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WASHINGTON — More than 300 suspects have been arrested in a series of drug raids across the country that law enforcement officials say is the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating in the United States. The arrests are aimed at the U.S. operations of the La Familia cartel, two officials said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the results of the operation. In the latest legal assault on La Familia, a New York grand jury has indicted an alleged cartel leader, Servando Gomez-Martinez. He is linked to one of the...

The Mexican drug cartels have set up their U.S.A. headquarters in Atlanta, GA as reported by Mark Strassman for CBS Evening News: Four rival Mexican drug cartels have dug in along Atlanta's interlocking highways, a shipping link to the rest of America. "I classify Atlanta as a strategic operations center for Mexican organized crime," said Rodney G. Benson, Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta DEA. "They were able to blend right in and establish metro Atlanta as that strategic trans-shipment point." * * * Mexico's drug cartels are now the main suppliers in at least 230 U.S. cities, and...

Drug wars appear to be escalating in Mexico, with violence spilling across the border into the United States. As Mark Landler reported today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the first time acknowledged that Americans’ demand for drugs feeds the Mexican drug trade and all its ills. So what’s her solution? Secretary Clinton reportedly wants to beef up Mexico’s anti-drug law enforcement. But that’s not necessarily what traditional economics would prescribe. Civil liberties and morality debates aside, many economists say drug legalization, rather than heightened prohibition, is the answer. Plenty of economists, legal scholars, journalists and even drug law enforcement...

Drug War Doublespeak By Laura Carlsen | March 9, 2009 Through late February and early March, a blitzkrieg of declarations from U.S. government and military officials and pundits hit the media, claiming that Mexico was alternately at risk of being a failed state,1 on the verge of civil war, losing control of its territory, and posing a threat to U.S. national security.2

MEXICO CITY — Soldiers captured one of Mexico's most-wanted drug smugglers, whose nickname "la burra" — female donkey — belies his power as the alleged trafficker controlling drugs flowing through the northern city of Monterrey. Authorities announced the arrest of Hector Huerta Rios on Wednesday, just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives for a two-day visit to discuss security issues and U.S. support for Mexico's battle against the drug cartels. Clinton is scheduled to travel to Monterrey on Thursday. Huerta Rios was detained Tuesday in a suburb of Monterrey, said Army Gen. Luis Arturo Oliver. He was...