According to the report, some 30,000 firearms were seized from criminals by Mexican officials in 2008. Out of these 30,000 firearms, information pertaining to 7,200 of them, (24 percent) was submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) for tracing. Of these 7,200 guns, only about 4,000 could be traced by the ATF, and of these 4,000, some 3,480 (87 percent) were shown to have come from the United States.
Seriously.. what a worthless, biased article.. I knew your claim was baseless.
VERACRUZ, Mexico (AP) — The Mexican navy says it has dismantled a telecommunications system set up by the Zetas drug cartel and has arrested 80 people, including six police officers.
Navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara says forces confiscated 13 antennas the cartel set up in several cities around the Gulf coast state of Veracruz to provide communication between the gang's cells.
Vergara said Thursday that forces also found amplifiers, power supplies, batteries, solar panels and wiring. The system was operated from a central base.
The spokesman said the 80 detainees are suspected of extortion, drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder.
The 26-day operation also netted seven vehicles carrying medical kits, clothing and groceries.
Social media users who denounce drug cartel activities along the Mexican border received a brutal warning this week: Two mangled bodies hanging like cuts of meat from a pedestrian bridge.
A woman was hogtied and disemboweled, her intestines protruding from three deep cuts on her abdomen. Attackers left her topless, dangling by her feet and hands from a bridge in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. A bloodied man next to her was hanging by his hands, his right shoulder severed so deeply the bone was visible.
Signs left near the bodies declared the pair, both apparently in their early 20s, were killed for posting denouncements of drug cartel activities on a social network.
"This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet," one sign said. "You better (expletive) pay attention. I'm about to get you."
The gruesome scene sent a chilling message at a time when online posts have become some of the loudest voices reporting violence in Mexico. In some parts of the country, threats from cartels have silenced traditional media. Sometimes even local authorities fear speaking out.
Mexico's notoriously ruthless drug gangs regularly hang victims from bridges and highway overpasses.
And bloggers who specialize in sharing news about trafficking have been threatened in the past. But this could be the first time users of such social networks have been targeted.
On September 16 2011 10:24 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: Social media users who denounce drug cartel activities along the Mexican border received a brutal warning this week: Two mangled bodies hanging like cuts of meat from a pedestrian bridge.
A woman was hogtied and disemboweled, her intestines protruding from three deep cuts on her abdomen. Attackers left her topless, dangling by her feet and hands from a bridge in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. A bloodied man next to her was hanging by his hands, his right shoulder severed so deeply the bone was visible.
Signs left near the bodies declared the pair, both apparently in their early 20s, were killed for posting denouncements of drug cartel activities on a social network.
"This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet," one sign said. "You better (expletive) pay attention. I'm about to get you."
The gruesome scene sent a chilling message at a time when online posts have become some of the loudest voices reporting violence in Mexico. In some parts of the country, threats from cartels have silenced traditional media. Sometimes even local authorities fear speaking out.
Mexico's notoriously ruthless drug gangs regularly hang victims from bridges and highway overpasses.
And bloggers who specialize in sharing news about trafficking have been threatened in the past. But this could be the first time users of such social networks have been targeted.
This sad and infuriating news deserves more attention. Imagine living in a society where even social network is silenced and muted, even PRC has nothing to compare with those inhuman drug cartels.
The bodies of 35 people with links to organised crime have been found in two abandoned lorries on a highway underpass in eastern Mexico, authorities say.
The bodies were discovered near a shopping centre in Boca del Rio, adjacent to the port city of Veracruz, state prosecutor Reynaldo Escobar told television station Milenio.
"These were people involved in organised crime," Escobar said of the victims. Seven had been identified.
Newspapers Milenio and La Jornada said some of the bodies had their hands tied and showed signs of torture.
Local television showed some corpses dumped on the street and others in the vehicles covered with blue plastic sheeting.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Mexican army announced it had captured a key figure in one of the country's newest drug gangs, the Knights Templar, that is sowing violence in western Mexico.
Saul Solis, a former police chief and one-time congressional candidate, was captured without incident on Monday in the cartel's home state of Michoacan, Brigadier General Edgar Luis Villegas said during a presentation of Solis to the media.
He is accused of drug trafficking, kidnapping and various attacks on the military and federal police.
The Knights Templar split late last year from La Familia, a drug gang known as a major trafficker of methamphetamine.
About 42,000 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched a campaign against drug cartels at the beginning of his term in late 2006. Most of that violence has been focused on the northern border with the United States.
StealthBlue, as a long time lurker, and irritated poster. I would like to say there is no user i would rather have a cup of coffee with and discuss the daily discourse. Well, maybe iNcontrol. Something tells me i'd piss him off tho :D
It's tough reading through the responses because these are horrible events, and facts are usuall hard to come by. Reguardless, it may be time to end this war.
On September 30 2011 23:34 BioNova wrote: It's tough reading through the responses because these are horrible events, and facts are usuall hard to come by. Reguardless, it may be time to end this war.
Time to end this war? How? By admitting that violence is above the law? I bet the family of those victims rather those perpetrators be brought to justice than having their family members to die in vain.
It might be questionable that if the war should be started in the first place, but I felt that once it started, they shouldn't pull out, not only you'll lose the progress, but also admitting that the drug cartel can hold the whole country at gun point.
Without the risk premium, the water stops boiling and personal responsibility becomes a favored trait in America. You should automatically discount me as a tinfoil man.
Unfortunately, we know prohibition fails. Capone? Cartel? see anything similar? Maybe when i bump into you a liquer store, you will kill me to stop me from getting my supply? Legal = choice. Illegal=Force.
I wish drug addicts would look at where their drug supplies are coming from i could see this is a tool to cure people of addiction, but i wouldn't know i've never been addicted.
Although drugs are the main topic of discussion, but by legalize drugs does not solve whatever problem Mexicans are dealing right now, because you're still putting them out of business. The cartel will just turn to something else they do best, extortion, kidnapping. You're just creating a different problem, essentially the same, because they won't go down without a fight.
The other day I got tricked into a link that showed the video of the execution of two cartel members... With a chainsaw. Needless to say, it was by far the most horrific thing I've ever seen.
Also, the thing with the 30+ bodies being dumped in the middle of a big city... Hell, I'm colombian and we never saw something like that, not even in high years of the cartels in the 90s.
It's clear the mexican cartels are making a stand, they no longer want to just go about their business, they're trying to dominate every aspect of mexican society and challenge the mexican and american goverments. You can't solve this with guns, tanks and planes, and I'm sure corruption would be widespread in most developed countries if criminal organizations could pay a year worth of salary to any law enforcement for some minor "collaboration".
Decriminalize drugs and most of this organizations would have to go underground and limit their activities, much like it happened with the mafia in the US after alcohol became legal.
It's illegal, that's why it's worth so much. If they had no one to sell to, then what, hold us hostage selling us barrels of Day[9] .gifs
As far as the War goes. I would point to the fact that we can absolutely not trust the people entrusted to fight the war anymore that we can trust the cartels.
The ATF Fast and Furious program/PR disaster is pretty damn disgusting, and i'm sure more of that is worth it.
On October 01 2011 00:32 furymonkey wrote: Although drugs are the main topic of discussion, but by legalize drugs does not solve whatever problem Mexicans are dealing right now, because you're still putting them out of business. The cartel will just turn to something else they do best, extortion, kidnapping. You're just creating a different problem, essentially the same, because they won't go down without a fight.
No, a criminal is making a problem, not a commodity, or me, or anyone else is tired or the second coming of the fail first attempt(prohibition).
I drink once a month on average with my father-in-law.
You're just trying to create a tunnel vision to supports your view, when it fact it's a whole lot of factors. For example I could say commodity such as money is where the real problem, or that they are simply an criminal organization that lives off on illegal means.
Yes, Mafia boomed during the prohibition era, but they did not fade away after that period, it was the depression and government's initiative that put a dent to their size.
Many of you only denounce the horrible events at Mexico because it happened to support your interests (legalization of drugs), but not because Mexicans has to live with the powerful criminal organizations around them. When the drug money starts to disappear, they will find other means to continue earn money, just like the mafia, and the Mexicans will continue to live in fear.
On October 01 2011 01:01 furymonkey wrote: You're just trying to create a tunnel vision to supports your view, when it fact it's a whole lot of factors. For example I could say commodity such as money is where the real problem, or that they are simply an criminal organization that lives off on illegal means.
Yes, Mafia boomed during the prohibition era, but they did not fade away after that period, it was the depression and government's initiative that put a dent to their size.
Many of you only denounce the horrible events at Mexico because it happened to support your interests (legalization of drugs), but not because Mexicans has to live with the powerful criminal organizations around them. When the drug money starts to disappear, they will find other means to continue earn money, just like the mafia, and the Mexicans will continue to live in fear.
It's hardly tunnel vision to say the easiest way to reduce the influence of a criminal enteprise is to take away it's profit margin.
Government Initiatives are destroying lives. Not some guy who wants his brandy after dinner, or some pothead who blazes before gaming. Alcohol can be made, Pot can be grown. I think your heart is in the right place, but if this is the best they can do, then, yes, by all means end it.
EDIT: Letting the enemy buy thousands of weapons to track them, then calling off the tracks as the walk off with the guns, which already have, and will continue to kill, is just awesome way to fight a 'war'.
On October 01 2011 01:01 furymonkey wrote: You're just trying to create a tunnel vision to supports your view, when it fact it's a whole lot of factors. For example I could say commodity such as money is where the real problem, or that they are simply an criminal organization that lives off on illegal means.
Yes, Mafia boomed during the prohibition era, but they did not fade away after that period, it was the depression and government's initiative that put a dent to their size.
Many of you only denounce the horrible events at Mexico because it happened to support your interests (legalization of drugs), but not because Mexicans has to live with the powerful criminal organizations around them. When the drug money starts to disappear, they will find other means to continue earn money, just like the mafia, and the Mexicans will continue to live in fear.
But the biggest income they generate is trough drug-money. If drug-money is lost trough legalization you can't offset it through other means like kidnapping or extortion. Even if the cartels kidnap every mexican they couldn't offset the loss of drug-money. With the loss of the big money less people get involved because it's not as profitable as before, less money= less weaponry, with less money the problem scales down in size and becomes more managable. The underlying factors of widespread poverty and corruption still remain, but everything's better than living in a warzone and you can start solving the socioeconomic factors. The biggest thing to acknowledge is, that the problem starts in the USA.
On October 01 2011 00:36 CrimsonLotus wrote: The other day I got tricked into a link that showed the video of the execution of two cartel members... With a chainsaw. Needless to say, it was by far the most horrific thing I've ever seen.
That video is seriously shocking, I have the link if anyone wants.
EPT![[image loading]](http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2011/9/21/2011921244070734_20.jpg)
