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UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPSDAILY BORDER NEWS REPORT FOR 25 NOVEMBER 2011

COMPILER, INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF VIOLENT GROUPS (www.isvg.org)EDITOR, JOINT TASK FORCE NORTH (www.facebook.com/USA.JTFN)

(U) This document is UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY and portions may be exempt from mandatory disclosure under FOIA. DoD 5400.7R, "DoD Freedom of Information Act Program", DoD Directive 5230.9, "Clearance of DoD Information for Public Release", and DoD Instruction 5230.29, "Security and Policy Review of DoD Information for Public Release" apply.

(U) FAIR USE NOTICE. This document may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making it available to recipients who have expressed an interest in receiving information to advance their understanding of threat activities in the interest of protecting the United States. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

(U) Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement by Joint Task Force North or the Department of Defense.

For further information on any item, please contact the JTF-North Knowledge Management (KM).

Compiled By: Mr. Tom Davidson, Institute for the Study of Violent GroupsEdited by: Mr. Jonathan KauppApproved for Release by: Dr. Rodler Morris

CONTENTS: (Note: All active EXTERNAL hyperlinks have been removed)Table of Contents1. CANADA AND NORTHER BORDER STATES..............................................2

A. RCMP Make Drug Seizure in Heart's Delight (NL)............................................................2B. Cocaine Seizure in Winnipeg (MB)...................................................................................3C. B.C. Man Dies after Marijuana Hunger Strike (BC)..........................................................4

2. INNER UNITED STATES..................................................................................5A. Feds Passed up City’s Terror Case Twice (NY).................................................................5B. The Pentagon's $4 Billion Mercenary Unit for Fighting the Drug War (DC).....................6C. NJ Officer Indicted in Alleged Immigrant Shakedown (NJ)...............................................7

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D. ICE Arrests 53 in MA Immigration Sting (MA).................................................................7

3. MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES.............................................8A. Three Men Killed "Execution Style" near Arizona-Mexico Border (AZ)...........................8B. Migrant Rescued from Drainage Pipe near San Diego (CA).............................................9C. Mexican City’s Residents Fear Drug Traffickers’ Return (TAMPS).................................9D. BP Agents Find another Drug Tunnel in Nogales (AZ)...................................................11E. Corruption in Mexico Casinos Takes a Toll in the U.S., Too (MX/MI/NM/CO)............12F. Armed Illegals Stalked Border Patrol (AZ)......................................................................15G. GAO: Illegal Immigrants Caused Nearly Half of Border Fires (AZ)................................17H. Zeta Soldiers Launched Mexico-Style Attack in Harris County (TX).............................18I. Summary of Events............................................................................................................21J. Did You Know Fast and Furious Guns Brought down a Military Helicopter? (MX)......22K. Three Men Found Dead in Tumacacori Mountains; At Least Two Were Shot (AZ).......23L. Valley Police Beat: CBP Arrest 30 Sex Offenders in 2011 (CA)....................................23M. Nearly $1 Million in Drugs Seized This Weekend by Local Border Patrol (CA)............24N. Border Patrol Agents Seized 1,676 Pounds of Marijuana in TX.......................................25O. Police Say Illegal Immigrant Stash Houses Can Be Found All over Valley (NM)..........25P. Mexico To Probe Report of Drug Campaign Financing (MICH)....................................26Q. Mexican Army Seizes $15 Million from Top Drug Lord (SIN)......................................28

4. CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA....................................29A. Colombia Arrests 14 Drug Suspects Wanted by U.S. (CO).............................................29B. Colombia’s Santos Says Cocaine Fight Stuck on ‘Stationary Bike’ (CO).......................29C. Costa Rica Seizes 1.2 Tons of Cocaine (CR)...................................................................30

5. OPINION AND ANALYSIS.............................................................................31A. The Deterioration of Security Environments in Latin America (MX/HN/GT/SV)...........31B. Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 8 (MX)......................................................................33C. Mexican Presidential Race Takes Shape; 'Narco-Politics' Feared (SON/MICH/MX).....36

1. CANADA AND NORTHER BORDER STATES

A. RCMP Make Drug Seizure in Heart's Delight (NL)

18 November 2011

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Royal Canadian Mounted Police

On November 17, 2011 Trinity Conception RCMP executed a search warrant under the Controlled Drugs and Substance Act on a residence in the Community of Heart's Delight, NL.

As a result of the search, Police arrested a 59 year old male and seized over 650 Methamphetamine pills, approximately 100 Percocet pills, a small quantity of Marihuana and over $2000.00 in cash. The male was later released from police custody and the investigation is ongoing. RCMP anticipate several charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are forthcoming. Trinity Conception RCMP remains dedicated to the fight on drugs in our communities.

Source: [205.193.86.85/nl/news-nouvelles/releases-communiques/11-11-18-13451-eng.htm](Return to Contents)

B. Cocaine Seizure in Winnipeg (MB)

22 November 2011MySteinbach.ca

Approximately $40,000 worth of cocaine, benzocaine, cash and drug-related paraphernalia was seized by RCMP after executing two Controlled Drug and Substances Act search warrants in Winnipeg this past week.

On November 18, 2011 members of the RCMP “D” Division Drug Section assisted by the RCMP Criminal Intelligence Section and RCMP Portage La Prairie Police Dog Services, executed a CDSA (Controlled Drug and Substances Act) search warrants on Lakeshore Road and Tudor Crescent in the City of Winnipeg.

During the search, investigators located approximately .5 kilogram of cocaine, 5 kilograms of benzocaine, a common cutting agent mixed with cocaine, a quantity of Canadian currency and various paraphernalia related to cocaine trafficking.

Police say that the value of the seizure is approximately $40,000.

RCMP report that the searches occurred simultaneously and four adults have been arrested. Charged with possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime are 26-year-old Travis Philley, 41-year-old Richard Harman, 34-year-old Crystal Bastien and 36-year-old James Smith.

Three of the accused were remanded into custody and a fourth has been released on a recognizance.

Source: [www.mysteinbach.ca/newsblog/13484.html](Return to Contents)

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C. B.C. Man Dies after Marijuana Hunger Strike (BC)

22 November 2011Vancouver Sun As Juliana Bazso mourns her brother's death, she takes comfort from knowing he died for his beliefs.

"In his soul, he believed he was doing a heroic act and when the police clamped down on him, it was so bad he knew he couldn't do it anymore," she said.

Istvan "Steve" Marton, 69, the local marijuana dealer in Sointula, off the north-east coast of Vancouver Island, died in Port MacNeill Hospital Sunday after more than a month on a hunger strike to protest Canada's marijuana laws.

Marton's doctor, Jane Clelland, said he died after a massive heart attack, but the hunger strike and other underlying health problems contributed to his death.

Clelland said he was non-responsive for the last day of his life, but not totally unaware, and she believes he knew that the story of his crusade appeared in the Victoria Times Colonist that day.

Despite Marton's hopes that his friends would be treated to an unlimited-booze-and-pot party after his death, Bazso said the money he left will not stretch that far.

"If these friends of his want a celebration of his life they can do it with their own money," said Bazso, who never agreed with her brother breaking the law to sell marijuana.

"I don't think I am going to condone what I never condoned all my life," she said.

But Bazso believes that the marijuana laws will eventually have to be changed in Canada.

"I think his death will add to the pressure on government," she said.

Friends said they do not know whether there are others ready to go on hunger strikes to protest marijuana laws, as Marton claimed.

"I hope there aren't any. We need every combatant we can get for the revolution that is just getting underway," said friend and former customer Des McMurchy.

"I think Steve was clever enough to recognize the power of personal example and incremental change."

The war on drugs has been a massive failure of moral choice and public policy, McMurchy said.

"There is unlimited opportunity here with full legalization and taxation of production and use of marijuana, to remove the undesirable criminal element from marijuana production," he said.

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….

Source: [www.vancouversun.com/news/dies+after+marijuana+hunger+strike/5752451/story.html](Return to Contents)

2. INNER UNITED STATES

A. Feds Passed up City’s Terror Case Twice (NY)

21 November 2011WNYC Radio

The FBI declined to participate in the terror case against a Manhattan man at least twice because they felt it crossed the line into entrapment, a federal source confirmed to WNYC.

It is the second time this year the FBI and NYPD are at odds in a high-profile terror case.

The arrest of a 27-year-old suspect from Hamilton Heights on terrorism-related charges for his alleged involvement in a plot to bomb different locations was announced by the mayor late Sunday night, the result of an NYPD undercover investigation using a confidential informant and a bugged apartment.

Federal authorities were aware of the investigation, but "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges," the Manhattan District Attorney said late Sunday.

Absent from the rare late Sunday night press conference were federal agencies.

The mayor later said he saw absolutely no significance in the lack of federal participation in the latest case.

A Former prosecutor and Professor said local officials would be foolish if they hesitated to pursue a legitimate terror case just because the feds would not sign off on it.

"Don't forget you live in a city that, prior to 9/11, we were sort of sanguine and assured that the federal government would protect us from being attacked," he said in a phone interview. "And I think [the Police] Commissioner believes, and I think rightfully so, that you can just simply rely on federal agencies."

But a defense Attorney who has handled terrorism cases said the decision by the federal government not to participate could provide potential ammunition for the suspect’s defense. "It is extremely unusual for federal authorities not to take an interest in a terrorism case that has strength to it," he said.….

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Source: [www.wnyc.org/blogs/wnyc-news-blog/2011/nov/21/feds-pass-second-time-citys-terror-case/](Return to Contents)

B. The Pentagon's $4 Billion Mercenary Unit for Fighting the Drug War (DC)

22 November 2011The Atlantic Wire (Reuters)

The Defense Department's Counter Narco-Terrorism Program Office (CNTPO) just closed its latest request for proposals, and some of the world's top private security contractors are in the running to win a vaguely worded contract for "training services support." On Tuesday Wired's reporter reported that the "obscure Pentagon office designed to curb the flow of illegal drugs has quietly evolved into a one-stop shop for private security contractors around the world, soliciting deals worth over $3 billion." While not very well known even within the Defense Department — it does not even have an office in the Pentagon — the CNTPO is supposed to be providing support on the front lines of Mexico's drug cartel wars, as well as a number of other objectives around the world. However, some military experts are growing concerned that the mercenaries winning lucrative contracts are overstepping their bounds, especially at a time when budgets are tight.

The reporter says that the CNTPO's interprets its mandate "very, very broadly." Examples of operations include missions to "airlift services in the trans-Sahara region of Africa" and to perform "media analysis and web-site development consultation to officials of the Government of Pakistan." The office itself say it has "the lead for developing technology for interagency and multinational operations to disrupt, deter, and deny narco-terrorist activities in an effort to reduce trafficking in illegal narcotics and materials that support global terrorist activities." A report from Office of the Inspector General at the Defense Department uses similar wording to describe the CNTPO. However, Wired reported in September on a billion contract awarded by the CNTPO in 2010 that not only fell outside of the office's jurisdiction but also failed to invite military contractors to compete. Sharon Weinberger calls the Pentagon the "U.S. champ of no-bid contracts" in explaining the contract:

The deal, an umbrella-style contract, would come from an unlikely, obscure Army bureau called the Counter Narcoterrorism Technology Program Office, or CNTPO, that brings new tech to foreign allies’ counternarcotics efforts.

One problem: The new task slotted into the CNTPO contract — known as an "indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity" contract — had nothing to do with counternarcotics or technology. Afghan police needed training in basic skills like shooting straight and controlling riots.

The director of investigations for the Project on Government Oversight has expressed concern over the expansion of the CNTPO's jurisdiction. "These are special-forces operations, and they're best left in hands of our special-forces folks," he told Wired recently. "This stuff isn't delivering

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paper clips or even fuel or bullets. It's complex, sophisticated services, and there’s a reason we have Special Forces do this kind of training, not the regular Army. This is something you really want to keep a tight lid on."

The list of recipients of CNTPO's contracts reads like the who's-who of top military contractors. And as the reporter points out, the office is not always too careful in how they dole out these millions of dollars of funds:

….

Source: [www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/11/pentagons-4-billion-mercenary-unit-fighting-drug-war/45336/](Return to Contents)

C. Officer Indicted in Alleged Immigrant Shakedown (NJ)

21 November 2011NECN.com (AP)

A New Jersey police officer has been indicted in an alleged scheme to make unwarranted motor vehicle stops of Hispanic men, question them about their residency status and threaten to report them to immigration officials unless they gave him money.

The officer, of Brick Township, faces theft, attempted extortion, bribery and official misconduct charges.

A 58-count indictment returned Friday alleges the veteran Elizabeth police officer began targeting Hispanic men in February for unwarranted vehicle stops while he was on duty.

The Union County Prosecutor said Monday at least 12 people had reported that the officer solicited payments from them ranging from $30 to $250.

The 43-year-old officer has been suspended from the Elizabeth police department without pay.

….

Source: [www.necn.com/11/21/11/NJ-officer-indicted-in-alleged-immigrant/landing_nation.html?&apID=26f5b3be85c34ac29909976a93c14dd6](Return to Contents)

D. ICE Arrests 53 in Immigration Sting (MA)

23 November 2011Milford Daily News

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In a four-day sting that ended Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested 53 convicted illegal immigrants, including two in Framingham and one in Milford.

"Operation Threats against the Community" ran from Nov. 18 to Nov. 21, ICE said in a statement, and resulted in the arrests of 22 convicted repeat offenders. Of 42 men and 11 women arrested, 24 are convicted felons.

An ICE spokesman said yesterday that two of the arrests were in Framingham and one in Milford. He said he could not give out names per department policy, but said some of the crimes those arrested had been convicted of included assault and battery, domestic abuse and destruction of property.

"Ultimately these individuals will go through the normal proceedings," he said. They will go before a judge at the Executive Office of Immigration who will decide whether they will be deported.

Those arrested ranged in age from 25 to 61 and hailed from many different countries, including Albania, Algeria, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Vietnam.

….

Source: [www.milforddailynews.com/topstories/x1178205944/ICE-arrests-53-in-immigration-sting](Return to Contents)

3. MEXICO AND SOUTHERN BORDER STATES

A. Three Men Killed "Execution Style" near Arizona-Mexico Border (AZ)Editorial Note: Articles 3.A. and 3.B. provide different information on the same incident.

22 November 2011Reuters

The bodies of three suspected drug traffickers were found shot to death "execution style" in a remote area near the Arizona-Mexico border, police said on Tuesday, in a crime possibly committed by bandits.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff said Border Patrol agents found the bodies of the three men on Monday in the Tumacacori Mountains, about 20 miles northwest of the border city of Nogales.

The Sheriff said all three men had been shot in the head. Two were identified as Mexican nationals, aged 21 and 42, while the third man has not yet been identified.

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"We suspect, because of the activity that is generated up there by illegal aliens and drug traffickers, that they were very possibly hauling drugs, and might have been ripped off," the Sheriff told Reuters.

"It's the first triple homicide since I have been here, about 19 years ... It is disturbing because of the way these people were murdered, execution style," he added.

The Sheriff said the bodies had lain in the area, known as the Devil's Canyon, for up to two weeks before being spotted by a Border Patrol helicopter crew on Monday.

They were found a few miles from the spot where a Border Patrol Agent was shot dead by suspected border bandits in December 2010.

The agent was a member of the Border Patrol's elite tactical unit, dubbed Bortac, which was hunting down border bandits suspected of committing robberies and violent assaults in the area.

Source: [www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/22/us-crime-arizona-murders-idUSTRE7AL2DN20111122](Return to Contents)

B. Three Men Found Dead in Tumacacori Mountains; At Least Two Were Shot (AZ)

21 November 2011Nogales International

Border Patrol agents have discovered the bodies of three people in the Tumacacori Mountains, at least two of whom had been shot.

The Sheriff said the Border Patrol notified his office at about 11 a.m. on Monday to report the discovery of three dead males in the Devil’s Canyon area. “Two were definitely shot and a third body was found about 10 yards away,” the Sheriff said. “We can only assume the third person died of gunshot wounds as well.”

The Sheriff said the bodies were found 4.2 miles west of Interstate 19. “To get there we have to go through Arivaca Road to Mile Post 15 and work our way in” to the remote area, he said.

The Criminal Investigation Division and Santa Cruz County Metro officers were on their way shortly after 1 p.m. when Estrada was interviewed. “We don’t have a lot of information. We think it may be drug related – they may have been backpackers.”

The Sheriff was referring to drug smugglers who tie their loads onto their backs as they trek through the desert to remote pick-up points. The sheriff suspects the trio may have been “ripped off.”

Other incidents

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Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputies have already investigated at least four incidents in the past two months in which groups of illegal border-crossers reported encounters with armed men in the wilderness corridor stretching from the Ruby-Arivaca area to the Tumacacori Mountains.

In addition, authorities recovered a set of skeletal remains from the Tumacacori Mountains on Nov. 8, two days after they were discovered by hunters. On Nov. 15, Border Patrol agents working in the Peck Mesa area west of Rio Rico discovered several human bones. Both of those cases are under investigation.

Source: [www.nogalesinternational.com/news/three-men-found-dead-in-tumacacori-mountains-at-least-two/article_8e499530-1484-11e1-86ad-001cc4c03286.html#.TsrckGPTr_8](Return to Contents)

C. Migrant Rescued from Drainage Pipe near San Diego (CA)

21 November 2011Latin American Herald Tribune

A 25-year-old man who tried to cross into the United States illegally through a drainage pipe had to be rescued Monday near the estuary of the Tijuana River south of San Diego, the Border Patrol said.

Agents located the immigrant, whose identity has not been revealed, when he was inside the pipe near the protected ecological zone of the estuary, between the Pacific Ocean and Interstate 5, an agent told EFE.

The drainage tube descends some 12 feet and at its smaller end is almost 3 feet wide, but due to the rain on Sunday night the immigrant could not get through it because it was full of water, the agent said.

He found himself trapped, even unable to climb back up to where he entered, until he was eventually rescued by firefighters and emergency management personnel, after which he was taken to a hospital before being processed by the Border Patrol for deportation back to Mexico, the spokesman said.

Source: [www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=446712&CategoryId=12395](Return to Contents)

D. Mexican City’s Residents Fear Drug Traffickers’ Return (TAMPS)

21 November 2011Latin American Herald Tribune

The residents of San Fernando have become used to seeing soldiers patrolling the Mexican city, but they say they do not feel at ease because they believe drug traffickers have only withdrawn and could return once the military presence is reduced.

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San Fernando, a city in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas and some 130 kilometers (about 80 miles) from the U.S. border, has been the scene of some of the worst massacres in the wave of drug-related violence that has claimed the lives of nearly 50,000 people in Mexico.

The Los Zetas and Gulf cartels fought a turf war in this city of 30,000 in 2010 whose scars are still visible.

Gunmen massacred 72 migrants, the majority of them from Central America; a mass grave containing more than 230 bodies was found and several residents remain missing.

“The situation is much calmer now,” a farmer who drives his pick-up every day down a dirt road to reach the Mendez-San Fernando highway told EFE.

Burned and abandoned SUVs, many of them with bullet holes, are scattered around the area, the detritus of battles fought by the rival cartels.

A burned car dealership, which was hit by large-caliber rounds and shredded by grenades, sits at the city’s entrance.

Los Zetas and the Gulf cartel fought for San Fernando, whose size belies its importance as a strategic stop on the smuggling route from Central America.

“San Fernando is a highway node,” Gen. Miguel Angel Gonzalez, who commands the 8th Military Zone in Tamaulipas, said.

One of the most important smuggling routes from the south passes through the city, from which drugs are shipped to various points along the border with the United States via dozens of highways and dirt roads.

During the turf war, the cartels were kidnapping “between seven and eight people a week” because many young men were involved in the drug trade, a woman told EFE on condition of anonymity.

“If the army wasn’t here, organized crime would return,” the woman said, adding that drug traffickers had withdrawn to nearby towns.

More than 1,500 army troops were deployed in San Fernando following the August 2010 migrant massacre, with 100 soldiers now performing traffic control and other law enforcement duties because the city’s police officers were arrested for aiding Los Zetas.

Residents say they “do not feel 100 percent safe” despite the constant army patrols around the city.

“We cannot be at ease because there are still women here who report everything they see and hear to the narcos,” a university student said.

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After Los Zetas took control of San Fernando, Martin Omar Estrada, known as “El Kilo,” ran the police, bought officials and threatened others to become the city’s “absolute owner,” residents said.

Estrada was behind the massacre of the 72 migrants and the kidnap-murders of 236 people traveling on buses that passed through San Fernando.

Gunmen watched the buses that arrived from the south and searched them to make sure that hired guns from rival gangs did not enter San Fernando, Edgar Huerta, a former Zetas member, told the Federal Police.

Los Zetas founder Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” ordered the searches of the buses, Huerta told investigators.

“‘El Lazca,’ the top boss of Los Zetas, ordered us to investigate them and if there was something, to murder them,” Huerta said during questioning by federal investigators.

The suspect told investigators that Zetas gunmen checked where travelers came from and the messages on their cell phones to see if they were involved in the drug trade.

“Those who weren’t, no, El Kilo let them go and the other ones he killed,” the suspect said.

Suspected gunmen were taken to an abandoned warehouse about 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) from San Fernando and executed with assault rifles.

The bodies of dozens of people who disappeared during the turf war have not yet been found, San Fernando residents said.

Source: [www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=446711&CategoryId=14091](Return to Contents)

E. BP Agents Find another Drug Tunnel in Nogales (AZ)

22 November 2011Tucson Sentinel

Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents discovered a tunnel in Nogales on Monday used to smuggle drugs from Mexico into the United States, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday.

It was the second drug tunnel found in Nogales in less than a week. ICE agents shut down a tunnel on Nov. 15.

The tunnel found Monday is more sophisticated than others recently found, the Border Patrol said. It is 319 feet long and extends 219 feet into the United States and 100 feet into Mexico. It is about 20 feet underground, is 3 feet wide and 2 feet high.

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What makes the tunnel different from others is that it appears to have been chiseled through solid rock and had various digging tools, saws, electricity, lighting, water pumps, plywood shoring and 4x4 support beams, the Border Patrol said.

Agents found 26 bundles of marijuana, weighing 430 pounds and worth $215,000, in the tunnel. The drugs were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Border Patrol said.

On Nov. 15, a tunnel was discovered that ran between Nogales, Sonora, and Nogales, Ariz. The entrance was hidden under the porch of a Nogales home about a half mile west of the DeConcini Port of Entry.

Another tunnel was found that day near San Diego that ran from a California warehouse to a site in Tijuana, Mexico. ICE seized 9.5 tons of marijuana from the warehouse and a truck and another 5 to 6 tons were found in Tijuana.

Source: [www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/112211_borderpatrol_tunnel/bp-agents-find-another-drug-tunnel-nogales/](Return to Contents)

F. Corruption in Mexico Casinos Takes a Toll in the U.S., Too (MX/MI/NM/CO)

22 November 2011McClatchy Newspapers

Hard times have been a constant for most members of the Chippewa Indian tribe known as the Lac Vieux Desert Band.

Nestled in a wooded corner of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the tribe owns a modest casino, a hotel and a golf course. But the complex is far off the beaten path for tourists or gamblers, and many of the tribe's 600 or so members find steady work as unlikely as winning a jackpot.

So when a Mexico casino czar named Juan Jose Rojas-Cardona sent an offer to invest in Mexico's booming gambling industry, it seemed like a godsend.

But rather than a big payout, the disadvantaged Lac Vieux tribe got swindled. Its multimillion-dollar "investment" disappeared, adding the tribe to a list of victims that includes a mammoth hedge fund in London, an Australian manufacturer of gaming machines, an Arizona investor and two Mexican textile tycoons.

Rojas-Cardona, however, has gone on to build one of the biggest gambling empires in Mexico. Relying on a silky sales pitch and apparent close connections to Mexico's top politicians, perhaps including presidents, Rojas-Cardona now holds 60 permits to operate casinos in Mexico — even though gambling remains technically illegal in that country.

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A horrendous act of violence on Aug. 25 first exposed the dark underside of Mexico's casino industry when gangsters firebombed the Casino Royale in Monterrey, Mexico's industrial northern hub, killing 52 people. Those arrested later confessed that they were pressuring the casino owners for payoffs on behalf of Los Zetas, one of Mexico's two biggest crime groups.

But a McClatchy probe in the months since has found evidence that the corruption in Mexico's gambling industry goes much deeper than a shakedown by drug gangs. Indeed, the entire industry appears to be deliberately opaque, designed by political barons as a way for them to hand out licenses as favors, tap casino coffers for cash, and let casino operators flout the law.

The Mexican system is so corrupt and unregulated that U.S. casino companies refuse to enter the Mexican market. That, however, has not kept Americans from being victims of the corruption.

It's unclear what, if anything, the U.S. government has done to warn investors of the risks or to help prosecute alleged scammers such as Rojas-Cardona, whose criminal record in the United States includes the dismissal of a drug charge in New Mexico.

Rojas-Cardona's life in Mexico includes a near assassination in 2007 that was laid to drug barons or rival casino operators.

Ironically, gambling in Mexico has thrived under the National Action Party, or PAN, which swept into power in 2000 promising an end to the corruption and cronyism that had flourished in Mexico during the long reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. The PAN's candidate in 2000, Vicente Fox, was the country's first non-PRI president in more than 70 years, and his successor, current President Felipe Calderon, a fellow PAN member, won the post in 2006 in one of the most closely contested races in Mexico's history.

In a dizzying inconsistency, Fox's government in 2004 issued regulations that essentially ignored Mexico's 1947 law that bans gambling. Even though that law remains in effect, Mexico's Supreme Court allowed the new regulations to go forward. In the ensuing years, first Fox's administration, and then Calderon's, issued licenses allowing 867 gaming venues, permitting some bingo, sports betting and slot machine parlors to expand into poker, roulette and craps without explicit legalization.

Calderon's office declined to comment on whether the president knew Rojas-Cardona.

Hundreds of full-fledged casinos now dot Mexican cities, and scores, if not hundreds, more operate off the books or under court protection from friendly judges who provide legal relief. Politicians balk at enacting new laws legalizing the current situation for fear that under-the-table payments may dry up and that global gaming companies could move in and dominate.

Mexican political barons draw on the casinos as if they were "petty cash boxes," said Lizbeth Garcia Coronado, a member of Mexico's Chamber of Deputies and the coordinator of the chamber's working group on gambling. "But it's not 'petty.' The casinos generate a lot of money."

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Mexican regulators could not seem to bend the rules fast enough once they were in place. For example, Mexico's assistant general director of gaming and lotteries, Roberto Correa Mendez, issued permits for 41 new casinos on the day he quit in 2009.

Like other regulators, Correa had a creative bent. He helped one gaming firm skirt the federal ban on betting: Gamblers could play Blackjack, Texas Hold 'em and other types of poker, but winners could collect only after passing a "trivia" test.

"You visit any of these establishments, and most have games with dealers, card games, baccarat, and this is prohibited," said Garcia Coronado, who's a member of the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party. "There is no doubt that there is a lot of corruption in the games and raffles bureau," which is part of Mexico's Interior Ministry whose leader is appointed by the president.

The corruption and favoritism rampant in the Mexican gaming industry served as an incubator for the rise of Juan Jose Rojas-Cardona, 44, a man who spent much of his adolescence and early adulthood in Iowa, where his parents had immigrated from Hidalgo, a state in central Mexico.

From early on, Rojas-Cardona displayed a knack for winning friends. At the University of Iowa, Rojas-Cardona was elected president of the student senate.

After studying economics for five years, Rojas-Cardona left in mid-1990 without getting a degree, the university says. A small cloud followed him. The Iowa state auditor demanded that Rojas-Cardona and other senators return nearly $2,000 in "extravagant" spending on hotels, alcohol, rental of two Cadillacs and double-billing for meals. Rojas-Cardona, known to one and all as Pepe, ignored the demand.

Worse troubles awaited him.

In 1992, prosecutors in Iowa won a second-degree conviction against him for bouncing a $3,000 check to a Chinese graduate student who'd developed a telemarketing business plan for him.

Rojas-Cardona was charged with a far more serious crime two years later when Border Patrol agents staffing a checkpoint at Orogrande, a remote New Mexico outpost less than an hour from the southern border, saw a white Buick with no license plates approach, then turn south shy of the checkpoint. It was 12:50 a.m., Feb. 11, 1994.

Court records retrieved by McClatchy from a federal records facility in Denver tell what happened next: Agents gave chase and when they stopped the car, they found a "very nervous" Rojas-Cardona. A Border Patrol dog grew excited, and when agents searched the vehicle, they found 17 pounds of marijuana.

Rojas-Cardona signed a plea agreement on the felony trafficking charge in June of that year, but by September he'd skipped bail and vanished.

16

In late 1998, federal prosecutors asked a judge to quash the arrest warrant and lift the indictment, a practice that sometimes indicates a defendant has become a federal informant. McClatchy could not determine if that was the case with Rojas-Cardona.

Within a year or two, Rojas-Cardona had set up shop in Monterrey, where he created his first slot machine club, Bella Vista, in the San Nicholas de la Garza district, whose top official, a PAN politician, would later become mayor of Monterrey. Backed by a Louisiana investor, the club was soon swimming in profits, each slot earning as much as $300 a day.

….

Source: [www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/22/131076/corruption-in-mexico-casinos-takes.html](Return to Contents)

G. Armed Illegals Stalked Border Patrol (AZ)

22 November 2011The Washington Times

Five illegal immigrants armed with at least two AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifles were hunting for U.S. Border Patrol agents near a desert watering hole known as Mesquite Seep just north of the Arizona-Mexico border when a firefight erupted and one U.S. agent was killed, records show.

A now-sealed federal grand jury indictment in the death of a Border Patrol agent says the Mexican nationals were “patrolling” the rugged desert area of Peck Canyon at about 11:15 p.m. on Dec. 14 with the intent to “intentionally and forcibly assault” Border Patrol agents.

At least two of the Mexicans carried their assault rifles “at the ready position,” one of several details about the attack showing that Mexican smugglers are becoming more aggressive on the U.S. side of the border.

According to the indictment, the Mexicans were “patrolling the area in single-file formation” a dozen miles northwest of the border town of Nogales and — in the darkness of the Arizona night — opened fire on four Border Patrol agents after the agents identified themselves in Spanish as police officers.

Two AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene came from the failed Fast and Furious operation.

Using thermal binoculars, one of the agents determined that at least two of the Mexicans were carrying rifles, but according to an affidavit in the case by an FBI agent, when the Mexicans did not drop their weapons as ordered, two agents used their shotguns to fire “less than lethal” beanbags at them.

At least one of the Mexicans opened fire and, according to the affidavit, the border patrol agent, a 40-year-old former U.S. Marine, was shot in the back.

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Bleeding profusely, he died at the scene.

After the initial shots, two agents returned fire, hitting Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, 33, in the abdomen and leg. The others fled. The FBI affidavit said Osorio-Arellanes admitted during an interview that all five of the Mexicans were armed.

Peck Canyon is a notorious drug-smuggling corridor.

Osorio-Arellanes initially was charged with illegal entry, but that case was dismissed when the indictment was handed up. It named Osorio-Arellanes on a charge of second-degree murder, but did not identify him as the likely shooter, saying only that Osorio-Arellanes and others whose names were blacked out “did unlawfully kill with malice aforethought [the] United States Border Patrol Agent while [the] Agent was engaged in … his official duties.”

The indictment also noted that Osorio-Arellanes had been convicted in Phoenix in 2006 of felony aggravated assault, had been detained twice in 2010 as an illegal immigrant, and had been returned to Mexico repeatedly.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s acting southwest border field branch chief referred inquiries to the FBI, which is conducting the investigation. The FBI declined to comment.

The case against Osorio-Arellanes and others involved in the shooting has since been sealed, meaning that neither the public nor the media has access to any evidence, filings, rulings or arguments.

The U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego, which is prosecuting the case, would confirm only that it was sealed. Also sealed was the judge’s reason for sealing the case.

The indictment lists the names of other suspects in the shooting, but they are redacted.

In the agent killing, two Romanian-built AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene were identified as having been purchased in a Glendale, Ariz., gun shop as part of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) failed Fast and Furious investigation.

A number of rank-and-file Border Patrol agents have questioned why the case has not gone to trial, nearly a year after the killing. Several also have concerns about the lack of transparency in the investigation, compounded now by the fact that the court case has been sealed.

The vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 17,000 nonsupervisory agents, said it is rare for illegal immigrants or drug smugglers to engage agents in the desert, saying they usually “drop their loads and take off south.”

“The [agent] murder was a real wake-up call,” he said. “It emphasizes the failed state of security on the U.S. border, which poses more of a threat to us than either Iraq or Afghanistan. We have terrorism going on right on the other side of the fence, and we’re arming the drug cartels.

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“My biggest fear is that someday a cartel member is going to go berserk, stick a rifle through the fence and kill as many Border Patrol agents as he can,” he said.

….

Source: [www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/22/armed-illegals-stalked-border-patrol/?page=all#pagebreak](Return to Contents)

H. GAO: Illegal Immigrants Caused Nearly Half of Border Fires (AZ)

22 November 2011The Washington Times

Illegal immigrants started nearly 40 percent of human-ignited wildfires along the border between Arizona and Mexico between 2006 and 2010, according to a government report that gives new credence to claims Arizona lawmakers made earlier this year during catastrophic blazes in the Southwest.

That number may even be understated — the report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said federal land agencies often violate their own policies by not trying to investigate the origins of human-caused fires. Of the 422 human-caused fires, just 77 were investigated, and of those 30 were found to have been ignited by people illegally crossing the border.

Illegal immigration also makes battling the fires harder as firefighters worry more about their own safety and have to curb some tactics such as backfires for fear of harming illegal immigrants who may still be in the area, investigators for the congressional watchdog agency said in Tuesday’s report.

“According to agency officials, the presence of illegal border-crossers has increased concerns about firefighter safety and, in some instances, has required firefighters to change or limit the tactics they use in suppressing fires. For example, the presence of illegal border-crossers has limited firefighting activities at night and complicated the use of aerial firefighting methods,” the agency said in a 60-page report.

A Republican Senator from Arizona had requested the report last year. The findings appear to back up his claims that illegal immigrants were responsible for starting at least some of the blazes that burned in Arizona and New Mexico earlier this year.

“I hope this report is a lesson to the activists and public officials that would prefer to engage in partisan character attacks rather than help focus the discussion on the vital need secure our southern border,” the Senator said.

Federal agencies have struggled for years to balance their land-management duties with the pressures of illegal immigration along the border.

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Some public lands managers along the U.S.-Mexico border have told The Washington Times they spend as much as half of their annual budgets dealing with the effects of illegal immigration, from picking up trash and hauling out abandoned smuggling vehicles to rehabilitating fragile environmental areas used by illegal crossers.

The GAO, in its report, said historic locations such as the Fort Bowie National Historic Site have “been compromised” by illegal crossers leaving trash and even human waste there.

Illegal immigrants start fires to cook food, provide warmth or even to attract attention. A 2006 fire that burned about 170 acres was started by an illegal immigrant who got hurt and wanted to be rescued.

Earlier this year the Arizona Senator came under fire for saying major blazes along the U.S.-Mexico border may have been started by illegal immigrants.

Those fires happened in 2011, which was outside of the period the GAO examined, but the Senator said the report’s findings show illegal immigration is a real issue in border fires.

And at the time of the fires this year, a contract firefighter who battled one of the blazes told The Washington Times that firefighters blamed an illegal immigrant and said one was questioned by authorities. Calls to federal land agencies at the time seeking comment were not returned.

In their official response to the GAO findings, the agencies agreed that they could do better to coordinate their responses. Only the U.S. Forest Service has an official guide for firefighting in the border region, but it said the agencies are all trying to come up with an interagency protocol.

The agencies also told the GAO they do not have enough trained fire investigators to look into the exact cause of each blaze.

In the case of the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, the law enforcement officers trained to investigate fires were too busy providing security for the firefighters to conduct the investigations required by agency policy.

Source: [www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/22/gao-illegal-immigrants-nearly-half-border-fires/?page=all#pagebreak](Return to Contents)

I. Zeta Soldiers Launched Mexico-Style Attack in Harris County (TX)

22 November 2011The Houston Chronicle

Four men, all believed to be citizens of Mexico, are charged with capital murder. They are Eric De Luna, 23; Fernando Tavera, 19; Ricardo Ramirez, 35, and Rolando Resendiz, 34.

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The mission was supposed to be a textbook "controlled delivery" - a routine trap by law enforcement officers using a secret operative posing as a truck driver to bust drug traffickers when their narcotics are delivered to a rendezvous point.

Instead, things spun out of control. Shortly before the marijuana delivery was to be made Monday afternoon, three sport-utility vehicles carrying Zetas cartel gunmen seemingly came out of nowhere and cut off the tanker truck as it rumbled through northwest Harris County, sources told the Chronicle.

They sprayed the cab with bullets, killing the civilian driver, who was secretly working with the government. A sheriff's deputy, who was driving nearby in another vehicle, was wounded, possibly by friendly fire.

The Chronicle has learned that investigators believe the deputy's shooting was the result of confusing radio communications between the multiple agencies that responded. Some of the arriving officers may have thought the deputy was one of the culprits when in fact he was a member of the surveillance team watching the truck.

For some at the scene, it seemed all too similar to what has been playing out in Mexico, where drug cartels operate with near impunity as they clash with each other and with the military and police.

"We are not going to tolerate these types of thugs out there using their weapons like the Wild, Wild West," said the new head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston Division. "We are going after them."

A load of pot

"Everybody is surprised at the brazenness," he continued as he stressed a full court press by the DEA, the sheriff and police. "We haven't seen this type of violence, which concerns us."

Sources discussed aspects of the shoot-out on the condition that they not be identified public- ly due to the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation.

A contingent of law-enforcement officers had been covertly shadowing the truck as it eased its way through the Houston area to deliver a load of marijuana fresh from the Rio Grande Valley.

Officers open fire

As the gunmen attacked, officers quickly jumped into the fray and also opened fire on the attackers. The truck kept rolling until it careened off the roadway and came to a halt.

Dozens of law-enforcement officers descended on the scene as well as fanned out in the surrounding neighborhoods.

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Four suspects, all believed to be citizens of Mexico, were arrested and charged Monday with capital murder in connection with the shooting.

They are Eric De Luna, 23; Fernando Tavera, 19; Ricardo Ramirez, 35 and Rolando Resendiz, 34.

Full recovery expected

The sheriff's deputy, who has not yet been identified publicly, was hit in the knee during the melee, which involved several cars and guns.

The eight-year veteran was expected to spend Thursday night in the hospital, but make a full recovery.

A spokeswoman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office said much of the incident remains under investigation, including who shot the deputy and the driver.

"Until we get that forensic analysis back we won't know for sure," she said. "There were several people firing weapons. As for who shot who, that is still under investigation."

Authorities would not discuss how the deceased driver, who in addition to being a confidential informant and holding a job as a commercial truck driver, first made contact with the traffickers.

Not the wisest choice

While some of the arrested attackers have allegedly admitted to an affiliation with the Mexico-based Zetas, authorities said they are trying to determine why such a bold and risky attack was launched over just 300 pounds of marijuana.

Sources, who concede this case is especially puzzling, said that if the Zetas had learned the truck driver was an informant and wanted him dead, there were smarter ways to get him, rather than risk an assault on a truck watched so closely by law enforcement.

"If it was a straight assassination, there were points in this controlled delivery where he would have just been a sitting duck," said a law-enforcement source speaking on the condition of anonymity.

A theory being closely looked at is that someone from the drug underworld knew what the truck looked like and knew where it was going, and decided to get crew together to stage a rip-off, but thought much more marijuana was hidden in the truck.

"Pretty brazen to kill a man over 300 pounds of grass," the law-enforcement source said.

Source: [www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Zeta-soldiers-launched-Mexico-style-attack-in-2283370.php](Return to Contents)

22

J. Summary of Events

22 November 2011Blog del Narco/NAFBPO

**An asterisk denotes death involving a police officer or a member of the military serving in that capacity.

RANCHO ALMADA, CHIHUAHUA*

Saturday morning, 11/19, a municipal police officer named Jorge Reyes Pacheco, 41 years old, was executed.

TORREON, COAHUILA

The Mexican military dismantled a sophisticated communications network of the Zetas on Friday. Four people were arrested. It operated with a central processing unit, a long-range ICOM radio on air band, which allows communication with aircraft from the ground. They seized:

two hard drives for large storage capacity, 3 digital repeaters, a digital base band radio, 4 linked network laptops, 63 digital radios, 59 analog radios with multiple accessories, 22 team radio phones, 24 cell phones, various amounts of cocaine and documents.

GUADALAJARA, JALISCO

Gunmen made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the police chief here on Saturday. Two officers were wounded, and one gunman is dead. Two other gunmen were caught along with two vehicles and a number of firearms and ammo. A later report confirms 3 officers were wounded, with 2 stable and the other in surgery.

CELAYA, GUANAJUATO

The Senate PRI party has asked the Attorney General’s office to investigate the PAN mayor here for cartel ties. The town has suffered a tremendous wave of executions, kidnappings, extortion and continued activity of drug traffickers.

SERDÁN ACHILLES, CHIHUAHUA*

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A municipal police officer was executed inside his home by assassins. No other information available.

LA TRINITARIA, CHIAPAS

Gunmen broke into a home here on Monday 11/21, and executed the entire family present. Killed were a 48 yr. old man, his 47 yr. old wife, and their 22 yr. old son.

Spanish Source: [www.mundonarco.com](Return to Contents)

K. Did You Know Fast and Furious Guns Brought down a Military Helicopter? (MX)

21 November 2011The Examiner

While it is well-known that the murders of a Border Patrol Agent and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent have been linked to the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious, the downing of a Mexican military helicopter with assault weapons traced to the infamous program has received very little coverage.

In fact, outside of CBS’ investigative reporter, the story has not received even a mention from the mainstream press.

In May 2011, a Mexican military helicopter was forced down after sustaining fire from a .50 caliber rifle that was later traced back to the gun-running operation known as Fast and Furious.

In June, the CBS investigative reporter reported that suspected drug cartel operatives shot at several helicopters in western Mexico, with the damage to one being so severe that its crew was forced to land. Mexican forces engaged the suspects on the ground and reportedly seized more than 70 assault rifles.

The serial numbers on many of those weapons were eventually traced back to the ATF operation.

An unnamed U.S. law enforcement source told the reporter: “Shooting at an aircraft is a terrorist act. What does that say if we're helping Mexican drug cartels engage in acts of terror? That's appalling if we could have stopped those guns.”

According to the CBS report, weapons used in that attack were taken into Mexico by individuals already under indictment for allegedly selling arms to the drug cartels.

To date, the Department of Justice has not commented on this incident.

Source: [www.examiner.com/drug-cartel-in-national/did-you-know-fast-and-furious-guns-brought-down-a-military-helicopter?CID=examiner_alerts_article](Return to Contents)

24

L. Valley Police Beat: CBP Arrest 30 Sex Offenders in 2011 (CA)

19 November 2011Imperial Valley Press

Over 30 illegal immigrants convicted of sex offenses have been arrested by the El Centro sector Border Patrol after attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border during fiscal year 2011, according to a press statement.

All the offenders are males and have criminal histories for felony convictions that include rape and sodomy to children, the release reads.

The illegal immigrants were often found traveling with women and children, according to the release. The men are processed for warrants and presented for prosecution on federal immigration charges.

Over 19 sex offenders have been convicted and many others are awaiting prosecution proceedings, the statement reads.

Source: [www.ivpressonline.com/news/ivp-valley-police-beat-cbp-arrest-30-sex-offenders-in-2011-20111119,0,3534816.story](Return to Contents)

M. Nearly $1 Million in Drugs Seized This Weekend by Local Border Patrol (CA)

21 November 2011KPSP TV

Local border patrol agents intercepted two drug smuggling attempts this weekend worth an estimated $945,000.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Spokesman says the first seizure happened Friday at the Highway 86 checkpoint near the Salton Sea, when a drug-sniffing dog alerted agents to a black Jeep Liberty that was passing through.

"The driver, a 43-year-old U.S. citizen male, was referred to secondary inspection where a thorough search was conducted of the vehicle," the spokesman said.

Inside the Jeep, agents say they found more than 25 pounds of methamphetamine packed up into 20 separate plastic bags-- worth about $809,000, according to the spokesman.

A separate seizure was made a day later, on Saturday, when a Honda CRV trying to pass through the Highway 111 checkpoint was also hauling some meth.

25

"While searching the cargo area, agents discovered two plastic bags of methamphetamine," he said.

The four pounds of methamphetamine were worth an estimated $138,000.

Source: [www.kpsplocal2.com/Content/Headlines/story/Nearly-1-Million-in-Drugs-Seized-This-Weekend-by/z2TQWE0zEkm6qE-3mcsgdw.cspx](Return to Contents)

N. Border Patrol Agents Seized 1,676 Pounds of Marijuana in TX

20 November 2011Laredo Sun

Border Patrol agents assigned to the Zapata Border Patrol station seized approximately 1,676.6 pounds of marijuana.

On November 15, 2011, Zapata Border Patrol agents patrolling their area of operations attempted to stop a white GMC truck traveling north on HWY 83. The truck came to a stop when agents noticed two subjects absconded into the brush.

Upon further inspection of the vehicle, agents discovered 146 bundles of a substance that tested positive as marijuana. The drug weighed 1,676.6 pounds and has an estimated street value $1,341,280.00.

Source: [www.laredosun.us/notas.asp?id=19005](Return to Contents)

O. Police Say Illegal Immigrant Stash Houses Can Be Found All over Valley (NM)

18 November 2011KRGV TV

Stash houses raided across the Valley continue to top headlines. There have been people and drugs hidden inside these homes. No neighborhood is immune. Police say you can help point out these houses.

Border Patrol agents raided a stash house in San Juan on Thursday where 19 illegal immigrants were found inside. Many of them are from Mexico.

Stash houses like that one are found all across the Valley. The people who run them rent homes in all types of neighborhoods, including the one in which one resident lives.

“I thought it was a house down the street, but I guess you're telling me it's this one here,” says the resident.

26

A home right across the street has seen better days.

“I can see that one being a stash house,” he says.

It's not the home that fits the description. The resident said it was the activity.

“Cars parked in my lot, cars going back and forth,” he says.

Inside, the living conditions are less than ideal. We're walking over blankets and pieces of carpet used as bedding. On the shelf, you can see their limited food supply. There are no utilities in the house. There is a power switch, but it goes nowhere.

“It is a health hazard. It is a health concern. Hopefully, it doesn't spread anywhere. Hopefully, it isn't too much damage,” says the resident.

Another man lives a stone's throw away.

“During the day, there was nobody in there,” he says.

He never saw more than a couple people on the property.

Could you be living next to a stash house? Authorities say to watch out for pieces of carpet outside. Remember that it's used as bedding. If your neighbor’s windows are hidden by poorly put up tin foil, they may be trying to hide something. Keep an eye out for trash. If you see a lot of it but do not see people coming in and out of the house, you could be living near a stash house.

Source: [www.krgv.com/content/news/story/Police-Say-Illegal-Immigrant-Stash-Houses-Can-Be/GrffeE6p10uP9hChQhRq8A.cspx](Return to Contents)

P. Mexico To Probe Report of Drug Campaign Financing (MICH)

22 November 2011The Boston Globe (AP)

Mexican federal prosecutors said Tuesday they are opening an investigation into a taped telephone conversation in which a reputed drug cartel leader purportedly threatens residents of a town in western Mexico to vote in favor of one candidate.

In the conversation the reputed drug boss reportedly also claims a rival cartel financed the campaign of another party.

The accusations would be the gravest instance yet of drug cartel penetration in Mexican politics.

27

Gubernatorial candidates in the Nov. 13 elections in the state of Michoacan have already claimed there was drug cartel interference in the vote. Michoacan is considered one of Mexico's most narco-dominated states.

But nobody has yet ascertained the origin or veracity of a recording made public Tuesday by local media, in which a voice identified as Horacio Morales Baca, a purported leader of the flagging La Familia cartel, is heard calling residents of the town of Tuzantla prior to the election and telling them to vote for the mayoral candidate of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI.

Morales Baca says on the tape that anyone who voted for the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, would face bloody reprisals.

"If anybody votes for the PRD, a relative of theirs will be killed," the voice is heard saying. "Anybody who tells ... anybody from the PRD that I called and told you this, and there is some kind of legal challenge in Morelia (the Michoacan state capital), that person's house will be burned with their family inside," the voice is heard saying. The PRI candidate won the mayorship, and a PRI candidate won the governorship.

But the voice also says that the rival -- and largely dominant -- Knights Templar cartel had been financing the campaign of Silvano Aureoles, the PRD's unsuccessful candidate for governor.

"The PRD candidate for governor, Silvano, the Knights Templar are supporting him," the voice says. "The head of the Knights Templar gave $2 million, and they are helping him with a lot of things."

Both parties mentioned in the tape denied the allegations.

A statement issued by his office said Aureoles "categorically denies having received any sort of support from groups that operate outside the law," but claimed that with the tapes "it is proved that there was a call from a criminal gang for people to vote for the candidate of the PRI."

PRI candidate Fausto Vallejo, who won the governorship, denied any links with organized crime. "If any party acted within the law and with few funds, it was us."

"There is no pact, there is no agreement, there is no truce with the criminals," Vallejo told a meeting after he was declared winner.

A statement from the federal Attorney General's Office did not offer any judgment on the authenticity of the tape, saying simply that it "will investigate those acts that could represent federal crimes, and in accordance with its duties, will carry out investigations of the possible participation of member of organized crime in the electoral process."

Even before news of the tape leaked out, all of the governor candidates or their parties had complained that mayoral candidates from their parties had received threats in some towns. One

28

of the losing candidates is Maria Luisa Calderon, President Felipe Calderon's sister, who ran for the president's conservative National Action Party.

On Tuesday, Josefina Vazquez Mota, the leading contender for National Action's 2012 presidential nomination, said the party had to be taken to prevent narco-penetration of national politics.

"We cannot allow organized crime to decide at the ballot box," Vazquez Mota told local media. "We have to join ranks to confront this threat, this attempt by organized crime to vote with bullets, and inhibit democratic voting."

Also Tuesday, the Mexican army said it seized $15.3 million in bundles of cash believed to belong to members of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Army spokesman Gen. Ricardo Trevilla said soldiers found the piles of U.S. bills inside a car in a downtown neighborhood of the border city of Tijuana late Monday.

Trevilla said no arrests were made at the scene, but that soldiers received information that the money was to have been taken to a Tijuana home he described as "the center of financial operations" of the Sinaloa cartel.

Trevilla says it was the second largest money cache found by soldiers.

Source: [www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2011/11/22/soldiers_find_15_million_linked_to_sinaloa_cartel/](Return to Contents)

Q. Mexican Army Seizes $15 Million from Top Drug Lord (SIN)

22 November 2011MSNBC (Reuters)

Editorial Comment: This is an update to a previously-reported story.

Mexico's army seized nearly $15.4 million from the organization of the country's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, officials said Tuesday, marking a rare financial blow to cartels.

The seizure was revealed the same day U.S. border police revealed the third discovery in a week of drug-smuggling tunnel under the border with Mexico.

In Mexico, the military said it found the cash was found in a vehicle on Nov. 18 in the northern border city of Tijuana and that it was linked to Guzman's operations.

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The haul marked the second-largest cash seizure by the military since President Felipe Calderon sent the country's armed forces out to battle drug cartels in 2006, the statement said. Some $26 million was captured in September 2008 in Culiacan, the capital of Guzman's home state of Sinaloa.

Source: [www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45408974/ns/world_news-americas/#.TszqN_LQeSo](Return to Contents)

4. CARRIBEAN, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA

A. Colombia Arrests 14 Drug Suspects Wanted by U.S. (CO)

21 November 2011Latin American Herald Tribune

Colombian police announced Monday the capture of 14 suspected drug traffickers wanted for extradition to the United States.

The director of the force, Gen. Oscar Naranjo, told a press conference that among those arrested was Dionisio de Jesus Vera Olmos, who took over the gang’s business “when police mounted an operation to find its kingpin,” Daniel Barrera.

Vera is also suspected of forging an alliance with the head of the Erpac militia group, Jose Eberto Lopez Montero.

Of the 14 taken into custody, six were nabbed in Bogota, five in Barranquilla, two in Cartagena and one in Puerto Boyaca.

According to police, those under arrest were in charge of coca-paste production in the central province of Meta, processing the paste into cocaine in labs controlled by Erpac and shipping the drug to the Atlantic coast and the Venezuelan state of Apure.

Police investigations also indicate that gang members were laundering money from drug sales through front operations both inside and outside of Colombia.

Vera and other drug traffickers sent an average of 1.5 tons of cocaine from clandestine runways in Venezuela, and from the Caribbean ports of Barranquilla and Cartagena in containers of large freighters headed for the Dominican Republic and Honduras, where the front companies received and stored the drugs.

From there the drugs were sent to Europe and the United States.

Source: [www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=446700&CategoryId=12393](Return to Contents)

30

B. Colombia’s Santos Says Cocaine Fight Stuck on ‘Stationary Bike’ (CO)

22 Nov ember 2011Bloomberg Business Week

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, said the war on drugs is stuck on a “stationary bike” as demand persists despite efforts to crack down on traffickers.

“Drug trafficking continues feeding violence, which shows the need for consumer nations to take more effective measures to cut demand,” Santos said in a speech in London, according to a statement on the presidential website. “We keep fighting drugs, but the drugs keep flowing.

Santos said he speaks with the “moral authority” of the leader of a South American nation that has dismantled powerful drug groups such as the Medellin and Cali cartels while reducing cocaine output. His comments echo previous efforts, including his suggestion that the world consider legalization, aimed at opening a rethinking of U.S.-backed policies focused on attacking output and not consumption.

Cocaine cultivation in Colombia, which receives about $500 million a year in U.S. anti-narcotics aid, fell 37 percent since 2007 to 62,000 hectares in 2010, according to a June 23 study b20 percent, according to the UN report.

Under pressure by U.S.-backed eradication efforts, cultivation has moved into neighboring Peru like air in a balloon when it is squeezed, General Oscar Naranjo, head of Colombia’s national police, told reporters in June.

The U.N. report found Colombia is now rivaled by Peru as the world’s largest cocaine producer, each account for about 40 percent of world output.

Drug organizations, such as the Sinaloa cartel and Zetas, have emerged in Mexico as Colombian cartels declined.

Forty-five thousand Mexicans have been killed since 2006 and the drug war has cost the economy $120 billion in security expenditures and lost investment, according to a Miami-based investment firm that specializes in Latin America.

Source: [www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-22/colombia-s-santos-says-cocaine-fight-stuck-on-stationary-bike-.html](Return to Contents)

C. Costa Rica Seizes 1.2 Tons of Cocaine (CR)

22 November 2011NTN24 News (Reuters)

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Costa Rica police seizes 1.2 tons of cocaine on board a truck. Police think the cargo had originally been transported by sea.

Costa Rica's police seized 1.2 tons of cocaine stowed on a truck, the Public Security Ministry said during a news conference on Tuesday.

Police said the seizure was carried out at dawn on Tuesday in the Tibas neighborhood in the country's capital city San Jose after authorities received an anonymous tip.

Authorities arrested three Colombians in their 30s.

Two vehicles escorting the truck were also seized.

Public Security Minister, Mario Zamora, told news conferences in San Jose prosecutors were still inspecting the contents.

"We assume there is more than a ton. Prosecutors on the case are checking this. The vehicle was taken to central anti-drugs police offices where the contents are being inspected," he said.

Zamora added he believes the cocaine had originally been transported by sea.

Mexican drug gangs are increasingly using Costa Rica as a pick-up point for South American cocaine headed north.

Costa Rican police seized close to 93 tons of cocaine between 2006 and 2009, nearly twice the amount the Central American country captured in the previous decade, according to Interior Ministry data.

Costa Rica sits halfway between the cocaine-producing Andes and Mexico, whose powerful cartels earn some $40 billion a year smuggling the drug to the United States and other developed countries.

Traffickers traditionally moved cocaine through Central America by plane or boat. They now are well implanted in Guatemala and also are using storage bases in Costa Rica, a nation long known as a haven of stability in a region blighted by street gangs and poverty.

Source: [www.ntn24.com/news/news/costa-rica-seizes-12-tonnes-cocaine](Return to Contents)

5. OPINION AND ANALYSIS

A. The Deterioration of Security Environments in Latin America (MX/HN/GT/SV)

21 November 2011Mexidata.info

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It is hard for the U.S. not to look to the south and focus on a region of the world consumed in turmoil and violence. It could be said that it is just unpleasant to look that way when the media coverage and the numbers graphically paint a portrait of human carnage, suffering and oppression against citizens.

The truth is that we do pay attention to Latin America - much like we go to the movies and watch in awe at things that playfully scare us and consume our attention to the silver screen. We then go home, lock our doors, and pretend we have nothing to fear and all is well.

While foreign policy issues in Latin America have traditionally focused first and foremost on immigration and trade related matters, drug trafficking proliferated as the cold war entered decades of dormancy. From the extended organized crime insurgencies that pushed hard and north through Central America, the northern cone countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have felt the greatest impact, as did Mexico.

Although human rights abuses have also festered throughout the Americas, the current brazen and deadly attacks on the independence of the media clearly indicate the deliberate oppression against the general populace of the affected nations. These attacks against freedom tear at the basic fabric of humanity and create a climate of fear, intimidation and helplessness.

The homicide rates in Latin America are now among the highest in the world. Murder increased by 50 percent from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s alone. The violence in 2004 was "the main cause of death in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras."

A prominent human rights group, PROVEA (Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos), recently announced that at least 13,985 people were killed in Venezuela in 2009. Venezuela currently has one of Latin America's highest murder rates.

Is the U.S. turning a blind eye to its neighbors to the south in this quagmire of bloody mayhem? U.S. Special Operations Forces are playing an increasingly active role in Latin America, as well as the Caribbean. Much of their primary deployments remain counternarcotics, foreign/internal defense, and counterterrorism. Is this attention simply "reactive" in nature, and are we ignoring long term and strategic planning based on good human intelligence collection (HUMINT)?

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's slippery rise and sustainment of power has been a decade of socialist dictatorial iron-fisted dominance of the Venezuelan people. Corruption has escalated under Chavez, and the country now ranks as one of the most corrupt in the world.

Furthermore, his active solicitation and facilitation in Iran's involvement in the region has become a serious threat to security in the hemisphere.

While there are those that questioned whether Chavez's "bad-influence" throughout the Americas had any content validity, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated, "I'm concerned about the level of, frankly, subversive activity the Iranians are carrying on in a number of places in Latin America, particularly South and Central America." And Chavez's sleight-of-hand in transforming Fidel Castro's revolution into his own has not been so cleverly concealed.

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Can much of Latin America's current state of chaos be attributed to leftist regimes? It is hardly a secret that Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez has spent much of his 11 years in office working to recruit and support leftist presidential candidates in this hemisphere. His influence has been felt from Argentina to Mexico.

In his own country, Chavez has demolished independence in Venezuela's institutions, seized control of the economy, militarized the government, and virtually destroyed private enterprise.

The Chavez leftist alliances include President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who had previously served his country as Minister of Economy and resigned after an unauthorized visit to Venezuela to meet with Chavez. Correa has threatened to "trash the capitalists," destroy the private sector, control dissent, and rewrite Ecuador's Constitution.

Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya attempted to eliminate term barriers to reelection by sponsoring a referendum ruled illegal by the Supreme Court. They had him removed from office.

Circumventing reelection term limits has apparently become the norm for Chavez's closest allies, including Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. Ortega will now serve another term, following November 6 elections that were described by the U.S. State Department as follows: "International and unaccredited domestic observers have publicly stated that the electoral process was marred by significant irregularities."

As well, over the years suitcases of cash originating out of Venezuela for leftist candidates were found in Nicaragua and Argentina.

While more than 45,000 people are said to have been killed in Mexico's violence, northern cone nations are following suit with disturbing increases. Tough interdiction efforts force traffickers to adjust their smuggling methods and to a revival in interest in moving drugs through the Caribbean.

Acquiring and enhancing human intelligence collection in the Americas must clearly focus on a much bigger picture - that goes beyond drug trafficking. After all, drugs are for producing mass revenue, and mass revenue is a tool of revolutionary practitioners.

Source: [www.mexidata.info/id3192.html](Return to Contents)

B. Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 8 (MX)

19 November 2011Small Wars Journal

Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 8: 230,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Mexico and ‘Narco-Refugee’ Potentials for the United States.

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Key Information:

Via the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s (Oslo) Internal Displacement: Global Overview of Trends and Developments in 2010:

Drug-cartel violence in Mexico escalated dramatically in 2010, with the violence reaching the highest levels since it broke out in 2006; as many as 15,000 people were killed as a result during the year. In 2010, northern states bordering the United States, where trafficking routes were concentrated, were most affected. While the violence has caused forced displacement, the government has not systematically collected figures to indicate its scale.

In 2010, most IDPs originated from the states most affected by violence, Chihuahua and Tamaulipas. Surveys conducted by a research center in Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua estimated that around 230,000 people had fled their homes. According to the survey's findings, roughly half of them had crossed the border into the United States, with an estimated 115,000 people left internally displaced, predominantly in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila and Veracruz. There have been few attempts to define the scale of displacement in small rural towns in Tamaulipas and Chihuahua, even though the violence is believed to be even more intense in those rural areas. Furthermore, forced displacement has taken place alongside strong economic migration flows, making it harder to identify and document.

In Tamaulipas, the Cartel del Golfo and another cartel known as the Zetas fought for trafficking routes, terrorizing the civilian population as a way to assert territorial control, and also targeting local authorities and journalists. The municipalities most affected were Guerrero, Mier, Miguel Alemán, Camargo and Díaz Ordaz.

In Ciudad Mier, a small locality near the border with the United States, the Zetas issued an open threat to all the inhabitants in November 2010, saying that people who remained in the town would be killed. As a result, as many as 400 people fled to the nearby town of Ciudad Miguel Alemán.

In Chihuahua, where the Cartel de Sinaloa began to challenge the dominance of the Cartel de Juárez and its control of trafficking routes, the large industrial town of Ciudad Juárez also experienced increased violence and forced displacement. The Municipal Planning Institute reported in 2010 that there were up to 116,000 empty homes in Juárez.

In 2010, federal authorities did not acknowledge, assess or document the needs of the people displaced, instead focusing their efforts on fighting the drug cartels. International agencies present in the country with protection mandates, including UNHCR and ICRC, followed events but, in the absence of government acquiescence, they did not establish programs to provide protection and assistance or promote durable solutions for those forcibly displaced….

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Via the author of Mexico’s “Narco-Refugees”: The Looming Challenge for U.S. National Security:

Since 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared war on the drug cartels, there has been a rise in the number of Mexican nationals seeking political asylum in the United States to escape the ongoing drug cartel violence in their home country. Political asylum cases in general are claimed by those who are targeted for their political beliefs or ethnicity in countries that are repressive or are failing. Mexico is neither. Nonetheless, if the health of the Mexican state declines because criminal violence continues, increases, or spreads, U.S. communities will feel an even greater burden on their systems of public safety and public health from “narco-refugees.” Given the ever increasing cruelty of the cartels, the question is whether and how the U.S. Government should begin to prepare for what could be a new wave of migrants coming from Mexico.

Allowing Mexicans to claim asylum could potentially open a flood gate of migrants to the United States during a time when there is a very contentious national debate over U.S. immigration laws pertaining to illegal immigrants. On the other hand, to deny the claims of asylum seekers and return them to Mexico where they might very well be killed, strikes at the heart of American values of justice and humanitarianism. This monograph focuses on the asylum claims of Mexicans who unwillingly leave Mexico rather than those who willingly enter the United States legally or illegally. To successfully navigate through this complex issue will require a greater level of understanding and vigilance at all levels of the U.S. Government.

Analysis:

Most news stories and analyses have concentrated on violence, corruption, illicit narcotics/weapons/monetary seizures, and the arrest/killing of cartel leaders in Mexico as a result of the ongoing criminal insurgencies taking place in that country. The issue of large numbers of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) now found in Mexico due to the effects of cartel and gang violence has been generally overlooked. Insights provided by the Justice in Mexico Project (Trans-Border Institute, University of San Diego) pertaining to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre report suggest:

The report also stressed that the Mexican government does not compile displacement figures for people who have had to leave their homes because of “turf battles” between drug cartels, which has forced the Centre to rely on information from local researchers. Based on this information, the Centre estimates that as many as half of Mexico’s IDPs may have migrated to the United States.

While Mexico does not account for displaced populations as a result of the drug war, the Mexican Census taken in mid-2010 revealed that two-thirds of the homes in Praxedis G. Guerrero, a town east of Ciudad Juarez, have been abandoned, most likely due to the violence created from the wars between the Sinoloa and Juarez cartels in the area. The Internal Displacement report also indicates that many IDPs in Mexico were forced to

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move from their places of origins by other causes than drug violence, such as the 1994 Chiapas uprising.

Many Mexican security experts who have analyzed the narco wars were unaware of the IDP issue or at least downplayed its significance. Until last year, the fact that 116,000 empty homes in Juárez existed was not known to many security analysts. This was evident in the RAND Delphi expert elicitation published as The Challenges of Violent Drug-Trafficking Organizations in October 2011. This issue can be viewed pertaining to Table 4-1 as it relates to the ‘Demographics: Houses significant refugees or internally displaced persons’ scores. The rounded result and unrest score were both ‘0’. The experts participating could conceivably attest to the spirited debates related to this specific issue.

Policies focusing on ‘Narco-Refugees’—individuals who leave Mexico unwillingly and submit asylum claims in the U.S. as political refugees— also need to be further developed. Since cartels and gangs are de facto considered apolitical organizations (even though armed, violent, and increasingly politicized)— individuals who flee from local cartel and gang threats can be caught in a ‘Catch 22 situation’ when seeking political refugee status. Additionally, ‘Mexi-stan’ concerns and the interrelationship of U.S. drug policy vis-à-vis immigration policy and national security as they relate to the ‘narco-refugee’ phenomenon as highlighted by the author have to be further examined. This later insight was earlier highlighted by another author in The Three U.S.-Mexico Border Wars: Drugs, Immigration, and Homeland Security published in 2006, though he warned of not conflating these issues. Still, it is important for SWJ readers to recognize that Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) exist in Mexico due to the criminal insurgencies taking place and that ‘Narco-Refugee’ potentials increasingly exist for the United States.

Source: [smallwars.org/blog/mexican-cartel-strategic-note-no-8](Return to Contents)

C. Mexican Presidential Race Takes Shape; 'Narco-Politics' Feared (SON/MICH/MX)

22 November 2011Los Angeles Times

Manlio Fabio Beltrones, one of Mexico's most savvy politicians, has dropped his presidential ambitions, a move that simplifies the 2012 contest.

Beltrones, a senator and veteran leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), effectively ceded the field to Enrique Pena Nieto, the party's former governor of the state of Mexico and front-runner in the presidential race.

Beltrones, a former governor of Sonora state once linked by media reports to drug traffickers -- an allegation he vigorously denied -- said in a video message that his decision to step aside "is not a sacrifice but is my contribution to the party's victory in 2012."

Pena Nieto's rise as virtual party nominee (it will not be official until March under electoral rules; the election is in July) follows the anointment of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as the

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consensus candidate of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. Lopez Obrador narrowly lost the last presidential race in 2006.

Now only the conservative National Action Party of President Felipe Calderon has to choose a candidate. Three people are vying for the nomination: former Finance Minister Ernesto Cordero, Sen. Santiago Creel and former Education Minister Josefina Vazquez Mota, who is leading most polls. If selected, Mota would be the first female presidential candidate of a major political party in Mexico.

Meanwhile, Mexico faces a particularly perilous challenge looking ahead to next year's voting: the possible intrusion of "narco-politics." This month's local elections in Calderon's home state of Michoacan were badly marred by presumed drug gangs who threatened election workers and told people how to vote. The Milenio TV network on Tuesday aired a chilling audio recording of what it said was a trafficker known as "The Dog" threatening to kill residents of two Michoacan towns unless they voted for the PRI.

Newly appointed Interior Minister Alejandro Poire said in a separate television interview (link in Spanish) on Tuesday that the interference of drug traffickers in Michoacan was "very disturbing."

"From now until next year," Poire said, "we have to do everything possible to guarantee a peaceful electoral process in which the expression of organized crime is eliminated."

Source: [latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/11/mexico-presidential-race.html](Return to Contents)