Arellano-Felix Kingpin Sent to U.S. in Drug Case

Warrior Poster
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com


"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-briefs17.4sep17,1,2231898.story?coll=la-headlines-world

IN BRIEF / MEXICO

Arellano-Felix Kingpin Sent to U.S. in Drug Case

From Times Wire Reports

September 17, 2006

Mexico extradited drug kingpin Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix to the United States, making him the first major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to face drug charges.

The extradition was a victory for U.S. officials who have been pushing Mexico to hand over more drug lords.

After serving a 10-year sentence in Mexico, the former head of Tijuana's Arellano-Felix drug clan was turned over to U.S. authorities in Brownsville, Texas. He will be brought to California to face trial on charges stemming from a 1980 case in which he allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover police officer.

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"the action adventure fantasy feature film 'Warrior' ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Reputed Mexican Drug Kingpin Arrives in U.S.

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com


"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-felix18aug18,1,4099992.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Reputed Mexican Drug Kingpin Arrives in U.S.

Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, captured at sea earlier this week, is arraigned in federal court. He surrendered without a fight.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

August 18, 2006

SAN DIEGO - Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn't like to give up without a fight. In 1994, when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shoot-out that led to his escape. So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed Coast
Guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter. Instead, the alleged drug cartel leader let them board, and he and 10 others were escorted off the Dock Holiday without incident. On the two-day sail to San Diego, Arellano Felix's son and nephew played video games while crew members kept a close watch on the stunned Arellano Felix.

"He was surprised," said John S. Fernandes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego. "They went out fishing, and they ended up being the fish."
Despite Arellano Felix's surrender, authorities weren't taking any chances when he arrived here Thursday morning. Sharpshooters stood by as a police motorcade drove Arellano Felix, 36, from the port to a downtown federal detention facility. At his afternoon arraignment, the gaunt-looking Arellano Felix - still dressed in orange flip-flops - grimly pressed his lips and nodded when his court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea to charges of smuggling, murder and conspiracy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas scheduled a bail hearing for Monday.

According to the indictment, filed in 2003, Arellano Felix is a member of an organization that during its height in the late 1990s was believed to be supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the U.S. The cartel is blamed for scores of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental
killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.
U.S. and Mexican authorities, whose joint investigations have at times been marred by mistrust, held a news conference in San Diego, where they emphasized the close cooperation between the countries in the case.

Authorities, citing the ongoing investigation, released few details but said a key break in the three-year manhunt came four months ago when Mexican authorities shared information with DEA agents that
Arellano Felix had bought a fishing boat. Acting on a tip, U.S. authorities sent a Coast Guard vessel to
intercept the boat in international waters off the tip of Baja California. Arellano Felix was apparently on a
deep-sea fishing trip with three children, ages 5 to 11. Among the seven men also aboard was Arturo
Villarreal Heredia, an alleged assassin for the Arellano Felix cartel. Mexico's attorney general, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, said the men may have been heading for a meeting with other cartel members. He said that drug kingpins at times stage meetings in international waters on U.S.-flagged vessels to avoid Mexican authorities.

The guardsmen on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel had prepared for all possible scenarios, said Rear Adm. Jody Breckenridge, commander of the 11th Coast Guard District. But when they boarded, the men
surrendered without incident. There were no drugs or weapons found, she said. On the way back to
San Diego, the men were not handcuffed. There are no holding cells in the vessel, but the suspects were kept in a "controlled environment," Breckenridge said. The children chatted with crew members and played video games, she said. They have been flown to Mexico City, where a social service
agency will care for them until family members claim custody. When Arellano Felix saw the skyline of San Diego as they entered the harbor, she said the gravity of the situation appeared to "sink in" for him.

Cabeza de Vaca, in an interview in Mexico City, said it appeared that Arellano Felix had had facial plastic surgery to change his appearance. He said the alleged drug kingpin traveled routinely to
San Diego under a false identity, and that the boat excursion started in the U.S. Authorities could only speculate as to why one of Mexico's most wanted men went down without a fight. Some said he
didn't want to endanger the lives of the children. Others said he may have grown tired of running and having a $5-million reward hanging over his head. "Sometimes you're just relieved that it's over," said Dan Simmons, a DEA spokesman in San Diego. "I wonder if he said to himself, 'What's the use?' "

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Hector Tobar in Mexico City contributed to this report.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751 ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Guatemalans Arrested in Case of 5 Severed Heads

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

Guatemalans Arrested in Case of 5 Severed Heads

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-drugwar13sep13,1,2650499.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Guatemalans Arrested in Case of 5 Severed Heads
By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer

September 13, 2006

MEXICO CITY — Officials said Tuesday that they have arrested three Guatemalan nationals who were allegedly working as hit men for a drug cartel engaged in a gruesome turf war in the southern Mexican state of Michoacan.

Mexican officials said they were investigating whether the three arrested Monday were former members of the Guatemalan army's special forces unit, the Kaibiles.

They are suspected of involvement in an armed raid last week on a dance club in the city of Uruapan, in which the attackers tossed the severed heads of five suspected drug dealers onto a dance floor.

Earlier this year, Mexico's top organized crime investigator, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, said he believed there were as many as 100 Kaibiles working for Mexico's drug cartels.

A battle between cartels over the production and distribution of drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine has killed 345 people this year in Michoacan, more than in any other state, according to a tally by the newspaper Reforma.

Nationwide, an estimated 1,300 to 1,400 people have been killed in the cartel wars this year, according to Reforma and another newspaper, El Universal. Federal officials do not keep such statistics.

Grenade attacks, ambushes with assault weapons and the assassination of police officials have become commonplace in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, the Pacific Coast resort of Acapulco and elsewhere.

The presence of former Guatemalan soldiers among the drug cartels has been rumored here for months.

The three Guatemalans were part of a group of five men detained by Mexican army troops in the town of Aguililla, in the mountains about 240 miles southwest of Mexico City.

Officials said the five men detained in Michoacan were traveling with an arsenal that included a dozen assault rifles, thousands of bullets, nine Kevlar helmets similar to those issued to the American military, replica police uniforms and three fragmentation grenades.

An arms race between competing cartels has led many of the criminal organizations to recruit former Mexican soldiers, known as the Zetas, who are valued for their military training.

In recent months, decapitated heads have become a signature in the drug war in the southern states of Michoacan and Guerrero — some see in these crimes the hand of the Kaibiles, who are known for their brutal, scorched-earth counterinsurgency campaign in Guatemala in the 1980s and '90s.

The arrested Guatemalans were identified as residents of the Guatemalan provinces of Escuintla and San Marcos.

Officials told Mexican news media that the men were key suspects in a wave of killing that has claimed 12 lives since Sept. 3.

Armed men took over the Sun and Shadow nightclub in Uruapan last week. After ordering all the patrons to the ground, they tossed five severed heads onto the club's dance floor. According to Mexican press reports, the five men were killed in retaliation for the killing Sept. 3 of a pregnant woman linked to a rival drug band. That victim was found decapitated and with a finger missing.

"The family does not kill for money," said a sign left next to the decapitated heads. "It does not kill women, it does not kill innocents. Only those who should die, will die…. This is divine justice."

Six more bodies, with their heads still attached, were found tossed into a common grave two days later in a rural community outside Uruapan.

*
hector.tobar@latimes.com
Carlos Martínez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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PARTNERS:


see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ for "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."















 

action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior"

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com


"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-felix18aug18,1,4099992.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Reputed Mexican Drug Kingpin Arrives in U.S.

Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, captured at sea earlier this week, is arraigned in federal court. He surrendered without a fight.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

August 18, 2006

SAN DIEGO - Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn't like to give up without a fight. In 1994, when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shoot-out that led to his escape. So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed Coast
Guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter. Instead, the alleged drug cartel leader let them board, and he and 10 others were escorted off the Dock Holiday without incident. On the two-day sail to San Diego, Arellano Felix's son and nephew played video games while crew members kept a close watch on the stunned Arellano Felix.

"He was surprised," said John S. Fernandes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego. "They went out fishing, and they ended up being the fish."
Despite Arellano Felix's surrender, authorities weren't taking any chances when he arrived here Thursday morning. Sharpshooters stood by as a police motorcade drove Arellano Felix, 36, from the port to a downtown federal detention facility. At his afternoon arraignment, the gaunt-looking Arellano Felix - still dressed in orange flip-flops - grimly pressed his lips and nodded when his court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea to charges of smuggling, murder and conspiracy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas scheduled a bail hearing for Monday.

According to the indictment, filed in 2003, Arellano Felix is a member of an organization that during its height in the late 1990s was believed to be supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the U.S. The cartel is blamed for scores of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental
killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.
U.S. and Mexican authorities, whose joint investigations have at times been marred by mistrust, held a news conference in San Diego, where they emphasized the close cooperation between the countries in the case.

Authorities, citing the ongoing investigation, released few details but said a key break in the three-year manhunt came four months ago when Mexican authorities shared information with DEA agents that
Arellano Felix had bought a fishing boat. Acting on a tip, U.S. authorities sent a Coast Guard vessel to
intercept the boat in international waters off the tip of Baja California. Arellano Felix was apparently on a
deep-sea fishing trip with three children, ages 5 to 11. Among the seven men also aboard was Arturo
Villarreal Heredia, an alleged assassin for the Arellano Felix cartel. Mexico's attorney general, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, said the men may have been heading for a meeting with other cartel members. He said that drug kingpins at times stage meetings in international waters on U.S.-flagged vessels to avoid Mexican authorities.

The guardsmen on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel had prepared for all possible scenarios, said Rear Adm. Jody Breckenridge, commander of the 11th Coast Guard District. But when they boarded, the men
surrendered without incident. There were no drugs or weapons found, she said. On the way back to
San Diego, the men were not handcuffed. There are no holding cells in the vessel, but the suspects were kept in a "controlled environment," Breckenridge said. The children chatted with crew members and played video games, she said. They have been flown to Mexico City, where a social service
agency will care for them until family members claim custody. When Arellano Felix saw the skyline of San Diego as they entered the harbor, she said the gravity of the situation appeared to "sink in" for him.

Cabeza de Vaca, in an interview in Mexico City, said it appeared that Arellano Felix had had facial plastic surgery to change his appearance. He said the alleged drug kingpin traveled routinely to
San Diego under a false identity, and that the boat excursion started in the U.S. Authorities could only speculate as to why one of Mexico's most wanted men went down without a fight. Some said he
didn't want to endanger the lives of the children. Others said he may have grown tired of running and having a $5-million reward hanging over his head. "Sometimes you're just relieved that it's over," said Dan Simmons, a DEA spokesman in San Diego. "I wonder if he said to himself, 'What's the use?' "

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Hector Tobar in Mexico City contributed to this report.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy |
Terms of Service
Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact |
Site Map | Help

partners: 

see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751 ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior"

Warrior Stills
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com


"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-felix18aug18,1,4099992.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Reputed Mexican Drug Kingpin Arrives in U.S.

Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, captured at sea earlier this week, is arraigned in federal court. He surrendered without a fight.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

August 18, 2006

SAN DIEGO - Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn't like to give up without a fight. In 1994, when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shoot-out that led to his escape. So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed Coast
Guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter. Instead, the alleged drug cartel leader let them board, and he and 10 others were escorted off the Dock Holiday without incident. On the two-day sail to San Diego, Arellano Felix's son and nephew played video games while crew members kept a close watch on the stunned Arellano Felix.

"He was surprised," said John S. Fernandes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego. "They went out fishing, and they ended up being the fish."
Despite Arellano Felix's surrender, authorities weren't taking any chances when he arrived here Thursday morning. Sharpshooters stood by as a police motorcade drove Arellano Felix, 36, from the port to a downtown federal detention facility. At his afternoon arraignment, the gaunt-looking Arellano Felix - still dressed in orange flip-flops - grimly pressed his lips and nodded when his court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea to charges of smuggling, murder and conspiracy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas scheduled a bail hearing for Monday.

According to the indictment, filed in 2003, Arellano Felix is a member of an organization that during its height in the late 1990s was believed to be supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the U.S. The cartel is blamed for scores of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental
killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.
U.S. and Mexican authorities, whose joint investigations have at times been marred by mistrust, held a news conference in San Diego, where they emphasized the close cooperation between the countries in the case.

Authorities, citing the ongoing investigation, released few details but said a key break in the three-year manhunt came four months ago when Mexican authorities shared information with DEA agents that
Arellano Felix had bought a fishing boat. Acting on a tip, U.S. authorities sent a Coast Guard vessel to
intercept the boat in international waters off the tip of Baja California. Arellano Felix was apparently on a
deep-sea fishing trip with three children, ages 5 to 11. Among the seven men also aboard was Arturo
Villarreal Heredia, an alleged assassin for the Arellano Felix cartel. Mexico's attorney general, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, said the men may have been heading for a meeting with other cartel members. He said that drug kingpins at times stage meetings in international waters on U.S.-flagged vessels to avoid Mexican authorities.

The guardsmen on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel had prepared for all possible scenarios, said Rear Adm. Jody Breckenridge, commander of the 11th Coast Guard District. But when they boarded, the men
surrendered without incident. There were no drugs or weapons found, she said. On the way back to
San Diego, the men were not handcuffed. There are no holding cells in the vessel, but the suspects were kept in a "controlled environment," Breckenridge said. The children chatted with crew members and played video games, she said. They have been flown to Mexico City, where a social service
agency will care for them until family members claim custody. When Arellano Felix saw the skyline of San Diego as they entered the harbor, she said the gravity of the situation appeared to "sink in" for him.

Cabeza de Vaca, in an interview in Mexico City, said it appeared that Arellano Felix had had facial plastic surgery to change his appearance. He said the alleged drug kingpin traveled routinely to
San Diego under a false identity, and that the boat excursion started in the U.S. Authorities could only speculate as to why one of Mexico's most wanted men went down without a fight. Some said he
didn't want to endanger the lives of the children. Others said he may have grown tired of running and having a $5-million reward hanging over his head. "Sometimes you're just relieved that it's over," said Dan Simmons, a DEA spokesman in San Diego. "I wonder if he said to himself, 'What's the use?' "

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Hector Tobar in Mexico City contributed to this report.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times | Privacy Policy |
Terms of Service
Home Delivery | Advertise | Archives | Contact |
Site Map | Help

partners: 

see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751 ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

Today's Mexican Drug Cartels
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

From: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment Services-Thursday, December 4, 1997 Vol. 3 - 338
TODAY'S MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS
By Steve Macko, ERRI Crime Analyst
Once they were merely known as "mules" for Colombia's powerful cocaine cartels. Today, Mexico's narcotics traffickers have grown into drug lords in their own right, and the front line of the drug war has shifted from the Andean jungles to America's front door.
Mexican gangs run their own distribution networks in the United States, and they produce most of the methamphetamine used north of the border. They have even bypassed the Colombians several times to buy cocaine directly from producers in Bolivia and Peru.
Thomas Constantine, director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told a congressional committee this year: "These sophisticated drug syndicate groups from Mexico have eclipsed organized crime groups from Colombia as the premier law enforcement threat facing the United States today."
Because of the power shift, drug-related violence and corruption regularly spills over the U.S.-Mexico border, threatening historically sensitive bilateral relations.
Errol Chavez, DEA special agent-in-charge in San Diego, said, "They still haven't reached the sophistication of the Colombian networks of old. But unless we stop this new threat, we are going to have a big problem next door."
Mexico's drug gangs have tainted high government posts in a developing nation of some 93 million people that has recently teetered on the edge of political and economic crisis. American lawmakers cited that corruption in an unsuccessful fight to block certification of Mexico as a cooperating partner in anti-narcotics efforts.
U.S. intelligence analysts say that from heavily guarded homes south of the border, the Mexican kingpins use pagers, encrypted phones and fax machines to operate new distribution networks in America's heartland.
Documents filed in a federal trial this year in Miami against four alleged managers of the Cali cocaine cartel and two of its lawyers map the growth of the Mexicans' role in the drug trade. An affidavit says the Colombians shifted their routes from the Caribbean and Florida to Mexico after the cartel's top representative in Miami was arrested in 1992. It says the Cali cartel worked out a deal to use Mexico's Juarez cartel as a middleman for smuggling cocaine into the United States.
The Mexican cartels do, at times, work together -- perhaps to lesser extent now. There is evidence that the gangs employed corrupt officials to attack their rivals. Fifteen people with suspected drug ties disappeared in January in Juarez. Witnesses said the kidnappers had "INCD" on their black uniforms -- the Spanish acronym for the now-defunct federal anti-drug agency.
Many of the traffickers still work together on big shipments, taking advantage of the porous 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border and increased commercial traffic under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to ship hundreds of tons into the United States every year.
U.S. drug officials say up to 70 percent of cocaine entering the U.S. comes through Mexico. U.S. officials can search only about one of every ten vehicles crossing the border and just a fraction of cargo containers.
In the United States, the Mexicans are beginning to muscle in in the Colombians' East Coast strongholds. They have also had their own long-time distribution networks in the West and the Midwest.
The Mexican cartels move toward independence began several years ago when the Colombians began paying Mexican gang leader Juan Garcia Abrego with cocaine to smuggle loads of the drug for them. Convicted in Texas of trafficking and money laundering, he is now serving 11 life prison terms.
Other Mexican traffickers are now routinely paid with cocaine, which they distribute in the United States and in Mexico. They also produce and market their own marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine.
U..S. intelligence analysts say that now deceased Mexican drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes bypassed the Colombians several times to buy cocaine from producers in Bolivia and Peru. While the Mexicans will never match the Colombians' ability to produce cocaine, they can now compete for overall profits.
Phil Jordan, a former DEA agent and retired director of the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), said: "To some degree, the Mexicans will always need the Colombians to monopolize the cocaine market. But profit-wise, they could totally eliminate the Colombian connection without suffering too much."
(c) Copyright, EmergencyNet NEWS Service, 1997. All Rights Reserved. Redistribution without permission is prohibited by law.
The ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT is a subscription publication of the EmergencyNet NEWS Service, which is a part of the Chicago-based Emergency Response and Research Institute. This publication specializes in Corporate Security/ Terrorism/Intelligence/Military/Crisis Management and National Security issues.
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ee http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ for "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751

http://www.warriorthefilm.blogspot.com

"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

Feds may seek death penalty for alleged kingpin
Javier Arellano Felix was captured on deep sea fishing trip

Tuesday, August 22, 2006; Posted: 3:01 p.m. EDT (19:01 GMT)


DEA agents escort an unidentified suspect from the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Monsoon on Thursday.
Image:

SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- The federal government may seek the death penalty for the accused kingpin of one of Mexico's oldest and most notorious drug cartels, a prosecutor said Monday.
Javier Arellano Felix currently faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison under a 2003 indictment.
A federal grand jury accused him and others of moving tons of Colombian cocaine and Mexican marijuana to the United States and involvement in a string of assassinations or plots, U.S. authorities said.
Laura Duffy, an assistant U.S. attorney, said the government may seek new charges against Arellano Felix that would allow for the death penalty or life in prison if he is convicted. She did not elaborate on the possible charges at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Larry A. Burns.
Arellano Felix, 36, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and shackled at his wrists and ankles, gave one-word answers in Spanish and did not seek bail during a hearing Monday.
He pleaded not guilty last week to racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to import and distribute controlled substances and money laundering.
Last week, Mexican Attorney General Daniel Cabeza de Vaca also said Mexico would seek Arellano Felix's extradition to Mexico, but perhaps not until he had been tried and sentenced for crimes in the United States.
Arellano Felix, He was captured by the U.S. Coast Guard last week off the coast of La Paz, Mexico, aboard the U.S.-registered sport boat Dock Holiday.
Seven other men aboard the yacht were arrested and taken to the United States last week, including Arturo Villarreal Heredia, whom U.S. authorities said was a high-ranking figure in the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel.
John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego who worked on the 2003 indictment, said Arellano Felix took over field operations after his older brother Benjamin was jailed in Mexico in 2002 and brother Ramon was killed that same year.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ for "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-felix18aug18,1,4099992.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Reputed Mexican Drug Kingpin Arrives in U.S.

Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, captured at sea earlier this week, is arraigned in federal court. He surrendered without a fight.

By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

August 18, 2006

SAN DIEGO - Authorities knew the alleged Mexican drug kingpin didn't like to give up without a fight. In 1994, when police tried to arrest Francisco Javier Arellano Felix in Tijuana, a federal police commander and four other people died in a shoot-out that led to his escape. So on Tuesday, as a U.S. Coast Guard vessel edged up to a fishing boat off the coast of Baja California, about 30 heavily armed Coast
Guardsmen prepared for a potentially bloody encounter. Instead, the alleged drug cartel leader let them board, and he and 10 others were escorted off the Dock Holiday without incident. On the two-day sail to San Diego, Arellano Felix's son and nephew played video games while crew members kept a close watch on the stunned Arellano Felix.

"He was surprised," said John S. Fernandes, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration office in San Diego. "They went out fishing, and they ended up being the fish."
Despite Arellano Felix's surrender, authorities weren't taking any chances when he arrived here Thursday morning. Sharpshooters stood by as a police motorcade drove Arellano Felix, 36, from the port to a downtown federal detention facility. At his afternoon arraignment, the gaunt-looking Arellano Felix - still dressed in orange flip-flops - grimly pressed his lips and nodded when his court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea to charges of smuggling, murder and conspiracy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Leo S. Papas scheduled a bail hearing for Monday.

According to the indictment, filed in 2003, Arellano Felix is a member of an organization that during its height in the late 1990s was believed to be supplying nearly half the cocaine sold in the U.S. The cartel is blamed for scores of slayings of police officers, journalists and rivals, as well as the accidental
killing of Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo at the Guadalajara airport in 1993.
U.S. and Mexican authorities, whose joint investigations have at times been marred by mistrust, held a news conference in San Diego, where they emphasized the close cooperation between the countries in the case.

Authorities, citing the ongoing investigation, released few details but said a key break in the three-year manhunt came four months ago when Mexican authorities shared information with DEA agents that
Arellano Felix had bought a fishing boat. Acting on a tip, U.S. authorities sent a Coast Guard vessel to
intercept the boat in international waters off the tip of Baja California. Arellano Felix was apparently on a
deep-sea fishing trip with three children, ages 5 to 11. Among the seven men also aboard was Arturo
Villarreal Heredia, an alleged assassin for the Arellano Felix cartel. Mexico's attorney general, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, said the men may have been heading for a meeting with other cartel members. He said that drug kingpins at times stage meetings in international waters on U.S.-flagged vessels to avoid Mexican authorities.

The guardsmen on the U.S. Coast Guard vessel had prepared for all possible scenarios, said Rear Adm. Jody Breckenridge, commander of the 11th Coast Guard District. But when they boarded, the men
surrendered without incident. There were no drugs or weapons found, she said. On the way back to
San Diego, the men were not handcuffed. There are no holding cells in the vessel, but the suspects were kept in a "controlled environment," Breckenridge said. The children chatted with crew members and played video games, she said. They have been flown to Mexico City, where a social service
agency will care for them until family members claim custody. When Arellano Felix saw the skyline of San Diego as they entered the harbor, she said the gravity of the situation appeared to "sink in" for him.

Cabeza de Vaca, in an interview in Mexico City, said it appeared that Arellano Felix had had facial plastic surgery to change his appearance. He said the alleged drug kingpin traveled routinely to
San Diego under a false identity, and that the boat excursion started in the U.S. Authorities could only speculate as to why one of Mexico's most wanted men went down without a fight. Some said he
didn't want to endanger the lives of the children. Others said he may have grown tired of running and having a $5-million reward hanging over his head. "Sometimes you're just relieved that it's over," said Dan Simmons, a DEA spokesman in San Diego. "I wonder if he said to himself, 'What's the use?' "

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Hector Tobar in Mexico City contributed to this report.

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see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-081606felix,0,6485528.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Feds Arrest Mexican Drug Tunnel Kingpin
By Jesus Sanchez
Times Staff Writer

2:22 PM PDT, August 16, 2006

Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix - whose Tijuana-based drug ring has been connected with at least 20 murders in Mexico and the United States - was apprehended by U.S. authorities while on a boating trip off the coast of Baja California, officials said today. Arellano Felix was being transported to San Diego on board a U.S. Coast Guard cutter after being caught Monday morning
on board the vessel Doc Holiday about 15 miles off the coast of La Paz, Mexico, said U.S. Deputy Atty. Gen. Paul McNulty during a news conference in Washington. In addition to Arellano Felix , 10 other
individuals, including juveniles, were taken into custody.

Arellano Felix was one of the people named in a 2003 federal indictment that charged him and others in the Arellano Felix organization with racketeering, conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Regarded by U.S. and Mexican authorities as one of the most ruthless and powerful of drug traffickers, Arellano Felix was the target of a $5-million reward for his capture.

"This guy happens to be, as the deputy attorney general mentioned, one of the 45 most notorious, most wanted drug traffickers in the world," said Michael Braun, assistant administrator for operations with the Drug Enforcement Agency. "So this is not your average arrest, and Javier is not your average drug
trafficker." The 2003 indictment identifies Arellano Felix as heading the drug cartel's Tijuana and Mexicali operations since May 2000 and participating in most major decision-making. The Tijuana cartel once controlled a major portion of the cocaine and heroin entering the United States and is thought to be responsible for dozens of killings, including those of two Tijuana police chiefs, several state and federal prosecutors and a host of police officers since taking over the Baja California smuggling corridor in the 1980s.

That control has weakened in recent years as rival gangs encroached on the group's territory, triggering a bloody struggle. The decline has gathered force since Benjamin Arellano Felix, the cartel's alleged capo, was captured in March 2002. U.S. authorities planned Arellano Felix's capture after learning that he would be taking the Doc Holiday, a 43-foot, U.S.-registered fishing boat, on a trip. The U.S. Coast Cutter Monsoon intercepted the Doc Holiday in international waters 15 miles off the Mexican coast.
After U.S. authorities boarded the fishing boat, they arrested Arellano Felix and others wanted for arrest.
Arellano Felix was traveling under an alias but later revealed his identity, McNulty said. Arellano Felix was expected to be arraigned "in the very near future" on the charges in the federal indictment, McNulty said.

Officials acknowledged that the Arellano Felix organization remains active but said that the arrest of one of its leaders would deal it a severe blow. The cartel is a "a large organization, and much more remains to be done," McNulty said. "But we think that this, combined with a number of the other efforts that have preceded it, will have a noticeable impact, not just on Mexico but also in the United States, in terms of
the ability to bring drugs into the country and the violence that has occurred on this side of the border, in the San Diego area in particular."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Chris Kraul contributed to this
story.
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see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico27jul27,1,5670885.story?coll=la-headlines-world

From the Los Angeles Times

Nuevo Leon Governor Seeks Army Checkpoints to Stem Drug Violence
The governor of Nuevo Leon calls for army checkpoints to halt an apparent drug turf war.

From the Associated Press

July 27, 2006

MONTERREY, Mexico - Gov. Jose Natividad Gonzalez of Nuevo Leon state, on the Texas border, asked the army to staff road checkpoints Wednesday after four killings that appeared to be linked to a bloody turf war between rival drug gangs. Gonzalez's request came hours after at least two assailants shot a man to death in broad daylight at a car wash in Monterrey, the state capital. On Monday, Monterrey police found two corpses, including one that had been decapitated. On Sunday, at least 15 gunmen fired at the car of federal investigator Veronica Palacios, seriously injuring her and
killing a female passenger. 

Officials are asking "for reinforcement in some checkpoints, especially those on the highways leading to Coahuila and Tamaulipas and in some other areas in the state," Gonzalez told reporters. Army checkpoints are already used in several Mexican states, including neighboring Tamaulipas, where there have been more than 100 drug-related killings this year. Soldiers regularly accompany federal agents in raids against drug traffickers across Mexico. Investigators say that the Sinaloa cartel is fighting the Gulf cartel for billion-dollar drug smuggling routes into the United States. The battle has led to killings across Mexico. There have been slayings in Nuevo Laredo on an almost daily basis this year.

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see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-behead23jun23,0,1716908.story?coll=la-home-headlines
From the Los Angeles Times

Mexico's Cartels Escalate Drug War
Gangs enlist militias, whose tactics include
beheadings, in battles over smuggling routes.
By Richard Marosi
Times Staff Writer

June 23, 2006

TIJUANA - The caller painted an ominous scene: A convoy of 40 vehicles carrying 70 heavily armed
and masked men was prowling the streets of Rosarito Beach on Tuesday evening. The three
police officers who arrived were quickly abducted. The next morning, their mutilated bodies turned up in an empty lot. Their heads were found in the Tijuana River later that day.

The assault is believed to be one of the largest in Baja California, and is the latest in a series of precisely executed paramilitary operations that have beset Mexican cities as drug cartels escalate their battles to control key smuggling routes.

With Mexican authorities relying more heavily on the military to combat drug smuggling, traffickers have responded in kind, forming large forces of assailants and arming them with frightening arrays of weaponry.

In April, nearly two dozen heavily armed men tried to assassinate Baja California's top-ranking public safety official in a shoot-out on a Mexicali street. The attackers fired grenades and more than 600 rounds from assault weapons, wounding three bodyguards.

Over the last year, commando-style raids have been regular occurrences in Tijuana, with convoys of masked gunmen snatching victims from restaurants and street corners in brazen daylight raids. "It's a disturbing manifestation of the latest drug war frenzy…. The militarization of the drug war in many ways on the side of law enforcement has corresponded with the militarization of tactics and personnel on the criminal side," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.
The situation, Shirk added, "has heightened the competition and raised the stakes in a way that has led to extreme violence, at a level we have not seen before in Mexico."

In Nuevo Laredo, on the Texas border, a raging turf war between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels has
>killed more than 230 people in the last 18 months.

The defection of an anti-drug commando unit, the Zetas, from the Mexican military to the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s paved the way for military-style assaults, experts say.

Federal officials say they killed or captured the original group, but they believe jailed Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas still has at least 120 cadres trained by the Zetas at his command as recently as last August, and increasingly is using them to battle the rival cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

But the violence is not limited to cities along the U.S.-Mexico border. In Apatzingan, in the central state of Michoacan, four men were killed and a police officer and four bystanders wounded in an Aug. 18 shoot-out between rival drug gangs that involved dozens of paramilitary gunmen in 10 vehicles.

Two weeks earlier, police in nearby Uruapan, also in Michoacan, had arrested a group of 10
suspected drug gang members armed with AK-47s and AR-15s. Cartels also are using increasingly brutal methods to intimidate their enemies. The Rosarito Beach beheadings followed the decapitation in April of a police commander in Acapulco, whose head was found in a public plaza.

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the top organized crime prosecutor in the Mexican attorney general's office, has taken over the investigation of the Baja California beheadings. In an interview for today's editions of the Mexico City newspaper El Universal, Santiago said the abductions and beheadings were characteristic of the brutal Central American-based Mara Salvatrucha gang, which has become increasingly involved in the Mexican drug trade. "Acts like the ones we have just seen are manifestations of groups related to the Maras," he said. "We have seen the phenomenon of decapitation in El Salvador, a brutal act of intimidation that is occurring here as drug gangs are worn down and resort to recruiting this kind of group."

Jeffrey McIllwain, a criminal justice professor at San Diego State University who studies border
security issues, believes the violence is a sign that pressure from law enforcement is affecting the cartels' bottom line. "The fact is that it has hurt operations, severely in some cases … so it makes sense that the cartels would step up their game," McIllwain said.

In Baja California, the crime wave could signal an escalation of the fierce war to control the lucrative Tijuana smuggling corridor, which traditionally has been controlled by the Arellano-Felix cartel. Several top-ranking members of the cartel have been killed or arrested in recent years, and other cartels may
be sensing weakness, experts say.

Some recent attacks were shocking for their audacity, experts say. Last month, three men armed with AK-47s stormed into the Mexican federal attorney general's office in Tijuana and shot two agents, killing one. In December, assailants attacked the Tijuana home of a state police commander, killing two of his bodyguards. In October, Tijuana's chief of homicides narrowly escaped an attack by assailants who fired more than 50 bullets at his car. "It's a more aggressive form of violence, with new ingredients," said Victor Clark, a border expert and director of Tijuana's Binational Center for Human Rights.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-behead21apr21,1,1363849.story?coll=la-headlines-world

From the Los Angeles Times

2 More Victims in War of Drug Cartels
The head of an Acapulco police commander who had quit because of death threats is found, along
with that of an unidentified man.

By Héctor Tobar and Carlos Martinez
Times Staff Writers

April 21, 2006

MEXICO CITY - The drug war in southern Mexico took a gruesome turn Thursday with the discovery
of the decapitated head of a police commander who had resigned his post just days earlier in the
face of death threats.

"So that you learn to respect," read a message scrawled on a red sheet attached to a Guerrero
state government building in Acapulco, where passersby in the early morning hours discovered
the heads of two men. One was determined to be that of former Cmdr. Mario Nuñez Magana, 35, of
the Acapulco Municipal Preventive Police; the other man was not immediately identified. Officials in Acapulco would not confirm news reports that identified the second victim as a police officer. More than 140 people, including many police officers and commanders, have been killed in the southern states of Guerrero and Michoacan this year as the so-called Sinaloa and Gulf cartels struggle for control of methamphetamine production, street drug sales, cocaine shipping points and other elements of a lucrative trade in illicit drugs. The heads were discovered about 3 a.m. in a plaza fronted by a church and the state Finance and Administration headquarters, where Nuñez led a police unit in January during a battle with gunmen believed to be from the rival cartels. Four suspected narcos were killed in the January incident, which began with the drug bands fighting each other with automatic weapons and hand grenades. Nuñez led the rapidresponse police unit that exchanged fire with the gunmen.

Two other suspected cartel operatives were seriously wounded, along with two passersby. Nuñez had received death threats ever since, officials said. After two months of hesitation, Nuñez resigned his post over the weekend, said Jorge Valdez Reynosa, a spokesman for the Municipal Preventive Police. "He wasn't happy," Valdez said. "He said he was getting threats." Armed men kidnapped Nuñez on Wednesday afternoon as he and his father traveled in a pickup truck near his home. "The kidnappers told his father not to get involved, that the problem wasn't with him," Valdez said.

After the discovery of the heads, which were inside separate plastic trash bags, police found the victims' bodies about 8 a.m. a few hundred yards away in the parking lot of a school. Both bodies showed signs of being beaten. "The hypothesis is that this is probably a revenge attack," Juan Heriberto Salinas, the head of public safety in Guerrero, told the Mexico City newspaper Reforma.

Nuñez had been photographed in January pointing a weapon with his right hand at a prone suspect.
Nuñez's body was found Thursday with its right hand cut off, Salinas said. The incident came hours after Guerrero Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca announced a $12-million project to give more firepower to police, who say they often are outgunned by the cartels. The state will purchase more than 1,400 rifles, 274 patrol vehicles, body armor and communications equipment.

Twelve people have been killed in drug-related violence in Acapulco this year. Grenades have become a weapon of choice, and were used in three other attacks along Guerrero's Pacific coast this month, in Acapulco and in Zihuatanejo and nearby Petatlan. Acapulco officials have said the drug violence is not targeting foreigners and that the region's tourist industry has not seen a drop-off in
visitors.

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see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ ... see http://imdb.com/title/tt0320751/ ... "the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior

action adventure fantasy feature film Warrior
Originally uploaded by brucesingman.

"Competing Mexican drug cartels are destroying each other ... and that's where 'Warrior' begins ...."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico18sep18,1,5081058.story?coll=la-headlines-world

THE WORLD
Mexican Police Seek Killers of Michoacan Security Chief
By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer

September 18, 2005

MEXICO CITY - Federal and local police swept across Michoacan on Saturday, hunting for the gunmen who assassinated the southern state's head of public safety during a birthday dinner at a crowded restaurant. Rogelio Zarazua Ortega, civilian overseer of Michoacan's police force, was shot Friday night as he sat at a table with two dozen friends and relatives. Also gunned down was one of Zarazua's
police bodyguards. 

Federal officials said Saturday that they believed the pair were the latest victims in a war between the nation's two most powerful drug cartels, which are fighting each other and the police over lucrative trade in marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine. More than 215 killings have been carried out in Michoacan this year by the drug gangs, officials say. Across Mexico, violence linked to cartels has claimed more than 1,000 lives this year, including that of the police chief in Ciudad Juarez, who was slain hours after he was sworn into office in June.

Witnesses said two hit men carried out the slayings Friday night in a residential district of the state capital, Morelia. The men entered the restaurant with AK-47 rifles, known here by the nickname cuerno de chivo, or "the goat's horn," for the distinctive shape of their bullet clips. Zarazua was shot at least a dozen times in the chest and neck, according to local news reports. Lazaro Cardenas Batel, the governor of Michoacan, arrived at the scene shortly afterward, promising to bring the killers to justice.

Last week, Mexican President Vicente Fox sent army troops to help patrol Acapulco, the largest city in Guerrero state, after a spate of drug-related violence in which local police stations were attacked at least four times with hand grenades. On Thursday, a police officer became the eighth officer to be killed by suspected drug cartel gunmen in Acapulco this year.

In Michoacan, the killing of Zarazua came after an especially bloody week of suspected "narcoviolence" that saw at least 15 people slain in cities and towns across the state. Police officials in Michoacan have said that the Sinaloa cartel and the Gulf cartel are fighting for control of marijuana and opium poppy fields, along with a growing number of laboratories producing methamphetamine. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman leads the Sinaloa cartel, while the Gulf cartel's ranks include former army soldiers known as Zetas.

The newspaper Cambio de Michoacan reported Saturday that Zarazua had received a series of threats, by phone and in letters, warning him not to "damage the interests" of the drug cartels. During Zarazua's 11 months in office, Michoacan state police raided seven drug labs in Morelia and arrested three suspected Zeta hit men.

On Friday, a nationwide holiday celebrating Mexican independence, Zarazua was sitting in a private banquet room near the back of Las Trojes restaurant. The gunmen, dressed in black, yelled, "Nobody move!" then opened fire on Zarazua, according to local news reports. He was killed instantly.
None of the other guests at the table, including Zarazua's wife, was injured. The gunmen then fled outside to a truck, where at least four associates were waiting. The assailants then exchanged fire with Zarazua's police security detail, which was stationed outside the restaurant. Police officer Cesar Bautista Jimenez was killed in the resulting gun battle, which left two other officers seriously wounded and a police cruiser riddled with more than 50 bullet holes. Several other local police and security chiefs have been killed in Mexico this year.

On Sept. 11, suspected drug cartel hit men killed the commander of the special investigative police
in Ciudad Victoria, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Four days earlier, south of Cancun, hit men assassinated the commander of anti-drug operations for Playa del Carmen, Carlos Hiram Rodriguez.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cecilia Sanchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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"the action adventure fantasy feature film "Warrior" ... about the son of a divine force ... is a story of a young man's quest to find his true identity set against the twin backdrops of Native American folklore and the treacherous Mexican drug trade and a portrayal of the classic confrontation between "good and evil" ... filmed in the exotic jungles of Costa Azul and the urban grit of Puerto Vallarta in the State of Jalisco, Mexico .. with action, adventure, romance, comedy, a multi-ethnic cast, a major studio movie music score and spectacular cinematography..."