AZMEX UPDATE 29 OCT 2012
Note: Following from AZ DPS, still waiting for word on possible
firearms recovered, if any. Expect the 5 will be given a bag of
candy and a ride home.
On Sunday October 28, 2012 at approximately 8:28 a.m. a DPS Highway
Patrol Officer was northbound on State Route 347 when he attempted to
stop a Ford F-150 pickup truck for speeding. At that time a Nissan
pickup truck came up quickly behind the DPS Patrol vehicle and
attempted to ram it. The officer took evasive action and avoided the
collision. In the meantime, the Nissan pickup pulled over and several
people ran from the vehicle into the desert. Two other vehicles
including the Ford 150 and a Cadillac Escalade pickup truck that was
loaded with marijuana sped away. Those two vehicles were eventually
stopped in the Phoenix metro freeway system. In total eight people
were taken into custody from all three vehicles. The driver of the
Nissan pickup that tried to ram our patrol vehicle is still at large.
A search of the Cadillac resulted in the seizure of 215 pounds of
marijuana with a street value of $100-thousand dollars. Detectives
also seized 11.5 grams of methamphetamine in one of the vehicles.
Three suspects were booked into Maricopa County Jail on charges of
participating in a criminal enterprise, transportation of marijuana
for sale and possession of dangerous drugs. Five suspects were
turned over to the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol.
This investigation is ongoing so we are unable to release names or
any more information at this time.
Note: Çd. Juarez, Chih. also has a significant segment of population
of middle east origin.
Lawmaker urges feds to monitor Hezbollah in Mexico
By Joseph Kolb
Published October 29, 2012
FoxNews.com
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/29/lawmaker-urges-feds-to-
monitor-hezbollah-in-mexico/
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrollah. (AP)
The presidential campaign has featured plenty of talk about terrorism
in the Middle East, but one lawmaker is warning that the federal
government is ignoring a growing Hezbollah presence in Mexico, with
the Lebanese terror group increasingly joining forces with drug cartels.
One report shows hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners living in
Mexico, and a small percentage of them may be radicals using routes
established by drug networks to sneak into the U.S.
The ties linking Mexico to Islamic terrorism were underscored earlier
this year when an alleged Iranian operative plotted to assassinate a
Saudi diplomat in Washington using a hired gun on loan from a Mexican
drug cartel. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) says the mounting evidence of a
Hezbollah presence in Mexico is being ignored by the Department of
Homeland Security.
"I don't have a lot of faith in the Department of Homeland Security,"
said Myrick. "They should be looking at these groups in Mexico much
more closely."
"I don't have a lot of faith in the Department of Homeland Security.
They should be looking at these groups in Mexico much more closely."
- Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.)
The incidents fueling Myrick's frustration include the Oct. 17 guilty
plea in Manhattan Federal Court of a suspect plotting to pay $1.5
million to a suspected hitman for the Los Zetas Cartel, who was
actually a DEA informant, to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador
to the U.S. by bombing a busy Washington, D.C., restaurant the
ambassador frequents.
Mansour Arbabsiar, 58, a naturalized U.S. citizen holding both
Iranian and U.S. passports, was arrested on Sept. 29, 2011, at New
York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. He faces a maximum
potential sentence of 25 years in prison.
"A little more than a year after his arrest, Mansour Arbabsiar has
admitted to his role in a deadly plot approved by members of the
Iranian military to assassinate a sitting foreign ambassador on U.S.
soil," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a press release.
Holder said the plot was hatched by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps and their covert operation group, the Qods. The Qods
Force conducts sensitive covert operations, including terrorist
attacks, assassinations and kidnappings, and is believed to have
sponsored attacks against Coalition Forces in Iraq. In October 2007,
the U.S. Treasury Department designated the Qods Force under
Executive Order 13224 for providing material support to the Taliban
and other terrorist organizations.
"The dangerous connection between drug trafficking and terrorism
cannot be overstated, and this case is yet another example of DEA's
unique role in identifying potentially deadly networks that wish to
harm innocent Americans and our allies worldwide," said DEA
Administrator Michele M. Leonhart following Arbabsiar's court
appearance. "Using DEA's elaborate and sophisticated investigative
expertise to infiltrate violent drug and terror organizations
globally, we successfully identified this threat and worked closely
with the FBI to prevent a potentially deadly outcome."
Speculation of these groups operating in Mexico eventually became
more tangible in the fall of 2010, when the Tucson Police Department
published an International Terrorism Situational Awareness for
Hezbollah in Mexico citing the arrest of Jameel Nasar in Tijuana in
July 2010, who attempted to establish a Hezbollah network in Mexico
and South America.
The previous year, Jamal Yousef was arrested in New York City, where
it was learned that 100 M16 rifles, 100 AR15 rifles, 200 hand
grenades, C4 explosive and anti-tank ammunition were stolen from Iraq
by his cousin, an alleged Hezbollah member, and stored in Mexico.
The Diario de Quinatana Roo newspaper said it has uncovered
information from Wikileaks that, as far back as 2009, Hezbollah cells
were using drug trafficking routes to reach the U.S.
Myrick fired off a letter to Secretary of Department of Homeland
Security Janet Napolitano, requesting DHS create a task force solely
to watch Islamic extremist groups in Mexico. Napolitano said there
was no need, saying current intelligence resources were adequate.
Napolitano did admit to Myrick that Hezbollah has a decades-long
presence in the tri-border region between Argentina, Brazil and
Paraguay, and, "ties to individuals involved in illicit activities in
the region." Taking care not to specifically say Mexican drug cartels.
On Sept. 8, the Yucatan Times reported three individuals, one with
dual American-Lebanese citizenship, with alleged ties to Hezbollah,
were arrested in the Yucatan Peninsula city of Merida in an alleged
effort to raise funds to release Hezbollah agents in U.S. custody.
U.S. officials have yet to identify the suspects as Hezbollah
sympathizers or members.
Merida, Mexico, has had a large Lebanese population for generations,
which the suspects hoped to blend into. There are more than 200,000
people of Lebanese and Syrian descent living in Mexico, according to
a study by Georgetown University that was referenced in the Tucson
Police Department report.
These incidents leave little ambiguity said a spokesman for Arizona
Gov. Jan Brewer.
"The Arizona Department of Homeland Security has indicated there are
elements of Middle Eastern Islamic extremist groups operating in
Mexico," said Matthew Benson, Director of Communications for Gov.
Brewer. "From the governor's standpoint, it is critical to have a
secure border for criminal elements who would take advantage of a
porous border, especially like the one we have in Arizona."
Myrick said she is concerned about the hyperbole of the candidates
and even the mainstream media solely discussing what is occurring in
the Middle East without mentioning potential threats that may be as
close as Mexico.
Marsha Catron, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security,
continued to echo the department's two-year position that they have
no credible intelligence identifying Hezbollah as operating in
Mexico. She did not respond to queries after the Merida arrests.
"Given the evidence available, it only makes sense that DHS should,
at the very least, investigate the presence of Hezbollah along our
Southern border, regardless of who is in office," Myrick said.
Joseph J. Kolb is a freelance journalist in New Mexico.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/29/lawmaker-urges-
feds-to-monitor-hezbollah-in-mexico/#ixzz2AjCARZFi
Note: re; AZMEX UPDATE 27-10-12 The link is:
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_10b0039c-1fe7-11e2-
a555-001a4bcf6878.html
Link to the other story is:
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/
article_db567d9c-1f01-11e2-9e9f-001a4bcf6878.html
Immigrants identified in Texas chopper shooting
http://www.themonitor.com/news/state/article_9290b7bc-a810-51dd-90a8-
e9e86f7da867.html
Posted: Monday, October 29, 2012 10:23 am
Associated Press |
A Guatemalan diplomat has released the identities of two immigrants
killed last week when a state police helicopter fired on their
smuggler's truck near the Texas-Mexico border.
Alba Caceres (KAH'-sehr-es), Guatemala's consul in McAllen, says the
victims were Marco Antonio Castro and Jose Leonardo Coj Cumar (KOH
koo-MAHR'), of San Martin (mar-TEEN') Jilotepeque (hee-LOH'-tuh-pek),
about an hour outside the capital.
Caceres expressed her government's indignation and made a formal
request for a thorough investigation to the Texas Rangers on Friday.
She was trying to interview survivors. She didn't know when the
bodies would be released to the families, but said it could be
delayed by the investigation.
A trooper fired from a Department of Public Safety helicopter
Thursday afternoon in an attempt to stop a fleeing smuggler's truck
that was suspected of carrying drugs.
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