kikibalt wrote:diego,
What the hell is going on in your neck of the woods?
Fourteen killed in Mexico drug battle near U.S.
By Lizbeth Diaz
TIJUANA, Mexico (Reuters) - Fourteen Mexican drug gang members were killed and eight others were injured in a gun battle near the U.S. border on Saturday that was one of the bloodiest shootouts in Mexico's three-year-long narco-war.
Rival factions of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border fought each other with rifles and machine guns in the early hours of the morning, police said.
The bodies lay in pools of blood, strewn along a road on the city's eastern limits, surrounded by hundreds of bullet casings. Many of the victims' faces were destroyed.
"By the way this happened and the guns used, we believe the men are from the same cartel, the Arellano Felix gang," said a senior police officer in Tijuana who declined to be named.
Two of the dead are believed to be senior hitmen for the Arellano Felix cartel and were identified by the large gold rings on their fingers. The rings carried the icon of Saint Death, a ghoulish grim reaper figure that gangsters believe protects them, police said.
Officials also found police helmets and body armor that the two hitmen used for protection.
Six men were arrested but the remaining survivors escaped, the office said.
A source close to the Tijuana mayor's office said local authorities had requested more troops for the city bordering San Diego, California, and that they could arrive this weekend.
President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to Tijuana and Baja California state on Mexico's Pacific coast since taking office in December 2006. Some 25,000 soldiers and federal police are deployed to fight cartels in drug hot spots across Mexico.
The army in Tijuana said it was on high alert for reprisals against soldiers and federal police following the shootout and the ensuing arrest.
"The risk of attacks against our agents after an event like this is extremely high," said Lt. Col Julian Leyzaola, Tijuana's police chief.
The Arellano Felix gang was long the dominant drug-trafficking organization in Tijuana, smuggling drugs into California. Recently the group has been under attack from a rival gang from the Pacific state of Sinaloa, led by Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Some 190 people have been killed in Tijuana so far this year. In 2007, there were more than 2,500 drug killings across Mexico and there have been more than 900 this year.
(Writing by Robin Emmott; Editing by Bill Trott)
Thanks first on the Furillo pics. He seemed like he made friends easy.
As far as Mexico goes ,it's very simple. I'll set it up for you. When the hippies and the Beatles and young kids here in college and high school started doing drugs,Mexico had a panic attack. Mexico knew that their kids would copy anything the kids on the U.S. side were doing. Music,dress,movies and TV. When the kids here started smoking pot,the hand writing was on the wall for Mexico. I remember if you crossed the border with long hair,the TJ cops would pull you over and it was off to the barber shop. Then the cops would tell you thet they"discovered" marijuana in your car! 200 dollar fine.
But if the U.S. would have put the brakes on it here,Mexico and all of Latin America wouldn't of had a source to cross all the dope.. Drugs ,now, is running their country. NAFTA made it easier to ship the drugs here. Don't let no one kid you,the U.S. is up to their "alligators" with this too. Here's a couple of examples. Just after NAFTA,U.S. Custom Agent at San Ysidro had their hands full inspecting Mexican commercial trucks. One time back in 94 custom guys had their dogs sniff out cocaine on a Mexican semi. The "Watch Commander",Art Gilmore,lets the driver run back into Mexico. The Custom guys here smell a rat. They start documenting their boss. He's letting "certain" trucks cross without being inspected. So the Custom Officers go to the Federal DA's office in downtown San Diego. They state their case to the DA who handles narcotic cases. Not one grand jury,no investigation,no supenoas. The DA's name. Alan Bersin,Clinton's pal at Yale,and later becomes the Superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District.
Here's another. I had this boy in my class a while back. He's 17 and falls in love with this girl in class who's old man is one of the biggest "narco trafficantes" in Mexico. He's working with Caro Quintero. The two get married. Well the boy's father owns a brokerage house on this side. I warn this kid to stay away from your wife's old man. He'll ask you to smuggle for him. Well that's what happened. Imagine asking your son in law to be a drug trafficker.
The kid is telling me everything is taken care of. The Mexican feds are paid off,our Custom guys are on the take,and him and his brother in law are smuggling 200 kilos across every weekend. Imagine getting your son working for you smuggling drugs.
Well one night the two are driving along Old Highway 80 just on the U.S. side after smuggling 200 kilos. They get pulled over by a Highway Patroman. The truck has a tail light out. The kids get panicky. The Highway Patrol Officer suspects something and searches the semi. Busted!
Now the two kids have to go to Federal court in San Diego. The kid wants me to write the court a 'character' letter saying he's a nice kid. I ask the the kid if they're going to ask him to make deal and inform on the operation. Come on,the kid was only a driver. The kid emphatically says no way the Feds are going to investigate. And the kid tells me not to put anything about the operation in my letter to the court. The judge wants to hear nothing of it. I know the judges' name. He's still down here.
Well the kid and his brother in law take the "fall" for this and each get 8 years in some Federal pen in Oregon. They let the two out on a work detail,and the kid's wife's father ,who's the head of the smugging ring, drives by and pulls his son into a car and they take off to Mexico. His son in law doesn't get invited for the ride. The kid's wife divorces him,his father's brockerage house is investigated for the next ten years by every agency from the DEA to the FBI to the IRS.His old man dies of a heart attack from all the stress and that's the story. What ever happened to "Father Knows Best?"
Now Mexico is run by the drug traffickers and now the Mexican kids look like they all need a haircut.
You asked me about Bo Belinsky? Yeah,had good stuff. I think his girlfriends would second that. Oh Oh. I'm staring down at the pool. There's some good stuuf that just arrived. I'm gonna' take a break and go down there and throw those two little numbers a couple of curves.
