Brazil: Security Forces Seize Three Tons of Marijuana
By Dialogo December 09, 2010
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Security forces recently confiscated
three tons of marijuana in a housing complex in the Complexo do Alemão a week after
about 2,500 police officers had descended into the slum to quell an uprising by
suspected narcotics traffickers.
The marijuana had been stashed in a hidden room behind a fake wall in a
residence in the area known as Fasendinha, one of the 15 slums comprising Complexo
do Alemão.
The bust came after police and soldiers confiscated 33.8 tons of marijuana,
313.9 kilograms (692 pounds) of cocaine, 54 kilograms (119 pounds) of crack, and
about two kilograms of hashish (4.4 pounds), as well as an array of assault rifles
and grenades during a recent seven-day period that ended on Dec. 5, according to
EFE.
Colombia: Police seize 105 kilograms of cocaine
BOGOTÁ, Colombia – President Juan Manuel Santos’ administration
scored a victory in its fight against narcotics when police recently seized 105
kilograms (231 pounds) of cocaine hidden in a shipment of fruit bound for the United
States.
The narcotic was discovered in the cargo area of the Alfonso Bonilla Aragón
airport in the city of Cali in the department of Valle del Cauca, said Col. Carlos
Alfonso Aguirre, the head of the Department of Ports and Airports of the Narcotics
Division.
Aguirre said the cocaine, which had a street value of about US$4.2 million,
was initially headed for the island of San Andrés but “had as transit places
countries in Central America, and the final destination would have been the United
States.”
No arrests were made, but police have launched an investigation to determine
who owned the cocaine, according to the Colombian websites El
Colombiano.com and El Espectador.com.
Spain: Police arrest 24 suspected narcotics traffickers
PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain – Eleven Colombians and nine Spaniards
were among 24 suspected narcotics traffickers who were arrested during a nearly
two-week operation carried out by the Civil Guard, officials said.
Authorities said the suspects allegedly worked for an organization that
trafficked cocaine in the Formentera in the Balearic Islands in the western
Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.
The operation resulted in the apprehension of 11 Colombians, nine Spaniards,
three Algerians and a Romanian national, and authorities are pursuing at least five
more suspects in connection with the case.
The Civil Guard seized a kilo of cocaine, €13,000 (US$17,227) in cash, and
€40,000 (US$53,009) in property during the operation, according to the Colombian
website El Colombiano.
Panama: Police seize more than two tons of cocaine
PANAMA CITY, Panama – Police arrested three suspects in
connection with the confiscation of 2,030 kilos (4,471 pounds) of cocaine, a senior
prosecutor said on Dec. 5.
Nataniel Murgas said the narcotic was seized during a traffic stop, when
police discovered it hidden in a tank with a double bottom that was being towed by a
van on Dec. 4. The police learned of the vehicle’s location because of a tip, he
added.
The bust occurred at a checkpoint in Guabala, in the province of Chiriquí,
about 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of the nation’s capital, Murgas said. Police
arrested a Panamanian and a Mexican who were escorting the van in a pickup truck, as
well as a Honduran national who was driving the van, EFE reported.
Law enforcement officials also confiscated three guns discovered inside the
truck, according to a police report.
Panama’s security forces have seized 71 tons of narcotics, mostly cocaine, so
far this year, according to the Public Safety Ministry.
Mexican officials to try alleged teenage killer as a minor
CUERNAVACA, Mexico – A 14-year-old boy who allegedly had a role
in four beheadings on behalf of a drug cartel will be tried under a state juvenile
law that carries a maximum three-year prison sentence if found guilty.
The juvenile court judge in the state of Morelos could have ruled the boy,
known only has “Edgar,” be tried in federal court because of the severity of his
alleged crimes.
The judge said national law allows him to take cases involving minors facing
federal charges. Edgar, who goes by the alias “El Ponchis,” is facing murder,
organized crime and other charges in the state of Morelos.
Edgar was apprehended last week along with his 19-year-old sister at an
airport south of the nation’s capital. Officials allege he works on behalf of the
Cartel of the South Pacific, an organization comprised of members who left the
Beltrán Leyva cartel.
“I participated in four executions, but I did it drugged and under threat
that if I didn’t, they would kill me,” the boy told federal prosecutors, according
to The Associated Press.
Mexico: Federal Police arrest seven suspected cartel hitmen
CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico – The Federal Police have apprehended
seven suspected gunmen who allegedly are members of the Gente Nueva, a group that
works on behalf of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Federal Police officers confiscated five AK-47 assault rifles, about 300
rounds of ammunition and two vehicles from the suspects in the city that has become
the country’s murder capital, the Public Safety Secretariat said, according to
EFE.
Police arrested José Ángel Juárez, Héctor Triana Aldaba, Gilberto Román
Arguijo Rosales, Ángel Horacio Valles Peña, Juan Carlos Ramírez Rodríguez, Cristian
Raymundo Miranda Juárez and Julian Ernesto Ordoñez Oliva during the operation, the
secretariat said, according to EFE.
José Ángel Juárez, Ángel Horacio Valles Peña, Juan Carlos Ramírez Rodríguez
and Julian Ernesto Ordoñez Oliva have criminal records – for robbery and drug
trafficking – according to the Federal Police’s Intelligence Center.
The arrests were carried out after Federal Police received an anonymous phone
call about two vehicles with armed men in the neighborhood of Praderas de la Sierra,
in the southern section of Ciudad Juárez, according to EFE.
The suspects, who range from 18 to 39, are mainly from the state of
Chihuahua, home to Ciudad Juárez.
Gente Nueva has been locked in a turf war with La Línea, which has partnered
with the Juárez cartel in the fight to possess the state’s lucrative smuggling
routes into the United States.
