Thread: South Padre Island / Precinct One Corruption & Border Wa

The resort and resturant owners who hire illegals for low wages, and drug dealers will fight this "draconian" law.

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Border Blotter: Floating pot; Reynosa grenade
April 28, 2010 - 7:08 AM
Valley Freedom Newspapers


McALLEN | MARIJUANA

U.S. Border Patrol agents caught a group of men floating a load of suspicious bundles across the Rio Grande on Monday.

The packages appeared to be compressed marijuana bundles, wrapped and taped off using a method commonly used by drug smugglers.

The agents saw some of the men floating on three inflatable rafts as they made their way into the United States. Several shirtless men also swam alongside the rafts, pulling the conspicuous brown packages.

When they noticed the federal agents, they rowed back toward Mexico and hauled the marijuana away with them.

Helicopter and marine units responded to Monday’s smuggling attempt, but the group managed to make it back to Mexico. No arrests were made.

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REYNOSA | GRENADE

Authorities found an unexploded grenade Tuesday night under a bridge on this city’s northwest side.

City officials announced about 9 p.m. via Twitter that the ordnance was discovered under the city’s Broncos bridge. The area was cordoned off by police for several hours.

At least one person died late last month after two shootouts near the same bridge — the namesake of Reynosa’s pro baseball team, the Broncos, which plays in the adjacent stadium.

Authorities continued to urge travelers to avoid the area as late as 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Officials have announced that at least seven unexploded grenades have been found in Reynosa in the past two months. Before Tuesday’s incident, authorities most recently found an explosive device in late March at a gasoline station in the Parque Industrial del Norte subdivision on the city’s northeast side.

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Legalize it and give work to citizen farmers in America--take money out of criminals pockets.

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Laredo cop arrested on drug charges
April 28, 2010 - 4:37 PM
The Associated Press


LAREDOÂ*(AP) — A Laredo police officer has been arrested on drug trafficking and weapons charges.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says a federal grand jury returned the sealed indictment against 27-year-old Orlando Jesus Hale on Tuesday. It was unsealed Wednesday after Hale's arrest.

Hale faces charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and the use of a firearm in a drug trafficking crime. He was scheduled to make his initial court appearance Thursday. It wasn't immediately clear whether Hale had retained a lawyer.

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Getaway for Mexican elite now cartel battleground
April 28, 2010 - 4:40 PM
The Associated Press


CUERNAVACA, Mexico (AP) — A battle for control of a brutal cartel has brought the drug war closer to the heart of Mexico, terrifying this city of bougainvilleas, swimming pools and yearlong warm weather that have made it a popular retreat for the capital's elite and U.S. retirees.

Cuernavaca, nicknamed the "City of Eternal Spring," has erupted in violence since a gunbattle at a luxury apartment building here killed a notorious drug kingpin, unleashing the fight for control of his organization.

Bodies have been hung from overpasses, dumped outside police headquarters or left on busy streets with their faces skinned. Mysterious e-mails have warned people to stay home after nightfall and to avoid driving the kind of pickup trucks and SUVs favored by drug lords, lest they become caught up in a deadly dispute between rival gangs.

Schools and offices sent students and workers home early when the messages first circulated nearly two weeks ago. Nighttime classes in at least one private university were canceled. Bars and restaurants shut their doors, some for two days.

Business has still not picked up. A handful of tourists strolled through the aisles at a crafts market this week, where about half the stands remained closed.

"What they wanted was to frighten people and that's exactly what they did," said Jose Luis Rodriguez, a silver-jewelry vendor who shut down his stand and rushed home last week after hearing about the warning. He said his sales have dropped by more than half.

"There is still fear that someone could come and throw a grenade or open fire," Rodriguez said, checking out a front-page newspaper photo of a man who had been shot in the face.

Cuernavaca, a city of 350,000 with mild weather and rich vegetation just 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Mexico City, has been a favorite retreat for the rich and powerful since the days of the Aztec Empire. It is known for its charming Spanish-colonial downtown and for posh homes with lush gardens and swimming pools.

The city also has attracted powerful drug lords, whose wealth has quietly blended in amid the gated mansions and upscale apartment buildings. Most law-abiding residents have seemed content to ignore rumors of drug traffickers living in their midst.

That fragile tranquility was shattered when marines raided an apartment complex in December, killing kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva during a two-hour shootout while residents cowered in the gym. Authorities say his brother, Hector Beltran Leyva, has been fighting for control of the cartel against Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a U.S.-born man known as "La Barbie" who has become one of Mexico's most elusive drug suspects.

Hector Beltran Leyva reportedly signed one of the threatening e-mails that was distributed among city residents. Authorities have remained silent about the authenticity of the e-mail, even as local television stations have taken it seriously.

The Juarez 4 nightclub was one of the few establishments that opened the night the e-mail circulated, on April 16. Nobody showed up.

Last weekend was only a little better; about a third of the normal clientele came to the two-story club adorned with pirate mannequins hanging from ropes and sitting on barrels.

"This is a city that depends on tourism and what violence has done is collapse our economy," said club owner Andres Remis, president of the Cuernavacan Nightclubs and Bars Association. "The only thing that we can do is to wait for one of the groups to win or for the army to win."

More than 50 people have been killed this year in Cuernavaca's gang battles.

The federal government insists it is steadily wiping out the once-powerful Beltran Leyva cartel. Two of the Beltran Leyva brothers are behind bars. Last week, troops captured Jose Gerardo Alvarez, another purported leader of the gang who had a $2 million U.S. bounty on his head.

Troops fought Alvarez and his men in a wealthy neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City, leaving three people dead. The battle brought closer to the capital the kind of bloody conflicts that have often rattled states on the northern border and the country's two coasts.

Authorities say Alvarez, known as "El Indio," was behind much of the fight for control of the Beltran Leyva cartel, both in Cuernavaca and the Pacific resort city of Acapulco to the southwest.

The U.S. State Department hailed his capture, saying Alvarez has overseen major deals involving the trafficking of crystal methamphetamine and other drugs between Mexico, Central America, South America and the United States.

President Felipe Calderon counts the downfall of the Beltran Leyva brothers as one of the biggest accomplishments of his military-led offensive against drug traffickers.

Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of troops and federal police across the country since taking office in December 2006, a campaign the U.S. has backed with training and equipment through a $1.3 billion aid package.

Drug-gang violence has since soared though, claiming nearly 23,000 lives throughout Mexico, with Cuernavaca becoming the latest front.

"We hadn't seen this violence before," said Dawn Housand, a 60-year-old Boston native who moved to Cuernavaca more than 10 years ago looking for a quiet place to live. "I don't have the money to move. If I did, I would leave."

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SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A Mexican cartel kingpin who fought extradition to the U.S. for eight years is in Texas facing drug and racketeering charges.

Juan Jose Quintero-Payan is the alleged head of the Quintero drug smuggling ring who was first indicted by a San Antonio grand jury in 2002. The 68-year-old faces four felony charges that would normally carry a potential life sentence.

But federal prosecutors said Tuesday that Mexican officials extradited Quintero on assurances that a life sentence would not be imposed.

Prosecutors say Quintero moved large volumes of drugs into the U.S. for decades.

Quintero made his initial appearance Monday in a San Antonio courtroom. He is being held in federal custody without bond.
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Take the case of South Padre Island Police Officer Richard Hernandez, when it was reported to the SPI Chief of Police Rodriguez that Hernandez was supplying a local business owner's wife with illegal drugs during the course of an extra marital affair through a neighbor supplyer living below SPI Officer Hernandez, nothing was done with the exception of the SPI PD asking the dealer if the citizen report were true--of course the accusation was denied by the accused dealer.

When the business owner reported his complaints to the SPI Board of Aldermen, during the subsequent political fallout, the chief of police retired and the city manager resigned, both when allegations of SPI PD protecting illegal drug trafficing and illegal gambling surfaced--nothing ever proven, but non the less the political result was the citizen government forming an ethics committee;

Officer Hernandez no longer was employed by the SPI Police Department, where he was a recruit trainer. Hernandez then became employed with Cameron County's Precinct One Constable's Office as a deputy constable.

Hernandez was also employed by the Federal Government as a deputy federal marshal.

I would love to see someone do an undercover investigation into the lives of all the politicians that are doing all this protesting. I'd like to see how many of them have family members and friends who are in the United States illegally or who employ illegals.

Who is going to investigate the investigaters?

If you think those who bring in the illegal immigrants are different people than the ones bringing in the drugs and operating the illegal gambling, then you are not paying attention--just the taxes reinforcing their mercenaries.

Go ahead, give the politicians and law enforcement here more grant money, and watch nothing change, except they become more powerful.

When you die mysteriously in Port Isabel, let's say on a shrimp boat accident, it is up to Magistrate Ochoa to rule cause of death.

The same guy who alledgedly had an illegal gambling place in the building he owns, which he says the gambling was his father's business, and Justice Ochoa only managed it for two years-- the same guy who's brother was caught dealing drugs by the Feds seven blocks from my house where my children play and live.

The same guy who's cousin was the chief of police for many, many years--I ask you again Witchita and Des Moines: Who is going to investigate the investigaters?

Your Congressmen can mail more grant money to the Valley and these Democrats and Republicans down here will spend it and you will still be flooded with illegal immigrants and illegal drugs--only one person's opinion, you do what you want Witchita, and Des Moines, you believe what you want.

But I believe the 10 billion plus dollar a year marijuana industry is not going to stop any time soon, and my opinion is that money should go to Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa farmers .

My opinion is the cartel's don't need America's money any longer.

In The Spirit of Jose Maria Guerrero & Thomas Paine

And he did. . .


. . .the Chief. . .


. . .take early retirement.