Drug Lord Arrest

Mexican police have arrested a US citizen accused of being a key figure in a major drug cartel based in the border city of Tijuana.

Gustavo Rivera Martinez was responsible for the logistics of smuggling drugs to the US and laundering the proceeds, Mexico's interior minister said.

He is wanted by the FBI and the US Drug Enforcement Agency which offered a $2m (£1m) reward for his capture.

Mr Rivera Martinez would be sent back immediately to the US, officials said.

"This individual is one of the criminals most sought after by the DEA and FBI," said Mexican Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino.

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Importance: This arrest puts another dent in the Arellano Felix drug cartel. The measures taken against drug trafficking have been helpful in taking out this cartel at least; however, other cartels are gaining momentum, and the government still has a lot ahead of it before it achieves the freedom from drug crime and violence that it seeks.

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New Drug Laws

Mexico's lower house of congress approved a softened version of President Felipe Calderon's anti- drug bill.

The 462-to-6 vote today came after lawmakers eliminated a clause that would allow police to search homes without a warrant in life-threatening situations. The modification lets ``citizens have a reform that helps them, not one that assaults them,'' said Ruth Zavaleta, speaker of Mexico's lower house and a member of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution.

The package is part of Calderon's efforts to combat organized crime and quell violence. It would allow lawyers to make oral arguments to speed up trials and would give police the right to record conversations to be used as evidence.

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Importance: Mexico is still fighting the war on drugs, but it is good to see that the house of congress is thinking about the peoples rights while working on their problems.

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UPDATE 2 ON POLLICE BOMBING

MEXICO CITY – Drug traffickers from outside Mexico City ordered the assassination of a top city police commander and contracted local cocaine distributors to carry out the botched bombing attempt early this month, authorities said Wednesday.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said in a TV interview that the drug hit was planned in retaliation for a series of police raids against drug cartel cells in the capital and the seizure of assault rifles, grenades and shoulder-fired rockets designed to penetrate armored vehicles.

Investigators don't know yet which drug cartel was behind the attack, the mayor said.

Both the Sinaloa cartel based in northern Mexico and the Gulf cartel that operates along the Mexico-Texas border are believed to have lost important operatives and weapons in the seizures, analysts and authorities have said.

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Importance: This is most likely the last story in this horrible situation. Finally, we find out that the attack was in response to numerous raids on drug cartels in Mexico City. Better yet, the attack was carried out by local cocaine dealers. The alleged men mentioned in the previous update were likely the ones who carried out the attack. However, the men behind the attack have not been identified and it is likely they will not be identified any time in the near future.

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UPDATE ON POLICE BOMBING

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Police are holding four suspects in connection with an explosion that killed a man as he apparently tried to plant a bomb targeting a police commander, Mexico City's top prosecutor said Monday.

The four were placed under house arrest over the weekend, said Mexico City Attorney General Rodolfo Felix Cardenas. One of the detainees is Tania Vazquez, 22, who was wounded in the Feb. 15 blast after surveillance cameras captured her walking with the dead man. She is being held at a local hospital where she is undergoing treatment for burns.

Cardenas did not identify the other three suspects, but an employee of the prosecutor's office said they are believed to be minor drug dealers.

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Importance: This is a follow up on a story last week about somone bombing a police commander. Four suspects have been put on house arrest. It was my personal theory that the bombing had something to do with drugs and it proved to be true. This just gives more evidence that most crime in Mexico is traced back to the drug war. Look here for future updates on the case.

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US drug czar: marijuana now biggest moneymaker for Mexican cartels

MEXICO CITY - Marijuana is now the biggest source of income for Mexico's drug cartels and the U.S. is committed to cracking down harder on traffickers, U.S. drug czar John Walters said Thursday.

"We're trying to increase the force with which we're attacking this problem," Walters said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "This is a focus because of the overlooked importance marijuana has in the violence."

Walters made the comments following a meeting with Mexican officials who want the U.S. to prosecute marijuana cases more zealously to reduce the amount of cash gangs can spend on guns.

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Importance: The war on drugs is acknowleged by many to be the greatest problem facing Mexico today. Here we see that Mexico is trying to work with the U.S. to cut down on marijuana. This includes stiffer and more harsh punishments.

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Smokers on the Run

On February 21st, the Mexican Senate is scheduled to vote on an anti-tobacco measure which, if it becomes law, would severely restrict public smoking nationwide.

This proposed law is not to be confused with a Mexico City smoking restriction law which is only for that city. The new measure is for the whole country.

Smoking tobacco has a long history in Mexico. It was practiced by the Mayan culture at least since the 900s. A carving from a temple in Palenque, Chiapas, portrays a Mayan priest smoking.

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Importance: The Mexican government already has enough problems with the Durg War, and by enacting this law the problem is only going to grow. What will the solution be? Stay tuned to find out.

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Drug Violence Reaches Mexico City

MEXICO CITY - A lunchtime blast that killed one person and injured two on a main street near a tourist district has shocked residents of the Mexican capital, which has so far largely avoided the drug violence raging in the rest of the country.

City and federal officials say the homemade bomb, which exploded two blocks from a Mexico City police compound Friday afternoon, was likely the work of organized crime rather than leftist rebels.

The country has suffered from a wave of shootouts, grenade attacks and execution-style killings that left more than 2,500 dead nationwide last year. But authorities say Mexico City traditionally has been more of a meeting place for traffickers looking to close drug deals than a base for their operations.

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Importance: Mexico City has never before been a target of drug cartel's violent plans. Though no one has yet taken responsibility for the explosion, most indicators point to one of the many divisions of organized crime that are beginning to control Mexico. This new attack marks a new extent to which the cartels have come due to President Calderon's increased drug survelliance and crack down.

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Judicial Reform and more Drug Violence

OVER the past few weeks, gunfights between police and drug gangs along Mexico's border with the United States have left dozens dead. At the same time, two assassination attempts against a senior official in the public prosecutor's office have been foiled—the latest on January 17th when three men with grenade launchers and assault rifles were arrested.

On taking over as Mexico's president a year ago, Felipe Calderón decided to deploy the army to combat Mexico's escalating drug violence. Originally sent in as a temporary measure, the troops are still there. Faced with a relentless drugs war, Mr Calderón is now seeking to overhaul the justice system, too. The measures are ambitious; whether they will actually work is a different matter.

The very size of recent drug seizures might be seen as a sign of failure, underlining the magnitude of the trafficking. In October officials seized 23.5 tonnes of cocaine, the largest seizure ever reported in Mexico, though only a tiny fraction of the estimated 530-710 tonnes that cross into the United States every year, according to a recent report commissioned by an American senator, Richard Lugar. Mexican gangs already control America's lucrative methamphetamine trade. They have also been expanding their custom in heroin. In 2006 Mexican heroin production leapt by 58%.

Sometimes an apparent victory can actually make matters worse—at least in the short term. Last month Mexican troops arrested Alfredo Beltrán, a big shot in the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico's biggest drug gangs. But this may create a power vacuum leading to even more violence. Osiel Cardenas, head of the Gulf cartel, another powerful gang, has been in jail in Houston, Texas, for a year, with little discernible effect on the flow of drugs.

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Importance: Drug problems continue to escalate in Mexico. President Calderon has delineated judicial reforms that will change the current Napoleanic system to an Anglo-American system, but many are skeptical whether this change will help correct the problem of corruption and drug violence. The recession pending in America is not going to help matters, giving the drug trade more impetus as the Mexican economy declines.

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Mexico's Calderon to reduce army role in drug war

MEXICO CITY, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Wednesday he wants to phase out the army's role in fighting drug traffickers as the country works to reform its notoriously corrupt police forces.

"We must clean up and strengthen the police forces across the country so that the participation of the army in the fight against crime will become less and less necessary," Calderon said at an event with Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human rights.

Calderon has mobilized some 25,000 Mexican troops since taking office in December 2006 to try to crush powerful drug cartels that are warring over lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.

Arbour, who is in Mexico on a visit to review Mexico's human rights record, on Tuesday criticized Calderon's military campaign against drug traffickers as dangerous and warned that military forces should not be taking on civilian roles.

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Importance: In what seems completely unexpected and without reason, Calderon makes a bold move in order to progress in the war on drugs. His main reason for this is to decrease the corruption in the police force and the military. This will ultimately decrease the intervention of military into certain crimes.

The Forever Years War

RÍO BRAVO, Mexico — These days, it is easy to form the impression that a war is going on in Mexico. Thousands of elite troops in battle gear stream toward border towns and snake through the streets in jeeps with .50-caliber machine guns mounted on top while fighter jets from the Mexican Navy fly reconnaissance missions overhead.

Gun battles between federal forces and drug-cartel members carrying rocket-propelled-grenade launchers have taken place over the past two weeks in border towns like Río Bravo and Tijuana, with deadly results.

Yet what is happening is less a war than a sustained federal intervention in states where for decades corrupt municipal police officers and drug gangs have worked together in relative peace, officials say. The federal forces are not only hunting cartel leaders, but also going after their crews of gunslingers, like Gulf Cartel guards known as the Zetas, who terrorize the towns they control.

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Importance: This article is really cool if you think about it. If you compare Mexico's drug war to the U.S.'s this article shows exactly how two countries so close with the same problem handle the problem in two completly different ways. It's also interesting that neither one seems to be fixing the problem...

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Police Chief Arrested in Drug Case

Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo

Mexico arrested two alleged drug cartel enforcers over the weekend, including a purported hit man accused of threatening officials and bribing police, and a suspect in the 1993 slaying of a Mexican cardinal.

Former local police chief Hector Izar Castro was detained on Sunday in the north-central state of San Luis Potosi on weapons, armed robbery and drug charges, federal police spokesman Edgar Millan said.

Police said Izar Castro had a rifle, pistols and cocaine in his possession at the time of his arrest, as well as three wooden clubs marked with the letter "Z" -- apparently signifying the Zetas, the gang of Gulf cartel hit men for whom he allegedly worked.

Late on Saturday, the commander of an army base in Tijuana announced that another alleged drug gunman had been collared: Alfredo Araujo Avila, also known as "Popeye," who allegedly worked for the Arellano Felix drug cartel as a hit man for more than two decades.

Araujo Avila is suspected of participating in the slaying of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo, who was riddled with bullets on May 24, 1993, while he sat in his car at the airport in the city of Guadalajara, General German Redondo told reporters.

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Importance: Mexico seems to have so much drug violence and corruption that the arrest of two offenders appears to be a mere drop in the bucket; however, these arrests are of import as they reveal that the president's 'crack down' on crime is making headway. They give the hope that his plans will not be as futile as his predecessor's.

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Mexico anti-drug official says target of hit men

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's deputy attorney general said on Thursday that three men arrested in Mexico City last week with shoulder-fired rockets, rifles and a submachine gun were planning to kill him.

Jose Luis Santiago, the point man in the country's war on drug gangs and the official in charge of extraditing drug bosses to the United States, said the suspected hit men may belong to the Sinaloa Cartel, which dominates Mexico's Pacific Coast cocaine smuggling routes.

In northern Mexico, drug gangs frequently murder local police, judges and politicians in the middle of the conflict. But attacks on senior federal authorities are rare.

Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa Cartel, escaped from prison in 2001 and remains at large. One of his top lieutenants was arrested this week.

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Importance: This article shows that the war on drugs is continuing to be a major problem all over Mexico. The last paragraph above states that the man in charge of the largest cocaine smuggling gang is still at large and has been since 2001. This shows that major improvements need tobe made in order to cut down on the smuggling.

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Mexico Seeks U.S. Aid on Drug War

Even as President Felipe Calderón dispatched more than 24,000 military and security forces to pacify areas overrun by drug gangs, the country saw more than 2,500 deaths related to the drug trade in 2007.

Mexico has logged important successes, from extraditions to drug seizures, and Mr. Calderón's administration has been lauded by many observers as the boldest in recent history in the face of organized crime. On Monday, officials announced the arrest of one of Mexico's top operatives, a suspected leader of the infamous Sinaloa cartel.

But with each victory comes another daylight shootout, another federal agent down, and a heightened perception that the problem is bigger than Mexico can solve alone.

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Significance: Mexico is looking for help to fight their drug war however; the U.S. drug war isn't the most succesfull project in the world. We'll see how much the U.S. actually helps.

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Military Replace Police

Local police were relieved of duty Tuesday in the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and Reynosa as army troops disarmed the officers and searched for evidence that might link them to drug traffickers.

In Nuevo Laredo, soldiers surrounded police headquarters at 8 a.m. and ordered officers to remain inside. Federal troops conducted a similar operation in Tijuana last January, at the beginning of an offensive against Mexico's drug cartels and their allies in the police.

During the first 14 months of his rule, President Felipe Calderon has sent federal troops to at least half a dozen states, including Michoacan in the south and Veracruz on the Gulf. Calderon has vowed to break the power of the traffickers, who wield wide influence over local authorities and intimidate local news media.

At least two drug-trafficking organizations are fighting for control of Nuevo Laredo and its border crossings, a lucrative source of income for smugglers. President Vicente Fox, Calderon's predecessor, sent army troops there in 2005.

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Importance: The article reveals Calderon's efforts at breaking down the drug trade in Mexico as well as unraveling the layers of police corruption. However, similar efforts have been made in the past, and things have not changed. Whether the president's attempts will be effective remains to be seen.

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