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US drug blacklist

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has added Belize and El Salvador to a blacklist of countries considered major producers or transit routes for illegal drugs.   (BBC)  PREVIOUS:  US war on drugs  

 

Worst homicide rates

MEXICO CITY – Mexico lived through its most violent year of the past four in 2010, but the 18.4 homicides per 100,000 people registered last year ranked behind seven other countries, the majority of them in Latin America, the Public Safety Secretariat said in a report.  (LAHT)   MORE:  Countries by homicide rate

 

Lethal business model

Farm boys from a tiny county that once depended on sugar cane have perfected an ingenious business model for selling a semi-processed form of Mexican heroin known as black tar.  (LA Times)  MORE:  Black tar moves in, and death follows   Good life in Xalisco can mean death in the US  

 

Officers arrested

TEGUS - A total of 176 Honduran police officers have been arrested in a purge against corruption and organized crime, the authorities there say.   (BBC)   PREVIOUS:  Troops deployed to fight crime   Honduras security briefing   Enforcement head gunned down

 

Costa Rica drug hub

SAN JOSE – Costa Rica has gone from being a bridge for drug trafficking between South and North America to becoming established as a warehouse and trading center for drug cartels, from which the authorities have seized 92.7 tons of cocaine and $17M in the last 3½ years.    (LAHT)  

 

US deports 'minister for cocaine'

MIAMI - Luis Arce-Gomez, interior minister in the Andean nation's 1980-81 dictatorship, made an infamous warning to foes to "walk around with their wills under their arms".  The United States has deported the 71-year-old to face justice in Bolivia after he spent almost 20 years in a Florida prison for drug trafficking.   (Guardian UK)  PREVIOUS:  Bolivia halts US anti-drugs work   Evo Morales    Morales bars 'spying' DEA agents

 

North Van man faces drug charges

VANCOUVER - Pavel Kulisek, 43, was arrested March 11 in Los Barilles and held in a detention centre in Mexico City. The friend, who called himself Carlos Harrera, is actually Gustavo Rivera Martinez - one of the US Marshals Service and FBI's most wanted men and kingpin of the Tijuana cartel.  When police swooped in on him having dinner in March, Kulisek was there and was also arrested.   (North Shore News)

Loans arrest

MONTERREY - Mexican authorities arrested the former finance secretary of the northern state of Coahuila, Javier Villarreal, for allegedly falsifying documents to contract loans totaling more than 3B pesos ($230M).  In August, the federal Finance Secretariat had filed a criminal complaint against those responsible for loans that raised Coahuila’s public debt to more than 32B pesos ($2.5B).   (LAHT)

 

Drug ring bust

PANAMA CITY - Panamanian authorities announced the arrest of 80 members of a gang that smuggled Colombian cocaine bound for Mexico and the US.  (EFE)   MORE:  Drug network

 

Drug gangs blamed

SAN PEDRO SULA - Honduran police have blamed street gangs linked to Mexican drug cartels for the killing of at least 18 people in a shoe factory.  The massacre in the city of San Pedro Sula was connected to a dispute over territory between groups of drug traffickers, officials said.   (BBC)   MORE:  17 died in factory shooting   Shoe factory attack   Shoe factory shooting  

 

Role nets prison

WINNIPEG - David Sokalski, 39, admits he was a key player in a cross-border conspiracy that saw barrels of raw ephedrine smuggled into the US to methamphetamine labs run by the Mexican Mafia. (Winnipeg Free Press)

 

Body count reaches 39

RIO DE JANEIRO - Six additional people were found dead on Friday, bringing to 39 the death toll from week-long clashes involving Brazilian police and the drug-dealing gangs who control many of Rio de Janeiro’s teeming slums.   (LAHT)   PREVIOUS: Violence mars reputation   Gangs shoot down copter   Gangs go to war  Traffickers shoot down police helicopter   Olympic Games 2016

 

Venezuela 'supplies half of Britain's cocaine'

CARACAS - President Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela has become the key trafficking route for most of the cocaine sold on Britain's streets, anti-drugs officials believe.  (Telegraph UK)

 

Black market sales

MEXICO CITY -  Zhenli Ye Gon's lawyers, who are fighting efforts to extradite him to Mexico from the US, vehemently deny their client admitted anything illegal and call the report misinformation intended to sway public opinion against him.   (AP)  PREVIOUS:  Mexico to spend 'drugs cash haul'   Alleged drug trafficker nabbed in US   Mexican police find $206M in drug raid

     

Motive in 'dead presidents' killing

SAN BERNARDINO - Deputy District Attorney Cheryl Kersey said gang leader Johnny Agudo and his subordinates were ambushed on July 9, 2000, because Agudo had "ratted" on Salvador Orozco Hernandez, identified in 2006 as a drug-trade controller in US Drug Enforcement documents.   (Press Enterprise)

How Canucks blew a deal on blow

It looked to James Frost like a big payday was coming.   The plan was simple.  Buy cocaine from Colombian drug lords. Smuggle it into Canada on a yacht. And it could all be directed, with the help of partners, from the GTA.   But almost from the start the plan hit snags, and 78 RCMP wiretaps, entered in court, tell the tale.   (Toronto Star)

 
     

Cartel boss arrested

CORDOBA - Raul Lucio Hernandez Lechuga, considered one of the “37 most dangerous criminals” in Mexico, was arrested in the city of Cordoba. (LAHT)  

'El Lucky' arrested   

Raul Lucio Hernandez Lechuga 

Corruption

Chemicals seized

No safe place

Doors closed to Canada   

US Attorney General accused

Operation Fast and Furious

Bodies on roadway

Officers investigated for OC links

'El Inge' captured

Cartel lieutenant captured 

Cartel leader arrested  

10 bodies found  

13 bodies found  

Police disbanded   

It was an accident

Francisco Blake Mora 

Helicopter crash  

Key strategist in drug war killed  

2nd Interior Minister dies in air crash   

Bodies dumped

Bodies identified    

Bodies found  

Bodies found in abandoned vehicles  

Social media a target

Cartel warning

 

New documents  

Older operation uncovered   

Eric Holder 

Another prison break

Gun battle at prison

Cartel boss gunned down

2011 Monterrey casino attack

Prison clash

Police ambushed

Cartel boss arrested

'El Mamito' captured

Cartel boss killed

'El fabuloso' killed  

Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas  

Zetas boss captured

Gunmen dump bodies

Bodies dumped

Slaughter in Boca Del Rio

11 more bodies

Heads found

Human heads found

Education is the latest casualty

Cartel bosses arrested

Police arrest la Familia founder

Cartel boss arrested

Cartel leaders caught

Prosecutor arrested

Bodies found

Navy finds bodies

Arrests in mass killings

 

'Metro 3' executed

Mayor's brother arrested  

Cop arrested in Casino case

Policemen among captured Zetas

36 seized in Colombia

Arrest

'El Diego' arrested 

Murder rate up  

Officials arrested

Monterrey casino attack  

Stunned   Mexico reels  

Casino attacked  

At least 52 dead   

Deadly casino attack  

Cartel boss arrest

Bodies dumped

Gunmen attack clinic  

429 bodies found in mass graves

Gunbattle

Gang shootout    

Bodies of 19 decapitated men dumped  

Arrests

US protected cartel  

US accused of protecting cartel  

Deputy prison governor decapitated  

Purge  

Corruption in Mexico  

Cartel boss arrested

’Nacro-tank'   Monster 2010  

Cartel leader captured  

 

Drug lord caught

US born drug lord captured

Killing spree

Mexico’s drug-related violence  

Slaughter in Monterrey  

Mexico extradites drug lord

Cartel leader extradited    

Hitman arrested

'Assassin of assassins' captured

Mass graves

'Eagle' held  

Drug lord's successor arrested  

Body count soars

Remains unearthed in Durango     

Shootout

'El Chango' captured   

Familia Michoacana nearing extinction 

Journalist killed   Miguel Angel  

'El Wache' captured  

Girls trained as killers  

Deadly day  

Crime-suppression operation

Former Mexican governor indicted

Ex-mayor investigated for murder

Border corruption grows  

'El Brad Pitt' arrested  

Cartel bust

5 women decapitated

Mexico asks US to explain firearms  

US gun tracing operation    

 

18 killed in shootout  

Drug war disappearances  

War penetrates everyday language  

'No more blood' protests 

Benjamin Arellano Felix 

Alleged 14-year-old assassin  

Mexico's drug seizures total $11B  

Nazario Moreno  

Mexico supplies the drugs

Mexico's most wanted  

Sergio Villarreal

Project Gunrunne

Diego Fernandez de Cevallos

The draft report .pdf   

'Project Gunrunner' strategy  .pdf  

Gun smuggling program backfires  

AK47s vs. bean bags    

Police chief flees  

Residents close streets 

Mass kidnappings

Marisol Valles 

Official death toll 12,456  

OC killed 15,273 in 2010  

Cartels recruitment of US citizens

Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen

Other 'business' of cartels

Edgar Valdez 

Mexico's drug war  

Majority of arms comes from the US

US firearms trafficking to Mexico   .pdf

 

'Most Holy Death'

Guzman winning

Teodoro Garcia Simental

Cartels areas of influence

Drug lord Guzman on Forbes list

Ismael Zambada Garcia

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes

Eduardo Arellano Felix

Francisco Javier Arellano Felix

Arellano Felix drug cartel

Federation cartel   Juarez cartel

Colima Cartel   Gulf Cartel

Sonora Cartel   Tijuana Cartel

Sandra Avila Beltran

Mexican Drug War

The world's most dangerous place?

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes'  

Latino prison gangs  

Beltran-Leyva cartel  

Hector Leyva    Edgar Villarreal

Marcos Arturo Beltran-Leyva

Lethal connections: Part 1   Part 2   Part 3   Part 4   Part 5   Part 6  

Part 7   Part 8

USDOJ: Operation Xcellerator

Arellano-Felix Organization

Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman

Ismael ‘El Mayo’ Zambaba

Zhenli Ye Gon

National Drug Assessment 2009   .pdf

 

     

FARC leader killed

BOGOTA - Colombian military forces have killed the top leader of the country's main leftist rebel group.  Alfonso Cano, the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was killed during a military raid in the SW Cauca region.  (VOA)   

Rebel leader killed  

Leader killed   Alfonso Cano  

Money to rebels

Carlos Renteria

US targets 'Super Cartel'

'Super cartel' smashed    

'Don Mario'  

Luxuries

Hitmen reveal horror of the kill

Power vacuum fuels drug war

Militia arrested

Black Eagles (Aguilas Negras)

Drug lord captured

Most wanted caught like a dog

Arrest

Drug lord nabbed

Traffickers handed over

Drug-trafficking groups replaced rebels

Homemade submarines 

'Top guns' of Tumaco

Seized drug money stolen

Another money container found

Ex-warlord admits guilt

Leader accepts responsibility

Militia boss pleas guilty

Diego Murillo Bejarano

FARC commander is dead

Manuel Marulanda

Rebel leader is dead

The FARC computer

Interpol's report on FARC computers

Colombia extradites warlord

March against rebels     FARC

Paramilitaries in Colombia

Cali cartel leaders plead guilty

Cali cartel  

Gilberto & Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela

 

Drug baron assassinated

Drug boss arrested

Edgar Guillermo Vallejo Guarin

Colombia extradites militia head

Carlos Mario Jimenez

Police catch drugs twin

Police 'kill Colombian drug lord'

Drug lord killed in raid

Victor Manuel Mejia Munera

Columbian drug lord shot

Wilber Alirio Varela-Fajardo

Norte del Valle Cartel

Colombia ex-justice chief jailed

Luis Carlos Galan

Street drug packaged as kids' candy

Chavez role in cocaine trail to Europe

Colombia's new urban drugs war

Colombia seizes $54M drugs cash

Where the drug lords are kings

Madrid clashes over Latin gangs

Mexican cartels settling into Peru

Rio's drug bosses

Laboratory of violence

Norte del Valle Cartel

Peru to bomb Amazon cocaine labs

Alberto Santofimio  Pablo Escobar

Cocaine in frozen mango puree

2006-2007 Colombian para-political scandal

Colombia scandal widens

Confession details

 
     

Drug sub

TEGUCIGALPA - Another 4.5 tons of cocaine were recovered from a small submarine scuttled this month by drug smugglers off Honduras’ Caribbean coast, bringing the total amount of the seizure to 7.3 tons.   (LAHT)  

Only part of drugs recovered so far

Narco sub 

Drug sub 

Sub seized   

Narco submarine

Drug lord dead

Paramilitary drug lord killed  

Confirmed dead  

Pedro Guerrero Castillo 

'Drug lord's' farm invaded

Juan Carlos Ramirez-Abadia

Kingpin caught with his pants down

Drug sub

US military nets second sub in a week

25 Politicos arrested

Resurgence of paramilitary politics

Crackdown appears to be working

Another money container found

Druglords launder euros via Miami

Brazil nabs drug lord

Gun battles in Rio leave 19 dead

Brazil breaks up 'killing firm'

Brazil arrests 75 Rio cops for organized crime ties

San Paulo killings go on

Brazilian Crime Group Defies Police

Gang violence grips Brazil

Brazil's mighty prison gangs

Brazil holds Colombia ‘drug lord’

Amnesty International: Brazil

Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez

Diego Montoya

 
     

Narco elite vs oligarchy

GUATEMALA CITY - As candidates square-off in Guatemala’s presidential election, a broader political battle is transpiring away from the campaign signs and populist rhetoric: the old oligarchy is fighting to maintain its privileged position against an increasingly powerful "narco elite".  (Jazeera)    MORE: 

Presidential contest headed to runoff   

Politics of Guatemala  

General election

Guatemala moves against cartels   

President declares emergency

Apostle of mayhem

Cocaine sub captured

Violence continues

How Guatemala nearly went narco  

2 tons of cocaine seized

Killer linked to cartels

Juan Gerardi

Vigilante justice

Mara Salvatrucha

Gangs ditch tattoos

Drug kingpin arrested

Lorenzana trafficking organization  .pdf

 
     

Arrests in slaying

SAN SALVADOR - Ten reputed members of the Mara 18 gang were arrested in connection with the September murder of Franco-Spanish photojournalist Christian Poveda.  The 54-year-old journalist directed the documentary “La Vida Loca” (Crazy Life), depicting the daily lives of a group of gang members in the Salvadoran town of Soyapango.     (LAHT)

 

SAN SALVADOR

Rising bloodshed

El Salvador 2008 crime   

El Salvador  

Bodies dumped

 
     

Indictment details gang's workings

LOS ANGELES - When a stray bullet from a gang member's gun struck 3-week-old Luis Angel Garcia in the heart and killed him in 2007, police, politicians and ordinary Angelenos expressed outrage over the infant's death.   But they weren't the only ones.  Members of the Mexican Mafia demanded that those responsible be killed.  (Los Angeles Times)

 

Mexican mafia members arrested

Mexican Mafia member vanished

Gang members indicted

Texas Mexican Mafia

 
     

Mexico holds mastermind

Mexican authorities announced they had thwarted a plan to smuggle Saadi Gadhafi, a son of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and his family into Mexico using false documents.   (PostMedia)  

Saadi Gadhafi

Canadian arrested  

RCMP grilled Canadian    

Canadian in plot  

Escape plan  

Mexico 'stops entry'

 
     

Violent Hispanic gang sets up in city

VANCOUVER - A  violent California-based Hispanic gang is setting up drug houses in Vancouver, using newly arrived refugees to do the gang's dirty work. (The Province)  

The most dangerous gang in America

Central America’s gang crisis

Al Qaeda seeks tie to local gangs

Feds nab 375 gang members

Massive international sting nets 660

Exporting a problem

Two decades ago, gangs were rare in Central America. But in the mid-1990s, the United States stepped up deportations of criminals; many of them gang members from the 18th street, or Mara 18, and its chief rival, Mara Salvatrucha 13.   Today, gangs are Central America's No. 1 crime problem.   (Sign On)

Nine held over Honduras massacre

Gang linked to Honduras attack

The deportee problem

SPVM integrated approach to gangs

List of criminal organizations

 

 

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