City Mayor: "It isn't safe to walk in Culiacan"

Friday, 02 May 2008
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERS
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Foreign News Report
The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa) , El Porvenir (Monterrey, Nuevo Leon) 5/2/08

After the multiple shootouts which just took place in the city, the mayor of Culiacan, Jesus Vizcarra Calderon, admitted that "it isn't safe to walk in Culiacan". He warned that "this is derived from the presence and actions of the federal government." The number of arrested as a result of the shootouts rose to 14 and they've been taken to Mexico City. The cash, seized from a vehicle involved in one of the affrays, turned out to be $379,980 dollars. There were also 18 firearms - mostly assault rifles - , a half dozen 100-round capacity loaders for AK47, and a host of other tactical equipment.

The governor of Sinaloa, Jesus Aguilar Padilla, said that the situation in the area is grave and because of that operations against criminals will continue. He added that the confrontations which took place in Culiacan reflect the gravity and level which organized crime has reached not only in Sinaloa but in the whole country.
Critica (Sonora) 5/2/08

The colonel in charge of the Mex. army unit at Caborca, Sonora, publicly asked the mayor of Caborca to dismiss the city's chief of police and the deputy chief of police. Some fifty military personnel surrounded and inspected the police facility and found vehicles which had been reported stolen in the U.S., packets of cocaine, and unauthorized AK47 rifles and clips. The police chiefs were said to have refused to cooperate with the military.

(Caborca is some 100 miles SW of Nogales as the crow flies)

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El Diario de Coahuila (Saltillo, Coah.) , El Manana (Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas) 5/2/08

The group of "narcotraffickers" which confronted Mex. military in the northern reaches of Nuevo Leon and near Ciudad Mier, Tamaulipas, had ample firepower at their disposal. "SEDENA" (Mex. Dep't. of Defense) reports that in one of the vehicles which the criminals abandoned there were 38 firearms including thirteen AR15, five AK47 and even a 5.7 caliber Herstal, known as "cop killer" and capable of penetrating armor. The thugs also abandoned 6,164 rounds of ammo, 175 clips, 18 cellular phones, 17 radios, $138,266 dollars and 54,800 pesos. Four soldiers were wounded and one subsequently died from this action.

(Our report of 4/30/08 carried the relating preliminary publication of this event near Falcon Dam on the Rio Grande. The attachment to today's report shows some of the seized items)

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El Diario (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 5/2/08

April's murder tally in Ciudad Juarez saw a drop compared to the previous month, probably caused by the military's "Joint Operation Chihuahua." Still, there were 52 cases and the count reached 262 for the first three months of the year.

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El Universal (Mexico City) 5/2/08

Electricity theft in central Mexico (states of Puebla, Mexico, Morelos, Hidalgo & the Distrito Federal) has reached 16 thousand giga/watts/hour, which represents half the total energy generated by the electric utility supplying the area and has resulted in a loss of 13 billion 345 million pesos. Half the lights and equipment powered by electricity in this area is stolen.

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Entorno a Tamaulipas (Matamoros, Tamaulipas) 5/2/08

Francisco Javier Zamorano, second in charge for the "PGR" (Mex. Dep't. of Justice) for the state of Tamaulipas, was eating with his family at a restaurant on the south side of Reynosa, Tamps., when four armed men took him away by force. Now military, federal, state and local police are searching for him. Hernandez was reassigned to Tamaulipas just two months ago. In December 2007 he was in Quintana Roo as head of the "AFI" (Fed. Inv. Agency) and was himself the subject of an investigation after some of his personnel were believed to be involved with organize crime.

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La Cronica de Hoy , Excelsior (both Mexico City) 5/2/08

On Thursday in Mexico City, as Roberto Velasco Bravo the head of the Organized Crime unit of the Technical Analysis section of the "SSP" (Mex. Dep't. of Public Security) arrived at his home he was shot on the head by men who fled in a vehicle. Velasco was declared dead.

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La Hora (Quito, Ecuador) 5/2/08

A Malaysian, an Ecuadorean and a Latvian, all three "burros", were arrested at the airport in Lima, Peru. They were each caught trying to leave Peru with 5.2, 2.8 and 5.7 kilos, respectively, of cocaine.

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Prensa Libre (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 5/2/08

In the last few weeks some 80 Chinese, 80 Cubans, about 60 Ecuadoreans, 40 Peruvians and some 40 Brazilians have flown into Guatemala and have been allowed to enter with improper or false documentation. Officials are investigating that Guatemalan immigration inspectors could be charging $3,000 U.S. dollars for each illegal entry.

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(Do the pictured weapons look U.S. made?)