Cancun, Mexico, bar bombed; 8 dead

Eight people died early Tuesday after attackers hurled several Molotov cocktails into a Cancun, Mexico, bar, the state attorney general said. Six women and two men, all Mexican nationals and employees of the tavern, were killed in the 1:30 a.m. strike, now under investigation by judicial police, according to a release from Francisco Alor Quezada, attorney general for the state of Quintana Roo. Eight men hurled the explosives at the bar and fled in vehicles, the release said. No shots were fired. Although the tavern is just 5 kilometers from the city's tourist stretch, it sits apart from the area frequented by tourists, and the clientele is composed of locals, it said. Four of those slain died of burns and the others of asphyxiation, the release said.

Read more...

Mexican police end hijack drama

As if they didn't have enough to worry about with fighting drug cartels, Mexican police have freed more than 100 people unharmed after a jet flying from Cancun to Mexico City was hijacked by a man claiming to be on a divine mission. Bolivian-born Jose Flores Pereira threatened to blow up the plane unless he could warn Mexican President Felipe Calderon of an "impending earthquake".

Mr Flores told flight attendants that a canned drink he had was a bomb. Police stormed the Aeromexico plane after it had landed in Mexico City and women and children were allowed off. Several people were initially arrested and taken away in handcuffs as Mr Flores said he had accomplices, but police later said there had been only one hijacker and no bombs on board.

Flores had told flight attendants that he had three accomplices, "the Father, Son and Holy Ghost". He said that he acted on 9 September 2009, because the numbers 9/9/9 were the inverse of 6/6/6, the number linked to the Anti-Christ. "Christ is coming soon," Mr Flores told journalists.

Read more...

The Latest on Los Zetas In Mexico

Suspects in Juárez linked to Zetas

By Diana Washington Valdez / El Paso Times
Posted: 07/07/2009 11:01:47 PM MDT

EL PASO -- Mexican federal agents detained four kidnapping suspects in Juárez who claimed to be Zetas, a feared enforcement arm of drug cartels, authorities said Tuesday.

The federal public safety secretariat in Mexico City announced details of Monday's detentions and a high-speed chase, which ended with the rescue of an alleged kidnapping victim. Officials identified three of the suspects as Eduardo "Lalo" Hernandez Rodriguez, 20, of Juárez; Juan Manuel Artalejo Orozco, 21, of Chihuahua City; and a 16-year-old, "Cristian," of Juárez. They also said that Ramon Benito Limas Cordero, 52, allegedly drove one of the vehicles seized in connection with the case, but they did not classify him as a suspect.

Three of the suspects seemed to be younger than typically hardened Zetas, who often are former soldiers and ex-police officers. Officials did not provide any details about Limas. In a news release, Mexican authorities described the suspects as "alleged kidnappers linked to the criminal organization known as the Zetas."

• To read the full El Paso Times article, please click here.

Criminal cooperation - Indictment details new Gulf-Zeta relationship

Jeremy Roebuck, The Monitor
July 1, 2009 - 11:45 PM

The Gulf Cartel recruited the Zetas in the 1990s to help muscle its way into a highly competitive Mexican drug market. But over the past three years, the paramilitary organization - made up of former special operations soldiers and rural street thugs - has grown in stature, engaged in independent criminal endeavors and has become an equal partner in the business once dominated by its creator.

An uneasy truce now exists in smuggling corridors from Nuevo Laredo to Matamoros, according to recently unsealed court documents. An indictment in a federal case against the leadership of both groups describes for the first time the hierarchy between the two, who refer to themselves collectively as "The Company."

• To read the full Monitor article, please click here.

Bloody Veracruz and the Mata Zetas

June 30, 2009...11:01 am

On Monday two bodies were found in Veracruz –one a branch leader of the PRI–with a narcomensaje that stated: “We’re here to clean the streets of Zetas.”

Another two bodies wrapped in black plastic were later discovered near the Veracruz port with another note. This one read: “The war is just beginning.”

On June 28, Rick Grabman picked up on another anti-Zetas story unfolding in Cancun at The Mex Files . The bad boys down there are identifying as “Mata Zetas”.

Veracruz is Zetas territory. In fact, the entire eastern coast of Mexico is under their hands. Who would be pushing on them? It’s uncertain right now if such a group formally exists. But something is afoot. Homegrown rivals leftover from the old Gulf cartel?

• To read the full NarcoGuerra Times article, please click here.

Read more...