The film "Queen of the South" -- about a cocaine smuggler -- was slated to be filmed in Sinaloa on Mexico's northern coast but the film's director said he received threats and was forced to pull the plug on production, Variety reported.

"I've worked really hard to make this beautiful movie, but the safety of my family and my team comes first," Jonathan Jakubowicz told Variety. "Making this movie [would have] put us all at risk, not only in Mexico but in the U.S."

"The world should pray for peace in Mexico," the director said.

Jakubowicz allegedly received threats at his family's home in Los Angeles, the Independent (UK) reported.

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Hollywood has been a boon to Mexico's economy but some fear the recent surge of violence that has left 7,000 people dead in the past year alone will deter filmmakers from working in the country.

"Queen of the South" is about a woman in Mexico who heads to Spain following the murder of her boyfriend, a drug-runner. She gets heavily involved in a drug smuggling ring and then seeks revenge on the person who killed her former beau.


The Rest @ NBCDFW

Jarez Police Raids

US Deploys Forces Along the Mexican Border

Published April 3rd, 2009

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking April 2 at the Mexico / United States Arms Trafficking Conference, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, has vowed that "we will win" in the battle against Mexican-based narcotics cartels, whose violence has metastasized in recent years, claiming thousand of lives and spilling across the border, into American towns and states.

U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have acknowledged in recent days that American demand for illegal drugs and easily obtainable American arms are fueling the expanding Mexican narco-war.

As Holder put it in Cuernavaca, the U.S. "shares responsibility for this problem and we will take responsibility by joining our Mexican counterparts in every step of this fight."

The Justice Department's next moves, Holder specified, will be to detail "100 new ATF personnel to the Southwest border in the next 100 days to supplement our ongoing Project Gunrunner.

Those Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agents will be going to the Houston field office, where they will support Gunrunner Impact Teams (GRITs), expected to focus on firearms trafficking.

• So far, according to the Department of Justice, Project Gunrunner has resulted in approximately 650 cases by ATF, in which more than 1,400 defendants were referred for prosecution in federal and state courts and more than 12,000 firearms were involved.
• Recovery Act funding for Gunrunner will establish new three permanent field offices, "dedicated to firearms trafficking investigations," according to the DoJ. Those new offices will be in McAllen, TX; El Centro, CA; and Las Cruces, NM, with a satellite office in Roswell, NM.
• In addition, Holder said, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is adding 16 new positions on the border, as well as mobile enforcement teams, and the FBI is creating a new intelligence group focusing on kidnapping and extortion.

The latest additions mean that 29 percent of the DEA's domestic agents are now in its Southwest border field offices, according to the DoJ.

Holder called for an "attack in depth, on both sides of the border, that focuses on the leadership and assets of the cartel." Arrayed on the U.S. side of Holder's proposed attack in depth will be the Special Operations Division (SOD), a multi-agency task force headed by the DEA, whose mission is to "establish seamless law enforcement coordination, strategies and operations aimed at dismantling national and international narco-trafficking, narco-terrorists and other criminal organizations by attacking their command and control structure";

and various intelligence centers, such as the El Paso Intelligence Center and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces Fusion Center, according to the DoJ. Holder likened the coming strategy to the "full-bore, prosecution-driven approach that the U.S. Department of Justice took to dismantle La Cosa Nostra -- once the most powerful organized crime group operating in the United States."

The Rest @ Government Security News Magazine

Al Qaeda, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) Linked

Interpol: Terrorist group Al-Qaeda could have links with the Central American gangsBy m3report

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FORMER BORDER PATROL OFFICERSVisit our website: http://nafbpo.org/Foreign News Report

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis.

You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

La Hora (Guatemala City, Guatemala) 4/8/09

“Risk of links between gangs and Al-Qaeda is confirmed” -full translation-
Ronald Noble, Interpol Secretary General, said that the terrorist group Al-Qaeda could have links with the Central American gangs, also known as “maras”.

The official supported his hypothesis after analyzing a data base with names and data belonging to the international security organization.

Noble confirmed the risk of the relation between the two groups during the recent Interpol Americas’ International Conference which took place in the city of Vina del Mar, on Chile’s central coast.

According to the official, the information – not yet confirmed – reveals that there is contact between the terrorist activists and the gangsters who dedicate themselves to the traffic of drugs and people in the region.

Al-Qaeda has defined itself as an Islamic resistance group presumably led by the fundamentalist Osama bin Laden, to whom is attributed the intellectual authorship of the terrorist attack to the World Trade Center in 2001, among others of great magnitude.

(Guatemala’s) Secretary of Government, Salvador Gandara, indicated he is unaware of the information reported by Interpol, nevertheless he acknowledges the way in which the maras operate on Guatemala’s border in conjunction with the “narco-terrorist” groups.

The official pointed out that the gangs were initially formed by Central American immigrants residing in the United States, where they would defend the barrios where they belonged. Gandara maintains “Mara 18 was born in the jails and its name came from 18th Street in Los Angeles, it’s a most troubled barrio.”

Then came the mass deportations of Central Americans from the United States, and this way also the criminal groups entered the region. “They have also deported criminality”, he maintains.

The Secretary of the Interior did not confirm that there may exist links between the maras and the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, but that they do have them with the drug traffickers “who generate terror wherever they go.”

The official confirms that the maras are an executing arm which generates chaos and instability to facilitate drug and other illicit traffic in Central America.

Contrary to what Interpol has revealed, security analyst Sandino Asturias, believes that there is no relationship between the maras which operate in Central America and Al-Qaeda’s terrorists structures from the Middle East.

He asserts “Those statements lead to an over-evaluation of the organization and the reach which the maras have” He adds, “This aims to introduce a security agenda to the liking of the United States”. According to Asturias, “Al Qaeda does not represent a potential threat for Central America and Latin America, given that their objectives are different from those it has found in the world powers”

The Rest @ M3 Report via National Association of Former Border Patrol Agents

30 Saint Death Chapels Destroyed in Nuevo Loredo

Mexican federal authorities used bulldozers to bring down more than 30 chapels devoted to “Saint Death” - a figure that is worshipped by drug traffickers - in the northern city of Nuevo Laredo, the daily Reforma reported Wednesday.The image of the saint is a skeleton dressed and adorned as a woman, and is not based on any particular Roman Catholic saint. Many criminals, but also people without a criminal record and even police officers, have taken it as their patron saint.

Although the figure is venerated by people from many walks of life, the saint has been adopted by drug gangs.

• In recent years, there has been a proliferation around Mexico in the construction of such chapels - varying in size from small shrines to larger buildings - from materials including brick, marble, iron and tiles.
• They use Roman Catholic symbolism and ceremonies, although the formal church rejects worship of “Saint Death” as a pagan tradition and the authorities have long removed the tradition from the list of the country’s religious associations.
• In Mexico City, there is even a sanctuary and a so-called bishop - a man with no known ties to drug trafficking - for worship of “Saint Death.”

According to the report in Reforma, the chapels that were destroyed in Nuevo Laredo were on an access road to the city. One was a two-floor building and featured a 2-metre-tall image of Saint Death.

The owner of one of the altars told reporters that he had spent some 13,700 dollars to build it and decorate it.“When you go in or out of Nuevo Laredo you see these chapels, which are most impressive, spectacular, but people constantly complain that they give the impression that this is a place for criminals,” an unidentified official source told the daily, to explain the decision.

The Rest @ Gangster

MS-13's Erick Turcios-Lazo Sentenced

MS-13 Leader Sentenced to 120 Months for Conspiracy to Commit Murder in Aid of Racketeering
ALEXANDRIA, VA—Erick Turcios-Lazo, also known as “Scorpion,” age 22, was sentenced today to 120 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release.

Turcios-Lazo was found guilty on Jan. 22, 2009. Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

Turcios-Lazo was indicted on Sept. 18, 2008, by a federal grand jury on conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering charges. The jury trial began on Jan. 13, 2009.

According to court documents, Turcios-Lazo is a member of MS-13 and had served as the leader of the Silvas Locos Salvatrucha (SLS) clique of MS-13. Beginning in the summer of 2007 and continuing through January 2008, Turcios-Lazo conspired with other persons to murder L.Q. A member of the SLS clique of MS-13, L.Q. was suspected by other gang members of cooperating with law enforcement.

As a result, MS-13 put a “green light” on L.Q. A “green light” is a signal that the gang had approved the killing of someone suspected of cooperating with law enforcement.

In and around January 2008, Turcios-Lazo attended general meetings of MS-13 where he and others discussed who would be responsible for carrying out the green light on L.Q.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and members of the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force. Assistant United States Attorneys Morris R. Parker, Jr. and Benjamin L. Hatch are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

The Rest @ FBI.gov

Shining Path Back on the Offensive in Peru

April 11 (Associated Press)
Peru military says 13 soldiers dead in ambushes- Defense officials blame Shining Path, say attacks show desperation

LIMA, Peru - Suspected guerrillas have killed 13 Peruvian so...
Peru military says 13 soldiers dead in ambushes

LIMA, Peru - Suspected guerrillas have killed 13 Peruvian soldiers in ambushes on two patrols in a jungle region known for coca production and lingering rebel activity, the government said Saturday.

Four more were wounded and two are still missing from Thursday’s attacks in the Apurimac-Ene River Valley of southeastern Peru, according to the military.

• The guerrillas apparently first attacked one of the patrols with explosives, killing one and wounding three, and then tracked and ambushed the other group.
  
• “Twelve (from the second patrol) have been found dead in a ravine, and some of their weapons have been taken — surely by the Shining Path,” Defense Minister Antero Flores-Araoz told reporters late Saturday.

The Maoist Shining Path once boasted 10,000 fighters and rocked the capital with nearly daily car bombings before fading after the capture of its founder in 1992.

Officials say the guerrillas number about 500 today and survive through drug trafficking.

The attacks in Sanabamba, 200 miles southeast of the capital, Lima, are the deadliest since October, when 13 soldiers and two civilians were ambushed and killed while transporting dynamite in Huancavelica.

President Alan Garcia’s chief Cabinet minister called the attacks an act of desperation in response to the military presence in the area.

“They continue to kill soldiers and police, but this will not defeat the army, the police or much less our democracy,” Yehude Simon said.

The Rest @ MSNBC, via Armorred.com

Vicente Carrillo Leyva of Juarez Cartel Arrested

Vicente Carrillo Leyva, son of the late kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, is arrested in Mexico City.
By Ken Ellingwood
April 3, 2009

Reporting from Mexico City -- Mexican authorities on Thursday announced the capture of Vicente Carrillo Leyva, a suspected top leader of a family-run drug gang based in Ciudad Juarez and one of the country's most wanted figures.

Federal law enforcement officials said Carrillo Leyva, the 32-year-old son of deceased drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, was arrested Wednesday while exercising in a wealthy neighborhood of Mexico City.

Full coverage of Mexico's drug war

The younger Carrillo was listed among the country's 24 most wanted drug suspects last week when the federal government offered $2-million rewards for each.

Authorities described him as an heir to the organization once led by his father, who was known as the "Lord of the Skies" for his use of aircraft to move drugs.

The announcement came on the same day U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met outside Mexico City with top Mexican security officials to discuss how to stanch the southbound smuggling of weapons to drug cartels from the United States.

The arrest of Carrillo Leyva represents a significant victory for Mexican President Felipe Calderon's 28-month-old war against drug traffickers. But authorities say the younger Carrillo's uncle, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, known as "the Viceroy," remains in place as the leader of one of the four largest trafficking organizations in Mexico.


Carrillo Leyva, considered the Juarez group's No. 2 figure, helped manage the gang and launder proceeds from its drug sales, authorities said.

Officials said Carrillo Leyva was living in Mexico City under an assumed name: Alejandro Peralta Alvarez. They said they were able to find him in part because his wife, Celia Karina Quevedo Gastelum, kept her name.

Mexico is seeing a crop of younger, university-educated narco juniors emerging as leaders of drug-trafficking organizations that are bound primarily by family ties. Carrillo Leyva was paraded before news cameras in a white Abercrombie & Fitch sweatsuit and stylish glasses -- a far cry from the narco archetype decked out in cowboy boots and oversized jewel-studded belt buckles.

Two weeks ago, Mexican authorities arrested the 33-year-old son of Sinaloa-based suspected trafficker Ismael Zambada in another wealthy section of Mexico City. He was presented to reporters looking chic in jeans, dress shirt, jacket and fashionably stubbly face.

Marisela Morales Ibañez, who heads the organized crime unit of the Mexican attorney general's office, said Carrillo Leyva's capture reflects the "absolute commitment of the federal government to combat all organized crime groups that attack the peace, tranquillity and security of the population."

The Juarez gang has been locked in a vicious turf war with a band of traffickers based in the northwestern state of Sinaloa and led by Joaquin Guzman, the country's most wanted fugitive.

The bloodletting left about 1,600 people dead in Ciudad Juarez last year. Violence continued in the border city during the first two months of 2009 but has dipped since Calderon sent 5,000 more troops and hundreds of additional federal police there in recent weeks.

At least 10,000 people have died nationwide since Calderon launched his crackdown on organized crime groups soon after taking office in December 2006.

Thursday's meeting of top U.S. and Mexican officials near the city of Cuernavaca produced fresh pledges on both sides of common action against gun trafficking. But there were few specifics beyond creation of a binational working group to recommend strategies.

The visit of Napolitano and Holder comes amid a flurry of diplomacy between the neighboring countries. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spent two days in Mexico last week on a visit that focused on border security. President Obama is scheduled to visit April 16-17.

Last week, Napolitano unveiled a border security plan aimed at attacking the cartels and keeping serious violence from spilling into the United States. The plan envisions sending hundreds more federal agents and intelligence analysts to the border region.

Clinton said the White House would seek funding to provide Mexican authorities with $80 million worth of Black Hawk helicopters. Some of those funds would come out of $700 million already approved under the three-year security aid plan for Mexico known as the Merida Initiative.

U.S. and Mexican military officials have discussed greater cooperation against drug-trafficking groups, but Calderon this week ruled out joint operations on his country's soil.

U.S. lawmakers have proposed boosting aid to Mexico, which already was to receive a total of $1.4 billion under the Merida program, now in its second year.

Mexican officials have urged U.S. authorities to clamp down on the smuggling of drug money and the thousands of assault rifles and other weapons that fortify the cartels' arsenals.

U.S. law enforcement agencies estimate that Mexican and Colombian traffickers make $18 billion to $39 billion in the U.S. each year -- much of it smuggled back into Mexico.

In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says 90% of weapons seized in Mexico and reported to the agency can be traced to the United States.

"There's no question that the vast majority of weapons, and especially high-powered weapons, that are found here in Mexico . . . come from the United States," Holder told reporters. "That's the reality we have to face."

The Rest @ LA Times
ken.ellingwood@latimes.com

Familia Michoachan Kidnapping Rescue

Los Zetas en las Guerras Drogas en Zacatecas

David Duran and his DTO Shut Down

Defendants Receive Lengthy Prison Sentences andForfeit More than $100 Million in Cash and Property

FORT WORTH, Texas — The last defendant in a major drug trafficking organization (DTO), the David Duran DTO, which operated in the Dallas/Fort Worth area from 2002 until the case was indicted in 2006, was sentenced Monday March 23, 2009, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas.

U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means sentenced Universal Lime, Inc., a corporation that was set up by several of the Duran DTO defendants to launder it drug proceeds, was sentenced to 2 years probation and ordered to forfeit $2,843,157.

David Ray Duran became involved in the sale and distribution of controlled substances as early as 1992. After his release on parole on May 30, 2001, he again began dealing in drugs. Over the course of the next year, he organized a DTO that transported marijuana from El Paso to locations across the U.S. for distribution. It is reliably estimated that this DTO, at its peak, trafficked, on average, 10 tons of marijuana each month. The total gross proceeds of the drug trafficking enterprise are estimated at $100 million.

Members of the DTO included Julia Ann Duran, Stacy Lee Choate, Kimberly Jean Choate, Frank Bradley Segars, Universal Lime, Inc., Jose L. Silva, Juan Gonzales Rios, Jr., Aida Quirino Rios, J&I Premier Transport, Inc., Alberto Flores, Alfredo Munoz, Yhara Angelica Aguero, Timothy Edward Galaviz, Robert Galaviz, Rodolfo Flores, Tchong Hughes, Edward Glen Leitch, Michael Pruitt, Daniel Sanchez, Scott Everett Brewer, Marcus Jenkins, Christina Duran Kerr Delarosa, Antonio Moreno Avila, Rene Almager, and Ralph Paniagua, among others.

• In total, 28 defendants were indicted, including two corporations.
• Twenty-six have been convicted, one of the corporations was dismissed as it would not survive the incarceration of its two principal shareholders; the other defendant is a fugitive.
• Twenty-five defendants have been sentenced, one is a fugitive, and the average sentence is approximately 10 years in federal prison.
• Lead defendant David Duran was sentenced to 17 ½ years in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $100 million.

More than $3 million in cash and property has been seized and forfeited. During the course of the investigation the participating agencies seized and forfeited over $794,000 in cash and more than $600,000 worth of vehicles, jewelry, real estate, and other personal property.

In the forfeiture part of the case, the assets of Universal Lime, Inc. were sold to a legitimate company. The sale was on a “going concern” basis, not just piecemeal at auction. That sale netted $1.6 million to the government, another $300,000 is in escrow for two years.

In January 2002, Duran and Juan Rios incorporated JD Express, Inc., a commercial trucking business which was used to transport loads of marijuana.

The following January, Duran incorporated another commercial trucking business, JDA Trucking, Inc., which also was used to transport loads of marijuana.

Profits from the marijuana trafficking business were deposited into these businesses accounts and Duran also used drug profits to purchase assets for JDA Trucking, Inc.

In November 2003, Duran incorporated Universal Lime, Inc., with the initial investors/shareholders Duran (holding 78% of the shares), Frank Bradley Segars (11%) and Jose Silva (11%).

The assets of JDA Trucking, Inc., were transferred to Universal Lime, which was used as a recipient of the drug trafficking profits and premises it used were used as drug transshipment points.

Segars and Duran used cash drug profits to purchase tanks and equipment for Universal Lime.

David Duran’s wife, Julia Ann Duran, eventually became active in Universal Lime’s operations. In 2004, $103,760 in cash was deposited into Julia Duran’s personal checking account.

That same year, more than $1.2 million in cash, almost all drug profits, was deposited into the accounts of Universal Lime and JDA Trucking.

Typically, the cash would be brought to the Duran residence, and the cash deposits were made by Julia Duran and others who worked for Universal Lime in managerial positions.

The deposits were structured to avoid the currency transaction reporting requirements.

This pattern continued until 2006. From the time of Universal Lime’s incorporation, until November 16, 2006, drug trafficking profits of at least $2,843,157, in the form of cash or property acquired with drug profits, were invested in the establishment and operation of Universal Lime to conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, ownership or control of the marijuana trafficking proceeds.

The 18-month comprehensive investigation, which resulted in the federal indictments, was conducted under the auspices of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).

It was initiated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area's (HIDTA) Commercial Smuggling Group.

Information leading to the federal investigation was initially developed by the Grand Prairie Police Department and the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) SAR Review Team.

Also assisting the investigation were officers and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Arlington Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Dallas County Sheriff's Office, Tarrant County Sheriff's Office, and the El Paso Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Fred Schattman and Diane Kozub prosecuted the case.

The Rest @ The Justice Department

April 8, 2009

WICHITA FALLS, TX—Twelve alleged members of the Puro Lil Mafia (PLM) street gang operating in Wichita Falls, were indicted yesterday by a grand jury in Dallas on federal weapons and/or narcotics charges, announced acting U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas.

This morning, in an early morning round-up, FBI agents, Officers with the Wichita Falls Police Department, and Wichita County Sheriff Deputies arrested eight of the 12 defendants.

Four of 12 defendants are already in state or local custody on related charges.

The defendants arrested today are making their initial appearances this week before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert K. Roach, in Wichita Falls.

Detention hearings will be held on Tuesday, April 14, 2009, before Judge Roach.
Acting U.S. Attorney Jacks said, “Today’s enforcement action has effectively shut down a dangerous cocaine trafficking organization operating in Wichita Falls.

....

Those defendants, all residents of Wichita Falls, arrested this morning include:
Andrew Cecil Harris, 36
Miguel Antonio Martinez, 24
Joe McDonald, 65
Jose Skinner, 26
Hugo Lopez, 22
Betty Bustillos, 25
Anthony Merito, 23
James Frederick Trujillo, 26

Those defendants charged, also all residents of Wichita Falls, that are in state or local custody include:

Jessie James Greek, 27
Edward Buck Izaguirre, 30
Wesley Swick, 20
Jason Grantham, 20

In a related case, Steed Dennis, 30, of Wichita Falls, pled guilty in February to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

On January 9, 2009, Dennis was stopped in his vehicle by a Wichita Falls Police Officer. The officer, who knew Dennis to be a known member of Puro Lil Mafia of Wichita Falls, and a convicted felon, was in possession of a .22 caliber firearm in his vehicle.

According to documents filed in Court, the Officer also observed Frederick Trujillo, also a known member of Puro Lil Mafia, in the back seat of the vehicle.


In one indictment, Edward Buck Izaguirre, Miguel Antonio Martinez and Joe McDonald are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.

In addition, Izaguirre is charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, and two counts of felon in possession of a firearm.

Other separate indictments returned this week charge Jessie James Greek with two counts of felon in possession of a firearm.

Andrew Cecil Harris, Jose Skinner, Anthony Merito, James Frederick Trujillo, and Jason Grantham are each charged with one count of felon in possession of a firearm.

In addition, Harris, is charged with one count of felon in possession of ammunition.

In other separate indictments, Hugo Lopez is charged with one count of possession of a firearm by an illegal alien.

Betty Bustillos is charged with two counts of making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm.

Wesley Swick is charged with one count of possession of a stolen firearm or ammunition.

The Rest from the Dallas FBI