The Associated Press: Mexico vote goes ahead despite slain candidate

The Associated Press: Mexico vote goes ahead despite slain candidate: "Drug cartels fund a tenth of Mexico's economy. They have infiltrated many local and state police forces and staged assaults on army bases. Now they're violently inserting themselves into politics, killing the leading candidate for governor of a northern state only days before Sunday's elections in 12 states.
The assassination of Rodolfo Torre in the border state of Tamaulipas on Monday capped the deadliest month yet in President Felipe Calderon's military-led offensive against drug traffickers. Carefully planned attacks — including an ambush that killed 12 federal police officers — have served as chilling reminders that Mexico's drug cartels can get to anyone, anywhere, armed with sophisticated weaponry and billions of dollars to pay off informants.
Mexican officials said Sunday's voting would go forward as planned, including in Tamaulipas, where Torre's replacement as candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party had not even been named.
But even as Calderon's government urged citizens to stand up to the cartels by turning out to vote, Mexicans increasingly see the cartels — not Calderon — as having the upper hand.
'Organized crime has voted,' the national newspaper Reforma wrote in a front-page editorial Tuesday. 'What's the point of having elections when a de-facto power is imposing its will over the will of citizens?'"

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U.S. Banks Laundered Mexican Drug Money, Says Report - DailyFinance

U.S. Banks Laundered Mexican Drug Money, Says Report - DailyFinance: "In April, Mexican soldiers searched a DC-9 jet that had landed at the international airport in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City. On the plane they found 128 black suitcases, packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100 million.

Law-enforcement officials later also discovered something else. The smugglers had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two of America's biggest banks: Wachovia and Bank of America (BAC), Bloomberg Markets reports in its August issue."

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Uk’s ‘drug Mules’ | Twitravel | Best travel deals

Uk’s ‘drug Mules’ | Twitravel | Best travel deals: "Drug gangs using young women to smuggle drugs into United Kingdom Drug gangs in UK are using now a different way to smuggle cocaine. Now they are hiring young women called “drug mules” to bring in the drugs from Africa. In recent months, there are lots of incidents where British girls in their teens are caught with drugs at the airports in UK or African countries. It has been generally seen that young women had been groomed as smugglers and are lured with holidays, expensive meals, clothes and jewelry by London travel agents to bring drugs in return of the favor. As the drugs gangs arrange them with everything and as the girls are asked to return with a package without telling them about the substance it has, authorities are finding it difficult to prove a conspiracy and arrest the culprits. However, it has led many of the innocent girls behind the bars. Some of the girls who had been lured and later forced to carry the drugs are merely the tip of the iceberg and problem perhaps is bigger than we could anticipate"

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FOXNews.com - Five Federal Lands in Arizona Have Travel Warnings in Place

FOXNews.com - Five Federal Lands in Arizona Have Travel Warnings in Place: "southern Arizona, where parts of five federal lands -- including two designated national monuments -- continue to post travel warnings or be outright closed to Americans who own the land because of the dangers of 'human and drug trafficking' along the Mexican border.
Roughly 3,500 acres of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge -- about 3 percent of the 118,000-acre park -- have been closed since Oct. 6, 2006, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials acknowledged a marked increase in violence along a tract of land that extends north from the border for roughly three-quarters of a mile. Federal officials say they have no plans to reopen the area.
Elsewhere, at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which shares a 32-mile stretch of the border with Mexico, visitors are warned on a federally-run website that some areas are not accessible by anyone.
'Due to our proximity to the International Boundary with Mexico, some areas near the border are closed for construction and visitor safety concerns,' the website reads."

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Police Sniff Out 2 Drug Smugglers - Las Vegas News Story - KVVU Las Vegas

Police Sniff Out 2 Drug Smugglers - Las Vegas News Story - KVVU Las Vegas: "Drug traffickers are using complex systems to hide their illicit stashes and get their product to the black market, police said.
In Boulder City, the town the Hoover Dam built, a large amount of traffic to and from Arizona travels along U.S. 93.
“It's always been a haven for narcotic travel,” said Sgt. Slade Griffin.
Police are catching on to the drug smugglers who employ many devices to elude detection using what police call “Highway Interdiction Training” to learn where smugglers are hiding their drugs.
Tuesday night, police arrested Fransisco Moncada after finding 5 pounds of methamphetamine. He was originally pulled over for having a burned-out license plate light.
Police said when an officer approached Moncada’s car, the air smelled heavily of air freshener. Moncada told police he was a stucco worker, but when police saw no tell-tale signs of a worker’s hands, they asked to search the car."

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Drug smuggling pair jailed for 38 years | Home Office

Drug smuggling pair jailed for 38 years | Home Office: "Grimsby Crown Court heard evidence that Marcel Casper Gerardus Reitman and Mathieu Peter Josef Poulissen tried to smuggle almost 80 kilos of the drug in a lorry filled with jam in September 2009.
The men, who live in Venlo, Holland, had travelled on the ferry from the Hook of Holland to Killingholme docks, near Immingham, Humberside.
Stopped at a scanner
When the vehicle passed through a UK Border Agency (new window) scanner at the docks, officers noticed something odd in a refrigeration unit. On closer inspection, they uncovered 20 packages of heroin hidden among the load of jam.
Further search revealed more packages of heroin in the cab. When the men were searched, 11 packages of heroin were found taped to Poulissen's body (pictured left).
'Let these convictions be a warning'
Andy Lumb, Assistant Director for the UK Border Agency in Yorkshire and the Humber, said, 'Heroin is a dangerous Class A drug that wrecks the lives, not only of individual users, but also their families and the wider community as a whole.'
He added: 'This sentence reflects the severity of the offence of trying to smuggle illegal drugs into the UK and we will continue to do everything within our power to prevent Class A drugs entering the country.
'Let the convictions today be a warning to those who would try and smuggle illegal drugs, the UK Border Agency has the capability to detect you and bring you to justice.'"

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BBC News - Cocaine worth thousands recovered in Stonehaven

BBC News - Cocaine worth thousands recovered in Stonehaven: "seized drugs in the Stonehaven area worth thousands of pounds.
Cocaine with an estimated street value of more than £17,000 was recovered on Thursday.
Two men from Birmingham, aged 29 and 30, and a 20-year-old man from Aberdeen were due to appear at the city's sheriff court on Friday.
Grampian Police merged its former drug and crime squads last month."

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Lorry driver charged with smuggling after drugs worth £1 million are found at the Port of Dover

Lorry driver charged with smuggling after drugs worth £1 million are found at the Port of Dover: "LORRY driver has been charged with drug smuggling after a haul of amphetamine and Ecstasy was discovered at the Port of Dover.
The drugs, with an estimated value of £1 million, were found at the Eastern Docks yesterday in a lorry driven by Ralph Cross.
UK Border Agency officers had searched the vehicle with a detector dog and found three holdalls containing an estimated 100 kilos of white powder and a number of tablets. The powder gave a positive reaction to amphetamine sulphate and the tablets to Ecstasy.
Mr Cross, a 59-year-old of no fixed abode, has been remanded in custody after appearing at Folkestone Magistrates today, where he did not enter a plea."

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Drug bust serendipity: Tips lead to 11 arrests, seizure of pot, heroin and guns - Salt Lake Tribune

Drug bust serendipity: Tips lead to 11 arrests, seizure of pot, heroin and guns - Salt Lake Tribune: "Police say five recent strike force drug busts resulted in 11 arrests and the seizure of some $600,000 worth of drugs in the Ogden and Salt Lake areas.
The Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force says the May 27-28 operation targeted marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin trafficking.
Police say one of the arrests was a convicted felon nabbed in Ogden driving a truck with seven rifles, a footlocker full of ammunition and welding equipment believed to have been stolen.
Lt. Darin Parke says that Mexican drug cartels are heading the drug trade, and that several of the people arrested were identified as illegal immigrants from Mexico."

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