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Drug cartels

Official: 49 bodies left on Mexico highway

Porfirio Ibarra Ramirez The Associated Press

Last updated Sunday, May 13, 2012 - 1:56pm

MONTERREY, Mexico -- Forty-nine decapitated and mutilated bodies were found Sunday dumped on a highway connecting the northern Mexican metropolis of Monterrey to the U.S. border in what appears to be the latest blow in an escalating war of intimidation among drug gangs.

Mexico's organized crime groups often abandon multiple bodies in public places as warnings to their rivals, and authorities said at least a few of the recent victims had tattoos of the Santa Muerte cult popular among drug traffickers. But Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said he did not rule out the possibility that the victims were U.S.-bound migrants.

Drug cartels, Mexico, International Read more Comments

MIAMI — A sinking self-propelled semi-submersible vessel was interdicted in the Western Caribbean Sea March 30, 2012 by the crews of the Coast Guard Cutter Decisive, Coast Guard Cutter Pea Island, Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S), and the Honduran Navy. The cutter Pea Island and Decisive's pursuit boatcrews interdicted the SPSS and detained four suspected smugglers. The SPSS sank during the interdiction in thousands of feet of water. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

Coast Guard stops 30th 'drug sub' as smuggling grows

Carol Rosenberg The Miami Herald

Last updated Thursday, April 19, 2012 - 9:29am

MIAMI -- When reports first surfaced in the 1990s of boat builders making submarines for cocaine smugglers in the jungles of Colombia, U.S. law enforcement regarded it as a comic curiosity. Today, with the disclosure that the U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted its 30th semi-submersible in less than six years, it's now a troubling tactic.

Coast Guard, Cocaine, Drug cartels, Drug smuggling, Submarine, National Read more Comments

Illicitly synthesized crystal methamphetamine

$500k Utah meth bust tied to drug cartels

Contributed The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, February 13, 2012 - 11:24am

SALT LAKE CITY -- Federal agents say they've seized about half a million dollars in methamphetamine from a Mexican drug cartel over the weekend in Salt Lake County.

Crime, DEA, Drug busts, Drug cartels, Meth, Utah Read more Comments

Mexico violence curtailing church missions

Christopher Sherman The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, February 3, 2012 - 6:17pm

McALLEN, Texas -- John and Wanda Casias knew the risks of being missionaries in one of Mexico's most violent, cartel-dominated regions, their children say, but they refused to curtail their work and instead put their ministry ahead of their safety.

The couple's slaying this week during a home invasion comes as missionary groups are rethinking how they prepare their volunteers to live in Mexico and other hotspots -- or whether to send them at all.

Drug cartels, Drug violence, Mexico violence, Safety, International Read more Comments

(MARCO UGARTE/The Associated Press) Helicopters land in the area where Mexico’s Interior Minister Francisco Blake Mora was killed in a helicopter accident, near Santa Catarina Ayatzingo southeast of Mexico City, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. The Mexican government said Friday, that Mora, Mexico’s No. 2 government official next to the president, died in the helicopter crash with seven others, including the pilot.

Mexico loss of 2nd in charge won’t change drug war

Adriana Gomez Licon, E. Eduardo Castillo The Associated Press

Last updated Saturday, November 12, 2011 - 4:55pm

MEXICO CITY — He was the face of Mexico’s federal government, the chief public servant carrying a message to stay tough and bringing new offensives to states beleaguered by drug violence.

Drug cartels, Drug violence, Mexico, Mexico violence, International, Military Read more Comments

(JACQUELYN MARTIN/The Associated Press) In this Sept. 7, 2011 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder listens to a question about Medicare fraud enforcement at the Justice Department in Washington. Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution and never should have occurred. Facing tough questioning by Senate Republicans about the operation, He says he wants to know why and how firearms that should have been under surveillance could wind up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Holder on ‘Fast and Furious’: Never again

Pete Yost The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2011 - 8:44am

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder says an investigation of arms traffickers called Operation Fast and Furious was flawed in concept as well as in execution, never should have happened and “it must never happen again.”

Attorney General, Drug cartels, Fast and Furious, Trafficking, National Read more Comments

(CARLOS JULIO MARTINEZ/The Associated Press) Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos greets journalists at a military base where he spoke to and shook hands with soldiers who took part in the operation that led to the death of Alfonso Cano, 63, the top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, in Popayan, Colombia, Saturday Nov. 5, 2011. Cano was killed in a military raid in a remote area of the southwestern state of Cauca. The rebel leader’s body was taken to a morgue in Popayan.

Slaying plunges Colombia rebels into uncertainty

Cesar Garcia, Libardo Cardona The Associated Press

Last updated Saturday, November 5, 2011 - 4:19pm

BOGOTA, Colombia — President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday called on fighters of Latin America’s only major rebel force to accept the killing of their top leader as proof the movement is doomed and to surrender.

Drug cartels, Insurgents, Rebels, International Read more Comments

Carmen del Consuelo Saenz, fifth from right, alleged 'accountant' of the Zetas drug cartel, is presented to the media with 10 other alleged members of the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico City, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2011. Authorities in Mexico said Thursday they detained Saenz Tuesday in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Veracruz. (AP Photo/German Garcia)

Narcos, meet hackers: 2 ‘anonymous’ groups spar

Mark Stevenson The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, November 2, 2011 - 7:26am

MEXICO CITY — One of the world’s most secretive movements is taking aim at a just as clandestine mafia, right out in the open.

Crime, Anonymous, Drug cartels, Drug Trafficking, Hackers, Mexico, Protests, International Read more Comments

(STEVE RUARK/The Associated Press) In this Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 file photo, an Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Spc. Jeremiah T. Sancho at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Sancho, of Palm Bay, Fla., died while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. It seems as if violence is everywhere. Yet, historically, we’ve never had it this peaceful. That’s the thesis of three new books, including one by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker. Statistics reveal dramatic reductions in war deaths, family violence, racism, rape, murder and all sorts of mayhem.

Bombings, beheadings? Stats show a peaceful world

Seth Borenstein The Associated Press

Last updated Saturday, October 22, 2011 - 4:05pm

WASHINGTON — It seems as if violence is everywhere, but it’s really on the run.

Drug cartels, Pakistan, Study, Violence, International, National Read more Comments

Drug war death squads prowling Mexico

Tim Johnson McClatchy Newspapers

Last updated Friday, October 7, 2011 - 5:06pm

MEXICO CITY -- The gruesome discovery of 32 bodies scattered in houses in the port city of Veracruz this week is the latest sign that Mexico's drug-fueled violence is entering a new phase in which murky paramilitary-style squads are carrying out mass exterminations.

Drug cartels, Mexico violence, International Read more Comments

Judge rules drug-trafficking defendant should have access to outdoors

Annie Sweeney Chicago Tribune

Last updated Wednesday, September 28, 2011 - 2:04pm

CHICAGO -- A federal judge on Wednesday ordered that a major defendant in Chicago's largest drug cartel prosecution be allowed to exercise outdoors while he awaits trial.

Courts, Drug cartels, Drug Trafficking, National Read more Comments

Key members of Mexican cartel arrested in Utah

Contributed The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 9:13am

SALT LAKE CITY -- Officials with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration say they took down several bosses from the Sinaloa Cartel in a move they say "decimated" a Utah-based cell of the Mexican crime ring.

DEA, Drug cartels, Drugs, Meth, Mexico violence, Police, Utah Read more Comments

A group of men stand outside the building at 811 East Main street in El Cajon, Calif Thursday, Aug. 18, 2011. The community club listed on the marquee is the location mentioned in criminal charges where various law enforcement agents purchased narcotics, firearms, and explosive devices in Operation Shadow Box. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Feds bust Iraqi-Mexican drug operation

Julie Watson The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, August 18, 2011 - 4:08pm

SAN DIEGO -- Federal officials said Thursday they've taken down a drug and weapons trafficking ring involving members of San Diego's Iraqi community and a major Mexican drug cartel that was caught selling large amounts of drugs, guns and grenades.

Crime, Drug cartels, Drug smuggling, International Read more Comments

Marijuana farm suspects appear in court

Lynn DeBruin The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, August 1, 2011 - 4:02pm

SALT LAKE CITY -- Nearly two dozen suspects police say were involved in a large marijuana growing operation near St. George are set to face a judge.

Crime, Drug cartels, Marijuana, Utah Read more Comments

Government program had guns going to cartels

Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

Last updated Wednesday, June 15, 2011 - 5:31pm

SEATTLE -- Even as high-powered weapons flowed toward Mexican drug cartels in a controversial U.S. surveillance program, hundreds more guns likely escaped into the hands of criminals inside the U.S., federal agents told Congress Wednesday.

"We weren't giving guns to people who were hunting bears. We were giving guns to people who were killing people," Peter Forcelli, group supervisor at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix told a House committee.

The ATF agents said they were ordered to watch as more than 1,700 guns -- including AK-47 variants and high-powered rifles -- were sold to straw purchasers in Arizona and transferred to suspected agents of Mexico's violent drug trafficking organizations.

Crime, Congress, Drug cartels, Guns, National Read more Comments