Mexico killed in drug shoot-out

waltky · 11-19-2010, 02:16 PM

Mexico killed in drug deal
In the latest incident of drug-related violence to hit the country, all 111 million citizens of Mexico were killed Monday during a shoot-out between rival drug cartels.

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According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the violence was sparked by a botched drug deal involving an estimated 20 kilograms of marijuana, a dispute that led low-level members of the Sinaloa cartel to open fire on local dealers in Culiacán. Within seconds, the gunfire had spread to Chihuahua, Michoacán, Yucatán, and, minutes later, the other 27 Mexican states, leaving every person in Mexico dead.

"We're still piecing together details, but it looks as though the incident began as an act of retaliation against Sinaloa by two foot soldiers from the Los Zetas cartel," DEA administrator Michele Leonhart said. "The Gulf and Tijuana cartels then responded before being ambushed by La Familia Michoacána and Los Negros. At that point, witnesses reported hearing roughly 357 million gunshots, during which time the Mexican populace was caught in the crossfire and killed." "A four-gram bag of cocaine was also recovered by agents," Leonhart added.

Leonhart said the DEA has sealed off the 761,606-square-mile crime scene, which is littered with bullet-riddled bodies and assault rifles, and splattered with blood. The DEA investigation has so far determined that 20 million of the victims were murdered in the shoot-out while driving, biking, or walking to their homes, and that stray bullets killed another 8 million people watching the violence from their windows or balconies. An additional 1 million sons who set out to avenge the deaths of their fathers were annihilated in the final minutes while attempting to settle the score.

More Mexico Killed In Drug Deal | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

waltky · 07-29-2011, 09:39 AM

Mexican narco-war murder statistics...

Study: Mexico Homicides Rose 23 Percent in 2010
Thursday, July 28, 2011 — The number of homicides in Mexico rose by nearly a quarter in 2010 compared to the year before as the drug war intensified across the country, Mexican statisticians said Thursday.

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The National Institute of Statistics and Geography recorded 24,374 homicides over the course of last year, a 23 percent increase from 19,803 in 2009. Last year's figure represented 22 killings for every 100,000 residents in the country. Many but not all of the homicides were committed by organized crime organizations, the institute told The Associated Press. Violence has risen in many Mexican regions as a result of drug trafficking and other organized criminal activity. President Felipe Calderon's office has said that more than 15,000 homicides in 2010 were attributed to organized crime.

According to the statistics institute, the U.S.-bordering state of Chihuahua saw the highest number of homicides with 4,747. Sinaloa, in northwestern Mexico, registered 2,505. Sinaloa is the headquarters of the Sinaoloa cartel, while Chihuahua includes the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez. Those two states are among the most affected by drug violence, and together they accounted for 29 percent of Mexico's homicides. The institute cautioned that its information was preliminary and said it awaited definitive results that are to be released in September.

In the northern state of Zacatecas, prosecutors said a town mayor was found shot to death lying alongside a slain local farm union official Thursday, a day after they were kidnapped by gunmen. The dead mayor, Fortino Cortes Sandoval, headed the city government in Florencia de Benito Juarez. Last week, soldiers killed six suspected cartel hitmen during a firefight on a highway linking Sandoval's city with the Teulada municipality.

A dozen mayors have been killed in Mexico since last year, many of them victims of violence related to drug cartels. In Michoacan state, two local police officers in Nocupetaro were arrested with high-caliber weapons including a Mini 14 and two AR-15 rifles and 185 pounds (84 kilograms) of marijuana, the Defense Department said. Military officials also reported the seizure of 22 tons of ethyl phenylacetate in the port of Manzanillo in Colima state that had been shipped from Shekou, China. The chemical is used in the production of methamphetamine.

Study: Mexico Homicides Rose 23 Percent in 2010 | CNSnews.com

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Mexico Suspends Police Aid to Violent Border City
Thursday, July 28, 2011 — Mexico's federal government has suspended aid for a police-training program in the violence-wracked border city of Ciudad Juarez, saying authorities there haven't followed reporting rules and have trained few police.

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Mexico's National Public Safety System says it has suspended 57 million pesos ($4.85 million) in aid scheduled to be delivered this year, because the city has done little to actually train local police.

It said Thursday that from 2008 to 2010 the city trained only about 6 percent of its police force, and none of its commanding officers. "It is unfortunate that the federal government is not showing solidarity with Ciudad Juarez in the serious problem of insecurity," city clerk Hector Arceluz Perez told a Thursday hearing.

The announcement comes amid rising tensions between local and federal authorities, after federal police shot at a vehicle carrying Ciudad Juarez police chief Julian Leyzaola. Arceluz said the city has opened a formal complaint against the federal police officers, accusing them of attempted murder.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...-violent-borde

waltky · 10-05-2011, 05:19 AM

Now dey got marijuana libraries in Mexico...

Mexico's 'Cannabis Libraries' reflect rising drug problem, and changing attitudes
October 4, 2011 - Mexico's Cannabis Libraries, public collections of reliable information about illegal drugs, help to educate citizens in a country that is seeing consumption on the rise.

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In the corner of a library situated in a Mexico City park, stands a lonely yellow bookshelf lined with tomes on marijuana, cocaine, pills, psychedelics, and the like. This nook is known as the Biblioteca Canábica, or the Cannabis Library, and it's an attempt by civil society organizations here to create a go-to place for reliable information about illegal drugs for parents, teachers, teens, and others. It’s also a subtle way of raising the volume on a debate that is growing ever louder in Mexico: whether to legalize drugs.

“We want a healthier relationship with drugs,” says Carlos Zamudio, director of the Cannabis Library project. "[T]he relationship we have now has brought us problems with violence and health. A healthier relationship requires regulating drugs in a different way.” Apparently Mexican President Felipe Calderón is warming to the idea. Once stridently opposed to legalization, President Calderón has softened his tone on the subject as his six-year term winds down into its final year.

Calderón launched a war on drug traffickers in 2006, which has cost more than 40,000 lives. He recently told the United Nations General Assembly in New York that consumer nations are “morally obligated” to “search for options, including market alternatives” if they can’t, or don’t want to reduce demand. The first Cannabis Library was founded in 2003, and there are now six locations across Mexico City. A seventh location opened in the nearby city of Puebla in January. The Cannabis Libraries are grouped together within actual public libraries, as well as within cultural centers and cafés. All told, the project boasts a collection of about 600 books.

On the bookshelf at the park library in a trendy Mexico City neighborhood is a book in English called “Buzzed: The Straight Facts About the Most Used & Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy.” Another in Spanish is titled “Drug Addiction and Drug Trafficking: Legal Aspects.” Then there is, in English, “Why Marijuana Should Be Legal.” There is a copy of the Mexican Constitution - to teach citizens about their laws - as well as a copy of an Aztec manuscript translated into Latin in 1552. It includes drawings of substances labeled in the ancient Nahuatl language, plants with names like “ayecohtli” and “tolohuaxihuitl.”

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waltky · 01-25-2012, 07:43 PM

Zetas at the top of the heap...

Zetas are Mexico's 'largest drug gang', study says
25 January 2012 - President Felipe Calderon has deployed some 45,000 troops to fight the cartels

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The Zetas cartel has become the biggest drug gang in Mexico, overtaking its bitter rival, the Sinaloa cartel, a new report suggests. The report by US security firm Stratfor says the Zetas now operate in more than half of all Mexican states. Stratfor says the Zetas' brutal violence seems to have given the gang an advantage over the Sinaloa cartel, which prefers to bribe people. Since 2007, 47,500 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico. The report says that drug-related violence in Mexico has persisted, despite the government's efforts to fight the cartels.

Brutal alliances

The report's authors say the violence has shifted, abating in some cities while worsening in others. It lists the cities of Veracruz, Monterrey, Matamoros and Durango as examples of places where violence has increased, while murders in Ciudad Juarez have dropped, although the city remains the most violent in Mexico. According to the study, most smaller drug gangs have been subsumed by either the Zetas or the Sinaloa cartel, turning the two groups into the predominant criminal forces in Mexico.

The Zetas control much of eastern Mexico, while the Sinaloa cartel has its stronghold in the west of the country. The authors also point out their differences in strategy. They say that the Zetas whose leadership is composed of ex-special operations soldiers, resort to extreme violence. The Sinaloa cartel, although also ruthless, prefers to bribe and corrupt people, as well as providing intelligence on rivals to the authorities.

Expanded markets

The report forecasts a continued expansion of Mexico's cartels into South America, a strategy which "eliminates middlemen and brings in more profit". Smuggling drugs into the US is now more difficult as a result of increased violence in northern Mexico and more stringent law enforcement along the border, Stratfor says. The cartels have responded to this by trafficking more to alternative markets in Europe and Australia.

President Felipe Calderon, whose term ends in December, is likely to continue using the military to take on the cartels, the report says. But its authors do not believe the Mexican government can eliminate the cartels "any more than it can end the drug trade". As long as the lucrative smuggling corridors to the US exist, other organisations "will inevitably fight to assume control over them".

BBC News - Zetas are Mexico's 'largest drug gang', study says