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December 2, 2008 4:58:07 AM CST


drug cartel

drug cartel news stories

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 Mexico Busts Former Drug Czar 

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 »

More about:  Mexico corruption drug trafficking drug cartel counternarcotics drug traffickers Sinaloa drug cartel

 Mexico's Drug Violence 
 Seeps Into US 

Nearly 200 American cities affected by cartels

(Newser) - Mexico’s drug violence has been creeping northward into the US for the past several years, and officials now say that cartel-related crime has hit 195 American cities spanning every state except Vermont and West Virginia, the Los Angeles Times reports. Atlanta has emerged as a trafficking hub, but the kidnappings, deaths, and related violence have spread from Honolulu to Boston. More »

More about:  Mexico violence Atlanta drug cartel Drug Enforcement Administration US cities Sinaloa drug cartel

 Drug Kingpins Corrupt 
 Elite Mexican Unit 

Top anti-drug agents accused of passing information to traffickers

(Newser) - Two senior officials from an elite Mexican anti-drug unit have been arrested and charged with spying for drug cartels, the Los Angeles Times reports, and dozens of agents have been fired following a tip-off from a captured informant. Prosecutors say the officials leaked information to the gangs they were supposed to be targeting in return for hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. More »

More about:  Mexico drug trafficking drug cartel Felipe Calderon drug war counternarcotics drug traffickers

Mexico Will Deport Cuban Migrants Headed for US

Crackdown aimed at drug, human trafficking

(Newser) - Mexico agreed yesterday to deport Cubans passing through the country to reach the US, the Los Angeles Times reports. Increased US patrols in the waters between Cuba and Florida have smugglers using land routes through Mexico to transport would-be immigrants. Mexican authorities have arrested 2,000 undocumented Cubans this year, three times more than last year and 10 times more than 4 years ago. More »

More about:  United States Mexico Cuba illegal immigration drug cartel human trafficking smuggling

Kidnapped
Boy Found in Las Vegas

Cole picked up alive after grandpa crossed Mexican drug cartel

(Newser) - A 6-year-old Nevada boy kidnapped by men believed linked to a Mexican drug cartel has been found in “extremely good condition” walking on a Las Vegas street. Some 100 detectives had been working 12-hour shifts to find Cole Puffinburger, who was abducted from his Las Vegas home Wednesday by men claiming to be police, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal . More »

More about:  kidnapping Las Vegas missing child drug cartel Cole Puffinburger

Drugs Linked
to Boy's Kidnapping

Police target 'person of interest' as search for Cole continues

(Newser) - A 6-year-old boy’s kidnapping is tied to "significant amounts of money and drugs," the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Police say some of the boy's family are involved in illegal drugs, and are seeking a "person of interest," the Associated Press notes, as the nationwide search for Cole Puffinburger continues. Two men abducted Cole from his home Wednesday morning. More »

More about:  Mexico kidnapping Las Vegas missing child drug cartel Cole Puffinburger

More Than 2 Dozen Killed
in Mexican Drug Violence

Body of newspaper editor found as violence continues

(Newser) - Mexican gangs battling over drug routes to the US show no signs of easing up on the mayhem, the Los Angeles Times reports. In a spasm of violence over the last 2 days, gunmen raked patrons of a bar in Chihuahua and killed 11; a newspaper publisher was shot to death and dumped on a roadside; two federal agents and two suspected smugglers died in a highway shootout; and 13 people were shot to death in Tijuana. More »

More about:  murder Mexico drug cartel gunman Tijuana



 12 Bodies Dumped 
 Near Tijuana School 

City's rampant drug war threatens residents

(Newser) - A dozen bodies were found piled up near an elementary school in a working-class Tijuana neighborhood yesterday, signaling a rare instance of the city's rampant drug war spilling over into a residential area. Police found a bag full of severed tongues nearby and a message indicating the violence was between rival cartel groups, reports the Los Angeles Times . More »

More about:  murder Mexico drugs drug cartel Tijuana Arellano Felix Organization

DEA Nabs 175 Mexican Drug Cartel Suspects

Nationwide initiative a key step in border drug war, authorities say

(Newser) - US officials arrested 175 suspected Mexican drug traffickers this week in raids in a dozen states, the LA Times reports. Prosecutors believe the suspects are part of the violent Gulf cartel, considered to be a driving force in Mexico’s escalating drug wars. The raids were part of a 15-month DEA investigation that has netted 507 arrests and the seizure of more than $60 million. More »

More about:  Mexico Atlanta drug cartel Felipe Calderon War on Drugs Drug Enforcement Administration

Drug Crime Looms Over
Everyday Life in Mexico

People alter habits to guard against risk of violence

(Newser) - The effects of the wave of violent drug crime in Mexico--one paper puts this year’s related deaths at 2,682--have seeped into everyday life in the once-pacific country, the New York Times reports. “You have to be more careful with everything these days,” says a watchdog. Some are thinking twice about going to local restaurants, while others take measures like bulletproofing their cars. More »

More about:  Mexico drug trafficking drug cartel drug war

(Newser) - As drug violence soars in Mexico, casualties are spreading to the Yucatan peninsula, a major tourist destination and spring break hot spot. Twelve decapitated bodies were found near the popular ruins of Chichen Itza this week, the Los Angeles Times reports. That's because a government crackdown has heightened “a kind of civil war among drug cartels,” said a drug-trafficking expert. And that violence is spilling over from the usual frontlines along the US border. More »

More about:  Mexico police military violence drug trafficking drug cartel Felipe Calderon drug war Yucatan Peninsula

Mexican Drug Lords' Guns Traced to US

Smuggling's a cinch
as officials look to immigration, drugs

(Newser) - Thousands of powerful automatic weapons used by drug cartels in Mexico have been traced back to US shops, and little is being done to curb the guns’ flow southward, the Los Angeles Times reports. More than 90% of guns taken at the border and picked up after clashes come from the US; last year, 2,455 traced weapons originated here. More »

More about:  Mexico drug cartel weapon border control smuggling

Mexican Cartels Growing Pot in US National Park

Plants worth hundreds of millions thriving
amid Sequoias

(Newser) - Mexican drug cartels are growing hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of marijuana in the thick of California’s Sequoia National Forest, CNN reports. Hours on foot from the nearest road, pot gardens flourish with as many as 10,000 plants, irrigation systems created by daming mountain creeks, and their own armed guards. Pot production has intensified in the area as border control has made it harder to smuggle marijuana into the country from Mexico, says a drug enforcement agent. More »

More about:  California Mexico drugs marijuana drug cartel Sequoia National Forest

 Where Does
 All That Seized
 Money Go? 

Asset forfeiture: an ugly side of the drug war

(Newser) - What would you do with a few million in drug money? Last year, state and federal authorities seized about $2 billion from Mexican smugglers. The feds have to put any seized money into a dedicated fund, but the rules are looser for states. In Texas and Georgia, for example, sheriffs and district attorneys get to keep any seized loot for their departments. The Economist takes a look at the issue and the sometimes iffy purchases that result. More »