Street Scene, Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico

(click photo) photo by mxcartel-news

This picture was taken by mxcartel-news in November, 2008. This district is a well known zone for the kidnapping for ransom of American tourists who stumble into this area at night. There is no police protection after dark on these streets. The Mexican Army withdraws to a barracks at night. Only danger walks at night.

Mxcartel-news.blogspot.com

Gulf Cartel's Zetas Strike U.S., Mexico

(click on chart)

Evidence links grenade attacks in U.S., Mexico

01:59 PM CST on Thursday, February 12, 2009
By Angela Kocherga / 11 News Border Bureau

EL PASO, Texas -- Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms tell the 11 News Border Bureau they have evidence linking grenades used in the attack on the U.S. Consulate, a Mexican television station and a bar in South Texas.


Officials examine a car related to a grenade attack on the offices of the television company Televisa in Monterrey, Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009.
Serial numbers recovered at the crime scene show the grenades came from the same stash.
“It is still under investigation. We don’t know exactly what the link is but yes, there is definitely association with the three attacks,” said Jim Needles, the assistant special agent in charge of the ATF’s office in Phoenix.
According to an unclassified report ATF sent to law enforcement agencies last week, the grenades are “linked to a major recovery of firearms and grenades in a Mexican warehouse with suspected ties to a drug cartel.”
We’re told that warehouse is in Monterrey, Mexico where two of the attacks happened.
ATF traced the explosives to a lot manufactured in South Korea. Investigators suspect the weapons cache belonged to the Zetas, enforcers for the Gulf Cartel.
The grenades tossed at the U.S. Consulate last October and at the Monterrey TV station in early January did not injury anyone.
In the TV station attack, masked gunmen opened fire and tossed a grenade at the station as it aired its nightly newscast, leaving behind a message warning the station about its coverage of drug gangs. The anchors asked viewers to call for help on the air.
The live grenade tossed on a pool table in San Juan, Texas on January 31 did not detonate because the attacker failed to pull a second safety pin. Investigators tell us three off-duty police officers were among the patrons inside the bar at the time.
“The violence is here. The violence is in the U.S. We hear about the violence in Mexico. It’s not just an issue for the Mexican authorities. It’s an issue for us here in the United States,” Needles said.

Drug-related violence in Mexico kills 21

© 2009 The Associated Press
Feb. 11, 2009


CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A drug gang kidnapped and killed six people along the U.S.-Mexican border region, setting off gunbattles with soldiers that left 15 others dead.
The hours-long skirmishes around the town of Ciudad Ahumada on Tuesday are part of a wave of drug violence that has engulfed parts of Mexico — and has even spilled across the border — as the army confronts savage narcotics cartels that are flush with drug money and guns from the U.S.
President Felipe Calderon says that more than 6,000 people died last year in drug-related violence, and U.S. authorities have reported a spike in killings, kidnappings and home invasions linked to the cartels — some of it in cities far from the border, such as Phoenix and Atlanta.
Tuesday's bloodshed began when gunmen kidnapped nine suspected members of a rival drug gang in Villa Ahumada and executed six of them along the PanAmerican Highway outside of the town, said Enrique Torres, spokesman for a joint military-police operation in Chihuahua state. Villa Ahumada is 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of the border city of El Paso, Texas.
Assailants later released three of the men, although their whereabouts were not immediately known, Torres said.
Soldiers later caught up with the gunmen and a series of shootouts ensued, leaving 14 alleged gunmen and one soldier dead Tuesday, Torres said. Another soldier was wounded.

Mexican Army on patrol in Cancun after murder of policeman, retired general and their driver

Click on Map to see in larger window

Mxcartel-news has visited and met many people in Tamaulipas (Gulf Cartel) and Jalisco (Sinaloa Cartel). These groups have the same goals and perhaps these goals can be somewhat mitigated to reduce the widespread killing taking place. I know that these groups all consist of similar personalities with similar intentions. Perhaps these similarities may be able to lead to a similar consensus among the parties. The moral question focusing on drug usage has little to do with this dynamic. The drugs will forever be moving from south to north. We first need to focus how this never ending process can proceed without the violence and deal later with the abuse of the drugs themselves.

Mxcartel-new.blogspot.com

Help for the Corpses in Juarez

Juarez Crime Lab restores dried-out corpses with rehydration

10:28 AM CST on Monday, February 9, 2009

By Angela Kocherga / 11 News


JUAREZ, Mexico

There’s new hope for families searching for missing loved ones around Juarez, Mexico.

The Juarez Crime Lab has a new method of identifying bodies abandoned in the harsh desert
climate there: rehydration.

Using a technique developed by Dr. Alejandro Hernandez, lab workers are able to restore
mummified, cardboard-like skin back to a recognizable texture.

The lab is able to recover fingerprints, and sometimes restore other identifying marks on the
body, like moles, scars, tattoos and – in one case – a woman’s entire face.

Why I Do This

Mxcartel-news has had the opportunity to visit

some of the narcolistas' area of control over the last
six years. Numerous visits to Sinaloa's sphere in Estada Jalisco
and recent forays into the Gulf Cartel's sphere

in of influence Estada Tamulipas legitimize my stories.

First hand I have lived the life and documented the activities

of these organizations. I have no opinion about the drug trade. I do
want to do my small part in stopping the killing. For this reason
I do this. Still do not know how to do it. But will try anyway.



Mxcartel-news.blogspot.com