Mexico's Drug War - Page 13

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Rival gunmen blocked roads near the U.S. border and strung up threatening banners on Saturday after marines killed one of Mexico's top kingpins, and Washington reaffirmed its support for the country's drug war.

Gunmen used buses and trucks to block roads in Reynosa, a Gulf cartel stronghold across the border from McAllen, Texas, and west of Matamoros, where marines on Friday shot dead gang leader Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas.

In an apparent riposte from rivals, gunmen from the Zetas gang hung messages between trees and over bridges in Reynosa and in cities across northeastern Tamaulipas state, mocking Cardenas' death. "Once again, the Gulf traitors' destiny is evident ... there's no place for them, not even in hell," read one banner that was signed by the Zetas.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – At least 20 people were killed in drug-gang violence over the weekend in this northern Mexican border city, including seven found dead outside one house.

The seven men were believed to have been at a family party when they were gunned down Saturday night, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the attorney general's office in Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located. Five were found dead in a car, and the other two were shot at the entrance of the home.

There have been several such massacres in Ciudad Juarez, a city held hostage by a nearly three-year turf battle between the Juarez and Sinaloa cartels.

MEXICO CITY – Police arrested a reputed Sinaloa cartel associate Monday who is suspected of plotting with one of Mexico's most wanted drug lords to smuggle eight tons of marijuana into the U.S. by the end of this year.

Manuel "The Sow" Fernandez Valencia was taken into custody after a 20-minute standoff between police and gunmen, according to a statement by federal police.

The statement did not report any gunfire or casualties during the confrontation. It said seven other men suspected of working for the cartel were detained with Fernandez Valencia.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Gunmen burst into a bar called "Desesperados" in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and opened fire on Sunday, killing five people and wounding nine others, authorities said.

Assailants also killed the state's prisons director and his son in a second attack in the area, which has turned into a deadly battleground for warring drug cartels.

Gunmen opened fire on the vehicle carrying Chihuahua prison director Gerardo Ortiz and his son in Chihuahua city, the state capital, located south of Ciudad Juarez. The state's prisons used to be the site of frequent battles between gangs, but deaths in such disputes had appeared to decline over the last year.

MEXICO CITY – A gunbattle between Mexican soldiers and drug cartel gunmen near the border with Texas killed 11 alleged gang members and prompted the U.S. to reinforce security at international crossings, officials said Thursday.

The soldiers came under fire Wednesday afternoon when they were investigating a tip about the presence of armed men in the town of Nueva Ciudad Guerrero in Tamaulipas, the Mexican Defense Department said in a statement. Eleven of the gunmen were killed in the ensuing gunbattle but no troops were hurt, it said.

Afterward, soldiers arrested two surviving gunmen who told authorities they belonged to the Zetas drug gang, the statement said. Troops also seized nine assault rifles, four handguns a grenade launcher and ammunition.

On March 25 2010 15:23 baal wrote:


lol you speak as "the federales" as if they were the good guys, i dont know a single person who feels safe in the presence of a police man.

In matter of fact, its a very scary and threatening experience to ever bump with the police in any situation.

You just simply cannot imagine how a corrupt country works, the police are the guys who kidnap and torture people, they are thieves and murderers

Everbody knows that if you want somebody killed you have to approach the federal police with money and they will do it

On March 25 2010 16:53 ShadowDrgn wrote:


El Paso consistently ranks as one of the top 3 safest cities in the US. I guess anyone that wants to commit a crime in the area just goes across the border.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico's divided Congress is unlikely to pass President Felipe Calderon's pivotal plans to reform the police and combat money laundering, risking a major setback in the war against violent drug cartels.

The conservative president is under rising pressure from investors, the United States and fearful Mexicans to contain a conflict that has killed more than 31,000 people in the last four years.

But squabbling in Congress and opposition within his own ruling National Action Party (PAN) are stalling the initiatives Calderon says are crucial to fighting organized crime.

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's violent northeastern corner near the U.S. border will get a boost in troops and federal police as the government tries to wrest back control of an area that has become a battleground for two rival drug cartels.

The new mission, "Coordinated Operation Northeast," aims to reinforce government authority in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon — the two states under the heaviest attack since the formerly allied Gulf and Zetas gangs split.

The government also wants to keep the cartels from regrouping after the loss of key leaders, federal police spokesman Alejandro Poire said Wednesday.

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's federal police have captured a presumed leader of a cross-border drug gang suspected in dozens of killings, including the slaying of a U.S. consulate worker, authorities announced Sunday.

Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, 32, was arrested Saturday in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, which is considered the most violent city in Mexico.

Gallegos is suspected in last January's killing of 15 youths at a party, a massacre that shocked even the violence-hardened people of Ciudad Juarez, and in the March murder of a U.S. consulate employee in that city, regional security chief Luis Cardenas Palomino said.

When Mexican Marines arrived at the San Jose Ranch, 15 kilometers from Victoria, Tamaulipas, the scene was bleak: The austere main house was practically destroyed by grenades and heavy gunfire.

Outside of the home, they found four bodies. Cautiously, and with their weapons drawn, the troops continued inspecting the exterior and found two more gunmen, wounded and unconscious, but aLive.

Inside the house Only one body was found, riddled with bullets and with two weapons by it's Side. The body was identified as Don Alejo Garza Tamez, the owner of the ranch and a highly respected businessman in Nuevo Leon.

Upon further inspection of the interior, marines found weapons and ammunition at every window and door. This allowed them to reconstruct how, just hours prior, the battle had played out.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – The Mexican army discovered several clandestine graves holding at least 20 bodies near a ranch in the northern border state of Chihuahua, authorities said Monday.

Soldiers found the bodies of 19 men and one woman buried in 12 graves over the weekend in the town of Puerto Palomas, across from Columbus, New Mexico, and informed police so they could oversee excavations, Chihuahua state prosecutor Jorge Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said that the bodies had been buried between four and eight months and that it had not yet been determined how they were killed because they were badly decomposed.

MEXICO CITY – Federal police arrested an alleged local leader for a drug cartel that purportedly offered to disband if the Mexican government proves it can protect citizens from other criminals in a western state, authorities said Tuesday.

Jose Alfredo Landa, 37, was in charge of La Familia operations in Morelia, the Michoacan state capital, said Ramon Pequeno, the federal police anti-narcotics chief.

Police surrounded a house outside Morelia on Monday and arrested Landa and three others, seizing an AK-47 and other weapons, Pequeno said at a news conference in which the suspects were paraded before the cameras. Pequeno said that Landa was found with more than two dozen property titles and other documents that he had been using to extort homeowners.

CUERNAVACA, Mexico – The Mexican army has detained a 14-year-old U.S. citizen suspected of acting as a killer for a drug cartel. The boy said he had been working for the cartel since he was 11.

The much-rumored alleged young assassin nicknamed "El Ponchis" was captured late Thursday at the airport near Cuernavaca with his 16-year-old sister as they tried to catch a flight to Tijuana and flee the country, said an army official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

The sister told reporters that they planned to cross the border to San Diego, California, to go to their stepmother's house. She said their mother had sent money for the tickets, but she did not specify where the mother lives.

MEXICO CITY – An alleged drug cartel leader appears on the Mexican government's 2010 teacher payroll as part of the staff of an elementary school in a rural town, according to the federal education department's website.

Payroll documents posted on the website show that checks totaling about $4,000 were issued to Servando Gomez, a reputed leader of the La Familia cartel, during the first three months of the year for teaching at Melchor Ocampo Elementary School in his hometown of Arteaga in Michoacan state.

Michoacan's education department said its files show that they began canceling payment checks to Gomez in June 2009, when the department conducted "a thorough review of its payroll," the department said in a statement.