AZMEX UPDATE 29 APR 2012
Note: Could this be a preview of a power struggle with the narcos
should PRI regain the presidency?
PRI deputy killed in Guerrero, was godson of Acosta Chaparro
EZEKIEL FLORES CONTRERAS
APRIL 28, 2012 ·
DRUG TRAFFICKING
http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=305821
CHILPANCINGO, Gro. (Approved). - The deputy deputy and coordinator of
the PRI in the Northern Zone, Horacio Ceballos Barquin, was executed
this evening by a commando that broke into his home located near the
city of Taxco de Alarcón.
Barquin Ceballos was political operative of former Governor Ruben
Figueroa Alcocer and godson of the General linked to the narcos and
who was recently executed in Mexico City, Mario Arturo Acosta
Chaparro, official reports indicate.
The fact was reported at 18:00 hours in the community of Arroyo place
located five minutes from the city of Taxco, where a group of men
armed with pistols and assault rifles riddled the PRI politician.
On site, the ministerial authorities found dozens of different
weapons cases and information has been handled so tight by state
authorities.
Currently, Barquin Ceballos served as deputy to local deputy Manuel
Saidi Prats, political party member of the governor Angel Aguirre and
who resigned from the bench of the PRI to join the PRD Parliamentary
Group.
But, Barquin was appointed coordinator of the PRI in North and linked
to the political group of former Governor Ruben Figueroa Alcocer.
Just on 20 April, the ruling PRI executed this afternoon wrote in his
Facebook account, the following comment: REST IN PEACE THE GENERAL.
Mario Arturo Acosta Chaparro, WHO was shot this afternoon., I JOIN
THE DEATH FAMILY Q overwhelms., WHO WAS THE FRIEND OF MY FATHER, MY
CO-WORKER AND ADVANCEMENT SPONSOR WE SAY REST IN PEACE EL "Chato"
ACOSTA ".
Note: Like Sinaloa, things don't seem to be all that settled in
Sonora either. The two following are from the region around Saric
has had some major shoot outs over last few years. A main route up
to AZMEX border.
confrontation in the region of El Saric
By: Rafael Pineda León
http://laperladeldesierto.blogspot.com/
A confrontation between gunmen recorded early Friday at the El Saric
to balance left several people dead who died in the shootout,
unofficial sources reveal.
The shots were heard shortly after midnight when they arrived several
vehicles with armed men to the villages near the township of Saric in
search of a character who led the band known as "gilos" who was
presumably "lifted" by the armed group, and taking the people with him.
On Friday morning the rumors of the possible execution of Arnoldo del
Cid Buelna, aka "the gilo" or "M4" spread like wildfire among the
residents, as well as the gunmen who was with him when it happened.
Drop load after chase
CABORCA. - Just over 140 kilograms of marijuana were seized by
members of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), after being abandoned
by a drug gang who escaped after a chase.
In total there were 15 packets, with the aforementioned weight, the
insured, then they did a tour of the road monitoring Altar, Saric and
33 kilometer marked him stopped a pickup Ford, F150 line, white four-
door, same as he ignored the order and fled, the evening of Wednesday.
Sinaloa continues to percolate. As has been the case for hundreds of
years, govt. control of this area ( the sierras of Chih., Dgo, and
Sin.) is tenuous at best. Seems as El Chapo may be having same problem.
In Choix, Sinaloa killed 12 army and gunmen in the face
Details Category: POLICE COM_
Written by Martin Alberto Mendoza
http://www.diariodelyaqui.mx/n/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=764:en-choix-sinaloa-mueren-12-al-
enfrentarse-ejercito-y-sicarios&catid=26:policiaca&Itemid=138
Among the fallen are a soldier and a policeman seized 3 false
hummer patrol vehicles false PEP and PF said and six rifles
Bloody balance of 12 dead, including a soldier, a policeman and 10
suspected gunmen and five wounded by bullets, was thrown out of
balance gun battles that took place yesterday in the mountainous area
of the Municipality of Choix, on the edge with the State of
Chihuahua.
In the skirmishes also took place three units seized "cloned" a
hummer similar to those used by the Mexican Army, and two distinctive
vans State Preventive Police and the Federal Police.
The events were triggered from two in the morning and continued for
part of yesterday morning, when it was announced that at a point
between the communities of San Simon and Potrero de los Fierro,
located in the receivership of the Pichol , was recorded a bloody
shootout between rival criminal groups.
A group of military and local police went to the scene to
investigate, since the first versions indicated that there were "many
dead".
However, they were met with bullets. The police and military forces
repelled the attack and for some time remained in the fray, while
support from other forces arrived.
ALARM TRIGGERED
The incident provoked a great mobilization of police forces.
Virtually all municipal police force of Choix, as well as military,
with support from the BOMU and prevention of El Fuerte, was deployed
to the region of bloody conflict.
It was established first death of a soldier who was co-pilot in a
helicopter of the Armed Forces and was attacked by gunmen in the
area. Despite attempts to save him with a country doctor, the
military element could not survive. It is a sergeant who had 24 years
of age.
At that first confrontation was also killed a police officer named
Hector Municipal Germain Millan Ruiz, 44, residing in the town of El
Babu, within walking distance of Choix, and the four suspects whose
identity had not been established.
A policeman was injured and four members of the militia, but did not
specify details about the severity of their injuries.
During the confrontation was not captured people. Only six long
firearms and three vehicles, apparently cloned from the police forces.
MEGA-MOBILIZATION
Operations to support the military and police who rushed to the scene
of the alleged clash between rival groups began immediately.
The deployment was intense with continued mobilization of ground and
air units to move personnel to the scene, a distance of about three
hours away by land from the Municipality of Choix.
The coming and going of helicopters with armed men "to the teeth" at
the military base of Choix was incessant.
The hoses for the supply of fuel remained lying on the edge of the
track all day.
The police and military wounded and dead were taken to Choix by this
route. The sergeant killed by bullets, arrived dead at the Hospital
de la Sierra, while there also received first aid their wounded
comrades and preventative agent.
The aircraft had several bullet holes and blood stains on the fuselage.
MORE DEAD
During the afternoon there was another confrontation between the
military and gunmen that left a bloody killing six suspected
criminals dead.
The incident occurred in the Yecorato area, as established by
official sources.
Unofficially, rumors spread around that the total death toll would
have been considerably higher.
Some figures were mentioned even fifty casualties in the bloody
events that kept in suspense throughout the day to the inhabitants of
the Municipality of Choix, watching every moment to the sky to
observe the coming and going of helicopters.
In fact, in the early hours of the morning talk was the dead were 40.
Then the number dropped. Said that 30, 35, etcetera.
In police forces was handled also the possibility that everything is
treated in a trick of criminal groups for the movement of police and
military forces to the area alleged to conflict, in order to ambush
and kill them.
There were even people who said he "saw" dozens of deaths in
communities nestled in the areas bordering the State of Chihuahua,
but were not confirmed at any time by the authorities.
Monday, April 30, 2012
AZMEX F&F EXTRA P1 29-4-12
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 29 APR 2012
The Shrinking 'Vast Majority': NSSF Responds to ATF Mexican Trace Report
April 27, 2012 By Larry Keane 4 Comments
http://www.nssfblog.com/the-shrinking-vast-majority-nssf-responds-to-
atf-mexican-trace-report/
ATF yesterday released a report on firearms submitted by the
government of Mexico for tracing since 2007. One screaming headline
referred to the "Vast Majority of Mexican Crime Guns Originate in
U.S. New ATF Trace Data Reveals." If you have been following the
issue of Mexican gun traces on this blog, you will realize the truth
is a rapidly shrinking "Vast Majority" and the so-called "flood" of
guns going into Mexico moves at glacier-like speed.
The mainstream media has consistently falsely claimed that 90 percent
of all firearms recovered in Mexico come from the United States. The
"90 percent myth" stems from a misstatement by then-ATF Deputy
Director Billy Hoover during congressional testimony in 2009. The
myth spread like wildfire and the smoke from that firestorm still
obscures the facts. We have put the lie to the 90 percent myth in
past blog posts. A report by the independent research group STRATFOR
has shown that it is erroneous and grossly misleading to say the
majority of firearms recovered in Mexico came from the United
States. In fact, only 12 percent of the firearms misused in Mexico
were originally sold at retail in the United States.
In 2009, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
showed that only about 80 percent of firearms recovered in Mexico and
submitted for tracing were originally sold at retail in the United
States, not the 90 percent the media keeps reporting.
But it shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that many of the firearms
recovered and traced come from the United States. That is because
U.S. law requires markings on firearms precisely so they can be
traced by law enforcement through commerce. It is sort of like
tracing the VIN number on cars on a Ford dealership lot and be
surprised to learn that most are Fords. What the 90 percent myth does
not account for, and the media turns a blind eye to, and what
yesterday's ATF report does not shed light on, is the fact that you
know nothing about the firearms recovered in Mexico but were never
traced — like the firearms that the 150,000 or so Mexican soldiers
took with them when they defected to go work for the drug cartels
over the past several years.
Logically, Mexican officials wouldn't bother to trace the U.S.-made
firearms they know belonged to the Mexican government or law
enforcement, the results of which would be highly embarrassing to
Mexican officials. Nor does yesterday's report account for guns that
have been smuggled into Mexico from South and Central America.
As Professor Gary Kleck has observed, "It's likely that police in
Mexico submit for ATF tracing only those crime guns that they believe
originated in the U.S. This would be reasonable, since those are the
ones that the ATF is likely to be able to trace, but it is not a
sample from which to generalize. Even if guns of American origin
account for only a small share of all Mexican crime guns, they would
comprise nearly all of those submitted by the Mexican authorities for
tracing by the ATF."
It is important to note that these percentages do not reflect the
total number of firearms recovered. In fact, in 2009 then-ATF Acting
Director Kenneth Melson sent a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-
Calif.) admitting, "There are no United States Government sources
that maintain any record of the total number of criminal firearms
seized in Mexico."
Yesterday's ATF report shows that this "vast majority" continues to
shrink. According to ATF, of the firearms recovered and traced by
Mexico during the time period covered by the report, as few as 65
percent, and most recently just 71 percent, of the firearms Mexico
asked ATF to trace were determined to have come from the United
States. But even the information in yesterday's report is not
entirely new information. In a report titled, "Halting U.S. Firearms
Trafficking to Mexico," released in June of 2011 by a trio of anti-
gun senators, Feinstein, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-R.I.), showed the number of firearms that have been
recovered in Mexico and traced to the United States were actually
declining in recent years from the mythical 90 percent to an
unsubstantiated 70 percent. The June 2011 figures have now been
substantiated.
A deeper dive into yesterday's report reveals that even a smaller
percentage still were actually successfully traced to the first
retail purchaser, ranging from only 37 percent to as low as just 25
percent. It is important to heed ATF's caution that "[a] crime gun
trace alone does not mean that [a firearms retailer] or firearm
purchaser has committed an unlawful act. Crime gun trace information
is used in combination with other investigative facts in regulatory
and criminal enforcement." — ATF Crime Gun Trace Reports
(introduction, p. 4 of the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative).
Perhaps ATF should also heed its own warnings. Its report cautions
that "firearms selected for tracing are not chosen for purposes of
determining which types, makes or models of firearms are used for
illicit purposes," that "[f]irearms selected [for tracing] do not
constitute a random sample and should not be considered
representative of the larger universe of all firearms used by
criminals, or any subset of that universe," and that "firearms traced
do not necessarily represent the source or methods by which firearms
in general are acquired for use in crime." Yet, that is precisely
what ATF said in its press release yesterday, declaring that the
trace data "shows a trend in recovered and submitted crime guns from
Mexico shifting from pistols and revolvers to rifles."
Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., once made the
absurd claim that Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United
States — that amounts to 730,000 a year. Calderon claimed just the
other day to support his call for Congress to reinstate the ban on
modern sporting rifles that Mexico had recovered 140,000 firearms in
the past four years and that "the vast majority have been assault
weapons, AK-57s (sic), etc. And many, the vast majority of these
weapons, were sold in gun shops in the United States."
According to ATF, Mexico only submitted 68,000 firearms over five
years, many of which did not come from the United States. More
interesting, however, is the fact that of those firearms submitted
for tracing less than half, and in some years as few as 28 percent,
were rifles of any kind. The report does not break out the number or
percentage of so-called "assault rifles," i.e. AK-47 look-alikes
(Like M-16s, AK-47s are automatic firearms. While civilian versions
of M-16s are AR-15s, there is no corollary name for civilian versions
of AK-47) or AR-15 variants. The report also doesn't tell us what
percentage of the rifles submitted for tracing were determined not to
be of U.S. origin and it also doesn't tell us what percentage were
not successfully traced to the first retail purchaser.
Perhaps what is most interesting about ATF's report is the fact that
it does not discuss the "Time to Crime" (TTC) for the Mexican traced
firearms. ATF always gives TTC when it issues a tracing report
(click here for an example). Why did ATF omit this piece of
information? Because it knows that on average firearms (of all types)
recovered in Mexico and successfully traced were on average
originally sold at retail after a background check more than 15 years
ago.
It is increasingly clear that this rapidly shrinking "vast majority"
of firearms allegedly flooding over the border into Mexico are moving
at a glacial pace.
We can all agree that there are serious crime problems in Mexico, and
notwithstanding his factual misstatements, we do applaud Mexican
President Calderon's courage for cracking down on the drug cartels
and rampant corruption in his country, that has even reached inside
his inner circle. However, laying the blame for Mexico's crime at the
feet of the U.S. firearms industry is more an act of frustration than
a crime-fighting strategy, and, as we've said before, sacrificing the
constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans as a means of
addressing this issue is neither an option nor a solution.
_________________________________
Note: For those who may have missed it. Grenades are used or
recovered about every day, all over Mexico.
Obama admin. let grenades walk in Fast and Furious, documents show
Published: 12:33 AM 04/26/2012
By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
In a shocking development in the Operation Fast and Furious
investigation, documents show Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives agents allowed grenade parts to walk in addition to guns.
The emails also show Obama administration officials acknowledging
that they may lose track of grenades but would still be able to
accomplish their original objective even if the grenades explode.
According to an internal email that was provided to Congress by the
Department of Justice and first reported by CBS News' Sharyl
Attkisson — who's been the media's most dogged reporter in tracking
down facts on Fast and Furious – ATF began watching accused smuggler
Jean Baptiste Kingery's AK-47 purchases in 2004. In the 2009 internal
ATF email, Obama administration officials admitted they believed
Kingery was "trafficking them into Mexico."
The 2009 email shows the ATF officials had then become aware of
Kingery's alleged grenade trafficking.
The administration officials then put together a plan: They secretly
intercepted Kingery's grenade parts after he ordered them online,
marked them with special paint and gave them back to him. Then, they
allowed him to take those grenade parts into Mexico. ATF was going to
try to find his weapons factory there — even though the U.S.
government and its federal law enforcement agencies have no
jurisdiction in Mexico — with the apparent goal of building a bigger
case against Kingery.
ATF agents had planned to work with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officials — who, unlike ATF agents who ultimately report
to Attorney General Eric Holder, report up the chain to Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. (RELATED: Full coverage of
Operation Fast and Furious)
The emails show ATF agents were aware they might lose track of
Kingery while they allowed him to transport the grenade parts into
Mexico. The emails also show ATF agents knew that the grenades could
end up exploding and killing innocent people if they proceeded with
the plan. That didn't stop the Obama administration's ATF from
allowing the grenades to walk.
"Even in a post blast, as long as the safety lever is recovered we
will be able to identify these tagged grenades," an official wrote in
one email.
In addition to those revelations, new evidence photos have emerged:
More than 2,000 rounds of ammunition and scores of grenade parts and
fuse assemblies are seen in evidence photos that were just turned
over to Congress. According to Attkisson's report, officials had
taken Kingery into custody in 2010 — long before Border Patrol agent
Brian Terry was murdered with a Fast and Furious-supplied gun — after
having caught him trying to transport that ammunition and those
grenade parts and fuse assemblies into Mexico hidden inside the spare
tire of the SUV he was travelling in.
Attkisson said that ATF agents questioned Kingery at that point but
then "inexplicably released" him.
Internally, some in the ATF objected to these practices. For
instance, ATF's Mexico attaché, Carlos Canino — who has cooperated
with congressional investigators and appeared willingly before the
House Oversight Committee last summer — said ATF was not supposed to
allow weapons, including grenades, to walk.
"We are forbidden from doing that type of activity," Canino wrote in
one email. "If ICE is telling you they can do that, they are full of
shit."
This news comes on the heels of Assistant Attorney General Ronald
Weich's decision to resign his post at the Department of Justice
soon. The University of Baltimore School of Law hired him as its new
dean and he starts in July. Weich was the DOJ official who provided
provably false information to Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa when
Grassley began investigating Fast and Furious.
On Feb. 4, 2011, Weich wrote to Congress that the idea that "ATF
'sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault
weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico …
is false."
"ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased
illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico," Weich added in
that letter.
The DOJ has since retracted Weich's letter.
Not one government official has been held accountable for Operation
Fast and Furious. Scores of lawmakers — 125 House members, three U.S.
senators, two governors — and many major political figures, including
likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have demanded
Holder's resignation or firing over Fast and Furious.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/26/obama-admin-let-grenades-
walk-in-fast-and-furious-documents-show/#ixzz1tTkHoYjU
The Shrinking 'Vast Majority': NSSF Responds to ATF Mexican Trace Report
April 27, 2012 By Larry Keane 4 Comments
http://www.nssfblog.com/the-shrinking-vast-majority-nssf-responds-to-
atf-mexican-trace-report/
ATF yesterday released a report on firearms submitted by the
government of Mexico for tracing since 2007. One screaming headline
referred to the "Vast Majority of Mexican Crime Guns Originate in
U.S. New ATF Trace Data Reveals." If you have been following the
issue of Mexican gun traces on this blog, you will realize the truth
is a rapidly shrinking "Vast Majority" and the so-called "flood" of
guns going into Mexico moves at glacier-like speed.
The mainstream media has consistently falsely claimed that 90 percent
of all firearms recovered in Mexico come from the United States. The
"90 percent myth" stems from a misstatement by then-ATF Deputy
Director Billy Hoover during congressional testimony in 2009. The
myth spread like wildfire and the smoke from that firestorm still
obscures the facts. We have put the lie to the 90 percent myth in
past blog posts. A report by the independent research group STRATFOR
has shown that it is erroneous and grossly misleading to say the
majority of firearms recovered in Mexico came from the United
States. In fact, only 12 percent of the firearms misused in Mexico
were originally sold at retail in the United States.
In 2009, a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
showed that only about 80 percent of firearms recovered in Mexico and
submitted for tracing were originally sold at retail in the United
States, not the 90 percent the media keeps reporting.
But it shouldn't surprise anyone to learn that many of the firearms
recovered and traced come from the United States. That is because
U.S. law requires markings on firearms precisely so they can be
traced by law enforcement through commerce. It is sort of like
tracing the VIN number on cars on a Ford dealership lot and be
surprised to learn that most are Fords. What the 90 percent myth does
not account for, and the media turns a blind eye to, and what
yesterday's ATF report does not shed light on, is the fact that you
know nothing about the firearms recovered in Mexico but were never
traced — like the firearms that the 150,000 or so Mexican soldiers
took with them when they defected to go work for the drug cartels
over the past several years.
Logically, Mexican officials wouldn't bother to trace the U.S.-made
firearms they know belonged to the Mexican government or law
enforcement, the results of which would be highly embarrassing to
Mexican officials. Nor does yesterday's report account for guns that
have been smuggled into Mexico from South and Central America.
As Professor Gary Kleck has observed, "It's likely that police in
Mexico submit for ATF tracing only those crime guns that they believe
originated in the U.S. This would be reasonable, since those are the
ones that the ATF is likely to be able to trace, but it is not a
sample from which to generalize. Even if guns of American origin
account for only a small share of all Mexican crime guns, they would
comprise nearly all of those submitted by the Mexican authorities for
tracing by the ATF."
It is important to note that these percentages do not reflect the
total number of firearms recovered. In fact, in 2009 then-ATF Acting
Director Kenneth Melson sent a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-
Calif.) admitting, "There are no United States Government sources
that maintain any record of the total number of criminal firearms
seized in Mexico."
Yesterday's ATF report shows that this "vast majority" continues to
shrink. According to ATF, of the firearms recovered and traced by
Mexico during the time period covered by the report, as few as 65
percent, and most recently just 71 percent, of the firearms Mexico
asked ATF to trace were determined to have come from the United
States. But even the information in yesterday's report is not
entirely new information. In a report titled, "Halting U.S. Firearms
Trafficking to Mexico," released in June of 2011 by a trio of anti-
gun senators, Feinstein, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-R.I.), showed the number of firearms that have been
recovered in Mexico and traced to the United States were actually
declining in recent years from the mythical 90 percent to an
unsubstantiated 70 percent. The June 2011 figures have now been
substantiated.
A deeper dive into yesterday's report reveals that even a smaller
percentage still were actually successfully traced to the first
retail purchaser, ranging from only 37 percent to as low as just 25
percent. It is important to heed ATF's caution that "[a] crime gun
trace alone does not mean that [a firearms retailer] or firearm
purchaser has committed an unlawful act. Crime gun trace information
is used in combination with other investigative facts in regulatory
and criminal enforcement." — ATF Crime Gun Trace Reports
(introduction, p. 4 of the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative).
Perhaps ATF should also heed its own warnings. Its report cautions
that "firearms selected for tracing are not chosen for purposes of
determining which types, makes or models of firearms are used for
illicit purposes," that "[f]irearms selected [for tracing] do not
constitute a random sample and should not be considered
representative of the larger universe of all firearms used by
criminals, or any subset of that universe," and that "firearms traced
do not necessarily represent the source or methods by which firearms
in general are acquired for use in crime." Yet, that is precisely
what ATF said in its press release yesterday, declaring that the
trace data "shows a trend in recovered and submitted crime guns from
Mexico shifting from pistols and revolvers to rifles."
Auturo Sarukhan, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., once made the
absurd claim that Mexico seizes 2,000 guns a day from the United
States — that amounts to 730,000 a year. Calderon claimed just the
other day to support his call for Congress to reinstate the ban on
modern sporting rifles that Mexico had recovered 140,000 firearms in
the past four years and that "the vast majority have been assault
weapons, AK-57s (sic), etc. And many, the vast majority of these
weapons, were sold in gun shops in the United States."
According to ATF, Mexico only submitted 68,000 firearms over five
years, many of which did not come from the United States. More
interesting, however, is the fact that of those firearms submitted
for tracing less than half, and in some years as few as 28 percent,
were rifles of any kind. The report does not break out the number or
percentage of so-called "assault rifles," i.e. AK-47 look-alikes
(Like M-16s, AK-47s are automatic firearms. While civilian versions
of M-16s are AR-15s, there is no corollary name for civilian versions
of AK-47) or AR-15 variants. The report also doesn't tell us what
percentage of the rifles submitted for tracing were determined not to
be of U.S. origin and it also doesn't tell us what percentage were
not successfully traced to the first retail purchaser.
Perhaps what is most interesting about ATF's report is the fact that
it does not discuss the "Time to Crime" (TTC) for the Mexican traced
firearms. ATF always gives TTC when it issues a tracing report
(click here for an example). Why did ATF omit this piece of
information? Because it knows that on average firearms (of all types)
recovered in Mexico and successfully traced were on average
originally sold at retail after a background check more than 15 years
ago.
It is increasingly clear that this rapidly shrinking "vast majority"
of firearms allegedly flooding over the border into Mexico are moving
at a glacial pace.
We can all agree that there are serious crime problems in Mexico, and
notwithstanding his factual misstatements, we do applaud Mexican
President Calderon's courage for cracking down on the drug cartels
and rampant corruption in his country, that has even reached inside
his inner circle. However, laying the blame for Mexico's crime at the
feet of the U.S. firearms industry is more an act of frustration than
a crime-fighting strategy, and, as we've said before, sacrificing the
constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans as a means of
addressing this issue is neither an option nor a solution.
_________________________________
Note: For those who may have missed it. Grenades are used or
recovered about every day, all over Mexico.
Obama admin. let grenades walk in Fast and Furious, documents show
Published: 12:33 AM 04/26/2012
By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
In a shocking development in the Operation Fast and Furious
investigation, documents show Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives agents allowed grenade parts to walk in addition to guns.
The emails also show Obama administration officials acknowledging
that they may lose track of grenades but would still be able to
accomplish their original objective even if the grenades explode.
According to an internal email that was provided to Congress by the
Department of Justice and first reported by CBS News' Sharyl
Attkisson — who's been the media's most dogged reporter in tracking
down facts on Fast and Furious – ATF began watching accused smuggler
Jean Baptiste Kingery's AK-47 purchases in 2004. In the 2009 internal
ATF email, Obama administration officials admitted they believed
Kingery was "trafficking them into Mexico."
The 2009 email shows the ATF officials had then become aware of
Kingery's alleged grenade trafficking.
The administration officials then put together a plan: They secretly
intercepted Kingery's grenade parts after he ordered them online,
marked them with special paint and gave them back to him. Then, they
allowed him to take those grenade parts into Mexico. ATF was going to
try to find his weapons factory there — even though the U.S.
government and its federal law enforcement agencies have no
jurisdiction in Mexico — with the apparent goal of building a bigger
case against Kingery.
ATF agents had planned to work with Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officials — who, unlike ATF agents who ultimately report
to Attorney General Eric Holder, report up the chain to Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. (RELATED: Full coverage of
Operation Fast and Furious)
The emails show ATF agents were aware they might lose track of
Kingery while they allowed him to transport the grenade parts into
Mexico. The emails also show ATF agents knew that the grenades could
end up exploding and killing innocent people if they proceeded with
the plan. That didn't stop the Obama administration's ATF from
allowing the grenades to walk.
"Even in a post blast, as long as the safety lever is recovered we
will be able to identify these tagged grenades," an official wrote in
one email.
In addition to those revelations, new evidence photos have emerged:
More than 2,000 rounds of ammunition and scores of grenade parts and
fuse assemblies are seen in evidence photos that were just turned
over to Congress. According to Attkisson's report, officials had
taken Kingery into custody in 2010 — long before Border Patrol agent
Brian Terry was murdered with a Fast and Furious-supplied gun — after
having caught him trying to transport that ammunition and those
grenade parts and fuse assemblies into Mexico hidden inside the spare
tire of the SUV he was travelling in.
Attkisson said that ATF agents questioned Kingery at that point but
then "inexplicably released" him.
Internally, some in the ATF objected to these practices. For
instance, ATF's Mexico attaché, Carlos Canino — who has cooperated
with congressional investigators and appeared willingly before the
House Oversight Committee last summer — said ATF was not supposed to
allow weapons, including grenades, to walk.
"We are forbidden from doing that type of activity," Canino wrote in
one email. "If ICE is telling you they can do that, they are full of
shit."
This news comes on the heels of Assistant Attorney General Ronald
Weich's decision to resign his post at the Department of Justice
soon. The University of Baltimore School of Law hired him as its new
dean and he starts in July. Weich was the DOJ official who provided
provably false information to Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa when
Grassley began investigating Fast and Furious.
On Feb. 4, 2011, Weich wrote to Congress that the idea that "ATF
'sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault
weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico …
is false."
"ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased
illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico," Weich added in
that letter.
The DOJ has since retracted Weich's letter.
Not one government official has been held accountable for Operation
Fast and Furious. Scores of lawmakers — 125 House members, three U.S.
senators, two governors — and many major political figures, including
likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have demanded
Holder's resignation or firing over Fast and Furious.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/26/obama-admin-let-grenades-
walk-in-fast-and-furious-documents-show/#ixzz1tTkHoYjU
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 29-4-12
AZMEX F&F EXTRA 2 29 APR 2012
Note: "The majority of the sales linked back to the U.S. according
to this trace data, actually come from government to government
sales, not from normal sales made in American gun shops."
TF Publishes Misleading Trace Data From Mexico
Katie Pavlich
News Editor, Townhall
Apr 27, 2012
http://townhall.com/columnists/katiepavlich/2012/04/27/
atf_publishes_misleading_trace_data_from_mexico/page/full/
Yesterday afternoon, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms
released firearms tracing data to the press from Mexico between the
years 2007-2011 during a roundtable discussion and presentation given
by ATF Special Agent John Hageman. The data was released at ATF
headquarters in Washington D.C. Reporters were allowed to bring pen
and paper, but were prohibited from bringing computers or recording
devices. When we arrived, despite prohibiting the use of computers,
ATF gave us a flashdrive.
"70%"
That's the percentage of guns traced in Mexico to United States
sources or Federal Firearms Licensees [gun dealers] according to the
Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
In September 2009, the Mexican government provided ATF with
"electronic files containing firearms identifiers and recovery data.
The electronic files contained information that initiated over 43,000
firearms traces, excluding duplicates, with most having recovery
years ranging from CY 2007 to 2009," according to information given
to the press.
The majority of the sales linked back to the U.S. according to this
trace data, actually come from government to government sales, not
from normal sales made in American gun shops. Despite this fact, anti-
gun groups and members of Congress use this misleading data to push
for more gun control and regulations on retail stores.
California Senator Diane Feinstein used similar data during a hearing
about Operation Fast and Furious last fall to call for more gun
regulation, as did embattled Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.
"ATF isn't making a determination on how people view our data," ATF
Special Agent John Hageman said.
Or are they? ATF uses these numbers to justify its new long gun
reporting measures. The new measures were implemented last summer and
require border state gun dealers to report multiple sales of semi-
automatic rifles.
Hageman said since the new reporting measures were put into place
last fall, ATF has opened up 100 new investigations and has named 30
defendants as a result. Sounds great right? Wrong. "100" is simply
the number of opened investigations on 70 percent of people ATF
wanted to look into for buying more than one semi-automatic rifle at
a time. The 30 statistic is the number of actual possible criminals/
named defendants.
I asked if guns trafficked into Mexico during the Obama Justice
Department's Operation Fast and Furious program were being counted in
this data. Although Hageman wouldn't openly admit Fast and Furious
guns were being lumped in with this data, he responded by saying that
any gun submitted for tracing in Mexico and traced back to the U.S.
is counted.
I also asked why guns were not checked through the National Crime
Information Center database to see if they were reported stolen
before being counted in this data. It was determined that stolen guns
are indeed counted in this data.
"I don't have an accurate accounting for that [stolen guns]," Hageman
said.
In addition, I asked if ATF had any plans in the future to break down
trace data into categories such as personal retail sales traces
verses large sales traces from FFLs to foreign governments that are
approved by the State Department. The answer was no.
Republican Senator Charles Grassley has questioned the validity of
ATF firearms trace data in the past and issued a statement regarding
trace data released by ATF yesterday.
"Thorough gun statistics are hard to come by and tricky to
interpret. The key to this data is that most of these guns can't be
traced to U.S. gun dealers. And, some of those would actually trace
back to the United States because of the federal government's own
gunwalking scandal. We also have to remember that the only guns
Mexico is going to submit for tracing are guns they know are from the
United States, which clearly paints an incomplete picture of the
firearms found in the Mexico," Grassley said.
In the end, ATF counts stolen guns in this data, guns sold to foreign
governments by FFLs under the approval of the State Department in
this data and counts guns ATF and DOJ purposely sent into Mexico as
"guns being traced back to the U.S."
Note: "The majority of the sales linked back to the U.S. according
to this trace data, actually come from government to government
sales, not from normal sales made in American gun shops."
TF Publishes Misleading Trace Data From Mexico
Katie Pavlich
News Editor, Townhall
Apr 27, 2012
http://townhall.com/columnists/katiepavlich/2012/04/27/
atf_publishes_misleading_trace_data_from_mexico/page/full/
Yesterday afternoon, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms
released firearms tracing data to the press from Mexico between the
years 2007-2011 during a roundtable discussion and presentation given
by ATF Special Agent John Hageman. The data was released at ATF
headquarters in Washington D.C. Reporters were allowed to bring pen
and paper, but were prohibited from bringing computers or recording
devices. When we arrived, despite prohibiting the use of computers,
ATF gave us a flashdrive.
"70%"
That's the percentage of guns traced in Mexico to United States
sources or Federal Firearms Licensees [gun dealers] according to the
Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
In September 2009, the Mexican government provided ATF with
"electronic files containing firearms identifiers and recovery data.
The electronic files contained information that initiated over 43,000
firearms traces, excluding duplicates, with most having recovery
years ranging from CY 2007 to 2009," according to information given
to the press.
The majority of the sales linked back to the U.S. according to this
trace data, actually come from government to government sales, not
from normal sales made in American gun shops. Despite this fact, anti-
gun groups and members of Congress use this misleading data to push
for more gun control and regulations on retail stores.
California Senator Diane Feinstein used similar data during a hearing
about Operation Fast and Furious last fall to call for more gun
regulation, as did embattled Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer.
"ATF isn't making a determination on how people view our data," ATF
Special Agent John Hageman said.
Or are they? ATF uses these numbers to justify its new long gun
reporting measures. The new measures were implemented last summer and
require border state gun dealers to report multiple sales of semi-
automatic rifles.
Hageman said since the new reporting measures were put into place
last fall, ATF has opened up 100 new investigations and has named 30
defendants as a result. Sounds great right? Wrong. "100" is simply
the number of opened investigations on 70 percent of people ATF
wanted to look into for buying more than one semi-automatic rifle at
a time. The 30 statistic is the number of actual possible criminals/
named defendants.
I asked if guns trafficked into Mexico during the Obama Justice
Department's Operation Fast and Furious program were being counted in
this data. Although Hageman wouldn't openly admit Fast and Furious
guns were being lumped in with this data, he responded by saying that
any gun submitted for tracing in Mexico and traced back to the U.S.
is counted.
I also asked why guns were not checked through the National Crime
Information Center database to see if they were reported stolen
before being counted in this data. It was determined that stolen guns
are indeed counted in this data.
"I don't have an accurate accounting for that [stolen guns]," Hageman
said.
In addition, I asked if ATF had any plans in the future to break down
trace data into categories such as personal retail sales traces
verses large sales traces from FFLs to foreign governments that are
approved by the State Department. The answer was no.
Republican Senator Charles Grassley has questioned the validity of
ATF firearms trace data in the past and issued a statement regarding
trace data released by ATF yesterday.
"Thorough gun statistics are hard to come by and tricky to
interpret. The key to this data is that most of these guns can't be
traced to U.S. gun dealers. And, some of those would actually trace
back to the United States because of the federal government's own
gunwalking scandal. We also have to remember that the only guns
Mexico is going to submit for tracing are guns they know are from the
United States, which clearly paints an incomplete picture of the
firearms found in the Mexico," Grassley said.
In the end, ATF counts stolen guns in this data, guns sold to foreign
governments by FFLs under the approval of the State Department in
this data and counts guns ATF and DOJ purposely sent into Mexico as
"guns being traced back to the U.S."
AZMEX UPDATE 27-4-12
AZMEX UPDATE 27 APR 2012
Note: anywhere and everywhere except AZMEX border.
Arizona National Guard unit preparing to deploy
by Associated Press (April 27th, 2012 @ 8:06am)
http://www.ktar.com/6/1534109/Ariz-National-Guard-unit-to-deploy
MARANA, Ariz. -- An Arizona National Guard helicopter unit is
preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.
A deployment ceremony will take place Sunday at the Silverbell Army
Heliport in Marana for A Company of the 285th Aviation Regiment's 1st
Attack Reconnaissance Battalion.
The company is scheduled to depart Arizona on May 4 for what will be
its second deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The unit will initially go to Fort Hood in Texas for pre-deployment
training prior to departing for Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the
company's primary mission is to provide aerial coverage in support of
ground troops.
Teen takes plea deal in case of stolen NPD assault rifle
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2012 8:34 am
Nogales International
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/teen-takes-plea-deal-in-case-
of-stolen-npd-assault/article_72ea1140-907e-11e1-9b54-001a4bcf887a.html
The first of four teenage suspects has pleaded guilty in the case of
an assault rifle that was stolen from a Nogales Police Department
vehicle last summer and recovered days later at one of the city's
most opulent homes.
The suspect, a Nogales resident who the NI is not identifying because
he was 17 at the time of the alleged offense, agreed to plead guilty
to one count of theft during a hearing on April 16, court records
show. He is set to be sentenced by Judge Anna Montoya-Paez on May 14.
According to the plea deal, he could be sentenced to up to two years
in prison and up to three years of probation.
He and another local teenager, also 17 at the time, were charged last
summer with theft and trafficking in stolen property after an M4
rifle, along with a Glock pistol, ammunition magazines, a ballistic
helmet, gas mask, bulletproof vest and other items were stolen on
June 2, 2011, from an NPD vehicle that was parked at an officer's
home in Nogales. The vehicle's back window had been smashed.
The rifle was recovered two days later at 432 Crawford Street, a
residence popularly known as the Wilson Mansion.
According to police reports, the rifle had been hidden under the
floor panels in a bedroom closet.
The second teen has a review hearing scheduled in Montoya-Paez's
courtroom on June 25. Both were charged as adults in the case.
As the investigation continued last year, two other teenagers were
charged in the case: Sean Patrick Beall, who lived at the Wilson
Mansion; and Alan Palau of 1779 West Meadow Hills Drive. Both were 18
at the time of the incident.
In a complaint filed Dec. 8, 2011 at Nogales Justice Court, county
prosecutors charged Beall and Palau with one count each of
trafficking in stolen property, a Class 3 felony; tampering with
physical evidence, a Class 6 felony; theft, a Class 6 felony; and
weapons misconduct, a Class 6 felony.
Palau is also charged with one felony count of first-degree burglary.
Both have had their cases bound over to Superior Court, and Beall
pleaded not guilty during an arraignment on March 26, court records
show. Palau is awaiting arraignment in the gun case, and is also
awaiting a preliminary hearing in Justice Court on an unrelated
resisting arrest charge stemming from an alleged underage drinking
incident on May 21, 2011.
Police reports show that on Jan. 4, acting on information provided by
Palau and with the help of a police dog, NPD officers recovered the
missing police pistol in an area between the Wilson Mansion and an
Elm Street residence.
Police reports also show that officers recovered other stolen items,
including the gas mask and helmet, from a shed on E. Lincoln Street
on June 6, 2011.
Posted in News on Friday, April 27, 2012 8:34 am.
Border Patrol agents arrest sex offender
April 27, 2012 6:38 PM
BY JAMES GILBERT - SUN STAFF WRITER
Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a convicted sex offender
Thursday night.
According to a news release issued by the Yuma Sector Public Affairs
Office, Yuma Station agents discovered a set of footprints near
County 15th Street and the Colorado River.
Agents tracked the footprints and eventually caught the suspect, who
had entered the country illegally, swimming across the Salinity Canal.
After apprehending the him, agents ran a records check and learned he
had previously been convicted on multiple child molestation charges
and deported from the U.S.
The suspect, a Mexican national, was detained for prosecution.
Read more: http://www.yumasun.com/articles/agents-78611-yuma-
ysjamesgilbert.html#ixzz1tTZaIjus
Note: anywhere and everywhere except AZMEX border.
Arizona National Guard unit preparing to deploy
by Associated Press (April 27th, 2012 @ 8:06am)
http://www.ktar.com/6/1534109/Ariz-National-Guard-unit-to-deploy
MARANA, Ariz. -- An Arizona National Guard helicopter unit is
preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.
A deployment ceremony will take place Sunday at the Silverbell Army
Heliport in Marana for A Company of the 285th Aviation Regiment's 1st
Attack Reconnaissance Battalion.
The company is scheduled to depart Arizona on May 4 for what will be
its second deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The unit will initially go to Fort Hood in Texas for pre-deployment
training prior to departing for Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the
company's primary mission is to provide aerial coverage in support of
ground troops.
Teen takes plea deal in case of stolen NPD assault rifle
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2012 8:34 am
Nogales International
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/teen-takes-plea-deal-in-case-
of-stolen-npd-assault/article_72ea1140-907e-11e1-9b54-001a4bcf887a.html
The first of four teenage suspects has pleaded guilty in the case of
an assault rifle that was stolen from a Nogales Police Department
vehicle last summer and recovered days later at one of the city's
most opulent homes.
The suspect, a Nogales resident who the NI is not identifying because
he was 17 at the time of the alleged offense, agreed to plead guilty
to one count of theft during a hearing on April 16, court records
show. He is set to be sentenced by Judge Anna Montoya-Paez on May 14.
According to the plea deal, he could be sentenced to up to two years
in prison and up to three years of probation.
He and another local teenager, also 17 at the time, were charged last
summer with theft and trafficking in stolen property after an M4
rifle, along with a Glock pistol, ammunition magazines, a ballistic
helmet, gas mask, bulletproof vest and other items were stolen on
June 2, 2011, from an NPD vehicle that was parked at an officer's
home in Nogales. The vehicle's back window had been smashed.
The rifle was recovered two days later at 432 Crawford Street, a
residence popularly known as the Wilson Mansion.
According to police reports, the rifle had been hidden under the
floor panels in a bedroom closet.
The second teen has a review hearing scheduled in Montoya-Paez's
courtroom on June 25. Both were charged as adults in the case.
As the investigation continued last year, two other teenagers were
charged in the case: Sean Patrick Beall, who lived at the Wilson
Mansion; and Alan Palau of 1779 West Meadow Hills Drive. Both were 18
at the time of the incident.
In a complaint filed Dec. 8, 2011 at Nogales Justice Court, county
prosecutors charged Beall and Palau with one count each of
trafficking in stolen property, a Class 3 felony; tampering with
physical evidence, a Class 6 felony; theft, a Class 6 felony; and
weapons misconduct, a Class 6 felony.
Palau is also charged with one felony count of first-degree burglary.
Both have had their cases bound over to Superior Court, and Beall
pleaded not guilty during an arraignment on March 26, court records
show. Palau is awaiting arraignment in the gun case, and is also
awaiting a preliminary hearing in Justice Court on an unrelated
resisting arrest charge stemming from an alleged underage drinking
incident on May 21, 2011.
Police reports show that on Jan. 4, acting on information provided by
Palau and with the help of a police dog, NPD officers recovered the
missing police pistol in an area between the Wilson Mansion and an
Elm Street residence.
Police reports also show that officers recovered other stolen items,
including the gas mask and helmet, from a shed on E. Lincoln Street
on June 6, 2011.
Posted in News on Friday, April 27, 2012 8:34 am.
Border Patrol agents arrest sex offender
April 27, 2012 6:38 PM
BY JAMES GILBERT - SUN STAFF WRITER
Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a convicted sex offender
Thursday night.
According to a news release issued by the Yuma Sector Public Affairs
Office, Yuma Station agents discovered a set of footprints near
County 15th Street and the Colorado River.
Agents tracked the footprints and eventually caught the suspect, who
had entered the country illegally, swimming across the Salinity Canal.
After apprehending the him, agents ran a records check and learned he
had previously been convicted on multiple child molestation charges
and deported from the U.S.
The suspect, a Mexican national, was detained for prosecution.
Read more: http://www.yumasun.com/articles/agents-78611-yuma-
ysjamesgilbert.html#ixzz1tTZaIjus
Sunday, April 29, 2012
AZMEX EXTRA 28-4-12
AZMEX EXTRA 28 APR 2012
Note: If true, being sent to Vera Cruz very unusual.
Status and disposition of truck and cargo?
Family demands Mexico free jailed Irving trucker
by JONATHAN BETZ
WFAA
Posted on April 28, 2012 at 9:57 PM
Updated today at 2:16 AM
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Family-protests-to-demand-jailed-
trucker-released-149392095.html
Mother of Dallas trucker jailed in Mexico fights for son's return
Family calls Mexican ammunition bust an honest mistake
DALLAS — The family of Jabin Bogan, the Irving truck driver jailed in
Mexico, is growing more anxious about his welfare as the days pass.
"I want my son home! Please, let my child go," pleaded his mother,
Aletha Smith, at a rally she helped organize at Victory Park Saturday
afternoon hoping to convince Mexican authorities to free her son. "He
has done nothing wrong!"
For nearly two weeks, Bogan, 27, has been confined to the Villa
Aldama federal prison in the state of Veracruz. U.S. Embassy
officials in Mexico said the Mexican government has charged him with
smuggling after he was stopped driving an 18-wheeler loaded with
268,000 rounds of military ammunition.
Bogan's boss, Dennis Mekenye at Demco Express in Euless, has said
that Bogan got lost and simply made a wrong turn into Mexico. Mekenye
has supplied News 8 with work orders showing the ammunition was on
its way legally to an Arizona store.
"It was an honest mistake," Mekenye said. "He missed an exit and
found himself in Mexico with those ammo and bullets."
He said Bogan found himself at the Bridge of The Americas in El Paso
and was unable to make a U-turn. GPS coordinates show Bogan was in
Mexico — likely at the border crossing — for only a few minutes
before authorities stopped him and searched the truck.
"He made one wrong turn, and we don't even know if he's coming home
or not," said Bogan's long-time girlfriend Tonya Davis. She said
their six-year-old son, Jakobe, is anxious to hug his father and play
football with him again.
"I want him to be home," Jakobe added.
Mexican authorities worry that the ammunition in Bogan's truck was
destined for the assault rifles of the drug cartels. Richard Roper, a
former U.S. Attorney, said Mexico is especially concerned about gun-
runners.
"Mexico is very, very sensitive about the issues of guns traveling
south into Mexico," he said. "It's a completely different system, and
that is one of the issues this truck driver will face."
The U.S. Embassy said officials have visited with Bogan and remain in
contact with his family. But the trucker's mother wants more to be done.
If convicted, Bogan could face up to 35 years in prison.
"I want my son home," Aletha Smith said through tears. "I want my son
home back here on the U.S. soil — back in his mother's arms."
E-mail jbetz@wfaa.com
Note: From El Diario
United States Congressman pleads for truck driver who crossed
ammunition into Mexico
Reuters | 04.28.2012 | 14:45
http://www.diario.com.mx/notas.php?
f=2012/04/28&id=b2fd360a1f05990496b8653e439d10fc
El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes announced today that insist the
Mexican authorities to release the driver of a truck loaded with 268
thousand rounds who was arrested last week in Ciudad Juarez.
"Mr. Jabin Bogan accidentally entered the southbound lanes of the
intersection of Cordova International of the Americas, El Paso-Ciudad
Juarez," he explained to Efe El Paso lawmaker, who validated version
of the driver and the head of this ensuring that the cargo was bound
for Phoenix, Arizona.
Reyes said that to initiate discussions with the Mexican authorities
to develop a procedure in cases of U.S. residents who mistakenly
enter the lines of the international crossings southbound and end in
Mexico.
The Mexican government last week filed charges against Bogan, 27, a
native of Dallas, Texas, who was transferred to Ciudad Juarez to the
federal prison in Villa Ahumada, in Veracruz state and be prosecuted
and found guilty he faces up to 35 years in prison.
In a statement, the Embassy of Mexico in Washington said that Bogan
was arrested on April 20, when customs officials in Ciudad Juarez
found the shipment.
"If he had indicated that he had the wrong path and needed to return
to the United States before reaching Mexico, we would have stopped
the traffic and we helped him return to the north," said the
spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP ) in
El Paso, Roger Maier.
Reyes explained that it has established contact with the ambassador
of Mexico in the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, asking that the case
be heard by a fair in the Mexican legal system and to intercede and
do your best to secure the release of the U.S. driver.
The congressman, who is in the midst of his campaign to regain the
seat in the federal lower house disputes the district with ex-
representative Beto O'Rourke said that the issue of Americans who
accidentally cross into Mexico carrying weapons must be treated
binational meetings.
"This is an example that we need approve the International Ports Act
which provides for the allocation of funds for infrastructure
improvements at the intersections of access and exit the country," he
said.
He said this would inject funds into the construction of access that
allow drivers to inadvertently enter the lane en route to Mexico, to
return on time for the United States before being forced to reach the
neighboring country.
There have already been jailed and prosecuted U.S. citizens entering
Mexican territory with a weapon or ammunition and who claim to have
taken the paths to Mexico by accident and have had no way back to the
country.
Congresista de EU intercede por camionero que cruzó municiones a México
EFE | 28-04-2012 | 14:45
http://www.diario.com.mx/notas.php?
f=2012/04/28&id=b2fd360a1f05990496b8653e439d10fc
El Paso— El congresista Silvestre Reyes anunció hoy que insistirá
ante las autoridades mexicanas para que liberen al conductor de un
camión cargado con 268 mil cartuchos que fue detenido la semana
pasada en Ciudad Juárez.
"El señor Jabin Bogan ingresó accidentalmente a los carriles con
dirección al sur del cruce internacional de Córdova de las Américas,
El Paso-Ciudad Juárez", expuso a Efe el legislador por El Paso, quien
validó la versión del chófer y del jefe de éste que aseguran que el
cargamento tenía como destino final Phoenix, Arizona.
Reyes adelantó que iniciará conversaciones con las autoridades
mexicanas para desarrollar un procedimiento en casos de residentes
estadounidenses que ingresen por error en las líneas de los cruces
internacionales con rumbo al sur y terminen en México.
El gobierno mexicano presentó esta semana cargos contra Bogan, de 27
años y originario de Dallas, Texas, quien fue trasladado de Ciudad
Juárez a la prisión federal de Villa Ahumada, en el estado de
Veracruz y de ser procesado y encontrado culpable enfrenta hasta 35
años de cárcel.
En un comunicado, la embajada de México en Washington indicó que
Bogan fue detenido el 20 de abril, cuando agentes de aduanas en
Ciudad Juárez descubrieron el cargamento.
"Si nos hubiera indicado que se había equivocado de ruta y que
necesitaba regresar a EU antes de llegar a México, hubiéramos
detenido el tráfico y le hubiéramos ayudado a retornar al norte",
dijo el portavoz de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza
(CBP) en El Paso, Roger Maier.
Reyes expuso que ha establecido contacto con el embajador de México
en EU, Arturo Sarukhán, para pedirle que el caso se ventile en forma
justa en el sistema legal mexicano y que interceda y haga lo posible
para lograr la liberación del estadounidense.
El congresista, que se encuentra en medio de su campaña electoral
para ganar nuevamente la silla en el Cámara baja federal que le
disputa el exregidor municipal Beto O'Rourke, indicó que el asunto de
estadounidenses que accidentalmente cruzan a México llevando
armamento debe ser tratado en reuniones binacionales.
"Este es un ejemplo de que necesitamos aprobar la Ley de Puertos
Internacionales que contempla la adjudicación de fondos para mejorar
la infraestructura en los cruces de acceso y salida del país", sostuvo.
Indicó que esto permitiría inyectar fondos a la construcción de
accesos que permitan a los conductores que inadvertidamente ingresan
a los carriles rumbo a México, poder regresar a tiempo a su EU antes
de ser forzados a llegar al país vecino.
Anteriormente ya han sido encarcelados y enjuiciados ciudadanos
estadounidenses que ingresan a territorio mexicano con un arma o
municiones y que aseguran haber tomado los carriles rumbo a México
por accidente y no haber tenido manera de regresar al país.
Note: If true, being sent to Vera Cruz very unusual.
Status and disposition of truck and cargo?
Family demands Mexico free jailed Irving trucker
by JONATHAN BETZ
WFAA
Posted on April 28, 2012 at 9:57 PM
Updated today at 2:16 AM
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Family-protests-to-demand-jailed-
trucker-released-149392095.html
Mother of Dallas trucker jailed in Mexico fights for son's return
Family calls Mexican ammunition bust an honest mistake
DALLAS — The family of Jabin Bogan, the Irving truck driver jailed in
Mexico, is growing more anxious about his welfare as the days pass.
"I want my son home! Please, let my child go," pleaded his mother,
Aletha Smith, at a rally she helped organize at Victory Park Saturday
afternoon hoping to convince Mexican authorities to free her son. "He
has done nothing wrong!"
For nearly two weeks, Bogan, 27, has been confined to the Villa
Aldama federal prison in the state of Veracruz. U.S. Embassy
officials in Mexico said the Mexican government has charged him with
smuggling after he was stopped driving an 18-wheeler loaded with
268,000 rounds of military ammunition.
Bogan's boss, Dennis Mekenye at Demco Express in Euless, has said
that Bogan got lost and simply made a wrong turn into Mexico. Mekenye
has supplied News 8 with work orders showing the ammunition was on
its way legally to an Arizona store.
"It was an honest mistake," Mekenye said. "He missed an exit and
found himself in Mexico with those ammo and bullets."
He said Bogan found himself at the Bridge of The Americas in El Paso
and was unable to make a U-turn. GPS coordinates show Bogan was in
Mexico — likely at the border crossing — for only a few minutes
before authorities stopped him and searched the truck.
"He made one wrong turn, and we don't even know if he's coming home
or not," said Bogan's long-time girlfriend Tonya Davis. She said
their six-year-old son, Jakobe, is anxious to hug his father and play
football with him again.
"I want him to be home," Jakobe added.
Mexican authorities worry that the ammunition in Bogan's truck was
destined for the assault rifles of the drug cartels. Richard Roper, a
former U.S. Attorney, said Mexico is especially concerned about gun-
runners.
"Mexico is very, very sensitive about the issues of guns traveling
south into Mexico," he said. "It's a completely different system, and
that is one of the issues this truck driver will face."
The U.S. Embassy said officials have visited with Bogan and remain in
contact with his family. But the trucker's mother wants more to be done.
If convicted, Bogan could face up to 35 years in prison.
"I want my son home," Aletha Smith said through tears. "I want my son
home back here on the U.S. soil — back in his mother's arms."
E-mail jbetz@wfaa.com
Note: From El Diario
United States Congressman pleads for truck driver who crossed
ammunition into Mexico
Reuters | 04.28.2012 | 14:45
http://www.diario.com.mx/notas.php?
f=2012/04/28&id=b2fd360a1f05990496b8653e439d10fc
El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes announced today that insist the
Mexican authorities to release the driver of a truck loaded with 268
thousand rounds who was arrested last week in Ciudad Juarez.
"Mr. Jabin Bogan accidentally entered the southbound lanes of the
intersection of Cordova International of the Americas, El Paso-Ciudad
Juarez," he explained to Efe El Paso lawmaker, who validated version
of the driver and the head of this ensuring that the cargo was bound
for Phoenix, Arizona.
Reyes said that to initiate discussions with the Mexican authorities
to develop a procedure in cases of U.S. residents who mistakenly
enter the lines of the international crossings southbound and end in
Mexico.
The Mexican government last week filed charges against Bogan, 27, a
native of Dallas, Texas, who was transferred to Ciudad Juarez to the
federal prison in Villa Ahumada, in Veracruz state and be prosecuted
and found guilty he faces up to 35 years in prison.
In a statement, the Embassy of Mexico in Washington said that Bogan
was arrested on April 20, when customs officials in Ciudad Juarez
found the shipment.
"If he had indicated that he had the wrong path and needed to return
to the United States before reaching Mexico, we would have stopped
the traffic and we helped him return to the north," said the
spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP ) in
El Paso, Roger Maier.
Reyes explained that it has established contact with the ambassador
of Mexico in the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, asking that the case
be heard by a fair in the Mexican legal system and to intercede and
do your best to secure the release of the U.S. driver.
The congressman, who is in the midst of his campaign to regain the
seat in the federal lower house disputes the district with ex-
representative Beto O'Rourke said that the issue of Americans who
accidentally cross into Mexico carrying weapons must be treated
binational meetings.
"This is an example that we need approve the International Ports Act
which provides for the allocation of funds for infrastructure
improvements at the intersections of access and exit the country," he
said.
He said this would inject funds into the construction of access that
allow drivers to inadvertently enter the lane en route to Mexico, to
return on time for the United States before being forced to reach the
neighboring country.
There have already been jailed and prosecuted U.S. citizens entering
Mexican territory with a weapon or ammunition and who claim to have
taken the paths to Mexico by accident and have had no way back to the
country.
Congresista de EU intercede por camionero que cruzó municiones a México
EFE | 28-04-2012 | 14:45
http://www.diario.com.mx/notas.php?
f=2012/04/28&id=b2fd360a1f05990496b8653e439d10fc
El Paso— El congresista Silvestre Reyes anunció hoy que insistirá
ante las autoridades mexicanas para que liberen al conductor de un
camión cargado con 268 mil cartuchos que fue detenido la semana
pasada en Ciudad Juárez.
"El señor Jabin Bogan ingresó accidentalmente a los carriles con
dirección al sur del cruce internacional de Córdova de las Américas,
El Paso-Ciudad Juárez", expuso a Efe el legislador por El Paso, quien
validó la versión del chófer y del jefe de éste que aseguran que el
cargamento tenía como destino final Phoenix, Arizona.
Reyes adelantó que iniciará conversaciones con las autoridades
mexicanas para desarrollar un procedimiento en casos de residentes
estadounidenses que ingresen por error en las líneas de los cruces
internacionales con rumbo al sur y terminen en México.
El gobierno mexicano presentó esta semana cargos contra Bogan, de 27
años y originario de Dallas, Texas, quien fue trasladado de Ciudad
Juárez a la prisión federal de Villa Ahumada, en el estado de
Veracruz y de ser procesado y encontrado culpable enfrenta hasta 35
años de cárcel.
En un comunicado, la embajada de México en Washington indicó que
Bogan fue detenido el 20 de abril, cuando agentes de aduanas en
Ciudad Juárez descubrieron el cargamento.
"Si nos hubiera indicado que se había equivocado de ruta y que
necesitaba regresar a EU antes de llegar a México, hubiéramos
detenido el tráfico y le hubiéramos ayudado a retornar al norte",
dijo el portavoz de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza
(CBP) en El Paso, Roger Maier.
Reyes expuso que ha establecido contacto con el embajador de México
en EU, Arturo Sarukhán, para pedirle que el caso se ventile en forma
justa en el sistema legal mexicano y que interceda y haga lo posible
para lograr la liberación del estadounidense.
El congresista, que se encuentra en medio de su campaña electoral
para ganar nuevamente la silla en el Cámara baja federal que le
disputa el exregidor municipal Beto O'Rourke, indicó que el asunto de
estadounidenses que accidentalmente cruzan a México llevando
armamento debe ser tratado en reuniones binacionales.
"Este es un ejemplo de que necesitamos aprobar la Ley de Puertos
Internacionales que contempla la adjudicación de fondos para mejorar
la infraestructura en los cruces de acceso y salida del país", sostuvo.
Indicó que esto permitiría inyectar fondos a la construcción de
accesos que permitan a los conductores que inadvertidamente ingresan
a los carriles rumbo a México, poder regresar a tiempo a su EU antes
de ser forzados a llegar al país vecino.
Anteriormente ya han sido encarcelados y enjuiciados ciudadanos
estadounidenses que ingresan a territorio mexicano con un arma o
municiones y que aseguran haber tomado los carriles rumbo a México
por accidente y no haber tenido manera de regresar al país.
Friday, April 27, 2012
AZMEX EXTRA 27-4-12
AZMEX EXTRA 27 APR 2012
The 99 thousand:
Several comments:
1. There has to be a list of make, model and serial numbers.
It looks like the only to get access to it will probably take a
lawsuit and/or Congressional action to get them. The "ongoing
investigation" BS is just that. Believe access to this information
is crucial.
2. The list would be necessary to establish which arms were
transfered to Mexican government via U.S. aid and commercial sales.
There have been tens of thousands just in past few years. Any and
all of these will be in a very detailed and extensive paper trail.
How many over the last 70 or so years?
3. Don't know where in Mexico one can go these days and not see U.S.
made firearms in hands of Mexican government personnel. Especially
the AR15/M16/M4 platform
4. The list needs to be cross checked against the NICS register of
stolen firearms.
This should also include the firearms stolen in gun shop robberies,
i.e. the smash and grabs, etc.
Which we could never get BATFE to discuss. For a long time here in
the SW, it has been an article of faith that stolen firearms end up
in Mexico. Just like so many vehicles.
5. The list should also disclose where the rest of the 99k firearms
came from. Keeping in mind that governments who manufacture firearms
and weapons in general can put any identification they want on
them. None, duplicates, counterfeit, etc. As always, any
significant number of weapons transfered involves one or more
governments, and their agendas.
6. As is unfortunately normal south of the border, the is a lot of
"leakage" of weapons from the various governments. A lot of
desertions, in the many thousands, from the various militaries, and
it is also SOP to bring the weapons with. The number of desertions
from Mexican military no longer available.
7. Before the news of Fast & Furious broke, and U.S. aid money
started flowing, there was a good deal of information available about
firearms recovered. Time and location of incident, including make,
model, and s/n. All this is being suppressed now. There has been
several PR events of destruction of firearms. Destruction of evidence?
8. As reported numerous times in the series of AZMEX reports over
last six years or so, many cases of law enforcement or military
working for drug cartels or even as far as loaning weapons to prison
inmates to go out and do hits.
9. There are numerous reports of Mexican Army disarming local police
or rounding them up to inspect firearms.
10. Before the Mexican government instituted even more gun controls
about 25 to 30 years back now, there were many gun shops and sales to
Mexican citizens. Of course U.S. made firearms were the vast
majority imported and sold. Given the size of the U.S. manufacturing
base, and virtually non existent Mexican industry.
11. Mexico has been importing large numbers of weapons from Europe.
Again, Congressional action and/or lawsuits probably necessary. BTW,
about a year ago now, uproar in Germany over exported arms being used
in the drug war.
12. Re: #5 above. Don't forget our fiends in Cuba, Nicaragua,
Venezuela, et al, whose' agenda would be well served by a
destabilized or failed narco state on U.S. border.
End
ATF says Mexican officials seized 68,000 guns from US since 2007
Pete Yost The Associated Press |
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2012 12:00 am
WASHINGTON - The government said Thursday that 68,000 guns recovered
by Mexican authorities since 2007 have been traced back to the United
States.
The flood of tens of thousands of weapons underscores complaints from
Mexico that the U.S. is responsible for arming the drug cartels. Six
years of violence between warring cartels have killed more than
47,000 people in Mexico.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released its
latest data covering 2007 through 2011. According to the ATF, many of
the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to the ATF for tracing were
recovered at the scenes of cartel shootings while others were seized
in raids on illegal arms caches.
All the recovered weapons were suspected of being used in crimes in
Mexico.
At an April 2 North American summit in Washington, Mexican President
Felipe Calderón said the U.S. government has not done enough to stop
the flow of assault weapons and other guns from the U.S. to Mexico.
Calderón credited President Obama with making an effort to reduce the
gun traffic but said Obama faces "internal problems … from a
political point of view."
There is Republican opposition in Congress and broad opposition from
Republicans and gun-rights advocates elsewhere to a new assault-
weapons ban or other curbs on gun sales.
The Obama administration says it is working to tighten inspections of
border checkpoints in the absence of an assault-rifle ban that
expired before Obama took office.
For more than a year, the ATF has been reeling from accusations that
some of its agents in Arizona were ordered by superiors to step aside
rather than intercept illicit loads of arms headed for Mexico.
The Justice Department's inspector general and Congress have been
looking into the Arizona gun probe, Operation Fast and Furious.
The issue of gun-control legislation hasn't been part of the
Republican-led probe of Fast and Furious by the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee.
The number of all types of ATF-traced firearms manufactured in the
U.S. or imported into the U.S. and later recovered in Mexico rose
from 11,842 in 2007 to 14,504 in 2011, according to the ATF. The
figures for U.S.-sourced firearms were 21,035 in 2008, 14,376 for
2009 and 6,404 in 2010. Included in those totals, the number of
rifles recovered in Mexico, submitted to the ATF for tracing and
found to have come from the U.S. rose from 4,885 in 2007 to 8,804
last year.
Mexican law enforcement officials report that certain types of rifles
such as AK variants with detachable magazines are being used more
frequently by drug trafficking organizations, the ATF said in a news
release.
Mexico has provided ATF information on 99,691 guns. ATF determined
that the source for 68,161 of the weapons was the U.S, 68 percent of
the total. For the remainder, the ATF was unable to determine a U.S.
source or was unable to trace the request to a country of origin. The
68 percent figure is down from estimates of 90 percent in years past
when Mexico was sharing less information with the U.S.
The controversial tactic of "letting guns walk" out of gun shops in
the hands of suspected "straw purchasers" was used in Operation Fast
and Furious at the ATF in Phoenix in an effort to track the guns to
major weapons traffickers and drug cartels to make criminal cases
against smuggling kingpins who had eluded prosecution for years. But
the tracking of the weapons was faulty, and many of them wound up at
crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S. Two of the guns spotted at one
point during Fast and Furious were later discovered at the scene of
the killing of U.S. border agent Brian Terry near Arivaca.
Before Fast and Furious, the ATF in Arizona had tried the gun-walking
tactic in three investigations during the George W. Bush
administration, with other tracking problems and only limited success.
During the Obama administration, the ATF has undergone a management
shake-up, and Attorney General Eric Holder has called Fast and
Furious a flawed operation that must never be repeated.
On StarNet: Find more border-related news at azstarnet.com/border
Read more: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/atf-says-mexican-
officials-seized-guns-from-us-since/article_05d16eba-3039-5fda-b64b-
ee093ff422d8.html#ixzz1tGgwQG2K
The 99 thousand:
Several comments:
1. There has to be a list of make, model and serial numbers.
It looks like the only to get access to it will probably take a
lawsuit and/or Congressional action to get them. The "ongoing
investigation" BS is just that. Believe access to this information
is crucial.
2. The list would be necessary to establish which arms were
transfered to Mexican government via U.S. aid and commercial sales.
There have been tens of thousands just in past few years. Any and
all of these will be in a very detailed and extensive paper trail.
How many over the last 70 or so years?
3. Don't know where in Mexico one can go these days and not see U.S.
made firearms in hands of Mexican government personnel. Especially
the AR15/M16/M4 platform
4. The list needs to be cross checked against the NICS register of
stolen firearms.
This should also include the firearms stolen in gun shop robberies,
i.e. the smash and grabs, etc.
Which we could never get BATFE to discuss. For a long time here in
the SW, it has been an article of faith that stolen firearms end up
in Mexico. Just like so many vehicles.
5. The list should also disclose where the rest of the 99k firearms
came from. Keeping in mind that governments who manufacture firearms
and weapons in general can put any identification they want on
them. None, duplicates, counterfeit, etc. As always, any
significant number of weapons transfered involves one or more
governments, and their agendas.
6. As is unfortunately normal south of the border, the is a lot of
"leakage" of weapons from the various governments. A lot of
desertions, in the many thousands, from the various militaries, and
it is also SOP to bring the weapons with. The number of desertions
from Mexican military no longer available.
7. Before the news of Fast & Furious broke, and U.S. aid money
started flowing, there was a good deal of information available about
firearms recovered. Time and location of incident, including make,
model, and s/n. All this is being suppressed now. There has been
several PR events of destruction of firearms. Destruction of evidence?
8. As reported numerous times in the series of AZMEX reports over
last six years or so, many cases of law enforcement or military
working for drug cartels or even as far as loaning weapons to prison
inmates to go out and do hits.
9. There are numerous reports of Mexican Army disarming local police
or rounding them up to inspect firearms.
10. Before the Mexican government instituted even more gun controls
about 25 to 30 years back now, there were many gun shops and sales to
Mexican citizens. Of course U.S. made firearms were the vast
majority imported and sold. Given the size of the U.S. manufacturing
base, and virtually non existent Mexican industry.
11. Mexico has been importing large numbers of weapons from Europe.
Again, Congressional action and/or lawsuits probably necessary. BTW,
about a year ago now, uproar in Germany over exported arms being used
in the drug war.
12. Re: #5 above. Don't forget our fiends in Cuba, Nicaragua,
Venezuela, et al, whose' agenda would be well served by a
destabilized or failed narco state on U.S. border.
End
ATF says Mexican officials seized 68,000 guns from US since 2007
Pete Yost The Associated Press |
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2012 12:00 am
WASHINGTON - The government said Thursday that 68,000 guns recovered
by Mexican authorities since 2007 have been traced back to the United
States.
The flood of tens of thousands of weapons underscores complaints from
Mexico that the U.S. is responsible for arming the drug cartels. Six
years of violence between warring cartels have killed more than
47,000 people in Mexico.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives released its
latest data covering 2007 through 2011. According to the ATF, many of
the guns seized in Mexico and submitted to the ATF for tracing were
recovered at the scenes of cartel shootings while others were seized
in raids on illegal arms caches.
All the recovered weapons were suspected of being used in crimes in
Mexico.
At an April 2 North American summit in Washington, Mexican President
Felipe Calderón said the U.S. government has not done enough to stop
the flow of assault weapons and other guns from the U.S. to Mexico.
Calderón credited President Obama with making an effort to reduce the
gun traffic but said Obama faces "internal problems … from a
political point of view."
There is Republican opposition in Congress and broad opposition from
Republicans and gun-rights advocates elsewhere to a new assault-
weapons ban or other curbs on gun sales.
The Obama administration says it is working to tighten inspections of
border checkpoints in the absence of an assault-rifle ban that
expired before Obama took office.
For more than a year, the ATF has been reeling from accusations that
some of its agents in Arizona were ordered by superiors to step aside
rather than intercept illicit loads of arms headed for Mexico.
The Justice Department's inspector general and Congress have been
looking into the Arizona gun probe, Operation Fast and Furious.
The issue of gun-control legislation hasn't been part of the
Republican-led probe of Fast and Furious by the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee.
The number of all types of ATF-traced firearms manufactured in the
U.S. or imported into the U.S. and later recovered in Mexico rose
from 11,842 in 2007 to 14,504 in 2011, according to the ATF. The
figures for U.S.-sourced firearms were 21,035 in 2008, 14,376 for
2009 and 6,404 in 2010. Included in those totals, the number of
rifles recovered in Mexico, submitted to the ATF for tracing and
found to have come from the U.S. rose from 4,885 in 2007 to 8,804
last year.
Mexican law enforcement officials report that certain types of rifles
such as AK variants with detachable magazines are being used more
frequently by drug trafficking organizations, the ATF said in a news
release.
Mexico has provided ATF information on 99,691 guns. ATF determined
that the source for 68,161 of the weapons was the U.S, 68 percent of
the total. For the remainder, the ATF was unable to determine a U.S.
source or was unable to trace the request to a country of origin. The
68 percent figure is down from estimates of 90 percent in years past
when Mexico was sharing less information with the U.S.
The controversial tactic of "letting guns walk" out of gun shops in
the hands of suspected "straw purchasers" was used in Operation Fast
and Furious at the ATF in Phoenix in an effort to track the guns to
major weapons traffickers and drug cartels to make criminal cases
against smuggling kingpins who had eluded prosecution for years. But
the tracking of the weapons was faulty, and many of them wound up at
crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S. Two of the guns spotted at one
point during Fast and Furious were later discovered at the scene of
the killing of U.S. border agent Brian Terry near Arivaca.
Before Fast and Furious, the ATF in Arizona had tried the gun-walking
tactic in three investigations during the George W. Bush
administration, with other tracking problems and only limited success.
During the Obama administration, the ATF has undergone a management
shake-up, and Attorney General Eric Holder has called Fast and
Furious a flawed operation that must never be repeated.
On StarNet: Find more border-related news at azstarnet.com/border
Read more: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/border/atf-says-mexican-
officials-seized-guns-from-us-since/article_05d16eba-3039-5fda-b64b-
ee093ff422d8.html#ixzz1tGgwQG2K
AZMEX SPECIAL 25-4-12
AZMEX SPECIAL 25 APR 2012
Note: as often mentioned, using drug trade to achieve agenda. How
closely linked are Chavez, Castro, Ortega, Morales, Putin, FARC, Los
Zetas, et al? Also remember that FARC has/had a degree of sanctuary
in Peru and Venezuela.
Shining Path on new road as drug smugglers
By Kelly Hearn - Special to The Washington Times Wednesday, April 25,
2012
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/25/shining-path-on-new-
road-as-drug-smugglers/?page=all#pagebreak
IQUITOS, Peru — A rebel army that struck fear in Peru in the 1980s
has dropped its Maoist ideology and evolved into a multimillion-
dollar, cocaine-smuggling gang with suspected ties to Mexican drug
cartels.
The Peruvian government, which thought it had defeated the Shinning
Path guerrillas, recently reopened an intense military campaign after
the rebels, who once styled themselves the "army of the people,"
kidnapped employees of a natural-gas company.
"This group should not be called the Shining Path," said Jaime
Antezana, a prominent Peruvian terrorism expert.
"This is a family clan that is driven by money. … It is purely a
trafficking operation that we believe has ties to Mexican cartels."
Peruvian President Ollanta Humala in early April prematurely declared
the Shining Path "totally defeated," after the arrest of two of the
group's remaining leaders in a rainforest in north-central Peru known
as the Upper Huallaga Valley.
But on April 9, in a southeastern jungle area, busloads of heavily
armed fighters belonging to a faction lead by Martin Quispe, known as
"Comrade Gabriel," took 40 natural-gas workers hostage.
The daring attack prompted a mobilization of 1,500 government agents
in U.S.-owned helicopters. The hostages were freed, but six security
agents were killed.
Mr. Quispe appeared for the first time on television, ridiculing Mr.
Humala and claiming that his guerrilla faction is now operating under
a new name, the "Militarized Communist Party of Peru."
Gen. General Jose Saturnino Cespedes of the Peruvian National Police
told The Washington Times that Mr. Quispe's group "has no ideological
affiliation."
"They are purely a drug-trafficking organizing," he said.
On Friday, Peru's top military officials declared a major offensive
to hunt down Mr. Quispe and his band of fighters.
His organization controls cocaine-growing operations in the Ene and
Apurimac River Valleys, a thickly forested, lawless region of
serpentine valleys in the country's south-eastern Amazon.
A U.S. official speaking on background said the group primarily buys
drugs from small-scale farmers in the region and smuggles the cocaine
to international trafficking organizations.
"They don't typically operate in a top-down, corporate-like
structure, as the Mexican cartels do," he said.
The Peruvian government suspects the Mexican cartels maintain a
shadowy presence in shipping ports along the country's southern
Pacific Coast.
There are other indications that the Mexican cartels are moving into
Peru, which the U.S. government says has surpassed Colombia in
cocaine producing potential.
In January, Peru's public prosecutor, Jose Pelaez, asked the foreign
ministry to reinstate the requirement that Mexicans traveling to Peru
obtain visas as a way to curb drug smuggling. Between 2010 and 2011,
Peruvian authorities arrested 98 Mexican citizens with suspected ties
to cartels.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counter-narcotics analyst at the Brookings
Institution in Washington, said in an email that Mexican drug-
trafficking organizations increasingly appear to be operating in
Peru, mostly by arranging shipments.
"Their presence does not seem to rise to the level of their actually
directing production or cultivation," she said. "More often, they
operate via local Peruvian drug enterprises."
She warned that "an increased presence of Mexican organizations could
provoke greater criminal violence in Peru."
Last year, a Peruvian prosecutor, Luis Arellano Martinez, claimed
that the Mexican Sinaloa cartel has two armed gangs operating in
Peru. In legal papers, he claimed the criminal organization is
comprised of 40 and 60 people equipped with long-range weapons,
grenade launchers, hand grenades and satellite-communications
technology.
W. Alex Sanchez, a researcher for the Washington-based Council on
Hemispheric Affairs, said that Mexican cartels are a concern, but he
believes that Colombian rebels crossing the border and Brazilian drug
gangs pose more immediate threats to Peruvian security.
Note: as often mentioned, using drug trade to achieve agenda. How
closely linked are Chavez, Castro, Ortega, Morales, Putin, FARC, Los
Zetas, et al? Also remember that FARC has/had a degree of sanctuary
in Peru and Venezuela.
Shining Path on new road as drug smugglers
By Kelly Hearn - Special to The Washington Times Wednesday, April 25,
2012
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/25/shining-path-on-new-
road-as-drug-smugglers/?page=all#pagebreak
IQUITOS, Peru — A rebel army that struck fear in Peru in the 1980s
has dropped its Maoist ideology and evolved into a multimillion-
dollar, cocaine-smuggling gang with suspected ties to Mexican drug
cartels.
The Peruvian government, which thought it had defeated the Shinning
Path guerrillas, recently reopened an intense military campaign after
the rebels, who once styled themselves the "army of the people,"
kidnapped employees of a natural-gas company.
"This group should not be called the Shining Path," said Jaime
Antezana, a prominent Peruvian terrorism expert.
"This is a family clan that is driven by money. … It is purely a
trafficking operation that we believe has ties to Mexican cartels."
Peruvian President Ollanta Humala in early April prematurely declared
the Shining Path "totally defeated," after the arrest of two of the
group's remaining leaders in a rainforest in north-central Peru known
as the Upper Huallaga Valley.
But on April 9, in a southeastern jungle area, busloads of heavily
armed fighters belonging to a faction lead by Martin Quispe, known as
"Comrade Gabriel," took 40 natural-gas workers hostage.
The daring attack prompted a mobilization of 1,500 government agents
in U.S.-owned helicopters. The hostages were freed, but six security
agents were killed.
Mr. Quispe appeared for the first time on television, ridiculing Mr.
Humala and claiming that his guerrilla faction is now operating under
a new name, the "Militarized Communist Party of Peru."
Gen. General Jose Saturnino Cespedes of the Peruvian National Police
told The Washington Times that Mr. Quispe's group "has no ideological
affiliation."
"They are purely a drug-trafficking organizing," he said.
On Friday, Peru's top military officials declared a major offensive
to hunt down Mr. Quispe and his band of fighters.
His organization controls cocaine-growing operations in the Ene and
Apurimac River Valleys, a thickly forested, lawless region of
serpentine valleys in the country's south-eastern Amazon.
A U.S. official speaking on background said the group primarily buys
drugs from small-scale farmers in the region and smuggles the cocaine
to international trafficking organizations.
"They don't typically operate in a top-down, corporate-like
structure, as the Mexican cartels do," he said.
The Peruvian government suspects the Mexican cartels maintain a
shadowy presence in shipping ports along the country's southern
Pacific Coast.
There are other indications that the Mexican cartels are moving into
Peru, which the U.S. government says has surpassed Colombia in
cocaine producing potential.
In January, Peru's public prosecutor, Jose Pelaez, asked the foreign
ministry to reinstate the requirement that Mexicans traveling to Peru
obtain visas as a way to curb drug smuggling. Between 2010 and 2011,
Peruvian authorities arrested 98 Mexican citizens with suspected ties
to cartels.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counter-narcotics analyst at the Brookings
Institution in Washington, said in an email that Mexican drug-
trafficking organizations increasingly appear to be operating in
Peru, mostly by arranging shipments.
"Their presence does not seem to rise to the level of their actually
directing production or cultivation," she said. "More often, they
operate via local Peruvian drug enterprises."
She warned that "an increased presence of Mexican organizations could
provoke greater criminal violence in Peru."
Last year, a Peruvian prosecutor, Luis Arellano Martinez, claimed
that the Mexican Sinaloa cartel has two armed gangs operating in
Peru. In legal papers, he claimed the criminal organization is
comprised of 40 and 60 people equipped with long-range weapons,
grenade launchers, hand grenades and satellite-communications
technology.
W. Alex Sanchez, a researcher for the Washington-based Council on
Hemispheric Affairs, said that Mexican cartels are a concern, but he
believes that Colombian rebels crossing the border and Brazilian drug
gangs pose more immediate threats to Peruvian security.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
AZMEX SPECIAL 24-4-12
AZMEX SPECIAL 24 APR 2012
Note: Mr. Ashurst has lived here on the border for a long time.
Strongly suggest reading it.
His words, of course, are his own. But a lot of folks down here agree.
Subject: : Essay by Ed Ashurst
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:22:27 +0000
The Perils of a Taxpayer in a Foreign Land
"The border is not a fence or a line in the dirt…
it is a third country that joins Mexico and the United States."
Quote by David Aguilar, Chief Border Patrol Agent under the Obama-
Napolitano regime.
The above statement made by Obama's head Border Patrol
agent set off a firestorm of controversy and anger from everyone
except those encamped in the midst of the radical left and guaranteed
Mr. Anguilar a permanent seat at the current administrations round
table that has been graced with the likes of Tony Rezko, James Meeks,
Sam Graham-Felsen, Van Jones and others. Given the U. S. Border
Patrol's already tenebrous mission statement, coming from
controversial characters like Aguilar, Napotitano and even the
President himself, one can't help but question what is the true
course of action we are pursuing on the Mexican border. In the next
paragraphs I will leave innuendo and commentary behind and stick to
documented facts. You and your imagination can do the rest.
Since February 21, 2012 until today, April 20, 2012, in
a 12 mile stretch at the international boundary starting at Naco,
Arizona and going west to the San Pedro River there have been no less
than 10 drive-through loads of narcotics breaching the new steel
fence that is 13 feet high. This same fence is the one that many
thought would be a cure-all solution to our current smuggling problem.
One of the first drive-throughs traversed the bottom of
a mesquite infested wash where whole crews of Mexican outlaws felled
trees and bridged arroyos creating a road through the wilderness
north to highway 92 some 3 miles distant. By drive-through I mean
Mexican Cartel agents cutting truck size holes in the metal barrier
facilitating the passing of whole truck loads of dope headed north to
parts unknown.
The last three of these ten loads of narcotics, which
average 1000 to 1500 pounds per load, passed through a freshly cut
hole on Sunday night April 15, 2012. All ten loads negotiated the
supposed sealed border within one mile of each other and all were
less than one half mile from a Border Patrol camera that is on top of
a tower 85 feet in the air. At that distance these cameras costing in
the hundreds of thousands of dollars to install and maintain can
easily read a license plate on a car or see the expression on a man's
face.
All ten of these truck loads of dope passed through a
cattle ranch owned by a family who has made their living raising
cattle on this same property going back to the late 1800's. At the
east end of the ranch lies the border town of Naco whose main
industry is the Naco Border Patrol Station which boasts somewhere in
the vicinity of 400 agents. The ranch owners long ago cooperated with
the Border Patrol and welcomed the installation of four of these mega
expensive ultra high tech cameras which are supposedly monitored 24/7
at the Naco Border Patrol station a short distance away.
When questioned by the rancher the Border Patrol's
excuse for this breach of security was that "no agents were available
to respond." The fact is that they had all been sent to the northern
boundaries, wherever that is, of Aguilar's imaginary Third Kingdom.
Within a few days Border Patrol agents in Naco will be
moving into a newly constructed station that cost the American
taxpayer, including Third Kingdom residents, 42 million dollars to
build. Among other important amenities it will include an indoor
shooting range with a 14 million dollar price tag. According to a
recent article in the Arizona Commercial Real Estate online newspaper
the new station has been built to "Anti-Terrorist Force Protection
standards." Oh really?
Since 1992 there have been on this one cattle ranch,
where the aforementioned dope passed, no less than 500 thousand
illegal aliens apprehended. By their own admission the Border Patrol
catches no more than 20 percent that cross the border. Since Obama
became president they apprehend fewer than that. You can't have low
numbers if you catch large quantities. That means upward of two and a
half million people have traversed this one family's property.
Whether you live within the confines of a gated community in
Scottsdale or on an Illinois corn farm you should be able to relate.
Imagine having two and a half million people tromping through your
corn field uninvited. For good measure throw in a few dozen $60,000
Ford Raptor pick-ups with Border Patrol insignia on the doors
crashing about your property piloted by agents in green uniforms who
having a high level of testosterone and a low level of respect for
you and your corn destroying everything in their path.
Why should border ranchers who grow calves instead of
corn have to continually hump up and take it while Middle America
sits idly by and does nothing? I am not Paul Revere but I have a
message for you: the Mexican Cartels are not coming, they are here,
aided by ambiguous ideology and total disdain for constitutional law
coming from leftist bureaucrats who have a corrupt axe to grind. The
cartels move through a virtual open door. It astounds me that the
National Cattleman's Beef Association, which is supposed to be cattle
ranching's biggest and most powerful lobby, hasn't come forth with
more support for their constituents who live in close proximity to
the border.
In Frederick Bastiat's book The Law he states and I
quote, "to say that the aim of the law is to cause justice to reign
is to use an expression which is not rigorously exact. It ought to be
said, the aim of law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact,
it is not justice which has an existence of its own, it is injustice.
The one results from the absence from the other." The Department of
Justice and the Department of Homeland Security are in the business
of creating unjust policies financed by taxpayer dollars, a good
example being the derailed and ill-advised Fast and Furious program.
David Aguilar's self-proclaimed concept of a third country, which is
wholeheartedly supported by the Department of Homeland Security is
not only completely devoid of justice it is a gross violation of the
constitution itself. Because of this odyssey into a hinterland of
undefined proportions Border Patrol agents are allowed, even ordered,
to abandon the line in the dirt, as Aguilar calls it, and take their
dog and pony show north to parts unknown leaving gaping and bleeding
holes which they try to hide with gesticulations of fatigue and cries
for more funding and equipment: if we just had a better helicopter,
or perhaps another 14 million dollar shooting range.
Recently Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen introduced
legislation proposing a volunteer militia trained by law enforcement
and deployed to aid in the patrol of the border itself. She has
received very little support and much criticism. The truth is the
only time in history the Mexican border has been sealed is when the
Minutemen peacefully and lawfully sat down and occupied the border
itself in 2007; right there on the ground within arms reach of the
line in the dirt that Aguilar says doesn't exist. The U.S. Border
Patrol did, do, and always will hate the Minutemen and others like
them. They accomplished what the Border Patrol claimed couldn't be
done. Aguilar and his union-protected Brownshirts aren't programmed
for success. Personally I applaud Senator Allen for thinking outside
the box that bureaucrats and gangster politicians have us all
incarcerated in.
On February 24, 2012 I attended, along with numerous
Cochise County ranchers, a meeting at the stupendously opulent Tucson
Sector Office Complex and Headquarters. This multi-cathedral-like
edifice which cost untold millions to construct is completely devoid
of any signs of economic recession; taxpayer dollars literally grow
on the shrubs outside and ooze out of the finery within. Tucson
Sector Chief Rick Barlow was in attendance along with the chiefs from
the Douglas, Willcox, Naco, Sonoita, and Nogales stations. Two
government attorneys were in attendance representing the Border
Patrol's interests. The Arizona Cattlegrower's Association was
present in support of the ranchers who were allowed to speak and
voice certain grievances.
A certain Cochise County rancher (not myself) related to
all present at this meeting that they were well acquainted with David
Aguilar who was at one time the Tucson Sector Chief. This individual
went on to say that he (Aguilar) was a most dishonest and corrupt
individual (their words not mine) and the Border Patrol had taken a
visible turn for the worse under his leadership. In wonder I observed
this communication and couldn't help but notice the lack of denial.
The Tucson Sector top brass along with attorneys who no doubt were
experts in constitutional law sat in silence with no visible
expression of anger or insult, but instead bore a melancholy
countenance, not unlike one drinking vinegar.
Ten truck loads of marijuana coming undisturbed out of
Mexico upon reaching Phoenix, Denver or your hometown would have a
street value of 10 to15 million dollars. Could there be something
fishy going on here? Oh, but wait! I promised to stick to the facts,
the facts, the facts, the facts…………. You supply the imagination.
Ed Ashurst
Apache, Arizona
April 20, 2012
AZMEX ELECTION SPECIAL 22-4-2012
AZMEX ELECTION SPECIAL 22 APR 2012
Note: Will try to cover July presidential election in Mexico more.
To those of us on the border, it could be as important as election in
U.S. A key question, should the PRI regain the presidency, will the
drug cartels be satisfied to be junior partners again? Or will they
be equal partners, or even the partnership be reversed?
A very interesting defection here. Sicila pretty much on target
about PRI. Wrong, of course, about far left candidate AMLO (Lopez
Obrador) Who is trying to get a meeting with him according to media
reports.
Several recent polls have EPN in first, with AMLO and then JVM far
behind. Average = 50%, 28% & 25%. Not good, but looks like people
starting to pay attention. Northern Mexico led the way in the
defeat of the PRI 12 years ago.
Milenio poll for today has: EPN 46%, JVM 28%, AMLO 25% and GQT
1.1%
THE RETURN OF THE PRI, THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN TO MEXICO: JAVIER
SICILA
Sunday April 22, 2012
http://www.riodoce.com.mx/content/view/13244/1/
Sicily. The worst.
The return of the PRI to the presidency, with Enrique Peña Nieto,
would be the worst thing that could happen to Mexico, it would return
the worst practices they ruled for 70 years, said the poet Javier
Sicilia, leader of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity.
The PRI is the worst of all candidates seeking to succeed Felipe
Calderon Hinojosa he said at the start of the National Gathering for
Peace with Justice and Dignity, which ends Sunday.
Peña Nieto (EPN) does not even know we exist, not interested in
talking to us, is a return to the worst if the country is returning
PRI to power, is the return of Salinas, return to the disregard of
the citizens, the return to legalization of crime in its broadest
sense, he said.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), however, is the best, the best
face, but unfortunately not a matter of people, is a matter of
structures and those who believe that structure and invented it ...
coming from the colonial times, but is called the PRI, and Peña
Nieto represents that.
Josefina Vazquez Mota (JVM), he continued, is a good woman, an honest
woman, the problem is the structure, because they protect their own
criminals, patrimonial structures are what does this mean?: Using the
assets of the nation and the nation itself for personal gain, that's
the big problem. I wish it were a matter of people, the problem is a
matter of structures.
But as good people do not act accordingly to transform state
structures, because we will not get out, who comes will be the choice
of shame, but it will be worse with Peña Nieto, anyone will be a
disaster, but Peña Nieto will be worse, he concluded.
He called voting for the lesser evil, but reiterated that their vote
will be blank because the parties and candidates are ignoring the
victims of the war against organized crime.
The father of Juan Francisco the young Sicilia found finalized with
six others in a car on March 28, 2011 - said he expected the death of
more than 60,000 people left by the war on crime, Felipe Calderon
will at the end of his term with a great sense of guilt (...), that
you desire: a coincidence of heartache for their irresponsibility and
a request for forgiveness can heal his soul and conscience.
In the match for peace involving social organizations, human rights,
victims of violence and their families. The meeting takes place at
the Joan of Arc school in this city.
The government of Felipe Calderón and Members were asked to fulfill
their promise to pass the law for victims of the war on organized
crime in order to operate the procurement of services to victims.
This is not to promote a national security law that serves only to
cause pain and death, they said, because it seems that both the
president and legislators only have imagination for violence.
La Jornada
Note: A campaign sample
Posted April 22, 2012, 1:48 a.m.
DURING HER VISIT TO CITY OF OBREGON, SONORA
Delivered Sonora to Josefina
The candidate for President of the Republic Josefina Vazquez Mota was
accompanied by the state governor Guillermo Padres Elias
About 30 thousand people endorsed the PAN candidate will be the next
President of Mexico
Ciudad Obregon, Sonora - New Day
http://www.nuevodia.com.mx/local/se-entrega-sonora-a-josefina/
Sonora gave Josefina Vazquez Mota, who made history in Cajeme to
collect about 30,000 people in his tour of this county, where she
made clear that the time has come from the state to endorse the first
of July, the Presidency of the Republic for the National Action
Party. (PAN)
And, she said, can not be allowed to return those who want to return
and with the support of all in Sonora that will not happen.
"That's what I came to Sonora, because Sonora is a land of brave
people, because Sonora has written pages of freedom and democracy and
we can say with certainty to feel their souls, to feel their breath,
as he was going to tell me, Josefina, Sonora is yours, because I'm
from Sonora, I am for Sonora and of course we will achieve this
victory together, the president of Mexico to serve the citizens. "
So the flagship PAN was clear and committed to first of all, once she
assumes the presidency, there will be a Mexico without impunity,
corruption, where the jurisdiction is over all politicians without
exception, more support for people more scholarships, more
kindergartens and of course, to give the place it deserves to
education and that is why she offered her full support for
Educational Transformation led by Governor Guillermo Padres.
"We will achieve coverage for the state high school for all young
people in 2018 and we will support the Governor father to build more
universities, more technology, we will do together, I want you to
have full-time school from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm for children to attend
school and learn effectively and make it different, we will also
encourage reading. "
Similarly and using the stage in Cajeme representing the PAN
standard bearer promised that once and for all open and run the
fiscal area.
And because Sonora has given life to their fields to Mexico and other
countries, said she would work to arrive on time and without
intermediate supports it, to make these lands most productive in the
country.
"I come before you, not a sign in front of a notary, because even
those who sign in front of notary does not want to say that meeting,
I come by this different for a Mexico ] where re-assert the word,
that Mexico where the word is promised, and is satisfied, because I
want different Mexico today I come to Sonora, Ciudad Obregon to give
you my word that is word of a woman, I will keep our promise to
Sonora. "
For his part, Governor Guillermo Padres made it clear that he has no
doubt Sonora anyone who is a land of PAN and in 2000 and won the
state Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón in 2006, now will win for
Josefina Vazquez Mota.
And the PAN said Sonora will defend these triumphs and achievements
since the PAN government came 12 years ago can now enjoy Sonorans and
all Mexicans.
"More roads, more housing and we will defend and we will not let
nobody take what we won for our children and for Sonora, we will win
because the PAN is going better, here in Sonora since joining the PAN
we have for our children free uniforms, school fees zero, free
transport and thanks to the governments of National Action Party. "
Padres Elias said that for these reasons and more, the Sonoran we
must defend our land and Mexico and right now we are called to
respond to the country as we face an imminent risk in the country
since 70 years of bad governments want to return to Mexico .
"70 years of corruption, plunder, 70 years of devaluations, lies and
backwardness to Mexico. I want to say because if they kidding who now
tell us who represent the worst of the PRI of the past, hiding, skin
down this wolf in sheep clothing and say, we learned, as we change,
when someone walks like a duck, does like a duck, you are a duck, are
the same thieves always, it is not changed. "
AZMEX EXTRA 24-4-12
AZMEX EXTRA 24 APR 2012
Trucker will face anti-gun charges in Mexico
ATF: Ammo cache was legitimate cargo
By Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 04/24/2012 12:00:00 AM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20464308/trucker-will-face-anti-
gun-charges
Mexican federal prosecutors will press charges against the U.S.
trucker who may have accidentally crossed into Juárez with 268,000
rounds of ammunition last week, a source familiar with the
investigation said Monday.
Meanwhile, officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives reiterated on Monday that preliminary investigations
suggest that the truck driver was transporting a legitimate cargo.
A Mexican official, who requested anonymity because he is not
authorized to disclose the information, said Jabin Akeem Bogan, 27,
will face charges for violation of provisions within Mexico's anti-
gun laws.
The source said it was unclear under which provisions he would be
charged, but it is possible he will be accused with possession of
cartridges of exclusive use by the military.
Salvador Urbina, a criminal attorney in Juárez, said it is more
likely that Bogan will be charged with introduction of cartridges of
exclusive use by the military, which is a more serious offense.
Bogan could face between four and 15 years in prison if charged with
possession, and between 10 and 25 years if charged with introduction,
Urbina said. Ê
His case will be resolved by the fifth district court in Juárez,
where a federal judge has 72 hours to determine if Bogan will remain
in prison until his next court date and what will happen with the
seized rounds of ammunition.
Bogan is currently being held in a federal prison in Veracruz,
Mexico, said his mother
Aletha Smith.
The source said Bogan will likely be transferred back to the federal
prison in Juárez, near the Samalayuca desert.
Bogan was detained last Tuesday by Mexican federal customs officers
at the Bridge of the Americas with the cargo. His employer and others
have come out in his defense, saying the load was actually headed to
a Phoenix ammo shop.
Bogan took a wrong turn toward the Bridge of the Americas and was
told by a nearby officer that the only way to turn around was going
into Mexico and returning, said Dennis Mekenye, owner of Arlington-
based Demco Transportation Inc and Bogan's boss.
The transaction was legitimate and that his company is authorized to
transport such cargo, Mekenye said.
"From the company's standpoint everything is legal," he said. Ê
ATF spokesman in Dallas, Tom Crowley said on Monday that so far
investigations haven't revealed anything suspicious about the
transportation of the ammunitions.
"We've done numerous interviews and all we can say is that it looks
like it was going to be a legitimate delivery to that dealer in
Phoenix," he said.
Nevertheless, some questions remain.
Both Mexican and U.S. customs officials have declined to say that
their officers would instruct any commercial trailer-truck driver to
enter Mexico to do a U-turn back into the United States.
Mexican authorities also initially reported that the rounds of
ammunition were calibers 7.62x39 and 5.56x45, which are commonly used
with AK-47 and AR-15 rifles.
However, Howard Glaser, owner of United Nations Ammo Co., said his
order was made up of 250,000 7.62x51-caliber rounds and 18,000 5.56-
caliber rounds. 7.61x51-caliber rounds are used with M14 ceremonial
rifles, sniper rifles and some machine guns, but "would not work with
AK-47s," Glaser said.
Mekenye said Bogan currently doesn't have an attorney representing
him in Mexico.
"His mom is not in an (economic) position to hire anybody," he said.
On Monday, Smith questioned the Mexican authorities' decision to
charge his son.
"My son was a driver of a truck and he made a wrong turn. He didn't
do anything so why would they press charges?" she said.
Note: a rare use of export control laws
Smuggled into Mexico 800 bulletproof vests
Alberto Ponce de Leon
El Diario de El Paso
| April 24, 2012 | 9:32 pm
http://eldiariodechihuahua.mx/notas.php?
f=2012/04/24&id=ef181a1b2a11b160077e4ee5fbbf112b
El Paso, Texas. - The former owner of Uniforms of Texas located in
this city was arrested yesterday by federal authorities to export
illegally, about 800 flak jackets, among other charges, according to
information from the Department of Justice (DOJ) U.S. Attorney
Robert Pitman and the agent in charge of Internal Security
Investigations (HSI) of the Department of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), Dennis A. Ulrich, announced yesterday morning the
arrest of Hector Ayala, 48 years old, smuggle bullets and other
prohibited items to Mexico.
"Under U.S. law can export no body armor or anything like bullets
without a license," said Attorney General spokesman for the Western
District of Texas, Daryl Fields.
In Mexico, armored vests to import require a permit issued by the
Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA), pay the 15 percent tariff and
16 percent VAT and then resell them without problems, said lawyer
Enrique Torres Valadez.
He explained that there is no restriction on the level of armor, but
permits are difficult to obtain.
In December 2011, Uniforms of Texas had been premises searched, but
Ayala had not been arrested until yesterday.
The federal grand jury indictment, which was returned on Wednesday
and released the day of arrest, charges the merchant to two counts of
facilitating the smuggling of U.S. goods, two counts of illegally
exporting body armor and high capacity magazines without a license
and two for money laundering.
His first appearance before Judge Robert F. Castañeda, scheduled for
Monday at 2:30 pm was canceled. According to reports from the
federal court in El Paso is possible that between now and tomorrow
will have to submit to the judge.
If convicted, Hector Ayala could reach a maximum sentence of 20 years
in prison for each count of money laundering and up to 10 years in
prison for each of the other charges, reports said.
In 2007, Ayala told this newspaper that the then chief operating
officer of the Municipal Public Security Secretariat of Ciudad
Juarez, Saulo Reyes Gamboa and former governors Patricio Martinez and
Jesus Reyes Baeza bought this type of protective vest. "A few days
after taking office in January of 2007, Reyes Gamboa earned at least
one of these vests at a cost of $ 2,000, which simulate a tank top
undershirt, in Hector Uniforms, business located on Montana Street
"was published then.
According to news published at the time, Hector Uniforms was, along
with Alamo Shooters one of the shops in El Paso "which sells for
several years uniforms or safety equipment to law enforcement
agencies of Mexico, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
Cipol ".
Ayala said at the time that the first Mexican official in his shop
bought one of the body armor was former Chihuahua Governor Patricio
Martinez, whose model was the same as that acquired after Reyes Baeza
and Reyes Gamboa.
The current indictment, meanwhile, states that the September 1, 2009
to December 3, 2011, Ayala concealed and facilitated the
transportation of multiple calibers and bullets quantities, about 300
high capacity magazines, 800 bulletproof vests, ceramic plates aware
that items were being exported to Mexico.
The federal document states that during the same period, the accused
trader's financial transactions made a profit from the sale of
bullets, boots and body armor.
Ayala made many times, transactions with cash in amounts below $
10,000 for the purpose of avoiding having to report them. HSI agents
and the Bureau of Alcohol, Snuff, Firearms and Explosives (ATP) are
involved in the investigation. The assistant attorney, Greg McDonald,
preside over the case on behalf of the government.
Until that date, according to reports from a search engine for
businesses, Uniforms of Texas was established in 2002 and sells
various types of uniforms, including for police, cheerleaders,
business and even boy scouts. According to the data, it has annual
revenues of between 1 to 2.5 million a year and employs five to nine
workers.
Trucker will face anti-gun charges in Mexico
ATF: Ammo cache was legitimate cargo
By Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 04/24/2012 12:00:00 AM MDT
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_20464308/trucker-will-face-anti-
gun-charges
Mexican federal prosecutors will press charges against the U.S.
trucker who may have accidentally crossed into Juárez with 268,000
rounds of ammunition last week, a source familiar with the
investigation said Monday.
Meanwhile, officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives reiterated on Monday that preliminary investigations
suggest that the truck driver was transporting a legitimate cargo.
A Mexican official, who requested anonymity because he is not
authorized to disclose the information, said Jabin Akeem Bogan, 27,
will face charges for violation of provisions within Mexico's anti-
gun laws.
The source said it was unclear under which provisions he would be
charged, but it is possible he will be accused with possession of
cartridges of exclusive use by the military.
Salvador Urbina, a criminal attorney in Juárez, said it is more
likely that Bogan will be charged with introduction of cartridges of
exclusive use by the military, which is a more serious offense.
Bogan could face between four and 15 years in prison if charged with
possession, and between 10 and 25 years if charged with introduction,
Urbina said. Ê
His case will be resolved by the fifth district court in Juárez,
where a federal judge has 72 hours to determine if Bogan will remain
in prison until his next court date and what will happen with the
seized rounds of ammunition.
Bogan is currently being held in a federal prison in Veracruz,
Mexico, said his mother
Aletha Smith.
The source said Bogan will likely be transferred back to the federal
prison in Juárez, near the Samalayuca desert.
Bogan was detained last Tuesday by Mexican federal customs officers
at the Bridge of the Americas with the cargo. His employer and others
have come out in his defense, saying the load was actually headed to
a Phoenix ammo shop.
Bogan took a wrong turn toward the Bridge of the Americas and was
told by a nearby officer that the only way to turn around was going
into Mexico and returning, said Dennis Mekenye, owner of Arlington-
based Demco Transportation Inc and Bogan's boss.
The transaction was legitimate and that his company is authorized to
transport such cargo, Mekenye said.
"From the company's standpoint everything is legal," he said. Ê
ATF spokesman in Dallas, Tom Crowley said on Monday that so far
investigations haven't revealed anything suspicious about the
transportation of the ammunitions.
"We've done numerous interviews and all we can say is that it looks
like it was going to be a legitimate delivery to that dealer in
Phoenix," he said.
Nevertheless, some questions remain.
Both Mexican and U.S. customs officials have declined to say that
their officers would instruct any commercial trailer-truck driver to
enter Mexico to do a U-turn back into the United States.
Mexican authorities also initially reported that the rounds of
ammunition were calibers 7.62x39 and 5.56x45, which are commonly used
with AK-47 and AR-15 rifles.
However, Howard Glaser, owner of United Nations Ammo Co., said his
order was made up of 250,000 7.62x51-caliber rounds and 18,000 5.56-
caliber rounds. 7.61x51-caliber rounds are used with M14 ceremonial
rifles, sniper rifles and some machine guns, but "would not work with
AK-47s," Glaser said.
Mekenye said Bogan currently doesn't have an attorney representing
him in Mexico.
"His mom is not in an (economic) position to hire anybody," he said.
On Monday, Smith questioned the Mexican authorities' decision to
charge his son.
"My son was a driver of a truck and he made a wrong turn. He didn't
do anything so why would they press charges?" she said.
Note: a rare use of export control laws
Smuggled into Mexico 800 bulletproof vests
Alberto Ponce de Leon
El Diario de El Paso
| April 24, 2012 | 9:32 pm
http://eldiariodechihuahua.mx/notas.php?
f=2012/04/24&id=ef181a1b2a11b160077e4ee5fbbf112b
El Paso, Texas. - The former owner of Uniforms of Texas located in
this city was arrested yesterday by federal authorities to export
illegally, about 800 flak jackets, among other charges, according to
information from the Department of Justice (DOJ) U.S. Attorney
Robert Pitman and the agent in charge of Internal Security
Investigations (HSI) of the Department of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), Dennis A. Ulrich, announced yesterday morning the
arrest of Hector Ayala, 48 years old, smuggle bullets and other
prohibited items to Mexico.
"Under U.S. law can export no body armor or anything like bullets
without a license," said Attorney General spokesman for the Western
District of Texas, Daryl Fields.
In Mexico, armored vests to import require a permit issued by the
Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA), pay the 15 percent tariff and
16 percent VAT and then resell them without problems, said lawyer
Enrique Torres Valadez.
He explained that there is no restriction on the level of armor, but
permits are difficult to obtain.
In December 2011, Uniforms of Texas had been premises searched, but
Ayala had not been arrested until yesterday.
The federal grand jury indictment, which was returned on Wednesday
and released the day of arrest, charges the merchant to two counts of
facilitating the smuggling of U.S. goods, two counts of illegally
exporting body armor and high capacity magazines without a license
and two for money laundering.
His first appearance before Judge Robert F. Castañeda, scheduled for
Monday at 2:30 pm was canceled. According to reports from the
federal court in El Paso is possible that between now and tomorrow
will have to submit to the judge.
If convicted, Hector Ayala could reach a maximum sentence of 20 years
in prison for each count of money laundering and up to 10 years in
prison for each of the other charges, reports said.
In 2007, Ayala told this newspaper that the then chief operating
officer of the Municipal Public Security Secretariat of Ciudad
Juarez, Saulo Reyes Gamboa and former governors Patricio Martinez and
Jesus Reyes Baeza bought this type of protective vest. "A few days
after taking office in January of 2007, Reyes Gamboa earned at least
one of these vests at a cost of $ 2,000, which simulate a tank top
undershirt, in Hector Uniforms, business located on Montana Street
"was published then.
According to news published at the time, Hector Uniforms was, along
with Alamo Shooters one of the shops in El Paso "which sells for
several years uniforms or safety equipment to law enforcement
agencies of Mexico, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and
Cipol ".
Ayala said at the time that the first Mexican official in his shop
bought one of the body armor was former Chihuahua Governor Patricio
Martinez, whose model was the same as that acquired after Reyes Baeza
and Reyes Gamboa.
The current indictment, meanwhile, states that the September 1, 2009
to December 3, 2011, Ayala concealed and facilitated the
transportation of multiple calibers and bullets quantities, about 300
high capacity magazines, 800 bulletproof vests, ceramic plates aware
that items were being exported to Mexico.
The federal document states that during the same period, the accused
trader's financial transactions made a profit from the sale of
bullets, boots and body armor.
Ayala made many times, transactions with cash in amounts below $
10,000 for the purpose of avoiding having to report them. HSI agents
and the Bureau of Alcohol, Snuff, Firearms and Explosives (ATP) are
involved in the investigation. The assistant attorney, Greg McDonald,
preside over the case on behalf of the government.
Until that date, according to reports from a search engine for
businesses, Uniforms of Texas was established in 2002 and sells
various types of uniforms, including for police, cheerleaders,
business and even boy scouts. According to the data, it has annual
revenues of between 1 to 2.5 million a year and employs five to nine
workers.
Monday, April 23, 2012
AZMEX UPDATE 23-4-12
AZMEX UPDATE 23 APR 2012
Note: Besides increased activity in drug and human smuggling, uptick
in killings last few days on AZMEX border.
Besides the Nogales story, another chase and shootout in AP. Over
100 7.62x39 empties at this scene. Subject said to be very dead.
http://elperiodicodeap.com.mx/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=3953:acribillan-a-otro-la-
madrugada-de-hoy&catid=34:noticias&Itemid=78
Note: Besides M16, one of weapons may have been Mex. Army G3
Posted April 23, 2012, 1:50 a.m.
IN "SAFE HOUSE"
Take down armed gunmen
They were arrested five suspected assassins in fact.
A man rescued in mixed operation of the police in the colony Nuevo
Nogales and also seized by the Army were two cars and cartridges
Hiram G. Machi
Nogales, Sonora - New Day
http://www.nuevodia.com.mx/local/caen-gatilleros-con-arsenal/
The rescue of a kidnapped person yesterday, five gunmen arrested,
several guns, jackets, uniforms, tactical ammunition, magazines and
two vehicles is the result of a joint operation between local police
forces, state and federal, as well as the Army a "safe house" of the
colony New Nogales.
The rescue is Flavio Egurrola Arturo Sanchez, a native of Ciudad
Obregon, who had been "raised" in the vicinity of California
fractionation When caught the kidnappers fled in a Chevrolet
Silverado pickup truck late model towards that sector.
They arrested five subjects to carry guns and bulletproof vests and
inside the vehicle was located a man bound hand who said they were
taking him against his will.
Those arrested were identified as Jesus Urquijo Julian Banuelos, aka
"ism", 23-year-old native of Nogales, residing in building number 3-
A, Department 103, the housing complex Canoas, Irving Roberto
Santiago Aguilar, 24 , a native of Junction, Sonora and homeless in
this city, which records a current order of rearrest for robbery with
violence issued in 2007 by the Third Court of Assizes in Cajeme and
Abraham Torres Jose Gaxiola, 20 , a native of Los Mochis, Sinaloa,
established local street sunset unspecified number of colony Sunset,
Gabriel Hernandez Vazquez, nicknamed "The Gigio", 40, and Jesus
Alonso Serrano Rodriguez, 28 years, both from Empalme, Sonora and
homeless in this city.
They confiscated five assault rifles including M16 and goat horn, and
three handguns, dozens of magazines, hundreds of bullets, boots,
tactical uniforms, bulletproof vests and two drive units, gray sedan
vehicle, the Mitsubishi Galant, as well as Chevrolet Silverado pick-
up type of gray, Sonora plates, late model resulting both reported as
stolen.
Note: another week in Sinaloa
Murdered 28 people in third week
So far this year have been committed 450 crimes
IONSA
04/23/2012
http://www.noroeste.com.mx/publicaciones.php?id=774080
During the third week of April a total of 28 people were killed in
the state with which total 85 in this month.
Statistics of the Attorney General of the State and newspaper
archives show that in this year have committed 450 crimes and 2 000
450 358 since the beginning of the Government of Mario López Valdez.
The week ended a woman was killed by strangulation in the Division
Villas del Rio in Culiacan.
Two days after her partner was arrested as the suspect of killing her
with the lace of one of his sneakers.
The violent days of the week was on Friday when nine people killed in
six municipalities.
That day in Navolato killed a farm laborer with AK-47 and AR-15 when
he was at home.
In Ahome, individuals traveling on a motorcycle opened fire on a
resident of Los Mochis, who fell dead in the garage of his home.
In the mountains of Sinaloa town two brothers and another man were
found shot to death.
At night in Culiacan killed a man in Colonia Guadalupe, one in the
colony Rodriguera Hill and another in the sector Rafael Buelna.
On a dirt road from the receivership of Pericos, Mocorito, they found
a body wrapped in a blanket.
Finally, two people were stoned to death in El Rosario.
During the week ended in killing nine people Culiacan, Sinaloa de
Leyva four in Mazatlan four in Salvador Alvarado two in San Ignacio
two, and Mocorito, Angostura, Ahome, Navolato Badiraguato and one in
each municipality in the Rosary two.
Note: Besides increased activity in drug and human smuggling, uptick
in killings last few days on AZMEX border.
Besides the Nogales story, another chase and shootout in AP. Over
100 7.62x39 empties at this scene. Subject said to be very dead.
http://elperiodicodeap.com.mx/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=3953:acribillan-a-otro-la-
madrugada-de-hoy&catid=34:noticias&Itemid=78
Note: Besides M16, one of weapons may have been Mex. Army G3
Posted April 23, 2012, 1:50 a.m.
IN "SAFE HOUSE"
Take down armed gunmen
They were arrested five suspected assassins in fact.
A man rescued in mixed operation of the police in the colony Nuevo
Nogales and also seized by the Army were two cars and cartridges
Hiram G. Machi
Nogales, Sonora - New Day
http://www.nuevodia.com.mx/local/caen-gatilleros-con-arsenal/
The rescue of a kidnapped person yesterday, five gunmen arrested,
several guns, jackets, uniforms, tactical ammunition, magazines and
two vehicles is the result of a joint operation between local police
forces, state and federal, as well as the Army a "safe house" of the
colony New Nogales.
The rescue is Flavio Egurrola Arturo Sanchez, a native of Ciudad
Obregon, who had been "raised" in the vicinity of California
fractionation When caught the kidnappers fled in a Chevrolet
Silverado pickup truck late model towards that sector.
They arrested five subjects to carry guns and bulletproof vests and
inside the vehicle was located a man bound hand who said they were
taking him against his will.
Those arrested were identified as Jesus Urquijo Julian Banuelos, aka
"ism", 23-year-old native of Nogales, residing in building number 3-
A, Department 103, the housing complex Canoas, Irving Roberto
Santiago Aguilar, 24 , a native of Junction, Sonora and homeless in
this city, which records a current order of rearrest for robbery with
violence issued in 2007 by the Third Court of Assizes in Cajeme and
Abraham Torres Jose Gaxiola, 20 , a native of Los Mochis, Sinaloa,
established local street sunset unspecified number of colony Sunset,
Gabriel Hernandez Vazquez, nicknamed "The Gigio", 40, and Jesus
Alonso Serrano Rodriguez, 28 years, both from Empalme, Sonora and
homeless in this city.
They confiscated five assault rifles including M16 and goat horn, and
three handguns, dozens of magazines, hundreds of bullets, boots,
tactical uniforms, bulletproof vests and two drive units, gray sedan
vehicle, the Mitsubishi Galant, as well as Chevrolet Silverado pick-
up type of gray, Sonora plates, late model resulting both reported as
stolen.
Note: another week in Sinaloa
Murdered 28 people in third week
So far this year have been committed 450 crimes
IONSA
04/23/2012
http://www.noroeste.com.mx/publicaciones.php?id=774080
During the third week of April a total of 28 people were killed in
the state with which total 85 in this month.
Statistics of the Attorney General of the State and newspaper
archives show that in this year have committed 450 crimes and 2 000
450 358 since the beginning of the Government of Mario López Valdez.
The week ended a woman was killed by strangulation in the Division
Villas del Rio in Culiacan.
Two days after her partner was arrested as the suspect of killing her
with the lace of one of his sneakers.
The violent days of the week was on Friday when nine people killed in
six municipalities.
That day in Navolato killed a farm laborer with AK-47 and AR-15 when
he was at home.
In Ahome, individuals traveling on a motorcycle opened fire on a
resident of Los Mochis, who fell dead in the garage of his home.
In the mountains of Sinaloa town two brothers and another man were
found shot to death.
At night in Culiacan killed a man in Colonia Guadalupe, one in the
colony Rodriguera Hill and another in the sector Rafael Buelna.
On a dirt road from the receivership of Pericos, Mocorito, they found
a body wrapped in a blanket.
Finally, two people were stoned to death in El Rosario.
During the week ended in killing nine people Culiacan, Sinaloa de
Leyva four in Mazatlan four in Salvador Alvarado two in San Ignacio
two, and Mocorito, Angostura, Ahome, Navolato Badiraguato and one in
each municipality in the Rosary two.
AZMEX I3 23-4-12
AZMEX I3 23 APR 2012
Note: As always, numbers, assumptions and conclusion debatable. We
are seeing in past few weeks more and larger groups coming across.
From AZ to TX.
Fewer Mexican illegal immigrants in US now
By Hope Yen The Associated Press |
Posted: Monday, April 23, 2012 11:49 am |
WASHINGTON — The number of Mexican immigrants living illegally in the
U.S. has dropped significantly for the first time in decades, a
dramatic shift as many illegal workers, already in the U.S. and
seeing few job opportunities, return to Mexico.
An analysis of census data from the U.S. and Mexican governments
details the movement to and from Mexico, a nation accounting for
nearly 60 percent of the illegal immigrants in the U.S. It comes amid
renewed debate over U.S. immigration policy as the Supreme Court
hears arguments this week on Arizona's tough immigration law.
Roughly 6.1 million unauthorized Mexican immigrants were living in
the U.S. last year, down from a peak of nearly 7 million in 2007,
according to the Pew Hispanic Center study released Monday. It was
the biggest sustained drop in modern history, believed to be
surpassed in scale only by losses in the Mexican-born U.S. population
during the Great Depression.
Much of the drop in illegal immigrants is due to the persistently
weak U.S. economy, which has shrunk construction and service-sector
jobs attractive to Mexican workers following the housing bust. But
increased deportations, heightened U.S. patrols and violence along
the border also have played a role, as well as demographic changes,
such as Mexico's declining birth rate.
In all, the Mexican-born population in the U.S. last year — legal and
illegal — fell to 12 million, marking an end to an immigration boom
dating back to the 1970s, when foreign-born residents from Mexico
stood at 760,000. The 2007 peak was 12.6 million.
Christian Ballesteros, who has been at a shelter for immigrants in
Matamoros, Mexico, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, pointed
to stiffer U.S. penalties for repeat offenders as well as brutal
criminal groups that control the Mexican side of the border as
reasons for the immigration decline. Ballesteros, who has been
deported four times, was recently caught after hopping the border
fence near Nogales, Arizona.
"The Mexican cartels are taking over, are actually being like the
border patrols on this side," Ballesteros said. "They threaten them,
'if you don't pay, what we're going to do is we're going to cut your
head off.' That's the worst, the worst, the worst part," Ballesteros
said.
After his last apprehension by U.S. authorities, Ballesteros was sent
to a detention facility in Las Vegas for two months. He fears it
could be six months if he's caught again. "You can lose money, but if
you lose time there's no way you can recover that time," Ballesteros
said, noting that many immigrants have families to support.
Mexican immigration may never return to its height during the mid-
decade housing and construction boom, even with the U.S. economy
recovering, Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at Pew who co-wrote
the analysis, said. He cited longer-term factors such as a shrinking
Mexican work force.
Passel noted that government data now show a clear shift among
Mexican workers already in the U.S. who are returning home. He said
that data is a sign that many immigrants are giving up on life in the
U.S., feeling squeezed by increasing enforcement and limited
opportunities that they don't see improving anytime soon.
About 1.4 million Mexicans left the U.S. between 2005 and 2010,
double the number who did so a decade earlier. In the meantime, the
number of Mexicans who entered the U.S. sharply fell to about 1.4
million, putting net migration from Mexico at a standstill. More
recent data suggest that most of the movement is now heading back to
Mexico, accounting for the drop in the illegal immigrant population.
During the same period, the population of authorized Mexican
immigrants edged higher, from 5.6 million to 5.8 million.
Among the Mexican immigrants who leave the U.S., an estimated 5 to 35
percent are deported while the rest opt to go back voluntarily, often
taking U.S.-born children with them. Those who were in the U.S.
illegally and returned to Mexico also are increasingly saying they
will not try to come back — about 20 percent, compared to 7 percent
in 2005.
The Pew estimates come amid heightened attention on immigration in an
election year where the fast-growing Hispanic population, now making
up roughly 16 percent of the U.S. population, could play a key role.
Arizona's law, being challenged by the Obama administration in the
Supreme Court, seeks to expand the authority of state police to ask
about the immigration status of anybody they stop on the rationale
that federal enforcement has largely failed.
Since Arizona's law passed in 2010, five other states — Alabama,
Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah — have passed similar
measures.
Steve A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration
Studies, a Washington group that advocates tighter immigration
policies, said the latest numbers show that immigration policies do
make a difference.
"The bottom line is that immigration is not the weather. It is
something that ... can be changed," he said. "The economy is worse
but enforcement is also higher, making it more difficult for
immigrants to get jobs in states like Arizona. They are now making
new calculations and changing their views."
Other findings:
—Illegal Mexican immigrants who have stayed in the U.S. for longer
periods of time are now more likely to be sent back by authorities
than before. About 27 percent of immigrants sent back had resided in
the U.S. for a year or more, up from 6 percent in 2005.
—Despite an increase in Border Patrol agents, apprehensions of
illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped sharply —
from 1 million in 2005 to 286,000 in 2011, a sign that fewer illegal
immigrants are trying to enter.
—Some 29 percent of all current U.S. immigrants are Mexican born, by
far the most from any single country; that's down from its peak of 32
percent in 2004-2009. The next largest share comes from India,
accounting for 4.5 percent of the nation's 40 million foreign-born
residents.
—A typical Mexican woman is projected to have an average of 2.4
children in her lifetime, compared with 7.3 children in 1960.
—By region, Mexican-born immigrants in the U.S. are mostly likely
found in the West (51 percent) and South (33 percent). About 58
percent now live in California and Texas, down from 63 percent in
2000 as immigrants spread out over the past decade in search of jobs
in other states.
———
Associated Press writer Christopher Sherman in McAllen, Texas,
contributed to this report.
Read more: http://azstarnet.com/news/national/fewer-mexican-illegal-
immigrants-in-us-now/
article_1c2e2abe-8d75-11e1-84dc-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1stXOWaKD
Driver sought after wreck hospitalizes 12 immigrants
April 22, 2012 10:19 PM
Gail Burkhardt
The Monitor
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/driver-60305-immigrant-patrol.html
PROGRESO — Border Patrol agents are searching for a driver involved
in a car wreck that sent 12 illegal immigrants to the hospital
Saturday morning.
Border Patrol agents spotted the vehicle and immigrants about 9:30
a.m. Saturday off a dirt road near Farm-to-Market Road 1015 and Rio
Rico Road. Agents called emergency medical services and the Progreso
Police Department, according to a statement sent out by Border
Patrol. Twelve people went to the hospital for precautionary measures
and one refused treatment. The 12 immigrants have been released from
the hospital.
Saturday's crash came less than two weeks after two fatal wrecks with
similar circumstances.
On April 10, nine of the 17 illegal immigrants aboard a Chevy Astro
Van were killed — and the rest injured — when it rolled over along
Expressway 83 in Palmview. The 15-year-old driver fled the scene, but
was arrested two days later. He was charged with nine counts of
murder, 17 counts of human smuggling causing serious bodily injury or
death and one count of evading arrest with a vehicle.
The day before that deadly wreck, a man died in a similar accident.
Eighteen illegal immigrants were packed in a Ford Aerostar minivan
when it rolled over on U.S. 83 just west of the La Joya city limits.
One man died and 17 others were sent to the hospital. The driver,
Juan Carlos Rodriguez Sanchez, 19, ran away from the scene but state
troopers arrested him later that day.
He was charged with one count of criminally negligent homicide and 18
counts of failure to stop and render aid.
Border Patrol agents still are investigating Saturday's crash in
Progreso, said Rosalinda Huey, Border Patrol spokeswoman. She did not
have a physical description of the driver or vehicle Sunday evening.
--
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