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Colombia Bags Biggest Druglord

7:00 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Colombia| Drugs| Latin America| crime · 2 Comments

15 Apr 2009

Colombian authorities have captured the country’s biggest drug lord. Daniel Rendon Herrera, known as “Don Mario”, was arrested today near the Panamanian border, after a 2 million dollar bounty was offered for his capture (video above of this first images of the capture).

Don Mario was no small fry. The BBC gives a rundown of some of the highlights of Rendon’s “career” and how he eluded authorities:

Once a paramilitary in a branch of the now-demobilised United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), Daniel Rendon had refused to surrender as part of a peace deal.

Instead he used paramilitary networks to build up a personal army of up to 1,000 heavily-armed fighters, also striking a deal with left-wing Farc rebels, the BBC’s Jeremy McDermott reports from the capital, Bogota.
Authorities had been tracking the 43-year-old for months, but he had always managed to stay one step ahead of them until now, he says.

Rendon reportedly has exported literally tons of cocaine to Mexico, which has in turn made its way around the globe. According to the UK’s Telegraph, little is known about Rendon, who has successfully eluded media for years.

Via / BBC News and Telegraph

Mexican Tourism Board: Mexico Needs an Image Makeover

24 Mar 2009

1949726238_351271f9eb_o As much as I love Mexico, I have to admit that lately all of the violence — from severed heads in ice chests to massive roadside graves — makes it harder and harder to convince people who don’t know the country that that’s not what it’s about. The Mexican Tourism Board appears to realize that this is becoming more and more challenging, and its Secretary says that the country needs to “rebuild its image” in the eyes of foreigners, namely potential tourists. El Universal reports:

At a conference, [the Secretary] stated that it isn’t about an advertising campaign but doing anything necessary “to compensate for the attacks that Mexico has suffered in the last several weeks.”

Accompanied by the director of the Council for Tourism Promotion, Oscar Fitch Gómez, the Secretary explained that the intention isn’s just to rebuild Mexico’s image to attract visitors but to improve the country as a whole.

The Secretary also stated that potential tourists hear many things about Mexico that just aren’t true, some as extreme as the notion that the country is “at war”. He also mentioned that the ex-director of the CIA advised his own son not to visit Mexico because the narcos were planning to attack Spring Break revelers, and that the responsibility of convincing American tourists that these rumors are false belongs to Mexico.

I symphathize with this effort. I always hated when people tried to tell me things about Mexico City — you can’t walk down the street at night without getting robbed, nor get into a cab without getting kidnapped, etc. — when I lived there and knew the truth. But at the same time, we have to be realistic and realize that cosmetic changes won’t fix a problem that is getting worse and worse every day. This isn’t a job for the Tourism Board but for President Felipe Calderon.

Via / El Universal

Massive Grave in Mexico Linked to Drug Cartels

6:40 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs| U.S.-Mexico Border| Violence| mexico| society · 2 Comments

15 Mar 2009

A grave containing 9 bodies was discovered over the weekend in Juarez, Mexico, and all signs point to the fact that this is yet another bloody chapter in Mexico’s on-going drug wars. CNN reports:

Investigators have yet to determine the identities of the seven men and two women found in the grave, Gonzalez said. They have not released information on how they were killed or how long they have been there.

Juarez, which is across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become one of the major battlegrounds as drug cartels fight both each other and Mexican authorities. The conflict has made violence increasingly common in Juarez, Tijuana and other Mexican border towns.

The discovery coincides with the arrival of some 5,000 Mexican troops dispatched to Ciudad Juarez in an effort to put a stop the the heightening violence in the city.

To get a sense for what drug violence is doing to Ciudad Juarez (incidentally also infamous for the mysterious murders of hundreds of women over the past several years), have a look at the above video from the YouTube and Pulitzer Center “Project: Report” project.

Via / CNN

Website Makes Regular People Virtual Border Patrol Agents

13 Mar 2009

border When you think “stay-at-home-mom”, what comes to mind? I think diaper changing, grocery shopping and picking up kids from school. But at least one mom in Rochester, New York thinks “patrolling the U.S.- Mexico border via webcam”. Uhhhh…

When her baby girl takes an afternoon nap, or on those nights when she just can’t sleep, Sarah Andrews, 32, tosses off her identity as a suburban stay-at-home mom and becomes something more exotic: a “virtual deputy” patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border. From her house in a suburb of Rochester, New York, Andrews spends at least four hours a day watching a site called BlueServo.net.

There, because of a $2 million grant from the state of Texas, anyone in the world can watch grainy live video scenes of cactuses, desert mountains and the Rio Grande along Texas’ portion of the international border.

That’s right, Texas has people on the other side of the country virtually patrolling its borders in what they call “virtual stakeouts”. According to CNN, those who are participating are doing so out of a “sense of civic responsibility”.

The Texas Border Sherriff’s Coalition, the entity that runs the site, says that crime has decreased as a result of the cameras. They claim that multiple arrest have been made, all related to marijuana trafficking.

I tried to test the site out myself but the videos don’t load for me. Perhaps the site knows my politics? The sign-up form contains questions like “Do you think the border is adequately protected from crime and terrorism?” and “Do you think BlueServo’s Virtual Community Watch program will aid and improve Texas border security?” They give you the option of skipping those questions, which I did. I wonder if that’s why I can’t see the video…

What do you think of this initiative? Are the people watching these cameras from their homes couch potato versions of the Minutemen? Or just concerned citizens? Do you think this well help quell crime on the border? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Via / CNN

Mexico’s Narco Violence Continues: 5 Decapitated Heads Found

6:09 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Drugs| Latin America| crime| mexico| society · 7 Comments

10 Mar 2009

narcoheads It seems that with each passing day, Mexico’s war on drug lords seems more and more hopeless, and the country is gripped with a seemingly endless chain of violent acts that have already left hundreds dead this year and nearly 6,000 deaths last year. The latest chapter in this bloody story is striking in its violence: this morning, 5 decapitated heads were found in an ice chests on the side of the road in rural Jalisco, Mexico. Mexico City’s La Jornada reports:

Inside styrofoam ice chests 5 male heads were found in the early morning on Tuesday in the town of fueron encontradas la madrugada de este martes cinco cabezas Ixtlahuacán del Río, some 50 kilometers north of Guadalajara, with a “narcomessage”. The macabre discovery coincides with today’s visit to Jalisco by president Felipe Calderón.

Reports we called in around 2:00 a.m. via an anonymous caller to the municipal police, who after corroborating the news alerted the state police and state judicial authorities.

Each head was found in an ice chest with packing tape wrapped around the eyes. The five containers were placed in a line alongside the the highway, very close to entrance into the town.

Heads in ice chests? Can it really get much worse than this? Savage.

Calderón had better act quickly before his country falls further into the hands of these assassins. This is not the Mexico I know and love.

Via / La Jornada

Imaga via El Informador

The Narco Submarine

5:44 pm By Maegan La Mala · Bizarro| Drugs| Latin America| mexico| society · Comments Off

17 Jul 2008

Submarines carry spies, military personnel, weapons…but drugs? A “very special” submarine has been seized by Mexican officials and found to be carry a boatload of coke. And get this — the sub itself was homemade:

The 30-foot (10-meter) makeshift submarine was detected heading north about 200 miles (322 kilometers) off the southern state of Oaxaca, Mar said.

The green-topped, arrowhead-shaped vessel was intercepted when it surfaced hours later, and the crew was taken into custody without resistance.

CNN reports that the crew claims they didn’t know what the sub was carrying and had boarded the vessel because narcos were threatening their families.

This was a first for Mexico (incidentally plagued by problems with drug traffickers on land) but apparently this type of narcosub is well known in Colombia.

Via / CNN

Major drug lord taken down in Colombia

8:16 pm By Maegan La Mala · Colombia| Justice · Comments Off

12 Sep 2007

Diego Montoya (a.k.a. “Don Diego”), one of the FBI’s most wanted and one of the most elusive drug kingpins in the world, was captured in Colombia on Monday by Colombian authorities:

Diego Montoya, who goes by the alias “Don Diego”, was the top boss of the Norte del Valle cartel, believed to be responsible for 70 percent or two-thirds of the cocaine exported from Colombia to Europe and the U.S. The cartel is also believed responsible for more than a thousand murders.

Montoya was taken after being cornered in his underwear, and trying to negotiate with his captors by offering them 5 million dollars.

Montoya will remain in Colombian custody for questioning, then sent to Miami upon extradition to the U.S. The FBI, which considers Montoya as the world’s biggest drug dealer, is calling this arrest the biggest blow to illegal drug trade in decades.

Via / CBS4.com and Clarin

Image via Telegraph.co.uk

Juanes says: “Legalize it!”

5:15 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities| Colombia| Drugs · Comments Off

25 Jun 2007

Colombian rock superstar Juanes has a message for his country’s government: legalize it! Like many other prominent Colombian figures (Gabo included) Juanes believes that depenalizing drug use and sales could lead to a decline in drug related violence and mafias. According to Spain’s 20 Minutos:

“We have to start thinking about depenalizing some part of this, to try to minimize and weaken this mafia,” said the singer, who clarified that his proposal is for the long term and he admitted that his country still isn’t ready to start that debate.
“It’s been 5 decades of a war that doesn’t end, and it won’t end as long as it’s so productive.”

Expect a lot of pundits both in Colombia and here in the U.S. to have a strong opinion about this idea.

Via / 20 Minutos

Death toll rises in Mexican state

12:21 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · crime| mexico| society · Comments Off

18 May 2007

Last month, we told you about the wave of drug-related violence that had claimed the lives of over 50 people in the Mexican state of Nuevo León. Today Mexico’s El Universal reports that the violence that has brought that state to its knees hasn’t ended, with the death toll now at 64 victims. Yesterday, the number reach 61 when several armed suspects followed a man to his home, where they killed him by shooting him several times. The suspects escaped and their whereabouts are unknown.

This morning, at 7:00 am local time in Monterrey, three more victims were found on a city street, bound and executed, bringing the total number up to 64.

According to El Universal, this week alone police have found more than a dozen victims of kidnapping in different parts of the city.

Yes, Virginia, there are Spanish drug mules

7:33 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Justice| Peru| Spain · Comments Off

16 Mar 2007

I’m not sure if this has gone on before, but it seems like every time I read the news these days, another Spaniard has been picked up for trying to sneak drugs from Latin America into Europe. The latest are a couple of women from Spain who were caught in Lima’s airport carrying 23 kilos (51 lbs.) of cocaine between the two of them. The women, one aged 26 and the other 30, carried the drugs in hidden compartment in their suitcase and in dehydrated food packets. Both say they were “victims” and that the drugs were planted without them knowing.

Yesterday, another Spaniard was picked up by Peruvian police after they found 9 kilos (nothing in comparison to what the ladies were packing) of cocaine that he was attempting to transport to Madrid. He also denied knowing that there was coke in his bag, though he did say that someone was going to pay him $5000 to bring “whatever it was” into Spain. I mean, really…

I think this is really interesting because the idea that many have (especially here in the U.S.) of a “drug mule” is that of a poor Latin American person, a la Maria Full of Grace. Well, that may be true in many cases, but judging from the sheer number of Spaniards in custody in Peru alone, it looks like Europeans are just as likely to take part in trafficking. Spain is currently in second place in the number of citizens it has in Peruvian prisons, second only to Colombia.

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Posts Tagged ‘Drugs’

Colombia Bags Biggest Druglord

Mexican Tourism Board: Mexico Needs an Image Makeover

Massive Grave in Mexico Linked to Drug Cartels

Website Makes Regular People Virtual Border Patrol Agents

Mexico’s Narco Violence Continues: 5 Decapitated Heads Found

The Narco Submarine

Major drug lord taken down in Colombia

Juanes says: “Legalize it!”

Death toll rises in Mexican state

Yes, Virginia, there are Spanish drug mules

Hola!

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