people in Nuevo Laredo were killed by a drug cartel for what they said on the internet.

Morelos Canseco, the interior secretary of northern Tamaulipas state, where Nuevo Laredo is located, identified the victim as Marisol Macias Castaneda, a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo newspaper Primera Hora.

The newspaper has not confirmed that title, and an employee of the paper said Macias Castaneda held an administrative post, not a reporting job. The employee was not authorized to be quoted by name.

But it was apparently what the woman posted on the local social networking site, Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, or “Nuevo Laredo Live,” rather than her role at the newspaper, that resulted in her killing.

The site prominently features tip hotlines for the Mexican army, navy and police, and includes a section for reporting the location of drug gang lookouts and drug sales points — possibly the information that angered the cartel.

The message found next to her body on the side of a main thoroughfare referred to the nickname the victim purportedly used on the site, “La Nena de Laredo,” or “Laredo Girl.” Her head was found placed on a large stone piling nearby.

“Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and social networkingsites, I’m The Laredo Girl, and I’m here because of my reports, and yours,” the message read. “For those who don’t want to believe, this happened to me because of my actions, for believing in the army and the navy. Thank you for your attention, respectfully, Laredo Girl…ZZZZ.”

The letter “Z” refers to the hyper-violent Zetas drug cartel, which is believed to dominate the city across from Laredo, Texas.

By late Saturday, the chat room at Nuevo Laredo en Vivo was abuzz with fellow posters who said they knew the victim from her online postings, and railing against the Zetas, a gang founded by military deserters who have become known for mass killings and gruesome executions.

They described her as a frequent poster, who used a laptop or cell phone to send reports.

“Girl why didn’t she buy a gun given that she was posting reports about the RatZZZ … why didn’t she buy a gun?” wrote one chat participant under the nickname “Gol.”

Earlier this month, a man and a woman were found hanging dead from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo with a similar message threatening “this is what will happen” to internet users. However, it has not been clearly established whether the two had in fact ever posted any messages, or on what sites.

Residents of Mexican border cities often post under nicknames to report drug gang violence, because the posts allow a certain degree of anonymity.

Social media like local chat rooms and blogs, and networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, are often the only outlet for residents of violence-wracked cities to find out what areas to avoid because of ongoing drug cartel shootouts or attacks.

Local media outlets, whose journalists have been hit by killings, kidnappings and threats, are often too intimidated to report the violence.

Mexico’s Human Rights Commission says eight journalists have been killed in Mexico this year and 74 since 2000. Other press groups cite lower numbers, and figures differ based on the definition of who is a journalist and whether the killings appeared to involve their professional work.

While helpful, social networking posts sometimes are inaccurate and can lead to chaotic situations in cities wracked by gang confrontations. In the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, just south of Tamaulipas, the state government dropped terrorism charges last week against two Twitter users for false posts that officials said caused panic and chaos in late August.

Related articles

Former DEA and CIA Operatives: Los Zetas May Attempt to Overthrow Mexican Government in 2012 (Using U.S. Government Weapons)

by Admin on August 1, 2011 in Illegal Immigration, Islamo-Fascism, Justice Department - Eric Holder, La Raza, Luis Gutierrez, Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism, Terrorism, Zetas with 9 Comments

By Carmen Álvarez Excelsior Special to Salem-News.com

Translated by Mario Andrade, DeadlineLive.info.

Map of Los Zetas weapon routes
Courtesy: DeadlineLive.info

(MEXICO CITY) – Los Zetas use the Alliance Airport in Ft. Worth, Texas -the same airport where the DEA’s Air Operations Center is located- to fly weapons to Columbus, NM., El Paso, and Laredo, TX. to be later smuggled into Mexico. CIA analysts say the weapons, which are purchased from the U.S. Government according to captured Zeta leader Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, aka. El Mamito, are being stockpiled throughout Mexico for a potential upcoming overthrow of the Mexican government in 2012.

Los Zetas use the border crossings of El Paso-Ciudad Juarez and Palomas-Columbus (both locations along the Texas-Chihuahua border) to supply and stockpile military type weapons, which would give them ability to disrupt the 2012 elections, according to the El Paso Times.

“Many of the weapons have been stored in safe houses. I think Los Zetas are storing them for the upcoming elections of 2012,” said Robert Plumlee, a former CIA pilot who has testified before Congress on drugs and weapons trafficking research.

The report is corroborated with an interview with Phil Jordan, former director of the DEA in El Paso, who stated that the stockpiles, which include anti-aircraft missiles, are transported from a Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. The consultant added that the criminals set up (phony) companies to buy weapons directly through a State Department program.

U.S. analysts warn of narco-attack in 2012

The Border Patrol personnel and U.S. intelligence services have recently learned that Los Zetas have been purchasing properties on both sides of the border to store thousands of high-power weapons that were discovered to be part of five or six shipments that left the same airport where the DEA has its air operations center.

Phil Jordan, former central intelligence operative and director of the DEA office in El Paso, Texas, and a former CIA pilot, Robert Plumlee, said Los Zetas transported the high-power weapons to El Paso-Ciudad Juarez and the Columbus-Palomas border areas to reinforce their troops for battling other cartels and possibly disrupt the 2012 elections in Mexico, El Paso Times reported yesterday.

“I believe Los Zetas are storing weapons for the election season (2012). They probably want to be included as part of the (new) government, “said Plumlee.

“The agency responsible for investigating arms trafficking has just confirmed that Los Zetas have been smuggling weapons through this region, and Laredo, which was new to us,” said Diana Washington Valdez from El Paso Times.

She mentioned grenades, grenade launchers, antiaircraft missiles, body armor, radios, GPS devices, and night vision binoculars, among other items.

Washington Valdez reported that Phil Jordan and Robert Plumlee, who has been called to testify in many U.S. congressional investigations, as well as other sources, reported that some of the weapons were purchased in Dallas, Texas, and being sent by plane from a nearby airport in Forth Worth to the Carrillo Fuentes (Juarez) cartel.

“There is an airport over there is called Lions (Alliance –ed.), but the irony,” said Phil Jordan, “is that there is also a DEA aviation headquarters at the same airport. Who knows how long they have been doing this under the noses of the DEA, because the shipments and the aircraft used by Los Zetas left the same airport,” he added.

Washington Valdez said Jordan, Plumlee and other sources were consulted for several months when the rumor of the weapons stockpile began, and compared these events to the time when the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) not only went to war against the cartels themselves, but also the very government of that country.

“One of the weapons shipments was found in a warehouse in Juarez, which was later relocated to a ranch on the other side of town, and other weapons were moved to another ranch further deep into Chihuahua,” she said.

Weapons purchased in the U.S.

She also stressed that Jordan and Plumlee, who participated in high-profile operations during the Cuban Revolution and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as well as other sources, reported that the stockpiles of weapons are not only held at real estate properties that Los Zetas have purchased on both sides of the border, but in other locations throughout Mexico because it was found that a private company is taking advantage of the Direct Commercial Sales program under the U.S. State Department, which allows businesses to purchase high-power weapons which the U.S. exports worldwide.

“According to these reports, some Mexican businessmen who took advantage and authorized the use of that mechanism, arranged for these weapons to be delivered to the drug cartels,” she said.

The global arms report, Small Arms Survey of 2011, from the Institute for International and Development Studies in Switzerland, said that Mexico was the number one importer in the world of RPG’s, and “under-barrel” grenade launchers, with 1,429 units being imported, followed in second place by Latvia with 250.

World imports of this type of grenade launchers rose to 1,912 units.

Diana Washington announced that she’s also expecting new revelations from a U.S. federal investigation that took place in the Dallas area, which she will publish in a book.

“I’m waiting to confirm the details related to this case of weapons trafficking because what is striking is that the weapons were stockpiled and not used in the current war between the drug gangs,” she said.

Recent U.S. actions against Los Zetas

Both U.S. and Mexican authorities are on high alert and coordinating actions against Los Zetas in order to disable or damage their organizational structure.

On January 24, 2011, the U.S. embassy in Mexico reported that former Mexican military member Rogelio Lopez, who was trained in that country (Ft. Benning), was recruited by Los Zetas to assassinate former Deputy Attorney General Jose Luis Vasconcelos.

On July 3, 2011, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), issued a warning to its citizens with the recommendation not to travel to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, particularly during that weekend, and especially on July 4, due to a potential threat from Los Zetas.

On 4 July, the Federal Police arrested Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, third in the command in the criminal organization known as Los Zetas and allegedly involved in the killing of U.S. agent Jaime Zapata, last February.

On July 6, 2011, Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, aka. El Mamito, said the weapons used by that criminal group (Los Zetas) to be used against their opponents are bought in that country (the U.S.) and are even sold to them by the U.S. authorities.

On July 11, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the United States (BATFE) announced that firearms dealers will now have to disclose the names of customers who purchase semi-automatic weapons.

Story written by Carmen Álvarez, originally published by excelsior.com.mx. Translated by Mario Andrade, DeadlineLive.info

New Mexico town dissolves police dept after gun smuggling scandal

by Admin on July 16, 2011 in Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism, Project Gunwalker with No comments

Yahoo News

By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – Tue, Jul 12, 2011

The scandal-plagued, tiny New Mexico border town of Columbus is dissolving its class=”zem_slink” title=”Police” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police” rel=”wikipedia”>police department and asking the county sheriff to protect its citizens.

An employee at Columbus City Hall confirmed to The Lookout that the police force has been dissolved. The Luna County Sheriff’s Office will now take over patrolling the town.

The town has been upended since federal authorities arrested Police Chief Angelo Vega, Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Village Trustee Blas Gutierrez and nine other residents for conspiring to smuggle hundreds of guns to drug cartels over the border in March. All of the accused have pleaded not guilty, and their trial is expected in October, according to the <a class="zem_slink" title="Las Cruces Sun-News” href=”http://lcsun-news.com” rel=”homepage”>Las Cruces Sun News. (You can read the indictment here.)

The Associated Press presciently reported in May of 2009 that a law enforcement “vacuum” had made the town attractive to drug smugglers who moved over the border to settle down in Columbus. The “four-man police force in Columbus has turned over seven times in three years because of scandal or apathy,” the AP reported, adding that more residents of the formerly modest town were driving flashy cars and buying fancy homes. Vega, who had then just nabbed the police chief job, told the AP that no illegal activity would be tolerated. “This is a new day for Columbus,” he said.

In another strange twist, the Las Cruces paper reported that the New Mexico U.S. Attorney’s Office has been relieved of its duties in prosecuting the trial late last month. Now, federal attorneys in El Paso, Texas will take over the case. Neither office would tell the paper what was behind the switch, and The Lookout has not yet received a reply to its a request for comment from us to the New Mexico U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Gutierrez, the village trustee, only resigned his post on July 8, months after his arrest; he maintains that the arrest was politically motivated. Gutierrez’s wife, Gabriela, has also been charged in the smuggling case, and a federal agent said when law enforcement officers made the arrest at their home she was “attempting to hide bulk cash on her person and within her children’s shoes.”

A new mayor, formerly the town clerk, was just elected in late June. The three remaining town trustees voted to dissolve the police department on July 7.

Guatemala Targets Drug Gangs After Massacre

by Admin on May 18, 2011 in Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism with No comments

BY NICHOLAS CASEY

MEXICO CITY—Guatemalan soldiers searched Tuesday for the culprits of a massacre in a remote province after the country’s president declared a state of siege there, a sign that Guatemala is escalating its own war against drug traffickers as violence spills over from Mexico.

The measures came the day after authorities blamed a Mexican drug cartel called Los Zetas for killing and decapitating 27 people in the remote El Petén province. Under the state of siege, security forces may conduct searches and make arrests without warrants, confiscate weapons and break up groups seen as subversive.

“Guatemala must take on this aggression, …

–more–

Mexican Town Throws Up Barricades against Drug Cartel Thugs

by Admin on May 18, 2011 in Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism with No comments

Published May 18, 2011
| Fox News Latino

AP
A local masked men stands next to a barricade in Cherán, Michoacán State, Mexico. The men there started taking security into their own hands last month by setting up checkpoints at the entrance of town with tires and sandbags and using guns they stole from local police after loggers, who residents say are backed by cartel henchmen and local police, killed two residents and wounded several others. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)
Not in our town, drug cartels!

That’s the message the men of a Mexican town – masked, wielding rifles and standing guard at makeshift blockades – delivered to drug traffickers. The would-be defenders, the indigenous Purépechas of Cherán, are protecting themselves against illegal loggers, whom they believe are backed by notorious drug traffickers.

This town, surrounded by mountains of pine forests and neat farmland, is where loggers allegedly killed two residents last month and wounded several others.

A local masked men stands next to a barricade in Cherán, Michoacán State, Mexico. The men there started taking security into their own hands last month by setting up checkpoints at the entrance of town with tires and sandbags and using guns they stole from local police after loggers, who residents say are backed by cartel henchmen and local police, killed two residents and wounded several others. (AP Photo/Miguel Tovar)


“There is no fear here,” said one young man, defiantly peering out between a red handkerchief pulled up to his dark eyes and a camouflage baseball cap riding low over his brow. “Here we are fighting a David-and-Goliath battle because we are standing up to organized crime, which is no small adversary.”

Nearly all residents in the town of 16,000 in the southwestern state of Michoacán spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.

Read more:

3 Arrested for massacre in southern Mexico

by Admin on May 18, 2011 in Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism with No comments

Published May 18, 2011

Oaxaca – Three people have been arrested in connection with the killings over the weekend of 10 Indians in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, officials said.
Denis Gutierrez, Wilfrido Solis and Sergio Hernandez are being questioned by prosecutors in Tuxtepec, a city about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the scene of the massacre, Oaxaca Attorney General Manuel de Jesus Lopez said.

Gunmen opened fire Saturday on Indians traveling in several SUVs from the community of La Tani to the city of Santiago Choapam, where they planned to work in the upcoming municipal election.

Nine people were pronounced dead at the scene and a tenth died while being transported to a hospital in Tuxtepec.

Eight other Indians were wounded in the attack and three of them remain hospitalized, the Health Secretariat said.

Santiago Choapam is about 400 kilometers (248 miles) northeast of Oaxaca city, the state capital, and on the border with Veracruz state.

Investigators are looking at the possibility that the massacre was politically motivated because several groups have been vying for control of Santiago Choapam.
Two groups, one led by the family of former state legislator Damaso Nicolas, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and the other by leftist Workers Party, or PT, member Cesar Mateos, have been fighting for control of the mountain city.
Nicolas is a “chieftain because his family has always had power, and now that other actors want to participate, they are against it and we blame them for the violence,” Mateos said over the weekend.

The victims were buried Monday afternoon amid calls from their relatives for justice in the case.

Oaxaca is not only one of Mexico’s poorest states, but it is also the state with the largest Indian population in terms both of absolute numbers and as a proportion of the total inhabitants.

Read more:

MEXICO POLICE FIND 513 US-BOUND MIGRANTS IN TWO (!) TRAILER TRUCKS

by Admin on May 18, 2011 in Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism with No comments

Posted on May 17, 2011 at 6:28pm by Scott Baker Print »Email »

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (AP) — Police in Mexico’s southern Chiapas state found 513 migrants on Tuesday inside two trailer trucks bound for the United States.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants travel through Mexico each year in the hopes of reaching the United States, but this was the largest group rescued in recent years.

Chiapas state police discovered the migrants while using X-ray equipment on the trucks at a checkpoint in the outskirts of city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, the National Immigration Institute said in a statement.

Police also arrested four people accused of smuggling the migrants, who are from Central and South America and Asia, Chiapas state prosecutors said in a statement.

The alleged smugglers tried to escape police but were chased down and captured, prosecutors said.

The immigration institute said 410 of the migrants were from Guatemala, 47 from El Salvador, 32 from Ecuador, 12 from India, six from Nepal, three from China and one each from Japan, the Dominican Republic and Honduras. There were 32 women and four children among them.

The migrants told authorities they had agreed to pay $7,000 to be taken to the United States, the institute said.

In January, Chiapas state authorities discovered 219 migrants squeezed into a trailer truck.

Most of those migrants were from Central America but six were from Sri Lanka and four from Nepal.

Mexican drug cartel suspected after 29 decapitated in Guatemala

by Admin on May 17, 2011 in Mexican Cartel War, Naro Terrorism, Zetas with No comments

Posted: Monday, May 16, 2011 – By EFE
Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry expressed solidarity with Guatemala after the more than two dozen migrant farmers were killed.

One of the bodies of the 29 laborers killed Sunday, is transferred to a morgue in San Benito, Petén in northern Guatemala. Guatemala's President Álvaro Colom promised Monday to capture those responsible for the killings, which have been linked to the Mexican drug cartel, the Zetas.


One of the bodies of the 29 laborers killed Sunday, is transferred to a morgue in San Benito, Petén in northern Guatemala. Guatemala’s President Álvaro Colom promised Monday to capture those responsible for the killings, which have been linked to the Mexican drug cartel, the Zetas.

Gunmen working for Los Zetas, considered Mexico’s most violent drug cartel, murdered at least 29 farmworkers over the weekend in a community in northern Guatemala near the Mexican border, officials said.

The bodies were found Sunday at the Los Cocos ranch outside the city of La Libertad, located about 630 kilometers (391 miles) north of Guatemala City, National Civilian Police, or PNC, deputy chief Gerson Oliva said.

About 200 heavily armed men belonging to Los Zetas’ Z 200 cell arrived in Los Cocos on Saturday night and attacked the farmworkers, PNC investigators said.

Initial police reports said the victims died in a shootout, but investigators later revised their report after gathering evidence at the crime scene.

The massacre occurred early Sunday and the victims were beheaded by the gunmen, the PNC said.

Dozens of soldiers were sent to the border with Mexico, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Los Cocos, army spokesman Col. Rony Urizar told Efe.

“Aerial and land surveillance has been ordered, and we are coordinating with Mexican authorities to prevent (those behind the massacre) from escaping across the border,” Urizar said.

–more–

← Older Entries