Eideard

Guns, marijuana and cocaine seized during Operation Pipeline Express
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

At least 70 suspected drug smugglers with alleged ties to the powerful Sinaloa cartel have been arrested in Arizona, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

The massive take-down of the drug trafficking network in Arizona included arrests of Mexican and U.S. suspects who allegedly smuggled more than 330 tons of illegal narcotics a year through Arizona.

More than 20 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies were involved in the 17-month multiagency investigation called Operation Pipeline Express. Speaking at a news conference Monday in Phoenix, law enforcement officials said the organization was responsible for smuggling more than $33 million worth of drugs a month…

Officials say the ring, organized around cells based in the Arizona communities of Chandler, Stanfield and Maricopa, used backpackers and vehicles to move loads of marijuana and other drugs from the Arizona-Mexico border to a network of “stash” houses in the Phoenix area. After arriving in Phoenix, the contraband was sold to distributors from multiple states nationwide.

Law enforcement officials seized thousands of pounds of marijuana, cocaine and heroin in a series of raids. They also seized more than 100 weapons, including multiple assault rifles and ammunition.

Authorities say the organization has been around for at least five years. According to a news release, officials say they “conservatively estimate the ring has smuggled more than 3.3 million pounds of marijuana, 20,000 pounds of cocaine and 10,000 pounds of heroin into to the United States, generating almost $2 billion in illicit proceeds.”

Most folks who feel – as I do – that drug use should be decriminalized, managed through price-fixed clinics still have nothing but contempt for the slimy gangsters who run the import business for American habits and addiction.

Throw away the key.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A suspected leader of the Juarez drug cartel told authorities he had ordered the deaths of about 1,500 people.

Federal police detailed accusations against Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, known as “El Diego,” a day after authorities announced his capture. He was one of the country’s most wanted criminals, with officials offering a reward of 15 million pesos for his arrest…

Acosta is accused of being a leader of the drug gang known as La Linea, the enforcement arm of the Juarez cartel, Mexican authorities have said. Eduardo Pequeno told reporters that Acosta “said he ordered the killings of about 1,500 people, mostly in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua’s capital…”

Pequeno…accused Acosta of having connections with some of the border city’s most notorious violence over the past two years, including the 2010 killing of a state prosecutor, a car bombing outside a police station and a massacre at a house party that killed 15 people — most of them students with no ties to organized crime…

The northwestern Mexican state of Chihuahua, which contains the namesake capital city as well as Juarez, has been a hotbed for drug-related violence.

Mexico’s revolutions against foreign rule, against elitist class rule are a dim footnote in history except on celebration days. The ruling PRN instituted a system of strict corruption and payoffs, police departments founded on bribery and kickbacks – that ran on and on for decades. There are no surprises remaining about the depths into which the Mexican government descended into over time.

So, we’re all surprised when it’s difficult to turn things around. When dozens and hundreds are murdered with no more diligence than required by any slaughterhouse – we gasp. But, still, how much help have we offered from our world-class intelligence services when a thug like this has stayed alive on the streets, killing so many for so long?

Coppers playing with the catapult

In a brazen attempt reminiscent of a medieval siege, Mexican smugglers tried to use a hefty catapult to hurl drugs north over the U.S. Border.

The Mexican military seized 45 pounds of marijuana, a sports utility vehicle and a metal-framed catapult just south of the Arizona border near the small town of Naco last Friday, following a tip-off from the U.S. Border Patrol.

Surveillance video taken by National Guard troops deployed to support the Border Patrol caught a group of men apparently attempting to pull down a metal beam and load or test the catapult, which was powered by powerful elastic and mounted on a trailer close to the metal border fence.

“It looks like a medieval catapult that was used back in the day,” Tucson sector Border Patrol spokesman David Jimarez told Reuters…

The U.S. Border Patrol seize hundreds of tons of marijuana and other drugs each year, smuggled over or under the line using a variety of means, including trucks, clandestine tunnels, horseback and even micro-light aircraft — although the catapult was new, Jimarez said.

“I have not seen anything like that in my time before as a Border Patrol agent … although we are trained to handle any kind of a threat that comes over that border,” he added.

See? Everyone learns something from watching the Discovery Channel.

One of the most wanted figures in the drug war was killed in a shootout with the Mexican navy Wednesday said an official.

Arturo Beltran Leyva and three members of his drug cartel died in the gunbattle in a gated, upscale apartment complex in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City. A fifth suspect committed suicide during the shootout, said the official, who under navy rules could not give his name…

Beltran Levya, known as the “boss of bosses,” was one of four brothers who split from the Sinaloa cartel several years ago and aligned themselves with Los Zetas, a group of former soldiers hired by the Gulf Cartel as hit men.

That split is believed to have fueled much of the bloodshed across Mexico, where more than 14,000 people have been killed in the past three years…

The Mexican government lists Arturo Beltran Leyva as one its 24 most-wanted drug lords and had offered a $2.1 million reward for his capture.

The navy official said more than 200 sailors raided the apartment complex as part of a crackdown on the Beltran Leyva cartel in central Mexico. The raid sparked a gunbattle that lasted nearly two hours.

He will be mourned by junkies and fools – and the politicians on his payroll.

A U.S. soldier arrested in connection with the killing of a Mexican drug cartel member in El Paso, Texas, allegedly worked as a hit man, court records say.

Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 18, was one of three men arrested Monday in connection with the shooting death of the mid-level drug cartel member who also worked as an informant for the United States, according to a complaint affidavit.

Police identified the other suspects as Ruben Rodriguez Dorado, 30, and Christopher Andrew Duran, 17.

The three men each face one count of capital murder, El Paso police said…

Duran and Rodriguez told police that Apodaca was paid to be the shooter, the affidavit states. Cell phone records, witness statements and El Paso Police detectives corroborated this, according to the document…

Apodaca joined the Army in September 2008, according to a statement from Fort Bliss in El Paso. He is a member of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Fort Bliss and performs the duties of a Patriot launcher crew member, the statement said.

Making the world safe for democracy.

Mexican soldiers holding position during the gun battle
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Fifteen drug hit men and two soldiers were killed in a shootout in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco, says an army source.

Gunmen battled troops from a house, throwing hand grenades at soldiers who had surrounded them and spraying gunfire into military vehicles and nearby homes.

The firefight, near tourist hotels, began late on Saturday and went on until after midnight.

Four policemen were found inside the home but it was unclear whether they had been kidnapped or were there voluntarily. Soldiers also confiscated dozens of rifles and other weapons…

The Beltran Leyva gang, rivals of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, is believed to dominate the drug trade around Acapulco, a popular destination for vacationing U.S. college students.

Sorry, folks. I ain’t coming down anytime soon for a holiday.

Dodging bullets is one of the reasons I left the delights of urban America a long time ago. I don’t care to recall the experience on vacation.