Mexico's Drug War - Page 46

On March 30 2013 16:30 TerribleNoobling wrote:
On the other hand you guys are suffering from a pretty terrible lack of freedom problem. Maybe we can send all the drug warriors to Singapore and you guys can all hold hands and talk about what a wonderful boring world you live in. OTOH Jim Rogers recently moved to Singapore so it can't be all bad.

For three years it has chronicled Mexico's drug war with graphic images and shocking stories that few others dare show, drawing millions of readers, acclaim, denunciations – and speculation about its author's identity.

Blog del Narco, an internet sensation dubbed a "front-row seat" to Mexico's agony over drugs, has become a must-read for authorities, drug gangs and ordinary people because it lays bare, day after day, the horrific violence censored by the mainstream media.

The anonymous author has been a source of mystery, with Mexico wondering who he is and his motivation for such risky reporting.

Now in their first major interview since launching the blog, the author has spoken to the Guardian and the Texas Observer – and has revealed that she is, in fact, a young woman.

"I don't think people ever imagined it was a woman doing this," said the blogger, who asked to use pseudonym Lucy to protect her real identity.

"Who am I? I'm in my mid-20s, I live in northern Mexico, I'm a journalist. I'm a woman, I'm single, I have no children. And I love Mexico."

This is the first time Lucy has spoken directly about the motivations for running a blog which could cost her her life. In the early days, her male colleague who manages the technical side engaged in a few short, anonymous email exchanges with reporters, but neither has spoken out since.

On March 30 2013 16:34 Fus Ro Dah wrote:


This is a common misconception. Did you read that up, or have you actually lived in Singapore? Please refrain from criticizing just from hearsay unless you have lived in the country itself.

In a crowded conference room, the new attorney general and interior minister sat in silence, not knowing what to expect, next to the new leaders of the army, navy and Mexican intelligence agency.

In front of them at the Dec. 15 meeting were representatives from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the CIA, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other U.S. agencies tasked with helping Mexico destroy the drug cartels that had besieged the country for the past decade.

The Mexicans remained stone-faced as they learned for the first time just how entwined the two countries had become during the battle against narco-traffickers, and how, in the process, the United States had been given near-complete entree to Mexico’s territory and the secrets of its citizens, according to several U.S. officials familiar with the meeting. [my emphasis]

Anxious to counterattack, the CIA proposed electronically emptying the bank accounts of drug kingpins, but was turned down by the Treasury Department and the White House, which feared unleashing chaos in the banking system.

On April 29 2013 05:22 Boblion wrote:
You forgot to quote the best part.

lol

On April 29 2013 05:56 DeepElemBlues wrote:


obama and the choom gang dont wanna put their brothers down

but really thats just crazy, there must be hundreds of billions of dollars in drug money saved up around the world though

The Sinaloa cartel can buy a kilo of cocaine in the highlands of Colombia or Peru for around $2,000, then watch it accrue value as it makes its way to market. In Mexico, that kilo fetches more than $10,000. Jump the border to the United States, and it could sell wholesale for $30,000. Break it down into grams to distribute retail, and that same kilo sells for upward of $100,000 — more than its weight in gold. And that’s just cocaine. Alone among the Mexican cartels, Sinaloa is both diversified and vertically integrated, producing and exporting marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine as well.

So in a spirit of empirical humility, we shouldn’t accept as gospel the estimate, from the Justice Department, that Colombian and Mexican cartels reap $18 billion to $39 billion from drug sales in the United States each year. (That range alone should give you pause.) Still, even if you take the lowest available numbers, Sinaloa emerges as a titanic player in the global black market. In the sober reckoning of the RAND Corporation, for instance, the gross revenue that all Mexican cartels derive from exporting drugs to the United States amounts to only $6.6 billion. By most estimates, though, Sinaloa has achieved a market share of at least 40 percent and perhaps as much as 60 percent, which means that Chapo Guzmán’s organization would appear to enjoy annual revenues of some $3 billion — comparable in terms of earnings to Netflix or, for that matter, to Facebook.

On April 29 2013 07:45 FallDownMarigold wrote:


I know man... so crazy. Kinda related thing for some insight on the drug money:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html?pagewanted=all

On April 30 2013 07:04 TheRealArtemis wrote:



A kilo of coke have a net value of $98.000 dollars... O_o Im clearly in the wrong line of business..Jokes aside, its icredible to see hoe much they earn on dealing drugs. but im surprices to see how little the colombians take for their coke..$2000 and the mexicans get $100.000 from it..But then again, they take all the heat from the military etc.

Mexican federal police have arrested the father-in-law of alleged drug lord Joaquin Guzman in a northern border city without any shots fired, authorities said.

Ines Coronel Barreras, 45, was detained in Agua Prieta, across the border from Douglas, Arizona, along with a 25-year-old son and three other men, Interior Deputy Secretary Eduardo Sanchez said on Tuesday.

Coronel is the father of Guzman's third wife, Ema Coronel Aispuro, who married the purported gang boss in 2007 in a mountainous town in Durango state.

The US agency said at the time that Coronel "plays a key role" in the Sinaloa drug cartel led by Guzman, who is also known as "El Chapo".

Al Jazeera's Adam Raney, reporting from McAllen, Texas, near the Mexican border, said that Guzman is a "very big fish indeed" within the drug cartels.

"Chapo Guzman is Mexico's most-wanted man, and this man, Ines Coronel, is his father-in-law, and, according to the US goverment, one of the key operators in the Sinaloa cartel," said Raney.

Sanchez said officers arrested Coronel and the others at a warehouse and seized four automatic rifles, a handgun and more than 250kg of marijuana.

Coronel was in charge of smuggling marijuana for the Sinaloa drug cartel across the Mexico-Arizona border, Sanchez said.

US President Barack Obama has admitted that guns from his country are partly to blame for deadly violence in Mexico, as he pledged to forge an equal partnership between the two neighbours as they battle powerful drug cartels.

Obama also said he sees a "new Mexico" emerging, with a deepening democracy and growing economy, as he addressed an audience dominated by students on Friday.

The president was visiting Mexico to discuss drug policy and immigration, among other things, with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Obama conceded that the root of much violence in Mexico is the demand for drugs in the US, and acknowledged that most guns used to commit crime in Mexico come from across the border.

He also said a rising economy is changing Mexico and improving its middle class.

"It's time to recognise new realities including the impressive progress in today's Mexico," he said.

"I see it in the deepening of Mexico's democracy, citizens who are standing up and saying that violence and impunity is not acceptable.

"In this relationship there is no senior partner or junior partner. We are two equal partners, two sovereign nations that must work together in mutual interest and mutual respect."

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A U.S. federal official says Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, head of the brutal Zetas drug cartel, has been captured in northern Mexico.

Trevino Morales, known as “Z-40,” was captured in Nuevo Laredo, in the biggest victory in President Enrique Pena Nieto’s efforts against cartels, according to Mexican media.

The U.S. official who confirmed the capture was not authorized to speak to the press and asked not to be identified.

Trevino Morales took control of the Zetas following the death of group founder Heriberto Lazcano in October 2012.

The U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for Trevino Morales.

The boss of Mexico's violent Zetas drug cartel, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, has been captured by Mexican marines, without a shot being fired.

He was caught by Mexican marines carrying $2m in cash - close to the border with the US. Trevino Morales is wanted by Mexico and the US and is accused of murder, torture, organised crime and drug trafficking.

He is blamed for the shipment of hundreds of kilos of cocaine and marijuana each week from Mexico to the US and moving bulk shipments of dollars back into Mexico.

It prompted the US to issue a $5m reward for information leading to his arrest, underlining its shared priorities with Mexico.

Also known by the alias Z-40, Trevino Morales began running errands for his local gang as a teenager, quickly graduating to cross-border drug running.

As part of the Gulf cartel, he helped push for the breakaway of the Zetas drug gang, eventually taking over as head of that cartel last year, when marines shot dead the former commander.

Although he lacked any military background, he gained notoriety for his brutality.

Interior ministry spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said: This person has seven arrest orders by federal judges and is involved in at least 12 previous cases. He is accused of organised crime, homicide, crimes against health, torture, money laundering, importing firearms normally used exclusively by armed forces, among others."

Trevino's ruthless reputation only added to that of the Zetas cartel, considered one of the most powerful in Mexico.