Mexican Beauty Queen Busted With Drug Mobsters

Some fear pageant's drug ties run deep

(NEWSER) - A Mexican beauty pageant winner lost her title yesterday after being arrested with a top drug trafficker, the New York Daily News reports. Authorities said Miss Sinaloa, Laura Zúñiga Huizar, was collared along with leaders of the Juarez drug cartel, an arsenal of weapons, and $55,000 in cash. Authorities are seeking to probe more links between cartels and beauty contest winners, the Guardian reports. More»

Transferred cash, drugs across international borders

(NEWSER) - The New York Times last month revealed that undercover US agents have laundered and smuggled millions of dollars for Mexico's drug cartels—and today the paper shines a light on one such operation, in which federal agents helped one drug trafficker and his Colombian supplier move cash and cocaine across international borders. Over a period of months in 2007, US and Mexican agents worked with that supplier—Harold Mauricio Poveda-Ortega, aka "The Rabbit"—who fed cocaine to cartel leader Arturo Beltran Levya, the New York Times reports. More»

Mexicans live in fear of grotesque killings

(NEWSER) - Mexico kicked off 2010 with a grim record: On Saturday the violence-plagued country tallied 69 murders in a single day. As drug cartels stepped up retaliation against the government's war on trafficking, Saturday's count included 26 murders in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and 13 in Mexico City. Murders are also becoming increasingly grotesque: Last week one victim's face was peeled off and sewn to a soccer ball, and yesterday the remains of a slain police officer were found in two separate ice chests. More»

(NEWSER) - Mexican drug cartels have evolved into mafia empires, charging protection fees to businesses and providing social services and jobs where government cannot, the AP reports. Behind it lurks the threat of violence or kidnapping, which drug lords carry out with near impunity. "Today, the traffickers have big companies, education, careers," one lawmaker says. "They're businessman of the year." More»

Former head of elite 'corruption-proof' unit accused of passing info to drug cartels

(NEWSER) - The former chief of Mexico's anti-drug operations has been arrested on suspicion of taking massive bribes from drug cartels, the Wall Street Journal reports. Noe Ramirez, accused of pocketing $450,000 for passing information on investigations to drug kingpins, is the highest-ranking official arrested so far in "Operation Cleanup," the Mexican campaign to root out corruption that has already fingered 35 high-ranking law enforcement officials. More»