An American Drug Lord in Acapulco

How a high school jock from Texas rose to the top of one of Mexico's most powerful and ruthless cartels

Excerpt:   ....a few weeks later, one of Barbie's assistants was pulled over by the police on the way to a carwash in Mexico City. Two officers jumped out of their black truck, guns drawn. "Freeze, motherfucker!" they screamed. They demanded to know where Barbie was. "Where is that son of a bitch?" one officer said. "Don't bullshit, or I'll cut off your balls and feed them to you."

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE....
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/an-american-drug-lord-in-acapulco-20110825

Am I being executed?

A Brazilian man executed by firing squad along with seven other prisoners in Indonesia on Wednesday had no idea he was about to be killed until his final minutes, the priest who counselled him has said.

Excerpt:

He was hearing voices all the time,” Burrows told Irish radio. “I talked to him for about an hour and a half, trying to prepare him for the execution. I said to him, ‘I’m 72 years old, I’ll be heading to heaven in the near future, so you find out where my house is and prepare a garden for me.’
“But when they took [the prisoners] out of the cells … and when they put these bloody chains on them, he said to me, ‘Am I being executed?’ ” Burrows said.
“I said, ‘Yes, I thought I explained that you.’ He didn’t get excited – he’s a quiet sort of a guy – but he said, ‘This is not right.’

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/30/brazilian-executed-by-indonesia-was-hearing-voices-all-the-time

A Mexican militia, battling Michoacan drug cartel, has American roots

Interesting take on the spiraling violence in Michoacan...

Many were U.S. immigrants who came back, some voluntarily but most often not, to the desiccated job market in the state of Michoacan and found life under the Knights Templar drug cartel that controls the area almost unlivable. They took up arms because they were financially abused by the extortion rackets run by the Templars. Because they had family killed or wounded by their enemies. Because carrying a silver-plated handgun and collecting defeated narcos’ designer cellphones as war booty is more invigorating than packing cucumbers. Because they get to feel, for once, the sensation of being in charge.
 
“Everybody’s with us, all the people,” said Edgar Orozco, a 27-year-old American citizen who left his job at a Sacramento body shop nine months ago to join the fight after the Knights Templar killed his uncle and cousin. “We’re not going to disarm. Never.”

Read More here...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/a-mexican-militia-battling-michoacan-drug-cartel-has-american-roots/2014/01/18/30f96894-7f92-11e3-97d3-b9925ce2c57b_story.html

Also...

Vigilantes hold Mexico town, tenuously, after driving out cartel

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-mexico-michoacan-violence-20140119,0,154127.story#axzz2qs0NL2d1

Cocaine Incorporated

 

Inside the Sinaloa Cartel...fascinating...

Excerpt:

In 2005, the Flores twins were flown to a mountaintop compound in Sinaloa to meet with Chapo Guzmán. The kingpin is an intimidating interlocutor; one criminal who has negotiated with him face to face told me that Chapo tends to dominate a conversation, asking a lot of questions and compensating for his short stature by bouncing on the balls of his feet. But the meeting went well, and before long, the brothers were distributing around two tons of Sinaloa product each month. 

As preferred customers, they often took Chapo’s drugs without putting any money down, then paid the cartel only after they sold the product. This might seem unlikely, given the pervasive distrust in the underworld, but the narcotics trade is based on a robust and surprisingly reliable system of credit. In a sense, a cartel like Sinaloa has no choice but to offer a financing option, because few wholesale buyers have the liquidity to pay cash upfront for a ton of cocaine. “They have to offer lines of credit,” Wardrop told me, “no different from Walmart or Sears.”  

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/magazine/how-a-mexican-drug-cartel-makes-its-billions.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Update...

No Word on Mexican drug lord Guzman after gun battle in Guatemala...

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-guatemala-shootout-guzman-20130222,0,2471988.story?track=rss

Why is the Mexican Drug War Being Ignored?

 Neighbors and family of slain Alberto Rodriquez, 28, watch and cry as the authorities descend on the crime scene. Rodriguez was killed in his car outside his house while his family watched. See more here.

Why is the Mexican Drug War Being Ignored?

Excerpt:

Killings continue to rise, and hardly a week passes without a new report of grisly acts south of the border. Portions of several key cities, especially Ciudad Juarez and Monterrey, are now virtual war zones. The Mexican government’s control is becoming precarious in major swaths of territory, including the crucial northern states of Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, and Tamaulipas. Several of the cartels, especially the Sinaloa cartel and the ultra-violent Zetas, pose a threat to the integrity of the Mexican state.

 Equally troubling, the turmoil in Mexico is spreading to Central America and beginning to seep over the border into the United States. One would think that such a national security problem would merit some attention from the incumbent president and the man who aims to replace him.
Indeed, Mexican opinion leaders were justifiably miffed at the failure to address the drug war. Prominent journalist Leon Krauss’s widely circulated tweet summarized the frustration. “Mexico, facing 100,000 deaths, neighbor to the United States, didn’t deserve a single mention tonight. A disgrace.”

READ MORE HERE...
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/30/why-is-mexico-drug-war-being-ignored/

Meet Mexico's New Cartel Boss...Z-40

More blood and more death. Mexico’s drug wars seem to be getting crueler and more sadistic by the year. Of all the players involved, probably no one is more responsible for the increasing violence than Miguel Angel Treviño, a.k.a. ‘Z-40,’ who has just taken over control of the notorious Los Zetas cartel following the killing last week of kingpin Heriberto “El Lazca” Lascano.
Mexican authorities confirmed the leadership change, as have rival cartels, which are urging a unified approach to face Treviño head on.

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/meet-mexico-039-s-new-boss-anointed-drug-kingpin-039-s-notorious-thirst-for-blood/trevi-o-z-40-los-zetas-cartel/c3s9882/#.UJWrp4bPs3y

Mexico's New Deadly City

Excerpt:

Once enticing U.S. firms like Caterpillar and John Deere and Japanese auto parts maker Takata to open plants, Torreon has not attracted any other big names since the Zetas swept in.

"It's a powder keg," said a former mayor, Guillermo Anaya, who ran the city from 2003 to 2005 and is now a federal lawmaker.

Many people in the arid metropolis about 275 miles (450 km) from the U.S. border believe if Torreon cannot defeat the Zetas soon it may need to reach some kind of agreement with their arch rivals, the Sinaloa Cartel, and let them do the job.

Widely seen as the most brutal Mexican drug gang, the Zetas have so terrorized Torreon and the surrounding state of Coahuila that some officials make a clear distinction between them and the Sinaloa Cartel, for years the dominant outfit in the city.

"They (the Zetas) act without any kind of principles," Torreon's police chief, Adelaido Flores, told Reuters. "The ones from Sinaloa don't mess ... with the population."

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/29/torreon-mexico-drug-war_n_2037555.html

CIA-Sinaloa Cartel Connection Deepens

Bomb explosion in Nueva Leon

High Ranking Cartel Member Says Operation Fast And Furious Was Meant To Supply Guns To The Sinaloa Cartel

"Excerpt"

Zambada-Niebla was arrested by Mexican authorities in March 2009 and extradited to Chicago to face drug trafficking charges.

From the court document:

[T]he United States government at its highest levels entered into agreements with cartel leaders to act as informants against rival cartels and received benefits in return, including, but not limited to, access to thousands of weapons which helped them continue their business of smuggling drugs into Chicago and throughout the United States, and to continue wreaking havoc on the citizens and law enforcement in Mexico.  

Zambada-Niebla believes that he, like the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel, was "immune from arrest or prosecution" because he also actively provided information to U.S. federal agents.

READ MORE HERE... http://www.businessinsider.com/fast-and-furious-guns-sinaloa-cartel-2012-8
ALSO WORTH CHECKING OUT...  
The global drug war and the Nixon connection

As one indication of how badly the war on drugs has failed, the report cited UN data showing a 34.5 per cent increase in opiate use from 1998 to 2008, along with a 27 per cent increase in cocaine and an 8.5 per cent increase in cannabis.
READ MORE HERE...
 http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/06/201164135055160347.html

Ton's more great articles on the drug war here...
http://ajarnmike.blogspot.ca/search/label/Mexico

Honduras, the DEA, and America's New Battleground

Honduras is the new front line of the DEA’s War on Drugs—and a growing number of civilian lives are being claimed by the chaos.

Excerpt:

"I threw myself into the river so they wouldn't shoot me again," she said. She stayed there, grabbing onto a branch and keeping only her nose above the water, to avoid the hail of bullets.

Later, in a press conference, Lezama spoke on her daughter's cell phone from a hospital bed in La Ceiba. In a surprisingly calm voice for someone just shot, Lezama said she never imagined the helicopters would fire on her little boat, with its cargo of fishermen, women and children.

Lezama is one of the lucky ones in that boat the morning of May 11.  Juana Jackson and Candelaria Pratt -- both bearing unborn children -- were shot to death, along with 14-year-old Hasked Brooks and Emerson Martinez. Three other Mosquito villagers are in serious condition.

The State Department helicopters were carrying out a joint counter-narcotics operation with a unit of the Honduran police trained by the U.S. government and a "Foreign-Deployed Advisory Support Team (FAST)" of the Drug Enforcement Agency. Their side of the story is that the boat had received an illegal drug shipment from a small plane they had followed into the nearby jungle. Why there were no arrests from the alleged drug plane is one of the many open questions to the story

Read More here...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-carlsen/honduras-drug-war_b_1616202.html

Lessons of Iraq Help U.S. Fight a Drug War in Honduras

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MOCORON, Honduras — The United States military has brought lessons from the past decade of conflict to the drug war being fought in the wilderness of Miskito Indian country, constructing this remote base camp with little public notice but with the support of the Honduran government.

Read More Here...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/world/americas/us-turns-its-focus-on-drug-smuggling-in-honduras.html?_r=1

Honduras Becomes Focal Point of America's Drug War...See Photo Essay...

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/05/05/world/americas/20120506-HONDURAS.html?ref=americas#1

 Inmates, Corruption Rule Hondura's Prisons....See Photo Essay...

http://blogs.sacbee.com/photos/2012/05/inmates-corruption-rule-hondur.html#more

Volcanoes and Storms Ravage Central and South America...See Photo Essay...

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/photos/2010/05/volcanos-and-storms-ravage-cen.html#more

Study: Alcohol Is “More Than Twice As Harmful As Marijuana”

Alcohol consumption causes far greater harms to the individual user and to society than does the use of cannabis, according to a new review published online in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the journal of the British Association of Psychopharmacology.

Investigators at the Imperial College of London assessed “the relative physical, psychological, and social harms of cannabis and alcohol.” Authors reported that cannabis inhalation, particularly long-term, contributes to some potential adverse health effects, including harms to the lungs, circulatory system, as well as the exacerbation of certain mental health risks. By contrast, authors described alcohol as “ a toxic substance” that is responsible for nearly five percent “of the total global disease burden.”

Researchers determined, “A direct comparison of alcohol and cannabis showed that alcohol was considered to be more than twice as harmful as cannabis to [individual] users, and five times more harmful as cannabis to others (society). … As there are few areas of harm that each drug can produce where cannabis scores more [dangerous to health] than alcohol, we suggest that even if there were no legal impediment to cannabis use, it would be unlikely to be more harmful than alcohol.”

They concluded, “The findings underline the need for a coherent, evidence-based drugs policy that enables individuals to make informed decisions about the consequences of their drug use.”

The researchers’ findings should hardly come as a revelation. Last week, a just-published study that was completely ignored by the mainstream media reported that alcohol consumption increased lung cancer risk by 30 percent.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. After all, a February 2011 World Health Organization report concluded that alcohol consumption causes a staggering four percent of all deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence. A just-published analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that in the United States alone, an estimated 79,000 lives are lost annually due to excessive drinking. The study further estimates that the overall economic cost of excessive drinking by Americans is $223.5 billion annually.

Naturally, any health costs related to cannabis use pale in comparison. A 2009 review published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal estimated that health-related costs per user are eight times higher for drinkers of alcoholic beverages than they are for those who use cannabis, and are more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers. “In terms of [health-related] costs per user: tobacco-related health costs are over $800 per user, alcohol-related health costs are much lower at $165 per user, and cannabis-related health costs are the lowest at $20 per user,” investigators concluded.

In an op/ed I wrote last year entitled “Pot Versus Alcohol: Experts Say Booze Is the Bigger Danger,” I cited the findings of numerous independent commissions, all of which pronounced that the risks of marijuana were nominal compared to those associated with booze. You can read these findings here and much of this evidence is discussed in even greater detail in my book, Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?

Nevertheless, despite its enormous societal toll, alcohol remains celebrated in this country — American Craft Beer Week is now endorsed by the U.S. Congress — while cannabis remains arbitrarily criminalized and demonized. It’s a situation illogical enough to drive most anyone to drink.

Original article here.

Also check out this article...
Alcohol more harmful than heroin, cocaine, study finds

Alcohol is the "most harmful" of a list of 20 drugs -- more dangerous even than crack cocaine and heroin -- according to a new study released Monday.

The study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, rated the drugs using a 100-point scale that weighed the physical, psychological and social problems they caused and determined that alcohol was the most harmful overall.

Read more:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20101101/Alcohol-Heroin-Study-011110/

CIA, DEA, and Ex-Special Forces Begin Operating in Mexico

“This is the game-changer in degrading transnational organized crime,” he said, adding: “It can’t be a two-, three-, four-, five- or six-year policy. For this policy investment to work, it has to be sustained long-term.”

Several Mexican and American security analysts compared the challenges of helping Mexico rebuild its security forces and civil institutions — crippled by more than seven decades under authoritarian rule — to similar tests in Afghanistan. They see the United States fighting alongside a partner it needs but does not completely trust.

Also there are other challenges regarding the readiness of the Mexican police:

Some of the officers had not been issued weapons, and those who had guns had not been properly trained to use them. They were required to pay for their helmets and bulletproof vests out of their own pockets. And during an intense gun battle against one of Mexico’s most vicious cartels, they had to communicate with one another on their cellphones because they had not been issued police radios. “It’s sort of shocking,” said Eric Olson of the Woodrow Wilson Center. “Mexico is just now learning how to fight crime in the midst of a major crime wave. It’s like trying to saddle your horse while running the Kentucky Derby.”

Read more here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/world/07drugs.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Exile Nation

The United States has only 5% of the world’s population, yet a full 25% of the world’s prisoners. At 2.5 million, the US has more prisoners than even China does with five times the population of the United States. 8 million Americans (1 in every 31) languish under some form of state monitoring known as correctional supervision.

With more prisoners than China, this documentary explores why the United States has incarcerated more of its citizens than any other country.  Definitely worth checking out...


Watch full documentary here...

http://www.exilenation.org/

ALSO...
 
Global War on Drugs a "Massive" Failure, Report says

The international war on drugs is a massive failure and nations should begin experimenting with progressive drug policies, including legalization, an international commission says.

The Global Commission on Drug Policy, a 19-member panel chaired by former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, said the failure of the war on drugs has brought “devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.”

The study recommends...

Read more here...

http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/06/02/global_commission_on_drug_policy_panel_says_global_war_on_drugs_.html

Mexico's drug war: in the city of death

An interesting look inside Mexico's Drug War.

It was just another massacre in a country plagued by violence. But this time it was carried out by prison inmates – who'd been let out specially.

Excerpt:

"A dead father and husband. A dead uncle and brother. Three wounded family members. A baby on the way. Funeral and medical bills. It adds up, says Carmen, 37, the eight-months pregnant head of the family and mother of Hector. "I just don't know what we'll do." Hector, who took two bullets, moves slowly and stiffly, a colostomy bag beneath his T-shirt.

Asked if he will play trumpet again Hector shakes his head. "Music, music is . . ." his voice trails off. His mother finishes the sentence. "Music is not really an option any more."

Read full article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/mexico-drugs-war-massacre-in-torreon

Are U.S. Pot Laws The Root Cause Of Mexican Drug Violence?

It was less than one year ago when acting U.S. DEA administrator Michelle Leonhart publicly declared that the escalating violence on the U.S./Mexico border should be viewed as a sign of the “success” of America’s drug war strategies.

“Our view is that the violence we have been seeing is a signpost of the success our very courageous Mexican counterparts are having,” said Michele Leonhart, who was recently nominated by President Obama to be the agency’s full time director. “The cartels are acting out like caged animals, because they are caged animals.”

Well, if the DEA’s chief talking head thought that some 6,300 drug cartel-related murders in 2008 was an indication of progress, one can only imagine that...

Check out the rest of this Excellent article which also includes a very good video as well...
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/03/17/are-u-s-pot-laws-the-root-cause-of-mexican-drug-violence/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet

13 teenagers shot dead as gunmen burst into party in Mexico border city

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=36215798&feedType=VideoRSS&feedName=TopNews&rpc=23&videoChannel=1&sp=true


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/01/13-teenagers-killed-mexico-gunmen-drug-cartels

• Further 17 wounded in what neighbours believe was case of mistaken identity
• Attack adds to 16,000 killings in war between government and drug cartels

US waves white flag in disastrous 'war on drugs'

Hey Guys, I've been in California and Baja, Mexico for the past few weeks...and so didn't have time to post any new stories.....anyway...here's a great story to get Kultura back on track....

After 40 years, Washington is quietly giving up on a futile battle that has spread corruption and destroyed thousands of lives.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-waves-white-flag-in-disastrous-war-on-drugs-1870218.html

Six Ideas for Re-thinking the War in Mexico

Excerpt:

"In Juarez soldiers are seen futilely strolling down the sunny streets. They are seen pulling over drivers because they aren't wearing their seatbelts. They have been seen making a U-turn over a traffic island in order to avoid confrontation with a convoy of narco vehicles.
One night in Juarez, I saw how the soldiers took shelter in a hotel, with explicit orders to do so, while narcos were shooting at each other in the street."

In English:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/10/six-ideas-re-thinking-war-mexico

In Spanish:

http://www.proceso.com.mx/opinion_articulo.php?articulo=72882

Is America ready to admit defeat in its 40-year war on drugs?

A wave of decriminalization sweeps South America

Excerpt:
At El Paso at the end of the month, experts from the US and Mexico will gather to take stock and thrash out alternatives. El Paso stands cheek by jowl with its twin city, Ciudad Juárez, across the Rio Grande. There, last Wednesday, the day after the Argentinian court ruling, cartel gunmen broke into the El Aliviane drug rehabilitation centre, lined 17 young people against a wall and cut them down with a fusillade of machine-gun fire. Troops last night captured the suspected killer, Jose Rodolfo Escajeda, considered one of the most brutal hitmen in Chihuahua and one of the leaders of the Juárez cartel. The executions, coming shortly after the killing of 40 people over three days in Juárez two weeks ago, take the death toll to about 1,400 this year, making it the most dangerous city in the world.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2009/sep/06/war-on-drugs-latin-america

Awesome Documentary on Marijuana

Great Documentary about Marijuana and the nonsensical War on Drugs...Enjoy!
Review by Pete Guither...
I just finished watching the new documentary The Union: The Business of Getting high and it was outstanding!

It is the most comprehensive documentary review of cannabis policy, politics, history, myths, science, and.. humanity that I've seen. It's compelling (and yes, a little overwhelming -- you almost need to take a break during it to absorb everything).

It takes you briefly through the history of criminalization, debunks every bit of reefer madness nonsense from the suffocated monkeys' lost brain cells to Walters' marijuana treatment stats, explores the Chong and Emery cases, takes you into grow-ops and the business of black market cannabis, talks with the scientists and economists and doctors and patients and hemp activists and members of LEAP. It also vividly demonstrates the absolute lack of integrity of so many who promote continued criminalization, including Presidents of the United States.

There are tons of great quotes in it. I started writing some down, but then couldn't choose, so I'm not going to bother. I really recommend getting it and showing it to your friends.

Watch the documentary for free here....
http://www.sprword.com/videos/union/

UN Backs Drug Decriminalization In World Drug Report

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/24/un-backs-drug-decriminali_n_220013.html

In an about face, the United Nations on Wednesday lavishly praised drug decriminalization in its annual report on the state of global drug policy. In previous years, the UN drug czar had expressed skepticism about Portugal's decriminalization, which removed criminal penalties in 2001 for personal drug possession and emphasized treatment over incarceration. The UN had suggested the policy was in violation of international drug treaties and would encourage "drug tourism."

But in its 2009 World Drug Report, the UN had little but kind words for Portugal's radical (by U.S. standards) approach. "These conditions keep drugs out of the hands of those who would avoid them under a system of full prohibition, while encouraging treatment, rather than incarceration, for users...(Click link above to read more)

Drug wars and the balloon effect

Why have billions of dollars and thousands of anti-narcotics agents around the world failed to throttle the global traffic in cocaine, heroin and marijuana? Blame wrong-headed policies, largely driven by the United States, and what experts call the balloon effect.

Squeezing a balloon in one place makes it expand in another. Destroy drug crops in one region and cultivation moves to another. Cut a supply route in one place and...
Read More:

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2009/03/26/drug-wars-and-the-balloon-effect/?rpc=60