The Americas Post - This was the last face ever seen by a minimum of 75 murder victims

Police in northern Mexico have captured a suspected member of the Zetas drug cartel, who confessed to killing at least 75 people, authorities announced Monday.

Elizondo was captured Jan. 20 in the town of Salinas Victoria, but authorities postponed announcing his arrest in order to verify details of his confession, state Attorney General Adrian de la Garza said.

Domene said the 35-year-old suspect told investigators he had worked in the region over three years and that his duty was killing members of the rival Gulf drug cartel en route to the towns of Cerralvo and General Trevino.

Elizondo and other gunmen last January started pulling passengers off buses as they arrived at Cerralvo’s bus station, Domene said. They were among at least 92 bus passengers the Zetas are accused of killing in three attacks in January and March 2011.

Elizondo was famous “for torturing, maiming and then killing his victims,” Domene added.

Last year, authorities in the neighboring state of Tamaulipas exhumed 193 bodies from unmarked graves in the town of San Fernando. Security forces were led to the site by Zetas who confessed to kidnapping and killing bus passengers in the area.

The exact motive for the bus abductions is undetermined. Prosecutors  suggested the gang may be recruiting at gunpoint or killing suspected rivals aboard the buses.

Northeastern Mexico has been inflamed by a turf war between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas since their 2010 division.  Over 47,000 people have been killed nationwide since President Felipe Calderon launched his December 2006 crackdown against drug traffickers.

The Center for International Policy, a Washington think tank,  reported Monday that $872 billion in proceeds from crime flowed out of Mexico between 1970 and 2010.

Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia, alias “The Architect,” was killed Friday during an air and ground operation in Canatlan, Durango state. The action began with a firefight at a ranch, army spokesman general Ricardo Trevilla announced at a news conference.

According to Trevilla, he was “one of the main lieutenants of Joaquin Guzman Loera alias ‘El Chapo.’”

Another gunman died in the raid and 11 others were arrested, Trevilla said. Three soldiers were also wounded.

The army said Luis Alberto Cabrera Sarabia took over as assistant to the fugitive head of the Sinaloa drug cartel after his brother, Felipe Carbrera Sarabia or “The Engineer,” was detained in December.

The northern states of Durango, Sinaloa and Chihuahua are known as the “Golden Triangle,” a key area of production of Mexican opium and marijuana.

The Americas Post - Plane? What plane? Oh, you mean THAT plane...

An American military aircraft helped monitor the deadly 2010 raid by Jamaican security forces to capture a fugitive crime boss, that country’s prime minister has admitted, in spite of earlier denials by his government.

The U.S. P-3 Orion provided aerial surveillance of the operation to arrest Christopher “Dudus” Coke, Prime Minister Andrew Holness told reporters on Thursday.   The raid ignited a vicious battle in a West Kingston slum that left over 70 dead.

Holness insisted that the U.S. played no other role in the raid in the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood.  ”We would want to reaffirm our position that the U.S. Government or its military did not participate in the operations in West Kingston,” he said.

His statement came just one day after National Security Minister Dwight Nelson claimed that the U.S. had not provided any surveillance of the raid, in spite of a report in The New Yorker magazine.

Holness said that Nelson made the statement in error because he was unaware of the U.S. assistance. Prior official statements had also denied any U.S. role in the raid. The prime minister said the surveillance was coordinated between the Jamaican Defense Force and the “relevant government agency” in the U.S.

“The United States Government initially made an offer to provide surveillance and technical equipment,” he said. “We accepted and followed the normal protocol of exchanging diplomatic notes to provide the government-to-government cover for such assistance.”

Ocsar Derby, director of Jamaica’s Civil Aviation Authority, said Friday that officials with the island’s Defense Force had notified him the U.S. craft would carry out a surveillance mission.

“We made sure to keep other aircraft away from the area,” he said.

The hunt for Coke in his West Kingston slum stronghold provoked fighting that killed 73 civilians and three security officers over the next four days. He was finally arrested by Jamaican authorities and extradited to the U.S., where he pleaded guilty in August to racketeering and assault charges. Coke faces up to 23 years in prison when he is sentenced.

The Americas Post - The Zetas are getting more professional in the graphic arts.

Mexico’s violent Zetas drug cartel has released a new statement challenging the governments of both Mexico and the United States.

“Message to the nation, the government, and all of Mexico and to public opinion: The special forces of Los Zetas challenges the government of Mexico and its federal forces,” said the communique, which was signed by Zetas leader Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, also known as Z-40.   Unlike previous messages accompanying murder victims, this one appeared on a professionally printed banner.

The Zetas were launched in 1999 by Heriberto Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” who deserted a Mexican elite special operations unit with three other soldiers to form the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel.  The paramilitary group is now one of the most violent and powerful cartels operating in Mexico, competing with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel.  The Zetas were blamed for a casino attack in Monterrey that left 52 people dead earlier this year.

“Not the Army, not the Marines nor the security and anti-drug agencies of the United States government can resist us. Mexico lives and will continue under the regime of Los Zetas,” the communique went on to state.

“Let it be clear that we are in control here and although the federal government controls other cartels, they cannot take our plazas. You want proof?” the communique asked. “Look at what happened in Sinaloa and Guadalajara. If we can get all the way into their kitchen we are not going to lose control of our territory.”

This past September in the Gulf coast city of Veracruz,  the bound and tortured bodies of 35 alleged Zetas members were dumped by the Sinaloa cartel onto a main thoroughfare in the city. In May, over two dozen people, most of them Zetas, were killed while infiltrating Sinaloa cartel territory in the state of Nayarit.

Since President Felipe Calderón declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels  upon taking office in 2006, an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people have been killed in the ensuing violence.

The Americas Post - We've been seeing more group pictures like this lately. Photo Credit: AP

Mexican soldiers have arrested Ovidio Limon Sanchez, a top lieutenant of the Sinaloa Cartel and one of the DEA’s highest profile targets.

Captured in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state on Mexico’s Pacific coast, Limon Sanchez was described by that country’s Defense Ministry as being on the ten most-wanted list and “one of the most important operators in the Guzman Loera criminal organization”.  That name refers to Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is Mexico’s most sought-after fugitive.

Limon Sanchez has been identified by the DEA as responsible for the purchase, transit and distribution of cocaine routed to Los Angeles, and is under an extradition order from US federal district court in California.  The US government had offered a $5,000,000 reward for his capture.

The Americas Post - Even drug traffickers tell their kids to do their homework. Photo Credit: Reuters

Brazilian police on Thursday captured the most wanted narcotrafficker in Rio de Janeiro, as they took steps to occupy the largest slum in that city in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Antonio Bonfim Lopes, alleged druglord in the Rocinha neighborhood, was captured in unusual circumstances, hiding in the trunk of a luxury car belonging to a high-level diplomat from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Television images showed the 35 year-old suspect, known as “Nem”, sitting in a patrol car at the point of tears.  Authorities were quick to declare victory.

“This is a historic moment in the fight against narcotrafficking in Rio de Janeiro”, said State Security Secretary Jose Mariano Beltrame.

But in a sign that corruption and partnerships between police and drug gangs continue to be a problem, three agents and two ex-cops were also arrested, together with various traffickers they were trying to help escape the slums in advance of the sweep announced by police.

Home to over 100,000 people, Rocinha rises high on a ridge overlooking some of the most exclusive neighborhoods and beaches of Rio.  It is considered the main distribution point for drugs in Brazil’s second largest city.  Dismantling that operation is the next and most ambitious step in a “pacification” program that has already expelled drug gangs from 18 marginal neighborhoods in hopes of restoring Rio to its former glory.

Police said that when a patrol stopped the car in the early morning hours, the occupants identifying themselves as the Congolese Consul and two lawyers offered them a million reales (US$570,000) to allow them to pass.  Nem, who did not resist, was taken with the others to federal police headquarters from which he sent a message to his children reminding them not to forget their schoolwork.

The Americas Post - It wasn't microphones pointing at Alfonso Cano this week.

In another setback for Latin America’s oldest guerrilla army, FARC rebel leader Guillermo Leon Saenz was killed in Colombia on Friday.

According to Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon, Saenz, who was better known by his battle moniker Alfonso Cano, was tracked down in the southern department of Cauca.  He had already been on the run for months with a $5 million bounty on his head.

“This is the biggest blow the organization has seen in its history,” President Juan Manuel Santos announced in Cartagena.  He also called on the remaining members of FARC  to give up the fight. “If you don’t…you will end up in jail or in a grave”, he said.

Pinzón said the military attacked Cano’s rural camp from the air at about 8:30 am. Friday before landing troops in the area.  Once on the ground, soldiers found Cano’s trail glasses and wallet before surrounding him and a group of his closest followers.  In the course of the battle his security chief was taken prisoner and Cano’s “sentimental partner” was killed, Pinzón said.

Authorities showed a picture of Cano’s body, uncharacteristically clean-shaven, recovered with seven computers, some 30 memory sticks and more than $107,000 in cash.

This was latest in a series of setbacks for the FARC.  Their second-in-command, Raul Reyes, was killed in 2008 in a cross-border raid on his base in Ecuador, while their top commander, Jorge Briceño, died in combat in September 2010.

Cano’s death comes amid fears that the FARC was making a comeback.

Rebel attacks have been rising for the last three years, after they dispersed into smaller, more mobile groups, analysts said.

According to Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, a think-tank that studies Colombia’s civil conflict, there were 1,115 FARC attacks in the first half of 2011 – up 10 percent over last year.

President Juan Manuel Santos replaced the entire military high command earlier and named Pinzon minister of defense in August.  Last month, however, the FARC killed 20 soldiers in two days before municipal elections.

Analysts warned that Cano’s death could provoke a fresh round of violence as the group attempts to prove it’s a force to be reckoned with. Founded in 1964 with a Marxist ideology, the FARC now depends on drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion for financing.  According to some estimates, the group is down to under 9,000 members, from approximately 17,000 in 2002.

Pinzón said that Cano had been a guerrilla for over 33 years and that his death proves that no rebel is safe from the Colombian army.

“Today, the armed forces and the national police have destroyed a myth,” he said.

The Americas Post - Calderon doesn't want so many crooks back

Mexican President Felipe Calderon this week accused the United States of dumping criminals at the border to avoid the cost of prosecuting them, and claimed the practice has increased violence in Mexico’s border region.

US officials have reported a record number of deportations in fiscal year 2011, and said the number deported with criminal convictions had nearly doubled since 2008.

“There are many factors in the violence that is being experienced in some Mexican border cities, but one of those is that the American authorities have gotten into the habit of simply deporting 60 (thousand) or 70,000 migrants per year to cities like Ciudad Juarez or Tijuana,” Calderon said at an immigration conference.

Among them “there are many who really are criminals, who have committed some crime and it is simply cheaper to leave them on the Mexican side of the border than to prosecute them, as they should do, to see whether they are guilty or not,” Calderon complained. “And obviously, they quickly link up with criminal networks on the border.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton said Tuesday his agency deported nearly 400,000 individuals during the fiscal year that ended in September, the largest number of removals in the agency’s history.

Morton released the 2011 figures in Washington, saying about 55 percent of those deported had criminal convictions. Officials said that number was up 89 percent from 2008. The majority of US migrants, and deportees, are from Mexico.

The U.S. embassy did not comment on Calderon’s speech.

When undocumented Mexicans finish prison terms in the United States, they are transported to the border and released.  Both the United States and Mexico are experimenting with new communication channels for deportations, and U.S. officials said that they do warn Mexico when former inmates are considered particularly dangerous.

Mexicans with U.S. criminal records cannot simply be detained in Mexico if they have not violated the law there.  Officials in some Mexican border cities have complained about their inability to run criminal background checks on deported inmates to check for pending charges.

One famous deported convict, Martin Estrada Luna, is accused of becoming a cell leader for the Zetas drug cartel in the border state of Tamaulipas just over a year after being deported from the United States. Estrada, who had a long criminal record in Washington state, is now in custody in Mexico City, where he is accused of planning the murders of over 250 people.

"El Chapo" Guzman has a fight on his hands

After nearly four years  and 40,000 dead, Mexican president Felipe Calderón’s offensive against the five major drug cartels in his country has left two of them dominating the market.

While other organizations have been hampered or fragmented by the arrest or killing of their leaders, the Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel have taken advantage of the situation to step into the gap and expand their operations, according to narcotrafficking expert Jorge Chabat.

“The two that have survived are absorbing elements of the others”, he said.

Chabat also noted that the two which now dominate most of Mexico are known for their extreme violence, and that the trend is not improving.  Last week 35 bodies bearing signs of torture were dumped in the streets of Veracruz during rush hour.  Authorities attributed that massacre to the Zetas, who are composed of military veterans recruited from the Mexican Special Forces.   The victims are thought to have ties with the Sinaloa Cartel, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Last May over two dozen people, most of whom were suspected Zetas, were murdered while allegedly attempting to infiltrate Sinaloa Cartel territory in the Pacific coastal state of Nayarit.

Upon taking power in December of 2006, President Calderon launched a national offensive that deployed thousands of soldiers across the country. At that time the Zetas operated as the armed branch of the Gulf Cartel, before breaking ties in 2010 in a bloody fight that left the Zetas dominating that region.

According to Chabat, in their battle for control of seaports the Zetas and Sinaloa Cartel are unlikely to come to any agreement to divide the country, but rather expected to continue escalating their violent tactics.

Jamaican druglord Christopher 'Dudus' Coke faces 23 years in a U.S. prison

Christoper “Dudus” Coke has pleaded guilty to trafficking three tons of marijuana and 30 lbs of cocaine into the US, as well as ordering the stabbing of a New York drug dealer.

A prominent supporter of the ruling Labour party, he was…READ MORE HERE