Mexico arrests 8 agents in filmed drug execution
Mexico said on Thursday it had arrested 10 people, including eight federal agents, in the kidnapping of four suspected drug gang hitmen and the filmed execution of at least one of them.
The case has thrown the spotlight on the often cosy relations between Mexican authorities and organised crime. Drug gangs routinely bribe police, officials and judges to protect them or carry out their dirty work.
Four men, beaten and bruised, were shown on a homemade DVD confessing to being members of the infamous Gulf Cartel of drug traffickers. One of them was then shot in the head.
Excerpts of the video, taken several months ago, were published for the first time on the Dallas Morning News’ Web site on Thursday.
Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the head of Mexico’s organized crime unit, said the government had arrested eight federal agents and two civilians in the case, charging them with kidnapping and organized crime.
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County drug squad helps bust Mexico-Atlanta drug group
Undercover Fayette County drug agents played a role in a months-long investigation of a Mexican drug trafficking operation that netted 28 arrests Wednesday, authorities said.
The multi-state investigation also netted about 592 kilograms of cocaine, more than 40 pounds of methamphetamine and $8 million in cash, officials said. Multiple weapons and more than $1 million in cash was recovered in the metro Atlanta area alone.
The sting, called “Operation Long Whine,†also resulted in about two pounds of crystal methamphetamine — often referred to as “ice†— and the lab which was used
Mexico seeks rearrest of agents freed in drug case
Mexico is seeking to get back into custody five Mexican federal agents who were charged in the kidnapping of suspected drug hit men but released by a judge in September, officials said on Saturday.
Mexico arrested eight federal agents on Aug. 31, but a few days later a judge released five of them for lack of evidence.
"We totally respect the decision of the judge but we have appealed because we do not agree (with it)," an official in Mexico's attorney general's office said on condition of anonymity.
The appeal was filed in September,
Mexico raids kidnapping ring that filmed victims in cages
Mexican authorities raided a kidnapping ring that filmed its victims being held inside a cage and beaten, federal authorities said Saturday. An abducted businessman was freed and five people were arrested.
Police also confiscated an iron cage in the raid Friday at two houses on the outskirts of Mexico City that led to the arrests of five men ages 18 to 31, the federal attorney general's office said.
The man freed had been held for ransom since May 19 by the group, which was known for filming its victims inside a cage
Mexico arrests 17 in wave of killings
Prosecutor says gunmen linked to many of 200 drug deaths near border
Federal authorities said Monday they have arrested a group of 17 gunmen who could be responsible for many of the 200 drug-related killings this year in the state of Tamaulipas that borders Texas.
The men were detained in a house in the Tamaulipas state capital of Victoria after a Sunday morning shootout that left two police officers dead, Mexico's top drug prosecutor, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, told a news conference.
Police also arrested four women in the house and found an arsenal that included six
Two more busted gun trafficking to Mexico
Two more men were arrested in Arizona, part of an ongoing investigation of a gun trafficking operation selling arms in Mexico, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
The arrests of Antonio Moran, 20, and Francisco Coronado, 28, bring the number of detainees to seven in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation.
ATF agents in Arizona said some 84 assault rifles were sold to Mexican nationals over the last few weeks. Officials said they thought the weapons were being used by Mexican drug smugglers or those helping illegal aliens enter the United States.
Mexico says drug trafficking DVD won't cost federal investigators their jobs
Mexico's top anti-drug prosecutor will not lose his job despite doubts about whether federal agents were involved in the videotaped beating and torture of four drug hit men, a government spokesman said Monday.
Ruben Aguilar, chief spokesman for President Vicente Fox, said that no federal investigator was in danger of being fired in the wake of the recording, which has sent shock waves through Mexico's anti-narcotics efforts.
"It doesn't put anyone at risk" of losing their jobs, Aguilar said during his daily briefing with reporters.
But he refused to comment
Stop guns going to Mexico
Assault weapons purchased in the United States are flooding into high-violence areas along the Mexican border and contributing to the wave of crime across the border. A large amount of violence has been centered in and near Nuevo Laredo, where about 128 murders have been recorded this year.
Many of the slayings are believed to be related to the fierce battle between rival drug cartels fighting for control of drug trafficking routes into the United States. A unified effort by law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border is needed to reduce the flow of
U.S. sends agents to patrol Mexico border
The U.S. is dispatching federal agents to Texas to combat violent crime along the Mexican border, a source of tension between the two countries in recent months.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the issue would be the focus of his meeting in San Antonio on Thursday with his Mexican counterpart, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca.
The Violent Crime Impact Team will go to the border city of Laredo, Gonzales told reporters Wednesday at the Justice Department. Such teams previously have been sent to about 20 U.S. cities that are struggling with violent crime problems despite a
Editorial: U.S. must stem flow of guns to Mexico
Assault weapons purchased in the United States are flooding into high-violence areas along the Mexican border and contributing to the wave of crime across the border.
A large amount of violence has been centered in and near Nuevo Laredo, where about 128 murders have been recorded this year.
Many of the slayings are believed to be related to the fierce battle between rival drug cartels fighting for control of drug trafficking routes into the United States.
A unified effort by law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border is needed to
Agents patrolling Mexico's border facing more dangers
Those tracking smugglers of drugs and immigrants are being attacked at a growing rate
Assaults against U.S. Border Patrol agents nearly doubled along the Mexican border over the past year as patrols cracking down on drug trafficking and migrant smuggling encountered increasing resistance — including the use of rocks, Molotov cocktails and gunfire.
At least 687 assaults against agents were reported during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from the previous year's total of 354 and the highest since the agency began tracking assaults across the Southwest border in the late 1990s, according to
