One of the kingpins of the infamous Los Zetas drug running gang has told Mexican federal police that the group purchased its weapons directly from U.S. government officials inside America,

One of the kingpins of the infamous Los Zetas drug running gang has told Mexican federal police that the group purchased its weapons directly from U.S. government officials inside America, a revelation that will only serve to heighten suspicions that the Obama administration’s Operation Fast and Furious program was a deliberate attempt to undermine the Second Amendment by stealth.
Under Operation Fast and Furious, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives “Sanctioned the purchase of weapons in U.S. gun shops and tracked the smuggling route to the Mexican border. Reportedly, more than 2,500 firearms were sold to straw buyers who then handed off the weapons to gunrunners under the nose of ATF.” Some of the weapons were later used to kill US Border Patrol agents like Brian Terry.
However, according to the testimony of Rejón Aguilar, one of the original seven members of Los Zetas who was recently captured by police, in some cases Mexican drug gangs did not have to wait until the firearms reached the border – they purchased guns directly from the US government itself inside America.
In an interview with Mexican federal police that was later uploaded to You Tube and translated, Aguilar sensationally blows the whistle on how the Zetas’ weapons were obtained straight from U.S. federal authorities.
“They are bought in the U.S. The buyers (on the U.S. side of the border) have said in the past that sometimes they would acquire them from the U.S. Government itself,” Aguilar told police.
“There were buyers for a time – because they weren’t our people, they were buyers on the other side – telling us that even the American government itself were selling them,” added Aguilar.
The video interview can be seen at the bottom of the page.
A Spanish-language newspaper story on the issue that was translated for us by Larry Pratt states, “Last Sunday, members of the Federal Police detained in the state of Mexico Z-7, one of the 14 leaders and founders of the Zetas who in one of his main statements affirmed that there are elements of the United States government who are furnishing arms to the Mexican cartels.”
Some have questioned the legitimacy of efforts on behalf of the US government to catch drug smuggling kingpins in Mexico by way of sting operations involving firearms, the reason offered by the Obama administration as the motivation behind Fast and Furious, given the fact that those same kingpins are in many cases working for US intelligence itself.
As we reported years ago, former DEA agent Cele Castillo has blown the whistle on how the US government controls the Los Zetas drug smuggling gang and uses it as the front group for their narco-empire.

With the gang having first been trained at the infamous School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia, Castillo affirms that Los Zetas are still working for the US government in protecting drug routes to keep the wheels of Wall Street well-oiled. Castillo has gone on the record to state that the commandos are working directly for the US government drug cartel in carrying out hits on rival drug smugglers who aren’t paying their cut.
In addition, it was recently revealed that Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, the “logistical coordinator” for another top Mexican drug-trafficking gang, Sinaloa, the organization responsible for purchasing the CIA torture jet that crashed with four tons on cocaine on board back in 2007, also obtained guns from the U.S. that were later used to kill people in Mexico City. Niebla recently told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago that he has been working for the U.S. government since January 2004.
The Obama administration has repeatedly invoked rhetoric about the flow of guns being smuggled from the U.S. into Mexico as a talking point with which to chill gun rights of American citizens, repeating the demonstrably false myth that 90% of weapons confiscated by Mexican authorities originate in the U.S.
Despite the establishment media attempting to debunk the notion that Fast and Furious was a deliberate effort on behalf of Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder to demonize gun rights by pointing to the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico, a process now revealed to have been largely overseen by the federal government itself, the fallout from the scandal, with no one in the administration willing to admit culpability, is starting to confirm precisely that premise.
Indeed, during a March 30 meeting between Jim and Sarah Brady and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, at which Obama “dropped in,” the president reportedly told Brady, “I just want you to know that we are working on it (gun control)….We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.” The quote appeared in an April 11 Washington Post story about Obama’s gun control czar Steve Croley.
Given the fact that arrested Mexican drug runners are now admitting that they both worked directly for and bought weapons from the US government, the notion that Fast and Furious was an Obama administration plot to attack the second amendment by stealth is perfectly plausible.
Watch the video interview in Spanish with Rejón Aguilar below.

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Mexican drug cartel leader suspected in connection with the killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been arrested

Mexican drug cartel leader suspected in connection with the killing of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been arrested, authorities said.

Mexican officials said federal police captured Zetas cartel head Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, known as "El Mamito," on Sunday, CNN reported.

Rejon is linked to numerous deaths in northeastern Mexico, where the Zetas have been fighting a turf battle with the Gulf Cartel, Ramon E. Pequeno, anti-drug division chief of Mexico's federal police, said.

He is also "connected to the attack against agents" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that killed Agent Jaime Zapata in February, officials said.

Rejon was allegedly running operations for the Zetas in the north central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi when the American agents were ambushed there, Pequeno said.

Zapata was killed and another agent injured when they were ambushed on a highway as they traveled from Monterrey to Mexico City.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Rejon's arrest.

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Mexican police believe Canadian woman knew her killer

An Ottawa dentist whose wife was murdered in Mexico last week is waiting at the couple’s home there while police investigate what they believe to be a violent robbery.

Judy Baylis, 64, was found dead in the house she has shared for many years with her husband, John Baylis, in the central Mexican town of San Miguel.

John Baylis was in Ottawa when the crime took place.

On Saturday, he said the police have little doubt about why and how his wife was killed.

“It was a robbery but I think she recognized the person, and then the person murdered her,” he said. “It was a very violent murder. It was horrible.”

The Correo newspaper in San Miguel reports that police say she was stabbed 23 times. A knife believed to be the murder weapon was found near the house.

“It’s somebody local, but we don’t know who it is,” Baylis said.

“The police have been in. They’ve taken footprints, so they know the person was not that tall. They know how big they were, and how they entered the house and that sort of thing.

“It was in the night and I think she woke up. But the person knew the outline of the house, so I think it was an inside job. He knew his way around in the dark, knew where to go.”

The attacker may also have been a woman, he said.

The murder was last Monday night, and he flew to Mexico on Wednesday.

At first he was not allowed into the house. Police had posted a guard at the door to make sure no one touched the crime scene. Police also took the victim’s computer to check any recent communications she had.

There were usually servants at the house, but police have told reporters in San Miguel that Judy Baylis was alone the night of the murder. Her husband said the house was locked, and police believe it was difficult for the robber to break in.

A maid found her body the next day.

Baylis calls the neighbourhood “fabulous. We never ever locked our doors for years. But it seems like the place has become more violent. Even the police said things have changed. They asked me if we had a security system (but) we never needed one.”

In recent years, “there’s so much unemployment and there’s desperation” among local people, he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said Saturday that authorities were aware of a Canadian death near San Miguel, and that consular officials in Mexico City were working with local authorities. No further information was provided.

The Baylises have been travelling to San Miguel for many years. In recent years Judy Baylis has been spending most of the year there, travelling back to Canada for the summers; John Baylis has travelled back and forth through the year, while working as a dentist in Ottawa.

Most of the couple’s possessions have been moved to Mexico over the years.

“I only have a small apartment in Ottawa,” he said.

The couple were married 39 years, and have three grown children in Ottawa and British Columbia.

Their Mexican house is in a small city in the centre of the country, far inland from the beaches that get the mass tourism. The eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom house “is too big for me,” he said. But it was a good place to have their daughter’s wedding in 2010, with 90 guests. It also has stables and a swimming pool.

San Miguel is a favourite place for foreigners because of its mild climate 2,000 metres up in the hills, and its music, theatre, art and good restaurants.

Foreign Affairs recommends that Canadians in Mexico should “exercise a high degree of caution.” It says the area near the U.S. border is especially dangerous because of shootings by gangs smuggling drugs across the border.

But even in the rest of Mexico it warns that “high levels of criminal activity, as well as occasional demonstrations and protests, remain a concern throughout the country.”

It says there is “a deteriorating security situation in many parts of the country.”

Baylis’s recent days in Mexico have been filled with dealing with the police, and with friends and family at home.

“I spent one day about 6 1/2 hours at the police station. They called in everybody, and everybody has to sit and wait and give statements. They’re very thorough,” he said.

Crime scene experts have been going through the house and taking fingerprints as well.

“The police showed me the footprints, and they’re very clear.”

Judy Baylis had dual Canadian and British citizenship. The British High Commission has sent a letter of condolence and Canadian Foreign Affairs officials have been closely involved with the Mexican police from the early stages of the investigation.

Baylis has had his wife’s body cremated, and is now considering whether to bring the ashes to Canada or bury them in San Miguel.

“She loved this place,” he said.

 

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THE bodies of two decapitated men have been dumped in front of the offices of two newspapers in western Mexico

THE bodies of two decapitated men have been dumped in front of the offices of two newspapers in western Mexico, prosecutors said.

"We suspect that the two instances were simultaneous ... At the Noroeste newspaper, there was a decapitated male. There was an additional decapitated man thrown at the newspaper El Debate, also in Mazatlan," an office spokesman said.

Along with the bodies, messages threatening Sinaloa state Governor Mario Lopez Valdez and Mazatlan Mayor Alejandro Higuera were found.

Authorities said the messages were from the Los Zetas Cartel and the Beltran-Leyva Cartel.

Mexico is the world's deadliest country for journalists, according to the United Nations. In the past decade, at least 66 journalists have been slain and another dozen are missing.

Some 37,000 people have been killed in mainly drug-related feuds since President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown four years ago involving some 50,000 troops and police reinforcements that has so far failed to stem the bloody tide of violence.

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Gringos (D.E.A.), We know where you are and we know who you are and where you go. We are going to chop your [expletive] heads

A Mexican drug gang spray-painted a pointed message for U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents next to a school on Friday: "Gringos (D.E.A.), We know where you are and we know who you are and where you go. We are going to chop your [expletive] heads."

Unfriendly messages aren't a new phenomenon in the drug war-torn parts of Mexico, but it is unusual for them to address American officials.

The message was left in Chihuahua, which is only about 220 miles from the American border.

Officials did not immediately comment on the message.

The spray-painted message was discovered the same day that Mexican marines battled alleged members of the Zeta drug cartel, leaving 15 cartel suspects dead and injuring six marines.

The troops also detained 17 gunmen, according to a statement from the Mexican navy.

On Saturday, Texas authorities urged Americans not to cross into the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo after they said they had received information that Zetas could be targeting Americans.

"According to the information we have received, the Zetas are planning a possible surge in criminal activity, such as robberies, extortions, car-jackings and vehicle theft, specifically against U.S. citizens," DPS Director Steven McCraw said in a statement.

More than 34,000 people have been killed in the ongoing drug violence in Mexico since 2006.

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Church officials and the community of Matamoros were in shock after a well-known Catholic priest was killed in crossfire

Church officials and the community of Matamoros were in shock after a well-known Catholic priest was killed in crossfire during a Saturday afternoon shootout between armed gunmen and the Mexican military.

Sources outside of law enforcement said the shootout began when members of the Zetas tried to enter Matamoros.

Father Marco Antonio Duran Romero died at approximately 3:40 p.m. at a local hospital from a gunshot injury, according to a statement by Father Alan G. Camargo, a spokesman for the Matamoros Dioceses.

The Matamoros Dioceses issued a statement late Saturday expressing their deep pain at the loss of father Duran.

According to a Tamaulipas law enforcement official not authorized to speak to the media, Duran was struck in the chest by a bullet from a firefight between authorities and gunmen as he drove through Avenida Albino Hernandez in the Colonia Obrera.

Duran was widely known throughout the city because of a television show he had on a local channel and regular appearances on radio, where he discussed a wide variety of topics. He also served at the San Roberto Belarmino parish in the Colonia Portes Gil, according to a Matamoros resident who is close to the dioceses and was deeply sadden by the news

The firefight began at approximately 1:30 in the Colonia Obrera between groups of gunmen, and blockades began quickly popping up throughout the city in an effort to keep authorities away from the area, according to a Tamaulipas law enforcement official not authorized to speak to the media.

The blockades were reported near the offices of Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office—PGR and the downtown military base as well as other main avenues, he said.

Some of the avenues with blockades included: Sendero Nacional, Avenida Pedro Cardenas, Avenida Longoria, Lauro Villar, Calle Sexta and several others main avenues in the city.

At approximately 4:30 p.m. gunmen were still battling it out near Sendero Nacional, which is near the Tamaulipas State University--UAT campus.

Authorities arrived afterward to the areas in conflict and engaged the gunmen.

A source outside of law enforcement with firsthand knowledge of the firefights in Matamoros reported that a squad of Zetas tried to enter Matamoros and was met by a squad of gunmen from the Gulf Cartel and that later the Mexican military arrived, creating a three-way firefight.

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Puerto Rico police chief quits amid crime concerns

Puerto Rico's police chief resigned Saturday amid sharp criticism over a rising homicide rate in the U.S. territory and allegations of police abuse.
Jose Figueroa Sancha stepped down after less than three years overseeing a 19,000-strong force.
"You, my fellow police officers ... represent the hope of a society that is going through a profound crisis in values," he said in a statement.
Figueroa did not say why he was leaving, but Gov. Luis Fortuno said in a statement that it was due to unspecified health problems.
Figueroa was appointed chief in November 2008 after working 23 years in the FBI. His resignation comes as the island of 4 million people battles a soaring crime rate: 568 killings so far this year, compared with 470 reported in the same period last year.
June was reportedly one of the bloodiest months on record, with nearly 30 people killed last weekend alone, including an 11-year-old boy. One of the most high-profile killings of the month was that of bank executive Maurice J. Spagnoletti, who was shot while driving home along one of the capital's busiest highways. No one has been arrested.
Figueroa inherited a high homicide rate, but the island also recorded its second-worst year for killings under his watch in 2010, when hundreds of National Guard troops were activated to fight crime. Despite their presence, more than 955 people were killed last year, compared with a record 995 people reported killed in 1994.
Figueroa, however, said the guard's presence reduced most crimes, including offenses such as robbery, assault and rape, by 11 percent.
Anibal Vega Borges, mayor of the northern town of Toa Baja, said Figueroa made an enormous effort to battle crime, despite limited resources.
"The police chief job is a hot seat that requires much composure and integrity," he said. "Figueroa Sancha leaves a positive contribution ... during a period of social and economic crisis. His Achilles' heel was the increase in killings."
William Ramirez, executive director of the ACLU in Puerto Rico, celebrated Figueroa's departure.
"Personally, I think this is long overdue," he said. "From the beginning, it was evident that he was not the person to be leading the police department."
The ACLU issued a recent report alleging police brutality against university students, union leaders and journalists. Ramirez also criticized Figueroa for activating riot squads during student protests.
"He has not done his job well, and he has failed to acknowledge that," Ramirez said. "He's not effective in any way. It's not that he's not effective in some areas. It's in all areas."
Last year, the government appointed an independent monitor for the police department and announced more training for all officers in response to brutality allegations.
But the department's image became further marred when FBI agents arrested 77 police officers in October on charges that they aided drug traffickers. The arrests marked one of the largest police corruption investigations in the FBI's history.
Fortuno praised Figueroa for his work and called him a person of integrity.
"(He) was an incorruptible, tireless, relentless fighter against crime and drug trafficking," he said. "Under his command, powerful drug trafficking organizations were attacked and dismantled like never before seen in Puerto Rico."
On Friday, Fortuno signed a new budget that awarded $759 million to the police department, a slight increase from last year. Another 536 police cadets also are expected to join the force.
Fortuno said retired Col. Jose Luis Rivera will serve as interim police chief.
Juan Dalmau, secretary-general of the minority Puerto Rican Independence Party, said the government needs to attack the island's rampant drug abuse and encourage students to stay in school to help drive down crime.
"If a multidisciplinary focus is not adopted to stop crime, we will continue to see the same rise in criminality regardless of who they name as superintendent," he said.

 

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