BY JAIME DAREMBLUM

During his trip to Mexico and Costa Rica last week, President Obama tried to highlight the positive and downplay the negative. Thus, he spoke at length about the growth of trade, commerce, and economic partnerships, arguing that security issues should not be allowed to dominate all discussions of U.S. policy in the region. (Of course, Obama voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement when he was a senator, and he canceled a U.S.-Mexico pilot trucking program during his first months as president, but never mind.) His remarks were surely welcomed by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, who has taken great pains to transform his country’s image abroad. Whereas many Americans and others have come to associate Mexico with drug trafficking and brutal cartel violence, Peña Nieto wants them to learn more about Mexico’s emergence as a manufacturing powerhouse, its increasingly important role in the global economy, and the expansion of its middle class.

His desire to emphasize ... Read More

BY TIM JOHNSON

Authorities on Tuesday captured the father-in-law of the powerful chief of the Sinaloa Cartel, chalking up a victory against crime in a week in which President Barack Obama is to travel to Mexico.Deputy Interior Secretary Eduardo Sanchez said law enforcement officials arrested Ines Coronel Aispuro and four other men in an early morning raid in Agua Prieta, a border city in Sonora state across from Douglas, Ariz.

Coronel is the father of Emma Coronel, a former beauty queen who is the third wife of Sinaloa Cartel chief Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, whom the U.S. Treasury Department describes as the world’s most powerful drug trafficker. The two married in 2007, and she made headlines in September 2011 when she gave birth to twins in a Los Angeles-area hospital, eventually returning to Mexico. U.S. officials at the time said they had no warrant for her arrest.

.News of the arrest comes amid ... Read More

BY JAY WEAVER

Sandra Avila Beltran, the dark-haired Mexican beauty dubbed the “Queen of the Pacific,” has pleaded guilty to a drug-trafficking charge in Miami, closing the curtain on the once celebrity-like role of the reputed cocaine smuggler.

Avila, 52, admitted Tuesday in federal court that she helped her former boyfriend, a one-time Colombian cartel boss, evade prosecution for cocaine importation and distribution charges in the United States. She pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to his conspiracy crimes, for which the ex-boyfriend, Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez, was ultimately convicted.

Avila, who stood out in a narco-trafficking world dominated by macho men, avoided a potential life sentence if convicted on the same conspiracy offenses at trial next month. With her plea, she now faces up to 15 years in prison at her sentencing before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore. But she is expected to receive a much lesser sentence, ... Read More

Poppy production in Mexico is overtaking marijuana as the top illicit crop grown in the Latin American nation, according to a new report released by the Mexican government.

Mexican authorities last year eradicated 40 percent more poppy plants than it did marijuana plants, the Mexican defense ministry reported.

Opium and heroin are both derived from poppy and the use of these narcotics has risen in the United States, the largest market for drugs coming from Mexico. While the Mexican cartels provide only 7 percent of the world’s heroin, it is a key supplier of the narcotics flowing into the U.S.

The numbers are a significant change from 2007, when the area with marijuana crops destroyed by Mexican troops was about 50 percent greater than that of poppy – about — 22,965 hectares compared to 11,393 hectares. The gap, however, quickly began to narrow in 2008 and 2009, with a shift occurring last year, ... Read More

BY ADAM KREDO

Iran has illegally laundered billions of dollars through the Venezuelan financial sector and is currently stashing “hundreds of millions” of dollars in “virtually every Venezuelan bank today,” according to a former senior State Department official.

“It’s a huge blind spot in those trying to implement sanctions” on Iran, Roger Noriega, a former United States ambassador and assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Venezuela served as Iran’s closest Western ally under the late President Hugo Chavez, who allowed the rogue regime to establish a military and financial presence at the highest levels of the Venezuelan government.

Iran’s foothold in the country is expected to grow exponentially under the rule of Chavez’s likely successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro.

Noriega and other experts warned House lawmakers at a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday that Iran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah is gaining power in Venezuela.

Hezbollah, which carries out terrorist attacks on Iran’s behalf, has helped ... Read More

It’s no secret that Venezuela’s chavista regime has in its ranks — and at the very top of its security forces — individuals who are accomplices in narcotrafficking. The clearest examples include the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello; former armed forces commander Henry Rangel Silva; the head of the Guiana province, Cliver Alcala Cordones; and the deputy interior minister, Hugo Carvajal. These members of the Cuban-managed regime are responsible for the transportation of tons of illicit drugs to Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, the U.S., and West Africa.

In my recent testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Terrorism, Non-proliferation, and Trade, I denounced these criminal ties, which make the regime led by de facto President Nicolas Maduro a narcostate.

Conservative estimates indicate that drug trafficking from Venezuela to other countries since Chavez took power in 1998 has more than doubled. My sources tell me that representatives of the Sinaloa ... Read More

TESTIMONIO DEL EMBAJADOR ROGER F. NORIEGA

ANTE LA CAMARA DE REPRESENTANTES DE LOS ESTADOES UNIDOS

SUBCOMITE SOBRE TERRORISMO, ANTI-PROLIFERACION Y COMERCIO

COMITE DE ASUNTOS EXTERIORES

20 de marzo 2013, Washington D.C.

Señor presidente del subcomité, lo felicito a usted y a los demás miembros del subcomité por centrar su atención en la amenaza global que representa Hezbolá, y le doy las gracias  por haberme invitado a compartir mis puntos de vista sobre la creciente presencia de esta organización en las américas que ha introducido una amenaza a nuestro vecindario.

Este fin de semana pasado marcó el 21 aniversario del bombardeo en 1992 de la Embajada de Israel en Buenos Aires que terminó  con la vida de 29 personas. Dos años mas tarde, un coche bomba destruyó un centro judío en corazón de la capital argentina, acabando con la vida de ... Read More

TESTIMONY OF AMB. ROGER F. NORIEGA BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, NON-PROLIFERATION AND TRADE

“Hezbollah’s Strategic Shift:  A Global Terrorist Threat”

1:30 PM, Wednesday, March 20, 2013

2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC

Mr. Chairman, I applaud you and other members of the Subcommittee for focusing attention on the global threat posed by the terrorist group Hezbollah and for inviting me to share my insights on that organization’s growing network in the Americas that carries this threat to our doorstep.

This past weekend marked the 21st anniversary of the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which murdered 29 people and injured about 250 others.  Two years after that attack, the Jewish Community Center in Argentina’s capital city was leveled by another car bomb, leaving 85 persons murdered and hundreds more wounded.  Mr. Chairman, this is Hezbollah’s despicable legacy in the Americas.  And that ... Read More

Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel has allegedly bought up a number of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia’s drug trafficking “franchises,” hinting that the Mexican group is moving farther into South America and that the Colombian guerrillas are serious about their demobilization process, Colombian media reported.

An anonymous official told the Colombian daily El Tiempo that a number of mid-level FARC commanders have sold off their shares in the drug trade in anticipation of the continuing peace negotiations between the guerrilla group and the Colombian government, which is taking place in Havana. Under the agreement, Sinaloa would own and operate illegal cocaine production facilities in South America.

The sale of the so-called drug trafficking franchises marks a move by the Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “ El Chapo” Guzmán into the production of cocaine. Mexico’s cartels had previously relied on processed cocaine to be transported to the country from various points in South and ... Read More

BY JAN-ALBERT HOOTSEN

BADIRAGUATO, Mexico – Neat, freshly painted buildings and a renovated church line the central square. Shiny SUVs rest curbside. Some lack license plates, as if the law doesn’t apply. Mansions crown the surrounding hills.

Badiraguato, a town of 7,000 in Sinaloa state, shouldn’t have such wealth. It’s among the poorest municipalities in Mexico. But you’re better off not asking questions here.

This is a secretive place, hot and quiet in the Sierra Madre foothills. There’s an army barracks, but soldiers mostly stay inside.

It’s the heart of drug country, home to Mexico’s most powerful criminal syndicate: the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

For well over a century, local farmers have harvested marijuana and opium in the rugged mountains surrounding Badiraguato. Since the 1980s, the Sinaloa cartel has acted as their Wal-Mart, transporting the mind-bending cargo north with quasi-corporate efficiency, and distributing it to a narcotics-craving United States market.

Ever since former President ... Read More

BY KEEGAN HAMILTON

The rumor started Thursday afternoon when the newspaper Prensa Libre reported that several narcos were killed during shootout in Guatemala’s remote Petén region. Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez said one of the corpses was “physically very similar” to Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, top boss of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. Other outlets, including the unfiltered drug war diary Blog del Narco, spread the word on Twitter, piquing the interest of the international press, and sending Mexican and Guatemalan officials scrambling to confirm the powerful drug lord’s purported demise.

The rumor was soon thoroughly debunked. There was no shootout, let alone one that claimed the life of the modern day Pablo Escobar. (Lopez, the Interior Minister, later apologized for the “misunderstanding” and blamed contradictory reports for the confusion.) Not only is El Chapo still very much alive, his legend has grown larger than ever. Already a billionaire according to Forbes, the Sinaloa capo has supplanted Osama bin Laden as ... Read More

Es acusado de liderar red que exportaba droga desde Colombia y Venezuela. Cayó en mayo del 2012.

Estados Unidos anunció este miércoles sanciones contra Linares Castillo. Las sanciones, anunciadas por el Departamento del Tesoro en un comunicado, congelan sus intereses en ese país y prohíben cualquier actividad o relación económica con él.

Linares Castillo fue detenido en Colombia en mayo de 2012 y espera por su extradición a Estados Unidos.

La red ha producido y traficado por vía aérea miles de kilogramos de cocaína, que salen principalmente del estado Apure (Venezuela), y llegan a México y Centroamérica, donde los reciben grupos criminales ligados a los carteles mexicanos de Sinaloa y Los Zetas, según el Tesoro.

Además de tener vínculos con la guerrilla de las Farc, el grupo criminal con sede en Villavicencio también ha estado ligado en el pasado con importantes capos colombianos como Daniel ‘El Loco’ Barrera y Pedro Oliveiro Guerrero Castillo, alias ... Read More

BY KEVIN JOHNSON & ALAN GOMEZ

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — Héctor Murguía is wearing a satisfied smile that has nothing to do with the steaming cup of soup sitting before him or the comfortable office that he occupies as this city’s chief executive.

Just hours before, the mayor’s reinvigorated police force notched another important victory in the long, bloody campaign to restore order to what had become one of the most violent places on the face of the globe.

Jesus Rodrigo Fierro-Ramirez, a former Mexican state policeman-turned-brutal enforcer for the Sinaloa drug cartel, was killed in a nighttime raid of a cartel safe-house on the outskirts of town. Ramirez, the mayor said, was armed with grenades and a cache of high-powered rifles similar to those responsible for so many of the 10,000 deaths here in just the past four years — all casualties of a drug war that pushed this once-bustling border city ... Read More

BY JOSEPH KOLB

An overhaul of a U.S. military program aimed at helping Mexican security forces fight the war on drug cartels is raising concerns that U.S. training could fuel human rights abuses — and even be exploited by the cartels themselves.

But officials with the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), which has trained Mexican military officials in anti-insurgent and intelligence-gathering techniques for the past decade, say not to worry.

The concerns, and the assurances, come after outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta set up a new special operations headquarters to train Mexican forces. The team will reportedly help Mexico track drug cartels much like U.S. teams have tracked Al Qaeda. It will still be run under the umbrella of USNORTHCOM.

Capt. Jeff Davis of USNORTHCOM, in an interview with FoxNews.com, played down the significance of the new designation — saying the mission will remain the same as it has and will not involve U.S. Special ... Read More

“Depending on what happens in Venezuela, there may really be an opportunity for a transition there,” incoming U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a Senate hearing Thursday, alluding to the expectation that Hugo Chavez may soon lose his bout with cancer. Unfortunately, at this very moment, Mr. Chavez’s cronies are doing whatever is necessary to hold on to power indefinitely. The most Mr. Kerry may be able to do is convince Mr. Chavez’s successors to end the dangerous alliances with drug traffickers, Iran and Hezbollah that pose a growing threat to U.S. security.

Until now, most of the U.S. foreign policy establishment has ignored the growing body of evidence that homegrown narco-traffickers in Colombia, Central America and Mexico have teamed up with Hezbollah to conduct criminal operations on our doorstep. What’s worse, this narco-terrorist alliance is aided and abetted by the governments of Venezuela and Iran. To put it bluntly, ... Read More

Editor’s Note: This week’s Security Weekly summarizes our annual Mexico drug cartel report, in which we assess the most significant developments of 2012 and provide updated profiles of the country’s powerful criminal cartels as well as a forecast for 2013. The report is a product of the coverage we maintain through our Mexico Security Memo, quarterly updates and other analyses that we produce throughout the year as part of the Mexico Security Monitor service.

In 2013, violence in Mexico likely will remain a significant threat nationwide to bystanders, law enforcement, military and local businesses. Overall levels of violence decreased during 2011, but cartel operations and competition continued to afflict several regions of Mexico throughout 2012. These dangers combined with continued fracturing among cartels, such as Los Zetas, could cause overall violence to increase this year.

2013 will be the first full year in office for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who ... Read More

BY ALFREDO CORCHADO

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A new surge of killing, kidnapping and extortion is the latest sign that the violent crime wave in Mexico has not subsided since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office and could grow further in the weeks to come, U.S. law enforcement officials say.

Fresh intelligence indicates that the paramilitary group known as the Zetas is pushing farther into northern Coahuila and Chihuahua states, threatening to reignite deadly violence in areas bordering Texas, including Ciudad Juárez.

Since Mr. Pena Nieto took office Dec. 1, estimates by media outlets indicate that more than 1,000 people have been killed across Mexico — a pace even faster than during the administration of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon — with many of those killings in Coahuila and Chihuahua, three U.S. law enforcement officials said. The violence threatens to overshadow the new administration’s attempt to highlight economic reforms and a growing middle class.

Ciudad ... Read More

BY CHRIS KRAUL

CARTAGENA, Colombia — Under cover of a moonless night in early July, the crew took no more than five minutes to load more than a ton of cocaine on a motorboat beached on a deserted shore of the Guajira peninsula in northeastern Colombia. Equipped with three 200-horsepower engines, the “go-fast” craft then roared off toward the Dominican Republic, the first stop on the drugs’ way north.

But they’d been detected long before. Informants working for a top-secret group of Colombian agents, trained and equipped by U.S. counter-narcotics agencies, had penetrated the smugglers’ inner circle. They knew where the dope was loaded — and where it was headed.

A few hours later, Dominican police were waiting as the boat approached the eastern shores of Hispaniola. The captain, desperate to escape, beached the boat but was killed in a shootout. Police later recovered 1,690 pounds of cocaine, and authorities in Colombia guessed ... Read More

BY ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON

MEXICO CITY – A U.S. senator is urging an investigation into whether two guns recovered at the scene of a shootout in Mexico that killed a beauty queen were part of the U.S. gun-smuggling operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said in a statement that he received tracing information on a semi-automatic pistol and an AK-47 assault rifle recovered in Mexico’s Sinaloa state at the scene of a Nov. 24 shootout that killed at least three people, including 20-year-old beauty queen Maria Susana Flores Gamez.

He said one weapon was purchased by the key straw buyer in “Fast and Furious” and the other apparently by the main ATF agent who ran the botched operation, in which agents let suspected straw gun buyers walk away from shops in Arizona with weapons in hopes of catching trafficking kingpins working for drug cartels.

The lawmaker wants to ... Read More

BY STEVEN DUDLEY

The Zetas have many sides. The group is at once sophisticated and ruthless, coordinating multi-caravan ambushes and sending hooligans to launch a wild assault on a police station. It has gang-bangers and Special Forces snipers on its payroll. It uses a sophisticated radio system and a machete in the same operation. It has a political platform that consists of shaking down the entire political class. And it has the accounting system of a multinational company, but the uncanny ability to destroy its own sources of income.

It is, in essence, more organism than organization. For this reason, we tend to see what we want to see when we look at them, even when we analyze the same event. Take the August 25, 2011, afternoon assault on the Casino Royale in Monterrey. When eight men piled in the casino in four cars with automatic weapons, gasoline and lighters, two seasoned security analysts ... Read More