Small War in Mexico: 2002-2015 (closed)

[AdamG]

Mexican authorities say they have seized a ship belonging to a drugs cartel which was carrying 68,000 tonnes of illegal iron ore.

The authorities were tipped off by an anonymous phone call after the ship left the port of Lazaro Cardenas.

The town's mayor was arrested on Tuesday over suspected links to drug traffickers.

Mexico has seized more than 200,000 tonnes of illegal iron ore in recent months, most of it on its way to China.

The ship, Jian Hua, was detained near the Pacific port of Manzanillo.

The company operating the ship now have 30 days to prove to authorities that the iron ore was extracted legally from Mexico.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27233824#TWEET1116741

[SWJ Blog]

Human Rights Abuse in Mexico (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/human-rights-abuse-in-mexico)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/human-rights-abuse-in-mexico) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[SWJ Blog]

Mexican Drug Cartel Enforcers Torture Local Men (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-drug-cartel-enforcers-torture-local-men)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexican-drug-cartel-enforcers-torture-local-men) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[SWJ Blog]

Mexico Is Not Colombia (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexico-is-not-colombia)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexico-is-not-colombia) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[AdamG]

A Friday shootout in Reynosa may have claimed the life of an original member of Los Zetas, a group of paramilitary deserters that grew into one of Mexico’s largest and most feared drug cartels.

Authorities in both the U.S. and Mexico believe that Galindo “El Mellado” or “Z-9” Mellado Cruz died Friday morning in a hail of gunfire during a raid at his hideout in the Las Fuentes neighborhood.



While not a household name in regards to popular drug lords, Mellado had been a key target of U.S. law enforcement agencies in recent years for his role as a leading figure within the Gulf Cartel — while at the same time keeping a low profile, the U.S. official said.

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/original-zeta-member-believed-to-be-among-dead-in-reynosa/article_803dac12-d8bb-11e3-84eb-001a4bcf6878.html

[AdamG]

Cartel shenanigans in Minneapolis
http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/4-indicted-in-minnesota-drug-cartel-torture-case

[AdamG]

Violence is consuming the Mexican city of Reynosa, just south of the Texas border, as street battles have reportedly claimed the lives of over 80 people, including high-ranking police officers and drug cartel leaders. You only have to go to YouTube to watch the war from the front line.

High-intensity battles involving the Gulfo Cartel, the Zeta Cartel, and Mexican federal authorities are being recorded and broadcast to the world in full by cartel gunmen and residents caught in the crossfire. The battle videos are gaining hundreds of thousands of views.

http://www.dailydot.com/news/mexican-drug-war-cartel-youtube/

[AdamG]

From January -


Earlier this month, agents of the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation raided three separate luxury condos in suburban Manila—one of which had been operating as a drug processing lab—and arrested four Canadians. The NBI ended up seizing $2.5 million dollars worth of cocaine, MDMA, and meth (or as they say in Asia, shabu) in the process.

Two of the men arrested, James Riach and Barry Espadilla, have close ties with BC’s lower mainland underworld according to Kim Bolan of the Vancouver Sun as former members of a gang called the Independent Soldiers, and most recently have been affiliated with the Wolf Pack—a gang that Bolan writes is “a coalition made up of some I.S. members, some Red Scorpions and some Hells Angels.”

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/mexican-narco-assassins-were-sent-to-the-philippines-to-murder-two-canadian-gangsters

[AdamG]

EL PASO, Texas -- El Paso police are investigating two mysterious billboards that appeared just off I-10, each with a mannequin hanging from a noose. .

“It’s not an advertisement,” said Mike Mons, regional manager for Lamar Outdoor advertising.

The first vandalized billboard off I-10 had Plata o Plomo in large black letters which translates into silver or lead. It is usually a warning targeting police or government officials in Mexico. The warning: work with a cartel and take a bribe or get a bullet.

The hanging mannequin was dressed in a suit and tie.

“This symbol has historically been used by Mexican drug cartels to threaten or intimidate Mexican citizens, business owners and government officials; however, we have never experienced this in El Paso,” said police in a statement released to media.

http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/Border-residents-fear-message-on-mysterious-billboards--260366311.html

[SWJ Blog]

Autodefensas, Vigilantes and Self-Policing in Mexico: Civilian Dominance over Public Safety Policies? (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/autodefensas-vigilantes-and-self-policing-in-mexico-civilian-dominance-over-public-safety-p)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/autodefensas-vigilantes-and-self-policing-in-mexico-civilian-dominance-over-public-safety-p) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[SWJ Blog]

Mexico Is Not Colombia: Seeking More Productive Analogies for Responding to the Challenge of Violent Drug-Trafficking Organizations (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/mexico-is-not-colombia-seeking-more-productive-analogies-for-responding-to-the-challenge-of)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/mexico-is-not-colombia-seeking-more-productive-analogies-for-responding-to-the-challenge-of) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[SWJ Blog]

General Kelly Says Mexico Border Security Now ‘Existential’ Threat (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/general-kelly-says-mexico-border-security-now-%E2%80%98existential%E2%80%99-threat)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/general-kelly-says-mexico-border-security-now-%E2%80%98existential%E2%80%99-threat) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[AdamG]

RINCON PENINSULA, Texas -- U.S. Border Patrol agents on the American side of the Rio Grande were forced to take cover Friday night when high-caliber weaponry was fired at them from the Mexican side of the river, sources told FoxNews.com.

The weapons were fired at the U.S. side of the riverbank in the area of the Rincon Peninsula across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, at about 8:30 p.m., sources said. Bullets ricocheted into an area where Border Patrol agents were positioned, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told FoxNews.com.

Border Patrol sources confirmed Gohmert's account, and said the shots may have been fired by .50-caliber weapons.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/07/20/cartels-suspected-as-high-caliber-gunfire-sends-border-patrol-scrambling-on-rio/



Perry will announce his plans Monday to mobilize some 1,000 guardsmen to the Rio Grande Valley to increase security at the border, according to the Monitor, a south Texas newspaper. The newspaper quoted a state senator and an internal memo it obtained from a state official’s office.

Perry spokesman Felix Browne told The Washington Post he would neither confirm nor deny the report, but said all details will be given at a news conference at 2 p.m. Central time Monday in Austin. It was unclear what mission the guard will have.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/07/21/gov-rick-perry-to-mobilize-texas-national-guard-troops-to-secure-u-s-mexico-border/

[AdamG]

From 30 June 14


(Reuters) - At least 22 suspected gang members were killed southwest of Mexico City early on Monday, the government said, in one of the bloodiest shootouts with security forces since President Enrique Pena Nieto took power.


An Interior Ministry spokesman said the gunfight took place in Tlatlaya on the southern fringes of the State of Mexico, an area that has been plagued by gang violence in the two neighboring states of Guerrero and Michoacan.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/30/us-mexico-violence-idUSKBN0F52D920140630

[SWJ Blog]

The Threat Of Mexico's Massive Underground Economy (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/the-threat-of-mexicos-massive-underground-economy)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/the-threat-of-mexicos-massive-underground-economy) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[AdamG]

Illegal immigration may be a hot-button political issue in Washington, D.C., but for U.S. Border Patrol agent Luis Rodriguez, who works on the front lines of the battle to curb illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border, it is much more than a philosophical debate: It is a daily reality.

In this episode of “Power Players,” Rodriguez takes us along for a patrol on the Rio Grande, along one of the most heavily used routes by which migrants cross illegally into the United States.

“This is a spot that is well known for rocking incidents, especially once it starts getting dark,” Rodriguez warns as the boat speeds through a narrow area of the river. “They throw rocks in front of the boat going 30 mph in one direction.”

While some of the rocks are thrown by mischievous kids, Rodriguez blames some of the incidents on illegal smugglers.

“We are interrupting their business, so they want to take some kind of revenge on us,” he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/patrolling-the-rio-grande--on-the-front-lines-with-a-u-s--border-patrol-agent-210005678.html

[SWJ Blog]

More Than a Mexican Problem: How the US Can Adapt Plan Colombia to Mexico (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/more-than-a-mexican-problem-how-the-us-can-adapt-plan-colombia-to-mexico)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/more-than-a-mexican-problem-how-the-us-can-adapt-plan-colombia-to-mexico) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[AdamG]

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico's military detained an officer and seven soldiers in connection with the shooting deaths of 22 gang suspects after a witness said 21 of them were executed despite surrendering.

http://news.yahoo.com/eight-mexico-troops-held-killing-22-gang-suspects-041627160.html

[AdamG]

Iguala (Mexico) (AFP) - Two gang hitmen linked to police admitted to killing 17 of 43 students missing in southern Mexico, amid fears the victims were among bodies found in a mass grave.

Inaky Blanco, the chief prosecutor of violence-plagued Guerrero state, said Sunday it would take at least 15 days to identify the 28 bodies in the clandestine grave, some of which were badly burned and in pieces.

http://news.yahoo.com/hitmen-admit-killing-17-mexican-students-prosecutor-005040009.html

[AdamG]

Extra points for ironic gestures.


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican soldiers used alleged criminals' own guns to kill those who initially survived a confrontation at a warehouse southwest of Mexico City, the country's attorney general said Friday.
In an interview with MVS Radio, Jesus Murillo Karam said that three soldiers have been charged with murder and a lieutenant with a cover up for the events of June 30 in San Pedro Limon, a community in the municipality of Tlatlaya in the state of Mexico.
http://news.yahoo.com/official-soldiers-killed-survivors-own-guns-161231923.html

[AdamG]

Bad OPSEC leads to PERSEC failure
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/21/she-tweeted-against-the-mexican-cartels-they-tweeted-her-murder.html

[SWJ Blog]

Mexico’s Murderous Alliance of State, the Army and the Drug Cartels (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexico%E2%80%99s-murderous-alliance-of-state-the-army-and-the-drug-cartels)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexico%E2%80%99s-murderous-alliance-of-state-the-army-and-the-drug-cartels) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[AdamG]

Short version: stay out of TJ, unless you're going with 500 of your best friends and Close Air Support.


Official documents that were sent anonymously to ZETA, carry accounts of confessions given by corrupt Municipal Police. Dishonest, confessing to serving cells of criminal organizations, addicted to drugs and or alcoholism , having problems with depression and authority. Others have been narco-traffickers, or have criminal records ( antecedents ) in the USA, whilst others move and dispose of bodies for criminals. The cases are from the commission for police improvement in Tijuana, the secretary Alejandro Lares Valladares, but there are no results, the majority of these police men are still working for the corporation.

The sins confessed by Municipal police agents in Tijuana , merited a procedure to dismiss them from the Police, but most of the 154 agents that failed the examinations of evaluation and confidence are still working to “ serve “ the public.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2015/01/torture-and-corruption-in-municipal.html?m=1

[AdamG]

Guadalajara (Mexico) (AFP) - Fifteen police officers were killed in a gang ambush in western Mexico, an official said, marking the deadliest day in recent years for security forces battling the drug war.

Five more officers were wounded in Monday's assault, which took place on a twisting rural highway near the village of Soyatan as a convoy carrying the elite state police unit headed to Guadalajara, Mexico's second biggest city.

http://news.yahoo.com/15-mexican-police-killed-gang-ambush-official-174401589.html

[AdamG]

ISIS is operating a camp just a few miles from El Paso, Texas, according to Judicial Watch sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector.

The exact location where the terrorist group has established its base is around eight miles from the U.S. border in an area known as “Anapra” situated just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Another ISIS cell to the west of Ciudad Juárez, in Puerto Palomas, targets the New Mexico towns of Columbus and Deming for easy access to the United States, the same knowledgeable sources confirm.http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/04/isis-camp-a-few-miles-from-texas-mexican-authorities-confirm/

Mod added: See update on parallel thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?p=167575#post167575

[AdamG]

CIUDAD JUREZ, Mexico, April 20 (UPI) -- A Judicial Watch report claiming the Islamic State established a terror cell near Ciudad Jurez, Mexico, is being denied by officials and condemned by residents.

The report by the conservative organization used unnamed "sources that include a Mexican Army field grade officer and a Mexican Federal Police Inspector."

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Northern Command and the Texas Department of Public Safety have all denied the report's claims.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2015/04/20/Officials-No-evidence-of-Islamic-State-in-Mexico/7521429537038/




Six Somali-American men from Minneapolis were arrested Sunday and charged Monday with conspiracy to support terrorism in the largest Minnesota operation and one of the biggest nationally to result from an eight-year federal investigation into terrorist recruiting in the United States.

Two of the six were arrested by FBI agents in San Diego, where they were planning to pick up passports and then cross into Mexico, where they planned to board a flight to the Middle East, federal authorities said Monday.

The other four were arrested by the FBI in Minneapolis.
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/300659531.html

[AdamG]

Mounting brazen attacks, New Generation cartel arises from Mexico's assault on big drug lords


MEXICO CITY — It has the drugs and distribution system of a traditional cartel — and it has the modern weapons and audacity of an army. After attacking federal forces, downing a military helicopter and shutting down streets in Mexico's second-largest city last week, the New Generation Jalisco cartel is now the main enemy in the country's fight with drug cartels.

In just a few years, New Generation has grown from being an offshoot of the powerful Sinaloa cartel to one of Mexico's strongest criminal groups in its own right, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, whose Office of Foreign Assets Control maintains a "black list" of drug trafficking organizations.

http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/f30f5f99a19f4e8f96a533acf022ae8c/LT--Mexico-New-Cartel

[AdamG]

MEXICO CITY — A shootout between members of a powerful drug cartel and Mexican security forces in the western state of Michoacan left at least 40 people dead Friday, according to Mexican officials.

The violence unfolded in the morning near the town of Tanhuato, along Michoacan’s border with the state of Jalisco, a troubled region where two drug cartels have waged a long-running battle and where attacks against Mexican authorities have recently spiked.

Mexican authorities offered few details Friday afternoon about the killings, which involved the New Generation cartel of Jalisco and a convoy of federal police and soldiers. The governor of Michoacan, Salvador Jara, said on a radio address that at least one policeman died, as well as 42 gunmen, although those numbers were not confirmed. Photographs from the scene showed authorities had recovered dozens of high-powered rifles.*

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gun-battle-in-mexico-leaves-more-than-40-people-dead-authorities-say/2015/05/22/53bc41c0-00c0-11e5-8c77-bf274685e1df_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop_b

* Gosh, those sound intimidating and scary. AKs & ARs.
http://www.milenio.com/policia/Atacan_policias_federales_Michoacan-emboscan_federales_Michoacan-violencia_Michoacan_0_522547858.html

[AdamG]

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A clash between armed vigilante groups just north of the resort city of Acapulco killed 13 people on Saturday, according to Mexico's human rights commission.

The violence came on the eve of Mexico's midterm election, in which President Enrique Pena Nieto faces growing discontent over lawlessness, corruption, and lackluster economic growth.



One of the two vigilante gangs involved in Saturday's battle is believed to have connections to the Jalisco New Generation cartel, a methamphetamine trafficking group that the government accuses of posing a major threat to public safety.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/vigilante-battle-kills-13-near-mexican-beach-resort-155513047.html

[SWJ Blog]

Mexico Kingpin 'Chapo' Guzman Stages Brazen Jailbreak in Blow to President (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexico-kingpin-chapo-guzman-stages-brazen-jailbreak-in-blow-to-president)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/mexico-kingpin-chapo-guzman-stages-brazen-jailbreak-in-blow-to-president) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[Misifus]

Yippee! Maybe he will go down to Bolivia and rob banks like Butch & Sundance. At least his after-escape plans proved better than the two clowns who escaped from that New York prison. So did I hear this right? The guy had a motorcycle down in the tunnel that he rode out? Is that legendary or what? This has got McQueen written all over it!

Why would the world's biggest consumer of illegal narcotics (the USA) be so pissed off at Chapo's escape? I mean the guy is bringing goods to market for us voracious Gringos. We should be celebrating! Who gets the movie rights? :D

[davidbfpo]

There is a short SWJ article:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/what-can-a-country-do-when-its-most-wanted-man-escapes-from-a-maximum-security-prison-for-t

Personally I think $$ talked and one suspects those who detained him (Mexican Marines & DEA from memory) will not be impressed.

[Bill Moore]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/foreign-affairs-defense/drug-lord/the-staggering-death-toll-of-mexicos-drug-war/

The Staggering Death Toll of Mexico’s Drug War


Last week, the Mexican government released new data showing that between 2007 and 2014 — a period that accounts for some of the bloodiest years of the nation’s war against the drug cartels — more than 164,000 people were victims of homicide. Nearly 20,000 died last year alone, a substantial number, but still a decrease from the 27,000 killed at the peak of fighting in 2011.

Over the same seven-year period, slightly more than 103,000 died in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to data from the United Nations and the website Iraq Body Count.

Sort of puts it in perspective.

[SWJ Blog]

Book Review of Organized Crime in Mexico: Assessing the Threat to North American Economies (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/book-review-of-organized-crime-in-mexico-assessing-the-threat-to-north-american-economies)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/book-review-of-organized-crime-in-mexico-assessing-the-threat-to-north-american-economies) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[SWJ Blog]

Old and New Governmental-Criminal Relationships In Mexico: A Historical Analysis of the Illicit Political Economy and Effects On State Sovereignty (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/old-and-new-governmental-criminal-relationships-in-mexico-a-historical-analysis-of-the-illi)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/old-and-new-governmental-criminal-relationships-in-mexico-a-historical-analysis-of-the-illi) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[SWJ Blog]

Mexican Energy Reform: A Security Nightmare for Multi-Nationals Operating in Mexico (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/mexican-energy-reform-a-security-nightmare-for-multi-nationals-operating-in-mexico)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/mexican-energy-reform-a-security-nightmare-for-multi-nationals-operating-in-mexico) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

[AdamG]

Four people died in a shootout between marines and gunmen that started during an attempt to rescue a kidnapped businessman in Sinaloa, a state in northwestern Mexico, state prosecutors told EFE.

The shootout occurred on Monday at a motel outside the city of Guamuchil when marines tried to rescue kidnapping victim Carlos Humberto Barroso Cecea.

The businessman, who worked in sales and marketing, was one of the four people who died in the shootout.

Authorities seized two SUVs belonging to the gunmen.



http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2015/12/08/4-die-in-shootout-between-marines-and-gunmen-in-northwestern-mexico/?intcmp=ob_article_footer_text&intcmp=obnetwork

[SWJ Blog]

The Manhunt for El Chapo and Why the Cartels are Killing Mexico's Mayors (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/the-manhunt-for-el-chapo-and-why-the-cartels-are-killing-mexicos-mayors)

Entry Excerpt:



--------
Read the full post (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/the-manhunt-for-el-chapo-and-why-the-cartels-are-killing-mexicos-mayors) and make any comments at the SWJ Blog (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog).
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.