AZMEX POLICY2 31 JUL 2018
Comment: what a surprise !
Thx
Mexico had more homicides in 2017 than previously reported
Statistics institute: 31,174 homicides in 2017
By: AMIR VERA AND MARILIA BROCCHETTO CNN
Posted: July 31, 2018 12:44 AM MST
Updated: July 31, 2018 03:20 AM MST
https://www.kyma.com/news/national-world/mexico-had-more-homicides-in-2017-than-previously-reported/775384162
(CNN) - The number of homicides in Mexico in 2017 is higher than previously reported, according to new data released by the
Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) on Monday.
The country had 31,174 homicides in 2017, the INEGI reports.
This is an increase of 27% compared with 2016, which saw 24,559 homicides.
Mexico's government originally said in January that in 2017 they had 25,339 homicides,
which would've been a 23% jump from 2016.
These newly released numbers also show an increase in Mexico's homicide rate.
The country had 25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants nationwide, up 20 per 100,000 in 2016, the INEGI said in a news release.
That means 2017 represents the higher rate of homicides since at least 1990.
'Violence has erupted in our country'
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known by his initials AMLO, won the Mexico's election in July
and will succeed President Enrique Peña Nieto on December 1.
During his campaign, AMLO promised to tackle violence and wipe out corruption, which he said was the "result of a political regime in decay."
"We are absolutely certain that this evil is the principle cause of social inequality and of economic inequality," he said.
"Because of corruption, violence has erupted in our country."
He said in a speech to supporters earlier in July that he will pursue a peace plan
with representatives of the United Nations, human rights and religious organizations,
to help tackle the murder rate, which soared to an all-time high under Peña Nieto,
whom critics accused of failing to adequately deal with crime, corruption and economic inequality.
"The country's problems are grave," AMLO told Televisa.
"But I am confident and I am willing to face these challenges."
As far as his relationship with US President Donald Trump and his proposed border wall, the title of his recent book says it all:
"Listen, Trump! Saying Yes to a New Start for Mexico, Saying No to a Wall,"
the cover reads, featuring an image of AMLO lecturing and pointing his finger.
In a speech to his supporters, AMLO said he would forge a new relationship with the US "rooted in mutual respect
and in defense of our migrant countrymen who work and live honestly in that country."
END
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
AZMEX POLICY 31-7-18
AZMEX POLICY 31 JUL 2018
Pima County Sheriff explains why ICE reps are in jail
Phil Villarreal
11:04 AM, Jul 30, 2018
2 hours ago
https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/pima-county-sheriff-explains-why-ice-reps-are-in-jail
TUCSON, Ariz. - Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier said his department is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detailers, allowing them to detain suspected illegal immigrants in Pima County Jail.
In a statement posted on the department website, Napier said the move is meant to keep the community safe and avoid the department from running afoul of federal law or exposing itself to litigation.
Here is the full statement from Napier:
Sheriffs across our country are faced with the difficult and thorny issue of how to handle ICE Detainers. This is not something unique to our county. An ICE Detainer is an administrative warrant, which does not (in the opinion of most) have sufficient standing to allow a Sheriff to extend the detention of a person. Sheriffs who rely on a detainer to extend detention risk being the subject of civil litigation for a violation of the 4th amendment. However, an ICE Detainer is in fact an official communication to a Sheriff by a federal law enforcement agency that there is a prevailing public safety interest in the continued detention of a person. This is not something that should be summarily ignored by the person elected to ensure public safety in his or her respective county. A Sheriff ignoring the existence of a detainer could put their community at risk by releasing a person who would or could pose a danger to the public.
There are many potential solutions to the challenges posed by ICE Detainers. Some Sheriffs have elected to have their personnel cross-certified as immigration enforcement officers through a 287G or similar program. This is, in my opinion, a bad solution. Local law enforcement should not be proactively involved in federal immigration enforcement. Doing so can drive a wedge between segments of the community and law enforcement. Federal immigration is not our role or responsibility. Period.
Some Sheriffs have assumed the risk of continuing the detention of a person for up to 48 hours to allow transfer to ICE. While potentially protecting the public, this puts the county and Sheriff at risk of litigation due to the possible 4th amendment violation. Additionally, the county could be faced with additional incarceration costs. I am not willing to give that standing to detainers and risk expensive litigation and costs to our county. Some Sheriffs ignore ICE Detainers. While in some areas this might be a politically safe move for a Sheriff, it could put public safety in jeopardy. By virtue of the detainer the Sheriff is on official notice that a federal law enforcement agency believes there exists a sufficient criminal justice basis to extend detention of a person. In my opinion, a Sheriff abdicates his or her responsibility for public safety by ignoring a detainer.
Persons in the Pima County Detention Center with ICE Detainers have broken a law in the State of Arizona, hence they are incarcerated. The person is believed to be in this country without proper documentation and federal law enforcement has established cause for extension of the detention of the person, hence the presence of the detainer. As you can see from the attachment, there are a relatively small number of persons in our Detention Center who have ICE Detainers, about 4% of the total population at any given time. You can also see from this snapshot that the overwhelming majority of these persons (98%) have been arrested for felony violations occurring in our State. It is important to separate emotion, politics, rhetoric and ideology from the true nature of the issue with respect to detainers. Persons on both sides of this issue will always attempt to use the exception to prove the rule driven by their respective ideology.
As your Sheriff, I am faced with the same difficult issue of how to address ICE Detainers. Previously, we contacted ICE when we became aware a person subject to a detainer would be released. Approximately 90% of the time, ICE would be able to respond to the Detention Center and take custody of the person prior to completion of the release process. The 10% failure rate of this process was troubling to me. We did not want a person who fell into that 10% to potentially pose a risk to public safety.
I have tried to find an apolitical, reasonable and appropriate solution. Clearly, attempting to balance community sentiment, the charged political environment and public safety with respect to detainers is a tremendous challenge. I am a member of the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) and Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA). Both organizations recommend, as a best-practice approach for addressing detainers when possible, to place an ICE representative in your jail. This allows for a direct handoff of a person with a detainer when the person is released on local charges. A 100% success rate. This ensures public safety and does not involve any of the bad solutions previously discussed. We avoid becoming proactively involved in federal immigration, reduce liability exposure and costs, and ensure the public is not placed in jeopardy due to the release of a person who could pose a public safety danger that federal law enforcement has provided notice should be detained. This is why we have ICE representatives in our Detention Center. Our county incurs no costs due to ICE presence, as they inhabit a small desk and chair in an otherwise unused cubicle.
I understand this is a very charged issue. I have addressed this issue in a thoughtful, reasonable, and appropriate manner and used a best practices approach guided by national organizations. Finally, as your Sheriff I am committed to not being guided by politics, emotion, ideology or political pressure, but rather to be dedicated to the charge of my elected office: public safety in our county. ICE representatives are in our detention facility because it is currently the best solution to a very difficult and challenging problem.
END
Pima County Sheriff explains why ICE reps are in jail
Phil Villarreal
11:04 AM, Jul 30, 2018
2 hours ago
https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/pima-county-sheriff-explains-why-ice-reps-are-in-jail
TUCSON, Ariz. - Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier said his department is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detailers, allowing them to detain suspected illegal immigrants in Pima County Jail.
In a statement posted on the department website, Napier said the move is meant to keep the community safe and avoid the department from running afoul of federal law or exposing itself to litigation.
Here is the full statement from Napier:
Sheriffs across our country are faced with the difficult and thorny issue of how to handle ICE Detainers. This is not something unique to our county. An ICE Detainer is an administrative warrant, which does not (in the opinion of most) have sufficient standing to allow a Sheriff to extend the detention of a person. Sheriffs who rely on a detainer to extend detention risk being the subject of civil litigation for a violation of the 4th amendment. However, an ICE Detainer is in fact an official communication to a Sheriff by a federal law enforcement agency that there is a prevailing public safety interest in the continued detention of a person. This is not something that should be summarily ignored by the person elected to ensure public safety in his or her respective county. A Sheriff ignoring the existence of a detainer could put their community at risk by releasing a person who would or could pose a danger to the public.
There are many potential solutions to the challenges posed by ICE Detainers. Some Sheriffs have elected to have their personnel cross-certified as immigration enforcement officers through a 287G or similar program. This is, in my opinion, a bad solution. Local law enforcement should not be proactively involved in federal immigration enforcement. Doing so can drive a wedge between segments of the community and law enforcement. Federal immigration is not our role or responsibility. Period.
Some Sheriffs have assumed the risk of continuing the detention of a person for up to 48 hours to allow transfer to ICE. While potentially protecting the public, this puts the county and Sheriff at risk of litigation due to the possible 4th amendment violation. Additionally, the county could be faced with additional incarceration costs. I am not willing to give that standing to detainers and risk expensive litigation and costs to our county. Some Sheriffs ignore ICE Detainers. While in some areas this might be a politically safe move for a Sheriff, it could put public safety in jeopardy. By virtue of the detainer the Sheriff is on official notice that a federal law enforcement agency believes there exists a sufficient criminal justice basis to extend detention of a person. In my opinion, a Sheriff abdicates his or her responsibility for public safety by ignoring a detainer.
Persons in the Pima County Detention Center with ICE Detainers have broken a law in the State of Arizona, hence they are incarcerated. The person is believed to be in this country without proper documentation and federal law enforcement has established cause for extension of the detention of the person, hence the presence of the detainer. As you can see from the attachment, there are a relatively small number of persons in our Detention Center who have ICE Detainers, about 4% of the total population at any given time. You can also see from this snapshot that the overwhelming majority of these persons (98%) have been arrested for felony violations occurring in our State. It is important to separate emotion, politics, rhetoric and ideology from the true nature of the issue with respect to detainers. Persons on both sides of this issue will always attempt to use the exception to prove the rule driven by their respective ideology.
As your Sheriff, I am faced with the same difficult issue of how to address ICE Detainers. Previously, we contacted ICE when we became aware a person subject to a detainer would be released. Approximately 90% of the time, ICE would be able to respond to the Detention Center and take custody of the person prior to completion of the release process. The 10% failure rate of this process was troubling to me. We did not want a person who fell into that 10% to potentially pose a risk to public safety.
I have tried to find an apolitical, reasonable and appropriate solution. Clearly, attempting to balance community sentiment, the charged political environment and public safety with respect to detainers is a tremendous challenge. I am a member of the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) and Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA). Both organizations recommend, as a best-practice approach for addressing detainers when possible, to place an ICE representative in your jail. This allows for a direct handoff of a person with a detainer when the person is released on local charges. A 100% success rate. This ensures public safety and does not involve any of the bad solutions previously discussed. We avoid becoming proactively involved in federal immigration, reduce liability exposure and costs, and ensure the public is not placed in jeopardy due to the release of a person who could pose a public safety danger that federal law enforcement has provided notice should be detained. This is why we have ICE representatives in our Detention Center. Our county incurs no costs due to ICE presence, as they inhabit a small desk and chair in an otherwise unused cubicle.
I understand this is a very charged issue. I have addressed this issue in a thoughtful, reasonable, and appropriate manner and used a best practices approach guided by national organizations. Finally, as your Sheriff I am committed to not being guided by politics, emotion, ideology or political pressure, but rather to be dedicated to the charge of my elected office: public safety in our county. ICE representatives are in our detention facility because it is currently the best solution to a very difficult and challenging problem.
END
Monday, July 30, 2018
AZMEX UPDATE 29-7-18
AZMEX UPDATE 29 JUL 2018
Arizona woman accused of transporting $2M worth of meth
BY KTAR.COM
JULY 27, 2018 AT 7:39 PM
http://ktar.com/story/2155392/arizona-woman-accused-of-transporting-2m-worth-of-meth/
(YCSO photo)
PHOENIX — A southern Arizona woman is accused of transporting more than $2 million worth of methamphetamine and thousands of dollars worth of heroin while traveling with four children this week.
The Yuma County Sheriff's Office said 27-year-old Sarah Rivas of Bapchule, Arizona, was arrested on Wednesday after deputies discovered the drugs concealed in the vehicle's doors.
Rivas was first contacted by sheriff's deputies during a traffic stop, when they pulled her 2007 Ford F-150 over for a traffic violation along the Interstate 8.
(YCSO photo)
The Yuma County Narcotics Task Force then discovered 108 packages — 107 containing methamphetamine and one containing heroin. The packages collectively weighed about 114 pounds and were worth $2,080,265.
There were also four children in the car when Rivas was pulled over. The children ranged in age from 5 to 9 years old. The relationship between Rivas and the children was not made clear.
Rivas was arrested and booked into the Yuma County Detention Center for transportation of dangerous drugs, possession of a dangerous drug for sale, possession of a dangerous drug, transportation of a narcotic drug, possession of a narcotic drug for sale, possession of a narcotic drug and possession of drug paraphernalia.
All of the children were all transferred to the care of Department of Child Services.
END
Note: Cajeme in Sonora. On a major route north for drug and human trafficking.
Thx
They seize in Cajeme more than 3 million doses of 'crystal'
Details Published on Saturday, July 28, 2018,
El Diario de Sonora
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=115854
CAJEME
So far this month of July, following prevention and surveillance actions
From July 1 to date, the State Public Security Police (PESP) in its operational actions, prevention and monitoring in Cajeme, has managed to secure and remove 3 million 128 thousand 128 doses of drugs from the streets, mainly from crystal which in cost would have represented around 151 million 881 thousand pesos.
Of the total drug, 3,128 doses were seized from alleged drug dealers who commit crimes in the streets of Cajeme;
while 3 million 125 thousand doses were confiscated in transfer, before they reached the streets of the municipality.
So far in July, 248 people have been arrested for administrative offenses, 33 for committing a crime and made available to the authorities of the common or federal courts, as well as an arrest warrant executed.
Also the seizure of arms in this period, 10 firearms and 81 cartridges off the streets;
In addition, 5 vehicles with theft report have been recovered.
The PESP, police in support of the municipality, reinforces coordinated operations together with SEDENA (Mexican Army) and the Federal Police.
End.
Estrada awarded Mexico's Ohtli Award
Nogales International Jul 27, 2018 Updated Jul 27, 2018
https://www.nogalesinternational.com/community/estrada-awarded-mexico-s-ohtli-award/article_596e29f4-9144-11e8-b234-93b9941baf6c.html
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.
Sheriff Antonio "Tony" Estrada has been awarded with Mexico's highest civilian honor bestowed for distinguished service, the Ohtli Award or Reconocimiento Ohtli.
Estrada was presented the award July 19 during a "unity luncheon" at the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Annual National Convention and Exposition in Phoenix.
"We are extremely pleased and excited that Sheriff Tony, our friend and hero, is being acknowledged for more than 50 years of faithful service to his community," Sindy Benavides, LULAC's acting CEO and chief operating officer, said in a news release prior to the award. "At a time when millions of Latinos in the United States live with the daily fear of law enforcement, Tony Estrada is one of the finest examples of an officer devoted to ensuring public safety while respecting the rights and freedoms of all residents in his jurisdiction."
The Ohtli Award is an honor the Mexican Government gives to Mexican citizens who work in the United States and other countries and who have given assistance to Mexican citizens or promoted their culture. The award acknowledges their contributions which have opened a road for others and positively affected the lives of Mexican nationals.
Estrada was born in Nogales, Sonora and moved to Nogales, Ariz. as a young boy. His first job in law enforcement was as a dispatcher for the Nogales Police Department, and during the next 25-years, he advanced through the ranks at NPD until he became captain, the second-highest command position on the force, until his retirement.
"My heart has always been to serve the people of my hometown so when people asked me to run for sheriff, I decided to do so to help my community," Estrada said in the news release. "I thought this would be for a short while and here I am, five terms and another quarter-century later, but it's been a career I've loved, and which hopefully has been helpful to all the residents of Santa Cruz County."
The Ohtli Award, which takes its name from an indigenous Náhuatl word meaning "path," was established in the 1990s by the Institute for Mexicans Abroad.
"Sheriff Tony is one of the greatest examples of a human being who understands and lives the sacred symbol of the Ohtli, Náhuatl for path, and the Aztec god, to eliminate barriers and create opportunities for others," Benavides said.
END
Arizona woman accused of transporting $2M worth of meth
BY KTAR.COM
JULY 27, 2018 AT 7:39 PM
http://ktar.com/story/2155392/arizona-woman-accused-of-transporting-2m-worth-of-meth/
(YCSO photo)
PHOENIX — A southern Arizona woman is accused of transporting more than $2 million worth of methamphetamine and thousands of dollars worth of heroin while traveling with four children this week.
The Yuma County Sheriff's Office said 27-year-old Sarah Rivas of Bapchule, Arizona, was arrested on Wednesday after deputies discovered the drugs concealed in the vehicle's doors.
Rivas was first contacted by sheriff's deputies during a traffic stop, when they pulled her 2007 Ford F-150 over for a traffic violation along the Interstate 8.
(YCSO photo)
The Yuma County Narcotics Task Force then discovered 108 packages — 107 containing methamphetamine and one containing heroin. The packages collectively weighed about 114 pounds and were worth $2,080,265.
There were also four children in the car when Rivas was pulled over. The children ranged in age from 5 to 9 years old. The relationship between Rivas and the children was not made clear.
Rivas was arrested and booked into the Yuma County Detention Center for transportation of dangerous drugs, possession of a dangerous drug for sale, possession of a dangerous drug, transportation of a narcotic drug, possession of a narcotic drug for sale, possession of a narcotic drug and possession of drug paraphernalia.
All of the children were all transferred to the care of Department of Child Services.
END
Note: Cajeme in Sonora. On a major route north for drug and human trafficking.
Thx
They seize in Cajeme more than 3 million doses of 'crystal'
Details Published on Saturday, July 28, 2018,
El Diario de Sonora
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=115854
CAJEME
So far this month of July, following prevention and surveillance actions
From July 1 to date, the State Public Security Police (PESP) in its operational actions, prevention and monitoring in Cajeme, has managed to secure and remove 3 million 128 thousand 128 doses of drugs from the streets, mainly from crystal which in cost would have represented around 151 million 881 thousand pesos.
Of the total drug, 3,128 doses were seized from alleged drug dealers who commit crimes in the streets of Cajeme;
while 3 million 125 thousand doses were confiscated in transfer, before they reached the streets of the municipality.
So far in July, 248 people have been arrested for administrative offenses, 33 for committing a crime and made available to the authorities of the common or federal courts, as well as an arrest warrant executed.
Also the seizure of arms in this period, 10 firearms and 81 cartridges off the streets;
In addition, 5 vehicles with theft report have been recovered.
The PESP, police in support of the municipality, reinforces coordinated operations together with SEDENA (Mexican Army) and the Federal Police.
End.
Estrada awarded Mexico's Ohtli Award
Nogales International Jul 27, 2018 Updated Jul 27, 2018
https://www.nogalesinternational.com/community/estrada-awarded-mexico-s-ohtli-award/article_596e29f4-9144-11e8-b234-93b9941baf6c.html
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.
Sheriff Antonio "Tony" Estrada has been awarded with Mexico's highest civilian honor bestowed for distinguished service, the Ohtli Award or Reconocimiento Ohtli.
Estrada was presented the award July 19 during a "unity luncheon" at the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Annual National Convention and Exposition in Phoenix.
"We are extremely pleased and excited that Sheriff Tony, our friend and hero, is being acknowledged for more than 50 years of faithful service to his community," Sindy Benavides, LULAC's acting CEO and chief operating officer, said in a news release prior to the award. "At a time when millions of Latinos in the United States live with the daily fear of law enforcement, Tony Estrada is one of the finest examples of an officer devoted to ensuring public safety while respecting the rights and freedoms of all residents in his jurisdiction."
The Ohtli Award is an honor the Mexican Government gives to Mexican citizens who work in the United States and other countries and who have given assistance to Mexican citizens or promoted their culture. The award acknowledges their contributions which have opened a road for others and positively affected the lives of Mexican nationals.
Estrada was born in Nogales, Sonora and moved to Nogales, Ariz. as a young boy. His first job in law enforcement was as a dispatcher for the Nogales Police Department, and during the next 25-years, he advanced through the ranks at NPD until he became captain, the second-highest command position on the force, until his retirement.
"My heart has always been to serve the people of my hometown so when people asked me to run for sheriff, I decided to do so to help my community," Estrada said in the news release. "I thought this would be for a short while and here I am, five terms and another quarter-century later, but it's been a career I've loved, and which hopefully has been helpful to all the residents of Santa Cruz County."
The Ohtli Award, which takes its name from an indigenous Náhuatl word meaning "path," was established in the 1990s by the Institute for Mexicans Abroad.
"Sheriff Tony is one of the greatest examples of a human being who understands and lives the sacred symbol of the Ohtli, Náhuatl for path, and the Aztec god, to eliminate barriers and create opportunities for others," Benavides said.
END
AZMEX UPDATE 30-7-18
AZMEX UPDATE 30 JUL 2018
Note: photos, etc. at link.
Chandler police arrest twelve during year long narcotic investigation
Posted: Jul 30, 2018 4:01 PM MST
Updated: Jul 30, 2018 4:01 PM MST
By Eric Zott
http://www.azfamily.com/story/38770436/chandler-police-arrest-twelve-during-year-long-narcotic-investigation?autostart=true
Chandler police arrest twelve people suspected to be involved in a Mexican drug organization. (Source: 3TV/CBS 5 News)
CHANDLER, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -
Authorities in Chandler have arrested twelve people after an investigation into a Mexican drug smuggling operation that was selling narcotics in the community.
Chandler Police Dept. spokesman Det. Seth Tyler said the thirteen month operation concluded this month with the arrest of Guadalupe Larranage, 37, Francisco Javier-Lopez, 37, Rodolfo Gaxiola-Vega, 26, Diego Vega-Valenzuela, 32, Gaspar Lopez-Felix, 32, Ray Villa, 57, Jesus Gonzales, 47, Vanessa Romero, 33, Jesse, Raley, 39, Anna Larranaga, 37, Clarissa Moreno, 46 and Marisela Chavez-Borbon, 26.
Tyler said all suspects booked into the Maricopa County Jail.
Investigators focused on drugs that were being transported from their point of origin near the Mexican border before being packaged and, finally, distributed for sale in the Chandler area. Tyler says the detectives seized two pounds of heroin and methamphetamine, various quantities of cocaine, marijuana and fentanyl, and seven firearms.
"The Chandler Police Department is committed to working with our community and law enforcement partners to preserve the quality of life in our neighborhood," said Chandler Police Chief Duggan. "Preventing opioid fatalities is a top priority and this collaborative investigation, and subsequent drug seizures, likely saved lives."
All involved have been charged with various felonies to include Illegal Control of an Enterprise, Money Laundering, Conspiracy to Commit Possession of Narcotic Drugs, and Dangerous Drugs for Sale, says Tyler.
End
Note: anti Mexican Navy posters.
Mexico investigates protest posters found with guns
Posted: Monday, July 30, 2018 10:15 am | Updated: 10:45 am, Mon Jul 30, 2018.
Associated Press
https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/texas/mexico-investigates-protest-posters-found-with-guns/article_ea228de5-971c-5c9b-906c-e9607f308fd7.html
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Mexico say soldiers have found a stash of placards like those used in anti-navy protests alongside a stash of guns at a house in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo.
The government of the border state of Tamaulipas said Sunday the 137 printed placards are identical to those used in recent protests by activists blaming marines for the disappearances of more than two dozen people in Nuevo Laredo this year.
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says there have been 31 reported disappearances since February.
The government has suggested the Zetas drug cartel either carried out the kidnappings disguised as marines, or has instigated protests against the disappearances.
The federal prosecutors' office said the placards were found in a house with 11 rifles and five pistols.
END
Border Patrol Agent Assaulted by Mexican Migrant at Border
July 30, 2018 - Border News - Tagged: assaulted, Border Patrol Agent
From breitbart.com:
An illegal alien from Mexico assaulted a U.S. Border Patrol agent after he illegally crossed the border in South Texas.
A Laredo Sector agent attempted to arrest an illegal immigrant after he crossed the border near Rio Bravo, Texas. The agent responded to sensor indicators and observed to migrants who had illegally crossed. The agent detained one of the subjects but the other fled back across the river to Mexico, according to information obtained by Breitbart Texas from Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.
https://www.breitbart.com/texas/2018/07/29/border-patrol-agent-assaulted-by-mexican-migrant-at-border/
End
Note: Nuevo Laredo, Tamps.
They were looking for gunmen and find drugs and weapons
An anonymous call alerted the State Police about movements of armed men, but the criminals managed to escape
The agents of the State Police set up an operation in the Colonia Francisco Villa.
07/30/2018
http://www.elmanana.com.mx/noticia/172860/Buscaban-a-pistoleros-y-hallan-droga-y-arma.html.
A small package with cocaine and a long weapon were confiscated by officers of the State Creditable Police (PEA), in a "safe house" in Colonia Francisco Villa.
It was thanks to an anonymous report on several armed men that mobilized the officers of the PEA, on Sunday afternoon, on Boulevard Calderón Churches, at its junction with Privada Revolucionario, in Colonia Francisco Villa.
Several police units came to the site to protect the area while the alleged drug and weapon was being lifted.
The confiscated was left with the federal authorities who will be responsible for carrying out the corresponding investigations in order to try to identify the owners of the home.
ARMED MEN
The call was generated in the C-4 system, reporting movements of armed people in the house located in Colonia Francisco Villa.
Police officers reported that before arriving, an armed person was seen when entering the home, but when they entered the house, the suspect had fled, leaving behind an assault rifle, which was not specified.
The officers proceeded to inspect the abandoned residence and its furniture, detecting a package with brown tape that contained a substance with all the characteristics of cocaine.
END
Note: photos, etc. at link.
Chandler police arrest twelve during year long narcotic investigation
Posted: Jul 30, 2018 4:01 PM MST
Updated: Jul 30, 2018 4:01 PM MST
By Eric Zott
http://www.azfamily.com/story/38770436/chandler-police-arrest-twelve-during-year-long-narcotic-investigation?autostart=true
Chandler police arrest twelve people suspected to be involved in a Mexican drug organization. (Source: 3TV/CBS 5 News)
CHANDLER, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -
Authorities in Chandler have arrested twelve people after an investigation into a Mexican drug smuggling operation that was selling narcotics in the community.
Chandler Police Dept. spokesman Det. Seth Tyler said the thirteen month operation concluded this month with the arrest of Guadalupe Larranage, 37, Francisco Javier-Lopez, 37, Rodolfo Gaxiola-Vega, 26, Diego Vega-Valenzuela, 32, Gaspar Lopez-Felix, 32, Ray Villa, 57, Jesus Gonzales, 47, Vanessa Romero, 33, Jesse, Raley, 39, Anna Larranaga, 37, Clarissa Moreno, 46 and Marisela Chavez-Borbon, 26.
Tyler said all suspects booked into the Maricopa County Jail.
Investigators focused on drugs that were being transported from their point of origin near the Mexican border before being packaged and, finally, distributed for sale in the Chandler area. Tyler says the detectives seized two pounds of heroin and methamphetamine, various quantities of cocaine, marijuana and fentanyl, and seven firearms.
"The Chandler Police Department is committed to working with our community and law enforcement partners to preserve the quality of life in our neighborhood," said Chandler Police Chief Duggan. "Preventing opioid fatalities is a top priority and this collaborative investigation, and subsequent drug seizures, likely saved lives."
All involved have been charged with various felonies to include Illegal Control of an Enterprise, Money Laundering, Conspiracy to Commit Possession of Narcotic Drugs, and Dangerous Drugs for Sale, says Tyler.
End
Note: anti Mexican Navy posters.
Mexico investigates protest posters found with guns
Posted: Monday, July 30, 2018 10:15 am | Updated: 10:45 am, Mon Jul 30, 2018.
Associated Press
https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/texas/mexico-investigates-protest-posters-found-with-guns/article_ea228de5-971c-5c9b-906c-e9607f308fd7.html
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors in Mexico say soldiers have found a stash of placards like those used in anti-navy protests alongside a stash of guns at a house in the northern border city of Nuevo Laredo.
The government of the border state of Tamaulipas said Sunday the 137 printed placards are identical to those used in recent protests by activists blaming marines for the disappearances of more than two dozen people in Nuevo Laredo this year.
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says there have been 31 reported disappearances since February.
The government has suggested the Zetas drug cartel either carried out the kidnappings disguised as marines, or has instigated protests against the disappearances.
The federal prosecutors' office said the placards were found in a house with 11 rifles and five pistols.
END
Border Patrol Agent Assaulted by Mexican Migrant at Border
July 30, 2018 - Border News - Tagged: assaulted, Border Patrol Agent
From breitbart.com:
An illegal alien from Mexico assaulted a U.S. Border Patrol agent after he illegally crossed the border in South Texas.
A Laredo Sector agent attempted to arrest an illegal immigrant after he crossed the border near Rio Bravo, Texas. The agent responded to sensor indicators and observed to migrants who had illegally crossed. The agent detained one of the subjects but the other fled back across the river to Mexico, according to information obtained by Breitbart Texas from Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.
https://www.breitbart.com/texas/2018/07/29/border-patrol-agent-assaulted-by-mexican-migrant-at-border/
End
Note: Nuevo Laredo, Tamps.
They were looking for gunmen and find drugs and weapons
An anonymous call alerted the State Police about movements of armed men, but the criminals managed to escape
The agents of the State Police set up an operation in the Colonia Francisco Villa.
07/30/2018
http://www.elmanana.com.mx/noticia/172860/Buscaban-a-pistoleros-y-hallan-droga-y-arma.html.
A small package with cocaine and a long weapon were confiscated by officers of the State Creditable Police (PEA), in a "safe house" in Colonia Francisco Villa.
It was thanks to an anonymous report on several armed men that mobilized the officers of the PEA, on Sunday afternoon, on Boulevard Calderón Churches, at its junction with Privada Revolucionario, in Colonia Francisco Villa.
Several police units came to the site to protect the area while the alleged drug and weapon was being lifted.
The confiscated was left with the federal authorities who will be responsible for carrying out the corresponding investigations in order to try to identify the owners of the home.
ARMED MEN
The call was generated in the C-4 system, reporting movements of armed people in the house located in Colonia Francisco Villa.
Police officers reported that before arriving, an armed person was seen when entering the home, but when they entered the house, the suspect had fled, leaving behind an assault rifle, which was not specified.
The officers proceeded to inspect the abandoned residence and its furniture, detecting a package with brown tape that contained a substance with all the characteristics of cocaine.
END
Friday, July 27, 2018
AZMEX UPDATE 27-7-18
AZMEX UPDATE 27 JUL 2018
Crime Trackers: Increase in truck thefts in Southern Arizona
Posted: Jul 25, 2018 3:05 PM MST
Updated: Jul 26, 2018 8:48 AM MST
Written By Lupita Murillo.
http://www.kvoa.com/story/38732705/increase-in-truck-thefts-in-southern-arizona
TUCSON (KVOA) --
In the United States, statistics show a vehicle is stolen every 45 seconds; more often during the summer time.
In Southern Arizona, there has been an increase in auto thefts, especially trucks.
Detectives with the Pima County Sheriff's Department told News 4 Tucson thieves are targeting trucks for the parts. The older trucks are the more popular ones among thieves.
"Super duties, such as the 92s and the 97 1/2s, which are the older body style, trucks with the 7.3-liter diesels are targeted because of their motor," Arson/Auto Theft Detective Jesse Comeau said.
Comeau said thieves are selling parts like motors for a much cheaper price than you would find at a reputable auto repair shop. He said in many cases, customers may not even know they are buying a stolen motor.
Some thieves do not have to work hard to steal the vehicles; the owners make it very easy. Thieves stake out convenience stores, where people tend to leave their motors running.
"Some of these vehicles are left running for the air conditioning systems to remain on and the vehicles are left unsecured and trucks are relatively simple to break into as well," Comeau said.
Being this close to the border, a lot of stolen vehicles are taken into Mexico, where they are used for criminal activity, like human or drug smuggling.
Guns are also heading to Mexico in record numbers because people leave them in their vehicles; sometimes in unlocked vehicles.
"These weapons are being used in various crimes here and mostly being transported to Mexico where they are sold down there for a lot more money than you can sell the weapons here," Comeau said.
Vehicle thefts do not only impact the person who had their car stolen, but everyone on the road.
"The more times the insurance companies have to pay out, they're going to have to get that money from somewhere," Comeau said. "That, in return, falls back on all of us that have insurance."
Pima County Sheriff's detectives said they cannot stress this enough; be sure to lock your vehicles, and to keep all valuables out of sight.
They also recommend installing an anti-theft device.
END
Crime Trackers: Increase in truck thefts in Southern Arizona
Posted: Jul 25, 2018 3:05 PM MST
Updated: Jul 26, 2018 8:48 AM MST
Written By Lupita Murillo.
http://www.kvoa.com/story/38732705/increase-in-truck-thefts-in-southern-arizona
TUCSON (KVOA) --
In the United States, statistics show a vehicle is stolen every 45 seconds; more often during the summer time.
In Southern Arizona, there has been an increase in auto thefts, especially trucks.
Detectives with the Pima County Sheriff's Department told News 4 Tucson thieves are targeting trucks for the parts. The older trucks are the more popular ones among thieves.
"Super duties, such as the 92s and the 97 1/2s, which are the older body style, trucks with the 7.3-liter diesels are targeted because of their motor," Arson/Auto Theft Detective Jesse Comeau said.
Comeau said thieves are selling parts like motors for a much cheaper price than you would find at a reputable auto repair shop. He said in many cases, customers may not even know they are buying a stolen motor.
Some thieves do not have to work hard to steal the vehicles; the owners make it very easy. Thieves stake out convenience stores, where people tend to leave their motors running.
"Some of these vehicles are left running for the air conditioning systems to remain on and the vehicles are left unsecured and trucks are relatively simple to break into as well," Comeau said.
Being this close to the border, a lot of stolen vehicles are taken into Mexico, where they are used for criminal activity, like human or drug smuggling.
Guns are also heading to Mexico in record numbers because people leave them in their vehicles; sometimes in unlocked vehicles.
"These weapons are being used in various crimes here and mostly being transported to Mexico where they are sold down there for a lot more money than you can sell the weapons here," Comeau said.
Vehicle thefts do not only impact the person who had their car stolen, but everyone on the road.
"The more times the insurance companies have to pay out, they're going to have to get that money from somewhere," Comeau said. "That, in return, falls back on all of us that have insurance."
Pima County Sheriff's detectives said they cannot stress this enough; be sure to lock your vehicles, and to keep all valuables out of sight.
They also recommend installing an anti-theft device.
END
AZVEN SPECIAL 24-7-18
AZVEN SPECIAL 24 JUL 2018.
AZ - Venezuela Special From Le Figaro - France.
Comment: VEN - more socialist success. Tens of thousands of people have fled from the country.
Gracias
In Venezuela, a month's salary to buy 1 kg of meat
By Figaro Journalist Clémentine Maligorne
Posted on 24/07/2018 at 19:33
In Venezuela, a month's salary to buy 1 kg of meat
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2018/07/24/20002-20180724ARTFIG00293-au-venezuela-un-mois-de-salaire-pour-acheter-1kg-de-viande.php
The situation should only get worse. The IMF anticipates a surge in inflation of the order of 1,000,000% by the end of the year.
The inflationary spiral is impressive and continues to worsen month after month. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is now anticipating a surge in inflation of around 1,000,000% by the end of the year.
"The bolivar, the local currency, is worthless. Venezuela is in a situation comparable to that of Germany in the 1920s, "when bread was paid in a wheelbarrow of notes, says Christopher Dembik, chief economist of Saxo Bank and good connoisseur of the South American country.
"Today, with the minimum wage - (...), you can buy only three packs of toilet paper, a carton of eggs or 1 kg of meat."
The country, which derives more than 90% of its oil revenues, has been sinking since 2013 and the fall in crude oil prices into an economic recession and an unprecedented social crisis.
This galloping inflation makes Venezuelans' everyday lives very difficult. Every day, they struggle more to feed themselves and to heal themselves.
"Today, with the minimum wage - recently increased by 103%, bringing it to 5196 bolivares a month (5 cents or 4 cents) - you can buy only three packs of toilet paper, one carton of eggs or 1 kg of meat ", explains the expert. At the end of June, a university professor made a sensation on Twitter by saying that he needed four months' salary to repair the soles of his old shoes ...
"To limit inflation, leaders should decide to adopt a foreign currency.
Or that the barrel of oil goes up to 230 dollars, against 70 today ", advance Christopher Dembik. In other words, impossible.
The country seems destined for years of crisis.
Venezuela: inflation of 1,000,000% by the end of 2018
END
AZ - Venezuela Special From Le Figaro - France.
Comment: VEN - more socialist success. Tens of thousands of people have fled from the country.
Gracias
In Venezuela, a month's salary to buy 1 kg of meat
By Figaro Journalist Clémentine Maligorne
Posted on 24/07/2018 at 19:33
In Venezuela, a month's salary to buy 1 kg of meat
http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2018/07/24/20002-20180724ARTFIG00293-au-venezuela-un-mois-de-salaire-pour-acheter-1kg-de-viande.php
The situation should only get worse. The IMF anticipates a surge in inflation of the order of 1,000,000% by the end of the year.
The inflationary spiral is impressive and continues to worsen month after month. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is now anticipating a surge in inflation of around 1,000,000% by the end of the year.
"The bolivar, the local currency, is worthless. Venezuela is in a situation comparable to that of Germany in the 1920s, "when bread was paid in a wheelbarrow of notes, says Christopher Dembik, chief economist of Saxo Bank and good connoisseur of the South American country.
"Today, with the minimum wage - (...), you can buy only three packs of toilet paper, a carton of eggs or 1 kg of meat."
The country, which derives more than 90% of its oil revenues, has been sinking since 2013 and the fall in crude oil prices into an economic recession and an unprecedented social crisis.
This galloping inflation makes Venezuelans' everyday lives very difficult. Every day, they struggle more to feed themselves and to heal themselves.
"Today, with the minimum wage - recently increased by 103%, bringing it to 5196 bolivares a month (5 cents or 4 cents) - you can buy only three packs of toilet paper, one carton of eggs or 1 kg of meat ", explains the expert. At the end of June, a university professor made a sensation on Twitter by saying that he needed four months' salary to repair the soles of his old shoes ...
"To limit inflation, leaders should decide to adopt a foreign currency.
Or that the barrel of oil goes up to 230 dollars, against 70 today ", advance Christopher Dembik. In other words, impossible.
The country seems destined for years of crisis.
Venezuela: inflation of 1,000,000% by the end of 2018
END
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
AZMEX SPECIAL 24-7-18
AZMEX SPECIAL 24 JUL 2018
Note: from the Sun UK. Video, numerous photos, etc.
Thx
AGENT OF DEATH SAS: Who Dares Wins star Jason Fox reveals Pablo Escobar's hitman put a gun against his head — to show how he killed 257 people. The former Royal Marines commando sat down for a nerve-racking conversation with John Jairo Velasquez where the cold-blooded killer showed his two-bullets-to-the-brain execution method
EXCLUSIVE
By Rod McPhee, Senior Bizarre Reporter
24th July 2018, 9:00 pmUpdated: 24th July 2018, 9:07 pm
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6856373/jason-fox-meets-pablo-escobar-hitman/
Play Video
LAZING in bed with his girlfriend, the hitman for drug lord Pablo Escobar answered the phone – and heard a recording of her betraying his boss to cops. The Colombian crime lord then came on the line, ordering John Jairo Velasquez to kill the love of his life as she lay by his side.
Jason Fox with cartel hitman John Jairo Velasquez who has killed 257 people CHANNEL 4
And in a moment which has gone down in legend, he murdered Wendy Chavarriaga Gil without flinching.
Four decades later, the same cold-blooded killer pressed a gun to the head of former Royal Marines commando Jason Fox as he filmed Meet the Drug Lords: Inside The Real Narcos, a documentary about the origins and legacy of the drugs trade.
Jason — known as Foxy — was shown the two-bullets-to-the-brain method that Velasquez had used to assassinate 257 people.
Even more nerve-racking, Foxy — who used to kill drug smugglers while serving with British special forces — then became embroiled in a tense conversation with Velasquez, who said: "I'd like to ask you a question please. How many people did you kill in your wars? That's war.
John Jairo Valasquez with his boss drug lord Pablo Escobar who he killed for
"We're both killers, but you are a legal killer, a killer for the constitution. I'm an illegal killer. We do it for the love of the criminal organisation.
"I would have liked to have been a man like you, with honour. But I grew up in a very violent society. A kid surrounded by violence will grow up violent too."
Foxy's new three-part Channel 4 series shows how the troubled societies of Middle and South America were a perfect breeding ground for the multi billion-pound narcotics trade.
Travelling to Mexico, Peru and Colombia, Foxy, 42, looked at how the drugs trade is still booming in the region — and bringing untold bloodshed at the hands of callous men such as Velasquez, who is nicknamed Popeye.
Armed cops guarding 105 tonnes of marijuana seized from Mexican drug cartels
During their knife-edge discussion, Foxy tried to explain that as a former member of the Special Boat Service who served in Afghanistan, he had only killed for his country.
But he had to tread a fine line with Jekyll-and-Hyde killer Velasquez, who claimed he was reformed man but has since been re-arrested on extortion charges. Foxy said later: "We had this conversation and there was a rapport because there had to be — I didn't want to p**s him off. He's charismatic but he's a lunatic.
"The weird thing about him is how much he still worships Escobar. He still says he loves him. But Escobar ran a business that made him the most powerful man on the planet, and Popeye was his right-hand man."
Jason Fox wore body armour for his foray into the deadly drug cartels' territory in Acapulco, Mexico
Play Video
Trailer for Narcos season three which portrays life after Pablo Escobar
Escobar's reign of terror in the Eighties and Nineties, chronicled in the 2015 Netflix TV series Narcos, saw him become the richest criminal in history, with an estimated wealth of £23billion, before Colombian National Police shot him dead in 1993.
But as Foxy discovered, since Escobar's death, the dark heart of drug smuggling has now shifted to Mexico.
As the number of rival Mexican drug cartels has multiplied and spread throughout the country in the past 12 years, 200,000 people have "disappeared" — which almost invariably means murdered.
Despite the Mexican government claiming to be cracking down, the most notorious cartel of them all, the Sinaloa, is now considered to be the biggest crime organisation on the planet.
Cartels are using dark methods such as hanging people from bridges to disembowelling them to send out warningsI
NSTAGRAM/JASON CARL FOX
Last year was Mexico's most violent ever, with 29,168 murders — and those were just the ones that were reported.
Despite his military experience, nothing could have prepared Foxy for Mexico's deadliest city, Acapulco — a battleground for around 20 competing cartels, with the second highest murder rate in the world.
In one scene, Foxy joins police as they investigate something suspicious dumped in the street.
What initially looks like rubbish turns out to be the latest casualty of the local turf war, with his severed limbs, head and penis left strewn across the road.
Pablo Escobar ordered John Jairo Velasquez to kill the love of his life Wendy Chavarriaga Gil after hearing a recording of her betraying his boss
Even more shocking is the discovery that those who butchered him were probably boys, the latest recruits of the drug cartels.
Foxy, also known to Channel 4 viewers for SAS: Who Dares Wins, said:
"The hitmen of today are now 14 or 15-year-olds doing all that morbid stuff.
"I've experienced some gruesome things but seeing that body was the most shocked I'd been. It was the thought behind it that's most harrowing. Someone's gone about doing that to someone in a chop house — they'd be all decked out, then they'd drag them in there and let them loose.
"They can use anything from knives to axes and angle grinders. That's way darker than any war or fighting scenario I've faced."
Pablo Escobar's reign of terror in South America is chronicled in the 2015 Netflix series Narcos
Rival Mexican cartels are using increasingly dark calling cards, ranging from hanging people from bridges to disembowelling them and using their innards to spell out warning messages.
Foxy met one Sinaloa cartel henchman, El Guero. He agreed to be interviewed only if he wore a mask and would not be not asked certain questions. Not only did Foxy suspect the man was high on drugs, but there was a hairy moment when something was lost in translation and the interviewee thought he had been asked a forbidden question.
( years ago, cartel employees were discouraged from using the product )
Foxy said: "That was the most scared I'd been throughout the whole visit. They said, 'Be under no illusions, if you f*** this up we're going to bury you in the desert.'
Hitman Wolf Boy was still at school where he was ordered to murder his first victim
"He had his pistol out and we were just stood there, all looking at each other. My mouth went dry.
"My first ever interview I'd done in front of a camera was with this hitman in Mexico, speaking a different language. Tellingly, a few weeks later we found out he'd been shot and killed." Another Sinaloan gunman chuckled menacingly as he told Foxy: "I like being a mother- f***er. I haven't killed a reporter or someone like you — but the bad thing is, I'd like to."
But not all the henchman revelled in being evil. Jason met young Texan Rosalio Reta — nicknamed Wolf Boy — who seemed to regret his past with the drug smugglers. He had been jailed for life for committing 30 murders after being enlisted by the Mexican Gulf cartel aged 13. His initiation ceremony involved shooting a man.
Jason Fox spoke to Cartel leaders for Channel 4's Meet the Drug Lords: Inside The Real Narcos
Former Marine Jason Fox spoke to federal police about how they are fighting a war against drugs in Mexico
He said: "These people took me to the person in charge. He pulled out a handgun and told me to kill the person kneeling in front of him — and I just shot him.
"Then he said he'd put me on his payroll. He said, 'Go back to school. I'll call you when I need you.'"
Wolf Boy explained that just as Foxy had trained with the SAS, he quickly got the same education in how to kill with guns.
He added: "You practise with paper targets, we practised with live targets, rival cartel members. They used to be like cattle for the slaughterhouse.
"There was a house they'd take them to and they'd say, 'If you make it out alive we'll give you your freedom,' and they'd throw you in there." Wolf Boy also tortured the cartel's enemies to reveal information.
He said: "I've done simple stuff like pulling teeth out or cutting fingers off, then start cooking them alive. You always got them to talk."
Though it is all highly shocking, Foxy was most disturbed by the poverty of many Mexicans, which meant some felt they had no choice but to turn to drug gangs to survive.
And as Western countries still demand cocaine and heroin, the drug war can only get worse.
Jason Fox says he had 'rapport' with Escobar's 'reformed' former hitman
Foxy said: "It's such a difficult war to fight because there's a demand there and very poor parts of the world that are being taken advantage of by organised crime. "And the fact is that if we neglect those parts of the world then they'll always be taken advantage of."
Meet The Drug Lords: Inside The Real Narcos is on Channel 4, 9pm, August 2.
Play Video
Footage appears to show tourists snorting cocaine off Pablo Escobar's grave in insensitive new trend
CRIME STATS
200,000 people killed in Mexico since 2006
29,000 murders in the country in 2017 alone
25-30 tonnes of cocaine imported annually to the UK
£72 is average price of one gram of cocaine in UK
£10.7bn cost to UK each of drug trafficking
35 bodies of members of the Los Zetas drug cartel were abandoned in front of a Mexico shopping mall in 2011
Figures reveal that 200,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, with 25,000 of them in 2017 alone
End
Note: from the Sun UK. Video, numerous photos, etc.
Thx
AGENT OF DEATH SAS: Who Dares Wins star Jason Fox reveals Pablo Escobar's hitman put a gun against his head — to show how he killed 257 people. The former Royal Marines commando sat down for a nerve-racking conversation with John Jairo Velasquez where the cold-blooded killer showed his two-bullets-to-the-brain execution method
EXCLUSIVE
By Rod McPhee, Senior Bizarre Reporter
24th July 2018, 9:00 pmUpdated: 24th July 2018, 9:07 pm
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/6856373/jason-fox-meets-pablo-escobar-hitman/
Play Video
LAZING in bed with his girlfriend, the hitman for drug lord Pablo Escobar answered the phone – and heard a recording of her betraying his boss to cops. The Colombian crime lord then came on the line, ordering John Jairo Velasquez to kill the love of his life as she lay by his side.
Jason Fox with cartel hitman John Jairo Velasquez who has killed 257 people CHANNEL 4
And in a moment which has gone down in legend, he murdered Wendy Chavarriaga Gil without flinching.
Four decades later, the same cold-blooded killer pressed a gun to the head of former Royal Marines commando Jason Fox as he filmed Meet the Drug Lords: Inside The Real Narcos, a documentary about the origins and legacy of the drugs trade.
Jason — known as Foxy — was shown the two-bullets-to-the-brain method that Velasquez had used to assassinate 257 people.
Even more nerve-racking, Foxy — who used to kill drug smugglers while serving with British special forces — then became embroiled in a tense conversation with Velasquez, who said: "I'd like to ask you a question please. How many people did you kill in your wars? That's war.
John Jairo Valasquez with his boss drug lord Pablo Escobar who he killed for
"We're both killers, but you are a legal killer, a killer for the constitution. I'm an illegal killer. We do it for the love of the criminal organisation.
"I would have liked to have been a man like you, with honour. But I grew up in a very violent society. A kid surrounded by violence will grow up violent too."
Foxy's new three-part Channel 4 series shows how the troubled societies of Middle and South America were a perfect breeding ground for the multi billion-pound narcotics trade.
Travelling to Mexico, Peru and Colombia, Foxy, 42, looked at how the drugs trade is still booming in the region — and bringing untold bloodshed at the hands of callous men such as Velasquez, who is nicknamed Popeye.
Armed cops guarding 105 tonnes of marijuana seized from Mexican drug cartels
During their knife-edge discussion, Foxy tried to explain that as a former member of the Special Boat Service who served in Afghanistan, he had only killed for his country.
But he had to tread a fine line with Jekyll-and-Hyde killer Velasquez, who claimed he was reformed man but has since been re-arrested on extortion charges. Foxy said later: "We had this conversation and there was a rapport because there had to be — I didn't want to p**s him off. He's charismatic but he's a lunatic.
"The weird thing about him is how much he still worships Escobar. He still says he loves him. But Escobar ran a business that made him the most powerful man on the planet, and Popeye was his right-hand man."
Jason Fox wore body armour for his foray into the deadly drug cartels' territory in Acapulco, Mexico
Play Video
Trailer for Narcos season three which portrays life after Pablo Escobar
Escobar's reign of terror in the Eighties and Nineties, chronicled in the 2015 Netflix TV series Narcos, saw him become the richest criminal in history, with an estimated wealth of £23billion, before Colombian National Police shot him dead in 1993.
But as Foxy discovered, since Escobar's death, the dark heart of drug smuggling has now shifted to Mexico.
As the number of rival Mexican drug cartels has multiplied and spread throughout the country in the past 12 years, 200,000 people have "disappeared" — which almost invariably means murdered.
Despite the Mexican government claiming to be cracking down, the most notorious cartel of them all, the Sinaloa, is now considered to be the biggest crime organisation on the planet.
Cartels are using dark methods such as hanging people from bridges to disembowelling them to send out warningsI
NSTAGRAM/JASON CARL FOX
Last year was Mexico's most violent ever, with 29,168 murders — and those were just the ones that were reported.
Despite his military experience, nothing could have prepared Foxy for Mexico's deadliest city, Acapulco — a battleground for around 20 competing cartels, with the second highest murder rate in the world.
In one scene, Foxy joins police as they investigate something suspicious dumped in the street.
What initially looks like rubbish turns out to be the latest casualty of the local turf war, with his severed limbs, head and penis left strewn across the road.
Pablo Escobar ordered John Jairo Velasquez to kill the love of his life Wendy Chavarriaga Gil after hearing a recording of her betraying his boss
Even more shocking is the discovery that those who butchered him were probably boys, the latest recruits of the drug cartels.
Foxy, also known to Channel 4 viewers for SAS: Who Dares Wins, said:
"The hitmen of today are now 14 or 15-year-olds doing all that morbid stuff.
"I've experienced some gruesome things but seeing that body was the most shocked I'd been. It was the thought behind it that's most harrowing. Someone's gone about doing that to someone in a chop house — they'd be all decked out, then they'd drag them in there and let them loose.
"They can use anything from knives to axes and angle grinders. That's way darker than any war or fighting scenario I've faced."
Pablo Escobar's reign of terror in South America is chronicled in the 2015 Netflix series Narcos
Rival Mexican cartels are using increasingly dark calling cards, ranging from hanging people from bridges to disembowelling them and using their innards to spell out warning messages.
Foxy met one Sinaloa cartel henchman, El Guero. He agreed to be interviewed only if he wore a mask and would not be not asked certain questions. Not only did Foxy suspect the man was high on drugs, but there was a hairy moment when something was lost in translation and the interviewee thought he had been asked a forbidden question.
( years ago, cartel employees were discouraged from using the product )
Foxy said: "That was the most scared I'd been throughout the whole visit. They said, 'Be under no illusions, if you f*** this up we're going to bury you in the desert.'
Hitman Wolf Boy was still at school where he was ordered to murder his first victim
"He had his pistol out and we were just stood there, all looking at each other. My mouth went dry.
"My first ever interview I'd done in front of a camera was with this hitman in Mexico, speaking a different language. Tellingly, a few weeks later we found out he'd been shot and killed." Another Sinaloan gunman chuckled menacingly as he told Foxy: "I like being a mother- f***er. I haven't killed a reporter or someone like you — but the bad thing is, I'd like to."
But not all the henchman revelled in being evil. Jason met young Texan Rosalio Reta — nicknamed Wolf Boy — who seemed to regret his past with the drug smugglers. He had been jailed for life for committing 30 murders after being enlisted by the Mexican Gulf cartel aged 13. His initiation ceremony involved shooting a man.
Jason Fox spoke to Cartel leaders for Channel 4's Meet the Drug Lords: Inside The Real Narcos
Former Marine Jason Fox spoke to federal police about how they are fighting a war against drugs in Mexico
He said: "These people took me to the person in charge. He pulled out a handgun and told me to kill the person kneeling in front of him — and I just shot him.
"Then he said he'd put me on his payroll. He said, 'Go back to school. I'll call you when I need you.'"
Wolf Boy explained that just as Foxy had trained with the SAS, he quickly got the same education in how to kill with guns.
He added: "You practise with paper targets, we practised with live targets, rival cartel members. They used to be like cattle for the slaughterhouse.
"There was a house they'd take them to and they'd say, 'If you make it out alive we'll give you your freedom,' and they'd throw you in there." Wolf Boy also tortured the cartel's enemies to reveal information.
He said: "I've done simple stuff like pulling teeth out or cutting fingers off, then start cooking them alive. You always got them to talk."
Though it is all highly shocking, Foxy was most disturbed by the poverty of many Mexicans, which meant some felt they had no choice but to turn to drug gangs to survive.
And as Western countries still demand cocaine and heroin, the drug war can only get worse.
Jason Fox says he had 'rapport' with Escobar's 'reformed' former hitman
Foxy said: "It's such a difficult war to fight because there's a demand there and very poor parts of the world that are being taken advantage of by organised crime. "And the fact is that if we neglect those parts of the world then they'll always be taken advantage of."
Meet The Drug Lords: Inside The Real Narcos is on Channel 4, 9pm, August 2.
Play Video
Footage appears to show tourists snorting cocaine off Pablo Escobar's grave in insensitive new trend
CRIME STATS
200,000 people killed in Mexico since 2006
29,000 murders in the country in 2017 alone
25-30 tonnes of cocaine imported annually to the UK
£72 is average price of one gram of cocaine in UK
£10.7bn cost to UK each of drug trafficking
35 bodies of members of the Los Zetas drug cartel were abandoned in front of a Mexico shopping mall in 2011
Figures reveal that 200,000 people have been killed in Mexico since 2006, with 25,000 of them in 2017 alone
End
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
AZMEX EXTRA 23-7-18
AZMEX EXTRA 23 JUL 2018
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/decomisan-en-matamoros-18-mdd-armas-y-cocaina
Note: story & photo at link. Spanish.
End
http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/estados/decomisan-en-matamoros-18-mdd-armas-y-cocaina
Note: story & photo at link. Spanish.
End
AZMEX UPDATE 23-7-18
AZMEX UPDATE 23 JUL 2018
Mexico sees 16 percent rise in murders in 1st half of 2018
Mark Stevenson, Associated Press
Updated 1:00 pm CDT, Monday, July 23, 2018
https://www.lmtonline.com/news/crime/article/Mexico-sees-16-percent-rise-in-murders-in-1st-13097236.php?utm_campaign=hpborder
Forensics place numbers by evidence near the body of a woman who was found dead between two cars parked outside a restaurant in Acapulco, Mexico, Sunday, July 22, 2018. Homicides in Mexico rose by 16 percent in the first half of 2018, as the country again broke its own records for violence.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Homicides in Mexico rose by 16 percent in the first half of 2018, as the country again broke its own records for violence.
The Interior Department said over the weekend there were 15,973 homicides in the first six months of the year, compared to 13,751 killings in the same period of 2017.
The number is the highest since comparable records began being kept in 1997, including the peak year of Mexico's drug war in 2011.
At current levels, the department's measure would put national homicides at 22 per 100,000 population by the end of the year — near the levels of Brazil and Colombia at 27 per 100,000.
Security analyst Alejandro Hope noted "the figures are horrible, but there are some signs that are halfway encouraging."
For example, the growth in homicides seems to be flattening out; murders were up only about 4 percent compared to the second half of 2017. "The curve may be flattening out," Hope noted, though he cautioned it is too early to tell.
Some areas, like the northern border state of Baja California, showed big jumps in murder rates, which others saw sharp drops.
Baja California, home to the border city of Tijuana, saw 1,463 homicides in the first half of the year, a 44 percent increase over the same period of 2017.
Authorities have attributed the spate of killings to battles between the Jalisco and Sinaloa drug cartels for control of trafficking routes in Baja California. The state is now Mexico's second most violent, with a homicide rate for the first six months of the year equivalent to 71 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
By comparison, Honduras and El Salvador — some of the deadliest countries in the world — have homicide rates of around 60 per 100,000.
Mexico's most dangerous state is Colima, on the Pacific coast, which saw a 27-percent rise in killings and now has a homicide rate of about 80 per 100,000. The Jalisco cartel is also active there.
The central state of Guanajuato, home to the colonial city of San Miguel Allende, saw a 122-percent increase in homicides, which were running at a rate of about 40 per 100,000. Authorities say much of the killing is related to gangs of fuel thieves who drill taps into government pipelines.
But in Baja California Sur, home to the resorts like La Paz and Los Cabos, a stepped-up police presence apparently helped reduce killings. The 125 homicides in the state were less than half the number registered in the first six months of 2017 and a quarter the number in the last half of 2017. Extra police and troops were sent in after warring drug gangs increased killings in the state in 2017.
Hope noted that in about half of Mexico's 32 states and the capital, murder rates didn't rise much or at all. "Now the growth is becoming concentrated" in some areas.
It is hard to tell why growth in homicide rates seem to have tapered off in historically violent states like Guerrero, which is home to more than a dozen gangs and is a main growing area for opium poppies. "The growth in the use of fentanyl could be reducing the harvest of opium poppies, and that could be having an effect" on murder rates, Hope said.
Farmers in Guerrero say prices for opium paste have dropped to unprofitable levels because drug cartels are substituting it for cheaper, easier to obtain synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Still, not all of Mexico's resort areas fared as well as Baja California Sur.
The Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, home to resorts like Cancun, Tulum and Cozumel, saw homicides rise by 132 percent, to the equivalent of about 35 killings per 100,000.
The state accounts for almost half of Mexico's national tourism income.
And Mexico has seen international resorts like Acapulco and Zihuatanejo dragged down by a reputation for violence in the past.
"The can stop it (violence in Quintana Roo), but they have to take care of it very quickly," Hope said.
END
Mexico sees 16 percent rise in murders in 1st half of 2018
Mark Stevenson, Associated Press
Updated 1:00 pm CDT, Monday, July 23, 2018
https://www.lmtonline.com/news/crime/article/Mexico-sees-16-percent-rise-in-murders-in-1st-13097236.php?utm_campaign=hpborder
Forensics place numbers by evidence near the body of a woman who was found dead between two cars parked outside a restaurant in Acapulco, Mexico, Sunday, July 22, 2018. Homicides in Mexico rose by 16 percent in the first half of 2018, as the country again broke its own records for violence.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Homicides in Mexico rose by 16 percent in the first half of 2018, as the country again broke its own records for violence.
The Interior Department said over the weekend there were 15,973 homicides in the first six months of the year, compared to 13,751 killings in the same period of 2017.
The number is the highest since comparable records began being kept in 1997, including the peak year of Mexico's drug war in 2011.
At current levels, the department's measure would put national homicides at 22 per 100,000 population by the end of the year — near the levels of Brazil and Colombia at 27 per 100,000.
Security analyst Alejandro Hope noted "the figures are horrible, but there are some signs that are halfway encouraging."
For example, the growth in homicides seems to be flattening out; murders were up only about 4 percent compared to the second half of 2017. "The curve may be flattening out," Hope noted, though he cautioned it is too early to tell.
Some areas, like the northern border state of Baja California, showed big jumps in murder rates, which others saw sharp drops.
Baja California, home to the border city of Tijuana, saw 1,463 homicides in the first half of the year, a 44 percent increase over the same period of 2017.
Authorities have attributed the spate of killings to battles between the Jalisco and Sinaloa drug cartels for control of trafficking routes in Baja California. The state is now Mexico's second most violent, with a homicide rate for the first six months of the year equivalent to 71 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
By comparison, Honduras and El Salvador — some of the deadliest countries in the world — have homicide rates of around 60 per 100,000.
Mexico's most dangerous state is Colima, on the Pacific coast, which saw a 27-percent rise in killings and now has a homicide rate of about 80 per 100,000. The Jalisco cartel is also active there.
The central state of Guanajuato, home to the colonial city of San Miguel Allende, saw a 122-percent increase in homicides, which were running at a rate of about 40 per 100,000. Authorities say much of the killing is related to gangs of fuel thieves who drill taps into government pipelines.
But in Baja California Sur, home to the resorts like La Paz and Los Cabos, a stepped-up police presence apparently helped reduce killings. The 125 homicides in the state were less than half the number registered in the first six months of 2017 and a quarter the number in the last half of 2017. Extra police and troops were sent in after warring drug gangs increased killings in the state in 2017.
Hope noted that in about half of Mexico's 32 states and the capital, murder rates didn't rise much or at all. "Now the growth is becoming concentrated" in some areas.
It is hard to tell why growth in homicide rates seem to have tapered off in historically violent states like Guerrero, which is home to more than a dozen gangs and is a main growing area for opium poppies. "The growth in the use of fentanyl could be reducing the harvest of opium poppies, and that could be having an effect" on murder rates, Hope said.
Farmers in Guerrero say prices for opium paste have dropped to unprofitable levels because drug cartels are substituting it for cheaper, easier to obtain synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
Still, not all of Mexico's resort areas fared as well as Baja California Sur.
The Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, home to resorts like Cancun, Tulum and Cozumel, saw homicides rise by 132 percent, to the equivalent of about 35 killings per 100,000.
The state accounts for almost half of Mexico's national tourism income.
And Mexico has seen international resorts like Acapulco and Zihuatanejo dragged down by a reputation for violence in the past.
"The can stop it (violence in Quintana Roo), but they have to take care of it very quickly," Hope said.
END
AZMEX SPECIAL 22-7-18
AZMEX SPECIAL 22 JUL 2018.
Note: sometimes there is good news out of Mexico. Events like this just usually doesn't get any media. Photos at link
Thx
Triple gold for Mexico in sports shooting
Gabriela Martinez, Daniel Urquiza and the men's 50-meter pistol team, climbed to the top of the podium in their respective tests
07/22/2018 13:09 Redacción
https://www.excelsior.com.mx/adrenalina/triple-oro-para-mexico-en-tiro-deportivo/1253877
Gabriela Martínez climbed to the top of the podium in the air rifle test at 10 meters. (@CONADE)
MEXICO CITY
Mexico won three gold medals and one silver in sports shooting this Sunday morning.
The men's 50-meter pistol team climbed to the top of the podium by accumulating 1055 points in the team event beating Cuba and Guatemala.
While in the individual Daniel Urquiza was the best shooter in the same test with a score of 534.
The silver went to the Guatemalan Albino Jiménez and the bronze went to Guillermo Pías of Cuba.
The Mexican Gabriela Martinez came into action in the air rifle to 10 meters to finish in first place with 244.8 points,
followed by the Salvadoran Ana Ramírez
For its part, the women's team consisting of Eréndira Barba, Gabriela Martínez and Sofía Hernández won the silver medal
in the air rifle match at 10 meters, accumulating 1839.1 points, 10 less than Cuba, which achieved the first place.
The podium was completed by the Guatemalans.
Today will also be the air rifle match to 10 meters individual in which Mexico will seek to climb again to the top of the podium.
With this result, Mexico reached 27 gold medals after the delegation won in the morning in rowing, equestrian and taekwondo.
cmb
Note: sometimes there is good news out of Mexico. Events like this just usually doesn't get any media. Photos at link
Thx
Triple gold for Mexico in sports shooting
Gabriela Martinez, Daniel Urquiza and the men's 50-meter pistol team, climbed to the top of the podium in their respective tests
07/22/2018 13:09 Redacción
https://www.excelsior.com.mx/adrenalina/triple-oro-para-mexico-en-tiro-deportivo/1253877
Gabriela Martínez climbed to the top of the podium in the air rifle test at 10 meters. (@CONADE)
MEXICO CITY
Mexico won three gold medals and one silver in sports shooting this Sunday morning.
The men's 50-meter pistol team climbed to the top of the podium by accumulating 1055 points in the team event beating Cuba and Guatemala.
While in the individual Daniel Urquiza was the best shooter in the same test with a score of 534.
The silver went to the Guatemalan Albino Jiménez and the bronze went to Guillermo Pías of Cuba.
The Mexican Gabriela Martinez came into action in the air rifle to 10 meters to finish in first place with 244.8 points,
followed by the Salvadoran Ana Ramírez
For its part, the women's team consisting of Eréndira Barba, Gabriela Martínez and Sofía Hernández won the silver medal
in the air rifle match at 10 meters, accumulating 1839.1 points, 10 less than Cuba, which achieved the first place.
The podium was completed by the Guatemalans.
Today will also be the air rifle match to 10 meters individual in which Mexico will seek to climb again to the top of the podium.
With this result, Mexico reached 27 gold medals after the delegation won in the morning in rowing, equestrian and taekwondo.
cmb
Monday, July 23, 2018
AZMEX POLICY 22-7-18
AZMEX POLICY 22 JUL 2018
Washington takes notice: Dannels offered seat on Homeland Security advisory council
By Emily Ellis emily.ellis@myheraldreview.com Jul 20, 2018
https://www.douglasdispatch.com/news/washington-takes-notice-dannels-offered-seat-on-homeland-security-advisory/article_03171e2a-8ca4-11e8-b408-6f8784960740.html
Washington takes notice: Dannels offered seat on Homeland Security advisory council
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, center, has been offered an appointed seat on a Department of Homeland Security advisory council in Washington, D.C. He will meet President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday to discuss the appointment.
MARK LEVY HERALD/REVIEW
The Department of Homeland Security is getting a new voice, and it's coming from Cochise County.
Sheriff Mark Dannels has been offered an appointed seat on the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council in Washington, D.C., following recognition of the successful border-security initiatives carried out by the Cochise County Sheriff's Office in partnership with other local agencies.
Dannels is traveling to the capital on Sunday, and is scheduled to meet with DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and President Donald Trump to discuss the appointment the following day.
More inside
It was during a tour of the Arizona border in June that Nielsen first brought up the the idea of bringing Dannels on to the council after meeting with him in Douglas, said Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.
"After her visit, it was determined that he could be a voice in the community and a part of that advisory council," said Capas. "It's typically made up of members of the DHS and other federal agencies."
High-ranking military officers and executives currently fill the majority of the seats at the council, which made national headlines this week after four members resigned over the current administration's hard-line immigration policies, reported the Washington Post.
Dannels said enforcing immigration policy was the responsibility of federal law enforcement, not local.
"I believe in staying in our lanes when it comes to immigration policy," he said.
The Herald/Review reached out to DHS for a comment on the appointment, and was told the agency's procedure for media requests takes days to process. However, Dannels is the first local sheriff ever to have been offered a seat on the council, according to a CCSO media advisory.
"What I believe it does is bring this community voice into a bureaucracy," said Dannels. "I think that voice gets lost, and I'm going to bring that voice to these folks who sometimes forget what the community is all about."
Cochise County's innovative border security initiatives, many of which have gained national recognition, were what put the sheriff's office on the White House's radar. Among them are the Borders to Backyards program, in which sheriffs from throughout the U.S. traveled to the county to get an overview of the drug smuggling issue and to tour the border, along with implementing a ranch patrol program.
Other programs include a project to install cameras along known smuggling routes in Cochise County, which is managed by the Southeastern Arizona Border Region Enforcement Team, a group of DPS border strike force members and members of the Cochise County Sheriff's Office.
Out of the 70 percent apprehension rate based on the camera system, there is a 100 percent conviction rate for criminal drug smuggling in the county, said Capas.
Another nationally recognized initiative was Operation Immediate Consequences, an effort by the county attorney and the sheriff's office to try juvenile drug smugglers as adults. The program drastically reduced the number of youth smugglers in Cochise County, Capas said.
"This border plan in Cochise County is a community-based border plan," said Dannels. "If it's working, lets take it beyond that. This credit goes to all layers of government.
"I couldn't do it without border patrol, our governor, and the community in this county."
Cochise County rancher John Ladd, whose property sits along the U.S.-Mexico border, said he was glad to hear that DHS had offered Dannels the appointment.
"I think that's really smart, to have Homeland Security finally figure out that a border sheriff understands what needs to happen," said Ladd, who also noted that he would like to see the federal government give local law enforcement more funds for border security. "Our sheriffs have done a whole lot in the county — and the prosecutors and the attorney — to step up and try to enforce the law."
Dannels said he looks forward to representing the interests of local communities and law enforcement as an adviser, by "having a voice at the table saying that you have to take care of our local governments that are working to make your communities safer."
While Dannels hasn't been officially appointed to the council yet, he has been endorsed by the National Sheriffs Association, the secretary of homeland security, and other sheriffs' coalitions.
He expects to receive a confirmation next week.
"I love serving Cochise County, and the best part of going to Washington, D.C. is coming back to where I live," said Dannels. "Community always comes first to me."
END
Washington takes notice: Dannels offered seat on Homeland Security advisory council
By Emily Ellis emily.ellis@myheraldreview.com Jul 20, 2018
https://www.douglasdispatch.com/news/washington-takes-notice-dannels-offered-seat-on-homeland-security-advisory/article_03171e2a-8ca4-11e8-b408-6f8784960740.html
Washington takes notice: Dannels offered seat on Homeland Security advisory council
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, center, has been offered an appointed seat on a Department of Homeland Security advisory council in Washington, D.C. He will meet President Donald Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday to discuss the appointment.
MARK LEVY HERALD/REVIEW
The Department of Homeland Security is getting a new voice, and it's coming from Cochise County.
Sheriff Mark Dannels has been offered an appointed seat on the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council in Washington, D.C., following recognition of the successful border-security initiatives carried out by the Cochise County Sheriff's Office in partnership with other local agencies.
Dannels is traveling to the capital on Sunday, and is scheduled to meet with DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and President Donald Trump to discuss the appointment the following day.
More inside
It was during a tour of the Arizona border in June that Nielsen first brought up the the idea of bringing Dannels on to the council after meeting with him in Douglas, said Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.
"After her visit, it was determined that he could be a voice in the community and a part of that advisory council," said Capas. "It's typically made up of members of the DHS and other federal agencies."
High-ranking military officers and executives currently fill the majority of the seats at the council, which made national headlines this week after four members resigned over the current administration's hard-line immigration policies, reported the Washington Post.
Dannels said enforcing immigration policy was the responsibility of federal law enforcement, not local.
"I believe in staying in our lanes when it comes to immigration policy," he said.
The Herald/Review reached out to DHS for a comment on the appointment, and was told the agency's procedure for media requests takes days to process. However, Dannels is the first local sheriff ever to have been offered a seat on the council, according to a CCSO media advisory.
"What I believe it does is bring this community voice into a bureaucracy," said Dannels. "I think that voice gets lost, and I'm going to bring that voice to these folks who sometimes forget what the community is all about."
Cochise County's innovative border security initiatives, many of which have gained national recognition, were what put the sheriff's office on the White House's radar. Among them are the Borders to Backyards program, in which sheriffs from throughout the U.S. traveled to the county to get an overview of the drug smuggling issue and to tour the border, along with implementing a ranch patrol program.
Other programs include a project to install cameras along known smuggling routes in Cochise County, which is managed by the Southeastern Arizona Border Region Enforcement Team, a group of DPS border strike force members and members of the Cochise County Sheriff's Office.
Out of the 70 percent apprehension rate based on the camera system, there is a 100 percent conviction rate for criminal drug smuggling in the county, said Capas.
Another nationally recognized initiative was Operation Immediate Consequences, an effort by the county attorney and the sheriff's office to try juvenile drug smugglers as adults. The program drastically reduced the number of youth smugglers in Cochise County, Capas said.
"This border plan in Cochise County is a community-based border plan," said Dannels. "If it's working, lets take it beyond that. This credit goes to all layers of government.
"I couldn't do it without border patrol, our governor, and the community in this county."
Cochise County rancher John Ladd, whose property sits along the U.S.-Mexico border, said he was glad to hear that DHS had offered Dannels the appointment.
"I think that's really smart, to have Homeland Security finally figure out that a border sheriff understands what needs to happen," said Ladd, who also noted that he would like to see the federal government give local law enforcement more funds for border security. "Our sheriffs have done a whole lot in the county — and the prosecutors and the attorney — to step up and try to enforce the law."
Dannels said he looks forward to representing the interests of local communities and law enforcement as an adviser, by "having a voice at the table saying that you have to take care of our local governments that are working to make your communities safer."
While Dannels hasn't been officially appointed to the council yet, he has been endorsed by the National Sheriffs Association, the secretary of homeland security, and other sheriffs' coalitions.
He expects to receive a confirmation next week.
"I love serving Cochise County, and the best part of going to Washington, D.C. is coming back to where I live," said Dannels. "Community always comes first to me."
END
AZMEX UPDATE 21-7-18
AZMEX UPDATE 21 JUL 2018
Note: San Luis Rio Colorado just south of Yuma, AZ. 1 Kilo = approx. 2.2 US pounds.
Thx
PGR OPENS RESEARCH FOLDER FOR THE SEIZURE OF MORE THAN 400 KILOS OF DIVERSE DRUGS
http://www.elregionaldesonora.com.mx/noticia/74924
DPE / 3065/18.
The Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), initiated a research folder for the provision of 452 kilos 588 grams of various drugs, seized in San Luis Río Colorado.
According to the research folder, elements of SEDENA, (Mex. Army) in coordination with elements of the State Public Security Police, at the "Cucapah" checkpoint, located on Federal Highway number 2, kilometer 176.5, in Sonoyta- San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, detained Luis Miguel "T", aboard a truck tract, from Guadalajara, Jalisco and bound for Tijuana, Baja California.
At the moment of inspecting the unit, the military and state elements located and seized the following:
737 plastic bags containing altogether 342 kilos 300 grams of methamphetamine;
41 packages containing altogether 42 kilos 520 grams of fentanyl;
41 packages containing altogether 42 kilos 700 grams of cocaine;
26 packages containing altogether 25 kilos 068 grams of heroin,
19,715 pills of fentanyl;
175 benzodiazepine capsules
The drugs were placed at the disposal of the Federal Public Ministry, who continues with the integration of the corresponding investigation folder, for the offense against health, in its mode of transportation, against Luis Miguel "T".
END
Photos at link:
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=115495
Three officials killed in less than 24 hours
One of the victims was the elected mayor of Buenavista, Michoacán
by Tribuna Editorial
July 21, 2018 · 11:22 hs
https://www.tribuna.com.mx/seguridad/Ansinan-a-tres-funcionarios-en-menos-de-24-horas-20180721-0020.html
Security in the Mexican Republic | Internet
MORE IN SECURITY
The attack occurred on Friday at approximately 11:00 am
Community police in Guerrero shoot tourists; hurt a minor
The individuals tried to victimize the victim with a firearm
Four people arrested for attempted theft on a CDMX property
The incineration destroyed 431 kilos 820 grams of narcotics
PGR destroys more than 400 kilos of various drugs in Hermosillo
Mexico City.- A new violent day in Mexico, where in less than 24 hours three officials were murdered,
two of them elected in the federal elections on July 1.
In the early hours of the morning, the president of the communal property commissariat of the town of San Miguel Chimalapa, state of Oaxaca, José Medel Jiménez, was riddled with bullets by several individuals. In the attack, three other people accompanying the leader were wounded.
Subsequently, in the town of San Martin de las Flores de Abajo, Jalisco state, the elected councilor of the municipality of Tlaquepaque, Zenón Cocula Fierros, was shot dead when he was driving in his vehicle.
Cocula Fierros, from the National Regeneration Movement party, which is part of the Together We Shall History coalition of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was accompanied by his father, who was wounded.
In the afternoon, the elected municipal president of the town of Buenavista, Michoacán, Eliseo Delgado Sánchez was shot.
The politician, also from Juntos Haremos Historia, was murdered in front of the Buenavista Municipal Palace when he left a meeting.
The perpetrators are unknown, as well as the motives for the crimes.
END
Note: San Luis Rio Colorado just south of Yuma, AZ. 1 Kilo = approx. 2.2 US pounds.
Thx
PGR OPENS RESEARCH FOLDER FOR THE SEIZURE OF MORE THAN 400 KILOS OF DIVERSE DRUGS
http://www.elregionaldesonora.com.mx/noticia/74924
DPE / 3065/18.
The Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), initiated a research folder for the provision of 452 kilos 588 grams of various drugs, seized in San Luis Río Colorado.
According to the research folder, elements of SEDENA, (Mex. Army) in coordination with elements of the State Public Security Police, at the "Cucapah" checkpoint, located on Federal Highway number 2, kilometer 176.5, in Sonoyta- San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, detained Luis Miguel "T", aboard a truck tract, from Guadalajara, Jalisco and bound for Tijuana, Baja California.
At the moment of inspecting the unit, the military and state elements located and seized the following:
737 plastic bags containing altogether 342 kilos 300 grams of methamphetamine;
41 packages containing altogether 42 kilos 520 grams of fentanyl;
41 packages containing altogether 42 kilos 700 grams of cocaine;
26 packages containing altogether 25 kilos 068 grams of heroin,
19,715 pills of fentanyl;
175 benzodiazepine capsules
The drugs were placed at the disposal of the Federal Public Ministry, who continues with the integration of the corresponding investigation folder, for the offense against health, in its mode of transportation, against Luis Miguel "T".
END
Photos at link:
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=115495
Three officials killed in less than 24 hours
One of the victims was the elected mayor of Buenavista, Michoacán
by Tribuna Editorial
July 21, 2018 · 11:22 hs
https://www.tribuna.com.mx/seguridad/Ansinan-a-tres-funcionarios-en-menos-de-24-horas-20180721-0020.html
Security in the Mexican Republic | Internet
MORE IN SECURITY
The attack occurred on Friday at approximately 11:00 am
Community police in Guerrero shoot tourists; hurt a minor
The individuals tried to victimize the victim with a firearm
Four people arrested for attempted theft on a CDMX property
The incineration destroyed 431 kilos 820 grams of narcotics
PGR destroys more than 400 kilos of various drugs in Hermosillo
Mexico City.- A new violent day in Mexico, where in less than 24 hours three officials were murdered,
two of them elected in the federal elections on July 1.
In the early hours of the morning, the president of the communal property commissariat of the town of San Miguel Chimalapa, state of Oaxaca, José Medel Jiménez, was riddled with bullets by several individuals. In the attack, three other people accompanying the leader were wounded.
Subsequently, in the town of San Martin de las Flores de Abajo, Jalisco state, the elected councilor of the municipality of Tlaquepaque, Zenón Cocula Fierros, was shot dead when he was driving in his vehicle.
Cocula Fierros, from the National Regeneration Movement party, which is part of the Together We Shall History coalition of President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was accompanied by his father, who was wounded.
In the afternoon, the elected municipal president of the town of Buenavista, Michoacán, Eliseo Delgado Sánchez was shot.
The politician, also from Juntos Haremos Historia, was murdered in front of the Buenavista Municipal Palace when he left a meeting.
The perpetrators are unknown, as well as the motives for the crimes.
END
AZMEX I3 21-7-18
AZMEX I3 21 JUL 2018
Note: as always, "immigrants" means illegal immigrants.
Thx
Immigrants face risks on their way through Mexico
Details Published on Saturday, July 21, 2018,
Written by Special
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=115541
CDMX
The Pacific route to the US, where they would move through the territory of the Sinaloa cartel, is the least dangerous.
Immigrants who cross Mexico, whether to stay in the country or to reach the United States, face many dangers, especially from local criminals, gangs and transnational criminal organizations.
This is explained by the report 'Organized Crime and Central American Migration in Mexico', prepared by the Robert Strauss Center of the University of Texas, published in June 2018.
The report uses information from the Central American Migration Risk Database (CAMRD), composed of crimes committed against immigrants that were reported in the press. The center Robert Strauss explained that the cases were confirmed by reports from various organizations.
Among the conclusions, they point out that most of the threats to immigrants are on the eastern route, the shortest route to reach Texas, United States.
The authors of the report list the main dangers faced by immigrants who cross Mexico on their way to the United States.
As they say, the three types of attackers described (local actors, gangs and transnational criminal organizations) commit all kinds of crimes, although in some cases they are more specialized in some kind.
Trafficking in persons: Criminal organizations, mainly the larger ones, can exploit migrant workers or work their way through Mexico,
according to the report.
Kidnappings: Criminal organizations take advantage of immigrants and call relatives in the United States
or their countries of origin to get money, the report said.
Extortion: The report also ensures that criminal actors, mainly transnational organizations and gangs, sometimes force immigrants to pay to move to a specific area or take some form of transportation.
Robbery: This is a very common crime in the migratory routes, both on foot and by train, according to the data of this center.
Assaults: These types of crimes do not usually go alone, but are accompanied by other crimes, according to this report.
Sexual attacks: The main victims of rapes are usually women traveling through Mexico, either on foot or by train.
Abandonment: Immigrants sometimes pay traffickers to guide them through Mexico and the border with the United States.
But sometimes these smugglers abandon them to collect their money, which entails 'important risks for immigrants',
whether attacks or risks of being unprotected under extreme weather conditions.
IMMIGRANTS COLLABORATE WITH THE CRIMINALS.
In addition, the report explains that some immigrants agree to interact with these criminal organizations to 'facilitate their travels', something that exposes them to greater risks should the agreement break, explain the authors.
According to the report, there are three types of crimes that immigrants usually commit in relation to criminal groups: trafficking in persons, payment to criminal groups or drug trafficking in exchange for the right to cross the border. In these cases, the report ensures that if immigrants 'can not complete the trip, their guide leaves them behind'.
MOST DANGEROUS PLACES FOR IMMIGRANTS
The compendium of data on crimes committed against immigrants crossing Mexico gives information on where these crimes occur and, therefore, on the places that are most dangerous to them.
According to the report, most of the crimes occurred on trains, followed by trucks or cars and, thirdly, on buses.
Where less violations occur is in residences and private properties.
As regards the locations by the Mexican states, the northern and southern borders of Mexico turn out to be the most dangerous for immigrants. Most of the attacks against them between 2008 and 2018 occurred on the eastern route of Mexico, in the states of Tamaulipas and Chiapas, according to the report.
'This suggests that the Pacific route to the United States, where immigrants would mainly move through territory controlled by the Sinaloa cartel, is generally less dangerous than the Gulf of Mexico route, the Zetas' territory and the Gulf cartel', Detail the report.
The report encourages Mexican authorities to improve the protection of immigrants crossing Mexico to, in addition to preventing crimes,
deprive criminal organizations of an illegal source of wealth.
The report would conclude with a series of recommendations on the matter for the Federal Police of Mexico,
but these have not been made public for security reasons, the report said.
End
Note: as always, "immigrants" means illegal immigrants.
Thx
Immigrants face risks on their way through Mexico
Details Published on Saturday, July 21, 2018,
Written by Special
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=115541
CDMX
The Pacific route to the US, where they would move through the territory of the Sinaloa cartel, is the least dangerous.
Immigrants who cross Mexico, whether to stay in the country or to reach the United States, face many dangers, especially from local criminals, gangs and transnational criminal organizations.
This is explained by the report 'Organized Crime and Central American Migration in Mexico', prepared by the Robert Strauss Center of the University of Texas, published in June 2018.
The report uses information from the Central American Migration Risk Database (CAMRD), composed of crimes committed against immigrants that were reported in the press. The center Robert Strauss explained that the cases were confirmed by reports from various organizations.
Among the conclusions, they point out that most of the threats to immigrants are on the eastern route, the shortest route to reach Texas, United States.
The authors of the report list the main dangers faced by immigrants who cross Mexico on their way to the United States.
As they say, the three types of attackers described (local actors, gangs and transnational criminal organizations) commit all kinds of crimes, although in some cases they are more specialized in some kind.
Trafficking in persons: Criminal organizations, mainly the larger ones, can exploit migrant workers or work their way through Mexico,
according to the report.
Kidnappings: Criminal organizations take advantage of immigrants and call relatives in the United States
or their countries of origin to get money, the report said.
Extortion: The report also ensures that criminal actors, mainly transnational organizations and gangs, sometimes force immigrants to pay to move to a specific area or take some form of transportation.
Robbery: This is a very common crime in the migratory routes, both on foot and by train, according to the data of this center.
Assaults: These types of crimes do not usually go alone, but are accompanied by other crimes, according to this report.
Sexual attacks: The main victims of rapes are usually women traveling through Mexico, either on foot or by train.
Abandonment: Immigrants sometimes pay traffickers to guide them through Mexico and the border with the United States.
But sometimes these smugglers abandon them to collect their money, which entails 'important risks for immigrants',
whether attacks or risks of being unprotected under extreme weather conditions.
IMMIGRANTS COLLABORATE WITH THE CRIMINALS.
In addition, the report explains that some immigrants agree to interact with these criminal organizations to 'facilitate their travels', something that exposes them to greater risks should the agreement break, explain the authors.
According to the report, there are three types of crimes that immigrants usually commit in relation to criminal groups: trafficking in persons, payment to criminal groups or drug trafficking in exchange for the right to cross the border. In these cases, the report ensures that if immigrants 'can not complete the trip, their guide leaves them behind'.
MOST DANGEROUS PLACES FOR IMMIGRANTS
The compendium of data on crimes committed against immigrants crossing Mexico gives information on where these crimes occur and, therefore, on the places that are most dangerous to them.
According to the report, most of the crimes occurred on trains, followed by trucks or cars and, thirdly, on buses.
Where less violations occur is in residences and private properties.
As regards the locations by the Mexican states, the northern and southern borders of Mexico turn out to be the most dangerous for immigrants. Most of the attacks against them between 2008 and 2018 occurred on the eastern route of Mexico, in the states of Tamaulipas and Chiapas, according to the report.
'This suggests that the Pacific route to the United States, where immigrants would mainly move through territory controlled by the Sinaloa cartel, is generally less dangerous than the Gulf of Mexico route, the Zetas' territory and the Gulf cartel', Detail the report.
The report encourages Mexican authorities to improve the protection of immigrants crossing Mexico to, in addition to preventing crimes,
deprive criminal organizations of an illegal source of wealth.
The report would conclude with a series of recommendations on the matter for the Federal Police of Mexico,
but these have not been made public for security reasons, the report said.
End
Friday, July 20, 2018
AZMEX NICARAGUA SPECIAL 19-7-18
AZMEX NICARAGUA SPECIAL 19 JUL 2018
Note: From La Jornada, Mexico.
Nicaragua commemorates anniversary of Sandinista revolution amid protests
Reuters | Thursday, 19 Jul 2018 09:27
http://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2018/07/19/nicaragua-conmemora-aniversario-de-revolucion-sandinista-en-medio-de-protestas-5034.html
Paramilitaries clean the floor in front of a painting that says "seller of Ortega's native land", in the neighborhood of Monimbó in Masaya. Photo AFP
Managua Nicaragua celebrates on Thursday the 39th anniversary of the victory of the Sandinista Revolution but, after three months of repression of the protests against President Daniel Ortega that have left almost 300 dead, more and more Nicaraguans compare the ex-guerrilla with the brutal dictator (Somoza) who was overthrown in 1979.
Amid claims from the international community for alleged human rights violations by the security forces and paramilitaries, Ortega, a 72-year-old former leftist guerrilla, faces his worst political crisis since taking his third consecutive term in 2017.
"The town is no longer with Ortega," said Arlene Correa, one of the five daughters of Francisco Correa, who was arrested in the week accused of supporting the protests against the president.
"With the human rights violations, the murders, (Ortega) looks more and more like Somoza, people are opening their eyes," she added at the entrance of the El Chipote prison, one of the main torture centers of the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, overthrown in 1979 by the Sandinistas.
A poll by the CID Gallup firm cited Ortega's disapproval by 63 percent in May after winning re-election at the end of 2016 with 72 percent support.
Enough violence
From early on, thousands crowded to reach Bolivar Avenue and locate to hear Ortega's speech, scheduled at the end of the afternoon on a stand located between Lake Xolotlan and a huge silhouette of the Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto Sandino, the leader of the local resistance against the American invasion in the first half of the 20th century.
With the blue and white banner and red and black flags of the Sandinista National Liberation Front - the ruling party - Ortega's allies arrived from all over the small country of 6.2 million inhabitants.
"It was violence, we have suffered years of wars and now to want to return to the same thing," said Alexander Mendoza, a law student, referring to the conflicts that the country waged in the 20th century as the US occupation between 1927 and 1933, the overthrow of Somoza in 1979 and the war of the Contras, financed by the United States between 1981 and 1989.
From the weekend until Tuesday, special police forces supported by paramilitaries sympathetic to Ortega regained control of the last bastions of the opposition protesters in Managua and Masaya, leaving more than a dozen dead in heavy fighting.
Despite the repression, opponents say they will continue to protest until Ortega resigns.
The demonstrations against the Government began in mid-April as a reaction to a reform of the social security system, but they expanded after the violent repression.
Between the demands, the opponents demand by the state control of the mass media, the suspicions of electoral fraud, the manipulation of the justice, the corruption and the intention of Ortega of wanting to establish a "family dictatorship" of the hand of his wife , Vice President Rosario Murillo.
END
Some background, but be aware it from wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars
End
Note: From La Jornada, Mexico.
Nicaragua commemorates anniversary of Sandinista revolution amid protests
Reuters | Thursday, 19 Jul 2018 09:27
http://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2018/07/19/nicaragua-conmemora-aniversario-de-revolucion-sandinista-en-medio-de-protestas-5034.html
Paramilitaries clean the floor in front of a painting that says "seller of Ortega's native land", in the neighborhood of Monimbó in Masaya. Photo AFP
Managua Nicaragua celebrates on Thursday the 39th anniversary of the victory of the Sandinista Revolution but, after three months of repression of the protests against President Daniel Ortega that have left almost 300 dead, more and more Nicaraguans compare the ex-guerrilla with the brutal dictator (Somoza) who was overthrown in 1979.
Amid claims from the international community for alleged human rights violations by the security forces and paramilitaries, Ortega, a 72-year-old former leftist guerrilla, faces his worst political crisis since taking his third consecutive term in 2017.
"The town is no longer with Ortega," said Arlene Correa, one of the five daughters of Francisco Correa, who was arrested in the week accused of supporting the protests against the president.
"With the human rights violations, the murders, (Ortega) looks more and more like Somoza, people are opening their eyes," she added at the entrance of the El Chipote prison, one of the main torture centers of the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza, overthrown in 1979 by the Sandinistas.
A poll by the CID Gallup firm cited Ortega's disapproval by 63 percent in May after winning re-election at the end of 2016 with 72 percent support.
Enough violence
From early on, thousands crowded to reach Bolivar Avenue and locate to hear Ortega's speech, scheduled at the end of the afternoon on a stand located between Lake Xolotlan and a huge silhouette of the Nicaraguan revolutionary Augusto Sandino, the leader of the local resistance against the American invasion in the first half of the 20th century.
With the blue and white banner and red and black flags of the Sandinista National Liberation Front - the ruling party - Ortega's allies arrived from all over the small country of 6.2 million inhabitants.
"It was violence, we have suffered years of wars and now to want to return to the same thing," said Alexander Mendoza, a law student, referring to the conflicts that the country waged in the 20th century as the US occupation between 1927 and 1933, the overthrow of Somoza in 1979 and the war of the Contras, financed by the United States between 1981 and 1989.
From the weekend until Tuesday, special police forces supported by paramilitaries sympathetic to Ortega regained control of the last bastions of the opposition protesters in Managua and Masaya, leaving more than a dozen dead in heavy fighting.
Despite the repression, opponents say they will continue to protest until Ortega resigns.
The demonstrations against the Government began in mid-April as a reaction to a reform of the social security system, but they expanded after the violent repression.
Between the demands, the opponents demand by the state control of the mass media, the suspicions of electoral fraud, the manipulation of the justice, the corruption and the intention of Ortega of wanting to establish a "family dictatorship" of the hand of his wife , Vice President Rosario Murillo.
END
Some background, but be aware it from wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars
End
AZMEX EXTRA 19-7-18
AZMEX EXTRA 19 JUL 2018
Note: a drug bust but also a interesting .38 Super recovered. Photos at link:
Thx
Municipal Police seize 7 kilos of 'crystal'
GH | 07/19/2018 11:42
http://www.frontera.info/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Policiaca/19072018/1358073-Dejan-dos-cadaveres-con-las-manos-atadas-y-con-narcomensaje-en-Tijuana.html
TIJUANA, Baja California (GH)
Approximately seven kilograms of 'crystal' and a firearm, agents of the Municipal Police confiscated from an alleged offender.
The arrest occurred during the first hours of last Wednesday on the Bugambilias street of the Bugambilias subdivision, in the Cerro Colorado delegation.
To that place municipal police arrived in response of a report to the 9-1-1 emergency line, in which they were informed about armed persons in said road.
Once in place, the uniformed personnel observed a white Ford F-150, inside which was a subject who was identified as Victor "N", 26 years old, originally from Tijuana, Baja California.
Photo: Courtesy
During a precautionary search, they found a .38-Super caliber firearm at the subject's waist, while inside the vehicle seven bags with a substance similar to "crystal" were found, each weighing approximately one pound. .
Photo: Courtesy
Due to the above, Víctor "N", together with the seized drugs, was arrested and placed at the disposal of the corresponding Public Ministry Agent, who will determine his legal status.
End
Note: a drug bust but also a interesting .38 Super recovered. Photos at link:
Thx
Municipal Police seize 7 kilos of 'crystal'
GH | 07/19/2018 11:42
http://www.frontera.info/EdicionEnLinea/Notas/Policiaca/19072018/1358073-Dejan-dos-cadaveres-con-las-manos-atadas-y-con-narcomensaje-en-Tijuana.html
TIJUANA, Baja California (GH)
Approximately seven kilograms of 'crystal' and a firearm, agents of the Municipal Police confiscated from an alleged offender.
The arrest occurred during the first hours of last Wednesday on the Bugambilias street of the Bugambilias subdivision, in the Cerro Colorado delegation.
To that place municipal police arrived in response of a report to the 9-1-1 emergency line, in which they were informed about armed persons in said road.
Once in place, the uniformed personnel observed a white Ford F-150, inside which was a subject who was identified as Victor "N", 26 years old, originally from Tijuana, Baja California.
Photo: Courtesy
During a precautionary search, they found a .38-Super caliber firearm at the subject's waist, while inside the vehicle seven bags with a substance similar to "crystal" were found, each weighing approximately one pound. .
Photo: Courtesy
Due to the above, Víctor "N", together with the seized drugs, was arrested and placed at the disposal of the corresponding Public Ministry Agent, who will determine his legal status.
End
Thursday, July 19, 2018
AZMEX NICARAGUA SPECIAL 17-7-18
AZMEX NICARAGUA SPECIAL. 17 JUL 2018
Note: "homemade mortars" ?
Nicaraguan forces violently retake symbolic city
Alfredo Zuniga
https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/us_world/nicaraguan-forces-violently-retake-symbolic-city/article_1be3b6c3-03e7-566e-aa91-e299ffa6b389.html
Chairs and tables lie on their sides at the altar of the Divine Mercy church after it was attacked in Managua, Nicaragua, Sunday, July 15, 2018. Anti-government students took refuge at the church on Friday where they were fired on for hours by police and armed government supporters, which killed two students. The students sought refuge at the church after police forced them out of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, which had been occupied during two months of protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega. On Saturday students left the church and were reunited with their families. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)
Posted: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 5:27 pm | Updated: 5:45 pm, Tue Jul 17, 2018.
Associated Press
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan police and armed pro-government civilians on Tuesday laid siege to and then retook a symbolically important neighborhood that had recently become a center of resistance to President Daniel Ortega's government.
Government forces began advancing on Masaya's Monimbo neighborhood before dawn and had largely regained control of it by the afternoon for the first time since massive protests against Ortega's government began in mid-April.
Youths fired homemade mortars from behind barriers of stacked paving stones pried from streets lined by single-story homes and artisan workshops in the town about 16 miles (26 kilometers) southeast of the capital.
But they were overwhelmingly outgunned by government loyalists who within hours had advanced to the heart of the neighborhood and began posting videos on social media of themselves firing semi-automatic rifles into the air in celebration.
Alvaro Leiva, director of the Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association, said Tuesday that there were preliminary reports of three people killed in the fighting and dozens of wounded. There were also widespread reports of youth hauled away by pro-government fighters.
The same neighborhood's residents rose up against strongman Anastasio Somoza in the late 1970s as part of the Nicaraguan Revolution led in part by Ortega himself. But since protests against cuts to the social security system in mid-April became a broader call for Ortega to leave office, Monimbo had again become a center of the opposition.
Ortega's government has dismissed opponents as delinquents attempting a coup d'etat and wanted to quell unrest in Masaya before Thursday's three-month anniversary of the start of protests across Nicaragua. Thursday is also the 39th anniversary of Liberation Day, which marks the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979 by the Sandinistas.
With gunshots echoing in the background Tuesday morning, a woman who asked only to be identified as Silvia out of safety concerns said she treated wounded victims in a makeshift field clinic.
Silvia, a member of Monimbo's resistance movement, said youth were fighting with homemade mortars to defend the roadblocks erected at the neighborhood's perimeter, but government forces were heavily armed.
"We need the (Organization of American States), the international organizations to stop this massacre," Silvia said. "We're fighting for democracy, for freedom."
Several hours later she said that pro-government "paramilitaries" had control of a good part of the area and that the opposition had fled into the surrounding woods.
Roman Catholic Apostolic Nuncio Stanislaw Sommertag Waldemar said in a recorded message that Nicaragua was experiencing "a tragic moment" and expressed "deep concern for the serious situation in the country." He urged all sides to return to dialogue to seek a peaceful resolution.
Nicaraguan Vice-President Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega's wife, said Monday it was necessary to "clean" Monimbo and Masaya. She described the opposition as "coup plotters, few in number, malignant, sinister, diabolical, satanic and terrorists."
Masaya's police commissioner struck a similarly combative tone.
"The population of Masaya, the population of Monimbo, has asked us to free them from the delinquents and terrorists that have them trapped with their deadly barricades, and we're going to do it at any cost," said commissioner Ramon Avellan.
Gangs of armed men dressed as civilians appeared to be working in coordination with police to remove roadblocks set up by the opposition that have snarled the country's traffic for months. Heavy machinery was brought in to clear streets Tuesday.
Police roadblocks prevented journalists from entering Monimbo.
Last weekend, government-allied forces retook the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua campus in Managua, where students had been holed up.
Managua's auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop Silvio Jose Baez said via Twitter that bullets in Monimbo reached the Maria Magdalena parish where a priest was sheltering inside.
The government says more than 200 people have been killed since the unrest began, but independent rights groups say the number is higher.
On Tuesday, the United Nations human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said, "The appalling loss of life must stop — now."
On Monday, Nicaragua's National Assembly, which is controlled by Ortega's party, approved a law against terrorism.
Colville said that the loosely-worded legislation could be used to target people "who are simply exercising their right to protest."
Francisco Palmieri, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, said via Twitter that the U.S. strongly urges Ortega to not attack Masaya. "Continued gov't-instigated violence and bloodshed in #Nicaragua must end immediately.
The world is watching." (LOL)
Nicaraguan political analyst Oscar Rene Vargas said if the government succeeds in taking control of Masaya
"it would be a tactical victory, but not a strategic one because the rebellion is going to continue internally and on an international level."
——
Sherman reported from Mexico City.
END
Also: http://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2018/07/17/intenso-ataque-de-fuerzas-de-ortega-en-masaya-8802.html
end
Note: "homemade mortars" ?
Nicaraguan forces violently retake symbolic city
Alfredo Zuniga
https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/us_world/nicaraguan-forces-violently-retake-symbolic-city/article_1be3b6c3-03e7-566e-aa91-e299ffa6b389.html
Chairs and tables lie on their sides at the altar of the Divine Mercy church after it was attacked in Managua, Nicaragua, Sunday, July 15, 2018. Anti-government students took refuge at the church on Friday where they were fired on for hours by police and armed government supporters, which killed two students. The students sought refuge at the church after police forced them out of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, which had been occupied during two months of protests against the government of President Daniel Ortega. On Saturday students left the church and were reunited with their families. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)
Posted: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 5:27 pm | Updated: 5:45 pm, Tue Jul 17, 2018.
Associated Press
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan police and armed pro-government civilians on Tuesday laid siege to and then retook a symbolically important neighborhood that had recently become a center of resistance to President Daniel Ortega's government.
Government forces began advancing on Masaya's Monimbo neighborhood before dawn and had largely regained control of it by the afternoon for the first time since massive protests against Ortega's government began in mid-April.
Youths fired homemade mortars from behind barriers of stacked paving stones pried from streets lined by single-story homes and artisan workshops in the town about 16 miles (26 kilometers) southeast of the capital.
But they were overwhelmingly outgunned by government loyalists who within hours had advanced to the heart of the neighborhood and began posting videos on social media of themselves firing semi-automatic rifles into the air in celebration.
Alvaro Leiva, director of the Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association, said Tuesday that there were preliminary reports of three people killed in the fighting and dozens of wounded. There were also widespread reports of youth hauled away by pro-government fighters.
The same neighborhood's residents rose up against strongman Anastasio Somoza in the late 1970s as part of the Nicaraguan Revolution led in part by Ortega himself. But since protests against cuts to the social security system in mid-April became a broader call for Ortega to leave office, Monimbo had again become a center of the opposition.
Ortega's government has dismissed opponents as delinquents attempting a coup d'etat and wanted to quell unrest in Masaya before Thursday's three-month anniversary of the start of protests across Nicaragua. Thursday is also the 39th anniversary of Liberation Day, which marks the overthrow of the Somoza regime in 1979 by the Sandinistas.
With gunshots echoing in the background Tuesday morning, a woman who asked only to be identified as Silvia out of safety concerns said she treated wounded victims in a makeshift field clinic.
Silvia, a member of Monimbo's resistance movement, said youth were fighting with homemade mortars to defend the roadblocks erected at the neighborhood's perimeter, but government forces were heavily armed.
"We need the (Organization of American States), the international organizations to stop this massacre," Silvia said. "We're fighting for democracy, for freedom."
Several hours later she said that pro-government "paramilitaries" had control of a good part of the area and that the opposition had fled into the surrounding woods.
Roman Catholic Apostolic Nuncio Stanislaw Sommertag Waldemar said in a recorded message that Nicaragua was experiencing "a tragic moment" and expressed "deep concern for the serious situation in the country." He urged all sides to return to dialogue to seek a peaceful resolution.
Nicaraguan Vice-President Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega's wife, said Monday it was necessary to "clean" Monimbo and Masaya. She described the opposition as "coup plotters, few in number, malignant, sinister, diabolical, satanic and terrorists."
Masaya's police commissioner struck a similarly combative tone.
"The population of Masaya, the population of Monimbo, has asked us to free them from the delinquents and terrorists that have them trapped with their deadly barricades, and we're going to do it at any cost," said commissioner Ramon Avellan.
Gangs of armed men dressed as civilians appeared to be working in coordination with police to remove roadblocks set up by the opposition that have snarled the country's traffic for months. Heavy machinery was brought in to clear streets Tuesday.
Police roadblocks prevented journalists from entering Monimbo.
Last weekend, government-allied forces retook the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua campus in Managua, where students had been holed up.
Managua's auxiliary Roman Catholic bishop Silvio Jose Baez said via Twitter that bullets in Monimbo reached the Maria Magdalena parish where a priest was sheltering inside.
The government says more than 200 people have been killed since the unrest began, but independent rights groups say the number is higher.
On Tuesday, the United Nations human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville said, "The appalling loss of life must stop — now."
On Monday, Nicaragua's National Assembly, which is controlled by Ortega's party, approved a law against terrorism.
Colville said that the loosely-worded legislation could be used to target people "who are simply exercising their right to protest."
Francisco Palmieri, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, said via Twitter that the U.S. strongly urges Ortega to not attack Masaya. "Continued gov't-instigated violence and bloodshed in #Nicaragua must end immediately.
The world is watching." (LOL)
Nicaraguan political analyst Oscar Rene Vargas said if the government succeeds in taking control of Masaya
"it would be a tactical victory, but not a strategic one because the rebellion is going to continue internally and on an international level."
——
Sherman reported from Mexico City.
END
Also: http://www.jornada.com.mx/ultimas/2018/07/17/intenso-ataque-de-fuerzas-de-ortega-en-masaya-8802.html
end
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
AZMEX NICARAGUA SPECIAL 16-7-18
AZMEX NICARAGUA SPECIAL 16 JUL 2018
Note: "Paramilitaries"? Sandinista Youth. Much like other "youth" orgs. of years past. 1930's?
Thx
At least 10 dead and 20 injured
The government launches attack in seven cities of Nicaragua
Paramilitaries shoot a bishop's truck; the global condemnation against repression grows
http://www.jornada.com.mx/2018/07/16/mundo/025n1mun
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, July 16, 2018, p. 25
Managua
At least 10 people, including four policemen and two minors, died and 20 were wounded yesterday in several cities of Nicaragua, during paramilitary operations against demonstrators who were entrenched in neighborhoods and roads, a day in which the bishop of Estelí , Abelardo Mata, escaped unharmed from a gunshot attack, perpetrated by presumed paramilitaries, while driving in his vehicle south of the Nicaraguan capital.
Mata, one of the five Catholic leaders who mediate in the dialogue between the government and the opposition, was intercepted by paramilitaries who attacked their car. They broke the glass and wanted to burn it, said his assistant, Roberto Petray.
The area where the attack took place yesterday was under the control of paramilitaries, human rights organizations said.
I just spoke with Monsignor Juan Abelardo Mata and, after the incident in Nindirí, he is out of danger, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, tweeted.
The area of aggression, Nindirí, 25 kilometers from the capital, is under the control of paramilitary groups and police.
Roberto Petray told Channel 15 (private) that the priest was returning to Managua de Tisma, a town near Nindirí, province of Masaya (southeast), where he travels every Sunday for work.
Petray assured that the Monsignor Mata managed to get safely with his driver into a house. He is not injured and they are already being sheltered by the police, he added.
In Catarina, south of Masaya, paramilitaries and police assaulted the cural home of that tourist city and stole belongings of a priest, denounced the Archdiocese of Managua.
The situation is tense in the city of Masaya, located 27 kilometers from the capital, which this Sunday was besieged and under attack by combined forces of the police and paramilitaries, denounced Álvaro Leiva, director of the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights.
Leiva told Channel 15 that he was concerned that residents of the area were holding eleven elements of the security forces.
The National Police reported that one of its agents was kidnapped and then tortured by alleged terrorists who have raised barricades against the Nicaraguan government.
He said that policeman Gabriel Vado Ruiz was kidnapped on the 14th, after leaving the pass to meet his family in the city of Jinotepe, southern region, but he did not reach his destination.
The officer was taken to the indigenous community of Monimbó, in the city of Masaya, where he was allegedly tortured to death. His body was incinerated, authorities reported in a press release.
The activist Álvaro Leiva said that among the deceased there are four riot police and two minors.
Masaya, Diriá, Diriomo, Catarina and Niquinohomo were, since dawn yesterday, the target of violent paramilitary operations, including the illegal detention of opposition demonstrators, said Leiva.
Solidarity caravan
Before the siege, civil society organizations went to Masaya from Managua, in a caravan of solidarity, but returned to the starting point 10 kilometers before arriving, due to the presence of paramilitaries, according to student leader Lesther Aleman.
The secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Paulo Abrao, tweeted that he is aware of the violent repression of the Masaya populations. The State seems to ignore the dialogue with the opposition, which demands the resignation of President Daniel Ortega.
Interviewed by Channel 15, Yubrank Suazo, leader of the opposition Movimiento 19 de Abril de Masaya, confirmed a strong presence of paramilitaries in all the exits of Masaya, with the apparent intention of attacking the Monimbó neighborhood, bastion of the opposition in the protests against government.
According to press reports, the violent paramilitary operations were reported in the early hours of yesterday against demonstrators in the barricades of Diriá and Diriomo, neighboring towns that are only divided by a highway, and then continued in Catarina and Niquinohomo.
According to El Nuevo Diario, residents of Diriá and Diriomo reported that drones flew over houses. They assured that gusts were heard in some sectors of Masaya, where the bells of the church San Sebastián began to ring to alert the population of an attack.
Without mentioning the violent operatives against the blockades, the official website 19 Digital published photographs of the road sections that, he said, are already released and the population can circulate with tranquility and security to carry out their daily activities.
Nicaragua is experiencing its worst crisis in 40 years, which began with a student protest against a social security reform, which was repealed later, and which spread throughout the country after the violent police reaction.
Human rights organizations report 351 deaths, mostly civilians, but the government only recognizes 49.
Just on Saturday, Catholic bishops negotiated the release of dozens of students who spent an agonizing night inside a church in Managua under siege by pro-government armed groups, which killed at least two people, according to a civil rights group.
International condemnations of violence continued. The European Union and the governments of Spain, Costa Rica and Chile separately repudiated the situation in the Central American country and urged the Ortega government to resume the path of dialogue.
END
Also: http://www.oann.com/death-toll-reaching-400-as-10-more-nicaraguan-protesters-killed/
End
Note: "Paramilitaries"? Sandinista Youth. Much like other "youth" orgs. of years past. 1930's?
Thx
At least 10 dead and 20 injured
The government launches attack in seven cities of Nicaragua
Paramilitaries shoot a bishop's truck; the global condemnation against repression grows
http://www.jornada.com.mx/2018/07/16/mundo/025n1mun
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, July 16, 2018, p. 25
Managua
At least 10 people, including four policemen and two minors, died and 20 were wounded yesterday in several cities of Nicaragua, during paramilitary operations against demonstrators who were entrenched in neighborhoods and roads, a day in which the bishop of Estelí , Abelardo Mata, escaped unharmed from a gunshot attack, perpetrated by presumed paramilitaries, while driving in his vehicle south of the Nicaraguan capital.
Mata, one of the five Catholic leaders who mediate in the dialogue between the government and the opposition, was intercepted by paramilitaries who attacked their car. They broke the glass and wanted to burn it, said his assistant, Roberto Petray.
The area where the attack took place yesterday was under the control of paramilitaries, human rights organizations said.
I just spoke with Monsignor Juan Abelardo Mata and, after the incident in Nindirí, he is out of danger, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, Silvio Báez, tweeted.
The area of aggression, Nindirí, 25 kilometers from the capital, is under the control of paramilitary groups and police.
Roberto Petray told Channel 15 (private) that the priest was returning to Managua de Tisma, a town near Nindirí, province of Masaya (southeast), where he travels every Sunday for work.
Petray assured that the Monsignor Mata managed to get safely with his driver into a house. He is not injured and they are already being sheltered by the police, he added.
In Catarina, south of Masaya, paramilitaries and police assaulted the cural home of that tourist city and stole belongings of a priest, denounced the Archdiocese of Managua.
The situation is tense in the city of Masaya, located 27 kilometers from the capital, which this Sunday was besieged and under attack by combined forces of the police and paramilitaries, denounced Álvaro Leiva, director of the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights.
Leiva told Channel 15 that he was concerned that residents of the area were holding eleven elements of the security forces.
The National Police reported that one of its agents was kidnapped and then tortured by alleged terrorists who have raised barricades against the Nicaraguan government.
He said that policeman Gabriel Vado Ruiz was kidnapped on the 14th, after leaving the pass to meet his family in the city of Jinotepe, southern region, but he did not reach his destination.
The officer was taken to the indigenous community of Monimbó, in the city of Masaya, where he was allegedly tortured to death. His body was incinerated, authorities reported in a press release.
The activist Álvaro Leiva said that among the deceased there are four riot police and two minors.
Masaya, Diriá, Diriomo, Catarina and Niquinohomo were, since dawn yesterday, the target of violent paramilitary operations, including the illegal detention of opposition demonstrators, said Leiva.
Solidarity caravan
Before the siege, civil society organizations went to Masaya from Managua, in a caravan of solidarity, but returned to the starting point 10 kilometers before arriving, due to the presence of paramilitaries, according to student leader Lesther Aleman.
The secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Paulo Abrao, tweeted that he is aware of the violent repression of the Masaya populations. The State seems to ignore the dialogue with the opposition, which demands the resignation of President Daniel Ortega.
Interviewed by Channel 15, Yubrank Suazo, leader of the opposition Movimiento 19 de Abril de Masaya, confirmed a strong presence of paramilitaries in all the exits of Masaya, with the apparent intention of attacking the Monimbó neighborhood, bastion of the opposition in the protests against government.
According to press reports, the violent paramilitary operations were reported in the early hours of yesterday against demonstrators in the barricades of Diriá and Diriomo, neighboring towns that are only divided by a highway, and then continued in Catarina and Niquinohomo.
According to El Nuevo Diario, residents of Diriá and Diriomo reported that drones flew over houses. They assured that gusts were heard in some sectors of Masaya, where the bells of the church San Sebastián began to ring to alert the population of an attack.
Without mentioning the violent operatives against the blockades, the official website 19 Digital published photographs of the road sections that, he said, are already released and the population can circulate with tranquility and security to carry out their daily activities.
Nicaragua is experiencing its worst crisis in 40 years, which began with a student protest against a social security reform, which was repealed later, and which spread throughout the country after the violent police reaction.
Human rights organizations report 351 deaths, mostly civilians, but the government only recognizes 49.
Just on Saturday, Catholic bishops negotiated the release of dozens of students who spent an agonizing night inside a church in Managua under siege by pro-government armed groups, which killed at least two people, according to a civil rights group.
International condemnations of violence continued. The European Union and the governments of Spain, Costa Rica and Chile separately repudiated the situation in the Central American country and urged the Ortega government to resume the path of dialogue.
END
Also: http://www.oann.com/death-toll-reaching-400-as-10-more-nicaraguan-protesters-killed/
End
AZMEX EXTRA 18-7-18
AZMEX EXTRA 18 JUL 2018
San Luis CBP Officers Seize Meth/Weapons
Release Date: July 17, 2018
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/san-luis-cbp-officers-seize-methweapons
TUCSON, Ariz. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested three U.S. citizens and a Mexican national in connection to a pair of failed smuggling attempts over the weekend at Arizona's Port of San Luis.
CBP officers working outbound inspection operations with members of the Yuma County Sheriff and San Luis Police referred a 25-year-old Mexican man and two U.S. citizen male passengers in his Honda sedan for additional questioning as they attempted to exit the United States Saturday afternoon.
After a San Luis Police Department canine alerted an odor it was trained to detect, officers discovered a stolen Glock pistol with an empty magazine beneath the passenger seat, which was found to be reported stolen out of Maricopa County.
When the three men were searched, officers discovered a second Glock pistol also with an empty magazine on the 20-year-old male.
Officers seized two handguns before they could be taken into Mexico
Early Sunday morning, officers referred a 19-year-old San Luis man for further inspection of his Hyundai sedan
as he attempted to re-enter the U.S. from Mexico.
After a positive alert by a CBP canine, officers discovered multiple packages of meth weighing more than 14 pounds,
with an estimated worth of almost $43,000 within the backseat.
Officers seized 14 pounds of meth within the backseat of a smuggling vehicle
CBP officers seized the drugs, weapons, and vehicles.
All four subjects were arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.
End
San Luis CBP Officers Seize Meth/Weapons
Release Date: July 17, 2018
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/san-luis-cbp-officers-seize-methweapons
TUCSON, Ariz. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested three U.S. citizens and a Mexican national in connection to a pair of failed smuggling attempts over the weekend at Arizona's Port of San Luis.
CBP officers working outbound inspection operations with members of the Yuma County Sheriff and San Luis Police referred a 25-year-old Mexican man and two U.S. citizen male passengers in his Honda sedan for additional questioning as they attempted to exit the United States Saturday afternoon.
After a San Luis Police Department canine alerted an odor it was trained to detect, officers discovered a stolen Glock pistol with an empty magazine beneath the passenger seat, which was found to be reported stolen out of Maricopa County.
When the three men were searched, officers discovered a second Glock pistol also with an empty magazine on the 20-year-old male.
Officers seized two handguns before they could be taken into Mexico
Early Sunday morning, officers referred a 19-year-old San Luis man for further inspection of his Hyundai sedan
as he attempted to re-enter the U.S. from Mexico.
After a positive alert by a CBP canine, officers discovered multiple packages of meth weighing more than 14 pounds,
with an estimated worth of almost $43,000 within the backseat.
Officers seized 14 pounds of meth within the backseat of a smuggling vehicle
CBP officers seized the drugs, weapons, and vehicles.
All four subjects were arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.
End
AZMEX UPDATE 17-7-18
AZMEX UPDATE 17 JUL 2018
Note: it never ends. Thanks to the gringa & gringo dopers. Chemicals from China?
Thx
They make a hard blow to the drug trafficking in Sonora
Details Published on Monday July 16, 2018,
El Diario de Sonora
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=115289
Nogales, Son
Elements of the 45th Military Zone seized at the military checkpoint in Cucapah, Son.,
Located on the Sonoyta - San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora highway, about 500 kilos of various synthetic drugs.
On board a trailer with a company name "Fletes de Pachuca", which supposedly transported pepper, they seized:
342.3 Kgs. Of methamphetamine.
25.768 Kgs. Of heroin.
42.520 Kgs. Of fentanyl.
42 Kgs. Of cocaine.
19,890 pills of the drug known as fentanyl.
The driver driving the semi was arrested, and the drugs were placed at the disposal of the Public Ministry.
END
More:
Note: El Chapo's home town.
Thx
They seize 139 kilos of opium gum and chemical collection center in Badiraguato
July 13, 2018 by Alejandro Monjardín
https://riodoce.mx/noticias/decomisan-139-kilos-de-goma-de-opio-y-centro-de-acopio-de-quimicos-en-badiraguato
A collection center for chemical substances and 139 kilos of opium gum were confiscated by elements of the Army in Badiraguato.
The Ministry of National Defense reported that the seizure occurred yesterday in the community of Tameapa.
According to the Sedena, the military personnel carried out surveillance tours when they found a chemical collection center.
In the place, among the substances, there were
150 kilos of sodium carbonate,
550 liters of acetone,
80 liters of acetic anhydride,
8 liters of hydrochloric acid and
750 grams of heroin.
The military personnel intensified ground reconnaissance and in the same area found 139 kilos of opium gum.
Everything was taken and was made available to the Agent of the Federal Public Ministry.
End
Coast Guard offloads 8.5 tons of cocaine in San Diego
POSTED 10:44 PM, JULY 16, 2018,
BY CHRISTY SIMERAL,
UPDATED AT 10:53PM, JULY 16, 2018
https://fox5sandiego.com/2018/07/16/coast-guard-offloads-8-5-tons-of-cocaine-in-san-diego/
VIEW GALLERY (7 IMAGES)
SAN DIEGO — A U.S. Coast Guard crew offloaded more than 17,000 pounds of seized cocaine Monday in San Diego.
The crew unloaded the drugs, worth nearly $260 million, at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal,
according to a news release from the Coast Guard.
Warrenton, Oregon-based cutters Steadfast and Alert seized the drugs from four suspected smuggling vessels
between late June and mid-July in the Eastern Pacific Ocean off Central and South America.
More than half of the cocaine load was recovered from a panga-type fishing boat.
The suspected smugglers on board dumped the drugs and escaped after a high-speed chase.
End
Note: it never ends. Thanks to the gringa & gringo dopers. Chemicals from China?
Thx
They make a hard blow to the drug trafficking in Sonora
Details Published on Monday July 16, 2018,
El Diario de Sonora
http://www.eldiariodesonora.com.mx/notas.php?nota=115289
Nogales, Son
Elements of the 45th Military Zone seized at the military checkpoint in Cucapah, Son.,
Located on the Sonoyta - San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora highway, about 500 kilos of various synthetic drugs.
On board a trailer with a company name "Fletes de Pachuca", which supposedly transported pepper, they seized:
342.3 Kgs. Of methamphetamine.
25.768 Kgs. Of heroin.
42.520 Kgs. Of fentanyl.
42 Kgs. Of cocaine.
19,890 pills of the drug known as fentanyl.
The driver driving the semi was arrested, and the drugs were placed at the disposal of the Public Ministry.
END
More:
Note: El Chapo's home town.
Thx
They seize 139 kilos of opium gum and chemical collection center in Badiraguato
July 13, 2018 by Alejandro Monjardín
https://riodoce.mx/noticias/decomisan-139-kilos-de-goma-de-opio-y-centro-de-acopio-de-quimicos-en-badiraguato
A collection center for chemical substances and 139 kilos of opium gum were confiscated by elements of the Army in Badiraguato.
The Ministry of National Defense reported that the seizure occurred yesterday in the community of Tameapa.
According to the Sedena, the military personnel carried out surveillance tours when they found a chemical collection center.
In the place, among the substances, there were
150 kilos of sodium carbonate,
550 liters of acetone,
80 liters of acetic anhydride,
8 liters of hydrochloric acid and
750 grams of heroin.
The military personnel intensified ground reconnaissance and in the same area found 139 kilos of opium gum.
Everything was taken and was made available to the Agent of the Federal Public Ministry.
End
Coast Guard offloads 8.5 tons of cocaine in San Diego
POSTED 10:44 PM, JULY 16, 2018,
BY CHRISTY SIMERAL,
UPDATED AT 10:53PM, JULY 16, 2018
https://fox5sandiego.com/2018/07/16/coast-guard-offloads-8-5-tons-of-cocaine-in-san-diego/
VIEW GALLERY (7 IMAGES)
SAN DIEGO — A U.S. Coast Guard crew offloaded more than 17,000 pounds of seized cocaine Monday in San Diego.
The crew unloaded the drugs, worth nearly $260 million, at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal,
according to a news release from the Coast Guard.
Warrenton, Oregon-based cutters Steadfast and Alert seized the drugs from four suspected smuggling vessels
between late June and mid-July in the Eastern Pacific Ocean off Central and South America.
More than half of the cocaine load was recovered from a panga-type fishing boat.
The suspected smugglers on board dumped the drugs and escaped after a high-speed chase.
End
AZMEX POLICY 17-7-18
AZMEX POLICY 17 JUL 2018
Prosecutors change policy for marijuana smuggling in Arizona
The Associated Press Jul 16, 2018 Updated 1 hr ago
https://www.pinalcentral.com/arizona_news/prosecutors-change-policy-for-marijuana-smuggling-in-arizona/article_dfe97140-9ae8-5b04-93a9-f332a24379c6.html
TUCSON — People caught smuggling marijuana into Arizona from Mexico will also face penalties for crossing the border illegally under a shift in policy by federal prosecutors.
The increased penalty called for by the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona is in line with the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, the Arizona Daily Star reports.
Federal public defenders and defense lawyers in Tucson were notified of the new policy in mid-June.
The policy targets the several hundred people arrested each year in southern Arizona who smuggle marijuana in backpacks across the border instead of paying hefty fees to human smugglers to get themselves into the United States illegally.
The policy doesn't appear to target people attempting to smuggle hard drugs in vehicles across the border, the newspaper said.
Federal prosecutors often use plea agreements to quickly resolve the backpacker cases, with a typical sentence of six months in prison for marijuana possession.
Now, those agreements must include a six-month sentence for a misdemeanor charge of crossing the border illegally to be served concurrently with the drug charge, according to an email a defense lawyer received from a federal prosecutor.
The plea agreements to quickly resolve the backpacker cases are needed due to the large volume of those cases, according to authorities, who added that the agreements usually are filed within a week of the arrest.
A conviction for crossing the border illegally could be used as an enhancement in future convictions.
Cosme Lopez, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona, declined to comment on the misdemeanor charge.
In nearly all of the 110 backpacker cases the Daily Star reviewed from late 2015 to early 2017, the defendants faced only drug-smuggling charges.
END
Prosecutors change policy for marijuana smuggling in Arizona
The Associated Press Jul 16, 2018 Updated 1 hr ago
https://www.pinalcentral.com/arizona_news/prosecutors-change-policy-for-marijuana-smuggling-in-arizona/article_dfe97140-9ae8-5b04-93a9-f332a24379c6.html
TUCSON — People caught smuggling marijuana into Arizona from Mexico will also face penalties for crossing the border illegally under a shift in policy by federal prosecutors.
The increased penalty called for by the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona is in line with the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, the Arizona Daily Star reports.
Federal public defenders and defense lawyers in Tucson were notified of the new policy in mid-June.
The policy targets the several hundred people arrested each year in southern Arizona who smuggle marijuana in backpacks across the border instead of paying hefty fees to human smugglers to get themselves into the United States illegally.
The policy doesn't appear to target people attempting to smuggle hard drugs in vehicles across the border, the newspaper said.
Federal prosecutors often use plea agreements to quickly resolve the backpacker cases, with a typical sentence of six months in prison for marijuana possession.
Now, those agreements must include a six-month sentence for a misdemeanor charge of crossing the border illegally to be served concurrently with the drug charge, according to an email a defense lawyer received from a federal prosecutor.
The plea agreements to quickly resolve the backpacker cases are needed due to the large volume of those cases, according to authorities, who added that the agreements usually are filed within a week of the arrest.
A conviction for crossing the border illegally could be used as an enhancement in future convictions.
Cosme Lopez, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona, declined to comment on the misdemeanor charge.
In nearly all of the 110 backpacker cases the Daily Star reviewed from late 2015 to early 2017, the defendants faced only drug-smuggling charges.
END
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
AZMEX I3 15-7-18
AZMEX I3 15 JUL 2018
Man accused of attacking wife with chain saw was deported 11 times
Posted: Jul 15, 2018 6:45 AM MST
Updated: Jul 15, 2018 9:43 AM MST
http://www.azfamily.com/story/38648087/man-accused-of-attacking-wife-with-chain-saw-attack-was-deported-11-times?autostart=true
LOS ANGELES (AP/Meredith) —
Officials say a man accused of attacking his wife with a chain saw in front of their children at their Los Angeles-area home had been deported from the U.S. 11 times.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley says 32-year-old Alejandro Alvarez-Villegas is a "serial immigration violator."
Alvarez-Villegas was arrested on Thursday in a stolen vehicle in Chula Vista, a few miles from the Mexican border.
Police said Alvarez-Villegas is suspected of attacking his wife at their Whittier home, leaving her covered in blood. She is expected to recover.
It was not immediately clear if Alvarez-Villegas had an attorney to comment on the allegations.
Haley says federal immigration officials have lodged a detainer against Alvarez-Villegas, asking local officials to notify them before he is released.
Alvarez-Villegas has been in and out of the U.S. since 2005.
END
MORE: NO mention by PRC media of him being in the country illegally .
Thx
https://fox5sandiego.com/2018/07/12/man-suspected-of-brutal-chainsaw-attack-on-wife-arrested-in-south-bay/'
Man suspected of brutal chainsaw attack on wife arrested in South Bay
POSTED 5:17 PM, JULY 12, 2018,
BY KTLA 5 AND JAIME CHAMBERS, UPDATED AT 11:35PM, JULY 12, 2018
Chainsaw Attacker Arrested
CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- A man who allegedly attacked his wife with a chainsaw in front of their children in the Los Angeles area was arrested in the South Bay on Thursday, KSWB broadcast partner KTLA reports.
Alejandro Alvarez, 32, was "safely taken" into custody at around 2 p.m. in the 3100 block of Main Street in Chula Vista, the Whittier Police Department announced.
At about 3 p.m. the day before, officers responding to reports of a domestic violence incident found his wife suffering with traumatic injuries at the family's home. Authorities said they recovered a chainsaw.
The victim had run out of the residence and screamed for help, neighbors said.
"A lady said, 'Leave me alone or I'm gonna call the cops,'" Enrique Avila told KTLA. "And then after that, I heard little kids inside the house."
Alejandro Alvarez is seen in a booking photo provided by the Whittier Police Department on July 11, 2018.
Neighbor Fernando Jauregui said he saw the woman losing a lot of blood with cuts on her face and neck.
Responders took the victim to a trauma center, where she was last listed in critical condition.
Meanwhile, Alvarez led police on a manhunt after fleeing the scene in his SUV, police said.
However, his vehicle soon crashed and he stole another SUV left running in Mayberry Park, authorities added.
Detectives learned information about his whereabouts and local law enforcement in Chula Vista found him still in possession of the stolen SUV, according to the Police Department.
The couple has three elementary-school-aged children and has lived in the neighborhood for around five years, area residents told KTLA.
Alvarez was set to be taken to the Whittier City Jail, where officials planned to book him on suspicion of attempted murder, child endangerment, hit and run and and grand theft auto.
The Whittier Police Department said detectives worked on the case with San Diego County deputies and Chula Vista police.
Alvarez's wife is expected to make a full recovery.
END
Man accused of attacking wife with chain saw was deported 11 times
Posted: Jul 15, 2018 6:45 AM MST
Updated: Jul 15, 2018 9:43 AM MST
http://www.azfamily.com/story/38648087/man-accused-of-attacking-wife-with-chain-saw-attack-was-deported-11-times?autostart=true
LOS ANGELES (AP/Meredith) —
Officials say a man accused of attacking his wife with a chain saw in front of their children at their Los Angeles-area home had been deported from the U.S. 11 times.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley says 32-year-old Alejandro Alvarez-Villegas is a "serial immigration violator."
Alvarez-Villegas was arrested on Thursday in a stolen vehicle in Chula Vista, a few miles from the Mexican border.
Police said Alvarez-Villegas is suspected of attacking his wife at their Whittier home, leaving her covered in blood. She is expected to recover.
It was not immediately clear if Alvarez-Villegas had an attorney to comment on the allegations.
Haley says federal immigration officials have lodged a detainer against Alvarez-Villegas, asking local officials to notify them before he is released.
Alvarez-Villegas has been in and out of the U.S. since 2005.
END
MORE: NO mention by PRC media of him being in the country illegally .
Thx
https://fox5sandiego.com/2018/07/12/man-suspected-of-brutal-chainsaw-attack-on-wife-arrested-in-south-bay/'
Man suspected of brutal chainsaw attack on wife arrested in South Bay
POSTED 5:17 PM, JULY 12, 2018,
BY KTLA 5 AND JAIME CHAMBERS, UPDATED AT 11:35PM, JULY 12, 2018
Chainsaw Attacker Arrested
CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- A man who allegedly attacked his wife with a chainsaw in front of their children in the Los Angeles area was arrested in the South Bay on Thursday, KSWB broadcast partner KTLA reports.
Alejandro Alvarez, 32, was "safely taken" into custody at around 2 p.m. in the 3100 block of Main Street in Chula Vista, the Whittier Police Department announced.
At about 3 p.m. the day before, officers responding to reports of a domestic violence incident found his wife suffering with traumatic injuries at the family's home. Authorities said they recovered a chainsaw.
The victim had run out of the residence and screamed for help, neighbors said.
"A lady said, 'Leave me alone or I'm gonna call the cops,'" Enrique Avila told KTLA. "And then after that, I heard little kids inside the house."
Alejandro Alvarez is seen in a booking photo provided by the Whittier Police Department on July 11, 2018.
Neighbor Fernando Jauregui said he saw the woman losing a lot of blood with cuts on her face and neck.
Responders took the victim to a trauma center, where she was last listed in critical condition.
Meanwhile, Alvarez led police on a manhunt after fleeing the scene in his SUV, police said.
However, his vehicle soon crashed and he stole another SUV left running in Mayberry Park, authorities added.
Detectives learned information about his whereabouts and local law enforcement in Chula Vista found him still in possession of the stolen SUV, according to the Police Department.
The couple has three elementary-school-aged children and has lived in the neighborhood for around five years, area residents told KTLA.
Alvarez was set to be taken to the Whittier City Jail, where officials planned to book him on suspicion of attempted murder, child endangerment, hit and run and and grand theft auto.
The Whittier Police Department said detectives worked on the case with San Diego County deputies and Chula Vista police.
Alvarez's wife is expected to make a full recovery.
END
Monday, July 16, 2018
AZMEX I3 16-7-18
AZMEX I3 16 JUL 2018
Note: more federal judicial corruption.
Thx
Judge temporarily halts deportation of reunified families
By: By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
Posted: July 16, 2018 11:31 AM MDT
Updated: July 16, 2018 11:31 AM MDT
https://www.kvia.com/news/politics/judge-temporarily-halts-deportation-of-reunified-families/768880385
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A federal judge on Monday ordered a temporary halt to any deportations of reunited families who were separated by the Trump administration after crossing the southwest border.
The American Civil Liberties Union had asked Judge Dana Sabraw to delay deportations a week after reunification. The ACLU said in a court filing that its request is a response to "persistent and increasing rumors ... that mass deportations may be carried out imminently and immediately upon reunification."
The ACLU said parents need a week after being reunified with their children to decide whether to pursue asylum.
The decision "cannot be made until parents not only have had time to fully discuss the ramifications with their children, but also to hear from the child's advocate or counsel, who can explain to the parent the likelihood of the child ultimately prevailing in his or her own asylum case if left behind in the U.S. (as well as where the child is likely to end up living)," the ACLU says.
Sabraw said he would temporarily halt deportations until the Justice Department could file a response to the ACLU's documents. He gave the government attorneys one week, and said he'd formally rule after that. Justice attorneys opposed halting the deportations.
The request by the ACLU followed a flurry of weekend activity in the case. The judge said late Friday that he was having second thoughts about whether the government was acting in good faith. He was responding to an administration plan to reunite more than 2,500 children ages 5 and older by July 26.
The administration's reunification plan uses "truncated" procedures to verify parentage and perform background checks, excluding DNA testing and other steps it took to reunify children under 5. The administration said the abbreviated vetting puts children at significant safety risk but is needed to meet the deadline.
During a hastily scheduled hearing after the plan was released Friday, Sabraw said the government was presenting a "parade of horribles" that misrepresented his orders. He insisted that the deadline be met.
"The task is laborious, but can be accomplished in the time and manner prescribed," he wrote in a subsequent order.
Sabraw has scheduled four hearings over the next two weeks, including one Monday, to ensure compliance with his order.
Evelyn Stauffer, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department, said Saturday that the administration proposed its plan "in the interests of transparency and cooperation" after concluding that the abbreviated vetting was necessary to make the deadline.
"Within the time the court allows, we will strive to implement the most comprehensive procedures possible to ensure child welfare," she said. "We look forward to continuing our close work with the court to accomplish the goals we share of safe, expeditious reunification."
END
Note: more federal judicial corruption.
Thx
Judge temporarily halts deportation of reunified families
By: By ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
Posted: July 16, 2018 11:31 AM MDT
Updated: July 16, 2018 11:31 AM MDT
https://www.kvia.com/news/politics/judge-temporarily-halts-deportation-of-reunified-families/768880385
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A federal judge on Monday ordered a temporary halt to any deportations of reunited families who were separated by the Trump administration after crossing the southwest border.
The American Civil Liberties Union had asked Judge Dana Sabraw to delay deportations a week after reunification. The ACLU said in a court filing that its request is a response to "persistent and increasing rumors ... that mass deportations may be carried out imminently and immediately upon reunification."
The ACLU said parents need a week after being reunified with their children to decide whether to pursue asylum.
The decision "cannot be made until parents not only have had time to fully discuss the ramifications with their children, but also to hear from the child's advocate or counsel, who can explain to the parent the likelihood of the child ultimately prevailing in his or her own asylum case if left behind in the U.S. (as well as where the child is likely to end up living)," the ACLU says.
Sabraw said he would temporarily halt deportations until the Justice Department could file a response to the ACLU's documents. He gave the government attorneys one week, and said he'd formally rule after that. Justice attorneys opposed halting the deportations.
The request by the ACLU followed a flurry of weekend activity in the case. The judge said late Friday that he was having second thoughts about whether the government was acting in good faith. He was responding to an administration plan to reunite more than 2,500 children ages 5 and older by July 26.
The administration's reunification plan uses "truncated" procedures to verify parentage and perform background checks, excluding DNA testing and other steps it took to reunify children under 5. The administration said the abbreviated vetting puts children at significant safety risk but is needed to meet the deadline.
During a hastily scheduled hearing after the plan was released Friday, Sabraw said the government was presenting a "parade of horribles" that misrepresented his orders. He insisted that the deadline be met.
"The task is laborious, but can be accomplished in the time and manner prescribed," he wrote in a subsequent order.
Sabraw has scheduled four hearings over the next two weeks, including one Monday, to ensure compliance with his order.
Evelyn Stauffer, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department, said Saturday that the administration proposed its plan "in the interests of transparency and cooperation" after concluding that the abbreviated vetting was necessary to make the deadline.
"Within the time the court allows, we will strive to implement the most comprehensive procedures possible to ensure child welfare," she said. "We look forward to continuing our close work with the court to accomplish the goals we share of safe, expeditious reunification."
END
AZMEX NICARAGUA SPECIAL 15-7-18
AZMEX Nicaragua Special 15 JUL 2018
Note: another update from progressive Nicaragua.
Thx
Death toll in Nicaragua protests reaches 273, human rights group says
Clashes began in April over pensions
By: KAY GUERRERO AND THERESA WALDROP CNN
Posted: July 15, 2018 12:53 PM MDT
Updated: July 15, 2018 12:53 PM MDT
Alfredo Zuniga/AP
https://www.kvia.com/news/us-world/death-toll-in-nicaragua-protests-reaches-273-human-rights-group-says/768485756
A masked protester walks between burning barricades in Managua, Nicaragua, in April.
2 killed In Nicaragua during attack on university, church
US slaps new sanctions on Nicaragua over violence, corruption
Nicaragua agrees to international probe into deadly protests
State Department slaps travel restrictions on Nicaraguan 'thugs'
Protests on Nicaragua's Mother's Day turn deadly
More than 40 people were killed in unrest in Nicaragua, rights groups say
Journalist among at least 10 killed in Nicaragua protests
(CNN) - At least 273 people have died and 2,000 have been injured in the unrest that's rocked Nicaragua since April,
according to the human rights arm of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The death toll includes two men killed Friday night in Managua in an hours-long attack by pro-government forces on protesters at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, the strongest protest holdout in the capital, said Paulo Abrao, executive secretary for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), part of the OAS.
The protesters, who the government labeled as terrorists, had sought refuge inside a Catholic church and at least one of them died inside the parish
as the church was hemmed in by gunfire, Abrao said.
The standoff at Divine Mercy Church was the latest in a series of violent clashes that started in April when the Nicaraguan government announced changes
to the social security system regarding pensions.
President Daniel Ortega, who is been in power for 11 years, backed down a few days later,
but the government's heavy-handed repression of the protests and the rising death toll ignited a national movement demanding Ortega's resignation.
The government puts the death toll at 51, including four policemen who died last week in the department of Rio San Juan.
The government also has said some National Autonomous University students are hiding weapons inside the school to assault pro-government groups.
During a recent standoff at a Catholic church in Diriamba, south of Managua, the government made similar claims and said the church was allowing protesters to hide guns inside.
The Catholic Church of Nicaragua denied the allegations.
The OAS held two emergency meetings last week to discuss the ongoing violence.
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and the United States demanded an end to the repression.
The secretary-general of the OAS, Luis Almagro, proposed early presidential elections as a way out of the crisis.
The government of Nicaragua rejected the request.
Bishop Silvio José Báez tweeted the news of Friday's attack as it started around 8 p.m. ET (6 p.m. local time).
"They're shooting at the Divine Mercy parish! There is a priest inside and several wounded.
Stop the repression!" he tweeted. Minutes later, Báez tweeted that ambulances and first aid teams were not allowed to attend to the wounded inside the church.
Abrao said by telephone that at least 100 students were able to hide inside the church along with three journalists:
Sergio Marín of La Mesa Redonda, Joshua Partlow of The Washington Post and José Noel Marenco of 100% Noticias.
According to Marenco, 15 students were shot. The images he shared online showed a gruesome siege in the middle of darkness.
A group of volunteer doctors, part of a permanent medical guard inside the church, treated some of the injured.
Marenco said other injuries were too severe and required hospitalization.
In the middle of the attack, representatives from the church, including Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes Solorzano,
members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and members of the Red Cross mediated with pro-government groups outside the parish,
which led to the entrance late Friday of ambulances and emergency services.
The majority of students and two of the journalists were not able to leave the church until Saturday morning,
according to one of the trapped journalists and local media.
The Rev. Monsignor Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, the Pope's envoy to Nicaragua, had to escort them out.
END
Note: another update from progressive Nicaragua.
Thx
Death toll in Nicaragua protests reaches 273, human rights group says
Clashes began in April over pensions
By: KAY GUERRERO AND THERESA WALDROP CNN
Posted: July 15, 2018 12:53 PM MDT
Updated: July 15, 2018 12:53 PM MDT
Alfredo Zuniga/AP
https://www.kvia.com/news/us-world/death-toll-in-nicaragua-protests-reaches-273-human-rights-group-says/768485756
A masked protester walks between burning barricades in Managua, Nicaragua, in April.
2 killed In Nicaragua during attack on university, church
US slaps new sanctions on Nicaragua over violence, corruption
Nicaragua agrees to international probe into deadly protests
State Department slaps travel restrictions on Nicaraguan 'thugs'
Protests on Nicaragua's Mother's Day turn deadly
More than 40 people were killed in unrest in Nicaragua, rights groups say
Journalist among at least 10 killed in Nicaragua protests
(CNN) - At least 273 people have died and 2,000 have been injured in the unrest that's rocked Nicaragua since April,
according to the human rights arm of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The death toll includes two men killed Friday night in Managua in an hours-long attack by pro-government forces on protesters at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, the strongest protest holdout in the capital, said Paulo Abrao, executive secretary for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), part of the OAS.
The protesters, who the government labeled as terrorists, had sought refuge inside a Catholic church and at least one of them died inside the parish
as the church was hemmed in by gunfire, Abrao said.
The standoff at Divine Mercy Church was the latest in a series of violent clashes that started in April when the Nicaraguan government announced changes
to the social security system regarding pensions.
President Daniel Ortega, who is been in power for 11 years, backed down a few days later,
but the government's heavy-handed repression of the protests and the rising death toll ignited a national movement demanding Ortega's resignation.
The government puts the death toll at 51, including four policemen who died last week in the department of Rio San Juan.
The government also has said some National Autonomous University students are hiding weapons inside the school to assault pro-government groups.
During a recent standoff at a Catholic church in Diriamba, south of Managua, the government made similar claims and said the church was allowing protesters to hide guns inside.
The Catholic Church of Nicaragua denied the allegations.
The OAS held two emergency meetings last week to discuss the ongoing violence.
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and the United States demanded an end to the repression.
The secretary-general of the OAS, Luis Almagro, proposed early presidential elections as a way out of the crisis.
The government of Nicaragua rejected the request.
Bishop Silvio José Báez tweeted the news of Friday's attack as it started around 8 p.m. ET (6 p.m. local time).
"They're shooting at the Divine Mercy parish! There is a priest inside and several wounded.
Stop the repression!" he tweeted. Minutes later, Báez tweeted that ambulances and first aid teams were not allowed to attend to the wounded inside the church.
Abrao said by telephone that at least 100 students were able to hide inside the church along with three journalists:
Sergio Marín of La Mesa Redonda, Joshua Partlow of The Washington Post and José Noel Marenco of 100% Noticias.
According to Marenco, 15 students were shot. The images he shared online showed a gruesome siege in the middle of darkness.
A group of volunteer doctors, part of a permanent medical guard inside the church, treated some of the injured.
Marenco said other injuries were too severe and required hospitalization.
In the middle of the attack, representatives from the church, including Cardinal Leopoldo José Brenes Solorzano,
members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and members of the Red Cross mediated with pro-government groups outside the parish,
which led to the entrance late Friday of ambulances and emergency services.
The majority of students and two of the journalists were not able to leave the church until Saturday morning,
according to one of the trapped journalists and local media.
The Rev. Monsignor Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, the Pope's envoy to Nicaragua, had to escort them out.
END
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