Gunmen kill 8 at Mexican border city rehab center

The Associated Press

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Officials say gunmen killed eight people at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in this border city.Police say five others were wounded in the Wednesday night attack across the border from El Paso.Police spokesman Cesar Ramirez says the people were listening to a pastor's sermon when the gunmen barged in and opened fire. He says police found 61 casings inside the center.Ramirez says authorities are investigating and have made no arrests.

Bloody Monday death toll reaches 15 in Juárez violence

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 08/13/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

Related: Find more on the violence in Juárez.

EL PASO -- A narco-message was left by the body of a man killed in Juárez on Monday, which finished with a death toll of 15, making it one of the bloodiest days this year.

The note was next to Jose Luis Trujillo Ramirez, 24, who was found shot to death soon after 10:30 p.m. Monday near Eje Vial Juan Gabriel, Chihuahua state investigators said Tuesday.

"This is for those that continue not to believe, El flaco, El negro gordo and those who continue," stated the note, apparently referring to nicknames of unidentified men.

Notes with threats and taunts left on corpses are a trend believed to be linked to a drug cartel war behind many of the more than 750 homicides in Juárez this year.

The Monday killings included two quadruple-homicides. About 5 p.m., four males, ages 16 to 38, were killed when more than 40 shots were fired on the streets of colonia Independencia II.

About two hours later, a 14-year-old boy survived when four men were shot in a home in colonia Morelos II.

In another case, police detained four men suspected of pulling a man off a bus and beating him to death.

The rest of the victims Monday were shot to death.

In Chihuahua City, assassins gunned down Pedro Aragonez, the forensic science director of the Chihuahua attorney general's office.

Mexican cop killed by colleague working as hit man

Thu Jul 31, 2008 2:28 AM BST

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican police officer working as a hit man for drug gangs killed one of his police colleagues on Wednesday in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, police said.

Francisco Ventura was shot and killed by gunmen in two sport utility vehicles as he drove home early on Wednesday in Ciudad Juarez across from El Paso, Texas. Federal police arrested three men following the shootout, including the police officer accused of leading the gunmen.

City police declined to give more details, but Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes said the discovery of a police officer working as a hit man showed the urgent need for a "total cleansing" of the city's police force.

"We know there are officers who are in the pay of organized crime and that is why we need to flush out bad police," Reyes told reporters.

Despite the deployment of 3,000 troops and federal police in Ciudad Juarez this year, more than 550 people have been killed in drug violence in the city, Mexico's most lethal front in a drug war that has killed 1,900 people nationwide in 2008.

Daylight gun battles have erupted on city streets and buildings set on fire as Mexico's most-wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, fights drug baron Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, boss of the Juarez cartel, for control of Ciudad Juarez and its lucrative smuggling corridor into the United States.

Calderón can't avoid Juárez violence in visit

By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 07/23/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO -- Three slayings occurred and a small group of protesters gathered Tuesday, the day Mexican President Felipe Calderón arrived for a visit in Juárez.

During his visit, Calderón praised maquiladoras and vowed to strengthen the nation's oil company and the city's security efforts.

Calderón helped inaugurate the second Electrolux assembly plant in the city, and also mentioned the recent maquiladora expansions announced by Ford and Foxconn, which may hire up to 20,000 to 30,000 border workers in the next four years.

"In 2007, Mexico captured nearly $24.7 billion dollars in direct foreign investment. Such investment, like that of Electrolux, generates employment and gives added value to our country," stated a transcript of his speech at the new Electrolux plant. "This is the largest direct foreign investment in the history of Mexico."

The president's entourage was accompanied by Chihuahua Gov. José Reyes Baeza Terrazas, Juárez Mayor José Reyes Ferriz and business leaders.

Calderón also touched on the federal government's role against organized crime, a theme on the minds of Juárez residents who have witnessed more than 600 slayings since January.

"The federal government responded to the community and Chihuahua state's plea for help with more than 4,000 soldiers and federal agents to fortify the citizenry,"

Gunmen kill official in Mexican border city

Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:40 AM BST

By Ignacio Alvarado

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Gunmen have killed the police administrative director in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, the latest high-profile killing in Mexico's drug war, police said on Wednesday.

Silvia Molina was shot outside her house on Monday night by suspected drug hitmen, the first public official in Ciudad Juarez's city police force to be targeted.

"She was shot 10 times as she was parking her car," a police spokesman said. Molina's body was found with a message signed by suspected drug hitmen who said they were working for Mexico's most wanted man, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

Molina's administrative team and the director of the city police academy resigned on Tuesday in protest at her murder, temporarily leaving the city police force without officials to pay salaries and deal with accounting issues.

About 460 people have been killed in Ciudad Juarez this year -- the greatest concentration of drug killings in the country. Guzman's drug gangs from northwestern Sinaloa state are battling the local Juarez cartel for control of smuggling routes to the United States. Ciudad Juarez is across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Ex-policewoman in Mexico reaches goal in Border Patrol

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press

for Blanca Angelica Parra, a police officer in Ciudad Juarez until the summer of 1995.

"In Juarez when you arrested someone they would threaten you, they were going to kill you and your family," Parra said of life as a police officer in the hardscrabble city across the Rio Grande from El Paso. "But normally that didn't happen."

Parra believed the violence between drug cartels and police would only worsen, so she quit her job and moved with her daughter to the United States.

She was right. In the intervening 13 years, police have become routine targets of drug traffickers and now Parra's back in a position to help them as a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

"I always wanted to be a law enforcement officer," Parra said. "When I came over here, I said 'one day I'm going to be a Border Patrol agent.'"

From the relative safety of the northern side of the border, Parra has heard of numerous police officers, include several former colleagues, being gunned down. Most recently, the No. 2 cop in the sprawling city was killed in a hail of bullets sprayed at his car outside his house.

"I'm glad that I'm here, in the Border Patrol," Parra said.

18 slayings push death toll in Juárez past 400

By Adriana M. Chávez / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 05/30/2008 10:47:00 PM MDT

Juárez officials say federal police will take over the city's emergency 066 hot line next week in an effort to better coordinate response to a wave of violence that continued Friday.

This year's death count surpassed 400 this week, fueled by an ongoing war between drug traffickers from Juárez and Sinaloa.

From Thursday morning to Friday evening, there were at least 18 slayings, and unverified totals discussed among media outlets in Juárez and El Paso have put the total death count at more than 400.

Two men were fatally shot Friday afternoon near a park when someone fired multiple shots from a green car, state police said. The men, identified as Manuel Estrada Arrendondo, 38, and Roman Isidro Zamudio Ugarte, 39, died at a hospital.

Juárez cartel war waged on Internet

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 05/28/2008 12:51:35 AM MDT

The e-mail circulated last week that warned of a violent weekend in Juárez is part of a larger trend in which the Internet has become another front in the war among Mexican drug traffickers.

Videos showing the supposed "confessions" of captured hit men, airing allegations of corruption by government officials and allegedly identifying the mysterious leader of the Juárez drug cartel for the state of Chihuahua can all be found on popular Web sites such as YouTube.com.

Mexican drug traffickers and others have used videos posted online, often accompanied to the music of narco-corridos, to taunt rivals, brag and pay homage to cartel leaders for years.

But in recent months, other videos have been popping up in the Internet that name allegedly corrupt police and government officials in Juárez and Chihuahua state.

"Ya basta de tantos ejecutados. Ya basta de tantos muertos inocentes. Ya basta de tanto dolor en Juaritos," stated text saying "enough" to the executions, innocent victims and the pain in Juárez on a video claiming to have been posted by a small group of honest police.

The video, which is mostly text set to music, lists the names of police supervisors allegedly paid $5,000 a month to look the other way. It ends by stating that Chihuahua residents should protect themselves. "La policia no existe." (The police doesn't exist)

Mexican cops seeking refuge in the States

08:41 AM CDT on Friday, May 23, 2008

By Angela Kocherga

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- The drug war along the Mexico border has become so violent that some police officers are going into hiding.

In fact, two officers from Ciudad Juarez are in so much danger they’ve left Mexico and are seeking protection in the U.S.

Cops in Juarez have come well-acquainted with grim crime scenes in which the targets were law enforcement officials.

Gunmen have killed a dozen city cops this year alone. Ten more were attacked, but survived.

The most recent case involved a police officer who fled to Texas after a shooting on a bridge.

The officer was crossing the bridge with his family when gunmen reportedly opened fire on his car. He abandoned the vehicle and ran across the border.

Then, just days after the second in command of the Juarez Police Department died in a hail of bullets, the police chief resigned. His whereabouts are unknown.

The mayor of Juarez named a retired military officer as the new police chief this week.

11 more bodies found in Juárez

By Adriana M. Chávez and Darren Meritz / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 05/24/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

Juárez recorded at least 11 more homicides linked to organized crime Friday, leading U.S. law enforcement officials to urge El Pasoans to use caution when traveling across the border.

The deaths included the discovery of five bodies wrapped in blankets in an empty lot in an upscale east Juárez neighborhood about a mile from the border, near Prolongación Vicente Guerrero and Antonio J. Bermúdez streets.

The grizzly find came less than a day after an anonymous e-mail warning predicted this would be the "bloodiest and deadliest" weekend in the city's history.

Two of the bodies were decapitated and wrapped in white plastic. Attached to them was a note calling them "traitors" who were associated with a reputed leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Mexican military takes over town's police force

The Associated Press

Article Launched: 05/20/2008 07:55:23 PM PDT

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico—There are no police anymore in Villa Ahumada. Even the mayor has fled.

Drug gangs have virtually seized this town of 1,500 not far from Texas, as Mexico's cartels grow increasingly audacious.

The Mexican military took over the police department this week because all 20 officers on the force have either been killed, run out of town or quit, officials said Tuesday.

Mayor Fidel Urrutia took refuge in the state capital of Chihuahua City—600 miles (1,000 kilometers) away—where he's waiting for the soldiers to recover his town.

"Security will be in the hands of the army and the state (police) ministries, and it will remain like that indefinitely," Chihuahua state police spokesman Marco Antonio Moreno said.

Late Saturday, some 70 assailants barged into town and killed the police chief, two officers and three residents. At least eight people were kidnapped.

The killings came a month after soldiers arrested eight men, including a police officer, during the burial of an alleged drug hit man in Villa Ahumada, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of El Paso, Texas.

14-year-old boy among latest slain in Juárez

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 05/21/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

Juárez's newly appointed public safety secretary, Roberto Orduña Cruz, urged residents to get involved to help stop a crime wave that has left more than 300 dead this year.

Orduña Cruz on Tuesday asked residents to report crime anonymously, even as the killings continued with four more homicides reported, including the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy.

"The citizenry should have confidence in authorities, confidence we are looking to gain," Orduña Cruz said in a statement. In coming days, he added, changes to the police force will be announced.

On Tuesday, Chihuahua Sen. Ramon Galindo, who is a former mayor of Juárez, responding to complaints that the military crackdown on drug gangs spurred the violence, said that state and local authorities had not done enough to address the problem in the past.

"I will repeat it until it gets tiresome: There is not enough federal police or military to fight crime in a determined location if É municipal and state police are completely infiltrated by narco-traffickers," Galindo said.

Thousands protest drug violence in Mexican border city after police director killed

ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:26 p.m. May 11, 2008

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Thousands of white-clad people marched silently Sunday to protest a surge of drug-related violence in a Mexican city across from Texas where the No. 2 police officer was shot dead.

The crowd of several thousand students, church leaders, businessmen and politicians walked for about four miles (six kilometers) across Ciudad Juarez to a park near a border crossing, breaking the silence in a burst of speeches, dancing and singing.

More than 200 people have been killed so far this year in Ciudad Juarez. The city of 1.3 million across the border from El Paso, Texas, is home base for the powerful Juarez drug cartel.

The assassination of police director Juan Antonio Roman Garcia on Saturday came despite the deployment of more than 2,500 soldiers and federal police to the city and surrounding Chihuahua state in March.

Juárez killings surge, 9 dead as violence spreads to Palomas

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 05/10/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

A gunbattle on the Avenida Juárez tourist strip left two men dead and wounded five others, including three bicycle police officers, as part of a resurgence of violence in Juárez.

The violence, possibly linked to a war between drug cartels and government forces across Mexico, continued Friday with a double homicide in the town of Palomas and an attempt on the life of a Juárez police commander and his bodyguards. In Juárez, there were five other separate homicides as of 8 p.m. Friday.

Barrio Azteca leader found slain in Juárez

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 04/16/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

One of the reputed leaders of the Barrio Azteca gang was found slain in Juárez last month, FBI officials in El Paso confirmed this week.

David "Chicho" Meraz, 49, was a capo, or captain, within the gang's paramilitary-style hierarchy. Years ago, Meraz was head of the gang's operations in El Paso, according to investigators' court testimony that is part of the ongoing federal racketeering case against the gang.

"He was a known Barrio Azteca leader," said Special Agent Andrea Simmons, an FBI spokeswoman.

Meraz, a lifelong resident of El Paso, had not been named in the current indictment that has lead to the arrest of 15 gang members and associates.

On the morning of March 27, Meraz's body, which is decorated with numerous tattoos including the phrase "Perdóname Dios mió" (Forgive me, my God), was found in the parking lot of the Lienzo Charro Adolfo Lopez Mateos in Juárez, Chihuahua state police said. Meraz had multiple stab wounds, including a slash to the neck.

Simmons said the bureau would not comment whether Meraz's killing was linked to the current investigation.

The Barrio Azteca operates on both sides of the border, where it is involved in drug dealing and the collection of "taxes" from street-level drug dealers in El Paso. Members of the gang sought by U.S. authorities have been known to take refuge in Juárez.

Screening of Juárez officers begins

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 04/17/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

Federal Mexican officers started screening Juárez police officers this week, looking for evidence of corruption, Juárez city officials said.

The screenings are part of the Operativo Conjunto Chihuahua, a plan to eradicate drug cartel violence in Juárez. Officers from the federal preventive police started screening four police officers who were jailed two weeks ago after a shootout with Mexican soldiers. But eventually, all 1,600 city police officers will have to submit to drug tests, lie detector tests and psychological examinations.

The police chief and district commanders were sent to Mexico City weeks ago to undertake a thorough screening, officials said.

"We know that there are police officers who have infiltrated the department. We know there are officers who have lost their way... Our objective is to identify these officers," and fire them or prosecute them, said Juárez Mayor Josá Reyes Ferriz, who supports the federal intervention.

Reyes said he did not know how long the process would take. He also said he would not oppose the screening of members of his administration, including himself.

Several dozens officers have quit when the anti-corruption program was announced. Others stopped working for several hours to protest because they claimed they were being treated like criminals by the 2,000 Mexican soldiers and 500 federal police officers sent to patrol Juárez.

Screening of Juárez officers begins

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 04/17/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

Federal Mexican officers started screening Juárez police officers this week, looking for evidence of corruption, Juárez city officials said.

The screenings are part of the Operativo Conjunto Chihuahua, a plan to eradicate drug cartel violence in Juárez. Officers from the federal preventive police started screening four police officers who were jailed two weeks ago after a shootout with Mexican soldiers. But eventually, all 1,600 city police officers will have to submit to drug tests, lie detector tests and psychological examinations.

The police chief and district commanders were sent to Mexico City weeks ago to undertake a thorough screening, officials said.

"We know that there are police officers who have infiltrated the department. We know there are officers who have lost their way... Our objective is to identify these officers," and fire them or prosecute them, said Juárez Mayor Josá Reyes Ferriz, who supports the federal intervention.

Reyes said he did not know how long the process would take. He also said he would not oppose the screening of members of his administration, including himself.

Several dozens officers have quit when the anti-corruption program was announced. Others stopped working for several hours to protest because they claimed they were being treated like criminals by the 2,000 Mexican soldiers and 500 federal police officers sent to patrol Juárez.

U.S. arms fuel Juárez battle

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 04/09/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

A weapons arsenal, including two high-powered .50-caliber sniper rifles, seized by the Mexican army earlier this year in Juárez, was part of the illegal flow of firearms from the U.S. that authorities are attempting to halt, an ATF spokesman said Tuesday.

"We are trying to ease the violence. ... The violence (in Mexico) is with weapons coming from this country," said Special Agent Tom Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire arms and Explosives.

The latest case comes amid what a senior U.S. counter-drug official described as a battle for control of Juárez between the Sinaloa drug cartel and Juárez drug cartel, which has allied itself with a faction of the Gulf cartel and the Zetas, an assassins group founded by Mexican army deserters.

ATF officials said that Mexican soldiers seized 25 rifles, including the .50-caliber rifles, plus five pistols, body armor and ammo on Feb. 13 at safe house in the Pradera Dorada area of Juárez.

The ATF traced some of the weapons to "straw purchases," or firearms bought by one person for someone else, in Arizona.

Last week, ATF agents in Arizona arrested Victor Varela, the alleged leader of the gun-trafficking ring suspected of supplying weapons -- as well as attempting to buy an automatic M-60 machine gun -- to the Juárez cartel in Palomas, Mexico, the ATF stated.

The Arizona Republic reported that the .50-caliber rifles were bought in Maricopa County and that the ring's "moneyman has since been dismembered."

Juarez ground zero in Mexican drug war

Heavily armed gangs outgun cops; federal officers, military called in
By Franco Ordonez
McClatchy Newspapers
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.06.2008

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — The gunmen caught their target on his way home.

Police Cmdr. Juan Manuel Flores had just finished his shift on Easter and was pulling onto a dirt road in his quiet neighborhood of run-down adobe homes.

Out of nowhere, two SUVs darted out and cut him off, forcing him to drive his car into a palm tree on the sidewalk.

Neighbors scattered for cover as masked men stepped out of the vehicles and for six minutes fired a barrage of AK-47 fire into the officer's blue 1998 Dodge Neon, police and witnesses said.

One of the masked men then walked to Flores' battered car and fired a final shot to ensure that the officer was dead.

"He never had a chance to reach for his pistol," said Jaime Torres, a spokesman for the police department.

The killing March 23 was the eighth assassination of a police officer this year in this border town across from El Paso, Texas. Several days later, the Mexican government sent in the army.

More than 200 people have been slain in Ciudad Juarez this year in what amounts to a turf war between drug cartels — the growing Sinaloa cartel and the local Juarez cartel — over lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.

36 is final tally of bodies found in Juárez backyard

Associated Press

Article Launched: 03/16/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT

Mexican officials said Saturday that 36 bodies were found buried in the backyard of a house in a city Juárez, and they think that number is the final tally.

Mexican federal agents began digging behind a Juárez house allegedly used by the Juárez drug cartel two weeks ago after receiving an anonymous tip, law enforcement officials said.

In the raid, investigators found 3,740 pounds of marijuana in the house. They initially found six dismembered bodies, and as excavations proceeded, the tally rose.

On Saturday, the attorney general's office said in a statement that a total of 36 bodies had been found in 16 pits in the yard. The latest previous estimate had been 33. Officials did not provide details on the three new bodies.

The statement said that investigators were done excavating behind the house in La Cuesta neighborhood, and that they believe there are no more remains to be found.

The remains date back about five years and all but three apparently are males. The statement said investigators were still trying to determine how the victims died and who buried the bodies.

Juárez has been plagued by violence as Mexico's crackdown on powerful drug cartels stokes turf wars among traffickers that have been linked to hundreds of killings in the past two years.