tagged w/ Gang War
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Mexico's number three most wanted man was shot and killed by Mexican Marines yesterday. Arturo Beltran Levya was taken down in Cuernavaca in a rare success for the government in Mexico's on-going drug war. Photos of the gang members arrested and of the body of the notorious kingpin below. While President Felipe Calderon is celebrating the victory, experts warn that the death won't stem the tide of illegal drugs, and could lead to even more bloodshed with a power vacuum to be filled.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="443" caption="The body of kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva / Getty Images"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="Alleged members of Arturo Beltran Leyva's gang / Getty Images"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="620" caption="An alleged member of Arturo Beltran Leyva's drug gang / Getty Images"][/caption]
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- Philippines just can't catch a break - Mayon Volcano evacuationsMexico's number three most wanted man was shot and killed by Mexican Marines... more
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Mexico has brought its army to bear on the battle against warring drug gangs, but local business leaders say it's not enough. They want international peacekeeping troops to come in and help out the 5000+ Mexican soldiers.
Groups representing maquiladora assembly plants, retailers and other businesses said they will submit a request to the Mexican government and the Inter American Human Rights Commission to ask the U.N. to send help.
"This is a proposal ... for international forces to come here to help out the domestic (security) forces," said Daniel Murguia, president of the Ciudad Juarez chapter of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism. "There is a lot of extortions and robberies of businesses. Many businesses are closing."
We're used to seeing blue helmets drop in on failed or close-to-failing states and so this call for peacekeepers to come to Mexico (and to a city within walking distance from the US) could be a worrying signal. The UN's other deployment in the Western Hemisphere is Haiti. Is Juarez headed that direction?
This is a short piece about UN peacekeepers at work in Haiti - it gives you a good sense of the level of challenge in a nation that they typically respond to.
A Blue Helmet in Haiti (Video)
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- DC sniper John Allen Muhammad to be executed tonightMexico has brought its army to bear on the battle against warring drug gangs, but... more
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We've been wondering when Mexico's drug war would spill across the southern US border and, unsurprisingly, it's apparently been happening for a long time. La Familia, one of the most dangerous of the cartels, was dealt a heavy blow today by US agents:
“While this cartel may operate from Mexico, the toxic reach of its operations extends to nearly every state within our own country,” [Attorney General Eric Holder] said.
In Dallas alone on Wednesday, he said, 77 people were arrested.
Beyond the arrests, Mr. Holder said, the authorities seized more than $32 million in United States currency, more than 2,700 pounds of methamphetamine, nearly 2,000 kilograms of cocaine, about 16,000 pounds of marijuana and 29 pounds of heroin during the 44-month effort. More arrests are expected.
(Clipped to Current News by user frank_runyeon)
Vanguard's Laura Ling went down to Mexico in Narco War Next Door. After she got back from her trip she received a call about the beheading of a journalist. This clip will give you an idea of just how gruesome the conflict has become.
Journalist Beheaded in Mexico's Drug War (Video)
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- Captured by Somali pirates - A journalist's first hand storyWe've been wondering when Mexico's drug war would spill across the southern... more
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We know it's bad in Juarez. It's been bad for a while now. But with the apparently accidental killing of at least fifteen at a Juarez high school party, it just seems like it keeps getting worse. The LA Times reports on a suspect who acted as a lookout for the shooters:
Officials summoned reporters to see the suspect, who said in their presence that the main Juarez-based drug cartel targeted the party because it had received reports that members of a rival trafficking group were in attendance. The suspect, identified as Jose Dolores Arroyo Chavarria, said he acted as a lookout for the 24 or so gunmen he said took part. He said they were ordered to kill everyone inside.
Just horrible. Meanwhile, it continues. From yesterday: 3 headless bodies found in 'narco-grave,' Mexican military says - CNN.com. That article puts the death toll in Juarez (just in Juarez) so far this year (just over a month) at 230 as of Monday.
How much longer will Juarez residents have to suffer this? What can we do in the US to help?
We know it's bad in Juarez. It's been bad for a while now. But... more
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Ships from Miami steam into Jamaica's main harbor loaded with TV sets and blue jeans. But some of the most popular U.S. imports never appear on the manifests: handguns, rifles and bullets that stoke one of the world's highest murder rates.
The volume is much less than the flow of U.S. guns into Mexico that end up in the hands of drug cartels -- Jamaican authorities recover fewer than 1,000 firearms a year. But of those whose origin can be traced, 80 percent come from the U.S., Jamaican law enforcement officials have said in interviews with The Associated Press.
And as the Obama administration cracks down on smuggling into Mexico, Jamaicans fear even more firearms will reach the gangs whose turf wars plague the island of 2.8 million people.
"It's going to push a lot of that trade back toward the Caribbean like it was back in the '80s," said Vance Callender, an attache at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
U.S. authorities are beginning to target the Jamaican gun-smuggling network as part of a broad effort to boost security in the Caribbean.
But they have a long way to go. Jamaican authorities have confiscated only 100 guns coming into ports in the last five years, along with 6,000 rounds of ammunition. That in turn is just a fraction of the 700 or so weapons confiscated on the streets each year.
Authorities know they're only seeing "the tip of the iceberg," said Mark Shields, Jamaica's deputy police commissioner.
With arsenals to rival police firepower, the gangs are blamed for 90 percent of the homicides in Jamaica -- 1,611 last year, about 10 times more than the U.S. rate, relative to population.
Unlike in Mexico, the vast majority of Jamaican guns seized are submitted for tracing. Jamaica and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives find most of the seized weapons come from three Florida counties -- Orange, Dade and Broward -- all with large Jamaican populations, according to Shields.
X-ray scanners were installed two years ago at Jamaican ports, but the gangs use bribery and intimidation to get their shipments past inspectors.
In April, a newly hired customs supervisor had his tires slashed and days later was shot at on his way home from work, authorities say. The man was known for his strict scrutiny of cargo coming into a gang-infiltrated warehouse on the Kingston wharf.
When the gangs apply pressure, "no one says no," said Danville Walker, Jamaica's commissioner of customs.
"It's a massive problem," said Leslie Green, a Jamaican assistant police commissioner. "There aren't any checks or any controls on goods leaving the United States. Yet anything leaving here, we have to make sure it's double-checked and tripled-checked for drugs."
This complaint -- that Americans care only what comes in, not what goes out -- echoes that of Mexican authorities, who say cars going from the U.S. into Mexico aren't searched for weapons or cash.Ships from Miami steam into Jamaica's main harbor loaded with TV sets and blue... more
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After 28 straight days of gangland-style killings in the Tijuana region, officials are still discovering victims.
The State Attorney General's Office announced Saturday morning the discovery of two more victims in an empty lot in the Hacienda Las Flores section of eastern Tijuana.
The victims, between 15 and 25 years old, were killed at the scene, authorities said. In Tijuana alone, 145 killings since Sept. 26 have been linked to a war raging among drug cartel factions fighting over territory, according to official reports.
In response to the unprecedented crime wave in the region, Mexican Army troops now patrol many of the main thoroughfares in Tijuana.
Although security checkpoints have not been set up yet, groups of well-armed soldiers, wearing hoods to protect their identities, can be seen on alongside the thoroughfares closely watching every passing vehicle.
The scenes make clear the paranoia generated by the continuing violence. On Wednesday, a man driving his family crashed his SUV while trying to flee a firefight between police and suspected gunmen, resulting in the death of his 20-month-old son. Thousands of students left school Friday, fearing new attacks. After 28 straight days of gangland-style killings in the Tijuana region, officials are... more
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