Drug Cartels – Page 3 – Infinite Unknown

Mexican Blog Wars: Fourth Blogger Murdered (Beheaded) For Reporting On Cartel

November 11, 2011 by Infinite

– Mexican Blog Wars: Fourth Blogger Murdered for Reporting on Cartel (Yahoo News/Mashable, Nov. 10, 2011):

Gang members in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, killed and beheaded the moderator of a social network, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

“Hi, I’m Rascatripas,” read the note on a blood-stained blanket left with the body. “This happened to me for not understanding that I shouldn’t report on the social networks.”

The victim, known by his nickname “Rascatripas (Belly Scratcher),” was the moderator of a site called Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, which had posted information about the local drug cartel.

Read moreMexican Blog Wars: Fourth Blogger Murdered (Beheaded) For Reporting On Cartel

Iran’s Alleged Mexican Hitman Was US DRUGS INFORMANT

October 14, 2011 by Infinite

Why the fake Iranian plot?

To prepare you for the planned attack on Iran (and WW III) …

… and to distract you from operation ‘Fast And Furious’!

More here:

– Freedom Watch: Judge Napolitano Accuses AG Holder Of Using Iran Assassination Plot To Distract From ‘Fast And Furious’ Scandal (Video)

Zeta cartel ‘assassin’ hired for $1.5m attack on Saudi ambassador to Washington revealed plot to DEA

Weapons seized from the Zetas drug cartel. A gang member recruited to an alleged Iranian plot was a US informant. Photograph: Miguel Tovar/Associated Press

– Iran’s alleged Mexican hitman was US drugs informant (Guardian, Oct. 12, 2011):

The Iranian plot the US government says aimed to murder Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington allegedly fell down because a member of the Mexican Zeta drug cartel hired to carry out the job for $1.5m was actually a US informant.

The informant told the Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) in May that he had been contacted by alleged Iranian agent Manssor Arbabsiar. They held several meetings in Mexico which were taped. Methods discussed reportedly included a targeted assassination and a bomb.

Arbabsiar flew to Mexico in late September allegedly to serve as a guarantee that full payment would follow the assassination. The Mexican government has confirmed that it denied him entry and put him on a flight with a stopover in New York, where he was arrested.

Read moreIran’s Alleged Mexican Hitman Was US DRUGS INFORMANT

Fast And Furious: 22 Shocking Facts About The Scandal That Could Bring Down The Obama Administration

October 11, 2011October 11, 2011 by Infinite

– Fast And Furious: 22 Shocking Facts About The Scandal That Could Bring Down The Obama Administration (The American Dream):

Could Fast and Furious be the scandal that brings down the Obama administration? With the full knowledge of the Department of Justice, ATF agents facilitated the sale of thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels and dropped all surveillance of those weapons once they crossed the border. Weapons sold during Operation Fast and Furious have been used to shoot U.S. border control agents. Weapons sold during Operation Fast and Furious have been found at dozens of crime scenes in Mexico. Nobody has been held accountable for this scandal yet. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has been stonewalling all efforts by members of Congress to look into Fast and Furious. A CBS reporter that has been aggressively investigating this story was recently screamed at and cussed at by a high ranking official that works in the White House. It has become abundantly clear that the Obama administration desperately wants to hide what went on during Operation Fast and Furious. So will they succeed or will we eventually find out the truth?

What you are about to read should shock the living daylights out of you. The U.S. government purposely armed Mexican drug cartels with thousands of guns and then ordered agents not to follow the weapons across the border.

This should be a story that the mainstream media is pounding on every single day.

But they aren’t.

In fact, they are mostly ignoring it.

Read moreFast And Furious: 22 Shocking Facts About The Scandal That Could Bring Down The Obama Administration

Arizona Sheriff Explains Operation ‘Fast And Furious’, Calls ATF And Eric Holder Murder Accomplices (Video)

October 10, 2011 by Infinite

YouTube

Sheriff Paul Babeu implicates Eric Holder and the Obama Justice Department as accomplices in the crimes involving weapons used in the “Fast and Furious” scandal.

More info:

– Fast And Furious Assault Weapons Found In Mexico Cartel Enforcer’s Home

– New Fast and Furious Docs Released By White House … Some Records Were NOT Included Because Of ‘Significant Confidentiality Interests’

– Operation ‘Fast And Furious’ Just Might Be President Obama’s Watergate

– Several White House Officials Knew About Gun Trafficking Operation ‘FAST AND FURIOUS’

– AND NOW: Federal Agents Allowed Drug Cartel To Smuggle Tons Of Cocaine Into US

– Guns From Illegal ATF ‘Operation Fast and Furious’ Found At Mexican Crime Scenes

Fast And Furious Assault Weapons Found In Mexico Cartel Enforcer’s Home

October 9, 2011 by Infinite

This arsenal uncovered by police in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in April turned out to include weapons from the ATF’s ill-fated Fast and Furious operation. (AP)

– Fast and Furious weapons were found in Mexico cartel enforcer’s home (Los Angeles Times, October 8, 2011):

Reporting from Washington — High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.

In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The smugglers’ tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.

“These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there,” said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. “But that’s only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through.”

Read moreFast And Furious Assault Weapons Found In Mexico Cartel Enforcer’s Home

Presidential Candidate Rick Perry Open To Send US Military To Kill Drug Cartels IN MEXICO

October 3, 2011 by Infinite

– Rick Perry says U.S. troops may needed in Mexico to fight war against drug cartels (Daily Mail, Oct. 2, 2011):

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has said that he is open to sending American troops to Mexico to help battle drug cartels.

Mr Perry, the Texas governor, likened the situation to Colombia, where the government accepted American military support in battling drug trafficking.

Mexico’s government, however, has been opposed to foreign forces in its territory.

Mr Perry said the current violence may require similar military action.

‘The way that we were able to stop the drug cartels in Colombia was with a coordinated effort,’ Mr Perry said.

‘It may require our military in Mexico working in concert with them to kill these drug cartels and to keep them off of our border and to destroy their networks.

Read morePresidential Candidate Rick Perry Open To Send US Military To Kill Drug Cartels IN MEXICO

Five Severed HEADS Found In Sack Outside Mexican Primary School In Latest Threat From Drug Cartels

September 30, 2011 by Infinite

– Five severed HEADS found in sack outside Mexican primary school in latest sickening threat from drugs cartels (Daily Mail, Sep. 29, 2011):

Mexican police have found five severed heads stuffed in a sack outside a primary school in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.

The gruesome discovery comes after drugs gangs threatened to attack elementary school teachers if they did not pay half their wages to the drugs cartels.

Read moreFive Severed HEADS Found In Sack Outside Mexican Primary School In Latest Threat From Drug Cartels

Mexican Drug Cartel Puts $1 Million Bounty On Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Head

August 3, 2010 by Infinite

PHOENIX – He’s been at the center of the discussions and controversies surrounding illegal immigration enforcement in Arizona for quite a while.

On the day parts of Arizona’s immigration law, SB 1070, went into effect, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in the news for another reason: there’s a price on his head – allegedly offered by a Mexican drug cartel.

The audio message in Spanish is a bit garbled, but the text is clear.

It’s offering $1 million for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s head and $10,000 for anyone who wants to join the Mexican cartel.

California: Police Destroy Marijuana Plants Worth £1.1 Billion In Farm Raids

August 3, 2010August 3, 2010 by Infinite

Raids: 450 officers have been involved in Operation Trident targeting farms in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Marijuana plants worth £1.1billion have been destroyed on farms in California with links to Mexican drug traffickers.

More than 270 acres of crops were found during police raids involving 450 officers in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Ninety-seven people have been arrested over the past three weeks, most of them Mexican nationals believed to have ties with Mexican drug barons.

It is believed marijuana is increasingly being grown in the U.S. by Mexican cartels rather than smuggling it there.

Mexico: Drug Cartels Turn Fire on Authorities

August 17, 2010April 27, 2010 by Infinite

Mexico’s drug cartels have changed tactics and are turning more attacks on authorities, rather than focusing their fire on rivals gangs, the country’s top security official said.

Interior Secretary Fernando Gomez-Mont said at a news conference that two back-to-back, bloody ambushes of government convoys – both blamed on cartels – represent a new tactic.

“In the last few weeks the dynamics of the violence have changed. The criminals have decided to directly confront and attack the authorities,” Mr Gomez-Mont said.

“They are trying to direct their fire power at what they fear most at this moment, which is the authorities,” he said.

The Euro Becomes Favorite Currency of Drug Cartels

December 6, 2009 by Infinite

Smugglers and launderers use €500 notes instead of $100 bills to save space

International drug cartels have abandoned the US dollar for high denomination euros to launder millions in illegal profits, Europol has revealed. The gangs no longer use $100 bills because €500 notes – the largest denomination of euro – take up less room when transporting large amounts of cash across the world.

In a single consignment on a British Airways plane bound for London from the United States, US police found £11m worth of drug profits in €500 bills. The Colombian and Mexican cartels’ conversion to the European currency is even acknowledged in popular culture: American rapper Jay-Z’s video for his single, Blue Magic, features a suitcase full of €500 notes as he sings about “the kilo business”.

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, said last week police forces across continental Europe were tracking the movements of smuggled and laundered euros and had traced much of it back to large drug gangs.

“We have seen examples of high denomination notes hidden in cereal packets, tyres, concealed compartments in lorries, and so on,” he said.

BBC: Allen Stanford may have been a US government informer

June 29, 2009May 10, 2009 by Infinite

Sir Allen Stanford denies any wrongdoing at his Antiguan bank

Evidence has emerged that the Texan who bankrolled English cricket may have been a US government informer.

Sir Allen Stanford, who is accused of bank fraud, is the subject of an investigation by the BBC’s Panorama.

Sources told Panorama that if he was a paid anti-drug agency informer, that could explain why a 2006 probe into his financial dealings was quietly dropped.

Sir Allen vigorously denies allegations of financial wrongdoing, despite a massive shortfall in his bank’s assets.

Related information:
– Kucinich: Who Told SEC to “Stand Down” on Stanford Probe?
– US authorities had been investigating Allen Stanford for 15 years! (Times)
– FBI tracks down Texas financier in $8 billion fraud case (AP):
Stanford is not under arrest and is not in custody.
– Past probes sought to tie Stanford to drugs (Houston Chronicle)
– Former Assistant Secretary of Housing: The U.S. is the Global Leader in Illegal Money Laundering

But the British receiver of his failed Stanford International Bank – based in Antigua – told Panorama that the books clearly show the deficit.

Secret documents

Of the $7.2bn (£4.8bn) in deposits claimed by the bank, only $500m (£331m) has been traced.

The UK government does take financial malpractice very seriously and issues regular advice on countries and jurisdictions where there may be serious deficiencies in regulation

Foreign Office spokesman

The $6.7bn (£4.4bn) black hole in Sir Allen’s off-shore bank affects 28,000 depositors – 200 of whom are British, who have collectively lost $80m (£53m) – and raises serious questions for the British Foreign Office and the American authorities.

Secret documents seen by Panorama show both governments knew in 1990 that the Texan was a former bankrupt and his first bank was suspected of involvement with Latin American money-launderers.

Mexico drugs war: Cartels recruit child assassins

March 25, 2009March 25, 2009 by Infinite

Special Report: In Ciudad Juarez, North America’s most dangerous city, the warring drug cartels have found a new weapon even more effective than rocket launchers or grenades.

Army soldiers arrive to patrol Ciudad Juarez, Mexico Photo: AP

The new addition to the world’s most bloodthirsty gangs are sicaritos, or child assassins.

As guerrilla forces have discovered in Africa, 13 and 14-year-old children on the margins of society make fearless killers. In Juarez, now Mexico’s drug addict capital, they are almost certain to be high on crack cocaine.

Around 80 per cent of the 2,000 people killed in the past 14 months in this border city have been aged under 25.

The city of 1.8 million people, separated by just a bridge over the Rio Grande from El Paso in Texas, sits on a major drug route and has been the epicentre of the brutal drug violence gripping Mexico and increasingly creeping over the border into the United States.

Related article: FBI deployed by US to fight Mexican drug lords (Guardian)

In a city now empty of the Americans who used to flock here for the lively bars and flea markets, taxi drivers can instead offer visitors a macabre tour of the many murder spots as well as streets where drug deals can be seen being conducted within yards of the local police.

In one street alone, home to a strip of non-descript, cartel-owned bars, 16 people have been killed in the past two months.

Usually, the gunmen – teenagers among them – will saunter in and spray indiscriminately with AK-47 assault rifles, hitting both their targets and innocent bystanders. Few suspects are ever arrested as the local police are often working for the same cartels.

David Davis: We are losing Taliban battle

October 20, 2008 by Infinite

In an alarming dispatch from Afghanistan, the Conservative MP reveals the rampant corruption that has infected public life and threatens to destroy Nato’s hopes of bringing peace to this traumatised country

‘We need a new strategy,’ says Tory MP David Davis, on a factfinding mission to Afghanistan

It is time to face facts in Afghanistan: the situation is spiralling downwards, and if we do not change our approach, we face disaster. Violence is up in two-thirds of the country, narcotics are the main contributor to the economy, criminality is out of control and the government is weak, corrupt and incompetent. The international coalition is seen as a squabbling bunch of foreigners who have not delivered on their promises. Although the Taliban have nowhere near majority support, their standing is growing rapidly among some ordinary Afghans.

In Kabul, foreign delegations huddle behind concrete and barbed wire, often with the Afghans’ main roads shut. That causes jams throughout the city, exacerbated by convoys of armoured four-wheel drives loaded with bodyguards that push their way through the traffic. These vehicles carry warning signs telling ordinary Afghans that the occupants reserve the right to shoot anyone who comes within 50 metres. Afghans veer between resentment of the high-handed foreigners and fear of the Taliban, who appear to be inexorably seizing the provinces around the city.

In Britain’s area of responsibility, Helmand, the governor admits the Taliban control most of the province. While we were, properly, celebrating the delivery of the turbine to the Kajaki dam, we were being forced out of one of the richest poppy growing areas, and the Taliban fought their way to within 12km of Lashkar Gar, the provincial capital. Time after time, our soldiers win tactical victories, only to have the advantage lost because of a lack of coherent international strategy.

The regime we are defending is corrupt from top to bottom. While the President’s brother faces accusations of being a drug baron, some three-quarters of the Afghan National Police actively steal from the people. The irony is that Afghan expectations of government are traditionally low, and their faith in President Hamid Karzai was initially high.

Mexican Marijuana Cartels Sully US Forests, Parks

October 11, 2008 by Infinite

Mexican marijuana cartels use pesticides, herbicides that pollute US parks, forest lands

A member of Kentucky’s state marijuana strike force cuts down marijuana in rural Breathitt County, Ky. (AP Photo)

National forests and parks – long popular with Mexican marijuana-growing cartels – have become home to some of the most polluted pockets of wilderness in America because of the toxic chemicals needed to eke lucrative harvests from rocky mountainsides, federal officials said.

The grow sites have taken hold from the West Coast’s Cascade Mountains, as well as on federal lands in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Seven hundred grow sites were discovered on U.S. Forest Service land in California alone in 2007 and 2008 – and authorities say the 1,800-square-mile Sequoia National Forest is the hardest hit.

Weed and bug sprays, some long banned in the U.S., have been smuggled to the marijuana farms. Plant growth hormones have been dumped into streams, and the water has then been diverted for miles in PVC pipes.

Rat poison has been sprinkled over the landscape to keep animals away from tender plants. And many sites are strewn with the carcasses of deer and bears poached by workers during the five-month growing season that is now ending.

“What’s going on on public lands is a crisis at every level,” said Forest Service agent Ron Pugh. “These are America’s most precious resources, and they are being devastated by an unprecedented commercial enterprise conducted by armed foreign nationals. It is a huge mess.”

Drug Cartels to Mexican Police: ‘Join Us or Die’

May 20, 2008May 20, 2008 by Infinite

Drug cartels are sending a brutal message to police and soldiers in cities across Mexico: Join us or die.

The threat appears in recruiting banners hung across roadsides and in publicly posted death lists. Cops get warnings over their two-way radios. At least four high-ranking police officials were gunned down this month, including Mexico’s acting federal police chief.

Mexico has battled for years to clean up its security forces and win them the public’s respect. But Mexicans generally assume police and even soldiers are corrupt until proven otherwise, and the honest ones lack resources, training and the assurance that their colleagues are watching their backs. Here, the taboo on cop-killing familiar to Americans seems hardly to apply.

Police who take on the cartels feel isolated and vulnerable when they become targets, as did 22 commanders in the border city of Ciudad Juarez when drug traffickers named them on a handwritten death list left at a monument to fallen police this year. It was addressed to “those who still don’t believe” in the power of the cartels.

Of the 22, seven have been killed and three wounded in assassination attempts. Of the others, all but one have quit, and city officials said he didn’t want to be interviewed.

“These are attacks directed at the top commanders of the city police, and it is not just happening in Ciudad Juarez,” Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said at the funeral of the latest victim, police director Juan Antonio Roman Garcia. “It is happening in Nuevo Laredo, in Tijuana, in this entire region,” he said. “They are attacking top commanders to destabilize the police force.”

The killings are in response to a crackdown launched by President Felipe Calderon, who has sent thousands of soldiers and federal police across the nation to confront the cartels. Drug lords have hit back by sending killers to attack police with hand grenades and assault rifles.

Police are increasingly giving up. Last week, U.S. officials revealed that three Mexican police commanders have crossed into the United States to request asylum, saying they are unprotected and fear for their lives.