- Comms
- Law
- Medic
- News
- Opinion
- Threat Watch
- Training
- Warrior Tools
- Accessories
- Ammo
- Body Armor
- Books
- Clothing
- Commo
- Gear
- Handguns
- Holsters
- Knives
- Long Guns
- ACC
- Accuracy International
- Barrett
- Benelli
- Beretta
- Blaser
- Bushmaster
- Custom
- CZ
- Desert Tactical Arms
- DPMS
- FN
- Forums
- HK
- IWI
- Kel-Tec Long Guns
- LaRue
- LWRC
- McMillan
- Mosin Nagant
- Mossberg
- Para
- Remington
- Rock River Arms
- Ruger Long Guns
- Sabre Defense
- Sako
- SIG Sauer
- SKS
- Smith & Wesson Long Guns
- Springfield
- Styer
- Weatherby
- Wilson Combat
- Winchester
- Magazines
- Maintenance
- Navigation
- Optics
- Sights
- Tech
- Warriors
Posts Tagged murders
How the U.S. is Fighting the Zeta Cartel
Posted by Gary in News, Threat Watch on 31/Aug/2012 16:44
From: Danger Room
The violence in the Mexican border state of Nuevo Leon began Tuesday morning and continued into Wednesday. By the end, 30 bodies had turned up around the state with bullet wounds or had been dismembered. The cause was attributed to a seemingly never-ending war between the Zeta drug cartel and their rivals. And that may only be a prelude. Miguel Angel Treviño, or “Z-40,” has seized the leadership of the cartel from longtime chief Heriberto Lazcano, according to the Associated Press, which describes the new boss as a “brutal assassin” who favors cooking his enemies inside burning oil drums.
For those unnerving reasons, the Zetas have come to define the violence of the drug war, and have lead the U.S. and Mexican governments scrambling to fight them. Arguably Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel, the Zetas are now estimated to operate in half of the country, if not more, and have expanded into Guatemala. Aside from unleashing violence, extortion and kidnapping across much of their territory, the Zetas are responsible for the February 2011 death of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon deployed 200 Marines to Guatemala in a sign the U.S. is getting more direct in going after the Zetas. The Pentagon stresses that the Marines will play a secondary role to the Guatemalans and are limited to merely tracking drug traffickers. But still, that’s a lot of Marines now operating in territory shared by the cartel. The U.S. also considers the operation to be only one part of a much larger strategy. Here are five aspects of that war.
Four Killed in Drug Violence in Western Mexico
Posted by Gary in News, Threat Watch on 18/Mar/2012 09:46
From: Borderland Beat
Suspected drug cartel enforcers killed four men and hung two of the victims’ bodies from a bridge in the western Mexican state of Michoacan, prosecutors said.
The state Attorney General’s Office said all four of the victims, none of whom were identified, bore signs of torture.
Two of the bodies were hung Friday afternoon from a bridge that spans a highway near the town of Vista Hermosa, not far from Michoacan’s border with Jalisco state.
Another victim whose throat had been slit was found dumped under the same bridge, while the fourth body was discovered floating in a river near the highway, prompting authorities to suspect a connection between the four homicides.
Polarization and Sustained Violence in Mexico’s Cartel War
Posted by Gary in Threat Watch on 24/Jan/2012 22:23
From: Stratfor
As we noted in last year’s annual cartel report, Mexico in 2010 bore witness to some 15,273 deaths in connection with the drug trade. The death toll for 2010 surpassed that of any previous year, and in doing so became the deadliest year ever in the country’s fight against the cartels. But in the bloody chronology that is Mexico’s cartel war, 2010’s time at the top may have been short-lived. Despite the Mexican government’s efforts to curb cartel-related violence, the death toll for 2011 may have exceeded what had been an unprecedented number.
According to the Mexican government, cartel-related homicides claimed around 12,900 lives from January to September — about 1,400 deaths per month. While this figure is lower than that of 2010, it does not account for the final quarter of 2011. The Mexican government has not yet released official statistics for the entire year, but if the monthly average held until year’s end, the overall death toll for 2011 would reach 17,000. Though most estimates put the total below that, the actual number of homicides in Mexico is likely higher than what is officially reported. At the very least, although we do not have a final, official number — and despite media reports to the contrary — we can conclude that violence in Mexico did not decline substantially in 2011.
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€
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
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.
Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News, Threat Watch on 14/Jun/2011 20:25
(CBS News)
WASHINGTON – Federal agent John Dodson says what he was asked to do was beyond belief.
He was intentionally letting guns go to Mexico?
“Yes ma’am,” Dodson told CBS News. “The agency was.”
An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson’s job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen.
Investigators call the tactic letting guns “walk.” In this case, walking into the hands of criminals who would use them in Mexico and the United States.
Documents show the inevitable result: The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets… the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.
One e-mail noted, “958 killed in March 2010 … most violent month since 2005.” The same e-mail notes: “Our subjects purchased 359 firearms during March alone,” including “numerous Barrett .50 caliber rifles.”
Dodson feels that ATF was partly to blame for the escalating violence in Mexico and on the border. “I even asked them if they could see the correlation between the two,” he said. “The more our guys buy, the more violence we’re having down there.”
Video here:
How is it the weapon industry’s fault? Do they blame the auto industry for all of the car accidents in Mexico?
U.S. Raids Mexican Gang
Posted by Gary in News, Threat Watch on 9/Mar/2011 20:24
From: WSJ
Federal agents have arrested a number of members of the Barrio Azteca drug gang in Mexico overnight, after having tied the group to the killing of a U.S. consulate worker and her husband, according to people familiar with the case.
Drug Crime in Mexico
Track the increasing violence in an interactive map.
Lesley Enriquez and her husband were gunned down in March 2010. Mexican investigators said months later that a captured drug-gang enforcer claimed to have ordered the slaying because Ms. Enriquez allegedly helped provide visas to a rival gang. At the time, federal authorities said the motive for the killing was unknown.
The attack on the Enriquez couple came at almost the same time as a third killing in which the husband of a Mexican employee of the U.S. consulate was gunned down. That raised concerns that U.S. government personnel were being targeted in drug-related violence. Those concerns were revived last month when an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent was gunned down on a roadside in Mexico.
Ms. Enriquez was pregnant when she was killed. The couple’s infant daughter was in the car at the time of the shooting but was not injured. Police who responded to the crime scene found the child crying in the back seat.
Planning a Vacation in Mexico?
Posted by Gary in Threat Watch on 9/Mar/2011 17:18
Mexico’s drug war has claimed more than 31,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office.
Think the violence only reaches the drug runners?
Oct 22, 2010, Ciudad Juarez: Birthday Party Attacked Fourteen people, including a 13-year-old, are killed in a massacre at a Ciudad Juarez birthday party.
Teens Murdered In Mexico
Posted by Brian in News, Threat Watch on 8/Feb/2011 13:28
From MSNBC:
Carlos Mario Gonzalez Bermudez, 16, was a sophomore at Cathedral High School in El Paso, said Nick Gonzalez, the Roman Catholic brother who is the principal. Another victim, Juan Carlos Echeverri, 15, had been a freshman at the private all-boys Catholic school last year but left to study in Ciudad Juarez, Gonzalez said.
Chicago police see spike in cop killings, assaults
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News on 4/Dec/2010 17:07
FILE - This undated file photo provided Nov. 30, 2010 by the Chicago Police Department shows evidence technician Michael Flisk. Flisk was killed Friday, Nov. 26, 2010, while processing a burglary scene at a garage on Chicago's Southeast Side. He is he fifth police officer killed this year in the line of duty - the most in at least 25 years. (AP Photo/Chicago Police Department, File)
CHICAGO — The police officer was in full uniform, gathering evidence from a car break-in when someone walked into the garage and shot him and the car’s owner in the head, then fired another bullet into their heads as they lay on the ground.
The brazen, daylight slaying last week of Officer Michael Flisk underscores what Chicago police have been saying for months: They are increasingly confronting people willing to attack them even as overall violent crime in Chicago continues to fall.
Five police officers have been killed in the line of duty this year — the most in at least 25 years. A sixth police officer was gunned down as he sat in his vehicle while off-duty just a few days before Flisk’s death.
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/12/04/5579777-chicago-police-see-spike-in-cop-killings-assaults
Evil preys on the weak – guns protect them.
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, News, Opinion, Threat Watch on 9/Nov/2010 19:06
The system cannot protect your family from twisted, evil men.
It is your responsibility to protect your family.
Being a respected doctor will not stop a bad guy. A bullet will.
Dr. William Petit pictured with daughters, Michaela and Hayley, and wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, in an undated family photo (Fox News).
“After four days of deliberations, jurors in New Haven Superior Court recommended death for Hayes who, along with co-defendant Joshua Komisarjevsky, broke into the Petit home and tormented the family for seven hours before Hawke-Petit and her daughters were killed. The judge will impose the sentence December 2.
Authorities said Hayes and Komisarjevsky forced their way into the house on July 23, 2007, beat Petit, and forced his wife to withdraw money from a bank while the rest of her family was held hostage at home. Hayes then sexually assaulted and strangled her, authorities said. Komisarjevsky, who will be tried next year, is charged with sexually assaulting 11-year-old Michaela.
Michaela and her 17-year-old sister, Hayley, were tied to their beds and doused in gasoline before the men set the house on fire, according to testimony. The girls died of smoke inhalation.”
This undated inmate file photo released in February 2010 by the Connecticut Department of Correction shows Steven Hayes, accused of severely beating Dr. William Petit, Jr. , and killing his wife and two daughters during a home invasion in Cheshire, Conn.
Bill Whittle on Gun Ownership
Posted by Jack Sinclair in Law, Opinion on 7/Nov/2010 17:02
Whatever your views on the Tea Party might be, (this is neither a plug for nor a criticism of the Tea Party movement) Bill Whittle makes some valid points as he examines the role of gun ownership as a bulwark against the power of the Big State, and talks about some of the logical problems the gun control movement seems to ignore.
Mexico: 18 in grave are missing Acapulco travelers
Posted by Jack Sinclair in News, Threat Watch on 7/Nov/2010 01:59
“Relatives confirmed that 18 bodies found in a mass grave outside Acapulco are those of a group of travelers kidnapped in one of the Mexican resort city’s most shocking drug-gang crimes, authorities said Saturday.
The families identified the decomposing bodies through clothing and physical attributes, said Fernando Monreal, director of the federal investigative police in Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located.
The 18 were among 20 men kidnapped while visiting Acapulco from Morelia, capital of the state of Michoacan, which borders Guerrero. Two of the men remain missing.”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/11/06/international/i180625D65.DTL