Posts Tagged ‘Gulf Cartel’
Seventy-two bodies found at Mexican ranch
Mexican marines found 72 dead bodies at a remote ranch near the U.S. border, the Mexican navy said on Wednesday, the biggest single discovery of its kind in Mexico’s increasingly bloody drug war.
The marines came across the bodies of 58 men and 14 women on Tuesday at the ranch outside a town near the Gulf of Mexico in Tamaulipas state, some 90 miles from the Texas border, after a firefight with drug hitmen in which three gunmen and a marine died, a spokesman for the navy said.
One suspected trafficker was arrested, the navy said, and several escaped in SUVs.
“The bodies were dumped about the ranch and were not buried. We are still investigating how long they had been there,” the spokesman said. He declined to give more details.
Marines guarding a nearby checkpoint reached the ranch after a wounded man approached them and asked for help. The soldiers came under fire as they neared the ranch, the navy said in a statement.
After the firefight, marines seized assault rifles, bullets, uniforms and vehicles from the ranch — including one with forged army license plates…
Tamaulipas has become one of Mexico’s bloodiest drug flashpoints since the start of the year as rivals from the Gulf cartel and a spinoff group, the Zetas, fight over smuggling routes into the United States…
The Zetas were members of Mexico’s elite special forces trained to fight drug cartels, but they switched sides in the 1990s and became one of the country’s most feared gangs led by Heriberto Lazcano, known as “The Executioner.”
Of course, the Zetas are one of the most dangerous groups of criminals in Mexico. Like the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan, they were trained to a large extent by the United States.
Great job of qualifying recruits, guys.
Hundreds arrested in four countries in global drug bust
Police in four nations have held about 200 people over alleged trans-Atlantic drug-trafficking involving a major Mexican drugs cartel.
US and Italian police seized 175, some of them picked up in Italy’s Reggio Calabria region, where the N’drangheta mafia run the cocaine trade. Other suspects were arrested in Mexico and Guatemala.
Italian police say the coordinated investigation, Operation Solare, has proved to be one of its biggest operations against the mafia in recent years, and one of their most successful. The N’drangheta is notoriously secretive and ruthless, characteristics which have protected its drug-trafficking hegemony until now…
The suspects detained in the US were arrested in a dozen states, including 43 people picked up in Atlanta, Georgia.
More than 16,000kg (35,000lb) of cocaine, 450kg of methamphetamine, 9kg of heroin, 23,300kg of marijuana, 176 vehicles and 167 weapons have been seized.
Approximately $60.1m (£33m) in US currency was also taken.
Bravo! Nice to see policing focused on police work.
Of course, a lifetime of observation at the grassroots level prompts me to ask if this is anything more than some of the bottom-feeding thugs taking their turn in the slammer? Tht’s not just cynicism – that’s how it’s done in many crime families.
You keep the Capo out of harm’s way. You draw attention away from politicians and police officials on the take by throwing a few bones to the media dogs.
