Boston Police did a good job.

Thermal-imaging devices have been used to watch the second suspect in this week’s Boston Marathon bombings as he was holed up in his last hiding place, the boat.

Authorities said a helicopter equipped with a thermal imager (FLIR — a forward-looking infrared device —) spotted the heat signature of a person inside a tarp-covered boat, sitting in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.

After an area resident reported seeing a trail of blood leading to the boat, Boston Police gave instructions to the helicopter who used the sensor.

The thermal readings confirmed that there was indeed someone under the tarp, and that the person was still alive.  After that the helicopter´s termal equippment followed up the heat signature of the individual, even though he was underneath of what appeared to be the ‘shrink wrap’ or cover on the boat itself.

From that point on, the helicopter was able to direct the tactical teams over to that area.

After monitoring the body in the boat for more than an hour, police moved in and took the wounded bombing suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, into custody.

The FLIR (Forward-Looking Infra-Red) system detects the Infra-red signatures of high heat sources, associated with the metal-hydride lights used in large grow operations.

A similar helicopter to this monitored the suspect by using thermal equipment , during the standoff in Boston

The technology is not new. The military has used it for years on the battlefield. Law enforcement has adopted the device only recently, using it in search and rescue operations, fugitive apprehensions, and along the border to detect drug smugglers and illegal border crossings. Moreover, thermal imagers have been particularly helpful, albeit controversial, in the detection of indoor marijuana-growing operations.

Police will fly at an altitude between 1,200 and 1,500 feet in a helicopter fitted with FLIR. The thermal image of a structure will show the walls and other areas as bright white, indicating significant heat was escaping. This is than determined by the FLIR operator as being consistent with that of a structure being used for an indoor marijuana-growing operation.

The Americas Security News - Senator Pinto exiled in the brazilian embassy in Bolivia.

March 3rd.- The governments of Bolivia and Brazil on Saturday signed joint actions to combat drug trafficking and organized crime, protection of migrants and regional integration. The initiatives were defined in meeting by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Patriota (Brazil), and David Choquehuanca (Bolivia) in the bolivian city of Cochabamba.

Choquehuanca said that in April, there will be a meeting between the Defense Ministers of Bolivia and Brazil to review the policy of protection to immigrants in the border regions. In the meeting will participate commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force of both countries, to coordinate activities in joint border.

The governments of Bolivia and Brazil agreed also to establish a commission of officials and experts who will analyze the case of Bolivian senator Roger Pinto, exiled for more than nine months in the Brazilian Embassy in La Paz. Pinto is accusing the bolivian government of links with the drug trafficking.

Crime in Brazil

Recent surveys reflect public safety has not been the priority of the current Brazilian government. The surveys are talkinf about little investment public safety, high rates of crime and homicide, low percentage of homicides cleared by the justice system, increased sense of insecurity of the population, according to an article published by 180graus.com

The article says that a survey by the website Open Accounts about public spending on public safety, points out that the 3.1 billion in planned budget for public safety in 2012, only 738 million reais (23.8% of total) was used by the federal government.

According to the survey, the pending on the purchase of new vehicles, equipment and infrastructure improvements, such as prisons and police departments, although it was higher than in 2010 and 2011, is far less than that applied in 2007 (R $ 1.2 billion).

Excessive bureaucracy, the systemic failings of the various organs of government and lack of commitment results are the main factors for the low investment of resources in the area. Furthermore, by constitutional provision, the federal government maintains some distance from the public safety issue, since the control of the military and civil police is the responsibility of the states. With this, the difficulties in applying the resources demonstrate the need to review assignments of the central federal government in Brasilia, states and municipalities.

Brazil is considered the second most violent country in the world, based on figures relating to intentional lethal crimes. Annually about 50 thousand Brazilians are victims of homicides in Brazil. Of these, on average, only 8% the police get the criminals and far fewer get to be tried and convicted. The impunity rate reaches the level of 92%, according to the article.

Nevertheless, Brazil supposedly can not be regarded as a country of  impunity, because it has the third prison population in the world, second only to China and the United States, and one of the fastest growth rate of incarceration in the world. In 1995 there were 160 000 prisoners and currently are 540 000.

The announcement Friday by Undersecretary Eduardo Sánchez of the Interior Secretariat was another sign that President Enrique Peña Nieto is developing a whole different strategy against the cartels, and wants to distance itself from practices under the previous government, which left power Dec. 1.

Last week, Sánchez also told the press that police no longer would put suspected gangsters on display in “perp walks” before banks of television cameras, nor would authorities post “most-wanted” lists, allow news media to air raids in action or refer to gangsters by aliases.

“It is not acceptable, nor will it ever be under this government, that authorities conduct themselves in arbitrary ways that hurt society (or) lead to impunity and injustice,” Sánchez said at a news conference.READ MORE HERE

Initially, it looked like a bust of another nexus of drug traffickers and moneylaunderers. But to U.S. authorities the case was anything but ordinary. Prosecutors alleged, one of the alleged criminals helped run a money-laundering ring using UK-based international banking group HSBC Holdings Plc.   The case against HSBC eventually led to a $1.9 billion settlement on December 11.

One of the men was a colombian businessman, Julio Chaparro, a 48-year-old father. Chaparro was… READ THE STORY HERE

The Americas Post - This scene won't be featured in any Ford F-150 pickup truck commercial

Mexican police on Monday discovered the bodies of 16 men dumped in a vehicle in the southwestern state of Guerrero, one of the areas worst hit by feuding between drug gangs.

The victims, found near the city of Coyuca de Catalan, on the border with the western state of Michoacan, had been shot and showed signs of torture, local police said.

“We don’t yet have information on who these people are. This is a very violent area,” a local police official said.

In a statement released Monday afternoon, the attorney general’s office for Guerrero state said all of the bodies were found blindfolded in an abandoned red Ford pick-up truck.

Police were tipped off by an anonymous call Monday morning and shortly afterward officers confirmed the grisly discovery, the statement added.

Michoacan is home to the “La Familia” drug gang and its offshoot “The Knights Templar,” which have been mired in a bloody struggle for control in the area.

Local media reported “La Familia” had claimed responsibility for the attack with messages daubed on the vehicle. It was one of the worst killings in Guerrero in recent months.

Home to the popular beach resort Acapulco, Guerrero has suffered one of the highest death tolls in turf wars between Mexico’s drug cartels, which have overshadowed the administration of outgoing President Felipe Calderon.

Calderon sent reinforcements to Guerrero late last year in an effort to curb the violence blighting Acapulco, and the rate of killing fell during the early months of the operation known as “Guerrero Seguro”, or Safe Guerrero.

However, recent weeks have seen a resurgence in the violence in Guerrero as centrist Enrique Pena Nieto prepares to succeed the conservative Calderon as president in December.

Pena Nieto has pledged to quickly reduce the violence in Mexico. Killings leapt over the last six years during Calderon’s army-led efforts to bring the drug gangs to heel.

More than 55,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico during Calderon’s term.

Two faces, same coin, the Zetas. Heriberto Lazcano, alias Z-3; Miguel Treviño, alias Z-40

Regardless of the veracity of the current rumors that Mexico’s feared Zetas organization has split into pieces, the organization’s breakup is a foregone conclusion given the group’s local revenue streams.

Recently a US law enforcement source told APthat Zetas second-in-command Miguel Angel Treviño, alias  Z-40,  has successfully taken over control of the entire group, displacing Heriberto Lazcano, alias Z-3,  it’s long-time number one. READ MORE HERE

This week, the two countries signed Memoranda of Understanding with UNODC that will see the establishment of CCP Joint Port Control Units in Port Georgetown (the John Fernandes Port) and Nieuwe Haven Port respectively.

The Caribbean has become increasingly vulnerable to the illicit flow of drugs from South America to North America and Europe via maritime containers, particularly as Latin American States tighten border control and security. Given their geographic location, the Guyana and Suriname container trade faces significant threats from transnational organized crime.

The Joint Port Control Units in the two countries will strengthen the control of containers entering and leaving the ports, improve the coordination, analysis and exchange of information in real time, share human and technical resources to avoid duplicity of activities and facilitate safe foreign commerce. Container inspection in the two ports will be carried out by a team trained and equipped to work together to systematically target high-risk containers with minimal disruption to the free flow of legitimate trade.

A two-week training programme will be conducted for Guyanese and Surinamese officers drawn from relevant government agencies from 1-12 October, and it is expected that the Joint Port Control Units in both countries will commence operations in mid-October. Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are also expected to establish similar units later this year.

READ MORE HERE

The Americas Post - Cocaine in Spain is headed down the drain. Photo Credit: Spanish Interior Ministry

Spanish police and the FBI have reportedly blocked a major Mexican drug cartel from launching a European operation. Sinaloa cartel member Jesus Gutierrez Guzman was part of the operation. Guzman is alleged to be the cousin of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman, known as “El Chapo,” the leader of the Sinaloa cartel.

The ministry said the cartel wanted to make Spain a gateway for operations in Europe, even carrying out test runs using shipping containers without drugs. But investigators managed to monitor many of the group’s activities and intercepted a container carrying 373 kilos (822 pounds) of cocaine in late July before moving in to make the arrests.

The Interior Ministry statement said Jesus Gutierrez Guzman, Rafael Humberto Celaya Valenzuela, Samuel Zazueta Valenzuela and Jesus Gonzalo Palazuelos Soto were arrested near their hotels in the Spanish capital. The statement did not say precisely when the arrests were made, and when called by phone ministry officials could not immediately give exact details of the dates.

Jesus Gutierrez Guzman is alleged to be the cousin of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman, known as “El Chapo,” the leader of the cartel and Mexico’s most wanted man. Since escaping prison in 2001, Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman has run the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s two most powerful drug-organizations, from a series of hideouts and safe houses across Mexico.

Law-enforcement officials say he has earned billions of dollars moving tons of cocaine and other drugs north to the United States. In recent months, the Sinaloa cartel and its allies have been waging a brutal war against the paramilitary Zetas cartel across Mexico, often carrying out mass killings that have left hundreds of dismembered bodies dumped in public places.

Along with the alleged link to the cartel leader, the arrests in Spain have attracted a great deal of media interest in Mexico because a Facebook page in Celaya Valenzuela’s name appears to show a photograph of him alongside Mexico’s President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto. The photo was posted on Feb. 11. The presidential elections were held in July.

The operation against the Sinaloa cartel was made possible thanks to agents using “the most modern research techniques,” which had at all times been supervised by judges and prosecutors, the Interior Ministry statement said. It noted that “the bulk” of the investigation was carried out in the United States.

U.S. agents had learned that cartel members were planning to travel to Spain and were later able to confirm the trip, which took place in March 2011, the statement said. Thanks to the information provided by the FBI’s Boston division, Spanish police located the suspects and monitored them closely “to ensure their full identification,” the statement said.

The statement said FBI investigators had determined that the gang intended to begin large cocaine shipments by sea with the drugs concealed in cargo containers. The cartel used stringent security measures to try to ensure the success of the operation and did several test runs, initially shipping containers without any drugs in them.

When they sent a first drugs shipment to Spain on board a ship from Brazil in late July, officers intercepted it, the statement said.

The arrest of his alleged cousin could potentially lead to information about the whereabouts of the fugitive Mexican drug lord. Investigators working to bust Sinaloa’s operations thought in June that they had nabbed a son of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman, but it turned out they got the wrong man.

The Americas Post - Prison security chief Alejandro Osuna Rios only survived four months on the job

The head of security for a Mexican prison in Culiacan, the capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, has been gunned down, according to police.

Alejandro Osuna Rios was murdered on Friday in front of his house, authorities announced.  The 36-year-old had been in charge of security at the prison for four months.

Osuna Rios was attacked by several gunmen riding in two SUVs as he stood in front of his house with his wife and son in the Villas del Manantial district.

Sinaloa state Attorney General’s Office investigators found 44 bullet casings and an ammunition clip for an AK-47 at the crime scene, as well as the officer’s service weapon.  Osuna Rios, who had just started his vacation, did not have time to draw his 9 mm pistol and return fire, police said.

Sinaloa is currently the scene of a bloody turf war among several heavily armed groups.  The state is home to the drug cartel led by Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, who was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and pulled off a Hollywood-style jailbreak when he escaped from the Puente Grande maximum-security prison in the western state of Jalisco on Jan. 19, 2001.

The Sinaloa organization, sometimes referred to by officials as the Pacific cartel, is the oldest and most powerful drug cartel in Mexico.

The Sinaloa cartel, according to intelligence agencies, is a transnational business empire that operates in the United States, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Americas and Asia.

About 50,000 people have died in Mexico’s drug war since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country’s powerful cartels, sending soldiers into the streets to fight criminals.