tagged w/ drug enforcement agency
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Law enforcement officers in west Texas are on guard following an alert issued by the Department of Homeland Security warning of retaliatory killings for a recent crackdown on the Barrio Azteca gang.
David Cuthbertson, special agent in charge of the FBI's El Paso division, said the paramilitary-style gang has an "open policy" to kill its rivals and may turn its sights toward local law enforcement officers.
"[They] are extremely cold-blooded and aggressive," Cuthbertson told FoxNews.com. "The killings are done really without thought and any kind of remorse."
Citing uncorroborated information, Homeland Security issued an Officer Safety Alert on March 22, advising lawmen in the El Paso sector to vary their routes to and from work and to wear body armor while on duty. The alert also suggested that officers' relatives pay closer attention to unusual activity in the area.
"The Barrio Azteca gang may issue a 'green light' authorizing the attempted murder of [law enforcement officers] in the El Paso area," the alert read. "Due to the threat, it is recommended that [law enforcement officers] take extra safety precautions."
The Barrio Azteca gang, which formed in Texas prisons in the 1980s, is a brother organization to the Aztecas gang in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the epicenter of Mexico's violent drug war, Cuthbertson said.
He said members of the gang's "assassination teams" are thought to work for very small monthly fees. One official from the Drug Enforcement Administration has said Aztecas have been known to kill for as little as $100. Since 2006, drug violence across Mexico has claimed nearly 18,000 lives.
Eduardo "Tablas" Ravelo, the reputed boss of Barrio Azteca members living in Juarez, remains on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, and the FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to his arrest. He and other Barrio Azteca gang members serve as hitmen for the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes drug trafficking organization -- also known as the Juarez cartel -- and are responsible for several killings, according to the FBI.
The DHS warning came just days after hundreds of Barrio Azteca gang members were interviewed by officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and FBI following the murders of three people linked to the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez on March 13. More than 200 officers from at least 18 agencies participated in "Operation Knockdown," which resulted in at least 26 felony arrests of alleged Azteca members.Law enforcement officers in west Texas are on guard following an alert issued by the... more
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Medical experts are hoping the investigation into the sudden death of pop superstar Michael Jackson will renew attention on prescription drug abuse, a scourge that has cut short the lives of celebrities and opened up a new front on the war on drugs.
“There isn’t as much awareness as there needs to be,” said Lois F. Parker, a senior attending pharmacist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “I think it’s much more widespread than we realize.”Medical experts are hoping the investigation into the sudden death of pop superstar... more
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June 28th, 2009 – Amid questions about the possible role of drugs in Michael Jackson’s demise, the US Drug Enforcement Administration Friday renewed concerns about rising deaths from misuse of prescription pills. Some people close to the 50-year-old pop icon revealed Friday they had been concerned for some time about his Picture 3use of drugs, a day after he collapsed and died apparently from cardiac arrest at his rented Los Angeles home.
In response to numerous calls triggered by the singer’s sudden death, the DEA put back up on its website a May report into prescription drugs that showed more than 8,500 people died from misusing them in 2005.June 28th, 2009 – Amid questions about the possible role of drugs in Michael... more
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ATLANTA (AP) -- Agents dealt a substantial blow to an extremely violent Mexican drug cartel with 175 arrests in the U.S. and Italy, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Wednesday.
The Gulf cartel is responsible for importing tons of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana from Central and South America into the U.S. and then distributing it, Mukasey said. The cartel is also believed to have laundered millions of dollars and has become a driving force behind escalating violence in Mexico and along the southwestern border of the U.S.
The arrests Tuesday and Wednesday were the result of a coordinated effort among hundreds of law enforcement officials. They were announced in Atlanta, identified as a regional hub for the cartel, where 43 people were arrested.
The Mexico-based cartel has high-level members in other regional hubs, such as Dallas, and is branching out into smaller cities such as Jackson, Miss., and Birmingham, Ala., said Drug Enforcement Administration agent William Matthews.
People were arrested in a dozen states as agents targeted the cartel's infrastructure, including transportation routes and distribution cells. Through collaboration with Italian authorities, 10 people were also arrested in the Calabria region of Italy on charges related to drugs trafficked through New York.
The arrests announced Wednesday were part of a 15-month investigation that has resulted in 507 arrests and the seizure of about $60.1 million, 16,711 kilograms of cocaine, 1,039 pounds of methamphetamine, 19 pounds of heroin, 51,258 pounds of marijuana, 176 vehicles and 167 weapons.
Officials said indictments were unsealed Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., for three alleged leaders of the cartel: Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen, Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano and Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sanchez. All three are believed to be in Mexico and are considered priority targets by American authorities, who are working with their Mexican counterparts to catch them.ATLANTA (AP) -- Agents dealt a substantial blow to an extremely violent Mexican drug... more
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ivxx
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added this
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3 years ago
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This NY Times story giving new details on the telecom carriers' cooperation with secret NSA (and other) domestic spying programs. One revelation is that the Drug Enforcement Agency has been running a program since the 1990s to collect the phone records of calls from US citizens to Latin America in order to catch narcotics traffickers. Another revelation is what exactly the NSA asked for in 2001 that Qwest balked at supplying. According to the article, it was access to the company's most localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls.This NY Times story giving new details on the telecom carriers' cooperation with... more
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