Posted on 09/29/2010 11:42:19 AM PDT by Cindy
September 27, 2010
US and Mexico collaboration leads to arrest of cartel leader
MEXICO CITY - The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-led Mexico City Border Enforcement Security Taskforce (BEST), consisting of Mexico's Secretariat of Public Security (SSP), along with Mexico's Office of the Attorney General (PGR) Specialized Investigative Unit for Organized Crime (SIEDO), executed an enforcement operation in Jalisco, Mexico, on Saturday which resulted in the arrest of cartel members associated with the leadership of the Sinaloa Federation's methamphetamine production operation. This organization is responsible for smuggling narcotics from Mexico to the United States and bulk currency from the United States back to Mexico.
The enforcement operation led to the arrest of Margarito "El Tigre" Soto Reyes and eight of his associates. The individuals arrested are all Mexican nationals. Additionally, authorities seized approximately $90,000, two methamphetamine laboratories, five kilograms of methamphetamine and three rifles. The arrests and seizures are the result of the close working and collaborative relationship between the United States and the Mexican authorities.
Soto Reyes assumed control of the Sinaloa Federation's methamphetamine trafficking, production and supply chain in July 2010 and it is estimated that his operation has sent nearly half a ton of methamphetamine to the United States.
In October 2009, ICE HSI special agents in Chicago initiated an investigation into the drug trafficking and money laundering activities of the "El Tigre" drug trafficking organization. At the request of ICE HSI special agents in Chicago, ICE's attaché in Mexico City and Mexico City BEST officers conducted an investigation confirming that several members of this organization live and operate in Jalisco.
U.S. and Mexican investigators continue to follow-up on all in investigative leads resulting from the arrests on Saturday.
The ICE Office of International Affairs is responsible for enhancing national security by conducting and coordinating international investigations. With agents in over 65 locations around the world, including Mexico City, the ICE Office of International Affairs works with their foreign counterparts to identify and combat transnational criminal organizations before they threaten the United States.
Additionally, ICE has partnered with federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement counterparts to create the BEST initiative, a series of multi-agency teams developed to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations posing significant threats to border security. The teams are designed to increase information sharing and collaboration among the agencies combating this threat on both sides of the border. For the most up-to-date ICE information, sign up for ICE e-mail alerts. You may also visit us on Twitter and YouTube.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
ICE is a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423.
Last Modified: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Guess that this bad guy wasn’t kicking enough bling and dinero to Stroker and his Chicago mob.
Like I believe anything from ICE.
My question would be why was ICE involved in this rather than the DEA or some other law enforcement agency? ICE is immigration control, not drug interdiction. I’d sure like to know the back story on why it was an ICE-Mexico operation.
DEA is part of the BEST team, this is just ICE trying to claim full credit for others work. They are far more interested in headlines than doing the dirty business of immigration enforcement. They have been known to jump the gun on press releases to the point of endangering some of DEAs informants.
The FBI use to be the agency that no one in other federal state or local wanted to work because they were glory hounds. Now everybody loves the FBI and hates ICE.
Thank you. I get it now.
Lately ICE is everything BUT immigration control. For an example see one of my prior posts here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2545313/posts
You’ve all got it wrong. Notice where the sting took place. In Mexico. That country, our enemy, is using taxpayer supported American law enforcement agencies to clean up its own backyard. At a time when the U.S. is inundated with Mexican drug cartel operatives occupying Arizona territory and setting up armed marijuana grow farms on private and public lands in the states of Oregon, Idaho, and elsewhere. Hunters and hikers in those states have been injured and/or killed stumbling upon those armed encampments! Americans are warned by their own government to stay out of U.S territory! What kind of madness is this? We are incapable of reversing an invasion of U.S. territory by armed and dangerous Mexican drug cartels, yet our taxpayer-supported alphabet “law enforcement” agencies can be “loaned out” to Mexico, our sworn enemy, in a “collaborative effort” to clean up garbage on the other side of the border? The U.S. has become a toady whose law enforcement agencies can be co-opted and twisted and turned any which way by our enemies for their own internal domestic purposes. Our enemies continue to exploit our own stupidity for their own benefit.
I agree with what you say to a certain extent, but the situation in Mexico is such that it behooves us to help them before we end up with an entire narco state on our borders, rather than a partial narco state. The only way Colombia began to get a grip on its narcoterrorism was to allow US elements to work with its military to get rid of Pablo Escobar and Co. We should be able to do two things at once: reverse the invasion of our territory AND help the Mexican government regain control. To me, it is more important to have a stable Mexico than a stable Iraq. If you think we have immigration problems now, wait until the narcotraficantes take over an entire country on our southern flank.
Calderon (your El Presidente) stood in front of the U.S. Congress and had the cojones to condemn as “racism” the efforts of the State of Arizona to enforce federal law to protect itself against the ravages your precious Mexico has unleashed upon it. The stupid Congress stood up and gave him a standing ovation. Don’t come over here and try to tell us what is best for our country, and who is and who isn’t our enemy. We make that decision. Not you.
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