Sunday, June 30, 2013
Israel is the Whore of Babylon: The CIA "War on Drugs" in Mexico
SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 2012
The CIA "War on Drugs" in Mexico
LeyvaSunday, June 30, 2013
Israel is the whore of Babylon: The CIA "War on Drugs" in Mexico
Israel is the Whore of Babylon: The CIA "War on Drugs" in Mexico
SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 2012
The CIA "War on Drugs" in Mexico
Leyva
Source-UKguardian.co.uk
Ex-Colombian president's family face US extradition over drugs charges
Álvaro Uribe's niece and her mother to stand trial over alleged ties to Sinaloa cartel drug lord, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán
VERY SIMPLE MILITARY STRATEGY-DIVIDE AND CONQUER
U.S. WIDENS ROLE IN WAR AGAINST DRUG CARTELS
Full Article @ link
Source-NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — The United States is expanding its role in Mexico’s bloody fight against drug trafficking organizations, sending new C.I.A. operatives and retired military personnel to the country and considering plans to deploy private security contractors in hopes of turning around a multibillion-dollar effort that so far has shown few results.
The United States is assisting Mexican police forces in conducting wiretaps, running informants
Jaime Zapata, an immigration and customs agent who was killed in Mexico,
In recent weeks, small numbers of C.I.A. operatives and American civilian military employees have been posted at a Mexican military base, where, for the first time, security officials from both countries work side by side in collecting information about drug cartels and helping plan operations. Officials are also looking into embedding a team of American contractors inside a specially vetted Mexican counternarcotics police unit.
Officials on both sides of the border say the new efforts have been devised to get around Mexican laws that prohibit foreign military and police from operating on its soil, and to prevent advanced American surveillance technology from falling under the control of Mexican security agencies with long histories of corruption.
“A sea change has occurred over the past years in how effective Mexico and U.S. intelligence exchanges have become,” said Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States. “It is underpinned by the understanding that transnational organized crime can only be successfully confronted by working hand in hand, and that the outcome is as simple as it is compelling: we will together succeed or together fail.”
The latest steps come three years after the United States began increasing its security assistance to Mexico with the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative and tens of millions of dollars from the Defense Department. They also come a year before elections in both countries, when President Obama may confront questions about the threat of violence spilling over the border, and President Felipe Calderón’s political party faces a Mexican electorate that is almost certainly going to ask why it should stick with a fight that has left nearly 45,000 people dead.
“The pressure is going to be especially strong in Mexico, where I expect there will be a lot more raids, a lot more arrests and a lot more parading drug traffickers in front of cameras,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counternarcotics expert at the Brookings Institution. “But I would also expect a lot of questioning of Merida, and some people asking about the way the money is spent, or demanding that the government send it back to the gringos.”
Mexico has become ground zero in the American counternarcotics fight since its cartels have cornered the market and are responsible for more than 80 percent of the drugs that enter the United States. American counternarcotics assistance there has grown faster in recent years than to Afghanistan and Colombia. And in the last three years, officials said, exchanges of intelligence between the United States and Mexico have helped security forces there capture or kill some 30 mid- to high-level drug traffickers, compared with just two such arrests in the previous five years.
THE ATLANTIC.COM PICTORIAL OF MEXICO'S DRUG VIOLENCE
Source-theatlantic.com
Zetas now Mexico's biggest Drug Gang
Source-BBCNews.co.uk
Puerto Rican Drug Smugglers
Source-Orlandosentinel.com
La Perla drug bust
Source-Puertoricodailysun.com
A federal grand jury indicted 114 people Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute illegal and controlled drugs.
Early Wednesday morning more than 400 federal and state law enforcement officials swarmed the streets and alleys of the La Perla ward, a century-old community at the foot of the wall in Old San Juan. Operation Old World was the culmination of a one-and-a-half year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Puerto Rico Justice Department and Police, and other federal law enforcement agencies.
“These indictments are related to a drug trafficking organization operating in La Perla Ward and headed by Jorge Gómez González, a.k.a. ‘Cara de Truck’ (Truck Face), a well-known community leader in La Perla,” said U.S. District Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez.
According to Rodríguez, drug trafficking in La Perla, was controlled by the Martínez and Serrano families, who had been operating their criminal enterprise since 1998.
The two families apparently had agreed on the mechanisms to “distribute and supply controlled substances within La Perla.”
“They controlled all drug trafficking, especially heroine, in La Perla,” said Rodríguez, who affirmed most of the heroin distributed in Puerto Rico comes out of La Perla.
Nevertheless, the scope of the trafficking operation included other illegal drugs and extended beyond La Perla, according to the D.A. The defendants are being charged in a nine-count indictment with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana, oxycodone (“Percocet”) and alprazolam (“Xanax”).
“This violent organization was supplying and selling drugs not only to the people in La Perla but to people living in different municipalities, children and tourists,” said Rodríguez.
Rodríguez said the co-conspirators participated in the criminal endeavor as leaders (“bichotes”) (17), drug point owners or “magnates” (16), and enforcers, suppliers, runners and sellers, among other roles. Most of the indicted had more than one specific role in the operation.
Rodríguez also explained at least 30 of them possessed and used firearms to protect themselves, the drugs and the drug trafficking organization.
“We estimate the profit of this criminal organization to be some $5 million a year,” she added, who also estimated heroin sales between two and three kilos every two days.
The criminal leaders would allegedly “give out samples” of their products to heroin and cocaine customers for them to “test the quality of the drug and promote the sale of the product.” Bulk sales would take place in the drug owners’ homes or on “Wipao” (Wipe-out), a sector on La Perla’s waterfront.
Sellers not born or raised in La Perla, were not allowed to sell their drugs beyond la Bóveda, the arched entrance/exit on the old city wall that gives access to La Perla from Norzagaray Street.
“They [the unauthorized sellers] could not go beyond a yellow line painted on the street just beyond the Bóveda. If they stepped over the line they were disciplined,” explained Rodríguez.
Most of these rules were established by Gómez González, who was identified by Assistant U.S. Attorney George A. Massuco as “one of the most powerful leaders in La Perla since 1998.”
From kingpin to community leader
According to the federal investigation, Gómez González was part of the drug trafficking organization in La Perla since its inception in 1998.
“It was him, along with other drug owners, who established the rules, for instance the yellow line,” said Massuco.
There were other rules that sellers had to follow in order to continue selling [their drugs], such as a rule of exclusiveness that prevented a seller from selling drugs from a “bichote” other than his own. These rules presumably established a sense of order and kept the peace in La Perla.
For several years, Gómez González had been very active in dealing with different situations affecting the centuries-old community. As a matter of fact, more than once he served as a kind of liaison between the municipal government and the community in matters regarding services and infrastructure development.
During election campaigns Gómez González would allegedly sponsor the visit of political candidates to La Perla.
“We have information confirming that whenever politicos would visit La Perla, drug owners, including Gómez González, instructed the boys selling [drugs] when they had to clear out of the street because politicians shouldn’t witness what was happening there,”said Massucco.
The federal indictment includes a series of forfeiture allegations in cash and properties located in and outside La Perla.
“The narcotics forfeiture allegation includes $20 million in cash and 50 properties located in La Perla,” said Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit chief Miryam Fernández.
The money laundering indictment includes a forfeiture allegation for six other properties located in Toa Baja, but according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Roberto Escobar, other properties may be included in the allegation because the investigation is ongoing. If convicted, the defendants face a minimum of 10 years to life imprisonment and fines up to $8 million.
SPECIAL REPORT-MEXICO'S ZETAS REWRITE DRUG WAR IN BLOOD
Source-reuters.com
(Reuters) - Mexican government forces had bottled up a band of enemy fighters in this tiny village late last year, but feared they would escape into the dusty, rock-strewn hills. So more than 600 soldiers and federal police closed in from all directions with armored Humvees and helicopters.
The outlaws responded with a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault-rifle fire, tearing apart one federal police vehicle. For three days the fighting raged.
In the end, according to military accounts of the battle, 22 members of the Zetas drug cartel, two police officers and a soldier were dead, and 20 Zetas were in custody. Dozens more escaped to fight another day.
The battle could have been a scene from the war in Afghanistan, but it erupted just 45 miles south of the Texas border. It was only one of dozens like it in northeastern Mexico in recent months as soldiers, marines and police have engaged in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with roaming Zetas hit squads.
Formed in 1998 by 14 former Mexican soldiers, the Zetas have grown to command more than 10,000 gunmen from the Rio Grande, on the border with Texas, to deep into Central America. Their rapid expansion has displaced Mexico's older cartels in many areas, giving them a dominant position in the multi-billion-dollar cross-border drug trade, as well as extortion, kidnapping and other criminal businesses.
But it is bloodshed that has made the Zetas notorious. And feared.
Zetas killers have been arrested for some of the worst atrocities in Mexico's drug war, including the murders of hundreds of people whose bodies have been found in mass graves with alarming frequency, the massacre of 72 foreign migrant workers headed to the United States, and the burning of a casino that claimed 52 lives.
On Sunday, Mexican soldiers said they had arrested Daniel Elizondo, a Zetas leader known as "The Madman," as the alleged perpetrator of the massacre of 49 people whose corpses were decapitated, dismembered and dumped on a highway a week earlier. In the last month, the Zetas have also been linked to the decapitation of 18 people near Guadalajara and the hanging of nine in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. In those two cases, messages left at the scenes, signed by the Zetas, said the victims were rival traffickers.
Mexican and U.S. agents say the Zetas' paramilitary tactics -- based on small, roaming cells of armed operatives -- and indiscriminate violence are the driving forces behind a recent escalation in Mexico's drug war. That conflict, between government forces and the cartels and among the cartels themselves, has claimed about 55,000 lives in the past five years, including more than 3,000 police officers and soldiers.
MORE LIKE INSURGENTS
The Zetas pose a bigger challenge to the government than older cartels because of the intensity of their attacks against security forces, their disregard for civilian life and the murderous habits that break the unspoken codes of older traffickers. The brutality has made their heartland in northeastern Mexico a no-go area for many businessmen and tourists.
Mexican police officers and soldiers on the front lines say the Zetas have more in common with insurgents than traditional gangs. "The Zetas act like urban guerrillas," said Florencio Santos, a former soldier and now police chief in Guadalupe, a town on the southern outskirts of Monterrey. "They'll make a phone call to get the police out, then block the street in front of the patrol cars and open fire from the front and the side."
Drug agents say the goals of the Zetas also differ from Mexico's traditional smuggling families. While older cartels focused on trafficking routes and drug-producing areas, the Zetas move into any town or city where they can to carry out shakedowns and other crimes.
"The Zetas have created a new model of organized crime and unleashed new levels of violence to try and unseat the older cartels," said Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "This has destabilized many areas of Mexico."
A report by Mexico's organized crime unit, SIEDO, found that the Zetas now control more territory than the nation's oldest and wealthiest trafficking organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. The report, leaked in January, says that while the Sinaloans operate in 16 of Mexico's 32 federal entities, the Zetas are in 17.
They are creeping into the United States, too. A grand jury in Laredo, Texas, in April indicted four alleged Zetas for conspiracy to murder and traffic drugs on U.S. soil. The charges follow another Laredo trial in January in which two alleged Zetas were found guilty on weapons and homicide charges.
Zetas gunmen are alleged by Mexican prosecutors to be behind the killing of U.S. customs agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico in 2011, the first American agent to be murdered on duty here since the 1980s. The U.S. government is offering a $5 million reward for the capture of the Zetas supreme commander, 37-year-old Heriberto Lazcano, alias "The Executioner."
WAR ZONE
The Zetas stronghold in northeastern Mexico, across the border from Texas, has become Mexico's most violent region. In Nuevo Leon state, home to the rich industrial city Monterrey and villages such as Vallecillo, there were more than 685 drug-related killings by mid-May, according to media tallies. This put it ahead of even Chihuahua state, with 560 gangland slayings and home to Mexico's previous murder capital, Ciudad Juarez, dominated by the Juarez Cartel.
Nuevo Leon can seem like a state under siege. Zetas graffiti mark the group's territory. Many local residents, aware that gang hit men regularly murder people accused of snitching, are too scared to help the police. Police and soldiers in Nuevo Leon say they move only in convoys of at least 30 troops because of the threat of Zetas ambushes, a precaution not needed in most of the rest of the country.
Guadalupe police chief Santos survived an ambush in September because the bullets didn't pierce his armored vehicle. "It was a terrifying moment," Santos said. "I thought the bullets might get through, but the vehicle held until reinforcements came."
Some of his fellow policemen weren't so lucky. Last year the Zetas murdered 13 of Guadalupe's 300 street officers and destroyed 48 patrol cars through such attacks. Santos and most of his officers now sleep inside a barracks for protection.
The Zetas are aided by an effective network of spies. These hawks, as they are called, are typically teenagers or young men and women paid about $600 a month, Guadalupe police say. In a country with a minimum wage of about $5 a day, that money can buy a lot of support.
When a Reuters reporter accompanied police in Guadalupe on a recent patrol, officers listened to a radio frequency used by the gangsters. Zetas hawks could be heard warning their cohorts about the convoy of police vehicles moving into a slum on the edge of Monterrey.
Santos, the police chief, said he fought Zapatista guerrillas when they took up arms in the southern state of Chiapas in 1994 to fight for the rights of indigenous people. The Zetas, he says, are a far deadlier foe. "The Zetas have much better training and better armaments than the Zapatistas did."
HEADING NORTH
The Zetas' supreme leader, Lazcano, was born in 1974 in the village of Acatlan in Hidalgo state, the local birth registry shows. This community of cattle farms and corn plots more than 600 miles from the Mexico-U.S. border provides its youth with few opportunities. Many young men head north to enter the U.S. illegally, or they join the armed forces.
As a child, Lazcano moved with his family to the nearby city of Pachuca, settling in the working-class barrio of Tezontle, police say. The clutch of dusty streets and unpainted cinder-block houses lies next to a military base, where records show Lazcano enlisted with the Mexican army at age 17 to become an infantryman.
He was following in the footsteps of the founding Zetas, many of whom also came from central and southern Mexico and served in military divisions -- infantry, motorized cavalry, special forces -- whose regulars often received training from the U.S.
A 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks shows that at least one Zeta, former infantry lieutenant Rogelio Lopez, trained at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Declassified U.S. training manuals used for Latin American officers include sections on combat intelligence and use of informants, both strong points of the Zetas.
Lazcano deserted from the infantry in 1998 to join the Zetas, then led by former paratrooper Arturo Guzman Decena. At the time the Zetas were still devoted to their original mission: acting as debt collectors and killers for the Gulf Cartel, a dominant gang, moving hundreds of tons of cocaine, marijuana and heroin into Texas.
The enforcers adopted the name Zeta -- the letter Z in Spanish -- from a radio signal Guzman had used as a paratrooper. Guzman baptized himself Z-1, and Lazcano became Z-3.
A few months later, after Mexican soldiers shot dead both Z-1 and his second in command, Lazcano took control of the Zetas at age 28 and began the group's rapid expansion. They spread the word on the streets, and even advertised on blankets hung from bridges: "The Zeta operations group wants you, soldier or ex-soldier," one said. "We offer a good salary, food and attention for your family. Don't suffer hunger and abuse anymore."
They recruited poor youths, former soldiers, members of other gangs and even foreign mercenaries, including former members of the Kaibil special forces in Guatemala's army, according to the Guatemalan security ministry. The Kaibiles were widely accused of atrocities in that nation's civil war.
As the Zetas grew, so did their ambitions, causing tension with the Gulf Cartel bosses. The first cracks in the alliance appeared in 2007, when Gulf Cartel leaders made a peace deal with the Sinaloa Cartel, a move the Zetas saw as a sellout, according to testimony from Zeta founding member Jesus Rejon, or Z-7, after he was arrested in 2011.
In 2010, tensions boiled over into open warfare as Zetas began attacking Gulf operatives wherever they found them and claiming the turf for themselves. The Gulf Cartel allied with their old Sinaloan rivals to fight back, engulfing the region in violence.
GANGSTER ECONOMICS
It is impossible to know the Zetas' share of the U.S. narcotics market, which is estimated by the United Nations to be worth a total of about $60 billion annually.
But it's clear that the Zetas' stronghold in northeastern Mexico includes some of the most sought-after trafficking routes into the United States. More than 8,500 trucks cross daily into Texas from the border city of Nuevo Laredo, twice the number crossing from either Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez.
To warehouse and move these drugs, the Zetas have set up cells in Laredo, Dallas and Houston, a U.S. federal court heard this January when it convicted two members of such a cell on homicide, racketeering and weapons charges. Evidence from wiretaps and witnesses show that the cells also move guns bought in U.S. stores and cash into Mexico. U.S. federal prosecutors in Texas say Zetas gunmen have carried out at least eight murders on U.S. soil to date.
The Zetas have also made billions of dollars by diversifying into extortion, kidnapping, product piracy and even theft of crude oil from the pipelines of Mexico's state-owned oil monopoly, Pemex, U.S. agents say. In a recent report, Pemex said it had lost 11.7 million barrels of oil to theft in 2010 and 2011, citing the Zetas as the main culprit.
This diversification breaks with the habits of older cartels, which have focused on drugs. And as the Zetas have made money with their portfolio of crimes, copycat gangs have sprung up with names such as "The Hands With Eyes."
In Guadalupe, police chief Santos said the Zetas receive protection payments, known as "quotas," from taxi operators, restaurants and other local businesses. "Most people pay up because they are so scared of what the Zetas will do," Santos said.
During the recent patrol, police were called to the scene of a shooting, finding a car dealership riddled with bullet holes, in what Santos said was a reminder over these payments.
When the Zetas burned down a Monterrey casino in broad daylight in August, the alleged reason was an extortion payment, according to federal prosecutors who have filed charges against alleged Zetas arrested for the crime.
The desire for shakedown money has fueled the spread of the Zetas across Mexico, investigators say. "What they want to do is control territory and physical space, where they can simply co-opt other businesses and collect tax," said Steven Dudley of the Washington-based research group Insight Crime. "That model is easily replicated."
YOUNG THUGS
Agents say that as the Zetas have expanded, they have filled their ranks with unruly thugs who can be hard to control. "These new players ... are doing things that might not be sanctioned by the leadership. ... The outrageous behavior has made them the big target of the government," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official working in Mexico, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Such wild elements may have been behind the May 13 atrocity that made headlines around the world. Early that morning, 49 corpses with their heads, hands and feet cut off were left on a highway east of Monterrey. A note signed with the Zetas name was found amidst the carnage. However, messages released in the following days denied the Zetas had ordered the massacre.
Investigators say Elizondo, arrested a week later as the alleged mastermind of the massacre, may have disobeyed top leaders in carrying it out. None of the victims have been identified. Police said they could have been foreign migrants traveling through Mexico to the United States. The Zetas often kidnap migrants for ransom and murder those who don't pay.
Zetas assassins have been effective in fighting rivals. In the last year, the Zetas have pushed the Gulf Cartel out of much of its historic turf along the South Texas border and challenged the Sinaloa Cartel close to their homeland in the Pacific. In a single ambush in the Pacific state of Nayarit in 2011, Zetas slaughtered 29 alleged Sinaloa Cartel operatives when the Zetas attacked with mounted machine guns and grenades.
Even more brutally, Zetas prisoners in February stabbed and bludgeoned to death 44 alleged Gulf Cartel inmates in a jail on the edge of Monterrey. After the attack, which officials say involved the help of corrupt guards, 35 Zetas prisoners escaped.
Several other major cartels have formed an alliance to hit back against the Zetas with their own paramilitary units, U.S. agents said in testimony at a congressional hearing in October evaluating Mexico's drug war. At the forefront of the fight back is a shady group calling itself the "Zetas killers," believed to be funded by rival cartels. Gunmen from this group dropped 35 corpses of suspected Zetas on a highway in Veracruz state in September.
In a video released after the incident, men in ski masks claimed they were going after the Zetas because of the harm their extortion and kidnapping rackets inflicted on communities. "We want the armed forces to trust us that our only goal is to finish off the Zetas," a man in a ski mask says on the video. "We're anonymous warriors, faceless, but proudly Mexican."
WANTED MEN
Since President Felipe Calderon took power in 2006 and sent 50,000 soldiers after the drug cartels, Mexican and U.S. agents have worked together to root out top drug traffickers.
The most spectacular takedowns include Arturo Beltran Leyva, a breakaway boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, who was shot dead by Mexican marines in 2009, and La Familia boss Nazario Moreno, whom police killed in 2010.
Lazcano and his top deputies have proved to be more elusive, thanks to their military-style organization. "They've got an advance guard, they've got a main body, they've got a rear guard," the U.S. official said. "They do forward reconnaissance almost like you would see if you were moving a dignitary around."
Zetas leaders also escape detection by using encrypted radio and Skype instead of telephones, the U.S. official said. Agents say leaders of the group's small operating cells are moved every few months to avoid detection.
Mexican soldiers say they came close to nabbing Lazcano in a house on the outskirts of Monterrey in 2009, but that after scouts warned him of the raid, he escaped the neighborhood in a bulletproof Jeep Cherokee.
With Lazcano still at large, the Zetas will pose a challenge for the next Mexican president. Calderon is barred by law from seeking re-election in the July polls. The current front-runner, Enrique Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, has pledged to create and deploy a new police force against the gangs and gradually put army troops back in barracks, a promise popular with many voters who are tired of the relentless drug war.
Zetas hit squads could make that difficult. A message signed by the Zetas and hung from a bridge in Monterrey in February took aim at the Mexican government. "Even with the support of the United States, they cannot stop us, because here the Zetas rule," it said. "The government must make a pact with us because if not we will have to overthrow it and take power by force."
(Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; editing by John Blanton and Prudence Crowther)
The good, The bad, and the ugly Mexican elections
Source-mexidata.info
Source-insightcrime.org
Thursday, 26 January 2012 08:03
Mexico Plans 5 New Military Bases in Zeta Territory
Written by Edward Fox
Mexico's government upped its offensive against the Zetas with the announcement that five new military bases will be installed in the group's primary areas of operation.
Four bases will be located in Tamaulipas and another one in Nuevo Leon, which are both among the northern border states most affected by drug violence.
Seven military bases will be created in total, but two of these will be based in municipalities where the government says the Zetas do not operate, according to Excelsior.·
The initiative comes as part of the government's drive to reinstate control in areas where criminal groups have, in some cases, overrun local authorities The Mexican Department of Defense stated that installing greater military presence in these areas will help return the rule of law, reports Excelsior.
InSight Crime Analysis
The expansion of military bases in northern Mexico follows a recent·report by Stratfor that argues the Zetas have become Mexico's largest drug cartel in terms of territorial presence, operating in 17 out of Mexico's 31 states compared to the Sinaloa Cartel's 16.
This apparent expansion has meant the group has become more of a focus point for authorities both in Mexico and the US. President Felipe Calderon previously described the group as Mexico's principal security threat, and there have been reports that the government formally made the Zetas the primary target of the security forces. The US, meanwhile, imposed greater sanctions against the group last year, in an attempt to hurt their financial assets.
More military bases could also prompt further concerns that Mexico's militarized approach to fighting crime does not lead to reduced violence. As laid out by a Human Rights Watch report last year, the security forces frequently committed abuses in the states most affected by drug violence.
From Baghdad to Bogota-The Global reach of Mercenaries
Source-worldcrunch.com
Source-Reuters.com
Mexico extradites drug boss involved in corruption probe
MEXICO CITY | Wed May 23, 2012 10:11pm EDT
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico extradited to the United States an alleged drug kingpin who has testified that high-ranking military officers worked with drug cartels, Mexican officials said Wednesday.
Sergio Villarreal, also known as "El Grande" and "King Kong," was flown to the United States where he faces federal charges of cocaine trafficking, the Mexican federal attorney general's office said in a news release.
Villarreal, who was arrested in 2010, is alleged to be a leading member of the Beltran Leyva cartel, a drug trafficking syndicate based in the Pacific state of Sinaloa.
While in Mexican detention, Villarreal testified that military officers received money from the Beltran Leyva cartel, a government security official said.
Last week, Mexican prosecutors ordered the arrest of four current or former military officers in connection with the accusations. The detentions were the biggest scandal in the Mexican military since President Felipe Calderon took power in 2006 and launched a military crackdown on cartels.
In the five years since Calderon took office there have been around 55,000 drug related killings and widespread accusations of human rights abuses by the military.
(Reporting By Anahi Rama; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Source-UKIndependent.co.uk
Mexican police capture drugs baron dubbed 'The Crazy One'
One of country's most wanted is accused of dumping 49 headless bodies at roadside
GUY ADAMS TUESDAY 22 MAY 2012
They call him "The Crazy One" but, judging by the sobering nature of his debut press conference, the suspected cocaine baron Daniel Jesus Elizondo came from a more calculated school of organised criminals.
Police in Mexico paraded Elizondo before the media on Sunday, claiming that the man nicknamed "El Loco" was responsible for the organised killings of 49 men whose decapitated bodies were found on a road outside the northern city of Monterrey earlier this month.
He was arrested in what appears to have been a peaceful raid on Friday in Cadereyta, an industrial town on the outskirts of the city near the US border, where he is believed to have run trafficking operations on behalf of the Zetas gang who – despite stiff competition – are currently regarded as central America's most successful drug cartel.
Police claimed that Elizondo, a strapping, heavily tattooed man in his 30s, had been ordered to carry out the murders by Miguel-Angel Trevino Morales and Heriberto Lazcano, who, as the overall heads of Los Zetas, are two of the world's most-wanted men.
In what appears to have been a confession, Elizondo told police that his original instructions were to leave the 49 dismembered bodies in the town square. But he became nervous about that plan and instead opted to drop the bodies on a semi-rural highway a few miles east. They were left with a message saying the Zeta cartel was responsibility for the massacre. "Gulf cartel, Sinaloa cartel, marines and soldiers, nobody can do anything against us or they will lose," it read.
The heads, hands and feet of each of victim had been removed, making identification tricky. But officers are working on the theory that they were illegal migrants from central America being transported to the US.
In recent years, many drug gangs have diversified from their historic source of income, cocaine smuggling, into human trafficking.
News of the murders caused public outrage, since it was one of the most gruesome attacks since the upsurge in violence that followed President Felipe Calderon's 2006 declaration of a "war" on drugs. In the ensuing six years, an estimated 55,000 people have died.
Although the Zetas had originally appeared to claim responsibility for the Cadereyta slayings, they subsequently left messages in six cities denying they was their handiwork, and suggesting they were part of an effort to undermine the cartel's cosy relationship with some local communities.
Elizondo may shed some light on what really occurred when he comes to trial. He remains in custody and no charges have yet been filed.
Police said that an accomplice, who made and uploaded to the internet a videotape of the decapitated bodies being dumped, was still at large.
Blackwater on the Border
Source-mexidata.info
New U.S. Army base in Belize
Source-ourBelize.net
Possible Mexican Military Base's being used by the CIA/DEA/Private U.S. Mercenary Forces
List of Mexican military installations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a list of Air Force bases in Mexico:
Campo Militar No. 1, Mexico City
Base Aérea Militar No. 1, Santa Lucía, Estado de Mexico
Base Aérea Militar No. 2, Ixtepec, Oaxaca
Base Aérea Militar No. 3, Ciprés, Baja California
Base Aérea Militar No. 4, Cozumel, Quintana Roo
Base Aérea Militar No. 5, Zapopan, Jalisco
Base Aérea Militar No. 6, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas
Base Aérea Militar No. 7, Pie de la Cuesta, Guerrero
Base Aérea Militar No. 8, Mérida, Yucatán
Base Aérea Militar No. 9, La Paz, Baja California Sur
Base Aérea Militar No. 10, Culiacán, Sinaloa
Base Aérea Militar No. 11, Santa Gertrudis, Chihuahua
Base Aérea Militar No. 12, Tijuana, Baja California
Base Aérea Militar No. 13, Chihuahua, Chihuahua
Base Aérea Militar No. 14, Monterrey, Nuevo León
Base Aérea Militar No. 15, Sn. Juan Bautista la Raya, Oaxaca
Base Aérea Militar No. 16, Cd. Pemex, Tabasco
Base Aérea Militar No. 17, Copalar, Chiapas
Base Aérea Militar No. 18, Hermosillo, Sonora
Do you ever hear ANY NEWS from the Main Stream Media regarding the 50,000 plus people slaughtered in Mexico the past 5-8 years? All we hear in the news is about the less than 1500(probably less than that) people killed in Syria over the past years???
This Article is from 2007, it details the 'transition' of Mercenaries from the Iraq war to the "Drug War"....
Source-globalresearch.ca
Full Spectrum Mercenaries: Blackwater Goes to Mexico by John Ross
Global Research, November 11, 2007
If and when private security contractor Blackwater USA and its heavily-armed operatives are forced to pull out of Iraq as the result of the September 16th rampage in downtown Baghdad when its employees massacred up to 28 Iraqis, Mexico could be a profitable option for the North Carolina-based company. Actually, Blackwater is almost in Mexico already. For months, the North Carolina-based corporation has been pressuring local San Diego officials to grant it an operating license for an 824-acre training site to be known as Blackwater West in Potrero California 45 miles east of that bustling port city but only six miles from the Tecate Mexico border crossing. The site, some of which snakes through the Cleveland National Forest, is a favored transit route for undocumented Mexican workers heading north and has been recently scorched by out-of-control wildfires. Blackwater USA's plans have drawn the ire of locals who are not happy about having 15 firing ranges in earshot and a coalition of homeowners, local farmers, environmentalists, and peaceniks has been pieced together to oppose the project. Nonetheless, Blackwater has kept up a full court press on county officials, even sailing the company yacht flying a humongous Blackwater flag, into a local marina last spring and inviting members of the planning commission aboard for cocktails. Blackwater USA is attracted to the San Diego area because of the heavy concentration of military bases such as Camp Pendleton in the environs that could produce a windfall of security and training contracts from its pals in the Pentagon. Blackwater USA was founded by ex-Navy Seal Eric Prince who cultivates close ties with the military. One of Blackwater's most rah-rah backers in the Potrero venture is local congressman Duncan Hunter, ranking republican on the House Armed Services Committee and a dark horse candidate for his party's presidential nomination. Hunter is considered one of the most virulent anti-Mexican immigration voices in congress and is a political architect of the separation wall that now lines California's border with Mexico. The dispute over Blackwater's proposed Potrero training camp is not just a NIMBY-type confrontation. Siting the facility a stone's throw from the Mexican border internationalizes the proposition. By any stretch of the imagination, Mexican president Felipe Calderon ought to be nervous about the encampment of the world's largest private army on his conflictive northern border, particularly one that is not accountable to either the Geneva Convention or U.S. and Mexican military and civil law. Yet Calderon has not publically protested the proposal. Situated in rugged high desert terrain, Potrero is an idyllic hideaway to train a new generation of Rambos - one can imagine guest motivational appearances by Sylvester Stallone and California's action figure governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The camp which, in addition to multiple shooting ranges, will house an armory and feature both a 33,000 square feet urban counter-insurgency set and a course where armed vehicles seek to evade a paint ball barrage, is expected to train military and law enforcement personnel as well as private paramilitary security forces. Blackwater USA has trained dozens of police forces at its Moyock North Carolina complex in the heart of that state's Great Dismal Swamp, including big city (New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Chicago) officers as well as rural forces like the Maricopa County Arizona sheriff's department. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, is a first stop for undocumented Mexican migrants and the local police have been deputized to assist the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to corral the "indocumentados." Blackwater USA's strategic position overlooking the Mexican border in Potrero presents inviting economic opportunities. Testifying before congress in 2005, then-Blackwater president Gary Jackson said that the North Carolina enterprise was prepared to provide assistance on border security and long-time connections inside DHS could generate lucrative contracts training increasingly heavily-armed ICE agents. San Diego congressperson Bob Filner, a Democrat told Salon Magazine's Elaine Zimmerman last month that he believes Blackwater is positioning itself to move into the border security business. As the National Guard troops brought back from Iraq by George Bush to patrol the border and appease fellow-republicans like Hunter are drawn down (3000 have already been pulled back), Blackwater USA is poised to fill in the gap. Blackwater would also be useful in strengthening security at troubled immigration detention centers along the border, more than half of which have already been privatized. In an October 15th Wall Street Journal interview Prince indicated that Iraq-type operations were no longer at the top of Blackwater USA's business agenda and that he saw his company as going more "full spectrum." Now, as they move into their new facility on the Mexican border, Eric Prince & Company appear to be set to expand into both border enforcement and the Bush White House drug war with an operational role in Plan Mexico, the $1.5 billion U.S.-Mexico drug war scheme to fuse drug-fighting agencies on both sides of the border under Washington's control. Despite repeated advisories from the White House that Plan Mexico is a done deal, Bush and Calderon have yet to formalize the pact, pending approval by the U.S. Congress. The request for three half billion dollar Plan Mexico pay-outs through 2009 was sent on to congress folded into a near $50 billion supplemental spending bill to finance Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but given Democratic aversion to funding these failed military escapades in an election year, passage is not assured. Plan Mexico has spread widespread suspicion south of the border with many Mexicans condemning the project as a grievous violation of national sovereignty. Modeled on Washington's flawed Plan Colombia, which has pumped billions into that South American nation to bolster the right-wing regime of Alvaro Uribe, one of Bush's few allies in the hemisphere, Plan Mexico will supply this not-so-distant neighbor nation with upgraded military hardware and cutting edge technological savvy - the New York-based Verint Technology is already installing a voice-activated "communication interruption" system that will audit all phone and e-mail traffic in Mexico and to the U.S. The surveillance technology, which is being bankrolled by a U.S. State Department grant, appears to be as much in violation of the Mexican constitution as Bush's massive, secret surveillance dragnet of his own citizens violates the U.S. magna carta. Unlike Plan Colombia, Plan Mexico does not contemplate the stationing of U.S. troops on Mexican soil. Such an adventure would be universally unpopular here - the U.S. has invaded Mexico eight times since this country won its independence in 1821. To insure that U.S. military personnel stays on their side of the line, Mexican drug fighters are trained out of country, mainly at the Center for Special Forces in Fort Bragg North Carolina (100 miles as the crow flies from Blackwater's Moyock complex.) Nonetheless, as the military pares itself down and outsources its services, training Mexican troops is a role that a new "full-spectrum" Blackwater USA seems perfectly positioned to assume at the Potrero site. Because it is not formally a part of the U.S. military, Blackwater could also infiltrate personnel across the border for on-site engagement inside Mexico. Coincidentally, according to a recent report in the Army Times (Sept. 14th), Blackwater USA has just been handed a sizeable chunk of a $15 billion USD drug war grant by the Department of Defense (Raytheon is another big winner.) Part of the Blackwater boodle is slated for the design of an unmanned aerostat surveillance platform that has been subcontracted with the Maryland-based Arinc Corporation. The "blimp" project (if that what is being proposed) marks a radical departure for Eric Prince's conglom, which has never before been a supplier of technology to the military. According to the Army Times report, the DOD grant mandates Blackwater USA "to deploy surveillance techniques, train foreign security forces, and provide logistical and operational support" for drug war initiatives. Founded in 1996 by Prince and a handful of ex-Navy Seal buddies, Blackwater USA's business boomed in the wake of 9/11 and it is heavily invested in Bush's War on Terror. Drug war operations represent a field in which Blackwater has little experience but which, logistically at least, is not much different from the security firm's terror war duties. In recent years, the White House has done its damndest to conflate the War on Drugs with the War on Terror. Blackwater USA's enlistment in the drug war is a direct challenge to its stiffest competitor, DynCorp - up until now, the Dallas-based corporation has locked up 94% of all private drug war security contracts. Blackwater USA's move into combating narco-terrorism will give the North Carolina outfit a foot up in Latin America where the private security industry is flourishing. Blackwater now employs 1200 Chileans, ex-members of dictator Augusto Pinochet's military, in its international operations - in addition to its contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blackwater provides security for high officials in Azerbaijan, Jordan, and Bokano Faso among other governments. But Blackwater USA's Colombian subsidiary, ID Systems, ran into a storm of criticism when it recruited 20 ex-military officers for the company's Iraq operation - the recruits now claim that they were paid less than half of what their contracts called for and were kept by Blackwater USA in Iraq against their wills. Under the U.S.'s post 9/11 security redesign, military protection of the homeland has become the province of the newly created North Command, now housed in a Colorado bunker. Within the North Command's schema, Mexico forms a major portion of the U.S.'s southern security perimeter but with the U.S. military severely restricted in its abilities to put Special Forces on Mexican soil to combat the terrorists, narco or otherwise, Blackwater USA, perched as it is on the border at its Potrero California training camp and equipped with multi-million dollar DOD grants, stands ready to provide logistical and operational support to further Washington's designs on Mexico and the South.
Academi Mercenary Outfit
Source-Source-Wikipedia
Academi[2]—previously known as Xe Services LLC, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide—is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[3][4] Academi is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. Academi provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis.[1] Academi also has a research and development wing that was responsible for developing the Grizzly APC along with other military technology. The company's headquarters is in Arlington County, Virginia.[5]
Blackwater USA was formed in 1997, by Erik Prince in North Carolina, to provide training support to military and law enforcement organizations. In explaining Blackwater's purpose, Prince stated that ‘‘We are trying to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did for the Postal Service.’’[7] After serving SEAL and SWAT teams, Blackwater USA received their first government contract after the bombing of the USS Cole off of the coast of Yemen in October 2000. After winning the bid on the contract, Blackwater was able to train over 100,000 sailors safely.[8] Prince purchased about 7,000 acres (28 km2) (from Dow Jones Executive, Sean Trotter) of the Great Dismal Swamp, a vast swamp on the North Carolina/Virginia border, now mostly a National Wildlife Refuge. "We needed 3,000 acres to make it safe," Prince told reporter Robert Young Pelton.[9] There, he created his state-of-the-art private training facility and his contracting company, Blackwater, which he named for the peat-colored water of the swamp.[10] The Blackwater Lodge and Training Center officially opened on May 15, 1998 with a 6,000 acre facility and cost $6.5 million.[9] In 2002 Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) was formed. Its first assignment was to provide 20 men with top-secret clearances to protect the CIA headquarters and another base that was responsible for hunting Bin Laden.[11] Blackwater was one of several private security firms employed following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. BSC is one of over 60 private security firms employed during the Iraq War to guard officials and installations, train Iraq's new army and police, and provide other support for coalition forces.[12] Blackwater was also hired during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by the United States Department of Homeland Security, as well as by private clients, including communications, petrochemical and insurance companies.[13] Overall, the company has received over US$1 billion in U.S. government contracts.[14] Academi consists of nine divisions, and a subsidiary, Blackwater Vehicles.
Source-UKguardian.co.uk
Ex-Colombian president's family face US extradition over drugs charges
Álvaro Uribe's niece and her mother to stand trial over alleged ties to Sinaloa cartel drug lord, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán
VERY SIMPLE MILITARY STRATEGY-DIVIDE AND CONQUER
U.S. WIDENS ROLE IN WAR AGAINST DRUG CARTELS
Full Article @ link
Ex-Colombian president's family face US extradition over drugs charges
Álvaro Uribe's niece and her mother to stand trial over alleged ties to Sinaloa cartel drug lord, Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán
VERY SIMPLE MILITARY STRATEGY-DIVIDE AND CONQUER
U.S. WIDENS ROLE IN WAR AGAINST DRUG CARTELS
Full Article @ link
Source-NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — The United States is expanding its role in Mexico’s bloody fight against drug trafficking organizations, sending new C.I.A. operatives and retired military personnel to the country and considering plans to deploy private security contractors in hopes of turning around a multibillion-dollar effort that so far has shown few results.
The United States is assisting Mexican police forces in conducting wiretaps, running informants
Jaime Zapata, an immigration and customs agent who was killed in Mexico,
In recent weeks, small numbers of C.I.A. operatives and American civilian military employees have been posted at a Mexican military base, where, for the first time, security officials from both countries work side by side in collecting information about drug cartels and helping plan operations. Officials are also looking into embedding a team of American contractors inside a specially vetted Mexican counternarcotics police unit.
Officials on both sides of the border say the new efforts have been devised to get around Mexican laws that prohibit foreign military and police from operating on its soil, and to prevent advanced American surveillance technology from falling under the control of Mexican security agencies with long histories of corruption.
“A sea change has occurred over the past years in how effective Mexico and U.S. intelligence exchanges have become,” said Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States. “It is underpinned by the understanding that transnational organized crime can only be successfully confronted by working hand in hand, and that the outcome is as simple as it is compelling: we will together succeed or together fail.”
The latest steps come three years after the United States began increasing its security assistance to Mexico with the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative and tens of millions of dollars from the Defense Department. They also come a year before elections in both countries, when President Obama may confront questions about the threat of violence spilling over the border, and President Felipe Calderón’s political party faces a Mexican electorate that is almost certainly going to ask why it should stick with a fight that has left nearly 45,000 people dead.
“The pressure is going to be especially strong in Mexico, where I expect there will be a lot more raids, a lot more arrests and a lot more parading drug traffickers in front of cameras,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counternarcotics expert at the Brookings Institution. “But I would also expect a lot of questioning of Merida, and some people asking about the way the money is spent, or demanding that the government send it back to the gringos.”
Mexico has become ground zero in the American counternarcotics fight since its cartels have cornered the market and are responsible for more than 80 percent of the drugs that enter the United States. American counternarcotics assistance there has grown faster in recent years than to Afghanistan and Colombia. And in the last three years, officials said, exchanges of intelligence between the United States and Mexico have helped security forces there capture or kill some 30 mid- to high-level drug traffickers, compared with just two such arrests in the previous five years.
THE ATLANTIC.COM PICTORIAL OF MEXICO'S DRUG VIOLENCE
WASHINGTON — The United States is expanding its role in Mexico’s bloody fight against drug trafficking organizations, sending new C.I.A. operatives and retired military personnel to the country and considering plans to deploy private security contractors in hopes of turning around a multibillion-dollar effort that so far has shown few results.
The United States is assisting Mexican police forces in conducting wiretaps, running informants
Jaime Zapata, an immigration and customs agent who was killed in Mexico,
In recent weeks, small numbers of C.I.A. operatives and American civilian military employees have been posted at a Mexican military base, where, for the first time, security officials from both countries work side by side in collecting information about drug cartels and helping plan operations. Officials are also looking into embedding a team of American contractors inside a specially vetted Mexican counternarcotics police unit.
Officials on both sides of the border say the new efforts have been devised to get around Mexican laws that prohibit foreign military and police from operating on its soil, and to prevent advanced American surveillance technology from falling under the control of Mexican security agencies with long histories of corruption.
“A sea change has occurred over the past years in how effective Mexico and U.S. intelligence exchanges have become,” said Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States. “It is underpinned by the understanding that transnational organized crime can only be successfully confronted by working hand in hand, and that the outcome is as simple as it is compelling: we will together succeed or together fail.”
The latest steps come three years after the United States began increasing its security assistance to Mexico with the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative and tens of millions of dollars from the Defense Department. They also come a year before elections in both countries, when President Obama may confront questions about the threat of violence spilling over the border, and President Felipe Calderón’s political party faces a Mexican electorate that is almost certainly going to ask why it should stick with a fight that has left nearly 45,000 people dead.
“The pressure is going to be especially strong in Mexico, where I expect there will be a lot more raids, a lot more arrests and a lot more parading drug traffickers in front of cameras,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counternarcotics expert at the Brookings Institution. “But I would also expect a lot of questioning of Merida, and some people asking about the way the money is spent, or demanding that the government send it back to the gringos.”
Mexico has become ground zero in the American counternarcotics fight since its cartels have cornered the market and are responsible for more than 80 percent of the drugs that enter the United States. American counternarcotics assistance there has grown faster in recent years than to Afghanistan and Colombia. And in the last three years, officials said, exchanges of intelligence between the United States and Mexico have helped security forces there capture or kill some 30 mid- to high-level drug traffickers, compared with just two such arrests in the previous five years.
THE ATLANTIC.COM PICTORIAL OF MEXICO'S DRUG VIOLENCE
Source-theatlantic.com
Zetas now Mexico's biggest Drug Gang
Zetas now Mexico's biggest Drug Gang
Source-BBCNews.co.uk
Puerto Rican Drug Smugglers
Puerto Rican Drug Smugglers
Source-Orlandosentinel.com
La Perla drug bust
La Perla drug bust
Source-Puertoricodailysun.com
A federal grand jury indicted 114 people Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute illegal and controlled drugs.
Early Wednesday morning more than 400 federal and state law enforcement officials swarmed the streets and alleys of the La Perla ward, a century-old community at the foot of the wall in Old San Juan. Operation Old World was the culmination of a one-and-a-half year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Puerto Rico Justice Department and Police, and other federal law enforcement agencies.
“These indictments are related to a drug trafficking organization operating in La Perla Ward and headed by Jorge Gómez González, a.k.a. ‘Cara de Truck’ (Truck Face), a well-known community leader in La Perla,” said U.S. District Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez.
According to Rodríguez, drug trafficking in La Perla, was controlled by the Martínez and Serrano families, who had been operating their criminal enterprise since 1998.
The two families apparently had agreed on the mechanisms to “distribute and supply controlled substances within La Perla.”
“They controlled all drug trafficking, especially heroine, in La Perla,” said Rodríguez, who affirmed most of the heroin distributed in Puerto Rico comes out of La Perla.
Nevertheless, the scope of the trafficking operation included other illegal drugs and extended beyond La Perla, according to the D.A. The defendants are being charged in a nine-count indictment with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana, oxycodone (“Percocet”) and alprazolam (“Xanax”).
“This violent organization was supplying and selling drugs not only to the people in La Perla but to people living in different municipalities, children and tourists,” said Rodríguez.
Rodríguez said the co-conspirators participated in the criminal endeavor as leaders (“bichotes”) (17), drug point owners or “magnates” (16), and enforcers, suppliers, runners and sellers, among other roles. Most of the indicted had more than one specific role in the operation.
Rodríguez also explained at least 30 of them possessed and used firearms to protect themselves, the drugs and the drug trafficking organization.
“We estimate the profit of this criminal organization to be some $5 million a year,” she added, who also estimated heroin sales between two and three kilos every two days.
The criminal leaders would allegedly “give out samples” of their products to heroin and cocaine customers for them to “test the quality of the drug and promote the sale of the product.” Bulk sales would take place in the drug owners’ homes or on “Wipao” (Wipe-out), a sector on La Perla’s waterfront.
Sellers not born or raised in La Perla, were not allowed to sell their drugs beyond la Bóveda, the arched entrance/exit on the old city wall that gives access to La Perla from Norzagaray Street.
“They [the unauthorized sellers] could not go beyond a yellow line painted on the street just beyond the Bóveda. If they stepped over the line they were disciplined,” explained Rodríguez.
Most of these rules were established by Gómez González, who was identified by Assistant U.S. Attorney George A. Massuco as “one of the most powerful leaders in La Perla since 1998.”
From kingpin to community leader
According to the federal investigation, Gómez González was part of the drug trafficking organization in La Perla since its inception in 1998.
“It was him, along with other drug owners, who established the rules, for instance the yellow line,” said Massuco.
There were other rules that sellers had to follow in order to continue selling [their drugs], such as a rule of exclusiveness that prevented a seller from selling drugs from a “bichote” other than his own. These rules presumably established a sense of order and kept the peace in La Perla.
For several years, Gómez González had been very active in dealing with different situations affecting the centuries-old community. As a matter of fact, more than once he served as a kind of liaison between the municipal government and the community in matters regarding services and infrastructure development.
During election campaigns Gómez González would allegedly sponsor the visit of political candidates to La Perla.
“We have information confirming that whenever politicos would visit La Perla, drug owners, including Gómez González, instructed the boys selling [drugs] when they had to clear out of the street because politicians shouldn’t witness what was happening there,”said Massucco.
The federal indictment includes a series of forfeiture allegations in cash and properties located in and outside La Perla.
“The narcotics forfeiture allegation includes $20 million in cash and 50 properties located in La Perla,” said Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit chief Miryam Fernández.
The money laundering indictment includes a forfeiture allegation for six other properties located in Toa Baja, but according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Roberto Escobar, other properties may be included in the allegation because the investigation is ongoing. If convicted, the defendants face a minimum of 10 years to life imprisonment and fines up to $8 million.
A federal grand jury indicted 114 people Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute illegal and controlled drugs.
Early Wednesday morning more than 400 federal and state law enforcement officials swarmed the streets and alleys of the La Perla ward, a century-old community at the foot of the wall in Old San Juan. Operation Old World was the culmination of a one-and-a-half year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Puerto Rico Justice Department and Police, and other federal law enforcement agencies.
“These indictments are related to a drug trafficking organization operating in La Perla Ward and headed by Jorge Gómez González, a.k.a. ‘Cara de Truck’ (Truck Face), a well-known community leader in La Perla,” said U.S. District Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez.
According to Rodríguez, drug trafficking in La Perla, was controlled by the Martínez and Serrano families, who had been operating their criminal enterprise since 1998.
The two families apparently had agreed on the mechanisms to “distribute and supply controlled substances within La Perla.”
“They controlled all drug trafficking, especially heroine, in La Perla,” said Rodríguez, who affirmed most of the heroin distributed in Puerto Rico comes out of La Perla.
Nevertheless, the scope of the trafficking operation included other illegal drugs and extended beyond La Perla, according to the D.A. The defendants are being charged in a nine-count indictment with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana, oxycodone (“Percocet”) and alprazolam (“Xanax”).
“This violent organization was supplying and selling drugs not only to the people in La Perla but to people living in different municipalities, children and tourists,” said Rodríguez.
Rodríguez said the co-conspirators participated in the criminal endeavor as leaders (“bichotes”) (17), drug point owners or “magnates” (16), and enforcers, suppliers, runners and sellers, among other roles. Most of the indicted had more than one specific role in the operation.
Rodríguez also explained at least 30 of them possessed and used firearms to protect themselves, the drugs and the drug trafficking organization.
“We estimate the profit of this criminal organization to be some $5 million a year,” she added, who also estimated heroin sales between two and three kilos every two days.
The criminal leaders would allegedly “give out samples” of their products to heroin and cocaine customers for them to “test the quality of the drug and promote the sale of the product.” Bulk sales would take place in the drug owners’ homes or on “Wipao” (Wipe-out), a sector on La Perla’s waterfront.
Sellers not born or raised in La Perla, were not allowed to sell their drugs beyond la Bóveda, the arched entrance/exit on the old city wall that gives access to La Perla from Norzagaray Street.
“They [the unauthorized sellers] could not go beyond a yellow line painted on the street just beyond the Bóveda. If they stepped over the line they were disciplined,” explained Rodríguez.
Most of these rules were established by Gómez González, who was identified by Assistant U.S. Attorney George A. Massuco as “one of the most powerful leaders in La Perla since 1998.”
From kingpin to community leader
According to the federal investigation, Gómez González was part of the drug trafficking organization in La Perla since its inception in 1998.
“It was him, along with other drug owners, who established the rules, for instance the yellow line,” said Massuco.
There were other rules that sellers had to follow in order to continue selling [their drugs], such as a rule of exclusiveness that prevented a seller from selling drugs from a “bichote” other than his own. These rules presumably established a sense of order and kept the peace in La Perla.
For several years, Gómez González had been very active in dealing with different situations affecting the centuries-old community. As a matter of fact, more than once he served as a kind of liaison between the municipal government and the community in matters regarding services and infrastructure development.
During election campaigns Gómez González would allegedly sponsor the visit of political candidates to La Perla.
“We have information confirming that whenever politicos would visit La Perla, drug owners, including Gómez González, instructed the boys selling [drugs] when they had to clear out of the street because politicians shouldn’t witness what was happening there,”said Massucco.
The federal indictment includes a series of forfeiture allegations in cash and properties located in and outside La Perla.
“The narcotics forfeiture allegation includes $20 million in cash and 50 properties located in La Perla,” said Money Laundering and Forfeiture Unit chief Miryam Fernández.
The money laundering indictment includes a forfeiture allegation for six other properties located in Toa Baja, but according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Roberto Escobar, other properties may be included in the allegation because the investigation is ongoing. If convicted, the defendants face a minimum of 10 years to life imprisonment and fines up to $8 million.
SPECIAL REPORT-MEXICO'S ZETAS REWRITE DRUG WAR IN BLOOD
Source-reuters.com
(Reuters) - Mexican government forces had bottled up a band of enemy fighters in this tiny village late last year, but feared they would escape into the dusty, rock-strewn hills. So more than 600 soldiers and federal police closed in from all directions with armored Humvees and helicopters.
The outlaws responded with a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault-rifle fire, tearing apart one federal police vehicle. For three days the fighting raged.
In the end, according to military accounts of the battle, 22 members of the Zetas drug cartel, two police officers and a soldier were dead, and 20 Zetas were in custody. Dozens more escaped to fight another day.
The battle could have been a scene from the war in Afghanistan, but it erupted just 45 miles south of the Texas border. It was only one of dozens like it in northeastern Mexico in recent months as soldiers, marines and police have engaged in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with roaming Zetas hit squads.
Formed in 1998 by 14 former Mexican soldiers, the Zetas have grown to command more than 10,000 gunmen from the Rio Grande, on the border with Texas, to deep into Central America. Their rapid expansion has displaced Mexico's older cartels in many areas, giving them a dominant position in the multi-billion-dollar cross-border drug trade, as well as extortion, kidnapping and other criminal businesses.
But it is bloodshed that has made the Zetas notorious. And feared.
Zetas killers have been arrested for some of the worst atrocities in Mexico's drug war, including the murders of hundreds of people whose bodies have been found in mass graves with alarming frequency, the massacre of 72 foreign migrant workers headed to the United States, and the burning of a casino that claimed 52 lives.
On Sunday, Mexican soldiers said they had arrested Daniel Elizondo, a Zetas leader known as "The Madman," as the alleged perpetrator of the massacre of 49 people whose corpses were decapitated, dismembered and dumped on a highway a week earlier. In the last month, the Zetas have also been linked to the decapitation of 18 people near Guadalajara and the hanging of nine in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. In those two cases, messages left at the scenes, signed by the Zetas, said the victims were rival traffickers.
Mexican and U.S. agents say the Zetas' paramilitary tactics -- based on small, roaming cells of armed operatives -- and indiscriminate violence are the driving forces behind a recent escalation in Mexico's drug war. That conflict, between government forces and the cartels and among the cartels themselves, has claimed about 55,000 lives in the past five years, including more than 3,000 police officers and soldiers.
MORE LIKE INSURGENTS
The Zetas pose a bigger challenge to the government than older cartels because of the intensity of their attacks against security forces, their disregard for civilian life and the murderous habits that break the unspoken codes of older traffickers. The brutality has made their heartland in northeastern Mexico a no-go area for many businessmen and tourists.
Mexican police officers and soldiers on the front lines say the Zetas have more in common with insurgents than traditional gangs. "The Zetas act like urban guerrillas," said Florencio Santos, a former soldier and now police chief in Guadalupe, a town on the southern outskirts of Monterrey. "They'll make a phone call to get the police out, then block the street in front of the patrol cars and open fire from the front and the side."
Drug agents say the goals of the Zetas also differ from Mexico's traditional smuggling families. While older cartels focused on trafficking routes and drug-producing areas, the Zetas move into any town or city where they can to carry out shakedowns and other crimes.
"The Zetas have created a new model of organized crime and unleashed new levels of violence to try and unseat the older cartels," said Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "This has destabilized many areas of Mexico."
A report by Mexico's organized crime unit, SIEDO, found that the Zetas now control more territory than the nation's oldest and wealthiest trafficking organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. The report, leaked in January, says that while the Sinaloans operate in 16 of Mexico's 32 federal entities, the Zetas are in 17.
They are creeping into the United States, too. A grand jury in Laredo, Texas, in April indicted four alleged Zetas for conspiracy to murder and traffic drugs on U.S. soil. The charges follow another Laredo trial in January in which two alleged Zetas were found guilty on weapons and homicide charges.
Zetas gunmen are alleged by Mexican prosecutors to be behind the killing of U.S. customs agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico in 2011, the first American agent to be murdered on duty here since the 1980s. The U.S. government is offering a $5 million reward for the capture of the Zetas supreme commander, 37-year-old Heriberto Lazcano, alias "The Executioner."
WAR ZONE
The Zetas stronghold in northeastern Mexico, across the border from Texas, has become Mexico's most violent region. In Nuevo Leon state, home to the rich industrial city Monterrey and villages such as Vallecillo, there were more than 685 drug-related killings by mid-May, according to media tallies. This put it ahead of even Chihuahua state, with 560 gangland slayings and home to Mexico's previous murder capital, Ciudad Juarez, dominated by the Juarez Cartel.
Nuevo Leon can seem like a state under siege. Zetas graffiti mark the group's territory. Many local residents, aware that gang hit men regularly murder people accused of snitching, are too scared to help the police. Police and soldiers in Nuevo Leon say they move only in convoys of at least 30 troops because of the threat of Zetas ambushes, a precaution not needed in most of the rest of the country.
Guadalupe police chief Santos survived an ambush in September because the bullets didn't pierce his armored vehicle. "It was a terrifying moment," Santos said. "I thought the bullets might get through, but the vehicle held until reinforcements came."
Some of his fellow policemen weren't so lucky. Last year the Zetas murdered 13 of Guadalupe's 300 street officers and destroyed 48 patrol cars through such attacks. Santos and most of his officers now sleep inside a barracks for protection.
The Zetas are aided by an effective network of spies. These hawks, as they are called, are typically teenagers or young men and women paid about $600 a month, Guadalupe police say. In a country with a minimum wage of about $5 a day, that money can buy a lot of support.
When a Reuters reporter accompanied police in Guadalupe on a recent patrol, officers listened to a radio frequency used by the gangsters. Zetas hawks could be heard warning their cohorts about the convoy of police vehicles moving into a slum on the edge of Monterrey.
Santos, the police chief, said he fought Zapatista guerrillas when they took up arms in the southern state of Chiapas in 1994 to fight for the rights of indigenous people. The Zetas, he says, are a far deadlier foe. "The Zetas have much better training and better armaments than the Zapatistas did."
HEADING NORTH
The Zetas' supreme leader, Lazcano, was born in 1974 in the village of Acatlan in Hidalgo state, the local birth registry shows. This community of cattle farms and corn plots more than 600 miles from the Mexico-U.S. border provides its youth with few opportunities. Many young men head north to enter the U.S. illegally, or they join the armed forces.
As a child, Lazcano moved with his family to the nearby city of Pachuca, settling in the working-class barrio of Tezontle, police say. The clutch of dusty streets and unpainted cinder-block houses lies next to a military base, where records show Lazcano enlisted with the Mexican army at age 17 to become an infantryman.
He was following in the footsteps of the founding Zetas, many of whom also came from central and southern Mexico and served in military divisions -- infantry, motorized cavalry, special forces -- whose regulars often received training from the U.S.
A 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks shows that at least one Zeta, former infantry lieutenant Rogelio Lopez, trained at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Declassified U.S. training manuals used for Latin American officers include sections on combat intelligence and use of informants, both strong points of the Zetas.
Lazcano deserted from the infantry in 1998 to join the Zetas, then led by former paratrooper Arturo Guzman Decena. At the time the Zetas were still devoted to their original mission: acting as debt collectors and killers for the Gulf Cartel, a dominant gang, moving hundreds of tons of cocaine, marijuana and heroin into Texas.
The enforcers adopted the name Zeta -- the letter Z in Spanish -- from a radio signal Guzman had used as a paratrooper. Guzman baptized himself Z-1, and Lazcano became Z-3.
A few months later, after Mexican soldiers shot dead both Z-1 and his second in command, Lazcano took control of the Zetas at age 28 and began the group's rapid expansion. They spread the word on the streets, and even advertised on blankets hung from bridges: "The Zeta operations group wants you, soldier or ex-soldier," one said. "We offer a good salary, food and attention for your family. Don't suffer hunger and abuse anymore."
They recruited poor youths, former soldiers, members of other gangs and even foreign mercenaries, including former members of the Kaibil special forces in Guatemala's army, according to the Guatemalan security ministry. The Kaibiles were widely accused of atrocities in that nation's civil war.
As the Zetas grew, so did their ambitions, causing tension with the Gulf Cartel bosses. The first cracks in the alliance appeared in 2007, when Gulf Cartel leaders made a peace deal with the Sinaloa Cartel, a move the Zetas saw as a sellout, according to testimony from Zeta founding member Jesus Rejon, or Z-7, after he was arrested in 2011.
In 2010, tensions boiled over into open warfare as Zetas began attacking Gulf operatives wherever they found them and claiming the turf for themselves. The Gulf Cartel allied with their old Sinaloan rivals to fight back, engulfing the region in violence.
GANGSTER ECONOMICS
It is impossible to know the Zetas' share of the U.S. narcotics market, which is estimated by the United Nations to be worth a total of about $60 billion annually.
But it's clear that the Zetas' stronghold in northeastern Mexico includes some of the most sought-after trafficking routes into the United States. More than 8,500 trucks cross daily into Texas from the border city of Nuevo Laredo, twice the number crossing from either Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez.
To warehouse and move these drugs, the Zetas have set up cells in Laredo, Dallas and Houston, a U.S. federal court heard this January when it convicted two members of such a cell on homicide, racketeering and weapons charges. Evidence from wiretaps and witnesses show that the cells also move guns bought in U.S. stores and cash into Mexico. U.S. federal prosecutors in Texas say Zetas gunmen have carried out at least eight murders on U.S. soil to date.
The Zetas have also made billions of dollars by diversifying into extortion, kidnapping, product piracy and even theft of crude oil from the pipelines of Mexico's state-owned oil monopoly, Pemex, U.S. agents say. In a recent report, Pemex said it had lost 11.7 million barrels of oil to theft in 2010 and 2011, citing the Zetas as the main culprit.
This diversification breaks with the habits of older cartels, which have focused on drugs. And as the Zetas have made money with their portfolio of crimes, copycat gangs have sprung up with names such as "The Hands With Eyes."
In Guadalupe, police chief Santos said the Zetas receive protection payments, known as "quotas," from taxi operators, restaurants and other local businesses. "Most people pay up because they are so scared of what the Zetas will do," Santos said.
During the recent patrol, police were called to the scene of a shooting, finding a car dealership riddled with bullet holes, in what Santos said was a reminder over these payments.
When the Zetas burned down a Monterrey casino in broad daylight in August, the alleged reason was an extortion payment, according to federal prosecutors who have filed charges against alleged Zetas arrested for the crime.
The desire for shakedown money has fueled the spread of the Zetas across Mexico, investigators say. "What they want to do is control territory and physical space, where they can simply co-opt other businesses and collect tax," said Steven Dudley of the Washington-based research group Insight Crime. "That model is easily replicated."
YOUNG THUGS
Agents say that as the Zetas have expanded, they have filled their ranks with unruly thugs who can be hard to control. "These new players ... are doing things that might not be sanctioned by the leadership. ... The outrageous behavior has made them the big target of the government," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official working in Mexico, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Such wild elements may have been behind the May 13 atrocity that made headlines around the world. Early that morning, 49 corpses with their heads, hands and feet cut off were left on a highway east of Monterrey. A note signed with the Zetas name was found amidst the carnage. However, messages released in the following days denied the Zetas had ordered the massacre.
Investigators say Elizondo, arrested a week later as the alleged mastermind of the massacre, may have disobeyed top leaders in carrying it out. None of the victims have been identified. Police said they could have been foreign migrants traveling through Mexico to the United States. The Zetas often kidnap migrants for ransom and murder those who don't pay.
Zetas assassins have been effective in fighting rivals. In the last year, the Zetas have pushed the Gulf Cartel out of much of its historic turf along the South Texas border and challenged the Sinaloa Cartel close to their homeland in the Pacific. In a single ambush in the Pacific state of Nayarit in 2011, Zetas slaughtered 29 alleged Sinaloa Cartel operatives when the Zetas attacked with mounted machine guns and grenades.
Even more brutally, Zetas prisoners in February stabbed and bludgeoned to death 44 alleged Gulf Cartel inmates in a jail on the edge of Monterrey. After the attack, which officials say involved the help of corrupt guards, 35 Zetas prisoners escaped.
Several other major cartels have formed an alliance to hit back against the Zetas with their own paramilitary units, U.S. agents said in testimony at a congressional hearing in October evaluating Mexico's drug war. At the forefront of the fight back is a shady group calling itself the "Zetas killers," believed to be funded by rival cartels. Gunmen from this group dropped 35 corpses of suspected Zetas on a highway in Veracruz state in September.
In a video released after the incident, men in ski masks claimed they were going after the Zetas because of the harm their extortion and kidnapping rackets inflicted on communities. "We want the armed forces to trust us that our only goal is to finish off the Zetas," a man in a ski mask says on the video. "We're anonymous warriors, faceless, but proudly Mexican."
WANTED MEN
Since President Felipe Calderon took power in 2006 and sent 50,000 soldiers after the drug cartels, Mexican and U.S. agents have worked together to root out top drug traffickers.
The most spectacular takedowns include Arturo Beltran Leyva, a breakaway boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, who was shot dead by Mexican marines in 2009, and La Familia boss Nazario Moreno, whom police killed in 2010.
Lazcano and his top deputies have proved to be more elusive, thanks to their military-style organization. "They've got an advance guard, they've got a main body, they've got a rear guard," the U.S. official said. "They do forward reconnaissance almost like you would see if you were moving a dignitary around."
Zetas leaders also escape detection by using encrypted radio and Skype instead of telephones, the U.S. official said. Agents say leaders of the group's small operating cells are moved every few months to avoid detection.
Mexican soldiers say they came close to nabbing Lazcano in a house on the outskirts of Monterrey in 2009, but that after scouts warned him of the raid, he escaped the neighborhood in a bulletproof Jeep Cherokee.
With Lazcano still at large, the Zetas will pose a challenge for the next Mexican president. Calderon is barred by law from seeking re-election in the July polls. The current front-runner, Enrique Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, has pledged to create and deploy a new police force against the gangs and gradually put army troops back in barracks, a promise popular with many voters who are tired of the relentless drug war.
Zetas hit squads could make that difficult. A message signed by the Zetas and hung from a bridge in Monterrey in February took aim at the Mexican government. "Even with the support of the United States, they cannot stop us, because here the Zetas rule," it said. "The government must make a pact with us because if not we will have to overthrow it and take power by force."
(Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; editing by John Blanton and Prudence Crowther)
The good, The bad, and the ugly Mexican elections
(Reuters) - Mexican government forces had bottled up a band of enemy fighters in this tiny village late last year, but feared they would escape into the dusty, rock-strewn hills. So more than 600 soldiers and federal police closed in from all directions with armored Humvees and helicopters.
The outlaws responded with a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault-rifle fire, tearing apart one federal police vehicle. For three days the fighting raged.
In the end, according to military accounts of the battle, 22 members of the Zetas drug cartel, two police officers and a soldier were dead, and 20 Zetas were in custody. Dozens more escaped to fight another day.
The battle could have been a scene from the war in Afghanistan, but it erupted just 45 miles south of the Texas border. It was only one of dozens like it in northeastern Mexico in recent months as soldiers, marines and police have engaged in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with roaming Zetas hit squads.
Formed in 1998 by 14 former Mexican soldiers, the Zetas have grown to command more than 10,000 gunmen from the Rio Grande, on the border with Texas, to deep into Central America. Their rapid expansion has displaced Mexico's older cartels in many areas, giving them a dominant position in the multi-billion-dollar cross-border drug trade, as well as extortion, kidnapping and other criminal businesses.
But it is bloodshed that has made the Zetas notorious. And feared.
Zetas killers have been arrested for some of the worst atrocities in Mexico's drug war, including the murders of hundreds of people whose bodies have been found in mass graves with alarming frequency, the massacre of 72 foreign migrant workers headed to the United States, and the burning of a casino that claimed 52 lives.
On Sunday, Mexican soldiers said they had arrested Daniel Elizondo, a Zetas leader known as "The Madman," as the alleged perpetrator of the massacre of 49 people whose corpses were decapitated, dismembered and dumped on a highway a week earlier. In the last month, the Zetas have also been linked to the decapitation of 18 people near Guadalajara and the hanging of nine in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. In those two cases, messages left at the scenes, signed by the Zetas, said the victims were rival traffickers.
Mexican and U.S. agents say the Zetas' paramilitary tactics -- based on small, roaming cells of armed operatives -- and indiscriminate violence are the driving forces behind a recent escalation in Mexico's drug war. That conflict, between government forces and the cartels and among the cartels themselves, has claimed about 55,000 lives in the past five years, including more than 3,000 police officers and soldiers.
MORE LIKE INSURGENTS
The Zetas pose a bigger challenge to the government than older cartels because of the intensity of their attacks against security forces, their disregard for civilian life and the murderous habits that break the unspoken codes of older traffickers. The brutality has made their heartland in northeastern Mexico a no-go area for many businessmen and tourists.
Mexican police officers and soldiers on the front lines say the Zetas have more in common with insurgents than traditional gangs. "The Zetas act like urban guerrillas," said Florencio Santos, a former soldier and now police chief in Guadalupe, a town on the southern outskirts of Monterrey. "They'll make a phone call to get the police out, then block the street in front of the patrol cars and open fire from the front and the side."
Drug agents say the goals of the Zetas also differ from Mexico's traditional smuggling families. While older cartels focused on trafficking routes and drug-producing areas, the Zetas move into any town or city where they can to carry out shakedowns and other crimes.
"The Zetas have created a new model of organized crime and unleashed new levels of violence to try and unseat the older cartels," said Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "This has destabilized many areas of Mexico."
A report by Mexico's organized crime unit, SIEDO, found that the Zetas now control more territory than the nation's oldest and wealthiest trafficking organization, the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman. The report, leaked in January, says that while the Sinaloans operate in 16 of Mexico's 32 federal entities, the Zetas are in 17.
They are creeping into the United States, too. A grand jury in Laredo, Texas, in April indicted four alleged Zetas for conspiracy to murder and traffic drugs on U.S. soil. The charges follow another Laredo trial in January in which two alleged Zetas were found guilty on weapons and homicide charges.
Zetas gunmen are alleged by Mexican prosecutors to be behind the killing of U.S. customs agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico in 2011, the first American agent to be murdered on duty here since the 1980s. The U.S. government is offering a $5 million reward for the capture of the Zetas supreme commander, 37-year-old Heriberto Lazcano, alias "The Executioner."
WAR ZONE
The Zetas stronghold in northeastern Mexico, across the border from Texas, has become Mexico's most violent region. In Nuevo Leon state, home to the rich industrial city Monterrey and villages such as Vallecillo, there were more than 685 drug-related killings by mid-May, according to media tallies. This put it ahead of even Chihuahua state, with 560 gangland slayings and home to Mexico's previous murder capital, Ciudad Juarez, dominated by the Juarez Cartel.
Nuevo Leon can seem like a state under siege. Zetas graffiti mark the group's territory. Many local residents, aware that gang hit men regularly murder people accused of snitching, are too scared to help the police. Police and soldiers in Nuevo Leon say they move only in convoys of at least 30 troops because of the threat of Zetas ambushes, a precaution not needed in most of the rest of the country.
Guadalupe police chief Santos survived an ambush in September because the bullets didn't pierce his armored vehicle. "It was a terrifying moment," Santos said. "I thought the bullets might get through, but the vehicle held until reinforcements came."
Some of his fellow policemen weren't so lucky. Last year the Zetas murdered 13 of Guadalupe's 300 street officers and destroyed 48 patrol cars through such attacks. Santos and most of his officers now sleep inside a barracks for protection.
The Zetas are aided by an effective network of spies. These hawks, as they are called, are typically teenagers or young men and women paid about $600 a month, Guadalupe police say. In a country with a minimum wage of about $5 a day, that money can buy a lot of support.
When a Reuters reporter accompanied police in Guadalupe on a recent patrol, officers listened to a radio frequency used by the gangsters. Zetas hawks could be heard warning their cohorts about the convoy of police vehicles moving into a slum on the edge of Monterrey.
Santos, the police chief, said he fought Zapatista guerrillas when they took up arms in the southern state of Chiapas in 1994 to fight for the rights of indigenous people. The Zetas, he says, are a far deadlier foe. "The Zetas have much better training and better armaments than the Zapatistas did."
HEADING NORTH
The Zetas' supreme leader, Lazcano, was born in 1974 in the village of Acatlan in Hidalgo state, the local birth registry shows. This community of cattle farms and corn plots more than 600 miles from the Mexico-U.S. border provides its youth with few opportunities. Many young men head north to enter the U.S. illegally, or they join the armed forces.
As a child, Lazcano moved with his family to the nearby city of Pachuca, settling in the working-class barrio of Tezontle, police say. The clutch of dusty streets and unpainted cinder-block houses lies next to a military base, where records show Lazcano enlisted with the Mexican army at age 17 to become an infantryman.
He was following in the footsteps of the founding Zetas, many of whom also came from central and southern Mexico and served in military divisions -- infantry, motorized cavalry, special forces -- whose regulars often received training from the U.S.
A 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks shows that at least one Zeta, former infantry lieutenant Rogelio Lopez, trained at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Declassified U.S. training manuals used for Latin American officers include sections on combat intelligence and use of informants, both strong points of the Zetas.
Lazcano deserted from the infantry in 1998 to join the Zetas, then led by former paratrooper Arturo Guzman Decena. At the time the Zetas were still devoted to their original mission: acting as debt collectors and killers for the Gulf Cartel, a dominant gang, moving hundreds of tons of cocaine, marijuana and heroin into Texas.
The enforcers adopted the name Zeta -- the letter Z in Spanish -- from a radio signal Guzman had used as a paratrooper. Guzman baptized himself Z-1, and Lazcano became Z-3.
A few months later, after Mexican soldiers shot dead both Z-1 and his second in command, Lazcano took control of the Zetas at age 28 and began the group's rapid expansion. They spread the word on the streets, and even advertised on blankets hung from bridges: "The Zeta operations group wants you, soldier or ex-soldier," one said. "We offer a good salary, food and attention for your family. Don't suffer hunger and abuse anymore."
They recruited poor youths, former soldiers, members of other gangs and even foreign mercenaries, including former members of the Kaibil special forces in Guatemala's army, according to the Guatemalan security ministry. The Kaibiles were widely accused of atrocities in that nation's civil war.
As the Zetas grew, so did their ambitions, causing tension with the Gulf Cartel bosses. The first cracks in the alliance appeared in 2007, when Gulf Cartel leaders made a peace deal with the Sinaloa Cartel, a move the Zetas saw as a sellout, according to testimony from Zeta founding member Jesus Rejon, or Z-7, after he was arrested in 2011.
In 2010, tensions boiled over into open warfare as Zetas began attacking Gulf operatives wherever they found them and claiming the turf for themselves. The Gulf Cartel allied with their old Sinaloan rivals to fight back, engulfing the region in violence.
GANGSTER ECONOMICS
It is impossible to know the Zetas' share of the U.S. narcotics market, which is estimated by the United Nations to be worth a total of about $60 billion annually.
But it's clear that the Zetas' stronghold in northeastern Mexico includes some of the most sought-after trafficking routes into the United States. More than 8,500 trucks cross daily into Texas from the border city of Nuevo Laredo, twice the number crossing from either Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez.
To warehouse and move these drugs, the Zetas have set up cells in Laredo, Dallas and Houston, a U.S. federal court heard this January when it convicted two members of such a cell on homicide, racketeering and weapons charges. Evidence from wiretaps and witnesses show that the cells also move guns bought in U.S. stores and cash into Mexico. U.S. federal prosecutors in Texas say Zetas gunmen have carried out at least eight murders on U.S. soil to date.
The Zetas have also made billions of dollars by diversifying into extortion, kidnapping, product piracy and even theft of crude oil from the pipelines of Mexico's state-owned oil monopoly, Pemex, U.S. agents say. In a recent report, Pemex said it had lost 11.7 million barrels of oil to theft in 2010 and 2011, citing the Zetas as the main culprit.
This diversification breaks with the habits of older cartels, which have focused on drugs. And as the Zetas have made money with their portfolio of crimes, copycat gangs have sprung up with names such as "The Hands With Eyes."
In Guadalupe, police chief Santos said the Zetas receive protection payments, known as "quotas," from taxi operators, restaurants and other local businesses. "Most people pay up because they are so scared of what the Zetas will do," Santos said.
During the recent patrol, police were called to the scene of a shooting, finding a car dealership riddled with bullet holes, in what Santos said was a reminder over these payments.
When the Zetas burned down a Monterrey casino in broad daylight in August, the alleged reason was an extortion payment, according to federal prosecutors who have filed charges against alleged Zetas arrested for the crime.
The desire for shakedown money has fueled the spread of the Zetas across Mexico, investigators say. "What they want to do is control territory and physical space, where they can simply co-opt other businesses and collect tax," said Steven Dudley of the Washington-based research group Insight Crime. "That model is easily replicated."
YOUNG THUGS
Agents say that as the Zetas have expanded, they have filled their ranks with unruly thugs who can be hard to control. "These new players ... are doing things that might not be sanctioned by the leadership. ... The outrageous behavior has made them the big target of the government," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official working in Mexico, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Such wild elements may have been behind the May 13 atrocity that made headlines around the world. Early that morning, 49 corpses with their heads, hands and feet cut off were left on a highway east of Monterrey. A note signed with the Zetas name was found amidst the carnage. However, messages released in the following days denied the Zetas had ordered the massacre.
Investigators say Elizondo, arrested a week later as the alleged mastermind of the massacre, may have disobeyed top leaders in carrying it out. None of the victims have been identified. Police said they could have been foreign migrants traveling through Mexico to the United States. The Zetas often kidnap migrants for ransom and murder those who don't pay.
Zetas assassins have been effective in fighting rivals. In the last year, the Zetas have pushed the Gulf Cartel out of much of its historic turf along the South Texas border and challenged the Sinaloa Cartel close to their homeland in the Pacific. In a single ambush in the Pacific state of Nayarit in 2011, Zetas slaughtered 29 alleged Sinaloa Cartel operatives when the Zetas attacked with mounted machine guns and grenades.
Even more brutally, Zetas prisoners in February stabbed and bludgeoned to death 44 alleged Gulf Cartel inmates in a jail on the edge of Monterrey. After the attack, which officials say involved the help of corrupt guards, 35 Zetas prisoners escaped.
Several other major cartels have formed an alliance to hit back against the Zetas with their own paramilitary units, U.S. agents said in testimony at a congressional hearing in October evaluating Mexico's drug war. At the forefront of the fight back is a shady group calling itself the "Zetas killers," believed to be funded by rival cartels. Gunmen from this group dropped 35 corpses of suspected Zetas on a highway in Veracruz state in September.
In a video released after the incident, men in ski masks claimed they were going after the Zetas because of the harm their extortion and kidnapping rackets inflicted on communities. "We want the armed forces to trust us that our only goal is to finish off the Zetas," a man in a ski mask says on the video. "We're anonymous warriors, faceless, but proudly Mexican."
WANTED MEN
Since President Felipe Calderon took power in 2006 and sent 50,000 soldiers after the drug cartels, Mexican and U.S. agents have worked together to root out top drug traffickers.
The most spectacular takedowns include Arturo Beltran Leyva, a breakaway boss of the Sinaloa Cartel, who was shot dead by Mexican marines in 2009, and La Familia boss Nazario Moreno, whom police killed in 2010.
Lazcano and his top deputies have proved to be more elusive, thanks to their military-style organization. "They've got an advance guard, they've got a main body, they've got a rear guard," the U.S. official said. "They do forward reconnaissance almost like you would see if you were moving a dignitary around."
Zetas leaders also escape detection by using encrypted radio and Skype instead of telephones, the U.S. official said. Agents say leaders of the group's small operating cells are moved every few months to avoid detection.
Mexican soldiers say they came close to nabbing Lazcano in a house on the outskirts of Monterrey in 2009, but that after scouts warned him of the raid, he escaped the neighborhood in a bulletproof Jeep Cherokee.
With Lazcano still at large, the Zetas will pose a challenge for the next Mexican president. Calderon is barred by law from seeking re-election in the July polls. The current front-runner, Enrique Pena Nieto of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, has pledged to create and deploy a new police force against the gangs and gradually put army troops back in barracks, a promise popular with many voters who are tired of the relentless drug war.
Zetas hit squads could make that difficult. A message signed by the Zetas and hung from a bridge in Monterrey in February took aim at the Mexican government. "Even with the support of the United States, they cannot stop us, because here the Zetas rule," it said. "The government must make a pact with us because if not we will have to overthrow it and take power by force."
(Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; editing by John Blanton and Prudence Crowther)
The good, The bad, and the ugly Mexican elections
Source-mexidata.info
Source-insightcrime.org
Thursday, 26 January 2012 08:03
Mexico Plans 5 New Military Bases in Zeta Territory
Written by Edward Fox
Mexico's government upped its offensive against the Zetas with the announcement that five new military bases will be installed in the group's primary areas of operation.
Four bases will be located in Tamaulipas and another one in Nuevo Leon, which are both among the northern border states most affected by drug violence.
Seven military bases will be created in total, but two of these will be based in municipalities where the government says the Zetas do not operate, according to Excelsior.·
The initiative comes as part of the government's drive to reinstate control in areas where criminal groups have, in some cases, overrun local authorities The Mexican Department of Defense stated that installing greater military presence in these areas will help return the rule of law, reports Excelsior.
InSight Crime Analysis
The expansion of military bases in northern Mexico follows a recent·report by Stratfor that argues the Zetas have become Mexico's largest drug cartel in terms of territorial presence, operating in 17 out of Mexico's 31 states compared to the Sinaloa Cartel's 16.
This apparent expansion has meant the group has become more of a focus point for authorities both in Mexico and the US. President Felipe Calderon previously described the group as Mexico's principal security threat, and there have been reports that the government formally made the Zetas the primary target of the security forces. The US, meanwhile, imposed greater sanctions against the group last year, in an attempt to hurt their financial assets.
More military bases could also prompt further concerns that Mexico's militarized approach to fighting crime does not lead to reduced violence. As laid out by a Human Rights Watch report last year, the security forces frequently committed abuses in the states most affected by drug violence.
From Baghdad to Bogota-The Global reach of Mercenaries
Thursday, 26 January 2012 08:03
Mexico Plans 5 New Military Bases in Zeta Territory
Written by Edward Fox
Mexico's government upped its offensive against the Zetas with the announcement that five new military bases will be installed in the group's primary areas of operation.
Four bases will be located in Tamaulipas and another one in Nuevo Leon, which are both among the northern border states most affected by drug violence.
Seven military bases will be created in total, but two of these will be based in municipalities where the government says the Zetas do not operate, according to Excelsior.·
The initiative comes as part of the government's drive to reinstate control in areas where criminal groups have, in some cases, overrun local authorities The Mexican Department of Defense stated that installing greater military presence in these areas will help return the rule of law, reports Excelsior.
InSight Crime Analysis
The expansion of military bases in northern Mexico follows a recent·report by Stratfor that argues the Zetas have become Mexico's largest drug cartel in terms of territorial presence, operating in 17 out of Mexico's 31 states compared to the Sinaloa Cartel's 16.
This apparent expansion has meant the group has become more of a focus point for authorities both in Mexico and the US. President Felipe Calderon previously described the group as Mexico's principal security threat, and there have been reports that the government formally made the Zetas the primary target of the security forces. The US, meanwhile, imposed greater sanctions against the group last year, in an attempt to hurt their financial assets.
More military bases could also prompt further concerns that Mexico's militarized approach to fighting crime does not lead to reduced violence. As laid out by a Human Rights Watch report last year, the security forces frequently committed abuses in the states most affected by drug violence.
From Baghdad to Bogota-The Global reach of Mercenaries
Source-worldcrunch.com
Source-Reuters.com
Mexico extradites drug boss involved in corruption probe
MEXICO CITY | Wed May 23, 2012 10:11pm EDT
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico extradited to the United States an alleged drug kingpin who has testified that high-ranking military officers worked with drug cartels, Mexican officials said Wednesday.
Sergio Villarreal, also known as "El Grande" and "King Kong," was flown to the United States where he faces federal charges of cocaine trafficking, the Mexican federal attorney general's office said in a news release.
Villarreal, who was arrested in 2010, is alleged to be a leading member of the Beltran Leyva cartel, a drug trafficking syndicate based in the Pacific state of Sinaloa.
While in Mexican detention, Villarreal testified that military officers received money from the Beltran Leyva cartel, a government security official said.
Last week, Mexican prosecutors ordered the arrest of four current or former military officers in connection with the accusations. The detentions were the biggest scandal in the Mexican military since President Felipe Calderon took power in 2006 and launched a military crackdown on cartels.
In the five years since Calderon took office there have been around 55,000 drug related killings and widespread accusations of human rights abuses by the military.
(Reporting By Anahi Rama; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Mexico extradites drug boss involved in corruption probe
MEXICO CITY | Wed May 23, 2012 10:11pm EDT
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico extradited to the United States an alleged drug kingpin who has testified that high-ranking military officers worked with drug cartels, Mexican officials said Wednesday.
Sergio Villarreal, also known as "El Grande" and "King Kong," was flown to the United States where he faces federal charges of cocaine trafficking, the Mexican federal attorney general's office said in a news release.
Villarreal, who was arrested in 2010, is alleged to be a leading member of the Beltran Leyva cartel, a drug trafficking syndicate based in the Pacific state of Sinaloa.
While in Mexican detention, Villarreal testified that military officers received money from the Beltran Leyva cartel, a government security official said.
Last week, Mexican prosecutors ordered the arrest of four current or former military officers in connection with the accusations. The detentions were the biggest scandal in the Mexican military since President Felipe Calderon took power in 2006 and launched a military crackdown on cartels.
In the five years since Calderon took office there have been around 55,000 drug related killings and widespread accusations of human rights abuses by the military.
(Reporting By Anahi Rama; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Source-UKIndependent.co.uk
Mexican police capture drugs baron dubbed 'The Crazy One'
One of country's most wanted is accused of dumping 49 headless bodies at roadside
GUY ADAMS TUESDAY 22 MAY 2012
They call him "The Crazy One" but, judging by the sobering nature of his debut press conference, the suspected cocaine baron Daniel Jesus Elizondo came from a more calculated school of organised criminals.
Police in Mexico paraded Elizondo before the media on Sunday, claiming that the man nicknamed "El Loco" was responsible for the organised killings of 49 men whose decapitated bodies were found on a road outside the northern city of Monterrey earlier this month.
He was arrested in what appears to have been a peaceful raid on Friday in Cadereyta, an industrial town on the outskirts of the city near the US border, where he is believed to have run trafficking operations on behalf of the Zetas gang who – despite stiff competition – are currently regarded as central America's most successful drug cartel.
Police claimed that Elizondo, a strapping, heavily tattooed man in his 30s, had been ordered to carry out the murders by Miguel-Angel Trevino Morales and Heriberto Lazcano, who, as the overall heads of Los Zetas, are two of the world's most-wanted men.
In what appears to have been a confession, Elizondo told police that his original instructions were to leave the 49 dismembered bodies in the town square. But he became nervous about that plan and instead opted to drop the bodies on a semi-rural highway a few miles east. They were left with a message saying the Zeta cartel was responsibility for the massacre. "Gulf cartel, Sinaloa cartel, marines and soldiers, nobody can do anything against us or they will lose," it read.
The heads, hands and feet of each of victim had been removed, making identification tricky. But officers are working on the theory that they were illegal migrants from central America being transported to the US.
In recent years, many drug gangs have diversified from their historic source of income, cocaine smuggling, into human trafficking.
News of the murders caused public outrage, since it was one of the most gruesome attacks since the upsurge in violence that followed President Felipe Calderon's 2006 declaration of a "war" on drugs. In the ensuing six years, an estimated 55,000 people have died.
Although the Zetas had originally appeared to claim responsibility for the Cadereyta slayings, they subsequently left messages in six cities denying they was their handiwork, and suggesting they were part of an effort to undermine the cartel's cosy relationship with some local communities.
Elizondo may shed some light on what really occurred when he comes to trial. He remains in custody and no charges have yet been filed.
Police said that an accomplice, who made and uploaded to the internet a videotape of the decapitated bodies being dumped, was still at large.
Blackwater on the Border
Mexican police capture drugs baron dubbed 'The Crazy One'
One of country's most wanted is accused of dumping 49 headless bodies at roadside
GUY ADAMS TUESDAY 22 MAY 2012
They call him "The Crazy One" but, judging by the sobering nature of his debut press conference, the suspected cocaine baron Daniel Jesus Elizondo came from a more calculated school of organised criminals.
Police in Mexico paraded Elizondo before the media on Sunday, claiming that the man nicknamed "El Loco" was responsible for the organised killings of 49 men whose decapitated bodies were found on a road outside the northern city of Monterrey earlier this month.
He was arrested in what appears to have been a peaceful raid on Friday in Cadereyta, an industrial town on the outskirts of the city near the US border, where he is believed to have run trafficking operations on behalf of the Zetas gang who – despite stiff competition – are currently regarded as central America's most successful drug cartel.
Police claimed that Elizondo, a strapping, heavily tattooed man in his 30s, had been ordered to carry out the murders by Miguel-Angel Trevino Morales and Heriberto Lazcano, who, as the overall heads of Los Zetas, are two of the world's most-wanted men.
In what appears to have been a confession, Elizondo told police that his original instructions were to leave the 49 dismembered bodies in the town square. But he became nervous about that plan and instead opted to drop the bodies on a semi-rural highway a few miles east. They were left with a message saying the Zeta cartel was responsibility for the massacre. "Gulf cartel, Sinaloa cartel, marines and soldiers, nobody can do anything against us or they will lose," it read.
The heads, hands and feet of each of victim had been removed, making identification tricky. But officers are working on the theory that they were illegal migrants from central America being transported to the US.
In recent years, many drug gangs have diversified from their historic source of income, cocaine smuggling, into human trafficking.
News of the murders caused public outrage, since it was one of the most gruesome attacks since the upsurge in violence that followed President Felipe Calderon's 2006 declaration of a "war" on drugs. In the ensuing six years, an estimated 55,000 people have died.
Although the Zetas had originally appeared to claim responsibility for the Cadereyta slayings, they subsequently left messages in six cities denying they was their handiwork, and suggesting they were part of an effort to undermine the cartel's cosy relationship with some local communities.
Elizondo may shed some light on what really occurred when he comes to trial. He remains in custody and no charges have yet been filed.
Police said that an accomplice, who made and uploaded to the internet a videotape of the decapitated bodies being dumped, was still at large.
Blackwater on the Border
Source-mexidata.info
New U.S. Army base in Belize
New U.S. Army base in Belize
Source-ourBelize.net
Possible Mexican Military Base's being used by the CIA/DEA/Private U.S. Mercenary Forces
List of Mexican military installations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a list of Air Force bases in Mexico:
Campo Militar No. 1, Mexico City
Base Aérea Militar No. 1, Santa Lucía, Estado de Mexico
Base Aérea Militar No. 2, Ixtepec, Oaxaca
Base Aérea Militar No. 3, Ciprés, Baja California
Base Aérea Militar No. 4, Cozumel, Quintana Roo
Base Aérea Militar No. 5, Zapopan, Jalisco
Base Aérea Militar No. 6, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas
Base Aérea Militar No. 7, Pie de la Cuesta, Guerrero
Base Aérea Militar No. 8, Mérida, Yucatán
Base Aérea Militar No. 9, La Paz, Baja California Sur
Base Aérea Militar No. 10, Culiacán, Sinaloa
Base Aérea Militar No. 11, Santa Gertrudis, Chihuahua
Base Aérea Militar No. 12, Tijuana, Baja California
Base Aérea Militar No. 13, Chihuahua, Chihuahua
Base Aérea Militar No. 14, Monterrey, Nuevo León
Base Aérea Militar No. 15, Sn. Juan Bautista la Raya, Oaxaca
Base Aérea Militar No. 16, Cd. Pemex, Tabasco
Base Aérea Militar No. 17, Copalar, Chiapas
Base Aérea Militar No. 18, Hermosillo, Sonora
Possible Mexican Military Base's being used by the CIA/DEA/Private U.S. Mercenary Forces
List of Mexican military installations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a list of Air Force bases in Mexico:
Campo Militar No. 1, Mexico City
Base Aérea Militar No. 1, Santa Lucía, Estado de Mexico
Base Aérea Militar No. 2, Ixtepec, Oaxaca
Base Aérea Militar No. 3, Ciprés, Baja California
Base Aérea Militar No. 4, Cozumel, Quintana Roo
Base Aérea Militar No. 5, Zapopan, Jalisco
Base Aérea Militar No. 6, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas
Base Aérea Militar No. 7, Pie de la Cuesta, Guerrero
Base Aérea Militar No. 8, Mérida, Yucatán
Base Aérea Militar No. 9, La Paz, Baja California Sur
Base Aérea Militar No. 10, Culiacán, Sinaloa
Base Aérea Militar No. 11, Santa Gertrudis, Chihuahua
Base Aérea Militar No. 12, Tijuana, Baja California
Base Aérea Militar No. 13, Chihuahua, Chihuahua
Base Aérea Militar No. 14, Monterrey, Nuevo León
Base Aérea Militar No. 15, Sn. Juan Bautista la Raya, Oaxaca
Base Aérea Militar No. 16, Cd. Pemex, Tabasco
Base Aérea Militar No. 17, Copalar, Chiapas
Base Aérea Militar No. 18, Hermosillo, Sonora
Do you ever hear ANY NEWS from the Main Stream Media regarding the 50,000 plus people slaughtered in Mexico the past 5-8 years? All we hear in the news is about the less than 1500(probably less than that) people killed in Syria over the past years???
This Article is from 2007, it details the 'transition' of Mercenaries from the Iraq war to the "Drug War"....
Source-globalresearch.ca
Full Spectrum Mercenaries: Blackwater Goes to Mexico by John Ross
Global Research, November 11, 2007
If and when private security contractor Blackwater USA and its heavily-armed operatives are forced to pull out of Iraq as the result of the September 16th rampage in downtown Baghdad when its employees massacred up to 28 Iraqis, Mexico could be a profitable option for the North Carolina-based company. Actually, Blackwater is almost in Mexico already. For months, the North Carolina-based corporation has been pressuring local San Diego officials to grant it an operating license for an 824-acre training site to be known as Blackwater West in Potrero California 45 miles east of that bustling port city but only six miles from the Tecate Mexico border crossing. The site, some of which snakes through the Cleveland National Forest, is a favored transit route for undocumented Mexican workers heading north and has been recently scorched by out-of-control wildfires. Blackwater USA's plans have drawn the ire of locals who are not happy about having 15 firing ranges in earshot and a coalition of homeowners, local farmers, environmentalists, and peaceniks has been pieced together to oppose the project. Nonetheless, Blackwater has kept up a full court press on county officials, even sailing the company yacht flying a humongous Blackwater flag, into a local marina last spring and inviting members of the planning commission aboard for cocktails. Blackwater USA is attracted to the San Diego area because of the heavy concentration of military bases such as Camp Pendleton in the environs that could produce a windfall of security and training contracts from its pals in the Pentagon. Blackwater USA was founded by ex-Navy Seal Eric Prince who cultivates close ties with the military. One of Blackwater's most rah-rah backers in the Potrero venture is local congressman Duncan Hunter, ranking republican on the House Armed Services Committee and a dark horse candidate for his party's presidential nomination. Hunter is considered one of the most virulent anti-Mexican immigration voices in congress and is a political architect of the separation wall that now lines California's border with Mexico. The dispute over Blackwater's proposed Potrero training camp is not just a NIMBY-type confrontation. Siting the facility a stone's throw from the Mexican border internationalizes the proposition. By any stretch of the imagination, Mexican president Felipe Calderon ought to be nervous about the encampment of the world's largest private army on his conflictive northern border, particularly one that is not accountable to either the Geneva Convention or U.S. and Mexican military and civil law. Yet Calderon has not publically protested the proposal. Situated in rugged high desert terrain, Potrero is an idyllic hideaway to train a new generation of Rambos - one can imagine guest motivational appearances by Sylvester Stallone and California's action figure governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The camp which, in addition to multiple shooting ranges, will house an armory and feature both a 33,000 square feet urban counter-insurgency set and a course where armed vehicles seek to evade a paint ball barrage, is expected to train military and law enforcement personnel as well as private paramilitary security forces. Blackwater USA has trained dozens of police forces at its Moyock North Carolina complex in the heart of that state's Great Dismal Swamp, including big city (New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Chicago) officers as well as rural forces like the Maricopa County Arizona sheriff's department. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, is a first stop for undocumented Mexican migrants and the local police have been deputized to assist the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to corral the "indocumentados." Blackwater USA's strategic position overlooking the Mexican border in Potrero presents inviting economic opportunities. Testifying before congress in 2005, then-Blackwater president Gary Jackson said that the North Carolina enterprise was prepared to provide assistance on border security and long-time connections inside DHS could generate lucrative contracts training increasingly heavily-armed ICE agents. San Diego congressperson Bob Filner, a Democrat told Salon Magazine's Elaine Zimmerman last month that he believes Blackwater is positioning itself to move into the border security business. As the National Guard troops brought back from Iraq by George Bush to patrol the border and appease fellow-republicans like Hunter are drawn down (3000 have already been pulled back), Blackwater USA is poised to fill in the gap. Blackwater would also be useful in strengthening security at troubled immigration detention centers along the border, more than half of which have already been privatized. In an October 15th Wall Street Journal interview Prince indicated that Iraq-type operations were no longer at the top of Blackwater USA's business agenda and that he saw his company as going more "full spectrum." Now, as they move into their new facility on the Mexican border, Eric Prince & Company appear to be set to expand into both border enforcement and the Bush White House drug war with an operational role in Plan Mexico, the $1.5 billion U.S.-Mexico drug war scheme to fuse drug-fighting agencies on both sides of the border under Washington's control. Despite repeated advisories from the White House that Plan Mexico is a done deal, Bush and Calderon have yet to formalize the pact, pending approval by the U.S. Congress. The request for three half billion dollar Plan Mexico pay-outs through 2009 was sent on to congress folded into a near $50 billion supplemental spending bill to finance Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but given Democratic aversion to funding these failed military escapades in an election year, passage is not assured. Plan Mexico has spread widespread suspicion south of the border with many Mexicans condemning the project as a grievous violation of national sovereignty. Modeled on Washington's flawed Plan Colombia, which has pumped billions into that South American nation to bolster the right-wing regime of Alvaro Uribe, one of Bush's few allies in the hemisphere, Plan Mexico will supply this not-so-distant neighbor nation with upgraded military hardware and cutting edge technological savvy - the New York-based Verint Technology is already installing a voice-activated "communication interruption" system that will audit all phone and e-mail traffic in Mexico and to the U.S. The surveillance technology, which is being bankrolled by a U.S. State Department grant, appears to be as much in violation of the Mexican constitution as Bush's massive, secret surveillance dragnet of his own citizens violates the U.S. magna carta. Unlike Plan Colombia, Plan Mexico does not contemplate the stationing of U.S. troops on Mexican soil. Such an adventure would be universally unpopular here - the U.S. has invaded Mexico eight times since this country won its independence in 1821. To insure that U.S. military personnel stays on their side of the line, Mexican drug fighters are trained out of country, mainly at the Center for Special Forces in Fort Bragg North Carolina (100 miles as the crow flies from Blackwater's Moyock complex.) Nonetheless, as the military pares itself down and outsources its services, training Mexican troops is a role that a new "full-spectrum" Blackwater USA seems perfectly positioned to assume at the Potrero site. Because it is not formally a part of the U.S. military, Blackwater could also infiltrate personnel across the border for on-site engagement inside Mexico. Coincidentally, according to a recent report in the Army Times (Sept. 14th), Blackwater USA has just been handed a sizeable chunk of a $15 billion USD drug war grant by the Department of Defense (Raytheon is another big winner.) Part of the Blackwater boodle is slated for the design of an unmanned aerostat surveillance platform that has been subcontracted with the Maryland-based Arinc Corporation. The "blimp" project (if that what is being proposed) marks a radical departure for Eric Prince's conglom, which has never before been a supplier of technology to the military. According to the Army Times report, the DOD grant mandates Blackwater USA "to deploy surveillance techniques, train foreign security forces, and provide logistical and operational support" for drug war initiatives. Founded in 1996 by Prince and a handful of ex-Navy Seal buddies, Blackwater USA's business boomed in the wake of 9/11 and it is heavily invested in Bush's War on Terror. Drug war operations represent a field in which Blackwater has little experience but which, logistically at least, is not much different from the security firm's terror war duties. In recent years, the White House has done its damndest to conflate the War on Drugs with the War on Terror. Blackwater USA's enlistment in the drug war is a direct challenge to its stiffest competitor, DynCorp - up until now, the Dallas-based corporation has locked up 94% of all private drug war security contracts. Blackwater USA's move into combating narco-terrorism will give the North Carolina outfit a foot up in Latin America where the private security industry is flourishing. Blackwater now employs 1200 Chileans, ex-members of dictator Augusto Pinochet's military, in its international operations - in addition to its contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blackwater provides security for high officials in Azerbaijan, Jordan, and Bokano Faso among other governments. But Blackwater USA's Colombian subsidiary, ID Systems, ran into a storm of criticism when it recruited 20 ex-military officers for the company's Iraq operation - the recruits now claim that they were paid less than half of what their contracts called for and were kept by Blackwater USA in Iraq against their wills. Under the U.S.'s post 9/11 security redesign, military protection of the homeland has become the province of the newly created North Command, now housed in a Colorado bunker. Within the North Command's schema, Mexico forms a major portion of the U.S.'s southern security perimeter but with the U.S. military severely restricted in its abilities to put Special Forces on Mexican soil to combat the terrorists, narco or otherwise, Blackwater USA, perched as it is on the border at its Potrero California training camp and equipped with multi-million dollar DOD grants, stands ready to provide logistical and operational support to further Washington's designs on Mexico and the South.
Academi Mercenary Outfit
Source-Source-Wikipedia
Academi[2]—previously known as Xe Services LLC, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide—is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[3][4] Academi is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. Academi provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis.[1] Academi also has a research and development wing that was responsible for developing the Grizzly APC along with other military technology. The company's headquarters is in Arlington County, Virginia.[5]
Blackwater USA was formed in 1997, by Erik Prince in North Carolina, to provide training support to military and law enforcement organizations. In explaining Blackwater's purpose, Prince stated that ‘‘We are trying to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did for the Postal Service.’’[7] After serving SEAL and SWAT teams, Blackwater USA received their first government contract after the bombing of the USS Cole off of the coast of Yemen in October 2000. After winning the bid on the contract, Blackwater was able to train over 100,000 sailors safely.[8] Prince purchased about 7,000 acres (28 km2) (from Dow Jones Executive, Sean Trotter) of the Great Dismal Swamp, a vast swamp on the North Carolina/Virginia border, now mostly a National Wildlife Refuge. "We needed 3,000 acres to make it safe," Prince told reporter Robert Young Pelton.[9] There, he created his state-of-the-art private training facility and his contracting company, Blackwater, which he named for the peat-colored water of the swamp.[10] The Blackwater Lodge and Training Center officially opened on May 15, 1998 with a 6,000 acre facility and cost $6.5 million.[9] In 2002 Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) was formed. Its first assignment was to provide 20 men with top-secret clearances to protect the CIA headquarters and another base that was responsible for hunting Bin Laden.[11] Blackwater was one of several private security firms employed following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. BSC is one of over 60 private security firms employed during the Iraq War to guard officials and installations, train Iraq's new army and police, and provide other support for coalition forces.[12] Blackwater was also hired during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by the United States Department of Homeland Security, as well as by private clients, including communications, petrochemical and insurance companies.[13] Overall, the company has received over US$1 billion in U.S. government contracts.[14] Academi consists of nine divisions, and a subsidiary, Blackwater Vehicles.
This Article is from 2007, it details the 'transition' of Mercenaries from the Iraq war to the "Drug War"....
Source-globalresearch.ca
Full Spectrum Mercenaries: Blackwater Goes to Mexico by John Ross
Global Research, November 11, 2007
If and when private security contractor Blackwater USA and its heavily-armed operatives are forced to pull out of Iraq as the result of the September 16th rampage in downtown Baghdad when its employees massacred up to 28 Iraqis, Mexico could be a profitable option for the North Carolina-based company. Actually, Blackwater is almost in Mexico already. For months, the North Carolina-based corporation has been pressuring local San Diego officials to grant it an operating license for an 824-acre training site to be known as Blackwater West in Potrero California 45 miles east of that bustling port city but only six miles from the Tecate Mexico border crossing. The site, some of which snakes through the Cleveland National Forest, is a favored transit route for undocumented Mexican workers heading north and has been recently scorched by out-of-control wildfires. Blackwater USA's plans have drawn the ire of locals who are not happy about having 15 firing ranges in earshot and a coalition of homeowners, local farmers, environmentalists, and peaceniks has been pieced together to oppose the project. Nonetheless, Blackwater has kept up a full court press on county officials, even sailing the company yacht flying a humongous Blackwater flag, into a local marina last spring and inviting members of the planning commission aboard for cocktails. Blackwater USA is attracted to the San Diego area because of the heavy concentration of military bases such as Camp Pendleton in the environs that could produce a windfall of security and training contracts from its pals in the Pentagon. Blackwater USA was founded by ex-Navy Seal Eric Prince who cultivates close ties with the military. One of Blackwater's most rah-rah backers in the Potrero venture is local congressman Duncan Hunter, ranking republican on the House Armed Services Committee and a dark horse candidate for his party's presidential nomination. Hunter is considered one of the most virulent anti-Mexican immigration voices in congress and is a political architect of the separation wall that now lines California's border with Mexico. The dispute over Blackwater's proposed Potrero training camp is not just a NIMBY-type confrontation. Siting the facility a stone's throw from the Mexican border internationalizes the proposition. By any stretch of the imagination, Mexican president Felipe Calderon ought to be nervous about the encampment of the world's largest private army on his conflictive northern border, particularly one that is not accountable to either the Geneva Convention or U.S. and Mexican military and civil law. Yet Calderon has not publically protested the proposal. Situated in rugged high desert terrain, Potrero is an idyllic hideaway to train a new generation of Rambos - one can imagine guest motivational appearances by Sylvester Stallone and California's action figure governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The camp which, in addition to multiple shooting ranges, will house an armory and feature both a 33,000 square feet urban counter-insurgency set and a course where armed vehicles seek to evade a paint ball barrage, is expected to train military and law enforcement personnel as well as private paramilitary security forces. Blackwater USA has trained dozens of police forces at its Moyock North Carolina complex in the heart of that state's Great Dismal Swamp, including big city (New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Chicago) officers as well as rural forces like the Maricopa County Arizona sheriff's department. Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, is a first stop for undocumented Mexican migrants and the local police have been deputized to assist the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) to corral the "indocumentados." Blackwater USA's strategic position overlooking the Mexican border in Potrero presents inviting economic opportunities. Testifying before congress in 2005, then-Blackwater president Gary Jackson said that the North Carolina enterprise was prepared to provide assistance on border security and long-time connections inside DHS could generate lucrative contracts training increasingly heavily-armed ICE agents. San Diego congressperson Bob Filner, a Democrat told Salon Magazine's Elaine Zimmerman last month that he believes Blackwater is positioning itself to move into the border security business. As the National Guard troops brought back from Iraq by George Bush to patrol the border and appease fellow-republicans like Hunter are drawn down (3000 have already been pulled back), Blackwater USA is poised to fill in the gap. Blackwater would also be useful in strengthening security at troubled immigration detention centers along the border, more than half of which have already been privatized. In an October 15th Wall Street Journal interview Prince indicated that Iraq-type operations were no longer at the top of Blackwater USA's business agenda and that he saw his company as going more "full spectrum." Now, as they move into their new facility on the Mexican border, Eric Prince & Company appear to be set to expand into both border enforcement and the Bush White House drug war with an operational role in Plan Mexico, the $1.5 billion U.S.-Mexico drug war scheme to fuse drug-fighting agencies on both sides of the border under Washington's control. Despite repeated advisories from the White House that Plan Mexico is a done deal, Bush and Calderon have yet to formalize the pact, pending approval by the U.S. Congress. The request for three half billion dollar Plan Mexico pay-outs through 2009 was sent on to congress folded into a near $50 billion supplemental spending bill to finance Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but given Democratic aversion to funding these failed military escapades in an election year, passage is not assured. Plan Mexico has spread widespread suspicion south of the border with many Mexicans condemning the project as a grievous violation of national sovereignty. Modeled on Washington's flawed Plan Colombia, which has pumped billions into that South American nation to bolster the right-wing regime of Alvaro Uribe, one of Bush's few allies in the hemisphere, Plan Mexico will supply this not-so-distant neighbor nation with upgraded military hardware and cutting edge technological savvy - the New York-based Verint Technology is already installing a voice-activated "communication interruption" system that will audit all phone and e-mail traffic in Mexico and to the U.S. The surveillance technology, which is being bankrolled by a U.S. State Department grant, appears to be as much in violation of the Mexican constitution as Bush's massive, secret surveillance dragnet of his own citizens violates the U.S. magna carta. Unlike Plan Colombia, Plan Mexico does not contemplate the stationing of U.S. troops on Mexican soil. Such an adventure would be universally unpopular here - the U.S. has invaded Mexico eight times since this country won its independence in 1821. To insure that U.S. military personnel stays on their side of the line, Mexican drug fighters are trained out of country, mainly at the Center for Special Forces in Fort Bragg North Carolina (100 miles as the crow flies from Blackwater's Moyock complex.) Nonetheless, as the military pares itself down and outsources its services, training Mexican troops is a role that a new "full-spectrum" Blackwater USA seems perfectly positioned to assume at the Potrero site. Because it is not formally a part of the U.S. military, Blackwater could also infiltrate personnel across the border for on-site engagement inside Mexico. Coincidentally, according to a recent report in the Army Times (Sept. 14th), Blackwater USA has just been handed a sizeable chunk of a $15 billion USD drug war grant by the Department of Defense (Raytheon is another big winner.) Part of the Blackwater boodle is slated for the design of an unmanned aerostat surveillance platform that has been subcontracted with the Maryland-based Arinc Corporation. The "blimp" project (if that what is being proposed) marks a radical departure for Eric Prince's conglom, which has never before been a supplier of technology to the military. According to the Army Times report, the DOD grant mandates Blackwater USA "to deploy surveillance techniques, train foreign security forces, and provide logistical and operational support" for drug war initiatives. Founded in 1996 by Prince and a handful of ex-Navy Seal buddies, Blackwater USA's business boomed in the wake of 9/11 and it is heavily invested in Bush's War on Terror. Drug war operations represent a field in which Blackwater has little experience but which, logistically at least, is not much different from the security firm's terror war duties. In recent years, the White House has done its damndest to conflate the War on Drugs with the War on Terror. Blackwater USA's enlistment in the drug war is a direct challenge to its stiffest competitor, DynCorp - up until now, the Dallas-based corporation has locked up 94% of all private drug war security contracts. Blackwater USA's move into combating narco-terrorism will give the North Carolina outfit a foot up in Latin America where the private security industry is flourishing. Blackwater now employs 1200 Chileans, ex-members of dictator Augusto Pinochet's military, in its international operations - in addition to its contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blackwater provides security for high officials in Azerbaijan, Jordan, and Bokano Faso among other governments. But Blackwater USA's Colombian subsidiary, ID Systems, ran into a storm of criticism when it recruited 20 ex-military officers for the company's Iraq operation - the recruits now claim that they were paid less than half of what their contracts called for and were kept by Blackwater USA in Iraq against their wills. Under the U.S.'s post 9/11 security redesign, military protection of the homeland has become the province of the newly created North Command, now housed in a Colorado bunker. Within the North Command's schema, Mexico forms a major portion of the U.S.'s southern security perimeter but with the U.S. military severely restricted in its abilities to put Special Forces on Mexican soil to combat the terrorists, narco or otherwise, Blackwater USA, perched as it is on the border at its Potrero California training camp and equipped with multi-million dollar DOD grants, stands ready to provide logistical and operational support to further Washington's designs on Mexico and the South.
Academi Mercenary Outfit
Source-Source-Wikipedia
Academi[2]—previously known as Xe Services LLC, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide—is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.[3][4] Academi is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. Academi provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis.[1] Academi also has a research and development wing that was responsible for developing the Grizzly APC along with other military technology. The company's headquarters is in Arlington County, Virginia.[5]
Blackwater USA was formed in 1997, by Erik Prince in North Carolina, to provide training support to military and law enforcement organizations. In explaining Blackwater's purpose, Prince stated that ‘‘We are trying to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did for the Postal Service.’’[7] After serving SEAL and SWAT teams, Blackwater USA received their first government contract after the bombing of the USS Cole off of the coast of Yemen in October 2000. After winning the bid on the contract, Blackwater was able to train over 100,000 sailors safely.[8] Prince purchased about 7,000 acres (28 km2) (from Dow Jones Executive, Sean Trotter) of the Great Dismal Swamp, a vast swamp on the North Carolina/Virginia border, now mostly a National Wildlife Refuge. "We needed 3,000 acres to make it safe," Prince told reporter Robert Young Pelton.[9] There, he created his state-of-the-art private training facility and his contracting company, Blackwater, which he named for the peat-colored water of the swamp.[10] The Blackwater Lodge and Training Center officially opened on May 15, 1998 with a 6,000 acre facility and cost $6.5 million.[9] In 2002 Blackwater Security Consulting (BSC) was formed. Its first assignment was to provide 20 men with top-secret clearances to protect the CIA headquarters and another base that was responsible for hunting Bin Laden.[11] Blackwater was one of several private security firms employed following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. BSC is one of over 60 private security firms employed during the Iraq War to guard officials and installations, train Iraq's new army and police, and provide other support for coalition forces.[12] Blackwater was also hired during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by the United States Department of Homeland Security, as well as by private clients, including communications, petrochemical and insurance companies.[13] Overall, the company has received over US$1 billion in U.S. government contracts.[14] Academi consists of nine divisions, and a subsidiary, Blackwater Vehicles.
Zetas,Israel and U.S.Government Drug And Arms Terrorism: We’ve purchased weapons from the “U.S. Government itself”
By Tony Ryals, submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 03/15/2012 - 12:08am
Leyva Zetas,Israel and U.S.Government Drug And Arms Terrorism: We’ve purchased weapons from the “U.S. Government itself”
Mexican Round-Up-Who really are the Zetas?(U.S./Israeli trained Special Forces)
Mexico: US drug agents aided the Beltrán Leyva cartel
http://www.ticotimes.net/Current-Edition/News-Briefs/Guatemala-declares-...
U.S.Resident Barack Obama,Secretary of State Cocaine Trafficker Hillary Clinton and Argentina's U.S. Military Coup Scandal
Check out Hillary Clinton’s comments on drugs and Mexico.The innocent citizens of Mexico are being killed by massive flow of guns from the U.S. – not ‘drugs’.
Also did you hear about the U.S.Air Force plane that recently landed in Argentina with undeclared weapons,morphine and survellience equipment and messages in 15 different languages explaining that if they are caught that they are really the ‘good guys’ and their plight should be reported the the U.S.government ?
....................
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/116976.shtml
DFW Airport,24 Kuwaitis & Saudis,Richard Rainwater,George W Bush,Tom DeLay & 5.6 Ton cocaine bust in Mexico by Tony Ryals
''SkyWay, a company with no products, and thus nothing needing "repair," nonetheless announced in July 2003 “their newly established Part 145 repair station” in a building owned by LIT Industrial Texas Limited Partnership, a venture of Texas real estate giant Trammel Crow, the flagship corporation in the far-flung empire of billionaire speculator Richard Rainwater.......
''Ranked among the 100 wealthiest Americans, Rainwater backed George W. Bush in four separate business ventures, including the Texas Rangers baseball team from which Bush, who had been drilling “dry holes” until then, profited handsomely. In a heated 1994 Governor’s race, Texas Democratic Governor Ann Richards charged Rainwater “owned" her Republican opponent Bush.''
- Daniel Hopsicker , www.madcowprod.com
.......................
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/article/74598/mexicociaguantanamo-rendition-plane-coca
Mexico,CIA,Guantanamo Rendition Plane, Cocaine, Homeland 'Security'
''Increasing suspicion even more was the suggestion, in a report of a committee of the European Parliament, that in addition to having been used in drug trafficking the Gulfstream II had flown CIA rendition flights to Guantanamo.'' - Daniel Hopsicker ,www.madcowprod.com
...................
The Surname Leyva is spelled as the Jewish spelling as LEIVA known as Spanish/Sephardic Jewish name.
Ley'va
Ley'ba
Lei'va
Lei'ba
...................
Zeta gang connected to U.S. Special Forces/Mossad
(WMR)—Multiple well-informed sources in Central and South America have told WMR that the heavily-armed and merciless Los Zetas narcotics cartel operating in Mexico is carrying out their destabilization efforts in Mexico with the assistance of elements of the U.S. Special Forces and Israel’s Mossad.
In addition, Zeta’s activities are not merely confined to Mexico but extend to Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua with the goal of destabilizing those nations in order to ensure the establishment of pro-U.S. regimes or, in the case of Honduras, ensure the continuation in power of the present military-backed government.
Many of the Zeta paramilitary personnel were trained at Fort Bragg and at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas. The former Mexican military Zeta personnel were trained in kidnapping, ambushing, car jacking, surveillance, and psychological warfare operations by the United States and Israel. It is the psychological warfare operations that are at the center of the current fear campaign being waged by the Zetas against the Mexican people with the promotion of the Santa Muerte death cult by the cartel serving as a major psychological warfare tactic to ensure a constant state of fear among the Mexican population.
Tens of thousands of Mexicans have been killed by the Zetas, with many victims being beheaded and brutally tortured before being shot or hacked to pieces. The psychological warfare program is designed to frighten honest law enforcement personnel, as well as journalists, many of whom have already been murdered in the destabilization violence in Mexico.
WMR has been told that one of the major goals of the U.S. and Israeli support for the Zetas is to promote the building of a sophisticated barricade, using U.S. and Israeli-supplied technology, along the U.S.-Mexican border. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive (ATF), part of the Justice Department, was discovered to be involved in the smuggling of semi-automatic weapons from the United States to Mexico with many of the weapons ending up in the hands of the Zetas and the rival Sinaloa drug cartel. The ATF operation, called Project Gunrunner, was designed to stem the flow of weapons to Mexican drug gangs, but as discovered by CBS News and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) it had the opposite goal of arming the Mexican drug cartels, especially the Zetas.
There was little mention of the U.S. and Israeli destabilization program in Mexico when Mexican President Felipe Calderon recently visited the White House for talks with President Obama. Obama and Calderon agreed that border security should be improved and that the flow of drugs into the United States from Mexico and weapons from the United States to Mexico should be curtailed. But there was mention of another commodity being smuggled from Mexico into the United States—oil. And any enhanced barricade along the border will only deter Mexicans in search of honest employment from trying to enter the United States. The Zetas and U.S. weapons smuggler will continue to receive a “wink and a nod” in their smuggling operations.
The CIA and Pentagon have a vested interest in the destabilization of Mexico because of one of the major benefits the United States receives in return from the Zetas and Sinaloa (Pacific) cartels, namely the smuggling of large amounts of crude oil from the Mexican state oil company, PEMEX, into south Texas. The oil smuggling, according to one of WMR’s sources in Latin America, is connected to organized crime figures in Chicago who are linked to newly-elected mayor Rahm Emanuel. The oil smuggling is also connected to an organized crime syndicate based in Cincinnati.
In 2009, Donald Schroeder, president of Trammo Petroleum in Houston, was convicted of purchasing stolen Mexican crude oil that had been smuggled into the United States via tanker trucks and barges for processing at Texas refineries. However, Schroeder was apparently a small fish in comparison to major U.S. oil companies and their paid-off politicians which are reaping huge profits from the smuggled Mexican oil as petroleum prices are skyrocketing with the events in the Middle East.
The Zetas, with support from Mossad cells operating in Guatemala and Costa Rica are, according to our sources, using weapons smuggled from the United States and drugs smuggled from Mexico and other locations to launch major destabilization efforts aimed at toppling the Sandinista government from power in Nicaragua and seeing the leftist National Unity of Hope (UNE) government of Guatemala ousted in the 2012 election. Last September, the Obama administration listed Nicaragua as a “major” drug trafficking center, although it failed to mention that the drugs are coming from the Zetas with the support of the CIA and Mossad. Mossad is using Costa Rica, where it has free reign, to conduct the destabilization of Nicaragua with the support of its Zeta allies in Mexico and Central America.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
http://www.ww4report.com/node/10732
Mexico: US drug agents aided the Beltrán Leyva cartel
Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 12:38.
Agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) worked with an informant and with Mexican enforcement agents in 2007 to launder millions of dollars for Mexico's Beltrán Leyva cartel, according to reports in the New York Times and the Mexican magazineemeequis. The information comes from the Mexican government's response to a US request for the extradition of Harold Mauricio Poveda-Ortega, a Colombian drug trafficker arrested in Mexico in November 2010.
According to documents the Mexican government supplied in the extradition case, in January 2007 a DEA informant began seeking money-laundering jobs from Poveda-Ortega, who was supplying Colombian drugs to the Mexican cartel headed by Arturo Beltrán Leyva and his three brothers. In July, the informant and a group of DEA agents laundered about $1 million through a Bank of America branch in Dallas and had it delivered to someone in Panama. In August and September they worked with an undercover Mexican agent to launder $499,250 on one occasion and $1 million on another. In October the DEA helped the Beltrán Leyva cartel ship 330 kilograms of cocaine through Dallas from Ecuador to Madrid, where Spanish authorities seized the drugs after being tipped off by the DEA.
As reported by the New York Times in December, the US government claims that this type of operation is useful in tracking criminal activity and leads to the arrests of cartel leaders. Arturo Beltrán Leyva was killed in a shootout with Mexican security forces in 2009, and apparently information from the US led to the Mexican operation. But the Beltrán Leyva cartel remains a major criminal organization. Morris Panner, a former assistant US attorney and an adviser on drug policy at Harvard University, described the DEA's strategy "a slippery slope. If it's not careful, the United States could end up helping the bad guys more than hurting them." (NYT, Jan. 9)
On Jan. 10 the Mexican government gave its official statistics on drug-related homicides for 2011. The Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) reported that 12,903 deaths of this sort had occurred as of Sept. 30, giving a total of 47,453 drug-related homicides since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa took office in December 2006. The Los Angeles Times reports that with the presidential election coming up in six months, Calderón's government was reluctant to release the numbers and only did so under pressure. (LAT, Jan. 11; La Jornada, Mexico, Jan. 12)
Crime reporting is inconsistent in Mexico, with the result that official and non-governmental figures sometimes differ considerably. Earlier this month the Mexican daily La Jornada gave a much lower figure, 11,890, for homicides in 2011 but a much higher figure, 51,918, for the total since December 2006.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:kaV0PgywPaEJ:wakeupfromyourslumber.com/news/mexicos-beltran-leyva-drug-cartel+&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Mexico's Beltran-Leyva Drug Cartel
BBC News - Arturo Beltran Leyva, shot dead during a shootout with
security forces, was one of Mexico's most wanted men, with a $2.3m
reward on his head.
Known as "the boss of bosses", he headed the cartel that bears his
name, the Beltran Leyva Organisation (BLO).
This was formed as as a gang in its own right after a 2008 split from
the notorious and powerful Sinaloa cartel headed by Joaquin Shorty
Guzman.
The area of operations of the two gangs along Mexico's Pacific coast
overlap to some extent and the two gangs are fighting for control of
lucrative smuggling routes into the US market.
In the fluctuating and violent alliances between Mexico's drug gangs,
the Beltran Leyva cartel has teamed up with Los Zetas in their deadly
feud with the Sinaloa cartel.
Los Zetas are a group of former soldiers hired by the Gulf Cartel as
hitmen but now a gang in its own right.
The Beltran Leyva Organisation has been around for a long time and has
perhaps the most sophisticated intelligence of any of the gangs,
according to a recent report by Stratfor Global Intelligence.
The gang has penetrated every level of Mexican government, Stratfor says.
As well as having a Mexican price on his head, Arturo Beltran Leyva,
believed to be around 50, was wanted in the US.
He was formally designated a "drug kingpin". In August 2009, the US
justice department indicted him and 42 others in connection with
drug-trafficking
And in December 2009, the US Treasury froze assets of people and
companies linked to the Beltran Leyva gang.
"The Beltran Leyva Organisation is responsible for acts of terrible
violence in the pursuit of money," a treasury statement said, adding
that the cartel and its associates controlled firms involved in, among
others, transportation, electronics, health products and hospitality.
Washington has accused the Beltran Leyva gang of smuggling millions of
dollars of cocaine and heroin into the US.
Their suppliers are Colombian drug gangs, in particular the Norte del
Valle gang.
Arturo Beltran Leyva's death is the biggest blow against his cartel
since January 2008 when one of his brothers was captured.
However, the leadership gap is likely to soon be filled. Three other
brothers, including Hector Beltran Leyva, are accused of involvement
in the cartel.
Tags: CORRUPTION HUMAN TRAFFICKING JUDAISM MEXICO
SUBMITTED BY ANDIE531 ON SUN, 2010-04-11 03:47
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Re: Mexico's Beltran-Leyva Drug Cartel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Beltr%C3%A1n_Leyva
(Marcos) Arturo Beltrán Leyva (September 27, 1961 – December 16, 2009)
was the leader of the Mexican drug trafficking organization known as
the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, which is headed by the Beltrán Leyva
brothers: Marcos Arturo, Mario Alberto, Carlos, Alfredo and
Héctor.[1][2] The cartel is responsible for cocaine, marijuana, heroin
and methamphetamine production, transportation and wholesaling. It
controls numerous drug trafficking corridors into the United States
and is also responsible for human smuggling, money laundering,
extortion, kidnapping, murder, contract killing, torture, gun-running
and other acts of violence against men, women, and children in
Mexico.[3] The organization is connected with the assassinations of
numerous Mexican law enforcement officials.[3]
Since the mid 1990s Arturo Beltrán Leyva allegedly led powerful groups
of assassins to fight for trade routes in northeastern Mexico. By
2008, through the use of corruption or intimidation, he was able to
infiltrate Mexico's political,[4] judicial[5] and police institutions
to feed classified information about anti-drug operations,[6][7] and
even infiltrated the Interpol office in Mexico.[8]
The Beltrán Leyva brothers, who were formerly aligned with the Sinaloa
Cartel, are now allies of Los Zetas of the Gulf Cartel.
------------------------------
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Mexican Round-Up-Who really are the Zetas?(U.S./Israeli trained Special Forces)
MEXICAN ROUND UP PART 2 CLICK HERE
Los Zetas Narco Trafickers
Israel and U.S. create terrorist networks throughout Latin America just as they do in the Middle East(AL-CIA-DA)
................
http://deadlinelive.info/2011/07/06/deadline-live-exclusive-%E2%80%93-captured-zeta-leader-we%E2%80%99ve-purchased-weapons-from-the-%E2%80%9Cu-s-government-itself%E2%80%9D/
By Mario Andrade
DeadlineLive.info
July 6, 2011
Last Sunday, one of the original seven members of Los Zetas, Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, aka El Mamito, was captured in Mexico. Rejón Aguilar was also known as Zeta 7. He helped the then Gulf Drug Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas recruit the original Mexican special forces soldiers trained at Fort Benning, Georgia to become the most dangerous criminal organization in Mexico.
In an edited interview with Mexican Federal Police (in Spanish and now posted at YouTube), Rejón Aguilar reveals some interesting information about the origins of Los Zetas, where they get their weapons, and where they buy their drug shipments.
Rejón Aguilar probably knows he’s going to be murdered in prison, so he appears to be speaking the truth, perhaps in order to reach a deal with Mexican authorities so they can provide him witness protection.
Los Zetas are the biggest obstacle for the Mexican narco-state. They are their biggest and most dangerous competitors. In the interview Rejón Aguilar reveals that Los Zetas do not trust the Colombians, so they purchase the drug shipments (mostly cocaine) from the Guatemalans. They know the Colombians are infiltrated by CIA and DEA, so they wait to buy the cocaine using the Guatemalans as decoys to avoid being traced.
Another interesting revelation made by Rejón Aguilar is that Los Zetas have operatives in the U.S. who have purchased (at least in the past) firearms and other weapons from different suppliers including from the ‘U.S. Government itself.’
Last March, the Mexican military raided a Zeta camp at Falcon Lake, where they seized several anti-aircraft shoulder missiles and other weapons.
The following is the (edited) interview transcript translated to English:
Interrogator: What is your name?
Rejón Aguilar: Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, aka El Mamito o El Caballero.
Interrogator: What is your date of birth, where are you from and how old are you?
Rejón Aguilar: June 9th, 1976. I’m 35 years old, and I’m from Sabancuy, Campeche.
Interrogator: What do you do for a living?
Rejón Aguilar: Drug trafficking.
Interrogator: For which organization?
Rejón Aguilar: Los Zetas.
Interrogator: How did you join this organization, and when?
Rejón Aguilar: After I deserted from the army, in 1999, I went to Reynosa and I met (Arturo Guzman) Decena, aka. Zeta 1.
Interrogator: Who created Los Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: It was Osiel (Cardenas), through Zeta 1.
Interrogator: When they were originally created, how many members were there?
Rejón Aguilar: At first we were seven. Then they brought seven more and added to the original fourteen members.
Interrogator: Were you one of the founders?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes.
Interrogator: Which (rank) number were you?
Rejón Aguilar: Zeta 7.
Interrogator: What happened after Osiel was captured?
Rejón Aguilar: When Osiel was captured, what happened later was that Jorge Costilla Sanchez took control of the organization.
Interrogator: What happened when Los Zetas separated from the Gulf Drug cartel?
Rejón Aguilar: They (the Gulf Cartel) began to do business with La Familia Michoacana, El Mayo Zambada (member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who’s son, Vicente Zambada is a DEA operative, according to court documents from his trial in Chicago), with el ChapoGuzman (leader of the Sinaloa Cartel), and people from Jalisco. They created their alliance, and when we broke away, they were already organized and began to kill our people. That’s when the organization was split in two: Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
Interrogator: And this is when the separation began between Gulf and Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: That’s when the separation began.
Interrogator: Are you basically at war with everyone?
Rejón Aguilar: They, the Gulf, created an alliance, and we’re at war with El Mayo, El Chapo, La Familia Michoana, and Jalisco.We’re at war with all of them.
Interrogator: And you know La Familia is from Michoacan, El Chango Mendez (leader of La Familia who was discovered to be distributing weapons purchased from the U.S. BATF) went to Aguascalientes to dialog with Los Zetas, was he asking you for protection?
Rejón Aguilar: He was trying to reach out to us.
Interrogator: Why?
Rejón Aguilar: To dialog because they killed all his people and he wanted our support.
Interrogator: Would that have been possible?
Rejón Aguilar: In my opinion, who ever betrays you once, can betray you again, so it wouldn’t have been a good idea. But I don’t know what the commanders would think about that.
Interrogator: And La Tuta (member of La Familia and founder of the Knights Templar)? Is there a relation between him and Los Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: No. His organization is with the Gulf, so he’s our enemy.
Interrogator: That relationship between La Tuta, La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar with the Gulf makes them your enemies?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes, because they’re killing our people and we’re trying to stop them.
Interrogator: With respect to the relationship between Arturo Beltran (former partner of DEA Operative Edgar ‘Barbie’ Valdez who was betrayed and killed by the military) and La Familia, then Beltran falls, then el Chayo falls, later el Chango, what do you think happened in Michoacan?
Rejón Aguilar: Michoacan collapsed because in essence, they didn’t keep their word. There was never a deal reached with them. In fact, when Arturo went down, there was a cease-fire, but they (La Familia) broke it, and they went to war against Arturo and sought refuge with el Valencia.
Interrogator: So after that, everyone started to break away and work for themselves?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. That’s when the war started. By that time, we were already working for ourselves.
Interrogator: How did you all begin to work independently?
Rejón Aguilar: Since we no longer had ties with anybody, we began to bring the material (the drugs) ourselves.
Interrogator: How do you obtain the drugs? Which Colombian cartel do you work with?
Rejón Aguilar: I do not know. That’s handled by different personnel. But it has always been brought through Guatemala because the Colombians are not trustworthy.
Interrogator: They bring it from somewhere else?
Rejón Aguilar: From Guatemala. It can be bought from Colombia, Panama, or Guatemala. We buy it from Guatemala.
Interrogator: And where do you get your weapons?
Rejón Aguilar: From the United States. All weapons come from the U.S.
Interrogator: How are they brought here?
Rejón Aguilar: Crossing the river. We used to bring them through the bridge, but it’s become harder to do that.
Interrogator: Who purchases the weapons?
Rejón Aguilar: They are bought in the U.S. The buyers (on the U.S. side of the border) have said in the past that sometimes they would acquire them from the U.S. Government itself.
Interrogator: And nowadays, who distribute them to you?
Rejón Aguilar: It’s more difficult for us to acquire weapons nowadays, but we find ways. But it’s easier for the Gulf Cartel to bring them across the border.
Interrogator: Why?
Rejón Aguilar: We don’t know why, but they bring them (accross the bridge) in the trunk of their cars without being checked (by Mexican Customs). One can only think that they must have reached a deal with the (Mexican) government.
Interrogator: How often are they smuggled?
Rejón Aguilar: Today it’s more difficult so it’s more sporadic, like every month, every 20 days, or every month and a half. It’s done when ever there’s an opportunity.
Interrogator: And the drugs?
Rejón Aguilar: The drugs are handled by a group of accountants. They handle that in private. It’s compartmentalized. Only they know how and when it’s smuggled to the United States. I suppose, with the way that things are right now, they probably smuggle the drug shipments every two or three months.
Interrogator: How are the drug shipments smuggled to the U.S.?
Rejón Aguilar: They bring it to the U.S. through Laredo, but that’s done by a compartmentalized group handled by the accountants. They are responsible for all that.
Interrogator: Let’s talk about San Luis Potosi, do you remember the attack on the U.S. ICE agents?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. They (Los Zetas) were travelling in a caravan of bullet-proof vehicles. They mistook them for other people and cut them off.
Interrogator: What’s happening in Tamaulipas?
Rejón Aguilar: In Tamaulipas, there’s a war because of the separation of the cartels. But we’re on hold because there is too much government (troops) presence.
Interrogator: Tell me about the armored (monster) vehicles. How were they made? How many of these vehicles were under your command?
Rejón Aguilar: Three… five at one time.
Interrogator: And out of these five vehicles, what type were they?
Rejón Aguilar: They were armored trucks typically known as monsters.
Interrogator: Were you ever prepared for being captured?
Rejón Aguilar: One always knows that sooner or later, we will be captured.
Interrogator: Is there someone you would like to ask for forgiveness?
Rejón Aguilar: Like how?
Interrogator: Yes. Like for your actions, or for disappointing somebody, like your children or your family?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. To my mother, because since all of this happened, I haven’t seen her for 17 years.
Interrogator: And knowing that you haven’t seen your mother and she’s still alive, how do you feel?
Rejón Aguilar: Well, it’s hard. It’s cruel but oh well…
http://wolfblitzzer0.blogspot.com/2012/03/zetasisrael-and-usgovernment-d...
Mexico: US drug agents aided the Beltrán Leyva cartel
http://www.ticotimes.net/Current-Edition/News-Briefs/Guatemala-declares-...
Guatemala declares state of emergency in Petén
Posted: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 - By EFE
The powerful Mexican drug cartel is suspected of decapitating 29 farm workers in northern Guatemala this past weekend.
It is very important to take in consideration that violence in Mexico started at the end of 2006, just after some small CIA aircrafts loaded with tons of south american Cocaine coming from Guantanamo-Cuba were shot down in Yucatan peninsula by the Mexican military while flying over Mexican skies. At the same time, Los Zetas are a paramilitary group created by the CIA and trained in Escuela de Las Americas which objective is to destabilize and terrorize Mexico and protect terrorist narco-communist cocaine traffickers operating between Cuba and Florida, appeared in Mexico.
Paramilitary group Los Zetas and the mercenaries working for them, are terrorists and Mexico's enemies!
Narco traffic is a global problem and not a Mexican one.
We have many open questions:
If the "drug trade" is a GLOBAL problem (Supply & Demand): Why does Mexico has to fight it receiving money from the U.S to do it, without asking for it? What is the U.S doing against Cocaine suppliers in South America; Bolivia, Peru or Colombia ? What is the U.S doing against Cocaine smugglers in the Caribbean using routes like via Cuba-Florida, or via Puerto Rico-New York?
What is the U.S doing against distributors and buyers of Cocaine & Crack-cocaine in the USA?
Paramilitary group Los Zetas and the mercenaries working for them, are terrorists and Mexico's enemies!
Narco traffic is a global problem and not a Mexican one.
We have many open questions:
If the "drug trade" is a GLOBAL problem (Supply & Demand): Why does Mexico has to fight it receiving money from the U.S to do it, without asking for it? What is the U.S doing against Cocaine suppliers in South America; Bolivia, Peru or Colombia ? What is the U.S doing against Cocaine smugglers in the Caribbean using routes like via Cuba-Florida, or via Puerto Rico-New York?
What is the U.S doing against distributors and buyers of Cocaine & Crack-cocaine in the USA?
................
Check out Hillary Clinton’s comments on drugs and Mexico.The innocent citizens of Mexico are being killed by massive flow of guns from the U.S. – not ‘drugs’.
Also did you hear about the U.S.Air Force plane that recently landed in Argentina with undeclared weapons,morphine and survellience equipment and messages in 15 different languages explaining that if they are caught that they are really the ‘good guys’ and their plight should be reported the the U.S.government ?
....................
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/116976.shtml
DFW Airport,24 Kuwaitis & Saudis,Richard Rainwater,George W Bush,Tom DeLay & 5.6 Ton cocaine bust in Mexico by Tony Ryals
''SkyWay, a company with no products, and thus nothing needing "repair," nonetheless announced in July 2003 “their newly established Part 145 repair station” in a building owned by LIT Industrial Texas Limited Partnership, a venture of Texas real estate giant Trammel Crow, the flagship corporation in the far-flung empire of billionaire speculator Richard Rainwater.......
''Ranked among the 100 wealthiest Americans, Rainwater backed George W. Bush in four separate business ventures, including the Texas Rangers baseball team from which Bush, who had been drilling “dry holes” until then, profited handsomely. In a heated 1994 Governor’s race, Texas Democratic Governor Ann Richards charged Rainwater “owned" her Republican opponent Bush.''
- Daniel Hopsicker , www.madcowprod.com
.......................
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/article/74598/mexicociaguantanamo-rendition-plane-coca
Mexico,CIA,Guantanamo Rendition Plane, Cocaine, Homeland 'Security'
''Increasing suspicion even more was the suggestion, in a report of a committee of the European Parliament, that in addition to having been used in drug trafficking the Gulfstream II had flown CIA rendition flights to Guantanamo.'' - Daniel Hopsicker ,www.madcowprod.com
...................
The Surname Leyva is spelled as the Jewish spelling as LEIVA known as Spanish/Sephardic Jewish name.
Ley'va
Ley'ba
Lei'va
Lei'ba
...................
Zeta gang connected to U.S. Special Forces/Mossad
(WMR)—Multiple well-informed sources in Central and South America have told WMR that the heavily-armed and merciless Los Zetas narcotics cartel operating in Mexico is carrying out their destabilization efforts in Mexico with the assistance of elements of the U.S. Special Forces and Israel’s Mossad.
In addition, Zeta’s activities are not merely confined to Mexico but extend to Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua with the goal of destabilizing those nations in order to ensure the establishment of pro-U.S. regimes or, in the case of Honduras, ensure the continuation in power of the present military-backed government.
Many of the Zeta paramilitary personnel were trained at Fort Bragg and at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas. The former Mexican military Zeta personnel were trained in kidnapping, ambushing, car jacking, surveillance, and psychological warfare operations by the United States and Israel. It is the psychological warfare operations that are at the center of the current fear campaign being waged by the Zetas against the Mexican people with the promotion of the Santa Muerte death cult by the cartel serving as a major psychological warfare tactic to ensure a constant state of fear among the Mexican population.
Tens of thousands of Mexicans have been killed by the Zetas, with many victims being beheaded and brutally tortured before being shot or hacked to pieces. The psychological warfare program is designed to frighten honest law enforcement personnel, as well as journalists, many of whom have already been murdered in the destabilization violence in Mexico.
WMR has been told that one of the major goals of the U.S. and Israeli support for the Zetas is to promote the building of a sophisticated barricade, using U.S. and Israeli-supplied technology, along the U.S.-Mexican border. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive (ATF), part of the Justice Department, was discovered to be involved in the smuggling of semi-automatic weapons from the United States to Mexico with many of the weapons ending up in the hands of the Zetas and the rival Sinaloa drug cartel. The ATF operation, called Project Gunrunner, was designed to stem the flow of weapons to Mexican drug gangs, but as discovered by CBS News and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) it had the opposite goal of arming the Mexican drug cartels, especially the Zetas.
There was little mention of the U.S. and Israeli destabilization program in Mexico when Mexican President Felipe Calderon recently visited the White House for talks with President Obama. Obama and Calderon agreed that border security should be improved and that the flow of drugs into the United States from Mexico and weapons from the United States to Mexico should be curtailed. But there was mention of another commodity being smuggled from Mexico into the United States—oil. And any enhanced barricade along the border will only deter Mexicans in search of honest employment from trying to enter the United States. The Zetas and U.S. weapons smuggler will continue to receive a “wink and a nod” in their smuggling operations.
The CIA and Pentagon have a vested interest in the destabilization of Mexico because of one of the major benefits the United States receives in return from the Zetas and Sinaloa (Pacific) cartels, namely the smuggling of large amounts of crude oil from the Mexican state oil company, PEMEX, into south Texas. The oil smuggling, according to one of WMR’s sources in Latin America, is connected to organized crime figures in Chicago who are linked to newly-elected mayor Rahm Emanuel. The oil smuggling is also connected to an organized crime syndicate based in Cincinnati.
In 2009, Donald Schroeder, president of Trammo Petroleum in Houston, was convicted of purchasing stolen Mexican crude oil that had been smuggled into the United States via tanker trucks and barges for processing at Texas refineries. However, Schroeder was apparently a small fish in comparison to major U.S. oil companies and their paid-off politicians which are reaping huge profits from the smuggled Mexican oil as petroleum prices are skyrocketing with the events in the Middle East.
The Zetas, with support from Mossad cells operating in Guatemala and Costa Rica are, according to our sources, using weapons smuggled from the United States and drugs smuggled from Mexico and other locations to launch major destabilization efforts aimed at toppling the Sandinista government from power in Nicaragua and seeing the leftist National Unity of Hope (UNE) government of Guatemala ousted in the 2012 election. Last September, the Obama administration listed Nicaragua as a “major” drug trafficking center, although it failed to mention that the drugs are coming from the Zetas with the support of the CIA and Mossad. Mossad is using Costa Rica, where it has free reign, to conduct the destabilization of Nicaragua with the support of its Zeta allies in Mexico and Central America.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2011 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).http://www.ww4report.com/node/10732
Mexico: US drug agents aided the Beltrán Leyva cartel
Submitted by Weekly News Update on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 12:38.
Agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) worked with an informant and with Mexican enforcement agents in 2007 to launder millions of dollars for Mexico's Beltrán Leyva cartel, according to reports in the New York Times and the Mexican magazineemeequis. The information comes from the Mexican government's response to a US request for the extradition of Harold Mauricio Poveda-Ortega, a Colombian drug trafficker arrested in Mexico in November 2010.
According to documents the Mexican government supplied in the extradition case, in January 2007 a DEA informant began seeking money-laundering jobs from Poveda-Ortega, who was supplying Colombian drugs to the Mexican cartel headed by Arturo Beltrán Leyva and his three brothers. In July, the informant and a group of DEA agents laundered about $1 million through a Bank of America branch in Dallas and had it delivered to someone in Panama. In August and September they worked with an undercover Mexican agent to launder $499,250 on one occasion and $1 million on another. In October the DEA helped the Beltrán Leyva cartel ship 330 kilograms of cocaine through Dallas from Ecuador to Madrid, where Spanish authorities seized the drugs after being tipped off by the DEA.
As reported by the New York Times in December, the US government claims that this type of operation is useful in tracking criminal activity and leads to the arrests of cartel leaders. Arturo Beltrán Leyva was killed in a shootout with Mexican security forces in 2009, and apparently information from the US led to the Mexican operation. But the Beltrán Leyva cartel remains a major criminal organization. Morris Panner, a former assistant US attorney and an adviser on drug policy at Harvard University, described the DEA's strategy "a slippery slope. If it's not careful, the United States could end up helping the bad guys more than hurting them." (NYT, Jan. 9)
On Jan. 10 the Mexican government gave its official statistics on drug-related homicides for 2011. The Mexican Attorney General's Office (PGR) reported that 12,903 deaths of this sort had occurred as of Sept. 30, giving a total of 47,453 drug-related homicides since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa took office in December 2006. The Los Angeles Times reports that with the presidential election coming up in six months, Calderón's government was reluctant to release the numbers and only did so under pressure. (LAT, Jan. 11; La Jornada, Mexico, Jan. 12)
Crime reporting is inconsistent in Mexico, with the result that official and non-governmental figures sometimes differ considerably. Earlier this month the Mexican daily La Jornada gave a much lower figure, 11,890, for homicides in 2011 but a much higher figure, 51,918, for the total since December 2006.
Mexico's Beltran-Leyva Drug Cartel
BBC News - Arturo Beltran Leyva, shot dead during a shootout with
security forces, was one of Mexico's most wanted men, with a $2.3m
reward on his head.
Known as "the boss of bosses", he headed the cartel that bears his
name, the Beltran Leyva Organisation (BLO).
This was formed as as a gang in its own right after a 2008 split from
the notorious and powerful Sinaloa cartel headed by Joaquin Shorty
Guzman.
The area of operations of the two gangs along Mexico's Pacific coast
overlap to some extent and the two gangs are fighting for control of
lucrative smuggling routes into the US market.
In the fluctuating and violent alliances between Mexico's drug gangs,
the Beltran Leyva cartel has teamed up with Los Zetas in their deadly
feud with the Sinaloa cartel.
Los Zetas are a group of former soldiers hired by the Gulf Cartel as
hitmen but now a gang in its own right.
The Beltran Leyva Organisation has been around for a long time and has
perhaps the most sophisticated intelligence of any of the gangs,
according to a recent report by Stratfor Global Intelligence.
The gang has penetrated every level of Mexican government, Stratfor says.
As well as having a Mexican price on his head, Arturo Beltran Leyva,
believed to be around 50, was wanted in the US.
He was formally designated a "drug kingpin". In August 2009, the US
justice department indicted him and 42 others in connection with
drug-trafficking
And in December 2009, the US Treasury froze assets of people and
companies linked to the Beltran Leyva gang.
"The Beltran Leyva Organisation is responsible for acts of terrible
violence in the pursuit of money," a treasury statement said, adding
that the cartel and its associates controlled firms involved in, among
others, transportation, electronics, health products and hospitality.
Washington has accused the Beltran Leyva gang of smuggling millions of
dollars of cocaine and heroin into the US.
Their suppliers are Colombian drug gangs, in particular the Norte del
Valle gang.
Arturo Beltran Leyva's death is the biggest blow against his cartel
since January 2008 when one of his brothers was captured.
However, the leadership gap is likely to soon be filled. Three other
brothers, including Hector Beltran Leyva, are accused of involvement
in the cartel.
Tags: CORRUPTION HUMAN TRAFFICKING JUDAISM MEXICO
SUBMITTED BY ANDIE531 ON SUN, 2010-04-11 03:47
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Re: Mexico's Beltran-Leyva Drug Cartel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Beltr%C3%A1n_Leyva
(Marcos) Arturo Beltrán Leyva (September 27, 1961 – December 16, 2009)
was the leader of the Mexican drug trafficking organization known as
the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, which is headed by the Beltrán Leyva
brothers: Marcos Arturo, Mario Alberto, Carlos, Alfredo and
Héctor.[1][2] The cartel is responsible for cocaine, marijuana, heroin
and methamphetamine production, transportation and wholesaling. It
controls numerous drug trafficking corridors into the United States
and is also responsible for human smuggling, money laundering,
extortion, kidnapping, murder, contract killing, torture, gun-running
and other acts of violence against men, women, and children in
Mexico.[3] The organization is connected with the assassinations of
numerous Mexican law enforcement officials.[3]
Since the mid 1990s Arturo Beltrán Leyva allegedly led powerful groups
of assassins to fight for trade routes in northeastern Mexico. By
2008, through the use of corruption or intimidation, he was able to
infiltrate Mexico's political,[4] judicial[5] and police institutions
to feed classified information about anti-drug operations,[6][7] and
even infiltrated the Interpol office in Mexico.[8]
The Beltrán Leyva brothers, who were formerly aligned with the Sinaloa
Cartel, are now allies of Los Zetas of the Gulf Cartel.
------------------------------
----------------------------
The Surname Leyva is spelled as the Jewish spelling as LEIVA known as
Spanish/Sephardic Jewish name.
Ley'va
Ley'ba
Lei'va
Lei'ba
It has been told to me by Jewish people of Israel I worked with for
Rockwell International briefly for a company that made the military
helmets in Silicon Valley that the LEYVA SURNAME is very COMMON in
Israel as (Smith or Brown) is here in the USA.
The problem is if you look at ancestry.com or familysearch.com you won't see a
(listing or census records) for ISRAEL for us researchers. What you
will find is the LEYVA,LEIVA, LEYBA Surname records however dating all
the way back to SPAIN when they originated in SPAIN as
Spanish/Sephardic Jew during the RECONQUEST and migrated all over due
to up-heaval due to the reconquest over RELIGION. There are RECORDS
DESTROYED over the fact of the JEWS in SPAIN and it is part of HISTORY
many did not want to talk about until recent historical up-bringing of
the issues at hand within the foundation of those in control.
andie531 | Sun, 2010-04-11 08:47
The Surname Leyva is spelled as the Jewish spelling as LEIVA known as
Spanish/Sephardic Jewish name.
Ley'va
Ley'ba
Lei'va
Lei'ba
It has been told to me by Jewish people of Israel I worked with for
Rockwell International briefly for a company that made the military
helmets in Silicon Valley that the LEYVA SURNAME is very COMMON in
Israel as (Smith or Brown) is here in the USA.
The problem is if you look at ancestry.com or familysearch.com you won't see a
(listing or census records) for ISRAEL for us researchers. What you
will find is the LEYVA,LEIVA, LEYBA Surname records however dating all
the way back to SPAIN when they originated in SPAIN as
Spanish/Sephardic Jew during the RECONQUEST and migrated all over due
to up-heaval due to the reconquest over RELIGION. There are RECORDS
DESTROYED over the fact of the JEWS in SPAIN and it is part of HISTORY
many did not want to talk about until recent historical up-bringing of
the issues at hand within the foundation of those in control.
andie531 | Sun, 2010-04-11 08:47
................................................
http://pencildicksvstheworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/mexican-round-up-who-really-are.htmlSunday, June 26, 2011
Mexican Round-Up-Who really are the Zetas?(U.S./Israeli trained Special Forces)
MEXICAN ROUND UP PART 2 CLICK HERE
Los Zetas Narco Trafickers
Israel and U.S. create terrorist networks throughout Latin America just as they do in the Middle East(AL-CIA-DA)
................
http://deadlinelive.info/2011/07/06/deadline-live-exclusive-%E2%80%93-captured-zeta-leader-we%E2%80%99ve-purchased-weapons-from-the-%E2%80%9Cu-s-government-itself%E2%80%9D/
DeadlineLive.info
July 6, 2011
Last Sunday, one of the original seven members of Los Zetas, Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, aka El Mamito, was captured in Mexico. Rejón Aguilar was also known as Zeta 7. He helped the then Gulf Drug Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas recruit the original Mexican special forces soldiers trained at Fort Benning, Georgia to become the most dangerous criminal organization in Mexico.
In an edited interview with Mexican Federal Police (in Spanish and now posted at YouTube), Rejón Aguilar reveals some interesting information about the origins of Los Zetas, where they get their weapons, and where they buy their drug shipments.
Rejón Aguilar probably knows he’s going to be murdered in prison, so he appears to be speaking the truth, perhaps in order to reach a deal with Mexican authorities so they can provide him witness protection.
Los Zetas are the biggest obstacle for the Mexican narco-state. They are their biggest and most dangerous competitors. In the interview Rejón Aguilar reveals that Los Zetas do not trust the Colombians, so they purchase the drug shipments (mostly cocaine) from the Guatemalans. They know the Colombians are infiltrated by CIA and DEA, so they wait to buy the cocaine using the Guatemalans as decoys to avoid being traced.
Another interesting revelation made by Rejón Aguilar is that Los Zetas have operatives in the U.S. who have purchased (at least in the past) firearms and other weapons from different suppliers including from the ‘U.S. Government itself.’
Last March, the Mexican military raided a Zeta camp at Falcon Lake, where they seized several anti-aircraft shoulder missiles and other weapons.
The following is the (edited) interview transcript translated to English:
Interrogator: What is your name?
Rejón Aguilar: Jesús Enrique Rejón Aguilar, aka El Mamito o El Caballero.
Interrogator: What is your date of birth, where are you from and how old are you?
Rejón Aguilar: June 9th, 1976. I’m 35 years old, and I’m from Sabancuy, Campeche.
Interrogator: What do you do for a living?
Rejón Aguilar: Drug trafficking.
Interrogator: For which organization?
Rejón Aguilar: Los Zetas.
Interrogator: How did you join this organization, and when?
Rejón Aguilar: After I deserted from the army, in 1999, I went to Reynosa and I met (Arturo Guzman) Decena, aka. Zeta 1.
Interrogator: Who created Los Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: It was Osiel (Cardenas), through Zeta 1.
Interrogator: When they were originally created, how many members were there?
Rejón Aguilar: At first we were seven. Then they brought seven more and added to the original fourteen members.
Interrogator: Were you one of the founders?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes.
Interrogator: Which (rank) number were you?
Rejón Aguilar: Zeta 7.
Interrogator: What happened after Osiel was captured?
Rejón Aguilar: When Osiel was captured, what happened later was that Jorge Costilla Sanchez took control of the organization.
Interrogator: What happened when Los Zetas separated from the Gulf Drug cartel?
Rejón Aguilar: They (the Gulf Cartel) began to do business with La Familia Michoacana, El Mayo Zambada (member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who’s son, Vicente Zambada is a DEA operative, according to court documents from his trial in Chicago), with el ChapoGuzman (leader of the Sinaloa Cartel), and people from Jalisco. They created their alliance, and when we broke away, they were already organized and began to kill our people. That’s when the organization was split in two: Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.
Interrogator: And this is when the separation began between Gulf and Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: That’s when the separation began.
Interrogator: Are you basically at war with everyone?
Rejón Aguilar: They, the Gulf, created an alliance, and we’re at war with El Mayo, El Chapo, La Familia Michoana, and Jalisco.We’re at war with all of them.
Interrogator: And you know La Familia is from Michoacan, El Chango Mendez (leader of La Familia who was discovered to be distributing weapons purchased from the U.S. BATF) went to Aguascalientes to dialog with Los Zetas, was he asking you for protection?
Rejón Aguilar: He was trying to reach out to us.
Interrogator: Why?
Rejón Aguilar: To dialog because they killed all his people and he wanted our support.
Interrogator: Would that have been possible?
Rejón Aguilar: In my opinion, who ever betrays you once, can betray you again, so it wouldn’t have been a good idea. But I don’t know what the commanders would think about that.
Interrogator: And La Tuta (member of La Familia and founder of the Knights Templar)? Is there a relation between him and Los Zetas?
Rejón Aguilar: No. His organization is with the Gulf, so he’s our enemy.
Interrogator: That relationship between La Tuta, La Familia Michoacana and the Knights Templar with the Gulf makes them your enemies?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes, because they’re killing our people and we’re trying to stop them.
Interrogator: With respect to the relationship between Arturo Beltran (former partner of DEA Operative Edgar ‘Barbie’ Valdez who was betrayed and killed by the military) and La Familia, then Beltran falls, then el Chayo falls, later el Chango, what do you think happened in Michoacan?
Rejón Aguilar: Michoacan collapsed because in essence, they didn’t keep their word. There was never a deal reached with them. In fact, when Arturo went down, there was a cease-fire, but they (La Familia) broke it, and they went to war against Arturo and sought refuge with el Valencia.
Interrogator: So after that, everyone started to break away and work for themselves?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. That’s when the war started. By that time, we were already working for ourselves.
Interrogator: How did you all begin to work independently?
Rejón Aguilar: Since we no longer had ties with anybody, we began to bring the material (the drugs) ourselves.
Interrogator: How do you obtain the drugs? Which Colombian cartel do you work with?
Rejón Aguilar: I do not know. That’s handled by different personnel. But it has always been brought through Guatemala because the Colombians are not trustworthy.
Interrogator: They bring it from somewhere else?
Rejón Aguilar: From Guatemala. It can be bought from Colombia, Panama, or Guatemala. We buy it from Guatemala.
Interrogator: And where do you get your weapons?
Rejón Aguilar: From the United States. All weapons come from the U.S.
Interrogator: How are they brought here?
Rejón Aguilar: Crossing the river. We used to bring them through the bridge, but it’s become harder to do that.
Interrogator: Who purchases the weapons?
Rejón Aguilar: They are bought in the U.S. The buyers (on the U.S. side of the border) have said in the past that sometimes they would acquire them from the U.S. Government itself.
Interrogator: And nowadays, who distribute them to you?
Rejón Aguilar: It’s more difficult for us to acquire weapons nowadays, but we find ways. But it’s easier for the Gulf Cartel to bring them across the border.
Interrogator: Why?
Rejón Aguilar: We don’t know why, but they bring them (accross the bridge) in the trunk of their cars without being checked (by Mexican Customs). One can only think that they must have reached a deal with the (Mexican) government.
Interrogator: How often are they smuggled?
Rejón Aguilar: Today it’s more difficult so it’s more sporadic, like every month, every 20 days, or every month and a half. It’s done when ever there’s an opportunity.
Interrogator: And the drugs?
Rejón Aguilar: The drugs are handled by a group of accountants. They handle that in private. It’s compartmentalized. Only they know how and when it’s smuggled to the United States. I suppose, with the way that things are right now, they probably smuggle the drug shipments every two or three months.
Interrogator: How are the drug shipments smuggled to the U.S.?
Rejón Aguilar: They bring it to the U.S. through Laredo, but that’s done by a compartmentalized group handled by the accountants. They are responsible for all that.
Interrogator: Let’s talk about San Luis Potosi, do you remember the attack on the U.S. ICE agents?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. They (Los Zetas) were travelling in a caravan of bullet-proof vehicles. They mistook them for other people and cut them off.
Interrogator: What’s happening in Tamaulipas?
Rejón Aguilar: In Tamaulipas, there’s a war because of the separation of the cartels. But we’re on hold because there is too much government (troops) presence.
Interrogator: Tell me about the armored (monster) vehicles. How were they made? How many of these vehicles were under your command?
Rejón Aguilar: Three… five at one time.
Interrogator: And out of these five vehicles, what type were they?
Rejón Aguilar: They were armored trucks typically known as monsters.
Interrogator: Were you ever prepared for being captured?
Rejón Aguilar: One always knows that sooner or later, we will be captured.
Interrogator: Is there someone you would like to ask for forgiveness?
Rejón Aguilar: Like how?
Interrogator: Yes. Like for your actions, or for disappointing somebody, like your children or your family?
Rejón Aguilar: Yes. To my mother, because since all of this happened, I haven’t seen her for 17 years.
Interrogator: And knowing that you haven’t seen your mother and she’s still alive, how do you feel?
Rejón Aguilar: Well, it’s hard. It’s cruel but oh well…
http://wolfblitzzer0.blogspot.com/2012/03/zetasisrael-and-usgovernment-d...
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