Zetas Cartel Paymaster Arrested in Northern Mexico (NL)
11 November 2011
Latin American Herald Tribune
MEXICO CITY – Five suspected Los Zetas cartel members, including a man who allegedly served as the criminal organization’s paymaster in about 20 cities in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, were arrested by marines, the Navy Secretariat said Thursday.
Marines received a tip about the “suspicious movements of armed people” in the Hacienda Las Palmas section of the city of Escobedo, the secretariat said.
An armed man got out of a vehicle parked outside a house, spotted the marines and tried to hide in the dwelling.
The marines went after the subject and arrested several individuals, the secretariat said.
Juan Carlos Morales Magallanes, suspected of being a Los Zetas financial operator, Karla Viridiana Santos Mar, Monica Maribel Parra Mendoza, Jose Refugio Lopez Reyna and Luis Enrique de la Garza Lopez were detained by the marines.
The 26-year-old Morales Magallanes is an accountant who “was in charge of preparing and disbursing the criminal organization’s payroll, mainly in the metropolitan area of Monterrey,” the capital of Nuevo Leon and Mexico’s largest industrial city, the secretariat said.
Morales Magallanes was in charge of the payroll for Zetas members in the cities of Cienega de Flores, China, Santiago, Monterrey, Villa Garcia, General Escobedo, Allende, Marin, Apodaca and Montemorelos, among others, the secretariat said, citing military intelligence reports.
The 28-year-old Santos Mar was apparently responsible for renting buildings for the cartel, acquiring vehicles, paying for services and working on the payrolls for Nuevo Leon.
Marines seized a handgun, two rifles, three fragmentation grenades, nine ammunition clips, 249 rounds of ammunition, a silencer, 249 doses of cocaine, two vehicles, 2.06 million pesos (about $152,600) and $2,000 in cash.
The suspects were handed over to the Attorney General’s Office for prosecution.
Los Zetas, considered Mexico’s most violent drug cartel, mainly operates in Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and San Luis Potosi states.
Los Zetas has been battling an alliance of the Gulf, Sinaloa and La Familia drug cartels, known as the Nueva Federacion, for control of the Monterrey metropolitan area and smuggling routes into the United States.
Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, known as “El Lazca,” deserted from the Mexican army in 1999 and formed Los Zetas with three other soldiers, all members of an elite special operations unit, becoming the armed wing of the Gulf drug cartel.
After several years on the payroll of the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas went into the drug business on their own account and now control several lucrative territories. EFE
Source: [www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=442228&CategoryId=14091]
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Mexico Detains a Top Operator of Sinaloa Cartel (SIN)
10 November 2011
Google / Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican soldiers detained a top operator for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, a man for whom the U.S. government had offered a reward of up to $5 million, the army said Thursday.
Suspect Ovidio Limon Sanchez is one of the most-wanted U.S. drug fugitives in Mexico, sought "for importing and distributing hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States within the last two decades," according to a U.S. State Department notice announcing the reward.
An army spokesman, Col. Ricardo Trevilla, described Limon Sanchez as "one of the most important operators" for the Sinaloa cartel. The gang, headed by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, is considered Mexico's most powerful trafficking organization.
Trevilla said Limon Sanchez was detained without a shot being fired in a carefully planned raid Wednesday in the city of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, which has long been considered the cradle of Mexican drug trafficking.
The stocky, unblinking Limon Sanchez, 48, was paraded before journalists in handcuffs, with masked soldiers standing on either side of him.
Limon Sanchez's detention "significantly affects the Guzman Loera criminal organization and its capacity to ship and traffic cocaine," Trevilla said.
He said Mexico detained Limon Sanchez on a U.S. extradition request and he had been turned over to civilian prosecutors.
Extradition can often be a lengthy legal process lasting years in Mexico because of appeals.
Trevilla described Limon Sanchez as a sort of all-purpose cocaine shipper based in Culiacan, who bought cocaine, shipped it through Mexico for distribution in California in the Los Angeles area.
The State Department reward notice said Limon Sanchez "organizes, manages, and distributes multi-ton quantities of cocaine from Mexico into his distribution hubs located in southern California; from there his drug trafficking organization distributes cocaine throughout the United States."
"The Limon-Sanchez trafficking organization is also responsible for transporting millions of dollars of drug proceeds in bulk currency from the United States into Mexico," it states.
The notice said he faces an indictment issued in the Central District of California in 2009.
Source: [www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdRwPURof2hTV9-H5cVLJf8w5WsA?docId=2735b1f68512407288a02fbdad06f879]
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University Researcher Gunned Down in Central Mexico (MOR)
10 November 2011
Fox News Latino
Mexico City – A National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, biotechnology researcher was gunned down in Cuernavaca, a city in central Mexico, the university said.
Ernesto Mendez Salinas was a "victim of the climate of violence and social erosion" that the country is experiencing, the university said.
The 51-year-old Biotechnology Institute researcher was murdered on Tuesday night, the UNAM, Mexico's leading university and one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in Latin America, said.
Mendez Salinas, a member of the Mexican National Researchers System, was attacked while driving in Cuernavaca, the capital of Morelos state.
The researcher, who had earned chemistry, pharmacy and biology degrees, had studied at Washington University, in St. Louis, Missouri.
The UNAM called on the "authorities to conduct an investigation to punish the individual or individuals responsible, and to offer results as soon as possible."
Mexico has been dealing with a wave of violence since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon declared war on the country's drug cartels.
On Aug. 8, the UNAM, Latin America's largest university, released a report calling for a broad political and social pact to deal with the violence plaguing Mexico.
The 36-point report, "Elementos para la construccion de una politica de Estado para la seguridad y la justicia en democracia" (Elements for the Creation of a State Policy for Security and Justice with Democracy), was prepared by 88 experts who met in June at the UNAM.
The report calls for, among other measures, "crafting a broad political and social pact that reorients security and justice institutions to deal with the crisis of violence," the university said.
The government, however, has not adopted the report's recommendations or those of other sectors of society that have criticized the militarization of the war on drugs.
Source: [latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/11/10/university-researcher-gunned-down-in-central-mexico/]
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