Free Republic

NUEVO LAREDO - The federal government and the governement of the border state of Tamaulipas are joining forces in a US$34 million plan to boost security and fight drug trafficking on the border. The plan, called "Northern Border," was signed Monday night by federal Public Security Secretary Eduardo Medina Mora and Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernández Flores in Nuevo Laredo. The goal is to bolster security in a state that has been rocked by violence in recent months. Nuevo Laredo, a city of 330,000 across the border from Laredo, Texas, has been particularly affected by drug-related violence in recent years, with...

NUEVO LAREDO - In a special fleet of three planes, hundreds of federal preventive police officers arrived here Tuesday morning to reinforce security in the drug-war-torn Sister City. The planes landed at about 6:30 a.m. at the Quetzalcóatl airport. "We know they are here, but we don't know their mission," said Manuel Antonio Ulloa, Nuevo Laredo city spokesman. "They are closed, and never talk about their operations." Special support forces, special group agents with canine units, high-caliber weapons and a wide variety of equipment and ammunition, were quickly loaded onto trucks at the airport, and within an hour the convoy...

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico The weary residents of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, had hoped the influx of hundreds of federal agents would put a halt to the wave of violence in the border city. The crime wave blamed on an escalating drug war killed 181 people last year, including a newly appointed police chief and a city councilman. But drug-related crime hasn't let up since the "federales" arrived, and 31 people have been killed so far this year. That's a sharp increase from last year's record toll. Eight months ago, President Vicente Fox sent soldiers and federal agents to take back from...

MONTERREY - Officials in northern Mexico said Wednesday that two gunmen killed a police officer who was the son of a judge who had acted against suspected drug lords. Jesús González, a 24-year-old cop in Nuevo Leon, was slain Tuesday night by unidentified assailants in Monterrey, prosecutors said. He was the son of Judge Jesús González Rodríguez, who issued orders in August 2005 prohibiting two drug lords from leaving the country. The elder González ruled against drug traffickers José Luis Carrizales Coronado, known as "El Tubi," and Francisco Carlos Esquivel Maldonado, who is known as "El Capi." SINALOA DRUG CARTEL...