The Orgin of MS-13

MS-13 was organized during the 1980s in Los Angeles by Salvadorans. Having grown up with violence, members fled their country's civil war.

When they arrived in Los Angeles, Mexican gangs preyed on them. The response was to band together in a mara, or "posse," composed of salvatruchas, or "street-tough Salvadorans" (the "13" is a gang number associated with southern California).

Once confined to the inner city, MS-13's reach now extends across 42 states. The gang also now contaminates the most unexpected turf: suburban communities unaccustomed to deal with MS-13's ruthless brand of violence. Experts say there are currently 3,000 members in Northern Virginia.



Membership has risen to 60,000 between the U.S. and Central America. It's criminal activities have expanded to include drug smuggling and sales, black market gun sales, human trafficking, assassinations for hire and assaults on law enforcement. Experts say most of their crimes are done on a whim.

MS-13's notoriety exploded in recent years, fanned by bone-chilling reports of its machete attacks, beheadings and the fatal stabbing of a pregnant teenager after it was discovered she was a federal informer.

Hitmen's bloody reign all about logic, trafficker says

AMARGO, Mexico (CNN) -- There are no welcome signs on the approach to Camargo.

It's a hardscrabble Mexican border town and home turf for "Los Zetas," a gang of hitmen and corrupt former special forces cops on the bankroll of the Gulf Cartel.

Local journalists explained if we went there we'd be getting "tangled up in the hooves of the horse." They said Zeta gunmen recently smashed one reporter's fingers with a hammer as a warning to the media to stay away.

The plaza was deserted -- for a few minutes at least. Then the throb of engines broke the Sunday morning peace. Scores of pickup trucks with heavily tinted windows began circling. Occasionally a window would crack open. We were clearly being watched.

A black SUV pulled up alongside the soda stand. One of the occupants stepped out. First I saw the ostrich skin cowboy boots, then the highly polished 9 mm pistol strapped to his side. It was loaded with a longer-than-usual ammunition clip, custom-made to pack extra bullets. It was a brazen flouting of Mexican law to carry a gun that way.

No words. Not even a stare. But his message seemed unequivocal. Our visit to Camargo lasted just 20 minutes. Taking the strong hint, we immediately left town.

Much as we wanted to explore the underbelly of the drug war raging in Mexico, it was clear the capos, or bosses, and their hired guns were in no mood to talk. Their business thrives best in the shadows. Our best chance of getting some insight was to track down a cast of peripheral characters who live in the gray areas, somewhere between the extremes of right and wrong.

The hospitality was little better in nearby Miguel Aleman. Customers, even an argumentative drunk, fell silent as we ordered a beer in a dingy cantina. A couple of tired-looking prostitutes retreated to a far corner. They may have been down on their luck but they knew talking to outsiders wasn't worth the cost. Here the Zetas are well-known for enforcing their law of silence at gunpoint. Video Watch Mexican cops on the hunt for gang members »

Along this stretch of the border Los Zetas are kings. From here their bloody reach stretches far across Mexico and deep into Central America. They run immigrant smuggling, drug trafficking, prostitution rackets, video piracy and local politics.

In the glitzy industrial city of Monterrey, we met a marijuana dealer smoking his own merchandise in the bathroom of a dance club.

The man, whom we can't name for his safety, explained how he had been recruited at gunpoint two years earlier by the Zetas to be what they call a "landowner" (terrateniente in Spanish) -- in charge of cocaine distribution in a handful of neighborhoods.

He said Zeta gunmen bundled him into a truck and with assault rifles aimed at his head they gave him three options -- pay them $100,000, begin working for them or die.

Over the next few days, he said, the same gunmen scared off or killed rival drug dealers, leaving him in charge of what he said was a $4,000-a-day business.

It all ended, he said, when Mexican soldiers kicked down his door. He was never detained but his cover was blown. Local Zeta commanders thanked him for not ratting on them by giving him permission to retire from the business.

But recently he's gone into business for himself selling $2 bags of pot. He realizes working independently of the Zetas may be fatal.

"Maybe I'm stupid or something, but I don't know how to do anything else. If they catch me it's simple, they'll kill me. It's just not allowed to work freelance," he said.

An old friend of mine in Monterrey knew the marijuana peddler well and vouched for his story. He never made good on his promise to give us a recorded account. He went on a 24-hour drug binge. When we caught up with him again he was smoking crack, sweating profusely and paranoid his former paymasters would exact revenge.

Mexico's tit-for-tat vendettas look like uncontrolled chaos.

Mob assassins are no longer content with efficient execution-style killings. Sinaloa cartel hitmen regularly place pig masks on the faces of their Juarez cartel victims. And in a grim seasonal touch, killers in Juarez decapitated a cop and placed a Father Christmas hat on his severed head.

But in a sidewalk cafe in Guadalajara, "Jose" explains there is a clearly defined set of narco-rules that must be followed. A small-time Latin American cocaine trafficker I've known for years introduced me to Jose.

Jose is old school. He tells me he's been in the cocaine trade since the early 1980s almost since it began, has worked internationally and done a stretch in prison

"From the outside it might look like the cartels are just going around killing people. But on the inside there's a code of conduct, rules. You might not want to kill somebody but you have to because it's all about respect," he said. "This cannot work if there's no respect. Above all, the capos use logic to solve the problems."

Jose added that he believed groups of corrupt officials and law enforcement officers were using the militarization of the border region not as a means to crush the drug cartels but as a way of forcing them to pay a bigger slice of the drug profits as bribes.

"The authorities and the cartels use the rule of 10. By that I mean for every 10 kilos of cocaine we move, we have to give three to the authorities and keep seven for ourselves," he explained. "When times are bad the authorities may arrest somebody or grab an entire consignment and that's a way for forcing up their percentage take."
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Jose's assertion might seem like feverish conspiracy theory if it weren't for the growing list of Mexican officials, ranging from local cops and foot soldiers to generals and men at the highest levels of law enforcement, who've been busted for allegedly profiting from the drug trade.

In November, Mexico's former drug czar was detained on suspicion that he may have accepted $450,000 a month in bribes from drug traffickers. He had been in charge of the attorney general's office that specializes in combating organized crime.

Father's troubles emerge in investigation of family's slaying

(CNN) -- A Maryland man believed to have shot and stabbed his wife and three young children to death before killing himself with a shotgun was having money problems and left a note saying he suffered from "psychological issues," authorities said.

Christopher Wood, 34, may have slashed at least some of his family members in the killings and used a small-caliber handgun on others, Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins said.

He was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted shotgun wound at the foot of the bed where the bodies of his wife and 2-year-old daughter lay, the sheriff said.

Wood's sons were 5 and 4 years old, authorities said. His wife, Francie Billotti Wood, was 33.

The boys were found in their beds in a single bedroom, the sheriff said. Authorities did not release the names of the children.

"These are horrific incidents," said Jenkins, who said he couldn't remember another homicide in the past 20 years in Middletown, a one-stoplight town northwest of Baltimore. "No one should ever have to be exposed to this."

Jenkins told CNN that at least five notes apparently handwritten by Wood were found inside the home. While the notes didn't immediately tell investigators what prompted the killings, they did provide some insight into possible problems.

"There is some indication in at least one of the notes that there might have been some psychological issues with Mr. Wood," Jenkins said.

There was "a mention of some medication" in that note, according to the sheriff.

Jenkins said the sheriff's office had no record of domestic violence or other family disputes at the Wood's home.

He said investigators also have learned of money problems for Wood, a salesman for CSX Railroad.

"We are aware there were some, maybe, debt problems -- some financial problems," Jenkins said.

Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said deputies went to the home shortly after 9 a.m. after Mrs. Wood's father called. Her family had not seen the Woods for about a day and her father forced his way into the locked home, finding the bodies, according to Jenkins.

Authorities said a shotgun was found next to Christopher Wood's body and a .25-caliber handgun was found in a "container" in the kitchen. The sheriff said other weapons that could have been used to stab and cut the victims were found, but he did not say what those weapons were. Video Watch sheriff's department's statement »

Francie Wood's family were longtime residents of the Middletown area. Her brother had recently retired from a career as a sheriff's deputy, Jenkins said.

The family had moved to town from Florida about four months ago.

"We're all in shock," said the Rev. Kevin Farmer, the family's minister at Holy Family Catholic Church. "This was a family, though they hadn't been with us very long, they are an integral part of our community."Video Watch views from the crime scene »

He said the road the Woods lived on is a shortcut to the church and he would often see the children while riding a scooter he uses when the weather is good.

"They would always stop and wave and get big eyes as the scooter came by," he said. "They were very happy kids."

Jenkins said autopsies will be performed on the bodies over the next few days and that it could be weeks before the results are ready to be released.

Jenkins told CNN that at least five notes apparently handwritten by Wood were found inside the home. While the notes didn't immediately tell investigators what prompted the killings, they did provide some insight into possible problems, the sheriff said.

"There is some indication in at least one of the notes that there might have been some psychological issues with Mr. Wood," Jenkins said.

Cpl. Jennifer Bailey said deputies went to the home shortly after 9 a.m. after Mrs. Wood's father called. The family had not been seen for several days, Bailey said.

Authorities said several weapons, including a shotgun, were found inside the home.
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Christopher Wood had been an employee of CSX Railroad, Jenkins said. He said the sheriff's office had no record of domestic violence or other family disputes at the Woods' home.

"In my entire career, just about 20 years, this is probably the worst tragedy I've ever been a part of or ever seen in Frederick County," Jenkins said

Life of Crime, and Time Behind Bars, Inspire a Drug Dealer to Turn Author

In 1986, at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic in New York, Joe Reddick was an 18-year-old drug dealer fueled, he says, by “envy, jealousy and greed.”

Known by the street name of Black, Mr. Reddick set up operations in a small apartment building at 1839 University Avenue in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx. “When I look at it, I think about those days,” he said during an interview in a small park across the street from the building. “That was my office.”

It was also his inspiration. Mr. Reddick was convicted of federal drug conspiracy charges, and it was in prison that he thought back to his early days on the street and wrote several novels in the genre known as hip-hop, street or urban literature.

So far two of the gritty tales have been published under Mr. Reddick’s pen name, Joe Black — “Street Team,” a sober coming-of-age story about four drug-dealing teenagers, and “Squeeze,” an entertaining tale about a contract killer named Tommy Gunz. But the paperbacks, which were released by Hampstead Publishing while he was behind bars, have not sold enough to earn him a living now that he has returned to his old neighborhood in the Bronx.

After serving 15 years in prison Mr. Reddick, 40, has been free for 10 months and is struggling to acclimate to life on the outside. He was laid off from a job as a painter’s apprentice in December.

Now he has turned his attention back to writing. He is polishing a novel he completed in prison, “Movin’ Violation,” which he plans to publish in the summer with his own imprint. Then he will focus on two other novels and two movie scripts that are nearly finished. “And I have new books that are running through my mind,” he said. “I just have to find time to sit down and write.”

His literary career represents a striking transformation for someone who says he never read a book before being sent to prison.

Mr. Reddick, a high school dropout, devoted seven years during his late teens and early 20s to building a lucrative drug-selling business. From his base on University Avenue in the west Bronx, he expanded to several East Coast states, selling heroin and crack cocaine. He claims he earned “hundreds and hundreds” of thousands of dollars during that time, enough to purchase a new luxury car every six months and spend $3,000 to $4,000 a day on clothing, food and gifts.

“One month you would make $100,000, and the next $1,000,” he said. “That’s the way the game worked. But I knew that as long as I had drugs, I had money.”

The end came in 1992 when a woman he had hired to carry drugs from New York to North Carolina was arrested. She and several others agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against Mr. Reddick. After a trial in federal court in North Carolina, he was convicted of leading a conspiracy to transport and distribute crack cocaine and was sentenced to nearly 20 years.

While in federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., Mr. Reddick first considered writing. Inspired by Jeffrey Archer’s 1979 novel “Kane and Abel,” which he picked off a book cart, he began writing tales about young drug dealers. He had a cellmate “who wouldn’t read any books,” he said. “So I started writing things on pieces of paper and he would read them. Every night he would ask for more pieces.”

After long hours at a manual typewriter in the prison library, Mr. Reddick produced a manuscript that was passed from inmate to inmate. “I would overhear people talking about it in the TV room and the line at the chow hall,” he said. Mr. Reddick was transferred to a federal prison at Fort Dix in New Jersey in 2000, and was encouraged by another prison author he met there, Michael G. Santos. Mr. Santos, whose latest book is “Inside: Life Behind Bars in America,” enlisted his wife, Carole, to help edit the work and commission a small print run of a few hundred copies of “Street Team.”

“I’m a white girl from north Seattle, about as far away from the Bronx as you can get,” said Ms. Santos, who now lives in California and helps manage the career of her husband, who is still in prison on a drug conviction. “Yet I loved the book because it was a story of relationships.”

For More: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/nyregion/12excon.html?scp=10&sq=crime&st=cse

GANGLAND: Hidden Valley Kings(HVK)

24 Individuals Associated with the "Black Guerilla Family" Gang Indicted on Federal Drug and Gun Charges

"Four Defendants are Current or Former Employees of the Maryland Division of Correction"

APR 16 --BALTIMORE - A federal grand jury has indicted a total of 24 defendants in two separate indictments for conspiracy to distribute drugs and gun violations related to the gang activities of the “Black Guerilla Family” (BGF), U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein announced today.

The indictments were returned on April 8, 2009, and unsealed upon the arrests of 14 defendants to date. Three additional defendants were previously in custody. This indictment was the culmination of a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Baltimore City Police Department, the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Division of Corrections (DOC) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The indictments were brought in conjuction with Operation Xcellerator, an ongoing, nearly two-year-long, multi-agency effort against the Sinaloa Cartel, which is responsible for bringing multi-ton quantities of narcotics, including cocaine and marijuana, from Mexico into the United States.
U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said, “This case reflects an unprecedented commitment by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to combat crime and corruption in state correctional facilities. More than 100 law enforcement officers helped to execute thirteen federal search warrants, seize evidence from sixteen prison cells, and arrest suspects associated with the Black Guerilla Family gang. An intensive investigation that included wiretaps on contraband prison cell phones resulted in allegations that BGF leaders run the gang while incarcerated in state prisons. The alleged crimes include extorting protection money from other inmates and using contraband cell phones to arrange drug deals, approve robberies and arrange attacks on cooperating witnesses. It also is alleged that gang members persuade corrupt correctional officers to participate in the gang’s criminal activities by smuggling drugs, tobacco, cell phones and weapons into prisons.”

Mr. Rosenstein added, “Inmates are cautious about using monitored prison phones to run their criminal enterprises and intimidate witnesses, but they have not been as concerned about their smuggled cell phones. We want the inmates to know that we also can listen in on their cell phone calls.”

"This is the first time that DEA Baltimore provided real time inside intelligence information to the Maryland Department of Corrections,” stated Ava A. Cooper-Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Washington Division. “Our joint effort resulted in the seizure of drugs and various contraband by DOC officials.”

The following defendants are charged in the indictments:
Eric Brown Indictment:
Eric Brown, age 40, of Baltimore;
Ray Olivis, age 56, of Baltimore;
Deitra Davenport, age 37, of Baltimore;
Rainbow Williams, age 30, of Baltimore;
Tomeka Harris, age 33, of Baltimore;
Marlow Bates, age 23, of Baltimore;
Randolph Edison, age 51, of Baltimore;
Roosevelt Drummond, age 59, of Baltimore;
Zachary Norman, age 52, of Baltimore;
Kevin Glasscho, age 46, of Gwynn Oak (included in both indictments);
Takevia Smith, age 24, of Baltimore;
Terry Robe, age 26, of Glen Burnie;
Asia Burrus, age 22, of Baltimore;
Musheerah Habeebullah, age 27, of Owings Mills;

Kevin Glasscho Indictment:
Kevin Glasscho, age 46, of Gwynn Oak (included in both indictments);
Tyrone Dow, age 42, of Baltimore;
Calvin Robinson, age 53, of Baltimore;
Avon Freeman, age 41, of Baltimore;
James Huntley, age 35, of Baltimore;
Darryl Dawayne Taylor, age 40, of Baltimore;
Joe Taylor-Bey, age 60, of Baltimore;
Darnell Angelo Holmes, age 41, of Baltimore;
Darien Larenz Scipio, age 47, of Baltimore;
Lakia Hatchett, age 29, of Baltimore; and
Cassandra Adams, age 48, of Gwynn Oak.

According to the indictment and a search warrant affidavit unsealed today, the defendants, 16 men and 8 women, were members or associates of the BGF, whose members are active in prisons throughout the United States, including in Maryland. According to the indictment, BGF is active in numerous prison facilities in Maryland, including North Branch Correctional Institution, Western Correctional Institution, Eastern Correctional Institution, Roxbury Correctional Institution, Maryland Correctional Institution – Jessup, Maryland Correctional Institution – Hagerstown, Baltimore City Correctional Center, and the Metropolitan Transition Center in Baltimore.

Drug-Trafficking/Smuggling

The indictment alleges that BGF members distributed heroin and “ecstasy” to customers in the Baltimore area. The indictment further alleges that BGF members smuggled heroin, ecstasy, tobacco and other contraband – including cellular telephones – to BGF members in prison, who in turn distributed the contraband to other inmates.

According to the indictment and a search warrant affidavit unsealed today, BGF used several different methods to smuggle contraband into prisons, including using couriers who carry the items in body cavities or secrete the contraband in hidden compartments in their shoes, which are then switched with the inmates’ shoes during visits.

Court documents indicate that BGF members also smuggled drugs into prisons by hiding the drugs inside of smuggled cellular telephones. According to the search warrant affidavit, BGF members at Metropolitan Transition Center also smuggled in food and liquor, including champagne, vodka, and seafood.

Use of Corrections Employees

According to the indictment and search warrant affidavit, BGF members and associates recruited employees of prison facilities, including Asia Burrus, Musheerah Habeebullah, Takevia Smith, and Terry Robe, to assist them by smuggling drugs and other contraband into prisons, often in exchange for money or other compensation. Burrus and Habeebullah are employed as corrections officers at Metropolitan Transition Center and Maryland Correctional Institution – Jessup, respectively. Court documents indicate that Robe was until recently employed as a corrections officer at the Metropolitan Transition Center but was fired after she was caught attempting to smuggle a cellular phone into MTC for Eric Brown. Court documents indicate that Smith was until recently a kitchen employee at Metropolitan Transition Center but resigned after becoming concerned that she was suspected of smuggling contraband to inmates.

Extortion

The indictment and search warrant affidavit allege that BGF members used violence and threats of violence to coerce prisoners to pay protection money to BGF. According to the search warrant affidavit, BGF members would supply the extorted inmate with a credit card number of a prepaid credit card, sometimes referred to as a "Green Dot" card, and would direct the inmate to have family members or friends place money onto the card when periodically directed to do so by BGF. The credit card would then be held by a BGF-affiliated corrections officer or by BGF members on the street. If the inmate did not agree to pay for the "protection," then he or she would be targeted for violent crimes while in prison. Court documents also indicate that “Green Dot” cards were often used by BGF members as currency, in lieu of paper money, during the sale of illegal drugs and other contraband within prisons.

Acts of Violence

According to the indictment, BGF members used contraband cellular telephones in prison facilities to notify one another about gang members who were arrested or incarcerated; to discuss police interactions with gang members; and to share with one another the identities of individuals who may be cooperating with law enforcement and to propose actions to be taken against those individuals. According to the indictment and search warrant affidavit, BGF members also used contraband cellular telephones to place “hits” on suspected informants and others who interfered with BGF operations, and BGF members committed or ordered acts of violence to further the gang’s activities, including robberies of drug dealers, and assaults against rival gang members and individuals suspected of cooperating with law enforcement. Specifically, the indictment alleges that on March 13, 2009, Randolph Edison, Roosevelt Drummond and Zachary Norman committed an armed robbery of a drug dealer.

Arrests/Searches

During the operations yesterday and today, agents and officers searched 13 locations in the Baltimore area, and officials with the Division of Corrections Security Operations and the DPSCS Internal Investigative Unit searched 16 prison cells in six facilities across the state of Maryland.

Each of the 24 defendants is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. The defendants in the Eric Brown indictment face a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment on the drug conspiracy charge. Randolph Edison, Roosevelt Drummond and Zachary Norman also face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to rob a drug dealer and a maximum of life in prison for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime and a crime of violence. The defendants in the Kevin Glasscho indictment face a maximum sentence of life for drug conspiracy. Initial appearances for five defendants were held yesterday. Four defendants were detained and three of those are scheduled to have detention hearings on Monday. Initial appearance for nine defendants are scheduled today in federal court in Baltimore, beginning at 1:00 p.m. Another conspirator, Nelson Robinson, age 45, of Baltimore was arrested on a criminal complaint as part of this operation and faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

An indictment or criminal complaint is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment or criminal complaint is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

Mr. Rosenstein praised Secretary Gary D. Maynard and the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services; Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Carl J. Kotowski and the DEA; Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and the Baltimore City Police Department; and Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy and her office, especially Assistant State’s Attorneys Antonio Gioia, Melissa Copeland and Rebecca Cox for their work in the investigation and prosecution of this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case. Mr. Rosenstein also thanked the Baltimore County Police Department and the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation for their assistance in this case.

Mr. Rosenstein also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason Weinstein, James T. Wallner and Clinton Fuchs, who are prosecuting the case.

Drug Trafficker Pleads Guilty to Murder of Member of Mexican Cocaine Trafficking Organization

APR 16 -- MANHATTAN, NY - JOHN P. GILBRIDE, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Field Division (“DEA”) and LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that CHRISTOPHER PEREZ, a/k/a "Cross," pleaded guilty yesterday in Manhattan federal court to the murder of a Mexico-based narcotics associate MIGUEL ANGEL CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA, a/k/a "Noe Alfredo Castro-Loera."

According to the Indictment and statements made at yesterday's plea proceeding before United States District Judge NAOMI REICE BUCHWALD: PEREZ and the murder victim, CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA, were associates of a Mexico-based cocaine trafficking organization that supplied bulk quantities of cocaine to distributors in New York, Chicago, Detroit and California. On August 23, 2004, in Detroit, PEREZ and co-conspirators met with CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA, and kidnapped him to question him regarding a drug debt. During his guilty plea, PEREZ admitted to kidnapping CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA so that CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA could be murdered.

As a summary of the evidence provided at yesterday's proceeding by the Government revealed, on August 23, 2004, PEREZ and co-conspirators kidnapped CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA to question him regarding 70 kilograms of cocaine that PEREZ believed had been stolen from him. As a result of the interrogation that followed, PEREZ came to believe that CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA and his superiors in Mexico were plotting to have PEREZ murdered. PEREZ then suffocated CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA with duct tape, and later burned his body in an effort to destroy evidence and avoid identification of the body. PEREZ later described the murder of CHAIDEZ-ESPARZA in a covertly videotaped meeting with an informant acting on behalf of law enforcement.

PEREZ pleaded guilty to one count of murder in furtherance of a narcotics trafficking conspiracy. He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge BUCHWALD on July 22, 2009. PEREZ, 40, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Mr. DASSIN praised the investigative work of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force, Group T-41 which is comprised of agents and officers of the DEA, New York City Police Department, and New York State Police. Mr. DASSIN also thanked DEA offices in Detroit, Michigan, and Monterrey, Mexico, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Los Angeles Office for their work in the investigation.

The prosecution is being conducted by the Office's International Narcotics Trafficking Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys ANIRUDH BANSAL and TODD W. BLANCHE are in charge of the prosecution.

Department of Justice Announces Resources for Fight Against Mexican Drug Cartels

= Deputy Attorney General David Ogden announced increased efforts and reallocation of DOJ personnel to combat Mexican drug cartels in the United States and to help Mexican law enforcement battle cartels in their own country. Deputy Attorney General Ogden was joined in announcing a comprehensive response to the situation on the Southwest border by Department of Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano and Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg.

“For more than a quarter century, U.S. law enforcement agencies have recognized that the best way to fight the most sophisticated and powerful criminal organizations is through intelligence-based investigations to target the greatest threats,” said Deputy Attorney General David Ogden. “The Department’s Mexican Cartel Strategy confronts those cartels as criminal organizations. As we’ve found with other large criminal groups, if you take their money and lock up their leaders, you can loosen their grips on the vast organizations they use to carry out their criminal enterprises. The Department of Justice is committed to taking advantage of all available resources to target the Mexican cartels and to help our Mexican counterparts in their courageous effort to take on these criminal organizations.”

Today the United States announced it will be investing $700 million this year in enhancing Mexican law enforcement and judicial capacity and working closely to coordinate efforts against the cartels. The Department of Justice, through the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), the Criminal Division and the Office of Justice Programs, will work to investigate and prosecute cartel members for their illegal activities in the United State and with law enforcement colleagues to disrupt illegal flows of weapons and bulk cash to Mexico.

The Mexican Cartel Strategy, led by the Deputy Attorney General, uses federal prosecutor-led task forces that bring together all law enforcement components to identify, disrupt and dismantle the Mexican drug cartels through investigation, prosecution and extradition of their key leaders and facilitators, and seizure and forfeiture of their assets. The Department is increasing its focus on investigations and prosecutions of the southbound smuggling of guns and cash that fuel the violence and corruption and attacking the cartels in Mexico itself, in partnership with the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP).

DEA, already the largest U.S. drug enforcement presence in Mexico with 11 offices in that country, is placing 16 new positions in its Southwest border field divisions. With this increase, 29 percent of DEA’s domestic agent positions (1,180 agents) are now allocated to its Southwest border field divisions. DEA is also forming four additional Mobile Enforcement Teams (METs) to specifically target Mexican methamphetamine trafficking operations and associated violence, both along the border and in U.S. cities impacted by the cartels.

ATF is increasing its efforts by relocating 100 personnel to the Houston Field Division in the next 45 days as part of a new ATF intelligence-driven effort, known as Gunrunner Impact Teams (GRITs). The teams will focus ATF’s violent crime-fighting and firearms trafficking expertise, along with its regulatory authority and strategic partnerships to combat violence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

As part of the Recovery Act funding, ATF received $10 million for Project Gunrunner efforts, aimed at disrupting arms trafficking between the U.S. and Mexico, to include hiring 25 new special agents, six industry operations investigators, three intelligence research specialists and three investigative analysts. The funding will establish three permanent field offices, dedicated to firearms trafficking investigations, in McAllen, Texas; El Centro, Calif.; and Las Cruces, N.M (including a satellite office in Roswell, N.M.). Project Gunrunner has resulted in ATF referring more than 1,500 defendants for prosecution involving more than 12,000 weapons.

ATF will also continue its eTrace initiative with Mexican officials, which allows law enforcement agencies to identify trafficking trends of drug trafficking organizations and other criminal organizations funneling guns into Mexico from the United States, as well as to develop investigative leads in order to stop firearms traffickers and straw purchasers (people who knowingly purchase guns for prohibited persons) before they cross the border. In FY08, Mexico submitted more than 7,500 recovered guns for tracing, showing that most originated in Texas, Arizona and California.

The FBI is stepping up its efforts along the Southwest border by creating a Southwest Intelligence Group (SWIG), which will serve as a clearinghouse of all FBI activities involving Mexico. The FBI will also increase its focus on public corruption, kidnappings and extortion relating to Southwest border issues.

Already, the FBI has undertaken successful initiatives in Mexico and Central America, including the Central American Fingerprint Exchange (CAFÉ) initiative. The FBI will continue this initiative, which was developed to collect, store, and integrate biometric data from El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and the Mexican state of Chiapas into a central database accessible to U.S. law enforcement, as well as the Transnational Anti-Gang initiative, which coordinates the sharing of gang intelligence between the U.S. and El Salvador.

USMS has stepped-up its efforts along the Southwest border, deploying 94 additional Deputy U.S. Marshals during the last eight months and sending four additional deputies to Mexico City to assist the Marshals Service Mexico City Foreign Field Office.

USMS is increasing its efforts in the Southwest border region under the Mexico Investigative Liaison Program, a cross-border violent fugitive apprehension initiative where USMS personnel, through daily contact with Mexican law enforcement, provide a rapid international response to law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border in the apprehension of fugitives who commit crimes and flee across the international border.

Twenty-five new Criminal Investigators-Asset Forfeiture Specialists have been placed in USMS asset forfeiture units in the field. The new positions are unique in that they will be solely dedicated to the USMS Asset Forfeiture Division and will support U.S. Attorneys Offices and investigative agencies in investigations of cartels and other large-scale investigations.

In addition, DOJ’s Organized Drug Enforcement Task Forces Program (OCDETF) is adding analyst personnel to its strike force capacity along the Southwest border and the Office of Justice Programs will be investing $30 million in stimulus funding to assist with state and local law enforcement to combat narcotics activity coming through the southern border and in high intensity drug trafficking areas. State and local law enforcement organizations along the border can apply for COPS and Byrne Justice Assistance grants from the $3 billion provided for those programs in the stimulus package.

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DAMMN!!! Six nabbed in drug bust at Rochester apartment

ROCHESTER — An investigation into what police have described as a drug den on Rochester’s Brighton Avenue led to the arrests of six people Saturday — three on drug charges and three on outstanding warrants.

Rochester police assisted by officers from Rochester Township converged on an apartment on the third floor of the Henderson Printing Building at 101 Brighton Ave. around 7:15 p.m.

Inside Apartment 1 they found five people, three of whom were charged with drug crimes.

Rickie Rudd, 53, who lives in the apartment, was charged with possession and possession with intent to deliver cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Richard Hoko, 36, of 605 Reno St., Rochester, was charged with possession of heroin and drug paraphernalia. Frank Cousar, 31, of 200 Lion Lane, Bridgewater, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

The three were awaiting arraignment Saturday night.

Police also nabbed Christopher Boulding, 46, of 26 Seventh Ave., Freedom, and Jessica Dugas, 31, who has no known address. Boulding was wanted on a bench warrant issued in Butler County and Dugas on one issued in Beaver County. They are being held in the Beaver County Jail.

While officers were raiding the place, they found Terrence Cox, 41, of Apartment 3 in the same building, who was wanted on an arrest warrant from Bridgewater. Cox was turned over to Bridgewater police.

Rochester Police Officer Frank Mercier said police had received numerous calls about drug activity in the building.

Over the past month, he said, undercover operatives made two cocaine buys in Rudd’s apartment. They also observed numerous known drug users entering and leaving the building.

“This apartment is used as a crack house,” Mercier said. “It’s used by addicts, who go there and do their drugs.”

Mexican Drug Trafficking

Although Mexico has been a producer and transit route for illegal drugs for generations, the country now finds itself in a pitched battle with powerful and well-financed drug cartels. In 2008, there were more than 6,200 drug-related murders, more than double the figure from the year before. Top police commanders have been assassinated and grenades thrown, in one case into the crowd at an Independence Day celebration.

The authorities say most of the deaths have resulted from drug cartels fighting rivals. But soldiers and police have also been killed, as well as some innocents.

The upsurge in violence is traced to the end of 2006 when President Felipe Calderon launched a frontal assault on the cartels by deploying tens of thousands of soldiers and federal police to take them on. Mr. Calderon has successfully pushed the United States to acknowledge its own responsibility for the violence in Mexico since it is American drug consumers who fuel demand and American guns smuggled into Mexico that are used by the drug gangs.

With the prospect of a quick victory increasingly elusive, a rising chorus of voices on both sides of the border is questioning the cost and the fallout of the assault on the cartels. Mexicans, aghast at the rising body count and the swagger of the drug chieftains, wonder if they are paying too high a price and some have begun openly speaking of decriminalizing drugs to reduce the sizeable profits the gangs receive. Americans, from border state governors to military analysts in Washington, have begun to question whether the spillover violence presents a threat to their own national security -- and, to the outrage of many Mexicans, whether the state itself will crumble under the strain of the war.

While Mr. Calderon dismisses suggestions that Mexico is a failed state, he and his aides have spoken frankly of the cartels' attempts to set up a state within a state, levying taxes, throwing up roadblocks and enforcing their own perverse codes of behavior. The Mexican government has identified 233 "zones of impunity'' across the country, where crime is largely uncontrolled, a figure that is down from 2,204 zones a year ago.

The authorities have made a string of high-profile arrests of drug chieftains recently and have had success seizing large amounts of illegal drugs, guns and money. But the violence remains high and authorities acknowledge that they will never wipe out this multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry. The goal now is to turn what is a national security problem into one that can be handled by law enforcement. That alone is a tall order since the cartels have infiltrated governments and police forces throughout Mexico, paying officials to protect their illicit business.

Parolee Who Killed California Police Officers Also a Suspect in Robbery

MODESTO, Calif. — Authorities say the parolee accused of fatally shooting four Oakland police officers last month before being killed in a gunfight with police is a suspect in a home-invasion robbery in Modesto.



Police spokesman Sgt. Brian Findlen said Thursday that investigators believe Lovelle Shawn Mixon was one of two men to commit the robbery in February.


Police arrested the second suspect on Wednesday.

Authorities in Oakland say Mixon shot two motorcycle police officers after a routine traffic stop on March 21. He was killed later that day in a shootout at his sister's apartment that led to the deaths of two other officers.

Boston 'Craigslist' Killing May Be Linked to Attempted Robbery in Rhode Island

WARWICK, R.I. — An exotic dancer who was bound and held at gunpoint at a suburban Providence hotel by a man who answered her Craigslist ad suggested that her ordeal could be linked to a Boston hotel slaying, police said Friday.

A 26-year-old Las Vegas woman who police believe was offering sex for money through the Craigslist posting was attacked at a Holiday Inn Express late Thursday night, Warwick Police Chief Stephen McCartney said. The assailant fled when the victim's husband returned to the room.

Earlier this week, a woman who advertised massage services on Craigslist was shot and killed at a luxury hotel in Boston.

Click here for photos.

McCartney said that after Thursday's attack in Warwick, "the victim apparently made a statement to police that in her opinion, this situation mirror-imaged what happened up in Boston. I think at the point in time our police responded, nobody was thinking about that."

McCartney said he didn't know specifics of the woman's Craigslist ad, but earlier in the day said he had been told she was advertising massage services.


The description of the suspect in Thursday's attack also matches that of a "person of interest" wanted for questioning in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York City at the Marriott Copley Place in Boston on Tuesday night. And the same person may have been involved in the robbery last week of another Las Vegas woman at the Westin Copley Hotel, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said.

The 29-year-old woman had also advertised massage services on Craigslist, the online classified service.

Police in Warwick, which is about 60 miles south of Boston, describe the suspect as a clean-cut white male, approximately 6-feet tall, 200-pounds, with blond hair, wearing a black coat and blue jeans.

"There are strong similarities here based on the information that we have, particularly the fact that there is an individual who seems to fit the description of the individual in Boston," he said.

In Thursday's attack, the victim's husband briefly chased the assailant out of the room, but then returned to check on his wife, McCartney said. The woman told police she worked as a dancer at The Cadillac Lounge, a Providence strip club.

McCartney said police believe the woman was offering sex for money, but noted that a loophole in Rhode law allows indoor prostitution and said it may be at least partly to blame for what happened.

He described the woman as "shaken up" but not injured. He said police were not sure why the husband was at the hotel and planned to interview him and his wife again.

"That's an area of inquiry," he said. "It certainly is open to some area of speculation."

Boston Police in Boston have said that they believe the victim at the Westin was involved in prostitution but that they are uncertain about Brisman.

Brisman's friends said they didn't know she had advertised massage services online.

Matthew Terhune, 34, a photographer from New York City, said he photographed Brisman last year for head shots she needed for a tanning salon.

He said Brisman told him she had been paid $1,000 to fly out to private parties in Chicago and walk around in a bikini or topless. "But I don't think it went beyond that," Terhune said. "They were just parties where guys wanted to see hot girls."

McCartney said his department is working with Boston police, which have surveillance video of the suspect leaving the hotel. McCartney said his department also has surveillance video from the Warwick hotel, but they did not immediately release it.