Caught on tape: Mexican voters 'threatened by drug cartel'

Mexican authorities have promised to ensure that next year's presidential elections are not undermined by drug-related violence.

The pledge follows the release of an audio recording containing threats by an alleged drug trafficker to people voting in recent state elections in Michoacan.

50 bodies found in Mexico, victims of drug violence

While our president refuses to take necessary measures to secure our border, this is what’s happening on the other side of the Rio Grande:

(Yahoo) Fifty dead bodies have been discovered over the past two days in western Mexico, victims of a fierce war waged between the government and the nation’s powerful drug cartels.

The bodies of 26 young men were dumped in three vehicles near a busy intersection in Guadalajara. It bore the signs of a drug vendetta and a chilling message of more to come in Mexico’s second city, set to host an international book fair this weekend.

The gruesome find came the day after 24 bodies were discovered in the city of Culiacan, in northwestern Sinaloa state.

A message found with the latest bodies said the peace enjoyed by the states of Jalisco and Sinaloa, allegedly as a result of agreements between local authorities and the Sinaloa cartel, was over.

“There were 26 corpses altogether, all male and aged from 25 to 35 years,” Fernando Guzman, a top official in Jalisco state, of which Guadalajara is capital, told a news conference Thursday.

Most of the men had been asphyxiated, some were naked and some marked with the words Milenio and Zetas — the names of drug gangs — in oil, Guzman said.

Earlier this week yet another incident of Mexican drug cartel spill-over occurred, this time in Houston. The result was a shoot-out leaving one Houston officer wounded.


(Houston Chronicle) One man was killed and an undercover sheriff’s deputy wounded Monday in a shootout between a drug task force monitoring an 18-wheeler and hijackers who tried to take control of the truck in a northwest Harris County neighborhood, officials said.

One of the attackers was also injured, struck by an officer’s vehicle when he tried to shoot the officer, authorities said.

The Harris County sheriff’s deputy and other members of a multi-agency narcotics task force were watching the truck, thought to be carrying drugs, about 2 p.m. Monday near Hollister and Bourgeois when several vehicles approached the truck and opened fire, said Christina Garza, a Harris County sheriff’s spokeswoman.

The deputy and the other investigators at the scene immediately began firing at the hijackers.

“In that exchange of gunfire, one of our undercover deputies at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office was struck in the leg,” Garza said.

A sheriff’s department spokesman at the scene said he didn’t know what kind of drugs were inside the truck.

The deputy was taken to a hospital where he is expected to fully recover, officials said.

A man sitting inside the tanker truck cab died after he was shot during the gunfight. Garza said officials didn’t know who shot the man.

The wounded deputy was not identified because of his undercover law enforcement work. He is assigned to the multi-agency High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force, officials said.

Garza said one of the hijackers tried to shoot at an officer, who then hit the attacker which his vehicle. He was taken to an area hospital in unknown condition.

Investigators also arrested several people who tried to flee, officials said.

Sheriff’s officials at the scene would not confirm reports that the person killed was a police informant.

The tanker truck continued rolling forward during the gunbattle until it finally veered off the road and into a wooded area next to Champions Crossing subdivision.

Hamilton Russell, who lives nearby, said the truck looked familiar.

“For the last few days, there’s been a truck that looks very similar to that parking over there,” Russell said.

The truck came to a stop near a small park popular with children in the neighborhood.

“I’m just glad that the kids weren’t around here playing. It was a real shock to me,” said Keith Pruitt, who lives in the subdivision.


A Harris County sheriff’s deputy heading to the shooting was injured when he collided with a school bus.

The deputy had triggered his lights and siren when an Aldine ISD bus struck his patrol car near West Road and Antoine. The school bus also hit a third vehicle near the intersection, officials said.

No students were on the school bus at the time.

The deputy, the bus driver and the driver of the third vehicle were taken to the hospital for treatment, officials said.

Unfortunately, unless there we have substantial change in our border security and enforcement policies, we have no reason to believe Mexican drug violence in the U.S. will subside.

HT~ RightScoop

Authorities Arrest at Least 70 Suspected Drug Smugglers in Major Bust in Arizona

'Jaw dropping' bust of 70 members from 'billion-dollar' drug cartel that supplies 65% of illegal drugs brought to U.S.

• Thousands of pounds of narcotics were seized in Arizona with the arrest of 70 suspected smugglers
• The Mexican drug cartel accused is believed to handle 65 percent of all illegal drugs smuggled into the U.S.
• Tens of thousands have been killed in Mexican drug-related violence since 2006

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

The suspected cartel in Sinaloa Mexico under Kingpin Joaquin 'El Champ' Guzman, is believed to handle 65 percent of all drugs transported illegally into the United States.Officials seized thousands of pounds of narcotics with the arrest of 70 suspected drug smugglers in what is being described as a 'jaw-dropping' confiscation by authorities in Arizona.

'This is one of the more substantial drug-smuggling operations going on right now. This is a billion-dollar drug trade organization linked to the cartel,' an official with the investigation told Reuters.

Mexican kingpin: Joaquin 'El Champ' Guzman (left) of the suspected Sinaloa cartel is believed to handle 65 percent of all drugs transported illegally into the United States

The operation carried over a 17-month period, included three raids in conglomeration with local, state and federal officials.

Both Mexican and American nations were arrested who were found working with the cartel based in Sinaloa, a coastal Northwestern state in Mexico. 

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The area is home to large marijuana and opium poppy plantations and according to Reuters, is considered the 'cradle' to narcotics trafficking in Mexico for the past 50 years.

Among the narcotics confiscated by authorities, money, weapons, ammunition and bullet-proof vests were taken.

Underground: Tunnels, like the one shown here, were among the ways drug smugglers were able to enter into the U.S. from Mexico

The drugs were found smuggled from Mexico to Arizona by means of car, plane, foot, as well as through tunnels.

The Mexican drug cartel described by the official as a 'sophisticated network' is also one of the largest operations in the southwestern United States today.

Just last year the Sinaloa cartel under 'El Champ,' was feared by U.S. intelligence as winning the Mexican drug war.

Mexico's narcotic 'cradle': Sinaloa is home to large marijuana and opium poppy plantations dominating the county's production for the past 50 years

Dangerous crops: A Mexican police man is shown destroying opium poppies to prevent its manufacture into morphine and heroin that is then smuggled into the U.S.

In just a two-year battle, 5,000 people were killed, resulting in the Mexican kingpin controlling coveted trafficking routes for their operations.

Tens of thousands of people total, however, have been killed since Mexican President Felipe Calderon initiated a military campaign to fight the cartels following his presidency in 2006.

'Stop the War': Protestors in Mexico City marched this spring, protesting the thousands who have died since the war on drugs began in 2006

All of those killed were by drug-related violence.

The official speaking with Reuters says they are still in search of dozens more in connection to the operation.

Those who have been captured, some serving as key players to the operations, will be prosecuted on the state level.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055693/Officials-seize-thousands-pounds-narcotics-arrest-70-US-smugglers.html#ixzz1cNiB3jdo

Iran ‘tried to hire Mexican drug cartel to kill diplomat’

IRANIAN GOVERNMENT agents plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US by hiring experts from Mexican drug cartels, the Obama administration has said.

Two people, including a member of Iran’s special operations unit known as the Quds Force, were charged in New York federal court today. Justice Department officials say the pair were working with a person they thought was an associate of a Mexican drug cartel to target the Saudi diplomat, Adel Al-Jubeir.

But their contact was an informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency who told US authorities about all their planning.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Associated Press: “The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador, nobody could make that up, right?” Read More: http://www.thejournal.ie/iran-tried-to-hire-mexican-drug-cartel-to-kill-diplomat-251683-Oct2011/

Texas DPS Warns Parents that Cartels Recruiting High School Students !!!

KRGV.com:
AUSTIN – The Texas Department of Public Safety is warning parents about drug cartels recruiting Texas high school students. DPS officials say they caught a 12-year-old boy driving a stolen pickup truck containing more than 800 pounds of marijuana last week.
Last month, two Texas teenagers were lured to Mexico where they were kidnapped, beaten, ransomed and released in a remote area along the Rio Grande River. In one Texas border county, more than 25 juveniles were arrested for drug trafficking within the past year.
“Mexican cartels have corrupted nearly an entire generation of youth living in Northern Mexico and they seek to corrupt our youth as well to further their smuggling operations,” said DPS Director Steven C. McCraw. “The Mexican Cartels value Texas teenagers for their ability to serve as expendable labor in many different roles and they have unlimited resources to recruit our children.”
The Texas border region represents 9.7 percent of the state’s population, yet the region has 19.2 percent of the state’s juvenile felony drug referrals and 21.8% of the state’s juvenile felony gang referrals.
According to DPS, six of the seven Mexican cartels have established command and control networks in Texas, and they are recruiting Texas students to support their drug, human, currency and weapon smuggling operations on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border.
The state agency warns cartels and their operatives are extremely violent, torturing and killing thousands of people in Mexico. They use transnational and Texas prison gangs to further their criminal operations in Mexico and the U.S.
DPS officials urge parents, especially those who live along the border, to talk to their children and explain how the cartels seek to exploit Texas teenagers and the risks involved in dealing with these ruthless organizations.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection developed Operation Detour, an educational campaign warning high school students of the consequences of becoming involved with smuggling. DPS kicked off the program at Valley View High School in Pharr.

Mexico Uncovers Possible Drug Smuggling Tunnel Beneath U.S. Border !!!

AFP
A soldier of the Mexican Army walks along a trans-border tunnel found near Tijuana Airport, in Tijuana, in the Mexican border with San Diego in the US, on August 11.
Mexican troops have discovered an unfinished 980-foot tunnel beneath the U.S. border that that officials say would likely have been used to smuggle drugs and people, AFP reports.
Mexican General Alfonso Duarte announced the find on Friday, saying the entrance to the tunnel was inside a house in the border town of Tijuana that was made to appear as though it was under construction.
He added that 10 people were detained in the operation, including a woman who had been helping to dig the tunnel for nearly a year.
The tunnel was around six feet high and three feet wide, and had a lighting and ventilation system, officials said.
U.S. officials said in June that more than 150 secret tunnels for smuggling people and drugs into the United States have been found since 1990.







Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/13/mexico-uncovers-possible-drug-smuggling-tunnel-beneath-us-border/#ixzz1UwDtzkUK

Mexican Police Arrest Suspect Blamed for Over 600 Murders

Mexican police arrested the suspected leader of a brutal drug gang called "The Hand with Eyes" and he has confessed to helping carry out or ordering more than 600 murders, authorities said Thursday.

Mexican police arrested the suspected leader of a brutal drug gang called "The Hand with Eyes" and he has confessed to helping carry out or ordering more than 600 murders, authorities said Thursday.Oscar Osvaldo Garcia Montoya, 36, was arrested in an overnight raid on a presumed safe house on the outskirts of Mexico City, State of Mexico Attorney General Alfredo Castillo said at a news conference."The Hand with Eyes" is one of the groups blamed for bringing the drug violence typical of northern Mexico to Mexico City and its surrounding areas.The organization is known for extreme violence, including decapitations. Many of its victims have been drug dealers and rivals killed as the group fought for control of drug sales in Mexico state, an area that includes many of the poor suburbs ringing the capital.Castillo said Garcia is a deserter from the Mexican marines who worked as a bodyguard for major cartel figures including Edgar Valdez, aka "La Barbie," a top assassin for the Beltran Leyva...

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More Heroin, Cocaine and Meth Busts at the Border !!!