Mexican Drug War | GlobalPost

Senior Mexican drug cartel member jailed for 35 years

Agence France-PresseMay 13, 2013 18:32

A high-ranking Mexican drug cartel chief was jailed for 35 years on Monday for plotting to smuggle vast quantities of cocaine and marijuana into the United States, justice officials said. Aurelio Cano Flores, described by the Justice Department as a senior member of the Gulf Cartel, was convicted of conspiring to import "multi-ton" shipments of drugs into the US following a trial in February. The 40-year-old was also ordered to forfeit a staggering $15 billion in drug proceeds as part of a financial judgment.

2 Spanish businessmen murdered in northwest Mexico

Agencia EFEMay 12, 2013 13:01

Culiacan, Mexico, May 12 (EFE).- The bullet-riddled bodies of two Spanish businessmen were found inside a vehicle that was pushed into a canal in Culiacan, the capital of the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa, officials said. Jose Montoya Lozada, 58, and Fernando Carmona Romero, 57, worked as merchants and had their residences in Spain, the Sinaloa Attorney General's Office said. Passersby spotted the vehicle in the Humaya canal around 8:40 a.m. Saturday and notified police, the AG's office said.

Organized crime-related homicides in Mexico down 18 pct

Agencia EFEMay 11, 2013 13:31

Mexico City, May 11 (EFE).- Mexican authorities said organized crime-related homicides fell by 18 percent in the first five months of President Enrique Peña Nieto's administration, relative to the final five months of his predecessor's six-year term. Based on preliminary figures from a security report released Friday, 5,296 homicides attributed to organized crime gangs occurred between December 2012 and April 2013 in Mexico, compared with 6,432 between July-November 2012, when Felipe Calderon was in office.

Mexican navy nabs suspected cartel money man

Agencia EFEMay 10, 2013 17:15

Mexico City, May 10 (EFE).- Navy personnel arrested a man suspected of managing financial operations for the fearsome Los Zetas drug cartel, the Mexican government said. Alfonso Zamudio Quijada was nabbed Wednesday as he left a house in Monclova, a city in the northern state of Coahuila, Government Secretariat official Eduardo Sanchez Hernandez said. Zamudio offered no resistance, Sanchez said, crediting an anonymous tip for the arrest.

Organized crime harms culture, Italian cardinal says on visit to Mexico

Agencia EFEMay 9, 2013 15:59

Mexico City, May 9 (EFE).- Organized crime "is anti-culture" and sects associated with criminal activities, such as Mexico's Holy Death sect, are "blasphemous," Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said during a visit to Mexico. "Organized crime is not culture, it is anti-culture. It cancels out the great values in social, human and personal relations," Ravasi, who is president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said in a press conference at the Soumaya Museum.

Gunman shoots 6 at government building in northern Mexico

Agencia EFEMay 9, 2013 14:05

Monterrey, Mexico, May 9 (EFE).- Five guards and a state employee were wounded when a subject opened fire Thursday outside the Governor's Palace in Saltillo, the capital of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, officials said. "It was a direct attack on the guards, wounding five police officers and a civilian who was working there," state security spokesman Jesus Carranza told Efe. The subject, identified as Jose Maria Segura Gutierrez, was arrested, Carranza said.

Police arrest a suspected Sinaloa cartel member in Ecuador

Agencia EFEMay 8, 2013 14:15

Quito, May 8 (EFE).- A suspected member of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel and eight other people were arrested during an anti-drug operation in Ecuador, the National Police said. Four of the nine suspects detained in the operation are Mexican nationals. The suspects belong to a transnational criminal organization that smuggles drugs by sea from Ecuador to Mexico, the National Police said.

Police arrest 5 suspected gunmen in northern Mexico

Agencia EFEMay 7, 2013 13:07

Mexico City, May 7 (EFE).- Five suspected gunmen, including four Central Americans, were arrested by the Federal Police in the northern state of Zacatecas, the Mexican National Security Commission said. The suspects "hid weapons inside a house" and "presumably worked as hitmen for a criminal organization" that operates in Zacatecas, the commission said in a statement without identifying the gang or releasing the date the arrests were made. The men - a Mexican, two Guatemalans and two Hondurans - range in age from 19 to 36, the commission said.

Treasury sanctions 8 drug bosses working for Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, calls them 'kingpins'

The Canadian PressMay 7, 2013 12:32

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration has levied financial sanctions against eight drug gang bosses accused of working for Mexico's powerful and violent Sinaloa Cartel. The government accused the eight regional bosses of managing drug smuggling operations for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the purported head of the Sinaloa Cartel, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday. By declaring the men specially designated narcotics traffickers under the Kingpin Act, Washington has made it illegal for U.S. citizens to do business with them and freezes any assets they may have inside the U.S.

Mexican journalists' sons killed; seven bodies found near Mexico City

Thomson ReutersMay 7, 2013 10:44

By Gabriel Stargardter MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Gunmen executed two sons of two prominent Mexican journalists in the northern city of Chihuahua, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office said on Sunday, and police found seven bodies dumped in a Mexico City suburb. Alfredo Paramo, 20, and Diego Paramo, 21, were shot dead in Chihuahua early on Saturday after being chased through the streets by gunmen in a car, said spokesman Carlos Gonzalez.