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Posts Tagged Mexico
Mexican Blogger Decapitated
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 10/Nov/2011 02:28
“The moderator of a popular Mexican social network has been murdered, allegedly for tipping off the authorities about the local drug cartel.
Nicknamed “Rascatripas†or “Scraper†(literally “Fiddlerâ€) on the network Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, the 35-year-old appears to have been handcuffed, tortured, decapitated and dumped beside a statue of Christopher Columbus one mile from the Texas border.
Below the man’s body was a partially obscured and blood-stained blanket. Written on the blanket in black ink: “Hi I’m ‘Rascatripas’ and this happened to me because I didn’t understand I shouldn’t post things on social networks.â€
Social media has become an important means for ordinary Mexicans to strike back at the cartels. Civilians have taken to real-time reporting of trouble spots on the country’s dangerous northern highways. Using Twitter, locations of firefights between cartels and government security forces, or risky cartel checkpoints, are broadcast by volunteers to wired motorists.
“Do not be afraid to report,†said Anon4024 at Nuevo Laredo en Vivo earlier today. “This is how we citizens can make a difference in this city.â€
LA Times: Mexico Under Siege
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 9/Nov/2011 14:17
The LA Times website has a chronicle of all their stories related to violence and drugs in Mexico.
The Violence in Juarez
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 9/Nov/2011 14:04
The El Paso Times website has a whole section on the violence in Juarez and the deterioration of Mexico in general. A quote from one article says:
Juárez deserves the title of most dangerous city in the world not only for its homicide rate but also suffering very high numbers of other violent crimes.
All White House communications on government gun-smuggling scandal at ATF have been subpoenaed.
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News, Threat Watch on 3/Nov/2011 17:29
by Dudley Brown
“In just a few short weeks, Barack Obama’s hand-picked, anti-gun Attorney General, Eric Holder, will be forced to testify before Congress about the ATF’s scandal, “Fast & Furious.”
But this time, there is more evidence.
A number of Eric Holder’s deputies may testify what you and I knew all along — that Eric Holder was well aware of the scandal. Others are also coming forward.
“This was an effort by Barack Obama, Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano to make an aggressive assault against our 2nd Amendment rights. I’m calling for Eric Holder’s resignation and prosecution,” an Arizona Sheriff recently stated.
Ten Arizona Sheriffs have joined the battle to hold Eric Holder accountable for his actions, which have endangered innocent lives all along the border.”
Texas Attorney General warns Obama: Mexican cartels ‘spilling over’ border
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 3/Nov/2011 15:20
“Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott sent a letter to President Obama on Wednesday warning that Mexican cartel violence is increasingly “spilling over” the border and calling for more security.
Abbott cited a “deadly shootout” involving “cartel operatives” last weekend in the town of Elsa, about 250 miles south of San Antonio, in which a Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy was shot three times. Sheriff’s officials have said the deputy was wearing a protective vest and is expected to recover.
Reflections on the Iranian Assassination Plot
Posted by Brian in Threat Watch on 20/Oct/2011 17:43
Reflections on the Iranian Assassination Plot is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
By Scott Stewart
On Oct. 11, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that two men had been charged in New York with taking part in a plot directed by the Iranian Quds Force to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, on U.S. soil.
Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri face numerous charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives), conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism transcending national borders and conspiracy to murder a foreign official. Arbabsiar, who was arrested Sept. 29 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, is a U.S. citizen with both Iranian and U.S. passports. Shakuri, who remains at large, allegedly is a senior officer in Iran’s Quds Force, a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) believed to promote military and terrorist activities abroad.
Between May and July, Arbabsiar, who lives in the United States, allegedly traveled several times to Mexico, where he met with a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confidential informant who was posing as an associate of the Mexican Los Zetas cartel. The criminal complaint charges that Arbabsiar attempted to hire the DEA source and his purported accomplices to kill the ambassador. Arbabsiar’s Iranian contacts allegedly wired two separate payments totaling $100,000 in August into an FBI-controlled bank account in the United States, with Shakuri’s approval, as a down payment to the DEA source for the killing (the agreed-upon total price was $1.5 million).
Much has been written about the Arbabsiar case, both by those who believe the U.S. government’s case is valid and by those who doubt the facts laid out in the criminal complaint. However, as we have watched this case unfold, along with the media coverage surrounding it, it has occurred to us that there are two aspects of the case that we think merit more discussion. The first is that, as history has shown, it is not unusual for Iran to employ unconventional assassins in plots inside the United States. Second, while the DEA informant was reportedly posing as a member of Los Zetas, we do not believe the case proves any sort of increase in the terrorist threat emanating from the United States’ southern border. Read the rest of this entry »
10 More Dead Found in Mexican Port of Veracruz
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 8/Oct/2011 18:21
“Mexican officials say 10 more bodies have been found in what appears to be more bloodshed in the battle between rival cartels for control of drug trafficking in the port city of Veracruz.
The discoveries raise the number of deaths since Sept. 20 to at least 75 as the relatively new Jalisco New Generation gang claims to be attacking members of the Zetas cartel.”
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/10-dead-found-mexican-port-veracruz-14697388
‘Zeta Killers’ Kill 32 More in Mexico
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 7/Oct/2011 20:35
(MEXICO CITY) — “A relatively new drug gang is responsible for killing at least 67 people whose bodies were found over the course of a couple of weeks in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, Mexican authorities said Friday.
Marines arrested eight members of the Jalisco New Generation drug gang Thursday, navy spokesman Jose Luis Vergara told a news conference. The suspects later led authorities to 32 bodies left in three houses in Veracruz, a port city that carries the state’s name.
Vergara said the gang is also responsible for dumping 35 bound, tortured bodies on a busy boulevard in a suburb of Veracruz on Sept. 20”.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2096508,00.html#ixzz1a9Lxb36x
The Buffer Between Mexican Cartels and the U.S. Government
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 19/Aug/2011 12:33
The Buffer Between Mexican Cartels and the U.S. Government is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
By Scott Stewart
It is summer in Juarez, and again this year we find the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes organization (VCF), also known as the Juarez cartel, under pressure and making threats. At this time in 2010, La Linea, the VCF’s enforcer arm, detonated a small improvised explosive device (IED) inside a car in Juarez and killed two federal agents, one municipal police officer and an emergency medical technician and wounded nine other people. La Linea threatened to employ a far larger IED (100 kilograms) if the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) did not investigate the head of Chihuahua State Police intelligence, whom the VCF claimed was working for the Sinaloa Federation.
La Linea did attempt to employ another IED on Sept. 10, 2010, but this device, which failed to detonate, contained only 16 kilograms of explosives, far less than the 100 kilograms that the group had threatened to use.
Fast-forward a year, and we see the VCF still under unrelenting pressure from the Sinaloa Federation and still making threats. On July 15, the U.S. Consulate in Juarez released a message warning that, according to intelligence it had in hand, a cartel may be targeting the consulate or points of entry into the United States. On July 27, “narcomantas†— banners inscribed with messages from drug cartels — appeared in Juarez and Chihuahua signed by La Linea and including explicit threats against the DEA and employees of the U.S. Consulate in Juarez. Two days after the narcomantas appeared, Jose Antonio “El Diego†Acosta Hernandez, a senior La Linea leader whose name was mentioned in the messages, was arrested by Mexican authorities aided by intelligence from the U.S. government. Acosta is also believed to have been responsible for planning La Linea’s past IED attacks. Read the rest of this entry »
Arizona Officials, Fed Up With U.S. Efforts, Seek Donations to Build Border Fence
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 19/Jul/2011 21:58
By MARC LACEY
PHOENIX — “Americans upset about illegal immigration have a new outlet for their rage: a fund set up by the State of Arizona that will use private donations to build a border wall.Critics call the state’s effort to build its own border barriers a foolhardy, feel-good campaign that will have little practical effect on illegal border crossings. But organizers in the State Legislature, which created the fund, say it will allow everyday people fed up with the inability of Congress to address the problem of illegal immigration to contribute personally to a solution.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/20border.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Ex-Intel Agent: Hezbollah Terrorists Within Miles of US Border
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 17/Jul/2011 15:58
By Martin Gould
“Hezbollah terrorists have set up a home base just across the Mexican border from San Diego, a former senior intelligence agent has claimed. The group presents a bigger threat to the United States than al-Qaida but so far appears to be lying low, making money from drug-running operations, San Diego’s Channel 10 News reports. www.10news.com/news/27780427/detail.html
“They are recognized by many experts as the ‘A’ team of Muslim terrorist organizations,” the unidentified agent is quoted as saying.
Hezbollah members have blended into Shiite communities in Mexican cities for years but the group has pushed north and now has a base in Tijuana, which is just over the border from the United States 25 miles from San Diego, the former agent said. It partners with drug cartels which pay for its security expertise.
Tunnels that have been built under the border show a level of sophistication that is consistent with Hezbollah’s work in the Middle East, he said.
The agent believes it is unlikely that Hezbollah will start attacking the United States from Mexico in the near future. “The money they are sending back to Lebanon is too important right now to jeopardize those operations.
“But if they really wanted to start blowing stuff up, they could.â€
He described Hezbollah as more dangerous than al-Qaida “because of strategic thinking; they think more long term.†Al-Qaida members, he said, “are more shooters than thinkers.â€
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Hezbollah-Mexico-US-border/2011/05/06/id/395452
New regulation requires firearms dealers along border to report multiple sales
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News on 12/Jul/2011 17:53
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
WASHINGTON — “The Obama administration on Monday approved a new regulation requiring firearms dealers along the Southwest border to report multiple sales of certain semiautomatic rifles, a rule intended to make it harder for Mexican drug cartels to obtain and smuggle weapons from the United States.
Under the rule, dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas will be required to inform the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives if someone buys — within a five-day period — more than one semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and uses ammunition greater than .22 caliber. Such weapons include AK-47s.
…Mr. LaPierre contended that it should take an act of Congress to impose such a requirement, not a regulation developed by the executive branch alone. He noted that the similar rule requiring dealers to report multiple handgun sales was part of the Gun Control Act of 1968.
“We view it as a blatant attempt by the Obama administration to pursue their gun-control agenda through backdoor rule making, and the N.R.A. will fight them every step of the way,†he said. “There are three branches of government and separation of powers, and we believe they do not have the authority to do this.â€
Rep. Darrell Issa and ATF Agent Warn of ATF Cover-Up
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News on 12/Jul/2011 12:31
Monday, 11 Jul 2011 04:16 PM
By Martin Gould
“Eric Holder’s position as attorney general is getting more tenuous as pressure grows on him to resign over the gunrunning scandal that saw weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug lords.
The actions of his Department of Justice are the subject of an Congressional obstruction of justice investigation into the scheme, said Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
And he said that much of the documentation provided by the DoJ has been useless. “If it wasn’t already available on the internet, it generally is an all-black page of redaction to where it is of no value.â€
Issa said that, if Holder did not know about the schemes, Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunrunner, which saw thousands of automatic weapons end up in the hands of violent Mexican drug lords, he should have.
“It is almost impossible to believe that everyone, including CBS News and many newspapers and Fox, had reported on Fast and Furious, yet Eric Holder still didn’t know anything about it.â€
Young Mexican Thugs kill migrants
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 25/Jun/2011 18:18
“Responsible for the slaughter of some 70 migrants, mostly from Central America, which appeared in a mass grave in the town of San Fernando, Tamaulipas was a 22 year old who was just arrested. This young man ordered the kidnapping of several buses carrying the migrants, detained and tortured them to find out if they had a relationship with a rival group and finally ordered they be killed.
Also arrested was one of the murderers of two of Governor Rodrigo Medina’s bodyguards, who is 18 years of age. SWAT team members of Nuevo Leon were picked up by police in the municipality of Zuazua, and given to assassins who tortured and killed them leaving a message to the governor.
Also last week, there was a very rough gunbattle on the border between Jalisco and Zacatecas. Gunmen who moved in several trucks with federal forces clashed for hours, ten died and several were arrested, including six girls between the ages of 16 and 21 who admitted being killers and sexual partners of members of the criminal group. They collected 12,000 pesos ($1,000) every two weeks.
Such was the case last week. Before this there have been stories of “El Ponchis†and child assassins of Morelos, or the young girls, almost children, with whom Jesús “El Negro†Radilla, head of the same group which “El Ponchis†was affiliated with, who served as sexual partners, assassins or were hired to leave mutilated bodies in the streets; or the thousands of young gang members in Los Aztecas or Artistas Asesinos, engaged in brutal warfare across the border area of Ciudad Juárez.
The stories are innumerable, but the truth is that every time, the assassins of these criminal groups are younger and crueler with their victims, and more money has less to do with their involvement in these criminal groups. Nothing is more worrisome in terms of social phenomenon which has been done directly, than involving thousands of children and adolescents in organized crime, not as in the past being camels (carriers) or consumers and distributors, but increasingly as killers for trace amounts of money.
Mexico Security Memo: Confusing Reports of a Battle in Matamoros
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 24/Jun/2011 16:10
“Mexico Security Memo: Confusing Reports of a Battle in Matamoros is republished with permission of STRATFOR.”
Zetas Raid or Rescue?
Around 5 a.m. on June 17, simultaneous firefights reportedly broke out between elements of the Gulf and Los Zetas cartels in several locations in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, a Gulf stronghold. The Mexican military has confirmed that a gunbattle did indeed take place in the Colonia Pedro Moreno area but has not confirmed media reports of additional firefights in the Mariano Matamoros, Valle Alto, Puerto Rico and Seccion 16 neighborhoods. The military also has not confirmed a reported gunbattle in the rural area of Cabras Pintas, where six Mexican soldiers are said to have been killed.
View an interactive map of hot spots this week in MexicoDetails of the confirmed firefight remain unclear, but from all indications, a large movement of Zeta forces into a Gulf stronghold did occur, and it suggests a heightened operational tempo in the war between these two cartels. In the coming months, this increasing violence is likely to continue in Gulf-held Reynosa and Zeta-held Monterrey as well as Matamoros. Read the rest of this entry »