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Recent arrests in a mistaken killing point to the perilous presence of gangs The order was clear: Kill the guy in the Astros jersey. But in a case of mistaken identity, Jose Perez ended up dead. The intended target — the Houston-based head of a Mexican drug cartel cell pumping millions of dollars of cocaine into the city — walked away. Perez, 27, was just a working guy, out getting dinner late on a Friday with his wife and young children at Chilos, a seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway. His murder and the assassination gone awry point to the...

Mexican military forces take over police duty in Juarez, Mexico to combat drug cartel violence. Death count expected to increase.

Mexico troops enter drug war city Mexico hopes to have up to 7,000 troops in the city in a few days More than 1,500 Mexican troops have moved into a city on the US border being fought over by rival drug gangs.Soldiers moved into Ciudad Juarez to try to regain control of a city in which more than 2,000 people have been murdered over the past year. Officials say they intend to have 7,000 troops and police in position by the end of the week. Rival gangs are battling for control of the city, which is a key entry...

Anderson Cooper did a piece for 60 Minutes tonight on the Mexican drug cartels, and generally he did a good job in presenting a concise overview of the issues. However, the segment failed to address the horrific violence perpetrated by the drug cartels on the U.S. side of the border in cities such as Phoenix, AZ and Atlanta, GA, and failed to address the role by U.S. financial institutions and money managers in laundering some $38 billion in drug money for the cartels every year. Cooper interviewed Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano who recognized that the drug cartels pose an...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/February/09-ag-162.html Hundreds of Alleged Sinaloa Cartel Members and Associates Arrested in Nationwide Takedown of Mexican Drug Traffickers “Operation Xcellerator” Takes 23 Tons of Narcotics Off America’s Streets and Seizes More Than $59 Million in Drug Money WASHINGTON – Today Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., announced the arrest of more than 750 individuals on narcotics-related charges and the seizure of more than 23 tons of narcotics as part of a 21-month multi-agency law enforcement investigation known as "Operation Xcellerator." The Attorney General was joined in announcing the current results of Operation Xcellerator by...

In Arizona's Pima and Cochise counties law enforcement officials "are seeing more and more 'rape trees,' places where Mexican drug cartel members rape female border crossers and hang their clothes."

Cricket promoter Allen Stanford linked to drugs investigation The FBI is investigating Sir Allen Stanford over possible links to a Mexican drugs cartel, according to reports. By Paul Kelso, Chief Sports Reporter, Houston Last Updated: 3:03PM GMT 19 Feb 2009 In a report screened on Wednesday night on ABC News in the US, it was claimed that Sir Allen was suspected of laundering money for the notorious Gulf cartel, and that one of his private jets was detained as part of the investigation last year. The reports come 36 hours after the Security and Exchanges Commission charged the Texan financier...

US authorities 'had been investigating Allen Stanford for 15 years' David Byers, Suzy Jagger in New York, and James Bone in Antigua American authorities have been suspicious of Allen Stanford's financial dealings for 15 years but only accelerated their investigation after the Bernard Madoff fraud was exposed, it was claimed today. As investigators continued to hunt Mr Stanford and the $50 billion (£35 billion) of assets connected to him, a financial expert said that the Texan had been on "everybody’s radar" for more than a decade. The claim, made by the journalist and author Jeffrey Robinson, came as a link...

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...

Making their rounds in company vans, members of the Aispuro drug trafficking organization dealt Mexican meth to plumbers, teenagers and street pushers. Police say the group moved more than $200,000 or 25 pounds of methamphetamine each week in the Albuquerque area and supplied the drug to hundreds. It was a well-run organization with stash houses, job descriptions for its members, a fleet of transport cars with hidden compartments, a secret code and two auto detailing shops it used to launder money. Police say the organization formed a partnership with the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, which shipped the Mexican-made drugs to...

A Mexican drug suspect has confessed to dissolving the bodies of 300 rivals with corrosive chemicals near the U.S. border, in a claim highlighting the brutality of Mexico’s drug war. Santiago Meza, known as "The Stew Maker," told journalists he did away with bodies in industrial drums on the outskirts of the violent city of Tijuana. More than 700 people died in Tijuana last year as rival gangs battled for control of the city’s lucrative drug trade. Many others are missing and believed dead after being abducted. The suspect, who was paraded before journalists by the army on Friday, said...

MEXICO CITY – President Felipe Calderon's war on drug trafficking has led to his own doorstep, with the arrest of a dozen high-ranking officials with alleged ties to Mexico's most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa Cartel. The U.S. praises Calderon for rooting out corruption at the top. But critics say the arrests reveal nothing more than a timeworn government tactic of protecting one cartel and cracking down on others. Operation Clean House comes just as the U.S. is giving Mexico its first installment of $400 million in equipment and technology to fight drugs.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0901/090114tampa.htm January 14, 2009 Colombian drug lord gets life in prison following joint law enforcement investigation TAMPA, Fla. - A high ranking member of a Colombian drug cartel was sentenced here to life in prison Monday following a multi-agency investigation comprised of several federal agencies including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ivan Gonzalez-Bejarano, 48, linked to the Cali Cartel, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday to a term of life imprisonment for conspiracy to import and distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine. The joint federal investigation, that spanned...

According to the US Joint Forces Command there are two US allies that have the possibility for rapid and sudden collapse, Pakistan and Mexico. Pakistan was no surprise but MEXICO ? The implications of that are frightening for the future of this country. The report points to the fact that Mexico's politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels:

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,...

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Mexico's out of control drug cartel wars this year, so why is our government opening even more border crossings at this time with Mexico. Many elected officials are ignoring Mexico's raging war against the drug cartels and instead of focusing on safety and public security, trying to widen the openings in our border with Mexico strictly for commerce purposes. DOBBS: Disturbing new details emerging tonight from Mexico proving that the raging drug cartel wars there are far more deadly than the government of Mexico has previously admitted. The U.S. response, however, is...

<p>McALLEN — Two South Texas Border Patrol agents appeared in federal court today on charges alleging they helped drug traffickers move their product across the U.S.-Mexico border.</p> <p>A grand jury in Houston returned sealed indictments Monday against Leonel Morales, 30, of the Border Patrol's Laredo sector and Salomon Ruiz, 34, of the Rio Grande Valley sector.</p>

FBI Warns of Potential Terror Attacks The FBI and Department of Homeland Security today issued an analytical "note" to U.S. law-enforcement officials cautioning that al-Qaida terrorists have in the past expressed interest in attacking public buildings using a dozen suicide bombers each carrying 20 kilograms of explosives. Authors with the U.S. Office of Intelligence and Analysis added that they have "no credible or specific information that terrorists are planning operations against public buildings in the United States." The FBI and DHS analysts said they were releasing the note because "it is important for local authorities and building owners and...

TIJUANA – A special federal task force captured several men believed to be high-ranking members of the Arellano Felix cartel amid gunfire in a pre-dawn raid Friday, according the local Mexican military command. The suspects were gambling around 2 a.m. in a room at Caliente Casino, owned by former mayor Jorge Hank Rhon. Alfonso Duarte Mujica, local military commander, said at a press conference Friday morning that one of those captured was Pedro Ignacio Zazueta, known as “El Pit,” believed to be one of the leaders of the Arellano cartel. Zazueta is a lieutenant to Fernando Sanchez Arellano, known as...

OUR OPINION: U.S. MUST SUPPORT EFFORT TO DEFEAT NARCOTICS CRIMINALS The outpouring of drug-related violence in Mexico over the last few months has made it indisputably clear that President Felipe Calderón's government is engaged in a fight to the death against the powerful criminal gangs that run the cross-border drug trade. For Mexico, the stakes are all too clear: Either it prevails or the country becomes one big sanctuary for druglords. With Mexico reaching out to the United States for help and the Bush administration eager to comply, Congress must make assistance to Mexico an urgent priority. Last week, the...