STR, AFP/Getty Images
A police officer guards the scene in the Mexican state of Yucatan where 11 headless bodies were found piled. The nearby city of Merida is normally tranquil and touristy.
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

Drug war bodies are piling up in Mexico
The heap of 11 decapitated bodies found in Yucatan shows that the battle to control the multi-billion-dollar drug trade knows no boundaries.

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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-mexdrugs30-2008aug30,0,5217757.story
From the Los Angeles Times
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

Drug war bodies are piling up in Mexico
The heap of 11 decapitated bodies found in Yucatan shows that the battle to control the multi-billion-dollar drug trade knows no boundaries.

By Ken Ellingwood
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 30, 2008

MEXICO CITY — The sickening discovery this week of 11 headless bodies heaped like broken dolls near the colonial city of Merida underscored a bitter lesson for Mexico: The battle to control the multibillion-dollar drug trade knows no boundaries.

The bodies are piling up nationwide, even in normally tranquil and touristy spots such as Merida, not far from the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza.

During a seven-day period ended Friday, more than 130 people died violently throughout the country. Headless bodies turned up in four states, including Baja California.

The Yucatan peninsula, strategically close to smuggling routes through Central America, tallied 12, after another decapitated body was found a few hours later Thursday about 80 miles east of the carnage near Merida.

Mexico's drug wars used to play out mainly in smuggling battlegrounds along the U.S. border, such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. But a crackdown launched 21 months ago by President Felipe Calderon has exacerbated feuding among drug traffickers for control of smuggling routes.

As a result, the country convulses with daily violence that shows a new and disturbing geographic reach and viciousness.

"The bottom line is you've got a major internecine battle, a kind of civil war among drug cartels," said Bruce Bagley, a security and drug-trafficking expert at the University of Miami. "It has intensified because the stakes are high. There's a great deal of money to be made."

But traffickers are keenly aware of the psychological effect on enemies and ordinary Mexicans when they chop off rivals' heads and leave threatening notes with the remains.

Some analysts say tactics such as beheadings, once unheard of in Mexico's drug underworld, are akin to terrorism because part of the goal is to scare civilians so that they will press the government to back off. Calderon has sent 40,000 troops and 5,000 federal police officers into the streets as part of the campaign against organized crime.

"You're sending a signal to the Calderon government, to the police, that you mean business," said Fred Burton, vice president for counter-terrorism at Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based intelligence firm. " 'This is the result when you don't play ball with us.' "

Last week, the Calderon government announced a broad new blueprint for fighting crime, including better coordination between federal and local authorities, new federal prisons, improved tracking of cellphones and tougher steps against money laundering.

Calderon administration officials said Thursday night that the Yucatan beheadings and other spectacular displays of violence show that arrests and drug seizures have hurt the cartels, prompting them to lash out with increasing savagery.

"They have to respond in a symbolic way that creates uncertainty in the public -- this is what they have been doing during the last months," Atty. Gen. Eduardo Medina Mora said late Thursday during an interview on Mexican television.

Since Saturday, Mexico has tallied at least 136 killings across 18 of its 31 states, according to Mexican news media accounts. They included especially brazen attacks:

* On Thursday, the day the headless bodies were found near Merida, gunmen stormed a house in the Pacific state of Guerrero, killing two women and two girls, ages 8 and 12. Two police officers were ambushed and slain in a gun battle as they raced to the home.

* An armed group battled Mexican troops Wednesday in the central state of Guanajuato. Four gunmen died and two soldiers were wounded.

* Four decapitated bodies turned up Tuesday in Tijuana. Those killings appeared to be linked to a power struggle between drug traffickers who once collaborated as part of the Arellano Felix gang. Headless bodies also were found in Sinaloa and the northern state of Durango.

Two weeks ago, a hit squad killed 13 people, including a 16-month-old boy, at a family gathering in the northern town of Creel, a tourist gateway to the scenic Copper Canyon region.

Hardly a day goes by without new accounts of violence. Unofficial tallies by Mexican news outlets put the death toll from drug violence this year at more than 2,600. By some counts, it has already exceeded the total for 2007, which set a record.

Police officers have died at an alarming rate. The daily Milenio newspaper reported Friday that 71 officers had been slain nationwide in August -- the highest monthly toll since Calderon launched his crime offensive in December 2006.

Some of Mexico's more than 300,000 local and state police officers have been killed by drug hit men while carrying out their duties. But others have worked as hired gunmen for drug smugglers, and become targets of rival gangs. when one gang takes on another.

The violence has left Mexicans increasingly unsettled. They are unnerved by the steady stream of bloody news and pessimistic about the government's odds of winning, polls show. Many Mexicans tend to view the drug killings as largely a matter among criminal gangs, but the violence is increasingly claiming innocents, and showing up in new spots.

The Yucatan peninsula, though part of an important coastal smuggling corridor for cocaine shipped from Colombia, has not traditionally been a place where drug traffickers have battled.

But it has become an increasingly important transit route for narcotics relayed by land from neighboring Guatemala. That, and a growing local market for illegal drugs, has heightened competition for control, Bagley said.

Traffickers have resorted to decapitating rivals during the last two years.

Thursday, a young farmer came upon the heap of bodies, which according to some Mexican news accounts were covered with tattoos and bore signs of torture. Some of the accounts speculated that the killings might have been the work of the Zetas, a group of paramilitary-style hit men for the Gulf cartel who are known for extreme violence.

Gov. Ivonne Ortega Pacheco said in a television interview that anonymous callers had been demanding that authorities remove road checkpoints "and let them work." Ortega said the callers became more menacing about two weeks ago, threatening that bodies would start to turn up.

But Ortega said the roadblocks would remain in place. In a separate broadcast message, she sought to reassure Yucatan's residents.

"Yucatan is a peaceful state of hardworking people," she said. "We can't let any lawbreakers affect our families' tranquillity."

As Ortega spoke, news reports were circulating of the discovery of four bodies, 1,500 miles away in the northern border state of Sonora. Three had been beheaded.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

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Four decapitated bodies discovered in Tijuana
A fifth person was also found dead. Police say they may be linked to the leader of Arellano Felix drug cartel.

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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-behead27-2008aug27,0,102430.story
From the Los Angeles Times

Four decapitated bodies discovered in Tijuana
A fifth person was also found dead. Police say they may be linked to the leader of Arellano Felix drug cartel.

By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 27, 2008

TIJUANA — The gruesome discoveries this week of five bodies, four of them decapitated, have shattered a period of relative calm and revived concerns that organized crime groups are escalating their battle for control of this border city.

Two bodies were found Monday morning on a hillside, one with its head placed on its upper back.

Three more bodies were discovered Tuesday morning in an illegal dump.

Their heads, charred from gasoline burns, were placed at their feet, according to the Baja California state attorney general's office.

Authorities have not identified the victims.

The attacks recalled the decapitations two years ago of three Rosarito Beach police officers.

Authorities believe the recent victims may have been associates of the reputed leader of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, Fernando Sanchez Arellano, nicknamed El Ingeniero -- The Engineer.

Printed on the shirtless victims' backs was a taunting message: "We are people of the weakened engineer."

Violence had declined significantly in recent months, and Alberto Capella Ibarra, Tijuana's secretary of public security, discounted the significance of this week's killings, comparing them to Los Angeles-area gang slayings that are barely noticed.

"The only difference here is how dramatic the deaths are," Capella said in an interview in his downtown office.

But Capella and others conceded that the savage nature of the crimes could signal a deadlier phase in the drug war as the Arellano Felix drug cartel fights rivals.

The cartel, once among the most powerful in Mexico, has been weakened in recent years by arrests and killings of its top bosses.

Sanchez Arellano is said to have assumed control when his uncle, Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, was captured in 2006.

In April, a gun battle between groups headed by Sanchez Arellano and a rival faction left 13 dead and appears to have split the cartel into two camps.

The head of the rival group, Teodoro Garcia Simental, moved to the state of Sinaloa, where he may have forged ties with a cartel based there, said Mexican law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk publicly on the subject.

The recent deaths could be a sign that Garcia or one of his underlings may have launched an offensive to push out Sanchez Arellano with the help of powerful allies from Sinaloa.

Such a scenario, some fear, could turn Tijuana into a battleground on par with the northern state of Chihuahua, where more than 800 deaths this year have been linked to drugs, the most of any Mexican state, according to a report by the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

The Chihuahua death toll grew higher Tuesday when gunmen killed five people at a family gathering at a ranch.

Also this month, cartel gunmen killed 13 people at a party in the tourist town of Creel, and eight people during a prayer service at a Ciudad Juarez drug rehabilitation center.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

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In Chihuahua, Mexico, governor calls for tougher crackdown on crime
Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza calls on federal authorities to reform their strategy after 13 people are killed in a weekend shooting.

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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-mexico19-2008aug19,0,5650031.story
From the Los Angeles Times
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

In Chihuahua, Mexico, governor calls for tougher crackdown on crime
Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza calls on federal authorities to reform their strategy after 13 people are killed in a weekend shooting.

By Ken Ellingwood
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 19, 2008

MEXICO CITY — The governor of violence-torn Chihuahua state on Monday urged President Felipe Calderon to revamp his anti-crime strategy after a weekend shooting there killed 13 people, including a baby.

Gunmen opened fire Saturday on a family gathering in the northern border state, which has become Mexico's most violent spot amid bloody feuding between drug gangs and a government crackdown on them.

Chihuahua this year has accounted for more than 800 killings, according to the federal attorney general's office.

More than 2,500 people have died in drug violence nationwide this year, according to several unofficial tallies by the Mexican media. The government seldom discloses the overall death count. Last week, an official in the attorney general's office provided homicide statistics from several states, including Chihuahua, to a group of foreign reporters.

Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza called on federal authorities to improve intelligence gathering, clean up corrupt police forces and review a government offensive that has deployed more than 3,000 troops and federal agents in Chihuahua.

The shooting incident, in a tourist town named Creel, showed the need to "rethink and re-launch" the approach, Reyes Baeza said in a broadcast statement.

"The strategy and actions to guarantee people's safety in the state should be radically modified," said the governor, a member of the once-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party. Calderon belongs to the conservative National Action Party.

Reyes Baeza said the wave of violence in Chihuahua had claimed 130 lives so far this month. "This trend is unacceptable and must be contained," he said.

Reyes Baeza said Mexico's crime crisis should even prompt the country to look anew at personal liberties. "We can't continue understanding security in terms that existed at the beginning of the 20th century, in the Constitution of 1917," he said. He did not say which rights he thinks should be curtailed.

Chihuahua and Mexican news reports said gunmen opened fire on a gathering outside an events hall in Creel, a mountain gateway to the picturesque region known as Copper Canyon.

Most of the victims were members of the same family, including the son of Creel Mayor Eliseo Loya Ochoa, officials said. One of those killed was a 16-month-old boy.

Soldiers and federal police joined a search for the gunmen but had reported no arrests by Monday.

Authorities said the effort was still underway.

The Calderon government's 20-month-old offensive against drug gangs has roiled the drug-trafficking world, aggravating tensions between rival groups as they joust for control of smuggling routes.

One of the most ferocious battles has raged in Chihuahua, especially in Ciudad Juarez, on the U.S. border, where traffickers based in Sinaloa have sought to usurp the so-called Juarez cartel's position.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

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Mexico violence claims 6 more police officers
The victims include two top commanders in Michoacan, a senior investigator in Chihuahua and a deputy chief in Quintana Roo.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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-mexviolence13-2008aug13,0,3375871.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Mexico violence claims 6 more police officers
The victims include two top commanders in Michoacan, a senior investigator in Chihuahua and a deputy chief in Quintana Roo.
By Ken Ellingwood
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 13, 2008

MEXICO CITY — A deputy police chief and another commander in western Michoacan state were slain, authorities said Tuesday, in the latest signs of violence in which at least half a dozen officers have been reported dead across Mexico in the last two days.

The victims include a senior investigator gunned down in the border state of Chihuahua and a deputy police chief in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, shot dead along with a bodyguard.

Violence has escalated since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against organized crime nearly two years ago, and police officers have been frequent targets. More than 500 officers, including dozens of commanders, and soldiers have died, according to Mexican media tallies.

Local police have been hardest hit, prompting some officers to quit or flee to the United States. Many municipal and state officers also work as hired gunmen for drug traffickers and often are caught up in feuds between rival gangs.

In the latest attack on police, Javier Hernandez Sanchez, 43, the deputy chief in the Michoacan town of Tepalcatepec, died late Monday after being shot 18 times, the state prosecutor's office said. Gunmen wounded his brother and a second officer as they fled.

Earlier in the day, authorities found the bullet-riddled body of Raul Juarez Navarrete, 46, the third-ranking officer in the town of Huaniqueo. He had been missing since Friday.

Also Monday, Pedro Aragonez, head of forensics investigations in northern Chihuahua state, was fatally shot while driving in the capital, Chihuahua city.

In Quintana Roo, home of the Cancun resort, gunmen ambushed and killed Manuel de Jesus Lopez Kantun, deputy chief for the municipality of Solidaridad, and his bodyguard as they drove in his car.

In addition, a member of the federal preventive police was fatally shot and two colleagues wounded as they returned to classes at the government's police academy in the northern state of San Luis Potosi.

The men, assigned to the state of Mexico, came under fire as they drove on a highway early Monday. The incident prompted about 100 fellow officers to boycott classes, which are required as part of a restructuring of the federal police. Early this month, four federal agents from Michoacan were abducted on their way to the academy and killed.

Violence continued to claim civilian victims. At least 20 deaths have been reported since Sunday in Chihuahua state, where a war between drug gangs this year has killed more than 600people. According to unofficial tallies, drug violence nationwide has claimed more than 2,000 lives this year.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

Cecilia Sánchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.


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6 officers in Mexican crime unit arrested
The men are believed to have aided drug smugglers in Sinaloa state, officials say.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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-mexarrest14-2008aug14,0,2178973.story
From the Los Angeles Times

6 officers in Mexican crime unit arrested
The men are believed to have aided drug smugglers in Sinaloa state, officials say.

By Ken Ellingwood
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

4:44 PM PDT, August 13, 2008

MEXICO CITY — Six members of the Mexican government's top organized-crime unit have been arrested on suspicion of leaking information to drug traffickers, officials said Wednesday.

An official in the Mexican attorney general's office said a supervisor and five agents are thought to have passed tips to smugglers in the west-central state of Sinaloa for about three months.

The official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the men disclosed details about evidence that had been seized during government raids and information about arrestees. He said authorities were looking into possible involvement by other employees of the agency, known as SIEDO by its initials in Spanish.

SIEDO, which investigates drug and arms smuggling as well as kidnapping and terrorism cases, is well known and generally trusted by American law-enforcement agencies.

Its agents have helped U.S. authorities build cases against Mexican drug suspects, such as members of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix gang, by sharing intelligence and granting access to Mexican witnesses and their statements.

Confirmation that SIEDO was infiltrated by drug traffickers would be a black eye for the 400-member agency and for President Felipe Calderon's 20-month-old offensive against organized crime.

Mexico is awaiting $400 million in U.S. crime-fighting aid as the first installment in what the two nations describe as a stepped-up joint push to combat the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Noe Ramirez Mandujano resigned as SIEDO's chief two weeks ago as part of a shake-up that appeared tied to public anger over a persistent wave of kidnappings. The attorney general's office said the resignation was not tied to the current investigation. Previous efforts by Mexico to battle crime through highly touted specialized police units have fallen victim to suspected corruption. SIEDO's predecessor within the attorney general's office, an anti-drug agency known as FEADS, was shut down in 2003 after half a dozen of its agents were arrested on suspicion they were helping drug traffickers.

In the latest episode, authorities said they arrested SIEDO's technical coordinator, Miguel Angel Colorado Gonzalez, and five agents assigned to the agency by Mexico's equivalent of the FBI.

The men, though not privy to the most sensitive investigative details, had access to information about arrest orders and the timing of searches, and about the agency's security arrangements.

The attorney general's office said the six were arrested after an investigation that began months ago into possible leaks to the news media. A judge ordered the suspects detained for 40 days as the investigation advances.

The men allegedly provided tips to a Sinaloa trafficking gang led by the Beltran Leyva brothers.

The gang, once part of a loose alliance of Sinaloa smugglers known as the Federation, has been involved in a bloody fight with another leading Sinaloa trafficker, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, one of Mexico's most wanted fugitives. That feud has sparked months of slayings that have left more than 400 people dead in Sinaloa so far this year, according to government figures.

The Beltran Leyva faction is suspected by authorities of carrying out the assassination in May of the acting federal police chief, Edgar Millan Gomez, at his home in Mexico City.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

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U.S. guns arm Mexican drug cartels
Licensed weapons dealers are abundant near the border. 'Straw buyers' assist the traffickers.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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/nation/la-na-guns10-2008aug10,0,3497661.story
From the Los Angeles Times
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

U.S. guns arm Mexican drug cartels
Licensed weapons dealers are abundant near the border. 'Straw buyers' assist the traffickers.

By Richard A. Serrano
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 10, 2008

SIERRA VISTA, ARIZ. — High-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from border states into Mexico, fueling a war among drug traffickers, the army and police that has left thousands dead, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

The munitions are hidden under trucks and stashed in the trunks of cars, or concealed under the clothing of people who brazenly walk across the international bridges. They are showing up in seizures and in the aftermath of shootouts between the cartels and police in Mexico.

More than 90% of guns seized at the border or after raids and shootings in Mexico have been traced to the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last year, 2,455 weapons traces requested by Mexico showed that guns had been purchased in the United States, according to the ATF. Texas, Arizona and California accounted for 1,805 of those traced weapons.

No one is sure how many U.S.-purchased guns have made their way into Mexico, but U.S. authorities estimate the number in the thousands.

The body count, meanwhile, is rising. Since a military-led crackdown on narcotics traffickers began 18 months ago, more than 4,000 people in Mexico have died in drug-related violence, including 450 police officers, soldiers and prosecutors, as well as innocent bystanders, cartel members and corrupt officials, according to Mexican authorities.

Tom Mangan, a senior ATF special agent in Arizona, compared the flow to reverse osmosis. "Just like the drugs that head north," firearms move south, he said. "The cartels are outfitting an army."

More than 6,700 licensed gun dealers have set up shop within a short drive of the 2,000-mile border, from the Gulf Coast of Texas to San Diego -- which amounts to more than three dealers for every mile of border territory. Law enforcement has come to call the region an "iron river of guns."

And while U.S. political leaders and presidential candidates have focused rhetoric, money and time on stemming the northward flow of drugs and illegal immigrants, far less has been said and done about arms flowing south, largely from states with liberal gun laws, into a nation where only police and the military can legally own a firearm.

Mexican authorities have been pressing the United States to do more to help a border force they describe as overwhelmed and often intimidated.

"Just guarantee me that arms won't enter Mexico," Mexico's public-safety chief, Genaro Garcia Luna, told a radio interviewer recently. Stop the flow of guns from the United States, he said, "and the gasoline for the crimes that we have will run out."



'Straw buyers'

Both sides blame "straw buyers" who purchase weapons for traffickers at small gun shops and large gun shows.

Adan Rodriguez, 35, a struggling carpet-layer from the Dallas area, told gun dealers he was a private security officer and bought more than 100 assault rifles, 9-mm handguns and other high-powered weapons at multiple shops over several months, according to court records.

But authorities say drug traffickers were giving him stacks of cash to buy the guns, with marijuana laced in between the bills. He earned $30 to $40 a gun, according to court records.

"The temptation got over me," Rodriguez told a federal judge in Dallas, who sentenced him in 2006 to 5 1/2 years in prison.

Last August, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents in Roma, Texas, came upon a 1999 Freightliner tractor-trailer with a hidden stash of weapons, including a rifle, four shotguns, a handgun and 8,024 rounds of live ammunition with 10 magazines. The driver was questioned, and that investigation continues.

In February, five men, including a father and his two sons, were arrested just outside Roma and charged with selling as many as 60 guns, silencers and other weapons. The serial numbers on some of the weapons were shaved off, government evidence shows -- a sign to agents that the firearms were destined for Mexican gangs.

More recently, the ATF seized 13 AK-47 rifles Aug. 1 from an alleged straw purchaser in Phoenix, according to Mangan. The guns were to be delivered to the Tijuana cartel via Southern California, Mangan said.

Despite the arrests, smugglers appear to have the upper hand, U.S. and Mexican law enforcement sources say. Just 100 U.S. firearms agents and 35 inspectors patrol the vast border region for gun smugglers, compared with 16,000 Border Patrol agents, most of them working the Southwest border.

Elias Bazan, a supervisory agent with the ATF in Laredo, Texas, has a staff of just six agents at one of the grittiest stretches along the Rio Grande.

"I don't have an analyst," he said. "I don't have an administrative assistant. I don't have an inspector. One major case can soak up my entire office. And we have major cases all the time."

Gun dealers also far outnumber agents. Here in tiny Sierra Vista, on a rise high enough to afford a view into Mexico, half a dozen dealers operate in stores along the town's main thoroughfare, and they also sell and trade arms out of their homes.

Arizona is a wide-open state for gun lovers: A license lets you carry a gun openly on the street or concealed.

Saguaro Firearms is a small, crowded shop on East Fry Boulevard, a strip of fast-food restaurants and mini-malls. Across the street is Guns & Gear. Anyone with proper ID and a brief background check can leave with a firearm under his or her belt and reach Mexico in minutes.

The manager at Saguaro Firearms, who gave his name only as Greg, carries a "comfortable to shoot" silver Kahr P40 in a black holster on his right hip.

"I don't believe all the hype" about all the guns getting into Mexico, he said, knifing open new boxes of ammunition.

He said that toll bridges, a fence and more border cops would not stop immigrants from flowing north or guns from flowing south. "Build a tower with an armed guard every 100 yards," he suggested. "Maybe then."

Washington and Mexico City are pledging cooperation to halt the weapons flow, but each capital wants more from the other. Washington is urging Mexican officials to be more vigilant at the border, and to thoroughly inspect and arrest crossers who carry weapons from the United States. Warning signs have been posted at the border, but few people pay heed.

William Hoover, the ATF's assistant director for field operations, told Congress that his agency is working with Mexican law enforcement officials on an "eTrace" system to track guns found in Mexico. The process allows the United States to start criminal investigations against anyone in the country who has sent a weapon to Mexico.

Mexico wants the United States to tighten gun laws in border states. They also want more checks on "straw man" purchasers like Rodriguez.



Key arrests

Since weapons began heading south in bulk three to five years ago, U.S. agents have made some key arrests. Unfortunately, many of them came after the weapons had been used in cartel warfare in Mexico.

This spring the ATF arrested a dealer and two others from the X-Caliber Guns store in Phoenix, which allegedly dispatched hundreds of AK-47s and other long guns and pistols to Mexico. The shop has since shut down; the three have pleaded not guilty.

ATF intelligence has shown that some of the firearms sold from X-Caliber were used by cartel gunmen against Mexican police and the Mexican army.

Six guns were traced to alleged members of the Sinaloa Cartel, who were rounded up shortly after Mexican police captured alleged drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman in May. An assault rifle traced to X-Caliber also turned up in a cache found after eight federal policemen were killed and three others wounded in a gun battle in Culiacan, according to the ATF.

Gun shows have become particularly troublesome. There, traffickers have their pick of weapons: AK-47s, AR-15s and the FN 5.57-caliber pistol known as "asesino de policia," or "cop killer."

"You see the Sinaloan cowboys come in," said Mangan, who browses the shows. "You see them with their ammunition belts and their ammunition boots. You can see the dollies being rolled outside to their cars.

"Why do they need the high-powered guns? Because the Mexican military is armed too, and they need to pierce that armor."

Sometimes it's the ammunition that tips agents off. In November 2006, an agent in street clothes was talking to a dealer at Kirkpatrick's Guns & Ammo, less than a mile from the border in Laredo, Texas. He spotted two men repackaging more than 12,000 rounds of ammunition they had just purchased.

An investigation later led to the arrest of Carlos Alberto Osorio-Castrejon and Ramon Uresti-Careaga, both Mexican citizens in the United States illegally.

Osorio pleaded guilty to being an illegal immigrant in possession of ammunition and was given 10 months in prison. Uresti was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to 15 months in prison.

The ammunition, the judge told Uresti and the court, "was going to somebody in Mexico involved in some illegal activity -- drug trafficking, alien smuggling perhaps. Or something else."

Just up the road from Kirkpatrick's, past the taquerias and the Mexican insurance offices, there is yet another gun shop.

"Call me Rocky," said the man who runs Border Sporting Goods. He advertises "What We Don't Have, We Can Get." He sells guns and ammunition and reloading and hunting equipment. He personally owns more than 100 firearms.

He blamed Mexico for the gun trafficking. "It is not doing enough to stop it," he said. "They are a crooked country." He said U.S. gun laws were too easily broken. "A crook could care less how many laws you have."

He maintained that most gun dealers were honest and vigilant and report suspicious activity. And he called it unfair to make gun stores responsible for what their customers do: "That's like holding a car manufacturer liable for traffic accidents."

The dealers here in Sierra Vista said they reported any customer they did not feel comfortable about.

Mike Benton runs Guns & Gear, which is easy to find on East Fry Boulevard; a U.S. flag out front marks the spot. He said two men claiming to be American citizens recently purchased four or five long guns.

"They had the necessary documents, and an instant FBI check was approved," Benton said. Still, he thought it unusual and notified authorities. "I never heard back," he said.

Shop owners heard back when they called about Adan Rodriguez. At 335 pounds, Rodriguez was easy to remember after he started showing up at shops in Mesquite, Texas, outside Dallas.

Over a series of months, Rodriguez purchased 112 assault-class rifles, 9-mm Beretta pistols, revolvers and high- caliber rifles, court records show.

The dealers alerted the ATF's Dallas office, and Tom Crowley, a special agent there, said that an undercover officer and hidden video camera were planted.



Seduced by money

Arrested, Rodriguez complained that he was making just $1,400 a month laying carpet and had lost his job. He said that his mother was disabled and that he had hoped to marry soon.

Then a friend of a friend introduced him to "Kati" and "Cesar," and they convinced him to do a little side work for some Mexican clients.

Kati and Cesar provided Rodriguez with cash amounts of up to $12,000, often in thousand-dollar stacks. Sometimes they sent an older Latino man, "Jefe," ("Boss") to deliver the money for guns.

When he bought the weapons, he took them to safe houses in Dallas.

At the time of his arrest, Rodriguez told the agents, he was being pushed to buy hand grenades and a rocket launcher too.

One of the Berettas was used in a shootout in Reynosa, Mexico, that left a cartel member dead and injured two Mexican federal agents.

In a handwritten letter to The Times from his prison cell in Seagoville, Texas, Rodriguez described how he got in deeper and deeper with the cartels.

"It started out by selling one of my personal guns, and things went on [from] there," he said. "It was an easy way to make some money."

Rodriguez hesitated to write more: "I worry about my safety and my family's safety."


The cartels, as he knows, are well-armed.

richard.serrano@latimes.com

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Mexico anti-drug general is ousted
Sergio Aponte Polito is relieved of duty in Baja California and Sonora states. He has won public praise for his effectiveness but also criticism from officials for accusations against them.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
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http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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-general9-2008aug09,0,257714.story
From the Los Angeles Times
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

Mexico anti-drug general is ousted
Sergio Aponte Polito is relieved of duty in Baja California and Sonora states. He has won public praise for his effectiveness but also criticism from officials for accusations against them.

By Richard Marosi
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 9, 2008

ENSENADA — In Mexico's drug war, Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito racked up crime-fighting credentials worthy of the Dark Knight, making record seizures of drugs and weapons and forcing out top Baja California law enforcement officials he accused of corruption and of having links to organized crime.

But in a surprise move Thursday, the general was relieved of his command, abruptly ending his controversial 20-month stint as the leader of President Felipe Calderon's army-led battle against organized crime in the northern states of Baja California and Sonora.

Aponte policed a region that serves as a major drug-trafficking corridor for some of Mexico's most powerful criminal groups, including Tijuana's notorious Arellano Felix cartel. The more than 3,000 troops under his command arrested 1,388 suspects and seized 539 tons of marijuana, 4 tons of cocaine and 1,583 weapons.

The stout, salt-and-pepper-haired general, who broke secretive military tradition by becoming an outspoken public figure who relished the media spotlight, left the military base in Mexicali on Thursday night, but not without first thanking adoring residents through calls to local newspapers.

The office of the secretary of defense said in a news release that Aponte's removal was part of a regular rotation of generals and officers nationwide. He is to become president of the Supreme Military Tribunal in Mexico City.

But critics and supporters said the general's ouster probably was related to his increasingly contentious behavior.

Aponte won broad public support for aggressive tactics against drug gangs whose turf wars have left hundreds dead here, but he generated controversy by denouncing scores of police officers, prosecutors and officials by name in blistering letters published in newspapers across the state.

With such an aggressive general benched, some critics questioned Calderon's commitment to the drug war, saying he appeared to be sending a signal that his get-tough campaign against traffickers, which has included deploying 40,000 troops to several states, stops short of attacking entrenched government corruption.

Aponte took aim at the culture of impunity enjoyed for years by Baja California leaders with Calderon's conservative National Action Party, who many say were complicit in the rise of the drug cartels.

"What he did was enormously valuable," said Victor Clark Alfaro, director of Tijuana's Binational Center for Human Rights. "The people supported him. The only ones who didn't were organized crime and officials in state government."

But Aponte's critics say he was his own worst enemy, done in by his big ego and reckless accusations, many leveled without evidence. His ouster was unfortunate, but necessary to preserve basic democratic rights, some observers said.

"When citizens are desperate for security, they will often trade their liberties and due process," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego, "and in the end may create a monster that is as dangerous as the other threat they are concerned about."

Regardless of whether he is hero or demagogue, the general's departure deals at least a temporary blow to Mexico's offensive against cartels, experts and U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials said. U.S. agencies viewed the general as a strong ally in the drug war.

"He was very responsive and cooperative," said a U.S. law enforcement official who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the news media. "He was instrumental in fighting the narco-trafficking groups, kidnapping rings and arms smugglers."

Aponte's aggressive tactics didn't stop with criminal groups. His first letter in April accused Tijuana's anti-kidnapping chief, among others, of running a kidnapping ring. He also said a former deputy attorney general had been protecting organized crime groups.

The letter sent shock waves through state government. Many of the more than 50 accused officials quit or fled, in shame or guilt. A few fought back, only to back down under withering public pressure, and despite fear that the general's accusations were snaring innocent people.

In the following months, Aponte emerged as a Gen. George Patton-like figure, full of bravado marred by prima donna behavior. He once complained that state officials showed disrespect by seating him behind a partition at a public event.

He took offense when the generally fawning news media reported that he got choked up during a speech at City Hall. His emotional moment, he wrote in his second letter, came at having to see his troops standing in formation next to corrupt local and state police.

An elusive public figure, Aponte lived in a park-like oasis hidden behind the high walls of the military base in Mexicali. His daily whereabouts was a closely guarded secret. When he traveled, a convoy of Hummers bristling with 50-caliber weapons led the way.

As his popularity grew, people started referring to him affectionately as "Mi General." Many wanted him to run for attorney general, and a famous band said it was going to write a traditional ballad, or corrido, about him.

The series of events that culminated in his removal apparently began three weeks ago at an upscale Brazilian restaurant in Mexicali, where someone in his entourage got into a dispute with a band over a song and someone fired a shot over the salad bar.

Early media reports cited rumors that the general may have fired the shot, but the director of the state police, who also is a major in the Mexican army, eventually admitted guilt and was forced to resign.

Aponte's second missive, a rambling 23-page letter published Sunday, accused state officials of a conspiracy to embarrass him.

"It appeared I was put in front of the inquisition, and left to be burned at the stake or sent to the firing squad," says a rough translation of Aponte's letter.

Baja California Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan denied asking for his departure, as did other top political leaders. But privately, many state leaders were glad to show the general the door.

"It's sad, because he won the trust and confidence of the people," said one state official who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation. "But then he abused their trust and the media's favorable coverage by attacking many innocent people."

richard.marosi@latimes.com

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Mexican police linked to rising kidnappings
Many are afraid to contact authorities about abductions, fearing officers could be involved. The problem is an awkward one for President Felipe Calderon's drug war.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
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http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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-mexkidnap5-2008aug05,0,5466136.story
From the Los Angeles Times
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
Mexican police linked to rising kidnappings
Many are afraid to contact authorities about abductions, fearing officers could be involved. The problem is an awkward one for President Felipe Calderon's drug war.
By Marla Dickerson and Cecilia Sanchez
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

August 5, 2008

MEXICO CITY — When their 14-year-old son was snatched off the street by armed men in early June, the Marti family reportedly did what many wealthy Mexicans do in such a crisis.

The founders of a chain of sporting goods stores hired a private negotiator to deal directly with the kidnappers. They said nothing to police or to the press. They paid millions of dollars in ransom money. Then they waited for a signal that the boy had been released.

It was not to be.

Fernando Marti's decomposed, bullet-riddled body was found Friday in the trunk of a stolen Chevy that had been abandoned in a working-class Mexico City neighborhood. For many, Monday's news was equally bad: Authorities said they had arrested at least one city police commander in connection with the crime, and that other cops might be involved.

The possibility of police involvement comes at an awkward time for President Felipe Calderon, who has been waging a high-stakes war against violent drug cartels since taking office in December 2006.

The campaign against drug gangs as well as other violent criminals has been repeatedly compromised by corrupt police officers, pushing Calderon to turn to the army. As of June, 40,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police were deployed nationwide. The administration last week also launched a shake-up at the federal attorney general's office in response to the agency's ineffectiveness. Officials said Monday that a prosecutor who oversaw extradition of drug traffickers had resigned, the second high-ranking official to leave the attorney general's office in a week.

Although Mexico City police say they don't think the gang that kidnapped Fernando was involved in the narcotics trade, many other kidnappers may be. Under pressure from the federal crackdown, some gangs appear to be ratcheting up kidnapping and extortion to make up for shrinking drug profits.

"The authorities knew that if they attacked the drug trafficking and took away that cash flow that the delinquents would look for something else," said Maria Elena Morera, head of a citizens anti-crime organization in Mexico City. "The tragic death of Fernando Marti symbolizes what many Mexicans are living through."

There is no question that kidnappings in Mexico are soaring, particularly in trafficking hot spots along the U.S. border, where criminals have found easy targets among business owners, doctors and other professionals who have prospered in the region.

Last year, 438 Mexicans were reportedly abducted, according to official government statistics. That's a 34% increase over 2006. But it's believed to be just a fraction of the true number. Experts say many Mexicans are reluctant to contact police out of fear that officers are involved in the kidnapping and will harm their loved ones if they don't cooperate.

Tijuana is believed to suffer more kidnappings than any city in the world outside Baghdad, according to a global security firm that handles ransom negotiations south of the border. Hundreds of residents have been abducted for ransom in recent years, according to victim support groups.

The arrival of thousands of federal troops has helped fracture drug cartels and in some cases sent them in search of new avenues to make money.

Heavily armed gunmen, often posing as police or working in tandem with crooked cops, have snatched people from shopping centers, restaurants and parking lots. They imprison their victims in networks of safe houses, shackling and blindfolding them. Kidnappers sometimes amputate their victims' fingers or ears and send them to family members to terrify relatives into paying up.

"The crime of kidnapping is one of the most painful because it affects the victim, the families and friends," said Morera, whose husband was kidnapped. He survived the ordeal, but had several fingers sliced off.

The surge in kidnappings has motivated thousands of well-to-do Mexicans to flee the country or surround themselves with security.

That was apparently the case with the Marti family.

Fernando's father, Alejandro, is a well-known businessman who founded a popular sporting goods chain and a string of fitness centers. A self-made entrepreneur, he got his start hawking T-shirts during Mexico City's 1968 Olympics.

Authorities have released almost no information about the Marti case. But according to press reports, Fernando was riding in a car with a driver and a bodyguard on June 4 when the group was pulled over by men who they thought were police. Armed men killed the adults at the scene and abducted the boy.

One press report said the family paid $6 million for the boy's release and waited in agony after the kidnappers stopped communicating with them.

The news the Martis had dreaded came Friday when residents of a tough Mexico City neighborhood reported a noxious smell coming from a silver subcompact parked on a residential street. Police found Fernando's body in the trunk. He had been shot several times. Forensic experts said he may have been dead for as long as a month.

More than 800 kidnap victims have been killed in Mexico since 1970, according to Jose Antonio Ortega Sanchez, president of another citizens anti-crime group, who added that the mayhem was shaking the country to its foundations.

"Here's the problem: the corruption, the collusion and the involvement of the authorities. . . . If Calderon can't clean up his own security agencies, he's not going to be able to advance," he said.

Fernando was buried Sunday. A front-page photo in the national daily Reforma showed a black hearse followed by a procession of luxury cars. There were so many flowers, according to one report, that they had to be transported to the cemetery in a cargo truck.

The pages of the capital's newspapers overflowed with sympathy announcements from the family's business associates and friends, as well as angry letters to the editor.

"Mexico is submerged in an abyss of blood and uncertainty, inconceivable and interminable," read one.

Mexico City police on Monday identified the arrested police commander as Jose Luis Romero Jaimes, but provided no other information about him.

Also taken into custody was Marco Antonio Moreno Jimenez. News reports had originally identified Moreno Jimenez as a member of the federal police, but capital authorities denied that.

marla.dickerson@latimes.com

Times staff writer Reed Johnson contributed to this report.


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Alleged drug lord is arrested in Mexico
Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian accused of supplying cocaine to a Sinaloa cartel offshoot, is held in Mexico City.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.blogspot.com
http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

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-mexdrugs2-2008aug02,0,4816524.story
From the Los Angeles Times

Alleged drug lord is arrested in Mexico
Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian accused of supplying cocaine to a Sinaloa cartel offshoot, is held in Mexico City.

By Marla Dickerson
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 2, 2008

MEXICO CITY — Alleged drug kingpin Ever Villafane Martinez, a Colombian believed to be the main cocaine supplier to an offshoot of Mexico's notorious Sinaloa cartel, was arrested in Mexico City, federal police said Friday.

One of the hemisphere's most wanted fugitives, Villafane Martinez has been on the lam since 2001, when he escaped from a maximum-security lockup in Colombia while awaiting extradition to the United States on narcotics charges.

His arrest was a rare piece of good news for President Felipe Calderon in his U.S.-backed war against Mexico's violent drug cartels. Authorities nabbed Villafane Martinez on Wednesday at a home in the Mexican capital's upscale Jardines del Pedregal neighborhood, where he apparently had lived for some time alongside millionaires and captains of industry.

Police said they seized a semiautomatic rifle, six cellphones and several Mexican identification cards issued to Villafane Martinez under an alias. They included a voter registration card, a driver's license and a business tax identification document.

Villafane Martinez's hands certainly didn't give him away -- he no longer has fingerprints. Authorities released photos of the 51-year-old after his arrest that included close-ups of his smooth, blank fingertips. Drug lords have been known to have cosmetic surgery on their faces and to have their fingerprints surgically removed to help conceal their identities.

"Villafane Martinez was a key character," said Ricardo Ravelo, a Mexico City-based columnist and expert on narcotics trafficking. "He [served] as a link between the Mexican and Colombian organizations."

An alleged big shot in Colombia's Norte del Valle drug cartel, Villafane Martinez is believed to be the main cocaine supplier to Mexico's Beltran Leyva brothers -- Hector Alfredo, Carlos Alberto and Marcos Arturo.

The trio was formerly associated with Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa cartel. But a power struggle between the brothers and Guzman has exploded into an all-out war, fracturing the cartel. Elite military forces arrested Hector Alfredo in January.

Previous high-profile arrests have led to violent retribution from the cartels.

The western state of Sinaloa has since been gripped by a spasm of violence that has claimed hundreds of lives this year alone.

Nationwide, drug-related violence has killed more than 2,300 people this year.

Villafane Martinez's arrest broke a string of dismal developments in Mexico's drug wars in recent days. Just this week saw the resignation of a top anti-narcotics official in the attorney general's office amid allegations of incompetence; the killing of children in shootouts by suspected drug assassins; and the resignation of dozens of police officers who said they were too petrified to take on the well-armed cartels.

U.S. and Colombian authorities helped in the investigation that led to Villafane Martinez's capture, according to a statement from Mexico's secretary of public safety. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe congratulated Calderon, who was in Colombia for a regional summit aimed at forging closer cooperation in the battle against drug trafficking.

marla.dickerson@latimes.com

Cecilia Sanchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.


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