Mexico's Drug War - Page 49

North America’s largest city on Thursday is looking to join the trend of drug reforms sweeping through the region, with Mexico City lawmakers introducing a measure that would decriminalize — not legalize — the possession of marijuana for personal use. It would also remove incarceration as the first response for the possession of other illegal drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines.

In addition to the Mexico City measure, lawmakers from the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) introduced a bill in the federal House of Representatives that would allow prescriptions for medical marijuana at the national level. The measure would also permit states to regulate the drug’s production, distribution and sale.

The proposals represent a coordinated effort to deviate from punitive drug policies in Mexico, which has suffered unprecedented levels of drug-related violence during the United States–led war on drugs. Roughly 70,000 people have been killed in Mexico in drug-related violence since 2007, when then-President Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against drug syndicates.

“These bills are exciting because they further the hemispheric trend of changing marijuana laws,” said Hannah Hetzer, policy manager of the Americas at the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes alternatives to global drug policy. “Amidst extreme levels of violence and crime, it is encouraging to see Mexico’s capital city attempt to refocus its efforts away from marijuana possession and low-level drug offenses and to invest in reducing violent crime instead.”

Under the Mexico City bill, residents caught with less than 5 grams of marijuana would not be charged with any administrative offense or fine. Possession of 5 grams to 5 kilos would require that offenders face a “dissuasion committee,” which would offer information on health treatment, but offenders would avoid jail time. Criminal sanctions would be applied to anyone found with more than 5 kilos of the drug.

On February 16 2014 00:32 nikj wrote:
Anyone know if these pics/story showing up on Facebook are real? link



Pretty crazy amount of cash.

On February 16 2014 10:14 Serek wrote:


That looks like the stash of money that was confiscated to this guy back in 2007.

Old news.

On February 16 2014 00:32 nikj wrote:
Anyone know if these pics/story showing up on Facebook are real? link



Pretty crazy amount of cash.

On February 18 2014 04:46 TriO wrote:


Ah makes me want to change my profession and become a drug lord.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was captured overnight by U.S. and Mexican authorities at a hotel in Mazatlan, Mexico, the Associated Press has learned.

A senior U.S. law enforcement official said Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was taken alive overnight in the beach resort town. The official was not authorized to discuss the arrest and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Guzman, 56, was found with an unidentified woman. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marshals Service were "heavily involved" in the capture, the official said. No shots were fired.

Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and is on the DEA's most-wanted list. His drug empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia. His cartel has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last several years.

Known as a legendary outlaw and the world's most powerful and elusive drug lord, Guzman had been pursued for several weeks. His arrest comes on the heels of the takedown of several top Sinaloa operatives in the last few months and at least 10 mid-level cartel members in the last week.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security is encouraging Mexico's authorities to extradite drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (wah-KEEN' el chah-poh gooz-MAHN') to the United States to ensure he remains behind bars.

Guzman was arrested Saturday morning in the resort city of Mazatlan, Mexico.

Republican Michael McCaul calls Guzman the world's most notorious drug lord and says on ABC's "This Week" that his arrest is a significant victory for Mexico and the United States.

Guzman faces at least seven federal indictments.

McCaul said it's Mexico's call on where Guzman faces prosecution, but he noted that Guzman escaped from prison in 2001 and corruption continues to plague Mexico.

On February 24 2014 07:38 Disregard wrote:
If he stays in Mexico, probably going to escape again. But really who cares if he gets captured, some of these cartels are so well organized that another leader will just take his place.

The powerful Sinaloa cartel is expected to go right on selling billions of dollars of illegal drugs despite the takedown of its legendary leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who leaves in place a sophisticated distribution network and business plan.

Guzman's capture Saturday was undoubtedly a major blow for a criminal ring likened to a Fortune 500 company — the loss of its chief executive coming on the heels of more than a dozen arrests of key lieutenants and lower-level operators in recent months. Yet the cartel remains the major supplier of cocaine to the U.S., and the arrest did not touch the cartel's immense political power, nurtured through the bribery of officials, or its thriving money laundering operations.

"As long as these other structures remain in place, all things being equal, Sinaloa will be able to continue to operate if not as normal, at least as the most powerful criminal organization in Mexico," said David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego's Justice in Mexico Project.

The longer-term fate of the cartel is more difficult to predict, however, as authorities pursue other top leaders and weaker rivals dream of moving in.

Mexico's Secretary of the Interior Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said, so far, there's only speculation about how the cartel will replace Guzman, and whether other criminal groups will try to take over.

"We have to wait for real information, and when we have it, we will act," Osorio Chong said in an interview with The Associated Press. "That will be part of our work, to see how they reorganize, how they accommodate ... so we can keep them from resurging and replanting."

Ten suspected drug cartel members have been killed in a gunfight with soldiers and police in eastern Mexico, authorities have said.

The clash erupted on Thursday after security forces were shot at from a house as they drove down an avenue in the city of Perote, the Gulf-coast state of Veracruz public security agency said.

"As a result of this clash, nine men and one woman were killed," the agency said in a statement.

Officials say preliminary information indicates those killed were likely members of the Zetas drug cartel.

The officials also said police seized 10 automatic rifles, cartridges, ammunition and T-shirts and caps with fake logos of Mexican's federal police and Veracruz state investigative police.

At least 14 people died Tuesday in several firefights between federal forces and gunmen in the city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. The dead included 10 alleged gunmen, two federal police officers and two bystanders, Tamaulipas state authorities said.

Gunmen blocked some of the industrial city's main avenues with buses in the afternoon and then ambushed federal police officers on patrol, officials said.

Earlier this month in the border town of Ciudad Mier, gunmen peppered the facade of the main hotel, leaving at least 20 bullet holes in the two-story building. The next day, soldiers killed four of the alleged attackers. A day after that, three other gunmen were found dead near the Rio Grande.

On a road near the state line between Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states, authorities say gunmen ambushed a state police patrol Tuesday in the town of Sabinas Hidalgo, killing an officer and wounding a colleague. Two other state police officers later went missing as they drove to Sabinas Hidalgo to investigate.

A spasm of violence has left at least 64 dead just in the northern state of Tamaulipas this month, according to an Associated Press tally of official and Mexican media reports. Many are worried about a return to the worst days of 2010, when the security wing of the powerful Gulf Cartel turned on its former bosses, forming the breakaway Zetas group that has distinguished itself for butchery.

Although that rivalry continues, authorities say many of the recent killings are the byproduct of a fresh feud between two Gulf Cartel capos, former allies who are struggling for control of cities or stretches of border.

On May 03 2014 06:44 Vasoline73 wrote:
The drug war and terror will never end in Mexico unless they change their drug laws to be less restrictive and decriminalize the sale and possession of them

For harder drugs the state could save way more money offering drug education and rehab programs than it could fighting a literal ground war. Lives would be saved. Most people and politicians balk at this.

I hope the best for Mexico and that humanity realizes a war like this will never be won.