Ventura County authorities are requesting extradition of Jose Antonio Medina Arreguin, 36, from Mexico, where he was arrested. He is alleged to have smuggled 440 pounds of heroin monthly into California for at least three years. Mexican narcotics officials said the operation brought in about $12 million a month. (Mario Guzman / EPA / March 25, 2010)

Ventura County probe leads to arrest of alleged Mexican drug kingpin

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.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 movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

latimes.com/news/local/la-me-donpepe30-2010mar30,0,7981542.story
latimes.com
Ventura County probe leads to arrest of alleged Mexican drug kingpin
Jose Antonio Medina Arreguin, also known as 'Don Pepe,' is said to have smuggled 440 pounds of heroin a month into California. Authorities are trying to get him extradited to Ventura County for trial.
By Steve Chawkins
March 30, 2010

Authorities in Ventura County on Monday said the arrest of an alleged heroin kingpin in Mexico was triggered by a local investigation that has made a significant dent in the area drug market.

Described by Mexican officials as "the king of heroin," Jose Antonio Medina Arreguin, 36, was apprehended last week. He is said to have smuggled 440 pounds of heroin monthly into California for at least three years, stashing most of it in secret compartments built into automobiles. Mexican narcotics officials said his operation brought in about $12 million a month.

At a news conference, Ventura County Dist. Atty. Greg Totten said the arrest by Mexican authorities "dramatically weakened perhaps the largest drug operation" in the county's history. Although much of the investigation focused on drug sales in Oxnard, Arreguin's alleged network of distributors sold black tar heroin and methamphetamines from San Diego to San Jose, officials said.

Totten said Arreguin -- also known as "Don Pepe" -- was not known to be a member of any larger drug syndicate. However, he apparently operated with the blessings of La Familia, a cartel that controls the western state of Michoacan. Officials said they had no evidence of any role played by Arreguin in the wave of bloody drug violence that has swept the nation.

A portly man in a striped polo shirt, Arreguin was paraded before reporters in Mexico after his arrest, flanked by heavily armed officers wearing face masks. Disclosure of his apprehension came the same week that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised aid for Mexico's internal war against its powerful drug lords.

The two-year investigation that culminated in Arreguin's capture started with the drug bust of two lower-ranking associates. Making extensive use of wiretaps, a team made up of Ventura County sheriff's deputies, DEA agents, and officers from Oxnard and Downey traced the heroin in that bust to a man in Michoacan they knew only as Don Pepe. At the request of the U.S. Department of Justice, Mexican officials identified him, found him and arrested him.

Arreguin allegedly smuggled heroin made from poppies grown in the southern state of Guerrero. Authorities said most of it was surreptitiously driven across the border at Tijuana.

Ventura County is in the process of requesting extradition for Arreguin, who faces a U.S. prison term of 29 years. How long the process will take is unclear, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Wright, who has been his office's point man on the case.

Keeping an alleged major Mexican drug figure in a local jail and trying him in local courts will not pose an insurmountable security problem, Sheriff Bob Brooks said.

"We're more than comfortable we can handle this," he said.

steve.chawkins@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

br />

10 youths slain in Mexico

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.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 movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."



latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-shootings30-2010mar30,0,6531857.story
latimes.com
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE
10 youths slain in Mexico
The students, ages 8 to 21, were on their way to pick up scholarships when apparent drug gang members opened fire and threw grenades after their vehicle failed to stop at a checkpoint.
By Tracy Wilkinson and Cecilia Sanchez
March 30, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City

Ten students on their way to receive government scholarships were killed by gunmen at a checkpoint in the state of Durango, officials said Monday. Half of the victims were 16 or younger.

The checkpoint appeared to be the ad hoc type of roadblock often set up by drug traffickers who control parts of Durango, not a military installation, state prosecutors said.

Gunmen opened fire and hurled grenades at the youths, who were traveling in a pickup truck and apparently failed to stop at the roadblock, the officials said.

The dead included three girls, ages 8, 11 and 13; the rest were teens except for the eldest, who was 21. Four of the dead were siblings. The massacre occurred early Sunday afternoon.

The students were traveling over isolated rural roads to receive scholarships as part of a federal program called "Opportunities" that supports low-income students, Ruben Lopez, spokesman for the Durango state prosecutor's office, said in a telephone interview.

Parts of Durango have fallen under the sway of drug-running gunmen called the Zetas, who are battling for control of market and distribution routes.

Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont, at a news conference Monday, read out the names and ages of the victims, who he said were "cowardly murdered" by criminal gangs.

He denied that the checkpoint was staffed by soldiers.

Daniel Delgado, mayor of Pueblo Nuevo, a town in the region where the attack took place, said he felt powerless to challenge the gangs.

"We need more military presence . . . more police who are trained and equipped to fight the kind of criminals we are facing," he said in an interview with Milenio television.

Milenio said 993 people have been killed so far in March, more than in any other month in the last 3 1/2 years.

Also Monday, authorities announced the capture of a suspect in the March 13 slaying of three people attached to the U.S. Consulate in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Enrique Torres, spokesman for the joint police-military command that controls Ciudad Juarez, said the army, acting on information from the FBI, detained a leader of the Barrio Azteca gang.

Two U.S. citizens, Lesley A. Enriquez, a consular officer, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, were killed on their way home from a children's birthday party in Ciudad Juarez.

Jorge Alberto Salcido, the husband of another consular officer, was killed about the same time after leaving the same birthday event.

wilkinson@latimes.com

Sanchez is a news assistant in The Times' Mexico City Bureau.

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a news conference in Mexico City. "The grim truth is that these murders are part of a much larger cycle of violence and crime that have impacted communities on both sides of the border," Clinton said. (Alfredo Estrella / AFP/Getty Images / March 23, 2010

U.S. pledges more help in Mexico drug war

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.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 movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-us-mexico24-2010mar24,0,4282927.story
latimes.com
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

U.S. pledges more help in Mexico drug war

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton leads a large U.S. delegation to Mexico City, reaffirming that the battle against violent gangs is one shared by both countries.

By Ken Ellingwood
5:18 PM PDT, March 23, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City

Amid rampant violence and growing doubts over the effectiveness of Mexico's war against drug cartels, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday pledged widened U.S. support for a battle she said must be shouldered by both nations.

Clinton, leading an unusually large delegation of senior Obama administration officials, offered firm endorsement of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who declared war against drug cartels more than three years ago. More than 18,000 people have died since in drug-related violence.

"We are working in our two governments together to solve the problem posed by the criminal cartels that stalk the streets," Clinton told reporters after meeting with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa and other officials.

Mexican authorities want more help from Washington in stemming the flow of weapons and cash from the United States.

"It is clear that the flow of illegal arms and cash have contributed to the violence observed in our country," Espinosa said.

The two sides agreed to step up joint planning and cooperation to prevent the illegal movement of drugs and weapons across the border, and to tackle money-laundering and share intelligence. Clinton said both governments would focus more on building sound institutions and stronger communities. Espinosa said the nations would jointly conduct a study of drug consumption. They agree that drug consumption in the United States is a major reason for violence south of the border.

Clinton was later to meet with Calderon.

The U.S. contingent included Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair; Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; John O. Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism; Gary G. Grindler, acting deputy attorney general; and Michele Leonhart, acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The visit reflects the Obama administration's deepening stake in the drug war, launched by Calderon in December 2006 and heartily backed by then-President George W. Bush. Since taking office, President Obama also has voiced strong support, casting the battle as a matter of U.S. security.

The meeting was planned long before the March 13 slayings of three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. But the incident loomed over the get-together as evidence that the Calderon strategy had failed to rein in violence.

Two of the victims were U.S. citizens -- a pregnant employee of the consulate and her husband -- and the third was a Mexican man married to another consulate worker, also a Mexican citizen. The slayings are unsolved, though U.S. officials have said they do not believe the victims were chosen because of nationality or links to the consulate.

"The grim truth is that these murders are part of a much larger cycle of violence and crime that have impacted communities on both sides of the border," Clinton said.

The session was part of a series of annual, high-level meetings to guide anti-crime strategy under the U.S. security aid package for Mexico known as the Merida Initiative.

The $1.4-billion, three-year aid package, forged under Bush, has provided Mexico with helicopters, truck scanners and other equipment, plus law enforcement and judicial training. The package formally ends after this year.

Obama is seeking $310 million in security aid for Mexico in next year's federal budget, which in effect would extend Merida. Clinton said officials hoped to expand the scope by placing more emphasis on efforts to fortify community institutions and improve living conditions in violence-plagued areas of Mexico.

The bilateral meeting took place at a delicate moment for the Calderon offensive.

The Ciudad Juarez slayings highlighted once again the lawlessness there despite the presence of 10,000 Mexican troops and federal police. In January, gunmen opened fire on a teen party in Juarez, killing 15 people. Violence has surged recently elsewhere along the U.S. border and in other states farther south, such as Sinaloa and Guerrero.

The Calderon campaign has produced some big-name arrests and major seizures of weapons and drugs, but continuing bloodshed has deepened public skepticism.

In a poll Tuesday in the Milenio newspaper, 59% of respondents said the drug traffickers are winning the war, compared with 21% who said the government is.

Mexican authorities say the escalating death toll, largely a result of fighting among rival traffickers, is a sign of growing desperation by drug gangs under pressure. Officials also cite U.S. data suggesting that cocaine in the United States has grown more expensive and less pure -- signs, they say, that less cocaine is making it across the border.

In addition, authorities here say a drop in the number of drug-smuggling flights detected crossing the southern border from Guatemala shows that tighter enforcement is altering trafficking routes away from Mexico.

Many critics, however, say the drug war is futile as long as drug use in the United States remains illegal and demand robust. Others worry that using Mexico's military as a domestic police force imperils human rights and could undermine confidence in the armed forces, one of Mexico's most-trusted institutions.

ken.ellingwood @latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Police corral a protester at a demonstration in Ciudad Juarez during Mexican President Felipe Calderon's visit to the violence-racked city. (Miguel Tovar / Associated Press / March 16, 2010)

Consular slayings spotlight Mexico's failures in fighting drug gangs
On a visit to Ciudad Juarez in the wake of the killings of an American couple and a Mexican, President Calderon is confronted by angry demonstrations and a tense, frustrated citizenry.

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.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 movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/more/la-fg-mexico-juarez17-2010mar17,0,72478.story
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MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

Consular slayings spotlight Mexico's failures in fighting drug gangs
On a visit to Ciudad Juarez in the wake of the killings of an American couple and a Mexican, President Calderon is confronted by angry demonstrations and a tense, frustrated citizenry.

By Tracy Wilkinson
5:47 PM PDT, March 16, 2010
Reporting from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

The slayings of three people attached to the U.S. Consulate here underscore the failings of Mexico's military offensive against drug gangs despite a steady flow of troop reinforcements and personal attention from President Felipe Calderon.

Calderon came to Ciudad Juarez on Tuesday for the third time in 33 days. The trip had been previously scheduled, but its agenda was overtaken by the consulate slayings -- the American couple and Mexican man are just three of the 500 people killed in the city this year alone.

The president encountered angry demonstrations, as on his previous visits, and a citizenry that is tense, frustrated and increasingly hopeless.

"We Are Fed Up, Mr. President," read the banner headline in Ciudad Juarez's leading newspaper, El Diario.

"More than fed up!" said Irene Bota, a shopkeeper and lifetime resident of this city across the border from El Paso. "You should have seen what Juarez used to be like. Artists, celebrities, soldiers from Ft. Bliss [in El Paso] all came to pass time and enjoy themselves. Now no one dares even go outside."

Ciudad Juarez today is the epicenter of unrestrained drug-war violence, with the highest homicide and kidnapping rates in the country and one of the broadest penetrations of drug-trafficking corruption.

Coroners are overwhelmed by the number of dead. Houses sit vacant, a quarter of the city's population, by official estimate, having fled in the last two years. Thousands of businesses have shuttered rather than pay steep extortion fees to gangs.

Calderon has poured nearly 10,000 army and police troops into the city. But far from restoring security, the killings have only soared. Killers act with impunity and, if it turns out the Americans were targeted because of who they were, with newfound brazenness.

In his trip to Ciudad Juarez on Feb. 11, Calderon was forced to publicly recognize that the offensive launched when he took office in December 2006 was "not working." Military campaigns had to be supplemented with social programs to attack poverty and promote education, he said in a remarkable moment of self-criticism. But residents complain that the words have not translated into concrete actions.

He was pushed to act by the Jan. 31 massacre in Ciudad Juarez of at least 15 mostly young people at a party and by an unusually forceful surge in demands from the public for change.

The attacks Saturday on U.S. diplomatic personnel and their families -- and the swift, harsh voice of outrage from the Obama administration -- ratcheted up the pressure on Calderon and embarrassed his government.

Canada on Tuesday seconded Washington's warning to citizens against unnecessary travel to parts of Mexico.

Calderon will be pressed to capture suspects to show that his government still has the upper hand. There also will be questions north of the border about the United States' cooperation with Mexico's fight against traffickers.

Washington has pledged $1.3 billion to Mexico to beef up police and the judiciary, but only a fraction of the money has been released.

Mexican politicians were quick to lament the consulate deaths but added that the U.S. must share responsibility because its gun dealers supply the weapons and its addicts keep the traffickers in business.

The bodies of Lesley Enriquez, a consular official, and her husband, Arthur H. Redelfs, were returned Tuesday to family in El Paso. Mexican authorities have blamed the killings on the Aztecs drug gang.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said Redelfs' work as an officer in the El Paso prison system, where numerous Aztecs gang members are held, might have had a role in the killings.

Reyes echoed U.S. officials in pledging to capture the culprits quickly, despite the fact that few crimes are ever solved in Mexico.

As Calderon met behind closed doors with security officials here, a small demonstration was taking place outside a funeral home. Relatives of some of the 28 other people killed over the weekend were protesting what they described as the government's negligence and indifference.

"The curious thing about this [consulate] case is that with one huge slap from [President] Obama, the entire Mexican state seems to have awakened and become determined to make the criminals pay," commentator Ricardo Aleman noted. "Never mind that those same criminals have killed thousands of young Mexicans, to whose families no authority ever promised justice."

wilkinson@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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Alleged drug cartel members Jose Manuel Garcia Simental, center left, and Raydel "Crutches" Lopez Uriarte, center right, together with two unidentified men, are guarded by federal police as they are presented to the media in Mexico City. (Alexandre Meneghini / Associated Press / February 9, 2010)

ttp://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-shooting1-2010feb01,0,1817922,print.story

Mexico puts its drug suspects on parade

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.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 movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-perp-walk26-2010feb26,0,780781.story
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COLUMN ONE
Mexico puts its drug suspects on parade
Critics of the media events say human rights are also on the line, along with the country's efforts to establish the rule of law. But Mexico wants to show victories in its drug war.
By Ken Ellingwood
February 26, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City

The manhunt was over. Raydel "Crutches" Lopez Uriarte, the alleged top enforcer for a vicious Tijuana drug gang that dissolved victims in lye, would now have to face justice.

First, though, he would have to face the press.

A day after his arrest, Lopez found himself standing woodenly with his hands cuffed behind him as news photographers snapped away at him and three others arrested in the same raid.

The 30-year-old Lopez, one of the most dreaded figures on the border, had a trim goatee and combed hair, and wore a sensible checkered shirt and dark jeans that looked like they were meant for someone half a head taller. He appeared more annoyed than menacing, like a sullen student summoned for an unwelcome yearbook picture.

The spectacle, covered live on Mexican television, lasted only as long as it took a federal police official to read a statement and take a few questions about the Feb. 8 arrest, hailed by authorities as a major achievement in the war on drug cartels launched in late 2006.

The images were on TV all day.

The ritual is called a presentacion, Spanish for "presentation" or "introduction," though no one ever shakes hands. Almost daily, one of the thousands of suspects who have been rounded up in the drug war is paraded in front of cameras, posed with seized weapons and contraband and even grilled by police officers while reporters jot down answers that are often self-incriminating.

Human rights advocates are appalled by the practice, a more elaborate version of the U.S.-style "perp walk," saying it violates suspects' rights by exhibiting them as if they were guilty before they have even been charged.

Yet for a society haunted by a level of violence not seen since the Mexican Revolution, the presentacion serves as hunter's trophy and modern-day dunking stool, a chance for Mexican authorities to convince crime-weary constituents that they're making the streets safer, and for residents to savor a morsel of justice meted.

It is where shadowy figures made famous by lore and "wanted" posters are at last hauled into the light, sometimes looking as if they had been rousted from bed. (Often, they have.) Think celebrity mug shots, but live.

Luis Garcia Lopez-Guerrero, an official with the National Human Rights Commission, said the growing frequency of presentaciones presentaciones endangers Mexico's efforts to establish rule of law and cultivate a functioning democracy.

"We don't want to see justice in the media," Garcia said. "We want to feel safe."

The show-and-tell sessions aren't only for drug lords. Around Mexico, authorities at the federal, state and local levels stage hundreds of presentaciones ayear as a result of President Felipe Calderon's crackdown, many for smaller-bore offenses such as car thefts and stickups. The other day, three men in Mexico City were posed by prosecutors with cases of bottled water they were accused of stealing from victims of recent flooding.

The suspects are made to stare into the camera, usually in front of a backdrop printed with the name and logo of the police agency. (Lopez and the three other Tijuana suspects were posed in front of an armored car belonging to the federal police.)

Those "presented" wear whatever fate clothed them in at the time of their arrest: dingy T-shirts, floppy sandals, sweat pants. Three alleged members of the notorious Zetas gang were made to answer questions before news cameras in swim trunks and bare feet after they were arrested in the Yucatan peninsula in 2008. Two of them were shirtless.

Many suspects show up bruised and scraped.

Presentaciones can offer small but revealing slices of life in Mexico's criminal underworld: the upscale "narco-junior" clad in an Abercrombie & Fitch track suit, the dark-haired beauties snared alongside alleged drug bosses, the surprising number of suspected hit men who favor sneakers.

In a country where people tend to mistrust their leaders, parading a suspect serves as proof that authorities have arrested the person they say they have. And it's catnip for mainstream Mexican media outlets and the publications that focus on crime coverage, a hugely popular specialty known in Mexico as "red news."

Edgar Cordova, an editor at the gore-heavy El Grafico tabloid, said publishing photos of suspects might help counter crime by inviting corroborating reports from other victims.

Few Mexicans report crimes, out of fear and mistrust of police.

But Cordova said presentaciones probably don't make his readers feel safe for long.

"People go out in the street, and the violence and the aggressions continue," he said.

The ritual faces growing resistance. Last fall, four justices of Mexico's Supreme Court signed a nonbinding opinion that said exhibiting suspects before they have been charged violates their right to be presumed innocent.

Mexico's Roman Catholic bishops criticized the practice last week, urging officials to treat suspects as innocent until they are proved guilty.

"Because now we see that detainees are exhibited before the media before being brought before judicial authorities," the Mexican Council of Bishops said.

"If we really care about the rule of law, we should stop this," said Ernesto Lopez Portillo Vargas, executive director of the Institute for Security and Democracy in Mexico City. "This is a political decision."

Opponents say the risk that a suspect trotted before cameras will end up being freed is especially high in Mexico because cases frequently fall apart on flimsy evidence. For the innocent, it may be too late to recover their reputations.

But where critics see politically motivated spectacle, Mexican officials see proof of difficult battles won.

Getting every detail of a presentacion right is important.

When masked Mexican police officers led Lopez and the other Tijuana suspects before the cameras, they took care to arrange the quartet so the two most important catches were in the middle. Posed next to Lopez was Jose Manuel Garcia Simental, allegedly the gang's financial brains.

Garcia's older brother, Teodoro, the gang's alleged ringleader, had been "presented" by police in January.

The jowly older Garcia, in a Nautica pullover and saggy jeans, had glowered while police described his alleged role in hundreds of gruesome murders.

Less than a month later, the younger brother, in a stained polo shirt and even droopier jeans, bore a similar scowl.

Both brothers wore white sneakers.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

br />

Relatives of one of the slain teens mourn their loss. (Jesus Alcazar / AFP/Getty Images / January 31, 2010)

As Mexican teens celebrate school soccer win, gunmen open fire

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-shooting1-2010feb01,0,1817922,print.story

Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."
http://www.warriorthemovie.com
http://www.warriorthemovie.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 movie studio music score and spectacular cinematography ..."

latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-shooting1-2010feb01,0,3479327.story
latimes.com
MEXICO UNDER SIEGE

As Mexican teens celebrate school soccer win, gunmen open fire
Fourteen people are killed in Ciudad Juarez during a party in a private home, the latest victims of the drug war. More than 3,700 people have been slain in two years in this violent area of Mexico.

By Ken Ellingwood

February 1, 2010
Reporting from Mexico City

Gunmen stormed a party packed with teenage revelers in Ciudad Juarez early Sunday, killing at least 14 people in the latest spasm of violence to slam the border city, authorities said.

Officials in the northern state of Chihuahua said high school students and others were at a private home celebrating a school soccer victory when armed men rolled up in seven vehicles and opened fire.

At least eight of the dead were younger than 20, officials said. The youngest confirmed victim was 13. At least 14 people were reported wounded.

The motive was not immediately clear. But gatherings in Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican cities have been attacked before as warring gangs pursue targets amid a nationwide drug war.

El Diario, a daily newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, reported on its website that one of the slain teens was a witness in a multiple homicide.

Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz announced a reward of 1 million pesos, or about $76,000, for information leading to the capture of the killers, the newspaper said.

Officials said the dead were scattered across three adjacent homes. Investigators recovered at least 82 bullet casings.

Ciudad Juarez has been the most violent corner in Mexico during the last two years, with more than 3,700 people slain as two drug gangs have waged a ferocious battle for control of the important cross-border smuggling passage into nearby El Paso.

The killings have shown no signs of letting up in the new year.

More than 175 people have been slain in the city already in 2010, according to unofficial tallies by Mexican media outlets.

The stubbornness and severity of the violence in Ciudad Juarez have flummoxed the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, which declared a war on drug cartels in late 2006.

Early last year, the government created a force of nearly 10,000 military troops and federal police to patrol the city's streets in an attempt to bring the killing under control while a new local police force was being built. But after a brief dip in slayings, the murder rate soared during the second half of 2009, and the death toll of more than 2,000 topped that of a year earlier.

Last month, the Calderon administration took a new tack. Amid widespread complaints that soldiers were trampling people's rights, the government decided to reduce the army's profile by pulling troops off the streets and sent in 3,000 more federal police officers to carry out patrolling and investigative duties.

Elsewhere in Mexico on Sunday, gunmen attacked a police station with assault rifles and fragmentation grenades in Lazaro Cardenas, killing an officer and two civilians, Mexican media reported.

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

Cecilia Sanchez in The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

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