Archive for category Crime

Bounties: Mexico Nabs Zeta Gang Leader On Most-Wanted List

May 2

Posted by Matt in Bounties, Crime, Mexico | 1 Comment

   Right on, and good on the guy(s) that helped nab this clown. -Matt

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LosZetasBounties: Mexico Nabs Zeta Gang Leader On Most Wanted List

Mexico nabs Zeta gang leader on most-wanted list

By ISTRA PACHECO

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican police on Wednesday arrested suspected Zeta gang leader Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa, one of Mexico’s 24 most-wanted drug traffickers.

Sauceda Gamboa appears on a list of 24 alleged drug traffickers published by prosecutors in March. Authorities have offered rewards of up to $2.1 million for each suspect. Together with a list of 13 lower-ranking drug suspects, the group covers Mexico’s most powerful cartel operators.

With Sauceda Gamboa’s arrest Wednesday at a home in the border city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, authorities have arrested five of the 37 whose names appeared on the lists.

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Crime: Drug-Sub Culture

Apr 29

Posted by Matt in Colombia, Crime, Maritime Security | No Comments

“You ever try to build something in your backyard? They’re building these in the jungles.” 

   This is a building snowmobiles concept, and very innovative.  I give them high marks for working the problem and coming up with something like this, but it is still criminal.  

     Perhaps the counter to something like this could be the good ol’ Letter of Marque?  I have talked about it before for land operations, and this problem is a prime opportunity to use the LoM for a sea based operation.  We would have to break out all the old U-Boat hunting ‘lessons learned’ from WW2 for this one.  I also think this would be an excellent task for a private naval company, and this stuff along with the piracy deal, could keep companies very busy. -Matt

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Drug-Sub Culture

By DAVID KUSHNER

April 26, 2009

THE CRAFT FIRST surfaced like something out of a science-fiction movie. It was November 2006, and a Coast Guard cutter spotted a strange blur on the ocean 100 miles off Costa Rica. As the cutter approached, what appeared to be three snorkels poking up out of the water became visible. Then something even more surprising was discovered attached to the air pipes: a homemade submarine carrying four men, an AK-47 and three tons of cocaine.

Today, the 49-foot-long vessel bakes on concrete blocks outside the office of Rear Adm. Joseph Nimmich in Key West, Fla. Here, at the Joint Interagency Task Force South, Nimmich commands drug-interdiction efforts in the waters south of the United States. Steely-eyed, gray-haired and dressed in a blue jumpsuit, he showed me the homemade sub one hot February afternoon like a hunter flaunting his catch. “We had rumors and indicators of this for a very long period beforehand,” he told me, which is why they nicknamed it Bigfoot.

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Mexico: Hitmen’s Bloody Reign All About Logic, Trafficker Says

Apr 18

Posted by Matt in Crime, Mexico | No Comments

   An interesting look into the world of the Los Zetas and how they conduct business down south.  Thanks to Doug for sending me this one. -Matt  

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Mexico: Hitmens Bloody Reign All About Logic, Trafficker Says 

Hitmen’s bloody reign all about logic, trafficker says

By Karl Penhaul

April 15, 2009

Editor’s note: Journalist Karl Penhaul spent several weeks tracking the gangs of the Mexican underworld, the corrupt officials who support them and the cops trying to halt the violence. This is the first of three exclusive reports.

CAMARGO, Mexico (CNN) — There are no welcome signs on the approach to Camargo.

It’s a hardscrabble Mexican border town and home turf for “Los Zetas,” a gang of hitmen and corrupt former special forces cops on the bankroll of the Gulf Cartel.

Local journalists explained if we went there we’d be getting “tangled up in the hooves of the horse.” They said Zeta gunmen recently smashed one reporter’s fingers with a hammer as a warning to the media to stay away.

The plaza was deserted — for a few minutes at least. Then the throb of engines broke the Sunday morning peace. Scores of pickup trucks with heavily tinted windows began circling. Occasionally a window would crack open. We were clearly being watched.

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Law Enforcement: Three Officers Killed in Pa. Shooting

Apr 4

Posted by Matt in Crime, Law Enforcement | 1 Comment

    Rest in peace to the officers killed, and the last couple of days have been rough for this kind of deal.  I think we will see more of this too, as the stresses of the recession and lost jobs continues to kick in. And often the idea for such a thing, comes from the previous news attention of another incident.  This stuff really sucks.

   One thing I wanted to comment on with this, is the continued use of the AK 47 in some of these shootings.  It is a cheap weapon, reliable, and the round is very effective.  And if the active shooter has armor piercing rounds, then that makes that weapons system really scary.  Either way, more departments out there should continue to make it mandatory to get a plate carrier with a carbine in each patrol car.  There should also be more training out there for officers to deal with active shooters and the super empowered individual.  We must be prepared for all and any scenario, and to not give an officer the best chance at ending a active shooter rampage or at least protecting himself on scene, is just wrong.

   I also look at this from the Mumbai perspective, and what terrorists are learning about the US system of response.  They are watching, and they are learning, and realizing the strategy and tactics necessary to inflict the most amount of damage.  In Pakistan, they are strapping bomb belts on to themselves, along with AK’s and and ammo, and the goal is to shoot until they are out, and then blow themselves up.  Or blow themselves up, if they see an opportunity.  God help us when we come across an active shooter in the US that has this mindset.  So the ability to deal with an active shooter quick, or even an active killer is extremely important.  I say killer, because look at the terrorists that used bulldozers in Israel to kill.  

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Video: Home Invasion Caught on Camera, Doug

Feb 15

Posted by Matt in Crime, Law Enforcement, Video | No Comments

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Crime: DB Cooper, Eat Your Heart Out–Parachuting Criminal in Alabama

Jan 13

Posted by Matt in Alabama, Crime | No Comments

     What a desperate crook and this guy owes a lot of money for his crimes.  To me, the interesting part about finding this guy is the man hunt aspect. The one hit against Schrenker right now, is that everyone knows what he looks like and what he did.  He is very visible and left a lot of tracks, unlike DB Cooper.  I suspect that this guy will be caught pretty soon, but still, this is one for the books. -Matt

Edit:  And he is caught.  He tried to commit suicide as well.   

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Missing Ind. pilot may have fled on red motorbike

By RICK CALLAHAN and JAY REEVES

01/13/2009

HARPERSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The search for an Indiana businessman who may have tried to fake his own death in a plane crash to escape financial problems took another cinematic turn Tuesday when investigators said he jetted away on a red motorcycle.

After searching the Alabama woods where Marcus Schrenker, 38, apparently bailed out of his small plane before letting it coast on autopilot to crash in Florida, investigators discovered that he’d stashed a red motorcycle inside a storage unit a day before the crash. The bike is gone, and his clothes were left behind.

“He could be anywhere at all. Within 10 hours he could be in New Orleans, halfway to Houston, in Atlanta, anywhere,” said Huntsville Police Chief David Latimer.

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Mexico: US Plans Border ‘Surge’ Against Any Mexican Drug Wars

Jan 12

Posted by Matt in Crime, Mexico | No Comments

    A big thanks to Doug for sending me this, and this is kind of a follow up to my other post.  The thing I ask myself is what would a ‘spill over’ into this country look like, if things got worse in Mexico?  Already, drugs/people/weapons are all being smuggled across the border–through tunnels and over land.  The kind of spill over I am thinking of, is if these drug cartels feel threatened at all by the US support of Mexico in this drug war and decide to hit back.  I think in terms of what Colombia looked like at it’s worst during it’s drug war, and then I try to apply that to what this situation could look like in the present and near future for Mexico.  

   The other angle I am looking at, is the contracting opportunities if this gets worse.  Surveillance stuff and some training opportunities will be the big ones.  Maybe some aviation stuff as well.  But if we need muscle on the border, and the troops are already spread thin, would security contractors come into play?  Security contractors are already being used to help secure borders or train the border patrols of Afghanistan and Iraq, they could easily be used for the US border efforts. We are a resource that has been used in the past by the federal government for disasters, namely hurricane support, and a disaster at the border is no different. Of course that is only my opinion on the matter.-Matt

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 U.S. plans border ‘surge’ against any Mexican drug wars

By Randal C. Archibold

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The soaring level of violence in Mexico resulting from the drug wars there has led the United States to develop plans for a “surge” of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across the border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday.

Chertoff said the criminal activity in Mexico, which has caused more than 5,300 deaths in the last year, had long troubled American authorities. But it reached a point last summer, he said, where he ordered specific plans to confront in this country the kind of shootouts and other mayhem that in Mexico have killed members of warring drug cartels, law enforcement officials and bystanders, often not far from the border.

“We completed a contingency plan for border violence, so if we did get a significant spillover, we have a surge ? if I may use that word ? capability to bring in not only our own assets but even to work with” the Defense Department, Chertoff said in a telephone interview.

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Mexico: Could Hamas or FARC Ideas, Inspire Mexico’s Narco-Insurgency?

Jan 11

Posted by Matt in Crime, Mexico | 1 Comment

 

   Today I want to look at the situation across the border, and kind of look into the future of the narco war in Mexico.  Also please read General McCaffrey’s After Action Mexico Report, as a good little primer on the situation.  The question I have, is Mexico strong enough to battle these drug cartels, and how will the drug cartels treat the US as we feed the anti-drug war with Plan Merida?

    So with that in mind, let’s for a second explore the possibilities, no matter how ridiculous.  Already tunnels have been used to smuggle people, drugs, and weapons on the US/Mexican border.  Notice how this same tactic is used by Hamas in Israel?  There have also been incidents of criminals engaging with Border Patrol using automatic weapons, and operating more like military units, as opposed to thugs.  Is this not what Hamas does?  Or how about FARC?  We have a deal with Colombia called Plan Colombia, and that support is used to fight a very bloody narco war there.  Imagine if Colombia was right on our border in the US?  Would FARC have crossed the border, and made the US pay for our support of Colombia?  I am positive they would.  

   So where do all of these examples lead us?  With a determined group, they will try everything they can to survive and keep the business going.  These groups will learn from others, and will be inspired by working models of operation.  Mexico’s Narco-insurgency will learn from Hamas and they will learn from FARC, and I am sure they will learn from others, as to the best way to stop the governments of both the US and Mexico from messing with their business.

    One way that I could see these guys going, is launching rockets into the US, much like Hamas did with Israel.  Hell, the FARC even did something similar within Colombia, by using propane lob bombs or IRAM’s.  The idea being, is to piss off the larger neighbor to the north, and force the US to do something violent.  They would want US forces to come into Mexico and try to shut things down.  But once that happens, then the larger picture of Public Relations presents itself, and a US military action in Mexico would make the Mexican military and police seem even weaker and this action could piss off a lot of civilians.  At worse, even civilians could be killed in that scenario.  And if you are to study the FARC in Colombia, civilians have been killed during that narco-war, mostly by FARC, but also by accidents with government reaction to the FARC. 

   Now with an insurgency, when a smaller group attacks an occupier or an invading force, that smaller group actually becomes the good guy in some cases amongst the local populations.  The drug cartels would love for this scenario to present itself.  So if these guys could egg on the US, to become more involved, then they would be happy.  The Plan Merida, much like the Plan Colombia, is our first step in combating these narco-insurgencies.  But we also have to be prepared for some push back from the drug cartels for getting involved like this.  Will these guys start launching rockets into US cities to start a fight?  Who knows, but I do know that the drug cartels in Mexico are getting more brazen and more powerful all the time.  The Mexican government is having a hell of a time fighting this, and my big fear is that a full blown narco war in Mexico could look a lot like the one in Colombia, and that would not be a good thing for the US. -Matt 

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General McCaffrey’s After Action Mexico Report focusing on drugs and crime in Mexico.

Academic Mexico Trip Report – December 2008

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Mexico’s Narco-Insurgency 

 Hal Brands | 22 Dec 2008

World Politics Review

When Barack Obama takes office on Jan. 20, his foreign policy will almost certainly be consumed by the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet Obama would do well to pay equal attention to a third ongoing insurgency, one that is currently more violent than the war in Iraq and possibly more threatening to American interests. This insurgency is raging not half a world away in the Middle East, but just across America’s southern frontier in Mexico.

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Crime: The ‘Real’ Lord of War, Viktor Bout

Dec 31

Posted by Matt in Crime, Weapons Stuff | No Comments

   This guy is pretty interesting, and has definitely done some amazing things in the field of weapons delivery. But like most who walk the line between legal and illegal weapons delivery, you always face the potential of getting caught one day.  Viktor made things happen out there, but at what price to self and others?  But on the other hand, everyone has done business with the guy, because he could get things done in really crappy places.  The movie Lord of War staring Nicolas Cage was about his exploits, and there are plenty of stories, books, and articles about him.  And after he got caught in Thailand, the Economist wrote this recent article.  -Matt

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viktor boutCrime: The Real Lord of War, Viktor Bout

International man of mystery

Flying anything to anybody

Dec 18th 2008

From The Economist print edition

The rise and fall of Viktor Bout, arms-dealer extraordinaire, shows a darker side of globalisation

VIKTOR BOUT knew, long before his plane lifted off from Moscow, that they meant to snatch him. For years he had hunkered down in the Russian capital, making only rare forays abroad. Western spies, the United Nations and do-gooder activists were after him. They said that he had smashed arms embargoes and struck deals with a remarkable axis of ne’er-do-wells: supplying weapons and air-transport to the Taliban, abetting despots and revolutionaries in Africa and South America, aiding Hizbullah in Lebanon and Islamists in Somalia. He also found time to supply American forces in Iraq, perhaps al-Qaeda too, and maybe even Chechen rebels.

He denied all wrongdoing and, no doubt, thought his accusers irritating and hypocritical. But until the fuss died away he knew that he was safe only in Russia, from where extradition was impossible.

Yet Mr Bout, a puzzling, amoral and intelligent man, made a poor choice in March, leaving behind his wife and daughter and flying to Bangkok. As a consequence he may end up in New York as the star of a trial that would provoke echoes of cold-war spy games, further chilling relations between the West and Russia.

A shy and plump man, for years his only public image was a grainy, Soviet-era passport photo. That shows a dumpy, youngish face, with drooping eyes peering above a thick, triangular, moustache—the sort one might buy in a joke shop. He was probably born in what is now Tajikistan but, as with the picture, details of his life are fuzzy. American prosecutors say that he uses at least half a dozen passports and more aliases, including “Butt”, “Budd”, “Boris”, “Bulakin” and “Aminov”. A gifted linguist, he slips easily between as many languages as he has names.

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Crime: Mexican Beauty Queen Arrested in Gun-filled Truck

Dec 25

Posted by Matt in Crime, Mexico | No Comments

     Boy, the first thing I thought with this is what a shame that this woman would hang with these losers? But then the other thing to think of is the diversion this woman provided for this team.  She is famous and pretty, so the last thing any checkpoint team would expect is this woman to be with a bunch of killers. I am sure this gang thought that they could just pass right through the checkpoint. Good on the checkpoint team for using good judgement and catching these guys, despite the Beauty Queen.  -Matt

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laura zuniga 2Crime: Mexican Beauty Queen Arrested in Gun filled Truck

Mexican beauty queen arrested in gun-filled truck

By ARTURO PEREZ, Associated Press Writer Arturo Perez, Associated Press Writer Wed Dec 24, 12:52 pm ET

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – A reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition, police say.

Miss Sinaloa 2008 Laura Zuniga stared at the ground, with her flowing dark hair concealing her face, as she stood squeezed between seven alleged gunmen lined up before journalists. Soldiers wearing ski masks guarded the 23-year-old model and the suspects.

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