Thread: Shots fired near US consulate in Mexico (Again)

Shots fired near US consulate in northern Mexico

1:30 p.m. November 13, 2008

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Shots were fired near a U.S. consulate in northern Mexico Thursday, the third incident at the building in a month, and officials briefly suspended visa services, police and witnesses said.

Mexican police swarmed around the consulate building in the city of Monterrey after shots were heard and a bullet hit a nearby fruit vendor's cart, a police spokesman said.

Unknown gunmen shot at the building in October and threw a grenade that did not explode. In another incident last month, gunmen also fired shots near the building.

No one at the consulate, which processes immigrant visas for Mexicans and provides services to U.S. citizens in Mexico, was immediately available for comment.

Monterrey, a manufacturing and services city close to the U.S. border, saw a surge in violence involving drug gangs in 2007 but has been calm this year despite spiraling turf wars between drug cartels across Mexico in which some 4,300 people have died in 2008.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott, editing by Vicki Allen)

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... hotsfired/

Two top TJ police being questioned for suspected crime links

By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

8:19 p.m. November 13, 2008

TIJUANA – Two top members of Tijuana's municipal police department are among the 20 officers being questioned by Mexican federal investigators for suspected ties to organized crime, the city's Public Safety Secretariat announced Thursday.

Most of the officers were taken into custody Monday and Tuesday, but their identities were not initially confirmed. On Thursday, a district chief overseeing the Mesa de Otay region also was detained.

The detentions come as the region has tried to cope with weeks of unprecedented violence, which law enforcement officials attribute to drug-trafficking groups battling for control of smuggling routes.

Alberto Capella, the city's secretary of public safety, and Julian Leyzaola, the police chief, remain in their posts. Two of Leyzaola's top three deputies – Juan Manuel Nieves Reta and Rigoberto Rodrguez – are among the suspects, as is the department's liaison with U.S. agencies, Javier Cardenas.

A judge in Mexico City has yet to determine whether the officers will be formally charged, but Mayor Jorge Ramos said Thursday that none of them will be returned to their posts.

“Whoever is gone, won't be coming back, no matter what their judicial situation, because with doubts raised, I prefer not to have them in the Tijuana police department,â€

Ex-Tijuana police office gets 30 months for trafficking heroin

UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

5:32 p.m. November 13, 2008

SAN DIEGO – A former Tijuana police officer was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in federal prison for trafficking in heroin.
Victor Melendrez Franco, 26, was arrested in November 2007 after San Diego police found 440 grams of heroin in his car during a traffic stop. He pleaded guilty in March to possession with intent to distribute.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan sentenced Melendrez to four years of supervised release.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Breaking News Team: (619) 293-1010; breaking@uniontrib.com

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metr ... eroin.html