drug traffickers

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Mexican Cartel Claims to Have Retired

La Familia dissolved, banners say

(Newser) - Banners have appeared in the heartland of Mexico's La Familia drug cartel claiming that the criminal organization has been dissolved but authorities are understandably skeptical. The cartel, one of Mexico's most brutal, declared a month-long truce earlier this month and authorities believe that it is weakened and in disarray but...

FAA Not Sure Who Owns Thousands of US Planes

Chaos prompts terror fears; agency calls for re-registration

(Newser) - The FAA lacks key information on who owns some 119,000 private and commercial aircraft in the US, prompting concerns that terrorists or drug traffickers could use the paperwork mess to their advantage—something the latter group is already doing. The FAA is calling for all owners to re-register the...

105-Ton Pot Cache Seized in Mexico

Tijuana raids net huge stash, some in Homer Simpson packaging

(Newser) - Mexican authorities have made the biggest marijuana bust in years. Some 10,000 packages of pot weighing a total of 105 tons—some of it wrapped in Homer Simpson packaging—were seized in pre-dawn raids in Tijuana, the BBC reports. Gangs had been planning to smuggle the dope into the...

Rebel Leader Killed in Colombia

27 die in raid on FARC camp

(Newser) - Guerrilla leader Sixto Cabana was among 27 rebels killed in a raid on a camp near the Ecuadoran border, Colombian officials announced. Cabana, who had been a member of the FARC rebel group for over 25 years, was a senior commander in the organization and was wanted in the US...

Afghan Cops Kill 64 in Drug Busts

36K pounds of narcotic seized in Helmand raid

(Newser) - Afghan cops say they have killed 64 militants and drug traffickers during a 3-day operation in Helmand province, according to law enforcement authorities. Ten other people were arrested and 36,000 pounds of narcotics were seized, along with weapons and suicide vests. Afghan authorities said that the dozens of people...

Ecuador, DEA Bust Drug-Smuggling Sub

Vessel's huge payload a serious development

(Newser) - The Drug Enforcement Administration said yesterday it has helped seize a diesel electric-powered submarine constructed in a remote jungle and capable of transporting tons of cocaine. The sub was captured near a tributary close to the Ecuador-Colombia border, and Ecuadorean authorities said it was seized before it could make its...

Jamaica Ready for Rumble Over Drug Lord's Extradition

Supporters set up barricade, fire on cops

(Newser) - Jamaica has caved to US pressure to extradite alleged drug kingpin Christopher "Dudus" Coke to New York, but it'll have to drag him out of his stronghold in the capital to do so. Gunmen, who have set up barricades blocking all entrances to Kingston's Tivoli Gardens neighborhood and vowed...

Drug War: The Opera, Premieres in Mexico

Opera is first to tackle theme of country's drug conflict

(Newser) - Mexico's drug war has reached its fingers all the way into the country's premier opera house: The first opera based on the conflict, Only the Truth, has premiered in Mexico City. The opera, based on a popular Mexican song, tells the story of a woman who smuggles marijuana north into...

Video Reveals How CIA Sicced Bombers on US Missionary, Baby

CIA accused of covering up involvement in deaths

(Newser) - Video footage just obtained by ABC News shows how CIA errors caused the deaths of an American missionary and her 7-month-old daughter when their plane was shot down over Peru in 2001. CIA spotters wrongly identified the missionary family's Cessna as a drug traffickers' plane and alerted the Peruvian air...

Al-Qaeda Linked to 'Air Cocaine' Network

Rogue trans-Atlantic aviation set-up sparks security fears

(Newser) - A rogue aviation network with links to al-Qaeda has security analysts seriously worried. The network, believed to consist of at least 10 aircraft, including several Boeing 727s, transports huge amounts of cocaine from South America to West African smugglers who slip it into Europe. Islamic militant groups in Africa reap...

Mexico Tallies 69 Murders in Single Day

Mexicans live in fear of grotesque killings

(Newser) - Mexico kicked off 2010 with a grim record: On Saturday the violence-plagued country tallied 69 murders in a single day. As drug cartels stepped up retaliation against the government's war on trafficking, Saturday's count included 26 murders in the border city of Ciudad Juarez and 13 in Mexico City. Murders...

Drug Moles Infiltrate Border Patrol

Hiring rush making it easier for cartels to corrupt agency

(Newser) - The US Border Patrol has been stepping up its efforts to recruit agents and so have the Mexican cartels. Investigators say the traffickers, faced with tightened, high-tech security along the border, are trying to corrupt border agents any way they can and to plant their own people in jobs. The...

Mexican Gangs Move Into US Indian Land

Drug cartels take advantage of overworked cops

(Newser) - Mexican drug gangs have been rapidly expanding their marijuana-growing operations in the US in recent years, especially on Indian reservations. The gangs take advantage of underfunded tribal police departments, large tracts of unused land, and overlapping jurisdictions to set up grows on reservations from California to South Dakota, authorities say....

Cocaine Sub Nabbed Off Guatemala
Cocaine Sub Nabbed
Off Guatemala
Oct 23, 2009 3:13 AM CDT

Cocaine Sub Nabbed Off Guatemala

US Navy helps make biggest drug bust in Guatemalan history

(Newser) - The US Navy and Guatemalan forces have seized a makeshift submarine carrying 10 tons of cocaine. Three Colombians and a Mexican crewman were arrested on board. The haul is the biggest drug bust ever made in Guatemala, which has become a major transit point for drug traffickers seeking to secure...

US Coast Guard, Brit Navy Seize $380M in Cocaine

Nearly 5.5 tons discovered under concrete floor of fishing boat

(Newser) - The British Navy and US Coast Guard have seized a record $380 million worth of cocaine on a fishing boat off the coast of South America.  The boat was searched for 24 hours before investigators broke up the concrete floor with sledgehammers and discovered 5.5 tons of the...

Mexican Drug Informants Import Violence to US

Intra-cartel murder shocks El Paso; feds gave trafficker visa

(Newser) - The Obama administration and state governments are spending billions to keep Mexico's escalating drug war from spilling over the border. But the feds fighting trafficking have also relied on Mexican cartel members for intelligence—and that, says the Washington Post, has unleashed gangland-style violence in American cities. Drug kingpins living...

Mexican Pot Lords See Green in Strapped Calif. Parks

(Newser) - Mexican drug traffickers are having a banner year growing pot in California’s plentiful—and, due to the state budget crisis, woefully understaffed—parkland, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Authorities think California might see a record-breaking, multi-billion dollar crop. “Our whole state is overrun,” said a spokeswoman for...

Drug Lords' Bling Dazzles Mexican Agency

(Newser) - Amid the ongoing drug wars in Mexico, one small branch of the country's finance ministry has a special job: selling off the jewel-encrusted pistols, armor-plated Hummers, and even wild panthers and lions seized from dealers' bling-tastic mansions. "You realize that the mansions in movies like Scarface aren't exaggerations,"...

Dozen Mangled Mexican Bodies Were Feds

Agents tortured, killed in revenge for drug trafficker's arrest

(Newser) - Twelve people tortured, murdered, and dumped along a highway  in the Mexican state of Michoacan Monday were Mexican federal agents, the AP reports. The off-duty agents—11 men and one woman—were caught in an ambush by members of a drug cartel, officials said. The murders are believed to be...

Mexican Army Slammed for Drug War Torture

US holds up aid until Mexico can 'pass' human rights investigation

(Newser) - A growing body of evidence points to widespread human rights abuses by the Mexican military in its battle against drug cartels, the Washington Post reports. Human rights groups say the army has responded to the traffickers' brutal tactics with equal brutality, carrying out deadly campaigns of "disappearances," forced...

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