Couple is Attacked and Police Confront Aggressors

Two people were injured this afternoon from projectiles of firearms fired by unidentified assailants.

The injured were a man and a woman who were transported to the hospital who were said to be injured in the intersection of Santiago Troncazo and Durango.

So far authorities have not released the identity of the injured since they were rushed to the hospital before they could be ID'ed.

It also reported that in the vicinity of where the attack was occurred were two units of the municipal police who after they realizing what had happened, rushed to the scene and confronted the attackers.

During the confrontation between police and gunmen there were no reports of any injuries and as is usual, the attackers managed to escaped avoiding arrest.

The two victims are reported to be in serious condition with the woman having received most of the more serious injury.

44 Police Officers Killed so Far in the State of Chihuahua

Nearly two years after the operation task force was implemented in the state of Chihuahua called "Operation Joint Chihuahua" the numbers of people killed has increased considerably, where also a large number of police officers have been killed in the line of duty .

This operation, besides having a huge economic cost, represents the fight against organized crime, it also comes with a cost of police officers who have lost their lives for the safety of Chihuahua and has taken a major blow to police agencies and families .

The figures highlight that the performance of police officers in 2008 was concentrated in Ciudad Juarez with 91 executed; in Chihuahua there was 48, 6 in the city of Parral, 6 in Villa Ahumada, 5 in Aldama, 3 in Guadalupe Distrito Bravo; 3 in Janos and 2 in Praxedis and G. Guerrero, for a total of 164 slain officers.

Some of those attacks against the police left dismembered a full police forces, like the cases of Aldama, Villa Ahumada, Namiquipa, Janos, Nuevo Casas Grandes and Galeana.

The figures also highlight that in 2009 alone so far at least 44 elements of different police agencies, including military, federal police, ministries, state and municipal police of Chihuahua died in the line of duty.

Biden Escort Involved in Wreck

By ABQNews Staff

A Bernalillo County Sheriff's deputy escorting Vice President Joe Biden's motorcade was hit this afternoon at Gibson and Carlisle.

Police say a woman drove around two police units blocking the intersection and hit a car driven by a sergeant with BCSO.

No injuries or arrests have been reported, but the sergeant has been taken to Presbyterian Hospital for evaluation.

A sheriff's spokeswoman would not say whether the vice president had already gone through the area at the time of the accident.

Soldiers wary of often corrupt Mexican police

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JULIE WATSON

The Associated Press

When soldiers tried to halt a suspicious-looking SUV that was being escorted through Monterrey by a state policeman, the officer radioed for backup. In minutes, police from 40 patrol cars surrounded the troops, drawing their guns and sending the soldiers diving for cover in an hour-long standoff.

Confrontations like that are happening with increasing frequency in Mexico's wealthiest city as soldiers fight corrupt police officers helping drug cartels - in addition to taking on the drug dealers themselves.

This year alone, police and soldiers have confronted one another more than 65 times, The Associated Press has learned - a growing and dangerous trend in the war on drugs.

Things are so bad, the general in charge of army operations in northeastern Mexico told the AP, that he has warned police chiefs his men are ready to open fire on police if it happens again.

"The moment they shoot at us, get in our way, use their guns to protect criminals, they become criminals themselves," said Gen. Guillermo Moreno, who commands troops in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas states along the Texas border.

President Felipe Calderon has acknowledged that corruption permeates Mexico's low-paid police at all levels and therefore has opted to combat the billion-dollar drug-smuggling industry by relying primarily on the military, which has seen remarkably fewer cases of bribery by traffickers. His administration also has sent in federal police and soldiers, both of whom are higher paid and usually better educated, to go after police on the take.

Strike against Mexican cartel began in Roswell

Recently newspapers all over the country published accounts of the nationwide drug bust that brought down a massive Mexican drug cartel's operations in 20 states and netted more than 300 arrests.

But what they didn't say was that a Roswell cop who is a member of the Atlanta High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force (HIDTA) and a partner developed the break that led to those nationwide arrests.

When Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, DEA Atlanta Field Division Special Agent in Charge Rodney G. Benson, HIDTA Director Jack Killorin and Roswell Police Department Chief Ed Williams announced Oct. 28 the arrests of 38 defendants in metro Atlanta, you could excuse Chief Williams for having perhaps the widest smile.

He takes a lot of pride in the fact that his officer played a major role in pushing over a row of dominos that together has crippled drug trafficking in the United States for at least one major drug cartel.

The defendants were arrested Oct. 21 as part of Project Coronado, a nationwide operation that targeted the distribution network "La Familia Michoacana" or "La Familia."

Hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officers made the arrests across metropolitan Atlanta.

Police Charged in Death of Federal Official

The Attorney General's Office through its office in the state of Chihuahua filed criminal charges against members of the municipal police and the state police known as Cipol who are suspected in the murder of the federal public prosecutor Miguel Angel Meneses Maciel who was killed last week.

The police officers implicated in this crime were identified as Robert Garcia Jair Rey, Claudia Mercedes Ramirez Castaneda, Alberto Chairez Hernandez Arnulfo Padilla and Victor Manjarrez, who are police officers of the State Public Security "Cipol." Also charged were Jesus Ortega Eduardo Delgado Luis Delgado and Oscar Clemente who are police members of the Municipal Police.

In this regard, these six individuals were officially ordered to be apprehended for their responsibility in the commission of the crime of homicide, and were also held responsible for attempted murder, abuse of authority and tampering with evidence or facts at the crime scene.

They are said to be responsible for the death of federal prosecutor Miguel Angel Meneses Maciel who was head of the Bureau of Criminal Research in the capital city.

Disbanding Local Police Forces to Combat Corruption

Mexico's top security official proposed disbanding Mexico's 2,022 municipal police forces and combining them with state law enforcement agencies to better combat corruption and crime.

Local police have fewer resources to fight crime, and their lower salaries make them more susceptible to corruption, Mexican Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said.

"Public safety should be a state policy," he added.

Consolidating police forces would improve communication among officials, he said, and bring greater security to areas where local police have traditionally lacked the means to fight crime. Nearly 90 percent of the country's municipal police forces have staffs of less than 100 people, he said.

Garcia Luna spoke to reporters at the end of a meeting of public safety chiefs from Mexico's 31 states and the capital, where officials presented a report titled "A New Police Model."

Living the Life of a Police Target

Hours after the killing of a commander of the Municipal Public Security Ministry, officers of all police agencies were threatened by a message written on the wall of an elementary school. The message threatened retaliation against police officers for working with the army and allegedly supporting the cartel of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The lawman, identified as Noel Rosales Martinez, 35, was shot dead yesterday morning with high-powered weapons, as he drove his truck down the avenue Francisco Villarreal Torres, at the intersection of Sorgo Street.

The incident alerted police agencies, especially the city police whose officers were instructed to "keep their guard up" to prevent further attacks.

Mexican Police Suspect in Chief's Killing

Five police officers and five other suspects were arrested Thursday in the investigation into the assassination of an army general who had been appointed police chief of this northern Mexican town over the weekend.

Brig. Gen. Juan Arturo Esparza was the latest military officer killed after taking over a Mexican municipal police force plagued with corruption. President Felipe Calderon has acknowledged that police forces throughout Mexico are rife with officers in the pay of cartels, and he has relied heavily on the military to fight drug trafficking.

The attack Wednesday had its origins in an illegal quarrying company, said Alejandro Garza y Garza, the Nuevo Leon state attorney general.

He said one of the suspects was facing investigation for operating the company and enlisted the help of a local hotel owner with ties to a powerful drug cartel to intimidate officials in Garcia, a town outside the northern city of Monterrey.

Tough day for Mexican police

- Agents of the organized crime division of the Mexican federal department of justice (SIEDO) arrested 12 Guerrero state police investigators for apparent connections with narco criminals. The state agents were summoned to an anti-narcotics office to presumably carry out an operation. On arrival, they were disarmed and arrested on federal warrants by SIEDO agents assisted by military units.

- State police in La Union, Guerrero, responding to a report of the discovery of a body, were ambushed by a group of hit men. The attack wounded five of the officers and killed another.

- A federal police commander and an agent were gunned down in Mexicali, Baja California, when they arrived at a residence suspected of narco activity. The attack also wounded another federal agent accompanying them.

- In another incident, a municipal police captain in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, was assassinated while driving his personal car.

Winning Battles, Soon the War?

Mexico continues to improve its federal police forces, with the FBI as its model. The government has concluded that training and education key to improvement and for the past year the federal police have made an effort to recruit college graduates. Increasing pay (to deter the allure of bribes) is another reform.

Improving the federal police, according to government leaders, will have a “trickle down effect” on state and local police – at least that's the idea. The program is another example of President Calderon's “systemic war” (also called systemic reform) to modernize Mexico.

The NGO Reporters Without Borders recently reported that Mexico has become “one of the most dangerous places to work as a reporter...” For years drug cartels have made it a practice to kill pesky journalists.

Gunmen kill US airman in attack on bar in Mexico

Source: AP

A gang of gunmen killed an off-duty U.S. airman and five other people early Wednesday at a bar in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said.

Meanwhile, gunmen assassinated an army general recently named police chief of Garcia, a town in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. It the latest attack against a military official appointed to take over municipal police forces, which President Felipe Calderon has acknowledged are plagued with corruption.

All 70 officers of the Garcia police force were questioned in the attack, Nuevo Leon Gov. Rodrigo Medina said at a news conference. He said soldiers and state police will be sent to patrol the town.

There was no immediate information on a motive for the attack that killed the U.S. airman at the Amadeus bar in Ciudad Juarez, which also left a seventh person wounded, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for prosecutors in northern Chihuahua state. But the methods bore the hallmarks of attacks by drug cartels.

The attacks raised to 30 the number of homicides in Ciudad Juarez in just four days. The city is one of the world's most violent, with 2,100 people killed in drug-related attacks this year alone.

Federal Prosecutor Killed in Gun Battle

Municipal and Cipol (state) police along with military troops shot and killed a federal prosecutor Miguel Angel Meneses Maciel who was driving one of three cars that ignored orders to stop in northern Mexico, which triggering a chase and gun battle.

The police and troops were on a joint patrol in the city of Chihuahua when they tried to stop three suspicious vehicles, the federal Attorney General's Office and the Defense Department said in a joint statement.

Preliminary investigation indicate that the federal prosecutor thought that it was a “levanton” (kidnapping) as the soldiers were traveling in four wheel drive pickup trucks without marking causing confusion.

The three drivers ignored the order to stop by the military who could have failed to provide adequate identity, which caused Meneses Maciel to believe it was an attack against him. Meneses Maciel continued at full speed ahead ignoring the orders to stop by several uniformed soldiers who were wearing bandanas concealing their faces, which ultimately prompted a chase between the military and the federal prosecutor.

The soldiers finally stopped the vehicle and opened fired at the prosecutor, killing him.

Are Our Crime Fighters Becoming 'Mexicanized'?

Source: by Judith Miller FOXNews
October 27, 2009

Chilling are the signs that one of the worst features of Mexico’s war on drugs is the reality of Mexican police on the take from drug lords but this is also becoming an American problem as well.

Corruption indictments and convictions of law enforcement linked to drug-trafficking organizations, known in police parlance as DTOs, are popping up in FBI press releases with disturbing frequency. Some experts disagree about how deep this rot runs. Some try to downplay the phenomenon, dismissing the law enforcement officials who have succumbed to bribes or intimidation from the drug cartels as a few bad apples.

Washington is taking no chances. In recent months, the FBI’s Criminal Division has created seven multiagency task forces and assigned 120 agents to investigate public corruption, drug-related and otherwise, in the Southwest border region.

While the FBI task forces focus mainly on corruption along the border, cartel-related activity has spread much deeper into the American heartland. Consider New Mexico’s San Juan County, some 450 miles north of the border, where the U.S. Attorney’s office has recently prosecuted a startling corruption case that may be a portent of things to come.

Light at the End of the Tunnel, or is it?

Has Ciudad Juarez become lost to the drug cartels?

In Juarez you don't have to wait long for the next casualty, just sit long enough on a taco stand and violence will creep up so fast, you will not have time to order another round. Last week the city had a day without any executions and everyone was confused, wondering what was wrong.

Beheadings and amputations. Iraqi-style brutality, bribery, extortion, kidnapping, and murder. Shoot-outs between federales and often against better armed and trained drug cartels. This is modern Mexico, whose president, Felipe Calderón, has been struggling since 2006 to release his country from the grip of four powerful cartels and their estimated 100,000 foot soldiers.

New figures released by Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz indicate the death toll for this year has already surpassed 2,000 homicides, over 450 more than the total count for 2008. Nowhere has the bloodshed been worse than in Ciudad Juarez with 2065 homicides reported just this year. No other city has suffered so much, has witnessed misery so much, has been battered so much as has Ciudad Juarez.

The Stats:

303 homicides in October as repoerted by El Diario.

307 homicides in September.

315 homicides in August.

2,094 homicides in 2009 so far and as of Ocober 31, 2009.

1,607 homicides in 2008.

The gangland-style violence has left no corner of Ciudad Juarez untouched. Drug-related slayings take place in houses, restaurants and bars, at playgrounds and children's parties, and in car-to-car ambushes. It's nerve wrecking.

The Bodies of the Three Feds Recovered

Oh man!

We were really hoping things did not end this way, but such is life for the people of Mexico.

Tonight the military and federal forces have transported the bodies of the three missing federal police officers that were kidnapped in the area of Buenaventura. The bodies arrived at the local airport and were sent to the state coroner's office (Semefo) in Juarez for an autopsy. It appears that it was the body of commander Jose Alfredo Silly, Chief of Intelligence and two of his aides. According to media sources, they were found inside a mine in Buenaventura, executed at point blank to the head (tiro de gracia),  had signs of torture, and were in the late stages of decomposition.

This might indicate that the officers were executed soon after the "levanton" (kidnapping) and were hidden because of the large force of feds scouring the area. The sicarios (hit men) perhaps did not want to attract attention to their location. They usually dump the bodies in a very public place to send a message to the police.

13th Day of the Search

With the continual search for three missing officers of the Federal Police of intelligence (SSPF) who are believed to have been kidnapped by organized crime in the small town of Benito Juárez 13 days ago, the Federal Police did not say why they suddenly left their operation in Ciudad Juarez without any official explanation. They had been part of the task force "Operación Conjunta Chihuahua" (Joint Operation Chihuahua).

According to media sources this is the first time that federal forces have completely abandoned an operation that started in March of last year. In mid 2009 half of the troops were sent to reinforce other police agencies against organized crime in Michoacán known as "La Familia."

Only a small detachment of 100 federal police remains in the city of Juarez. The majority of the federal police, about 3 thousand, were sent to the northwest of the state of Chihuahua to search for the federal officers.

Joint Operation Lampoon, if it Wasn't Tragic

The operational coordinator of the State Intelligence Police Corps (CIPOL), Luis Prieto, was attacked yesterday morning while leaving a restaurant guarded by three of his highly trained armed bodyguards.

One of the bodyguards died at the scene, while Prieto and the others were critically wounded.

What followed was a sequent of events that revealed a process from the Joint Operation Chihuahua of dis-coordination, inexperience and lack of security operational tactics.

In addition to the CIPOL officers that were practically surprised by an armed commando, there was the case of the rollover of a unit belonging to the CIPOL that was escorting the ambulance which was transporting the wounded to the hospital. Two more officers were injured in the crash.

Subsequently, several soldiers were also hurt when their military vehicle in which they were traveling crashed as it took a red light. The military were on the way to support other lawmen who were investigating an SUV that was suspected of being related to the attack of Prieto. If all this wasn’t such a serious matter, it would be almost comical, more of a lampoon skit than a tactical operation responding to a critical incident.

The Safety Strategic has Failed

In the sate of Chihuahua the evening is just beginning when all activities start to slow down to a crawling pace. Paralyzed by daily assaults and murders, people do not dare leave the safety of their homes. They feel insecure because violence is prevalent throughout the state and no one has any respect for anyone anymore.

For example last Tuesday two gunmen (sicarios) executed the college professor Michael Etzel Maldonado, the main spokesperson for the PRI and the state government. The murder outraged the political establishment and the business community of Chihuahua, knowing that they are also vulnerable.

Governors of Chihuahua José Reyes Baeza and of New Mexico Bill Richardson

"I feel angry and frustrated," said Gov. José Reyes Baeza. By concentrating resources for police to fight against organized crime, he says, the state has neglected other basic services such as health and education. The governor admitted that the strategy in the fight against crime has failed. The government cannot denied that the growing spiral of violence this year is out of control. In the last ten months there has been 2,250 murders, while in the whole year of 2008 there were only 1,863.

Descending on the Townships of Chihuahua

As we previously reported the Mexican government has sent about 3,000 police and military to the southern part of Chihuahua in search for the three kidnapped federal police agents. One of the missing officials was described as a high ranking officer with close ties to the Secretary of Public Safety Genaro Garcia Luna. Their names have not been disclosed for their own safety. All three had arrived to the area from Mexico City to conduct intelligence of organized crime. But despite the unprecedented number of troops involved in the search, all will not be that easy.

With a population of about 6 thousand people, the little town of Benito Juárez, which is a municipality of Buenaventura, has never seen thousands of police officers from the Federal Police parading through their dirt roads.

The town, located 170 km southwest of Ciudad Juarez, became the epicenter of the search for the three federal police officers apparently kidnapped this week by elements of organized crime, and whose vehicle was found under a bridge over a gap that leads to Ricardo Flores Magon.

The mobilization has the inhabitants in total distress who are mostly engaged in the agriculture business. The town people are extremely fearful of the circumstances to the extent that they avoid, at all costs, talking to the police, the press or any "outsider" in the village.