La Familia leader sought alliance with ex-rivals

A cult-like drug cartel that challenged a rival gang by rolling five severed heads onto a disco dance floor in western Mexico was so divided and cash-strapped of late that it sought to form an alliance with that gang, police officials said Wednesday.
La Familia gang leader Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas was looking for support from the Zetas drug gang to fight splinter cells within his own organization, said Federal Police anti-narcotics chief Ramon Pequeno.
Mendez Vargas, alias El Chango, or The Monkey, was arrested Tuesday in the central state of Aguascalientes, where he was hiding. He was paraded before reporters in Mexico City on Wednesday. He is also wanted in the U.S. for drug-related crimes, Federal Police commissioner Facundo Rosas said at a news conference but didn't elaborate.
Mendez Vargas worked for the Gulf cartel in the western state of Michoacan before he and other drug traffickers defected to form the rival La Familia cartel, which began a bloody battle for control of the state in 2006.
The gang was facing so many financial problems recently that Mendez Vargas couldn't even pay the monthly salaries of some of his gang members, said Rosas, adding that La Familia "has been decisively weakened."
With the death of La Familia founder and leader Nazario Moreno Gonzalez in December, Mendez Vargas was the last remaining head of the criminal group, federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said.
The Mexican government had offered a $2.5 million reward for his capture, alleging that he was responsible for the transfer and sale of cocaine, marijuana, and crystal methamphetamine in Mexico and the U.S.
"He is the alleged mastermind of kidnappings and killings, mainly of members of other criminal organizations," according to the reward statement issued by the Attorney General's Office.
His work in organized crime predated La Familia's origins.
Mendez had been arrested nine years ago in the Michoacan city of Apatzingan on suspicion of killing gang members but was released, according to a news release from the federal Attorney General's Office. The office did not explain why he was released.
At the time, he headed a group of hit men that worked for the Gulf cartel in Michoacan and was protected by his own security team known as the "Twelve Apostles," according to the Attorney General's Office news release.
La Familia founder Moreno was killed in December during two days of shootouts between La Familia and federal police. After his death, La Familia split into warring factions, causing increased bloodshed in western Mexico.
The leader of a violent splinter group, known as the Knights Templar, remains at large.

 

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Fear and violence haunt the streets of Managua, Nicaragua's capital,

Fear and violence haunt the streets of Managua, Nicaragua's capital, rife with extreme poverty and inevitable crime. Rather than whole, safe neighborhoods, there are mostly small islands of safety clustered around malls and fancy hotels. A wealthy tourist (nearly all tourists here are relatively rich) happily pays triple the local rate for a taxi that works with the hotels to ensure a safe arrival. The trip is generally a hop from one safe zone to another. In the evening, taxis are even more important because it's unwise to walk around after dark, especially with a camera. While you're unlikely to be hurt, there is a risk that groups of young thugs might just rob you at knifepoint.

In Nicaragua, there are more armed guards than military and police forces combined. Every major hotel and nearly every business has an armed guard. Nicaraguan security guards make about $1 an hour and consider the work a blessing. I chatted with one guard while watching a kid in the street juggling small flaming torches for tips. I couldn't help but think, "I'll spend what the guard makes in a day on a taxi back to my hotel, and I'll spend what that juggler hopes to make in a day for a poolside rum-and-Coke."

Whenever my cabbie stopped at an intersection, a battery of children begging, washing the taxi's windows and trying to sell us little trinkets confronted us. These school-age children weren't in school. I marveled at how a society suffers when it makes ends meet by cutting education.

I wandered through one Managua barrio, keeping an eye on the street for Nicaragua's notorious open manholes (desperation drives people to steal the lids and sell them as scrap metal). The neighborhood felt desolate. There was almost no business metabolism. A few shops sold odds and ends through barred windows, and rustic cantinas served beer to a rough-looking male crowd.

I came upon a small yard where the neighborhood children were jumping giddily up and down while one kid blindly swung a stick at a mischievously darting piñata. I enjoyed the scene, but I winced every time the stick viciously cut through the air among all those excited little heads. As I took a photo, a mom came over and suggested I stow the camera for safety. I suddenly realized I was in a bad neighborhood. With her baby in her arms and her elderly mother at her side, the mother escorted me to a nearby street. As I reached a bank with an armed guard out front, she said, "Now you are safe."

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Project Runway Latin America to move to Miami

Worldwide, the fashion capitals are Paris, New York and Milan. For Latin America, it's increasingly Miami.
The latest evidence: The Spanish-language version of the hit TV show, "Project Runway," will begin filming in Miami on July 11, bringing a new roster of burgeoning fashion designers with Latin flair to compete for a top prize against a backdrop of palm trees and Art Deco architecture.
"Project Runway Latin America "joins other local fashion events, such as Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week Swim, Funkshion Fashion Week Miami Beach and Miami Beach International Fashion Week, that lend Miami international fashion cachet.
"We're very excited," said Jack Alfandary, the show's Miami-based executive producer. "I think it (filming in Miami) will add a lot to the show, and we're super looking forward to it."
"Project Runway Latin America" will feature 15 designers, ages 20 to 35, from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Guatemala, culled from 2,000 applicants from all over Latin American, Alfandary said.
In a series of themed competitions, the designers will be pitted against each other to produce garments, which are then strutted out onto the runway as judges pick apart the designs and eliminate contestants, one by one.
Produced by the Miami-based Latin American headquarters of London-based FremantleMedia -- the largest content creation and television production company in world and producer of "American Idol"
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-- the show has all the same music, look and feel of the U.S. show. Last year's inaugural show was filmed in Buenos Aires.
Taking the role of host Heidi Klum: Mexican model and TV presenter Rebecca de Alba. Mentor Tim Gunn's position is filled by Argentine designer Mariano Toledo. One of the judges is renowned Venezuelan designer Angel Sanchez, and there will be additional guest judges.
Winner
Last season, Colombian Jorge Duque won the $20,000 top prize, a spread and cover in Elle Magazine Mexico and the chance to show his collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in Mexico.
Alfandary said that this year's prize is still being negotiated.
"Project Runway Latin America" will film at the Miami International University of Art & Design, at a private studio in Doral and places around the city, he said.
For the Miami fashion school, it's a chance to appear in the spotlight.
"I think it's fantastic," said Charlene Parsons, the school's department chair of fashion.
Contestants will stay in apartments near downtown Miami, and Alfandary said he hopes to shoot at the beach, at an iconic hotel, at an entertainment venue and in Miami Beach's Art Deco District.
"We're looking to show the color of Miami," he said.
That look -- a palette of bright colors, form-fitting dresses, sexy swimwear and breezy fabrics -- has molded Miami into the epicenter of fashion for Latin America.
"All the designers come here. They're much more comfortable coming here than to New York or other U.S. gateways," said Beth Sobol, president and executive producer of Miami Beach International Fashion Week, now in its 14th year and credited with boosting the presence of Latin American fashion in Miami.
"Many have homes here, have friends and family here, and it is much more of a friendly atmosphere to do business here," Sobol said.
Latin designers who got their start at Sobol's event and have risen in the fashion world include Silvia Tcherassi of Colombia, who has two stores in Coral Gables; Esteban Cortazar, also from Colombia, who now has his own collection; and Julian Chang, from Peru, who has a store and a showroom in Miami.
In Miami
"Project Runway Latin America" will shoot for five weeks in July and August, and one week in October.
It will air for 15 weeks throughout Latin America -- but not in the United States -- beginning in September. It will run on the Glitz cable network, formerly called Fashion TV, owned by Turner Broadcasting System.
The U.S. version of "Project Runway" is owned by the Weinstein Company and is not produced by FreemantleMedia.
Among other hit shows Freemantle has produced are "American Idol," "America's Got Talent," "The Price is Right" and the upcoming "X Factor," as well "Project Runway" in 15 countries, including Canada, Israel, Finland, Belgium, the Philippines, Turkey, the United Kingdom and South Korea.
In production
FremantleMedia's Miami office is in the sixth season of producing Idolos — the Brazilian version of "American Idol," after doing four seasons of Latin American Idol. And it is currently in production of Idol Puerto Rico, among other shows.
But this marks the first time that the Miami office has moved production of a Spanish-language show to Miami, said Alfandary, who is also senior vice president of sales for Latin America and the U.S. Latino market. The show will have a crew of up to 60.
"We are here and we felt that it was nice to do it where we are, it's easier to supervise," he said. "And we felt it would add some nice elements to the production. Miami is ... the capital of Latin America, and everyone wants to come here."
Fashion is also an industry that the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade's economic development agency, is trying to expand.
Other shows
"Project Runway Latin America" joins a litany of Spanish-language shows -- mostly telenovelas -- that have chosen Miami as their filming destination.
Dozens of English-language reality shows have also focused on Miami, such as "Jersey Shore and "Miami Ink."
Another 20 reality shows have at least partially shot here just since the beginning of this year, said Jeff Peel, director of the Miami-Dade Office of Film and Entertainment.
Such shows, he said, act as a "picture postcard for our community."
"'Project Runway' is clearly a very upscale and iconic kind of a show," Peel said. "So having the Spanish-language version of that show is a major event for us."

 

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Thousands Poised to Enter Deportation Process After Mass ICE Arrest

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that federal agents swept up 2,400 illegal immigrants in a nationwide raid last month, starting what will likely be a months-long process of figuring out what to do with them. 

The sweep, the product of a seven-day enforcement operation called "Cross Check," was described as the largest of its kind. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, in coordination with other federal agencies and local officials, tracked down illegal immigrant criminals in all 50 states and are now housing them in ICE jails across the country. 


For some detainees, the next step will be a one-way flight to their home country. For others, the process could take much longer. 

The illegal immigrants arrested in the sweep last month were divided into three basic categories: fugitives who had outstanding deportation orders against them, those who already had been deported and illegally re-entered the U.S., and at-large convicted criminals. 

Those in the first two categories will once again be slated for deportation, though those in the second category could also face prosecution in the U.S. for the crime of illegal re-entry. The timing of their deportation would vary, depending on factors like travel documents, the availability of flights and whether their home countries will take them. 

But those in the third category will be placed into removal "proceedings" before a federal immigration judge. That judge then has the discretion to order them deported or grant some form of relief to remain in the U.S. 

"They're afforded due process," a federal immigration official said. 

And that process can take a while. According to a report last fall by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, it took an average of 280 days for the immigration courts to act on cases in fiscal 2010, the last year for which data was available. 

ICE could not provide a breakdown of what's happened to the 2,064 convicted criminals and fugitives swept up in prior Cross Check arrests. However, the agency reported that more than 122,000 criminal aliens have been removed from the country since Oct. 1. 

ICE officials touted the latest raid as a message to illegal immigrant criminals that they will get caught. Among those arrested were a Libyan living in Denver convicted of first-degree sexual assault against a child and a Filipino living in Orlando convicted of battery on a law enforcement officer. 

"The results of this operation underscore ICE's ongoing focus on arresting those convicted criminal aliens who prey upon our communities and tracking down fugitives who game our nation's immigration system," ICE Director John Morton said in a statement. 

The operation also sends a message to states and cities that have lashed out against a separate federal-local partnership known as Secure Communities -- through which FBI fingerprints are checked against Homeland Security Department databases to see if a suspect is in the country illegally. Some states, like New York, recently came out against the program, expressing concern that it is preventing people in the immigrant community from working with law enforcement. 

But ICE stressed that in the Cross Check raid federal officials were only targeting serious offenders. It came after new guidelines were issued for Secure Communities to focus the screening efforts on dangerous criminals. 

While the administration is narrowing its immigration enforcement to criminals and fugitives, others say that approach is not doing the trick. 

Corey Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in Virginia, called the arrests announced Tuesday a "drop in the bucket." He expressed concern that federal officials are still letting far too many illegal immigrants off the hook for minor crimes, which can lead to major crimes. In Prince William County, two illegal immigrants with prior records were charged in connection with deadly crimes in the span of just six months. 

Stewart acknowledged that many of those swept up in the latest arrests will likely face deportation. 

"They're probably going to deport most of them. ... These are very serious criminals," he said. "But again, it's just the tip of the iceberg."

 

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Mexican Drug Cartels Bringing Heroin to St. Louis

The dramatic increase in heroin use and heroin overdose deaths in the St. Louis metro area is a direct result of the expanding operations of Mexican drug cartels in the region, according to a new book written by a St. Louisan who is a retired Air Force special investigations agent and who specialized in operations against Latin American drug traffickers.

In 2010, there were over 200 heroin overdose deaths in the metro region, and law enforcement and drug treatment specialists expect that number to climb this year. At the same time, heroin use has spread to both suburbs and rural farming communities in broth Missouri and Illinois.

"St. Louis is now considered by the National Drug Intelligence Center to be a hub city for distribution of Mexican heroin," said Sylvia Lomgmire, author of Cartel: the Coming Invasion of Mexico's Drug Wars.  "The various cartels usually bring heroin across the border, then ship it by car or small truck to St. Louis. Some of the drugs stay here. Others are stored in warehouses or rental homes, and then re-packaged for distribution outside the area."



Longmire was an Air Force captain and was with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, specializing in Latin American and Mexican cartel operations, until she received a medical discharge in 2009 due to multiple sclerosis. Since then, she was written and lectured extensively on cartel operations.

"Like most other places, the street-level distribution network in St. Louis is primarily made up of local street gangs," she said. "In this area, it would be Hispanic and African-American gangs. Most don't know who they are selling the drugs for, and they don't really care. The less they know, the safer it is. So in that way, the cartel's distribution model is much like terrorist cells, made up of lots of small, independent operators who don't know each other."

Because of demand here and elsewhere, heroin has largely replaced the cartel's two long-time staples, cocaine and methamphetamine. "Both Mexican brown powder heroin and Mexican black tar heroin have become much more popular in the St. Louis area," said Longmire. "The quality of heroin is much higher, and it's also getting cheaper. And that's the cartel business model: sell large volumes of relatively low-priced, high-quality heroin."

When asked about the link between the campaign against illegal immigration and fears of cartel violence expanding into the U.S., Longmire mostly dismissed the connection. "
The cartels certainly have started human smuggling operations," she said, "but illegal immigration and the Mexican cartels are two different issues. The vast majority of undocumented workers from Mexico are here to make a living doing things like agricultural work. They want nothing to do with the cartels."

 

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Sources outside of law enforcement have confirmed that Heriberto “El Lazca” Lazcano , the leader of the Zetas, was killed Friday in a firefight with rival Gulf Cartel.

The Mexico Defense Ministry has disputed the claim.
Born on Christmas Day 1974, Lazcano was one of the founding members of the Zetas, founded by elite Mexican army soldiers who defected to side with the Gulf Cartel.
The Gulf Cartel employed the Zetas as their mercenary enforcement arm for years.
The latter group gradually gained power, and the friends turned foes in February 2010, when the alliance dissolved. The split sent much of Northeast Mexico into disarray as the two drug trafficking organizations struggled to control territory, including prized smuggling routes into South Texas.
U.S. prosecutors named Lazcano, also known as “El Verdugo,” Spanish for executioner, as one of several kingpins of the Zetas and Gulf Cartel in a June 2009 indictment filed in U.S. federal court in the District of Columbia. Beyond outlining the operation of the then allied force, known as “The Company,” prosecutors allege Lazcano took part in trafficking a 13-ton load of cocaine from Colombian suppliers into Mexico in 2007.

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Mexico finds $2.4 million hidden in phone cable

Mexican customs inspectors say they've found more than $2.4 million in cash rolled up and stuffed into spools of telephone cable headed for Venezuela.
The customs service says the cash was taped up into 6,000 small rolls. The rolls were inserted into about 500 meters (yards) of thick phone cable, and the cable was coiled onto four spools.
The customs service added that a trained dog alerted his handler to the suspicious contents of the spools at the Mexico City airport.
A man listed as the owner of the shipment was detained.
Authorities say Venezuela is increasingly becoming a transshipment point for cocaine, and Mexican cartels often ship money back to South America to pay for the drugs.

 

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