Alejandro Román's 'Mastercard' exposes Mexico's narco-trafficking world
Alejandro Román's 'Mastercard' is about the human toll of the narco-trafficking crisis.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/la-et-mastercard29may29,0,7827526.story?coll=cl-stage-features

Alejandro Román's 'Mastercard' exposes Mexico's narco-trafficking world
Alejandro Román's 'Mastercard' is about the human toll of the narco-trafficking crisis.

By Reed Johnson
Times Staff Writer

May 29, 2007

MEXICO CITY — Headless bodies are being dumped in the streets of Michoacán. Bodiless heads are washing up on Acapulco's rancid beaches. Hit men brazenly snuff out police chiefs in broad daylight. Journalists are being murdered and "disappeared" along a bloody trail stretching from Veracruz to Tijuana.

In short, the timing couldn't be more apropos for Alejandro Román's new play, "Mastercard," a lyrically written psychological portrait of four hard-boiled bit players in Mexico's brutal and escalating drug wars.

Already this year, by some newspaper estimates, as many as 1,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related killings. Every day politicians, editorial writers and anxious citizens demand that something be done to end the violence. Yet only a handful of serious novelists, playwrights or filmmakers in Mexico have touched this toxic subject.

Then there's Román, a 32-year-old playwright and theater director from Cuernavaca, who already has scripted not one but three probing, heavily researched dramas about the narco-trafficking crisis.

"I believe that each social occurrence throughout the history of humanity is the starting point for very interesting artistic movements," Román said over a lunch conversation in Spanish recently with "Mastercard" cast members Guillermo Navarro and Mara Cárdenas. "What's important for one, as an artist, is to paint a portrait of this, for the people, and not to end up in an indifferent manner in the collective conscience, faced with all this bloody destruction."

"Mastercard," a one-act piece that runs a brisk 80 minutes and which Román also directed, is playing Sunday afternoons through June at the La Capilla theater in the Coyoacán district. The 56-seat black box theater has served for decades as a haven for provocative, experimental work in a city whose theatrical tastes lean more toward broad political satires and sex farces.

"Mastercard" differs in substance and style from the lurid, romanticized treatment of drug traffickers that prevails in many telenovelas and narcocorrido music (folk songs that center on the drug trade).

Avoiding a straight narrative line, the play slips backward and forward in time while recounting the events surrounding a cocaine shipment en route through the central Mexican states of Morelos and Guerrero. The main characters — Claudia (Cárdenas), Miguel (Humberto Romero) and Marco (Aldo Tabone) — lay out the main plot strands, which are interwoven with themes of loyalty and betrayal.

A fourth character, Mario (Navarro), appears onstage as a bloodied corpse, chiming in with beyond-the-grave recriminations against his former partners in crime, in tones that are alternately mocking and despairing. Expressionistic lighting and ambient music signal mood swings and punctuate narrative shifts.

Raised in the provinces, Román took an early interest in the colorful regional dialect and customs of northern and western Mexico, the heart of the country's illegal narcotics trade. "It's fascinating, it enchants me, the north," Román says, "because the people are more open, more upfront, more transparent and more uninhibited."

He first broached the subject of the drug trade in his prize-winning 2004 drama, "Suite 777," which centers on the mythic figure of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, kingpin of the dreaded Sinaloa cartel, who escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001 and is believed still to be at large.

Working under the guidance of Victor Hugo Rascón Banda, a veteran Mexico City playwright and dramaturge, Román completed two more narco-themed works: "La Misa del Gallo" (The Requiem of the Rooster), which deals with last year's assassination of the narcocorrido singer Valentín Elizalde, a.k.a. "The Golden Rooster"; and "Cielo Rojo" (Red Sky), inspired by an incident last year in which gang members stormed into a Michoacan dance hall and emptied a bag containing five severed heads onto the floor.

Román believes that many contemporary Mexican playwrights are more concerned with charting the angst of young, middle-class urban couples than in exploring their society's darker labyrinths. These playwrights, he says, are "trying to imitate Sam Shepard, David Mamet, Sarah Kane" — stylistically but without sharing those playwrights' level of social engagement — rather than developing an authentic Mexican voice of their own.

"The great majority of artists are mistaken in that they don't realize that the local is the universal," continues Román, an affable conversationalist with a quick sense of humor that balances his passionate beliefs. "Contemporary artists are very fixated on what pretends to be part of the global, forgetting the local. So it becomes very snobby, very elitist, very much copying the avant-garde of other currents."

The play's title refers not only to the way that narcos use credit cards to "cut" lines of cocaine, it also alludes to the idea of a consumer-driven global political system in which people live high on the hog for now but pay a steep price later.

That mentality, along with the intoxicating power of holding a firearm, has driven many poor, otherwise powerless Mexicans to enter into the narcotics trade, aping the drug lords' taste in flashy clothes and big cars. Accustomed all their lives to being scorned and abused, they enjoy the rush of suddenly feeling envied and feared.

Though it doesn't rationalize such criminal behavior, "Mastercard" insists that audiences try to understand what gives rise to it. For example, Cárdenas says that when she first moved to Mexico City she would hear rumors within her extended social network about this or that young woman who'd become involved in narco-trafficking. Typically, she says, these were tall, blond, well-turned-out young women who didn't fit the narco stereotype, making it easier for them to pick up suitcases stashed with drugs at airport drops.

Cárdenas says that her character, Claudia, is somewhat of this ilk of Mexicans who aspire to a middle-class lifestyle but have given up trying to acquire it through legitimate means.

"Claudia is a single girl that is from a broken family, who is lazy, because this is very habitual in Mexico; it's the culture of 'I'll find a husband or someone to maintain me,' " Cárdenas says. "A narco-trafficker definitely prefers to spend five, six, 10 years of his life in danger than 40, 50 years in misery or in mediocrity."

But like the withdrawal symptoms that follow the heady rush of cocaine, the buzz that comes with sudden wealth and power has a way of backfiring. "Mastercard" attempts to bring that truth home not through gratuitous moralizing but through the kind of visceral human connection that live theater, in tough times, can provide.

reed.johnson@latimes.com

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Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times

Mexico's drug war takes toll on army
Since December, 89 soldiers have been reported killed. They're among 1,000 narcotics-related deaths this year.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-soldiers26may26,1,2186023.story?coll=la-headlines-world
From the Los Angeles Times

Mexico's drug war takes toll on army
Since December, 89 soldiers have been reported killed. They're among 1,000 narcotics-related deaths this year.

By Carlos Martinez and Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writers

May 26, 2007

MEXICO CITY — The number of Mexican soldiers slain has jumped dramatically since President Felipe Calderon began using the army to battle drug traffickers, records show.

Since December, when Calderon began the campaign, 89 soldiers have been reported killed, compared with less than a dozen from January through November of 2006, according to army records provided to The Times.

The escalation of attacks on soldiers has come as 12,700 troops man roadside checkpoints and patrol cities in nine Mexican states where rival drug gangs battle for control of ports, roads and other smuggling routes.

The Mexican army reported that troops slain since December included 27 soldiers on duty and 37 off duty. The circumstances of 25 more deaths remain under investigation.

Calderon dispatched the army, along with several thousand federal police officers, shortly after taking office because of concerns that incompetence and corruption had hampered local and state police and judges in combating well-financed drug gangs.

More than 2,000 killings last year were reportedly drug-related.

The killings of troops include the ambush of five men, including a colonel, in Michoacan state this month. In April, authorities found the bodies of three soldiers bearing signs of torture. A message next to the bodies said, "Whoever gets involved will die."

The troop deaths are among more than 1,000 killings so far this year attributed to drug violence, according to tallies by Mexican newspapers. The government doesn't keep an official count.

Calderon's failure to slow the violence has drawn criticism from opposition parties, which have called on him to revise his military strategy. The president said Thursday during a speech in the state of Durango that he was not ready to change course.

"Organized crime wants to scare the Mexican people," Calderon said. "It wants to scare the Mexican people so that the government crosses its arms and they go unpunished. They want us to retreat…. Our stance is clear: not a step backward."

Army salaries have gone up slightly, but pay for the lowest ranks begins at about $2,460 a year, plus room, board, uniforms and medical care. Generals are paid between $8,000 and $10,000 a year.

The government pays the funeral expenses of slain soldiers and also provides a lump sum equal to 40 months' pay to their immediate families.

The families also continue to collect the monthly salaries of slain soldiers and are entitled to full medical coverage at military hospitals and clinics, as well as discounts at three luxury hotel chains.

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

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PARTNERS:  

Mexico to boost tapping of phones and e-mail with U.S. aid
Calderon is seeking to expand monitoring of drug gangs; Washington also may have access to the data.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico25may25,0,7011563.story?coll=la-home-center
From the Los Angeles Times

Mexico to boost tapping of phones and e-mail with U.S. aid
Calderon is seeking to expand monitoring of drug gangs; Washington also may have access to the data.

By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer

May 25, 2007

MEXICO CITY — Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country's conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with the United States on law enforcement.

The expansion comes as President Felipe Calderon is pushing to amend the Mexican Constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge's approval in some cases. Calderon argues that the government needs the authority to combat drug gangs, which have killed hundreds of people this year.

Mexican authorities for years have been able to wiretap most telephone conversations and tap into e-mail, but the new $3-million Communications Intercept System being installed by Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency will expand their reach.

The system will allow authorities to track cellphone users as they travel, according to contract specifications. It includes extensive storage capacity and will allow authorities to identify callers by voice. The system, scheduled to begin operation this month, was paid for by the U.S. State Department and sold by Verint Systems Inc., a politically well-connected firm based in Melville, N.Y., that specializes in electronic surveillance.

Although information about the system is publicly available, the matter has drawn little attention so far in the United States or Mexico. The modernization program is described in U.S. government documents, including the contract specifications, reviewed by The Times.

They suggest that Washington could have access to information derived from the surveillance. Officials of both governments declined to comment on that possibility.

"It is a government of Mexico operation funded by the U.S.," said Susan Pittman, of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Queries should be directed to the Mexican government, she said.

Calderon's office declined to comment.

But the contract specifications say the system is designed to allow both governments to "disseminate timely and accurate, actionable information to each country's respective federal, state, local, private and international partners."

Calderon has been lobbying for more authority to use electronic surveillance against drug violence, which has threatened his ability to govern. Despite federal troops posted in nine Mexican states, the violence continues as rival smugglers fight over shipping routes to the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as for control of Mexican port cities and inland marijuana and poppy growing regions.

Nonetheless, the prospect of U.S. involvement in surveillance could be extremely sensitive in Mexico, where the United States historically has been viewed by many as a bullying and intrusive neighbor. U.S. government agents working in Mexico maintain a low profile to spare their government hosts any political fallout.

It's unclear how broad a net the new surveillance system will cast: Mexicans speak regularly by phone, for example, with millions of relatives living in the U.S. Those conversations appear to be fair game for both governments.

Legal experts say that prosecutors with access to Mexican wiretaps could use the information in U.S. courts. U.S. Supreme Court decisions have held that 4th Amendment protections against illegal wiretaps do not apply outside the United States, particularly if the surveillance is conducted by another country, Georgetown University law professor David Cole said.

Mexico's telecommunications monopoly, Telmex, controlled by Carlos Slim Helu, the world's second-wealthiest individual, has not received official notice of the new system, which will intercept its electronic signals, a spokeswoman said this week.

"Telmex is a firm that always complies with laws and rules set by the Mexican government," she said.

Calderon recently asked Mexico's Congress to amend the country's constitution and allow federal prosecutors free rein to conduct searches and secretly record conversations among people suspected of what the government defines as serious crimes.

His proposal would eliminate the current legal requirement that prosecutors gain approval from a judge before installing any wiretap, the vetting process that will for now govern use of the new system's intercepts. Calderon says the legal changes are needed to turn the tide in the battle against the drug gangs.

"The purpose is to create swift investigative measures against organized crime," Calderon wrote senators when introducing his proposed constitutional amendments in March. "At times, turning to judicial authorities hinders or makes investigations impossible."

But others argued that the proposed changes would undermine constitutional protections and open the door to the type of domestic spying that has plagued many Latin American countries. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe last week ousted a dozen generals, including the head of intelligence, after police were found to be wiretapping public figures, including members of his government.

"Calderon's proposal is limited to 'urgent cases' and organized crime, but the problem is that when the judiciary has been put out of the loop, the attorney general can basically decide these however he wants to," said John Ackerman, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "Without the intervention of a judge, the door swings wide open to widespread abuse of basic civil liberties."

The proposal is being considered by a panel of the Mexican Senate. It is strongly opposed by members of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. Members of Calderon's National Action Party have been lobbying senators from the former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, for support.

Renato Sales, a former deputy prosecutor for Mexico City, said Calderon's desire to expand federal policing powers to combat organized crime was parallel to the Bush administration's use of a secret wiretapping program to fight terrorism.

"Suddenly anyone suspected of organized crime is presumed guilty and treated as someone without any constitutional rights," said Sales, now a law professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. "And who will determine who is an organized crime suspect? The state will."

Federal lawmaker Cesar Octavio Camacho, president of the justice and human rights commission in the lower house of Congress, said he too worried about prosecutorial abuse.

"Although the proposal stems from the president's noble intention of efficiently fighting organized crime," he said, "the remedy seems worse than the problem."

*
sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Carlos Martínez and Cecilia Sánchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau and Times staff writer Henry Weinstein in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.

Article licensing and reprint options

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact | Site Map | Help


















 

Mexico to boost tapping of phones and e-mail with U.S. aid

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico25may25,0,7011563.story?coll=la-home-center
From the Los Angeles Times

Mexico to boost tapping of phones and e-mail with U.S. aid
Calderon is seeking to expand monitoring of drug gangs; Washington also may have access to the data.

By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer

May 25, 2007

MEXICO CITY — Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country's conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with the United States on law enforcement.

The expansion comes as President Felipe Calderon is pushing to amend the Mexican Constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge's approval in some cases. Calderon argues that the government needs the authority to combat drug gangs, which have killed hundreds of people this year.

Mexican authorities for years have been able to wiretap most telephone conversations and tap into e-mail, but the new $3-million Communications Intercept System being installed by Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency will expand their reach.

The system will allow authorities to track cellphone users as they travel, according to contract specifications. It includes extensive storage capacity and will allow authorities to identify callers by voice. The system, scheduled to begin operation this month, was paid for by the U.S. State Department and sold by Verint Systems Inc., a politically well-connected firm based in Melville, N.Y., that specializes in electronic surveillance.

Although information about the system is publicly available, the matter has drawn little attention so far in the United States or Mexico. The modernization program is described in U.S. government documents, including the contract specifications, reviewed by The Times.

They suggest that Washington could have access to information derived from the surveillance. Officials of both governments declined to comment on that possibility.

"It is a government of Mexico operation funded by the U.S.," said Susan Pittman, of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Queries should be directed to the Mexican government, she said.

Calderon's office declined to comment.

But the contract specifications say the system is designed to allow both governments to "disseminate timely and accurate, actionable information to each country's respective federal, state, local, private and international partners."

Calderon has been lobbying for more authority to use electronic surveillance against drug violence, which has threatened his ability to govern. Despite federal troops posted in nine Mexican states, the violence continues as rival smugglers fight over shipping routes to the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as for control of Mexican port cities and inland marijuana and poppy growing regions.

Nonetheless, the prospect of U.S. involvement in surveillance could be extremely sensitive in Mexico, where the United States historically has been viewed by many as a bullying and intrusive neighbor. U.S. government agents working in Mexico maintain a low profile to spare their government hosts any political fallout.

It's unclear how broad a net the new surveillance system will cast: Mexicans speak regularly by phone, for example, with millions of relatives living in the U.S. Those conversations appear to be fair game for both governments.

Legal experts say that prosecutors with access to Mexican wiretaps could use the information in U.S. courts. U.S. Supreme Court decisions have held that 4th Amendment protections against illegal wiretaps do not apply outside the United States, particularly if the surveillance is conducted by another country, Georgetown University law professor David Cole said.

Mexico's telecommunications monopoly, Telmex, controlled by Carlos Slim Helu, the world's second-wealthiest individual, has not received official notice of the new system, which will intercept its electronic signals, a spokeswoman said this week.

"Telmex is a firm that always complies with laws and rules set by the Mexican government," she said.

Calderon recently asked Mexico's Congress to amend the country's constitution and allow federal prosecutors free rein to conduct searches and secretly record conversations among people suspected of what the government defines as serious crimes.

His proposal would eliminate the current legal requirement that prosecutors gain approval from a judge before installing any wiretap, the vetting process that will for now govern use of the new system's intercepts. Calderon says the legal changes are needed to turn the tide in the battle against the drug gangs.

"The purpose is to create swift investigative measures against organized crime," Calderon wrote senators when introducing his proposed constitutional amendments in March. "At times, turning to judicial authorities hinders or makes investigations impossible."

But others argued that the proposed changes would undermine constitutional protections and open the door to the type of domestic spying that has plagued many Latin American countries. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe last week ousted a dozen generals, including the head of intelligence, after police were found to be wiretapping public figures, including members of his government.

"Calderon's proposal is limited to 'urgent cases' and organized crime, but the problem is that when the judiciary has been put out of the loop, the attorney general can basically decide these however he wants to," said John Ackerman, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. "Without the intervention of a judge, the door swings wide open to widespread abuse of basic civil liberties."

The proposal is being considered by a panel of the Mexican Senate. It is strongly opposed by members of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. Members of Calderon's National Action Party have been lobbying senators from the former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, for support.

Renato Sales, a former deputy prosecutor for Mexico City, said Calderon's desire to expand federal policing powers to combat organized crime was parallel to the Bush administration's use of a secret wiretapping program to fight terrorism.

"Suddenly anyone suspected of organized crime is presumed guilty and treated as someone without any constitutional rights," said Sales, now a law professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. "And who will determine who is an organized crime suspect? The state will."

Federal lawmaker Cesar Octavio Camacho, president of the justice and human rights commission in the lower house of Congress, said he too worried about prosecutorial abuse.

"Although the proposal stems from the president's noble intention of efficiently fighting organized crime," he said, "the remedy seems worse than the problem."

*
sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Carlos Martínez and Cecilia Sánchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau and Times staff writer Henry Weinstein in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.

Article licensing and reprint options

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact | Site Map | Help


















 

Workers begin to fill tunnels at Mexican border
Seven passages in California and Arizona used by drug smugglers are to be closed off with concrete.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tunnel16may16,1,5778698.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Workers begin to fill tunnels at Mexican border
Seven passages in California and Arizona used by drug smugglers are to be closed off with concrete.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

May 16, 2007

SAN DIEGO - Workers poured concrete into the largest tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday as federal authorities began an effort to fill subterranean passages that were created to funnel drugs north.

Five tunnels in California and two in Arizona will be filled during the next two months to permanently close off pipelines that smugglers in some cases had managed to reuse after border authorities discovered them. The project comes three months after The Times reported that the tunnels had not been filled in, largely because of jurisdictional issues and lack of funding.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security provided $2.7 million after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) demanded the tunnels be closed, calling them a national security risk.

Workers began drilling holes Tuesday into the so-called El Grande tunnel, which runs for nearly half a mile between warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego.

The tunnel, which features reinforced walls and ventilation and lighting systems, presented unique challenges that required weeks of preparation, authorities said.

Drugs and bodies have been found in tunnels in the past. So workers sent a robot into the tunnel's depths to look for obstructions. The robot sent back images of digging tools, but found no major blockages.

The tunnel featured a water-pumping system, but groundwater had flooded much of the passage since it was abandoned more than a year ago. Workers pumped thousands of gallons of water out of the tunnel, which is an average of 80 feet below the surface. They then drilled holes every 40 feet along its length before beginning to pour in the concrete. It is expected to take three days and more than 100 truckloads of concrete to fill the passage, authorities said.

The number of border tunnels has grown sharply in response to a massive increase in above-ground enforcement. More than 50 have been discovered in the last few years, but most are small, crudely built passages that are easily destroyed.

U.S. authorities have typically left the bigger tunnels largely intact, capping them only at the border and exit points. Smugglers have reused at least two large tunnels after digging around those caps.

The project will fill tunnels on the U.S. side, but the state of passages on the Mexican side is unknown. U.S. authorities say they don't know how much progress authorities have made there.

Mexican authorities want to close off their side, too, but they lack the resources and technology to do so, said Frank Marwood, head of the San Diego-based U.S. Tunnel Task Force. It includes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The Tijuana-based Arellano-Felix drug cartel is suspected to be behind the construction of El Grande, which authorities stumbled upon in January 2006 when they found an opening in an Otay Mesa warehouse. More than two tons of marijuana was found near the tunnel, and a Los Angeles-area man arrested at the warehouse later pleaded guilty to drug-related charges. No other suspects have been arrested.

Later this month, authorities are expected to start filling in the so-called Taj Mahal of tunnels, another passage running from Tijuana to San Diego that features concrete flooring and lighting. It was discovered 13 years ago. Three tunnels in Calexico and two in Nogales, Ariz., will also be filled, authorities said.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

Copyright 2007 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact | Site Map | Help

Official's slaying prompts calls for troops in Mexico City
Party officials say the capital was unprepared for a backlash from the war on drug traffickers.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexdrugs16may16,1,7232303.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Official's slaying prompts calls for troops in Mexico City
Party officials say the capital was unprepared for a backlash from the war on drug traffickers.

By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer

May 16, 2007

MEXICO CITY - The leaders of two political parties called Tuesday for army troops to be dispatched to this capital city and its suburbs to fight drug traffickers in the wake of the assassination of a high-ranking official in the attorney general's office.

President Felipe Calderon promised an "unprecedented battle" against the traffickers, who have killed as many as 1,000 people this year as they fight Mexican authorities while battling one another for control of a lucrative trade in cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin and other illicit drugs. Most of the drugs are shipped to the United States.

The shooting in the political, cultural and media capital of Mexico raised troubling questions about Calderon's declared war on traffickers, which has included troop deployments to several states and cities, where violence has since spiraled. Newspaper editorials Tuesday accused the president of being unprepared for the backlash.

Jorge Chabat, an author and drug trade expert here, said the public would probably continue to back Calderon's efforts against the traffickers, despite the recent setbacks.

"It could be argued that Calderon's offensive has made the violence worse, and that he was not fully prepared for the escalation of violence that followed," Chabat said. "But the only other alternative was to do nothing. Or to make a deal with the drug traffickers. And that just isn't possible in a democratic state under the rule of law."

Police said they had few leads in the shooting of Jose Nemesio Lugo Felix, who had been appointed just weeks ago to head a drug intelligence unit in the federal attorney general's office. Lugo Felix was killed in a rush-hour ambush Monday a few yards from his office in the southern district of Coyoacan.

"We are witnessing a head-on, unprecedented struggle in the history of our country against organized crime," said Jorge Triana, a leader of Calderon's conservative National Action Party in Mexico City's Legislative Assembly. "We believe that Mexico City has become one of the most dangerous hot spots in the country and that [the authorities] have not acted appropriately."

Leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico City and surrounding Mexico state joined the call for troops and federal police to deploy in the Mexico City metropolitan area, home to about 20 million people.

Until recently, the country's widespread drug violence has been a mostly provincial phenomenon centered on border areas and port cities.

But this year has seen several violent incidents in and around Mexico City that were apparently related to drug trafficking, including the deaths of two federal police officers shot April 26 on the highway linking Mexico City with Toluca.

On Tuesday, observers said Lugo Felix's death could mark a turning point in the nation's drug war.

"The killing is proof of the enormous power and impunity of organized crime," said an editorial in the left-leaning La Jornada, which accused the Calderon government of launching its anti-drug offensive without adequate preparation or protection for even the highest officials involved in the operation.

Speaking to hundreds of young people at the National Youth Olympiad in Veracruz, Calderon promised to win the drug war. "We will recover our Mexico, its plazas, parks and streets, which do not belong to criminals, but rather to the children, the youth and the free men of our country," he said.

The border city of Tijuana and the southern states of Guerrero and Michoacan have been among the places to which army troops and federal police units have been dispatched by Calderon to fight drug traffickers since he took power in December.

Leaders of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which controls Mexico City's government, called any such deployment in the capital premature.

"The army is the last card we should play," said Victor Hugo Cirigo, a PRD city lawmaker and the leader of the capital's Legislative Assembly.

On Tuesday, the head of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, Jose Luis Soberanes, said the army was unprepared for policing duties. The commission, an official government agency, has received 52 complaints of abuse related to the army presence in Michoacan, Soberanes said.

"What we should do is strengthen the local police - give them training, equipment - and substitute the army with police so [the soldiers] return to their barracks," Soberanes said.

*
hector.tobar@latimes.com

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Mexico arrests border city chief of drug gang

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Mexico arrests border city chief of drug gang

Tue Apr 17, 1:28 PM ET
Mexican police have arrested the local head of the notorious Gulf Cartel drug gang in a city on the U.S. border as part of President Felipe Calderon's nationwide crackdown on organized crime.
Juan Oscar Garza was the cartel's leader in the city of Reynosa, just south of McAllen, Texas and was sought in Mexico for smuggling drugs, guns and people across the border, the attorney-general's office said on Tuesday.
He was arrested at a nightclub in Reynosa along with his brother, sister and girlfriend. Officials declined to say when the arrest took place.
The Gulf Cartel is one of the country's two most powerful trafficking gangs and is locked in a bitter fight with rival smugglers from the Pacific coast.
Its leader Osiel Cardenas was extradited to the United States in January.
Calderon has ordered thousands of soldiers into states throughout the country to try to end a war between the two drug gangs which killed around 2,000 people last year.
But narcotics-related murders have continued unabated. More than 20 bodies were found throughout Mexico on Monday alone, including five corpses with bound hands and feet discovered stuffed into a sports utility vehicle in the beach resort city of Cancun.
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


















 
 

Toll of drug war rises in Mexico
An anti-narcotics official is gunned down, two journalists are abducted and an army captain ends up slain.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexdrugs15may15,0,567166.story?coll=la-home-world

Toll of drug war rises in Mexico
An anti-narcotics official is gunned down, two journalists are abducted and an army captain ends up slain.

By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer

May 15, 2007

MEXICO CITY - The newly appointed head of a drug intelligence unit in the attorney general's office was shot and killed Monday in a street ambush here that dealt a new blow to President Felipe Calderon's campaign against this nation's drug traffickers.

Officials said several assailants waited for Jose Nemesio Lugo Felix, director of the attorney general's "Information Against Delinquency" unit, trapping his SUV on a narrow street. Such assassinations have become common in many border and port cities of Mexico but are rare in the nation's capital.

Lugo Felix had been appointed in April to head the unit specializing in the analysis of data about the activities of Mexico's drug cartels, officials said. He was shot as he drove his vehicle during rush hour just outside an office of the attorney general in the southern Coyoacan district, a center of the city's arts community.

The method of the assault "leads us to presume it was a planned execution," Victor Corzo, an official with the attorney general's office, told reporters. "It could be related to drug traffickers because he was someone who possessed information." The slain official was a veteran anti-crime "strategist," Corzo added.

The killing came as apparent drug-related violence continued unabated across the country.

Over the weekend, two journalists for the Azteca television network were reported missing and assumed kidnapped in the northern city of Monterrey. An army captain was kidnapped and slain in Chilpancingo, the capital of Guerrero state, on the Pacific Coast. Both regions have seen increasing violence as drug cartels fight one another for lucrative trade routes to the United States, while also battling the police and the army.

A report by the attorney general's office published Monday in the Mexico City newspaper Milenio said the drug war has intensified because the nation's two most powerful trafficking organizations are fighting over territory in six states: Guerrero, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tabasco and Quintana Roo.

The rival traffickers are seeking to control rural areas where opium poppies and marijuana are grown, as well as key maritime shipping routes for Colombian cocaine that passes through Mexico on its way to the United States, the report said.

Lugo Felix had previously run a unit in the attorney general's office that investigated child and immigrant smuggling, authorities said.

His attackers used a red Pontiac to block his path, officials said. Gunmen emerged from the car and opened fire, striking him three times in the head. The assailants fled, abandoning the car, which turned out to be stolen, officials said.

In Monterrey, reporter Gamaliel Lopez Candanosa and cameraman Gerardo Paredes Perez have not been seen since Thursday, Azteca television said in a press release Sunday.

The two men were last seen after covering a Mother's Day event Thursday, the television network said. Dozens of police officers and government officials have been killed in the Monterrey area in the last year.

Lopez Candanosa was a general assignment reporter who only occasionally covered the region's drug wars, officials said. He reported in July on the discovery of a severed head and a threatening "narco message" in the city.

Mexico City newspaper El Universal said more than 1,000 people have been killed by organized crime groups this year. The newspaper Reforma counted 758 killed as of May 1. The Mexican government does not release an official tally.

Also Monday, a federal police investigator was found shot to death in Tijuana. Last week, a severed head was deposited at an army base in Veracruz, a day after Calderon's government announced it would send troops to the Gulf Coast state to combat the drug trade.

"We'll keep on going when the federal forces get here," read a note left with the head. It was signed "Z-40," a reference to the Zetas, a band of enforcers working in behalf of the Gulf cartel.

On Thursday, four government bodyguards assigned to protect the children of the governor of Mexico state, Enrique Peña Nieto, were slain in Veracruz while escorting their charges on a beach vacation.

Veracruz Gov. Fidel Herrera said the act was similar to those that have become common in states where drug cartels are battling to control lucrative trafficking routes.

"Just like in Sonora, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Michoacan and Guerrero, we are facing a national struggle," Herrera told reporters last week. The first federal forces arrived in the state Saturday.

Veracruz is a new front in the nation's drug wars. According to published reports, drug traffickers based in the northern Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas, are fighting rivals based farther west in the border state of Sinaloa. Each wants control of smuggling routes along the Gulf of Mexico. There are also reports that the Tamaulipas traffickers - the Gulf cartel - may be splitting into two rival groups.

Calderon has made the war on drugs the centerpiece of his presidency. Last week, he created the Corps of Federal Support Forces, an army unit specializing in anti-drug efforts. The unit will answer directly to his office.

Calderon sent army troops to Michoacan and Guerrero not long after taking office in December. The army is seen by many here as one of the few security institutions still relatively immune to infiltration by drug traffickers.

At least 11 army troops have been killed this year. Five soldiers were killed in an ambush in the town of Caracuaro, Michoacan, this month.

"The sacrifice of these patriots will not be in vain," Calderon said at an event marking Cinco de Mayo. "In honor of their memory, their deaths will not go unpunished and we will redouble our offensive against the enemy."

The latest victim, Lugo Felix, had been on the job just a few weeks, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office said.

"To be honest, I think he was still getting his boxes unpacked," the spokeswoman said.


hector.tobar@latimes.com

Carlos Martínez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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Mexican army officer's body found

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico14may14,1,2000857.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Mexican army officer's body found

From the Associated Press

May 14, 2007

ACAPULCO, MEXICO - The body of a Mexican army captain was found in southern Guerrero state Sunday, a day after a severed head was left outside a military base with a note suggesting criminal gangs would defy the army's increased presence.

Also in Guerrero, unidentified attackers tossed a grenade late Saturday at a police station in Tecpan, damaging two police cars but causing no injuries.

Police found Capt. Jacinto Pablo Granda, 36, near a highway in Guerrero's capital of Chilpancingo, about 60 miles northeast of Acapulco, with two gunshot wounds to the head, said Erit Montufar, state director of investigative police.

Granda was vacationing with his family when he was abducted Saturday by armed men near a Chilpancingo military base, Montufar said. It was unclear whether the attackers knew that Granda, who was assigned to a different base, was an officer.

President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to areas ravaged by drug violence, and criminals have apparently responded by attacking army troops. Five soldiers have died in attacks this month.

On Saturday, the head of a kidnapped auto mechanic was left in a box along with two grenades and a note from the purported gang members outside a military barracks in Veracruz. "We are going to continue, even if federal forces are here," authorities quoted the note as saying.

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U.S., allies seen as losing drug war
Figures for last year show that cocaine is cheaper, purer and widely available.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cocaine5may05,1,161277.story?coll=la-headlines-world

U.S., allies seen as losing drug war
Figures for last year show that cocaine is cheaper, purer and widely available.

By Sam Enriquez
Times Staff Writer

May 5, 2007

MEXICO CITY - The United States and its Latin American allies are losing a major battle in the war on drugs, according to indicators that show cocaine prices dipped for most of 2006 and U.S. users were getting more bang for their buck.

Despite billions of dollars in U.S. antidrug spending and record seizures, statistics recently released by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy suggest that cocaine is as available as ever.

Cocaine users and law enforcement officials both care about price and purity. Authorities work to choke off supply, driving up cost and dampening street sales. Users want better coke at cheaper prices.

In 2005, John P. Walters, the head of the drug policy office, made headlines touting a surge in cocaine prices and falling levels of quality. Those figures indicated that U.S. drug control policies were working, he said.

But the new numbers issued by his office indicate that any victory was short-lived. Retail cocaine prices last year fell more than 12% from January to October, while average purity of cocaine seized by authorities rose from about 68% to 73%. And this time, the drug policy office did little to publicize the figures, releasing them in a letter to U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).

The new statistics emboldened critics who say the Bush administration's antidrug strategies need to change.

"You can spin this any way you want, but when prices go down and supply goes up, the fact of the matter is that this policy is not working," said U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a longtime critic who supports spending more on economic development.

Since the Iraq war began more than four years ago, the Pentagon has sharply reduced spending on air and sea surveillance of trafficking routes in the Pacific and Caribbean. The centerpiece of the U.S. strategy against cocaine has shifted to Plan Colombia, which funds aerial fumigation of coca plants. Colombian growers supply 90% of U.S. users through Mexican smuggling rings that control the cocaine and marijuana trade.

"Crop control is the most cost-effective means of cutting supply," according to the 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, issued by the U.S. State Department. Last year, Colombia reported it had destroyed more than half a million acres of coca plants.

But growers have responded to the fumigation by breaking up their crops into smaller areas in an apparently successful hide-and-seek strategy. U.S. officials estimate that as much as 800 tons of cocaine still was exported from Colombia.

Patrick Ward, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the Colombia eradication program kept 350 tons of cocaine from being produced.

But critics say that availability of cocaine in most U.S. cities is evidence of failure.

"In 2005, more coca was grown in Colombia than they had in 2000, when Plan Colombia started," said Adam Isacson, a Colombia analyst for the Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank. "They can say, 'Look how much more coke we'd have without fumigation,' but that sounds pretty lame."

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe traveled to Washington this week to lobby for continued U.S. support amid allegations of ties between his government and illegal paramilitary groups. Colombia has received $4.7 billion since 2000.

The continued high production in Colombia is also troubling news for Mexico, which reaps the cocaine trade's greatest profits and bears the brunt of its costs. More than 2,000 deaths last year were attributed to an ongoing battle among rival drug gangs for control of smuggling routes.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon in December deployed the army to stem the bloodshed. But the killings continue at or ahead of last year's pace. In January, Mexico extradited several key drug trafficking figures to face trial in U.S. courts, including the alleged head of the country's east coast-based cartel. More extraditions are expected.

But continuing violence and a steady supply of cocaine crossing into the U.S. from Mexico have many questioning Calderon's strategy as well as Washington's.

"The standard that economists would use on extradition would be that it frees up the market," said Peter Reuter, an economist and drug policy expert at Rand Corp. "If you're Mexico, you care about reducing the capability of these organizations to execute people in large numbers. But the idea that it will stop cocaine is wrong."

Mexico's army operations, historically, have been effective only in the short term, said Jose Luis Pineyro, a military affairs expert in Mexico City. "After the military leaves, the narcos come back."

sam.enriquez@latimes.com

Times staff writers Héctor Tobar and Carlos Martinez contributed to this report.

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Key drug cartel figures admit smuggling, murder
In plea deal, brothers Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero are expected to testify against alleged head of Arellano Felix ring.

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cartel28apr28,1,6513372.story?coll=la-headlines-california
From the Los Angeles Times

Key drug cartel figures admit smuggling, murder
In plea deal, brothers Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero are expected to testify against alleged head of Arellano Felix ring.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

April 28, 2007

SAN DIEGO - Two top bosses of the notorious Arellano Felix drug cartel have pleaded guilty to smuggling tons of drugs into the U.S. and murdering and torturing rivals of the Tijuana-based criminal organization.

The defendants, brothers Ismael and Gilberto Higuera Guerrero, are the highest-ranking members of the cartel to be convicted in a U.S. court and are expected to testify against Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, who allegedly took control of the organization in recent years.

The Higuera Guerrero brothers were key lieutenants during the peak years of the cartel in the 1990s, when it was responsible for importing the majority of the drugs into the U.S. They pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.

Federal prosecutors will recommend that Ismael receive 40 years in prison and that Gilberto be given 30 years. The brothers also agreed to forfeit $6 million, according to the agreement.

Ismael, 46, and Gilberto, 39, coordinated the transportation of many tons of cocaine from Colombia into Mexico via commercial airlines, private planes, cargo shipments and trucks, according to the plea agreement announced Friday.

The drugs were smuggled into the U.S. in car trunks and hidden vehicle compartments and on small boats. Ismael, who ran the day-to-day operations, regularly bribed government and law enforcement officials in Mexico, the documents said.

Both brothers also admitted to being enforcers for the cartel. They pleaded guilty to kidnapping, torturing and murdering rivals and uncooperative government and law enforcement officials.

The Mexican government extradited the brothers to the U.S. earlier this year as part of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's wide-ranging offensive against drug cartel figures.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

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16 arrested in Coachella Valley drug raids
Federal officials say a Mexican Mafia group selling methamphetamine is dismantled.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mafia28apr28,1,172415.story?coll=la-headlines-california
From the Los Angeles Times

16 arrested in Coachella Valley drug raids
Federal officials say a Mexican Mafia group selling methamphetamine is dismantled.

By Maeve Reston
Times Staff Writer

April 28, 2007

Federal officials said Friday that they dismantled one of the most prolific drug rings in the Coachella Valley on Thursday in an operation that resulted in the arrests of 16 people, including one "shot caller" for the Mexican Mafia, and the seizure of 50 guns, methamphetamine and a pipe bomb.

A joint gang task force of state, local and federal officials tracked members of the network for 10 months by recording cellphone conversations and posing as drug buyers, officials said.

In those calls, some of the suspects allegedly revealed their involvement in the Mexican Mafia, a gang that operates throughout California and Mexico and is deeply entrenched in the state's prison system.

The most sought-after of the defendants was the alleged shot caller - Jose Chavez Huerta, 42, who officials say continually identified himself in his cellphone conversations as the highest-ranking member of the Mexican Mafia in the Coachella Valley.

Federal officials said Huerta, who lives in Thermal, collected "taxes" from dealers who operated in his territory and provided a share of his profits to his Mexican Mafia sponsor, Richard Aguirre.

Aguirre is incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, where he is serving a life sentence for murder.

Huerta is charged with conspiracy to possess narcotics and possession with intent to distribute narcotics.

Since 1989, Huerta has served numerous prison sentences for smuggling drugs into prison and selling heroin and methamphetamine, , as well as robbery, assault and gun charges.

Along with Huerta's wife and brother, authorities arrested Aguirre's 75-year-old mother Thursday.

Authorities alleged that Aguirre's mother, Jovita Aguirre of Pico Rivera, collected "taxes" for Aguirre and relayed messages between her son and the gang members who answered to him.

Authorities are still searching for Huerta's associate, Tony Rodriguez, who was identified as the second-ranking member of the Mexican Mafia in the Coachella Valley, which stretches from east of the Banning area to the Imperial County line.

Officials allege that Rodriguez and Huerta enforced the Mexican Mafia's rule over the area by threats, assaults and murders - including attacks in prison.

So far, 15 people have been charged with federal crimes. Four people arrested Thursday and Friday on drug charges will be charged in state courts.

J. Stephen Tidwell, assistant director in charge of the FBI in Los Angeles, said officials believed they had dealt a "pretty harsh blow" to the Coachella Valley operation.

He noted that among the 50 guns found during the raids, officials confiscated short-barreled rifles and illegal assault rifles with removable magazines.

Officials are still investigating how much methamphetamine Huerta's network handled per month, where it was coming from and who the group's primary clients were, Tidwell said.

Officials acknowledged that the Mexican Mafia still has a strong influence in the Coachella Valley, and said local officials would have to stay vigilant to prevent other gang members from taking over Huerta's clientele.

maeve.reston@latimes.com

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Gunmen storm hospital in Tijuana
Hundreds of patients are evacuated as the assailants search for a comrade hurt in an earlier gun battle.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tijuana19apr19,1,3572595.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Gunmen storm hospital in Tijuana
Hundreds of patients are evacuated as the assailants search for a comrade hurt in an earlier gun battle.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

April 19, 2007

TIJUANA - Masked gunmen opened fire on police Wednesday at a large hospital as they searched for an accomplice wounded in an earlier gun battle, Mexican police and witnesses said.

Two state police officers were killed in the attack, which forced the evacuation of hundreds of patients from the seven-story facility.

The shootouts shattered a period of relative calm in the crime-weary border city, where thousands of soldiers and federal agents began patrolling the streets this year in an effort to combat growing drug-related violence.

Officials said the chain of events began when gunmen with suspected links to organized crime fought federal agents who had stopped the suspects' car. One suspect was killed and another was injured, authorities said.

Shortly after the injured man arrived at Tijuana General Hospital, a group of about six gunmen tried to shoot their way into the emergency room, witnesses and police said. It was unclear whether the gunmen intended to rescue the man or kill him, police said.

Hospital workers said they were tending to patients when the barrage of gunfire shattered windows and gouged walls around the emergency room.

"We all hit the floor. It was terrifying," Dr. Paola Garcia said.

No patients or hospital workers were injured in the attack, police said.

Five suspects were arrested. Details of the arrests were not released.

Mexico has been beset by increasingly brazen slayings sparked by competition among drug-trafficking groups seeking control of the lucrative trade routes into the United States.

In the western state of Michoacan, gunmen linked to drug traffickers tortured an alleged rival, then drove the victim's truck over his head, leaving him in the street with a menacing note nailed to his chest and the corpse of his dog thrown on top of him, Reuters news agency reported.

Authorities said the victim, whose body was discovered Tuesday, was a member of a gang competing with the notorious Gulf cartel.

Even in Michoacan, where killers last year dumped five severed heads onto a club's dance floor, the killing was met with shock.

*
richard.marosi@latimes.com

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Mexico arrests border city chief of drug gang

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Mexico arrests border city chief of drug gang

Tue Apr 17, 1:28 PM ET
Mexican police have arrested the local head of the notorious Gulf Cartel drug gang in a city on the U.S. border as part of President Felipe Calderon's nationwide crackdown on organized crime.
Juan Oscar Garza was the cartel's leader in the city of Reynosa, just south of McAllen, Texas and was sought in Mexico for smuggling drugs, guns and people across the border, the attorney-general's office said on Tuesday.
He was arrested at a nightclub in Reynosa along with his brother, sister and girlfriend. Officials declined to say when the arrest took place.
The Gulf Cartel is one of the country's two most powerful trafficking gangs and is locked in a bitter fight with rival smugglers from the Pacific coast.
Its leader Osiel Cardenas was extradited to the United States in January.
Calderon has ordered thousands of soldiers into states throughout the country to try to end a war between the two drug gangs which killed around 2,000 people last year.
But narcotics-related murders have continued unabated. More than 20 bodies were found throughout Mexico on Monday alone, including five corpses with bound hands and feet discovered stuffed into a sports utility vehicle in the beach resort city of Cancun.
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.


















 
 

Panama drug bust reveals trafficking's slow lane
Officials are stunned by the carelessness of a Mexican cartel that lost 20 tons of cocaine.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751
http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-208917617001990565&q=warrior+mexican+OR+drug+OR+cartels+duration%3Ashort+genre%3AMOVIE_TRAILER

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul in the State of Nayarit and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pandrugs2apr02,0,3200199.story?coll=la-home-world

Panama drug bust reveals trafficking's slow lane
Officials are stunned by the carelessness of a Mexican cartel that lost 20 tons of cocaine.

By Chris Kraul
Times Staff Writer

April 2, 2007

PANAMA CITY - Call them "the not ready for prime time traffickers."

That's how Panamanian and U.S. authorities are describing alleged functionaries of a Mexican drug cartel that lost a $270-million load of cocaine in a colossal bust off Panama's Pacific coast last month.

In interviews here, officials were practically shaking their heads over the carelessness and inattention to detail by the Sinaloa-based cartel during the two months that a pair of alleged lieutenants spent in Panama City arranging the Colombia-to-Mexico shipment.

The big break in the case, officials said, came shortly after the two men arrived in town, when Panamanian police got a tip from a "walk-in" source in this city's huge shipping industry. His suspicions were apparently aroused by the fact that the men's company was leasing metal cargo containers in the free-trade zone of Colon - but had no apparent plans to fill them with cargo.

But the classic moment came several weeks later, when U.S. Coast Guard officers and sailors boarded the ship the men had bought, a 300-foot Panamanian-flagged cargo vessel called the Gatun.

Finding drugs on board was no sure thing, because traffickers find ingenious ways to hide their cargo behind false floors and walls, or submerge it in fuel tanks, or weld it inside heavy machinery, or embed it in cans of tuna or jars of marmalade.

But this time it was easy. U.S. Coast Guard and Panamanian officials noticed that customs seals on two of the 12 metal cargo containers on the Gatun had been improperly broken. When they opened the doors, bales of cocaine came tumbling out. Officials estimated the haul at 20 tons.

The biggest bonus for law enforcement officials may have been the laptop computer that one of the suspects, Jesus Mondragon, allegedly had in his possession when he was arrested at the airport in Panama City. Authorities say it contained a treasure trove of information that could lead to more arrests.

"I think he showed an excess of confidence," a top anti-drug prosecutor, Jose Abel Almengor, said in an interview.

*

Power shift

The bust, and an emerging portrait of the cartel allegedly headed by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada as a gang that at least in this case couldn't shoot straight, offers a snapshot of the changing roles in the region's drug trafficking. It appears that the assumption of power by Mexican cartels from Colombian traffickers - who once exclusively managed the transit of big cocaine loads to Mexico or the U.S. - is hitting some snags.

Whether Zambada's men botched the deal or not, the seizure has raised fears that a bloodbath could ensue in Panama if, as expected, Mexican gangsters revisit the scene to exact revenge and settle scores. That's been traffickers' practice in the past when cocaine loads were lost along the U.S.-Mexico border or in the Caribbean.

"It's obvious that something went wrong for the narcos," Almengor said. "In any business, when something goes wrong there are consequences."

Said one foreign counter-narcotics official: "This could stir things up quite a bit."

It all began this year, when the two alleged traffickers, Mondragon and Jose Nunez, both Mexican nationals, arrived in Panama. Officials say they came to set up a front company called Marine Management & Chartering whose real purpose was to buy the Gatun for $3 million and use it to move drugs.

The plan called for the ship to pick up cargo containers in Colon, on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal, then transit the 50-mile waterway and sail south to pick up the multi-ton load of cocaine off the Pacific coast of Colombia.

The ship would then head north to deliver the drugs to the cartel at the Mexican port of Topolobampo in Sinaloa state, according to law enforcement sources here.

Containerized cocaine is no novelty. As much as four-fifths of all Colombian cocaine is shipped to the United States via Central America and Mexico aboard fishing vessels, so-called go-fast boats, or hidden on cargo ships like the Gatun. A decade ago, most traffic was airborne, before tighter aerial surveillance forced traffickers to change tactics.

But the tip about the men's apparent disinterest in actually putting any cargo in the containers kicked off an investigation that involved Panamanian authorities and members of a multinational counter-narcotics task force called Operation Panama Express, which includes the United States. The team investigated the company and began monitoring the two men's activities. Mondragon was found to have a U.S. criminal record for drug trafficking and robbery and to have used various aliases, officials said.

Colombians involved in narco-logistics are usually careful to use intermediaries who run seemingly legitimate businesses and who have no rap sheets, officials said. Colombians also send a second layer of "supervisors" to make sure their on-the-ground logisticians aren't cooperating with law enforcement, miscounting the drugs or otherwise making errors.

*

Red flag

Before the March 18 bust, the Gatun had already made several trips from Guyana through the Panama Canal and then up the Pacific coast of Mexico to Sinaloa.

That raised another red flag because Guyana, on the Caribbean coast, has become a drug trafficking hub in recent years, as has neighboring Venezuela, according to U.S. and Colombian law enforcement authorities.

The task force tracked the Gatun as it traveled through the canal March 16, then veered south early the next day, allegedly to pick up the load of cocaine. Through unspecified surveillance methods, officials detected several trips by fast boats leaving Colombia's northwestern coast to offload drugs on the Gatun, which was anchored offshore.

The ship then turned north for Mexico.

Thinking the shipment was safely on its way, task force officials allege, Mondragon and Nunez left their mid-priced Panama City hotel that Saturday to catch a flight back to Mexico. They were arrested as they boarded a plane at Tocumen airport and charged with drug trafficking. They have denied any wrongdoing.

About the time they were arrested, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Sherman, with the Panamanian government's permission, was stopping the Gatun off the Panamanian coast. The bust occurred the next day when Panama gave permission to search the vessel. The Sherman is one of half a dozen naval and Coast Guard vessels on call to intercept suspicious boats off the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America.

Like other Central American countries, Panama is seeing a surge in cocaine trafficking as well as criminal side effects such as gang violence and deadly turf wars. Government and business officials are concerned the country could lose its sobriquet of "the safest country in Central America."

In fact, the Gatun bust brought the year-to-date total of cocaine seized in Panamanian waters or territory to 40 tons, which by some estimates is more than 5% of all the cocaine Colombia produces in a year. The seizures already surpass the 32 tons taken during all of 2006, Almengor said.

Officials fear the trend may be hard to reverse. Panama's proximity to Colombia and its robust economy provide perfect cover for the traffickers.

"Panama has financial institutions, the banking, the canal and the free zone that are attractive to honest investors," the foreign counter-narcotics official said. "But they appeal to delinquents too."

*
chris.kraul@latimes.com

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