Julio Ledezma had been chief of police in La Junta, a town of 8,700 in northern Mexico, for barely three months when a pair of strangers paid him a visit. They said an aide to the mayor had sent them, and they bore gifts: a briefcase stuffed with cash and a truck for Ledezma's personal use. In return, the new chief was to distract federal police at security checkpoints with fake calls for assistance. The diversion would allow drug traffickers to drive through the area without inspection. [continues 1355 words]
The Hours-Long Battle That Killed Two Soldiers and 16 Gunmen Took Place Several Miles From the Main Strip of Tourist Complexes. As if Mexican tourism needed more bad news, a weekend shootout left 18 gunmen and soldiers dead in Acapulco, the iconic if faded beach resort that has been working on a comeback in recent years. The hours-long gunfight Saturday night took place in a seaside neighborhood of homes and cut-rate hotels that is mainly frequented by Mexicans and sits several miles from the main strip of tourist complexes. Some guests were reportedly evacuated from nearby hotels, but no tourists were known to have been caught in the crossfire. [continues 510 words]
47 POLICE OFFICERS QUESTIONED IN DISAPPEARANCE OF MEXICAN CUSTOMS OFFICIAL The Customs Administrator in Veracruz Has Not Been Seen Since an Apparent Traffic Collision Monday Night. on a Security Video, Several Police Cars Are Seen Arriving at the Scene of the Crash. Nearly 50 police officers were questioned in the disappearance of a top Mexican customs official in the port city of Veracruz, authorities said Wednesday. The investigation targeted traffic police in Veracruz, where customs administrator Francisco Serrano disappeared Monday night from the scene of an apparent traffic collision. Forty-seven police officers were held for questioning by federal authorities. [continues 244 words]
Under Pressure at Home, Traffickers Find Fertile Ground for Expansion in the Neighboring Nation. Twice before, the anti-drug agents had gotten a tip about a load of cocaine at the hulking industrial park on this dreary stretch of highway half an hour outside Guatemala City. Twice before, a U.S. official said, they had found nothing. On their third visit, they found a firing squad. Gunmen unleashed a furious barrage of bullets and at least one grenade, in some cases finishing the job point-blank. When the shooting stopped that day in April, five of the 10 Guatemalan agents lay dead and a sixth was wounded. [continues 1512 words]
The cult-like La Familia Michoacana has contaminated city halls across one state, federal officials say. It sometimes decides who runs and who doesn't, who lives and who dies. Reporting from Patzcuaro, Mexico -- There are few places in Mexico that better illustrate the way traffickers have corrupted the political system from its very foundation than Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon. A relatively new and particularly violent group, La Familia Michoacana, is undermining the electoral system and day-to-day governance of this south-central state, pushing an agenda that goes beyond the usual money-only interests of drug cartels. [continues 1513 words]
MEXICO'S DETENTION OF LOCAL OFFICIALS MARKS SHIFT IN DRUG WAR Calderon Had Been Focused on a Military Offensive Targeting Drug Figures and Corrupt Police. Now Officials Are Being Questioned to See How Far the Cartels Have Penetrated 'Local Political Elites.' The detention this week of more than two dozen local officials in Michoacan on suspicion of aiding a narcotics cartel marks a new tack in Mexico's bloody drug war, a strategic shift that Wednesday sent nervous politicians running for cover. [continues 579 words]
10 MAYORS, OTHER MEXICO OFFICIALS DETAINED The Sweep Targets Local Officials in the State of Michoacan, Home to LA Familia, a Fast-Growing Group of Drug Traffickers. Mexican security forces swept into President Felipe Calderon's home state of Michoacan on Tuesday and arrested a total of 27 mayors and other government officials, the largest operation to target politicians in Mexico's bloody drug war. The officials, including 10 mayors, are being investigated for alleged ties to drug traffickers and other organized crime syndicates that in effect control large sections of Michoacan, the federal attorney general's office said. [continues 839 words]
The Museum, Which Is Used to Educate Soldiers and Is Closed to the Public, Offers Powerful Testimony to the Inventiveness and Huge Resources That Traffickers Continue Bringing to the Fight. Army Capt. Claudio Montane wants one thing clear from the start: This place is not not a narco-museum. The point is not to glorify drug traffickers. "Its purpose is to show Mexico and the world the efforts and the good results that we have achieved," Montane said, opening a tour of a military collection officially called the Museum of Drugs. [continues 798 words]
In a Remote Area Where High-Tech Gear Falls Short, U.S. Agents Read the Earth With 19th Century Skills Bill Fraley knelt to examine the brown, pebbled soil, like an art professor studying a familiar drawing. "See those two fine-lines?" he said, passing a finger over two shoe prints, each with washboard rows of ridges. His hand moved to another heel print a few inches away. "And there's a doper lug," the heel imprint of a boot sometimes worn by drug smugglers. [continues 2250 words]
In One Case, Archbishop Hector Gonzalez Calls Attention to a Drug Trafficker in His Neighborhood and Accuses the Government of Ignoring the Situation. The Prelate Later Apologizes for His Comments. By Tracy Wilkinson, Reporting from Mexico City In the tense state of Durango, Roman Catholic Archbishop Hector Gonzalez announced over the weekend that the fugitive drug trafficker who tops Mexico's most wanted list was living nearby. And everyone knows it, he added. Except, it would seem, the authorities, who fail to make an arrest. [continues 457 words]
Obama Promises to Step Up Efforts to Curb Guns Flowing into Mexico, but Says a Revival of the U.S. Assault Weapon Ban Is Not in the Offing. President Obama pledged Thursday that the U.S. would become a better partner in curbing the flow of arms that have aggravated a bloody drug war in Mexico, but acknowledged that political realities make it tough for him to ban some of the most potent weapons in the arsenals of drug cartels. [continues 992 words]
Mexico's drug war is bound to have a profound effect on the lives of Mexican immigrants in the United States. On the one hand, the image of Mexico's chaos as a spreading contagion most likely will strengthen the hand of anti-immigrant forces. On the other, as Mexican newcomers look back at their increasingly dangerous homeland, they will -- consciously or unconsciously -- set down deeper roots in the United States. [continues 745 words]
Mexico Arrests Suspected No. 2 in Juarez Drug Cartel Vicente Carrillo Leyva, Son of the Late Kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, Is Arrested in Mexico City. Mexican authorities on Thursday announced the capture of Vicente Carrillo Leyva, a suspected top leader of a family-run drug gang based in Ciudad Juarez and one of the country's most wanted figures. Federal law enforcement officials said Carrillo Leyva, the 32-year-old son of deceased drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, was arrested Wednesday while exercising in a wealthy neighborhood of Mexico City. [continues 826 words]
But a Well-Liked Sheriff's Arrest Is Unsettling. Blurry Border Between Good, Bad Mexico Under Siege When the Starr County sheriff was led away in handcuffs for accepting bribes from a bail bondsman back in 1998, the county pinned his star on his chief deputy, Reymundo "Rey" Guerra. It wasn't long before Guerra was restoring the shine to the badge. Unlike his predecessor, Guerra was affable and approachable, a beefy man with a gray-flecked mustache who rarely carried a gun. He and his wife were regulars at the peach-brick Catholic church in tiny Rio Grande City. When the city needed a favor, the mayor said, "I could always just pick up the phone and call Rey." The county judge, a close friend, said, "You couldn't ask for a better person." [continues 1901 words]
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on a Two-Day Visit to Mexico, Accepts That the U.S. Market for Narcotics and a Cross-Border Trade in U.S. Guns Contribute to Mexico's Drug Violence. In candid comments aimed at reassuring a sensitive neighbor, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton accepted Wednesday that the United States shares blame for Mexico's drug violence, and promised more equipment and support to help the country's war against traffickers. [continues 810 words]
The Rewards Are for Information Leading to the Capture of the 24 Most-Wanted, Including Joaquin 'Shorty' Guzman and Ismael Zambada, Leaders of the So-Called Sinaloa Cartel. Nab a drug lord, earn $2 million. That's how much Mexican authorities offered Monday for information leading to the capture of the country's most wanted drug suspects. The government offered rewards of 30 million pesos, about $2 million, each for 24 wanted figures, including Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman and Ismael Zambada, leaders of the main trafficking gang in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. [continues 360 words]
HILLARY CLINTON WRAPS UP MEXICO VISIT, CALLS DRUG VIOLENCE 'INTOLERABLE' The Secretary of State Tours a High-Tech Police Facility in Mexico City and Meets With University Students in Monterrey. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, ending a two-day visit to Mexico that centered heavily on the drug war, toured a state-of-the-art police center and condemned drug violence in a meeting with university students Thursday. "This situation is intolerable for honest, law-abiding citizens of Mexico, my country or of anywhere people of conscience live," Clinton told the students in Monterrey, a business hub 120 miles south of the U.S. border. [continues 358 words]
As They Expand Their Enterprise From Drugs to Human Smuggling, a Bleak Situation Is Worsening, Experts Say. Mexican drug cartels and their vast network of associates have branched out from their traditional business of narcotics trafficking and are now playing a central role in the multibillion-dollar-a-year business of illegal immigrant smuggling, U.S. law enforcement officials and other experts say. The business of smuggling humans across the Mexican border has always been brisk, with many thousands coming across every year. [continues 1243 words]
Narcotics traffickers are acquiring firepower more appropriate to an army -- including grenade launchers and antitank rockets -- and the police are feeling outgunned. Reporting from Zihuatanejo, Mexico, and Mexico City -- It was a brazen assault, not just because it targeted the city's police station, but for the choice of weapon: grenades. The Feb. 21 attack on police headquarters in coastal Zihuatanejo, which injured four people, fit a disturbing trend of Mexico's drug wars. Traffickers have escalated their arms race, acquiring military-grade weapons, including hand grenades, grenade launchers, armor-piercing munitions and antitank rockets with firepower far beyond the assault rifles and pistols that have dominated their arsenals. [continues 1674 words]
Americans in Rosarito Say Low Prices and Fun Outweigh Any Risks. The music thumps, the lights flash, the shot glasses wait for willing lips. But the bouncers are reduced to kicking at the curb, hoping somebody, anybody, will round the corner. Friday nights are slow lately in Rosarito Beach's party zone, and everyone knows the drug war is to blame. Hundreds of corpses discovered in and near Tijuana. Some of them headless, others dissolved in barrels of lye. People hear that, and they stay away. [continues 1540 words]
