News feed from Borderland Beat

News is from over the border, a bit raw so please be advised.


2 Mexicans deny terrorism, face 30 years for tweet

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:52:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Think before you tweet. A former teacher turned radio commentator and a math tutor who lives with his mother sit in a prison in southern Mexico, facing possible 30-year sentences for terrorism and sabotage in what may be the most serious charges ever brought against anyone using a Twitter social network account. Prosecutors say the defendants helped cause a chaos of car crashes and panic as parents in the Gulf Coast city of Veracruz rushed to save their c...

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142 death reported for the month of August in Sinaloa

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:23:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

142 executions are reported in Sinaloa during AugustSinaloa, Mexico.- The month of August was deadly for Sinaloa with a reported number of 142 death in violent acts. The number of victims killed by violence in Sinaloa this year so far totals 1,328. For the most part the state has been immune to the wave of violence that has been striking Mexico the last couple of months in the states of Guerrero, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Michoacan and Veracruz. With most of the executions happening in the border st...

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Sources name new cartel boss in Reynosa

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:08:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

The Monitor Replacing the man authorities largely blame for the bloody schism between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas took almost no time at all. Several hours after officials on Friday confirmed the death of Samuel "Metro-3" Flores Borrego — the Gulf Cartel's No. 2 leader and boss responsible for its operations in the Reynosa area — sources with direct knowledge had already identified his successor. Various sources within and outside law enforcement claim 49-year-old Mario Armando...

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55 people arrested during anti-drug operations in Colombia

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:44:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

BOGOTA (BNO NEWS) — A joint operation between U.S. and Colombian authorities has dismantled two drug organizations which were sending illegal shipments aboard submarines and aircraft to Central America, Mexico and the United States, officials said on Saturday. Colombian attorney general Viviane Morales said at a press conference in Bogota that one of the operations called "Aguas Profundas" (Deep waters), authorities managed to immobilize submarines which were used to send up to 10 tons of coca...

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The Battle for Durango and Torreon

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 04:46:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

In Durango the criminal organizations do not hide underneath the rocks like scorpions.Triangulo Dorado: One more important link from Mexico to the US, might require a little attention from the Mexican Federales.As more major Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO's) get hit by the federal government in places like Michoacan, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, we also start to see many of these cartels take each other out, in many cases it creates a power vacuum, where these cartels splint...

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Zetas Chop Up Alleged Golfos

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 03:47:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

Two unidentified men were dismembered and dumped wrapped in black plastic trash bags in the street Morelos, right in the Heart of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas.The remains of the victims were in plain view of the general public walking by, prompting police authorities to arrive at the scene, which was immediately secured.Alongside the human remains the killers left a placard, or "narcomensaje," containing a message that was signed by Los Zetas. The message said that the victims were members of the...

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Hitting Los Zetas Hard in Hidalgo

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 03:16:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

The Ministry of Public Security of the State of Hidalgo reported in a press conference the capture of 31 members of the criminal organization Los Zetas.The director of the agency Damián Canales Mena said that 14 of the 31 that had been arrested were policemen. They were police officers in the agencies of the towns of Mineral del Chico, Apan, Omitlán, Zempoala and El Arenal. They were receiving eight thousand pesos (roughly about $650 USDS) per month for providing protection to members of Los Zet...

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Monterrey casino attack: Mexican police officer held

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 22:40:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

BBC News — A Mexican state police officer has been arrested in connection with the arson attack on a casino in the northern city of Monterrey that killed 52 people. The Mexican Attorney General's office said the officer had been caught on CCTV pulling up in a vehicle outside the casino as the attack was launched. Jose Salinas of the Attorney General's office told reporters that they arrested Nuevo Leon state police officer and was now in the custody of federal investigators. The governor of N...

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President: Mexico will have Clean Cops

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 10:18:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

State of the Nation address delivered FridayKatherine CorcoranAssociated PressMexican President Felipe Calderon said Friday that he will fight to the last day of his term to defeat the drug cartels that have taken over towns, police forces and institutions in parts of Mexico.Calderon also promised in his annual state-of-the-nation address to clean up corruption among police and federal attorneys by the time he leaves office in December 2012.In his second-to-last year in office, Calderon cut much...

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DNA results confirm death of Reynosa's top Gulf Cartel leader

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:19:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

by Sergio Chapa VALLEYCENTRAL.COM. DNA results have confirmed that a body found on a highway outside Reynosa is that of a top Gulf Cartel leader. It all happened at Kilometer 188 of the Monterrey-Reynosa highway early Friday morning. Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office (PGJE) officials confirmed that authorities found the bodies of two men inside a Ford Lobo truck. Both men had been shot. One of them was identified as Eloy Lerma-Garcia, a Tamaulipas State Police officer wh...

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Gulf Cartel leader presumed dead by Mexican Authorities

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 23:25:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

Written by The Monitor Staff Mexican authorities have announced the death of a man believed to be the No. 2 two leader in the Gulf Cartel, saying the slaying appeared to have been the result an internal power struggle. Samuel Flores Borrego, 39, also known as "Metro 3," was gunned down alongside a high-ranking police official from Diaz Ordaz known as Eloy Lerma Garcia, according to a statement from the Tamaulipas Attorney General's Office. The statement mentions other violent attacks in the ...

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7 members of the Sinaloa Cartel arrested in Utah

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:39:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

Cash was seized as evidence during a series of raids Tuesday against the Sinaloa Cartel in the Salt Lake Valley. / DEA / AP ST. GEORGE (AP) — Agents with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration took down several key figures from the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel on Tuesday during the wrap-up of an 18-month investigation they say "decimated" a Utah-based cell of the violent transnational crime ring.At least seven arrests took place Tuesday in the Salt L...

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U.S. Border Protection Intercepts 520 Pounds of Precursor Chemicals En Route to Mexico

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:54:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

By Edmund DeMarche Fox.news A recent U.S. drug bust shows that trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border is a two-way street. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in Los Angeles said Thursday they intercepted 520 pounds of a chemical used in illegal drugs like methamphetamine and ecstasy — contraband caught not while it was coming into the United States from Mexico but while it was traveling south out of the U.S. The meth component was being sent from China to drug traffickers in Mexi...

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Two female journalists found murdered in Mexico City

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:35:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

Two female Mexican journalists have been found brutally murdered in the capital, local news magazine Contralinea reported on Thursday. The two journalists, Ana Maria Marcela Yarce Viveros and Rocio Gonzalez Trapaga, were found dead late Wednesday evening by local joggers in the El Mirador park in a popular neighborhood, but the identities of the two women were not confirmed until earlier on Thursday. "The bodies of the women were found completely naked hidden under a plastic sheet ...

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Five Killed in Attacks in Mexico's Gulf Region

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:11:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

Five people were killed in the Mexican Gulf coast state of Veracruz, two in an attack with a "homemade" explosive detonated at a business in this port city, local authorities said.According to police reports, the bomb exploded Tuesday afternoon on a street in downtown Veracruz, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) east of Mexico City.A group of armed men entered the establishment, hurled the explosive device at the two people and then fled the scene, the official report said.Minutes later, army soldi...

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5 Zetas arrested in San Fernando, Tamaulipas

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:00:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

by:Ildefonso Ortiz The Monitor Five Zetas were arrested and a small weapons cache was seized earlier this week in San Fernando, Tamps., some 80 miles south of Brownsville, Mexican authorities announced. A police convoy conducting routine patrols spotted a suspicious green Chevrolet Malibu with no license plates, according to information released by Mexico's Federal Police. Authorities stopped the vehicle and — after a search revealed weapons and military-type uniforms — arrested its occupa...

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Casino arson massacre in Mexico may be rooted in corruption

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 02:40:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

By William Booth and Nick Miroff Washington Post When an arson attack killed 52 people at a casino here last week, Mexico President Felipe Calderon called it the work of "true terrorists" and said U.S. drug users and gun dealers were partly responsible for his country's violence. Calderon cast the attack as a galvanizing moment in his administration's battle against the cartels, characterizing the tragedy as a steep escalation of the conflict between security forces and gangsters w...

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Agents Raid NM Gun Store in Border Smuggling Case

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:15:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

By: The Associated Press Federal agents have raided a Deming gun store and arrested the owner, his wife and their two sons on a 30-count indictment accusing them of smuggling guns across the border with Mexico.According to the federal indictment, the firearms sold by the defendants included 27 AK-47-type rifles, three AR-15 rifles, two .50 caliber rifles, and two 9 mm pistols — weapons favored by Mexican Cartels.U.S. Attorney Ken Gonzales says Rick and Terri Reese and their sons, Ryin and Reming...

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Mexico Casino Massacre Suspects: We Only Wanted to Scare the Owners

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 03:18:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

The suspects told investigators they were "scolded" by their bosses for killing so many people at the casino, which was the target of an extortion racket common in several parts of Mexico The five suspects arrested in connection with the attack last week on a casino in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey that left 52 people dead told investigators they did not plan to kill anyone and only wanted to scare the establishment's owners, officials said Tuesday. The suspects, who have confessed t...

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El R-2 Arrested

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 03:34:00 +0000

borderlandbeat.com

A top lieutenant of the Gulf Cartel as well as his right-hand man and five other members of one of the organization's strike teams have been captured, Mexican authorities have announced.Abiel "R-2" Gonzalez Briones, 28, was arrested over the weekend near the town of Camargo, at the El Azucar dam, according to information released by Mexico's federal police. Camargo lies across the border from Rio Grande City.Gonzalez Briones' right-hand man, 27-year-old Jorge Bryan "R-24" Aguilar Hinojosa, was c...

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