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Grenades used in three recent attacks in Monterrey, Mexico, and Pharr, Texas, all originated from the same lot delivered from South Korea... That the grenade used in the third attack reportedly came from Mexico indicates that in addition to the well-known path of weapons flowing from the United States into Mexico, arms also are flowing from Mexico into the United States. The first of the three attacks targeted the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico. In the second incident, again in Monterrey, gunmen attacked a local TV station on Jan. 12 in an attempt to intimidate the news agency into cutting...

Mexico is struggling to wage war against its ultra-violent drug traffickers. More than 6,000 people were murdered in 2008, including innocent people, law enforcement officers and military men, as well as narco-traffickers themselves. The gruesome conflict is spilling over into American territory into the lives of U.S. citizens vacationing south of the border. Mexico's drug war is in fact more threatening and bloody now than at any point in history. The numbers are stagging. In 2008, some 530 police officers were killed. In January 2009 alone, some 493 murders were attributed to drug-related violence, nearly doubling the figure for January...

The gruesome violence will not stop with the tolling of the New Year’s bells, nor will it stop at the U.S. border. Many have written about the nexus of crime and terrorism; the fact is that drug crime and terrorism, mixed in with a healthy dose of youth gangs lies in front of us. Ask local law enforcement officials, but don’t necessarily look for it to be reported in your local newspaper. You won’t find much either about the increase in home invasions. Earlier this month, the former girlfriend of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the Sinaloa cartel showed up dead,...

TIJUANA, MEXICO -- Gunmen suspected of working for organized crime groups killed three men in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, while another group of hired guns left funeral wreaths with threats aimed at police chiefs in the northern city of Hermosillo, officials said. Mario Arnulfo Meza Reyes, 27, and Jose de Jesus Perez Castañeda, 28, were gunned down on a street in Tijuana's Libertad neighborhood, the Attorney General's Office in Baja California state, where the border city is located, said. The body of an unidentified man who had been shot in the head was found in Tijuana's La Morita...

Gunmen suspected of working for organized crime groups killed three men in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, while another group of hired guns left funeral wreaths with threats aimed at police chiefs in the northern city of Hermosillo, officials said. Mario Arnulfo Meza Reyes, 27, and Jose de Jesus Perez Castañeda, 28, were gunned down on a street in Tijuana's Libertad neighborhood, the Attorney General's Office in Baja California state, where the border city is located, said. The body of an unidentified man who had been shot in the head was found in Tijuana's La Morita II district, the...

Expanding Afghan War Awaits New President An expanded U.S. military involvement awaits a new U.S. president in Afghanistan where the unfinished business of September 11 has flared over the past three years into a major insurgency. A raft of assessments and reviews now underway in Washington point to a fundamental rethinking of the Afghan war. But whoever is elected Tuesday will face choices on the size of the military buildup, how to strengthen the central government, how far to go in dealing with insurgent sanctuaries across the border, how to help stabilize Pakistan, and whether and how to reconcile...

LAREDO — One chapter in a twisted tale of a drug deal gone bad concluded Monday when a pair of Mexican men linked to the Gulf Cartel were convicted of kidnapping by a federal jury here. Testimony by federal agents during the trial also shed light on the lack of trust U.S. law enforcement officials put in their Mexican counterparts because of corruption south of the border. Jose Garza Robles, 18, and Hector Herrera Sifuentes, 27, each were found guilty of two counts of conspiring to kidnap and kidnapping. Garza was convicted on an additional charge of receiving ransom money....

LAREDO — In the face of the impunity under which Mexican drug cartels operate along the border, police here secured an arrest warrant for Miguel Treviño Morales, identified as a high-ranking regional Gulf Cartel leader, in connection with a 2006 double homicide. A police official confirmed Treviño was a wanted man after his name appeared in a probable cause affidavit for another defendant in the same case. Juan "Cordless" Ramos, 24, was arrested Tuesday in Laredo in connection with the April 2, 2006, shooting deaths of Jesus Maria Resendez, 36, and his nephew Mariano Resendez, 15, just inside the city...

LAREDO — A day after one family was reunited following a harrowing kidnapping ordeal, another stepped forward Tuesday to make a public plea for help finding their loved ones. The three-week ordeal of Librado Piña Jr., now released and back with family, was highly publicized. But relatives of brothers Felipe and Sergio Lopez only now have decided to break a silence of more than 31/2 months. The Lopez brothers, owners of a currency exchange business called La Moneda in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, were kidnapped in late August and haven't been heard from since, said Carmen Lopez, Sergio Lopez's wife. Sergio...

REYNOSA, Mexico — A popular regional entertainer, whose lyrics about love and drug trafficking were backed by blaring horns, was killed in gangland style with two colleagues here Saturday, about a 100 yards from the stage he had just performed on at an annual fair. Unknown assailants unleashed a barrage of gunfire into two sides of the 2007 black Suburban the victims were leaving in around 3 a.m., causing passers-by to run for cover in this large city across the border from McAllen, police said. Valentin Elizalde, a "banda" singer in his mid-20s from the western state of Sinaloa, his...

LAREDO — Leads seemed few in the days after singer Valentin Elizalde was gunned down in Reynosa, Mexico, last weekend — no arrests made, no suspects named. But in cyberspace, clues were plentiful. Nicknamed "The Golden Rooster," Elizalde, 27, was well known in Northern Mexico for his brass-based traditional "banda" music and for his lyrics, some of which glorified the drug trade. Three months before his death, someone posted a photo slideshow on the popular video-sharing Website YouTube.com depicting a succession of bullet-riddled bodies, with Elizalde's song "A Mis Enemigos" — To My Enemies — as the soundtrack. The gory...

NUEVO LAREDO — Tamaulipas state authorities said Tuesday that they believe the recent shooting deaths of six Nuevo Laredo youths were “a form of disciplinary action” by a drug-trafficking gang associated with an organized crime group known as the Zetas.A representative for the Tamaulipas attorney general’s office said an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the Sept. 7 massacre on showed that the shootings did not develop as first reported by local police. The official said the dead bodies of six young men, ages 17 to 19, were found at the 24-kilometer marker on the Nuevo Laredo-Colombia river road Friday. Earlier...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's military denied that its soldiers are deserting in high numbers and joining organized crime groups and said that low pay plays no role in any such defections. Desertion rates in Mexico are no different from what they are in other countries, including the United States, a military spokesman said in a letter to The Dallas Morning News. The faxed letter was a response to questions posed by The News last month for a report on concerns expressed by U.S. officials about corruption in the Mexican military. "It's strange that American officials would express worries over the...

FBI bulletin outlines possible terrorist plot at Texas border BY ALFREDO CORCHADO AND JASON TRAHAN The Dallas Morning News DALLAS - (KRT) - Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the international boundary at dozens of improvised crossings. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle drugs and humans. Now there is growing concern they could become deadly conduits for terrorism. The concern is buttressed by a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, that contains the vague outlines of...

A renegade band of Mexican military deserters, offering $50,000 bounties for the assassination of U.S. law-enforcement officers, has expanded its base of operations into the United States to protect loads of cocaine and marijuana being brought into America by Mexican smugglers, authorities said.

WASHINGTON – Elite Mexican commandos, trained by U.S. forces to combat the drug cartels have switched sides and are working for the drug smugglers in the border area posing a special hazard to American law enforcement and Border Patrol agents, according to a U.S. Justice Department memo. The commandos, trained by the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Georgia, are known as "Los Zetas.". The Justice Department warning was sent to law enforcement agencies throughout the Southwest.. Using the commando training, Los Zetas are known to be extremely violent and have been blamed for an outbreak of violence along the Mexican...

The U.S.-Mexico border is becoming more violent. The feds have been alerted through a memo to law enforcement throughout the southwest, telling them that Mexican commandos are now working for drug cartels. You'll be shocked to learn where the commandos were trained. The memo from the Justice Department warns that Mexican commandos were trained by U.S. forces, but switched sides. They are now using their deadly skills to work for the drug cartels. They were elite forces trained by the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, \Georgia to battle against the powerful drug cartels. They're known as "los zetas," but a...