War on Drugs

waltky · 12-12-2007, 07:53 PM

Fearless W gonna freeze their assets...

U.S. gov't to freeze Mexican drug cartel's assets
Dec. 12, 2007 -- The U.S. White House announced on Wednesday the U.S. government will freeze the assets of a Mexican drug organization to demonstrate its commitment to security cooperation with Mexico and struggle against drug trafficking.

Quote:

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated 23 individuals and 19 businesses throughout Mexico for serving as front companies for Mexico's Sinaloa drug organization, the White House said in a statement. The Sinaloa drug organization is considered as Mexico's most powerful cartel.

"With the designation, the United States is exposing and sanctioning a principal money laundering organization and attacking the financial underpinnings of the Sinaloa drug organization," it said.

During a visit by President George W. Bush to Mexico in March, a Joint U.S.-Mexico Communique was signed in Merida that outlines ways for two countries to crack down on narcotics trafficking. With an aim at halting narcotics across the border, Bush has asked Congress for 500 million U.S. dollars for counter narcotics efforts in Mexico.

Source

waltky · 12-20-2007, 09:22 PM

Granny says, "Blow `em outta the water with depth charges!"...

Run Silent, Run Drugs: The Cocaine Sub Fleet
December 20, 2007 - Drug traffickers are using a fleet of as many as 20 mini subs to move huge quantities of cocaine through the Caribbean, federal law enforcement and Coast Guard officials tell ABC News.

Quote:

The cocaine vessels are often harder to detect than Russian submarines because of the way they skim the surface, officials say. "The Russian submarine has a certain signal you can listen to underwater," said Coast Guard Adm. Joseph L. Nimmich, director of Joint Interagency Task Force South, based in Key West, Fla. The cocaine vessels give "very little signal," said the admiral, whose officers are testing a captured sub in order to adjust Coast Guard sensors.

In a report to be aired on "World News With Charles Gibson," officials showed off the recently captured vessel, a semi-submersible that carried 9,000 pounds of pure cocaine. "They started out with four to five tons. The new ones are estimated to carry between 12 to 15 tons of narcotics," Adm. Nimmich said. The vessels are able to travel up to 2,000 miles and evade U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships patrolling the waters between Colombia and the U.S. and Mexico.

U.S. officials say the cocaine trafficking groups actually assemble the vessels in the jungles of Colombia and then truck them to remote ports to be launched. The vessels carry a crew of only two or three and often are purposefully sunk if detected by patrol boats, officials say. The use of the subs comes as U.S. officials say cocaine prices have risen an estimated 45 percent in the last 10 months, a sustained trend that suggests supply is being affected.

More The Blotter: Run Silent, Run Drugs: The Cocaine Sub Fleet

waltky · 01-02-2008, 05:16 AM

South American drug war efforts...

Bolivia seizes 431 tons of drugs in 2007
Jan. 1, 2008 -- The Bolivian anti-drug task forces seized some 431 tons of drugs in 10,400 operations throughout 2007,arresting 4,178 suspects, according to news from La Paz.

Quote:

The drugs included 17 tons of cocaine and 413 tons of marijuana, said an announcement released Tuesday by the Bolivian government.

Last year, the forces destroyed 3,925 drug factories and 6,296 drug pools, confiscating some 1,651 tons of coca leaves used to produce drugs, the announcement said.

Bolivia, located at a drug producing area known as "the Silver Triangle" in South America, is the world's third largest coca producer, after Colombia and Peru, with an annual output of 200 tons of cocaine.

Source

Related:

21,233 arrested for drug trafficking in Costa Rica in 2007
Jan. 1, 2007 -- A total of 21,233 people were arrested for involvement in drug trafficking in 2007, a report by the drug control authorities in the country said Tuesday.

Quote:

An average of 63 people were arrested daily from Jan. 1 to Dec.5 in 2007 for violating the Narcotics Law, said the report.

However, 95 percent of the arrestees were seized with very small amounts of drugs and it was hard to determine if they were for personal use or for sale. Only 374 people, 280 Costa Ricans and 94 foreigners, were found guilty of distributing and selling drugs.

The police received 176 phone calls with information on the activities of drug dealers, said a chief of the Police Drug Control agency, who withheld his name for security reasons. "I believe the best intelligence work is done by common citizen," he said.

Source

waltky · 01-07-2008, 10:53 PM

Drug gangs tryin' to take over Mexico...

Mexican army battles drug gang near US border
8 Jan 2008, Mexican troops and police shot dead three suspected drug hit-men armed with grenades in a fierce gun battle in a town near the US border on Monday, witnesses and local media said.

Quote:

Soldiers fought around 20 armed men after being attacked with grenades following a search of a suspected drug safe house in Rio Bravo, across the border from McAllen, Texas, witnesses said.

Mexican media said three gunmen died in the battle and eight soldiers and policemen were injured. Earlier, local media reported at least one policeman was killed. Police confirmed the gun battle in Rio Bravo in the state of Tamaulipas but declined to give more details. "The aggressors threw dozens of grenades and there was a lot of blood on the street. Some civilians were badly hurt and taken to hospital," said local journalist Ely Enriquez.

Many cities in the border area north of the industrial city of Monterrey are overrun by the powerful Gulf drug cartel and its armed wing, the Zetas. Suspected drug gunmen killed a local politician in Rio Bravo in November, turning the quiet agricultural town into a flashpoint in President Felipe Calderon's military assault on drug gangs.

Calderon has mobilized some 25,000 troops and federal police to fight powerful organized crime gangs and drug cartels since he came to power a year ago. He sent 3,000 troops and federal police to Rio Bravo in December following the murder of politician Juan Antonio Guajardo. In 2007, more than 2,500 people were killed nationwide in drug-related murders despite the military clampdown on traffickers.

Source

waltky · 01-18-2008, 03:52 PM

Calderon crackin' down on the drug cartels...

6 Killed After Tijuana Shootout
Friday, Jan. 18, 2008 — Officials found six bodies Thursday inside a Tijuana house where gunmen took refuge during a shootout with soldiers and police.

Quote:

Investigators were trying to determine if the bodies belonged to gunmen or kidnaping victims kept at the house, said a spokesman for Baja California state prosecutors who was not authorized to be quoted by name. Soldiers, state and local police were sent in to help control the three-hour shootout that began when federal agents prepared to raid a house in a Tijuana neighborhood near the U.S. border.

Earlier, Baja California state attorney general Rommel Moreno said in a news release that one assailant was killed and four police wounded in the shootout, that comes amid a surge in violence across the border from San Diego. Already this week, gunmen shot and killed eight people in Tijuana, including two local police officers, as well as a district commander, his wife and his 12-year-old daughter. Also Thursday, employees at Tijuana's City Hall and police headquarters were evacuated after receiving death threats over a police radio frequency, said Abraham Sarabia, a spokesman for city police.

Mexico has seen a spike in gang-related killings since the beginning of the year. The Mexican government has described the violence as revenge for President Felipe Calderon's year-old crackdown on organized crime that sent thousands of soldiers and federal police into violence-plagued cities nationwide. In the central Mexican state of Hidalgo on Wednesday, assailants killed the director of public safety for the town of Tulancingo. Jose Alvarado was shot more than 20 times, Hidalgo state police director Ahuizotl Figueroa said.

Source

waltky · 01-22-2008, 04:41 AM

Calderon catches a big one...

Mexico arrests senior drug cartel member
Tue Jan 22, 2008 - Mexican troops arrested a leading member of one of the country's two main drug gangs and seized nearly a million dollars, a victory in President Felipe Calderon's fight against traffickers.

Quote:

Soldiers detained Alfredo Beltran Leyva on Sunday in a plush area of the northwestern city of Culiacan, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office said. Beltran Leyva and three other people arrested with him were carrying about $900,000 in cash in two suitcases. "Among his key functions was transporting drugs, money laundering and bribing officials," the spokeswoman said on Monday.

Prosecutors say Beltran Leyva is a lieutenant of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, Mexico's most wanted man and the head of an alliance of smugglers based in Sinaloa state. The United States, whose Congress is debating sending surveillance and detection equipment to help Mexico's year-old drug crackdown, praised the arrest, with Ambassador Tony Garza calling it a "significant victory."

The Sinaloa gang is in a bitter fight with the rival Gulf Cartel, based south of Texas, for control of smuggling routes. More than 2,500 people died in gangland-style killings last year as Calderon launched an army crackdown on drug cartels. Many of the killings were gruesome, with victims often tortured or beheaded and their bodies left in the street.

More Mexico arrests senior drug cartel member | International | Reuters

See also:

Landless workers occupy Colombian drug lord's farm
Jan. 21, 2008 -- Hundreds of members of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) Monday occupied a farm owned by Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, arrested in August 2007 by the Brazilian police.

Quote:

Around 300 families took over the land during the morning, arguing that the farm was acquired with illegal gains and should be used to help the government fulfill a target to settle 1,000 families by April. Police officers said they were studying ways to evict the farmers peacefully but refused to give further details.

The government sold the 129-hectare property at a public auction Monday. The Finca farm is located in Guaiba, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, and its market value is estimated at 1.7 million reais (935,000 U.S. dollars), but it was sold at 850,000 reais (467,000 dollars) to a bidder.

The international drug lord, one of the leaders of the Norte Del Valle Cartel, was charged with over 300 murders and trafficking over 1,000 tons of cocaine into U.S. territory. He is trying to avoid trial in Brazil and begin confinement in the United States.

Source

waltky · 01-26-2008, 02:08 AM

Mexico's drug war...

Mexico's Narco-Insurgency
Friday, Jan. 25, 2008 - One year into President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on drug cartels, police and soldiers are confronting heavily -armed commando-style units of gangsters on an almost daily basis.

Quote:

The alleged cartel hitmen were paraded before the media like captured soldiers of an enemy state. Dressed in white vests, jeans and casual shirts, the eight men stared straight ahead, chins held high in defiant poses as the photographers snapped away. Their captured hardware was piled up in neat rows in front, reinforcing the image of a military unit: 20 automatic rifles, 10 pistols, 12 M4 grenade launchers, 30 grenades, and more than 40 bullet-proof jackets bearing the legend FEDA — Spanish acronym for Special Forces of Arturo Beltran, an alleged drug kingpin. The group's mission, law enforcement officials said, was to launch attacks on federal police and prosecutors.

In the first weeks of January, the two sides clashed in deadly firefights in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Rio Bravo and Reynosa on the U.S. border, and even in quaint tourist towns in the heart of Mexico such as Valle del Bravo. The gangsters have also carried out a wave of ambushes and assassinations on security officials, slaying one Tijuana policeman in his home along with his wife and 9-year old daughter. In total, more than 20 police officers, a state judge, dozens of alleged traffickers and at least 10 civilians have been killed in the fighting since the New Year. The violence has also spilled into the U.S., with Mexican police this week arresting an alleged drug trafficker for using a Hummer to run over and kill a Border Patrol Agent in Arizona.

Anti-drug officials believe the uptick in clashes between the police and gunmen of the cartels is a sign that Mexico's long-running drug violence has entered a new phase. Until recently, most fighting had involved rival traffickers battling over turf, but today most of the violence is between the federal government and the gangsters. The year-long government crackdown has seriously rattled the cartels, the officials say, and they are making an orchestrated attempt to get the government to back off. "When you see the killings, the cartels are trying to make a statement to the authorities not to interfere with their enterprises. And they are also trying to send a message to the public saying they are in control," said a U.S. anti-drug official, who asked that his name be withheld for security reasons. "It's a P.R. campaign. But it's not going to work. Because, quite frankly, this country has a new sheriff."?

A conservative, bespectacled lawyer, Calderon has made the crackdown his centerpiece policy. He has sent out more than 25,000 soldiers and police to the worst-hit cities, made record cocaine busts and arrested alleged smuggling kingpins, including Beltran's brother Alfredo. Proclaiming the fight against drugs a war, he has broken Mexican tradition by dressing up in army uniform. "There will be no truce and no quarter to the enemies of Mexico," Calderon told soldiers in a military base last year.

More Mexico's Narco-Insurgency - TIME

waltky · 02-02-2008, 06:26 PM

Another one bites the dust...

Colombian druglord found dead
Friday, 1 February 2008, Colombia's most-wanted drugs trafficker has been found murdered in a Venezuelan holiday cabin.

Quote:

Officials confirmed the body is that of Wilber Varela, alias "Soap", a man with a long and bloody history as leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel. While Varela had a $5m (£2.5m) bounty from the US on his head, the evidence suggests he was killed by his own men. His cocaine smuggling cartel was the successor to the infamous Medellin cartel of Pablo Escobar. It is believed that Varela's cartel moved thousands of tonnes of cocaine into the US and Europe.

New recruits

US and Colombian intelligence agencies said that Varela had been hiding in Venezuela for at least a year, running his operations out of their reach. Venezuela is now the principal transit nation for Colombian cocaine and does not co-operate with international anti-drugs efforts. Colombian intelligence sources said that communications intercepts suggested that Varela was killed by some of his own men, a not unexpected end for a man who started in the drug business as an a assassin.

Last year, the other three leaders of the Norte del Valle cartel were captured, in effect bringing an end to the organisation. However, a new generation of traffickers is already stepping up to take their place.The security forces have the aliases of two men believed to be picking up the pieces within the cartel and keeping the business moving. They are known only as '06' and 'Red Shirt' and the hunt is on for them and their real identities as a new chapter in the war on drugs begins.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Colombian drugs lord found dead

See also:

2.5 tons of cocaine seized in Liberia
Feb. 2, 2008 -- Liberian authorities have seized nearly 2.5 tons of cocaine, a record seizure for the country, from a ship off the African country's coast, officials said.

Quote:

Maritime officials in Monrovia said the ship, the Blue Atlantic, was intercepted this week off the Liberian coast and the large drug shipment was allegedly found inside several barrels on board, the BBC reported Saturday.

"It is huge; if this had hit the Liberian market, it would have destroyed the entire country," Monrovia Port Security head Ashford Pearl said of Thursday's record discovery. South American drug cartels are thought to routinely travel along the African coast in their attempts to transport illegal drugs to Europe.

Pearl said the vessel's crew members were all from Uganda and the ship was intercepted in cooperation with a French military vessel. "They arrested the vessel on high seas; it wasn't in the Liberian waters, but they towed it to Liberia because the ship was flying the flag of Liberia," Pearl said.

Source

bizwiz · 02-02-2008, 08:59 PM

The war on drugs has been going on for quite some time now and although progress maybe slow at sometime, I truly believe we are slowly but surely winning the war against this one.

sunken · 02-02-2008, 10:23 PM

I don't think there is any winning or losing, just as any war against a concept. There will always be drugs out there and there will always be people who will take them, deal them, etc, no matter how many we put in jail. The best we can do is try to protect ourselves the best we can.

vanilla · 03-12-2008, 11:56 AM

Yes, I agree. As long as there are people out there who want them...they will be around. That is most likely forever! The war against them will also be ongoing for as long.

waltky · 03-16-2008, 11:50 PM

Drug tyranny on the border...

Drug trade tyranny on the border
Sun., March. 16, 2008 - Mexican cartels maintain grasp with weapons, cash and savagery

Quote:

The killers prowled through Loma Bonita in the pre-dawn chill. In silence, they navigated a labyrinth of wood shacks at the crest of a dirt lane in the blighted Tijuana neighborhood, police say. They were looking for Margarito Saldaña, an easygoing 43-year-old district police commander. They found a house full of sleeping people. Neighbors quivered at the crack of AK-47 assault rifles blasting inside Saldaña's tiny home. Rafael García, an unemployed laborer who lives nearby, recalled thinking it was "a fireworks show," then sliding under his bed in fear.

In murdering not only Saldaña, but also his wife, Sandra, and their 12-year-old daughter, Valeria, the Loma Bonita killers violated a rarely broken rule of Mexico's drug cartel underworld: Family should remain free from harm. The slayings capped five harrowing hours during which the assassins methodically hunted down and murdered two other police officers and mistakenly killed a 3-year-old boy and his mother. The brutality of what unfolded here in the overnight hours of Jan. 14 and early Jan. 15 is a grim hallmark of a crisis that has cast a pall over the United States' southern neighbor. Events in three border cities over the past three months illustrate the military and financial power of Mexico's cartels and the extent of their reach into a society shaken by fear.

More than 20,000 Mexican troops and federal police are engaged in a multi-front war with the private armies of rival drug lords, a conflict that is being waged most fiercely along the 2,000-mile length of the U.S.-Mexico border. The proximity of the violence has drawn in the Bush administration, which has proposed a $500 million annual aid package to help President Felipe Calderón combat what a Government Accountability Office report estimates is Mexico's $23 billion a year drug trade. A total of more than 4,800 Mexicans were slain in 2006 and 2007, making the murder rate in each of those years twice that of 2005. Law enforcement officials and journalists, politicians and peasants have been gunned down in the wave of violence, which includes mass executions, such as the killings of five people whose bodies were found on a ranch outside Tijuana this month.

Like the increasing number of Mexicans heading over the border in fear, the violence itself is spilling into the United States, where a Border Patrol agent was recently killed while trying to stop suspected traffickers. Drawing on firepower, savage intimidation and cash, the cartels have come to control key parts of the border, securing smuggling routes for 90 percent of the cocaine flowing into the United States, according to the State Department. At the same time, Mexican soldiers roam streets in armored personnel carriers, attack helicopters patrol the skies, and boats ply the coastal waters.

More Drug tyranny on the border - Washington Post - MSNBC.com

waltky · 03-31-2008, 03:31 AM

Drug cartels preparin' to invade America...

Drug cartels training near U.S. border
March 30, 2008 -- Mexican drug cartels have conducted military-style training camps in northern Mexico, according to U.S. and Mexican authorities.

Quote:

The camps are designed to train recruits, which range from Mexican military deserters to American youths, to carry out killings and other cartel assignments on both sides of the U.S-Mexico border, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.

"Traffickers go to great lengths to prepare themselves for battle," a senior U.S. anti-narcotics official told the newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Part of that preparation is live firing ranges and combat training courses. ... And that's not something that we have seen before."

The newspaper reported that many of the training camps are used temporarily then abandoned, while others are permanent, fortified facilities. In Texas, Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores said he and other law enforcement officials are struggling to "secure" the border amid escalating violence among rival drug cartels.

"We know through intelligence sources that narco-traffickers invest money in Mexican nationals and U.S. citizens in training camps to instruct them in the black art of assassination and terror," he said. "It's even more shocking to hear that they even have mobile training sites because they take loads of money to set up."

Source

waltky · 04-02-2008, 04:05 AM

Druglords killin' informants, rival gang members...

Drug hitmen torture and kill four men
April 01, 2008 - DRUG hitmen tortured and killed four men, wrapping their heads in black garbage bags, as thousands of soldiers and federal police arrived to bolster security in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Quote:

The bodies were badly burned, handcuffed and half-naked, shot between Sunday night and Monday morning and dumped on the street in different parts of the city, said the attorney general's office for northern Chihuahua state. The murders came as heavily armed soldiers and police set up roadblocks and raided houses over the weekend in the rundown city across the US border from El Paso, Texas, the start of a 2500-troop deployment aimed at crushing drug gangs.

Ciudad Juarez, which has drawn worldwide attention because of a rash of brutal murders of women, has had 200 people killed in drug-related violence this year - 10 times as many as a year ago. City Hall said soldiers also arrested six local police officers in possession of large quantities of marijuana and blamed police corruption for drug cartels' hold on Ciudad Juarez, a major narcotics smuggling point into the US.

"People have lost confidence in the police because they know the local forces have been infiltrated and act outside the law," said Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz. Local city police have also been stripped of their cellular phones to avoid easy communication with drug gangs, he added.

MORE

waltky · 04-03-2008, 05:15 AM

Brazil nabs a big one...

Reputed Colombian Drug Lord Gets 30 Years
April 1, 2008 - Brazil Sentences Man Behind Cartel That Allegedly Shipped 550 Tons Of Cocaine To U.S.

Quote:

A reputed Colombian drug lord whose cartel is accused of having shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States was sentenced Tuesday to more than 30 years in prison in Brazil for crimes commmitted in that country. Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, who was arrested last year in Brazil, was found guilty of money laundering, corruption, conspiracy and use of false documents in this South American country. Besides the sentence, Ramirez Abadia must also pay a fine worth US$2.5 million.

"It was proved that after July of 2004, Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia has channeled his business in Brazil mainly toward the acquisition of properties, vehicles, and other objects using the money resulting from drug trafficking in Colombia," Judge Fausto Martin de Sanctis said in a statement. But Ramirez Abadia, who is also known as "Chupeta" or "Lollipop," may not have to serve time in Brazil. Last month, Brazil's Supreme Court ruled he can be extradited to the United States to face racketeering charges. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will have the final word on whether he stays in Brazil to serve his sentence or is extradited immediately to the United States.

In his ruling, the judge advised against extraditing Ramirez Abadia until he has served his time in Brazil. Ramirez Abadia, who is reputedly a leader of Colombia's powerful Norte del Valle cartel, has said he wants to begin his confinement in the United States as quickly as possible. Brazil's Supreme Court has said the United States must agree not to sentence Ramirez Abadia to more than 30 years in jail, the maximum allowed under Brazilian law, in order for the extradition to take place. Ramirez Abadia's wife, Yessica Paolo Rojas Morales, was sentenced to 11 years and six months in prison for her participation in Ramirez Abadia's operations. Eight other people were also convicted.

MORE

waltky · 04-05-2008, 10:33 AM

Narc Drones to Catch Pot Growers...

Pilotless Drones to Battle Pot Growers
Apr 4, 2008 - Forest Service Buys a Pair of Flying Drones to Help Find Marijuana Growers in California

Quote:

The U.S. Forest Service has bought a pair of flying drones to track down marijuana growers operating in remote California woodlands.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the pilotless, camera-equipped aircraft will allow law enforcement officers to pinpoint marijuana fields and size up potential dangers before agents attempt arrests.

Rey said there are increasing numbers of marijuana growers financed by Mexican drug cartels using California's forests to stage their operations. "We're dealing with organized efforts now — not just a couple of hippies living off the land and making some cash on the side," Rey said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

The purchase of the two SkySeer drones, for a combined $100,000, reflects rising interest in remote-controlled aircraft among law enforcement, science and other government agencies.

ABC News: Narc Drones to Catch Pot Growers

waltky · 04-28-2008, 07:27 AM

Flying down to Rio?...

Anti-aircraft' weapon seized from Brazilian drugs gang
24 April 2008 - Military police in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro said on 22 April that they had seized a 0.50 calibre "anti-aircraft" weapon from a drugs gang.

Quote:

It is not yet clear from which gang the weapon was seized. Discovery of such weapons is a major cause of concern, with helicopters and armoured vehicles a favoured method of transport for many politicians and businesspeople as well as police in Brazil's major cities.

FORECAST

For now there is no reason to suspect that the risk to commercial traffic has increased significantly, and the fact that the gun seized on 22 April warranted a statement and relatively high levels of media attention indicates that seizures of weapons of this calibre remain rare. Still, this latest seizure appears to confirm that the gangs retain access to military-grade weaponry and will therefore continue to present a stiff challenge to police attempts to impose order in the favelas in the coming weeks.

Anti-aircraft' weapon seized from Brazilian drugs gang - Jane's Security News