Border patrol reports detail crime, drugs
Published 2/12/08 in The Times-Herald

From Staff Reports
news@newnan.com



Daily reports from the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers offer translations of news reports from Latin America relating to immigration, drug trafficking and related crime.

People who want to get the reports can sign up by e-mailing m3report@yahoo.com . Here are some recent excerpts from NAFBPO updates:

* El Diario (Chihuahua, Chih.) 1/19/08 — Search of a farm at Luz Corral de Villa St. #2415, Chihuahua City, revealed a "narco grave" with six human remains, two of which might be those of two police officers who have disappeared.

* El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 1/19/08 — Two "wrapped" male murder victims were found on the west side of Nogales, Sonora. Their faces were taped and they had been beaten before being repeatedly shot.

* La Jomada (Mexico City) 1/19/08 — Mexican Special Forces personnel went into the Nuevo Laredo "Preventive Police" facility and questioned, disarmed and took away all other police equipment from six members of the police. The six were later transported to Mexico City where they will be confined for further interrogation.

* El Universal (Mexico City) 1/20/08 — Three more victims of torture and murder in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, makes four in two days for that locality. In Oaxaca, they found the duct-taped body of a man. The duct tape was used both to blind him and to tie the hands of the man who was shot twice in the head. Other execution victims: in Chiapas near the border with Guatemala and, on the other end of the country where three people were executed by organized crime in Chihuahua. One of them had been shot 15 times including the "coup de grace." And Uruachic, in the Sierra Tarahumara region of Chihuahua where marihuana and poppy are grown, was the scene of two more execution murders.

* Frontera (Tijuana, Baja Calif.) 1/20/08 — Juan Carlos Garcia Serranojust took over as head of the La Presa office of the Tijuana Police due to the murder of the previous chief last Monday evening. But last night (Saturday) an armed group of men kidnapped him out of his car. He has disappeared and not been heard from since. The local authorities have evacuated his family to an undisclosed location for their safety. Officer Garcia was the local head of the "D.A.R.E." anti-drug program.

* El Diario (Juarez, Chihuahua) 1/21/08 — A Juarez police captain became the 14th member of the Juarez Police force to be murdered in the last 13 months. Of the 14, only one died in the course of attempting to stop some thieves, while of the other thirteen all but one are believed to have been victims of gunfire execution by criminal groups. One was run over on purpose; the rest were victims of gunfire whether walking out of their home, riding in a vehicle or just being out on the street.

* El Financiero (Mexico City) 1/22/08 — Ernesto Palacios Lopez, a criminal court judge, was shot and killed while driving his vehicle yesterday evening. Unknown persons used a .223 caliber firearm. Judge Palacios was dealing with the case of a man believed to be an operative of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The murder occurred in San Nicolas de Garza, a suburb of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, where a second murder victim, this one tortured and shot, was found dumped in a park.

* El Imparcial (Hermosillo, Sonora) 1/22/08 — Today, Mexican Special Forces suddenly took over the Matamoros, Tamaulipas, city police facilities to inspect weapons and the individual records of each of the city police officers. The facility was surrounded without warning "to avoid any incidents during the revision of the weapons," and the city police officers are not being allowed to leave. This is taking place just hours after the same operation took place in Nuevo Laredo.

* El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 1/22/08 — Mexican federal and military personnel seized 21 shoulder weapons — mostly AR 15 — plus 389 clips and 7,658 rounds of ammunition while searching a house on Santo Tomas St., "almost at the corner with San Simon," Colonia San Pedro, in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. Most of the ammunition was of calibers for assault rifles and hundreds were of the so-called "cop killer" variety. There were also bullet proof vests, gas masks and other tactical gear.

* Norte (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 1/22/08 — Femando Lozano Sandoval, "first commander" of Chihuahua's State Investigations Agency, was shot and killed last night while driving his vehicle in Juarez. Two other officers with him were supposedly kidnapped according to eyewitness reports. An hour later, the executed body of a man was found dumped on the street. Though formal identification had not been made, it is believed it could be one of the two kidnapped subjects.

* EI Nuevo Diario (Managua, Nicaragua) 1/22/08 — There have been "at least" 76 murders in Guatemala in the first eight days since the inauguration of the country's new president. One was a police officer. Of the 76, 69 were by use of firearm; twenty other persons have been wounded, also by firearm. Security forces have begun "high impact" operations in the more troubled portions of the capital city. According to the "Ministry of Government," the majority of these crimes are due to "narco-traffic," to wars between gangs and to their "settling of debts." Guatemala has one police officer for each 650 residents. Last year's murder tally reached 5,781 victims.

* El Diario de Coahuila (Saltillo, Coah.), Entomo a Tamaulipas, 1/23/08 — In a coordinated surprise operation yesterday morning Mexican army units took over and placed under siege all city police facilities in the towns of Matamoros, Miguel Aleman, Valle Hermoso, Rio Bravo, Nuevo Laredo and Reynosa. All city police officers in those cities had their firearms, credentials and radios taken away; individual personnel files are being examined. The only results released as of late Tuesday p.m. was the finding of a small bag of "drug" in the personal car of one of the Matamoros P.D. officers; a second officer was also detained for being a spy for members of organized crime.

* La Jomada (Mexico City) 1/24/08 — A report by the World Bank placed Mexico at the top of the world in the number of emigrants and at third in the amount of individual monetary remittances from abroad. Titled "Migration and Remittances FactBook," the report says 11.5 million Mexicans — 10.7 percent of its population — have left for "other countries." There has also been a growth in the number of professionals emigrating, mainly physicians. Remittances have reached 25 billion dollars annually. The report also called the U.S./ Mexico border the world's largest migratory corridor.

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