Mexico Arrests Brother of Slain Drug Kingpin
…. Ah, but wait…
Mexico nabs 3rd brother in reputed drug family
That’s right — we’re really dismantling the Beltran Leyva brothers now. So that should end the war in Mexico. After all, the Beltran Leyva brothers were… Wait. I don’t remember even hearing much about them before… but if they were so powerful, then dismantling them should still end the violence, right?
“The Zetas may now move against the Beltran Leyva and take them over, saying, ‘You are now taking orders from us, or we’ll kill you,'” Grayson said. “The good news is you’ve got a bad guy behind bars. The bad news is that this may enhance the Zetas.”
That possibility raises fears of even bloodier turf battles in a drug war that has already claimed more than 15,000 lives since Calderon took office in 2006.
In a possible sign of that fight, the bound, beaten bodies of two men were found Wednesday hanging by their necks from a highway overpass in the Sinaloa town of Los Mochis.
Nearby, a message was written on a piece of cardboard: “This territory already has an owner.” The message appeared to be from the Beltran Leyva cartel.
Authorities have blamed the Zetas for killing the marine’s relatives in retaliation for Arturo Beltran’s death.
Of course.
Well, at least we’re sending the message that we won’t stop our drug policy madness regardless of how many people die.
That’s something.
An American School Board member from California was just killed in Mexico by the drug war. That situation is only going to get much worse as our economy crashes over the next decade.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/01/mexicos-drug-violence-comes-home-to-california.html
Salcedo, who was also assistant principal at El Monte High School, was born and raised in Southern California, but his wife Betzy is from Gomez Palacios, where she trained as a doctor. The couple were visiting her family for the holidays. They were dining with some of Betzy’s former classmates at a pool hall Wednesday evening when armed men burst in and kidnapped Salcedo and five other men. All six were found dead Thursday, El Monte officials said.
Here is a great Stratfor article on the various Mexican cartels and what they all seem to be doing right now. The Beltran-Leyva organization (BLO) is already out of date due to the recent arrests.
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20091209_mexico_war_cartels_2009
I hope that link works!
American boots on the ground drug war links I found from “over there”.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/03/content_12748279.htm
Drug traffickers killed 11 Iranian policemen: report
A local police commander in Iran’s South Khorasan Province said that the drug traffickers killed 11 policemen in eastern Iran bordering Afghanistan, the official IRNAnews agency reported on Sunday.
….
On Dec. 24, Iran and Afghanistan underlined the necessity to bolster their cooperation against drug trafficking.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fgw-afghan-troop-deaths5-2010jan05,0,833711.story
4 U.S. troops die in Afghan blast
The location of the latest deaths was not specified, but most Western troops in the south are based in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taliban movement is the strongest. Those two provinces are also a center of Afghanistan’s drug trade, which has close links to the insurgency.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jT5zhftMs7ctWKF5aIorX1dsWvwg
US Marines in southern Afghanistan keep their hands off opium poppies, but farmers still upset
As the U.S. prepares to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, the experience in this rural district illustrates how the illegal drug trade complicates efforts to win over the population.
Many people in Helmand, which produces more than 50 per cent of the world’s poppy, rely on the heroin-producing crop to make a living. Disrupting the trade could undermine the goodwill generated by military and civilian development projects, such as dredging irrigation canals and opening schools.
The Obama administration tried to neutralize the drug issue earlier this year when it reversed a Bush-era policy of destroying poppy crops in Afghanistan, a tactic officials said did little or nothing to reduce the amount of drug money flowing to the Taliban and simply drove the population into the insurgents’ camp.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ipcWsrqsmpSaUWRgb7xXmvQPLgIQD9CP7J580
US anti-drug effort in Afghanistan criticized
The State Department’s internal watchdog on Wednesday criticized the agency’s nearly $2 billion anti-drug effort in Afghanistan for poor oversight and lack of a long-term strategy.
The department’s inspector general said the Afghanistan counter-narcotics program is hampered by too few personnel and rampant corruption among Afghan officials.
“The Obama administration tried to neutralize the drug issue earlier this year when it reversed a Bush-era policy of destroying poppy crops in Afghanistan, a tactic officials said did little or nothing to reduce the amount of drug money flowing to the Taliban and simply drove the population into the insurgents’ camp.”
As the French say, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”…a.k.a Same sh*t, different day. Whack-a-mole. Emptying oceans with leaky thimbles. Putting out fires with gasoline. But the O Admin didn’t stop because of tender concerns for the farmers. It’s more concern for his big-shot bankster buddie’s profits from laundering all that dirty money and keeping the big banks afloat…on top of the money they received from the Fed, and for which we’ll be paying for the rest of our lives.
All this maddness has my head spinning so much I wanna puke!
Dont they realize(in afganistan) that cutting down the poppies will just drive these farmers to join the opposition? How stupid are they now?
The coming year could see an increase of violence here and in Mexico. Wait for it.
I’m gonna go puke now.
Up north where the steets are cold
the stories told will make your blood run cold
The gentry lied nowhere to hide
so many died the remainder are fried
Its no better in Canada folks.
The fact that destroying the crops would have alienated the populace,because it is their only income,but the DEA could have bought the whole crop,for less than 1/10th their budget,and napalmed it. It would have stopped 80% of the worlds opium production and stopped anyone from being harmed by it,or any terrorist group using it to fund
attacks.
Because they allowed it to be sold on the black market is the very reason more and more countries are abandoning the war on drugs. They recognize a scam when they see one.
When the country that crammed the drug war down the throat of the UN,then turns around and allows drugs to be sold,it speaks louder than all their propaganda and lies.
And the kicker of it all? There’s a planet-wide shortage of opiate-based analgesics. And the ugly truth is, nothing man-made beats the poppy-derived drugs for that. Yet we are going to continue drug prohibition to maintain banksters and bureaucrats and oil-company lackies in power, causing that shortage to deepen, and will for the foreseeable future. How’s that for stupid?
My wife informed me this morning that there are 7-8 Leyva brothers. We ain’t there…YET!
No EZ we aint, you know as we’ll as I, take all of these brothers out and SOMEONE will rise to take thier place.
Ezrydn:
And the remaining ones are awfully pissed off. The navy photographed Leyva’s body without his pants and covered the body in bloody 100 dollar bills and pesos, then gave the photo to the press.
The BLO responded by killing the family of the one sailor who died in the battle because the press released his name. They killed them ALL on the way back from the funeral.
I hope the BLO goes down too, but they aren’t going quietly. And as we know, their neighboring cartels will just take over their territory and hire new people.
Drugs will flow uninterrupted.
Some changes I’ve noticed down here. Mainly, the old idea of “Mexican dirt weed” is quickly disappearing. Seems the cartels/growers are starting to experiment with more seed strains and getting it right. New strains are showing up down here all the time. And an 1.5oz bag goes for around $150P, which is just about the price of a lid back in the 60s. Hydro is also beginning to show itself down here. As far as the National Decrim Law goes, I’ve noticed less and less “street interviews” and pullovers. The phrase of the day here is “don’t be obvious.”
Poppy Plan Waiting For Approval
Western Cant At China Beggars Belief
China’s Execution Of A Man Convicted Of Breaking The Law Is Not Earth-Shattering News, Writes Eilis O’Hanlon
…the hypocrisy on this side of the world in response to his tragic death has been staggering. The fact that China executes thousands of people every year in similarly dubious circumstances, harvesting their organs for transplants in the process and then burying them in secret, didn’t stop us from going along wholeheartedly with the festival of fun that was the Beijing Olympics in 2008.